35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 21: Wattpad

Wattpad is the one platform where authors can find their feet. It allows you to post stories, or chapters of stories for readers to enjoy. All uploads are free and will remain that way. Many authors post their chapters here to get a feel for what their readers do and don't like.

This is not a bad approach as long as you remember a few things:

• Wattpad is a showcase of your writing, not a scratchpad for ideas still to go somewhere. Make sure your story or chapter is finished, edited and edited again before uploading or make visible for your readers. Bad spelling or grammar or stupid plot mistakes are not the way to convince your readers, your followers, that you are a writer.
• With every new story you upload, you have to add a cover image. Since this website is not a website for publication or distribution of books, the cover image does not have to be very big. But beware of low resolution or pixelated images. Do the design as if for a real book and your readers will feel the respect you are putting towards them with a professional product.
• Your profile needs to be professional and creative. Just because it is not a publication website, doesn't mean you can treat it with disdain. Take yourself seriously as a writer, and your readers will do the same.

From a personal perspective: I use Wattpad to upload flash fiction or short stories that I have usually written for competitions. Flash fiction is an ideal way to showcase your writing. For competitions, you are restricted in word count and often you have to tell a whole story with a beginning, middle and ending in less than 1000 words. This style has to be tight and does not allow for wasted words, and yet a story cannot exist without the elements of characterization, conflict and some kind of resolution. Challenging writing at its best. And a great way to show your skills and storytelling abilities.

I don't like the idea of posting one or chapters of a book and then my readers have to go somewhere else to buy the rest of the book if they like it. Some people do, but that is a personal choice.
As an author platform, Wattpad is under utilised in many aspects. If blogging about 'topics' does not appeal to you, or you prefer to write stories for your blog instead, why not also use Wattpad as well? Start a new series of flash fiction stories. They take mere minutes to read, which will appeal to a wide professional audience constantly pressed for time, and build your fan base from there.
If people like your stories, they will find your books at the booksellers' websites.

See you tomorrow!

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and share their posts on your favourite platform?

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 20: Google+

Google+ is Google's version of Facebook. It is not the same and yet it is. Let me explain. You can post something, people can comment on it, +1 it (G+ equivalent of a LIKE), or you can share it with your friends or on the public timeline.

It is ideal for photographs, video clips, and plain old blog post links amongst other things. The timeline is sequential. That means a post that was made ten minutes ago, won't show up on my timeline nineteen hours later. It also means that to make best use of the platform, you have to post four to five times per day in various time slots for your post to be seen.

Tagging people is simply a matter of adding a plus in front of their profile names, and there you go. In my case it would be +Linzé Brandon. Now you don't have to figure out how to do the é, by the time you have typed Linz, a list would have appeared from where you could pick my name. (I have to be connected to you for my name to be in the list.)

In G+ you can choose the kind of connections you have with people. They are called Circles, and you can create your own to separate your friends, colleagues, family members, and online connections. You can create many categories, but it is easier to keep the list short and descriptive.

You can follow businesses, or famous people, as it is unlikely that you will befriend a business. Following is another Circle which is a default option on your profile.

As with Facebook, you can have a Page (which acts the same way as a website/public domain site) and a personal profile. Be careful that you always check how you share posts. The default setting may not be your intended audience. You can choose to share only to specific Circles.

G+ Hangouts are like chatrooms. You can invite people to join in your discussion, and it won't show on the public timeline. Check the Hangout settings, if you want to limit the number of people in the conversation, or who can invite others.

Groups can be fun. Writers' groups, readers groups, photography groups, you name it there could be one for you to join. Or start your own.

Hashtags can be used with posts to allow for searches on certain topics. As with Twitter, people can sometimes go overboard with the number of tagged words, or the content of a tagged word - #usingmanywords in one. These are not recommended as they are difficult to search for. Keep to simple words, such as #blog or #blogging, #write, #read and so on.

Tips on finding friends, or following back:

1. Check their profiles and the kinds of posts they make. Not a real person in the profile pic? Don't follow. Nothing posted? Don't follow. Social media sites have almost no limits on what people can post, so you have to be careful of fake profiles to get followers.
2. If the person has a Western style name, and a profile picture of an Asian woman (and that happens a lot!) don't follow. Male subscribers are notorious for using pictures of Asian models.
3. As with all social media sites, NEVER post your telephone number, your address or any other personal information. Businesses are a different matter, but that information is expected if they want potential customers to find them.

Google+ is not as big as Facebook in the number of subscribers, but it is certainly easy to use and rapidly growing in popularity as a social media platforms.

See you tomorrow!

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 19: Planning for Pantsers - Pulling it all Together

This is the only advice where things are going to be get really vague. This is your story, right? The one that you want to write and share with the world. Since you have all the elements now sorted out, there is nothing standing in your way to write it.
No excuses are allowed anymore!

Since you are here, and have all the necessary information at hand, why not link it all together to have at hand when needed. You can either use a document with a picture such as the one I made for you, and then link all the individual files to the right place in the file. What that means is when you need to look up some stuff about the town your zombies are invading, you click the link and the town information that you have so meticulously compiled, opens up, and there you go!
If you think of something to add, then save the file and the newest information is on hand again. Just be very careful about deleting info if you change your mind. Might I suggest you rather strikethrough the info instead. It is still there, if you want it back, and it is marked so that you don't feel tempted to use it.
Another method is to use a mind map to link all your files together. Most mind mapping software will allow you to link files to a node (the little nodules with info in the map) for easy reference. Or you can add all the info in the mind map itself. It could outgrow your computer screen, but that is your choice.

