by Jenny Hansen

We all have things that keep us from writing. It might be a lack of time, or analysis paralysis. It might be an inability to start or to finish. Perhaps it is a lack of knowledge -- of craft, or story structure, or even your own characters. Maybe, just maybe, it is the flat-out fear that you are [fill in the blank]. Not good enough, not talented, or -- heaven forbid -- a hack.

Creatives have very fertile imaginations and it is our special talent to create mental messages strong enough and scary enough to fell a rhino.

Let's leave that talent on the back doorstep for a moment, and talk about something else...

Perseverance Matters

One of my favorite allegories from Aesop is "The Tortoise and the Hare." Allegory is a story form with an underlying message, and boy does this one resonate with me. You have the bouncy boastful rabbit with all the running talent and speed in the world. Then you have the plodding methodical tortoise whose only talent is perseverance, and keeping the goal in mind. Mr. Tortoise has that Dory the fish mentality of "just keep swimming" that is an absolute gift.

Genius can't be rushed.

I think about books like Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) and Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) that took more than a decade to write, and wonder how society would be different if they'd given up.

It's hard to be patient while you get the story out. Sometimes writers rush to publication. Or we give up on our stories to early, before we've really given them a chance to grow up and be who they were intended to be.

One of my favorite quotes is about how much you can accomplish with simple act of perseverance:

"Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, and underestimate what they can accomplish in five years."

~ Tony Robbins

Our books aren't comprised of a single writing session, they're the product of weeks and months and years of effort. If we just focus on our characters and getting them onto the page, we can create something from nothing in that time.

How profound is that??

How do we stay engaged over the long term?

Obviously, there are dozens of ways to master our goals, but here are the five things I think make the biggest impact over time.

1. Remember Your Dream  

It's easy to get lost in the weeds in this writing life. To forget why you want to tell stories, and who you want to tell them to. Some people set mantras around their house - their workspace, their bathroom mirrors, their refrigerator. A lot of us use quotes that resonate.

Any of you who have hung out here for a while know Laura Drake and her favorite quote from The Last Lecture.

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

~ Randy Pausch

You don't have to be the best or the fastest writer out there if you simply stay engaged and persevere. Remember the dream that started you down this path, and keep it at the forefront of everything you do.

2. Stay Hungry

When I say "stay hungry," I'm not talking about cookies and chips. (Although both of those are the shizz.) Writing success is defined differently by each of us, but nobody gets there without a hunger to publish their stories.

Hunger makes grandiose statements like, “I will not stop. I will not give up. I will find a way.” 

Hunger is why you get up two hours early to write, or why you remain at your computer deep into the night.

Hunger drives you to the next level. It pushes you to visit blogs like this, go to classes, learn skills, and find resources. 

That hunger to see your book in print, or on a movie screen, keeps you reaching for more and refusing to settle for less.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. 

~ Maya Angelou

Stay hungry, my friends. Stay hungry.  

3. Acknowledge Your Fears

Whether it's fear of success, or failure, or something else entirely, a lot of writers have to overcome the barrier of their fears. Step one is to acknowledge them. Step two is to know that you are not alone. Step three is to read posts like these, so you have some tools to overcome those fears.

• Writing Past the Fear by Laura Drake
• The 5 Fears that Spook Most Writers by Me
• Is Fear Freezing Up Your Creativity (also by Me)

Having just finished a cancer journey, I've got a lot to say about fear...and how to do what you need to do anyway.

4. Get Your Butt in the Chair

I'll share a little secret with you -- this entire post was inspired from a comment Mary Tate Engels made on a January post by William Wu. Here is what she said:

I am the Queen of Writing Procrastination so this really speaks to me. Long ago I took an online class from Holly Lisle.

She coined the 4 thinking barriers:
SAFE never starts
PERFECT never finishes
VICTIM never acts
FEEL never thinks

‘I’m not ready’ encompasses all of those. They are all barriers and stories we tell ourselves. I’m practicing a different mindset.

"Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard" works!

(Did she nail it, or what? If you sit in front of your manuscript with your hands on your keyboard -- or however you do your writing -- great, glorious, story-making things will happen!)

5. Bring Back Playtime

I follow a delightful writer and teacher named Jill Badonsky, "who lives life like creativity is her oxygen." She's playful and funny and wise. She says Creative Play is the key to keeping your muse in good condition. Because, "Procrastination, resistance, overwhelm, fear, and perfectionism will be confused and leave the vicinity."
 
Brava, Jill...Brava!

Final Thoughts

I could write about this topic for hours, but then y'all would stop reading...because you have stories to write. Just to sum up:

1. Remember Your Dream
2. Stay Hungry
3. Acknowledge Your Fears
4. Get Your Butt in the Chair
5. Bring Back Playtime!

That's the list I'm putting on my bathroom mirror. What is going on yours? What are the barriers you're working to overcome? If you feel comfortable, share some of your journey 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.

All article photos from Depositphotos.

by Ellen Buikema

A character's strengths and flaws are an important part of who they are. Well-rounded character need both. These qualities make a character unique and can have a major impact on the story.

It's important to find the balance between a character's strengths and flaws. Flawless characters may seem unrealistic and unrelatable, while characters who are too flawed can be hard to connect with.

Strengths are a character's positive qualities–not just things they’re good at. Also, strengths can help a character achieve their goals and overcome challenges. I think of strengths as a form of intellectual and emotional intelligence. Having a strong set of strengths can make a character more relatable.

When developing characters, consider these 24 cross-cultural strengths.

Courage

Courageous characters have emotional strengths that allow them to achieve goals despite the oppositions they may face—whether an inner struggle or an external one.

The character strengths related with courage are:

• Honesty: Speaking truth, genuine, characters take responsibility for their actions and feelings. Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
• Bravery: Accepting challenges, difficulties, or pain, not running from threats. Matilda in Roald Dahl’s Matilda
  • Physical bravery (public servants of all kinds) Psychological bravery (facing self-painful aspects)
  • Moral bravery (speaking up for what's right, even if it's an unpopular opinion)
• Persistence: Doggedly, completing things once they’re started. Forrest in Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump
• Zest: Facing life headlong with energy and excitement. Ted in Stockman and Cogniglio’s Ted Lasso

Humanity

Characters who are strong in their own humanity have a variety of interpersonal character strengths that involve caring for and making friends. Humanity describes strengths displayed as caring relationships with others.

These character strengths are:

• Kindness: Doing good deeds and favors without expectations. Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series.
  • Moral reasoning
  • Empathy/sympathy
  • Social responsibility
• Love: Valuing close relationships. Levi in Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl
• Social intelligence: Being aware of other people's motives and feelings. Eleanor Oliphant from Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Justice

Characters who are strong in justice usually have civic strengths that emphasize the importance of a well-balanced community. Justice describes strengths to help connect in group-based situations.

The character strengths in the justice group are:

• Fairness: Treating all people the same, free of personal bias. Fairness involves two types of reasoning—Justice and Care. Grace in Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
  • Justice reasoning stresses logic and weighs principles to decide moral rights and responsibilities.
  • Care reasoning includes empathy and compassion. Putting on someone else’s shoes and walking around in them a while.

• Leadership: Organizing and supervising group activities. Ned Stark in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice
• Teamwork: Playing well with others in a group or a team. Hermione Granger in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

Temperance

Characters who have temperance as a personal strength tend to protect against the excesses in life.

These strengths are:

• Forgiveness: The ability to let go of the negative feelings from those who have wronged them. The art of mercy. Molly of Danny Parker’s Molly and Mae.

