Writers On The Move

Finding the Story that Surrounds the Pivotal Event

Whether you are writing a memoir or developing character background, this is an exercise that can help you find the “story.”

First make a list of pivotal events from your (or character’s) life: for example, first day of school, a move to a new home, a first kiss, first loss of a family member, etc.

Choose an event from your list. Free-write for 10 minutes what comes to mind in response to these questions:

• What did you (or your character) desire in your life before this pivotal event?
• When and how did this desire begin or intensify significantly? Could this be the beginning of your story?
• Did you have a struggle in trying to fulfill this desire?
• Did you learn anything from the struggle?
• How did you change after the final pivotal event? • What did you do that indicated this change?
• What did you realize when this stage in your life came to an end?
• What do you perceive now as you remember it? When you read over your answers, you may begin to sense a story: a desire, a struggle and a conclusion.

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in North-central Arizona. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams , is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

The dossier - who is this character?

Guest post by Dr. Bob Rich

The dossier is a useful tool for a novelist. It can be entirely in your head, but if there are lots of characters, you may find it essential to write down the relevant details for each. That helps prevent glitches like Susie's son changing from Jim to John, or Mr Cartwright's occupation being posthole digger in chapter 5, and postman in chapter 25.

How you organise this material is up to you. I often have a set of notes at the start of the novel, to be deleted upon completion (or when the character is no longer relevant).

What goes into the dossier? Everything you as author know about the person. As more details emerge, you can add them.

You can see many examples of dossiers in published novels. A new character enters, and the author gives an instant summary of the details that will be relevant to the story. Here is an example:

Harold Smith walked into the room. He was a man in his 50s with a potbelly and salt-and-pepper hair, an overworked accountant with immense experience but questionable morals. Jill introduced me to him, saying, "Martin, meet Harold, just the man you need for your project."

This scene is clearly from Martin's point of view (POV). That is, in order to BE in the story, I as reader need to create the temporary illusion that I am Martin. The author has created a shady accountant for me to employ for some nefarious purpose, and I (Martin) am just meeting him for the first time.

So, how do I know that he is "an overworked accountant with immense experience but questionable morals?"

My point is: the AUTHOR needs Harold's dossier in order to write about him. The character Martin has no access to this dossier. Therefore, to stay within Martin's POV, the author must avoid this statement. Giving Harold's physical appearance is fine, because Martin can see that.

Here is a second example:

Genevieve Rocker felt like wetting her pants from terror, as she looked into the black hole of the gunbarrel. As a lady of 75, with a lifetime of helping people in all walks of life, she was used to all sorts of hardships. Despite the many pains of her body, she wanted to live. Her thin body shook, her blue eyes glazed over in the expectation of instant death.

If you were terrified, expecting to be shot this instant, would you be thinking about your age, your past history of helpfulness and hardships, even the many pains of your body? Of course not. You would be in that present moment, entirely focussed on the current emergency. Genevieve will feel the same way. She is completely unlikely to be concerned with her body build or eye colour, or what her eyes might look like to someone else.

So, reporting a new character's dossier is a bad thing. It is an info dump, an author intrusion, and should be treated by amputation.

When a new person comes into your life, you immediately find out a few things: gender, approximate age, physical appearance, perhaps name, tone of voice, your automatic emotional reaction to this new acquaintance. Say Harry goes on a blind date, and meets Salicia. She is not going to hand him her CV, or biography, or her scores on various psychological tests. He will find out about her in dribs and drabs, as the occasion arises.

This is how it should happen with people in a book too.

