The answer is a varied as the writers you ask.

It’s a question that’s both easy and difficult to answer.

Part of the explanation is in the nature of the writer. Writers are generally observers and collectors. They tend to see the world with curiosity and questions.

See that couple over there? They look like they’re arguing. She’s angry, he’s conciliatory. He reaches toward her and she knocks his hand away. She stands, he grabs her arm…

What are they arguing about? Why is she angry? Is he really sorry or just trying to save the relationship? Does he get physical with her? Is he abusive? What if she’s the aggressor, manipulating him with her emotions? What if …

I could go on, but you get the idea. Writers don’t mind their own business, at least in their head, instead they make mountains out of mole hills. After all, we create entire worlds – we can scare you, bring you to tears, make you laugh – all with just 26 letters arranged well. It’s not a stretch that we can make something out of nothing.

Normal people (and I use the term loosely <vbg>) learn to block out the stimulus around them that is the meat and potatoes for the writer. The trivia:

The young woman waiting in line for coffee wore black fish net stockings, startling enough in mid-morning, even more so because the symmetry of the diamond lines was ruined by the gaping hole at the bend of the knee. Her baggy sweatshirt ended mid-thigh, and it was anybody’s guess if that was the sum total of her attire. She ran her hand through her hair and I saw the flash of a large diamond on the ring finger of her left hand.

Curiosity and a rich imagination fuel the writer’s creativity. And it perpetuates itself. The more often you practice building scenarios from the material around you, the easier it becomes to slip into the “what if”? frame of mind.

The real work comes when you commit those speculations to actual writing. As well as we think we grasp the ideas, until we are actually writing (hence the term, writer) it’s smoke, vanishing into nothingness at the slightest breeze.

Oddly enough, once you begin writing, another thing happens. The story takes on a life of its own. You’re along for the ride. The idea you birthed stands, and toddles, then walks.

The end result might not have much resemblance to the original thought that drove you to put pen to paper, or fingers to keys.

So where DID you get that idea?

It’s a question that’s both easy and difficult to answer.

What about  you? Have you ever seen something that’s set off your imagination?

What happened?

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The top 5 benefits of being sick, in reverse order – Benefit #

5. You lose weight! ‘Cause, yuck, nothing tastes good.
4. The world goes on, but you

just
don’t
care.

3. Your pets are thrilled to have you home.

2. You get to catch up on the hot TV shows, like DOWNTON ABBEY! (Which has Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern among others well worth watching.)

And the number one benefit to being sick?

1.  After you’re well, you really, really appreciate being healthy again.

That all being said, I’m done counting my blessings, including that my down time was temporary. I’m ready to be entirely well.

I’ve set out an ambitious agenda for this new year and it’s been frustrating watching days go by where I only had enough energy to do the minimum. Other days, not even that. Yikes!

Nevertheless, it’s past (with any luck) and I can get caught up and back on track soon. This has been an interesting holiday and new year season, for sure.

Have you decided how you are going to use this lovely year that lies ahead? What’s the top three things you want to accomplish? I’ve written mine down and framed them on my office wall where I can’t ignore it.

If those are your year-end goals, break them down into monthly goals, or quarterly, so you can measure your progress and make sure you aren’t facing November 2013 without having made a dent.

Sometimes it’s a matter of just deciding you are going to get it done, and pushing other things out of the way so you can.

If it’s not important enough for that, maybe it should not be one of your top three goals. Only you can say. But if you don’t decide, I can guarantee circumstances will decide for you and you’ll live another year no closer to those dreams you’ve had since you were little.

So, how about it? Are you energized and ready to accomplish great things? If you’d like, share what you have in mind for 2013 by commenting in the section below the blog . . .

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My 23,000 word novella is a huge accomplishment for me. Paying Forward. Now on Kindle. Wow.

I have published a lot of non-fiction works, and have many, many longer manuscripts written and collected in boxes. Several returned with what I see now, in retrospect, were encouraging comments from editors. And yet, this is my first fiction book published.

