First Steps Into A Secret Life

In my secret life I am taller, thinner, brainier and permanently aged 30. Of course, when I was 30, I was all of those things. I just wish I had celebrated it more...

Not a bad first line...a bit of pathos...a bit of thinking...line two and three follows on developing the theme...

Why am I looking at the first line....because Lisa Stiles has a great article on her blog about first lines and their power. She has some great examples and analysis on the first lines of the famous books.

If I am talking to anyone on the power of the first line I send them straight to any Dick Francis book. Pick any one. Read the first line and that gives you a huge clue as to why they are bestsellers.

Tahereh hasn’t been blogging very long but has made an impact with her witty blog. This week she posted a great list of what 81% of Agents would like on the first page. If you trawl around her site you will find other laugh out loud articles for writers. Tahereh is also graphic artist and she made up a spoof cover called Querypolitan. This has now morphed into reality as an online magazine (she is looking for contributors...)  which is as funny as her blog.

Angela Ackerman had a recent contest on her blog asking readers to nominate blogs they could not live without. She posted the extensive list divided up into Agents and Industry, Query and MS Tuneage and Writers, Authors and Writing. I have quite a few on my regular check list but I will be checking out some new ones based on this comprehensive list. My Twitter follow list will be getting a workout. 

Robin LaFevers and Mary Hershey together run The Shrinking Violets Blog. This blog is dedicated to Marketing for Introverts. As introverted children’s writers they have a wonderful handle on what it takes to step out and market your book in front of an audience. This week one of their readers, Jenn Hubbard has written a great guest post on how getting together with other writers to market your books can help the introvert writer. (Extroverts will like it too.)

Our collective writing group project is coming together and as part of the nuts and bolts of going live we all have to have a profile and pic on the website...I hate the camera and the camera hates me. You may have noticed that I have cool space pictures all over my social media presence. However with the help of some cool free software and my kids, I have an avatar pic, which wonder of wonders makes me look taller, thinner, brainer and permanently aged 30.  Who could ask for anything more? Check out the sidebar!

Over on Craicerplus (my Amplify page) there are links to articles on

The Literary Lab - Keep Your Middle From Sagging

5 Writing Super Powers I would like to have.

Children’s Book Apps get curiouser and curiouser.

Melvin Burgess’ Top Ten Books for Teenagers.

Big Publishers have reason to be happy about how the book market is evolving.

Maybe ET is calling but we have the wrong phone.

How to create Buzz before opening week(end).

Agents won’t survive just by charging a higher commission.

enjoy,

maureen

Support and the Writer

I’m fighting this week. 

I’m fighting my lousy cold. I’m fighting my families lousy colds. I’m fighting tiredness. I’m fighting weather depression. I’m fighting the laundry. I’m fighting nerves.

And lo here comes Thursday to remind me that the end of the week is fast approaching. But Thursday can be a good stock take day because it allows me to gather up all the notes to myself for my blog post and put them in some sort of coherent order (I hope)

So what has been kicking around my brain cells this week.

Support. 

The typical writer, stuck at home staring at the computer, feeling very alone and wondering if the page they have just written is any good...sometimes feels despair. It all feels too hard to keep going. They check their email ten times an hour, spend waaay to much time on facebook, follow every twitter lead, even dust... to try to get back that happy flying feeling when they know that they are writing good stuff.

Authors need a little support.

Susan Uhlig has written a great post on Christine Fonseca’s blog about critique groups.

A good critique group can be worth more than gold to your own writing. It can be a cheer leading team, a commiseration club and a timely whip cracker. In this post Susan lists questions to consider when you go looking for a critique group or begin to set one up. She has helpful advice and points to consider for example, whether online or off line critique groups are good for you.

The internet can be a marvellous resource for the writer (and also a time suck) There are great sites out there where weekly roundups of what’s topical in the writing world keep you updated and feeling relevant... (as opposed to  know nothing and dull, stuck in your cold writers garret.)

This week the team at Adventures in Children’s Publishing have put together a huge list of relevant articles all available on the blogosphere under the helpful sub headings of Inspiration, Craft of Writing, Self Editing, Critiquing, Rejection, To Market and Congratulations. This is like a mini encyclopaedia of information and they do this every week! Dip in and be inspired!

Last year I talked about Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans idea, which generated heaps of interest. This week Eli James explores the 1000 Fans model and whether it really works for writers. We know it works for bands and bloggers. But a blog post and an MP3 music track can be created in much less time than a novel...So how can writers really make use of this model? There are some great ideas to think about here. (Maybe we have been thinking about it all wrong....)

James Scott Bell, of The Kill Zone authors collective of mystery and thriller writers, has written a great article on writing with heart. You must be in love with your writing to give it your best shot. It is very timely if you are looking for that burst of inspiration to get back into the grind with a happy smile on your dial....

The Kill Zone Authors have got a great site, a model to copy if you are thinking about author collectives. They even have a book available of short stories, on Scribed and Smashwords, (e-publishing and p.o.d.) Now that’s being in control of their brand!

I dropped into Alison Steven’s blog this week and read her timely post on paying it forward.

If you have been lamenting the fact that you have no money and no time to travel to a writer’s conference...There is a solution. A group of Young Adult Writers have taken this in hand and a running an online conference for Children’s Writers. I could embed the funny video the team have put together to publicise it (some of whom I have referred to previously in this blog) but in the spirit of paying it forward, jump over to Alison’s Blog and take a look.

And if you really need inspiration take a look at The Brainstormer Prompt Wheel...just clic the random button.

Over on Craicerplus (my amplify page) There are articles on...

The basics of the elevator pitch.

Five incredibly useful gmail features.

A roadmap for the future: 6 suggestions for today’s publishers that many can’t follow. (lots of comment on facebook)

How to build a tribe of followers.

13 Ways to add depth to your genre novel.

Boys and Girls and the Bechdel test...very interesting... do you pass the test?

enjoy,

maureen