It is now up to you to have your main character face the challenges in your story, beat the villain, win the girl and live happily ever after. Time to get cracking, and all the best!

Looking for the rest of the Planning for Pantsers post links?

http://linzebrandon.blogspot.com/2015/09/35-day-blog-challenge-day-18-planning.html
http://linzebrandon.blogspot.com/2015/09/35-day-blog-challenge-day-17-planning.html
http://linzebrandon.blogspot.com/2015/09/35-day-blog-challenge-day-11-planning.html
http://linzebrandon.blogspot.com/2015/09/35-day-blog-challenge-day-9-planning.html
Let me know if you found these useful, especially if you are a pantser.

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 18: Planning for Pantsers - the Plot (2)

Now that you have chosen the character and set the direction for your story, it is time to put some clothes and shoes on it, ie research. Now before you rush off to the nearest library (I hope!) or burn the keys on your computer with enthusiasm, stop!
What do you need to research?
When you decided on the setting of your story, it set you on the path for step 1. If it is a fictional place, you can make up the details. If, however, it is a real place, and you don't know it personally, research is required. But make a list!
Where in the town/city/community is your story placed?
Do you need street names?
Are there businesses or factories or houses? Is it a harbour? What kind of shipping does it cater for?
What other distinctive landmarks do you need? Historical monuments or buildings? A river, or bridges?
Only research what you need. You can get so engrossed in the information, that you will gather too much, and waste time with information you don't need and are never going to use.

The next important thing is time. When does your story take place? A hundred years ago? Prehistoric times? Two thousand years from now? Is it set in World War I?
Of course the future cannot be researched, so you have to use your imagination, but also a little savvy given the genre of your story. Science fiction will have gadgets and smart computers, whereas two days after Armageddon, who knows?

Real historical events require more in-depth research, but again, only find out what you need to know. And be aware of the circumstances that people lived in at the time. No mobile phones, food shortages, wars, etc.

Now your story has character, you dressed it in the proper threads and you wave it on its way with a tear and a smile.

See you tomorrow!

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?

Series Feature: Harmony Run Series by Sarah Elle Emm

About the Book:

After two members of The Freedom Front are arrested and interrogated by the UZTA’s tyrannical President Nicks, Rain Hawkins and her friends face the alarming reality that their plans to liberate the mixed zones across the United Zones of The Authority might not come to fruition. While the resistance movement is growing outside the walls of the zones, the president’s forces are strengthening and putting citizens everywhere in more peril than ever. When Rain receives warnings that her cousin, Calista, has agreed to support plans to kill the mixed zones, and that her life could be on the line at the upcoming pure zone initiation ceremony, she must decide where her loyalties lie and if all of her allies can be trusted. As The Freedom Front use their abilities to unravel the mystery of the ceremony, The Authority captures some of their friends, forcing TFF to either go into hiding, or plan a rescue mission that could jeopardize everything they’ve been fighting for.

Buy now at Amazon Paperback I Kindle

Other Books in the series:

PRISMATIC  Goodreads I Amazon

OPALESCENT  Goodreads I Amazon

CHATOYANT  Goodreads I Amazon

About the Author:

Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the HARMONY RUN SERIES, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT, February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015) Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011. Sarah is a graduate of The University of Evansville, she has lived and worked in Mexico, Germany, England, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has traveled extensively beyond. Sarah lives in Naples, Florida with her family. When she’s not walking the plank of her daughters’ imaginary pirate ship or snapping photos of Southwest Florida scenery, she is writing.

Stalk the Author:
Website I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads I Amazon Author Page

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35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 17: Planning for Pantsers - the Plot (1)

Today I find myself in the murky waters where the planners excel and the pantsers shrink away in disgust (fear?) - the plot. Just as the planners are gleefully rubbing their hands together, I have to disappoint you, I have not converted. If the pantsers were about to dig out the razors to slit their wrists, I say, relax. It is not that bad. Being creative does not mean there is no rational thinking involved. Before despair blackens the horizon into eternal winter, let me tell you where I am coming from.

1. You have to know what genre you want to write. There are guidelines (I am not going to call them rules) for the major genres that you need to know to be able to compose prose that your readers will want to read. Even if you are thinking about zombie romance with serial killer dystopian undertones. Follow your gut and write in whichever genre you want, zombies and vampires notwithstanding.
2. By deciding the genre beforehand, your mind will already be plotting the story based on this genre. If you are not sure what genre it is, then write: end of the world story where undersexed teenagers are trying to overthrow the government. Not much for an actual plot, but it is a start.
3. The plot is your compass. It helps to tell you the direction your story is going. Planners have a smart compass - it can tell the future. Their compasses know that around the next corner there is a monster lurking that needs to be defeated by the hero. A Pantser's compass is intuitive - it doesn't know there is a monster lurking, but it puts butterflies in your hero's stomach when he approaches that corner.

Of course, the story winds its way around and over many obstacles that may change, but be careful of changing the character/genre of your story. Your future will be darkened with many rewrites.

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 16: A little writing humour

Instead of writing a post today, I decided to add a few tidbits of humour on writing. And of course, being an engineer, project manager and writer...it had to be Dilbert. Enjoy!