Tag Archives: novel

Platform, Mother %#$#%^. Do You Have It?

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G+ LogoI digress. That is a very big thing on Reddit (where I spend copious amounts of time) and on other areas of the interwebs. But it is essentially a question I ask myself every time I set  out to Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest- you get the idea.

I have 4992 “friends” on Facebook and only a couple or so interact with my daily posts (I’ll get to that in a minute) and with things on writing and my successes I get more interaction. Twitter is less impressive as I spend less time there. I have 591 followers and follow 727. A lot of the people I follow are sports figures and writers that are so blown up they have tons and tons of followers. I’d be lucky to get a follow back or even a RT (I’m looking at YOU Neil Gaimain). G+? 1K people have me in their circles but I have no clue which but I hadn’t been spending a lot of time there but now, because of the AWESOME communities I keep going back to it. I have 500 more followers on Pinterest than I am following which is what the numbers need to be like.

So with all of the follows and friends and what not, what is really happening? What is reallyTwitter logo going to sell my book, if it gets picked up? That’s a good question, and I am starting to figure it out after 4 years of floundering on social networks and that is thanks to Chuck Sambuchino and the book Create Your Writer Platform.

The book is something I won’t get into here. It isn’t too much, more than most new writer ebooks but on par for books on platform and craft. I will list my experiences and maybe you too will see yourself in my stupidity.

In 2008 I joined Facebook because a school chum said how AWESOME it was and you could find old friends. Well, the friend I wanted to find wasn’t listed (that’s a whole narrative in itself that I’ve written about before. No need to get into it here) and that began my journey. No friends, no likes and a desperate, “I’m going to remove my ‘face’ from Facebook. LOL”. I wasn’t kidding. I was in creative writing classes and this was just before the whole SM for writers thing blew up.

I found Nathan Bransford’s insightful blog when he was still a literary agent and the issue of blogging came up. So I started a blog at Blogger and off I went. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing but I was getting comments and followers and it was good.

Facebook_Light_LogoIn 2009 I signed up for Twitter. I searched for writers and met some great people- Harley May, Mercedes Murdock Yardley, Don Pizarro, Eisley Jacobs and thus started my Twitter journey. Twitter was becoming big and I fell in love with the medium. I followed more and more people and then found them on Facebook.

Then I started thinking seriously about writing for realz. My second creative writing class was just as positive as the first (with a major turning point in my personal life coming with it) and I wanted to do this thing. I started friending mutual friends who had anything to do with writing. I did this and got 400 friends. I was put into numerous groups, signed up for writing groups, etc. These people saw a newbie and started friending me. In 2010-2012 my friend count exploded. By the end of 2012 I had 5,000, Facebook’s limit. I joined all the social sites in between. I got a Tumblr, got a Pinterest invite, signed up for G+.

But I was just floundering, not really finding my footing. And with the loss of a support system, I began to get extremely personal. While I am okay with that, letting people get to know me, I’ve had to dial it back a bit. I don’t do it on G+, Twitter, Pinterest, etc, I have on Facebook because I have so many caring people there that I consider real friends. They have been hella supportive, cheering me on in my many trials and tribulations. And this is the thing.

So I am now trying to find a balance of personal and promotional. I am still reading Create Your Writer Platform and while it isn’t a book geared specifically for fiction writers, the information held therein has:

1. Gotten me blogging again.

Followings don’t happen over night. I didn’t get that at first and thought my efforts and time were being wasted. As I write this, I am happy to do it because I am starting to get the ins and outs of promotion.

2. Given me courage.

I will be going on a radio show in Brooklyn soon. My friend Joe Wade…I can’t describe him to you. We were school chums. We came up together as writers and he is winning awards and fellowships. It’s unreal. He has a radio show called Sex and Politics- Literature Hour hosted by Brooklyn College and he is putting me on. I am the shy writer who writes only in her notebook and shows to friends and family. This…this is unreal.

3. Shown me HOW to promote.

I link back to blogs, comment on blogs, leave links to blog posts all over EVERYWHERE, even in my email signature, my social sites as well. I have emails waiting in my my Gmail drafts folder to be sent out to big names in hopes of getting guest spots. I am also going to be doing a giveaway (stay tuned!!)

