Writers in the Storm

by Laurie Schnebly CampbellWe’ve all heard why someone’s relationship didn’t work out:

“So-and-so ate crackers in bed.”

“They always wanted to plan everything, not just let it happen.”

“I never felt like they really GOT what I was saying.”

Just about every such failure — whether it’s between spouses, friends, business partners, siblings, neighbors, or whoever — can be boiled down to a single statement:

“We don’t see things the same way.”

Our world-view, or how we see things, obviously goes FAR beyond just our view of eating crackers in bed. (Even though that’s an easy-to-blame description of what went wrong.) Instead, the view is more of a big-picture thing.

But it’s a book character’s view which makes this person intriguing to read about...because it’ll help get ‘em into trouble during the story. And that’s true even when their view is one that everybody would agree is pretty good:

1. They want to make the world better.
2. They love taking care of others.
3. They always do a spectacular job.
4. They’re never afraid of their emotions.
5. They’re great at figuring stuff out.
6. They work to keep us safe.
7. They can make any situation fun.
8. They know how to get things done.
9. They’re so easy to get along with.

What’s not to love about that?

At first glance, those ARE all wonderful traits. Until you’ve spent quite a bit of time with this person, and discovered the down-side:

1. They insist on proving they’re right.
2. They never give me any space.
3. It’s always about how they look.
4. Every day is jam-packed with drama.
5. It’s all just facts, not feelings.
6. They’re constantly staying on guard.
7. You can’t ever count on ‘em to show up.
8. They always have to be boss.
9. They never give their opinion.

What accounts for all those failings?

Let’s call it the fatal flaw.

You might’ve heard that term regarding the nine personality types known as enneagrams. And although “fatal flaw” sounds wonderfully dramatic, none of those flaws HAS to be fatal. In fact, in real life, they hardly ever are.

But in fiction?

Oh, boy, dramatic tension! Clashes! Conflict!

Yep, we’ve got conflict. (Even if both parties are the SAME type.) All nine types are called things that identify their best -- and, when taken to extremes, their worst — traits:

1. Reformer, Perfectionist, Idealist, Advocate
2. Nurturer, Helper, Giver, Servant, Adviser
3. Achiever, Performer, Charmer, Succeeder
4. Individualist, Creator, Romantic, Artist
5. Observer, Analyzer, Thinker, Investigator
6. Guardian, Loyal Skeptic, Defender, Cautioner
7. Adventurer, Enthusiast, Experiencer, Explorer
8. Leader, Challenger, Controller, Attacker
9. Peacemaker, Mediator, Comforter, Adapter

So what kind of conflict/s do those lead to?

Here’s where every writer’s mind immediately kicks into action. “Okay, so Jalen and Ling are assigned to work together but they’re driving each other crazy. What types would they be?”

“Michael and Emma thought they’d love each other forever, but their relationship is collapsing. What type is he? And she?”

“The detective knows the villain is hiding this vital clue, taunting him to find it. What does that make their types?”

You already know there’s not gonna be just ONE type that fits the detective, the villain, Michael, Emma, Jalen or Ling. And that’s good, because if these stories would work ONLY with Jalen as a Six and Ling as a Two, the writer doesn’t get to do much creating.

Instead, we get to choose which type we want for a character by asking “What else do I know about Jalen?”

Well, let’s say it’s:

• Head of the class before joining this group.
• Traveled the globe as a child and still likes travel.
• Loves running.
• Never forgets Grandma’s birthday.
• Tends to be bossy at work.
• Has a phobia about — uh, let’s make it lightning.

Do any of those reflect a particular character type?

Well, we’re getting closer. Now we can narrow down the possibilities.

• Head of the class sounds like a One, Three, Five or Eight.
• Being fond of travel would characterize a Four, Five, Seven or Nine.
• Any type could love running.
• Never forgetting Grandma’s birthday could be a One, Two, Four, Six or Nine.
• Bossy at work would most likely apply to a One, Five, Six or Eight.
• Any type could fear lightning.

All right, so let’s look at the most frequent options: One and Five. Which seems more like Jalen? (Here’s where we dig into the enneagram descriptions, which you can see in various places including https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/ and https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/enneagram-types.)

Once we’ve looked at all the flaws a character might show, and what each one’s accompanying strength is — because EVERY type has its good side as well as its bad side — we’ll be able to spot which’ll best suit Jalen’s place in the story.

