Nathan Bransford Nails It

OMG. I laughed so hard at this. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Long-Haul Writing Career: What It Takes To Succeed

We all want to be excellent writers, don't we? We really don't want to be mediocre. That doesn't mean we have to write Pulitzer-Prize-winning prose, and it doesn't mean that one genre is better than another. It does mean we want to be professional and better than work-a-day in our skill set and our skill level. Almost nobody starts off being excellent. As James Scott Bell, a great writing teacher, speaker, and prolific writer himself, points out, talent is necessary, but it's the least important of the skills required to become a successful writer. We can learn what we need to know.

In one of my favorites of Bell's writing books, The Art of War for Writers, there's a workbook chapter on what it takes to make it as a writer over the long haul. Bell lists ten necessary characteristics, which I've produced below. Plus, in his book, there's a follow-up question section of questions/statements where you write in your own personal responses to determine where you might need to adjust your attitude or whether you're off and running in the right direction.

Here are the ten characteristics and what Bell says about them (The Art of War for Writers, pp. 11-13) :

1. Desire. It's got to be a hunger inside you. You're going to have to sacrifice time and money and endure frustrations galore. If you don't have the desire, you won't last long out there on the battlefield.
2. Discipline. It's all about production. A quota of words, six days a week.
3. Commitment to Craft. You can't just dash off a book. Leonard Bishop wrote, "Dramatic characters, inventive plotlines, exciting and intense situations are not achieved through accident or 'good luck.' The writers of great books zealously learn the craft of their profession so they can release the power and depth of their imagination and experience."
4. Patience. It takes time. But you can cut down the time if you have 1, 2, and 3.
5. Honesty. Be willing to confront your weaknesses as a writer.
6. Willingness to Learn. No chip on your shoulder. Check your ego at the door, or wherever else is convenient.
7. Business-Like Attitude. Develop business savvy and professionalism.
8. Rhino Skin. Learn from every rejection, and never let any rejection hold you back.
9. Long-Term View. Don't think: "Do I have a book inside me?" Think: "Do I have a writer inside me?" And answer: "Yes!"
10. Talent. The least important. Everyone has some talent. It's what you do with it that counts.

So, I know you were measuring yourself against each of these ten points. How'd you do? That business about being honest about your weaknesses, plus, at the same time, never letting rejection hold you back, is where a lot of us get caught up in our own fear of failure. So, of course, actually paying attention to these things and working at them consciously (if these are areas that resonate) can be the key to breaking through from average writing to great writing.

Which of these ten points resonates most with you? Or are there others?

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night; Best Worst Opening Lines

Did you ever wonder where  "It was a dark and stormy night" came from, and why people use it as code for the epitome of clichés?

That sentence was the inspiration for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the best worst opening lines, started in 1982 at San Jose State University. The contest  runs every year, with hilarious results. Here's the full quote (as shown on an 8/13/12 blog post on Publisher Weekly's PWxyz blog) from the writing of the man who inspired the event: novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton :

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

We writers can always use a few laughs, and when we can laugh at our own worst work, it's the best!

How about this one from Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England, the winner of the 2012 Contest:

As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting.

Another of my favorites:

They still talk about that fateful afternoon in Abilene, when Dancing Dan DuPre moonwalked through the doors of Fat Suzy’s saloon, made a passable reverse-turn, pirouetted twice followed by a double box-step, somersaulted onto the bar, drew his twin silver-plated Colt-45s and put twelve bullets through the eyes of the McLuskey sextuplets, on account of them varmints burning down his ranch and lynching his prize steer. — Ted Downes, Cardiff, U.K.

Why all the Brits? It's possible that they have a special built-in snarky/hilarious gene across the Pond, but in case you're wondering, there are plenty of Americans among the award recipients, too. The awards include winners, runners-up, and dishonorable mentions in a wide swath of genres. To check them out go to the web page for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, where "WWW" means "Wretched Writers Welcome."

Wednesday Break

This Wednesday and next I'll be taking a mini-break from posting while I'm wandering the streets of Paris. (yes, Paris . . . am on a long-planned and seriously fun (!) trip)  :-))

Posts will be up on Mondays and Fridays, though. See you there!

