Looking Back at 2019

Looking ahead at 2020, there are things that worked well and things that didn’t. Some of the things that worked well in 2019 are producing quickly and building audio books. That constant stream of content allowed me to leverage more promotions. This combination led to my highest Amazon author rank ever. I sold a lot of audio books and my email list has grown 4.8% every month.

Another thing that worked out well for me is setting a bar on writing profits. Anything above $350/month goes towards retirement/saving funds. That allows me to see the profit grow in a different way. I also like the idea that my work and effort doesn’t fade but continues to grow year after year. That’s the “long tail” of “long tail writing”: building once and seeing slow growth.

However, a few things didn’t work out so well. I started a goal of writing every week day, but that evaporated. I had to scale that back to a weekly goal and had trouble with that. I determine that the main issue is that I was being a bit too much of a “pantser” and not planning. That led to me not wanting to write, but instead focus too much on promotions. At this point, I know how I want to do promotions. That will change in the future, but I feel like I have a good sense on that.  This lack of productivity did result in a NaNoWriMo fail.

The goal is, and always has been, to be my own favorite writer. I’ve done decent with that so far, but I need to delve deeper into that. I can’t just be producing content to fit a goal. I need to have fun while writing. I think if I can make the writing more fun and easier, I’ll produce more content. 

Summation:

What worked

• Writing a lot
• Building audio books
• Building a mailing list

What didn’t work

• Not enough plotting
• Better writing ethic
• Making writing more fun

Ultimately, what 2020 needs to be is to simply do more of what I am doing now. I think I am on the right trajectory, I just need to tweak a few parts that are not working.

Never Be 100% Pantser or a 100% Planner

I don’t think being 100% “pantser” is an effective way to write fiction. This method is where you have no plan and just start writing. I also believe that being a 100% planner ultimately results in analysis paralysis. (That’s where nothing gets done because you are planning too much.) Most writers I think fall into the middle, and here are 5 reasons why a bit of planning is a good thing.

Connection of points previously not thought about

When you plan you get to see the plot from a different perspective. That higher perspective can reveal recurring themes and conflicts in your work. That can help you play towards those themes, giving you book a much better impact overall.

Allows you to recognize junk to cut

Much like point one, knowing a high-level perspective can help you identify which components don’t fit. That can allow you to cut out junk the reader doesn’t need. Ultimately, the best stories are ones that are told in as few words as possible. This means that each chunk is relevant to the story, and that there is no wasted material.

Makes writing easier

Writing every day is a common desire for many writers. The biggest hurdle in this effort is not the 100^th word, but the first. Just like jumping into cold water, the hardest part is that initial leap, that initial first sentence. If you have a focus or outline you can use, this makes things easier.

Allows you to “eat an elephant”

Planning a bit can also take a massive project and make it more obtainable. Few people could sit down and write an entire novel in one session. However, many people are able to take a few months and part out the topics to write. That makes it easier to complete a difficult task.

Can support being a “pantser”

This last point is the most interesting to me. Planning can help being a pantser. Knowing where to go can give you characters a default that they can ignore later. Furthermore, you can plan out systems so that no matter which choice your characters make, their journeys will increase in potency. One of the “tricks” in the Lazy Dungeon Masters Guide (which tells you how to prepare Dungeons and Dragons games with the least amount of time) is to build a list of 10 secrets. These secrets may or may not be used in every session.

I think there are a number more areas that planning can help, but this minor list should help emphasize the importance of planning. We all want a product that has as few problems as possible. These can include plot holes, incorrect pacing, grammar and more. The ultimate goal is to produce an 80% quality product as fast as possible. Why not a 99% quality product? The answer is simple: diminishing returns. To get from 20% to 50% quality could simply be fixing a major plot hole and some minor grammar mistakes. However, getting from 80% - 85% quality could mean re-writing two or three chapters to make a side character emphasize a main character’s journey. That time could be better spent writing a sequel to the endeavor with that side character in the sequel.

Combining Ideas with Plans for 2020

Lately I’ve found myself struggling to continue towards a daily writing habit. There are so many things to distract me and I am not just talking about social media. Instead there are many writer activities that can distract me from writing. For example, plotting for new worlds, trying to determine how a mechanic would work, or even working through promotions.

As I look to the new year, a few things will need to be sorted out. Here is a brief list of each and what they may mean.

• Daily Writing Habit
• Writing Vacation Days
• World Burner
• New Years Resolutions

For the daily writing habit, what needs to be sorted out are the prompts. I need to build a system that helps me feel excited and ready to write for the next day. I think that part of that needs to be building daily writing prompts for myself. For example, if I end the day writing about a fight, I need to write a prompt that talks about ramifications of that fight. The idea being that I can dive quickly into writing that bit.

Wiring vacation days is a unique idea that has really sparked my imagination. The idea is to work 4x10’s during my day job one week per month. That way, I have a day off and will use that day to do nothing but writing. The hope is to burn through 10k work of writing quickly and really enjoy the process. At the moment I am thinking about building a LitRPG story, so that day would have me actually playing the game and writing about the results.

World Burner is a World Anvil contest to put down 10k of words into a world. I think this would be a wonderful way to start a LitRPG story, so I am digging into that. It’s not as intimidating as NaNoWriMo’s 50k, I can say that for certain.

New Years Resolutions – So for this one there are a couple things to think about. I haven’t committed to anything yet, but I would like to investigate a few things. First off, when I combine speech to text, then correct that speech, I can hit about 35 wpm. My normal speed is 20 wpm. (I can actually type around 60-70 wpm, but my brain simply can’t work as fast as my hands can) The other thing I am thinking for a New Years Resolutions is to build two new streams of income from my writing. Specifically, one based on written word, the other on printed word. The idea is to have my author earnings increase every year as I continue this adventure. I am hoping to build some diversity into my earnings so that if one area dries up, I still have a few other areas. I need to be continuously looking to build a bigger platform.

Typical Author Mailing List Versus Mine: Five Month Analysis

My mailing list is an amazing resource that I look forward to building into a multi-prong tool. The goal would be to deliver different types of value to those who most desire it. In October I tried out that approach but haven't found a good way to separate this. (Several of the "potential paths" that would have led to segments in my mailing list had few people click on them.) However, I took a few moments and built a summation of how my mailing list is doing since I revived it this year.

