Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Below are the writing-related links I tweeted last week.

The Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine, designed by software engineer and writer Mike Fleming, makes all these links searchable—try it for searches on plotting, characterization, querying, book promo, and more. Sign up for the free monthly WKB newsletter for the web’s best links and interviews: http://bit.ly/gx7hg1 .

I’m compiling a directory of ebook professionals—cover designers, formatters, freelance editors, etc.—to make it easier for writers to connect with services. The directory can be accessed here.

I released an ebook last week. Progressive Dinner Deadly is a Myrtle Clover mystery and is currently available for $2.99 (currently on sale for $.99 for a Labor Day weekend sale) on Kindle and Nook. Hope you’ll mention it to any friends who enjoy mysteries.

9 Reasons to Attend Local Writers Conferences: http://bit.ly/oMVou9 @keligwyn

101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part II: http://bit.ly/oIIfjk @Writeitsideways

The Myth of the Lone Creative Genius: http://bit.ly/plMCq8 @JaneFriedman

The Repeats and the Choruses–the Rhythm of Our Writing: http://bit.ly/oxUI0Y

How writers can deal with frustration: http://bit.ly/pX2ySM

Red Flags for Female Characters Written By Men: http://bit.ly/rq8Gtl

The art and science of Twitter: http://bit.ly/qckMfd

Organizing your writing–3 writers with tips: http://bit.ly/mZDUdg

1 writer’s book launch party: http://bit.ly/mQ7Erm

Real Life Diagnostics: Hooking the Reader From the Start: http://bit.ly/oSDds7

Physical descriptions put readers in your place: http://bit.ly/qfG97s

Why bad decisions make good stories: http://bit.ly/nvCm0E

Resources for historical and suspense writers: http://bit.ly/noNe4B

Defining and using authorial voice: http://bit.ly/nlpync @authorterryo

What Do Authorship and Entrepreneurship have in Common? http://bit.ly/rdxOcV @thecreativepenn

The difference between an IP lawyer and a contracts lawyer (& why writers should care): http://bit.ly/nlIopi @PassiveVoiceBlg

Preparing for success–the mental game: http://bit.ly/qqTX0E @jillkemerer

5 Tips On Being Naked In Front of an Audience: http://bit.ly/rcbU24 @roniloren

7 Ways to Pay it Forward Online: http://bit.ly/nsOucM @MarianSchembari

8 tools for plotting (& plot-driven v. char. driven stories) : http://bit.ly/nu5pk3

A new book discovery search engine tracks 32,160 distinct data points per book: http://bit.ly/pJtPlr

An Agent Identifies Signs of Overwriting and Explains Why It’s a Problem: http://bit.ly/qued2c

Help plotting mysteries–juxtaposition of clues: http://bit.ly/nd5H3q @HP4Writers

Buying Internet Advertising For Your Book: Part I: http://bit.ly/qkSDso @BlurbIsAVerb

Writing 411: Picture Book E-Queries: http://bit.ly/qvTcOX @WriteAngleBlog

The Basics For Novice Writers: The DON’TS In Article Querying: http://bit.ly/rjl2hn

Can you split your novel into 4 equal parts? http://bit.ly/oXKS4a @dirtywhitecandy

How Readers Become Addicts: The Elasticity of Demand (Pricing of Ebooks): http://bit.ly/pQgIG1 @thecreativepenn

Remind agents and editors who you are if you’ve met them at conferences: http://bit.ly/oLHYEl

10 Ways To Ensure You Never Have A Writing Career: http://bit.ly/pCMsKs @sarahahoyt

Character-led fiction: http://bit.ly/p8Jlu8

How to Satisfy Your Reader without Being Predictable: http://bit.ly/obbvJP @anncrispin

Bodies found in bathtubs in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/nT7jy4 @mkinberg

When Your Writing Becomes The Enemy Of Your Writing: http://bit.ly/qeIIyz

A look at key story elements in ‘Love and Gladiators’: http://bit.ly/qEecDY

What to do if Your Copyright is Infringed: http://bit.ly/oZwnCB @PassiveVoiceBlg

Publishing terms to know: http://bit.ly/or6RSD

10 traits of writers who speak from the heart: http://bit.ly/pFuiKC

Get Started Guide: Blogging for Writers: http://bit.ly/p20ld9 @JaneFriedman

How to Critique Works That You Find Awful: http://bit.ly/qUAZLE

A method for developing an elevator pitch: http://bit.ly/r5792b

Is Your Writing Cup Half Empty Or Half Full? http://paranormalpointofview.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-your-writing-cup-half-empty-or-half.html

