Ouroboros

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a dragon or serpent swallowing its own tail to form a never-ending circle.

It’s a neat symbol, and a popular one, but to me it also symbolizes futility.

Why is the dragon swallowing its own tail? Wouldn’t that hurt? It can’t eat or drink while it’s doing that, so it’s going to starve to death! What does it hope to accomplish? Does it think the tail is someone ELSE’s tail?

Although the ouroboros is doing something, it seems to me to be the WRONG thing – wasted effort without valuable results.

Authorouroboros

The Authorouroboros is a similar creature.

This is the writer who says “I am going to write a book and it will be fabulous and entertaining and I will be published and happy!”

So they tweet this. And then they blog it (possibly even creating a NEW blog, just for their authorial internet presence). And then they email a few friends and family members to make sure they all know.

And then they find writing groups and join those. And they check out books from the library on how to write. And they find blogs and read a few inspirational blog posts on writing.

Maybe they write a chapter or two.

And they blog about their experiences. Tweet to help support other writers and keep them going.

Time passes.

Neverending

The Authorouroboros writes about writing. It’s a closed loop.

Unless that author is writing a book about writing, they are not actually writing.

Like the ouroboros, they may THINK they’re accomplishing something. And they’re certainly busy! They’re active! Doing things! VERBing!

However, they’re not actually getting anywhere. They’re chasing their tail, staying in the same spot despite a lot of movement and effort.

The Conception

The conception is that authors have twitter accounts and blogs. They work hard on their internet presence and marketing themselves and their books. The internet gladly offers dire warnings against authors without strong social networking skills.

And it is not entirely a misconception, but there is a balancing act that needs to happen.

Writers WRITE. And they don’t just write blog posts or tweets or facebook updates, they write the thing that they want to be known as a writer for. If that is blogging, then when that writer blogs, they are WRITING. If, however, that is writing fantasy novels … well, blogging isn’t writing then, it’s sinking your teeth more firmly into your tail.

Yes, it can be a huge benefit to have a strong internet presence as a writer.

But it’s gilding the lily, folks. Having a pot of liquid gold, ready to paint on something is NICE, but it does you no good whatsoever if you don’t have the lily to paint.

Be a WRITER first, and a self-marketer second.

The Danger

The danger is that social networking is FUN.

You get immediate attention and feedback from your peers with every reply tweet, every comment.

There’s a sense of accomplishment with hitting PUBLISH on a blog post – a sense of accomplishment that can take months or even years with a novel.

It’s incredibly easy to get sucked in to the facebooks, twitters, forums, blogs, books, and shinies of writing. And it’s even HARDER when everyone tells you that having a presence in that shinyshiny world is important to you as a writer.

Cold, Hard, Math

I know, I know. Math isn’t fun. This is simple math, though. Trust me.

You have two things to think about. Writing and Social Networking. (Your life has a great many other pulls on your time, I know. I am simplifying things here).

In an ideal world, what PERCENTAGE of your “writer” time would you spend on writing? What percentage would you spend on Social Networking?

My numbers fall around 75%  for writing, 25% for Social Networking. In an ideal world, I would not spend more than a quarter of my time RIGHT NOW, building an internet presence as a writer. This percentage may change as I make my way through the publishing ladder, I know.

Now comes the hard part. Thinking back over this week – JUST this week. – about how many hours did I spend writing (editing/revising/plotting/planning, etc) and how many hours did I spend on twitter/facebook/blogging/google wave/reader/blogs/chat/email/shiny ?

Ouch.

I don’t even need to tally up the actual hours, although I really should. I REALLY should. Rarely do we realize where we are spending our time (and I mean that quite literally, as if time were dollar bills I was handed at the beginning of the day and I had to hand them over to the thing I was doing). I may think I’m only spending about four hours a day on the shiny, while cold numbers tell me it’s closer to 6. Or maybe even 10. (I’m an obsessive email-checker).

I do know how many hours I spend on writing projects, though, because I have to make an effort to turn my attention to them and focus.

Note that I did not factor in time spent playing video games, watching tv or movies, shopping, getting haircuts, watering the plants, having dinner with friends and family, cooking, etc etc.

I’m ONLY comparing that time that I spend on writer-related things. Things that I tell myself are good for my writing career, and that’s why it’s okay to spend the time on them.

Truth

Math does not lie.

I am not living up to my own, personal expectations about my writing.

I have fallen into the Authorouroboros.

NaNoWriMo2010

I haven’t forgotten my NaNoWriMo2010 posts. Why have there been no new ones lately?

I can give you the same “reasons” I have been giving myself, but the mathematical answer is “I’ve been on twitter”.

I can tell you that I’m trying to do research on structuring a plot, but the mathematical answer is “I’ve read some GREAT blog posts on writing, and I’ve spent time commenting or writing blog posts in response!”

