Overcoming Adversity

By Mary Ellis

When I consider what challenge I have personally overcome or are in the process of overcoming only one answer comes to mind…time management. Trying to juggle too many balls in the air robs me of my peace of mind, produces many sleepless nights, and sends me to my knees in prayer often. God never lets me down. However, when I try to “go it alone,” even for a single day, I struggle. Jesus is my rock on a daily basis and without Him I would have given up on publishing as a career long ago.

Harvest House Publishers, 2015

In my blissful, pre-published days, I erroneously believed that once an author received the coveted “call” and turned in a completed manuscript, she could relax and put her feet up. Nothing could be further from the truth. Being published means honoring contracts in a timely fashion, along with a multitude of details. No longer was I squeezing time to “write a book” into my daily routine of tending home, family and day job. Even though I have “retired” from my day job to write full-time, my life hasn’t gotten any easier. With each new release, the juggling act increases from three balls in the air, to four, five or even six. For readers and writers in the pre-published period of their careers, I’ll explain how five projects can demand your attention simultaneously:

First, there’s the book you’re currently writing and editing, according to your publisher’s expectations for word count, theme, and depth of characters.

 Secondly, the book you recently submitted is by no means done. A plethora of add-ons must be finished before the book heads to the printer, such as developmental edits, line edits, back cover copy, book cover and trailer suggestions, and blurbs or excerpts for catalogs and sales brochures.

Thirdly, if this was a series, chances are a book was recently released and requires promotion. Your title will either sink or swim during the first several, crucial months. An author must get the word out to readers through blog or radio interviews, website and newsletter giveaways, and book signings, along with social media. Otherwise, with so many fine books releasing each year, how will potential readers find yours?

Fourthly, an author needs to research the next book she intends to write, and that often involves travel or at least long hours spent in the library. Not everything on the internet can be trusted for accuracy, so I turn to non-fictions books, travel guides, and in person, hands-on research. Luckily, I have a husband who loves to travel and is willing to pick up and go on short notice.

And finally, what happens when your current beloved series draws to a close? If you don’t wish to be out of a job, you must devise an irresistible proposal that your publisher simply cannot turn down. Publishing houses consider projects well in advance, so authors need to think far down the line too. Considering all this stress, hard work and long hours, you might conclude that I’m complaining. Nothing would be farther from the truth. I love being an author, and pray each night for God to make me a better juggler and time manager. And when I worry and fret? Jesus, my rock, is always ready to pick me up and carry my load.

Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis has written twelve award-winning novels set in the Amish community and several historical romances set during the Civil War. Her latest, Midnight on the Mississippi, first of a new mystery series, Secrets of the South, is set in New Orleans. Before "retiring" to write full-time, Mary taught school and worked as a sales rep for Hershey Chocolate, a job with amazingly sweet fringe benefits. Mary enjoys traveling, gardening, bicycling and swimming, and lives in Ohio with her husband, dog and cat. She can be found on the web at: www.maryellis.net or https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mary-Ellis/126995058236

 I hope you’ll look for Midnight on the Mississippi at your favorite bookstore or online retailers:

Available at CBD: http://www.christianbook.com/1-midnight-on-the-mississippi/mary-ellis/9780736961691/pd/961690?event=Fiction

At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Mississippi-Secrets-South-Mysteries/dp/0736961690/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436816683&sr=1-1&keywords=midnight+on+the+mississippi

And at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/midnight-on-the-mississippi-mary-ellis/1120894147?ean=9780736961691

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Author James R. Callan Talks About Writing Challenges

After a successful career in mathematics and computer science, receiving grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA, and being listed in Who’s Who in Computer Science and Two Thousand Notable Americans, James R. Callan turned to his first love—writing.  He wrote a monthly column for a national magazine for two years. He has had four non-fiction books published.  He now concentrates on his favorite genre, mystery/suspense, with his sixth book releasing in 2014.

Learn more on his Blog and also his Amazon Author Page. 

Over My Dead Body is now available for pre-orders.   

The challenges in writing are many.  Everyone who sits down and faces that blank sheet of paper knows that.  What do I put on it?  What can I say that anyone will care to read? How will I get anyone to buy this even if I can write it? Self-doubt is a constant companion of the writer.

For me, I find two major obstacles in the writing life.  The first is time.  Writing a novel is a long process.  Because I like to see results quickly, I find I am drawn to chores that can be finished much faster.  Here is a decision to be made: do this short task, perhaps a household chore that can be completed in a few hours, or work on a novel that won’t be finished for eight months? 

The answer seems simple.  Do the household chore, finish it in a few hours, and work on the writing tomorrow.  What is a one day delay in an eight month project?  Finish the chore, get that feeling of accomplishment and get back to the novel.

The problem is that tomorrow there will be another chore that only requires a day. It could be finished, I get that sense of accomplishment, and the eight month project is only delayed two days.  What are two days in an eight month project? 

You can see where this is going.  There is an endless string of “short” projects vying for attention. And each will only delay the novel by a day.  But the few days turn into a few weeks, and before you know it, the weeks have become months.  Before you realize it, the really important project, the book, is delayed a year.

Big problem for those of us who need that sense of accomplishment, of completing a job. 

Let’s assume for a moment that I have managed to avoid some of those “shorter” chores and have actually completed the book. Now comes the second major obstacle: marketing. 

Marketing comes with several problems. First, it is something many writers are not familiar with. Then there is the uncomfortable fact that most writers are not particularly good at it.  And most writers are not interested in becoming good at it. 

