Does Your Writing Snap, Crackle & Pop?

Issue #11 April 2014

How Are Your Writing Goals?

Here it is the beginning of April and I’m already falling behind on my writing goals. This blog should have been completed at the beginning of March, but I’m not going to beat myself up. I have submitted two stories and some poems for publication, submitted my novel to two self-published contest and gotten one of my book reviews completed. So I’ve allowed myself the very real excuse of my mother’s return to the hospital, which required a lot of time, as a reason for falling behind. Remember, as writers, we are still people with real lives to live. Sometimes we just have to deal with it and move on. I hope you’ve learned this, too. Real life distractions don’t mean we give up on our goals. It just means we have to adjust our time frame and keep writing.

Marketing Your Writing

Building Your Portfolio

One of the things we all need as writers is a portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of works that have been published, received good reviews or won writing contest. Luckily, as I stated previously, I was able to submit my work during March even though I was very busy with other responsibilities. So that was good. The bad news is, I already know I didn’t make it passed the first round of the one of the contest. Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award Contest has several “rounds” which authors have to pass. During the first round the editors select the top 400 Entries from each Category to advance to the second round based on the Pitch.  Judging is based on the criteria: originality of idea, overall strength of the Pitch, and the quality of writing. The first round contestants were listed on March 18th and I wasn’t on the list. Obviously I still have work to do on my Pitch. I managed not to cry…just pout for two days. Now I have to pick up my preverbal marbles and face the next round of challenges. This applies to you, too.

When you have stories inside you, you have to write. Those stories may come out today or tomorrow or a week from now and, if you keep working at it one day they’ll be chosen for publication or they’ll win a contest. Don’t give up! But do limit your periods of depression over rejection to a couple of days. It’s okay to be sad and disappointed. It’s not okay to give up completely. If I can do it, so can you!

Build Your Website

One of the things I’ve been able to do during March is to start building a better website. I wasn’t happy with the website I’d built through Weebly.com, so I moved back to Homestead.com. Though Weebly was free, it lacked some of the elements I needed and it wasn’t as easy for me to manipulate. I had used Homestead before and really liked the control the website had and the customer service that Homestead gave. So I returned Home to start from scratch. This time, I chose a more user-friendly name, The Skeptical Reader. Plus I have an additional domain name just for my new series of books: Icy Thoughts Trilogy. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

If you haven’t started building your website yet, think about what is important to you in your own writing. What readers are you trying to attract? What tone do you want to set? Your website should reflect who you are and what you are offering to other people. It always goes back to who is reading our work. Is your primary focus on the serious reader who wants “meat” or on the young reader who just wants to enjoy feeling empowered? Make your website a reflection of your style. Dark and moody? Light and colorful? There are a lot of places offering free websites, but do they give you what you need? Try them out. Test the waters. Play with ideas to see if you like them. That’s really what all of us have to do.

Read Quality Fiction to Become a Quality Writer

I was thrilled to have been accepted as an intern at Gemini Magazine in January! Since then I have enjoyed reading the submissions and I’ve already learned a lot about what it takes to catch audience attention, keep them reading and have them feel satisfied at the end. I know I have much more to learn. I’d like to thank David Bright, editor/publisher, for this opportunity to learn and grow as an editor and a writer.

When David Bright sent me the first batch of stories to screen for Gemini Magazine, I asked him if there was anything special I should be looking for. As a teacher, I was used to working with rubrics to evaluate writing on standardized test. But David wasn’t looking for the standardly formatted fiction or essay. He wanted something special. He wanted those pieces that stood out from other stories. It might be unforgettable characters, interesting wording, or themes that touched me. He said to watch for stories that lingered in my mind a day or two after I read them. So I read the pieces with this ethereal guidance in mind and I’ve been touched by the stories of several excellent writers.

One of the things I’ve learned from these other writers is that it’s not enough to simply put your ideas into words in an orderly fashion. It’s the way we allow our passion for the subject to come across through choosing those words and weaving them tightly into a compact form that reveals relevant incidents from the past with the story plot while also using them to foreshadow future events. The story must move quickly and smoothly without the arrhythmic heartbeat that can lose the readers’ attention. This is the essence of great writing. This is the snap, crackle and pop of memorable fiction which I hope to emulate in my own work. I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor.

Write in the Rice Crispies Method

What is the Rice Crispies Method, you ask? Well, I’ve been thinking about that. I’ve found my own writing style is quite different when I sit with a pen in hand rather than composing at the computer. With the pen, the words flow unchecked by the review tools in Word documents. I think I get distracted by the green and red squiggly underlines that make me stop and check my spelling and punctuation as I’m composing at the computer. However when I just write, letting the words flow from my heart to the paper through the pen, without worrying about the mechanics of language, my writing has passion. The combinations of words and phrases are more compelling than when I compose at the computer. If you mind goes blank about how to spell something, put a question mark above it and keep writing. That is exactly the kind of snap, crackle and pop which we do in the stream-of-consciousness flow of free writing. So don’t put your pen and paper away in the bottom drawer of your desk. Keep them handy and write the old fashioned way once in a while. Then take those words so freely written and type them into your computer, compressing and correcting them as you go. You may just surprise yourself with hidden ideas and thoughts that are only revealed through free writing.

