Interesting Inspiration, Writers on Writing, Because I Can

April 9, 2025 / ccsocialcreative

Photo credit: steve_a_johnson on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back! Thanks for hanging with me again. So happy to say that I may be onto something with changing my post times as this past Monday’s post was my most read and liked since I started this site! Grateful for that and I will work harder to post more when folks are actually awake. 🙂

Let’s get to it…

This year I had a goal of doing my own “52 books in 52 weeks” challenge and have been on track for even more. I’ve hit a wall trying to tackle my ‘save for later’ list on Amazon though, as I have a couple of expensive months coming up and need to save money for life stuff. (Hey it happens.) So, I decided to reread a few books that I absolutely loved last year, because, why not?

While I have interest in several genres: mystery, crime, reading about cults because that is an obsession of mine…lately, when it comes to novels, I have a tendency to lean towards stories about writers or that take place in bookstores, (yes I’m that girl). Here’s the thing about books like this…while cleverly disguised as romcoms, a writer had to write these books, right? So when writing about writers, I’ve been finding more and more inside tips about their own processes and routines. Odd sources for inspiration? Maybe. But inspiration can come from anywhere. A song lyric. A flower. Hell, even a meme can suddenly hit a chord! It just takes an open mind to let it hit you.

Ok so hang in there with me, ok?

I’m currently rereading Beach Read by Emily Henry. I had just finished her new book and I wanted to keep the funny stuff going #becauselife and I remembered how much I had loved this book the first time around. While it has it’s extremely light moments, this one also goes a bit deeper with the characters’ background stories. Without going into too much detail, it is about two authors who write in different genres and are both having writer’s block. They make a bet: each will try writing a book in the others respective genres and whoever sells their book wins. They also teach each other what it takes to write the stories they do. (Yes there is more to this, the whole romcom thing, etc but this is the gist.)

What I am finding is that because this is about authors, I am paying more attention to their different work methods. How they work daily life into their writing schedules; how one paces while thinking and the other plays solitaire waiting for the words to hit. Even the acknowledgment of their daily word counts stand out to me. They explain the research involved for their stories making sure everything is accurate. The discussions between the two, working out the next move of the story or character and even making up stories about people they see on the street. This book, romcom stuff aside, is a writer’s book.

I’m not here to review it. That’s not what this is and I don’t do reviews. What I’m trying to get across here is that out of all the books sitting next to me, I chose to read this particular book again. While I’m personally at a stopping point in writing my own novel, (I wrote myself into trouble), I’m taking it as my own sign that I need to step back and regroup. And maybe learn from these fictional authors how to find where my own characters go next.

For you see, a writer writing about writers gets it!

There is a line in this book that stood out for me in a big way: “…that feeling, that feeling of falling head over heels in love with a story and its characters as they sprang out of me, was unlike anything else.”

That is the heart of a writer right there.

Sure you can write about anything…being on a pirate ship in the 1800’s and sailing around the world stealing and pillaging towns along the way. Research is of course key to this. But you weren’t there. The details of daily life on that ship for example are lost.

But writing about writers? You have your own inside track there! Some of your own habits will trickle in and that is what I love about books like these. I like to see if I’m the only one who does this or that. If I only write a certain amount in a day/or don’t write for a few days, does that make me a failure at the thing I love to do most?

I mentioned word count above. This one baffled me. You see, I write the way I talk. Fast and with endless run-on sentences. Think Eminem or Gilmore Girls and you’ve got me. (And that is what editing is for. The writing, not my mouth which gets me into a lot of trouble.) When I read that someone only wrote 500 words that day, I’m baffled by that. When I sit down to write, I do one or two chapters and write thousands of words at a time. I can’t stop until a chapter is completed. I don’t know if others write like that, I’d like to think I’m not the only one, but writing such a small amount, again to me, is something foreign.

The only time I wrote a small amount was when I wrote a few 100 word stories and my biggest hurdle there was getting my ideas down to those 100 words. I wanted to see if I could do it and I was so happy when they were published. That made me realize that yes, I can slash my work to bits in editing and be ok with it. I also learned how to take criticism from an editor and not want to throw something. (I have a temper and don’t take criticism well at all. I am going to need to learn how to, in order to make it in this biz so this whole experiment were many lessons learned. Also, I don’t really throw things. But I want to.)

