The Month That's In It

This month is an important one for me. It's not that there are any big anniversaries or grand occasions worth celebrating, either. This month is the first month entirely free from having college work to do. And so, I'm taking advantage of it by defining my own life and how I spend it.

Since blogging so regularly in April proved beneficial for both my blog stats and my general ability to write on demand, I'm doing it again this month: every day, one post on this blog. I don't have a list of back-up ideas to work with. I don't have much to go on except for what I do each day. But I do have that: I have the days and what I do.

With that in mind, I can tell you two things that have also begun today: an attempt to write poetry every day for a month, and a new website.

The poetry is fairly simple, actually. I have a tendency to write poetry when I haven't written something on a particular day, so writing a poem every day isn't much different to how things turned out on repeated occasions over the past five months. This is also coming off the back of a poetry writing day(on Thursday) with some friends, for which writing poetry on demand was a necessary requirement to actually doing what I'd wanted to do.

I've already written today's poem, and though I plan to "perform" some of these poems on YouTube throughout the month, for now I'm keeping it quiet. I went for something more personal than I let myself write on Thursday, and I'm still unsure as to how exactly to share it with the world. It's now among over thirty poems I need to type up, too, so it could be a while before it sees the light of day.

The website that launched today is a fairly important one for me: ModernIrishMyth.com. I've pulled my flash fiction across to that site, and set it up so that over the next month or so I can add in some Behind the Scenes posts about the different myths and monsters in the stories. It's the home for the books that are due to pick up rather quickly. Balor Reborn has been out for some time, but between college, my research paper, The Jerry Davidson Show, teaching placement and exams, I haven't actually had a chance to go near The Hounds of Hell, beyond planning it.

That's all changing, and the new website is the start of it. My rather ambitious plan is to release a new book in the Modern Irish Myth series every month until they've all been published, bringing us as far as April 2014.   By May 2014, there will also be four collected editions of the series (books 1-3, 4-6, etc) in print edition, pending finances. It's going to be big, it's going to be exciting, and it's going to be a lot of work. But then, I'm not really doing much else with my time aside from writing like a mad man.

This month will also see the rise of another site, mid-way through, so keep an eye out for that. I'm effectively setting myself up make a full-time job out of this (though how much I earn depends entirely on how many books I sell!). I need to fill up my time with writing, or I'll really be feeling it in September when I don't start lectures again. Some people travel, some work full-time in the same job they've been working for three or four years, and while I'm still in the bookshop, weekends just don't cut it when you have five other days of the week to fill up.

This is the month that gets the ball rolling on a lot of different projects. I hope to see you around when these changes start happening.

Nothing to be Done

In January 1953, the first performance of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot hit Paris. In the absurdist play, a line is repeated over and over again: "Nothing to be done."

I can no longer use those words in relation to my "spare time". I drew up a list last night of all the different things I have to do. As far as I can far, only five of these things are public knowledge:

1. The Modern Irish Myth books.
2. The new website I hope to launch next month.
3. The book I mentioned in yesterday's post.
4. My exams.
5. Submitting a book to a publisher.

I have mentioned other things on the list to people I work with and friends who are writers, but there's not much revealed about the remaining six items I have on the list. They've been kept very much in the dark, because some depend on others. (One this month affects one that's listed for work to begin on in June, which affects two from June-onwards and one from August.)

So, secrets.

But that doesn't mean I won't be working on them. In fact, when I actually have an idea of how that one pivotal piece of work this month turns out, I'll probably be able to start announcing some of the items on this list.

As a result of having drawn up the list, though, I've revoked my permission to say that I have nothing to do, or to say that I'm bored. The list isn't even complete. One idea that isn't on it is something that will be slotted in based on when I'm free. And it occurs to me now that I haven't even scheduled writing a poem every day for a month, like I said I would do at some point.

Frankly, there's so much to do that if I ever say I don't have anything to do I'm just trying to avoid doing something. I'll have to redo my timetable with this list in mind, of course, but the key thing to remember is that despite all the times I've said I have nothing to do, I've just been putting off doing something. This is largely because of the writing guilt I mentioned last month. I'd feel weird writing a novel when I'm supposed to be studying for exams.

After exams, though, no excuses. I have six items per month after May (only two this month, including exams!) which means that if I only ever put in one day per week on them I'll still have a day off. A day per week doesn't actually seem like a lot when I start looking at the workloads involved in all of this, but some of these projects will take up more time than others.

Off the list, I still have a lot I can write about. Remember those topic cards I put together back in December for the New Year? They still exist. I haven't had to touch them in a while, because of the blogging every day in April, the writing poetry last minute, and the occasional bit of fiction (I can't wait to write fiction again!). But they've always been there. I could very well go through one of them a week and see what comes out (random selection and all that). I could make that a day's activity, if I wanted, to work on a topic card.

Basically, I have a lot to do, and no more excuses for not doing it.

Each project is different. There are novellas, a blog, a business-in-the-making, scripts, non-fiction books on a variety of topics, poetry, fiction and essays, enough to keep me writing for the next few years at least. Considering all the other books I have in mind that I want to write, I don't think I'll be stuck for something for a long time. Any one of these ideas is a lot to take on. Blending them together will be difficult. Overall, though, I think it'll provide the right level of stimulus to make sure that writing never becomes boring or repetitive.

Salvage

Today, my website exploded...

Too dramatic? Okay, let's dial it back a bit. It started last night when, out of curiosity, I search for my own website on Google. Actually, I searched for myself, but I knew my website should pop up in the results.