Because when I got those encouraging words, I put the worst interpretation on them that I could, and used that as an excuse to file yet another project under “rejected”.  Oh, I had my reasons. Legitimate roadblocks that I’m still sorting out but they just added up to LIES THAT I BELIEVED about why I couldn’t do it.

You know what I discovered? No one can stop you from succeeding more completely than you, yourself.

If you don’t believe in your dreams, it doesn’t matter who does. They aren’t going to make it happen. You are. When you finally understand and know you can.

If you let others discourage or crush your ambitions, I’m here to tell you that THEY DON’T KNOW. They don’t know if you will find an audience. They don’t know if you have what it takes. I’ve gone to writing conferences for three decades and there are always stories from editors who turned down books from authors who went on to become superstars. They can’t tell you that you won’t succeed.

Unless…

unless you listen to them.

You don’t have to. Listen to your heart. Write for those people out there who are looking for a good book.

Be real. Be daring. Be true.

But be what you were born to be.

Be you.

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I guess the one quote, again from the New York Times article, that saddened me the most was this:  “Reviews are the smallest piece of being successful,” John Locke said. “But it’s a lot easier to buy them than cultivating an audience.”

Writing fake reviews can be lucrative. Bunco book reviewer, Todd Rutherford, made $28,000 A MONTH churning out fake reviews for desperate and impatient authors. According to the NYT article, one of his star employees, a 23-year-old woman, said she didn’t have time to read the books as she had to produce 70 pieces of content a week. So even if they weren’t required to be positive, how can they be truthful if the book is not even read?

Apparently, five-star reviews are hard to get from readers, but fake reviewers are often over-the-top in their enthusiasm, and the public believes it and starts ignoring anyone with normal, honest reviews. So how do you know? The Consumerist post gives some ideas of what to look for in 30 Ways You Can Spot Fake Online Reviews.

Of course, the scammers will keep improving their techniques and it will get more difficult to determine. One thing I’m going to do is go with the sites and books with fewer reviews, as I know from experience that readers may love your book but never take the time to post a review.

What can you do to make a difference? You can take a moment and post a real, honest, genuine review for the books you read. If you don’t like it, at least be kind. If you do, don’t go over the top with effusive terms that sound artificial. It takes a lot of time and heart to write a good book, and you can buy many inexpensively, so take a moment and write a review. Support your authors – especially Indie authors.

The question remains – should you have to “pay to play”?

It’s a personal decision, and I can see possible benefits if you use the right channels. There are legitimate reviewers who offer self-published book reviews for a price. Kirkus Reviews, whose website says they are “one of the most trusted and authoritative voices in book discovery” offers self-publishers a review option. Kirkus will review your book for $425.00 and if the review is negative you can keep it private. Publisher’s Weekly will review your self-published book starting at $149.00. They will pass on your book and return the fee if they don’t think it’s appropriate for their market.

So what’s fair and where’s the line? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines say that online endorsements have to reveal a financial relationship, but how can you enforce it and how does it apply to so many different scenarios?

The problem is, fake reviews are not limited to books, or to Amazon. They are proliferating as traditional marketing channels are becoming less effective. Bing Liu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, wrote the book Web Data Mining (available on Amazon, with a modest 3 reviews, most likely all real) has said about a third of the consumer reviews on the Internet are fake.

Please share your opinion:

• What do you think of this practice?
• Should reviewers charge to review books?
• Can you spot fake reviews? How?

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Watching the Olympics is a great pastime, but it’s always interesting to see the reporters, many of whom have never competed in a sport themselves, criticizing the winners and dissing those who didn’t medal. The comments reveal more about those commenting than their targets. If you have been or are an elite athlete, or you’ve been the parent, brother or sister of one, you know how much time, money and effort goes into training. It’s not a fair-weather activity that you do when you are in the mood, neither is your training something you can double-up and catch up with in a flurry of activity.

it’s grinding, daily, early morning workouts, afternoon practice, evening exercises. It’s day-in, day-out relentless pursuit of your goal, even when you don’t feel like it or you think you don’t care anymore.

