Time to Write

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If you'd like to start off the New Year having already reached one of your most cherished goals, join my Breakthrough Strategy 60-Day Program. You'll get group coaching and support and everything you need in order to set and achieve your goal. The next program starts in January 2010--for more information email BstormUK@aol.com.

One way to overcome being pigeon-holed

I had a question from an author who has a bit of a track record in one genre but now wants to write a book in a totally different genre. She is finding that her publisher is resisting offering something different from what her readers will expect from her.

One option is using a pen name for the new genre. Of course it does mean that you have to build a whole new audience, but at least you won't lose fans of your original type of book.

The fact is that readers (just like publishers) generally do pigeon-hole authors and when they find one they like, they want to see more of the same. By creating a new identity you may be able to skirt this problem. Of course this can work for artists, photographers, and anybody else, too.

(Flexibility and creativity are the most valuable tools you have--and for some fresh ideas on how to be even more creative, get my newest book, "Creativity Now," published by Pearson.)

The truth about those big book deals (including Sarah Palin's)

Daily Finance has a long article written by Sarah Weinman about Sarah Palin’s big book deal. Along the way it drops some very interesting tidbits about that deal and others:

 “Until recently, publishers have long split writers' advances, paying half upon signing a contract with the writer, and the other half upon a book's publication. But with the complicated financials of conglomerates in the equation, many publishers now pay out advances in quarters: upon signing, upon delivery and acceptance of the manuscript, upon hardcover publication, and finally a year later, upon publication of the paperback.”

 Apparently the $1.25 million retainer Palin was paid by HarperCollins will constitute the first of four payments to be made to her (for signing and delivery) and the total payout to her will be somewhere between $2.5 and $5 million (better than a governor’s salary…).

 Palin used an uncredited ghost writer, believed to be Lynn Vincent, who will be paid something like $200,000 (all these figures are estimates, as the actual numbers have not been made public).

 The article says, “If Palin's advance is as high as $5 million, then HarperCollins willl need to sell more than 400,000 copies of Going Rogue to cover the advance and expenses for marketing and overhead.”

 These big book deals generate a lot of publicity but not always a win for the publisher. The article points out, “The publisher had a huge bust this year in Jonathan Littell's massively hyped thousand-page novel The Kindly Ones, for which it paid $1 million that it didn't come close to earning back. (Bookscan, which accounts for as much as 70 percent of all book sales, last summer reported a disappointing 17,000 copies sold.)”

 Palin’s appearance on Oprah may help boost sales of her book, but so far, dailyfinance says, the publisher is not out of the woods in terms of making a profit on it.

(Want a big book deal yourself? Get my book, "Your Writing Coach"--it will guide you from idea through to publication. Published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers now.)

How not to do a book signing

Recently I went to a festival that featured an authors’ village—a few tables at which local authors sat with piles of their books and with pens poised to autograph them for buyers. The tables were all joined together and the authors were busily talking to each other…but no buyers approached them.

 Why? Well, of course it’s possible that nobody was interested in their books, but I think the big mistake was having them all sit there in a tribe, looking like they were having a great time chatting with each other and not really wanting to be interrupted.

 Yes, it was more comfortable for the authors, but it would have been more productive if they’d been separated, each one alone and approachable.

 I’ve done a few signings and it’s true that it feels kind of lonesome so the impulse is to chat with a friend you bring along (or with other authors if any are around) but if potential buyers see you sitting there alone they’re more likely to come up and ask a question or make a comment—and to buy.

 By all means, set up an author’s village at your local event--that’s a great idea—but then be brave enough to be lonely!

(two books to get if you're interested in marketing your writing: "Your Writing Coach" published by Nicholas Brealey and "Marketing for Entrpreneurs" published by Pearson, both by Jurgen Wolff--that's me.)

A book marketing idea to inspire you

From the Shelf Awareness bulletin:

Cool idea of the day: for The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman, a novel about a baker's dozen of women who meet the first Monday in December, bring cookies and talk about their lives, Atria is designating the first weekend in December as Christmas Cookie Weekend. People are encouraged to host their own Christmas Cookie Clubs and donate cookies to local charities. For more information, see the Facebook page created by Pearlman.

At the moment I'm brainstorming ideas for how to get some more attention for my newest book, "Creativity Now!" The Cookie story led to the idea of possibly sponsoring a contest for the most creative new way for charities to raise money in these tough times. Maybe I can get the publisher to kick in ten books of the recipient's choice (or even some prize money...). 

