6 Steps To a Twitter Success: Altered Plans

image from openclipart.org by Luen

After 15 weeks on Twitter, I thought I’d update my Twitter routine.  There are little tweaks here and there.  It turns out I only continue to use six of the eight original points in my plan and the steps I keep, I‘ve altered.  Want to compare? Check out the old 8 step plan

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

This is the foundation of my Twitter process.  In the past week, I‘ve done more straight Retweets because I haven‘t had time to share my own thoughts, but even then I share what I like.

2. Schedule Posts. 

Post scheduling makes everything else in my writing plan work.  Without Hootsuite, I wouldn’t be able to maintain a presence on Twitter.  My style of interacting is less constant than some of my more outgoing peers.  Post planning allows me to use that time and spread it out across the day so I can look outgoing while I’m sitting cozy with my dog or at work going through the motions.  Plus, when I have the “bright” idea to share blog content, I can spread it out across days instead of dropping too much self promotion all at once.  

3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

This happened/ is happening in unexpected ways, but yes.  I have a sense of “regulars” whom I Retweet or are most likely to respond to my posts/comments.  I’m getting more comfortable and can maintain a conversation for longer.  Sometimes I worry I talk about the same thing too much or my Tweets might bore, but then I remember that almost no one consumes my Twitter content all at once.  Their feed shows it intermittently and people go days without even seeing anything from me (when they have larger followings).

Building this Twitter empire has been eye opening.  No matter what a person does with the algorithms, nothing seems as important as connecting with other people. Granted, I got into this to find an audience so people would always be the focus, but somehow I thought I’d learn more about maneuvering around them and using software tools to get in front of the right eyes.  It’s far more organic than that, and I think with no other tools than these three, a person could find their audience on Twitter.


4. Use of Hashtags

While I’ve used hashtags to my benefit, I am a lot more relaxed about it than I expected.  Some Tweets blow up and others don’t.  Same hashtags, same time of day, but different results.  What’s more important is getting noticed and shared by someone with a large following that‘s different from yours.  

Hashtags help me find other people with like minds that I haven‘t seen yet.  They also help my posts get noticed by different but similar groups.  To that end, they are important, but again, it comes back to people taking the next step and sharing you with the audience they’ve built.  

I don’t hunt in the Hashtags as much as I should, but so many new people come to my attention in an organic method, it‘s hard to follow them and anything happening in the Hashtag game.  When I have to choose, I choose the people.

5. Check in 

So I try to “Check in” every three-ish days.  What this means is that I pick a few new followers profiles and a few profiles of people who liked or retweeted something and I look through their feed.  If I like their content or their bio, I friend them.  Doing this once a week was way too overwhelming.  Committing to look at everyone who had eyes on me was also overwhelming.  I’m sorry if I overlooked you through this process.  I can promise that if you continue to interact with me, I check out your profile and feed, eventually.  And I follow—it takes over one interaction to get my attention these days.

6.  Use Twitter Analytics:

Still do this weekly.  My updates lack my desired consistency.  I will rectify that by drafting on Sunday.  The metrics won‘t be as accurate but at least the blog will come out.  Knowing where you stand is the only way to know if what you are doing is helping or hurting your goals, but also, I love numbers.  It fascinates me.  I learn more about what is important on the platform every day.  What interests me most (that I don‘t share with you guys) is the “Audiences” tab.  The most common interest for my followers is dogs and science news.  The male to female split is 50/50.  Most of my audience is American and they prefer to use laptops/desktops.  What does this stuff tell me: I don’t know, but I like having this information.  It makes me feel closer to the random voices I stumble across on Twitter.

Talk to me.  Do you use Twitter and if so for what?  Are you building a following and if so how?  Do you have tips or tricks to help find others with shared interests?  Do you like Twitter or do you prefer a different social media?  

Looking for the numbers? Check out my Monday Metrics Posts on:  11/19, 11/12,  11/5, 10/22, 10/15 10/9, 10/1, 9/24,  9/17, and  9/10

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by GDJ

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   Full disclosure: to make certain these posts happen while I'm busy with work, I had to post plan them.  The numbers where pulled 24hrs ahead of this post date.  

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 105 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 233 posts, 464 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 78 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 16%. The past month was NANO.  For me, it seems it had a negative impact on conversion.  Could be because all my fellow writers were writing or it could be because I didn’t NANO this year.
  
My engagement is 2.3%. On my daily goals is the “interact with 3 people on Twitter” but it depends on what‘s going on that day.  Plus, I can add a comment to a conversation and not be acknowledged in the flood of feedback some posts get.

I post about 8 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  Fewer posts = fewer eyes, but the proportions are better per post.  This past 28 days I got 216 eyes a post.  On Oct 22nd I had 330 posts with 52,400 views or only 158 eyes a view.  Less time but an increase in views per post.

