Rowena Wiseman's Blog, page 4

Using Missinglettr to post blog posts to social media automatically

This could be one of my favourite new social media tools of the year for bloggers! With Missinglettr you can  create a year's worth of social media content in minutes. Missinglettr scans new blog articles and creates social media posts that you can post to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and others social media networks automatically. The AI is so sophisticated it actually drafts text for social media posts based on quotes from your blog post and compiles images for you to use.

Missinglettr helps you to be consistent with social media posting, increase your social media presence and avoid social media burnout.

How Missinglettr's Automatically Generated Social Media Campaign works

First you will need to link your blog and connect social media profiles in Missinglettr. 

Go to the Campaign page - this is where you are able to generate a drip feed campaign that will automatically post to your selected social media platforms for the next 12 months.

You can review the campaigns that Missinglettr has generated by selecting the relevant blog post.

Missinglettr will automatically generate hashtags that you can keep or delete. You can also create your own.

You can then select any media that you would like in the campaign. This is usually drawn from images you have used in your blog post

Missinglettr will automatically generate social media captions for your social media campaigns by drawing on quotes from your blog post. The AI will bold the quotes they see as the most relevant, however, here you have the opportunity to review each suggestion and edit them. Just click the delete button for any you don't want to use or the plus button to add more to your campaign. This part is super easy and a magical way to promote your blog posts.

You press 'build campaign' and Missinglettr cleverly composes a social media campaign to promote your blog posts. Now you get to review these posts. Again you can edit the text and also select which social media accounts you want these posts to feed to. And you can see the quote bubbles that Missinglettr has designed to get attention on your favourite social media channels.

Here's a few examples that Missinglettr created for me:

Then you press 'launch campaign' and confirm that the content is yours. This is how simple it is to create 10 social media posts across two platforms in two minutes, to be spaced out over the whole year. 

Reshare social media content with the Curate function in Missinglettr

Another great function with Missinglettr is the 'Curate' tab which draws up engaging social media content for you to share with your audience. Again, the algorithm has carefully selected these social media posts just for you. Just click the share button and post or schedule.

See your whole month social media schedule in Missinglettr

Click on the schedule tab to see the whole month of social media content that Missinglettr has scheduled - this is such a great tool for social media marketing

Other great functions of Missinglettr

There's a detailed analytics tab where you can see clicks and countries of origin. And one function that I particularly like, is that you can connect your blog posts so that they re-post on your Medium account automatically.

Get in and explore Missinglettr. Start a 14-day free trial. You can set up 9 social media platforms, schedule 3000 posts and promote up to 10 curate posts in the trial period!

No more lost notes: the author's guide to Evernote

The struggle to keep track of all your notes for your novel is real. If you're like me, you have a tonne of notebooks, and scraps of handwritten paper crumpled up in your bag or your jeans pocket, or the back of the shopping list on the fridge. 

Evernote can be a lifesaver for writers, whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction. Not only does it provide an easy way to keep track of your ideas and thoughts, but it also helps you stay organised with research material. 

I first came across Evernote via Maria Popova who writes the insightful blog Brain Pickings. Maria writes essays featuring quotes and wisdom from the world's best thinkers. When Maria was asked how she organises her research material, she said she uses Evernote to keep an index of her notes and ideas. In an interview with Copyblogger she described her research process: 'I use Evernote to save notes on various items I’m reading and to photograph the marginalia on book pages, which are then searchable thanks to optical character recognition.'

Evernote offers many different features that are perfect to keep writers organised:

The optical character recognition is a game changer. You can use the photo function in Evernote to scan a page of a notebook or marginalia in a book.  You can also scan Post-It Notes! You can then use the optical character recognition to search for text within a photo.

Here I can search for my character Liza and find notes I have written - see how it's picking up the handwritten text in these photos:

Here I've scanned a page from George Saunders' 'A Swim in a Pond in the Rain' about his revision method. I've titled the note, and tagged it 'how to revise' - so I can keep this with my other notes about revision. Later, I can search for it by 'Saunders' or from a phrase within the text such as 'iteration'


I've scanned handwritten notes in my notebook from a brilliant The Writing University podcast on revising for one thing at a time by Kerry Howley . Again - I've tagged this 'how to revise' to keep these notes together with my other tips on re-drafting.

