Why You Need To Build An Online Platform

Everyone nowadays needs an online platform. Especially if you want to be a writer. Where else do you think you are going to get your readers of the future?

For those not clear, an online platform is a way for people to find you, find out about you, and follow you. Blogs and websites are one of the best ways for a writer to get know.
 
And yes, this blog is part of my online platform, so me writing about how to create an online platform sounds like I think I have it all worked out. But actually I see it more as that I'm about 6 months ahead of you and passing down all the cheat notes I'm writing for exams!

I should admit, though, that I'm pretty proud of this blog. I think it looks shmicko, and I've worked hard to have some great content on here. I also have some great followers and commentators, and try to do my bit by giving back to all those who support me through fundraising and giveaways (which will never stop! The bigger I get, the more opportunity I have to give things away :D).

I have been building this blog, my first born, my favourite (shsh, don't tell the others!) for 6 months now. And to be honest, despite posting almost five days a week, trying to write interesting content, getting out there, facebooking a bit, etc., it is only now that I'm starting to see some rewards. My pageview count is slowly increasing, my followers and email subscribers have started to multiple (yeah, lots of my friends are having babies, what can I say?) and I'm even starting to get some of you to comment!

And from what I'm learning, this is pretty common for most people. It takes at least six months for a blog/website to start taking off and usually a year before it is really getting somewhere. And in between there is a lot of hard work. (So, pretty much, it's really like writing a novel. You spend hours and hours and hours working on it with absolutely nothing but a word count to show for it. But the more you put into it at this early stage, the more likely it is that it will be picked up by a publisher, and be a hit on the book stands.)

Why am I telling you this? You don't want to hear this just yet, you are struggling to write your first draft!

Well, basically you already want your platform skyrocketing by the time you are approaching literary agents and publishers, so you need to start it at least a year before you finish your novel.  That is to say, you need to start now. Whenever 'now' is in your process, it is the right time to start. As they say, the internet is pretty forgiving, it doesn't mind you playing around on it to work things out. However, ignore it at your peril.

So, to help you out with this next stage of development as a writer (and you do need to think of this as all essential parts of being a writer) I'm going to do a series every Monday on different aspects of building your own online platform. I've been reading a lot about it, listening to great podcasts, testing things out myself in different ways and am actually super excited. I want to share with you all that I've been learning, and let you see as I test things out on this site.

Also, for all I know, this might be the most people will ever see of my writing. This blog and the other online writing I'm doing might be my publishing platform. So, I want to do it as well as I can, just in case.

In future posts I'll start with the basics of keyword research and why you need to do it, look at starting your blog/website, how to get yourself out there, and how to be everywhere. There is a lot I want to cover, but I'm just going to do it section by section and be applying it to some of my own blogs etc. so I can give authentic feedback on whether it is working.

These are exciting times my friends, exciting times.

For a good explanation of why a writer needs a platform, and to get ideas of what sort of things you can do, Folio Literary Agency have put together a video with one of their best selling authors. It's quite long, but definitely worth a look. Have a look at the 'thank you for submitting your manuscript' page from FolioLit

Finally, if there are things you are dying to know right now, ask away and if I don't know, I'll do some research!

(Don't forget: ROW 80 starts today!)

Words, Words, Words: Why You Should Get Them Out

Stephen King used to say in interviews that he wrote everyday except Christmas and Easter. He reveals in ‘On Writing’ that this is a lie. He writes everyday, full stop. He aims for 2,000 words a day.

Dorothea Brande recommends writing 1,000 words a day.

Ray Bradbury in his book ‘Zen in the Art of Writing’ states that he has written 1,000 words a day since he was eleven.

But why? Should we all be doing this if we want to be writers? Is it the daily factor that’s important, or the word limit, or both? Can we write 2,000 words every second day and still get results?

From my research into motivational methods, development of talent, and sports training, I think there are three major aspects behind the commands to write everyday (I’m leaving myself some leeway in case I think of more later).  Hopefully spelling them out will help you to devise a writing program that will turn you into the best possible writer.

