How to Actually Stay Inspired and Energized AFTER Your Conference

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First, I have to apologize for last week’s lack of posts. Our regional SCBWI fall conference (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators, for the uninitiated) was this past weekend, and somehow my normal blogging time disappeared in printing, packing, checking lists…You get the picture!

But the conference went off with nary a hitch. IMHO, this was the best lineup of authors, editors, and agents our conference has hosted in years–and I have permission from several speakers to share my sketchnotes from their sessions! Expect to see them in the coming weeks.*

Now it’s 6:22 PM Sunday night and I’ve only been home for an hour or so. I’m simultaneously

  • exhausted from a weekend of being “on” (always an energy drain for an introvert!) and
  • energized by the connections with new and existing writer friends and
  • exhilarated by all the fantabulous new ideas for stories, articles, characters, and rewrites bouncing around in my head.

Oh yeah–I’m also a little overwhelmed, because where the heck do I start with all of that?

From experience, that feeling of overwhelm will increase. Also from experience, that feeling of exhilaration and the sense of being full-to-bursting with fantastic ideas will also fade.

From speaking with other writers, I know I’m not the only one to go through this disheartening progression. Don’t worry, though–I’m not writing to discourage you! Au contraire, I’m writing to share with you my tried-and-true, step-by-step plan for How to Actually Stay Energized and Inspired After Your Conference forward through the coming weeks and months. In other words, I want to share how you can get the most from your conference experience over the long term!

During the Conference

Already finished with your conference? Read this section anyway. These steps can still be implemented after you return home.

Step 1. Reflect on each day

I’ve found it helpful to set aside a few minutes at the end of each day–or during an afternoon break–to review the day’s notes. This is when you can start adding items to your master Inspiration List (below) or To-Do list. You might jot down things you found especially meaningful, things you want to make sure you remember.

It’s also helpful to glance over your notes from presentations, critiques, and other conference sessions. Check to see if someone would understand their meaning if they hadn’t attended the same session. No? Then you probably won’t understand your notes, either, after a month or so has passed. Take time to clarify what you’ve written. If you come up with questions, you still have time to track down the speaker and ask!

Step 2. Keep a master “Inspiration List”.

Conferences tend to be highly inspirational. I came home with several ideas for new picture books plus renewed vision for some old manuscripts currently sitting on my shelf. However, those ideas ended up as jotted notes in the margins of various pages of my notebook. After the first day, I created a “Master Inspiration List” and collected the various tidbits of creativity in one location. That way, I’m far more likely to remember them and put them to use.

Step 3. Keep track of names and contact info for new writer, editor, and agent connections.

After last year’s conference, I had a list of names and emails for people I wanted to keep in touch with. People I was sure I would remember…but then I didn’t do anything with that list for weeks. By the time I pulled it out and dusted it off again, I couldn’t recall where I’d met some of those people or what we’d had in common.

Fortunately, I learned my lesson before the conference I attended this past June. I collected names and addresses, but didn’t let them languish unattended until I forgot about them. This time, I consolidated them on a single notebook page, which I stored with my conference notes. I sent emails to remind people of how we’d connected and saved their responses to a special “Personal Connections” folder.

It’s up to you to decide what information you want to save and where. Perhaps you want to stay connected to a fabulous author you heard speak–then send a quick email message to let them know how much you enjoyed their presentation, or simply to say “thanks” for the opportunity to get to know them. Save your messages in a folder dedicated to writing related friends and contacts. Or maybe you want to remember a particular editor you think might be a good fit for your work someday–you could create a spreadsheet, Word document, or Evernote notebook to store that editor’s name, house, where you met, and a few notes about them.

The key here? Keep it simple! Make sure that you create a system that’s

  1. easy enough to use that you’ll actually use it, and
  2. intuitive enough that you won’t forget how it works when the next conference rolls around.

After the Conference

Step 1. Review Your Notes

  • Make sure your notes make sense. In your rush to copy down information, did you leave out any key words? Essential transitions? Try to reread your notes with a fresh eye to make sure they will make sense later, when you’ve forgotten the context. (If you went through step 3 of “During the Conference,” you’ve got a head start on this process!
  • Highlight or star key information. What ideas did you find especially helpful? What information do you want to be able to find easily 6 months down the road? Judicious use of colored pens or highlighters can make your notes easy to scan–helping you create a fabulous source of future inspiration.
  • Record your insights. Any insights into your writing projects? These might arise from writing exercises you did during a workshop, or from a speaker’s words that really hit home, or from a critique. Don’t let those flashes of insight go to waste. Definitely don’t trust yourself to “just remember” them! Instead, record the key information someplace where you’ll see it the next time you work on that project.

