Have you ever heard the term topographical mapping? A simple/basic definition is: The detailed representation of both natural and man-made features of a specific land area where contour lines indicate increase and decrease of elevation. For the writer who is creating in-depth character elements this concept can be most useful. Many creative writing instructors suggest using a highs-and-lows format to develop the emotional peaks and valleys a character will experience, demonstrated in this illustration.
However, it is my hope that serious authors will consider the visual elements of topographical mapping that offers almost infinite possibilities for character development—realizing the myriad of choices to be made all along the way—demonstrated by this topo-map of the island of Hilo in Hawaii.
Using this island image, and placing your characters IN the city of Hilo, can you see how many choices they will have in reaching their destination? And their selected path will depend on all the pieces of their personal life-development up to that point in time—where they have lived, who resided in their environment, what motivational seeds were set into them, and their physical abilities, capabilities and/or disabilities.
It is the job of the AUTHOR to know the WHY of each step your characters take. Here are a few questions to ask yourself while in these development stages.
Why is your character at that place at that specific time?
What is their goal?
Who else is involved—or will reap the consequences—of your characters’ choices?
When must they complete the process to reach their goal?
Where do they anticipate being (physically, emotionally) after their goal is reached?
What is the driving force behind this immediate quest?
What rational are they using to make each step?
What will happen if they fail?
We have multiple examples in the classics of book writing that teach us not only superb character development, but also the motivation of compassion: being able to put yourself in the other person’s place and understand why they act the way they do even if you don’t agree with it (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boy in the Stripped Pajamas, by John Boyne, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Harry Cole).
Before and during the days/months of developing your characters, I strongly advise reading one or more these novels. And, should you feel the impetus to outline the development of a specific character, please do so. Allowing the superb writers to instruct us from the pages of their novels is a gift to ourselves that will reap multiple benefits. ⚓︎
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.
“There’s a lot more to using social media for book promotion,” I wrote last week, “than simply knowing the names of the most popular sites or even how to set up an account with and update each one.” Twitter is no exception. This social media platform is often described as a “microblogging” website, a descriptor which implies that Twitter users manage their feed and profile content the way they would a blogging website––only in smaller chunks. This is only partially true, in that some Twitter users who also have blogs may use the same parameters to manage both platforms, or in that some Twitter users treat the site as a tool for unspooling narrative.
If you spend any quality time on Twitter, however, you’ll rapidly discover that terms like “microbloggers” or “microblogs” only describe a small fraction of the feeds out there; some users compile data and statistics while others use their feeds to start conversations, and still others mostly neglect their own feeds while spending their time watching other peoples’. Back in 2013, Steve Faktor deconstructed and described ten types of Twitter users in a 2013 Forbes article that still, for the most part, holds up beautifully. For the indie, hybrid, or self-published author, Twitter can be a minefield––rife with potential rewards for the daring and discerning user, yes, but a minefield nonetheless. This is, in part, becausethe fundamental operating assumption out there about Twitter––that is actually preached by its own PR team––is that it is awash with activity, engagement, and avid disseminators of information. This is simply untrue.
Debunking the Great Twitter Myth: “If I tweet regularly, followers will appear.”
Twitter, like any other website, has its active users and its passive users. Many people set up Twitter accounts and then forget about them, or never really learn how to use them, or find that the website isn’t as cozy and endearing as it was made out to be. (Lady Gaga doesn’t respond to every tweet her followers tag her in? What?! And your most engaged followers turn out to be spambots? Uh-oh.) It’s actually rather difficult to “break into” the Twitter community, which largely relies on name-recognition and a blend of appealing content, interactivity, and incentives to keep people coming back and checking their feeds. As Faktor writes in his article, “Of the billions of tweets sent, 71% get no response, only 36% are worth reading, and a majority is generated by a tiny fraction of users.” This isn’t to say that it’s pointless to try and become “Twitter Famous,” but it is important not to tie your entire book-promotion strategy back to a mythical welcoming Twitterverse. “Twitter is a personal announcement system,” Faktor tells us, “that captures the collective pulse of a world screaming for attention––or revolution, or discounts, or Kanye.” There will always be an element of unpredictability, as well as social utility, to what “makes it big” on Twitter.
So, how do we ensure that our time on the site isn’t wasted in producing content no one will ever read?
