Saturday, September 29, 2018

"Making of A Wannabe Writer Pt 3

image from open clipart.org by Arvin61r58


The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

Today, I am sharing my responses to their tips and tricks. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

A formatting note: The number points from the article are in bold and some editing may occur in the expansion of the main point so I can emphasize the parts that resonate with me.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

Some Essential Daily Hacks

...make it a point you write everyday. It may be rubbish, not readable at all. But it will help you get into the habit of writing first of all. It will make you disciplined.

Doing that.  Next please.

    Make sure your writing is effective. Once written, read it to yourself and try to evaluate if it’s lame or really compact piece.

    This is a struggle for me.  What is effective?  Are general impressions posts "effective" are those millions of tips posts that seem to copy and paste each other "effective", is sharing my experience and coming to some conclusions "effective"?  I don't know.  

For me, I'm looking to approach problems in innovative ways and I want the blog to connect to other's individual struggles.

In my creative writing, everything is in review all the time.  It's frustrating to think a few months ago I was "done" with a piece I've since unwound and stitched together another way.  At some point there has to be an end to tinkering.

While you are into writing, Minimize all distractions- that includes your phone! It is probably the greatest killer of discipline!
.  
My phone isn't my problem, the internet is.  It's hard to not pop in and see how Twitter is going or to pause one blog post and check in on my other blog, or to freeze mid research and writing an impromptu something or other.  

By the time I'm ready to write, my alarm is going off, letting me know it's time to go to work.  

Another work in progress for me it seems.
Don’t procrastinate or worry about being a great blogger/ writer; just write your heart out.

Check.  I have no illusions that I'm a great blogger.  I'd like to be a consistent one, and one that's accidentally helpful.  

In the best of worlds, I'd like to be a blogger who finds her audience for her creative writing and has the opportunity to help other writers find their audience.
During the initial days, it’s better if you just forget about earning. Focus on followers. Bring out quality articles and keep the followers growing steadily.

No problem there, earning isn't even a twinkle in my eye.  No Adsense turned on.  No call to subscribe.  No books, pamphelets, shirts, bags, or mugs for sale.  I take the audience finding and building phase seriously.  There will be no considerations to monetize until I'm getting at least a couple thousand views (a number chosen for how impossible it seems right now) and even then, I think a good indicator for when to sell something is when the audience asks for it.  Like if someone wanted me to curate and publish certain blog posts.  Or if I managed to create a good catch phrase.  Or if I had an anthology published.  
Know well what you write. Have an in depth knowledge and if possible, some personal experience too.
Agreed.  I'm very careful to only post and publish things I have personal experience with.  It's why the blog has to be about my plans, efforts, and results.  I can only speak about what I know works.  

On my Twitter, it keeps me from recommending random books in my feed or posting all those generic "Get Good Quick" posts.  I'm reading them, thinking on them, and even trying some parts, but I am skeptical of them until I see results and worse, I'm bored with them.


Tuesday, September 25, 2018

6 Week Review



It’s been six weeks since I started my: “Jess Donegan is Here” Campaign.  Time to see where I hit the mark and were I need to adjust.  Check out my weekly updates starting most recently with 9/24 numbers, 9/17 numbers9/10 numbers9/4 numbers/evaluation, 8/29 numbers/evaluation, and 8/21 numbers/evaluation.

First thing I’ve changed is how I report.  I started by reporting numbers and making plane each week. Right away, I saw these reports were too long and very little changed.  Instead, I report my numbers once a week and will talk in depth about those results every other month or once a month.

Overall growth on Twitter is good.  Need to Maintain the course (check out my 8 steps here).  No course change needed.  The plan works for me because it’s flexible.  Some days I don’t even have to look at Twitter and other days I can swing by and make one on one mentions.  I am slipping out into political water, and I must watch out for that going forward in my campaign.  I’m undecided on if politics has a place in my Twitter persona.

This blog and the North Alabama Writer's Group blog exist.  Go me?

Wins:
1. Creating content
2. Posting across both blogs
3. Sticking to the niche identified
4. Our Writers’ Group is talking about self promotion and considering what we could do to reach out to other creators around us.  I’ve captured Chris and am recruiting Ashley.

