How I Quit My Job and Became a Freelance Writer

The trend this week in blogs I've been reading seems to be "How to Sell Your Books" through social media. I've decided to take the blogs' advice as well as pepper in a bit of my own while also shamelessly plugging my self-published book about writing, "How I Quit My Job and Became a Freelance Writer."

I think this subject is worthy of a post because so many writers out there, though the figures are changing more drastically every day, are relying on getting picked up by publishers. Yes, I still buy a lot of physical books, but e-books are gaining in popularity and are arguably much more accessible and convenient than physical books. For example, in an article from the Huffington Post in 2012, over 21% of Americans had read an e-book and they read an average of eight more books per year than those who didn't. 

What am I getting at?

Anybody can be a writer!

The One Rule to Being Successful: Keep on Keeping On

I want to become a successful blogger, writer, teacher, student of the world, friend, wife, and mother. Every one of these goals is earned through perseverance, hard work, and a lifetime of practice and improvement. But, as humans, we rarely think in terms of decades. For example, we have a hard time with "I'm going to give up every Friday night to write from now on and then ten years from now I might have one or two really great books." Instead we lose sight of our goals temporarily, decide they're not feasible, or convince ourselves that they're just not that important to us. For now.

But then what happens? A few months pass and you realize you haven't posted a single blog post. You realize how  much fun you had writing a blog, the rush it gave you, and the sense of accomplishment you felt when you increased your readership from a measly one to a whole two people. Now you have to start all over.

The 7 Worst Characteristics About YA Books

I consider myself a Young Adult author in the sense that I'm most interested and most comfortable in this genre. Because I write YA fiction, I also read a ton of it. Or maybe that's the other way around? Maybe I'm so interested in it because I've read so much of it. Regardless, YA is my jam. That's why I need to do this post. There are some incredible YA books that I feel everyone needs to read with complex characters, smart plots, and narrative voices that say "Reader, I trust you to keep up." There are also YA books that do the exact opposite of these things and I've compiled a list of the 7 worst characteristics of many YA books so you and I can be cognizant of them in our own writing.

Annoyingly Hip
We've all read books that make us cringe with their slang, technology, and Mean-Girls-on-steroids type interactions. To me this is a little bit hard to overcome in writing because you want modern narrative and you convince yourself this is the way to do it. But there can be too much of a good thing here, we need to make sure we use this modern-speak in moderation. You can only mention Twitter, iPads, Apps, and popular websites so many times before readers say "Okay, we get it. The characters are teens in the 21st century..."

Making the Time to Write When You're Busy

As the summer ends and the school year begins I am faced with too much to fill my plate and nothing I can give up. So what do you do when you're faced with these dilemmas day after day? You still write. You write in any spare moment even for just a few minutes.

I'd be a hypocrite if I said I've never put my writing on hiatus, but this post is just as much for me as it is for everyone else out there. We need to stay pumped, focused, and...sane.

So how do you make the time to write when it seems like every minute of your day is spoken for?

Building a Twitter Platform from Scratch

Confession time. Until about a week ago I was kinda sorta anti-Twitter. I'm not sure why I never got into it, I think it was a cross between hating the constraint and the perceived neediness of it all. I hated feeling like I was trying so hard to connect with people and be witty.

*cough* circle-jerk *cough*

But about a week ago my boyfriend talked me into re-activating my Twitter account. I'd made one about a year prior but never got the hang of it, so it sat unused like a pair of roller skates after the 80s.

I digress. But it's worth pointing out that no one roller skates anymore. Blades are where it's at.

So I stumbled through six or seven of my most used passwords to try and resuscitate the feeble thing and after only a few minutes I was in! With...2 followers, who I didn't know. Now is the point of my journey that I share the fact that I'm basically a closet writer. I write for me and it's a part of my life that is semi-private from my friends and family. I like that I get to be someone else  and not have to worry about someone not liking what I have to say. I feel like a teenager that is just growing in to her body and developing her own personality. I'm still in that awkward hone-your-voice stage.

