Writers in the Storm

Laurie Schnebly Campbell

EVERY story is an adventure. We already know these characters will come face-to-face with all kinds of excitement, challenge and danger--whether that danger involves dastardly villains or a reluctance to fall in love.

A lot of readers are thrilled when a story’s main adventure involves bullets, pirates, dragons or floods. Sometimes all of ‘em combined, plus more!

There are plenty of stories for those readers to enjoy.

But what about the readers who prefer excitement on a more internal, emotional level? How can we satisfy THEM?

Here’s where The Heroine’s Journey comes in handy.

We all know about The Hero’s Journey, which Christopher Vogler adapted from Joseph Campbell’s discovery of the twelve steps a hero goes through on his way from Accepting The Quest to Returning With The Elixir.

Those steps involve all kinds of external conflict, and occasionally there might even be a bit of internal conflict along the way.

The hero isn’t JUST coping with bullets-pirates-dragons-floods...sometimes he’s also coping with self-doubt or fearing cowardice or concerned about his family while he’s busy dodging bullets, fighting pirates, lassoing dragons and swimming through floods.

 

Then there are the other characters.

The ones who don’t come up against such problems. Their external challenges are quieter. Every bit as dramatic and intense, but accompanied by the music of a solo saxophone rather than a chorus of trumpets and drums.

* Maybe their problem is the inability to say no to a loved one.

* Or the discovery that the life they’ve been trained for isn’t what they truly want.

* Or the choice between their love and their dream.

Theirs are the stories that follow The Heroine’s Journey.

The journey can apply to men as well as women, but it’s easier to distinguish Chris Vogler’s twelve steps from Kim Hudson’s thirteen steps by assigning each journey to a different gender.

Kim Hudson’s book, The Virgin’s Promise, goes into fascinating detail on how a character who’s found a somewhat secure niche in society -- at the expense of her own individuality -- comes up against all kinds of challenges if she ever tries to become the person she’s fully meant to be.

This rings true for a lot of heroines. And sometimes even for those of us who write their stories.

We’ve been through experiences like Paying The Price of Conformity, realizing we No Longer Fit in a comfortable-but-confining world, giving up What Keeps us Stuck, and more. It can be a lifelong process. But in a book, it’s a lot more exciting to show the entire process taking place in just those pages between Chapter One and The End.

 The question is, how do we keep it exciting?

Most readers (and writers) have faced these same challenges in real life, even though they don’t tend to view themselves as heroic characters. Yet every time we question our boundaries, every time we consider changing a habit that no longer fills its original purpose, every time we stand up for something we believe in, we’re taking the same 13 steps as those heroic characters who achieve -- and deserve -- a triumphant ending.

Even so, somehow we tend to think of our own life as “not very exciting” -- unless the challenges we face involve bullets, pirates, dragons and floods. That’s why a lot of writers add those elements to their books.

With The Heroine’s Journey, though, there’s no real need for such external dangers.

There’s already a whole world of adventure in seeing her…

* Move from dormancy to risk.

* Sample an unrealized dream in secret.

* Balance her old and new worlds.

* Face the chaos that comes from change.

* Confront the ultimate challenge, and bring new light to the world.

You’ve done that yourself. You’ve taken on a challenge which people close to you viewed as questionable. They doubted your ability, your commitment, your thinking, and often made you doubt it as well. But you persisted, and you emerged triumphant.

Your more-than-adventurous heroine can, too.

Which leads to a prize-drawing question:

To inspire all of us creating memorable heroines, who face the kind of challenges that affect people like ourselves, could you describe a time when you went beyond the limits set by your world? If you'd rather I DIDN'T quote you, please mention that...but somebody who comments will win free registration to my September class on The Hero’s Journey, For Heroines!

 

Laurie Schnebly Campbell always wondered what was wrong with her, not really GETTING the Hero's Journey, until she discovered its feminine counterpart. Then she got excited -- not only by the premise, but also by the chance to create a brand new class for WriterUniv.com. She can't wait to see who else shares her enthusiasm for characters making discoveries within themselves, as well as within the world...no matter what their gender.

