Mastering Social Media

I am a bit late in blogging about this, blame my NaNoWriMo 2017 commitment, but it is definitely something I want to shout about.

A few weeks back I attended part two of Anita Chapman’s one-day seminar/workshop on how to get the most out of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogging for writers.  At this point I will mention that it is for writers of ALL disciplines and genres, not just fiction writers. Part one was a year ago, I enjoyed it so much and learnt so much that attending part two was a no brainer for me.

In advance of the day Anita sent out questionnaires so that she could deliver exactly what we wanted within the framework of what she had planned for us. She purposefully kept the group small, just five (it was meant to be six but one person had to cancel just before the day due to unforeseen circumstances). That way we all had our say and had personal attention within the class for our specific problems or areas of lack of understanding. This bit actually seemed to blend seamlessly though, rather than a somewhat tedious 'deal with person one then on to person two', we all learnt from each other’s problems as Anita skillfully guided us through the pros and cons muddle of social media.

The list of what we learnt is huge, but here are just a few things: 

• privacy settings for all social media platforms
• adding/modifying share buttons
• how to link all the different platforms
• tackling the TweetDeck and all it has to offer so that it really works for you and your brand/style of writing (I've gone from hating to loving my TweetDeck)
• Facebook ads – what works and what doesn’t and how and when to use them without losing loads of money on them 

Everything was supported by detailed handouts, which have proved so useful in the days after the course.

I need to give a shout out to the venue too. The day was held at the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury – very easy to find and held in a self-contained seminar suite on the first floor. We had tea, coffee, snacks……….cake (far too much cake) all on tap as and when we wanted it. Part of Anita’s own course deal was that lunch was also included. The room was very comfortable and it was only part way through the afternoon that someone commented on the lack of a window. I was shocked, I hadn’t noticed, partly due to really getting into the seminar information, but also because the room was so comfortable. Here we are in action.

If you are a writer who wants to know how to get the best out of your social media outlets and really get them working for you I would highly recommend Anita’s courses. She is so generous with her information too and you can find a lot of helpful information on her websites, as well as details of forthcoming courses www.neetsmarketing.com and www.neetsmarketingblog.com but as with all these interactive things, nothing replaces actually being in the room with a person in the know directing it.

The proof of the pudding – since putting into place several of the things I have learnt my blog views have risen almost threefold and my Twitter account is gathering momentum nicely.

Faber Writing Course – a 1/3 of the way through

I can’t believe we are half way through February already; this year is going SO fast! Sorry for the delay writing a blog post about the Faber Academy course I am doing, it’s been pretty hectic the last couple of weeks. We are now four sessions into the course and I wanted to have something interesting to say about it…that’s not to say I haven’t been having an interesting time so far. You know how it is with courses though – the first session is all introduction stuff, for the second session the person leading it was away doing book signings and radio interviews, so it is really only the third session and last week’s fourth time in class that we really got our teeth into something. Last week and week five have an extra hour tagged on to catch up for missing week 2.

We are a diverse group of writers from all backgrounds, most of us are 40 plus and looking to get something in print. Some people want to concentrate on short stories/novellas and others, like yours truly, want to play in the big game with the full works 80,000+ word novels. In the intro session we all submitted our WIP ideas and got feedback on them. I was impressed with some of the things people are working on and there are definitely several I’ll happily read if/when brought to fruition. My own feedback was that the Basil WIP is very viable – it’s apparently topical for the young adult market and could be a very viable proposition – here’s hoping anyway!

Week three saw us all exploring the ‘writer’s voice’- our own and those of famous writers like Austen, Hemingway and Stephen King. We had to dig deep into ourselves to find our motivations, experiences and traits that might influence our own writer’s voice.

Last Thursday was particularly good – all about plots…plot ideas, plot structures, plot pacing, the rise and fall of plot development through a novel, three act plotting and so on. I really enjoyed it and there were some good writing exercises to focus us. I love the writing off the cuff exercises where you are given something – an object, a character, a scenario and you start to plot around it. In fact I have a detailed plot and character set for a dark psychological thriller that was born out of just an exercise a year ago, more of that another time though.

Homework this week is writing a 1500 word synopsis of our work in progress which is to be written playing to all the rules set by agents and publishing houses. It seems most authors hate writing a synopsis of their book, but I am loving it…hope I’m doing it right! I started with detailed bullet points of all the main points and actions during the novel, now I need to flesh around them according to the ‘rules’ of synopsis writing – correct person narrative, tenses etc.

I also got feedback on my first 2000 words of Basil’s story that had been handed in for assessment. It was with a little trepidation that I sat there seeing my peers receive feedback and waiting for my name to be called. It was also with a huge relief that I was told apart from a couple of cock ups with tenses in the first paragraph it was “…excellent. I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to more.’…I couldn’t have been happier, great encouragement to keep going…just as well since I’m over 25,000 words into Basil so far!

Next week I need to submit my own offering for peer review the following week. The rest of the class will be getting Basil’s story part way through so I think I will include a very short resume of what has gone before. I hope they like it. I think this coming Thursday is sub plotting and character development.

That’s all for now. I’ll give you another update after a couple more lessons and let you know how Basil’s shaping up.

The Faber Academy course and why I chose that particular one.

The Faber Academy offers many different courses for the aspiring author suiting all needs and levels of writing ability. The one I chose was a short course (three months) at an intermediate level. I have written many things in the non-fiction realm from articles and scientific papers through to chapters and whole books, plus more course materials than I care to think about so I thought this would give me a head start and allow me to leap frog over the beginner's level. We’ll see if that was a good idea in due course.

I also have the novel that I want to take to the course sketched out in some detail, with some chapters written and a lot of characterization done, well to my standard anyway, that could all change with the advice I hope to get. As this course is all about coaching the participant through the writing of a novel I think I have got plenty for myself, and the person leading it, to get their teeth into. Hopefully all criticism will be constructive and not too painful.

It’s every Thursday which will make the end of the week somewhat interesting. Thursday was normally my big baking day ready for Friday’s market so I’m going to have to juggle the cakes between Wednesday and Thursday evening. Thank goodness some of them – the tea loaves, date and walnuts and fruit cakes can be made a couple of days in advance and are all the better for keeping!

Start date is the 26^th…so watch this space.