BJD Silicone Molds and Junk Casts

FYI-- One and a third gallons of AM 128 RTV Silicone Rubber makes 3 complete molds (upper torso, lower torso, head) and 4 small half-molds (hands, head cap, both feet in one mold), plus ball-joint junk molds used in elbows, knees, shoulders and hips, for a 1/4 scale ball jointed doll. I'll need to buy another gallon to finish off the small molds, and to mold the arms and legs. And this is just for junk-casting! I'll need another round of silicone to cast the Masters.

Wish I hadn't wasted the first 2/3 of a gallon a few months ago on half-parts I never used! I live and learn, I guess, especially with materials I've never used before. Now I'm hoping I didn't screw up anything important, and that the very EXPENSIVE molds I've finished work properly (i.e. not get stuck together or rip or what have you). I'll know tomorrow. I maybe have enough resin to cast each of the three finished molds a couple times.

Hopefully, too, the original doll parts will survive molding. I'd love to see her completely assembled and finished.

Note 1: I forgot to key-up one of the hands before pouring silicone. I'll attempt to fix this by gouging out a few keys in the flip side.
Note 2: A gallon of silicone doesn't fill up nearly as much mold space as you'd think. I bought what I could afford. No fancy cubic-centimeter estimates here. Just hoping it woulda been enough. Perhaps there was some waste, but I'd rather waste a bit than skimp on the stuff and tear a mold.
Note 3: Now that I thought about it, I coulda keyed up the hand mold right through the wet silicone with the end of a paint brush. It would have filled in the holes. (I just ran into the other room to try it.) Now it's set up too firmly to do that. LOL. Filing that little realization away for future reference...

UPDATE: Two of the molds weren't sealed well enough and started leaking out the bottom. I used clay AND hot glue AND smooth-sided cardboard. Guess I missed a spot. *sigh* Damage control may have been sufficient, but I don't know yet...

UPDATE 2: I ran outta silicone AND resin. I managed a really rough junk cast of the head, upper and lower torso. Both dolls are strung together with a section of chopstick in the head and a rubber band or two tied beneath the crotch. Both dolls hold pretty much any pose (except those requiring limbs :D). You can see the imperfections, bubbles and other nasty stuff really well in the white resin, but I feel better that I at least accomplished this much with her before running out of stuff to work with...

If I sound discouraged, I'm not really. Just tired and a bit disappointed that I won't get all my molds made over my weekend off from work. And poor. ;) Also feeling poor. Now I have to buy another gallon of silicone if I can afford it, and probably some more resin. Thank goodness the mold release will last a while! This delay just means I should work on the remaining parts so that maybe they'll go straight to Master molding... maybe?

Cuddles,
Tamara

My 2012 Creative Schedule

I'm a busy bee, or at least I INTEND to be a busy bee a lot. Here's to my compulsive listing complex for helping me organize the remainder of my creative year. Seems to be the only way I ever finish anything, when a deadline is looming. But wonder how much I coulda finished if I did some of those creative things INSTEAD of making this chart. Oh, well... :D

Here's part of my creative chart for the rest of the year. I'll be updating it frequently on my website, hopefully with plenty of ahead-schedule notifications and checkmarks of completion, but possibly with sad notes of deadline extensions.

MONTH	NOVELS	MYTH-BABIES	ART	RAGDOLLS
May	Silver Empress Rough Draft	1. Functional Sculpt, BJD 2. MB-Reborn 1-3: Cutesies for sale	1. Begin novel illustrations and cover designs, drafting 2. Illustration Collages, for sale (Finished: 1 of 10)	1. Complete Heritage Collection, for sale 2. All clothes
June	1. Silver Empress Revised Draft, Story Adjustments 2. Full Second Draft, Incorporate Changes	1. Refine MB-BJD sculpt appearance 2. Cast joints, hands and feet in resin 3. Prep major body sections for molding. Test-string for balance.	1. Decide on list of novel illustrations and finalize compositions 2. Draft Silver Empress covers and lettering 3. Sketches for Unatan and Azelan World Profile THS website content	On hold until Heritage Collection is sold and 2nd novel is published

Full Creative Schedule:
http://www.tamarahensonstudios.com/schedule.htm

Cuddles,
Tamara

Myth-Babies BJD Progress Collage 4

My first Myth-Babies girl just got all pointy-eared! She's gone through a lot of work that you can't see, too. (She's lounging on my work table, on her towel and cookie sheet.)

