There Are No Rules - Friday, July 24, 2009

Today's guest post is the final installment of a three parter, and comes from the experienced Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter.

Warning: Harry Potter spoilers ahead
To illustrate the importance of protagonist goal, let's look at an example (again from the Harry Potter series) of a character who abandons the role of protagonist while remaining the sole POV character.

At the end of Book 5, The Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore tells Harry the Chosen One Prophecy. According to this prophecy, Harry is the only person able to destroy the genocidal Voldemort. Dumbledore says that he should have told Harry the prophecy sooner, but held back because of his desire to keep Harry safe and free from additional burdens and worries.

We aren't done yet, but note that warning flags have already gone up. By protecting Harry, Dumbledore has minimized exactly those things that keep readers immersed in a story! Safety and freedom from worry for the protagonist? Since when was that a good idea in a work of fiction? There's a reason why The Left Behind series chronicles the tribulations on Earth, not the big party in Heaven.

What the end of Book 5 shows us is that Dumbledore isn't the right Dumbledore for the Potter series. Whether his "mistake" indicates soft-heartedness or a desire for personal glory, it doesn't matter. Dumbledore has made life easier for Harry, and thus has undercut the full potential of the story.

Continuing on, the very end of Book 5 shows Harry returning to his aunt and uncle's house where, for three months, he'll be safe and free from additional burdens and worries. [Insert the sound of screeching tires here.] Wait a minute! Dumbledore just said this was a mistake, and now he repeats that same mistake? Worse, Harry lets him get away with it?

What we have here is a plot outline forcing our Hero to become a passive little lamb. Harry goes where the plot outline tells him to go, he sits on his hands when the plot outline requires him to, and he takes decisive action only when the plot outline authorizes him to.

According to Dumbledore, Harry has the ability to stop Voldemort from committing genocide on the human race. (At this point, Voldemort is back and is operating in the open.) Exactly what kind of protagonist would go off and waste three months' time under such circumstances? A goalless protagonist, that's who.

The goal of destroying Voldemort has now become Dumbledore's, and the old codger pursues his goal relentlessly. Unfortunately, he also pursues the goal mostly off screen, leaving readers to watch Harry pursue various subplots: Quidditch, romance, and questions like, "What is Draco up to?" and "Who is the Half-Blood Prince?"

To see how insidious lack of goal (or in this case, the wrong goal) can be, let's look briefly at Book 6 of the Potter series, Half-Blood Prince. Near the beginning of that book, when Harry learns that he's to be captain of the Quidditch team, Hermione asks him, "What about the Defense Association?" [DA is a student group, led by Harry, designed to prepare students to fight against Voldemort.] Harry replies, "We'll just disband it."

Oops. Although Voldemort is already killing people left and right, Harry's goal is to be Quidditch team captain. The Defense Association is a distraction from that goal, and so it must go.

The plot outline has won and, as far as the main sequence of events is concerned, Harry has become goalless. The price for this isn't that some arbitrary rule of writing has been broken. The price is that Harry becomes a heartless wretch. People are dying, and if he applied himself, Harry might be able to stop at least some of that, but he can't be distracted from his extra-curricular activities even for such a lofty goal. This is the Hero of seven books?

A goalless central character can easily lead to a mushy story, one lacking in conflict and clear direction. (Imagine a goalless Dorothy wandering about Oz, without even the Wicked Witch chasing after her.) In the Potter series, however, the disturbance in Harry's world is both real and impactful. Events move forward inexorably, and the books continue to resemble stories. Only on closer inspection do we discover that Harry is an inhuman widget.

As writers of commercial fiction, we need to make sure that:

Our story has a protagonist.
Our protagonist has a driving goal.
Our protagonist has the right goal (prepare to fight Voldemort, not prepare to win the Quidditch trophy).
Our protagonist is the right protagonist—one who would accept wise advice when given (follow the Yellow Brick Road), but one who doesn't just get led around by parents, wise mentors, angels, friendly locals, etc.

