7 Ways to Educate and Motivate Your Muse

"7 Ways to Educate and Motivate Your Muse” by Joan Y. Edwards

What can you do after you've submitted a manuscript to a publisher or agent?
What can you do when you're not working on marketing your work?

I believe this is the time to educate and motivate the muse within you. Here are 7 ways to educate and motivate your muse:

1. Experience Life, attend workshops, take courses.

a. Bake cakes.
b. Go on a tour of an Historic house.
c. Attend a weekend workshop.
d. Volunteer at a homeless shelter for children.
e. Take a writing course at a community college or other learning institution.

2. Read three books about the craft of writing.

a. Darcy Pattison: Novel Metamorphosis
b. Donald Maass: Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook
c. James N. Frey How to Write a Damn Good Novel
d. James N. Frey The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth
e. Karl Iglesias: Writing for Emotional Impact
f. Margaret Lucke: Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories

3. Read three best-selling books in your favorite genre.

4. Watch three movies in the genre you write.

5. Study the websites of three best-selling authors.

Here is a list of many to choose from or search for your favorite online.
Best-Selling Authors for Children
James Patterson 
Rick Riordan
Jeff Kinney 
Victoria Kann
Jane O’Connor
Suzanne Collins
J. K. Rowling
Best-Selling Authors for Adults
John Grisham
George R. R. Martin
Catherine Coulter
Janet Evanovich

6. Study and find three matching three publishers and agents for your manuscripts:

a. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2011: Who They Are! What They Want! How to Win Them Over! by Jeff Herman 
b. Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide
c. Children’s Writer’s And Illustrator’s Market, Writer’s Digest Books
d. Writer’s Market by Writer’s Digest Books
c. Visit the Preditors & Editors website to check out the editors and agents you’ve chosen. It’ll tell you if they are legitimate or warn you about them. http://pred-ed.com/
f. Check the submission guidelines of the websites of the publishers and agents of three of your favorite books.

7. Write.

Pub Subbers from my website will recognize these as activities for Week 4. I hope these ideas lead you to the right experiences to educate and motivate the creative muse in you. Believe in you. I do.

Please leave a comment with other ideas to activate the creativity within you.

Celebrate you now.

Never Give Up

Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards

Flip Flap Floodle, the Never Give Up duck.

Joan’s Elder Care Guide, Release Early 2015 by 4RV Publishing

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For more articles to inspire you and help you market your writing, read Joan's Never Give Up Blog

Midwest Review's Selected Titles for Writers

Midwest Review’s Top Books for Writers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a recent article in his newsletter, Jim Cox, founding guru of the Midwest Review, includes his suggested titles for writers and I'm flattered (and glad to be one of them). I thought the readers of this Writers On The Move blog might want to select one or two for the betterment of their careers in 2014.

Jim said, "There are a lot of excellent how to instruction manuals and guides available to the novice publisher and the newly self-published author on what has been termed 'guerilla marketing' strategies offering a wealth of tips, tricks, techniques, and strategies for those of limited financial means. You will find them reviewed and listed at:

 http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/pub_shlf.htm"

"There you will find such informative and "every author/publisher should read this" titles like:

"1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer
52 Ways To Sell More Books! by Penny C. Sansevieri
The Author's Guide To Publishing And Marketing by Tim Ward & John Hunt
Book Marketing De-Mystified by Bruce Batchelor
Book Promotion Made Easy by Eric Gelb
Brilliant PR by Cathy Bussey
The Complete Guide To Book Publicity by Jodee Blanco
The Economical Guide To Self-Publishing by Linda F. Radke
The Frugal Book Promoter: 2nd Edition, by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Grass Roots Book Marketing by Rusty Fischer
Grassroots Marketing For Authors And Publishers by Shel Horowitz
Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World by Shel Horowitz
Grumpy's Guide To Global Marketing For Books by Carolyn Mordecai
Maverick Marketing by Lisa Messenger & Mel Carswell
Maximum Exposure Marketing System by Tami DePalma & Kim Dushinski
Mosquito Marketing for Authors by Michelle Dunn
Musings Of An Online Bookseller by John Landahl
Online Book Marketing by Lorraine Phillips
Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval
Publishing For Profit by Thomas Woll
Red Hot Internet Publicity by Penny C. Sansevieri
Sell More Books! by J. Steve Miller & Cherie K. Miller
Sell Your Book Like Wildfire by Rob Eager
Selling Books as Premiums & Incentives by Marilyn & Tom Ross
The Selling Of An Author by Bruce E. Mowday
Simple Guide to Marketing Your Book, by Mark Ortman
The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit! by C. Pinherio & Nick Russell
Why, When, Where, & How To Write, Publish, Market, & Sell Your Book by Bill Thurwanger
Write, Publish & Market Your Book by Patrika Vaughn
You Can Market Your Book by Carmen Leal

"There are a lot more titles where these came from. I take a justifiable pride in the Midwest Book Review web site as having the largest writing/publishing bibliography data bases in all the world!"

Naturally, I thought I'd pass his suggestions on to you. I always say, "One book on the writing and marketing of books is never enough."

