This must be one of my new fixations, she thought.

Every so often, I’ll completely outlaw a certain writing behavior that I think I use too much. I realized I rely entirely too much on what’s going on in my characters’ heads. Rather than showing their dilemma through action, I tend to take the easy way out and hit Cmd + I on the keyboard.

Here I go, over-thinking things again. She sighed.

I went to insert a thought into the narrative today and found myself literally jerking my hands from the keyboard. I did this with -ing words for a while, the words “was” and “had,” and several other things. After the severe aversion, I learn how to pepper these things in.

It’s what I do. My writers’ group is very familiar with this neurotic behavior.

I feel that too many thoughts interrupt the natural flow of the narration. Sometimes they’re necessary. Sometimes they’re just annoying. I realized how much I rely on them while critiquing another writer’s manuscript a few months ago. “You use thoughts too much,” I told him. Then I looked at my own work.

We hate in others what we see in ourselves.

There is a method to my madness, though, and I’ve learned to trade italics for action and exposition. You don’t want to bore your readers, though. How do you share thoughts without telling the reader exactly what’s going on in your character’s head?

Demonstrate action. If your character has a weak stomach, don’t make her think, Ugh, I hope I don’t vomit. Show her actions.

She turned away, gagging into the sink.

Keep it concise. Don’t launch into an explanation of how long she’s dealt with her weak stomach, or the last thing that set her off.

Use actual dialogue. Instead of thinking how annoying Morgan is, maybe Quinn should just tell him. This injects conflict into your scene and could start an argument.

“You are so annoying,” Quinn said. Her hands curled into fists.

“I’m just trying to ask you out. What’s the big deal?” Morgan frowned.

Voicing her opinions out loud could interfere with your main character’s current objective. Instead of getting to class on time for her midterms, now she’s arguing with her neighbor.

(For more on throwing boulders in front of your character, check out James Scott Bell’s Conflict & Suspense.)

Describe how the wheels turn. Use a small amount of exposition to detail what she’s thinking. Instead of giving us a short glimpse into her head, you can draw out her worries.

This can’t be good, Quinn thought.

Compare that to:

She wondered how long she would sit in traffic. If there was an accident, it could be an hour or more.

Sometimes you do need thoughts. I’m finding it’s getting harder and harder to avoid them altogether. Maybe it’s time to give the neuroticism a rest.

♦♦

How do you show and tell what your character is thinking?

I’ve created business plans before. They were very loose, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I used the Product, Audience, Goals, and Action Plan format, but didn’t really understand my audience because I still didn’t fully understand my product. I was trying to write too many different things. I couldn’t decide on one genre for the rest of forever. It was too daunting.

Luckily, after almost two years of experimenting, my genre came to me. I realized that my stories mainly focused on twenty-somethings and the things they go through. My stories fit perfectly into the New Adult genre, but I also wanted to continue writing drama with grit. So, now I write drama with grit for twenty-somethings. The cool thing is, teens and older adults will enjoy these stories, too. I don’t feel so pigeonholed, but I also feel more confident about the direction I’m going in.

When I sat down to create a three-year business plan, I knew it was a necessity, but was pretty intimidated by it. So, I did what I do best: created a list of goals. If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that my ultimate goal is to quit my day job. I’ve been working part-time at a department store and although I’m grateful to have a job, retail is not for me.

I took it a step further, though, and added two more goals.

Goals

• Quit my part-time job.
• Release something new every month.
• Grow email list to 100 subscribers.

Originally, I wanted to quit my part-time job by my twenty-fifth birthday. While that could still happen, I’m still not close to making a living off my writing. Currently, I can pay a couple bills. This is really exciting, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come. I just want to go further. I can’t imagine spending my time any other way. I can easily see myself waking up every day and writing for my kickass readers. I live to tell stories, so it only makes sense that I make a living doing it.

I needed an action plan, though. First, I went back in filled in the Product and Audience sections.