Here is the five-month summation of my list: It is currently growing by about 4.8% per month (after uninterested are removed). These are more actively engaged (the typical author mailing list has 40% open, 10% click. We have 50% open, 15% click) which means 1.5x better results than typical author. [So that 4.8% growth is really 7.2% growth]

On the flip side, I was curious how my growth (with brutal removals of inactive users) compares to more relaxed removal of inactive users. In other words, if I wasn't so quick to remove people, would my reach be better? The answer is yes, I would almost get twice the amount of interaction if I gave people more of a chance. I would see about 15% growth, instead of the [4.8% (actual) x 1.5 (highly engaged)] = 7.2% growth. That's a bit surprising to me, as I assumed more engaged people would make up the difference.

When I revived my list, I was worried I would hit the 2k MailChimp cap by end of October. With this current trajectory of 4.8% growth, I should hit that during spring instead (April/May). However, as I try new approaches in promotions, that may change. The wonderful thing about being active in this endeavor is how much I learn. Perhaps this month or next I'll learn of a new place that will double my growth? Maybe I'll find a great method to segregate my mailing list, which causes it to grow?

What Indie Authors Should Look for from Advertisers, Marketers, and Distributors

I was recently thinking about what I want from each component of my author platform. I think this was the result of paying for Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) ads that didn’t come anywhere near paying off. I keep hearing that the market is “pay to play”, and that this is the gateway to play, but I simply have found walls here… not doors.

I realized that this wasn’t a pay to play situation. Instead, it was a way to drip pay for advertising research. That’s great, but not exactly what I was expecting. If I am going to pay for advertising, I want to be given access to unique ecosystems that thrive on niches. Amazon feels too combined for me on that. In addition, they have been known to have horrible stat problems (not updating correctly, incorrect information, etc). I don’t think Facebook is much better, because they make it seem like there is a lot of action around each dollar you spend, even though it’s not real action. “Having an interaction” with an ad is not just seeing it for a couple seconds while they scroll down.

I realized I don’t want advertising, but rather marketing. The official difference between the two is that marketing is preparing a product for a marketplace, while advertising is showing off a product to a marketplace. I would prefer to think of it as: build your own audience versus use someone else’s audience. I would rather focus my efforts on building my own, because then I have a deeper understanding of what that group desires. So I want to work with services that will help me build my own platform, instead of buying space on another person's platform.

In addition, any place I publish should help me with quality control and analytics. If I mess up and publish junk, it will hurt their platform. On the flip side, I want to know the results of my publishing, which is through analytics. I don’t feel like Amazon fully does that, as they have never wanted any modification of my work and have never told me much about my work in their marketplace. (You get a book rank for several categories and that’s it) Instead, I want to know exactly how well my effort is received. I want to know, for free, conversion ratios. How many people looked, what did they see, and how many decided it was a good value?

4 Steps to Evaluating New Marketing Channels for Writing

Write every day means making time to write. That doesn’t mean making time to use marketing channels to sell the book. Herein lies the crux of the author dilemma. How do you spend the minimum amount of time marketing, so that you can instead spend the time writing?

Step 1: Define Your Goal and Timing

Let’s start with a few assumptions. Every writing journey can have different goals. If your goal is to simply have a book in your hand, then no marketing is necessary. If your goal is to sell it to just one other person, a phone call with your mother should be enough. Goals can include making enough to live off of, building a stream of royalties, getting reviews, identifying popular trends / tropes, building a fan base, etc. Identifying a specific goal helps an author move from “those all sound good” to “I have XYZ figured out, but I still need W”. After you’ve gotten a broad sense of a goal, narrow it down. How much feedback are you looking for and how fast? Are you wanting a quick burst of royalties after a marketing push? Are you okay with a slow trickle of royalties that happens more naturally? Do you want to build a book that has more ‘set and forget’ abilities? Get as specific as possible.

Step 2: Compare Apples to Apples

The focus on this step is to not anticipate that a system designed for one thing will lead to another. For example, a system designed for community building may not help with making a mailing list. On the reverse, a giveaway site designed for a mailing list may not help you identify the popular tropes in your genre. After you identify the goal, make sure you use the right fit. If you build up readership, but really want royalties, then you need to see how well those readers convert to buyers. You’ve made a specific goal in step 1, use step 2 to verify how close it comes to making that goal.

Step 3: Look at Your Toolbox and the Cost of the Tool

The aim on this step is to evaluate what you currently have, what you are doing well on, and look for gaps. Perhaps a tool doesn’t work for what you want, but it does fill a different niche in your writing life. Perhaps a social media network isn’t converting to sales, but maybe it could be used as “proof” of legitimacy. Once this is determined, look at home much work needs to be put into maintaining the tool. If you can hook up social media to your blog, and not need to babysit the platform, it might be worth keeping. If you are looking for trends/tropes, but a platform is designed for reviews, maybe it’s worth keeping because it only takes a few minutes to send out a book for reviews. If you’re looking for fans of your work but are only seeing freebie seekers – maybe it’s worth cross-promoting with another author.

Step 4: CUT! Cut! Cut

Time is precious, so having systems that “may work far in the future” or “kinda, sorta work” could be hurting more than helping. Don’t keep around a broken hammer because “you never know”. Another thing to consider is the worst case scenario. If that platform completely cuts you off, have you lost everything? Or did you build/backup enough where you wouldn’t have to start fresh? Do you own the information or does that platform? It might not be worth investing in an area that could change the rules on you later on.

The Mix of Joy and Deadlines

I was recently given the reminder that I should only write for fun, never because I think it’s a chore. While that makes sense on the surface, I wanted to take a moment and deconstruct that. I think there is more to this than meets the eye.

Deadlines can lead to joy

The first component of this is that sometimes having a deadline can eventually lead to joy. Sometimes the hardest part of a project is simply jumping in. Once you are “swimming in the cold water” you get used to it and can even find it fun. However, when you look at the surface and think of the initial impact of the water, it can lead you to avoiding it all together. Life is too short to avoid building things that can lead to joy. Sometimes, having a deadline in that can be frustrating, but can lead to something you get in the rhythm of.

Inspiration can be caused by action

One thing sometimes leads to another. A spark of inspiration can cause a raging fire to occur. That’s why having a deadline can be a really good thing. Sometimes you are forced to “light the fire” of your creativity, which can cause it to burn even brighter the next time. In addition, it becomes easier and easier to light each time. That makes the deadlines feel less stressful and easier to manage. It becomes closer to habit than to herculean task.

