C.T. Luna's Blog

Are you thinking of becoming an author (i.e. writing a book, editing it, getting it published and having people read your work)? You might find it helpful to know that there are six general phases to accomplishing that goal. I like to call them the “6 Ps to Authorpreneur Success”. Check out the video below to find out what they are! Or scroll for the summary!

What the survey says about authorpreneurs…

Did you know that the greatest challenge among aspiring authors getting to publish was actually not being ready to publish? More than a third of respondents (to my recent survey) said they’ve “never been ready to publish” followed by a fifth (20 percent) who said “all the stuff that isn’t strictly writing the book”. That’s nearly 60 percent of all aspiring authors!

This is because the writers who embark on their long-form writing journeys weren’t fully aware of all the phases in accomplishing that goal. This roundup will give you a bird’s-eye view of what the journey entails. Then, you will know what you need to go the distance.

Some background on the term, “authorpreneur”

The first time I heard the term “authorpreneur” was in 2012. Joanna Penn traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, and spoke to writers, aspiring authors and creative individuals about her success as a full-time, self-published author. Or, as she put it at the time, as an “authorpreneur”.

The gist of her talk was that being an author was so much more than writing a story and flinging a book out into the internet. Her daily life is characterized by a combination of activities that blend the qualities of a writer, as well as an entrepreneur. Indeed, she’s a self-published author in the business of selling the products of her craft as well as her expertise.

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The 6 steps to become an authorpreneur

Over the years, I have come to learn there are six general phases or activities that an authorpreneur needs to engage in to succeed. In the video I expand on each of the “Six Ps”, which are as follows:

Planning, which I am coming to find means more than just outlining one’s intended book. It means planning your life (and loved ones) around this project — your livelihood.Populating. This part includes the drafting of your content. There’s a degree of pantsing going on here. But I’m reluctantly learning that I need to do quite a bit of planning and outlining to write as fluidly as I enjoy. Positioning. This overlaps with “populating”. It relates mainly to positioning your content and revealing elements of your story in ways that create tension and suspense. (So, this phase also overlaps with polishing.)Polishing, which is a nice way of saying “proofreading”. Much of the developmental editing has already taken place during the “positioning” phase.

Many aspiring authors are ready to jump into writing the words, and making sure the story keeps readers reading. This is great! As a professional and amateur writer, I always abide by these four steps.

A word on the last two steps of becoming an authorpreneur

These days, the reality of being an author is that it’s more of a business than a craft. It’s an enterprise of being an author-entrepreneur.

Publishing. All authorpreneurs have to decide for themselves whether they want to go the traditional route, or self-publish. Either way, this is the step that distinguishes the writer from the author. Promoting. Whether you’re a represented author or a self-published author, you will be responsible for marketing your book. Some days, you’ll spend a considerable amount of time promoting your book rather than writing it. Making you as much an entrepreneur as an author.

Aspiring authors at least should be aware of each of these steps as they embark on the authorpreneur journey. (I wish I had had an overview of what to expect when I began my own journey many years ago.)

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Regard your business as a marathon, rather than a sprint, and you will succeed. (Alas! The days when an agent and/or a publishing house edited, published and marketed your book are (mostly) long gone.)

Tell me! What has your experience been?

The post What it takes to become an authorpreneur appeared first on Living in Cyn.

One of the exercises I address in my book for aspiring authors handles goals-setting. As time ticked on and people shared their opinions about my success or lack of success, I grew more aware of how important setting goals for myself was. They’re really your only true measure of success.

When you’re publishing a book, you’re also putting a little bit of yourself “out there”. That can be a scary prospect, especially when you have an active inner critic. People will come forward and tell you what they think you should do with your project. They’ll also be telling you why they think what you’re doing works or doesn’t. While their tips may be well-intentioned, much of it won’t resonate with the goals you set for yourself. Please try and remember that–so you don’t let your inner critic get fueled up for an “I told you so!”.

