After all the things I’ve learned from The Creative Penn, I wanted to give back to Joanna’s community. She recently gave me the green light to send along a guest post about writing.

The post just went up this morning, and here’s a snippet:

No More Excuses About Writing. Fire The Muse And Go To Work »

“So, you what, sit down and wait for the muse?”

My father-in-law’s question made sense. A master electrician and project manager, he heads up the installation of massive industrial electrical systems. But when he asked me about how I write and work, something clicked.

“No,” I replied. “When you get down to it, my job actually has a lot more in common with yours.”

Go to the full post (see you in the comments!) »

Image: Flickr Creative Commons hard hat area by Jason Eppink

Whatever your field, you need good tools. A carpenter needs a hammer. A cook needs a chef’s knife. And if you do anything related to social media, you need HootSuite.

HootSuite is a service and app that helps you manage, schedule and monitor your social media presences. Have a Twitter account and Facebook page? You can view those streams, and post content, all from one simple interface. (Bulk uploads are available too, if for example you wanted to load a series of updates targeting an upcoming event.) Collaborating with team members on a marketing campaign? Everyone can use one simple dashboard. Have hashtags you need to monitor for your brand? Set up a tab with any search term or hashtag you need to follow.

HootSuite currently supports these social networks:

• Twitter
• Facebook (Profiles, Pages and Groups)
• Google+ Pages
• LinkedIn (Profiles, Groups and Companies)
• Foursquare
• WordPress.com blogs
• mixi

In August I attended the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon. My goal this year was to continue evolving my marketing chops, especially when it came to the not-really-new, ever-more-important, still-not-really-understood Google+.

Boy howdy did I come away with some knowledge.

Google+ is powerful, growing and engaging. Plus, you know, it’s Google. Here are 2 reasons to give Google+ higher priority in your marketing:

1. When people say they want your content, you don’t have to pay for them to actually see your content (unlike a certain social network whose name rhymes with “took”)
2. The quality of features and conversations is like bringing in the best attributes of Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc., all within the sphere of Google, the most important search company on the planet for your organization.

No matter how shallow or deep you want to dig in to Google+, I recommend this excellent guide from Martin Shervington. Videos and blog posts guide you step by step through every facet of this powerful social network:

What is Google Plus? A Complete User Guide »

BTW, you can follow me on Google Plus at +Anthony St. Clair

• Paying It Forward Starts With You – #Amwriting (dot org)
• Bringing bitters back – Register-Guard, Tastings – Andrea Loreto revives a centuries-old Italian tradition at his Eugene microdistillery, conjuring captivatingly complex botanical flavors in Calisaya Liqueur
• Print only – “No More Soft Pickles” appears on p. 36 of the August/September 2012 issue of BackHome Magazine

More articles in my Portfolio.

From Aug. 3-5, I’ll be at the 2012 Willamette Writers Conference, in a combo role as author Anthony and co-chair of the Willamette Writers Mid-Valley Chapter. It’s going to be a whirlwind 3 days of meeting with agents, connecting with colleagues and getting the skinny on the latest in editing, marketing and indie publishing.

Look for updates on Twitter at @antsaint.

Fresh take on the brewpub – The Register-Guard Newspaper, Eugene, Oregon

Road trip! Travel fantasy stories from Rucksack Press »

When it comes to globetrotting, you can always do with a good book. After all, when you’re riding a rickety bus around windy mountain roads for 10 hours, a good book can at least keep your mind off whether or not you’ll go from a slow ride to a fast drop.

And as you may know from my various novel-in-a-month endeavors (2005, 2008, 2011), I’m working on some travel fantasy stories.

More details are on my new publishing site, Rucksack Press. I also recently launched a news and stories blog, and here’s the first post:

What is the Rucksack Universe? »

Now, back to editing and rewriting…

Photo: grabka dot org

Inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s annual review and the 2011: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE AWESOME review from {r}evolution apparel, I realized I should step up and do one too.

Sometimes a few months can feel like its very own year. The last half of 2011 certainly felt that way for me. And now, with 2012 underway, January alternates between flying fast, and ticking long and slow. Still, 2011 was packed with good and bad, and I know 2012 will be too. Here’s what I’m also working to be ready for…

2011

The good

• I quit my job and set up shop as an independent writer and editor. Hooray!
• Became co-chair of Mid-Valley Willamette Writers.
• Blogged about once per week, and re-organized my website to work in more information about my copywriting, social media and online marketing services.
• Drafted my novel and set up my own publishing company for travel fantasy books and urban fantasy stories.
• Met awesome colleagues at the 2011 Willamette Writers Conference.
• During November, wrote both a 50,000-word novel for NaNoWriMo, and blogged daily for the BootsnAll 30 Days of Indie Travel project.
• Had a baby. Oh, yeah.

