Writer’s Tips October – #Memoir Writing, #Canva, #Scamalert, Createspace, Google, Blogging, and Free Promotion Offer

Welcome to October edition of Writer’s Tips. In today’s post I’m sharing a new author scam alert, Seven S’s of writing Memoir, problems for authors who didn’t move their books themselves to Amazon, a tutorial on how to add video to Canva, marketing with Google, reusable block making on the Gutenberg editor, and two invitations where you can promote your books.

 

 

First one is a brand new author Scam Alert. Anne R. Allen keeps us abreast the latest scams and book steals. Today she shares the danger of Facebook, and advice on choosing an Editor who won’t scam.

Warning to Writers: You Won’t See This New Publishing Scam Coming

 

 

Roz Morris from Nail Your Novel with The 7 S’s of Writing Memoir

http://www.nailyournovel.com/

 

Deborah Jay with an eye-opener for authors who didn’t move their books themselves from Createspace to Amazon

https://deborahjayauthor.com/2021/09/13/createspace-to-kdp-how-did-you-transfer-your-paperbacks/comment-page-1/#comment-43568

 

Natalie Ducey Smith has a new tutorial for us on How to Add Custom Video to Canva

https://natalieducey.com/2021/09/09/how-to-add-a-custom-audio-file-to-designs-in-canva/

 

 

Attention authors looking for FREE promotion – the great promoter, Sally Cronin is offering a new series at the Smorgasbord – Lucky Dip – check it out and get featured at the Smorgasbord

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/smorgasbord-posts-from-your-archives-newseries-october-2021-lucky-dip-and-do-you-trust-me/comment-page-1/#comment-526477

 

 

Tech teacher and author Jacqui Murray shares how to outline and market your stories using Google

https://worddreams.wordpress.com/2021/09/15/authortoolboxbloghop-11/#comment-272613

 

Blogging guru and author, Hugh Roberts is showing us how to make a resuseable block in the Gutenberg editor

https://hughsviewsandnews.com/2021/09/13/how-to-create-and-use-a-reusable-block-for-your-book-on-wordpress/comment-page-1/?unapproved=123774&moderation-hash=8402a8fb0c350bb24986ed2a16fad2b6#comment-123774

 

Ingram Spark tells us why we should also publish with them separately, using publishdrive

https://publishdrive.com/ingram-sell-online-print-on-demand-books-2.html

 

Author Stevie Turner also generously offers authors and bloggers Free promotion on her blog on Fridays – share a post or share a book excerpt – check it out

https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2021/09/17/friday-spotlight-17th-september/

 

©DGKaye2021

 

Foundations of Storytelling – #Loglines – #Blurbs by Sean Carlin

 

Screenwriter/author, Sean Carlin wrote this gem of an article on Loglines. He states in his informative post that successful stories should emerge from a logline (elevator pitch) and outlined around the logline. This is a fascinating post from the always informative and articulate Sean, who is as generous with this replies to comments with nuggets of worthy information as he is with his succinct and in-depth posts on the various aspects of writing. Sean breaks down each stage of writing beautifully with examples.

 

This is the first post in an occasional series.

With the Second World War looming, a daring archaeologist-adventurer is tasked by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant—a Biblical artifact of invincible power, lost for millennia in the desert sands of Egypt—before it can be acquired by the Nazis.

On Christmas Eve, an off-duty police officer is inadvertently ensnared in a life-or-death game of cat-and-mouse in an L.A. skyscraper when his wife’s office party is taken hostage by a dozen armed terrorists.

Over the Fourth of July holiday, a resort-island sheriff finds himself in deep water—literally—when his beach is stalked by an aggressive great white shark that won’t go away.

All of the above story concepts should sound familiar—that’s why I chose them.  Yes, Raiders of the Lost ArkDie Hard, and Jaws are all popular—now classic—works of commercial cinema.  But they are also excellent exemplars of storytelling at their most basic, macrostructural levels, as demonstrated by the catchy summaries above, known in Hollywood as “the logline.”

THE LOGLINE AS A SELLING TOOL

The logline is a sales pitch:  In a single compact sentence, it conveys the protagonist (respectively:  the adventurous archaeologist; the off-duty cop; the beach-resort sheriff), the antagonist (the Nazis; the terrorists; the shark), the conflict and stakes (possession of the Ark for control of the world; the confined life-and-death struggle; the destruction of a man-eating leviathan), the setting (1930s Egypt; an L.A. skyscraper at Christmas; a summer resort), and the tone/genre (action/adventure; action-thriller; adventure/horror).  You can even reasonably glean the Save the Cat! category of each:

  • Raiders as Golden Fleece (Subgenre:  “Epic Fleece”)
  • Die Hard as Dude with a Problem (“Law Enforcement Problem”)
  • Jaws as Monster in the House (“Pure Monster”)

A cogent synopsis like any of the above allows a prospective buyer to “see” the creative vision for the movie, ideally triggering the three-word response every screenwriter longs to hear:  “Tell me more.”