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Six goals that might inspire you to understand your own book writing motivation

A person I’ve worked with once told me that the best way to share is to show. It might be helpful for me to tell you what my own goals were for self-publishing:

GOAL ONE: To one day work for myself as an indie author and a freelancer. As some of you may know, I hold a full-time day job with a nearly three-hour daily commute. I also freelance in the evenings and over the weekends. You may already know that freelance work can be irregular with an irregular cash flow. Holding a steady full-time job for now is necessary for me — but it doesn’t mean I can’t write a book about what I know and share it with people (some of whom may even become prospective clients). This segues nicely into my next goal.GOAL TWO: To create a business card for myself. I have been in marketing communications for several years across a range of sectors and fields. I knew that developing a marketing strategy for my WIP (work in progress) would include a sequence of steps to point me in the direction of what my message and talking points would be, so I wouldn’t run out of ideas for my blog, Twitter account and building my indie author business!GOAL THREE: To be a published author. This sounds silly, I know, but it was important to me to officially have a book on the market, so I could check “get published” off my bucket list and put my inner critic to rest! “The Aspiring Author’s Guide: Write Your Marketing Strategy” was low-hanging fruit for me in that I felt comfortable enough with its content to get it out the door. (I knew that drafting and editing my fiction would take more time, so I put that work on the back-burner.)



GOAL FOUR: To share the knowledge. One of the biggest traps I see a lot of people fall into when it comes to marketing is biting off more tactics than they can realistically chew. New applications and social media make marketing look easy, but there’s planning and a lot of work involved.



Understanding your goals helps you identify (and stay true to) your strategy

A strategy is an overarching guideline to help you in your approach to meeting your goal. For instance, if you’re in New York and your goal is to get to Hollywood, your strategy is to travel west. Your strategy is not to hitchhike, take a train and a plane and a bus. Those are tactics. Your tactics may be to apply all four means of getting there, but it could just as easily be one. Your situation and circumstances usually define what works best for you.

Developing a marketing strategy can help people see the bigger picture and take a leaner, less “busy” approach to implementing a regular drumbeat of “noise” for one’s product.

So, it just so happened that I had a really good idea of what I wanted to convey in my book and I managed to produce it quickly enough to meet my other above goals.

GOAL FIVE: To have a “practice run”. This relates loosely to “be a published author”. Because I had never actually published an ebook, I had no idea whether the timelines I was setting for myself were even realistic. I didn’t know how long it would take me to edit 60-plus pages of my own work, I didn’t even know how long it would take for someone else to do so. I also didn’t know a ton of things surrounding the beloved book-marketing behemoth, Amazon. (More on that in another blog post!)GOAL SIX: To build an author platform with other authors, creatives and readers. Community-building is important to me, because it bolsters my own creativity and helps me keep motivated in keeping my blog going, my novel alive, and also my non-fiction growing. I am in frequent dialogue with my audience via email — and, no, we don’t always chat about marketing.



Goals-setting helped me see the bigger picture

A couple people recently expressed to me their main fear about publishing their debut books: that people are going to criticize it, or them. Well, I’ll share with you a little anecdote.

A few weeks after I had published my own book, I received a long email from a reader who enjoyed my book but noted that it ranked dismally low in Amazon. The person then wondered how I expected to sell any books with such a low ranking. Good question! How, indeed?

I’m not going to lie and tell you I didn’t feel like a failure upon reading this person’s observations. But the marketing communications person in me did the one thing she knew best: I returned to my marketing strategy and looked over my goals. What I found amazed me!

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Absolutely nowhere in my goals is “selling” books listed.

Selling books was an objective — or a measure — of a greater goal, but it was not why I set out to publish Write Your Marketing Strategy or even to write books. Ultimately, I set out to publish because I wanted to establish credibility for myself as an author and to support my plan to work for myself. Sure, selling books would be nice — but at $0.99 or $6.99 a book, I would still have to sell beaucoup books every month to pay the rent! (I think that’s pretty unrealistic (for me) with only one book/product in my sales portfolio!)

Setting the right goals helps put you in the right direction

To continue with my little anecdote… another couple weeks after the above-mentioned email, I received a completely unsolicited email from someone who was looking for someone who could conduct market research and then write a consumer report quickly and correctly!

