Where I Stand Today

Here's a quick update of where I stand with all my projects. As always, any advice or comments are greatly appreciated and will be duplicated here.

Blog Posts

I got a little side-tracked in my post about Conflict, which was intended to be a help-to article about writing. That's not what this blog is about. The title of the blog says it all, and that's what I'm going to write here. I'm going to promote my projects, trumpet landmarks, and reject failures. That makes this a regular feature.

Marketing Turning Springs

My ads aren't doing as well as I'd like them to. I'm going to try different regions of the country next. A lot of the ads are up for renewal soon and I'm going to spread them around a little.

I'm going to take some time to review the Smashwords treatise on marketing your work (I just remembered that).

I'm going to design some cheap business cards that I can leave around on bulletin boards locally and/or pass out that advertise the book.

A t-shirt design would be good marketing, too. Not just for the title of the book, but for some of the elements in it. How's this for an ad slogan for Berlengame's Constructed Servants Company: "When people just won't do..."

I'm also considering paper copies through a service called WordClay. It's intriguing, but I need to do a little more research.

The Long Project (MrsGM)

I've finished compiling 40+ pages of notes and they lead all over the place. All this stuff is nice, but I have a story to tell and not all of this material will fit. There is a rough progressive line to the information, however, and that helps. I've also categorized the notes as to where they might appear in the work (beginning, middle or end). The next step is to go back to the basics and determine what the essential elements of the story are. Then I keep the notes that apply and junkpile the ones that don't. Story arcing should be finished in March.

The Short Project (OSV)

I'm into blocking the scenes now and it's going very smoothly. I'm about half-finished with that and hope to have it done in March also. A meticulous plan makes for easy steps and easy advancement through and beyond those steps. There are a few holes, but nothing I can't fill on the fly.

The Summary

Although it all looks like future projects, it is an improvement over last month. I will be cutting down my writing time to about six hours per week (necessary because of the two other jobs and other demands on my time), I still think I can get many of these steps done by the anniversary of the release date of my book, April 1st. So, TTFN!