13 Years, One Month, and Three Weeks: Forever Grateful

Missy Tippens

 

Thirteen years, one month, and three weeks ago today, I created my first post for the fairly new Seekerville blog. I was a nervous wreck. I had to follow amazing posts by Seeker bloggers who knew a lot more about publishing than I did (I was still four months away from the release of my debut novel), and who were funnier and more engaging than I am. But our group had come together while running into each other as finalists in writing contests…and that, I knew a LOT about. :) So I told myself that I belonged with these talented women, trying to help others achieve their dream of publication—especially through entering contests.

 

One hundred and seven posts later, I have shared what I’ve learned along the way about writing and publishing and marketing. I’ve tried to share encouraging posts and even inspirational posts as God taught me lessons about myself through the writing of my books. Every few years, I’d wonder how long this blogging journey would last, and each time, I felt God directing me to continue.

 

But a few months ago, I started feeling God nudging me to consider that it was time to retire from the blog. I admit, I was stubborn and doubted. I thought surely I had misunderstood. But I kept praying about it, and over the last several weeks I’ve felt God confirming the change. It seemed that daily, during my Bible study time, He would bring a verse to me that spoke the same message. I have no idea what God has for me next, but I’m excited to find out. I WILL continue writing, because I still feel that calling! I’ve just been offered another contract on some more devotionals, and I’m working on another novel.

 

Though I do have one more guest I’ll be hosting in January, I won’t be a regular blogger here at Seekerville anymore. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll disappear! I’ll still drop by to jump in the discussions and to pester Ruthy (I love to pester Ruthy!). :)

 

Today, in honor of our purpose for this blog, I’d love to offer to critique the first 5 pages (1.5 or double spaced) of someone’s manuscript. Please let me know in the comments if you’d like to be entered!

It has been one of the privileges of my life to be able to be a part of this blog for the last 13 years. The love of our community here, and the joy we Seekers have felt each time one of you makes your first sale or indie publishes your first book, have often been the encouragement I’ve need to keep plowing through this wild and crazy journey of writing. So, thank you.

 

I pray blessings on each of you.

 

***

 After more than 10 years of pursuing her dream of publication, Missy Tippens, a pastor’s wife and mom of three from near Atlanta, Georgia, made her first sale to Harlequin Love Inspired in 2007. Her books have since been nominated for the Booksellers Best, Holt Medallion, American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award. Missy also writes devotionals for several publications from Guideposts.

Visit Missy at:

www.missytippens.com

https://twitter.com/MissyTippens 

http://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers.

Four Tips to Better Focus During Brain Fog

 Missy Tippens

 

Admission time. I’ve had trouble focusing for most of this calendar year. I’m not talking about a typical blank moment, where you walk into a room and can’t remember what on earth you went in there for. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who does that.)

 

No, I’m talking about bigger focus problems. Maybe you’ve felt it too… Staring at a screen and finding words fail you, as if your brain is void of synapses. Moments where you can’t summon the energy to string together a sentence. Getting online to look up something, and an hour later signing off, and then realizing you never made it to the website you'd planned to visit.

 

Or maybe you’ve done the opposite during the pandemic. Maybe if you were fortunate enough to stay at home, you wrote like crazy as an escape. But while not in your story, you found it difficult to focus on real life.

 

And what about your One Word? If you’re a person who chooses one each year to focus on, do you remember yours? In my planner, there’s a place to write your One Word each week. About April or May, I realized I had stopped filling in that blank, and I had to go back and look mine up. I couldn’t even remember it for certain. Mine for this year is PURPOSE. Obviously, I lost mine a bit.

 

Then I heard about a little book called Focus: How One Word a Week Will Transform Your Life by Cleere Cherry Reaves. It sounded like exactly what I needed. So I ordered it.

 

When it arrived in September, I immediately opened it and looked at the first word.

 

Diligent.

 

Ouch. I immediately thought God was hitting me upside the head, trying to tell me to work harder and push through the brain fog.

 

But then the author said that diligence didn’t just mean working hard. That our translation of the root word has lost the connection between diligence and delight.

 

Delight.

 

She went on to say that the person who delights in their work is displaying the character of God.

 

Reaves left us with this…

 “Focus Tip: This week when you find yourself in a hard situation, whisper the word diligence and walk through it—don’t run from it. Try to find the meaning behind it and remember Who you are ultimately doing it for.”

 

Y’all, her words were a balm to my soul. You can read the excerpt at the “Look Inside” feature at Amazon. The words I’ve focused on so far have really spoken to me, and have actually strengthened my understanding of my purpose. I began to find joy again in the writing, because my perspective had changed.

 

If you’re a fan of having a One Word to focus on each year, you might enjoy focusing on a new word each week. You might want to try Cleere Cherry Reaves’s book.