Opportunities for growth may only occur after creation

Sometimes the only way to move forward is to already have a few steps in your past. If you are further down the road, and know what works/doesn’t work, then you may be in a good position to take advantage of an opportunity. That can be wonderful as it allows you to be more mindful of what is around you. Furthermore, you may revel in the additional opportunities presented to you, which can be a type of joy.

Past deadlines can lead to future success

Like the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree is five years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is now.” Not only does understanding what you can produce now matter but knowing what constant production can achieve is important. If you constantly achieve words and content every day, you will be better suited to create / mange content in the future.

In summation:

Deadlines can sometimes zap joy out of a creative effort, but that’s not always true. Sometimes deadlines can help get your creative juices flowing. They can help you achieve more now because you achieved more in the past. Furthermore, the more you work with deadlines, the less threatening / big they seem. I think that’s why building a routine of joy is important, and including a deadline in that routine is key.

Preparing for Writing

I’ve come to the conclusion that simply writing a bunch is not enough. However, in order to meet the goals that I want to achieve, I must write a lot of words. So there is the potential conflict. I need to write enough good things that people enjoy what I am writing. On the other hand, I need to recharge and seek out cool stuff to write. I think the trick with all of this is that it’s not static. It’s not always a 1-to-1 ratio. Some stories simply require more work than others and that requires more recharging. That’s all well and good, but I don’t know the difficulty of a story until I get into it. A story that could potentially be extremely easy to write might appear tough. On the flip side, an “easy to write” story could quickly become a nightmare if I don’t get a good handle on it from the start. So what are some things that can be done to strike the balance initially?

Decide on Method of Recharge

Some things help recharge the creative juices more than others. For me, if I have sample music to listen to, then I can rev up a lot faster. Something about listening to potential theme music makes me want to write. This is a great method but does require some pre-work ahead of time. Another method that works well for me is to find images that represent characters I am thinking about. That way, I can see that character a lot easier in my mind.

Decide on flavor

Some stories should be told in an extremely serious manner, while others need to swagger on/off the page half awake. Once you decide on the flavor of the story, you can use dictionaries of various types to pick out pre-worked pieces. For example, I have a simile and metaphor dictionary that can be used to pull out inspiration. If I want something that really brings the senses to life, I have a dictionary that helps describes how the senses may feel in that setting. On the other hand, if theme is more of the goal, than simply pulling out random goodies will not work. Instead it might take longer to match up words and sounds to get that gritty feeling or theme. I think preparing the spices of a story is always a way to make the writing easier.

Structure

This one goes without saying, but it is so much easier to hop back into writing a story when you have at least a rough structure. The characters don’t have to follow that path, but at least it gives them the first few steps. Those first steps are essential, because it is always harder to get stated writing than it is to keep writing. Furthermore, a bit of structure can tie together components of a story together. Once those are all framed together, it’s possible to step back and see a completely different thing. If you identify that, then you can make the tweaks that need to happen to get that working on all cylinders.

The End

The most important thing I’ve found when writing is to have a word count in my mind. I am sure as I learn to be a better writer, I’ll be able to jungle different types of beat counts in my head. These are emotions and happenings inside a story. Right now, I am really struggling with this one. I can only hold the end word count in my head and I focus on that. If I know I have only a few hundred more words to go, then I can come up with those words quickly. However, if I don’t quite get the sense of pacing. Perhaps that is something I can work on. Pacing and description. I can’t help but want quick action!

In summation, preparation for a story helps recharge the writing effort. There are a number of things that can be done to help on that effort. Getting samples together is my primary method. Determining what turns of phrase or cool verbiage to add is another one. Getting the structure and end in sight is another method to help keep things going. Ultimately, there is no substitute for putting your butt in a chair and typing. However, there are things that can help make that easier. One of my favorite sayings right now is “The Muse rewards action”. To me, that’s as simple as ‘the more you build, the more you want to build’.

How I Structure My Newsletter

I recently asked for feedback on what could be improved in my newsletter. I had a bit of a chuckle when I got four responses about frequency and all four were different. One person wanted once per month, another every two weeks, another person was weekly, and finally a person wanted this email twice per week. I have a feeling somewhere in the middle of all that is where I’ll rest the frequency (2-3 times per month). I think that this will ultimately rest with value. Can I bring new and good value every few weeks? I believe so. Twice a week? Nope, unless I decided to shift to releasing serials.

What’s more interesting to me is the other feedback I received, both in the reports and in replies. My reports say that offering an “instant win” contest increases the amount of clicks in the email. That’s not a huge surprise. However, it also decreased the amount of unsubscribes (by about 3x), which is a surprise. The amount of opens was about the same as average.

The replies revealed a few things: people like cute animal photos (not a surprise) and that they want to hear more about the works in progress (which is a surprise). I was trying to keep my works in progress to just a couple paragraphs, perhaps a cover reveal. It sounds like they would also like quotes and perhaps a bit more.

The final interesting fact I learned is that cross-promotion to relevant freebies doesn’t frustrate the readers. I was worried they would find this “spammy”, but if it’s in the same category and has a theme… it seems to fit. For example, if you write fantasy, and find a free eBook promotion for Halloween fantasy books in October…they want to hear about that.

Overall, I think I may need to re-evaluate my original newsletter strategy. The whole focus was on separating audiences; one with cross-promotion, another with just promoting my works. It seems I can combine both of those in a single email, which means I shouldn’t be worrying as much. I still might keep these audiences separated, so that I can control the amount of cross-promotion a bit better. I also like the idea of being able to “trial and error” twice as fast with newsletter ideas. I also like being able to ask different questions in each mailing, which helps me focus in on what people want.

The current format I want to use is:

• 
  
• Say Hello (What’s in the email)
• Cute animal photo
• Audio Book Review Requests
• Instant Win Contest
• Works in Progress
• Relevant Cross Promotion
• Questions for the list (reply and let me know)

Managing My Mailing List

Balancing new email subscribers with old is a good problem to have. This balance for me is because I am using MailChimp as a starting point. They allow a generous 2,000 subscribers before they start charging you. (Most other companies are around 1000 subscribers) However, I am currently gaining around 18 subscribers per day through all my various methods. That means I could fill up the entire 2000 subscribers in about 3 - 4 months, even if I started with 0.

Here is where the balance comes in. I want to continually check to make sure I have the right people and an engaged crowd. To do that, I’ve sectioned off my list into two lists. The first is a slower build with a less engaged crowd and has a singular focus: share free deals I’ve found. In exchange for these free deals, I have those places market my books, if they are a fit for their readers.