Every four years you might get a chance to measure your skills against the best in the world.

And if you have a bad moment, it not only could cost you a win, you’ll be hearing disparaging remarks from couch potatoes with access to the internet.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it makes writing look easy.

Think about it-

• If you spent a fraction of the time the athletes do, you could produce volumes
• You don’t have to wait for an opportunity once every four years
• If you “fail” you can pick yourself up and go at it again
• With few exceptions, you don’t get too old to write good stuff
• You can take holidays off, if you want
• It doesn’t take tons of money to write, you don’t even need an MFA
• Critics don’t have much power, your fans will carry more weight with new readers
• Competition can become allies and together we can reach a bigger audience

These are just a few of the advantages of writing, and I’m sure you can think of more – share them below.

Happy writing!

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On the other hand, it might just be that digital communications are leaving the crawling stage and beginning to toddle.

Growing up is hard to do, with stops and starts, but it’s progress.

I have been a skeptic at times, because I could not see how the time investment would pay off for most working people. However, with the new tools available, it’s reached the tipping point for me – in favor of maintaining blogs and social connections.

As most of you know, I am the editor of a new magazine, SW Montana Magazine. It’s a multimedia digital magazine with an upbeat point of view and a hunger for news that includes stories that often don’t get into print. 

This is a giant experiment, taking what I’ve learned from the last several years of intense research and study of digital marketing, and applying it to test the theory.

The theory is that today’s marketing focuses on GIVING before you start asking. PROVIDING VALUE first.  This fits with my personal beliefs and I’m hoping it proves true.

Traditionally, magazines and newspapers have had to line up advertisers first, and with enough advertisers, they had room for editorial or articles. Few advertisers? Few articles. Print is expensive. However, just like in the ebook debate, there is still a place for print, but it’s not always the best SINGLE channel for news distribution.

To expand their reach, traditional publications added ONLINE  versions, often with little success.

WHY?

It’s like strapping an engine on your bicycle. You might get it to work, but it’s going to be ugly, awkward and inefficient.

SW Montana Magazine is different, as it’s built from the ground up as a digital publication, incorporating all the newest channels for promotion and connection into its very design.

No retro-fits to try to be current. We are current.

How does this tie into social and blogs not being dead? Well – reporters, editors and writers like myself are looking for STORIES! I am passionate about promoting good news in Montana.

My time, like yours, is limited. So I look for material people are talking about, rather than going door-to-door trying to solicit information – I don’t have the time to do that (although I bet I’d find some great stories!).

Where do I look? I subscribe to RSS feeds from blogs and updates, I follow people on Twitter. I even publish a daily digest of Tweets from people I follow.

What if you are the person who gave up on Twitter, never “got it”  or only blogs once a month about your weekend party, or worse, has a static website that never updates?

You 

won’t

be

included.

Don’t blame me – what’s true for me is true for every writer/reporter/blogger out there.

Think about it this way – if your business, profession, invention, creations are NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH  for you to talk about, why would I be interested?

I am sitting on a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY for the people who are ready. I am offering FREE COVERAGE – all you have to be is interesting to our readers, willing to share and consistent with our content guidelines. Not everything submitted will be published  (we do have standards)  but WHO ELSE IS GIVING YOU THIS CHANCE for just a bit of effort on your part?

Someone else out there may be looking for a story to write about, a story you can tell, but how will they ever know? They’ll only know if YOU do your part.

And if you have a story, want to write an article, or think you might be newsworthy, contact me at the magazine. I really, really want to hear from you!

Don’t bury your message just because when you tried to blog or tweet last year nothing happened. Social isn’t a one-shot deal, but it’s certainly not dead.

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Writers love words and I’ve been in many conversations lately where writers are complaining about the proliferation of incorrect grammar, misspellings and the general decline of comprehensible communication.

Judging by the casual attitude toward accuracy in common use of language, you might conclude that no one is paying attention to how things are said anymore.