And what other conflicts it might lead to as we’re building the story.

Not only that, we’ll also be able to discover other good traits that’ll come into play. Those might be qualities Jalen and Ling will come to respect about one another, if we want these two to wind up cooperating.

Or, if we want their mission to fail, we’ll get to develop the qualities that’ll bring THAT about.

Either way, it all comes from knowing their enneagrams. Which leads to our:

Prize Drawing Question

Based on what the types are called (or broader enneagram knowledge if you have it), which of the nine sounds the most like you OR a character you’re currently writing?

Someone who comments will win free registration to Creating Your Hero’s Fatal Flaw, my August 12-23 email class on how to use enneagrams for building plots AND characters. On Monday morning, I’ll have random-dot-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments — hurray, something to look forward to after the weekend!

About Laurie:

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught online and live workshops including the one at Creating Your Hero's Fatal Flaw, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 50+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

Top image from Depositphotos.

by Jennifer Windrow

Whether you are traditionally published or self-published, marketing and social media is important to build your brand and sell your book. Even with one of the Big 5 publishers, you will be required to market your own books. And what is the best way to do that?

Social Media.

Social media is very important in our ever-evolving world as an author.

I am sure most of you, if not all, have some kind of internet and social media presence already. But do you have one for your author brand?

Let’s take a look at the different social media platforms and how they work…

Facebook

There are two kinds of Facebook pages, and you need to know the difference. A personal page (also called a profile page) is what you use for yourself. It connects with friends. A fan page (a business page) is what you use as an author. A personal page will have a limit to how many friends you can have. A fan page will not.

If you use your personal page as your fan page, Facebook may—and HAS—shut your page down with no warning. If you're currently using your personal page as your fan page, you need to get that fixed. It will take about 5 minutes to set up your fan page once you have your personal page. There are tools to help get your friends to like your fan page.

If you have no Facebook presence, you'll need to set up your personal page first. Your fan page will by necessity NOT be private. You don't want to lock people out of your fan page. You DO want to make your personal page private. Facebook is almost always in the news related to privacy issues. Set your privacy settings high and watch what you say.

Facebook is great for starting a conversation and learning what your fans are interested in.

X formally known as Twitter

Twitter uses hashtags (starting with #)—sort of short-cut labels—to sort these posts into conversations. For example, a search for #writing will bring up all of the current tweets about writing. You use the @ symbol in front of a person's username to write to or about them. Then if you search for @jennwindrow you will see what I have been up to!

Pinterest

With Pinterest, people "pin" interesting articles and pictures to "boards" based on their interests. Pinterest is one of my favorite social media sites. I use it for my writing career, but also for my other creative endeavors.

Find a topic that does connect with your ideal readers and then begin pinning and connecting there.

Goodreads

This is a book information sharing site, designed for readers and writers. 

Yes, you should be on Goodreads! But what do you do there?

• Post information about your favorite books. 
• Review other people's books. 
• Have an author page where people can find you and talk about your book.
• Run giveaways through Goodreads and find new readers.

But beware, Goodreads is a place for readers, not authors. The reviewers can and will be brutal and as an author it can crush your spirit to read some of the reviews.

Instagram

Instagram is a photo sharing social media. A lot of authors do very well on Instagram, I am not one of them, but it is also targeted for a younger demographic.

Bookbub

Another book centered social media. You can build your own author page on Bookbub, advertise through them, and review. The great thing about Bookbub, is their auto emails for book releases and sales.

Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok is the newest in social media craze. It’s a place where you make short videos and post them to your profile. There are a lot of authors who are using Tick-tock to advertise their books using the hashtag #booktock and others like that. It is becoming widely popular and, from what I hear, a great platform to get your name out there.

Other Ways to Sell

Build a website.

Every author should have a website that showcases your own books and even allows you to sell your own books.

Lisa Norman teaches a wonderful website class called Easy Author Websites, that I would encourage all of you to take if the idea of building a website seems scary.

Create a newsletter list

There are several providers that you can use to send out newsletters. Here is a list of a few that I know of…

1. Mailchimp
2. Mailerlite
3. Mad Mimi
4. Constant Contact
5. Go Daddy

Those are the ones I know off the top of my head and some of the most popular. Most of them offer some kind of free service until you hit a specific number of subscribers.