4. Shown me patience.

His examples were really helpful. It takes time to build a following. He suggested writing a marketing plan and going from there. The more I blog, the more I enjoy it. My stats aren’t great but I’m getting likes and +1′s and this is so new. Things are happening man. It feels great.

This is a long blog post and I hope I’ve covered everything. If I figure anything else to add I’ll do a follow up. Do you guys have anything to add? Any experiences? Leave them in the comments. :-)

Also, here is a link to my writer marketing plan template taken from a Yahoo sites post. There is a link in the GDrive doc so you can see it firsthand. You can take a look here.

 

Writing Extremely Flawed, Mentally Ill Characters

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MEDION DIGITAL CAMERAIs hard. There is no way around that. Even if you, yourself suffer from severe mental illness, getting into the head of people in the throes of illness is difficult. What motivates “normal” people to do what they do, trying to figure that out, in the vise of everyday life, is terribly hard, so imagine when those motivations are complicated by hallucinations, traumatic events, social awkwardness, and being young and away from everything you’ve known into some place that makes you feel less than human? My girls and guys are real people so it was a struggle for me to paint them with a careful hand without tainting their motivations with my opinions of them. Of course, that isn’t fully possible; I have some unresolved issues with these folks, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have written it.

I let a woman who we will call Minx DeLovely read an alpha/beta of my novel. She loved it, suggested edits, and let me know that she didn’t like my main character but that my main character was extremely real and that kept her reading. That was what I was aiming for- no character should be perfect, and Amber, my main character is tragic and isn’t certain she will survive her youth to heal from her past. She really doesn’t want to, but forges on anyway.

And I guess that’s what makes her relatable, if not likable, the fact that despite the pain and anguish and feeble attempts at stopping everything, she moves forward, unhinged, unaware, but desperate. Desperation makes people survive during the most harrowing times.

My antagonist, is the opposite. Sure, she isn’t too keen on life but she thrives on the attention she receives and stops at nothing to continue receiving it, no matter who it hurts. That’s the basis of Histrionic Personality Disorder and it is etched in every fiber of her being. She cannot stop, for if she does, she stops feeling, being. A holy hot mess. She, too, is unlikable but she is real, not just in the sense that she really exist but because sometimes the bullshit stops long enough for her to emote and when she emotes you can connect with her, try to see from the edges of her world. At least I hope that comes through. She isn’t evil, she’s troubled, just like every kid in the novel.

So. Plenty of mentally ill characters out there but I hope to have distinguished mine from the pack by making them real and relatable. Stay tuned!

 

Borderline Personalities…Everywhere!

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One of the things that is most difficult for Borderlines is the great and mounting stigma of the illness. For years in the psychiatric/medical community Borderlines were kept in the dark about their illness; psychiatrists often stated it was a difficult illness to explain, an Sad Girlsanomaly of the psych world. Often times, because of the nature of the illness where patient becomes abnormally attached to caregivers, seeking out the approval and attention of said caregivers and when the caregivers couldn’t act on a Borderline’s demand and the Borderline would fly off the handle or self-injure, they were/are labeled children, often ostracized, ridiculed (yes, ridiculed) and humiliated by the people charged to take care of them. Saying that a Borderline is a petulant child in need of attention is an oversimplification of the illness and often harmful.

Searching around on the internet, I was trying to find true stories of people with the illness, for you to get their perspective. I found some good information and stories. One story bugged the shit out of me, however, because of the vitriol coming from the poster of the story, clearly stigmatizing all Borderlines, that they will not recover, that, if you’re in a relationship with a Borderline female, get out, etc. This article did not take into consideration many males are Borderlines as well. Still, the article is a good example of Borderline Bashing that since going on my research journey, I’ve come across plenty of times on the interwebs.

I found some inspiring stories of people with BPD and some that are still suffering. One woman found that faith has helped her cope with symptoms.

In my novel that I am writing I try to convey the heaviness of the illness as well as some of the stigma surrounding it. The reason I didn’t go heavy handed on the staff abuse was because it is already heavy and somber. Amber is a Borderline and is aware of this but only on the surface. Her frienemy Briana is also a mixture of personality disorders. Most of the kids in the book suffer from some kind of behavioral or personality disorder, as many of young adults then and now are being diagnosed as such, sometimes without merit. Medication helps because sometimes a Borderline has a concurring illness such as Bipolar or Dysthymia (major depression).

