Little By Little

Haven't written anything in ages. Why do I bother? I should be writing. Those 500 words don't amount to much. What else could I be doing? 

Such thoughts have ran through many a mind in many a variation forever. Since cavemen started drawing on walls they have been there. Okay, maybe not as elaborate, but they have still been there. Cavemen didn't think past drawing on the wall? Bah. No cavemen to ask so no proof until you invent time travel. Where were we? Right. Thoughts. Self doubt. All kinds of thoughts spinning the drain. But you can avoid the drain. Just look at what you have done. 

500 words is 500 words more than you had before, 500 words more than someone who says they will write but never do, and 500 words more that you are closer to the end of your story.

You don't have to write to be writing. Well kinda. Ideas can still form and your mind can rest and recharge. Not to mention your body. That needs a break from sitting all day too. 

You could be doing 50,000 other things. But you can only focus on a few things and make headway. Sure you can join every social media thingy majiggy on the internet, but you will spread yourself too thin and be overworked with little done on each. Focus on what you are doing and not the "could" be doing for the moment. Could can come later after you've worked on the others and feel comfortable adding something else.

Those are just a few examples of how to spin the negative thoughts. You can always switch them around. There has to be some positive to it, even if mostly negative sometimes, unless you are doing absolutely nothing. But then by doing absolutely nothing you aren't making spelling mistakes. See? Positive too!

And if you can't find it then ask someone else. Preferably not a negative nelly though. Join a group like this one. Plenty of members will help lift you up. Blogland is a great place to find encouragement. There is always a spin to make those thoughts stop spinning the drain. You just have to want to look.

Have you ever had such thoughts? How do you get out of a writing funk? Writing much lately? Ever helped someone see they were doing more than they thought?

#IWSG - Engage Readers with Your Emails by Author Amy Lamont!

  Engage Readers with Your Emails

I feel the need to preface this with one of those “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”-type disclaimers. I’m not a marketing expert, and I don’t have an enormous audience. What I do have is an engaged audience of readers. I have a small, but mighty, audience of avid readers who are happy to one-click my books every time I have a new release. This holds true if I release a book every month or if I go much longer between publishing new books. Last year I had a serious illness--no worries, I’m perfectly healthy now! But, it kept me from connecting with my readers for close to a year. Because I spent the time building relationships with my readers, they’ve literally stuck with me in sickness and in health. Here’s how I managed to grow such a loyal readership:

1.      Realize less is more when it comes to sales pitches.
Our readers definitely want to hear from us when we have a cover reveal or new release, but if the only thing they ever hear from you is,“buy my book,” chances are they won’t be sticking around too long. This is especially true if you only have one or two titles for sale. I don’t know about you guys, but if I get an email trying to sell me the same product every week for a year, it’s likely I’ve already purchased it if I’m interested, and if not, I’m probably going to unsubscribe from that list.

2.      Keep in touch regularly.
Yes, for a while there I was MIA, but when I first started my mailing list, I sent emails regularly, at least once each month, even when I didn’t have a new book to share. Now I try to send out a newsletter once each week. Emphasis on try. Keeping your readers engaged means when life happens and you disappear for a while, readers will be excited to hear from you again rather than wondering who the heck you are when you show up in their inbox.

3.      Get personal.
I’m not sharing every intimate detail of my life, but I do share funny stories about myself and my family. Guys, we’re first and foremost storytellers. Telling our personal stories is a great way to get readers to relate to us while also being engaged by our writing. Recently, I wanted to share news with my readers about a series of bear shifter romances I wrote several years ago. I didn’t just jump right into my book news. Instead, I started off with a story about my mom’s fear of bears and how since we moved to a town where it’s not uncommon to run into a bear on your daily walk, she’s started marking off the bears’ hibernation schedule on her calendar. Every April 15th, I wait for the text from my mom letting me know it’s safe to go outside again. So many of my readers hit reply to that email to tell me my story made them laugh. The same readers that took the time to respond to that email are more likely to open my next email whether I have a new book to sell or not.

4.      Keep emails short and simple.
Don’t fill your emails with tons of graphics or ginormous chunks of text. You want your readers to think of your emails like they’re emails from a friend. It helps to make them look that way. Use plain text rather than a super fancy template, and don’t go overboard with the photos you use. Short and sweet makes it more likely your readers will read your emails, and keeping it simple makes your messages feel more intimate, like an email or text from someone you like and look forward to hearing from.

5.      Encourage engagement.
This is an easy one. Let your readers know you want to get to know them, too,  and get them involved in your writing process. There are a bunch of ways you can do this. Use a poll to ask them about anything from the genre they read most often to their favorite flavor of ice cream. Ask them to help you name a character, business, or dog in your next book. Ask them to hit reply and tell you about the weather where they live, what book they’re reading right now, or what show they just binge watched. Just don’t forget to respond to their emails. Relationships are a two way street!