So now I’m looking at my book pile to see what other books I’ve read that maybe I should read again, not just for fun, but to see if there are any other insights I may have missed. Not just the fun fiction ones and not just novel writers either. I know of one off the top of my head I read a few years back about a content writer I had interactions with years ago and she penned an autobiography about her escape from her father’s cult and how she created her business and learned to write for business purposes on her own. We all have our own backstories and we all write in our own ways. Learning from each other is so vital and I will personally never stop wanting to read about and more importantly, write about it!

I’ll admit that at first, I was sad that I couldn’t tear through my save for later list. There are so many books out there I want to read and some of my current favorite authors have new books coming out as we speak. But I’ll tell you this, the ones I read over the last year or two? Those stories still play out in my head. They pop up at weird times. Maybe the smell of my nightly cup of tea will bring me back to a book I read last fall, or I remember a line from another while I’m doing the dishes, whatever. So going back and rereading these books? I now have no issues with it. In fact, I’m rather enjoying it!

I was never one for having to read a book. I’d never join a book club because I don’t want to be told what to read or frankly, dissect it afterwards. I want to read because I want to. I read for enjoyment and to escape life. Because it’s something that looks interesting to me and I’m one of those who believes that the right book comes to you at the right time. I’m now finding that rereading these books is happening the same way and how cool is that?

It’s my current way of adulting. I can have a Devil Dog for dinner. I can watch a movie that I’ve seen 20 times. I can read a book over and over again. Why? Because I can.

And that is where I leave you tonight! Thanks again for hanging with me, putting up with me and coming back!!

Until next time…

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I always save any affiliate or relevant links for after my posts so they are not intrusive. Here’s a few to check out and I thank you for the support:

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Beach Read by Emily Henry

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My 100 word stories can be found by hitting the ‘Past Works’ tab in the menu bar up above the post!

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Woman Rising: A True Story, Julia McCoy’s amazing book about her journey from escaping her father’s violent cult to creating multimillion dollar content companies is so inspiring on many levels.

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Like to document, review or just keep track of your current reads? I designed a blank Book Journal for Amazon. (More designs to come, but really happy with this one.) It has blank, lined pages to use as you’d like.

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My linktree for this site has links for my social pages as well as a new linktree shop of stuff I love to use. Always more to come, but I think it’s off to a great start and you can shop right from the linktree: Linktr.ee/promosocially

If you’ve made it this far, thank you and will be seeing you soon! 🙂

Surprise Post, Backwards Clock and Timing is Everything

April 7, 2025 / ccsocialcreative

Hey all. Surprise, it’s Monday! I know normally I post on Fridays but I wanted to shake things up a little and had some thoughts rummaging around this head of mine so figured, why not do another post. Hell, it’s my blog and I can post if I want to! (Apologies to the great Lesley Gore.)

I have been doing social posts for many years and yet when it comes to promoting, I suck at it…and this is coming from a former social media specialist. Let me clarify something, I am good at promoting others but have never felt comfortable promoting myself. I can do it with my vintage/estate jewelry business, there I’ve gotten much better. But with my creative business? I would fire me as a marketing manager if I could. And as for here? Well, last week’s post having almost no views after finally starting to creep up in the analytics department was a slap of reality that I need to do more.

Part of that is timing. I know that I had a set schedule when I worked for a tech company and did their social. I had a grid of designated times that would work over those that didn’t and even that was broken up into the platforms for each: i.e. 1015am FB page, 1:30pm Instagram, etc. I started to see the numbers climbing when I found what was the sweet spot for each platform, (pre TikTok days) and as far as this blog goes, I am far, far out of practice. So this past week, I learned that maybe not posting at 4:30am wasn’t such a good idea and I really should have scheduled it for later on. I forget that no one besides me is up at that hour.

Something I don’t think I posted about here, although maybe in a post far, far away, (apologies to Star Wars fans), I may have mentioned it…but I have a reverse clock. Meaning, I sleep all day, wake up when it’s dark and stay up all night. There are days, although I try not for this to happen, that I am up until noon. Yes, this is all doctor approved. Yes, this is all ok. And no, it is not because of my current medical situation. This is how I have always been. Even in elementary school, it would be extremely hard to wake me up, (I’d be up all night ‘hiding’ under the covers reading) and then would get to class, check in and head to the nurses office to go to sleep for a while and join the class later. I still got high marks and did very well, it’s just that I was born with a reversed internal clock and it wasn’t until these last few years that I FINALLY had doctors tell me it was ok, that everyone is wired differently and that I’m not hurting myself or anyone else. I don’t know, maybe it was being born on Friday the 13th, who knows?

