Riley Adams's Blog, page 113

Writing the Cozy Mystery: the Setting and the Sidekick

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the fourth part in my series on writing cozy mysteries. Today, I’m covering two important elements of our story: the setting and our sidekick.

Most cozy mysteries shoot for a very closed environment and a closed group of suspects from which to choose from.

You can still maintain a closed environment in a large city or bigger town (I did in my Memphis series), but it’s a little harder, I think.  Although I’ve got a city as a backdrop for the story, I center much of the story action around a barbeque restaurant.  This doesn’t mean we can’t stray from these central locations, but they serve to make the setting seem more intimate (yes, cozy) and create a home base for the sleuths.  Sleuths can interview suspects from there, use it as a place to discuss the case with their sidekicks, and generally interact with the other characters.

In fact, even if you’re writing a small town cozy, it still helps to have a home base for the story, especially if you’re trying to sell the mystery to a traditional press. This is why I have the quilt shop in the Southern Quilting mysteries.  It’s a good way to incorporate the series hook (cuisine, crafts, etc.), which are still (from what I can see) pretty vital to selling our book to trade presses.

Having written both types of settings, I do think that writing a cozy set in a small town is easier.  That’s because you already have your ready-made closed setting: the small town itself.  You also have the chance of an easier “in” with the police since your sleuth is dealing with a smaller police department instead of the NYPD.  And you can easily produce both red herrings and clues in small towns through gossip.  Everyone knows everyone in a small town.  And people are eager/desperate to hide their secrets.  If they can.

Readers typically like an armchair visit to the area we’re writing about.  Writing setting is never my favorite thing, but I like to help readers experience the South (my setting) through food, choice in diction, and cultural customs.

Another important consideration is our sleuth’s sidekick.  Sidekicks helps prevent endless internal dialogue for the sleuth.  It’s not good for our story’s pace to keep our sleuth too much in her own head.    Much better to have her discuss the case’s ins and outs with her loyal sidekick and let them act as a sounding board.

It’s also good for story pace and conflict if our sidekick acts as a foil for our sleuth.  Sometimes they can provide push-back or maybe they have their own ideas as to the murderer’s identity.

It can be helpful (and more realistic)  if your sidekick has a gift or talent of some kind that can complement the sleuth’s abilities.

How the sidekick interacts with the sleuth can also be revealing.  Do they build the sleuth up?  Do they help to ground the sleuth and knock her ego down to size if it threatens to get too big?

They can provide humor or can act as a straight man for our sleuth.

What other considerations for setting and sidekick should we consider…what have I missed?

Tips for cozy mystery settings and sidekicks:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: Jade

The post Writing the Cozy Mystery: the Setting and the Sidekick appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Communicating Indirectly With Readers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

At the very start of this blog back in 2008, I tried to figure out who I was writing for.  I’d read a lot of advice at the time that blogging was a good way to connect to readers.

Instead, I decided to stay in my comfort zone and make my blog writer-focused.

I took a class on building a social media platform.  It recommended interfacing with readers instead of writers.

Instead, I decided to stay in my comfort zone and focus on connecting with writers on social media.

Despite my complete disregard of all the excellent advice that I’d gone searching for, this reader avoidance on my part worked really well. I built a large platform online.  Readers could easily find me because of good SEO. They’d message me on Facebook or email me if they wanted to connect and  communicated directly with me. I care a lot about my readers and I answer their messages promptly.  But I was very shy about seeking them out.

It’s been a couple of years now that I finally started thinking about ways to connect with my readers.

I originally went about it the wrong way.   I asked “where are my readers?” and then set out to join them.

The problem with this is that the last thing I wanted to do was to chase down my readers.  I certainly didn’t want them to think that I was following them around the internet, trying to badger them to buy my books. The thought was completely horrifying to me and felt like author intrusion of the worst kind.

I knew my readers were on Pinterest and Facebook.  These are two platforms that I don’t actually enjoy.  I tried to interact more on Facebook through a group I was in…a trad published email loop type thing.  But I was uncomfortable.  And Pinterest I just didn’t get.  So I started avoiding those sites.

Clearly, that approach wasn’t going to work.  I’ve seen other cozy mystery writers doing a bang-up  job on those platforms. They don’t badger their readers at all.  They post recipes, what they’re eating for supper, cute pet photos, ask questions like “what was your favorite lunchbox when you were a kid?” I just wasn’t up to the task.  Even with the computer to hide behind, I’m simply too introverted to interact that way.

I’m likely one of the last authors to jump on the newsletter bandwagon.  I’d heard from day one about the importance of building our list of subscribers.  Even if Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon all somehow went down in flames, we’d still have our list.  We could contact those readers directly and let them know of our new releases.  But, since this was me, I didn’t start doing this on day one because I didn’t want to bother my readers by popping up in their email inboxes.

Fortunately, I finally came around to see sense in this one area.  Although I don’t send newsletters often, they have become my most important way of connecting with my readers.

Other ways of indirect communication (broadcasting) that are important marketing tools for writers:

Author notes at the ends of our books.  We can talk about how we came up with our ideas or characters or what our writing process is like.  It doesn’t really matter what we’re talking about–it’s the fact that we’re communicating with our readers in ways separate from our fiction.

Our Amazon Author Central page.  Are we making the most of it?  Could we film a short video on our phone and upload it to our Amazon page–speaking directly to our readers?

Audio.  If we’re not comfortable with video (I wasn’t comfortable with it, but…I did it), then could we put an audio clip up on our website?  Again, talking directly to our readers.  Here’s my post on how I used SoundCloud (free) to put an audio clip on my site.

If you’re an author who feels a lot more comfortable networking and connecting with other writers, don’t think that you have to chase your readers down.  There are other effective and less time-consuming ways of making ourselves available to our readers.

How do you connect with readers?

