An Author’s Toolkit

This week, I’d like to touch a little bit more upon an author’s toolkit when it comes to writing. Some of it is in the usual vein of what we’ve seen for decades: pen (often black or blue ink with red for editing) and paper; in ye olde days, a typewriter once those were invented, which upgraded into word processors, computers, tablets, and laptops with either Notepad or Word on said devices; highlighters, white-out, and envelopes and stamps. Let’s keep in mind that self-publishing wasn’t the easiest nor cheapest thing to do until the turn of the century and millennia when internet access was a bit more accessible and yet still improving with speed and the creation of websites and fiction hosting domains. Before self-publishing, envelopes and stamps were quite necessary for those seeking to query their stories to either an agent or a publisher. Self-publishing, while still riddled with a lot of bad writing, has still become a respectable option for many, especially for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and niche authors. It’s also become more affordable and accessible for authors who are often repeatedly rejected by traditional publishing.

This isn’t about the merits of self-publishing. Self-publishing is part of an author’s toolkit, much in the same vein that social media, editors, artists, and critique groups are. Traditional publishing, agents . . . all part of an author’s toolkit. I might “scream” at people about what their options are, but I’m also not one to tell another author which publishing path is best. Most authors I know are among the “that’s up to the author for what’s right for them” mindset.

There are some . . . new things to be added into an author’s toolkit. At least, they’re relatively new to me.

First up, ARC readers. Now, I honestly have no idea of the history of ARC readers as of writing this entry. I know that they exist, that advanced copies have existed for at least a few decades now, but I don’t know for how long the actual practice of assembling ARC readers has been going on. I wasn’t aware of ARC readers in 2014, when I published “Portal to Gaming”, but my lack of knowledge isn’t exactly the best indicator. That just means I personally didn’t know about it at the time. It is my understanding that ARC readers are an option, and it’s now easily more available for authors.

I love how the internet can connect us all like that. 😊

As I have no personal experiences with ARC readers, I have no concrete opinions about ARC readers in general. I have friends who are ARC readers, and, because of them, I know there are sites out there designated for ARC reading. I might sign up for one. I’m really on the fence about ARC readers. What I have heard is more about bad author behavior than about bad ARC reader behavior. Not saying that there isn’t some, but it’s usually more on the author’s part than the reader’s.

There is etiquette involved with ARC readers. I’ve learned enough through observation to know that there are very few things authors should (please note, I hate the word ‘should’, but it’s the only word that’s sufficient) be requiring from their ARC readers. At most, I believe that we, as authors, should only require the following when it comes to our ARC readers. 1 – don’t put it on a pirating website, and 2 – be honest in any and all reviews. Beyond that, anything else, even to me as an author, sounds like a series of huge red flags.

The next new-to-me toolkit addition is that of the sensitivity reader. My understanding of what a sensitivity reader does is that it’s quite similar to that of a developmental editor when it comes to content. The sensitivity reader’s job is to be sure the author is handling delicate subjects with grace and poise, delicate subjects like mental health, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, and slavery . . . basically anything that can and will cause a person to have a deep-seeded emotional response and in how marginalized groups are represented.

Out of these two additions to the writer’s toolkit, the one that strikes me as being more important than the other and one that I will save up money for is that of the sensitivity reader. This is the person or group of people who will let you know how you’ve handled specific characterizations and subjects and where you can improve. They can help an author with those complexities and nuances. This is definitely a tool for every author who seeks to represent groups they are not familiar with. It’s best to not utilize your best friends from marginalized communities for your work, to be your sensitivity reader. The chances of them catering to your feelings are higher than what an actual sensitivity reader will do.

Those are the new to me additions to the toolkit. As we all know. social media is in the mix. I’ve taken out Twitter/X because I no longer wish to support the transphobic turd that’s Elon Musk. I am still on Facebook and Instagram, and I’ve expanded to Tiktok, Lemon8, Clapper, Threads, Fanbase, MeWe, and I’m on a waitlist for BlueSky. I’m looking to set up a YouTube channel in the next year or so. (I’m also on Twitch and Discord, but I haven’t done anything with them in a little over a year, not since Star Ocean: The Divine Force was released.) You can find me as either Victorea Ryan Meadow or Enchanted Realms Fiction. You’ll probably find a lot of coffee mug pictures.