Needs Improvement:
1. Traffic
2. Self promotion
3.  Time.  It’s only been six weeks since I’ve been pushing the blogs
4. Cross platform promotion

What I’m Doing:
1. Made a list of all the posts I have and the categories they fit in and I plan to schedule 1 Tweet a day to promote my writing.
2. I will suck it up and go to Facebook.  My original plan was to start that aft 30 days of blogging but I backed out because it overwhelmed me.  Then I thought “who needs Facebook” but the thing is I might.  So I will make a general “hello” post and from then on post when an article first drops.  
3. Going through older posts and creating back links.  I have a lot of series posts, and I’m not maximizing people’s love of crawling relevant threads.
4. I’ve had a lot of luck on Google+, maybe it’s time I pursued that again? Will test after Facebook campaign is part of the routine
5. Working on a guest blog post for @arimehglen. With luck this may lead to more guest posts? Will keep an eye out.
6. An Oct scary set of shorts
7.A “Creatives we are Thankful for” article for NAWG where ere acknowledge local talent and reconnect ourselves to local writers and publishers
8. Dec Merch launch.  Need to push this even if the audience is not there yet.

Creative Writing

My time management has been shitty.  I’ve needed to turn a lot of my resources inward because I need help with my day job.  Speaking of which: are you looking to hire a writer because I WANT to work with you!

I’ve been telling the writers’ group I’m not writing.  That’s not 100% honest.  I’ve written a couple of pieces about women choosing a brutal death over life.  Since I noticed the theme in my writing, I’ve stopped all new works until I’m in a better head space.

 I am also working on edits to my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” but the group doesn’t seem interested in reading it and I don’t want to talk with them about the same things repeatedly (which is the editing process, going over it until it’s memorized).

I am hoping I’ll have more time for my book now I have a resume out in the world and I’m hoping my writers’ workshop will take on beta-ing draft #2 of my novel.  We had our first meeting this past Sunday and the group leader, Megan Beam, seemed interested in the premise, so I hope she’ll have feedback for me.

I’ve been enviously reading other writers’ posts on creating a calendar for their projects.  I don’t have enough time to break it down the way they do.  But I am still reading different time management techniques.  I enjoy batching similar tasks.  In a world where I could find 3-5hrs a day, I’d enjoy blocking my time.  I’m still trying it on a small scale but results will be slow in coming.

Reviewing

In the next few months I plan to further integrate my reading/reviewing with my writing.  I have a few pieces coming out to link the two.  I think my GoodReads presence is a waste staying separate as it is now, bit I haven’t found the right plan to rope the two in....yet.

Talk to me.  Tell me about your own plans, how are they going?  Is there something key I’ve forgotten or HAVE to try?  What’s the most important part of your routine?  Do you have success on a social media platform I’m not using/considering right now?

Monday, September 24, 2018

Metric Monday



My week review posts are too long, so I'm breaking it up into straight numbers and progress updates/plan adjustments.  Today is straight plans.   See the action plans I'm using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week's Tuesday Tell All!  and 8 Steps I'm Taking on Twitter.   I owe you all a blogging strategy, a creative writing strategy, and a book review plan.  Still working on that.

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 38 days.  Twitter Analytics gives the last 28 days for review.  From here on out, I’ll be comparing my current stats from stats where I was active on the platform.  I have 465 “lifetime” Tweets, but over the last 28 days I’ve had 364 posts, 601 profile visits, 95 mentions, and 116 new follows.


Conversion based on profile views is 19%, up a little but overall remaining steady.  I think I'm starting to settle into my niche and my growth may begin to slow.

  
My engagement remains a steady 3.3%.  

I post about 13 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is a bit of a slog.  I didn't even step on Twitter Tuesdsy.  


I broke 2,000 views on Saturday and my top Tweet has 1,753 views and engagement of 3.3%.  It’s another Tweet from @wrtrstat in this one I asked if people write for fun or to explore themes.  I got three or four conversations from it and I tagged it in some writing circles.  


 
Blog Stats

This blog continues to put in work.  I got 53 views last week spread across 8 posts.  It’s not brag worthy, but this is a personal blog with more impressions, personal plans, and results.  I don’t expect it to be a traffic generator.  There’s value and casual interest in how a fellow blogger/aspiring writer is doing, but I don’t think there’s much interest when I don’t have name recognition.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 5 views this past week.  This is my fault.  I've got some great content on the blog but I haven't promoted it as I should.  



