Tag Archives: Marketing tips

Got two minutes? Then check out this week’s quick tip ~ A handful of editing, writing, and marketing tips to make your life easier…

Hello and welcome…I am a freelance editor and an editor for The Wild Rose Press, as well as an author. I often struggle with my own writing, and I have found that sometimes, a little reminder of ways to improve the process can be helpful, so, I like to share these moments of brilliance with others :). But, in this busy world of ours, who has time for pages and pages of writing tips? That’s why I’ve condensed mine down to quick flashes you can read in (approximately) two minutes. Enjoy…

Disclaimer: All of my tips are suggestions, and are only my opinion. And, for the most part, there are exceptions when going against my advice will make your story read better. Take what works, leave the rest.

Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that have been helpful to me, and I’m hoping they will be to you also…

Writing Habit:

I know it’s very difficult to carve out writing time each day. Writers need a large chunk of time to be ‘in the zone’ and undisturbed. However, if you want to work toward a habit of writing each day, try to make yourself write one paragraph a day. The advantages are…

• At least you’re writing SOMETHING, and a trickle can become a stream
• You might be surprised at how much more than just that one paragraph you are able to write
• If you’re like me and you have scene notes but don’t have a good handle on exactly how the scene will play out, writing a paragraph about what you DO know can serve as a placeholder and when you go back later, your scene might flow. Or you might determine it should be cut. Either way, you can resolve that particular scene. If you keep doing this, you can build a nice outline for your novel

‘Word’ tips:

I’m sure you’ve all seen those squiggly blue and red lines that indicate, according to ‘Word,’ you’ve made a booboo? Did you know that there is an option where you can actually be taken to each of these potential errors? Under ‘Review’ you should see an option for ‘ABC ✔ Spelling and Grammar.’ If you click on that, it will take you to each instance of errors and you will have the option to correct them or ignore. It doesn’t find ALL typos and mistakes, but it finds many.

Word also has a ‘Compare’ function in the Review section that comes in handy if you can’t recall which version of two documents is the most recent, or if, for any reason, you wish to compare the differences in two documents. Once you click on ‘compare’ it’s self-explanatory.

Facebook and Twitter:

When you draft a Facebook post, before actually posting, you can delete the actual link and just leave the content and image to make your post look a bit ‘cleaner’ and the option to click on where the link leads will remain in your post.

You can schedule posts  to your ‘page’ ahead of time on Facebook. Once you draft a post, click on the arrow next to ‘publish’ found beneath your content box. An option for scheduling will come up. You can schedule a week’s worth of posts at one sitting.

You can embed tweets for sharing rather than screen-shotting them. Beneath your tweet, you will see the … option. If you click on that, one of the options that comes up is to ’embed’ your tweet. Copy and paste that link.

If you wish to share a link for a Facebook post or a Tweet, you can get a direct link by clicking on the time/day of the post/tweet. A new page will come up that will contain the direct link in the search bar. Copy and paste. This is handy if you want to ask others to share a tweet or post for you, or if you want to, say post a link from your fan page into your profile page, etc.

That’s it for now…just a few little bite-sized tips. Hope you find them useful!

Until next time…happy writing!

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NEW RELEASE – Now Available 

(Click on the cover to be taken to the Amazon Buy Page)

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*** If you would like to send me a few sample pages (around 7500 words or so, even though I will not edit that many on the blog. It just gives me more to choose from) for me to edit and share on an upcoming blog post, please do so in the body of an email to AliciaMDean@aol.com. Please use the subject line: “Blog Submission” This is for published or unpublished authors. In the email, please include whether you would like me to use your name or keep it anonymous, and whether or not you would like me to include any contact info or buy info for your books. Also, you can let me know if you would like for me to run my edits by you before posting on the blog. Please keep in mind, this is for samples to use for blog posts. I will not edit or use samples from all the submissions I receive, but I will use as many as possible. 

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How to write a novel? That is the question. There are probably as many answers to that question as there are people who ask it.

Wanting to write and actually doing it are two very different things. I am well acquainted with the sometimes grueling process of churning out a story. Over the years, I have tried many methods for creating and completing manuscripts, and have tweaked and honed it down to a workable (for me) process.

Using specific examples from one of my own novels, Without Mercy, I share my method in this mini how to book. The first eight steps actually deal with plotting while the last two are designed to help expand your outline into a well-developed draft. There is no one, perfect way to create a story, but there will be a method, or methods that work for you. I’m not sure if this is the one, but it works for me. Only you can decide if it also works for you. Fingers crossed that it does!

*** Warning – Please do not purchase without reading a sample. (This is solid advice for any book, fiction or non. If you are not intrigued in the sample, you will likely not enjoy the book)

Amazon: Click Here