Evernote can also be used to scan Post-It Notes! Had a brainwave, and only have time to scribble it on a Post-It Note? Scan it, tag it, such as 'Poetry', and keep it in a collection on Evernote.


Again, more handwritten notes I've digitised. I can search this for phrases I may recall, such as 'beta block', 'tissue paper'.


You can also use Evernote to compile a large amount of research from multiple sources - eg. websites, photos from pages in books, emails and organise by tags. 
Evernote has been called a 'digital filing cabinet' because it can help you keep track of all your research. The internet is a vast, and sometimes overwhelming place. It can be difficult to keep track of all the articles you’ve read.
Evernote Web Clipper is a simple extension for your web browser that lets you capture full-page articles and images. You can also do this from your smartphone. So say you are browsing the web - and find something of interest, you can clip it, and tag it - so you can easily find it later. 
You can tag your research by the book project you are working on, or by themes or ideas. Evernote can also automatically tag notes that have a similar title and subject. 
An Evernote Notebook by Moleskine is the first paper notebook designed for people to create digitised versions of handwritten notes. Smart Stickers, included with every notebook, make it easy to tag and organise your notes. Standard notebooks and manual tagging work just as well. No more flicking through hundreds of pages to find that brilliant idea! 
You can also record voice notes and save them in Evernote. 
Evernote is great for online storage - to keep all your research secure. You get 60MB on the free plan, 10GB monthly on the personal and 20GB monthly on the professional.

Explore how Evernote can improve your writing process - visit the website now!  

You can try the free version or upgrade to get the search text feature in images, PDFs and notes and get extra storage.

Can AI help you write a novel?

Jarvis AI is the world's first artificial intelligence creative writing assistant. It can help you start stories by generating ideas, characters, tone and style. Just pop in some plot ideas and see it work its magic.

I came across Jarvis AI in a YouTube video by social media expert Rachel Pedersen titled 'how to create 3 months of content in 3 hours'. Rachel demonstrated how a software program Jarvis AI could be used for copywriters - for long form text, blog posts, as well as for short, pithy social media posts and email subject lines. As I was watching, and reading the text the AI was creating, I was like ... oh my, this is so, so clever.

The co-presenter also mentioned that Jarvis can write creative stories. I was skeptical. I like to think that humans will always be needed for their creativity. It scared me to think that AI will ever be able to write anything worthy, à la Hemingway. 
I decided to put Jarvis to the test. Within the platform there's a creative story template where you can type in the plot and select the tone of voice, and Jarvis will generate text. 

Let's take a look at how Jarvis performed, using the plot of one of my short stories (click on the image to read full size):


It actually did far better than I expected. While Jarvis did get a little confused about some of the characters and their intentions, these opening paragraphs were solid in setting up the story and tone. I even had a little giggle at the line 'and then continued making eggs for their son' - it sounded a bit Raymond Carveresque - focusing on the minutiae in moments of calamity.

I ran some more outputs, and received this opening that was even better:

Notice in this output how Jen is wearing his son's football coach's sweatpants - this is an excellent way of saying she's having an affair without actually saying she was having an affair. This is the moment I became convinced that Jarvis AI isn't just an ordinary writer - he's a sophisticated writer.

Now, the Creative Story template is only going to give you a piece of the story. You would have to keep updating the plot field to keep generating text. You could then compile pieces of your story together. This could be time consuming - and I'm not sure how well the pieces would flow together.

I also trialled the Long Form assistant template. I copied the beginning text generated from the Creative Story and pressed the generate new text button in the Long Form assistant. The AI would write a few sentences for me at a time, but then it seemed to get stuck.

The developers state very clearly that Jarvis is still learning - so it might be some time until the Long Form works better with creative text, or before they develop longer outputs in the Creative Story. However, from what I've seen in those beginning paragraphs, it's definitely looking promising. It's actually looking scarily promising. In fact, I'd say it's not too long until we'll be able to plug in a chapter overview, and press a generate button, to generate a whole novel. The bigger question is - do we want artificial intelligence to be able to do this? And who is the artist? Is it the person who plugged in the chapter overview or is it the programmers?

