5 Easy Ways to Create Income From Writing

Want to know 5 easy ways to create an income from writing?

After two years of little in the way of sales from my first book, I was wondering if anyone actually makes a decent income from writing. I realize if I could just write more, that would increase my income, but who’s got time to write more?

 

Income From Writing
How Do I Create An Income From Writing?

  

Here’s how I did it – I took what I’d already written on my social media and made it into a book!

Seriously. That’s what I did. All my blogs about writing, my posts about my life, my tweets of writing tips and coaching, my pins about my interests, all became tidbits to expand and form into a book! It was a lot of fun, and I’m using these methods to write more books. So, I wanted to let you know how to use what you’ve already written and get started with that income too. Still with me but wondering how the heck I did that?

Here’s How I Used These 5 Simple Ways to Create Income From Writing 

  • From Blog To Book The Novel Author’s Workbook I created an Etsy downloadable 99-page workbook from blogs I’d written over the course of a year on how to write fiction, as I was doing the research. It takes the author from the beginning premise and outline of a novel, through to publishing and marketing.
  • From Pin To Print/Nonfiction  Hosting a Shire Party is a simple ebook about a cosplay party I had. I wrote about creating easy costumes, food, and games, as I pinned the photos from the party.
  • From Tweet To Tutorial Your Write Voice For His Kingdom is a course I wrote from tweets about my workshop notes as a Christian Life Coach and writer’s coach. I coach students through the decision process of becoming a writer and how God has equipped them to write for His purpose.
  • From Post To Published – Life at White Rose Shire is an ebook in-progress of a collection of devotionals which I’ll be posting on my blog under a sub-heading and later publishing as a Kindle devotional book.
  • From Muse To MemoirRaising Benjamin Frog – A Mother’s Journey With Her Autistic Son is a print book from notes I wrote originally for my earlier blog posts on Autism. It chronicles my son’s journey from birth to age 29, and his success as an author.

And that’s how I used 5 simple ways to create income from writing– from ebooks, print books, and tutorials.

A simple way to get to that 50,000 word count for NaNoWriMo!

If this is something you may be interested in doing, I’ve explained all the social media methods in my business school at  White Rose Writers School.

 SIGN UP  to get news on all the new courses as well as exclusive cheatsheets, writing tips, resources, and other insider goodies!

Another Way to Create Income From Writing —

Ann-Margret Hovsepian has a full-time income from her writing and engagements. She shares her success tips on her blog ‘You Asked Me’:

https://annhovsepian.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/you-asked-me-5/

 

I hope you found something useful here. Let me know.

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

-Lynne

Resources

Devotionals

White Rose Writers on Etsy

Middle Earth Party on Pinterest

Collier Christian Writing Academy

White Rose Writers School

 

Switching Focus

My next blog was going to be about compiling a playlist to inspire you as you write your fantasy novel. Instead, I’m letting you, my fellow bloggers, know I’m switching my focus on this site. I’ll let you know how you can still read the playlist post later.

Switching Focus
New Path

#WritingFantasy  Will Carry On

I’ve completed the series of posts I wanted to share with you about Writing Fantasy and the steps I’ve taken on my own journey writing my first fantasy novel. I’m very excited to start the actual writing process this November for my second NaNoWriMo! If you’ve followed my posts over the past few months I hope you’ll join me in November as we fire out 50,000 words together.

My Outline, Setting, Characters, World Building and Premise are all going to be relocated to another blog I write on, White Rose Writers.

So What’s My New Focus? #AmWriting

As most of you know from reading my profile, as well as being a writing coach I’m also a Christian Life Coach and Certified Lay Pastoral Counselor with many years experience coaching and encouraging believers in their walk with God. This will be my main focus on this blog going forward.

I’ll be blogging about Your Sacred Path, Finding Your Life Purpose, Hearing God’s Voice, Choosing Careers and possibly sharing a few gardening tips along the way. I love to network so I’ll be giving you links whenever I can for you to explore further.