My Facebook page is where I keep in touch with people from past lives. My Twitter page is my attempt at building a platform from which to strengthen my own writing career, but also to network with important people in the business.

Staying Motivated After the Excitement of Beginning Your Novel Wears Off

Starting a novel can be an incredible rush. New characters, an idea that just seems so original, who wouldn't want to pick it up? I begin each of my books so confident that I convince myself this will be the book that I get published. This will be the first of many chart topping successes. And most importantly, this will be the one that lets me quit my day job.

A few days in to writing and the infectious excitement inevitably wears off and you have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment. The demon on your shoulder whispers convincingly in your ear, "You think this is good? Your characters are all watered down versions of what you had in mind. Your story is boring. And you don't know how to fix any of it. Maybe you should just step away for a few days to think about it."

No!

Coming from someone who has listened to that demon, don't do it. Sure, the story may be turning out different than you expected, you may have trouble finding the right words, and your characters seem a little blah but (let's see how many cliches we can apply) Rome wasn't built in a day, each journey starts with just one step, and..that's it. Two. I could only think of two.

The important thing here is that we remember that this feeling is going to come and we prepare ourselves to face it head on. I'm about 7,000 words into a new novel right now that doesn't have a clear arc or direction. There are three main characters and I am having an incredibly hard time staying focused. The demon on my shoulder whispers for me to give up because if I'm having a hard time focusing on my own book how can I expect anyone else to want to read it? Touche, demon. But I'm not going to give up, instead I'm going to ride myself a little bit harder.

I think I'm having trouble focusing because I haven't really given myself undivided time to think through my story. I got the initial idea, I rushed through some basic outlining and character development, and I jumped into writing.

5 Steps to Starting a Novel from Scratch

Okay, okay, these aren't necessarily consecutive, all-inclusive steps that will guide you from the blank page and blinking cursor in front of you to a tidy 90,000 word book. But it's a start. And hopefully it will give you a good idea of how to get started and what to expect as you plow through.

May the force be with you. I don't even like Star Wars, I don't know why I said that. May the odds be ever in your favor? That's better, but hopefully no one dies...

Step 1: Be crazy. 

You need to be just the right amount of insane to come up with a books' worth of thoughts, write them down, read through them, and then berate yourself repeatedly until you questions your whole purpose in life...And then try and convince someone that it's the best thing since The Bible. If you're not crazy enough you will likely get a chapter or two into the book (one or two sittings) think "Well, that was fun..." and put it down forever. That's fine. It's what most people who start a book do, but you need to be prepared to push through that feeling. Write when you don't want to, even if it's just 500 words and it's junk that you'll inevitably throw out in a fit of rage. Eventually you'll get your groove back and you and Stella will have a finished book!

Step 2: Start with something.

You don't have to know exactly what is going to happen every step of the way but, good god man, start with something. As a freelance writer I wrote short stories, novels, non-fiction informative e-books, and I've started several of my own books and it feels like I do something different every time. I've started with no plan except one character (basically me in the flesh...or at least how I like to think of myself...) and a general idea of what I wanted the genre to be. That's right, the genre. I was pretty sure I wanted it to be Young Adult, but I didn't know if it would be fantasy, sci-fi, romance, etc. And then I really liked typing with a potty mouth so I almost threw the Young Adult out the window. Trust me. It doesn't work. Have a plan.

All Writers Are Narcissists

Don't get me wrong, I think we're all a bit narcissistic on a basic, human level. But narcissism is the life blood of writers. We, and I include myself to be generous (To me, not to other, more talented writers. Though that would be narcissistic of me, so...), think we have something so unique and profound to say. I don't write to add to the piles of unread material out there, though likely that is where most of my stuff will end up, I write because I have something to say. Or at least I think I do. Sometimes I get half way through and ask myself "What was this supposed to be about again?"

