Tag Archives: inspiration for writers

What Does It Take To Perform Under Fire?

Balancing Acts Jo Schneider Motivation Work-Life Balance Write Whenever You Can No Comments

I’ve been involved in the Martial Arts for over ten years. I have a black belt, and if I hadn’t become a writer on top of my day job I would be a second degree. But I got distracted by writing, and that’s that.

Belt tests are some of my least favorite parts of the martial arts. I love class. I love my lessons. I love punching and kicking and knife techniques and sparring and sometimes I pretend to love forms. But belt tests are a different animal.

In short, the instructors—who are usually cool people—turn into demons that are there to push you until you’re teetering on the edge of your endurance and sanity. I can do techniques all day long, but make me run around the building or scale a wall and I go to pieces. Other people lose it if they have to do defense techniques quickly, or spar more than one person. (Most people don’t do well with that, by the way.) Whatever it is, the instructors will find it. And then, once you’re barely standing and thinking about quitting, they ask you to do a form. Or spar. Or defend yourself from them.

On some level it’s awesome. Especially after you’re at the end looking back. There’s nothing like knowing that you did every single Defense Maneuver you have flawlessly against guys taller and stronger than you. Or that you didn’t get stabbed when they brought the fake knives out.

But in the middle of it, there isn’t time to think, and if you do think, it’s usually about how much some part of your body hurts. Sometimes that includes your brain.

I’m short and round and don’t look much like a black belt, but when I’m in practice, I’m pretty darn good.

And that’s the key to passing a test. Being in practice. Because if you’re in practice, then when a fist is coming straight for your face, no matter how tired you are, you will do something. It might even be the right thing. Either way, you won’t get hit, and the next moment the other guy will be on the ground and you’ll think, “Hey, that really works. Oh crap, there’s another guy coming.”

I feel like this relates to writing. Lately I’ve been extremely busy, and my writing has been suffering. It’s only been in the last few weeks that I’ve thought about the fact that I’m out of practice. I work part time and write part time, but I haven’t been consistently writing. I work on marketing or editing or blogging or putting together a newsletter or a giveaway. I pour words onto the page when there is a deadline looming, but not every day. I’m out of practice. Which is silly, because I know how important it is to write each day, and yet I’m not doing it.

So that’s my suggestion. Write each day, even if it is just 200 or 500 words. Write something. Stay in practice. Get a list of writing prompts off the web if you don’t have any ideas on what to write about or you don’t want to work on your current work in process. That way, when the pressure comes, and it will come, you can crack your knuckles and go for it.

NaNo – The Day After

Frank Morin The Writing Life The Writing Process No Comments

Write Today - And Keep WritingLike many writers, new and experienced, you may be gearing up for a dedicated writing month in November, eager to crack that 50,000 word goal of NaNoWriMo. Good luck! I hope you nail it. I hope you hit 50,000 words with days to spare.

Then what?

The fun thing about NaNoWriMo and setting a big writing goal is that it should help you develop new or improved habits. If you manage to write every day for a month, make sure you’ve got plans to keep writing afterward. Don’t drop your 50,000 word start of a novel into a drawer and wait until next year.

Writing is a long-term race, but the NaNo sprint can get you off to a great start. Now push on to the finish. 50,000 words should equate to roughly half a regular novel. It’s about a quarter to a third of one of mine. It’s long enough to be a significant portion of a finished draft.

If you’re a pantser, you should have wandered through the fog far enough to maybe have an inkling of the ending. At the least, you’ll understand major characters, important scenes, and the most compelling conflicts. All of these components can now be fine-tuned and targeted toward a high-powered conclusion.

If you’re an outliner, you should be far along the track you planned. By now you know whether or not the outline was spot on, or spotty. If everything is firing as planned, keep charging ahead to that elegant, rewarding conclusion you’ve already envisioned. If your journey through NaNo has identified flaws in the outline, this is a great time to pause, reconsider, rework, and retarget.

I hope your goal is completing a novel. NaNo offers a wonderful opportunity to plow through much of the rough first draft, generating excitement for the revisions and edits to come. The story is what’s important, and it’s our job to keep working that manuscript until we tell the real story, including everything we need to make it compelling, while stripping out all the excess baggage that just gets in the way.

