What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading Hollow City, the second in the Miss Peregrine series. Now I've started on the latest book in the Pretty Little Liars series, Toxic. *sigh* Those books just keep coming and coming and I'm getting sick of them but I really need to know what happens!!! I'm also reading Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us which is really interesting, informative and scary!!

What I'm Writing
Before I took my blog hiatus, I worked my ass off to get two - three posts up a week. Part of the reason I stopped it because I just couldn't sustain that any more. I was writing my blog instead of writing my book and my book is the whole reason for my blog in the first place! So when I came back to my blog I decided I would post when I could and when I wanted to but not feel the pressure to have to post all the time, and it's helpful. So i'm still working away on my WIP, the one I finished and then completely rewrote. If all goes well I should have my first draft finished by the end of day!!! *cue applause* so fingers crossed!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Two things - adventure and summer. I'm trying to make the most of the weather by exploring the UK, seeing what's in and around London and heading out of the city for day trips. Last weekend we headed to Epping Forest and took a walk through the trees (unfortunately summer didn't come to the party and we had a picnic in the rain) but even still! For me, it was very inspiring as the scene I was about to go home and write involved a forest. How convenient!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
I'm still unemployed. It's VERY depressing. The UK job market is tough to crack into! So it's been really hard but I've been looking and applying for jobs an awful lot! I also have been making an effort to get out and do as much as I can (as given the job situation I don't know how long i'll realistically be able to stay in London...). SO a week ago I headed into Trafalgar Square where they put on this free event called West End Live. Stars from all the Broadway shows came out and sung numbers from their shows! It was so great! While Les Miserables and Wicked are my all time favourite, I loved seeing the performances from the upcoming revamp of Miss Saigon. The Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia songs got the whole crowd on their feet dancing. It was fun!!

I also went to a creative writing course with my man (who has finally decided to unleash his creative writing potential and write his own book!) The course was on intricate storylines and while it was interesting it was more geared at those who hadn't started writing their book and possibly didn't even have an idea in mind. So for me I didn't find it particularly helpful at this point in time but I think Jesse did. There was also a lot of workshopping which I wasn't a huge fan of.... just lecture me!

I checked out a performance of The Drowned Man which is put on by Punchdrunk of Sleep No More fame. It was really good! It had a similar style to Sleep No More - four floors of set, audience members wear masks and they're free to wander as they want to follow the stories they choose to follow. It was really complicated but a great show. If you've seen Sleep No More.... think bigger - bigger cast, bigger (and way more) storylines.... bigger. It was awesome

We also went to the Southbank Philharmonia Concert on Friday where they performed 'screen themes'. We're talking theme songs from the favourites - Indiana Jones, Ghost Busters, James Bond, Batman, Superman and so many more. Then they ended with a few songs from their new Abba album which had everyone up on their feet. Best Orchestral concert I've ever been to!

The week ended at Wimbledon where we sat for many hours watching an empty court in the rain (and totally not dressed for the cold!) but then finally got to see some quality action. We saw Serena Williams defeated by Alize Cornet. Wowza it was an epic game. Pretty sad actually too, I was cheering for Serena but almost everyone else in the crowd was going for Alize.

So that's pretty much me! How's your weeks been? I'm going to leave you with this little picture as I thought it was quite clever....

Writers and Social Media - Blogs

I decided to combine these two topics because they're not as big as the previous two - Facebook and Twitter.

Blogs

There's been a lot of debate in the past about about whether it is necessary or relevant for authors to have a blog. To be honest, I think it's up to each individual whether they want to upkeep a blog or not. It's challenging, that's no secret. It's hard to know what to write and how often to post, it's hard to find the time between the writing and for many of us, the full time jobs. One thing I would say is that if you're going to have a blog, it's important to use it. You don't necessarily need to post every week, but it's helpful if you can try to have something published on your blog every month.

For those who are committed to maintaining a blog, it's a great idea to get involved in the online writing community. I've posted in the past about how incredible and supportive they are, and there are plenty of writing and reading blog hops to participate in and you can really get to know some of the other bloggers out there and develop some great friendships. (I'm assuming most of the people reading this are already part of the writing community anyway already know how great you all are ;-) )

But what do you say on a blog? What do you write about?

Of course this is entirely up to you, but there are many ways to develop your blog, and this can depend on where in the writing cycle you are.