The Overshadowed Protagonist
Speaking of getting led around by the hand, the overshadowed protagonist seems to be another common mistake we writers make. Consider our Wizard of Oz example. Suppose that when Glinda arrives, instead of giving Dorothy some sage advice, Glinda accompanies Dorothy to the Emerald City. The result would be that Dorothy gets overshadowed, the dangers to her get minimized, and—quite likely—the story gets bogged down in backstory and exposition, as Glinda kindly fills in the poor girl on the history of Oz, the habits of the Munchkins, the magical processes used in creating the Tin Man, etc.

Although the real Dorothy is joined and aided by other characters, although she remains ignorant of much of what is going on about her, although she never becomes a witch or a Kung Fu master, still Dorothy retains her goal and is able to pursue that goal relentlessly. Her goal-driven behavior keeps the trip to the Emerald City from being a travelogue, and it keeps the trip to the Wicked Witch's castle from being an arbitrary sidetrack.

Despite Dorothy's general ignorance, she always has enough information to pursue her goal under her own impetus. This is the difference between a protagonist and a widget:

If a protagonist has no clue how to pursue their goal, they might as well not have a goal.

This is another key point that seems to trip us up as writers. For most readers, "pursing a goal" means more than a protagonist waiting patiently or wandering blindly, hoping for inspiration.

In the last book of the Potter series, The Deathly Hallows, Harry is trapped in that sad state of wanting to destroy Voldemort but not having a clue how to proceed. He moves one step at a time, following a trail of breadcrumbs, never fully comprehending what it is he's doing, or why. It seems an ignominious state for a Hero to be in.

However: Ms. Rowling apparently realized that Dumbledore was too powerful to keep around, and so killed him off. Unfortunately, she then allowed him to manipulate events from beyond the grave, thus turning poor Harry into a pair of granny glasses scuttling about in the woods. Ms. Rowling got away with it, and maybe you can too, but why take the chance?

If we give our main characters goals, make their achieving those goals as difficult as we can, and then let them pursue their goals under their own impetus, the result will be a more engaging story. And after all, isn't that our goal?

Photo credit: TRAFFIK

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Friday, July 24, 2009 10:53:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Does Your Novel Fall Victim to the Protagonist/Goal Switcheroo? (Plot-Protagonist Secret #2)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is the second installment of a three parter (ending Friday), and comes from the wise Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter.

Read Part I (How to Prevent Reader Boredom in Your Novel) here.

Some of us can't quite decide who we want our protagonist to be. Sometimes this results in a story that contains a lot of POV characters, but that isn't always the case.

In my novel, I had one primary POV character for the first 250 pages. Then I switched to another POV character for the middle 250 pages. And then I switched to yet another POV character for the final 250 pages. As a result, no single character was strong enough to tie the book together into a cohesive unit. A master writer (or somebody with a body of fans already in place) might have been able to get away with this sort of thing. Unfortunately, I don't fit into either camp.

POV switching is harder to pull off than professional writers like Stephen King or George R.R. Martin make it look. Each POV character brings a different goal with them, or at least a different slant on a goal, and as a result, readers can easily find themselves several chapters into a book, still unable to decide what the story is really about.

If your story features a lot of POV characters, or if it switches around between several protagonists along the way, make sure the story truly requires it. For many of us, POV switching is a sign that we haven't quite figured out what story we're trying to tell.

Goal Substitution
In some stories, the protagonist stays the same but their goal changes. If not handled carefully, this can make a story feel like it's gotten sidetracked, with the plot suddenly chasing after a will-o-the-wisp.

Sure, plots don't have to be linear, but readers are liable to get confused (or miffed) if we change either the protagonist or the protagonist's goal without sufficient justification. In the movie The Matrix, Neo's original goal is to find out what the matrix is. Partway through the movie, Neo gets his answer. This forces him to adopt a new goal: "Figure out how to fit into this new reality." Neo's goal change works because it's integral to the flow of events, and thus it makes sense to the audience.

For a protagonist to change goals on a whim, however, or in response to some ancillary or trivial event: that's going to be hard for many readers to swallow. Maybe it's a sign that we're conflict averse, or maybe we think we're perpetrating a "surprise twist." But whatever the explanation, the result may be the same: a disappointed reader.

The flip side: if something happens (as with Neo) to invalidate a protagonist's first goal (such as they achieve that goal), the story needs to quickly provide the protagonist with a new goal. Using our Wizard of Oz example, imagine Dorothy showing up in Oz without any burning desire to get back home. Not only does she wind up wandering around endlessly, now she doesn't even have a meaningful goal.

