Writers in the Storm

by Colleen M. Story

If you’re like most writers, the word “platform” may inspire visions of soul-draining promotional activities that you wish you could pawn off on a full-time publicity department.

But the reality is that most of us are “stuck” tackling this marketing beast on our own.

I used to drag myself to the computer to do “platform-building” activities until I realized an author platform can do a lot more than help you sell books—though it can do that, too.

Below are five other reasons why you might want to adopt a new point of view when it comes to your platform, for the benefit of your books and your writing career as a whole.

What is an Author Platform?

Jane Friedman has a great definition on her blog, stating that an author platform is your “ability to sell books because of who you are or who you can reach.” In other words, your ability to attract readers.

If you’re a celebrity, you have a built-in platform as your fame gives you a ready-made audience. The rest of us have to find a way to create a readership.

That’s what you’re doing with your author platform—allowing people to get to know you and your reputation. The thing is you have to do this over and over again before your readers start to trust you.

Sometimes as writers we think that if we’ve written a good story—and there are a lot of really good stories published every year—that we deserve to have people read it. But you’ve got to put on your marketing hat and remember that to your customers out there, your book is a product just like that pair of shoes at Zappos or the new bicycle at your local bike shop.

Before readers will agree to part with their money in exchange for your work, they have to have a reason to trust that what they’ll be getting will be worth the money and the time it will take to read it.

You establish that trust through your author platform and through the repeated contacts you make with readers through that platform. But your platform can actually do a lot more for you than that.

5 Ways Your Author Platform Can Help Your Author Career

In addition to providing you with a way to make repeated memorable contacts with your potential readers, here are five other ways your platform works to help you establish a successful writing career.

1. An Author Platform Can Help You Establish Your Niche

You decide what your niche is, then build an author platform around it. Right?

Sometimes, but more often, the process goes something like this: you come up with a niche, then give it a try on your various platform outlets—your blog, your social media, your podcast, etc. Over time, you gather information on what’s working and what’s not.

On your blog, for example, you use Google Analytics or another similar program to determine what posts are getting the most attention. Then you start creating more posts around those topic areas.

Gradually, you find out more about what your audience needs and wants and you adjust and change until your niche not only fits you and your creativity, but it also serves your readers and regularly brings more of them your way.

2. An Author Platform Can Create New Opportunities

Before I built my author platform (which I consider to be a work in progress even now), the thought of speaking at writer’s conferences never even occurred to me. Now it’s a regular part of what I do.

It started when one of my platform connections invited me to speak on a topic I often cover on Writing and Wellness—productivity. The workshop went really well—I enjoyed it, and I got a lot of really good feedback on it. More invitations followed, and now I speak on a wide variety of topics that all fit within my niche.

Without my blog, which is the largest part of my platform, I never would have gotten this opportunity.

Yes, a blog takes a lot of work. You have to be consistent with it, and you probably won’t see results for a long time. But stay with it, carve out your niche, and you could be pleasantly surprised at what it might do for you and your career.

3. An Author Platform Can Take You in New Directions

If you’re a fiction writer, have you ever considered non-fiction? Have you thought about offering some online courses? Considered coaching services?

“But I just want to write!” you may say, and if so, that’s fine. If you want to build a career with your writing, though, it’s wise to consider what else you may be able to offer your readers and potential clients.

Most writers add other money-making activities to their resumes. Maybe you’re not sure what other services you might be able to offer.

This is where your platform can really help you. If you use it to find where you excel—what posts or videos your audience enjoys most, for instance—you’ll naturally evolve to the point of offering more of those types of products to your customers.

4. An Author Platform Can Encourage You When You Need It

Children’s writer Sandy Fussell talked about this in her Writing and Wellness feature. When health problems in her family kept her from writing, she was able to keep her head in the business because of her platform.

She had established a reputation as a welcome visitor and mentor in schools, so even though she had to put off writing her next story, she was still able to encourage her creative self by enjoying feedback from her fans.

“With family support,” she wrote, “I focused instead on social media, workshops and school visits, which kept my writer profile active. Kids and their teachers and librarians are particularly wonderful inspiration and motivation. They made me feel like I was still an author, even if there wasn’t a new book in sight. That helped me get through the tough times.”

5. An Author Platform Can Add Purpose to Your Writing Career

When we start out writing, we think mostly about the stories we want to share. But then we can come up against discouragement when the rejections pour in, the sales turn disappointing, or the recognition we hoped for fails to arrive.

When you start connecting with people through your platform, something special happens—your thinking expands. You want to help those people, or simply find more ways to be a positive presence in their lives. You realize that you have more to offer than you thought, and that you can truly benefit others with your efforts.

Your platform can give you this feeling if you are patient with it, and continue to put the time into it. Little by little, it will reveal more about where you belong as an artist, and what sort of rewarding career you may be able to fashion for yourself.

