How To Keep Blogging From Being a Popularity Contest

Ever felt like someone was befriending you for the sole purpose of benefitting themselves? Or ever felt like someone was visiting your blog only to get you to come back over to theirs and follow them?

As writers working on building platforms, how can we broaden our online presence without coming across as self-serving? On the one hand, we need to befriend others if we hope to build an online presence, but on the other, we don’t want them to perceive us “using” them.

Tessa Hall recently asked me this question: “I don't want to seem as if I'm trying to be friendly with everyone only so I can have a rise in followers on my blog. How do you have such a strong online following, but still remain humble through the process?”

I don’t think too many of us would argue that having an online presence is critical in today’s over-saturated book market. It’s definitely helped me in countless ways. In fact, it quite possibly could have helped my book to the CBA Best Seller List. Of course there were many other factors involved in getting onto the List. But certainly having an established online presence gave my debut book a boost.

Yes, as writers we need to be using social media. But how can we go about expanding our online presence without making blogging (or twitter/facebook) into popularity contests?

Focus on learning how to write.

I don’t feel like I can write a post like this without emphasizing the importance of growing as a writer. If we spend more time on social media than on writing, then we need to pull back from blogging, twittering, or whatever, and we need to re-prioritize. Writing should always get the bulk of our best time, and social media should get the leftover. As I’ve said many times, a solid platform won’t do us any good if we don’t have a stellar book to go with it.

Start developing online friendships early.

Although I believe a “young” writer should spend the majority of time on writing, I also think that when a writer starts social media efforts early, they can do so without the pressure to “market” that comes later. The beginning friendships often lay the foundation for later increased efforts.

Reach out the hand of genuine friendliness.

For the most part, I approach online friendships the same way I do real life friends. I have an open heart to building new friendships. My circle is never closed. Yes, I do have some friends I’m naturally closer to than others. And no, I don’t have as much time as I’d ideally like to devote to putting into all of the friendships I’ve made online and real life. But nevertheless, we can socialize in a truly friendly way with whoever comes across our paths.

Work at being a good friend.

Think about all of the things we like in our friends. We like it when friends take an active interest in our lives and listen to us, instead of just talking about themselves. We appreciate when they encourage us and share in both our joys and sorrows. Sometimes we need a helping hand, word of advice, or even a kick in the pants. Whatever qualities we want in our friends—those are the qualities we need to exhibit. In other words, when we work at being a good friend, we’ll make good friends.

Remember it’s about real people and not numbers.

I don’t make big deal about my numbers of followers. Sure, I like to see my following increase. To some degree, increasing numbers help us see that we’re on track with our effectiveness. But I never want to forget that behind each tiny profile picture is a real person, with real feelings and needs. The numbers really won’t mean much if we’re not building relationships.

Extend grace to one another.

As writers, we’re all in this together. We’re all working at developing our platforms. So, I completely understand when other writers follow or “friend” me for the purpose of developing an online presence. It’s the nature of the business. I also understand when others get too busy to stop by. Or have to pull back for a while. It’s happened to me, and I realize there are just times when we can’t keep up with social media. Hopefully, during those times, we can still give each other the benefit of the doubt and know that we’re still friends, even if we can’t visit each other’s blogs as regularly anymore.

~My Summary: Relate with real people in real ways. That’s what social media is all about.

What about you? Have you ever felt like blogging was a popularity contest—the more blogs you visit and follow, the more you’ll get back? What do you do to expand your online presence without making people feel used?

Keeping Things In Perspective

The laughter of a dozen children splashing in the water was like background music to my mother soul. As I sat on the back deck that overlooked the lake, I could keep an eye on my kids and talk with the other parents—a perfect way to relax on a humid summer evening.

The shout of “Marco” and the responding “Polo” wafted over the water. And I smiled as my four year old daughter attempted to join the big kids in their game.

Suddenly, quiet descended over the group of children, and their water tag came to a halt.

My body tensed, and I did a quick head count, making sure I could see all five of my children. One of my 11 year old twins stood with a hand over her mouth. The other kids quickly surrounded her. When she pushed her way through them and waded to the shore, my heart stuttered with a silent uh-oh.

I jumped up and raced to her, cringing with each step. Did she have a busted lip? A cut? A bruise?

Her big brown eyes gazed at me with confusion and horror.

“What happened?” I asked, not sure I really wanted to know.

She took her hand away and that’s when I saw it.

Half of her top front tooth was missing.

I could only stare, speechless. Her permanent tooth. Cracked. Missing.

One thought reverberated through my head, “She’ll have to live the rest of her life, all 80 plus years, with a broken tooth. The rest of her life. The rest of her life.” My beautiful daughter, on the brink of her insecure teenage years, would have a glaring black gap in her pretty smile.

I was devastated. Later at home, after the kids were in bed, I sat with my husband in stunned silence and wanted to cry. Why her? And why a tooth? Why couldn’t it have been a split lip instead? At least that would have healed.

Gravely, my husband finally said, “At least the dentist will be able to fix it. And we can be grateful it wasn’t anything worse.”