Top 5 Best Practices:
1. Set it up––all of it––correctly. Most Twitter accounts are “dark,” which means they’re either in hibernation––that is, they’re only rarely updated, if ever––or were never set up properly and are therefore the amputated leavings of someone’s digital footprint. Your first task is to make yourself “findable,” which means that you use every detail of your profile––picture, avatar, short biography, and yes, even your Twitter name or “handle”––as a marketing opportunity. A polished photograph of you and/or your book, a tagline that includes keyword-rich phrases that will show up in search engine indexing, and a distinctive yet readable handle (I.E.: neither “jane-doe17” nor “sweetROMANCEauthor4u”) will go a long, long way toward rendering you findable.
2. Set yourself a daily and weekly Twitter task. In addition to being findable you have to be visible. If you are competing with other Twitter users who are selling similar products (READ: books) and therefore producing similar content, then you absolutely must differentiate yourself from these other users. Celebrities can get away with taking a haphazard approach to what material they post and when and how often, but you can’t. Set yourself a routine, and stick to it––and you’ll develop a dedicated group of followers who know they can rely on you to produce, week in and week out, something that they wish to read. Whether this means you post a link to a longer blog post every Monday, a revived “From the Archives” post every Tuesday, a “What I’m watching or reading or listening to now” post every Wednesday, or something else each day of the week is up to you. Make sure you respond to all (legitimate) direct messages and public tags (when someone else uses your Twitter handle to mention you) on a set schedule, also, and that way your followers will know you care!
3. Use a third-party website to schedule your tweets. There are plenty of options out there, these days, and it doesn’t matter which one you use so much as the fact that you are willing to use them. (I personally have used the very simple TwitterFeed website, but I recommend looking at a couple before you decide. Kristi Hines over at KissMetrics has reviewed quite a few of them, and several look like they show promise. But first: What does it mean to “schedule” your tweets? It means that you write them all at once, but spread out when they actually post to your feed so that other people can read and respond to them. You can go on vacation, for example, and rest easy knowing that your Twitter feed will run smoothly in your absence, without interruption. The best part of scheduling your tweets is that you can develop better personal time-management skills––you can write all of your tweets for the week on a Saturday night, and that frees you up to chase as many bunny trails and respond to as many questions and maybe even spend more time offline than you would otherwise.
4. Listen to your followers, and don’t overdo it. A lot of people, including myself, are tempted to give up Twitter because it can quickly devolve into a hot mess of confusing data, links, conversations, and other disconnected tidbits. There’s quite literally way too much to keep up with going on at any point in time on Twitter––we live in a restless world, and everyone wants to announce their place in it. Don’t be afraid to trumpet your own fine product (READ: book), but be aware that an effective tweet isn’t always a simple declaration of “here’s a thing you should buy.” An engaged and interested follower will be far more likely to plonk down the money for your book or ebook than someone who just sees that “here’s a thing” tweet without any context. Especially if that tweet is buried amidst a whole bunch of other content that isn’t interactive, and isn’t encouraging them to enter your world in a personal and fun way. Before you know what constitutes “too much” and “just right” for your followers, you have to listen to them. Don’t pile on tweet after tweet without pause, without taking a breath, and without waiting for followers to retweet, reply, or “favorite” your last tweet. Don’t waste your time; time is a precious commodity when it comes to shaping your digital identity. Save it for tweets that matter––and that speak to what your followers actually respond to.
5. Remember to incentivize. Incentives can be tangible (like a giveaway or a discount), or intangible (like special “insider” or “behind-the-scenes” content), but they perform at least two vital functions: they make your followers feel valued, and they keep your followers coming back for more. One of the greatest failings of the “here’s a thing” tweet I mentioned above is that there’s absolutely nothing to it that hooks a follower and reels him in. There’s no privilege or sense of inclusion or outright benefit to someone reading that tweet, much less deciding to follow through and buy your book. Twitter, at its best, is a conversation. At its worst, it is a one-sided conversation.
Most Overlooked Feature:
Twitter’s most overlooked feature is its hashtags. I’m not saying that people don’t use hashtags––believe me, they do, and they do and they do and they do and they do––but they rarely use them effectively. The best hashtags will group related tweets together so that when you click on one (like #weneeddiversebooks), all tweets with that particular hashtag will show up in a separate but continuous feed. If the hashtag is too common (like #love, for example), far too many tweets will show up and it will turn into a big bowl of nonsensical mishmash. If the hashtag is too specific (like #ramennoodlesareforqueens), then it’s unlikely that anyone else will ever tag their tweets with that same hashtag––and while that can definitely be useful, if you are up for the challenge of starting your own hashtag movement, it effectively excludes everyone else from the conversation. (And, well, there goes the “social” part of “social networking.)
The current trend is, of course, over-tagging. (There’s even a hashtag for that!) You can end up with a hilarious Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake skit, but you can also end up with a whole lot of confused or disinterested followers. (In real life. The skit is hilarious.)