But for now, I'd say if someone has writer's block, and needs a bit of assistance, Jarvis could be a great place to start pumping out some ideas. You can nominate how many outputs you'd like Jarvis to generate - so if you're stuck on the beginning of a novel, you could run 3-10 outputs to experiment with different ways of starting - with different tones and style.

The process of generating text with AI and playing around with it could also become a new form of experimental fiction, like the old-school cut-up technique, but for the digital age.

I'll be sticking with Jarvis AI to help with copywriting and digital marketing. And I'll be playing with the creative storytelling from time to time just to see how Jarvis is learning, and if he can create a better opening paragraph than I could ... which I think he has done successfully with Warren and Jen!

If you'd like to experiment with Jarvis AI and claim 10,000 words for free click here!

How to find an editor, cover designer or book marketing expert

How to find help with your bookFiverr is an online marketplace of freelancers who offer a range of services to help authors edit their novels, prepare their manuscript for submitting to agents or publishers or assist with marketing their work. Affordable freelance services available on Fiverr include editing and proofreading, beta readers, cover blurb and synopsis writers, self-publishing assistants, cover designers and book marketing experts.

Let's take a look at a range of services available on Fiverr that could assist writers with their work!


Editing and proofreading services for authors available on Fiverr
Editing and proofreadingEditors and proofreaders on Fiverr will check your novel for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, consistency and flow.


Beta readers Beta readers provide feedback on the manuscript. A beta reader will read your novel and provide input on the story, characters, plot holes and anything else that may need addressing.


Developmental editingDevelopmental editors focus on the structure of the novel. Corrections at the developmental stage could include adding or removing content, reorganising sections of the novel, rearranging paragraphs into a more logical order and correcting factual errors in the book.



Book marketing services for authors available on Fiverr

Blurb writingIt's imperative that every novel has a punchy blurb. Hire a Fiverr freelancer to help you craft or edit an engaging blurb so that people will want to read more!


Synopsis writingA synopsis outlines the whole story for an agent or editor and can be more important than the book itself in getting their attention. Hire a freelancer on Fiverr to help you perfect the synopsis for your novel.


Self-publishing assistanceEvery author needs a little help when it comes to self-publishing their manuscript and hiring the right person can make all of the difference. Freelancers available on Fiverr offer a range of services such as formatting your book for uploading to different retailers or distributors.



Cover designPeople judge a book by its cover - so have your cover designed professionally to compel people to purchase a copy.



Book marketingSo you've written a novel but don't know how to market it? Hiring freelancers on Fiverr can help with all aspects of book marketing including social media, blogging, acquiring book reviews and more!


There is no shortage of services available on Fiverr that authors can utilise to make sure their work is as professional and polished as possible before submitting it to agents or publishers or to self-publish and promote themselves!

Freelance services on Fiverr to help authors

Fiverr is an online marketplace of freelancers who offer a range of services to help authors edit their novels, prepare their manuscript for submitting to agents or publishers or assist with marketing their work. Affordable freelance services available on Fiverr include editing and proofreading, beta readers, cover blurb and synopsis writers, self-publishing assistants, cover designers and book marketing experts.


Let's take a look at a range of services available on Fiverr that could assist writers with their work!


Editing and proofreading services available on Fiverr
Editing and proofreadingEditors and proofreaders on Fiverr will check your novel for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, consistency and flow.


Beta readers Beta readers provide feedback on the manuscript. A beta reader will read your novel and provide input on the story, characters, plot holes and anything else that may need addressing.


Developmental editingDevelopmental editors focus on the structure of the novel. Corrections at the developmental stage could include adding or removing content, reorganising sections of the novel, rearranging paragraphs into a more logical order and correcting factual errors in the book.



Book marketing services on Fiverr

Blurb writingIt's imperative that every novel has a punchy blurb. Hire a Fiverr freelancer to help you craft or edit an engaging blurb so that people will want to read more!


