My 10 Commandments of Writing

Today's Earworm:
Today's Date: May 8, 2015

So I know that I kind of died there for a while and I am sorry. Life wasn't happy with me, but that's about normal for me.

I'm kind of doing a twitchtwitchdie thing over here in regards to pain but that's about normal.

But! I wanted to get back into doing something interesting and this is what I decided to do!

My 10 Commandments of Writing

Disclaimer: My commandments might not work for you. Just so you know.

1) Practice. Practice. Then Practice some more.

When people ask me how I can write so many words in a week (on average about 5K when life isn't sucking my soul) they always give me this look when I say "Practice".

I'm not joking you when I say that. It was practice that trained me into writing every day in some way. I may write only a single side of a piece of paper a day for a week, but I'm getting words down. I don't let a block on one story stop me from writing.

I simply put that story to the side for a short time and work on another story. And while I write, I talk with a friend or two about the knot that I've found in my story. I don't stop practicing.

I write, always.

2) Write. Even when you don't want to, write.

The only time that I can't write is when I'm so drugged up that my eyes are going crosseyed and I'm falling asleep at my desk. And that's pretty darn rare.

I don't let my life hold me back. I write in some way or another. Just like I have practiced since the day that I picked up a pen and started to write horrible poems.

3) Ignore those who have only seen part of the manuscript. 

They know nothing.

I can not tell you how often someone has read a chapter or two of a story and the utterly fucked it over for me by butting into what I'm writing.

"Have you done this yet?"

"Have you changed that yet?"

It really kills an idea for me. I do continue to write on that story but I tend not to show it ever again. It has taken me years to get to a point where I just kind of ignore requests to see even full manuscripts until I'm ready to show someone something.

4) Ignore those who think they know your style and what you're trying to do.

This ties in with number 3. People tend to think they know what you're writing or how you write. They think they do and most often than not, they're wrong. And it can really mess with someone when that person tries to butt in.

Especially when it's someone who is just learning what their writing style is or what they want to do with a story.

5) Ignore the urge to go back and edit before at least 10 chapters.

This is mostly because after the first 10 chapters, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do with the story and need to go back to edit some details into the story or change some around.

Or in the case of Bad Dog, rewrite a chapter into two chapters so that the information dump is more of an information stream.

But if I don't wait, I tend to have to rewrite and edit more than two or three times, which is a waste of time and space, and I don't enjoy wasting my time when I can write on things. Thus, I wait until I have a minimum of ten chapters written.

6) Write what you want to write. 

I don't write to be popular. I know that a lot of my stuff is very niche, very small in a lot of ways. But that's fine. I write what I write because I enjoy it. I write what I write because out there someone else will enjoy it. I write what I write because I want to read it myself.

And I can't find it anywhere. Thus, I write what I want to write.

7) Ignore people who say you need to write this because it's all the rage.

This is tied to number 6. I said that i don't write because I want to be popular.

And I don't. Popularity is a fickle, fickle bitch and not something I want to deal with. If I become popular...people will just have to deal with what I write because apparently I'm doing something good.

No, I will not write some bored housewife wish fulfilment that is a badly written attempt at the BDSM world without a drop of research.

Yes, I will write (or try to) write a BDSM homo-erotic story that is researched until my eyes bleed...and then researched some more. I have connections who are willing to tell me in great detail what goes on in that world.

No, I will not write about a 'vampire' that falls in love with some simpering Self-insert to cater to the masses.

Yes, I will write about a vampire who is a smug little bastard who finds a half angel and has a stalker ex who wants to bleed his half angel out just because, hey, blood. And a cold corpse to fuck. (I never said that my stories had SANE villains, people.)

Yes, I will write what I want to write, and fill my niche with fans who like my stuff and I'll let the bullshit...be far, far away from me.

8) Don't limit yourself.

I will not limit myself to one genre, type of character, or type of plot. I will explore whatever interests me and I will learn about each thing that catches my attention.

Because I apparently like to research and learn.

9) Don't stop writing damnit! 

Nope, can't stop writing. Nope.

10) Do what you need to do to get those words.

I will do whatever I can do to get my words.

I will listen to music, or a movie, or marathon something creepy on Youtube.

I will hand write, write in Google Docs, or I will babble about a story to my friend who likes to watch me write.

I will get those fucking words!