Readers that are engaged with my books go on a second list. These readers get more information on what I am writing and review copies. I also interact with this list in a more personal manner, sending individual emails out and looking for more genuine connection. Ultimately, this is my focus for my mailing lists: build up readers that connect with what I am writing.

The flip of this also needs to be considered. I am not going to keep anyone on a list they don’t gain value from. Currently I am making two “archiving” rules. If they are on both lists, remove them from them from a list. That way, each person of the 2000 is unique. Next up, I want them engaged. I measure that by how many emails of mine they’ve opened. If they’ve had the opportunity to open up 2-3 emails, but didn’t, they may not be very engaged. (I send out an email to each person about once or twice a month) That means they’ve ignored my emails for two+ months.

If I were hungry for mailing list contacts, I would send out one more unique email that was a “I show you haven’t been active. Are you sure you want to continue?” Then, if they don’t do anything with that for a few weeks, remove them. However, with a rate of 18 people coming in per day, I don’t feel like I have time to manage that extra leg of the journey. That being said, when I move above the 2000 and need to start paying… perhaps it may be worth it?

Ready for a New Week

This weekend I finished up editing the beta version of two Halloween stories. The first is “Dead and in Working Order” which features mummies. The second is “Masonic Werewolves” which might need a bit more tweaking. I am hoping to have the final tweaks on this story completed in the next few days. I also just sent out the mailing list email for the month, so that will hopefully work well. The only thing I haven’t had much luck on lately is writing my main novel, but that will hopefully change this week. I am hoping to knock out three chapters of the main novel this week.

The only other downside is that my audio book bundle of Vampire Caving 1 – 3 hit a snag that I thought might happen. Apparently for every bundle you need a unique intro/conclusion. Hopefully I can get that fixed up and ran through extremely quickly. I’ll email ACX once that’s in to see if I can get any kind of rush on that. The hope is to give out Audio Codes on that September 24^th. Normally it takes two weeks to go through audio review, so that’s an extremely tight timeline.

Another interesting recent change is that I’ve been using my Evernote to capture more and more random writing advice tid-bits. The hope is to build up a big reserve, then sort it into a style where it will be easily accessible. I also want to start “book reviews” in my Evernote that list what I liked/disliked about various books. The hope is to emulate the good stuff and edit out any of the bad stuff in my writing. With luck, my writing will get better and better, or at least more even. Onto a brand new week, with Halloween around the corner!

Tired but Accomplished

It has been a ridiculously busy week for writing. I’ve had to work towards preparing multiple stories for Halloween. I’ve now completed them and need to continue the process of cultivating them through the various stages. With any luck, I’ll have a Halloween Bundle #2 ready for 2019’s Halloween. I also put together a bundle of Vampire Caving 1-3, so that I can start sending that out. I’ll know if that works through the systems over the next couple of weeks. My hope is that I get that completed before the month is through.

Ultimately, I have a massive amount of work I am trying to figure out, but in a way, it’s worth it. By using these systems I’ve discovered, I can have my work pay for itself. That means that by the time I am full done with each story, I have a new well-rounded product on Amazon. These stories have been edited, decent covers, and some reviews. They have multiple ways to consume the stories (digital and audio) so that they gain the most readers possible.

I think that this is amazing and exciting! I’ve found a path that allows me to build stories without the massive out-of-pocket expense that many authors face. I get to choose what makes me happy to write, so that if I want a trio of Halloween stories, I can do that. If I want to build more in a particular universe, I can do that. If I want to try out longer books, I can do that. Any subject I choose, any length I choose, I can get them out into the world. I am feeling tired, but happy in what I’ve produced over the last few weeks.

Feeling Accomplished and With Direction

Time is tricky, because it can feel so abrupt and life can feel so large compared to what time we have. I think with this writing thing, I am having success because I am ignoring how hard it can be. If I stopped and thought about all the work I’ve poured in, and all the work I have left to do, I would be paralyzed. In this moment, however, I’ve just accomplished a good chunk. 

• I have another small story done and thoughts for yet another story. 
• I’ve built a release schedule based on promotions I have planned out. 
• I have the promotions planned out, to pay for the production costs. 
• Finally, I can see the trajectory of my current marketing and how well it is working.

I am feeling accomplished because I have the direction I need for the next year+. There is a lot to accomplish, and I am excited about building those accomplishments. With any luck, this writing thing will continue to grow, and I’ll grow alongside it. In time, I would like to split the royalties that are made with this effort three different ways: producing more books, retirement funds, and some fun money. It would be nice if this effort could grow and grow, until it got to be something sizable and amazing. However, looking back at where I am at now, it feels sizable. I got a lot of amazing stuff and I am looking forward to building even more stuff.

Organizing Notes Using Evernote

I am trying to get back in the habit of writing daily. I think the first source of that needs to be with having and organizing inspiration. I’ve worked hard on discovering what I can do to organize that inspiration. I dug through connections between Google Docs and Google Keep (notes) to try to divine a workable system. After becoming frustrated with that, I stumbled upon an article ( https://evernote.com/blog/how-to-organize-big-writing-projects/ ) on how to organize for a novel using Evernote.

I downloaded the app on my phone and tried out a number of features. While there is still some improvements that need to be made, this should suffice for the moment.

Some of my favorite features include grabbing snippets of web pages and sorting them into specific folders. I also like the style of being able to see multiple notes at one time. That way if you have several photos of something, along with some description, you will see those at the same time. What I would like improved is a method to place a picture embedded within a text note and I would love if I could link a Kindle book area. I have a lot of eBooks as references, and it would be great to have a quick link to those references. At the moment, I am stuck either typing those references out or making a screenshot. Both of those can take a lot of extra time to complete.

My hope is to slowly build this collection of writing components so that a methodology is shown. The idea is that I can regularly cultivate inspiration the way that others would grow vegetables. I think that when you are emerged in a story that it becomes more fun to write. You can’t wait for the next thing to happen, so you get excited about writing it. That’s the focus that I am trying to head for with this writing craft. I don’t know if I’ll be successful, but I hope I will be. I do enjoy writing and I want to continue to make it fun to write.

Balance Among Writer Tasks

Writing every day is extremely difficult because there are so many things to try and work through. As an author, you need to build the marketing along with the product. That can be great to build a wonderful synergy, but it can also lead to inhibitions on production. That’s because you need to almost do both at the same time. Writing every day and working with readers to get that writing in their hands. I am not sure how to build that balance. It would be easy to build that balance if the tasks were all set in stone. However, often times the tasks are from a regular consistency.