You can talk about books you've been reading, you can study the reading and writing news and provide a social commentary on it (almost like an editorial), you can talk about your book or your writing process, you could talk about how you edit a book or how you formulate ideas, you could talk about what motivates you and gets you in the mood. You can see what others are blogging about and provide responses or, particularly if you've had a book published, you can blog your tips and tricks for writing. A person who I think has done this particularly well is Veronica Roth, who regularly blogs with great advice about ways to write a novel and ways to edit. Of course these tips won't work for everyone because this very much depends on the type of person and writer you are. Whereas for me, Veronica's personality and creative process is very similar to mine, so when I first began to get into writing I read every single post she had published on her blog and took on board all the tips and tricks she was sharing with her followers.

Another way to use your blog is to run competitions. I've come across many writers running competitions from their blogs and it certainly is a great way to discover new writers. One person who has done this particularly well is Jessica Khoury. In the lead up to Origin being released she ran a competition through her blog (smart because you can't run them through Facebook) and she tied it in with real world events - The 2012 London Olympics. She called it the Origin Olympics. You had to complete tasks which would see those entering the competition to change their Facebook and Twitter profile picture to the cover of Origin. This meant the picture of the book cover was all of social media. She also had people tweeting about the competition - getting the name of the book and the link to the competition out there, and she had people posting about the competition and the upcoming release of the book on their blogs. Jessica is an avid Pinterest user, and she had a folder of great images which she then had those entering the contest to write short 500 word stories to go with the picture. Such a great idea. The competition spanned over all the social media sites and got Origins name out there into the great wide world of Cyberspace.

So there are various ways you can utilise your blog. Again, as with Facebook and Twitter, I would recommend you ensure you have the comment section turned on on your blog and to respond to comments that come through. It's nice for people to hear their words are being heard. Similarly, go to other blogs and comment on what others are posting about. Not only will it expand your knowledge in this industry, it will allow you to make connections and may give you some ideas of what you can write about on your blog.

There are of course other social media sites you can utilise to your advantage - Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, however they're all pretty self explanatory. Use Pinterest to develop photo boards of your story. Find inspiration from the images that come up in your photo feed. Use YouTube to post small clips of your life or you talking about your book, or answering fan questions, and use Instagram to document the noteworthy things that happen in your daily life.

I hope all this talk of social media has helped and given you some ideas of how you can run your own social networking sites!

Writers and Social Media - Twitter

Recently I posted an entry about how using social media can be a very powerful tool for marketing yourself. I talked about Facebook and the ways in which you can use it to really connect with your fans and to marketing yourself and your writing.

Twitter

Now I'm going to talk about Twitter. Twitter is an interesting one because it's not as widely used as Facebook yet in a sense it can almost be more powerful. A single tweet on this social media platform can gain you huge reach. If a few influential people or organisations, or followers with many followers of their own, retweeted you, you could be hundreds of thousands of people seeing your tweet.

Twitter is also a great place to engage with your followers. If people have questions or comments about your book you can communicate with them easily, and safely. If one of your followers is a huge fan of your work, and they tweet you to tell you so, then you reply to them, you could quite possibly make their day. Heck, you could even make their year! You can use Twitter to create a real discussion within the platform and to build a real loyalty from your followers to you and your novels.

If you can get into people's twitter streams regularly, your name will be out there. You will get to the top of their list and stay in their mind. That's why frequency on Twitter is super important. When you post a tweet you may only have a minute of two before your tweet has disappeared off the feed of your followers. Especially if your followers are following hundreds of people. This is why you need to post on twitter numerous times a day. Not only do you need to post your own statuses but it's a very good idea to respond to any tweets that are directed immediately at you, and if possible, to even jump into other conversations that you see happening around you. That way you're spreading your name around, and it's quite likely Twitter lurkers who haven't heard of you before, may see your name of the feed of someone you're talking with, check out your twitter profile and then consequently check out your book.

Twitter is a great way to run competitions - especially competitions that involve retweeting one of your tweets, or that involve tweeting a message that includes your twitter handle (@author) and a possible hashtag (#thenameofmybook).

Now Twitter is a great platform for communicating with your fans and followers, but it's limited to a sense so it must work alongside other channels to deliver your goals. To do this you have to think about ways you can integrate with Pinterest, your blog and Facebook. How can you use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog? How can you run a competition between Pinterest and Twitter? These are things you can think about to really utilise your various social media platforms.

You can hold really great author Q&A via Twitter. Getting your fans to send in questions and then answering them either on Twitter or by making a Youtube video that you can post on both Facebook and Twitter. You need to figure out how active your audience are. If you ask a question, do many of them respond? If so you'll be able to do great audience engaging activities with them, to really get them excited, but if not then you need to use a different tactic - a more one sided approach.

