How are you using Twitter?

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writing, blogging, blog, fiction, novel, book, freelance

Are you on Twitter? You can follow me here. I just crossed the 100 followers threshold, so I’m pretty excited about that.

What is twitter?

Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to post updates in 140 character blips. Think IM plus social networking, and you’ve more or less got it. With twitter, it’s perfectly acceptable to follow complete strangers while that’s frowned on by other sites.

Ideas for using twitter

I use twitter to post updates for some of my blog posts. It’s also a nice way to jump in to interesting conversations that I run across, and that’s more acceptable on twitter since the conversations are public.

One thing that I don’t see talked about as much with twitter is the value of just following. It’s a great way to get ideas about a topic, see what people are talking about, etc. I’ve gotten good results asking for responses on twitter, so it’s another option besides the traditional blog poll.

I can see other potential uses for twitter. I can see it as an interesting medium for poetry or even ultra short stories. I’m hoping that as more people use it and experiment, other interesting uses will come out.

So, how do you get people to follow you on twitter?

First, go to Twitter search and look for people with interests similar to yours and follow some of them. You’ll start getting their updates in your friends list. Chances are, some of them will follow you in return.

Ask for followers on your blog. That seems so obvious, but it’s all to easy to forget to do the simple things. You might want to put a “follow me” button somewhere on your site, but I’ve had good results writing a quick post just asking people to follow. In fact, I just gained about 15 followers in the last week by doing that and asking for followers on a forum I frequent.

Ask for followers on forums you’re a member of. First though, be sure it’s okay to do so and within the community guidelines. Even if it is, be sure it’s acceptable in the culture of the forum you’re on as well. Otherwise, you could end up doing yourself more harm than good.

You’d be surprised, but explaining what you want and just asking works wonders. I wanted to cross the 100 followers threshold, and I did by simply asking.  So, I’m asking again. I’ve got 102 followers right now, and I’m curious how long it might take to reach 200. Care to help me get there?

writing, blogging, blog, fiction, novel, book, freelance

Must Read New Blog

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Genreality is a new blog that I’ve really been enjoying lately because of its great information for new writers.

It’s staffed by midlisters, including Lynn Viehl, author of Paperback Writer, which I’ve mentioned here before. Others are Alison Kent, Joseph Nassise, Carrie Vaughn, Sasha White and Jason Pinter.

They discuss various topics of interest to new writers, particularly those looking to be published. This last week, the theme was “First sale,” and reading how each author landed their first sale was interesting and inspiring.

I think this blog has real potential to provide lots of great information and entertainment. This is definitely one you’ll want to add to your RSS reader!

Seven to get started with

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I hope you’ve had a great holiday and New Year’s. I’ve been doing a lot of work on the novel and thinking about where I’d like to go with the blog this year. I’ve committed myself to finishing the novel and starting to approach agents by the spring, so I’m obviously going to be busy.

To kick things off, how about some links to get started.

  1. Lynn Viehl’s work on Scribd is a good place to look for novel outlining help. She also has the text for last year’s online writer’s workshop she did there. If you’re unfamiliar with her work, then she also has some short stories there as well.
  2. Writer’s Digest’s 101 best sites for writers is a good place to go for both inspiration and information.
  3. Ponoko is a site that’s new to me. Think cafepress, but you can design whatever you want here. So if you’ve ever had a great idea you’d like to market, here’s one place to look.
  4. The snowflake method is one of many ways to lay out your novel.
  5. Need some medieval inspiration? How about an interesting torture method? Check out Medieval Castles.
  6. Need a quick ancient history refresher? See the ancient history timeline.
  7. And if you’ve ever thought your job was good fodder for a book. Read The Tribulations of a Checkout Girl.

Don’t Panic

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You’ve probably already heard about Houghton Mifflin’s cutbacks, and the big news, that they plan on not accepting new manuscripts. There’s also some speculation that Borders may not be able to keep their bookstores open. Ouch!

I heard it on NPR on my way home the other evening, and my first reaction was to wonder how any publisher can survive without new books. I’m not sure I’ve gotten my head around that yet, in fact. Of course, the media reaction amounted to lots of gloom and doom with a touch of panic thrown in for spice.

Yes, I do find it disturbing that a major publishing house is laying off workers and suspending buying of new manuscripts.

No, I don’t think it’s the end of the world for publishing or for writers.