How Freelance Work is Dominating the Job Market

I got a nice email from Elance today informing be that there are now over 53 million Americans doing freelance work! Granted, I believe the number includes people who may only do freelance on the side or a couple of times a year to earn some spare change, but still....okay?

With this huge shift in workforce setting, what does that mean for those of us who freelance for a living vs those of us who don't?

Companies are relying more and more on utilizing freelancers, they often only need them for projects or jobs that have a finite time frame, so it ends up being much cheaper to hire a freelancer rather than a full time employee with all those pesky benefits. 2% of the standard work force positions are being awarded to freelancers.

Countdown to editing my book

It's about that time...It's been 4 weeks, I only have two weeks left until it's editing time and so many things are on my mind.

I work a full-time job and devoted my after work free time to writing. Near the end of my book, I was on a roll with a writing commitment of 1,000 word a day. Since my book-writing hiatus started, I have been  doing my best to fill the extra time with value added stuff (and by that, I mean value added to writing).

I started the blogging class, launched a Twitter account, joined a critique circle and have been critiquing a lot of stories, began doing weekly short stories, and I researched a lot about the editing process and finding an agent. SO I've found myself in this little cocoon of fun things to keep me busy. Things that matter, things that are helping me become a better writer. And now I'm like a kid graduating high school. What's going to happen to me now? Blogging and I will be friends forever...right? I'm nervous that when I start writing/editing again, I will no longer have time for all these little things that I'm nervous to give up.

How to create a mind map

For last week's Blogging 101 assignment, we were asked to create a mind map for our blogs. It wasn't super hard, I plopped some lines, circles, and text onto a page and began labeling each of my thought categories. I did notice, though, that others seemed to struggle a bit with creating the structure of the mind map.

SO, along with the actual theory of mind mapping and why it's helpful, I'm going to post about how to actually get a pretty neat mind map onto your paper.

Why is a mind map helpful?
Do you ever sit down to blog and just CAN'T COME UP WITH ANYTHING? Then this will be helpful to you... Say that I want to blog about learning how to write (which I am), I don't have to constrain myself to JUST learning how to write, I can actually post samples of my writing, I can blog about the other sides of writing that don't get as much attention (editing, getting an agent, writing query letters, things to consider during publishing, marketing, etc.)

How do you get started?
Easy. Start with a circle in the middle of the page with your blog topic.

 

How to give negative feedback

Giving negative feedback is never fun, but sometimes it's an obligation. Being an aspiring writer, I feel that it is part of my duty to be honest and constructive of others' work. Especially in an environment developed for giving/receiving critiques. No one learns from an empty "That was so great! A few typos, but I loved it!" I'm not saying never give people compliments, but if you really have no suggestions of how to make the piece any better, then tell them EXACTLY what you loved about it instead. This way the author knows what it is they're doing right.

Again, it is far from pleasant to give someone negative feedback, but there are ways to make it a little easier.

1. The age-old compliment sandwich. This is my favorite, my GO-TO. I love me a good ol' compliment sandwich. I'll tell the author what I really liked about what they did (maybe they have amazing description, vivid imagery, they really put me in the scene). Then I give them a little constructive criticism (like the fact that the character wasn't developed quite enough, or that the story doesn't have a defined point in the first chapter). What comes next? That's right. Another compliment (like the intriguing hook they have at the end of the first chapter).

Your First Novel by Ann Rittenburg and Laura Whitcomb

"Your First Novel" was the first entire book about writing and publishing that I've read. It came recommended through Writer's Digest and I thought I'd give it a try. This book was great for two reasons. It came with some great, well written advice, and it covered both writing and publishing in depth (and everything in between).

The first half of the book was written by Laura Whitcomb, who is an established author. She wrote the writing half and covered everything from generating ideas and encouraging creativity, to actually going through the editing and rewriting process.

Teen attracting blog, or not?