Here's what I've done since last time:

1. I reworked her head and face to have the pointed ears I originally planned. I refined her eyes and re-sculpted her nose. I adjusted her mouth and worked on the socket for her neck.

2. I cut out her knees and sanded down the too-large elbows to make a flat-sided knee for her. Then I attached the knee piece to the front of her knee. Added clay to fill in the empty spots and smooth it.

3. Sculpted new elbows using smaller beads and Sculpey. Sculpted feet over a foil-and-wire armature attached to a wooden bead. Mr. Dremel helped with the cuts in the bead.

4. X-Acto'ed and sanded and sanded and carved and sanded some more to hollow out the limbs so they could receive the knees, elbows, wrists and ankles and generally refine overall sculpture. I. Now. Hate. Sanding. Will follow instructions to make these joints BEFORE baking in the future... But she's finally starting to look smooth rather than lumpy. :D

5. Fitted upper and lower torso better by adding clay and making another impression.

6. Painted hips and shoulder joints to prep them for casting in resin. (That's why they're absent in this collage.) I want to have duplicates in case I mess up!

7. Prepped some beads to start the hands soon!

Let me know if you have any questions on this first-time process. I'll try to help where I can. I also appreciate constructive criticism! (Which translates to "Pleeeeease help me if I'm messing up!)

Cuddles,
Tamara

(I plaster my website on there, but it's in need of an update. So far, dA is more up-to-date...)

OTHER PROGRESS SHOTS:

Head Sculpt : http://briescha.deviantart.com/#/d4v3fnq

Progress Collage 1: http://briescha.deviantart.com/#/d4v5ddt

Progress Collage 2: http://briescha.deviantart.com/#/d4v5mx3

Body, Arms, Legs: http://briescha.deviantart.com/art/BJD-Progress-Arms-and-Legs-295628812

Progress Collage 3: http://briescha.deviantart.com/#/d4wwgrz

Creativity VS Making Money

Some comments that may be of value about creativity versus making money. I've talked about this story somewhere before, but it reared its ugly head again. 


I posted this comment on Goodreads a couple days back, in response to a comment, in the thread for Stephen King's On Writing book: 


"A friend gave me this book following his Creative Writing class in college. His VERY anti-King professor told him that he could have assigned a dozen great books on how to write well, but he assigned On Writing because the students wanted to learn how to make money writing. The professor hates King's writing but knows the man makes a killing doing what he does best: telling good stories. Writing well and making money writing are not always hand in hand. Oh, and I loved the book. Other than the awesome personal-life accounts, King gives basically two orders: 1. Write every day. 2. Keep writing."

I received a response to the effect that the professor was a jealous idiot, and that Stephen King writes well, and could write better if he wanted to, but chooses to focus on the story instead. I consider this a moot point. So I responded in kind:

"Well, this professor isn't an idiot, but he does have it out for King. Just doesn't like him. Jealousy may be a factor, but most likely it's the haughtiness I've witnessed in some professors. One of my dear art professors, for instance, is an awesome artist, but he disdains Thomas Kinkade for shirking tradition and "lessening" the value of his work by selling prints AND by doing simple genre scenes.

It is all quite silly. Kinkade made a killing with his art prints and brand, and is one of the most well known artists of his generation, painting what everyone wanted to hang in their homes. Also, far be it from me to judge an author like King who brings home millions, writing (pretty vividly) what people want to read!

As a writer and artist, I have my own biases. But they don't cloud common sense. Creative people create. Financially successful creative people create what people want to buy."