I think a lot of people, me included, are falling into the panic-trap of this recession, and the truth is, the more people in general panic, the worse the recession is likely to get. I think that’s a little scary, don’t you?

I don’t know what will happen to the publishing industry, but my point is, no one else does either. All the pundits who are saying this and that on the news, each being more negative than the other, don’t know what’s going to happen either. My solution? Don’t listen to them. Oh, and write!


Maybe publishers will lay off or cut back. Maybe some of the major houses will go under. Maybe POD and e-books are viable options, even for traditional publishers, since there’s less outlay of cash up front. Who knows? I still believe that good writers will attract readers. As writers, I think it’s in our best interest to focus on being the best writers we can be. I know it sounds naive, but I believe that if we do that, everything else will fall in place.

And what am I going to be doing? I’m going to finish the novel. Yes, it’s coming along quite well (almost 60k words right now). I’m going to shop it around to some agents in a couple months. If nothing comes of that, then I’ll explore using a POD publishing instead. In short, my plans haven’t changed. I’m working on writing the best novel I can and I’m trusting that there will still be readers out there for it. And no matter what happens to “publishing,” I feel safe saying people will still be interested in reading.

Just another slush pile

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I saw a site mentioned in this month’s Reader’s Digest (of all places), Authonomy.

The gist is this, you put up your novel on the site, which is run by Harper Collins, it gets voted on, and the top novels get read by editors at HC.

That led me to doing some research on whether other publishers are doing something similar. One of the first sites I found was Writer Beware Blogs, which is a site I head to whenever something looks a little too good to be true. They give a good summary of Authonomy, including some of the potential problems. Essentially, they argue that it’s still the slush pile of old, just moved online.

Authonomy seems to be combining the traditional slush pile with social networking. Instead of an agent or reader looking at your work, online readers do. If you’ve used any social networking sites like StumbleUpon or Digg, then you probably know that it’s not just the quality of your work that makes you popular. It’s also the quality of your social network.

So, I can see a mediocre novel getting more attention that a good one, providing the author has an active network on the site. Fair? Not really, but that’s the way popularity on all social networking sites works.

So, has anyone used a site like this? If so, I’d like to know how it worked out for you.

Writing on the go

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November is one of those months when I find myself wanting to write away from home more and more. For one thing, participating in NaNoWriMo means that I need all the writing time I can get. It’s not just that though. It’s the cold and gray I think as well. I just get the itch to go somewhere else.

So, how do you keep up with your writing when you’re on the move?

Don’t forget the old standby, pen and paper. Whether it’s a moleskine, a nice notebook or journal or something you pick up from a Dollar Store. This is a cheap and handy solution. The only problem I have with this is that I need to type it into the computer at some point. One year I did a lot of my NaNo novel this way, and my husband was nice enough to play secretary!

Almost as cheap, but higher tech, is a USB thumb drive. If you’re not sure what I mean, check out this froogle search. It’s simply a storage device that plugs in to your USB drive on your computer. This is easier for me than carrying a laptop. I attach one of these to my keyring, and anywhere I am, I can plug in to a computer and write. And since I’m saving directly to the USB drive, I don’t have to worry about uploading and downloading my files. This works great if you’re working on a computer that isn’t yours (library, office, etc.). Of course, the catch is that you need access to a computer (obviously).

A laptop is an obvious choice, and I was lucky enough to get one of the new Dell Minis.  It’s small enough to fit nicely into a zip up Bible cover!The keyboard takes a little getting used to, but after about an hour with the typing tutorial included (I got the Ubuntu version of the Mini), I was fine. Battery power is great, screen size is good and the brightness is great. It’s a wonderful little writing laptop. The one thing you might want to know before buying is that the ‘ and ” keys are in a wonky spot. Rather than relearn where they are, I simply replace them with > and << >>. Then a simple search and replace fixes all my apostrophes and quotes.

I’m almost tempted to say that this is a “woman’s” laptop because of the size of the keyboard. While I can type on it comfortably, my husband finds it almost impossible to use. His hands are pretty large, even for a man, so that’s something to keep in mind.

I’ve been able to write on the Mini for a couple hours at a time without having any problems with my hands tiring…well no more than usual. I think my speed suffers a little, but I’m a pretty fast typist. I hit around 90 wpm, but on the mini I’m probably getting 70-75 wpm. Still, that’s not too shabby, and I’m willing to take the hit in speed to get the convenience of a laptop that’s so small and light. Besides, it looks very cool too. (I’ll post some pics of it in action this week).