Blog Stats

I got 55 views last week spread across 10 posts and 2 pages.  I updated my list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my recommended writing bloggers.  Some of my December plans begin this week with the launch of my “Be Bold Blogging” series where I talk about the pros and cons of sharing site metrics and how a person achieves these.  I also brought out an introspective piece on all the blog niches I’ve explored.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 6 views this past week.  It’s a shame I didn’t get to a Monday Metric last week because the blog had 11 views then. Of Note: because work ran away with me these past 10 days, there were no promotions for the blog and I think it sunk my traffic.

 Important for fellow writers: December Round Up of Calls for Submission is out on the NAWG blog.  If you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  Also check out my list of Ongoing Submissions organized by genre and length requirements.  

 I’m experimenting with adding critical content to both blogs check out my first step in “6 Reasons I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction."  I’m told “spilling the tea” brings the views, but so far that‘s not what I’m experiencing.  Then again, I don‘t want a ton of draining drama, I want to discuss things that work or do not work in our writing community openly.  Daily Science Fiction doesn‘t work for me.

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?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to older updates on Nov 19th, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

#BeBold Behind Posting Metrics

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There are many “behind the scenes” style posts bloggers and content creators indulge in.  They include: posting their strategy for social media and creation, posting results of their efforts, publishing reviews in the genre they create in, publishing fiction and short stories to their blogs, and posting a creation process behind their creations.  This series seeks to explore the “pros” and “cons” of content.  Today‘s topic includes posting strategy and results.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’m in favor of all these style posts so these posts will take on a “just go for it” style tone.

The Concerns

-Someone might “steal” the technique and implement it better

-Someone might ridicule your performance or technique

-You may not achieve your goals and when you release a goal/schedule post, it allows others to see your failure/ accountability

-Some of these “metric disclosure” or “advice posts” are deceiving or skewed and creating your own might place you in a with a crowd less than honest or only trying to sell their online course/book on how to be awesome

-The “how to rock at x” post is very prevalent, if you don‘t have specific new information, it is hard to stand out or it may just feel you‘re looking for a massive following massive metrics bump while offering nothing substantial

-You might think you’re “too small," or “too new," to offer advice or to bother sharing your metrics.  In the beginning, it’s embarrassing to be excited blog X is getting 18 page views a week.  It becomes more embarrassing if you‘re trying all these things and don’t see more hits or more post interactions.  If you’re not a person with “massive success” in a sea of people offering their “huge results” sometimes you ask “what am I doing wrong?” or “How could I have anything worth sharing?”

-Your metrics may not be impressive.  While you might “trick” a viewer with a clean professionalism, strong writing, and spam comments that build up on blogs, showing them the hard numbers may tell the “true” story of how often folks visit a site.

-Your plan may change as you write and maybe continuing to either update an original post or create a post outlining these changes is draining.

-If you like linking to related content, and if you batch blog posts, going though and updating your posts with all the related links is VERY annoying

The Pros

-People love to see hard number results. Anyone can post “How to Have a Successful Blog” or “How to Gather a Social Media Presence” on their blog.  There‘s so much generic copy and paste style blogs we tire of hearing the same advice.  Show me the results!  Prove your technique works!

-People love to know their time is invested wisely.  So comparing the views I get off of Facebook vs Twitter is a wonderful way to show why investing in one site over another might be worthwhile.  Also noting side benefits attracts audiences.

-People like to “be there from the beginning” and they like updates that show their time is spent well.  The whole underdog story or starting with nothing to gain something is very appealing.  These metric posts and plans posts let people have insight and connection to that arc

-Creating these blogs means you are checking your results often and performing an analysis on your results.  This let‘s a person course correct as they go instead of giving up in frustration because they are “doing all the things” and seeing nothing from it. You can be more pro active in driving results

-Posting your intentions helps build personal accountability

-Posting and sticking to your schedule will help build discipline, consistency and a following

-Posting my metrics every week is a simple post that keeps my blog active.  The format and phrasing is the same week to week so I/readers can use easy side-by-side comparison of each week‘s results.  But this also means it takes precious little time to write.

The Outcome 

For me the pros outweigh the concerns.  I’ve never much cared what other people think of my progress.  If I cared, I would have stopped writing long ago and gone off to do something “successful”, whatever that is.  In Fairness, no one online has been mean or belittling over my progress or plans.  I think the fear of mocking/failure/disappointment is low.  When your numbers are low, there‘s no one to care and when they‘re high, they offer credibility and transparency.

  Personally, I love metric and “how to” posts.  Hard results give credibility and when I think “that sounds terrible” I can know what the overall “gain” would be.  And I’m wondering “when/how” do I monetize or “how does this get me published” or “how does this get more eyes on my story and/or blog?”  This metrics/plan style blog gives me new ideas to consider.

Talk to me!  Do you use metric or “how to" style posts in your blogging?  Do you like reading others’ blogs on this topic?  Do you have a good tip for me about writing, networking, or some other related topic?  Who is your favorite blogger and why?

