Where The Hell Have I Been?OK, so you may have noticed this blog being pretty dark for the past er... six months! Well, its not because I have been sat with my feet up watching movies and playing games (well, not all the time). I have been tirelessly slaving away at the keyboard to bring you my next piece of work. So here goes... I am pleased to announce my new book is available for pre-order on Amazon! Whoop! Whoop! Fanfare etc The ParticularsYou can find the blurb and first chapter of the book here (as Amazon doesn't preview until the book is actually for sale, rather than just on pre-order) If you like books about broken heroes, cutting edge technology, shady government agencies and a good old mystery then this is your next great read! The official release date is 17th November so shout it from the rooftops, tell your friends and tell your friends to tell their friends! The Givaway Bit!As a special pre-order bonus, I’ve got 25 copies of my first book, Overlord of Time, to give away! To enter simply email me a copy of your pre-order receipt to [email protected] and retweet the pinned tweet on @BoldyCraig (Winners selected at random from email) Giveaway will end 23:59 (UK time) 16th November Winners will be contacted by the end of November. By entering, you are opting in to becoming part of my mailing list! Mwhu ha ha ha! But This is Only Part One?!That's right The Infiltrator: Part Two will be available in 2019 and will be the culmination of this thrilling story, so stay with me for teasers etc in the coming months
Don't forget to pre-order, enter the competition and then tell everyone you know to enter the competition too
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Welcome back, dear Blog Reader. First, I have to apologise. I seem to have recently fallen into the dreaded black hole of putting-off-stuff and hadn’t realised it'd been six weeks since my last post, which is ironic considering this post all about overcoming procrastination. If time were a species, then it would be at war with the Nation of Procrasi. One of my most significant faults is I am a master procrastinator, generally leaving things until the last minute if not ten minutes after the last minute. It's something I'm working on, but it severely affects my creativity and desire to write sometimes. However, please don’t mistake this for writer's block. I have plenty of things to write about; it's just getting the time to sit and press these plastic buttons, which seems to elude me. Oh well, let's have a look at some of the reasons and, hopefully, some solutions to the time old problem. In my opinion, there are various reasons why you might feel the need to procrastinate, and I will try to suggest solutions which have worked for me. Fear or Dislike of the Task or Outcome So, Mark Twain famously said “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” For those of us who don’t know what this means, imagine you are a visitor to a new world and you are presented with a table of food. It is covered with all of your favourite foods and a live frog. You have to eat everything on the table, including the frog. Most of us will put off eating the frog until the last, from fear of the taste, which will inevitably cast a shadow over all of the other great things on the table. The best thing to do is to eat the frog fist, thereby getting the worst task out of the way as soon as possible and, once done, you are free to enjoy the rest of the table without having to worry about the frog anymore. It’s a very simplistic description of the problem but I like it, and best of all, I use it. Stay with me here because I'm going to maths it out here. I'm going to use Stress Points here. Say the task you don’t like is worth 100 stress points and each hour you put it off adds another 5 stress points to it. Start the task right away = 100 SP Procrastinate for 24 hours and then do the task anyway = 220 SP (100 + 24*5) Which is better for your overall stress levels? Something More Interesting To DoThis one is a little difficult as there are only two ways to overcome this. Either absorb as much entertainment as you can until you find everything a mere shadow or retelling of something you have seen before, rendering all further interesting things completely uninteresting, or have a little willpower. Our household used to be a subscriber to Sky TV. Over the last year or so we have been watching less and less TV so decided to cancel the subscription and see how we go with only Freeview and Netflix. As it happens, the only difference between having a thousand channels to choose from and only a hundred is now it takes us much less time to realise there is nothing on TV and move over to Netflix. That being said, if you truly love writing, feel the need to express your opinion to the world or simply just enjoy typing, then you will, at some point, realise you would rather be doing nothing else. Some people understand this more quickly than others do, but I believe we all get there in the end. Lack of ResultsEverybody loves results. If you think about page views or book sales, then anyone with an ounce of sense will prefer the graph getting higher and higher every day. A lack of any result for your work is an incredibly de-motivating proposition. Even though I’m not new to this, I still get excited and motivated when my dashboard says someone has deemed my book worthy of the price and made a purchase, and equally as de-motivated and demoralised when there are gaps in the sales. Let’s face it, out of a 100% chance, the chances of me becoming a famous author like one of my favourites is about 1%, and that’s probably ridiculously generous. The chances of me making enough from writing to make this my full-time job is about 9% and the remaining 90% is the chance it stays as a pleasant little hobby. To keep motivated I look to the future. Even if I get nowhere, I’ve achieved something which few people manage. Writing one book is an achievement in itself, let alone the six or so I have planned or the ones which come to me during the time of writing those six. Not Being Good Enough Ok, so here is a hard truth, and I may have already said this in a previous post – Nobody was ever good at something until they first learn how to do it and then practice. I remember reading somewhere it takes an average of ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert at something. So, chances are, you are not as good as you think you are, but you will get better if you stick with it and don’t be demoralised. I’m rolling the enemy state of mind known as “Imposter Syndrome” into this section too. If we think about it honestly, I believe most writers will swing from thinking they are the best writer ever to thinking they are the worst writer ever. I’ve covered “best” in the last couple of paragraphs, but Imposter Syndrome is something all on its own. It is the feeling of not deserving something or being good enough at something you have achieved and is a confidence and creativity assassin. Stand up to Imposter Syndrome. If you have other people telling you how much you deserve something or how good you are, then listen to them. It’s very rare for someone to be able to assess their own work and achievements objectively, you can only really know from an average sample of the outside world. And Finally Thank you for waiting while I managed to crawl out of my communications black hole. More posts to come!