It did. With a warning. And I immediately knew why.

At some point, a bit of code attached itself to my website. I don't think it's especially malicious, except that it draws spam to the site, and tries to attach itself to links in the description on social media. On a couple of occasions I've had to actively removed the description to prevent the code displaying.

I searched through my site, but I could never find it.

Today, I decided to search everything. Everything. Unfortunately, beginning at my hosting site was probably the worst decision I could have made. It said I didn't have Wordpress installed. That made me worry, that maybe the code had done something. I clicked 'Install' through the host...and lost everything.

So, that sucked.

I panicked, I clicked 'Uninstall', it fixed nothing. In fact, I was left with literally nothing. Not even a Wordpress site without anything on it.

Damn.

I went to FileZilla. I tried fixing the site manually. Over an hour passed, no progress made. I panicked even more. I Googled everything I could think of to try fix it. Eventually, I decided to try add Wordpress to the site again. I downloaded the most up to date version, because my older files didn't seem to be doing anything.

And boom: the site was back. I still had my posts. I calmed down.

Except... well, I couldn't actually access any pages. And that damned code was still there. I could see popping up as my website got back on its feet, pages not loading quite so quickly as they should. I snarled. In my head, I snarled. I would get it yet, just as soon as the website was functioning.

Google, again. Getting annoyed. Permalinks, that was the answer. And dammit, I made it work. I made the damned thing work.

There was only one thing left to do: wipe that damn code off my site, once and for all.

I went to the Editor in Wordpress, reserved for editing the Theme. I didn't care: I knew what I was looking for. I had seen a word of the code pop up over and over again. I searched for it on every page in the Editor, and finally, there in the Header file, I found it: a massive block of text and HTML links, a beacon for spam bots, a paragraph to paste itself onto social media descriptions of posts from my website.

I killed the bugger, claimed back my site.

It's all calm now. The site isn't dangerous - never was - but that code was there. It was more of a bother for me than for anyone else. Want proof? Google have a diagnostic check: http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=paulcarrollwriter.com

It's all fine. Even back in  February it was fine, with the code on it. It wasn't malware, which was a relief to discover. It was just an annoying beacon.

I can stop being all dramatic about it, now, right?

How Can People Know Me?

My post on calling oneself an "aspiring author" received some positive feedback, which got me onto thinking: when an author drops the "aspiring", how do they get everyone else to look at them as an author, to know about them as an author? From experience, I know it's difficult to get noticed, even just to get people to see you as an author.

Thankfully, there are some options out there.

For me, telling someone who would care was an important step. This meant teachers. I think I only ever mentioned it to two of them, both English teachers, and word must have gotten around that I'd written a book. When I was in fifth year, a teacher I didn't have mentioned - to his class, of people in my year - that I had written a book. Suddenly, I was that guy.

That was before Twitter. It was before Facebook Pages. It was before Google+. I think it was even before I started blogging (if I remember when word got around, correctly.)

Now, things are simpler. What can you do to make yourself known as an author?

1. Set up a Twitter account. In your bio, make sure to mention that you are an author/writer. This worked for me in the early days of Twitter to get followers, because people like following users who are like them. I was a young writer, received a lot of encouragement for that fact, and it was impossible to deny that I was a writer. Follow other writers - and not just the famous ones - and get talking to them.

2. Set up a Facebook Page. This will be one of the easiest places for people to express a 'Liking' for you, if you'll excuse the pun. Having 'Likes' demonstrates your AUTHORity, to yourself and others. Invite your friends and family, and be sure to have a link to your Facebook Page somewhere people can see it.

3. Set up a Google+ Account. You can link this to your other Google accounts. Google+ makes it easy to be shared in others' Circles, and Hangouts allow you to talk directly to other writers.

4. Set up a Blog or Website. From here, you can provide valuable information about yourself and your writing, provide free stories and poetry, and keep people up to date with what's happening in your life. I use my blog, largely, to write about my personal life, though sometimes with posts like this that explore writing. My website has articles that have been researched to provide more informative posts, without so much of an insight into my personal life. It also contains stories and poetry, which help diversify what I share. My Friday Flash stories go up here.

If you publish something, or you want to, the next obvious step is:

5. Set up an Author Central Account, if you use Amazon's KDP. This will be where your books will be linked from, and where Amazon users can find out more about you. You can provide a video (the trailer for Balor Reborn in my case, as of writing this), set up a forum, write your bio, and add an author photo. It helps to use the same photo across a number of different sites.

You also have an optional couple of steps, depending on the sort of person you are:

6. Set up a LinkedIn Account. This is more of a "professional" social network, for connecting with people. The idea is to connect with people you know, and help others find people they might need to connect with for career or work opportunities. You should ensure to fill in your Skills, previous work experience, education, and other useful information that LinkedIn provides space for, as these not only allow people to find you, they help create a CV for you online. You can also be endorsed for Skills, and should endorse co-workers, teachers, clients and those you have hired (such as a graphic designer for your cover) in the appropriate areas.

7. Set up a YouTube Channel. If you can talk to a camera or make videos in some other way, and find it interesting and enjoyable, you have the opportunity to reach more people. You could keep a video blog, read poetry or short stories, upload book trailers, or create informative videos (as some examples). This can be linked to your Google+ and Blogger accounts, and provide links to your other Social Networking sites.

While there is no guarantee that any site will make you known as an author, it will help establish your author identity online. Getting involved in forums is also of benefit to you as a writer so long as you keep up with your writing, and make sure people know you are a writer (by having a link to your website in your signature, for example).

