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"Hard is not hopeless." - General David Petraeus



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Flustered Writer

First, a celebration!



I finished the first draft of my novel on Saturday, March 31st.  Fifteen months and nearly 120,000 words later, the first draft is DONE! YEEHAW!

I'm taking a day off from work later this week to celebrate (and begin brainstorming the follow up novel which I'll start next month).

But I haven't had much time for celebration.  No matter what I do I just can't seem to find enough hours in the day to fit everything in.  Work, teaching youth, writing, fitness, chores...we all know the endless list.

At the moment, I'm particularly flustered by social media.  One of the great benefits to being a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, otherwise known as ACFW (http://www.acfw.com) is that each month a free online course is offered to members.

This month, the course is social media--one of my greatest areas of weakness.  I'm completely flummoxed by Facebook.  And my introduction to Facebook has been so terrifying I haven't even been brave enough to touch Twitter.

But I have vowed that this month, buoyed by the accomplishment of finishing my second novel's first draft, I'm going to use that momentum and learn social media.  There is no doubt that an aspiring author these days needs to participate in social media, but finding which outlets are right and how much time to invest in them is the difficulty.  I hope to have a much better idea of my own direction for social media by the end of the month.

Do you have any Facebook trials or triumphs to share from your experience?

4 comments:

Melinda Brasher said...

Congrats! Isn't finishing a novel a great feeling?

B.K. Jackson said...

It is. Thank you. And happy writing!

Nicole said...

Yeehaw!! Way to go, Brenda Girl. Awesome.

Facebook isn't bad. Ease into it fresh. Mostly I just comment on friends' posts and repost my blog entries. Haven't used the Timeline and if I don't have to, I'm not going to. Friend me, B.

Ann Lee Miller said...

Congratulations, Brenda! So proud of you for all your diligence. Doing a happy dance for you!