What kinds of things do you do to write while you’re away from home?

Why the word count doesn’t matter

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We’re almost half finished with NaNoWriMo. Are you at your 25,000 word count yet?

No? Well me neither. Feeling awful, depressed, discouraged? Ready to call it quits and give it a go again next year? Don’t do that!

Or maybe the answer is yes. You’re sitting there having a cup of coffee, feet up, basking in the glory. You may be tempted to take a little writing vacation. Don’t do that either!

First, stop focusing on the word count and start focusing on spending time writing. Every time you check your word count, calculate how many words you’ll need to write a day to finish, etc., you’re taking away time you could spend on your writing. Even worse, you can get so worked up about “failing” to get your word count, you stop writing altogether. That is definitely not what NaNo is all about.

Yes, you want to hit that 50k mark. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have signed up for this month of madness in the first place. However, remember that hitting the word count isn’t, or shouldn’t be, the ultimate goal. Take a step back and think about why you wanted to do NaNo in the first place. I’m betting that for many, the goal isn’t just to get down 50k words. The goal is really to write a novel.

Hitting 50k words isn’t a magic potion for finishing a novel. Sitting your butt down to write every day (or nearly every day) is. So, whether you’re way behind or you’ve already hit your 50k goal, I want to put out another challenge.

Vow to still be writing on November 30.

Vow to keep writing beyond November 30 and beyond 50k words, until the novel is FINISHED.

So whether you’re way behind or way ahead, shouldn’t you be writing?

Book Review: Personal Development for Smart People

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If you head over to Steve Pavlina’s site, you’ll see plenty of reviews of his book, Personal Development for Smart People. I want to take a little different route here. I want to focus on what this book can do for you as a writer.

What makes this book different is that he doesn’t focus on one aspect of your life to improve. This isn’t a book about making more money, improving your career, finding better relationships, or improving your health. It’s not a book about writing, becoming a writer or becoming successful at it.

Yet the book is about all those things, and more. In short, it’s a manual for improving whatever aspect of your life you choose to work on. That may sound overly ambitious, and maybe it is. However, I think he does a good job of presenting the material and giving readers the tools needed to walk away and use what he’s put forward.

Will you get a to-do list to fix your life? No. That isn’t what this book is about. What you will get are some tools that you can use to reframe you current situation and make decisions about where you want to go and how you’ll get there.

Part I

In part one, Steve discusses what he calls the fundamental principles. You’ll use these principles later in part two, when you focus on specific aspects of your life you’d like to change.

The three primary principles are truth, love and power, and they’re covered in the first three chapters. I found these chapters a bit abstract, but I read Steve’s blog, so I’m used to his approach. He might take a while to give you the background you need, but rest assured, he’ll get to the practical application.

Truth

For those of you who think of the truth as being a big nebulous and subjective, you might be better served to think of this chapter as “fact.” One of the most important things you can do is learn to take an honest assessment of your current state and use that to predict what your future will be like. Of course, if you don’t like the prediction, changing it is what this book is all about.

  • Think about your writing habits. Where can you honestly expect your writing career to be in five, ten, twenty years given what you’re doing now? Be honest.

  • If you asked a colleague or family member for an honest assessment of your writing future, what would he/she say?

  • What is your honest assessment of your talent, drive, commitment? Would people who are familiar with your work answer these questions the same as you would?

Love

Love isn’t, in this book, really about romantic love, although it does encompass that concept. Think of love as being connected to others, and you’ll have a good idea of what Steve is getting at.

You may ask yourself why this is important to writing. After all, writing is a solitary activity, and it would seem that truth and power would be the dominant forces in making you successful.

I’d argue that writing that leaves out the emphasis on love, on being truly connected to others, tends to be the sterile, plot-driven writing that tends to lack depth. Don’t send me hate mail if you’re a writer who focuses on plot! That isn’t what I’m getting at.

Most of us have read books or stories that leaned too heavily on plot. The characters are wooden, almost indistinguishable from one another. The author moves the story along through plot devices that are more daring with each turn, but the story still leaves you cold. Why is that?

It’s because you don’t care about the characters. You don’t care because the author didn’t care.

Power

Power includes concepts like self-discipline, focus, and effort. Obviously, writing is work, like anything else, and no matter how much you enjoy it, it will still demand a certain amount of commitment and focus in order to succeed.