So enjoy NaNo. Hit your goal. Then keep going.

I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Phoenix Comic Con

Conventions Interacting With Fans Interacting With Professionals Kevin Ikenberry The Writing Life Your Writing Career No Comments

This year, I had the privilege of attending a few cons that I’ve never been to courtesy of Bard’s Tower. Much more than a traveling bookstore, Bard’s Tower is a celebrity author experience. All of the books at the booth for a particular show have their authors there selling, signing, taking photographs, and much more. It’s been a great experience with them this year at both Florida SuperCon and Phoenix Comic Con.

Out of all the shows and cons I went to this year, my favorite (to this point) was Phoenix. I used to live in the Phoenix area and I have many family and friends there, so in a sense going to Phoenix was like going home. Being back in the Valley of the Sun was outstanding, but the show itself taught me a lot of how successful conventions really operate. The staff took exceptional care of all the authors present, and there were some outstanding science fiction and fantasy authors present. The panels were well themed and always attended well. For me, it was my first real chance to get to know several authors I’ve been social media friends with for years and even to meet a few new ones. I have the opportunity to sit on a panel of military fiction authors including Jason M. Hough, Weston Ochse, Myke Cole, Alan Smale, and me. I can’t even begin to tell you how nervous I was at the start of the panel. We had a tremendous discussion and I left there with some incredible role models in how to be a great panelist. Everyone brought a unique perspective to the discussion and their professionalism was incredible.

At the booth, on the convention floor, was another area that completely astounded me. When I arrived, my books were placed next to the legendary Alan Dean Foster. I’d met Alan last year at WorldCon and we had several great discussions during our time at the booth. On the other side of me was Dan Wells. I seriously had imposter syndrome for about an hour until I heard Dan Wells pitch someone my novel SLEEPER PROTOCOL. At that point, I settled down and got to work. Meeting fans and potential readers is a great experience and Phoenix did not disappoint at all. Many of you might have heard of the security incident on Thursday that snarled up the entrances on Friday for a little while. Standing in a line anytime is frustrating – imagine doing it in near triple digit temperatures by 9am. The delays that fans experienced on Friday were quickly solved by the amazing uniformed security personnel and the con staff. More importantly, the fans took it in stride with more than I could count trading their cosplay weaponry for weapons made from cardboard. It was outstanding to see everyone working together to keep the con a great safe experience. I was completely impressed.

While there, I had the chance to hang out with my brother James A. Owen, my friends Mark Gardner and Christopher Ferguson, and I got to meet one of my comics idols from the 90s, artist Whilce Portacio. I got to talk with Chaos Comics founder Brian Pulido and his wife Francesca again (and again in Denver, too) and met too many readers and fans to count. Our Bard’s Tower booth was a pretty big hit anyway, with authors like Jim Butcher, Claudia Gray, and Sherrilyn Kenyon joining the others I’ve mentioned along with Kevin J. Anderson, Michelle Cori, S. Usher Evans, Quincy J. Allen, Neo Edmund, Ramon Terrell, LJ Hachmeister and Steve Diamond. The weekend was a whirlwind. Several fellow Superstars came by the booth, too – Jace Killian, Helen Savore, Holly Heisey, and Eva Eldridge. I barely sat down the entire time. During the convention, I sold more books that at any other convention I’d previously attended. It was amazing. Outside of the convention, I had drinks with amazing authors and got the chance to have one of my favorite Phoenix food experiences after a too long wait.

Will I return to Phoenix next year? Yes. I’m looking forward to it already. That’s the thing about good conventions that go the extra mile to take care of their guests and their fans. Sometimes a convention will choose one over the other and the effects are noticeable. Phoenix was never that way. Every day, at least one staff member stopped by and asked if they could help us in any way. The security personnel were amazing, too. To have a serious incident one day and be a smoothly ran machine by the end of the convention was incredible. I’m in awe of their effort.

If you’re in the Phoenix area next year, come to the convention. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed.