Twitter is still a great place to give the audience "behind the scenes" glimpses - photos of your printed out manuscript, or the mess of a desk you're trying to write your story at. And in terms of what you say on Twitter, it's a great idea to use an editorial calendar again, however as you want to be posting numerous times each day you may want to have basic generic ideas and then see what happens each day.

You need to again be human and genuine. Even more so than on Facebook. On Twitter it's almost like a commentary of your life. Do not use it to send every tweet promoting your book. Talk about the giant steak you ordered for lunch that was bigger than your head, mention the crazy lady on the subway, talk about the beautiful forest walk you're going on, or the fluffy new dressing gown you can now wear while you're typing out your book. If I was tweeting right at this moment I would talk about the creepy noises that are coming from my wardrobe. It's so very human, and people enjoy that. People like to know that you're just like them. People can relate. Other people might be hearing creepy noises inside the walls of their house, or want to tell me that with a fluffy new dressing gown should also be a steaming cup of hot chocolate. People like to be involved. It creates the feeling that you're friends, and who knows, you could be. I have met so many incredible people on Twitter, and it primarily started as a few exchanged tweets. Remember, if you're friends with your followers, or at least if you respond to them and talk with them, that will create loyalty.

Again on Twitter, as with Facebook, you want to support others like you. You want to encourage other writers, and congratulate those who just signed a book deal, and talk about the latest great book you've read. You want to join the conversation, and make new connections. Help those who need it - if someone is asking a question which you know the answer to, don't be afraid to jump in there and help them out.

So, the things that work well on Twitter

·         Transparency – Twitter is all about honesty. No bull. It's a place to be honest about who you are, what’s happening behind the scenes. The more honest you are, the more followers you'll have. If something goes bad on Twitter you need to face up to it. If there is a mistake in your book that people have picked up on, just acknowledge it. If you slipped up and made a mistake in one of your tweets, don't delete that tweet and pretend it didn't happen, just face up to it. You're being honest, and you're being real.

·         Responsiveness – It’s not just about tweeting things out but you need to answer questions that are being asked and being responsive. But also being alert about what is being said about you and what is being said about your book, where people have problems and issues out there. Being responsive and on top of it. 

·         Conversation – If you have a conversation, responding, talking to people and if you have personality come through, be playful and intriguing then those things work well on Twitter.

·         Personality

·         Playfulness

·         Intrigue

·         Frequency – Twitter has such a short lifespan because the newsfeed always is moving, they see your Tweet in a feed, in a list etc just passing through so you need to be frequent.

·         Brand consistency – Very important. Be consistent with who you are, what you stand for and your writing. Think of yourself as a business. How you market and project yourself is how you're marketing and projecting your business. 

Being active on Twitter is the only way to build up your community. So the more you talk, the more you'll show up on people's feeds.

So, if you're stuck on what to write, there are 9 different kinds of Tweeting types you can choose from

1. Questions – Ask questions of your followers. What are you doing today, what are you working on, what are you reading at the moment.

 2. Information Sharing - So share content that is not created by you but your audience can benefit from. Maybe it's the top 100 YA books of 2013, or maybe it's an article about the strength of your particular genre.

3. Solve others’ problems – Find questions, look what’s coming through the feed and find a question you feel confident to answer, then hop into the conversation.

4. Opinions – Sharing your opinion, giving people a unique insight into your head. Be careful not to offend though, unless you're going for one of those 'opinionated, controversial authors' titles!

5. Link promotion – Tweeting links out to your own content. Utilise what content you’ve got going on and link to it. This means linking to your website, your blog, your facebook page, interviews you've done with others, guest blog posts you've done etc.

6. Community highlighting – Highlighting people in the community who have great stuff going on. Shows you  to be very community minded because you don’t want to just be tweeting about yourself. 

7. Conversation – Watch what people are saying in the sector and just respond to it. For example, Random and Penguin House merge - see what people are saying and respond to a couple of people's tweets. Really get into the conversation.

8. RT-ing information – Reinforces your goal, and shows that you're not all about you and plugging yourself

9. Slice of life – real human stuff, what are you thinking about right now, post a picture of your mega sandiwch and talk about how you just don't know if you can eat it all.

Most important - do not have an automatic DM saying, thanks for following me, here's a link to my amazon page where you can buy my new book. Honestly, you will lose so many followers that way.