 Distinguish forgiveness from:

• condoning (removing the offense)
  • forgetting (removing awareness)
  • reconciliation (restoring of the relationship)

• Modesty: Letting one's successes and accomplishments stand on their own. Samwise Gamgee in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
• Prudence: A strength of restraint, prudence is thinking before acting. Objectively examine the potential consequences of your actions and control yourself based on that examination. Sylvester of William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.
• Self-regulation: A complex ability that helps manage habits and protects against excess, controlling needs and emotions. Severus Snape in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Transcendence

Characters strong in transcendence can connect to the universe and appreciate the possibilities in life. They commune with nature, the Divine, the universe, or religions to better understand the joy of being. Character strengths associated with transcendence are:

• Appreciation of beauty: Notice and appreciate the beauty and wonder in all of life.
  • Physical Beauty. This may include any of the senses, producing awe in the experiencer. Lucy Honeychurch in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View
  • Talent. This is often energizing and compels a person to pursue their own goals. It inspires admiration. The blond-haired stranger in Lightning by Dean Koontz.
  • Virtue. Virtuousness makes someone want to be better and creates feelings of great joy. Frodo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

• Gratitude: Grateful people tend to experience positive emotions. Those emotions inspire them to be humbler, kinder. Gratitude encourages the character strengths of kindness and love and is closely associated with empathy. Professor Minerva McGonagall in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
• Hope: Expecting the best and having a willingness to work to make it happen. An optimistic, global point of view. Maathai in Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed.
• Humor: Humor is an important strength for social interactions, can contribute to team/friendship building, and is an invaluable way to deal with difficult situations. Mark Watney in The Martian by Andy Weir.
• Spirituality: The belief in a higher purpose and meaning of life. As a character strength, spirituality involves the belief that there is a dimension to life beyond our understanding. Siddhartha Gautama in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

Wisdom

Characters who exhibit wisdom have character strengths that lead them to obtain knowledge and utilize it in creative and useful ways. Core wisdom character strengths are:

• Creativity: Pondering of new ways to do things. Thinking outside-the-box to make something original, but useful. Jack Reacher in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series.
• Curiosity: Actively seeking experiences with the intention of learning something new and interesting. Taking an interest in a wide variety of topics. Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Love of learning: Want to learn for learning’s sake. Motivated by expanding their breadth of knowledge. Hermione Granger in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
• Open-mindedness: Willingness to look at things from all sides. Thinking things through. Luna Lovegood in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
• Perspective: Able to see the big picture in life. Characters that have a good grasp of perspective tend not to get wrapped up in the little problems and are good to go to for advice. Jubal T. Harshaw if Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Final Thoughts

Having a firm grasp of characters’ strengths helps the writer know how their fictional people will act and react in the story. It’s helpful to see what makes characters unique. This understanding enables the writer to know how to help the characters use their strengths to improve their situations or outcomes as the plot goes forward.

What strengths do you use to help a character achieve their goals and overcome challenges? Is it possible for a character to have too many strengths?

* * * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by John Hain from Pixabay

by Lisa Norman

Statistics are interesting. Statistics can provide us with valuable information. Like, right now, there are over 8 billion people on the planet and over 1 billion websites (most of which are inactive). One of my favorite teachers said that it only takes 5000 true fans to be famous, although I can’t find any proof for that statement. Thinking of the various authors I’ve worked with, I will say that once your fan base gets up in those numbers, you’re generally happy with the income level.

Build it and they will come.

Aside from being a misquote, that sentiment is particularly misleading when related to author websites. No, there isn’t any guarantee that anyone will find your website or your book. Even if you have the most beautiful website or the most amazing book, there’s no guarantee that anyone will ever find it.

“Wow, Lisa. That sounds really negative. Isn’t this a big part of what you do?”

Yep. Every day. And I’ve seen sites grow from nothing to amazing. Google sends you a special email when you get 1 million visits in a month. I’ve seen websites outgrow their hosting, email lists that explode in popularity, and sites that provide their owners with a very comfortable living.

