Hi all,

Ryadian, have you had any more luck with your writing?

I've been working on some short stories/novelettes. They're taking way, way longer to write than they should, mostly due to procrastination.

I have, however, decided to take the leap into self-publishing. I thought putting some of these shorter stories up would be a good way to start, since I've still got to save up money to get awesome cover art before my novel's ready to publish. I've discovered that there's a lot involved with getting ready to self-publish. I'm currently working on getting a website set up. I've got covers for 2 of my stories ready to go and need to get 2 or 3 more. I figure I should also get a decent author photo (thinking of hiring one of my friends who's a photographer). And then I need to learn about format conversion and that technical side of ebooks.

So, that's where I'm at. Does anyone else self-publish, or have you thought about doing so?

Hi, Shawna! Long time, no see.

I know what you mean about things taking longer to write than you expect. Novels don't surprise me in that respect, but the shorter forms always do.

Hooray for you taking this step!

I've not looked into self-pub as much as I'd need to if that's the route I end up taking, but I do know it's a lot of work. I have some friends on Facebook who've done it before and may have some pointers. I do know that a professional edit is key (and not just for spelling and grammar), as is a professional-looking cover. I've heard the best thing as far as formats go is to get your book on Kindle and iBooks. Smashwords is the only place I know of that will put your book up on all the platforms and work the conversions. The only tricky thing with that is making sure none of the formatting goes wonky when that happens (for instance, if you want to link to other books/stories you have up, make sure iBooks gets the iBooks links, etc.).

I've also heard that having a website/blog and/or some other author platform (like a Twitter, Facebook page, etc.) is useful because it gives readers a place to find out more about you, your books, and so on. In this area, it's mostly a do what you like/are comfortable with, but having at least the website/blog is key. Some people are able to balance multiple accounts to maximize their online presence and others (like me) have a bare minimum of online presence because any more would kill what writing time they have.

I hope that helps some.

I feel like an excited puppy locked alone in a room.

For some reason, for the past few days, I've been overcome with a desperate need to write a Vampire Fancier story. Why? I have no idea. But there it is.

So, I'm writing a Vampire Fancier story. Not sure how I'm going to post it yet or if anyone will be around to read it, but it's getting written anyway.

[It's set in an AU where the VF never left Ditto Town. And of course I had to create some new vamps.]

Ryadian, have you had any more luck with your writing?

Actually, I made myself a promise at the beginning of the year that I'd finish at least a draft of one of my stories, and I decided to pick a specific one and stick with it until the end of the year. I kept beginning with the first chapter, second-guessing myself, and starting completely over. So, around the end of last month/the beginning of this month, I decided to do an unofficial Camp NaNo. I'm not so much worried about getting the full 50K within a single month (which is good because I'm still just under 24K ), but I've gotten much farther than any of my previous attempts, and if I keep it up next month, I might actually finish this draft by the end of the year. This is, of course, not taking into account the fact that I've got other, collaborative projects that I don't want to put off until next year.... Sometimes, I kind of miss having free time. (Well, it would help if I would get off Netflix a little more often.)

I've thought a little about self-publishing, though at this point I'm more concerned with just finishing a story. Actually, my brother and I are working on a comic book together, and we're considering just uploading that as a webcomic once we start actually producing it. Admittedly, we haven't really looked much into the logistics of that, either, especially since my brother seems to constantly be just getting back from military training and we have just about opposite schedules when he is home, but if we ever get ambitious enough to pull that off, then I'll have to see where it goes from there. I feel like running a webcomic is somewhat similar to self-publishing, and at the very least, it would go towards what stwin was talking about with establishing a presence online. I'm not thinking about it too much right now, though, just because... honestly, I too easily stress myself out about my writing and the feasibility of ever finishing, let alone publishing, and I'd rather keep my ability to write for the pleasure of writing, at least for the time being.

So, I'm writing a Vampire Fancier story. Not sure how I'm going to post it yet or if anyone will be around to read it, but it's getting written anyway.

;)) I have a self-indulgent fanfiction that's spread over a couple of documents and a couple hundred pages that no one will ever read but me, but it's one of my favorite stories to go back to because I just enjoyed writing it so much. Sometimes you just have something you have to get out. Still, keep us apprised on that - I've missed the VF!