Everyone works differently and as much as I LOVED my old job and still miss it every day, even 9 years later, I wasn’t exactly doing the healthy thing. It was the only place I worked that I got up early because I was so excited to go to the office every day. However, I was always armed with two jumbo Dunkin’ coffees to start out with, would head there again at lunch, (they were next door, a lethal combo), would have soda, tea, anything caffeinated at lunch and to get me through my next break where I’d go back for more coffee. At home, I’d have to take something to help me get to sleep early and so I wouldn’t be up all night per my usual hours and this meant missing a lot of baseball that year. You don’t know me, that’s a huge issue.

In a job I had years ago, I was working well over 100 hour weeks. I lived on Vivarin (you may need to google that one), cigarettes and double shot cappuccinos to get me through the day and night. To this day I still don’t know how I didn’t have a stroke or a heart attack for what I put myself through to keep going.

Now that I’m home, I can finally deal with the schedule I was always meant to have and for me, it works out fine. Until I hit ‘publish’ on a blog post at 4:30am and then not so much.

So here I am trying to make up for it. Plus, the more I read about the whole blog-o-sphere, the more I understand that to build a following, I actually have to post more consistently, so here I am. I do hope you will bear with me as I learn as I go and try to make this something I am proud of.

My last such site wasn’t so much a personal blog as one I did for my town. In that case, I wasn’t really writing about myself, but rather I was writing about the happenings going on around here. I was writing about the history of the city. I was publicizing local eateries and promoting dj’s and live bands, so again, I was able to promote it better because I never felt like I was promoting myself vs the acts or venues themselves. So here I am trying to get my footing again with things like, hey, did you know you can now have more than one link in your IG profile? Or that ironically, photo posts do better than videos in TikTok for some reason? I mean, isn’t that what IG was in the beginning? Just photos? It gets confusing but this was my life for a long time. I lived and breathed social media and I loved it. But now, I have a hard time getting up the enthusiasm for it the way I once did. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on it all the time, I am one of those people who has to share about a million funny animal videos a day. I have just learned to take a step back on some of it and unfortunately for my creative business, have forgotten about it altogether. Because of that, my sales are nonexistent. I own that though. It is my fault. And as much work as I put into the designs I do for it and all the ideas I have for it, I can’t get ahead without promoting. So here I am, trying to promote myself a little bit.

HEY WORLD, I HAVE A BLOG!

Ok had to get that out. Lol

Having said all of that, I have been really enjoying my time here. I feel like by writing about, well, my writing, has kept me on track. Has made me realize that by making my journey public, I have to get things done. I have heard from a couple of folks who are going through something similar. Whether as writers or as career changers, it makes me happy to know that I’m striking a chord out there somewhere. I may be horrible, (HORRIBLE) at getting back to emails, (sorry) if I can make someone smile when they need it, or give them that ‘oh I am so glad I’m not the only one’ moment they need, well then, I’m doing something right.

I took a few days off from working on my own novel or its sequel to read a couple of books I had been looking forward to, but sometimes we need that. To regroup. To get inspired by others and because I did this, I came up with new story ideas and a new direction. I am always thankful to other authors who can give me pure escapist tropes that keep me from knowing what’s going on in the world and my own drama, because frankly, I’m tired of it. I’m not reading the classics or any of my (many) non-fiction-history-bios-deep-thinking-books right now. I did that for oh so many years. Rather, this is my time to just relax with books that make me laugh and make me happy. Because there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I will eventually work a little Teddy Roosevelt, CT history, Yankees memoirs, Dave Grohl and Geddy Lee back into the mix. For now, I’m just enjoying my time with the ‘will they or won’t they’ types that have funny stories getting to how they eventually ‘will’ and loving every page of it. I hope you have found a way to decompress and forget about life for a while, because it feels so good when you finally find that thing that clicks. It really does. 🙂

And that is where I will leave you tonight. Once again I thank you for bearing with the rambles of a cooped up night owl! I appreciate every single one of you who takes time out of your own crazy schedule to read my posts. It honestly means the world to me that with all of the thousands upon thousands of blogs out there, that there’s even one of you who likes it and keeps coming back! You guys rock!!

Have a great night and be on the lookout, because you never know when the next post is coming.

