P.H. Solomon's Blog, page 328

Bloggers, where do you find your blog post inspiration?

PHS:

An interesting question – I get mine from journaling and what I’m doing.

Originally posted on Jodie Llewellyn:

In general, I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas for blog topics. Most of the time they just appear in my mind and work out! But every now and then I’m stumped on what to post. I imagine this happens to a lot of us. It’s probably the reason most blogs die slow and painful deaths.

Where do you find your blog post inspiration?

I find mine through google. I do searches like “blog post ideas for writers” and ultimately stumble across a gem of an idea. I also cruise Pinterest for quotes that I like and they sometimes trigger an idea also. I never plan ahead, I always just write posts by the fly of my pants. I know some bloggers have their blog posts planned out weeks in advance, but I’ve never done that.

Where do you find your ideas for your blog posts?

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First and Third Person Viewpoint Problems

PHS:

These are helpful insights on POV issues – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m:

Sometimes writers  can’t decide from which viewpoint to tell their story. Here’s why your agent or editor rejected your work when, assuming everything else rocked the Casbah, the problem was that the narrative‘s viewpoint failed to engage them.

1. They wished you had gone with the viewpoint you didn’t choose. (They didn’t tell you because that’s not their job unless they’re already working with you.)

2. Your viewpoint choice works, but it’s simply not their cup of pee. It’s subjective. It’s not to their taste. You can’t blame someone for not liking something viscerally (any more than you would blame someone for preferring vanilla to chocolate (even though that choice is inexplicably insane.)

3. Third person is limited omniscience. (No, no one does pure third person omniscient anymore.) First person viewpoint is much more limited in scope. In third person, the author may slide into keeping the reader in the dark…

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3 Ways To Blog Outside Your Schedule

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Do you have days when your site visits are low but you don’t have time to blog? Usually I don’t release blogs over the weekend so I have few hits on my site. Generally my weekends are chocked full of activity so I have little time to check my site or update social media.

I’ve come up with an answer that I started trying over the weekends and here’s my strategy list:

1. Go through you older posts and schedule them to be re-posted over the weekend. There’s always some information you’ve shared months earlier that new followers and readers have not seen.

2. If you read other blogs and you find something you like that fits you blog then re-blog it. Don’t have time to read on the weekend? Then have the page up on your browser to simply and quickly re-blog when you the chance during the weekend.

3. Schedule social media posts about your re-posted blogs. Make sure these are scheduled after the re-posts occur.

Here are my results from my first weekend of trying this strategy:

On 10/4/14, I successfully completed all three of these strategies. The results were 6 times the number of site views than the previous Saturday (9/27). These were great results for the first day of this test.

On 10/5/14, I applied all three of the strategies. The results were 4 times the views and a very high Twitter engagement rate. Overall, these were solid numbers though not as high as the day before.

For the weekend, my site engagement was five times what ts was the previous weekend.

In summary of the first weekend trying these strategies, I find that these have worked.  I will continue to monitor this strategy and report back further in the coming weeks including any additional strategies that I enact and the effect. I also find that my Twitter engagement is higher than the previous weekend which correlates to the increase in site views.

In closing, one might ask if this is a true number for the weekend. I say yes because re-posting gives new followers the chance to read previous posts they may have missed.

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How do you deal with slow traffic days on your site? I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Novels aren’t movie scripts: how to write great dialogue in prose

PHS:

Excellent tips for dialogue – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Nail Your Novel:

Do you learn your storytelling from movies as much as from prose? Have you cut your writing teeth on the wisdom of the hallowed screenwriting gurus (McKee, Field and Goldman)? Are you a screenwriter who’s making the switch to novels?

If so, you’ll certainly know some great storytelling tricks, but the two disciplines are different. Some movie techniques simply don’t translate to the page.

Indeed, if you’re writing your novel as though it’s a movie in your head, your ideas might not work as powerfully as they should.

I’ve already discussed a few general points in a previous post – scenes with a lot of characters, short, choppy scenes and point of view. There are other crucial differences between screen and page, so over the next few posts I’m going to look at them in detail.

Today: dialogue

Film is a visual medium. If we’re watching a scene in…

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Six ways to become a more productive writer

PHS:

Several of your points – which they were all very good – overlap my recent blog series so I’m re-blogging on Archer’s Aim. You have a wonderful site – keep up the good work!

Originally posted on bottledworder:

I’ve been thinking about how to become a more productive writer. Here’s six ways I came up with that could get the creative juices flowing:

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Project Management for Writers Pt 6: My Own Medicine

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here,  part 3 is here, part 4 here and part 5 here.

Here’s my application of my scheduling in light of analysis of my own needs.

What I needed done. Initially, I needed to complete some short story projects, jumpstart my author platform and complete a revision of my novel for my editor. Of course the details are much more complex. I calculated the amount of time I had available within a range. Next, I calculated how long each project would take in total hours and compared how much time I had per week to identify deadline dates(note: the author platform will always be ongoing but accounting for the time is necessary). Based on that information I could assign commitment to each project during a week by day.

How I scheduled. I dedicated the largest amount of time per day to The Bow of Destiny since it is the largest project and needed direct attention for a deadline. Next, I dedicated one day a week to work on a short story. Lastly, I put in a daily slice of time for my author platform development – social media updates, blogging, etc.  All of these were scheduled as a range of time since my availability might vary depending on daily situations. The point was to have a plan to address my goals.

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Things changed so I adjusted. When I found out my novel deadline was delayed for two months by my editor’s availability, I then adjusted my schedule. I assigned less time to my novel and more to the author platform and short fiction.

What I needed done. However, I realized that I needed to address goals/priorities one at a time. My author platform was lagging so I wanted to draft/schedule as many blogs as possible and then work on several pieces of short fiction.

