One of the major challenges for part time writers is finding time to write, and even more so when things are busy in your real life.

With Alra, I am constantly writing notes down, considering plots, twists, character growth or degeneration and how they all intertwine with each other, this is a time consuming exercise.

In fact, most of the time I tend to stare blankly into my imagination, allowing my mind to subconsciencely create the story while on another level I try to piece together in words what is happening within  my mind.

This all takes time, and for me, I have to be alone with quietness dominating.

For the past few months this is not what I would call my usual circumstances.

I have moved country, I am now looking for work (I am not paid enough through my writing to quit my off line reliance on working for money) and basically running about doing stuff….. stuff that is not imagining or considering story lines and character reactions.

Lucky for me I have multiple chapters prewritten, but that is not the case with the blog posts.

ALL writing takes a certain degree of discipline, sometimes I have it, other times I dont.

Most times, even when I am not able to write, I am pondering the story, and craving another session of writing, I suppose it comes down to one small point….. I don’t write because I have to, I write because there is an inner compulsion, I don’t feel good when I don’t write.

So I guess I am lucky in a way as the motivation in internal and not forced by external pressures like a publisher wanting a book finished this week, although that would probably help me write even more…..

What this is about is a writer must write every day or the art will be lost.

Simple truth, hard fact.

Since I am learning so much about blogs and promoting them, I thought I would share a few things I have learnt to date, and that I have applied.

This week the key learning point has been getting my Page Rank higher.

This is a fairly important aspect to getting search engine traffic. The reasoning being is that the Page Rank indicates how close you are to the top spot for particular keywords.

The higher up you are in the list, the more traffic you get for free, and the people clicking the search engine links tend to be people looking for what you are doing.

Needless to say, it is a good thing to know a little bit about this subject. This is what I have learnt this week.

In order to get a higher PageRank there is a simple thing you can do, but first the theory behind the practice.

Every site gets ranked against keywords. One thing search engines look for is hyperlinks to other sites and hyperlinks leading to your site. The thinking behind this is when a person adds a link to their site it is a vote of trust in your site. This is a good thing.

This means the more links pointing to your site the better the Page Rank.

But there is more that can help you.

Most people focus entirely on getting links to their site. But there is almost equal value to having links that lead to other pages in your own site.

Let me repeat that….. putting in a link within your site adds value to your site ranking.

Amazing but true, and it is something you can control.

My guess is that you should apply this to your site, but do not over do it.

Now for the practice, remember this site is an online fantasy novel, if you want to read the first chapter of my fantasy novel click here.

Being new to blogs and promoting them, and even running the admin area, is sometimes a challenge that gets more attention than I want to use on it. I suppose it is part of the challenge and it will become easier with time.

Still, to get read, noticed and to earn some money you simply have to put in the effort.

Before I launched the blog, I researched other blogs and how to promote them well. What I found out was that promoting is not a complex task, but it is something that needs to be done consistently over a long period of time.

I think that is the part that annoys people the most. I think that many people expect instant success with an online venture when, in fact, it takes time and effort and a little money.

For my part, since, as of writing this post, I am about to begin the long process of promoting.

This is how I will do it to begin with.

I will begin by writing four articles a week in EzineArticles. I will focus mostly on writing, publishing and site building for novel writers.

The articles will be about 300 words each.

I will do this for a few months to determine the workload. I have to be very careful with writing because I am already writing 1500 words a week for the chapters and I am starting a second story which will have chapters added every two or three weeks.

While I get that routine established I will begin using FaceBook, I have an account already called Alra Forest. I just need to set it up to look good and have material to add into it.

While I do that I will be researching StumbleUpon in detail before heading into that world.

That is the plan for June.

I am expecting some results but it is tough to estimate what they will be. Regardless or result, I will keep working the above methods for at least six months before deciding to change or expand them.

For me, before I write a word of the story, I must know at least a few of the characters well. I like to be able to picture the person in my head for a start. I find, in the real world, that the way a person looks gives many clues to the kind of person they are.

Things like the stance of their eyes, the position of their stand, do they lean against walls, where are the wrinkles (young people lack wrinkles so character traits need to be found elsewhere), what kind of smile do they have and stuff like that.

When I picture the person it becomes easier to develop the person within the frame.

I consider their state of mind. Do they like people or not? How many friends do they have and are they close to many people. What is the normal mood, how do they view the world?

For me, the creation of a character in my mind is a relatively simple event. The person is made fairly abruptly and clearly.

BUT…. moving the person to the page is the real challenge. It is usual to write something about a person and for me to become annoyed with the words because they fail to explain the detail of the moment, thought, depth or lack of depth in feeling. Sometimes I think it is better to remove the detail and allow the reader to deduce the mood of the character.

