I would sing the intro… but no one wants to hear that… (really, trust me)? So, I’ll stick with the welcome back to my adventures in indie-authoring, 2019! Where each week I try to share all the boring stuff that happened over the last week, as well as a few (hopefully!) helpful tidbits you might want to try out in your own indie-author adventures. Let’s do this!
This Past Week
This past week has been an interesting one – on multiple fronts! I had a major computer crash – but I’m a major geek, so all the important stuff was saved on my NAS, so no great losses. (thankfully!) i also finally broke down and got my new little desk / work area set up. Sounds minor, but when you have the constant companions of fibro and spinal stenosis… it’s a bit more challenging than it would normally be — BUT! With the help of my son and super-kitties, we got it done.
So – yes, the Universe reminded me for a couple days after that I can still do a lot of what I’ve always been able to do… but I should probably go a little slower while doing it. ? Fine, Universe, fine… I hear you! LOL
I also had an interesting conversation with a fellow indie-author… and between this conversation and my less-than-subtle reminder from the Universe, this week’s topic was born.
Do what you can, with what you have, every day… and you will get to where you want to be.
Yeah, probably sounds cheesy – but sometimes we all need a little reminder.
So, here’s how that conversation went — and for the sake of privacy, I’m going to call my indie-author friend Simon – after one of my kitty-cats. ?
Simon is venting that he’ll never be able to get this awesome story idea that has been nagging a the corners of his mind for years now onto a page and out into the world.
(I’m sure you know that feeling, right – I think we’ve all thought that at some point)
He didn’t have a good computer. He couldn’t afford an editor. He couldn’t afford a fancy cover.
“Hell, I can’t even afford software to write the damned thing!” he vented, clearly frustrated.
Well, Simon, I hear you, and those are all VERY VALID FRUSTRATIONS. A lot of us have felt those (still feel those!)
But – two things – and please know, I am in NO WAY the end-all-be-all of indie knowledge! LMAO! As if!! I am WAAAAAY behind where many other indie-authors are… but I’m also (to some) way ahead of where they’re at.
So, I told him these two things:
One – for every obstacle there is a way over, under, around, or through it.
IF you want it bad enough.
Two – even a crappy old computer can run FREELY available software… so here’s the list I gave to him, and I hope maybe it will help some of you too:
- FreeWriter Software — http://www.freewritersoftware.com — A great piece of free software for manuscript writing – with a lot of the same features as Scrivener! Love this piece of software and is a great one to start with for any aspiring (or career) writer.
- Google Docs — https://docs.google.com/ — while this may not be someone’s first choice for writing a book, it is FAR from the worst. It’s free, and has the added benefits of being cross-platform, AND (relatively) safe if your computer crashes.
- FreeOffice Software — https://www.freeoffice.com/en/ — This is a great (free) replacement for Microsoft Office or even OpenOffice, and includes a great word processor for writing if you don’t want to use GoogleDocs, or one of the others. Why? It can cleanly export directly to an ePub file.
And… there’s even more than just these three that are freely available! not sure which ones to look at – I cover a lot of these more indepth over on my Author’s Mojo website – or drop me a message sometime! Not having software is not a good reason to not write — in fact, it’s not a reason at all, it’s an excuse. (sorry – little bit of tough love there) ?
Now – go get to writing!
What I Accomplished
- 3 new websites
- Just over 1,000 words written — it’s not enough, or even as much as I wanted to get written… but (I remind myself) it’s MUCH better than zero words!
- Setup new office area
- Setup my new-to-me Mac . (If you are in the market for a Mac, but don’t want to pay full-price – go check out my friends over at Mac of All Trades – they are incredible!)
- Facebook Live
- Author-tech coaching
- Author website masterclass
- Drank LOTS of coffee! ??
The Big Takeaway
You don’t have to have everything “perfect” or even “just right” to be able to work toward your dreams… you just have to want your dream more than you want the excuses (obstacles) to make it easy to quit.
[bctt tweet=”Do what you can, with what you have, every day… and you will get to where you want to be.❤️?❤️” username=”MoriganShaw”]
