Getting the ROT out of Your Writing

I finished a seminar at the day gig on document management, and the focus was removing ROT - Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial documents from your files. I would argue that you can do the same thing to improve your writing. Print out your manuscript, grab your editing pen, and read like a critic.

Redundant - Look for:

  • Places where you’ve repeated descriptions

  • Overused words and phrases (I have a list that I always check for.)

  • Too many uses of the character’s name or too many he/she pronouns

  • Dialog tags (he said/she said) that you don’t really need

Obsolete - Look for Outdated References to Technology:

  • It’s rare that anyone tapes or videotapes anything. Faxes are ancient unless it’s going to someone’s email. And people with electric car windows don’t roll or wind the window down. Old habits are hard to break.

  • I wrote myself in a corner one time with inked fingerprints. Most departments use a fingerprint scanner these days unless the computers are down.

  • Most people use their phones these days for just about everything. It’s rare if you see a camera, calculator, or a videorecorder. It’s also a lot of people’s only flashlight.

Trivial - Look for:

  • Chit chat. It’s nice to be friendly, but you don’t need a lot of the greetings and thank yous. Try to find spots where you can eliminate unnecessary chatter.

  • Descriptions or dialog that doesn’t relate to the action or the story. If it’s filler, get rid of it.

  • Big data dumps in your writing. These are usually detailed descriptions, too much backstory, or long narrative paragraphs. Eliminate what doesn’t move your story forward. You don’t want to take your reader outside of the story’s action.

What would you add to my list?

Newsletter Content Ideas

New writers often ask me what they should include in their newsletters. Here are some ideas that have worked for me.

  • Announcements and What’s New with You

  • Give-aways and Do Shout outs to Previous Winners

  • Invitation to Join Your Street Team

  • Ask for Reviews/References (e.g. book clubs, speaking events, etc.)

  • Highlight One of Your Interesting Blog Posts

  • Recipes

  • Craft Projects

  • Your Hobbies

  • Your Pets

  • Your Favorite Things

  • Feature What You’re Reading or Watching

  • Interview Other Authors

  • Pictures of Where You’ve Been Recently

  • Highlights of Blogs, Take-overs, Podcasts, and Interviews That You’ve Done Recently

  • Where You’ll Be Next

What would you add to my list?

20 Ideas for Blog Posts

Does your blogging ever get in a rut or do you have trouble coming up with new ideas? Here’s my go-to list of ideas.

  1. Interview Other Authors

  2. Make Playlists for Your Books

  3. Write about What You’re Doing

  4. Write about Your Pets and Include Lots of Pictures

  5. Talk about Your Hobbies

  6. Look for Nonfiction Hooks in Your Books

    1. Delanie Fitzgerald lives is a Sears Catalog House, so I did some research and shared information about these types of houses.

  7. Talk about What You’re Reading

  8. Write Posts for Special “Holidays” or This Day in History

  9. Share a Recipe and Photos and Videos of you Creating it

  10. Show Pictures of Your Desk or Office, and Talk about Your Writing Space

  11. Talk about Things You’ve Learned Recently

  12. Go for a Walk and Document it in a Video or Pictures

  13. Play Tourist in Your Own Town and Share Your Adventures

  14. Share What You’ve Watched or Binged Lately

  15. Share Your Favorite Inspirational Quotes

  16. Go to Places in Your Stories and Write about What Inspired You to Use it as a Setting

  17. Describe Your Writing Process

  18. Do a Blog Swap or Blog Take-over with a Writer Friend — You write a post for her site, and she is a guest on yours.

  19. Pick a Favorite Movie or Book and Write a Post about What You Learned from It (e.g. What I Learned from Nancy Drew)

  20. Blog about What You Wished You Had Known as a New Writer

I'm a New Author - What Should I Work on First?

New authors often ask what part of their platform they should work on and when? Here’s what has worked for me.