Until next time…

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Be sure to check out my linktree for my social for this site as well as my new linktree shop that I will continue to add to as time goes on: Linktr.ee/promosocially

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Latest book read: Emily Henry’s Funny Story

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You can find all of my shop links for both my vintage/estate jewelry biz and my creative biz by going to either one of these linktrees: linktr.ee/stuffwefind or linktr.ee/stuffwemade

There’s a lot to see on both and I invite you to come and check them out. 🙂

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If you are at all interested in my previous site, you can click the ‘Stamford History’ tab in the menu up above. I keep the site up as an archive as well as for any who would like to read my local history related posts.

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As always, the links in the sidebar are clickable and will figure out this whole ad thing as time goes on. Thanks for reading this far!

Character Development, Blog Block and Learning New Stuff

March 21, 2025 / ccsocialcreative

Welcome back and Happy Spring folks! If I haven’t said this before, I really am so thankful to those of you who bear with my inane ramblings every week. Especially when I’m on a ‘ramble roll!” Every week I swear to myself I’m not just going to keep typing, but then, I just keep going. So to all of you who stick it out with me…THANK YOU!

It’s pretty much been the same old stuff this week. I’ve been enjoying a new book that I got at our library’s bookstore, I binged a few shows, (all ones I’ve watched before) and have made progress on my writing. It is seriously crazy how much more I’m writing now that I have the new keyboard! I just like it so much and it is very easy on my hands which get worse with each passing month. And frankly, I love the sound of it as well. Even when I’m not using it, I still find myself pressing the keys just to hear it. My own personal ASMR as it were. Speaking of, there are a few ASMR YouTube channels I love to watch where all they do is type. Crazy? Maybe, but I find that not only is it awesome background noise and not only does it jumpstart something in my brain for my next chapter to write, but it also helped me decide how I wanted my own keyboard to sound. So I looked up a few things and got one and now I’m writing a lot more than I have in some time. I call that a win-win-win! (Plus ASMR rocks and tapping stuff puts me to sleep.)

The funny thing is, even though I have been getting more motivation for writing the sequel to my first novel, when it comes to this blog, sometimes I just have no clue what to write about. The last couple of weeks, I have been trying hard to post more regularly (that is how you build a following right?) and I do enjoy it once I get started, but that is the issue isn’t it? Just getting started.

That of course is the biggest issue with anything in life. I had always wanted to write a book but it took me until I was almost 50 years old to buckle down and get it going. Sure I have a ton of ‘started’ books, but none more than a few chapters and they could easily morph into short stories. But to actually finish something that was hundreds of pages long? Well, that took a lot longer and what a sense of accomplishment it was when it was done!

A blog, well, that’s different. First off, no characters have to be created. A lot of people over the years have said that I am quite a character myself, but in most cases, I’d rather they talk about me than me talk about myself. Besides, this time of my life has been rather uninteresting, except for all the medical crap and frankly, sooo done with talking about all that with anyone who isn’t part of my 10 doc team. So that leaves just me.

A few years back, I had a life, I had fun, I had great stories of times with friends and past jobs. But at this point of my journey…eh, I’m just here. I spend all of my time in bed, literally. I can’t work for anyone else because day to day my situation changes so I can’t meet deadlines. So I pour myself into books, both writing and reading. They are my escape and one I’m happy to have. (Ok, so I also watch tons of documentaries on Cults but that’s for another post. lol)

“Blog block” is a term I have been using lately to describe how hard it can be sometimes to come up with a topic for this site. I know others have the same issue and all we hear about is, ‘putting out consistent content is what helps you grow as a creator’. Am I trying to be the next big influencer though? Why no, no I am not. I’d like a following of course and maybe make something from my posts to help with bills, but do I want to be someone who documents every facet of their everyday life for all to see? Hell no! I worked in social media and at one time, that was a goal. I wanted to be an influencer for content creators. I was building up a great network of similar folks out there and had a lot of freedom in doing so in my last job. It looked like it was going to be fun and this was pre-TikTok era (and pre illness as well). When I got sick and everything came to a halt, I watched as those I had been online friends take off with their brands. While a part of me was jealous as hell, I also saw the work they put into everything plus sharing maybe too much of their daily lives and there was no way I would’ve been able to keep up with that. Maybe the old me would have, but this post 2016 me? It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Not that I’m not ambitious. I have dreams. I have things I want to do. I’ve said in a previous post how I sell vintage and estate jewelry and have for 26 years. I’ve enjoyed it and have collected some wonderful stories from my buyers over the years…widows who found I had something similar to a piece their late husband had given them but they’d lost…a cancer patient who came out the other side of years of treatment and wanted to treat herself to something nice…a Hollywood costumer who needed a pair of 1920’s earrings for a period show she was working on…a comedian who was going on tour and needed some more sparkle for his wardrobe…seriously amazing people have crossed my path doing this eBay thing and I will be forever grateful for that. It’s all been nice and fun but I have months where nothing sells and I’m stuck having to borrow money and that feels horrible. I work very hard at what I do but this is a tough time for many and jewelry over eggs really isn’t a priority for most. (Although these days, jewelry may actually be cheaper!)

