Cat Rambo's Blog, page 69

Tools For Writers: Recent Discoveries include AuthorGraph and Buffer

I've been experimenting with book promotion, using my own book, which is both informative and useful. To me, it seems that authors need to keep informed about new possibilities for online publicity and experiment freely with them.

I’ve finished up the first draft of the Building an Online Presence for Writers class, and am in the process of incorporating feedback from the first readers into the text. At the same time, I’ve been doing a lot of research and adding some new tools to my promotional toolbox. Here’s some of the new ones:

Authorgraph : Developed by a reader here in Seattle, Authorgraph provides a way for authors to electronically sign an e-book. Sign up on their site to allow readers to request a personalized signature. Authorgraph provides a way to add a Facebook page that readers can use to request signatures as well.
Wikis: The SFWA blog recently featured my write-up on wikis and how authors can use them for both writing and promotional purposes.
Reddit: Another post for the SFWA blog talked about Reddit, which holds a number of lively reader communities. I’ve been enjoying participating over there and have been gleaning some interesting new suggestions for my to-be-read list.
Buffer: I’ve been using Buffer lately for scheduling tweets and am pretty happy with it. Here’s a pretty exhaustive guide to it that goes into great detail.

I will be hosting a special free session of the Building an Online Presence for Writers – details forthcoming in the next day or two. If you’re interested in being informed when the book comes out in November, you can sign up here.

Snippet from Hearts of Tabat

What did it mean? Because surely it must, happening three days in a row. It couldn’t just be that she’d had the same dream randomly dropped into her head three times. She’d mulled it over, standing in her office staring out over the street steaming in the warm spring rain that pattered on the patterned paper umbrellas, printed with political slogans, that everyone carried.

I’m working on the sequel to recently-finished Beasts of Tabat, whose working title is Hearts of Tabat. Here’s a snippet I wrote this morning.

Adelina did something she’d mocked other people for doing. She consulted a Dream Reader.

Everyone sensible knew that Dream Readers were frauds, making up stories to suit the needs they could read in their clients. Everyone’s dreams were as individual as their minds, everyone had their own internal cartography leading to entirely different parts of their brains.

But the dream had come three mornings in a row. Three mornings when she woke up with a start, fear clamping its fingers, slender as reeds, strong as iron, around her throat, her hands clenched so hard that her nails bit into the heels of her hands.

She was walking along a bridge, which narrowed further and further, so much only a single person could walk across it, then crumbled away in the middle, leaving a two foot gap. She knew a wide enough step would take her across it, but when she looked down, she saw the water, seething with toothy eels, their lanterned eyes staring up at her, waiting for her to fall.

She saw Bella far, far away, down the long road on the other side, back turned as she walked away, too far to hear Adelina calling after her. Snowflakes were falling around her, as though a cloud echoed her progress overhead, and moonlight glinted on the snow, tinting it purple and red.



Finally she gathered her wits and went back a few steps. She crouched, then pushed herself forward and ran to jump and land on the other side. Far below, the eels ground their teeth, a sound that crawled up her spine and along her shoulders.

A headshake, like a dog cleaning itself of rain, chased the sensation away.

Bella had vanished over the horizon. Parks lay to either side, and she knew they were Tabatian parks, but ones she’d never discovered before. The notion delighted her: she’d investigate their histories, incorporate that into her long-time project, a complete history of the city.

But which one to enter first? She hesitated.

The left-hand one held a fabulous menagerie surrounded by a high, green-painted fence. She could hear the creatures roaring and whinnying, baying and moaning and a calliope’s wheedle. Fireworks arced and popped above it.

On the right was a more sedate water-park. But it held nooks and crannies as enticing as any brightly-colored booth: serene statues had placards waiting to be deciphered, and a massive fountain in the center roiled with carp colored white and purple and red.

It came to her that the righthand side would cost her no coins, but that the menagerie would require the price of admission, so she fumbled at her belt, thinking she’d let the lack or not determine which way she went. But the coins in her pouch were unfamiliar and she was uncertain whether or not the ticket seller would accept them.

She hesitated, torn between choices.

