3 Ways to Make Stretching Yourself as a Writer Less Taxing

A Guest Post from Sherri Johnson

Lately I have been writing up a storm. I’ve been working on my fourth novel, on interviews of other authors for my blog, and on guest posts for various blogs of writer friends. In the writing world, marketing is equally as important as penning your pieces and it takes a lot of it to gain the right amount of exposure. Therefore, writers must step out of their comfort zones and share bits and pieces of themselves with the world so that the world may know who they are.

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with just the right thing to say, especially if you feel you aren’t an “expert” on a subject. I have come to the conclusion that in order to work on more than one project at a time and to gain enough knowledge to write on something even as a novice, one must be fully stocked in chocolate and be made of elastic. It’s quite easy to face the end of the day with multiple unfinished assignments—and a desktop covered in candy wrappers.

One blog I wrote recently was on grief and another on yellow fever; one on my specialty (Inspirational Romance) and the other on homeschooling (my other specialty). If you’re writing an informational post such as the one I wrote on the plague, it calls for less transparency than in a post on grief but it is more difficult because of the research involved. Romantic fiction posts require heart; homeschooling pieces demand knowledge on the subject and a desire to guide other women. Some writing requires research and some calls you to reach down into the inner recesses of your being to purge parts of you that you may not have shared with others at any other time in your life. All types of writing require time out of your schedule and a lot of stretching—a lot of elasticity.

Here are a few ways to make this stretching easier:

Pray for God’s direction

Opportunities abound in the writing world. You just have to know where to look for them. Once you find them, you will be tempted to volunteer for every opportunity you are given. I have been known to do this in an effort to bring exposure to my books. However, I sometimes bite off more than I can chew and end up with so many writing opportunities that I don’t leave time for writing my novels. I encourage you to pray before you accept any writing assignments (paid or unpaid) to make sure it’s the direction God would have you go.

Be willing to expose yourself

If a writing assignment is one that will require you to expose your tender underbelly, be ready to be transparent. And be ready to have your socks blessed off. When I have opened my heart to others in an effort to bring wisdom and comfort to them, I walk away the one blessed every time.

Be honest with yourself

Maybe you want to write blog posts for every person that asks you because it’s a way to gain expose. Who knows, maybe an agent or a publisher will see your words, right? Let me caution you. If you do not know enough about the subject or your writing is not tight enough to produce a good piece AND if your blog hostess is not super picky about the posts she allows on her blog, you might open a can of worms that’s better left sealed. You want everything you put out there on the Internet to be as professional as it possibly can be. If you’re not an expert on a topic or at least well researched, be honest with yourself and pass up that assignment.

Digging deep into your thoughts and into your heart—the stretching—can be painful at first. Maybe you want to save all the good stuff for your Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. I say “Don’t be selfish. Share it now and God will give you more goodies to share in the future.” You may not feel like it, but you have something to share with the world. Pray about it, be honest with yourself and others, and be ready to stretch.

Let’s Talk: Which of these three takeaways do you have the hardest time with?

 

Sherri Wilson Johnson is an Inspirational Romance novelist, a speaker, and a former homeschooling mom who loves sharing God with others, while sharing her life experiences with them. She’s giving away an e-copy of her novel, To Dance Once More, to one lucky person who leaves a comment on today’s blog post! So make sure to say hello!

 

 

Deep Point of View

Deep point of view allows the reader to feel and experience exactly what our characters feel and experience. Authors who do deep point of view well often create stories that are highly engaging – where the characters come to life and the reader gets lost in the pages. 

Once we get the hang of it, deep point of view takes our writing to the next level.

So when I saw a tweet about this book called Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View, free on Kindle for a limited time, I was immediately intrigued. I hadn’t read a craft book in awhile, so I hopped on over and downloaded it.

I’m super glad I did.

It is a super quick (it’ll take you an hour, tops), informative read.

Not only did I freshen up on some important writing techniques, I now have a craft book I can recommend to lots and lots of writers.

The author (Jill Elizabeth Nelson) addresses techniques that so many writers fail to employ. 

Mistakes I see all the time whenever I critique a piece of writing or judge a contest entry.

Two of the BIGGIES:

  • Authorial Intrusions
  • Prepositional Tells
Authorial Intrusions
 
Anytime you put an invisible narrator between the reader and the character, you’ve inserted an authorial intrusion. 
 
Phrases like she wondered, she felt, she saw, she wished, she decided are all examples. Purging them from your manuscript will take your prose to the next level.
 