So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Saturday, September 22, 2018

"Making a Wannabe Writer" My Response pt 2

image from open clipart.org by GDJ


The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

Today, I am sharing my responses to these questions. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

A formatting note: The number points from the article are in bold and some editing may occur in the expansion of the main point so I can emphasize the parts that resonate with me.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

1. Starting is simple, but not ending.


Agreed, particularly with creative writing. I often know the beginning and middle, but then I'm loving everything so much it's like I don't want to end it. Or I think"hey all the buildup will need one Hell of a resolution to justify itself". 


For the blog it can be easier. I ramble on for three paragraphs, find my core nugget I wanted to get to, and rearrange everything. To end posts, I stop talking about me and ask questions. Or I follow a strict suggestion and response format where I present someone's suggest, I agree or disagree and present my plan. When I'm done presenting the post ends.

2. Make ‘Writing Effortlessly’ your Target before ‘Larger Audience’.
Most of us have the same ultimate target- Larger audience. But keep it in mind, before you reach out to a significant audience, you must be at par with writing better 'effortlessly'.

This sounds a lot like the creative writing encouragement to "just write".  It's not as easy as all that.  The number two suggestion should be to make lists.  Lists of ideas, lists of where you are in progress, and lists of what would show the most forward momentum with the least time/ effort investment.  

Yes, we all need to flee our writing muscles often to improve our skill set and yes increased quality and quantity will drive the larger audience.  But most writers need to balance engagement and audience building campaigns with their writing.  
3. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Agree.

4. Use Strategies Wisely

This advice was confusing.  It supposes that a person can find a strategy that works for him/her, recognize it, and use it.  

I would counter with "the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over while expecting different results".  

Make a plan, track results, and adjust the ship as needed.  With time that evolves into strategy, but I don't think most of us have enough figured out to incorporate this one.

5. Stay Persistent.
....Success comes to those who stay persistent and focused.
A writer attains limelight in a month while another takes an year. Both paces are absolutely normal.

While depressing, it's a good point.  Others measure of success can not be mine.  The techniques I'm able to develop and use are different so the time line is different.  

6. Go Beyond Hesitation

Put up your work for display, no matter what the audience size is. 

I agree, to a point.  While I'm more than happy to play blog host and book reviewer for a marginal audience,  I'm looking for larger presence before I'd risk creative stories.  On many occasions I thought "what would be the harm of posting ______" but there is harm.  I can't pitch first print rights to a publication if I release a story to the blog.  I can never get back a story's debut.  

 I'd love to straight publish my stories to the blog but I need to earn attention first.

7. No Excusing Yourself
Make it a point to stick to your writing schedule.

Yeah, I agree we should write daily.  I don't know, I think it's worth beating yourself up if you can't do anything creative.  There is so much an author needs to do to promote as long as you write an article, a story, a few tweets, then I think counts.

    Monday, September 17, 2018

    Metrics Monday




    image by openclipart.org by GDJ



    My week review posts are too long, so I'm breaking it up into straight numbers and progress updates/plan adjustments.  Today is straight plans.   See the action plans I'm using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week's Tuesday Tell All!  and 8 Steps I'm Taking on Twitter.   I owe you all a blogging strategy, a creative writing strategy, and a book review plan.  Still working on that.


    Twitter Analytics

    I’ve been active on Twitter for 31 days.  Twitter Analytics gives the last 28 days for review.  From here on out, I’ll be comparing my current stats from stats where I was active on the platform.  I have 367 “lifetime” Tweets but my summary is on the last 339 for example.  Over the last 28 days I’ve had 339 posts, 714 profile visits, 78 mentions, and 133 new follows.

    Conversion based on profile views continues to drop.  18% of people who check out my profile follow me.  I’m uncertain as I grow how reliable a metric this is in determining success.  There are individuals I follow whose profile I check out on the regular, and, I can’t follow them a second time.  Is this why people are checking out my profile, to specifically seem my Tweets?  Or do people take a peak at the whole of my Tweets and think "no, not for me"?  Do I want people who don't like my content?

      I think the bigger question will be the engagement.  What good are any number of eyeballs if they don’t respond to the content?  

    My engagement is 3.3%.  It’s only improved .5%, but as long as I don’t lose ground, I’m taking the number as a win.

    I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is a bit of a slog.  Too many pictures and not enough actual content.  There’s a balancing issue I have to address.  