My newsletter will be about the books and courses I’ll be writing, plus I’ll let you know when I’m launching something new, and I’ll have giveaways and social media events exclusively for my blog readers. If you choose to continue following me here that would be lovely, if however, you’re interested in continuing to follow my posts on writing, head over to White Rose Writers and follow my posts there, along with branding and marketing tips from my social media partner, Kirstie Shanks.

Thank you for taking time out from your busy life to read and comment.

Till next time here, or at White Rose Writers, I hope you are blessed.

Lynne

NaNoWriMo – Dec 4

 

Dec 4th Well, here I am with my NaNoWriMo winner’s certificate! I started out on November 1st with a rough idea for a story, but I hadn’t done the outline or decided on character names or anything. When they said, ‘Write an entire novel in a month”, I took it rather too literally and hadn’t prepared anything! Along the way I discovered I needed an outline. All I had was a beginning idea and an ending. I had no middle. The middle is the entire story – what was I thinking?! But I read a very important coaching tip and decided to just keep that front and centre as I plodded on; Just Write. I tried to ignore the editor in me who sounded a lot like my English grammar school teacher, and I wrote, and wrote, and wrote… The final day I was so tired, but as I neared the finish line I was super excited to see the prize so close. I watched the word count click 49, 999 – 50,000. I felt like I’d run a marathon, but I stayed awake long enough to print out my certificate. It’s a great feeling, to reach the finish line in whatever you set out to accomplish, whether it’s a novel or a new recipe for chocolate brownies.

When I got to the middle part of the novel I just kept going. I started researching names at first, for my main characters, but the rest of them in the middle got the first name that came to mind – just write! Some of them will need to have a name change as I revise, or I’ll find myself in trouble with the first name of an antagonist being someone I know! It’s funny how that works. As they say, “Don’t tick me off. I’m a writer and you may end up in my next novel – and I may just kill you”. The plot unfolded all on its own and my characters became real. For my first try at fiction, I am actually proud of my attempt. It will have to wait for now, though.

The novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo is one of a series of novels I’ll be publishing starting in Spring 2016. Before this book is published, I hope to have two more short non-fiction works published and a fantasy. So maybe, if God has this in His plan as I see it in mine; I’ll have this novel published just in time for the next NaNoWriMo.

Thank you to all who supported me through this endeavor, especially my family who ate goodness-knows-what some nights, lots of fast ‘food’, had to put up with dirty dishes in the sink all month, and me endlessly talking about NaNo. You’re all the bestests!

Signing off on my NaNoWriMo posts till next year. God Bless,

Lynne

IMG_1248
My first NaNoWriMo winner’s certificate

NaNoWriMo Day 30 – I DID IT!

NaNoWriMo Winner!
NaNoWriMo Winner!

 

I made it! I wrote 50,000 words in thirty days and validated my novel at 5pm. I am officially pooped and I’m going to make a cup of orange tea, and pet my cat – and also watch The Walking Dead again because I don’t remember half of what happened last night I was so exhausted!

I will give you the run-down on my last day tomorrow. Thank you all for the words of encouragement here and on Facebook and Twitter.

Have a great night. Word count to date – 50, 075

Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 29!!!

coffee-149719_640
I can do it – I can do it – I can do it!

Day 29 Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days. As I posted in an earlier blog, I had to take Friday off to go out of town for an appointment. Yesterday I just wrote like crazy, trying to get my word count up to at least 45,000 so I wouldn’t have too much still to do tomorrow. Today is my Sabbath day, so I took it off for church and family and didn’t write. (That took a lot of discipline!) I hope to get to bed on time for a change and start tomorrow early. I have a lot of words still to write!!!!!! Thanks to Sandy Hall and others in the NaNoCoach forum, I know it doesn’t have to be pretty – it just has to be. I will take a half hour for breakfast and a half hour for lunch, but I will probably not break for dinner until I’ve verified my novel and won this challenge. I’ll let you know on Tuesday how I did and what time I finished.

