Where's the best place to advertise an ebook sale? My findings...

Hello, all! It's been a very long time since I posted a writing/publishing related Wednesday post, since I've almost entirely devoted my blog to readers, but I wanted to share this information and perhaps encourage you all to share your findings as well. What am I focusing on today? Marketing! Yay, that not so fun part of being an Indie Author. Spreading the word about your books. I've been loathe to spend money on promotion when I wasn't making much in profits yet, but my last royalty payment from Smashwords was enough to make me consider it. The question was, where could I best spend my money for the biggest return?

I've heard many people swear by Bookbub (https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing).  At some point, I'd like to advertise with them, but let's face it, at the time of this blog, advertising a 99 cent romantic suspense novel is $260! I wasn't sure I wanted to put all my eggs into one basket.

Last year I came across a blog describing a 7 day launch strategy, and I'd been wanting to try it. (http://rockingselfpublishing.com/episode-07-the-7-day-launch-strategy-with-darren-wearmouth/)

Some of the things they did I didn't find practical, but I picked the ads I could afford and schedule in time and away I went. I changed Love & Deception (Agents in Love - Book 1) to 99 cents on May 1st, and then set up a week's worth of ads. Here are the ads I chose and they days they ran:

1. HotZippy (http://hotzippy.net/feature-your-book.html) where I chose the Romance eBook Deals page. Ran 5/2 and 5/3 - $10

2. Ebook Booster (http://www.ebookbooster.com/). Ran 5/2 - 5/4.  - $30

3.  Kindle Nation Daily (http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?page_id=642). I really wanted to do the Kindle Daily Deal, but there wasn't an opening and I ended up doing the Kindle Fire book of the day. Did the Book Gorilla cross-over promotion they offered for free. 5/4 - $99

4.  Booksends (http://www.booksends.com/advertise.php) 5/5 - $50

5. Ereader News Today (you can contact these guys directly, but this was actually submitted through Ebook Booster - ENT takes a percentage of your sales from their affiliate link) 5/7 - 5/8 - $ Varies based on sales.

So, here I thought I had a pretty good spread of advertisements and I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Here's what happened.

By the evening of 5/2, Love & Deception had shot up the charts, hitting #90 on the romantic suspense best seller's list. Color me happy!! Sales continued strong the following day as well. The highest ranking I hit was 643 overall and 43 in Romantic Suspense. Here is a view of what happened the entire week and for the week following the sale.

 May 1 - 9 sales of Love & Deception
May 2 - 277
May 3 - 55

May 4 - 95
May 5 - 75
May 6 - 16
May 7 - 187
May 8 - 40

All in all, not too bad of an experiment, since I made my money back plus $75. I also sold an increased number of my other books all throughout the rest of May.

In looking over the numbers for the cost of things, I wish I hadn't paid for Kindle Nation Daily (though I have hopes a different ad might do better) or Booksends. They really didn't perform well for the money they cost. However, I was really happy with the Ebook Booster, and Ereader News Today is always a good bet if you can get on with them.

Following the success of this sale, I decided to put an older title, Crime & Passion, on sale for 5 days and bought ads through HotZippy, but did their other two options instead of the romance ebook deal. It was $30, and I unfortunately only sold 28 books through this sale. Not sure if it is because I had done a free giveaway on this book last year and so everyone had it already, or if it was because I didn't pick the romance option for the ad.

I will continue experimenting and trying to increase my visibility as I go along. Hopefully this information helps some of you other authors out there looking for real number sales on ads.

**These results are what happened to me with my books, but results will vary. This blog is for informational purposes only. I am not getting anything from any of the companies for sharing my experience, and your mileage may vary. All companies I dealt with were professional and got my ads out as promised. **

Do you have any experience with buying ads? Anyone you would recommend or warn people away from? Leave me a comment and let's help each other!

Guest post ~ The Mirror by Candace Bowser and #Giveaway

Book Title:  The Mirror

Author:  Candace L. Bowser

Release Date:  June 18, 2013

Genre:  Paranormal Romance/Horror

Length:  280 Pages

Publisher:  GMTA Publishing LLC

Presented by:  As You Wish Tours

TourSchedule

  

Practical Advice for Beginning Fiction (or other genre) Writers

Everyone has advice for the new aspiring author. Mine would be to follow 5 simple rules that help to keep you a path that is true to what you are writing.

1.Make your characters believable regardless of their traits. If they are someone that is to be loathed then make them absolutely loathing. You can make a reader fall in love with a serial killer not because there is this sickening sweet I volunteer at the soup kitchen on Sundays because they feel guilty quality but because they are scooping out their next potential victim.

2.If you read it and you think it sucks, it just might. Try highlighting that paragraph or few pages you just aren’t happy with in a different color and rewriting it immediately below. Take a look at both of them. Which one is better? Which one draws you the most? Are they elements in each that are equally good?  Could those elements be combined?

3.If and when creative writing takes a downturn, try writing something simple and expanding it to reinvigorate the mind. For instance, write a simple sentence like ‘the cat was pink’. Okay the cat was pink. There is a noun, a verb, and a descriptive adjective but the sentence does not tell you why the cat was pink or what happened to the cat to cause it to be pink. Re-write it with that in mind. Sometimes I find the more simply the exercise, the better the results.

4.Find a writing style that suits you and use it to appeal to your target audience. That is a bit harder than it may sound but do it and be true to the dream. My style is more classical oriented where descriptive, complex sentences fill the page as needed. Short sentences are just not the style which makes me comfortable writing but that is not to say they do not work for other authors. Finding your style and being true to it is key.

5.Write because you love it; not because it is a dream of becoming rich and famous overnight. If writing does not tug at the heartstrings and draw you to it with vigor, then it might just be a fleeting passion. That is okay, but if you live to write, keep doing it regardless of how many rejection letters litter you inbox or fill the trash, just keep writing.