    My top Tweet has 1,195 views and engagement of 2.6%. Took a month, but I broke 3 digit views and have respectable interactions.  It’s a Tweet from @wrtirstat on how the first line of a project is filled with the potential to be anything.  I retweeted with a point about how outlines inform my decision when writing some the possibilities aren’t limitless and a general question to writers on their process.  Using a graphic, plus a fun quote, a disagreeing opinion, a question, and conversation hashtags boosted this one tweet.  BUT not all Tweets can hold all these elements all the time.  

    Blog Stats

    This blog continues to put in work.  I got 30 views last week spread across 6 posts.  It’s not brag worthy, but this is a personal blog with more impressions, personal plans, and results.  I don’t expect it to be a traffic generator.  There’s value and casual interest in how a fellow blogger/aspiring writer is doing, but I don’t think there’s much interest when I don’t have name recognition.

    The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 13 views this past week.  That’s better than last week.  My writers’ group at least looked at the blog posts.  Lionel always leaves a comment on one post up there.  

    The spam comments persist BUT they are way less than before.   

    So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

    Saturday, September 15, 2018

    "Making of a Wannabe Writer" My Response pt1

    from open clipart.org by Eypros


    The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

    Today, I am sharing my responses to these questions. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

    A formatting note: The main questions from the articles are in bold and a chaser question is in normal font.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

    Why do you wish to write? Is it for self satiation, fame or money?

    Writing is a compulsion for me.  I feel like I have hundreds of stories bubbling up in me I want to share.  Crafting them and making something larger than myself  is fulfilling 

    As far as blogging goes, I have observations during my writing process.  Most often I prefer to share them with my husband or with my writing group, but sometimes they are so repetitive, I feel the need to get them down in print.  That's how the blog arises.  

    I don't have the success where I feel I could offer advice.  Still, there are areas of my personal journey that thrive.  I like to record what I'm doing and what results I've seen as a guide for others and a reference for myself.

    Who is your target? Talk to yourself about the genre and the suitable target audience. What will be their volume?

    My creative writing has several genres.  Fantasy, Urban Fantasy that sometimes borders on Magical Realism, Scifi, supernatural, paranormal, and genre fiction (very little genre).  My writing is character driven, emotion based, and revolves around explore themes instead of plots.  It leans towards a more academic crowd and most people believe it's more female centered (though I still don't know why, but I'll embrace the label).

    My creative writing has a smaller but fervent niche and I'm looking for my people.  

    My blogging is more large scale.  Where I am in process leans me towards an audience of fellow writers and social media engineers.  Authors because their experience and mine resonates.  Social media engineers may be interested because I'm publishing plans to cultivate a following/sell a produce and I'm also publishing real time results.  This is the kind of things marketing media companies should live for even if I'm only working on a smaller scale.

      I believe as my process evolves it will expand out to publishers, agents, and editors.  As editing is a weakness of mine, I'm most dubious that I'll have something to offer them, but I haven't snuffed all hope of expanding in that direction.


      Why should people read this? Can they relate it to their life? Will it be helpful for them? Will it entertain them?
      People should read my creative writing because it's a fun ride.  The stories are well constructed and flow with purpose.  The characters realism grounds a story off set by fantastic surroundings.

        People may also enjoy my stories because many of them explore issues I see in the real world and transform them into fictional stories where we can hold a less charged conversation about observation or issue of the day.

      It is my goal for this blog to provide insight into how a writer may balance the many tasks required to be a known writer.  This includes making time for creative writing, maintaining a blog, creating and curating a social media presence, submitting to publishers, finding an audience, and supporting other creatives.  I hope to do this by sharing my plans along with progress or setbacks I find along the way.

    Identified your genre? Be wise to chose the correct publication for maximum impact and response. This can do wonders to launch you!

    This is a loaded question for me.  As someone who sees connections rather than divisions, I'm torn on what "genre" my work falls into.  For simplicity I tell others it's "Urban Fantasy", but I hold personal doubts.  While the settings of my work are modern and magic exists in these worlds, I lack other elements like humor or a romance that most Urban Fantasies experiment with.  I've read "gritty" or "hard boiled" Urban Fantasy but the main leads are men and my leads are women.

      My stories are character driven, the "stuff" happening to them is secondary to how the characters react, where most Urban Fantasies portray all the cool magic stuff with character reactions taking a back seat.  