Tips for indirect communication with readers:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: Jppi

The post Communicating Indirectly With Readers appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

How Not to Collaborate on a Story:  http://ow.ly/SaMmm @davey_beauchamp

How to Be a Better Writer: Turn Struggle Into Success:  http://ow.ly/SaIAI @hughosmith

Great Character: Karl Childers (Sling Blade”):  http://ow.ly/SaKPa @gointothestory”

Introducing Characters in a Scene:  http://ow.ly/SaMBg @Janice_Hardy

How to Create a Remarkable Villain (Beyond the Clichés: ) http://ow.ly/Se7N6 by  David Villalva @betternovelproj       

On Story Prep:  http://ow.ly/Se7Ip @gointothestory

How to Write a Bio to Turbocharge Our Guest Posts: http://ow.ly/Se898 @RidethePen

Plane Crashes and Writing: 6 Sources of Common Ground:  http://ow.ly/Sea0g @jan_ohara

Is our crit partner worth the stress?  http://ow.ly/Seaj7 @nicholesevern

Effective Ways to Make Characters More Memorable:  http://ow.ly/Se9ES @DeanElphick

4 Benefits of Pre-Writing:  http://ow.ly/SaIK3 @ink_and_quills @shesnovel

Negotiate Contracts Like a Pro:  http://ow.ly/SaHMh @susanspann

Symbolism in our writing:  http://ow.ly/SaI4B @SonjaYoerg

10 Bad Writing Habits to Break:  http://ow.ly/SaKvn @WritersCoach

11 Problems All Writers Face: http://ow.ly/SaLV7  @cheryljmuir

The Dos and Don’ts of Character Bios:  http://ow.ly/SaJP4 @ink_and_quills

100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises:  http://ow.ly/SaLu2 @write_practice

3 Steps for Creating Realistic Fantasy Races and Creatures: http://ow.ly/SaJjX @ink_and_quills

Find an Extra Hour Every Day With a 5-Minute List:  http://ow.ly/SnvFN @jenn_mattern

On author surveys: #FutureChat 4pBST / 11aET (now) @Porter_Anderson

A look at recent author surveys:  http://ow.ly/Snvu0 @Porter_Anderson @futurebook

What does it take to be a successful indie writer? http://ow.ly/S8Qkr @ShawnInmon

The appeal of the traditional mystery:  http://ow.ly/Sny5Z @mkinberg

3 Tips for Writing More Concisely:  http://ow.ly/S8PQp @AnneGreenawalt

26 Creative Ways to Publish Social Media Updates:  http://ow.ly/S8PVs @smexaminer @aliventures

Why Change Your Book Cover Artwork?  http://ow.ly/S8QhC @RachelAmphlett @mollygreene

5 Hacks to Create a Good Writing Habit:  http://ow.ly/S8Qbm @joebunting

How to Plot a Romance Novel:  http://ow.ly/S8Q53 @nownovel

6 ways to work past blogger’s block: http://ow.ly/S8PYY @the writersasst

5 Absolute Dimensions of Character Personality:  http://ow.ly/S8PSU  @writingeekery

Legality of pseudonyms:  http://ow.ly/S8Qsh @Janet_Reid

The Second Draft:  http://ow.ly/S8PPw @mbtinsley

Tips for Building A Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy:  http://ow.ly/S8Q39 by Elna Cain

Tips for starting a newsletter:  http://ow.ly/S8Qeu @bookgal

How To Get Back Into Writing (Once You’’ve Lost Your Groove):  http://ow.ly/S6AXa @MudpieWriting

The Authors Guild Survey’s Self-Selected Sample: More Fuel On The Fire?  http://ow.ly/Sk2XU @Porter_Anderson  @barryeisler

Writing Strong Scenes: 5 Tips http://ow.ly/S6BAX @angee

Writing Your Book’s Back-Cover Copy: http://ow.ly/S6BPr  @JRHwords

5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Writing  Workshop:  http://ow.ly/S6Bx7 @BernadetteMung

How to Set Readers Up For Success:  http://ow.ly/S6AAU @denisedrespling

Growing your vocabulary by using etymology:  http://ow.ly/S6BNc  @kseniaanske

8 Things to Know (From a Former Journalist):  http://ow.ly/S6AKe  by R.G. Belsky

17 Screenwriting Scenes To Use In Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/S6Bmy @writers_write

What Writers Can Do When Writing Advice Conflicts:  http://ow.ly/S6BIL @MandyCorine

Use Facebook to Sell Books: http://ow.ly/S6zPS  @pbackwriter

5 Things Productive Writers Do Differently:  http://ow.ly/S6Bse @joebunting

How to Choose Amazon Keywords:  http://ow.ly/S6Ahy @davidpenny_

AuthorEarnings: With a Dose of Hype:  http://ow.ly/Sheyt @Porter_Anderson @ThoughtCatalog

4 Key Ways to Ramp Up Tension and Pacing in Our Fiction: http://ow.ly/S1EK5 @CSLakin

Which are the Best Email Service Providers for Writers? http://ow.ly/S1F44 @GaryJMcLaren

Worldbuilding for Urban Fantasy:  http://ow.ly/S1Go2 @howtobeamazing

7 Ways to Become a Better Writer in 7 Days:  http://ow.ly/S1H9A @marcykennedy

Should Indie Authors Worry About Piracy?  http://ow.ly/S1F6U @BookWorksNYC @stapilus

Villains: The Real Stars:  http://ow.ly/S1GVU  @willvanstonejr @K8Tilton

18 steps to a successful book marketing campaign: http://ow.ly/S1FhN  @WesJThomas

Where Indie Authors Should Sell Their Books: 7 Retailers:  http://ow.ly/S1FXH @MSaintGermain

21 Writing Quotes on Getting Started:  http://ow.ly/S1EST  @GaryJMcLaren

Self-Publishing for Author/Illustrators:  http://ow.ly/S1GKJ @Skipper_Bay

5 Reasons Authors Need Goodreads:  http://ow.ly/S1FPN @terrywhalin

Growing Our Character Relationships to Grow Our Character:  http://ow.ly/S1Gxk @Saboviec

Soundtracks For Books: How One Novelist Is Using Booktrack:  http://ow.ly/S0pgn @ADStarrling @thecreativepenn

Is it Time to Say Goodbye to Microsoft Word? http://ow.ly/S0p1u @GaryJMcLaren

How to Write 5,000 Words a Day:  http://ow.ly/S0bVF by Bamidele Onibalusi

No time to Write? A 3-Step Solution. http://ow.ly/S0bJM @RuthanneReid

The Fairy Tale Formula: How To Write A Case Study In 3 Easy Steps: http://ow.ly/S0bN4 @AnthonyEhlers

