Hidey ho my non-furred friends! It’s been raining here the past few days, so I came out of my hole to dry out a bit at Carrie’s. A little spin dry in the big white machine felt WONDERFUL! (And now my fur is downy soft too!)

Last week we discussed the LIKE button on the admin bar. This week, we’re moving on to the REBLOG button. The reblog button only appears when you’re logged in to WP. So, if you aren’t logged in, we’ll wait.

Stilllllll waiting.

C’mon Princess, the whole class is waiting! Ok, there we go!

Now everyone can see their reblog button. Don’t poke it! Let me tell you what it does first.

So, you’re visiting your friends blog, and she says something AMAZING – as of course they all do – and you want all of YOUR readers to know about it, click the reblog button.

Automatically WP will show the first image on the post, the URL the post came from, a small excerpt, thumbnails from the remaining photos used and any comment YOU, the reblogger might have left.

What happens when someone reblogs part of your post? You’ll get a notification of it in your comments – like a pingback. Sometimes you might have to approve it first, so check it carefully.

The goal here in reblogging is to share your friends posts with your other friends posts. Thereby creating an even bigger circle of commenters and bloggers to the tribe. And isn’t that what most authors are after?

But yes, it can be used for bad. But, lets not think about that now, eh? =)

You can further reblog a reblogged blog. Try to say that three times fast while dining on baby carrots! (High paw, Carrie!) It will include your friends comment, however, and not your own. If you’ve got nothing to add, then no problem! You’d be promoting the original blogger AND your friend who commented.

If you want to edit a reblog, you can – to a point. You can edit YOUR stuff, not your friends. But if you mis-spelled orangutan in the first comments section, you can change it when you reblog. Just go to posts> all posts and voila, there it is. Add in tags and categories if you want!

Ok friends, go forth and begin your reblogging!

=)

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Too much conflict?
Not enough?
Captivating characters?
Plausible action?

Your whole story is powered by motivation, the best engine to drive a compelling plot. If you nail down ANY character’s motivation, the plot will automatically take shape with inherent, believable conflict.

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“I loved the interactive aspect…the process was something this Pantser could appreciate.”
“enlightening…one of the best classes I’ve ever taken.”
“ideas and worksheets were so helpful…take a daunting subject and make it do-able”
“Turning an idea into a plotted story this fast is amazing.”

Plotting Via Motivation is offered on yahoogroups from March 5-30. Registration is $30 at www.writeruniv.com.

My own two cents? Best class I’ve ever taken – hands down.

carrie

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Waaaaaay back when, when I first decided to become a *cough* writer, I KNEW my stories would have pets in them. Cats, dogs, frogs – an iguana. Didn’t matter, there would HAVE to be some kind of pet in the story.

Possibly it’s because I’ve lived my entire life with pets. Either my own, my parents or someone in my family has always had a pet even if I didn’t have one at the time. I can’t possibly imagine someone in one of my stories not having one as well.

There’s a variety of challenging problems that come with writing a romance while the hero and/or heroine has a pet.

1. They can’t go on exotic vacations – without finding a pet sitter.
2. They must have quality time with their pet – without the pet taking over the story.
3. They must share their innermost feelings with their pet – without looking psycho.
4. They have to show their concern and care for their pet – without actually having to change the kitty litter box or clean up vomit. (NOT good to write into a romance!)
5. They have to show they can understand their pet – the lifted brow, the sharp bark, the paw on the leg. A bit like when Lassie gave a bark and everyone knew immediately Timmy had fallen in the well. Again.

On the other hand, pets can be used to ratchet up tension, especially if the pet hates the hero/heroine. Or if they become ill. Or pet-napped. In one of my little short stories, the dog leaps in front of a car to save the little girl, and ends up with a broken leg. It honestly makes me tear up right here just typing this! But of course, the dog is fine, a lady veterinarian just happens to be RIGHT THERE, and she’s beautiful, and he’s handsome and…well, you can just see the HEA can’t you?

My first stories featured cats. Of course. =) Each of my cats will feature in a story at some point. However, my latest also features a bulldog. With a lisp. =) I haven’t actually written one with an iguana as of yet, but when I come up with an appropriate plot, nothing will stop me I guarantee you! I have a YA that features a yak. There will also be horses, possibly an enormous goldfish, possums and . . . well, the list goes on.

Do YOU use pets in your stories? If so, what are some of the challenges you’ve run across writing them in?

Maybe a story with a ring-tailed lemur . . .

*plotting*

…..=)

CCL

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Greetings one and all! I’m sorry I missed out on last week – deep in hibernation and my alarm didn’t go off! That’s what happens after too much partying on Woodchuck Day. =)

Some of you might have noticed – if you’re on WordPress.com – that there’s a new couple buttons in your admin bar across the top of your page. No need to panic, Woodie’s here to show you what they mean.

First up, is the LIKE button. If you click the LIKE button while reading a post, that information is passed on to the website author – who then knows how many people actually liked what he wrote. Once you LIKE a post, the button then changes to read UNLIKE. Rude, eh? But yes, you can actually change your mind.

Assuming you’re staying with LIKE – this above is the type of screen you’ll get. Your icon will appear in the list with others who’ve liked the post as well. To find which posts you’ve liked, you’ll need to make sure you’re signed in to your WP account, then go to http://www.wordpress.com.

At the main page, you’ll see a variety of tabs. Click on Posts I Like.

A window opens, showing the posts you’ve liked along the way, so you can revisit them again! Favorite recipes, posts about writing, an especially excellent joke, are now here at your fingertips.

If you’re done viewing the post, then click UNLIKE and poof, it won’t be in your Posts I Like section anymore.

LIKE buttons are generally at the bottom of each post as well, but you can change your settings in Dashboard>Settings>Sharing.

You can also turn off the LIKE button on individual posts, simply by clicking the box under the post itself.

There you go! Now get out there and LIKE somebody!

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance

Fellow writers, make sure you head over to Romance University today to enter our first annual Tainted Rose contest. Write up to 75 words of purple prose, bad description and lots of adverbs to win your chance at Amazon gift cards and other goodies. It’s free – and it’s today!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Carrie Spencer Author - Smart Ass Romance