Something was coming padding down the road towards her. A Sphinx and a Manticore, unchained, unrestrained. They walked without hurry, placid and implacable and deadly. Their mouths moved as though they were talking to each other, but they were too far to hear.

Where had Bella gone?

She looked from side to side, but something in the way they walked told her they would follow, no matter where she went.

They came so close she could smell the stink of the Manticore, hear the sound of their steps on the road. They were silent now as they came towards her…

Then she’d wake.

What did it mean? Because surely it must, happening three days in a row. It couldn’t just be that she’d had the same dream randomly dropped into her head three times. She’d mulled it over, standing in her office staring out over the street steaming in the warm spring rain that pattered on the patterned paper umbrellas, printed with political slogans, that everyone carried.

Where I’ll Be: Orycon 2013 (Portland, OR)

I'm looking forward to Orycon partially because it's a chance to visit two of Portland's attractions: Voodoo Doughnuts and Powell's Bookstore.

Moderator indicated by (*)

Social Media and the Modern Writer

Jefferson/Adams Fri Nov 8 12:00pm-1:00pm

Websites, Facebook fan pages, email lists, contests, twitter, tumblr, Pinterest, ads, blogs and that annoying thing called a “platform”: what works, what doesn’t, and why you need to care (spoiler: you do).

Gra Linnaea, William Hertling, (*)Jason Andrew, Aaron Duran, Cat Rambo,

Peter A. Smalley

Writing with all your senses

Hamilton Fri Nov 8 2:00pm-3:00pm

Writers are always reminded to write with all their senses. But how far should they go? And what about altered senses? What about characters that are blind, or in constant pain, or have numbed senses, deafness, or

other disabilities? Are constant reminders necessary? What writers can take for granted, and what they should use to enrich their writing.

(*)Cat Rambo, Stoney Compton, Mike Chinakos, Ru Emerson

Newbies Beware: Pitfalls for New Writers

Jefferson Fri Nov 8 3:00pm-4:00pm

Eager new writers are always looking for a break. And people looking for a break are easy targets for scams that can sap both their money and their motivation. This panel discusses professional pitfalls for new writers to watch out for.

Cat Rambo, Lizzy Shannon, Irene Radford, (*)Jim Fiscus, Steven

Barnes

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Ross Island Sat Nov 9 12:00pm-1:00pm

Join members of Broad Universe–an organization dedicated to women in genre fiction–for a whole bunch of really short readings crammed into one hour.

Ann Gimpel, Phoebe Kitanidis, Cat Rambo, (*)MeiLin Miranda, S. A. Bolich,

Brenda Cooper, Laurel Anne Hill

Cat Rambo Reading

Grant Sat Nov 9 1:30pm-2:00pm

Cat Rambo reads from own work.

Cat Rambo

I Quit My Job to Be a Writer! WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Jefferson/Adams Sat Nov 9 4:00pm-5:00pm

What the full-time writing life is like, how to stay focused when you’re all by yourself, the realities of making a living via the written word, and techniques for forcing yourself to get dressed and leave the house.

Jim Kling, Nisi Shawl, Anne Bishop, Matt Vancil, (*)Cat Rambo

Short Stories, Novelettes and Novellas, and The Markets Who Love Them

Roosevelt Sun Nov 10 12:00pm-1:00pm

Yes! There are markets out there for shorter fiction!

Rhea Rose, Cat Rambo, (*)Camille Alexa, Andrew S. Fuller, Ken Lizzi

Where I’ll Be: SteamCon 2013 (Bellevue, WA)

This is actually from Norwescon, but I'll be looking forward to the steampunk costumes and cosplay at SteamCon this weekend. There's always plenty of nifty costumes to look at there.

I’m looking forward to Steamcon in a few weeks! Here’s my itinerary.

Friday

Steampunk Reimagines Fairy Tales Regency B 5:00PM – 6:00PM

We’ve been seeing Steampunk reinvent familiar fairy tales more and more. From novels like Snow to comics like the Gears of OZ. Does Steampunk allow us to explore old stories in new ways or are we just changing the setting?

