Software: More iPad Apps for Writers

Here's another group of iPad apps for writers. Enjoy!

http://www.bradsreader.com/2011/03/top-5-ipad-apps-for-writers/

http://www.fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/2011/05/17/ipad-for-writers-apps-i-actually-use-every-day/

http://www.cloudydayart.com/2010/04/03/five-of-best-ipad-apps-for-poets-writers/

http://appadvice.com/applists/show/best-ipad-apps-writers

Combating Writer's Block

Mental constipation has long been the bane of any writer's life. There are times when the words flow so swiftly we feel we can't keep up. Then there are days where we feel we need a mental enema to unstop us.

Sorry, hope you weren't eating when you read that.

Personally, I have a bunch of different things I do when I get hit with writer's block. The first, and for me the easiest, is I switch to another project. I usually have a minimum of five projects going simultaneously at any given time. Sometimes, switching to another project helps get my mind flowing.

Another thing I will sometimes do is take a break. Go work out, read, watch TV, whatever. Sometimes, block is my brain's way of saying, "Enough already! I need a time-out!"

Since I also love Tarot cards, sometimes pulling out a deck and playing with it for a while will help jumpstart the brain. I love the archetypical images on the decks I own, and sometimes seeing them laid out will give me ideas, or at the very least help clear my mental palette for a while and allow my brain to focus on whatever the issue is.

Jumping to another scene in the same book will also frequently help me.

What will work for you? Only you can decide that. Here's list of links, some funny, some serious (some both) with information that's helped other writers.

http://www.writers.com/newsletter0505.html

http://www.novelr.com/2007/03/09/combating-writers-block

http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/31-FE2-HowToCombatWritersBlock.html

http://www.theurbaneway.com/2011/02/tips-for-combating-writers-block.html

http://www.whoosh-editing.com/articles/combating-writers-block.html

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/writingroadblocks/tp/block.htm

Software: iPad Apps for Writers

I have and LOVE my iPad. Here are just a few links to writing apps for the iPad.

http://editorialengine.com/?p=5429

http://writeonthewater.com/?p=2027

http://www.copyblogger.com/ipad-apps-for-writers/

http://www.gadgetcage.com/the-most-useful-ipad-apps-for-writers/10871/

Resources: Writing Books

One of the things I want to use this blog for is to share with you books that I personally find invaluable as writing resources. Here is the first list, and I've embedded the Amazon.com links.

The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition This book takes Joseph Campbell's work on myth and mythic structure and lays it out in an easy-to-understand format, showing the reader how it applies to modern works of film and story. If you find your story lacking a certain something, this is a great resource to apply things you might know on a gut level to active use.

Plots Unlimited: A Creative Source for Generating a Virtually Limitless Number and Variety of Story Plots and Outlines If you find yourself stuck, or needing some extra plot assistance, this book is a great way to jumpstart your creativity.

What Would Your Character Do? A great book to help flesh out your characters and eliminate "cardboard" characters from your writing.

Writing Resource: Garbl's Writing Center

Found this website with some useful information for writers:

http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/

Writing Exercise: People Watching 1

Here's a short writing exercise for you to help you with creating character backstories. Next time you go somewhere in public when you have a few minutes to spare, whether it's the mall or airport or out to eat or wherever, pick someone that catches your eye.

Now figure out why they caught your eye. Was it their clothes? Hairstyle? The way they acted or walked?

Now, take one minute, in your mind, to conjure up their backstory, based just on what you saw. It can be as complete as from their childhood on, or just how their day has progressed up until you saw them.

Now...stop.

Put yourself in that person's place...and have them look at YOU. How would they write YOUR backstory, that of a perfect stranger, in that one minute?

Have fun with this and don't overthink it. Some writers have a tendency to fill out these horribly complex character sheets with everything including favorite color, etc. But the characters are...blah. No life to them. A character is not just a set of facts and figures you can pull up out of a spreadsheet. They are their reactions to certain situations, their emotions. They are shopping trips to the mall and trying to make it through TSA without a full body cavity search.

When you're creating characters, sometimes we overthink them. Use short exercises like this to "blast" a character into creation instead of trying to spend years concocting them like some role-playing character sheet (roll D-12 for patience...).