And that’s when I realized how easy it is to lose perspective. Through a tight throat I said, “If I’m a basket-case with a broken tooth, I’d hate to see myself if something worse happened to one of the kids.”

We’re bound to have those broken-tooth moments in life and in writing—those times when it feels like the world is ending, but in reality we’ve just hit a bump in the road. Usually, after we’ve had the chance to put the situation in perspective, we realize that the problem isn’t so big, that maybe it’s fixable, and that it could have been so much worse . . . after all what’s a broken tooth compared to a drowning?

I’m a passionate person. I feel things deeply. It’s a great quality to have as a writer because I can transfuse those emotions into my stories. It’s only healthy and right for all of us to experience our emotions, not to ignore them or gloss over them. We can embrace our disappointments, fears, and frustrations.

But . . . I’m learning that it’s also healthy to keep things in perspective. When we face another rejection, harsh criticism, or difficult situation, we can allow ourselves to feel the pain. But then we should eventually tell ourselves, “I can be grateful it wasn’t anything worse.”

Perspective. When we keep things in perspective, we learn to be more grateful for what we’re given, instead of focusing on what we’re missing.

How about you? Have you had any broken-tooth moments, when at the situation looked horrible, but in hindsight it wasn’t so bad? And what are you most grateful for?

(For all my American readers, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Due to the holiday, there will be no Friday post this week.)

*This post originally appeared on a guest post I did for Inkwell Inspirations.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Published-Author Life

My agent, me, & my editor

I signed a three book deal with Bethany House in September of 2009 and my first book released October 2010. So it’s been well over a year, now, that I’ve been a contracted author. As I thought about the past year, I realized I’ve learned a lot about publishers, agents, and the world of writing.

So often we hear about the rejections, the hard edits, the long waits, the lack of marketing, the low advances, and an abundance of other negative things related to publication. And it can get discouraging.

But what I’ve learned this past year, is that the publishing industry is NOT a big scary monster that sits high on a cliff pushing authors off and then laughing maniacally as we try to navigate the waters of published author life.

No, I’ve learned that the publishing industry is made up of real, caring people. While I realize there are always exceptions, I thought I’d share a few of the behind-the-scenes positives that I’ve experienced this past year.

My Publishing House—Bethany House Publishers:

• They’re interested in helping my career succeed, not just one book. They gave me a three book contract because they want to work with me long term, want to help me develop a brand and a readership, and want me to do well.

• My editors push me to work hard on my books, but it’s only because they care so much about making each story as excellent as possible. Every time I need to hash out an idea or talk more in depth about something, I’ve been able to schedule phone calls (including very long, 3 hour calls!). And they’re always available via email and respond to all my questions right away.

• The marketing department is behind me all the way. They’ve been receptive to my ideas, always accessible and encouraging, and have worked hard to promote my book. Most recently they’ve worked to set up a blog tour, a twitter giveaway, an interview with a book distributor, and are promoting my book to book clubs.

My Agent—Rachelle Gardner, WordServe Literary:

• She’s interested in helping my writing career succeed too. Just like my publisher, my agent has an investment in my writing career and not just one book.

• My agent is there beside me for each step of the journey. Most recently she’s been helping me think through the direction I need to go with my third book. She spent some time discussing it with my editors, working with them, trying to make sure the direction I take with Book 3 is best for my writing career.

• She cares about me as a person, not just as a writer. After I got my rewrites back on Book 2, Rachelle called me to see how I was doing. She’d just gotten back from vacation, was swamped and behind with her work. But she took the time to call, to listen to my frustration, to commiserate, but then also to encourage and inspire me to keep going.

Others within the writing industry:

• My Web Designer: My website is my home online. And PulsePoint, my web design team, is like the manager of my home. Since they work primarily with authors, they’re on top of the industry, watching out for my needs, and cheering me on. A couple of weeks ago, they surprised me by adding “share buttons” to the excerpt of The Preacher’s Bride that’s available on my Book Page.

• My Critique Partner: My critique partner has gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping me. She most recently finished critiquing my rewrites—meaning this is the second time she’s critiqued my entire book. Not only that, she’s always there to listen and encourage me whenever I’m having a rough day.

• Writer friends: And then, last but not least, I’ve found the online writing community to be a source of incredible encouragement and friendship. Other writers that I've met through blogging and twitter have supported me in countless ways. THANK YOU! If you’re a writer and not connected to a community of writers, I highly suggest getting plugged in.

There you have it! There are many more positives, too many to list. But for all of the negatives that we experience, I think every once in a while it helps to stop and count our blessings. What are the blessings you’ve experienced this past year in your writing life?

Writers Need This Quality To Reach Publication

If I had to pick one characteristic that I think is most important in helping writers make it to publication (particularly traditional publication), I’d have to say PERSEVERANCE. Yes, creativity, talent, skill, passion, learning, and growing are all essential too. However, we can have all the others, but without perseverance—especially in today’s tight market—we’ll likely let our discouragement trick us into giving up too soon.

