Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Ideas that work: IdeaFisher

IdeaFisher is a perennially successful program, for a good reason. It works.

  

I've got two copies of the book (don’t ask), so I'm selling one on eBay. Item 4507685998 if the link doesn’t work.

 

New category: Marketing your writing, five tips

I've just noticed that we don't yet have a marketing category. So, now we do. :-)

 

In honour of the new category, here are five good market-your-writing tips:

 

* Market every day. DO SOMETHING. You could: send out a pitch to an agent or editor, write a blog post, update your Web site, or call to follow up on a pitch. Yes, call. If you're writing for money you're in business, and you use all the polite and professional business tools available. Take our Pro Write pitching workshop, if you’re not sure how pitching works;

  

* Write a marketing plan. I write mine on an index card, which I keep in a card box. When I want to update the plan, I write a new card and rip up the old one;

 

* Recycle projects. I regularly go through my archives and look for material that I can recycle or re-purpose;

 

* Keep a writing log. I keep mine in The Journal. At the end of the day, look through your log to make sure you've done your marketing task for the day;

  

* Get out of your comfort zone. What makes you uncomfortable? I hate cold calling, so every month or two I force myself to do it, just because it is uncomfortable. Or, send a proposal to a market you've never considered.

 

Giggle of the Day: Home-baked books

Great post on home-baked book marketing:

 

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Many homemade web sites -- we're all guilty of them, so don't anyone turn up your nose -- are tragic. They should fall into the dirt somewhere, but they don't. And their authors are determined to save that hundred bucks by working out of that Websites for Dummies book. You militant do-it-yourselfers, don't yell at me and say you can't afford a professional web designer. Not when you spend a thousand bucks to go to a conference so you can, yes, sit at a card table and sign five copies of your novel.

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I admit I don’t understand that particular marketing ploy: why would you go to a writing trade conference and try to sell your books to other writers?

 

If you're going to a conference, go to connect with editors, or to give a workshop. If you've got a publisher, let the publisher push your books at publishers' trade conferences.

 

Does this mean you shouldn't market your books? Of course not. But market where it will do some good, not at a writers' trade conference.

 

Re-Vision: washing and recycling

What's lurking in your archives --- in your filing cabinets, or in folders on your computer?

 

Make it a habit to browse through your archival material at least once a year, because you'll often unearth potential treasures. This will be material which needs major Re-Vision, a total rethink.

  

Sometimes you can save a lot of the older material for further drafts, but occasionally all you can save is the original impulse that led you to create the material in the first place. This impulse or inspiration, is valuable.

 

Save all your old material, both published and unpublished. As you become a stronger writer, you can go back to older material and revise it effectively because you've developed new skills.

 

Collage Re-Vision

Collage revision means using physical cut and paste. That is, you print out your draft, then cut it up and paste the pieces you intend to keep onto clean sheets of paper.

  

If you've gone through a couple of processes of revision with some material, and you know it needs something, but you’re not sure what, it's helpful to print it out, and then cut it up and rearrange it. Seeing the material in print, and moving sections around physically, can inspire you to strengthen the piece – you'll see new connections in the material.

 

You can also use Collage Revision as a process of discovery. For example, let's say that you've been doing daily ten minute free-writing exercises as warm-ups. You've got a hundred pages of material, most of which you'll trash. However, occasionally you come across a strong sentence, or paragraph, or half a page.

 

Cut out the pieces you want to keep, rearrange them, and paste. You'll often find a few nuggets of gold that you can use to create new material. You may even find an entire essay buried in your Collage.

 

Re-Vision using critiques and feedback

More on Re-vision.

  

You have to know when to get critiques and feedback on your writing. The most important thing to remember is that this revision help from others doesn't replace the revision you do yourself. So do at least a fast revision first.

 

Are you relaxed enough about your writing that you're willing to get feedback? (If the idea of letting others read your work gives you hives, you're probably not ready.)

 

Round up two friends (they don’t need to be writers) and ask them to read the piece. You're interested in the thoughts and ideas they have on the whole thing, not on criticisms of your writing style or on your approach. After all, you may change everything in your next draft anyway.

