There are a lot of struggles when it comes to being a writer, but this is going to be the Time edition.

As Hannibal Lecter once said, "This is all the time we'll ever have" (Silence of the Lambs), and within that time constraint, writers have a lot to do.

For most of us, writing is a hobby, or at best a second job. We might dream of one day living off of royalties, but the current reality is that we have day real jobs that take up 8+ hours of our lives at least 5 days a week. That's nearly a quarter of your week gone, without any chance to write (unless you are the sort of person willing to spend your break time writing rather than talking to friends and coworkers or updating your Instagram. Another quarter to third of your week is going to go to be lost to sleep. Now, sleep is vital and important, and you might have dreams that give you ideas for your writing, but it isn't actually writing. So what's left?

Half a week.

Work and sleep eat up half of our weekly hours, assuming you only work 8 hours a day and sleep for slightly less than six hours a night, including weekends. And while half a week seems like a lot of time, remember that it isn't all at once. You get a free hour here, another couple there, in which to fit cooking, cleaning, shopping, family, and friends.

And writing.

Some writers are incredibly dedicated. They put in an hour, maybe two, every. Single. Day. Rain or shine, work or no work, they sit at their computers (or hunched over a notebook), working furiously to get words down. But for us mere mortals, after 8 hours at work, a 30 minute commute, and cooking dinner, mindless Netflix binging can be a lot more tempting than trying to think of how to advance your plot, or chip through that writer's block, or how to turn that last passage into show and not tell.

And we need to go to the gym to try to avoid the dreaded Writer's Butt™. And walk the dog (or try to entice the cat into believing it loves us for a few minutes). We should probably spend some time with our family, and remember that we have friends that don't exist only in our minds and in our books.

​So how do we make the time?

No, seriously, I'm asking you. I'm trying something new, but so far it has only been in place for a week, and that really isn't enough time to see whether or not the new strategy is working or I just have a lot of creative juices at the moment, but I'll tell you what I'm doing anyway so you can try it for yourself.

​I'm a Netflix binger. Sometimes I'll spice it up with Amazon Prime or one of the seasons of TV I purchased before I became a Netflix and Prime subscriber, but no matter the medium, I can happily sit for hours watching a season (or more) of a show. I've even come to a place in my life where Netflix's judgmental "Are you still watching?" after 3 episodes fills me with equal parts shame and pride, rather than just shame. 

Some people might suggest something crazy, like stop watching Netflix, or set a limit like 1-2 shows a night. But as the kids say, "That's doin' too much." So I came to a compromise.

I would watch as many shows as I wanted, but after every show, I had to spend 17 minutes writing.

17 minutes? Isn't that a weird length of time? Why not 15? Or 20?

Well, as every true binger knows, a show that airs for an hour on TV typically only runs for 42-43 minutes on Netflix or Prime. So I decided to round out each hour with writing. I get to the end of the episode, and rather than letting Netflix immediately start the next one, I pause the Blu Ray, set a timer, and write for 17 minutes. This means if I watch 4 episodes a night, I'm writing for over an hour!

Now, that's still four hours of my life spent sitting around, and 3/4 of that time not being productive, but an hour of writing a night isn't bad. And I often end up writing for longer than my 17 minutes. Or, after those 17 minutes, I will allow myself to move on to the marketing part of being a writer: social media, update website, write blog, hunt for promotional deals, manically update the sales pages to see how many people have purchased my book while I've been sitting on my Writer's Butt™.

Is this the solution to all time-management woes? Of course not. Will it help me on days I wasn't going to devote myself to binge-watching? Nope. Do I have any advice for those of you who have little kids or active social lives? None at all, unless you know how to pause those kids/social lives for 17 minutes at a time.

But maybe you can find the equivalent of this in your own lives. A way to fit short bursts of writing in between your normal activities. Maybe write while you're cooking, or between loads of laundry. Maybe mop yourself into a writing corner and write until the floor is dry.

Maybe learn actual time management skills rather than listen to me talk about how to fit writing into what might be considered by some a Netflix addiction.

​Whatever route you choose to go, remember one thing: Writer's write.

There are many books that have influenced my writing over the years. Even now, I'll read a book, whether in my genre or not, and think about what elements I might want to include (or avoid) in my writing. Or maybe I'll just take a mental step back and appreciate the craft. That alone can help to shape what I myself write.

But I'm going to go way back to the tender age of five. Or maybe even four. Because that is when my future writing really began to take shape. While other kids were being read Dr. Seuss with a side of Berenstain Bears, my dad was reading me C.S. Lewis and The Hobbit. 

