How to Change the World

Sometimes I wonder how I can make the best contribution to those in the world around me. As a writer, many opportunities come to mind. Perhaps I could write a famous novel or craft a moving poem; bend my eloquence toward a speech that would bring an audience to its feet or pen philosophies to alter social mores.

Nothing so awesome is necessary.

The best and most powerful contribution a writer, or anyone for that matter, can make is to tell the truth. Telling the truth as you see it, without fanfare or expectation, requires an honorable soul. You must see the truth before you can tell it…and only one with an honest heart can see the truth.

It may sound simplistic or unassuming but it’s true.

Telling the truth and growing in that telling is the greatest contribution and the most lasting gift that any writer can give. Write down one truth, today, before you sleep. You may be surprised by how many other truths shine more clearly in your vision, tomorrow.

Journaling for Success

   Most folks think that the ability to write is some sacred gift only granted to the few. Not so! Everyone can write and everyone can benefit from the act of writing. One simple way to develop your writing skills is to keep a journal. Not a journal filled with the tasks you accomplished or the errands you ran, but a journal of your thoughts, feelings and dreams.

   Don’t believe me? Go online and see how many pages about journaling pop up. When I did it there were over a million. Journaling helps personal development, raises creativity, lowers stress and gives you a place to vent frustrations or craft cherished soapbox diatribes, in precious privacy. Spiritual breakthroughs and greater physical/emotional health are also listed as benefits of regular journaling.

   What does all this have to do with your writing skills? We learn by doing.

   When we write, especially about topics we care for, our desire to express precisely, with emotion, grows. Suddenly, we recall words we haven’t used since the last time we read Charlotte’s Web. Just as a muscle grows when we lift weights, our vocabulary grows through the process of journaling.

   Write in your journal daily, even if only for an audience of one. Rewards include wisdom, understanding, empathy and the ability to express yourself in powerful, convincing language.

Writing your Memoir

Writing your memoir can be a wonderful exercise in self-discovery and family history. Here are “Notes to Self” that can make this experience enriching for you and enjoyable for others.

1          Tell the Whole Truth:  It’s human nature, especially when putting a life story into book form, to skew events. No one wants to take themselves to task, or see their words or actions through the eyes of those they have wounded. Yet, honestly, that is the best and finest course when recording your memoir. What wisdom do we gain from Swiss cheese memories? What insights enrich our readers if the stories we tell are more fiction than fact? So, meditate. Really think about your history and how you affected others, as well as what motivated you and what you learned. The result will be writing that moves a reader’s heart, not with awe, but with honesty.

2          Read Between the Lines:  Tremendous meaning can come to us as we recall our lives and choices. Wisdom, humility, a broader understanding of self and others, all these things are as close as putting pen to paper. We learn by doing. Writing a memoir filled with genuine feelings (including the feelings of others) is the harvest of a lifetime. So, sit down and write. What is communicated between the lines may be the most enriching part of all.

3          Try Something Funny: All this looking deep within can uncover gems of humor that are priceless, especially when the laugh is on you. I don’t mean cruel or disparaging jokes or remarks. Pointing a finger of scorn loses its charm after the Third Grade. But, when I tell a joke on myself, usually with a wink and a laugh, suddenly walls come down and everyone chuckles. Look for clean, happy, fun moments when you can share your awkward humanness. Starting the laughter lightens the load for others, as well as for yourself.

A Press Release that Really Works!

Writing up a press release is usually the job of a specialist, yet many small firms don’t have the funds to hire a talented copywriter, fulltime. That said releases written by amateurs usually don’t make it past the round file. Why? Because newspaper or magazine editors don’t see anything attractive to their readers in that kind of a release. Lacking polish, such releases make excellent paper airplanes for wastebasket target practice. Let the editorial “break” fun commence! 

Here are a few pointers on how to write press releases that really work and get the publicity you want and need.

1)     See the release from the editor’s point of view: No editor cares about what happens at your firm unless it is of interest to his or her readers. This means that your headlines, subheads and bullet points must attract them. A headline that says, We Won a Big Award will probably not get published, while a headline that says, Seven Secrets to Small Business Success, followed by a subhead like, We Won the Such-&-Such Award on a Shoestring and so Can You, will get top billing.

2)     Romance your facts: Every editor knows that a well-written story sells. Make your award, your new client or your rising profits, into a story. Suddenly, your success will get press, probably in the form of an article on the front page.