For example, I need to work through several edits of a story, respond to review copies requested, try to work with Audible customer service, and yet… write for several hours. I can’t produce all that. I can do a little of each, but not all of it. So the best I can resolve is to prioritize and build out the parts that need to be done. The first and foremost is to cater to the review copies, then followed by figuring out support. Once that’s done, it was working on grammar for a potential story and then trying to produce this. Again, it’s a balance, and I can’t be angry with myself for striking that balance. I produce a lot, and sometimes I just need to accept and enjoy all that I create. Hopefully I will continue to build at this wonderful level and I can make more and more connections. Only the future will determine that though.

Trying to Build a UK Mailing List

I am finishing up a book called Newsletter Ninja that talks about some of the basics behind setting up an author mailing list. Overall, I think about 80% - 90% was already understood, but it did give out a few pieces I hadn’t known. However, I am now trying to decipher another potential gain, but I don’t quite know where to go. I’ve asked the Sub Reddit group I am in about it, with not much luck so far.  The focus I am aiming for is to build a new mailing list focused around UK readers.

There are three main reasons on why to focus on this market. First off, any books I produce can be read without much (or any) modification. The second reason is that this market is smaller and may have less competition than the main USA market. The final reason is that Audible has a UK site with unique codes. I get a lot of these review codes for the UK market and I’ve never been able to really give them away. I’ve given maybe a dozen away total, over all my books. I think if I can build a UK audience, it would really help boost things.

So far the advice on the Sub Reddit I’ve joined is basically a shrug. The sources I find potential readers is worldwide, so if UK readers join, then great. However, the majority of this source of readers is still the USA. I am going to dig into some online resources to see if I can’t find a way to build out this portion of my mailing list. If I can, it would be a huge gain I my growing author career / habit. I may also start to tag any email addresses that end in “.uk” or perhaps tag any country specific emails that are from the United Kingdom.

I would love to have three lists total: My Main USA list, My Main UK List, and my experimental list. The experimental list is more for group promotions, trying out new techniques, and trying to offer value back to other authors. The main lists I want to be groomed and well-maintained, where the experimental list should be focused on figuring out random feedback and group promotions.

The Role of a Writer

"The Muse Rewards Action"

Lately I’ve been thinking of the role of the artist. What is their specific purpose? I am concentrating on a particular concept. A line I recently found is ‘the muse rewards action’. That resonates with me, because it is almost like an artist’s role is to be active in that rewarding action. An artist’s goal is to take the action, get the inspiration, and form that inspiration into a product. The world then consumes that product for a number of reasons. Perhaps for escapism or perhaps to show a vital truth that wasn’t uncovered until recently.

The next question then becomes, what kind of product does the artist want to build, which is much easier. I want to build something elegant and approachable. Something that is almost a common extravagance. I want to build something like a cup of Starbucks coffee. It’s more costly than coffee at home, but is done in a way that is more delicious than what I could brew. In addition, it still has a low enough cost that it can be afforded on a regular-ish basis. When I have a cup, I feel a bit fancier than if I were to drink from a mug I brought from home.

So the question becomes, what does it take to build that elegance? The answer to that is: pre-work. Research and study ahead of time. Using methods to help elevate what would normally be done. The thoughts I am trying to sort is what pre-work methods can be done that would be most effective? What modes of inspiration help start the cycle the best?

I’ve started with using music and images to help with inspiration. I’ve tried out using books to help me learn more about the craft. Hopefully, I can build that common luxury item that people enjoy. A splurge to make their lives a bit better and help them escape things. I still need a better system, and I hope to get to that end. For now, it’s a matter of trial and working things out, bit by bit.

My current thoughts are to use some kind of system between Google Docs and Google Keep. These can be connected together, are accessible from anywhere, and are backed up in the cloud. However, I haven’t yet thought of how to weave these together. Perhaps I need to look at the strengths of each and play to that end. I could build “bonus keep notes” in the main documents and these would be temporary storage to hold onto concepts I am looking into. However, they would only be used in a temporary capacity, with any more concrete capacity being Google Docs? I am not sure how this will look now, but I feel like I need to build some kind of system to capture all the various components I am gathering. Perhaps the best way to do this is to look at how I would consume the random bits and then play towards that? Again, I am not sure of the proper system here.

Changing Weekly Word Count Goal

Progress forward is sometimes a tricky thing. You can spend a bunch of time trying to figure out an aspect of your work (such as newsletters, which is what I’ve been doing). You can have great luck in that area, but then feel like a failure in another area. I’ve let my curiosity into building newsletters overshadow my daily writing habit. I need to put this back in proper order. I’ve taken a look at my past statistics and have noticed a few things of interest.

My average weekly output, since I’ve tried starting a daily writing habit nine weeks ago, has been 6k per week. The truth is I had two bigger weeks; which when removed, the average dives down to 4k per week. This is way more than I originally could do. In fact, this year is on track to be my most productive one yet. However, I want to build so much this year, and am just getting hazy about it.

What do I mean by hazy? I mean that there isn’t a sustainable focus. I want want want; but I keep changing that vision by increments. Originally, I wanted 300k words created this year, to be spread over four bigger books. Now the vision is 270k words focused on four other bigger books. I know this doesn’t seem like a major change, but I am only 75k words into the year. That’s a quarter way in and I already want to change everything. Beyond that, this daily writing habit is hard to focus with because my mind simply wants to go and discover other things. I think I need to revel further in inspiration. The year is way over half over, yet I’ve only got a quarter of my stuff done? Plus I want to do even more?

At the current pace, I’ll hit 150k in the year. That would get one book completed, another 5/6 completed, a third book 3/4 done and the last book 0% done. That’s not satisfying at all. I need, at very least, to up the output to be closer to 6k per week. I am going to modify my daily goal from 2500 to 1500. If I complete that extra 1k, that would mean that last book would also be done.

BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs BookSprouts: Results so far

To start with, I want to say that I am extremely happy with how this has been turning out! I've had some success with BookFunnel and I am hoping that will continue. I've also been able to email out a lot of review emails, so hopefully those will produce some fantastic results. On all of this, time will tell, but I am hoping it is moving in the correct direction!

