#wqaqa

[writingquestionsanswered]

what made you start an advice blog and has it changed your writing in any way? x

Personal Q&A: Why I Started WQA

Ah, this is a fun question! ♥

I originally started the blog ten years ago when I saw a need for a writing blog dedicated entirely to answering questions. It has definitely changed and improved my writing, mainly because it has forced me to unlearn some limiting academic mindsets, but it's also broadened my writing horizons by introducing me to new concepts and making me think about what really works for me process-wise. I think it's also probably influenced my reading habits as well, encouraging me to seek out books and genres I didn't normally read.

Thanks for writing in!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[writingquestionsanswered]

hey :) i dont have a crazy question as far technical writing skills but a more personal question i feel could offer me a little bit more insight. i know you’ve been writing for so long, and i wanted to know, how did you feel when you released your first real body of public work? did you ever accomplish the largest goals you set for yourself in your writing experience? thank you for all your help btw we all appreciate it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personal Q&A: How I Felt When I Was Published

Regardless of which route you take on your publishing journey, doing it right means a lot of hard work. I spent a long, long time getting my novel ready for publishing, so by the time it was out, it felt like a pride-worthy accomplishment. I didn't really have any big goals since it was my debut novel, and as an indie author I knew the odds were stacked against me sales-wise, but I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively well it sold. And I was really bowled over by how many people genuinely loved it. It was pretty amazing to see people love my characters and the story as much as I do. At this point, that's the only goal I have with my fiction... to get my stories out there and hope even a few people will get something out of it. Thank you for this fun question! ♥

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

See my ask policies

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[writingquestionsanswered]

Are any of your works available to read? I love your advice here so much and you've been a godsend for me personally. An absolute core element to my journey. But Im interested in what stories you've written! I can't find anything on your blog for some reason :(

I don't share my writing on the blog and keep my identity anonymous. Not that my identity is in any way interesting... I've just always wanted to make WQA about your writing and not mine. Thank you for your interest, though! It's very much appreciated! ♥

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

See my ask policies

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[writingquestionsanswered]

As a writer do you have a creators pest and pet characters?

Personal Q&A: Pests and Pets

Ahhh... I LOVE this question! Thank you! ♥

I had to really think about it, but I can only think of one character of mine that I really don't like, but he's supposed to be unlikable so that works.

I definitely have pet characters. One of my NaNoWriMo novels went completely off course because I loved one of my characters so much, the chemistry between him and the protagonist was great, and he turned into a second love interest when that wasn't really my original intention. He was not supposed to survive the story, but by the time I reached the climax I was not about to unalive him, so the climax and end just went completely off the rails. And I never did figure out how to fix that story.

What about you? Do you have any creator's pests or pet characters?

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you have any favorite and least favorite tropes

Least Favorite Tropes

If you've followed me a while, you know I love to shout that tropes aren't bad. So, when I hear this question, my brain usually defaults to least favorite clichés. I always forget that just because tropes aren't inherently bad doesn't mean there can't be tropes I don't like. So, at your request, I sat down and really thought about it, and came up with the following list:

CW/TW for r*pe CW for s*x (They're #9 and #10 if you want to skip them…)

1 - The Alpha Male - He's tough, strong, emotionless, skilled at everything, hot and built, and full of raw sexual power. Every masculine person wants to be him, and everyone attracted to men wants to be with him… you get the drift. Guys like this are just a bunch of red flags sewn into the shape of a person. Unless he's the antagonist or a dirtbag with a positive change arc, it's just not my thing.

2 - Emotionless for Edge - I've said it before and I'll say it forever: specifically writing about a character experiencing a neurological or psychological condition that numbs emotion is fine (as long as it's either your own experience or you do your research and use a sensitivity reader), BUT… when a character is emotionless for the sake of drama or to be edgy, it just doesn't work for me.

3 - Insta-Love - You know how it goes… person meets person and within twenty-minutes of meeting, they're declaring their everlasting love for one another. That's insta-love, and I want to clarify that because I'm seeing a lot of confusion about that lately. Somehow, the popular definition of insta-love became about time spent together, and it was never about time at all. It's about whether or not the love feels earned, both through the events the lovebirds jointly experience and through how their budding love is shown through their interactions. Because, you can have two people trapped in a room together for six hours, during which time they experience a lot of harrowing situations, have to learn to trust and rely on one another, and confide things in one another they've never shared with anyone else, and you can make it believable that they develop romantic feelings for one another in that amount of time. But if you just stick them in a room together for six hours and nothing much happens other than they have a couple of random conversations and an argument about sports, and then try to tell me they're in love, that's not going to feel earned to me.

