A Writer’s Meme…

I sort of stole this from another blog – but I thought it would be a fun Friday post.

Name a novel(s) that inspired you to write.

So many… but three that come to mind are: The World According to Garp by John Irving, Of Captains and Kings by Taylor Caldwell, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

What’s your favorite genre to write and read?

Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense. Love puzzles and can’t resist trying to solve them.

Do you prefer to write stand-alone or series?

Series are great because you get to spend more time with beloved characters and watch them grow and develop. Although some stories are meant to stand alone. So, I guess I don’t have a preference. Although, most of my books at present, are part of a series.

Use 3 words to describe yourself.

Funny, stubborn, determined

Use an image that reveals your latest book’s Main Character or story setting.

anita rodgers mystery writer

Yes, bad things happen in the creepy woods. Hehe

How long did your first book take to draft?

Six months. Then I promptly trashed it. It’s okay, it was utter drek.

Who is your author idol?

Michael Connelly – the best crime writer out there, in my opinion.

Share a writing memory that made you determined to keep writing.

After reading a historical romance I wrote (inspired by a poem) my writing professor told me that I wasn’t ready to write novels yet. He said I needed to get more life experience first. Though he didn’t specify what that experience needed to be. Nothing like being told you can’t do something to make you want to do something.

Tell us something surprising or unique about yourself.

I’m very shy in real life. (Nobody believes me about this)

Share the hardest part of being a writer.

It’s very easy to feel as though you are all alone in the world. Writing is a solitary activity and it can make you feel isolated. You doubt whether what you’re doing matters, is good enough, and whether anyone will really care about what you have to say. You have to learn to be good at self motivation, giving yourself pep talks, and letting your intuition guide you. But despite this, there is nothing more amazing than creating a story you are proud of and want to share with others.

What’s your favorite social media and why? Share your link.

I think Facebook. It allows for a lot of interaction and enables you to connect on a deeper level than most of the other venues. I’ve made some lovely friends and found some wonderful readers on Facebook.

Share some uplifting wisdom in six words or less.

Believe in yourself. Believe in others.

Thanks for reading this fun little writing meme. Feel free to ‘meme’ yourself in the comments.

If you’re a writer: What is your favorite thing about being a writer? What is your least favorite?

If you’re a reader: What do you most like learning about your favorite authors? What book do you wish an author would write?

Have a lovely Autumn weekend.

Cheers,

Annie ❤

 

Things I discovered over the weekend (writer resource roundup)

anita rodgers mystery writer

  1. There is a way to autograph you eBooks for readers. Go to Authorgraph, set up a free account and spread the news. It is super easy to set up, although the confirmation email took a few days to go through, and lots of fun. For you and your readers.  If you look to the left sidebar, you can see their little widget that you can add to your site to let your readers know you can autograph their eBooks.
  2. Apparently, a very prestigious literary agency has had an embezzling bookkeeper on board for quite a while. He managed to filch 3.4 million (yes, you read that right) from author royalties meant for the agency’s clients. Among them, one of my heroes, Chuck Palahnuick. This Kristine Kathryn Rusch post gives the details.
  3. Voracious Readers offers a small but possibly effective way to increase your email list and maybe get a few reviews while you’re at it.
  4. I discovered a great online proofreading app called Typely (H.T. Jane Friedman) that is free, super easy to use and hits those funny little things that the others seems to miss. The drawback is that it is an online only app and you can only cut and paste 50K characters (about 4,000 words) at a time, but it goes super fast. It won’t replace Grammarly or Hemingway but it’s a great little booster in producing a really clean manuscript.
  5. Apparently Shopify has a little site called Burst that offers free images. They are nice, high quality, somewhat artistic shots and better than many of the other free sites offer. You do have to pay for the high res version but for the low res version (totally usable for social media and promos) you can download totally free.

I’m sure there is something I’m forgetting, but five very cool, groovy things is pretty good for a weekend, right?

How about you? Any cool writer or reader tools, gadgets, apps or comics you discovered lately? Share in the comments please.

Have a great week.

Annie 

Yes, the Writing Matters

I read a blog post from an influencer in the indie industry today. He said the writing doesn’t matter. Well…not so much anyway. Really what’s important is to give the readers what they know. It’s content over form. (That pesky craft stuff is not really necessary, although watch the typos because that really irritates people.)