About the author: Dr Bob Rich is an Australian storyteller, with 15 published books, 4 of them award winners. His latest novel, "Ascending Spiral: Humanity's last chance," is garnering a growing list of 5 star reviews, and a few 4 star. Check out his writing showcase http://bobswriting.com

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You Are Unique: This Writing Exercise Proves It

"You Are Unique: This Writing Exercise Proves It" by Joan Y. Edwards

You Are Unique. Your experiences make you different from others. You have different likes and dislikes.
If you have a snack bag filled with multi-colored M&Ms, each of you might choose the same color to eat, once or twice, but probably not with the entire snack bag of candy. If you made a design with the M&Ms before you ate them, your designs would be different. Why? You have different likes and dislikes. (Personal aside: You can personalize M&Ms for special occasions: http://www.mymms.com/default.aspx?)

Below are 15 words to use in this writing exercise. Even though each of you uses the same 15 words, the stories you write will be different. Your life experiences and interests decide what you write. Start a new story, add to an old story, or write freely as it comes to you, but try to use all 15 words in your passage.
Although the words are the same, the passages may differ in the following:

Genre
Characters
Dialogue
Conflicts
Senses
Emotion
Time
Place
Weather

There are verbs, nouns, and adjectives. I used http://www.wordgenerator.net to help me choose these words.

Find more exercises to stimulate your brain and put life into your writing in a book called, Writing Open the Mind by Andy Couturier. When you use random words, it stirs up wondrous experiences and helps you create passages filled with life.

This is a great exercise for writing groups that meet either online or in person. We did this exercise in our Savvy Wordsmiths Writing Group meeting in Fort Mill, SC. No one used the same characters or situations.

If you and another person have the same idea for a book, it will not turn out the same. Why? It will be different because each person is different. Enjoy being you. You are unique and a blessing to our world. Write and enjoy it.

Try this exercise. Ask a friend to try it, too. Compare your stories. I’ll bet they will be unique.

Directions for this writing exercise:

Get out a sheet of paper (or open a new file on your computer)
Print out this blog post.
Take one minute to read, study, and think about the 15 words.
Set the timer for 15 minutes.
Write for 15 minutes making an effort to use all 15 words in your passage.
Read your passage aloud at the end of your 15 minutes.

Enjoy yourself. You are a Master Writer. You have a gift. Go for it.

15 Words for This Writing Exercise

spirited
evaluate
post office
indulge
newscaster
muscle
barrel
incredulous
slippery
advertise
annex
sapling
unveil
tongue
photograph

Now compare what you wrote with the passage I wrote at our writing group. It's in the comment area. Please do the exercise before you read my comment passage.

If you're willing to share your passage, copy and paste it into the comment area. It will be fun to read the variety of passages.

If you want to do this type of exercise again, you can choose 15 words at random from newspapers, magazines, wordsearch puzzles, or crossword puzzles, or your favorite books. Enjoy being you.

I'd love to hear from you.

Celebrate your uniqueness.

Never Give Up - Joan Y. Edwards

Flip Flap Floodle, the happy little duck who Never Gives Up

Hear Flip’s Song

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Flap-Floodle-Joan-Edwards/dp/1594572852/

Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/flip-flap-floodle?r=1

Joan's Elder Care Guide 4RV Publishing Coming in June 2014

Blog: http://www.joanyedwards.wordpress.com

Celebrating over 71, 000 Views - Join me there.

Marketing with Newsletters and Blogs: Your Own and Others

Contributed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I don't think using others' newsletters and blogs a panacea for easy promoting. Newsletters and blogs that belong to other people are a great way of promoting but they do lack some of the benefits that you have if you run your own. That would be:

1. The independence you have with your own.

2. Using your own as mini way to reward those who do something nice in terms of publicity for you. See the Thank You section in my SharingwithWriters newletter for examples of this.

3. Networking by offering guest features, guest posts, and other ways to link to people who—if they're savvy marketers—will reciprocate. If not today, then later.

4. The ability to drive traffic to your Web site, online bookstore page, of anywhere your little heart desires.

Having a newsletter and blog of your own is a lovely way to share what you know. And having one doesn't discourage doing that in others' newsletters and blogs, anyway!

Here's an example of a tip I submitted to Penny Sansevieri's "A Marketing Expert" newsletter.

