Adam Croft's Blog, page 43

If you ever have days where you feel like you’ve lost your creativity, you’re not alone. Sometimes we just get a little bit burned out, but trying something new or taking action to boost our creativity can work wonders. Here are some ideas for boosting your creativity, and let me know in the comments if you have any more suggestions.

Make something. Put your writing to one side for a bit and instead do something practical, whether it’s baking, origami, doing a sculpture or finger painting.
Give yourself space. This is something that troubles many writers. We often have to fit our writing around a regular working day, which means we have set times for doing it. This can be hard to get around, but if you can possibly give yourself some space and free time to think, it can be useful and help stop you seeing your writing as a chore.
Improve your vocabulary. OK, so reading the dictionary or thesaurus might not be very creative, but there are lots of other things you can do to improve your vocabulary – including reading more novels. As we learn more vocabulary and how to use words more generally, it can make being creative in our writing easier over time.
Do something with the kids. Or, if you don’t have your own kids, do something with your siblings’ or friends’ kids. Take them to the park or join in with their games. Children can be very inventive and often see the world differently to grown-ups, which can be great for your creativity.
Go somewhere new. If you always write in the same place, you can get stuck in a mind-set or way of working that isn’t always conducive to creativity. Go and work somewhere else for a change. The change of scenery can work wonders.
Go and see people. Everyone is different. Everyone has their own view on the world, their own personality, their own mannerisms and so on. Getting to know more people and seeing your friends regularly can be useful for creativity, as it will give you a more diverse experience to work from.
Write things down. Whenever you have an idea, record it for later. This way, when you hit a patch where you find creativity a bit more challenging, you’ll have a list of thoughts and things that you can use for inspiration and will hopefully be back in business in no time.

A writing blog can be a great tool for independent publishers. It’s a brilliant way for us to promote our work, build a profile, discuss topics of interest and get to know other writers and readers. But as with any type of blog, it can sometimes be hard to keep the content fresh.

We all know that we need to update our blogs regularly as consistency is important, but there is inevitably a point when the well of inspiration starts to run a bit dry. This is usually temporary, as often all you need is a bit of time to pass to give yourself some space to think of new topic ideas or for events to happen that you can write about on your blog. Still, no one likes to be stuck looking at a blank document, knowing they need to write something but not having the faintest idea what. So with this in mind, here are a few ideas you could use to keep your writing blog fresh.

Get a guest post

If you’re finding it hard to fill your blog with interesting new content, you might like to consider asking other writers to complete guest posts for you. For example, you could ask them to write about their own experiences of independent publishing, traditional publishing or anything else relating to their writing career. This can also be a good way to further build your online profile, is good for the guest writers and can provide you with inspiration for future blog posts of your own.

Ask people

When you’re really stuck for ideas but have a blog post due imminently, it can’t hurt to ask for help. For instance, you could put out a message on Twitter asking people what they’d like to see from your blog. That way, you can hopefully get some good new ideas for blog posts and meet reader expectations at the same time. You could even write a special blog post asking people their views.

Do an interview

Do you know another writer? If so, why not interview them and put the interview on your blog? Or you could ask a reader to interview you.

Reflect on previous posts

It could be that since you wrote that blog post about the things you’ve learned from writing or why you like to write first thing in the morning or why you love independent publishing, your views have changed or evolved. Looking back at what you’ve previously written and writing new blog posts updating on the situation can be a good way to develop new content and keep your blog up to date.

Share older, relevant posts

Sometimes, a news item might resonate with a blog post you wrote a while ago. There’s nothing wrong with re-sharing posts from time to time and linking them in to the current situation.

Write about something new

If you’re really stuck for ideas based on your current blog topics, why not try writing about something new? For example, if you’ve only ever written about your own writing, you could branch out into something such as book reviews or another aspect of the industry.

Look at Twitter

Take a look at other writers’ Twitter profiles and see what people are currently writing about on their own blogs or social media platforms. Sometimes all it takes is reading someone else’s view on an issue to inspire a blog post of your own.