So, in non-writing news (*gasp* such a thing EXISTS! ), I might be moving into my own place somewhere in the near future. I've got an appointment to see an apartment I'm interested in this Saturday, and if I like it I might be moving in as early as next month. I'm really excited about the idea, but also really nervous. My mom is so excited and keeps giving me all kinds of suggestions for furniture and dishes and the like, and I'm still in the stage of just figuring out what it's going to be like buying groceries for myself every week. Still, I'm pretty excited about it, too - nervous, but excited. I really hope I like the apartment - it's about 5 minutes from my job (I could potentially walk if I felt like taking my time, though that does mean crossing a couple of large roads), and the pictures online looked really nice. I'll just have to see what happens.

Good luck with the writing, Ryadian. I myself struggle with staying on-task and procrastinating, which appears to be my biggest hurdle with finishing (my own worst enemy kind of thing). Do you outline or "pants"? I've learned that for myself, I usually need to have a very detailed outline of the whole story going in, otherwise I'm liable to write myself into a corner, get frustrated, and give up on it.

Good luck on the apartment too. With housing prices these days, it's so much more of an accomplishment to be out on your own than it used to be. Try not to stress too much about the actual process. The main concern is if you can actually afford a certain place and whether this particular manager/management company seems like they'd be good to work with. Personally, I'd avoid any that tries to nickel-and-dime you, extra charges for every little thing. I once looked at a place that said you could rent a garage for your car for a certain fee per month, but it was extra each month if you wanted the garage door opener.

Good luck on the apartment hunting, Rya! I know that it can be both exciting and a little frightening to live on your own at first. (I'll be glad to help you move when the time comes, if I'm available).

My writing has been languishing of late, partly due to real life getting in the way. I'll be making a move of my own at the end of the month, so I've been packing, tossing things, and donating others. So much work since I really haven't downsized much in the last 30 years. And this heat and humidity doesn't motivate me either.

I would also offer to help you move, Rya, except that purely based on the odds, I doubt we live near each other.

I need to do some cleaning/purging of my own as well, and I need to help my parents do some of theirs. It really is one of those things that's not really ever much fun and seems to take forever. It is satisfying once you accomplish it, though.

Soooo, I absolutely love the decorative type boxes and use them to store all sorts of stuff, as well as to give gifts, so I had bought about seven or so on Black Friday, and I just realized about ten minutes ago that the smallest one has "Cozy Mittens" written all over the box. Which actually, now that I think of it, means absolutely nothing, as it would have to be "Fuzzy Mittens" to be a nweb reference, but it's close enough.

I'm also in the purge and box category of people, but so far it has mainly been books and music CDs. Most of these have been living at my parents', as when I moved out, I had moved overseas, and literally left everything pretty much as I had lived in it (I did, at least, strip the sheets of the bed, but not much else). Ever since then I've been at home or living short term in various spots, so it's been a strange evolution of coming home then picking out the right sorts of things for the next place and switching out what books I planned to travel with. I've finally been sitting down and going through things, and despite having boxed a ton of media items and donated far more clothing than I care to think about, it barely looks like I've scratched the surface. It's slightly annoying, actually. Anyway, Rya, how did the apartment looking go/did you decide to move?

I had grand intentions of purging when I moved last summer but still ended up with a lot of stuff (I was able to discard some, donate some to Goodwill, and also give furniture to friends and family, but still have a rather full storage locker).

I like to think I'll clean it out more when the weather permits, but nice weather is so short in these parts that I'm busy camping or building campfires or doing other things outside (I guess I'm just not disciplined enough ).

Right now Minnesota is shivering under typical winter weather so camping seems so far off.

Wow, it has been a lot longer coming back to post in here than I thought it would be. (Lady A, thanks for the reminder that it's been about five months. ) As to the apartment hunting, sadly I realized after the fact that I couldn't actually afford the apartment I was looking at. My mom got me in touch with someone at our church who is also looking for an apartment, but we decided to hold off until January or so to look at apartments, since we were talking to each other in October or so and neither of us wanted to be moving out during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Good luck on the apartment too. With housing prices these days, it's so much more of an accomplishment to be out on your own than it used to be. Try not to stress too much about the actual process. The main concern is if you can actually afford a certain place and whether this particular manager/management company seems like they'd be good to work with. Personally, I'd avoid any that tries to nickel-and-dime you, extra charges for every little thing. I once looked at a place that said you could rent a garage for your car for a certain fee per month, but it was extra each month if you wanted the garage door opener.

