Monthly Archives: July 2015

On Writing: Interruptions, Blessings, & Minions

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From the pages of Seekerville with guest Laura McNeill.

An author’s life is a delicate balance. Writing time is precious, and many times, difficult to come by. It’s especially true when you have children, a spouse, a full-time job, the laundry, and (for me) graduate school.

As the single mom of two boys, I’m often in the midst of writing, revising, or doing homework when I hear “Hey, mom?”

My younger child, who’s ten, will ask about an upcoming play date, a lost toy, or if I can help find the popcorn when he needs a snack. My older son, who’s 17, often wants the car keys, has a question about his upcoming college courses, or needs advice on installing anti-virus software on his computer.

I was thinking about balancing writing and interruptions while in church this morning. Interestingly, our pastor’s message hit home.  His message was “Made to Serve,” the fifth of a five-part series on popular summer movies. This week’s film, Pixar’s The Minions, tells the story of the adorable and precocious yellow creatures who seek the dastardliest villain on earth to obey.

Using the movie as a humorous example, our pastor’s point was this: We are created to serve. We are God’s workmanship, created in Jesus Christ to do good works – Ephesians 2:10. He spoke about Jesus setting an example for all of us—after all, the Son of God was never too busy to perform miracles. Jesus paused in the middle of a wedding celebration to serve the bride and groom, turning water into wine. And Mark 10: 48-49 tells us, Jesus stopped and said, “Call him,” taking time to cure Bartemaeus’ blindness on the way out of Jericho.

So, how do we, as authors, write and serve? Here are my thoughts about writing, goals, interruptions, and life:

– See more at: http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-writing-interruptions-blessings.html#sthash.dBfNI8us.dpuf

 

 

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30 Ultimately Effective Social Media Tools For Writers

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Great advice by Kelly Marone from the good people at Writers Write

If you don’t implement proper social media tools in your daily routine, your efforts as a writer can remain unnoticed. Instead of thinking like a writer and waiting for readers to get interested in your work, you should think like a marketer and take action every day. In order to make your content attractive for a greater audience, you can use influential social media platforms.

Theses 30 tools will help you increase your popularity as a writer through a social media campaign.

 

Read the rest of Kelly Marone over at Writers Write

 

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5 Ways your Online Review Screams You’re a Writer and not an Ordinary Reader

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From The Seekers at Seekerville, with guest Melissa Jagears.

 

I know I’m not the only one who has her eyes glaze over when reading influencers-who-also-happen-to-be-writers’ Amazon reviews. I’ll totally skip reviews that look like a writer (or a friend of the author) wrote them because that’s not what I’m looking for as a reader (or even as an author, frankly). So I’d like to share some things that make me bypass a writer’s review.

 

Fellow writers are necessary influencers, don’t get me wrong. But writers need to write their Amazon reviews so readers connect with them. When writing reviews, you need to remember what it was like when you used to be just a reader sharing your favorite book with another reader. Because when my eyes begin glazing over, or your review makes me think you’re the author’s friend, well . . . . that isn’t exactly conducive to persuading me to purchase the book. [A book review on a writer’s blog is different from a store product review which is what I’m addressing.]

 

The reason readers check out reviews before they purchase is to find the opinions of other readers. If I think a writer wrote it, I don’t trust them—even if you don’t know the author from Adam, I’m going to think you do. Because all authors know each other, right? Amazon sure believes we do, hence taking down reviews on other authors because we’re either sabotaging our competition or we’re BFFs working the system, of course! How I can spot a review written by a writer (Besides recognizing the name).

 

1) Writer-reviewers use story craft jargon.

 

Do you remember how lost you were when you joined your first group of writers and they casually chatted about GMCs, interior monologue, and backstory dumps? How many of you had to sheepishly ask, “What does Deep POV mean?”  NIX THE STORY CRAFT JARGON IN YOUR REVIEWS.

 

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