Have some time away

Sometimes our blog post inspiration just dries up and the more we think about it, the harder it is to think of something new. Have a bit of time away from your blog – go for a walk, read a book or work on something else for a while.

How do you make sure your writing blog content is always fresh and interesting?

 

Lurking somewhere in your house, possibly on your computer hard drive, under the bed or at the bottom of the sock drawer, is an unfinished novel. Possibly more than one. You wrote it some time ago, decided for some reason that you weren’t going to finish it, put it away and moved on.

Except you still know it’s there, and even though you can go for months without thinking about your early attempts at fiction, you still think about it from time to time… That unfinished novel (or three) is hard to forget. So what should you do with it?

Look back on where you started

One option for those unfinished novels is to simply use them to remind yourself how far you have come as a writer. Most writers improve with time and experience, and looking back on our early work can make us feel a) amused that we ever thought it was any good, b) proud at how far we’ve come, and c) amazed (and pleased) we’re still writing today.

Those early unfinished projects can make us feel better about what we’re currently working on, and they offer a useful insight into how we have progressed, so even if you’re convinced that they’re absolutely terrible, they’re still worth keeping.

Finish them…?

Of course, another option for those unfinished novels is to actually finish them. Sometimes when writers are starting out, they lose momentum on projects, lose the strand of the plot and never pick it back up again, or simply drift away from them.

Now however, you’ve got more experience as a writer, you might have finished a novel or two and have more of an idea how to go about longer projects. So why not see if you could finish those early attempts? They might require heavy editing or rewriting, but it could still be worth it.

Finding inspiration

Your unfinished projects from years gone by can also be a good source of new inspiration. You might, for instance, decide to change an unfinished novel into a new short story. Alternatively, you might find odd plot strands or interesting characters that you want to build upon in your new work.

So, even though stopping a novel before it’s finished can hurt at the time and feel like a waste, it doesn’t have to be. Nothing you write will ever be a waste, because there’s always something you can learn. And you never know, when you look back on what you’ve written with the gift of added time and experience, those early drafts could well end up being something rather special.

We all have bad habits. Even if we can’t think of any ourselves, it’s pretty much a sure thing that our loved ones could name a couple of our more annoying tendencies. And for us writers, some of our bad habits are likely to be to do with our writing – and they could end up harming what we write. Here are 6 common bad habits that writers should try and avoid…

Lack of writing confidence

OK, boosting your writing confidence isn’t always easy and we all have little wobbles from time to time when we become convinced that we can’t write to save our lives. But a long term lack of confidence or belief in your writing and yourself as a writer could do you considerable harm. We’ll be looking at ways to boost your writing confidence in a blog later this week, so keep a look out if this is something that sounds familiar to you.

Limiting yourself

Another habit that many of us are guilty of is limiting ourselves. Often we don’t even realise we’re doing it. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of being a novelist and your goal is to write a novel, it makes sense that whenever you have an idea, you’ll try and work it into a novel. Sometimes that might be the right thing to do, but other times that idea could be better as a short story, or a poem or a blog or another non-fiction piece. Remember that creativity comes in many forms, and that you don’t need to limit yourself to just one.

Editing as you go along

Some people are quite good at editing as they go along, but for many writers, it can lead to all sorts of issues – from getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty of a small piece of text and missing the bigger picture, to failing to complete a draft because of getting too caught up in a single section.

Not questioning enough

Even though there comes a time in every writing project when we have to decide that it’s finished, right up until we reach that point, we need to make sure we’re asking questions. Does that make sense? Is the plot working? Can you feel the suspense? If you were in the position of that character, what would you do? Simply writing a draft and failing to think deeply about it or query your own assumptions can have a detrimental effect on your writing.

Worry of failure

Stopping yourself from worrying about failing with your writing can be hard. We all worry that we’re going to crash and burn, but learning to put that to one side is definitely an important skill. It comes back to that issue of belief: even if you have that worry or issues relating to confidence, you need to be able to get past that. We all love writing. That’s why we do it. Focusing on that instead of something that may never happen can help us make the progress we need.