    If someone told me I was writing women's fiction, I wouldn't disagree, except I've read women's fiction and while we are bonded spiritually by themes, the fantasy elements depart from most women's fiction.

    My blogging style is far easier to describe.  It's for personal revelation and insight,  A public baring of the soul so we might all learn together.  Upbeat, supportive, and highly female in its presentation.  

    My journey is too early to provide "expert" advice but I see myself growing into being a writing coach.  Someone who helps others organize and prioritize their time and efforts.  I also see myself as a publishing scout.  I'm always checking out writing markets and I have a good sense of when others are ready to publish and where to submit.  Just ask my writing group.

    Is it impulsive or a passion? Discover if you are passionate about your work. If no, you won’t last long. Try writing about what interests you the most. Blogging doesn’t work on temporary impulses. Persistence is the key!

    A little of both.  I've been writing stories since I was six, and I've never gone long without writing. I don't think I could stop writing at this point and I very much want to share my creative work.  

    Blogging likewise, is something I've played with since it was a thing. I have an old Livejournal and Insanejournal account that are embarrassing   I'd delete them if I could, but I've lost the email and passwords in long ago.  

    Here on blogger, I've played with several formats.  Anytime I wanted to try something journalling became a natural extension of that exploration.  

    I have a plan, and I intend to commit, but I've said before.  The only way to be honest is to come back in thirty days and see if I had a habit moment.  

    Tuesday, September 11, 2018

    Tell All Tuesdays!


    image from openclipart.org by j4p4n


    Looking for the proof?  Check out Metrics Monday to see my numbers.

    Twitter Update: 
    -My strategy is going well.  So well that my plans to expand my social media reach are on hold.  Twitter is taking up all my time/energy.  The husband laughed at me when I lamented over this.  He said this was a "sign of success" AND that the goal should be that the Twitter expansion is so vast, I can't maintain my job and building the account.  That blew my mind and now I'm evaluating what would be "enough" on this campaign.
    -I've incorporated 2 main Twitter Groups the #sixwordstory folks and #themerrywriter group.  Both are good engagement/conversation starters.
    - I want to keep #womenwriters on my radar, but I'm not as "engaged" there as I need to be.
    -I want to make inroads to #amwritingfantasy this week

    North Alabama Writers' Group Blog
    Thought having conversation starters and helpful resources would be enough to drive this blog.  It is not.  I'm brainstorming what other forms of promotion I need.  What I have is:
    -Harassing the group I'm working with to comment and share entries.  It would help if it wasn't just me and Chris building this community
    -Reaching out to my mom for some ideas cause she is a savvy lady who's much better with the in person engagement than me
    -Maybe hosting some Write Ins at the library?  Getting more local and thoughtful that way?
    -Want to have a logo for our group along caricatures for our group members and some merch.  By Dec.

    Writer's Ramblings Blog
    -This is going great.
    -Views exceed expectations
    -I have recurring series, one plugs into the larger writers' community
    -Would like more comments so it feels less like I'm working in solitude to an audience of search engine crawlers, but that will have to come with time.

    Research-y Things
    -Watching booktubers with an eye towards releasing a book review on YouTube.  I've got a great niche in mind and am three quarters done with the book.
    -Considering what to do with my Goodreads account, I feel like it should be easy to incorporate, but it's proven to be difficult
    -Trying to work up time and energy for a Facebook launch because that's a thing.  Maybe Oct?

    Creative Works
    -wrote about 500 words and completed some outlining.  Blogging is taking up a lot of time but I will get faster.

    Monday, September 10, 2018

    Metric Mondays

    image from openclipart.org by lyo



    My week review posts are too long, so I'm breaking it up into straight numbers and progress updates/plan adjustments.  Today is straight plans.

    Twitter Analytics 

    Been active 24 days and I have 285 Tweets, 622 profile visits, 121 new followers, 55 mentions, and 25.1K impressions.

    I've had a small drop in conversion only 19% of people who look at my profile follow me.  I am still gaining about 5 followers a day.  If this rate continues, that's 550 new follow by the end of 2018.

    My Engagement is 2.8% this week, so I'm improving at a steady amount each week.

    I post about 11 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.