Borderlines are popular targets for the media and the interwebs. Have you heard any BPD horror stories? You can leave them in the comments. Looking forward to it. :-)

 

What’s a Writer Without Books? April Book Haul

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wpid-DSC_0374A writer without books is like a musician without an instrument, totally foreign and completely unacceptable. How do we learn to hone our craft than by reading the people that came before us and our contemporaries, good books, meh books, and bad books alike?

So from now on I’m going to be posting my monthly haul. I can only shop for books for my bookshelves once a month until I get into the school I am hoping to get into, as the free bus pass for communting will save me a lot of money. Then, once I free up some cash, I’ll do bi-weekly “Book Haul” posts.

So what have I got for April (which is almost over)? From the top left: The Dead Sea Scrolls- always looking for knowledge on religious topics, despite being an atheist. It is said that atheists know more of the bible than Christians. I want to be THAT atheist. It was written by a couple of scholars who I don’t know the names of off the bat.

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception- I saw this at the library (where I get most of my hauls- $.50 paperback, $1 for trade paperbacks is an AWESOME find for poor people :-) and I thought it would be a great companion or supplement to The Dead Sea Scrolls.

3. The Paris Wife- by Paula McClain which is about the great ladies man, Ernest Hemingway’s wife, well, one of them anyway. Hemingway was a handsome, strapping, if not chauvinistic man with great machismo to back up his talk. Seems he was always married, never alone for very long, and the ending of his life or near the end seems the most intriguing to me. I’m trying to gain insight into this heavily anthologized heavyweight, with the journalistic, clipped prose I am trying to no longer emulate.

4. Some lit journals like old issues of Prairie Schooner, The Antioch Review, and The Indiana Review, just trying to see what kind of prose they’re after so I can submit.

5. Invisible Man- by Ralph Ellison. Battle Royale, the opening scene. Need I say more? (I have the ebook, it was one of the first I bought when I got my NookColor in 2011, just want to have it in print. One of my favorite intellectuals and writers).

6. The Bluest Eye- Toni Morrison. This book means a lot to me as a black woman in ways I can’t say here. Well written, very sad, but meaningful. I also bought this as an ebook but wanted it in print.

The Indiana Review as mentioned before.

7. America, America- by Ethan Canin. Just trying to discover new literary writers I haven’t heard of before.

8. The Blood of Flowers- by Anita Amirrezvani. Another gem hidden at the library, a historical fiction novel in the lit fic section but still worth picking up.

9. The Sports Writer- by Richard Ford. I heard he won a Pulitzer. I see you wincing. Stop that! Just curious to see what makes a novel Pulitzer worthy. I promise. :-)

All those books for under the price of trade paperback- $11. Money well spent if I do say so myself. What’s on your shelves?

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NaNoWriMo Two Weeks Later: The Pros and Cons

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I love NaNoWriMo, which if you are a writer and have been living under a rock stands for National Novel Writing Month, which was started way back in 1999 as a way for some ambitious 20 somethings to write with “literary abandon”- 50,000 words in 30 days. Crazy, right? A few people is now 300,000. And growing.

I’ve done it and won. You get a nice little certificate and a halo around your name in the WriMo site. You also get crazy discounts on software, such as Scrivener, the best writing software known to man (on Windows and Mac). But more than that, you get a sense of community, crazy introverts striving for one common goal- writing a 50,000 word novel, 1667 words a day for 30 days.

If you’re regularly trolling the internet, in writing forums, writing blogs, and podcasts, there are tons of opinions on NaNo ranging from the, “it primes you to write a big heaping pile of shit you turn into agents and we (agents, publishers) don’t want/can’t handle your arrogant writer shit heaps (or something like that)” to, “OMG! Are you going to NaNo? It’s the greatest thing EVAR!! You binge on coffee and Red Bull, stay up past 3 am and word battle with other brave writers all over the world!! What’s not to like?”

Both takes on it are true, however hyperbolic I made them. You do produce a heaping pile of shit. It is a great community. But sorting through all the negativity and downright saccharine affection for it can be daunting.

So here they are! The Pros and Cons of NaNoWriMo as I see them, someone who would definitely be willing to participate again when I get to grad school and writing is all I’ll be doing.