Following (the wrong) rules

We’ve looked before at different ‘rules’ for writing and how we should probably take most of them with a pinch of salt. Blithely sticking to rules just because you’ve read that that’s what other writers do is not usually the best way to go. Over time, you might build up your own personal rules for writing, but clinging to rules that don’t work for you is definitely a bad habit to break.

What do you think? Are there any other bad habits that could harm your writing, and what are your tips for dealing with them?

All independent publishers know that they have to take responsibility for getting their work out there. Networking is one of the ways to do this and it has the potential to be very useful, but if you’re new to it, it can be a little bit intimidating. With this in mind, here are five networking tips for writers that you might find useful.

Make sure your writing is ready

First of all, before you start networking, you need to be confident that your writing is ready for the next stage of your plan – whatever that plan might entail. Take your time to get where you want your writing to be; you’re sure to appreciate that extra effort later and it will make you more confident in what you’re trying to do.

Know why you want to meet people

When you are meeting new people, it also helps to know why you want to meet them. For instance, why are you interested in meeting that person but not that person? Do you want to meet that other writer because you think that they could help you achieve a professional goal or because you just like what they write? If you are hoping to network with specific people, it can be useful to know a little bit about them first so you can be clear on your reasons.

Know what you have to offer

You should also know what you have to offer – networking is about benefitting both parties involved. You might not want to bring up the subject of your writing straight away, depending on where and how you meet the people you’re networking with, but it’s useful to know where you can add value and support to others as well as how they could be useful for you.

Focus on creating good contacts

It makes sense to focus on creating fewer, good quality contacts than lots of contacts that you only ever meet once or twice and who aren’t really relevant to what you’re trying to do. If you’re writing a novel, for instance, you might like to focus on people who write or are involved in a genre similar to yours.

Utilise social media – and the real world too

Social media can be great for networking. Twitter is probably the best example of this for writers; there are lots of chances to chat to other people in a relatively informal setting and get to know them. However, don’t forget the real world. There are plenty of conferences, readings and other events that you could attend. Even if you’re just hoping to put a face to name and say hello, making the effort to attend is a crucial first step.

Finally, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Your networking might not always go to plan – and you never know where you’ll meet that really useful contact. Don’t be too pushy when you’re meeting new people; let things build up slowly and take your time. Relationships don’t happen overnight, but with time, your networking could well pay off and be a benefit to your writing career.

It is the question that plagues all authors – independent publishers, people who have gone the traditional route and people who just write for fun alike. How do you know when to stop editing?

I think one of the reasons this question is so hard to answer is because we always think there’s something more we could do to make our work better. It doesn’t matter how good it already is, or how much editing we have already done – we still want to believe we could do more. But there obviously comes a time when we have to say enough is enough, if for no other reason than our own sanity.

Before it’s time to stop editing, you will no doubt go through several versions of what you have written. There’ll be the first draft, which you’re just thrilled to have finished. There’ll be the slightly painful process of editing that first draft, cutting massive chunks, moving things around and just generally trying to make sure your story is coherent.

Then there’s the process of refining everything, making sure that the story isn’t just coherent but also compelling and gripping all the way through. There’s polishing everything up, making sure you’ve chosen just the right word for every situation. There’s proofreading for grammar and spelling. You might give your work to other people to read, after which another round of editing might occur.

You could edit forever if you wanted to. I think one of the keys to knowing when to stop is to give yourself some distance. For instance, once you’ve gone through the editing process, have reviewed everything and done your final check for typos, put the novel to bed for a bit. Being so close to your project can make it hard to see it clearly. Give it some time.

Then, when you pick it up again a few days/weeks/months later (according to how you like to work and how much time you need to recover to get over the long hours of staring at the computer screen), if it still reads as well as you were hoping, it’s probably time to declare the project done. Unless there are any glaring errors or major clangers when you re-read your final draft, it’s likely to be a good idea to give yourself a pat on the back and not edit anymore. Alternatively, you could get someone who hasn’t yet read it to give it a read to see if they spot anything that needs to be changed.

