You Say I'm A Dreamer, But I'm Not

I loved Dinner for Schmucks. Hilarious movie. Steve Carell's character was loveable yet drove you nuts at the same time.  There was one scene in the movie that although it makes me laugh because he misinterprets a great John Lennon song, it also makes me think.

"You say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not."

Really the line from the song is "You say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." While I love this song. Maybe the schmuck got it right.

I've been trying to prep myself for this headlong dive into finally publishing. It seems surreal, exciting and at times somewhat terrifying. I remembered I had downloaded Smart Self-Publshing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters a while back. And while I had read a good portion of it, I went back this past week and started re-reading it. She has some great advice and is definitely someone I find to be a decent role model in this indie world.

Among all the good advice Zoe has managed to pack into this book one thing stuck out in particular. Something that really can be applied to anyone, not just a writer.

Dreamers are those that think about all the what if's and wouldn't it be nice. They don't actually DO anything, but dream...

But those that set goals...well they work toward them. Not to talk about the all-mighty roller derby again but, I set a goal to be able to play in games. I passed my tests...and now I will probably be playing in a game soon!

For the longest time I always said I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to publish something and have people read my books. Dreaming about it didn't get me anywhere.

It wasn't until I got off my lazy ba-donk-a-donk, finished my drafts, finished all the initial edits and started actually working towards publishing it that anything got done.

I know this is sort of a well  DUH post, but I just thought sometimes we need a reminder to stop dreaming and start setting goals. Things feel so much harder to obtain when we are dreaming about them. But they become a reality when we start striding toward them.

So my goals right now are finish the final edit, get Mistaken to the publisher and formatted and uploaded for electronic sales.

As I finish reading her book I plan to set some more goals as well as figure out more my road map.

It is sometimes hard for us to actually grasp when one of our goals is within our grasp, and I feel like that is where I am now.

Just a few more steps...

Check out Zoe winter's blog here  .

Real Connections

I have to say that twitter is such a big time stealer, especially when I should be writing...but I love it. In just the past few days alone, not only have I gained followers, but I have also connected with some real, genuine people that share a passion for writing as much as I do. I have been reading some great stories I might have otherwise never noticed amidst everything else that crowds the internet.

I think that is what excites me about the indie publishing scene growing more and more. There are real people behind it, real authors that may not have gotten their story out otherwise. Originally I had been steering clear of the self-publishing route because of the stigma often attached to it, but I think that times are changing with the publishing industry and these are not just people that are too lazy or too bad to get published the traditional way.There are many reasons, and many inspiring people that have led me to try out this route.

Zoe Winters posted a great blog post on this as well, that there is no reason to sling mud at any author that does self-publish, because self published or not, writing a novel and then having the guts to put it out there for everyone to read, review, and criticize is something to be commended on both sides of the fence. As I continue toward publishing my debut novel, I hope to make many more connections with authors and readers alike.

-Rayvenne