Closed

Dear reader,

I have closed Thinking Plainly Limited as of April 2023 and won't be updating any of my accounts. I haven't been active for a long time and rather than keeping things online for the sake of it, best to wipe it all clean and start again in the future. Earlier this year I finished my first novel and I've taken so much from the process it's hard to summarise in a few sentences (as if I haven't always had that problem), but in short, I am pleased to have accomplished what I set out to do and look forward to writing my second novel when the time is right. Thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me since I began sharing short stories back in January 2012. 

Robert Rankine.

New Year's Day - 2022

Dear all, 

Congratulations. We did it. We’re passing the start line for another year. I think we all deserve a certificate. Maybe even a rosette.

 

I won’t say 2021 has been fun, but there have been some good moments, which compared to 2020 says a lot. It was a year of consolidation for me, and yes, that’s as unexciting as it sounds. I’ll keep this brief as I promised I wouldn’t blog until I had finished my book… that was five years ago now.

 

The last decade has been a difficult time for me, but I write that knowing a lot of people had it far worse, and I have many blessings to counter what I went through. I’ll say for now, I felt down, and leave it at that. I’ll write more another time. When I know how best to. Nothing I went through is different or more unusual than what millions around the world go through every day and although people share deeply personal information on social media as a matter of course these days, and terms such as depression, anxiety, melancholy get thrown around so easily, it’s difficult to appreciate what the reality of negative thoughts can be. That’s why it’s important for me to consider how to approach the subject. Maybe I’ll decide to share my feelings in another form, maybe through a character in a short story. And maybe I won’t at all! I don’t know yet. 

 

Back to the book - why has it taken me so long?

 

Let’s not hold back here. I’m not very good. There’s nothing self-deprecating about that. I feel I’m better than when I started, and that’s positive, but I’m under no delusions. I don’t believe I have a unique voice or a more creative storytelling ability than the most average of writers, but ultimately it comes down to writing being the only thing I remember ever wanting to do, and regardless of outcome, it is the process and the work that is meaningful. We’re all wired to have a sense of achievement when we complete a task, and even if what I write isn’t great, as long as it doesn’t stink to high Heaven, I feel a sense of achievement. That’s really the only motivation I have - in the sense of fulfilling the potential of my inner self. I’m talking about that thing inside that makes you, you, and me, me. Regardless of whatever happens in my life, the circumstances by which I survive the world like everybody else, at the end of my time I want to see a handful of novels with my name on the cover. And I’m not talking about being published. I don’t feel I’m good enough to be published and I don’t feel bad saying that. Maybe I will be one day, who knows, but I’m not pretending to myself. If I put in the hours and produce something that reaches the level I am capable of, I feel that’s enough for now. And the last couple of years have reminded me that’s all I have to worry about. Life is hard enough as it is without setting myself up to failure with unrealistic expectations. A friend told me last year that simply getting through the day is a cause for celebration. That’s now my motto.

Anyway. Here’s the update:

 

·      I wrote almost 800,000 words.

·      The book is divided into 12 chapters.

·      I have scraped entire sections and secondary storylines because I tried to include too much - it was overkill and should have been separate stories.

·      I repeated myself so many times it’s hard to believe I didn’t have medically registered memory loss.

·      I did too much pointless research.

·      My first complete start to finish draft was only completed at the end of November.

·      That was just over 500,000 words.

·      Once I tidied that up, it was 400,000 words.

·      Now I’m editing it in a linear fashion all the way through, rather than chapter by chapter, it’s down to 350,000 words. I’m halfway through.

·      I want to get it down to 250,000 words if I can.

·      I’m utterly fed up of it and can’t wait to finish it and start the next one.

·      Overall, it is the story I wanted to tell when I first had the idea so I’m pleased.

·      Overall, it’s not very good, but there are sections I’m proud of.

·      I have an understanding of the discipline, isolation, and grind needed to complete long works. The experience gained by attempting this has been worth it.

 

When it is finished and I’ve gone through the formal submission process (again, not to be defeatist, but facing life as it is - I’m not expecting this to be published - at some stage I will self-publish it) I’ll write an in-depth blog post on the lessons I have learned. There are some obvious ones, such as the importance of using editing software, but I’ll take it step by step. I do believe that the only way to learn, is to do, and that’s why I’m not worried about the fact it has taken me 5 years. I have taken a great deal from the process, and even if it doesn’t show in this work, I hope it will in my next book.

