SPA Girls Podcast

Goals! We’re all so excited about them at the beginning of January, and then we feel them like chains around our necks by the end of the month. (Well, here in the SPA we do. Maybe you’re able to make it into February without feeling like you’re never going to make them work…hehe)

What we’ve decided is that instead of overwhelming yourself with ALL THE GOALS, if you set one goal in these five areas, for a shorter period of time (we’re suggesting 12 weeks) then you’re more likely to make them happen.

We go through the five areas, and talk about the goals that we’re setting in each, and give suggestions of goals that you could set as well.

This is another information packed episode that will help you set some relevant goals that are going to help you move forward in 2019.

Quote from the 12 week year by Bryan Moran “Identify the “Keystone” Action and Focus on It. Once you have an intense desire to accomplish something, you then need to identify the core actions that will produce the result you’re after. Often you can come up with a laundry list of things that you could do, but that just leads to diffusion and discouragement. In most cases there are a few core activities that account for the majority of the result, and in some cases, there is one, perhaps two, primary activities that ultimately produce the result. It is critical that you identify the one or two “Keystone” actions and focus on them.”

What we’re trying to do is (whether over a year or a quarter (ie 12 weeks) is give you five areas to set a goal in, that will serve your long term growth as an author.

This was inspired in part by our podcast with author Kelly St Clare (Podcast #163) who sets ONE craft goal per manuscript she’s working on, rather than trying to fix “All The Things.”

Remember a goal needs a specific timeframe.

You also need to review your goals as you go through the specified timeframe to make sure you’re doing what needs to be done to hit the goal at the end. If you’re not achieving it, look at why, and try to make changes so that you will make the goal.

Craft: (in the next book)

One goal per book for a craft skill that you’re working on.

Sharyn: Learn correct comma usage

Trudi: Do better at characterisation.

Cheryl: Being more descriptive.

Other ideas for craft goals: 

Social Media: (To work on in Q1)

One aspect of SM that you’re going to work on.

Cher: Learn more about Facebook ads

Shar: Grow SPA Girls FB likes by 100 peeps, organically.

Trudi: Get more interactive in FB posts. At least 1 interactive post a week.

Other ideas for social media goals: 

Marketing: (Work on in Q1)

One aspect of marketing to work on in first quarter.

Shar: Nail Book Bub Ads.

Cheryl: Get the open rates/clicks up on my newsletter.

Trudi: AMS UK ads – sign on and do them.

Other ideas for marketing goals: 

Productivity (Work on in Q1)

One thing to amp up your productivity in the next quarter.

Shar: Write 5000 per week on new manuscript. Set aside an hour a day for writing.

Cher: Get up earlier, and work without social media distractions.

Trudi: Lynn Johnston trick – write down everything you do.

Other ideas for productivity goals: 

Well Being (One per month)

One new habit per month.

Cher: New exercise regime – Pilates

Shar: Listening to headspace

Trudi: Start doing 10,000 steps every day. Get out in the garden.

Other ideas for goals: 

Show Notes & Links

https://12weekyear.com/here-we-go-again/

http://www.selfpublishingauthorspodcast.com/spa-girls-podcast-ep163-interview-with-kelly-st-clare/

https://insights.bookbub.com/best-bookbub-ads-2018/

https://writesmarternotharder.com/my-1-productivity-tool-for-getting-more-done/

This year we decided to begin with something a little different… Instead of the usual “motivational and uplifting” or “beginning of the year goal setting” type show, we thought we’d give you 31 quick and easy marketing ideas that you can do each day to give you a solid start to 2019.

It’s a great way to show you how little jobs done daily can add up quickly to make something pretty great. You’ll be amazed at the results you can achieve from what seems like a tiny daily effort!

You can do each and every one of the 31 ideas that we give you and tackle one per day in January, or you could pick one of them and do it every day instead.

The important thing is to be doing something each day that will advance your author career. Little steps can help you achieve so much more than you expect!

