It's hard to believe it's already the 8th month of 2010. Staying busy really keeps the time sprinting by. Below are a couple updates, the titles for which can be applied to writing or underwear. Please enjoy them and the giant underwear rug I found a picture of.

Guilty of Stuffing.

The stuffy my regular work hours into Monday through Thursday so I can have a (mostly) full day of writing on Friday in addition to a typical writing block Saturday morning is working out wonderfully. It's not easy getting all 40 hours in a 4-day window, but it's definitely been worth it. Now, I find I am way more focused at work. And, therefore, my work -- web design, for those of you who didn't know it -- was tighter overall. Distractions seem less powerful since their effect is magnified. If I give in to one, it could mean the difference between making and not making my goal for the day. Before, a distraction would only make it to where I had some hours to recoup on the weekend or elsewhere. Also, there's the obvious benefit of having a whole (mostly) uninterrupted day to write. Without looking, I want to say I started this experiment about this time last month. Last Tuesday's critique of Forever By His Side's third chapter showed that the extra time really paid off. For the first time in a long time, most of the critiques reinforced that I was finally heading in the right direction. The flow of action was smoother. There were fewer dumb proofreading errors -- probably my greatest flaw as a writer. And the voice worked for the first time since I started writing the actual story. This success has heartened me to continue pushing myself to get those hours in.

Change is Good.

Next, I've been working on my site. I was introduced to an app -- new to me at the time -- on Facebook called NetworkedBlogs. I registered my blog and immediately got networked to others' blogs. Also immediately, I discovered that my blog is different than many other blogs. And, I fear, mostliy in a bad way. Where my blog is very much like a journal -- which is how is started out -- other blogs tend to have more interesting content outside of the lives and goings on of the writer him/herself. I also realized I didn't know what my blog was about. I started out assuming that my blog would be about me, but I found when I really looked at it, my blog is about better writing. My journey toward it and my desire to bring others along for the ride. Therefore, over the weekend, I changed the header. Not exactly big news but after having the same look for quite a while, any change seemed pretty drastic to me. The other benefit of changing the header to the larger "Better Writing" was that on NetworkedBlogs, the blogs are listed with tiny thumbnails and I needed something that could effectively be ready from a distance.

So welcome to August. This month, I'm going to begin to share more writing-related findings that come from other authors or other sources on the Internet and elsewhere. I'll keep posting my writing-related ramblings but I think adding in the other will add overall interest.

This is a short time of transition for The Better Writing Blog by Thomas McAuley. My wife recently passed along that Facebook has -- and apparently has had for a while now -- an app or whatever it's called...called NetworkeBlogs. It allows bloggers to post their blog in a Facebook directory. It makes it easier to advertise your blog to others who might not have found it otherwise. It allows me to find similar or otherwise interesting blogs to follow. It gives me the option to post to my Facebook and Twitter profiles my newest blog entries. And it presents my RSS feed in an attractive, easy-too-use list. Basically, on first study, it strikes me as interesting, potentially helpful but also a bit of an unknown quantity.

I've posted my blog there and will wait to see what happens. As of this writing, only my wife and I follow my entries, so help me move past the pathetic and follow my blog on Facebook. If I have more than 20 followers, The Better Writing Blog moves to another level in the keyword search listings. That's a whole other order of visibility, if the listings run in the same way as other keyword search engines.

Anyway...with or without followers, The Better Writing Blog will continue. I post it, hoping that others will benefit from the things I have to say about writing and the rewards and difficulties of living a life dedicated to writing, but I'm also satisfied to simply be journaling my path to becoming a better writer.

Join if you can.

The San Antonio Writers Guild, as I've mentioned before, has "The Judy Award" for the member who has received the most rejections in a calendar year, the logic being, "If you don't submit, you can't get published." Simple logic. I believe it, too. But when it comes to making a choice between submitting/researching markets, or writing, I have so far been able to work up the discipline to submit.

The act of submitting my work can't be as bad as I've made it out to be. And I've made it out to be a horrible, grueling task.

1. Only once I've worked up the courage -- the conceited nerve -- to think I have a piece that is ready for submission -- not an easy point to reach since I am a compulsive editor -- can I even begin the process of submission.
2. Then I have to decide what genre it falls into. This step is stressful since. I've already sacrificed a writing session, so misstepping during the submission process compounds that feeling of waste. I used to be in a band and, as anyone in a band that plays original music will tell you, the question he hates most is "So what kind of music do you play?" It can't be answered accurately without an encyclopedia-length explanation. Unless one is intentionally writing genre fiction, finding just the right genre and sub-genre can be tricky. Once I've made a choice, I'm seldom confident it is the right one. I find myself thinking back to the other options I could have chosen instead.
3. If I've bitten the bullet and committed to a genre and have found a list of publications that accepts works of my piece's length, I then move on to the unfun sifting through each site's submission guidelines and getting the work ready for submission.
   1. Find the submission guidelines. I'm a web designer and try to make all my navigation through a site clear to the user. Many of the publications' sites do not realize how difficult their submission guidelines are to locate. My thinking is, if the guidelines are hard to find, am I dealing with a publication that is worth my time? If only that could be answered easily. The truth is, even known publications, at times, have this problem. More sand falls. I want to turn back.
   2. Once they are found, the newbie realizes that every publication has different guidelines for submission. Keeping track of all the details for each publisher, necessitates use of a spreadsheet, a hardcore left-brained activity for a person who seldom uses his left brain.
      1. The materials requested varies: Some want a query letter only. Some want the first few pages. Some want the whole thing. Some want both. Some want the physical copy as opposed to the digital file.
      2. The formatting varies: Some want this font; others want that one. Some want 10- and other was 12-point type. Some want the author's info in a title page only; some want it on the first page with the beginning of the story; still others want it in both places with a bio.
      3. There are timeframes in which  publications do and don't accept submissions. Oy.
         