 

Have a safe 2022.

 

RGR.

 

P.S - I have a title that everyone is going to hate. I think the 5 years was worth it just for that.

New Year's Day 2021

I wish you the best for the year ahead. I’m very sorry if you or your loved ones experienced trauma from this wretched 2020. Without my friends and family I don’t know how I would have made it through. I have relied on so many people I can’t put into words how grateful I am. I’m thinking of everyone who is lonely and suffering – reach out for help. I’m leaving book stuff for another time. Let’s support each other the best we can in 2021.

2020 Update

A month late but Happy New Year and all the best for 2020. January was a busy one for me. I’m annoyed at myself for not setting aside two minutes to do this earlier but better late than never. I remember eating Christmas dinner, then after undergoing a minor operation and dealing with a mix of work and personal issues it’s already February. I’m used to how fast time goes, but still, this seems ridiculous. I’ve gone back and forth all day on how much to write and as I can’t decide I think that means I should keep it brief. I didn’t make my first draft deadline during 2019 but I’m not overly disappointed, I’m disappointed for sure, just not too much… I put some good hours in and let’s face it, I didn’t give up, so that’s something. I’m on track to get the first draft completed before the end of March but I am very aware that calling it a first draft is really a lie, it will have a complete block of text that stretches from the beginning of the story to the end, so perhaps technically I can get away with it, however there is a lot of work to do, and I’m not in any doubt that it may take me until the end of the year to polish it to the level required, and this being the 1^st of February, that is more than a little frustrating, but like my last post a year ago, it’s all down to me, if I put the hours in it will get done, if I don’t then, well, you do the math. I’m sticking to my guns and will not be taking part in any social media stuff, this will be my only online activity until I finish the book, it’s the only thing that matters to me, and the only thing that should be taking up my time. I’m enjoying it, I’m learning a lot, and I’m itching to start my second novel, having gained huge insights into what-not-to-do while writing this one. My commitment is still there, and my realism is as pessimistic as it has always been, which I consider a good thing. I’m doing this for myself with zero expectations, the personal satisfaction of achieving this challenge is all I want and need. I don’t think this book will be any good, but I don’t regret it, I have taken a lot from the process and it’s made me think much clearer about how and why I write and, in that sense, it will be a success. It will have put me on my marks for starting the second book in a much more confident and disciplined manner. So, again, this post is to make sure I notch up a little (1) by the year 2020 tab and prove my existence, and the next time I write I really hope it is to say that I have finished my novel and not to wish you all a happy new year for 2021… 

If anyone does read this then please do still follow me on my social media platforms as I’ve not gone full druid in the woods yet, that’s still a few years away (I realise my social media sites, and my websites, are as stale as any cheese you’ve kept from New Year’s but I will be refreshing them at some point) I’ll be back online once this has been completed and look forward to sharing my news, and of course, my book, with you. 

Thank you for reading and for your support.

I wish you every success in this new decade.

R.G Rankine.

1st January 2019 - Happy New Year & Blogging Update

Happy New Year.

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas holiday and managed to find time to see your friends and family, avoided arguments, drank and ate to excess, and were surprised with thoughtful gifts.

I haven’t posted on social media since June 2017 with the haunting words of ‘taking the rest of the year out’ which, although I am by no means a maths genius, seemed to imply I would be posting again in 2018… and here we are, the 1^stJanuary 2019. I am completely aware that the few people who may have read my blog before may not remember I exist, and I am writing this to speak to myself, so to speak, as in… well, so to speak… so, this post is to convince myself more than anything that I am still a presence outside of my own bedroom and that when the time comes, I still know how to communicate. The last year has been a quiet, self-reflective period, to say the least.

My last self-published short story went online 15^thApril 2017 which means that I have been working on my first novel for twenty months, although that is just in terms of writing. I thought of the idea many, many years ago and had a rough outline in my mind long before putting words down. I really wanted to have a first draft ready by now, in fact, before Christmas was the plan, albeit an arbitrary self-imposed plan. You can guess by my tone that was not successful. 

