Balancing Your Writing Career

When I first started writing fiction, I’d never heard of Twitter or Facebook. And blogging, what was that? I had three young kids, but I was able to carve out enough time to write. All my free time went to the novel I was working on.

And then I discovered blogging. I didn’t blog much at first, and I only followed a few blogs. That was around the time when Carolyn, Elana, Mary, and Suzie started up the Querytracker Blog. I learned tons from them, and went on to follow a few agent blogs. And over time, I discovered that I needed to become more involved in social media, because if I was ever published, I would be responsible for a lot of my own promotion.

Flash forward to today. Now like most writers, my days aren’t just about writing my current WIP (work in progress). I have to spend time playing on my favorite social media sites. I say playing because that’s what it should be. It shouldn’t be work. It shouldn’t be all about promotion. It should be about having fun. Connecting with friends. Making new friends. Making new connections with bloggers who might one day review your book and sign up for your blog tour or release day blitz. Chatting with fans. Fangirling over your latest book boyfriend (that you didn’t write). In a recent Romance Writers of America conference panel I sat on, the participants all agreed that it is the connections we’ve made on the social media sites that helped us the most when it comes to promotion. Whenever we have news to share, our writer friends, book blogger friends, and fans are more than happy to tweet, retweet, and share our news via the various social media sites.

Now that’s great, you might be thinking, but I barely have enough time to write my book, never mind hang out on the various social media sites. This is especially true if you have a family, a full-time career, or both. And once you’ve signed a publishing contract, it’s only going to get harder, because now you have to write the next book as well as do developmental, line, and copy edits on the first book. Later, you’ll be proof reading the book while writing your next book and while doing developmental (or line or copy) edits on book two. Oh, and let’s not forget that you also have to write those guest posts for your upcoming blog tour, create picture teasers (if you write a genre in which readers LOVE picture teasers), or writing other types of articles that will help promote your book (whether it be fiction or non-fiction).

Tips to Balance It All

1.  The best thing to do to prevent your brain from exploding is to create a (flexible) schedule—and try to keep to it. Remember, Twitter doesn’t count toward your daily word count. Nor does commenting on Facebook (as much as we wish it did).

2.  If you have anything promotional you need to tweet throughout the day (for followers who weren’t on Twitter when you first posted it), you can schedule them on a site like Hootsuite. This way whenever you’re on Twitter, you can stick to having fun stuff and save time.

3.  Turn off the Internet if you have a habit of getting distracted and usually end up spending more time on it than you should.

4.  Set a timer, or else your quick five minutes on Twitter could end up being thirty.

5.  Assign specific days for certain social media sites. Maybe you love Twitter and aren’t a huge fan of Facebook, but understand the value of your page.  You could tweet daily, but post Monday and Wednesday on your Facebook page (as well as visit the pages you follow and comment on those posts).

6.  That will make things more manageable than forcing yourself to do both every day.

7.  With your writing, set up a schedule and stick to it. Determine what the bigger priority is and focus your time on that (without neglecting the other tasks). Hint, the project with the deadline is the biggest priority. If you have two deadlines plus you have to write blog posts for your upcoming blog tour, then divide your day into manageable chunks and assign each task to be worked on then (e.g. edit in the morning and write blog posts in the evening).

It’s not always easy to balance it all, but it’s the reality of our job. And make sure you reward yourself each day for accomplishing what you set out to do.

Do you have any additional tips for balancing the responsibilities of our writing careers? Do you find it easy to do or do you, like most writers, struggle with it?

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes New Adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and can be found at her blog/website.  She is represented by Marisa Corvisiero, and finds it weird talking about herself in third person. Her debut New Adult contemporary romance TELL ME WHEN (Carina Press, HQN) is now available. LET ME KNOW (Carina Press) will be available Sept 1st, 2014.

The Zen of Backstory

Backstory.

It's become an almost-taboo word. It's been associated with evil things like info dumps and terrible first chapters and near-dead pacing.

While true, those things are just half the story of backstory.

Backstory is also what gives a novel its emotional value. It explains a character's motivations and deepens conflict. Without backstory, your character is shallow. Her actions and reactions are random and meaningless.

Finding the perfect balance isn't an easy thing to master but you can learn to do it--it's all about relevance, technique, and timing.

The "What"

Backstory is an abbreviated term for "background story". When beginning a novel, the writer must first explore the character--their emotions, their motivations and any relevant history that will impact their actions and reactions.

Just as a background check examines relevant history of a job applicant, so must the writer learn to focus on the character's relevant history.

For instance, a background check for someone applying to drive a school bus will include having their driver's license inspected for driving violations. They’ll also be scanned for a history of child abuse, drug abuse, and other arrests/violations. A prospective employer isn’t going to care if they are on a bowling team or if their favorite color is chartreuse or if they won Best In Show at the recent farm fair.