To Build An Author Platform, Consistency is Key

What is building an author platform? It’s making regular contact with readers. You can do that in all the following ways and more—the only limit is your imagination.

• Blog
• Website (one or more)
• YouTube site
• In-person events (workshops, readings)
• Free materials you offer on your site
• Newsletter
• Reports
• E-books
• Social Media
• Workshops and courses
• Podcast
• Guest posts
• Charity events
• Joint activities with other authors

NOTE: For more help on building an author platform that works for you, see Writer Get Noticed! Get your free chapters from the book here.

Colleen M. Story is a novelist, freelance writer, writing coach, and speaker with over 20 years in the creative writing industry. Her latest release, The Beached Ones, was released with CamCat Books on July 26, 2022. Her novel, Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen has written three books to help writers succeed. Your Writing Matters was a bronze medal winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards (2022). Other award-winning titles include Writer Get Noticed! and Overwhelmed Writer Rescue. Get free chapters of these books here.

Find more at her author website (colleenmstory.com) or connect with her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story) and YouTube.

Top Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay 

by Lori Freeland

If you’ve whipped around the writing block a time or two, you may have lots of experience with POV. If this is your initial test drive, you might be Googling—P . . . O . . . What? Either way, this post is for you.

First, you can stop Googling. POV stands for Point of View. Some of you are nodding and saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got it.” Others might be asking why we care about a view.

We care because the view is everything. You’ve heard the phrase, location, location, location when it comes to prime real estate. And where is the prime real estate on the page? Inside your POV character’s head.

What Is a POV Character?

Before we jump in, let’s define a POV character. It’s your main character. The one telling the story. You might have one or two or three depending on your genre. But unless you’re George R.R. Martin, be careful not to have too many. But that’s another post.

Sometimes it’s hard for writers to remember that their characters are supposed to feel like actual people to the reader. At least that’s the idea—to make a character so real, the reader can imagine living in their world. Better yet, living in their head.

I’d like to point out here that actual people, in general, don’t have psychic or omniscient abilities. They’re not mind readers, and they’re not gods, unless that’s part of your story world. If it is, feel free to check out here. If it isn’t, stay with me.

Two Rules To Stay Focused

You can go really deep when it comes to POV. There’s a lot of information, dos and don’ts, tips and tricks. It can be overwhelming. But if you start with two rules, you’ll almost always get it right.

Rule #1

While you’re writing, put yourself in the scene and become your POV character.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Imagine you’ve literally stepped into your character’s skin. Then keep that in mind as you take the movie running through your head and translate it onto the page.

If you are your character, this means in each scene “you” can only:

• see what your character sees
• hear what your character hears
• smell what your character smells
• tase what your character tastes
• feel what your character feels
• know what your character knows

This holds true whether you’re writing in first person (I) or third person (he/she). And if you have multiple POV characters, you will become multiple people as the point of view switches from scene to scene. Sometimes it helps to take a minute to really get into a particular character’s head. That’s okay. Give yourself that time. It will make the writing process that much smoother.

Rule #2

Don’t let your character do anything you (as a real person) can’t do.

This one is a little more involved. Let’s try to make it simple. The idea is to hold your POV character accountable as a “real person.” And that isn’t always easy. Below are some questions that can help you dig deep into POV. 

Remember, you are your main character. So if you, as a real person, answer “no” to the questions below, your character has to answer “no” as well. Spoiler alert: the answer to every question below is going to be “no.”

Examples:

• Can you see your own expression?

I had a sparkle in my eye. / She had a sparkle in her eye.

Unless you’re looking in the mirror or experiencing an astral projection moment, the answer is “no.”

• Do you generally notice how you’re speaking?

“My tone was one of condescension.” / “His tone was one of condescension.”

We don’t often think about how we’re speaking. Sometimes that gets us in trouble when others take our tone the wrong way.

Side Note: you (as your character) can choose to be deliberate about speech. That’s different. It’s purposeful. A conscious choice. It looks something like this:

I made sure to pour on the condescension. / He made sure to pour on the condescension.  

• Would you refer to yourself as “the girl,” “the boy,” “the naive child,” “Jim’s wife,” or anything else that distances you from yourself? This is mostly an issue when you’re writing in third person.

You could say: Myron handed the baby to me. Myron handed the baby to her.

I would think of myself as “me” in first person and “her” in third person. And so would your character.

But you can’t say: Myron handed the baby to his mother.

I wouldn’t call myself “his mother” in first or third person. This is an omniscient, eye-in-the-sky view, not a personal, I’m-in-the-character’s-head, I-am-the-character view.

I hope you see that the examples above are things you (as your POV character) would not observe about yourself. They’re things you would observe about someone else. Someone outside of yourself. Someone who is not you (as your POV character).