This past fall, I had the opportunity to go out to lunch with some writer friends when I was in Toledo, Ohio for a book signing. During the course of lunch, we got to lamenting the lengthiness of all the waiting writers have to do. One of the ladies, Jill Kemerer, shared her discouragement over the length of time she’d been seriously pursuing publication, querying, and waiting for an agent or editor to take an interest in her stories and writing. She’d been working hard at it for years.

As we talked, we skirted around the unspoken question, “How long should a writer keep on trying before calling it quits?” I’d had the privilege to read some of Jill’s writing and knew how talented she was. In fact, she’d already had one agent ask for the full of her book. Even so, I couldn’t presume to know what would be best for her future. But I encouraged her to keep on trying.

Only a few short weeks later, I opened my inbox to find the kind of email that makes your heart stop for an instant then stutter forward at twice the speed. It was from Jill and the title said: “Good news!!” In her email she went on to say, “I just got an e-mail from Rachel Kent of Books & Such. She loved my book! She wants to have a phone conversation with me next Wednesday to discuss the possibility of representing me!!!!”

And now, after years of working hard, waiting expectantly, and persevering through discouragement, Jill is officially represented by agent, Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary, a highly reputed agency. What would have happened if Jill had given up a year ago, six months ago, or even that lunch date when I’d sensed her deep discouragement?

The lesson for all of us is that the path to traditional publication is especially rough. And often, perseverance is what separates the wannabe published from the successfully published.

But what is perseverance, exactly? And how can we make it work for us? Here are my thoughts on the main ingredients of PERSEVERANCE:

*Dreaming: We need to picture ourselves as published authors. Envision it. See the future. Toss away doubts. And embrace the dream whole-heartedly.

*Believing: Let the picture of being published take reality in our minds. Have the confidence to know we can do whatever we set our hearts to do.

*Planning: Establish realistic goals. Make a writing schedule. Read a couple of “how-to” books. Give our imagination space to create the story.

*Working: Plant our butt in a chair. Keep it in the chair. And make our fingers move over the keyboard until the day’s goal is met.

*Persisting: Stick to the plan. Write when sick or tired. Write when distracted, lazy, sad, and discouraged. Write when the words flow or when they trickle.

*Enduring: When we feel like giving up, don’t. When we’re sure we’ll never get a step further, keep walking. And when feel like our dreams are crashing down around us, start the perseverance process all over again.

Will there ever come a time in a writer’s life when they should quit? I think each of us has to decide that on an individual basis depending on our unique situations. However, I don’t think we should make the decision to quit based on the discouragement of the moment or the hardship of the situation. It’s much easier to quit when the going gets rough. That’s our natural inclination—to go for the easy, painless way.

But usually, real growth happens during the most painful times. We can let the difficulties motivate us to learn more, work harder, and keep growing. It’s by persevering through the long distance run that we can come out stronger on the other side. And it's only by sticking with it, that we'll be able to finally reach our destination.

What about you? Have you ever been tempted to give up because it seems too hard? What do you tell yourself to help you keep going?

Can An Online Presence Help Make a Best Seller?

One morning last week I woke up to find this tweet from author friend Rosslyn Elliott: “@JodyHedlund on CBA Bestsellers List! Go, Jody!”

At first I thought I was dreaming. After all, it was only 5:15. The daylight savings switch was messing with my sleep—I'd been staying up late to edit, but my internal alarm hadn’t adjusted to sleeping later in the mornings.

I gave myself a mental shake then scrunched my blurry eyes and read Rosslyn’s tweet again. Was I really on the Bestseller List? She had to be joking. I tweeted her back saying I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it and asked her to send me the link. Of course, since it was such an ungodly hour, I knew she wouldn’t see my tweet right away.

By this time, my eyes were wide open and my heart was thudding loud enough to wake my children. I googled “CBA Bestseller List,” and thankfully on the first try I found a link to the list. And sure enough, there I was. The Preacher’s Bride was #18 out of the top 20 fiction titles.

I sat back in my desk chair and stared at the screen, stunned. How had my book ended up there? Had someone made a mistake in calculating sales figures? Had the list-maker done eenie-meenie-miny-moe with a stack of debut author books and somehow landed on mine?

How does a book make a best-seller list? And more importantly, how in the world had mine made it?

Of course I got excited, shed a tear or two of joy, and said a few prayers of thanksgiving. In fact, all day my smile was about as big as the one on the above balloon (sent by a friend to congratulate me!). My mom called me. My husband kept hugging me. Many of my cyber friends got excited with me. All-in-all it was a great day of celebrating.

But over the ensuing days, the question lingered. How had my book made the list? I decided to get expert opinions on the matter. So I asked my agent, Rachelle Gardner, and also my Bethany House Publisher (BHP) editor, Dave Long.

My wise and wonderful agent said: “There was a lot of buzz about the book, and your blog is a big part of that. The connections you made with other writers have been very important, because it created word of mouth. Some of the decisions BHP made definitely helped - giving it primary position in catalogs, pushing it with online retailers, etc. These things sometimes make a big difference, but if nobody likes the book, they don't make a bit of difference. So the biggest factor is the fact that when people read your book, they like it! That's what makes them talk about it and pass the word. Your book is great! If it wasn't, nothing else would matter.”