Conflict & Characterization: Lessons from an Old Anime: http://bit.ly/oH9m0S

An Aspiring Writer’s Guide to Conventions and Conferences: http://bit.ly/ngJcQ4

All about back matter (material at the end of the book): http://bit.ly/ns1bvv @BubbleCow

10 Tips for the Time-Strapped Writer: http://bit.ly/onQHre @CherylRWrites

Getting Jitters While Waiting For Feedback on Our Books: http://bit.ly/rqmMGe @JodyHedlund

Author Sues Publisher for Restraint of Trade: http://bit.ly/nCRI2Q @passivevoiceblg

How to get published in a magazine: http://bit.ly/rqmMGe

Writing a mystery? How to feed misinformation to your readers: http://bit.ly/pqNpZU @HP4Writers

Choreography of dialogue attribution: http://bit.ly/pQc6KO

Barnes & Noble Posts Q1 Net Loss of $57M: http://bit.ly/nwtrlw @galleycat

An agent reminds us that we’re not Tolstoy or Dickens: http://bit.ly/nmic1I

Are all distractions bad? http://bit.ly/r5IugC @JamiGold

Why Success Always Starts With Failure: http://bit.ly/nL6RNI

Why 1 writer chose to self-publish: http://bit.ly/pZq1Uq @dirtywhitecandy

Education in Fantasy Worlds: http://enchantedinkpot.livejournal.com/100753.html

A translator explains the challenges of translation in America: http://bit.ly/qXzzp5

10 tips for authors using social media: http://bit.ly/qLlYF3

5 Ways to Keep Parallel Lists on Track: http://bit.ly/nSt1wf

Breaking the Writing Rules Can Lead to Failure or Possibly to Magic: http://bit.ly/pF3Wm7 @4kidlit

Giving a talk? Death by PowerPoint — How to Avoid it: http://bit.ly/pakKYr

The Kid in You: The Untapped Resource in All of Us: http://bit.ly/pEHN8U

Tips for writing a synopsis: http://bit.ly/n5qeW6 @WriteAngleBlog

Tips for getting more blog comments: http://bit.ly/pmJCHn @spunkonastick

7 Surprising Ways Blogging Can Change Your Life: http://bit.ly/pznsUf

The Future of Publishing: Make Your Own Audiobooks: http://bit.ly/qt5CON @clarissadraper

An interview with industry expert Jane Friedman on author platforms: http://bit.ly/qhGwq5

For writers located outside the US–how 1 author got an ITIN (US Taxpayer ID) for epubbing: http://bit.ly/oFYpFy @dirtywhitecandy

Your character’s 1st impression: http://bit.ly/odEyq4 @erinlthomas

6 essential elements for writing success: http://bit.ly/qxUVKI @jillkemerer

1 writer’s method for staying in 1 POV: http://bit.ly/n51q6K

Resources for character development: http://bit.ly/ovkuEB @FaeRowen

Reading is wealth creation for writers: http://bit.ly/rquO0R @annerallen

Critiquing pointers for beginners: http://bit.ly/rkH3rY , http://bit.ly/qEl7Vb , http://bit.ly/qKcwmU @marybaka

Self-Care for Writers and Obsessive Creatives http://bit.ly/nrON5w @JanetBoyer

10 things not to do when building characters: http://bit.ly/qNnclm @JulieMusil

Top 10 Dirty Fighting Techniques For Your Writing: http://bit.ly/nkOAHV @jhansenwrites

Taking on time management: http://bit.ly/noVXCl @Mommy_Authors

How to Report Scraper Sites to Google: http://bit.ly/noeUkf @galleycat

5 Great Fonts for Book Covers: http://bit.ly/nfJs6F #ebooks @JFbookman

May Contain Nuts Or Nudity: Labeling on Book Covers: http://bit.ly/nLLmK8 @BTMargins

3 types of secondary characters: http://bit.ly/mT2pgW

Tips for learning something new: http://bit.ly/n2Z8Te

There’s already tons of free content for readers. But writers are still making money: http://bit.ly/mWHuTX