BLURB

Adrianna Bristol stood before her grandmother's antique mirror and stared at the black velvet cloth covering it. She just couldn't believe her nana was gone. The mirror had hung in that exact same spot for the last twenty years, never once had it been moved from the alcove. Adrianna remembered the stern words of her grandmother when she was a child. Annabel Bristol had told her, "promise me Adrianna that you will never uncover the mirror. No matter what it may whisper to you, you must never remove the cover." Adrianna laid her hand against the cool velvet which covered the glass. As she walked away the mirror whispered to her, "you belong to me now. You belong to me." A four hundred year old curse has  plagued the Bristol family since the 1600's. A curse born out of a love so rich and a betrayal so deep, that time itself has no power to stop it. Only Adrianna has the courage to find the truth behind the curse and set her family free. But will the Mirror release its darkest secrets?

AUTHOR BIO

An avid writer, Candace works nearly every day on one of her manuscripts. Though she predominately composes works of horror, she also writes mystery, suspense, and adventure. During the 1990’s she was a featured columnist for PRS in Kansas City. In 2011, Candace was honored by being voted one of the Top 20 Most Prolific Authors by AKG mag.. Her books are an unusual blend of historical places and events, along with fictional and non-fictional characters, which she seamlessly weaves into the story .Originally from south-central Pennsylvania, she currently resides in Kansas City with her husband Todd.

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#Writing Tip ~ Dialogue Tags

In the spirit of last week's discussion, I realized there is more to think about when writing dialogue.

Dialogue Tags:  Popular wisdom says not to add any tag after dialogue besides "said" or "asked."  Now, I don't always follow popular wisdom, and I will put in a whispered or something on rare occasion, but like regional dialect we discussed last week, this should be kept to a minimum.  The reason for this is "said" and "asked" become invisible words.  The reader's mind skips right over them, and they don't make an impact.  However, creative modifiers like expostulated, articulated, or the ever-horrifying ejaculated will pull readers from the story (and some may have them rolling on the ground with mirth or running for a dictionary).  Be careful with your tags.


In fact, you can avoid too many dialogue tags by having your character perform some sort of action when you need to refer to who's speaking.  This avoids talking heads and shows the reader what is happening. However, sometimes just using the tag is nice. Mix it up.

Names in Dialogue:  I am guilty of this and always have to edit it out, but you should rarely use the name of the person your character is talking to in the dialogue.  Think about it... how often do you call someone their name during the course of a normal conversation? Maybe once when they first walk up to you? Somehow, I use names in my dialogue all the time, even though I know this isn't very realistic.  Sometimes I do it on purpose to identify the speaker without an action or dialogue tag, but use this sparingly as well, and the writing will come across as more realistic.

Commas before Names:  If you do use a name in the dialogue, you need a comma before it and after it if they continue talking. This is a rule I didn't know about and sometimes miss still. Same thing if you use an endearment to refer to the other person, such as honey or babe or slugger.  Example:  "What you doing, Frank?" "Nothing, babe, just taking out the garbage."

Happy writing and thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!

~ Chantel

#Writing Tip ~ Dialogue

I think we all know by now Monday is my least favorite day of the week. Back to work, no more playing around and writing as much as I possibly can on my current work in progress.  However, while writing this weekend, I realized one of my biggest problems in writing still exists. Being in editing mode for so long, I'd forgotten about it.

Crafting Realistic Dialogue.  Dialogue is the most important element in your novel. Every class, book, other author ever to offer advice on this has taught me readers prefer dialogue. If you have a scene that can be accomplished by having your characters talk through what is happening instead of writing narrative, that's the way to go.  However, the dialogue needs to seem like real people talking, not stilted or fake. This is actually harder to accomplish than it seems at first shake.  There are a few easy things that help out with this. 

Contractions:  This is where I have the biggest problem. I'm always stuck in that "report writing" mentality while working on dialogue where you never, ever, under any circumstances put a contraction in the paper.  However, unless you are writing a historical novel in a time people didn't use contractions, you need to work these in there.  Contractions read smoother to the reader's eye and keeps them in the moment. 

Consider:

"They will see my dirty house and I do not want them to," Sarah said.

Bob grimaced.  "Then do not let them in right now."

Stilted and formal, right?  It should really read something like  - "They'll see my dirty house.  I can't let that happen," Sarah said.  Bob grimaced.  "Then don't open the door."  (Okay, this is a really simplistic example and probably not something I'd ever have characters say, but it's just to show the point of how much smoother it reads with the contractions).

I miss this a lot in my writing, but thankfully my critique partners help me out.  Go through all the dialogue in your WIP and make sure you used contractions wherever needed.

Regional Dialect:  There is debate about whether or not to use regional dialect in your book to add flavor and show the personality of the characters.  I rarely do this.  I might throw in an ain't or an -ing word missing the g with an apostrophe instead (somethin' like this) but you need to understand a little of this goes a long way. The way I have seen other authors handle this is to introduce the character by having them speak the dialect the first thing they say to give the reader the picture, but then only throw in a few words sparsely throughout that are written with the apostrophes.  If you have a character with incomprehensible speech (no matter how good you think you pulled it off) the reader is going to get frustrated and put your book down if they have to work too hard to understand what is being said. 

Read it out loud:  Another good way to make sure it sounds "real" is to read your lines out loud.  Does it sound like a normal thing to say, or do you have a hard time reading it out loud?  (This is actually good to do with your entire novel)

Also, as I've discussed before, avoid the dreaded talking heads syndrome at all costs.

I hope some of this helps.  Happy writing and have a terrific, productive week! Thanks for stopping by. 

~ Chantel

The Wonderful World of Twitter

A long time ago I promised to do an update on any tools I found to make Twitter less time consuming.  I have found a few methods/tools that help me out a lot.

First off, I take care of my follows/unfollows in the morning.  I quickly follow all the people who followed me (except the ones who are just trying to get me to pay for more follows). It is okay not to follow people back, and I had a hard time understanding this at first.  Next, I unfollow people who haven't followed me back. I use a free program called JustUnfollow www.justunfollow.com. At the point you get over 2000 followers, apparently Twitter limits the follower to followee ratio so you need to get rid of people who aren't following back.