Thanks for the advice! Yikes, there's no excuse for the garage door opener thing. Right now I'm still trying to wrap my mind around everything. Yes, now I'm looking at getting a roommate (which I'm already nervous about for a whole different set of introvert reasons ), but even with the rent cut in half, I've just started realizing all the other things that I take for granted.... I feel like I'll never be ready, though I've thought that about a lot of things in my life and found out I was wrong.

Soooo, I absolutely love the decorative type boxes and use them to store all sorts of stuff, as well as to give gifts, so I had bought about seven or so on Black Friday, and I just realized about ten minutes ago that the smallest one has "Cozy Mittens" written all over the box. Which actually, now that I think of it, means absolutely nothing, as it would have to be "Fuzzy Mittens" to be a nweb reference, but it's close enough.

Well, "Cozy Slippers" is actually a NarniaWeb reference that predates my time on the forum, so I guess it was just trying to fit into the best of both worlds. (Wow, I don't even want to think about how long it's been since I've heard that.)

Good luck with the writing, Ryadian. I myself struggle with staying on-task and procrastinating, which appears to be my biggest hurdle with finishing (my own worst enemy kind of thing). Do you outline or "pants"? I've learned that for myself, I usually need to have a very detailed outline of the whole story going in, otherwise I'm liable to write myself into a corner, get frustrated, and give up on it.

Ehhh... I kind of do both. I'm also very bad about staying disciplined as well, so I've tried to do an outline first, but I often times find that I get so stuck on little details while outlining that my story never moves forward. At the moment, I'm so desperate to keep my inspiration going for more than a couple of weeks that I just write whatever I feel like when I carve out the time - a scene from any place in the story that's been bothering me, some random world-building, or talking out my plan for a while so I have a rough idea. It's nice for the short-term, but in the long-term I tend to end up with a lot of random notes and documents that don't really help me when I come back to them.

Oh, but stargazer, we're getting such lovely Christmas snow! The last few years have had kind of pathetic snow, so if we stay at about the amount we have right now, I'll be pretty happy. Yikes, Christmas is only in 10 days!! I still have almost half of my Christmas shopping to finish, so I suppose I'd better get on that, huh? I was going to see how much brick and mortar shopping I could do this year, but I may have to resort to online shopping after all if I don't find everything I'm looking for tonight. As it is, I'll probably have to pay for expedited shipping for everything.

Sharing an apartment, even as an introvert, isn't so bad if you like the person and get along well with them. And, of course, if they're responsible for things like paying their share of the rent on time, keeping their stuff clean, etc.

I've never heard 'fuzzy mittens' as an Nweb term, but of course we used to use 'cozy slippers' as the standard greeting. You guys are making me feel old. (I don't remember how it started. I think someone just randomly said it one day because they thought cozy slippers were a nice thing to wish on someone.)

We actually have snow right now. We don't even get snow every year, so it's a sometimes sort of weather for us. I hope it all melts by the time we have to be out driving to other states for trips.

Ditto to Shawna about sharing an apartment. Fortunately, every time I've shared one has been in situations where each individual is responsible to the landlord for their portion of the rent, so no one else got stuck with it (which was good, because at one place, we had an empty bedroom for a couple months). But I've found that the best way to find a flatmate is to find someone who has similar habits to you, not so much similar likes, and I think most people look for the latter. I must say, I'm much happier sharing a place with someone who has the same views on dishes and trash disposal as I do than with someone who likes the same shows but is continually handling dishes and cleaning (and cooking and...) in the exact opposite way that I normally do.

The Fuzzy Mittens things was a things when Briggs was around--I actually don't remember who else used it. I think it was generally a return wish to Cozy Slippers not sure.

Have fun with the Christmas snow, Rya the nice thing about fog is you don't have to shovel it to drive places.

I was in a shared house once where the owner required the tenants to sign up annually, and if a tenant was leaving they had to find their own replacement (okayed by the others).

I rented a room in a house once (in LA), and each room was rented out individually, so there was no covering of rent if/when someone left (which did happen). But the landlord was also pretty terrible, and so were some of the roommates we ended up with. OTOH, I rented a room in a townhouse once with three other girls (who I didn't know) and then they all kind of decided to move out without warning me, which sent me scrambling because I'd have had to cover the cost of rent on my own and didn't have the money to do that. So... there are pros and cons to both ways.

Taking a moment to poke my head into Ditto Town Square. Coming up on eleven years. And my last post was here only two pages back last January.

Little to report on my end. Regularly running into many people on social media. Kinda miss this place.