Still on the A – Z challenge, the letter for today is O for occupation. If you are a fiction writer, your protagonist will most likely have a job. I’ve never met one who didn’t. However, the job you select for your character(s) should have some bearing on your plot. Think of the detective stories you’ve enjoyed and the way the author used the character’s occupation to drive the plot. This also adds depth to your story and creates a more memorable character.

Dan Brown’s protagonist Robert Langdon, whose job as a Harvard symbologist lands him some hair-raising assignments, make Dan Brown’s books page turners. And page turners sell. Choose your character’s occupation with this in mind and you may achieve the same result.

As a writer, you can easily fall into a pattern of negative thinking. Some days you may think that you’ll never make it in the writing world, that your work stinks and no one will ever want to read it. Many times this thought pattern may come about as a result of what is going on in your life. There may be absolutely nothing wrong with your writing, but because you are overwhelmed, anxious or stressed out in other areas of your life, everything looks bad, including your writing.
Fortunately, when this happens there are a few things you can do to bring those negative thoughts under control: (more…)

M is for money matters is my A – Z blog post for today. This is going to be a short one even though it’s a very important topic, maybe the most important, depending on your values. You have heard it said that writers are a starving bunch of people. You may even know one who is. (Don’t look in the mirror!) But there are many writers who make decent money, and are justifiably proud. Of course, if you write books and can catch an editor’s eye, you may get an advance and make some money from royalties. But these days it may be easier to catch a bird falling from the sky than an editor’s or agent’s eye. So what can you do to bring in some much-desired moola?

According to the experts, writers can make money through:
1. Affiliate marketing – There are many companies that would pay you a commission to promote their products on your blog. Google advertises many of these companies.
2. Blogging – Place ads on your blog through Adsense.
3. Ebook sales – You can write your own ebook and distribute it on your site. Or, you can invite other bloggers to sell your ebook on their site and pay them a commission.
4. Job boards – You can visit the job boards for assignments that fit your expertise.
5. Small business – Contact small businesses in your area who may be looking for someone to handle their correspondence which they are not equipped to handle.
6. Speaking assignments – Are you an expert on a particular subject? You may be able to make some good money through speaking engagements.

So, there you have it. Now, which of those can I implement right away? Drop me a line and let me know how you make money as a writer, then when you are done, check out some more bloggers in the A – Z blog challenge.

L is for literary on my A – Z blog challenge. If you have been querying agents or publishers for some time, you would no doubt have come across the term “literary novel” or “literary mainstream fiction.” I remember the first time I saw it I was confused, and many years later I’m still confused, as apparently are the many people who have attempted to define the term.

The most common definition I’ve come across is, you can’t define it, but you’ll know when you see it. Very helpful, isn’t it? (more…)

I wanted to write on King or Kindle or some other K- icon, but I thought I would just settle for some good old-fashioned virtue like kindness. It costs absolutely nothing to give or receive and can pay huge dividends in terms of personal satisfaction to the giver as well as the receiver. But why am I writing about kindness on a writing blog? Because even some of us writers slip up in this area every now and again. Or, could it be that we are unaware that we’re being unkind? What are some ways that we as writers can show kindness?

1. Online. In these days when everyone is either facing, tweeting or linking in an attempt to be noticed, I come across a lot of nasty and unkind language on these forums. It shouldn’t take too much creativity to express one’s opinion without cussing someone out.

2. In Reviews. If you are trying to brand yourself as a book reviewer, you need to be honest with your review. No one expects you to say a book is fabulous when it isn’t. However, you can provide constructive criticism of the book without being nasty, or without setting out to make the author look bad. No matter how bad a book might be (in your opinion) you can find something good to say about it, while pointing out what you might consider its flaws.

3. In critique groups. I have the pleasure and honor of belonging to the most wonderful critique group on this earth. That doesn’t mean they always like or agree with everything I write, but they are tactful and honest in their criticism.