My talented, top-notch editor said: “The full reason is likely a combination of a number of factors . . . [the book] was featured by Lifeway and CBD and in other Christian retailing catalogs as a way of having its profile raised with the readers shopping their bookstores. I think it has a cover ideal for the market that could appeal both to historical romance readers and bonnet fiction readers—which covers a pretty large group. Hopefully your efforts online and BHP’s marketing efforts helped spread the word. First and foremost, though, I think it’s a strong story that captured people and got them recommending it.”

Both my agent and editor mentioned my online efforts.

You may be wondering (as I was) HOW much influence did blogging and an online presence play in pushing my book onto the Best Seller List?

While there’s no accurate way to measure the correlation, I think it’s safe to say, blogging and building a web presence contributed to the buzz, helped with word of mouth, and pushed my book out farther than if I’d done nothing online. THANK YOU to each and every one of you who purchased my book, read it, and helped promote it. YOU are ALL part of the reason my book is doing so well!

If my blogging can make a difference in the sales of my book, that should encourage all of us to keep working on building an online presence, especially in the early days before we’re contracted. Yes, it takes a lot of work and effort to build a platform. But if we work at it slowly but steadily, the platform will take shape and will hopefully be tall and solid by the time our books hit the shelves.

Even more important than an online presence, however, is the quality of our stories. Both my agent and editor mentioned that the STORY trumps everything else. We can have perfect marketing efforts, but they won’t do us any good if our story doesn’t grab the reader.

Blog? Perhaps. Build an online presence? Yes. Pour out our hearts and souls onto paper? Absolutely.

What do you think? Did my online presence and/or blog influence you to read my book? And are you working at slowly building and broadening your platform so that you can give your book a better chance at succeeding?

3 Blogging Blunders

I’m not a blogging expert. And I’m certainly not a social media guru. But I have been blogging long enough that I’ve learned a few things about what can help make blogging successful.

Over the past year, my readership has steadily increased. And one of the factors that has played a role in the increase has to do with presentation. When a writer who’s serious about publication sets up a blog or website, in a sense, they’re hanging out a sign and saying, “open for business.” And as in any type of business, how we present ourselves is important. (Read this post: Maintaining a Professional Blog.)

A blog acts as a writer’s online “office.” It’s open to the public, to literally anyone in the world who wants to stop by. Our offices should reflect us—everything from the color we paint the walls to the pictures and decorations we set out. Sometimes, we can even decorate our cyber office in a way that reflects our writing style or voice. A great example is suspense writer, Brandilyn Collin's blog. The colors, headers, and font all work together to give an aura of suspense.

No matter how we choose to set up our offices, we want them to be inviting places—orderly, easy to read and navigate, and well-maintained. In other words, we want people to be able to stop by our offices, have a great experience, and ultimately desire to come back.

Since I’ve recently blogged about some of the positive things we can do to attract readers and generate more traffic to our blogs, I thought instead, I’d mention a few blogging blunders—things that may be detrimental to our online writing “business.” As with everything I write in my blog posts, I'm merely sharing my opinions. Everyone has the right to blog the way they want. There aren’t any hard fast rules about blogging—that’s one of the beauties of it.

With that said, if we hope to present ourselves as growing professionals in the writing industry, then we should think twice before doing the following:

Blunder #1: Not having our name clearly visible.

Occasionally, I visit writer blogs and I can’t find the blogger’s name anywhere. I’m not sure why some writers choose to avoid displaying their names. But those of us serious about publication have to get serious about having our names out there. If we’re too afraid to put it on our blogs, how will we cope with having it on our books?

It’s never too early to promote our names—on our blogs, in the comments we leave, with our twitter username, etc. The more places the better. From the start, we should use the name that we’ll put on our books. We should display it in the header of our blogs, and if not there, then it should be somewhere at the top of our blogs where everyone can see it right away.

Blunder #2: Not having our contact information easily accessible.

Yes, there are spammers. And yes, there are privacy issues involved in revealing our email addresses. But again, those of us serious about publication need to get used to the idea of having an email address that’s readily available—especially for future readers. We won’t be able to hide after publication, so why hide at all?

And what if an agent, editor, or other industry professional wanted to contact us? It’s been known to happen! What if they couldn’t find an email address?

Individuals and businesses who hope to succeed need to make themselves accessible. I have a Contact tab at the top of my blog. Listing our email address can suffice also. To avoid most spammers, we should spell out our emails. For example, whenever I put my email address on my blog I write it as: jodyhedlund (at) jodyhedlund (dot) com. Anyone wishing to contact me would fill in the area in parenthesis with the symbols.

Blunder #3: Focusing too much on ourselves.

I like blogs that are personal, especially when the writer shares about their experiences in their unique voice. But I like it even better when I come away after reading it challenged or changed in some way. In other words, I think there’s a difference between those who write to serve primarily themselves and those who write for their readers too.