Synopsis writingA synopsis outlines the whole story for an agent or editor and can be more important than the book itself in getting their attention. Hire a freelancer on Fiverr to help you perfect the synopsis for your novel.


Self-publishing assistanceEvery author needs a little help when it comes to self-publishing their manuscript and hiring the right person can make all of the difference. Freelancers available on Fiverr offer a range of services such as formatting your book for uploading to different retailers or distributors.



Cover designPeople judge a book by its cover - so have your cover designed professionally to compel people to purchase a copy.



Book marketingSo you've written a novel but don't know how to market it? Hiring freelancers on Fiverr can help with all aspects of book marketing including social media, blogging, acquiring book reviews and more!


There is no shortage of services available on Fiverr that authors can utilise to make sure their work is as professional and polished as possible before submitting it to agents or publishers or to self-publish and promote themselves!

How authors should use TikTok - #booktok

So it turns out TikTok isn't just for the kids. It's not just about dancing or lip syncing. There is a whole community of readers on TikTok who are calling themselves 'BookTok' - they are voracious readers, posting about how they are reading 10-20 books a month! There are also 'BookTok' books, that gain hype on the platform and go on to be bestsellers.

I got onto TikTok during Melbourne's COVID lockdown. Mostly I was there to have a laugh at joke videos about Dan Andrews and the Melbourne lockdown, but I soon found myself on the BookTok side of TikTok - yes - this is how you speak about TikTok - there are sides to TikTok - there's straight TikTok, or Alt TikTok, there are in fact, many different realms in TikTok, and where you end up, depends on what you are watching and liking on what is called the 'For You Page'.

TikTok has a magical algorithm, where you can literally have zero followers, but your post hits the For You Page and gets thousands of views. It is completely different to other social media platforms in this way, although Instagram is now trying to compete with Instagram Reels and YoutTube has just announced YouTube Shorts.

TikTok is a creative space. I've heard it described as creation for creation's sake - so as an author, think about how you can get creative on the platform. Start checking out the hashtags #authortok and #writertok to see how other authors are using the platform. However, my word of advice for authors for all social media - don't make your community other authors, your community should be readers. So try and connect mostly with #booktok #newtobooktok #readertok.

TikTok has superior functionalities to other social media platforms - trending sounds, trending trends, green screen, beauty mode and filters, text and stickers. It is more sophisticated than other platforms you are used to. If you have kids, ask them to show you how to use it. I'm still asking my ten year old 'how do I do this?' Watch other videos to get ideas, and then try and work out how they did it. 

My other advice is - just start posting. You're not going to start out perfect. In fact, you're probably going to do a face palm over your old videos one day. You're going to get better at it over time. You're going to learn from what videos do well and what completely tanks.

If you want to learn more about how to use TikTok - my go-to person is Rachel Pedersen - you can watch her YouTube videos or check out her TikTok account  

Then, if you want to check out some inspiring BookTok and AuthorTok accounts, check out these ones:

https://www.tiktok.com/@caityreads
https://www.tiktok.com/@cosyfaerie
https://www.tiktok.com/@nashvillebookgirl
https://www.tiktok.com/@thebookbirdy
https://www.tiktok.com/@mariahankenman
https://www.tiktok.com/@kaylamaiuri

My TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@outofprint

Most of all have fun on the platform. Experiment. Connect with others. Before long, you'll be finding Instagram and Facebook soooo boring!

Leaving you with some inspo:

@thebookbirdy

when the pages are on beat 🥺 aesthetic ##pocketsofpeace ##fypシ ##foryou

♬ original sound - Evelyn

Top 5 free resources to improve your writing now

Right now, here in Melbourne, we are in our second lockdown – and it’s one of the strictest lockdowns in the western world. We are confined to a 5 kilometre radius from home, maximum one hour of exercise a day and an 8pm curfew.


So while my world has been downsized, I’ve been trying to upsize on new skills. I’ve done short-lived dabbling in pottery, growing houseplants, knitting, playing table tennis and my kids have been teaching me how to make TikToks. But I've also been using quarantine to learn more about the craft of writing.