When it comes to "real life" (i.e. anything not online), you have the option of trying for events in a book shop, if you've published something and the shop will stock it (and remember, a shop does not have to stock your book just because it's been published), reading at public events, setting up a reading night (which works well for poetry), or seeking publication in magazines and/or newspapers for articles, poetry or short stories.

It's always beneficial to you as a writer to identify as one. If you don't, no one else will see you in that way. That's counter-productive to everything you could do to get your name out there.

But what about getting recognised? Follow this simple advice, and you'll be on your way:

1. Post often. People need to remember who you are.

2. Post something worth reading. If people enjoy it (for its entertainment value or its educational value), then they'll be more likely to (a) come back and (b) share it.

3. Interact with others. This can be difficult to do, especially if you're a busy person (as I tend to be while lectures are on in college), you should make sure to do a couple of things: respond to comments from others, set up something like Paper.li to share others' links, and make an effort to check in on sites at least once per week.

If you want, you can also:

4. Set up a newsletter on your website. This means you can have direct access to people's email addresses. You do have to write it, though, and having something to say could be difficult. Right now, I don't use mine as much as I should.

5. Set up auto-tweets if you can always sign in. Be careful about this, though. Many people don't like to see auto-tweets coming in all the time, because they don't get to know the person. I've tested them while I was in work one weekend, sharing quotes from authors about writing and life. The important thing is to check in when you're actually around to talk to people, and remember #3: respond to people's replies. I know I received a couple, because the quotes were amazing. You don't have to tweet quotes, but links aren't favourable. Try poetry or (very) short stories, instead, if you want to provide something interesting for people while you're away. (Social Oomph is useful and free for setting up auto-tweets.)

If/when you become a published author - either by having a book published by someone else, or by publishing yourself - make sure people know where to get it. However, don't saturate social media with links to your book. It's always beneficial to write free material in the same area you publish in, too, if you're trying to get others to notice your book, and to use promotions on whichever site you're using to publish.

In every case - every social network - you should have a bio that tells people who you are. Be informative, semi-formal, but aim to be funny or quirky, too. People like something that will make them smile. It's more difficult to do that on Twitter, but with other sites you have more space to talk about yourself and your writing.

Remember: get to know other writers, other readers, and demonstrate a real interest in what people have to say. Let them know who you are, what you're up to, and what you're feeling, and be consistent about it. Respect the people you connect with online. And never forget to show that you're a writer.

Learning to be a Writer

You might be wondering by that title if, perhaps, I left that a little bit too long. However, I find it's never too late to learn - to really learn. Since I got out of college after exams, I've been working on learning new ways to develop myself. As far as the actual writing aspect of my life goes, I think I've gotten to a point where I can't really get away with calling myself terrible. As far as getting a lot of writing done, I'm an on-and-off success.

But that's only one part of being a writer. Aside from the quality and quantity of words I produce, there's the way in which I share them that has always been a weak spot for me. I'm not afraid to admit that, because it's the truth. So I took up a study in another aspect of being a writer: business.

For me, it started with marketing. I read a book about it, and got a lot of advice from some people in the industry. It helped to build a foundation of understanding, onto which I could then add more knowledge. Since then, I've started watching webinars and video presentations on this, to develop the business side of my writing career.

I should point out: this isn't an Indie Author thing. Just because I plan on self-publishing certain titles doesn't mean that's all I'm restricting myself to, and this learning isn't just for that aspect of my writing life. Authors who go down the traditional route still need to learn to manage themselves as if they were working in a business, albeit the best business in the world. (Maybe not financially, but I think you get my point - writing is awesome!)

As part of this learning process, I've been introduced to some amazing thinkers and I've developed a few new ideas for non-fiction books. My aim isn't to get rich from this. I want to help writers - new ones especially - who want to learn more about their trade. This isn't just the craft side, but the business side as well. Admittedly, the latter will take some time to develop towards, given my limited understanding of it, but that's the point of my website: to teach.

With that, I should point out something I've added to the website: a video. It's the first of what will become a series of videos and associated products, aimed towards writers. The first video, 5 Essentials for Writers, went live yesterday, accompanied by an exclusive document on website creation. If you're serious about being a writer go to this page: http://paulcarrollwriter.com/5-essentials-for-writers/

When you're there, watch the introduction video, or move on to the full video for free - all you have to do is enter your email address in the box beneath the video where it says 'Subscribe!'

You'll get a confirmation email about the newsletter. Click on the activation link and you'll be brought to a page with a password and a link. Highlight the password and copy it (either by right-clicking on the highlighted word and clicking on 'Copy', or by holding on Ctrl and pressing C) then click on the link.

There will be a password box on that page. Paste the password (again, right-click in the box and select 'Paste' or click in the box, hold on Ctrl again and press V.) You'll then have immediate access to the full length video, 5 Essentials for Writers and a free PDF file Setting Up A Website With Wordpress.com. It's a step-by-step guide that makes it easy for you to have a professional looking website, all for free. It's helpful for everyone, too, not just writers, and works mostly in the same way with Wordpress.com as it would with Wordpress.org. (If you don't understand the difference, that's okay - Wordpress.com is perfectly fine for websites.)

It's that simple, and it's the started of the journey for both you and I. I aim to release new material like that every month, aimed at different aspects of being a writer - from the creative to the business to the psychological. You simply need to stay signed up to the website.