I think I am probably another three months away from a first draft, and thinking about that April date above, it seems convenient to give myself a new deadline of April, i.e. making it two years in total. That doesn’t feel too bad, this is my first novel and I’ve learned a lot (if I do say so myself) so I’m not going to be too upset that it’s taken longer than I expected, however I can’t get away from the fact I have not been as disciplined as I could have been. If I had really concentrated and worked harder, put in longer hours, a twelve to sixteen month timescale should have been feasible. I have achieved many days of four or five hours writing but very few of seven or eight and I firmly believe I have it in me, and I need to find a way of getting there. 

It is hard to explain the relief I feel when I know I have produced some new words. The days I do not, all too common, leave me feeling useless. The disappointment of wasting a day knowing you could have written or edited, and by doing so, moved forward with your work, is one that leads to gloom. I don’t want to sound over the top, I am an amateur after all, and this is no different to what most people feel when they under-achieve in whatever field or tasks they are undertaking, I am not unusual nor unique in these problems, but nevertheless, it is immensely frustrating. I will turn forty next year and the annoying thing about that is that when I first conceived of the story I am writing I was probably around twenty or so. I have explained before how I first explored the majority of what I want to write in my teens and twenties, and in this case, I imagined one of the two leading characters in the story to be turning 40. I wrote an outline imagining what that would be like and the sore truth is that it took me so long to get my act together, writing wise, that now I am nearly 40 myself the book has turned out to be far more self-reflective than I wanted it to be, and in fact, it isn’t the story I wanted at all, however I will persevere and finish the damn thing, because I want to first of all prove to myself I can do it, and second of all, I have many more novels and short stories I want to get on to. I am not very pleased with the story, but I am pleased enough. It is not near the standard I hoped for and I have over-written a lot, I’m currently at five hundred thousand words with another fifty to one hundred thousand to write, before the time-consuming job of editing it down. It is not flowing as I intended and there will be quite a lot of structural changes to work through. However, again, I am going to persevere because I am a believer in getting better by doing, and I always (self-doubt no-doubt) thought that it would take me two or three books to get to a level I would be happy with.

That leads on to quickly explaining my renewed focus for 2019. Just as I have not been on Facebook, etc. for the last couple of years (In fact, I have gone one step further and have deleted the majority of my personal information, un-liked all pages… by the way, that had to be done one at a time and I had liked over 3000 so imagine how long that took, plus pages liked by my pages which have a different method to un-like… a right pain… so please accept a mass apology for not being a follower of your page anymore, nothing personal, I just feel a whole lot better having minimised my data, including removing pretty much everything off my phone) I will remain off social media until I have completed this book. So, I may not blog again until (**put total guess here**). I have decided to delete all previous posts and updates, and to leave my pages blank. Next time I post will be a complete re-boot.

I have come to the conclusion that in terms of the business side of the company, I cannot help anyone else. I have worked very hard with others over the last few years, both in strategic terms with my colleagues Rufus Garlic and Alfred Duff, and in shorter bursts with other amateur writers who needed quicker one-off helping hands. I have learned a lot from Rufus and Alfred, and the others that I have dealt with, so I do not want to sound like this was a one-way deal, however, it takes a lot of time and effort, and I now feel that I must focus on myself. The level of input from others has not been enough to propel us all along, instead the stop-start nature of writing, promotion, marketing, and so on, has meant that I am still involved in projects that are years old, and in some cases, have stalled completely and I can’t deal with having those projects on my mind anymore. I took the decision to stop working with others early on in December and will stop accepting queries and projects from now on. I will keep my company, Thinking Plainly, open as a self-publishing company for myself should my position change in the future, but all existing titles and works (including those that were never realised) will be transferred to their respective authors. I wish them all well and genuinely hope they don’t give up and put in that extra effort to progress their writing.

This means that I need to take a bit of time to reorganise my social media platforms and websites, but dismantling things take far less time than setting them up, so I imagine six years of work can be wrapped up in a week or two. There is something very sad, but also very pragmatic and eye-opening about that. A valuable lesson.