One way. Or the other.

So! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my world. I know I had fun with this one and I hope to have more fun with more posts like this as time goes along.

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 4

Today's Earworm:
Today's date: March 27, 2014

So...I was going to focus on Bad Dog, Mean Bunny, Follow Me Down, and my Untitled Prompt Story...

I don't think I'm really going to be able to do that juggling act this round. Not because I don't want to, but because I want to focus this round. That means that I'm going to actually probably focus on Black Veiled Saviour and Bad Dog at the most. I'm not going to do a lot of plotting for the stories either.

Now, hold on, don't go complaining and pouting at me for focusing on two of my stories instead of bouncing around between stories. I decided to focus on the two stories instead of just bouncing around because that's how my mind is working this round.

It just means that I want to work on a certain amount of stories instead of having a wide variety of stories to play with.

This does not mean that I'm going to not work on other stories. I'm just more likely to not work on them actually work on them.

But since I'm less than a week away from April starting (4 days and counting actually), I will be setting up the two stories because I do have ideas for them and getting ready for things to come.

So, what's the stats on the stories as it is right now?

Black Veiled Saviour
Words Currently Written: 11,047
Chapters Currently Written: 8

Mean Bunny
Words Currently Written: 14,876
Chapters Currently Written: 7

I will try to keep you updated on word count and how much I've added to eat story as April goes along.

Right now, I'm going to get ready for today's writing marathon. Here's hoping to fun.

"Write ONLY What You Know!"...Err, no

Today's Earworm: Dream On (cover) by Blacktop Mojo
Today's Date: February 20, 2017

So, I'm sure most writers when they've started out has heard the whole "Write what you know" line right? Well, it's not inherently wrong. It's really not! I promise. It's actually good advice. You should write what you know.

What I'm not fond of is the fact that a lot of people, such as teachers, fellow writers, and just those who are in our lives, all seem to use this saying in the wrong way. You can usually hear it. They say "write what you know" but you can still hear that "ONLY" in there, can't you?

It's grating. Cause you may not know something but you still want to write it, don't you? Well then, write it.

And here is where there's going to be a bit of well meaning sarcasm. You do know...that there is a service online called Google right? You can open a new tab and type in google.com, which will take you to a search page. From there, you can type in what you want to learn about and find hundreds of pages of sites that can tell you all about that subject.

Or you know those buildings with all those books? Where you can get a card and borrow those books for a couple of weeks? There are a lot of books about all sorts of subjects in that building. It's called a Library.

And you know, learning about something new? That's called...research.

Okay, I'm done being rather sarcastic. Something about people not remembering that we never stop learning. Even as adults. If you're not learning something, it can get really, really boring in life.

What I'm saying is that even if you don't know a subject, you have a wide variety of ways to learn about that subject.

You want to learn about the paranormal? Go to google, go to Bing, go to the library. Lookup 'paranormal', 'ghosts', 'supernatural'. I'll bet you ten to one that you'll find more than a few options.

You want to learn about fairies? Again, go to google, bing, library, where ever and look up 'fairies'. You'll find a lot of options again.

You have a lot of options at your finger tips guys. It's not that hard to find that information. Even before the internet, I was able to discover so much about my favorite subjects. Books were my best friends. Book stores, libraries, yard sales, what have you.

I researched.

And I learned.

What? Did you think Tolkien know everything about the beings that he wrote? No. He used his life to build the world that he created in his stories, and memories of the books that he enjoyed through his life to create the beings within.

He learned about that world as he built it.

Do you think your favorite author knows everything about their story when they first start building?

No. They to learned, researched, what they are writing. They build and grow. They don't say "Oh, I don't know this so I can't write this".

So when I hear "Write only what you know!", I have to say "No". I'm going to write what I want to write and I don't know anything about that, I'll research.

It's the 21st century, guys. Ignore the idiots who try to stunt you and learn what you want to know.

Let's Talk...Info Dumping

Today's Earworm:
Today's Date: February 13, 2017

Yes, I know, I'm doing quite a bit of the Let's Talk Series, right? Well, the reason why is because I'm rewriting the Settling Down to Write Series and I want to get most of them done before moving on to something else.

But why am I here to talk about information dumping and just what the hell is it?