One sign of a goalless protagonist is that they get pushed about by events. Instead of acting, they react.

Even if we throw life-threatening challenges at them, the challenges still begin to seem disconnected and arbitrary. The result is generally that the story looses its zip and, possibly, many of its readers.

A goalless protagonist seems to be especially common in "translation" stories where the main character is pulled out of a mundane life and is suddenly transported into an amazing Other World. The Wizard of Oz and The Matrix both show how to make such a premise work.

Many of us who attempt translation stories, however, try to carry the story with clever, amazing, and humorous interludes. The Munchkins, Scarecrow, the sentient trees, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Emerald City: we expect these elements to hold the reader's interest by themselves. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but certainly Dorothy's story loses something if she's wandering about goalless, just enjoying the scenery.

The protagonist's goal is the glue that holds a story together, giving events heightened purpose and interest.

In tomorrow's final installment, we'll look at examples that illustrate the importance of goal, as well as what happens in the case of an overshadowed protagonist.

Photo credit: nasebear

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Thursday, July 23, 2009 5:13:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

How to Prevent Reader Boredom in Your Novel (Plot-Protagonist Secret #1)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is a three parter (ending Friday), and comes from the inimitable Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter. Warning: For any Harry Potter readers and/or movie fans who do not know the outcomes of Books 6 and 7, spoilers lie near the end.

Most people define plot as "the events that make up a story," and that's a fine definition. Except that for writers, it's a shortcut to the hot place. I've been burned by it, and as I read unpublished works by other struggling writers, I see them getting burned by it too.

Here's a better definition:

Plot is the set of actions that protagonists take to achieve their goal.

Wait, don't leave yet! I know you've seen this definition before and are bored by it. Maybe you have every right to be bored, but for many writers, the simplicity of this definition is misleading. We look at it and think, "Yeah, yeah, I learned that twelve years ago." But however simple the rule seems, many of us still haven't mastered it. We continue to churn out stories that are collections of disconnected events, stories that lack drive and intensity, and stories that wander off course.

What ties a series of scenes together, so that they feel truly connected?

A common cast of characters?
A common central conundrum?
A common setting?
Cause-and-effect relationships?

Even taken together, all of these elements aren't enough. Only by giving goals to key characters, and letting those characters drive the story, can we make a sequence of events hang together as an integral plotline.

Maybe it sounds easy, but I continue to struggle with this concept in my own writing, and based on what I'm seeing in various workshops, I'm not alone.

The One Sentence Plot Description
My editor tells me that I should be able to describe any novel in a single sentence of the form:

Protagonist must do X or else Y will happen.

Does that sound reductive? Too linear? Maybe it is. But for those of us struggling to get our act together, simpler is better. Sadly, for many of us, our one-sentence plot statement would be something like, "Gretta must do what she's told when she's told until I reach the desired word count."

Characters without strong goals become widgets, pushed about by our word processors. They meekly subvert their personality to the predefined plot outline. As a result, they come across as passive, unreliable, dull.

The Right Protagonist for the Job
Consider The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy steps into the Land of Oz, her eyeballs bulge. Goodness, they certainly don't have flowers like these in Kansas! As she wanders about, a soap bubble lands and out steps Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Glinda tells Dorothy, "To get back home, follow the Yellow Brick Road. That'll take you to the Wizard, and he'll be able to help you."

Dorothy straightens her back and stomps her foot. "I most certainly will not! Go visit a Wizard? Ha. What do you take me for?" And so Dorothy tramps off into the wilderness, carefully avoiding the Yellow Brick Road whenever it comes into sight. A thousand pages later, she's still at it, no closer to getting home than when she started.

The problem here isn't that our shadow Dorothy lacks a goal, but that the author has selected the wrong Dorothy for the story. This alternate Dorothy's hard-headedness makes her look like a dolt, someone that readers will have a hard time identifying with, sympathizing with, or caring about.

The more cynical reader, of course, sees this alternate Dorothy for what she really is: a convenience for the author, who wants to write an epic story but can't be bothered to come up with a true plot, and so makes do with an episodic travelogue.