He then went on to explain that as long as you put in the expected tropes and clichés (with your own special twists of course) then that’s when people will want to read what you write.

(Which perhaps explains why there is so much bad fiction out there, I suppose.)

But here’s the question:

If the writing doesn’t matter then why call ourselves writers? Why don’t we call ourselves trope-ists or cliché’ists or trend-ists?

If we don’t need to care about word choice, or flow or character development or any of that bothersome ‘craft’ stuff. If the form doesn’t really matter.

If a book dashed off in a month is as good as a book written with care, then edited and revised and polished, then why are we putting in all that effort? Why are we torturing ourselves? Clearly it’s more important that we start selling our stuff. Clearly what’s important is us. And selling our crap.

Because if the writing doesn’t really matter then the reader doesn’t really matter either, right? Unless they buy our crap.

If anybody can be an author and anybody is good enough to be an author (as long as they stay on the trope train) then being a writer doesn’t mean much does it? If writing a book is no big deal, because everybody is doing it and can do it, then why should anyone care?

And if words and the craft of words (a.k.a. communication) don’t matter to writers then who will they matter to? If language and communication isn’t important to us as creators, where are we headed? Where is society headed?

It matters…yes, it does…

YES, the writing does matter.

Because the reader matters.

Because your writing isn’t all about you. It shouldn’t be anyway.

It’s all about the reader. It should be anyway.

Shouldn’t it?

I think so.

What do you think?

The mother of resources post

So a while ago, I read an article about a writer who devoted a page to resources that she wanted to have to hand. It turned out to be quite a list and had several categories. Long story short, I’ve decided to do the same. Following is the current list. And I am adding a page called Resources (clever right?) that will have these links and I’m guessing others as time goes on. Feel free to avail yourselves of the resources, there are some really good ones in there.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, I am fooling around with design and trying to learn some basics – hence the many picture posts and this somewhat eerie image for this post. 😉

AUTHOR STRATEGIES/PROMOTION/MARKETING:

http://annerallen.com/your-author-strategy-3-mini-strategies/

https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2016/03/your-biggest-book-marketing-or-platform-building-roadblocks/

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/11/08/standing-out-on-the-crowded-shelf-how-to-help-your-fiction-find-an-audience/

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/09/28/a-12-month-strategic-plan-for-marketing-your-book-before-release/

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/10/01/the-6-most-common-marketing-mistakes-made-by-authors/

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/08/10/simple-promo-tip-nailing-your-email-subject-line/

http://bookmarketingtools.com/blog/3-list-building-tactics-to-attract-subscribers-quickly-before-a-book-launch/

http://www.publishingspark.com/10-things-readers-want-hear/

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/book-marketing-how-to-create-an-author-brand-case-study-with-jessica-bell/

https://insights.bookbub.com/promoting-series-keep-readers-hooked/

THE WRITING PROCESS:

http://writerunboxed.com/2016/07/14/why-its-crucial-to-write-ugly/

http://writerunboxed.com/2016/06/04/in-defence-of-cliches/

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2016/03/24/using-close-ups-in-your-scenes-to-get-personal/

https://janefriedman.com/write-love-scene/

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/12/02/the-current/

http://writerunboxed.com/2015/10/14/magnanimous-2/

BOOK COVER DESIGN/DESIGN:

https://janefriedman.com/book-cover-redesign/

https://jwmanus.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/can-you-create-the-perfect-ebook-cover/

https://medium.com/marketing-and-entrepreneurship/i-spent-30-000-testing-different-blog-designs-heres-what-i-found-8952bf057b8f

AUTHOR TOOLS/RESOURCES:

https://janefriedman.com/listenup-acx-alternative/

https://kindlepreneur.com/wisestamp-email-signatures-authors/

https://janefriedman.com/using-wordpress-author-websites/

https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2016/04/isbn-logbook/

http://puns.samueltaylor.org/

https://reedsy.com/write-a-book

http://www.publishxpress.com/

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/best-tools-of-the-self-publishing-trade-running-an-author-business-jay-artale/

https://eco.copyright.gov/eService_enu/start.swe?SWECmd=Start&SWEHo=eco.copyright.gov

https://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-book-description-generator/

CRIME RESEARCH:

http://www.the-line-up.com/best-true-crime-podcasts/

SOUNDTRACKS FOR WRITING:

https://coffitivity.com/

THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY/INDUSTRY TRENDS:

https://janefriedman.com/myth-print/