4 - Unreliable Narrator - This is where the narrator, usually the POV character, gives the reader information that isn't true. For some reason. I've never been a fan of this trope because I've never really seen it used well. It never really seems to serve a purpose other than to mislead the reader, but that just feels cheap to me. I'll concede that it probably can be used well and I'm sure there are great examples, but I'm just not a big fan.

5 - Obviously Beautiful - They're gorgeous. Maybe even the hottest person wherever. Everyone thinks they're gorgeous. Everyone within a ten-mile radius is madly, deeply in love with them. But they have no idea. As far as they're concerned, they're just a Plain Jayne. Pass…

6 - Dark and Tragic Past - Something unspeakable happened in their past, and it really doesn't have that much to do with the rest of the plot or who they eventually became, but you'd better believe the memory of those events will haunt their dreams and every waking moment where it can provide drama. Unless you're specifically writing about dealing with trauma, or the terrible events are both plot relevant and plot-necessary, this is a hard no for me. There are so many more interesting ways to give your character an internal conflict and emotional wound than by giving them a dark and troubled past.

7 - Never Together, Always Apart - This is really more of a TV problem than a book problem, but I've seen it in long book series now and then. It's when two characters are in love, they're obviously meant to be together--and they are together very briefly off and on--but even though it's not really that important to the story in any way, these two characters are going to be kept apart again, and again, and again. You'll breathe a sigh of relief that they're finally, finally, finally together once and for all, then something happens to drive them apart for the six-hundredth time. Not a fan.

8 - Hobby as Personality - I see this more often in YA, but it happens in all categories. It's where the protagonist has some special skill or hobby unrelated to the plot, like they love to read, play the bagpipes, write really deep poetry, or have a beautiful singing voice, but this is the most important thing about them outside of their role in the external conflict. There's no other attempt to flesh out their personality. They don't really have an internal conflict or emotional wound. There's nothing at stake to keep them up at night. They don't have other interests or obvious likes/dislikes. Their hopes and dreams, if they exist at all, revolve entirely around the special skill or hobby. I mean, I'm all for giving protagonists a thing that makes them special, but if that's their entire personality, it's not for me.

9 - R*pe for Realism - This is when r*pe exists in the story simply because it's a gritty setting, like a Viking village, medieval fantasy, or a pirate ship. Just. No. There are many, many, maaaaaaany examples of stories set in the distant past, dystopian futures, The Republic of Pirates, or dark and gritty fantasy worlds that don't include people being r*ped for "realism." It isn't necessary. It doesn't add realism. It's just an excuse to write about someone being r*ped. So, that's a great big giant bowl of nope for me.

10 - Emotional Situation Sex - The world is falling apart around them. Things just couldn't be worse. The future looks grim. But that's not gonna stop these horn dogs from getting it onnnnnnnnn! And they're doing it while both in tears and moaning their goodbyes. Nope-ity nope noooooooope! And hey… if you like this kind of scene, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Some of my favorite people love this trope. It's just not for me.

Now, just because I don't personally like these tropes, with the exception of #9 (which is just generally no...) doesn't mean they're inherently bad. I'm just not a fan. And I know some of these probably border on clichés by now, but for some genres they're still considered tropes.

Thanks for the fun question! I'll do favorite another day or see if I have a link to a past post.

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[writingquestionsanswered]

Have you ever written fanfiction? Just curious

Personal Q&A: Fan-Fiction

I have written fan-fiction. In fact, fan-fiction is where I got most of my early writing practice. It was mostly based on TV shows I loved in the early 90s. I haven't written any in years, but I think about it sometimes. :)

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi I was curious do you sometimes feel overwhelmed as a writer

Personal Q&A: Feeling Overwhelmed as a Writer

YES.

And, honestly, I don't know too many writers who don't feel overwhelmed from time to time, even if they're just writing for fun.

