I usually head to my desk around eleven a.m. After checking my email, I go to my Twitter account, do some posting, and respond to posts. Then I check Facebook to see what’s happening there.
           
​           If I’m honest, it’s easy to spend too much time on Twitter. My monitor is divided into two sections. My work in progress (WIP) is on the right, other things on the left. That work in progress keeps calling to me, telling me to get going. But it’s easier to look at Twitter than to figure out what comes next in the plot line. Pulling myself up by the bootstraps, I move my eyes to the right.
           
           Once I get back into the WIP, I’m totally immersed. In fact, when I stop writing, it takes me a minute to get my head back into reality. While writing, there is constant rewriting and going back over what you’ve written. For example, I don’t want to leave my main character standing by a window in one paragraph and have them outside in the next, with no explanation of how they got there.
           
         After finishing a chapter, I read it back to myself out loud. It helps to hear the flow of the writing. If somethings jars me, I go back and fix it.

            I write for two-and-a-half to three hours. Then I take a break. I leave the house and have a cup of tea at my favourite donut place. Those of you who know me know where that is. While there, I read. The more I read, the more I learn from the pros.

            In the early evening, I return to my writing. I find this is usually a productive time. During my break, my subconscious mind has been thinking about characterization, setting, mood, and potential conflict. After writing for one-and-a-half to two hours, I quit for the day.
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            Then I get up the next morning and start all over again.

            The following are a few suggestions I’ve collected over the past weeks for self-published authors to market their books. I’d love to hear if you’ve tried any of them and if so, how they’ve worked.

1. Write a great book. As writers, we need to develop doorways for readers to walk through. Once inside, they don’t seek an exit but a path deeper into our saga. We want the reader to lay aside his/her responsibilities and live for the moment in the world we’ve created.
2. Shift from promoting yourself to serving others. Ask, “how can I improve the lives of readers through my work?”
3. Offer opt-in incentives and on-going value for readers to sign up for your email list.
4. Follow other books in your genre.
5. Follow reviewers of your book.
6. Market via free ebooks.
7. Tempt readers with more, such as sample chapters from your next book at the end of your current book.
8. Advertise previous works in each book you publish.
9. Repurpose content to reach more people. Share on SlideShare or on a short video on YouTube.
10. Collaborate with other authors.
11. Guest blogging and author interviews

WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR PRESS KIT

1. Your contact information, including social media
2. A professional headshot
3. Your biography – 75-100 words
4. Your book blurb – 75-100 words
5. Sample interview questions

MY BOOK IS ON AMAZON. NOW WHAT DO I DO?

1. Get reviews. I know, easier said than done. When you send a copy to others, ask them to write a review.
2. Don’t skip Author Central.
3. Don’t forget “Look Inside”.
4. Use metadata and keywords. Be wise in choosing the categories for your book and keywords in the title/subtitle and book description.
5. Provide cover art and images on your Amazon Author Page
6. Write an interesting Amazon Author page

​        That’s it for now. I’ll pass on more marketing tips as I gather them. In the meantime, never stop writing and never stop marketing your book(s). 

            In my writing blog dated September 23, 2021, I promised as soon as I unearthed more writing tips, I would pass them on. Well, I’ve been doing some digging and here are the most recent ones I’ve extracted:

1. Establish the stakes for your main character. What do they stand to lose or gain? What is most important to him/her? What are the consequences if the main character does not overcome?
2. To provide an unsettled atmosphere in your novel, shift the context. E.g., playgrounds after dark, empty places usually full of people, such as schools and museums, empty buildings.
3. If your character is broken hearted, let them smile again; if he/she is a genius, let them get stumped now and then; if your character loses it all, allow him/her to find something.
4. If it’s boring to you, it will be boring to your reader.
5. Resist stereotypes in your writing and in real life.
6. Go for a walk. Do some gardening. Dance. Write about it. Never stop writing.
7. Story ideas don’t fall from the sky. You have to work for them.
8. If a character isn’t contributing to the story, cut them, or make them more important.
9. When writing a scene, drop the reader in late and haul them out early.
10. Tips on writing the first draft: a) Forget the rules of good writing b) Don’t worry about grammar, adverbs, etc. c) Immerse yourself in the story d) Follow your instincts.
11. Some physical flaws to add to your characters: a) Chipped nail polish on fingers/toes b) Constantly fidgets c) Has chin hairs d) Patchy skin/chapped lips e) Dirty, chewed finger nails e) Unwashed, straggly hair
12. Ways to describe sounds: grinding, muffled, plaintive, staccato, sonorous, ear-splitting, raucous
13. Words to use instead of “very”: a) Very calm --- Serene b) Very slow --- Sluggish c) Very exciting --- Exhilarating d) Very weak --- Frail
14. It’s wonderful when a character you create does something you don’t expect. Don’t stop them. Get out of the way.

         That’s it for now. I’d love to know if any of these tips gave you some ideas and/or inspiration. Your comments are welcome.

​        Under “The Joy of Writing” portion of my blog, I would like to list some of the writing tips I’ve gathered along the way. They are not listed in order of importance. Here we go!

1. You can edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page. Keep writing.
2. When you edit your story, take out all the things that aren’t your story.
3. Carry a notebook everywhere. Our short-term memory keeps information for three minutes. If you don’t write it down, an idea can be lost.
4. Every sentence we write must either reveal character or advance the story.
5. Don’t dream about writing. Open your word processor and write.
6. As an author, we need to know what our characters want.
7. If your story doesn’t move you, how do you expect it to move anyone else?
8. We should know everything about our characters’ backstories, but only write about ten percent of it.
9. Be careful of rabbit trails – tangents that don’t lead anywhere or make the story better.
10. Know your audience. Who is most likely to buy your book?
11. Allow your scenes to play themselves out. Don’t try to wrap up a scene too quickly.
12. No matter how wonderful your main characters are, make awful things happen to them. The reader wants to know what they’re made of.
13. Every new page you write is a small triumph.
14. Don’t make yourself the main character of your book.
15. Use description in combination with action. That way, you cut it down to digestible pieces.
16. Dig deeper into the layers of emotion surrounding a plot event. Does something in the character’s past colour the incident? What unbidden thoughts come to their mind?
17. Readers read for emotion. They want to FEEL something. Give it to them.