    Blog Stats

    This blog is doing as expected.  I get about 20 views per day and am not seeing any interaction.  I'd like to see traffic grow over the next month to maybe 50 views a day.  Plus, I'd love comments.  Advice, thoughts, all feedback is good feedback at this point.

    The North Alabama Writers' Group Blog is building more slowly.  Good news: got traffic every day of the week.  Bad news: 6 of the 7 days saw single digit traffic.  We average 3 visits a day with the high day giving us 11 views.

      The spam comments continue and it's annoying for me crawl through the 30ish comments every day.  What would be an improvement for this blog is for my group to come to the page and read the articles, comment on a few posts, and share a post or two with their social media.  I need a plan on how I will turn the blog around and it will be without the help of the group.  More on that later.

    How are your metrics?  Are they where you want them?  Tell me more.

    The Merry Writer: Bath Time!

    image from openclipart.org by qubodup


    The Merry Writer has a fun daily question for writers I wanted to try getting in on.  Check out Ari Meghlen's blog and Twitter along with the Hashtags #themerrywriter where you can see everyone's responses.

    What do you do to relax/decompress after a bad day?

    There's a toooon of ways I decompress.  My favorite is a long hot bubble bath filled with bath bombs, bath melts and yummy essential oils.   Once I'm out is lotion bar time and then a nap where my skin absorbs all the hydrating cocoa butter, shea butter, and coconut butter that's sitting on my skin.

    Assuming I don't have hours of time to relax, I like reading, writing, playing video games, cuddling with my dog, talking with my husband, or doing a five minute mindfulness routines.  I have a couple of mantras I use that include "Relax, nothing is under control." "Just for today, I will not worry."   If all else fails, I start thinking about all the stuff that's great in my life.  Humble brag, but most of my life is awesome, so why should I let the 15% of it that's happening in this moment run the other 85%?

    Friday, September 7, 2018

    Editing: The Gnat of Writing

    image from open clipart.org by Firkin


    Recently, I've been writing more quick articles and reviews.  In the past I posted them with no grammar check because I'm not married to any of these little blurbs and editing is exhausting.  If I have to spend hours checking every little thing, I'll never get content out.  All bloggers, writers, and curators know lack of content is a death knell for our livelihoods.  I can't be relevant without constant production.

    During this revival, I've realized that having sound content may be as important as having consistent content.  My "personal brand" can't be littered with typos.  What sane editor wants to deal with that?

    My blog may be the only time someone sees my writing.  If they don't like the tone and structure in a small informational blog: how will I get them to read a short story or a novel?

    To combat my slipshod internal voice, I'm using ProWritingAid on all my blog posts, book reviews, and stories.  This wasn't an easy decision for me because I'm resistant to editing.  It takes longer to edit than it does to write.  It's draining, and it makes me question my ability to be a published writer.  Who would put up with all my little mistakes when there are so many authors who must have a more sophisticated grasp of proper grammar?

    Surprise, I don't hate running everything through a grammar check as much as I'd imagined.  There are points that hearten me even.

    1. The editing process takes less time the more often I do it.

    2. I think my grammar is better.  I'm catching myself more before I hit the editor.

    3. I have basic serious mistakes that are crippling my work.

    -Example one, I can't keep capitalization consistent for shit.  Don't know why I can't decide if I'm creating a title or if something is a proper noun, but my capitalization consistency is terrible.  It takes a stupid amount of time for me to do a consistency.  No wonder an editor doesn't want to pick me up.  What a flipping nightmare.

    -Example two: I can't stick to writing numbers out or typing the word down.  Thankfully, this won't riddle my creative writing but it's all over the blog and I wonder if it exhausts readers.

    -Example three: I use two or more adjectives that mean the same thing.  At one point in time, I thought using so many adjectives controlled the tone and drove the reader to my conclusion.  Now I see I'm holding too tight to the reins.

    -Example four: I have too many sentence fragments.  This one is the most difficult.  My storytelling style borders on the poetic.  Fragments belong in my work.  But, I may rely too on flow to instill story.

    -Example five: I don't use article a or the half as much as ProWritingAid believes I should.  This one I'm still fighting the good fight.  A and the are unnecessary and take away from the tone I want to achieve.  Who knows, maybe the repetitive nature of the feedback will change my mind?

    Now that editing takes less time, and I can catch mistakes before I use a check, I resent the process less.  Part of me looks forward to editing because it means I'm one step closer to submitting.