But I’ve also seen some websites that just sit there. Alone. Abandoned. 82% of websites are abandoned. If you’ve paid for hosting, you know that is a lot of money to spend doing… nothing.

I’ve studied statistics from many author websites: new authors, established authors, NYT bestsellers. I’ve watched how their websites grow over time. It is a lot of fun to go back over the history of a long blog, watching how the author experimented, played, and learned how to turn their digital space into something amazing.

Content is king.

When we talk about physical real estate, we say, “Location, location, location…” because location makes a huge difference in the value of a property.

With digital real estate, content is everything. Okay, so I’ve seen some people arguing this point, so let me say it this way: giving something of value is the key to success. Yep, it’s the same as we say about everything. Site visitors want to know “What’s in it for me?”

If there isn’t anything there for them, they don’t care.

“So, great! All I need to do is put stuff on my blog and it’ll work!”

No. Sorry. It is more complicated than that. Because it isn’t just content. It is useful content that people want.

This principle is so important that Google even has an algorithm named after it.

If your content is useful, you get rewarded by search engines and content aggregators*. Not useful? You get buried.

*Content aggregators, news aggregators, or news readers are apps that collect and display articles, blogs, podcasts, and other information. Content aggregators are a great way for entertainers to be discovered. Examples: Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, Smart News, and Feedly. Using tools like these is a great way to build a curated information source that will create a custom set of articles for you to read each day.

Entertainment has value.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it is important to remember: we’re in the entertainment industry. So “useful” for us means entertaining.

Write fantastic entertaining content on your website, and people will flock to it. Right? Maybe. I’ve seen some amazing growth with this method, but I’ve seen many people post once or twice and then stop. Why?

“It didn’t work for me.”

That’s usually the point at which I start screaming silently. (Because screaming loudly at clients is considered rude.)

Here’s the truth: one or two posts won’t do it.

In my years of teaching and coaching writers, I’ve only seen one person who went nearly viral with their first post. Their second post was fairly normal, and they didn’t post again. (Imagine me crying at the lost opportunity for that incredibly talented writer!)

That’s not how the internet works.

Why? Because it takes a while to really start connecting with your true fans. Most people don’t even know who their true fans ARE when they start their website. (What? You thought you were the only one who felt that way?)

I love looking at website statistics, because I can see when people start connecting and when things start getting shared around. Authors without stats often miss the early signs of growth entirely. My favorite moments are when authors tell me they want to stop, and then I show them the graph of people looking at their content.

Most authors start out with a long flat graph. They post and test content like it was pasta they are throwing at people’s social media walls. Sometimes something sticks. Most often, that sticky thing isn’t new, because it took a bit of time for people to find it. From my experience, I’d say most of the successful posts I’ve seen tend to be several months old. One of my most successful posts was years old before it was discovered.

Once an author realizes what their fans want, they start writing more of that, and you can watch the graph grow.

Some authors catch on really fast. Most take months or years.

Here are the hard numbers.

Neil Patel (a search engine optimization guru) compiled the analytics data of more than 1 million websites across different industries. (Entertainment is one of those industries, and the one we fit into.)

Of websites whose authors were writing consistent content each month:

• Traffic increased 11.4% within the first 6 months
• Another 9.58% traffic bump in months 6-12
• The second year saw a 49.4% boost over Year 1
• Year 3 was up 30.7% over Year 2
• Year 4 grew another 13.5%

The takeaway here is that growth isn’t immediate. If you post once, decide nothing happened, and stop blogging, then there’s no point in having a blog. Create a business card website and go on with your life knowing that you have a site, you appear professional, and you can check that box off on your to-do list.

But if you want your website to find fans and bring them to you, plan on it taking years to bring results.

Do these numbers surprise you? Know someone who has stopped blogging after only a couple of months? Do you look at your statistics? What are your expectations and experiences with website growth?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her classroom where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image from Depositphotos.