Next, I go onto Twitter and spend a few minutes (maybe ten) a few times a week reading articles and retweeting the tweets I find interesting.  I don't do this every day, because I can waste a ton of time here. I have to limit myself to the ten minutes or so of sharing/reading other people's tweets.

After this, I go to my mentions page.  It is easy to hit "reply" and send a quick message to anyone who mentioned me that day. However, I don't send a message to everyone who Tweeted me using Triberr triberr.com, only the people who have sent me some sort of personal message or given me a shout out. I also check any direct messages and reply to the ones that are actual conversations with me and not just spam to get me to visit their site/buy their product, etc.

Once a week, I use followfridayhelper.com/ a free program that tracks how many people mentioned me in an easy format where I can give multiple shout outs to thank them and alert my followers these are good folks.  This is where I thank everyone who tweets me through Triberr.

All in all, I've got it down to where I spend only ten to twenty minutes a day on Twitter.  Sometimes when I'm procrastinating about something else, I will go on an extra time and read/RT more tweets from people I've followed.

When I get ready to multiply my reach by joining some tweet teams (you can do this through www.worldliterarycafe.com or find tweet teams other places like Facebook) then there are programs to help schedule tweets. Tweet teams are where you join up with a group of other people and send out their tweet to your followers, and they in turn send out your tweet to their followers.  The scheduling programs I've heard of to do this include hootsuite.com and www.tweetdeck.com though there are others. I'm sure there is a learning curve with both of these programs, but what they do is allow you to plug several tweets into them in the morning and stagger when they post to Twitter throughout the day.

[I have to add this information right now! Thanks Ruby Barnes for bringing this to my attention.  If you are technologically challenged, like I am, Tweet 140 is so easy to use to schedule your tweets for a tweet team type of situation.  The web site is http://feed140.com/ The basic account is free.  All you have to do is sign up with them, then go to your settings on the top right-hand side. Select your time zone, what times of day you want tweets to go out between, and how many tweets you want posted per hour. Then, copy your tweets from your tweet teams into the queue list and hit tweet.  It automatically schedules your times based on how many per hour you selected! This is so much easier for me than hootsuite or tweetdeck! One thing, it doesn't shorten the URL's for you so if they are long ones that don't fit you have to shorten them, but that can be done for free at bitly.com I'm so excited by how easy this program is! It is the one I will be using for all my scheduling. Thanks again, Ruby!]

Using these free programs significantly cuts down the amount of time I spend on Twitter each day. Do you have any other tweet tips for me?


Here are a few web sites for more help with Twitter:
New to Twitter or Need Tweet Perspective? Don't Over-Think It - good general information
writersedgeinfo.blogspot.ca - information on what kinds of things to tweet
Coming Clean About My Twitter Success - tells how to get more Twitter followers (and where I learned about justunfollow.com)


Happy tweeting!

~ Chantel 

My Favorite Writing Course

Back when I first decided I wanted to be an author, I needed information on how to actually do that. The best help I found was from author Holly Lisle.  Check out her web site http://hollylisle.com/ for information about her writing, free articles to help aspiring authors, and access to buy her writing clinics and courses.

She made a comprehensive, 28-week boot-camp type school where a lesson was delivered on-line every week to learn all her tricks and secrets about writing a book. The course came to be much more than she originally planned, and she has since included information on how to self publish and all other aspects of writing.

Holly Lisle is making each lesson of the course I took available as individual lessons in ebook format, so you can pick and choose which you like best, or buy them in order and take it just as we original students did.  She doesn't have them all available yet, but is adding lessons as quickly as she can.  Check out her store http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/  Buying the lessons individually at the price of $4.99 a lesson, you will take the course for far less than I paid for it, and it was worth every penny!

Anyway, wanted to let you all know about this. I don't get anything from promoting her, but I was so pleased with the things I learned, I thought it was worth passing along.

Happy writing!

Mini Checklist for Self Published Book

So, I made it through my final edit that will include major rewrites. Yay! Party time! I'm nearly done! Er - maybe not.  While the book itself is going to require only one more read from me before I send it back to my editor to be proof read, yesterday I realized I still have a lot of work to do.

GOODREADS:  In a writer's group I belong to, someone asked if you should put your book up on www.goodreads.com prior to publication and the answer was yes. I didn't even know I could do this. I went and checked it out. You have to have fifty books on your Goodreads shelf and then you can apply to become a librarian. Once a librarian, you have the ability to add books; thus adding your own book pre-publication. I try always to listen to the advice of people who have done this before, so decided to add my book, and then realized I have some things to do before this step.

COVER ART:  When submitting to Goodreads (or when you publish the book) you will need cover art. This is the first shot you have at grabbing your readers attention, so it needs to be catchy. I know a lot of people who are doing this on their own and if you have the skill, you can save some money. I'm not so skilled, unfortunately. My cover art was done by LFD Designs for Authors at http://mycoverart.wordpress.com/services/ and I've been extremely happy with the outcome.

BLURB:  I wrote a blurb for Always & Forever once, but I didn't really perfect it and decided to worry about it later. Now, it's time to worry. I submitted it to my writer's group and they had great ideas on tightening the writing and cutting information that doesn't need to be included. What I mean by blurb is the short book description that can be found on the back cover of a paperback book or in the product description on-line. This is important to get right, because it's the first sample of your writing potential readers will look when making a decision on whether or not to read your book.

AUTHOR PICTURE AND BIOGRAPHY:  This is tough too. I'm still working on the bio, but I finally found a picture to use. The tough thing about pictures, I'm usually the person who runs the camera. Most shots of me are pictures I took by turning the camera backward and snapping the picture myself! :-) Not a good picture for something professional. I finally found a few decent photos and picked one. Perhaps in the future I will have one professionally done, but for now I think this is fine.

My bio is trickier, I'm not sure what to include. Other authors have suggested people like to know a little personal information about the author, so I'm trying to include some of that. Do people really care that I live happily with my family and our pet cats?  I'm not sure, but I'll probably include that information anyway. I plan to go on Amazon and read other author bios to get a better idea of what to do here.