I received some very good advice on my first blogging assignment from the Blogging 101 professor. Essentially, the feedback was that what I'm currently blogging about is not directed toward my ideal audience.

I identified that I am starting a blog to build my author platform and attract potential readers. The books I am writing are YA, so my ideal audience is teens (in my case, late teens, early twenties). Thus far my blog has mostly been about my journey to becoming a writer, including learning how to blog - and it has been SUCH A BLAST! What I thought would feel like homework has grown to be my favorite hobby!

SO I have a dilemma. My ideal audience for this blog should be the people that will most likely buy my book (and, as the professor pointed out, my current blog is directed toward aspiring writers who may buy my book out of support but will most likely not be fans of my work). So I have a choice here with a few different options.

1. Continue the blog as I have been, because I really really like what I've been writing about and it has been incredibly satisfying and FUN. BUT, I may not gain much of a relevant audience, amounting to not a whole lot of help to my author platform.

A day in the life of an amateur writer

I'm am, little-by-little, realizing all the hard work that goes into being a writer. I'm not even talking about the big stuff here, like the actual writing and getting published part. Everything else is what's stressing me out. I could write, revise, and submit queries like it's my job (or just a really cool hobby).

Maybe I'm struggling so much because I don't have a set routine, or because I'm still learning a lot of the basics. In this post, I'm going to write about just how much stuff I'm still trying to learn, and how hard it is for me to do that with so much available information!

4PM I have just gotten back from a long day at work and all I want to do is relax and put my brain on silent for awhile, but ALAS! I have goals, so silence need wait for another day!

4:15PM My computer is booted up and I am getting online. Or am I? No, because the hotel I've been staying at for the last several weeks has terrible internet unless you're down in the breakfast nook. So...

4:30PM A have lugged all of my essentials down to the breakfast nook. I'm not sure if the other fellow internet users down here appreciate my Canadian pajama pants tucked into my wool socks. But no one asked them, did they?

4:45PM I pull up so many pages that I've convinced myself I need to read everyday. I'm still one vote behind the first place holder on the latest Writer's Digest competition I entered. Nothing new on Facebook except invites for games. I check the traffic from my blog and sigh in disappointment as I realize the 11 new page views are all SPAM. Hmph. I check some of my favorite blogs. (Usually in this time period I would be hammering out a few hundred words, but right now I have a break because I'm letting it fester for a few weeks so I can prepare for the revision slaughter I'm going to give it).

5:15PM Eric calls me and I talk to him on his drive home from work

6:00PM Oh my goodness. It's already 6PM, I need to go downstairs and meet my group for dinner. There are 8 of us, so...

8:00PM Yep, it was a 2 hour dinner. And now I'm ready to get to work, right after I call Eric

8:20PM NOW I'm ready to get to work, right after I shower...

8:35PM But seriously, I'm going to get to work now. Hmmm...I wonder if I got a message back from Critique Corner on the critique I just gave? Yes? Well I better write a reply...

9:00PM It's almost time for bed and I haven't written my blog post for the day! Quick! Pump something out about some book I read recently! Woo. That was close. Ooh, already one page view! Vampirestat, dammit!

First Manuscript done!

I finished the first draft of my FIRST manuscript!!!! This is such a huge accomplishment for me. New to writing, I found it easy to lose interest after the first 10,000 words. All of the advice I read said that this was totally normal and that the best way to get through it is to set quotas for yourself and it worked!

I promised myself that I would write at least 1,000 words a day at least 5 days a week and I did it! Now I'm going to set it aside for a month or so, so I can approach it with new eyes for revision. I've already got a running list of all the things I want to change, but I tried to keep the critic in me shut up until I was finished.

And what am I going to do in the next two months while I'm letting my manuscript fester, you ask? I'm going to blog my brains out. You're going to get sick of me I'm going to blog so much. Actually I probably won't blog any more than usual, but hopefully they will at least get better...Eric bought me a seat in a 6-week blogging class, so hopefully I learn some things and get some feedback (and report out on it, of course).