Well, it's what it sounds like. It's when you dump a lot of information into a short space of time. Or in a piece of writing, when you put all of your information into only 2 to 10 paragraphs. When you write a story, you want to tell the story, but that includes building up the setting, the characters, the plot, and kick starting it all.

But you want to spread the information out. You don't want to just go "here, have all this information about the main character and the setting that you're going to forget because there is just to much".

Look, we retain information a lot better when it's introduced slowly and it's woven in around the story itself, which we're enjoying.

So when a sudden flood of information happens, it throws off a reader and makes it hard to remember those details. Which doesn't exactly make a reader want to read the book after that.

Which is a bad thing since as writers, we want them to read the book. And then, hopefully, tell their friends to buy and read the book so that we can make more money to continue to write amazing books that will have them coming back for more.

But how do you stop just dumping the information out?

It's actually very easy to dump the info so you might not notice it...until you go back to reread it. So, as to stopping it while writing it, you need to keep a note on what you've introduced during that chapter and what you need to yet introduce. And then keep an eye out just chunks of text filled with thoughts and ideas.

It's all about keeping introductory points down in each chapter. For me, as a rule of thumb, I tend to keep it to one to two interconnected introductory points.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in the prologue of Bad Dog, I introduce my Idiot Villain and what he is doing. Pretty much I have him sitting in his 'home' and going over a list of herbs and ritual items that he needs. That's an interconnected introductory point. It's introducing my character and introducing what he is doing at the moment.

Another chapter has him burying a body and meeting a werewolf after he has done so. Again, these are interconnected introductory points. Even if they don't look like it at first glance, they are.

Unfortunately, I have something like 10 introductory points that all branch off of one point in the first official chapter. I need to figure out what points I want to go over in that first chapter and go through the other points later on in the story, spread out.

Dialogue is your friend for a lot of things, but you also need to weave in the details that make up the world into the story itself.

It's kind of annoying trying to remember to weave instead of just going "here, have at it". As easy as it may be to just give a reader all of the details, again, it turns them off. So, remember to edit. Spread out your points. And keep an eye out for an information dump.

I'm still fixing my own dump. A week after I found it.

Special Edition: Novels and Stories

Today's Ear Worm: Bauhaus "She's In Parties"
Today's Date: December 12, 2016

Okay, so this is kind of a special The Writing Process blog but yet it's not. It's about...the time that someone takes in writing a novel. And mind you, I wrote this back in September, but I had other things to post.

And this is more geared to the readers of the world, not the writers of the world. Because as a writer, we know how much work goes into a novel.

Though I swear if I hear "But writing is so easy and fun!" from someone the world may explode. It won't be pretty okay? Cause those types of writers tend to have some rather poorly edited stories out there.

Which is just URGH! It's enough to make a person rip out their hair.

First and foremost: What is a writer?

Well, when you put the word Writer into a Google Search, you get the following definition from them.

writ·er
ˈrīdər/

noun 

noun: writer; plural noun: writers
a person who has written a particular text.
"the writer of the letter" 

a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or regular occupation.
"the distinguished travel writer Freya Stark"
synonyms: author, wordsmith, man/woman of letters, penman; More

So there you go. It's someone who sits down and puts words to paper, or in the case of the modern age, puts words to writing program in a form that creates interesting worlds or information for those who read them.

But there are all sorts of writers out there.

There are those who write articles of all sorts, from literature to English Language to Science to Education and everything in between. There are those who write poetry or who write self-help books or This Subject for Dummies. There are writers who write to sell their stories and there are those writers who write for a fandom.

Fanfiction writers that is.

But there are still others who create these amazing worlds on their own and share it for free or on their websites.

And that's the beauty of the internet you guys! We have all of these beautiful, wonderful delightful stories and worlds and information at our fingertips.

But...as a reader...do you ever wonder just how much the writer behind those worlds' put into each story?

I mean, really think about it?

Not really, I'm betting. Not a lot of readers do. They see that they have this story on their computer, in their hands, or just a tap away on their tablets and phones, and they're good. Until they find that the story isn't done yet, or is on hiatus due to issues. Or something.

Then they sit there and go "Where's the rest of it?"

And yes, this is actually going to be, mostly, geared towards an readership that gets their stories from such sites as Fanfiction.net, Fictionpress.net, Adult-Fanfiction.org (Must be 18 years of age or older to join much less be on this site), and ArchiveOfOurOwn.com (AO3). But in a way, this to can be geared towards the publishing world to.