Reader Tip: Include Action Shots on Your Website

When you're updating your website as suggested by this Book Marketing Expert newsletter, be sure to include at least one action shot of you doing something. Many bloggers and online folks like plain old generic headshots but print media still need a whole lot more than someone holding his or her book or accepting an award. And TV producers need to see some possibilities for action in the still photos or videos you offer. Use my media room as a very basic example (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/media_room.htm) and Penny's as an example of what you're aiming for: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/media.html. And read more on why you need to relate to the media and how to do it in The Frugal Book Promoter at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo.

Tip offered by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of how-to books for writers.

Here's an action shot like the one I suggested (see left). You just have to think of shot that is somehow associated with your book.

Having said that, any image is better than none at all. So a picture of you with your book at a book fair works, even though it may not qualify as a real action shot. Grab your book before the shutter snaps and take a picture anyway. But grab a fellow book fair participant to be in your shot with you because he or she may be willing to help you promote. Two marketers/publicists are better than one.

For more information on newsletters and blogging use the index of your Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to find help, ideas, and tons more references.

Providing tips for others is a great way to extend your reach. But it's limited. You own blog and newsletter issn't. That's why I can include this additional tip in this blog post without considering word count (or just being a real pest to the newsletter editor!). Here it is:

Re-use your action photo. Repetition is good for sales. That's why you have a book cover. I use this one in the image feature of my marketing books on my Amazon buy pages (see the images I posted on my Buy Page on my Frugal Book Promoter page), on my Web site, and sometimes send it to feature editors after I've been interviewed. Especially if they don't mention sending a photographer to take a picture. It's part of our jobs to make it easy for editors to do their jobs easily and well.

If you'd like to be sure you see all my favorite marketing and writing tips subscribe to my SharingwithWriters newsletter at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscribe button is in the right of almost every page. And you'll get a free little e-booklet on wordtrippers when you do it. And, yes. I encourage you to submit your own favorite tips to that newsletter and to include credit lines with links to your book's sales page.

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How to Create an eBook – 4 Simple Steps

By Karen Cioffi

There was so much interest in the benefits of creating an ebook I posted about on October 1st, that I want to include how to actually write it and convert it into a PDF. So, below are the four simple steps to do just that.

The 4 Simple Steps to Creating an eBook

1. Create content

The first step is to create your content; this can be done as a simple word document. The content can be anything you think your readers or target market will want or need. In addition, it can be any length you decide upon. You can create a simple 10 page e-book, or a 100+ page e-book.

The choice is yours, as long as it will provide your reader or target market with an informative product that they’ll find of value.

You can also create a compilation of articles you’ve already written on a particular topic and organize them into an easy to read product that includes a content page.

Note: It’s wise to include a disclaimer explaining that you, the author, strived for accuracy, but cannot guarantee it due to the ever-changing nature of the internet. And, it’s advisable to include an “All Rights Reserved” with a copyright reference.

Another option, if you’re creating the e-book as a freebie on your site, is to allow it to be offered by others on their sites, emphasizing that all information must remain intact, including all links. This will help increase your visibility and lead readers back to your site/s.

2. Organize Your Content

Whether your product is a few pages or 100 pages, having it organized is important. The e-book needs to offer easy reading and clarity, along with value. If you are creating a longer product, divide the content or articles into sections or parts, and provide a Content Page.

Be sure to use a large and bold font for section headings and it’s advisable to include page breaks for each section.

Remember, you want to provide valuable information, including resources if possible, that will prompt the reader to view you as an expert in your field/genre. This will help motivate the reader to click on the links you provide, leading back to your site/s, products/services, or affiliate products.

Finally, be sure to add a brief bio, including your sites, books published, services, products, and links, on an About the Author page.

One last note about organizing your content – have plenty of white space. If you notice, this article has very short paragraphs, making it easy to read.

3. Include Images and Tweak Your Content

Once you have the content in place, add images. You can add an image at the beginning of each section, or where ever you see fit. This is another trick to make the e-book more interesting to read.

