Sorry for being MIA…

Firstly, I apologize for my blogging hiatus these past few months. A lot has happened in my non-writing life that has adversely affected my writing life. I’ll write more about exactly how, in a future post…In short, I had lost my “day job” due to corporate cut-backs, and an impetuous decision to replace manpower with technology. It has deeply impacted me on many levels, including self-confidence.

But for now, I’m regaining my footing in life and trying to come up with a writing schedule and I’ll be revamping my blogging schedule as well.

Old dreams die…
New ones are born.
Changes are part of life.
So roll with it,
And keep moving on.

~ K. Crumley

Being True To Yourself

Be true to yourself as a writer. Be true to your muse, your voice, and your spirit.
Don’t try to fit into someone else’s “box” or waste your time trying to emulate others…or worse yet, imitate them.
Yes, they say “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” But, too much “flattery” and your writing won’t be your own. Your stories won’t be your own. Your voice will not be your own.

Tell the stories YOU want to tell, not what you see as being a big seller, or popular trend. Trends come and go…
And, who knows what comes next after this vampire trend ends. It just MIGHT be your story. And, even if it isn’t there’s always someone out there–or maybe several people out there–who aren’t chasing fads, but want something new, fresh, original, and above all else a GOOD STORY.
Focus on the art and craft of writing, get in touch with your Muse…
Don’t sell out your art, in pursuit of a “get rich quick” scheme.

Don’t focus on unreachable goals like becoming an overnight millionaire, or being dubbed “the next so-and-so.”
Set attainable goals, and reach them one at a time. Remember “you have to walk before you can run, and run before you can fly.”
You may not have “overnight success” but you will have some success, whether it being able to live fully off of your writing OR just some small personal goal that you’ve reached.

Take this all for what it’s worth.

Write with pride. Pride in yourself!

~K. Crumley

Jealous of Other Writers?

The question pops in my mind quite often, rather out of random though or from someone bringing up the subject in an online forum.

Am I jealous of other writers?
Am I jealous of the Amanda Hockings, JA Konraths, and HP Mallorys of this world? Am I jealous of the many indie authors around me, who press on and do well…and release book after book?

Hell yeah, I’m jealous. I’m jealous of MOST other writers in fact. But not for the reasons that you would assume.
I’m not jealous of their sales figures, per say.
I don’t envy the money they’ve earned in revenue.
I don’t envy fame, or being “well known” in certain literary circles.

I covet only one thing…TIME!

I freely, and without any shame admit that I am envious that other writers have more time to write than I do.

Recently I had to take a little vacation from writing, and even from this blog…TO MOVE. Yes, I am renting a nice little apartment (which I love) but all of the packing, moving, cleaning the new place, etc…has taken a significant amount of my (already limited) free time.
Then there is my job, where I work 40 plus hours a week.

I can hear the lectures now…
How I should make time to write. yeah, yeah. I’m getting to that in a bit.

Things will settle down. I’ll get all the rest of my stuff moved in, and have everything “finalized” and be all settled in.

I have a shorter commute to work (THANK HEAVEN) which allows for more writing time. I have no distractions from my parents, and this place is “no pets allowed” so I have no distractions that way (as pleasant as they may be at times). No duties to feed the dogs, take them out, etc. Oh yes, and no barking.

I intend to come up with a writing schedule, and stick to it. Probably in the morning, before work. After work I’m usually way too tired.

And, of course when inspiration strikes, I must write! Even if I just jot what’s in my mind on scratch paper, and type it into a word doc later…

I am sure that this envy will pass as I devote more time to writing and am no longer running around like a chicken with my head cut off. hahaha!

I look forward to getting all settled in at my new place, and just having more time to myself…and more time to write.

~K. Crumley

Tuning out the Noise

I wanted to actually write fiction today…something I’ve been trying to do all week. But the static from certain message boards, web sites, etc…keeps pulling me back in. I get roped into the same discussions/arguments/debates even though I vowed to stay away from them. I keep checking stats, page updates, etc…tweaking my own website.
I’ve been counting it as “writing time” if I did something like post on facebook.