Happy Writing!

What is this place?

Just what I need, right? One more blog? Heh. This one is different. I wanted a blog just for writing-related issues. I'm always asked for advice by newbie writers, and believe me, I do not mind in the least. But I've always thought hmm, maybe I should write more of this stuff down so I have one place to put it.

This is that place. I'll be copying over older blog posts I've made on writing, as well as adding new ones on a regular basis. I'm also working on a series of writing how-to books for romance/erotica writers. Let's face it, the average writing book doesn't really address more *ahem* sensitive topics.

So keep an eye out for things to come (haha) and don't forget to hit the Join This Site button. Feel free to leave ideas for future articles in the comments.

Promo on the Cheap

I know I’ve harped on promotion before, but it can be overwhelming for an author, especially a new one, to effectively do it. There are so many avenues out there, free and that will cost you, that it’s mind-numbing to make a decision.

Rest assured, you can do a lot of effective promoting without spending more than a few dollars to register a domain name.

1. Get a website. Preferably, your pen name in .com, .net, and possibly .org if it’s in your budget. (I recommend Godaddy.com for domain registration.)

2. Get a Gmail address for your pen name. Use ONLY that email address, for fan mail and publication. (This will help keep your private email private.) (Free.)

3. Get a blog. If you aren’t able to make a website, then go to Blogger (http://blogger.com) and register one there. (Free.)

4. Go to Godaddy.com (or wherever you registered your domain at) and POINT them (forward them, depends on the terminology) at the blog address. It will take probably up to a couple of hours to take effect.

5. There are HUNDREDS, if not thousands, of free Blogger templates out there you can use to customize your blog. If that’s beyond you, you can use one of the pre-installed templates.

6. BLOG your ass off. Not just about your upcoming release, but about whatever. (Seriously, I recommend staying away from politics and religion.) Try to post at least once a week. Use tags in your posts. When should you start promoting if this is your first release and it’s not even out yet? You should have already started getting your name out there.

7. Don’t just copy/paste your text from Word into your blog. Make SURE you go back and preview it to make sure there are paragraph breaks, no typos, etc. (PROOFREAD your blog!!)

8. Facebook. Set up a PAGE and promote THAT. (Once you get over 25 followers, you can change the name of it to an easy url.) Don’t promote your profile because as of now, you’re limited to 5,000 friends. The pages are better suited for author promotions. Use the NetworkedBlogs app to set it up so your blog posts automatically post to your Facebook account. (Free.)

9. Set up a Twitter account for your pen name. (Free.)

10. Use the TweetDeck application (Free) to post to your Twitter and Facebook page at the same time. (Wise use of time. There are other applications too, like HootSuite, and others.)

11. Go to Amazon.com once your book is available there and set up an author page. (Free.) Set your blog RSS feed and Twitter feed to post to it. (See where I’m going with this?)

12. Goodreads.com – Ditto. (Free.) Set it up to pick up your blog RSS feed.

Okay, so far, all this (except for the cost of registering your domain name) is FREE. Totally free. And you can set many of these things up to cross-post automatically. You blog, and it can post to Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads. You can post a Tweet and Facebook update at the same time. You can also install apps on your blog to post your Tweets automatically, so you have that option as well.

Do you see where I’m going with this? If you set as much up to cross-pollinate, so to speak, it will allow you to promote not only for free, but in one fell swoop. This is all stuff I’ve talked about before, but it’s now easier than ever to accomplish it.

There are also smart phone apps for many of the applications, so if you’re on the go you can post updates.

I don’t want to hear you say, “I don’t have time to promote.” Once you get just these things set up, you can literally cover a wide swath of promotions in just a few minutes of time every week. Think of what you could accomplish if you spent an hour a week? Ten minutes a day for six days a week. How cool is that?

I’ve also talked about things like email lists (Yahoogroups), but you can also participate in Facebook pages and groups. There are reader sites like AllRomanceebooks.com, CoffeeTimeRomance.com, ManicReaders.com, RomanceDivas.com, RomanceJunkies.com, Longandshortreviews.com, NightOwlRomance.com, and many others. (And that’s just for romance, not counting non-romance sites out there.)