She found me through social media. But thanks to my book, which she saw on my blog, I had practically scored the job before replying “Yes” to her email. Also, the earnings from that project represented way more than the revenue I would have projected for myself in the first year of sales.

Basically, the publication of that book is supporting my larger goal of building a writing business for myself.

How about you and your goals as a writer?

Why did you set out to write a book? What do your goals look like? Do your goals keep you motivated to keep writing?

Scroll down and let us know what your goals are/were for being a writer!

The post 6 Book Marketing Goals You Might Find Surprising! appeared first on Living in Cyn.

Initial survey results are in! A few dozen of you took the time to respond to 10 questions I had for aspiring authors. From your top writing challenges to your greatest frustrations about creative writing, you bared all and shared all! (I exaggerate a little…) Read on to learn more.

But first, the survey…

Some of you have been following my blog since its first days. Over the years, I have learned a lot of things about writing — and a great many more things about myself (i.e., who I am, what makes me tick, and what doesn’t).

So, I was curious to learn whether the challenges and frustrations I experienced as a writer were my own — or whether others leading the creative writing life shared them as well.

If you’re curious to take the survey before seeing the results, click here now.

… and now, the initial results!

I planned to wait until I had 100 responses before sharing the results. But what I lack in patience, I make up for in creativity. So, I designed an infographic of initial results (based on the responses from 37 respondents).

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Take the survey at: https://livingincyn.typeform.com/to/t...



Survey says…

Get real-time survey results here, if you’re a stickler for figures. And feel free to take the survey if you want to help grow the sample size!

… Time is the Number 1 writing challenge among creative writers.



Time — or lack of it — earned the top spot as a major challenge that aspiring authors and creative writers struggle with. When considered together with “overwhelm” (selected by 13%), it’s apparent that writers struggle most with juggling the little time they have to devote to their creative endeavors.Research, or “getting lost in the details” placed second among writers’ top challenges. This is another challenge shared by over a quarter (29%) of all creative writers.No, or low, confidence ranked third among the top challenges faced by aspiring authors. More than one in five (21%) writers battle a powerful self-critic. (I know I have! You can read my blog post about it here…)Difficulties planning and outlining, muddling through the murky middle, and just “getting started” upon sitting down to write were each selected by an equal number (21%) of survey respondents. (Planning and plotting isn’t easy, but it’s so important to help you maximize your limited creative writing time!)Payoff or return on investment (ROI) is one of the greatest frustrations among creative writers also ties at third place. Twenty-one percent of respondents feel that the low ROI for the effort writing takes puts it on equal footing with outlining and plotting woes.



What about your writing challenges?

It’s not too late to have your perspective reflected in the survey results! Let me know what your challenges and frustrations as a creative writer are. If you have friends in the creative writing space, share the survey with them — I would be elated to see if there are any shifts in the data!

The post Check out your top writing challenges! appeared first on Living in Cyn.

It’s probably best for me to begin this blogpost by confessing that I’m not expert in the area of plotting. That’s because the writing style I employ is commonly referred to as “pantsing it”, which means, that I improvise, go with the flow, and I don’t look back. (The term comes from the expression “flying by the seat of one’s pants” — which, is totally comprehensible to me as a native English-speaker, but I would not be able to explain the origin of that second expression to someone learning English…)

I don’t look back… Until, that is, I don’t know what to look forward to.

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It’s pretty common that once a person has written about 25 to 30 percent of her story, the writing slows down. This is where you start slicing into the main course of your story. At this point, writers should be pretty clear on the widget/problem their protagonists must find/solve in order to ensure order is restored after a period of page-turning entertainment.

If not, your writing is going to hit a productivity wall, and in little time, you will be stepping out of the marathon altogether, blaming writer’s block for twisting your ankle near the first water station.

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Stop pantsing and turn plodding to plantsing!

For a writer like me — who gets so caught up in her storytelling, she becomes more of a documentarian of her characters’ actions — creating an outline is like burying MacGyver six-feet under in a water-filled coffin, and then emptying his pockets and making him spit out his gum. (Basically, you’ve stripped him of any chance of escapting a hopeless situation, you’ve stripped him of even the smallest details that make him MacGyver.)