Product

Drama with grit: stories featuring realistic characters dealing with real life situations. These stories shine light on the hard aspects of life, but also contain glimmers of hope.

Audience

People in their early twenties, ideally ages 18-26.

Looking back at my goals, I created an action plan that would help me accomplish these goals. Arguably, “release something new every month” could be an action step, but I broke it down even further. I’m keeping most of this section private for now, but here is an example.

Action Plan

• Release 7 ebooks by January 2014.
• Create new release schedule for the rest of 2013, and for 2014.
• Include newsletter signup link in each ebook.

What I love most about my new business plan is that it’s very flexible. I’ve already changed a couple things, but because the foundation is the same, not much is affected. For example, I had two releases planned at different times. I decided to switch them. My release schedule—which is part of my business plan, by the way—is structured in such a way that I will constantly be releasing new content every month. Every month focuses on a specific kind of release, but also gives me wiggle room so that I can add extra releases, if I wanted to.

The last thing I did was create a loose marketing plan. I’ve found that marketing ebooks is a very agile process, so I try not to carve my plans in stone. However, my plan focuses on the following elements:

• advertising on Goodreads
• making the first in a series permanently free
• utilizing my email newsletter to share updates exclusively, and to share special discounts
• tweeting about my writing process, sharing things I love, and broadcasting blog posts
• posting WIP updates on Facebook, sharing excerpts, and more
• continuing to blog about my self-publishing journey, but shifting the blog’s focus to share more excerpts
• posting free stuff on Wattpad

As you can see, most of my marketing plan involves giving things away. My biggest focus, though, is to make sure my email newsletter is something special. I frequently catch myself sharing things on Twitter or Facebook first, especially since they’re so easy to use. I can post something and it’s immediately out there. When I’m excited, I tend to get caught up in that. I need to remember to save those things for the newsletter, though.

That’s pretty much it. I’ve made sure my business plan works for the next three years. I’ve also created a three-year release structure, and then a release schedule for 2013 and 2014. I have several projects in production, all of which I can’t wait to get out. It’s a shame I can’t write them all at once.

Do you have a business plan? How did you write yours? What would you add to mine?

Read Online for Free »

Download Ebook for Free »

If you want it on your Kindle or Nook, Smashwords provides those files. You can email me if you need help figuring out which files you need.

If you really want to buy straight from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, it’s $0.99. You might as well just pick up Season One, which contains episodes #1-12 for only $3.99.

If you read Episode #1 and like it, please leave a review on Amazon or one of the other websites.

Summer is almost here! Sandpaper Fidelity: Season Three starts July 2nd! Trust me, it’s going to be a scorcher.

I almost didn’t recognize myself.

Pulling away from the internet has helped tremendously. I still feel a little guilty, because I don’t want you to think I’m ignoring you, but this is the only way I can get new stories to you faster than one per year.

I have quite a few things in production, and I’m super excited about all of them. I’m focusing a lot more on certain things. Don’t worry! I’ll be ready to tell you all about it pretty soon. I can’t stress enough that you should sign up for my email newsletter, because that is the number one way to stay up to date with what I’m working on… and to get free and discounted ebooks.

May Goals: Progress Report

I’m working hard to hustle and focus. My goals for last month were exactly what I needed to get on track. Not only did I release EZS #1 and SF SSN 1 on time, but I also started something new.

I decided to table getting more books into print… for now. I love paperbacks, but between writing new stuff and wedding planning, I have zero time to work on them. (Speaking of, I have a few copies of Sade on the Wall left if you want one signed!) Things will calm down after August, though, so I will be able to get back on the print horse then.

June Goals

I want to keep my momentum going, so my June goals are pretty straightforward.

