In my last post I summarized the workshops I attended at the Florida Writers Conference to give you a glimpse at what was included at the event, to help you decide whether a writers conference is for you.
Today I’m going to present my 10 takeaways from the conference:
- Figure out what works best for you as a writer
- Determine your best time & environment for writing
- Pick a genre you love (& read a lot), instead of following a hot trend/fad
- Decide whether you are willing/able to do all the marketing for your book (indie might be the way to go) or if you need a team behind you (traditional publishing)
- Determine your audience
- Who are your readers? (age, gender, interests, hobbies…)
- What are problems/issues they are interested in?
- What do readers in your genre expect and what do they want to read right now?
- Where (physically and online) can you find and target your readers?
- Make your pitch/book blurb attention grabbing
- For a pitch state genre, word count and title of your novel first
- Keep it short
- Start with the hook
- End with a sentence that makes your audience wonder what happens next
- Writing and marketing are not actions but processes
- Always keep on writing: if you are stuck in a project, can’t find literary agents, or your book isn’t selling online – put it aside for a few months and begin a new project in the meantime
- Marketing happens before, during and after book launch (it should continue for as long as your book is on the market)
- Believability
- Whether you are writing a fight scene or a dialogue between teenagers, make it realistic
- Whenever possible research through observation, either in real life or through video the people/actions you are writing about
- Read out loud
- The quickest way to check whether your dialogue is stilted, your descriptions too long or a scene confusing, is to read it out loud to yourself
- Villains do more than thwarting the hero
- Make your villain a 3D character
- Give your villain a backstory
- Ask how the villain contrasts and compliments the protagonist
- Backstory – know it all, don’t include all
- Know 100% of your character’s backstory, but reveal less than 40%
- Is it necessary to give reader this information?
- Is it necessary to give reader this information right now?
- Is your backstory slowing down your plot?
- Verbs, nouns and adjective
- Use strong and descriptive verbs and nouns
- Use adjectives sparingly
- Get feedback
- Before publishing get beta readers/critique partners (10-20 is a good range)
- Hire a freelance editor (content vs. grammar editor)
I hope these takeaways will help you in writing, editing and reaching your goal of successful publishing.