An agent explains how much to share online: http://bit.ly/p04QFA

Why Writers Need to Understand Marketing: http://bit.ly/pWoh8O

You Say Editing, I Say Proofreading: http://bit.ly/q7RyC7

5 ways to promote your Kindle #ebook online: http://bit.ly/roSnRu

The formula for great blog content: http://bit.ly/oUp5EU

Unreliable narrators in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/oAxGi3 @mkinberg

Will the World End When Publishers Stop Paying Advances or Immediately Afterwards? http://bit.ly/o0L1jz @PassiveVoiceBlg

11 Blog (& Manuscript) Proofreading Tips You Can’t Afford to Ignore: http://bit.ly/pAwkFn #editing

101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part 3: http://bit.ly/qFD3Qt @writeitsideways

A new weekly roundup on @JaneFriedman ‘s blog by industry follower & journalist @Porter_Anderson: http://bit.ly/qeFAFn

How to Host a Video Book Club Visit: http://bit.ly/o5QduP @galleycat

4 Goals to Polish Your Story: http://bit.ly/qTuEuP

10 Tips For Becoming A Top-Notch Proofreader: http://bit.ly/oSILxc

‘Ask an author’ feature added to Kindle: http://bit.ly/quovxU

Trying to sell books? Get sticky: http://bit.ly/peRuxs

Tips for Writing Distinct Character Voices: http://bit.ly/oc4Fjg

Tips for writing sequels and series: http://bit.ly/oxYx3Q @Sarafurlong

The Evolution of Middle-Grade Fantasy and Television: http://bit.ly/r8yPpz @KgElfland2ndCuz

19 Ways to Get More Readers for Your Author Blog: http://bit.ly/nWggLF

Test Driving Scrivener Software for Writers: http://bit.ly/pw0Eqt

3 Factors That Influence How Much Editing a Book Gets: http://bit.ly/q1p8Cp @JodyHedlund

Three Acts, Two Acts or No Acts? http://bit.ly/oI7Vy3

An interview w/ @JaneFriedman, who encourages writers to experiment w/ different soc media platforms: http://bit.ly/qwtNfp

My tweets are archived and searchable at the free Writer’s Knowledge Base: http://bit.ly/dYRayA

10 things to consider when pricing #ebooks: http://bit.ly/pOjVz7

The importance of tagging blog posts: http://bit.ly/nzQi6d @keligwyn

Why You Should Be Writing at Night: http://bit.ly/oLlBxm

Ebooks: Time to Diversify Your Portfolio? http://bit.ly/qzNmFf #ebooks

Joe Konrath on a formula for success: http://bit.ly/p0NpHi #ebooks

Simple things 1 writer wishes she’d known about writing (that her editor pointed out to her): http://bit.ly/pJSEA7 @LadyGlamis

Your author brand–tips for creating one and where writers hang out on Twitter: http://bit.ly/qH4BQO @jhansenwrites

The power of deadlines: http://bit.ly/mS10hm @CherylRWrites

A helpful thesaurus for settings, emotions, symbolism, weather, & character traits: http://bit.ly/eIGRMO @angelaackerman

Search my tweets– http://dld.bz/KPgS

7 Signs Your Manuscript May Not Be Ready For Prime Time: http://bit.ly/niLx58 @Grammar_Diva

How much do readers factor into what you write? http://bit.ly/peiERz

Rejection and Persistance: http://bit.ly/pzCOUa @BTMargins

Best Articles This Week for Writers 9/2/11: http://bit.ly/nmW5yb @4kidlit

Progressions Make the Story Worse and Worse–and That’s Good: http://bit.ly/nA2Loq

An Author’s Guide to Free Sales Data: http://bit.ly/p7eQ8W @BlurbIsAVerb

How Do Superpowers Affect Your Characters’ Perspectives and Worldviews? http://bit.ly/qP3k5v

Why We Think “I Want To Quit Writing!” And Why We Can’t: http://bit.ly/nsz4Xf @MuseInks

4 ways to look at your whole story: http://bit.ly/qbRhzO @sierragodfrey

8 Ways to Write Better Characters: http://bit.ly/nmbA38 @WritersDigest

5 writers explain how they prevent saggy book middles: http://bit.ly/pw8ONl

Build Your Platform – Get Yourself Some Gigs: http://bit.ly/q7g316

Making Characters Multi-Dimensional: http://bit.ly/rlL7pO @jeanniecampbell

The Business of Screenwriting: Script readers, Hollywood’s threshold guardians: http://bit.ly/qnYaxx @GoIntoTheStory