4. In your own work. Do you plagiarize other people’s work? That’s a fancy term for stealing, and it’s unkind to take something that someone has labored over and try to pass it off as your own. As writers, we all do research to find content for our articles, blogs etc., but if this content is not generalized knowledge, then by all means, give credit to the site or writer. Some blog owners will allow you to reproduce their posts without changing any of it as long as you cite them as the original creator of the work.

Whether you are an aspiring or established writer, there are people who look up to you to set and maintain a certain standard. Do not disappoint them. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

The letter for today is J and my J has to do with journaling, one of my favorite topics. When you hear the word journaling, what comes to your mind? Psychology? Cuckoo? Lost marbles? Journaling is a tool used by psychologists and behavioral therapists to help their clients improve their self awareness, manage stress and improve their overall mental health. However, you don’t have to be in need of mental health services to benefit from journaling.

You may certainly want to use your journal to record the following: –
• Your moods or emotions, whether happy or sad and what might be responsible.
• Your plans for the day, or if you write at night, a recording of the day’s events.
• Anything that made an impression on you (good or bad) during the day
• Progress (or lack of) with your goals. My writing coach, Suzanne Lieurance of the Working Writer’s Club encourages us to track our writing progress by keeping a success journal.

As a writer, you may find a journal helpful in capturing those stray thoughts that occur almost out of the blue. You never know, they may be the start of a great story. You can also use journaling to help dislodge the dreaded writer’s block that hits every now and then. Or, if you are between projects, journaling is a way to ensure that you write something every day.

You may decide to keep a journal for a specific purpose, such as the success journal mentioned above, or a place to express your thoughts on a variety of topics. If you don’t know how or where to begin, that’s okay. Just write, and soon you’ll find the ideas beginning to flow. After a while you’ll wonder how you ever got by without your journal. Try it!

With the demise of many of the big bookstores, independent booksellers have been rising to meet the needs of the reading public. Independent bookstores, or more popularly indies, carry a wide assortment of books similar to those found in the larger chains, as well as ebooks.

Apart from serving the reading public, independent bookstores also offer authors, especially those who are self-published, the opportunity to get their books on the book shelves. However, many of these independent booksellers have very stringent criteria for accepting books, in many cases similar to Barnes & Nobel or any other large bookstore. If you do decide to approach one of these indies, do your homework well and be prepared to answer questions other than what is the title of your book and the retail price.

According to Hope Clark of Funds For Writers, some of the questions asked by indies as well as traditional store owners are: Who is your publisher? What is their background? Why do you want to place your book in my store? Are your books returnable? Etc. etc.
Have you had any dealings with an indie, as a reader or writer? Please leave a comment and let us know what it was like.

We are on to the letter H in the A – Z blog challenge, and my H has to do with writing headlines that sell. It goes without saying that whatever you write must aim to attract the attention of potential readers. If your blog or article is to stand up to the vast competition out there, you need to be able to write compelling headlines. Therefore, if you’re looking for more traffic or more sales, your article headline must be:

1. Attention-grabbing. It must appeal to the emotions or the needs of your target audience. Study headlines in newspapers, magazine covers and brochures and see what makes you turn to that page. Let’s look at a few: Is your child’s asthma really under control? Do you swear by a schedule – or at it? Social Media Marketing for Authors. All of these headlines will appeal to a special of group. The first, to mothers of children suffering with asthma; the second, to people interested in time management – the executive, the student, the working mother with young children – and the third, of course, to authors.

2. Unambiguous. It must tell you in a few words exactly what you are getting, without being quirky or boring.

3. Specific and benefit driven. Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks by following these simple tips is more specific than Lose weight by following these simple tips. Anyone anxious to lose those stubborn pounds will want to continue reading.

4. Keyword rich – I usually get caught up in my subject matter and pay no attention to keywords, but they are what bring your blog or article to the attention of Google and other search engines.

Pay attention to your blog headlines and you will see your blog traffic increase and this should translate into more sales.

This is my G post in the A – Z challenge, which should have been posted yesterday, but I was so busy, I forgot, even thought I’d written it the day before.

Computer software, such as Microsoft Word, has made the task of writing much easier. You can cut and paste, find and replace words, use highlights and perform other tasks. The spell checker and grammar checker are two tools that a lot of writers depend on.