If you're looking for ways to market a book or other product, what ideas does the item above (or my variation of it) provoke?

(If you need to market something, get my book, "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson, to go from idea through to a complete campaign.)

Here's how to use "special effects" in novels (2012 shows how)

One of my readers read my post yesterday about the movie 2012 and said she understood the use of the four elements but found the story itself very poorly told. I agree: the ludicrous speech by the young scientist toward the end (I won’t give it away), the fact that no matter how bad things are there’s always time for an exchange of clichéd dialogue, and the sheer number of times someone says, “I think you’d better come see this,” plus the fact that at least 20 or 30 minutes could and should have been cut all attest to this. She wondered why some movies get to be so bad yet succeed at the box office.

 Special effects.

 The movie 2012 is a thrill ride.

 For the vast majority of the mass audience just the basic structure is enough as long as the visuals are impressive. They’re coming out talking about how realistically Los Angeles crashed into the ocean, not about the nuances of how people respond to the apocalypse.

 Are readers more discerning? Not always much more. Let’s face it, Dan Brown doesn’t get a lot of points for literary style, nor does Mary Higgins Clark, for instance, but they excel at the art of the story twist and the cliff-hanger.

 Here’s the key point: story twists and cliff-hangers are the text version of the special effects in a film.

 Great writers use them, too. Look at the works of classic authors like Shakespeare, Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson—all of them use these methods to keep us enthralled.

 In blockbuster novels the twists and reveals tend to be big: there’s a major conspiracy, or a threat to the entire population, or the protagonist’s best friend is working for the other side and tries to kill him. 

 The twists and reveals can be much more subtle but still have impact. For instance, the cliffhanger may be whether or not the protagonist is pregnant. The best friend’s betrayal may be that she doesn’t tell the female protagonist that her husband is having an affair.

 If you’re working on a fiction project, it’s worth giving some thought to your special effects!

(For tips on how to be more creative and productive, sign up now for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to BstormUK@aol.com)

What 2012 reveals about powerful storytelling

As I write this, the blockbuster film “2012” has just been released and all projections are that it will be a huge hit. Of course a lot of this is due to the special effects--the plot and dialogue are risible. But there’s no denying that in various ways the idea that 2012 may be the year of some kind of apocalypse has been gripping people. Why, and what can writers and other story-tellers can learn from it?

 First is specificity. There have been loads of stories about various potential disasters, but this one is attached to a particular date. If somebody says the world will end “soon” it’s easy to dismiss it. But when they say it will happen in December of 2012, we start to think about where we’ll be then, how old we’ll be, etc. and it stimulates our imagination.

 Second is a mystical element. The 2012 prediction supposedly is based on the Mayan calendar. Now, I don’t know about you, but I haven’t read anything that shows that the Mayans were especially prescient. Nonetheless, the mystical aspect is intriguing and appeals to our feeling that past cultures may have been more in touch with the mysterious ways the world works.

 Third is an appeal to our fears. If you look at the ratio of the movies made to scare people vs. the number made to inspire them, you can see that fear is a strong motivator. And the movie “2012” makes the fears more tangible by showing earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.—all things that we know are real and that we may already fear. At the end of the film they stick on a Band-Aid that suggests the human race is actually rather nice and will survive, but the other 7/8 is dedicated to showing mayhem.

Fourth is an everyman/woman viewpoint. This allows us to experience strange events through the eyes of a person to whom we can relate. In the case of the film, it’s John Cusack playing this character. As a bonus, the destruction of the world teaches him how to be a better husband and father.

 It’s no coincidence that you will find these elements in best-selling books written by Dan Brown, Stephen King, and many others.

 While these elements fit thrillers, action pictures and science fiction most easily, you’ll also find variations of them in other genres. For instance, a romance novel could feature an everywoman protagonist, her fear of not finding Mr Right (or of having hooked up with Mr Wrong), specific events that will test her, and sometimes a mystical element such as her horoscope, a session with a psychic, or a mysterious mentor.

Using these four elements doesn’t guarantee a great story—but it’s a good step in that direction.

(for help writing your own novel or screenplay or non-fiction project, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers. It will guide you through the whole process from idea through to publication.)

Surviving as a writer (Doug Rushkoff advises...)