Now, when a reader gets a story, it's usually been written, edited, rewritten, edited some more, gone over by a couple editors/beta readers, edited some more and then put out there. Or in the case of published books, edited and rewritten to a point that looking at the first draft and the final product, you wonder how it came to be from the trash pile of the first draft.

But they don't really see that. All they see is that there's a good story there and it's not done or it's done but the next book/story in the series isn't out and won't be out for however long.

I'm sorry to say, this has happened way to often to me as a fanfiction writer. I put out a new chapter and am promptly asked:

When is the next one coming out? Will it come out tomorrow?
What? No. No it won't.
Why? You have the entire story written so why not?
Just because I have the entire thing written doesn't mean I'm going to kill my self posting how many chapters is up. That and I post one chapter at a time so I have time to write other stories and get things done. That takes time.
How much time?

And yes, that was a real conversation that I had with someone. It was interesting and actually kick started this idea a long time ago.

But I never had the time to write it because hey, research is needed.

Let's break it down shall we?

Question 1: How long does an average novel take to write?

Well, first of all, it all depends on length. The average novel is somewhere between Sixty (60) thousand and Ninety (90) thousand words.

Now, let's say someone of average speed writes about 5 thousand words in a day, six days a week a minimum.

This is a job you guys. We need to make money.

So 5,000 times six means that in a six day period, they will write 30 thousand words. That means they can write a full first draft novel between 2 to 4 weeks.

Wait a minute though: This is a PERFECT scenario though. Writers don't often experience a perfect scenario though.

So let's go for a little bit more of a realistic number. 2 thousand words a day average, 7 days a week, between life and obligations in any way possible.

So 2,000 times 7 gives us 14 thousand words a week. Times 14,000 by 4 and you get 56,000 words a month. That's actually about average for what I get in a good month myself. Usually.

On average, the first draft takes a month minimum to write.

Okay, so question 2: Is the novel done after that month?

Not even close. Sorry to say it guys, but not even close. Even the most prolific of writers usually take up to six months to have a novel ready to publish. But they have this amazing team behind them and while it's sitting there, they've already started to write the first draft of their next book.

Some writers take years to get a book ready for publishing. They also tend to have a backlog of books that are just finishing going through the editing process.

Myself when I get to that point? I'll have at least one series fully written, several others with at least one book written and editing, and a bunch of stand-alones to fill in some gaps. That's my plan. It's a good plan to since I'm not doing the traditional route, but it also means that I'm liable to have about 10 different readers and editors for the damn things.

Then what are you doing with the novel?

Well, first of all, I'm letting it flee from my brain. All of my notes are packed up and put away, the files are saved, moved and tucked out of sight, and I forget about it for anywhere from two weeks to a month.

Why? Because I want to come at this novel to rewrite or edit it with fresh eyes. I know some writers who edit it a few days after they finish it. I could never do that actually. Not really. It would still be to fresh for me to be objective enough to tear it apart.

Yes, I said, tear it apart. I'm going to sit there and make my manuscript bleed red. I'm going to do it at minimum 3 times. With at least two full rewrites that will take me around 2 to 3 weeks to do each time.

I'll then send to my editor and wait for her to make her little green marks and her comments while I work on the next story.

It's a never ending cycle of write, write, edit, write, rewrite, write, edit, write, wait for the editor, write, and then edit some more.

Once I get the file back, I go through all the pages (usually around 200+ pages on a long fanfiction and just as much for an original), and fix the little things, catch a few others, rewrite a few sentences.

Then it's ready to go out.

Question the 3: But does that work for saleable publishing writings though?

Yes actually. Because it's the same process that the better fanfiction writers employ. And the same process that a published author uses. The difference is: the published authors usually have those who are paid to focus on their book and to tear it apart for them even after they themselves tear it apart.

Fanfiction writers are usually the ones who tear their own works apart to put them back together before a volunteer beta goes over it for them.

A good story is good because of the time taken to edit it. Writing the first draft is like putting up the foundation, basement and skeleton of a house. The potential to be something great is there, but it takes that editing, the detail work, to make it truly worth anything.

4: So how long DOES it take a writer to get out a story or book?

That's actually a really good question.