But on the first day when I feel like my writing is going nowhere fast, I open up a clean Word document, write the title, “What you know is…” and start outlining what I’ve already written into the story. In bullet points.

It might look something like this:

Sidney St. Claire is a PR flack in Washington D.C. who is unlucky in love.
Her best friend Cherri tries to help Sidney out, but Sidney might be beyond help.
Sidney’s boyfriend is a hot, French journalist, whom she rarely sees because he’s presumably working the graveyard shift.

Doing this might be all I need to for new ideas to present themselves. And all I need to do is write the next couple scenes.

Sidney’s boss, Patti, gives her a project that will force her to put off the wedding plans for at least six months.
Her boyfriend has been busy lately. And then Sidney finds him cheating on her!
Cherri helps Sidney throw herself into her work and into the local bar scene.

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The next time I hit a wall, I will pull up the same Word document (the one with the outline), scroll down to the bottom, and in big bold letters I’ll write, “What you don’t know is…” 

Pierre is a spy who was trying to get his intel through tried and true pillow-talk, espionage techniques. He loves Sidney, but can Sidney live with his career?
Patti is part of an espionage intelligence-trading network.
Sidney has no idea how in-deep she really is!
There’s going to be a love interest for Sidney, but will she be able to trust him, or is his work at odds with hers?
Something serious is going to happen to Cherri.

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This will usually help me round the corner. And it’s enough to get me writing more scenes. I don’t need to get too detailed with my outline, because my characters tend to take over the script. (You can read more about the term, “plantsing” on the blog of another fellow pantser-writer, Stephen D’Agostino.)

How about you in your writing? Do you pants it, plot it or plants-it?

The post When plotting turns to plodding; stop pantsing… appeared first on Living in Cyn.

Looking back on the last year, I was able to put my finger on a theme: motivation versus inspiration. Somewhere along the way, I managed to make the shift between acting from a place of motivation and responding to the impulse for inspired action. The impact on my life and my energy has been huge. Maybe you will find it helpful to see how I noticed the difference between the two. This way you might be able to make the eventual shift.

Motivation versus inspiration and its impact on the big goals

For a long time, one of my big goals has been to earn six figures a year as a writer. This big goal motivated me to launch Living in Cyn in earnest and to begin to tell my story embarking on this journey.

Looking back, one of my biggest challenges in setting out on that journey was that I would continuously get in my own way. Many of the decisions I made were based on motivation — activities that were more push or pull in nature.

Have you ever had something you really wanted for a long time? You would do something, go somewhere, ask someone, only to turn up empty handed? And, then, just as you finally put your hands in the air and exclaimed, “Okay, I give up!” you ended up getting that phone call, receiving that offer, winning the lottery — or whatever?

To us busy-bodies, the magic of allowing often looks like it is preceded by a moment’s resignation. But inspiration is less about being busy, and more about being fully aware of the moment. It’s about knowing when the iron is hot, and then knowing that “now” is the right time to strike it. Now I see how I was striking the iron all the time, hoping that one of those times would result in some sort of change or response. (That second version sounds really tiresome.)

As it turned out, when I finally let go — stopped “striking” my blog and my activities around “wanting to be a writer” — the offer to be a full time writer for a professional services presented itself to me. My first year on the job has been fun, easy and joyful, too!

The impact of motivation versus inspiration on the little big goals

This leads to my little goal for last year, which I will continue to carry into 2019. That has been to carve 15 – 60 minutes of mindfulness out of my day to focus back on the moment.

This practice has had a HUGE impact in helping me achieve all my goals — big and small. It has also helped me:

Find balance within myself, so I don’t get caught up in “motivation”
Tap into immense reservoirs of energy that come with responding to the impulse of inspiration, and
Appreciate and enjoy all my personal and professional relationships, especially the ones that challenge me to be the best person even in less-than-ideal circumstances.

The best thing about the little goals is that they’re easy. They’re little. But the impact is huge, resulting in an overall increased sense of satisfaction and happiness in my life.

The post Motivation versus Inspiration appeared first on Living in Cyn.