Finding You Niche: Experiments in Blogging

image from openclipart.org by Firkin

In my adult life, I’ve tried niche blogging often.  What’s a niche?  It’s an area of expertise, research or experience a person is passionate about.  Here, it’s a topic someone believes they can write with experience on.  For fun, I thought I’d review all the areas I tried to blog with authority on.  

  I have a now deleted beauty blog.  As I researched monetizing blogging, I realized “lifestyle” was the most profitable category.  For me I thought “Yeah I can post on the hottest lipstick/mascara/eyeliner colors this season.”  I was wrong.  While makeup is fun, it‘ not something I have an ongoing interest in.  The constant change in the industry is expensive and often left me wonder “why” instead of feeling excited.  

I have an old passion project blog called “Southern Pagan Muses”.  Here I explored my faith and how I thought a respectful multi faith society would look.  This blog does NOTHING right in blogging.  The posts are long and meandering, they lack graphics, and I didn’t bother to proofread them so they’re littered with grammar/spelling errors.  The worst sin: there is no market for a pagan blog.  I dreamed of having a large following and of making a splash in the pagan bloggers’ world, but most “successful” pagan bloggers make extreme statements and mine were like “let’s listen to each other and have open conversations about what might lead to unhealthy lifestyles.”  I think about reviving this blog at least once a month, even though I know nothing can come from it, I love my faith and I love hitting the latest topics from a religious experience.  


Next I created “Barista to Boss”, a now abandoned blog where I try to make my creative writing a career (spoiler alert, I failed).  Working on this blog taught me a lot about blogging and gaining metrics.  This blog was only active for three months, it has 18 posts, and I got 4,209 views total.  There were a few problems with the blog that led to its demise.  First, I think my topic was too broad.  I discussed both my current day job and generic writing (blogging, poetry, other forms of creative writing).  It was too much for one blog to handle, and I’m sure I alienated audiences with too broad a topic list.  Second, I posted too often.  Since I was following blogging advice, my goal was to post once each day.  Striving for this goal, created burnout   Third, the pictures, the links, and the socializing required to make the blog appealing where draining.  It was a case of too much too fast.  Last, I realized I wanted to write creatively and freelance blogging/blogging took away from my creative writing.  RIP “Barista to Boss” you taught me so much.

 “Aquagarden: Diary in Small Scale Aquapoinics” followed “Barista to Boss”.  This blog was a TON of fun because it was like recording a science experiment for the 3 months I worked on it.  It was perfect for me because: 1. The content had a limited scope.  I expanded in the series to discuss other gardening projects and transforming grocery scraps into a second harvest but overall the focus was on the fish tank. 2. I created a picture centric blog.  Every day I’d snap some shots, edit, post, and write a few lines caption.  Much faster than planning out content for previous blogs. The results of my Aquapoinic experiment interested others without social media presence.  It has 2,800 lifetime views.  What happened to this blog?  Work picked up and I couldn‘t keep recording the tank, I was too tired.  Napoleon, my betta fish, passed in Dec and I‘ve retired the tank.  While I thought of starting the experiment again, the research I did raised questions whether a 3 gallon tank is a large enough container to ethically keep a betta fish, not to mention to whole betta procurement market seems cruel.  I’d like to run a 5-10 gallon tank with guppies one day, but I can’t finance or house such a large experiment right now.

I created this blog in 2016 when I finished my first draft of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  I was sooooo excited, and I wanted to share that along with a few blogging insights I had.  It didn‘t last long as I didn’t have the right level of insight or motivation to keep working.  I’ve revived this blog instead of creating a new one.  The focus still surrounds my personal progress and personal insights (as these reflections on niches shows).  

There were three start up and deleted blogs in between this.  One was a book review blog, another was a book group blog, and the last was a blog about me picking back up my French Horn and re-learning how to play.  All three would be fun if I was a more known blogger, but as it stands, I don‘t have the brand to expect conversation out of a blog which was the goals in these three blogs.  If I gain a more interactive audience: I’d love to host a read along blog, comment below if there's interest and tell me what our first book should be.

I recorded a “let’s play” of both “Stardew Valley” and “No Man’s Sky”.  I never posted the videos online and long since purged from my computer. My “Stardew Valley” let’s play was a “no farming” challenge with in the game, and later I did a “pure luck challenge” where I could only plant whatever seeds I found or could buy from the traveling merchant.  I love “No Man’s Sky” but I have a ton of self-imposed rules I play by to keep things interesting.  I can say the same for my Pokemon runs.  While not traditional “blogging” the daily updates that come with “let’s play” series along with the conversational tone most take on, speak in the same way.  Plus the metrics/promotion technique the same.  


I somehow encouraged my Writers’ group to create a blog with me. The NAWG blog is active. It’s “niche” is in creative writing with a focus on novels and short stories in the scifi, fantasy, and horror sub genres.  My group and I offer our experiences, what we enjoy about the writing process, and our experiences as a writers’ group.  We‘re a team blog because I thought we’d have a better time keeping a consistent schedule as a group than as individuals.  This experiment drives home how hard it is to “lead” writers or to pin anyone down for a solid commitment. 