15 Compelling Reasons to be a Writer:  http://ow.ly/S0oMc  @GaryJMcLaren

Quirky Sources to Make Your Story a Winner:  http://ow.ly/S0bsu  @diannmills

A-Z Social Media Prompt:  http://ow.ly/S0olt @JayArtale

Does an Author Really Need a Website?  http://ow.ly/S0osF from Fix My Story

A Book Promo Cheat Sheet:  http://ow.ly/S0bzR  @JBennett111

How To Think about Multiple Points of View: http://ow.ly/S0c5s @patverducci

Scrivener: Re-outline, Reorder, Rewrite:  http://ow.ly/S0oAw @YK_Greene

Fast Writers and Slow Writers:  http://ow.ly/ScQiV

Why Scene Making is a Great Idea:  http://ow.ly/RVe3f @lindasclare

Do You Still Need a Website as the Core of Your Online Platform? http://ow.ly/RYlch @karencv

The Socially Awkward Writer:  http://ow.ly/RYl7Q @sarahcallender

Issues with the Audiobook Market: http://ow.ly/RYlJ6  @inkbitspixels

AI assesses the tone of our writing:  http://ow.ly/RYlSo @bookworksnyc @roncallari

22 Ways a Blog Can Sell Books:  http://ow.ly/RYm2n @JFBookman

How to Tackle List Building:  http://ow.ly/RYlzw @KathleenGage

Remember that what you’re linking to on Twitter needs to be professional:  http://ow.ly/RYlfT @booklaunchdemon

Define and Attract Your Target Audience: http://ow.ly/RYkQx @writerplatform

Should You Hire a Professional Book Cover Designer? http://ow.ly/RYl1W @ericaverrillo

4 Reasons Readers Don’t Buy Our Books:  http://ow.ly/RYmae  @Nick_Stephenson

The Harsh Truth Behind Print Sales:  http://ow.ly/RYkMZ  @lgoconnor1

7 Reasons Twitter is Great for Writers: http://ow.ly/RYmeZ @CaballoFrances

The links I shared last week:  http://ow.ly/S8T39 .All the links (30K+) I’ve ever shared, free and searchable: writerskb.com

Not every indie writer finds success: looking for truth in time of hype:  http://ow.ly/S8MME @Porter_Anderson @writerunboxed

What to Avoid in Our Cover Copy:  http://ow.ly/RVf3d @ceciliaedits

The Hot Sheet:  industry newsletter for authors (30 day free trial):  http://ow.ly/S8KyU from @Porter_Anderson & @JaneFriedman”

10 Tools to Keep Writers Out of the Doctor’s Office: http://ow.ly/RVeSy @colleen_m_story

Writing mistakes to avoid:  http://ow.ly/RVfoc  @rxena77

14 Points To Consider Before Writing The Ending:  http://ow.ly/RVdRf @writers_write

7 Things Learned about Day Jobs and Writing:  http://ow.ly/RVeX8 @MRansomBooks

4 Reasons to Write Non-visual Description:  http://ow.ly/RVeI3 @mrJRPatterson @thePenleak

29 Plot Templates:  http://ow.ly/RVehy @fictionnotes

Last week's top writing links on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Writing the Cozy Mystery—the Victim

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the third in my cozy mystery writing series.  Today I’m taking a closer look at our victim. Parts one and two can be found here and here.

Handling our victim’s demise: As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can handle this a couple of different ways.  You can show the reader the likely suspects and why the victim might have been killed during interactions between future suspects and future victim at the start of the book (victim is still alive as the story opens).  Or you can open the story with the victim’s body and have the sleuth figure out who the suspects are and the motive (slightly trickier, I think).

Another tricky victim area: likeability.  If the victim is too unlikeable, readers may not care if his murder is solved or not.  Although it does make it easy in terms of motive. If you’ve got a very unlikeable victim, might be a good idea for the sleuth to remind others that justice is still important (as Hercule Poirot did in Agatha Christie’s mysteries). Or we could consider having someone close to the sleuth or the sleuth herself under suspicion to give the reader extra incentive to find out whodunit.

If the victim is too likeable, it can be hard to realistically imagine 4-5 people who would want to do away with him.  In that case, you might want to uncover backstory on the victim that shows him in a new and unflattering light.  Or show that the victim’s life is a carefully constructed lie.  This can be a fun approach and one that typically adds a lot to the word count, for you short writers out there.

The suspects are never strangers to the victim in a cozy.  The victim’s death has a purpose.

The victim’s death. There are lots of different ways to murder someone.  If this is a cozy, the murder should be offstage and not described in graphic terms. Since forensics doesn’t play a heavy role in these books, the information you do supply (particularly in terms of guns) needs to be accurate.  There are good resources available to help you with the crime itself.  Crime writer Sue Coletta has a great blog and nice list of resources,  doctor and writer D.P. Lyle has helpful information for writers (see his sidebar near the middle of the page for searchable categories),  and crime writer Fiona Quinn has informative interviews on her blog, along with a nice list of resources.  Another good roundup of resources is provided by Klariza (who, in the bizarre tradition of Tumblr…sigh… goes only by a first name).  Crime writer Clarissa Draper has a nice series of poisons on her blog.

An additional victim?  I like two victims in my books.  The second body shows up about halfway through the book and is frequently one of the suspects who seems most likely to have murdered the first victim.

We probably should avoid (particularly if we’re trying to sell the book to traditional cozy publishers):  having children as victims in the cozy mystery (unless the child is particularly unpleasant or a much older child. Even then, I’d think twice).  And, if you’re contemplating killing a dog or cat in a cozy mystery…I’d seriously reconsider.

What other aspects of the victim do you mystery writers and readers like to consider?

Tips for creating a better crime fiction victim:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: Dodgerton Skillhause

The post Writing the Cozy Mystery—the Victim appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Fast Writers and Slow Writers

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The prevailing advice for better sales seems to be to write faster.  I think this may be true.  I did find that my self-published sales really picked up after book three so why not get to book three faster, right?

But this is frustrating advice for writers.  Some writers have  demanding schedules in which it’s tough to schedule in writing time.  Some are just thoughtful writers who take either a lot of time to warm up or who are deliberate about their word choice or story direction.

I read a post by Ken Rahmoeller last week on his blog: “Being a Slow Writer in This Day and Age.” Ken expressed his worry about being a slow writer when the trend is to fly through writing and production.

As many before me have pointed out, this business is a marathon, not a sprint.