And one that depends on the person. On average, a fanfiction writer who lives their lives and have things going on will have a story once every month or two. Or if they're like me, and they have a story fully written and spread out a chapter to every week or so, they're already working on the next story if they're still writing.

For me, and this will probably carry over into a publishing career, I will have a story ready to read in about 6 months to over a year. But it'll be added to the queue for publishing.

Guys, readers all over, we love you. We love your reviews. But we want you to understand something. We take a extremely long time to get a book or a story just right for you guys, so to see a review demanding the next chapter right now is just kind of like telling us that our work is good but our time should be dictated by your needs and wants.

Calm down. You'll get your story.

Just let us writers know that you're loving the story or book. Reviews are our lifeblood after all. And keep patient. We'll get it out there. It just takes us time to get it to where it's not bleeding red each time we take a damn editing tool to it.

Writing...Even When You Don't Wanna

Today's EarWorm:
Today's Date: September 26, 2016

I'm sitting here and thinking about how life can just suck all the inspiration out of a writer. In my case, a change of seasons has brought on a cold and I'm living in mostly a daze of cold meds so I can stop sneezing hard enough to jar my entire body, making my back spasm in hate.

Life isn't all that kind.

For the last few months I have had more days with no words than days with actual words because it's been so busy. Appointments, ER visits, shopping trips, birthdays, days of just trying so hard to get some sleep.

It all sucks the inspiration right out of you.

But that doesn't mean that I don't have some kind of word count going on each and every day. Drabbles, short pieces, and handwritten pieces that I'm not going to count until I've typed them up onto my computer have all been done.

But this is something that, I hate to say this, takes practice to get down. You need the willpower to pick up that pen or pencil and put it down onto paper, or to pull out your GDocs on your phone or open the file on your computer and get those words.

You need to commit yourself to it.

Preparing for Camp National Novel Writing Month July 2016 Pt 2

Today's Earworm: Highwayman by Bessech
Today's Date: June, 13, 2016

Preparing for Camp National Novel Writing Month July 2016 Pt 1

6/7/2016

I have settled on what I'm going to write along with the secondary stories. I have decided to do a story that I'm really not going to go into since I haven't decided if it's going to stay as a fanfic or become an original.

Either way it's going to be fun to write. That's for sure.

I have been planning out the story and talking ideas with a friend of mine for the last few days. Yesterday had me sleeping most of the day away before going to bed at a rather early hour. But I kind of needed it apparently.

But I still have a lot to do yet.

6/9/2016

God, what to say? There's really not a whole lot to say since I'm working on getting things set up and ready to go for this round of Camp.

My back is killing me, my muses are running around like insane little bastards and I'm trying so hard to finish off a few things before it comes time to start this insanity.

What am I to do?

6/10/2016

My muses decided to calm down enough for me to work on things and get other stories down and out of the way. Which is a good thing since I want to get this one story done before I start on Camp here. It keeps coming closer with every hour that passes by me.

And life keeps going nuts on us. I swear. It's driving me up a wall. But I keep going.

Because I can't really stop and just say "I want to quit". Life doesn't work like that, no matter how we want it to.

Yeah, I'm sounding a bit depressed because of real life stress.

Anyways, I just want it to be July already! I really, really want to write this story.

I already have 5 chapters planned out (and 3 out of 8 total written because I did start it but the rules do state that you can continue a story, but you must only count the new words, so yeah) and I'm always plotting what will happen in future chapters. I also need to watch a few things and make notes.

Urgh. Not happy making.

But I'm going to do it because I need those notes for other stories to. >< I swear one day I'm going to have this huge bookshelf just jammed pack full of notebooks with various notes.

I sigh now. And go back to writing.

Preparing for Camp National Novel Writing Month July 2016 Pt 1 & Writers Advice

Today's Earworm: Mr. Uninvited by Bessech
Today's Date: June 6, 2016

Today was a day of shopping. Which wasn't happy making, but I got it done! Yes.

Anyways, as of right now, I am setting up to get ready for the next round of Camp National Novel Writing Month, which starts July 1st. Again, I'm going for like 35K for the round, but that's about normal since I usually average about 20 to 30K a month in my normal writing and rewriting work.

I have so much to work on that it's not funny. So I'll just go over what I have in the works that need to be done.