I anticipate an average maximum of four emails a month (newsletter, new download availability, micro-surveys to develop new material for you and product release - you have no obligation to buy, either!). Given my own limited schedule, I don't think I even have time to send more than that. You can be sure, though, that everything I send will be relevant to the journey of learning.

It doesn't get easier than that to start learning more about your business and helping me pick up on what you want to know about.

If there's anything you're really curious about that you want to learn more about, leave a comment below. I'll pick a couple of comments for next month's free release and video, added to the list of ideas I already have growing on Google+ and Facebook.

Good luck on your writing journey. Together, we can go somewhere.

The Rest of My Life

As of last night, my undergraduate Research Paper is now an existing thing. The first meeting with the moderator is next week, I have to get my ideas all together in advance for that, and it's going to follow me about for the next seven or eight months. I'm going to be honest, it's a long time since I spent so long writing one thing. I've never written something academic that's worth as much as this one paper.

What's more is that this paper, once completed, represents me in the college. And worse, when it's done I'll be almost half-way through my final year in college. That's where this post comes in.

I'm on the final steps towards facing the rest of my life. I might go and do a Masters, but I couldn't tell you what I'd do. Chaplaincy maybe. Or Counselling. I'm not sure. Maybe even Creative Writing, but I already know that's not a sure-fire way to get published.

And that's the thing: I want to get published. I want that to be how I make a living. Right now I feel like I'm too young to be in a classroom from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. I'm too young to face a few hundred people every day and try to get a message through to them under the pretence of Mr Carroll. I'm just not that person. Not yet, anyway.

I still want to teach. That much will never change. But how I teach is a different story. I wrote up a big list of things I'm interested in that I've covered in college, and so far I'm looking at over a dozen different things I would like to write about. You know, academically. Or, at the very least, informative. I want the writing to be accessible, not something you would quote in an essay or article. For me, it's more important that people can read about the topics and understand them. That has to come first, or I'm not doing it properly.

As well as that, I want to teach creative writing. I know I'm not published, but I do have a lot more experience than some people do. In particular, since it would be a course for beginners, I would have more experience than everyone in the room. (It's what happens when you've been writing for seven years and been mentored unofficially for at least three of those years by a number of people online.)

Then, you know, there's my own creative writing. Fiction, poetry, plays. I just want to keep writing, to get published. That's how I want to make a living. I have dozens of stories in my head, all flying about untamed and unwritten, and if it weren't for the aforementioned Research Paper and the college hours that go along with it, I'd be writing full time by now. I plan to, in the summer. I need to get that experience, and I need to be doing it for money.

That's not a greed thing. That's a genuine need. I can't spend the next eighteen months sitting at home writing for nothing to find that come graduation I'm still only working weekends in a bookshop. It would drive me insane.

I need to change my life, and it starts now. It has to, or I'll keep putting it all off.

It's time to face the rest of my life, before college ends and I'm dropped in the deep end with a stitch in my side and nobody around to stop me sinking.

Life and the World to Come

Way back in July, I made a few decisions that would, inevitably, change the way I lived my life. Almost five months have passed since I made the choice to do a massive writing challenge to finish Bliss's Camp NaNo 50K. That, in itself, wasn't massively life-changing, except that it made me realise how much I could do if I stopped messing about, and if I put aside whatever was happening in my life that might distract me from my work.

In that same week, I made the decision to set up a website - which I worked on from then until the middle of September, when I launched the site. That involved a lot of planning, of course, and a lot of mulling over what would eventually end up on my site on Day 1. Over the next month and a half, I edited Stepping Forward, fixing up a novella I was already pretty happy with to give away for free.

That's been the first big change in my life: I now have a book out in the public domain.

The website has, since, been host to a number of articles, poems and short stories. While these haven't exactly changed my life, they have gotten me thinking about the different ways I live my life, and the way in which I write. I also decided to use the website to play host to a couple of projects in the New Year, one of which is an X-Men story I've been planning for some time. (I've checked, and given the fact that Marvel pick up writers and stories from self-published works - and that's the only way they will now consider someone new - I am perfectly within my rights to release this story as I see fit.) That one doesn't have any immediate effects on my life, though it will at least encourage me to stick to creative deadlines.

The other project is an adaptations ezine, which will help me (a) hone my critical writing and (b) review books, films and the adaptation process. Again, no immediate effect, but it will involve, once again, sticking to deadlines.

Aside from my website, I also decided to apply for a writing position at The Phantom Zone. While the rush of college work has stopped me writing for the site in some time, I still have this job. More than that, I still have my first ever writing job. It was something for me to be proud of.

In the two months that followed, I wrote and edited a play, The Rest is Silence. This is where things took another big turn: as a result of this play, I'm going to have something performed on-stage. More than that, it will, hopefully, raise some money for a worthwhile cause.

At the same time, I've set up an ezine in college, which has gotten someone else writing. He's a good friend of mine, and he's decided to put his quirkiness to good use. The immediate benefit for me? I can have a good laugh reading his blog when I'm stressed; he has all of these really funny observations and stories that aren't as noticeable in a group of ten (yes, there are ten of us... we're a bit of a mob.) It's also fun to be able to talk about writing with someone who's only just started to think of it as having potential to be more than a hobby.

The driving force behind a lot of this work was an old friend of mine. Whether I was trying to make him proud or merely using that as an excuse to make myself do something with my life, I mustered up the courage to finally put my name out there. As I said in my dedication in Stepping Forward, he taught me there's more to life than just existing. No matter what happens between us, I will always remember that I was too scared to do any of this on my own. Having a reason to get going has made the past few months some of the best of my life.