If a protagonist (or villain) has the path to victory laid out for them, and then turns away from it for some arbitrary reason, the story loses intensity. Some readers may even lose their faith in the story's trustworthiness.

At the risk of being pelted with bludgers, I'm going to use Harry Potter to illustrate this point. In the Potter series, at the end of Book 6, Half-Blood Prince, the evil Voldemort has won. Voldemort's nemesis (Dumbledore) is dead, and Voldemort's Death Eaters are inside Hogwarts itself—locked in battle with Dumbledore's loyal followers.

Voldemort's path to victory is clear. He need only join the fight and he can carry the day. Instead, his Death Eaters flee Hogwarts, and for the next three months, Voldemort quietly sits on his hands so that Harry can have his traditional summer vacation at home.

In this case, the villain is forced to turn his brain off precisely because the protagonist of the story isn't the right protagonist. Harry is neither ready, willing, nor able to take up Dumbledore's mantle. If Voldemort played his cards, Book 6 would end with Harry Potter dead, and Book 7 of the series would vanish.

The arrangement here reminds me of a Warner Brothers cartoon: A wolf and a sheepdog walk up to a time-clock and punch in. "Morning, George," the sheepdog says. "Morning, Ralph," the wolf says. They move to their respective positions, the 8 a.m. whistle blows, and they begin feuding over the sheep. When the 5 p.m. whistle blows, they clock back out and walk home together amiably.

When a story manipulates key characters, forcing them out of character in order to achieve something the writer considers important, the result can become farcical. The best way we can avoid this fate is to:

Make sure our key characters have solid goals that they pursue vigorously.
Make sure our protagonist is well-matched (both in ability and in temperament) to the obstacles he's expected to overcome.

If the obstacles aren't great enough, reader boredom will likely set in. If the obstacles are too great, we'll be forced to cheat in order to reach a happy ending. Of course, both the first Oz book and the last Potter book cheat. The Wizard of Oz suddenly decides that witches melt if touched by even a drop of water; The Deathly Hallows introduces three godlike magical artifacts to get Harry across the finish line. What this shows, I think, is that if we have a strong story, nothing's going to stop us. However, for those of us with boxes full of rejection slips or an interest in producing the very best story possible, we need to carefully match our protagonists to the obstacles they face, and vice versa.

Photo credit: principia aesthetica

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:00:16 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monthly News from Glimmer Train
Posted by Jane

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their May Short Story Award for New Writers competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to any writer whose fiction hasn’t appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5,000. No theme restrictions. Word count range: 500-12,000. Their monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place
Noa Jones of New York, NY (pictured above), wins $1200 for “Brother Ron”. Her story will be published in the Fall 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in August 2010.

Second place
Farley Urmston of Sherborn, MA, wins $500 for “Pretending”.

Third place
Benjamin Janse of Jamaica Plain, MA, wins $300 for “The Great Storm”.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline approaching!

Very Short Fiction Award: July 31. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories with a word count range not exceeding 3,000. No theme restrictions. Click here for complete guidelines.

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If you didn't know, Writer's Digest partnered with Glimmer Train to publish two compilation volumes of the best stuff from their Writers Ask newsletter. Be sure to check them out.

General | Getting Published

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:47:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

5 Elements of Query Letters
Posted by Jane

Earlier this year, I taught an online class where I offered "extreme makeovers" on query letters. To help ensure everyone took away some concrete advice, every attendee was invited to submit a 1-page query for review.

It was a successful workshop, so we're repeating it again this Thursday. In preparation for the workshop, I take the query letters that are submitted and categorize their basic elements into "good", "OK", and "needs revamped." The five elements I look at are:

Personalization. What effort has the writer made to ensure this letter has been customized for a particular editor, agent, or publishing house?
Hook. How effective is the hook? Is it too long? Is it clear? Does it cover everything an editor/agent needs to know to say, "Yes, I've got to see more!"
Bio. For nonfiction, people often slip up and don't emphasize the right aspects of platform or credentials. For fiction, it can be difficult to know what to mention, if anything, when you're unpublished. So I always give examples showing the best-case scenario, as well as examples when you rely on your hook and overall charm or professionalism to carry you to the finish line.
Basic info. Have you included the necessary information about title, genre, word count?
Opening/closing. There are lots of red flags and stumbles that can make it onto the page. Some aren't deal breakers, others are. I show examples of both.