3)     Make the Call: Many people say that press releases no longer work. Not so. A well-written release that gets press is priceless, especially in an economy like ours, where almost no one rises above the advertorial horizon. Phone calls make the difference. Call the editor to tell him the release is coming. Call the editor to see if the release has been received. Call the editor to confirm that the publication will use the release and in which edition it will be listed.

Press releases with memorable headlines, subheads and eloquent writing are pretty rare in the industry, these days. Most PR veterans just plug in the facts and take a flock shot at the editors list. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Use these three suggestions and your PR exposure will soar!

How to Write a Great Speech

Sometime, somehow, somewhere, you’re going to have to give a speech. It may be at work, to support a charity event, at a wedding or to members of your church. The skills involved in writing a speech are simple yet require practice. Here are a few points to ponder.

First, go with your gut. Find a topic you feel passionately about that fits under the idea you’ve been assigned. (If you haven’t been assigned an idea, lucky you. This gives you even more latitude to leap up on your soapbox and rant).

Second, tout a single idea. Cluttering your talk with many concepts confuses your audience. Your goal should be to inform your listeners about your chosen topic so well that each person could tell another what you talk was about, in one word.

Third, get to the point. Don’t drone on and on, hoping that battering your listeners with words will win them to your viewpoint. In Mark Twain’s memoirs he mentions attending a meeting where the pastor spoke about the need for donations. After the first 45 minutes, Twain was eager to contribute. After three hours, he was tempted to steal coins from the collection plate.

Fourth, make it personal. The more personal your language the more emotional your audience. Feelings motivate actions and change ways of thinking, not logic. So, share touching stories, play upon their heartstrings. Remember, it’s easy to engage listeners when you are engaged, yourself.

Fifth, close it with a punch. Your ending must be as strong as your beginning. Closure should remind the audience of the points made in your speech. Revise your beginning and end, to a gemlike polish. Listeners may yawn during the middle of your talk, but they’ll always recall how you started and how you closed!

Get Your Kids to Write

When teaching kids how to write, it's best to make it fun. Even young children can get excited about writing if you approach it the "write" way.

1) The Bell Technique: For example, take a bright or colorful object, like a bell, and hold it up in front of your kids. You might even want to pass it around and let the children handle the object. Then, encourage them to write a story about it. Kids love stories. If they get to makeup their own tales, they will have a fun time while learning how to write better.

2) A Magic Crayon: Put several boxes of crayons in a bin and tell the children that these crayons are enchanted. Then, let them pick out a favorite color. On a large piece of paper, each child should draw a picture of something they want to write about. On the bottom, they write a simple sentence telling why they drew that particular item. This will make writing a true art form.

3) Musical Chairs: Start the music and have the kids run around the room, playing musical chairs. When the music stops, the child without a chair spells a word then rejoins the game. This way no one gets penalized and all the kids learn new words.

4) As Fast as You Can: Set a timer for five or ten minutes for a writing competition. (This can reveal all sorts of things about each child). Tell the kids that everyone gets a treat at the end when the timer goes off, but the child with the longest story gets to choose their treat first.

These are just a few ideas that may make learning to write more fun for our youth. Everyone can write...and most of us, especially when we are young and uninhibited, write with color and excitement. Encourage your children to write in any way you can. As adults, they'll thank you for it!

The Moral Viewpoint

Ten years ago, I dove into my storage unit with gloves, spider spray and clean boxes in which to repack the irreplaceable items for which I paid a monthly pound of flesh. To my surprise, I discovered boxes and boxes of half finished short stories. Over two hundred of them.

Why did these stories remain incomplete? What truth could I cull from their water spotted, and sometimes moldy, pages?

The problem wasn’t the writing. All humility aside, I write well. That’s why my fulltime freelance status as an editor and ghostwriter thrives. It wasn’t the topic or the characters or the “world building” skills. These were well done, if not finished. The problem was my moral viewpoint.

The moral viewpoint is the rhyme and reason for the story, itself. The purpose driving the tale. If you don’t have passion for the truth at the core of your story, you won’t be able to finish it. Or, if you do finish it, it will lack power and conviction.

Tim O’Brien said, “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.”

Your quest as an author is to reveal truth as you experience it, whether in a throbbing heartbeat or a flash of insight, a slow revelation or a lifetime of dedicated study. When your moral viewpoint is on course, your story has a sure compass. Follow this compass and the passion that drives your story will carry you through to...

The End! 

The Ultimate Hero

There are many books that describe how to write about your protagonist. They describe the importance of writing their thoughts, transcribing their viewpoints and illuminating their feelings. But, I want to encourage that you give your attention to a different kind of hero or heroine.