Galleycat features an audio interview with author Douglas Rushkoff, who is branching out from magazine articles, books and comic books into a games-related graphic novel (“X”). His advice for writers now:

"My real strategy now is to survive by any means necessary. There's less money out there [for writers]. In the old days, between books, you'd call Playboy or GQ and pick up a $3-a-word article for something ... Now you're lucky to get a buck or buck-fifty from a major magazine. All you can really do is diversify and focus at the same time…”

 He means that you should focus on your expertise and branch into any medium into which you can take it. That could include gaming—which, Rushkoff points out—has all the money and is where some of the most innovations in narrative are taking place.

His site is rushkoff.com and his most recent book (other than the graphic novels) is Life Inc (How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back).

 (For help with creating your writing career, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, WHSmith and many other online and offline retailers.)

The number one writing question I get (and my answer)

The number one writing question I get both via the blog and my Breakthrough writing coaching clients is, "How can I find more time to write?" One answer is to use every spare moment:

There will be minutes you can steal, such as when you’re waiting in line at the supermarket and the person in front of you has realized at the last minute she’s going to have to actually pay for her groceries and only then starts digging through her purse for her money.

The secret to making use of these moments is to have a notebook with you and to have decided in advance one point you’ll brainstorm. For instance, it might be how to make the villain of your piece more interesting (maybe he kills a shopper ahead of him in line…), or how to make a scene more interesting, or simply what comes next.

At the start of your day, decide what you'll think about in that day's spare moments, write it in the form of a question in your notebook, and refer to it during those odd moments during the day. At the start of your next writing session, harvest those thoughts.

(If you want loads of creativity tips, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com. Also get my newest book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available via Amazon and (in the UK) from WH Smith travel outlets and other bookshops.)

Your writing future is digital - WGA panel excerpts

The Writers Guild of America sponsored a couple of panels at the 2009 Digital Hollywood Fall Conference in Santa Monica. Here's part of a report on those, from the WGA's newsletter:

Transmedia Storytelling: Writing and producing for the multi-platform universe, explored the question: With a whole universe of entertainment – TV, broadband, DVD, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Manga, books, Alternate Reality, games – tomorrow’s writers will need more than a three-act structure to engage an audience – what does the future have in store?...

“Heroes is basically an MMOG (massive multiplayer online game),” [said] Flint Dille. “We’re in a time now where the fans have to own part of the story. There is an expectation that we will see the story on all mediums: games, mobile, etc.”

Aside from high quality standards, sophisticated web-savvy audiences who interact and years of project development, there is one other challenge facing writers when it comes to writing for new media. “A show can’t just be ‘a show’ on the Internet. It has to be everything,” said [John] Fasano, which precisely sums up the key message from this fall’s Digital Hollywood conference. The future is moving to an integrated digital media world, and adaptation is fast becoming part of survival. "

I think the same is going to be true for writers starting out in all media. 

(For more information on New Media and the WGAW, click here. For more information on Digital Hollywood, click here.)

(For help with all kinds of writing, buy my book, “Your Writing Coach,” which guides you from idea through to publication. More information at www.yourwritingcoach.com.)

A quick back-up lesson I learned the hard way

Quick tip: Back up everything you’ve written during the session. Backing up onto another disk in the same location isn’t enough, as I learned years ago when a house fire destroyed not only my computer, but also the back-up discs I’d carefully hidden in an upstairs closet. One option is a pen drive you carry with you, another is to use a service that saves your material on the Internet. If you’re in a hurry, attach your new material to an email that you send yourself.

Embrace your versatility

In an interview for Success magazine, fashion designer, film-maker, actor, opera director and cabaret artist Isaac Mizrahi said, “My piano teacher said, ‘You have to choose what you want. You can’t continue to study the piano for eight hours a day and be an actor and design clothes.’ I listened to what he said and he made sense, but I couldn’t relate to that model. I am not a specialist.”

 He says he’s had insomnia since he was twelve but a lot of his inspiration comes to him in dreams. And he embraces the fact that he is easily bored: “I think it’s just a way of being in the world. Some people just like to do a lot of things.”

 Another potential drawback he turned into a plus: as a fat kid he felt he couldn’t wear fashionable clothes and shoes, so he designed them instead.

 He also embraces his lack of one identifiable signature style, saying, “I always try to think of something fresh, something innovative, and it almost comes from this weird psychic place.”

 He doesn’t mind risks, either. For a name designer to associate himself with Target, as he did, was definitely a risk but it’s been a huge success.

