26 Jun
In which we explore the glamorous side of professional writing….
Trust me. I’m a professional.
28 Nov
In which I celebrate the art of snoozing!
Oh boy! You know what? I’ve found the secret to writing productivity…it’s called SLEEP. Personally, I haven’t slept soundly since the debacle of 1998, but things have only gotten worse over the past few years. At the moment, it’s a dry cough keeping me up. Papa Bear, perhaps having heard enough of said cough, suggested a humidifier. I was reluctant, because of a previous experience where the ceiling plaster caved in thanks to a humidifier (refer to debacle of 1998). They’ve improved these things, and we’ve improved our ceiling. Result? I slept great! I have consequently finished a chapter of my novella, two blog posts, planned a FB live event (Dec. 4, EST on the FB Dana Mentink Reader page if you are so inclined) and roasted a pan of golden beets. All this time, I thought the answer to the perfect night sleep was in the pillow (see video). Anyhoo, I am happy, celebrating the release of the Gold Country Cowboy series, and looking forward to another night of good sleep. How about you, friends? Got any good sleeping tips?
22 May
Author tip: top three ways to annoy people…
Yep, I worked real hard to land that first publishing contract and boy howdy, it wasn’t a piece of cake to land the other thirty plus either. Writing professionally is difficult and we authors have an obligation to trot our names, awards and five star reviews out into the world to encourage people to BUY OUR BOOKS, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Writing books goes hand in hand with selling them, and if one is to continue in this biz, tooting our author horns is vital. But here’s the thing…it’s really important to keep the priorities clear when one is in this nutty business. In order that my head does not begin to put too much stock in my press releases, I remind myself that, at the end of the day, people will not remember my cover, my book, and my reviews no matter how many stars are attached. It’s not false modesty, it’s fact. Each year more than a million books are published, so my meticulously crafted words are buried in an avalanche of plenty of other fancy syllables from a bazillion other wordsmiths a lot more talented than I. (#noraroberts, #irenehannon, #geronimostilton)
So now that I’ve eaten that slice of humble pie, let me just wrap my mind around three sure fire practices that might just annoy the beejeebers out of my friends. (Pay attention, Dana. You don’t have that many friends to spare.)
1. Make sure you bring up your fancy author career in every conversation. Yep, it’s sure as shooting that everyone you encounter wants to hear all about your wacky fiction writing accomplishments. Maybe you could have a tee shirt made…. “I’m An Author, Legend in My Own Mind.”
2. Be sure to promote yourself NONSTOP on all social media platforms. Don’t talk about anything else, or people might get distracted. (I’ve been told I should have at least 30,000 Twitter followers. Only 28,000 to go! Must remember to beef up tweeting schedule to fifty three times a day.)
3. Never stray outside your “writing brand persona.” You’re a suspense writer so ALL of your social media channels should reflect this. (Brace yourself, people of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. I am prepared to deluge you with every kind of intense, edge of your seat promotion. Repeatedly. Over and over. Until your brain memorizes the name Dana- Buy-My-Books-Mentink. (No humor or warm fuzzy sentiments allowed, people. It’s all deadly serious business.)
All kidding aside, people, I know that the reality is I need to self promote in person and on social media, but that’s my business, my real work is encouraging people. I will never forget during my student teacher days, assisting a sobbing kiddo who dropped her special belt into the toilet. Did I stick my hand in there and fish it out? Yuppers. Was that important work? Absolutely. At the end of the day, nothing I ever write will probably mean as much as fishing a belt out of the toilet for a distraught child.
I hope I never forget that lesson.
28 Apr
Why humor is dangerous…
Writing humor can be a risky business. Drama and suspense are much safer and here’s why. For me, I’m a natural cornball and my preference is to write with humor, but humor is extremely subjective. Most people can agree on what is serious (murder, child abuse, etc.) but very few agree on what’s funny. Did you ever go to a movie that your buddy claimed was hilarious and you found yourself sitting through the whole thing without laughing once? Yeah? Me too. It’s the nature of humor, a tricky beast that’s hard to harness. I believe that’s why publishers and movie makers shy away from funny, because one person’s funny is another person’s flop. I LOVE it, though, crazy person that I am, which is why I continue to write in both the humorous and suspenseful genres, and host a series of funny videos on Instagram.
After watching my Instagram zaniness, I get a lot of folks inquiring about where I get my sense of humor. It comes from my dad, and working in public school is a great place to exercise it. (Believe you me, if you don’t have a sense of humor, you won’t last long in the classroom.) I firmly believe God gave me a sense of humor so I can lift people’s spirits, so I try to do that. There is way too much crude, insulting “humor” in the world that ridicules and puts people down. I’m not a fan of that kind.
How about you? Do you find certain things funny that others do not? Have you seen movies that didn’t quite meet your standards for a comedy?
21 Apr
Unlearning school writing lessons, part 2.
Oh I sure did learn all those school writing rules! And now….I gotta unlearn some of them.
Rule #2: “Spell everything right.” The second rule I heard growing up was that you should spell things correctly when you’re writing. Nope. You absolutely have to spell things correctly when you’re editing and revising and that final copy had better have some impeccable sparkly spelling and grammar, but the time for that is not when the writer is in the middle of a creative whirlwind. As a matter of fact, focusing on perfect spelling while you’re drafting, stymies the creative flow and slows down the work. I’ve seen my little students paralyzed because they couldn’t figure out how to spell a word. I tell them to write like crazy! “Circle the word if you think you’ve botched it and MOOOOOOOVE ON!” To this day, I cannot seem to spell the word rhthm? rythm? Rithim? Errgh! It baffles me, but I don’t let it stop the flow. I soldier on and make sure that the final product is going to be spelled correctly (once I have the rhythm down! Ha!)
15 Apr
Unlearning those school writing lessons…part #1
I’ve got a very weird job, I’ll admit it. Oh not the teaching gig (I teach third grade) though that can be nutty at times too. Recently I went to school dressed as an emoticon, but that’s a whole other blog post.) I meant the fiction writing thing. It’s funny to me how much of my writing time is spent flagrantly “unlearning” the lessons I took in as a child during writing lessons. Though I’d never admit it to my eight year olds, I’ve been putting my mind recently to a couple of those lessons I had to “unlearn” about writing and life.
Rule #1: “Don’t daydream.”
Awww man! I heard that one all the time as a kid. Short attention span. Way too much time lost in books. Head in the clouds, thinking frivolous thoughts. I totally understand why the teachers over the years tried to squelch that habit. One shouldn’t be drifting to imaginary places when being given a lecture on crucial topics like long division. Now, however, I get paid to daydream. “Give us something new and fresh,” my editors say. I spend quite a number of waking hours lost in la la land. While walking the dog, I’m wrestling with a way to save my characters from a flash flood. Sitting through a boring movie? Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if the hero was suddenly visited by a child he didn’t know he had? I had the best time brainstorming a life or death escape from a burning shed in my newest book, Treacherous Trails. You see? I’m a professional daydreamer. My former teachers would cringe!
Do you ever daydream during important moments? Feel brave enough to share?