That's the immediate effect of knowing him; after so many years writing, and so many years living the same mundane life, I ceased to just exist. As a result of that friendship, I started to live.

One Week In

So, I'm a week into the website, and a week into college. Well, third year of college. That makes me feel older. A lot older. The past two years have gone by so quickly, and so much has changed since then. But that's a story for another day.

So, the website hasn't had much added to it since the novella excerpt, the short story, the poems, the articles and the Doctor Haik-Who. I've added two more haiku and one more poem, but right now the list of new material on the site is lacking. This will change, over time. There will most definitely be more short stories over the next few months. For the time being, I'm trying to get a couple of them submitted to different publications. Others will find their way directly online. That's just the way it is.

Quick question though: what genre of story would people like to read?

1. Fantasy? (Including Urban Fantasy)
2. Science Fiction? (Including Speculative Fiction and Superhero Fiction)
3. Horror? (Including Dark Comedy - something that should both make you laugh and disturb you a little)
4. General fiction? (Like the story already on the website, Dear World)

Cast your vote for the genre of your choice and I'll write the story. Voting closes September 29th. I have a few ideas, so I'll just go with whatever people want to read with this one. (Vote in the comments below, please. You don't need a Blogger account to do so.)

Poems and articles will find their way to the website more easily. Some articles will require a lot more effort than others, so they will take a little bit longer to write, but they will make it there!

As for college... When did it get so tiring? This further emphasises the pain of feeling older. In first year, I was able to sit through lectures quite easily. Now I'm struggling to stay awake. While I have all 10am starts (much better than a 9am start!), I'm also in quite late. The earliest I'm off, aside from Fridays, is 4.30pm. But then other days I have lectures until 6pm. We haven't even started with clubs and societies yet!

I think my main issue is my sleeping pattern. I'm staying up too late, even if I still go to bed relatively early. My other issue is laziness. Fact.

It's been a good first week, back, though. While I haven't been able to talk to some people as much as I'd wanted to, I've survived our first assignment (that felt like homework...) and I'm very happy with the optional modules that I got. I'll be off to France for a few days later in the year for one of them! How cool is that?

Of course, everything will get even busier once the second week starts, but with the way everything is timetabled, it'll be Christmas before we know it! Which is frickin' scary, on account of Teaching Practice in January. Before I know it, then, it'll be my birthday and I'll definitely be old! (Or, eh, old enough to legally drink in the US...)

A good first week overall, for the website and college. I'm hoping more people will find their way to the website, soon, though. I think it's getting lonely. For now, cast your vote for the story and if you have time, download the sample chapters of Stepping Forward! I'm looking for reviews! There may even be a competition in that, sometime soon!

Website is a Go!

My website is launched! It can be found here: http://paulcarrollwriter.com

It's been a relatively long road. Well, six weeks. I decided, at the very end of July after finished Camp NaNoWriMo, to set up a website. The idea was simple: I would write articles on the website, I would post short stories and poems, and that would be that. I would run it through Wordpress.com.

That's how it started. I set up a Wordpress.com account, and I got things on the roll. Then I thought, I could run other things through this! And that's what I will be doing. I have ideas in place, some of which will appear sooner than others, that will be ad supported. I'm not a fan of ads on my own personal space, which is what this blog and the main part of the website will be, but when it comes to these other ideas, ads will be fine.

But that's way into the future (in one case, but not necessarily another). For now, I've got a set list of features on the website.

It functions like a blog, categorised and organised neatly so that it represents the two sides to how I work: with my head and with my heart. The "head" work is the articles under Writing Advice. The advice ranges from (very) basic legal advice to the basics of writing that I picked up over the years to a guide to what I call 50K in 30 Days, which is essentially NaNoWriMo. I've done it enough to know how to do it properly, and my "win" this summer in the Camp version was the final piece of encouragement I needed to try help people do it too. First drafts are important.

The "heart" work, then, is the Writing Samples section. This includes short stories, poems and Doctor Haik-Who. The last one is for a bit of fun and variety. I have specific niche talents and especially nerdy hobbies, and if I hide that fact from the world I'd be lying through my teeth (or fingers...).

Two ideas I have for expanding on what I offer the world - the ad based things I mentioned - also play on the "head" and "heart" of my writing. One will be an article site, the other a fiction based site, both attached directly to my website. For now, they will remain hidden (though I think some people can already guess the fiction based site!).

Combining the "head" and the "heart" is the Free Downloads section. I'll be adding downloadable pieces to the website through this section. Already there are opening chapters from a novella I wrote in Summer 2010, called Stepping Forward. I won't even attempt to explain it to you. The .PDF file features the opening five chapters, which should give you a pretty good idea of what the book is about, without giving away too much! It's short, of course, being a novella, but it's a fun book as far as I'm concerned! It didn't bore me in the editing process, anyway, and I normally can't stand to look back on things I've written!

There will be other things added to this section of the website, which you can find out about through my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages (links in the sidebar!), as well by checking out the News section, part of About. This About section has an author bio (er... my bio), the News section and a Writing Progress section. That last one is just a short page on what I'm working on. It's generally for larger projects than, say, my latest article for The Phantom Zone.

Aside from that, though, the website is like any other, right? I mean, the Free Downloads section isn't on every website, but it's not unique. I wanted this to be a new type of experience. Yes, there are plenty of ways to get in touch with me that make me a little more accessible than some authors, but I wanted to personalise my website more. So I set up a Skype account.

Yes, Skype.

