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This is a sponsored post. I am a Shop Your Way blogger and all opinions are my own.

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Is Serial Web Fiction the New Way to Self Publish?

First question -

What is a serial web story?

Basically, it's when a writer publishes a fiction story onto the web.

I was reading over an article on the NYTimes about a writer, Anna Todd, whose popular serial fiction, "After," has reached enough of a following to receive 10,000 comments per chapter within a day of it's posting.

Can you imagine? I'm lucky to get four comments in a single blog post, let alone expect 10,000 of them.

But then this made me wonder? I've obviously taken a stab at posting fiction to my blog and I guess I've taken this fiction to the wrong platform. Would I have more success on place like Wattpad, where Anna launched her serial story (read the latest chapter here)?

The thing is she posts a chapter a day and I wonder - does she get feedback for her work before she publishes? Has her craft for telling this popular and growing story simply improved over time and she has no real need to pour over the words and edit like most of us do?

The reason I ask if you can envision success with web fiction is that it makes me wonder who the target audience is for these types of stories. With e-reading and various reading apps becoming a popular way to access the printed word, it may start to make more sense to have web fiction.

Like some of the self-published books I've seen, it isn't entirely without errors. I read over the book After 3 linked via NYTimes and I spotted a few items I may have suggested she fix.

But like a lot of self-published fiction, I also see a lot of work put into the story, including a well designed cover. So, it makes me wonder the benefit of doing this rather than simply releasing the book on Amazon or Smashwords, doing book tours via the Web, and going through the other types of procedures and marketing people go through when self-publishing.

I don't have much room to criticize the method, being an unpublished author myself, but I do wonder whether this will shift the self-publishing world a bit. Could you see yourself doing something like this?

Will this become the next 50 Shades of Grey?

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Taking on the A to Z Challenge!

I've decided to take on the A to Z Challenge - blogging A to Z the entire month of April.

I tried last year and stopped around the letter M (hey that isn't bad actually). I also didn't start with one thing I think we all need to make this challenge successful:

A PLAN.

What's my plan?

Not exactly sure yet.

But it will include some posts about writing and things that will (hopefully) get you inspired. I may write about some ghost stories, urban legends or myths, books and movies that creep me out, and some other things that will keep this a fun (and creepy) April!

Let's hope that I can make it past the letter M. Which still wasn't bad. 

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Use Emotional Days as Inspiration

I don't know about you, but when I'm having an emotional day or going through a rough period of time, I don't tend to think about being creative. But my mom recently shared with me an article from Rebelle Society on 6 Sweet Survival Tips for Sensitive Souls.

One of the tips on there is being creative...

The interesting thing for me is when I HAVE been creative during my most emotional moments, I have come up with the most vivid and incredible poetry, blog posts, stream of consciousness writing, and other forms of creativity. 

It can be hard though to step out of my emotional state which tends to be a tornado or whirlwind of going through the emotions as well as focusing on the cause of the emotion (as well as trying to fix or address or resolve whatever the cause) and turn it into something creative.

But it shouldn't be so hard, should it? Our stories and the experiences of our characters must have rich emotional experiences. If we haven't felt what our character has felt - even a little bit - how real could it ever be? 

I encourage all of my readers - and writers - to use the next emotional day and turn it on it's head into something creative. 

It may begin by journaling and simply writing out the feelings that are the cause. But can you turn that journal into something different? What if you took on a story or even a character experience just what you are experiencing? What would they say? Would they say it differently? What caused their distress or sadness or hope or sorrow or happiness?

Start a collage of images that describe how you are feeling. Use colors to express and pasta on yellows for melancholy and blues for dreamy and reds for excitement. 

Start writing out a list of words that come to your mind. It doesn't even have to be words to relate how you feel just yet - just see what you come up.

Have you ever used your emotions to aid your creativity? How do you take your emotional days and turn them into creative works of art or stories?

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Imagine This...Your Car is Almost Out of Gas and This Building is the Only One for Miles...

You've been driving for miles and you haven't realized until now that your car is out of gas.

You pull off the nearest exit and find this building is the only one around for miles.

The lights are on, so someone must be inside.

What happens next?

I do love inspiring! Here's someone who wrote a post based on the above prompt and their own creative spin!

http://dothedead.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/is-that-a-real-place

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Achievements and Strengthening a Writing Weakness

In October of 2011, I wrote a short story untitled but about a "creepy circus."

And one of the parts of writing I devoted myself to working on this year was rewriting and editing my already written stories. And you know? I have quite the collection I want to conquer this year.

And today I took a step in the right direction!

I have written draft number two of my "creepy circus" story (inspired by a suggestion my mom made to write a story with that theme!) and instead of being saved as "creepy circus" it's now saved in my files with the title, "Smoke and Mirrors." I can now venture into the deeper editing and strengthening the story.

I have more stories to go, but I feel good already about the strides towards writing success this year.

What are your writing weaknesses? What work are you doing to strengthen these weaknesses? 

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Changes to World of My Imagination (And to the Weekly Writing Prompt)

Changes are coming to my blog, World of My Imagination!

I've decided after long consideration  to back out of the weekly writing that I had been hosting weekly with my fellow bloggers. I had stopped enjoying hosting and I was ready for a change to my blog and to my blog schedule and habits. My traffic and readers had dropped significantly and I needed an overhauling of sorts.

I'm going to try some new things and in case you haven't noticed, I've already started! I post various prompts such as "Imagine This..." and I encourage you to follow my blog and see if you can get inspired by these new prompts.