There is more work ahead once I get my book back from the publisher, but hopefully having all these things done in advance will save me time as I get closer to publication.

Happy writing, my friends. I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Finessing Your Muse - Wednesday Writing Tip

Okay, after my mini breakdown last week, I'm feeling back in form this week.  Thanks so much for everyone's support and ideas on how to get my motivation back!

This week, I thought we'd talk a little bit about where ideas come from.  For new writers, the prospect of learning to talk to your right brain (your Muse) is a little scary. In the beginning, I resisted the idea that there are two separate people in my brain, and I didn't want to give my Muse her own identity.  That was the hardest part for me.  Once I got past that, it was just a matter of listening. It's really a training program of sorts, learning to do that.  Once you get used to listening to the cool stuff your Muse pitches, you'll see story ideas everywhere.  Eventually, your Muse will never shut up! But that's a good thing...most of the time. :-)

The first method I practiced when trying to open up my Muse was actually something I first learned in third grade.  We called it brainstorming there, or making a spider graph. One writing class I took called it making a sweet spot map. Another class called it mind mapping. Yet another mentioned something about bubbles.  Whatever you want to call it, making a spider graph is an excellent way to prompt your Muse to start talking.

I never could figure out what the classes were telling me to do exactly, so I did what worked best for me.  I told my Muse I wanted to write a novel length story and I wanted it to be a mystery.  Then, I wrote the first word that came into my mind in the center of a piece of paper.

FEAR

I put a box around this word and waited.  The waiting is very important.  Don't think of anything, just look at the word.  My Muse is like a bored child being forced to sit idle in the corner when I use this method. Since I'm refusing to think of anything consciously, she will start trying to get my attention.

"What about aliens?" she asked.

"No," I replied.  "We want a mystery, remember?"

She became a little huffy, but I could tell she was still thinking. I simply stared at FEAR, waiting.

"Fine!" she screamed.  "I see a girl."

Well...this was better than nothing.  After all, every novel needs a main character.  "What's her name?" I asked.

"Rachel."

I quickly drew a line off FEAR and put Rachel, drawing a circle around that word.

Next we got boxes for Rachel's past and the stepfather who murdered Rachel's mother.  Every time my Muse pitched something I didn't like, I simply told her no and waited.  She worked faster than I thought possible. We discovered our mystery together, making circles as we went.  Rachel's stepfather is about to be released from prison, and Rachel wishes he would just fall off the face of the planet.  When he turns up dead the morning after his release and Rachel wakes up covered in blood with no memory of the night before, things heat up.  Men start entering Rachel's life who may or may not be there to help her.  People from her past start to appear, and Rachel learns she has multiple personalities as the story progresses.  Are one of her personalities committing horrible crimes?

You can use Mindmeister https://www.mindmeister.com/ to make this on the computer, but I actually work on real paper.  I used lined paper in my writing notebook (which is literally just a notebook...no fancy journals for me) but I've heard some people say they prefer blank paper without lines. Either way, this is a great way to learn to communicate with your Muse.

Boredom is always the key factor for me. This might sound crazy, but folding laundry works even better for me than staring at a blank page. Laundry bores my muse to tears.  She can't wait to give me ideas if I'm just standing there with clean clothes in my hands. If there is a certain thing I want, I ask for it first before I start the "bore my Muse to death" campaign.  If there is a certain word I already know I want to build around, or maybe a certain problem in my book that I need my Muse to work on, I will write that down to start us off. She has all the good stuff, just sometimes she keeps it to herself.

In Always & Forever I had a character who I didn't really know his purpose.  I told my Muse, either find me a purpose for him, or I am going to kill him, then I went and mopped the kitchen floor (works as good as laundry, but I hate this chore so wouldn't recommend it).  Boy, did she ever come up with the best idea! It made the entire plot of my book that much better when I forced my Muse to figure out why that character was in the book.

Your Muse knows all the answers to your story issues, too.  Sometimes, you just need to ask the right questions.

Unfortunately, Rachel's story is one of those I gave up on after a while.  I over planned it.  I'm very much a seat of my pants writer, and knowing the entire story beforehand takes out the fun for me. However, I think of Rachel from time to time, and maybe one day I will find a new twist to her story and give it another try.

Oh, a parting suggestion.  Never, ever tell your muse what she says is stupid. If you don't like an idea, just say no with a gentle reminder of what you are looking for.  If you say "What the heck did you say that for? How stupid!" s/he will run to the furthest corner of your mind, stick his fingers in his ears, and make a raspberry sound at you for days!

For more suggestions on mind mapping, check out these sites:
http://litemind.com/what-is-mind-mapping/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Happy writing, everyone!  May your Muse be totally cooperative!!

Writing Tip Wednesday ~ Motivation ~ 5/2

I decided to move on to something today that has been a very real issue for me lately, and I more need your help this week to help me find my motivation than I am going to help anyone else with a tip.  Sorry about that.

How do we stay motivated as we write?  What keeps us going?  Most of us are not doing this for a living, although we'd like to.  We have busy lives and sometimes writing takes a backseat to other priorities.  Your kids have a band concert, football practice, or dance recital.  Maybe you had a fight with your spouse.  Perhaps you have health problems.  On top of all this, you still have to cook dinners, clean the house, go to your day job.

Where does writing fit in?

Like many people, my life has exploded lately.  On top of my family duties and personal issues, I added in the networking with Twitter, Facebook, managing this blog, and Triberr.  You can read about that here if you missed it last Friday.  With all this added responsibility, I haven't done actual novel writing.  I've tried to stay caught up with my critiques at Critique Circle, I've thanked all my "Tweeps" at Twitter, I've followed new Facebook groups and "liked" everyone who likes me ... I've been overwhelmed!  The hour I used to set aside for writing in the morning before anyone else woke up has evaporated into time spent networking.  I'm working on ways to manage these things better, and will post on that later.

