Deborah Woehr

“Every step I take brings me closer to the realization of my dreams.” Judi Moreno, author of You Are More Than Enough Dream Journal

As 2006 came to a close, I set one goal for myself: to finish that book. While I didn’t write that goal down, I kept it planted firmly inside my head until I bought the ISBN and hit “approve” for that book. About a month or so ago, I began giving some serious thoughts about my achievements for this year. I decided to write down a To-Do list of the things I wanted to achieve this year, knowing that this list would change before 2007 ended. Here’s my original list.

1. Master Photoshop and InDesign
2. Master copywriting
3. Build a strong portfolio
4. Experiment with screenplays
5. Experiment with Revolution programming
6. Start a new book??

Not bad for a rough draft, but I thought it needed some fine tuning and a realistic mindset. While I would love to accomplish everything on this list, I have to take in consideration that I have a full-time job and a family to take care of. I asked myself what are the most important goals I want to achieve this year.

1. Sell at least 50 copies of Prosperity via friends, family, the virtual blog tour, etc. Deadline: December 2008
2. Gain a strong working knowledge of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Corel Painter X by June 30.
3. Build a strong portfolio, containing illustrations, book cover designs, and book interior designs by June 30.
4. Build a solid outline for my new book (which I started writing) by April 30.
5. Practice writing web copy, each day for one hour, starting January 1.
6. Practice writing focused, high-quality articles, each day for one hour, starting January 1.

Compared to the rough, this list is more organized. Setting deadlines for myself also helps me because I tend to either procrastinate or veer off in another direction, should something catch my eye. Each of these steps was set to help me reach my ultimate goal: to become a full-time freelance writer/designer.

My husband and I were discussing what kind of year 2007 was. His attitude was that it sucked. We’ve had some issues spring up with the family business as well as a certain member of his family. Despite that, I can’t say that this year sucked. For me, it was a mixed bag. I’ll focus on the good things.

1. Published Prosperity: That was a goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of this year.
2. Landed two job assignments that had a great crew of people. If you’ve been in the workforce (and in an office environment) as long as I have, you’ll know that this is a rarity. I’m still working as a temp for that worker’s comp company. They’re still talking about hiring me on. Either way is fine with me, as long as I have a steady income.
3. Watching my sons adjust to their new schools. It still amazes me how different my boys are. The youngest is very scholastic and competitive, while the oldest is more easy going and social.
4. Our Washington D.C. trip: Actually, we went to several places. But going to Washington D.C. will be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The only thing I regretted was not being able to take the boys on a tour through the White House due to the 4th of July holiday and the terrorist alert that was going on at the time.

That’s it for 2007. It went by way too quickly. I imagine this next year will go even faster.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I have a confession to make. This book has sat on my “To Read” pile for about a decade because I couldn’t get myself to read a vampire story. I felt the genre was too trendy when it began to boom in the 90’s, and I don’t like to follow trends. I bought the book because it was written by Richard Matheson, an author I enjoy reading.

When my husband and I saw the preview for the movie on TV two weeks ago, I remembered the book sitting on my shelf. I picked it up on Sunday and am over halfway through right now. My goal is to finish it by Saturday, when we go see the movie. So far, the book is great. I’m actually disappointed with myself for being so stubborn.

Moving on, I’ve been talking about seeing this movie at work. One of my colleagues said that the show sold out last weekend, which means that I’d better check Fandango to see if I can still order tickets. That same colleague and I had a discussion about whether it’s good to read the book before you see the movie. I like to compare the two to see how close the screenwriters were able to stick to the original plot. He feels that reading the book beforehand sets himself up for disappointment in the movie, which in many cases he is right. You can only do so much with a screenplay.

Have any of you seen this movie or read the book? What are your thoughts on either?

Update: I finished the book on Thursday and saw the movie yesterday. Both were excellent. If you’d like to read my detailed review, visit the Supernatural blog.

I am excited to announce that I’ve just purchased an ISBN for Prosperity. This project is finally done! A big thanks to all of you who offered your support and encouragement.

The next step in this process is marketing the book. I’ll be going on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion soon. I recently participated in a couple of tours for two authors of the paranormal genre. Curious, I lurked around the various blogs for these books and read about one author who received an additional 10K hits during her month of the tour. I’ll let you know how it pans out for me.

