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Oh wow, it’s actually been an entire month since I posted here last, hasn’t it? That’s terrible. Anyway, I’ll have a proper report up on how June went in terms of writing (short version: mixed bag) early next week, but for now, check this out: A fellow writer, Rebecca Chase, nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Huzzah!! The rules are as follows: The Sunshine Blogger Award is a “get to know the writer better” type of blogging exercise, with a couple of rules attached: 1. Answer all 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you. 2. Nominate elevenDown the rabbit hole….

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Hey, folks! It’s me. Below we have a first for this site: a guest post! This entry is by A.B. Keuser, a speculative fiction author who, by her own words, “spends a lot of time making things up and figuring fun ways to kill people.” Here she discusses her methods of tracking her writing progress. Enjoy!!! ——- I track my writing by day. It’s a practice I took up in 2013 when I decided to write 1,000,000-words in one year, and I’ve kept with it since because it gives me some really great feedback. Much like Kelly, I keep trackDown the rabbit hole….

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Greetings, programs! It’s been a while since I updated my progress and/or linked some other stuff around the Writersphere, so…I’m now going to update my progress and link some stuff around the Writersphere. Wow-za! :: I think I have a title for Lighthouse Boy. I’m not sure yet; I like to live with titles a bit before I decide if they’re right for the books. Kind of like breaking in new shoes, I guess. As for actually writing the book, I’m closing in on the end. I think I’m two or three chapters away — more likely three, but you neverDown the rabbit hole….

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I saw that writer A B Keuser writes a monthly post highlighting the previous month’s productivity, and that struck me as a good idea, so here’s how my month of March went! Some of this has been covered by my update post from the other day, but here are some actual numbers: This spreadsheet is where I track my daily writing output on whatever it is that I’m drafting at the time, and then I leave notes in the next field on editing progress on other projects. So in March I wrote just over 27,000 words in Lighthouse Boy, whilst gettingDown the rabbit hole….

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So what do you do when you finish writing a novel? What happens after you publish it? I can’t speak for every writer out there, but for me, the answer is clear: I start the next one. There was a teevee show about ten years ago, called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It was created by Aaron Sorkin, and was his first big project after The West Wing. In all honesty, it wasn’t very good, for a lot of reasons, and it only lasted a single season. But there were some wonderful moments in it, including one that’s myDown the rabbit hole….

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If you’re a writer these days, you pretty much have to engage in social media in some way or other, unless you are a sufficiently big name that maybe you don’t have to but it’s fun to do so (see King, Stephen and Rowling, JK). But there are a lot of social media options out there, and each one has its own “lay of the land”, so I figured I’d break down each one that I use a lot and describe how I use them. An opening proviso: While different aspects of my personality tend to show up on eachDown the rabbit hole….

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In a comments thread on another writer’s Instagram feed the other day, the question of how to multi-task as a writer came up. Here is my approach: Sooner or later in anything written by Aaron Sorkin, somebody will say: “We don’t have time to do one thing at a time!” It’s always uttered in a time of a big flurry of activity, usually by one of Our Heroes, as they gear up for several conflicts at once. What does this have to do with writing? Well, I have first drafts to write and I have existing drafts to edit. I don’tDown the rabbit hole….

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There’s quite a wonderful thing going on in the Instagram world this month! It’s one of those daily photo challenges, but this one — hashtagged #AuthorLifeMonth — is geared specifically to writers, as a way of showing off a little of who they are and what they do. And of course I’m participating! I’ll feature my photos for that tag here, throughout the month. Day 1: Your Books. Here are mine, on my own shelf! How cool is that. Day 2: Author Pic. I’ve used a different author pic on each book thus far; this is the one I usedDown the rabbit hole….

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I posted this image last week to Instagram, and someone asked about it:   What do I mean by this? Why would I claim to not be a writer, but rather a storyteller? What I mean is simply this: I am more focused on the final product than I am the process. Writing is the job; writing is the work. There’s nothing at all wrong with that, because the writing is necessary. But sticking with my metaphor from my post about first drafts, I find it helpful to maintain my focus not on the laying of the pipe or theDown the rabbit hole….

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So I saw this little quiz-thing on another writer’s blog (Julia Grantham‘s, to be precise), and though I haven’t been tagged with it, I’m not going to wait. So here’s a bit about me as a writer, for anyone who might be new to my particular…idiom! When did you first start writing? Was being a writer something you always aspired to be? I’ve loved writing and telling stories for as long as I can remember. I didn’t decide to start taking writing really seriously, though, until the late 1990s, when I started working heavily on a fantasy novel and writingDown the rabbit hole….