Step 2. Get Organized

This step is easier if you start during the conference. Even if you did get a head start, though, it’s important to spend some time organizing your stuff after your return home. I guarantee you’ll find things you missed!

  • Record deadlines. Do you plan to submit to any of those wonderful industry professionals you met during the conference? Many editors and agents allow attendees to submit to them post-conference, even if they normally accept submissions only from agents or by referral. However, some only do so during a limited window available of time–in which case, you need to get their deadlines on your calendar and get to work.
  • Add items to your to-do list. What action did the conference inspire you to take? What deadlines do you need to remember? Put them on your calendar, your to-list, your wall–whatever you use to stay inspired and focused day-to-day.

Step 3. Add to Your Inspiration List

The evening or day after the conference is a great time to review your notes and ideas and use them to help you brainstorm more ideas. The truth is that you probably didn’t have time to pursue every idea sparked by every session while you were at the conference. Take time to follow up on those stray thoughts before their trail grows cold!

Step 4. Track Your Peeps

Did you meet any amazing authors or illustrators you want to remember or keep in touch with? Any agents or editors you think might be perfect for your work–even if you don’t plan to submit to them right away? Create a single place where you can record names and information to help you to remember

  1. WHO these cool people are and
  2. WHY you want to remember them.

Sales reps use CRM (customer relations management) software to help them track contacts, but you probably don’t need expensive software. Consider using an email folder, MS Word document, Evernote notebook, or whatever else feels most comfortable.

Step 5. Follow Up

Did any authors offer to email their slides to attendees–like the fabulous Jen Halligan did after her 2014 presentation on book promotion? Or did a speaker volunteer to create a handout of key points–like the illustrious author/speaker Erin Dealey, at this year’s conference? Make sure you send your follow-up email ASAP!

I've put together a handy checklist that sums up these steps for you--sign up now to access, and prepare to be inspired!

SEND ME MY CHECKLIST!

*Unfamiliar with the concept of sketch notes? Then go IMMEDIATELY and read about how sketchnotes can “level up” your creative process. And read about practical ways writers can use sketchnotes. Go on, shoo! Sketchnotes will help you pay attention, organize your notes in a way that’s meaningful to you, create notes that are easy to scan for information after the fact–plus they’re plain old fun! You get to use pretty colored pens and everything :D.

Writing in 2nd-Person POV: Q & A with Authors Anna-Maria Crum and Hilari Bell

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This is a follow-up to two previous posts about stories written in second-person point of view (POV). If you want the basics on what second-person POV is or why you might want to try using this writing style, check these out:

Engage Readers: Make Them Part of Your Story
Connect With Readers–Without Breaking the Time Bank

Choice-of-Dragons-screenshot

Writing Second-Person POV–“In the Trenches” With Hilari and Anna-Maria!

Today, we’re going to dig a little deeper into how to make second-person POV work–by talking to a pair of authors who are in the midst of writing their own second-person POV project, Hilari Bell and Anna-Maria Crum.

CoGlogoHilari and Anna-Maria are currently going through the submission process with one of the foremost (in my opinion) publisher’s of choose-your-own-adventure stories/games, Choice of Games (COG). They’ve graciously agreed to talk about their experience with this company as well as what it’s been like to work on a project that’s so different in so many ways.

Since these two are so excited about their current project that they finish each others’ sentences, I don’t identify who’s speaking in their replies. They’re definitely well-practiced at working, brainstorming, and creating as a writing team!

How would you describe the writing process for a choose-your-own adventure tale, as compared to your experience writing more traditional first-person or third-person POV narratives?

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Why Transmedia Storytelling Engages Readers: Reason #2

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Transmedia storytelling—telling a single overarching story through use of multiple different media platforms—is an extremely effective way to engage readers. It’s an especially effective way to reach kids and teenagers.

