New and old writers alike are often stopped in their tracks at the mention of The Demon Writer’s Block™. Every time they have a hard time writing, they fear it’s the beginning of The Demon Writer’s Block™ and that their writing career is effectively over.

I once claimed that I had The Demon Writer’s Block™ for six years. SIX YEARS! And it’s true that for roughly six years I didn’t really write anything. But that wasn’t The Demon Writer’s Block™. It was due to other factors, including that I just wasn’t putting in the effort. It’s that whole BIC (Butt In Chair) strategy that I just didn’t get at that time.

Now, just because there’s no such thing as The Demon Writer’s Block™ doesn’t mean that there aren’t reasons why you’re having a hard time writing (or why you can’t write at all). But we’ve built The Demon Writer’s Block™ up into this mythical being, a metaphorical demon binding our hands, preventing us from getting anything done at all. And that’s not the case. In fact, there are two relatively mundane things that contribute to so-called “writer’s block”. Both are, more or less, manageable once you’re aware that they exist.

So, what are these two all-powerful things that can control our writing productivity (if we let them)? Read the rest of this entry »

This summer is turning out to be really busy for me! Way busier than I’d expected. In fact, I was planning on taking a week off this summer and taking a real vacation, but at this point it’s probably not going to happen until late fall. I wanted to give some updates, though, both on my fiction writing, my other writing, and my other projects. I’ve got a lot going on, but that’s how I like it, honestly. So, without further ado, here it is: Read the rest of this entry »

As promised, I’m going to share my sales for my indie-published novella series here, so that others considering indie-publishing can have as much data as possible to make their decision. I’ll also try to share any insight into my sales numbers, and what marketing efforts I’ve made (and if I can see any correlation between those efforts and my sales figures).

So, February was a short month, and Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris wasn’t widely available until the 4th or 5th. So right off the bat, I was working with a month that was only about 24 days long.

Also, I did virtually no marketing ahead of time. Sure, I’d posted here a few times about the book and its progress, but I didn’t send out any review copies, I didn’t do any real networking, prior to the release date. Mostly, it was because this is my first go at indie publishing fiction, and I didn’t want to shoot myself in the foot if I ran into problems getting it out there. I decided to go with the slow-and-steady approach.

Here are my sales for the month of February: Read the rest of this entry »

Music has always been an integral part of my creative process. I’ve gotten more than a few story ideas from song lyrics. And whenever I start on a new project, I come up with a playlist of sorts that I use to get me in the mood to write. Usually, these are the songs I listen to while I’m in the shower (’cause that’s also where I get my best ideas). I’ll listen to the same eight to ten songs for the entire writing and revising process. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m rather well-known in the world of design blogs by the name I use on this site (which is my real, given name). Search for “Cameron Chapman” on nearly any search engine and I’m the primary result. And that’s good. I’ve done a lot to get this name out there, in the design world, and am glad that I’m recognized (by Google at least) as “the” Cameron Chapman. The one non-fiction book I self-published (Internet Famous) is published under that name, further reinforcing me as an author of internet and design-related books and articles. I’ve been included in a handful of design and internet marketing ebooks under that name, too. Any subsequent books I publish (either myself or with a traditional publisher) in the world of design or the internet will be published under that name, too.

But now I’m starting to run into some problems. Read the rest of this entry »

I still can’t believe it’s nearly 2011. I’ll be turning 27 this year (which sounds so much older than 25, or even 26). I’m still refusing to grow up. Now that I’m getting toward my late 20s, I feel like I’m finally ready to be a teenager! When I was a teenager, I was always acting like an adult (though not a particularly responsible one). I bought a house when I was 19, became in insurance agent, and generally started acting like I was 35. So now that I’m firmly rooted in adulthood, I’m ready to have fun and act like a teenager. 

So that leads me to my resolutions for this year. There are some big ones, for sure. And even if I don’t achieve all of them (remember, I’m not afraid to fail, as long as I’ve at least tried), I plan on making positive steps toward them. And that’s all we can really do, right?

