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Published on 2 Comments on 10 Things I Hate About My Critique Group

When I first started writing, I took someone’s advice and joined a critique group. I didn’t know anything about critique groups. I thought it would be like a book club – the ones where nobody actually reads the book and the meetings are just an excuse to get together for lunch. I guess I joined the wrong group. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Photo by rawpixel at Unsplash

I hate the way I have to have something ready to read every time we meet. I could be napping, or ironing, or grocery shopping, or scrubbing toilets, but instead I have to take the time to write so I’ll have something ready for them to critique.

I hate the way they critique. It never fails, if they have something critical to say, they always follow that up with something positive. It’s so formulaic!

I hate they way they are constantly sharing market sources. Every time we meet, it’s a new contact or magazine or contest. And of course I have to submit something because if I don’t, the rest of the group will wonder why I’m the only one who doesn’t.

I hate they way they pick out the typos in my work. After all, I have been working with this stuff for days, weeks, sometimes months. How did they catch it when I didn’t?

I hate the way they hold me accountable for what I write. For once, why can’t they just say, “It’s good enough the way it is”?

I hate the way they push me to submit every single thing I write. They even critique my queries, for crying out loud!

I hate how they waste so much time brainstorming. Why would they want to spend so much time on a plot twist that isn’t even their story? So what if it makes all the difference and sends me in a direction I hadn’t considered before? Wouldn’t they rather be spending that time on their own work?

I hate they way they insist on celebrating every time someone has a sale. All of that shouting and hugging and praise embarrasses me.

I hate they way they prop me up after yet another rejection. Don’t they realize I will never be any good at this and I just need to stop trying?

Most of all, I hate how I feel when I have to miss a critique group meeting. I miss the input, even if it is critical. I miss my writer friends, even if they sometimes tell me things I don’t want to hear.  So if you will pardon me, I have a deadline. The toilets and the ironing will just have to wait.

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Published on 8 Comments on 8 Things I Learned From #ablogaday

photo from Cushing Memorial Library collection Texas A&M University

Years ago I watched Morgan Spurlock's film Super Size Me. If you are not familiar with it, Spurlock documented himself eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days and tracked the consequences. They were not good. If you haven't seen it, highly recommend. That was years ago, and I haven't eaten McDonald's food since.

Anyway - the more relevant and ironic takeaway for today's purposes is that Mr. Spurlock supplanted my addiction to McDonald's French fries with one for 30-day projects. I love the idea of sampling something new for a relatively brief period of time to see what effect it has, hopefully positive. I dabbled with something similar a few times during Lent (raised Protestant, Lent was something of a novelty to me). I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) a few times, completing the 50,000 word challenge all but once. I tried the 30 day Abs, Squats, Arms, Whatever fitness challenges online - failed all but always willing to try again!

So when I read an article by Darren Rowse +ProBlogger suggesting bloggers take a few minutes each day and browse other blogs, I plugged that into the 30-day model.

Rowse suggested this not to copy others' work, but to see what's out there, what others are doing, what looks like it's working and what isn't, all of which should improve our own efforts. I took his advice. I enjoyed the process. After 30 days of blog hopping, I can now do it fairly quickly so that it is a productive part of my routine rather than a rabbit hole. Here's what I learned.

Blog v website - First things first: let's clarify. When people say they have a blog, what exactly do they mean? Many of the sites I visited called themselves blogs, but they had all kinds of other pages included - merch for sale, bio, photo albums, links, you name it. On the flip side, many authors have robust websites that include one section classified as a blog. Okay, that's pretty straightforward. However. Often the home page to these combined sites is identical to the page you see when you click on their 'blog' link. So is the whole site a blog? Or just the pages that have posts and comments? So confused! Until I found 30 or Something's blog. It is a BLOG and nothing else. Every page is just posts and comments. That site really clarified things for me. Plus I LOVE their header design and how their blog topics are organized into individual tabs/pages.

Layouts - I discovered I don't like things too crowded. I prefer a large area for the blog posts and a right margin for the other stuff. I don't know why, but I just can't get with the marginalia on the left. I use WordPress via Bluehost, so the layouts are very simple to rearrange IMO. Spend some time playing around with it and use the Preview function to see if you likey before you save.