Last week, we talked about one reason for its effectiveness: that is, transmedia storytelling meets young readers online, which is where they are spending more and more of their time.

“The average young American now spends practically every waking minute–except for the time in school–using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device…And because so many [young people] are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.”
T Lewin, “If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online“

However, transmedia storytelling isn’t just a matter of putting the right content in the right places. Magazine ads and television commercials have been doing this for decades. The effectiveness of transmedia storytelling lies in how it reaches young readers, as well as where it reaches them.

That “how” is the second reason transmedia storytelling is such an effective way to engage young readers: it taps into the social component of how today’s teens and preteens interact online.

Transmedia Storytelling Taps into the Social Component

Despite the increasing amounts of time spent online, today’s young people may be the most socially connected generation ever. They don’t simply watch a video or read a story or scan a web page: they’re looking for ways to share the experience with friends and followers. When their entertainment has an online component, sharing becomes that much easier.

Million Ways to Die game

Take the “Trail to Old Stump” game my boys played last week. They didn’t simply play solo: the game became a social experience. They told friends, recapped funny moments, replayed the game to show off their skill, and explained its connection to the Oregon Trail game they’d played in elementary school. They played head-to-head to see who could finish with the most surviving sheep (and party members!). One game started a cascade of social interactions, even though it was a simple flash animation, not an immersive transmedia storytelling experience.

Transmedia storytelling can provide your readers with several types of opportunities for social interactions and connections, each of which increases the story’s appeal.

Shared Experience

At its simplest level, transmedia storytelling provides an opportunity for shared experience—the same way as any good story, movie, or game. If you tell a good story, readers will want to tell their friends—discuss plot twists, speculate about what’s going to happen next, claim fave characters, etc.

For example, check out the 17th Shard, the official Brandon Sanderson Fansite, where users discuss everything from book news to typos to how a particular character survived a high storm in Words of Radiance.

 

17th-Shard

The 17th Shard also includes fan art, The Splintercast podcast, the Around the Cosmere blog, an interview database, and The Coppermind, a wiki for the magic, characters, world, and other details found in Sanderson’s books.

17th-Shard-gallery

Brandon Sanderson’s expansive fantasy world building, and the fact that all his books seem to be set in the same “cosmere,” make his works a perfect fit for this type of fan response—but this type of social interaction isn’t limited to lengthy adult sci-fi and fantasy. For instance, the More Than Magic Mirrors website is a wiki of “fantasy authors, themes, and books” created by a young adult librarian. It compiles information about authors, books, characters, and more for a wide range of children’s and young books—including Laurie Stolarz’s paranormal romance, Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Hilari Bell’s sci-fi and fantasy, and more.

MoreThanMagicMirros

Working Together

Sanderson’s novels present numerous puzzles for readers to figure out and piece together—another way transmedia storytelling can encourage social interactions. Give your readers a puzzle to solve, and they’ll brag when they discover the answer…or recruit help when they can’t. Both give your readers something to talk about, which translates into a deeper connection with the story and the story world.

Take this discussion on Reddit, where readers go WAY over my head as they explain how the map shape in The Stormlight Archives is derived from a slice of a mathematical function called the “Julia set.”

Julia-Set

 

Scholastic Publishing uses puzzles and riddles to pull readers deeper into the universe of the 39 Clues book series. Readers don’t necessarily collaborate to find the 39 clues, but they do work alongside one another via moderated message boards. The message boards provide lots of trivia that can be helpful in the hunt, as well as additional world content, Q&A opportunities, and opportunities to interact with the series’ authors.

39-Clues

 

Ways to Add Social Connections to YOUR Fiction

You don’t need to launch a full-fledged transmedia storytelling campaign to create a “social component” to your story universe. In fact, you don’t have to create that social component at all—forums, wikis, and other fan-created sites may spring up spontaneously once you reach a critical mass of fans.

But if you don’t yet have a critical mass of fans—well, don’t you think it makes sense to try to give readers opportunities to make those social connections?

