Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

So I skipped last week because I was out having fun and because I'm struggling with my writing right now. All the 1099s have arrived and Imposter Syndrome came with them. In spite of releasing three new things last year, I earned so little it's painful.

I still need to pull up my contracts on two of them because I think I've been underpaid (but the depression is staying my hand) and it seems impossible Blood Red Roulette could have sold THIS badly with a cover that gorgeous and with character types (vampires) so popular.

It makes me think, should I even be bothering? No one would miss my writing it seems. Or maybe I'm just in the wrong genre. It's one of the reasons I want to pull back a bit from the LGBT indie presses a bit and take one last stab at the main stream. But right now I can't be arsed to do anything but fanfic.

Now there's nothing wrong with fanfic except it takes away time from my original fiction, time I can't afford. Sigh. I hate these feelings.

So instead of listening to me whine have some links (no original writing updates because I've done nothing since Christmas other than editing Modified and Sacred (due out April) and I lost what I wrote at Christmas in that crash. Luckily some is in the journal that no one read but like one person.

From my friend Betty:

Lots and Lots of Murder: An Interview with Karen Rose

The 5 Secrets of Good Storytelling (That Writers Forget All the Time)

How to Develop Your Story Idea Into A List of Key Scenes – Part 1

25 THINGS ABOUT CREATING CHARACTERS

How to Write a Killer First Chapter: (AKA What Your First Chapter REALLY Needs)

On Dothraki and House Elves: Developing Fantasy Cultures

How to Weave Threads of Tension Through Your Story

How to Plot a Book: Start With the Antagonist

Writing Evil Well (a little too overtly Christians only for me but has some useful points

Dropping clues

The Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel: Advice from Literary Agents

The Four Main Types of Epic Antagonists

How to create tension in writing: 8 methods

The Difference Between Villains and Antagonists

The 1>2>3 Formula: How to Write the Perfect Villain

Write Your Novel In A Year – Week 35: 3 Must-Have Scenes That Reveal Character

The Connection between Character Emotion and Reader Empathy

TSend up the (Red) Flag: Telling Words That Often Spell Trouble in Our Writing

WHAT DOES YOUR HERO WANT? #1: The Outer Motivation

Cheap Depictions of Bullying Are Now on Our Hit List

From Around the web

Red Pen Praising: The Best Thing You Can Do For A Writer I try to do this every time I beta read

Why the Past Matters: the Inspiration Behind The Glass Woman

Writing advice, because that’s what we writers like to do

Music vs. Silence: Does Listening to Music Get in the Way of Writing? While I disagree with her I know many of you would agree so...

How Meditation Can Help a Writer

HOW TO DEAL WITH NAYSAYERS, DREAMKILLERS, AND FRENEMIES WHILE WRITING. from Delilah S. Dawson (who's been tweeting a lot about this especially after a few negative encounters at a recent con)

Comments

[duskpeterson]

Man, can I empathize with you on all your points. My only thought is: Just because we don't hear from readers, that doesn't mean they're not entertained/moved by what we write. I remember receiving a letter from a reader mentioning that she'd taken copious notes on my stories - had timelines, maps, the works. If she hadn't told me this, I never would have guessed. So if you enjoy the work, hang in there.

If you don't enjoy the work, then for heaven's sake, find another way to make money!

[cornerofmadness]

Oh I enjoy the writing but I don't enjoy the flat sales, especially when SO much went into the marketing and I could have put it out there with zero effort and gotten the same results. It was in the hands of professional marketers for once and I expected...more.

I don't make money this way. Like at all. It's a paid hobby for me.

[duskpeterson]

Paid hobby - I like how you put that!

[cornerofmadness]

For me it really is. My med school loans mean I'd have to be King, Patterson or Rowling to live off my writing. so I stress less about the pay check than some but it does sting to do all that work and barely move 2 dozen books in spite of heavy marketing campaigns

[duskpeterson]

If it's any cold comfort, the market for self-published books can be just as tough - but you already know that.

[cornerofmadness]

I know. My thought on that is if I had so much help marketing and failed this bad what would happen if I tried 100% myself

[duskpeterson]

Honestly, I'm the wrong person to comment on this, because I've failed 100% at marketing my self-published ebooks. But I think it's fair to say that, if one press fails at marketing a book, that doesn't mean everyone else would, whether the marketer be you or another press. In fact, some presses do spectacularly badly at marketing.

Or it may simply be that this particular book didn't catch the interest of readers, while another one would do very well. Some of my favorite stories I've written, which I put a lot of work into, have received little interest from readers, while a minor short story, which I tossed off in 2002, currently has 2531 hits at AO3. I find the ways of readers to be mysterious. :)

[cornerofmadness]

All of this may be true. I have personally followed every bit of marketing advice I've seen on the links I share but nothing. Sigh.