My Writing

What I learnt about writing online from Zoella and other YouTubers

What I learnt about writing online from Zoella and other YouTubers

My husband laughs at me. My teenage son rolls his eyes. And my daughter, she's eight, asks 'are you watching Zo-ella, again?' She's already learnt the art of taking the Mickey.

And, to answer her question, yes. Yes I am. As I write this I'm watching Zoella's Vlogmas from 2016. Her countdown to Christmas by vlogging every day in December. And I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

During Vlogmas we see her house dressed up with Christmas trees, we see her laughing hysterically with her friend Mark and supermarket shopping with her boyfriend, Alfie. We open her advent calendars (yes, plural) with her, see her takeaways and her oh so cute black pug, Nala dressed in various seasonal outfits. It's all very tame, very homey and it's certainly not an expletive or action packed video. She bakes banana loaf, goes to garden centres, describes what clothes she wearing and puts on make-up whilst chatting to her audience. Her more recent videos, where she shows her (incidentally, gorgeous) new house, has time lapses of her tidying cupboards. 

You might be thinking...huh? 

I know. I understand.

How I'm outlining my novel

How I'm outlining my novel

I've successfully managed to not write my novel for many months. In fact, I think late 2016 was the last time I went near it.

As I say in this week's video (below) this is because I've been busy with my coaching business and new websites and my head cannot take on too many projects at once.

My fiction writing is always the first thing I drop when my head is full. I wish it wasn't but, by dropping it, I don't have to the voices in my head constantly telling me what a rubbish writer I am. Who wouldn't want to get that out of their head?

But I've been encouraged to give it another go. 

Four Books That Have Shaped My Life

Four Books That Have Shaped My Life

They're sitting in a pile on my desk next to me as I write this. One is quite literally falling apart. One is very pink and about sex. Another is a book for children and the fourth a women's fiction novel with Brownie Guide badges on the cover. As innocent as these four books look sitting quietly on my desk, they all have one thing on common.

They have all had a profound impact on my life. They've shaped my life, helped create the person I am and have led me to this writing/mentoring career. Which, quite frankly, I find fascinating.

Five Things I've Learned from Launching a Mentoring Business

Five Things I've Learned from Launching a Mentoring Business

It was just over a year ago when I had the idea that I'd like to help other writers market themselves using social media. At the time I had just created this blog, my Instagram presence was less than one thousand followers, I had a love/hate relationship with Twitter and Facebook and had very little experience with other platforms. So what on earth made me think I could do it?

Well, my background is in marketing, so that knowledge I had. And I could see the potential of this online world. I was looking around the internet and there were people, often millennials, leading the way in communicating to different audiences.

There was Zoella with her vlog that captivated thousands and thousands of fans. Or Instagrammers that had tens of thousands of followers, who were now transferring into blogs and video. Some were earning good money from advertising. Others were writing articles in online magazines. Or speaking at conferences. Or getting book deals.

The internet was driving change.

Using Steller as a writer

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In the past year I've been sharing more and more of my writing and photography online. There are a number of personal reasons for this, such as silencing (mostly) my imposter syndrome (I'll write about this in a future post) but also because of my love for Instagram. I really enjoy curating my instagram feed and telling a story through the photographs and the captions. It challenges me creatively; making me experiment and create things I'd never have thought of previously.

One thing that always gets lots of double-taps is my notebooks. People love looking at my handwriting, my notes and drafts of stories and my recipes.

So I've brought together two of my notebook projects from Instagram onto the Steller app.

My Notebooks from 2016, which is a collection of my rough drafts for My Stories, along with notes and plans and My Recipe Journal from 2016 - a collection of the recipes I made, recorded and photographed last year.

Are you on Steller (I'm abookishbaker)? What do you like to share over there?

 

Using social media for writers. Apps to help you create an author platform

A healthy goal for 2017

A healthy goal for 2017

So that's it. As I write this there are only a few hours left of 2016. Already writing the date, 2016, feels dated, old, so last year. I'm not in a rush to start 2017. I rather enjoy these days between Christmas and new year when I can relax, lie on the carpet with the fire warming my face, the dog next to me, notebook and pen in hand. But I do like the feeling of starting afresh. Making goals, do-able goals, for my writing and career, working out what I actually want to achieve over the next few months.