Pros

1. Community. It’s one of the best communities on the internet next to Absolute Write Water Cooler (a post on them will soon follow). All of you know the sorrow and joy and crankiness of trying to pump out words in 30 days. It’s a shame it only lasts for 30 days (a little longer for the forums but not too much longer). Take advantage of it, if you choose.

2. Structure. I needed that to finish my novel. I started writing a novel I had been planning for two whole years and used the time off school and NaNoWriMo to get it done. If you are committed, it teaches you about deadlines, commitment, and sacrifice, which are some of the things the most successful writers have a handle on.

3. Practice. The only way one gets better is to write. All the time, write. It can be crapola. It doesn’t matter. Write it down, go over it, see what you can do to get better. Erin Morgenstern’s NaNo novel got sold with that caveat that she put a shit ton of editing behind it. Maybe yours can too.

 

Cons

1. You write a shitty novel….that you submit right away, without any editing. New writers are prone to this. I remember being a young(er) writer than I am now and feeling that if I had to revise my work, I had no real genius at all. It took a beating of my ego to turn me into the proper direction. Whatever you do young writers, don’t. Do. That. Revise.

2. Family, friends, coworkers are generally ignored for a whole month. While this isn’t a really bad thing it can be. It’s part of the writing life, writers know this. But sometimes it takes a while to soothe bruised feelings

These are a few of my pros and cons. Come up with your own if you’re doing it, in the comments. Love to hear from you.

 

Rejection City

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We’ve all been there, writers. You write and write, revise, pour your heart and soul into a short story, flash piece, poem or chapter after chapter of a novel. You submit to a literary journal, agent or publisher. Your baby is out in the world, ready to be critiqued, analyzed, assessed and judged. You send it out in good faith and hope you’ve done enough to warrant that “Congratulations. Sold!” email.

You stalk your inbox, your mailbox hoping and wishing. A week goes by. Two. A month. Three months. Six, all the while you can’t think about anything else, just your publication, your riches, your success.

Then! The “You’ve Got Mail” old AOL chime on your Gmail gadget (yes, I have that on my Win7 Gmail gadget) comes in. You walk calmly over to your desk, sit down, open up the mail from [insert publisher/agent/lit mag here] and you read,

“Dear [your name]

Thank you for your interest in Haughty Lit Mag Magazine. While we read your story Will You Please Publish Me, Please? with interest we did not select it for publication. We receive many worthy stories that we have to say no to, so take heart. We encourage you to keep writing and keep us in mind.

Thank you,

Laughing editor”

You close the lid on your laptop and weep bitter tears into your coffee/vodka/rum and coke.

What do you do with something like that? How do you get over it? You finish your rum and coke and get back to writing. It is a lesson I’m sure everyone knows but has a hard time executing, especially when form rejections start piling up for a story you love and cherish like a fat jolly baby. But you do. You write and revise that story, conjure up new ones, send them out, get rejected, repeat. And, if you’ve honed your craft enough, been persistent enough, that one “You’ve Got Mail” chime will come in and that, “We loved your story, “The Confident Writer Takes a Shot”. We are happy to inform you we want to buy your story for publication”. You will spill your rum and coke, call your mom and best friend and anyone who may not care but will listen, you’ll promote the hell out of it on your blog and other social media. Then you’ll do it all over again.

Such is the writing life.

 

Something’s Gotta Give- Not Excited About the Blog Anymore, So!

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Ever since I tried blogging about the content of my book I have found it increasingly difficult to come here and blog about mental illness. I am not really thrilled about mental illness- who is? It sucks. Sucks terribly for anyone who suffers from it and the people who love the person who suffers from it. I don’t feel like coming here and blogging about it 24/7. I know it is necessary to do, but I don’t feel like it needs to be the sole purpose of this blog- I am not excited about coming here and as you’ve seen, posts have dropped off significantly.

I am sick of “experts” telling me how to blog, what to blog about. While some information is helpful, if your heart’s not in it, what good is it doing your blog? Your sales? Not much good, that’s for sure.

So this blog will split content- writing, writing process, the WIP and mental illness as a side piece. Not sure how to deliver this type of content and I am a relatively new blogger who is testing the waters, trying to see what works and what doesn’t. Being a solely mental health blog is not helping anything. Not my sanity, not my traffic, nada.

This post is just a short one but it means a lot to me because I dreaded coming here every weekend to write posts, so I never did. Now, I’m back. Did ya miss me? I missed me. We should all miss me. :-)