To be fair to my dad, Lewis did write for children. The fact that Tolkien's books were clearly meant for adults probably never occurred to my dad, who was just sharing with me books that he loved. So while other kids were rhyming and reading or hearing about...whatever happens in Berenstain Bears books, I was hearing about magical adventures and trolls trying to figure out the best way to kill and eat a bunch of dwarves and kings and their nephews dying in the battle of the five armies.

The latter aren't really what you're supposed to build your formative years upon, and they definitely shaped me.

Without those early fantasy books, I'm not sure what genre I would write in. Maybe I wouldn't write at all. But I was exposed to those magical worlds early, and I started writing my own at the age of 9, and my first full-length story at the age of 13. I read Dragonlance while other kids were reading Judy B. Jones. I read The Wheel of Time while other girls were reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Even as a young adult, YA books were just quick, easy diversions from the serious, complex plots of books that had grown from the same trees that Tolkien and Lewis planted. Books that I loved.

I don't compare my books to Tolkien--being compared to him by another would be the highest honor--but I know that hearing those stories when I was young shaped who I am and what I would write.

And for that I am grateful.

For those of you who haven't read my last couple of posts, my novel The Talented was published on Kindle on February 12th. Well, today I approved the proofs of The Talented through my POD company CreateSpace. Right now it is only available through CreateSpace, but the paperback should be available on Amazon in the next 3-5 days.

Why the update? Maybe some of you are old-school and would like a paperback copy of my book. Or maybe you were just curious about whether or not I would be releasing a paperback copy of my book.

This is also important because in a few weeks I plan to try approaching local bookstores about carrying my book on consignment, and I want to include news about that adventure here. So watch for that, especially if you are an indie author thinking about doing the same, or just curious to see whether or not bookstores are receptive to that sort of thing (I've heard mixed reports).

Have a happy Wednesday, people, and remember: We're halfway through the week!

Update: It's on Amazon already, although it's not matched with the kindle version yet, which is a little bit annoying. Hopefully that changes soon so that people can easily access both version from the same screen.

If you're in the process of moving from being someone who writes only for their own pleasure to being someone who puts their work out in the world for other people to consume (and hopefully pay for), you're going to need a brand.

Unless this is your first visit to my blog and you skipped my home page, you know that I recently published my first book The Talented on Amazon. And those of you who plan ahead might assume that before publishing, I gave real consideration to how I would brand myself. What would my "thing" be. My niche. How would I distinguish myself from the world around me, and how would I let readers know what to expect from my work?

Good question. And to the dismay of the planners of the world, it isn't one that I spent a lot of time thinking about. Of course, I had a foggy notion of my brand. I always write fantasy, primarily epic fantasy. I always have strong female characters, primarily as my main characters. My stories always take place pre-gun and pre-industrialization. I always write in 3rd person limited, although the actual limits may vary. There are other similarities between my works as well because, well, they're mine. I have a certain style.

But I didn't think of all this as a brand. That sounds so official and planned. And I didn't plan it. I've never gone into a book saying "Okay, this book need a strong female character who's good with a bow and arrow since there aren't any guns, because that is what my brand promises." That might be how my stories end up going, but I don't set out for them to be that way. It just happens.

So I let the fog drift around in my brain, not thinking about brand too much, just going about my life, pushing publish like little things like brands don't matter, until I decided to order some promotional bookmarks to go with The Talented. Being thorough, I started researching what promotional bookmarks look like, and saw over and over again mentions of things like brands and taglines.

What is a tagline, you ask?

Basically, a tagline is a catchphrase. A slogan. Something that ties back to and is particular to a brand or product. Nike has "Just do it." State Farm has "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." And I had a foggy brain.

And for the first time I realized that, before I could print any bookmarks, I needed to figure out my brand and/or tagline.

Cue the panic.

I made a list much like the one above, listing what my books had in common. And I tried out some different sayings:

• Fantasy novels with strong female characters.
  
• Action-packed fantasy with interesting characters and intense conflicts.
  
• Epic fantasy, fantastic tales.
  
• High fantasy, high stakes.
  

The first one I disliked because it made my stories seem like "girl" stories. I love my main characters, and I don't agree with the concept of "guy stories" and "girl stories" (with the possible exception of romance), but I know that a lot of people view things like that, and that men especially can be hesitant to pick up a book that they perceive to be geared toward women. So the last thing I wanted from my tagline was to run the risk of turning away half of my potential market when my books aren't actually written with women or female empowerment in mind.