I’ve been brainstorming different ways that writers can engage readers using transmedia storytelling techniques, preferably without breaking their metaphorical time banks! Here are a few of those ideas, with links to a few examples:

  • Have one of your characters Tweet occasional updates—or better yet, clues to help answer story questions or solve story puzzles
  • Create an Instagram or Tumblr feed for a fictional character, school, or business
  • Add “Easter Eggs” to your storytelling—clues, puzzles, or hints that readers can follow to a reward. That reward doesn’t have to be a traditional prize: bragging rights, or simply knowing something that most people haven’t discovered, is often reward enough.
  • Reward readers who respond to your story—feature fan fiction, fan art, fan music, etc, on your website (Anyone know of any authors who do this? It seems like a no-brainer, and yet I haven’t been able to find any examples!)

Do you have other ideas for using transmedia storytelling techniques to make your writing “more social”, or simply easier for young readers to share and discuss online? I’d love to hear them–please share thoughts, ideas, questions, and inspiration in the comments!

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Eleven Ways Writers Annoy Readers

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Writers annoy readers all the time.

Hasn’t it happened to you? You pick up a book, intrigued by its premise or cover art. You skim a few pages. And you put it back on the shelf, because something about it just doesn’t work for you. Or you bring the book home, read halfway through, and give up in disgust because the main character keeps making the same mistakes or missing the same clues or doing the same stupid things.

Or—perhaps worse—you make it through to the end of the book and, after several hundred pages of buildup, the author lets you down.

Tambako the Jaguar Photo credit

It’s easy to know when a writer annoys you, but not always so easy to avoid doing the same thing in your own writing.

Start with this checklist of sure-fire ways to irritate your audience—and avoid becoming one of those annoying writers!

Eleven Ways Writers Annoy Readers
  1. Use fancy dialog attributions: snarled, coughed, barked, growled, murmured, muttered, pestered, blathered, etc.
  2. Overuse adverbs: Use adverbs sparingly, carefully, and delicately. Strong verbs communicate more effectively—and more succinctly—than a string of modifiers.
  3. Head hop: Change point of view within a scene, so your reader is confused as to who thinks what.
  4. Wordiness: Are you writing to hear yourself speak, or do you actually have something to say? Cut the lengthy descriptions and lovely turns of phrase; aim for brevity and clarity as well as style.
  5. Preach: Unless you’re a minister, readers probably don’t want to hear your sermons. If you have a lesson to teach, be wary of the sledgehammer approach. Children and adults alike are happy to explore different points of view with your characters, but will drop a thinly-veiled morality play like a hot potato.
  6. Info dump: Maybe your readers need to know that your main character was born in Pennsylvania where she photographed deer, kissed her first boy, and discovered that he was a werewolf—but they probably don’t need to know all of that on the first page. Dole out information sparingly, always leaving your reader wanting more.
  7. Research dump: Similar to the info dump, the research dump refers specifically to the writer’s need to incorporate all the research he’s performed into the book itself. Yes, you have five hundred pages of research. No, no one else wants to know all of it. That’s why you’re the writer: you get to do the research and sort out the best pieces to share.
  8. Make your main character stupid: I’m not talking about honest-to-goodness mentally challenged characters. I’m talking about the character who makes stupid choices without good reasons. The co-ed who goes down into the dark basement to investigate the strange noises after the power goes out even though she knows there’s an escaped murderer in the neighborhood instead of, say, dialing 911. Or the character who can’t solve the mystery that your reader figured out on page 2. It’s harder to sympathize when a character when deep-down you’re pretty sure they got what they deserved.
  9. Break your promises: If you build up an event early in the story, don’t skip over it in chapter 20. Similarly, if your book promises a love story, don’t kill off the male lead halfway through. I’ve noticed that many books in which a major character dies begin by foreshadowing the event, and I think it’s for this reason. If something bad is going to happen, we want to prepare ourselves.
  10. Break your rules: Whatever genre you write, you spend a great deal of your book establishing ground rules, whether those are for characters, a magic system, or a dystopian government. If your character pulls out a longbow during the climax, you need to establish her archery skills earlier. If your wizard casts a spell to defeat the big bad guy on page 200, you need to establish that the spell exists—or at least that it could exist—in the pages preceding.
  11. Cheat the ending: When you build up an astonishing series of events, the absolute bomb to drop is “And then she woke up.” If your story resolves by the discover that it’s all been a dream, you’d darned well better prepare your reader for the possibility in advance. Another cheat ending is deus ex machina—the sort of ending when the parent swoops in to save the child or the destitute mother solves all her problems by winning the lottery. Just. Don’t.