Writing can be really, really hard. Just wrangling the characters, events, and setting details of a single short story can be a lot, even if you're just writing it for your own enjoyment. Start factoring in longer stories, multiple projects, beta readers and editors, deadlines, and related but non-writing responsibilities, things can get overwhelming quickly.

So, yes, most writers feel overwhelmed from time to time (or in some cases all the time) so it's completely normal. Everyone has different ways of dealing with it. When I'm overwhelmed, most of the time I handle it like this:

(Credit: https://gunshowcomic.com/648)

But when you're feeling that way, it's worth it to examine what--if anything--you can take off your plate. Try prioritizing projects and getting the most important/earliest deadlines out of the way first. If there's anything you can completely set aside for a while, do it.

Something else that can help is to make a checklist that breaks everything down into smaller tasks. Check off every task as you do it, and sometimes just seeing the boxes get checked off can help relieve some of the pressure.

If you can afford to, it helps to take a day off (or even an afternoon off) where you don't worry about any of it. Giving yourself that space to just relax, do other things, and not think about writing can be a really big help.

I hope the feeling passes soon! ♥

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Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[writingquestionsanswered]

This is just a curious question, not really an advice. I am just curious what are your favorite archetype characters or villains. And what kind of novel or genre you read the most.

Personal Q&A: Favorite Archetype Characters

My most read genre is probably fantasy, particularly YA fantasy. I read a lot of speculative fiction in general, and I also like historical fiction.

Favorite Archetype Characters is a hard one to answer because there are so many different archetypes, and so many good choices for all of them. I think if I'm including movies and television along with books, some of my choices would be: Bonnie Bennett ("the magician" archetype, The Vampire Diaries), Anne Shirley ("the explorer" archetype, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery), Mr. Miyagi ("the sage" archetype The Karate Kid), Beth March ("the innocent" archetype, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott), Jo March ("the creator" archetype, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott), Samwell Tarly ("the caregiver" archetype, A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin), Carlilse Cullen (also "the caregiver" archetype, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer).

Favorite Villains: Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin), The Darkling (Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo), Kylo Ren (Skywalker Saga), Benjamin Linus (LOST).

Thanks for the fun question! ♥

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Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[writingquestionsanswered]

Haha, sorry. Okay, books I’ve read that have had the strongest impact on me tend to be dark/tragic. So I love Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, Villette by Charlotte Brontë, Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade by Richard Yates, The Promise by Damon Galgut, Atonement by Ian McEwan. And I love dystopian fiction that’s well written, too. So 1984 by Orwell is my favourite book, as well as Animal Farm. Oh and Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. And another all time favourite is probably The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Sorry, that’s a lot of books I’ve bombarded you with. But I think that should give you a gist of the types of books I like. I want to know what your personal favourites are, too, if you don’t mind. The only books that I wouldn’t want to read are Y/A, anything before the late 19th century, and very cliche romance novels. Thank you.

Personal Q&A: Bookish Talk

We don't seem to have a lot in common reading-wise, unfortunately, so there's not much I can recommend to you and I don't think you'd probably be interested in my favorites. I'm a big fan of YA so a lot of the genre books I read are in that category. Outside of that, I read a lot of historical fiction, lots of indie novels in a variety of genres, memoirs, a little non-fiction, a little classic literature, and a random smattering of other stuff.

If you like dark/tragic/dystopian, I'm guessing you do/might enjoy post-apocalyptic, in which case The Road by Cormac McCarthy is really good. Railsea by China Miéville, which is categorized as YA but I don't know why. If you can lean really sci-fi for your dystopian, the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin is really good.

Personal favorites... like I said, Austen, the Six of Crows duology (YA/Leigh Bardugo), A Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin), the Starbound Trilogy (YA, Kaufman/Spooner), Katherine (Seton), Under the Tuscan Sun (Mayes). Just to name a few.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi!! Have you ever thought about starting a writing Youtube channel? Just wanted to say that I'd suscribe for sure!!

Aw, thanks! I've thought about it, but I don't have the appearance/wit that does well on YouTube. I'm more of an old school blog lady, anyway, but I do love watching writing vlogs over there! ♥

[writingquestionsanswered]

Sorry if you have already answered something similar ... But what is your ideal set-up and time to write? (like place, hour, what you bring, etc ...) and any tips on how to find your own ideal set-up and time? I want to create a specific routine to write and a place for it, but I'm not sure how to decide the best situation. There is so many different advice for this sort of thing and I'm not sure what to follow and thought I should hear your opinion. After all I love your tips and advices!