I know more will come and I hope you will be a part of it.

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Enter to win a $100 Visa Gift Card, ends 3/25

Recently I purchased a product from a company outside of the United States (it was actually a security camera!). After purchasing the item, I needed some desparate customer support and I decided to see if I can contact them directly. Guess what I found out? They only had a United Kingdom number!

 That was very unfortunate for me as an international customer because my only resort was email (and so far, I contacted them yesterday and no response yet!) and that was definitely not an avenue I wanted to take. To me, it said they didn't prepare for all types of customers and this didn't make me feel good about the product OR the company! So I highly recommend if you are selling your product to customer's outside your country, prepare yourself by getting an international phone number. It will make customers like me feel so great, and companies like SmartTollFreeNumber will do that for you!

 On that note, I'm excited to bring you this giveaway for a $100 Visa Gift Card! Pretty cool way to kick off Wednesday, right?

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Imagine This...Your Train Stopped Moving, You Look Outside and See This...

You woke up from your nap on the train and realize no one else is in the train car. You also realize you've stopped.

You look outside and you see that you're no longer attached to the rest of the moving train.

What happens next?

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A Book You'll (Want to) Read In a Day [Review of Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh]

Over the weekend I had the chance to read this incredible mystery Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh. I've always said - I'm a sucker for a rich setting. You can almost feel the sticky, hot air of the Ozarks in this book. This says a lot about the benefits of writing what you know as its very obvious the writer knows a lot about this setting. In the book, you meet two characters, Lucy and Lila, and at first, you don't quite understand their connection as they seem to be on two very different paths. But as the plot thickens and the mystery of the small town and the secrets that everyone hides emerge, you realize they aren't so disconnected from each other.

This book held my interest all the way through and I couldn't put it down. It's been a while since I spent the weekend with my nose in a book and I was so happy to do it for this novel. I was on the edge of my seat!

The book is told from the Lucy and Lila's points of view. They both are coming to realize the criminal activity going on in the small town and the young women that are being taken down because of these crimes. As a writer, I know how hard it is to do two different first person points of view, and I was impressed at how this writer managed to pull that off. She used different characters to share their side of the story and I loved how that provided different angles for the mystery and murder going on in the book.

As for the ending, you know I can't give anything away, but I was really satisfied with how the ending came about. And with everything that happened to these characters, I really felt the change that came over the main character Lucy. This was a serious "coming of age" novel and the secrets that Lucy will have to carry into adulthood are heavy duty. I can only hope it's truly over for her.

This book is set to release on March 11th and I highly urge you to mark that calendar and visit your bookstore or nearest book webstore and purchase a copy. Make sure you visit Laura McHugh's website for more information on this amazing new author!

But best of all, I get to giveaway a copy to my readers! Contest ends March 17th.

To enter, leave a comment using three words to describe your childhood home town/city!

To earn an extra entry, follow author Laura McHugh on Twitter, @LauraSMcHugh. 

To earn an extra entry, follow me on Twitter, @BeingTheWriter.

To earn another extra entry, sign up to receive my blog posts via email.

For each entry, please provide a valid email address for me to contact you if you are the winner. Also, leave a comment for each entry you do so I know to count it!

**THE WINNER IS: KELLY STILWELL****

I received this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I am not responsible for shipping the prize to the winner. 

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Imagine This...You Find a Boat with a Map Inside. #amwriting

Imagine this...

You've been walking on the beach for hours. The area is empty and you're the only one around for miles.

Then you find this boat.

You look inside, and inside the boat is a map.

What happens next?

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Get In Touch With Your Inner Decorator with @Kmart's Home Sale #ad

This is a sponsored post. I am a Kmart blogger, though all opinions are my own




I don't know about you but my favorite time of year to go shopping for the home is in the spring. Something about spring cleaning, pastels, and freshening up the home turf makes me feel creatively inspired.

So, whether you are figuring out a way to upgrade your library...err...the living room turned library (hey, I won't judge you if you use your books as furniture), writing room...err dining room (hey, no one ever said to not write where you eat), or your inspirational zen garden...err bathroom no one ever needs to know you meditate in the tub), you will want to take advantage of this @Kmart home sale.

Why? This is an exclusive shop your way members offer where members get $5 back for every $30 spent. Money savings? A total win.  Feels inspiring just thinking about it. And if you are having any doubts about the savings, make sure you watch the video linked here. If I haven't convinced you yet, just check out the Kmart Home Sale web page...oh, just make sure to drool away from the keyboard. 

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Can you believe it's the first Wednesday of March?

Make sure to read stories from last week! "Work" by Sally Scribbles "Unwanted Journey" by HJ Musk "Highlands and Lows" by Scott Taylor. 

 Here is how the blog hop works--everyone is invited to participate, so be sure to jump in anytime and invite a friend!

1) Write a story using both photos.

2) Keep your word count to 500 words or less.

3) Submit your completed story to your blog hostess (Nicole, Carrie, LeAnne or myself) via the inLinkz linky below. (If you need a bit of help with this step, just leave a comment and we’ll get you linked up!)

4) You have the next week to post.

5) Have fun, don’t stress, let those creative juices flow!

So here are the two picture for this week:
 




Now go write and have fun, but also be sure and check out our 2013 Ad Winners (you'll need to scroll down a little bit) and check out past WWBH entries (only have 2014 for now, and need to update).
 

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