I also try my best to display the person with actions and with the talking. I try not to explain anything at all if possible. But this is a tough ask because I like to over explain things a lot, give the background that explains the motive behind an action.

People who know me understand that if I start a story, it can be a longer than required story because I give the background to everything.

Hell, it annoys me sometimes.

So the trick is to explain more using fewer words. Doing this while explaining a full blown character is the trick.

The same thing goes for describing the surroundings, but that is for another post.

Alra Forest is a story that has been floating about in my head for over a decade. I wrote the first draft of the story back in 1997 from start to finish, then in 1999 I made it more complex as I travelled the world. When I got back from the year long adventure I wrote more notes down, played with the story line and even made parts of it into a dungeon and dragons adventure that was played over the course of about a year.

Although the D&D adventure was actually book two, not the first book.

Then life played its part by making me busy with work, babies began popping out then everything got turned upside down with a divorce…. I strongly recommend not going through that process if at all possible. But the divorce played a role in the story making because my ex wife destroyed the paper copies of the first book.

This meant that all I had of the story was in my head.

For a writer, this is a disaster because it takes many hours to transfer the mind version of the story into a written version. When the written story was gone, I pretty much gave it up for a few years.

Then I decided to rewrite the story at the request of a friend and my new wife.

Obviously I decided to do it, but rather than go through rewriting the entire book to present to publishers, I thought it would be better put the story online as a series. That way I can publish the story as it is written.

Obviously this presents many challenges, but I get around most of them by being about twenty chapters ahead of what is published, but that is a topic for another post.

The online version went through a few variations until I decided and settled on using a blog to publish it.

I also want to earn money from my work so I am learning how to earn from the blog as well; this is a topic for later posts as well.

So all in all, Alra Forest now has a home online, is being read by people and is beginning to earn me a little bit of money, but best of all, it is being read.

Sooner or later, and this is going to be the most exciting factor of doing this on a blog, people will comment on chapters, criticise the story and, I hope, this will become a conversation between writer and reader.

I can’t think of anywhere else a writer and reader are able to talk about stories as they are being written.

Alra Forest is a story that has been floating about in my head for over a decade. I wrote the first draft of the story back in 1997 from start to finish, then in 1999 I made it more complex as I travelled the world. When I got back from the year long adventure I wrote more notes down, played with the story line and even made parts of it into a dungeon and dragons adventure that was played over the course of about a year.

Although the D&D adventure was actually book two, not the first book.

Then life played its part by making me busy with work, babies began popping out then everything got turned upside down with a divorce…. I strongly recommend not going through that process if at all possible. But the divorce played a role in the story making because my ex wife destroyed the paper copies of the first book.

This meant that all I had of the story was in my head.

For a writer, this is a disaster because it takes many hours to transfer the mind version of the story into a written version. When the written story was gone, I pretty much gave it up for a few years.

Then I decided to rewrite the story at the request of a friend and my new wife.

Obviously I decided to do it, but rather than go through rewriting the entire book to present to publishers, I thought it would be better put the story online as a series. That way I can publish the story as it is written.

Obviously this presents many challenges, but I get around most of them by being about twenty chapters ahead of what is published, but that is a topic for another post.

The online version went through a few variations until I decided and settled on using a blog to publish it.

I also want to earn money from my work so I am learning how to earn from the blog as well; this is a topic for later posts as well.

So all in all, Alra Forest now has a home online, is being read by people and is beginning to earn me a little bit of money, but best of all, it is being read.

Sooner or later, and this is going to be the most exciting factor of doing this on a blog, people will comment on chapters, criticise the story and, I hope, this will become a conversation between writer and reader.

I can’t think of anywhere else a writer and reader are able to talk about stories as they are being written.

An Online Novel

Sitting deep within Alra Forest is an immense evil. With it’s grip firmly held, it has begun to squeeze it’s victims.

One elf has decided enough is enough, and has set off into human territory to find Rufus Half Elf.

He was the saviour from decades ago and someone she feels is the answer to the evil gripping her people.

She needs guiding by a group of mercenaries that are motivated by debt, political morality and honor.

Alra Forest delves into the complex reasons of why people do what they do, while immersing you into a fantasy realm that will have you convinced the people and events are real.

About the Author

My name is Rodney Goodall. I am Australian born, New Zealand raised and currently living in Samoa.

I have always enjoyed playing role playing games, and the role playing books like Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, DemonSpawn and others….

This genre has been ebbing away for years, but lately I think it is making a comeback, and this is going to be a part of it….

I sincerely hope you enjoy my book.

Rodney Goodall