Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 114

Writing the Cozy Mystery: The Suspects

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tips for better suspects in a mystery novel:
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Image: MorgueFile: Nino Andonis

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

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing the Cozy Mystery—the Sleuth

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tips for creating a sleuth for our mystery:
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Image: MorgueFile: altankoman

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

Curating Links and Scheduling Them

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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

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

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

Social media scheduling: the why

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

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

Social media scheduling: the how

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

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

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

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

Specific to link roundups:

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

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

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

Curating Links and Bulk Scheduling Them:
Click To Tweet

Image: MorgueFile: jdurham

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

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.

Why Is Your Character’s Emotional Wound So Important?  http://ow.ly/RjznI @angelaackerman

Living in the White Space:  http://ow.ly/RjzIJ @MichalskiLiz

Don’t Be Afraid of Said:  http://ow.ly/RjyVF @ava_jae

The heartfelt potential novel:  http://ow.ly/RjzfE @TomBentleyNow

7 Ways Blogging Improves Your Writing:  http://ow.ly/Rjzt0  @MiaJouBotha    

Tangents and Subplots: When Do They Work?  http://ow.ly/RlzJl @jamigold

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

How to Keep Track of Your Characters:  http://ow.ly/RlzXy  @sarahsundin

Truths and Lies about Self-Publishing : http://ow.ly/RlBA2 @AnneLParrish

10 Exceptionally Well-Written Horror Films: http://ow.ly/RlzCO @chris_shultz81

How to Create Workable Scene Outlines for Your Novel:  http://ow.ly/RlA9g @JodieRennerEd

How To Describe A Voice:  http://ow.ly/RjzL7 @JillWilliamson

Writing About Avoidant Personality Disorder:  http://ow.ly/Rjz9Q @Writerology

8 Tips for Interactive Storytelling:  http://ow.ly/Rjz7E @robinrwrites

Agents: 5 tips on your next face-to-face:  http://ow.ly/RjzCa by Sue Bradford Edwards

On book pricing: http://ow.ly/Rjzx9 @kseniaanske

The Pros and Cons of Writing Groups:  http://ow.ly/RjyZv @lilyionamac

8 Regrets to Avoid When Self-Publishing Your First Novel:  http://ow.ly/Rh7th by James A. Rose

A look at outlining:  http://ow.ly/Rh7c3 from The Writers’ Helpers

What Should Authors Expect From An Editor?  http://ow.ly/Rh6Rg  @Savage_Woman

Academia vs. Imagination: The Problem of Intellectualism in the Works of Stephen King:  http://ow.ly/Rh7mF @BartLBishop

Harness the Power of the Subplot:  http://ow.ly/Rh6P3 @artofstoriesAB

5 Things that make a Blockbuster Work:  http://ow.ly/Rh6VC @seanbhood

Walking To Write: http://ow.ly/Rh6IE @rsmollisonread

Suspending Disbelief: 3 Tips to Keep Your Reader Hooked: http://ow.ly/Rh75B @DonnaRadley

10 Bad Writing Habits to Break:  http://ow.ly/Rh7z0 @WritersCoach

Creating a tutorial:  http://ow.ly/Rh7Dm  @nicholesevern

How Should Chapter One End? http://ow.ly/Rh7gX  @stephmorrill

Overused Words + Dangling Modifiers:  http://ow.ly/Rh72j @emaginette

Music For Writers: @AnnaThorvalds’ Light Air Of Restraint: http://ow.ly/Rtl6q @Porter_Anderson @thoughtcatalog

Handing digital publishing another option: Booktrack’s Paul Cameron: http://ow.ly/Rtluk @Porter_Anderson @pccameron

How Titles Can Shape Our Story:  http://ow.ly/RfkMe @ShanDitty

8 Steps To Revising Our Novel:  http://ow.ly/RfkQR  @bookrangerkath

Revisiting series settings and characters from previous books in a series:  http://ow.ly/RrnQk @mkinberg

How Reading (and Writing) Obituaries Can Improve Our Fiction:  http://ow.ly/RfkHa @KAMcCleary