A peek into the world of book cover design: http://authorculture.blogspot.com/2011/08/peek-into-world-of-book-cover-design.html

Clever Costuming to Convey Character: http://bit.ly/oWBNQb @StephanieLMcGee

On the prevalence of US tropes in storytelling: http://bit.ly/qool1q @aliettedb

Movies vs. Fanfiction: http://bit.ly/pvnd7c

15 Household Technologies Recreated in #Steampunk: http://bit.ly/qmuJ8k

5 Big Media Appearance Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make: http://bit.ly/n9Qzhj @BookMarketer

How Evernote helped 1 writer go paper-free: http://jamietr.livejournal.com/1447571.html

Books With Soundtracks: The Future of Reading? http://bit.ly/pWOY2B

Does Your Character Need a Job? http://bit.ly/pX1rbF

Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: You Can Only Write What Is Hot: http://bit.ly/oZwqYe @DeanWesleySmith

Convention readings: what to read, and how to get an audience: http://bit.ly/nOiFeM @JulietteWade

Traditional Publishing: Pros & Cons: http://bit.ly/pYH3Ji

1 reason why we should know our characters well: http://bit.ly/r4fyWf

There’s a festival of music, rides, art, and food that Matthews, North Carolina, is regionally known for.

It’s always on Labor Day weekend and it’s called Matthews Alive.  Every year there are over 200, 000 visitors to the festival. This for a suburb of Charlotte that usually only has 25,000 residents.

The cogs that keep the Matthews Alive festival turning are the volunteers.  There are a couple of local organizations that fill most of the volunteer slots.  My son belongs to both of them. :)

So I’ve got a busy weekend.  I was asked to volunteer on behalf of both Scouts and marching band.  So it was Scouts yesterday and it’ll be ticket sales for band tomorrow.

Art is one component of the festival.  I fondly hoped for my volunteer duty to incorporate the arts in some respect.

Instead, I was assigned traffic duty.

If I’d been a character in one of my own books, I’d have loved putting me in this situation.  After all—I’m an introvert who hates drawing attention to myself.  I avoid crowds at all costs.

So… why not put this person in a Day-Glo outfit in the middle of a huge crowd of people, in charge of doing something she doesn’t know how to do?

My gig tomorrow isn’t any better….ticket sales.  Have I mentioned that the left side of my brain is apparently completely missing?

This is one reason why it’s important to know our  characters well—we need to know how to stress them out.  It’s important to be able to provide little bits of tension or conflict.  It’s good to know how to trip them up, knock them off-balance, and see how they’ll react.

We can learn our characters either by doing an activity like a character worksheet (check out this link for some that might help), or by just thinking about our character and how they might act in different situations.  We could even walk through our usual day, with a virtual character….thinking about how they might react to different things we encounter that day—what would they do differently?

I did survive my stint of traffic duty.  I learned a lot, too…maybe I grew as a character. :)

How do you get to know your character?  Tormented your character lately?

I always take emails that I get from readers very, very seriously. Actually, I listen to them just as much as I do to my editors.

And I watch market trends, too, especially for the types of books that I write (traditional mysteries, also known as cozies.) I try not to take myself too seriously…it’s really all about the readers and what they want.

So when I received an email a few days ago from a lady who expressed her interest in reading my books, but first wanted to know if I used profanity in my series, I paid attention.

This isn’t the first time I’ve received an email like that. In addition, I’ve also noticed a rise in sites like Clean Cozy Mysteries and Genre Reviews (with a blog subtitle that states: In Search of Well-Written, Clean Novels), and an Amazon forum topic on ‘clean mysteries‘. It all makes me think.

Let’s face it, I’m trying to accommodate as many readers as possible. Do I write for myself? Yes. But I wouldn’t try to be published at all if I were only writing for myself. I’m not trying to be an artist—I’m trying to provide entertainment. Am I losing anything by writing John cursed, or using alternate expletives in place of real ones? If I’m not, why not just leave it out?

I’ve never gotten an email from a reader saying how much they enjoy profanity in my books.

Now of course, this only goes so far. If readers asked me to try my hand at a genre that was out of my reach or to make a change in my books that I felt strongly against doing, I’d have to politely tell them that was something I couldn’t accommodate them with.

But if there’s a slight change I can make that could possibly pick up new readers without losing old ones? Sure, I’m willing to make that change.