Today, I wanted to share my own Four Tips to Better Focus:

 

--Take the focus off your lack of focus! Don’t get stuck in your head. It’s like insomnia. The longer you lie in bed, the more you worry about losing sleep, and the worse the insomnia gets. Experts say that after 20 minutes, you should just get up out of bed and do something relaxing before trying again to sleep. I have a feeling this same method can help with focus. If you’re staring at the screen, don’t keep sitting there, fretting. Get up. Do something else for a while, and then try again.

 

--Start your work day with prayer and Bible reading. Let God direct your steps. Then start your tasks with diligence and delight!

 

--Recruit some help from your family, writer friends, or critique partners. Ask them to check in to see how you’re doing with your goals. Maybe encouragement—or even a gentle push—is exactly what you need.

 

-- If your struggle to focus is unrelenting, consider talking with a counselor. Often, a professional can really help.

 

Today, I’m giving away a copy of Focus: How One Word a Week Will Transform Your Life. Please let me know if you’d like to be entered (U.S. only this time, please)! Also, please share with us your tips for focusing!

[P.S. Any links today are for convenience only. They are NOT affiliate links.]

 

 

After more than 10 years of pursuing her dream of publication, Missy Tippens, a pastor’s wife and mom of three from near Atlanta, Georgia, made her first sale to Harlequin Love Inspired in 2007. Her books have since been nominated for the Booksellers Best, Holt Medallion, American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award. Visit Missy at www.missytippens.com,https://twitter.com/MissyTippens and http://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers.

 

 

Story Planning Software: Plottr

  Missy Tippens

 

Do you like to visually plan your stories--mind maps, poster boards, sticky notes, charts, Scrivener cork board, notecards, and/or timelines? If so, I’ve discovered a great new app I wanted to share with you today!

 

Plottr. It helps you create visual timelines that can assist you in generating your outline/synopsis.

 

I bought the program back in May and feel as if I’ve barely put a dent in all I’ll be able to do with it. Plus, as they get feedback from authors, they’re releasing new features constantly. I’ll just share a few of the features I’ve been using and really like.

 

One of my favorite things is being able to use a template. I have a hard time seeing the big picture in a story, so this really helps me keep on target. They offer many templates, some of which you’ve already heard of or used. Just a few examples are The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell), Romancing the Beat (Gwen Hayes), 12 Chapter Mystery, The W Plot, and Story Circle (Dan Harmon). I played around with two or three and finally settled on using Romancing the Beat. I love it!

 

What’s great is that you can fill in each beat as is, or you can move things around to suit your story. Everything can be dragged and dropped. You can have multiple plot lines. You can have multiple views (vertical or horizontal). You can use multiple colors. You can pull up your story in outline mode or timeline mode.

 

Here’s an example so you can envision how the timeline works.

 

 

 

You can create plot cards and also store info about your characters. You can even keep track of a series! You can create a story bible. You can store photos/images. Here's an example of storing information about Places:

 

You can tag things, so that if you want to do a search—for example one particular character—you can pull up everything with that tag and follow that character’s scenes. You can also tag particular plot lines (romance, character arc, faith journey, etc) so that you can keep up.

 

Here’s an example of tagging and filtering:

 

 

Once you have your timeline filled in, you can auto-generate an outline.

 

I just discovered you can even add dialogue snippets if they hit you while you’re working. :) I’ll be using that soon.

 

 

 

I also thought it might help to see the timeline in vertical view in case your brain works better seeing it that way:

 

 

 

I could go on and on. Here's a link to Plottr so you can check it out. (No affiliate links. I just wanted to include a link to make it easier for you.) You can download a free trial to see what you think of it. They also have demos you can check out.

 

Plottr was created by Cameron Sutter. Cameron was a software engineer by trade who was writing novels but having trouble figuring out how to plan them and be able to keep track of notes, and manage story elements that changed all the time. A friend in his writing group suggested a visual tool for planning stories. So he got to work on one using his software background!

 

I’ve used the Scrivener corkboard for planning my stories (it’s the only feature I use in Scrivener). But I find Plottr works much better for me. I can do a lot more with my plot (scene/beat) cards. I’m pleased that I can get a visual grip on my whole story. And for those who do use Scrivener, you can export to Scrivener. You can also export to Word. Another feature in the works now at Plottr…you’ll eventually be able to sync with Scrivener. 

 

I’ll be here today to answer questions. As I said, I’ve only scratched the surface. One nice thing is that there’s a Facebook page for users to ask questions (or just lurk like I do). :)

If you like to plan your stories visually, I hope you'll check it out. Let me know what you think!

After more than 10 years of pursuing her dream of publication, Missy Tippens, a pastor’s wife and mom of three from near Atlanta, Georgia, made her first sale to Harlequin Love Inspired in 2007. Her books have since been nominated for the Booksellers Best, Holt Medallion, American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award. Visit Missy at www.missytippens.com, https://twitter.com/MissyTippens and http://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers.

Best of the Archives: Giving Readers What They Want...Consistently (aka: What I learned from being a cosmetics junkie.)

Happy Friday, everyone. I wanted to re-share a post from the original Seekerville blog from August 2017. And yes, I will be doing the giveaway again! 