Lisa Mantchev (M), Cat Rambo, J.R. Boyett

Women Explorers: No Place for a Lady Auditorium 6:00PM – 7:00PM

Take a look at the lives of women explorers in the Age of Steam, as they battled not only the dangers of travel in often hostile climates, but the censure of their society for traveling where few would dare go.

Carmen Beaudry (M), Cat Rambo, Lori Edwards

Saturday

Great Quests of the 19th Century Regency C 2:00PM – 3:00PM

The Victorian and Edwardian era saw explorers often times competing with each other as they searched for everything from the source of the Nile to being the first to reach South Pole!

Cat Rambo (M), Joshua Merrill-Nach

Cryptozoological Expeditions of the Victorian Age Maple 7:00PM – 8:00PM

Great expedition in both fact and fictions has taken us on treks looking for dinosaurs in darkest Africa to the Yeti at the top of the world. Come explore the hidden world with our intrepid guides as they take you on a Victorian Cryptozoological tour of the world!

Cat Rambo (M), Anthony Jon Hicks

Sunday

Reading; Memphis Barbeque Regency B 10:00AM – 10:30AM

A steampunk short story.

Cat Rambo

Do Writers Need to Blog? No.

A friend once said, "It's odd, the harder I work, the luckier I get." And it's true. But that work is perhaps better put into writing than blogging about writing.

I keep reading articles that say blogging is mandatory for writers nowadays. That agents and editors won’t take you on if you don’t already have a platform. This is hooey.

Let me repeat that. Hooey.

You do not need to have a blog. You do need to have a website that lists your publications and provides a way to contact you, so people can track you down if they want to. That’s it. The world is full of blogs with writing advice from people with only a few publications under their belt. Sometimes they give good advice, sometimes they don’t. It’s not ordained that you must contribute your quota of “avoid adverbs!” to the pool.

What else do you really need? You need to be writing steadily and sending stuff out.

Yes, if you have 50K Twitter followers, you may be more desirable in an editor’s eyes. But the time and effort you would need to spend growing that Twitter following from scratch would be better spent writing. You are not going to gain swarms of followers unless you are putting some effort into entertaining and informing them.

If blogging is going to be a chore for you, then don’t do it. Or engage in a very simple form of blogging: post a brief excerpt of what you wrote that day (or week, or whatever). You’ll find people are just as satisfied with an interesting story chunk as that preachy bit about not piling adjectives together. And, when the piece is published, that announcement gives you something else to put on the blog.

John Scalzi gets mentioned as a blogging success story. What doesn’t get mentioned is that he put an entire book up a bit at a time, and gained much of his following that way. Scalzi does have the sort of web presence that would make a publisher lick their chops. That sort of web presence doesn’t come easily.

Building an Online Presence for Writers: Soliciting Early Readers

This week I hope to complete the first draft of the Building an Online Presence for Writers book. It will be a messy sloppy draft – one of the things that I need to do is to go through all of the images and resize them, for one.

However, most if not all of the verbiage is there, and I’m hoping to get some feedback on it. Towards that end, I am soliciting early readers who are interested in taking a look at the book and giving me feedback. Because I’m working with a fairly aggressive schedule, I would like to get such feedback within a month. It is perfectly fine to focus on a specific section of the book.

If you are willing to serve as an advance reader, you will be thanked in the acknowledgments as well as receiving a free copy of the finished book.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */



Sign up to be an advance reader
* indicates required

Email Address *





First Name



Last Name



Email Format


html

text

mobile

var err_style = '';
try{
err_style = mc_custom_error_style;
} catch(e){
err_style = '#mc_embed_signup input.mce_inline_error{border-color:#6B0505;} #mc_embed_signup div.mce_inline_error{margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 5px 10px; background-color:#6B0505; font-weight: bold; z-index: 1; color:#fff;}';
}
var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var style= document.createElement('style');
style.type= 'text/css';
if (style.styleSheet) {
style.styleSheet.cssText = err_style;
} else {
style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(err_style));
}
head.appendChild(style);
setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);

