Fear of the Camera—Know Your Photographer

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills


Tweet This: Fear of the Camera—Know Your Photographer
 
She was my friend until she shot me.

I know what you’re thinking. As a suspense writer, I’m always looking for ways to deepen my brand, and the opening line did get your attention. But actually this blog is about the value of an up-to-date head shot.

A photo shoot is part of every writer’s life, although we writers often cringe at the thought. We’d rather be writing than posing and plastering a unique smile. My newest photos were taken in South Carolina by Mary Denman a longtime friend and fabulous photographer. Her setting for a suspense writer’s new look was at an old textile mill. Sections of it had been restored and fashioned into lofts while other areas were so dilapidated that they were unsafe to go inside.  

Perfect, I thought, but I dreaded the whole smile on demand thing. 

Mary walked around the mill and studied fallen brick, chipped paint, weeds, and the sun. All the while she chatted, and I slowly attempted to act semi-normal. She pointed to a raised, concrete dock and asked if I could climb atop. My short legs  managed to follow her instructions. 

I peered into the shadowed mill, and my mind raced with a wild chase scene and a firefight.

“DiAnn, it’s time,” Mary said.

I froze. Brainstorming a new novel was more appealing.

“Toss your head,” Mary said. “Roll your shoulders.”

“Okay.” I cringed.

“Look all around—the sky, the tower. Turn with it.”

And the click of the camera began. I had a fabulous time—being serious, silly, and just plain crazy. When we were finished, I realized I’d had fun. So totally unexpected.

So why should we writers periodically have new photos? Here are three reasons:

1. A new photo freshens and updates our online presence.
2. A new photo gives our business card and printed material a “now-time” look. Nothing is worse than a reader remarking how the writer didn’t look like her photo.
3. A new photo shows the publishing industry and readers that we care enough to invest in our career. 

Here is one of my new shots. 

How about a caption? 

Your name will be entered in a random drawing for an edit of the first five double-spaced pages of your manuscript.  

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DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Don't Destroy Your Online Platform - 10 Things to Watch Out For!

by Edie Melson @Edie Melson 

Tweet This: 10 Ways you may be hurting your online platform - from #SocialMedia expert @EdieMelson 

For writers today, an online presence can mean the difference between success and failure. But if we’re not doing it right, we may be our own worst enemy. Today I want to share 10 ways you may be wrecking your social media presence.

1. You have an inconsistent social media presence—I’m not talking about taking weekends off, but on spending consistent time building your online presence. This includes showing up on Twitter and Facebook with reasonable regularity, and keeping a regular schedule for your blog posts.

2. You over-promote—The promotion I’m talking about is SELF promotion. Use Edie’s 5 to 1 rule—for every 5 social media updates, you’re allowed one additional update about yourself.

3. Your website doesn’t have social share buttons—I don’t know how much time I’ve spent on your sites looking for your twitter handle or trying to follow you on Facebook. Most people won’t spend more than three seconds. That’s not long.

4. You engage in Hashtag overload—Hashtags are great, and using them CORRECTLY can net you a lot of new followers. But correctly means no more than two per update. When you up your ante to three, the results begin to drop off.

5. You use auto-responders—Is there anyone out there who likes to talk to computers? Not me. Beyond that, we’re a pretty savvy group. We can tell an auto-respond message from a real one.

6. You’re obsessed with the numbers—Social Media growth takes time. Shortcuts bring more trouble than help. As long as you’re seeing growth, you’re doing well.

7. You don’t utilize a scheduling program—Personally I prefer Hootsuite. It keeps me visible online without having to spend hours a day tied to the Internet.

8. You’re guilty of hogging the stream—This means you post three or more updates in a row. You’ll find that behavior will encourage people to unfollow and unfriend you in droves. Spread out your updates and keep your connections happy.

9. You try out every new platform that appears—No one can do everything well. Focus your energy on Facebook and Twitter. With these two platforms you’ll hit almost 100% of your audience. After that, no more than one or two more. Focus, focus, focus.

10. You send out game invitations—This is a personal one for me. I used to get so many game requests I finally made it a hard and fast rule that I do NOT play games on Facebook. I’ll give anyone a pass for the first invitation you send, but after that, I will immediately unfollow anyone who sends me another one.

Tweet This: Don't hurt your online presence - 10 things to watch out for from @EdieMelson 

Now it’s your turn, what turns you off when it comes to social media? Is there something that leads you to immediately sever a connection? Share, so we can all see things from a different perspective.

