One of the most common mistakes I see writers make with branding is to pull their punches. They have power. They have a unique take on life and story. But they also want everyone to like them.
15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:14–16
That’s a pretty strong quote. Just by using it in this article, I’ve elicited strong feelings either toward or against me. My spirituality is a part of my brand. If you don’t like it, you won’t like my books.
Think back to the marketing wheel I shared in a previous post. As a refresher, I refer to your website as a way that people decide if they like you and like your writing. If the website does its job and attracts people, they buy the book, join your email list, and then go on to recommend your book to others, getting the wheel spinning.
That’s what happens when you attract the right people, your superfans. But what happens if you attract the wrong people?
Story Time
Let’s say you write steamy romance. Now, let’s say your website appeals to people who love all kinds of romance: sweet, steamy, everything. You’re out in the world, using social media, and you draw all kinds of romance lovers to your site.
What is going to happen when you attract a reader who loves sweet romance?
Let’s say your website and your online presence work so perfectly, this sweet-romance-loving reader picks up your book and … oh my!
You’ll get a less than stellar review.
That fan isn’t likely to do much to make that wheel turn.
You want to attract avid fans, people who will love you and turn that wheel.
Trying to please everyone results in a bland website that probably won’t attract anyone.
True fans want to know your quirks. They love you because of them. To quote Margie Lawson, “Quirky Sells!”
Let’s look at what happens when you attract the wrong people:
Your website costs more
Specifically, your list can cost more to send and manage. A huge email list is great if it is full of your true fans. You’ll send out an email and you’ll sell books. That list will support itself.
If you have the wrong people on your list, you’ll pay more to send and maintain your newsletter while not getting a strong return on the investment. If your list is generating less than 10% engagement, you may be attracting the wrong people.
In addition, while modern web hosting gives us a generous allowance for traffic, if you have too much traffic your site will slow down and you may have to pay more for hosting. Again: fine if that traffic generates income. Not fun if people who think you are barely tolerable waste your traffic.
Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will suffer
If you are ranking for topics that you aren’t a good fit for, people will come to your site and then hit the back button. This is called a “bounce.” When people bounce, search engines downgrade your website for that topic. You want your branding to be so on point, so clear, that search engines never rank you for terms that you are not appropriate for. You also want people to be able to see from the search engine results whether they want to click through to your site or not. Stop them before they come and they won’t bounce.
Your branding can get muddled
Trying to please everyone and offend no one creates a bland brand that is hard to define. Writers who are tied into their superfans sell more books. They know who they are as a writer and they devote their energies to pleasing those superfans. The fans reward them. Once your brand is muddled, you’re likely going to have fewer fans, and those that you have will be less dedicated, less passionate.
You generate bad reviews
Remember: the goal of the website is to encourage people to buy, read, and review the book. If you attract the wrong people, people who aren’t your ideal readers, then you’ll pay for it in lower-star reviews. Don’t be afraid to turn off some people. Your true fans will love you for it!
Think about the authors you love. What draws you to their brand?
AboutLisa
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, an indie publishing firm. She teaches for Lawson Writer's Academy.
Interested in learning more from Lisa? See her teaching schedule below.
Are you a comma criminal? Do you steal commas from places where they really need to stay? Or maybe you’re a comma enthusiast and stick them in wherever you “feel” they need to be? If you said yes to one or both, you’re not alone. When it comes to commas, most people don’t go by any solid rules. Not only can that make your sentence structure inconsistent, it can confuse your readers about what you’re trying to say.
It’s comma time again. I know. Try to contain your groans. We’re almost done! In this fourth part of the series, we’ll talk about pauses, sentence clarification, places, people, dates, words at the end of a sentence, and dialogue. And yes, it’s going to be easier than it sounds. Once you get the hang of commas, using them will come more naturally. I promise.
Have you missed any of the first three installments? No worries. Click on the links below to catch up. Here’s a quick guide if you’re looking for something specific.
To Comma, or Not to Comma (Part 1): Part 1 covers general comma abuse, dependent and independent clauses, plus everything else you thought you didn’t need to know about sentences, clauses, and predicates.
