A Newbie's look at craft

Today I’m going to share an interview I had with another of the authors I mentor through WritingCareerCoach.com’s mentorship program. I hope that the new writers out there will be encouraged and that the established writers will see something that brings them back to their ‘first love’…writing.

So now I’d like to introduce Kathryn Neff Perry

Q. Share one thing you have done recently to improve your craft?

A. THE FIRST THING I DID WAS HIRE A WRITING COACH. THE SECOND THING I DID WAS TAKE HER ADVICE AND BUY THE BREAKOUT NOVEL AND THE WORKBOOK

Q. What are some things you're doing to market even before you're published?

A I POST TO MY BLOG DAILY AND KEEP MY WEB SITE UPDATED, HOPING FOR MORE EXPOSURE

Q. What genre do you write and how did you become interested in it?

A. I WRITE MYSTERIES/SUSPENSE. I BECAME INTERESTED IN MYSTERIES/SUSPENSE FROM THE FIRST NOVEL I READ. I'M A HUGE FAN OF ROBERT PARKER. I LOVE TRYING TO GUESS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT.

Q. If you had to give one piece of advice to someone just starting out as an author, what would it be?

A. MY ADVICE WOULD BE TO READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON, AND TO WRITE EVERYDAY.

Q. Do you have a blog/website? What is the theme and the address?

A. MY WEBSITE IS www.kathrynneffperry.com. MY BLOG address is www.kattskomments.blogspot.com. The theme for both is inspiration. My hope is for other authors to find inspiration from my words.

Thank you so much for sharing with us. It is important to write every day-even if no one ever sees your words. It is the discipline of writing that you’re developing and that will help you grow as a writer.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.

What a neat blog!

This is clever

As I told you last week, today I am sharing a blog with you. Here is the website http://catemasters.blogspot.com/

I stumbled on this blog when google got a hit on my name [I keep tabs on where I appear.] I was interested to see what was said about the website so I checked it out.

What a neat blog. She shares summaries of various blogs in a way that made me feel like we were having a friendly conversation. I really learned something simply by reading through some of her blog postings. I even clicked through a few of her links because she made the posts sound so informative.

So, if you are battling with ‘blogger’s block’ and you don’t know what to write then try this every once in a while. It is a great way to share wonderful content.

Excellent idea and thank you so much for including me!

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.

Not taking myself too seriously

President of ACFW Ohio, and someone I've come to truly appreciate, Sharon Lavy decided to tag me.

She told me I had to put up the 5th picture [or some other cryptic instructions]. Well, I opened a folder of pictures from this last week on my computer and the 5th picture was this HORRIBLE snow. It was almost over the top of my swing set.

So there you go, a little piece of Tiffy land for your weekend.

Monday I'll be back to my usual professional self. =)

In Case You Missed It

This month's issue of Writing Career Coach's Playbook went out. In case you missed it you can go read it right now by following this link. more>

If you like what you see and would like to subscribe [or maybe you simply have come to trust the news and information I share and want to subscribe sight-unseen you can subscribe here now.

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Notice that you can tell a friend about it. I hope you'll feel confident enough in our content that you'll decide to pass these links along to other writer friends as well.

Thanks again for supporting Writing Career Coach!!

Tiffany Colter

Make your reader feel appreciated

I had something really neat happen to me recently. I was contacted by a reader and told that I was recognized on their website. Here is a portion of the email:

Hi Tiffany,
We just posted an article, "The 50 Best Career Coach Blogs" (http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/the-50-best-career-coach-blogs.html). I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.
I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.
***
It felt good to be recognized and appreciated for the countless hours I put in to my blog and website.

Everyone enjoys being recognized, including your target market. That is why contests are so popular. We like it because for that moment we feel we’re adding value. We feel like we have excelled and distinguished ourselves in a particular area.

How can you give your reader that same feeling?

I don’t necessarily have an answer for this. It is still a question that is sloshing around in my mind. One thing I am going to do is share a great blog I discovered.

I’ll talk about that on Monday. In the meantime, tell someone you know about what they’ve meant to you. Thank them for helping you. Recognize extra effort.

And go check out the “50 Best Career Coach Blogs”. See what else they have over there.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.

When have you 'arrived'?

In my pursuit to be excellent in my field I spend a great deal of time studying the lives and careers of excellent people. I enjoy pioneers and famous people. By that I don't mean the latest "tabloid tartlette" but rather great performers who have stood the test of time.

One of those is Billy Joel.

I was watching part of a documentary put out the summer of 2008 where he recounted his breakout album 'The Stranger'.

I have been a huge Billy Joel fan since...well, since Piano Man came out [the song] which I think was some time around Kindergarten or first grade for me. I've always been intrigued by the swing and flow of Billy Joel's songs [and I really enjoyed the show "Bosom Buddies" which had a Billy Joel song during the opening credits].

He had a great way of creating a story out of a song. His songs Lenningrad, Noreastern Alexa, Piano Man, Don't forget your second wind, Goodnight Saigon...well, a good number of his songs, drew us in to the lives of people we knew. We felt we experienced these songs. We lived these songs.

So I was surprised to learn that "The Stranger" was a surprise hit, and Joel's 5th album.

I wondered how he had felt when he signed with his label in the years leading up to that career changing work. I imagine it had to be the same way most writers feel with their first book deal. But what separates an amazing career like Billy Joel from many writers is they see that first deal as a sign that they're there. They've arrived. They no longer need to learn, nor do they need to grow.

If you look at great writers and performers you'll see that the voice always stays recognizable, but the craft grows. They realize that there is no such thing as "Arriving". Former Press Secretary Tony Snow said as much after he was named Press Secretary to President Bush.

So what does it actually mean to arrive?

I think that arriving is when you come to the place where you're so comfortable with your own unique writer's voice that you're able to begin to let it mature without fear that you'll lose it totally. I think it is when you stop sounding like a conglomeration of your favorite authors and you begin to sound like yourself.

I think it is when you become fully teachable.

Have you arrived?

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.

Craft: Enough Said

Have you ever read a book that you wanted to read but had an annoying "tick"?

I just finished a book that did. While the plot line was intriguing and kept me guessing, and the characters were fun to listen to [you all know I 'read' most of my books on tape, right?] there was an annoying habit the author had that made me insane!!

"I'm cold." I said.
"Turn on the heat." He said.
"I can't reach it." I said.
"It is right behind you." He said.
"Oh, there it is." I said.
"I told you." He said.
"You were right." I said.

AHHHH, I screamed at my tape player "ENOUGH SAID!!"

I really try to learn something from everything I read-no matter what. From this book I learned that we always need to take the time to listen to our stories. There are text-to-speech software options. They help you recognize stilted dialog and annoying words [like 'said'] that show up constantly.

I started to wonder if this author was trying to hit word count or something and padded their manuscript with the word "said".

There was another book I 'read' last spring that had the word 'Sardonic' so much that my HUSBAND actually started to hate it...and he didn't hear the whole book [but he did get to hear my rants about the thing.]

Both of these authors have sold more than two dozen titles. Both have climbed [and stayed on] the best sellers lists.

The reason they did was because they made an incredible story with compelling characters and an engaging plot. Make sure that you are doing that too.

And try to avoid the pet phrases....

Enough said.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.