Infographic Thursday: Blogging for the Blogger

 

 

Don't you sometimes wish that there was just one more hour in the day? Heck, one more hour in the week could work too!

With work and writing and life's endeavours, where do you find the time to keep up a regular blog in all that?

The answer lies in passion. Ha, not the kind that sets bed sheets on fire (well, not here anyway), but the kind that makes you excited about something, an issue, a charity or a social concern.

My passion is writing, but I can get excited about most things you can place under the creativity umbrella.

Do you need to blog everyday? Twice a week? Once a month?

The are no hard and fast rules, but the generally accepted timeframe is twice a week. But if that is not possible, pick a schedule that will suit you, that your readers like, and stick to it.

 

I keep a calendar, but when the challenge of a book launch and a long awaited art competition cross my path, so does my good planning slip out of the back door.

And here I have a time management theme for 2014. 

Guilty of not taking own advice, your honour!

 

Here are a few tips to help you out, but feel free to add from your own experience what has worked for you, and what didn't.

 

Source for the Infographic

Interview: STORM author Charmain Lines

1. What inspired you to write your stories for the STORM anthology?
Sadly I don’t have an interesting inspiration story to tell this time! The first three sentences literally popped up in my mind one evening (it might have been while I was brushing my teeth – something about that specific action regularly triggers thoughts/reminders/ideas). I went to one of my favourite coffee shops the next day and by the end of the afternoon had completed about a third of the story.

2. Tell us what your stories are all about.
“Once upon a storm” is a story in a story. The setting is an orphanage where one of the older girls read a bedtime story – about a little storm – to four younger children. As the bedtime story unfolds, we learn more about each of the children: Twinnie who pines for his lost half, the 20 cheetahs in Vince’s garden, Maggie’s wish for a picnic in a park, the mystery of the new girl and, of course, Lauren’s encounter with the woman who wears wings.

3. What excited you about taking part in the STORM anthology?
It was my first foray into short story-writing, and also my first writing project as part of a group.

4. What is your next project about and when can we expect it to be published?
My next novel is in Afrikaans and deals with three generations of the same family. When grandmother Stella dies, her sons and grandchildren discover a secret she’s been keeping from them for more than 30 years. This changes their perception of who she was and all she stood for, and forces them to examine all the other truths on which they had built their lives. My aim is to enter the manuscript into a local competition that closes on1 September 2014.

I’m also busy with a non-fiction book that tells the story of how a small Irish community succeeded in saving their local wetland (bog) from being mined for peat. We are planning to publish the book by the end of this year.

5. What is your biggest challenge in writing?
The time I spend I front of my laptop. I earn my living as a freelance corporate journalist/business writer, hence I pound away at my keyboard for most of the day. Sometimes I literally run out of words, and other times I can’t bear to be in front of the screen once my workday is over. Having said that, corporate writing has taught me incredibly useful lessons that I apply to my fiction writing.

6. How do you deal with this challenge?
By doing my fiction writing before my workday starts. Early in the morning, when it’s quiet and my mind is fresh, I can easily knock off a thousand words in an hour.

7. What advice would you offer to other authors having to deal with this same challenge?
Find the creative writing time that works for you and guard it jealously.

8. Please explain to my readers your writing process and how you manage your life to accommodate your writing.

I try to write between 05:30 and 06:30 every weekday morning. The routine helps me and by writing every day, my head stays with my story. Writing with other people has helped me a great deal in the past, ie, getting together for a few hours to write. When I can, I like to write in a coffee shop – the activity around me becomes white noise and the fact that someone else brings the refreshments to me keeps me pinned to my chair! I also find that sharing some of my writing with people whose opinions I trust can be a great motivator when I run out of steam. Constructive feedback at the right time is an energy boost for me.

You can find all Charmain's books on Smashwords

STORM Vol I and Vol II - the Pretoria Writers' Group Presents

This anthology has taken the world by STORM! As part of the pre-launch period you can now buy the two volumes at 50% of the normal price. The official launch will be 1 June 2014, after which the prices will be raised.

You can find out more about each Volume at the ANTHOLOGIES tab on top of this blog page, or click for Volume I or Volume II on Smashwords.

Reviews from our advance readers can be found on Goodreads (Volume I and Volume II). If you enjoyed our stories, as much as we did writing them, please take the time to leave us your review.

 Thank you for your support.

Author Blog Hop

1) What am I working on?
Having just, as in recent days, published our writers' group's anthology, STORM (Volume I and Volume II), I have to check out the projects that I have scheduled myself to complete this year. I made a list to keep myself accountable. The first one is to do my editing on the third book in my Third Gender Series, and then get it to a professional editor to make it perfect. The story is called Obsession and I hope to have it ready for publication by July this year.
The second project is to finish my third novel, titled Michael's Mystery. I estimate it to be about 70% complete, so there is still a lot of work to be done.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I write in whatever genre my story needs to be written, so it is hard to pin it down. However, Obsession can be considered sci-fi romance and Michael's Mystery is a fantasy romance novel. So, yeah, I am a romantic at heart and will try to get my happily-ever-afters, in whatever genre happens to be on the cards.
I doubt if there is really a unique plot out there, so I cannot claim to be the next big thing in writing. I tell stories. Stories of people who want to find love, or not. Characters who get into situations where they have to make difficult choices, sometimes big sacrifices, and to my mind we as people often have to do the same. Maybe not using magic fireballs, or dragon swords, but the choices may be just as difficult.