I do realize that this isn’t the most nuanced entry I could be writing. I really do have a limited knowledge base when it comes to ARC readers and sensitivity readers, and I do believe that, if you’re like me and you’re utilizing an online critique group for polishing your work, you can get some of the nuances you need from those groups. It’s really just a basics of what we authors have available to us when it comes to our personal writing journeys. I’ll be touching on critique groups next week.

As for what tools I’m utilizing, beyond the basics needed for the actual writing, my major writing purchases goals are a website and more ISBNs. I know I don’t need to purchase them, that many of the self-publishing websites out there (like the ‘Zon) offer a free ISBN for each format. However, I don’t like being completely at any publishing website’s mercy in a situation like that. It’s a personal choice of mine that helps me to feel more comfortable when it comes to what gets assigned to my books.

For those who are looking to self-publish, please note you do have options. My experiences are with Amazon, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, and Nookpress. I also have an account with Lulu, and, thanks to Tiktok, I have learned about IngramSpark, which helps with self-publishing, and BookFunnel, which helps with ARC readers.

These are the sites I’m aware of when it comes to self-publishing. My knowledge and experiences are mere drops of water in the bucket. I do recommend that any person seeking publication of any kind do the due diligence of finding the right path, the right tools for them. The publishing path isn’t the same for everyone.

Writing Intentionally

Welcome back, my lovelies. I hope that 2024 is treating you well so far and continues to do so throughout the remainder of the year. I’m definitely feeling a bit more confident about myself, my writing, and where I’m taking myself as I write this, and that’s a good thing. Going up, glowing up are always good things.

This entry is more of a reflection piece than it is writing advice, and I do believe it’s going to tie in with the other entry I plan on posting within the next several months. However, you, the reader, will interpret this in your own way, and that’s 100% okay. Depending on what I’m writing, it’s generally my perspective on things, my personal truths and faiths, and a reflection on the amount of growth I’ve experienced since starting this blog fifteen years ago on September 3. (That’s how old the Livejournal blog is and how long I’ve been on the original fiction aspect to my writing journey. Everything else I utilize has been added in during the interim.)

Here’s a bit of a history recap about this particular blog. In 2009, a former acquaintance of mine announced that she was going to start her own author journey. At this point, she and I had both been writing fanfiction – our mutual fandoms were Gravitation and FAKE, two series that I still love and adore – and we’d both been using fanfiction aliases. We’d been writing and publishing fanfiction for, well, for myself, for nine years at this point. I’m not sure about her. We didn’t enter each other’s orbits until I’d discovered Gravitation and joined a specific group for writing and posting Gravitation fanfiction, but I’d been writing and posting fanfiction since 2000. This was back in the day when it was “recommended” that fanfiction authors distance themselves from their fanfic to be taken more “seriously” by agents and traditional publishers. Self-publishing wouldn’t enter my universe as an option for another five years after that.

This particular individual did what most publishers and agents recommended that all beginning authors do: build a website and start a blog to build the following. They allegedly weren’t going to take anyone seriously in the querying process if one didn’t have at least one, if not both, of those. As we’ve all seen over the last decade and a half, a lot has changed. Some of it for the better, some of it not so much for the better. I’ve personally made it a point to remain in writing circles, in private online critique groups like AbsoluteWrite and Scribophile, as well as in groups and around my fellow authors in social media circles. I learn in as many ways as I can, including from observing what others are doing.

My fellow would-be author acquaintance definitely had (and still does have) more resources at her disposal than what I do. I know I need a website, but my insecurity over potentially being financially stable has prevented me from doing so. That is something I do hope to change either this year or next.