You are not behind. If you feel you need to catch up, it may stress you out more.

One book is better than no book.

What you probably shouldn’t do if you have only one book:

Facebook ads

Long-term free book strategies

Extensive social media platform building.

What you might want to consider if you have only one book:

Ways to get more reviews/reads.  Consider Goodreads giveaways and short term free promos (some will disagree with me here, but I do think the reviews are worth any loss of sales).

Put time into building a decent website instead of updating on every social media platform. See industry expert Jane Friedman’s post, “The Basic Components of an Author Website.”

Build up subscribers to your newsletter by having the link in your email signature, on your website, and in the back of your book.  Another nice article from Jane Friedman on the how-tos: “Email Newsletters for Authors: Get Started Guide.”

But do reserve your name on various social media platforms for later.  We need to build our online profile around our name, not our book.

Continue setting time aside for both reading and writing.

Make manageable goals for the writing.  And I mean manageable.  Set the bar low.  It’s more important to build the habit than it is to score a bunch of words.

Never try to catch up.

Remember…even if it takes you more than a year to write a book, you’re still on par with trad published authors.  My books were in production forever.

If you want to write faster, here are some tips:

Consider outlining.  Might mean that you need to fluff up any flatness later, but if you try this approach, you may find your speed increases dramatically.  Results vary, but might be worth a go.

If you don’t want to outline, consider just a two sentence directional prompt for the following day at the end of your writing session.

Get your head into your writing before you open your laptop.  Think about your story as you’re getting your coffee in the morning, eating your breakfast, pulling out your laundry, driving home from the store.  Prime the pump before you sit in front of your text.

If there are particular elements of writing that are bound to slow you down (character naming, research, writing description), bundle those together to knock out all at once and after the first draft is completed.  Mark the omission in your manuscript so that you can find it later (track changes comments, highlighter on Word, or using ***).

Learn how to write in short blocks of time.  Learn how to write when surrounded by distractions.  Learn how to write when on the go (dead time in doctor’s office waiting rooms, carpool lines, during commutes).  Upload your book to Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive so your book and/or outline will always be with you.

But…you don’t have to write faster.  Especially not if it means writing faster makes you not want to write at all.

Do you consider yourself a fast or slower writer? What do you think of the advice to write faster?

 

The post Fast Writers and Slow Writers appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Auto mechanics in crime fiction: http://ow.ly/S4ROM @mkinberg

Pottermore: a look at the site’s changes and new focus: http://ow.ly/S71lP @Porter_Anderson

How to Raise the Creative Bar:  http://ow.ly/RNYi7 @ArtistThink

5 Things Every Protagonist Needs:  http://ow.ly/RNXUm  @larin20         

Breathing life into our characters:  http://ow.ly/RNYmL @shalvatzis

A chart for budgeting your writing time by tracking activities:  http://ow.ly/RNYc2 from Writing Questions Answered

5 Keys to an Effective Query:  http://ow.ly/RNYpM  by Claudia Cangilla McAdam

Writing Research: How to Do it and Use It: http://ow.ly/RNXzw @SandraDanby

Print Book Production for indie authors:  http://ow.ly/RNXg4 @JALangAuthor

5 Favorite Free Fonts for Interior Book Design:  http://ow.ly/RNX9g @JFBookman

11 Ways to Ask for Writing Advice (And 10 Major Mistakes to Avoid): http://ow.ly/RNXRW @CordeliaCallsIt

The 120 Most Helpful Websites For Writers in 2015:  http://ow.ly/RNWJC @geediting

Flat book cover design: Why do all the summer novels have the same look? http://ow.ly/RNWZX  @heathertwit

10 Tips to Get Things Done (for Writers):  http://ow.ly/RNYac @monicamclark

Writers shouldn’t fear online reviews:  http://ow.ly/RQQXm by Tara and Stefan Tobler @guardianbooks

How YouTube Can Help Self-Published Authors: http://ow.ly/RQQLx @DigiBookWorld

Worldbuilding in Star Wars:  http://ow.ly/RQQwv  @authorjsmorin

Naming Your Characters: Mistakes to Avoid:  http://ow.ly/RQQQM @mossifer

The Myth of The Lazy Writer:  http://ow.ly/RQQHs @HughHowey

The Lure of Romance Writing (and Earnings) for the Literary Set:  http://ow.ly/RQQuB @JaneFriedman

When we have a lack of plot and motive:  http://ow.ly/RQQON @glencstrathy

Do We Have What Publishers Really Want? http://ow.ly/RQR3d from The Writer’s Society

5 Reasons We Can’t Build Our Author Platform on Amazon, Facebook, or Google:  http://ow.ly/RQRaQ  @DIYAuthor

Make lists to advance your story:  http://ow.ly/RQQJy @kayedacus

Dimensional Characters: —Beyond the Wound & Into the Blind Spot:  http://ow.ly/RQQTu @kristenlambtx

Script Analysis: “Birdman”: Scene By Scene Breakdown:  http://ow.ly/RQR4X @gointothestory

How to Tell If Your Character Has Dependent Personality Disorder: http://ow.ly/RVeBW @writerology

Is something missing from my story?  http://ow.ly/RVebn @gointothestory

10 Tools to Keep Writers Out of the Doctor’s Office: http://ow.ly/RVeSy @colleen_m_story

The Micro Story:  http://ow.ly/RVeME from Shawn Coyne

Is Our Manuscript Ready to Submit? Tips for Knowing: http://ow.ly/RVevd @fictionnotes

Macro And Micro Editing Tips:  http://ow.ly/RVe7a @angee

10 Ways To Create A Near-Future World That Won’t Look Too Dated:  http://ow.ly/RM6ot @charliejane @io9

Fears About Ideas Being Stolen:  http://ow.ly/RM6uC from The Writing Cafe

Using the Fallacy of Memory to Create Effective Memoir:  http://ow.ly/RM61m @wendymfontaine @JaneFriedman

How to Create Tension in Writing:  http://ow.ly/RM66P @nownovel

7 Brutally Honest Self-Publishing Tips:  http://ow.ly/RM5in @TherinKnite

Tricks to Use to Pace Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/RM5qW @ajhumpage

16 Query Tips From Literary Agents:  http://ow.ly/RM6k8 @AskATechTeacher

Creating multi-layered writing: http://ow.ly/RM5Zx from Writing Questions Answered