3) Why do I write what I do?
I write what I read. I love paranormal/fantasy romance and I also read a lot of erotic romance books. As you can probably guess by now, I am a sucker for romance!
While I also read historical romances, love murder mysteries and have been known to read extreme sci-fi, I do not write in these genres. Why not, you may ask? I have no idea. I just don't I suppose :)

4) How does my writing process work?
This is the simple answer - I apply butt to chair and I write. Planning in any detail doesn't work for me, ie I am a pantser. That doesn't mean that I don't do any research, on the contrary. I have tried it both ways - planning and pantsing - and decided to stick to the way I am doing it now. As a project manager in the military industry by day, I write in the evenings. And I try to do it for two hours uninterrupted every day. I try to do more on weekends, but it is not always possible - I do have a life after all :)

Thank you, Nomanono for tagging me in this blog hop :)

Liebster Award - Butterfly on a Broomstick

 
A big thank you to my online friend J Lenni Dorner for giving me and this blog my first Liebster Award! 

"I am the in-between. There is a whole-hearted embrace of technology, but it conflicts with the fact that I'd rather be up a tree in the middle of a forest dreaming in peace. I love food, but I can't cook it well- the technical term for my skill level is "water-burner." (Luckily, I'm happily married to a chef.) While I can appreciate fashion, my own wardrobe emphasizes on comfort and function. Photography is a pastime I find enjoyable, but my beliefs dictate that I cannot appear in pictures. Basically, I should time-travel back to the 1300's to live, but still be able to communicate with the modern world via my smartphone." ~ J Lenni Dorner

THE RULES:
Answer the 11 questions left for you
Nominate 11 more bloggers (not the person who nominated you, or the people that person nominated)
Leave them 11 questions for your nominees to answer
Thank and link back to the person who nominated you

The 11 Questions Lenni asked me:

1. What are your seven favorite books?
I don't have seven books, but I do have two authors whose books I have read many times - and you better not laugh too hard because they are at the opposite spectrum of the romance genre: Jane Austen and Maya Banks.

2. Who are your seven favorite twitter followers?
Jeff Joseph Author @author_jeff
Howard Roper @HowardRoper
Mackenzie Brown @mackbrownbooks
Sean Maxwell  @SeanMaxwell
Philip Catshill @PhilipCatshill
Shane O'Neill @ShaneKPONeill
Doug Simpson @1DougSimpson

Hmm...I noticed that they are all male - thanks, guys, you rock my twitter world!

3. What was the weirdest fortune cookie fortune you have seen?
In my part of the world, fortune cookies are not included in a chinese take-away meal, not for free anyway. So I usually go without.

4. What made you want to start blogging?
I thought it would be fun. It was only later that I learned that there are good and bad ways of doing it. Fortunately, I didn't start off too badly ;)

5. Which comment on your blog did you enjoy the most? (And who left it, and on what post?)
I am not going to single out a particular person, but I am going to mention the bloggers taking part in the recent April A to Z Challenge. They were awesome and many of their comments made me smile.

6. When did you know what you wanted to do with your life in regard to how you wish to be remembered?
This one does not have a single answer. As I grew older, my dreams changed, but while I was doing the things I had been involved it, I was living the life I wanted. Whether it was as an engineer, export consultant, business owner, project manager or published author. I live my life to please me, not any one else.

7. Are there any movies you are looking forward to seeing which premiere in 2014? (What are they and why are you looking forward to them?)
I have no idea what is on circuit right now, nor what is still coming this year. I am not much of a movie goer.

8. Do you now, or have you, had a living animal as a pet? (Tamagotchi doesn’t count.)
Yes. Since I got married and lived in a place where we could keep pets, we have had German Shepherd dogs. I love big dogs, but am particularly fond of the breed. Right now we have three, two females and a male.

9. If you had to perform in a little talent show next week, what would your talent be?
I would be the one organising the event ;)  But if I have to, I would dig out my bow and shoot arrows at people with apples on their heads.

10. What would your response be if a new friend proved to you that you aren’t human?
Cool! I always wanted to be an alien shape-shifter.

11. What is your favorite mythical creature without human attributes?
Dragon. I have two dragons keeping me company while I write. They sit on the bookshelf right next to my desk. I have been thinking though, that perhaps they needed another friend. Did I mention that I love dragons?

11 Questions for the 11 people I am nominating:
1.  What are the five things/activities you simply cannot do without?

2.  If your home caught fire, name the five things you will try to rescue? (loved ones are number six)

3.  What made you want to start blogging?

4.  Which comment on your blog did you enjoy the most? (And who left it, and on what post?)

5.  What was your experience in doing the A to Z Blog Challenge in April 2014?

6.  When did you know what you wanted to do with your life in regard to how you wish to be remembered?

7.  Do you now, or have you, had a living animal as a pet?

8.  If you had to perform in a little talent show next week, what would your talent be?

9.  What would your response be if a new friend proved to you that you aren’t human?
10. If there was one mythical character that you would like to have tea with, who would it be and why?
11. If there was one supernatural power that you could have for 24 hrs, which one would it be and what would you do with it? 

11 People I am nominating:

Vanessa Wright
Laura Scott
Tonia Hurst
Laura Hile
Natalie Rivener
Marcio Coelho
Red O'Laughlin
Carmen Botman
Richard T Wheeler
Stella Myers
Roslynn Pryor


This is so much fun, I can't wait to see what each person comes up with! ☺