I speak at conferences frequently about query letters, but seeing real examples of what's working and not working can be the best way to learn how to fix your own. Go here for the link to register ($99); after the event has concluded, you'll have access to the recording for a year. Plus I'll share a recap of the event on this blog, offering some takeaways for everyone.

In the meantime, here are some excellent query resources.

Essential Blogs
QueryShark (by agent Janet Reid)
Guide to Literary Agents blog
No longer active but still helpful Miss Snark
The Rejecter
Great Posts From the Guide to Literary Agents blog
10 Query Letter Tips
Breaking Down the Query Letter
Where Can Writers Examine Good Queries?
Example of a Mind-Boggling Horrible Query
Concerning Agents and E-mail Attachments
Conflicting Advice About Query Formatting
How to Word a Follow-Up Query to an Agent
Will She Ever Reply to Your Submission?

Want to know more about upcoming online events? Click here for more.

Conferences/Events | Getting Published

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 12:38:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, July 20, 2009

Turn Your Dragons Into Princesses
Posted by Jane

Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet is one of the greatest writing advice books of all time. You can highlight nearly every passage as an inspirational gem. But there isn't any quantifiable advice in it.

As much as Writer's Digest focuses on the nuts-and-bolts of craft/technique, and beats the drum of marketing and promotion, everyone on staff recognizes that what sets the successful apart from the unsuccessful is rarely quantifiable.

Maybe there are some numbers you can look at, for a vague generalization:

Kevin Kelley's 1,000 fans
Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours (as explained by Seth Godin)
John Grisham's many rejections

These numbers only point to a larger felt sense that a writer knows in his gut, physically (but may intellectually ignore) when it comes to recognizing the effort or determination required.

But your motivation and desire to write or express yourself doesn't lie in the numbers. Whether you like it or not, it keeps its home in the hopes and fears that go much deeper than the writing goals you might have set for yourself.

One of my favorite passages from Rilke:

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deeps something helpless that wants help from us.

We all have some kind of dragon holding us back, and we typically give it a name that obscures its real identity. Maybe your dragon is "not enough time" or "writer's block" or "publishing industry is unfair." But is that really the true, felt sense of what's holding you back? Only you can tell. (And I recommend this book to find out what that true, felt sense might be.)

Every creative person, every artist, needs someone who encourages them, who can see the potential inside, who can see the princess in the dragon. My father told me as a little girl that I could do anything and be anything that I wanted. And I could tell he really believed it. And so I believed it too.

What do you hang onto? What can turn your dragon into a princess?

Note: It's a busy week for me, so I'll have guest blogger Jim Adam here on Wednesday-Friday. (Curious what I'm up to? Check out my live, online class on query letters this Thursday, and the Midwest Writers Workshop.)

Photo credit: james_michael_hill

Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published

Monday, July 20, 2009 4:45:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 7/17/09)
Posted by Jane

I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Friday or Saturday for the week's best Tweets. (If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments, or if you want more of a particular category of Tweet, also comment.)

Best of Best

Why do agents turn down good books? Outstanding summary
@jamesscottbell

The Top 10 Blogs for Writers
@MattPenna

43 Helpful and Terrific Blogs for Writers
@DebNg

Conference Prep/Networking In A Bottle--AND What You Can Do If You're Staying Home!
@AnnaDeStefano

Platform 201 for Busy Writers: @glecharles writes about finding 1,000 true fans
@dbschlosser

Stand Alone

Don't respond to a query rejection by saying you know you can sell me on your book over the phone. Convince me with your writing.
@agentgame

Tired of seeing coffee, dreams, weather, beds, alarm clocks, screaming in first paragraph. Everyone does this. Don't be that writer.
@kate_mckean

Please don't spend time in your query telling me how much movie potential your book has.
@agentgame

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Agent offers insight in to publishing trends. This is great insider knowledge
@BubbleCow

New blog by publishing house salesperson - great information for writers
@lilleypress

Lessons authors can learn from NY Times bestseller @scottsigler
@thecreativepenn

An agent explains why it sometimes takes them so long to reply and why this is not always a bad thing
@BubbleCow

