Rob Bignell's Blog, page 284

Writing Inspiration: Visualize your story

Before putting pen to paper, visualize your story. Imagine how it would read if in its most perfect form. For example, as writing my novel, ���Windmill,��� I visualized each line being read aloud by a specific radio personality; this guided how I threaded words together and fashioned the passages and scenes.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Dayton, Ohio, or a small town like Why, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Converse on blogs to boost your book sales

In the 21st century, getting out information about your books clearly involves social media. A good way to utilize social media is to participate in it ��� that is, to join conversations, even if they are only 140 characters long. The idea is that if you interact in a meaningful way, other social media users will look you up and ultimately some of them will purchase your books.

To increase the chances of such success, though, utilize an old school strategy: Get your interaction in as front of many eyes as possible. After all, television shows that draw the most viewers usually means more people will learn about their sponsors��� products than those television showers with the fewest viewers. Likewise, you want to focus the bulk of your interactions on those niche social media sites ��� such as blogs ��� that have the largest audiences.

First, you need to determine what those blogs are. Spend an evening or a few minutes each day for a week checking out those sites and ensuring their readers are the same one who would purchase your books. Eliminate from the list any site that wouldn���t be a good fit. At the same time, determine who has the largest number of followers. Usually blogs list their number of followers, but of not a way to further track their success is to check out the number of followers/friends they have on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Next, choose the three blogs with the most followers. Each day, write useful and intelligent comments responding to a current entry on these blogs. Avoid being argumentative or leaving short, lame comments like ���Great post!��� You want to be part of a upbeat conversation. Also be sure to subtly slip in on some of those posts that you are a published author. In addition, tweet or otherwise share those entries to your followers/friends.

After a few weeks of this, you���ll gain a positive reputation among the sites��� various readers. In addition, the blog���s owners even may ask you to contribute a post, which can lead to even more sales!

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Detroit, Michigan, or a small town like Carefree, Arizona, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: Celebrate landmarks

Goals are landmarks in your life, not definitions of it. If your book requires more time to write than you initially thought, that���s okay. Just don���t give up on it or be critical of yourself because a goal wasn���t made by a certain date on an artificial timeline. Keep working on your writing goals, and when you achieve one of them, celebrate it as the success it is.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Allentown, Pennsylvania, or a small town like Chugwater, Wyoming, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Second lines

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Open a novel to a random page and read the first complete sentence at the top of it. This will be the opening line of your story. Now ask the 5 W���s and 1 H ��� who, what, when, where, why and how ��� to come up with alternate second lines for your story.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from an urban area like California's Orange County or a rural area like Loving County, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Prompt: Go ahead, get weepy

Suffering from writer���s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Crying, counterintuitively to most people, actually helps one heal, as it removes toxic biochemicals from the body while reducing emotional stress. So consider writing a passage that induces weeping. Just keep a box of tissue next to your keyboard.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Ventura, California, or a small town like Big Ugly Creek, West Virginia, I can provide that second eye.

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Appeal to sense of taste in descriptions

Of the five senses, taste is the rarest in stories. The reason is that we���re not eating, drinking, smoking or falling face-first into the dirt as frequently as we are seeing, hearing and smelling the world around us.

Like the senses of sound and smell, taste ought to be reserved for moments when it can offer meaningful descriptions of an object, to raise dramatic tension or to offer insights into a character. For example, describing how an extrasolar colonist who has learned bad news suddenly finds bitter the taste of his otherwise sweet julah drink shows how the information has affected him emotionally. Unfortunately, writers too often simply describe the food a character is eating either for the gross-out factor (such as the Klingon���s gagh in ���Star Trek���) or simply to find a way to get the sense of taste into their story.

Where taste and smell are concerned, sometimes you can get your descriptions to appeal to both senses. They are, after all, closely related: Humans who have temporarily lost their sense of smell due to a cold often can���t taste either. J. Chris Rock accomplishes this in his short story ���Lucy��� (which appears in the August 2008 Asimov���s Science Fiction): ������Seriously though,��� Elgin says, his mouth full of Fritos. I can smell them, that gross wet corn mush smell.���

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Modesto, California, or a small town like Hard Scratch, Iowa, I can provide that second eye.

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Five Great Quotes about Writing What You Know

���I don���t want you to write about what you know, because you don���t know anything. I don���t want to hear about your boyfriend or your grandma��� I���m getting a little tired of ���my life story as fiction���. Please don���t tell me about your little life ��� is there nothing larger? More important?��� - Toni Morrison

���Tell the story that's been growing in your heart, the characters you can't keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning.��� - Jennifer Weiner

���But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?��� - Milan Kundera

���If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.��� - Nikki Giovanni

���The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.��� - Benjamin Disraeli

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Spokane, Washington, or a small town like Looneyville, Texas, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Writing Inspiration: Your passages��� purpose

Read through a few of your most recent writings. What purpose do the writings serve? Do they help you better understand yourself? Are they intended to bring pleasure to others? How does this compare to the purpose of your favorite authors��� books?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Bakersfield, California, or a small town like Mosquitoville, Vermont, I can provide that second eye.

 

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Improve descriptions by appealing to 'touch'

As with sight, we���re constantly barraged with the sensation of touch, but often it goes ignored. American and Western culture prefers personal space that prevents a lot of touching, and our buildings tend to be climate-controlled, leaving us neither hot nor cold. Our furniture is designed to be soft enough that our bodies do not get sore when sitting or reclining. While most writers certainly wouldn���t complain about such comfortableness, it does challenge us to work for images that appeal to a sense of touch that readers can relate to.

Since touch is almost a background sensation in readers��� lives, its use ought to be reserved for moments when it can offer meaningful descriptions of an object, to raise dramatic tension or to offer insights into a character. As the sensation of touch is powerful in real life, sloppy use of it in your fictional world can wreck the story���s believability. Deftly handled appeals to the sense of touch, however, can make for a striking description that keeps the reader turning the page.

Recognizing the power of touch, author Jack Skillingstead appeals to the sense of touch in the opening line of his recent short story ���What You are About to See��� (which appears in the August 2008 Asimov���s Science Fiction): ���I sat in a cold room.��� Readers used to climate-controlled buildings instantly finds the situation peculiar. The exoticness of appealing to the sense of touch further serves to pull the reader in. The line also does a good job of establishing the story���s tone, one in which our main character and the other government officials around him are never quite comfortable, as they���ve made contact with an alien whose craft crashed in the Nevada desert.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Phoenix, Arizona, or a small town like Last Chance, Idaho, I can provide that second eye.

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Writing Inspiration: List your values

Does your writing express who you are or does it present an image of what you want others to believe? You likely won���t be happy with your writing if it���s the latter. List at least three values ��� that is, three ethical principles ��� that you hold most dear. Do you see those values portrayed in your writings?

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Albuquerque, New Mexico, or a small town like Mud Butte, South Dakota, I can provide that second eye.

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