The simple story of a dog and why it makes you cry:  http://ow.ly/RM5G6 @speechwriterguy

8 reasons why blockbusters are meta-stories: http://ow.ly/RM5Tr @speechwriterguy

3 Technologies Dropped for Breaking the Show:  http://ow.ly/RM69S @cinehead

3 Easy Steps to Crafting a Language for Your Fantasy Novel:  http://ow.ly/RM6qM @lucid_ghost

When the agent is the author: Andrew Lownie:  http://ow.ly/S0pJe  @andrewlownie  @Porter_Anderson

15 Common English Words That Are Still Trademarked:  http://ow.ly/RLtON @io9 by Katharine Trendacosta

Memoir Writing: Top 5 Things to Expect after You Launch Your Book:  http://ow.ly/RLq7p @pmilana

6 Ways to Make Ordinary Protagonists Extraordinary: http://ow.ly/RLsFu @emily_tjaden

Book Discovery Strategy: Social Media Events: http://ow.ly/RLrEj  @amcbooks

4 Surefire Ways to Bore Your Readers to Death:  http://ow.ly/RLqd1 by Melissa Chu

Between First Draft and Test Readers:  http://ow.ly/RLqqC @artofstoriesAB

10 Ways to Improve Your Writing While Thinking Like a Comedy Writer:  http://ow.ly/RLrTD @lajfun

How to Write Horror Fiction and Avoid Typical Horror Genre Clichés:  http://ow.ly/RLsat @crisfreese

Science Fiction Writing: a Choice of Futures:  http://ow.ly/RLqNu  @nevalalee

How to Deal With Harsh Criticism of Your Writing:  http://ow.ly/RLt66 @io9 @charliejane

Crisis is conflict on steroids:  http://ow.ly/RLpRR @stephenwoodfin

Understanding Screenwriting (with Films as Examples):  http://ow.ly/RLq0b by Tom Stempel

9 Questions To Ask If Writer’s Block Has You By The Throat:  http://ow.ly/RJtuF @10MinNovelists

Troubleshooting When You’re Stuck:  http://ow.ly/RJtQd by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

Don’t Over-Describe: Leaving Room for the Imagination:  http://ow.ly/RJv0q @ShanDitty

Want To Do More Creative Work? Focus On Your Support System:  http://ow.ly/RJtfW  @DanBlank

How to Craft a Page-Turning Plot:  http://ow.ly/RJuQU  @cathyyardley

10 Tips for Writing:  http://ow.ly/RJtpA @_JamieK_

Using empty words in a story:  http://ow.ly/RJutj @calebpirtle

Quick & Dirty Edit Tips:  http://ow.ly/RJuyl @ChristaDesir

Resources for writers:  http://ow.ly/RJuIy @ava_jae

Show, don’t tell:  http://ow.ly/RJulh @C_Herringshaw

6 Simple Ways To Stay Inspired As A Writer:  http://ow.ly/RJtdO  @paperbackbird

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs:  http://ow.ly/RJvn0 @gointothestory

Audiobooks: listeners and how to market to them:  http://ow.ly/RU2q1 @jimhbs

Writing Cozy Mysteries: Researching Your Town:  http://ow.ly/RTRDE @camillelaguire

5 things to check before you sign that publishing contract: http://ow.ly/RGjLK @Creativindie

3 Tips to Avoid Writer’s Anxiety:  http://ow.ly/RGjxr @write_tomorrow

The poet’s paperwork: http://ow.ly/RGjVu  @nevalalee

3 Questions to Ask When Writing a Book Proposal:  http://ow.ly/RGjAe  by Rachel Scheller @writersdigest

Does one character “own” each scene? http://ow.ly/RGjJ0 @gointothestory

How Our Peer Group Can Help Our Writing:  http://ow.ly/RGjim by Juliet Marillier

7 Ways to Build Our Writing Confidence:  http://ow.ly/RGjFc @writing_tips

6 Narrator Types:  http://ow.ly/RGjuI @nownovel

A Tip for Writing Fiction In Scenes:  http://ow.ly/RGjQS @angee

A Helpful Proofreading Technique:  http://ow.ly/RGjZ5 @McgannKellie

A 2-Step Method For Finishing Our Novel : http://ow.ly/RGl8n @shesnovel

6 tips for handling rejection: http://ow.ly/RGl8j @kaylee_kendall

What Should a Novelist Blog About? Dos and Don’ts for Author-Bloggers:  http://ow.ly/RERaZ @annerallen

How to Use the Rule of Three in Children’s Books:  http://ow.ly/RERDG @hodgeswriter

Free Scrivener Templates:  http://ow.ly/RERx0 @Jenn_Mattern

A Practical Guide to Eliminating Excess Words:  http://ow.ly/RERXk @karenmarston

3 Components to Writing a Successful Collaborative Novel:  http://ow.ly/RESr3 @KLHCreateWorks

Depressed? Anxious? Stressed? A Must-have Guide to Resources For Writers:  http://ow.ly/REReA @annerallen

Keep Your Inbox Cleaner By Unsubscribing to Blog Comments:  http://ow.ly/RERpB @jenn_mattern

Top writing links from last week on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Writing the Cozy Mystery: The Suspects

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the second in my cozy mystery writing series.  Last week I focused on writing better sleuths. Today, I thought I’d take a look at another vital element for a solid mystery: good suspects.

How many suspects?  Fewer suspects can be easier for readers to keep up with, but can also mean that the murderer’s identity isn’t as much of a surprise.  If you have more suspects, you can more easily maintain the element of surprise at the end, but you have to be careful not to confuse the reader.  I usually prefer 5 suspects, killing one of them during the course of the book.  If you choose to have a lot of suspects, you can reduce confusion by making sure their names are very distinct or by giving them a casual reintroduction when they appear “onstage” again in the story.

How to introduce the suspects?  I do this a couple of different ways.  A quick setup is to have our sleuth witness interactions between the victim and the suspects before the victim dies.  This can be especially helpful when the sleuth is trying to figure out who the suspects are after the murder.  Another way of handling this is to have a couple of people provide information about likely suspects in the case (non-suspects as informants). It may also be useful to have suspects implicate each other.

Pacing and location of suspect interviews:  This, to me, is an unexpectedly treacherous thing.  We can either really bog the story down or fly through the interviews too quickly.  I think it helps if we have very different settings for each suspect interview to provide variety and avoid that sense of sameness and if we weave subplot through the interviews so they’re not all back to back. That’s going to be a matter of personal preference for the writer, though. A couple of nice resources on subplots: Allen Palmer’s “The One Subplot You Really Need” and Amanda Patterson’s “Six Subplots that Add Style to Your Story.”

It’s best for pacing and for the length of the story for suspects to generate false leads (red herrings) or act as unreliable witnesses.  Each suspect could tell a lie and a truth and then our sleuth could figure out which is which.  The lies could be alibi-related, or they could even be accidental lies…simply incorrect information or hearsay.

The interviews don’t need to be merely business as usual clipped exchanges, either.  These stories are very character-focused. It helps if we learn more about the suspects’ characters or the victims. If we think about making our story more engaging. If the interviews also reveal more about our sleuth or sidekick.

Suspect as a second victim.   As I mentioned earlier, I do like eliminating one of the suspects, usually halfway through the book. I frequently choose to murder the suspect who seems most likely to have murdered the first victim.

Suspect motives.  If possible, I like to ascribe a variety of different motives in the story. My editor at Penguin liked that, too.  She would have me make changes if the motives were too similar.

Need help with motives?  Camille LaGuire has a nice list in her article “The Big Wheel of Crimes and Theories” and Margot Kinberg has collected some interesting examples of motives for the second murder in our books in her post “I Know That I Will Kill Again.”

This was another mystery-related post, but I hope there is information in there that other genres will find useful, as well (check out those subplot links).  What have I missed?  Any questions or thoughts from mystery writers or readers?

Tips for better suspects in a mystery novel:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: Nino Andonis

The post Writing the Cozy Mystery: The Suspects appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 30,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Hope my blog readers in the States have a great Labor Day weekend!  I’m taking Monday off from blogging and will be back for Friday’s post. 

How to Write Internal Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Rx3st @MarcyKennedy

Vulnerability In Writing:  http://ow.ly/Rx3OF @rsmollisonread

4 Tips to Craft a Killer Novella:  http://ow.ly/Ry5B6 by E.M. Denning

Should You Feel Guilty About Taking Your Writing Seriously? http://ow.ly/Ry5Fc @colleen_m_story               

Movie Analysis: “Trainwreck”: http://ow.ly/Ry5xq @gointothestory

Developing Themes In Your Stories: Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Ry5wr  @SaraL_Writer @DIYMFA

Everything Is Writing:  http://ow.ly/Ry5uF @jaelmchenry

Your Character is Smirking. Or Is He? Synonym Pitfalls. http://ow.ly/Ry5vm by Melinda Brasher

6 Ways You’re Botching Your Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/Ry5Ad @_RobbieBlair_

What do you do about the back story?  http://ow.ly/Ry5HI @BishsBeat

Can authors compete with ‘non-competes’?  http://ow.ly/RM4Jh @Porter_Anderson @jamesscottbell

Clichés in YA Romance:  http://ow.ly/Ry5Ds @_FYWH

When Mamas Create:  http://ow.ly/Ry5G4 @LaurieTomlinson

How and why to kill your darlings: http://ow.ly/Ry5tf @nicholesevern

Pros and Cons of First-Person.  How to Deflate the Cons:  http://ow.ly/Ry5yz @SeptCFawkes

Nailing the Climax: Step by Step:  http://ow.ly/Ry5Ec by The Plot Line Hotline

10 Online Tools to upgrade our writing skills: http://ow.ly/RA5as @jmlpetersen

Why We Should Stop Grading an Author’s Social Media Presence:  http://ow.ly/RA5Lr @robeagar

Tools for novelists: 5 of the best:  http://ow.ly/RA4lR  @sandrabeckwith

Write the Book We Don’t Expect: http://ow.ly/RA4w2 by Samantha Wilde

5 Low-Cost/No-Cost Book Promo Tips:  http://ow.ly/RA4K7 @maggiemarr

6 common writing mistakes by first-time authors:  http://ow.ly/RA5sU @loudesvenard @ReedsyHQ

How to Sell More Books and Grow Our Fan Base at Author Events:  http://ow.ly/RA4qJ @lucid_ghost

5 Reasons to Self Publish:  http://ow.ly/RA65m @SLMcInnis

Tighten Our Writing Style:  http://ow.ly/RA4T3  @RayneHall

Targeted marketing for indie books:  http://ow.ly/RA5AH @KritsaYvonne

Tips for keeping our writing files organized and safe:  http://ow.ly/RA6Ey @betsytalbot

3 Ways to Organize Our Writing Space: http://ow.ly/RA4eE @wherewriterswin

20 Time Travel Classics:  http://ow.ly/RERSk @tordotcom

How to Brainstorm The Novel That Sells:  http://ow.ly/RESmk  @MaryVeeWriter

The Simple Truth About Finding Your Writing Voice:  http://ow.ly/RESaK @finallywriting

How to Use the Rule of Three in Children’s Books:  http://ow.ly/RERDG @hodgeswriter

On Pencils and Process:  http://ow.ly/RESg4  @benjohncock

Feelings Without Names:  http://ow.ly/RESBR @DonMaass

5 Novel Writing Tips from a First-Time Plotter:  http://ow.ly/Rx3a2 @EmilyWenstrom

When a story touches someone’s soul:  http://ow.ly/Rx3bV @stephenwoodfin

Writing is all about those outlandish little details:  http://ow.ly/Rx3aQ @calebpirtle

4 Emotive Tools of Horror:  http://ow.ly/Rx333 @HeatherJacksonW

46 Literary Magazines To Submit To:  http://ow.ly/Rx3Jp @write_practice

7 Ways To Create an Antagonist Readers Hate To Love:  http://ow.ly/Rx36Z  by BD Schmitt

100 Acts of Self-Care:  http://ow.ly/Rx3o0  @ArtistThink

Character interview questions:  http://ow.ly/Rx3iy by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

5 Ways to Break Through and Actually Start Writing:  http://ow.ly/Rx3fL @JerryBJenkins

Thinking of Co-authoring a Book? Info for Writers:  http://ow.ly/Rx3Ec @JohnDolanAuthor @FionaQuinnBooks