I repeat: Financially successful creative people create what people want to buy.

End of story, right? Or just the beginning? :)

Cuddles,

Tamara

BJD Body Sculpt-- In Progress

Ummm... Do I put up a NSFW notice for a lump of clay? Don't know yet. Either way, here she is!

Progress shots of the unfinished Myth-Babies BJD body, along with the creepy-eyed head. 


I popped the body in the freezer, cut the rib-seam, then baked her. Then I removed the core while she was still warm-ish and hacked at the inside of the upper torso with an X-Acto knife to start hollowing it out. Still so much more work to go. So far, I like her curves.


Debating on adding pointed ears to the head and lengthening her chin...


Criticize away, please! :)


Cuddles,
Tamara

P.S. This is a doll! There will be nekkids. Why do I feel as if I should apply a mature content filter??

My First BJD Face Sculpt

STEP 1: My first rough face sculpt for the first Myth-Babies BJD! Find out more about Myth-Babies on my website: http://www.tamarahensonstudios.com/myth_babies.htm

I sorta followed the tutorial listed here: http://www.vivcore.com/dolly_daydream/making_a_doll.html.  It's a great visual resource. The only changes I'll be making are 1) My doll's knees and elbows will be double-jointed and 2) I'll be using Batchix's Shapeways doll joints to be found here: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/batchix

Building up the head next, then starting on the body! A full tutorial with pictures will follow, hopefully with pics that the provided tutorial maker didn't include...

I built up this face-plate over an aluminum foil ball covered in plastic wrap. Plastic wrap was suggested by the tutorial maker, and is kinda silly since I had to peel it off after baking (expected it to melt anyway, plus the Sculpey wouldn't stick to foil, anyway!) The face is un-sanded and still needs tweaking, building up and hollowing out so her eyes can fit.

I used a 50/50 mixture of Sculpey III and Original Sculpey, mainly because of a resounding lack in local REAL craft supplies stores. Only found a multicolor-pack at Wal-Mart. Also, stretching the stuff because I am cheap. The hubby and I mixed all brightly hued Sculpey III together into a big brownish-purple lump, then combined it with the white Original to get a nice violet. That's my art degree put to good use... ;)

I'm still trying to decide whether my body sculpt will be unisex, adult male or adult female. Since this face is female, that may rule out one option! ;) Anyone have any suggestions or feedback?

Cuddles,
Tamara

Self-Publishing Links and Advice, Vol. 2

I just posted this advice on reddit for the following question: Does self-publishing hurt your mainstream publishing chances? Thought I'd share it here, as it may be helpful...

Both The Passive Voice blog (http://www.thepassivevoice.com/) and Joe Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) are strong advocates for why we should NOT go the traditional publishing route.

This guy's a treasure, too: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/ He gives practical advice for do-it-yourself designing, and also resources for paying others for services.

All three make valid points supporting self-publishing as a means in itself, not just a springboard to traditional publishing. From my experience, I enjoyed more creative control by self publishing. Since specialty "niche" nonfiction can rack up quite a respectable following, you may stand a good chance with self-pubbing.

I encourage you to read up on the above sites and make the decision yourself. If you expect to be a multi-millionaire by month's end, you will set yourself up for failure. If you treat it like a business, expecting overhead and a steady break-even point, AND if your book finds a market, you'll not be disappointed with the results.

Good luck!

PAPERBACK NOW AVAILABLE!

The paperback has been approved for ordering! The first place the book has been made available is my Createspace page, here:  https://www.createspace.com/3775570

It'll show up on Amazon (hopefully linked to the Kindle book) in about a week. And then it's on to Expanded Distribution, where I'll have to hound the bookstores to pick it up. In a little over two or three weeks, my order will arrive for local sales and website sales. If you're on my local preorder list, you'll get it when that order comes in!

More product pics on the way...