The bad

• Part of being an expectant dad is you can’t get individual health insurance. Turns out your unborn child is too much of a risk. We had to take on the extra cost of being in our state’s high-risk insurance pool in order for me to have health insurance coverage while my wife was pregnant. Welcome to the USA.
• I often still feel too closed-up when blogging and sharing ideas, projects and plans with my readers. My default has too often been to clam up, instead of singing out. That will most likely always be a work in progress, but I’m trying, dang it, I’m trying.
• Stumbled a lot on various things for my business. There are contacts I’m making now, that I probably could’ve made months ago. There are things I probably could’ve put in place ages ago, but didn’t. At least they’re in play and underway now.
• Realized that I really, really suck at writing short stories. My structure and understanding of the “why” of the story need a lot of work.

2012

The get ready

• Saw the other night that Antsaint ranked tops in Google for “craft beer writing” and “craft beer writer”. Wow. (‘Course, this stuff changes all the time. But still.)
• Writing a freebie story for Rucksack Press and getting the word out for travel fantasy stories coming 2012.
• Talking with more people for copywriting, email marketing and social media projects. There’s nothing like working with awesome people, and I’m glad to be working with more of them.
• Looking hard at a Kickstarter campaign to fund costs on my first books. Working hard to earn the trust and interest to make that happen with my readers.
• Publish 2 books. Now that I’ve had some time to get distance from my novel and short story collection, it’s time to come back to both projects. My theme for 2012 will be “a year of revision and release”. I plan to get at least 2 books to market this year: my novel, and a short-story collection.
• Be a bad-ass dad. As I type this, my wee son is strapped to my chest in a Moby Wrap. The whole baby-wearing thing? I dig.

Excited to find out

It’s going to be an interesting year. There is so much happening, and I have no idea what all is going to happen. But as Steve Jobs once said, “I’m really excited to find out.”

Nov. 30, 2011
NaNoWriMo status and progress for writing a 50,000-word novel in one month:

• Written today: 1,698 words
• Total so far: 52,591 words
• Remaining: 0 words

Woo-hoo! NaNoWriMo 2011 is done, and I survived!

The last story has a lot of promise. A crazy, world-shaking proposition, a preposterous yet believable land claim, and a man with an unbendable will who lives to make his dream happen. And a certain stout-swigging hero.

For this knock-up of the story, I focused on dialogue and basic story framing. There are more facts to work in, more threads connecting different bits of the story, things to clarify to show how big the story stakes really are.

But it’s a start. That’s been the thing for this entire project. I knew I wouldn’t finish NaNoWriMo 2011 with a publishing-ready manuscript (also see: 7 tips to shape up your 50,000 words after NaNoWriMo – #Amwriting). I knew my stories would be skeletal at best. But, in some form or another, they’re written. Characters are developed. Locations are set. Plot elements are working—including many I couldn’t have figured out in any way other than just sitting down and writing.

There’s a lot of work ahead, to make these stories the best I believe they can be. But NaNoWriMo has been a great start.

And now, for now, it’s time to call it done.

Here’s to NaNoWriMo 2011, all 52,591 words of if!

Stay tuned… coming in 2012, the published version of these stories, plus, my first novel. Get updates on these projects…

See all of Anthony St. Clair’s NaNoWriMo 2011 blog posts »

More like this: Travel Fantasy Stories from Rucksack Press »

Nov. 29, 2011
NaNoWriMo status and progress for writing a 50,000-word novel in one month:

• Written today: 1,737 words
• Total so far: 50,893 words
• Remaining: 0 words

One to go.

Today’s story, the next to last in my 2011 NaNoWriMo project, brings together two of the most essential characters in my wee travel fantasy universe. Over a few pints of stout, they discuss the world, a bit of “what’s it all for, then?” and also give us insight into their characters.

For the moment, it’s a bit of a character piece, with discussion giving us more glimpses into who these two men are, what motivates them, what they hope for, what they despair of. In the back of my head as I wrote, I thought of Doctor Who: The End of Time, a bit of a character piece on The Doctor and some of his history and drive.

There’s good interaction and some fun dialogue. During rewrite, I’ll be able to dig out the core of the story, and expand on that.

Oh yeah. I’ve also crossed the finish line today! 50,000 words written, with one day to go (and with a couple of days off, to boot). It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s not done yet.

There’s still one more story to crank out, and that rough draft will get laid down tomorrow, the last day of NaNoWriMo 2011.

See all of Anthony St. Clair’s NaNoWriMo 2011 blog posts »

More like this: Travel Fantasy Stories from Rucksack Press »