The Writer's Playlist--The Fog of Writing by Barenaked Ladies

You can find the most amazing things on YouTube. And the craziest. I love it! This week I'll be sharing fun songs about writing. Hope you enjoy!

This one is from a dear friend's favorite group. Seriously, she talks about BNL all the time. Of course they'd have a song about writing. They are referring to writing songs, but it fits any form of writing.

 Did you find yourself dancing along? What parts called out to you and your current writing?

I loved the beginning about changing names and tense, but if you substitute the word novel for song the whole thing is perfect.

The fog of writing is like the fog of war. 

You lie to yourself, and you pretend you can do it so you can do it some more.

You make things right, and make some sense. 

You change names to protect the guilty and you change the tense. 

Can I change your mind? 

This [novel] could be the one!

Yep, been there. Felt and thought every one of those lines. How about you?

Marketing Ups and Downs

While I'm waiting to hear what you'd like to see on UB, I thought I'd post a few questions.

Marketing is a big deal for writers no matter how you publish. Some people seem to just GET this. Most of us struggle. Here's what slows down my marketing:

• No money or very little to allocate to marketing
• No time--I need to be writing, not marketing
• The things I know how to do don't provide an increase of sales anymore (tweeting, blog tours, facebook messaging)
• I don't know where to start
• I don't know where to find my audience--or I can't afford to travel to them at comicons
• I haven't the slightest idea how to get on the radio, or in the paper (at least not legally and without spending some time in jail)
• Thinking about marketing sucks all the life out of me
• There are too many other demands on my time
• Craft fairs and farmer's markets aren't the best place to sell books--at least its a hit and miss kind of thing
• It's time consuming searching for blog reviewers to beg them to read and review honestly
• I gave away 1000 e-copies and didn't get a single review so what's the freakin' point anyway??

What slows or prevents you from marketing?

Okay, now that my heart rate is up and I'm feeling super anxious. Let's calm down and talk about things that have worked in regards to marketing.

• In the past, I had success with guest posting on blogs and twitter blasts. However, I think the internet is so saturated with book tours that they are no longer noticeable. Perhaps that's why it's better to go the interview/character interview or simply blogging on a topic or theme from your story. It allows the reader to get a deeper insight into the author and book than a simple BUY MY BOOK because it's OUT kind of thing.
• I love setting up a booth at some fair and interacting with people. There aren't a lot of bookstores here so it's my only option. Talking with people about your book lets them see your excitement. Passion about anything is contagious. 

See, my marketing experience is woefully small. I've created a mailing list, but I'm not sure how to build the list. 

What has worked for you in the marketing department?

Do you have a newsletter? How do you find/convince people to sign up for it?

We Need Your Feedback for the New Year

christmastreeideas.tumblr.com

First, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Holidays to everyone else. All of us at Unicorn Bell hope you enjoy this season and move safely into a wonderful New Year.

It will be quiet here this week, but we really need your help. We've spent lots of time wondering how we can improve Unicorn Bell. How can we re-energize the blog and our followers? The biggest question is always, What Do YOU Need From Us?

Please take 5 minutes to fill out our survey form. Your answers will make the difference in posts for the new year.

Thanks!

A year of Blogfests and Contest, Starting with Love is In the Air

This year at Unicorn Bell, we are going to have more fun! Yep. We want to enjoy writing again for the sake of writing. Whether it be something serious or silly, we want to write something just to see if we can. No strings or expectations attached.

How are we going to do this you ask?

Blogfests and contests!

We will have several throughout the year and anyone and everyone is invited to play. Here are some of the ideas we're tossing around...

Blogfests
Love is in the Air
Twisted Fairy Tales--genre wars
Breathe More, Talk Less--dive into the senses, little to no dialogue
Critique Partner Pitches--you've got to sell yourself!
Facebook Blog Hop--no strings attached, just a list to browse and find new friends
Action vs. Suspense

Contests (with prizes!)
100 word Drabble--use specific words
1st Paragraphs or Pages
3 line Pitches
Every Which Way the Wind Blows--Themed topic
Dialogue Challenge--Dialogue between two people, no tags. Can you make it work?
QueryCon 2014--Our annual 3 week intensive workshop and agent/editor judged query workshops

We obviously won't get to do all of them, so which ones peak your interest? Anything else you'd love to see as a blogfest? Tell us down in the comments.

