The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

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Improve Your Writing and Marketing Through These 11 Blogs

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Platform, audience, tribe, fans, followers. Call it what you will, today’s writers must market themselves much more than in years past. In fact, there are many aspects of the writing world we must learn—unless you have a budget that allows you to hire someone to handle it.

In no special order, here are 11 blogs I follow that offer a tremendous amount of valuable free advice. (Like all businesses, several of these sites also offer their products for sale.)

Do you have blogs you follow that have been particularly helpful? Tell us about them in the comments.

How to Track Your Article Submissions

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Whether you submit with regularity or not, it’s important to track your submissions. How else will you follow up if you have no record of the magazines and editors (or agents/publishing houses) to whom you have submitted your work?

I keep a simple Excel file with the following info:

  • Date submitted
  • Magazine name
  • Editor’s name
  • Editor’s email
  • Editor’s phone number
  • Name of article submitted
  • Date to follow up. Most publications state a period of time to allow for review of your submission. Follow up with an email to the editor only after the stated time for review has passed.
  • Status (accepted or rejected)
  • Payment due. If accepted you need to know when your payment is due because some publications pay on acceptance and some on publication.
  • Payment rec’d date.  If you record this date as soon as the payment comes in, you won’t be left wondering later on if you got paid.

Not all of us are uber organized. I take advantage of the tools someone else has designed to help me. I just adjust them to suit my needs and circumstances.

Design whatever works for you, and be diligent to use it.

How to Analyze What You Read

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Even though I make it a point to read bestselling authors, I often go to the library to pick out books by authors I’ve never heard of. After all, how would new authors ever make it the best seller list? I’ve discovered some wonderful authors this way. And in all honesty, I don’t pay that much attention to the lists.

As a writer, I make it a point to read novels specifically to learn writing technique. If I happen to enjoy the story as well, all the better. I do most of my pleasure reading in the summer when I can sit outside while I read. Even when I read for pleasure, I learn.

How do I analyze what I read?

  • Does the first page grab my interest?
  • How does the author develop the book’s characters?
      • Are the characters individuals or do they all to think and talk alike?
      • What techniques does the author use to make his characters unique?
  • Can I follow the plot?
  • Are there passages of narrative that drag or begin to bore me?
  • How does the author treat dialogue?
      • Does it seem real? Why? or why not?
      • Does it flow smoothly? Why or why not?  
      • Does it create mood and express emotion?
  • How does the author make use of similes and metaphors?
  • Does the author draw me into the story by appealing to my sense of taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing? If yes, I make note of how and what I like about how it’s done.
  • How does the author employ point of view (POV)?
  • Am I bored? Why or why not?
  • Do I like the story? Why or what not?

The list could on, but I don’t have all day and neither do you. This should be enough to get you started on your own journey.

What do you look for when you read a book? Share your comments below.

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013

Dealing with Time in Sequels, Part 5 of our series

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Unlike the scene, which happens moment by moment, the passage of time in a sequel is flexible. Here you can move quickly through hours or days (even months) in your story. What took 158 words as a scene can be written in much fewer words. I’ll take our last example, a scene, and make it a sequel.

Example: Marta searched her Excel file for the next group of potential investors to contact. She made phone call after phone call as she identified names, her temper rising with every conversation. Ten calls, and ten “no’s.” The clock on the wall read 3:30. She shut down her laptop, stuffed it into her briefcase, and tromped out of the office. She’d start again tomorrow.

I have sufficiently covered several hours in her day vs. the few minutes of one phone call I used in a scene. We see her emotional and mental state, and her decision and action (all the elements of sequel).

Questions? Ask below in the comment section.

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013