I’m away for a bit.
Hey gang. I know you can’t wait for the next episode of 5 a day with Jay, but it will have to wait until Monday. I will be taking a short break. So, instead, here is a picture of a bird hiding behind a branch.
Until next time!
Stay Awesome!
I’m stuck in a rut, but not with my writing.
I love playing video games. Be it on my phone or on my computer. If you gamify something, like learning, I’ll play that game all day long. There are measures of success. Levels to work through. Usually a clearly defined goal to get to.
Every so often, there will a level that will come up. There will be something about that Angry Birds level that eludes me and I can’t get past it. Or breaking blocks and it feels to random that there’s no getting past that level. Or even a boss that needs to be defeated and no matter how many times I try, I cannot get past him. I’ll try over and over again and my frustration will grow because I know there has to be a way past that level, right? Others have gotten past it. Others have made it past and posted videos how to do it, yet I’m stuck.
This is where I’m at with my writing career. I’ve hit a level I cannot get past and I’m unsure what it is I’m doing wrong. I feel I’m doing everything right, but I’m not seeing results. I’m doing everything I can to get to that next level, but I’m not performing the correct movements. I’m not doing the correct incantation. I’ve not summoned the correct gods of made the right sacrifice.
As frustrating as this is, I know I must move on. Why? Read the quote in the image above again. I’m going back to where I stated with all this. Writing stories that make me happy. Stories I want to read and only I can write. I’m not done with trying to keep my career going. Heavens no. I’ve thrown in the towel one too many times. This time, I press forward for me. If others come along for the ride, I think that’s awesome.
Some day I will figure out the secret combination that is growing my audience. That’s where I’m stuck is trying to figure out how to get people to notice what I’m doing. For now, it’s all about creating art, and pumping that art out consistently. Moving forward, getting works into the wild, and letting people find me.
For now.
Yes, one day I’ll need to do more, but for now, I’ll be happy with this level and not let it get me down. I’ll keep banging my head against the door and pounding my fingers on the keyboard. Much of discovery is about luck. The more content I put out, the less luck I’ll need for someone to find me.
Until next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Well that was quite a surprise.
When I woke up this morning, I thought something had happened. I had quite a number of alerts on my phone. That only happens if something has gone horribly wrong at work.
Nothing went wrong at work.
The notifications were people liking my blog posts that I’d written quite some time ago. A series of posts about how I write so quickly. I picked up several new followers of this blog (Hello! I’m so glad you decided to join the madness that rattles around my brain.).
Of course, there had to be a reason. I mean, my posts see 1-5 hits over the course of a week. Why did I suddenly have 25 on some old posts?
Oh! Oh yeah. I’d mentioned another author where you could find some good writing resources. He reciprocated. Because Harvey is swell like that.
Now, first off, that was never my intention. Yes, I’m working on building my author platform and part of that is linking to sites I read and authors I follow. It is NOT requesting them to link back to me. Don’t get me wrong. I greatly appreciate the link back. As of now, I’ve had over 50 new hits to the site today. I’m over the moon with new eyes coming over.
I know this will be a flash in the pan. I’ve been on this roller coaster long enough to know that the bump is nice, but most will glace in and that’s all the further they’ll make it. For those that do stick around to see what I’m doing, Hello, I’m J.R. Murdock. I’m so happy you’re here.
This is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle I’ve never been able to figure out. How to grow my audience. Yes, I’ve read books and I was already doing all the steps in the books. Yes, I would review things and link to authors who would link back to me. Yes, I would put out books, and books, and more books. At best, I’d get a few sales, sell a short story, and a couple of times, be included in a book bundle.
The onus is on me, of course. I haven’t been the most consistent author when it comes to releasing books. I get going with doing this blog and fall off the map. I’ll get working on a project and stop in the middle. 100% my fault.
My goal since I got back to this was to keep going. Even in the face of hopeless failure at every turn, I wanted to keep pressing forward and document how I’m doing, what I’m feeling, and hopefully, pick up a new reader or two along the way. I stopped worrying about how many people are here reading my site and started doing this for myself and my own piece of mind. It’s like the books I write. I’m writing the stories for me. I want to know how they end. I want to see my heroes succeed. It’s for me. Should someone else read what I’m writing and enjoy it. Wonderful! But that is no longer my measure of success.
Enough on that topic for today.
Another author resource you’ll want to follow is Sandra Wickham. She is awesome and quite helpful. She has some free resources and also paid, guided resources for authors at all levels. Check her out at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/writerswhowantenergytowrite and https://sandrawickham.com/.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
A day off…from work.
I’m doing my recording and posting done early today and I’ll spend time writing next.
Had the day off today and got a bunch of yard work/house work done that I’ve been putting off. Needed to take a long break after that (and some Tylenol).
