Category: Thoughts

Thoughts

Stop Counting – Start Talking

Krista Walsh

I’ve noticed another rise in my Twitter timeline of people doing follow loops and what have you, and that’s awesome! It’s nice to see people working together to help their follow Twitterers expand their network.

For some people, maybe it even works!

But I also notice a rise in tweets about how difficult it is to gain traction/make solid connections.

I’ve written a few posts here about networking on social media (though, goodness knows, I’m no expert. I’ll often disappear from my accounts for months at a time when I no longer feel like putting in the effort), but a conversation with a fellow Twit today (is that the appropriate noun?) got me thinking about what my goals/priorities are on social media/with other authors, so I figured I’d share them.

When I first joined Twitter back in the age of chronological feeds (*sigh* weren’t those the days?), I had the great luck of falling in with an amazing group of people. One of them because my mentor who encouraged me to self-publish and walked me through the process. Another I’ve met in person a number of times and have helped walk through the process myself.

Since that time, I’ve made a handful of similar connections. Not a huge number. Maybe one per five hundred people I’ve connected with, but enough to make me enjoy it.

I do my best to offer encouragement, to offer my experience in the hopes that it’ll help others, and to cheer people on as needed.

On my last day in the Byward Market for the year, I had the pleasure of meeting a debut novelist. She’d just released her book a few months ago, self-published, and has plans for the rest of her series. Although the sales that day were slow, I had a blast talking shop with her, answering questions, sharing some of my pitfalls and warnings, and generally just trying to pass along whatever wisdom she thought might be helpful.

This is my goal with social media. To encourage, motivate, and connect with like-minded people. Whether the numbers are big or small doesn’t matter–what matters is what you’re able to offer back.

It’s what keeps me returning to my Twitter account in spite of the dumpster fires.

What about you? What is your favourite part about social media? What are your goals?

Thoughts

Story Conventions that Drive Me Batty

Krista Walsh

This post is a bit more of me being a fuddy-duddy about writing choices, but I’ve been bedridden for four days with nothing else to do but binge watch some old favourite TV shows, and it got me thinking about some of my dramatic pet-peeves in storytelling.

So, you know, to get them out of my own head, I figured I’d throw them down here.

Please note: this is not a personal attack on any story in particular; just choices I’ve noticed that are not suited to my personal tastes.

  1. You might have seen my tweet about this, but why oh why do people blackmail murderers? You know this person just killed someone. It doesn’t matter what their reasons were, they were able to turn off their conscience long enough to exterminate the life of another human being, surmounting some of the basic barriers of human nature. You think they’ll turn to you with your request for $5,000 and go “Yeah, sure, let me get right on that. I absolutely trust that you’ll keep your mouth shut.” No. They’re going to come after you and bury you in their backyard.
  2. Why go upstairs if someone has broken into your house? Stay calm and find the nearest exit. This is the first thing you’re told in a drill, going back to when you’re six years old and the fire alarm in your elementary school is going off. Screaming like an idiot and running upstairs into your bathroom—unless there is a conveniently located fire-escape/porch with ladder attached to it—is silly, and you will likely die.
  3. One of my absolutely biggest pet peeves—and I catch myself doing it in my own first drafts until either I or my crit partner catch it and slap my wrist—is when characters keep secrets for no good reason. It’s too easy to see through this decision as a way to heighten tension in the story/between characters, and it’s incredibly frustrating. COMMUNICATE. Unless your character has been set up as someone who never tells anyone anything (which would be a very difficult character to empathize with), either spill the beans or give a really damned good reason why you’re keeping your mouth shut. A good lesson in relationships as well as storytelling.
  4. When the main character has proved time and time and time again that they know what they’re talking about and they’re really good at [insert skill here], but when the time comes where they make a life-or-death observation, no one believes them. Like the above, this is such an obvious “We are raising the stakes” moment that no real tension comes from it. Again, unless there’s a really good reason, like character wakes up in a parallel universe with all the same people where he usually isn’t good at [insert skill here]. Hmm….. Something to think about there.

