Reach Your Writing Goals!

(Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

A few months ago I added a page to my website introducing a new coaching service I was offering for writers. I didn’t really push the service, didn’t do much in the way of announcing anything. I just kind of put it out there and let it be.

To be honest, I wasn’t ready to start accepting clients on a regular basis.

But now I’m ready.

If you’re a writer, especially a fiction writer, or if you aspire to be a writer and are looking for some personal coaching/tutoring to hone your craft . . . I can help.

If you have questions about writing or publishing that you need answers for . . . I can help.

If you’d like someone who is experienced and impartial to look at your material and give an honest opinion . . . I can help.

If you’re trying to determine whether to go the traditional route or self-published route but can’t decide which is best for you . . . I can help (I’ve done both).

If you’re discouraged and in need of some encouragement and help in determining what your next move should be . . . I can definitely help!

Please, if any of the above scenarios describes you, check out my coaching page, review the pricing, and contact me. I’m flexible. If what’s offered on that page doesn’t fit your needs or budget, contact me anyway and we can work something out. I want to see writers succeed.

I hope to hear from you soon!

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Rename My Blog . . . Um, or Maybe Not

So I had this contest to rename my blog. And well, I hate to say this and feel really bad about it but . . . there isn’t a winner.

 (Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold)

This makes me feel like such a blockhead because when I hold a contest I like there to be a winner. That’s kind of the point of a contest.

I guess I was looking for an entry that would give me that instant “That’s it!” moment and I just didn’t find it. And I can’t just put something up there that I’m not thrilled about.

THANK YOU to all who entered and gave suggestions. Really, it’s me, not you. I’m the blockhead. There were some great titles offered, some very creative, some just plain funny . . . I just didn’t find the right one.

Please feel free to continue to submit suggestions if you like and if I use yours you’ll still get the free books. This might help . . . I’m taking my fiction in a new direction, more focus on psychological thrillers so if we can incorporate something about the mind and life and fiction . . . I don’t know. I’ll keep thinking on it too.

Man, I hate it when a contest fails. Sorry.

Living in an Easy Button World

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m under the impression that many in our society seem to think there’s an easy button for everything . . . or at least thinks there should be an easy button for everything.

Somewhere along the way, since that Greatest Generation got us through the second world war, we lost our way, our work ethic, our motivation. We tossed good old fashion hard work out the window and replaced it with “the quick and easy.”

We want results now and we want them in the easiest way possible. Path of least resistance  with minimum sweating, please.

Out of curiosity I did a quick search on Amazon and here are some book titles I came up with:

The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps

How to Paint Watercolor Flowers: Create Your Own Masterpiece in 6 Easy Steps

7 Easy Steps to Write Your Book

Become You Own Matchmaker: 8 Easy Steps for Attracting Your Perfect Mate

Billionaires and Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps

How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps

Get the picture? It’s all about the easy steps. Steps I can understand. I have no problem with following a plan, a map, a scheduled course, but easy? Let me tell you, there’s nothing easy about writing a book (and I’m sure stealing an election isn’t all that easy either, but that’s a debate for another day).

So while we’re on the topic of writing books, I found a review of my little nonfiction book, Writing Time!, on Goodreads and was interested in one paragraph of it in particular. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s not a bad little guide, worth it if it comes up free. But Dellosso certainly doesn’t offer any shortcuts (and in fairness, I don’t know of any easy ways to write a book). Instead, I took the book to say “Writing is hard work, but figure out a reason to write and make yourself make the time to do it.” It’s not bad advice, but it may disappoint people wanting easy answers of how to make time to write.

Okay, kudos to the reviewer for being honest (apparently, she doesn’t think the book is worth the $0.99 price tag, but free is a good deal). I always appreciate that. I get the feeling she doesn’t subscribe to the “5 easy steps” method of life but rather realizes that some things are just not going to be easy. She realizes, however, that there are a lot of folks out there trolling Amazon, looking for self-help books on how to find the easy button for life. And my book will disappoint them because–surprise, surprise–there are no easy steps offered.

This irks me a bit. In fact, two things she mentions irks me.