Using your word program’s clipart function is a free way to get images. Microsoft has clipart in the toolbar: Insert: Pictures: Clipart. You can also input free images from other sources. Again, the choice is yours.

The images will help break up the monotony of straight content. Another technique for this purpose is to use different color font for headings and subheading, or for “tips,” or other special information. Changing the font itself is yet another tool to make specific content stand out.

You will also want to include your own head shot on your About the Author page. Readers connect more with a face, rather than just a name.

4. Turning Your Word Doc into a PDF

Okay, you’ve created a great word document, now it’s time to magically turn it into an e-book. There are a number of free PDF creator software applications to do this.

For those wondering, PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format. A PDF creator is an application that converts documents into PDFs by creating a virtual printer that prints to PDF files.

If you don’t already have a PDF converter, it’s time to do an online search for “free pdf creator.” Just be sure the one you choose is Adobe compatible.

My experience is with PDF995. They offer a free version which displays a sponsor page each time you run the software, but I opted for paying $9.95 for a version that doesn’t display promotion. You can check it out at: http://www.pdf995.com/

Two other free PDF convertors you might try are:

Primopdf
http://www.primopdf.com
Dopdf
http://www.dopdf.com

Install the software you chose, and you’re ready to go.

To use a PDF converter, choose Print while in the open Word document that you intend to turn into a PDF. In the Printer box, choose the PDF converter instead of your printer, and print.

NOTE: You would follow the same process for fiction writing also.

Creating an ebook is that simple!

And, to add more bang to this article, here is the link to an article by Carolyn Howard-Johnson on
Kindle Formatting Made Easy

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

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Karen Cioffi is an author-writer online platform instructor. To take your platform up a notch visit: http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-platform-ecourse/

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Small Business Marketing – Meet Your Customers’ Wants

By Karen Cioffi

This is Part 1 of a 3 Part Series.

You just started your own business and you’re creating a small business marketing plan. You may already have created a great product. At least you think it’s a great product. But, is there a customer base for it? Or, is your product name effective? Do you know what your target market’s ‘wants’ are?

Marketing studies are showing that in order to sell effectively, you need to know what’s motivating your potential customer to make the choices he does. This means you need to know what your potential customer wants.

People buy what they need, want, or desire. But, ‘when push comes to shove,’ people buy what they want, rather than what they need.

So, you need to determine what it is your potential customer wants and craft your small business marketing strategy around that.

Suppose you’re selling a book on ‘alternative health.’

Many people may know they should look into alternative health options, maybe find an acupuncturist or naturopathic doctor, but if you don’t promote your product to their ‘want’ it won’t motivate the prospect to buy.

So, what does it mean to promote to a customer’s want, rather than his need.

Well, instead of promoting your alternative health book by explaining that Western medicine may not meet their health needs and that it’s important to address the underlying causes, rather than just the symptoms of illnesses, tell the potential customer that alternative options will allow him to regain his health and vitality. Tell him how this product will actually alleviate his problem.

Do you see the difference?

Please be aware though that the above example is just that, an example. In your small business marketing you must always be honest and never, ever make guarantees in regard to someone’s health. Your product or service must to be of value and it must fulfill your marketing claims.

As the example demonstrates, people buy based on feelings: Will the product or service make me feel, look, or smell better? Will it help me learn something, or earn more money? Will it get rid of my pain? Will it make me a better golfer? And, it’s your job to answer the relevant questions effectively.

Watch just about any TV commercial. The marketers are selling an image. They’re selling to the viewer’s wants. Think of clothing commercials. Some don’t even have words; you simple watch a beautiful or handsome model wearing the product. You want to look like the model in those clothes, whether consciously or subconsciously. This motivates you to buy those clothes. The ad is addressing a ‘want.’

Just as a chef prepares a meal for both the taste and visual appeal of a dish, so must a marketer present his product or service in a manner that will be appealing on all fronts to the target market.

