Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Organization: More important than you think!


Hey everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! Have you missed me? I hope you’ve been following me over at Art of Divine, on YouTube—I have some really fun content in the works, and I’m planning a series for all you writers out there, coming up shortly. The world needs more writers, don’t you think?

So today, I wanted to come back and talk to you about something I think is incredibly important for writers, and generally fairly underrated for authors as well.

Organization


Now, I’ll start by saying this. The majority of successful authors I know are organized people. Yes, there are always outliers. There are always people who somehow work better and think clearer when everything is a mess, but don’t think that just because those outliers exist, you must automatically be one of them, just because you’re not very organized. More than likely, you’re a part of the majority and not the minority. That’s just logical, isn’t it? So, while you should always take advice with a grain of salt, remember to take it with an open mind, as well. If you don’t have that, no one will ever be able to help you with anything.

Authors need to be organized.


I don’t just mean that we should be organized in our writing, though that’s where we’ll get to later on in today’s post. I mean that your lifestyle should be organized. You’ll need a strict budget, especially if you’re planning on self-publishing. You’ll need to know precisely how much time you can take away from your day job, before you hopefully get to make writing your full-time gig. But, if you’re aware (as you should be) that it may never happen, that you’ll always need that day job, then you’ll know that you just need to be organized. You need to know how to allocate funds toward book tours, ad spend, cover design, and so many more things—even if you’re going to traditionally publish, expect that you’ll have to pay at least a little bit out of pocket, early on. At the very least, you’ll have to take some days off in order to tour with your book. There’s no other way to go about it.

If you want to be successful, you need to organize your life.


That’s a fact, and one you can ask any successful business person, or business owner. They’ll tell you, without batting an eye, that organization is a requirement. Without it, you’re throwing both time and money out the window.

Remember, whether you’re self-publishing or not, being an author is being a business person. Your writing is your business, and you need to treat it as such.


My recommendation, for every writer, is to get organized before you get published. Start with your life in general, because if you can get your life organized, your writing will get organized more naturally, by default. So put your stuff away. Don’t leave things lying around. Clean out your closet. Do the dishes. Organize your pantry so you can find and easily access the things you use the most often. Decide where the mail should go when it comes in the house, and make sure it stays there until it gets dealt with. Pay the bills on time (or early!). Get yourself organized, because if you can’t do that, you won’t get your writing organized either. If you can’t do it with the little things, you won’t do it with your writing. Trust me, I’ve seen it over and over again, with writers who haven’t decided if they take writing seriously.

It needs to start with your lifestyle, because your lifestyle determines how all the pieces fall.


So get organized, before you get published; that way, your writing isn’t a mess by the time you send out query letters. You don’t need it to be a mess, when you finally get signed. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that’s the last thing you need.

And once your life is organized, you can start with your writing.


Unless you’re a Neanderthal, you’re writing on a computer (or at least having it compiled onto one). So name all your files, and name them with things you won’t forget. Be descriptive. Use folders to get everything hyper-organized. One folder for each project, and folders within that folder for all the little things that go with that project. Go over the top with it! There’s nothing wrong with having your files so organized that an idiot could plop down on your computer and find what they’re looking for. In fact, that’s a good thing! You want it idiot proof, in case you need someone else to go on your computer and get a file for you. And for goodness sake, please backup your files. No, not on a cloud. Those expire, and they’re not confidential. Get yourself an external hard drive and some flash drives. Back it up. Multiple times. And update those backups at least once a week.

Trust me. Once you’ve lost files, you’ll understand how important it is to backup your writing. I don’t want you to experience that—so please, just back it up.

Okay, so now your life is organized, the kitchen is clean, and you’ve organized and backed up the files on your computer. What’s next? An organization.


Before you publish, file for a business and open a bank account for it. Yeah, it’ll cost you a little bit of money, but not much. And the paperwork is easy, trust me. Create a business, and use that business as the signee, when you do get a publisher. Why? Because that way, any lawsuits that come up won’t be against you, but against your business. That way, your copyright is owned by an entity, not a person. And this way, you can keep yourself even more organized when it comes to the bills. All your royalties go into that account. All your ad spend comes out of that account. You pay yourself a portion, once you’re making enough that you can, but for the most part, it’s an account that’s separate from your personal money, so you don’t spend your personal funds on your writing. Sure, you’ll throw some of your own money in it early on, but you want this to be a business, remember? So it’ll need to have its own revenue, and be able to sustain itself. Don’t worry, if you get an agent, they’ll be able to help you with a lot of this. But I highly recommend keeping your funds separate, both for legal and personal reasons.

And, last but not least, we have what you all expected me to talk about from the start:


Organize your story, before you start writing. Get your ideas together, write them down, and organize them. Clear your head. Think on it. Don’t be afraid to start and stop and start again a few times, if you’re not sure how the story is turning out.