A Writer’s Resource: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community: http://ow.ly/RfkPw @ShelleySturgeon

On speech tags and writing rules: http://ow.ly/RfkHW @calebpirtle

Backstory matters:  http://ow.ly/RfkzU @kcraftwriter

7 Ingredients of an Amazing Story Climax:  http://ow.ly/RfkCx by Chris Winkle @mythcreants

Diversity in Our Writing: Cultural differences and Immigration:  http://ow.ly/RfkU4 @JSkutelsky

7 day author business cleanse: http://ow.ly/RfkNv @nicholesevern

Common genres explained:  http://ow.ly/RfkKN @ava_jae

Learning from a bad review:  http://ow.ly/RfkB9 @shalvatzis

When to Keep Secrets and When to Tell Truths:  http://ow.ly/RfkEM @bstarknemon @womenwriters

Don’t Let Reviewers Hold You Hostage:  http://ow.ly/Re6bL @LevRaphael

Movie Analysis: “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation”: Takeaways:  http://ow.ly/Re6ea @gointothestory

When rights go wrong: A #FutureChat recap:  http://ow.ly/RnYKl @Porter_Anderson @JAKonrath

Innovating Convention:  http://ow.ly/Re6mJ by Shawn Coyne

Poetry Writing Exercises: Shifting Perspectives:  http://ow.ly/Re6lQ @writingforward

Are you willing to look for your imagination when it leaves? http://ow.ly/Re6wr @CalebPirtle

5 Tips To Becoming A More Conversational Writer: http://ow.ly/Re5Wh @RogerDColby

3 Steps to Selling Products & Services Through Your Website:  http://ow.ly/Re6xY @JaneFriedman

Participial Phrases:  http://ow.ly/Re68Q @noveleditor

Twitter Mind Map for Freelance Writers:  http://ow.ly/Re6uW @wherewriterswin

Change Your Story to Get Your Writing Done:  http://ow.ly/Re5XX @timgrahl

What 1 Writer Learned As A Self Published Author:  http://ow.ly/Re6gY @10MinuteNovelists

Should You Start a Newsletter? http://ow.ly/Re67c  @C_Herringshaw

Grammar Rules: Who vs. Whom:  http://ow.ly/R8APM  @WritingForward

Go from Wanting to Write to Actually Writing:  http://ow.ly/R8BlG  @finallywriting

How A Believable Theme Builds A Believable Plot:  http://ow.ly/R8ACj @AnthonyEhlers

5 SFF Novels with Perfect Opening Lines:  http://ow.ly/R8Bgv @SomanChainani

5 Negative Voices and How to Shush Them:  http://ow.ly/R8BoW  @kimkorson

The Art of Transparency:  http://ow.ly/R8AVi by Dave King @writerunboxed

How Small, Independent Publishing Saved a Novel:  http://ow.ly/R8AGO @KourHei

How To Describe People:  http://ow.ly/R8ByE @JillWilliamson

5 Nonfiction Writing Techniques To Keep Readers Turning Pages:  http://ow.ly/R8B2s @ridethepen

When you don’t know where to go next with your story:  http://ow.ly/R8B6a from The Writing Realm

From Writing Books to TV Shows – Making the Adjustment: http://ow.ly/R8BB7 @tjenkinsreid

Choosing The Right Name:  http://ow.ly/R8BtL @angelaackerman

6 Points To Consider When Crafting An Awkward Character:  http://ow.ly/R8ANA @Annecdotist

With booksellers’ pressure: DRM is now soft in Germany: http://ow.ly/RhqNF @Porter_Anderson @doctorow

Writing a Blog Post Series:  http://ow.ly/R76bF @Jenn_Mattern

10 Ways to Kick Writer’s’ Guilt to the Curb:  http://ow.ly/R76FC @colleen_m_story

Raising Questions in Our Stories:  http://ow.ly/Rhfw5

8 Steps to Visiting Your Novel’s Setting Without Leaving Home:  http://ow.ly/RhlOz @cluculzwriter

When characters do something unexpected keep their motivation credible:  http://ow.ly/Rhp00 @mkinberg

