Writing goals for 2015 - how I did.

So, 2015 is nearly at an end. Where did that time go? I can remember a few of the goals I set myself to do this year, and here is how I did.

1. Get 5 short stories accepted by women's magazines. Not done yet. I have three out there with two magazines, have completed another and about to finish another.

2. Publish the last in the 'Guardian Angels' series. Tick. I did that earlier this month. Out now on all platforms.

3. Publish the last in the Geraldine's series. Not yet. Plan to do that next year.

4. Publish the last of the mermaid stories. Not done yet either. Again, next year.

5. Become a full member of the RNA. Feel I'm on the way to it as I submitted an ms to the scheme this year, and am working on revising it now. Plan to get it edited next year and send to My Weekly Pocket Novel.

So, what goals did you manage to do this year? And what ones are still to be reached? Let me know.

My writing system

I thought it might be interesting to post about how I write on here. So, here it is: I know some authors type their ms straight on to their computer, but I can't do that. I tried once, and my brain went er. lol. So, I write long-hand with a pen.

1. Write the story or novel in longhand.
2. If I come up with ideas to improve a scene or add a scene to a chapter I've already written, then I will jot those down on a piece of paper and put them with the story.
3. Type up each day's writing.
4. Do the above until I have typed the ending.
5. Next draft - add notes.
6. When I have completed it all with no more notes to add in, then work on the second draft, which is
7. Using highlighters - highlight different aspects of the ms eg dialogue is highlighted pink. Do this until last page. marking any points where I need to add more of that aspect, with a blob in that colour. 8. Do this for all aspects until I have a whole ms with coloured pages.
9. Go through ms and add depth to the story where there are blobs. Print out.
10. Third draft - highlight all verbs for repetition, change any that are repeated.
11. Highlight any repeated words eg 'and' 'then'. Change or delete any repeated ones.
12. Type amendments up and print out.
13. Final edit is the read aloud or reading one (usually read silently as I am not alone that often).

So, there you have my writing system.

How do you write? Straight to a computer or with a pen like me?

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More filler successes

You might have seen on my Facebook posts recently that this past week I have had a couple of filler successes. The first one was a letter and photo of the yellow day lily Tigridia in Garden News. I didn't get any reward for that. The second success was that I won 'Prize Photo' in the December issue of Garden Answers (out now). I got an email from the magazine telling me this and asking me which pair of Felco secateurs I wanted - there was a choice of two. As my mum is the keen gardener out of us, I asked her. She chose the one with the rotating handle and shock absorber. Here is what they look like

I checked these out on the Felco website and they are worth £70. I am giving them to my mum for Xmas. Might not seem a nice present but it is an appropriate one as she loves her gardening, when she can get out there.

Next is to submit the letters to the ALCS.

My Asperger's Shutdown - What it was and why it happened

As some of you might know from my posts on Facebook, last Friday I had what is called an 'Asperger's Shutdown'. I was fine up until the afternoon when I got my Free From Food prize from Holland and Barretts. I got a bit too excited and ate too many chocs from the prize. So, what happened to me? Half an hour after eating dinner on Friday (about 5.30pm) I tried to read the paper but my brain wouldn't let me. It went all fuzzy and I felt I couldn't cope with any thinking. My body followed soon after. It couldn't cope with staying sitting and I had to go to bed. There I stayed until the next morning (apart from getting up to change into my nightwear). The following morning, I got up and felt really tired. I had had a restless night, feeling hot, sweating and stuffy with cold. I started having a wash and managed to wash my face and arms properly then my brain went fuzzy again. I had to stop and bend down, feeling as though I was going to faint. After a few minutes, I managed to continue but only wiped myself with a flannel and water. I creamed myself and got dressed. Went downstairs to have breakfast of toast. After half an hour, I couldn't cope anymore. I had to stay downstairs until my bed was made, and when we made it, I went back to bed. I was like this all day Saturday. Sunday I was a bit better but still kept going to bed and went to bed in the evening earlier than normal. Yesterday I was still tired but better.