If you travel during religious holidays in Europe, you may find that the town you’re visiting is shut down. This blog post is what to do on a holiday in Lugano, Switzerland. This last Christmas season, my husband and I hit the train tracks and decided to catch some rays in sunny Lugano. While December 23 and 24 were lively with many artisanal stands and restaurants — December 25 was… pretty dead.

Should you find that the town you’re visiting has shuttered its doors and windows, visit a luxury hotel.

What to do on a holiday in Lugano, Switzerland?

Not ones to be deterred by a lack of activity in the streets, we decided to get a glass of champagne at the Hotel Splendide along the lake. What a nice surprise! There was live music, loads of champagne, a gorgeous wine room.

Thanks to my husband’s decades-long experience working with hotels and restaurants, he knew immediately that a luxury hotel like Hotel Splendide would be open. What a delight! We captured some of the excitement on camera. View our YouTube clip here:

Of  course, the hotel would love to host you for a night’s stay during this time. And you can visist the link above to book your stay. (You get the deal you find on Booking.com, and I earn a small commission should you end up making a purchase by clicking on that link.)

My husband and I hadn’t thought that things would be closed, so we booked a room in what we thought would be the center of all the action: Hotel Dante. This is an excellent hotel with no restaurant, but it is so conveniently located. The funicular that takes you to the train station is right by the entrance. Also at it’s footstep is “il centro” (the city center), so anything and everything you’re looking for is only steps away!

What else to do on a holiday in Lugano?

You can also take in the views along the lake. One of the benefits of everything being closed is that you can wander around without F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out). The promenade along the lake is the perfect vantage point to take in the surrounding beauty. Also, several artists have given their sculptures and art to the city in order to have them displayed lakeside, to be enjoyed by tourists and wildlife.

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The post What to do on a holiday in Lugano, Switzerland appeared first on Living in Cyn.

The number 1 piece of advice experienced writers share with aspiring authors is: read. It’s sound advice. Any bestselling master will tell you that reading is among their top activities as a writer. But there’s reading and there’s… active reading. My guess is that bestselling authors do a lot of both.

Somewhere along the way, I have moved from (almost exclusively) reading books on the craft of storytelling to actively studying the craft of a story written.[image error]

My recent return from a two-week vacation replete with sloth and laziness in Ibiza witnessed a surge in attention and attentiveness. In this post, I note how one bestselling author demonstrates his mastery “showing” tension to make up for inactivity in suspenseful plot sequences. I share my findings in this blog post.

Learning by reading the work of a bestselling master, Tom Clancy

I just finished reading Tom Clancy’s thriller novel, Without Remorse(1993, Amazon UK). The story takes place during the Vietnam War. It’s about an ex-Navy SEAL, named John Kelly, who decides to take revenge on a fast-growing drug ring that uses women as mules for heroine distribution.

Without getting into too much detail, the brutal murder of Pamela Madden becomes Kelly’s reason for taking the law into his own hands. John Kelly becomes a vigilante, determined to break up the drug ring that enslaved and tortured Pam.

In spite of an arguably slow start and multiple subplots – which at first can be a bit confusing – I was very satisfied with author Clancy’s story overall. Once I had settled into the plot, Without Remorse took me on John Kelly’s journey. This was pulled off in the way a television crime series gets you hooked. The author solves a series of small mysteries, while dropping breadcrumbs for a larger, more ominous mystery to be solved.

[image error]As the third quarter neared its end, I was hooked and had a hard time putting the book down. The perfect summer read: high entertainment value, full of unexpected twists, and long enough to take you on a journey. My take: it’s an excellent book to kick off a series. I intend to continue reading more in this series into the near future.

A good plot needs tension, conflict

As a writer, and aspiring novelist, I took note of some of the action sequences. One of the things that stood out was that many of them didn’t include much activity at all. Heartening!

The real action – the suspense – takes place when the conflict, the tension, is made clear.

For example, I could go to great lengths describing a dog chasing a man. But if I don’t make clear how a caged dog had been abused, starved and trained to hunt intruders — or if I haven’t established how the man had taunted the dog with a meatball sub just as the cage’s door came unhinged…

That’s one of the things that this bestselling master does in Without Remorse. Say what you will about the heft of the book or the unforgivable and (at times) unbelievable errors John Kelly commits to set his plot in motion. He uses all 600-plus pages to stage tension.

