Healthy Writers & Writing as a Business

Friday, October 5, 2012


In terms of exercise this week, I got in three half hour sessions between Monday and Thursday. Weekends are tough for exercise, but I’m sure mopping and sweeping can add to my healthy minutes, right?  Check into the Healthy Writers’ Club to see how the others are doing. Join, and stay accountable, if you have a mind.

This week, I managed to turn 1,000 words of a story written ages ago, into a 5,000 –word saga of betrayal. I’m adding that to the word count for the second volume of Don’t Get Mad…Get Even, which I’ve kept free on Amazon. To my surprise, it has copped the number one spot in the free Kindle store several times since April of this year. Haven’t figured out yet how that happened, other than me tweeting randomly now and then. Good thing is, that book hasn’t left the top ten since April and so I’m keeping the same theme for the second cover with brand recognition in mind.

Anyway, the Kicked to the Kerb (Curb for Americans) shorts will be about people who get their walking papers from someone who’s had enough of being abused.

Have you checked lately to find out how many short stories you have lying around that you could be doing something with?  As of now, I have enough to do at least two collections. See how a writer’s job is never done?  

For those of you who are enterprising, old stories can make money for you (no matter how small) if you put them together in an anthology. Little projects like these help us remember that writing can be a is a business, depending on how we treat it and should be treated as such, unless of course we’re writing solely for the pleasure of it.

We’ve had a lot of rain recently and so I leave you with some shots of what’s blooming outside, here in sunny Jamaica. 

Allamanda

Angel's Trumpet
I have no idea what Vine this is, but I like it.

Rain Lillies about to bloom

Rain Lillies

White Rain Lillies
Have a great weekend!

28 comments:

  1. I just signed up for the HWC and posted my first entry. Go us! You are inspiring.

    Good thought on the short stories. I have so many started and abandoned that I just lost the mo for. Lovely flowers!

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  2. Julie, thanks for coming by. Being accountable helps to keep me moving.

    Hope you get the energy to get going on your stories again.

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  3. Love the pics. Congrats on Don't get mad...get even doing so well. Can't wait for the second volume.

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    1. Hey, Sheena, Thanks. It's raining again today, so good news for the rain lillies.

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  4. Good on you for the exercise. I'm not part of the club, but I'm getting better at doing something at least 3 to 4 times a week versus not at all lol!

    Loved the beautiful floral photos. Must make for wonderful viewing beyond the windows.

    I have a group of novellettes I'm thinking of doing something with. Been sitting in the wings. But you make a good point about taking old work and morphing it into something new.

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    1. Angela,
      I'm trying to keep up with exercising. My son makes a mockery of me saying my eyeballs and fingers are the only things getting exercise once I land at the computer in the evening. Want to change that. :)

      Hope you get to do something with those stories. It's amazing the stuff that can come from old, discarded bits and pieces.

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  5. We have Allamanda here, but all the others are new to me. Love those red rain lilies!

    Happy Weekend :)

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    1. Thanks for dropping in, Carol. Flowers make such a lovely difference.

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  6. Awesome getting the exercise in, and woot on the word count! Lovely flower pics too, the allamandas are beautiful. All our flowers here are pretty much gone until spring.

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    1. Elise,thanks. I don't this too many of us this side of the world appreciate the fact that flowers bloom pretty much all year long.

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  7. Your flowers are gorgeous! I really like the hot pink rain lilies. Here the leaves are beginning to change color. I love the fiery orange leaves best

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    1. Hey, Laura. Yeah, the flowers do give me something else to smile about. I took a picture of a hibiscus bush just because the leaves were all yellow. Doesn't strike me too often that we have our version of fall in the Caribbean.

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  8. Lovely flowers. Congrats on staying in the top 10.

    .......dhole

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    1. Thanks, Donna. I had so hoped to do RFW this week, but haven't been on the computer much this weekend.

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  9. You're doing great in the exercise department, Joy! You go, girl. And yes, cleaning does count in calorie burning:)

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    1. Hey, Gwen. Now my son is on the exercise wagon, so that'll keep me motivated. :)

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  10. Nice article, thanks for the information.

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  11. Love the photographs,

    Good on the exercise! And I too am putting together my short stories for a collection on Amazon. Now I'm trying my hand at horror for Halloween month, then maybe romance, and hopefully, mystery. Just a plan, but at least it's a plan!

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    1. Thanks, Yolanda. Wishing you success with your books. Planning is good. I believe is a major part of the foundation for success.

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  12. Wow, I really don't write enough short stories. I love the topic of the book you're writing now though.

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    1. I have to be in the mood to write them and they do keep me in the public eye in the local paper. Don't write a lot of them though as novels are more to my liking.

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  13. Nice flowers! My anthology is still under construction, although I was talking about releasing it in the summer. I want to write three more to make it value for money, as the total wordcount of what I consider good enough for it feels a bit lightweight right now. The other issue is tying it together with some kind of theme. You've certainly set a good example for that!

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    1. Hi, Nick,
      Keeping working on that. Every little bit helps. Lucky for me, I discovered that my stories seem to have a common thread. Sometimes I wonder what that says about me. ;)

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  14. Congratulations on your book's success!

    I like the pictures of the flowers.

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    1. TGE, Thanks. Now, if I was making money from it, that would be pretty cool. But everything in due course. The flowers keep me happy. :)

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  15. After my book launch, I'll be digging for those short stories too.

    Missing JA.

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