As of recent months, I rarely have practiced what I have preached. Nor have I stuck to my resolutions and goals for this year. The best I can do is wipe the proverbial slate clean, start fresh and new today.

The only way I’m going to do this is to tune out the noise—especially when the noise (particularly from a certain message board) fills me with a lot of negative emotions, including self-doubt. If I don’t tune them out, I dwell on the same damn arguments and don’t get any real writing done. If I spend every free hour questioning myself as an indie author, and engaging in over-done debates then in some sick, passive way I’m letting the haters win. And, we can’t have that. Can we? I need to remember my favorite quote “The haters are help, and I don’t argue with the help”.

I need to discipline myself all over again, and spend what spare hours I have free actually writing. By that I mean writing books, short stories, blog posts, poems, etc…
Not “time waster” activities, like defensively responding to “OMG ALL U INDIE WRITERZ SUX” posts, or engaging in fruitless debates with intellectual blowhards. We’re all self-proclaimed experts, aren’t we? Too many chiefs…?

I need to pull myself out of the BS, and back into “my writing place.” I’m just going to ignore that which makes me counter-productive, which saps my confidence, and takes up too damn much time and energy.

Onto finish Charmed Lives…

Have a great day! Write and Publish with Pride!
KC

Phases that I’m glad I’m Over. (Part 1)

Here is a list of some phases that I’ve thankfully overcome in my years spent writing. Most of these may not seem writing/publishing related but they were…in that spending my time on them wasted time when I could have been writing.

So here they are, in no particular order…

Anime. Yes, Japanese Animation. No offense anime fans, but I confess that I did waste a lot of my time watching a good bit of it when I should have been writing.

The Highlander Crush. Well Dangerous Realm would probably have actually attracted more readers now than it had back when it was serialized in an ezine, due to the popularity of PNR. But, trying to duplicate Adrian Paul’s McLeod for the series was…well an excercise in “glorified fanfic.”

The cutesy fairy tale stage. The Elf Princess sucked so bad that looking back, even I hate it now when I re-read it. A rare phoenix has arose from the ash in The Golden Rose but the rest of it…BLAH! I can’t believe I came up with some of that Mary-sueified, sacharine crap. I guess I have really grown up as a writer.

“but I’m a poet!” Stage. Don’t ask.

Hobbyist stage. This is where I pursued another career (real estate) and just wrote as a hobby. It also led me to the decision “well, geez. If I wanted to wait six months to a year before earning any profit income, I’d stick to my writing!” I just didn’t have the passion for real estate that a lot of realtors have.

The “too many cooks” stage. At one time, I was a firm believer in critters.org, OWW writing workshop, et al…
Not that sites like that, and critique groups are not useful. They are. But, you need to be savvy and cautious when participating; particularly when you try to apply your feedback to your current writing project. You can’t please everybody. You will receive critiques that completely contradict each other. Stay true to yourself. Your muse. Your style and voice. Do not let “too many cooks” ruin your broth….I mean book Trust me, I went through this…and wound up ruining stories because I was trying to implicate every (sensible) change suggested. It was maddening.
From this though, I found a good critique partner who knows me and my voice, and won’t make overly-subjective commentary like “you should remove the dragon character because I don’t like dragons” or “you should make your main character die and have her tell the story from heaven.” *rolls eyes.*

Indie Warrior Phase–Well, I confess that is still an ongoing thing However, I am trying very hard not to waste my time defending my right to self-publish when I should be actually writing. However, on occasion when I feel I really must speak out against some outlandish/outdated/bigoted statement I will. I will however restrain myself to one wise comment, and then drop it. I won’t get into a long winded, multi-post debate like I did recently with a certain TV writer/midlister. It’s not that I don’t respect his opinions, I just disagree. And, worse of all it’s his lack of tact. But I decided not to let Mr. Passive Aggressive get under my skin. Deep inside, I don’t think he means any ill will…he just doesn’t know how to express himself tactfully. And, that’s such a shame for someone who considers himself a writer. hm.

As for the others though…
“The haters are the help…and I don’t argue with help.” ~N. Cannon