First, as pointed out by Writing Excuses Season 1 Episode 3: your first one million words are probably going to be crap. Only after that will you get better. So, might as well get them out of the way as soon as you can.

Second, if you want to become an expert at anything, studies across the fields show that it takes around 10,000 hours of good practice. That’s three hours a day for 10 years. It’s not just words, but amount of time actually practicing that pays off.

Finally, writing is like any exercise: one day off and you notice, two days off and your critics notice, three days off and even your fans notice. Your abilities to find the right word, express things just so, keep in the voice of the characters etc. start to fade much faster than we would like to think.

So, it seems that there is good evidence to support writers’ claims that you should write everyday and aim for a specific number of words that seems high to you.

And by writing a draft every two weeks, I’m hoping to speed up the process. I’ll have my first million words out in a year (not counting all the words I’ve done already, or the words I’m doing for blog posts, emails, work etc) and hopefully knock over my 10,000 hours in the five years while I’m at it. Just need to get myself more into the habit of writing everyday.

Next time I'll do a post on essential tips for forming a habit.

Very Nice Day... Pity About the Writing.

Had a really nice day today, but got almost no writing done. Mum, Jenny and I went to Hepburn Springs' The Bathhouse, and had Devonshire Tea before spending probably two hours soaking in their various specialised pools, spas and saunas.

While I was at home, I also managed to 'borrow' Georgette Heyer's 'The Spanish Bride', which is one of the few books of hers that I haven't actually read. But more importantly, it is a historical adventure/romance set in Spain/Portugal during the Peninsular wars. The book I'm now working on, having finished the prequel which is about the parents and set in Scotland, is a historical adventure/romance set in Lisbon during the same period. Useful, no? Particularly because Heyer is famous for the amount of research she did for her books. In writing this one she read absolutely every personal journal and diary from soldiers in the war that she could find. She's like the SparkNotes version of the Peninsular War!

I did try to convince myself/mum/the universe that I needed to travel to Lisbon in order to help me write this story. But that is the problem with writing a book every two weeks... I'd be finished the book before I actually got there. The final one in the series is set back in England, so that's no use.

However, obviously, once I've narrowed down the good complete drafts, THEN I should travel to all the places to add the extra details to the stories. Though, it will be quite disappointing if I find there are actually no cathedrals or large churches in Lisbon, because I would then need to think up an entirely new plot device.

An added bonus of this plan is that it encourages me to set my books in as many different places as I can.

But for now, it is just me, in my little apartment, typing away whatever I can imagine up.

Yours,

Buffy.

Misguided Beginnings and Finding the True Path

Well, shot myself a bit in the foot, but appear to have been able to limp back. To fully explain, I'm going to leave my entry for yesterday unedited (which I didn't get to post because of internet troubles, but I've worked out a way around it now, I think). And afterwards I'll tell you about today.

Starting from Scratch.

I am sorry Ben, I ignored your advice to my own detriment.

Instead of continuing on with the final book in my trilogy, I decided to start something completely new. Within minutes I realised that these next two weeks are going to be a serious test of my dedication to the challenge.

I started on the next book on the list, which is really the prequel for another story I have wanted to write and have quite a few notes on. All I knew about this story was that it was a historical romance which ended with her escaping from France with him, and them getting married. Not really a lot to go on. I didn't even really have a starting image (I just have the end image of the wedding), so couldn't even begin by describing that and seeing where that led me. (also, these two characters are the parents of my main character in the next book, so don't even know what they are like.)

So I started a few different ways, and realised they were more a brief summary of my main characters, rather than an actual story. So then tried just starting a scene: you come in with him being told by the hostess of the party that uninvited guests are always welcome, when they are my Lord Averley. I thought it would be a debutante party for hopefully my main character, and it is her mother greeting my main guy.

But he couldn't come here for her, because they have not already met. So he's come to meet up with someone else.

That led to secret messages and I soon found that I was in trouble of just making him the Scarlett Pimpernel, who has already been wonderfully written. But I did want him to have a purpose other than being an aristocrat, and decided it would be fun to write an adventure book, that just happened to have a very satisfying romance in there. So, not the Scarlett Pimpernel, what else is sure to involve adventure? Thought about smuggling, but then couldn't think of a way to make sure he was also honourable. So hit on spy. James Bond for the 18^th Century.