So, let’s move onto more things you (as your POV character) would observe about someone else.

Examples:

• Can you read someone’s mind or know their thoughts?

We can’t say: Hillary hated it when Julie and John argued.

How do you (as the main character) know that? Without any context clues, dialogue, or past experiences, you can’t know and neither can your character.

We can say: Hillary’s eye twitched the same way it had the last time Julie and John argued.

• Can you discern someone’s motivation without any outside clues?

We can’t say: Hillary hated it when Julie and John argued, so she left the room.

The “movie” in the reader’s head just shows Hillary leaving. There’s no bubble over her head that reads, “I hate it when Julie and John argue, so I’m walking away.”  

We can say: Hillary pushed out her chair, threw her napkin on the table, and yelled over Julie and John’s shouting match, “I’m not listening to this anymore.” Then with a twitch in one eye, she stormed out of the room.  

Why Pay So Much Attention to “The View?”

The point of writing as if you are your character is so that your reader can become your character.

Readers want to live lives that aren’t their own. They want to experience what your character is experiencing. They want an intimate view of someone else’s life. The only way for them to get that is to feel as though they’ve stepped behind that character’s eyes.

The only way for you to set up the framework to make that happen is to write behind the character’s eyes. When it comes to drawing your readers in, “the view” is everything.

For more information on POV, check out my other post P-O-What?

Let’s Talk About It!

As a writer, do you put yourself into your character’s head? Are you willing to try to see the world from their eyes? What are your POV stumbling blocks? What are your POV strengths? Have you thought of POV this way before? Share your tips, tricks, and struggles in the comments, and let’s talk about them.  

About Lori

An encourager at heart, author, editor, and writing coach Lori Freeland believes everyone has a story to tell. She’s presented multiple workshops at writer’s conferences across the country and writes everything from non-fiction to short stories to novels—YA to adult.

When she’s not curled up with her husband drinking too much coffee and worrying about her kids, she loves to mess with the lives of the imaginary people living in her head.

You can find her young adult and contemporary romance at lorifreeland.com and her inspirational blog and writing tips at lafreeland.com. Her book, Where You Belong: a runaway series novella, is currently free on Kindle Unlimited. 

By Piper Bayard
of Bayard & Holmes

Authors who write about crime need to understand crime. My writing partner, Jay Holmes, is a 45+ year veteran of field intelligence operations, and we often get questions about espionage and crime. In our last article, Writing Believable Driveway Crime: Carjacking & Kidnapping, we wrote about crime that commonly occurs in driveways. Today, we will take a look at crime in parking lots.

Burglaries & Robberies

Burglaries and robberies are the most common types of crimes in parking lots. The words are often used interchangeably, but they actually do have distinct meanings. Burglaries only involve property, such as breaking into a car to steal things. The only human involved in the act of the crime is the thief. Robberies involve an assault on a person, such as mugging or purse snatching. There is both a criminal and a physical victim. Robberies are generally considered more severe by the legal system.

Parking lot burglars are all about opportunities.

• Unlocked car doors. An unlocked car door is an invitation to steal either the vehicle or the property inside.
• Visible objects of value on the seats. Electronic devices, expensive sunglasses, or purses and wallets out on seats draw burglers like bugs to a bug zapper.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals. Some more sophisticated thieves will roam through shopping center, hotel, restaurant, and other parking lots with discovery devices to check for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals. This lets them know there are electronics somewhere in the vehicle. If they locate a device, the vehicle it is in becomes a target.
• People who aren’t carrying purses. At recreation centers and gyms, thieves are known to park and hunker down in their vehicles, watching for the women who don’t carry in purses. Knowing most women actually do carry purses most of the time when they leave the house, the thieves then break into the women’s cars to search for purses and other goodies.

Thieves also look at the exterior of the vehicle when deciding on targets.

• An NRA sticker or some other pro-gun indicator is a definite target for a thief looking for firearms.
• A political bumper sticker of any flavor in this Age of Outrage can also attract burglars who might see those who disagree with them as deserving of harm. (Political bumper stickers will also attract vandalism for the same reason.)
• On a creepier side note, the stick-figure families people like to put in their back windows tell predators how many children are in the family and give clues to their genders and ages.

Defense Against Parking Lot Burglars

While it’s best not to leave valuables in our cars, sometimes, we don’t have a choice. A number of tactics will help minimize the chances of being the victim of burglars.

• Always lock car doors.
• Never leave anything valuable in a visible place in the vehicle.
• Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on any devices that remain in the vehicle.
• Don’t load packages into the trunk and then leave the car to go into another store. Thieves wait in parking lots for those opportunities, particularly during the holiday season.
• Don’t advertise firearms, politics, or children on the vehicle exterior.

