Riley Adams's Blog, page 121

Productivity Tips for the Scattered Writer

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I think of myself as a pretty productive writer.  But this winter has been the toughest ever for me in terms of being able to finish a project.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m behind on my current book.  And I never like to think of myself as behind…I start each day fresh with no catching up.

However, at this point, it’s time for this particular book to be finished with.  My freelance editor is waiting for it.  My beta reader is waiting for it.  I have been emailed several times about it by readers (I’d been smart this time and said ‘spring 2015’ to keep it vague.  Now they’re emailing to ask exactly what spring means).

In some ways, I’ve remained fairly productive.  I’d heard the advice, years ago, about creating first.  I’ve worked on the book, as is my habit, every morning before five shortly after waking up.  I know what I’m going to write each morning, so the daily work has been completed quickly. I meet that day’s page goal before anyone else gets up.

My problem is the rest of the day and the part where I’m making up for lost time.  I told a friend of mine on Monday that I just felt so scattered.  I’m pulled in so many different directions at once.  This is everything from the personal (college-related forms, a new water heater, a change in prescription provider, sick children, various middle school carpool catastrophes, and tax-related stuff) to the professional (recent interviews, blog-related issues, copyedits for another project, back and forth with book reviewers, business with my editor, and a talk I’m giving in a couple of weeks at the Macon, Georgia, Cherry Blossom Festival).

It’s tough when every task seems like an emergency.  When we start working on one thing, remember another priority, and stop what we’re doing to switch over.

Which is why, when I came across an article by Time magazine a few days ago, I found it especially helpful. It’s “The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity” by Eric Barker. In it, Barker has five ways to maintain productivity.  They’re: stop reacting, decide what matters today, use your ‘magic hours’ for the top 3 important things, have a starting ritual, and ‘positive procrastination.’

I particularly like the ideas of the three most important things each day and the ‘magic hours’.  Regarding ‘the most important things’, Barker states:

What will let you end the day feeling like you accomplished something? No more than 3 goals.

The ‘magic hours’ you can probably figure out.  Barker references Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely:

Dan says you have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time. 

When everything seems like an emergency, this approach provides a thoughtful way to examine, reorder, and prioritize my tasks.

It’s easy for me to see where I’ve gotten off track the last few months. Some days I’ve squandered my magic hours by using them for high-energy activities like housework.  Sometimes I haven’t done a brain dump to create a master to-do list.  Sometimes I haven’t prioritized the items on my list or staggered the tasks on the calendar.  I’m reacting all the time, spinning my wheels, scrambling to get everything done at once.

Identifying the three daily priorities has helped me focus. I realize that I can edit my three top tasks at any time if things come up.  Or, since my productive magic hours are in the morning, maybe I’ve already done my three things by the time the emergency crops up. This means that last week my day wouldn’t have been nearly as knocked off course when a snowstorm was (allegedly…meteorologists blew it) approaching and I suddenly was saddled with a teen with a respiratory infection and an elderly corgi experiencing a sudden, immediate health issue.  I’d have finished my important tasks by then and would have edited my list to the new most important things: my child’s appointment and prescription pick-up, the corgi’s vet appointment, and possibly a shopping trip for wine in advance of the storm. :)

So it’s sort of like having an outline…for my day. A flexible one that can be adjusted as needs arise, just as my story outlines are adjusted when something interesting comes up in my story.

I know a lot of the writers here with a business background and day jobs will likely find this all familiar.  I’ve seen similar tactics online but nothing as succinct as this. It definitely has improved my working from home strategy.  For one thing, it takes that panicky feeling away…the feeling that I’ve got to jump in and fix something immediately.  I’ve figured out all the things that I know about that need to be addressed and put them on my calendar in a more orderly fashion.

Do you ever feel scattered?  How do you approach it?

Image: Death to the Stock Photo: Wired

The post Productivity Tips for the Scattered Writer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Use Attitude When Introducing Characters

by Jodie Renner, editor and author  @JodieRennerEd

To celebrate the release of her third writing guide, Captivate Your Readers, Jodie has priced it at 99 cents for today only and will also be giving away 4 electronic copies – your choice of mobi (for Kindle), ePub (for other e-readers), or PDF – of this book, in exchange for an honest review by the end of March. Enter to win in the comments below.

A sure sign of a fiction writer who’s still learning his/her craft is when a character comes on the scene for the first time and the writer stops the story to describe the character from head to toe – height, build, hair color, eyes, other facial features, and all the details of their clothing, including colors, down to their shoes. Then the story picks up where it left off and carries on.

My latest writing guide, Captivate Your Readers, devotes four chapters to how to introduce and describe characters in a natural, intriguing way. The basic message is to stay in the protagonist’s viewpoint when introducing him, and describe other characters through the POV of the character observing them, not neutrally, as the author stepping in. Here, I’ll be discussing effective techniques for describing other characters through the observations and attitudes of the viewpoint character (most often the protagonist).

Whether you’re describing the main character or someone he/she is observing, readers don’t need or welcome a list of every physical attribute and what they’re wearing – readers want a quick glimpse into their personality and character, how they carry themselves, how they enter a room, the effect they have on others. The readers can easily fill in any details themselves – if they want to. As a reader, I want a general impression but not every tiny detail – I’m more concerned about what’s happening, the interaction between the characters.

Which brings me to my next point – the protagonist (or other POV character) is busy interacting with that person, in a scene with some tension (at least there should be!), so they don’t have time to detail everything the person is wearing and think about the color of their hair and eyes, their height, etc., unless these are details that really stand out. If the person is very tall or very short, very heavy or thin, overbearing or timid and apologetic, bombastic or shy, these are details the observing, viewpoint character will register right away and take note of, even react to internally. The most important thing is to keep it real – what would the POV character really be thinking at the time?

~ Show the essence of the character and his effect on those around him.

Rather than giving readers a long, detailed police line-up description of a character’s height, build, facial features, and clothing, it’s best to just show an immediate impression of the character, including his personality or state of mind, as perceived by the viewer, through a few well-chosen details. Then let the readers imagine the rest themselves.

Here’s an example of just giving the relevant info, and from the character’s point of view. This is from LJ Sellers’ Agent Jamie Dallas thriller, The Target. Cortez, a young police detective, is investigating a murder with his senior, an older detective named Hawthorne. We’re in Cortez’s point of view.

The older detective stood, so Cortez did too. Even with his rounded shoulders, Hawthorne’s Ichabod-Crane body type made Cortez feel short at five-seven. Next to his father and cousins, he was the tall one.

These three sentences give us quite a bit of information about the two characters, with almost no interruption to the action, and we stay firmly in the thoughts and observations of the character.

In The Shield, by Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore, the main character, a scientist, who’s a bit intimidated, watches as two powerful Russians enter the scene.

The general appeared quite physically fit, even for his age. The casual, open-collared shirt hid little of his muscular build, no doubt from years of setting an example as a leader of the Russian Army

“How was your flight?” asked Ivankov. Unlike the general, the Russian banker was portly and balding, and bore the veined, red nose of a heavy drinker. He, too, was dressed casually.