And you’d be wrong.

As one example, I cite a recent in-depth study of social media channels by HubSpot that found the effect of using the phrase “Please ReTweet” on Twitter resulting in four times the response as not using “Please”.

Drew Hubbard, on iMedia, wrote an article about the 9 buzzwords that ignite followers and his number one suggestion is to use the words “Please” and “Thank you”. In the illustration he uses, however, he does more than just add the word please, he rephrases the request and it’s obvious that the revised version is kinder, nicer and more inviting than the terse first example.

Please and thank you can soften your words, but in order to have the best impact, use the right words throughout.

This is useful in business writing, but what about fiction and non-fiction?

Sometimes in fiction or non-fiction, the right words could be the wrong words – you might want to convey a mood or a personality by using unfriendly, even abrasive words.

But the underlying truth remains. Words still have an impact, they can make us feel like moving forward or drive us away.

What’s been your experience with “please”, “thank you” or other words on your actions or the actions of others?

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It might be you.

This is the golden age of information, but like the unfortunate King Midas, this could be the very thing that kills your writing, or your business.

The vast amount of information available creates pressure – the pressure to know everything. This is stressful, and time-consuming, and ultimately futile because things change so fast and there is so much to know that it’s an impossible task.

We subscribe to dozens, or in my case, hundreds, of blogs and articles, which I skim at night instead of relaxing or taking that much-needed walk. We attend seminars, classes and workshops in the vain hope we can uncover the “secret” that will make our dreams come true and our working lives simpler.

All this takes time away from what we are trying to accomplish in the first place – writing that book, that article, solving a business problem or serving customers.

Time is not like a computer – we cannot sign up for more bandwidth, get an extra hard drive, compress files/moments into manageable bits and bytes.

Time is the same for everyone, everywhere.

If you use it primarily to keep up with the latest developments, you may become the one who knows much but accomplishes little.

So how much information is too much? It depends on how it affects you.

If you read opinions and allow yourself to be influenced one way then the other, stop. For example, there are people who want to write but don’t because they can’t figure out what the next big thing will be or whether they should publish traditionally or independently. This causes them to freeze, not do anything, because they are so afraid of making the wrong choice.

The fact is, they won’t be publishing at all if they don’t do step one – write.

I know this from experience, folks. I set about learning everything I could about digital marketing and independent publishing in order to share this as a business. Pretty soon, it became a monster, driving me to know more, more, more, even as the information changed and grew like gremlins (as in the movie), soon out of control. In my honest desire to stay current, I found myself farther and farther away from what I loved to do, what I wanted to do, and what I’d set out to do.

I’ll be talking more about the steps I took to reevaluate my direction and repurpose my efforts in future posts, but the point of this post is to get you to consider this:

Are you gathering so much information you don’t have time to do your primary passion?
Are you letting the opinions about what you should be doing stop you from doing anything?
Are you using research as a way to delay the action that will lead to success?

If so, you’re not alone. Don’t waste time feeling bad about it, just resolve to make your passion your priority, whether it’s writing, taking care of patients, building a new widget or offering the best customer service you can.

You need information and training to be excellent at what you do, but only you can determine if that next seminar or blog will improve your skills or get in the way of your progress. Maybe you know what you need to know right now, you just are afraid to use it.

What have you been doing that you think you should give up so you can succeed? Share it below…

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The path of least resistance. We’ve all heard the phrase. It makes sense to use the path of least resistance much of the time. I’m not one of those people who think you should shake up everything in your life just for the experience.

If you live long enough, you find circumstances shake things up plenty, and it can be good to have some well-worn paths to follow.

However, striking out with something new can be good, too, you just have to be prepared.

Forging a new path is harder. You have to push through the obstacles and find your way with no tracks to follow.

If you’re lucky, you might have a mentor or guide, but it’s still tough going at times.

Here’s three things you can do to make it easier on yourself:

1 – create a support system

2 – make a plan

3 – be ready for the discouraging word

Let’s look at these.

