JC Bybee

Recently I've been struggling.  The ideas for my third book are there, but the words aren't.  I've written two beginnings revolving around the same plot point.  Neither of them were to my liking.  And yes I'm aware that for some people two versions really isn't that many.  It is for me.  I never compare my writing style and process to others.  It is a fruitless and fraught venture that will make anyone woefully inadequate, so I don't. Back to my original point.  I will often say that I don't get writer's block.  To me writer's block is a lack of ideas.  That has never been the problem.  There have been times when I've simply had too many ideas and they all got in the way.  I have to admit though I get writer's apathy. Writer's apathy is just simply not caring about what I'm writing, just putting words down for the sake of working.  And I'm pretty sure that's what's happening right now.  I know I need to up my numbers s

One of my biggest hurdles in life is trying to work when I don't feel 100 percent.  These past few weeks I haven't been doing great.  I have a sinus infection that is just lingering.  It makes concentrating difficult, it makes caring difficult.  There are people out there, writers, and so on, that will just work through the pain and discomfort.  I've never been one of those people.  Just sitting and writing this is difficult.  I'm doing it because I know that I need more exposure.  There are lots of people who have no clue who I am, and what I write.  It is up to me to remedy that. So here I am, writing a blog post, not because I want to, but because I have to.  Indie authors, we don't get paid benefits.  Heck, traditionally published authors don't get benefits.  Our career choice is a hard one.  And just to get something clear, I do not want, or need your sympathy.  I was aware of all of this before I started writing.  There are times when these things need po

One of the biggest aspects of writing that I've struggled with is being able to accept feedback.  I'm mostly talking about constructive criticism, but sometimes even positive feedback has been difficult for me.  I received a little too much praise when I was a kid/teenager for my writing, and too little criticism, as a result these two very important parts of the process have become stumbling blocks for me.  The issue is, I tend to want to reject both forms of feedback.  I reject positive feedback because I don't think I deserve it.  And oddly enough the same can be said for constructive criticisms.  It doesn't make a lot of sense, but there it is.  Luckily I've found ways to overcome my own personal failings. First, I formed a writer's group.  There are only three of us, but we all have varied enough experiences, and writing styles that it works.  My fellow group members aren't published, yet, but they are both excellent writers and when their books are

This is a post I've been formulating for some time.  It's taken a great deal of time to finally put it together.  And there's a reason why.  This is a subject that I've struggled with in my writing, so that's why I see it so much with other writers. What am I talking about?  Personal pets. No I don't mean a writer's actual pet.  What I mean are those persons, places, things, ideas that writers have that the read can just tell is that particular writer's personal favorite aspect of the world.  There are good examples of this, and bad examples.  For a while one of my books had a group that fell under the bad example. I've written about this before, but the nation of Garrison that I created.  At first the place came across as a sort of utopia.  And it was terrible.  When I read the original draft I have to shake my head.  The people the government, life in general, it was nauseating.  And not even well done at that.  It had to change. Don't

Starting today April 18th and running to April 22nd, my friend and fellow author Andrea Pearson is running a 60+ author event.  All the books are priced at $0.99.  Hero Unit is included along with some amazing authors of speculative fiction.  Here's the link: http://andreapearsonbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/huge-speculative-fiction-multi-author.html This is an awesome chance to get ebooks at a bargain price.  Go check it out!