    What about you?  Is editing less daunting over time?  Do you have common foils you need to overcome in your writing?  Speak up ^_^

    Wednesday, September 5, 2018

    The Merry Writer: Do you Even Collaborative Write Bro?

    image provided by open clipart.org by Firkin


    The Merry Writer has a fun daily question for writers I wanted to try getting in on.  Check out Ari Meghlen's blog and Twitter along with the Hashtags #themerrywriter where you can see everyone's responses.

    Have you ever/would you ever collaborate with another writer?

    Yes.  I LOVE collaborative writing.  Starting in fourth grade, I created skits and scripts with a group of friends.  In high school two friends and I had a series of notebooks where we told each other ridiculous stories and would try to take over the story.   During college, I wrote poems, scripts, and short stories with friends and assigned partners.

    In writers' group we have an exercise where one person starts a prompt and after fifteen minutes someone else has to take it over. It's silly fun, and it pushes story creation forward faster than I could produce on my own.  If you can find a friend, associate, or partner you trust, then working together and letting them steer the parts you don't know how to navigate is perfect.

    We always talk about how writing is solitary, but I don't think it is.  Even stuff I "write" on my own, someone else proofreads, edits, and suggests.  One day, I hope someone else will publish it for me so I don't have to shoulder that burden and someone else will help me market the story.  Working with others to achieve a mutual goal is a collaboration and all of it qualifies as a writing project.  

    Co-writing something helps prepare a writer for the kinds of cooperative relationships he or she will need to create, edit, and sell a book.  It shows you know how to be a good part of a team and it may help you develop new skill sets.

    Would I work with someone else on a future endeavor?  I'd love too.  One reason I'm taking over the "face" of my writers group is because I like reaching out and helping others.  I like hearing about others creative works, asking questions, making suggestions, and when others let me, I'm happy to leave a fingerprint or two.

    Talk to me.  Do you like collaborating with others, or do you keep you work to yourself? I want to hear about your process ^_^

    Tuesday, September 4, 2018

    Progress Report: All the Good (and Bad) Numbers

    image from open clipart.org by Firkin


    Twitter Numbers 

    Per Twitter Analytics: I've been active on Twitter 18 days and have 192 tweets.  I've had 483 profile visits, gained 97 new followers, and 36 mentions.

    My engagement averages about 2% which is an increase from my 1.5% last week.  That engagement averages about 1 link click per day, 2 RT a day, 11 likes, and 1 reply per day.

    What does this tell me?  First my follow increase seems strong.  20% of everyone who checks out my profile follows.  This suggests I'm doing well finding relevant quality content to retweet and I'm sorting it well with the Hashtag system to direct my Tweets to the right people at the right time.

    I'm on track to gain 100 followers every month.  Remember my following count when I reactivated was 347.  My following has grown 22% in 18 days and that's a lot.

    I'm midrange active on Twitter.  I have 5 planned posts a day and everything else is impulsive gravy.  What takes off is a mix of planned posts and impulsive ones.  It averages out to 10 ish posts a day.  They debate the life span of a Tweet but it seems to range between 8-30 minutes.  At the most generous range, I should post twice an hour.  I'd NEED to buy a subscription to a Tweet scheduler to achieve this without going crazy.  I'm looking different options, but I would like 30 days of Twitter before investing.  More details on schedulers I looked at coming.

    As a writer and blogger, my link clicks are terrible.  If I can't entice people to check out the posts with interesting titles and snippets, then I need to post links more often to make up for the low conversation.  I'm not comfortable doing that just yet because I feel like my blogs need more evergreen content before I dive into more aggressive self promotion.

    General Clean up notes: I've cleared all inactive accounts from my Twitter feed.  Will address again in thirty days.  My following to followers ratio improved, but not in an "ideal" range yet.  I keep telling myself it won't matter once I break 1k, but I've got months before that happens.

    Blogs:

    The North Alabama Writers' Group blog is drowning in spam.  It's made me rethink everything I thought about how to judge a blog's success.  There was a time where a lot of comments on a blog amazed me, now I know that comments =/= traffic.  Our all time highest view rate is still 19 views and we're not even averaging 3 people visiting a day.  

