Alison Sky Richards's Blog

People ask me when I stopped writing, and I say I haven’t.  The reality is that no, I haven’t “stopped” writing, but I’m not getting the output of words like I used to in my twenties and early thirties.  There is no lack of ideas – they still flow through my brain like a freight train in the middle of the night refusing to stop until the story is shown in flashes in my dreams.  There’s a desk drawer filled with ideas and a pushpin board filled with titles of novels that are ready to be started, outlines, or completed.

There are three full first drafts of three different series book 1’s waiting for editing.  I’m anywhere between 20K – 60K on four more novels.  I have one “How to…” pamphlet half written to go along with my DragonCon lecture.  So the lack of projects is not the problem.  I know where all the series are going in the book 2’s – for the most part – so the plot is not the problem.  I only work for 4 days a week, so there are three fulls days I can put time to writing, so time is not the problem.

Part of me puts blame on a lack of discipline, which in some ways is correct.  It’s the same lack of discipline that keeps me from putting away my clothes when the laundry is done, from doing my exercises and physical therapy on a daily basis, and even from cooking real food for dinner.  But even then, I’m still sitting on my recliner with my laptop and just talking on AIM and bouncing between the same three windows for the 3 hours I have between getting home from work and going to bed – not the mention the 3 full days at home.

Another part of my wants to blame my role-playing, but to be honest I procrastinate on that as well and there are days I don’t even touch the game responses I need to send out to the various journal based RPG’s I’m a member of.  In a way, it’s a relief too because I enjoy the games and the friends I have made due to them, and I would hate to lose that part of my life to focus more on my writing.

No, it’s a hard thing to admit, but I finally talked to my doctor a few months ago about depression.  I’m normally very happy-go-lucky when I’m in my right mind, but for the last few years I’ve noticed that I had lost that part of myself.  I was becoming irritable and coarse, my patience was thin and my blood pressure was high.  Weight gain started, as did pain in my left lower region.  In 2013 I was diagnosed with a pulled groin muscle – a misdiagnose that’s symptoms would continue to come back and haunt me on and off until spring of 2015 when I changed doctors and was properly diagnosed with a bulging disc that would then rupture in October and require surgery in November.  

On top of that, stress from a job that was compared to me being a domestic abuse survivor in relation to my supervisor… and then add into there the death of Aaron Allston who was my mentor and dear friend for almost half my life… and it was a recipe for the final straw that broke my back.  Literally.

I hate not writing.  Thinking about not being able to focus on my worlds and words hurts me in ways I never imagined I could be.  The stress of sitting at the computer and not being able to focus on getting the words out of my head and onto the page just compounded everything more.  What happened to my muse?  Where did my drive disappear to?  

Then the voices chime in: You’re a failure.  What kind of writer are you?  You weren’t meant for this.  This is why no one asks you to join their anthologies.  You shouldn’t be allowed to teach anymore. Who cares about your stories anyway – not like they are selling like hotcakes on Amazon. 

Down and down the well I fell until finally, the arrows in my soul that I had put there had pierced it so much that I could feel anxiety coming anytime I tried to carve out time to write.  And it was there, sitting in my bedroom crying because my back was starting to hurt again, I was still trapped in my job and I hadn’t written more than a few words here or there in over a year that I debated on what was it worth anymore.

Now I’m not suicidal.  The one time I had gotten THAT far was already 17 years past and left on the windowsill of my dorm as my best friend wrapped me in a blanket and brought me back from the brink.  But for me, giving up was giving into the voices and leaving my creative life behind and becoming the person who only cared about money and advancement and leaving creativity behind to pursue things that didn’t matter in the long run.  It was just the same as killing myself, only from the inside.  It was the reason I left NY, the reason I came to Nashville, and a struggle I constantly go through inside of my own head as I try to balance the whole “being an adult” with being a writer (not to mention other personal struggles that I’m not ready to publicly talk about).

My doctor noticed it when he saw me in late October.  My body was broken, but he knew that walking in since he had the ER report from two weeks ago about my back. Instead he looked at me and saw my spirit broken and how even bringing up the idea of depression brought me to tears.  We talked about what was happening, and what would be the best past for me.  He felt at that point that, knowing me and how I was, that it was just too much stress and pain for me to handle and that medication may help give me just that boost I needed to make it through the days to come with recovery.  We’d reevaluate in six months and see if I needed more help in the form of physiologists or stronger meds.

