Tag Archives: Admin stuff

Website Additon of “Help With Writer’s Block” page

I’ve created a website page that has links to the posts that are most focused on dealing with writer’s block and other creative blocks. Over time I’ll add to it, and add links so it can work as a resource page. I want to do this as a way to start “paying it forward” for all the help I’ve received from other artists.

A Mistake I Made on WordPress

I really like using WordPress for doing a website.  Great user interface and templates to use.  I like supporting them directly by being a customer of theirs.

Tonight I discovered I’ve been making the mistake of only looking at my website as a whole.  I check my blogroll links regularly, but I never had a need to click on my blog post links.  So imagine my dismay when I clicked on an individual blog post tonight, only to discover a bunch of Google ads at the bottom of the post’s page.   And then realized that every individual post page displays this sort of junk.

One ad was for a vanity press, which peeved me off to no end.

It was my fault this happened.  I ought to have clicked around my website more throughly.

Anyways, now that I know about the junk ads showing up at the bottom of individual posts, I’ve done the necessary work behind the scenes to get rid of the junk ads for good.

Changes on this Website

There will be various changes coming to this website in the next six months, the first of which (the design) just happened tonight.  Also, all comment sections have been turned off and will remain off in the foreseeable future–I’ve had too many problems with spam behind the scenes and I don’t have the extra time to mess with it.

The good news is that I’m too busy because my writing career is picking up speed.

Working on a Problem Changes Everything

I used to have what I nicknamed “submissions block.”   I wrote, but I had a near phobia about submitting my work to editors or letting readers see it.  To help deal with that problem I started this blog back in the fall of 2008.

And over time, this blog helped me deal with that borderline phobia and move past it.  I began to submit my work to editors, and let readers see it.   I’ve also been getting feedback behind the scenes these past few months from some of the best editors in my genre.  As a result of all this work, what I need from this blog is changing.

I’m getting very close to being published.

So the focus and format of this blog will change over the next six months.  I will continue to try to post on Sundays, but the topics will probably expand beyond writing subjects.   The appearance of the website will also change.

I’ve really appreciated the emails I’ve received offline from readers of this website this past year.

Tiny changes over time can change a life beyond recognition.  I am no longer the writer I was back in 2008–I’ve come a long way since then.  I still have a long way to go, but I’m unstuck and moving faster and faster each month.

Question: Why Do You Post So Infrequently?

Question:  Why do you post so infrequently?

Answer:  Limited writing time.   The current manuscript always comes first, and lately there’s been no leftover time for posting.  So I try to make sure to post stuff I think will be helpful to other writers over the next few years.

Question of the Week: Why comments off?

Q:  Why do you turn comments off on old posts so quickly?

A:  Spam (cue Monty Python singing “Spam Spam Spam…”).   By turning comments off on old posts, I keep my spam at manageable levels.   If anyone ever yearns for discussions about writing that go on for years, the forums at Absolute Water Cooler are a fantastic resource.

Dealing with Submissions Block

As I’ve talked about before in previous posts, I’ve had trouble with writer’s block and submissions block, which is why I like to post about them in the hopes of helping some other writer down the road.

The writer’s block problem I was able to successfully deal with a couple of years ago.

My final steps in dismantling submissions block only happened about a month ago.  Until then, I could count the number of submissions I’d done to fiction editors over my entire life on my fingers (no toes needed).   This blockage continued for years despite getting requests to see more of my work from former editors at Asimov’s and Tor.   Instead I ran away as fast I could.

The truth of the matter is that I had a phobia about showing my work to other human beings, and until it was dealt with, I wasn’t going to go anywhere.

In the end, it took what psychologists call “desensitization.”  Like someone afraid of spiders, I had to to develop a detailed campaign to slowly dismantle the submissions block.

And so I did.   I started this blog as a way to deal with the problem, and as the block fades away, I suspect this blog will change.   I fell silent here for almost two months as I dealt with the severe stress of getting queries out in an organized determined manner for the first time ever.

I find that rejection itself is okay, and I can deal with it fine.  The mundane reality of rejections is much less frightening than the bizarre phobic fears I once had.

Great website to check for forum spammers

Sorry for the delay in posts.  I’ve been on travel and finishing a major edit.  Also, I’ve been dealing with a sudden flood of forum spam.

If you do a blog, I highly recommend the Stop Forum Spam website.  Wonderful resource for doing a quick background check. I wish I’d found it sooner.

Anyways, new posts on the way over the next seven days since I have a backlog of stuff to say or point out.

I’ve realized I’m writing letters in internet bottles, not a blog

I’ve gone and changed the description of this site (i.e. the subtitle), since I don’t post regularly enough to call it a “blog.”  It’s more like short letters I write, stick into bottles, and then toss onto the internet seas.

Everything got backed up posting-wise as I’ve been trying to find the time to watch uninterrupted an interview with Richard Peck before I post, but I think it best at this point I skip it and do a post on Scott McCloud tomorrow since that one is ready to go.

The more I think about it, the more I realize this isn’t a blog.  It’s more a slowly built “thought map” where I’m trying to write notes that can be of help to other fiction writers.  I’ve tried to index categories and tags in such a way that users can easily look for all the posts on a subject such as “writer’s block.”

Anyways, I’ll do my best to post on at least a weekly basis, though my fiction writing must come first, so there may be points where I’m delayed.

Change in post schedule (Admin stuff)

Sorry I disappeared there for a bit.   I’m in the midst of rewriting a 137,000+ words first draft down to at least 100,000 words in the second draft.  The plot in the middle of the first draft is an utter mess, so I’m having to write new scenes, throw out others, and completely rewrite everything that stays.  But I’ll have a much tighter story when I’m done.

And I have to get this done–I’ve been offered the opportunity to completely skip the slush pile once this manuscript is cleaned up.

So I’m switching to a Monday/Thursday post schedule. Later tonight I’ll finish up the post on WHISPER OF THE HEART.