A 12 Program for NOT Becoming a Successful Writer

  By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Tweet this:  A 12 Program for NOT Becoming a Successful Writer

We fiction writers chase our stories like toddlers on a sugar-high. I’m one of them. I can dream and plan and plot all day long. Yet sometimes I get sidetracked.

For writers who live and breathe their addiction but have a problem staying on task, I’m offering a twelve-step program call Story Chasers (SC). These are writers who want to be called authors but don’t want to do the work. If any of these descriptors fit you, consider your career choice. Writing fiction may not be for you.
 

1. Pacifier Writers
A pacifier is used to keep a baby from crying. In the instance of a writer, it’s whining about the publishing industry instead of writing better manuscripts.
 
2. Paint Writers
Don’t paint your world with illusions such as, “My mom says I’m the best writer in the state. I don’t need feedback.” If you want a realistic edit, ask someone other than a relative.
 
3. Passionless Writers
If a writer’s passion is not for her story idea, then a reader won’t be enthusiastic about it either. Develop ideas that keep you excited about the project.
 
4. Peacock Writers
Ouch. Pride stops us from success. It also brands us as unteachable. A humble writer learns the craft, develops a sense of the market, and is enthusiastic about edits.
 
5. Peanut Writers
George Washington Carver discovered 325 uses for the peanut. A peanut writer is one who writes everything from T-shirt sayings to theology books. We all have varied interests, and that’s commendable, but find your writing niche and stick with it.
 
6. Perspiration Writers
Some writers don’t like to sweat. If you’re not dripping over your manuscript, then you’re not writing a quality story. Writing is a contact sport: your mind engaged with your heart and fingers. Sweat. It’s good for the soul.
 
7. Pickle Writers
Weak writers are afraid to write themselves into a pickle. They don’t want the challenge of discovery, research, or unpredictable happenings. They also don’t sell their work.
 
8. Plumber Writers
Plumber writers flush all their work down the toilet and never seek publication. Need I say more? Find your confidence and reach your goals.

9. Plywood Writers
Plywood is flexible, inexpensive, easy to work with and reusable. But it’s very hard to bend perpendicular to the grain. A plywood writer is one who refuses to accept constructive criticism or change with the industry. In short a plywood writer insists upon writing her own way. 

10. Popcorn Writers
Popcorn writers are those who jump from one frying pan to another. They submit, are rejected, and submit again without looking at the manuscript for ways to improve it.

11. Potato Writers
Some writers don’t want to write for free. It’s beneath them. Small potatoes grow into big ones, and those nonpaying manuscripts build your resume. A writer always learns in the creative process.

12. Piranha writers Some writers will do anything to keep from writing. They like to swim through swift waters with published writers, but they have one excuse after another not to work. They never make deadlines - even self-imposed ones - because I doubt they have any. Piranha writers set themselves up to be devoured by the sharks who are swimming upstream.
 
If you’ve discovered a characteristic that slides you into a Story Chaser, now’s the time to change bad habits into good ones and begin the next bestseller.

How are you changing your writing habits?

Tweet this:  A 12 Program for NOT Becoming a Successful Writer


DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Spending the Week Working on The Author Roadmap

This past weekend, DiAnn Mills and I were on faculty for Weekend with the Writers. Since it was held here in Greenville, SC, she and I are spending this week together, finishing up our book, The Author Roadmap.

Tweet This: Working hard on The Author Roadmap to help authors navigate #socialmedia & #marketing

We’re so excited about how it’s shaping up and all the wonderful things we’ll be able to share with you. 

We’ve been mining our own writing journeys, looking for things that would have helped us along the way.

Here are just a few extras you can expect when the book comes out:

• A clear guide to take you one step at a time as you navigate the social media and marketing aspect of being an author.
• Spreadsheets and timelines so you not only know what to do, but when to do it.
• Extra links within the book that lead to videos and screencasts to help everyone actually see what we’re talking about.

We’ve been brainstorming, taking pictures, and burning up our keyboards trying to make this a resource that will help you accomplish your writing dreams.

Edie Melson is the author of numerous books, as well as a freelance writer and editor. Her blog, The Write Conversation, reaches thousands each month. She’s the co-director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference and the Social Media Mentor at My Book Therapy. She’s also the Military Family Blogger at Guideposts. Com, Social Media Director for Southern Writers Magazine and the Senior Editor for NovelRocket.com. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook. Look for her newest book, While My Soldier Serves (Worthy Inspired), available at bookstores and online.