In June I considered launching a Ketogenic/Paleo/Vegetarian nutrition based blog.  I‘ve read and follow a lot of healthy lifestyle information, love discussing diet and nutrition, and feel like this is a topic that can help others.  I didn‘t end up creating the blog because I think health and nutrition are personalized and I only want to give one-on-one advice to people once I get to know their lifestyle and current eating habits.  

And those are my preferred niches: religions, nutrition/healthy/green living, gaming, reading, and writing.  What niches would you like to write in/ have you written in?  Were you ever surprised by the level of interest in your writing?  Were you disappointed by the response?  How many blogs have you abandoned?  How many do you currently run?  Do these blogs provide income and if so how?  Do these blogs link back to your creative writing?  Talk to me!

Metric Monday

from openclipart.org by j4p4n

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 93 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 237 posts, 428 profile visits, 104 mentions, and 94 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 22%. It’s interesting because I’m posting less 237 posts is down 31.7% from my summary the last 28 days and the tweet impression as 54.7k is down 10.1%.  A reduction of tweets naturally equals a reduction of views and new followers.  Here, the numbers are not proportionate.  My views remain higher than expected and my conversation is better.  Maybe I’m finding my niche?
  
My engagement is 2.4%. I’m trying to turn more towards active engagement, but it’s hard to come up with a reply and it is always 50-50 whether someone will respond with something else you can reply to.

I post about 8 times a day.  Clear success for me in spending less time on Twitter.


I broke 5,000 views randomly last Monday.  As I’ve continued counting daily views and tweet views, I wonder what the value of these metrics are.  Here, I gained a lot of followers, and it will be weeks before I know if I retain these folks.  My normal view count is about 2,000 views.

Blog Stats

I got 52 views last week spread across 11 posts.  I updated my list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my recommended writing bloggers.  I wrote five posts and scheduled them for across the blog world.  Excited for December content.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 20 views this past week.  Important for fellow writers: November Call for Submissions is out on the NAWG blog.  If you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  For book reviewers I‘ve added “7 Steps I Take Before Writing a Bad Review”


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?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Nov 12th or go further back to reports on: Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Betting On Myself

image from openclipart.org by j4p4n

The Problem

Things are crazy in my professional life right now.  My “day job” is in shambles (from my perspective to them everything is the best it’s ever been or at least that’s the party line they are sticking too) and since that’s forty hours of my work week my emotional/mental life is shredded.  I feel like half a person, and that person is always on the attack, hunting for weaknesses in others to pounce on.  There’s no turning the snarky, angry, lashing aspect of myself off.  Something people don’t get: if you are a compassionate intuitive soul, you can take that knowledge and use it to be vicious.

In the middle of what for me is the worst three going on four months I’ve experienced in the last five years, I have to step back and ask myself “What can I do?”  I can’t change the policies happening at my work.  I can’t control how they are implemented.  I can’t force peers, superiors, or team members below me to be the right people to enact this cultural shift within the company.  But if you know me, there is no way in hell, I will sit back and let them wreck me without pushing back.

The Solution 

So first of the all, I’ve rejected the incompetent management and have turned around to challenge every move they make, using their own guide against them.  If I have to follow these rules, everyone will get on page now.  I will not struggle while everyone else tells me that “this is different”, and it’s “just this once”.


How I'm Choosing Me First

It’s time to come back to what I love.  What makes me passionate is writing.  I’m turning inward, back to words, and I’m turning all that frantic energy into creating space for my creative work to stand.

I’m unhappy, but part of me sees this work drama is the best thing that could have happened.  Nothing short of working at a huge corporate place that’s just shitting all over itself would have made me say: “If this is a thing, then I’m rejecting you and going back to my base.”

I’ve done a lot and continue to do a lot since I’ve turned back to reading and writing.  I’m reading more now than I ever have in my adult life, and I love that part of my life (check out my Goodreads reviews and stats here and see my "Best of Kindle Unlimited Series").  I’m writing (though mostly blogs and tweets) about 10,000 words a week.  My blog(s) pre-scheduled posts are insane.

I tried something new with the Writers’ Group where we each share a Halloween based flash fiction this month.  Chris Palmer finished and scheduled his story first.  Can I say, I appreciate how my fellow writers are stepping in and joining me on this new adventure?  I can’t express how grateful

I’ve noticed this conversation game trend on Twitter and I want in on that.  Right now I play with #theMerryWriter and #authorconfession but I’d like to play in some other Hashtag parties/conversations and I would LOVE to host a Hashtag game through NAWG.

I have more ideas and more planning than ever in my creative writing life.  I’m working in a class (the class itself isn’t going great, I’m waiting to give a full review), trying to get beta reading for the second draft of my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  While discussing the book with my friend Ashley Sanders, I had a major break through.  Now I know what I need to do to pull the work together that I am beyond excited to dig in and execute.