Build your own hashtag(s), absolutely. Build them wisely. And shape them, as you do all of your Twitter habits, to structured and intentional ends. I have every confidence you can use Twitter effectively to promote your book(s)––but it’s not the only way to do so, and we’ll be examining many other ways as the Wednesdays roll around!
I hope you’ll join me in building this Social Media Primer! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of social media know-how. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.
The basic elements of character development—one character at a time—holds these four essentials: What is the desire that motivates him? What obstacle(s) is in the way? What struggles must she go through in order to fulfill her aspiration(s)? What are the consequences to him and/or others?
Once you’ve answered these questions for the Main Characters—before you delve into these next steps—prepare files for each character and label it: Essence of (character’s name). Here are several tools to use in building complete characters who will resonate with multiple Readers.
Research and collect several studies on motivation. Some will spout the latest theories and others will give you a history of “the study of human motivation.” Some will offer nuts-and-bolts clarity, other will peel information off the onion for you and then leave you with more questions than answers. And yet, each one will provide a nugget upon which you can build your unique, yet very human, character.
Draw a picture. Well, not literally, draw a picture although I’m sure there are several people reading this blog who are gifted in that area, too. The concept here is to create a visual representation of your characters. There is software in the world today that can produce very realistic facial composite and I’ve heard of some writers using them. However, I consider magazines to be a good source and Web-Search-Images of various types to be the best tools for this piece. There are also several “Free Image” sites that allow access to hundreds of “people photos.”
Home is where the heart is. So, build a home for each character. Whether they are street-dwellers or mansion-mogulsthe author needs live there with them. As you will learn, much of human motivation comes from their environment past, present and planned for. Again, the Internet carries volumes of photos—interior and exterior—of homes around the world. Which one(s) have your characters lived in?
The old cliché of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is extremely valuable to the writer who is building characters from scratch—and the suggestions given above will guide you well. IF, however, you have a real person you’re writing about, that is a whole different process. Here is what that looks like…
Research and collect ALL the information you can on that person—past and present—and then consider developing a file (your opinions) of the motivations that have activated their life choices. Each event—from choice of sports to play in elementary and high school to marriage partner and career—will give you pages of information to draw from.
Select specific photographs of that person at their various stages of life. These will give you a visual representation of how life has treated them and how they responded to the challenges.
WHERE have they lived? The Internet can help you here, too. Examples of cities and towns and even neighborhoods will be available for you to find by simply searching the addresses of the person you’re placing in your story.
I’ve heard this process—of discovering what motivates a character—labeled “forensic physiological mapping.” I don’t know how accurate that is, however, I do like the concept of mapping. Working this process will definitely build you a believable character! ⚓︎
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.
Everyone’s got an opinion on how best to use social media. These two simple words have become the locus for more blogs, podcasts, and even heated offline debates than any other subject in the last five years––or more. In part we can attribute this pervasive conversation to the fact that the advent of social media has radically altered the average Westerner’s daily routine as well as that person’s basic expectations of relationships, whether we’re talking about relationships with other individuals, or with the companies and other institutions with which you or I might have some connection. These days, for example, it’s entirely reasonable for consumers to expect their favorite companies––whether Nike, or Denny’s––as well as their favorite celebrities––be they Rihanna or Neil Gaiman––to have active and responsive presences on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And while Lady Gaga won’t be able to respond to each and every tweet lobbed her way over the course of a day, the fact that she responds to any tweets renders her a more accessible figure to the average Twitter user.
But we’re not just here to gab about the latest and greatest in Facebook updates and how to use the Twitter app––even though, certainly, those two will rank among many other topics we’ll examine over the coming weeks. We’re here, first and foremost, to talk about how to market your self-published book. It’s already hard enough to break into the market when it comes to books, especially self-published books––talk about a daunting proposition!––without a guide or even professional assistance; we exist to make your life a little bit easier. To that end, each and every social networking tool I address will be tied back to this notion of marketing, and marketing specifically as a newly-published or on-the-verge-of-published indie, hybrid, or self-published author.
The first social network that everyone thinks of is still, by and large, Facebook. And don’t worry, we’ll absolutely talk about how to use Facebook effectively. It is important to note, however, that the bigger a platform is in terms of user base, the more “crowded” the market will seem to a reader seeking new material. It is vital that an indie author knows the ins and outs of Facebook updates and feeds and public profiles and so on and so forth, because the vast majority of any author’s potential readers will have Facebook accounts; however, it’s just as vital for a self-published author to establish a certain degree of comfort with at least a couple of the lesser-used platforms, because they will be both more “discoverable” and more visible without the throng of other authors competing for attention. To that end, I will take a stroll through each of the quote-on-quote “major” social networking sites, including:
Twitter
Tumblr
Instagram
Snapchat
YouTube
Pinterest
… but I will also examine lesser-known or more specialized platforms, such as:
Goodreads
Etsy
LinkedIn
Flickr
… because, ultimately, it’s the tools we’ve neglected that end up most surprising us with their unexplored possibilities.