Here’s five free resources I’ve been tapping into during these ISO days to help develop my writing. Think of this as a free university course any writer can join, anytime:


1. The University of Iowa is one of the most well known writers workshops in the world with famous alumni including Raymond Carver, Philip Roth and Flannery O’Connor. Luckily for us, elsewhere in the world, they’ve made a series of MOOC courses available for free online.


I started with the How writers write poetry courses (I and II) – which are excellent introductions to writing poetry for beginners.


Check out this lecture by Danny Khalastchi, Director, Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing, he talks about figurative language and imagery and introduces rhyme schemes and form in poetry. Even if you’re a fiction writer, there’s a lot you can learn from Khalastchi about how to lift your prose to become more lyrical.


There are also two excellent courses for fiction writers. They cover topics such as character, plot, voice, setting and how to revise:


How writers write fiction I 
How writers write fiction II 


2. The Invisible College is a BBC podcast where Cathy FitzGerald has gone through radio and audio archives and compiled creative writing advice from such greats as Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and Virgina Woolf. Each ‘class’ is around ten minutes long and covers topics such as ‘Sell your heart’, ‘Get better acquainted with words’, ‘Creating characters’ and ‘Routines and Rituals’.


3. Also from the University of Iowa, The Writing University's Eleventh Hour podcast series features recordings by renowned writers and poets presented during the University of Iowa's Iowa Summer Writing Festival. This is a fabulous opportunity to hear from leading writers who give considered lectures on topics such as how to write better dialogue, the art of humour writing, how to come up with a good title and the poet as collector.


My absolute favourite, which I’ve listened to again and again, is Episode 120: Revising Like a Hack - Screenwriting ‘Rules’ as a Guide for Rewrites - Kerry Howley. If there’s one resource you check out from this list – this should be the one!! Listen and keep a pen and paper handy to take notes.


Howley gives excellent tips on how to revise your novel for one thing at a time and explains screenwriting hacks such as the ticking clock and all is lost and all is gained moments. I haven’t been able to watch a film or Netflix show without considering it through a ‘Howley’ lens since. This may just be the best 38 minutes you spend to improve plot and tension in your work


4. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a masters thesis on the shape of stories. You can watch a 17 minute lecture where he demonstrates the common patterns he's identified in stories.


After seeing this, I’ve started creating retrospective outlines of my stories and graphing where the high and low points take place and whether I need to change the shape of my story. This is a really easy visual technique to improve tension and plot and to help create a more satisfactory ending for readers.

5. The Paris Review podcast . Oh my goodness, where do I even start with this? But after all the heavy-duty learning you would have been doing from my other tips, it’s time to sit back and be inspired.


The Paris Review podcast features stories and poetry from past issues, along with audio interviews, unusual fragments and unlikely pairings of singers or actors reading short stories and poetry. This podcast is stunningly produced and will introduce you to writers you’ll feel you should already know.


Episode 15 is one of my favourites: Salman Rushdie reads an apologetic letter written by Dylan Thomas to his editor; poet Sharon Olds identifies 'The Solution' to America’s problems; Alexandra Kleeman reads her haunting story 'Fairy Tale'; and singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart reads the little-known legend of 'The Woe Shirt', as written by Paulé Bártón.

Little Poems Community - artist retreat Beijing

I have just spent two weeks at Little Poems Community in Beijing, an artist retreat, or as the founder Mario calls it - an artist incubator. 

Mario's philosophy is that artists need time out to do nothing (if they choose), because, in fact, they are doing a lot - incubating ideas, recharging, daydreaming. Mario himself is a fashion designer, having won best independent designer in Beijing for three years, so he knows all about the process of creation.

He's done a brilliant job in bringing people together and fostering an idea of community - through sharing lunch and dinner together each day with the other artists and volunteers who are helping to build a guesthouse site up the road (complete with a bar and performance stage).

LPC, as it's affectionately known, is located in a traditional Chinese village and it's interesting to experience village life - people playing card games in laneways and cucumber plants growing up electrical poles, the tuk tuks and bikes on the street. Here's the view out my window where I wrote each day:

LPC artists have painted murals on buildings around the village. Mario knocks on people's doors and asks for their permission. He likes the idea of the village kids waking up to some colour, instead of plain brick walls.