You know me. I’m a seat-of-your-pants, deer-in-the-headlights kind of writer. I’m not one to do too much organization before I sit down and write a story. But I will be the first person to tell you that when you do have an idea that involves a lot of little ideas that you’re not sure you’ll be able to remember… you need to write them down! Write it all down. Use Scrivener, and keep it all organized with the files for your actual writing. Keep the ideas from getting lost, by getting them outside your head—where things can actually be organized.

If that means sleeping with a paper and pencil beside you… well, shouldn’t you be doing that anyway? ;)


[love]

{Rani Divine}

p.s. Have a topic you’d like me to cover? Leave a comment and let me know!

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Time for Change: Art of Divine (My YouTube Channel!)


Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! This month, we’re talking all about change, specifically changes both personally and professionally, in my life. And this week’s topic really isn’t one I wanted to do. But you know what? It was bound to happen sometime.

I have a YouTube channel. It’s called Art of Divine, and I’ve been creating videos there for a couple months, at this point. Videos that I’ve been having a lot of fun with. Videos that have made me realize I’m not sure what the future is here, in TMBTC, when I have YouTube Channel too. I know, I know, I’ve been here for years and it’s been a lot of fun, but video is the "in" thing, and honestly, I’m enjoying it. That’s not something I ever thought I’d say, either.

So today’s announcement, today’s change, is that I’ll be phasing out blog posts, by the end of the year. Maybe sooner, we’ll see. Point is, these are the last days of Too Many Books to Count. And if you want to keep keeping up with me, you’ll just have to follow me on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Trust me, if you like what I do here, you’ll love what I’m doing in Art of Divine.


There, so far, I’ve recorded a few vlog-style videos, videos where I’ve talked about life, about what’s going on with RAD Writing and what to expect from me in the future, videos where I’ve spent some time talking about belly dance (which you all know I love), and even videos where I break down paintings I’ve done at paint night.

It's fun. It’s artsy. And it’s a creative channel that I’m hoping will bring me better success and more joy. Don’t get me wrong; I love the blog. I love writing in here, for all of you. And I’ll probably keep the page up, keep it open, so I can post in here from time to time as well. But YouTube is where I’ll be, primarily.

One video a week, for now. Maybe more, eventually. We’ll see how it goes.

Again, thank you all so much for supporting me through all these changes. Thank you for being there, for reading what I’m writing. I hope you’ll stick around, and watch me on YouTube, too.

You’re awesome.

[love]

{Rani Divine}

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Time for Change: Quarantine hobbies


Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as you know, we’re talking about change—new things coming up for yours truly, both personally and professionally. Lately though, it’s all been professional… so let’s talk personal today, shall we?

I finally have my own office! My own place to work from home, and it isn’t even in my bedroom. Goals, guys. Seriously. I’ve never had my own office before. It’s crazy.

And with the new office came all sorts of new things I’m doing. Really. All sorts of things. As of a few weeks ago, I’ve begun jewelry making. Mostly chain mail, though I’ve also been dabbling with wire wrapping as well. It’s a difficult thing, when you can’t go to the store and get supplies. Sheesh. It’ll be nice when we can all get out again, eh?

Anyway, I like doing things with my hands. Sometimes I think better, clear my brain better, when I’m doing something like that. So chain weaving really fit the bill. I should’ve posted some pictures on Instagram by now, so feel free to head over there and check it out! If I haven't posted anything there yet... I'm sorry. It's been on my list of things to do. Really.

I’m also learning to sew… though I’d say that’s been more dabbling than actual learning, so far. I’ve not had time to do a whole lot, partially because weaving chain takes a lot of time and once I get going I just can’t stop. But I am learning to sew, and I’m planning on making my own custom belly dance costumes (with matching jewelry, more than likely).

I’ve done a little bit of cross-stitch too, since the quarantine started. Not a lot, but I did a little one for my best friend, and she absolutely loved it. I’ll try to remember to put that on Insta, too.

I’m still painting, still dabbling in learning to draw, still dancing at every available opportunity…

And really, that’s what I wanted to say, today. During all this, during the chaos that has been this quarantine, art has been the one constant, hasn’t it? Art is the one thing almost everyone turned to, because art is the one thing we know we can fall back to, a place of safety and comfort, of simple joy and fun. And I’ve really been embracing that, in a time when I know I could easily have been panicking. But I didn’t want to panic. I’m not a panic person. I’m a doer. Who couldn’t do much, work-wise, and needed something else to do.


Art, it is!

I’ve started a new story, one many of you have been hounding me to write (no, I won’t tell you what it is yet), and so far I love it. I’ve really been throwing myself at my art, and I’m loving every minute of it.

To the point that I'm even offering commemorative pendants, chain woven by yours truly, to some of those who help with the crowdfund of Cayau: People Among Us. 

My moral today? Don’t let go of creativity. Embrace it. Hone it. Learn something from it. Because there’s a lot to learn from the arts, if you give it a try.

[love]

{Rani Divine}