There’s a lot more to using social media for book promotion, however, than simply knowing the names of the most popular sites or even how to set up an account with and update each one. There are a whole host of other behaviors to discover, observe, and adopt––”best practices,” so to speak––than just generating content. Authors have to know, for example, the inside tricks. They have to know the whys as well as the wherefores: why does engaging your readers on multiple platforms translate to better book sales? Why is it important to track your social media efficacy using analytics? And most importantly of all, why is it necessary to create a strategy, a plan for your social media campaign? I’ll walk with you through the theory––and together, we’ll peel back some of the layers that lie between us and a social media repertoire that actually makes a difference. We’ll debunk some myths, learn some new things, and slowly work our way through.
Together.
(Since that’s kind of the point, in the end, of social networking.)
I hope you’ll join me in building this Social Media Primer! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of social media know-how. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.
Two weeks ago I mentioned the writer’s natural ability to fly—to write—as compared to the birds of the air having the natural ability and motivation to take-wing and soar. I know this to be true because of the complete peace and freedom I feel when sitting in my office at the keyboard, allowing ideas to flow and become pages that (I hope) will be passable communication between me and the Reader.
However, this natural state evades me when called upon to speak in front of a group of people. So it was that I selected a challenging workshop at the Writers Conference for my main focus, the Speakers Intensive Clinic. You see, my friends, when you become published there WILL be a need for you to TALK about what you’ve produced. Here are a few basic concepts that I practiced during the conference and came away with to help me continue developing this ability.
1. Who, What, When, Where and Why? Sound familiar? These lovely little words guide us in the creation of the characters in our novels, the plot, setting and deeper elements of creative story telling. They are also very necessary when presenting (speaking about) our finished product to agents, editors and the reading public.
a. Know Who the Audience is. Do the research about your venue and the people expected to attend.
b. What Are Their Expectations? What are their dreams? What goals do they have?
c. When—in their life-journey—Are You Speaking to Them? Is this audience full of unpublished writers who want to accomplish what you have? Are they various ages—a youth group—senior writers?
d. Where will you be speaking? I’ve heard authors talk about “walking the room” before their audience arrives. Some pray for strength to actually complete the speech and pray for the audience that each one will take away what they need. Most important, each of these speakers takes the time to get a “feel” for the setting—the venue. If the seats look particularly uncomfortable, they might need to add a break-time to allow their audience time to stretch and pull in brain-power oxygen.
e. YOU Must Know WHY You Are Speaking. Every writer has a message to give and a “speaker-personae” within themselves to present it. You could not have finished your book—whether non-fiction or fiction—without that message. Is it meant to inspire people, entertain them, provoke them to think for themselves? If you haven’t identified it, outlined it forward and backward. Without a clear message in mind, it is unlikely your audience will understand what you’re trying to say.
2. Be Ready To Be Transparent. We hear that word, transparency, in the political arena a lot these days. The best speakers I’ve ever listened to—whether writers, or politicians, or pastors—have been ready and willing to share a truthful personal story within their speech. It doesn’t need to be a confession of any sort, yet when revealing a piece of one’s life to others we offer them a “real” connection that leads to friendships, Facebook followers and book-buyers.
3. Keep Yourself Aware. LOOK at what is going on around you both close to home and around the world. Is there a story in those events that relate to you and/or your book(s)? Write it down. These short scenarios—and your thoughts about them—also connect you to your Readers.
A final thought: Yes, there will be many times when we’re called upon to talk about our book(s) on a moment’s notice. Learning and PRACTICING these pieces to the speech-preparation-puzzle will allow us to do so with grace and flare. Eventually, it will become fun! ⚓︎
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.
Have you ever heard the term topographical mapping? A simple/basic definition is: The detailed representation of both natural and man-made features of a specific land area where contour lines indicate increase and decrease of elevation. For the writer who is creating in-depth character elements this concept can be most useful. Many creative writing instructors suggest using a highs-and-lows format to develop the emotional peaks and valleys a character will experience, demonstrated in this illustration.
However, it is my hope that serious authors will consider the visual elements of topographical mapping that offers almost infinite possibilities for character development—realizing the myriad of choices to be made all along the way—demonstrated by this topo-map of the island of Hilo in Hawaii.
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