I saw him again last month and let’s just say I was much happier and the way he knew I should be.  I was in a new job, with a chiropractor who was helping me manage my pain post-surgery, and things were looking a lot brighter in my life.  But we didn’t stop the drug, and it was an agreement on both ends.  I was afraid that I was still recovering and that going through the withdrawal would bring me back to where I was when the drug started.  He was thinking the same thing, and was happy to see the game plan I had to recover and wanted to keep me going on the drug to give me the mental boost to help keep me positive.

In a way it’s still helping, which is good.  I’m no longer a tiny little rain cloud of doom trapped in a recliner and in an immense amount of pain and I’m able to come up with a game plan to start weight loss, exercise, and come up with schedules for writing and rebuilding my failed two years of social media push on my author life.  

Yet words are still not coming in the way they used to.  Spurts, which are becoming more frequent thank god, are not a daily occurrence.  My writing day is more of a finding an excuse to do other things and not sit at the computer day.  Looking at the word count for this article – this is actually the most I have written this month that wasn’t work related.  So where is the disconnect that is refusing to let me get back into a groove on the things I want to and am looking forward to doing?

Depression is a disease.  The pill isn’t a cure for me, but a bridge.  A stopgap that gets me through the day.  I’m no where near as bad as many people who live with depression every day, and I can’t speak for them and their coping methods.  I can sympathize, however, in their struggles and have an understanding that up to a year ago I refused to admit I had. But like a disease, it attacks people in different ways.

For me, it’s going after my ability to care about myself.  The caring for other people is back to an all time high, but the caring for myself is low.  Part of me is used to the routine from when I was nice and drugged for three months (October, November, December) and then with B’s parents here until April just letting me sit and rest and heal.  I needed it, because I don’t like to sit still.  But now I’m used to it – it’s my routine and it’s all the harder to get out of it.  I keep trying, and I get maybe a week into a new routine and just slip out of it again. Then the voices start up again, and I’m stuck not knowing what to do and feeling like a failure all over again.

So here I sit now, trying to decide on what to do with my writing.  I want to keep going.  I want to keep writing and I know I have all the resources to do it.  I just need to find a way to get my mind wrapped back around it again.  Maybe if I can figure out how to get my writing going again, other things I’m having issues with will fall back into place.  Maybe if I can find a way to create a writing routine that will work, I will be able to break out of this old routine and find my way back to the writer I was who could churn out a few thousand words a night.  Maybe.

If you have any suggestions – I would love to hear them.

I’ve received my “tentative” schedule from DragonCon and I wanted to share it with you so you know where to find me this coming Labor Day Weekend.

In the Writing Workshop Seminars:

Title: Seminar 6: Like, Love and Lust

Description: Learn the basics of how to build different kinds of relationships between characters, and the dos and don’ts on writing those passionate love scenes.

Time: Sat 10:00 am Location: Hanover A – B – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-

Title: Seminar 14: Social Media 101 for Creative People

Description: Learn all about the basics on how to set up professional accounts on these sites, as well as at least another dozen to showcase your work, interact with followers, and create a loyal fan base!

Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Hanover A – B – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

With the Apocalypse Track:

Title: They Can Not Erase Us: Falling Skies Fan Panel

Description: From the Espheni to the 2nd Mass, our experts and fans talk about the people and science of Falling Skies.

Time: Sat 11:30 am Location: Chastain 1-2 – Westin (Length: 1 Hour)

Because of the hike from the Hyatt to the Westin on Saturday (at the tail end of the parade to boot!) I will not be sticking around after the Like, Love and Lust seminar.  I will be around after the Social Media 101 panel though, and I will be in and out of the Writing Seminar room at the Hyatt all weekend.

I’m also trying to plan a Falling Skies Finale viewing room party.  I’ll be posting about that more on my Facebook page as we get closer to the convention (and I talk with all my roommates).

See you in a month!

Everyone I talk to these days loves Pinterest.  It’s a wonderful tool to help people learn new recipes, do it yourself home projects, plan weddings and vacations… the uses are endless.  As a writer, Pinterest can become a very valuable way to store up all the imagery you have for your project to be able to share later with your readers.

Currently on my Pinterest site, I have multiple boards that I use for both my writing as well as my own happiness. For writing, I keep track of writing quotes, photographs that inspire me, and physical things that my muses see and want to have in their stories. Other authors use pages to be able to create boards for their novels to show the research that they did to describe the scenery, or the tiny details in their worlds. Others use it as a “casting couch” to be able to show pictures of the actors that they have based their characters on, or just a general set of photos of models to be able to use for future character faces.

Out of all the social media sites out there, Pinterest is actually the easiest to dive into. When you sign up for an account, they will give you suggestions on people to follow so that you can have pins to look at almost immediately. It’ll then help connect you to anyone you may already know on Pinterest from whatever social media sites you link (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Gmail) and as you make boards and pin pictures to them, you will get suggestions on other boards to follow that have similar topics that you are showing that you like.