See you next time, loyal Blog Reader. Greetings Blog Reader. In this post, I will be talking about the mental impact of writing a novel. Let’s be frank. Writing is both very easy and very hard, depending on the day. Some days the words flow out of you and onto the page like a river forms a waterfall. Other days it will be so difficult to put a single word on the page it is as if the words had dried up completely. I have come across a few different techniques I can share with you which you can use to make it easier to cope with the writing process if not actually help with the writing itself. Word Count Goals I find word count goals are useful only when the words are flowing, and just because an achieved goal is a big boost to your confidence. A confident writer finds it easier to put words on a page, is more relaxed and can focus better on plot and vocabulary. On the other hand, and in my personal experience, word count goals only serve to create anxiety. If you are lucky enough to be able to write all day and have no other responsibilities, you will find it much easier to get down those precious words. If you have a life which continually gets in the way of your creativity, then a goal is tough to maintain. If you spend a great deal of time thinking any of the below list, then a word count goal is not helping you:- I must get 1000 words today, if not I will fail. I’ve only managed 876 today, so I have failed I haven’t been able to write today, so I missed my goal, and I have failed Just writing the above list makes me anxious - Imagine living through them. I find anxiety makes it harder to write, not easier. Now, how about setting a goal to write every day, no numbers just write. Give yourself a day off occasionally. Trust me – it will do wonders for your writing process. I read something on twitter recently that stays with me:- Imagine a well. The water in the bottom is your ability or desire to write, and the bucket is you transferring it to the page. The more time you spend pulling buckets out of the well will eventually drain it. A day off allows your well to refill. So which is better for your confidence, and your writing? Setting a goal to write six days a week and putting maybe 100-500 words down for four of them and then possibly even smashing out 2-3000 on the fifth or setting a 4000 word a week goal and being so anxious about meeting this goal it stifles your creativity, and you only manage 3500 words? Which one allows you to enjoy your writing and which makes it a chore Deadlines Do you have a publisher? A literary agent? Are they imposing a deadline on you? OK - Get those words on the page and meet your deadline! Are you indie? Are you self-publishing? Why are setting yourself a hard deadline? I understand the desire to finish a book, but put it this way – when you walk into your local bookstore and peruse the shelves, eventually finding something you want to take to the tills, do you then immediately set yourself the goal to read it all by the end of the day? (I’m talking about a hard goal here not a desire to read it) Or do you take your time, enjoy it and read the book in as much time as it takes you? Would you write your next book and put a message on the first few pages to tell the reader they must read the book in 24 hours? Take your time with your writing and have an idea of when it might be finished but don’t hold yourself to it. Again, a missed deadline is as good at anxiety building as a missed word count goal. Community There is a massive writing community out there, and you need to become part of it. Writing and reading might be solitary tasks, but this doesn’t mean you have to be alone while you are doing it. Even if you only look at social media, so many people out there are going through the same as you and are at varying stages in the writing process that even just reading about their day to day struggles can boost your confidence. Also, sometimes it’s nice to help someone who is a little further behind in the process than you, or even to be supported by someone a bit further along, even if this help only involves reading a tweet about writing. Why not find a local writing group or book club if you are more of a social person. Other Sources The stories that live inside us have to come from somewhere. I believe it’s a mixture of everything we have been exposed to in our lives, whether that be the people around us throughout our lives or the stories we see in TV, in film and in the books we read. The more exposure you have to these other stories the more material your mind has to mix and shape into the stories you want to write. Don’t underestimate the benefit which comes with taking some time to refresh this mix. Inspiration can take you at any point. There are lots of authors out there whose inspiration came from TV, film, music, books or even the news. There is also a benefit to watching something you wouldn’t usually give the time of day. Even if you don’t overly enjoy it, you have exposed yourself to a different type of story. In Conclusion Writing is supposed to be fun, and it is supposed to be what we live for. Imposing arbitrary goals and deadlines can make the whole process a chore, and it can soon become something resented rather than enjoyed.