Favicon - while I was fiddling around with my layout, I noticed one area I had overlooked/ignored for years. The favicon is the little icon that appears on the browser tab when that tab is open to one of your site's pages. For instance, when you have a Twitter tab open, there is a little blue bird on that tab. It's just another way of branding. All you need is a small graphic, ideally your logo or something strongly related to your site or blog. Setting this up is a little different depending on your hosting site, so some Googling may be in order.

Social media bar - early on I didn't know what this was, nor did I care. But once I started upping my engagement game and actually wanted to follow people across their social media beyond just their website, it became huge. A social media bar in an obvious location really makes it easy for people to engage with you. Put another way, if I have to spend more than about thirty seconds hunting down your social media presences on your site,  . . . NEXT! It's a pretty easy fix on most hosting sites. Just look for social media navigation. As Mike Allton says in this great article, it costs me nothing.

Backgrounds - Here's where I get into trouble. Ask me how many hours I have dawdled trying out new backgrounds for my website. During the 30-day challenge, I saw so many other great blog designs that I like! I gravitate towards color, but I also enjoy a well-designed minimalist/streamlined look. So often, beginners go a little crazy with too many choices and end up with a mishmash mess. My early websites were way too busy and loud. As you can see, I've let the design pendulum swing in the other direction for now.

Page jump - On several blogs I saw during the challenge, I noticed many had snippets of past articles (rather than the entire article) listed on the home page. I learned from this article by Rachel Sprung at Hubspot that these are called 'listing pages'. A listing page will give a sample of many blog posts, with 'read more' or continue' links that will take you to the full post if it strikes your fancy. I've been away from Blogger for a couple of years, so I'm not sure if this article is still relevant. But it did the trick for me.  I'm able to do something similar here by selecting the previous post display format that suits me.

Subscription links - back to Mr. Allston's advice, adding an email subscribe gadget costs me nothing. May help, couldn't hurt. I copied the html code from my MailChimp account, and I insert it at the bottom of each new post. Subscribers will receive a newsletter from me whenever I get around to publishing one. Note this is separate from the subscription link to this blog, which notifies subscribers each time there's a new post.

Comments - last but not least, let's not forget the point of a blog hop: engagement. While you're scoping out other blogs for ideas, if you see a blog topic that interests you, take a sec and leave a comment. The wheel of karma will thank you.

30 days of #ablogaday was exhausting yet productive. No doubt there are other intangibles I gained, but that's enough for now. I enjoyed finding so many great new blogs and am very pleased with this new addition to my daily writing/blogging routine. Way more fun than the 30 Day Ab Challenge, but it didn't do much for my muffin top . . .

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Published on Leave a comment on Happy Friday 7.13.18

Happy Friday (even though it's the 13th)! This is my first time participating in the #HappyFriday event from Bloglovin'. Apparently it's like the social media version of a wave. You know, the thing at stadiums with your hands in the air that anyone can start and you hope it catches on? Just post, then tweet/post the link and share the happiness. Feel free to copy the image up there - I grabbed it from the original post.

We've been challenged to list ten things that made us happy this week. Hope it's contagious!

  1. A pontoon ride out to Bomb Island here on Lake Murray SC to check out the purple martins returning to their roost for the evening.
  2. Shrimp tacos at Frayed Knot.
  3. Tripping over something that was my own dang fault, doing a near faceplant, and escaping unharmed.
  4. Replacing our co-ax wifi with the fiber optic service that's now available in our area. It's screamin' fast and less money.
  5. Finishing the most recent editing past of my current WIP. Now on to book two!
  6. Discovering I had one more Otra Ves in the fridge when I thought I was out.
  7.  Watching the hummingbirds go crazy over the two feeders I recently put out.
  8.  Identifying Venus, Jupiter, Scorpius, and Antares.
  9.  Finally getting some much-needed rain.
  10.  Enjoying some fireworks at the neighbors'.

Now it's your turn. What made you happy this week?

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Published on 2 Comments on Hungry For Content Ideas? Try A Mash-Up

Recently I read a useful article about maximizing your writing time. The information was excellent. But what interested me more was that it was yet another example of a skilled writer putting a new spin on an evergreen topic.

photo by Seth Macey via Unsplash

How many articles do you suppose are out there on the topic of writing habits? I Googled 'writing habits' and got 80,800,000 results. Eighty. Million. Now before you decide this topic has been done to death and move on to writing about The Mating Habits of the Female Chartreuse Banded Whelk Nipper, consider this: 80 million writers can't be wrong. That indicates strong demand, strong interest.  So what difference can your article make among those millions? YOU. YOU are the difference. You are writing, let's be honest, an article that will probably have some elements of a re-hash. But you will be writing it with your own unique spin, and that's why we need 80,800,001 of these articles. You never know when your article will be the one that makes a difference to one reader out there who just hasn't been grabbed by that topic yet.

