Writers in the Storm

In twenty-five days my debut book, P.R.I.S.M. will be available for pre-order.

And I am freaking out.

For so many reasons.

Of course, I have the usual lists of tasks to complete. Marketing is the sad loser for garnering my time and efforts. I know I'll pay for that later and bump up its priority.

For now, I'm still focused on putting out the best book I can, even though it's been through four rounds of editorial review with my amazing editor Tiffany Yates Martin. Two more days until I receive the final copy-edits before I make the last set of changes to a book I started in 2012 and finished in 2014. It went through I-don't-know-how-many complete edits before I sent it to Tiffany a year ago.

You'd think I'd be better prepared for this. I wrote my first book in 1994, with no intention of ever trying to be published. I was just waiting for the release of my favorite author's next book, and an English teacher friend suggested I write my own book. (Would you make that suggestion to a mathematician?) 

P.R.I.S.M. is my fourth completed novel. Last summer at RWA San Diego I pitched it to a publisher (she asked for a full) and a "new" editor, who asked a couple of questions and said I clearly didn't know anything about writing and that she'd pass. She was the only person I've ever pitched who didn't ask for whatever I pitched. (I'm no good at querying, but I'm a danged-good pitcher.) Luckily, because of years of previous experience and a significant number of contest finals with this manuscript, I was able to laugh at the editor's comments and not be crushed.

I spent the rest of the conference attending Indie publishing workshops and panels. A week later I decided to self-pub my books. I thought the first one would be ready for Amazon around Thanksgiving. 2016. I planned to have the second one ready the week before Christmas. Ha!

I had said two years before, at RWA San Antonio, that if I ever got the chance to work with Tiffany Yates Martin that I'd grab it. I'd attended both of her workshops and had been highly impressed. I contacted her about editorial services. Her calendar was full until that fall, but I sent her the middle ten pages of the book to see if she thought we'd be a good fit. We signed a contract and set up dates for three editorial passes. While I waited to send the book to her, I did a total revision. Again. 

Now my book couldn't come out until 2017. I decided June would work well, with the second book going up in July and the third in August. Great summer science fiction romance reads, right? Okay, I will admit I am overly optimistic at how quickly I can complete revisions. But my main objective has always been to put out the best work I possibly can, and I believe the investment of time has been worth it.

I started looking at book covers and websites in late 2016. I engaged June Stevens Westerfield to update my website, help me with my brand, and design a logo. (Love them all!)  Sherry Ficklin helped me with social media and marketing. I listened and learned about the value of social media from Laura Drake.

The truth is, if Laura hadn't worn her cheerleader outfit like that little girl wears her princess outfit in the father-does-laundry commercial I wouldn't be freaking out now, because I'd still be thinking about sending out queries or deciding if I should send the full to someone who'd asked for it. Last month we worked up a calendar for what needed to be done, and when, for the rest of the year. (Bless you, Laura.)

Last January I signed a contract for a book cover and promotional materials. (Did I mention I love my cover?) This summer I started blogging with a group of Young Adult authors, YA Outside the Lines. Yesterday my teen crush blog went live there. 

In the next twenty-four days I have a cover release, the final revision, formatting for all platforms-including paperback, sending out ARCs for reviews, and social media stuff. There are more things on the calendar, but I won't bore you.

It's enough to make anyone freak out, right?

But as much as there is left to do, that's not the real reason that I'm freaking out. The real reason is that in twenty-five days people will be able to pre-order my book. It will be delivered on October 26. And then the world will know what goes on inside my brain. To a very private person that's freaking terrifying. Most people think they understand me because they know my personal "story." 

I believe that writers put themselves into every corner of their books. Those who know and love the author the most will smile a secret grin when they read, because they will see the very personal pieces that slipped through the cracks into a new manuscript. Maybe I thought that writing science fiction would keep those personal analogies at bay. Now I'm not so sure.

My characters are real people, real humans, with thoughts and feelings and relationships just like yours. Like mine. And after a bazillion revisions, I've seen just how many of my hopes and frustrations ended up splayed between the pages for the world to see.

At that is why I'm freaking out.

At what point in your writing career have you freaked out? How did you get through it? 

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About Fae

 

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at FaeRowen.com or on Facebook at Fae.Rowen. Fae also blogs at YA Outside the Lines on the fifth of every month.