First, Writing Time! is about time management for writers, making time in your busy, hectic schedule to sit your butt in a chair and do the difficult thing: write. There are no shortcuts here. It’s a matter of motivation and determination and being intentional about getting something done. You know, the way people used to get things done before computers and iPhones and automated everything.

Second, the only easy answer I can give to making time to write is to make the time. Just do it. Stop talking about doing it, stop dreaming about doing it, stop making excuses for not doing it . . . and just do it. Sorry, no easy button there. Believe me, I’ve looked for one.

I apologize for the rant, really I do, and I fully realize not everyone is in search of the holy easy button. There are lots of folks who don’t mind hard work and wake up everyday with ambition in their belly and a fire in the chest. They couldn’t give a rat’s left ear about an easy button and probably wouldn’t use one if it existed anyway. I applaud them and wish there were more of them.

But I’m noticing more and more that this “easy button” mentality is permeating our society and taking over. People looking for shortcuts, looking for as little resistance as possible, looking for 5 easy steps.

It’s not always a bad thing, it isn’t. I’m all for saving some time and energy when I can but please oh please realize that there are some things in life for which there is no easy button.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Or are we headed down a dangerous road here?

Issues Writers Deal With, a Series

(Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

Over the next several weeks I’m going to periodically discuss different issues I deal with as a writer. Issues like:

• The pressure of sales numbers
• Dealing with negative reviews
• Writing about the supernatural
• Time management/fitting writing into a busy schedule
• The issue of faith and fiction
• Violence in fiction
• Creating villains without becoming one
• Romance and the element of love
• Balancing fiction and real life
• The ethics of using real people to create characters

If you’re a writer or want to become a writer or do any kind of writing I’m sure you’ll find these upcoming posts interesting.

If you’re not a writer, never were, and don’t want to be I really do think you’ll still enjoy these posts. It’ll give you an inside view into some of what writers deal with, what goes through our mind, and some of the decisions we make while writing. It’s actually pretty interesting.

Check in on these posts too as I’ll also feature some killer deals on books and occasional giveaways too.

Here’s a couple now:

Get my novel FRANTIC for only $1.99!

Enter the Goodreads giveaway for a chance to win FEARLESS.

And if you haven’t done so yet, check out my newest thriller, FEARLESS. Here’s my challenge: Go to the Amazon page and click on the “Look Inside” feature. Read the first several pages. I bet you’ll be hooked. If you’re not, I want to hear about it.

Making My Way Back

Twilight in the Wilderness, (1860), (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been gone for a while. Admittedly, I’ve been lost, wandering in the wilderness of indecision.

This was due to a number of factors converging and culminating in a perfect storm of  fatigue, burnout, and apathy. I’d had enough and needed a break from writing, and I had no idea how long that break would last. To be honest, even just a few weeks ago I was perfectly okay with the idea of never writing and publishing another book in my life.

And then I went to the Writer’s Advance Boot Camp and something changed. I was refreshed, refocused, revived. I was reminded why I write and over night my vision became clear. (I highly recommend this conference for 2014).

I write because I’ve been called to. I truly believe that. And I can’t abandon my calling.

And now I’m making my way back. I’m not ready to dive in yet but that day is on the horizon and near. I have some story ideas; my passion is returning. Slowly, I’m rebuilding and gaining momentum. But this time around I want to do it better. I want to have a plan, a true vision, and want to be focused on what’s important, on things that really matter, on things that will last for eternity.

This is why I do what I do, and this is why I must come back from this trek into the wilderness. I need to because it’s part of who I am, part of who I’m meant to be.

More on this return and rebuilding will come in the near future. I have some exciting things planned, and I hope you’ll join me.

After all, we have work to do, eternal work.

New Blog to Check Out

The authors of Charisma House’s imprint Realms have put our heads together and collaborated to start a new blog, Just the Write Charisma. We’ll be posting three times a week about the writing craft and life. We’ll also be holding contests and giveaways from time to time.

The inaugural post by Andrea Boeshaar happens today so be sure to check it out and stop by often. With nine of us involved in this, it should be interesting.