Writing Challenge #11: Snap Those Words, Crackle That Character, Pop in the Readers’ Mind

30-minute Free Write

Grab your pen and paper, find a quiet place to sit, and concentrate on one incident to write about. Take a few moments to think about the incident. It may be a specific scene in your story or one from real life. It may the past, present or future. It really doesn’t matter. Just concentrate on that moment. Think about what incidents occurred, what smells intruded? What sights and sounds? Was there laughter or tears and angry shouts? Put yourself into this moment and feel it completely.

Now start writing about what happened, who it happened to, why it happened. Names are not important at this point. They are only a marker for who said what. Spelling and punctuation aren’t important either. They’ll be corrected later on. Just write for at least 30 minutes without stopping. You may write for a longer period of time once you get started. That’s okay. Just let it flow.

Then stop and put the piece away for a day or two.

Type and Correct Your Story

After you’ve waited a couple of days, pull out your free writing exercise. During those last couple of days your subconscious has been working on the piece while you were doing your daily chores. My Creative Writing professor in college called her subconscious writer “Fred”. Your “Fred” or “Freda” will come to the surface as you type the piece into the computer, making corrections, adding or changing names, maybe even adding a little more information. Condense the work as you go. Are there too many adverbs? Remove them. Would you like to replace a word? Use your Thesaurus for alternatives.

Next, Join us at Contributors’ Corner and Submit Your Work

We’ll talk about the possibilities for working your piece into a larger one and discuss the publication possibilities. Plus members will be given an additional writing challenge.

Remember, we are in this field to get published so our whispers can be heard.

Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all your heart!

Do You Have a Thick Skin?

Issue #10: January 2014

New Year, New Goals to Tackle

Welcome back, fellow authors! Since it’s the New Year, let’s recap last year’s accomplishments and set our goals for 2014. Remember, we are accountable for our own productivity, or lack thereof, not to a boss or a publisher who sets deadlines, but to ourselves. As independent writers, we set the goals, the pacing and evaluate the outcomes. It may be the most difficult part of our “jobs”. Today I’m sharing my goals and evaluations with you, but I hope you’ll do this for yourself as well.

2013 Accomplishments  

·  20 Blogs Posted

·  6 Stories Submitted

·  First Novel: finished & published as eBook on Amazon Kindle & Paperback on Create Space – 4 eBooks sold, 311 distributed free and 27 in the UK as a marketing technique, 1 paperback sold

·  Character Facebook Page created

·  Novel Facebook Page created

·  Began learning marketing techniques

·  Built Author Platform (Author Facebook Page created, Author Website built)

2014 Goals

·  Post 29 New Blog Entries (6 blog entries for Must Read, 6 blog entries for SciFi Analysis, 4 blog entries for Prodigal Writer, 12 newsletters for Contributors’ Corner)

·  Write & Submit 12 NEW short stories, plus find new possible publishers for existing stories

·  Build a following for Author Facebook

·  Create a blog about novel research

·  Sell total of 75,000 novels by Nov.

·  Finish novel sequel by Oct & publish

·  Make regular entries on Character Facebook Page

·  Use marketing funnel to promote novels

·  Continue learning & using marketing techniques

NOTE:

A guest blogger on Funds for Writers (sorry I don’t remember her name), said she set a limit of 200 story submissions before she’d give up. I’m currently at 35 submissions, so I need to continue submitting regardless of outcomes!

I was surprised and dismayed by the number of submissions I made last year. It really should have been more. I’m also dismayed that all of them were rejected by the publishers. But remember, rejection is part of the process. I hope you’re receiving Hope Clark’s newsletter, Funds for Writers, because she included a quote from Thomas Edison in the December 13th issue:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I’ve found 35 ways that don’t work, which means I’m going to have to work harder to catch up to Edison or Hope guest blogger! This is an excellent reminder for ALL of us that success is about perseverance and perseverance is about taking the hits of “failure” in a different light. Edison obviously had tough enough skin to take those hits and realize he was learning from them. Like others, I’ve had to take a few hits, too, but they’ve given me a tougher skin.

