Like a lot of folks, I spend a considerable amount of time on social media. I have a number of author accounts, which I use to post about my writing and about other lifestyle things, like my keto diet, or random stuff sometimes too.
In terms of selling books, does engagement on social media translate into sales? I think the best way to do this is to rank them on a scale. For the purpose of this post, I will use my scale as displayed in the image. Here’s what I’ve learned:
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Lately I have been finding it very hard to focus on my writing. My brain is too flighty and my attention span nonexistent. Can anyone relate?
Things that distract me from writing
1. Netflix
I have been binge watching “28 days Haunted” and “Surviving Death.” Both are fascinating: whether you are a paranormal author like me, or whether you have an interest in supernatural phenomena, or both of the above, I definitely recommend these shows. Though, if you are an author, please don’t watch them when you should be writing!
2. Chatting on Wattsapp
I am guilty of sending mindless memes to my friends. I have multiple wattsapp chats on the go, and send random various stuff to each, depending on the flavour of the group. I see my wattsapp friend groups in real life too, so it’s not a totally online distraction – but it is fun.
3. Social media
Instagram and Facebook are my biggest distractions. I could mindlessly scroll all day if I didn’t lose my phone in the sofa cushions at least 50% of the time. I check into all of my socials too much – more than I need to and often in the middle of a juicy paragraph, causing me to lose my thread.
4. TV
Now, I can almost hear you say, “why on earth would you have the TV on while you write?” The answer is, not for me, but to entertain the youngster in the family. Though, I must say, one or two times I have been known to look up and laugh at “Pinky Malinky”. I am forty-something going on four at heart.
5. Real life
I try to switch off, as best I can, while writing; but sometimes conversations in the real world can throw me right out of my writing flow. Luckily I’ve developed a few short-attention-span-skills over the decades and I can pretty much slip back into the flow of whatever WIP I’m tackling, on the spot.
What about you? Any distractions that are tough ones for you – whether you’re writing, editing, reading, or anything else?
Books are important. Reading and literacy are important. According to one source on Statistica, 83% of adults in the US read at least one book in 2021 – you can read the stats here.
If so many people are reading books, isn’t it important to have characters we can relate to? Representation is important.
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Great news to share with you this week. Yesterday I finished the final draft of fiction WIP#9, my psychological short story collection. Back in January, I wrote a blog post about my new year goals (which you can read here) and how I hoped to finish this collection in 2024. Not bad to have achieved this goal in the first quarter of the year, hurray!
It probably helped that I have been off work for the past two weeks on Easter break since schools are closed here in Northern Ireland. Not only that, but my little adventurer was ill for the first week, and slept a lot. Since that meant I was homebound anyway, I took the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade and cranked out the last few thousand words of the final story to get the collection completed.
What next then? Well, from here I will be printing a paperback proof copy to check for typos. I find it easier to spot mistakes in hard copy format than e-copy. I don’t know why. Can anyone relate to that? Once I’ve done another round of checks myself, I’ll print another copy for my editor and brace myself for the red-pen treatment. It’s all part of the writing-editing-publishing process!
It’s Easter Sunday, so if you celebrate – or even if you don’t – here’s a poem that’s fitting for spring. Personally, as more of a paleo-pagan-princess, I’m more into Ostara than Easter, but who can argue with chocolate eggs, whatever you’re into. I’ll be making myself a lovely batch of keto chocolate eggs later using silicon moulds that I picked up in Poundland. Can’t wait!
This poem, ‘The Frivolous Earth’ appears on page 32 of my zany poetry collection, Toebirds & Woodlice.
Many thanks to Connor Lynch for the article about my Belfast Ghosts trilogy that appeared in Belfast Live on 19th March.
Chatting about my series to a reporter also got me thinking about the books themselves, in terms of how each of the three features a different area of Belfast: The Blue Man in East Belfast; The Fairy Lights in South Belfast and Matthew’s Twin in North Belfast – but not West Belfast. I had intended for the series to be a trilogy, though I wouldn’t rule out a tetralogy. Who knows; maybe at some point I will write another in the series?
But for now, I continue ploughing on with my various WIPs. More on those in another post.
This morning I randomly had one of those author moments where I thought to myself, ‘I’ve actually had nine books published’. Five novels, three poetry collections and one short story collection, to be precise. Woohoo!
I’ve been a published author since 2009, and even though it was 15 years ago (wow, now I feel old…) I can still remember the excitement of when my very first short story appeared in an online magazine in the US called Blood Moon Rising. The Woman and the Stiff has since been republished in Diabolical Dreamscapes, but that initial excitement at appearing in a literary magazine will never fade.
Here I am, fifteen years and nine years later.
How time flies!
Ostara greetings! As of 3.06am on 20th March, the spring equinox is finally here. Hurray! I for one hope that the good weather will follow. We deserve some sun after all the dreary rain and endless grey in Northern Ireland.
Today is World Poetry Day. I don’t have too many poems that are spring themed, but this one will have to suffice. Called ‘Sunshine’, it was published just over a decade ago in English magazine, ‘Tips for Writers’ Issue 94, which is archived at the Poetry Library in the Royal Festival Hall, London. Wanna listen? Alright then, grab a cuppa. Better make it quick. The video is only 48 seconds long – get yet skates on!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today we went to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Belfast city centre. There was quite an international mix, almost like a mini Mela. Lots of family fun and the rain held off.
There was also traditional music, Irish dancing and festival mask crafting for the kiddos.
I also had a go at making an Irish coffee for the first time – minus the sugar, of course. Here’s my effort. Tasted great!
Later, I’ll be enjoying a glass of Bushmills and watching a suitable horror movie for the occasion. The Leprechaun is our pick for tonight, after the little dude is in bed. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a good dose of comedy horror starring Warwick Davis and Jennifer Aniston.
Anyway, for now, hope you’re enjoying a glass of Jamesons, a Bushmills, a Guinness, or Baileys, or whatever takes your fancy. Slainte!
Leilanie Stewart 