Larion Wills, a multi-genre author, also writes under the name of Larriane Wills. From science fiction to western romances she holds up to her tag of ‘two names, one author, thousands of stories.’
Born in Oklahoma Arizona
What I like least about writing.
In a lot interviews, I’m asked what do I like the least about writing. Hands down my answer is promoting. Promoting interferes with writing. I’m an obsessive writer. When a story starts off in my head, I let it fester. On, yes, like a boil, it grows from the little germ that caught my attention. Sometimes it’s a person, a scene in a movie or book, something I witness, or something that just pops into my head. One scene, one idea has to have a reason for being. The people in it have to have personalities, likes, dislikes, a past that molded them, and a possible future to be whole. What led them to where they are and to what they’re doing? What happens after that? Where does the story stop? All of that gathers in my head until I have a beginning, middle and end. Then it bursts out, lanced so to speak, with a pen and paper. It’s flowing. Any interruptions are disruptive to my train of thought. If it were possible, I would shut myself away from the world, from all interruptions. I pull myself away only for the necessary which leads me back to the subject of promoting.
When my first novel was accepted, I jumped into everything everyone told me I should do, primarily online. I joined loops, signed up for author spotlights, sent out a copy to every reviewer I saw a mention of. With what soon became over a hundred groups, my inbox overflowed every day. I spend hours sitting at the computer just going through them. How much good did all that participation do? I have no idea. I did know all the time involved took me away from writing. I suppose that’s the most frustrating part of promoting online versus book signings, book fairs and conventions, the difficulty in seeing results in book sales. I can, though, from experience give you a few pointers.
Trim your groups to those that aim at the genres you write in. If you write para-romance, being on a historical romance group may bring you a few sales from those who read multi genre. However, by centering your time in groups that relate to your genre, you’re going to reach more who are interested and be more time productive. Many mult-genre groups are out there with a big following, also. For groups that have a lot of activity, use the digest method rather than emails. Considerable less time is involved in scanning though replies of only a few words like congratulations or welcome. You can also skip any subject that doesn’t interest you. You can scan, answer the few you’d like to and then delete once as a whole rather than open, scan, delete and return to the inbox for each and spend the time waiting for page changes between each operation. When there’s a chat you want to be involved in, it takes only a few minutes to change to emails and back when the chat is over. Generating sales is not the only benefit of loops. I want to be sure to mention that. I have learned immensely from others, promotion advice, technical tips, and let’s not forget friendships. The loops are a wonderful place to exchange thoughts with like minded people, to learn and promote. You just have to learn to temper them with those you feel the most comfortable in and that—even thought this sounds cold—that do you the most good.
You have to get your name out there, have to let people know you have a wonderful story they would enjoy reading, but you also have to leave yourself time to write them without putting yourself under the stress of trying to cram too much into too little time.
Oh, can I relate to this post. The trimming down is very good advice that I intend to follow.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I dislike interference when a story is flowing. I'd also like to shut myself in a cabin in the woods and only write.
Well, we can dream, can't we?
Great advice. I agree with trimming down. I belong to so many groups, I wake up some days and find hundreds of emails. I've since changed my settings to digest.
ReplyDeleteAre all authors recluses? I too want to be left alone to write. I'd rather do that then visit people any more. Not that I don't like people, I do, but sometimes I just want to write.
Fantastic interview Ginger and Larriane. Since I live this close to my daughter Kat in the small apartment we share, findng quietude and individual space is not at a premuim, but for us it works. When either of is run into a snag, all we have to do is arch our heads and say, "I need to ask you something..." and the problem gets addressed. I'm so used to having her here, I don't know how my muse would deal with solitude:>)
ReplyDeleteLove you Both, and thanks for sharing your writing clues.
Good advice. Nice to see you here. Thanks Ginger for hosting, thanks Larriane for the comments!
ReplyDeleteI used to think just maybe I was a little odd in the way I write, especially after reading S. King's directions on how to set yourself a schedule and stick to it. not going to happen with me. then I read I read about another author who dressed in sloppy sweats, headed for 'her room' and her family knew it would be days before they saw her again for more than brief 'have to' trips. two extremes, but both very successful, so what works for you, do it.
ReplyDeleteHi Larraine,
ReplyDeleteI can certainly relate to begruding the time it takes for promoting because it takes away from my writing time, but I guess it is a necessary evil if we want to sell our books.
Cheers
Margaret
Oh promotion...a real time biter but an evil we need to do.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I always love to read about other writers and their thinking.