A cook prepares lunch and dinner each day for the guests - it's nutritious food, mostly from the vegetable garden or surrounding farms - so a lot of shared vegetarian dishes, rice and noodles.

I got in to a good routine each day where I'd wake pretty early, have coffee and breakfast in my room, and write solidly until lunch and then explore the village and hang out with other guests in the afternoons and evenings. 

I was able to finish the first draft of my latest YA novel (I wrote approx 10,000 words in my two weeks there), did some editing and drafted the synopsis. This could have taken me about 6 months back home!

Other:- there's a yoga room, piano room and painting room- a grocery store a minute's walk away, where you can get basic supplies like soft drinks, beer and snacks- Mario likes people to stay for a minimum of two weeks to create work- it's quite remote, there's a bus to a metro station or you can get a taxi or driver into the city - about an hour away, so once you are here there's very few distractions- there's a wetlands area about a 15-20 minute walk away - nice to explore with Chinese bridges and boardwalks and a lovely restaurant overlooking the wetlands where you can get coffee and a nice snack- it's social - local artists, students and ex-pats are often dropping in to share lunch and dinner, so as well as meeting other travelling guests, it's a great way to meet and learn from people living and working in Beijing. Here's a lovely young ceramicist I met who spends his time between Beijing and the porcelain centre of China Jingdezhen:


Tips:- bring cash, as there's no ATM nearby, so get cash out at the airport- download a VPN service to get access to email, Dropbox, Instagram, Facebook etc, as the Chinese firewall is real (it took me about a week to do this, but was a good chance to be cut off from all of that for a while!)- bring any powerpoint adaptors- bring headphones as the courtyard can be noisy sometimes, so it's good if you want to block out noise- download WeChat so you can communicate with locals, it's fun!- download Google translator, English-Chinese, as it's a good way to show Chinese characters to people who can't speak English, especially in the village
A shared dinner:

Some of Mario's miniature couture:

One of the many cats in the courtyard:


Like any good book, the highlight at LPC was the characters I met. Mario is a talented, visionary, larger than life creative. 

And I was especially lucky and grateful to spend so much time with Elsie - who is creating her own art and lifestyle community, Living Studios, a 5-10 minute drive away. She was so generous sharing her thoughts and knowledge and giggles with me ...



Find out more:  https://www.littlepoemscommunity.com/  

Writers and poets on Instagram

Sometimes I come across an Instagram account that I read through from the end to the beginning. 

There's some fabulous writers, poets and illustrators on Insta who feed me daily with their insight and wisdom, angst, wit, hope and despair. 
Here are some of the best writers, poets and wordsmiths I've discovered on Instagram:

thetypewriterdaily

depressingfridgepoems

werenotreallystrangers


artful_agony

neilfarber

danielpiperwords

gorkiegork


bodeburnout

Some of my other favourite Instagram accounts for words and feelings: amberibarreche
notestostrangers
cartoonsbyhilary

frances_cannon

aprilhillwriting

sarahthefirth

jessicavwalsh

rupikaur_

Oh, and follow my account on Instagram: 
rowena_wiseman


* This is an updated post from 2014

Publishers publishing novellas

Nouvella Books' editor Deena Drewis on The Masters Review Blog said 'No one really sits down to write novellas—it ends up that length because there’s no more to cut and nowhere to expand; it’s a display of both stamina and restraint.'

The Old Man and the Sea, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Metamorphosis are all brilliant works, despite, or maybe because of, their shorter length.

Updated list of publishers publishing novellas in 2019
Free submissions or modest reading fee of approx $3.


Nouvella Books http://nouvellabooks.com/

Fairlight Books https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/

Ploughshares Solos https://www.pshares.org/submit/solos

Quattro Books http://quattrobooks.ca/submissions/

Subtropics http://subtropics.english.ufl.edu/index.php/submissions/

Seizure – Viva la Novella (annual competition) http://www.seizureonline.com/viva-la-novella

Griffith Review https://griffithreview.com/submit-to-griffith-review/