var mce_preload_checks = 0;
function mce_preload_check(){
if (mce_preload_checks>40) return;
mce_preload_checks++;
try {
var jqueryLoaded=jQuery;
} catch(err) {
setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);
return;
}
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type = 'text/javascript';
script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jqu...
head.appendChild(script);
try {
var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({});
} catch(err) {
setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);
return;
}
mce_init_form();
}
function mce_init_form(){
jQuery(document).ready( function($) {
var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){} };
var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options);
$("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator
options = { url: 'http://kittywumpus.us6.list-manage.co...?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
beforeSubmit: function(){
$('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove();
$('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each(
function(){
var txt = 'filled';
var fields = new Array();
var i = 0;
$(':text', this).each(
function(){
fields[i] = this;
i++;
});
$(':hidden', this).each(
function(){
var bday = false;
if (fields.length == 2){
bday = true;
fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years
}
if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){
this.value = '';
} else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && (fields[2].value=='' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){
this.value = '';
} else {
if (/\[day\]/.test(fields[0].name)){
this.value = fields[1].value+'/'+fields[0].value+'/'+fields[2].value;
} else {
this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value;
}
}
});
});
$('.phonefield-us','#mc_embed_signup').each(
function(){
var fields = new Array();
var i = 0;
$(':text', this).each(
function(){
fields[i] = this;
i++;
});
$(':hidden', this).each(
function(){
if ( fields[0].value.length != 3 || fields[1].value.length!=3 || fields[2].value.length!=4 ){
this.value = '';
} else {
this.value = 'filled';
}
});
});
return mce_validator.form();
},
success: mce_success_cb
};
$('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options);

});
}
function mce_success_cb(resp){
$('#mce-success-response').hide();
$('#mce-error-response').hide();
if (resp.result=="success"){
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg);
$('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){
this.reset();
});
} else {
var index = -1;
var msg;
try {
var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2);
if (parts[1]==undefined){
msg = resp.msg;
} else {
i = parseInt(parts[0]);
if (i.toString() == parts[0]){
index = parts[0];
msg = parts[1];
} else {
index = -1;
msg = resp.msg;
}
}
} catch(e){
index = -1;
msg = resp.msg;
}
try{
if (index== -1){
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);
} else {
err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg';
html = '
'+msg+'

';

var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup';
var f = $(input_id);
if (ftypes[index]=='address'){
input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1';
f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);
} else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){
input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month';
f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);
} else {
input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index];
f = $().parent(input_id).get(0);
}
if (f){
$(f).append(html);
$(input_id).focus();
} else {
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);
}
}
} catch(e){
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
$('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);
}
}
}

Building an Online Presence for Writers: Outline for the Book

One thing that the book talks about is why you should be consistent with your profile images across multiple social networks. This is the same cat I use in some of my e-letters and postcards.

More on the e-book that contains all the class info and then some. Here’s the working outline:

Sign up to be notified when the book is released here

Before You Start

What Do You Want to Accomplish?

Your Online Persona

Your Contact Database

Online Tool: MailChimp

How to Measure Success

What is Web 2.0?

Protecting Your Privacy

Your Website

At a Minimum

Your Name

Domain Names

Press Kits

Blogging

What is a Blog?

Parts of a Blog

Parts of a Post

Choosing a Platform

Getting Started

Deciding What to Write About

Writing Your Post

Example of a Book Promotion Post

Example of a Convention Write-up

Images

Linking

Comments from Other People

Content from Other People

Other Best Practices

Group Blogs

Other People’s Blogs

RSS

Monetizing Your Blog

Publicizing Your Blog

Online Tool: WiseStamp

Near + Far Promotional Posts, Annotated

Social Networks

Networking with Sincerity

How Much is Not Enough?

Best Practices

Online Tool: Namechk

Setting Things Up

Getting People to Take Action

Do You Need to Belong to Every Network?

Reviving Dead Media Channels

Facebook

What It Is

Who’s the Mayor of Your Data?

