35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 35: A Writer's Journey

While writing a post for this challenge, a few days ago, I reached a total word count of 1.8 million words. I was quite surprised when I updated my word count spreadsheet to see that it had actually happened. One moment I was a few thousand words short, the next moment...there it was.

It is something I started about two years ago after a Facebook friend mentioned her lifetime word count. Since I still had every manuscript I had written on my backup drive (I changed computers a few times over the years) it was purely a matter of opening each file and recording the word count on the spreadsheet.

While I include the word count of blog posts (it is creative writing after all), it accounts for less than ten percent of the total number of words.

In the overall scheme of things, this number of 1.8 million doesn't mean anything. What keeping track does show me, is how many words I write per day, on average. Right at the beginning I was still feeling my way around at creative writing and have only been a serious writer for the past four years. This is evident in my daily average number of words that have more than doubled from where I had started fifteen years ago.

I personally believe that it is not only the number of words that I have written over the years, that has helped me improve as a writer. What stands out to me is that it has become a daily necessity to me, to write. A habit has been established, and it is the habit that grows my word count.

Of course, doing 50,000 words in one month makes a significant contribution, but if it is only 50k in one year, there is no real habit, no real growth. At least not for me.

Anyone can write 1667 words per day for 30 days. The true test comes if you can write 500 words per day for 365 days. It is not the 500 words that is the issue but establishing the discipline of writing each day.

My daily average this year is 740 words per day. During NaNoWriMo months, the average goes higher, but that is temporary and I don't worry about it.

At 740 words per day, I can write 270,000 in a year. This translates to 30,000 words for blog posts (+/- 300 words twice per week) and two full-length novels of 120k words each.

Just looking at these numbers is enough to make my pants shake, and yet that is what I do.

I don't see a huge mountain of words rising before me, I read the numbers as they fall behind me. Because, like any other goal, I take it one step - or rather one sentence at a time.

This has been 35 days of sharing some of the things that I have learned on my journey as a writer. Thank you for being on this blog challenge journey with me. Until next time!

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 34: The Last Word - Back Matter

About the Author

This may be the last paragraph in your book, but do not disregard its importance. The About the Author paragraph (or two) provides your reader a personal view into the person whose book they have just finished reading.

What should this paragraph entail? It is entirely up to you, but here are a few pointers to help you decide how to word your Author Bio:

1. Don't lie about yourself. This does not mean that you have tell all, but don't say things that are not true to make yourself sound more important or more educated.
2. Don't brag. It is all good and well that you have a PhD, but you can word it in such a way that people won't feel inferior to you when they read it. You want to come across as someone that your readers can relate to, PhD notwithstanding.
3. Share something that you are interested in. A hobby or two, or something that you like to do with your family.
4. Keep the bedroom door closed. While the sex lives of celebrities might be fascinating to the tabloids, you do not want to air your bed sheets in public. It is bad enough that the perception exists that any and all sex scenes in books are based on the writer's own experiences. It is not true for the majority of writers, but even if it is the truth in your case, refrain from mentioning that.
5. Since you are a writer, don't forget to mention something about how you got started, or what made you write your first story.
6. Keep it short. This is not the time for colourful prose and literary thoughts. Keep it under 200 words as far as possible.
7. Social media contact details. Add you four (maximum) best social media profile links of which one should be your blog or website. 

For print books a photograph can be added, but check the ebook requirements as some platforms may not allow another graphic aside from the cover to be part of the published files.

Cover Reveal: SEEKING REDEMPTION by Madhu Vajpayee

Book Blurb:  Story of a girl Meera, who is unwittingly drawn into a conflict from where she finds it difficult to emerge unscathed. It's her journey from being a simple, medical graduate belonging to a middle class family to the uncharted territories of corruption and caste based politics. Her path is crossed by the two men, both compelling yet completely contrasting characters, who are forever going to change her life. If it is Aman who can challenge her ideals and defy her resolves, and makes her the person she finally becomes, it is Abhay's sublime love which enables her to go through the vicissitudes of life. It's also the story of her loss as well as triumph against her own demons to find her true self.