Does this happen to everyone else too?  I've been struggling for a way to kick start myself into gear.  I need motivation to write the new novel.  Always & Forever is with the editor, and there isn't much I can do there.  In a way, I feel a little let down at saying goodbye to Zach and Lilly, knowing soon I will finish with them and they will be out in the world, hopefully selling *crosses fingers*.  But just like children leaving to college, I won't have the same relationship with them I once had when they leave the house.  During editing, I was so sick of them I thought I couldn't wait to see them leave (must be the teenage years!).  Now, I have to admit to having no small amount of fear.  What if I fail with the next book?  Can I write something that good twice?  The fear is almost as paralyzing as the overwhelming commitments I've gotten myself into.

However, I want to be a writer.  I really do.  Eventually, I want this to be what I do for a living, so I can't let these little speed bumps sidetrack me from my goals!

The first thing I've done to try and get myself back on track is to read more books again.  I love helping my critique partners and looking for ways to improve their stories, but somehow that is not the same as reading for the pure pleasure and joy of reading.  I find that when I read for fun, it sparks my imagination and my Muse once again speaks to me.  The last few mornings I have awoken with the urge to write.  I've had other things that needed taken care of first.  Hopefully by the weekend my obligations will be fulfilled and I can begin writing. In the meantime, I'm going to continue reading every night, revving my Muse up so she will be ready to go when we write again.

Another thing that really helps me is having people who I know are enjoying the novel and are waiting for the next chapter.  Part of my problem right now, no one is reading the new book (loosely named Crime & Passion) and so there is no urgency for me to get a chapter finished.  No one is going to be disappointed if I don't write.  I have no one to impress.  I'm very much a people pleaser.  The thought of someone being disappointed because I don't do what I'm supposed to really motivates me.  If you are not involved in a critique group and find your motivation flagging, I suggest you join one.  Critique Circle is free and a great place to meet up with other authors who are all looking to help one another.  So, my job next week is to start inviting people to read my new book and putting up the chapters I have done.

Another program I really enjoyed in the past at CC was the ability to log a goal for how many words I plan to write in a given month.  It shows up on my profile page, and other people can see if I'm making my goals or not, as I log each day how many words I managed to type.  This really pushed me last time I used it.  It is a potentially very public place to fail if I don't meet my goals.  That motivates me.

If all else fails, I'll get some chocolate, a hot bathtub full of water, and some scented candles along with the current book I'm reading.  A little "me" time is sometimes just what we all need!

So, what do you all do to stay motivated?  Any tips for me to try?  I have to start writing soon!

Have a great week!!

Wednesday Writing Tip 4/25 ~ Breathing Life Into Characters

Continuing along with last week's tip dealing with character, I decided to go in that same category this week.  How do you keep from having cardboard, one-dimensional, boring characters?  What brings a character to life and causes readers to fall in love with them beyond what the characters think and feel?

As a writer, it is our job to fully flesh out our characters, to make them real people.  This isn't an easy task.  I've spent some time reading reviews of books on goodreads and I'm not surprised that one- and two-star reviews often say something negative about character creation and how "fake" the characters seem.

Honestly, in the course of my writing journey I have met many different types of writers.  One of my friends doesn't plan anything at all - he just sits at the computer and waits for the words to come to him.  Another friend plots out everything meticulously on note cards and knows from start to finish exactly what will happen every second of her book.  In fact, she worlds builds and includes much more stuff than she will ever use.

Me? I'm mostly fly by the seat of my pants and let my characters tell me what they want to do.  They usually speak to me at night before I fall asleep, and if the idea is a good one it sticks and I write it the next day.  This is how I work with one exception.  I know my characters inside and out, backward and forward before I ever type a word.

And what things do I need to know about my characters?  It's a simple list really.

I ask them what they value most.  Basically, what things would they give up anything for.  What kind of things do they look for in other people.  Honesty, family, love, money, power, their children.  Whatever they would sacrifice almost anything to have.  Then, I have to know what they wouldn't sacrifice.  What is so important to them that they wouldn't even give it up for their most valued things?  This will be their one value that can't change throughout the book, which can sometimes make things tricky in writing, but will help you stay true to your character without any convenient changes of heart.

I then move on to asking them their beliefs.  This is anything they believe beyond a shadow of a doubt.  These beliefs do not have to make sense, they don't even have to be true.  As long as the character believes it to be true, I write it down.  Lilly's beliefs were:  I can only trust myself.  No one will love me if they know my secrets.  I will be a horrible mother.  Zach's beliefs were:  I will never find my soul mate.  My family is most important. There is nothing worse than a liar.

Next comes secrets.  This is where the magic happens for me.  Whatever my characters are hiding from the rest of the world, whatever happened to them to make them bury the secret and never share with others, that is where all of my best ideas for my novel come from.  I can't share my characters' secrets with you, as I hope one day you will consider reading Always and Forever, but let's just say this category is for the really important stuff.  Did your character kill someone?  Did they cheat on an old girlfriend?  Have they been cheated on?  Do they long for a family even though they say they don't want one? Whatever their deep dark secret is, hold it close to you and spend your book exploiting that knowledge!

Now, your character needs a skill. This can be anything, but it has to be something that helps your reader connect with the character.  Lilly loves to cook.  Zach loves to dance.

From all of this information, you will be able to figure out your character's strength and flaw, and after all, every character needs a fatal flaw to overcome.  Lilly's strength is self-reliance.  Her flaw is that she can't trust others.  Zach's strength is bravery.  His flaw is arrogance.

Lastly, I want to know what they look like - body build, age, hair color, eye color.  This includes any special characteristics.  Lilly has an injured leg, walks with a limp, and uses a cane, which is a very important part of the story.  Zach has a habit of running his hand through his hair and messing it up.  I never really thought about the special characteristic.  Lilly's was a plot element, Zach's just kind of happened.  However, I've heard the advice from many places that a special characteristic will help readers feel like they are reading about real people.  That might even be true :-)  I haven't planned anything for my new characters yet in this regard, but something might pop up as I'm writing.

There are, of course, as many different ways to go about building a character as there are characters and writers.  The method I use is a mixture of methods suggested in two different classes I attended and blogs I've read.  I've merged them into a format that works for me.