In the sidebar of my website, you'll see three buttons. The first is to add me to your contacts list. I will generally accept all requests. The second button is to see my status - you'll know when I'm online just by looking at my website. The third button is to call me. It's as simple as that.

This enables people to meet the author! I'm not published, but I've seen lots of people who aren't published and who have websites and one thing you can't do is meet them unless you know them. I've spoken to dozens of authors online, but rarely face-to-face! I want to give people that option. My face is already on the website, so I don't have to worry about that aspect of it. And I only have to appear online when I'm free to talk. It's as simple as that.

One last thing about the downloads, though. They're free, but they're password protected. The passwords will be available on the website. The point isn't to stop people accessing the writing, but to stop spambots accessing it easily. I figured this was the best way to do it. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully you think it's worth it!

So there it is, my website is launched and ready to go. I hope you enjoy it, and feedback is appreciated!

Once More With Feeling

The past couple of days have been... well, different. Finally getting a chance to talk to somebody (albeit only through Facebook mail), we came to a conclusion that for the time being we need space. There's too many things that need to settle before we can really talk properly, again, but it didn't feel like I'd lost a friend. I don't think I did, anyway. We've done this before, but this time it's really necessary. Yes, I was upset when it happened, but once I calmed down... well, I've been happy. It feels right, this space between us - we set it up, it didn't just happen badly and for no reason. Things didn't end.

To keep myself busy, last night, I started to edit a novella I wrote last summer called Stepping Forward. I'd planned to edit the first three chapters, but I discovered that when the time came to do it they were much shorter than I anticipated! So I just kept on working. And working. And working. And I finished editing the book.

I'd been fairly happy with the first draft, when I wrote it, and the one person that actually read it (the friend mentioned above) liked it, so when I finally tidied it up I was delighted! It's been over a year since I wrote it, first, and in the space of a single night I got the finished book together! I will probably be doing a cover for it at some stage, as I'm wont to do, but for now I'm calling that book finished!

This morning, I then wrote a scene of The Rest is Silence. I have a lot of work to do on that play, but my ideas for it are exciting. This morning's scene was probably one of the more challenging ones... though there are still some major things to happen that will require a lot of emotional energy from the actors! I hope they get what the play's about!

To bring the day to a close, I made a banner for my website. As I write this, there's a badly-done version sitting on the website. The lovely Lisa Sills is redoing it for me, and the results so far are great! I can't wait until I have something to show the world as being my official banner for my website. Sure, I didn't do the finished piece, but the idea behind its design was mine! People have given it some good feedback, so clearly I did something right.

Between now and Sunday, I have to finish up with everything on the site - that means hosting, a domain name, the finished banner and getting it all set up properly. It's going to be an exciting few days. The plan is to release the website on Sunday, when people will have access to everything I've been working on the past month and a half. This is my gateway into the world wide web, going beyond what I've ever set up. All the little bits and pieces of my life are coming together on this site.

Feedback on everything will be greatly appreciated! Until then... my thanks go out to:

• Rebecca Woodhead, for her advice in everything I've done of late. This is both advice she's given me personally and things she's written about in Writing Magazine. I couldn't have done this without her.
  
• Lisa Sills, for her help in the banner and her continued support in this project.
  
• The aforementioned friend, for everything before this website. I couldn't have put together so much if there wasn't someone out there who made me feel like it was worth it. No one else continually gave me the encouragement to write and to be myself like he did, without greed, malice or spite. The very last thing he said to me was the final bit of encouragement I needed.
  
• The friends who continually make me happy; the smartest girl in college who I can tell pretty much anything, the comic book girl who gets my little eccentricities, the Ninjas who make me laugh even when being in a bad mood is easier and the long-time friends I kept from secondary school who never fail to offer new and interesting insights into the world, none of whom have even begun to bore me after all these years!

This website is everything I could want it to be; parts of it were put together with my head, and parts of it were put together with my heart. Sometimes I fail to use either one of them, but not in this case. This feels like something has finally been done correctly.

Deadlines Approaching!

My website is, hopefully, being launched on September 11th. I have a lot of stuff to do between now and then, but I chose the date for one reason and one reason only: it's the day before I go back to college. I want to have the website up and running with content to view (and share?) before then, but I'd be too pushed for time to try get everything done before then.

Because I slacked a little the past couple of days, I have to play catch-up on my workload. I've got to write four scenes of The Rest is Silence, which will be no small feat, and that's only one of the many things I have to do. Thankfully it's also the only explicitly creative goal for the day, the rest being website work, editing, etc.

I have to finish editing a short story - the first short story that will be going on my website. That's my primary concern, because I don't want that section to be blank when I launch. The story is called Dear World, but I can't tell you much more about it without spoiling it. It's something I hope people like, that they can maybe connect to, but that I mainly wrote upon seeing a publication opportunity. It wasn't accepted, but then I didn't really believe it would be. I still like the story, though, so I'm posting it online. I just don't believe in posting on a website someone else set up. This is my baby, so it's staying in my house.

Once that's all done, I have to get some poems selected for the launch of the site. I'm not the best poet in the world, but some of the stuff I've shown people has been liked, so I'm going to share it through the website. I sometimes write with particular people in mind, other times I find the connection with a person after it's written. (Classic example in my novel Meet Sam was realising how much like Nick a friend from college was, who I didn't meet until ten months after the novel was written!)

To finish off my day, I have to type up articles for the website. I have five categories for non-fiction on the website, and each one needs a piece written in it by launch day. Of course, I need more pieces to post in the future, which is where next week's workload comes in. I have to write more articles, edit something, get more poems ready, and work on the banner. Still working that one out, mind you!