 

 

P.R.I.S.M's debut release

After losing a global war to Earth’s megacorporations, the government and military leaders, along with Earth’s worst criminals, were exiled to Prism, a barren planet. For twenty-five years the prisoners have survived on scant supply shipments.

Seventeen-year-old O’Neill likes her life on Prism. Everyone expects she’ll marry Cal Reagan, her best friend. But she’s not ready to give up her independence.

Jericho Montgomery, son of the wealthiest man on Earth, arrives on Prism to negotiate a shipping contract, determined to deliver a winning proposal to secure his future and his mother’s legacy.

What O’Neill learns from Jericho challenges everything she believes about her future. Jericho falls hard—for the starkly beautiful planet and for O’Neill. But he uncovers old secrets that put their future in jeopardy. Can they unravel the lies and find a way to build a life together?

P.R.I.S.M., a young adult science fiction story of survival, betrayal, deceit, lies, and love, available for pre-order October 1, 2017.

Colleen Story

A girl goes into a bar. A guy takes a seat in the chair beside her. Using his most charming voice, he says, “Hey, girl, what’s your time personality?”

It could happen. In fact, the guy would likely find out more with that question than with the typical, “What’s your sign?” 

In fact, some psychologists believe our time personalities may be just as important as other major personality traits like conscientiousness and openness when it comes to our ability to achieve success and happiness.

As a writer, you need to know your time personality if you want to boost productivity and manage all your writing projects without going crazy. There are many facets to this characteristic, and I talk about them all in my new book, Overwhelmed Writer Rescue, but you can get started by figuring out one thing: How do you prefer to perceive time?

How Do You Prefer to Perceive Time?

Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo is credited with discovering “time perception.” After years of research, he found that our attitude toward time is a personality trait, much like our level of optimism vs. pessimism, or whether we’re introverted or extroverted.

Curious about your time perception personality? You can take Zimbardo’s test here. It consists of 61 easy questions. When you’ve finished them all, you’ll get results showing you which of the personalities you tend to gravitate toward most often.

Meanwhile, here’s a brief summary of the three major types. There are subtypes, too, but I’ve left those out for simplicity. By reviewing these, you can begin to get an idea of the differences, and a sense of which one may best describe you.

Past Oriented

Overall, you prefer to focus on the past rather than the present or the future. You base your decisions on what you’ve experienced before, as it’s difficult for you to imagine things being different. “New” things don’t impress you just because they’re new. You probably enjoy honoring certain family traditions, but find it difficult to allow new people (strangers) into your inner circles. 

You’re nostalgic by nature, and like activities that connect you to your past, but this can make you hesitate to step out of your comfort zone. You may also remember traumatic experiences you had as a child, and nurse old wounds that you haven’t been able to heal.

Present Oriented

Overall, you tend to focus on the now, particularly on what your senses are telling you. You seek out physical and social pleasures, and focus on making yourself feel good today rather than tomorrow. It’s difficult for you to grasp abstract concepts about the future, as they just don’t seem real to you.

Real is what you can see, touch, and smell right now, which means you may be easily distracted and give in to temptations more than you should. You do not believe in the “no pain no gain” idea, as you prefer to just avoid pain, period.

Future Oriented

You are all about creating a better future for yourself and those you care about. You tend to base your decisions on where you want to be 5-10 years from now, rather than on where you were in the past. You find it easy to imagine the future, and look forward to it as being a better world for you than the present is.

Because you can imagine the future so easily, you are good at delaying gratification, and are likely to make good choices in terms of health and finances that will set you up for long-term positive consequences. On the downside, you may find it hard to enjoy the present moment.

How Your Time Perception Personality Affects Your Writing Career

Once you have an idea which of the three types fits you best, you can use that information to help push your writing career forward. The main idea is to capitalize on your strengths, and then work on those areas that tend to be weaknesses for you.

Past Oriented

The good news is that you are a stable person overall. You have solid relationships with your family and friends, and that can help you weather the ups and downs of the writing life.

You may have difficulty, though, imagining a future that’s different from what your past has been. Even if you dream of publishing a book or building an editing business, your dream rests in some distant time, so it may seem out of reach. You may also find it difficult to try things you haven’t experienced before, which could hold you back from experiences that would boost your career.

Action Step: What you need is to help yourself see the future more clearly. Create a visual collage of where you will be five years from now. Add your own personal touches to images, such as putting your book title on an image of a book, or your name and class title on a schedule of writing workshops.