Pre-order from Amazon

About the Author:

Dr.Madhu Vajpayee- the writer was born somewhere in those hospital corridors where she has spent the last two decades of her life. Witnessing life at such close quarters pushed her to capture its enigma in her words and slowly it became her passion. After writing several scientific papers and chapters in books, this book is her first step in literary world.  

Having done her graduation, MBBS from King Georges Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow she went ahead to pursue her post-graduation, MD from AIIMS, New Delhi. She was a consultant at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi having been associated with management of patients living with HIV/AIDS. She is now settled in Melbourne, Australia with her family, where she is devoting most of her time to writing, the passion that she couldn’t pursue earlier because of the demands of medical profession and commitment it requires.

When not creating stories, Madhu enjoys reading and travelling.

Contact the Author:

Blog * Facebook Page * Twitter * Goodreads 

35 Day Blog Challenge – Day 33: Does the Front Matter?

Photograph by Linzé

The front matter in a book is everything listed before the book starts at Chapter 1, excluding the cover. We will look at print books and ebooks separately since the front matter of these are not exactly the same.

Let’s start with the ever popular ebook. The first virtual page after the cover deals with copyright, publication info and details about the book itself: the title and the name of the author.

There is usually also a space to mention other books or a link to other books by the same author. This link is useful for your reader to see that there are more books on offer if he or she likes your book. If you added a link, make sure it is working correctly and the link takes the reader directly to a place where the books are. People don’t have the time or patience to go around clicking to find something they thought would be there at the first click.

Then follows the Table of Contents (ToC) with links to each chapter and the all important About the Author details. Your reader can skip things like a Dedication page, or Note from the Author at the start, and click the link to get reading immediately.

Make sure the links are all there, in case your reader are interested and would like to read your dedications or notes too. If you are using these pages, make sure they are spell and grammar checked. Just because they are not part of the story, doesn’t mean that they are not also a showcase for your writing.

In a printed book, there is an extra page in the front that usually only contains the title, the author’s name and the publisher’s name at the bottom of the page. This is the page where you as the author will autograph the book for a reader.

Printed fiction books do not have a ToC for a single story. Multiple stories published in a single book could have a ToC, but that is not a rule with all publishers.

Of course, printed books cannot have active links to other books by the same author, but it could be listed if it is not too long. Usually, a printed list of other books by the same author is included as part of the front matter, for information.

Often this list is accompanied by short reviews of each book to inform the reader on what other people thought about the stories, and tickle their interest in purchasing those books as well.

You can do the same for an ebook, but add a link in the ToC to Reviews so that the reader has a choice to skip them.

Tomorrow we will have a look at the Back Matter.

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 32: To Submit or Not to Try?

For some unknown reason, people are scared to enter writing competitions. I say why not? If you win you get all kinds of exposure, if not a publishing contract. And, it saves you the pain and sleepless nights of having to write a query letter, which seems to be worse than writing an actual novel. There is no pitching an agent or editor, or any of those worries about what they will think of you.

The competitions are judged anonymously, and you don't have to do anything except submit a story, long or short.

The downside is that most of the time they don't talk to you either, i.e. there is no feedback. Although there are competitions where feedback is provided, so even that one is no longer an excuse.

The only problem I have with submitting to writing competitions is timing. They always come at the worst times. Either because my next novel is not yet ready for a submission (not finished writing that is) or I don't have a short story on hand that fit the scope of the competition, or there isn't time to write a story, at least a decent one that is.

However, when the opportunity arises, there I go, boots and all! You never know what will happen. And if you don't submit, your chance of winning are zero. Yip, nothing. So grab that story, give it another edit, and submit it. You might be the next winner!

Pop around tomorrow for more mad mutterings on my Broomstick!

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?