 Here’s the advice that sums it all up: “Do what you want—don’t let anyone tell you to do a version of what you want. Do exactly that you want, then wait it out...” Of his own next venture (directing a film) he says, “I don’t know if I’ll be good at it, but I know I’ll like doing it. If someone thinks I’m good, then I’m really happy about it.”

(Want tips on how to be more productive and creative? Sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by sending an email request now to BstormUK@aol.com)

Poets - here's how to distribute your poetry

Can what works for music work for poetry as well? The people behind poetryspeaks.com hope so. At their website you can search for poems by topics, by poet, or by name of the poem. You’ll also find the biographies of poets, be able to listen to (or watch, in the case of videos) 30 seconds of any poetry products for sale on the site, and upload your own poetry and get feedback on it.

Regarding this last function, the site says:

“Discover and be discovered! YourMic is your online stage for poetry. Not-yet-published poets can upload their video and audio poetry performances to YourMic. Register for a free account on PoetrySpeaks.com to upload your poetry to the site. PoetrySpeaks.com is a community where you can rate and review poetry performances. Join the community for the opportunity to be critiqued or discovered by like-minded peers. Your poetry performances may also be viewed by published poets who are on the PS•Voices and SpokenWord sections of the site. Build your following on YourMic.”

There’s lots more on the site, both free and for a fee, and the creators (Sourcebooks) say they’ve invested five years and a quarter of a million dollars in it. Using iTunes as a model they’ve set it up so you can download an individual poetry reading for 99 cents, or a video version for $1.99. They’re hoping that the interactive elements will draw people to the site, saying that “in essence, it’s a social network for poets and poetry lovers.”

In my experience, poets have often been more interested in writing poetry and selling it than in buying it. We’ll see whether this venture can find enough of a balance to make a profit.

(Want 100 techniques for being more creative? They're in my newest book, "Creativity Now!" --check it out on Amazon and other online retailers or, in the UK, at WH Smith travel outlets)

Story secrets of the balloon boy incident

Yes, I’m also sick of all the ways the media are spinning out the story of the (non) Balloon Boy, but we can’t deny that it’s a story that gripped the world. Whenever a story does that, I’m interested to consider what elements made it so compelling and this time there are two levels of story to learn from.

The original story was a simple one, with familiar elements:

• a child in danger
• a ticking clock—how long can the balloon stay aloft?
• a mystery: is he really in there?
• someone whose emotions we can share: the distraught parents
• a weird twist: the kid isn’t down a mine or trapped in rubble (which would also work for dramatic purposes), he’s up in the sky in a UFO-style balloon
• a strong emotional image: him dropping out of the balloon while it’s still up high or crashing with it to earth;  like looking at a car crash—we don’t want to see it but we can’t help looking (or imagining)

 Anybody writing a thriller could take a cue from these elements, and many have: have you noticed how many thrillers are about a missing child?

 The second story layer appeared when it turned out the whole thing was a hoax. Now it’s not about life and death, it’s about psychology. Now we had:

• a villain: the father who deceived us and forced his child to go along with the plan
• an innocent victim: the little boy, who was so uncomfortable with lying that he threw up—twice!
• an ambiguous character: the mother—was she a willing accomplice? Or was she bullied into it by the father? Why did she tell on him?
• a new mystery: what will be the father’s punishment? Will the kids be taken away?

 That has taken us into the realm of motive and of course our response is also fueled by outrage that we were fooled in the first place. My hunch is that this emotion is stronger at the moment than it would be in good times. We already feel like we’ve been fooled by the bankers and politicians and we know we still don’t have the full story, but it’s hard to pin down exactly who is lying and about what.

 With Balloon Boy father, it’s a lot simpler. My guess is that there’s going to be a big market over the next year or two for stories in which pinning blame is easier than it is in real life.

(for guidance in writing your book, get a copy of mine: "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey--see more information at www.yourwritingcoach.com)

F. Scott Fitzgerald on Hollywood

I just finished reading “The Disenchanted,” a fictionalized version of the time a young Budd Schulberg (the author of the book) spent with F. Scott Fitzgerald toward the end of the latter’s life. Fitzgerald, broke and suffering from alcoholism, took on the job of collaborating on a movie script about a winter carnival. Unfortunately it all ended badly.

 Knowing the background of the novel makes it worth a read. The book starts from the point of view of Schulberg’s alter ego, Shep, and then veers into a very long flashback about the famous novelist’s fall from grace, then brings back Shep but ends on the Fitzgerald character. This handling of POV leaves something to be desired but there are plenty of positives to compensate.