Subscribe to Jim's newsletter at http://www.midwestbookreview.com.

You'll also find my personal list of helpful books for writers in the Appendix of The Frugal Editor, 2^nd Edition, (presently only as an e-book).

----

Blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. She has a large section of Resources for writers on her Web site at http://howtodoitfrugally.com.

Finding Appropriate Literary Magazines For Your Stories

If you’re submitting short stories to literary magazines, doubtless you’ve read in submission guidelines things like this:  “To get a feel for our editorial style, read several issues of the magazine before submitting.”

This is excellent advice, not only for finding good fits for your stories.  Reading many good short stories from different literary magazines will also help your craft.  However, it’s extremely time consuming if you do it in a scattershot, luck-be-with-me sort of way, finding a magazine at random, reading back issues, and only then deciding it’s not a great fit.

Instead, narrow your search first.  One way to do this is to buy or check out recent short story collections that pull from various literary magazines.  Two good ones are The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize; Best of the Small Presses.  If you’re a genre writer, you may find similar anthologies in your field, like The Year’s Best Science Fiction.  These anthologies generally list which magazines the stories first appeared in. When you find a story you like, and feel it might fit with your writing, put that magazine on your short list.  Research your short-list magazines to make sure your first impressions were right.  Then, of course, submit exactly how the magazine wants, according to their guidelines.  Then submit again.  And again.

*     *     *     *     *

Melinda Brasher has sold short stories to several magazines, including Ellipsis Literature and Art and Intergalactic Medicine Show.  You can read her most recently published story, "Passcodes," free at The Future Fire.  She's currently living in the Czech Republic and loving the nature (and the wild blueberries and raspberries for dessert during her hikes).  Visit her online at http://www.melindabrasher.com/

Blogging Smart

By Karen Cioffi

It’s a give-in that you need to blog to make connections, to gain readers, to increase visibility, to increase your authority, to increase ranking, and to become the go-to person in your niche.

But, did you know that as of early September 2015, there are 1 BILLION websites online. That's a lot of noise . . . and competition. So, blogging smart is even more important than ever.

But, how do you blog effectively and smart? What does that mean?

To blog smart, you want to ‘prove’ to your visitors and subscribers that what you’re writing about or doing actually works.

How do you do this?

Simple. Show them.

For example:

A blog post at Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing (site has since been deleted) on email marketing and spam got over 3700 views in just a couple of days. 

This is blogging smart.

The image below is a screen-shot of that particular post's views in less than 24 hours - a couple of days later it was over 3700. A little after that it was at 3841. I haven't checked since then to see how far it has gone.

Okay, I’ll admit that sometimes it’s the ‘luck of the draw’ or the ‘right content at the right time,’ but if you’re not blogging smart to start, it’s unlikely you’ll get that far.

So, some things you should be including in your posts are:

•    Screenshots to aid in comprehension and prove what you’re saying
•    Links to relevant content bringing the reader deeper into your web pages, further demonstrating your knowledge in the niche
•    Links to other useful information that will further benefit the reader
•    Tips on what you should and shouldn’t do and why
•    Strategies that work for you and proof
•    Problems you’ve overcome and how
•    Doable step-by-step guides
•    Personality (a bit of personal tidbits)
•    Videos
•    Audio
•    Images
•    Call-to-action (CTA)

These are the elements you should be including in your blog posts, obviously not all at the same time - mix it up. This is blogging effectively and blogging smart. And, this strategy will motivate the reader to model your processes. This is one of the best compliments.

Even more important, it will motivate the visitor/reader to say YES to your CTA and SHARE your content.

Note: Images and CTAs should be included in everyone of your blog posts.  And, in regard to images, at least one image should be at the top of the content. It's this image sites like Pinterest will pick up when you share the post.

Another part of blogging smart is to optimize your blog posts. Part of this includes using:

• Grabbing titles
• Keywords
• Tags
• Categories
• Descriptions
• Sharing your posts to your social media networks