Next, plan to do something new this year related to your writing. Maybe you’ll submit to some new publications, attend a new conference, join a public speaking group, or take some marketing classes. Realize that your tendency to hesitate when thinking about new experiences may be holding you back. Schedule the activity on your calendar, and when you feel that resistance, push forward and do it anyway.

Present Oriented

The good news is that you enjoy today for today. You like writing for writing’s sake, and are likely to have lots of work that you will never publish, and that’s just fine with you.

Where you may struggle is in taking that next step in your career. You may want to earn more money from your writing, for example, but procrastinate when it comes to learning how to do that. Or you may find it difficult to finish a novel when it gets tough in the middle, because it’s hard for you to see past your immediate experience.

Action Step: First, make “finishing projects” just as high a priority as having fun with your writing. Particularly if you have lots of unfinished stories in the drawer, redirect your efforts to finalizing and submitting more of your work.

Next, focus on creating a step-by-step plan for your writing career. If you want to be earning money from your stories in five years, get out a calendar and decide where you need to be by the end of each year to make that happen. Then break it down further so you can set monthly deadlines for yourself. Deadlines can help you bypass your tendency to put things off. If you can focus on the “fun” facets of each task, that will help, too.

Most importantly, create frequent rewards. Present people like feeling good now, so reward yourself for small tasks completed to stoke your own motivation.

Future Oriented

The good news is that you are tailor made for the long haul of the writing business. You’re focused on the future, and have no problem toiling away for years working toward your goals.

Your problem is that you tend to work too hard and worry too much, which can create an unhealthy sort of neuroticism and tunnel vision. Your constant focus on the future can also rob you of the joy of writing today, so much so that you can exhaust yourself to the point of burnout.

Action Step: Take time off much more frequently than you think you should. Plan an annual long vacation, at least three shorter (four-day) vacations, and weekly days when you enjoy leisure-time activities that restore you.

Watch for signs of burnout, such as fatigue and insomnia, weight loss or gain, skin breakouts, headaches, muscle aches and pains, and a growing apathy toward your work. Remind yourself that it’s not healthy in the long run to ignore your close relationships, or to make life all work and no play. Find ways to tap into your inner child to keep your creativity alive.

Which time personality best fits you? What is your biggest time challenge?

Sources

Jane Collingwood, “What’s Your Time Perspective?” Psych Central, May 17, 2016, https://psychcentral.com/lib/whats-your-time-perspective/.

Zimbardo P. and Boyd J. Putting Time in Perspective: A Valid, Reliable Individual-Difference Metric. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 77, 1999, pp. 1271-88.

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About Colleen

Colleen M. Story is the author of Overwhelmed Writer Rescue: Boost Productivity, Improve Time Management, and Replenish the Creator Within—a motivational read full of practical, personalized solutions to help writers escape the tyranny of the to-do list and nurture the genius within. Discover your unique time personality and personal motivational style, and learn how to keep self-doubt, perfectionism, and workaholism from stealing your writing time. Available at all common book retailers. (Get your free chapter here!)

Colleen is also a novelist and has worked in the creative writing industry for over twenty years. She is the founder of Writing and Wellness. For more information, please see her author website, or follow her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story).

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

No matter what form it takes, conflict is at the core of every story. It’s part of what drives the plot, and it’s what makes readers eager to read on to see if the protagonist succeeds. Characters face problem after problem, and with each trouble found, they’re forced to make tough decisions about what to do next. It’s this constant flow of dealing with problems that keeps the story moving.

But conflict also exists in the world around the characters which has nothing to do with them personally—it’s just the inherent conflict of the world. The setting can be rife with problems that prevent your protagonist from solving her problems and even add to her internal conflicts.

These environmental conflicts are the issues and situations that make it harder for the protagonist to face the challenges of the novel. Getting food when you live in a big city is different from getting food if you’re lost in the woods with no gear or survival training. Dealing with a backstabbing co-worker during a team-building ride in a hot air balloon is more problematic when you’re terrified of heights.

Let's say you have a scene where you want your protagonist to feel uncomfortable because she's confronting a coworker who just stabbed her in the back at work over a promotion. She’s uncertain about her actions, because it could backfire on her and create more trouble than losing a promotion.

Where would you set it?