Do Writers Really Need to Know Theory? http://ow.ly/R77CX by John Wong

Pitching via Email:  http://ow.ly/R76UU @bookgal

6 Ways To Think Like a Publicist and Sell More Books:  http://ow.ly/R76A3 @bookgal

How to Create a 5,000-View SlideShare in 10 Minutes:  http://ow.ly/R77f3 @kevanlee

Evaluating a Writing Career When Life is Busy, Complex, or Hard:  http://ow.ly/R76Js  @RachelPhifer1

6 tips to sell your book:  http://ow.ly/R75sO @thewritermag  @cjlyonswriter

Self-Editing for Continuity:  http://ow.ly/R76Rh  @authorjsmorin

Why broken sleep is a golden time for creativity: http://ow.ly/R76wo @DamnRebelBitch @aeonmag

5 Books Featuring Unreliable Narrators:  http://ow.ly/R75UX @AveryEHastings

Keep Your Book Marketing as Creative as Your Writing:  http://ow.ly/R7630 @jenn_mattern

Music For Writers: Philip Glass’ ‘Not-Ninth’ Symphony:  http://ow.ly/Re5QX @Porter_Anderson

Got a Pen Name? Here’s How to Market Your Books:  http://ow.ly/R4to8 @CaballoFrances

The Cost of Self Publishing? Don’t Focus on the Wrong Thing:  http://ow.ly/R4t4C @Nick_Stephenson

100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises:  http://ow.ly/R4tU8 @joebunting

What Traditional Publishing Says It Does Best:  http://ow.ly/R4tc6 @kristinerusch

What Makes A Reader Download & Finish Your Book? http://ow.ly/R4tCC by Kathy Perow

3 Tools for Plotting As You Write:  http://ow.ly/R4tZs @artofstoriesAB

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Blogging and Facebook Tips and Other Updates

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Sometimes I spend so much time thinking about really big ideas that I forget about some of the small things we can do to either gently promote ourselves/get our names out there, or just make life easier online.  Here are a few of those things…and a sort of interesting note at the end of the post on something Wattpad is doing.

Gravitars.  Gravitars, Globally Recognized Avatars, are basically avatars that are used to identify us online (primarily blogs and web forums).  I was having coffee with my author friend Lauren de Lanier and she mentioned that she would likely spend more time commenting on blogs if she had a more personal way of appearing on sites, particularly WordPress sites.  This is one of those things that we can quickly take care of through

WordPress (you’ll have to sign up for WordPress in the process, but you’re not setting up a blog, only a profile).  This WikiHow will lead you through the process if you’re not sure how to do it.

Pen names and Facebook…when we have too many profiles.  As someone with more than one name,  my advice is that it’s tough enough to update social media platforms with only one name.  I couldn’t keep up with updating a Twitter and Facebook account under my pen name, too.  If you have a pen name as a profile on Facebook and a profile under your real name and would like to link them, you can do so without much trouble.  Here Facebook shows us how.  When you select the type of name, choose ‘other’ and be sure to check the box that states ‘show at top of profile’ to ensure that the pen name shows alongside your real name.

Have you looked at your Amazon Author page recently? Are all of your books on your page?  Is your author photo there?  Are you making full use of all the elements on the page (blog stream, events calendar)?  Can you record a short video about your series on your phone and upload it to the page?

Periscope: This is a new app that’s currently getting a lot of buzz.  It’s live video where followers can ask questions via chat.  It’s not going to appeal to everyone (I’m not sure it appeals to me). But the idea is that it doesn’t have to be as polished as YouTube.  It won’t be as polished as YouTube since it’s live and unedited.  It’s also ephemeral and disappears in 24 hours on the site (or earlier, if you delete it).  Periscope is owned by Twitter and has some cool tie-ins with Twitter. You can tweet your live video, for one.  And your followers on Twitter will receive a follow suggestion on Periscope on the People Tab (under “people you’re following on Twitter) if they’re on the app. Because of this set-up, if you have a large profile on Twitter, you may do very well on Periscope.