Now, for our first blogfest of 2014...in honor of the quickly approaching Valentine's day...

It's a celebration of that little thing called love. Be it steamy or sweet, puppy, kitty, teen, aggravating, first kiss or final goodbye, let your scene tug at our heartstrings.

Share your lovey dovey moment on January 20th and then visit and comment on the other blogs on the list.

Don't Pay Any Attention to the Man Behind the Screen

Today I'm going to let you have a peek into what goes into all these posts on UB. Did you know that we meet every week to talk about this little blog and what we should be doing to help you?

Yep, we do. It may sound silly, but we really do want to help you reach your writing goals. Whatever they might be.

Here's the thing. We don't know what you need unless you tell us. Funny how that works.

So, today's reminder is this:

We have email! Write to us and tell us what you're struggling with, or what you want to learn more about. We will read your email and start writing posts about those things to help you out.

Want more contests?

More critiques?

Tell us!

unicornbellsubmissions@gmail.com

As the week goes on I'll share a few of our upcoming events with you. I hope you'll be as excited as we are!

Finding the Strength to Journey On

While we wait for your pitches to come in, I want to share a post I wrote for SavvyAuthors.com on Feb 19th, 2013. So why am I re-posting it here? Because I spent a lot of time and thought on this post and there haven't been any comments! It's probably because I didn't ask a question, but I'd love to hear someone's thoughts on it. (And I added a question for you at the bottom.)

Finding the Strength to Journey On

This journey to published author is a strange and winding road of contradictions. At times, it’s solitary and demanding. Other times, it’s a flurry of social activity. Perhaps the best times are those somewhere in between. One thing is for certain; if you choose to travel this road, you WILL experience bouts of soul crushing rejection and doubt. How do you pick yourself up and continue along your way?

Remember WHY you write.
“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.” ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf (“Happiness, Your Heritage”, October 2008)

Most of us write because we must. Something deep inside of us compels us to find the words to express some part of the human experience. To make sense of it. To find an element of control over the uncontrollable. We write to examine our darkest fears, bring them out into the light and vanquish them in the hopes the next generation can escape their icy grip.

We don’t write to be famous, although that would be a bonus. When you come to realize that writing is more about who you are than a career choice, you can deal with the waiting, self doubt and rejections much better.

Be Willing to Learn
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~Dale Carnegie

Writing your first novel is a huge accomplishment. You’ve done something few people ever do. However, one novel doesn’t mean you’re ready to join Rowling, Meyer, Patterson, King, Card, Martin, or whatever author you admire. Five or six novels may not be enough if you’re not willing to learn and grow. Every writer can become better. As we learn more about our craft and practice daily, our skill set increases.

Great writing groups, beta readers and critique partners are a valuable part of this learning process. We must learn how to accept constructive criticism and improve because of it. This doesn’t mean we have to change everything in our story because someone made a comment. It means we need to open our minds and evaluate what that question or suggestion really means in the context of our story.

It’s All Subjective
“I have a problem when people say something’s real or not real, or normal or abnormal. The meaning of those words for me is very personal and subjective.” ~ Tim Burton

Agents, publishers, readers, everyone has different life experiences and different taste in books. We learn this early on with beta readers. But do we reallylearn from it? One beta reader returns a section covered in comments and questions. They hate it, or simply don't get it and you despair. Then, a second reader returns the same section with lots of comments on how brilliant you are and this is "OMGosh the best scene EVER!"

What the heck?

As the writer, what do you do with this kind of information?

First off, you can’t change your story every time someone makes a comment. Why not? Because enjoying a story is dependent on each individual reader. You will never be able to write a book that every human on this planet will love. It’s not possible. That’s why you need to understand why you write and why you feel compelled to tell this particular story.