So, I promised you more tips on this blog. Here goes;

Writing an Outline for Your Novel

This is the outline I found easiest to follow, taken from several writer’s magazines.

Act 1    The Status Quo. Your hero’s everyday life.

The Catalyst. A call to action.

Denial. Hero rejects the opportunity.

Guru. The hero gets a mentor.

Acceptance & Action. First threshold of change.

Act 2   Trials. Finding friends and foes.

Edge of the Abyss. Decision of second threshold.

The Plunge. Faces the greatest fear.

The Pay-Off. Hero gets a reward of some sort.

Act 3    The Way Through. On the way home. Maybe being chased.

True Test. Hero proves they learned their lesson.

The New Normal. Returns home, transformed.

I hope that helps some of you who are like me and just starting out on the fiction journey. There are a lot of good magazines available for writers. I usually find mine at Chapters. I love flipping through the magazines and deciding which to buy – don’t you?

Well, tomorrow’s the day. I’m at word count 43,950. Just over 6,000 words to write tomorrow before the verification deadline! (Must remember to stop to eat, and pet the cat. Wait – no, she’ll remind me).

Lynne out till Tuesday.

 

Finding Love in Unexpected Places

Ben and new friend. using as blog post for HACwC scavenger hunt

Ben with a new friend at the Toronto Zoo

Dancing on the Bus, a short story I wrote about finding love in unexpected places, was accepted to be included in a recently published book called, Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon, the third in a series of short stories and poems.

My story is about being accepted and loved as a child, by total strangers. Later, as a mother, I saw that same love and acceptance for my own children. (Side note here; the picture is of my son from the story, showing love and acceptance to another child he met that day for the frist time. Paying love forward never fails).

On Nov 27th, 2015, I will be one of the hosts for the Virtual Book Launch of Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon. If you read this post in time and can join us, the launch is from 12-11pm, Ontario time. I will be ‘live’ from 8.30-9.

Secret Word for the scavenger hunt is: FAILS

Lynne

PS – Although the launch has passed, you can still view it on Facebook using this link.

NaNoWriMo Days 23 & 24

Battle Day for my Superheroes!
Battle Day for my Superheroes!

 

Day 23 How do you organize your outline? I asked a few colleagues that question and received several different responses from them all. I didn’t organize my outline before I started writing (Pantser) and that slowed my writing quite a bit. As I mentioned earlier, I had to go back over some segments to cut and paste so I could keep track of who was where and doing what. So the suggestions I received were very helpful in trying to help me do just that. Sticky notes seems to be the favourite, with spreadsheet close behind. But my favourite, and the one I’m now using, is to list my chapters in order with titles before I start writing. This tip was given to me by my NaNoWriMo writing buddy. Thanks, Melanie! I admit I’m a little late doing this, but since I gave my chapters headings, I’ve been able to stay on track with my story. I also wrote out my characters’ names and pertinent information on file cards and stuck them on the office bulletin board. If you haven’t started your novel yet, I’d like to suggest you at least put your outline somewhere handy where it’s easily accessible. I wasted a lot of time rummaging through my manuscript to find out where my supportive characters live! Do you have a tried and true method to organizing your writing?

Lynne

Day 24 I just finished writing my final battle scene – phew! I’m exhausted and I didn’t lift a single sword. I basically wrote about fighting ALL day. I fed the cat, made a conference call to one of my pastors, fed the birds, talked to my son for a bit then wrote about blood and guts the rest of the day (and into part of dinner time). Once my husband went to bed I took up the final battle scene once more (my writing that is) to get it finished. Total word count to date: 35,816. That means if I still take Sunday off, and I have to take Friday off to go out of town with my daughter all day and do a virtual book launch in the evening, I’ll need to write at least 3,500 words each day including the final day on Monday! I know from recent experience I need 7-8 hours of sleep to work at peak performance. Trust me – your brain won’t work well if it doesn’t get enough sleep and people will think you’re a zombie – not good. Tomorrow is the part referred to as The Payoff part of the novel. A nice change from today. Sleep well and long.

Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 22

"Mother loved to entertain"
“Mother loved to entertain…”

 

Day 22  Today I thought I’d share with you a small excerpt from my NaNoWriMo novel. Please keep in mind it’s a hurried first rough draft and will probably be edited to shreds later.

“Cassy searched the small gathering for her mother. Stepping sheepishly across the marble floor she heard her mother laughing loudly from the vicinity of the stone fireplace. Her mother had a haughty laugh which could be heard all over the downstairs rooms when she was entertaining guests. Mother loved to entertain and the wealthiest people vied for invitations to her dinner parties. Cassy made her way through the crowd who didn’t seem to notice her torn clothing – or her presence for that matter. They were busy flaunting their designer gowns and silk suits, and waving their hands so everyone would notice their newly acquired gold trinkets. Everyone appeared to be called Darling.”

This is from a scene from Act 1 of a superhero story. Until now I’ve only written non-fiction, so I’m very excited to see how the story ends! Word count to date: 31,043. Pleasant dreams everyone.

Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 17 – Costumes

Creating a Costume
Creating a Costume

Day 17

Costumes’ was the word of the day. I had to narrow down a list of seven then decide my hero’s superhero name and add a costume description.

I wanted the superhero name to fit her personality and super powers.

Then the costume had to look the part. Modern – not tights and a cape type! She’s getting her pieces at a staff discount, so they had to be regular everyday items.

I managed to get it done, but I’m a little late to bed. Feeling good about the writing all the same. Good Night from Ontario, fellow writers and readers.

–added after NaNoWriMo: I named my hero after a bird because of her transformation during the story. Here’s the rough draft of that scene–

“She went to the dressing room to try on her costume pieces; taupe skinny jeans, her fawn-coloured t-shirt, fitted long brown leather jacket, and her long pull-on boots with a low heel.  Cassy put some extra pieces together to make the costume more special; wrist bands with extra pieces she’d sewn on to hold knives, a leather belt to hold the ball-bearings in a pouch and wooden balls on a thick leather thong, leather ankle bands large enough to go over the boots and hold more knives, and two leather belts to crisscross her chest and hold a short staff behind her back. All she needed now was a mask!”

Lynne

NaNoWriMo Day 14 – Almost Half Way!

Next Year
Next Year!

Day 14 Today was a writing/gardening day. I was supposed to have my gardens all finished so I would only need to help with the raking of leaves in November. Well, that didn’t happen. So today my son helped me with tidying the garden shed and I put away most of the toys. Then we started on the leaves. We still need to upturn some pots so they don’t crack in the winter, but Monday will be a good day for finishing that and doing some more raking because we’re expecting a high of 13! I probably won’t catch up with my word count until Tuesday. I think I’m about 5,000 words behind at present. Ughhh. I am enjoying the experience, though. I’ve learned a lot about plotting (not my forte as a Pantser) and flow. There’s a great deal of figuring out to do to make scenes flow. I have a greater respect for fiction writers now I’m aspiring to be one. It is not easy. NaNoWriMo is an amazing place to test and hone your writing skills. I’m so glad I decided to do this. I think next year I’ll start by purchasing a few stacks of sticky notes and posting them all over my office wall so I can rearrange them when I realize the protagonist shouldn’t be revealing her super powers till the next scene. Two weeks to go – will I make it? Yes, I will! (Well now I have to, don’t I?)

Have a good sleep everyone. I’ll be away from writing tomorrow so I can go to church and visit my daughter and her family (not necessarily my son-in-law, he’ll be glued to the football game).

Lynne

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