If you’d like to get your hands on Prosperity right now, you can order it through my Lulu link. I hope you enjoy it!

I was ecstatic when I finished the final editing Sunday night. Last night involved implementing some final design tweaks and uploading everything onto the Lulu site. Everything was going well until I uploaded my cover. The original cover that has graced the sidebar for several months has really grown on me. I was counting on seeing what it would look like when it came back from the printer.

That’s not going to happen because I used a 72dpi graphic for that banner. Lulu requires that you use 330dpi images. Needless to say, the cover looked terrible. I spent several hours creating a new one from scratch because I couldn’t find the image that matched the original dimensions. This was a good graphics lesson and a disappointing one. I’m not sure if I like the new cover. I’ll save that judgment when I see it around my printed pages.

Michael of Smoke & Mirrors II wrote a great post about a memory of checking up on his daughters on Christmas night. One of his readers, in turn, shared a link to a video of the song that Michael had heard that night. After watching it, I realized that Some Children See Him was one of my favorites.

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. I’ve heard this song played by several different artists, but none has sung it as well as John Berry. This song was also my late father-in-law’s favorite. Every time I hear it, my mind takes me back to the time where my family and I sang it to him while he was lying in a hospital bed on Christmas Eve, suffering from the effects of a nasty stroke as well as pneumonia. He couldn’t talk, but he could mouth the words. Just being alive and able to be with his family for Christmas was all that mattered to him. The fact that he was still alive and able to “sing” with us was all that mattered that year and the next.

Michael was right when he said that Christmas is not about “the stuff.” It isn’t about “keeping up with the Joneses.” The heart and soul of Christmas is the love and kindness that you give to your family, friends, and strangers.

I had mixed reactions yesterday when my editor sent me his revisions yesterday afternoon. My first reaction was, “Great! Now I get to do the final edits and finally publish the damned thing.” Then I started scrolling through the pages. I found a slew of comma errors, many phrases that needed rewording, and several suggestions to fill minor plot holes. I’m glad that there wasn’t anything major. The only thing I disagreed with was the verb tense suggestions he made. I had used active verbs, which he had changed to what I felt were passive.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and almost the entire evening implementing those changes. Also, I expanded a bit on a couple of scenes. The final edit is done. Prosperity is now in the design phase.

Can you believe the holidays are here again?! When looking for gifts for writers, I came across several blog posts that declared how hard we writers are to shop for. I emphatically disagree, and I’ll prove it.

1. Gift Certificates and Pre-paid Cards: Staples, Office Max, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, Starbucks

2. How to Write Books: I’ll list some of my favorites, but you can easily spend hundreds of dollars building this type of reference library. I’ll list some of the books I have. Maybe you have them already. If not, and you find a couple that intrigue you, jot that down on your list.

• On Writing, by Stephen King - A must have for every writer
• Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
• Webster’s Dictionary
• Roget’s Thesaurus
• Chicago Manual of Style
• Writing Dialogue, by Tom Chiarella
• Plot, Ansen Dibell
• Creating Character Emotions, by Ann Hood
• Building Believable Characters, by Marc McCutcheon
• Book Marketing from A to Z, by Francine Silverman
• Writing NonFiction, by Dan Poynter (check out parapublishing.com for more great books)
• Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That?, by Marc McCutcheon
• The Joy of Writing Sex, by Elizabeth Benedict
• Dynamic Characters, by Nancy Kress
• The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman
• Back for Seconds, by Peter Bowerman
• The Well-Fed Self-Publisher, by Peter Bowerman
• Web Copy that Sells, Maria Veloso
• The Ultimate Sales Letter, by Dan Kennedy
• The Online Copywriter’s Handbook, by Robert Bly
• Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, by Joseph Sugarman
• Real Screenwriting, by Ron Suppa
• The Writer’s Guide to Writing Your Screenplay, by Cynthia Whitcomb
• Dramatica for Screenwriters, by Armando Saldana-Mora
• Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web
• Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web, by Tara Calishain
• Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Philip Gerard
• How to Write Articles for Newspapers and Magazines, by Dawn Sova
• The Renegade Writer, by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell
• Ghostwriting for Fun and Profit, by Eva Shaw
• The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman

3. Alphasmart Neo: a portable typewriter that easily imports and exports your writing to and from your computer via a USB cord. If you commute to work by train or bus, this will be a godsend, especially if you think faster than you can write. I used mine while flying back and forth across the country last summer. This is a great gift for any writer because you can take it anywhere, whether on the road or the living room so you can keep an eye on the kids.