Relevance is mandatory.

Sometimes it means excluding a lot of nifty stuff about your character. However, just like in the plotting, if the backstory doesn’t directly move the story forward, it doesn't belong in your novel.

The "How"

Backstory must be artfully inserted into the story. Long chunks of narrative are bad things. You think you’re doing a favor to the reader by explaining something but…it’s boring. (and it's often telling, not showing.)

There are several different ways you can handle your backstory:

Flashbacks: These are tough to write because you have to write them in past perfect tense. Use them sparingly…flashbooks look back and stories look forward. Flashbacks lose the momentum.

Monolog: An option if you’re writing in third person subjective POV.

Dialog: A great way (and one of my favorites). Questions, accusations, tones...it all can allude to a character's history.

Prologue: A prologue is still a first chapter because it gets read first. You better make it good because a bad prologue loses a reader's interest.

Memories: Another good way to use backstory. However, don’t get lost in memory lane because…it's boring. Spot memories are better. We don't need to know everything at once.

Internal dialog: Also a good option, but be careful you don’t head hop. Stay in the correct character's point of view.

Props: Why not? A novel's setting is part of the unspoken story. Keepsakes on a mantle, a collection of books, a ring on a necklace. They can all be used as backstory.

The "When"

The trick is writing your character's backstory so that they know something relevant at a time they need to know it and not one second sooner.

Get the story going before you shed light on the backstory. In most cases, you don't want a drop of it in chapter one--just strong forward moving action/story. You may add the backstory as another layer but be sure you don’t smother your story with it – rather dribble it like a succulent chocolate glaze over a buttery Bundt cake, adding flavor and depth.

Backstory should deepen a character. Use it when your character needs to show why they think and feel and act the way they do in different situations.

The Wrap

Relevance. Technique. Timing. These are the keys to finding the perfect balance of backstory.

Too much backstory and your story will stall to a sludgy stop. Too little and the reader will not develop an emotional connection to your characters. If we can't soldier through the slow spots or if we can't care about the characters, we won't finish reading a book.

Learn how to artfully work with backstory so you can find the perfect balance your story needs.

Photo credit: nazreth

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who resides in the heart of the Pennsylvania coal region, where she keeps the book jacket for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in a frame over her desk. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her newly released urban fantasy "Bleeding Hearts: Book One of the Demimonde" (Pink Narcissus Press 2012).

Taking Time to Enjoy Life

Courtesy of Nossirom

It's that wonderful time of year again. The month that's stuffed full of celebrations and family togetherness. And like all times like this, crazy, hectic, busy.

And some of that frenetic energy can dribble into other aspects of our lives like writing. As a goal-driven Triple A-type personality, this means that I watch self-appointed deadlines whoosh by with tense muscles and fierce determination to somehow keep on top of everything.

But doing that defeats the purpose.

In order to be productive, certain goals need to be met--whether they're openly stated or not. And yet, sometimes it's all too easy to get caught up in the doing and checking off of little boxes that we lose sight of why we're doing what we're doing. At least I do. Not only does this add to the other stresses, but it also drains my creativity well until there's nothing left but a little sand and a lot of rocks.

So this year, and the next, I'm going to work on enjoying life a little more. Writing is important. My book schedule is good because it keeps me going and gives me something to aim for--so long as I remember that it's just there to help me accomplish the tasks I set out to do. But when those goals become all I see--mostly because they're the balls that keep slipping away as I try to juggle everything--then I need to remember to take a step back and just breathe.

It's a proven fact that breathing helps you live longer, so I'm going to aim to do it a little more often.

Sometimes it's okay to turn off the Writing Boss glaring at you from behind a cluttered desk in a corner of your brain. Sometimes it's okay to ignore the empty word count bar and go on an outing with family and friends. Sometimes it's okay to watch a movie, read a book, have a conversation with a friend instead of getting the writing done.

It's all about balance. When the joy that comes from uncovering the threads of a story becomes work for an extended period of time, then it's probably a good idea to stop. Step back. And take stock of what's really going on.

I've found that even if I miss deadlines I've set for myself, if I'm balanced, I'm a lot more productive than when I force myself onward and upward too hard for too long.

So this next week, instead of chaining myself to the computer to stay on track, I'm going to slip out into a world filled with wonder and colorful lights. I'm going to enjoy the sound of laughter and joy, and watch the snow coat everything with white.

Because *not* sitting at a keyboard and writing doesn't mean you're not being productive. Sometimes stepping away from the goals and the writing means you're filling up your creative reservoir and giving yourself space to take off so you can really fly.

How do you know when it's time to take a step back and just enjoy what's going on in the here and now?

 Danyelle Leafty (@danyelleleafty) writes MG and YA fantasy. In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She can be found discussing the art of turning one's characters into various animals, painting with words, and the best ways to avoid getting eaten by dragons on her blog.