At the beginning of this time, because she had made that announcement, I felt inspired and courageous to follow suit, at least with the blog. I basically regurgitated a lot of writing advice that was out there. I bought books and magazines about writing. I even attended a Write That Novel workshop hosted by David Farland. I was doing everything that was recommended for that time. An author had to be appear to be an expert, even with no publishing expertise. My local bookstore and online writing sites like Writers Digest were the main sources were I derived a lot of my original posts. I point this out because, back in 2021, she privately criticized for me writing about an experience that I truly didn’t, like I didn’t have access to the same information she did at the time due to the fact I grew up in poverty versus her California middle class upbringing.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

The fellow would-be author also posted things along similar veins and also declared herself to be a social justice warrior. (Her journal also turned out to be where she’d posted about her work interactions with coworkers and experiences while living in Olympia, Washington.) I’ll never forget the entry where she wrote about misogyny in the nerd world, how a cardboard cutout of a big, brawny dude with a prominent dick got replaced in a gaming store for a scantily clad woman because men complained about it. The complaint was more about the catering to men over women, as if women weren’t gamers and avid fans of science-fiction and fantasy as well.

I . . . wasn’t a great person at the time. I had a lot of underlying misogyny in myself as well, having been raised that way between a slightly progressive Catholic family (Mom) and a highly conservative family (Dad). And I was following her lead on a few things. I thought I was being encouraging on things – I wasn’t; my phrasing isn’t always the greatest – and our later interactions didn’t bring out the best in either one of us. In looking back, I can see that, and I’m eternally grateful she and I had those arguments back then. I saw the faults in myself and decided to do something about it. Maybe not right away, but I’ve done a lot of work since 2012 and 2013. I’m super proud of myself for that.

In thinking of that entry, of that . . . criticism, I’ve realized that I really don’t want to take my blog, or my writing, in that kind of a whining direction. I don’t recall if her author’s blog was public, because if it was, the way she worked on her entries was quite possibly to her detriment and probably resulted in some of the rejection she received from the agents she queried. I didn’t really think of it as whining at the time, but my interactions with said would-be author after that have changed my view on her long-since deleted entries and overall blog. I did see how she twisted herself into knots to try and be “marketable” for said agents and publishers while talking about the hits she took within the then toxic AbsoluteWrite community. It is a conscious choice on my part now to see it that way and definitely very intentional. This is part of my growth as an individual and as an author. Again, I wasn’t always the greatest person, and hindsight is 20/20. I also realize that, even though it’s now the year 2024, as a woman, I still have an uphill battle when it comes to publishing. Not just because I’ve chosen self-publishing; that’s definitely a factor; but because I’m also a woman. I’m not hiding the fact that I’m a woman. I’m using my full name on my books. I’m proud to be a woman and an author. I’m proud to be a self-published author, and I’m definitely proud and grateful to have met the people that I have along the way.

I want to be very intentional with my blog entries and with my story crafting. I’m not interested in just pointing out the discrepancies when it comes to how women are portrayed in media, specifically my chosen genre of science-fiction and fantasy, but I definitely want to buck the system. I know there are plenty of women authors out there doing the very thing I want to do. This has been a conversation at least once before in my writing spaces, again when I didn’t have the knowledge and growth that I do have now. The very idea of catering to a market that exists for predominately straight, white men is boring. I want to write strong, nuanced women. I want to write nuanced characters in general, and it’s going to take a lot of work and effort on my part to get to where I want to be. I want to be respectful in my representation of marginalized groups. That long since gone entry and overall author journal has helped me to realize even more the kind of author I want to be. I realize that this kind of entry may seem like I’m whining about something long since over with as well. I am trying because I also acknowledge that, without this would-be author, I would not be celebrating the milestones that I am this year. She did inspire me to take that leap, to become the better person that I am, and to see where my privileges lie when it comes to marginalized voices. For that alone, I am grateful.

Now I’m not going to call myself a social justice warrior, not in the sense this former would-be author called herself. I’m not going to say there’s something inherently wrong with calling yourself a social justice warrior. I’ve simply realized I’ve been part of the problem over the years when it comes to what I’ve accepted for my games and my fiction in addition to the harmful stereotypes and tropes I’ve perpetuated against marginalized voices due to my own ignorance, and I intend to be part of the solution. It’s going to be a rough habit to break, writing stories that center women and celebrate them than it is for men, but I’ve gotten this far in my life. It might be challenging, but it’ll be 100% worth it for me in the end.

That’s it. That’s the entry. I plan on writing my women and femme-presenting characters more intentionally. I plan on writing more intentionally in this blog and in private. There will still be areas I won’t veer into – some things are not my stories to tell, and I respect that – but I will definitely be more intentional with my characters and how I live my life.