The article I mentioned earlier chose to link the topic of writing habits with sports. Specifically, the BSD college sports teams in her hometown, Michigan State University. Now this I didn't Google, but I am willing to bet there aren't many writing articles with an MSU frame.

Examine that article and you will see the scaffolding behind the structure.

  • Start strong - craft a good quality intro. "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em".
  • "Tell 'em": Select the foundation - for our purposes, let's use the ironclad writing rule of three distinct elements of your topic; in this case, writing habits.
  • Select the style - three more elements from the mash-up topic. My gut feeling is the article will be improved if you have some personal connection to the mash-up topic, but choose anything you think is a good fit. Often, the elements you have selected for your foundation topic will suggest elements from the mash-up topic. See example below.
  • Link each pair in three well-organized bullet points or paragraphs.
  • Finish with a wrap-up. "Tell 'em what you just told 'em".
  • Add a pertinent graphic if you like.

To recap: evergreen topic + personal touch + structure = Success! There's your article, unique and ready to push Publish.

Let's put this plan into action with two completely random topics, just to show how it works. How about Good Driving Habits (our evergreen topic) and Pizza (something close to my heart).

Main topic: Good Driving Habits

Our three main points are:

  • Be aware of other drivers
  • Keep your vehicle in good, safe operating condition
  • Make responsible choices

Mash-up topic (the topic that makes our evergreen article unique): Pizza

Our three Pizza points are driven by the points we chose for our main topic, to wit:

  • Our first driving point is 'be aware':

If you enjoy pizza as much as I do, you probably take pains to familiarize yourself with the pizzas offered in your area. You don't want to end up hugging the toilet because you couldn't be bothered to Yelp and find out that kitschy joint across the street has been closed by the health department three different times. Likewise, learn the likely driving behaviors on your regular routes. If you pass near a high school, what time does school get out? AVOID. Do you live in Florida? If you cannot see the driver's head over the front seat head rest, prepare for slow travel and even slower right-hand turns into retail strips, especially if it is time for the Early Bird Special at the local Chinese buffet.

  • 2nd point 'vehicle maintenance':

Quality pizzerias keep their kitchens clean and their ovens safe. No one wants to be featured on the evening news with the photo of the cockroach as one of the accidental toppings. Follow their example. Commit to performing simple car maintenance tasks that will save you heartache in the long run. No one wants to be featured on the evening news when their car fire causes four lanes to be shut down during Labor Day weekend rush hour.

  • 3rd point 'responsible choices':

Pizza lovers enjoy their pizza, but we know our limitations. No matter how tempting, if you are on cholesterol meds, just say no to the extra large all-meat supreme. Similarly, do not operate a two ton vehicle at freeway speeds if you are planning on enjoying adult beverages beforehand. Both choices may seem harmless until the EMT holds those paddles over your bare chest and yells 'CLEAR!'.

Easy-peasy. Add a snappy intro and outro and voila! you've got the thin-crust-black-olive-and-onion of evergreen articles, fresh out of the creative oven. Can't wait to see what you cook up next!

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Published on Leave a comment on Writing Challenges, Blog Hops, And Light Bulb Moments

April is coming to a close, which means the annual A to Z Blog Challenge is doing the same. I participated in this challenge in 2016. It was my first time participating in the A to Z Challenge, though not my first blog challenge and definitely not my first writing challenge. I’m familiar with deadline pressure - what writer isn’t? - but the A to Z presented a couple of different types of pressure, for different reasons. As I progressed through the challenge, and even afterward, my opinions on some blog-related issues swung back and forth like a West Texas weather vane. 

To Theme Or Not To Theme

When I started the challenge, I didn’t realize what was going on with the ‘theme’. I thought ‘A to Z’ was the theme. Just write one post per day, each with some connection to a letter of the alphabet. April 1 = A, April 2 = B, and so forth. Turns out that's the broadest (one might say laziest) interpretation of the challenge. Experienced participants take it to the next level. They select a theme, then within that theme, create posts related to the alphabet.

