Writers in the Storm

Some of you have heard of Klout,  a website and app that measures social media activity and ranks social influence. This is not another social media platform, I promise you. This is something you can set up that gives others an indication of the reach and effectiveness of your current social media efforts. And by others, I mean agents, editors, employers, etc.

Klout is not a beast you have to keep feeding, unless you want to. Some people set it up and never visit again. Others browse the Perks and use the "give Klout +K" feature with abandon. This post sums up some key points and how-to that I shared with Laura Drake when I got her set up last year.

p.s. Laura is now rocking Klout! It should be noted, she spends less time on social media than I do, and has a higher Klout score. [Bitch.]

Klout isn't about how much time you spend on social media, it's about the engagement that happens with your stuff and how much influence you have. For example, if I post 50 Facebook updates, but no one clicks, comments or shares them, and Laura posts three that get shared to pieces, her "engagement" is higher and her Klout score will go up. It's about quality, not quantity.

That photo at the top of the post is a snip of the navigation pane from my own Klout screen and there are some items there you need to pay attention to if you decide to get set up on Klout.

Overview

This is your "home" screen. You start here when you open the app, and Klout provides suggestions for content you might like to share. During your set-up, Klout asks you what topic you'd like to be influential in, then gives you suggestions from top influencers. You can share from here, or do nothing with it. I haven't notice either choice having much effect on my Klout.

Create

This allows you to "pick your topics." I recommend that you do. If you let Klout choose, it might say you're influential in some bizarre topic like cookies, based on the Facebook update you put up the last time you had late-night cravings. If a topic has gotten tons of play, Klout will think it's an influential one for you. So if you want to be known for writing or humor or romance, go to "Create" and search those topics out. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck with things like cookies and chocolate and cats.

 

Schedule

Giving you the opportunity to share content from Klout is their way of "throwing you some social media help." I don't often use this - I have my own stuff to share. But if you're new or not sure what to share, Klout's trying to make your life easier by giving you the best dates, times and content for sharing.

Measure

This is where you can drive yourself insane if you don't watch it. Klout gives you your score and shows which platforms had the most influence. I told Laura to pick the three she spent the most time on to start. If that's Wordpress, Facebook and Twitter, fine. If Pinterest and LinkedIn are your happy places, pick those. If you spend more time on social media for a while, or get better engagement, your score will go up. If you're absent for a while, it will likely go down.

Try not to watch this like you do with Amazon rankings. Above all, don't worry about it if your Klout score takes a while to perk up. Just know that a score over 50 is just fine.

Barack Obama's Klout is 99 and he's only really on Twitter. You're no Barack Obama on the influence scale, so 50+ is just peachy. If you're over 60, you're rocking social media. Stop worrying.

Also on this page, you can see which networks are contributing the most to your score. My favorite part of this screen is being able to see which topics and updates are gaining you the most ground. In other words, you can see what's working. Above is the graph, below is what's driving those numbers.

 

At the very bottom of your Klout screen are the Perks and your settings, in case you'd like to add some networks, or change your information. Some of the perks are very cool and it's up to you if you want to take advantage of them. I rarely do because I rarely go into the app. Plus, just like Facebook and Twitter, you must remember: When software or products are free, it's because you're the product.

Klout is happy to measure your effectiveness. In return, they'd appreciate it if you used that effectiveness to promote those perky products.

What do I use Klout for?

I use Google Chrome for my browser and I have the Klout add-in installed. I do this for a specific reason: When I'm browsing in Twitter or in a dashboard like Hootsuite, looking for sources for articles and such, I want to see who has the most influence. If I have two sources in front of me and one has a Klout Score of 42 and the other is 65, guess who I'm using for my source?

Klout has been especially helpful when I'm looking for people "on the ground" to interview for breaking news stories, or disasters. I can run a search for a specific hashtag and then comb through based on Klout. I get my sources faster and that makes me happy.

Below is what it looks like in Twitter.