         That’s it for now. When I collect more, I’ll pass them along.

​               Being a self-published author has its challenges. One of them I find particularly taxing is the marketing of my book. There are so many confusing voices on the Internet telling me that if I purchase their service, my advertising will reach hundreds (or thousands) of people. How do I know what is true – what works and what doesn’t?
               Of course, there are many ways to market my book without spending money, such as approaching bookstores, libraries, joining groups on social media, and sending queries to podcasts and radio stations to interview me regarding the book. It’s the advertisements that promise me the moon that I’m unsure whether to invest in or not.
               For example, I purchased an ad on one of the social media sites and ran it for seven days. I got clicks but not purchases. I gave up after one campaign. But should I have? I receive blogs regarding book marketing and one blogger stated that you have to keep trying different ads to see which ones are successful and which ones are not. This makes sense but it also costs money.
               I think my quandary is where will my advertising dollar have the most success? And when you get right down to it, the only way to find out is by trial and error. Not very reassuring. But I’ll keep plugging away. Giving up is not an option.  

            There are two aspects of writing I do not like. They both involve description. One is the physical description of people. The other is the description of scene.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF PEOPLE
            It is important for the reader to have a mental picture of what the characters in the novel look like. Are they tall or short, heavy-set or thin?  Do they have long faces, or round cherubic ones? What color are their eyes? Do they have a short, stubby nose or a long patrician one?
            There are any number of characters in a work of fiction, most of which will require a physical description. What I find challenging is making each one distinct. It takes a lot of thought. Does their physical description match what their character is like? Or do they look like an angel but act like the devil?

DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE
            I remember reading books that went to great length to describe the scene. I usually read one or two lines and skipped over the rest. So, the test is to make the reader acutely aware of the scene the character is moving in, but not to bore. It’s a fine line.
             How is the character experiencing the scene? What does he/she see, hear, touch, taste, and feel? If I write that a stiff breeze blew from the west, what does that breeze feel like on my character’s skin? If I write that a plane flew overhead, did the sound hurt the character’s ears, irritate or interest? If I write that a river sparkled in the distance, does the character want to go and see it up close, jump in for a swim, or just view it from afar?
              Physical and scene description are extremely important for the reader to “see” what the character looks like and where the action is taking place. I think I don’t like writing them because, although necessary, they don’t move the story along.
             However, no matter whether I like writing them or not, these are two skills that I must continually develop to improve as an author.

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          It is an interesting exercise for a writer to consider how they write. For example, I write Christian romance novels. How do I develop the plot, characters, setting, time, and all the other elements that go into my novels?
 
        I’ve been thinking about this recently. A word that keeps coming into my mind is ‘organic’ – that I write organically. So, I looked up the word and some sentence examples to gain a better understanding of its definition. One of the definitions Lexico.com provides for organic is, “denoting a relation between elements of something such as they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole” (Lexico.com is a new collaboration between Dictionary.com and Oxford University Press (OUP).
           
            Here are two examples of the word used in a sentence:

1. Health systems need to be organic and flexible rather than rigid and mechanistic.
2. The majority of the songs on the album blend each element into a full, organic, and integrated whole.

            My next step was to look up what I consider to be the opposite of organic and that is
‘structured’. As a transitive verb, Lexico.com defines structure as, “construct or arrange according to a plan.”
           
         When I sit down to write a novel, I do have an overall plan. But the parts within that plan are flexible. For example, in a way that is difficult to explain, my characters sometimes go off in directions that I did not anticipate when I developed the structure. Rather than stick rigidly to the structure, I allow the character to go where he/she wants to go. Sometimes this is inconvenient, as it means rearranging other aspects of the book. But I believe it is important to give the character free rein.
           
           In “Seventy Times Seven,” the character Maria was to play a secondary role to the main character, Merisela. However, Maria took on a life of her own and played a much more important part in the book than originally designed. I believe that letting Maria be Maria ultimately enhanced the part of Merisela.
           
​           Am I saying that it is better to write organically rather than structurally? No. What I am saying is that I am a writer who writes organically. Ultimately, it is the reader who will decide whether they like an organic writer. They will vote yay or nay with their pocket books.

 
        I write Christian romance novels and have been blessed to work with an excellent editor. Today, I’d like to share some of the things she’s taught me. Although they are basic, it never hurts to be reminded of them.

1. If I’m using “felt” and “knew” many times in my writing, these are signs that I’m in shallow, telling mode.
2. How to handle flashbacks: Enter a flashback with a past participle (eg., had told), then slip into simple past tense for the short story, then come out of the flashback using the past participle.
3. Don’t provide too much boring stage direction. Get over these parts as lightly as possible.
4. Communicate pensive emotions through body language.
5. Avoid attributions entirely or as much as I reasonably can. Stick with “said”, “yelled”, “exclaimed”, “murmured”, and “mumbled”. Use “said” most often.
6. Don’t have a character doing the same thing constantly, like crying. Vary it a bit.
7. Try not to use gerunds – verbs ending in “ing”. Stick with “ed” verbs, which make the prose more active and immediate.
8. As an author, I don’t have to account for every person in the narrative every step of the way.

         
​         That’s it for now. It never hurts to be reminded of what keeps our writing sharp, clear and compelling.