Refocusing after a Vacation from Writing

In my July post, I shared that I was going to give myself a writing vacation. No writing blog posts, revising manuscripts or developing first drafts. I have a lot of writing projects at different stages of development, but I was not anxious to work on any of them. My writing time was going to be reallocated to summertime fun and travel. I was going to give the written word a rest.

During my writing hiatus, I visited with friends, went to museums, read more and travelled. I also spent way too many hours stuck in airports—travelling over 15,000 miles in the month.

In an attempt at full disclosure, I have to admit that I did jot down some notes during the month. As I traveled the country or roamed my hometown, I jotted down ideas, quotes, and books that piqued my interest. These ideas may become seeds of a new project or tidbits added to a manuscript I need to finish. Even my impatience with airport delays was somewhat alleviated by observing fellow travelers whose antics became scribbles in my notebook.

As writers, I think it is important to allow the space and time for new ideas to be sprinkled into one’s life. When dealing with the pressures of deadlines or the struggles of revision an occasional writing vacation can help generate new ideas.

After a writing break, try the following tips to get back on track.

Summarize any notes from the writing vacation and save them in a file
Read your unfinished writing projects
Assess the next step for each project
Prioritize your writing projects
Establish and track your writing goals.
Try using a goal setting/tracking app.

This fall, I’ve decided to try lifetick, a new goal tracking app. I let you know if it helps me re-focus and stay on track.

Mary Jo Guglielmo is writer and intuitive life coach. For more information check out:

http://theadvantagepoint.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/do_north

http://facebook.com/DoNorth.biz

Marketing as a Beginner

The shop of the bookdealer Pieter Meijer Warnars--Johannes Jelgerhuis (1770-1836)

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

With a new fiction novella out in October, I have been brushing up on marketing techniques. As far as I can see, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. What proves successful for one author may not work for another.

My publisher has listed the need for Facebook and Twitter and I'll set up new accounts for my author persona. But social media is continually evolving and the new algorithms always tend to favor the website creators. FaceBook changes have made it more difficult to spread your news and views to all the friends on your list. And not all authors can afford or wish to afford paid ads.

In a new article suggesting how to stop wasting time with marketing, Tom Buford notes that 90% of his business comes from just two strategies: peer endorsement meaning recommendations from friends--this may perhaps include
affiliates?-- and using education based webinars to sell his products.

With a two step strategy in mind, I am considering slideshare and an infoproduct how-to course as a thankyou gift for purchasers of my book.

To work on my website, I'm following Tiffany Lambert's day by day blog--One Year in a New Niche.

Her blog may not be everyone's cup of tea but she's a great marketer and her openness and techniques are built for selling.

That said, here at Writers on the Move we have some of the best book marketers in the business. I have my copy of Carolyn Howard-Johnson's award-winning Frugal Editor and the Frugal Book Promoter and a folder of helpful ebooks from Karen Cioffi-Ventrice.

Blogpost of the Month

This one has so much help and information that I'm still dipping into it weeks after publication. Cynthia Lindeman writing for Boost Blog Traffic lists

101 Writing Resources That'll Take You from Stuck to Unstoppable. I don't know how unstoppable I shall be as I'm still having such fun with the list that I haven't quite got started.

* * * *

Next month I'll report back on my marketing plans and updates.

In the meantime, any help and advice in the comments below on which book promotion strategies work best for you will be greatly appreciated. :-)

Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she passes on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips from time to time at Slow and Steady Writers

Writing Games

Have you used any of the writing games that are sold by various retailers? I have one of them, The Storymatic®. There are three versions. I have the Classic edition. It’s made in the USA, by The Storymatic Corporation of Vermont and has been around for several years.

My writers group played with The Storymatic recently. The box is filled with cards of two different colors. One color is about characters, the other color is about situations. There are nine suggested games within The Storymatic to choose from, but you do not have to use any of them.

At our meeting we tried “Add to It.” Each person takes turns drawing cards and adding to the story that the first person started. You can go as long as you want. My group took turns telling a story about a couple out on a date. An engagement ring, a paramedic, an ambulance, a Chihuahua, a baby elephant, and a veterinarian hospital were involved. I have forgotten what else was thrown into the story. It was very funny! We were meeting in a public place, so our laughter generated some looks from other customers. We decided to play again sometime, but in the “safety and comfort” of a member’s home!