 Isn’t it weird how having even a tenuous connection to a book or film makes it more interesting? A good friend of mine is a distant relative of Fitzgerald and that has always made me feel that I have a slight link to him.

While I was reading this book, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about Fitzgerald’s Hollywood short story collection, “The Pat Hobby Stories.” It’s about a hack writer in the movie business, set in the 30’s --but not that much has changed. I think of these stories as the literary precursors of “Adventures in the Screen Trade.” If you’ve never encountered these stories and are at all interested in the film business, you’re in for a treat.

(Interested in writing your own novel? My book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey, will guide you from idea through to publication.)

Could this be a model for marketing your writing?

According to the blogger Destructive Anachronism, the formula for post-print literature may be “high quality content + innovative marketing + multimedia.” This was referenced in an article in the New York Times about a new quarterly literary magazine called “Electric Literature.”

 The publishers are making the magazine available on paper, as an ebook, on the Kindle, on the iPod and as an audiomag. They’re augmenting it with YouTube videos featuring collaborations between their writers and artists and musicians, and one of their authors is writing a short story using Twitter. For the first issue they had animations created for each of the short stories.

 I admit it: as an old-school reader and writer, sometimes I revel in the silence of paper. But I think it’s important to be aware of the new options available to us. As the article points out, we’re going to have to be innovative because writers “drown in the great middle between the mega-sellers like Dan Brown and the avant-garde work produced in small quantities.”

 At the moment, the magazine is still on the small side: 800 subscribers and 1600 single-copy sales, but their readership is growing quickly. (For more information see the New York Times article, or go to the electricliterature.com web site.)

 I like the attitude of one of the founders, Andy Hunter: “We have an optimistic message at a time of pessimism. As writers, we got tired of the doom and gloom. The future is not something you acquiesce to, it something you create.”

(for help in being more creative and productive sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm ebulletin by sending an email request to BstormUK@aol.com; also get my new book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson.)

 

Selling your writing one bite at a time

Simon & Schuster is going to sell individual chapters of medical books. People can search for an answer to their questions on the Ask Dr Oz site, and then purchase a related chapter—and go on to buy the entire book if they like.

 S & S’s chief digital officer said, “We plan to expand both the chapter selling model and use of our e-commerce widget in other content categories.”

 This could be a way to go a step beyond the “look inside” feature at sites like Amazon: let the potential buyer purchase a chapter for a low price, on the basis that if they like what they get they are pretty likely to buy the rest as well.

 If you’re writing non-fiction you could aggregate enough single-chapter purchases to make some money even when the sampling doesn’t result in the person buying the whole book.

 If you write fiction, maybe you’d offer the first chapter for a low price and end with a strong cliff hanger or tease. Of course you could also offer it free (which many authors already are doing) but if you can coax even a dollar out of the potential buyer, persuasion psychology tells us that having made that commitment makes them more likely to go on to buy the rest.

(for more innovative ideas on how to write and sell what you write, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey; and to ramp up your creativity, get my book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson--both available from your favorite online retailer.)

The amazing story of the lost photographer

A fascinating story in the Independent about Vivian Maier, a French nanny whose hobby was photography—maybe that’s an understatement, it seems more of a calling. A young Chicago real estate agent named John Maloof happened to buy much of her archive for a few hundred dollars, not really knowing what it contained. He ended up with 20,000 negatives and a thousand rolls of undeveloped film, each with 12-14 images, mostly of Chicago and New York.

 He put some of them online and it has caused a sensation, with Maeir being called a new star of mid-century American photography.

 Maloof found out she was still alive but too ill to see anyone and when he decided to make an effort to meet with her, he found out she’d died the previous day. He’s writing a book about her, featuring some of her best work.

 You can see examples of her work at the blog www.vivianmaier.com and read a bit more about the story. They’re brilliant black and white images—what an eye she had! One of the things that fascinates me is that she never showed her photos to anyone (and never saw many of them herself in print form, apparently). She must have been truly in love with the process for its own sake.

 A heartwarming PS to the story is that when, in old age, she fell upon hard times, three brothers she had nannied bought her an apartment and paid her bills until she died.

The truth about book reviews

Writing on his Fast Company blog, Adam Pennenberg said this about book reviews:

 “Book reviews don't sell books anymore. All they do is act as marketing fragments for publishers and authors to spin for promotion.