Here is a quick recap of what I learn about my characters before writing:
1.  Values.
- Include what they absolutely will not give up; i.e., they would die for this thing.
2.  Beliefs.
3.  Secrets.
4.  Skill.
5.  Strength and fatal flaw.
6.  Physical description.
- Include any special characteristic.

I know my way will not work for everyone.  For more methods, check out the following blogs:
Anthologies Online
Holly Lisle How to Create a Character
Create a Fictional Character From Scratch

Good luck, and happy writing!!

Wednesday Writing Tip ~ Character ~ 4/18

Connecting with the Reader

Ah, characters.  The people who make your book go 'round.  Let's face it, without engaging characters that your readers fall in love with, your book is going nowhere, doing nothing.  I can't tell you the number of books I've started and quickly set aside, never to finish.  In the past, I never understood why I didn't like these books, what element was missing.

When I started posting my novel on Critique Circle, I received a critique that greatly perplexed me.  The critic told me my characters had too many internal thoughts, and I shouldn't spend so much time living in the heads of the characters.  We ended up starting a discussion about this with others, and it seemed to be split on what people believed was the correct way to go about writing.  Most men, it seems, don't like to write a lot of internal thoughts and feelings.  Women spend more time in the heads and hearts of their characters.  And, of course, this is a total generalization--it was a woman who told me I had too much! :-)

I didn't change the way I wrote after this discussion, however, but continued with the internal thoughts of the people in my little world.  After all, my argument was this:  how can I possibly care about someone I know nothing about?

I recently took a class on mystery writing and this subject popped up again.  Boy was I happy to learn that the expert teaching the class agreed with me.  Steve Alcorn says plot is events that happen in your novel to move the action forward.  But the real heart of the matter, the thing the reader cares about, is the story.  And that, my friends, is what is going on within your characters.  The emotional part of your novel.  What your MC thinks and feels, his hopes and fears.  The effects situations have on him personally.

I finally understood why some books I just couldn't care about.  It is this missing element of internal thoughts.  Of actually knowing the character, being invested in what is going to happen to her.  Caring about the things she cares about.

Take the following snippet from Always and Forever.  If I were taking out Lilly's internal thoughts, I would basically remove everything that is underlined.  Try reading it both ways, and see what you think.  This scene includes Lilly, Zach, and Zach's grandmother, Leticia:

Lilly exited the elevator at the top floor and knocked on Mrs. Woodbridge’s door. She opened it and backed into the room, dragging the food cart with her.

“Lilly, you should have had one of the orderlies bring that up.” Zach’s voice filled the room all at once and sent a shiver down her spine.

She had always been a sucker for a deep, seductive voice. Unfortunately, experience with Charles taught her a sexy voice and the face of an angel could hide the heart of a sadist. She didn’t get the sadist vibe from Zach, but how well could she really know a person she only saw once a week? Charles fooled her for almost a year. 

Lilly turned the cart in the small space and pushed the door closed. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Woodbridge. It’s my job, after all. I’ll have dinner set out for the two of you in a moment.”

“You’ve known us three months now.” Leticia wagged a finger in Lilly’s direction. “I’ve told you there’s no need to be so formal. This is Zach, and you must start calling me Leticia.”

“Of course, Leticia.”

At night, during her most secret fantasies, Lilly always called him Zach.

***

As a reader, I want to understand characters--know their thoughts and hopes and dreams. 

One caution, however.  Make sure the characters don't experience the same thought over and over, or that they don't go on to tell another character about the thoughts they just had.  I did have a teensy little problem with this in a few chapters.  In one chapter, Lilly thought about her skills at cooking, looked at/smelled her cake, then Zach arrived and they talked about her cake, and then she explained how she loved cooking while thinking about the cake.  Overkill!  WE ALREADY KNOW LILLY LIKES COOKING!!! my crit partners screamed, and rightly so. 

Here are some more blogs dealing with this topic:

My struggles with interior monologue

Paranormal Point of View

How to Make Your Book Play Out Like a Movie - see #4

Game Changer: Create An Inner Dialogue Within Your Hero and Your Villain
Mystery Writing is Murder

Breathe life into your characters with internal dialogue, and your readers will think about them long after they put your book down!

Enjoy your Wednesday, everyone! Have a terrific week, and happy writing! 

Wednesday Writing Tip ~ 4/11

Editing - Cutting Unnecessary Words

Continuing on from last week's tip, another trick that really helped me tighten my writing was to find filler/filter words that I overused.  Filler words are ones that don't really belong in your novel in most cases.  For some reason, they trip naturally off your fingers as you type, and seem like they belong.  Here is a pretty comprehensive list someone once gave me:

 just, then, that, feel, feeling, felt, there, knew, know, maybe, see, saw, hear, heard, could, couldn't, ly adverbs, up, down, was, were, wonder, think, thought, realize, watch, look, can, decide, sound, so.

Again, as with was, sometimes you do actually need a word on this list and it is appropriate to use it, just remember, a little goes a long way.  See if sentences can be rearranged to take the filler word out or use a stronger word to express the same idea.  Let us live through the action with your characters, instead of using these words and distancing us from them.

Example:  Kelly felt the cool breeze against her skin.  She knew tomorrow would be a hard day when the trial started.  She wondered what Eric was doing right now.  Was he watching the same stars, thinking of her?

The bold words need to go (if possible) right?  We want to feel Kelly's anxiety, be inside her head.

A cool breeze caressed Kelly's skin, raising goosebumps.  She shuddered.  The trial started tomorrow.  It would be terrifying to face all those people.  Perhaps she caught Eric's fear while visiting him this afternoon.  Kelly shook off her melancholy and gazed into the night sky.  Maybe Eric sat in his jail cell right now, peering through the bars on the window at these same stars.  Did he even consider her? Did he worry what the trial would do to her? 

I know, I always add so many more words when I show how to get rid of the ones that don't belong.  The deal is, when I visualize the scene, sometimes it requires more words to explain so the reader can live in the moment with me.  I hope you agree that it is easier to become invested in Kelly's plight with the second example.