Create a Support System

Surround yourself with people who believe in you. This is a quantity over quality issue. You don’t need a lot of people, just people who will help you stay on tract and encourage you when the going gets tough. And it will get tough, so make sure your support team knows what you need from them and can provide it.

Make a Plan

Some people think of a plan as a map, but once you hammer out the initial details I see it more as a flashlight. Here’s why: You are going along just fine until the sun goes down and it gets dark. Suddenly you are disoriented. Lost. You stumble because you can’t see where you’re going. You can’t keep your eye on the goal, because it’s disappeared in the blackness.

Then…

You realize you have a flashlight. You push a button and your light blinks on. It helps you get back on the path. It illuminates what’s coming next. You can take a step at a time and you WILL get there.

Be Ready for the Discouraging Word

You will hear plenty. Often from other people. What will surprise you is how much you hear from the little voice in your head that NEVER seems to think you have what it takes, or that you can do this. Who is that voice? Does it matter?

I think it’s less important to figure out who and why it’s there and more important to realize NO ONE ESCAPES. Whether it’s a dysfunctional mother, the nuns in school, the neglectful father – everyone has someone in their head who throws rocks at our dreams.

Who cares? Once you see that it’s a common problem you realize plenty of people have pushed through that nay-sayer and gone on to achieve success.

How do they do it?

IGNORE THE DISCOURAGING WORD! Reject the voice. Rely on your plan, and your support team and believe in yourself.

It’s hard. No doubt about it.

That’s why there’s the saying: “If it was easy, anyone could do it.”

So don’t be just “anyone”. Do the things “anyone” doesn’t. Learn what you need to know, figure out an achievable way to accomplish your goals and don’t give up.

The path of least resistance has its place in your life, but the one less traveled, whether chosen or forced upon you, is where you’ll find out who you really are.

What fresh path are you going to explore? Share it below…

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In my last blog post I talked about how I am going to finish this wonderful, frustrating, exciting, aggravating novel I am writing.

While I do that, I figured I’d share some of the silly little practical things I’ve learned along the way, maybe save you the trouble of making the same mistakes.

Working titles.

Working titles are those things you give your book as you are, well, working on it. Hmmm. Not much of a mystery there. But if you are like me, you change your mind. And that’s when the trouble starts.

I have, as I mentioned earlier, a box full of manuscripts. Numerous versions, with different working titles. This is madness. Don’t do this. Instead, keep a file on your computer, or a page in a notebook with ideas for titles. Write them there, but keep the same title for all your versions.

You might put a project aside for a while. You might have it stored on old media, but if it has different names you’ll have a terrible time finding it when you are ready to resurrect it.

Nothing you write has to be wasted. That doesn’t mean you will develop everything into a full-fledged book or article, but it does mean that parts of it could reappear as background information or setting or an interesting side character. I didn’t think about this when I began so long ago. Everything was a stand-alone project to me. The idea of revisiting them later wasn’t on my radar.

I have since learned differently.

And it’s been an arduous task to find everything. I know there are some lost forever. A consistent working title would have been a big plus.

I’ve attended conferences and heard writers say they keep a notebook or computer file on their projects. In this they note the details such as the working title, alternate titles, character names and profiles, locations and maps. Everything that relates to that manuscript. I couldn’t be bothered. Ha! Wish I had…

If you seek traditional publishing, there’s a good chance your publisher will change the title anyway, so a working title may be all you need. They change it because the title is important to the book’s marketing success. If you publish independently, you will choose your own title. Titles can duplicate existing books, but don’t copy a best-seller because it will not be a benefit.

I have working titles for my novel projects, but that will not be their published titles. I realized while I like the imagery, the names won’t mean a thing to the reader. They inspire me because with a title and a cover I can visualize a real book, and it keeps me going.

Over the years I’ve had a lot of great working titles. But titles are not books, so I’m going back to working on the book now… and worry about the right title later.

What about you? Is getting a good working title important to your progress? Or do you leave that until the book’s done? I’d like to hear from you.

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