• Release Sandpaper Fidelity Season Two on June 25th. This will compile episodes #13-24 into one ebook for your catching-up pleasure! There will also be bonus content for those of you who already love the serial.
• Finish writing CIT #1. This is that new novel I keep hinting at. As soon as it’s finished, I can tell you more. In the meantime, I don’t want to jinx the poor thing. I’m 25% done with the first draft—just over 15,000 words into it.
• Polish up SF SSN 3 and get covers ready before July release. I’d love to be a little more ahead of things this season. Previously, I was working on each issue right before the release date. So, for example, if #13 was coming out on Tuesday, I spent the whole weekend doing final edits, formatting, and the cover design. I’d like to be working on other things in July, so I will be doing these things during the last two weeks of June instead.

I’m also working on a three-year business plan and, of course, wedding stuff. Busy, busy, busy!

Don’t worry. I’m also balancing this hectic work schedule out with days off. Usually, Sundays are my do nothing days, but I wanted to write this post up before I forget. I spend my Sundays playing The Sims 3, reading, and watching Game of Thrones.

How do you spend your Sundays? Are you working on your goals for June? Share in the comments!

You mean the world to me.

It’s because of you that I show up at the keyboard every day and get the words down. It’s because of you that I’ve learned how to seize my dreams by the balls and make them my reality. It’s because of you that I wrote and self-published my debut novel, Sade on the Wall.

Thank you for taking this journey with me.

Now it’s time to take it a step further.

You know that I want to make writing fiction my full-time gig. I’ve been thinking long and hard—heh—about what that means, and how to accomplish it. I’ve been experimenting, building sandcastles and then disassembling them to see how they work. I’ve been studying my craft, watching what others do. I’ve been trying to keep you in the loop, but I’ve had to spend some time by myself as I figured everything out. I realized recently that I’ve been writing fiction for twenty-somethings, and that I want to continue doing so. I’ve also discovered that I want to go deeper and darker into the terrors of real life, all with characters in the age range of 18-26.

I’m still learning and planning, but I have a really good idea of what is in store for the next three years. I hope you will come with me and continue to support me, but I can understand if the castle I’m building isn’t for you. We can totally still be friends.

Right now I am writing a new novel. I’ve decided to walk away from some past projects. I wrote these when I still didn’t know exactly what kind of stories I wanted to write, and though I love them, I needed to let go because they were only holding me back. I’ve learned that sometimes that’s necessary, and that it’s okay.

I’ve also decided to unpublish almost all of my short stories. Those shorts got my feet wet in the self-publishing industry, but they’re not the kind of stories I want to tell.

So, what’s next?

I am focusing on producing stories that fit into my brand. I write drama with grit for twenty-somethings, and explore real issues. I can tell you that I am 9,000 words into the first novel of what I hope will be a series, and am working on some other things as well. I will be making a big announcement soon, so please make sure you are getting my email newsletter.

That’s it for now. I’ve got to go back into the writing cave. It’s dangerous in there, but the monsters share their coffee. Please leave a comment or shoot me an email, and let me know what you think.

Cheesin’ it, big time, at my college commencement ceremony. Technically, I finished my A.S. in 2008, but had to wait until 2009 to walk, as a formality.

That is the question these days. Everyone has a different opinion. Amazon filed it under Romance in their book store, but New Adult authors and readers argue that it’s less about romance and more about college life. Some even say that NA encapsulates the transition from teenager to adult, whether the main characters go to college or not. Others, like Jezebel columnist Katie J.M. Baker, argue that New Adult is merely just a marketing ploy, and that writers have been writing stories about twenty-somethings for decades.

I think NA is all of those things. As someone about to turn twenty-five, I can attest that these years of transition are different for everyone, but the one thing we twenty-somethings have in common is trying to figure shit out. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time know that I have been trying to solve this “being an adult” puzzle for years. When I started writing Sandpaper Fidelity, I wasn’t thinking about writing a New Adult serial. I just wanted to write something with characters in their twenties. I had no idea that there was actually a genre for my serial.

I’ve been reading all I can about the genre, and have fallen completely in love with it. My idea of New Adult?

New Adult fiction is about the gritty, hard things about being in your twenties. It focuses on characters trying to figure out how to be an adult. These characters might be working toward careers, or they might be working toward getting out of their parents’ house alive. They may be going to college, or sharpening their night life skills. They’re falling hard and partying harder, and at the end of the day, they may not actually be any closer to feeling like a real grownup, but they’re realizing who they are and what is important to them.

These are the kinds of stories I want to write, mostly because they’re the kinds of stories I would have liked to read when I was eighteen, nineteen years old. Hell, I would have devoured them even at sixteen, in an effort to try to prepare for adulthood.

What kind of New Adult books would you like to read?

During this last week, I took some time to evaluate my business. Not my art itself, but my career as a company. It’s hard to view art as something industrial. As humans, we want to put labels on things and categorize and market the crap out of them. Everything needs to have a “return on investment” and profit, and that can be exhausting for people who are more creatively minded than entrepreneurial. I have some experience with running a business, but that was web design, and long ago and far away. Things have changed quite a bit since I set up shop as a web designer. Even then, I was selling a service. I knew exactly who my market was.

I did not, until recently, know who my readers are or what my genre is.

That alone has created a sort of wall for me. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” I would whine to myself. That twisty, anxious feeling would creep up on me, snap me into its jaws, and hold me prisoner. I couldn’t even write because that feeling of no direction would quickly lead to a feeling of incompetence, which bled straight into my work. “If I can’t figure out the business side,” I decided, “I am not a real writer.”

I admitted to myself that I was still figuring things out, but the process itself was messy and frightening. I wanted to give up, but love writing so much that I refused to. I plodded along, getting the muck on my shoes and all over my keyboard, until I had an epiphany.

It wasn’t a sudden realization, though. It’s been culminating slowly over several months. Ever since I heard about the “New Adult” genre and the debate surrounding it, this realization has been building itself in the back of my mind, without me even realizing it. I found out a couple days ago that Amazon added NA to its categories. Suddenly I realized that Sandpaper Fidelity is NA; its characters are twenty-somethings, trying to figure out life and how they fit into the world. (For a good explanation of what New Adult is, read this.) Then, with this revelation, I joined a Goodreads group for NA books. I want to read as many books within the genre as possible. I found this thread where people were talking about their expectations of NA and what they wanted it to be, and as I read, realized these were the kinds of stories I’ve been writing, that I want to continue to write.

Now, I need to clarify something. The original poster, Kit, says she wants to read “trash.” I don’t want to write trash. I do want to write gritty drama with a touch of humor, with hope woven into it, that realistically depicts the struggles new adults deal with. I’ll be twenty-five in August, and have been trying to figure out this grownup shit ever since I turned eighteen. I want to write stories that explore the things I worry about, the things I know other twenty-somethings worry about.

Suddenly, the wall vanished. Yes, it will rise again. Something else inside of me will try to get in my way. That’s just part of being a creative. There is definitely a correlation between artists and depression. Now I have a solid business plan, genre, and know who my readers are. I will have to make some changes—mainly unpublishing a couple short stories that don’t fit into that, and tweaking of blurbs and my bio—but that anxious twist that was inside of me is now a spark that is driving inspiration. I stayed up late last night just scribbling down ideas. I have the beginnings of an outline for a new series, and have started writing an outline for the first novel.

Tomorrow I will start writing that novel.

I feel like my very soul is vibrating with energy. I’m just so excited about my career now that I know. I was so worried about having to pick a genre and brand myself, but the answer was in front of me the whole time. I know I can do a great job writing NA novels, because I am still technically living that life. Many NA books have gotten a lot of flack because they just don’t touch upon those issues, and are more like YA romance than anything else. (Then there’s that whole argument that NA is explicit YA, which just makes me want to prove that school of thought wrong. “This is NA!” I want to tell them, while pointing at Sandpaper Fidelity. “This is what it’s like!” [Of course, SF is a bit more dramatic than that, and I'm aiming for less drama and more realism in my new series.])

Oh, you guys. I’m so excited about this.