Much love to everyone!

Getting Organized

Getting Organized

Hello and welcome back, my lovelies. This week’s entry is . . . well, I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but it is veering into advice territory. Grab a pen and notebook (or use your favorite writing program), and let’s get started.

Please remember that, with all things regarding this blog, my “advice” and insights are given freely and with no expectations. Not a single author who reads this is one hundred percent absolutely required to do anything that I suggest.

Get organized.

That’s it. That’s the advice. Get organized.

Actually, there’s a bit more to it than just “getting organized”. Lol. I’m going to break down my process for everyone. As always, please remember that this is something that works for me. It definitely stresses me out at times, but it’s still something I enjoy doing to get myself figured out when it comes to my writing projects.

Let’s start by defining organizing to avoid any potential confusion. In this particular case, organization is utilizing planners and word count trackers to keep me on task. I’m more of a pantser when it comes to how I write my stories, series included, and any outlines are more like loosely scripted notes for different parts of the story as well as notes from previous stories so I don’t make any continuity errors. I did that a few times in fanfiction. I’m definitely working on avoiding that in my original fiction.

Organizing your writing projects.

There are many ways a person can organize his/her/their writing projects. I’d definitely follow fellow authors for more information on how they keep themselves organized, if they even mention their processes at all. Play around with what they suggest and find what works best for me.

As I said, this is what I do to try and keep myself both organized and on track. I buy myself planners for my author career. I buy various ink pens and markers to be bright and creative with each project.

Not the little pocket two year planners that come out the middle of every September and October. Those are nice for trying to figure out a few things a year or two in advance, but, if you’re a masochist like me and have multiple projects in the works, a small, pocket planner isn’t going to hold everything you have planned. The space just doesn’t allow for it.

Rather, I prefer bigger planners. I’ve purchased a ten-year planner from Amazon for some more generic goals in life – a particular writing project that will never see the light of day is the culprit for this particular planner – but for yearly, I buy Happy Planners. Specifically, I prefer the large planners with the grids over the bullet journal styles. I started with the Happy Planners in either the year 2018 or 2019, and I’ve been hooked ever since. For 2024, I have different planners for different aspects to my life. It seems like a lot, but it’s helping with the decluttering, so to speak.

To be clear, I’m not being paid by Happy Planner to write about their planners. I’m not. This has been a personal choice of mine for five years or so, and it’s allowed me to fuel that creativity in ways that I just love. You don’t have to utilize Happy Planner, at all, in order to organize your writing projects. Depending on how many writing projects you’re working on at a time, if you’re similar to me and like to work on multiple projects at once, a regular yearly planner will work in lieu of what I prefer for myself. (And if you focus on one project at a time, the two year pocket planners will definitely suffice in this situation.)

Now that we’ve got the size of the planner out of the way, how do I keep track of what I’m doing with each project? Well, I’m a sucker for ink pens. Once I started with the Happy Planner, I started picking up Papermate Ink Joy gel pens. Again, I’m not being paid by them to mention them in this entry because I also use Pilot gel pens. Papermate Ink Joy has a wider variety of colors I can use whereas Pilot is less likely to dissolve upon getting wet. That’s my only complaint about the Ink Joy is that they’re totally water soluble, and anything you write with them completely vanishes. (I learned that the hard way working in a hibachi restaurant in Tulsa. I had to rewrite an entire order because the writing was gone. The cooks “stick” the orders to their carts by spritzing them with water.) And anytime I see that Ink Joy has a color out that I don’t yet have, I’m buying it. I really love having a colorful planner. I love having my projects in different colors.

Back to the colors that I use. I put every project I’m working on into my Happy Planner. That includes my editing and transcribing – I write in notebooks A LOT; I don’t have to worry about the battery dying or someone stealing them when I’m at work – projects as well as other necessary aspects to my writing career, like promoting and when I’d like to update this journal. Editing and critiquing get the color red, transcribing orange, and promoting gets green. Different projects get different colors, and fanfiction titles are in the same color to designate their status. My Happy Planner now also contains daily word count goals, weekly sales goals, weekly goals, and the like. (Those are usually at the beginning of each month, written in with a black Pilot fine point pen.) The goal with the colors with the planners is to eventually reach completion and switch out or lessen the number of projects I’m working on at any given time. However, aspects like promoting, journaling, editing, and transcribing don’t stop because a project is finished. I take that particular gel pen and fill up the entire year for journaling, live feeds, fanfiction updating, promoting, editing, critiquing, transcribing, blurbs, and synopsis writing. Those are often in the top part of my grids.