In these two short paragraphs, we get quite a complete picture of these two guys (who are minor characters in the story), including info on their past, lifestyle, and characters. We don’t really care what they were wearing, exactly, as we’re eager to find out what happens next in this power meeting. And it doesn’t feel like the author interrupting the story to describe these people; it feels like the character observing them.

In her novel, Hot Rocks, Nora Roberts describes the appearance of a stranger like this:

A heroic belch of thunder followed the strange little man into the shop. He glanced around apologetically, as if the rude noise were his responsibility rather than nature’s, and fumbled a package under his arm so he could close a black-and-white-striped umbrella.

Both umbrella and man dripped, somewhat mournfully, onto the neat square of mat just inside the door… He stood where he was, as if not entirely sure of his welcome.

We readers might all visualize this man a bit differently, to suit our own ideas of what he should look like, but we get an immediate impression of his timidity and hesitancy, which is all we really need at this point.

And here’s a depiction of a prematurely aging middle-aged woman that strikes to the core, with just a few masterful brush strokes. In Moonlight Mile, instead of saying, “She looked old for her age, with her white hair and wrinkles,” Dennis Lehane describes her like this:

I did some quick math and guessed she was about fifty. These days, fifty might be the new forty, but in her case it was the new sixty. Her once-strawberry hair was white. The lines in her face were deep enough to hide gravel in. She had the air of someone clinging to a wall of soap.

~ Show the viewpoint character’s feelings and reactions to the character he/she is observing.

Also, work in the viewer’s emotional reaction to the character. Is the narrator character impressed? Intimidated? Fearful? Attracted to them? Disgusted or repulsed?

For example, Brad Parks, in The Girl Next Door, describes the first-person narrator’s feelings about a love interest:

…in addition to being fun, smart, and quick-witted—in a feisty way that always kept me honest—she’s quite easy to look at, with never-ending legs, toned arms, curly brown hair, and eyes that tease and smile and glint all at the same time.

By contrast, the protagonist of Dennis Lehane’s Moonlight Mile describes a spoiled rich kid who leaves victims in his wake without a second thought, as Mummy and Daddy will clean up after him. Here, the disgust of the observer character comes through loud and clear:

…Brandon wasn’t your run-of-the-mill rich kid asshole. He worked double shifts at it.

The investigator paid to spy on him goes on to describe the kid’s clothes:

Brandon wore a manufacturer-stained, manufacturer-faded hoodie that retailed for around $900 over a while silk T with a collar dragged down by a pair of $600 shades. His baggy shorts also had little rips in them, compliments of whichever nine-year-old Indonesian had been poorly paid to put them there.

Lehane’s astute investigator later describes a trophy-wife stepmother:

She had the look of a woman who kept her plastic surgeon on speed dial. Her breasts were prominently displayed in most of the photos and looked like perfect softballs made of flesh. Her forehead was unlined in the way of the recently embalmed and her smile resembled that of someone undergoing electroshock.

All of these descriptions paint a quick picture of the effect these characters have on the viewpoint character, the POV character’s immediate impression of them, without listing their height, build, hair color, and clothing, like a police line-up.

Do you have any examples or tips to add?

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Fire up Your Fiction, Writing a Killer Thriller, and Captivate Your Readers. She has also published two clickable time-saving e-resources to date: Quick Clicks: Spelling List and Quick Clicks: Word Usage. You can find Jodie at www.JodieRenner.com, www.JodieRennerEditing.com, at The Kill Zone blog alternate Mondays, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

 

Tweet: Use attitude when introducing characters. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/1F0zZUh @JodieRennerEd

The post Use Attitude When Introducing Characters 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.

Agent @Janet_Reid on strategy for a second book:  http://ow.ly/JrwhL

The Art of ARC-ing:  http://ow.ly/JrsOs @MarcyKate

Calendars, Timelines, and Collages: Mapping the Imaginary:  http://ow.ly/JrwhM from Hannah Gerson @The_Millions

8 Tips From Literary Agents About How to Get Published:  http://ow.ly/JrteH @monicamclark

Mobile Marketing Just for Authors:  http://ow.ly/JL4g4  @CaballoFrances

Crime fiction: crime stories played out on the stage:  http://ow.ly/JISy9 @mkinberg

4 Crucial Tips For Creating a Transmedia Story: http://ow.ly/JsC4M @pbsmediashift @storynotes

What a Novelist Can Learn from Nonfiction:  http://ow.ly/JsC4N  by Michelle Ule

The Best Bad Choice Crisis: http://ow.ly/JsC4O by Shawn Coyne

Calculating the ROI (return on investment) of Why I Am Writing a Book:  http://ow.ly/JsC4Q @DanBlank

5 Ways to Grow Your Email List With Facebook Contests:  http://ow.ly/JsC4R @smexaminer

How mindfulness techniques can bring us success in a wired world:  http://ow.ly/JsC4U @fran_booth

Should You Avoid Topical Issues in Your Writing? http://ow.ly/JsC4V @PAShortt

5 Things Learned in Creative Writing Class:  http://ow.ly/JsC4X @writingforward

Benefits of editing:  http://ow.ly/JsC4Z by Tom Bentley @writerunboxed

How to Query: The Query Letter (video):  http://ow.ly/JsC51 @ava_jae

Agent answers query question: print books only deals:  http://ow.ly/JsC54 @Janet_Reid

How to Handle Bad Book Reviews:  http://ow.ly/JsC55 @jodyhedlund

Overcoming Writer’s Block – A Compendium:  http://ow.ly/JwOZl @DaxMacGregor

How to Create Multi-Dimensional Characters—Everybody Lies: http://ow.ly/JwOZu @kristenlambtx

Editing Clauses in Publishing Contracts: How to Protect Yourself:  http://ow.ly/JwOZA @victoriastrauss

How to Create Characters Worth Reading: http://ow.ly/Jwz0Z @jamigold

Amazon Hack: Get Your Book into the Hands of an International Audience:  http://ow.ly/JwOZE @bookgal

Making the Most of Publicity:  http://ow.ly/JwOZI  @bookendsjessica

“Imprints are done. Right?”  http://ow.ly/JJOa8 @philipdsjones @Porter_Anderson

Screenwriters: The Procrastination Productivity Checklist:  http://ow.ly/JrwhK @brettwean

A Book Signing Checklist:  http://ow.ly/JrwhJ @bookgal

Why it’s Smart to Get Our Own ISBN:  http://ow.ly/Jrvfy @111publishing

The Impact of Free Promos:  http://ow.ly/JJ4Wx

5 Point Checklist To Help Writers Get to Know Their Characters:  http://ow.ly/JrwhH @jodyhedlund

8 Foods to Beat Writer’s Block:  http://ow.ly/JrwhF  by Meredith Quinn @TheWriterMag

Tips for succeeding as a writer: http://ow.ly/JrwhD  @cathyyardley

Evidence and conclusions in crime fiction:  http://ow.ly/JIRXm @mkinberg

Using Everyday Life to Improve Our Story:  http://ow.ly/Jrt5M @Jen_328

How to use tone and mood (to make your novel richer):  http://ow.ly/JrwhA @nownovel

Why 1 writer moved out of Christian lit into the general market:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nQ @cerebralgrump

