My biggest challenge has always been that I’m not patient enough.
I used to write fast and put it out fast. And the feedback every time was very clear—‘I rushed my work’, ‘I didn’t develop my characters as much as I could have’, and I knew they were right. I just got so excited to ‘get it out there’ I tended to publish before the work was really ready.
Now I work on slowing myself down, going through it again and again. Where can I add more depth?
You Just Have to Write the Story
I’ve read all the craft books, I’ve taken tons of classes, even done writing meditations. They do help, but in the end, you have to just write the story that wants to be told.
I’m getting much better at slowing down these days, putting much more depth in character and setting, and telling (hopefully) the whole story people want to read.
I have a writing group that I’ve been in for years, critique partners, and proof readers that have all helped me polish my work, slow it down so I can bring depth to the story, and develop it properly. They’ve helped improve my writing drastically.
It helps me give my editor a more polished product.
How I Stay Well as a Writer
Sitting at a computer all day certainly hasn’t helped my figure any.
But I combat that by doing a 10-minute exercise routine every morning, getting up periodically throughout the day to walk, even if it’s just around the house once, and I walk for an hour on my treadmill every afternoon.
In the afternoons, if my energy level starts to drop off, I drink a ZipFiz (in about 20 ounces of water) nutritional drink. I always eat light and drink lots of water.
Planning a Book Launch is the Way to Go
As I said before, I’ve always been too impatient and rush too fast, and publish my books as soon as they’re done. Then I create an ad on Amazon and watch the pennies trickle in.
Obviously, this has not been the best approach. I have researched marketing, so it’s not that I didn’t know what to do, it’s just that I wasn’t doing it.
So my recent book release, Penny Angel and The Black Diamond, was handled completely different. I went through more critique partners, more editors, spent way more time on it, and wrote a better book.
So I wanted to give it the best chance I could. I did a book launch, which I’ve never done before. All the good stuff, got ARC readers lined up, put the book on NetGalley, sent it to Reedsy for a review, plus a few other sites; sent our ARC copies, had it on Amazon as a pre-order, and promoted it on social media for a month before opening day.
The book launch is definitely the way to go. I will do this will all my books now. My writing is also improving by leaps and bounds, so I feel more confident in promoting it.
What Keeps Me Motivated to Write
While I did write and publish several books when I was working full-time, I’m retired now (from the day job) and I write full-time now.
I’ve always been one of those people who get more accomplished, the more I have to do. When I have nothing to do, I get nothing accomplished! If that makes any sense.
The biggest thing that keeps me motivated in my writing is attending groups with other writers, talking to other writers, networking with them, and hearing about what they’re doing. I love writing conferences.
I’ve gone a few times to the 20Booksto50K in Nevada. That’s a great conference that really gets me hyped up and energized. But sometimes, all it takes is a zoom call or a meeting at a coffee shop with a fellow author talking about what we’re doing.
Writing Came Later in Life for Me
I didn’t always want to be a writer. That came later in life for me.
My writing career started when I joined the Army, after one year of college. I wanted to travel the world before I settled down. So I joined with a guarantee of station and was sent to Germany for two years. It was the best thing I ever did.
I came home with a stack of journals filled with all the places I’d seen, the people I’d met, and the experiences I had. I borrowed a friend’s typewriter and transcribed all the journals into one large document.
When I was done, I realize it was a book. It was the story of a young girl who was insecure and unsure of what she wanted in life, who found herself. Then I thought, this was fun. I could write more. I could write fiction. So I started taking creative writing classes and off I went!
I love writing. It fills me with joy. I can’t imagine not doing it.
Slow Down and Get It All
Penny Angel is my twelfth book, plus I have short stories in five anthologies. My biggest lesson again is to slow down, go deep, get it all.
I’ve taken a lot of classes by Dean Wesley Smith online, and the best one has been Depth in Writing, that one taught me so much about how to slow down.
I Like Encouraging Others
I’ve been teaching writing for years. For the last couple of years I’ve been a writing instructor at Writers at Harriman, a summer week-long writing camp for high school students.
Now I’m the director of it. I always encourage anyone interested in writing to explore all they can in it. Writing helps us discover who we are, what we want, and who we can be.
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A native Idahoan with Cherokee heritage, Sherry Briscoe writes paranormal suspense mysteries and urban fantasy. Her childhood heroes were Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe, and she insists that episodes of The Twilight Zone made perfectly fine bedtime stories.
With degrees in Journalism, Photography, and Adult Education, Sherry covers all her passions of creativity and teaching others.
Sherry is a world traveler, US Army Veteran, and active member of her writing community.
Sherry served as a writing instructor for two years at Writers at Harriman, and is now the Director of the summer writing camp for high school students.
She’s the founder of the Idaho Screenwriters Association, an active board member of the Idaho Writers Guild, Romance Writers of America, Idaho Sisters in Crime, and professional speaker and workshop facilitator.
For more information on Sherry and her work, please see her website and Amazon author page, and connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Penny Angel and the Black Diamond
Penny quits her high-profile job as a lawyer and returns home to claim her legacy – a mystical black diamond ring.
Can she harness the power of the ring before the opposing forces of evil destroy her world?
Life’s messed up, magic’s tricky, and Penny’s caught in the middle of an age-old battle between the Wiccans, the witches, and the werewolves.
Available on Amazon.
Mists of Geribaldi: Tales of the Supernatural
Lives in a small coastal town are threatened by murder and magic. Mists of Garibaldi-Tales of the Supernatural chills and haunts you as the mystical swoops into the bay.
Zoey, a photojournalist, follows the clues in her photos to the small coastal town of Garibaldi, Oregon. She rents a room in a turn-of-the-century bed-and-breakfast, only to find out the other inhabitants of the inn are not of this world.
But hers is not the only strange story in the small community. Lizzy finds an ancient cursed paint brush in Abigail’s secondhand store, and is possessed by an evil spirit. Then Abigail finds more than she bargains for when she mistakenly awakens a sleeping dragon and unleashes him on the small town.
Aiden stumbles across a ghostly town where the spectral residents want to make him one of their own.
From murder to dark magic, danger lurks in the shadows and the shore of Mists of Garibaldi: Tales of the supernatural. If you like mystery, a dash of romance, and a touch of the supernatural, you’ll love these haunting tales.
Available at Amazon.