An agent [Janet Reid] keeps track of rejections and the reasons why
@BubbleCow

Interesting post talks about the an author who secured a traditional book deal after good sales on the Kindle
@BubbleCow

Nunn's List of Publishing mistakes
@LianaBrooks

Appreciating Rejection Letters - Great post by Betsy Lerner re: an author she rejected.
@inkyelbows

Book publishing imprints; AgentQuery: "New favorite industry blog"
@yodiwan

Must Have Contract Clauses from GenReality
@thecreativepenn

Craft & Technique

Some of the best writing advice on the web: Terry Rossio's columns
@ToniMcGeeCausey

Footsteps to a Novel - Great piece by @Marfisk about the steps in planning & writing a novel.
@inkyelbows

"Many writers misuse flashbacks"
@motsjustes

10 Tips for Kicking Ass as a Freelance Writer by Copyblogger
@flipbooks

Ursula K. Le Guin On Rules of Writing
@dhemery

An editor offers some very useful tips on how to improve your writing style
@BubbleCow

Publishing News/Trends & The Future of Publishing

Enjoyed @andrewsavikas 's latest blog post, "Content is a Service Biz" (Reminds me: "Buying the hole, not the drill!")
@jwikert

Change must happen. Richard Nash; minority getting advances now "we should not weep for them, most were overpaid anyway"
@Personanondata

Good summary of the erupting ebook pricing debate
@BubbleCow

Marketing/Promotion

4 Reasons Why Every Author Should Use LinkedIn
@ThomasUmstattd

Blogging

This post offer great advice for anyone looking to set up their own blog
@BubbleCow

Twitter on Twitter

"The Top 5 Reasons Why This Writer Is Staying With Twitter."
@jeanfischer1

Online & Offline Resources/Tools

Check out: 10,000 free online resources 4 writers
@indieauthor

8 Fantastic Blogs for Freelance Writers from @smtwngrl
@QuipsAndTips

21 JOB Sites for Writers
@technicalwriter

I'm starting to think that Scrivener might be the best thing that's ever wormed its way into my writing toolbox
@SeanPratt

The Writing Life / Philosophical / Inspirational

“Don’t Try” - Charles Bukowski’s Advice for Creative People
@copyblogger

Reading shapes writers: advice to read as widely as possible
@dbschlosser

The Five Ps of Writing
@alittlesandy

Fun

I just took "Which Crazy Writer Are You?" Try it!
[Note to readers: I scored as Oscar Wilde.]
@jennsbookshelf

Looking for more?

Follow us on Twitter: @writersdigest @JaneFriedman @robertleebrewer @alicepope @kmnickell
Become a fan at our Facebook page
Sign up for WD's free weekly newsletter. After signing up, you'll get a free e-book on 70 solutions to common writing problems.
Next week on July 23: Live online class with Jane on query letters—offering critiques.

Best of Twitter

Friday, July 17, 2009 5:26:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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10 Steps to Put Social Networking Under Your Spell
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is from content maven Meryl Evans. She helps businesses build and maintain relationships with clients and prospects through content. She’s also a long-time blogger who started blogging on June 1, 2000. Follow Meryl on Twitter.

Do you scream for help in removing the spell that social networking has cast over you? Do social network sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube hypnotize you for hours, stealing your magical paid work time?

Social networking may affect more people in our industry because we know writing can be a lonely job, especially those doing it on a freelance basis from a home office. Even introverts desire to connect with someone and the Twitters of the Internet enchant us.

Here are some easy clues that signify you're bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by social networking:

You press "get new e-mail messages" constantly.
You're always looking for @yourname Twitter replies.
You check for wall updates on Facebook.
You watch the latest viral video on YouTube.

Many folks (me included) are guilty of these behaviors even though we have loads of work. Our work doesn't fulfill our human need for connection. Social networking can and does for many of us.

Look all you want, but you won't find a magical overnight cure. Instead, call upon common sense, organization, and getting things done (GTD) thinking. These strategies will help you dip into the social networking cauldron without double double, toil and trouble—or tracking down eye of newt and wool of bat.