SEO for authors... It's a catchphrase that makes all my writing pals shudder. As one of our gals at WITS said, "I know how to spell it, but that's about all." SEO doesn't have to be hard. In fact, some of the best techniques are the easiest for writers, because they involve writing.

What is SEO?

Wikipedia says, "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results - often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results."

What it really means to authors is:

• How do I help people find me?
• How do I stand out?
• How do I get to Google's first page?

Because those are all the things that will help build your platform and sell books.

Good SEO can go really deep, down into the programming and structure of your website, but we're writers. We don't want to do all that. We just want to write. (Can I get loud cheer here?)

Here are 5 easy SEO methods you can use NOW

1. Research the keywords that apply to you.

Search engine optimization is rooted in keywords. But what about your words? You want to find the words that readers will use to search for you. Help your readers find you by tagging your posts and videos with 3-10 keywords that really describe you and your work.

Remember, you will almost always be at the top of the search results for keywords you create. That's a pretty big deal.

You can be on page 3 on search engine results for "great YA reads," or teach your readers how to search for you with your words. Words like your book title or your name. You're likely to be on page one with those. And yes, you have to already have a platform to do this.

Most people just piggyback off other people's keywords. You could spend hours looking these words up, but you can minimize the time spent by doing some brainstorming and mind mapping.

Resources:

• Here's a link to Orly's bang-up post on mind mapping if you need some pointers.
• Mary Jaksch also did a great post on the topic at Write to Done.

Or you might want to go the other direction and find out which key words will take you to readers.

Two ways to do this is by searching in Google (for “keyword” + “forum" or “keyword” + “board”) or going to a site like BoardReader that will search the boards for you.

Or try an advanced search if you'd like to get more specific.

Backlinko, a site full of great SEO info, provides  a comprehensive article on keyword searching and ways to identify the key words that define your markets (called Niche Cloud Maps) if you want to study this in more depth.

2. Make your titles work for you.

Do you see that title up there? It starts with the entire point of this post: "Easy SEO Techniques." It ends with the other key point: "Search Rankings."

The easiest tip for great titles is to keep them direct and to the point and focused around your keywords. Amber Kemmis at SmartBug Media wrote a great article with SEO tips for titles that emphasizes "the big stuff":

• The best link structure is short, descriptive and helps categorize your site. Did you know you can customize your URLs, especially in Wordpress? It's a great way to help the search engines find you.
• Put keywords or topics towards the front of the title. Whatever's first wins, at least for search engines.
• Optimize Page Titles. SmartBug recommends you use title tags, which tell search engines and searchers about your page. "Since Google will only display between 50-60 characters in the title tag, you should keep title tags under 55 characters and try to drive people to click with compelling copy."

 

3. Use a mobile-ready theme for your website or blog.

Okay, this point has the potential to be a bit technical, but I promise you -- it's worth it!

In 2014, almost 40 percent of organic search traffic was done on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. If your site's design isn't mobile-friendly, many searchers won't be back. If you aren't in charge of this, ask your web designer. If you are a DIY-er, be sure you pick a mobile-ready theme for all your marketing, whether it's your site or your email newsletter.

Neil Patel put up a great graphic to illustrate the importance of mobile-friendly sites in his article, Advanced SEO Techniques that Will Double Your Traffic.

 

4. Write descriptive mini-blog posts for your YouTube videos.

This was an excellent piece of advice from 21 Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Use Right Now that I LOVED. We're writers - we can rock this one!

Note: YouTube is owned by Google, another reason they run high in search rankings.

The article states:

Using 200+ words in your video's description will push you up the rankings for both YouTube and Google.

"Don't mindlessly toss a few words into the description box. Instead, [let Google] rely on your video’s text-based title and description to determine what your video is about. Not only does this extra text-based information help you rank better for your target keyword…it also ranks your video to any closely related long tail keywords."

Here's that author's guide to great SEO strategy for YouTube videos.

 

5. Create posts and pages with at least 1,000 words.

This requires more work on your part, but it is the reason why "slow bloggers" like Anne R. Allen and social media Jedi Kristen Lamb often crush the competition in terms of social sharing and backlinks to their blogs.