I started to write a new opening scene where my main character is escaping from a village earlier that day with secret documents.

Then came the huge problem. What are the secret documents? Who are they from? Why are they secret? I can write with enough detail about English society around that period, as long as I get to stay vague as to what year it is and what is happening other than the Gunning Sisters having been a hit and Mr. Brummel is leading society. But first of all, this was France, and second, if he's going to be a spy, might actually need to know something about politics and international affairs at the time!

This caused me enough angst that I almost threw away the idea. Instead, I went to grab a cup of tea.

On my way back, I glanced at my bookshelf and noticed Matthew Reilly's 'The Seven Ancient Wonders', and thought that archaeology is something I know a bit about and remembered (possibly from Lara Croft Tomb Raider the second movie) that Napoleon was supposed to have mounted a expedition to Egypt. So what if my main characters get in a race with Napoleon to find some ancient Egyptian artefact that would change world history?

I started to read up a bit on Napoleon's expedition, which really just pointed out to me how very little I knew about the period, and so did what any writer does when stuck, went and had a nap.

In my dream I started working out a brilliant story and writing it down, but on waking up realised it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was. (It did involve my main female character passing herself as Chinese, Indian and then French. But totally worked in the dream.)

So came back to the computer and started doing some random history searching for what was happening at the time, which just reinforced that I knew nothing. So tried to continue writing the story as vaguely as possible, thinking that if I got something out, then I could check out the details etc. later. I know this is not the desired way for historical writing, but remember my aim is to write first drafts to see if I like the style, not spend weeks doing research and then finding out I suck at writing action sequences.

So have now been working for many hours, and have a total of just over 3,000 words, which still hasn't really helped me know where to go or even when I'm setting it.

Now I have become caught in an awful time pressured loop: can't write until I have done more research, don't want to do research because I have no idea what I'm writing and can't waste time researching anything that might not be useful.

I still think there might be something in doing a Napoleon race to save the world from Egyptian artefact, but not sure.

I would need to work out how they could actually know anything, since this is really at the very beginning of Egyptology and very little was known. Then I would also have to work out what Ancient Egyptian artefact I was going to get them to find, and its powers.

Though, instead of starting in France, if I start somewhere I know like Oxford, could get myself going before needing to seriously panic. Not much at Oxford has seriously changed in the last three hundred years, I should be pretty good (except for the girls, need to take out the women, of course).

So, the next two weeks are going to be interesting. My biggest fear is that I just won't be able to make myself keep writing when I don't know where I'm going and don't have anywhere near enough research at hand. Can the academic in me let go of the reigns to let the creative youth just make it all up and then in the second draft check out if it all works? Also, I am now 10,000 words behind, if I don't use anything I've done today. So it is going to be a long two weeks, but hopefully fun.

So that was the end of my post for yesterday.

This morning I woke up, had breakfast and sat down to write and got struck by fear. In the night I had thought of a few ideas, a few starts, but it was no good. I realised that my Muse just wasn't with me. He might be with me on the idea in the future, but right now wasn't really interested. He wanted to complete the trilogy I had started. Wrap it all up nice and sound while it was still fresh in my head

(Yes Ben, God agrees with you.)

So I then moved over to my final book (I think), in my Sally Hunt trilogy, and started writing. I knew very little about this one, except of course all the characters. I won't tell you the end of the last book, in case I can convince you to actually read it, but basically it was a bit of a shock, even to me (I thought it was going to happen in this book), and left me starting this book from a totally different place.

However, managed to get 3,400 words done before gone to work and tonight, with full use of the flow (joined a new gym and had a really yummy dinner) I got up to 8,465. So, will need to keep working at the super pace as I'm one 10,000 word day behind, but my Muse has not abandoned me!

Will be interested to see how I manage to wrap it all up. I know there must be something big, but the big thing I was expecting already happened in the last book! So, like all of you, I will just have to wait and see.

And if you think an Ancient Egyptian/18^th Century romance/adventure novel could work, let me know. All ideas welcome. Also, if anyone could suggest any good books to read about the period, that would be great.

Finally, just to let you all know what a sense of humour my God has: have been praying for either a motorcycle (cheap, but fun) or an old MX5 (hey why not be outrageous? I look really good in a convertible, except the end of my nose tends to get sunburnt and then peel, but still). I thought either of these two would add to my eccentric image which I want to cultivate as a writer. What is the point of spending the majority of my time locked away writing if when I come out I don't get to be weird? Well, guess what? Just got given a free Holdon Vectra, circa 2001. Might not be adding to the 'eccentric' element of being a writer, but my inner 'impoverished' writer is loving it. So big thanks to my Aunt Louise! (She is also writing a book, though hers is all serious. But when it comes closer to actually coming out, I'll tell you more.) 

Positional Asphyxia (Aka: The Wonders of Research)

Having finally finished my first rough draft, I finally now know where the story is going to go, what is going to happen, and thus what I need to know about. Therefore, I find after the first draft the perfect time to do my little bits of research in more detail.

I started tonight by spending half an hour just looking into the requirements of becoming a security guard, just to make sure I wasn't making a complete idiot of myself with one of my characters, and hopefully to add just a little bit of detail which will give my story flavour.

In my research, I came across this very useful bit of information, which I thought I would share with you all:

“Positional Asphyxia (restraint asphyxia) can be defined as obstruction of breathing as a result of restraint technique. It occurs when the position of a person's body interferes with their ability to breath. If this is not recognised, death can occur from asphyxia or suffocation. Any body position that interferes with breathing can cause death.

For further information about the risk factors, how a security officer can identify the signs and preventative measures, please click here.”

I was intrigued about the possibility of people who could not tell when someone has stopped breathing and died. I was also very glad that they pointed out that interfering with breathing can cause death. It has cleared up a lot of issues I have had over the years. No more dead boyfriends to hide under the bed, for one thing.

But in my desire for thoroughness of research, I did not stop there. I went on to 'click here' and read the full article. To share with you all the astounding knowledge I have now gained, let me tell you the signs security officers should pay close attention to in order not to misdiagnose someone not breathing:

1. A person telling you he/she cannot breathe

2. Gurgling/gasping sounds indicating blockage of the airway

3. Lips, hands, face discoloured blue due to lack of oxygen

4. Increasing panic, prolonged resistance

5. Sudden tranquillity – an active, loud, threatening, violent, abusive person suddenly becoming quiet and tranquil, not moving

Personally I think you should rely on 2 and 3, as 1 and 5 are really just cheating. And is 'tranquil' really the word we are now using for someone who has just asphyxiated?

However, it has made for a nice little scene in my book. See, one should never underestimate the joys of doing research.

As to editing my own work, I am now in the middle of chapter 4, and to be honest, not totally wanting to kill myself just yet. Am also doing the rather painstaking and annoying thing of plotting out all my action on a calendar to make sure all the dates and days line up. Unfortunately, my first day reference is about five chapters in, and my first fixed date is a few chapters after that (end of the school term). So I will have to work backwards from both of those. But it will be worth it to make sure I don't have two Wednesdays in one week or a school term that happens to be 20 weeks long.

On Sunday I will beginning my next novel, whether I've finished editing or not. I am still of two minds as to which book to work on: go straight into the sequel, while all the action is still clear in my mind, or give myself a break and do something completely different so that I can perhaps be refreshed?

I would like to do the latter, but the big thing that stops me is Isobelle Carmody. Anyone who started her Obernewtyn series around two decades ago (first one published 1987), and is still waiting for the seventh book will know my frustration. She took a break to do other series in between, and I managed to finish high school, do a few degrees, and write my own book while waiting. Especially annoying as the last two books have meant to be 'the very last book', which kept getting split in two. (Like the last Harry Potter movie, but even worse, since you don't already know the ending).

On the other hand, I'm only going to be taking a two week break, not a decade.

Any recommendations, suggestions, scientific or otherwise research on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

But for now, I need sleep.

Yours,

Buffy.