Another version is the Alphasmart Dana is laptop-PDA hybrid, which synchronizes with your computer (Mac or PC) and Microsoft products, such as Word. That’s a big plus because you don’t have to reformat your type once you import it onto your computer, like you do with the Neo. That said, I’ve found a handy text cleaner tool that formats my quotes into smart quotes before I open the file with Word or Nissus.

I looked at both the Neo and the Dana before I made my final decision. Sometimes I wished that I had bought the latter, especially when I was on the road and didn’t have access to the Internet unless I went to a Starbucks. The Wi-Fi capability of the Dana was the reason why I opted for the Neo, so I wouldn’t get distracted like I do on my computer. The Dana also has a much shorter battery life: 25 hours versus the Neo’s 700 hours.

Compare the two laptops at AlphaSmart Direct. Right now, you can get the Neo for $219 (regularly priced at approximately $350)

Or, you can order the Neo through the Writer’s Digest link at www.alphasmart.com/lp/wd

4. USB Flashdrive for backup storage. I got one of these last Christmas and love it because I can transfer files from one computer to another.

5. Fiction 101 and 201: Randy Ingermanson, developer of The Snowflake Method, has written some courses on writing that have garnered some glowing reviews. You can check them out at www.advancefictionwriting.com

6. Magazine Subscriptions: There are a handful of great magazines for writers. Some of the best include Writer’s Digest Magazine, The Writer, Poets & Writers Magazine, Script, etc.

7. Software for Writers: Common sense says that all you really need to write your novels is a word processor and a few good how-to books on whatever subject you’re writing about. Thanks to the Open Source market, you can chuck Microsoft Word, which wasn’t made for writing novels anyway. That said, here are some “writer’s indulgences” that are worth checking out.

• Dramatica Pro - for the masochistic writers who relish delving into themes, character, plot, etc. This is the powerhouse of story development software. You can easily spend a solid week (or more) answering all 250 questions. For beginners, I suggest trying out the lighter version, which is called Writer’s Dream Kit. It’s not nearly as intense.
• Power Structure - This is a neat program that allows you to see your story at a glance. Create characters, scenes, and chapters with this baby. Comes with templates for screenwriting, fiction and theater.
• Movie Magic Screenwriter - the industry software for screenwriters. I can’t give a review on it yet. Look for that in 2008, when I write my first screenplay. What attracted me to this software was the ability to write novels as well as screenplays. This is an all-in-one program, which can either be useful or cumbersome. I’ll let you know.
• Circus Ponies Notebook - I use this program to store all of my research, outlines, pictures, To-Do lists, etc. Notebook is for anyone who needs to organize their information. Highly recommended. Free trial available at Circus Ponies
• Curio - I found this program somewhat unwieldy, but other writers really enjoyed this program. It’s basically a visual brainstormer that lets you store images, create mind maps, index cards, etc. Free trial available at Zengobi. For Macs only.

This list is nowhere near complete, as this post is getting rather long. To get more ideas, enter “software for writers” or “writing software” in your search engine and see what comes up. Or, visit two of my favorite writer’s software links:

MasterFreelancer
The Writers Store

8. Slippers, robes, and pajamas. I don’t know about you, but Sundays are my days to do nothing but sit in front of my computer and write, whether it’s my latest WIP or a bunch of blog posts. If I don’t have to, I won’t bother getting dressed that day.

9. Gym memberships. Let’s face it, writing is a sedentary occupation. Unless you make a concerted effort to exercise every day, you’re likely to gain weight over time.

10. Word Games. I can’t think of a better way to build your “mental muscles” than playing word games. Bookworm is one of my favorite online word games. Scattergories is another favorite.

There you have it. If you didn’t have any ideas for your writer friend or relative before, you should now. If you’re a writer and would like to add to this list, feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.