Why Am I Not Following Ryan Seacrest on Instagram and Other Great Mysteries of Life

So, my phone is one useful smart tool.  I use it to call people, text people, check my e-mail, check Facebook, check Twitter, check Goodreads, check Instagram, pin stuff on Pinterest, oh, and read on my Kindle, Nook, or Kobo platforms.

It's a handy-dandy little device that I couldn't live without at this point.  That was proven this past year when I had to change phones and, AAACCKK, my appointments I'd saved to my calendar didn't transfer.  You see, one way I've learned to battle ADD is to put reminders in my phone and to set alerts with alarm bells so that I don't forget appointments or items on the old To-Do list.

I even schedule my own deadlines for my writing, and trust me, that's an important way for me to keep up with making progress.  And let me tell you, if I didn't have my phone, I wouldn't remember half of what I manage to remember.  Does that make sense?  It is a key to managing my life and paying attention to the details my brain just can't seem to hold on to.

Oh, and I'm under the impression that if you don't have time to keep up with all the celebs on Instagram, you know because you have appointments to keep, the one celebrity you should follow just happens to post pics of himself with all the current A-list peeps--none other than--Ryan Seacrest.  So the question is...now that I'm following RC, how do I set my reminders to alert me when he posts a pic with shirtless Ryan Reynolds.  Ryan squared, anyone?



Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C.

Everyone Needs a To-Do List, Oh, and a Pin-up of the Magic Mike Version of Channing Tatum

When you're ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), you're often very talented at a little-known sport called "Dropping the Ball."  As I said last week, it's not for lack of motivation that I forget to take out the trash on trash day or forget to fold the laundry before it wrinkles, or forget to pick up my sister after her high school band performance at 11:00 at night and only remember when my mom calls me at my cousin's later that night.  Yeah, that last one was bad. Usually, the attention problem starts when I have multiple things going on at once.  My brain can't seem to focus on everything.

But, over the years I've developed a few tricks to at least make multiple tasks manageable when they all come at the same time.  Unfortunately, it took me a long time to realize taking the extra time to write out a To-Do List is worth the effort.  It probably wouldn't have helped me with my sister (she forgave me, btw), but it does help with several areas of my life, including writing.

If I take the time to make a list of the major story events I have coming up, I fly through my writing session.  However, if I'm short on time and just sit down and begin writing, I often get stuck and frustrated, or just simply don't get too many words onto the page.

None of my lists are formal.  I don't follow any systems (Save the Cat or Scene and Sequel).  I just write what I know has to happen next in the story for it to get told.  And though Dean Wesley Smith advises never to go back and re-write, I don't really re-write, but I do go back later to tweak and add things and remove stuff to make the scenes better.  Not usually in the same writing session, but I don't always wait until the end either.

If you've read Heart of Mercy, the scene in the back room of the bunker didn't have a television at all the first time I wrote it.  It wasn't until I was over half-way through the manuscript and several scenes past that one that I knew I needed to add that detail to the story.  Of course, I had to tweak other areas along the way to make sure it fit in smoothly, and one of my Beta Readers found a place where I'd "dropped the ball" with the details of that scene.  Yep, that's ADD for you.

So, as painfully tedious as making a To-Do List is, it is SO worth it if I want to accomplish something with all the minute details accounted for.

Oh, and if there were a list of the hottest, hot-bodies ever in a male-stripper movie, Channing Tatum might just be at the top.  What do you think?

Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C. Marks

Post-post addition--Forgot to update current WIP status (shocker, there).  One week later, I've managed to make it to 20,400 words.  Not great progress, but realistic for me with all my other responsibilities.

Justin Timberlake, An Attention Span Longer Than a Gnat's, And Other Things I Can't Have

Attention Deficit Disorder is a very real thing. When I was younger, it was labeled as lazy, unfocused, and not quite all-there.  Trust me, my short attention span is not for a lack of trying to stay focused.  I make lists; I write things on my calendar; I put reminders in my phone.  Things still seem to slip through the holes in my Swiss cheese memory.

Yet, I know I'm not the only one dealing with this and certainly not the only writer.  So, over the next few weeks, I'm going to research techniques and give my two-cents about how an ADD panster like me, and possibly you, can focus enough to get at least one work-in-progress finished. I've got a rather long list of writing to-do's, not the least of which is the third book in The Mercy Series, tentatively titled End of Mercy. It is officially rolling, but a few other projects are taking precedence lately.

Just to get this started though, my current WIP is a paranormal romance, and it is nearly at the half-way mark at 18,784 words.  I'll give updates as to progress made and what techniques help this ADD panster make it to the end of a manuscript.

Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C.

Might as Well Make a Few Resolutions

Call it a fad, call it peer pressure, call it being responsible...whatever you call it, I'm breaking my resolution to never make resolutions and...well...resolving to accomplish a few things this year.  Nothing fancy, just gonna try to accomplish a little here and there.  2013 is shaping up to be my lucky year, so here are my 2013 resolutions that will get me started:

1.  Blog regularly, and to that end, make Saturday my day to get blogposts written and scheduled.
2.  Journal at least five times a week so that I have something to blog about.
3.  Carry my journal with me everywhere because my brain doesn't have an on/off switch, more's the pity.
4.  Finish my current projects--two full-length YA's and a fantasy romance novella by the end of July.
5.  Write one hour, five days a week, about 1000 words a day.
6.  Schedule four fun, interesting, and informative writing meetings for KYRW for 2013 (somehow they got into their minds I could be the president of the organization)
7.  Don't get discouraged.  When things don't go as planned, pick up and keep moving forward.
8.  Continue to explore options.  Both trad and self-pub are viable in today's market.
9.  Marketing will be a tool, not an obsession.  I will interact with my social media about thirty minutes five days a week and most of that will be actual interaction.
10. I will read six books this year, at least three outside of my genre of choice.

So there it is.  My plan for 2013.  Nothing about working out or eating more nutritionally.  Just highly-motivating, ambitious goals of heart-nudging greatness-unearthed.

Join me if you'd like.  Comment on some thangs you're planning to do to change your life into a rhythmic swirl of awesomeness this year.

Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C. Marks

Progress! Heart of Mercy

Yeah! Made it through a pivotal and tense scene in Heart of Mercy. Only 7,690 words in, but making progress. Hope to make it to 10,000 words tonight.

It took two things. One: my new technique of listing the action in a scene and mentally checking off as I write a particular bit of it. And two: employing my tried and true, "I'll just write for ten minutes,"  technique. One of two things always happens when I do this. Either I write for ten minutes and get a little further (every little bit counts), or I keep going past the ten minutes and kick writing butt. It's not fool-proof, but it works for me.

Excuse my ADD moment, but I also found an interesting discussion written in March 2012 about why the boom in YA fiction recently. The writer shares,

"Why are so many adults reading young adult books? No need to page Dr. Freud. This isn’t about the guilty pleasures of communing with one’s inner child. It doesn’t signify a huge baby boomer regression. It isn’t even about nostalgia. 

It’s because adults are discovering one of publishing’s best-kept secrets: that young adult authors are doing some of the most daring work out there. Authors who write for young adults are taking creative risks -- with narrative structure, voice and social commentary -- that you just don’t see as often in the more rarefied world of adult fiction."

I rather like the idea of YA taking those creative risks. How fun and fantastic! Is YA fiction where the daring ideas are?

If you'd like to see more, the entire article can be found here.

Happy Reading and Writing!

C. C. Marks