The result. Last week I focused on blogging and social media engagement. As a consequence I have published, scheduled or begun drafts of sixteen blogs and increased my social media engagement. This week, with so many blogs scheduled or in process, I need less dedicated time to my author platform so I can focus on my short fiction with the goal of submitting several stories to magazine markets.

In conclusion, due to my change in deadline with my novel, I’ve adjusted my strategy to focus on short-term goals to accomplish as many of them as I can in order to gain more focus on my larger project – The Bow of Destiny. While I intend to continue working on the novel as I can, its priority is lower for several weeks while I clear other projects out of the way. Recently, Robert Chazz at ChazzWrites.com has written about similar need by addressing marketing and how he needs to focus his writing in his post which has already been re-blogged on this site: What if What We Think We Know About Writing, Publishing & Promotion is Wrong? Check out his reasoning and conclusions.

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Have you started scheduling your work? Have you already found a need to adjust your schedule? I’d love to hear from you so please leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

 

 

 

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What if What We Think We Know About Writing, Publishing & Promotion is Wrong?

PHS:

An interesting strategy to improving your return of investment in writing – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m:

Problem:

Blogging is dead. I’ve been spinning out gold here for years. Maybe I should have spent more time writing books instead because my blog stats are fairly static. This site gets pretty decent traffic when I post, but it’s not growing as I’d hoped. Still glad to do it because it’s a compulsion, but I don’t do it as often and I don’t do it to sell books. I’m here to gain allies, share information and rant when the pressure builds too high.

My book sales come through Amazon promoting me, perhaps the occasional ad, pulse sales and, most important, word of mouth. I experiment with categorization and keywords and KDP Select. I write surprising books with many twists and turns and emotional gut punches. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been teetering on the cusp of success a long time and sometimes that’s lonely and sad. That’s when I stalk around the house…

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The ten worst writing tips I’ve received

PHS:

Insightful thoughts on advice – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Suffolk Scribblings:

The problem with writing advice is that every writer is different. This leads to lots of advice being passed around, often with the type of reverence reserved for holy scripture, that may be of limited use, or at worst, incredibly harmful to a new writer. Following on from my Ten Most Valuable Writing Tips I’ve Received, I thought I’d share the ten worst. Again, this very subjective. I’m sure there will be one or two tips listed here that some of you swear by (or according to number 3, by which some of you swear). The best advice a writer can receive is to go with what works for you. The following definitely didn’t work for me.

Write what you know

This is an incredibly frustrating piece of advice. We have been blessed with a wonderful imagination yet when starting out as a writer you’re told to stick to what you know. How many wonderful…

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Project Management Pt 5: Putting the Pieces Together

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here,  part 3 is here and part 4 here.

Here are the ideas referenced from the original post:

Be very specific: Schedule your time with specificity in order to set your expectations. If you are vague then you will tend toward accomplishing less because you don’t know what you are doing. For example, rather than scheduling thirty minutes several times a day to edit/revise a project with the stated goal of “edit”, be more precise and name what you will edit, how much for the day and how you will accomplish this goal. In other words, thirty minutes of editing several times a day to reach a minimum goal of ten pages in your novel project until you reach your allotted time for the day (remember, you have allotted time to other duties such as social media management). This gives you focus. Since you know that you should apply three hours a day to this priority then you know how to schedule it and everything else for each day, week and month.
Be fluid/realistic: You will often fall off the pace if you are unrealistic. What do I mean by this? Simply that you will have real-life issues arise that need your attention so expect your schedule to have interruptions. Go into working your scheduling and project management with the understanding that you need to be fluid – willing to adjust. But this does not mean give yourself excuses for accomplishing nothing, after all, this is why you’re attempting to manage the project(s) better. You must schedule with flexibility either by lowering daily/weekly/monthly expectations or having a tolerance for problems and being nimble enough to adjust for interruptions. Regardless, you are the manager of the project and you must take responsibility for it to complete it.

By this point in the series, you should have surveyed your time for availability and required time to complete tasks. Also, you should be aware of your goals and priorities. Lastly, you should have taken a look at your information to gain perspective.

Now it’s time to put your pieces together. Unlike a real jigsaw puzzle, your scheduling assessment does not have predetermined places in your puzzle. Instead, they depend on your conclusions from your survey. It’s completely up to you to decide how to schedule your time.

Most likely your first attempts will not fit like you want so you must re-assess and adjust how you will spend your time. Likewise, circumstances change and you may find you must schedule differently for a while than what you actually want to clear some projects out of your way. In this case, keep your long-term goals in mind to shift back toward scheduling them with proper emphasis.

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The main idea is that you are your own CEO as a writer and you must determine outcomes. Your survey provides you with the information to schedule and adjust while becoming more efficient and effective with your efforts within your available time.

Do you have an idea of how to better manage your projects and time? Are you ready to put the pieces together and make more progress with writing? I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

 

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Feeling Dissed By Mainstream Reviewers?

PHS:

Thanks for the thoughts, I totally agree. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Beem's Blog:

Should indie authors seek reviews from traditional mainstream sources? If we, as writers, opt for the self-published path, should we still consider sending copies of our work to The New York Times or Publishers Weekly?

Roger Sutton, the editor-in-chief of Horn Book magazine, a mainstream book review publication, recently published an open letter to “the indie author feeling dissed.”

In his open letter, Mr. Sutton does make some valid points. He says there are just too many self-published books flooding the market. Some estimates put the number at around 300,000 indie releases per year. To attempt to review even a portion of these works would prove daunting. Imagine being tasked with the responsibility of combing through that many books in search of just a handful of gems or potential gems?

Many self-published works are just plain awful, Mr. Sutton claims. This statement, unfortunately, holds some manner of truth. While…

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