Do you see that wide swing in scores? Below is another screen snip, but for Breaking News.

When it comes to freelance writing and interviewing, Klout has been a godsend for me. Some writers praise it to the heavens when they queried for agents. I've heard of several agents telling their clients to raise their score, while others say their agents could give a rip about their Klout.

In the end, it's always about the quality of our work. However, if we're spending time "building a social media platform," it sure is nice to have a place where we can look to see whether we're gaining any influence.

Do you use Klout? Do you have any other questions for me? Ask me down in the comments!

Announcement: My last techie post was about Microsoft's Sway and using it to create quick book trailers. I don't believe I gave away the Sway I promised, so I'm giving away TWO to make up for the delay. The two lucky winners are Candice Colt and Bibi Belford. I'll send you ladies a reminder through your blog comment email. If not, be sure to put your email down in the comments for me.

Happy Friday, y'all!

~ Jenny
@JennyHansenCA

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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.

By Laura Drake

We’ve talked about it in other posts. How learning your writing process is finding your way in a pitch black room, full of furniture. You can learn by banging your shins, but there are less painful ways. Hopefully, this post will help.

I’m an organized person, and it would make me crazy trying to locate details in my WIP. Which chapter did the dog first show up? Or the first kiss? Or harder yet, the smaller details – what kind of shoes did the old man wear the second time the heroine met him?

I’d end up scrolling through two hundred pages. And get distracted...

Oh, now there’s a clunky sentence.

Wait, did I really use the word ‘jerk’ twenty-three times in this book?

I did NOT just compare his private parts to a DEER ANTLER! (yes, I did, and my crit group will NEVER let me forget it.)

Before you know it, I’d be hopelessly mired in the text, and forgot what I came for.

I’m an accountant by trade (well, I used to be - Ah, retirement) so if I need something organized, of course, the first place I go is Excel.

I know all you math-adverse readers have now broken into a sweat. Follow me here – no formulas are involved. If you can open the program, you can do this. Promise.

First, I thought about what information I wanted to capture. Here’s my list (yours may differ)

• The length of each chapter
• What happened in each chapter – by scene
• Track POV – so I could check the balance in my novel
• Track the romance, and where it happened.
• Timeline
• Word count

So I made up what I call my Chapter Cheat Sheet. Here’s what it looks like for my novel, Her Road Home:

If it's too small to read, click on it and view it full-size.

• I now know how many pages each chapter is, and the word counts (if you total the word count column, you'll have the total word count of the book)
• The pink highlight = chapters that advance the romance. I can see quickly where it is, if it's clumped together and if I have enough or too much
• The column in the middle shows scenes, using only a few words, separated by '/'
• The POV is shown by the color coding in the scenes; Green for the Heroine, Purple for the Hero
• Blue I used to denote scenes that could be cut, if I ran over my allowed word count
• Red was problem scenes I knew I'd have to come back to later
• The far right column is a timeline - because I stink at them

Note that I have more than one sheet to this workbook. You can use them for a more detailed timeline, or anything else you'd like to track. Revisions usually means cutting and pasting scenes in different places, so I'll create a new sheet for my newly revised version.

As you may know, I'm not a plotter. If you are, you may start a cheat sheet before you even begin the book!  Since the thought of outlining makes me perspire, I complete my cheat sheet as I go.

Honestly, this tool has been invaluable for me. It gives me a bird's eye view of the entire novel on one screen. I can't imagine writing a book without one. Please let me know in the comments if you'd like a copy.

Hope it helps save your shins!

What do you use to organize your WIP? Any suggestions for us?

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About Laura

Laura Drake is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance.

She sold her Sweet on a Cowboy series, romances set in the world of professional bull riding, to Grand Central. The Sweet Spot (May 2013), Nothing Sweeter (Jan 2014) and Sweet on You (August 2014). The Sweet Spot won the 2014 Romance Writers of America^®   RITA^® award in the Best First Book category.

