BookBub is a "free service that helps you discover books you'll love through unbeatable deals, handpicked recommendations, and updates from your favorite authors." Lots of writers (including me!) list their books on Bookbub and post reading recommendations. Following an author also provides notifications about ebook sales.

​IWSG Monthly Blog Hop

Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question meant to inspire and encourage other writers. Special thanks to founder Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts Joylene Nowell Butler, Olga Godim, Diedre Knight, and Natalie Aguirre!

​This month's question:

You can find me on BookBub where I recommend middle grade and young adult novels, productivity nonfiction, and other books I find interesting. (Writing this blog post reminded me that it had been awhile since I was active there! I rectified that. 😊)

I don’t follow many people on BookBub. At one point I did a giveaway where following me on BookBub was an entry for the contest, and the resulting increase in followers was wonderful, but overwhelming in turns of following back. I basically gave up by default, and I mostly use the site to learn about ebook sales anyway. 

It can be challenging to keep up with various platforms. My latest focus is getting started on BlueSky, a Twitter-alternative. You can find me there at YvonneVentresca. 

Growth is controlled by an invite-code system. If you think you'd be active (there's a growing author community), I have a few extra codes. Email me, and I'll send them out on a first-come basis.

But first, consider whether you want another social media presence, what purpose it might serve, and how it fits into your life time-wise. If it feels like another thing to learn and manage, it's okay to pass. But if a fresh start is appealing, let me know.

"I don't like to give advice. I like to give people information because
everyone's life is different, and everyone's journey is different."
~Dolly Parton

I recently had the joy of teaching a virtual workshop on my favoritie topic, Productivity for Creative People. Productivity for creatives isn't about efficiency, like getting more words written per hour. (Although sometimes that can be a result.) Instead, I like to look at productivity through the lens of how can we make the work of creating easier for ourselves?
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One small tip that can have a big impact when you're trying to focus: Have an empty pad of paper nearby to jot down all the thoughts that invade when you start to write. Think of a great gift idea for someone? Make a note. Realize the car is due for an oil change? Another note. Research needed for the story? Mark a place in the manuscript TBD (To Be Determined) and note what you need on a separate research list.
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This simple step keeps me much more focused on my work than if I try to remember All The Random Thoughts or stop for "just a minute" to look something up. (Because we all know how that ends up . . . .)

IWSG Monthly Blog Hop

Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question meant to inspire and encourage other writers. Special thanks to founder Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts C. Lee McKenzie, JQ Rose, Jennifer Lane, and Jacqui Murray.

​This month's question:

I tend to be a positive book reviewer. If I don’t like a book, I typically don’t review it. Writing is hard work, and there’s enough negativity in the world without adding public criticism. How about you? How do you approach book reviews?

"Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them."
​~David Allen, Getting Things Done
Happy Creating!

We interrupt this regular blog to mention that registration is now open for my upcoming virtual NJ SCBWI workshop, all about productivity for creative people. It's online Wednesday, November 29th from 7 pm to 9 pm. Can't make it? No problem. Watch it when it's convenient for you for 30 days after the event.
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​Email me with any questions. I hope to see you there!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's a time when people join together with the common goal of writing 50K words during the month.
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This month's related IWSG blog hop question:

First, a thank you to Alex Cavanaugh for founding the Insecure Writers Support Group, and to this month’s co-hosts, PJ Colando, Jean Davis, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diedre Knight.

I'm a huge fan of NaNoWriMo. I've participated several times, and plan to do so again this year. It's great to feel a sense of community while writing, knowing that so many others are tapping into their creativity, too. I served as a coach in the past (here's my coach blog post of five helpful organizational tips) and continue to serve on their Writers Board.

This year, rather than track my wordcount, I'm going to track my hours. (I did this last year and found it really worked for me. My goal is 50 hours on a new project, so each hour gets logged as a 1000 words.) If you're interested in using NaNoWriMo in a nontraditional way, check out So You're A NaNoWriMo Revision Rebel by Becca Spence Dobias or How to Break the Rules for the Best NaNoWriMo Ever by Sue Weems. Both articles provide ideas for making the month work best for you. For more inspiration, check out these pep talks and the prep resources on the NaNoWriMo website.

​Whether it's words in a new novel, creating a series of smaller projects, or revising an existing draft, there's still time to join the NaNoWriMo community. 

Happy Writing!

It's Banned Books Week. In case you're wondering about terminology, according to the American Library Association, "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others." Their preliminary data for this year indicates a "record surge of challenges in public libraries." Celebrate your freedom this week by reading a frequently challenged book.

Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question meant to inspire and encourage other writers. Special thanks to founder Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts, Natalie Aguirre, Kim Lajevardi, Debs Carey, Gwen Gardner, Patricia Josephine, and Rebecca Douglass!

This month's question is about the use of AI. One recent hot topic of discussion is how existing books were used to train AI, so rather than offer opinions, I'll share this free Author's Guild resource: You Just Found Out Your Book Was Used to Train AI. Now What?

​Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question meant to inspire and encourage other writers. Special thanks to founder Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts, J Lenni Dorner, Sonia Dogra, Pat Garcia, Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, and Meka James.
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I learned about IWSG from member (and long-time writer friend) C. Lee McKenzie, and my first IWSG blog post was in February 2017 about Reading as a Writer. Besides the monthly blog hop, I completed the A to Z Blog Challenge a few times, including on my favorite theme of Productivity for Writers. My short stories have been included in two IWSG anthologies: Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life and Voyagers: The Third Ghost.  

Over the years, I’ve connected with other members through the blog hop and the IWSG FB group. It’s great to read the monthly posts and share the creative journey with other writers. Overall, IWSG is a source of knowledge, opportunity, and writerly camaraderie.

One last thing....
Here's an inspirational quote in honor of IWSG's dozen years:
“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.” ~Abraham Maslow​

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Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question meant to inspire and encourage other writers. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts, Kate Larkindale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence.

​This month's question:
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Have you ever written something that afterwards, you felt conflicted about? If so, did you let it stay how it was, take it out, or rewrite it?
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Creating believable fiction is tricky. There's the idea stage (everthing's shiny and new!), the first draft stage (how to tell this?) and the revision stage (how to tell this better?). Unfortunately, not every good concept can fit within a single story. 

I've written novel drafts where I try to cram in Many Important Things. It's hard for me to admit that *maybe* a particular topic doesn't mesh well with other themes I'm exploring. Can I make it work?

Not every time.

The good news is that time spent away from a manuscript, followed by rereading with fresh eyes, can often provide insight. What am I trying to say? What am I *really* trying to say? Am I achieving that? How can I improve these efforts? And then the next revision begins....       

I recently taught a revision workshop at NJ SCBWI's Annual Conference. If you want a free downloadable copy of my handout, I'm including it on my home page for a limited time. (It's listed about four paragraphs down.) I hope my notes help your own revision efforts!

​My adult short story "Justice for Jaynie" was selected for inclusion in Black Beacon's Second Book of Mystery. You can read the anthology for free through Kindle Unlimited or purchase a copy through Amazon.

​Here's a description of the collection: The Second Black Beacon Book of Mystery is even more challenging than the first. Our cast of intrepid investigators needs your puzzle-solving talent again, for these aren't merely stories, but fair-play mysteries. In this anthology, you'll be faced with impossible crimes. You'll find frightful amounts of poison...don't invite these authors over for dinner! There are clues to be collected and alibis to be checked, and your general knowledge and attention to detail will be put to the test. Does that sound like your cup of tea? Ah, best not drink that! Will you take the case? Great! We're counting on you!

Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts, Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and Cathrina Constantine.

If I had to stop creating stories, my top career choice would be to teach writing craft instead. But a possible second choice would be . . .
Professional Organizer! 

Several times a month, I volunteer to organize donations for a place that allows people in need to select items for free. The room I set up focuses on bedding, towels, and curtains.
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When I arrive it looks like this:

When I leave, it looks like this:

It's rewarding to organize the chaos, knowing clients will be able to easily find the items they want. ​

​I am a terrible self-editor. I am a lightning-fast drafter and can put out a pretty clean first draft. I wrote my most recent book, JULIETA AND THE ROMEOS, in a month. (It had to go through 3 pretty extensive rewrites, so fast drafting is definitely not the end of the story). This ability to write quickly probably works against me when it comes time for revision. My thinking goes along the lines of, “But I outlined, I sweated, I worked so hard on this draft. I did not get up off the chair for hours on end, and I agonized over so many details. How can it still be ‘wrong’?”

Of course, the need to revise has nothing to do with a draft being “wrong.” Books are iterative because they’re complex and layered. We may not even understand all the themes and subplots when we first set out on the journey of getting the story down. Terry Pratchett said, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” Once we’ve told ourselves the story, we can begin to identify where we left gaps, overexplained, repeated ourselves, or created a less-than-compelling character. It’s in the editing that books shine.
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Because editing feels difficult for me, I’ve gathered a few tools that make it feel less daunting. Without further ado: here are three revision tips for the reluctant revisor.
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​Reading as a writer means that I rarely can get absorbed in a new book without deconstructing it. Do I like the author’s choice of words? Is the pacing engaging or plodding? How did they pull off that fantastic reveal? I use this tendency in my favor when editing by trying to “fool” myself into reacting to my own work like a book I’m reading for the first time.
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Part of what makes revision psychologically difficult for me is that when I’m going through a manuscript, I tend to start skimming or making excuses for myself as I read. I’ll come upon a passage I know needs trimming and I’ll start to tell myself, “Yes, but remember how hard I worked to find that perfect adjective? All that thesaurus work?” Never mind that the whole passage probably needs to go, or is being made obsolete by the removal of a side character. I’ll start to spin about ways I can maybe keep it.

But seeing the book in a fresh font can break this logjam for me. If you’re feeling really motivated, you can upload your document to a website like Draft2Digital, which formats manuscripts into book format. Stop just before hitting “publish,” and download the PDF. I’ve gone so far as to send this PDF to a Fedex or Staples to have it perfect-bound. But even just a simple print-out will give you the ability to look at your book with fresh eyes.
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​Okay, you don’t have to toss it toss it, but getting pages out of order can help you look at things with fresh eyes. Both JULIETA and my previous book, LOVE IN ENGLISH, contained poetry and other snippets between chapters, and seeing those out of context was particularly helpful. Reading them as stand-alones helped me determine whether they were strong enough without the surrounding material. But even if your book doesn’t contain interstitials and “found” writing, you can still benefit from engaging with it out of order. Think about a potential reader picking it up at a bookstore and flipping through it. Any one page should have the ability to catch a reader’s eye. Some people who do this just shuffle the pages. If this sounds too daunting, staple each chapter separately and shuffle those.

This is not a top-line revision strategy – you want to have a pretty solid story before delving down to this level of detail. But when you’re ready, this can be an excellent tool to make every page shine.

​I’m a tea drinker, so I like the visual of being able to have a character over for a chat and a spot of tea. And I do tend to ramble on and off for hours with characters while I’m writing, hearing their dialogue and their wants in my head. But, practically speaking, a good way to systematize this is to (you guessed it) write it down.

When I’m stuck on a thorny question, or even early on in the process when I’m really just trying to understand this new character who has monopolized my attention, I sometimes take to paper to “chat” with them. I write questions as me. Then I try to absorb them as the character might. Then, I begin to answer in their voice. The questions can be broad, like, “What would be the worst thing that could happen to you?” or “Why do you want [insert character goal]?” But they can be specific, too, like “Do you like pickles?” and “If you could only wear one color forever, what would it be?” Unexpected ideas can come from this stream-of-consciousness “conversation,” so I invite you to give it a try.
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​I am often daunted by reading that so many of my favorite authors talk about how much they hate drafting and how “great books are written during revision.” As someone who finds revision painful, it makes me wonder if I’m a “real” writer. But, the truth is, there are an infinite number of ways to be a writer, and mine is one of them. If you find yourself challenged by revision, know that you are not alone. And, if you can, do your best to separate yourself from the work. If you wrote a clunky chapter, or if your ending is predictable, that doesn’t mean anything about you as a writer, except that there’s more work to do.
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I often say, during my book events, that furniture makers don’t get furniture maker’s block. They don’t look at a table that wobbles and think, “I’m a failure as a furniture maker. What even made me think that I could make furniture?” They find what’s making the table wobble, and they fix it. Writers could use a bit more of that thinking, especially this writer.

These tips apply to other kinds of tasks, too. Looking at other projects from different lenses, and engaging in Q&A with the problem can help you in work tasks, and other creative endeavors as well. For example, I’m a (very amateur) painter and I like to draw. Sometimes, I sit in a different part of the room (like on the floor in a corner) and look at my drawing from there. Stepping back and viewing from another angle can help you see your work differently.

Making things is hard. No question about it. Chunking it down and approaching things differently can help you see things in a new light.

​Happy creating!

More about Julieta and the Romeos:
You’ve Got Mail meets a YA Beach Read with a bookish mystery at its heart. Julieta isn’t looking for her Romeo—but she is writing about love. When her summer writing teacher encourages the class to publish their work online, the last thing she’s expecting is to get a notification that her rom-com has a mysterious new contributor, Happily Ever Drafter. Julieta knows that happily ever afters aren’t real. (Case in point: her parents’ imploding marriage.) But then again, could this be her very own meet-cute?

More about Maria:
​Maria E. Andreu is the author of Love in English, an Indie Next Pick, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults book, and a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Her debut novel, The Secret Side of Empty, was a National Indie Excellence Book Award winner. Both titles were Junior Library Guild Selections. She is a Red Dead aficionado, a cat herder, and a believer in (and a skeptic of) happy endings.

Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and to this month’s co-hosts, Joylene Nowell Butler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Meka James, Diane Burton, Victoria Marie Lees, and M Louise Barbour.

When I begin a story, I'm often inspired by a character's emotional reaction and growth in the face of a difficult situation.

But an additional spin on the question is what inspires us to keep going?

When I'm working on a first draft, I set time goals. I want to make steady progress each week toward reaching some version of a completed draft (beginning, middle, and end). I find word count goals frustrating, personally, because cutting words means backward progress, so I always use time. Knowing that I'm reaching the amount of hours designated for that week inspires me to keep working.

Once I've completed a very rough first draft, I set times goals for revision, as well. Each layer of revision has a specific focus (pacing, characterization, etc) and again, I use the idea of completing a certain number of hours a week to get through each pass. It doesn't matter how long it takes, by the way -- I just plan to achieve the number of hours I've dedicated to the project for the week. (It also helps to have a weekly back-up slot as productivity expert Laura Vanderkam advises, in case a day is derailed by unexpected events.)
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I might not always feel like writing when I sit down at the laptop, starting the day's work. But if I've mentally committed to say, three hours of revision, it tends to get done on the day I planned. I think the showing up at the page is what's important.
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As Elizabeth Gilbert says in Big Magic, ". . . I don't sit around waiting to write until my genius decides to pay me a visit. If anything, I have come to believe that my genius spends a lot of time waiting around for me--waiting to see if I'm truly serious about this line of work."

For more thoughts on inspiration and creativity, check out my blog post, The Myth of the Creative Muse. And ICYMI, author Lyn Fairchild Hawks wrote an April guest post, 4 Productivity Hacks for Colorful Writing.
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In For Better Creativity, Spring Clean Your Brain, Kelsey Allagood suggests various ways to declutter your mind, including cleaning your workspace. She says, "I can absolutely tell the difference in my ability to focus when I’m in a clean and organized environment." I agree! How about you?