On a personal note, the last two years have been tough, I have lost some family and struggled with a resurfacing of some emotional issues, but nothing that I want to go into detail about and nothing that most people don’t have to deal with. It is just life. The main thing is that I am still here, still getting up every day and trying to get on with things, I would like to say I am trying my best, but I’m not there just yet, as I have already said, I feel I have another couple of gears to switch into yet and I’m hoping 2019 will be the year I find them.

One little anecdote for any writers out there trying to up their game like me. Invest in a good back up service and make sure you use it. For the first time ever, I had a laptop die on me in 2018. How many times have you heard horror stories about this but never believed it would happen to you? I use a Mac and I did have a Time Machine but I didn’t use it regularly and as fate would have it my laptop died three weeks after my last back up just before the weekend when I intended on backing-up. I lost about twenty thousand words because luckily I had emailed myself the stuff I was working on to check on another machine so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I also lost all of my passwords and usernames. That it turned out was a far bigger pain. I had to reset hundreds of accounts but I took that opportunity to finally close down stuff I didn’t use anymore. That was a two-week chore of emailing companies asking to close accounts, prove ID, retrieve data, etc. If anyone read up about that GDPR stuff then you can imagine the time it took. All in all, a major headache but with the end result of making me a much more organised and, hopefully digitally secure, person. I now use an online back-up service that autosaves every single word I write, and I back up to a time machine every day. I have no old or re-used passwords, everything on 2FA and the minimal of accounts open. Even if I am an amateur, this gives me a peace of mind I didn’t have before. I would recommend everyone to have a thorough digital spring clean, it is a frustrating but worthwhile task. You will be amazed at the amount of data you have that needs looking at.

Okay, enough. I don’t have much to say other than I wanted to blog to show any random visitors I am still alive. As I said, I don’t know when I’ll be blogging regularly again, I actually quite miss it, but whatever I say it will be wrong, so I’ll simply say, see you here when its time.

Regards,

R.G Rankine.

Blogging Break

Dear all,

I'll be taking a break from blogging for the rest of 2017. I'm trying to spend as much time as I can working on my first novel and although I'm tempted to spend time on other things the overriding fear is that I'll be working on this story for the rest of my bloody life without ever producing so much as a first draft.... so everything else has to be put to hold.

At some stage I will (along with the other Thinking Plainly team) update my website and social media pages as they all look rather lifeless but I am still active and I am not disappearing so do stay with me! I look forward to coming back to life soon :)

R.G Rankine
www.rgrankine.com
www.thinkingplainly.com

Collection Five - new short story ebook

... And following my previous blog post (http://rgrankine.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/collection-four-new-short-story-ebook.html ) here is part two and the links for Collection Five.

Amazon US & World: http://amzn.to/2pvcguu

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2pKX6R6

All the best,

R.G Rankine

www.rgrankine.com

www.thinkingplainly.com

Collection Four - new short story ebook

Dear all,

I uploaded my latest two short story collections this week, Collection Four and Collection Five, and wanted to share them with you. I blogged last year explaining how I entered lots of competitions, I think in the region of 25 in total, and I didn’t place in any of them (fully expected, don’t worry!) so I blogged the shorter ones, set some aside for future development, and then reworked 6 that I thought suitable for self publishing. In truth, they did need reworking. I tried my best to work fast to deadlines, but by attempting so many in such short periods of time, it is very apparent to me that it’s not something I’m capable of. After re-reading these 6, I knew full well they were not good enough. It took me several weeks of editing and rewrites but I’m happy enough with them now and I’ve split them into two ebooks of 3 stories each.

I realise that it is nearly 3 months since my last blog post… that’s bad. I knew I was a bit occupied lately but that’s worse than I thought. I’ve been working on a few personal things that have taken up all of my concentration so haven’t been sharing much on social media at all. Hopefully that will change shortly, once I’ve settled back into a routine. Also I have been working on some new scripts for the literary drinks series I started last year. As soon as they are ready I’ll be sharing them, should be fun.

Here are the links to Collection Four and the next blog post will have the links for Collection Five.

