Tag: joanna penn

General Updates, Writing Updates

Changes Abound

Janis I. Soucie

Recently I have picked up a book by Joanna Penn called How to Make a Living with Your Writing. I enjoyed the book and got so many pointers and ideas. Now I am working on revamping my writing a bit, especially how I publish and I plan on using IngramSpark. I bought four journals to use as writing journals for articles, short stories or novellas, and novels. Who knows, maybe I’ll get some poetry out of it too. Or song lyrics. I just feel like the opportunities are endless, so long as I keep an open mind.

But then I have to think about whether I want to be an author entrepreneur like Joanna and really pursue getting my books out there and making a lot of money. Or do I just really care about getting my books out there just to share them with others. Do I care about the money or don’t care that much. Her book has really made me ask myself some questions as far as what I really care about being an author. I think if I just wanted to share my stories I could do something like Wattpad.com or writing.com or maybe there are other sites I just don’t know about.

But if I cared about making money, or extra income to save up, then I would go the IngramSpark route to start and then see where I would have to go after that. Something I also use for editing is ProWritingAid.com. I find it catches more mistakes than Grammarly, which I had been using.

I have to think about my health and how this plays in with my writing. I have chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia and Bipolar II. But what really eats into my writing is the fatigue.

I have a lot to consider. The first thing I’ll do is pray about it and then just start plugging away.

If you have questions, leave them in the comments or email me at jisoucie@hotmail.com.

Have a splendid day and happy writing!

Book Reviews

Author Entrepreneur Part II

Janis I. Soucie

In my last post you saw how I talked about Joanna Penn’s book Business for Authors and it teaches authors how to be an author entrepreneur. I didn’t read the whole book but I got have half way through it and decided I didn’t want to do all the work it would take to run my writing career like a business. I really just want to write books and stories and share the with people.

She did get me thinking about how I wanted to do this. Did I still want to publish books and try to sell them through self promotion, or did I want to do a site like Booksie.com or inkitt.com where you can share your work with readers and its all free and you don’t get paid. I didn’t know if I wanted to do that. I just hated the idea of promoting my work. I just want to write and share my work.

But at the same time I don’t want to do it for free. Not after all the hard work I put into making a book. But then on the business side. I just think it’s way too much for me. More likely I was probably overwhelmed with the book. I think for my books to even reach readers I would have to do self promotion anyway so that’s probably what I’ll start doing.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Take care.

Writing Tips

Fear and Writing

Janis I. Soucie

You at your computer, or maybe sitting at a table with a pen in hand and a notebook in front of you. You’re writing along and having a great time. Days pass and the weeks and months go by until you have a finished manuscript. You feel great that you have finished a novel and you feel it’s time to celebrate. You pop the cork on the bottle of champagne, take a swig and then your enthusiasm dissipates when you realize you now need edit and rewrite your book to help it reach it’s best for publication.

You freeze… “I can’t do this,” you think. “What if I can’t make it good enough? What if people don’t like my writing? What if I make a mistake in the historical fiction I’m writing and someone discovers it? Oh, I don’t think I can publish it.”

You put the champagne away and go slump on your couch. All these questions going through your head and self-doubt settling in. You ask yourself if this is normal for a writer? And the answer is “YES”. Though it doesn’t feel normal nor does it feel very good. Anxiety and publishing usually go hand-in-hand because you’re putting your work in front of an editor and then in front of the world to see. It can be nerve wracking to think someone won’t like your work, or will criticize the heck out of it.

But we write and publish for those who WILL like our work and enjoying reading it. For those who don’t like our work…well we can’t appeal to everyone. It’s just not possible so why bother trying.

I read a great post by Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn about Fear and Writing and I think you would find some solace in what she has written. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/03/17/writing-fear-of-judgment/

Do you have a fear of writing, editing or publishing? What about creating a writer’s platform? I know I do. Let me know in the comments if you suffer from these fears as well.

Camp NaNoWriMo, General Updates, highly sensitive person

The Clicking of Keys

Janis I. Soucie

The light shines down on me and my husband, both working at our laptops. I’m writing while he is programming an android garden app.

I realized tonight that the last post I had written for this blog was saved in the drafts folder instead of being published. I apologize for that. I’m not sure what happened.

I am still holding down editing jobs and reading, though, a few books may have to be put down for now (and possibly re-read later) because there are some books I need to read for research for one of my books. A couple of my books I’m at various stages of writing are in the creative nonfiction genre, which I have found enjoyable to write. One book is going to be about living as a highly sensitive person, and the other, about my experience as a teenager, caring for my terminally ill mother. I want this second book to be one of, not only sharing my experience, but also be a book that can be encouraging to teens who have lost, or are losing a parent, or parent figure.

I have signed up for Camp NaNo but have not decided which of these books I would like to write yet. I think it may be the second book since that is the one most ready to begin writing. The book about being an HSP (highly sensitive person), still requires a lot of reading, notes, etc. This one will be a while in the making. The first book I will be reading will The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You, by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D.

I have also been listening to The Creative Penn podcast hosted by author Joanna Penn (J.F. Penn). I love this podcast. You learn so much about the creative and business side of being an Indie Author. Highly recommend if you are looking for a podcast dealing with writing.

I think that is all for now. Off to read and then to bed. Morning comes quickly!