For example:
She realized where she put her purse.
 
Can be changed to…
 
Oh, right. That’s where she left her purse.
 
Another example:
She spotted the lime green bike swerving through traffic.
 
Can be changed to…
 
The lime green bike swerved through traffic.
 
Super easy, right?
 
In both of these examples, the first version creates distance between the reader and the character. In the second, the reader is inside the character’s head. 
 
Prepositional Telling

I see this one ALL the time! I catch myself doing it too.

She nodded in agreement.

She frowned with displeasure.

He jumped up and whooped with glee.

His stomach clenched in fear.

Nix the prepositional telling!

Your writing will be so much stronger for it.

Nodding implies agreement, right?

Frowning implies displeasure.

Jumping and whooping usually go hand in hand with glee.

And a clenched stomach is often indicative of fear or nerves.

Believe in the context you’ve created and trust that your readers are intelligent enough to make some logical inferences.

So there you go.

A small taste of the many tips and tricks this book has to offer. 

The e-book version is only $2.99 on Amazon right now. I highly recommend!

Let’s Talk: Have you read any novels that nailed deep point of view – where you truly felt and experienced what the characters felt and experienced? Please share them here!

The Me, Me, Me Struggle

Not so very long ago, my husband joined the wide world of Twitter. He follows a total of ten people and basically just tweets about Streak for the Cash. A few weeks ago we were talking and he said, “Most people just retweet other people. I like when people tweet funny things about their life.”

“Do you read any of my tweets?” I asked.

“They’re usually about your book.”

Uh-oh…

Then the next day, I read Jody Hedlund’s blog post titled Social Media Pet Peeves (I highly recommend). 

Social media pet peeve #7 was using social media only for the purpose of promotion.

Social media pet peeve # 10 was making social media all about ourselves.

It felt like a double uh-oh.

I was paranoid.

In fact, before my husband said what he said and before Jody posted what she posted, I was already paranoid.

Because my debut novel had just released.

And let me tell you, I have amazing, amazing, amazing, supportive, supportive, supportive online friends. Many were either interviewing me on their blogs, inviting me to write a guest post, reviewing my book, or hosting a giveaway. All to help me spread the word and create a buzz. 

I wanted the people who so graciously hosted me on their blog to be rewarded with some extra traffic. 

Which meant I was sending out a lot of tweets and Facebook updates about my books or my interviews. 

I wanted to promote these posts as a way to show my appreciation to those who were supporting me.

But I also didn’t want to clog people’s Twitter/Facebook streams with me, me, me.

It felt like a big fat catch-22.

I even said so in the comment section on Jody’s blog.

And she quickly replied in her very wise, encouraging, Jody-like way, assuring me that I wasn’t alone. That this is a common struggle.

She concluded by saying, “You’ve been on your SM’s chatting, building relationships, and giving to others long before the release of your book. So now that your book is here, we’re all excited for you and want to support you….around the release of a book, we WILL be sharing more about our books. It just can’t be all we do.”

And there we have it. 

Two really BIG takeaways.

Relationship is Key
And relationships take time. If we jump onto Twitter a couple weeks before our book releases and start tweeting interviews and blog posts and reviews, we’ll most likely elicit a bunch of eye rolls.

Not so if we jump into the pools of social media early-on with the goal of connecting and building relationships (instead of promotion). 

I’ve met a lot of really awesome people through Twitter and Facebook. People who have been beyond supportive and encouraging during a time that I’ve needed the support and encouragement. These friends understand that I don’t usually tweet so much about my book.  And they understand this is a unique season in my life. 

Mix it Up
It’s so easy, in the whirlwind that surrounds a book’s release, to turn into a social media-bot. Conversation and connection get lost in our attempt to stay on top of everything. Especially since we know the people we’ve built relationships will understand.

But what about our new followers? Like my husband.

Even though I’ve been on Twitter and Facebook for a long time and am not generally so self-focused, my new followers won’t know that.

My husband’s innocent comment was a big reminder that while sharing about our books is good and expected, it can’t be ALL we do. 

Otherwise, as Jill Kemerer says in a blog post titled Fewer Gimmicks, Please! we’ll come across as….well….gimmicky.

Let’s Talk: What tips do you have for authors who aren’t sure how much is “too much” when it comes to promotion?

Hop on over to Jeanette Levellie’s blog and say hi! She’s giving away a copy of my debut, Wildflowers from Winter!