If we’re only thinking about ourselves, it’s going to show. I’m not an advocate of posting large chunks of our stories within blog posts as a way to get critiques or to get noticed. I’m also not a fan of making a big deal of how many followers we have or don’t have. We're better to exude quiet confidence rather than chance coming across as desperate. If we’re hoping to present ourselves as professionals, then our “shop talk” is best left to the privacy of those closest to us.

So those are some of my opinions! What are yours? Are there other blogging blunders that you would add to the list? Or do you think we should do what we want in blogging and not worry about what anyone else thinks?

Pleasing Ourselves or Pleasing the Reader?

How do writers decide upon a story? Should we pay attention to what’s popular? Should we try to keep up with the trends? Or should we focus on what we want and not worry about what’s selling? It’s the age-old question, “Do we write to primarily please ourselves? Or do we write to please the reader?”

Here are some of the most common arguments for pleasing OURSELVES (as writers):

• Shouldn’t we as artists have a higher set of principles that guide us than market trends?

• If we strive to follow trends, what’s popular may change by the time our book is ready for publication.

• We have to stay true to what’s in our hearts because that’s the essence of who we are. If we try to write something we’re “not,” we risk betraying ourselves and writing drivel.

• If we can’t write what we truly and absolutely love, then what’s the point of writing at all?

Here are some of the most common arguments for pleasing the READER:

• Publishers need to invest in books they know will sell. They run a business and have to break even at the very least.

• Writers should trust publishing house professionals who see the sales figures on a daily basis and have a better idea of what readers love and buy.

• If a writer doesn’t care about readers, then why seek publication at all? Why not write simply for the pure pleasure of it and nothing more?

I’m getting ready to begin plotting my third contracted novel.

And to be honest, I’ve been struggling through this very issue. Can I write the book that I truly feel passionate about? Or do I need to focus on writing what readers will enjoy the most?

My Bethany House editor has given me some basic guidelines for the setting and era of Book 3. So, over the past few months, I’ve done some initial research, organized basic plots, tossed around some character ideas and sent in a couple synopses. But I haven’t felt particularly passionate about the ideas.

I’d love to be able to write about whatever I want, no matter the setting, time period, mood, characters, or plot. But, I also want to write something that people will enjoy reading, especially now that I’m getting comments like, “Can’t wait for your next book.” I’d hate to write a story that completely pleases me, but fails to satisfy my growing readership.

So is there a way to mesh the two dichotomies? Can we write for ourselves and still please the reader?

Here are just a few ways to do BOTH, to stay true to ourselves and please our readers:

• Understand the readers of our genre better. Make sure we know what they like best and how our book can fit within those expectations. And yet we can look at how we might be able to offer them something slightly new and different at the same time.

• Stay within the parameters of the market, but look for fresh, unique ideas that can push the boundaries just a bit. As author, Mike Duran recently said in an excellent post If You Write It, Will They Come? “Popular books uniquely capture or build upon market trends . . . an author needs both artistic vision and market savvy.”

• Take what we’re passionate about and look for ways to shape that into a story that may not exactly fit the mold, but is still appealing to readers.

If we’re seeking publication (particularly traditional publication), we have to remind ourselves that ultimately we’re seeking readers. We can’t ignore those readers, or we risk losing them. But we can’t ignore our needs either, or we risk losing passionate writing.

The mark of a great writer is one who can learn to balance the two needs. They're the types of writers who stay fresh and unique and write what they love, but are able to make sure their readers will love what they write too.

So, what’s your opinion? Should writers seek to please themselves or the reader? Or, like me, do you think there’s a way to do both?

Dealing With the Self-Doubt Monster

“Can I really do this?”

“Is my writing good enough?” or “What about my story? Is it strong enough?”

“What if I go to all this work and never get an agent?” or “What if I never get published?”

“What if no one likes my book?” or “Will everyone like the next one?”

“What if I don’t earn back my advance?”

“Do I have what it takes to keep going—to do all that’s required of a modern writer?”

On and on the doubts go. Most of us have had them. In fact, I’ve asked every single one of the above questions more than once, and on many occasions.

I had a recent attack by the self-doubt monster. This past weekend, I finished my second rewrites on The Doctor’s Lady (whoo-hoo!), and as I closed the Word Document, here are some of the questions that tore at me, “What if this story isn’t good enough? What if my heroine isn’t likeable? What if used too many clichés? What if I didn’t make my characters distinct enough?”

After spending the past ten and a half months writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting this second contracted book, you’d think I’d be exuding confidence. But instead, I was attacked with doubts.

All that to say, it’s normal for writers to have self-doubts. I think those without any self-doubt risk overconfidence. Those with too much risk debilitation. But if we’re careful, we can use our self-doubt as a motivational tool.

Without any self-doubt we risk becoming overconfident.

If we never stop to question ourselves and our abilities, if we don’t take the time to test our writing, if we brush off feedback (or never seek it), then we will likely develop a higher view ourselves and our writing ability than we truly have.

With too many self-doubts we risk becoming debilitated.

If we constantly question everything we write, second guess every change, and never move beyond a chapter or scene until its “perfect,” we chance stifling our creativity and shutting down the side of our brain that needs the freedom to dream and imagine and go wild.

With carefulness we can turn our self-doubts into a motivating tool.

