Tech Issues, Imposters, & “Bad” Habits | Nov 2024 Week 1 & 2 Author Vlog

[@StephanieWhitson]

Happy Monday (it’s past midnight) and I’m finally getting to watch your vlog.

[@SDHegyes]

Thank you! 💙 Happy watching!

[@JoeyPaulOnline]

Yeah, I feel you on the curse from somewhere. I'm hoping yours gets lifted too for you guys!! Happy birthday Gracelyn! 💜

[@SDHegyes]

Gracelynne says "Thank you!" Yeah... There's some bad juju in the air lately, and I'm ready for it to disperse!

[@JoeyPaulOnline]

@ Also never heard the name in the first sentence advice, and now you’ve pointed it out, I’m noticing it in books I read!

[@SarahScharnweberAuthor]

Happy Sunday! I hope your house stuff gets sorted and you have a comfy place to write soon.

[@SDHegyes]

Me too. I had the chance to clean it up some more this past weekend... and didn't...

[@TheDarqProject]

I am LOVING Trackbear. It's nice to have charts and such without needing to use the Nano site. I feel you on the imposter syndrome stuff. Sometimes I read my work and I'm like "Eff yeah! This is awesome!" And two days later my mood shifts and I think it's too weird, and it's not marketable, and nobody's going to love it like I do. Written works are like snapshots in time. As we grow and age, our writing voices become stronger and clearer. With older works, you can either leave them as is, or totally revamp them and lift them up to your current level.

[@TheDarqProject]

Also, I'd never heard the nix the first name thing, and I had to check... My published book has the character's name in the first sentence.

[@SDHegyes]

I have no clue where I heard it or why it stuck with me so much because now it's something I'm noticing more and more, and I really don't know where I got the idea. It has to be something left over from high school English classes that won't release me...

[@SDHegyes]

I love Trackbear too. I'm not a huge fan of the chart on the dashboard that shows color variations based on how much you write on various days, but that's totally a me thing, and I accept that. I want to do a video comparing it to another site I've used in the past called WordKeeper Alpha because the idea of both is fairly similar, but the layouts are a little different. Imposter syndrome is a b*tch. I hate it. I'll decide at a later date what I want to do with that series. I've picked some projects to work on next year, and the DDQ series isn't one of them, giving me a little of a reprieve from that for a bit. 💙

[@SarahScharnweberAuthor]

I have never heard that the first sentence shouldn't have the character's name in it.

[@SDHegyes]

I wish I could remember where I heard it because the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I'm going crazy. I wonder if it was something I picked up in my English classes in school...

[@EmmaBennetAuthor]

Me neither! And I'm fairly sure I do this 😂

[@StephanieWhitson]

That’s crazy about the river!

[@SDHegyes]

Yup. It's on a completely different path than it was 20 years ago when my grandparents first put the house here. And it's moved the road twice.