Notice I did use the word maybe even thought it's on the "Do Not Use" list.  As with everything, not all advice is absolute. Personally, I like the word maybe.  I like the feel of it.  I'm always aware when I choose to use it that I'm not 'supposed to,' but I do choose to use it.  Artistic license, writer's voice, all that good stuff.  Don't compromise yourself or your writing voice, just to follow someone else's rule.  This little tidbit took me a long time to figure out, so keep it front in your mind.  Ultimately, you are the creator.  If you really want to break one of the rules, break it, just know that you are.

My biggest word problem, not on the list, was the word "had."  On my first-ever critique, a critter told me to do a search for had and take them all out.  Apparently, she thought I overused it.  She must have not understood my vision, my wonderful writing abilities and my... Oh, no!!

Boy was my face red!  Had appeared in one single paragraph five times! And it only needed to be there once!  I'm also quite partial to "so" and "that" and always have to go through to ax those suckers.

Tighten words wherever you can.  Be brutal!  At first when I started revising Always and Forever, chapters 12 and 13 were horrible, even though I redid them several times.  That's when I realized a lot of stuff needed to be cut out.  I axed over 1000 words, turning two chapters into one, and it was horribly difficult to do.  But really, cutting is much easier since then and I've improved in my ability to see when something doesn't work.  I will now cut entire paragraphs without batting an eyelash if they aren't really helping the story.

Ruthlessly cut any word that isn't adding to your work.  I won't lie, it hurts at first to throw away your words, but will help you in the long run (besides, if it is a lot of words at a time, you don't have to really throw them away--save them to a different document and maybe you can use them later).

Here is another blog that shows an example on cutting these filler/filter words writeitsideways.

Happy writing, everyone!  Have a fantastic week!

Writing Tip Wednesdays ~ 4/4

Editing

The hardest part of writing, for me at least, is editing.  Until having critique partners at Critique Circle look at my work and tell me all the things I did wrong, I didn't know about the rules of writing.  That said, don't worry about this stuff too much while you are actually writing.  Creating is much different from editing.  Thinking about the rules make it hard for me to put two words down, let alone create an entire scene.

The most helpful editing tip a critique buddy told me was to try not to use the word "was".  Every class I took said - show, don't tell - but I didn't really understand what that meant.  However, if you are using was, were, is, or are in your writing, you are probably telling.  Another way this is stated is passive writing.  The action isn't happening, but instead the narrator tells the reader what happened.

Consider this group of sentences:  The pedestrian was hit by the car.  The car tires were screeching when the vehicle came to a halt.  A spectator was running around screaming.  911 was called and the ambulance soon arrived. 

Horrible to read, right?

For more action and less passive wording, consider what happens when I take "was" out of that group:  A car slammed into the pedestrian.  The vehicle's tires screeched in protest as the acrid scent of burnt rubber issued from beneath the car.  A spectator ran around, uselessly screaming.  Within minutes of the 911 call, an ambulance zoomed onto the scene.

One of the easiest ways to get rid of was is to look for any was -ing word constructions:  was running, was singing, was eating.  Change these to the past tense form (which will automatically give your writing more action): ran, sang, ate.

The trickier ones to find have a word between was and the -ing word:  was seldom trying, was always teasing, was still shouting.  These should be changed: seldom tried, always teased, still shouted.

You can't always get rid of was, but taking out as many as possible, restructuring sentences with "was" in a more action-oriented way, will definitely give you an edge on the whole "show, don't tell" philosophy.

A great resource I use all the time for more editing tips A-Z can be found here.

Happy writing! Have a wonderful week!

Wednesday Writing Tip ~ 3/28

 Motivation and Reaction

One of the most important things I learned through all the various writing courses I took was the correlation between motivation and reaction.  This is a concept easy to confuse, and it is easy to lose readers if things aren't in the correct order.

This was very confusing to me when I first started learning about it, and is harder to master than it might sound.  Basically, an action happens first to motivate a response in your character.  Then, the character responds.  The characters response also must come in a certain order:  involuntary body reaction, thought, and finally speech.  The character doesn't have to have every step in their reaction (they can go straight from pounding heart to "What is that?" or even skip the first two and only speak).  However, the reactions cannot come out of sequence ("What was that?" I think someone's after me, she thought, as her heart pounded).

It is hard to remember the motivation must always come first as well.  As a writer, you will lose your reader if you have a paragraph combination like the following:

"I wonder what that could be?", she asked, heart pounding.  A crash sounded through the brush. 

Now, of course, if you are writing a clairvoyant, maybe she did hear it before it sounded.  Barring this, the crash needs to occur first:

A crash sounded through the brush right behind her. 
Jenny whirled around, heart in her throat.  She thought she was alone out here.  "Hello?" she called, trying to control her trembling. 

Then, you are ready for another motivation.  Basically, at the end of every reaction, another motivation happens.  This is what keeps your story moving forward.

The crashing came closer.  Suddenly, a figure burst into Jenny's camp site. (motivation)

Jenny scooped up the machete next to her. (reaction)  "Who are you?" (Speech.  Notice we skipped thoughts, but everything is in order, so this is okay).

The person spread his hands wide, firelight flickering in his eyes.  "It's me, Jen.  Don't hurt me." (New motivation for Jenny.  Since it is her POV, every motivation is focused toward Jenny).

The weapon slipped from her hand and Jenny ran across the encampment.  (reaction) "I thought they killed you." (Speech)  

Tom shook his head.  "I escaped, but I've been hiding for days.  We can't stay here long." 

She wrapped her arms around Tom's dirty body, unable to stop the tears streaming across her face. (reaction)  Thank heavens.  He was safe and she once again had an ally. (thoughts)

Now comes the next motivation, and the next response, and another motivation, and another response.  Books are crafted from these little scenes.  Everything that happens in the novel is either motivation or response.  Now, the motivation or the response to it can each last longer than one paragraph, but after the motivation is done occurring, immediately comes the response.  After the response is completed, follow it up with another motivation.  When you run out of motivations/responses for that scene, your scene is finished.