     It's frustrating because we helpful content like the recent release of Calls for Submission in September but we also have reflective pieces like "Creating Aliens" by Christopher M. Palmer.  We even have crossover pieces like "What's in a Name—A Name I stole from Another Blog!" where I discuss my personal struggle to name characters and places WHILE ALSO offering resources to help other's find good names for their characters/places.

    This blog's early numbers success has slumped a little.  It tells me posting on Tell All Tuesday, is very important to driving my traffic.  Good news, there is traffic.  Bad news, it's not worth talking about.

    Unlike The North Alabama Writers' Group Blog, I know this blog doesn't have a lot of added value yet or "evergreen" blog fodder.  I am working on adding more.  I have scheduled posts that should improve traffic.

    Writing Projects 

    I've written more of the second/third/final draft of my novel Follow Me: Tatter Veils.  All forward motion is exciting.  I love this book more than I can express.

    I've continued rearranging "Comes in Threes" and when I'm done with this short, I'm moving on to "1000 Words" (which will be 1000 words), and then I want to write one more flash.  Zach challenged me to write 3 flash pieces this week, and I'd like to have three in hand.  I'm toying with a step counter story called "The Tracker" or a reverse mortgage story that doesn't have a name.  All the ideas are sad and bittersweet.

    Random Notes: 

    My Goodreads reviews are up to date.  I'm half way through the next book on the list and hoping to finish reading/reviewing this week.

    I have plenty ideas for the blog and hope to batch those together with the research and link work on Wed.

    Batching is helpful, but it doesn't maximize efficiency as well as I'd thought.  For example, to get a sense of accomplishment from the work I need to write, edit, add links, and schedule each post before moving on to the next "job".   In an ideal batching scenario, I'd write all the blog rough drafts, then edit several posts, then place all the links for these posts together, and then find all the pictures.  I can't group the tasks that well yet.  Besides, that much editing all at once is exhausting.  Still there are benefits.  Being in "blog" mode increases speed of writing multiple posts.

    Thanks for reading my update, tell me about how your own campaigns are going!  Are you seeing the growth you'd like on social media or on your blog?  What are you doing to achieve that growth?  Talk to me.

    Want to see more related to this post?  See how far I've come from Aug 29th or earlier on Aug 21st.  

    What's my strategy on Twitter?  Here's a post on the 8 Step Twitter Plan

    Looking for the Larger Picture Check out Why a Twitter Campaign and Why a Blog at All


    Saturday, September 1, 2018

    Batching Projects for Efficiency

    image from open clipart.org provided by J4p4n


    I read "How Can I build My Platform and Still Have Time to Freelance Write?" bt Elna Cain.  If her article had been "and Still Have Time to Creatively Write?" she'd have written a post just for me.  As it is, I found one insight interesting.

    Cain  batches her tasks to maximize efficiency.  Batching, according to Cane is about putting similar tasks together to save time.  Like she writers all her articles for her clients and her own blogs, then after that's done she goes ahead and finds the graphics for those posts.

    On reflection, when I retroactively added pictures to older posts, instead of adding photos as I went, it was faster.  So right away, I'm stoked to try batching to improve efficiency!   The next obvious question: what can I batch?

    Like Cain, I can write blog posts for my personal blog and The North Alabama Writers' Group together and then go look for pictures.  I could also throw in my book reviews for Goodreads (long backlog).  I've already written a list of all the posts I need to write and a tentative schedule for them.

    Also like Cain I could find the pictures AFTER I write all the posts.

    In my creative writing, I can batch edit complete stories.  Likewise, the research for my creative writing, my social media links, and my blogs could all happen together.

    I'm always trying to batch my social media presence.  First, I check the North Alabama Writers' Blog and tackle the comments waiting approval, then I swing here and see if there are comments, then I go to twitter and check on my notifications, see if I need to do anything with those.  Afterward I jump to Hootsuite and post schedule.  Then I go to Commun.it and see if there's anything popular I need to respond to and then I jump to ManageFlitter and unfollow about 50 people. After that, I try not to look at social media again at all until the evening because while it's a powerful tool to reach an audience it's also a notorious time waster--mixed results there.  I',m going to have a ton of difficulty batching Social Media when I expand out to something beyond Twitter, and Goodreads.  For my sanity I will wait at least a month and hope some "check now" compulsion goes away.


    Does anyone else batch tasks?  If so, what do you throw together?  Is there anything else I could combine to help my efficiency?