Tag Archive for: #amnotwriting

The journey of a reluctant author by Dru Ann Love

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So, what happens when you collaborate with your friend and your short story is published?

You become a first-time published author and you enjoy the accolades from readers, friends, and fans.

Then our short story is nominated not once, not twice, but three times for a variety of upcoming awards.

  • First, our short story won the Agatha Award at Malice Domestic convention.
  • Then it won the Anthony Award at Bouchercon convention.
  • Lastly, it won the Macavity Award given by Mystery Readers International.

Now I am a first-time-published award-winning author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what is supposed to happen? I get queries as to when will I write the next short story? Again, reluctant author here.

But I did write a flash fiction (short story under 1,000 words) and submitted it to three places and all three rejected the story, nicely and one even gave me critique on how to improve it.

Now what do I do? I really don’t have it in me to write a short story that is at least 5,000 words all by myself. I really didn’t have it in me to write the 500 words I wrote for my flash fiction. But I did. One never knows.

I’ll just bask in the glow of winning three awards on my first time out. And wish my co-author, Kristopher Zgorski, congratulations on on writing two new short stories for two different anthologies—one available now, and one publishing next March—and his next goal of writing a full-length novel. Yay Kristopher!!

Have you felt reluctant?

Clicking Our Heels – Distractions!

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Are you easily distracted? Is so, by what? Here’s what distracts us:

Robin Hillyer-Miles – Social media.

Saralyn Richard – Social media can take me off of a plot line faster and longer than anything else.

T.K. Thorne – Questions like this. Lol, just kidding. Other stuff on my computer—email, FB, trying to stay up with news, but really I think it is the desire to get those things “out of the way” before concentrating on writing.  Then somehow, it is nighttime. I need to work on that.

Shari Randall/Meri Allen – Everything! I usually write in a room with lots of windows, and I am the Gladys Kravitz of my neighborhood. Every dog walker, delivery truck, or bicyclist catches my eye. But when deadlines approach, I have to put myself in “writer jail.” Writer Jail means a carrel in the library. No distraction = deadlines met.

Bethany Maines – Social media! Sometimes I’ll put my phone on Do Not Disturb and then move it further away from me. I also got logged out of Facebook on my laptop (my primary writing device) and have consciously never logged back in, which has saved me on multiple occasions. And yes, I could log back on, but I would have to go look up my password and it’s so much easier to not to do that. So laziness is working for me in this instance.

Kathryn Lane – My biggest distraction from writing is the research I do for my novels. Although it’s part of my writing process, I enjoy it so much that I over-research. And I know it, but it also motivates me to write.

Mary Lee Ashford – Hands down, social media and mostly Facebook. I so enjoy hearing what everyone else is up to and chatting with friends near and far. I love seeing people’s dogs and cats, hearing about their travels, or celebration. And then pretty soon an hour has passed. What I have to do is log on first thing in the morning with my coffee in hand and let myself be “social” for a bit. Then I have to move to a different device and get busy with writing. With a break for lunch or a water or coffee refill, I check in on what’s going on but I really have to limit my social media time to before or after writing.

Anita Carter – streaming a British mystery show.

Lois Winston – Life in general and a retired husband, not necessarily in that order!

Barbara Eikmeier – Sewing. I sew every day because I have a lot of sewing deadlines for my day job. If I wrote as much as I sewed I’d be a very prolific writer!

Debra H. Goldstein – Life. There’s always something unexpected!

Linda Rodriguez – At this stage of my life, physical illness and pain. It’s been different at other stages.

Donnell Ann Bell – At this point I can honestly say my 89-year-old mother. She’s in transition from her home into assisted living. I’m doing a lot of travel back and forth.

Dru Ann Love – Since I’m not a writer, my biggest distraction from working on my blog is being sick or having something more important to do.

Gay Yellen – My very patient husband and our life together.

Lynn McPherson – My big fluffy dog doesn’t like to be ignored.