I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones that caught my attention over the last many many episodes of many many crime shows.

Even sick, apparently, I keep a critical eye on a good story. I find it helps improve my own writing.

And it means watching television is research…

What are your storytelling pet peeves?

Thoughts

Bit of Luck – LOT of Passion

Krista Walsh

I’ve had a lot of reason to think about what it takes to run your own business, lately. What qualifies as success? When do you know you’ve “made it”?

I still don’t know the answers to that question. I’ve been doing this full-time author thing on and off for three years now, and I still question every morning as to whether I’m doing well enough to keep going with it.

But I do. Every day I face the paperwork and the writing-related tasks and aim to get the next book read and the current books sold.

Most days, it’s a challenge. Some days it’s next to impossible. The days between those, I stare at the wall and ask myself what kind of day job I’d like to have.

Why can’t I determine whether I’ve hit success or not? Because it’s the arts, and nothing about the arts is predictable. A book that’s selling really well today will stop selling altogether tomorrow. Then stay quiet until, suddenly, out of the blue, a wild promotion appears*! Books take off! I’m doing well! I’ve finally made it! …. then crickets.

A lot of the arts is luck, and anyone who tells you otherwise is likely too lucky to have noticed it.

That’s not to say it’s everything — luck without hard work is great for the short term, but it can’t last unless you’re, like, SUPER lucky.

The other important factor?

Passion.

Not just what you feel for what you bring to your work every day, but what you show the world. If you’re feeling meh about your project, why should other people care? If you’re super pumped about it — the motivations, the ideas, the meaning — then your audience/clients/etc. have something to connect with. They have a reason to feel passionate and excited about seeing the final product.

That’s what keeps the heart in the work.

That in itself isn’t easy all the time, but that’s why it’s so important to foster it, nurture it, express it in every way, shape, and form you possibly can.

So all the hard work with a liberal splash of passion and a healthy sprinkle of luck?

Sounds great to me.

*like now! Are you a fan of abandoned asylums, murder mysteries, and strong family ties? The first book in my supernatural thriller series is on sale for 99c until July 26!

Thoughts, update

Change your Thinking

Krista Walsh

These posts are often a challenge to come up with ideas for (*slaps wrist – for which to come up with ideas), but it turns out that training a puppy can offer some important life lessons that translate to the rest of our lives.

So, from my torn-up, bleeding hands and exhausted mind to you, here are some tips on dealing with difficult situations:

  1. Find things to laugh at. When you’ve got a 10lbs dog’s needle teeth sinking into your ankle, and the only way to reach a safe place to put a barrier between you is to drag your leg behind you, you have two options: yell, curse, kick — which achieves nothing, or laugh at the fact that you look ridiculous to anyone lucky enough to see you. The laughter removes the tension and slows the tears, making it easier to deal with the stress once you reach your safe place.
  2. Forget the word “no.” I don’t mean don’t create boundaries and instill discipline, because those are kind of essential for everyone’s safety and sanity and development, but the word “no” is quite unhelpful. It doesn’t provide any information. Correction with guidance is more likely to earn cooperation and avoid discouragement.
  3. Go for walks. A puppy waking up for a long nap is a nice excuse, but why wait for one? Grab your shoes and go out for a 5-minuter to wake up the brain and get those synapses firing.
  4. Find the fun. You COULD get stressed about the fact that you’re behind on all your work and you’re waking up at unreasonable hours, or you find the joy of the small victories, the quiet moments, the glimpses of pure happiness that come up even in the most stressful, frustrating times.

These are the lessons we’re working on for the next little while (hopefully with more of that small victories, quiet moments, and pure happinesses as the weeks go on), and hopefully there are some little tidbits of wisdom in here to help you through the rough patches, too!

Thoughts

Let Loose the Imagination

Krista Walsh

I hate horror.

With a passion.

The last real horror film I watched was The Ring back in 2000.

I hate the feeling of adrenaline taking over. Not knowing what to expect, bracing yourself for the worst.

