writing – Page 23

What’s the hardest thing to do when you’ve received praise?

I believe the hardest thing for many of us is to consider that we could have done better.

Yes, you’ve done something that received acclaim, but does that really mean you’ve done your best?

No, it means you’ve done enough.

In July 2015, while I was working hard simultaneously on Give & Take: A Tale of Erotica, and Beyond The Law: Retribution, I wrote a blog titled A Review of Reviews.

I stated in the post that I intended to get my main projects published by December 2015, and then I would tackle each of my titles, one after another to perform a full critical analysis and rewrite.

Well, guess what … it’s November and those two main projects are now published.

What are my projects for the months ahead?

My agenda is flexible, but fairly well set up for the foreseeable future:

1. Continue working on my next anthologies
– The Welcome: and other Sci-Fi stories
– A Time for Courage: and other military stories

2. Dust off and get back to work on my fact-based fiction / coming of age story A Life of Choice, which I will now be producing in a series of books.

3. Continue to work behind the scenes to support and build on the success of the Indie Author Support and Discussion Facebook group, especially with the restructuring of the group website.

4. Read and review titles from the IASD group website.

5. In December 2015 I will begin what I said I would do – commence a detailed revision and rewrite of all of my titles.

– Make a copy of the main manuscript.

– Read and make notes from every review, whether positive or negative issues.

– Locate and amend the negative issues as a priority.

– Read the story as a reader, and look out for the telltale signs of the novice. I will have a list of key words and phrases in front of me to locate and zap / replace.

– Subject each chapter individually to Grammarly to double-check punctuation, grammar, and so on.

– Amend the cover and inside information to have a subtle ‘Revised Edition’ with the appropriate date.

– Ask for beta readers in advance of completion.

– When all bugs are ironed out, republish and set up a Kindle Countdown Deal to kick-start interest in the title, and my brand.

– Move on to the next title.

How long will it take?

Time is not my major concern, because if I’m aiming to achieve a higher standard, it takes as long as it takes.

I’d like to think if I don’t touch the poetry series, I might be capable of dealing with the novels and short stories by next summer. It will be interesting. I’ve no doubt there will be many things which are fine, but there will be issues and it will be a test of my mettle to deal with them properly.

I will of course report back on a regular basis. Once underway, I will not give up.
Thank you once again for joining me on my journey. All comments are welcome.

***

The Welcome: and other Sci-Fi stories is the full working title of my next anthology.

Unless you hail from another planet, you’ll be aware that apart from reading widely, I also try writing various genre. I believe all creative writers should attempt both the reading and writing of different genre. I feel it gives a greater appreciation of the craft if we step out of our comfort zone.

Just as the collection will be, I decided to produce an experimental cover. I wanted something that would at least fit as a working model prior to publication. Please note, there are no space ships, men in big white suits, or alien beings on the cover.

As I’ve done with my other anthologies, I’m aiming to produce at least 12 stories.

There is a major difference with this collection, because I am inviting stories from guest authors. As things stand, I have eight stories written by me. Three of those appear in other collections, but the other five are new and at various stages of completion.

My aim is to have at least four stories from guest authors whose names will appear on the front cover.

Guidelines for anyone interested:

1. Guest authors should be members of the Indie Author Support and Discussion group on Facebook.**

2. Stories must be a maximum of 3,500 words.

3. Stories should be completed to final edit and submitted to me by 31st December 2015. (If there is interest and the timing is too tight, I’ll be happy to extend the deadline).

4. Copyright will remain with individual authors for their stories.

5. Any author who contributes will have the opportunity to include a short bio (50 words), and tw0 hyperlinks of their choice added after their story.

Who has already expressed interest?

At the present time I have offers of stories from: CI Lopez**, WK Tucker, and Senan Gil Senan. One more guest will fill my minimum 12 story quota, but if there were other interested authors I would be happy to increase the number of tales.

When is the target publication date?

I had originally intended to complete formatting and publish before end December 2015, but I am now of the opinion that it would be a good boost for all concerned to publish early in January 2016.

Where did the title come from?

I’m a great believer in a title performing more than one task, and the role of a title for an anthology is vitally important.

As I normally do, I checked my titles against Amazon’s lists and found that all eight were heavily represented. I changed one of my stories to The Welcome. It is both original in terms of Amazon listings, and a perfect fit for the particular story. I like to think that it also makes a neat invitation to prospective readers.

If you would like to be involved in this collection and can meet the guidelines, please get in touch.

As always, I thank you for reading, and would appreciate any feedback.

***

**I reserve the right to make one exception to the rule regarding IASD membership. CI Lopez is working on a debut anthology, and I believe a guest appearance alongside previously published authors will be helpful.

Tom