Finally, because I’m that author working on way too many projects at once, in addition to the goals being set, I use my own personal shorthand for the majority of my titles. I’m consistent with the color I use for that title until completion and the shorthand used. If I have a project with the same potential shorthand, I’ll use a single word instead or expand the title a little bit, and I’ll definitely use two different colors as my indicators.

Now, it has been stressful over the last year or so for me to keep up with the planner. As noted in a previous entry, I work in retail full-time. It’s definitely time-consuming, but the stress and time put into my planners are worth it for me. The grids for each day of the week for each month demonstrates any and all progress I’ve made (or the lack thereof), and it helps me to feel accomplished. When I see the pages filled with all of the colors I have at my disposal, the stress melts away, and I’m just one happy camper. I just don’t like missing any and all deadlines that I set for myself in my planners. Then I don’t feel so accomplished.

I also do what I call gridwork. I have a regular notebook for projects being written solely in Word, a composition notebook for editing and transcribing projects, and now, because I want to get off my ass and start exploring content creation via cosplay, a notebook to keep track of scripting those projects as well. I have a ruler I use to keep my lines nice and neat (I’m slightly tidy and OCD that way), and each page has 3-4 columns. Each column gets a date, so I can always go back and enter the numbers for word projects into the planners if I don’t update the planners immediately. (When I write by hand, I write the date above the last word written.)

That’s what I do for my writing organization. I do highly recommend it, and, as an author, you can add and delete whatever you want if this is something you choose to do. I tend to be a pantser/loose plotter when it comes to my writing, but one can add outlining to the planner. I belong to critique groups and online writing workshops. I find critiquing others helps me to improve as a writer as well, but I also know that not everyone is a member of a critique group and online writing workshop. If you choose to use a planner as part of keeping yourself on track and helping you to set your goals, you get to decide what makes it into that planner. It is your author career. Use the tools you see fit.

Why do all of this? There is a lot that authors have to do when it comes to, not just writing, but publishing. As a self-published author, I’m 100% responsible for ensuring that I do my transcribing, that I take the time to talk about my books and keep active on my social media accounts, and to set goals. Part of the writing process is being able to self-edit before sending anything to either an editor or a critique group. Part of the writing process is being able to effectively write blurbs, teasers, and synopses. Having everything written down in a planner, in a specific color helps me to keep all of that in mind.

This isn’t 100% effective, though. If you’re someone like me, having visuals tends to go a long way in ensuring that I’m meeting my daily writing, promoting, editing, and transcribing goals. I’m not necessarily in a position where I can hang a lot on my walls, but, when I am, I plan on getting myself a desk calendar and hanging up some dry-erase boards to help with the goals at hand.

Again, this is what I’ve chosen to do. Not a single person is required to take any kind of advice or suggestions, even when it’s been paid but especially when it’s being given for free. My goal with this post is to assist, not command. Feel free to utilize my suggestions (or not) however you please.

That’s it for this week. Stay safe, and stay hydrated.

Brand New Year

Hello and welcome, my reader and author friends! I know it has been a long time since I’ve done any type of journaling. Like, it’s almost been way too long. I haven’t forgotten that my writing blog exists. Far from it. Rather . . .

Well, to be quite earnest, I’ve just been busy. Back in September of 2021, I pushed for full time at my current job and received it. I’d already been working 48 hours a week for several months at that point, and, despite my attendance level not being at the required level for full-time applicant postings, I’d pretty much proven that I was a full-time employee. My health benefits kicked in before open enrollment for the following year. That’s one of the minor benefits to my current employer. They’ve always offered health benefits to everyone, including part-time employees. It’s just the health benefits aren’t as good as what they used to be for part-time employees. It isn’t cheaper for part-time employers, either.