Her 'biker-chick' novel, Her Road Home, sold to Harlequin's Superomance line (August, 2013) and has expanded to three more stories set in the same small town. The Reasons to Stay released August, 2014.

In 2014, Laura realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full time. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.

Twitter  Facebook

Kathryn Craft
Turning Whine into Gold

The waiting was over. My agent called last Tuesday with word about my submission for novel number three: my publisher had passed.

(Read paragraph break as needed time for truth of this to sink in.)

We strategized. Then my agent said, “Okay Kathryn, well, I’d better go get a little rest and then head to the hospital to have my baby.”

Life. Its unpredictability never ceases to amaze.

My agent had hoped to be negotiating my deal on the way into the delivery room. She loved the characters and their story. I had my own reasons for wanting this book deal.

My second novel, The Far End of Happy, was the culmination of a seventeen-year calling to write about my first husband’s suicide, a goal that had led me up a mountain of healing and self-awareness—and completing it felt a bit like stepping off that mountain and into the void. I honestly don’t know who I’ll be beyond this book release, but if I had another book deal, at least I’d still be an employed novelist. With a running leap, maybe I could jump from one mountaintop right to the next and skip the void altogether.

Yet here in the void I now find myself floating, so I look around. It feels familiar. I’ve been here before, right after the suicide, when I had to deal with the horrific black hole my husband’s loss had torn in our lives.

Back then, the void taught me that when you can’t see where you’re going, it’s not a time to be running or leaping anywhere. You must take time to reorient to the new reality, as any heroine would at the start of a new tale.

I begin by accepting my situation and seeking its wisdom. A break could well be a blessing—less stress as I promote for the next few months. But to ensure that the break will be as short as possible, I intend to get back in touch: both with myself and a love of story that extends well beyond the topic of suicide. I could write about anything! What will it be?

Here are some of the strategies I plan to employ:

1. Commune with my bookcase.

Of the books I’ve read: why did I decide to keep them? Of the books I haven’t yet read: what drew me to them? The answers will reconnect me to the type of stories I love and the writing I hope to emulate. I look forward to this.

2. Re-enter the world for a spell.

While writing on contract last year I learned that to finish on time I had to remain driven and sequestered. While out in the world doing all I can to promote the new book, I hope to take a little time to make cogent observations about life that will fuel my writing.

3. Reconnect with friends and family.

While feeling unmoored after my husband’s suicide, I called friends who knew me back when my dreams were forming, and when the characteristics that would shape me were just starting to bloom. One friend said, “Tell me one time when you really wanted to do something in your life and you were unable to achieve it.” That kind of perspective is a lifeline when you are flailing in the waters of self-doubt.

4. Feed simpler passions.

The void itself doesn’t offer up a whole lot of material. I need to rediscover the richness of my own inner landscape, one step at a time. Where did I put that harmonica and learn-to-play book I was gifted a few years ago? With concerted effort I could introduce my next reading with a bit of mouth organ blues. I miss exploring new places on foot, too. So does my body. The fresh air will reinvigorate me inside and out. And where better to people watch?

5. Ramp up my developmental editing.

A practical concern on one hand, as I don’t have an advance on the horizon. Yet a life affirming decision as well: when you aren’t sure where you’re headed, it’s always a great idea to extend to others the experience of which you are confident.

The writing life experiences seasons of change like any other. This year, my creative winter just happened to sync with Mother Nature. There is no need to fear it if you use it. Experience has taught me: when you step out into the void, in faith, some pretty amazing things can happen.

How does the concept of “seasons of change” relate to your writing life, and what have you done to reinvigorate during your creative winters? Please share! Then go tweet congratulations to @AgentShea on the arrival of little Lucas.

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About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the author of two novels from Sourcebooks: The Art of Falling, and The Far End of Happy, out May 5.

Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she hosts lakeside writing retreats for women in northern New York State, leads workshops, and speaks often about writing.

Kathryn lives with her husband in Bucks County, PA.

Website: http://www.kathryncraft.com/