BookFunnel

When I last updated this, I had sent a test email to 153 users. Since that email on Friday, I’ve had 45 more subscribers join the list. That’s pretty amazing! As far as statistics go, I had a 64.7% open rate, 26.1% click rate, and a 5.9% conversion rate on the previous 153 person email. Currently, this is my high-water mark. In a previous post, that mark belonged to Noisetrade users. I am really excited by this, especially because I feel it’s going to be very cost effective to continue this effort. Currently, each subscriber gathered via this method is costing 4.8c, which is extremely cheap. Happy happy happy about this!

StoryOrigin

Over the weekend, 54 email addresses turned into 66. That’s good progress, but I still didn’t have a good open/click/conversion rate with this source of addresses. This might be good to do just to help round things out, but I don’t know if I would consider it my primary source of potential new readers.

BookSprouts

So, two of the three people posted their reviews online. That’s fantastic as I didn’t pay anything for this service. Again, very happy with this option.

Testing Users: BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs BookSprouts

I've done a few things, so now I am looking to describe how those things went; or are going. The ultimate goal of building any newsletter list is to have users that interact with the content. I went ahead and removed around 200 users that had never interacted with any content. I think this purging is good to do several times a year. I then tested my audiences gained from several solutions. Here are the current results.

Measuring Stick (Low) - Giveaway Hops
So the way I can tell if the audience is worth it or not is by comparing it against my normal gains. These are low-interest users gained from book Giveaway hops. It's nearly free to participate in these, and I get a solid stream of users. I had 34 email addresses gained in the last month. I could have pushed this harder, but had a lot going in July. Of those people, 11 opened the email. 0 clicked on the link in the form which obviously resulted in 0 conversions. So: 32% open rate, 0% click through, 0% conversions. In the past this group has been at 27.3% open, 2.8% clicks, 0.36% conversion. What does all that mean? For every 280 people, I get one conversion.

Measuring Stick (High) - NoiseTrade
The best people I've found so far have been off NoiseTrade. A recent test of 430 users saw 51.8% open rate, 9.7% click rate, and 4.9% conversion. That is an absolute amazing amount. For every 20 people, I get one conversion. Again, that's amazing!

StoryOrigin - Results: Low
As you may recall, I messed up and used a universal link where I meant to get email addresses. I fixed this error and received roughly 54 email addresses total. I sent out my test email and 14 of those people opened the email. Of those 14 people, 3 clicked on a link to my form. None of them filled out the form for a free book. So: 26% open, 21% click through rate, 0% conversions. The result is moderately promising... The open rate is pretty standard, but the number of people clicking is high. However, none of them are converting. That probably means my offer is not hitting the mark correctly on this one. This is closer to my low measuring stick, so I am categorizing this one as "low" in results.

BookFunnel - Results: TBD
I just sent out the first test email to 153 new recipients. (Turns out some of the people are in both StoryOrigin and BookFunnel) This campaign will need the weekend to see how successful it is, but as of the writing of this, we've gotten 8.5% open and 2.6% clicks. That's nothing super impressive, but we'll know more over the weekend. I am categorizing this one as "TBD" until after the weekend. I will also take another look at my StoryOrigin results to see if those had any luck.

BookSprout - Results: TBD
So we still have only three users that requested an ARC. Those reviews are due soon. We will see if this sprouted any fruit over the next week or two.

BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs BookSprout: 2 Weeks Later

It’s been another week since I started this experiment with these different services. We have about 1-2 more weeks to go until we figure out how well this all works. This week I need to prepare my list, moving motivated readers to a different list. The hope is to make one list a larger “trading list” and another list a “motivated” list that loves my work. We shall see if this will work.

BookFunnel

I currently have been in two promotions. These are like newsletter swaps, but with more people. Last week I had about 47 email addresses. I now have about 124 email addresses. This has brought the $10/mo charge to be $0.08 per address.  I am pretty happy with these results. The truth of success through will be in determining how they respond to my unique content. I will be putting them in a different segment in a few weeks and sending a promo then.

StoryOrigin

I had messed up last time and my Amazon link was marketed. Oops. I’ve switched it to be my mailing list and now have 23 people that were added on. That’s not too bad, especially considering that this service is free. I’ve been on two newsletter swaps, with promotion groups starting tomorrow. That will really tell me if this succeeded or not. I am very excited about this one too!

BookSprout

This one hasn’t made any progress. I had three people claim my ARC, and I still have the same three people. However, even if only one leaves a review, it’s worth it. We shall see what happens.

Overall, I am really happy with this experiment. On a different note, I’ve investigated different email services as well. I am currently using MailChimp and am really enjoying it. However, I’ve studied the alternatives since the big uproar this year at MailChimp. I will probably switch to a “Pay-As-You-Go” plan when I break the 2000 freemium limit. I don’t think I will send out very often, perhaps 4-6 emails per year. That being said, I am going to do everything in my power to keep things free as long as possible.

BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs BookSprout: 1 Week Later

So I’ve used these systems and now have an impression to share from a week later. Your mileage may vary, but this is what has happened in my own use.

BookFunnel

First off, I had a hard time trying to figure out where I export the CSV file that has any user emails. I think that made it difficult to determine if this service was working or not. I paid $10/mo for this service, so out of all the ones listed, it’s the most vital to work. I ended up going to the book, then following it to the page in order to get the email list. I am scheduled for three promotions, the first one being kicked off yesterday. At the moment, I have 47 email addresses, which puts the cost per address at around 0.21c. It’s hard to say if that’s a bargain or not, as it all depends on how these users interact with my future newsletters. This is also the first day of things, and the promotions still have a long ways to go. The best users I’ve found (via Noisetrade) cost around 0.56c each. I am judging these users not by click rate or open rate, but by completion rates. If I am offering a free book, how many of them open, click, then take me up on the offer. The lower end users (Giveaway blog hops) cost around 0.09c each, but are only 1/10 as willing to interact as my best users. So, again, it all depends on how willing they are to engage with the content. I will probably put out a feeler email after these are all gathered up and see how well they interact. At that point I will truncate the best users off to my main list. The goal being a two part dance; first contact is through the massive acquire list. Once they prove they are willing to interact, move them to the main list. The reason behind making these two lists is to build a system of trial/error. Try stuff on the acquire list, but only use working methods on the main list.

StoryOrigin

This is a tale of “whoopsy”. So I setup my book as a universal link. That universal link goes to Amazon. I’ve been on one mailing list exchange, and I have another one setup, along with three group promotions. However, I used my universal link on these. I should have been using my giveaway link, as this is the one that collects all the email addresses. It’s not a big deal right now, but I’ll need to apply to a few more group giveaways with the correct link to see how well this service really works.