To generate new ideas and have some fun, I recommend The Storymatic. If you want to learn more about this game, two websites that contain additional information are http://thestorymatic.com/ and http://archive.wired.com/geekdad/2012/02/storymatic/. The latter site includes an interview with the man who created The Storymatic.

Have you tried a game to get new ideas or to break writers block? Please post about your experiences here.

Have fun playing and writing!

Debbie A. Byrne has a B.S. in Mass Communication with a minor in History. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is working on her first children’s book.

There's a Gorilla in the Phone Booth! - The dangers of flashbacks

by Shirley Corder

The fog was closing in. Marsha dashed across the road to the phone booth to call her husband to come and fetch her. With relief, she pulled open the stiff door and slipped inside. She peered towards the phone dial, and instead her eyes focused on a gigantic dark hairy chest. Fearfully she looked up, and up . . . until she made out the terrifying features of an adult gorilla. There was a gorilla in the phone booth!

His immense mouth opened and she gazed in horror at his vicious-looking teeth. She was about to be devoured by a raging primate. It reminded her of the time when she and her husband had gone to see the film, “Gorillas in the Mist.” It was a beautiful evening, their first real date. They had sat and eaten popcorn and drank soda. When they ran out of popcorn, Robert slipped his hand across and gripped hers. The rest of the film was a blur. All she remembered was what happened on their walk home . . .

Okay, this is a variation of a common theme for writers. You’ve created an exciting scenario. A gorilla is a massive animal, renowned for its phenomenal strength. We can think of the well-known advert of King Kong as he rips apart the jaws of a T-Rex, or of him wreaking havoc in New York City. He is not a creature to tangle with. And he’s certainly not something you want to share a phone booth with.

Why did the author put the gorilla in the phone booth in the first place? Because it’s a tiny enclosure. There’s no way anyone can win a battle with a gorilla in a phone booth. The victim would be ripped apart in no time. The tension is unbearable. The reader holds his breath.

And then he’s transported to the cinema. On a trip down memory lane. What a letdown.

What was the writer thinking? He’s created a breathtaking scene, and then left the reader hanging while he explores another part of the heroine’s life. It’s called a flashback, but it’s a dangerous technique. If the author doesn’t want to lose his reader, a flashback has to be handled wisely.

For writers, the lesson is: Stay with the gorilla in the phone booth! The story needs to keep moving forward. The reader doesn’t want to know about the time at the cinema. He wants to know how Marsha is going to handle her ordeal in the phone booth.

There are times for flashbacks, but less is more. Think twice before you leave your reader stuck indefinitely in a phone booth with a gorilla. It's not a nice place to be.

OVER TO YOU: How do you feel about flashbacks when you're reading? Any authors that do them well? Do you use them in your own writing? Leave a comment below.

FURTHER READING:

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on the time she faced a gorilla in the cancer valley.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.

Two Things You Must Do if You Want to Make Money Blogging

by Suzanne Lieurance, the Working Writer's Coach

Whether you’re a full time freelance writer or a published author, you probably have at least one blog (or you should have anyway).

You probably have a mailing list, too (or you should have).

But you may not realize how your mailing list affects your blog traffic.

In his e-book, List Building for Bloggers, Phil Hollows includes a short note from Internet guru, Seth Godin. In this note, Godin says "I get ten times more response to my blog from my email subscribers than I do from anyone else."

That just shows how powerful a mailing list can be. It can drive traffic to your blog.

But here's the rub. It's good to have visitors to your blog and people on your mailing list, but in order to make money from your blog, there are two things you need to do: optimize and monetize.

What does that mean?

It means that each and every blog post has a clear call to action for your readers.

It means that most of your blog posts include your affiliate links to relevant products and/or services.

It means each blog post is keyword rich, with the exact keywords people are using to search for the kind of information you're providing in those posts.

It also means your blog content is aimed at your target market, and this is where so many bloggers miss the mark. They either don't have a specific target market in mind or, if they do, their content isn't directed at this target market.

Today, instead of creating new content for your blog, go back to some of the archived content. Make sure it is optimized (keyword rich for starters) and monetized (includes links to affiliate products or at least some clear call to action). Also, be sure the content is directed toward the specific target market you are trying to attract to your blog.