 

If the piece is nonfiction, ask them what else they'd like to know about your topic.

 

If it's fiction, ask them how the piece made them feel. Did they like/ dislike the characters? Why?

 

When you hear their reactions, you'll want to rewrite. The big benefit of feedback from others is that it gives you new ideas.

 

You can get feedback as often as you feel necessary.

 

Note: you'll need to educate your critique partners on the kind of feedback you want. Nine times out of ten if you ask for feedback without giving instructions, you get back line-editing of your work, which isn’t what you want with a work in progress. Line-editing is only appropriate for a final draft. Leave the line-editing for your publisher's copyeditor, who's paid to do the work. (And who will bring with her/ him a whole new set of headaches, as published authors are well aware.) :-)

 

Mine your intuition, and do it daily

Your subconscious mind is constantly recording and storing data from the world around you. Much of this data bypasses your conscious mind completely.

 

Your subconscious will compile all this data it has into hunches for you, if you'll ask it questions.

 

Today, ask yourself FIVE questions.

 

Write the answers; writing at least 100 words for each answer.

 

Writing Tools category: Inspiration

I've started a new category on the site, Writing Tools, for tools which are truly useful, and fun, for your writing journey.

I've been using mind mapping program Inspiration for around ten years, and recommend it.

Whenever I've got a complex article or news release to write, Inspiration helps me to keep the information organized, so that I can concentrate on the words.

It's available as a free trial, so if you haven't used the program, check it out.

Build your characters with Archetype Cards

If creating interesting characters is a problem for you, try Caroline Myss's excellent Archetype Cards.

From the site:

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Archetypes are ancient, universal patterns of behavior that are embedded in what Carl Jung called the "collective unconscious." Caroline Myss has created a unique set of 80 Archetype Cards, each individually designed to provide the basic Light and Shadow Attributes of a different Archetype.

The deck also contains six blank cards on which you can create your own Archetypes. The deck comes with an instruction booklet explaining how to use the cards to help determine which Archetypes are most active in your psyche, and how they can lead you to achieve greater insights into your life.

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Karin Gillespie's Manuscript Mechanic

Karin Gillespie critiques reader submissions on her excellent Southern Comfort blog in a section called Manuscript Mechanic.

 

She says: "Send two or three sentence summary of your novel, your query letter and the first three pages of your novel. Critiques will be published on this blog."

 

Here's a sample of her critiquing style:

 

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Daniel is coming off as very unlikeable so far. That could be a worry especially if he doesn’t have a very good reason for neglecting repairs, and being rude. His inner dialogue makes him seem like something of a jerk. Will you be able to redeem him?

 

You’ve switched to Daniel’s point of view rather early in the manuscript. Usually novelists stay in one point of view long enough to get a good sense of the character. One view point per chapter is a good rule of theumb.

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If you're working on a novel, and don't know any writers or editors, Karin's offer is a wonderful way for you to get some objective input. What a generous lady. :-)

 

I haven’t read her Bottom Dollar Girls series, but I'll be watching for it.

 

Good WOM (Word of Mouth) equals success

When it comes to choosing a book to read, WOM rules:

  

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A survey published today to coincide with World Book Day confirms what authors from Louis de Bernierès to Alexander McCall Smith can attest - nothing sells better than the recommendation of a friend or relative.

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Thanks to galleycat for the link.

 

Get an attitude about your writing NOW

You're an excellent writer.

 

Sez who? You do. :-) Develop an attitude that says your work is good.

 

All writers need to get an attitude about their writing. Why? Because as you strive to develop the skills of promoting and selling your work, you'll come across so many shysters and con artists who feed off creatives that you're liable to think that you've got a giant GULLIBLE sign pasted on your back.

 

For a quick overview of some of the commonest scams, read Angela Hoy's Writing Blog entry.

  

Enough to make your hair stand on end, aren’t they?

 

Sad to say, these are not the only scams extant. There are many, many more. Way too many to list. I covered some scams, plus ways you can out-wit the scammers in my "Writer's Rip-Offs" article:

  

Scammers get their hooks into writers and other creatives because writers are unsure of themselves. You need to GET AN ATTITUDE and develop more confidence.