I also don’t own a car at this moment in time. This isn’t to say I won’t ever own a car. That’s something for a few years down the road for me. I just don’t own a car, so I tend to walk the almost 2 miles (one way) to work rather than taking public transport all the time. Most places complain about how bad their public transportation system is. My current small town residence takes the cake. It’s $2 flat for a one-way trip. It literally isn’t the most cost efficient of systems. I say that in comparison to the places where I’ve lived and utilized public transport, like Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Bremerton, Washington.

Because I walk, because I work 40 hours each week, and I’ve not sufficiently processed the events of 2021 yet, I’m exhausted a lot of the time anymore. I’m also on a path of decolonization and deconstruction as well as healing and antiracism work. This isn’t a public journey. I’m keeping the homework to myself and allowing the results to shine through. This is a personal decision on my part. I have my reasons for this, and I’m keeping the reasons to myself. Just please know I’m taking the steps to become a better person.

That journey is, however, inspiring a talking point for a future entry. When this entry will make an appearance, I don’t want to say just yet, but it’s coming. It’s a subject matter that requires a little bit of delicacy, and it’s intended for a very specific audience. I want to take my time in fleshing that particular entry out. Please stay tuned in that regard.

 On another personal level, I’m looking to make some major changes throughout 2024, such as returning to school for at least a business management degree and moving to a different location. I don’t want to delve too much into this just yet, either. There’s a lot I need to flesh out in terms of relocation, and I don’t want to make too many announcements. As I’ve mentioned before, my current work schedule is eating up a lot of my time, to the point where I know I need to make some changes. I can’t carry on in retail forever. My body physically can’t handle doing this in a long-term situation. I also just don’t have that mental and social battery.

With that said, I do want to try and resume the online writing journey with one change. Instead of posting every day like I had done to start, I’ll be posting weekly. I’m aiming for every Wednesday as well as resuming doing lives on Facebook and updating my fanfiction accounts. The latter two will definitely occur later in the year. I’m going to aim for sooner, but I have some real life stuff to take care of first before I can do the lives and fanfiction chapters to complete in advance before resuming posting.

I’m not sure what writing advice I can give that hasn’t been given before, either in my earlier entries or by others. There’s a wide range of authors out there who talk about their publishing journeys, and each one has valuable advice. I’m very much everything is a tool in my toolbox person. What works for me won’t work for everyone, and I love it when other authors recognize that and encourage their fellow authors to find what works best for them.

In addition to writing, I’m going to post about the books I’m reading, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as reviews of the limited number of video games I like to play. I’m super picky about video games. I don’t buy them very often, and I prefer JRPGs like Dragon Quest and Star Ocean. I’ve seen bits of Starfield – my current roommate plays it – and I’m honestly not impressed with some of the graphics, specifically the people. Everything looks cool, but it’s just not my cup of tea or coffee. That’s okay. 😊

I do have more than just moving in mind for 2024. I am composing my first newsletter and exclusive story to go with that newsletter. It’s going to be tricky because writing short stories is not my forte. It has never been my forte. They turn into novellas at some point because I usually get asked for more when putting them up for critique for improvement. It may just have to be a free novella. We’ll see how the peer review goes for when I finish said short story.

Also in the dockets for 2024, there are purchasing more ISBNs, buying a web domain, and doing something with my Patreon as well as learning how to film and edit for Tiktok and Youtube. Everything is currently . . . tentative. I know this all sounds annoyingly vague, and it isn’t me trying to be mysterious. It’s me trying to develop new habits so I can get done the things I want to get done, and my work life is getting in the way of that. It’s frustrating for me because I want to announce all the things and not just deliver on all the things but be the best version of myself with all of the things. For me, announcements are like deliveries and promises. If I can’t deliver, I’ve failed in keeping the promise, and that’s something I have to live with. Building better habits does take time and patience. I’m slowly getting there.

And that’s it. For more daily updates or more frequent updates, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Fanbase, Mewe, Lemon8, Clapper, and Tiktok. The Youtube channel hasn’t been established yet. You can find me as either Victorea Ryan Meadow or Enchanted Realms Fiction. I no longer have a Twitter/X account. I don’t support the transphobic, antisemitic bull shit that’s Elon Musk.

Welcome to 2024!