W is for Work

 Work is a four-letter word. I’ve been working for someone else since I was sixteen. It’s not always fun, but I’ve decided it’s not all that difficult to get out of bed and go to work when I get paid to show up. 

My idea of fun is writing full time. That day is coming but, until then, I work. According to my retirement countdown counter, I still have one thousand days to go until I can tap my heels together and proclaim, "there's no place like home!"

Working outside the home is a good thing on many levels. It gets me out of the house. Time out in the world is something I’ll have to plan for once I become a full time writer. Working in general keeps the mind engaged and sharp whereas as being idle allows everything to atrophy.

I’m enjoying the idea of working for myself. Whether or not it will actually be as sweet as I imagine is yet to be proven. But for now I can envision myself working in the garden in the morning when it’s cooler and working on a story inside on hot afternoon.

What I can’t imagine is not working at all.

Strange, isn’t it?

Rayne

http://kckendricks.com/RayneForrest_bookshelf.html

http://rayneforrest.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/rayneforrest

P is for Pride - have some

This past autumn, there was an article in the Romance Writer’s Digest about “taking back our writing.” I’m not going to lie and say I read the RWR from cover to cover, because I don’t, but I did pause to read this article.

In this article, the author admits to being caught in the vicious cycle of meeting deadlines. Publishing is a dog-eat-dog world and a lot of small press pubs rely on volume. Too many live and die by the short story. The art of writing a full-length novel is dying, choked out by the need to produce, produce, produce. The writer of the article acknowledged this. And then she impressed me. She said it’s time to step off the treadmill.

I agree with her. I want to write a story I’m proud of. I decided quite a while back I could no longer churn out story after story to meet the needs of a publisher. My alter ego did that for a bit and it’s too exhausting to sustain. My library has a few books that suffered because I met the deadline. Those stories got short-changed, both by the writer and more so the editor. I think there are more writers besides myself putting out indie-published books for that very reason. If an editor doesn't have time to do justice to your book, you need to take another path. 

Take the time to write a story you can be proud of. Check for typos, passive voice, missed words and continuity errors. Will you find all of them? Probably not. And trust me - neither does an editor. You may be a novice but your work doesn’t have to look like a newbie wrote it. When it comes to finishing your story, speed is not your friend.

It’s YOUR name on the cover of your book. This is one instance where being prideful is a good thing.

Rayne

http://rayneforrest.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/rayneforrest

G is for Good Grief! ( 2016 A to Z Blogging Challenge)

It’s a little strange that the familiar saying “good grief” is a censored form of “good God.” I suppose it dates back to when 1) saying “good God” could get you staked for blasphemy and 2) the times when folks believed God punished us with grief. 

And then there’s poor Charlie Brown. I like Charlie. He’s one of the good guys. On the surface nothing seems to go his way, yet in the end, he makes it through. When Charlie gets annoyed over the stupidity of his friends, he declares, “good grief” and he keeps chugging onward.

That became one of my writing rules. When annoyed by my own stupidity, or that of others, I simply say “good grief” and keep moving on. 

And on. And on…..

Rayne

http://rayneforrest.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/rayneforrest