Anxiety is the enemy of good writing, and the world is already full of things that cause it. Do something which helps; have a bath, talk to a friend, watch funny cat videos on YouTube or even scroll through the @DogRates twitter account. And remember - don’t be the architect of your own anxiety. Hello again, dear blog reader. In this post, I will tackle the arduous task of outlining a novel, and then blow that out of the water with a radically different theory. First, I don’t want to put you off, but every story has been told before in one way or another. Details change here and there, and characters names vary, but overall it has been done before. With that in mind, here are a few questions you should be asking yourself to be able to outline a book, generally before you even put the first words down. Question 1 – Are you creating your own world or using ours?There is a reason why fantasy novels are generally about 120,000 words whereas real-world mystery or crime novels are closer to 70,000. Creating your own world is hard work, but not as hard as it is explaining that world to someone who has never seen it. A borough of London or New York is more natural to describe because you can actually go there, make notes and take pictures. Generally, the people you explain it to will have done some of the list themselves. Taking the time to describe a new world takes up reader time. It's a knife-edge balance between over explaining the magical type of plant which can cure this particular curse (thus grinding the story to a halt) and grabbing a curing plant (thus robbing the reader of the what and why behind the cure) Even the late great Terry Pratchett, who I rank among my favourite authors of all time, created his own world and then used variations of real-world situations to excellent effect, sometimes even taking other stories and twisting them to fit his world. Masquerade, for instance, is a superb Discworldification (yes I made that up, but it works well) of Phantom of the Opera. Question 2 - What do you want your character to overcome?Every story has something for the main character to overcome. Harry had an evil wizard and growing up at school. Romeo had the family feud. Katniss had a corrupt government and leader. It doesn’t have to be world shattering. You can tell a good story in making a cup of tea if it isn’t something your main character (MC) can do easily. Perhaps water is tightly rationed or expensive, and MC goes through hardship to provide a tea so their grandfather can toast their departed grandmother. Perhaps an accident has paralysed MC and being able to make a cup of tea on their own is the first step to coping. My point is, nothing comes easy to anyone so why should it to your MC? Put obstacles in their way, especially if they don’t see them coming, and make them overcome it. Better yet, make them struggle to overcome it. Will a choice take something from them? Are you going to have a “Needs of the many” moment? A book where your MC easily overcomes the issues is not exciting, not gripping and most importantly, not very good. BUT, and I say this with all the importance I can, don’t go too far the other way. You don’t want them climbing Everest with a spork. It still has to be believable. Question 3 - Who will help or hinder them along the way?The one-man army doesn’t work anymore. Even Bond has Q and the gadgets. Frodo had Sam and Gollum. Luke had Yoda and Han. Will there be a circle of friends or an organisation to call on for help? Will some of those friends turn out to be working for the other side? Will those frenemies have a last minute change of heart and turn to the good? Will the friend have a last minute change of heart and turn to the bad? Secondary and tertiary characters aren’t just there to provide options for dialogue, character levels can be fluid, and sometimes a secondary character can become the MC for a while. Is Gru the MC or are the minions? They can provide twists and turns to the plot and can check the behaviour of the MC. You can write the MC off a cliff if there is a secondary character to pull them back. Sometimes that’s the entire plot. Question 4 - Does the book warrant a happy ending or a realistic ending.Let’s face it, MC’s get shot, stabbed, electrocuted, blown up and burned. While it generally makes good reading, you have to decide whether you want your MC to walk away at the end, having just escaped a building exploding, being shot multiple times and after an extended fist fight, or something more akin to the end of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Will the love interest walk away with the MC? Will the MC mourn the love interest, or will the love interest walk away mourning the MC, or will nobody walk away? The Radical TheoryLots of writers and authors plan their books methodically down to the last detail. It helps to have a clear path from page one to “The End”.