It’s not even the “in the moment” pain I suffer, it’s what comes later. After I’m in bed and the lights are out. Or worse, when I’m in the shower and the curtain is closed. You never know what’s waiting on the other side (little girl ghosts. ALWAYS little girl ghosts).

It’s worse when there’s nothing else to distract me.

When there’s nothing to stop my imagination from taking over.

I know people fall on either side of this argument in horror: whether it’s better to let the imagination lead the viewer/player/reader through the story or whether it’s better to reveal the Big Scary.

The closest horror experience I’ve had in recent years has been being in the room while my husband played Layers of Fear. If you haven’t played it, it’s quite a fun game if you like that sort of thing. Around and around the house you go, and each time to finish a circuit… things get weirder.

I watched most of it through my fingers, and there was at least one nightmare-ridden night because of it.

But for the most part, the Big Scary was never revealed. Just hinted at. Glimpsed in the corner of your eye. Shadows where there shouldn’t be any. Objects moving, being knocked over. A wicker wheelchair.

So creepy. So well done.

But I guess the developers felt the weight of critique, because we just started Layers of Fear 2 (which we’re streaming live on Twitch every weekend if you want to watch me scream and be reduced to tears), and I keep being pulled out of the game. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I will limit this particular example to simply saying: the imagination is given less to do.

Don’t get me wrong, I still watched it between my fingers, but there were times where the fear wasn’t there (thank goodness, really), and I really don’t think that’s what they were going for.

The imagination, the brain, is pretty cool like that. It finds patterns out of nothing. That’s a big part of what it’s wired to do, which means as soon as that adrenaline is going, it will seek out the threat, so nothing could be there, and there will still be a few jumps and shrieks every time you open a door or hear a thump in the distance.

Why bother to make that threat real when just the suggestion of one is enough to get the heart rate going?

The imagination is a powerful force. If you’re looking to evoke emotion in whatever project you’re working on, it serves well to remember it, use it manipulate it.

The advice “show don’t tell,” in my opinion, can be used given just as accurately here as in any other part of creation, and the audience will be more satisfied for it.

So where do you lie on the argument? Should they have shown the demigorgon in Stranger Things? Would Paranormal Activity be more terrifying if they gave away the Scary?

Let me know in the comments!

Thoughts, writing

Working Through Distract-huh?

Krista Walsh

Working under the dream conditions is, well, the dream.

The perfect view, the perfect volume level, the perfect temperature. No one walking into the room. The kids quiet. The pets asleep.

Ahh…

But how often does that happen?

And, honestly, how easy is it to work when you finally get there? Are you able to actually focus, or do you tend to find reasons to put off starting. Picking the right music, adjusting the height of your chair. Making sure the cat’s still breathing.

Distractions are everywhere — so how do you work through them?

I write my blog posts on Mondays while my husband sits beside me and plays video games or watches youTube videos. Despite the noise, despite his cursing and swearing after he gets his ass handed to him for the 30th time in a row playing Sekiro, I do my best to write some at least semi-coherent blog posts that have something useful to offer.

Some days, it’s not easy. The focus isn’t there, and watching him work not to throw his controller across the room is far more entertaining that figuring out what words to put on the page.

But I get there.

Usually.

My personal trick? Honestly? Persevering. Buckling down, tuning out as much as I can, and taking things one sentence at a time.

So, really, the same trick I use to get my work done on the best day.

Not to say it’s always like that. In coffee shops or out in public, I’m a headphones in, music loud kind of girl. Drown out all the ambient noise and pick my own poison.

At home, in the “best conditions,” I voluntarily distract myself with Spider Solitaire every 500-1000 words, slowly stretching out the break times, which makes it easier to focus in between.

The distractions never go away, so if we let them stop us, we’d never get anything done.

What are you methods of drowning out the world to tackle your projects? Let me know in the comments!

Thoughts

Planning for Everything (Hint: You Can’t)

Krista Walsh

It doesn’t matter what you’re working on, you’re going to run into snags.

It might even feel, more often than you’d like, that you hit one snag after another.

That there are more snags than forward momentum.

