SO Much More to a Writreat than Writing

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brainstorming, friends, fun, revising, shenanigals, thoughts, unexpected joy, writers, writing, writreat

For the last few days I’ve been away. If you read my last post, you know where.

This was the first, but not the last meeting of the Shenanigals. A group of four writers who met on Twitter, then came face to face at a writers’ conference, and since then have become a source of support and love to each other.

Logo designed and drawn by Marjorie Brimer

I am lucky to be a part of this group. Seriously lucky.

Photo by a nice woman who was sitting by the pond…

So we spent a few days together, ready to write and chat and revel in general silliness.

I went with a manuscript that needs to be revised before I send it to a few critique partners. Others were thinking about notes from agents and editors. And one, dear Jamie, went through her entire book…again. A true rock star.

I didn’t know what exactly would happen. I didn’t really know what to expect, considering we had hung out at a writers’ conference, but never in this type of setting.

Writing did happen…

As did silliness…

Adoring a beautiful kitty…

Aw…Pepper! Photo by Jamie.

Watching a show called Botched…so much cringing…

Good food…

Deep discussions about, well, everything…

Much brainstorming about what we are all working on. The creativity was flowing freely…

Possibly a tattoo…

Okay, yes, a tattoo. Isn’t it wonderful? Go, Jamie! You handled that like a champ! You be the light in the world!

Yet, something happened that I wasn’t expecting. I went in with fear. Fear of these revisions. Fear of messing up this manuscript. Fear of failing.

As I sat around with these great people, my fear lessened. I started revising. And then I met chapter nine, learned that nothing happened in that chapter, faced that I had to rearrange things and fix it…panicked slightly…

But everyone gathered around and reminded me that I am pretty cool…and pretty talented…and to not be afraid.

So I did it. I faced chapter 9 and redid it. Let me tell you, it is so much better now. The words felt right as I wrote them.

Even though I still have to pick up the mess of restructuring the story, I am not afraid. I am ready. I am going to power through the rest of this story and get it sent to those fabulous readers, who are waiting.

All the memories. All the fun. All the learning about each other and building stronger bonds.

I carried fear in with me and left it there, dropped it and let it die. So no matter how much writing I did or didn’t get done, that is the best thing that could have happened for my words.

This is what’s best when writers unite. The bonds. The support. The willingness to chat about everything. The acceptance.

Shenanigals forever

And I might have a signed ARC of Rena’s new book WITH YOU ALWAYS…OUT IN A LITTLE OVER A MONTH! Okay…I DO HAVE ONE! You can be jealous.

 

I’m Going on a Writreat Adventure!

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fun, magic friends, Rena Olsen, shenanigals, thoughts, With You Always, writers, writing retreat, writreat

A what adventure? You may ask, your face squashed in confusion…

A WRITREAT! Writing retreat!

I have heard of writers going off to write in far away places…or just a hotel down the street…by themselves or in groups, having time to write without the distractions of home. No kids who need rides or food. No laundry. No schedule.

I have heard of this magical experience, but never thought it would be me. BUT IT IS.

This week…well in two days…I will be leaving my hubs and kids to fend for themselves and driving to another state where I will be meeting up with three other writers! Rena, Jamie, Margie, and I, aka the Shenanigals, will have a weekend of writing, chatting, eating, laughing, and general silliness. Instead of getting on Twitter looking for support, I will have writers to smack me into working in the same room! I THINK THIS WILL BE MAGIC!

I need a little (or big) kick in the rear, because I have told CPs that this manuscript will be ready for them by the end of the month. AND THAT IS SOONER THAN I THINK.

I MUST DO THE REVISING.

And the four of us can celebrate (a little early) Rena’s next book…WITH YOU ALWAYS…RELEASE DATE IS AUGUST 7th!!!

I’m excited!

About the book…AND GETTING TO SPEND TIME WITH MY WACKY, BRILLIANT WRITER FRIENDS. They are so nice to let me tag along, because let’s be honest, they are soooooo much cooler than me.