There are also not many authors on the site since it’s brand new—and since writers can be too introverted to go for this kind of thing.  Anyway…it’s something to check out.

Wattpad: I’ve been doing Wattpad updates a good deal lately, but that’s because they’re doing some interesting things. I’d read that they were rolling out some monetization using native advertising (see this article by Edward Nawotka on the Publishing Perspectives blog).  Wattpad CEO and co-founder Allen Lau stated that one effort included  working with 20th Century Fox to commission three stories about “extraordinary love” to tie-in with the film adaptation of John Green’s The Fault in our Stars.  “In that case, the promotion of the movie is subtle, but also explicit and it was super successful: we reached close to a million people reading it and had 60,000 comments.”

I was contacted by a Wattpad representative earlier this week, not for a paid commission, but for exposure.  There is a cross-promo effort between Universal Horror’s upcoming movie release The Visit and Wattpad mysteries, thrillers, and stories about “vacations gone wrong.”  My book Body in the Backyard has a digitally imposed promo sticker on it and it’s listed on the movie’s official profile on the site and their sponsored reading list.  I’d never have thought Myrtle would hang out with M. Night Shyamalan.  I’ve already got quite a few reads from the promo…amazing that my gentle mystery could cross-promote with horror.  Am I reaching a different audience?  Without a doubt!

Any small tips to pass along (Facebook, blogging, etc.)?  Have you thought of using cross-promotion to expand your audience (and I can’t take credit for my cross-promo, since I didn’t instigate it).

Gravitars,pen name linking on FB, and Wattpad Updates:

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Raising Questions in Our Stories

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

One thing that can trip up even experienced writers is giving everything away in the story too quickly.

It’s always a temptation for me.  I tend to want to reveal things too quickly in my story.  I want to explain everything as it happens so that readers won’t be confused.

But when I reveal too much, I end up halfway through the story without enough material to make a full-length novel.

Areas where it may help to raise questions:

Questions about character behavior. Sometimes character motivation isn’t clear.  But as long as that character  is behaving consistently, readers will want to learn why the character is acting that way.

Backstory is another important story element to release in bits and pieces.  For one thing, no one likes a backstory dump–it’s boring and can seem irrelevant to readers who don’t know the story’s big picture like the author does.  Backstory can be character motivation or history or anything else in the past that plays into the plot or character development.

Particularly in a mystery, we want characters with secrets.  No one is going to want to be completely upfront with investigators.  There’s information that suspects will want to withhold.  They won’t want to immediately confess to the affair or the spotty criminal record in another town or the fact that the murder victim had been blackmailing them about some past indiscretion.

It’s also important in a mystery to keep little details/information out of the hands of the sleuths.  Where were the suspects really when the crime was committed?  Why doesn’t Annie like Jim? These details will vary, depending on genre.

Benefits of raising questions to be answered later:

These questions act as teasers for our readers and can prompt them to keep turning pages to find out more.

Raising questions instead of providing all the answers as we write can help with story pacing.

Unanswered questions, if the questions are big enough, can also serve as subplots through our main story.   Will Mark be fired from his new job?  Are Katie’s parents moving in with her?  Is Tom going to be able to fight his addiction to alcohol or will he succumb to it?

An important note: when we’re raising questions, we need to keep track of all of them. That way we don’t leave any loose ends at the story’s end.  We want to make sure that there is a payoff when the readers have been patient to wait for the answers.

Unanswered questions in our stories help with pace and keep reader interest:
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Image: MorgueFile: Seemann

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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

How to Write a Fantasy Series:  http://ow.ly/QZpXq @nownovel

Who’s Afraid of Reader Analytics? Data on where readers stop reading:  http://ow.ly/Re5B4 @Porter_Anderson

Tricks for Writing in Public:  http://ow.ly/QZqKf by Tina Jens

Different POVs for Part 1 and Part 2?  http://ow.ly/QZqz7 @glencstrathy

A Simple Landing Page Strategy for Increased Newsletter Subscribers:  http://ow.ly/QZqlm @HennekeD