You might start to feel beaten down by the snags. Exhausted. Drained.

You might even want to just throw in the towel. Walk away. Sell the house that came with more problems than you expected and go back to living with your parents because at least then if there’s a leak, they can handle it.

Okay, maybe I’m touching on a bit of a personal issue, but it did get me thinking about other things and the importance of looking at the momentum between the snags. What purpose the snags might serve or teach you.

They’re going to happen anyway, so I guess you might as well get something out of it.

In our case, it’s the house repairs. Back in December (FIVE MONTHS AGO), we discovered a leak in our basement. Since then, it’s been issue after issue with mice and drafts and construction, and now, three days after the wall was patched up and two days before the new carpet was due to be installed…. more water.

So we’re feeling a bit down, a bit of all those things mentioned above, but it happened. Raging at the world is not going to make it NOT have happened. So instead I’m doing my best (it’s not easy) to focus on the positive: at least we discovered the water before the carpet was installed. This new leak evidence has also helped us narrow down where the source of the water is likely coming from, which is different from where were thought it was before.

It’s still frustrating and exhausting, but at least turning it into a learning experience makes it productive. Something we can actively seek to interact with instead of passively cursing everything that brought us to this point.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before: there is no good experience or bad experience — there is only an experience.

You can’t plan for everything that’s going to come up in the course of a project.

Conflicts with associates, corrupted/lost files (the horror!), personal issues that effect the quality of the someone’s work/deadlines…

There is no way to know in advance that your schedule is going to be uprooted — and if you’re lucky, it often won’t be — but if it does, there are really only two options: let the snag stop you, or learn from it readjust, and keep plodding along until the next one.

The former might be the easiest, but it’s unfilling, unsatisfying, and, really, you should probably get the job done, which leaves the latter.

Which is not easy to achieve.

My solution? Talking it out with people: first venting and then working through the issue rationally; self-care in the form of walks or meditation to clear the head and let the emotions settle so pragmatism and logic can kick in; chocolate.

In the end, we get there, it’s all about the journey as you go.

Because, really, the thought of living with my parents again (much as I love them) is one of the greatest motivators to keep my butt moving.

What are your go-to tricks to help you gain perspective on a snag? Let me know in the comments!

Thoughts

#IndieApril

Krista Walsh

We’re coming to a close on another month, and it has been a real indie author storm over on Twitter this month, with the hashtag #indieapril.

From what I can tell, it began with an indie author looking to show support for her fellows while raising awareness for the indie publishing movement that continues to make so many changes to the industry.

I love the idea, and have both promoted and requested titles from other authors over the past couple of weeks. The result: close to a dozen new books on my ereader that sound vastly entertaining.

The stigma against indie, or self, publishing, has significantly decreased over the last couple of years. When I made my first foray into the business in November 2013, a few people had already made it big and the nose-turning-upping had toned down quite a bit, but there were still the questions and condescending “ah, yes,” when I told people I had produced my own books.

These days, you can find a course for every step of the process, there are countless numbers of how-to books on the various ad platforms, cover design, editing, marketing and promotion… everything available to make the quality of your book the best it can be — ideally without breaking the bank.

I’ve been in the business almost 6 years now, have learned a lot and am still learning.

I take pride knowing that I’ve put my best effort into any given project, and that everything is under my control.

As I’ve previously mentioned, even organizations like our municipal and provincial grant programs have started recognizing indie authors — this as recently as within the last year!

I love that now, when I go out to events, if I tell people I do it all myself, I rarely get the patronizing nod, but often amazement or, my favourite, “oh hey! You’re self-publish” from someone not in the business.

It means word is getting out there that quality doesn’t depend on your publishing imprint.

It means that going indie is becoming recognized as a viable option for people who want to take the time and money to do it.

So happy #IndieApril, my fellow self-pubbers. May the playing field continue to grow even, the resources and opportunities continue to grow, and our imaginations continue to venture out into the world.

Thoughts

Wrap up on “Flow”

Krista Walsh

Of all the types of books I read at various times, the pop psychology/non-fiction/motivational/psychological texts always take me the longest.