BookSprout

I am not really sure how to fully use this one. I don’t know how or why the ARCs are requested. Still, I’ve gotten 3 people to grab the book, which means 1-2 reviews hopefully. Seeing as this didn’t cost anything, I think it’s well worth it. However, without a means to maximize this, it's just a "nice to have" instead of an essential step.

Side Note: Audiobook Reviews

I’ve been doing some other efforts trying to get people to review my books: Audio Book Boom and my own mailing list. I haven’t really seen a lot of traction on building reviews via these methods. Perhaps I need to send out reminders and see how well that works. In the past, these worked a lot better for reviews.


I am going to continue on with these promotion efforts because they will help show me new ways to build my mailing list. The goal is to slowly build an awesome list that can generate feedback. That way, when I send out my main efforts next year, I have a wonderful list to help boost any additional efforts.

BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs BookSprout vs Google Forms: First Impressions

My goal with my mailing list may be different than most. I am not looking to build a readership that buys a massive amount of books on day 1. My goal with my mailing list is to give away free stuff. The hope is that people enjoy that free stuff and leave reviews. These reviews will then influence other people and algorithms to get people to buy the books. In addition, I hope that I can slowly start making some fans of my work. Up until recently, my mailing list has been unfocused. I’ve told people about new books and upcoming books… but that really didn’t lead anywhere. Instead, I am finding giving away review copies to be a strategy that should work well. To do this, I am trying out several services. Here are my first impressions of these services. I hope to also include another post in August on how this effort went. (I won’t fully know until August 5^th or so)

BookFunnel

The focus of this service is to build a book advanced reader copy (ARC) and give it away to build up the mailing list. Unfortunately, the free option doesn’t allow email capturing. The lease I could get away with is $10/month plan to see if this works. I joined and started setting things up. In truth, I was a little disappointed in the amount of promotions they have available. I had hoped that they would have more, especially since I paid my $10. However, the group I read in Reddit (r/selfpublish) raves about this service, so we’ll see how well it works.

StoryOrigin

This is just like BookFunnel, but is free as of the time of writing. I feel like this was a bit cleaner than BookFunnel and had more promotions. Not only did it have more promotions, but then you could do direct requests for newsletter swaps. My favorite part on that was that you could connect your newsletter service to StoryOrigin. This allows your newsletter to be verified (amount of subscribers, open rate, click rate). That way, when you are requesting a newsletter swap, you can ping people that are not only relevant, but have a comparable list. I have high hopes for this one, but again, we’ll see in the near future. (I just recently set this up)

BookSprout

This service I feel like I am doing wrong. I put everything in and set it up, but I can’t find a spot to apply for promotions. My guess is that they do all the promotions for you? I’ve tried this in the past, with limited success. However, the service is free, and the last time I tried it I got a review. This feels like a potential “good to do” but not “essential to do” type strategy. I am trying another book to see if that makes a difference. We will see how well this works.

Google Forms

The purpose of this area was to direct my mailing list to request review copies. What I learned from this is that I prefer an Excel output. I also learned that I need to be more careful in what I provide for free. I didn’t think many people would request free Kindle review copies. Instead, I ended up gifting a number of Kindle copies (which cost me money). I do enjoy how clean this method was, but I also noticed that a lot of people who clicked on the link didn’t actually fill out the form. I wonder if there is a better way to present this form to get more people interacting with it. We will get that determined again in the future.

These are my first impression with these services. I hope to gain more information in the future. Many of these services need time to “blossom”, which I hope to give to them over the next few weeks. Right now I am hopefully that one of these will be well worth it. The “plan B” right now is not looking good. I’ve advertised with NoiseTrade in the past, which really did good for me. However, they’ve had some major events recently which seem to have led the company to be in tatters. I’ve asked about marketing to them, but haven’t heard anything yet. We shall see on that as well.

Five Things Writing Journals are Missing

A recent trend in book publishing is building writing journals. The idea, as far a I understand it, is to build a journaling system that ties into an online platform. The hope is to build a skill enough where you can achieve a specific goal. Some journals focus on writing prompts while others are introspective (such as “burn after writing”). However, when I look at the preview of these journals via Amazon’s sneak peek, I can’t help but be disappointed. Usually these “books” are single questions filled with lots of free space. I don’t see charts, I don’t see a system, and I don’t see anything more than a marketing ploy. Perhaps I am missing the “system” behind many of these journals. Here are five things I think these journals are missing.

Missing Journal Feature #1: Math and Tables

This is my top compliant. It’s easier to build a product that is pure fiction then it is to build a scientifically useful product. How do you make a scientifically useful product? Include calculations and table lookups. This doesn’t have to be super complex and can even relate to a number of published psychology experiments. By building a quiz, and corresponding table, based upon a scientific article you give your writing more credence. Without this, the questions you quiz people on don’t have direct merit. One example includes children and marshmallows. The study mentioned looks into how people behave with instant gratification. If you build a quiz that outlines a quick “go here for a simple answer vs solve this for a complex answer” then you can have a table based upon gratification. If someone is closer to instant gratification, they might need different tools then someone who is willing to wait or work for results. This can then be referenced to the initial marshmallow experiment, which allows people to not only understand themselves better, but understand those around them better.

Missing Journal Feature #2: Focus

The next big problem with many writing journals is focus. A lot of authors just want to pump up word count, and I can’t really fault them for that. However, the audience wants to be heading towards a story ending, even it the subject is non-fiction. Why are they doing this? What is the purpose behind writing all these questions and answers? What do they gain at the end of this? Many writing journals only offer warm feelings of completion at the end. What if the end of the rainbow had more than feelings? What if you could get specific rewards, discounts, and resources? There has to be more of a point to writing journals than simply a feeling of completion. That’s because less than a day after completion, the book is forgotten. What’s next should always have an answer. That answer should start at the beginning of every journey and culminate at the end of the journey.

Missing Journal Feature #3: Dictionaries

Sometimes there are many answers to a question. This is where dictionaries can help. If a person can resolve a task, then dig through corresponding dictionaries or resources, that can greatly improve the quality of their experience. This can be done with a number of dictionary like entries. One of the best examples I can think of like this is “Strength finder”. This book has you solve a timed quiz that has many “no right answer” questions. By digging through these questions, the quiz shows you a number of core strengths you have. While this can sometimes feel like astrological charts, the beauty of this system is in taking the quiz once every year or every few years. By comparing your results throughout the years, patterns can start to emerge. Sure, some strengths may ebb and flow away, but some may stay with your results every year. The great thing about this book is that it then provides a dictionary of those specific strengths. Furthermore, you can see how those strengths interact with others. The point of this is that building writing journals with further areas to investigate can lead to more gain. If a fan of the journal completes the exercise, they need to have a place to further investigate.