Tricking Yourself Out of Writer’s Block:  http://ow.ly/Rx3dt @Margo_L_Dill

10 Smart Things to Do When Writing:  http://ow.ly/Run1b @Grammarly

Short story contest for publication in an anthology:  http://ow.ly/RGaPP @AlexJCavanaugh

30 Things About Screenwriting:  http://ow.ly/RumzJ @gointothestory

On Writing a Series:  http://ow.ly/RumC2 @vleighwrites

Problems with Multiple Viewpoints:  http://ow.ly/RumFA @ajhumpage

6 More Character Archetypes to Ditch:  http://ow.ly/Rumkm by Oren Ashkenazi

This Simple Principle Will Solve Show, Don’t Tell Problems:  http://ow.ly/Rumo5 @farrtom

Perfectionism is Murdering Your Muse: http://ow.ly/RumxM  @VeronicaSicoe

1 Simple Rule of Writing Horror:  http://ow.ly/Rumta @HeatherJacksonW

Avoiding Fantasy Fatigue:  http://ow.ly/RumJS @Philip_Overby

How Writing Horror is like Writing Comedy:  http://ow.ly/Rumvd  @HeatherJacksonW

How to Plan and Write a Conversation:  http://ow.ly/RumQo by Nils Ödlund @mythicscribes

Redefining Success: Freelancing on the Path to an Alternate Destination:  http://ow.ly/Rumr0 @charityscraig

New @Trajectory partnerships include PanMac UK ebook distribution to China:  http://ow.ly/RGgmw @Porter_Anderson  @InfoJedi

Could Amazon Exclusivity Be Good For The Future Of eBooks? http://ow.ly/REUyG @HughHowey @Porter_Anderson

Roundtable on Great Villains:  http://ow.ly/RrsyI  @PubCrawlBlog

How to Find an Editor as a Self-Published Author:  http://ow.ly/Rrsgz @teymourshahabi for @JaneFriedman

Survival toolbox for writers:  http://ow.ly/Rrscp @OrlyKonigLopez

39 Stellar Examples of Author Facebook Cover Photo Designs:  http://ow.ly/RrsKI @DianaUrban @BookBubPartners

5 Traits of a Winning Concept:  http://ow.ly/RrsZC by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

Using a Love-Hate Relationship with Writing to Our Advantage: http://ow.ly/RrsOu  @TheEbonyInkwell

A Poem Becomes Meme:  http://ow.ly/RrtiZ @AnnieLowrey

How to Break the Rules: Never Start With Backstory:  http://ow.ly/Rrss1 @notjustanyboggs

Mark Twain’s keys to successful writing:  http://ow.ly/RrsUs @rxena77

Writing for Kids: Less is Almost Always More:  http://ow.ly/RrsoS @kiersi

Can Reading Make You Happier? http://ow.ly/Rrtex by Ceridwen Dovey @newyorker

3 villain death pet peeves:  http://ow.ly/RrsCv @biljanalikic

Curating Links and Bulk Scheduling Them:  http://ow.ly/RA09c

The importance of newsletters and ideas for content:  http://ow.ly/RzY8S @JL_Campbell

8 Tips for Interactive Storytelling:  http://ow.ly/Roaub @robinrwrites

Ann Rule on Breaking Into True Crime:  http://ow.ly/RoaBT @writersdigest

Ingenious hiding places in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/RzXGT @mkinberg

5 part video series on the craft of story editing:  http://ow.ly/Rob4N by Shawn Coyne

How To Stand Out In A Writing Group:  http://ow.ly/Robrb @artofstoriesAB

Improve Your Writing by Reading Author Interviews:  http://ow.ly/Robfl @AnneGreenawalt

Writing Tips For Staying on Your Game:  http://ow.ly/Rob0R @writingforward

5 Ways To Check If Your Ending Suits Your Genre:  http://ow.ly/RoaXZ @AnthonyEhlers

What to Know About Copyright and Plagiarism:  http://ow.ly/Roa6y by Lynn Usrey @nickthacker

How Walking Fosters Creativity:  http://ow.ly/Robuu @jdmagness  @openculture

How to Make Your Poems Stand Out: http://ow.ly/RobBd @DanielAri

It Doesn’t Always Go The Way You Plan: Career Snapshot of a Children’s Book Author:  http://ow.ly/Ro9Vj  @MandyCorine

25 Ways To Beat Writer’s Block:  http://ow.ly/Rlzub @writers_write

The links I shared last week: http://ow.ly/RyRkt . All the links I’ve ever shared (30K+), free and searchable: writerskb.com

Protagonist and Main Character: Same Person? The Answer May Transform Your Story:  http://ow.ly/RlzeW @KMWeiland

On the Creation Process (or Why 1 Writer Prefers Revising):  http://ow.ly/RlAnZ @ava_jae

Create a Complex, Charismatic Main Character:  http://ow.ly/RlAfi @JodieRennerEd

6 Things To Remember When Dealing With Writing Feedback:  http://ow.ly/RlAv4 @bang2write

When Does It Make Sense to Make Big Revisions?  http://ow.ly/RlBQT @jamigold

10 Ways to Use Audio to Sell More Books:  http://ow.ly/RlBtW @bookgal

Top writing links from last week on Twitterific:
Click To Tweet

The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Writing the Cozy Mystery—the Sleuth

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve had a few people emailing me asking questions about starting a cozy mystery (or, really, any type of mystery involving an amateur sleuth).  I promised to write a post on the topic… and then I didn’t deliver!  So here, belatedly, is the first post in a crash course on cozy mystery writing.

I thought it might be easier for someone starting out to think about potential questions to answer.  This helps us flesh out our sleuth and story.  It’s also, in my view, a heck of a lot easier than just launching into a brand new mystery.

Who is my sleuth and why is she getting involved in this case?  Readers tend to be able to suspend disbelief a bit in cozies, but it can be nice in the first book of the series to make the sleuth’s involvement more of a result of a direct action.  Is our sleuth a suspect?  Is the sleuth’s friend a suspect?  Was the victim a friend of the sleuth’s?  Did the crime occur at a place the sleuth works?  Did the sleuth discover the body?  There are many different directions to go with this.

