The Flame Never Dies by Rachel Vincent
There’s a ton of books being offered, and now is your chance to find your new favorite author! Formed from the members of the Support Indie Authors board on Goodreads, we have something for every taste! From high fantasy to contemperary romance, if you’ve got a reading itch, we aim to scratch it! Check it out today, with more books coming tomorrow!
That’s right, the party has started! Come get your free and discounted summer reading from a myriad of new authors, I’m sure you’ll find a new favorite!
Whoo! Party at Charles Hash’s house! He said we’re all invited!Seriously though
Seriously though, if you’re a reader I’ve got your free summer reading right here starting tomorrow!
Just letting you guys knoww that we’re going to have a crap ton of books to giveaway from the 1st to the 4th of July! Come get your free summer reading!
Today is going to be the last day I do this for a bit, not because I’ve run out of things to say, but because I want to focus my efforts on other endeavors for awhile. And that’s not mentioning it was supposed to end three days ago. I do know I will be doing this again in the future, as I really feel it helped me to get my thoughts in order before writing my stories.
I realized I haven’t told you all exactly what all I wrote while doing this experiment. First up is a short story I’ve been working on with a friend, based off of an old campfire tale he used to tell. It’s proving quite the challenge, morphing a story he’s told ever since he was a child, into a full-fledged book with a plot and character development. A lot of fun, but a lot of work, and I’m not sure if the book is going to resemble the story as much as I would have liked.
Then there’s the descent into hell that I finished. I had already started on that book when I started this project but was able to finish it about halfway through the days. Still waiting to hear back from the Beta reader on this one. Once I hear back from them, I’ll go over it one more time to check for errors, and then I’ll send it to the publisher.
Of course, I wrote another Everyone Dies At The End, and edited it enough to send into the publisher. I think this one may be my best one yet, and it’s going on right now.
I started writing the latest Journey From Atremes, introducing a great evil for the first time in this series. It’s been going smoother than I expected, but the characters are starting to head in paths I would never have envisioned when I first started. Believe it or not, that’s making it more difficult to write, but no less fun.
Last, I started laying down the groundworks for Urban Punk part 2. Trying to decide a basic storyline I wish to stick with before I start writing it. I think I have it figured out, but this one is still in early planning stages.
That’s not including blogs, helping other authors, or any of the things I do to help my friends out. I started this project to jump start my writing again, after a break. I can say for sure that it worked and that I don’t think I would have written half as much as I did if it weren’t for this project.
Just 250 words a day helped me to start turning my life lemons into lemonade. Without even thinking about it, I wrote three novellas and planned out two more. And they were all written one day at a time, one word at a time.
I keep telling you guys that writing is good for you, but I don’t think I’ve given you all any solid examples. I thought I would take today to talk with you all about the skills writing has helped me learn to cultivate.
The first thing writing taught me was focus. I suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder, which makes it hard to concentrate on one problem at a time. I want to focus, try to focus, but my mind jumps and starts on it’s own timing. The simplest of things pull me away from whatever projects I’m working on, and I have to work hard to get back on track. Writing helped by making it so that I had to focus. The ordered thought process of figuring out a character, or a scene, really helped me to keep myself on track.
Next is vocabulary. While I have always considered myself a bit of a talker, I never realized how few words I really used until I started to write. That’s not to say I didn’t have a vocabulary, or that I didn’t know how to use it, just that I didn’t. Not until I became a writer anyways, then I had a reason to call myself a verbose philanthroper of locution.
Last, it taught me to have patience, which has never been one of my strong suits. But the patience an author needs, with himself, and the world around him, is just as important as the patience I needed when I worked as a certified nurses assistant.
Writing can, and will, help you grow. It’s all in if you choose to pursue that avenue, or take another path to become a better person than you were yesterday.
I told you this stuff is addictive. I know we finished yesterday, but I’m just going to continue doing this a couple more days. I haven’t finished saying all that I have to say.
You are courageous. I’m here to tell you that completing your story has made you one of the bravest people I know. I hear other people in my life constantly say, “I should write a book.” yet they never take the time to do so.