AN ASIDE ABOUT ADVERTISING AND PLATFORM:

My book is finished, as prettily formatted and printed and designed as my skill and brain allow. This is all very exciting. I self-published a book. I'm told that's pretty impressive. I published without querying an agent or submitting to a small press, and I had TOTAL CREATIVE CONTROL, which is exhilarating!

And yet I have a touch of melancholy. I don't do melancholy, so it's confusing. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like I've overstayed my welcome on my social network sites, like I've aggravated some people and just alienated the rest. But I really know almost everyone on my Facebook, and they're not all avid readers. And I have many followers who are also writers on Twitter, who I don't expect to buy my book, really. They are the community with which I want to learn and grow, not potential readers. I just haven't expanded my readership to my target audience yet. Working on that, next...

Truth be told, I'm not a super-awesome marketing expert. :) I know platform-building comes first, and I'm trying very hard to do that. I know advertising is key. (People can't buy what they don't know about!) I even bought an experimental ad here: http://www.kindlefantasyauthors.com/. Top of the page. Maybe the shiniest thing on that whole blog. (Experimental because the readership of this blog is under 1000. Maybe not a good return on investment, but I needed to practice somewhere...) I have an AdWords campaign in the works, but it's still under review. I'm told AdWords can be super-effective or a total loss. Encouraging, no? :D So we'll see. 

I also submitted to thebookdesigner.com Cover Contest, which is exciting!

I write stories and make art. I know where I stand there. Advertising is just a creative extension of my existing skills. I have some videos, banners, text ads, and other things in store for a broader audience. Then I'll focus my campaigns once I figure out what works, and I will thoroughly appreciate the feedback from anyone who experiences those campaigns.

What it all comes down to is time. I have no delusions about the pace of building a writer's career. I do have the very human desire to see results quickly. My "quickly" is different from many others' "quickly," and operates in 3-month quarters. Quarters feel like forever, there is much experimentation, and feedback on that experimentation may not come for weeks or months. And yet, my brain likes the exercise. So please bear with me as I learn the new skillset called "advertising." :)

Or maybe reality just needs to set in. I just published a book. This is pretty dang cool. Now comes the hard work, which really doesn't bother me. Now comes the risk that everyone or no one will love the book. Now comes the most important element to a successful writing business... the NEXT book!

Cuddles,

Tamara

The "Arghs" of Self-Publishing: How-To

At around 4:06 PM, Wednesday, February 15, 2012-ish... I may have successfully finished submission of my paperback novel files for The Pathos of Rowan Jun. I have illustrated, re-illustrated, tweaked and poked and prodded and screamed and kicked and stared stupidly at a screen for weeks. I have watched slow progress bars and eaten junk food and ignored family and friends. Did I mention I screamed? Yeah, I did that. I'm not saying that the following survival tips will keep you from doing the same. But awareness is key!

By comparison, the un-illustrated Kindle version was easy. (When I figure out how to accurately illustrate a Kindle book, I'll let you know! SEE BELOW!) I may have begun a pattern of un-illustrated Kindle version for a low price and illustrated paperback for a regular price.Which is fine by me at this point! Plus, later on, I'll expand distribution to B&N and Smashwords, etc., so that'll be a fun learning curve, too!

UPDATE:
The super-top-secret secret of making images show up in your Kindle book? Save your file as an HTML, Filtered Document, and THEN ZIP TOGETHER THE IMAGES FOLDER AND THE HTML FILE!!! Then upload the zipped folder. I felt so digitally dumb, since it's the obvious thing to do. But that happens...

Here are the general steps of self-publishing I have undertaken so far...

