Friends

The material for “Unguarded” (Book Two) is developing nicely. After a weekend of rest and relaxation, it feels great getting back to work on my writing projects! If you’re an author and tend not to take breaks from your work, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. I understand the demands of deadlines and whatnot, but giving your mind a break from the constant flow of ideas and pressures of work will actually help make your project a better story!

There is so much I want to tell you regarding my next book, but I must keep it to myself for now. I am very excited to see where this next book takes me, and to see what more I will learn in the process.

That’s something else that you must do as a writer: be open and willing to learn along the way. It is very much a part of our nature as people to think we can handle a lot of what goes into creating something without being open to learning about what it is we’re creating! Writing is a very dynamic art. Words are written, thoughts change, and thus words are changed. This is a recurring process, and it should be. The first draft of a story shouldn’t be it’s final draft.

Part of that process of changing words, thoughts, sections of the text, and so on is being open to new ideas and creativity. In my case, I have a history degree but that in no way means that I’ll know every fact and figure that I want to use in my book. I check and cross-check my information as I write. And that’s just content.

By “be open and learn along the way” I also mean that it is important for an author to understand how her/his industry works and where she/he belongs in it. Trying to navigate one’s way alone through the world of publishing, especially self-publishing, can be a daunting and almost impossible task. My advice? Ask questions.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “The only stupid question is one that is not asked,” which mostly comes from the classroom, stemming from students’ fear of being embarrassed by asking something they believe ALL the other students know. Well, whether all the other authors in the world know the answer to a question brewing in your mind, it is still vital that you ask it. Whether you’re querying a friend, a publisher, or even another author…ASK your question.

That is all I have for write now (you see what I did there). I felt like having a more “stream of consciousness” kind of blog today rather than something more systematic. I hope you found something in it that you can apply to your own work, even if you’re not an author.

If you haven’t already, please check out my 4-star debut book, “Resistant,” which can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, WaveCloud, the Apple iBookstore, and Google Play. And if you do decide to purchase it, I ask that you please review and/or rate it after you’ve finished. Those reviews and ratings really help me out!

Until next time,

-Eli