I also like to work on designs for my second business of stickers, bookmarks and stationery. I really want that biz to take off. I watch countless videos from others in similar businesses and have been learning so much from all of them. Most are by women half my age who are just killing it and all self taught! These are true workhorse hustlers who know how to get it done and I mean that in the best possible way. I make a point to watch several of these videos daily and take notes like I’m taking a master class in keychain and Cricut makers. I pay attention to what equipment they have, how they inventory their supplies, what they use for storage, any little thing that I think could help me down the line. Of course the main issue is having the money to invest in much of what I want to do, but that’s ok. I have been allowing myself the time to grow slowly so I don’t get overwhelmed. As much as I’d like to be successful at this particular type of creative business, I couldn’t handle some of the sales these other folks are doing. When I see videos of hundreds of shipping labels being printed out at once because a sale they were having on their site went better than planned, my first thought is always, “how the hell can one person handle shipping all of that out themselves?” I’m not afraid of success, I’m afraid of being able to keep up. So in the meantime, I learn new art techniques, I create new designs and I play with printer settings to get my stuff to look as good as it does on screen. It’s what I can handle right now and I tell myself, that’s ok. Because it is.

I also find that while I’m creating, say, a bookmark design or taking pics of a vintage brooch and trying to get the lighting just right, my mind frees up for my writing. I used to go for walks for that, but since walking and I are not on the best of terms right now, I need busy work to do the same thing. Writing a sequel/series is not something I ever thought I’d do but I am thoroughly enjoying it. It’s giving me some freedom to develop the characters a bit more and I find I really like the people I write about. When I have a little block though, I put it away for a little bit. Not too long or I lose momentum, but as an example: I recently got in some new vintage pieces. I am vigilant about learning all I can about something before I post them for sale. While doing the research, cleaning a piece, doing the pics for the listing, it keeps my mind occupied. Strangely, it is mostly when I’m cleaning them that I start to get some ideas going. Maybe it’s the water or the polishing, who knows. But I could be doing something as simple as that and suddenly my book pops into my head and it’s “omg she needs to be doing that next!” And then I have to write it down so I don’t forget it. However, even just that one thought can bring about the next chapter or two and many times the ideas flow so fast now that the block is gone that my fingers can’t keep up with my thoughts! I really wish I was one of those people whose mind gets freed up while cleaning. My house would shine from top to bottom!

Characters whether in a book or in real life all have a backstory that makes them who they are. I know for myself, as strange as my life has been, it is the culmination of what I’ve gone through that has made me, me. In a story however, we have to create the backstories and that can be tough. In my own writing, I can picture the backstory of a character in my head and know how they got to where they are at this point of their lives. It’s getting it across to the reader that is the challenge. Now, I love a good challenge. I just wish sometimes that I could record my thoughts as they are happening so I can just say to a future reader, ‘here, this is where I was headed with that because this happened to them a long time ago.’ Alas, that technology hasn’t happened yet. 🙂

So I write what I can. I ramble when I do. I learn something everyday to keep on top of things and hopefully use what I learn in the future. By the way, that goes for my writing as well. I am constantly reading about publishers, self publishing, agents, query letters, submission sites for short stories, hours every day trying to learn more and more about this writing thing so I can be, well, not an influencer, but rather a writer worth reading and reading about. Would I like to be part of the #booktok world down the line? It would be nice. In the meantime, I will keep developing my characters and living in my fictional worlds while selling my jewelry and bookmarks. Why? #becauselife

One more quick note…as you may have noticed, I try to never inundate you with affiliate links and the like in my posts themselves. If I do talk about an item, or something I’d like to suggest to you like a current read, etc, I will add the links to the end of my posts. I do keep some links permanently on the sidebar of the blog as well, the are to my own shops and things I’ve designed. Also this past week, I’ve added a mini-shop to my linktree and you can, if you want to, purchase things directly through them. I will also add that link to the bottom of my posts as well, but I will never overwhelm you with linked products in my posts like many others do. That’s just how I roll.