Fan Pages

Groups

Events

Best Practices

Advertising

Privacy

Facebook Metrics

G+

What It Is

Your G+ Profile

Circles

Hangouts

Pages

Best Practices

G+ Tools and Shortcuts

Pinterest

What It Is

Best Practices

Metrics

How Writers, Editors, and Publishers can use Pinterest

Twitter

What It Is

Hashtags and Twitter Chats

Your Profile

What to Tweet About

Getting Followers

Getting Retweeted

Twitter Tools

Wordpress and Twitter

TwitPic

Twitter Metrics: Basic Metrics

Online Tools: Followerwonk

Online Tools: Klout

Other Social Networks

Webforums and Discussion Boards

Foursquare

Tumblr

Bookmarking Sites

Delicious

Digg

Reddit: How Reddit Works

Reddit: AMAs

Reddit: How a Writer Can Use Reddit

Reddit: Communities

Stumbleupon: What It Is

Stumbleupon: Best Practices

Crowdfunding

What It Is

IndieGogo

Kickstarter

Best Practices

Reader Communities

Amazon

GoodReads

LibraryThing

Shelfari

Others

Best Practices

Audio & Video

Podcasting – Audio

Podcasting – Video

Reasons to Use YouTube

Creating a YouTube Channel

Monetizing YouTube

YouTube Metrics

Vimeo/Vine

Search Engines

SEO Basics

Writing Copy with SEO Keywords

Investigating Keywords

Best Practices

Google Analytics

Basics

Best Practices

Resources

Other Metrics

Bit.ly

Klout

Building Your Fan Base

Finding Your Fans

Encouraging Your Fans

Dealing With Trolls

Gamification

Managing Your Time

Tracking Things

Online Tool: Rescue Time

Productive Procrastination

Mobile Devices

What It Is

Making Websites Mobile-friendly

Creating Mobile Apps

Windows Phone App Studio

Miscellania

Introduction

Arguing on the Internet

If You Screw Up

Grouping Up

Managing Multiple Identities

Press Releases

Online Tools: QR Codes

Networks around Us

Self Promotion & Career Building

Selling More Books

Creating an Online Presence For Your Group

Teaching Writing Online

On Award Pimpage

Privacy Best Practices

Online Tools: URL Shorteners

Creative Commons Licenses

Online Tools: Wikis

Appendix: Sites Mentioned.

Upcoming Classes in September/October 2013

Here is an example of how I started writing a recent story. In the Moving Your Story From Idea To Finished Draft class, I will show you how to jot down your ideas and use them to create a complete story. We will explore different processes in order to find what works best for you.

I have openings fill in some upcoming classes, so I wanted to tout them a bit. You can find the permanent class list here.

All of the classes are taught online, using Google hangouts. For optimal experience, it’s best to have a computer with a WebCam, but in a pinch audio only capability will still allow you to participate.

The Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories six week workshop starts next Monday evening. As the title implies, it deals with writing short stories, and students get a chance to workshop at least two stories over the course of the workshop.

On Saturday morning, October 5, Folly Blaine and I present a Podcasting Basics class. In it you will learn how to record and edit your own podcast, how to use podcasting for book promotion, and how to host and publicize podcasts.

The Art of the Book Review class falls on a Sunday morning, October 6. It is aimed at teaching you how to write and sell book reviews and includes an appearance from guest speaker Nisi Shawl, who reviews for a number of venues, including the Seattle Times and Cascadia Subduction Zone.

On Saturday, October 12, I will be teaching the Literary Techniques for Genre Fiction workshop. In it, you’ll learn a number of new tools for your writerly toolbox as well as how to decide when and where to use them. In class writing exercises will give you a chance to try these techniques as they are presented. At the end we’ll talk about markets that are open to literary speculative fiction.

The First Pages workshop also falls on a Sunday morning, October 13. It is co-presented with Caren Gussoff. In it, we look at the first 500 words of your novel and use that as a launching board to talk about genre, the importance of beginnings, setting reader expectations, finding an agent, and much more.

A class that I’m teaching for the first time is Moving Your Story from Idea to Finished Draft, which takes place on Sunday, October 20. My aim in this class is to show you how to move from a basic idea to rough draft and then finished draft. We’ll talk about ways to generate ideas as well as how to flesh them out.

Interested? Check out the overall class list to find cost and specific times or to sign up for the mailing list to be notified of future classes.

WorldCon Checklist

Hair colored in preparation for the con? Check!

I’m off to Worldcon tomorrow! I’m reading on Friday at 11. Stop in to listen and you may win a fabulous prize, since I’ll have a bunch of the Near+Far pendants with me. Right now I’m doing laundry and figuring out exactly how many pens I need to take with me.