Yes, they are both great writers, but they also write long posts filled with useful information. Brian Dean at Backlinko says this about why long posts work.

"First off, long posts show Google that you’re providing in-depth information for searchers.

But that’s not all:

In-depth content flips an important emotional switch that pushes people to share online content: awe.

University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Jonah Berger found that content that elicited awe made people 30% more likely to share it."

I like that number, don't you? Long posts take more work, but they're worth it.

 

SEO is a huge subject for such a tiny little acronym, and things change constantly. In the past few months, the importance of Google AdWords has faded and new search engines are chomping at Google's heels.

According to Search Engine Watch, :

"Search engines like Yahoo, Bing, and DuckDuckGo may slowly take a bigger piece of Google’s pie in 2015. Yahoo is now the default search engine for Firefox. Safari had a deal with Google, which is supposed to end in 2015, and Yahoo and Bing are both trying to become the default search engine for the browser."

But we don't need to worry about all that right this moment. Right now, we just want to worry about these five tips that we can implement now.

(Plus, if you ask for it, I'm happy to write another post that shares several more easy SEO techniques for writers. I dig the world of SEO cuz I'm geeky like that.)

Do you have SEO questions you've been wondering about? Will you share any great (EASY) techniques that have worked for you? See you down in the comments!

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About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes news articles, humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA or at Writers In The Storm.

Kimberly Belle

For the past few months, I’ve been making the promotional rounds for my second novel, The Ones We Trust. I’ve been talking to readers and touring on blogs, and one of the questions I keep getting is, how was writing this story different than writing the first one? My answer is always the same: Um, how much time have you got?

I wrote the very first words for The Ones We Trust six years ago, all the way back in 2009. It was my very first attempt at a novel, and like most first novels, it wasn’t pretty. The characters were cliché, the conflict was uninspired, the dialogue was stilted and the writing was cringe-worthy. If there was a story in there, it was buried under all the wrong words—words even a newbie like me could tell were complete crap. When I was done, I closed the file, shoved it in a box under my bed, and chalked the experience up as practice.

I took everything I’d learned from that first failed attempt and wrote The Last Breath—the story that ultimately landed me an agent and a book deal. But when it came time to move on to book number three, The Ones We Trust wouldn’t leave me alone. Fix me, it kept whispering to me from under the bed. I have a story to tell.

So I pulled it out, dusted it off, and went back to work. I rewrote it, then rewrote it again and again (and again). I fixed the tone and the voice, matured my characters, deepened backstory to intensify the conflict. I added a subplot and a whole cast of new characters. I killed my darlings more times than I care to count. I lost a lot of sleep and I shed a lot of tears.

How many words did I waste? A million, at least. It took me that many to drill down to the very essence of the book—the slain soldier’s story. Though we never actually meet him on the page, The Ones We Trust is built around what, exactly, happened to him on the battlefield. This plotline was the crux of every single rewrite, a red thread, leading the way. It’s where, as soon as I got out of my own way, I found my story.

 

We writers talk a lot about stories that demand to be told, about the ones that grab us by the guts and won’t let go. For me, The Ones We Trust was one of them. For six years, those characters lived in my head, dominating my days and filling my dreams with mini movie clips of their next scenes. My method of wrangling them to the ground (did I mention it took me six years?) is not one I’d advise or ever hope to repeat.

But like all great trials, it makes the successes—in my case, seeing my firstborn up there on the shelves—that much sweeter.

What do you think, WITS readers? Do you have a dust-bunny book with some gold dust on it?

 About Kimberly

Kimberly Belle grew up in Eastern Tennessee, in a small town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians. A graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and has worked in marketing and fundraising for various nonprofits. She’s the author of two novels, THE LAST BREATH and THE ONES WE TRUST (August 2015). She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Keep up with Kimberly on Facebook (www.facebook.com/KimberlyBelleBooks), Twitter (@KimberlySBelle), Instagram (@KimberlySBelle) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/KimberlyBelle). For more about Kimberly and her books, please visit her website, www.kimberlybellebooks.