So…I leave in two days and have things to do.

I CAN’T WAIT! THE TIME IS ALMOST HERE!

The Great Social Media Adventure

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blogs, connecting with readers, connecting with writers, Facebook, hashtags, instagram, social media, thoughts, Twitter, using social media, writers, writing

Social media is an adventure.

For some it’s a way to have fun and connect with people who have the same interests. For some it’s a way to market.

For authors…it’s both.

And we struggle to discover how it can best work for us. So, I am sharing my social media story, my adventure.

Social media is a tool. To build friendships. To research and find agents, editors, cover designers, and publishers. To build your brand…to be yourself, to show people who you are and what you stand for, to share how you see the world. To learn about writing. To find critique partners. To find support.

I am on Twitter, with 7,488 followers (as I type this). @KathleenPalm

I am on Instagram, with 133 followers (as of now). kathleen.palm

I have a Facebook author page, with 100 likes (as of this moment). Kathleen Palm

They are all my name, the name I write under. I did that on purpose, to make it easy to find me…if anyone looks, which is the key, right? Is anyone looking? No idea.

I have this blog…TA DA!

And I post twice a month on The Midnight Society blog…a place for horror fans!

Good? Bad? I have no idea. But it is what it is. I’m out there. Yea me!

Obviously, I have been most active on Twitter. My account has been active for about five years, I really started using it four years ago. I love it there. All my friends are there! Though it can get a bit mean and nasty, I try to not get sucked into the muck. I use Twitter to connect with writers, to build my CP pool, to find support when it’s been a bad day, to spread happiness to my fellow writers, to celebrate all the things. To share books that are being released, to share books I’m reading. I live-tweet a horror movie once a month, part of my “Let’s Watch a Horror Movie” series on The Midnight Society blog, which is super fun!

Hashtags are fun, use them to find people who have similar interests. Like dogs? There’s a hashtag for that. Cats? Gardening? Fantasy? There are hashtags for everything. People who aren’t following you…could find you through the hashtags.

Great tags for writers?

#amwriting, #amreading, #amrevising, #amediting…there are so many more, including ones to share lines from your WIP. We find each other as we face frustration and victory. The writing community is awesome.

I have started a few, mostly to make my friends smile. #MountieMonday #MomoaMonday #MyLittlePonyMonday #MuppetMonday #MinionMonday (All those to help make Mondays happier) #Theosday (to celebrate Theo James, which happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays) #WeDEANsday (for Dean Winchester) #FRYANday (because Ryan Gosling). These are fun. I like fun.

My Facebook author page…well, that’s where I post anything writing related. I will post updates and sometimes lines from my current WIP. I will share blogs about writing. But I struggle with it’s purpose, to really enjoy using that spot. It’s there, maybe I’ll stop forgetting about it. Maybe.

This blog. It’s here. I try to post consistently, but sometimes I have to let it go. I try to post about writing, share what I know. I post about things that make me smile, to make others smile. I like to share the magic of the world. Because the world is magic and we sometimes we forget.

When I was asked to joined The Midnight Society blog, I was over the moon excited and honored! I love horror and I love the people who blog there. We are a family who love creepy. I have learned so much from them, my horror horizons have been broadened. THANK GOODNESS!

Now onto my newest project…Instagram.

I am a YA author. So I need to market to teens. Twitter? Maybe. FB? Maybe. Instagram? YES!

Though I will say that my thoughts on selling to teens is through the actual teens. Word of mouth. Friends telling friends…so I will be using my daughter and her friends. BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME!

I joined an Instagram for authors FB page, to learn from others and share what I learn so we can rock the Instagram.