I lock self-doubt away in the closet when I'm writing the first draft, during the months of free creativity. And I don’t let the monster out. Not at all. Of course, I’m a big planner for my first drafts. I spend an enormous amount of time researching, developing my characters, and plotting before I start the writing. And while not everyone needs to plan, I’ve found that having some direction keeps me from unlocking the closet on my self-doubts.

Once we begin editing, however, we need to be able to find a medium ground between overconfidence and despair. I’m slowly learning to give self-doubts their due place—an evident but restrained place.

I don’t shove them back into the closet and try to ignore them. I let them linger. I sift through the questions. I try to decide which of the doubts might have some validity. Then I get to work addressing the most pressing ones.

In other words, we need to let the valid self-doubts motivate us to become better writers and story-tellers. Let the questions push us to seek answers, to find others who can help us, to objectively re-evaluate where we’re at and where we hope to go.

Perfection is unattainable. We need to guard against thinking we’re already close to perfect. And we need to guard against thinking we need to be perfect. Instead, we can begin to develop a quiet confidence in our writing abilities—seeing how far we’ve come, but knowing we still have room to grow.

What about you? What’s your biggest self-doubt right now? Are you letting it debilitate you? Or are you turning it into a motivational tool?

How To Handle Subjective & Contradictory Feedback

Reviews on my debut book, The Preacher’s Bride, have been pouring in over the past month. At latest count, my book had 40 reviews on Amazon, approximately 40 various blog write-ups (see my Books Page for the list of links), 19 on GoodReads, 8 on Shelfari, 9 on Barnes&Noble.com, and 16 on Christianbook.com. (Not that I’m keeping close tabs or anything!)

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the reviews—talk about a quick pick-me-up! THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who’s taken the time to publicly share their thoughts! I’m grateful and humbled by the praise.

As I’ve soaked in the reviews, I’ve realized a few things more clearly than I had previously, namely that readers are subjective.

Yes, I know. Most of us are already well aware of the subjectivity that exists in the world of books and publishing. And yet, I’m learning just how diverse readers can be in their views, to the point that the reviews seem to contradict one another. Here are just a couple of examples from reviews on The Preacher's Bride:

• Different views on how I portrayed the historical details of the book:

“I love the historical era of the 1600's in England. I could just see the towns and the townspeople of that era come to life!”

“The time period was also a bit difficult for me to get into . . . I just kept imagining a medieval town with dirty, raggedy villagers and evil villains terrorizing woman and shooting flaming arrows into thatched roofs.”

• Different opinions on the opening chapter:

“I had a hard time, in the very beginning, getting into the book as, to me, it was just a little bit slow.”

“I was immediately captured in the first chapter” and “I couldn't put this book down starting at page one.”

• Different opinions about the heroine:

“She can be pretty submissive; that and her overwhelming desire to get married and have babies are a bit irritating to this modern woman . . .”

“I absolutely loved Elizabeth's character throughout this entire book. She's witty, outspoken and a very smart woman.”

• Different opinions about the page-turning effect of the book:

“Hedlund . . . writes well of life in Puritan England, though the middle drags . . .”

“It's a fast-moving page-turner. I read it (all nearly 400 pages) in a little over a day, using every available moment.”

Isn’t it interesting to see such opposite views on the same things? What the differences teach me (and can teach all of us), is that subjectivity is alive and well. And here are a few things about subjectivity that we should keep in mind:

1. Watch for trends in the feedback.

If reader after reader indicated that my opening was slow, I’d sit up and pay attention. But if most of the feedback tells me that I did a good job, then I won’t worry about a few opinions. We can’t live to please everyone. We’d lose the essence of who we are in the process. But we can (and should) pay attention to those glaring issues that people bring up more frequently.

2. Make sure to chuckle over the contradictions.

In other words, we can’t take the feedback personally. I truly do chuckle over the contradictions. I let them remind me of the uniqueness of all my readers, the varying tastes and preferences, and the different personalities. Not everyone is going to fall in love with my book. And that’s okay. Not everyone is meant to.

3. Know whose feedback matters the most.

Many different people have reviewed my book—book buyers, librarians, professional book reviewers, other published authors, etc. Of everyone, I value the input of my talented editors at Bethany House the most. Their goal in all of their editing is to help me craft a story that will please my readers. Ultimately that’s what we want—to provide our readers with a completely satisfying experience, so that they say what one of my reviewers said: “A story that draws the reader into the heart, THE PREACHER'S BRIDE is a historical gem that will not be leaving my favorite shelf.”

4. Get back to work and do the best we can.

When it’s all said and done, I read the reviews, enjoy them, and then put my head down and get back to work on the next book. And that’s all any of us can do—just keep on working hard to improve our writing skills and story-telling abilities.

What about you? Have you ever had contradictory opinions about something you’ve written? How did you know what to listen to and what to discard?

*Thank you to Jeannie Campbell for sending me the above picture, taken at the Borders in Eureka, CA! Thank you for getting excited and drawing stares!