5 Digital Publishing Questions for Seth Godin:  http://ow.ly/JHpwd @RicardoFayet @ReedsyHQ

Writing And Gaming: Tabletop RPGs, Character Creation And Conflict:  http://ow.ly/JHO3u @woodwardkaren

8 Ways to Make Your Characters More Relatable:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nJ @_RobbieBlair_

13 Steps to Become a Successful Writer This Year:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nG @KMWeiland

39 Things to Remember While Building Your Writing Career: http://ow.ly/Jo0nD @writerplatform

How To Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nz @thecreativepenn

How to Build an Online Platform: tumblr: http://ow.ly/Jo0nw @ava_jae

19 Quick Ways to Grow Your Author Following on Social Media:  http://ow.ly/Jo0ns @Susan_Shain

Get Close to your Readers through PoV:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nl @LindaKSienkwicz @buddhapuss

Types, Archetypes, and the Occasional Human Being:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nf @DavidCorbett_CA

Characters Who Care:  http://ow.ly/Jo0n5 @kid_lit

No empathy in horror?” http://ow.ly/Jo0ni @RayGarton

How to Write A Plausible Character: 3 Key Tips:  http://ow.ly/Jo0nb @AnneLParrish

Music For Writers: The Good, The Bad, And The Soundtrack: http://ow.ly/JE45T @Porter_Anderson  @MEnnioMorricone

One Of Your Crucial Characters Isn’t Working. What Do You Do? http://ow.ly/JkUNQ @charliejane

21 Book Marketing Tips for Authors:  http://ow.ly/JkUNK @trainingauthors

Reading in the Age of Distraction: http://ow.ly/JEP9H @Porter_Anderson @ThoughtCatalog @PeterDiamandis

List of researching resources for writers:  http://ow.ly/JkUNE from Clever Girl Helps

How to Find a Freelance Editor for Your Book:  http://ow.ly/JkUNz  @BlotsandPlots

How to Self-Publish Your Book:  http://ow.ly/JkUNx @Janefriedman

7  Steps to Overcome Resistance and Get Stuff Done:  http://ow.ly/JkUNs @yaseend

How to Sell Readers on Your Story’s Main Ideas in 4 Easy Steps:  http://ow.ly/JkUNp @charliejane

Agents And Editors Reaching out to Authors during #MSWL events. Tips for Writers: http://ow.ly/JE3nj @Porter_Anderson

How To Set Up Your Goodreads Author Profile:  http://ow.ly/JkUNo @futureofink

How Fifty Shades of Grey Is Dominating the Literary Scene:  http://ow.ly/JkUNl @vanityfair @ShanaTingLipton

10 Reasons Why 1 Writer Would Never Publish Traditionally:  http://ow.ly/JkUNi @deanwesleysmith

How to Research Your Novel Effectively: http://ow.ly/JkUNe @shesnovel

Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer by Elizabeth S. Craig:  http://ow.ly/JD4Al @AlexJCavanaugh

5 Ways to Wander: 1st Draft Writing Advice:  http://ow.ly/JkUNM @jeffreydavis108 @psychtoday

10 Self-Publishing Tools To Check Out In The New Year: http://ow.ly/JfQXN @abigailcarter

5 Times to Say Yes Before Hiring an Editor:  http://ow.ly/JfQXH @HLazare

Literary lingo to know: http://ow.ly/JfQXD @shesnovel

Time to bury the ISBN? http://ow.ly/JfQXB @RicardoFayet @bookmachine

11 Stories You Can Start Telling By Dinnertime:  http://ow.ly/JfGfZ @seanplatt

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Be Your Own Critic:  http://ow.ly/JfQXA  @BlotsandPlots

7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel: http://ow.ly/JfQXw @joebunting

Start a mailing list for your books (video):  http://ow.ly/JfF8O @nmeunier

Women in publishing — achievements and challenges: http://ow.ly/JuROT @Porter_Anderson @dannyarteruk @gailrebuck

7 Reasons Why Most Authors Fail:  http://ow.ly/JfQXr @johnnybtruant

7 Benefits of Writing Short Kindle Books:  http://ow.ly/JfDAX @nmeunier

1 author agreed to publish 3 novels in a year€”and then things got weird: http://ow.ly/JzUPQ @theatlantic @jeffvandermeer

Selling On Proposal:  http://ow.ly/JfQXm @karatwrites

How Authors Can Use Listmania to Promote Their Book:  http://ow.ly/JfQXe  @CathyStucker

“Bird Box” Named Horror Novel Of The Year by @ThisIsHorror:  http://ow.ly/JBVJ1 @JoshMalerman  @Porter_Anderson

Rewriting: How To Be Your Own Editor:  http://ow.ly/Jccik @robblightfoot

33 Experts Share What They Want Next From Female Characters:  http://ow.ly/JbTjS @bang2write

Easing Readers Into Your Story http://ow.ly/Jccig @Janice_Hardy

How to Find the Right Idea to Turn into a Book:  http://ow.ly/Jccia @sjaejones @PubCrawlBlog

Should You Send Out that First Novel?  9 Things to Consider First:  http://ow.ly/JxfUk @annerallen”

5 Facts About Your Book’s Ranking on Amazon:  http://ow.ly/Jcci7 @111publishing

How to Choose Kindle Keywords:  http://ow.ly/Jcci5  @selfpubreview by Henry Baum

A Process of Randomizing Revision:  http://ow.ly/JuVb3 @LeslieBudewitz

Tropes Vs. Cliches: A Storyteller’s Guide:  http://ow.ly/Jcci0 @bang2write

5 Elements Every Book Needs:  http://ow.ly/JcchW @PeggyEddleman @PubCrawlBlog

Love it or hate it, LA coffee shops are full of screenwriters:  http://ow.ly/JcchQ by Collin Friesen @KPCC

Why ‘royalties’ is a misnomer:  http://ow.ly/JuRFs @theindiepubmag @Porter_Anderson

On prologue structure and antagonists: http://ow.ly/JcchK @HookedOnNoir

Music For Writers: Gregory W. Brown’s Natural Selections: http://ow.ly/JuQPJ @GregoryWBrown @Porter_Anderson

Gathering Phase and Structuring Phase–2 Stages of Building a Book: http://ow.ly/J9TWn @writeabook

The Novel with Many Narrators is a Multiheaded Beast:  http://ow.ly/J9TWj @Kathy_Crowley

What to do when the fire of your first draft has gone out:  http://ow.ly/J9TWi @SWolfe_Editor @womenwriters

10 Common Editing Mistakes:  http://ow.ly/J9TWg  @selfpubreview

6 Ways to Prepare Yourself and Your Manuscript for Success:  http://ow.ly/J9TWd @K_Pashley

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

The Impact of Free Promos

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I had to answer a questionnaire for self-publishers recently and several of the questions stumped me.  I have a feeling that this isn’t a good thing.

One of the questions was ‘How many books have you sold (not given away)?’  I had absolutely no idea.  And this information is not exactly as easy to come by as you might think.  There is no way on your KDP dashboard to find lifetime sales.

I also had no idea how many books, total, I’d given away.

Another question was ‘What is your strongest selling title?  How many units have you sold?’

Hmm.

In my defense…I have been very busy writing several series.  My self-published books number six which, although not a huge number, certainly adds a bunch of lines and some complexity to each month’s KDP excel sheet.