HOW TO SELF PUBLISH:

1. Write book.
2. Edit/Revise/Polish manuscript.
3. Follow formatting instructions for manuscript using Kindle and Createspace walkthroughs and templates.
4. Simultaneously create book cover art using templates, new art, and some fly by the seat of your pants Photoshop learnin'.
5. Co-Simultaneously create art for website, merchandising, and logo/branding THEN order said materials. I have a huge, awesome banner, full-color postcards, and T-shirts featuring the book cover. (www.vistaprint.com = easy and cheap)
6. Purchase ISBNs for your book. Otherwise, Amazon will control your distribution options. (Official gov't contractor for ISBNs: https://www.myidentifiers.com/) Buy 10 or more. It's cheaper that way.
7. Upload files to Kindle's direct publishing website, follow steps, fill out forms and publish. (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin)
8. Upload files to Createspace, fill out forms, approve files, and submit for review. (https://www.createspace.com/)
9. HAVEN'T DONE THIS YET: Order paperback proof, approve final product and submit for distribution.
10. HAVEN'T DONE THIS YET: Promote and reap the benefits of your hard work! (Eventually, if it reaches your target audience, and if people actually like it...)

THE ARGHS! OF SELF-PUBLISHING:

1. You will notice glaring, silly proofreading mistakes almost as soon as your Kindle book goes live.
2. You will anxiously fix the file, upload again, and wait hours for it to publish and go live again. The version with the errors will remain available for purchase during this time (I'm pretty sure).
3. You may have to repeat!
4. Each time you have to re-upload your Kindle eBook, your ranking will drop dramatically. I think. Maybe. I'm #132,944 Paid in the Kindle Store as of now! (Hey! Give me some time, all right?)
5. As you make corrections, rename (with version number, or something) and backup the different document or art file names. There WILL be different versions... Keeps file confusion at bay.
6. I think Createspace servers update between 3 and 4 am. The upload would constantly stop, restart and then time out. No red-eyed jubilation and sound sleep for me! But when I gave up, slept, then uploaded later in the morning or afternoon, the upload went smoothly, if a little slowly. (My .doc file was over 26MB, though...)
7. I also tried to upload from my jump drive, and that seemed to cause a time-out. Probably something related to the file's location or compression or whatever, I assume. (Though I'm no tech, I did some customer service related to file uploads.) I saved the file to my desktop backup folder and uploaded from there. No timeouts related to location.
8. You will stare stupidly at the progress bar, drawing shapes around it with your in-process-cursor until the huge interior-content file uploads. This will not speed up the progress bar! :D
9. You will have to upload several times at this slow rate of speed to make file corrections.
10. The Interior Reviewer on Createspace is your friend. Y'know... the friend who loves you enough to tell you that shirt makes you look fat. For me, things cropped up like low-image resolution (oops!), formatting (*cringe*) and margin issues (*double cringe*), and active Table of Contents issues. The conversion from Word to PDF that happens in Createspace bumped some of my chapter titles to another page, so the TOC page number and actual page number were wrong. A manual fix and yet another upload later, and the FINAL final file is in review.

There you go! An evaluation that is by no means comprehensive, but represents my personal experience with the process. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you have anything to add to these lists. I'd love to hear from you!

Here is the finished Kindle book as it appears on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pathos-Rowan-Jun-ebook/dp/B0078L898E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329342078&sr=8-1

Love and Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL DEADLINE!

Creative things are dragging along. I'm not sleeping enough, or eating right, or working on my book enough. All three may be related, I realized. Trying to fix that this week with a new deadline: By mid-February, I plan on having volume one revised, polished and uploaded to Kindle, at least. Here's my to-do list to make that happen:

1. Revise and Polish manuscript. (15 chapters left!)
2. Finish, refine cover for both eBook and regular book.
3. Format for Kindle and regular book.
4. Order ISBN and UPC codes.
5. Upload, submit and approve final prints!
6. Repeat for every other platform... (after initial deadline!)
7. Dive into next book and short story edit. (after initial deadline!)

It seems like a lot, but once I'm past number one, it should be mostly technical instead of creative-technical. That means, in my mind, it'll be simply time-consuming, not soul-consuming! :D Operation Get-Finished-So-I-Can-Sleep-Again begins tonight!