In fact, I have. I let the lady know that I had a book coming out in November with no profanity in it, and a series debuting next year that was expletive-free, too. But I couldn’t direct her to my first three books. :)

How about you? How far are you willing to go to make your book reach more readers? How much do your readers factor into what you write?

I just finished reading a book for my book club: Monster by Walter Dean Myers.

The 16 year old protagonist, Steve, is on trial for murder. He’s portrayed as a terrified and nearly frantic youth who is trying to make sense of the justice system and what he’s experiencing.

Myers used an interesting technique in the story. Steve, an aspiring screenwriter, records his trial in the form of a screenplay…with camera angles, etc., included. The protagonist’s reasoning for doing this is that by looking at the process through a lens, he gets a little distance from the events, which calms him a little.

Interspersed with the screenplay is a journal that Steve uses. Readers, I think, need this diary for insights into Steve’s thoughts and feelings and to help them relate to the character more.

As a writer, I’ve worked to get my readers as close as possible to my protagonist—especially in the last two books I’ve written. I want my readers to see the world through my protagonists’ eyes, feel what they feel, and relate to them. I want the characters to be very likeable.

But there are many books with main characters that readers may feel ambivalent about. This was the case with Monster. Is the protagonist guilty or innocent? There was always some distance between myself and Steve. Maybe I knew how the character felt now, but I wasn’t privy to all his thoughts—only the ones he recorded. But because the writer had made the protagonist interesting to me, I kept reading to try to learn more about him.

I wasn’t even completely sure I believed the protagonist (which was, I think, the author’s plan.) So there was a bit of the unreliable narrator going on.

I thought it was an interesting approach—but not one that I’d take with my traditional mysteries. I create flawed protagonists…but I try to make the character flaws things that ordinary readers would relate to.

How close do you let readers get to your protagonist? If you’re creating narrative distance, what are you achieving with that effect (for Monster I think it was to create discussion between readers…as I’m sure I’ll find at my book club meeting)? As a reader, do you like protagonists that are open books, or characters that you can’t quite figure out?

I’ve always heard that it’s important to learn something new every day.

But lately, I feel like I’ve been learning fifty new things a day, trying to keep up with publishing and social media trends.

In many ways, it’s wonderful having so much information available out there. If we want to become traditionally published and need to learn how to write a query letter, polish our manuscripts, or pen a pithy synopsis, we can find resources online to help us.

If we want to learn how to self-publish a book, how to format for different platforms, or where to promote a self-published book, we can find that information, too.

This can result in information overload. When I joined a loop for self-publishing info and was encouraged by the moderator to read the archives, I saw a year’s worth of information on there. (And, with e-publishing, a year might be outdated. So you also have to decide what’s still relevant.)

I started reading the information. I had a moment there, though, when I really didn’t want to do it! Now, though, I’ve learned a lot more about e-publishing.

Here was my method for learning something new:

Know what information you’re looking for. It will take even more time if you’re just trying to read everything you can on a particular subject (although that’s definitely one way of learning something new!) In particular, I was looking for information on different e-publishing platforms, where the e-reading public hangs out online, insights on pricing, and how other writers balance self-publishing with traditional publishing.

Pace yourself. If you’ve already got a full schedule, cramming a bunch of information in at once is probably just going to lead to burnout. I found myself getting absorbed in the research, so I set a timer. When the timer went off, I stopped reading up on the subject. I’ve got lots of other things I need to do. Or, if you’re putting off your research on the topic, setting a timer for 15 minutes (or whatever your allotted time is) is a great way to remind yourself that you don’t have to study for very long.

Jot down anything you don’t understand. Sometimes I run across mentions of loops, groups, forums, and sites that I wasn’t familiar with. I also ran into some formatting terminology I didn’t know. I make notes of things to look up later.

Remember that you can contact primary sources for information. Anytime I’ve asked a writer or industry professional a question, I’ve always gotten an informative response back. If you have questions about something, email an expert.

If you have to take a break from learning the skill, make a date on the calendar for picking it back up. Because learning is time-consuming…and it would be so easy to just let it slide.

Don’t try to catch up with everyone else. Just jump in and start learning. No catching up is necessary. Again, pace yourself.

Keep a Word file of the most useful information. It’s sort of like having your own reference file.

Learned anything new lately? Got any tips? And—do you ever feel like you’re overloaded with information and resources?