Of course, here comes the bad news: I’ll be unplugging for another two weeks to write said NA novel. What’s strange is, the more time I spend away from the internet, the less I miss it. I miss the people, but I don’t miss blankly scrolling through my Facebook timeline or scouring Twitter for articles to “read” on my break at work. I’ve been spending that time brainstorming, reading, and crafting characters.

So, expect some changes in Liz Land, but nothing too major. My key word for this year is “focus,” and that’s all I’m doing here: focusing on the stories I have already written, using those same themes and elements to take my career to the next level.

Yes, writing! I’m working on Season Three of Sandpaper Fidelity, which starts in July. I’m also working on… something completely new! I can’t tell you the exact details yet, because it’s still in its infancy, but I’m excited about it.

I want to stress that I am okay, just a little overwhelmed. I’m playing tug-o-war with some health issues, planning my and Mike’s wedding, and writing my face off. Writing has been extremely cathartic lately. I’ve even been writing—wait for it—poetry!

I am simply unplugging so that I can focus a little more on these things. I hate to do it, but it’s important that I take this time. I will be taking at least a week off, possibly two. I’d like to stay unplugged until I finish the first drafts of SF Season Three and the new project, but we’ll see. As it stands, I’ll be unplugged from now until Sunday, May 19th. Perhaps ironically, my new project has something to do with an internet junkie.

Please don’t do anything too crazy without me, like break the internet or something.

I’ll see you soon.

It’s not that I don’t have faith in myself. I think I would be really great at foraging and hiding. Yes, hiding would be my specialty. Ermengarde, (Cowardly) Zombie Slayer is my ode to all of us who shriek at spiders and would rather play with books than weapons.

Currently, the ebook is available everywhere but Apple (which should change soon; they just take a little longer than everyone else). You can get it for $2.99.

I do have plans to put out a trade paperback version soon, depending on how well the ebook does. Mostly, I just want to see Robbie Pelletier‘s stunning illustration physically on my book shelf. Working with him was an absolute pleasure, and I am thrilled with how the cover turned out. (Fun fact: the zombie was inspired by my fiance Mike’s profile, and features his super badass beard.)

Format: Ebook
Retailers: Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Drive Thru Fiction, Kobo, Smashwords
Release Date: May 7th, 2013
Price: $2.99

Excerpt

The sound of a foot being lifted from muck froze me. Slowly, I turned from the door. A shambling shape loomed in the failing light. My eyes widened and I backed up until my body pressed against the door, a whimper escaping my lips.

Black goo oozed out of its mouth. Its eyes sunk into its skull. Bits of grey flesh hung off its cheeks. It took another step toward me, uttering a hungry moan.

My fingers groped for the door knob, slipping against the finished oak. I knew my hand had gone at least a foot over; I could feel where the groove in the door ended and the crack between it and the door frame began. Up and down I groped, and closer the thing came.

“Please,” I whispered, like it could hear me. It limped forward, stretched out its arms, and grabbed handfuls of my hair. There was nowhere to run. I slammed my hands against its shoulders. I sucked in a deep breath of air, and screamed the first thing I could think of: “Wyatt!” The zombie pressed against me, its jaws snapping, its breath cold and sour.

I shoved back as hard as I could, but it weighed more than Wyatt during our training sessions. Using the door as leverage, I slammed my head into the zombie’s. Its skull felt as soft as a sponge, and I left a concave dent in its forehead. The thing paused, and I drove my head into the same spot again.

Decayed flesh, softened bits of bone, gooey blood, and brain matter splashed into my face and hair. The zombie crumpled to the floor, and I fell to my knees in front of it, a steaming stream of vomit escaping my mouth and joining the puddle of zombie on the floor.

Wyatt burst into the room behind me. “What happened? Ermie, are you okay?!” He hauled me to my feet, glanced at the mess on the floor, and pulled me into his arms. My heartbeat sped up and my shoulders relaxed, then tensed as Mennie poked her head out of her bedroom.

