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faythompsonauthor.bsky.social
I write Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror that is slightly bent, a bit fun and certain to be an adventure. I also art. I am currently illustrating chapter headers for "The Inspectors." Nevada! NO AI here. DMs closed!
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I have the husband of a friend coming over tomorrow to finish the install on a stove top and plug in a new dishwasher, both in my larger house. Should be interesting and needs doing.

Pool was busy but I got my laps in. The woman who I've been in the same lane with twice, shouldn't be in that lane. She basically walks and gabs over the rope to people in the walking lane.

Writers are the focus of many scams. These range from selling you every kind of digital tool possible, to promises of sales, fortune etc. Anything that sounds really good that costs you money is likely a scam. A writer needs a pen and paper. #writingcommunity #booksky #scams #badproducts

Make sure you close-read all contracts. Make sure you browser search the company offering you a contract to see if other writers complain about them. Heed the warnings. There are bad publishing contracts out there that will take your rights. Say NO to these. #writingcommunity #booksky #contracts

You should start your physical story file at the same time you start submitting short stories. Every story will have its own sales history, set of contracts, copyright etc. Buy files. Buy a file box. Label a file. Stuff it with the story, the contracts, all legal documents. #writingcommunity #books

Writing is a commitment to yourself. Can you commit to yourself? Everyone knows that commitment is a relationship that includes passionate words, in the moment. But, it is really about hanging in there on days without the passion. Can you do it daily? #writingcommunity #booksky #commitment #write

You can opt for foreign sales at the same time you are submitting for regular sales. Foreign rights are different from regular rights. Look up a book that explains your story rights and how to have more than one sale on one story going at the same time. #writingcommunity #booksky #foreignrights

Not only should you submit new work on Fridays (or once a week) you should check on other short stories already out there. Many submissions come with a response date telling you how long they usually take, this date should be on your submission tracker for you. #writingcommunity #booksky #submit

Don't expect every word you write to be good. They won't be. But, you can overcome lots of internal obstacles that you tell yourself plague you. You can write about a pencil. The topic doesn't matter, at first. You are exercising the writing part of your brain. #writingcommunity #booksky #writing

Repeating a behavior every day for a month can change your entire life. Start with intentionally deciding to write every day. It can be in a notebook, on your phone, on your computer. Simply commit to being an active writer. It gets easier as you do it daily. #writingcommunity #booksky #writing

If you wander around in your writing life behavior it isn't helpful. Put yourself on a writing schedule so that you write daily. How much depends on your individual speed as this varies wildly. It is the routine that replaces motivation and muse. Write. #writingcommunity #booksky #submitting #write

How many short stories, poems, flash, nonfiction have you written so far this year? How many of those are out selling themselves for you today? You should be on #11 for the year so far. You must do the work for you to become successful. No excuses. #writingcommunity #booksky #submitting #shorts

Friday! I'm ready mostly. Today is where I encourage you to get that latest lazy short story out there to earn its keep. Boot it out. Wave as it leaves your computer. Seriously, practice submissions on Fridays. Keep your work in rotation. Nothing submitted, nothing sold. #writingcommunity #booksky

You cannot overfill your brain. You CAN underfill your brain or fill it with garbage. Carry a tiny notebook with its own pencil or shorty pen to make quick notes, on the fly. Later, look things up and read up on the world's weird, there is a lot of it. #writingcommunity #booksky #weirdisgood

A writer must feed their brain. You need to go see things, enter new places, travel if you can, randomly pick up books in a library, eat different food, talk to people with weird hobbies. Expand yourself. The ideas will come. Do something different. #writingcommunity #booksky #growingideas #go

Sometimes new writers feel like they don't have more ideas. This is a bit common. Writers need to feed their brains. Chase rabbits down holes. Read science articles, garden tidbits, golfing tech... Read all over the place with things you never heard of. #writingcommunity #booksky #reading #ideas

Looks like no pool today. I sort of guessed that. I will run up to the post office but leave other things for tomorrow when I'm officially out and about.

The pool has voice mail on so it may be closed even though the website says open. I'll check again in an hour.

If you are reading a comp book today, graph it. This means you identify the crisis points and where each of these falls in the word count. Yes, there are sweet spots. Your readers have learned expectations of the rhythm of the books they like best. #writingcommunity #booksky #graphing #reads

Today is a lap swim day for me I think. I need to find out if the pool is open as today is a national holiday and I go to a community pool. I also have a few stops afterwards so a busy day for me overall. It was 96 degrees here yesterday, so hot. How is your life going?

Ongoing good habits and practices are essential to you becoming successful as a writer. You need to target your success and not plan on poof magic intervention. Success is mostly about doing the hard work over a long time period. It's not easy for fast. #writingcommunity #booksky #habits #success

You should list WHEN you read and reported on a specific book in your file. This way, when you reference a title you will know how old your reference is. In general, you want to stay with newer novels 1-5 years old. Write your book reports carefully as you will forget. #writingcommunity #booksky

Your book report file should be added to every single year. If you write fantasy and are comping Harry Potter you are 30 years out of date and the 'reader' of your comp note will likely think you wanted a movie but never read the book anyway. #writingcommunity #booksky #comparables #reading

As a writer in X sub-genre you are expected to be an expert at what you are writing. I don't care if this is your first novel ever, your competence is wider than that. You are starting where you are this exact second. So start. Books reference books. #writingcommunity #booksky #comparables

You aim toward full competence in your exact subgenre. You should know the top awards for your subgenre, who is winning them, who represents those winners. You should recognize the top writers in your exact subgenre. You should know their names. #writingcommunity #booksky #comparables #readers

You should always have comp books on order through your library system as they will be popular when they publish and popular means not available. Get on the list for each book. Stop being a slacker excuse maker. Library books are FREE so skint or not you can afford them. #writingcommunity #booksky

The reason I talk about the same topics every week is because writers are notorious procrastinators and taking actual steps toward their own success often feels wrong. We are opening the success door micro-inch by micro-inch. Overcoming internal obstacles is the deal. #writingcommunity #booksky

Learn about the environment where your novel belongs. Writing and publishing are a business. As a business you have buyers. End goal are readers. Mid-goal may be agents, editors and publishers. You are supposed to be competent and trustworthy. #writingcommunity #booksky #business #reading

Find out the agent who sold the novel to the publisher. Put that agent's name in your agent's file. List the publisher. List the editor. Do your due diligence. Find the agent online, find out where they are going (to conferences) and consider attending. #writingcommunity #booksky #comparables

Every week on Thursday I remind you to stay up on your comp reading. Go to your library and order the top books in hardcover as the hardcover is the BEST version of that book. Do your word count estimate on the book. Do a personal book report for your comp file. #writingcommunity #booksky #books

By identifying where your novel belongs and being specific in your metatags you move your novel into the right algorithm within the site where it is sold. If your readers read a specific genre then they browse a specific genre. Your covers need to be aimed at them. #writingcommunity #booksky #books

All genre are not the same. Each genre has their own expectations by its readers. Some genre favor first person, some third person. All genre have a sweet spot in terms of length of book. Some genre like to head hop. Some don't. Some genre expect hard science - many don't. #writingcommunity #book