You will also want to get the PIN IT app added to your browser toolbar.  This will allow you to be able to take almost ANY picture on the internet and pin it back to your boards. This is handy if you have research and concept boards for your novels so that you can keep all your “bookmarks” on the board for yourself – and later your readers – while having images to help funnel the reason you were there. 

Now, here’s the fun part: Once you have the image pinned, you will be able to click on your pin to be able to go back to the website that you pulled the image from. This will also allow you to organize your research in specific topics – like by novel projects – as well as keeping track of interesting ideas catalogued in one place for you to come back to when you’re ready to find your next project to work on.  How you organize it will be up to you!

Word of caution: if your links contain items that are considered emotional triggers, put warnings for them in your comment section on your pins so your readers will not be traumatized. And please remember to read the rules on what you can/cannot pin to the policies of Pinterest.

When you’re starting your boards, make sure you have a set plan for how you want to use Pinterest so that you are consistent on how you set up your future boards as your career moves on. You have the option of making your boards private or public, and as you start to gather a fan base, you have the option to change your account from being a personal account to a business account with the site. Private boards are great for you to be able to build the board secretly until you’re ready to let it go public with all your spoiler-y information. And if you change your mind on how you want to lay your boards out, a few hours of work and you can easily reorganize your pins and boards to make it look the way you wish it to be.

Just remember that like with any social media, you must focus on your time management because Pinterest will be a time suck as you look at all the other pins popping up on your dash and three hours later you will remember that you were actually working in that document that you call your novel.

Everyone I talk to these days loves Pinterest.  It’s a wonderful tool to help people learn new recipes, do it yourself home projects, plan weddings and vacations… the uses are endless.  As a writer, Pinterest can become a very valuable way to store up all the imagery you have for your project to be able to share later with your readers.

Currently on my Pinterest site, I have multiple boards that I use for both my writing as well as my own happiness. For writing, I keep track of writing quotes, photographs that inspire me, and physical things that my muses see and want to have in their stories. Other authors use pages to be able to create boards for their novels to show the research that they did to describe the scenery, or the tiny details in their worlds. Others use it as a “casting couch” to be able to show pictures of the actors that they have based their characters on, or just a general set of photos of models to be able to use for future character faces.

Out of all the social media sites out there, Pinterest is actually the easiest to dive into. When you sign up for an account, they will give you suggestions on people to follow so that you can have pins to look at almost immediately. It’ll then help connect you to anyone you may already know on Pinterest from whatever social media sites you link (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Gmail) and as you make boards and pin pictures to them, you will get suggestions on other boards to follow that have similar topics that you are showing that you like.

You will also want to get the PIN IT app added to your browser toolbar.  This will allow you to be able to take almost ANY picture on the internet and pin it back to your boards. This is handy if you have research and concept boards for your novels so that you can keep all your “bookmarks” on the board for yourself – and later your readers – while having images to help funnel the reason you were there. 

Now, here’s the fun part: Once you have the image pinned, you will be able to click on your pin to be able to go back to the website that you pulled the image from. This will also allow you to organize your research in specific topics – like by novel projects – as well as keeping track of interesting ideas catalogued in one place for you to come back to when you’re ready to find your next project to work on.  How you organize it will be up to you!

Word of caution: if your links contain items that are considered emotional triggers, put warnings for them in your comment section on your pins so your readers will not be traumatized. And please remember to read the rules on what you can/cannot pin to the policies of Pinterest.

When you’re starting your boards, make sure you have a set plan for how you want to use Pinterest so that you are consistent on how you set up your future boards as your career moves on. You have the option of making your boards private or public, and as you start to gather a fan base, you have the option to change your account from being a personal account to a business account with the site. Private boards are great for you to be able to build the board secretly until you’re ready to let it go public with all your spoiler-y information. And if you change your mind on how you want to lay your boards out, a few hours of work and you can easily reorganize your pins and boards to make it look the way you wish it to be.

Just remember that like with any social media, you must focus on your time management because Pinterest will be a time suck as you look at all the other pins popping up on your dash and three hours later you will remember that you were actually working in that document that you call your novel.

Using Twitter as a writer to be able to promote yourself is probably the easiest of the social media’s to learn, but at the same time it’s the easiest to make mistakes on.  There is an entire language you need to learn, and how you craft your promotion to fit in the 140 character limit can sometimes make your inner editor scream in outrage.  But with some practice and watching how other professionals do it, you’ll be able to get the hang of it quickly.