An honest review of my year

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On Monday 28th November I woke up feeling anxious. Unsettled, overwhelmed, worried. And low. At first I thought it was because December and Christmas were racing towards me like a freight train. My immediate thought was to step back from social media. From twitter, from facebook and from writing in general. This wasn't hard as I'd run out of things to say. My mind was empty, my brain was slow.

But it gave me the mental space to collect my thoughts, to work out what was bothering me.

So, with a deep breath I went through the projects I'd been working on. Then I thought about what I'd achieved this year:

  • At the beginning of this year I hired a mentor to help me with my instagram and photography. I also hired a coach to help me with focus and direction.
  • I rebranded and called my blog A Bookish Baker. I pushed the fear away and became more honest about my writing and even wrote some of my non-fiction chicken stories on my blog.
  • I learned new skills: how to make videos and also, more recently, I've been drawing and painting.
  • I went to Blogtacular and had a lightbulb moment after hearing from one of the speakers.
  • My instagram has grown and my followers have increased from under 1000 to nearly 8.5k.
  • I've developed an interest in writing my memoir. I've blogged about this, written and photographed my process on instagram and already have over 20,000 words.
  • I finished the first draft of my novel. It needs a hell of a lot of work but I've started a major editing project.
  • I became editor of Novelicious. The response from the book community was wonderful.
  • I made my first vlog. Put my face on Youtube.
  • I've taken on paid work through my blog.
  • I launched my newsletter.

I'm sure there are other things that I've forgotten to mention. All positive, all wonderful.

But this year I also parted ways with my literary agent.

At first I was pragmatic. But over time I've felt a sense of loss. That I've made huge strides in my career but also taken a massive lurch backwards. All the above meant nothing.

I threw myself into new projects. That's my default response to bad news. It was overload. Eventually my brain couldn't take any more and told me to stop. That was Monday 28th November.

This is the most I've written since that morning nearly two weeks ago. My head is clearer. There's still fog there, there's still a bit of confusion about my way ahead.

But there are also glimmers, small glimmers, of excitement at what I can do next. Imagine what these glimmers might have turned to once I've had a proper rest over Christmas?

So, unless I have something I desperately need to write about, my blog is going into hibernation. Just for a few weeks. I'll be back stronger and more enthusiastic in the New Year.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year. From reading my blog, making supportive comments, signing up to my newsletter, writing and recommending me elsewhere...thank you! Everything is truly appreciated.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Helen Redfern A Bookish Baker

My Stories ||The Darkness and the Moonlight

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"It's as black as your hat," says my dad when he comes to stay. He's got a Derbyshire accent though so "your hat" becomes one word: "yerat". Every time I step outside my back door in the darkness, especially at this time of year, I think of his expression. Because it is. Extremely dark. You cannot see your hand in front of you.

At our last home, on the housing estate, we had a street light right next to our house. It would glow outside our bedroom window, leaching an orange haze over our sleeping forms.

But here? There are no streetlights. There's nothing except the distant pinpricks of light from the dual carriageway. Eventually my trees will grow and we won't even be able to see that.

I have to go outside in the darkness every night to shut in the chickens. At first, before we got the dog, I would not go out in the field after dark. I once cast the torch around (to my left, straight ahead, to my right, behind me, argh what's that noise?!) and saw two eyes staring at me from the bottom of the field. The eyes were well above ground level. It freaked me right out.

It's funny, thinking back, that I used to be so bothered by the darkness. Because now I don't give it a second thought. Yes, I still quickly scan my torch all around me, checking the shadows to my left and right, but I'm actively looking for glowing eyes.

Then there's the moonlight.

I knew the songs, of course I did. Dancing in the moonlight. Moonlight shadow.

But actually seeing moonlight? Seeing the shadow of our house cast by the full moon? I didn't really understand that it had existed other than in a Famous Five novel. Living in a town with light pollution we lose that wonder of seeing a giant elm tree reflected on the ground as a moonlight shadow.

But once every few weeks I can go outside, as long as the sky is clear, and not need my torch to see in the dark. The moon is bright and luminous. Shining down, my shadow walking ahead of me.

My Chicken Story Stories is a collection of my thoughts as I pull together the first draft of my memoir.

the moon in daylight

Editing my novel - week one

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This is my first proper vlog. A vlog with talky bits. A vlog with my face. Where I document how I'm undertaking a structural edit of my novel. I don't know what I feel most daunted about. The edit (it's a major edit) or putting my face up there onto YouTube.