Ashley and I are also experimenting with running our own writing class.  We’re talking structure and what value we could add to other writers along with all the inspiration they may bring us.  I can’t wait to work with her.  We have a very similar process and goals for our novels, and I’d love to help other people work through what their goals are.

I have an outline for a co-writing novel gig called “Familiar” with a friend in the North Alabama Writers’ Group and I’m thrilled to bits about working more with the wonderful Zach Standfield to create something cool together.

I have never chased so many avenues at once and it’s occurred to me that my job and my lack joy in my professional life brought me to a place where I had to roll the dice on my projects I'm passion about that I would normally keep as quiet background gigs.  My story telling, my ideas, my ability to network.  Stuff I’m “good” at that I figured would never amount to anything.  It feels powerful to see how things I love could bring me an ounce of professional success.  All my life, people have told me my writing would “never amount to anything” and that I “should focus on something that will make me financially stable.”  Here I am, at the worst point in my professional career, with nothing to draw on.  In desperation, I‘ve opened myself up to this blogging, social media, creative writing thing, and it seems like these “useless“ skill set has breathed new life in me.

The path to monetization is opening and new opportunities rise on the horizon.  They are taking time and persistence, but I’m seeing incremental steps towards my long-term goals. It feels like I’m proving all those people who told me my skills and me through association were “nothing special” and “not valuable” wrong.

Have you ever been in a terrible situation at your job or life where you needed to get out?  What did you do?  Are there other angles I’m not exploring?  Did you ever follow your passion regardless of the money or the risk?  What was the outcome?  Do you have advice/regrets/victory stories?  Talk to me.

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by firkin

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 86 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 245 posts, 405 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 79 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 19%. I’m getting fewer over all views (not a stat I record here b/c I don’t know the value of possible eyes on a post) 54k vs 62k last week.  Still, the people who do see my Tweets seem to want to follow.  I think fewer views for actual follows a reasonable tradeoff.
  
My engagement is 2.5%. Three recorded weeks in a row at 2.5 (four if you count the one week I didn’t post).  My interactions have leveled out and going forward I expect 2.5%. 

I post about 9 times a day.  Clear success for me in spending less time on Twitter.

Blog Stats

I got 31 views last week spread across 13 posts.  I changed my “Featured Post” at the top of the page and created a list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic.  If I use these as reminders of all the work I linked to I can build traffic.  This blog is a little sleepy right now.  I’m looking at adding a couple of pages/resources, but there isn’t a lot to drive traffic. 

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 18 views this past week.  Important for fellow writers: November Call for Submissions is out on the NAWG blog and if you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  Also, I updated NAWG’s Ongoing Call for Submissions page to eliminate dead links.  If you‘re looking for better organization categories divide the informationand only includes calls that pay $.01 a word on my personal blog‘s page.


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?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Nov 5th, or go back further to reports on: Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

I Have Trouble Naming: My Novel's Title

from openclipart.org by speedstar

I’m terrible at naming anything. My dog’s name is Willow, and she’s called that because that’s what the shelter I got her from was calling her.  She was a puppy, and she hadn’t been there long enough she was responding to that name or any of that junk people say to justify keeping a name.  It relieved me that Willow was pretty and ubiquitous enough I didn’t have to come up with something else.  Poor thing would have been stuck with Spot, Shadow, or Puppy if I’d had to name her.

To no one’s surprise, my novel had no title during its first draft.  I called the draft saves “Portraits of Roxi Starr”....which couldn’t be the novel’s title because it’s boring and untrue, but it described the iterations I was working on, so go me?

Then I worked with my first beta reader on this project.  This person had a problem with my main character, Roxi.   She found Roxi’s personality abrasive (which yeah, that’s intended), but it went deeper than that.  The person didn’t like Roxi’s worldview, didn’t like her religion, and didn’t like the way Roxi expressed herself.

I think this person made the classic mistake of thinking Roxi was a version of me.  While I find Roxi is relatable and interesting, she is not me.  I put Roxi in a situation similar to ones I’ve been in, but Roxi handled them in a way I never would.   Where I always approach interactions seeking to avoid confrontation, Roxi escalates.  She likes to fight.  And sometimes that’s the right call, but most of the time, her outcomes are unsuccessful.

 Finally, I got fed up and was like “Look, you don’t like her, great.  People read books with unlikable characters all the time.  I need to know if you can follow her.  As a writer I’m saying ‘Here’s Roxi, here’s her life and now we’re going with this.  Follow her. ‘ Can you suspend your judgement on her as a human being and just follow her to see where the story leads?”

Follow me, ended up sticking.  Outside my argument with the beta reader, the book is about a fae stalking my main character.  He’s literally following her.  In the first draft, the reader was on a forced march to follow Roxi through her life.  In the second pass, I’m softening that element (and I think that might have been what my beta reader wanted) and better easing the reader into who Roxi is.  To do that, the reader is creeping along with our antagonist.  Following.

Roxi’s journey is physical through our normal world and into the Faery Realm.  Readers are passengers riding with Roxi.