You!

Delve into yourself. Are you facing a very real danger? Many of us battle challenges, daily, that may not threaten life and limb but do place us in uniquely stressful situations. Do you have a flaw or inner weakness that needs healing? Of course, you do. We all do. Acknowledging such a weakness makes us responsible for healing it and that’s a life changer. 

The more you understand and cope with yourself as a hero or heroine, the more authentic your writing about heroic characters will become. Not that you should think of yourself as some mythic god or protector. But, the personal intimate sides of “you” will rise toward the light. You will learn how to appreciate both your strengths and flaws. And, most important, you will see yourself as a real hero in important ways.

You are a writer. Embracing that craft, knowing that writing is more than a mere task, opens our minds to great ideas and accomplishments. Take a few moments to recognize the heroic qualities within and your heroic characters will gain depth and power on the page.

Marketing Before You Write - Part 2 - by David Farland

Still, every producer and director also wants to be the one who "breaks out big" for no apparent reason with a hit that is a critical and artistic success. The problem is, so few of those work. Recent trends--the last 5-8 years is what Hollywood looks at. But I've got a secret: they should be looking at historical mega-cycles, too. The last 80 years are really quite important as predictors of success, and those tend to get lost if you look only at recent trends.
Marketer: Some of the changes that will sweep movie making, like major motion pictures for women, are linked to macro sociological trends. As women control the money now and continue to begin to exert more power in every way in the marketplace, I think you are right that it is only obvious that women will begin to exert such control that major motion pictures will at some point in the future, be made predominantly for females. In fact, given the male-dominated studios you describe, it cries for a female-dominated studio to spring up and take them all by surprise. From that perspective it is obvious that this is beginning, and Twilight is the harbinger.
Dave: Yes, the female audience has long been under-appreciated. We saw precursors of Twilight with movies like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and we can even go back farther to hits like Thelma and Louise.
But if you really want to make a big splash, you have to be the first one into a pool that is big and wide and deep. When Scholastic asked me to recommend which book to push huge for the year of 1999, I told them to go with HARRY POTTER. Their marketing department thought that the book was “too long” for the middle-grade audience, and didn’t want to push it.
I argued that it was also written at a grade level that was too-high (over sixth-grade reading level, for kids who were supposed to be in the third and fourth grade). But it was fantasy, and so it catered to a child’s sense of wonder. It was about the terrors of school and growing up, and so every child would relate to it. It was written at a level so that parents and teachers—the gatekeepers for children’s books—would love it. Indeed, it was written as a family novel. So I advised them to push that book. Who writes books for whole families to enjoy together? That’s so out of date. So I saw HARRY POTTER as a “big splash” kind of book.
When Stephenie Meyer came to me in 2001 and asked “How can I become the bestselling young adult writer of all time?” I had a conundrum. Historical analysis shows that the bestselling books—like HARRY POTTER—all had male protagonists, and most were set in another world. I told Stephenie that she should write contemporary YA fantasy romance for girls. It bucked most of the trends of the past, but it did so in a way that recognized that there was this HUGE AUDIENCE that neither the book publishing world nor Hollywood even knew existed.
I also told her to make it a fantasy in a contemporary setting. In short, set it in our world, but create an “other-worldly” feel. I believe that there are a lot of readers out there who want a sense of wonder, but they’re not fully capable of enjoying novels set in other worlds. So I figured that would enlarge her audience.
Last of all, I warned her that it might be hard to sell. In 2001, young adult publishers didn’t have any YA fantasy lines. But I told her that as Harry Potter grew in size, the publishers would realize that they needed such lines.
The big question in my mind was, “Will publishers be able to embrace the idea of a book that is a romance that caters to minors?” If I tried to write such a book as a male author, I doubt that it would have seen the light of day.
So Stephenie wrote the novel, sold it big, and it became a monster hit.
In the same way, the Hunger Games movie is going to make this series huge. It combines all of the right elements in just such a way that it plays upon the burgeoning market for adventure/romances with female protagonists.
Marketer: It only seems logical that other macro-sociological changes will be predictive of future trends in blockbuster movies. For example perhaps it is formulaic that any successful blockbusters in the future will contain at least a token, non-stereotyped, male Asian, and will need to reflect every race and demographic you want the movie to appeal to worldwide, beings it will be some number of years between the inception of planning a book to the point where a movie based upon the book is released in theaters. So perhaps you can be timely in producing a blockbuster movie by examining worldwide social trends of today.
Dave: We're seeing this already--bring in the Asians and the Indians, along with the Europeans, and a movie will go big. A recent Kung Fu movie—I forget the name—has been a hit around the world because of the components of its cast.
I recognized this as a probable trend more than fifteen years ago, when I wrote the Runelords. It has Caucasians, but it also has Indians, Orientals, and a mélange of other races among the main characters. Hollywood is just beginning to wake up and recognize the potential return on multi-cultural entertainment--especially if it had a strong love story along with adventure. Avatar struck a lot of the chords right in its treatment of the “aliens,” drawing upon a lot of Asian and African influences, but still lacks something. I would have liked to have seen a more multi-cultural cast among the protagonists.
Marketer: One other minor thing is that you mentioned that big-budget movies get larger advertising budgets and therefore they are more likely to be successful. In actuality, if a movie isn't good, the more you advertise, a chain-reaction sets in that assures the bigger a failure it will become and the more it will destroy the reputation of everyone involved. So a big advertising budget will only help you if your product is good too. This is a marketing truism that as far as I know is universal. It's not exactly material to what you are saying, but it might be worth a mention that along with a big advertising budget they must have a good product or the result is career suicide.
Dave: Of course films get screened for test audiences to make sure that the film isn't a flop. Star Wars failed its screen test, so they had to go remake the ending. What's really important is to understand your demographics and then push the film or story to appeal to the audience. In short, you need to understand your audience and then create a beautiful film, one that is engrossing, emotionally nourishing, and entertaining. It’s only after you’ve done that that you should be able to go out and sell your book or movie. But by knowing this stuff, you can greatly increase the size of your potential audience, and push your sales out of the realm of the ordinary and into the realm of the fantastic.