Amazon US & World: http://amzn.to/2oPZmZY

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2pKYHpR

All the best,

R.G Rankine

www.rgrankine.com

www.thinkingplainly.com

Internet Browser Brave

Dear all,

This post concerns a new Internet browser called Brave. It has made me think about what that term ‘new content’ or perhaps better put, ‘original content’ is, and how that applies to personal or company websites as opposed to sharing or re-sharing on social media platforms.

First, let me briefly explain Brave so as to preface my thoughts. It is a browser that offers advanced protection and privacy with the ability to manage advertisements, increase speed and security, and for the benefit of this post, allow publisher payments. To be more exact, it has a beta service that allows people to set up a cyrptocurrency micro-payments system, designed to pay people (websites) based on the amount of times you are visited and the amount of time spent. I in turn, as the browser user, can set up my preferences to process micro-payments to the sites I visit.

You may be unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies and it’s not an easy subject to summarise. Even though I’ve been interested in them for a few years, I’m very much a laymen and I find it hard to explain the basics. All I’ll say for now is that the original and most well known cryptocurrency is called Bitcoin and there is an entire world of financial technology innovation going on and although it is still early days I’m convinced it will become an acknowledged world currency/asset in the years to come. At the time of posting this blog the price of a single Bitcoin is $920 / £734. In terms of micropayments we would only be sending a fraction of a Bitcoin, possibly as little as a few cents/pence. The actual way in which Brave works I will let you learn from their website as they obviously go into much more detail than I ever could. Check it out here: https://brave.com

The idea behind micropayments is what I’m interested in. What does the future hold for people who create original content? At present, you may be earning income from website and social media advertising, referrals and affiliate programs and other payments made from content publishers either in fixed fees or royalty sharing and things like that. You may also be earning income from your own sites if you have a subscription or membership program i.e. you charge people to access your website content. Perhaps it may take the form of a token system or Patreon type access.

Whichever way, it is possible to earn money and you may be very successful at sharing content on multiple platforms and all of that complicated digital stuff that I don’t really know much about… but as someone who is interested in writing, it is an nice thought that there may be a way to earn money simply by managing your own work on your own website without the need for membership or subscription fees or posting on multiple platforms.

This is purely abstract thinking here so it’s all pie-in-the-sky for the time being, don’t think I’m trying to promote anything. I’m just imagining an Internet of the future and what opportunities that may hold.

Say for instance everyone in the entire world has totally accepted cryptocurrency micropayments and it is as normal as contactless payments or checking your bank balance on your mobile phone. This is a world where we all have digital wallets and are set up to receive Bitcoin (or any other of the hundreds of digital currencies) based on visitor numbers/duration.

Why would a person visit your website?

What would draw repeating visitors?

I’m not talking about visiting your Facebook page or your YouTube channel or other content providers, or reading your articles that have been published in online magazines, or other dominant media networks. I’m talking about your individual website.

Is there enough original content, and enough new content, for people to want to come back?

As someone interested in writing this makes me think about a couple of things. Am I able to create enough content of a high enough quality to make people’s visits worthwhile? Instead of blogging on Blogger or Wordpress should I simply blog on my website? Should I write a monthly/quarterly short story and publish it solely on my website? Instead of using a site such as Wattpad, shoud I share chapters of a new book on my website? What other media could I regularly produce that could sit on my website without being shared elsewhere? That way I know that the only way people can access new content by me, would be to visit my website and therefore justify micropayments?

One question that strikes me is why would you set up a micropayment allowance to a website and not simply pay a subscription? If you know you will visit a site x number of times in a week or a month then why not just subscribe to them? First off, I didn’t even realise how adverse I am to subscriptions until I thought about it while writing this. Subscriptions tend to be a significant amount, perhaps £10 a month for instance, regardless of how many times you visit. If I pay £10 a month for all the sites I visit then I’ll be broke in no time. I already have stopped paying for newspaper subscriptions. As an example, when The Independent became an online subscription service only, I didn’t take it up even though I was buying their physical newspapers every week. The reason being is that I don’t like committing. That’s probably a new thing, I’m not sure. When I was growing up, it was all about memberships. Perhaps Netflix got it so right that there is no accepting anything less: Incredibly high level of quality and service with immediate cancellations and multiple platform access for £6 a month. That’s a balance that in my opinion favours the customer. Looking back, as a kid I would have to subscribe to magazines and pay a fortune for pretty rubbish content, with all the terms & conditions favouring the business I am using and having painful clauses and customer service. That goes for most things, gym membership, VHS/DVD rentals (screw you late fees), library membership, mobile contracts, and so on (remember how much postage and packaging used to cost!?!? Life before digital downloads… ) Life is changing and as we don’t seem to be as tied down to things anymore, we are much more fluid to change providers (still got a way to go of course) and it seems that online memberships may be heading that way too. I don’t want to tie myself into contracts if I don’t need to.