If you’re trying a con for the first time, here’s some necessities:

Food. I always have some protein bars with me, even though I know I’ll be able to swing past the con suite, the green room, and the SFWA suite and probably find something to nosh on there. Along the same lines, I’ll have a small waterbottle with me, which goes in my carryon so I don’t have to buy expensive airport drinks.
Speaking of carryons, I’ve learned by now that certain things should go in there: change of clothing, toothbrush, all medications, and anything else that I would severely miss if my checked baggage should turn up missing.
Layers. While it’ll be hot in San Antonio, conference rooms can be awfully chilly, so I usually have a shawl in my bag. And a fan for times when the AC is broken.
Big envelope. All receipts get shoved in there for sorting out post-con, along with business cards I collect. In the meantime, I’ve put all my flight/hotel info and the story I’ll be reading from in it.
Emergency reading. Well, of course.
Notebook and multiple pens. Margaret Atwood suggests a pencil for airplane travel; I just make sure I’ve got plenty of pens. And the notebook has my name and contact info written in BIG LETTERS in case it goes astray and someone finds it.
Small purse that holds just my cell phone and room key, for evenings when I want to go to parties and not worry about toting my usual bag.
Business cards and some postcards advertising my classes.
A first aid kit that includes aspirin, decongestant, antacids, etc.
Charging cables! For both phone and the ipad which, with a wireless keyboard, serves all my laptop needs.
Extra book bag that rolls up. Just in case.
Ear plugs and sleep mask. Sleep is precious.
Moisturizer. Because hotels are always way too dry.
Comfortable shoes. Life’s too short not to wear comfortable shoes.

On Writing: Creating Emotional Impact Through Characters

I’ve been teaching an advanced workshop that’s been a lot of fun. I gave them one of my favorite texts, an issue of Swamp Thing by Alan Moore called “Pog.” You might want to read it before proceeding on to the discussion of it. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

I picked that text because it has a high degree of emotional impact. It was a great starting point for talking about how to create that in a piece of fiction. In discussing how Moore achieved that, we realized that it is primarily constructed through the characters. While it’s nice to see the images, they are not the primary source of the impact.

Here are the five ways that impact is created:

The characters are in a problematic situation with which we, the reader, can identify. While we have never rocketed through space in a ship shaped like a turtle shell, we do know the feeling of exile. We know what it is like to lose a home, and despair of finding a new one.
The characters are acting to solve their problem, even in the face of growing despair. Accordingly, we root for them and their valiant effort.
We see the characters caring for each other, taking care of each other in a way that is loving and endearing.
The characters are freaking adorable. Seriously cute. How can we not love them? I’m reminded of the Aeslin mice Seanan McGuire uses in her urban fantasy series or the fuzzies in H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy series (free on the Kindle!) (also rebooted by John Scalzi). They speak in a way that is absolutely charming and full of wordplay.
And one can’t underestimate the glow of nostalgia that this comic holds for those who loved the original Pogo strip by Walt Kelly.

So what takeaways for character building can one draw from this? Are there axioms that can be applied in one’s own writing? Of course there are, and here’s the list:

Give your characters a real problem. More than one. The shittier you are to your characters, the more people can identify with them.
Make characters act. They don’t need to make the right decision, but they do need to make one, and experience its results. Characters that are simply floating through the story being buffeted by forces outside their control are a stretch to identify with.
Give us something to love about the character, even when they’re unsympathetic.

Don’t be afraid to be a little sentimental. I know the more cynical among you will flinch at that advice, and I’m not fond of very sappy stuff, but in my experience, the stories that lean hard towards the sentimental often do much better than those that do not.
As to whether or not one should rely on paying tribute to other loved texts as an overall narrative strategy, that’s up to you. But one of the important things about such a strategy is that you must allow for the reader who does not know the original text. What you produce must be entertaining to them even without that overlay.

What strategies have I overlooked? Characters are pretty central to stories, and strong, clearly delineated characters will serve you well.

(If you’re interested in taking a writing class with me, click on “Take an Online Class with Cat” at the top of the page to find out more.)