Hopefully you’ll be satisfied when you declare the project done. Naturally, there are no guarantees, but the pride of having a finished novel is pretty good. It’s something you can be proud of. And there are new stories to tell – don’t forget that. Putting one story to bed after spending so long with it can be difficult, but keep reminding yourself of all the new things to come, and with any luck, you’ll be pleased with what you’ve managed to achieve.

When it comes to editing, how do you decide when enough is enough?

In many crime novels, the detective is our way in. They are how the reader views the story and uncovers the mystery that needs to be solved. But just because the detective is a crucial character – often with a story of their own – that doesn’t mean the story we are telling is theirs alone.

One of the brilliant things about crime novels is that they are twisty and complex and give us the chance to read about the stories of lots of different people along the way. However, I think we can identify three key players in the majority of crime novels who contribute to the unfurling of the story.

Of course, we have the detective. While in some ways, they are an outsider looking in, if they didn’t have their own story, we’d be much less interested in them. A great thing about many crime fiction detectives is that their stories can go on for books; we don’t have to hear it all in the same novel. We can hold something back if we want to.

Then we have the murderer (or other criminal/shady type). The question of what motivates someone to kill or commit an otherwise horrendous crime is something that is eternally fascinating, and is one of the most gripping factors of crime fiction. Unravelling the murderer’s story, learning about their motives and their actions, always plays a key part in a crime novel.

And we can’t forget the victim. They have a story too. Often it’s linked to the story of the murderer – why were they killed? Did they deserve it? What were the events that led to them being killed? The victim often provides the initial mystery, and the first threads of the story to get us hooked.

These aren’t the only stories we hear about in crime novels, of course. Every character we write has their own personal story, even if we never really get to know them. But the trio of the detective, murderer and victim are arguably the backbone of the genre, and it’s the tension and interplay between those different strands that work to make the genre so compelling.

But what do you think? Whose story do you think should be the focus when writing a crime novel?

Online presence is crucial for all authors whether they’re independent publishers, have gone down the traditional route or are just starting to build their platform. There are lots of tools available to help you create your online presence, but one of the most popular has got to be Twitter.

Twitter has a lot of uses. You can use it to promote your work, network, meet other writers, procrastinate… Getting yourself a Twitter account can be a huge help when it comes to marketing yourself – here are some Twitter tips for writers.

Make sure you’re identifiable

If you’re using Twitter as a writer, it helps if people are able to identify you properly. This usually means avoiding ‘wacky’ account names; stick with your own name or something close to it where possible. And make sure you mention that you’re a writer in your bio.

Don’t go overboard on advertising

Sure, Twitter is great when you’re promoting a book, but if all you do is put out tweets saying things along the lines of ‘buy my book, pleeeeeeease’, people are likely to ignore it and/or unfollow you. There’s a fine line between beneficial promotion and what looks like spam, so make sure you’ve got a good balance of content.

Use useful hashtags

Twitter hashtags such as #amwriting and #amreading can be very useful. However, avoid hashtagging every other word you use, if only because it makes what you write harder to read. One or two carefully chosen hashtags on relevant writing posts should be all you need.

Look out for tags such as #writingtips and #badwritingtips – and whenever you see something relating to writing trending on Twitter, it’s worth having a look and seeing if there’s anything you could either learn from or input to it.

Reply when people @ you

If someone sends you a tweet or an @ reply on Twitter, make sure you respond to them (unless they are clearly spamming you/are unnecessarily rude etc). Twitter is all about building relationships and conversation, not just sending tweets out into the ether.

With that in mind, engage

It’s also worth being proactive about engagement on Twitter, particularly when you’re just starting out. Reply to tweets you find interesting, retweet interesting viewpoints and follow interesting people. It can take time to build up your Twitter profile, but it’s worth it.

Remember useful links

Twitter is short and sweet. When you’ve only got 140 characters per message to play with, you need to keep things to the point. If you’ve got something that you want to say that won’t fit into the space, consider blogging it instead and then just tweeting the link.

Don’t just talk about writing

Of course, as a writer, your Twitter account is likely to be focused on that, but don’t forget that you are allowed to tweet about other things. Mix it up a bit.