Once I figured that out, I thought, Whew! So glad theme is optional. Themes are stupid. Themes tie me down and restrict my writing. I’ll write whatever the heck I feel like. And of course after the hundredth random theme-less blog I visited, I was so thankful to stumble across blogs that had such narrowly focused themes I marveled in their ability to find 6 topics to write about, much less 26. I became a believer. Themes are the bomb. Themes are like fences. They may seem restrictive and unsightly, but in addition to keeping good things in, they also keep bad things out.

Themes weren't the end of my education. In my blog challenge naivete, I didn't realize we were expected not only to publish a blog post 26 days out of 30; we were also expected to visit other blogs and leave comments. In fact, many would argue the comment component is the main focus of the event. Don't be fooled by the word 'challenge' - it's a blog hop.

Categories and Comments

After the challenge concluded, we were encouraged to post a recap of our experience. Of 1300+ bloggers who completed most of the challenge in 2016, less than a third shared a recap. Still, that’s over 300 opinions, and I worked my way through nearly half.

Two areas were mentioned repeatedly: requests for tweaks to the blog category codes; and hand-wringing over the low percentage of participants who visited and commented at other blogs. My flip-flop on these two issues is intertwined.

First, to the categories: When we registered for the challenge, we were asked to describe our blogs choosing from a list of two-letter codes provided by the admins. The idea was to give other bloggers some idea of what your blog was about before they clicked. Many participants thought there should be more categories added. Some also suggested they should describe the challenge theme chose by the blogger, rather than the blog, since the two could vary wildly.

My initial reaction to the category idea was, Categories? I don’t need no stinking categories! I assigned myself one. But I basically ignored other people’s blog categories because I wanted to visit ALL of them, regardless of topic.I will also admit my initial reaction to blogs being categorized is that it had the potential to hurt some blogs that might be at a disadvantage if ghetto-ized into a category within a very narrow niche.  

Secondly, the comments: Some participants said they didn’t leave comments because they couldn’t think of anything to say. And I’m like, What? Most bloggers are writers, for crying out loud. Surely you can come up with 10 words on the fly, like that old Toastmasters improv exercise. If you can’t come up with a few words for a token comment, blog comments are the least of your worries.

That’s how I felt about categories and comments - until I had my light bulb moment.

At around that time, I'd been listening to several writing podcasts. One in particular really solved a problem I’ve been having with a WIP. I couldn’t wait to get to the keyboard and type up a comment on the podcast. And that’s when I realized: If I’m not that excited about every comment I leave, I shouldn’t be leaving it. I shouldn’t be wasting my time on meaningless ‘hey, just dropping by from the A to Z’ comments in a likely fruitless attempt to increase my own blog's page rank.

After my light bulb moment, I now understand why people want the categories to be clear, unambiguous, and definitive of both blog and theme if possible. The bloggers who are asking for this have already had the light bulb moment. They know what they are interested in and where they will have the best chance of finding blogs they will want to comment on organically. 

I like to think I have an open mind. I’m willing to change my opinion when I’m wrong, especially when learning through personal experience. The A to Z Challenge was full of those experiences for me. Here's hoping your next writing challenge has some light bulb moments for you as well.

Images via Unsplash. A version of this article first appeared on the A to Z Blog Challenge website as a recap after the 2016 event.

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Published on 2 Comments on Every Day Is A Holiday Around Here. No, Really.

One of Google's MLK Day doodles

Recently we celebrated MLK Day, a national holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. National government agencies got a paid vacay. Where I live, schools were closed.  I quantify that because state and local entities don't necessarily have to follow along with national holidays. Most do, but there is some wiggle room there. The local entities have to budget for paying the employees for that day off, so they have some say in it.

Side note: originally there was some resistance to the MLK holiday from a few sectors, most notably Arizona. By refusing to support the national holiday passed in 1986, they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, and Super Bowl XXVII (27 for those of you non-nerds who didn't take Latin in high school) moved to Pasadena in protest. Ouch!

