writer « Robin Writes

We left bright and early Sunday morning and drove three hours to the listing agent’s office, then another 30 minutes or less to the first property we had scheduled.

Trust me, NO ONE would be able to find us back there!

We’d actually planned to look at 50 acres, on the back side of a total of 93; the front half had a cabin and a barn, so we started there.

Well.

First, I’ll tell you that I’m usually a glass-half-full kind of gal. Things like “Ooh, a circle driveway!” and “Hey, look, a ‘no trespassing’ sign—bonus! Save money on signage!” may have escaped my lips . . .

This was off a CR, a county road; gravel. And the driveway was decent—circle, remember? The cabin was adorable, but . . .

The pillars were not sunk into concrete; the subfloor was um, rolling, and the two propane tanks were, shall we say, questionable. Now, the owner had been working on this for quite some time, but at some point he gave up and moved to Florida. And no one seems to know when.

The clearing needed some serious mowing, no big deal, and the barn was fairly close to the house, but it had no floor; best we could tell, it was just sitting there, no anchor, nothing.

Hmmm.

My husband thinks, and I agree, that it would be much easier to start from scratch than try to fix everything. We did get some good info on the solar panel and rainwater systems—but again, what kind of shape are they in? It would be a great project, if it comes down to that.

We drove down the road a bit, alongside the rest of the property. Not bad. In fact, the listing agent told us to make a really low-ball offer on the entire thing! So, maybe . . . plus, she was really interested in my books!

Only two wrong turns later, we arrived at the second property of the day and met up with the listing agent. He was great, but damn, he was in good shape—just trotted all over those 32 acres, even climbing that cliff . . .

So this was the cave property—documented, dug a bit by mostly amateurs, and almost inaccessible. But it does have a flat spot for building, which is more than I can say for most of what we’ve seen so far.

We pulled off the CR and parked, then walked down a nice trail “to the cave.” Sort of. We veered off that nice trail when we reached the bluff on the Little Piney River, and started the climb.

It was steep.

And narrow.

Holy crap.

Slid on my butt for one part, only because I made the mistake of looking down . . . down . . . down. Ack!

So we got to the cave, and man, was it huge! My husband loved it, kept trying to drag me down the dark, low-ceilinged, rocky . . . well, you get the idea. Nice to look at it, but nope, not thrilled about going inside. Of course, I might be able to work my way up to that, someday. Maybe.

Once we finished with this part, we had to go back up. Silly us. The agent said there was “flat” straight up, so we thought sure, why not, take the shortest route.

OMG.

Took forever.

But finally—success!

This could work. Maybe. The section is pretty irregular, but does have road frontage, top and bottom; the bottom is just a hundred yards or so, right by the river and bridge. And there’s a nice trail from the road to the building site.

And yeah, it has a cave . . .

We’ve all heard how you need to be careful on social media and watch your privacy; we’ve all heard the stories about celebs who say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But I’ll bet you rarely consider how the things YOU post affect your reputation as a writer.

It’s all well and good to have separate pages or accounts for your personal posts and your career posts, but do you really think people can’t connect the dots?

Now, if you’re as politically incorrect as I am, you might not care too much if your opinions are being sent around the Internet. Sure, I censor myself sometimes, but then again, look at my genre: dystopia. Government collapse, survival, etc. I can get away with a lot, but I really don’t want a convoy of black SUVs showing up at my door.

It was bad enough when two guys in camo stopped by one day, supposedly looking for a fellow soldier, and when the lady who worked for the US government wanted to talk to me about certain groups in the area. But I digress . . .

If you write in a certain genre, people, readers, expect you to say and do certain things. If you say or do something out of character, that could be detrimental to your sales. If you say or do something that’s offensive to the majority of your readers, that could also affect sales. Ditto for misinformation.

A fan once mentioned, to my husband, that a Glock didn’t have a safety—as I’d said in Reduced; without missing a beat, my husband said, “Well, the book IS set in the future . . .” Nice save! Always remember, if you’re writing fiction, you don’t have to be 100% accurate, but you better be pretty close.

Another reader complained about a character in Recycled; this reader thought Jules should have done more for the women in the story. I responded to her email, and she kept it up for a few more exchanges and ended saying, “I’ve wasted enough time on this.”

Okey dokey then—I’m not a feminist by the strictest definition, and I gave her a truthful explanation. You can’t please everyone all the time . . .

But.

Remember how I’ve talked about your target reader? The ONE? That’s who you should focus on when you’re posting online, regardless of platform. Yeah, sure, you can get away with personal posts, but you might have to employ that internal censor now and again.

For instance, if you write for children, you probably wouldn’t want to get involved in a discussion on spanking, particularly if you believe that sparing the rod spoils the child. You don’t have to compromise your personal belief, just don’t discuss it online.

Ever heard the old adage, “Don’t discuss money, religion, or politics in polite company?” Yeah, that. Not that the Internet is very polite, but you get my drift.

And finally, once again, don’t make stupid grammar and spelling mistakes on the Internet. There are edit buttons, you can delete and try again, whatever. Just fix them. They make you look stupid. For some reason, readers enjoy well-written books—they often think authors are smart, smart enough to write an entire book!—and if you slip up, well, you could lose readers. And sales.

If you don’t know that you’re making mistakes, take a remedial course or ask a friend for help. Everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect, but if you constantly say things like “noone” for “no one” and “had ran” instead of “had run,” you have a problem. Admit it and fix it.

Wait a minute—you aren’t an author? Freelancers, all of this can apply to you too, particularly the grammar and spelling errors. Do you think companies who hire you to write aren’t going to check social media? Think again.

If you’re constantly confusing “your” with “you’re” and mixing up all the varieties of “there” and capitalizing random words, this could be the reason why your career has either stalled or hasn’t taken off in the first place. Check your words before you post—it can make a real difference.