#igauthorlife, #igauthor would be that group. We did a #myfavoritereadsweek last week where each day we posted a pic of our favorite books and why we love them. There are people out there searching for books to read! I know…shocker, right? They are happy to find books they didn’t know existed. I had one person so happy that I posted about Amy Lukavics’ THE WOMEN IN THE WALLS, because she didn’t know about it. Someone else was very interested in MG book THE SEARCH FOR WONDLA by Tony DiTerlizzi.

Through this group, I hope to connect with people on Instagram. Because it’s fun…because someday I’ll want to share my books!

Tip…I linked my Instagram to FB and Twitter, so the one post goes to all three. That is a life saver!

What I am trying:

Being myself, sharing everything me.

#adventureswithKathy and #magicexists…where I post pics of the things I see, odd things with my strange way of viewing them…where I take everyone out into the world with me.

Reading.

#amreading, #booksofinstagram, #ilovebooks, #yalit, #yabooks… also hashtag the title and author…to share my reactions while I read. To share what I love. To introduce others to a book they might not have known existed.

At the moment it is #scythe by #nealshusterman…OMG THIS BOOOOOOOK!

Other life things.

#catsofinstagram, #dogsofinstagram, #gardening…anything else that I love.

I am seeing a lot of likes form people I don’t know and a few have followed me.

What else have I learned? Hashtags can be overwhelming. There are so many, type in #book…and the list is enormous! Do I need them all? Do I choose the ones with the most posts? I have no idea. I tend to be a less is more person, so I don’t overwhelm my posts with hashtags. Right…wrong? It is what I am doing.

Tip…do what works for you. Don’t stress over what might work better, what you should be doing. All the guessing could kill the fun.

AND IT SHOULD BE FUN! If you’re not having fun…no one else will.

Overall, it comes down to being consistent. No one is following…no one is following…keep going! Try not to focus on the followers and turn your attention to you, how you want to portray yourself, really stretch your wings and FLY!

Be yourself. One of the best compliments I ever received when I met a Twitter friend in person was “You are just like you are on Twitter!”.

It me.

It always me.

See you around the web!

A Writer’s Brain

Tags

being a writer, characters, crazy minds, differences, life of a writer, writers, writing

The inner workings of a writer’s mind is a strange and wonfabutastic thing. The crazy thought processes. The characters that won’t stop talking. The way we interpret the world.

Every once in a while, I stop and wonder at the weirdness.

Every writers’ work process is different. Plotting or pantsing. Word count goals or merely hoping for one more word. Write early in the morning or late at night. A set schedule or tossing the plan out the window.

Yet, so many things tie us together. The way life can throw us off. The way the characters can draw us back in. The way we can get lost in the worlds we create.

I haven’t worked on Doors 3 for… a while. I mean who’s counting? Not me. There were distractions. The call of short stories, you know I can’t resist. Well, one was submitted and rejected. Oh well. I submitted another last weekend. Fingers crossed, kids. I also went through another short, but that one isn’t clicking, so I left myself some great notes (I’m sure I won’t be able to interpret later) and moved on.

Well, moved back. Back to Bryn and her adventures through the doors. Back to her friends Ith, Akk, Cal, and Creech. Back to a universe full of every world imaginable. I love it there. Going back always takes me a minute of reading what I wrote, thumbing through my mess of notes, of remembering. Yet, no matter how long I’ve been gone, the characters welcome me. They want their story told.

Isn’t that cool!?!?!?!! I set the story aside, but when I picked it back up, BAM!, I fall in love all over again. HOW DOES THAT WORK?!!?!?

Doors 3 crossed 10,000 words last night. I always feel pretty good when I hit that number. There’s so much left, but I can’t focus on how far I have to go, only the next scene, the next paragraph…sentence…word. That’s how books are built.

No more distractions. No more leaving to go write other things. I’ve had my short story fun and now I will finish Doors 3. How long? Who knows. I’m just going to keep chugging along. That’s what writers do. We all have different routines, different ways to write, different inspirations, but we all listen to the voices in our heads. No matter how frustrated, we love it and return to the words as often as we can. The words always welcome us back.