Showing posts with label *Personal: Motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label *Personal: Motivation. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 January 2017

The Marketing Blues aka Motivation, Where Art Thou?



The Marketing Blues aka Motivation, Where Art Thou?


I have to admit that I am finding it hard to get back in the swing of things now the holiday season is out of the way. It's been so nice not having to do anything to do with books and marketing for a while that I found myself staring at my twitter this morning wondering why I was bothering.

Logically I know why I'm bothering, but a big part of me just wants to eat chocolate and watch TV :).

It's not the writing part that is the problem - I have ideas coming out of my ears, its the whole trying to convince people to buy things that has me wistfully thinking of the relaxing days between Christmas and New Year. Truth be told, I hate marketing. It's not why I signed up to be an author, it just happens to be an integral part of the job these days.

Unfortunately its very necessary.

So now I must kick my posterior into gear and jump back on the horsey, as it were.

It's time to set my alarms that tell me what to do when. They were working really well last year until Windows updated and broke the application on my PC. They wold go off an hour out and then refuse to be turned off. Most off putting. I shall put them in my phone this time ... hopefully that won't decide to go bonkers as well :).

To all those with similar marketing blues, I wish you much luck (because we all know one retweet or one share in the right place can make all the difference :)) and the perseverance to march into the new year strong, with a smile on your face.

We can do this!

Do you have any tips to keep the motivation high and the marketing blues in the background? For that matter, any marketing tips that have worked for you?


~*~

As promised the 2nd chapter of my new Harry Potter fanfiction was published yesterday, but I totally forgot to mention it here - please forgive me.


Defence, Pretence, Offence
Chapter 02/70 - Introductions 
by Beren (aka Tasha)

Summary: The threat of open war in on the horizon. The Order and the Ministry are of one accord and both know that where Harry Potter is, Voldemort will eventually be. Preparations are being made and this time the side of the light will not be caught unawares.

Summer classes, sabotage, revelations about Draco's father, teaching and the final showdown with Voldemort all await Harry and Draco in this exciting sequel to Gold Tinted Spectacles (LJ | AO3 | Wattpad).

Warnings: This story is canon compliant until the end of Order of the Phoenix and then goes AU. None of the HBP or Deathly Hallows plot will be used, or the Horcruxes for that matter since this story was planned before we knew the details about those things, and hence has it's own fanon. This includes birthdays and other information that have since been revealed on Pottermore and in further productions.

Links to CH02: LJ | DW | AO3 | Wattpad
Link to other parts: LJ | DW | AO3 | Wattpad 

New chapters will be posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Thursday, 10 September 2015

Motivation in Organisation - #ThinkyThursdays 4


So for Thinky Thursdays 4 I have decided to muse on the topic of motivation, since I have had a few problems in that area lately.

Motivation in Organisation

So for a few months I have felt as if I was in something of a rut. I published my last novel back in March and I had all these plans to get more out really quickly and none of them panned out.

Same with my blog, everything was really great during April for the AtoZChallenge and then I had no ideas.

Wittegen Press
$6.79 | £5.69
Amazon | Other
Well I think I've figured out what I need to stay motivated: organisation.

I know that may sound weird, but it seems to work for me. For example, let's look at my blog. I was ticking away with the odd post, but nothing really special and then the idea for Monster Mondays hit me. It's a regular post on a regular day with a theme. What's more I think I've only missed one, possibly two, since I started it.

The fact I had a schedule motivates me.

That the posts have a style and a layout, motivates me.

In fact it worked so well I had the crazy idea of adding a theme to all my other work days as well. Now I have:
Now I don't force myself to do a post for every one each week - but I will not go less than three out of five unless there are exceptional circumstances. I really think it's the organisation of having themes and knowing what my schedule it which has motivated me in this area. My blog seems to be flourishing thanks to it.

Then there is what started me thinking about this today in the first place. I mentioned on Tuesdays about the new novel writing software I found called yWriter (Finally Found Some Wonderful Novel Writing Software I Like - yWriter - #TipsTuesdays 6). It has helped me organise one of my current work in progress and my productivity is through the roof.

It took me a couple of hours to add in all my characters, locations and items as well as putting in the existing text. Since that point I have:
  1. Organised the whole novel, deciding what scenes need to be added in and where, so I now have a (almost) complete scene and chapter list. There is just a little bit right at the end to decide about. 
  2. Finally figured out the two major plot points that have had me stalled for months.
  3. Written 9000 words in three days on scenes that have been bugging me for months, and they just flowed.
Wittegen Press
$2.99 | £1.99
Amazon | Other
I honestly think this is all because I organised things. For some reason having everything modularised and laid out motivates me. I am having a ball. Once I have finished this novel all the other WiPs are going into this program too. I think the act of doing the organisation actually stimulates something in my brain. It probably has something to do with why I actually enjoy categorising and alphabetising our DVD and Blu-ray collection and our library of books as well :).
Do you find organisation helps to motivate you? What are your strategies for staying motivated?

Still pimping out the Share a Scare Halloween Blog Hop. It will run on the 31st October as you would expect, but now is the time to sign up.

Have something a little bit scary to share? All bloggers, authors and artists welcome. Just click the link to see all the details: