Back To The Ole Drawing Board (umm… outline, rather…)

I've had to pause on writing The Super School Uniform. I haven't stopped for good, just put the actual writing on hold for a bit. The last few weeks I've been finding myself getting stumped on things in the story: motivations, set-ups, and the like. Then I came across this link shared by Jeffery Deaver. I realized that I didn't have enough things thought out well enough. I had purposely left my outline a little vague, thinking that I could fill in as I wrote. But, I found myself having to pause during my actual writing, sometimes for days, until I got a particular point figured out. It felt frustrating, because it felt like I was wasting time by not writing. So I have decided to pause on the actual writing, go back to my outline, and make it more detailed and have more points well thought out and such. It feels bad I'm not actually writing, but I think having a more detailed outline will help me in the long run.

Smashwords Forum and SmashReads

You've heard me mention Smashwords a few times on my blog. It is a free ebook distributor; they take your manuscript, convert it into an ebook along with an uploaded cover image, and distribute it to major ebook stores like iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, and others, as well as offering it on their own site in a variety of formats. Every author on the site is self-published and the variety of books offered is amazing.

There is a forum, while not officially associated with Smashwords (although I think it should be, and I hope it will be), that is a gathering of Smashwords authors and readers. A new section of the forum, SmashReads,has just opened up. In it, readers can share recommendations on authors and stories they have found on the Smashwords site. The sub-forum is split into sections based on length. I'm also partly biased on this section since they chose my selection for its name. :)

I'd highly recommend joining this forum if you're an author, reader, just thinking about getting something published, or looking for something new to read. Sign-up is free and there are many opportunities to interact with the authors and give feedback.

Here is the link: http://smashwords-forum.proboards.com/

As always, leave comments below, and thanks for reading.