Cuddles,
Tamara

NOVEL: REVISION IS LIKE PAINTING

After letting the book rest for a while, I've started the content and line revision. Line by line, chapter by chapter, tedious task by tedious task-- it is exactly like starting all over. Questioning every word and all dialogue is the one thing that makes a book better if the story's already decent. Especially if you can do it without making the sentences stiff. Writing is similar to art in this way. If you paint holding your brush too tightly, the brushstrokes will look stiff and overworked. Keeping a loose grip on the brush (a trained skill) is key to making a dynamic painting. In writing, if you make every sentence technically perfect (holding the brush too tightly), you strangle the life out of the words and end up with immobile, stuffy, uninteresting, overly verbose prose that flaunts skills at the mere level of anal-retentive proofreading and far below dynamic editing. Rant, complete.

And after I've finished the revision, I'll attempt a final polish. If my head hasn't exploded by then. To calm myself, I did a five-minute cover mock-up in MS Paint with the unfinished cover art and a haphazard tagline:

Looks like something out of the seventies! :)

Yep. That makes me feel better. Nothing like the promise of a book cover (a much better one than this!) when I've finished!

I've hired a good line-editor who I promised would not have to do story revision. And because of my previous rant, he knows I just want a basic editing of lines and final proofreading. And the pointing out of any glaring problems he may encounter, if I haven't resolved them by then. (If something annoys him so that he can't edit, he is to report it! :D)

So that's where I am. Wonder if this'll be done by the end of the month? That would be promising!

ON MY KINDLE "MARKET RESEARCH": 

I don't want to self-publish with glaring spelling errors and confusing sentence structure. Simple is best, right? So I downloaded a few freebies on my shiny new Kindle Touch (I'm behind the times. Back off!) to see what the free market offered. The potential of a decent story was often drowned out by the lack of much common-sense editing... sense. I understand that people who view themselves as visionaries can't be bothered with details, but those same visionaries should hire someone who can be bothered. I know it's not all completely amateur stuff, for crying out loud! Luckily, I don't view myself as a visionary. I didn't, after all, invent the eBook or even the paper book. I'm just a storyteller and artist, a creative person who wants to get her stories out there...

But this is a business, right? I'm doing a job, on which consumers may be willing to spend money. To consume my product, if you will. And consumers want to spend their money on products that deliver. You don't buy a cell phone that doesn't receive calls. So you shouldn't have to buy a book whose line editing or lack thereof detracts from the reading experience. A book, by definition, should be readable. Now I cut the free books some slack. They are not purchased with money. But people spend or waste TIME on them, which is far more precious. So these free books should be handled with the same product-pride that the paid books (should) offer. Now, that said, on to the paid books...

My only consistent gripes with the paid self-pub books is that 1) they all seem to be done in first person POV and my book is not and 2) the writing often has a self-conscious quality, a "See Ma? I can write well!" wordiness that distracts me from the story. As in, the way I wrote that novel back in high school... Also, 3) Barring the presence of the ever-popular "young man in a strange world" theme I've incorporated, I haven't found anything that hits the same nerve I wanna hit. I'll keep researching, though. And stop picking it apart for now!

Like I said, I'm not a visionary. I'm a storyteller and artist. I'll stop worrying about them for now and try to make something I love into something that is better than it is right now.

Love and cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL: In-Progress Cover

In my "let it rest" period before doing a third draft of the novel, I've started the cover art. I still have a lot of work to do on Rowan's portrait before I'm finished, but this is a good in-progress shot! I thank my friends for all the feedback they graciously provided. I'm no digital draftsman, but it's not as bad as it could be. :)

For a sketch-to-current picture progression, and to follow more frequent Tamara Henson Studios updates, see my THS Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamara-Henson-Studios/151917568249729

Cuddles,

Tamara

180 DEGREES

Today, I celebrated the completion of my second draft of The Pathos of Rowan Jun. I ate a Frosty from Wendy's. :) And I glanced back through this blog, seeing my bumps and snares, a few witty turns of phrase, and a whole lot of struggling to get somewhere.

