Tag: community

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Author Insights

Critique Partners aren’t for all writers: Author Insights 15

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This is an impromptu post based on a lot of talk about critique partners I’ve seen lately. It’s a little bit of a rant, but mostly it’s me stating my shortcomings and insecurities. ~It’s not even the 1st Wednesday of the month.

Writers all over the blogosphere rave about critique partners, but I don’t think critique partners work unless you happen to be the right kind of author. I’m apparently the wrong kind of author. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to find and or keep a critique partner because…well, I guess my writing is just so bad. ~Or so I thought.

The problem I seem to have with critique partners is that they all seem to want to edit my work to perfection instead of giving me feedback to better develop the story myself or they are just not interested in what I’m writing. Also I think I test other writer’s patience. All other writer’s either have writing degrees or years of experience and don’t feel like working with an author that’s still in development. ~Beginning to think I’m meeting all the wrong people.

I write in stages and  I guess that’s a little weird for most writers. I guess most writers edit as they write, but not me. I write with blinders on. I work hard to get my creative ideas out, then work on development and style, and then fine tuning and editing. I guess my process is difficult for others to work with, but it’s the only way I know how to do it. ~Apparently that’s how lots of writers do it, according to this article. 

I’ve tried joining groups, offering feedback, and generally doing my part to be part of a community and a process, but I guess I’m just too different. I have managed to get a few helpful hints and some limited feedback from a few people I’ve meet along the way and I’m grateful for that, but hints and tips only go so far.~ I’m testing out some new partners I’ve found at the IWSGCC and they may just work out, even if not for every project. 

I’d love to have more and consistent critique partners, but I just don’t fit the mold. So here I am, kinda on my own, trying to write and develop myself without much feedback. I have managed to release one novel, a few short stories, and some non-fiction without receiving any hate mail. So, even if I’m not very good, it seems that I’m not too bad either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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IWSG

#IWSG February 2015: Waiting & Celebrating

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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So this month a have a few things to celebrate and a few thing to try really hard not to worry about.

1) My wonderful new bud The Armchair Squid nominated me for the Inspiring Blogger Award. To say that I’m honored would be an understatement. I’ve been blogging for almost four years now, but sometimes I still feel like a newbie just trying to get a handle on this blogging thing. When I receive recognition like this, it makes my whole week; and to receive it from a blogger I truly admire is even better. Now here comes my insecurity. Tomorrow I’m going to post my response to this nomination and in turn nominate around 15 other bloggers. I will have no trouble at all finding bloggers who inspire me, I just don’t know how they’ll respond to being nominated by me. Some of them I’m very close to, but others I kinda feel like a fangirl suffering from the delusion that I’m friends with these great bloggers I follow. Plus they’ve probably all been nominated already by someone else.

2) Yesterday I posted a new little project I’ve started to help me keep in touch with some of my author buddies and blog guest. I call it “Long Time No Talk”. It’s basically a blog exchange that allows me to post an update for someone else and they post one for me. Yesterday I shared the update of author M.C.V. Egan. You can click here to see it. My plan is to reach out to others who’ve visited my blog to see what they’ve been up to in the same fashion. It was a lot of fun doing the first one and even if the guest aren’t keen on posting my update to their blog, I’ll still post theirs to mine.

3) Now it’s time to wait. I completed the sequel to my Eternal Curse Series and with help of the IWSGCC I was able to find someone to critique it for me. So I sent it off and now I’m waiting. I’m waiting to see just how much more work the manuscript needs or perhaps how much more work I need as a writer. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

4) I’m glad to announce, for the few of you who know about it, that I’ll be starting back up with my You Tube channel posts in March. Aside from picking back up my regularly scheduled programming, I’ll also be putting together a miniseries to help promote the sequel to Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel. I’m thinking a cute dog in the videos will help keep them interesting. What do you think?

So now it’s off to completing my list of nomination; do you like these kinds of awards: yes or no? Seriously, is a cute dog a good idea or not? strong>

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Gwen Gardner, Dolorah, Sarah Foster, and M. Pax!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #122).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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IWSG

#IWSG January 2015: New Year, New Beginning

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Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click the image to learn more or sign up.

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UPDATE TO POST: I forgot I was supposed to be introducing myself. I don’t have any fancy or flowery words to throw together right now, but here I am.

I’m Toi. Married almost 10 years to my best friend and hopelessly devoted to my family in general. I write fiction, mostly sci-fi and paranormal, but I’m dabbling in romance and fantasy. I’m a geek who loves movies, comics books, vinyl records, tea, and chocolate.

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Well it’s that time again to offer up encouragement or seek some out. I’ll just go ahead and jump right into this spiel and try to keep it brief. 2014 was not a good year for me at all.

Don’t get me wrong, of course there were some good, happy, exciting, and wonderful moments. I’m blessed in so many ways, but I’ve never been so happy to see a new year like I was this year. While I won’t list all the reasons why last year wasn’t good for me, I’ll throw out the top three.

1. My sister-in-law battled and then lost her battle with cancer. Aside from the fact that she’s gone and I miss her, going through that whole process altered plans for my personal life as well as plans for my book. I had a tough choice to make and decided to put family before my book and I have no regrets, but I miss her and can’t get back all those opportunities I forfeited.

2. Constant and harsh personal illnesses both physical and mental. I battled a lot this past year, more than I ever want to again. I want 2015 to be a much healthier year.

3. Technical issues. After the ordeal of transferring my blog to self-hosting, the fun didn’t stop there. I suffered constant technical issues all year until my computer finally crashed in December.

But that was then and this is now. I am slowly getting back on my feet and looking to the future.

One more thing to add to the list, which may actually be a blessing, is the fact that I ended my contract with my publisher. I don’t even feel like dealing with the severity of that, but at least it was an amicable split. At this point I’m just going to create a new cover, since I don’t have the rights to the other, and just self-publish. I think that’s what I really wanted anyway. I like to be in control and never should have let someone else do something I’d rather do myself.

So, looking ahead, I’m putting off releasing my romance novel until later in the year and focusing on the sequel to my Eternal Curse Series. Also, I have a short story featured in a recently released anthology about time travel. Please check it out if you are interested.

I hope I didn’t bum you out too much and hope that you could sense a note of positivity in here somewhere. What are your plans for 2015? 

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Elizabeth Seckman,
Lisa Buie-Collard,
Chrys Fey, and
Michelle Wallace!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #122).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords