Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – Playwriting: Five Tips for Getting Active
by Laura A. Shamas, co-founder, the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative

Often, we’re told, as playwrights, to focus on crafting dialogue, plot, character, theme, stage spectacle, conflict, and action, cast size and transformation. We’re encouraged to attend panels about creating theater in the 21st century, to join writing groups, and to read books about how to be a playwright. All of these are worthwhile endeavors. But some “out of the box” reminders may also be of value as you hone your playwriting skills.

1. Be part of the audience; think about the audience.
Playwriting is about writing for live performance. That means when you write a play, you do it to connect with a community present in a social environment/the space (either the audience, or your fellow artists, hopefully both). You get a strong sense of community by being a part of one—in the audience. At each performance, a temporary collective assembles, hoping to be entertained, provoked, challenged—to laugh, to cry, together. The audience pays to be “affected” by the theater experience, to perhaps connect through moments of shared reaction, recognition, realization, or renewal. By being in a theater audience on a regular basis, you’ll naturally become more aware of what audience anticipation/participation feels like.

2. Explore the marketplace in person.
A happy by-product of attending shows is that you will gain a sense of the current marketplace for plays. Who is producing what? What is the artistic mandate at each theater or each producing group? What demographics are you/they striving to reach? Which theater resonates with you the most and why? Seeing live theater can help you decide where to submit your plays to be considered for production. Being able to talk with theater folks specifically about what they’ve produced–and what you’ve enjoyed–will help you build a relationship with them. If possible, try to attend a production at a theater or organization before you submit a script to them, to see for yourself if it’s a good fit.

3. See a play a week. Make it a priority.
Paying for theater tickets is a wonderful way to support live theater, but if you can’t afford to buy tickets each week, consider volunteering in exchange for tickets (ushering, for example). Or ask to be put on a comp/final dress/free preview/pay-what-you-can list at your favorite venues. Too often writers are stuck behind keyboards and screens at home, longing to be part of the action. If you see a show a week, you’ll be in a theater at least 52 times a year. That helps to reminds us why we write plays in the first place—and puts you in venues where theatermakers are active. (If you live in an area where it’s impossible to see a new show each week, adapt the concept as necessary. Read a play a week, for example).

4) Diversify your approach.
Ever taken an acting class? Do you know how a box office works? Tried your hand at designing sound or stage managing a show? Have you fantasized about directing? In addition to possibly volunteering at a theater (see #3 above), think about getting involved in a theatrical discipline other than playwriting—and see how it influences your work. Cross-pollination can have a positive effect on a writer’s perspective; your “theater muscles” may grow as you become a multi-faceted artist. You’ll gain a richer understanding of how different technical aspects of theater intersect and support a common artistic vision in good productions. And maybe you’ll even want to pursue working in another theatrical discipline, too, which can enhance and diversify your overall marketability as a theater artist.

5. Produce yourself.
There was a time when those two words (“produce yourself”!) could strike fear into the hearts of emerging playwrights, who dreaded being forever branded with a “vanity” production listed on the résumé. But no more. These days, times are hard; theaters have cut their budgets, and production slots are difficult to get. Carpe amphitheatrum! The Dramatists Guild endorses self-production. As DG Executive Director of Creative Affairs, Gary Garrison writes in The Dramatist, July/August 2008, about the theater scene in Seattle: “What was extraordinary … was the almost instant call—by representatives of three large theatres … for playwrights to stop focusing on something that’s probably not going to happen for a variety of predominantly economic reasons, and instead to channel that passion and energy to either co-producing … or self-producing” (p. 36). Playwrights learn the most from seeing their works onstage, so give it a try. You can join an active theater group, start your own new theater with friends, originate a unique festival with a theme, or just produce one show, one time. You can learn more about the business of playwriting through producing; for additional tips on playwriting and financial arrangements, please visit: http://www.dramatistsguild.com/billofrights/. There’s a lot to learn about producing, but if you don a producer’s hat to mount your own show, you will get to see it up in front of a crowd, and how they react–the ultimate purpose of playwriting … Which brings us back to where we started: the audience.

The biggest mistake playwrights can make today is to stay at home, passively hoping for something to happen. Instead, step away from the computer and get active in your local theater scene. Find your audience; share your vision. Do something.

Laura Shamas is co-founders of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative. In September, LA FPI is running a survey about Los Angeles playwrights and productions in L.A. from 2000-2009. Deadline: September 30, 2010. Please spread the word: http://lafpi.com/about/the-study/

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – The Ten Commandments of Writing Book Reviews by Mayra Calvani, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing

1. Thou shall have no other gods before the reader. The review is not about the author, nor the publisher, and especially, not about you, the reviewer. Reviews are all about the reader. Don’t try to impress with pompous words in an attempt to glorify yourself or appear scholarly. Give readers simplicity and clarity. They’ll appreciate it. If they want verbose and fancy, they can read Shakespeare.

2. Thou shall not lie. Honesty is what defines your trade. Without it, you’re doing nothing but selling copy. When you give facile praise or sugar-coat a book, sooner or later readers will take you for what you are: a phony. Furthermore, if you give facile praise to a poorly written book, you are perpetuating a bad writer’s career, lowering the chances that a good writer may be published instead.

3. Thou shall not offend the author. Just as honesty is important, so is tact. There’s no need to be harsh or mean. A tactfully written, well-meant negative review should offer the author insight into what is wrong with the book. Instead of saying, “This is a terrible novel!” say, “This book didn’t work for me for the following reasons…”

4. Thou shall not eat the evaluation. Some fledgling reviewers write a long blurb of the book and leave out the evaluation. The evaluation is the most important part of a review. A summary of the plot is not an evaluation. Saying, “I really liked this book” is not an evaluation. The evaluation tells the reader what is good and bad about the book, and whether or not it is worth buying.

5. Thou shall not reveal spoilers. Nobody likes to be told the ending of a movie before having watched it. The same thing is valid for a book. If you give spoilers in your review, not only do you lessen the reader’s reading experience but you also risk being sued by the publisher or author.

6. Thou shall honor grammar, syntax, and punctuation. Don’t be one of those reviewers who are more in love with the idea of seeing their name online than making sure their reviews are well-written and thorough. Your reviews may hang around on the internet for years to come and will reflect on your level as a writer. Run a spell check, edit, revise, and polish your review, as if you were posting a short story. Get a good book on grammar, and punctuation, take an online course or listen regularly to podcasts such as The Grammar Girl.

7. Thou shall honor deadlines. If you join a review site where the turnaround for reviews is 3 weeks, then you should respect that agreement. If you promise the author to have the review ready in two months, you should honor this too. Be honest and straight forward from the beginning. If you’re so busy your turnaround is six months, make sure to let the person know. If for any reasons you cannot meet the deadline, contact the person and let him know. It’s your responsibility to maintain a do-able schedule.

8. Thou shall not be prejudiced against thy neighbor. Don’t assume that a self-published or small press book is poorly written. Give it a fair chance and let it speak for itself. Likewise, never assume a book published by a major NY house has to be good. You’d be surprised by the high quality of some small press books by unknown authors, as opposed to those written by big name authors whose titles are often in the bestseller lists. In general, most subsidy books are mediocre, but there are always exceptions. If you’ve had bad experiences with subsidy books, then don’t request them nor accept them for review. If you decide to review one, though, don’t be biased and give it a fair chance.

9. Thou shall not become an RC addict. RC stands for Review Copy. Requesting RCs can get out of control. In fact, it can become addictive. You should be realistic about how many books you can review. If you don’t, pretty soon you’ll be drowning in more RCs than you can handle. When this happens, reading and reviewing can change from a fun, pleasurable experience into a stressful one. If you’re feeling frazzled because you have a tower of books waiting to be reviewed, learn to say NO when someone approaches you for a review and stop requesting RCs for a while. Unless you’re being paid as a staff reviewer for a newspaper or magazine, reviewing shouldn’t get in the way of your daily life.

10. Thou shall not steal. Remember that the books you request are being sent to you in exchange for a review. Requesting review copies and not writing the reviews is in one word: stealing. You’d be surprised at the number of “reviewers” who, after having requested several books, suddenly “disappear.” These people are not legitimate; they’re crooks, plain and simple. If you have a valid reason for not reviewing a book, let the review site editor, author, publisher, or publicist know. The same goes for piracy. “Reviewers” who request ebooks and later offer them as downloads from their sites are thieves. Integrity is part of the code of honor of a legitimate reviewer.

Mayra Calvani is a multi-genre author of 12 books for children and adults. A reviewer for more than a decade, she’s a regular contributor to Blogcritics Magazine and the Latino Books Examiner for Examiner.com. She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, the CBI Clubhouse, and the Children’s Writers Coaching Club. Calvani’s non-fiction book—The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing—was a ForeWord Best Book of the Year Award winner, and it’s required reading at four universities. Learn more about Mayra Calvani at www.MayrasSecretBookcase.com and www.MayraCalvani.com or read the Write On Q&A!.

Download for free the following ebook: Literary Sampler, a Potpourri of Stories and First Chapters, from Twilight Times Books.

Mayra Calvani and Write On! Online are part of the VBT – Writers On the Move Blog Tour. Please check out the VBT Website for more exciting author interviews and expert columns!

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – The Agent/Client Relationship
by author Michele Wallerstein,
MIND YOUR BUSINESS: A Hollywood Literary Agent’s Guide To Your Writing Career

It’s always been interesting to me to see the variants in the agent/client relationship. Naturally, in the beginning a new writer wants desperately to get an agent.

Transversely, agents really want to sign writers who have already sold and have a great reputation. To overcome this crevasse is both difficult and tricky. The entertainment business is, however, business and the same laws apply as they do in any business. This means the law of supply and demand. You supply agents with great scripts and there will be a great demand for them.

Getting an Agent
First of all, you need to be where the action is. If you can’t live in Los Angeles or New York, then you must go to every Film Festival, writer’s workshop, writer’s conference etc. that you possibly can. Once you are there, please, please remember that everyone you meet is a “contact.” You must follow up with these people, particularly agents, producers, development executives, and even other writers. That means sending thank you notes, query letters, emails about your new project ideas, and any other reason you can think of to re-connect with these folks. This is your door. Go through it.

Another great way to be considered is via referrals. Whether it’s by another writer, friend, writing teacher, or consultant, you have to push for those referrals. Promise your first born if necessary, but get someone to make a call on your behalf. We always look at referrals before anything else.

All of the above is only valid if your manuscript is wonderful. Make sure that your story is solid, your characters are real and believable, your plot interesting and don’t forget that grammar and spelling still counts.

Once an agent reads your work and likes it, here comes the first meeting. It’s a doozy because you only get one chance to connect to this person. Be sure you get there early, dress cleanly, listen well and share things about yourself and your work. If you don’t speak, you won’t be remembered.

You Have an Agent … Now What?
Only you can make him/her a really good agent for you. You need to be constantly coming up with new story ideas and new scripts. It is not your job to come up with producers or studios that you think will like your film. The agent knows this better than you do. If you keep supplying your agent with terrific new material, then you may call him/her once a week. Preferably call them on Monday, which will give them a week to put more energy into you and your work. Always be prepared to pitch new ideas if your agent gets spur of the moment meetings for you.

The worst thing you can do vis a vis your relationship is to be defensive and belligerent. No one wants to take the call of a pain in the ass. Whining is also up there in the top 10 of things not to do. Lots of product and a positive and professional attitude are your greatest assets.

Additionally, and this is important, it wouldn’t kill you to occasionally take your agent to lunch, buy them a birthday and/or Christmas gift, and inquire about their life and health.

Keeping or Changing Your Agent
Well, now everything has gone well for a year or two, perhaps you’ve sold a script, been hired for a re-write or two, had lots of meetings and made more good, solid contacts via your agent. You agent seems to like you and believe in you and your work. But, people start to tell you about a better agent or a bigger agency or that your last deal wasn’t big enough. This begins to nag at you. It becomes more and more difficult to stand up for your agent. Maybe they didn’t return your last call in a timely way, or they didn’t like your last two scripts or you didn’t get read by the President of a studio. Stop and think. Try to be fair in your judgment. Ask yourself these very important questions before you fire that agent to go elsewhere:

1. How good were your last two scripts? Where they really marketable, well written and competitive?

2. Have you been calling the agent every day or two? Are you hounding them without a good reason?

3. Do you easily give in to peer pressure?

Remember the golden rule of the agent/client relationship: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Over the years I’ve witnessed so many writers shoot themselves in the foot by leaving good agents who believed in them.

When you change agents, your writing career is put on hold for quite a long time. Invariably you will lose good connections with people who like your agent and don’t like that you’ve fired them, or there is a long lag between firing your agent and signing up with the new agency where you have to meet with everyone there, push to see that they all read your work (which they won’t), try to figure out who your real contact is and make sure that the assistants like you too. All of this can take months. If there is ‘heat’ on you, any time lost will never be regained and you will fall off of the hot list.

The new Agency will have wined and dined you because you have already made money and they want the ‘easy’ sales. You become one more on their never ending list of clients, and agents are people who have their favorites.

Another essential before changing agents is to see if there is a problem in your career that lies within you. This is of paramount importance. Ask yourself if you are pitching the same (or similar) old ideas, have you given your agent a new and excellent screenplay. Without ammunition, an agent can not do the impossible. Be very sure to take responsibility for your actions.

Don’t react to outside pressure. The loss to you and your career can not be regained. As in any other relationship, try your best to make this one work. Have a meeting with your agent to discuss any concerns you might have. Listen to what they say.

As long as your agent has been honest with you, worked on your material, responded to your calls and made the best deals they can for you, then stay where you are and put your time, energy, and concentration into your writing.

Michele Wallerstein was a literary agent for 25 years and currently works as a screenplay, novel, and career consultant. She is the author of MIND YOUR BUSINESS: A Hollywood Literary Agent’s Guide To Your Writing Career (Michael Wiese Productions). She will be having a book signing and Q & A at the Bookstar, 12136 Ventura Blvd, in Studio City on August 7th at 3pm.

Become a Fan of Michael Wiese Productions on Facebook.

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – Writing and Publishing a Cookbook
by Laura Trice, M.D., author of The Wholesome Junk Food Cookbook

The Wholesome Junk Food Cookbook: More Than 100 Healthy Recipes for Everyday Snacking was  labor of love for Dr. Laura Trice. It began in June of 2008, when an agent asked her if she wanted to write it, and was released May 11, 2010 through Running Press. She shares her insight into the aspects of writing a cookbook: the production of a quality book and the process of actually selling it.

The Creative Process

The Truth About Photos:
1. Photos are expensive for publishers to print. There are the well-known authors where every other page is a gorgeous photo. These are often printed overseas. Photo inserts are also beautiful and printed domestically, but cost less, because there is not written print on the back side of the page.

2. Photos are often what sell cookbooks. Even though you do not have to, participating in the photo shoot as an author (and even if you have to pay all your own way—like I did) is worthwhile, because others will interpret your recipe differently.  It was great to be hands on.

Testing Recipes:
3. Passively watch several friends shop for and make 2 or 3 recipes without saying a word or giving them any hints or tips.  I realized I had to change some of my recipes to include more precise language.  It was an eye opener to observe someone following my cookbook and realize I had left out some information I considered understood.  Clearly communicate how to make each recipe, so that each person feels successful after making the recipe.

4. Make your recipes, even if you think a modification will not change anythings  Baking and cooking sometimes have a mind of their own, and each change is like modifying a chemistry experiment.

Writing & Editing:
5. Imagine sharing your joy of food, as you write your head-notes and introduction. My purpose was to share that great tasting desserts and snacks can be guilt-free and also, fun, easy and simple. Match your writing tone to your food.

6. Be professional. There is a team at the publishing house of editors, copy editors, art directors, book designers, photographers, public relations experts, food stylists, and marketing directors.  They publish books every day and end up making the final decisions about your book.  Keep your deadlines or ask for extra time before your deadline—not on that day or after.  They need you to be reliable, since their team has timelines, as well.  If possible, meet them in person.  My book looks as gorgeous as it does due to them, not me.  I wrote the words, they made it a cookbook available in Borders, Barnes and Noble, and on Amazon.

7. Communicate assertively, honestly, and openly with your publishing team, but also understand that publishing is their business and writing is yours. My editors feedback sometimes felt uncomfortable or I disagreed with a team-decision.  I would respectfully state how I felt about something and sometimes even tried to make my point a second time. Yet, I deferred to their expertise as long as it did not go against the message of the cookbook.

Selling Your Cookbook

8. It really is up to you to sell your cookbook, as it is up to me to sell mine.  My publisher has been excellent about setting up radio and print promotions.  Many book stores have media contacts—offer to help schedule and promote the signings. I hired a family member to schedule book signings and also help with radio interviews.

9. Make the book signings fun. Because my cookbook has easy desserts, I bring treats from the cookbook.  I also have a person to help me at the book signings, so I am free to be present for the audience.

10. Utilize online promotion—most of it is free.  Find out who is talking about your type of cookbook, and start getting the word out 4 to 6 weeks before your book comes out.  There are blogs, reviewers, and your friends and family who can talk up the cookbook to their friends.  Create your own cookbook page online with links to where your book is available.  Create a fan page on Facebook, and ask your friends to sign up and talk about what your area of expertise.  Become familiar with your Amazon page and add photos. Also, look at more successful authors pages to see what you can do. Good luck!

Dr. Laura Trice is the founder of Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food, based in Venice, California. For more information, visit her website.

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – From Writer to Tweeter
by Jeanne Veillette Bowerman, co-founder of Scriptchat

The first time I heard the word “Twitter,” I recoiled. What is a tweet? Who has time to tweet? Why would a serious writer ever participate in such nonsense? I had to jump in and find out.

Simply put, Twitter is a worldwide network at your fingertips. We writers are often quarantined, hunkering down in cluttered home offices, strumming away on our keyboards, not seeing another human, or a shower, for days. Twitter brings a support system right to your computer screen. Luckily, they can’t see your dirty hair.

With a few guidelines, you can develop a community of talented, helpful writers to nurture you and your craft.

Do’s and Don’ts:

1. Be creative in your bio. Don’t simply put “writer.” Show your layers. When choosing someone to follow, most people decide based on the bio. If it’s boring, they’ll assume you are too. Make it shine.

2. Interact with people, including the professionals. Pretend you’re at a cocktail party with conversations going on around you. Join in, but be real. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t. They’ll sniff it out. I know a few writers who have acquired agents this way.

3. Pimp your fellow writer, meaning tell your followers about them. Read their blog. Comment. Tweet it out. If we won’t support each other, who will? I promise, acts of kindness come back tenfold.

4. Have a website or blog linked to your profile to show your voice beyond 140 characters. Blogs are easy and free.

5. Tweet helpful advice, articles, and websites. Be there for your fellow writer. Offer to read their work and provide feedback with encouragement. Let’s be honest: often our own families can’t supply that.

6. Follow agents, editors, and publishers, and attend their chats. They post valuable tips throughout the day. Seeing an agent’s personality allows us to find a better fit for our own. It’s easier to query an agent you’ve seen as a person, not just a gatekeeper. Priceless.

7. If you have something to promote, tweet it at different times of day to catch more people online. Some people have the luxury of watching their Twitter accounts from their day job, but others don’t.

8. Show your personality, not just your projects. People want to work with someone they like and followers become friends. One day, I blogged about my friend’s death, and Best Selling thriller author, J.T. Ellison, stumbled upon it.  As a thank you, she mailed the first three novels in her series. We became fast friends. Since then, we’ve even met in person at a conference.  You never know who is reading your tweets. Be brave and real.

9. View Twitter as a part-time job. Dedicate one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to start your following. Be patient. It takes time to create a network. You get out what you put in.

10. Join Twitter writer chats. These chats are the quickest way to meet writers, talk craft and learn.  Each chat occurs at a specific day and time. Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s site has a complete list: http://www.inkygirl.com/twitter-chats-for-writers/.

Once you’re comfortable, you can branch out into new territory. For example, one day while in a writers’ chat, some friends and I realized there was no Twitter chat for screenwriters. Within five minutes, Jamie Livingston, Zac Sanford, Kim Garland, Mina Zaher, and I (@jeannevb) created Scriptchat. Every Sunday, we meet online to discuss a specific topic with screenwriters all over the world. We laugh, we learn, and we drink tequila … all with no ego.  What started as a simple idea by five friends has grown to 400 screenwriters talking craft and eagerly anticipating the next session. The possibilities on Twitter are endless.

The writer’s quarantine of solitude is lifted. Twitter is the new water cooler.

Follow me on Twitter and stop in our Social Media for Writers’ blog for more Twitter tips.

* * *

Twitter 101:

Tweet: A tweet is similar to a text message. The character limitation has challenges, but it’s a lesson for writers in editing. Be effective in fewer words.

Conversations: To “talk” to someone, put an @ symbol in front of their username. The tweet will go automatically into their column of “mentions,” where they can easily respond.

RT: An “RT” denotes the tweet is “retweeted” from something already sent out. Always give credit to the original person.

Trending Topics and Hashtags: A # sign in front of a word or series of words denotes a searchable topic. When a topic becomes popular, it becomes a “trending topic.”

Twitter Chats: These are organized chats at specific times. A site to easily participate in chats is www.tweetchat.com.

Who to follow: Use Facebook to follow your old friends and Twitter to follow writers and industry professionals. Go to www.wefollow.com to find lists.

FollowFriday: On Fridays, people recommend others to follow.

Jeanne Veillette Bowerman writes freelance articles and scripts, and is working on her first novel. Jeanne will choose the winners in the Teleplay category of the Write On! Online June Query Contest – Screenplays and Teleplays. Deadline is June 30, 2010.

On this Sunday’s Twitter Scriptchat, The Great American PitchFest organizers, Signe Olynyk and Bob Schultz, will be the special guests! The GAPF is an annual event where screenwriters meet with producers, agents, development executives, managers and other industry professionals to pitch their TV show and movie scripts.  It’s like “speed dating” for writers. This year’s event is June 26th and 27th at the Marriott Burbank Hotel and Convention Center. Saturday consists of free screenwriting classes from StoryLink.com, and Sunday is the big pitching event.  To participate in Sunday’s chat, please visit the Scriptchat site for instructions: www.scriptchat.com.

Stop by The Writers Store Facebook Page and become a fan (aka “Like” it) and be entered in the “Fans with Benefits” drawing for Bronze passes to The Great American Pitchfest 7.

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts –
10 Simple Steps to Market Your Book BEFORE It’s Published
by Debra Gendel and Elle Saling, d+e media

Before you finish writing a book it’s critical to lay the groundwork for attracting an audience. Having a marketing strategy in place shows agents and publishers that you’ve done your homework and are passionate about selling your book.

Since you’re a storyteller anyway, making yourself a compelling figure shouldn’t be too hard. The hard part for some writers is putting on their extrovert hats. Here are some painless steps to getting yourself—and your work—out there.

1. BRAND YOURSELF: Long before she wrote Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert was known for her gutsy single-girl journalism, which helped to sell her book proposal. Who are you? From Disney to Apple, consumers are drawn to what they know and trust. The same is true for authors. What you think, what you know, what you’ve lived through and what you believe shape your brand, which in turn helps define you for the market.

2. CREATE A PRESS KIT: Once you’ve determined your story, it’s time to put it together in a package to show the world. This includes a professionally shot author photo (which captures your brand through environment, wardrobe, expression); a short bio (a paragraph describing you and your accomplishments); a long bio (the extended version with more detail) and a synopsis of your book. Compile the elements in electronic and printed form.

3. CREATE A FACEBOOK FANPAGE: Unlike your personal Facebook page, a Facebook Fan Page is specifically designed for marketing. The title of the book can be the name of the page. Mock up a cover design if you don’t yet have one. Post a 3-line book synopsis under the book jacket image. Scan the news for stories, videos, and images that interest your potential readers. The goal is to amass as many people as possible to “like” your site so when your book is published you can use the site to publicize events and email fans.

4. LAUNCH A TWITTER ACCOUNT: The literary community on Twitter is enormous. It figures that writers, publishers, and agents love any opportunity to chat about books, right? Author Jennifer Weiner is a masterful Tweeter who entertains her 11,000+ followers with biting 140-character observations of the candidates on The Bachelorette and very few mentions of her books. Monitor veteran Tweeters until you get a sense of Twitter-worth topics and the rules of the Twitter game.

5. BLOG: Go to wordpress.com or blogger.com and find a template that suits you. It’s free and extremely easy—even for the technically challenged. Write something thought-provoking, newsy, or entertaining at least three times a week. Find other writers blogging in your wheelhouse via Technorati or Google, and list them in your Blogroll. Visit these sites regularly to get the vibe of the places, then dive in and comment or share info.

6. GUEST BLOG: Once you’ve created a blog, established your online personality, and interacted with other bloggers in your genre, you might be asked to fill in for the host with a guest blog. Say yes! This will expose you and your work to a brand-new set of followers.

7. SET UP A PROFILE AT RED ROOM: Redroom.com is a writers’ forum, a place to meet other authors and people in the publishing community. Unpublished authors can sign up for free. This is where you’ll need to have a Jpeg of your portrait. Authors can also post articles, blogs, and bios, as well as contribute essays on specially chosen topics each week.

8. WRITE FOR ONLINE MAGAZINES: There are a number of online publications where content is always in demand: Salon’s “Open” community, the Huffington Post, and More magazine, to name a few. Pitch a publication that best suits your brand. Online publications usually post their submission info on the Contact Us page.

9. GUEST ON BLOG TALK RADIO: Just like broadcast radio, Blog Talk Radio has hundreds of hosts looking for subjects. There are stations dedicated solely to publishing or you can search the site for shows that specialize in your genre. It’s an easy way to gain media training and you can post the podcast on your blog.

10. LINK, LINK, LINK: Once you’ve gotten yourself set up and established on all the platforms above, the next step is link your platforms to every place possible. The Internet is one huge spider web, so the larger your spider web grows with connections, the more readers you will attract.

Be patient.  Building an audience can be a slow process.  But eventually you’ll find readers. And isn’t that the point of writing?

d+e media: Debra Gendel, a former Los Angeles Times writer and editor, and Elle Saling, a veteran Internet marketing executive, use their complementary media skills to raise the profiles of authors, independent publishers, and non-profits. Debra has a master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from USC and Elle is a graduate of the UCLA Graduate School of Management Executive Program. Contact them at info@dplusemedia.com.

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts –
Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Writing a TV Spec
by Ross Brown

1. KNOW YOUR SHOW INSIDE AND OUT
Step One to writing a great spec is doing your homework. Watch every episode of your series. Rent DVDs, record new episodes and take notes. How many acts is your show? Two? Three? Six? Do they typically have one storyline per episode or three? Your spec must duplicate the conventions of your series—while still bringing fresh storylines and situations to it.

Step Two, go online and find scripts. Note the proper spelling of each character’s name and the names of their sets. Do they call it INT. MORGUE or INT. AUTOPSY LAB? On The Office, do they use the slugline INTERVIEW – MICHAEL or TALKING HEAD – MICHAEL?

2. MAKE YOUR STORY MEMORABLE
Agents, showrunners, and executives read brain-numbing sludge piles of specs—hundreds of 30 Rocks, thousands of CSIs, a trillion specs of The Simpsons and South Park.  Your story—especially your logline—must grab their attention and stick firmly in their mind. Don’t write a “typical” premise—write one that would generate water cooler buzz the next day.

3. WRITE A GREAT EPISODE, NOT AN OKAY ONE
If the high point of your spec for The Office is Michael saying “that’s what she said” or the stage direction “Dwight smiles creepily at the camera”, then all you’ve done is imitate the show, not write a spec. Duplicating an average episode is never enough. You have to wow people, make them leap up and say, “This is a GREAT episode of X.”

4. DIG DEEP WITHIN THE CHARACTERS
One of the best ways to make your spec shine is to explore a character in a new or deeper way. You can’t change the character—but you can present them with fresh challenges that reveal unexpected but believable character traits. The Cheers spec that landed me an agent and my first staff job had a woman come into the bar and say Sam was the father of her six-year-old son (a memorable premise, btw). Rather than denying it or paying her off, Sam decides he loves the notion of molding a son in his own image. Unfortunately, the woman only wants money and refuses to let Sam become a regular part of the boy’s life. Though Sam insists he has rights, she says he can’t prove the boy is his (this was pre-DNA testing.)  Sam must say a difficult good-bye and let the boy go. A new emotional side of womanizer Sam Malone—but a believable one.

5. YOU CAN’T REMAKE THE SHOW
Being a bold, creative person, you might ask, “Wouldn’t it be great if CSI was totally different one week—say about their personal lives instead of solving a crime?” No, it wouldn’t be great, it would mean instant rejection. A spec must demonstrate you understand the show and can write within its framework.

6. THE SERIES MUST HAVE A FUTURE
Once a series is canceled, all spec scripts for it are officially yesterday’s tuna. Using a canceled series as a writing sample is like putting big bold print on the cover page that reads I HAVEN’T WRITTEN ANYTHING NEW IN A WHILE. Even if you love a show, don’t write a spec for it unless it’s still going strong in the ratings.

7. DON’T SEND IT OUT UNTIL IT’S READY
Writing is lonely. We all want praise—now. But there’s nothing worse than giving someone a script only to realize a day or two later there are typos, jokes that could be improved, and it needs a new subplot. Actually, there is one thing worse: calling the agent who agreed to read your script and saying, “Don’t bother with that one, it’s bad. I’m sending you a new draft.” She will never read it, I promise.

8. AVOID SERIES THAT ARE HEAVILY SERIALIZED
Most shows these days have at least some serialized elements. But trying to jump onto the moving train that is their serialized story is a death leap. The show will inevitably move beyond your story idea before you can finish writing your spec. Within months, your story will seem stale and dated. Find a “stand-alone”, non-serialized premise for your spec.

9. AVOID MAJOR MISTAKES
Making the story about the guest star instead of the regulars. Killing off a series regular. Cliched, overdone premises like the trapped in the office/elevator/mountain cabin episode. Never number your scenes—that’s a production draft, not a writer’s draft, and it makes you look amateurish, not professional. Same goes for putting the show’s logo or artwork on the cover—don’t do it, no matter how cool you think it looks.

10. ONE SPEC IS NEVER ENOUGH
Always have more than one spec to show. Maybe you’ve got a great procedural, but the producer whose life you just saved by pulling him out of a flaming car wreck is doing a family drama. Or you’ve got a killer 30 Rock, but the agent who owes your cousin a favor says she’s tired of that show. You’ve got to be able to say, “No problem, I also have a great Modern Family and a brand new Big Bang Theory.  Which one can I send you?”

Ross Brown has written and produced more than 300 episodes of network television and has created series for ABC, CBS and the WB. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University where he teaches TV writing and production. Ross Brown is the author of a new book, Byte Sized TV: Create Your Own TV Series for the Internet, published by Michael Wiese Productions, to be released February 2011.

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – Write for Recovery
by Diane Sherry Case

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I have been utterly exhausted,
when I’ve felt my soul as thin as a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth enduring
for another five minutes… and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.”
- Joyce Carol Oates, Paris Review article

There is a long tradition of using art to facilitate growth and healing. Personal and intimate writing, sometimes in the form of diary or autobiography, has been used as a means of introspection, coping, and spiritual growth throughout history from St. Augustine to Anne Frank to Alan Ginsburg.

More recently, journaling has been a popular tool to gain insight into oneself and clear the mind. It can be as simple as ridding oneself of emotional garbage, clearing away our most obvious “stuff’, thereby allowing access to the thoughts and feelings below it.

Traditional writing therapy is an expressive therapy that generally consists of processing traumatic events by writing about them, much the same talk therapy works. Writing therapy as a means to process trauma has been proven not only to improve psychological well-being, but to improve the immune system, as well.

Write for Recovery is somewhat different than traditional writing therapy, in that creating a playful creative flow is just as important as delving deep into the psyche. Specific exercises are designed to overcome grief, loss, and trauma, not only by writing about the events, but by awakening coping mechanisms and symbolic resources; metaphors for self-soothing, for example. Writing is used as a way to make friends with fear, anger, and grief, and deal creatively with change, transition, and goals. Among the goals is to awaken our creative spirit and partake in the joys of living.

This kind of writing is served best by using exercises designed to bypass the intellect and get straight to the unconscious and/or the emotions. The resulting creative flow pours effortlessly onto the paper (and into your life.) You are surprised by what you’ve written. Strengths you never knew you had show up. Questions are often answered, even questions the writer was not aware of until sitting down to write.

Write for Recovery includes using different forms of private writing or journaling. Dumping can get boring. How about writing your journal in the third person, for example?

When people share what they have written, a deeper form of communication is initiated and isolation is diminished. The facilitator can also then design exercises appropriate to where the client is at and what their goals are for the session.

Writing of any kind can serve to heal wounds, express hope, and learn more about the self. Finding our words can help us to find our center, keep current in our emotions, and explore our relationships to other people and to the world. If we are ready or interested, writing can help in the search for meaning and purpose in our lives.

Last but not least, writing is fun and uplifting! If you don’t believe me, try this writing exercise:

I’D LIKE TO GIVE MY FATHER A CLOUD
1. Pen in hand, scribble a little so it won’t be a blank page. Now, think of someone you love or have loved, someone you would like to give a gift. You may give them anything from nature: a cloud, snow, a mountain, a tree.

2. Describe your gift, writing as quickly as you can. Forget about spelling, grammar, sentences. Forget about thinking, just write.

3. As you write, you might want to draw your gift, or spend time with closed eyes, (or maybe look out the window!) so that you can envision it in detail.

4. If you get stuck, just write the last sentence over and over until the next sentence comes up. It will!

5. Write about why you treasure this piece of nature, why you want to give this gift to this person.

6. Now write about the experience of giving your gift. Is it difficult? Joyous?

Diane Sherry Case has an MFA in creative writing.  Her short stories have been anthologized, made into films, and performed in various venues. She has taught incarcerated teens, prep school girls, adults in rehab and the elderly. She teaches Write for Recovery both privately and in groups. Visit her at WriteForRecovery.com.

Copyright 2010 Diane Sherry Case

Moving Write Along: Advice from the Experts – Writing Exercises
by Bob Yehling, The Write Time: 366 Exercises to Fulfill Your Writing Life

Almost every morning, I work out for 20 to 30 minutes before starting another busy day. However, these workouts are different than my marathon training and fitness regimen. I open my journal, find a writing exercise that I haven’t tried before, and set out on a new adventure. I voyage into another new way of putting words together, observing my surroundings and expressing the inner urgings of my deepest voice. Sometimes, I even enter new worlds. Even though I’ve been writing professionally for 33 years, I never tire of the morning ritual. At this point, it would feel like a naked day without it.

I swear by writing exercises. I’m so convinced of their effectiveness and contribution to a writer’s success that I create new exercises for every workshop that I teach—specific to the energy and talent of the group. Recently at the Southern California Writer’s Conference in San Diego, I taught a workshop on cross-genre writing, the marrying of two or more genres within a single body of work. It is the subject of a book, The Hybrid Writer, I am co-authoring with fellow author Verna Dreisbach. In the middle of the workshop, a four-part exercise came to me: write 200 words in your favorite genre; then write 200 words on that subject in a genre you’ve always wanted to explore; then write 200 words in a genre from which you’ve shied away in past; then try to blend the genres to create a finished piece.

While the intent was for participants to practice working in different genres, many experienced something I hadn’t considered: Using the other genres to look at the piece they wanted to write in different ways, from different angles. Some even switched genres on works in progress because of this 40-minute exercise.

This is why writing exercises are so effective for writers of all abilities— from teens exploring the written word to the most crafty and well-published professionals. Among other things, writing is about breaking down barriers of style, structure, and perception to create fresh new ways of communicating the inner or outer world. That takes practice; practice leads to diversity. “The ways of employing words and forming expressions are indeed infinitely varied,” Chinese philosopher Lu Chi wrote 1,700 years ago in his seminal essay, “Wen Fu: The Art of Writing.”