Then I started digging through my emails and found a LOT of WMG Publishing campaigns I’d back and never went to get my stretch goals. D’OH! I have rectified that as best I could. Sent off an email for some rather old ones and I have no expectations that my email will be honored because it’s entirely my fault for waiting far too long to redeem those rewards. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I get them and will take full advantage.
Those rewards are lectures and courses WMG offers. I’ll link below to the teachable site so if you’re interested, you can also check out what they have to offer. So worth the money to invest in your writing career.
As well, here are some links to other writing resources I recommend. If there is interest in this, I can post more in the future. Let me put in this one caveat: Don’t get so obsessed with writing advice that you fail to write.
WMG Publishing on Teachable:
https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/
Dean Wesley Smith’s Blog:
https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
Kris Rusch’s Blog:
https://kriswrites.com/
I should be Writing (Mur Lafferty):
http://murverse.com/subscribe-to-podcasts/isbw/
Harvey Stanbrough:
https://hestanbrough.com/
Dead Robots’ Society:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/drspodcast/
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
My first time being on the other end of an interview.
It’s not too often I get to try something new at work. Sure, there are challenges that come my way and I face them with the gusto I face any challenge.
A majority of the time, those do not require me to interact with other people.
This week saw me on the other end of the interview chair. It was a nerve-wracking process. My goal was to keep things on track. Stay level-headed. Try to keep the interviewee comfortable. Oh, and keep the other two aiding me in the interviewing engaged as well.
My boss had already interviewed the candidates, but wanted 3 of us to do a follow-up interview to see how the candidates might fit with the team personally and professionally. I feel the three of us accomplished that. All 3 interviews went great. The most difficult part was ranking the candidates. It went from a relaxing interview, to the 4 of us talking in cold terms about how we felt about each candidate.
I think the team will benefit regardless of which person is selected. We lost a great team member and all 3 we interviewed bring a lot to the table.
On the writing front, words happened. More may happen this weekend. We’ll see.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Doing Art and I don’t feel like Doing Art.
Tonight, as I’ve done many times in the past, I didn’t feel like sitting down and writing. Hey, it happens. Sometimes it feels better to sit around doing nothing than doing something.
I got done with work and I was tired. Like 100% blah! I was done. I was spent. I didn’t really even feel like getting onto the recumbent bike and working out. I was done for the day.
Well, I got on the bike. I need to drop a few pounds and they’re not going to lose themselves. Trust me, I’ve tried. They stick around like gum on your shoe. If you don’t put in the miles, they’ll still be there.
Then I sat and ate and still didn’t feel like writing, but I did want to re-read the section in V&A Shipping 3 that I wanted to tied into GRCP3. I’d done a bit, but not a lot so I started writing with the intention of just getting the setting in place and leaving it for tomorrow.
A few more words because, hey, it was interesting to revisit that place.
And a few more words because I was finally getting into this character’s head.
Then a few more words because I’d introduced the character I was getting to.
Well, heck, I was almost done with the chapter, so I might as well finish it, right?
So, I did.
1250 written when I had no intention of sitting down and writing. It felt good. Then I decided, since I’m already sitting here, why not get 5 a day knocked out. And I did that as well. And a TikTok Time Lapse. And the thumbnail for 5 a day.
I’ve found over the years, I can still be productive even when I’m not feeling it. I’ve got a streak going and I’ve no intention of stopping now. If I do, I run the risk of not getting back to it.
Remember, my goal is to write 5 days per week, do 5 a day with Jay 5 days a week, and relax and enjoy my weekends. So far, that’s working for me.
How about you? What works for you when creating art? Do you need a schedule, a timeline, do you just wing it? I’d love to hear from you.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Now that you created a backup, take some time to get organized.
One of the reasons I wasn’t in a mad panic for days after what happened last night, was because I’ve taken time to organize my files and folders to make it easy to locate what I’m looking for.
I’m not trying to say I have the best method possible. All I’m saying is, if you’re new to your writing career, take the time now to figure out an organization method that will make it easy to find what you’re looking for. Put things in folders and label things so you can keep track of them.
If you want to keep versions of files (instead of only having the latest on hand, figure out a naming convention for your files. I usually append the date on my files if I’m going to keep an historical version. Example, VAShipping3-20210210.doc would be how I would label a file so I know the last time that file was used was on the Year/Month/Day. I do this when working with files at work while I’m coding. Helps when something goes wrong and I need to backtrack and find the latest, working version of a file.
Again, I don’t claim to have the best organization method that will work for every one. What I have is a system that works for me. I’m confident, if you put your mind to it, you could come up with a brilliant method.
If you have decades of work and need to organize things, I wish you luck. It’s not easy to take a mass of work and decide “I want this in nice buckets” and get it all straightened out in a short time. It’ll take work. You might need help. You might need a lot of help. I don’t know.
At any rate, I’m off to make some words happen.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
J.R. Murdock 