One of those hits was going through a divorce in 1982. During that time I attended “Success Seekers” meeting with AMWAY and learned that other successful people have developed technics to take the hits of failure and keep going. We read a wonderful little book by Scott Alexander called Rhinoceros Success. It is as easy-to-read book as a child’s book, so I ended up reading it to my five-year-old, Chris. This inconspicuous little book is packed with humorous instructions about how to become a successful rhinoceros. It helped me toughen my skin and grow a thicker hide in order to survive the chaos of living through both the divorce and the extreme life changes which followed it. Scot Alexander suggests creating a postcard for your bathroom mirror and reading it every day as an affirmation:

“I am a rhinoceros! I have a damn-the-torpedoes spirit and I can’t wait to get up in the morning to start charging!”

Writers need tough skin, too. We must face the many torpedoes of rejection letters during “the process” of getting published. I hope you’ll join me this year in gaining 600 pounds, developing thicker skin and learning the joy of charging. And since you’re charging, make sure to join our writers’ group and charge after publication. GO, RHINOS!

Need Practice Taking the Torpedoes?
Good news, fellow authors: Contributors’ Corner is now easier than ever to join! Just go to Rhodes FitzWilliam and fill out the form on the home page. Remember, ONLY active writers can join this writers’ group or receive the newsletters. Once you’ve joined, you can submit your stories to us for review BEFORE you submit them to a publisher. We’ll help you tweak your stories and toughen you skin for facing the rejection letters. Just get used to it, because we all take those hits before we get published. Those are the writers’ dues and it can hurt unless you’re ready for it. We can help you over that hurdle. We are a group of writers with one purpose: to help one another improve their writing and get published.

What’s a Writer’s Platform?

Here’s a question for the new age of writing. The 21^st century writer must not only create a good story, she or he must know how to market themselves. To that end, the concept of a writer’s platform has played an integral part of the publication process. From the articles I’ve read, it doesn’t seem to matter if you self-publish or go the traditional route with an agent and publisher. It seems the first question on an agent or publisher’s lips is, “Have you established your writer’s platform?” To which the mouth falls open and the eyes round into saucers and we ask, “What am I paying you for?” whether we actually say it aloud or not.

Ah, the dilemma of the 21^st century, emblazoned as the Age of Technology, has changed life for writers! Marhsall McLuhan said,

As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do it yourself.’

Since McLuhan was the Canadian philosopher of the communication theory who predicted the worldwide web 30 years before its existence, he might be on to something here. Writers now have to be their own do-it-yourself PR agents. We must create our own writer’s platform and learn how to attract our specific audience. This isn’t easy for most writers, our creative nature seems to make us feel somehow violated by the need to prostitute ourselves for money. But that’s part of the game as well. We’re freelance whores, friends, and we need to stake our claim to a street-corner and market our wares, ergo, the writer’s platform.

Now I’ll make a prediction about technology, too, that seems to already be playing out: As technological advances create further physical distance between people via e-connections, computers and cells phone, people will need to make those intimate connections electonically. And, friends and authors, that’s why Kimberley Grabas writes:

Actually, the most important aspect to building an author platform is understanding that it’s about engagement; about connecting and interacting with people who are aligned with your message and affected by your story.

Your Writer Platform

You are going to want to add her website, Your Writer Platform, to your favorites and reference it frequently. I’m a firm believer in going directly to the horse’s mouth, aka, those people who know what they’re doing and can offer construction advice. Kimberley is an author who has already tread the path of building a platform and she’s willing to share what she’s learned.  One of the things she says she’s learned is:

“Don’t hoard creativity; sharing increases both its flow and value.” So true, so true! That’s way we join writers’ groups!

So basically the writer’s platform is you, your passion for what you write about and how you connect with whoever is likely reading your work. Yes, we have tools we use, like Facebook and Twitter, but it’s how we use them that will make the difference. Do we respond to readers’ comments and connect with them as people? We do if we want to attract readership. We are not part of the super-famous and infamous. We are the hidden face behind the words and a lot of people want to know who that is. It is the person we are, the beliefs we have and the ability to be real people who are accessible that will create readership.

Speaking of readers, you have to have something for them to read. So, let’s jump into the writing challenges for this quarter and remember, you must Join Our Writing Group to participate in having your work reviewed and reviewing works by other writers.

Writing Challenge #10:
Toughen That Skin by Submitting!
Write story in which you set your character in a moral dilemma. Maybe they’ve been raised to believe in pro-life and have to make a decision of whether to keep an unplanned child or not. Maybe there faced with the question of “pulling the plug” on a loved one. Or perhaps they’ve done something that goes against their beliefs (had an affair, killed someone, etc.). The process of making the decision or adjusting to their new-found situation is what we want to see in this story. How are you going to get your character from point A, “good” person, through point B’s moral dilemma, and the point C of resolution. Remember if you’re writing for a specific magazine or contest to get your word count through the conflicts, climax and resolution in mind as you write. You can use the tools below to you stay on track.

Plot Graph & Story Map in Excel

Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all your heart!