Although saying that, if prices go down then it will be tempting. For instance, I’m not much of a gamer but I do know that there are lots of online worlds that require subscriptions (off the top of my head, World of Warcraft comes to mind) but they seem to be pretty reasonable, especially when the initial cost of the game purchase isn’t too high. I’m not saying it’s great, it’s still expensive of course, but it is much more of a choice if you are paying £10 a month for 24/7 access to brand new content and multi-player interaction. Take that one step further and make it so that you only actually ever pay something when you are actually using a service, but that payment is automated so you don’t have to do anything - and you know what limits you have set so you never spend more than you budget - then we are nearing the world of crypto micro-payments. If a person decides to go on holiday for two weeks then subscription or membership money isn’t wasted because you aren’t paying, if you change jobs or have a baby or move house or undertake any activity whereby you need to save money for a while, then there is no going through the aggravation of cancelling multiple subscriptions (or more likely, not bothering and feeling mighty pissed that you frittering away money) and all the time that entails. You simply don’t use their service and you therefore don’t pay, and when the time comes you feel ready to use their services again, you just go back.

I’m not going to get into the debate about how long this would take. And I have no idea that if this adoption takes place how long it will be from then before there is any definitive evidence that sharing content on your own site will earn anywhere near the amounts you may be used to. And I’m also not saying that sites such as YouTube would ever lose their position and make it viable for you to be found as an individual (what a tiny speck in the digital universe we are in comparison). I have no idea about this side of things. Search and discovery I am clueless on. All I know is that it gives me a sense of purpose to consider a future in which I publish my own content and I am rewarded for that content without having to sell advertising space or use other income streams that have nothing to do with the actual content I make. It makes me feel like I should be upping my game and that there are possibilities. (and for the purposes of this blog I have taken sponsorship out of the equation)

For a long time it’s been the way that for the latest news you visit social media pages of an individual or an organisation rather than their website, even if the website is great. (With the exception of huge corporations such as the BBC) There’s nothing wrong with that and it makes total sense to see a collection of your favourite sites in one place, but of course you are seeing the layout and theme and branding of the content distributor rather than the original author. It’s a shame in a way because I enjoy seeing the individual design and creativity that goes into individual websites.

That’s obviously not going to change for a long time though and I’m not in anyway saying one is better than the other. It’s all about habits, ease of use, ease of display, speed, connectivity and what makes life easier for you. It’s also about taking control – do you want the power to allow advertisements and sacrifice the positives that come from it in full knowledge of the outcomes? I mean, it should be your choice shouldn’t it?

I think I ‘like’ around 2000 pages on Facebook and it seems impossible an idea to have to surf through 2000 individual sites every day but we don’t have to think in terms of all-or-nothing. Perhaps it could work for your top ten individual authors. Your top ten individual artists. Your top ten musicians. It could be a way of saying to your favourite independent content providers, here’s my few pence for doing what you do, keep it up. Perhaps paying people for content directly and seeing that as a genuine way of reflecting your output is a way to go back to individuality and away from the colossus juggernauts that rule us. That still doesn’t get away from the fact that sometimes it’s nice to have everything in one place. If you want to scroll through Facebook to see all the latest news from the hundreds of the sites your follow in a quick two minute coffee break then fantastic, of course that’s great, I don’t see that changing much. But again, why not have the best of both worlds?

Going back to the beginning, it will never work unless there is a reason for people to visit my website. So I need to think about this. What could I put on there that I don’t share on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest or YouTube, etc? How will people find me? Sounds so needy when I put it like that.

Something to think about for development over the next few years.

Have a great weekend,

R.G Rankine

www.rgrankine.com

www.thinkingplainly.com