How Free Are You?

Or maybe a better question is "Are you free at all?"

I think quite a few American would say the answer is "No."

Ask anyone and they'll tell you they're a slave to their job, or their debt, or whatever life situation they find themselves unhappy with. You know, it's the man holding you back, as they say.

And that defeatist notion 100% incorrect.

It's not your job or your debt that you're a slave to; it's yourself.

If you hate your job, there are only two people to blame. 1) The person who accepted the position and 2) The person who chooses to stay there.

If you're up to your ears in debt, it's the same two people: 1) The person who ran up the debt and 2) The person who hasn't paid it off.

Oh wait, all of those are the same person. You.

So I'll use your job as an example, but it's the same for any situation you're in. You are the one enslaving yourself by keeping yourself in a miserable situation. And the only way out is to find out what it is you'd rather be doing--and then quit screwing around and just do it.

Let's say you're in IT, but you'd rather be a personal trainer. So what stops you from getting your PT license and picking jobs on nights and weekends? No don't bother telling me the answer. I already know it: You're too busy for that. After all, how could you possibly find time to work on your real passion when there are so many hours of reality TV to watch? So many hours to spend on the latest Zynga Facebook game.  So many weekend mornings that you want to sleep in until noon.

So remember next Monday when you show up to the job you hate that you are not slave to it. You're a slave to the distractions in your life that are keeping you away from chasing your dreams. They are what keep you tied down to the situation you hate being in because you're just too "busy" to take the time to change it.

The only way to true freedom is to figure out a way to spend your life living your dreams--and getting paid for it. Everything else is a distraction.

So put away the distractions and take your first real step toward freedom.

Quick thoughts from a local author/publisher fair

A library in the area hosted an author/publisher fair this afternoon, so I got in the car and braved downtown traffic to attend the event.

All of the authors I spoke to were local to Nebraska and most were self published (either on their own or through a micro-publisher) or published through local small press publishers.

I took a couple of things away from the event. One is that if you aren't having much luck going the tradition publishing route, there are still plenty of options out there for aspiring writers to get their work seen by others.

I hadn't heard of micro-publishing until today, and while it's not something I'd consider at this point, it is a valid option for a novelist hoping to publish their work in a semi-professional manner. It's not quite vanity press (even though it comes with a hefty fee) and it's not quite self publishing. Micro-publishers charge a fee to set the author up as their own "publishing" company. Pending on what you're willing to pay for, they'll edit, design the packaging and cover, and even market the novel, while the author retains all copyright. One of the reasons I shy away from self publishing is that you need to be your own marketing department. In micro-publishing, you can have them do your marketing. It's very interesting, but like I said, just not for me. I'm still not comfortable with the idea of anyone paying to be published.

The panel offered a former literary agent, a bookstore owner, and a local publisher, among others. I have to say, I didn't really hear anything I haven't heard before. That's definitely not a knock at it though, as there were plenty of people in the audience who were very new to the whole idea of agents, queries, and publishing. There was a lot of information for helping them get started (...down the long path of rejection with the rest of us, lol) and it was great that the library put the panel together.

So after all was said and done, this was a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon meeting some local authors and publishers.

If your local library puts one of these together, you should go out of your way to stop by.

Ups and Downs

Allow me to share a quick summary of the contrast of my last two months of writing and submissions.

January successes: A full manuscript request from a fairly major agency. Two short-list notifications from pro-paying publications. Two personal rejections (as opposed to form letter rejections) from other publishers. One new short story completed and submitted, which is a monthly goal I set this year. Nine blog posts, which means I kept up with the posting schedule I created for myself.

February failures: The full manuscript was turned down by the agency. One of the short-listed stories was declined. Three other publishers sent form letters. I’ve been hit with writer’s block and made very little progress on my second short story for the year. And the list of writers advancing to the second round in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award list came out today--they forgot to include my name on it.

So what’s with the whining? you ask.

Nothing. Because I have nothing to whine about it.

With every success and every failure you make, you have a choice. With success, you can say, “Eh, good enough,” and quit pushing forward. With failure, you can say, “Eh, I suck at this,” and quit trying altogether.

Either way, if you quit chasing your dream, it’s because you make the active decision to do so.

I’m not going to look at the first two weeks of this month and decide to give up just because there have been a couple of setbacks. To me, that would be just as absurd as looking at January and deciding I’m on the right track so I can just take a break and let nature take its course.

So what’s next?

Tonight, I take the three form letter rejections, file them away, and then reread and resubmit the three rejected short stories. Now that I’m officially out of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, I have to resume my quest for finding an agent for the novel. Five queries by the end of the month isn’t a preposterous, unachievable goal. The short story that I’m “stuck” with right now is already 1200 words long. It’s not like I can’t write another 2000-3000 this weekend and finish it up.