Robber’s Approach

Like burglars, robbers are all about opportunities. Since a physical victim is part of the equation, robbers seek easy targets. They look for the following attributes:

• People who are average size or smaller.
• Usually women. All wishful thinking aside, the actual fact is that women are most often easier to physically dominate.
• Sadly, disabled people. However, genuine professionals consider disabled people to be low-value targets because so many of the disabled are poor.
• People with closed body language. Positions such as hunched posture, head down, arms covering torso, and hands in pockets or fidgeting imply fear, discomfort, and vulnerability. Serial killer Ted Bundy once stated that he “could tell a victim by the way she walked down the street, the tilt of her head, the manner in which she carried herself, etc.”
• People who are distracted or zoned out. The classic example would be texting or talking on the phone while going through the parking lot.
• People who don’t have a vehicle. The most vulnerable people for robberies are people who walk rather than drive. That is because they are often alone, they often go to the same places, and they are burdened with their purchases as they go places.

Robbers also, of course, look for items of value to steal. A purse over a shoulder or in a hand, a bag from an expensive store, fancy jewelry, etc., will show robbers that there is a reward for their risk.

Defense Against Parking Lot Robbers

• Be aware. When arriving at a parking lot, look into cars and spot people walking in the area. Know who is in the area and where they are.
• Don’t park near cars with people sitting in them.
• Before exiting the vehicle or the building, look around the parking lot. If something seems off, stay in the car or the building. Perhaps find security personnel to escort you.
• Stand tall and walk with confidence and purpose.
• Look directly at people and make eye contact. Criminals are less likely to attack someone who is paying attention to them.
• Do business during the middle of the day rather than at night.
• If out at night, park as close to the door as possible and under a light if there is one.
• Keep hands free. For example, before exiting the car or the building, finish all texting and phone calls so that hands can be available to fight.
• Keep packages in a cart whenever possible. This serves the dual purpose of keeping hands free and providing a cart to use to ram a criminal.
• Survey surroundings before unloading packages into the vehicle. Are there people in cars nearby? Are there people walking nearby? Is someone driving past?
• Keep purse strapped across the body so that people see it would be difficult to snatch.
• For those who need to walk to stores and businesses, travel with a relative or neighbor whenever possible and keep items in a pushcart to keep hands free.
• Carry a weapon and become proficient with it.

Carjackings and Kidnappings

Parking lots are also fertile ground for carjackings and kidnappings. Much of the information from the previous WITS article, Writing Believable Driveway Crime: Carjacking & Kidnapping, also applies in parking lots.

Carjackers usually work in teams and spot easy targets -- unlocked doors and distracted drivers. Kidnappers also work in teams, which usually include a woman to lure in their target. However, there are some general defense points that that article did not include.

• Watch for anyone following when exiting a parking lot. Kidnappers have been known to spot a target in a parking lot and follow them for an opportunity to snatch them off the street or in their front yard.
• If concerned that someone might be following, drive around a block to see if they stick with you in a circle.
• If someone is following, drive to a police station. Don’t lead them home.
• Always have at least a half tank of gas in the car to avoid going to a gas station after dark. Self-serve gas stations are prime locations for carjackings.
• Villains can attack from the sidewalk, so don’t drive in the right-hand lane unless intending to make a right turn.
• Never exit the vehicle to argue with someone. People are always more vulnerable when outside the car, so ram them with the car if necessary, but don’t get out.
• Never attempt to scare off an attacker by flashing a weapon. Letting a criminal see a weapon before it is used only gives them time to draw. In other words, any weapon not in use should stay hidden.

It is worth repeating from the previous article that if a kidnapper orders a target into a vehicle, the person should do everything possible not to get in or be put into the car. Scream, run, fight, hit the car alarm button on the key fob, etc. This is true even if the attacker has a firearm because if someone is willing to shoot someone in a public parking lot, anything they do in private would be much worse.

If someone is threatening with a firearm from a car, instructing the target to get in, the target should run away toward the back of the vehicle. That’s because the person with the firearm would have to turn around to shoot. Chances are good that they will not hit the target, or that if they do, the shot will not be fatal. Chances are excellent that getting in the car would be fatal.

Any questions about burglaries and robberies in parking lots? What about other crimes that can occur in parking lots? Are there other locations you would like us to address?

What do the main intelligence agencies do and where do they operate? How do they recruit personnel? What are real-life honey pots and sleeper agents? What about truth serums and enhanced interrogations? And what are the most common foibles of popular spy fiction?

With the voice of over forty years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Bayard & Holmes answer these questions and share information on espionage history, firearms of spycraft, tradecraft techniques, and the personalities and personal challenges of the men and women behind the myths.

Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

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“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

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About Piper and Bayard

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

Top Image by Kris from Pixabay