 Hope you guys found this helpful! If you want to chat more about writing emails that engage your readers, you can email me at amy@amylamont.com or Find me on Facebook, Instagram or Sign Up for My Emails.

Amy Lamont writes contemporary and paranormal romances. She’s currently working on a witchy billionaire romance series filled with magic and some four-letter words while drinking too much coffee and snuggling with Toby, her geriatric hound dog.

How to Turn Your Memoir Into a Short Story

 

Take your reader on a memorable journey utilizing engaging fictional techniques and deeper points of view.

by Juneta Key

I wrote my first short story in 2004 when I wrote about the impact my mother’s death had on me. It was a memoir short story.

A short story is exactly what it sounds like — a short story. It can be fiction shorts or nonfiction shorts. Publications will specify types of shorts they will accept.

In nonfiction, the difference is the memoir short story is told in story form like a fictional story, not essay format, despite being based on real life. When told this way it creates an immersive experience for the reader that keeps them turning the page.

The story takes the reader on a journey, allowing them to experience the journey as well as deepen the emotional connection with the story and author. The reader lives it with the storyteller.

Word counts for short stories range from 500 to 20,000 words. The most common lengths are 50
10, 1000, 3000, 5000, 7000 to 10,000 words.

You should always read the submission guidelines of any publication where you want to submit your story.

You can fictionalize your memoir to protect people involved, at which time it becomes a fictionalized story based upon a true story.

A memoir short story I wrote about the loss of my mother: Memoir A Short Story.  It Should Have Rained Carnations medium.com

Story format in memoir can be seen in novels and movies.

You see this memoir or biographical type of story format often in movies based on books, such as Where The Red Fern Grows, based loosely on the childhood of Woodrow Wilson Rawls, and A River Runs Through It, based on the 1976 semi-autobiographical novel by Norman Maclean.

Granted, these are novel-length stories; however, the fictional format was followed to convey a deeper experience of the story, which translates well visually and produces award-winning movies.

The author starts in the narrator’s voice, which is non-intrusive in the character journey for the reader. The voice of the narrator only appears briefly in the beginning and at the end of the story.

Give us a sense of time and place.

Fiction techniques such as deep point of view and show-don’t-tell help you to create an engaging experience for your reader.

Carry us to the place you lived using landmarks that are markers of the time. If you lived in the eighties, they still had attendant and self-serve gas stations; in the fifties, soda still came in glass bottles. The body styles of vehicles are ways to communicate the era, as well.

These time markers set a scene and give the reader atmosphere and place without a lot of telling.

The year or decade your memoir happens in shapes it through the trendy fashion and styles, slang words, patterns of speech, and the surrounding landscape using key specifics for the time.

Show us, don’t tell us.

If your character feels rushed show us by letting us see them scurry around, running late, experiencing frustration in action, and through the consequences that result from being late.

Show us through body language, interactions, and dialogue. According to Janice Hardy in her book Understanding Show, Don’t Tell, you should use words that demonstrate the physical action such as I reached over, I picked up the cup.

In deep point of view, certain types of verbs put distance between you and your reader.

Alice Gaines in Mastering Deep Point of View says there are three kinds of verbs that do that: perceiving verbs, thinking verbs, emoting verbs. These are verbs that tell: perceiving: to know, to wonder; emoting: to see, to feel, saw, notice; thinking: to wish, to feel.

Use description to bring a scene alive and give it character. We learn a lot in this first paragraph of a fictional story, Anne of Green Gables, about the character Mrs. Rachel Lynde through description.
~First paragraph of Anne of Green Gables from the Project Gutenberg website.
CHAPTER I. Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

MRS. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof. More on Show, Don’t Tell:  
Let your story come to life on the big screen of your imagination.  Why You Should “Show, Don’t Tell”     There are many story craft books that teach techniques that can help you immerse your reader in your personal story whether it is fiction or creative nonfiction. Other recommended reading for deep point of view:

• Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelsen

• Deep Point of View (Busy Writer’s Guide Book 9), Marcy Kennedy

• Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers, Lisa Hall-Wilson

• Writing Deep Point Of View: Professional Techniques for Fiction Authors (Writer’s Craft Book 13), Rayne Hall

Below are a collection of memoir short shorts or biographies, in story format, which are engaging reads, plus a couple of good memoir novels:

• The New One: Painfully True Stories From A Reluctant Dad by Mike Bigbirlia (A collection of shorts)

• Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong (Short Story Collection)

• Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: Stories of Love, Life, and Learning by Jack Canfield (Short Story Collection)

• 145th Street: Short Stories (Not memoir reads- Fictional shorts), Walter Dean Myers

• Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers (prolific author/New York Times Best Seller) (A Novel)

• Notes On Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford (A Novel)

• Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo (A Novel)

• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (A Novel)

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (A Novel)

• The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (A Novel — an inner reflection of a life.)

As I said above, reading is the best way to learn these immersive techniques, which can help you learn to show, rather than tell, your memoir in short story form.