Finding a Writing Schedule That Works

Most of us have to cram writing time into the leftover hours and minutes of our days. Maybe we have day-jobs we can't give up. Perhaps we have responsibilities that demand the majority of our attention—commitments to family, children, or friends.

Whatever the case, writing isn’t a full time occupation for most of us. We can easily accept we’ll give writing our “leftover” time before the book contract. But we think that once we have a contract and income, we’ll finally be able to make our writing career more legitimate and justify carving out more time.

And perhaps that line of reasoning is true to an extent. As a contracted author, I do feel the need to block out more time for the increased responsibilities. And now that I’m getting “paid,” I can lock myself away for writing-time without feeling as much guilt.

But . . . I still don’t have the luxury of tossing aside my other responsibilities so that I can focus entirely on my writing career. The bottom line is that it’s still just as hard after the contract to find writing time as it was before. Dare I even say, it’s gotten harder to find enough time? The process of publication has brought quite a bit more work, but I don’t have significantly more time in my schedule for it.

In fact, a couple weeks ago, I hit a breaking point. One gray afternoon after we had finished school, I sat down at my lap top to begin some writing work. My kids were running around me, in and out of the house, doing their jobs and playing, being noisy and just being kids. But I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t type but a few words without having to stop and answer a question or break up a squabble or something.

My to-do list was stretching far beyond my capability to handle. And I needed to work on my rewrites for my next book. The stress was pounding through my head. After the hundredth interruption in a five minute span (maybe I’m exaggerating a little), I finally laid my head in my hands and wanted to cry. I had SO much to do, but had so little uninterrupted time in which to work. How would I get it all done and do it well? Especially my rewrites which required so much focus and effort?

I was overwhelmingly discouraged. After having a pity party for myself the rest of the afternoon (I’m really good at throwing pity-parties if you haven’t noticed!), I finally cleared my head of the clutter and realized I needed to rethink my schedule. Here’s what I came up with:

Make better use of the quiet writing times.

Obviously my quietest times are when my children are in bed—early mornings and later evenings. Instead of tackling my inbox first thing in the mornings or visiting blogs, I needed to take advantage of the uninterrupted time in which I could focus on my rewrites. Anytime the kids are in “quiet mode,” I needed to use that time for the writing responsibilities that needed the most intense focus.

Work efficiently with the leftover time.

I’m learning to save the administrative responsibilities for other times. Even though it’s really hard NOT to respond right away to friends and readers (because I love interacting), I’m trying to wait. I can easily answer emails, write interviews, and respond to facebook messages during the chaos of the afternoons/evenings instead of during my quiet times.

Seek help from others.

I had to sit down with my husband and share with him my frustration with the current schedule. I needed to vent, but I also needed his help to figure how to make things work. We brainstormed. Should we hire someone to help watch the kids and take them to activities? Should he streamline his work hours or shift them around so that I could have more time?

Look for ways to carve out more uninterrupted time.

After talking with my husband, we were able to come up with a plan for how I could get a little more uninterrupted time, especially during the times he’s home and can take over the household and childcare responsibilities. Two hours here, a few hours there—all adds up. Those would be sacred hours set apart for working on my rewrites/writing and nothing else.

Re-evaluate the schedule periodically.

The busyness of this fall has taught me that from time to time I need to re-evaluate how I’m doing things. The schedule that worked for me last year, might not work this year. The important thing is to see when it’s not working and then look at how to maximize the time I have.

~Summary: We probably won’t ever be able to ditch our other responsibilities and hole away in a private cabin on a mountain top to write endlessly. We’ve got to make the writer’s life work with what we’ve got. Besides, it’s the real living (as chaotic as it can get) that adds richness and depth to our writing.

Have you ever had the dream that once you get an agent or book contract that you'd be able to make more writing time? While it might be true to an extent, what are you doing right now to find a writing schedule that works amidst the other responsibilities of life?

5 Tips for Writing Scenes

Every writer has a different method to their madness. There’s no right or wrong way to weave a story from beginning to end. Of course, I believe every writer should study the craft, learn as much as they can about fiction-writing basics--but then, ultimately, each writer needs to pull it all together in a way that works for them.

All that to say, what works for me, won’t be a fit for everyone. Nevertheless, if I had to pick one way to describe how I write my books, I’d have to say “I write by scenes.” From start to finish, I build my entire book with one scene upon another.

I know many writers use the technique of scene-writing. There are even writing books that go into detail about writing scenes. So, I don’t claim to be the expert. In fact, I’m still learning with each book that I write what works and what doesn’t.

With that said, here are just a few of the scene-writing techniques I incorporate into my books:

1. Plan out the scene before writing it.

Not everyone is a planner—I completely understand that. But . . . there’s something to be said about being intentional with the blank page that sits directly in front of us. Maybe we won’t map out the entire book, but when we carefully make decisions about a scene before writing it, we have the potential to make it richer and fuller. Here are the things I plan out before writing a scene:

• Time and Date: Keeping track of this will come in handy later during in-house line-editing

• POV (point of view): Whose POV would have the greatest impact for the scene? Whose POV haven’t I used lately? Whose POV can best move the plot along?