So, why did it happen? What causes a shutdown? An accumulation of lots of issues going on in my life. Over the last couple of months I have had health problems, financial security worries, and I have had to sort things out about my health over the phone and personally, ie lots of communication, which as an Aspie I find hard to do. Lots of these issues have been resolved, and then on Friday I received the huge box prize of Free From Food and I found that someone had bought one of my ebooks. It was like as my mum has described as 'holiday illness'. After worrying about lots of things, they have come to a conclusion and my body relaxed, a bit too much. My brain couldn't cope with everything it has had to deal with, so shut down to recharge itself. Thankfully, it and I are both on the mend. I hate it when one of these happens because you can't control it and you can't do anything except go to bed. You just have to go with the flow of it and get better.

So, there you have my version of what a 'shutdown' is and why it happened to me.

Social Media Part 2

Here is Part 2 of what Talli Roland told the RNA London chapter about social media.

Amazon - Complete your Author Central page, everywhere. Even the foreign ones, which you can do in English. You can stream videos through the page, and link your blog etc to it. It is good for readership.
Bookbub can be expensive, esp if you write women's fiction. So choose another genre.

Have a newsletter. You can put the link to it in your next book.

Goodreads - Be v careful as an author, esp with reviews. Talli mentioned there had been a well-known chick-lit author who had put a scathing review of another chick-lit author. Not good. Someone said, it might have been Eve Farr, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.

There are other sites you can use; Google+, Instagram (just photos and for a younger demo), Tumblr (microblog, quotes and photos), PInterest (70% women), Klout, which you can put on your followers, what topics you write about and find out what influence you get.

Website. Talli uses Networked blogs.
Youtube - can record book excerpts and blurbs. Stream the video via your Author Central page.

You get out of it what you put in. Awareness = sales. Think global. Be genuine. Have fun.

Social Media by Talli Roland

Last Saturday I went to the London/SE chapter of the RNA. The talk was on Social Media by Talli Roland. Here are her main points.

You should be on the sites where your readers are. So, if they are on FB, be there. If they are on LinkedIn, then be there.

Facebook
Readers can expect you to be there 24/7. Build a core loyal readership. Join forums. You can find different readers in topic groups eg if you write a romance that also has knitting groups in, then find a FB group about knitting.
Don't do too much promo on your profile page, do it on your author page.
You can boost your page. When you do, choose friends and friends of friends. It costs £10. You can see how many see and share your post. And you can get 3000 per click.
When it comes to choosing friends, look at 'mutual friends'. If it's low, then don't friend them. Be positive.
On your author page, you can click on the icon at the top of the page called 'shop now' and you can put a link to your books on Amazon etc. Or you can put a link to your newsletter - that was something I added to the talk.
When you get a certain no of followers, you can't change your name. And on your profile page you have to have your real name or FB might check up on you.
Make your followers feel special and your posts useful.

Twitter
Find content that relates to your book and tweet. You can put on there the first line and last line of chapters. Post pictures of the locations in your book (made a mental note to do that in future). Take photos of where it's set.

Blogging
Still good to do.
For readers - have photos, keep it short and turn off the verifications.

I shall write part 2 on Sunday when it goes into Amazon and other sites that are useful.

My NaNoWriMo plan

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? It stands for 'National Novel Write a Month'. You have to write/draft 50K of a novel or just 50K words without editing it. I did my own version last year, writing as many short stories as I could, which weren't many at all. I plan to do the same this year. The best way forward for this is to plan what you want to write. Here is my plan: I am going to write a short story for the 5 women's magazines markets I know about ie Woman's Weekly, Take a Break's Fiction Feast, The People's Friend and The Weekly News and Yours. I have jotted down which story I want to write for them except for WW, as I haven't worked that one out yet, but I will in time. It won't reach 50K as most of them will be under 2000 words. I might also plot out chapter summaries for my next adult romance ebook, and I will be working on my Pocket Novel. Lots to write, so thank goodness I have only one appointment in November, as yet.

So, are you doing NaNoWriMo? Let me know if you are and what you plan to write.

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