As loose ends are tied, the last quarter of the book showcases Clancy’s ability to set the stage for a few page-turning, thrilling scenes that (again) don’t require much activity or even displacement. I’ll be (ahem) tearing a few pages from this book in my own writing.

Like to get writing tips?

So do I! Sometimes, I figure out a small writing trick while reading. Other times, I’ll glean them while writing. Here are a couple blog posts I wrote especially for the pantsers among us who may benefit from a few plotting tips:

Plotting: the ultimate solution (and nightmare) for every pantser
When plotting turns to plodding…

Check them out and send me your tips, if you’ve stumbled upon an idea that’s especially effective!

Note: There are links on this page that will lead you to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase on Amazon as a result of clicking the link, I receive a small commission. Find out more about affiliate links here. Thanks for your support.

The post Plot insight gleaned from reading a bestselling master appeared first on Living in Cyn.

I have a confession to make, plotting and outlining are big challenges for me when writing fiction. As a professional writer, I have no issues outlining nonfiction. I do it all the time. Beginning? Middle? End? No sweat. Key messages? Sure thing. Anecdotes and illustrations? Got those. Hitting crazy word counts is never a problem for me. And editing my work isn’t either. (In fact, most of the time, people are telling me to slash verbiage.)

So, when it comes time to write long-form fiction, there’s a sort of mental disconnect. My brain wants to run free – make the implausible, possible, the impossible, plausible. Outlining feels constraining. (You might have seen an earlier blog post where I “whinnied” about this.) But I also know it’s necessary to really develop a story that I would enjoy reading – my ultimate goal and motivation for writing fiction.

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1) Begin plotting from end to beginning

Still, when you’re writing a long story, it’s helpful to write down notes of what you want to see happen at the end. I have some general rules of what I would like to see happen. Because I enjoy writing light, chick lit fare, the girl and the guy usually end up together. So, I write this down. I know I want this to be my ending. For other genres, it’s knowing you want the main character to diffuse the ticking bomb, the spy to find the assassin, the detective to figure out whodunit.

My biggest challenge is knowing what happens between the girl and her antagonist. I work on what the climax between antagonist and the heroine will look like. Where would it take place? How will the reader know this is the big showdown? What’s at stake? I really struggle with writing conflict, understanding the antagonist and essentially putting my finger on what resolution would look like between the antagonist and the main character.

This leads me into my next step for plotting.

2. Plotting your antagonist’s story first

Because of my aversion to conflict, it helps me to tell my main character’s story (the one in my head) from the standpoint of the antagonist’s point of view. It also helps me to see the main character from the lens of the antagonist – because, let’s face it, my antagonists need a reason for the main character to become a person of interest to them.

When I tell the story from the antagonist’s point of view, those elements the main character might think are important, often don’t have an impact on the antagonist’s life. So where are those points of impact?

Or – referring back to step one above – how does the antagonist want this story to end? And how am I, the writer, going to end this story for the antagonist?

When I identify the points of impact, as well as the ends for both antagonist and protagonist, I can begin to see how the conflict plays out for the main character.

3) Plotting a chapter-by-chapter breakdown

This is a simultaneously easy and tough task for me. My goal is for the breakdown to be divisible by four. This fits into the overall structure of your story:

Beginning.

Coming up with an inciting incident that simultaneously pulls the protagonist out of her usual rhythm, and also hints at why all the protagonists dreams and desires are just out of her grasp is what I’m aiming for in this section. It’s also a great time to introduce a bunch of your other characters – your protagonist’s posse, as well as the environment she’ll be operating in.

Uphill Middle.

In this beginning part of the middle, the main character is seeing the world as a painful, difficult place. She may pine for the early version of her life, but there’s no going back. She’s pretty much encountering conflicts through this stage, and she’s losing with every blow. Ultimately, she’ll have lost a lot, which is the culmination of this middle point: the all-is-lost moment.

Second Middle.