This is just a little sketch I came up with to explain the motivation-reaction cycle, but the mind of a writer never stops, does it?  Already these characters want to force their way into my head, and I'm having to beat them back.  I have a lot of questions now.  Who's chasing them?  Why are they running?  Are they the good guys, or the bad guys?  Oh well.  There are already too many voices in my head for comfort--I'll have to let these two go.

A good example of what not to do:  I had a scene in Always and Forever where Lilly is injured, and Zach tried to fix her breakfast.  The line read something like - Lilly put one of the syrup-drenched pieces of waffle into her mouth that Zach cut into small bites.

A very astute critic of my book said - "Ha, see, now what have you been telling me? Zach would have cut it first before Lilly put it in her mouth. Maybe switch the lines around."

He was absolutely right (this is definitely not the only time I did this, just the most recent example :-) )  I quickly changed the order of the actions, so Zach cut the waffle before Lilly ate it.  So easy to mess this up.  It always helps to have a few beta readers for extra eyes to make sure you haven't made this mistake and put things out of order.


If your writing is out of sequence, even if the reader doesn't understand what is wrong, it will feel fake.  Readers will not feel like your characters are real people they are sharing an adventure with.  They may not be able to explain why, but they won't connect with the story or find it believable.


Randy Ingermanson has a terrific article on this subject that also deals with the bigger aspect of an entire scene sequence (the motivation-reaction information, or MRU's as he calls them, are explained at the end of the article).  This really helped me fully understand this concept.  You can read it here.

I hope this post helps explain how to correctly write small-scale scenes.  Master the motivation-response reactions, and you will craft compelling scenes readers will love.

Happy writing, everyone.  Have a terrific week!

Writing Tip Wednesdays

Well, I decided not to do a website this week, but to pass on some of the wisdom I've learned.  My critique buddies have taught me wonderful information about writing that I didn't know before joining their group.  However, there was something I brought to the table and I think it is very important.  It's something newbies and seasoned writers alike struggle with. 

I'm referring to Talking Heads ... dum, dum, dum...

Really, this is a horrible problem, and one of my biggest nitpicks.  Take the following scene between my two MCs in Always and Forever.  I also threw some of Grandma Letitia into the mix, just to add extra confusion.  I've redone this scene as talking heads (not actually how it ended up):

“As you probably know, Zach has come here to concentrate on writing a mystery novel.”

"Yes, we already talked about that," Lilly said. "Did you need some help researching? I’d be more than happy to help if you’ll let me read your book as you go along."

"The book is not what I need your help with."

"Oh."

"I could probably be persuaded to allow you to see it, however."

"I’ll hold you to that."

"I knew you two would hit it off. That’s what makes you so perfect for what we need, Lilly."

"And that would be?" Lilly asked.

***

I critique many novels with conversations similar to this one. I'm constantly begging, pleading for the author to add in some movements, thoughts from the point of view character, or at the very least some more he said/she said so I have a clue who is speaking.

At every third line of dialogue (at least), there needs to be some sort of action going on.  Readers like to use their imaginations, true, but they also like to see the scene you have created, and the above example, frankly, bores me to tears.  While dialogue is considered by many the most interesting piece of writing in a book, make sure it is, in fact, interesting. 

Here's how that scene actually reads:

“As you probably know,” Leticia continued, oblivious to Lilly’s anxiety, “Zach has come here to concentrate on writing a mystery novel.”

Lilly smiled despite her nerves, excitement overcoming her. There were few things she’d rather do than lose herself in a novel. “Yes, we already talked about that.” She flicked her gaze to Zach. “Did you need some help researching? I’d be more than happy to help if you’ll let me read your book as you go along.”

Zach looked amused, though he didn’t display his devastating smile that had shaken her so much. “The book is not what I need your help with.”

“Oh.” Lilly stifled her disappointment. During her darkest times, she could escape into a book, travel to a different world, and forget her troubles for a while.

Zach leaned forward to set his cup on the coffee table and grinned at her. “I could probably be persuaded to allow you to see it, however.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” It might also provide more opportunity to spend time with him.

Leticia smiled benignly at both of them. “I knew you two would hit it off. That’s what makes you so perfect for what we need, Lilly.”

Lilly’s anxiety flooded back. “And that would be?”

***

I hope you can see the difference the bolded section makes toward bringing the scene to life. 

For more information on how to avoid this phenomenon, do an internet search for talking heads.  Talking heads kill your story.  Be ruthless!  Go through your manuscript and show what happens.  Remember, if three lines of dialogue have gone past and no one has snorted, smiled, scratched, or spit, you need to add something, because you're probably losing your readers. 

Happy writing, everyone! Have a great week!

Writing Tip Wednesdays

In the spirit of deciding what I'm doing with this blog, I've decided Wednesdays will be for my writer friends and want-to-be-writer friends.  I'll share a site I've found that help toward this goal on Wednesdays.

The hardest thing about writing is knowing where to start.  As I explained before, when I started with my first book (the one that fizzled at 150 pages) I had no clue what I was doing.  I tried to remember anything I might have learned back in school.  I knew there were problems with my book, characters, plot--I just didn't know exactly what they were.

I decided I needed help.  Lucky for me, I found Holly Lisle. Ms. Lisle is a wonderful author (and for those readers who are here, if you like fantasy, try her books--my favorite is Talyn).  She has tons of articles on writing.  If you are just starting out and learning, you will be sucked into her web site for weeks, unable to do anything else--at least I was.  To get started, check out her how-to articles here.  I eventually ended up purchasing a couple of her clinics and moved on to take her How To Think Sideways writing boot camp.  Very informative.  However, the article section of her site has a lot of free information.

If you are looking for writing inspiration, or need help because you have an idea for a book, I'd recommend you make this your first stop.  She has free articles on how to plot, how to create characters, how to decide if the book you are writing should be continued or burned.  She even offers help on learning to listen to your Muse.  I love this web site!

Happy writing, everyone.  Have a terrific week!