When I ask these people, “Why? Why haven’t you written that book yet?” the answer is never the same, yet carries the same point. They worry what people will think, and struggle to get past their own insecurities.
If you have ever even started a tome, pouring your heart and soul onto the page, you’re already ahead of 9 out of 10 people when it comes to finishing a book. There’s nothing to finish if you never start.
And those of you that have released your works to the public are part of an even smaller minority, people who have published their works. More and more authors join our ranks every day, and yet there are thousands upon thousands who will never pick up a pen in their lives outside of a school setting.
You are courageous, for putting yourself out into the world for others to critique or enjoy as they choose. You’ve put the words down, one at a time, and written a complete story, then put it out and hoped others would cherish it as much as you do. You are already ahead of the game.
So, this is my last day doing this experiment. I hope you’ve all had a good time with me, and I hope I inspired even one of you to write your story. Life is a short journey lived one day at a time, you should do everything you can to live it to its fullest.
I talked about reviews, and how to take them with a grain of salt. How to look at them, and glean whatever you can from them. That just because you have a three-star review, it doesn’t mean they didn’t like the book, and there are good lessons to be learned in a great review, no matter the star rating.
I talked about confidence, and letting your genuine self shine through. How this will make it easier for others to connect with you, since you aren’t putting a facade up before you speak to them.
I talked about exercise and meditation as ways to jumpstart the creative process, and how the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
And I talked about how helping others helps you in the end.
I’m glad to be a part of a vibrant and growing indie author community. One that I only see expanding as time goes on.
If there’s one thing I want everyone to take from this book, it’s that your story deserves to be told. Whether another person understands it, or if no one reads it at all, you still deserve to tell it. And the great thing about being a writer, there’s always someone listening. At the end of it all, what matters in life is our connections. The people we meet, and the company we keep. Be loving, be humble, and keep being awesome.
Now, to show you all what I mean when I say anyone can, and should, write their story. With just 250 words a day, spread out over the course of three months, I have managed to write a work that is novella length. That’s 40 pages, and over 25,500 words. One day at a time, one word at a time, this is how we write our stories. Eventually, they come to an end, but there’s always another one to be told. After all, the road goes ever on and on.
I’m so close to finishing this, and I haven’t missed a day. That’s a miracle in my book, I would never have thought I’d do a project like this. Sometimes the ending is the hardest part to come up with, for whatever reason. A story that feels like it should wrap up nice and neat just doesn’t, and you find yourself having to rework an entire storyline just to accommodate it.
But that’s not possible in everyday life. We have to take life as it comes, and only time will show what we can take. None of us know the end of our own stories, all we can do is project ourselves in such a way that others take note and learn from our example. Such is the acclaim of our great leaders, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. These are names we all hold dear to our heart, because they were people whose end came unexpectedly.
In life, they lead a life they felt would lead them and their people to a great path. They didn’t worry about the end, knowing as all people should learn, that it comes when it will.
Though each of these men was assassinated, I don’t think any of them would have altered their paths even with the end in sight. They are the people I look up to, teaching a message of love and acceptance over one of hate and intolerance.
There’s a saying I used to hear a lot in the nursing field, though I don’t know if it’s an actual quote from someone. Nursing isn’t for the meek. It takes a special person. the kind who sees a problem and wants to solve it, while being willing to caress a stranger’s hair. Nursing is not a profession that’s for everyone, and it takes a special kind of person.
Anyone who writes their story is a special person like that, in my mind. We open ourselves up to critics and fans, readers and haters, anyone and everyone to comment on our books.
We had another saying when I was in nursing. Nurses eat their young. This is another trait I see in the independent author field and one I hope to someday crush out. How do we expect people to grow if all we do is stifle?
So, in this second to last writing of inspiration, I call on you to look around and see what you can do to help other authors around you. That person on the forums, whose book looked interesting, contact them and ask them for a copy. Read it and leave an honest review.
That person who is struggling with a cover, stop and offer them some constructive feedback.
Search out other authors and book blogs, and stretch your wings in the community.
Help others, and you’ll start to see how it helps you. After all, reading is a great help to writing.
Sumo Sized Ginger 