Final Thought

This seems like a lot of work if you already don’t have the basics down, but in the end, having all of this prepared before you release your first book will be a huge help and save you a lot of last-minute work.

Have you already laid the groundwork for social media? Do you have a good presence already, or do you need to work on it?

About Jenn

Sass. Snark. Supernatural Sizzle.

Award-winning author of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. Vampires, Greek gods, and a bit of Demon Destroyer fun for everyone.Jenn Windrow loves characters who have a pinch of spunk, a dash of attitude, and a large dollop of sex appeal. Top it all off with a huge heaping helping of snark, and you’ve got the ingredients for the kind of fast-paced stories she loves to read and write. Home is a suburb of it’s-so-hot-my-shoes-have-melted-to-the-pavement Phoenix. Where she lives with her husband, two teenagers, and a slew of animals that seem to keep following her home, at least that’s what she claims.

Website: https://jennwindrow.com/

Top photo from Depositphotos.

by Jenny Hansen

A while back, my pal Julie Glover asked this question on social media: "Fellow writers, why do you write?"

The answers were astonishing.

There were easy answers like joy, entertainment, discovery. And one writer who said, "The books I most want to read are not yet written, so I must write them. —paraphrasing Toni Morrison.."

One person said, "Writing is an adventure!"

But many writers haven't nailed their motivation down.

• I've always written. I don't know why. I've just been compelled to tell stories my entire life.
• I've written since I was five. It's just a part of me.

Some answers were thought-provoking:

• It is good for the soul and it is a calling of the heart.

• It is the only way to get the damn stories out if my head. For as long as I can remember, my mind has been filled with stories. They play on a constant loop in my head. The only way I’ve found to stop them is to write them down.

• Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and writing a book had been a goal for decades. It's just something that's in me.

"For as long as I can remember" was a very common thread.

And some were funny.

• Good question. I'll have to think on that.
• Because I’m addicted to it now.
• So I can have something I enjoy reading.
• I get grumpy when I don't write.

That last one absolutely made me laugh. I always tell my husband that "I am far wittier, prettier, and happier when I'm writing regularly." (It's one hundred percent true.) So of course he shoos me off to the writing den when I'm dragging my feet.

Most authors gave answers that really resonated with me.

Those resonating answers are why I trotted over here to share the question with all of you.

• Because I don't know what I think until it comes out of my fingers.
• For the joy of discovering the story.
• It makes me happy.
• The 'aha' moments.
• Those times when some throwaway detail in the beginning becomes vital to the plot.
• When a character tick suddenly has an entire backstory and purpose I hadn't thought of at first.
• When several plot threads suddenly tie together perfectly, in ways I hadn't anticipated.

Only one answer made me sad...

I don't know, one author said.

This life has way too many ups and downs for a writer to stay sane and focused with an answer like "I don't know." The WHY is what keeps most of us going. Well, that and that we get to do it in our pajamas.

Final Thoughts

Y'all have heard me talk about it before, but...

I firmly believe that writers are made.

They are made from shyness and bullying and a million awkward moments. They're made from abuse and codependence and loneliness, and from thousands of sharp words that bruised their tender souls.

I believe the majority of writers are forged from fear or pain or loss.

I believe many writers began writing to create worlds that were better than the ones they lived in. They filled those worlds with the people they wished they knew and the relationships they wished they had.

I believe there are people who began writing because they felt compelled to make sense of things that made no sense, to speak the unspeakable, and to create hope and a way forward when there was no clear path in their everyday lives.

I believe that most writers are compelled to try to make the world better for others.

It takes some strong motivation to do what we do.

Let's face it, being a writer is rarely the easiest career choice. The pay is crappy and the hours are weird. Sometimes we have to repeat a task over and over again, until it is "just right." (Even though "just right" is kind of a unicorn.) Many of us never truly know when our work is done. We write and write until "we just feel it," or until someone more experienced tells us we are done.

There are a hundred easier professions, but very few that we'd find more satisfying. We like seeking out those unicorns. We like finding just the perfect word. And we love to create.

So now I'm circling back to you. WHY do you do this writing thing? What is the underlying reason or reinforcement that keeps you going? We'd love to hear about it down in the comments!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night, she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20+ years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.

Top photo credit from Yurizap at Depositphotos.