Understand those two things and you can stay true to yourself and your characters. Questions, comments and suggestions are simply clues to what one person sees, or doesn’t see, in your story. It’s up to you as a writer to use those clues in your pursuit to a final product.

This holds true for agent rejections as well. These gate keepers are flooded with stories and they can only handle so many at a time. This means they get to be picky. If your story isn’t their cup of tea, they will say “Sorry, this isn’t for me, but I’m sure there is an agent out there for you.”

That doesn’t mean your novel is un-sellable. It just means it didn’t fall on their side of the subjective line.

Prepare for the Reality of “Published Author”
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” ~Abraham Lincoln

There are loads of blogs out there about how to prepare for success. They speak of platform building and professionalism. However, none of them prepared me for the emotional rollercoaster of achieving my dream.

We are writers because of one fundamental thing. We have great imaginations. In fact, all of us carry a vision of what life will look like when our book is released into the world. Mine includes billboards on the side of the highway with my cover and author photo, people cheering and falling over each other to get to the pile of books at signings, interviews for morning shows and directors lining up to offer me movie deals. Does yours look similar?

Sometimes the hardest part about getting published is that the reality is so different from the dream in our heads.

My debut novel was released today and you know what? I still have to get up at the crack of dawn to get all my kids off to school. I’ll have to clean my house, wash clothes, run errands and cook dinner. Life will continue on just as it did when I was just a writer. And 99% of the world won’t even know I wrote a book.

Focus on the Positive
“You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.” ~Stephen Richards (Think Your Way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free)

It would be all too easy for my over active imagination to send me into a tailspin. But reality doesn’t have to feed our doubt. Every story we write is an accomplishment and something we should be proud of.

Here are some ideas to help us stay motivated and focused on the positive.

Stay busy

Write something new

Read good books

Eat chocolate

Buy something as a reward (new shoes, shirt, something)

Go to dinner to celebrate accomplishments with family or friends

Remember why we write

Learn Patience

No matter where you are on this journey be prepared for surprises. There are going to be moments of joyful discovery and sessions of doubt, but in the end the journey is more than worth it.

Have you found ways to stay positive in the face of rejection? Do you just want to talk about the crap your going through right now? Talk to us about it!

Dear Readers, With Love, Me

Dear Follower,

You've been very quiet lately. How are you? Is life keeping you busy and making it hard to find time to write? I've missed getting to talk to you about your story, and I hope it's going well for you.

I've been keeping busy too. There's this great writer's group in my town that I've joined up with. We meet in this cute frozen yogurt shop and take turns reading bits from our works in progress. The first time I read was so scary! I was sweating and my mouth was dry. I could feel the heat reddening my face. My eyes stayed glued to my computer screen the whole time because I was afraid to see their reaction. But you know what? I finally get why it's so important to read your work out loud. 

Last week someone at writer's group asked me about The Magic Wakes and I bungled through some explanation. It wasn't very good and it should have been as much as I've talked about my book the last month. However, my bungling gave me an idea. I want to hear how you are doing, and I want to hear about your story. So...

Please email me a 50 word introduction to yourself and then a 200 word pitch for your book. It doesn't have to be a finished book. Just practice telling me about your main character and main plot. It'll help with that query later on and if you practice saying it out loud you'll be able to tell anyone who asks about your story. 

Sound good? Oh, and in case you forgot, my email is unicornbellsubmissions @ gmail.com. I'll post your pitches and all of us at UB can share our thoughts on how well it works. Send them to me by midnight Monday night and I'll post themTuesday-Friday.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Your's truly,

Charity Bradford

The Guessing Game

We could spend some time talking about other online venues--twitter, facebook, writer's forums, etc, but I'd rather play a little game.

How about we check out a few of your blogs? Here's how it will work:

1. You post a link to your blog and nothing else. Not your name, nothing.
2. I'll visit your blog and post a "snapshot" of your blog tomorrow (we can post as many as want to play).
3. Everyone looks at the blog and comments on what they think your "brand" is just from looking at your blog.

Do you want to play?