When Disaster Strikes – Getting My Momentum Back

Author's Perspective Authorial Trust Choice Craft & Skills Damage Control Dealing With Personal Calamities Finish It! Giving Yourself a Break Ideas & Plotting Kevin Ikenberry Life Philosophies Making Progress as a Writer Outlines Research Science Fiction Self-Motivation The Writing Life The Writing Process Your Writing Career No Comments

I’ve blogged on the Fictorians before about the infection that nearly killed me in 2014. What I may not have mentioned that outside of that scary situation and hospital stay, it really wrecked my writing momentum. This was February 2014. If we rewind back to mid-2013, I went into the most productive period of my writing at that point. From July 2013 to January 14, I wrote two novels. I wrote what became my debut novel SLEEPER PROTOCOL and another shorter novel that’s my tribute to Elmore Leonard called SUPER SYNC. In that six month period, I also wrote a few short stories and my overall total of words written was probably somewhere near 180,000. This was an incredible time and I really felt like I was getting into a higher gear when everything came crashing down.

After my illness, I barely wrote anything new for a year. Yes, I sold and went through subsequent edits on both SLEEPER PROTOCOL and an earlier novel RUNS IN THE FAMILY, so I was “writing” but I wasn’t writing anything new, which we all know are two entirely different things. But, in that period from April 2015 to January 2016 came the impetus for the sequel VENDETTA PROTOCOL and I decided to try my hand at a prequel to RUNS IN THE FAMILY. Writing was slow and arduous. There were several times when I wanted to simply give up. I was going to publish a novel, after all. I ultimately decided that I wasn’t going to be happy with one book on that shelf by my deathbed. It was time to write more, so in January 2016, I decided that it was time to get off my ass and write. I’d been incredibly productive before then, and I believed I could get back to, or surpass, my productivity. It just required self-discipline to get into the chair and write and a little faith that I would get better, both mentally and physically.

It was slow going at first, but I outlined an alternate history novel. From there, I went into the draft of VENDETTA PROTOCOL with the goal of writing it in three months. SLEEPER PROTOCOL took me 7 weeks and I figured I would need about double the time. Turns out, I wrote VENDETTA PROTOCOL in 9 weeks. Because I could feel myself getting faster and I trusted myself as a writer. Was it perfect? Hell, no. But I was getting it out of my head. I turned around from that draft and wrote a novella LANCER ONE. After that, I was asked to submit to a military science fiction anthology, so I wrote a 9,000 word story “Stand On It.” At the end of 2016, I started work on the alternate history novel I’d outlined in February-March. I worked on that draft into February of 2017.

Not long after I finished that project, my military science fiction anthology story turned into a novel titled PEACEMAKER. I wrote that novel in less than three months. During that time, I was asked on short notice to provide a story for the upcoming X-PRIZE: Avatars anthology. I had to turn it around in two weeks – I did it in a week. All of that “new writing” ended back in June of this year. I’ve been editing ever since. The results are crazy.

PEACEMAKER get worldwide release on August 25th. VENDETTA PROTOCOL gets an ebook release on September 13th and a print version following. The novella LANCER ONE is due out in October. The first anthology A FISTFUL OF CREDITS was released in June and is selling like hotcakes. The X-PRIZE anthology is due later this year.

Two weeks ago, I turned in the alternate history project to my editor/mentor. It’s the most difficult book I’ve written to date. I’ve now laid out a plan for the rest of 2017 and it’s ambitious as hell. I can get it done, though. My momentum is back. How did I do it?

Go back a few paragraphs. For me, it’s about putting my butt in the chair and writing. Yes, I plot and outline, but I’m also thinking about the books and projects all the time. I take a lot of notes. Some of them work, others don’t. The best ideas I don’t have to write down because they stay with me. Once I’m committed to writing the project, I let go of my inner critic – that little bastard that likes to click the backspace button more than he types. I write because I know that I can fix it later. I get the story out of my head. If it comes in short or over the desired word count, I go back and fix it. All of that is faith in myself. Will I make mistakes? Yes. Can I fix them? Yes. I’ve taken very strongly to the belief that I can fix anything in editing. The result is my productivity is higher than ever.

Let go. Have faith. Write.