Marketing Before You Write - Part 1 - by David Farland

I hate to talk about “how to market” your tales. It de-emphasizes the fact that you have to write a great book or movie in the first place, before you can market it. But marketing your work is a necessity.

My main concern is this: back when I ran the writing track for DragonCon, each year I would put together dozens of writing classes, and about the same 40 people would attend all of them. Then I’d put up a class on, “How to Sell Your Novel to Publishers,” and literally the biggest auditorium that we had—with over 2000 seats—couldn’t hold the spectators. (In other words, folks want fame without doing the work).

Very often, I will look at a book that is written well, and I almost want to weep. I’ll see authors trying to tell tired old tales that I’ve seen a thousand times before, and trying to no avail to set themselves apart or make their work come alive…on my last Daily Kick…I got a letter back from a professional marketer asking for a bit of clarification. (Part 1 of this email conversation follows): 

Marketer: First off, what you are saying makes a hell of a lot of sense, so much so that there must be a much more scientific, formulaic approach that has been done by each and every serious movie producer or studio and other entities involved, something they can put in the hands of their green-lighting specialists or producers… 

Dave: Each of the major studios, as I understand it, has some kind of green-lighting marketing division. Their techniques and research are kept under wraps. There are also some good green-lighting companies that cater to independent investors and filmmakers. I worked for a time with Entertainment Business Group (EBG), one such company, and learned a great deal. But there are others. Past employees are forbidden to reveal certain details, of course, and I only share information that the company owner would give out in seminars. I didn’t keep copies of the company’s research databases.

I can say that there are different approaches to green-lighting. For example, White Light Entertainment looks at a “formulaic” approach. They believe that each audience has an ideal movie that they’re paying to see, and one can study the elements of plot, cast, setting, and so on, in order to determine what the ideal combination might be. I’m mainly discussing the approach that EBG was using, along with some of my own observations, and those of book professionals that I’ve known.

Marketer: But my main concern is that having studied stock analysis somewhat, it occurs to me that looking for similarities in the top movies of all time is probably not just similar to but rather exactly like stock analysis methods. All but one or two analysis models are built by predicting what will work in the future based upon probabilities reflecting what has happened in the past, although it can be argued that what will happen in the future is not tied to the past...

You might also ask yourself, did that movie work because it capitalized timely and well on one trend, or did it actually compound several trends well? So in studying the biggest money makers, maybe you need to look not just at the all-time results, but also at the trends of the moment…

David: You've got it all right, so far. Movie makers look for trends to some degree, and they’ve always got one eye on “what’s popular.” Books that go big get made into movies because there’s a guaranteed audience. The Scooby Doo movies were a big hit because they resonated with adults who watched the television shows years ago, and now wanted their kids to enjoy them.