Once you've monetized and optimized your site, you'll be ready to grow your email subscribers - those people who will be most responsive to your blog and purchase the products and services you blog about.

Try it!

Suzanne Lieurance is an author, freelance writer, certified professional life coach and writing coach, speaker and workshop presenter. She has written over two dozen published books and hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines, and other publications.

For more ways to make money from your blog, download The Freelance Writer's Guide to Affiliate Marketing by Suzanne Lieurance.

A Blank Canvas - Your Characters

The last couple of months have been spent packing and moving from our 'retirement home' in Phoenix to our new 'retirement home' in Minnesota. I'm well aware that's not usually the direction one goes to retire. My parents had left me a home and my husband and I decided that for the next however many years we have, we are going to spend them in the Midwest enjoying a slower pace.

Moving into one's family home is a bit of a challenge. I remember well how my mother had arranged furniture and art. Each day more memories crop up and distract me. But each day, too, I'm working on creating a new and different home, one that reflects the people my husband and I are. Part of the decisions we've already made are to paint, carpet and change all the window coverings. Think blank canvas.

A blank canvas allows you to find your own place in the world.

A blank canvas encourages exploration.

A blank canvas drives one to a new level of creativity.

And a blank canvas might be the best place to begin when writing your newest character(s). Part of the enjoyment of writing fiction is the unknowingness of the process. You begin with a character or a scene, or maybe only a setting. Somewhere down the road you may know where you want to eventually end - the statement you wish to make with your story. But everything in between is yours and your characters to create. Allowing your mind to be open to your character's possible reactions and thoughts is one great way to keep your readers engaged. Readers like surprises - and if you are like me - you do as well. Creating characters that, well, act out of character is fun. And just like the blank canvas above, it will drive you to a greater level of creativity, it will push you to explore your options and finally, it will help you to create characters that will find their own place in the world of literature.

________________________________________

D. Jean Quarles is a writer of Women's Fiction and a co-author of a Young Adult Science Fiction Series. Her latest book, House of Glass, Book 2 of The Exodus Series was written with coauthor, Austine Etcheverry.

D. Jean loves to tell stories of personal growth – where success has nothing to do with money or fame, but of living life to the fullest. She is also the author of the novels: Rocky's Mountains, Fire in the Hole and, Perception. The Mermaid, an award winning short story was published in the anthology, Tales from a Sweltering City.

She is a wife, mother, grandmother and business coach. In her free time . . . ha! ha! ha! Anyway, you can find more about D. Jean Quarles, her writing and her books at her website at www.djeanquarles.com

You can also follower her at www.djeanquarles.blogspot.com or on Facebook

Where do Characters Come From?

Where do you get your characters? They can come from many sources. Characters can be based on someone you know or a composite of people you know. You write from your experience. You might base a character on a name you’ve picked out or someone you’ve read about in the newspaper. Or you decide on a theme or a situation you want to write about and then decide what kind of characters would fit into that idea.

How do you introduce your characters?

Here’s a great four-sentence exercise:

1. Introduce a character (age, sex).

2. Bring character home to dwelling place

3. Greet someone in the home, tell something about the mood of the character.

4. Move character out of room (off camera).

You’ll be surprised how much you will learn about your character from such a short exercise! Start out each character like this to find out about him/her. Fill in the information and find the emotional connection.

Some writers like to create an entire character profile even before they start writing. I don’t necessarily recommend that, although some people need a skeleton to flesh out before they can start writing. It’s probably a good idea to at least fill one out as you write (especially if you’re writing a book) just to keep the facts straight. You don’t want your hero to have blue eyes in chapter one and turn up with brown eyes in chapter 20. And you want him to act and re-act consistent with his personality as you write. Or fill in a character sketch if you have a character that seems flat and needs fleshing out.

How do you come up with your characters?

A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in North-central Arizona where she blogs, teaches

writing, and edits. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams , is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, won the national WILLA Award. The next book in the series, Dare to Dream, has just been released, and her non-fiction book Cowgirl Up: History of Women's Rodeo will be out in September. Heidi has a degree in journalism and a certificate in fiction writing.

Writers On The Move