I see this in my mind as a bit of a plateau that will lead her to a grand confrontation with the antagonist. I think for a lot of writers, this is where they encounter the so-called “murky middle”. After so much to-do for the protagonist to meet all these challenges and get whipped, she needs a little time to regroup. Some people spend more time on the regrouping phase than others. Some people find the regrouping period boring, because much of the activity is taking place internally for the characters. Of course, remember that for all the regrouping your protagonist is doing, your antagonist is also gearing up for his own final smack-down. He is now aware that your heroine exists and also more than just a mild irritation. So he’s got his own regrouping to do.

Ending.

This section begins once the protagonist needs to finally enter the antagonist’s realm. The protagonist knows that this time, it’s truly now or never. The protagonist also knows that her odds of winning are not good—but she really has no other choice. She must do this. There may be some other trials leading up to the climax, but she knows that until she’s gotten the chalice, disempowered the antagonist, and overcome her own damn fears, she’ll be forever haunted by what she could have accomplished if she had only tried. So, the end is actually longer than you might think it is – it has a beginning, middle and end, too.

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It’s up to you if your protagonist wins or loses. Once you’ve written that, the unfolding that closes up your story is a swift affair. Any other questions that your reader might have need to be addressed – and quickly. If possible, gather all your characters nearby – or have them witness the antagonist’s decapitation, because you’ll have to wrap up their loose ends pretty darn quick.

Plotting Resources to Jump Start Your Writing!

This is the process I’m using now that I’m working on another fictional story. I haven’t come up with these ideas out of the blue. Reading process books by other experienced writers has also been extremely helpful. Check out these resources I have read and also recommend:

Libbie Hawker’s “Take Off Your Pants! Outline your books for faster, better writing” (Amazon UK) – In this book, Libbie really walks the reader through a clear and clean process that juggles theme and premise, character, plot and pacing. The result is a relatively manageable outline that can help pantsers stay focused on the thread of their story.

Katherine King’s “Plot with Character: How to Quickly Plot and Outline a Novel with Character Arc in 40 Scenes (The Plot Chronicles Book 1)” (Amazon UK) – This book has some useful tips. Katherine includes a 40-scene breakdown, which works well with the story-structure breakdown I noted above.

Neal Soloponte’s “The Ultimate Hero’s Journey: 195 Essential Plot Stages Found in the Best Novels and Movies” (Amazon UK)– Though it may not be practical due to the sheer volume of plot stages (a whopping 195), it’s particularly useful when you’re wading in the murky middle and you need clarity on how best to position your story for the climax.

Do you have or know of any good resources? Maybe you have a method you swear by? Let us know!

The post Plotting: The ultimate solution and nightmare for every pantser! appeared first on Living in Cyn.

What is GDPR?

GDPR, the new legislation from Europe, is on the tip of everybody’s tongue lately — even the hot shots in Silicon Valley. Why? Because even though GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation, is a European law, its ramifications extend as far and wide as the internet. And it goes into effect on 25 May 2018.

What does GDPR mean for aspiring and new authors?

As a new or aspiring author, you have probably begun the process of building an email list of readers. Normally, this process would include posting an email capture form on your website, or your social media page, and asking people to sign up to hear occasional updates from you. Here’s what you need to understand about GDPR:

GDPR affects you if you are collecting information from EU-based (likely also including UK-based) readers, regardless of whether you (or your business) are located in the EU.
You need explicit or unambiguous consent from your readers (or people who add their name and email address to your list). MailChimp proposes an opt-in checkbox that clearly explains how you will use readers’ data. Visit MailChimp’s blog post about adding GDPR forms to your list.

How can you get GDPR compliant?

Chatting with new and aspiring authors I know and work with, there is a sense of panic. Legislators have a way of making their laws sound scary and threatening (after all, noncompliance comes with hefty fines). Still, looking at the spirit of the law, the idea is to respect the privacy (i.e. personal data) and property (i.e. email address) of the people who have shown interest in what you offer. Who doesn’t want their privacy and property respected?

Here are two things you can do to get compliant with GDPR:

Include an opt-in checkbox on your form that tells your subscribers what they are signing up for. You can explain the nature and frequency of your emails, their ability to unsubscribe at any time, and your commitment to respect their privacy and property. Make sure the language here is plain English.
Connect with the people already on your list already. Then, ask them to explicitly state they wish to be there. (Of course, remind them that they can change their mind at any time.)