4 Essentials to Write a Powerful Scene

 By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

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Build your scene with vivid words.

Novels are written with one powerful, sensory-engaging, character-building, plot-enhancing, conflict-stabbing, stake-raising scene after another.

They are fresh, alive, exciting, unforgettable . . . and often difficult for the writer to grasp the technique.

With all the criteria necessary to keep the reader turning pages, how is a scene mastered that incorporates all the essentials and yet doesn’t look like a template branded onto the page?

Some years ago I struggled with all of above. Defeat and failure stalked my waking and sleeping hours. An editor at Tyndale Publishers gave me four plot questions to ask before creating each scene, and she also gave me permission to write and teach her recommendations. How cool is that?

The following are what I now use to form a new scene.

1. What is the point of view character’s goal or problem?
2. What does the point of view character learn that he/she didn’t know before?
3. What backstory is revealed?
4. How are the stakes raised?

These questions stopped me from heading in the wrong direction. In short, I was able to focus on what needed to occur. At times the answers to #2 and #3 are the same. That’s okay.

The prompts propelled me to think more about the dynamics of scenes and how I envision an adventuresome and unique story. I’ve also incorporated a few words of wisdom from other bestselling writers.

Donald Mass teaches: “Avoid backstory until after the first approximately 50 pages.”

Wow, that means the story begins in the now. We’re writing about a likable character who is experiencing the story world as it unfolds to her. The reader develops a relationship with the character, just like meeting a real person for the first time.

James Scott Bell adds: “Avoid character flaws for the first approximately 50 pages.”

I love this. The character holds back on showing those traits that aren’t admirable while the reader is getting to know him/her. Remember dating the man or woman of your dreams? We were in love before we spotted a few things that bothered us. But we’d already invested in the relationship, so we stuck with it.

Steven James: “Story trumps structure.” 

Spend the time to ensure your scenes have zip!

How else can we write a scene that is a keeper? The middle can leave us exasperated, and too often a reader discards the book when the story falls flat. Here are a few tips:

1. Have the character choose between two rights and face the consequences of the decision.
2. Have the character choose between two wrongs (one of my favs) because this forces the character to change and grow.
3. Toss in a crucible, when two characters will not give up something of value. Think lifeboat.
4. Shove two characters into a scene with opposing goals. Watch the conflict explode!
5. Consider a facade scene. This is when a character believes something to be true, and the reader believes it too, then the character faces the devastation of knowing he/she was wrong. Entire books can be constructed this way.

Building scenes with a worthy goal, adding conflict, and raising the story’s stakes is worth the time. The rewards will be in good reviews and sales.

How do you write scenes that usher in admiration and respect for the craft?

Tweet this: 4 Essentials to Write a Powerful Scene



DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Probiotics for the Professional Writer

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

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Got it for my body but what about my novel?

Probiotics receive a lot of credit for keeping the human body healthy, especially the digestive system. But what about probiotics for the professional writer, those good-for-you additives that benefit your story?

This isn’t a pill, a liquid, or a gel to keep your reader happy. Writer probiotics aren’t even found in food or a supplement, but they are a preventive against a manuscript falling into the weak and sickly zone. The result is a story that works from the beginning to the end without a trip to the book doctor.

Instructions are as follow:

1. Learn the craft. Writers take time daily to educate and review technique. 
2. Spend the money and time to be an expert. 
3. Polish all skills on a regular basis. 
4. Get involved with other writers. A pro gives to others with no thought of receiving. Your kindness will return to you.
5. Engage and participate in social media. A must for writer success. You have something to say and others are eager to hear it. 
6. Read Read Read. Marvel at the wording on a Cheerios’ box or the latest media report. Don’t forget the best sellers. 
7. Nurture your body by eating properly and exercising regularly.

Daily doses of the above can help balance your "strengths" and "weaknesses" to keep your story working like it should.

Probiotics for the professional writer prevent:

1. Irritable agents, editors, and readers.
2. Inflammatory comments from those who critique with a harsh tongue (or pen).
3. Infectious diseases that center around self-pity and failure.

Can prevent:

1. Rejections that sting.
2. Reluctancy to write. Often called the give-up syndrome.
3. Revisions - at least the multiple type.

Side effects are:

1. Writers may begin talking to characters.
2. Stories are purchased.
3. May trigger series ideas.

Probiotics for the professional writer work with the story’s immune system to create healthy and powerful entertainment that live on in the hearts of readers and writers.

What’s your favorite probiotic for writers?

Tweet this: Probiotics for the Professional Writer

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.