It's incredibly exposing opening myself up like this. It is also incredibly scary. Am I risking criticism, trolls, comments I can't handle? Possibly.

Undertaking an edit like this though is something I've never attempted before. And when I'm scared, with little confidence, I'm prone to procrastination. I'll put all my energies into other projects and put this one off. Because it seems so big. Massive. Like I could never achieve it.

The only way I could see myself going through with it, is by filming it. That is my deadline.

It is one thing writing 70,000 words. It's quite another to craft those words, those sentences, paragraphs and chapters into something cohesive. Something that'll entertain, keep the reader gripped, and tells the story that you've had in your head for so long to the best of your ability.

Right now I'm at a pretty low point with my writing. And exposing myself like this could go one of two ways. But, I'm trying to convince the 25% of myself that wants to give up that writing is worth pursuing. So this is almost do or die. Pushing myself to do something that frightens me.

Please be kind...

 

For Pinterest:

how I'm editing my novel

The start of a major edit

How do I Promote My Novel without the Hard Sell

One of the most frustrating parts of being ill with the flu is not being able to write or create. (Or eat, or go outside...but mainly the not writing.) All you can do is lie in bed and think; too weak to read, eyes too tired or sore to watch anything, not wanting to sleep again. You think of everything you want to write. Of ideas for blog posts, for possible vlogs and how to arrange the editorial calendar in your new job. If you're anything like me you sketch it all out in your head, get incredibly excited then frustrated again, and end up not being able to sleep anyway.

So in the last, (ooh, has it really been) five days, of enforced rest, I've been thinking about what my priorities are. Because as well as worrying about my writing I've also been thinking of all the others things I'm not doing whilst lying in bed. Getting the garden ready for winter, cleaning out the chickens, finishing off the bedroom sort-out I was part way through when I was struck down, finding my daughter's piano books I accidentally put in a safe place, making sure my son finishes his homework..

Yes, my brain has not had any rest the poor thing.

And it occurred to me that it was time. Time for me to start editing my novel. I alluded to bad news in this post and, although it isn't catastrophic and could actually work out for the best, it did stop me in my tracks for a while. Because it was related to writing my novel.

But I've had enough of sulking now. The time is right to get on with it because I know I can do this.

In an interview I did with Katy Colins over on Novelicious she mentioned setting herself deadlines gave her the impetus to get things done. I'm absolutely rubbish with self imposed deadlines. So I need another stick or carrot to drive me forward.

That's when I decided to record my writing process. I've fallen in love with making films during the course of this year. So why not record myself writing my book? Who knows, I might even show my face on it and, you know, speak. Though a) I need to get over the flu first and b) need a good foundation to calm my rather weather-beaten face.

Anyway, this is my first mini-film of the very start of a very big structural edit of my novel.

A Blog Over Troubled Water

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It's funny how writing can heal. How it can comfort. When I was walking my dog yesterday I was thinking about this blog. It is such a simple thing. A place to record my thoughts, the seasons, my chicken stories, recipes, books I've read. A journal, but online. Opening my heart to people I've never met, yet understand me. Jotting words down. Sentences and paragraphs. Trying to make sense of the world.

The lyrics to Bridge Over Troubled Water appeared in my mind.

When life becomes a bit disordered, through both good news and bad, when I throw myself enthusiastically into new projects, only to crash some time later as the adrenalin, inevitably, stops pumping. It is this blog I turn to.

Blogs have lost their appeal over the years. I started my original one some ten years ago. It was a place to chat to other writers; we'd visit each other's blogs to see how their writing had gone that day. Then facebook came along and we moved there. Then twitter, and we moved there.

The only thing is, businesses followed. People put links on (including myself). Chatting became less. Those water cooler moments where we talk through our abysmal word counts or stressing because we're at that 'everything is rubbish' point don't really exist anymore. We use twitter as a place to get our news, as a way to read essays or articles of people we follow.

And that's fine. Only there isn't an alternative for those water cooler chats. For unpicking our thoughts.

Yet my blog is still here for me. It hasn't gone anywhere. It's a place where I can immerse myself in words, where I can experiment with descriptions, get lost with recording my experiences of nature. Where I read through what I've just written and see a rhythm of sorts. A rhythm that needs a bit of tinkering so I play around and add, take away. Test and taste.

To anyone out there who aspires to be a writer, an author, I cannot recommend starting a blog enough.It is where you can experiment. Get better. Hone your craft.

A place to turn to when you're weary, feeling small.