My own Legal disclaimer

Those are the steps I am taking. Please know, I am not a lawyer. What works for my purposes may not be sufficient for your own purposes. Please contact someone who has legal knowledge and expertise to advise you on the best course of action for you.

Check out my new course!

Speaking of course… I have spent the better part of a year coming up with a new online course, called “The Aspiring Author’s Guide: Your First Email Sequence using MailChimp”. As a blog post reader, you can get 50% off by using promo code GDPR50 upon purchasing! Let me know what you think!

The post Unlocking the mysteries of GDPR appeared first on Living in Cyn.

Hannah Mary McKinnon, whom we interviewed nearly two years ago, is coming out with her second novel, “The Neighbors”. Read our review of her more serious domestic drama below. Afterwards, you can read our interview with her about her writing process/ experiences.

[image error]The Neighbors

Review by Cynthia T. Luna

Hannah Mary McKinnon’s second novel, The Neighbors (Amazon US | UK), is a dramatic page turner that feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion and in reverse. You know how the story ends, but you want to know how exactly things got to the way they are.

The story’s main characters, Abby, her husband, Nate Morris, and their daughter, Sarah, are all trying to find out how their lives and their family ended up so… screwed up. While they probably wouldn’t have had the courage to describe their family as typical or even functional, they likely would have pointed to the day the Jeffersons moved in as the day when everything started to unravel — for the worse, of course.

Readers will find themselves rubber necking through the carefully pieced together scenes, to figure out how the all the characters’ lives went from sad and in denial, to downright desperate and forlorn. This reader was gripped from the first page, guiltily delving into the debris of memories from “then” and “now”.

The Neighbors, is a dramatic page turner that feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion and in reverse.

That’s when this story begins to reel you in. The ever-helpful Nate goes next door to introduce himself and lend the new neighbors a hand. Everyone, including the strapping new neighbor, Liam, his doting wife, Nancy, and son, Zac, agree that the demise of the Morrises — the figurative train wreck, as it were — began at that very moment.

Secrets, lies, regrets…

The main premise of The Neighbors is based on the question: “What if your ex-boyfriend moved in next door?” This story mushrooms far beyond that kernel of doubt. The secrets, lies and regrets of the main characters have a domino effect on all the supporting characters as well, making it all the more gripping and frustrating.

Fans of McKinnon’s first book will see some “what if” similarities with her first novel. Readers should be warned that while The Neighbors is modeled on a similar time-hopping narrative as Time After Time, it does not share the same romantic comedy spirit. This Generation X reader appreciated the 1990s music references and flashbacks. But aside from the occasional nostalgic smile, The Neighbors is all about the feels: Abby’s self-loathing, Nate’s constant doting, and Sara’s teen frustration. All clash to crash and burn.

Even though the reader still knows about “now” and how screwed the Morrises’ and the Jeffersons’ lives end up, McKinnon deftly saved the twist-endings for the very last. If twists in a tragedy could be satisfying, these would be prime examples. They lend some finality in a decades-long ordeal fraught with all the wrongs that were never righted.

How Living in Cyn rated The Neighbors…

In this, her second book, McKinnon demonstrates her writerly range and her abilities to juggle the complex emotional motivations and decisions her characters make. Even if this reader couldn’t agree with the choices Abby, Nate, Sarah and the other characters made throughout the novel, she could understand why they were made—leading to a satisfactory and unexpected ending. An excellent follow-up to a strong debut!

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5 Plumes!

If you liked this review and you think you’d like to purchase McKinnon’s book. Check it out on Amazon!
Visit this blog post if you’d like to read sample pages from Hannah McKinnon’s debut novel, Time After Time.
If you’d like to find more about her writing process, visit our e-interview with Hannah McKinnon on this blog post!

Note: There are links on this page that will lead you to Amazon.com. If you decide to make a purchase on Amazon as a result of clicking the link, I receive a small commission from your purchase. Find out more about affiliate links here. Thanks for your support.

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