Read the rest of this entry »

So, here it is on day #29 of NaNoWriMo and I just hit 50k words. It’s not all on the novel I originally started, though. I finished that at about 42k words and then started on another novel rather than add a bunch of crap into the first one that I’d just end up deleting in revisions. My original NaNo “novel” will be a novella in the end. I might even split it up into two novellas. The plan at this point is to finish up this other novel I started at the end of NaNo and then go back and edit the first one. Then I’ll release it as an ebook, since the market for novellas is so limited (especially steampunk novellas). I plan on developing a series based around these characters and in this world, probably a mix of novels and novellas.

The one thing I plan on continuing now that NaNo is over is writing fiction every day. I’ve been really bad about that in recent months, and I want to get back into the habit. I wrote nearly every day this month (I think there were three days total when I didn’t write and a few days where I only wrote a few hundred words). I want to keep writing every day. And on days when I’m not writing, I plan to edit. I want fiction writing to be a career eventually, and writing every day will bring me closer to that goal.

So, how did everyone else do? Are you still working toward 50k? Or have you won already? Given up? Anyone plan on calling in sick to work tomorrow and making a marathon effort to hit 50k? Let me know in the comments!

I’m about 2/3 of the way through my NaNoWriMo novel. And I’ve hit the two-thirds slump. This happens to me with virtually every novel I write. I get to this point, and then I get bored with it. I should clarify, that this always happens somewhere between the half-way and two-thirds point, not always at exactly two-thirds. But I always feel like it’s about 2/3 of the way through the story.

Part of this is that it’s about half-way through the middle. I’ve got all the fun beginning stuff done. I’ve been slogging through the middle for awhile now, and I just want to get to the end. But I’m not at the end yet. I’m still working my way up to the climax. I’m always struggling to keep this part interesting, to keep raising the stakes. And I’m always afraid that I’m failing miserably. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are at day 18 of National Novel Writing Month and I’m proud to say that I’m still on track to reach 50k words by the end of November. So I’m upping the ante a bit: my new goal is that I want to have this novel complete by November 30th. I’m thinking it’s going to come in somewhere around 70k words, which means I’ve got to basically double my word count for the remaining twelve days.

But that’s okay. Yesterday, using Write or Die, I managed 1,000 words in 15 minutes. If I just do four sessions like that each day, I should have no problem completing this novel. The prose isn’t perfect, but I’m so into the story at this point that what I’m writing in those short bursts is actually pretty good. I just think about it for a few minutes before I start, so I have an idea of what I want to write in those 15 minutes, and then I write. It’s been working really well so far. And if I’m even more pressed for time, I’ll do 500-word sessions (which take me about 8-9 minutes).

I’m hoping that even after NaNoWriMo is over, I can keep writing 2-4k words each day with this method. I’ve been neglecting my fiction for too long. But if I can’t figure out a way to spare a few 15-minute blocks during the day, then I don’t really deserve to call myself a writer, do I?

First of all, let me apologize to anyone who got a warning about malware on this site over the past day or so. My site was hacked a few months ago, and while I thought the problem was entirely fixed, there was still one file that, while dormant, hadn’t been fixed. Somehow Google picked up on that file and flagged the site. It’s all fixed now and hopefully it won’t happen again. Thanks to my husband, Mike Moffit, for taking the time to fix it today so I could focus on work and NaNoWriMo!

So here we are on day 3 of NaNoWriMo. I’m currently sitting at around 2200 words. The first day, I wrote nothing. November 1st was the day from hell around here, so it wasn’t surprising that NaNo got sidetracked. Yesterday I finally settled on an idea and started writing, managing about 300 words. Today I finally hit my daily word count goal, plus an extra 100+ words to help catch up on the two days I missed (I have to write about 115 extra words per day to make up for the two days when I basically wrote nothing). Read the rest of this entry »