The second one just sounds bad, plus "action-packed" isn't the best descriptor of my work.

The third and fourth ones I kind of liked. They weren't perfect, and they weren't everything, but they were close. So I mulled. And I brainstormed. And I drank some wine. And then I got it.

Epic Fantasy. Secret Missions. High Stakes.

Everything I've ever written has had those components to one degree or another. It's short and descriptive, without being overly detailed or clunky.

I like the sound of it, and it fits.

My brand, which I am beginning to define more and more now that I've accepted the fact that pushing it off until "some day" doesn't make sense when you already have one book on the virtual shelves, is slowly evolving and solidifying into something clearly definable, and until then, I have my tagline to fall back on.

Epic Fantasy. Secret Missions. High Stakes.

If people don't know anything about my work, they should have some idea based on that.

Do any of you have a tagline? What is the tagline or brand of your favorite author?

As some of you know, I've only recently re-entered the blogging and Tweeting world. This is also the first day that my novel The Talented is for sale (OMG!). And for the last week, I've been completely caught up in the numbers, and these are the questions constantly going through my mind:

• How many views has my site had so far today?
• Has anyone new followed me on Twitter?
• Which page is my most viewed for the day?
• How many retweets did that last tweet receive?
• How many unique viewers have I had this month?
• How many times can I tweet a promotion for the same book?
• How many views has my site had now?
• How do my page views/retweets/# of visitors today compare to yesterday?

It's interesting, and important, but if you're like me it can be easy to fall down the rabbit hole of stats and lose track of what is actually important. Like writing.

These last few days, I've spent way more time refreshing my various pages and checking my stats than writing. I've spent way more time obsessing about how popular my blog is than plotting out the sequel to The Bodyguard or working on the sequel to The Talented (apparently sequels are my thing right now). And while watching my stats might be fun, or even transfixing, and they might invite me to follow them down the rabbit hole, they aren't nearly as important as producing quality content. Because in the end, having something available to read for the people who do make it to my website is far more important than the number of people who visit on a daily basis.

So avoid fixating on numbers and the rabbit hole that comes with it. If you're a writer, write.

There are probably thousands of blog posts on this topic, and whole chapters devoted to it in countless writing craft books, but I am writing my own post about it all the same.

I write about it not because I am the master about to impart some wisdom, but because it is something that I struggle with as well. How do you add enough tension to your novel to make it interesting?

First off, a writer needs to accept the fact that tension is essential. Necessary, even. There's a reason why romance novels don't continue once we reach the "Happily Ever After" part. There's a reason that, after Harry Potter defeats Voldemort in the 7th book, there aren't another 7 books following Harry on his happy journey through life (although as a huge Harry Potter fan, I would love another 7 books about Harry). The reason is because just like conflict is necessary, books need tension to move from conflict to conflict without losing the reader's interest.

Think about your life. Think about when you meet up with your friends at the bar/coffee shop after work on Fridays. What do you talk about? The highlights of your week, sure, but also the low points. The triumphs and conflicts. And the events or feeling that occurs between those moments. That feeling that carries between and surrounds conflicts is tension.

You don't tell your friend all about how you went to work with no troubles, went about your day with no troubles, talked to your boss with no troubles, and went home to watch some unexceptional TV with--you guessed it--no troubles.

You would tell your friend that you had a good day, or an average day, or a boring day, and then skip ahead to something more exciting.

And when we write, that "more exciting" means conflict. Trouble. Danger. And the tension that comes with that.

But if you're a writer you know that stories need conflict. Anyone who has taken a high school (maybe even middle school) English class knows that stories consist of beginnings, conflicts, and resolutions (often shown by that triangle/mountain graphic. And the journey from conflict to conflict is full of tension.

I'm feeling my own tension now, with my book release tomorrow, and the poor people in my life who have to hear about the worry mixed with excitement surrounding that release ad nauseam probably wish that I would focus on the boring parts of life. But that isn't how story telling works, even in "real life." Conflict and tension. They drive the story just as much as your characters.

Which brings me to the role of characters in creating tension. Throw problems at your characters. Make life hard for them. And then, for the sake of all that is good in the world, make sure they feel the tension. In my serial novel The Bodyguard, Lakshmi lives a sort of double life. This creates problems. Conflicts. But she doesn't move seamlessly from conflict to conflict without a care in the world. She worries. She feels stress. Her emotions are on edge due to her secrets and feelings. She doesn't just face her conflicts and move on, she carries tension from one to the other.

