Sigh…
I have discovered a new type of torture that unto itself is not unique, but it’s application is unique to creatives who have put themselves out to the world and are holding their breath. And that torture is…
Watching their book rankings.
Oh it’s torment! And the worst part is it’s completely self inflicted. I just have to stop looking at Amazon, and Kobo and Smashwords. Wait a week or more THEN look and react. I keep saying my inner Veruca Salt is running riot screaming “Make time go faster!” over and over again, so I can see the result, or worse give me something that I have to figure out how to fix.
But then the rational me kicks in and says the things I must remember to cool my conscience.
This is only the first book. The best marketing is publishing the next one.
Give people time to read. Not everyone is like Tdub. (he knows who he is… 😉 )
This is now in God’s hands. (That’s the one that really hurts to remember.)
So I get to sit and squirm about it, or… I can take the best advice I’ve been given so far and that is get writing on Book 2 and stop obsessing!!!1!
Speaking of Book 2…
I am going to be changing up the direction of my writing on this book and start a different method. Currently, there are five plotlines, soon to be six in book 2. Yeah, compared to book 3 this is going to be a monster. Why? Because I have so many things running in the background that must occur before Book 3. I’ve been discovering the alternating chapter story structure (plot1, plot2, plot3, plot1, plot4, plot5, plot2…. ) type of sequencing is really not helpful for writing. It’s probably going to serve me best to just write a single plotline till it needs to intersect, then write the one that it intersects with till they are ready to link up.
In the end, I hope for a nice smooth transition and a powerful braid of stories. The key to this of course, is to avoid a stinker of a plotline where people go “I’m just gonna skip THAT chapter till it gets good again”. I know I’ve done this on other authors, so… well there’s that.
Some plotlines are nothing more than transitional pieces of story that you need to know to tell a better novel, but could not stand up on their own. That’s something else I’m learning. Neat ideas that need to be re-purposed and made to earn their keep. Which, BTW, is also not necessarily easy to accomplish. Sometimes, the characters wanna do what the characters wanna do and as an author, there is only so much coercion you can do before you end up wrecking the character or worse, wrecking the relationship between you and the reader as they go… “ummmmm lame!”
So, tonight, it’s back to writing since I’m off from work, and building more and more and more. I still can reach my goal of finishing before Easter. (That always seems to be a good time for me finishing a project) and turn it over to the editing process for hopefully a summer release.
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