Food for Thought, Really!

I haven’t had a good fiction book to read for a couple of weeks.  This is so odd for me because I love to read. You might be thinking, so what?  Well one of the truest things about writing is that in order to be creative and write you have to feed your brain.  I first read this in Stephen King’s On Writing.  Basically, one of the things I learned from reading that book is that in order to be a good writer you have to write a lot and read a lot.

I have found that to be so true.

Because I haven’t read any fiction, good, bad or otherwise for a while, I haven’t written much at all.  You really do have to feed your brain.  And the food for writing is reading.  It is as simple as that.

I finally bought a new book last night and look forward to feeding my brain.  I can almost guarantee the writing is going to go so much better once I am no longer so malnourished.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Defeating the Evil Chapter of Death

Yesterday I finally conquered a chapter that was the very bane of my existence for the last two weeks.  I’m not sure why the chapter was so hard or why it took me so long to get it written, but it was one of those chapters where you sit down and type 200 words only to delete 300 and then question what the heck your doing.  You know, one of those chapters. 

I had to change a lot about what I had originally outlined to make it work, but after doing so I can see how the changes make for a much better story.  I think life is like that too.  You can make a five year plan; know what kind of job you want, the house you want to live in, the town you want to live in, and so on.  And then everything gets turned on its head and miraculously it works out better than you could have ever planned it.  Sometimes you just have to give in and let the story unfold even if it messes with your plans.

Thanks for reading…

Houses and Bottle Warmers

I saw a quote somewhere that said writing is 1% inspiration and 99% not getting distracted by the internet.  I’m not sure who said it, but it wasn’t me.  Still it is so true.  Getting distracted by the internet and other things in life can be the death of productivity.

Lately we have been going through a lot of life stuff.  It is all good stuff but distracting none the less.  We are having our first baby soon! And because we will be needing more room we are buying our first home!  See all very wonderful exciting stuff but still very distracting from writing. 

With my little obsessive streak I have logged more hours than I even want to think about looking at baby stuff online, reading reviews on everything from bouncers to bottle warmers, making my registry (BTW thanks Sis for throwing me a baby shower), looking up information on infant care and the list goes on.

 I have logged just as much time looking at houses, comparing neighborhoods, and all the things you do when preparing to purchase a home.  Consequently, I have not gotten nearly as much writing done as I would have like over the last month.  But I finally have my baby registry done and we have placed the house hunt on hold for a month and a half.

So really I have no excuses not to meet my daily writing goals and I look forward to not thinking about real estate or bottle warmers for a little while.  So I will be blogging on Fridays again and should be publishing another book in August or September. 

Also this is kind of unrelated but I want to give a big Thank You to everyone who has bought my first book Always Darkest!  Every single sale that I have seen has been a cause for celebration and I am truly grateful.  If you liked my book, or if you didn’t, feel free to review it or send me an email at kimwritesbooks@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I hope you all have a great weekend and as always thanks for reading…

To Blog or Not to Blog?

So my blog today is about blogging.  I know it’s like reading a book about reading but it is what is on my mind today.  I started blogging shortly after my book Always Darkest, a dark but funny fantasy romance, was published and I have blogged every Friday since.  I have discovered something about myself.

I don’t like blogging.

I know, you may ask, “If you don’t like blogging, why are you doing it?”  Well, I’m new at this whole self-publishing, trying to sell my books and self promote business.  Being a self-published author and blogging seem to go hand in hand.  But you know maybe it’s not for me.  I don’t know.  So as readers, do you expect the authors that you read to have a blog?  Do you think it increases sales?  Let me know what you think.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE reading blogs.  I read all the blogs of my favorite authors and many of my twitter followers.  Blogs are cool.  I’m just not sure if they are the right thing for me right now.  Maybe the every Friday schedule is what is making it no fun, kind of like how being in a dart league and having to play every Sunday zapped all the fun out of it for me.  So maybe I’ll be switching things up in the coming weeks. 

Thank you for reading…

Building Blocks

I was just sitting here trying to think about what I wanted to blog about today and absolutely nothing was coming to mind.  Then I thought I just need to start writing and that got me thinking about how each little thing we do every day affects everything in our lives. 

Allow me to elaborate.  The finest novels ever written got started by the writing of a single word.  The largest buildings began with the laying of a single stone.  A one hundred pound weight loss starts with the first workout.  You know a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and so on.  You get the point. Everything in life is like that.  You just have to start with the first word, step, the first good decision and keep going from there and before you know it you have achieved your goal.

My goal is to be an excellent writer and I know I will get there one word at a time.

What are your goals and what are you doing to achieve them?

Thank you for reading…