10 Tips for Establishing a Writing Setup & Routine

What a great question! See my answers at the bottom. In the meantime, here are some tips to help you establish your own writing setup and routine.

1) Consider Your Schedule - Look at your schedule and see if you have a common slot of availability each day, like maybe you’re always free in the afternoons. For most people, before school/work or in the evenings before bed are the most consistently available time slots. 

2) Consider Your Ideal - You may have to settle for whatever writing time is available on a given day, but if you can choose, consider what might work best for you. If you’re not a morning person, you might do better writing at night. If evenings are busy and stressful, you might be better writing during the day.

3) Consistency is Key - Having a set writing time each day is great if you can manage it, but more important than that is just making sure you’re sitting down to write almost every day, regardless of when that is. If you make writing each day (or most days) a habit, you’ll find it’s much easier to sit down and start writing when you have free time.

4) List Location Needs - Some people can write anywhere. Others have particular location needs like internet access or access to food/drink. Make a list of your personal needs and maybe add some that aren’t needs so much as nice bonuses.

5) List Your Location Options - According to the list above, start listing out places that meet those needs. Bedroom, living room, kitchen, patio, backyard table, library, coffee shop, or local park are some possibilities to consider.

6) Consider Distractions - Distractions are a writer’s biggest enemy, but not everyone finds the same things distracting. Consider who might be around when you write, who or what might be making noise (and whether that will annoy you), and what other internal and external things might pull your attention away from writing. 

7) Minimize Distractions -  Once you know the probably distractions, anything you can do to minimize those--including when and where you ultimately choose to write--will help in the long run. Ask friends and housemates not to disturb you when you’re writing. If writing in public spaces, try to choose spots without a lot of foot traffic or where others are quietly working and more likely to be respectful. Put your phone on “do not disturb” and avoid the temptation to read texts or look at social media. Avoid internet rabbit holes if at all possible. Do what you can to clear your mind before you start to write.

8) Gather Your Essentials - Sit down and consider what items you may need during your writing session and make sure to bring those with you. Laptop, notebook, thumb drive, notes/outline, WIP binder, reference books, pen/paper, white out, post its or page flags, highlighter, paper clips or binder clips, pencil/eraser (or erasable pen), pencil sharpener, straight edge, stickers... these are just a few things that might make some writers’ lists.

9) Experimentation May Be Necessary - Don’t feel bad if you try a particular time and/or spot and it doesn’t work out. You may want to give it a few days or try the same spot at different times, but if you have to try something different, that’s fine. It can take a while to figure out what works for you. I recently read about an author who discovered that her best time to write (on her phone) was while walking straight, smooth country roads near her home. Always be sure to make safe choices and be careful, but you never know what might work for you.

10) Be Patient - It might take a long time before you find a setup and writing time that works for you. Or, you may never find consistency in either place, but eventually you will adapt and become one of those people who can write anytime, anywhere. The key is to be patient and just do the best you can until something clicks.

WQA Q&A: My Ideal Set-Up and Time to Write - I’m fortunate to have a dedicated writing space, but when I venture away from it, I like to have: my laptop, thumb drive, pen and paper, writing notes/outline, my WIP binder, and any reference books I might need. White out, post-its, and highlighters are a nice bonus. As for when I write, I used to be a night writer but have gravitated toward writing more during the afternoon/early evening. Mainly, I take advantage of whatever free time I’ve got if I’m in the mood to write.

Best of luck as you discover your own best writing time and place!

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[writingquestionsanswered]

What is one thing you wished ALL writers, no matter their age or stage in writing, could walk away from your blog knowing?

Personal Q&A: One Piece of Advice

This:

Your first draft isn’t your final draft.

First drafts are prototypes. They’re where you get the gist of your ideas down on “paper” for the first time. After that, you tweak. You improve. You finalize.

If you fixate too much on perfection as you write your first draft, you’ll never get to the end. Nothing you write in your first draft is written in stone. Just get it written, then you go back and make it better. 

[writingquestionsanswered]

What are your favorite and most hated tropes in literature? Feel free to add a guilty pleasure 😊 have a nice day!

