What creative writing tips would you offer to budding writers?
Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing my husband (aka Attila the Honey) at the Lake Chapala Society, our local gringo gathering place and library. We were having a book signing party to celebrate the publication of Rob’s first two novels, Die Laughing and Future Schlock.
I’m sharing with you here my speech, because there are some tips for writing creative content not only for novels and fiction. These tips also apply to blog writing.
Content marketing ideas come from many sources, and sometimes you have to go against conventional wisdom and standard trends.
My speech was called:
Rob Krakoff’s Top 10 Tips for Writing 3 Novels in 18 Months…
- Don’t follow your wife’s (or partner’s) advice. Sometimes I call an idea stupid just because it’s too far-fetched to be believable. Wild, crazy ideas will certainly get people’s attention and avoid boredom. If someone says it’s stupid, it just might work…
- Don’t follow your writer’s group advice: Other authors will tell you to only write what you know about. If that were true, then all mystery writers would be murderers. Don’t squelch your imagination.
- Don’t follow your English teachers’ rules: Don’t get hung up on grammar. Write and worry later about the rules, or get someone else to do that. So what if you don’t believe in commas.
- Don’t study how others write, or how books should be written: It’s more important to just get started, get your stories going.
- Don’t worry, be happy: feed your creativity by squelching anxiety and fear. If you’re not happy, then use that energy to write like hell. Either way, you’ve got no excuse.
- Don’t do any housework, just spend time writing. (That’s not entirely true, but it helps not to worry about the ‘other things’ in life.) Read More→
Blog Content: Are you personal… or all business?
I got an interesting comment on a post I did beginning of June and I can’t stop thinking about it. The post was about staying on target with your business goals when you create content for your blog. Don’t Jerk Readers Around: 5 Tips for Staying on Track.
First Eileen said she didn’t agree with my premise that you might be jerking readers around if you’re not staying on track with your content:
“I’m not sure I agree with this. My blog niche is arts and crafts. Most of my favorite other artsy blogs do this routinely. One day they blog about what happening at home. The next they may share a tutorial or run a contest or review a book.”
Then Keenan said, “I agree with Eileen. Although you don’t want to be completely all over the map, changing up your subject matter is critical.
“Blogs represent people. They create connections to their readers through their personalities. When a blog stays on topic all the time, it begins to feel white-washed like any on or off-line newspaper or magazine.
“Personality plays a huge role in a blog. Blogging about those things that are part of the authors passions, likes, dislikes, opinions etc. allows followers to connect with the blog. It’s what makes blogging different than reading commercial news. Read More→