If you’re looking for some ideas for ways to amp up your marketing in 2019, then this is the episode for you. You’ll be pleased you made the effort at the end of January, we promise. 🙂

One marketing thing a day that you can do to further your career in 2019:

1. Survey your email list to find out more about what they like in your books.
2. Write a short story about a character from one of your books but for a season, like So and So’s Thanksgiving.
3. Create a list of keywords to use on your amazon ads.
4. Claim your bookbub author profile. (bookbub.com)
5. Check your back matter and make sure it links to your other books or your website for an email list.
6. Have a look at an old blurb and see if you can amp it up.
7. A/B Test an email for the content or best subject line.
8. Try out a cover reveal.
9. Try out a preorder.
10. Apply for a book bub ad. (apply here)
11. Submit a book to an award. (click here for some ideas on the Publishers Weekly blog page.)
12. Sign up to HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
13. Email an author who writes in the same genre to say hi, and that you like their books.
14. Reach out to local press in your area.
15. Make sure your branding is consistent across all platforms (ie you use the same author photo across all social media, website and Amazon etc)
16. Create a Pinterest board for inspiration on your next book. (eg here’s Trudi’s one for the Firecaller series)
17. Join an author forum. (Start with Romance Divas!)
18. Create a boxed set.
19. Refresh your metadata.
20. Update your bio.
21. Start a course
22. Take one step toward improving your health.
23. Watch Alessandra Torre’s free 15-minute webinar on how to create a product display AMS ad
24. Create a “colour palette” for your author (or series) brand by uploading your cover to coolors.co and download a free palette.
25. Get a jumpstart on social media posts with this free social media calendar from Hubspot with ALL the US holidays for 2019.
26. Pick your poorest selling book – set the timer for 30 mins and write 30 taglines for it highlighting a trope – keep going no matter how whacky they are – one amongst them will be gold. Try it out on your book description page.
27. Share the love by promoting another upcoming author in your same genre on your social media and to readers (without recompense or expectation of returned favour)
28. Write a basic business plan: see Denise Grover Swank’s blog for inspiration and guidance.
29. Revisit your author pic – how old is it? Does it represent you and your genre appropriately?
30. Make a list of other authors you’d like to be associated with and use them when likening your work to theirs. eg “If you like xxx, then you’ll love xxx.”
31. Write a list of Pros and Cons for your work in either KU or wide and if what you’re doing isn’t working be brave and try the opposite.

BONUS: Get some stickers and reward yourself. (No prizes guessing where/who this baby came from!)

If you’re trying to find a few more minutes in your day for writing, then this episode is for you. We talk about how you can use scheduling to be more productive, free up time and get stuff done.

Each of the SPA Girls uses different kinds of scheduling to make certain repetitive tasks easier and faster, and we share them all for you in this informative episode!

SHOW NOTES: 

WHAT IS SCHEDULING? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Scheduling your day, your time is one way to claim back your writing time, to make sure you’re using your day to the best of your ability.

We’re all busy, have limited time in our day. Scheduling is the best way to claim back more hours in your day for what’s important. Writing!

There are several different aspects to scheduling. One is scheduling your day, planning out what you’re going to do. You could also schedule on a longer term basis, like how much you want to write that week etc. You can also schedule things like Facebook posts ahead of time, using blocks of time, instead of small amounts of time all over the show.

HOW DO YOU SCHEDULE?

SETTING GOALS AND PLANNING AHEAD

WHAT TOOLS CAN YOU USE TO SCHEDULE?

Twitter Scheduling

HELPFUL LINKS:

Marie Force’s blog: https://blog.marieforce.com/for-writers-how-i-doubled-my-productivity-this-summer/

Trello: www.trello.com

Online Time Trackers we’ve tried (free plans):

Complete Guide to Bullet Journalling for Writers: https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/complete-guide-bullet-journaling-writers/

SPA Girls Guide to: Kick Overwhelm To The Curb

https://www.getapp.com/p/sem/scheduling-software

Merry Christmas from the SPA Girls! We hope you all have the best of everything this festive season, and that you get to spend the big day with the people you love. (And failing that, some chocolate and a good book.)

In the spirit of giving, we’ve created an episode full of tips and tricks, advice, with the best of 2018 crammed into one small (ish) episode. (Okay, not so small). Join us for a retrospective of 2018 to find out what we did right, what we did wrong, and how you can learn from us to help you make 2019 the best year yet!

Dear 2018, you were tough. I’d planned for you to be productive, smooth and knocking out goals left, right and center. However life had other plans. Anyhow, I’ve learned to schedule better, plan better and give myself a bit of grace for dealing with Life Stuff. But look out 2019, cos I’ve got BIG plans for you too and I’m coming back in the first quarter with my own personal zero $ to $1k challenge. Shar x

So, 2018, you were full of promise. I tried not to count my chickens, especially after Shar found hers, but I believed I was on to something with the new series and pen name. It was a lot of hard work and you didn’t make things easy, but all in all, I have no real complaints as it wasn’t totally your fault that I was side-tracked. The new year brings a (hopefully) quieter life and I intend to fill it with words. Cher x

2018 started with a frenetic pace, and continued on that way for me. It was a year that changed my writing style yet again. It’s funny how that continues to happen even though you think there’s nothing more you can learn about your process. I achieved most of what I wanted, but also a little less, if that makes any sense to anyone but me! 2019 will be a year for setting writing goals, and focusing on my work routine. It will be year of friends and family. Can’t wait! Wendy x

Love or hate it, dialogue is an essential element to fiction writing.

Done well, dialogue can be very powerful. We know and understand the subtext of dialogue without having to be told, and writers can use this to create amazing scenes and tense moments.

Done badly, however, dialogue can kick your readers out of the scene, make them frustrated and ultimately stop reading.

So how do you make sure your dialogue sings instead of stinks? Easy peasy! Just listen to this episode… 🙂

Today in the SPA we go through what dialogue is, how to use it to your best advantage, we give you some dialogue techniques, talk about ways you can use dialogue to amp up your scene, and work through some of the do’s and don’t’s for creating dialogue that dances on the rooftops!

Show Notes: 

Basics of Said/Exclaimed etc

– Dialogue isn’t just filler. It has to work hard. It epitomises the conflict of the story you’re telling.

– We’re more interested in a story when it comes through via a dialogue than description. It’s more active.

– Said is a word people don’t see when they read, so don’t worry about using it, just not too much!

– It is also good to change things up slightly, you don’t want to sound monotonous,

– While you can use said often, it’s not the same for verbs. “shouted,” “exclaimed,” “laughed,” “snorted,” “demanded”, “insisted,” “screeched,” “screamed,” ” maintained” etc.

An example of overkill: 

“I think that’s your worst look yet,” Jessie said sighing.

“Surely not, I look seriously hot,” Melanie pouted.

“It’s the pink scarf, with the pink sunglasses, and don’t get me started on the pink hair,” Jessie maintained.

“You’re jealous,” Melanie declared.

– Don’t overuse words alongside said either, just because you think it’s boring. Words like grimly, or hotly etc. Extra words are not needed and clutter dialogue.

– If there are only two people in the scene, you shouldn’t need too many “he said/she said” moments.

– A quote followed by an action will always indicate who’s talking.

– When we are face to face, we get visual clues from body language as well as the words being spoken. You can use that to help indicate what the person is feeling without having to say:

“I think we should go home,” he said angrily.

“I think we should go home,” he said, slamming his fist into the kitchen table.

“I think we should go home.” His eyes filled with tears and he turned away.

“I think we should go home.” She smiled radiantly and held up her engagement ring to catch the light.

– Good to have those books – Negative and positive emotion thesaurus etc. Body language by Barbara and Alan Pease, and the language of love books.

– people’s eyes are naturally drawn to white space in a book. In a non-fiction book you can sort this out by having loads of headings and sub headings. In a fiction book, this is the dialogue.

Dialogue is the same as a scene – if it’s not relevant, cut it!

– You need to know what each character wants, and that needs to come out in the dialogue. (Think of Katniss in the Hunger Games. As soon as her sister’s name is called out – “I volunteer as tribute.” No more powerful words. We know she’s basically volunteering to die for the sake of her sister. She would do anything for her sister, and she shows it through those small words.)