To Comma, or Not to Comma (Part 3): Part 3 covers adjectives, including size, color, and number, and the dreaded Oxford (serial) comma.
Take a Pause
Sometimes, even if we follow the comma rules, the meaning of words in a sentence can be unclear or need some contrast. Especially when those words fall at the end.
Incorrect: He’s just being quiet silly.
This literally means he’s being “quiet silly.” Which isn’t really a thing.
Correct: He’s just being quiet, silly.
Incorrect: He was only distracted not stupid.
Correct: He was only distracted, not stupid.
As a general rule, use a comma before “not” at the end of a sentence.
Incorrect: Our robotic math professor seemed different today almost human.
Correct: Our robotic math professor seemed different today, almost human.
Incorrect: That’s John’s new car isn’t it?
Correct: That’s John’s new car, isn’t it?
Sentence Clarification
Commas come in handy if there’s ever an issue with understanding what a sentence means.
Incorrect: Jeremy gestured at the herd of stampeding horses yelling wildly.
Above, the horses are yelling wildly, not Jeremy. But with a comma added in the right place below, it becomes clear that Jeremy is the one yelling.
Correct: Jeremy gestured at the herd of stampeding horses, yelling loudly.
Places, People, Dates
Use commas to set off specific geographical places and addresses, people’s titles, and dates.
Examples of Places:
Dallas, Texas, is where I’m from.
I used to live in Madison, Wisconsin, before I moved.
My sister lives at 676 Maple Lane, Plano, Texas.
Yes, you need a comma after the state too if it’s not at the end of the sentence. The odd way it looks throws many people off.
Examples of Titles:
My primary care doctor is Glenda Green, MD.
Glenda Green, MD, is my primary care doctor.
Examples of Dates:
September 11, 2001, is a date no one will ever forget.
May 18, 1943, was the day my mom was born.
Yes, you need a comma after the year too. Even though it seems weird.
Exception: There is no comma with just the month and year—unless the date is used an opening clause.
I married my husband January 1991.
In January 1991, I married my husband.
TOO, ALSO, EITHERat the end of a sentence
Just like we no longer type that extra space after a period, we can scratch that comma before too, also, and either, providing the words come at the end of a sentence and the meaning is clear.
Correct: Keep the comma.
I, too, like fruit.
I, also, like fruit.
Correct: Ditch the comma.
I like fruit too.
I like also.
I don’t like fruit either.
Dialogue
Finally, something most writers are familiar with—dialogue. There’s a simple rule here. We always use commas to set off dialogue. That’s it.
But remember dialogue means what your characters say out loud. It’s external. We’re not talking about the thoughts inside their heads. That’s internal and doesn’t need quotes either. See my post on Dive Deep into Dialogue for, well, a deeper dive into dialogue.
Incorrect: Jean said I’m not hungry. / I’m not hungry Jean said.
Correct: “I’m not hungry,” Jean said. /Jean said, “I’m not hungry.”
A Final Hint
Use commas when your reader will be confused without them.
Incorrect: To George Lucas was the father of Star Wars.
Because the two names, George and Lucas, usually belong together, we read them as if they are together. But that’s not what the writer of this sentence meant.
Correct: To George, Lucas was the father of Star Wars.
We’re done. You made it! I hope you walked away from this comma series with some concrete takeaways. I’d love to hear them. What have you struggled with? What did you learn? Do you have any comma advice to share? And what other punctuation would you like me to cover? I love requests as much as I love your comments.
Looking for more help? Check out my favorite grammar sites.
My favorite go-to or commas is Purdue Owl, where they break down the basic comma rules into a quick guide as well as an extended guide. You can check them out here. Quick Comma Rules and Extended Comma Rules.
I’m also loving the PerfectIt 5 software. It’s partnering with The Chicago Manual of Style.
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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.
Structuring your novel’s big picture is important. The structure of your scenes all the way down to your character’s motivations and reactions are equally important. If you get the sequence out of order, you risk confusing or completely disengaging your reader. Don’t worry. You can create compelling scenes with the MRU. The motivation-reaction unit (MRU) is a tool introduced by Dwight V. Swain in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. This post is only an introduction to the MRU. In his book, Mr. Swain does a deep dive into the MRU and other tools writers can use to be a selling writer.
