Linking Your Social Accounts and Other Major Blogging and Social media No-nos

Successful social media is something of an art form—with lots of gray areas. Building a successful online presence takes a good amount of flexibility and a little bit of experimentation. But even though I encourage people to find their sweet spots, there are a few things you want to avoid. Today I’d to weigh in on linking your social media accounts and other major blogging and social media no-nos.

No-no Number One

Do not link your blog with social media. What I mean by that is you don’t want your blog o send a notification of your newest blog post to Facebook or Twitter or any other social network. On the surface it seems that would be a great shortcut for those (almost all of us) who find ourselves in a constant time crush. But it’s not.

Here’s why:

The What and Why of Writing: Black Moment

As writers, we’re told to wreak havoc on our characters. When you write your hero’s or heroine’s Black Moment, you let the worst possible thing happen to them. Think Luke Skywalker’s “I am you father” moment with Darth Vader. This is where their emotional wound is gaping and the Lie they believe about themselves brings them to their knees.

Rachel Hauck

Story Blocking

Story blocking is key to giving readers a sense of time and place in a scene. Just where are the characters in relationship to each other and what are they doing?

Ever read a book where you know the protagonist went into the kitchen to talk to her mother but you never “see” what they are doing while talking, or where they are standing in relationship to each other?

Is the mother cooking? Is the protagonist sitting at the kitchen table or leaning against the counter? Does she fiddle with a napkin holder as the conversation goes on?

Maybe the characters are just walking through the woods or sitting on a beach. Do they reach for a low swinging branch? Scoop up a handful of sand and let it slip through their fingers?

Show the reader where the characters are in relationship to one another and any movements.

Now, we don’t want them jumping all over the place like Mexican jumping beans. But they aren’t card board either, all stiff and standing in place as they talk.

If the protagonist is sitting on the sofa talking to her husband, then you only need one or two movements to make the “setting” clear.

What exactly is blocking?

Blocking is a theatre term that refers to the precise movement and positioning of actors on a stage in order to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. — wikipedia.org.

Readers need to see and know where your characters are on you book stage.

Take a Deep Breath

You’re six days into the NaNoWriMo and MBTWriMo writing marathon. You started out great. Thousands of words flew from your fingertips and onto the computer screen. Your writer friends envied your massive word count.

But today, the cursor on the blank screen taunts you. The blink-blink-blink flashes your zero word count to the world. When you finally force words to come out, they resemble your “See spot run” sentences of your first grade reader.

Ahhh… to be a writer.

Okay. Sit back, take a deep breath and relax! It’s all good. Your creative juices come in waves just like the tides in the ocean. Sometimes they come crashing in with the force of a tsunami and words flood your work in progress. Other times you’ll walk a mile just to reach a trickle.

You can’t hammer out word count every hour of the day. It’s unnatural. Unhealthy. It wouldn’t be wise for you to any more than you should eat constantly for all those hours. Your body has to have time to process what you’ve consumed. So it is with your word count.

When words won’t come and the contest pressure is sucking the life out of you, these things will help you get back on the right track:

One Thing Marketing: Team Up!

What makes almost any task a little easier?

Help! 🙂

That’s why combining forces with other authors or industry peeps is such a good idea when you’re working to market your books. We all have different spheres of influences, networks and contacts, friends and fans on social media. Cross-promotion and joint marketing efforts make SO much sense.

Here are a few ways I’ve teamed up with others recently:

1) I found release buddies. I checked out a few authors who had books coming out around the same time as mine. We tossed around a variety of ideas for joint giveaways, blog appearances, videos and more.

2) I’m in an author group that just this week began talking about ways to promote our books when we’re in between releases. We’re chatting about finding some way to work together to cross-promote in not-as-busy seasons.

3) Three friends and I formed a small marketing team and SO many of the ideas for my release promotions came from their brainstorming!

4) Two other authors and I all have books in the same genre releasing from the same publisher next spring. We’ve already been emailing ideas about blogs, vlogs and more as we prepare to cross-promote in the coming months.

But what if I’m not published yet?