I am also going to focus on writing some short stories. So far I have written three. My first one was my best one so far. It was a 750 word short story contest for Writer's Digest (which I'm currently in 2nd place for!) but incidentally, is my best piece of work to date. I almost wish it hadn't gone so well, because now I just expect everything to turn out that well with as little work as I put into it. Not the case, apparently...

My second one, was decent. It was a flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig. We had to smash subgenres and I got Weird West and Haunted House. Neither of which was I familiar. But it was out of my comfort zone, and I am all about getting out of that good ole comfort zone.

My third one, was a little rape-y. Like, A WHOLE LOT more rape-y than I had intended. I actually like it a lot better than my second one though. It was another flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig where we had to use a fantasy character generator to base our story around. Mine was "An efficient milkmaid is reduced to stealing to survive."

So anyway, after posting my story, I thought "I wonder if I could sell this..." After all, who doesn't need a good rape story? And I started doing research on submitting to magazines.

AND HERE'S WHAT I'VE FOUND!

First, I should mention that it does not seem at all feasible that someone could write short stories for a living, click this link for the math (at the bottom of the page).

If you didn't click the link, then here's the poorly done synopsis. The best way to sell your short stories is in this order: sell first rights to a magazine, when you get the rights back, sell second rights to a different magazine, then put a few short stories into a collection and sell them.

I have begun the first step except I think I may have done it in the wrong order. I have the stories posted on my blog so I'm not sure if that counts as technically being published or not. I'm assuming it does.

How do you know which magazines to submit to? I used Duotrope like the link above suggests. It was actually really handy. You can start with a free 7-day subscription and then it's $5/month or $50/year. AND, they send you an email with directions on how to cancel your subscription should you wish to do so once the free trial is over.

You just have to put in how long your story is, the genre, what types of magazine, what kind of pay, etc. And it will compile a list of magazines that match your search.

My search gave me 4 magazines, 2 of which don't pay, so I saved those for last and haven't tried them yet (you have to try one-at-a-time most of the time, typically you can't have the same story in two-magazines at a time). I chose Shock Totem to try first. I read their guidelines, they were very clear that if any of the guidelines were violated, they would completely dismiss the piece.

Basically all I had to do was provide the title, word count, and a cover letter -- wait, what? A cover letter? Yeah...

The only cover letters I have done have been for legit job applications with resumes and the whole gauntlet. I didn't know what to put in a cover letter for a 999 word story. I just put in a little bit about myself (that I'm a new writer, trying different things and stretching different writing muscles, blah, blah) and then attached the short story.

Now I just have to wait until they either accept or reject me. They give themselves 60 days so I don't expect to know anything anytime soon. But, even if I do get it, I'll only get $.05 per word so that's only $50.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and get some things published for no pay at all, just to get more familiar with the process of giving up rights and getting them back and how that whole process works.

Blogging for money

As I said in some of my previous posts, this blog isn't really going to have any sort of expertise in it at all. Of any sort. On anything.

One of the things I've been researching is how to earn money from your blog, mostly out of curiosity. And, well, if I'm doing this anyways, I may as well find out if I could be earning money from it, right?

Okay, so I've put together a list of what I've found out so far and my opinions on each. I may start trying some of these soon just to see what the process is like. I've also included links to other, more knowledgeable sources, in case you want REAL information.

1. I think the most popular way of making money from your blog is by using ads.  From what I've learned, the most common way of doing this is Google AdSense. Before I actually did any research on this, I thought it would be pretty easy to earn money with this. BUT, it's not as simple as it seems.

Not only do people have to visit your blog (which is hard enough to get, trust me...) they have to actually click on the ad while they're there. NO ONE DOES THAT SHIT ANYMORE! We're all so nervous that we're going to get a virus or bombarded with ads that we basically stick to known links and pages.