"A story is a series of motivation-reaction units. The chain they form as they link together is the pattern of emotion.”
Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain.
What is the MRU?
In Techniques of the Selling Writer, Mr. Swain uses his understanding of the pattern of emotion (how people’s brains work) to create a guideline for writing fiction. He calls it the motivation-reaction unit (MRU) and breaks it down into parts.
At its simplest, the MRU is—
a.) Motivation.
b.) Reaction.
In the book, Mr. Swain talks about each part of the MRU in great detail. Read it to get a deeper understanding of the MRU. He also discusses what story is, story structure, character, conflict, and ways to be a successful professional writer.
How Your Brain Reacts to Stimuli
People react to a stimulus predictably. There are simple responses, more detailed responses and complex responses. What we think varies. What we feel varies. What we do and say varies. But each of our brains reacts to a stimulus in the same pattern.
A stimulus is something that directly rouses a reaction or activity. We pick up stimuli with one of our senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste. Neurons in your brain process the stimulus and cause a sequence of responses. The blink of an eye is one reflex that happens instantly. Some responses we learned at an early age— don’t touch the hot stove. We gain some after repeated experiences, and some responses need to be processed on a higher level of thought that might take hours to months.
Simplest Stimulus and Response
A reflex is your body’s simplest response. A dangerous stimulus causes an immediate motor response.
Stimulus: Something flies toward your eye.
Response: You blink without a conscious thought.
More Complicated Stimulus and Response
The more complicated the stimuli, the more complicated your response. Your brain processes this in nanoseconds and your body responds in seconds or minutes.
Stimulus: You feel the pain of a bee stinging you.
Reaction: You want to stop the pain, slap at the bee, and yell.
Complex Stimuli and Response
Some stimuli, particularly social ones, are far more complex and trigger a complex response.
Stimulus: Your ex-husband confronts you at a public event and loudly demands that you admit your much loved, recently departed, second husband abused you.
Reaction: Confused and hurt, you play the words in your head again,. You knot your hands into fists. You politely deny the accusation and you excuse yourself from the uncomfortable situation. Later, you replay the scene in your head; you remember similar conversations with your ex, and your suppressed anger boils. You curse loudly and deface your ex’s expensive car.
How to Create an Effective Motivation
Motivation always comes before reaction. But what motivation is Mr. Swain talking about? He’s not talking about the motivation to pick up a coffee mug or sniff a flower on your morning walk. He refines the term motivation to motivating stimulus. A motivating stimulus is “anything outside your focal character to which he reacts.” The important word in that definition is “outside.” It’s not a thought or worry. Those may be part of a scene’s sequel, but the motivating stimulus comes from outside—another character’s presence or actions, the weather, or the situation.
Motivating Stimulus
To be an effective motivating stimulus, it must be something that is significant to your focal character. It must be significant enough that it demands your focal character react actively. Because of her personality or needs, or wants, she must act.
The best motivating stimulus is also pertinent to your story. The writer selects a stimulus that sets up the change you want your focal character to experience. It is a change in your focal character’s external world. This change stimulates the focal character to change his internal thoughts or ways of doing things.
The stimulus also must make sense to your reader. You will jerk your reader out of the story if your focal character has hated guns from the beginning and in chapter twenty, she picks up a gun and shoots accurately.
If your motivating stimulus doesn’t do all these things, your story or scene will be less effective and possibly be the place your reader puts it down, never to pick it up again.
The R (Reaction) in MRU
Your character’s reaction is anything your character feels, says, or thinks because of the motivating stimulus.
Mr. Swain breaks the Reaction portion of the MRU down into three parts: feeling, action, and speech. This is the order in which they should appear on the page in order for your reader to process the story. Below is the M-R from the reaping scene in The Hunger Games.
Motivating Stimulus:
Effie Trinket announces Katniss’s little sister, Prim, is the next participant in a deadly competition.
Reaction:
Shocked, Katniss stands rooted to the spot and watches her sister move forward. She follows her sister. She shouts Prim’s name over and over. Then, realizing Prim will never survive the “game,” Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place.