Last, Roxi is sarcastic and sassy.  I could just hear her mocking some of her peers cheery social media chant of “like and follow me for more content!”  I always hear the title in meta mocking tones and sometimes I slip up and say my title with that element of self aware loathing.  “This is who we are, desperate attention seekers.  It is always a popularity contest, and it’s not even about liking, just F--ing follow me through the content.”   The ironic thing, I can’t tell you if these are Roxi’s words or mine.  We share a fear that to get other people to be interested in our story, we become that which we see is wrong in the world.  Both of us would bubbly announce “Hashtag fail fast!” the difference is that I would immediately turn away and leave the listener to decide if I were really cheery or if I was speaking in a sarcastic and self depreciating manner.  Roxi would stand her ground and stare at her audience until her disgust pierced through their skull.  She’s not funny and ambiguous, she makes a stand and is always ready to fight over it.

Talk to me.  How did you come up with your title?  Do you come up with titles easily?  Have you ever had a reader assume you were your main character?  Have you written a story where you were the main character?  And last but not least, what do you do to champion your book?  Do you market and how?  Do you ever worry you’re “selling out” or “shilling” for your book?

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by gnokii

Sorry, I missed last week.  I was at work until 7pm, but I’m starting this up in the morning to be certain it posts!

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 79 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 281 posts, 458 profile visits, 96 mentions, and 89 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 19%. My new followers list seems to have jumped, even as I post less and receive fewer retweets.  Does consistency, time on the platform, or something else tie in to this increased growth?
  
My engagement is 2.5%. I am seeing a steady decrease in interaction on Twitter.  I haven’t converted Twitter followers to blog readers, and it has me wondering, what is the end goal on this platform?  It’s only been 79 days, and I’m not giving up, but Twitter presence and friends/interactions with other writers/editors/bloggers/agents doesn’t seem to transform to a blog or book following.  

I post about 10 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  What’s most interesting with this stat is I’m posting less per day and still increasing my views.  September I had 371 tweets and 41.1k views, October I had 358 tweets and 70k views.

Blog Stats

I got 38 views last week spread across 11 posts.  My consistency fell last week, and it‘s affected my posts.  Instead of writing anything new, I added a “Featured Post” at the top of the page, and created a list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic.  If I use these as reminders of all the work I linked to I can build traffic. 

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 18 views this past week.  Important for fellow writers: November Call for Submissions is out on the NAWG blog and if you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.


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?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Oct 22nd, or go back further to reports on: Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Real World Obsessions that Make it Into my Writing: Faith and Religion

image from openclipart.org by GDJ

Confession time!  I am a religious zealot.  I mean all in, no turning back, if we ever speak about my beliefs, it is full in your face I am right.  And I have crazy rules/beliefs (all religions do).  My zealotry rarely comes up in conversation because part of my faith is that I believe proselytizing is one of the most heinous and immoral acts a person can perform.  It falls under an act of mental and spiritual violence and is an anathema.

My passion for faith structures and a more open religious community is more seen in my writing than in my conversations.  In my short stories.  Magic/divinity works in direct and obvious ways on my fictional worlds.

In “The Undertaking”, I have my main character, Nimgauna, go on a spirit quest to find her personal power.  This short story is a metaphor for what I think belief should be about: finding your personal truth.  Religion should be a personal journey based on your experiences that informs how your view the world and how you respond to challenges.  Ideally, you have a great guide advisor who has your best interests at heart.  They suggest, they don’t make demands on the outcome of the journey.

“The Undertaking” explores other religious elements.  It asks if the ends justify the means, and what kinds of ways can people be the change they want to see in the world.

Another short story I wrote, “Blood Moon”, introduces readers to what a real and working coven of witches might look like.  The people I introduce in this minority faith run the gambit.  Some of them are elderly, others work professional day jobs, and at least one of them struggles with their mental health/ability to function in a normal society.  The story descends into a horror/fantasy.  Someday, I’d like to write a follow up about all the different ways we as a society should have intervened so the conclusion of “Blood Moon” could have been cheery instead of dark and angry.

“Blood Moon” speaks to the frustration minority faiths have in a Christian-dominated society.  Pushed to fringes, questioned, always playing an ambassador of their faith, and forced to find fellowship in the “other”, even if it’s an imperfect union.


My novel, “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” has the most religious elements of all my stories.  If “Pagan Fiction” were a genre like “Christian Fiction”, that’s how I would describe the work.  It explores so many modern interpretations of paganism, follows a practicing pagan, and has the ‘fantasy’ element of a fae stalking and trying to capture Roxi.  Fantasy is in quotes because I am mirroring a lot of classic mythology in the book.

Supernaturalbeings at work in our universe fascinates me.  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” offers one look at what life might be like if these beings were more interactive with humanity.  It’s thrilling and terrifying.