I wrote this post hoping to show you that the world doesn’t end if you hit the wall a couple of times. Failing doesn’t kill you. It doesn’t need to crush your spirit either. Giving up does that. And I’m not capable of giving up at this point.

I hope you’re not either.

Find Success in Failure

I've been sitting here watching my stack of rejection letters pile up and a couple of thoughts popped into my head. The first was "Geez, how much longer until I just give up?" and the second was "Don't give up, you idiot. You're making progress."

And it's true. I am making progress.

For example, my most recent rejection letter, the one that came today, makes five out of my last ten that came in the form of a personal rejection letter. That means fifty percent weren't form letter rejections, which, too me, shows that I am improving as a writer. A few of the rejections were shortlisted before failing to make the cut as well, meaning the writing is sound, but the story just didn't fit in with the publication in the end. My point here isn't to talk about my own rejection stats, but to show that it's okay to fail if you can find some measureable success in it.

It's also important to learn from your rejections. And I'm not necessarily implying that you need to learn anything about writing fiction from them. Even as adults, we sometimes forget that we can't win at everything and we can't get our way 100% of the time. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but that's life. And in life, there's always going to be a winner and a loser. There will always be situations where you'll have to accept being the latter.

Learning how to handle rejection with grace (and that means reading any feedback with an open mind, not throwing a tantrum, and not shooting off a nasty response to the editor) helps make you a better person. It also helps to remember that there are a hundred reasons your story could have been turned down, but not a single one of those reasons are personal against you.

So even though it sucks getting the "not right for us" emails, staying positive about them is one of the most important things an aspiring writer can do.

In fact, the only time failing makes you a failure is when you respond to it by giving up and quitting.

NYE 2013

With 2012 coming to a close, you've got a chance to start the new year on a positive note. Enter 2013 with an increased craving for success.

It's going to take some determination and you have to start right away.  It doesn't matter how tired or hung over you are after your New Year's Eve parties and it doesn’t matter how many "last minute" tasks you need to finish up before you return to work.

Whatever you've set out to do in this coming year is far too important to be put off another day.  You owe it to yourself to get going and not waste this new year.

I know that philosophically, January 1 is nothing more than a man-made invention to keep track of time. I don't care. There is a tremendous psychological advantage to using New Year's Day as a method of starting and tracking your goals.

Open up your spreadsheet software. On the top row, type in the goal you have. Every day log your progress. I hate to make it a numbers game, but physically tracking your progress will help hold you accountable and keep you on track. For example, say you're hoping to lose 15 pounds this year. That's only 1.25 pounds per month. If you keep that on a daily spreadsheet, you can watch the downward slope on the graph. That right there is enough positive feedback to keep you working at it. The key is writing it down.

But that's not all. You'll also need to have some benchmarks set to track your progress. For example, one of my goals is to finish a new short story each month.

I break that up into weekly goals like so:

Week # 1 - Work on the basic plot summary and finish first rough draft.

Week # 2 - Clean up draft to where it's mostly presentable, then submit to a critique group. (I use Scribophile.com)

Week # 3 - Work on final revision, based on Scribophile feedback.

Week # 4 - Read it over a few more times for continuity and then format and submit to publisher.

This example will work because it includes weekly benchmarks (or deadlines, if you will) and the weekly goals aren't too difficult to reach.

So enjoy New Year's Eve tonight, party hard, and don't forget to write down some achievable goals for 2013.

Ten books to read in 2013

With 2012 coming to a close, I'd like to share ten books I read in the last two years that focus on  personal or financial success.  None of these are directly related to writing, but have a broader focus of achieving your goals and holding yourself accountable.   

Do yourself a favor and pick these up in the next year.  I promise you won't regret it. 

Here's the list in no particular order, although I consider the first two the most important.

1. The Top Ten Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith

2. QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John Miller

3. It's Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success is Your Own Damn Fault by Larry Winget

4. No Excuses: The Power of Self Discpline by Brian Tracy

5. Poke the Box by Seth Godin

6. Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

7. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

8. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

9. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley

10. How Successful People Think by John C. Maxwell

How to make your New Year's Resolution work

December is flying by and soon the year will be over. This is the time of year where people either start planning their New Year's Resolutions or complaining about failing the goals they set for the year.

This brings up two points:

1) New Year's Resolutions don't work.

2) See point # 1.

The reason why New Year's Resolutions don't work is quite simple. When the majority of people make one, they aren't resolving to do a single thing. What they're actually doing is making a birthday wish.

For example: "This year I will make more money" actually means "This year, I hope that circumstances beyond my control will change and as a result, I will have more money." So what's the solution? It's a cliché, but use empowering language instead. Push away the "I wish" mentality and instead come up with a goal, a deadline, and a plan. It's not "I will lose weight," but "Here's how I will lose weight."