See, I have deadlines for a lot of stuff. All the basics for the website need to be ready by the 11th at the latest, but preferably the 10th. My play, The Rest is Silence, needs to be written, typed and edited by the time college starts back on the 12th. I'm not in until the afternoon, but I don't want to be working on it, then. I have a deadline list, and the play needs to be finished so I can write my novels throughout the college year, while continuing to work on the website and for The Phantom Zone, and then I'll get into the heavy planning stage of my X-Men story that I've been talking about on Twitter and Facebook; that needs to be planned in some details by December 10th.

I might be mad with the amount of work I'm taking on, but I wholly believe it's possible to do all of this. And hey, there's a reason I chose December 10th - Christmas break! I will finally be able to collapse, then, after a tiring first semester! (I'm not entirely sure of the date I'm off, but that's my deadline, anyway!) In the meantime, I have to get a lot of other stuff ready, before I even go back to college. I don't think I'll ever stop working, you know that? It's like I'd heard on the radio, and mentioned a short while ago, a professional does the work even when he doesn't feel like it. Thankfully I happen to know some amazing people who will make the winding-down periods in my life so much better!

A Pottermore Experience

I've spent a bit of time on Pottermore today, after I was given the go-ahead to enter yesterday. At first, I was unimpressed. Actually, that's the understatement of the century: Pottermore sucks when you first enter. You have no wand, no house, nothing to do and no one to talk to, and it's all very boring. The only thing to do is to follow the story and read about a few different things, but otherwise it's the most useless thing in the world.

Nothing at all good happens until you reach Diagon Alley and get to buy some things. You follow Harry's buying path, meaning the wand is last. The wand is the first thing that makes Pottermore fun, to be honest. Following a series of questions, I was assigned my official wand of wizardry: ten and three-quarter inches, alder, slightly springy and with a unicorn core. I was really rather happy about this. There's more info on the Pottermore site about the different cores and woods used, and for the first time the website adds something extra to the Harry Potter world: detailed information on the very basic tool all witches and wizards carry with them, and a first-time glance at some of the secrets behind their maker.

Once you visit Diagon Alley, you're also able to brew potions. My advice: use the free test run to give it a try, but then wait until later when potions will earn you house points. I don't know whether or not the potions you make before house assignment (if you can even do it!) will count towards your score.

Come Chapter Seven, you get into a house. Again, questions are asked and it's a little more interactive again. Plus, you know, you get into a house. Nevermind the questions: now you can boast about being in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, cause panic about being in Slytherin or hide the fact that you're in Hufflpuff (kidding!). What house am I in?

Um... rawr?

So, I'm in Gryffindor. It's fun knowing that, and while it doesn't change the experience of Pottermore, suddenly I'm a part of something bigger than just myself along on this little island in the midst of the seemingly great Pottermore. Also, you know, Dumbledore was in that house and he's friggin' awesome. (Along with Harry and whatnot... but let's face it, Hermione and Neville really are the best people in the house!)

What I have yet to experience is a wizardry duel, and with a lack of any lessons on how to do this I remain pulled back into the story. I'm enjoying the idea of reading along to the "moments" in the book that are highlighted on the website, so it'll take me a while to get through it all, but it's allowed me to rediscover the wonderful storytelling in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It's not just the magic: there is genuine humour in this book that I might have missed as an excited child waiting for the climax and possibly skipping sentences to get through the book quicker.

That's what Pottermore really has to offer for older fans, like myself: a chance to rediscover the books, if they're put them down for a few years (yes, years!)

The website doesn't open to the public officially until October, so it's still in the Beta testing stage. But it will be worth it, in a way, when people start flooding in. Just be a little patient in the beginning: it will be boring, but  it gets better. The novelty of wands and houses really does add to the excitement a bit. Also, I've got this lovely boil removal potion brewing at the moment. It requires my attention, soon. When I discover some more of the magic of Pottermore - and I hope it doesn't end at novelty - I'll add a brand new post for that. And who knows, mayhaps I'll make some friends on the site!

Recent Developments

It's weird to think that in a matter of days I've gone from being a Twitter user and a blogger to having a website in development, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. What's weirder is the even more recent development: I've offered my services to help people set up websites of their own through wordpress.com. For free. So long as I know the person and can arrange a time with them to put together the website as they want it to be from what's available, I'll do it. I won't supply content - the stuff that makes up the website - but I will do the actual putting together of the website.

It wasn't that I had intended to do it, but when I realised that it might come in handy for some people and that I could get it done pretty quickly for them, it made sense to help. I've already started referring to them as clients (actually, I've been saying "clients" all day, inverted commas included, because that's just the closest word to what actually describes them.) To make things even more frighteningly professional, I've started to make appointments for my "clients".

So far I have two to do in September (this will be after my website has launched, so they'll have a few days to see the finished product before finalising on all of their choices). I won't say who they are just yet, but I'll be linking to their websites when they go online. I also plan on giving a crash course in marketing to them, if they're interested, since I'll be right there with them. It's all optional and entirely free of charge. The only thing they'll ever have to pay for is the optional stuff offered by wordpress.com. I don't believe in making money from my friends with something like this, because really all I'm doing is saving them time. The websites are just put together using the basic functions on wordpress.com.

What makes this service helpful is that I actually have experience with wordpress.com. I've used a few times over the years for different projects. I'm fairly handy with it. I may as well save people some time by setting this up for them. It'll look professional but it will have required little effort for myself or my "clients".