Yes, some of those sites have advertising packages, but many of them have discussion boards…FREE.

The important thing is to get out there, build a relationship with your readers, not just shoving your books in their faces, but getting to know them, letting them get to know you, interact with them.

Now get out there and promo your ass off! :)

Promo is NOT optional!

Being a writer means editing is a part of life. It boggles my mind when I hear newbie writers who haven't even been published, or who have only published one or two small articles or short-stories, whine about the editing process. Since I'm currently working on edits for two of my publishers, I thought it a prime time to address the issue of working on edits.

Let me write you a reality check: I have over twenty published titles to my credit thus far, most of them full-length novels. I am the FIRST person to welcome editorial input, even when my editors usually tell my my copy is fairly clean to start with. (That is the result of twenty-five years of work on my career, and lots of experience writing non-fiction on tight deadlines.)

No, it's usually not possible for a writer to catch ALL typos and mistakes in their manuscript. I am the first to admit I need more than one set of eyes going over my work. You will never catch me standing on a hill and screaming that no one should touch a word of my stuff, because that would mean I'm delusional. (If that ever happens, catch me and make sure I take my meds.)

But when someone gives you feedback, don't get all huffy and outraged. Even if some of the feedback can later be discounted, LOOK at it. The sign of a PROFESSIONAL writer is they approach edits...well, professionally. No, not all comments can or should be used. But if you have several people telling you something needs fixing, FIX IT!

I've had editors who were fantastic, and some not so much. And everywhere in between. No matter what, I put myself into professional writer mode when approaching edits. You have to.

No writer is perfect, and I am the Queen of Imperfection. Any writer who looks down their nose at critiques/edits without actually considering what's been said is doomed to fail in their career.

Yes, sometimes I've had editors tell me things that I stood my ground on, and I was proven right later. But there are plenty of times I've taken their advice, or used their advice as a starting point to make revisions. Use edits as a learning experience, not an adversarial encounter. I learn something from every edit.

For a newbie writer to start out slamming an editor without giving serious weight to their comments (I've heard this gripe too many times to count) is to be a writer not serious about their career. You don't get to be a diva until you put the time, effort, sweat, and sales figures into it. If you can draw in the readers and make your publisher money, only then can you even think about the diva card. (And even then, I STRONGLY recommend not going there. It's just plain tacky.)

Remember my earlier post: You are NOT a special snowflake, sunshine. Now shut up, go take your meds, and read your editor's comments instead of thinking you're the universe's gift to readers. Those of us who label ourselves professional writers won't show you a bit of sympathy.

Writing the book is the EASY part. Once you turn that puppy in, that's when the hard work--including editing--starts.

Happy Writing!

Author Tools: Amazon

Okay, a quick blog post for today. Did you know you can take advantage of the author pages on Amazon.com?

https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing

You can set up your bio, link multiple pen names into one account, edit book info (great if your back copy blurb is one mashed paragraph as sometimes happens), add pictures, and link your blog RSS feed so it shows up on your author page automagically. You can also easily access customer reviews, see your sales rankings, and more.

And don't forget product tagging. You should be tagging ALL your books with the appropriate (key word there, no pun intended) tags. For example, if your book is a steamy menage about cowboys, then you definitely want to tag with your pen name(s), erotica, erotic romance, cowboy erotica, things like that.

Do NOT tag with generic tags trying to get more hits. It won't work. The more specific the tags, the better. The more people who agree with a tag, the higher up in the ranks it will travel.

And play with tags -- you can have discussions set up by topic. For example, click on your pen name tag and voila, you'll see where you can start discussions. (Or, hopefully, fans will.)

Remember, do NOT spam Amazon discussion forums with pleas to buy and review your book. That will get you boycotted by people (NOT what you want to happen). Participate as a fellow reader and recommend books that aren't yours. If a discussion is applicable to your book, then by all means (if that forum doesn't frown on self-promotion) mention your book.

Do NOT under any circumstances mention your book if it has little to do with the discussion! I cannot emphasize that enough!

This free set of tools is invaluable. Don't overlook it!