For me, "This year, I will write more," doesn't do anything to help me reach my goals for 2013. But by writing down exactly what I'm going to do, and when I'm going to do it, I'll get there.

Here's my 2013 tentative plan:

1. Finish one new short story every month (except for July and November) and submit it first to scribophile for critique and then to a publisher.

2. Reread and resubmit every rejection in no less than three days, unless it needs a major overhaul.

3. Submit, at minimum, one new agent query for the novel every week.

4. Participate in (and finish) NaNoWriMo in November.

These goals are easily attainable and shouldn't even take an hour each day to keep up with. And that's the key. Keep it specific and simple. If your goals are too big and require too much, you'll become overwhelmed and give up. If your goals are too vague, you'll have no trouble putting things off, and eventually stopping.

So throughout the year, I'll tweet the occasional goal updates in order to help hold myself accountable and see some progress.

Let me know if you do the same.

Thoughts on Duotrope.com

Last week, small press and aspiring writers found out that their best publishing tool, duotrope.com, would no longer be a free site. I saw all sorts of comments on twitter ranging from "I can't believe they managed to be free as long as they did," to others accusing them of corporate greed (of all things.)

My initial response was: Crap!

But my second thought was not nearly as dramatic. I want Duotrope to stick around and I surely don't mind paying fifty bucks a year for their incredible service. I probably should have added this sooner, but for those unfamiliar with duotrope.com, it's a site containing a search engine and submission tracker for publishing markets.

There is only one other site I pay an annual subscription for (PWInsider.com if you're interested.  It's 100% worth it, btw) and paying for Duotrope surely won't kill me.

I do however have a couple of concerns about Duotrope becoming a pay site.

For one thing, if only the paying users have access to the submission trackers, then the acceptance rates of market listings could potentially be skewed even higher than they are now. I'm assuming that writers paying for a service like Duotrope have a higher publishing rate than those who do not, so the Duotrope stats could make markets appear to accept a higher percentage than they actually do.

The other concern I have may be little more paranoid, but it's worth stating. Without getting political, I think it's safe to say that Americans like a handout. I truly hope that by becoming a pay site, Duotrope doesn't run the risk of chasing away too many of its users. I'd hate to see the site go. Even though there are other similar options out there, Duotrope is by far the best one I've seen.

With all of that out of the way, I just want to say that I think the owners of the site are making the right decision, and if they have to become a pay site in order to continue providing their excellent service to writers across the world, then it's worth every penny.

Blog update

Wow, did I drop the ball or what? I haven't written a new blog post since November 19.

Worry not, though; I wasn't just screwing around during the time off. In the last few weeks, I managed to get my novel finished to the point that it's ready to start sending out queries to agents. No takers yet, but as anyone who has ever tried publishing fiction will tell you, it's a marathon not a sprint.

I also figured it would be a good time to change things around a bit over here, starting with this fancy new design. What do you think? (Probably this: Eh? Still looks like a blog.)

Anyhow, in some ways, I’m still a reluctant computer nerd and have fun doing stuff like that every now and then.

I've also decided to make a few changes to the content of this site. While writing will remain the primary focus of the blog, I'll be expanding it to include a few other topics, especially in the area of success and goals. I might throw in the occasional book reviews or recommendations as well.

It should be fun, so check back every now and then and drop me a line if you like or hate anything I have to say.

And you can always follow me on twitter @jasonbougger if that's your thing.

A Bump in the Road

I was planning to write a follow-up post about writer’s block, but I walked into another kind of writer’s dilemma, so I thought I’d write about that instead.

My query letter for the novel is ready for the most part. One of the agents I’m looking at also requires a 1-2 page synopsis. As I was working on that, I thought of a scene that needed to be added to further develop the plot.

Not a big deal, I thought. A thousand words, maybe--something I could write on a single night. I threw a quick summary of the scene into the chapter where it will live and started reading the rest of the novel from there. That was when I realized that the new scene opened up two major plot-holes.

Great, I said, and started filling in the plot-holes. One thing led to another, and I soon realized some other flaws in the current manuscript. The main character has glasses in the opening scene, for example, but they are not mentioned again. And he gets thrown around quite a bit, so it’s a detail I need to address.

There’s also the fact that the novel takes place in present day, but not a single one of the kids in the book has a cell phone.

Both of these sound like small things that might not make a big difference, but they’re large enough issues in my mind to justify reading the novel one more time and making some adjustments. And I still haven’t finished writing that thousand-word scene that triggered all this.

So what’s my point, besides whining a bit? My point is that before you query an agent, your novel needs to be as perfect as you can make it.

And if that means biting your lower lip and reading the whole thing one more time to get every detail just right, then that’s what you’ve got to do.