Further more, you have to apply for the program (unless you use blogger), and they are very serious about not breaking their rules. For instance, they'll be able to tell if you are clicking on your own ads or urging readers to click on ads and they will ban you from it.

For a blogger with my following (which is the opposite of vast), I could maybe earn a dollar in a month. But probably not, because I wouldn't be getting ads for things like writer's digest or blogging seminar's. I'd probably get ads for things like the Snuggie (Remember how we all made fun of it...and yet we all ended up with one?)

So, I may sign up for this so I can report out on whether it's worth it or not. And to see what silly ads I earn.

2.  You can sell the content. This is true for a few different blog types. I do short fiction on mine, in the near future I'm going to test the waters and try and sell one or two of the stories. I think I am going to go the magazine route, I don't have enough to do a short book. I am considering putting together a collection of ten or so and testing the waters with e-books on Amazon. I'm considering this because I might try and publish my first novel using that route.

Then you have the informative bloggers who may be able to make a book out of their posts on the subject of their expertise.

And of course there is the blogger that many aspire to be. The blogger who has a very interesting story and others will pay to make a book or film out of it. Most of us are not near interesting enough for this. But, hey, if cooking yourself through Julia Child's cookbook will do the trick, then there is still hope for the rest of us...

3. Since a lot of bloggers ARE experts in their field, they turn their blog into a platform for them to leverage in order to further their careers. This could include doing a speaking circuit, holding coaching seminars (Penelope Trunk blogs a lot about career advice and has leveraged her blog to help market her services).

Basically my whole purpose for this blog is to use it as a platform. Right now I am documenting my journey of becoming a writer/blogger. Eventually though, I will want to publish my book and hopefully will be able to leverage my blog to do so.

That's all I've got so far, when I actually proceed with these I'll blog about what it actually takes. And I'm always open for tips on how to make the most of my blog, so feel free to let me know if I've left anything major out!

Blogging identity crisis!

First of all, this whole blogging every day thing is way harder than it looks. It started out with two, maybe three, ideas of things to write about. Now that I have written about those things once (my journey of learning blogging, writing, and gardening) it's really hard for me to come up with other things to blog about. I've already told you all about how I'm starting to learn about those things. I've basically told you what I've learned so far.

But I feel like this is supposed to be more about my journey to getting good at these things and less about being an expert at any one of them. SO I don't think this is going to be an informative blog. Votes are in and judges are on board - non-informative it is.

And there is one major thing I'm struggling with, my voice.

Do, re, mi, fa... NO, NOT THAT VOICE!

I'm having a mini-identity crisis with my blog. I want so much to be successful at this but it's totally uncharted territory to me. Do I want to be smart? Witty? A hub of movie and book reviews? A collection of short stories?  I've done a little bit of all of these, maybe not super successfully.

One of the things I'm trying to keep in mind is what I like to read on blogs. What are the blogs I keep returning to?  So far only two. Check Wendig and Penelope Trunk. These aren't the only two I read, but they're the only two I absolutely have to read what they write next.

Chuck is incredible unique and funny and gives pretty great writing advice. Penelope has had an incredibly interesting life (though a bit traumatic). From having Asperger's, to being molested by her father when she was younger, she had bulimia, she was a professional beach volleyball player, has started up multiple companies, and has an incredibly successful blog (and provides tips on how you can be successful too).

The point is, that these two bloggers have very interesting and very unique perspectives and voices. I want that to be me! I am so good at researching and learning about how to do something. But finding your writing voice is not something that there are step-by-step directions on how to do.

But, alas! I have found my first voice! It wasn't mine, it was a character in my book. Not a particularly big character, but I clearly pictured him, I was him!

I watched him walk across the room, stared into the eyes of his worst enemy. I even gave a soliloquy on his behalf (I may have gotten carried away with my new-found voice, so maybe that will get cut. But still...). So even though I am gasping for air with this whole blogging thing, at least I'm making some sort of progress...with something.