All of us have our favorite genres or styles, but writing exercises expand our scope and versatility. Every time we complete an exercise, we expand our range as working writers. When we do this regularly, we begin to engage in a form of practice familiar to musicians, martial artists, and  visual and performing artists. Our command of our mind grows, as does our discipline to write. Most importantly, we gain the confidence to try something new in our work, to see a character or scene from a different perspective, to break some structure we learned in high school grammar class. We better convey the feeling of the moment—a feeling readers will then experience, rendering them incapable of putting down your piece of writing. This approach leads to a mastery of writing: the ability to write about any subject, at any time, through any character’s voice, in any point of view, using precise word choices, point of view, genre, structure, and languaging that the moment requires and reflects.

Writing exercises can hand you these keys to mastery. Consider this: when you are given exercises created by a workshop instructor, author of an exercise book, or website you visited, you are receiving a nugget formed through years of direct writing experience. The process of an exercise’s creation is similar in some ways to poetry: Countless words, works, and experiences are concentrated into a single paragraph or prompt. Well-crafted exercises not only give you instruction, but also invite you to explore further. They take you by the hand, one day after another, and say, “Let’s go. Time to meet a little more of the best of yourself.”

For writers seeking to expand their range, create more deeply and readily and polish their craft, exercises are more than diamonds in the rough. They are the diamonds themselves.

Bob Yehling is the managing editor of The Hummingbird Review: America’s Newest Literary Anthology and author of The Write Time: 366 Exercises to Fulfill Your Writing Life, available through Pen & Publish. His Write Time Writing Contest, based on exercises in the book, continues through May 1 and features $500 in prizes. Go to www.wordjourneys.com for more information.

Increasing Your Blog’s Readership
by Linda Fulkerson, The Ultimate Guide to Blogging Well

The number-one question I get asked as a blog coach is “How do I get people to come to my blog?” Blog traffic streams flow from three areas: offline, on-site, and off-site. There are a lot of quick and easy tactics bloggers can employ to increase blog traffic from all three.

Offline Promotion
Offline ways to increase blog traffic include speaking engagements, networking at conferences, print articles and interviews, passing out business cards and brochures, or even placing a banner on your car. Because many offline methods are expensive and time-consuming, most bloggers choose to promote their sites online.

Online/Off-site Promotion
When planning your website traffic strategy, look beyond the borders of your blog and develop off-site “outposts.” One of the best free ways to stream blog traffic is through article marketing. Writing and submitting articles to directories not only brings awareness and backlinks to your blog, it sets you apart as an authority in your niche and strengthens your personal brand.

An easy-to-establish outpost is your email signature. By personalizing your email signature with free tools such as WiseStamp, you can include links to your social media profiles in every email you send. Commenting on other blogs is a great way to connect with like-minded bloggers and may even land you some guest post offers.

Don’t forget to promote your posts, guest or otherwise, through social media outposts. Social media can be overwhelming, but at the very least, I suggest that bloggers set up a Facebook fan page and stay active on Twitter. There are ways to use both tools effectively without taking up a ton of your time. (Read: “Taming the Twitter Beast in 20 Minutes a Day.”)

Video is huge in the blogosphere these days. YouTube is quite possibly the fastest growing content site, with more and more content being added daily, and it is only one of several dozen online video-sharing sites. Other outposts to consider are podcasting directories, (such as iTunes), presentation-sharing sites, and the ever-popular image-sharing platform, Flickr.

Online/On-site Promotion
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to receiving traffic from search engines. Many bloggers, especially new ones, believe there is some big mystery to optimizing posts, but it’s much easier than you might think. By doing simple tasks, such as effective use of anchor text, internal linking (called “Deep Linking”), including alternative text in image attributes, and using keyword-rich permalinks, bloggers can notice a quick increase in the search engine results pages for the keywords and phrases they’ve optimized posts for.

The better search rankings your post has, the more organic traffic you’ll receive. I offer SEO tips every Saturday at OnBloggingWell.com, and there are even more tips and tactics on SEO (and a variety of other subjects) in my eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Blogging Well.

Getting Repeat Readers
There are literally countless ways to drive traffic to your blog, but if you don’t have something of value to offer those who stop by, they won’t return, so an important question for bloggers to ask is, “How do I get readers to come back to my blog?”

Think of the StumbleUpon user with the itchy trigger finger, daring bloggers to give him a reason to click the Stumble button. The average Stumbler spends 8 seconds on a website. That may seem like an eternity for a bull rider, but for bloggers hoping to help their bounce rate, it’s a challenge we need to tackle.

So, how do bloggers hook return readers? Headlines are the most essential factor in grabbing a visitor’s attention, followed closely by site design, but the number one way to reel them in and keep them is by creating compelling content.

If you just heaved a heavy “I already knew that!” sigh, don’t worry. Most of us know what to do to build a blog readership, but we don’t always know how to do it. I’ve just begun a “Blog Blossoms” newsletter to help you jump start your creativity and develop stunning posts. You can sign up to receive a free blog blossom a day at FreeBlogBlossoms.com.

Combine these brainstorming burgeons with an attention-getting headline and conclude with a specific call to action, such as “be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter list,” and you’ll soon have a host of regular readers on your blog’s doorstep, waiting to get in.

Thanks, Debra, for inviting me to share today! Please use the comments section to ask any questions you may have about blogging. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll dig around a bit and get back to you.

Linda Fulkerson is an author, speaker, blog coach, social media enthusiast, wannabe photographer, and creator of the instructional blog, On Blogging Well. She lives in central Arkansas with her family, dogs, goats, ducks, geese, turkeys, and a rooster who stalks her.

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