In the same way, the Hunger Games movie is setting records for pre-sales. The book wasn’t as huge a hit as Harry Potter, but it is riding a powerful trend. It plays upon the resonance of television shows like Survivor, American Idol, and other reality shows, but it also capitalizes on the resonance of movies like Gladiator. So one might predict that “reality-based” books should do well with YA reads now.

(End of Part 1)

Fruitflesh from the Heart

Gayle Brandeis, published author and winner of the Bellwether Prize, suggests an interesting writing exercise in her book, Fruitflesh. She encourages writers to explore emotions and sensations by writing about fruit. Every topic can be covered in such intimate exercises; clothes, crowds, eyesight, listening, dancing, singing, or the slow, natural growth of a seed, from sapling to bud to fruit.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anaïs Nin

Every writer reaches a time when they must leap away from comfortable well-known space. This fearless upward leap may polish the creative gift and bring us closer to the raw talent that inhabits our hearts.

Try writing about fruit, expressing from the heart, and see what appears on the page…

There are times when I want to be stained,

marked all over with berry wine, baptized,

mouth, fingers, chin and neck, between my toes…

heady with ripe flower

bouquets dizzy with bees, their bodies

painted, perfumed by purple sun syrup,

their breath elderberry delicious.

Pattiann Rogers

The deep intimacy of such exercises will strengthen your writing. Only then can you share the depths of the soul with both courage and truth.

EBook Publishing Today by Jerry Simmons

Imagine for a moment you bought a new car for your family and wanted to take it out for a spin. As you head down the street of your neighborhood you notice the roads to the main city streets are blocked and you have no way of getting to the grocery or pharmacy, your access is blocked. Then you discover that your particular model of car has been restricted to the local streets of your neighborhood and nothing further. This is the same problem authors have when they publish and lack access to the market. You are destined to driving the back streets. 

Certainly you can walk to the grocery or drug store, which will take longer and you may encounter bad weather. Walking long distances can also create other problems but eventually you may get to where you want to go. Certainly the lack of transportation is a problem if you hope of moving beyond your local neighborhood and venturing out to another city or state. The time and effort required to get to your final destination may be beyond your capability. You have a perfectly good car in the garage but have limited access to the services you need for your family.

Distribution or access to the market for published content is key to having any opportunity at selling significant quantities of your work. Publishers that utilize the print-on-demand model may provide you with a car, but it will be restricted to back roads. The major booksellers will never allow your POD book in their stores. This is limited access to the market and a major problem that most self-published authors face in today’s marketplace. The same scenario holds true for eBooks. A simple PDF file is great for downloading to another computer but in the real market for eBooks, again, you are limiting yourself to the back roads. 

If your published work is not allowed direct access to booksellers via direct sales to book buyers working for those booksellers, your chances of becoming a successful author is handicapped. Distribution comes in two forms: access and availability. Here is a description of each. 

(1)Access to the market is described as a sales group or distribution company selling your title to book buyers of established and recognized booksellers for the purpose of ordering quantities for their stores or catalogs. These titles are often stocked for quick and easy fulfillment and placement onto store shelves and online catalogs.  

(2)Availability means your book title is being entered into a database with the millions of other book titles making it available for sale should a consumer walk into a bookseller and special order. This is the type of distribution used by the print-on-demand companies which in essence is not distribution or access to the market. 

The same process is at work for digital content in the form of eBooks and Audiobooks via MP3 files. The biggest difference is that print book distributors are heavily influenced, subsidized and dependent on the major print book publishers. In the digital field that is not the case, at least not yet, digital distributors have no dependence on the biggest publishers. This makes distribution of digital content much more accessible for the independent author. 

Regardless of whether you decide to publish in print or eBook format, without access to booksellers you cannot sell significant quantities of your work. Whether the seller is a brick and mortar store or an online retailer, library or school, if you do not have the ability to expand your readership through access to those that actively market and sell product then your audience may forever remain small. 

My recommendation for authors is they consider all formats for their published work: trade print, eBook and Audiobook. At this time the market for the eBook has tremendous opportunities for the independent author over either of the remaining two formats. 

The market for publishing is changing rapidly and in order for authors to maximize their opportunities and in turn their potential, they must stay informed. The difficulty with the print market has been obvious for many years yet we all tend to think of print when discussing publishing. The business of printing books and shipping to booksellers is anachronistic and outdated way of thinking. As the market for print continues to decline the barriers to entry continue to grow. Not the case with eBooks. 

The digital marketplace is new, vibrant and growing rapidly. With over 760,000 new print titles being published each year compared to 50,000 eBook titles the competition is less and access to the market is open and available. The window of opportunity for any new market is small and the time for eBook publishing is today.