 

Note: I emphasize to my writing students that confidence is based on knowledge. If you know what you're doing, you'll be confident. If you don't, you'll think you "lack confidence" when what you lack is the initiative to learn what you don’t know.

 

Does that sound tough? Tant pis. Get knowledgeable, get an attitude and do your creative work. You can complain later. :-)

 

Marketing is vital. You must market your work. No one is going to come looking for your creative work, you have to let people know what you can do. If you set small marketing goals, and market every day as you go about your business, you won’t fall for any scammer's blandishments.

 

(If you’d like some one-on-one help to accomplish your marketing goals, check out my "Market Your Writing" coaching program.)

 

Fast Re-Vision: revise step by step

(See the previous revision post: Revision is … rethinking.)

 

Here's a quick step by step process to manage revision. Don’t make a meal of it. Remember that you'll doubtless have another revision or two ahead of you when an editor gets hold of the material. :-)

 

Fast revision is for when you want to create a quick, clean draft of your work.

 

1. Ask yourself who your audience is, and why you're creating this piece of writing for them. It's tempting to assume that you know this already, but do it anyway: WRITE THIS IN BLOCK LETTERS AND PUT IT WHERE YOU'LL SEE IT AS YOU REVISE.
   
2. Read through the piece, and mark the sections which are good. (Put a cross next to them, or underline them.)
   
3. Decide on your main argument, or your main point. (If you're writing fiction: you'll revise one scene at a time, then decide on the goal, conflict, and disaster for the scene.)
   
4. Note: it’s possible that you don’t yet have a main argument, if not, carry on, because it will come to you as you work.
   
5. Next, number your "good" sections in the order in which you'll present them. Move the sections into the order you've decided. At this stage, you may not have an introduction or an ending for the piece, that's fine. (For fiction: put the various conflicts in the scene into order.)
   
6. As you're working in this way, you'll come up with other ideas, so write them where they seem to fit, but don’t worry too much about your word choice or grammar, because you may or may not need these new sections.
   

    

7. When you've got the sections in order, write your introduction and ending.
   

8. Write transitions between sections if required. 

Clean your fountain pens regularly

If you love writing – and writing with a stylish fountain pen most of all -- remember to keep your pens clean.

 

If you feel that your pen isn't writing as smoothly as it once did, wash it out:

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Just as your car needs its oil changed, your fountain pen needs internal cleaning. A once a month flushing will save you a trip to the nib specialist. After flushing the ink out of the pen with water, we recommend flushing with 1 part household ammonia and 2 parts water. Fill and empty the pen three or four times to dissolve the solids accumulation.

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I've never added ammonia, I just flush my piston-filler pens with water, and soak the cartridge-converters for an hour or so in plain water.

 

Clean, clean, clean! If you've been slack over this, don't feel bad. For years, I didn’t even know that you were supposed to flush pens out, and a old Parker… well, I won't go into the gory details, but suffice to say that ever since then I've been the Queen of Clean Fountain Pens. :-)

 

Revision is more than tinkering with words: it's re-thinking

You revise your work because you want it to have an effect on your readers. With fiction, you want to entertain, and with non-fiction, you want to inform.

 

Revising your work takes skill, maturity and judgment. Beginning writers tend to equate revision with editing, but these are two different activities. Think of revision as "re-vision", seeing your work with fresh eyes. (Editing, that is --- tinkering with word choices, style, and grammar, comes after revision.)

 

Please don’t revise as you write. I've fallen into this trap often. It's tempting to do this, to look at each sentence and play with it in order to make it better. This is pointless, because when you get to revision, you may decide to discard the entire page, or chapter.

 

Do you need to revise your work? YES, if you're writing for an audience. However, the ability to revise your own work effectively comes with practise, and it's much easier to revise someone else's work than your own.

 

Beginning writers tend to fret over revision -- they don't want to throw anything away. The cure for this is to write lots of material. When you realize that there's much more where that came from, you'll develop the detachment to be critical of your own work without being negative. You'll realize that although a certain section may be good, it doesn’t belong, or is inappropriate --- that is, it won’t work for your readers.