“What’s all this noise?” she demanded, coming toward us, leaning against the wall for support.

Get it Now »

♦♦

Thank you, as always, for your support. It means the world to me to have such awesome readers. This book was a blast to write, and I can’t wait to write more for you.

Writing the first draft is relatively easy for me. I mean, there is a certain amount of kicking and screaming, but that’s mostly because writing is hard. We all know that. It takes a great deal from you, especially once you learn to put pieces of your heart inside each word. I can write the first draft of a short story in one day. I can write a novelette in about two weeks. It takes me a month or more to write a novel. (I’m working on writing faster, but that’s another post for another day.) I push myself to get through it, get it out, and then I walk away.

I leave it in my filing cabinet. (There is something really validating about printing out a manuscript, tucking it into a neatly labeled folder, and then cramming it into a full filing cabinet.) When it’s time, I come back to it. I try not to put a number on this amount of time. I don’t always have a choice, though, which is why deadlines can suck. If it’s up to me, though, I let myself forget about it. The best time for me to come back to a manuscript is when I accidentally find it while looking for something else.

Then I read through it. I always tell myself, “Oh, I’ll just read through it, no editing.” Inevitably I’ll find some kind of mistake or think of something I’d like to add, and then I get up and grab a red pen and highlighter. Occasionally, I’ll already have them on hand “just in case.” By the time I’m done reading through, I have a ton of notes for the next draft. I often take manuscripts or parts to my writers’ group, and I have a solid network of beta readers. (I would, however, love to have a one on one critique partner someday who writes in the same genre[s]. It would be so nice to swap manuscripts all the time. If you’re out there, I’m looking for you.)

Obviously, I start making the changes. I always save the first draft as a new file. The first is usually named something like thisisthetitle_04012013, so I’ll save the second as thisisthetitle_05042013, using the dates to figure out which draft is newest. It works for me at a glance. I picked up the habit in college, cemented it when I used to write HTML and PHP files, and have adapted it for the writerly life. If you want to steal it, feel free. I don’t remember who taught it to me, but thank you, wherever you are. It’s saved my ass on many occasions.

I really enjoy the making changes part. I guess you would call that revising or rewriting, but I just look at it as “search and replace.” I have a copy holder, so I stand up my printed-out, red-penned first draft, scan it for notes, search my document for key phrases, and make the changes. It cuts down on time, and is also a hat trick from my coding days. (Now that I think about it, a lot of my web design habits have followed me into authorhood, and they actually work really well for the trade.) When I’m done, I walk away yet again.

This process might sound cut and dry, but I don’t when to stop. I often get stuck in the revising stage, because I start over-analyzing everything and obsessing to the point where I can’t move forward with the manuscript at all. It becomes this gargantuan beast in my mind, unconquerable and hungry for my own fears and insecurities. The more I think about it, the worse I feel.

If I just throw myself into it, I feel better, but the second I start thinking about when to call it done, I freeze up again. I know it’s all just that head game all authors play with themselves, but it’s a totally different thing to be stuck in that rut. I also know that if I could just get over this issue, this fear, I will have that momentum I so desperately want. In a way, my writing life is similar to that of one of my characters’ lives. I’ve been dealing with this cycle since the end of 2011, when I decided to get one of my novels published. I struggled with it all throughout 2012 and finally self-published Sade on the Wall, and now I’m in the same boat with Ermengarde, (Cowardly) Zombie Slayer.

I know that no one is perfect. There is no such thing as the perfect book. Yet I get freaked out by the thought of having to produce a finished product, and get in my own way. I have come to recognize my problem, and have learned it the way I know how to make a pot of coffee. I just don’t know what to do about it.

While thinking about all of this, I also discovered that my problem’s roots lie in my self-doubt, the ceaseless questioning of every decision that I make. This is a personality trait that I am unable to rid myself of. I am incredibly self-aware, and I am aware that as humans, we have the ability to rewire our brains—Alan Alda told me so last night—but I am at a loss as to how to do this.