 

Good reviews help, at best, incrementally, and bad reviews hurt, at worst, incrementally. They're published then they disappear, living on as pithy testimonials on authors' Web sites, or on the back covers or in the fronts of paperback editions.

 

It wasn't always this way. A rave review 20 years ago in, say, The New York Times, Washington Post, or Publishers Weekly could usher an obscure author into the limelight.”

 

He mentions that his first book got about 30 reviews in a variety of publications, his second got seven, and his third (and current) looks to get just three, because the number of publications carrying book reviews keeps shrinking. I’ve noticed the same trend with my own books (even though I was never ushered into the limelight…).

 

Now it’s bloggers and Amazon reviews that make a difference. Pennenberg cites a study that shows the impact of a one-star review is greater than that of a five-star review.

 

Of course with Amazon reviews you’re at the mercy of anyone. Some years ago one of my books got a review in which I was called names and was accused of stealing someone else’s book title. It turns out this fellow had self-published a book with a vaguely similar name and had posted hate-reviews for half a dozen other books as well. Fortunately Amazon took down the reviews as well as the reviews of his own book (he’d either written them all himself or happened to have half a dozen reviewers with the same habit of using exclamation marks in every sentence).

 

On the other hand, I’ve been fortunate to receive emails from people who have enjoyed my books and usually I ask them to please post a review on Amazon or their other favorite online site—and some are nice enough to take the time to do it. (Hint: if you’ve read one of my books and liked it, it would be great if you could do the same.)

How writers and others can build a platform (part 8 - the last, for now)

In this final (at least for now) segment on building your platform, let’s look at how you can make people aware of what you’re offering them. It’s one thing to make a video or write a special report, but it’s another to actually get people to watch or read it. Here are six ways to get the word out:

 Write articles for distribution services like ezinearticles.com. They don’t charge you for uploading your articles, and in your bio box you can include a link to a blog, a website, a podcast or the other location where people who are interested can find what you’re offering. Naturally the articles should relate closely to the thing you’re offering.

 Create “trailers” to put up on YouTube. Be sure that the key words you put with the video are precise so that people who are searching for videos on your topic will find them.

 Let bloggers who are in your field but not directly competitive in terms of what you offer know about it. I know from the experience of writing a blog post every day that bloggers are happy to get material they can use.

 Consider the use of low-cost online ads on sites and blogs that are closely related to your topic. These can cost as little as a few dollars or pounds and while the readership typically is low, they will have a high degree of interest in your arena.

 Cross-promote. If you have a blog, be sure people who visit it can sign up for your e-bulletin, if you have one. If you send out a free report, include your website and blog addresses in big print and in several locations. Use the auto-signature feature on your email to include links to your blog or website.

 Consider using ads in offline media. Again, ideally this would be in a specialist publication that targets exactly the group you want to reach. These don’t have to be huge ads—in fact, start by testing whether classified ads work for you, and then try small display ads. Haggle—very few people pay the amounts on a magazine’s official rate cards.

 I hope this series has been helpful. If you have other ideas or are willing to share your experiences in building a platform, please get in touch at jurgenwolff(at)gmail.com. And keep reading this blog because I’ll be adding new ideas and strategies from time to time. You can also get more ideas from my book, “Your Writing Coach” published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers and if you’d like me to guide you through to your writing goal over the course of 60 days, see my new Breakthrough Strategy coaching program at www.jurgenwolff.com.

How to make your story work better (part 2 of 2)

In the previous post I mentioned that it strengthens a story when the story’s key event interrupts something else more normal that’s going on. One more tip in terms of story dynamics is to try to make sure each scene reveals character as well as advancing the plot.

 For instance, I gave the example of a sitcom plot in which the son in the family is being bullied. We might have a scene in which the father tries to teach his son to defend himself and the mother objects and says violence never solves anything. So far, so predictable. But if the father reveals that when he was a kid, he tried to reason with a bully and the boy humiliated him in front of a crowd of other kids, suddenly we find the father a more vulnerable and sympathetic character and have discovered something about him that we didn’t know before.

 If you watch a well-written drama or comedy series like “Mad Men,” you’ll soon spot a lot of examples of how good writers consistently manage to reveal character as they move the plot forward.

(Would you like me to guide you through to your writing goal over the course of 60 days? See my new Breakthrough Strategy Program at www.jurgenwolff.com)