New Year, Who This

I know, I know it’s been forever since my last post, but there’s something about getting married and moving that seems to take up a lot of your time. With plans continually getting canceled and shifted, this past year has been more hectic than I care to admit, but with a new year on the horizon, there is so much to share. Firstly, with the onset of 2021 comes an opportunity to commit yourself to finishing that chapter you’ve been working on for five months, sending your manuscript to another publishing company, or working on finalizing your finished product. While I’ve never been one to take on new years resolutions, it would be foolhardy not to take advantage of the energy a new year comes with; you might as well use it to write because you haven’t even opened your word document in weeks.

Something that has really helped me to redouble my efforts with writing, editing, and designing was moving. I moved to McCall, Idaho with my beautiful bride and the atmosphere has been a Godsend. I spent most of my childhood years in McCall the surrounding mountains and forests always instilled in me a sense of wonder, adventure, and awe; I always knew I wanted to move back one day. Atmosphere can be a big help when you’re writing. If you’re stuck in a dingy basement with nothing but four concrete walls to look at, you may find yourself lacking the motivation to work on your novel. If you find yourself struggling to create any ideas worth putting down on paper, go outside. Fresh air, sunlight, and the wonderful sounds of nature can inspire even the most forlorn and lowliest of souls. Something else that I have found to be a wonderful boon to writing in my own life is setting aside times to write with my siblings.

Some of my brothers are aspiring authors as well, and since I have moved much closer to them we’re able to get together and practice our writing skills. Some days we will challenge ourselves and put forth a specific genre and time limit and see what we can come up with. Other times we will just sit down and share our ideas and thoughts, bounce them off each other, and see what the others have to say about them. I will admit that I scarcely ever get to write in my current works during these sessions, but I come away from them invigorated and full of ideas and the willpower to write them down. I would advise every aspiring writer out there to find a similar group, whether it be siblings, friends, or mere acquaintances, and set aside a time to get together; just as iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another.

Something else that I have been excited to share are a few interesting tools that I have found online. Firstly is the self-publishing option that Barnes and Noble offers. The website is https://press.barnesandnoble.com/ and it offers authors an opportunity to print off copies of the books for personal and commercial use. While it may not be the most cost-efficient way to mass-produce your own novel, the website itself is easy enough to use, it shows you step by step what edits are necessary to ensure that your manuscript is ready to print, and you can also have your finished product sold directly in Barnes and Noble stores. This option is certainly not for everyone, but I found it very useful to print off a preliminary copy of my first manuscript so that I could understand what the process would be like as well as determine what changes I would like to see from the perspective of a reader. I have to say that while there were a few tweaks, I am very pleased with the finished result. The next tool that I found was Canva.

To be able to go through the process of printing my own book through Barnes and Noble, I needed to have a cover designed. Since this was only a practice copy and not the real deal I didn’t want to spend money to hire a cover designer, at least not yet. This took me on a web search of cover designing websites and the best option that I found was Canva. It was incredibly easy to use with multiple ways that you could tweak your cover and even had thousands of images to choose from. There’s also an option to purchase Canva Pro and have access to even more tools and images for your own personal use. While I still might have a professional cover designer work on my finished product, I would still highly recommend this website to those self-publishing authors out there that are looking for a cheaper option. The covers are of great quality and the best part is that you have complete control over the finished result, which I know is a big thing for most authors. If any of you opt to use these websites let me know how it goes and as always, happy writing out there.