Easy Product Sale by Smartphone: QR Codes

Are you familiar with QR (Quick Response) codes? These are codes you can get yourself and put on your business cards or flyers or bookmarks or any other readable product that can be read with a smartphone to take customers to your product site. They are little boxes of black and white marks that offer faster readability and larger storage capacity than UPC codes. I'd never heard of QR Codes until I went to a link from my monthly Sisters In Crime e-letter. The link goes to a writer's blog where the writer, Maryann Miller, explains her understanding and use of QR codes.

Here's a little of what she has to say, plus a bit of info from my own checking it out. (To go to Maryann's blog, click here.)

You get QR codes from TinyURL. When you go to TinyURL, if you click on the help button in the upper right, it will take you to a page that explains what they are (sort of) and how you can use them (sort of). Here's what it says:

QR Codes

 QR Codes (mobile barcodes) are links that a mobile phone can recognize and automatically click on. Any regular URL can be changed into a mobile URL. To generate a QR Code from a newly made Tiny URL - click Get QR on home page (Recent URLs) or alternately, append /qr to any previously made tiny.cc URL. Tiny QR Codes are dynamic, meaning you can change the QR landing page anytime after the QR Code has been printed or distributed simply by editing of the destination URL from your tiny.cc account. For example generate qr codes for business cards. 
• Manage all of your QR's right in your tiny.cc account and tell at a glance which URLs are being used in QR Codes. Click Note tab and check box next to "Mark this URL as a QR Code", then click Update Note. This puts a QR icon in your link list - making it a snap to identify the QR Code URLs in your account.
• Our default QR is 150px. Need a larger one? Click the "Print QR" button to get 500px. It will print out at 500 px or you can also cancel the print and Save Image As...
• Tiny's QR app finding tool instantly locates software for your mobile phone. It checks nearly 1,500 models! and compatibility with nine of the best QR scanning apps that are available free of charge.

Next to 'Help' is 'Example.' If you check that, you'll be taken to a screen that will let you download your own QR Codes for your books, once you've signed up and registered for TinyURL. It looks like this:

Use Tiny to track QR Code campaigns

Tiny can provide tracking stats and also generate free QR codes. How our QR-Codes work

I haven't tried it yet myself, but according to what I read, it's easy-peasy. It looks like an upgrade to older, clunkier systems. The only drawback is that your customers have to have a smartphone to go there and buy your book.

How's Your Twitter Profile Looking?

Jane Friedman, of Writer's Digest fame, wrote an informative blog post a while back about how to create your Twitter persona to your best advantage as a writer and/or published author.

If you're new to the Twitter game, or just feel you could use a profile lift, she's got some excellent, basic advice. For example, if you're looking for representation, it's better to use small amount of space available to you for your bio to say what kind of project you're working on than to say 'I'm an aspiring novelist looking for an agent.'

She's got advice for your photo, too.

check it out here

How to Deal with Fraudulent Online Reviews, from Forbes Magazine

In what I've begun to think of as the Sock-Puppet Saga, thoughtful people are presenting ideas to help authors overcome the reprehensible practice that has become known as sock puppetry—the posting of fraudulent, negative reviews on rivals' books on online marketing and sales sites through fake identities to destroy the prospects of the rival, while at the same time posting fraudulent positive reviews through fake identities of a chosen book.

Here's an article from Forbes Magazine in which the author has come forward with practical, useful ideas for fighting back effectively. There are common-sense suggestions, like not allowing anonymous reviews and requiring reviewers to show proof that they've purchased the book they are posting a review on. And there's an intriguing idea picked up from the way Craigslist is intervening to stop people from posting fraudulent information on that site. Finally, there's the bottom-line issue of everyone involved (including all authors) acting with integrity to stop the frenzy of scrambling for reviews in order to qualify for marketing opportunities on the sites.

Given the way the system's set up, that last one sounds a little like asking authors to take the hit for poor site set-up in some ways, but the point it important, nonetheless.