Wishing I could find a "Finding Your Voice For Dummies"

My first subgenre smash

I went to Chuck Wendig's blog today to check out what this week's Flash Fiction would be. It's "Smashing Subgenres." There were 20 different fiction subgenres, and Chuck asked that we randomly generate (or just pick) two of the subgenres and write a short story in those styles (I got Haunted House and Weird Western).

I had no idea where to start, especially because I had no idea how to write in those subgenres, but below is my process for getting from "Huh? What the hell is weird west?" to "I think the cowboy and the ghost should be attracted to each other"

1. First, find out what the subgenres are, maybe read a sample of some of the more well known authors in that category. Get a good feeling for what readers typically expect from those subgenres.

2.  Write down the first words that come to mind when you think of the subgenre. For example, this is exactly what I wrote for Haunted House. Ghosts, mystery, casper, family history, tragedy. There, I hit something that I think I can actually work with, family history and tragedy can give me a very interesting story and may meld quite well with Weird West.

I did the same thing for my Weird West category.

3. Write a brief couple of sentences fleshing out what's going to happen in the story (maybe a little back story too, to organize your thoughts). Keep asking yourself why things are happening (as an engineer this helps me because we use a 5-Why tool to get to root causes in manufacturing problems).

4. Character info. I know now (from my brief few sentences), that I have two main characters. A woman-turned-ghost, who is Native American, and a man who is a ranch hand, vampire slayer. Some of the things I did here were to look up coming Native American names, picture someone in my mind and write down their characteristics (physical and otherwise), and look up some common accessories for cowboys...

5. Now, I'm ready to actually start writing. I don't begin at the beginning of this story, but half way through, I only have 1,000 words so I want to make sure they're all interesting.

6. I write. I just barrel through it, not worrying about word count, just making sure all the necessary detail and back-story get the appropriate mention. Does the story make sense? Did I leave any loose ends? Are the characters believable?

7. All the words are on paper, and I do three things. First, I check my word count, 1,400 words. Ouch, got to cut about 400. Second, I read through the story, removing unnecessary detail that I spent twenty minutes coming up with, and removing scenes that don't add value to the story. Then, I email it to my boyfriend (who is at a one-year-old's birthday party and thank you so much for being supportive and taking the time to read this for me!) so he can let me know if it makes sense, if it's interesting, and point out any weak spots.

8. Revise, revise, revise. Focusing on a few of the main points Eric pointed out, I elaborate on some flashbacks to try and make sure the history of what's going on makes sense. Then I work on the ending a little bit, so it doesn't just slap you in the face unannounced. And apparently I never mentioned my character was a man, so I have to make sure that's something that the reader know too.

9. Post it and congratulate yourself on stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new!

Flash Fiction: Desperate Slayer

Thanks to Chuck Wendig, I am able to exercise a new writing muscle by trying my hand at smashing two subgenres into one short story. My two, randomly generated, subgenres were Haunted House and Weird West. Hope you enjoy!

 Desperate Slayer 

The vampire sank his teeth into my bicep, he would’ve ripped it apart had it not been for the rope I tied around his legs a moment before. The idiot creature already forgot. I pulled the rope and watched the vampire fall to the floor as his feet were yanked out from under him.

I took my gun from its holster and shot him effortlessly in the heart, turned on my heel and left immediately. I swung my leg over the back of my horse, careful not to put pressure on my injured arm, and gave him a silent nudge with my spurs

In the last year there was a surge of vampires, they started popping up everywhere and they were no longer afraid of us. My home was the only place I felt completely safe anymore. That is, until she started making appearances.

It was harmless at first, she popped up a few weeks ago for a few seconds and would disappear without a word. She had started sticking around for longer and longer, staring at me with cold, dark eyes. Three nights ago, she communicated with me for the first time. She showed me vivid scenes of Native American villages getting pulverized. White men on horseback drove families from their homes and killed those who did not leave willingly.