Collectively, I spent months in researching folklore and different pagan beliefs.  I created a personalized religion for my main character, Roxi.  Devotion is her defining characteristic, and it forces Roxi to stand apart from everyone else in her world.  What does a person do when the beliefs they hold most dear isolate them from others?  Is her religion hurting or helping her?  I hope readers are asking these questions about Roxi and themselves.

So how do I sell a “Pagan Fiction” book to a Christian market?  Will the religious questing and pursuit come across to readers?  And even if people get it, will the minority faith structures be compelling?  Is it too liturgical?  I was eager to get into beta readers and learn what landed.  It felt like a big risk for me to write this “urban fantasy” where so little of the elements were fantastic.  The rituals and spells are all real and I portray the results so one might experience them in the real world (i.e. is that underwhelming to the typical fantasy reader).  The Gods and fae I portray are “real” in the sense that I extended their mythology.  I didn‘t give them new powers or different personalities/motives.  Every herb, gesture, and symbol has a wealth of history behind its choice.

It relieved me when the feedback came in.  My beta readers said “this is a deeply religious and theological book.” In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been concerned.  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” wasn’t too narrow for readers to relate, and I could use my book to have conversations with other people I’d never dreamed of expressing.  It was magical.

Were their issues in the first draft of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”, you bet.  Pacing, pacing, pacing.  A lot of setup in the front and all rollercoaster drops in the back.  It also turns out people want a little more exposition, or they want it in different places than I’ve dumped it.  The whole front third needs to be re-written and the most liturgical part of the book, a pagan meet up where many practicing pagans share opposing views, needs to transform because it’s not doing what it needs to do and it introduces too much that doesn’t matter in my book.

Can you read this book and never think about religion?  Absolutely!  “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” is currently 76,000 word book and explores a lot of themes where religion is just one, but you can read it as straight fantasy about a woman being stalked, abducted, and attempting to escape the clutches of a creepy obsessive fae creature.  What’s cool about Roxi being pagan: she’s an informed combatant.  She knows fae folklore, so she knows where to be wary and she has ideas of what’s waiting for her on the other side of the veil.

Talk to me.  What parts of your personality show in your writing?  Do you embrace those elements or try to downplay them?  Do readers notice themes and elements in your story, or is it a secret author Easter Egg?

9 Things That Make a Book Good (For Me)

by openclipart.org by Firkin

1. Compelling female characters.  I prefer a female protagonist or antagonist, but I accept a strong supporting character too.  They don’t have to kick ass (though that’s cool too); they have to be themselves without fear or shame.

2. Believable complex characters.  Ideally, I want diversity of gender, race, and ability.  I realize not every story allows for this, but I am always looking for it.  I like both large and small casts, but whatever happens, keep it character centric.

3. Choice.  I want characters to choose things.  If your character is the chosen one or doesn’t have agency, chances are good no matter what else you have that’s working, it doesn’t work for me.

4. Female authors.  This is controversial.  People should be judged through the quality of their work and not from the circumstances of birth.  Here’s the thing: I want the female perspective, and it‘s hard for men to master that view.  This is not a dig.  I bet women don’t capture the “male” experience. I tire of following a male lead who sexualize every woman he sees.  And there are female authors who do the reverse (and I tear them apart for it) but women sexualizing men is an annoying eye roll where men sexualizing women can make me few panicky.

5. Good writing.  I prefer poetic prose but I appreciate any style that compliments the tone and theme of the piece.  I read a book with marvelous technical prose.  It’s a style I admire from a far most days.  Here, it fit the story so well I reveled in it.  I also enjoy direct terse writing when it fits the story.  An example: I read a story set in Victorian times and the writing jumped from a more formal tone that matched the Victorian setting to an informal modern vibe, and it threw me out of the story.  I like both styles, but GOOD WRITING in this case would have been to pick to one of those styles and to stick to it.

6. Good pacing.  I want to be engaged the whole time.  I don’t want to be overstimulated in some places and bored out of my mind in others.  Sounds simple, but it’s a surprising art to keep writing balanced between description, down time, and action elements.

7. Passion.  I want the writer to be into whatever they are writing and I want it to come through on the page.  This applies to series books (or things written by Stephen King) but sometimes you can see the will to keep writing drain out of the author.  Like they started strong with a premise they wanted to explore and lost steam.  The book wanders aimless.  This relates to pacing, but is its own category.  I’ve read books where the pacing works but it feels like the author didn’t care.  They wrote the simplest version of the story, but not a version of the story they loved.

8. Fantasy or science fiction genre.  I read other genres but a straight mystery, historical fiction, or other sub genre without the weird elements that exist in fantasy and scifi is a harder sell.  When I read off genre, it takes more to hold and keep my attention.

9. A plot.  It’s low on my list because I love character studies, but I think it’s easier to study character when they are doing something.  Now I don’t need epic sweeping drama.  It could be a trip to the store, but I want to know what the goal is and I want it to be clean why that’s meaningful to the characters in the story.

Monday Metrics

from openclipart.org by Gorkhs 

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 65 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 330 posts, 509 profile visits, 116 mentions, and 63 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 12%.  I’m down one point, but since I was on vacation last week and rarely online, I expected all my metrics to drop.
  