Finally, consider using a dashboard such as hootsuite or sproutsocial or other alternatives to help you manage your feed. You can also write a lot of tweets in advance and schedule them to be posted at certain times to ensure you're not falling behind in your writing because you've fallen down the rabbit hole of social media.

So there's my reasonably long rant on Twitter. Again, if you have any burning questions, do let me know and i'll do my best to answer them for you! I hope this has helped those of you who are a little stuck on the Twitter side of things, although I know so many of you are Tweeting superstars. 

The Writing Community

Warning - I'm not witty at the best of times but this post rates 98% on the sappy factor.

This post isn't particularly about writing per se, but I wanted to write a post that talked about the online writing community in general.

I haven't been blogging for very long, it's really only been a couple of months since I started this blog and I still haven't told any of my friends or family about it yet. Mostly when I start a new blog, I tell people I know about it and get everyone to follow me, but my writing.... at the moment it's something I don't feel ready to share just yet. It's like it's my "dirty little secret" - just kidding ... but not really. One day I'll definitely tell them my blog exists, but it's almost like I need to prove to myself that I can really make a go at being a writer first.

There are very few people who I have told that I'm writing, and even fewer know about the plot of my WIP. A couple of people who have known me for a long time laughed when I told them I was writing a book.  I'd never really talked about my desire to write to them in the past, and because I'm not one of those authors who has been walking around with a notepad and pen since I was old enough to stand up, people didn't believe me when I said I wanted to be a writer. I have to say, it was quite disheartening to see people who know me so well laugh at the prospect of me working on a novel. It got to the point where I was embarrassed to tell people that I wanted to spend the next year focusing on my writing because I didn't want them to think I was a hopeless dreamer.

It is true that any desire I had to write had been kept under wraps most of my life. I didn't talk about it much, any writing that I did was channeled into other mediums like blogs, magazine articles, reviews, newspaper articles, school essays and the occasional short story here and there... I always loved writing, particularly creative writing, I just didn't figure there was any point in pursuing it because, quite frankly, I thought I was rubbish. I channeled all my energy into performance - singing, dance and drama - until I decided I was rubbish at them as well!

It wasn't until I was stuck in a horrible, dead end job which was going no where that I decided I really wanted a job that would let me write. I remember a conversation to my mother where I literally just whined about how all I wanted to do was write. My mum then mentioned something about me writing a novel. I'd never even considered the possibility of writing a book. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner because writing a novel would really be a combination of everything I love. I really try and make a conscious effort to focus on the things that make me happy in life, by doing what I love to do. This mentality gave me the final push to just go ahead and give it a try. While I have lived with this mentality for quite some time, I recently saw this video, which is quite inspiring, which might better help explain my 'seize the day' and 'do what you love' frame of mind.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was to talk about the writing community. When I started this blog I had no readers (I still don't think I have any regular readers, but it's nice to know my blog gets viewed by eyes other than my own from time to time)! After I started this blog I discovered a whole new part of cyberspace within the 'online writing community'. While I started reading a lot of other blogs written both by individuals and groups, one of my favourite places to check into regularly quickly became YA Highway. Aside from the great posts that are put up every few days, I love their weekly blog hop. Being able to discover new blogs and writers, and seeing everyone's answers to the weekly questions is my favourite part of the week. It is when the more personalized answers come out that the writing community has really given me 'warm fuzzies'. The questions that talk about aspects of our book or our future plans has always really surprised me. I certainly wasn't expecting the writing community to be so incredibly, unquestioningly supportive and lovely. It's really blown me away, and the comments I get on this blog really make me smile.

I'm kind of a 'blog noob' and can't always figure out how to follow people... in fact I've only just figured out how to schedule posts and imbed YouTube videos (oh the shame), but I'm working on figuring it out (I get the ones that say 'google connect' but after that I'm stumped... help?!) because all the other writers blogs I've been reading on here have really impressed me and I've learned so much from this community.

**update - I've FINALLY figured out how to put the 'followers' section in there. I always wondered why it was never showing up.... and here I was thinking I was tech savvy!**

So I just wanted to write a quick (well I intended it to be quick but it's actually rather long) post about how thankful I am to the writing community for being your amazing selves, for the lovely post comments (I will never, ever stop loving the awesome blog post comments) and for being all around awesome. The support I receive from others in the writing community really encourages me to be proud about my writing, to not want to keep it a secret, and encourages me to keep going. It fuels my love and passion for the written word and it inspires me to reach higher than I ever thought possible. I'm excited about talking more to all the amazing writers on here, learning from them and supporting them in their own endeavors.