Get started today and watch your website traffic increase.

~~~~~

More on Writing and Marketing

Creating 3D Covers in Microsoft Publisher
Strategies to Get Book Reviews
You Know You’re a Writer When

Revision, Part 1: An Early Fiction Checklist

My backpack-on-wheels travels everywhere with me. In it I schlep my old, heavy laptop, my iPad, if I stack them right quite a few books and my Kindle, at least one three-ring binder and my trusty pencil bag, which includes a highlighter, pencils, erasers and a pencil sharpener; different color pens, a mini-stapler, small post-its for note-taking, a flash drive, and paper clips. I'm ready to work, either electronically or on paper, at the drop of a #2 pencil.

Writing on the Run
Deep in the throes of revision while having to go on a recent short trip, I had to face that writing time would be hit or miss; normally squeezed in whenever there's a free moment. To really dig in, though, I wanted to take more than could possibly fit in my catch-all bag: a dictionary, my thesaurus, reference books, as-of-yet unread writing books, etc., etc. Knowing this was impossible, I took a break to think about what I could realistically get accomplished on the trip, sat back and read an article, "4 Tips for Writing Scenes," by Ingrid Sundberg, http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/4-tips-for-writing-great-scenes/.

Sundberg's article changed everything. Maybe I couldn't have all my tools, but I was at a place in my story where a preliminary check would be helpful. After a cursory look at my WIP with Sundberg's advice in mind, I made a startling discovery. The drama and emotion I thought I'd poured into my draft--heart, gut, and soul--didn't have the impact I'd envisioned. An editor might even call my scenes downright flimsy! I chose three areas that Sundberg suggested need to be present in each scene and decided not to wait until the end of the entire draft to consider them, but to review them early in the draft and see what would happen.

Three Scene Booster Musts
I backtracked to Chapter One and evaluated each scene according to Three Scene Boosters suggested in Sundberg's post. In each scene, I isolated these three areas:

• Significant Emotional Change: Does your character go through some sort of emotional change?

After a thorough scrubbing this is what my I came up with: In Chapter 1, my character is sleepy and bored after starting out in the wee hours of the morning on a long ride home from a camping trip. Her grandfather's VW Bug starts to pick up speed. She stiffens as his car careens down a narrow mountain road, faster and faster. She is thrown side to side clinging to her stuffed animal, her only comfort.  Her short life flashes before her, like the car's headlights that are sweeping ever faster past a thick forest of trees. These minutes--seconds--could be her last.
Revised emotional change: I needed to show a starker contrast between my character's boredom and fear.

• Dramatic Action: What action does your character take to get out of the bind she finds herself in?

Her grandfather shouts, "Hold on!" She grabs the door handle. He taps the brake but the wind whistles even louder past her ear. She shouts, "Quick, do something!" He pulls up on the emergency brake--the skinny little lever next to her seat--and the little VW Bug shudders and shakes. Her palms are slippery but she hangs on, with only her stuffed animal for comfort.
Revised dramatic action: As the car picks up speed, I needed to show how frightened she is more clearly, which was to show how helpless she feels. 

• Scene Summary: What is the main action in the scene? At the end of the scene go back and look at your character's main action(s).

Stuck in the car; realizing it's out of control flying down a narrow mountain road. All she can do is hang on to the door handle, her palms slick, her arms hurting from holding on so tight.

• What is your character's main emotion(s)? Fearing for her life.

Though likely not my last run-through, these early scene boosters have strengthened my scenes by looking for my character's emotional change, how dramatic her action(s) is, and giving her the maximum emotional punch. This technique has helped make my scenes more exciting and dramatic. The bonus? This effort should save time later during the final editing stage. That will be when most of the polishing is complete and each run-through is to make sure all the other essential story elements are in place.

Just think, if another short trip comes along I won't have to take so many writing tools in my backpack. All I'll need is a pencil, eraser, colored pen, post-its, and extra paper. Oh, and a book to read in my spare time!

See if this plan works for you: In coming months more revision highlights will be explored to help narrow down important areas in your manuscript, one at a time.

 

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, recently completed Joyce Sweeney's online fiction course. She has published over 40 articles for children and adults, six short stories for children, and is currently developing several works for children. Follow Linda on Facebook.

Gearing Up for September

Around here, September marks a fresh start. After 3 months of fun in the sun, it will feel good to get back into a routine. It's also a good time to review the year, reflect on successes, and make changes if necessary.

Photo credit: Canedfish / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Here are some tips that will help you cross the finish line of meeting your goal(s) at the end of the year:

• Work Space - Do you need to do some filing and organizing? Are there outdated post-it- notes stuck around your space? Is your chair comfortable? Do you have enough room? How is the lighting? I recently moved my desk to another part of the room and it really made a difference.
• Supplies - School supplies are being sold everywhere at some really good prices. Now is the time to stock up! I like the composition notebooks (used come only in black and white) that now come in lots of colors. I use one for each project I'm doing. Every idea, deadline, contact, etc., goes in the color-designated notebook. I've found this works best for me instead of a file folder for current projects. 
• Schedule - How is your writing schedule working? Are you taking ground? Even if it feels slow and steady, it counts! Are you trying to work in the morning, when you do your best at night? Have you been able to balance your personal life with your professional life? Take a good look at your writing routine. If you're not producing what you had planned, it's a good indication something needs to change. Don't be afraid to do it.

While practical tips are important for success, are you enjoying the journey? Are you pacing yourself so you don't miss the "little things"? Or are you sprinting to the finish line and the scenery has been a blur?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Life is a journey, not a destination." Isn't it true we can be so focused on where we need to go that we are not enjoying how we're getting there? 

As summer ends and a new season begins, I hope you'll review your year thus far and be energized in the coming months. But mostly, I hope you're enjoying the process!

~~~

  After raising and homeschooling her 8 children and teaching art classes for 10 years, Kathy has found time to pursue freelance writing. She enjoys writing magazine articles and more recently had her story, "One of a Kind", published in The Kids' Ark. You can find her passion to bring encouragement and hope to people of all ages at When It Hurts - http://kathleenmoulton.com

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.

1. Summarize any notes from the writing vacation and save them in a file
2. Read your unfinished writing projects
3. Assess the next step for each project
4. Prioritize your writing projects
5. Establish and track your writing goals.
6. 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

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