– know the conflict and amp it up. Characters can’t just leave the scene, they have to fight against the conflict or there is no story.

– Remember don’t let the dialogue ramble, sometimes you just need to sum up the situation with a paragraph or two. As an article by Jericho Writers (see links below) says “Get in late and out early. Don’t bother with small talk. Decide the point of each interaction, begin with it as late as possible, ending as soon as your point is made.”

– Dialogue can give away a lot about where someone comes from, and the kind of person they are. “So where did you learn to cook like that?” “I did three years in an International Culinary School in Paris.”

– Be careful about overloading dialogue with jargon, or dialogue specific to a country. “Dinna fash lassie!” “Sweet as bro.”

– It’s vital that dialogue flows, or you will lose the readers attention

Famous lines of dialogue, and why they’re so good:

“ET phone home.” (It sums up what ET is fighting for the whole movie. He’s desperate to get home the whole movie.”

“You want the truth? You can’t handle the Truth!” It was the snapping point for the character. He was desperate to tell them what he’d done, he wasn’t ashamed of it, and the lawyer (Tom Cruise) just had to goad him into it.

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Rhett’s final words to Scarlett.

“Hasta la Vista, Baby.”

“I’ll be back.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“We’ll always have Paris.”

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Dialogue as descriptor

– If you have to explain how someone is feeling as they’re speaking you’re not doing a good job with your dialogue, or creating the scene or picture in the readers head. “Never say you’re actually doing it,” Sarah said frowning. “I am, and you just wait and see it will work out,” Pete said snorting.

– Remember to show don’t tell in some situations. If you have to say he said angrily, it looses its punch, and suggests the reader can’t work it out for themselves what’s going on, which in turn says you haven’t created the scene well.

– If the dialogue is good, it can include action also. “You’re an idiot, put down that knife.”

– Really good dialogue will stand on it’s own.

– Sometimes what characters say tells us a lot about them, and their backstory. For example, if they have no wish to discuss their past, perhaps they have issues? “Will you come with me to the Christmas Parade, Jake?” “I don’t do Christmas.” We have to wonder why?

– As with any scene, know what the point of the dialogue is. Know what is going on in the heads of the characters and make sure that comes across in what they’re saying. Don’t be lazy and just tell. Think of ways to show how they’re feeling through the dialogue.

Tricky tips for Creating Great Dialogue

– Clever dialogue is oblique (see anything written by Aaron Sorkin or the Gilmore Girls rapid fire dialogue) per Jericho Writers – “So direct dialogue is where person X says something or asks a question, and person Y answers in the most logical, direct way.

We hate that! As readers, we hate it.

Oblique dialogue is where people never quite answer each other in a straight way. Where a question doesn’t get a straightforward response. Where random connections are made. Where we never quite know where things are going.

As readers, we love that. It’s dialogue to die for.

…Want to achieve the same effect? Just keep your dialogue not quite joined up. People should drop in random things, go off at tangents, talk in non-sequiturs, respond to an emotional implication not the thing that’s directly on the page – or anything. Just keep it broken. Keep it exciting!…”

– The dialogue should elicit emotion, in the same way your wider story should. A scene in a kitchen with two people making tea and sitting down to drink it, and discussing the weather – shouldn’t be about that at all. If it is, it’s the most boring scene in the world. There should be undercurrents of tension. What is it that these two characters are fighting against? Has one of them just found out the other is cheating with her husband? Does one of them owe the other money, but can’t repay it? Have their kids been fighting? Expelled for stealing?

– If you want to amp up the dialogue, amp up the scene. A couple having a fight? What about a couple having a fight while on a boat in shark infested waters? A girl finally deciding to tell her crush how she feels? What about if she did it while he was out on a date with another girl?

– Different kinds of dialogue for different genres. Fast and snappy in thrillers, more thoughtful and romantic in romance.

– Try to become your characters as you write them. Slip into their heads and write what they would say.

– Say it aloud, to see how it sounds

– Remember the way we speak in person is not the same as sparkling dialogue on a page

– Some writers just write the dialogue in a scene first, and add in the descriptors later.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Book: How To Write Dazzling Dialogue by James Scott Bell