Resources – Ryan M. Williams

Novelizing My Writing Process

I love trying out different tools for writing. Over the years I’ve written on all sorts of devices from pens to word processors, Palm OS PDAs, Alphasmarts, laptops, Chromebooks, phones, and PCs. I’ve used digital recorders to record dictation. My current obsession is my Freewrite (and waiting for the Traveler to come out).

All of these devices have used different software (well, not the pens, although I’m curious about using shorthand and software to convert it to text). I love trying out new programs and have used a variety of programs on all of the platforms. Today I still use Word for some tasks. I’ve used Scrivener. I posted previously about trying out Novlr online.

I was recently contacted by the kind folks at Novelize who offered me a chance to try out their online novel writing program. It’s been available since 2014 but I’d somehow missed it. Of course I jumped at the chance to try it out. I’m going to share my first impressions in this post. Later, after I spend more time with Novelize and get to know it better, I’ll share my experience.

Dictation Redux

One of the pleasures of being a librarian is sharing resources with people. When it comes to making recommendations on books, we tend to talk about "readers advisory." I think there is also a place for "writers advisory" in libraries—librarians have a long history of working with writers and I think it is a relationship that we should cultivate. For this post, I want to suggest resources for writers thinking about dictation. If you haven't considered dictating your work, take a look at these resources to see how many writers today take advantage of speech-to-text technology to write.

How Bestselling Writers Outline (or Not) Their Novels

Few things divide writers more than the question of whether or not an outline is used in writing a novel. The spectrum of views on outlining shows that the best answer is the one that works for you. These books describe different approaches used by different authors to craft bestselling books.

Grokking the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) takes effect on May 25th, 2018. The regulation requires businesses to meet requirements around the control and processing of customer's personal information. Although an European Union regulation, it applies to any writer with EU customers. Here are resources to help you do that, along with my thinking on the topic and what I'm doing in my own business to understand meet the requirements.

4 Science Fiction Markets for Your Fiction

I love reading short stories. I don't ever have enough time to read all of the short stories that I'd like to read (or novels). Although I'm always happy to read an anthology or collection, I love reading science fiction magazines. I continue to submit my stories to these markets as well, and look forward to appearing in the pages of these magazines.

Learning About ConvertKit | The Stealth Writer

I'm new to marketing. My focus has always been on writing and publishing and unfortunately, without making much of an effort to make my work visible. I haven't used email marketing to reach out to readers and make those connections. Between working fulltime as a librarian and leading a busy creative life, I hadn't prioritized the marketing side of writing and that has hurt my writing career. Continue reading Learning About ConvertKit | The Stealth Writer

Resource List | Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn Podcast

Librarians love resources. We collect them, catalog them, add them to lists, and enthusiastically share them. I'm no exception and this week I want to share The Creative Penn Podcast by Joanna Penn.

Podcast episodes are posted every Monday and include interviews, inspiration and information on writing and creativity, publishing options, book marketing and creative entrepreneurship.

Why I Dig This Podcast

The Creative Penn is smart, funny, and brings in many other voices for interviews. Joanna Penn's timeline to indie fame covers the past decade of her progress. She shares lessons learned in her podcast. I appreciate her transparency and willingness to share information with the audience. Although she is the author of many successful books, the podcast doesn't feel like a sales pitch for her books. She is (to use one of my son's favorite new words)—genuine. Simply scrolling through the list of episodes, I want to go back and catch up on ones I've missed.

Don't Envy—Learn

I started thinking about indie publishing around the same time as Joanna Penn. I remember seeing her name in various places, but she wasn't someone that I followed. Big mistake. Back in 2009, I started to get serious about my writing career but I wasn't sure about the indie route. I started trying a few things and began publishing much more material in 2010.

I made every mistake possible on the indie publishing side. I like being a librarian (and my son was still a baby at the time), so giving up my day job wasn't going to happen. It'd be easy to look at Joanna's timeline and feel envious. I don't. I find it incredibly inspiring and helpful. I started this blog to share my journey because it hasn't gone the way I wanted and I'm in the process of restarting my writing career while continuing to work a day job. Many of the writers I talk to are in that same place, balancing writing with a career and family.

The Creative Penn podcast offers so much for writers, whatever your goals. I highly recommend it.