Think about your current level of commitment to your writing and ask yourself if it’s enough to get you where you want to be.

Part II

Here is where we get to the “meat” of the book. Resist any temptation to skip ahead to this half; you’re not likely to be able to follow it unless you know what Steve means by his principles discussed in part one.

Here Steve talks about practical things you can do to improve specific areas of your life. He covers habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality. However, you’ll find techniques within these chapters that will help you evaluate where you are and work on changing your life into what you want it to be.

As a writer, I enjoyed his discussion of career and choosing one “with a heart.” I also found the chapter covering habits very useful. If you’re a writer, you know how powerful simple habits can be in getting words on the page and getting submissions out the door.

I’m not a big fan of personal development books in general. I think many just rehash old ideas and make suggestions that just about anyone with a bit of common sense could have come up with. This book has the advantage of taking a unique approach.

Preparing for National Novel Writing Month

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National Novel Writing Month begins November 1. Here are some links that provide useful tools and tips as you’re getting ready to go. Happy writing!

Names

  1. Don’t worry too much about making names sound evil or menacing. If your bad guy is names somthing like Dirk Beastly, you’ve got problems.
  2. Don’t make names too similar. Jen and Jan will be tough for readers to keep track of. Use global search and replace if you need to.
  3. Make names pronouncable, even if you’re writing fantasy. It’s distracting to read about someone named Xytrlnsqr.

Character Name Generator

Seventh Sanctum Name Generators


Characters

  1. No one is all good or all bad. Good guys to bad things; bad guys do good things. Keep it realistic.
  2. Real characters have entire lives. That means family, friends, jobs, hobbies, money problems, baggage, etc.
  3. Don’t give me minute descriptions of what the charcter looks like.

My Character Creation Worksheets

Holly Lisle: How to Create a Character

Plotting

I don’t pre-plot, but I won’t tell you not to if that’s your thing.

The snowflake model is the only one I’ve had any success with.

Editing

Don’t.

If you’re tempted to re-read a small section and rework it. Don’t.

The whole idea is to free yourself from your internal editor. Force yourself to keep moving; you’ll be glad you did.

Word Count

Write as much as you can as early as you can. You’ll likely have plenty of steam during the first week, so take advantage of it and exceed your daily goals if you can. Over time, the daily goal will be harder to reach. You’ll appreciate having a bit of a cushion.

Time Management

This is just as important in getting through NaNo as all the writing advice anyone can give you.

See my post on Getting Through NaNo

  1. If you plan on getting up early to write, start that now. You don’t want to try writing foggy-headed from too little sleep.
  2. Delegate as much as you can now. Ask your family to help out more.
  3. Find a quiet place you can go to write. Make sure it has a door, and don’t be afraid to shut it.

keywords: writing, novel, fiction, national novel writing month

Markets: Write yourself some extra cash

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Money

Photo courtesy of stopnlook

Paperback Writer has a great post today listing some writing opportunities.

That reminded me that I haven’t done a market post in a while, so here’s some tips and market information that you might find helpful. With the holidays approaching and higher gas and food prices, earning a few bucks from your writing sounds pretty good, huh?

  1. Don’t forget about online sites like Constant Content or Associated Content. Neither will make you rich, but they can be a good way to build a portfolio.
  2. Online freelancing sites like elance, guru, getafreelancer are options if you’re willing to take the time to join, put together a portfolio, bid, etc. Be careful not to get caught up in the process and underbid yourself.
  3. Many large blogs that focus on freelancing or blogging also have job boards. Freelance Switch and Problogger are two to check out.
  4. Ralan.com is a fantastic resource for where to sell and publish your stories.
  5. StoryPilot is a good resource for fantasy, science fiction and horror writers. There’s a search feature that lets you narrow down by many factors: genre, writer’s experience, pay, length, etc.
  6. Duotrope is another search site for markets, but it includes most genres, not just the few that StoryPilot does.
  7. Writer’s Market is a for-pay site that provides market listings and tools to track your submissions.
  8. If you have a Christmas story or article, then you’d better get it out now. It may already be too late for many markets.
  9. Now is a good time to think about Valentine’s Day stories or articles.
  10. Writers Weekly is a good place for market listings. They also offer something many sites don’t — a listing of markets that are a little questionable and to be avoided.
  11. Literary Markets offers some listings for both online and paper publications. Unfortunately, the site is a bit out of date, but it’s still useful.