In my Social Media 101 section of my website, I have put up a new section devoted entirely to understanding the language of twitter, hashtags, and a few tips on what to do to start a following.  If you have no idea how to even approach Twitter as a professional, you will want to click here and use this as a beginner’s guide.

In the coming weeks, I plan to update the Facebook entry – again – as well as looking into GoodReads and then when to use the other kinds of social media sites to support your main places of interaction.

If there are any other sites you would like to know about how to use as a professional writer, let me know and I will add them to the list of what needs to be reviewed still.

Thanks and enjoy!

When A Fine Line: Herrick’s Tale was released, it was done as a self-published book through CreateSpace.  Boy, was that a crazy journey, let me tell you!

The one thing I’ve learned in this process is that the most valuable thing I ever taught myself was learning how to use Microsoft Word.  When you decide to self-pub, you will need to know how to do your own formatting to bring the double spaced 8 1/2 by 11 page into a single spaced document of your own industry sized choice. Took me 8 hours just to do the physical book, and another two for the ebook.

And I thought that the editing was the hard part!

But the best thing is that now that I know what I’m doing, next time the formatting should hopefully only take half the time.  This article was the most helpful thing I had to guide me along the way.  Here are a few things you can do to help yourself before you set about starting your own formatting:

- decide what size you want your manuscript to be.  You can do this before you upload the file to your self-pub platform, or hopefully see if they will do the resizing of your current doc for you.  Make sure you do these first though.

- remove all tabs.  Your first line indent should be done through paragraph formatting, not tabs.  Tabs will only mess your pages up.

- remove all double spaces after periods in your sentences.  Word can do this for you!  Just do a find with the double space, and replace it with a single space.  this will save you pages later and make it look better.

- switch your documents from being double spaced to single spaced.  Real books are single spaced.  Double spacing is industry for us to be able to send it off to publishing houses so that they can write all over it with red ink.  Since you’re not sending it out, set it back to single spaced.

- any clip-art or graphics must be bigger than 300 dpi or it will get error messages.  This is the program warning you to keep from having the images get pixilized.  If you don’t know how to do it on your own, ask a friend who knows Photoshop to help you with it.

- use section breaks at the end of each chapter and start your page numbers per sections. This will allow you to be able to blank out page numbers on blank pages.

- when you think you’re done, order the physical proof of your book before you hit the button that puts your book up for sale.  When you get it, give it to someone you know and have them flip through it and check all the formatting: page numbers, chapter headings, etc. Only when someone who isn’t looking at your baby with your eyes says it’s ready to go, then you can hit that button and celebrate.

I hope these hints help you along on your way to getting your own work up for sale.  Good Luck!

As of August 17th, A Fine Line: Herrick’s Tale has been published using the CreateSpace self-publishing platform! Feel free to pick it up either as a physical book or an ebook on Kindle.

Let me know when you get your copy and finish it.  Tell me what you thought – things you liked, as well as things you wish I could have done better.

And please, like it or not, leave me a review up on Amazon.

Enjoy, and happy reading!

As of the end of July, 2012, Facebook has over 955 Million users across the globe.  When you look at it in world numbers, that means that 1 out of 7 people in the world are using Facebook in some way.  As a professional, not having a Facebook page is a missed opportunity to promote yourself.

Today’s post is all about how to start using Facebook, the difference between a profile and a page, and how to use a page to start interacting with other users to build that fanbase who will in turn start purchasing your work.

It’s a time consuming job, but if you can learn the basics, it will give you a good start to having a career and people begging you for more.

Click Here to read the rest, and enjoy!

After my successful lecture at DragonCon about using Social Media as a creative person, I am now bringing my lecture notes to my website so that you can learn about using social media even if you were unable to attend the lecture.

Today, we’re starting off the with basic rules of using Social Media so that no matter what sites you decide to base your marketing strategies on, you know some very easy and basic guidelines on what you should, and shouldn’t do.

The next installments will break down some of the major sites, so see you next time when I take on the biggest of them all: Facebook.

As a special treat, I’ve put up a sneak peak to my YA novel Anton: Child of Hermes.

Instead of posting the first chapter, I decided to drop you right into the beginning of one of the conflicts that Anton has to face in his life.  At this point of the story, he is now 13 years old and has lived among the centaurs since he was 8.

The last five years of his life have been spent with him as the sole human in a world that hates his kind from the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation about the human race.  Being faced with a ritual that he must go through to prove his worth to the tribes, Anton will risk his life to prove that he is more than what they believe.

This challenge that Anton faces with the centaurs is very important to the book, and it mirrors the quest that his entire life will become to the eyes of the Gods.  That is, of course, if he lives through it.

Enjoy, and leave a comment to let me know what you think.