Missing Journal Feature #4: Branching Books

If a dictionary entry is not enough to contain all the information, perhaps writing branching books is the appropriate next move. This allows the completer of the journal to have a more tailored experience. Ultimately, the better you can tailor the experience to the consumer of your work, the more they are going to get from it. Bringing value to each reader is extremely important because that’s what writing is all about. In addition, readers who experience good value will leave positive reviews and will tell others. If a reader has an impersonal, this really isn’t for me, moment… they could experience buyers regret. That could lead to negative reviews or less sales in the future. The closer you can tailor your experience to the individual reader, the better. Sometimes this is best done with writing branching books.

Missing Journal Feature #5: Feedback Loops

Finally, many writing journals are written and then left out in the rain to rust. They don’t have a method of being refreshed on a regular basis. This is extremely unfortunate, as reader feedback can be used immediately to improve the writing journal. By building a feedback loop, the author of the writing journal can make something that gets better and better over time. One of the best resources of knowledge is past success. However, most people throw this away when they don’t capture or reuse this experience. This is a massive source of waste that shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

There may be more items missing then just these five. However, I think if a writing journal had these areas, it might be worth investigating. Until someone can solve these areas, I am not sure I will spend any of my cash buying a writing journal.

Five Tips to Make Writing More Fun

Writing can be a tricky endeavor, because you may not always want to write. I think there are a number of things that can help with this effort. The hope is to make it more fun to write and more inspiring to write. Here are five tips to make writing more fun:

Tip #1: Plan your writing

Often times the worst part of writing is not knowing what you want to write. That blank screen can be intimidating. By taking some time to plan your writing, it gives you “training wheels” on starting to write. That can make things a lot easier.

Tip #2: Dig up inspiration

Sometimes the best way to move forward is to find pieces of writing, artwork, or music that inspire you. That inspiration can give you a feeling that you can then describe in your work. That feeling not only helps move the word count forward, but it can help you give some extra authenticity to your work.

Tip #3: Writing prompts

When you don’t have anything particular to write, but you still want to write, these can be very useful. They help you by tipping you into a particular topic or thought experiment. They ask the question, what if, and leave it open ended for you to resolve. That can make things a lot more fun, since you get to answer the question however you desire.

Tip #4: Use word count meters

Sometimes the best way to get words on the screen is to use a word count meter. These can not only track how much you are writing, but at what pace. That can help you force yourself to write more words and improve your craft much faster.

Tip #5: Think about what makes you happy

Sometimes the best way to build a wonderful product is to determine what makes you happy. If you like writing about funny stories, write a funny story. If you like thinking about action and how to make things move fast, write that. If you just want to write something to work out the kinks in your own head, write that. Ultimately, if you’re writing something that makes you happy, you are much more likely to write.

Bonus Tip: Dig out an app or book

Sometimes the best way to have fun writing is to look at from a new perspective. That can be done through a new writing app or reference book. Even looking up articles on writing can help. Example apps include ones that have timers and if you don’t beat the clock, you lose your writing. Example books can include reference or thesaurus books that are based on setting. These can provide a breath of fresh air or perspective to your writing, which can make it fun again. In addition, these can help bolster areas that you may dislike or not be as strong in. For example, if you aren’t good at describing scenery, then a reference book may help kick start you in the right direction. If you suffer when writing dialog, a book may make that more effective. By becoming more proficient, you can build a better attitude (and have more fun) when writing.

In summation, plan your writing and frame it with some inspiration points. If you aren’t sure what to write, use writing prompts. Use word count meters to measure your progress and really focus on what things make you happy to write. For me, writing articles like this makes me happy.

Time for 10k - Western Fantasy

I've just finished part 1 of 3 for "4 Wizards" (that will not be the official title, but I am just keeping it that way until I figure out a good title). With that complete, I've decided to write the next 10k effort. This is part of an ongoing effort to sprinkle 10k's along with the major books. These 10k's will then wrap up into a larger effort forming their own book. The idea is to make book 2 in the "Morning Motivation" series. It would be nice to have a new morning motivation book every year.

Beyond letting me practice writing in a variety of different ways, this effort helps me reset my brain. That way it's not dragging as I work through major series. This gives me a quick break while I transition from part to part of the larger books.

This 10k that I am currently working on is called Western Fantasy and is going to be an odd one. I am hoping to write it in a Western style, but incorporate some magic traces in there. I was going to work on a 10k that surrounded being put in a coma for 10,000 years... but found the test write as kind of boring. Instead, I want to write about a cross genre with some grit.

I don’t think this one will sell a bunch, but that’s okay. The point isn’t to sell a bunch, but rather to tell a lot of different tales. I want to write things which make me happy and writing this odd ball 10k stories does just that. Ultimately, that’s why I write, to make myself happy and to build fun stories. The more fun I can have with writing, the better.

In addition to writing these 10k’s, I need to think of ways to make writing fun. I don’t know if that’s flash fiction or getting into a writing group, but I need to find more ways. Beyond making a writing habit, I want to make this a fun habit.

How to Write a Sentence

The title of this article may sound silly to most, as sentences were taught back in grade school. However, there is more to writing a quality sentence than simply reflecting knowledge that you found out at the same time as brushing your teeth. A great sentence takes the world, full of oddities, and puts logic to it. Sentences define the intention behind the logic. They show patterns and help us expand our focus.

In addition, a great sentence should be as few words as possible. The fewer the words, the easier it is to understand. That's the skill of writing a sentence. Convey logic from chaos with as few of words as possible, without losing intention.

Once a sentence is perfectly constructed, you do it again and again. That leads to a paragraph. Much like a sentence, there is an intention here as well. One paragraph leads to another, leading in and out of each intention. Soon a rhythm or outlining idea is presented. This is what people understand as writing.

There is one level (possible more?) above this: voice. Just like a regional dialog has an accent, writers develop accents in their writing. Some may convey ideas with simplicity, getting straight to the point. Others may wonder through fields of metaphors, selecting their thoughts like picking flowers in a meadow. Each of these feels different to the reader and each has their place. These differences in voice can lead to differences in sentence construction.