The Motivational Editor

Mine Your Library’s Amazing Resources

3 February, 2020 by Debra

I visit my library every Wednesday to upload videos my church sends to India. A video that takes hours to upload from my home computer takes only 1-2 minutes to upload from the library’s system.

That’s just one of the amazing resources of my local library. I live in a town of around 76,000 people. Not large—though it’s all relative, especially if you’ve lived in a town less than 10K all your life.

The library has always been a go-to place for me. For anyone born pre-computer revolution, the library was a primary resource for research and fun reading material. When I think about the library, I mostly think books. But today’s libraries offer so much more, way above and beyond books, CDs, and DVDs.

My library offers classes, both educational and fun, on a monthly basis. I’ve attended many of them. The librarian-teacher, Bridgid, and I have gotten acquainted, and I’m on her list of teaching resources for classes on indie-publishing and writing.

This past Wednesday I asked her if she was going to do a class on advanced Excel, and we got to talking about classes. She mentioned the library’s online classes.

Whoa! The library has online classes?

All this time, I’ve been purchasing classes from websites like Skillshare and Udemy, and I could have gotten similar training for free from the library!

Bridgid went to the computer and showed me where to find them on the library website and dove further into all that’s available, including earning certificates or simply auditing the class.

This has opened a whole new world to me. I love learning, and I’ve spent my adulthood learning through reading books, watching videos, and paying for classes. When I find something like this, free learning, I’m ecstatic. As an entrepreneur, I need to know how to manage finances, how to improve my business profits, how to market, and so much more.

As a writer, I constantly seek to improve my writing skills.

And I have fun things, like drawing and crocheting, that I’d like to learn how to do better. Now a whole new avenue of free teaching is available to me.

When I come up short on research, I talk to the reference desk librarians. They always have great suggestions—among the stacks, online, and locally—and have gotten me out of some tight jams with their knowledge.

I saved over $3,000 last year by borrowing their books and DVDs. How do I know that? That information is included on the date-due slip. I most certainly couldn’t have purchased all those items.

Bridgid has recently helped me download the library ebook app to my Kindle Firebook so I can start borrowing ebooks.

Your library has a plethora of resources available to you—all for free. Mine those resources and make them work to your advantage.

Thank you, Rolling Hills Consolidated Library of St. Joseph, MO, for all you make available to me and for all the help you give me along the way. Now that I think about it, the librarian was the first friend I made when I moved to St. Joe 15 years ago.

Discover and Learn, Rinse and Repeat, Grow Profitability and Productivity

20 January, 2020 by Debra

I made a discovery this weekend. Those kind you’d call “light bulb” or “aha” moments.

I noticed I was experiencing that old “my life is nothing but work” attitude. I asked my why and discovered it was because I had allowed other commitments keep me from working on my own story. So on Saturday, I did a bit of work on revisions and also did something fun. And my bad attitude evaporated.

This drove home to me the importance of working on my own projects everyday, even if for only 30 minutes. It keeps my passion alive and the blues away.

All of us can discover and learn new things on a regular basis. If I don’t know how to do something, but want to know, then I teach myself through books, YouTube videos, online classes, or even a college class.

As writers, I believe it’s essential we learn and discover regularly.

Discover and Learn About Yourself

I put this one first because I feel it’s the most important one.

This is where you discover negative beliefs that impact your…

Relationships,
Confidence in yourself,
Productivity in your writing (or in your 9 to 5)
Prosperity
Contentment, happiness, joy and more.

You discover

What works for you and what doesn’t
What you like and don’t like
What you’re willing to pay someone else to do
What you truly want out of life.

Don’t make this harder than it is. It can be as simple as listening to various kinds of music as you write and learning which kinds help you be the most creative.

After listening to nature sounds, I learned I’m much more creative while listening to forest birds chirping and brooks babbling, than to the roar of ocean waves. That simple discovery also made me realize I’d prefer to live in forested areas than next to the beach. I’ve lived in both, and I always end up somewhere land-locked. Now I know why.

About Better Publishing Skills

If you think you’ve learned all there is about the craft of writing, then you’re probably not producing great books, or you’re growing stagnate in your ideas. As writers, we can always improve our craft.

With social media platforms making changes (daily, it seems) and new ones emerging, there’s new stuff to learn about the platforms we use.

Entrepreneurs consistently launch new online courses. They often include a free challenge of some kind in their launch. Try participating in those that interest you.

I recently participated in Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ads Challenge (ends tomorrow actually). Five days of video teaching and FB live Q&A times. So many puzzle pieces to Amazon ads fell into place for me! All it cost me was my time.

Yes, these free challenges include plugs for signing up for a paid course. If you can’t resist signing up, then maybe you need to avoid them. Overall, they are a good way to discover and learn.

About Technology

Technology is growing faster now than in any other time in history. New software tools that can help us write, market, research, and indie publish pop up faster than moles in the “whack-a-mole” game.

Keep your antenna up and investigate new stuff to see if it will work for you.

All this learning takes time. Maybe you feel you won’t have time for writing. My point isn’t that you should be doing all this learning all at the same time.

My point is that you should be in a discover and learn mental state all the time. Because that’s when those “aha” moments happen. These things can affect our productivity and impact our prosperity as well, for the negative or the positive. Wouldn’t you like to be on the positive side?

What have you learned that’s impacted your life or your writing? Leave your comments below.

Character Development, Draft and Revisions

14 January, 2020 by Debra

Late last year I completed the draft of a novel—the first novel I’ve managed to finish!

Fiction is my passion, but it seems at this point in my writing career I write mostly nonfiction. Not sure why that is. I’ve started as many novels as I have published nonfiction books. Those novels sit partially written, collecting electronic dust.

As I spent time in December 2019 seeking God’s plan for 2020, the one word I got was write. Actually I got write, write, write. I couldn’t be more delighted. I come alive when I write. And for a writer that’s how it should be!

My little fingers will flame with fiction this year—along with some blogging.

First on the list is my current WIP “Sally and the Cowboy.” I spent most of December 2019 doing revisions. I discovered the story needed deep revision not only to the plot, but also to the main characters. All drafts need deep revision…what mine needs is deeper than I anticipated. Ugh.

Character development is essential to any great story. For me, it’s part of what makes a story memorable and worth reading over and over and over.

My main character seemed depressing and complaining. Granted, at that point in my revision I had focused on developing her inner conflict, so maybe my perspective was a little skewed. Skewed perception aside, Sally needs major character development.

For help in the task, I’ve turned to Donald Maass book Writing the Breakout Novel—an excellent book and one I recommend often. Chapter 5 tackles character development. Maass states:

Conflict is the first principle of plot construction, and it is also the underlying secret of great characters.

I’ve been re-examining Sally’s…

Inner conflict (what is it, is there enough, too much?)
Story goal,
Story arc, (how will she grow as a person as the story progresses?)
History,
Personality,
Strengths, and
Weaknesses.

I read a few paragraphs from Maass, then I pick up pencil and paper and make notes, ask questions, and am drawing out from my imagination a more compelling and memorable Sally. Yes, I’ll be doing the same thing for the Cowboy.

Virtually all readers unconsciously seek out novels for an experience of human life that is admirable, amusing, hopeful, perseverant, positive, inspiring, and that ultimately makes us feel whole. ~Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel

Does your fiction fit into that list anywhere? Do your characters possess any of these characteristics? Maybe not at the beginning of your story, but do they discover they have something on that list by the end of the story?

Within that quote from Maass is an aspect that I believe accounts for today’s popularity of superhero movies: an experience that is admirable, hopeful, positive, inspiring.

Don’t settle for surface-level revisions on your novel. Dig deep. Perform invasive surgery on that sucker.

Are your characters as memorable as those from your favorite novels?
Ask yourself if you’d enjoy reading your own story over and over.

Take your favorite novel and examine the protagonist and antagonist.

What character qualities does he/she have?
How has the author developed the character?
Use what you learn to revise your own protagonist and antagonist.

If you haven’t yet begun your novel, do this deep work ahead of time. You’ll be glad you did!

(Post contains affiliate links.)

Evaluating your yearly goals ahead of setting new ones

18 November, 2019 by Debra

The holidays are upon us. Before we know it, 2020 will make its entrance.

Every time I say 2020, it makes me think of the song “In the year 2525.” Yeah, I know, you’re probably clueless. Those older than 50 might remember it. It was a #1 hit in 1969. I was the ripe old age of 13. What’s this have to do with today’s blog? Absolutely nothing. Just adding a tidbit of fun and history of my life.

Since partnering this year with my friend Tamara Clymer in her publishing business, CrossRiver Media Group, my time has been [Read more…] about Evaluating your yearly goals ahead of setting new ones

Formatting an eBook

4 November, 2019 by Debra

Formatting an eBook isn’t hard. What you have to remember is the conversion process involved.

An eBook is read on a device such as a Kindle Fire, a Nook, an iPad, and more. Many of the devices have proprietary coding—Kindle is one, and it comes with a .mobi extension to the file.

Here is an excellent article that explains the varied eBook formats.

An eBook is a reflowable file. The text is fluid—not constrained to a specific page size like a print book is. This reflowable aspect to eBooks means you don’t create page headers or page numbers for your book. But it also comes with some definite requirements. [Read more…] about Formatting an eBook

How to Format a Book – Part 2

19 October, 2019 by Debra

Last week in part 1 of “How to Format a Book” I covered trim size, margins, and fonts and their sizes. This week, we’ll look at page headings, chapter beginning elements, and page count.

Whether you’re doing the layout or you’ve hired a designer, the elements discussed last week are essentials you must determine before you begin. If you don’t, then you’ll be spending time making adjustments.

Now let’s look at the importance of page headings, chapter headings, and page count. [Read more…] about How to Format a Book – Part 2

How to Format a Book – Part 1

15 October, 2019 by Debra

How to format a book, 8-page signatures awaiting assembly — Pallets of 8-page signatures awaiting assembly into a final coloring book.

How to format a book seems to give indie writers more difficulty than writing the book itself.

In my world as an editor and book designer, the word format means several things. When a writer contacts me asking for book formatting, I always have to clarify exactly what they want.

I covered formatting the text of your book in the following posts:

How to Format Numbers, Dates, and Times in Your Manuscript

Should I Use Italics or Quotation Marks? A Style Guide to Formatting Titles

Before formatting your book for publication, there are several things you must consider and decide first. [Read more…] about How to Format a Book – Part 1

Pantsers, how do you do it?

7 October, 2019 by Debra

What are pantsers?

Writers who write by the seat of their pants—no outline. They just sit down and start to write. Or so, that’s what I’ve been told. Surely they have some kind of story idea, but maybe not.

Pantsers, if you’re reading this post, I’d like to pick your brain.

Ten years ago I was taking a writing class that required me to write a fiction scene. Just one scene.

Later, I decided liked that scene and the characters I had created. So, I took it and started writing a full novel.

I did some initial plot work, but didn’t plot the entire book. I got around 14,000 words written before I [Read more…] about Pantsers, how do you do it?

Mine Your Library’s Amazing Resources

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