It's All About You

Lovely readers, did the first three days of prompts help you get back into writing? I hope so. This is such a busy time of year that it's easy to let those hard earned writing habits slip. And no one would really blame you for that. However, it sure makes January hard.

What is it about the first three months of the year that make them seem SO long? I don't know about you, but it becomes a chore for me to motivate myself to do anything. Curling up in bed and hibernating is so much more appealing. Maybe my animal self is a bear. That would explain a lot.

As we press on through the busy holidays, growing ever closer to the doldrums of winter, what kind of things help you stay motivated? 

Questions about the School's In Query Contest

I only received one question through email, so if you have any questions, please ask now and we will answer them.

Question 1:
I'm going to sound like a complete neophyte, but... here goes: I have a couple completed (second draft) manuscripts that I'd like to get into someone's hands... but I have no CLUE how to write a query letter. What do I need to do? Is this contest for me?

My Answer:
YES! This is for you. The first two weeks are going to teach you how to write a query and give you the opportunity to get feedback and fine tune it before our editors read them. It's sort of a mini workshop, stretched out over two weeks. The best part is it's free, so check in every day and go for it!

_____________

Just remember, everything you can learn from feedback will only make you stronger. A year and a half ago I queried a small publisher who turned me down, but the short paragraph of advice they gave me really pushed my writing forward.

During the first week of "School" we'll be posting multiple times a day, spread out over the course of the day--sort of like a mini online conference:

• The Purpose of a Query and How to Write One
• Stalking/Researching Agents and Editors
• Formatting Paper and E-queries
• Submission Guidelines are Your Friend
• Great Places to Read and Get Feedback on Queries
• Sprinkle in some horrible queries showcasing everything you can do wrong, written by us here at UB just for fun
• Short interviews with our guest judges introducing them and their company.

We may even have another surprise up our sleeves, but since I just thought of it I need to confer with my comrades. :)

How do your characters stay motivated?

Now that we are freshly motivated to keep writing no matter what, let's talk about character motivations. And I'm not talking about the surface "they are running because they don't want to get shot, or eaten, or whatever". I'm talking about the deep running things that made them who they are.

We act certain ways because of, wait for it...back story. Yeah. Things like:

• How we were raised
• Our parents philosophy on discipline
• Whether or not we had two parents
• What kind of education we had
• How many friends and what sort of friends we had
• Did we see/experience death at an early age
• Did we have to kill someone to protect ourselves or a loved one
• Were we abused
• Did we abuse
• Did we have a pet
• Or not

You can keep listing all kinds of random things, but I think you get the idea. What happened in your character's past helped form their world view and their personality. They have a standard way of reacting to certain stimuli.

The trick as writers is that we must understand all that backstory and the nuances it created in our character without laying it all out for the reader. A well placed line here and there can fulfill the need to understand motivation without writing a complete flashback.

The second trick is keeping it consistent. This isn't to say your character can NEVER do anything abnormal. But if they do, there needs to be a good motivation behind it.

Q4U:
When your characters lie awake at night, what's missing?*


My answer for Talia from The Magic Wakes: peace and hope

Fascinating Linkage:
What's My Motivation--from one of my favorite author bloggers Janice Hardy. Enough said.
*Determining Character Motivation--by Elana Johnson who quotes Glee: "When you lie awake at night, what's missing?"
The Principles of Character Motivation from Writer's Digest. Sort of a teaser to get you to buy a book. I'm considering it. :)
On Character Motivation--what hooked me to this post is the first sentence: "It has occurred to me that while writing, one of the best things a writer can do is question every action from every character."
Understanding Why Characters Act-- A nice step by step break down of some character motivation from a movie.
The Psychology of Character--"A good writer needs to know both cause and effect, needs to understand that there is impetus behind the actions of his characters. When the writer knows a character’s motivations, she can write actions that make sense for that character in a specific situation."

Mid-summer Motivation for Monday

It's so easy to make excuses or allow little dark clouds to hang over our heads, but we don't have to let any of it stop us in our tracks.

