if i look back, i am lost
Not today Justin
we're not kids anymore.
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@authorjoleneperry
MOVING!
I started Been Writing? over 10 years ago. TEN YEARS.
In those ten years, I’ve had a rollercoaster of a writing career, but the one thing I come back to again and again, is my love of talking with other authors – talking through career choices, goals, and manuscripts. I’ve done this at writing conferences, retreats, and with individuals.
This love led me to freelance editing, which is so…
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Dear Writer, You're not Alone
Dear Writer, You’re not Alone
It’s past midnight and you’re dying for sleep, but lie awake with your characters screaming to get out.
Dear writer, you’re not alone.
You’ve created the story of your heart, and you send it into the world, only to earn a growing list of pass letters.
Dear writer, you’re not alone.
You’re tired and wonder if you can keep going.
Dear writer, you’re not alone.
There was a point…
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COMMON MISTAKES: The Big Picture Edition
COMMON MISTAKES: The Big Picture Edition
I don’t love framing posts about writing in a negative light, but honestly, this is the easiest way to talk about the things I see SO often, that I’ll never be able to do them in my own writing again (at least I’d like to think so, but probably that’s wishful thinking). I’d also like to clarify that when I say “Big Picture” what I’m talking about is plot, character, arcs of both plot and…
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The Crippling Possibility of Success
The Crippling Possibility of Success
Here’s the wonderful and terrible thing about creative work:
YOU COULD MAKE IT BIG. One painting, one song, one poem, one video, one…book…could change your entire life.
Twilight, Harry Potter, Where the Crawdads Sing, To Kill a Mockingbird, and so many others that I could go on for a LONG time. An author’s breakout novel, or one of their first published works, hits it big. And OH MANNNN…
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A Few Notes From a Freelance Editor
A Few Notes From a Freelance Editor
I’ve been editing for friends in exchange for other bookish favors for almost ten years. I’ve been doing freelance editing for about three, when I decided that I needed a day job that wasn’t related to my creativity. The other day I ran across a book review where the reviewer was bashing the editor of a particular book, and I laughed a little, knowing it could have just as easily been me.
The…
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Trying New Genres - What I Learned
Trying New Genres – What I Learned
I spent a few years ignoring timelines and ignoring the honest WANT to keep up with having books under contract, and I experimented.
I wrote a thriller/horror with a supernatural/sci-fi style twist (think X-Files) and started another one or two in that same genre, and I wrote a MG novel with a hint of magic, and I wrote a fun ghost hunter book that reminded me of my love of Scooby Doo and…
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Let. Go.
I’ve been in a few conversations lately that remind me how much writers treat their works like their children.
I have a good friend who I’m sure will hit the publishing world in a big way at some point. There’s a fantasy he’s been working on for a long time. It’s the first writing project he threw himself into. He said this in our chat the other day –
“This fantasy is my baby but I’ve felt…
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Ann Aguirre - YASH! (go team PINK)
Ann Aguirre – YASH! (go team PINK)
Interview with Clay from Like Never and Always 1) People want to know why you cover for your brother so much. Why don’t you set the record straight, so people in town don’t blame you so much? The last thing my father said to me before he died? “Take care of your little brother, Clay.” He didn’t mean for me to go down for shit Nathan did. I’m dead sure of that, but he wouldn’t forgive me if…
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STOP APOLOGIZING
I see people apologizing for their genre, what they write, where or how they’re published… Or, maybe apologizing isn’t the right word. The right word is dismissing their accomplishments.
STOP THIS.
If you weren’t comparing yourself to someone else, would you be using phrases like, “Oh, I just do (insert thing here)…” or “It’s not a big deal, I mean, a ton of people are…
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Edit Rounds, Typos, and the Finished Project...
Edit Rounds, Typos, and the Finished Project…
This meme has been floating around, and got my re-thinking about something I think on often… HOW DO TYPOS SURVIVE?
For those traditionally published, you KNOW that typos make it into the final version of your book – almost every single time. (I’ll admit to a tiny part of me being giddy when I find one in a big 5 book. Totally selfish) And what the meme above left out, are the line edits that…
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Four Letter Word
FOUR LETTER WORD and what it takes to get a story right.
I met Christa Desir sometime in 2012, and I feel SO incredibly lucky to know her for about a million reasons. I started writing an intro to her publication story of this book, but she says it all much better, so here’s the twitter version of the story in Christa’s words. (I realized later that maybe I should have NOT included all of the…
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YAY! I made it! Oh, wait...
YAY! I made it! Oh, wait…
A frenzy of self-publishing followed Amazon’s program to allow authors to publish their own works. A bit slowly at first, and then an explosion in 2011 and 2012, which is still exploding. And no, Amazon wasn’t the only company, but they were, and still are, the largest.
Some of the big names to come out of that time? Colleen Hoover, Abbi Glines, Jaime McGuire, etc, etc, etc…
But there were some…
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Things We Forget
I remember a moment of time before I signed my first publication contract when I would hear published authors say – All of you newer writers, enjoy this time of no deadlines, where you are writing purely for the joy of writing. Where you can shut out the world, deadlines, editors, and critics and just write.
They weren’t lying. Being able to shut those things off is brilliant. But they also…
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Hone Story-Telling Skills Without Writing
Hone Story-Telling Skills Without Writing
I’m going to start this post with a short personal note.
Over the past week I put a house on the market that I designed and built. I had my first surgery outside of wisdom teeth removal and have been stuck in bed. And while bed-ridden, moved from the house I built into a basement where the few clothes I can wear sit in a laundry bin. We’re preparing for a move out of state.
Between big life…
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Manuscript Isn't Selling?
Manuscript Isn’t Selling?
The thing I hear most often at writing conferences is the following : I’ve edited and edited. Worked and worked. And I still can’t get an agent or publisher interested in my Manuscript.
So, I paired up with MAKEREADY DESIGNS/QUIRKS & COMMAS to offer the following:
A free read of chapter one (no more than 4k) – at this point, we can both decide if I’m a good fit for your story. I’ll happily pass…
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How to be Your own Beta-Reader
How to be Your own Beta-Reader
I’d like to begin this post by contradicting myself – YOU NEED BETA READERS WHO ARE NOT YOURSELF. But really, there are a few things you can do to be a more effective self-editor in early editing rounds – big picture stuff.
You have to be willing to set the MS aside for long enough that the words feel new. For me, this is about 3 months, IF I’ve seriously worked on at least one other project…
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A Little Late for an Intro.
A Little Late for an Intro.
Yeah, it’s a little late for an intro,  but then, I’ve rarely been good at following rules.
I grew up with the kind of dad who used a lighter to detect possible gas leaks in gas lines. A dad who said things like, “They let electricians do it! Of course you can wire your house!”
Because of this line of thinking, and my mother’s ENDLESS patience and support, I competitively show-jumped, I went to…
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