How does my sleuth learn important crime scene details?  How detailed will I want to get?  My books are nearly free of forensics, but my sleuth at least knows the time of death (important for finding out which suspects have alibis) and the murder method.  It can also sometimes be useful to be able to get details regarding the victim’s will.  Many cozies have sleuths with friends or relatives who are married to police or are police officers themselves.  Or maybe some of the crime scene details are public knowledge.

How does my sleuth learn who the likely suspects are?  Does she witness suspects engaged in altercations with the victim?  Is there local gossip about who might have a grudge against the victim?  Is it because she’s able to figure out who gains most from the victim’s death?

What makes this sleuth stand out?  What are her special talents? Remember, sleuths are supposed to be gifted amateurs.

How will the sleuth go about interviewing the suspects?  This is always a fairly awkward thing for me to write.  Here we have an amateur, with no official capacity at all, who needs to talk to everyone who might be involved with the case.  How can our sleuth get away with it?  There are several ways of doing this.  My Myrtle character writes for the local paper in the small town and is upfront about speaking with the suspects sometimes, while working on a story.  But sometimes she’s simply a nosy old lady who brings casseroles and drops by for chats with people.  For another series, the hub is a quilting shop that doubles as a local hangout.  There suspects may be waylaid while shopping or attending a quilting class.

How do suspects and other characters react to my sleuth?  This is actually more important than it sounds.  Is your sleuth pushy?  Curious? A good listener?  Is she easily dismissed/flies under the radar/doesn’t seem like a threat enough to hide things from?  What makes people want to give her information?

What flaws has the sleuth got?  Because, let’s face it: perfect people are annoying.  They’re annoying in real life and they’re annoying in fiction, too.  Whatever the flaw is, it can’t be stupidity.  This is a genre where readers are completely unforgiving (and rightly so) of sleuth stupidity.  No middle of the night meetings with suspects in the middle of nowhere.

Who does my sleuth have to talk to?  Internal dialogue can get really old.  It’s so much better to have a sidekick to hash things out with.  Even better if the sidekick can provide a bit of conflict, adds a quirky quality to the book, or has talents and knowledge that our sleuth doesn’t have.

What does my sleuth do?  And for a cozy, this can be a big one, if you’re going into traditional publishing.  I’ve done very well with my Myrtle series which has no series hook (no culinary or crafting hook), but you’d do well to put your sleuth in an interesting job or consider a series hook, strictly in terms of selling the story.  Although I kind of like the mysteries that don’t.

And finally: does your sleuth have a pet?  Perhaps she should.  It’s a cozy mystery.  :)

I’ve probably left out some important questions—any suggestions from crime fiction readers or writers?  And…although this is a genre-specific post, I do think some of these questions can be adapted for other genres.  Does your protagonist have a friend to discuss the story situation with?  What types of flaws and strengths does he have? How do people react to your protagonist?

Tips for creating a sleuth for our mystery:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: altankoman

The post Writing the Cozy Mystery—the Sleuth appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Curating Links and Scheduling Them

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve seen several articles and post comments online recently where writers have stated they’ve used services like Buffer to schedule tweets because it’s very cumbersome to mass schedule on Hootsuite.

Buffer is a popular scheduler.  It just didn’t work for my purposes because I like more control over when I’m scheduling tweets and I wanted to schedule more than 10 updates per day, which would require a paid Buffer subscription. I also needed to be able to download weekly lists of all of my updates for my weekly Twitterific link roundup.  I’m on Hootsuite Pro : a paid subscription that allows me to download reports/lists of my updates.

You can mass schedule on Hootsuite Pro with limited trouble.  These how-to posts can be really dull if you’re not interested in the topic explained, I know.  But I do think that scheduling our social media updates saves us a lot of time. 

Social media scheduling: the why

On Twitter, I’m a curator/broadcaster.  I comb through writing-related links each day for the best posts.  The posts are scheduled and broadcast on Twitter without my being on the site at the time of the posting. I interact with writers (sometimes hours or a day later) on DM (direct message) if they make a comment personally to me about a link or anything else.  Although I’ve read many posts saying this is not the best way to network on Twitter (and I can see their point), it’s worked very well for me in terms of platform building.

Even if you don’t want to schedule tweets to the extent that I do (12-18 tweets a day), a little light scheduling on Twitter, Facebook, or the platform of your choice means that you can have more control over your schedule and still update on those sites.

Social media scheduling: the how

My method is a little more involved because it involves curating writing links.  But you can apply this to your own needs.  I use Feedly as my RSS reader and subscribe to a huge number of blogs.  Each day I comb through the posts to find12-18 really solid stories. I click each one to open it up in a new tab (this part drives my husband, who is in IT, a bit crazy).  Yes, I have a lot of windows open at once.

I use Hootlet, which is a free extension that works with Chrome and Firefox. On each of the open windows, I click the Hootlet button and it shortens the post link. I either use the post title or rewrite it (frequently they need to be rewritten for brevity and better headline quality) and then copy-paste the link.

I paste the link into a 3rd party site that will compile my links into an excel spreadsheet: http://sonixstudio.com/app/csv-builder . I choose the date I want the links to run (sometimes even weeks in advance, if I’m going out of town, etc.), schedule the times of day I want the links scheduled (I usually pick 7 a.m. to ll p.m. ET, just because those are the times that get the most hits), the number of posts that I want scheduled that day (12-18), and then I paste the links from Hootlet as I create them.  At the end (when I have the number of posts I specified to Sonix), I hit submit and then download.

Then I go to Hootsuite’s publisher dashboard. Choose where you want the updates made (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) At the bottom left is bulk message upload.  I click that. I find my downloaded file with browse.  Then I click submit.  And it’s ready to go.

Specific to link roundups:

I’ve had everyone from agents to new writers ask me the easiest way to compile link roundups. For Twitterific, my link roundup on Sundays, I go back into Hootsuite’s publisher page, click past scheduled and scheduled in turn, export the listed links as CSVs, download these excel sheets, run them through NotePad, then Word, then One Note (in order to get formatting and hyperlinks working) and then copy the text into a WordPress post.

Hoping there are a few people out there (heavy schedulers) who can really use this information (and hope that I didn’t put the rest of you to sleep!)  Anyone who does light scheduling can use the Hootlet extension to schedule in posts individually instead of in bulk.

Do you schedule some of your social media updates?  How do you do it?

Curating Links and Bulk Scheduling Them:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: jdurham

The post Curating Links and Scheduling Them appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.