The following three items are my notes from a class I attended way back in 2010. It wasn't about writing, but at the time I equated EVERYTHING I heard to what it meant for me as a writer.

1. Did you know that 2/3 of our thoughts during the day are negative. (The speaker said it has been scientifically proven, but I don't have a reference for that, so believe it or not as you see fit.) Why is that? (We discussed...) Then he said, "Negative thoughts are like a hole in our confidence bucket."

How many times do we knock ourselves down with negative thoughts or comments about our writing abilities? Each thought depletes our confidence by another drop. Every time we give ourselves credit for trying to improve, spend time revising, recognize a sentence that comes out just right, we begin to refill that confidence bucket.

2. "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer.  

When he read this quote, I thought of all my blogger friends. Thank you for sharing your spark with me. Many times when I've been down I've read someone's blog and felt lifted and ready to plug along my journey a little longer. 

So, THANK YOU for sharing and being you. No one can replace or fill the spot you fill in this world.

3.  "If you think you can do a thing, or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford.

Wow, think about how true that is.

He also quoted Yoda from the Empire Strikes Back. At one point in Luke's training he tried to raise his X-wing from the swamp and failed. Yoda then lifts it and sets it on solid ground with ease. Luke complains that it is impossible and Yoda replies, "That is why you failed."


Now, I'm not going to point out the obvious connection between these three things and our goals as writers. I simply want you to think about how they apply to you personally.

Are you depleting your confidence with negative thinking? 

Are you failing to reach your goals because you secretly think it is impossible?

What are you going to do to get back on track?

All About My WIP

I grabbed this meme from Chantele Sedgwick a few weeks ago (I took out a few questions) and thought it would be great to get to know our readers styles better. Answer the questions in the comments to help us plan posts that are relevant to YOU. 

1. What is the name of your book?

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?

3. In what genre would you classify your book?

4. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.

5. How long did it take you to write your book?

6. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?

7. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.

Dangerous Territory

I'm about to step into it.

This week we are talking about endings and how to do them well. Hopefully you've found some that you want to share with us this week. I think the best way to do it is for you to email me the title of the book and why the ending worked for you. Don't worry about spoilers too much, be honest and detailed with what worked for you. (unicornbellsubmissions@gmail.com with Endings in the subject line)

Today I want to talk about what NOT to do. Please don't stone me when I'm done.

Tolkien managed to get away with something we will never be allowed to do. Ever.

He wrote 100 more pages of story after the climax of The Return of the King.

Stay with me a minute. The ring is destroyed on page 250 of my paperback copy. Sam and Frodo are reunited with all their friends on page 255. Said friends have just finished a mighty battle a page before that sees the orcs running away.

At this point, all the tension has been released. There is nothing else for us to worry about. Not really. However Tolkien spends another 92 pages getting our heroes back home, cleaning up said home from the riff raff that's taken over, and then getting the elves, Bilbo, and Frodo on the boats to the west.

Now, I LOVE Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, but as a writer today, I don't have the luxury of spending 90 some odd pages to tie up all the threads and bring the story to a complete end. I wish I could. It's in my head, but the reader gets bored once the conflict is over. I admit I got a little bored after the war was over myself.

The moral here is:

If you are J.R.R. Tolkien, you can do whatever you want.

But you are NOT Tolkien.

And neither am I.

Normal folks like us would need to end the story by page 260.

Thoughts? Am I completely off my rocker?

The Right Place to Start and End

If you've spent any amount of time on writing blogs, you've heard how important it is to START in the right place in your story. Volumes of books and blogs have been written on the subject. Finding that place can drive you bonkers. I know I rewrote the beginning of Sendek: The Magic Wakes at least 100 times.

In the process I moved around scenes, cut entire scenes, wrote new scenes--all in the hopes of finally crafting a first chapter that would make the reader fall in love with my MC and her plight.

Now that I have an editor helping me polish this book, I've come to realize another important point. Where you end, or how quickly you end after the big climax is also important. I did rework the ending a couple of times. Maybe three? Yeah, not nearly as many times as the beginning.