         Keep in mind, we're only gathering facts. We haven't submitted anything yet.
         
          
   3. Note carefully the email (or physical) address to send it to. Invoke paranoia. It's an easy step that I find myself triple- and quadruple-checking, probably unnecessarily.
   4. Once we have all of our data saved into the spreadsheet, we now have to modify the piece to each publications odd specifications. This is the most frustrating step as there's all sorts of room for confusion, it can take longer than I want it to, and the multiple formats clutter my computer folders like nobody's business. By this point, I have little confidence I've dotted and crossed all my Ts and Is.
4. I finally have it ready and I click Send.  Yay! More to record on the spreadsheet my body has already been wanting to reject.
5. Here's another fun part. Wait. Maybe an hour. Maybe six months. Maybe...forever. You just can't say. And each publication has their own preference for how they will accept taps on the shoulder to ask, "Hey, um, what's going on with my piece?" They've got you over a stump, too, because the last thing a writer wants to do is piss off the very publication they've waited months to hear from. We don't want to make rejection any easier for them. I don't like being in a position where I should be able to ask a reasonable question but, for whatever trip, I would be hurting myself to ask.

The process is not broken. There is no process.

I always want to be effective. I find that, with the way things are set up in the industry, I can't do more than to minimize the amount of wasted time. And too much of my submission effort goes toward appeasing editors' preferences instead of getting good work into their hands. I see the need for work to be submitted in a clean fashion. I know I prefer files and such to be sent to me in a certain way. But there really should be an agreed-to standard.

Unless there is a formal "Submit-in" organized, I don't submit. I think about it daily, but nada.

I've resolved to set aside Wednesday's for submission work. That way, I'm not facing a choice whether or not to submit. It's Wednesday; I submit. I submit to submitting.

I think that'll begin with the new year, though. I have writing to do.

I understand that the last "new" look only lived from may until today but the change to the present look was necessary.

Improvements:

• Blog - The star of the new look is the blog feature. On the old look, I created pages which looked like a blog; however, they were not searchable or subscribable. Updating the entries -- their order and content -- was also becoming increasingly difficult as more were added. I'm curious to see how/if the new blog's functionality will be used.
   
• Contact Form - I probably could have figured out how to create and manage a contact form on my free host; they had scripts available. But being a web designer and having worked for one of the best hosting/design companies out there (ICG Link, Inc.) I've used pretty much the most robust form script I've ever seen. "Once they've seen the city, how will they ever come home to the farm." Bottom line is I never had a contact form.

Edits are ongoing, but I feel I've finally settled on the right tool for what I need to promote my writing. Please feel free to contact me with comments, questions or suggestions.

Click here to comment or visit my contact form.

You're looking at it: the new look for thomasmcauley.com.

Responding to some criticism my last site was getting--"type is too small," "columns are too narrow," etc.--I spent today reworking the look and feel of my site. I enlarged the type and I may enlarge it again, depending upon the feedback. And I limited myself to one column. Doing so makes the text lines read more like a book, so I'm hoping that helps.

Give me a couple days to get all the content flowed in. There's a small amount of formatting necessary as I transfer the posting from the old to this look. I'm not sure how the archiving of older stories will go, whether by number or date, but all older postings can be accessed through the Archives section near the bottom of the right column.

Some folks said it was hard to read light type on black. I understand and, to a point, I agree but it's hard to let that part go for a couple reasons. For one, I'd have to redo a lot of artwork. That's not a huge problem, just a pain. Second, I just like the stark look. The feel is right for me. If that means I loose some readership, so be it. No design is going to please everyone, right?

This site was designed to accommodate the next phase in my writing career, that of being a published author. I plan on being published at some point (soon, I hope) so I will be visiting schools and stores (Speaking) and will be receiving reviews of my work (Press) solicited and unsolicited, I'm sure. Obviously, with as little as I currently have on my writing resumé, Speaking and Press will reflect that fact. Including those sections is a perfect example of "build it and they will come."

I have also built in easy access to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, so friending and following are just that much easier. My Twitter updates are even accessible from the widget at the right.

So, let me know if you dig the new look better than the last. Contact me via email, FB or Tweet.

Viva la Internet! I've spent a good chunk of time in the last couple weeks setting up and filling out my Facebook account.

Look me up. I'm at Thomas McAuley or if you have an account, you can also click here and get there directly.

For a while, I wasn't sure how effective Facebook could be as a marketing tool, so I just enjoyed it for its ability to connect me with old friends and folks around the world with similar interests.

Finding this out now may make me sound a little behind the times, but since I was a MySpace person for the last few years, I didn't so much resist making the switch as didn't think about it.

Come to think of it, I can't even recall what caused me to set up my Facebook account in the first place, but I'm glad I did. I've connected with a couple of people overseas who love English Premier League Football (Soccer) and I've joined some writing groups online. I've connected with a few old friends, even hitting the town with one old acquaintance when he made his way back from Monterrey, Mexico at the beginning of June (2008).

As far as marketing my writing, the jury is still out. I know that having another Thomas McAuley-specific page out there with links to this and my other sties can't do anything but raise my profile to the search engines.

I doubt if there is a relationship between my Facebook account and how much activity it has been getting, but I Googled "Thomas McAuley" and for the first time since its creation, this site comes up first! And that, I AM certain IS a good thing for marketing my writing.

If you are a member of the San Antonio Writers' Guild (www.sawritersguild.com) or just anyone interested in writing, email me and I can offer you some assistance on how to set up your Facebook account because if you're a MySpace user, you might not immediately know what to do, where to go, or what the site is even for.