Sadly, I did not take the excellent advice of writer Jack Welling and have one or both of my teenage children work on this stuff.  Somehow my clerical needs always seem to coincide with massive projects on their end.

My printer is upstairs and my laptop was with me at the kitchen table.  I pulled up all of the KDP reports from 2011 to 2015.  Then I started clicking ‘print.’

I failed to notice that some of my monthly KDP reports were 12 pages long because of the number of books and the countries that the books are selling in.

I also failed to notice that I had not set up the reports to print in ‘landscape’ and not ‘portrait.’

My son, who was actually working on a computer in the room where the printer was, found me after a while.  “Mom, what are you doing?”  He indicated that he had just noticed some of the pages that were printing only had a few words on them.

Sigh.

Some findings from my Amazon reports (doesn’t include other retailers):

My foreign sales became strong after price matching freebies ran.  Somehow, clearly, those free books gained me visibility on Amazon’s international sites.  I did set it up for the international prices to be based on the US prices.

I’ve given away 429,944 free units.

Looking at the months where I had a lot of downloads of a free title, in general the sales of the same/other titles increased.  But sometimes, the sales the following month declined and then dramatically bumped up the next month. I’ve never seen sales decline more than one month following a free promo.

So, I conclude that free promos tend to give me visibility in international markets as well as here at home. That bump in income may not show up the following month, but two months later.  I think that, for me and my genre and with the number of titles I have, free is a good strategy for me for visibility in a crowded marketplace. I recently read a thought-provoking post from Jane Friedman: “The Strategic Use of Book Giveaways and How They Can Increase Earnings Potential.”  In it, Jane says, “Giveaways (or freebies) are popular for good reason; they’re a classic, frictionless way to make people aware of your work.”

Strategies for the free books?

I was interviewed on Tuesday by Camille Fabre-Pergola and Phin Lambert at Vook and they asked me if I had a strategy for which titles were free.  It was a good question and it made me realize how undeliberate I can be when I’m running a free book promo.  Since my books don’t really have continuing subplots, I haven’t found it strictly necessary to make the first book in the series free.  In fact, I can’t make the first book in the series free, because it was traditionally published by Midnight Ink (and that ebook is actually currently priced over $8, I believe).

So I choose my free title a bit differently, since I have no control over the pricing of that first book and the books don’t have a continuing story arc.  Usually I take a look at the Amazon ranking and reviews of all the titles.  If there’s a title that could really benefit from a boost in either rank or number of reviews, I pick that one.  I make the book free on Smashwords and then Amazon (usually very quickly…24 hours?) price matches.

Things I’m going to start tracking better (some related to free promotions, some for other data):

Sales per title (unless/until Amazon does a better job helping us collect it on the dashboard). I still don’t know my strongest title or the number of units because I completely ran out of time.  I think this will be something I give the 13 year old to do on a rainy day when she has little homework.

Monthly sales totals.

Monthly downloads totals.

And to keep up with it better, I’m going to print out those reports each month.  Then I won’t have such a huge chore. Somehow, it’s easier for me to add the stuff up when it’s on paper.

Have you tried these types of promotions?  How did it work for you?  Any revelations of your own from your sales and downloads reports?

Tweetable:

Potential benefits of free book promos: http://bit.ly/1BDBrhZ via @elizabethscraig   (Click to Tweet)

Image: from Death to the Stock Photo

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Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig  

What’s it like being a hybrid writer (someone who both publishes traditionally and self-publishes)?

Today I’m at the Insecure Writer’s Support Group  listing pros and cons of being a hybrid writer and tips for making it work.  Hope you’ll pop over and join me.

The post Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Writer appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Randomizing Revision

by Leslie Budewitz, @LeslieBudewitz 

I take a methodical approach to revision. As I work on the draft, I start a list of “Revision Notes”—facts to check, inconsistencies to iron out, name changes to clean up. When the draft is complete I print it out and punch it into a fat, three-ring binder. I make an outline, adding to the Revision Notes as I go, with some comments organized by chapter and some by topic. (“Jen or Jenn?;” “Deepen Pepper’s doubts about investigating;” “Kristen lecture Pepper about getting involved with Tag twice? Earlier is better.”)

Then I start the read-throughs, which I sometimes call drafts even though I’m working from the same physical copy. Each read-through involves a different layer of the ms. In the plot draft, I fix the holes I’ve identified in the outline and others that jump out at me as I work. In the character draft, I make sure the protagonist drives the action (I write in first person) and that every secondary character pops. In the scene draft, I sharpen the goals, motivation, and conflicts, and make each transition clear, so the reader never wonders about time or place. I look to make sure I’ve kept it cozy, that I’ve never lost track of the dog, and that I’ve given my protagonist all the trouble she can handle—and then some.

But the final step may be the most important, because it introduces a key element to my otherwise orderly process: randomization. That’s the “Repetitive Word draft.” Like every writer, I’ve got my pet words: still, only, really, turn, smile, perfect. Every book seems to develop its own overused vocabulary. This stage eliminates unconscious echoes, and helps me sharpen my characters’ observations and introduce more variety and vibrance. In my latest ms., second in my Spice Shop Mysteries, my protagonist Pepper seemed to adore everything she didn’t find odd; she laughed too much, and overused the word figure, in a variety of contexts. Chili and chile went on the list because I continually mistyped them, as did Viaduct, a proper noun when referring to the elevated highway running along the Seattle waterfront. In my Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, I tend to repeat fresh and local. (Worthy concepts; overused words.) After I read a blog post on describing characters’ voices, I got a little carried away with that aspect of craft, so voice and tone went on the list.

But even more than making sure I don’t turn head into a synonym for walk three times on the same page, this process helps me catch (spot, nab) repetitive structure. I use the Find function, jumping from one instance of the target word to the next. I may land on two consecutive pages or skip several chapters. By taking context out of the picture, I can see what I’ve actually written—not what I think I’ve written. I’m not reading chronologically, so it’s easier to recognize repetitive thoughts or phrases and unnecessary sentences. An overused phrase often indicates a clause or sentence that can be eliminated. Sometimes it’s a filtering phrase—“I thought…”, “… caught my attention,” “I felt…”—that creates a distance between narrator and reader. Deleting it allows me to go a touch deeper into my protagonist’s POV.

Some overuses are easy to overlook because words like could, with, and though are so ordinary, so necessary. Do I really replace a good chunk of them? Yes and no. The eye scans over many of these words, and often, they are exactly the right word. But the real importance of the exercise is to show me where I’ve been tentative instead of bold, made a phrase conditional, pulled punches in my dialogue.

An example of a word that shows up too often in the same way—at least for me; your linguistic quirks may vary—is with. I tend to toss it into descriptions far too often. For example, my protagonist, Pepper Reece, describes a chef who comes into her shop this way: “Tamara vibrated with intensity, her presence boosting everyone around her to a higher frequency.” And only seven lines later, Pepper thinks of her this way: “Thin and wiry—from hard work, not workouts—her features too intense to call pretty. But she buzzed with an irresistible energy.” It’s a common sentence structure, but not one for every page.

These searches show us our weak spots.

Because of the random factor, I sometimes notice unnecessary words or phrases apart from those I’m searching for. And though I’ve already deleted dozens of throat-clearing phrases and eliminated thoughts or phrases that belonged in earlier drafts but don’t relate to action in the current version, I still find those stragglers, artifacts of previous thoughts that no longer fit. Out they go. They’re easier to spot when you’re not reading for substance. As a bonus, you may spot missing words or punctuation errors, too, because when the eye sees out of context, it doesn’t make the automatic corrections that trip us up.

For a 75,000 word ms., the process may take me two days. It can be tedious. But I can eliminate several hundred words without eliminating action. And the real payoff is a stronger, tighter manuscript.

Leslie Budewitz is the national best-selling author of DEATH AL DENTE, first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries set in northwest Montana, and winner of the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, and the sequel, CRIME RIB (2014). ASSAULT & PEPPER, first in her Spice Shop Mysteries will debut in March 2015 from Berkley Prime Crime. Pepper Reece, owner of the Seattle Spice Shop, thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murderer ends up in the mix…

Also a lawyer, Leslie won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction for BOOKS, CROOKS & COUNSELORS: HOW TO WRITE ACCURATELY ABOUT CRIMINAL LAW & COURTROOM PROCEDURE (Quill Driver Books), making her the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction.

Leslie blogs for writers on using the law accurately in their fiction. Visit her blog. http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com/blog

Find her on Facebook  http://www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewit...

or on Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/LeslieBudewitz

The post Randomizing Revision 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.

5 Reasons To Outline Your Novel – before you write a word:  http://ow.ly/J3hMd @writers_write

What Your First 250 is Telling Your Readers:  http://ow.ly/J3hMf @ava_jae

Copyright Basics: http://ow.ly/JrrU7  @LeslieBudewitz

5 Ways To Sell More Books On Amazon:  http://ow.ly/J3hMg @selfpubreview

How to Send Review Copies of Your Book to Potential Reviewers: http://ow.ly/J3hMh @miralsattar   

Where to send ARCs:  http://ow.ly/J3hMj @MarcyKate @WriteAngleBlog

How Susan Orlean Writes With Evernote:  http://ow.ly/J3hMk @susanorlean

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions:  http://ow.ly/J3hMm @KMWeiland

7 Writer Friendship Truths as told by a Cartoonist:  http://ow.ly/J4UEl @wayneepollard

Revising Your NaNoWriMo Mess-terpiece :  http://ow.ly/J4VEs by Heather Fenton

Trying too painfully, achingly hard to write The Great American Novel: http://ow.ly/J4VEt by Paul St John Mackintosh

The ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ Guide to Foreshadowing: http://ow.ly/J4VEv @BetterNovelProj

Reading the First American Novel, Published 226 Years Ago:  http://ow.ly/J4VEz @DanPiepenbring @ParisReview

How to Approach Authors in the Wild:  http://ow.ly/J4VEB @DelilahSDawson

How Much Information is Safe to Share Online? http://ow.ly/J4VEC @EdieMelson

10 Tips for YA Romance:  http://ow.ly/J4VEI @BetterNovelProj

5 Easy Tips to Fix a Boring Online Bio:  http://ow.ly/J4VEJ @JudyLeeDunn

Series or Stand-alone? http://ow.ly/J9TVV @SkylarkLit

How Not to Write a Logline:  http://ow.ly/J9TVZ by Angela Bourassa @scriptmag

Anti-villain motivations besides ‘tragic past':  http://ow.ly/J9TW0 from The Right Writing

Why Email Newsletters?  http://ow.ly/J9TW2 @DanBlank @writerunboxed

How to Prepare for a Pitch Contest:  http://ow.ly/J9TW3 @ava_jae

From the Writer’s Perspective: How to Get In on the SEO Scene:  http://ow.ly/J9TW7 @freelancewj

25 Things You Should Know About Antagonists:  http://ow.ly/J3hMa {lang.} @ChuckWendig

Show, Don’t Tell: Revealing True Emotion In Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/J3hM9 @angelaackerman

Women in publishing on today’s #FutureChat (4pGMT / 11aET / 8aPT) (now): http://ow.ly/Jo1Od  @Porter_Anderson

Tension & Pacing in Your Fiction:  http://ow.ly/Jo0OX from Jack Smith

When picture books are ‘overly didactic':  http://ow.ly/J3hM8 @literat

Grammar Rules: Capitalization:  http://ow.ly/J3hM6 @writingforward

Writers’ cliches that make you tear your hair out:  http://ow.ly/J3hM5 @alisonflood

The One-Page Synopsis | http://ow.ly/J27hX  @nancyjcohen

Author Lessons from the Shark Tank:  http://ow.ly/J27hT @wherewriterswin

Finding and Honing In On Your Story:  http://ow.ly/J27hR @kiersi

Google Docs vs. Scrivener for Writing:  http://ow.ly/J27hP @jamietr

Ambient and white sound for writing:  http://ow.ly/J27hN from Paperback Writer

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding http://ow.ly/J27hL @charliejane

4 Danger Signs To Search For, Before Sending Off Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/J27hJ @charliejane

19 Tips from Famous Writers:  http://ow.ly/JkZCv @esporter

(Impossibly Condensed) Checklists for Beginning a Novel:  http://ow.ly/J27hG @randysusanmeyer

Confusion around the term ‘hybrid’ in publishing: http://ow.ly/JjB3M @Porter_Anderson @BennettColes

How to Deal With Writing Distractions:  http://ow.ly/J27hE @QuipsAndTips

Online tools for writers: http://ow.ly/J27hz @sherice

The Late Blooming Novel:  http://ow.ly/JjAST @janice_hardy @AlexJCavanaugh

12 Book Marketing Tips from 12 Industry Experts:  http://ow.ly/J26xR @booklaunchdemon

Who discovers the body in crime fiction?  A chart:  http://ow.ly/JjA1d  @mkinberg

The Ebook as Annuity:  http://ow.ly/J27ht @markcoker

How ‘Into the Woods’ Got it Wrong (And Why You Should Too) : http://ow.ly/IXVLE @epbure

6 Things Your Website Should Tell Book Reviewers About You (and Your Book): http://ow.ly/IXVLt @bookgal

The author photo: where to use them, tips for getting one done:  http://ow.ly/IXVLn @MyBookShepherd

Freelancers: 3 Tip-Offs That Your Dream Writing Job Will Really be a Nightmare:  http://ow.ly/IXVLk @ticewrites

How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book? 4 Authors Share Their Numbers:  http://ow.ly/IXVLj @thewritelife @hopeclark @thecreativepenn

Storium: Collaborative Storytelling:  http://ow.ly/IXVLe @woodwardkaren

Finding a Plot Structure:  http://ow.ly/IXVLb  @KayKeppler

3 Truths about Being a Poet as Told by a Cartoonist:  http://ow.ly/IXEIU @wayneepollard

Fantasy Sub-Categories: http://ow.ly/IXVL4  @dreamoforgonon

A trend toward older characters in crime fiction? http://ow.ly/IXVL1 @mkinberg

Reaching Readers through Wattpad and Blog Tours:  http://ow.ly/JfDwF @CheleCooke @RicardoFayet  @ReedsyHQ