Website: Purchase your domain name for your site and start creating the pages. This is the hub of all of your marketing efforts. I would create it first. If you don’t have a book to highlight yet, start with a blog and build a following. Blog about things in your book, your research, your hobbies, what you read/watch, or anything that catches your fancy. Try to have a regular schedule if possible.

Link to your social media accounts to your webpage and have a place where visitors can sign up for your newsletter. You can add pages and update the look as you add new books.

Email/Newsletter List: Start collecting names as soon as you start doing events or appearances. Have a sign-up sheet where people can register. Decide how often you want your newsletter to go out and what kind of content you want to include. I do mine quarterly with some kind of contest. I include announcements, events, photos, and interviews of other authors.

There are all kinds of free and paid email services that you can use to build your newsletter from templates and to house/maintain your list of followers. Remember, you can be banned from social media platforms, or the site can shut down. When this happens, you have no way of contacting those followers. You own your email list, and that’s why it’s important to have and cultivate.

Social Media Sites: I would also start to build a following on these as soon as you can. Agents, editors, and publishers often look at your website and social media sites to see your content and what kind of following you have. I started out years ago with three Twitter followers. It takes time to build an audience. Choose the one or two sites that you want to focus on and follow at least 10 people a day.

I write cozy mysteries. Most of my readers are on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, so that’s where I focus most of my time, but I do have a presence on a variety of other sites. Make sure your readers can easily find you. Make the look and feel of each site (photograph and banners) similar. To build (and keep) an audience, you need to be social. You need to interact with those who comment, post interesting content (that’s not all “buy my book”), and share other’s celebrations.

A business page on Facebook and Instagram gives you access to metrics and insights about your page and activity and access to the business tools. I can see when my followers are most active, and I can schedule posts during those times. Some authors use their personal Facebook accounts. There is a limit to the number of friends you can have on a personal account, and once you hit that number, you can’t expand your reach. The business page isn’t limited.

I would focus on these three key parts of your author platform as soon as you decide to start your writing journey. There is a lot of waiting when you query agents or publishers or while you wait for publication. I would use this time to work on your website, newsletter, and social media sites.

What else would you add to my list?

Some Strategic Planning Tips That Can Help Your Writing

I recently completed a Strategic Training course for the day gig. A lot of the concepts, designed for planning and prioritizing IT work also translate to the writing world. Here’s what I learned.

You need to know who your customers are: Writers need to know who their readers are, and it’s not everyone who likes books. Authors need to look at their followers, their web and social media metrics, and their reviews to see if they can categorize who is buying and reading your book. Sometimes, it’s hard. If you don’t have data to look at, look at other authors who write books that are similar to yours. Look at their reviews and see which book bloggers and bookstagrammers are reading their work.

This helps you target your advertising and marketing to the groups who would be likely to be interested in your work. For example, from my metrics and demographics data, I can see that my readers are usually females between 20 and 60 who like animals, cozy mysteries, and humorous mysteries. I can create events, give-aways, and other promotions that would appeal to folks who have similar interests.

Wave your own flag: Sometimes, authors have trouble with promoting themselves because it feels like bragging, or they don’t feel comfortable being in the spotlight. Marketing, promotions, and building your author platform often force writers to step out of their comfort zones. It’s important to celebrate your wins and news. Try to keep your posts balanced. Your news/marketing items on social media should be 10 to 20% of your overall posts. And don’t forget to celebrate the successes of others!

Spend the time you have to on necessary tasks, but no more: This one is important for your time management. There are thousands of tasky things we have to do that don’t relate to your writing. The rule is to spend the time you have to on these things, but keep it limited. Remember that your job is to write your next book and to promote your work.

Plan for crisis situations to minimize risks: Always have a backup plan for emergencies. Make sure that you can get to your contact lists if your phone or email go down. Make sure that you backup your files. Your writing is precious, and there is nothing that will make a writer cry faster than to lose something you’ve been working on. Make sure that you keep your computer and phones updated regularly. These patches and updates contain security fixes. If you don’t apply them, your device is vulnerable.