However, like the spell checker, the grammar checker can mislead you, if you’re not careful, into thinking your work is perfect when it is not. The web is full of sites offering free grammar checking software, so I decided to play around with a few of them to see how helpful they are. I tried the sentence below to see what the results would be.
The children ran to there mother to complain that the boy had loss his money.

Spellchecker.net – a spell checking and grammar checking site – highlighted the errors like this: The children ran to there mother to complain that the boy had loss his money.

Wonderful, I thought. I’m on to something, but then the solutions were as follows: to mother there and there to mother. The explanation? Split infinitive.

For the same sentence, Language Tool Style and Grammar Checker came up with “No rule matches found in text.” I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean. Are there errors or not?

Microsoft Word did slightly better. It bluelined there, but left loss.

I hopped over to Grammar Slammer. This is an English grammar tool supported by Windows. It gives you a 21-day free trial and costs $49.00. The site does not say if that fee is annually or if it’s a onetime fee.

There’s also Grammarly which gives you a 7-day free trial and charges $29.95 monthly. For a small fraction of that cost you can purchase Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White from Amazon.com, or get it on your Kindle for even less. This book has been around for a long time and is one of the best resources a writer can turn to for help with grammar. I tried the same sentence with Grammarly, but didn’t get any results.

Relying on grammar and spell checkers can be, well, unreliable if you’re trying to put your best work out to the public. If it doesn’t matter to you whether you write your when you mean you’re, then go ahead. But if you take pride in your work, you would be better off enrolling in a grammar course or investing a small amount of money in a good grammar book.

Did you realize that if you substitute the letter “i” from the word fit with the letter “a” you get the word fat? Now, why am I saying this? It’s because as writers it can be so easy for us to postpone going to the gym or taking a walk when we are absorbed in our writing, or when we are trying to meet a deadline. But the bottom line is, we have to discipline ourselves to keep fit so we don’t get fat.

It is possible to exercise without leaving the comfort of your home or office. It has been found that just a few minutes of exercise (as little as five) done daily can pay off big dividends in the end. So, here are some simple ways to exercise even when your characters are demanding your attention and the clock is ticking away.

1. Stretch. Stretching limbers, tones and relaxes muscles, which can prevent those cramps you get from sitting too long at your desk. Stand near your desk, bend from the waist and touch your toes with your fingertips. Hold to the count of ten. Feel that stretch loosening your spine and your hamstrings. Feel the blood flowing to your head, then stand upright. Bend at the waist to the left and to the right ten times each. Raise arms overhead and stretch to reach the ceiling, then flutter your fingers as you bring them down to your sides.

2.Work out with weights. Yes, you read that right. You can use dumbbells right there sitting or standing near your desk to perform biceps curl, triceps extension and other upper body workouts. If you don’t have a pair of dumbbells, you can use vegetable cans, or water bottles. Failing that, you can use your own body weight.

3. Do standing push-ups. Stand about 12 inches away from your desk or wall and bend your elbows as you push against it without touching your elbows to the wall or desk. Keep your legs and back straight. Increase your distance from the desk or wall as you get stronger. This is a good triceps exercise.

4. Butt crunches. Instead of just sitting on it all day give your derriere a squeeze now and then. Tighten and squeeze, hold for 5 – 10 seconds. This will help get rid of the sag. Repeat 6 – 8 times a day.

5. Don’t neglect your abs! Sit near the edge of your chair – not one on wheels. Place your palms flat on handles, raise your knees up to your chest, then lower, stretching your legs out in front of you. Bring your knees back up and lower. Do this 10 times.

These exercises are not meant to replace your gym or outdoor workouts. They are simply meant to help you maintain your fitness level when you can’t get out and exercise. There are many good sites where you can find chair or desk exercises. Two of them are listed here:
http://exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/l/blofficeworkout.htm
http://www.pinellashealth.com/wellness/exerciseatyourdesks_12.asp
Share your fitness tips for writers in the comments box below and drop by again soon. Okay, now where are my dumbbells?