Forcing the writing and Marketing tip of the day

There are days when, as an author, the words flow like water over a dam. Ideas rush through the fingers, onto the paper (or through the keyboard) faster than you can write/type.

And then there are those other days.

Part of the process is consistency. Writing. Even if it is garbage. The important part is getting words on the page. You can fix something you've written poorly, but you can't fix something that isn't there at all. With that being said, I've definitely hit a landfill. I'm putting words down, but I'm afraid to read them because I know they aren't coming from the creative, inventive part of my brain. I'm re-establishing my routine after weeks of interruptions and rescheduling. I'm moving the story forward, which is essential, but the river is in drought at the moment, which means the water running over the dam is a trickle and not a spring flood.

With 1,000 words to the good, I begin to think about social networking. Looking up something fun to share. Procrastinating and wasting time because my muse is clearly still on holiday, but the story won't get written unless I write it. And so . . .

Sometimes you have to write garbage to move forward. Keep the trickle flowing. That way, when the rain falls and the deluge sweeps through, at least you have a foundation to wash over, to clean up, instead of allowing the process to dam up with stagnant water.

Do you suppose that it's part of the writing process that authors like to speak in analogies? (Am I just frittering away time instead of writing?)

Under the category of "What I learned today" - I haven't been marketing Heart for Rent as aggressively as I probably should be due to the holidays, distractions, etc. so when Google reminded me that I ought to be doing SOMETHING, I stepped up to the plate. The question for me was how I wanted to track the results of said marketing campaign. Initially, I linked back to my web page, to not only track the hits but also to piggy back with the other books in case something else hit a browser's fancy. The results were somewhat lackluster, so for the second half of the campaign, I linked directly to Amazon hoping for "one click" sales. And something enlightening happened. Amazon has algorithms for everything, doncha know. Including recognizing when a product is getting a lot of hits. Foolish me. I know how many people visited my book page, but that's where it stops. Amazon not only knows how many people visited my Amazon page, they paid it forward and included my book in their email suggestions! Lesson learned.

Back to it! I have a book to write.