Your small business marketing must address your potential customer’s ‘what’s in it for me’ (WIIFM) question appealingly and effectively.

What strategies do you use to find out what your customers' wants are and to meet them?

Stay tuned for Part 2 on November 1st!

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter/ rewriter. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

If you need help with your author platform, check out Karen's e-classes through WOW:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/

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4 Benefits of Creating Your Own eBook

You know . . . an easy way to turn your knowledge into possible income is to create a booklet or ebook. And, with an ebook, if you use sources such as Kindle, it won’t cost a penny. It’s as easy as putting the pieces of a puzzle together.

But, on the flip side, if you’re thinking of doing B2B (business to business) work, businesses would prefer a booklet to hand out to prospects, clients, or employees.

While booklets have their place, today, I’m going to address ebooks because they're such an amazing product and they can be absolutely FREE to create!

What else can you create for free and SELL for whatever you think it’s worth? Okay, maybe not for ‘whatever you think it’s worth,’ you do have to consider the market when deciding on a price. But, as far as cost, the only cost is your time and some effort.

Simple steps to creating an ebook:

1. All you need to do is open a Word document and start typing away. Get all that expert knowledge you’ve accumulated over the year/s and create your content. Just be sure that your content will actually be of value to your readers and reliable.

Pretty easy so far, right?

2. Now that your content is set, you can add pictures. If you can believe it, this is also free or pretty close to it. Just use clip art or visit sites such as Freepixels.com, MorgueFile.com, or BigStock.com. Another easy way to do this is to take your own pictures. Download them onto your computer and then upload them into your ebook. You can use Microsoft Word to tweak the image or if you have a program such as Photoshop Elements or Logo Creator you can create all types of variations of one simple photo.

3. The next step is to design your own cover and/or interior images. It’s easier than you think.

4. That’s it! Now, it’s time to take your Word doc and cover and upload it to Kindle or other service.

5. You can also use a pdf creator and change your Word doc into a pdf file. Then you’ll have an ebook!

Easy Peasy. Done.

But, wait a minute, there’s more. What about the benefits of creating your own ebook?

5 Major Benefits of Creating Your Own eBook (added another major benefit)

Now that you have an ebook, what can you do with it? Well, just about anything!

1. Sell it.

You can sell it on your own website through Paypal or Google checkout, or use a shopping cart service; you can sell it through Kindle, Lulu, or Smashwords, or lots of other services.

2. Use it as an ethical bribe.

You can offer your ebook as a free gift to entice visitors to sign up for your newsletter.

3. Make it keep giving.

If you decide you’ll give it away as a free gift (ethical bribe) to subscribers as an incentive to opt in to your mailing list, and you should be doing this as part of your book marketing strategy, you can get even more ‘bang’ for your effort by making it ‘reprint allowable.’ This is a great way to increase your visibility, create backlinks, and bring traffic back to your site.

‘Reprint allowable’ simply means the recipient can pass it along to others, as a free gift, as long as he keeps it completely as is.

4. Create a combo package.

You can also offer it as a combo with other works you have for sale. And, you will be establishing and promoting your expertise and authority . . . you get the idea.

I recently did this with an affiliate product I promoted. To sweeten the pot (take it up a notch), I offered one of my own products as a bonus.

There you have it, four simple ebook strategies that can make you money, build your list, and generate visibility.

5. Build your authority,

If you're a business owner, small or home, nothing says authority like a relevant to your industry/niche book.

Think of it.

You have a potential client or customer who you want to impress - give him your book. Give her your book that's full of information about your industry and about your company. And,you can include what your business can do for the reader.

Gigantic Tip: Know what's even more impressive than an ebook? A physical book. Check out CreateSpace to get your ebook turned into an 'in your hand' book.

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NEED HELP CREATING YOUR EBOOK?

I can help. Visit The Article Writing Doctor today!

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