• Setting: How can I alternate the setting so that I don’t have too many scenes in the same room or area?

• Sensory Details: What sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds can bring the scene alive? What other details can help set the mood of the scene?

2. Set scene goals carefully.

We should be aiming to incorporate only those things into our stories that have a purpose, whether to move the plot along, enhance our theme, build our characters, or foreshadow what’s to come. I make bullet points for everything I hope to accomplish within the scene that I’m about to write. As I sit down to do the actual writing, things often change, but the goals keep me on target. Whatever I don’t end up including in the scene, I circle so that I can try to remember to include that “goal” in a later scene.

3. Let the scene play out like a movie.

Once I have my scene planned out, then I write it, letting it play out in my mind like a movie, keeping the action moving, showing what’s happening. But of course, I’m also in my POV character’s head. So I make sure to show what’s going on inside her head, her reactions, emotions, conflicts, and eventually her growth.

4. Decide how much transition (or sequel) is needed.

Some writers use transition or sequel to move to their next scene. Others (like me) jump-cut to the next scene without the filler. When we cut off one scene and then move directly to the next, we often still need to weave in transitional information like the passing of time or anything significant that’s happened between the scenes. Not everything is important enough to include, so we have to decide what the reader must know for the story to make sense, and then thread those things throughout the scene (usually the early paragraphs).

5. Begin and end the scene with hooks.

If possible, we should look for ways to draw our readers immediately into a scene (similar to the way we want to hook them with the first paragraphs of our books). And likewise, we should try to end our scenes with a ROP (read-on-prompt)—something that urges the reader to keep turning the pages to find out what’s going to happen next.

There you have it. My method through the madness! What’s your method? Do you write by scenes or some other way? And if you write by scenes, what other techniques do you use to bring it to life?

3 Mistakes Writers Make in the Quest for Publication

How can writers decide which type of publishing is right for them? Traditional publisher, smaller house, subsidy/vanity press, e-publishing, or self-publishing? Every writer must choose which type of publication adventure they want. There are no wrong choices. There are, however, wrong WAYS to make the choices. Here are 3 mistakes writers can make in choosing a publishing option:

1. Failing to do proper research.

The average reader lumps all books together. In my experience, local friends don’t distinguish my traditionally published book from an author friend who used a subsidy press. Our mutual friends proudly put us in the same category as “published authors” and are equally excited for both of us. They don’t examine our covers for our publishing house logos. They don’t understand the differences between our journeys to publication. And that’s okay. They have no need to.

But . . . a writer seeking publication SHOULD understand the differences completely and thoroughly. Before choosing a method of publication, every writer should do extensive research on all the options, look at the pros and cons of each one carefully, find other authors who’ve used particular publishers and ask them about their experiences. Choosing a publishing option is a very big decision with significant ramifcations for everything including editing, book covers, and marketing. We should go into our publication choice knowing exactly what the publisher offers and what we'll be responsible for shouldering.

2. Having wrong expectations.

When we started seeking publication, most of us had unrealistic expectations about the process, particularly of traditional publication (myself included). We finished our first book, jumped up and down with excitement, and knew the world would love it. We figured if only we could get our book in front of the right people, they’d ooh and aah over our original, creative, inspiring book.

When rejections began to roll in, we started to wonder what was wrong with publishers and agents. Surely something was messed up with the entire system if the professionals could so quickly and easily dismiss our works of greatness—often without even a word. We were tempted to get angry and bitter, and may have even said something like, “With all of the mediocre books on the shelves, surely mine deserves a spot.”

If we reach that point, first we need to evaluate if we have a realistic view of our own writing. We should get a qualified and objective view on our books from someone who is willing to be honest about our skill and story (consider the possibility of a freelance editor). And second, we should make sure we’re immersing ourselves in the publishing industry so that we can have a better perspective on the realities of the business.

3. Giving up too soon.

I respect those who take the time to investigate all of the options and choose what is best for them and their book, no matter where that leads. However, many writers start down the road to traditional publication without weighing what is best for them. Often traditional publication is the default choice. The problem with this way of thinking is that when things start to get rough (and they will), many writers give up the traditional route and head down other avenues, in some ways sending the message that non-traditional methods are Plan B, sub-standard, and last-resort. And is that what we really want?

So first, I think everyone should do their research and decide which type of publication fits best. For those who choose traditional publication, we won’t have the choice to give up when the wait begins to be interminable, when the rejections pour in, when the door seems like it keeps slamming in our face. We’ll continue to persevere on the path that we think is best for us.

Of course, everyone has the right to change their minds, to explore new options, to re-evaluate what works for their story. But . . . all too often writers give up on traditional publication because the going gets rough, when really they needed to stick it out, give it more time and effort, and continue to grow in their writing skills and story-telling ability.

~Summary: The beauty of the publishing industry today is that there are so many choices available for all of us, choices that can fit our unique interests and stories. But I firmly believe every writer needs to choose WISELY.

Do you agree or disagree with my logic? Do you think that some writers choose publishing options unwisely, based on lack of research, faulty expectations, or giving up too soon? What method of publication have you chosen? And have you thought through the decision carefully?