Missy Tippens

My name is Missy Tippens, and I am a cosmetics and skincare product addict. I love face creams and foundation. Primer and powder. Cleansers and concealer. I’m a sucker for just about anything that declares itself anti-aging. :) (Please bear with me. I WILL tie this in to writing and books.)

My husband has always called me a marketer’s dream. Sales and advertisements draw me in. I love to discover new products, and once I love something, I’m a loyal user. For the last year, I’ve been a big fan of an up-and-coming cosmetics company. I’ve tried many new-to-me products, but have also experienced the release of new items. I have enjoyed the samples that come with every purchase. Very often, I use those samples and then buy the products, discovering new favorites. When I go to their website to shop, I always read the reviews before I buy. They seem to have a crazily loyal customer base, women who heartily share their love of the products with others. I found myself spoiled by the company’s business model and by those new product releases—the samples, the build-up, the special promotions.

But recently, when it had been a while since a new product, I found myself losing interest a bit. I started looking around, clicking on links in newsletters from other companies, checking out products by other brands. Then,

In that moment, it hit me… Oh, my goodness, what if books are the same? I suspect voracious readers are the same way I am with my cosmetics. If so, we authors need to stay in contact with our readers. We need to give them new products to sample and buy. We need to keep them excited about our product so they stay loyal. :)

How can we give our readers more books and keep them interested when some of us are slow writers? Or when some of us are at a place in our lives where we have family or other commitments taking us away from our writing? What about those authors facing illness or grief? It got me thinking…wondering…feeling a bit overwhelmed…

And then I got a promotional email from Nick Stephenson of the blog

“They key thing to remember is that 'overwhelm' isn't an inherent personality flaw. It's not genetic. It's not communicable. It's not a fault with you. Overwhelm is a by-product of 'not having a plan'.”

That was another

No more saying, “When I finish x, I think I’m going to work on y…or maybe z.” No more being anxious or indecisive. I need to fully commit no matter what. I need to make decisions about the order to work on projects and then set deadlines.

I mentioned in the comments section not long back that I have a new Panda Planner. But I haven’t been using it regularly. I’m now reminded of how important it is to have a plan and to stay on track. Organization is key to keep from getting overwhelmed, which is key to producing more books, which keeps our readers faithful and excited about our work!

So, while planners can be fun and even artistic ventures (some use stickers and artwork!), and while I love my planner because it includes space for recording gratitude as well as a place to list successes, the calendar area should be a priority.

Today, I want to share some ideas I’ve had (inspired by my cosmetics addict lightbulb moment) for keeping readers interested and loyal:

--Focus on our newsletter, and try to keep a regular schedule (whatever that frequency is for you).

--Be generous with samples (first chapter or free prequel, etc.) on our website or wherever we connect with readers.

--Don’t let big gaps of time pass without offering a product, even if it’s something short or just a freebie. Work toward being more prolific so readers will remain excited about new releases. I think several of the Seekers have a good handle on this by just sticking to a daily word count goal. Consistently writing 500 or 1000 or 2000 words a day (or whatever number works for you) can make all the difference.

--Get readers involved in our work. I’ve recently read authors who recommend keeping readers engaged on social media. One author asks them questions and lets them give input on his books while writing them. And he always responds to comments. This is something I know I can improve on. I have tended to think I’m boring so haven’t posted much on my Facebook author page. But in the future, I want to reach out more often.

--Don’t overdo the promotion. The last thing we want to do is shout, “Buy my book!!” over and over until our fans get so sick of our pleas they want to run the other direction. We don’t want to shove our books down their throats. We want to keep them excited and looking forward to hearing from us. Finding this ideal frequency may take a little trial and error, but I think we’d be safe looking at how often we like hearing from our favorite authors (or from our favorite products outside of books).

--Finally, I think we should move beyond thinking of ourselves simply as creatives and try thinking of ourselves as a brand. We should be savvy business owners. Consider who our customers are and what they want. Come up with a plan, and schedule those product releases on our calendar. Break down those projects into manageable steps. Plan well ahead, especially for promotion. And always be learning from other authors who are successful.

I hope you found this helpful! I’d love to hear your input, as I’m still in the process of shoring up my plan.

Today, I’ll be doing a fun giveaway! I’m giving away a hanging travel bag that’ll be great for cosmetics (you knew I had to go there :)) or other toiletries or shaving items. It can even be used for packing electronics (for the many chargers you have to haul everywhere). Please let me know in the comments if you’d like to be entered! (Giveaway item will be similar to this photo but may not be exact depending on what’s available when I order it. U.S. entries only this time please.)

After more than 10 years of pursuing her dream of publication, Missy Tippens, a pastor’s wife and mom of three from near Atlanta, Georgia, made her first sale to Harlequin Love Inspired in 2007. Her books have since been nominated for the Booksellers Best, Holt Medallion, American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award. Visit Missy at www.missytippens.com, https://twitter.com/MissyTippens andhttp://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers.