Tips for writers: Deeper thoughts

As an aspiring writer, you may, at times, be faced with pressure from family or friends to "publish something." This is all to true. And so I am going to speak from experience when I tell you about self publishing. Yes, there are many articles that talk about the advantage of self publishing. However, there are many, many disadvantages as well. You, as an author have worked hard, many days and nights. Sitting in some room behind a desk, typing away as the hours slipped by, only to realize a new day is born.

     So why give into time and pressure of family and friends just to self publish? There is no reason for it. I was guilty of this in my first book, Angels in Sadr City. The reason though was however unique and justified. I had just returned from a 15 month tour in Baghdad, Iraq and wanted to get the story out about what happened to the men of my unit. To honor them and the sacrifices made by their families in the best way I knew. Also, from the time of my return from one deployment, I was heading back out again, to Iraq, for yet my 5th deployment in my career.

     After the events that took place in Baghdad, I new that is was very possible that I could be spending my last days in Iraq on this next tour. So I wrote and took the self publishing route. What did this do? Well, it brought closure for me, and opened up the doors to being a writer with a potential career in the field. Most importantly, it honored the memories of the fallen brothers. It gave a sense of hope and peace to the families, letting them know the sacrifice of their loved ones was not in vain.

     What it did not do for me, well a number of things. It did not force me to honor or learn the craft of writing. It did not get me on a bestseller list. It did not give me credit as a "real author." It did not get put through a correct editing, marketing, distributing, or sales channel. The book I view as a success because it is one of those rare ones that still sells as good today as it did three years ago. This is because it is a living story. However, this is not the case for 99% of books out there that go to self publishing. I realized that through my book, I had a great story, but I was a far way from mastering the "craft" of writing

     To be a true artist in your field you have to have a mastery of the craft. To have master the craft, you have to have love for your work. That means you have patience and faith in what you are doing. That means you do not sell out to the bright shiny lights of the industry or dollar signs. Rather, it means dedication, toil, handwork, perseverance, and most importantly time.

     We all die. This is as true as the air you are breathing. So, when writing, remember to make sure your work is complete before you submit it to a publisher. You can study on your own how to edit things but you need a proofreader. Polish polish polish polish! And then, polish your manuscript some more!

   

So, now for the tips!

1. Join some kind of writers group and take a creative writing class for God sakes!

2. Go through your script and cross out every third word, then try to make the sentence better.

3. Read through your script again and try to make every set of three sentences blend into one.

4. Get the book "Word Painting" by Rebecca McClanahan. Read it, know it, sleep on it, and digest it fully.

5. Have no more than two people look over your work at once so as not to lose the integrity of your story.

6. Make sure the character development is strong and focused, not rambled and weak. There are many ways to do this and many books written on the subject.

7. Get a Thesaurus. What is that? Oh yeah! Its that thing we got in elementary school that gathers dust on the book case! No, it is a very helpful tool once you know how to employ it.

8. Avoid quantifying words like very and really. Be a little more descriptive and put feeling into the emotion.

9. Finally, love your work. Make the reader fall in love with what you have. Once you do this, you will know that you are a successful writer.

It does not take a blockbuster to make this happen. Just think of anything that has ever been accomplished out of love? Think of how dedicated a person becomes to something when they fall in love with it. So, in turn, make your reader fall in love with your work and you will build an audience like you won't believe.

Anthony Farina

https://www.facebook.com/anthony.farina.526?ref=tn_tnmn

Tips for writers; continue educating yourself on marketing

Marketing, in today’s industry is one of the most important aspect of ensuring the success of your work. Along with a loyal audience, solid content, cover design and book reviews are key in ensuring survivability of your work. If one is to google the word "marketing" you can easily find over 2,350,000,000 sites that are linked to this one word alone.

     One can only wonder how it is possible to cover such a broad area, and create an effective plan from overwhelming data. There are webinars, marketing analysts, conferences, books, ebooks, and the list goes on and on, about the ways to market your work. To keep this simple, I am going to share with you, a few areas that you should focus on, as a novice author. By doing this, you can save time, discover your niche in the world of marketing, and employ the most effective techniques to your plan.

     Not every method to market a product will work for what you have. Only you can know your audience best. They are a vast array of people from places around the world with a multitude of thoughts and opinions. They are the people who love, support, and believe in what you are doing. This brings me to my first step; get to know your audience.

     You do not want a so-called "fan-base." This term has little meaning, and holds no real value. How does one determine a fan? By the number of copies sold? No. By the amount of people who click "like" on your post on twitter or Facebook? No. There is no real method to determine a fan-base. However, one thing that I would like you, as an author, to focus on is the term I have been referring to throughout this post thus far; Audience.

     Your audience is the group of people who make up the support network for your work. They are the ones that use the most valuable form of marketing, which is also the most priceless. Figured it out yet? Its word of mouth. Your mother, tells your cousin about your latest book. They buy it and they continue to buy your work because they know you and love what you do. This example of mother to cousin information distribution can be used in all circles. People will talk about stuff they like and things they don't to just about anyone. This is because, as humans, we are selfish by nature and we always end up referring to our likes or dislikes in some manner. Capitalize on this! Get word of mouth going through your audience!

     How does one do this? Simple, be proactive with your audience. Answer their emails, Facebook messages, or what have you. Write a simple thank you note to the first person who leaves a positive remark about your book on Amazon. Stay active within your community and your audience will build.

     Do not underestimate the power of social media. Google the company "Lujure" and look what they have to offer. They can take your average social media page and turn it into a place where you can track, do business, sell your book, reach out to more people. They are amazing and if you are an author, and have yet to open a Facebook or twitter account, stop reading this and go do so immediately.

      If you are an author, you will encounter negativity and criticism at some point. You should know that at all times, if someone criticizes you, use the negative in a positive way. Maybe something negative is said and you can turn that comment into something really positive.

    Finally, do what I am doing right now, BLOG! Even if you are not good at it. Blog twice a week and keep doing it. Build your audience and stay in contact with other bloggers. It is said that the moment you start writing the first word in your book is the time to start marketing your work.

Anthony Farina

https://www.facebook.com/anthony.farina.526?ref=tn_tnmn

Maintaining Discipline with writing

     One of the most important things you can do as a writer is, you guessed it, to write! The professionals in this industry that I know personally write a few thousand words a day. In my spare time when Iraq was drawing down, I was able to knock out ten to fourteen pages a day in my latest novel. Now, back in the real world, writing has to be placed in the echelon with everything else; it has to be budgeted into your schedule.
     Think of it this way, we as humans, are creatures of habit. Depending on what type of person you are, and how important the matter-at-hand is to you, it can take anywhere from ten days to six weeks for a habit to form. One of your main habits as a writer is to simply write. It does not matter for how long you write, or how often. What matters is that you do it consecutively, meaning that you are not allowing long periods of time in between your writing sessions.
     A funny thing happens when you start to write often; you start to learn more about the craft. You begin to see (and hear feedback from your audience) what works and what does not work. Simple repeated mistakes, such as the common misuse of words like "Weather and Whether" or "Lose and Loose" are made known throughout consistent writing. It is the attention to detail that we pay the writing Gods that helps us to master the craft, thus turning us into great writers.
     I read a phrase today in an article about novel writing. The author mentioned that it is not the joy of having your book turned into something physical that keeps a real writer continuing in the path. Rather it is the process of writing the story. The ability to express yourself, without rules or boundaries that keeps the student on the path of the dying art.
     Dying art you say? Yes, writing is a dying art. The other day my college professor told me that she sees few students studying for a degree in english. She said there are good number of courses out in the education field to pursue and that and english degree is not really sought after. She was not saying this to get me down. Rather she was mentioning this out of a slight shock that someone is attempting to pursue a degree in a dying field. One of the reasons is the way we communicate changes faster than what we teach in school's. Another is that the english language itself changes so quickly with the use of email and text messaging. It is as though we, as a human race are short changing ourselves.
     We strive to find more shortcuts all the time, all the while not paying attention to what we are sacrificing. English is a dying language and I am one of the few who would see it preserved. Also, I have found within my own path as a writer, that in order for me to further my career, I needed to go back to school and seek formal training. I can write good, but I have a habit of making elementary mistakes.
     In conclusion, If you want to pursue the craft of writing, finding your weaknesses and conquering them is part of continuing on that path. Below I am going to list a few simple steps that you can do to incorporate writing into your daily life. Before you know it, your habits will dictate your schedule in a way that will bring your life less worry about putting writing off. One more thing I learned recently with ForeverVerse (my next book to be released) is story's are not plot driven. They are character driven. If you create a story revolved around the characters, the plot will create itself. If you create a story based strictly off of plot, thereby inserting characters as the plot demands, you will have a mess on your hands. So, onto the advice?

1- Find a set time each day and dedicate as little as ten minutes to write.
2- Spend equal amounts of time reading as you do writing each day.
3- When you start to write, close all tabs that are logged on with a social media site.
4- Turn off your TV when you start to write.
5- Proofread your work when you are done writing it, not during.
6- Log in your hours each week until you have dedicated atleast twleve hours of writing a week.

Just for your knowledge, the average NY Times best seller writes eight hours a day, producing almost 10,000 words in this time frame. Stephen King says that if you are going to write a book, the first draft should be completed within three months. If you want to write, have discipline.

Anthony Farina

https://www.facebook.com/anthony.farina.526?ref=tn_tnmn