Southern Writing

New writing blog!

Kathy Cano-Murillo, probably my favorite crafter of all time, has started her own writing blog. In addition to being the mind behind the Crafty Chica craft line and crafting books, she is also working on launching her fiction debut.

I'm hoping I love her writing blog (which will be filled with wonderful writing tidbits and information, I'm sure) as much as I love Diary of a Crafty Chica.

Playing with Scrivener, Part 1

I downloaded a free trial of Scrivenerover the weekend and started playing with it. Some parts are confusing after a couple days (Why do I need a corkboard again?) but the features I have been using are probably going to lead me to buying the software after my 30 day trial.

When I wrote my last novel and started editing, I had to constantly scroll through 240 pages of text. Within 10 minutes of downloading Scrivener, I had 17 chapters all in their own files. 20 minutes later, I had all of my feedback also imported into individual files that related to each chapter. By last night, I was writing notes to use as a reference to ensure foreign words spelled correctly and had research files for each character, including pictures of people I could use for inspiration and descriptions.

Even though I have heard of Scrivener numerous times before, I decided to look at its website up after reading some tweets by @phiala, one of my Twitter friends. I'm glad I did, because I'm thinking this Scrivener revolution means no more scrolling through hundreds of pages trying to make sure one word is spelled correctly the entire way through or tabbing through programs trying to find the one file I need to tell me whether my character's eyes are brown or blue.

The question isn't why I didn't download Scrivener before, it's why I was adamant about staying in Word.

Keeping social networking from becoming a disadvantage

A couple months ago, I had a less than fun exchange with one of my biggest writing crushes on her blog. I followed it for some time, wrote what I thought was a helpful comment on a post, and got a snarky reply back.

I was crushed. I unfollowed her and went as far as wondering if I'd ever be able to enjoy her work in the same way again. This is the power of the internet; I was interacting with a star in an intimate, instant way, and we both got burned. She had a fan who was questioning her entire body of work, and I got an idol who possibly saw the interaction in a number of different ways, from a personal attack to a petty annoyance or even as an already forgotten blip on her radar.

It's hard to interact with people who read your work. If you are unfailingly polite to everyone and do your best to keep from every being controversial, you will seem too artificial. If you protect your personal life in a guarded bundle, you'll seem to cold. And, if you let it all loose, you'll lose credibility. The balance is even more difficult now that we're online and out in the public eye before our first piece is published. Intrepid readers can often find old blogs, public records, and our first stories before we're aware anyone's even looking for them.

I have no clear cut answers for how to deal with online living. But, here are some suggestions on how to minimize damage on the internet if you're a published author or trying to break in:

• Never write when anger hits. If you're going to rant, think it through to the point that hitting the send button will no longer cause a vindictive thrill to ease up your spine.
• Assume no one cares about your love life.
• Assume a private profile isn't really private.
• If someone offers advice or catches an error in a blog, article, or work of fiction, THEN is the time to be unfailingly polite.
• Write in your voice as much as possible.
• Shun smileys and emoticons as much as possible. Nobody cares that you can make a Kirby dance through Twitter.
• Consider what you're saying and your potential audience. If you want to go on a religious themed tirade, that might be fine if you're a novelist or a playwright, but it would probably be career suicide if you're a hard-hitting journalist.
• Help as many people as you can.
• Realize some people are beyond your help and just don't get it.

Eventually I decided that the writer with the snarky comment was someone I would continue reading, but not someone I would continue talking to online. I'm not a big fan of flame wars, and all future conversations we could have would be tainted with just a little bit of resentment for being snapped at. If I ever meet her at a convention, I would probably go up and talk to her and see what happens, but for now I'm happy with being someone who just enjoys her writing.

It's going to be interesting to see how fandom evolves as more and more fans connect to their favorite celebrities online.

Links as currency

On the web, linking is important. It's almost like money- if  you like someone's blog, you link to it. If you have something to add to a conversation, you link to the original posts. If you find a news article you like, you link to it. Links are flying everywhere!

That's why it is unacceptable that up to now my blogs have been lacking in the links department. I'm building my blog roll right now, so if you're a friend, and I read your blog, or you just think I read your blog, remind me that I should include you. Right now, I've got a few of my friends up, but this is just a start. I need more!

Coming soon: complete blog roll for friends and my list of must-read blogs!

Test mobile post

I figured I'd try playing with my Blackberry a bit and see what it can do. It can post! But, I don't see an option to post pictures from my phone.

The Wil Wheaton model for freelance writers

I've been following Wil Wheaton's blog for a few months now, and his business as a freelance writer is pretty impressive. In fact, I've been following him to try to capture his secrets and use them in my own writing.

His most recent feat is with the book Sunken Treasure, which is a compilation of his favorite pieces from his books and blog.

Here's the short version of his success with the book:

Wheaton self published the book and automatically started marketing it, especially on his blog. He backed it up with tweets on Twitter and offered limited special offers for the book.

Then, last night Saturday afternoon, he started asking around on Twitter if his fans would like to buy a PDF version of the book for $5 a download. With an overwhelming demand and a few clicks of his mouse, he made the download instantly available. He saw both his digital and print sales rise, and as of the last update on sales, he said he was 17 digital sales away from overtaking the print sales he's amassed in the weeks since the print version went on sale. (You can check out Wheaton's version of events here.)

There are quite a few things beginning (and weathered) freelance writers can take away from his story.

• Diversifying content is a good thing. Write for a number of print and online publications and blog and tweet as much as possible, even if it's just to amuse yourself. This will build up a fan base. (Although, having a built in fan base of people who have watched your TV shows and movies doesn't hurt.)
• Write personal stories in your blog (as much as you feel comfortable) because people like feeling connected to who they're reading.
• If you blog and have a large readership, flirt with print on demand (Wheaton used Lulu), whether it be a book or 'zine. You don't have much to lose, and you can play around with marketing and readership to see if a print product is viable.
• Ask your readership what they would like to see. If you ask around and don't get any bites for your pet project, you might want to rethink your approach. But, if you find an enthusiastic response, you might want to take a risk.
• Look for services that will make your life as easy as possible. Wheaton could easily convert his book to a PDF format and offer it up on the Lulu website.

In a media environment where professionals from newspapers to book publishing are screaming loudly about a falling sky, it's refreshing to see someone taking advantage of digital outlets and making a living. Any other pointers about digital publishing and marketing are appreciated.