The reason I'm mentioning this is to offer the service to anyone whom I know personally. It took me a day to set up my website (it doesn't look like much right now, but that's because the actual technical stuff has already been done to hide the website that's been made - it's a magic trick.) And I mean a whole day with tips from somebody else to guide me along the way, having already used wordpress.com before. I know that I could do it all in the space of a couple of hours again, and all I need is the content to add to it.

So, if you want a website and if I know you (especially or even if you're still in the same college as me), drop me an email using the Contact button on my website (use the red P button in the right-hand sidebar to get there) and let me know. It's advisable for bands/musicians, writers, illustrators, photographers, actors and, if they're interested, societies in college. I'll gladly help. I'll be putting together a check-list of things for websites so that people can see what choices they have to pick from from wordpress.com. And remember, it's all free.

Also, if you read this far, I can reveal what my exciting announcement from yesterday was: I'm now an official writer for thephantomzone.co.uk. I can't wait to get started with it properly!

The Bank Holiday Weekend

In Ireland, there's a certain air of excitement for some people when it comes to the bank holiday weekend. I think for most it's the day off and the extra chance to drink. I remained entirely sober this weekend (the weekend includes Mondays on these occasions, if you don't know already) but that didn't stop me having a good time. For once. Only that I had the time off work did I actually enjoy myself.

There's been some excitement for me over the past three days. To begin with, I got my 50K written by Saturday. That ended a massive writing spree that left me exhausted, but the weekend had only just begun. So I did the only thing I knew how to do: I started a new project. My novel isn't finished, of course, and I will return to writing it shortly, but I had some stuff to do.

Badge for my website!

Sunday saw the rise of my website. There's a fanciful link to it in the sidebar. I've written quite a bit of content for it already, but that's for the grand launch in a few weeks' time. But that story's already been told.

Today, I set up more sites to link to the blog. My official Facebook page was first to show up to the world. I was reluctant to set one up, because I thought it might seem pretentious, but Rebecca Woodhead set me straight. It's now there - and linked to in the sidebar - and thanks to the support from Rebecca, it's gotten over 25 likes already! It doesn't look like much, but I'm delighted. I'll be using it to ask daily questions (or at least only one question a day) and to link people to the articles and other content I post on my website.

To follow up on that, I set up a LinkedIn profile. This one terrified me. While a website was a handy way of spreading content that wasn't all just me-me-me, and a Facebook profile was something I was used to from experience, a LinkedIn profile is so much more. It's the professional side of my website, but in social network form. If you don't know already, it's where professionals go to meet and exchange contacts and connections and it's all extremely terrifying when you don't feel as if you belong. I'll see where it takes me.

The real fun of the BHW is something I'm not even sure I can tell people about yet. It's extremely geeky and exciting, and so far only four people know about it - two of them being my parents! Hopefully I can make that announcement soon. When I can, it'll be on my Google+ account, Twitter and Facebook, with an update in my positions on LinkedIn. Blimey, I feel so professional with all of this going on, now! I'm geeking out!

Website in the Making

For the past couple of weeks, I've been annoying people on Twitter and Google+ (still amazing) about what they like to see on writers' websites. When most of the people who read my posts didn't answer, I decided to follow Rebecca Woodhead's advice in Writing Magazine and draw up a rough plan for a website. Her article also demonstrated the use of some of Wordpress.com's features to make a website look great and professional.

While the site is still under construction, you can see it by clicking here. I've spent the day working out how to build the website and still hide it from view, and the result is what you see. I've already posted two articles on the site for the grand launch, but they won't be viewable to the public until that time. I've got a bunch of ideas I need to work on before I can do that, of course, but I've got most of the tools I need to do that already. There are some things, like the banner, that need more work than the rest, but overall I'm looking at maybe six weeks before I launch (yes, conveniently right before I go back to college... I wonder why that is. *cough* bragging rights *cough*)

I can't reveal the exact contents of my website just yet (don't want anybody stealing my good ideas!) but I can say that it won't just be about me. The content will all be mine, yes, but it won't be just about me. I think that's bound to make it more interesting to people who haven't heard of me (subtract about 1500 from the population of the Earth). I'm hoping this website will be set apart from others I've seen; yes it will look quite a bit like many websites and blogs, given that it's hosted on Wordpress.com and using one of their templates, but it will have the small touches that I hope will be unique to my site. I've been thinking about them for some time, and to date only one person knows about my big secret to go on the blog.

What I'm still looking for is suggestions about what to include. What makes a personal website personal but doesn't make it a blog? I'll still be here, writing away on Blogger (even have a fancy button to send people here!). The website is going to be for news and announcements and the more professional side of my writing life. While that feels extremely weird to put into words, it's exactly what I want, and I'm getting excited for the launch already.

But before I launch, I need to set up a couple of things - only one person knows the specifics of one of them - and I need to get a proper banner designed and ready to upload. I also have one final goal: have something in each of the categories on the blog. I don't want it to be bare when I launch. There'll be things for people to read, to comment on, to (hopefully) enjoy, and they can't just be trickling online slowly while the headings go to waste. Everything needs to be online and ready to go for when I make the switch from one menu (the one that currently only says "coming soon") to the finished site, complete with all sorts of posts divided by category to make it so much easier to follow.

Also, if you're wondering about the "g" stuck write in the middle of the website's address, it's for my middle name. Or I can say it's a special effect. Or that Google has stamped its identity into my existence. You pick one. Mainly I just want suggestions about what people would like to see on the website.