Money matters for writers:  http://ow.ly/QZrxR @mikemartinez72           

The Problem With Flash Forwards as an Opening Scene http://ow.ly/QZq2B @Janice_Hardy

Mega-Wattpad Stardom: The Before And After Of Anna Todd:  http://ow.ly/Re5G8 @Porter_Anderson @imaginator1dx

Calibre: Adding a blurb to the front of a book: http://ow.ly/QZqCE @dearauthor

Writing urban fantasy in a secondary world:  http://ow.ly/QZr8a  @maxgladstone

How To Liven Up Your Story:  http://ow.ly/QZrH0 by Aaron Miles

Keyboard Shortcuts for Novelists (cartoon by @tomgauld)  http://ow.ly/QZrQQ @newyorker

Where to send your SFF book:  http://ow.ly/QZr1K by Steve Fahnestalk

After The Hype And Drama: Balancing Trad And Indie Interests:  http://ow.ly/R4teN @Porter_Anderson @ThoughtCatalog

Revision Techniques:  http://ow.ly/R4thO  @janetsfox

How to Look Good on Your Webcam: http://ow.ly/R4tkD @rachellegardner

How to Tell a Story: Script Writing vs. Novel Writing: http://ow.ly/R4tWb @whisperproject

Got a Pen Name? Here’s How to Market Your Books:  http://ow.ly/R4to8 @CaballoFrances

Writers as Project Managers:  http://ow.ly/R4twt @PascalInard

Why We Need to Appoint a Social Media Executor Now: http://ow.ly/QZq6C @annerallen

Saving Our Youngest Characters: Neonatal Information for Writers: http://ow.ly/QYf0N by Meredith Pritchard

Tips for promoting diverse novels:  http://ow.ly/QYf37 from Writing With Color

Mindmapping: a pantser’s path to the perfect story:  http://ow.ly/QYeOI @OrlyKonigLopez

5 Ways To Boost Your Productivity:  http://ow.ly/QYeYM @MariahEWilson

Writing With Confidence:  http://ow.ly/QYeXz by A. Howitt

5 Ways to Make Sure Your Ending Has No Payoff: http://ow.ly/QYf4b by Oren Ashkenazi

Kicking Great Dialogue up to Killer Dialogue (with Interstellar):  http://ow.ly/QYeRd  @SeptCFawkes

Simple and Easy Strategies to Stay Organized: http://ow.ly/QYeTh  @ArtistThink

Avoid Getting Tenses in a Tangle:  http://ow.ly/QYeVz @AJHumpage

4 Things Dexter Taught About Writing Antiheroes:  http://ow.ly/QYeJX @EmilyWenstrom

3 Keys To A Successful Story Opening:  http://ow.ly/QYeMT  @stephmorrill

Write Great Dialogue:  http://ow.ly/QY90N @angee

How to Use the Passive Voice Correctly:  http://ow.ly/QY9mS  @grammarly

4 Ways to Jump-Start a Slow Beginning:  http://ow.ly/QY93e @mythcreants by Chris Winkle

The Second Draft:  http://ow.ly/QY651  @mbtinsley

Great Character: Howard Beale (“Network”):  http://ow.ly/QY9kb @gointothestory

How to Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers:  http://ow.ly/QY98b @Susan_Shain

Improve Your Writing Through the Power of Observation:  http://ow.ly/QY9ej by Barbara Baig

5 Tips for Turning Word Docs into Blog Posts Fast:  http://ow.ly/QY9FU @ShelleySturgeon

Profile of a killer:  http://ow.ly/QY8Qx by John Katzenbach

How To Build Your Own Self-Hosted Author Website In Under 30 Minutes:  http://ow.ly/QY61i @thecreativepenn

Season 2 of “True Detective” went wrong. Cautionary Lessons for Writers:  http://ow.ly/QY62k @kristenlambtx

Script Analysis: “Flight”: Psychological Journey:  http://ow.ly/QY8Wi @gointothestory

How to Write Your Characters’ Thoughts:  http://ow.ly/QSV03 @cherylrwrites

Research Mode vs. Writing Mode:  http://ow.ly/QSVz3 @tamsinsilver

Kill Your Darlings: 5 Writers on the Cutting Room Floor:  http://ow.ly/QSVvb @chloekbenjamin