Edie Melson, author, and editor, says with careful planning, you can achieve a good, solid social media presence in just thirty minutes a day.  Sound doable.  But I have not managed to do it right.  I can limit my time to thirty minutes a day, but I haven’t managed to get the solid media presence.  So I find the social media time growing and the results not growing.

Obviously I have not mastered this important challenge for the writer.

At this point, I’m batting 0 for 2. 

I am often asked if I am a plotter or a pantser. 

I think I am both.

I do a certain amount of plotting before I begin.   I like to have a direction, an obstacle, and a possible solution.  I don’t need all the details. I probably don’t know the subplots.  But I need the obstacle.  And before I actually begin, I probably have a number of snippets of conversation written.

Now, I’m ready to begin. The characters will help dictate any changes in the direction.  I am perfectly willing to let them do this.  I have tried to get to know my three main characters (protagonist, sidekick, and antagonist) before I begin.  I have visited with them, listened to them, and gained a lot of background information on each of them. If they begin to talk to me, to make suggestions, I am certainly going to listen, and quite likely follow their suggestions.

In this respect, I am a pantser.  The end result is that I employ both methods in the course of writing a book.

In Over My Dead Body, I began with the simple idea of a man dead while in the midst of a dispute with a large corporation over its exercise of eminent domain.  I set up my main characters.  I knew two of them well.  I had several snippets of conversation. I have a dialog signature for each. Generally, if I can hear the characters speak, I’m a long way toward really knowing them. I was ready to begin. And the pantser mode takes over.

Perhaps I am best described as a hybrid writer, ready to tackle those two big obstacles I face in writing.

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Finding Time to Write by Author Jennifer Hallmark

In this interesting, busy world we live in, time has fewer hours than a cat has lives. We scurry and flurry from event to function to work, shouldering guilt over unaccomplished tasks. Writers are no exception. I read their blogs, facebook pages, and websites. My own life is the same.

Since I decided against moving to a mountain and becoming a hermit, I had to find time to write and still enjoy my life. But how? Now, before you get depressed, there are avenues we can explore in this search for time. I’ll share mine with you today. Hopefully, others will have discovered writing “pockets” and will share them with us at the end of this blog.

Planned time. The easiest to discuss is planned time. This is different than writing a certain amount each day or week. Planned time, to me, is days or hours when I can write and work for long stretches. When my husband is working a twelve-hour shift and I have no baby-sitting or doctor’s appointments, I mark off this stretch and go to it. No excuses.

“Pockets” of time. In my everyday life, I often have more “pockets” of time than planned time. I actually wrote this article during the thirty minutes I have to wait after I receive my allergy shot. I forgot to bring a pad of paper in my purse, so I found a scrap page crammed in the bottom of my bag and scribbled it out. I cleaned it up when I added it to my launch folder during a planned day.

During the night. These don’t occur often, but occasionally I awake during the night having a dream or an idea for a story. I keep a pad by the bed and if I can get awake enough, I write enough down to remember. I’ve gathered material for several short stories this way and once I captured it on paper, I can go back to sleep. A word of warning: Sometimes I don’t want to go to the trouble to get up and assume I’ll remember it in the morning. I seldom do, so don’t chance it. Get it on paper.

First thing in the morning. This is similar to in the night writing except its ideas or thoughts I have the minute I awake. I write them on the pad also. My devotion time occurs before I crawl out of bed in the morning, and often while reading the Word or listening to music, more ideas come and I jot them down.

I believe as we continually seek God first and give Him our lives, He’ll show us new and wonderful ways to write our story or article. What ways have you found to increase your writing time? Please take a moment to share with others.

Writing this article has taken on new meaning as I work on promoting a book project I’m involved in, a romantic novella e-book called “A Dozen Apologies.” This romantic comedy portrays a young lady who needs more time to apologize to twelve men she’s offended through a sorority prank while in college. Mara needs more time and so do I. No, I need to take my own advice…

Blurb for A Dozen Apologies

In college, Mara and her sorority sisters played an ugly game, and Mara was usually the winner. She’d date men she considered geeks, win their confidence, and then she’d dump them publicly. When Mara begins work for a prestigious clothing designer in New York, she gets her comeuppance. Her boyfriend steals her designs and wins a coveted position. He fires her, and she returns in shame to her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where life for others has changed for the better.

Mara’s parents, always seemingly one step from a divorce, have rediscovered their love for each other, but more importantly they have placed Christ in the center of that love. The changes Mara sees in their lives cause her to seek Christ. Mara’s heart is pierced by her actions toward the twelve men she’d wronged in college, and she sets out to apologize to each of them. A girl with that many amends to make, though, needs money for travel, and Mara finds more ways to lose a job that she ever thought possible.

Mara stumbles, bumbles, and humbles her way toward employment and toward possible reconciliation with the twelve men she humiliated to find that God truly does look upon the heart, and that He has chosen the heart of one of the men for her to have and to hold.

http://www.writeintergrity.com 

Bio

Jennifer Hallmark: writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She loves to read detective fiction from the Golden Age, watch movies like LOTR, and play with her two precious granddaughters. At times, she writes. Jennifer and her husband, Danny, have spent their married life in Alabama and have a basset hound, Max.

Links

http://www.jenniferhallmark.com 

http://jenniferhallmark.wordpress.com 

http://writingpromptsthoughtsideas.wordpress.com 

https://www.facebook.com/jenniferhallmark  

https://www.facebook.com/authorjenniferhallmark 

https://twitter.com/JenHwrites 

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POLL: Name the Most Difficult Aspect of Writing (multiple answers allowed)

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