I knew the ending was taking too long, but I had these loose ends to tie up. And I needed to plant the seeds for the next book in the series. Before signing with WiDo, I cut almost 4000 words from the end. If you're not cringing you should be (that's about 14 pages). I finally decided to cut the last chapter in its entirety and it is now one of the first two chapters of Orek: The Search for Knowledge.

Even with that much streamlining I have too many pages after my conflict is resolved. In the words of my wonderful editor, "After ___(spoilers)___, I'm no longer invested."

Ouch.

But completely true.

Here's my questions for you:

1. What makes an ending satisfying for you?
2. Do you have a different criteria for the ending of a first book in a series? (what and why?)

Over the next few days I want to take a look at endings that WORKED. Feel free to send me your favorites at unicornbellsubmissions@gmail.com.

Critique My (Our) Blog Blogfest

Oops, I was a day early.

As mentioned yesterday, Teralyn is hosting a blogfest where bloggers ask for help to improve their blogs. Click on her name to find Mr. Linky and the other blogs.

We are always striving to improve ourselves, our writing, and our blog here at Unicorn Bell. So, we signed up. This is your chance to help us out by answering the following questions in the comments section:

• Appearance: Does it appeal to you? Is it too busy, or too plain?
• Layout: Is it difficult to navigate? Is it cluttered, or sparse?
• Frequency: Does the blogger post too often? Not often enough?
• Content: Are the posts interesting? Unique? Are they focused, or all over the place?
• Quality: Are the individual posts too long, too short, too sloppy, or too generic?

Feel free to leave any other comments that you think will help us improve our blog and help us serve you better.

Tomorrow we will announce the winner of our January Commenter's Award and the copy of Substitute Me.

Blogfests?

If you've been around the "bloggersphere" for any amount of time, you've probably heard of blogfests.  

What do you think about them?

• They can be a great place to find inspiration.
• They can help you write something outside of your comfort zone.
• They can fill up your time so that you don't get any writing done on your projects.
• They can help you find new bloggers that you click with and become great friends. Maybe even critique partners.
• They can bring new followers to your blog.
• Your entire day can disappear while you are reading other entries.

As you can see, I mostly like blogfests. They won't get me published, but they are a lot of fun. Here are three blogfests I'm participating in during February:

That's Y Amore Blogfest hosted by Oasis for YA on February 11th. Post 250 romantic, swoon-worthy words from your YA WIP.
One participant will win a swoon-worth book from the book depository.


 

Hook, Line & Sinker Blogfest hosted by Justin W. Parente on February 13th. Post the first 500-1000 words of a WIP and see if others would read on.
The suggested guidelines they used to judge entries last time was the following:

• Does the character have a personality I can fall into easily? This includes any dialogue exchanged.
• Is the world around them set up to compliment the character as they're introduced?
• Are there secondary characters to assist with the hook?
• Lastly, would I read more?

 

It's Getting Hot in Here bloghop hosted by Cassie Mae. Post your steamy kiss scene on Valentine's Day.
2 lucky kiss stories will receive a 14 page edit from the blog hosts. 






That's three in one week! I'm sure there are tons of others that I've missed.

Add ins from comments:

Loralie Hall at http://blog.apathyshero.com/ is hosting a Beta Blogfest in Feb, kind of a 'show me yours and I'll show you mine' kind of event.








Critique my Blog hosted by Teralyn--TOMORROW, Feb 1st. Have people tell you how your blog is stacking up. I just joined this one last minute. Think I'll add Unicorn Bell too!

Qs4U:

1. Do you participate in blogfests? Why or why not?
2. Would you like us to host a blogfest with voting and prizes?
3. What kind of blogfest is your favorite (kissing, fighting, dialogue, show vs. tell, photo inspired, etc)?

Help Us, Help You

You have your goals.
You have a tool box.
And you have us.
The four women of Unicorn Bell.
Now it's time for you to help us help you.

I just love that clip!

There are over 100 of you out there following us.
What do you need/want/hope to see on this blog that will help you reach your goals this year?