5 Tips for Making Scenes in Your Novel More Tense and Interesting: http://ow.ly/QSVlz @MartinaABoone

5 tips for introverted writers:  http://ow.ly/QSV20  @MenwithPens

Pleasures of the Literary Meal:  http://ow.ly/QSVDo @KitchenBee @newyorker

What Readers Want:  Series vs. Standalone Books:  http://ow.ly/QSVsK by Big Al

Creating an Author Business Plan: Our Marketing Plan:  http://ow.ly/QSVGv @MarcyKennedy

Unsticking Yourself  From Writer’s Block:  http://ow.ly/QSUVV @karamb75

Your LOOK INSIDE! Book Preview: Will it Turn Readers Away or Close the Sale? http://ow.ly/QSVps @annerallen

Why Attend Writer’s’ Conferences:  http://ow.ly/QSUS9  @DeeWhiteAuthor

Lies, Denial, and Buried Secrets:  How to Create Dimensional Characters:  http://ow.ly/QSVBA @kristenlambtx

Fictional World-Building: 5 Types of Societies:  http://ow.ly/QQSbv  @betternovelproj

Do Your Best, Make Adjustments, Move On:  http://ow.ly/QQS0K  @finallywriting

The 12 Tools To Use Before Self-Publishing A Book:  http://ow.ly/QQRcj @LynnUsrey

3 Surprises We Need In A Story: http://ow.ly/QQRy0 @MiaJouBotha

The Case For Blurring the Lines Between Good and Evil:  http://ow.ly/QQSfb @betternovelproj

5 Writing Challenges All Writers Face (and How to Deal With Them):  http://ow.ly/QQRsG @cherilynnveland

8 Tips for Writing a Synopsis:  http://ow.ly/QQR9d @ceciliaedits

6 Ways To Achieve The Perfect Ending To Our Story: http://ow.ly/QQRNn @DeanElphick

How to Get Early Feedback on Your Book Idea or Manuscript:  http://ow.ly/QQS7Y @NinaAmir

Characters: Tormenting them for the sake of plot:  http://ow.ly/QQRjh  by Sue Bradford Edwards

The Book Launch Checklist:  http://ow.ly/QQREO @10MinNovelists

4 Real-Life Starting Points for Story Ideas:  http://ow.ly/QQRoQ @WanderfulWorld1

How Serials Can Gain You Fans: http://ow.ly/QNYr0  @willvanstonejr

On interior book design:  http://ow.ly/QNYYg @lansi26

Writing Mystery and Suspense Fiction: Can You Ever Really Know a Person? http://ow.ly/QNYez  @ShelleySturgeon

How Actions Determine Character & Arc:  http://ow.ly/QNZUF @hookedonnoir

Authors’ New, Free Entry into Libraries: SELF-e:  http://ow.ly/QNZkI @Porter_Anderson @libraryself_e

Creative Constraints In Writing:  http://ow.ly/QNXTY @rsmollisonread

6 Reasons to Read Indie Books http://ow.ly/QNZ4L  @HollyACave

How and Where to Obtain Book Reviews:  http://ow.ly/QNZSe by James Rose

Screenwriting: 3 Traps to Avoid in Love Stories:  http://ow.ly/QO07T @dougeboch

Self Publishing:on …Instagram?  http://ow.ly/QNYNe  @etmarketsbooks

Hacking Your Reader’s Brain:  http://ow.ly/QNZIa @JeffGerke

Pitch Don’ts for the Fledgling Conference Goer:  http://ow.ly/QO047  @agentsaba

Why That Ebook May Cost More Than The Hardcover:  http://ow.ly/QY8sY @Porter_Anderson @kristinerusch

How to build an email list the easy way: http://ow.ly/QLOTB  @ActivePatience_

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: http://ow.ly/QLNur from Fix My Story

Book Endorsements and Why We Need Them:  http://ow.ly/QLO35  @MSaintGermain

How to Write a Book From Outline to Finish Line:  http://ow.ly/QLPeo  @shelleyhitz

5 Ideas for Author Newsletter Content: http://ow.ly/QLOev  @sarahforgrave

10 Things to Know About Working With Twitter:  http://ow.ly/QLMRH  @ellisshuman

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Demographics on Wattpad

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve had a profile and books available on Wattpad for over a year.  Wattpad is an online reading platform.  It’s a social way to share stories, with readers commenting on chapters as we release them.  I’ve written about getting on Wattpad and my thoughts on the platform.

Wattpad is free for readers.  I have enough books available for sale that offering something for free for exposure isn’t a concern.  And it is all about exposure: there are over 40 million users.

To access this feature, you’d go to your book page and click on the graph icon right next to “edit story.”

It’s interesting to see when people were reading and when they were most likely to vote or comment on a chapter.  We could use this data to figure out what days of the week might be best for us to post updates on.

Here we can see which parts generated more engagement.  This could give us real data on where our writing is resonating with readers.

We can also get interesting data on our readers–their ages and gender.  I will say that this site skews female and young.  But this is the only publishing platform where a key part of my readership is 13-18 years old.

And, below, the map is pretty cool.  Wattpad has great global reach, getting my stories into the hands of people who may not access it otherwise.

For me, this provides an interesting glimpse into my readers on the site.  It helps reinforce that I’m doing the right thing by uploading to Wattpad. I’m reaching a younger demographic than my usual reader base, and I’m also reaching readers from around the world.

Anyone else on Wattpad?  Any other ideas for reaching new demographics with our stories?

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Marketing and Publishing Updates

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A few odds and ends and updates: 

Draft2Digital:  I’ve used Smashwords since I started self-publishing.  It’s been convenient for me to upload one file there for distribution to multiple retailers.  But I’ve experimented lately with Draft2Digital, a similar distributor (these distributors are paid a percentage of our book sales for our convenience).  I really like its user interface: it’s a nice, clean look and the site is fairly easy to navigate.

I’ve found I especially like the email updates they send that let me know when my book has gone live on the different retailers or when my price changes go through on the various sites.  It’s also nice that I can make my book free on Nook through Draft2Digital…that seemed to make Amazon move very quickly to price match when my book was free on the Barnes & Noble site.

I’m also paid more frequently with Draft2Digital than I am with Smashwords (payment is quarterly at Smashwords). 

Pen name tidbit: Apparently, my readers got an email from Amazon about Race to Refuge, which I wrote as Liz Craig.  I did list myself as the publisher, but didn’t put myself as a contributor in the author section on the KDP dashboard.  I’m thinking the reason readers received emails is because I linked to the book on my Amazon Author Central.  I guess, since Liz is a nickname, there was no trouble claiming it.  I never had such luck with my Riley Adams series for Penguin, which has a different Amazon Author Central page. 

Penguin Random House reaching out: I was blinking in amazement on August 12th.  After writing a post on the 3rd pointing out ways that my publisher, Penguin-Random House, and other traditional publishers could improve, I was surprised to see something new in my email inbox: an author newsletter.  This was the first author newsletter I’ve received and I’ve written for Penguin since 2010.

“Welcome to this month’s Penguin Random House Author News! This monthly newsletter offers Penguin Random House highlights, tips to help you connect with readers, publishing industry news, and more. It also includes information on updates to the Author Portal.”

There were links to three stories on writing, promoting, and fair use.   And even a webinar signup on learning about the role of networking in promoting.

There were 7 links to industry articles (from everything from The New Yorker to The Bookseller and GalleyCat).

Followed by…a request for feedback.  (!)

On Friday, even more astoundingly,  I got a check.  Out of the blue.   A check I was expecting in October.  According to the letter that accompanied it, however, this is likely due to the merger between Penguin and Random House and not the publishing world as we know it radically changing.

But the newsletter is a step in the right direction.  I definitely enjoy getting more information from my publisher.  It’s a good thing.

Got any updates of your own?  What are you trying out?  Thoughts on pen names and making them work better for us?

Draft2Digital, pen names, and slow publishing changes:

 

 

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