How to Create an Effective Reaction
Like the Motivating Stimulus, the Reaction must be significant, pertinent, and motive. It also must be characteristic and reasonable.
The reaction is significant when it creates the character change and moves the story forward in a way that you, the writer, intended. We see that in the reaping scene from The Hunger Games.
Mr Swain uses the term motive to describe a character doing something. The character’s reaction is motive if it is active, particularly if it leads to more change. The reader expects that Katniss’s reaction of volunteering as tribute will change her life.
A characteristic reaction is typical behavior of your focal character. It can be unexpected or stronger than usual, but it is in keeping with the character’s personality. It should be a reasonable response to the stimulus. In The Hunger Games, the reader knows Katniss is protective of her sister and accepts Katniss volunteering as characteristic.
Why use MRUs in your Writing?
Consider a motivation-reaction unit where your mild-mannered character, a middle-aged woman, receives a blackmail note. Your character’s reaction is to confront her daughter and to demand if the photo is of her. Then your character shakes and cries and wrings her hands and you learn she’d received the blackmail note with a lewd picture of her daughter. She doesn’t have that much money. Maybe the photo isn’t of her daughter. But it won’t matter if once it’s on the internet everyone thinks it’s her daughter.
Confused? Yeah. When the writer reveals motivation and reaction randomly, it’s hard to follow.
Rewind that scene, this time we’ll use the motivation-reaction unit.
Motivating Stimulus:
Your middle-aged female character receives a blackmail note with a lewd photo of her college-age daughter. The note demands $100,000 or the pictures will go viral on the internet.
Reaction:
Feeling: She can’t believe it’s her daughter. She realizes even if it isn’t her daughter, once it’s on the internet, her daughter won’t be able to get a job. Your character puts her hand to her mouth. She doesn’t have that much money. She shakes and cries and wrings her hands. Then she decides to drive to her daughter’s college.
Action: She meets her daughter and shows her daughter the picture.
Speech. She asks her daughter, “Is this you?”
How Long is an MRU?
Make your MRUs paragraphs long, a single paragraph, or even shorter. Show your character’s reaction in a reflex: She ducks, avoiding being hit by the baseball bat. In the example above, you can use the same motivation stimulus and make it short.
Motivating Stimulus:
She receives a lewd photo and blackmail note.
Reaction:
Feeling: She can’t believe it’s her daughter.
Action: She puts her hand to her mouth.
Speech: “It won’t matter if it isn’t her. Future employers will believe it is.”
OR
An MRU can show a reflex.
Motivating Stimulus:
She receives a lewd photo and blackmail note.
Reaction:
Feeling: Shock
Action: Recoil
Speech:Gasp
Create Compelling Scenes with the MRU
With a clear motivating stimulus, your character can react with as much feeling, action, and speech as is appropriate for that character and situation. Using the motivation-reaction unit follows the same pattern your brain does. That pattern helps you write a story that makes sense to the reader, that compels the reader to keep reading.
Once you understand it, you can create compelling scenes with the MRU. With practice, you will vary the shape, texture, and color of the MRUs within your story. And the scenes you write will have an energy that carries your reader to the next page and the next until they reach the end.
Have you heard of the MRU before? What have you written (read, or watched) that uses the MRU?
About Lynette
Lynette M. Burrows loves hot coffee, reading physical books, and the crack of a 9mm pistol—not all at the same time, though they all appear in her books. She writes action-filled science fiction with characters who discover their inner strength and determination, and make courageous choices for themselves, their family, and their world.
In Book One of the Fellowship Dystopia, My Soul to Keep, Miranda Clarke lived a charmed life… until she breaks the rules. But it is 1961 and America’s a theocracy. Following the rules isn’t optional. In the recently released book two, If I Should Die, Miranda, the former “good daughter” of the Fellowship, has transformed into a hero of the rebellion but now she faces the question, what do you do when the other side doesn’t want to listen. Owned by two Yorkshire Terriers, Lynette lives in the land of Oz. When she’s not procrastinating by not doing housework and playing with her dogs, she’s blogging or writing or researching her next book. You can find Lynette online at https://lynettemburrows.com, Facebook.com/LynetteMBurrowsAuthor, or on Twitter @LynetteMBurrows.