Accept that you can't keep up with all of the social networking sites. You're not the only one struggling with this. It's OK not to join or use everything. (See #8.)
Post a profile on major social networking sites. You don't have to do it all at once. Notice I've said "major" sites.
Connect your accounts with other sites. For example, LinkedIn has an application that imports your blog entries into LinkedIn. Facebook has the same and can also import your Twitter feed (may not be a good idea, but that's not in this recipe). FriendFeed is a pro at integrating your account with others.
Pick a few sites to use on a regular basis. Remember writing and reading blogs count.
Schedule your participation. Twitter isn't about posting one tweet after another. You could start with five minutes in the morning, again at lunch time, and do a last check in the evening. Whatever works for you. Routine turns things into a habit.
Turn off e-mail notifications. For sites you don't use regularly, turn off your e-mail notifications so they don't drive you crazy. (See #7 for another option.)
Filter all social media e-mail into a single folder. If you still want to receive e-mails knowing when someone connects with you, then set up e-mail filters to send all messages from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on into one folder. It's less bothersome than messages in your inbox and in your face.
Join other networks as you come across them. Your connections will invite you to yet another social network site. You never know who uses one site more than another, and you never know what the next big thing in social networking will be unless you have a crystal ball and an available medium. Be open.
Do social networking when stuck. Social networking is a marketing tool for writers, therefore it should be a no-guilt activity as long as you focus on building relationships and sharing knowledge.
Close the browser or application. Get off the social network site or related application. Don't leave it open. Douse whatever tempts you.

This 10-step recipe will put you in charge of stirring bubbles of your social networking time. And be vigilant: networks can still charm their way back and cause time management trouble.

Photo credit: Steph Gary Evie Jack and Thomas

General | Guest Post | Marketing & Self-Promotion

Friday, July 17, 2009 9:23:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Read My Writing and Tell Me What to Do
Posted by Jane

I laughed out loud today when reading a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Derek Sivers, where he describes the single most common request he receives from people.

It's EXACTLY what we experience every day at Writer's Digest—and he offers the absolute right response!

… the single most common request … “Take a listen to my music and let me know what I should do.” …
Most of the time, the music is good. Not the best or worst thing you’ve ever heard, but good. … The music itself usually doesn’t make it clear what someone should do.
What if I was in a different industry and people said:
“I’m trying to find a spouse. Look at my photo and tell me what I should do.”
or:
“I want to be a millionaire. Look at my bank account and tell me what I should do.”
The real answer is “it depends … ”
What are your goals? Why are you making music?
What have you done so far? What’s worked? What hasn’t?
What is your reaction to criticism or setbacks?
Are you future-focused or present-focused?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What are your habits? Are you growing or coasting?
How do you measure success? Fame? Money? Emotional response?
What’s your timeline? 1 year? 3 years? 30 years?
… and 50 other questions that would make this article too long.
It’d take many hours of conversation to get enough information to responsibly tell someone what to do.

I receive a lot of phone calls from writers who ask, "Can you please take a look at my writing and tell me what to do?" Or they simply want to be told if they should continue in their efforts to get published.

Without having a deep understanding of the person, it's tough to offer useful information. I usually ask a couple of the questions above, but end up delivering a few of the key business facts: You have to offer something unique and be passionate enough that you don't stop in the face of (years of) rejection.

Do you wonder if you have what it takes? Really only you can answer that question.

But if you're looking for more advice, here are a few places to start:

My previous post on this topic, Leading Indicator of Success
Page After Page by Heather Sellers
Do I Have What It Takes to Be a Writer? (excerpt from my book, Beginning Writer's Answer Book)

Photo credit: Stillframe

Getting Published

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:50:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Love Prompts? You Need PROMPTLY.
Posted by Jane

Creative writing prompts (or finding inspiration) is one of the most popular, evergreen topics at Writer's Digest. So this week we're very proud to launch a new blog called Promptly by Writer's Digest editor Zachary Petit.

Promptly will offer prompts, activities, and inspiration—and a little positive reinforcement in the form of free books that get sent our way—to help you get your pens moving and keep them that way.

For any of you who are fans of our weekly newsletter prompt, or Robert Brewer's Wednesday poetry prompt, you need to check out Promptly!

Craft & Technique | Fun

Monday, July 13, 2009 5:24:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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