Thank you again for hanging with me for a bit this week and hope you have a fabulous weekend! Until next time…

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Current read: California Girls by Susan Mallery

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Linktree for this site: Linktr.ee/Promosocially

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My StuffWeFind for VIntage and Estate Jewerly: Linktr.ee/StuffWeFind

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My links for StuffWeMade stickers, bookmarks and fun stuff: Linktr.ee/StuffWeMade

New Keyboard, Sequels and Learning from Others

February 13, 2025February 12, 2025 / ccsocialcreative

Hey folks, how’s your week going? I have to say, mine is actually going ok! Spring training starts this week, we won the last quarter of the Super Bowl pool and I just got a brand new keyboard that has my fingers dancing over the keys.

I am new to the whole ‘hot swappable’ keyboard thing. Had never heard about it until recently, (I’m old, give me a break) but I actually heard about it first on ASMR videos! I love to watch/listen to people typing for relaxation and motivation for my writing and this one girl showcases a different keyboard in every video. She changes out her keys all the time and I was intrigued by this. To customize a main keyboard sounded intriguing and I was already looking for a new one as my other one was putting too much strain on my hands. So after a lot of searching, I found one that seemed cool and hey, it went on sale on Amazon for half off so, SOLD! I also picked out a cute set of keycaps on another site, but received the keyboard today and I can’t stop typing on it. What a different experience it is from my old one. Sometimes manufacturers don’t realize that some of us have smaller hands. So to find a keyboard that accommodates my hands is wonderful.

Ok, enough rambling about my new toy. (Although I’m really happy with it, can you tell?) I am happy to say that my writer’s block has cleared! In fact, I have been writing so much that I am now on my fourth chapter of the sequel to my first book. Yeah, yeah, I know I still need to edit the first one, but my heart is in the writing. The editing is like eating salads. You know you should do it, but you have to force yourself to sit and get it done. However, I got a spark of inspiration for the new story and wanted to get it down while I’m finally in writing mode.

I mentioned in the last post that I’ve been reading a series and I’d like to say, I’ve been learning a lot from it. I never thought I would read one let alone write one. But the further I go into the current series, the more I’m learning about how to shape the story around the first book. How to develop the characters more and to be sure to include details from the previous book for someone who may not have read the first one without boring the person who has already read it.

Case in point, I mentioned in the earlier post that I accidentally started with book three of the series. I had picked it up at a library book sale and only saw the author’s name. I like her work so I grabbed it. I was disappointed the story had ended because I really enjoyed it and then while looking for other books by her, only then did I realize I had read a book that was the third book in the series. So I’ve been getting the other books and enjoying them and while I’m invested in the story, I am learning a whole lot as well. There is a character in the book who is a writer. In the story he gives advice to another writer and I have been taking notes on it. There have been great tips throughout the books that I wasn’t expecting, considering it’s about a family on Nantucket! I stated in the last post to always look at acknowledgments at the end of a book for ideas on agents and editors. In this book, I’ve been learning more about the self-publishing process.

I have taken a seminar on it at our library as one of the local author series they have. We are lucky to have quite a few authors in our city and one gave a class of sorts on how to get your book published. I have gone back and forth on the whole “to self-publish or not to self-publish” debate and never know where I will end up. So to find some great information in a fictional series took me by surprise. Not to mention the fact that I suddenly realized, the book I am reading, as well as the two others so far, look to be self published!

I noticed that she did not put acknowledgements at the end of these, (not necessarily indicative of a self-published book) but this time instead of looking to the back for information, I went to the front. I noticed it says, “created with Vellum.” I didn’t know what that was, so I looked it up and found it to be software for Macs for authors. You can write, format and create your book and then publish to print and/or ebook format. It does cost money and it is right now only for Macs but I didn’t even know this software existed! So ok, more research. I’ve found good things said about this particular software, many authors swear by it and it looks to be a good investment. Alright so I’m now saving up for my own copy of Vellum, although you can use it for free until you are ready to publish.