Personal Q&A: 10 Cliches That Bore Me

I know I sound like a broken record, but I cannot stress enough that tropes are a good and normal part of fiction. Tropes are not bad. Tropes that are used the same way over and over again are bad, and those are called “cliches.” Hating a trope is like hating your bones, the studs in your walls, or the frame of your car. It doesn’t make much sense because they need to be there. What you actually hate are the way those things are used.

That said, I don’t hate any tropes, but there are ways certain tropes have been used the same way over and over again, turning them into cliches, that bore me. Here are ten along with the why…

1) “He’s completely unemotional. Like a rock, but even more emotionless!”

Emotions run on a gradient. I get that. You can have stoic people who don’t express a lot of outward emotion, and you can have everything in-between until you get to the drama queen who wears their heart on their sleeve. On occasion, you have characters who have a mental illness, neurological disorder, or brain injury that affects emotional expression. Less often, you might have a character who is an android, cyborg, robot, etc. I’m not talking about any of those, but rather the character who is just plain emotionless, completely, usually due to a tragic past. Often, this character is the love interest and the protagonist will “fix” them by getting them in touch with the world of emotion.

2) “Welcome to my fish out of water supernatural extravaganza!”

When a story begins with a high-school or college aged protagonist moving to a small town, you can be almost a thousand percent sure they are about to encounter vampires, shapeshifters, a secret community of witches, or dark fae, and that they’ll quickly fall in love with one of these magical creatures, forever binding them to this supernatural world. And also there’s a good chance they will later find out that they are personally inextricably linked to said world through ancestry, family ties, or prophecy.

3) “Only you can lead the rebellion against The Republic of Dystopia!”

Why does every YA dystopian series have to resolve with a rebellion? And why does that rebellion inexplicably have to be led by the protagonist? There are so many more interesting things you can do with dystopia other than rebellion. At the very least, let your protagonist have some other role besides leader.

4) “Hashtag McBride was the hottest guy in school…”

Because OF COURSE HE WAS. There are probably at least a few hundred other guys in the school. But yeah. This is the one guy who has the protagonist’s attention. (It drives me nuts when it’s the “hottest girl in school,” too, or the “hottest/coolest anyone/anywhere” for that matter.)

5) “I’m so plain, sometimes I think I’m made of actual cardboard…”

But they’re not actually plain, because in reality, no one is. Everyone has something interesting/unusual about them. It’s worth noting that this isn’t an issue of self-esteem, either. It’s the start of an ugly duckling wish fulfillment fantasy on the part of the author.

6) “You may be cardboard plain, but you make my heart soar like an actual plane!”

INEVITABLY the hottest/coolest/most popular/etc. person wherever is going to be inexplicably attracted to your Plain Jane/Joe Blow. 

7) “I am the Chosen One for reasons that will become slightly less fuzzy in chapter 26…”

The Chosen One trope has so many cliches associated with it, that people can no longer see it as being a trope. It’s just seen as one big cliche, which is a shame because it’s actually a great trope filled with lots of possibilities. It’s just so popular that it’s hard to find new and interesting ways to do it. What bothers me is when the thing that makes them the chosen one is too convenient, contrived, or just doesn’t make sense.

8) “I love you both equally. How will I ever choose?”

I think I’ve said it before… I love love triangles and I think they get a bad rap, mainly because the “A loves B and C at the same time and can’t choose between them… but must” is the most common form of love triangle. But there are soooo many other ways to do a love triangle, folks! SO. Many.

9) “I’ve never flown a plane before!” (Immediately flies a plane perfectly.)

We’ve all seen ‘em… the protagonist who is good at absolutely everything they try. If they fail, it’s momentarily or in small ways. Or they try it once, suck at it, and try it again when it really counts, only to falter and then wildly succeed. These characters aren’t really bad at anything. They’re conveniently quick learners. Super graceful. They try something once and master it. No training montage for these folks.

10) The super clumsy protagonist.

They’re super clumsy. They know they’re super clumsy. And they can’t stop talking about how super clumsy they are. Their clumsiness exists solely as a convenient means of tension and angst by way of embarrassment. They trip in front of the hottest boy in school, and then you get a whole chapter about how mortified they are. But, of course, Hashtag McBride secretly finds that clumsiness super sexy and endearing.

Thanks for the question! That was fun to put together!