How Being Specific Helps You Show And Not Tell:  http://ow.ly/IXVKV @MiaJouBotha

The Cheater’s Guide to Building Your Author Platform:  http://ow.ly/IXVLy @SueDetweiler

How to Query: Research (video):  http://ow.ly/IRFf2 @ava_jae

Weaving Social Narratives Beyond the Page: Transmedia:  http://ow.ly/IRFf1 @hackettkate

Tips for writing endings:  http://ow.ly/IRFeX @charliejane

How to Utilize Tension More Effectively:  http://ow.ly/IRFeT @jodyhedlund

How to Place Turning Points on a Beat Sheet:  http://ow.ly/IRFeQ @jamigold

French Readers are Just as E-Trashy as Everyone Else http://ow.ly/IRFeN @EdNawotka

How many rejections (is the wrong question):  http://ow.ly/IRFeK from agent @Janet_Reid

7 Things You Learn When Your Book Is Published:  http://ow.ly/IRFeJ @MartinaABoone

Rewrite an Old Manuscript or Let it Die? http://ow.ly/JboBi @LyndaRYoung

Finding Your Writing Process – A Procrastinator’s Journey:  http://ow.ly/IRFeG @dannymanus

How to Break Up with your Novel:  http://ow.ly/IRDIL @marthamconway @womenwriters

Make Editing Easier: Simple Tips to Make Your 1st Draft Better: http://ow.ly/JbjPw @silas_payton

How to Write A Plausible Character: – 3 Key Tips:  http://ow.ly/IRFeP @AnneLParrish

Why Your Writer’s Bio is Valuable Real Estate:  http://ow.ly/IRFeH @EdieMelson

Music For Writers: The Pettersson Legacy Of Fire And Ice:  http://ow.ly/J4U1D @Porter_Anderson @ThoughtCatalog

10 Rules For Making Better Fantasy Maps:  http://ow.ly/INHZY @io9  @LaurenDavis

What Are We Rewarding In Children’s Literature? (#GuysDoRead) http://ow.ly/J7Euc @Porter_Anderson @scribblestreet

Bisexuality in SF:  http://ow.ly/INHZT @ceciliatan

3 Tips to “Show, Don’t Tell” Emotions and Moods:  http://ow.ly/INHZH @joebunting

Picking a Juicy Secret to Jazz Up Your Character:  http://ow.ly/INHZD  @writingeekery

A Case Study on Trust as a Literary Theme:  http://ow.ly/INHZA @DIYMFA @SaraL_Writer

‘Are there too many literary agencies?’  http://ow.ly/J7DKs @Porter_Anderson @JonnyGeller

The Only Rule About Backstory That Matters:  http://ow.ly/INHZv @KMWeiland

Understanding Phrasal Verbs – 2 word verbs with ‘get’:  http://ow.ly/INHZt @writers_write

Worldbuilding: Creating Fictional Cultures:  http://ow.ly/INHZk @authorjsmorin

A Kindle Book Marketing Tip:  http://ow.ly/INHZe @angee

Improve Your Twitter Messaging and Control:  http://ow.ly/J7xr3 @jimhbs

One Author’s Debut Year: Indie Income versus Expenses:  http://ow.ly/INHZP @JessiGage

One Indie Author’’s Debut Year Income:  http://ow.ly/INHZK @JessiGage @passivevoiceblg

5 Comics Writers Who’ve Received Rejection Letters Will Understand:  http://ow.ly/INHZ9  @wayneepollard

Perceived differences between ‘us’ and ‘them':  http://ow.ly/J4TOe @Porter_Anderson

How to Rethink Creative Opportunities:  http://ow.ly/ILtDU  @CreativeKatrina

Mental Illness In Fiction: Getting It Right:  http://ow.ly/ILyXQ @DanKoboldt

Balancing World Building and Pacing:  http://ow.ly/ILyXM @janice_hardy

5 Key Elements for Successful Short Stories http://ow.ly/ILwXo @EmilyWenstrom

Scenes: The Skeleton of a Novel:  http://ow.ly/ILyXI @fictionnotes

7 Tips For Authors Who Want to Evolve into Book Publishers: http://ow.ly/ILyXD @JFBookman

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

Tension & Pacing in Your Fiction

Guest Post by Jack Smith

Fiction depends on tension.  Tension—a felt response to conflict—must be heightened as well as diminished in a literary work.  Where this is accomplished depends on the nature of the plot and the character arc.  While tension is created by practically every story element, pacing is largely a result of style and narrative technique.  The pacing of a work affects the tension but also creates mood and tone.   In every fictional work you write, you must decide on both tension and pacing.  While much of this may be a matter of intuition and feel, you can also plan out matters of tension and pacing as you write and revise your work.   This amounts to a six-stage process.

I. Decide on the nature of the tension in your story or novel. Basically there are three major types of fictional works according to tension.

A. The five-stage plot structure, where tension must be gradually (though not continuously) increased to the story’s crisis and climax, followed by falling action and denouement.

B. The epiphany story where tension gradually builds toward a final, rather sudden, clarifying vision, on the part of the protagonist.

C. The story where tension builds at times, is released, or partly released, but does not build toward a climax at the end—but rather closes with the protagonist’s psychological distillation of several bumps along the way, no one bump necessarily involving more tension than the others.



II. As you rework and rethink your story or novel, decide how and where you might increase the tension and decrease it.

A. Consider your protagonist. What is likely to produce tension in this character? What is likely to relieve it?

B. What will be the main events that carry out your character’s overall trajectory? How are these tension-producing events?

C. What events will produce a reduction of tension? How are these events needed to develop your character’s overall trajectory?

III. Now work/rework your manuscript to make sure scenes create tension where needed, or decrease tension where needed.

A. In scenes that increase tension, depend on action and dialogue that emphasize conflict—conflict central to advancing the plot.

B. In scenes meant to relieve tension, depend on action and dialogue that decrease conflict, suggesting temporary resolution, compromises reached, hope for the future, and the like—all such scenes advancing the plot.

IV. Now work/rework your story or novel manuscript to make sure that expository sections of character thought and reflection represent increases in tension and times when this tension subsides.

A. Characters naturally respond to the external tensions in their lives. In your protagonist’s various thoughts and reflections, build this tension by exploring it for its possible negative, and even dire, effects of various kinds.

B. In sections where the tension subsides, provide moments of character reflection where feelings of relief occur, or even feelings of hope, At other times, find ways to have your protagonist think about other things besides the central tensions in his/her life, the ones that are driving the plot.

V. Make sure the pacing—whether in scene or narrative prose—contributes to the desired tension. Be sure the mood and tone created by the pacing is right for your work.

A. When the prose is smooth, fluid, easy-flowing, there is little tension—or apparent tension, at least.

B. When the prose is rapid-paced, the tension tends to increase, suggesting a positive feeling (e.g. excitement) or a negative one (e.g. worry or fear).

C. Decide on the right pacing for your story or novel, going through it scene by scene, and prose section by prose section. Which pacing creates the desired tension? Reduces the tension, as needed? Which pacing creates the right mood and tone?

VI. The narrative technique also creates pacing, and it too affects mood and tone.



A. If a story or novel is fragmented, with short, clipped sections, or white spaces that cause the reader to make “leaps,” this will suggest disorientation.

B. If a story or novel is traditionally narrated, with narrative bridges between sections, this may suggest a measure of coherence in the protagonist’s world (though such coherence can certainly be called into question by events and character reflection).

C. Decide on the right narrative technique for your work. Does it help create the right pacing—contributing to the desired tensions in the work? Does it create the right mood and tone?

Every literary work, short story or novel, must include tension—a felt response to conflict. A work without tension is almost unthinkable if it’s about life at all. But tension itself isn’t enough. You must handle the tension so that it builds, releases, builds, and also contributes to the advancement of the plot and overall character arc. You must also handle the pacing well, choosing the pacing that will contribute to the tensions in the work and help create the right mood and tone. Finally, you must choose the right narrative technique.

Jack Smith is author of the novel Hog to Hog, which won the George Garrett FictionPrize (Texas Review Press. 2008), and is also the author of Write and Revise for Publication: A 6-Month Plan for Crafting an Exceptional Novel and Other Works of Fiction, published earlier this year by Writer’s Digest. His novel ICON  was published in June 2014 by Serving House Book

Over the years, Smith’s short stories have appeared in North American Review, Night Train, Texas Review, and Southern Review, to name a few. He has also written some 20 articles for Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market, as well as a dozen or so pieces for The Writer. He has published reviews in numerous literary journals, including Ploughshares, Georgia Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, American Review, Mid-American Review, and the Iowa Review.

The post Tension & Pacing in Your Fiction appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Writers–It Doesn’t Pay to be Shy

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Not all writers are introverts, of course.  I’m one of the more introverted ones.  My introversion can veer into shyness around readers…I’m not a shy person otherwise.  

There are definitely things I’m more comfortable doing than others.  I hate readings and signings.  But I don’t mind signing stock in bookstores or (now), telling people that I’m a writer. And there are things I don’t enjoy doing that I now just suck up and do.

Even introverted writers should consider:

Wattpad.  This online publishing platform is a good way to get our work in front of a younger/different audience. Yes, we’ll need to interact with readers there.

Newsletters.  It took me years to get to the point where I’d “bother” a reader with a newsletter. I’ve only been sending them for a little over a year.  Even though readers signed up completely voluntarily to be on my newsletter list.  Each time I send them, my numbers on Amazon get better.

Events. I’m very, very picky about the events I’ll do and send more nos than yesses to invitations. But the ones I do usually have good turnouts and I do sell books and meet readers. After I’m done, I realize I’ve enjoyed them.

Signing stock.  Easy.  I go into bookstores, show my driver’s license or show the staff that the author photo looks like me, and sign the books.  They put a sticker on the front that states autographed copy.  I never see a reader this way.

Goodreads giveaways (no human interaction here! Perfect for the shy writer!)

Telling friends and acquaintances you’re a writer.  This can be done fairly painlessly by putting a link to your books or your site as the signature on your emails.

Landing a guest spot for a blog tour or a place as a regular blogger on a group blog.  If you want a guest blogging opportunity or to be a member of a group blog, you need to reach out to bloggers. This was something I didn’t understand when I started blogging six years ago.  I thought the appropriate etiquette was to wait to be invited.  It’s not.  Although there are best practices when it comes to requesting guest posts. I’ll cover that in a later post.

Asking for help:

Reaching out to primary sources for research.  It can be a lot speedier than searching up very specific bits of information online.  Police officers have been happy to help me when I’ve called their departments. And I don’t think they thought I was a budding criminal (most of the time).

Asking for blurbs/endorsements.  If you’re starting out, you probably need them.  Authors will tell you if they don’t have the time and most bigger name authors expect to be asked.

Times you should put your foot down and not even consider being shy or at all reticent:

A bad contract is much, much worse than no contract at all. Don’t sign your rights away to your content.  Here are some posts that may help you understand your contract: Susan Spann’s “How Bad Can One Page Be? The Hidden Dangers in Short-Form Contracts,”  Victoria Strauss’s “Publishing Industry Terms and Contracts: Some Resources, and Some Advice,” David P. Vandagriff’s (Passive Guy’s) “How to Read a Book Contract – Agents and the Law.”

Not all agents are good agents. Not all publishers are good publishers. Just because these folks say something is so, doesn’t make it so. Places to research agents and publishers are the Preditors and Editors listing and Victoria Strauss’s Writer Beware.

Sometimes professional editors’ “corrections” need to be corrected. Stet is a useful word to know.  For one trad-published series (I no longer work with this editor), an editor corrected an entire couple of pages to first person.  The book was written in third.

These are just a few examples of times it pays to be outgoing as a writer.  Can you think of anything I’ve overlooked?

The post Writers–It Doesn’t Pay to be Shy 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.

6 Ways to Rebalance Your Being to Enhance Your Creativity:  http://ow.ly/IHAus @WriterJoMalby

8 Query Tips No One Tells Writers:  http://ow.ly/IHAut @carlywatters

Conquer Drowsiness with 10 5-Minute Easy Exercises:  http://ow.ly/IHAux @colleen_m_story

Unnecessary words and phrases to cut:  http://ow.ly/IHAuy @writers_write

How Does Money Taint Art?  http://ow.ly/IHzOO  @ArtistThink               

How to Face Criticism in Creativity  http://ow.ly/IHAuA @ArtistThink

Power of the Space Between Creative Bursts:  http://ow.ly/IHAuB @CreativeKatrina

How Realistic Is Science Fiction Linguistics? http://ow.ly/IHAuC @slate @dsbigham

Are You Making These Mistakes That Lead to Carpal Tunnel? http://ow.ly/IHAuD @colleen_m_story

10 Things Every New Creator of SF Should Know:  http://ow.ly/IHAuF  @charliejane

The Myth of the Overnight Success and What Those Stories Have in Common:  http://ow.ly/IHAuH @carlywatters

Waiting for Someone Else to Validate your Creativity?  http://ow.ly/IHAuI @CreativeKatrina

Top 10 Ways To Love Your Reader:  http://ow.ly/J1AgV @10minnovelist

Components of book proposals:  http://ow.ly/ILyWS @behlerpublish

Early stages of character creation:  http://ow.ly/ILyX2 @kayedacus

Handy Tricks for Using Word:  http://ow.ly/ILyXd  @Savage_Woman

How to Tell if Back Story is Sabotaging Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/ILyXn @Roz_Morris

Make sure your theme isn’t a cliché:  http://ow.ly/ILyXq @nownovel

How To Use Scrivener to Plan a Book:  http://ow.ly/ILyXx @Natasha_Lester

Love Your Reader, Love Your Art, Love Yourself:  http://ow.ly/J1Akk  @AnnaKSnow @10minnovelist

5 Laws of the Fiction Reader http://ow.ly/IFyfo @jamesscottbell

Coming Up with Your Story’s Premise:  http://ow.ly/IFyfl  @KillerNashville @JadenTerrell

Trad published authors–pay attention to your backlist: http://ow.ly/IFyfk @kristinerusch

Crime Writers: Are You Writing What You THINK You Know? http://ow.ly/IFyfj @LeeLofland