Note what isn’t included in the logline:  The names of any of the characters.  Thematic concerns.  Emotional arcs.  Subplots.  Descriptions of particular set pieces.  That’s the “tell me more” stuff, and none of it is necessary—it is, in fact, needlessly extraneous—for the “elevator pitch,” so called for the brief window one has to hook to an exec before he steps off onto his floor (read:  loses interest).  The point of a logline is to communicate the story’s most fundamental aspects, and to capture what’s viscerally exciting about the premise. . . Continue Reading at Sean’s blog

 

Note: Don’t forget to read the comments under Sean’s article, they are also filled with tips.

 

Source: Foundations of Storytelling, Part 1: The Logline as Both a Sales and Writing Tool

 

©DGKaye2020

 

Sunday Book Review – The Writer’s Body Lexicon by Kathy Steinemann

My Sunday Book Review is for Kathy Steinemann’s new release – the third book in this must-have resource guide for all writers – The Writer’s Body Lexicon. I was thrilled to receive an ARC from Kathy to get an early heads up on this extensive list of word and phrase replacement guide for descriptions of all body parts.

 

 

 

Blurb:

Ordinary writers describe the body in order to evoke images in readers’ minds. Extraordinary writers leverage it to add elements such as tension, intrigue, and humor.

The Writer’s Body Lexicon provides tools for both approaches.

Kathy Steinemann provides a boggling number of word choices and phrases for body parts, organized under similar sections in most chapters:

•Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations
•Adjectives
•Similes and Metaphors
•Colors and Variegations
•Scents
•Shapes
•Verbs and Phrasal Verbs
•Nouns
•Prompts
•Clichés and Idioms

Sprinkled throughout, you’ll also find hundreds of story ideas. They pop up in similes, metaphors, word lists, and other nooks and crannies.

Readers don’t want every character to be a cardboard cutout with a perfect physique. They prefer real bodies with imperfections that drive character actions and reactions — bodies with believable skin, scents, and colors.

For instance, a well-dressed CEO whose infrequent smile exposes poorly maintained teeth might be on the verge of bankruptcy. A gorgeous cougar with decaying teeth, who tells her young admirer she’s rich, could spook her prey. Someone trying to hide a cigarette habit from a spouse might be foiled by nicotine stains.

Add depth to your writing. Rather than just describe the body, exploit it. Build on it. Mold it until it becomes an integral part of your narrative.

“… a timeless resource: You’ll find advice, prompts, ideas, vocabulary, humor, and everything in between. But more importantly, it will make your characters stand out from the crowd.” — Nada Sobhi

 

My 5 Star Review:

 

If you thought you knew words, you’re in for a big treat with this almost 500 pages of action-packed book full of alternative words and phrases to make your characters come alive and help readers create believable characters. How many ways can we express body parts, gestures, prompts and humor? Steinemann will arm you better than any thesaurus.

The author expanded her blog post of lessons for writers and created this absolute must-have resource guide, aiding in better descriptive writing in this 3rd and comprehensive book in her Lexicon series for writers. We’ll also find words that keep the action going as well as idea replacements for similes and metaphors that AREN’T cliche, with loads of examples under each body part heading. Steinemann helps writers to choose appropriate adjectives and verb tenses – eg: If you say your character has tanned arms while the setting takes place in winter, you’ve used the wrong adjective unless a reason is presented for the tanned arms. The author demonstrates how to eliminate unnecessary words with suggested word replacement. Plenty of prompts are also given as well as: opinion words explained, hyphen use, how to incorporate color, use of props for description, use of word variation pertaining to the character’s description – example: you may use the word ‘porky’ for a bully, but the word wouldn’t go over well if a husband were to refer to his wife with such word.

This book is a fantastic edition to describe all parts of the body from head to toe, also offering ideas to set up a character chart to list all attributes of characters, ie: shapes, appearance, flesh tone, etc. Each chapter begins with descriptions, examples of word usage. Steinemann also talks about caveats, eg: perception of the writer’s view needs to be made clear for readers. The writer may know what she means to relay being privy to the character’s thoughts, but make sure the reader is informed too.

The Writer’s Body Lexicon is succinctly written into sections for each body part, covering verbs, variegation of color, shapes, idioms, cliches, metaphors, similes, comparisons and more. A must-have resource guide for all writers!

 

©DGKaye2020

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