The most obvious choice is at work, since that's where she interacts with this person. She'd likely do it somewhere familiar to her, because she'll want a position of strength for this confrontation. But that means she'll be in familiar and safe territory, which will probably keep her calm and lessen her apprehension of this meeting. Being calm and feeling safe will not add conflict to this scene, so the setting is doing nothing to help it.

Instead, let's move this meeting to a location that puts the protagonist at a disadvantage, so the stakes go up and the tensions are raised. Instead of work, let's choose a place that makes her uncomfortable and let the setting reflect the emotions we want both the character and the reader to feel.

For example, if she wants to confront the coworker in private, let’s force her to confront her coworker in a public place where anyone might overhear. What she’s willing to say to someone in private changes when she has to say it in a room full of people. If she's a recovering alcoholic, we'll send her into a bar where drinks are flowing heavily. If she dislikes kids, we'll make her attend a birthday party for twenty ten-year-olds. Whatever triggers her discomfort is a potential setting, because it will add another layer of difficulty to her objective.

If we use the environment to push the emotions of the protagonist to new heights, we'll make her goals harder to accomplish, which adds conflict and raises tensions, since it's far more likely something will go wrong.

Let’s look at some ways you might use your setting to add conflict to a scene.

1. Choose a location that puts the protagonist at a disadvantage.

Look for places that will force the protagonist into a position of weakness. It might be on the enemy’s turf or an unfamiliar location, as long as the setting strips away whatever inherent advantage the protagonist might have had.

2. Choose a location that has inherent conflict of its own.

If there’s conflict all around, that naturally spills over onto the protagonist and her current problem. A war-torn land, office politics, political strife, even the teenage cliques and social hierarchy of high school can provide additional challenges to solving a problem.

3. Let the environment add another layer of difficulty to the task.

Weather can be an interesting factor here, as overcoming a challenge is usually much harder when the weather is bad. Unfamiliar terrain is also a problem that could hinder achieving a goal, such as being in a new city, or being forced to go out onto a lake when you’re not sure how to sail—or swim.

4. Let the setting mirror or echo the emotional state of the character.

Tone and mood can be useful tools here, with stormy weather or creepy locations adding atmosphere, but the setting can also contain elements that resonate with the protagonist’s current conflict. A reconciliation dinner with a loved one who betrayed you is going to be much harder if there’s a couple at the next table who is clearly having an affair.

5. Use an environment that presses one of the protagonist’s buttons.

If there’s something that sets off your protagonist, why not have elements of that during a difficult time? If your amateur sleuth has strong views on sexism, put the witness she needs to question behind the bar during a wet t-shirt contest. Give her reasons to trigger a side of herself that will cloud her judgment or color her opinions.

6. Use a setting that shows others having a similar conflict.

Being stranded by a delayed flight at the airport is a pain, but being one of thirty passengers all upset over the delay exacerbates the problem. Tensions rise and everything becomes more difficult. People who would have normally been agreeable don’t want to compromise. Sometimes, problems shared do not ease the burden at all.

Environmental conflicts are often smaller elements of the story, but they can add a rich and textured aspect to that story. Take advantage of what your environment can do to layer in emotions, create conflict, and make a character really work to resolve her challenges.

Because sometimes the world really is out to get you, and just getting through the day is a huge challenge.

What ways have you used setting to create conflict in your stories? Do you have examples of how other authors have used setting to amp up the conflict?

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Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the fantasy trilogy, The Healing Wars, and multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure and Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft. She's also the founder of the writing site, Fiction University. For more advice and helpful writing tips, visit her at www.fiction-university.com or @Janice_Hardy.

 

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Looking for more tips on creating conflict? Check out my latest book Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means), an in-depth guide to how to use conflict in your fiction.

Janice Hardy takes you deep inside one of the most important aspects of storytelling--conflict. She'll help you understand what conflict really is, discuss the various aspects of conflict, and reveal why common advice on creating conflict doesn't always work.

With in-depth analysis and easy-to-understand examples, Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means) looks at how to develop and create conflict in your novel. It also explores the things that affect conflict (such as tension), and the misconceptions that confuse and frustrate so many writers.

Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means) is more than just advice on what to do and what not to do—it’s a down and dirty road map to how conflict works, designed to help you create the right conflict for whatever genre you're writing. By the end of this book, you’ll have a solid understanding of what conflict means and the ability to use it to craft strong and compelling fiction.