#WriterWednesday - September 26th 2018

HTTP vs. HTTPS – why is this important? You might want to read the post to find out, especially if you have a website.

By the way, I'm currently taking auditions for a narrator for "Where's Noodles?" on ACX. Auditions will be remaining open until Friday (Septmber 28th 2018). If you're reading this, and you're a female narrator who accepts short projects with royalty share contracts, there's still time to look up the project on ACX and submit your audition. I just thought I'd mention that.

So... There's just a little over a month to go until it's time for NaNoWriMo. But what is NaNoWriMo, and why bother with it?

Whether you're participating in NaNoWriMo this year or not, check out this advice on staying motivated (even when it's hard). In fact, that's good advice for staying motivated with other things besides writing too. Also, here's a great post that gives an example of how a new schedule can make you super productive.

Of course, if one of those things you're trying to get done is writing a story, you'll need some characters to go in it. So, here's a detailed character profile you can fill out if you like.

Speaking of characters: if you have a lot of similar characters in your story, do you know how to make them easy for your readers to tell apart? Not sure? This post entitled "One of these things is not like the other" may help you with some ideas for creating believable differences between your characters.

Don't forget: your characters will need to eat, so here are some tips on creating fantasy food, for those who want to feed their characters in a fantasy world. After all, you want us to believe these are real people, right? Plus, wouldn't it be fun to make up some recipes for your world, and share them with your fans?

You'll obviously want to make your plot believable too, so check out these 7 clever strategies for harnessing coincidences in fiction, and help your readers accept your story's coincidences.

Make sure you do your research when choosing a setting too, so you can get it right.

…Authors, fear not, the ‘business’ of story-telling is limitless…

Is it children you write for? Are you writing a picture book, a chapter book, or a middle grade novel? If you planned to write a picture book, but it's not working too well, ask yourself, is your picture book really a chapter book? If you planned something shorter, but it wants to be longer, go with it, unless you have a reason you can't, in which case you may have a lot of work ahead of you to make it work the way you need it to.

But, what if your novel is boring? Then use one of the methods in the post I just linked to for ideas on how to change that.

What does the 'perfect' ending to a story look like? Well, you won't know that until you write it, because the perfect ending to a story will only be revealed when the rest of the story is written, and may change from the first draft to the final one. So just write the first draft, and worry about whether the ending is right later, when you're working on revisions.

Speaking of revising your story: you may want to bear in mind these easy writing skills for becoming a better writer.

On the other hand, if you write poetry, here's a post about the types of rhymes in poetry, which you may find worth reading.

Regardless of what you write, or even if writing is your art form of choice, check out these 5 reasons this is the best time to be a creator. Add to that the sheer pleasure of creating whatever it is you create, and perhaps that will clear away any doubts you might have had about whether you should bother. Don't give up your creative dreams too easily. It doesn't matter if you're an artist, a writer, or whatever. Draw, paint, make music or movies, write. Whatever makes you happy. Then share it with the world, because you can, and because art - in any form - should be shared!

Next, here's some advice on how to maintain your motivation on a large writing project.

If you're having trouble getting your writing time in, here's what one author does, and recommends you do, when you can't focus, but need to write anyway.

Mind you, sometimes it's OK to take a break from writing. In fact, here are 12 reasons it's OK to put writing aside for a minute.

But, if you're thinking of quitting: is this why you want to quit? Because, if it is, you really shouldn't quit. It's hard, but you'll get through it. Just keep writing. After all, rejection doesn't justify your decision to quit writing.

If you think you might have writers' block, this might be why you feel blocked, and how to fix it.

Next, here's a post that talks about eBook pricing when you're self-published, and how you should remember your books are worth as much as those by traditionally published authors - assuming you've done what you should to produce a high quality book (such as making sure it's properly edited, has a good cover, etc).

However you price your books, Amazon has now created an easy way to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP Print. So, if you've been publishing your paperbacks via CreateSpace, and your books aren't already moved, this is how to move your books from CreateSpace to KDP - the quick and easy way. I went ahead and moved mine using this method last week, and it really is as simple as the post I just linked to insists. All 53 of my titles were moved in less than five minutes.

In other Amazon related news: Amazon released Amazon Advertising recently, which may also help you in getting your creative creations seen by the world.

Speaking of marketing: this next post explains why you need to do a SWOT analysis. At least, you do if you want to improve book sales.

Finally, if you're getting requests from other writers or bloggers to do guest posts on your blog, here's the email pitching etiquette you should be looking for before you agree to let someone have a posting slot on your blog. The article I just linked to could also serve as advice for anyone wishing to request guest posting slots from others. If the latter applies to you, make sure you check the person's blog for any spacific submission guidelines first too.