My engagement is 2.5%. On Tues, Wed, and Thurs I spent about 40 minutes on Twitter.  Thursday most of my time was pushing through feeds to make sure I had planned posts through Sunday, not on replying to others.  I never even looked at Twitter on Fri, Sat, and very little on Sunday.  Can’t engage if you’re not present.

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  I am trying to add more links and references to my blog and the NAWG blog.  Progress is slow and my visit results are not encouraging 😒

Wed and Fri both got over 3,000 views.  My low days are Monday and Tuesday with 1,500-ish views.  I need to make a graph of the day(s) of the week I get the most views.  10 weeks seems like enough time to spot a pattern.

There are no standout Tweets this week.  A few hits the 800-900 views, but none of them broke records. I think I’m getting the hang of keeping consistent audience attention instead of having single stand out posts


Blog Stats

I got 38 views last week spread across 5 posts.  I neglected the blog while on vacation.  I didn‘t promote my Saturday post “My Complicated Past With Writing Prompts” on either Facebook or Twitter and this shows self promotion changes the numbers

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 14 views this past week.  My goal with this blog was to build a following, and it seems like we have a few people who arrive no matter how much I promote the blog.  I had an auto scheduled post that dropped while I was traveling.  No one checked it out, but Tuesday, I’ll start its promotion.  It’s the next in my Kindle Unlimited Series, where I explore all the great things in “Dragon Ridden Chronicles”.


So talk to me!  How do you keep your social presence when you go on vacation?  Do you see a change in your numbers during that time?  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Oct 15th  or go back further to Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

My Complicated Past with Writing Prompts

by openclipart.org by j4p4n

As a lifelong writer, I’ve used a lot of writers’ prompts in my time.  The short story: good ones rock and bad ones make you question the others’ intelligence.

Have I ever used a prompt?  Yes.   Prompts have helped me out of writers’ block and sometimes I even have a cool story to show from the experience.

Can prompts help cultivate a daily writing habit? Yeah, but all things considered, I’d rather journal or do daily gratitude as a daily practice than a writing prompt a day.

Would I recommend a prompt to other writers?  Maybe.  My knee jerk reaction to prompts is that I hate them.  They often feel forced, and often I read on and want to defy whatever suggestion it makes.  I assume others hate these things as much as me though a friend pointed out that this might just be my issue.  Most people like when some work is done for them.

All of that said, I’d enjoy creating writing prompts for others.  My favorite part of writing is creating ideas.  I enjoy forming some of them into a story too, but I’ve got more ideas than I have time to make stories.

What do you think about writing prompts?  Do you use them often?  Are they life savers or creativity drains?  Talk to me.

Metric Monday!

from openclipart.org by j4p4n

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 59 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 343 posts, 510 profile visits, 123 mentions, and 69 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 13%.  Same as last week and I’m expecting this to be my steady growth rate, barring a new strategy to increase engagement or attention.
  
My engagement is 2.8%. I post plan, and I am trying to spend less time on Twitter while maintaining a sense of presence.  I kind of think my “engagement” can’t go up when I’m not in there making the connections. Days of high engagement involve a lot of personal real time responses and conversations happening on Twitter.  I think might be too much for me to manage regularly.  While I’ll always respond to people who talk with me, my social level and my time constrain me from reaching out more and hosting more conversations.

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is work, and it’s hard to balance what I see on my feed with what I want to share/promote/say.  I’m not great with a single line, but I wonder if I should try a few original tweets anyhow.

I broke 4,000 views on Sat.  My views for the week are good overall, high 2,000 two days and mid 3,000 one day, which I thought would be my new all-time high view rate.  

I have a single tweet that has 3,362 views.  This tweet picked up conversation, and I heard about other writers’ processes and what they like about writing.  It was cool.  


Blog Stats

I got 100 views last week spread across 9 posts.  Sitting at week 3 with about 100 views.  This blog is for recording my writing process and giving personal feedback about the process of writing and self promoting on social media.  While it’s an interesting individual study or work, it doesn‘t lend itself to easy “evergreen” re-usable content.  Thank you guys for being interested and checking out the blog every week.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 13 views this past week.  Officially I can not take credit for our numbers.  I dropped “Halloween Spirit”, my own spooky October flash fiction story for our writers group challenge, and it did not catch like wildfire.  What did I learn?  Objectively, Chris has a more engaged personal network than I do, more friends, family, and acquaintances than I have.  Some of his friends came out and read my story to support our blog and I’m confident no one (except Lionel) I know read my story.

  Also, if we’re being honest, Chris has the better story. Seriously, “The Ghost Strikes at Midnight.”, is a more traditional and engaging ghost story than my off brand pagan summoning ritual.  He’s character focused where I’m event focused, and his story is better for it. 

I want to recommend to fellow writers our October Open Calls for Submission.  

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?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Oct 9th, or go back further to reports on Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.