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[writingquestionsanswered]

hi! not really a writing question and more of a meta one—do you answer all the writing questions you're sent? just wondering how you deal with, say, repeat questions like do you answer them again or delete the questions or link them to an older post? also, do you answer questions in the order you receive them?

Personal Q&A: Blog Questions

1. Do you answer all the writing questions you're sent? If it’s a question about writing, publishing, or anything related, or about the blog, I’ll usually answer. It’s rare that I delete an ask.

2. How do you deal with repeat questions? It depends. If it’s something I answered recently or something for which I know I have a guide or a really good post, I’ll answer and put in the link. Sometimes, if the nature of the question warrants it, I’ll answer it again in a way that I hope will be more helpful to that specific person.

3. Do you answer questions in the order you receive them? Typically, yes, but there are some exceptions. If a question comes in related to a very recent post, I’ll usually answer it right away while we’re still on the topic. Messages to me, like thank you notes or “have a nice day” are posted as soon as I spot them, or if I get a lot at one time, I’ll spread them out a little. Once in a while there are questions that require more thought, planning, or brain power than I have in that moment, so I’ll skip it for a bit and move onto the next one. And sometimes I know I only have five or ten minutes to spend, so I’ll go through and look for something that I know I can answer in that time. But yes, most of the time, first in, first answered. :)

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Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[writingquestionsanswered]

I love hearing about a writer's creative process. I found these questions that I thought were interesting: How long on average does it take you to write a book? What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? How many hours a day do you write? Is writing your full time job? Thanks!

Personal Q&A: Creative Process Questions

1. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

I can write a first draft in about a month, but getting it to the final draft takes me a lot longer. I spent five years on my first book, my second one will probably be a little over three years total. I’d love to get it down to a year for my third book, but we’ll see!

2. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? 

As a writer, any number of writing books. As an author, my book cover. 

3. How many hours a day do you write?

It depends. Generally about 1-3 hours a day, but there are days when I never get a chance to write, or I sit down to write and it’s an immediate NOPE. When I’m really in the groove, I can end up writing for five or six hours a day.

4. Is writing your full time job?

Sort of... it is in the sense that I’m able to do it full time, but it doesn’t provide me with a livable income. It may eventually, but most indie authors don’t see a steady income until they have a fairly large backlog. So, it really helps if you can get out more than one book every 3-5 years... 

Thanks so much for those questions! <3

[writingquestionsanswered]

did you query and why did you decide to self publish your books?

Personal Q&A: Why I Chose to Be an Indie Author

I never queried any of my novels, though sometimes I wish I had just for the experience. There are lots of reasons I chose to be an indie author instead, but the biggest two are that I wanted full control over my books and my career. 

Self-publishing is like throwing a dinner party at home--it’s your territory and you’re 100% in control of every decision that’s made. You might ask for assistance, hire catering or a decorator, but you’re calling the shots. You might have a team, but they work for you. Traditional publishing is like being in charge of putting together the school dance. You came up with the theme and planned all the details, but you’re on someone else’s territory, someone else’s dime, and there are lots of committees working with you whose ideas and concerns you should probably heed. You’re not really in charge of the team so much as being at the center of all the teams working together.

I’ve never been an “organize the school dance” type (okay, tbh, I’m not even the throw a dinner party type, but I digress...) so staying in full control of my books and my career was important to me. My novels are mostly about young women between the ages of 18 and 22 in post-collapse (of civilization) and futuristic settings, but they don’t center around revolutions or contain magic, and that’s the way I like them. I don’t want to add things, subtract things, age my characters down, etc., and I have it on good authority that would very likely be the case. 

Another thing about traditional publishing is you really need to be open to whatever promotional things the publisher wants you to do. They may want you to attend various events, do book tours, hold local book signings, do videos or appearances. And while you’re certainly not required to do those things if you can’t or don’t want to, unless you have a really valid reason why you can’t, you are kind of obligated... after all, the publisher went out on a limb (and out of pocket) to get your book out there, so the least you can do is be a team player and do your part to promote it. For me, that was reason enough not to pursue traditional publishing. Book promotion is enough to worry about without feeling like I have to travel or do events that make me uncomfortable, and I wouldn’t want to feel like I’m disappointing my team.

So, that’s the story in a rather large nutshell! Let me know if you have any other questions about it. I’m happy to answer! <3