Now a tidbit that came from the series that I thought could be good advice, is that many new authors self publish the first one and then after they see how their sales are doing, go the agent route. I have been seriously considering this. I think mostly because I am very proud of my first book and I really want it out there. It has been a bucket list item for me for so long and I’d like to be able to say that yes, I do have a published book out in the world! So that is another point in the Vellum column. It helps get your manuscript ready for publication.

Then of course is the ISBN issue. This I learned about in the class and honestly, I was so happy this came up. I had never even considered this issue at all! From what I understand (and I will certainly correct myself if I have this mixed up at all): If you self publish with say, Amazon KDP, they will assign an ISBN number for free for you; however, you cannot then sell your book anywhere else. Meaning, say you want to have your local bookstore carry your book but you did it by KDP with the free number, the bookstore can’t sell it. For example, I have designed several blank journals and have them published through KDP with the free numbers. I can’t have my local bookstore order and sell these in their shop. But if I have my own ISBN number, I can sell the books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and even my local small shop. What I am still very iffy on is getting it published at another publishing house and how to get it listed on Amazon and the rest. But as a research junkie, I will figure it out and hopefully share it here.

Please also note that I was told by a bookshop owner that you must check a box that indicates returns can be done. This way if a shop orders say two dozen copies but only sells 10, they can return the unsold books to the publisher. However, if the box isn’t checked, the shop is stuck with them until they sell. I’ll post a link to an ISBN provider below that has more information on this and much more.

It’s a crazy world this writing business! It is not, despite what younger YouTubers think, where you can just fire off some pages, upload it and get tens of thousands of dollars in the first month! And I cannot stress this enough, it is also NOT about doing it with ChatGBT. I am someone who absolutely hates the idea of real writers getting outshined by people using AI to generate books. It is an insult to the writing community that you can even do this. So no, I will never be one of those people who uses fake programs to come up with story ideas and then publish and start selling them in a week. My first book took YEARS to finish. Yes, some of that was because of health issues, some was because of writer’s block and some was just the struggle with the process. But those who claim “writing a book is as easy as putting in a few ideas and having a program do the rest then watching the money roll in?” Lazy and stupid in my opinion. There, I said it. Let true writers be writers. My first full draft took an incredible amount of work and when I printed it all out and I saw my ‘small forest’ of paper for the first time, I was in awe that I had done it. That I had put my heart and soul into all of those pages. I don’t think you get that same sense of pride from an AI generated manuscript. But hey, that’s just me.

And that’s a subject for another day.

Anyway, my point is this. You never know where you might find the info you need. For me, learning about a writing program I didn’t know existed came from the front page of a book that I’d normally ignore. It came from a character in a book spouting real information on how to get started with a first novel. It has come from the acknowledgments in the back of a book I really enjoyed. Taking that information and then doing the research has been eye opening and as I always vow to learn something new every single day, this whole process has been like one giant life lesson that I am forever grateful for.

And on that note, I shall end this week’s post. I’ll be sure to throw some links below on things mentioned in this post for you to check out if you’d like. I do hope you are getting something out of this and as I share my process and my own lessons. I am forever grateful for your hanging with me and reading this and hey, thanks for the likes last week! It has been a long time coming with that post and I was glad to see it got some reach. Hopefully the more consistent I get posting, the more we can grow together. I have been a writer for many years, but as a book author? There is so much to learn! So here I am sharing it with you both hoping you’ll get something out of it as well as a little online writing therapy for myself. 🙂

Until the next time, have an awesome Valentine’s Day and here’s to pitchers and catchers reporting this week!! Cheers all!!

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I am still participating in the American Cancer Society’s Read Every Day in February fundraiser. If you would like to donate (no amount too small and every dollar helps!): Please Click Here

My new keyboard: Womier WK60 60% Keyboard Wireless, Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Hot Swappable Gasket, RGB Keryboard for Bluetooth/2.4GHz/USB-C, MOA PBT Keycaps, Pre-lubed POM Switches (I got it in pink but there are other color choices as well and again, you can customize the keys to your liking.)

Vellum Software for creating and publishing books.

Information on ISBN numbers and other publishing information at Bowker A great thing about this site is that you can buy either one number or a package of numbers to save you money. So if you are writing a series, plan on writing more than one book, or want to get them now for the future, you can get a good rate. (I am not an affiliate of this site, just love a good deal.)

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Please note: I am an Amazon affiiliate and any purchase made through one of my Amazon links sends a small commission my way. Other links are not commission based (for now) but I will always let you know when a link is an affiliate link.