How To Create A Killer Opening For Your Science Fiction Short Story:  http://ow.ly/IFxQw @charliejane

Agents should ‘join forces to build the next generation of talent':  http://ow.ly/IFyfg @JonnyGeller @TheBookseller

Should You Self-Publish? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself:  http://ow.ly/IFyff  @ClaireCookwrite

Symbolism for cover design:  http://ow.ly/IFyfd @cjgmanlapas

What the Incredible Hulk Can Teach Us about Emotion in Fiction:  http://ow.ly/IFyfb @HDemchick

How To Get Stuff Done When You Don’t Want To:  http://ow.ly/IFyfa @AllisonStadd @99u

Creating Compelling Characters Readers Can’t Forget:  http://ow.ly/IFyf9 @RuthHarrisBooks

The Definition and Criteria of Concept:  http://ow.ly/IFyf8 @storyfix

5 Ways to Make Your Character Stand Out:  http://ow.ly/IB3Zk by Chris Winkle @Mythcreants

5 Classic Women Authors on Writing and Money:  http://ow.ly/IB3Zg @ladieswhowrite

3 Act Story Structure: Act Three:  http://ow.ly/IB3Ze @woodwardkaren

Tricks of the Trade 1: The Plant:  http://ow.ly/IB3Zb @mooderino

The Sum of the Parts: Writing a Synopsis:  http://ow.ly/IB1KS @Janice_Hardy

What not to say to authors (and what to say instead): http://ow.ly/IB3Z7 @holly_bourneYA

Jobs That Leave You Time to Write:  http://ow.ly/IB3Z5 @stevegillman

The Why & How of Foreshadowing:  http://ow.ly/IB3Z2 by Chris Winkle @Mythcreants

Queries are never wastes of agents’ time:  http://ow.ly/IB3YU @Janet_Reid

Help for writing a child’s emotional state:  http://ow.ly/IB3YR from Writeworld

Marketing, Social Media & Book Signings: —Why None of These Directly Impact Book Sales:  http://ow.ly/IB3YZ @kristenlambtx

What the “Sorting Hat” Teaches Us About the Hero’s First Obstacle:  http://ow.ly/IB1mE @BetterNovelProj

Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qK @sciam  @ferrisjabr

How limiting creative choices enhances creativity:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qG  @onewildword

Rejection letters and writer reactions:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qF from Teresa Nielsen Hayden

The 5 Best Things an Artist Can Do:  http://ow.ly/Ix4Gt @garrettrauthor

Remember Why Readers Seek You Out Online:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qE @RachelLKent

10 page-to-screen successes:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qB by  Meredith Quinn for @thewritermag

6 Sub-Plots That Add Style To Your Story:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qz @writers_write

Ingredients for a tough character:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qx @VickyThinks

Tips to Include Family in Your Writing Life:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qu @BDBrady007

What do names tell us about characters?  http://ow.ly/Ix8qs by FCETIER

How E-Books Have Changed the Print Marketplace:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qp @Janefriedman

Writing science…a few tips:  http://ow.ly/Ix8qn from Captain Shellhead

Writing Tips: Write What You Know:  http://ow.ly/It3SR @writingforward

30 Tips For Writing a Book in 30 Days: http://ow.ly/It3SN @JessicaStrawser

Tips for Your Author Website: http://ow.ly/It3SK  by Kiffer Brown for @wherewriterswin

9 traits of a good agent and 3 contract issues to watch out for:  http://ow.ly/IQn2I @Porter_Anderson @MirabilisDave @AgentKristinNLA

How To Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers:  http://ow.ly/It3SI @thecreativepenn

How to Use Needs and Goals to Appeal to Readers:  http://ow.ly/It3SD @jamigold

Would you turn this bestselling author’s first page? http://ow.ly/It3SA @RayRhamey

40 Questions to Ask When You Get the call from an Agent:  http://ow.ly/It3Sy @MartinaABoone

Most authors break through in middle-age:  http://ow.ly/It3Sv @alice_emily @telegraph

Creating Character Names: A Great Time Saver All Writers Should Use:  http://ow.ly/INuuC  @silas_payton

Switch from passive to active voice:  http://ow.ly/It3Ss  @sharilopatin

An Author Assistant Answers Writers’ Questions:  http://ow.ly/IOCZe @K8Tilton

5 Ways Marketing Can Revive Your Series:  http://ow.ly/It3Sq @srjohannes

Productivity Tip: Learn how to say no:  http://ow.ly/It3Sn @inkyelbows

5 Tips for Writing Twist Endings:  http://ow.ly/It3Sj @DinoLaserbeam

Music For Writers: Self-Pubbing Cellist Kate Dillingham:  http://ow.ly/IJixy @KateDillingham1 @Porter_Anderson

Resources to improve your grammar:  http://ow.ly/IrKoC from Reference for Writers

Synonyms for walk:  http://ow.ly/IrKoA from Green Haven

The Three Writing Mindsets:  http://ow.ly/IrKox  @berkun

11 Secrets to Writing Effective Character Description:  http://ow.ly/IrKov by Rachel Scheller for @writersdigest

Underground Fantasy: Tunnels and Secret Passageways:  http://ow.ly/IrKor @SteffHumm

5 Top Author Platforms and 4 Takeaways from Them:  http://ow.ly/ILAQv @EmilyWenstrom @DIYMFA

How clearing clutter helped one writer: http://ow.ly/IrKoo  by Elizabeth King Humphrey

Are ebooks really here forever?”  http://ow.ly/IJhP6 @Porter_Anderson @TheBookseller”

Commonly Confused: Comparatives and Superlatives:  http://ow.ly/IrKok @Savage_Woman

Some pace-slowing and barrier-creating words to consider dropping in our novels:  http://ow.ly/IrKoj @raynehall

The home life of cops and PIs in crime fiction. How much to include? http://ow.ly/IJg62 @mkinberg

5 self-publishing truths few authors talk about:  http://ow.ly/IrKog @HearnDylan

On writing musicals:  http://ow.ly/IrKod from Writeworld

3 Tips for Dealing With Criticism:  http://ow.ly/IrKoc  @AllisonStadd

Working with Small Publishers – 12 Pros and Cons http://ow.ly/IJdcZ @alexjcavanaugh @taratylertalks

12 tips for 2015 for illustrators:  http://ow.ly/IrKoa by Kathy Temean

Publishing Hindsight: Self-Pub and POD Companies:  http://ow.ly/IJcJa @SpunkOnAStick @LoniTownsend

5 Trade Publishing Predictions for 2015:  http://ow.ly/Imq7y @Personanondata

23 Words For Book Lovers That Really Should Exist http://ow.ly/Imq7t @soalexgoes @buzzfeed

Querying a self-pubbed book…put yourself in an editor’s shoes:  http://ow.ly/Imq7l @behlerpublish

Crossing Over: From Poetry To Prose:  http://ow.ly/Imlgl by Robert Thomas for @BTMargins

Why the Best Characters for Your Story are Weirdos:  http://ow.ly/Imq7c @epbure

Unleash Your Creativity: 7 Methods Inspired by Eastern Wisdom: http://ow.ly/IHzqN @WriterJoMalby

Writing diversity–tips for describing noses: http://ow.ly/Imq76 from Mod Colette

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