You

Are YOU stuck in the Authorouroboros?

Do you want to get out? What’s your plan? What ACTIONS will you take to change your current circular path?

Me

As for me, I think I’ll pull my tail out of my mouth and close my email tab. I think I’ll actually work to break my internet addiction – that need to get constant feedback.

I think I will continue reading and blogging and tweeting – but there may be more of a delay in my responses and there will be a lot of days when I don’t find time for twitter.

I think I’ll try to spend more time writing than I do writing about writing.

Starting now.

*lovemuffins*

*closes tab*

Luv YA

Bria Quinlan at Luv YA has started a fascinating project.

She’s calling it “Paid Writer” and I just adore it. She is paying herself to write.

Dreams

How many times a day do you dream about being a paid, full-time, published author?

Don’t answer that question. If your answer is anywhere near mine, you’ll run out of fingers and toes in no time.

Actions

We WANT to be paid writers … but how often do we ACT like one?

How often do we buckle down and write as if our grocery bill depended on it? How often do we edit and revise and think to ourselves, “if I don’t make this synopsis work, I may have to drop that netflix account.”

By CONTRAST, how often do we think idly about writing before logging into the video game of the week? How often do we buy chocolates and movie tickets and treat ourselves to a relaxing few hours in front of the television while our manuscripts silently gather dust?

We tell ourselves that if it were real – if we were getting PAID to write, surely we would act differently.

Secret

The secret to getting ahead is getting started.

We will take much longer to become paid writers if we don’t start acting like paid writers.

So … why not start paying ourselves? Start being a paid writer NOW. Today. This instant.

Pay Scale

Set up a pay scale.

• $10/hr – writing/editing/revising
• $5/hr – plotting
• $50 – bonus for completing a large project

Make the scale work for YOU and keep it reasonable. Whether you’re dealing with Monopoly money or actually budgeting out real world dollars, you don’t want to go crazy. (Also, don’t think too hard on working 8 hours at a day job only to work hours AGAIN to earn the right to spend that money. This is an exercise, not necessarily a way of life.)

Track Your Progress

Use a spreadsheet (Google Docs has free spreadsheets, as does Open Office) and write down your progress. Calculate out how much money you have in your virtual piggy bank, and keep tabs on what you spend. How close are you able to keep your expenditures and your writing dollars? Do you really NEED that expensive chocolate bar? (yes!) What about those cute fingerless gloves you bought this weekend? (they were on sale for a dollar! And super warm! And the perfect color!)

Okay, how about the honey candy and the caramel sea salt cookie from the farmer’s market? (hmm.) And you want to buy the next season of House on dvd at the end of the month, don’t you? (*squirm*)

Two In One

Not only does this method make you feel like you’re earning something while writing (I can’t be the only one who sometimes feels like a hamster on a wheel) but it’ll also make you sit down and think about your purchases from the standpoint of a limited budget. (Some of you already do that last one because of economy woes. =[ )

I am a big fan of finding new ways to encourage folks to write. Try new things. Find a method that works for you. Maybe this will be it!

<3

I believe You.

That scene you love and adore? It’s beautiful. It’s entertaining. It was fun to write and it’s fun to read.

But

Just because it’s beautiful and entertaining is not reason enough to keep it in your book.

Scenes MUST also be important. They must move the plot forward or provide a valuable piece of characterization. (Characterization you’ve already hammered home in another scene does not count as valuable).

A Not So Extreme Example

I was talking with my Wavewriter’s group and circumstanced found me summarizing a book I’d read where the PREMISE was neat (dystopian future, main characters were all drug addicts for a drug that looked like a feather. When you put the feather on your tongue, you experienced a pre-programmed “high”) and the PLOT was interesting (the main character’s sister did a particular feather and then disappeared) but the book was mostly fluff and worldbuilding.

So MUCH fluff that the main character didn’t even get confirmation that the drug was related to his sister’s disappearance until the VERY end of the book. I assume the writer was trying to build suspense for the second novel (which was also published) but so much of the first book was spent on … nothing. I can’t even remember what most of it was about, except that there were a lot of different drug trips in it and some running from the cops.

Had the book STARTED with the brother realizing he could save his sister, but he might lose himself at the same time – it would have been much stronger and more powerful.

As it was, although I wanted to know what happened, I didn’t want to don my mud boots and slog through another book like the first in order to get there.

Art

To the author, that worldbuilding was probably part of the ART of the book. He was clearly painting a portrait rather than focusing on telling a story.

I read this book a very long time ago, so the fact that I remember it at all speaks for his writing ability and the strength of the premise.

Unfortunately, all that got lost in a haze of FLUFF so thick I couldn’t find my way out of it.

A Picture Example

You want your stories to look more like this :

Than this :

Think of the bunnies, people!

Cut the fluff.