Remember #ff and #ww

Follow Friday (#ff) and Writer Wednesday (#ww) can be a good chance to recommend people you think others should follow, and also find recommendations from others that you want to follow. This can be a good way to build up your network. When you’re recommending people, it’s useful to put a little bit about why you’re recommending them.

Don’t ignore it

Twitter is something you have to work at. Tweet regularly to keep yourself visible and to give people a reason to keep following you. That said, don’t go too overboard with the tweeting either, as you’ll just end up clogging up everyone’s timeline and not everyone is a fan of that (unless, of course, you are consistently hilarious).

There comes a time in every series of novels when it’s time to let the characters lie to rest. Crime fiction is a genre well-known for its series and character creations that keep popping up from one book to the next. In many ways, it’s one of the great things about the genre.

Yet we can probably all think of a series or two that’s gone on for longer than might have been wise. Knowing when to end your crime fiction series is something of a talent that crime writers need to develop.

It can be hard to say goodbye to characters we’ve written about for so long and had so much fun exploring along the way, but the last thing any of us would want to do is write a poor book or drag things out longer than we should. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that less is more, but sometimes we just have to be ruthless and say ‘enough’ before our readers say it for us.

But how do we know when we should stop? In some cases, a plot line might present itself that makes coming to an end a natural choice. In others, you might come to the conclusion that you’ve written all you wanted to about a certain character. It might happen accidentally – you might turn your attention to a different project for a time and end up deciding not to go back.

I think one of the key things is not to feel tied to a particular character or series. Even if that one crime fiction series is all you’ve ever written, that’s not going to stop you writing about something else in the future. And if we keep that in mind – if we remind ourselves that we could write that story with different characters or in a different setting to our usual – we should be okay.

Because at the end of the day, the important thing is that we tell the story we want to tell as well as we possibly can. It might be that your series is the best way to do that, but it could also be that you decide you need to do something new to make it work properly.

We have options, especially as independent publishers with ultimate control over what we write and when. With any luck, as long as we remember that, knowing when to end our crime fiction series should take care of itself.

What do you think?

In a world that is increasingly focused online, SEO (search engine optimisation) is an important tool. It’s used by businesses to try and get their websites to the top of relevant search results, such as by focusing on specific keywords or undertaking link-building campaigns. But is this something that independent publishers need to worry about? Do you need to be an SEO expert if you’re publishing a book?

For the most part, you probably don’t need to worry too much about SEO. It’s one of those things that you either need to do well or not bother with at all, because if you just have a go at it intermittently, your results are unlikely to be good enough to make much of an impact (moving from page 38 to page 20 of the Google results is not, after all, likely to result in much of a traffic jump to your website). So if you’re unsure about the whole process or can’t commit the time it would take to do a good job, you might want to give it a miss.

Plus as writers, we already have other platforms we can utilise to boost our profiles. I’d wager that most writers are much more adept at writing witty Twitter posts than at optimising webpages for SEO. And that’s fine. Our focus should always be on producing quality content, whether it’s for a book, a blog post or a single tweet. We shouldn’t always have to worry about keywords and meta data every time we write something new. We need to play to our strengths, and if your strengths lie more towards marketing through social media, that’s probably the best way for you to go.

That said, SEO is something that can be useful if you’re willing to put the time in (or alternatively pay an expert to do it for you). There are some people who say you should even go as far as to choose an SEO-friendly title for your book (how you do this, I’m not entirely sure), but I’d say that if you are thinking of getting involved in SEO, you should use it primarily for your blog and/or website.

You can do this through simple ways such as choosing a few keywords that relate to the theme of your blog, for instance, and organically working them into your posts. If you’re able to do guest posts on other people’s blogs, the links that go back to your own page can also be useful. You can also learn about meta tags and titles and how they can be used to help you improve your SEO.

So independent publishers can make use of SEO, but if the very thought of it is a little bit terrifying to you, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something that can be useful if you’ve got a blog on a specific topic and you want to try and boost its relevance in search results, but it’s not necessarily something you need to worry about. Focusing your attention on being the best possible writer you can be is still definitely the best way to go.