And as a reader, we hope that Lakshmi finds some release from the tension.

As a writer who loves Lakshmi, I don't like turning her life into a tangled mess. I don't want bad things to happen to her. I want her to live in Happily Ever After world. But I don't let her, because that would be boring. So I throw in conflict, and I make sure she knows it. And that causes tension.

Usually, Wednesdays are merely the midway point of the week. I acknowledge the hump-day, and I respect it for being a sign that I am closer to next weekend than last. But other than that, I don't think about Wednesdays that much.

Until this week. This Wednesday. Because this Wednesday doesn't bring me just one day closer to the weekend. It brings me one day closer to Friday. Friday. The day that I am publishing my first novel, The Talented. 

And I'm both excited and terrified.

I don't know why it struck me today. I decided last week that it was finally time to get my book out on those virtual bookshelves. That waiting until the paperback was ready for sale as well was just an excuse, and that this Friday was as good a day as any to finally put The Talented on the market.

It's been written, proofed, gone over by professionals, and edited again. It's had its cover designed and been as well formatted as I can make it. If The Talented isn't ready for release now, it never will be.

​So it's time.

In two days, my book will be up for sale. People all over the world (conceivably) will be able to download and read it. People will be able to leave reviews (good or bad) on Amazon. And The Talented will officially leave the realm of WIP.

And I will officially be self-published and ready to formally join the ranks of indie-authors.

It's exciting. And terrifying.

​But I'm ready.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good 1st person narrative now and then. I am currently reading When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park, told from two different 1st person perspectives (Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul), and I'm loving the story. First person in this case gives it an intimacy that wouldn't have been possible had that book been written in 3rd person (my own personal favorite), so I totally understand the draw of a good 1st person narrative.

The key word there is "good."

Has anyone else noticed that the market is currently saturated with 1st person narratives? Almost all YA novels are 1st person now. A ton of romance (at least indie romance) is, too. Did it start with Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey? Is that where authors are getting their writing and style inspiration now?

I teach high school English, and I have a student who can't connect with any writing that isn't done in the 1st person. If a book or story isn't written in the 1st person, she isn't interested. When did that happen?

And it wouldn't be so bad, really, if the people writing in 1st person were doing it well, but 1st person is tricky. I've tried it. There's a fine line between

"It's only a rumor," Abuji said as I cleared the table. "They'll never carry it out." My father wasn't talking to me, of course. He was talking to Uncle and my brother, Tae-yul, as they sat around the low table after dinner, drinking tea." (Park 1)

and someone writing along the lines of

​I shuffled across the room in my beat up bunny slippers with one of the ears barely hanging on and reluctantly went to open the door. I could hear my mother's voice telling me that I should never answer the door in my pajamas, but she wasn't here to see, so I figured it wouldn't matter this once. My straight brown hair was up in a ponytail, not hanging limply around my face, and I'm lucky enough to have the kind of skin that doesn't require much makeup to look good, so aside from the clothes, I probably looked the way I always do. Average. Not particularly good looking, but not bad enough to scare guys away. When I opened the door and saw the tall, unbelievably hot guy who had knocked, my jaw hung open. I might have been drooling. The sound I made was more of a grunt than a greeting.

The first example is by Linda Sue Park, and does a great job of introducing Sun-hee and her family as well as introducing some tension. The second I made up, but based it loosely off of some of the 1st person I've read recently.

Now I'm not saying that the writing would necessarily be better if the second example that I came up with was written in 3rd person. I deliberately made it bad, and I'm owning up to that now. But if I wasn't writing in the first person, I wouldn't have had my main character awkwardly examine her own appearance while going to answer the door (that awkward self-examination happens often in 1st person books, especially romances), and that is one of the biggest problems I'm having with the overly-saturated 1st person market.

If I'm going to be reading "I, I, I," it doesn't need to be a character that I actually want to be like or even relate to that much, but awkward passages just seem so much more awkward when I'm the one supposedly going through that.

Does anyone else agree that the 1st person market is over-saturated and authors need to start considering what is best for the story, not just what is popular at the moment, or is this rant just a reflection of an anti-1st-person prejudice of mine and 1st person is not really a problem in the industry?

I genuinely want to know.

I'm back, and I'll be sending out a real(ish) blog post on Monday, but until then I wanted to share this, because it's great, and it reminds me that even though The Colbert Report is over, Stephen Colbert is still out there making fun of politics for his millions of fans.

​If you're a conservative and/or a huge Sarah Palin fan, this probably isn't for you. Or maybe it is. Who knows?