1) Untitled M/M pairing short story

This story is going to end up around 24 chapters in length, about 13 of those chapters are complete rewrites with a couple being split into two parts. It's an older story that I had finished, but after a couple years of letting it sit I decided that it needed a full on rewrite/fleshing out.

So if I do do this story, I'm going to have to write at least one chapter and one chapter rewrite as I come across them. I'll probably end up finishing it half-way through the month.

2) All You Need

Again, this is a full on rewrite/flesh out story that is a couple of years old and I have no idea how long it will be. I need to fill out the first half of the story yet, which means that it's going to be interesting. I have something like 5 chapters planned out so far? When I get to the main chunk of the story there's going to be another 10 chapters added, at least.

I'm still working on getting it planned out since I need to flesh out the world and the plot line yet.

3) Thread the Needle - Don't Look Bk 0

I actually got about 3 chapters into this story before steam just kind of tapered off. I'm working on building the world some more and building the outline but that's going to be interesting to do. That's for sure.

Especially since it's the entire basis for the rest of the Don't Look books.

4) Untitled Superhero Book - Through the Ages Bk 1

I'm somewhere in the 20's chapter for this story (since I don't have that file open right now and I'm not going to open it). I have about 37 chapters planned for this story so I might be able to finish it if I go with this story. We'll have to see how things go in the long run.

5) Random other short or almost done stories

I have a lot of these stories actually. A lot. Most of them are fanfiction but there are some originals, like the Forward Motion 2016 anthology submission that I'm working on. I just need to work it out.

As it is I think I'm going to use this time to think about my Butterfly Living world that I started oh so long ago. I swear that I need to rewrite that first book like nothing else. I might start playing with that idea here soon because that and the Crimson series are both eating my mind. Need to finish a few other stories first.

Fun times.

Time for some Advice from one writer to another:

Write. Every. Single. Day.

I can not tell you how many people who come to me and ask me how I get so many words done are always surprised when I simply say "I write every single day". They just sit there and go "No, way".

Yes way.

I get up. Turn my computer on. Go to the bathroom. Come back and log on (because dangit I am going to make idiots log on if they want at my stuff). Go get water/tea/breakfast. Come back. Say hi to my friends and writing cheerleading squad (who are made of the awesome), open a couple of files that I use to type up whatever I working on then. 

Make my tea. I usually let my tea steep while I'm doing the rest so I have my sugar and a spoon close at hand to sweeten as needed. I also take the time to start eating.

I then open up my Chrome, and for all the bs it puts me through, the GDocs are still my baby, wait for my tabs to open, and find the tab with my current file. 

I start to write.

And write.

And write some more.

I say hi to my friend who comes on. Tell her what file I'm in and go back to writing.

Or I'll be rewriting that day.

If I'm editing, I'm just usually editing my OpenOffice Writer file because I don't want to deal with the gdoc for whatever reason.

I'm doing something in regards to my writing. Anything! Every. Single. Day. 

Even those days that I have a migraine that takes down an elephant. Once I can see straight, sit up, and stare at paper or my tablet, I'm working on something. Usually plot points that my drugged up mind comes up with for later editing and figuring out how to make them possible.

It's not amazing. It's not a super power. It's good old fashioned hard work.

Ask any published writer who is serious about their work, and they'll tell you getting into the habit of doing something in regards to your writing takes practice. And time to get used to. But if you really want to see your name on a printed version of your book with some money coming in from sales, you Write. Every. Single. Day. 

I'm sorry to say but holidays are non-existent to most writers. We write. Be it on paper, phone, tablet or computer. We write.

To those who are just coming onto this and are horrified by this, go to the Camp NaNo website for the April or July, rounds of Camp, sign up, create your book, set your word count (minimum is 10K), and practice getting words every single day. I use these months as a way to finish off a few smaller projects (as shown above).

Or even join in the insanity that is National Novel Writing Month in November. Go to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up. Minimum word count? 50 thousand words in 30 days.

No, I'm not being paid to tell you to do this but my first Nano was back in 2009. I've won every single one that I've been a part of since. It taught me how to turn off my editors brain to get the words down and out. It also taught me how to write every day without fail. 

And I carried those lessons over into my writing career, just like every author and writer before me.

So again: Write. Every. Single. Day. And don't whine about it.

You're the one who chose to pick up writing as a career path. I get enough of that from the 12 to 18 year olds who come to me about writing advice. 

Until next week!