Focus

I never really understood about focus. I focus on on everything I do, everything I read, everyone I meet, every tweet I scan. In fact, it can be quite hard to live with all that focusing.  LOL

Shifting from task to task, jumping to tackle the most urgent, the latest deadline, to sympathise with the neediest friend, to manage the day without lying awake most of the night to plan the next...and in the end, always that feeling of running behind the action.


I was rooted behind my computer, feet fixed in the debris of research notes, reference books, discarded prinouts when I realised I was worn out and going nowhere fast.

Every week I have a great idea for a blogpost--and never write it. Every week I check to download the latest version of Scrivener, reread my novel notes--and put them on hold. Every week I intend to do three Pilates sessions--enough said.

Slow and steady? Slow and going nowhere more like.

It has taken a four day enforced break from Internet communications to find out what focus really means. I again have time in the day for family, pets and housework (not so keen on that.) I know what I'm doing (too much but that's what suits me.)

I have a plan

The Prosperity Plan

Fear not. This is not another get-rich-impossibly-quick scheme. I'm after emotional prosperity. Finding the time to do what I love to do as well as working and being happy with family, friends and pets.

It has taken time but I have found, I think, where my true focus of writing interest lies.

So on Wednesdays I shall be reviewing three wicked new or new-to-me websites . That stops me feeling so guilty about all the web-surfing I do instead of writing.

On Fridays, to tie in with Twitter's #fridayreads, I shall review three books I'm reading or that you'd like me to read. Crits will be my opinion only but given honestly and to the best of my ability. I truly believe we can learn from everything we read and everything read informs and creates a better writer.

My Motivational Mondays will be a mix of everything and anything of writing interest I have picked up in the week. So without more ado:

Wednesday's Wicked Websites

Education Wants to be Free

I like the layout and ethos of this blog. The main site is not yet totally up and running but the blog is full of helpful and motivational ideas. Terri Main is a dedicated teacher and a great writer.

Until November 30 she is offering a free e-copy of her acclaimed Creative Callisthenics : The Ultimate Workout for the Writer's Imagination, an anthology of Carolyn Masters Mysteries and a pre-launch discount for her new Education Wants to be Free website. Well worth bookmarking for ideas and help.

Karen Cote

Warning: Karen does write naughty-but-nice romantic suspense (her new book out in October is entitled Erotic Deception) and she is with Museit Hot publishing so you may need to pick and choose what you visit on this site.I have chosen it for its innovative features and for being a great example of fitness for purpose.

The colour, the talking avatars may not suit everyone but they're a great example of what can be done to make your site individual to you and accessible to more visitors.  She has podcast interviews with award-winning authors like Brenda Novak and Holly Lisle and hosts the Writers Pen for Charity Lounge.

This week it features Nancy Bell and Laurel's Miracle--a YA being sold with donations to horse charity Dare to Dream.

Krista D Ball

Again  an innovative layout and Krista always has something to say that needs to be said. I've chosen an older post from this week which has resounded with her writer-readers and spookily enough she has also been taking stock of her year so far.

A good example to follow when it comes to planning, writing and marketing,

Is it the onset of autumn or the start of a new term that has  us all mulling over the dreaded phrase from past report books: " Needs to focus. Must do better."?

Dark Side of the Moon: a cozy mystery set in Space.

Regency comes face to face with scifi

MuseItUpPublishing Top Ten seller

Why Read Sci-Fi

Why Read Sci-Fi? 

Why would a fan of romance and mystery genres ever read sci-fi? What can we learn from sci-fi authors? After all, their stories are mainly set in the future. They're totally imaginary, made-up, pulled out of the air--a literary conjuring trick. Or are they?


As an editor, I have had to think again. The science fiction authors whose books appear on the Muse It Up Publishing list have totally impressed me through attention to detail in writing and plotting, the accuracy of their knowledge and their determination to be ahead of the game by predicting the lifestyle in their future worlds.


The characters know all about the latest research trends this century. Their authors incorporate a hearty helping of scientific fact into their fictional plots.

Muse It Up Publishing

 World View


When sci-fi authors write that the distance from the earth to the moon is 384000 kilometers or that a new moon dweller is acclimatising to gravity at 1/2 g, they know where to go to have the figures corroborated. Terri Main, author of Dark Side of the Moon, a book that combines sci-fi with the all-time  favourite cozy mystery genre, had me looking up and learning about g-forces on the NASA website.


A book like Dark Side of the Moon appeals to any reader who enjoys painless learning through reading fiction. Its world is a totally credible extension of the world as we know it today. The science is accurate and the mystery as intriguing as an Agatha Christie best seller.


Yes, readers are suspending disbelief to "live" in this imaginary world but it is a world view they cannot fault.


Lessons from sci-fi writers


Lesson One:
All too often, a factual error or an improbable location can stop readers enjoying a story. No use having a big game hunter hero killing elephants in London to save the heroine if the writer hasn’t given a credible basis for the animals’ appearance and stampede through town.


Knowing the size of the beasts in comparison to the Houses of Parliament could add to the realism of the reader experience. I’m not advocating bogging your story down with boring detail. But an odd and unusual fact can work wonders to improve the credibility of your fictional world.


Lesson Two:
Know your readers.


Let’s face it—it is probably not a good idea to have a hero who kills wild animals at all unless he repents and founds a sanctuary for endangered species as a result of the heroine’s persuasive skills.Today’s romance readers are more likely to support conservation causes.


Sci-fi authors have a committed following. They know exactly what their readers like and don’t like to read. They don’t follow convention slavishly but they do keep ahead of the game in their own reading and research to avoid being caught out in inaccuracies.


Keep up-to-date with your reading and make sure to keep your characters in tune with their world.


 Lesson Three:
Be adventurous when it comes to developing your genre. Anyone can be a sleuth in your cozy mystery—even a werewolf. Your heroine can be any age, any shape, any nationality. Your hero can have flaws—please add a little reality to the fiction LOL


Sci-fi authors like Krista D. Ball delight in standing stereotypes on their heads. It’s great fun and worth trying especially when you come to one of those dreaded sticky patches mid-novel.