We are fairly well covered with national holidays as follows:

January - New Year's Day 1/1, Martin Luther King Jr. Day 3rd Monday

February - President's Day 3rd Monday

March

April

May - Memorial Day last Monday

June

July - Independence Day July 4

August

September - Labor Day 1st Monday

October - Columbus Day 2nd Monday

November - Veterans Day 11/11, Thanksgiving 4th Thursday

December - Christmas 12/25

Look at those four gaps just begging for more celebrating. This puts me in mind of all the oddball holidays. Not a single day of the year is without one. Now we could go for the low-hanging fruit to plug those gaps and add the obvious (St. Patrick's Day, April Fools, Father's Day, etc.) But where's the fun in that? If I could wave a magic legislative wand and add one more national holiday, here's my short list. It was very difficult for me not to make every choice food-related, but I did my best.

March - Must be tough competition with Easter sometimes falling within March. I mean - Plumbing Day (11)? Buzzards Day (15)? Thank goodness for Crayola Crayon Day (31).

April - is my new favorite month. It has Beer Day (7), Pillow Fight Day (5), and Grill Cheese Day (12).

June - June is struggling, with Eat Your Vegetables Day (17), Blood Donor Day (14), Sewing Machine Day (13), and Insurance Awareness Day (28) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. However, it is redeemed by two capital holidays: Flip Flop Day (20) and Sauntering Day (19). Let's make EVERY day 'Sauntering Day'!

August - Wow, and I thought June was struggling. Love Litigating Lawyers Day (31)? Really? I'm gonna hafta go ahead and choose either International Lefthanders Day (13) or Creamsicle Day (14) with Fresh Breath Day (6) a very tempting option also. Here's my dad's contribution to Fresh Breath Day: ask your friend if they have a breath mint. If they say 'no', you say, 'here, have one of mine'.

If you didn't see anything you liked in the above suggestions, how about coming up with a holiday or two on your own? It is quite a process to get a day declared a national holiday. All that pesky politicking and budget wrangling pressure spoils the fun. But it appears if you don't care about the national bit, all you have to do to declare a day a holiday is to declare it. I am declaring today Finish Your Blog Post Day. Tomorrow is going to be Take A Break From Blogging Every Day Day.

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Published on 6 Comments on Top Ten #OpenBook Blog Hop

I stumbled across this fun blog hop today while reciprocating a Like on my Facebook Page from author P.J. MacLayne. Who doesn't love a Top Ten list?

I've recently become obsessed with sour beers. Did not see that coming.

10. Trying new things - Some people find comfort in familiar favorites. Agree, but I love seeking out my next new favorite, whether it's food, books, sightseeing, or any life experience in general.
9. Problem solving - if it's broken, let's see how we can fix it! Yes, I am a DIY and HGTV addict.
8. Socialize with family and friends - this would've been higher on my list, but I'm an introvert, so . . .  a little bit goes a long way 😜
7. Yoga - one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2017 was to commit to a daily yoga practice. I had dabbled with it off and on for years. I'm happy to say I've created a strong habit, having missed only a couple dozen days since January 2017. Now I'm completely hooked and am in a terribly foul mood if I skip.

The Dala Horse
Available now in print, digital, and audio at Amazon

6. Travel - this should probably be at the top of my list, but factoring in frequency, it landed here. Hope to do more in 2018. Search this blog using the Travel keyword for more posts on this topic.
5. Create - holding a book in my hand that has my name after the word 'by' is quite a rush.

4. Computer - big ol' NERD here. Got into personal computers in the early days back when a TRS-80 cost $10k; been addicted ever since.
3. Movies (and recently, TV) - great fodder for character building and story arc. Joseph Campbell/Vogler/Hero's Journey acolyte. Looking forward to Frances McDormand (love her!) in Three Billboards. And if you want a master class on plotting, check out The Leftovers (HBO).
2. Read - have had my 'nose stuck in a book', as some unkind folk like to say, since I was able to put A and B together. Fiction and non-fiction alike. Just finished Beryl Markham's biography; going to switch over to fiction and read The Quick by Lauren Owen next. All recommendations gladly accepted.
1. Eat - is there anything better than a great meal with great friends?

Some very tasty Cuban food at El Siboney, Key West FL

Oh - wait - can I add another? I love good music. Gives me goosebumps.

If you want to participate in this hop, here are the rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.*
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

*p.s. re #1: I lost patience trying to figure out how to get the code for the InLinkz button so you could add your blog link here. Visit P.J.'s blog and see if you can figure it out better than I could.