Scan the environment and know your competition: Authors need to know what is going on in the industry and their genre. Read everything you can get your hands on. Peruse online or physical bookstores and see what is on the shelves and how books are categorized. Join writing groups for knowledge shares and training.

Apply lessons learned: Some critiques, rejections, and bad reviews don’t feel good. After you calm down, take the time to understand what the person was telling you. If there is something valuable in the feedback, take it as a lesson learned and find ways to incorporate it. Continuous improvement is a key part of your growth.

I know these concepts are for technology projects, but the concepts apply to writers and the work we do.

Tips for Moderating a Panel

It’s always exciting when you’re asked to moderate a panel, especially one with writers. Here are some ideas to help you with planning and facilitating:

Planning

  • Once you have the topic, draft a list of questions. Make sure you have extras in case you have time. Be creative. Don’t has the ones that are always used.

  • Not every question has to be for every panel member. Mark which ones are for which speaker and which ones are for the entire group.

  • Review them with your panel and get their feedback.

  • Be familiar with your panelists’ biographies and books.

  • Have a quick meeting or send an email to your panel giving them the details (e.g. any pre-meetings, what to bring, and any logistics).

Moderating 101

  • Make sure everyone gets a turn in the spotlight. No one should dominate the presentation. And mix up the order. You don’t always have to move left to write down the table.

  • Keep time and keep the discussion flowing. (That’s when the extra questions come in handy if you have time to fill.)

  • Keep order. Hopefully, everyone is a professional, but you may need to step in every once in a while to keep the discussion moving. Barb Goffman and Ramona DeFelice Long taught me about signals. Each had a signal that she told the panel about. For an example, a knock on the table indicated time was up.

  • Grace Topping taught me to ask your authors to provide short biographies and as the moderator, introduce your panel. It allows you to brag on their accomplishments, and you can keep the introductions short.

  • Grace also recommended that moderators shouldn’t throw out a question to the entire group without specifying who should start. It often causes an awkward silence until someone volunteers an answer.

Wrapping it up

  • Always leave time for questions.

  • Make sure to ask the panelists what’s next for them.

  • Thank your panel, your hosts, and your audience.

  • Make sure that the audience knows if there is a book signing or any other instructions they need.

What would you add to my list?

Networking for Authors

Writing is a solitary experience, and I think it’s important that we have a network of authors to help support us. Here are some ideas to help you find your crew.

  • Join a writer’s group. I am so fortunate to be a part of Sisters in Crime (Guppies, Central Virginia, Chessie, and Grand Canyon Writers), International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers. My first traditionally published work was in a Sisters in Crime anthology. They provide support, ideas, training, critique groups, networking, and so many other opportunities that I wouldn’t have known about.

  • My agent and my publisher have regular group Zooms to share information and marketing ideas with their authors. It’s nice to find partners for online and in-person events and collaboration opportunities.

  • Volunteer. There are so many worthwhile organizations that are looking for the skills you have. If you’ve got the time, give back a little. And besides doing good for others, you get to meet new people and network.

  • Look for other authors who write what you write. Reach out to see if they are interested in collaborating.

  • Plan a book event and invite other authors to be on your panel or to sign with you. This provides a great opportunity for you to network with new readers.

  • I am so fortunate to be a part of several group blogs through the years (where each author is responsible for blogging on a specific day). Not only do we provide feedback for each other’s posts, but we share information and ideas.

I treasure my writing friends. They are so generous with their time and advice. I encourage new (or seasoned) writers to find a crew. These are the amazing people who commiserate with you and share your celebrations.

Happy Mermaid Day!

Happy Mermaid Day! I’ve added this to the list of my holidays since I write the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Here’s a list of Mermaid Advice that I received from mystery author Jayne Ormerod. Enjoy your celebration!

  • “Sea” life’s beauty.

  • Avoid “pier” pressure.

  • Take time to coast.

  • Make waves.

  • Be sure of yourself.

  • Don’t be “shellfish.”

  • Seize the day.