It all started with my unexpected unemployment, when I finally thought my life was on the right track. I was going to be a teacher and mold young minds! I would have holidays, summers and flood/snow days to work on my novels. And then that fell through. My ideal teaching job opened up, I subbed in it for a term and applied, but that wasn't meant to be either. And the crappy customer service job I left is exactly where I ended up. Yet I'm okay with that. I've realized some other things that are better left between God and me. And that's okay, too.

In just two years, I have done a complete 180 on many opinions I held about life, careers, college, and other things that are important. I hoped that a death in the family wouldn't cause such a falling out, but it did. What a nightmare that was! I thought college was important, and while I cherish the experiences I forged there, it only resulted in a stagnant, staggering debt that I've carried for years. I thought I would never be able to lose the weight that threatens to kill me, and I'm more focused than ever, dropping pounds right and left with the RIGHT mindset. I thought I'd never get married, that I'd either die long before it happened or no one would care enough to marry me. And on November 11, I married the man I love. 

I thought having that stable, logical, safe, obvious, comfy career was what I needed and should continually seek. Even though I didn't really want to. (I wanted the creative things!) But though I love teaching, I can't get a job locally and can't afford to move for just a one-year job guarantee. Then I thought having any job that would pay the bills would be good. And I now have that job. But it's just a Band-Aid on the real issue:

I have spent most of my life NOT doing what makes me happiest from all standpoints, particularly the career point! The creative things make me happy. Telling stories, making artwork, creating things with the talent born of hard work and the talents God gave me makes me happy. And at my lowest point, I wondered why everything was going wrong. And then, the Almighty slapped me on the forehead with the obvious answers: 

Because I wasn't following the path set before me. I was walking the hardest, out of the way paths that didn't have my name on them at all. And God was having to let me learn things the hard way. My barrel-ahead attitude saves my mind from cracking, but shrouds my spiritual listening. I didn't know how to trust God to carry me when I'd walked so long my feet bled. God's encouraging me toward a leap of faith.

Why couldn't I keep a teaching job? Well, I started the teaching program because it was the logical path to move forward. I learned important art things I can use, but the rest of the program is essentially crap. But God let me finish the program and teach art for a year. I got to use that time to touch lives. And I got to see the worst in some people. My season there ended. Then I taught the last term at the other place, nearly a year later. Man, I had improved my methodology! I got to touch lives, and influence some very intelligent, creative minds. And I got to see the best in people, to heal my heart of the scars left by the last place. My three months there eclipsed my experiences at my first teaching job. And my season ended. I learned what I needed from the experience. Now it's time to move on.

Why can't I find a market for my creative work? Because I haven't finished, polished or marketed them! (God's forehead slap of No Kidding!) Guess what? If I don't build it, ain't nobody gonna come! So I created Tamara Henson Studios, bought a domain name, and created a website. After I cut back on the million dreamer's possibilities, I'm down to three: art, storytelling and dolls, with various sub-categories. Those are my focus areas. No commissions now, no three-ring-circus. Just the bare-bones of things I'd love to make a career in. And when I prayed, I felt at peace about it. No straining to make things work. No walking through mud uphill both ways. God's in it.

And step one of this new leap of faith is the self-publication of my novel. I laughed so hard when I read this blog entry from January of this year, back when I apparently planned to write in phases. Go ahead, I'll wait right here while you do:

http://tamarahensonstudios.blogspot.com/2011/01/phase-2-on-self-publication-vs-agent.html 

Such pretty writing and clear justifications for an archaic system of the time-suck of subjective checks and balances! Compared to my last post's "Big Scary Thing", it's hilarious. I'm a converted woman, obviously, from that glaring example of egotistical swill to this world of infinite possibilities. The second draft flowed easily-- a full rewrite in a month and a half! (Oddly and ironically, thanks to 2011 NaNoWriMo!) The other things will come with practice. 

The season I'm in now... it feels like Spring! So warm and inviting, so comforting, as bright as the kingdom of Heaven. Almost. The green down here doesn't seem quite the right shade! But that's another story for another time...

Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL: THE HOME STRETCH

At almost 52,000 words, my novel is in the final lap toward completion. I had stalled as of my last post, but gained momentum when I just sat down and started writing. So here I am, giving a quick update to say that I'm doin' the writing I avoided for so long.

I could probably crank out one of these books in a couple months if the silly call of the real world would allow such a pace. However, I'll settle for the stumbling blocks that became platforms to learning and growing as both a writer and a person.

I also settled for a loose mapping-out of the remaining events of the book for tonight's progress instead of my usual organic writing method that may not have tied up the loose ends as I would have liked. The result is a concise action-climax and resolution map that will ensure I don't forget the major events. I also managed (or realized) a few surprising tie-ins with the next novel and made more specific notes in my trusty Notes doc. It's like the story decided its course years ago, and I just had to get my butt in gear to record it, with an "I'll be darned" kinda reaction from me.

I just realized that most of the above was disjointed. As I've learned a lot about my brain's particulars regarding my creative process, I'd hate to do it a disservice by being unclear. Consider the following for clarification.

So here's my novel-writing process, in varied POV, for retrospect and fine-tuning, as a compulsive list:

1. Format Volume Word Doc and Create Notes Word Doc.

2. Find and combine all the scattered notes, post-its, napkins, electronic docs, and other stuff into one jumbled mess and sort to make a story. Perhaps write it down longhand in the notebook assigned to such tasks.

3. Compose loose story outline in Volume Word Doc, as, you guessed it, a LIST of events!

4. Type Part and Chapter Headings into Volume Word Doc, separating outline list into logical chunks. Make at least a short note on what will happen in each chapter, if outline isn't specific.

5. Type a few starter Character Names and short descriptions into Notes Doc under a heading by the same name. Also make categories for World Details and Customs, etc, to help keep things in line. All uncategorized notes get dumped at the end of the Notes Doc for sorting or use later.

6. Decide on a starting point. Don't dwell. "Decide" is the operative word. Your protagonist could be staring at a freakin' flower for 10 minutes before you realize he should be doing something. But at least you're writing! Worry about Hitchcock's axiom in the editing process. (...the one about a good story being life with the boring parts removed, I think.)

7. Start writing! Keep a notebook and your Notes Doc open. If you get an itch of an idea that won't happen for a hundred pages, make a note of it. If something from three books down the line occurs to you, type it in. The point here is that, short of true writer's block, you should write when you sit down to write. Just don't let new or different ideas stall you out, or you'll never finish. Redirect that nagging or fleeting idea to a note and get back to what you intended to do in the first place. Flesh out big action or complex scenes as mini-outlines. Save often.

8. Note new character names and relationships in your Notes doc, as well as any customs, mannerisms, world details or other crap you may need to recall later. Nothing grinds writing to a halt like filtering through a hundred pages of writing for a tiny detail that you NEEEEEED before you can finish a sentence. If you can't come up with a new character name on the spot, type a long blank ________ or brackets and a description [So-and-so's sister], and come back to it in the editing process. Save often.

9. Make notes of plot developments either at the bottom of your Volume Word Doc or in a category of your Notes Doc. I keep a lot of plot notes and ideas at the bottom of the actual novel doc because as I write about the event, I cut and paste it into the Notes Doc. It's like checking tasks off a checklist. Save often.

10. Write a book that you would want to read. Don't be afraid of your audience, because you're the only audience right now. Chances are if YOU'RE wondering what will happen next and can't put your own book down, someone else will feel the same way. I feel like such a dork when I think "Wonder what'll happen next?" only to realize that I...have to...write it first. And... save often!

Hmmm... Nice to know the writing style that works for me evolved into a 10-Step-Process where I do most of the steps simultaneously and with little stress. How did I ever finish that whopper of a first novel without it??? (It was 160K words and has since been dismantled for a major rewrite later.) Oh, wait! This process evolved from that drudgery. As I said, stepping stones from stumbling blocks, or something.

Cuddles,
Tamara