However, I count myself among those who write with only a vague idea of the story we want to tell. We write the first short draft like the skeleton of the book, then go back through and add the organs in the second write, the muscles in the third, the skin in the next and the clothes in the last. Once that is all done, only then is the story complete and the editing can begin. It’s reminiscent of being back in the playground making up worlds and games with your friends; you didn’t need an eighteen point plan to turn your stick into a light sabre or your bed into the bridge of a starship. Not everyone can do it. Not everyone should do it. But if you can, why not see where it takes you. You can always change it when you finish. Hello again, blog reader. Welcome back! For most people, there is a simple answer to the question in the title of this blog post - write! A lot of people say the mere fact you are putting pen to paper or pressing letters on a keyboard makes you an author. I don't think that is quite right. Now, before I go any further, I have to quantify this by saying it is only my own opinion and is limited to books. I'm not trying to say this is how it should be, merely that it is a standard to which I hold myself. I'm sure many people will see this differently, but here goes. I've always had the idea of an Author in my mind. People like JRR Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, JK Rowling, Sophie Kinsella and Milly Johnson, to name a few, but I think there are specific criteria for being described as an Author. Firstly, yes you should be writing. Nobody ever became an author without first writing things down. Spinning those idle flights of fancy and sudden inspirations into words on a page takes effort and skill, and simply put - the whole point of the endeavour. Cat owners rejoice! My acronym for this is PURR - Practice - The more writing you do, the better at it you will become Understand - the more you research your story components, the better you will become Repeat - the more often you write, the better you will become Replicate- the more you read, the better you will become Secondly, you should have at least one of your pieces of work out in the world for the consumption of the public (preferably for sale, but not always). Being a serial loner and generally antisocial, this is the bit I struggle with most of all - getting work out into the world. Will they like it? Is it good enough? Will it sell? All doubts and self-deceptions which you shouldn't listen to or at least must try to suppress as best you can. Finally, and this is the crucial bit for my theory, you should have a modicum of success. Lots of people should have read your work, purchased it, talked about it, enjoyed it, etc. I'm not talking number 1 bestseller for weeks and weeks. If you can make a living from doing it, or have done in the past, then I think you are about there.
It's this final step which really makes the difference for me. A lot of people believe being self-published on Amazon because they have managed to string three or four pages of text together, makes them an author. I have no problem with people doing this. Everybody should be proud to show the effort they have put into a piece of work and have the ability to put that work out into the wider world. I just don't think they are authors. So far I still would only call myself a writer. I have the two blogs, a self-published novel on Amazon, a half-written second book under construction and a folder with several others to start once this one is complete (in varying stages from thoroughly planned to a fundamental rough idea) I call myself a writer happily. It gives me a lot of pleasure to put my thoughts down in text and even more to think someone else may be gleaning a little enjoyment out of it too, and I would like nothing more than to spend all day writing. But one day, I would like to be an Author. So you want to be an author? Then an author blog is a must, they said.
I've got to admit; I did have a website set up from way-back-when which, if you've visited the site before, you will note was pretty damn terrible. Now it's all nice and shiny-new! With real pages for my book Overlord of Time (shameless plug!) and upcoming work The Infiltrator (another shameless plug!) and a direct link to my themed blog Codename: Marshal (best to start with Log 1 on that one and work your way through) OK, so on with the blogging. I've had an eBook on Amazon for a couple of years now (Overlord of Time) and, after some serious Olympic level procrastination, have just about gotten around to realising that writing is my dream job and not so out of reach. So after a severe re-edit, a new cover and a refinement of those pesky keywords, the eBook is updated, the paperback is out for sale, and I'm back writing again. I'm about a third of the way through the next one, of which the first draft Chapter One is available on the Infiltrator page, hoping to have it out as soon as it's ready. I've set myself a goal of the end of April, so we will see how we go with that, its about six thousand words a week and a month to edit and proofread, so as long as life doesn't get in the way too much, it should be achievable. Gotta love those SMART targets! To that end, this blog and Twitter. I joined Twitter at the end of October after having a deep dislike of social media in the past. I can see now why people get addicted to it (he types while updating the feed) I'm managing to garner a few followers and have found a wealth of insight and knowledge from the general writing community out there, from people on every spoke of the success wheel. Anyway, I digress. Please treat this first post as your welcome mat to my personality. I'm planning on including insights into my writing process, updates towards my April Goal as well as reviews of books I'm reading, movies I've seen and TV programs. Might even throw in a few of my own money saving tips, Martin Lewis or Mr Money Moustache style. Feel free to read the blog, peruse the book pages, maybe even purchase a book. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I know you're probably thinking "Hmm, new author. Few, if any reviews. Shameless plugging of books. I'll give it a miss" but stick around. You might like what you read. If you do, maybe thank me by buying a book, leaving a review, posting a comment, following me on Twitter or maybe even just doing a double thumbs up to the screen (although you might have to tell me you did that last one) or even all of the above. So, onward and upwards. See you in the next post |
Craig BoldyBorn in South Yorkshire, he lives there with his wife and Labrador. Working a normal 9-5 while filling his nights with writing. Categories
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