Intentionally.

There’s a lot to take in, think about, absorb, and I like to give it ample time to soak into the brain matter.

So this week I’m wrapping up Mihaly Csikzsentmihalyi’s Flow, the book that, essentially, attempts to home in on the meaning of life. The root of all true happiness.

An impressive claim?

Perhaps, but I really can’t argue with him.

Before I get into my thoughts on the book, I’ll get right to the recommendation. If you enjoy the sort of book that gets you inside your own head and helps you see the world/your actions differently, you’ll enjoy it. It’s dense at times, but interesting, and as it’s referred to in so many more recent books (this one came out in the 90s and is the definitive work on the subject), it’s a great starting point to give context.

My previous post about the book breaks down his definition of “flow,” and the various criteria required to enter into this optimal experience.

For the rest of the book, he goes more into depth with the various criteria and how they come into practice with examples, like the man who’s worked the same welding job at a company for thirty years, but still loves going into his job because he finds new ways to challenge himself and then goes home to invest new little devices and features for his rock garden as a hobby.

He discusses the fact that research shows people enter the flow state significantly more often at work than their do in their leisure hours, but society focuses so much on the value of working solely so you can enjoy your leisure time that, although less happy people want more of it.

The exception to the rule? People to whom leisure is an active hobby. Something that engages the mind in a way that matches the criteria previously mentioned.

Physical — running to beat your time or master a new form, taking up a new sport, getting into shape; cognitive — learning a new language, taking a course; creative — building/invention something, making art; or social — people? what? — activities can all get you into the flow state.

Passive activities like mindlessly watching television, travelling just to look, enjoying other people’s work without adding any of your own … don’t.

Where people are most affluent, it can actually take more effort to get into the flow state unless is an effort is made to get involved in your surroundings, to keep growing as a person.

He discusses how, without that effort, can people even forget how to set their mind to active thinking. Leading to say, less critical thought while watching the news, taking the opinions of media mavens and your neighbours without taking the time to reason things out yourself (things to consider as we enter the 2019 election prep in both Canada and the States).

The best way to develop the flow mindset, this state of perfect happiness that both grows the self while separating the ego from the self, is to practice it.

So the next time you have a day off and you’re wondering how to fill your time, call up a friend, crack open a model set or a jigsaw puzzle, download a language app, go out and work in the garden.

Life your best life — it starts in your own head.

Thoughts

Finding Your People

Krista Walsh

I chatted a few posts ago about using social media to network, and how it can be a great way to find like-minded people.

Social media, the use of hashtags and groups, can certainly introduce you to people you never would have met otherwise, and those introductions can lead to endless amounts of support and opportunities that can change your experience in your chosen artistic arena.

But I’ve noticed a returned trend in some of feed that really disheartens me: the obsession with numbers.

The number of followers you have doesn’t matter.

The ratio of followers : following you have doesn’t matter.

Do you derive pleasure from having your chosen people in your feed? Good! Keep them! Your feed is yours to curate. It’s how I’ve managed to keep my temper and my mood level despite all the nonsense in the news.

I’ve seen people try to play guilt games with people who unfollow them, and personally I feel this is silly. If their feed/interactions with you don’t bring you joy, you are under no obligation to continue the connection.

That is the joy of the internet. Set your own boundaries, decide the tone/mood/quality to want your timelines and feeds to hit, and be merciless in maintaining it.

Last year, I wiped out my Facebook profile. I had to keep it to host my author page, but my profile is down to 0 friends. I regularly clear out my Twitter follows, and will soon be doing the same with my Instagram.

Think of it as spring cleaning. The joy of logging on to your various accounts with the dread of what dumpster fire you’re going to walk in on.

This is how you find your people. The ones who matter to you; the ones who can educate you or learn from you; the ones who become a bright spot in your day when your job/hobby/passion (pajobby? COINED IT.) is driving you up the wall.

So if your feed is starting to bring you down, it’s time to Marie Kondo that following list and make your world a personalized, happier place.