By Trudi Gilligan (writing as Bernadette Walsh)

I have always been an avid reader. Books are my drug. When I was a kid my father would take the book out of my hand and throw me outside to play. I always found a way to sneak in through the back door and keep reading.

Six years ago my dreams came true when my daughter was born. However, four months after she was born I went back to work as a lawyer in Manhattan. For the next two and half years my life was an endless loop of deadlines, commuting, laundry, bottles, potty training and, oh yeah, an occasional dinner date with the hub. Eventually my little one began to sleep through the night, I somehow figured out a way to compress my prior twelve hour work days into seven, and then I decided to add something else to my to do list: I decided to write a novel.

I started by reading “how to write a novel” books and did a lot of surfing. For my first book, I followed a modified form of the “snowflake” method and wrote short bios for all of my characters. I made an outline. However, since then I’ve become more of a pantser.

I usually spend a month or two just thinking about my book. I try to enter the head of my main character. I do a lot of my thinking during my commute on the LIRR, staring out the window. Once I have a feel for my characters, I then put pen to paper, or rather fingers to the keyboard. During the work week I have at most twenty minutes to write at night after my daughter goes to bed. Before I sit down, I always have a very specific goal for the scene I am about to write (i.e. at the end of this scene Character X has to accomplish Y). I sneak an hour here and there for writing, and as a result need to be very disciplined and get the most out of my writing time. I don’t have the luxury of writing just to see where things go.

My writing tends to be very concise. I am not sure whether that is because of my legal background or my limited available writing time. The result is I tend to write short. My first two books were around 60K with my latest novella being under 40K. Because I write so short, that has limited my publishing options. Fortunately, I have been able to place my work with e-publishers.

I have also skipped around genres. My first novel, Gold Coast Wives, is a “chick-lity” contemporary romance, the second, The House on Prospect, is women’s fiction and my third, Devil’s Mountain, is a paranormal romance. I has such a blast writing Devil’s Mountain I am now working on book 2 and hope to make it a series. I think I will stay in the land of Irish witches a while longer.

One of my friends recently said to me that all this writing stuff just seems like a lot of work. And as you all know, she is right. It is more work, but it has also added a richness into my life. As a corporate lawyer I had never really thought of myself as a creative type. I was more navy blue suits and pearls. But now, at the ripe old age of 44, I have discovered my inner artist and that is a gift for which I will always be grateful.

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If you’ve been on Twitter longer than a few days and have been sending your tweets out to the world, you’ve probably starting picking up some followers. YAY!  Those followers bring me to one of the first questions I often hear when my friends start tweeting, “Do I have to follow them back?”

No. You don’t. It’s not rude or bad behavior not to automatically follow someone back. You can (and should) take a look at their profile, and their tweets and decide from there.

How about those “@” replies? You know when someone mentions your name in a #FF (FollowFriday) or retweets one of your posts? This is the time for you to publicly respond with a reply (@) to thank that person. Why? Because it’s a nice, friendly gesture – which is what Twitter is all about!

Now that you’ve got that down, how about some basic posting etiquette guidelines?

DO: Be real! (This is not to say you have to pour out all your secrets and your heart – just be you!)

DO: Be friendly and conversational

DO: Use hashtags (#) to target your conversations

DO: Respond and Reply to others that you follow

DON’T: Only do drive-by promo (If you use twitter only as promo tool to direct people to your book for sale – this is the fast track to being ignored as nothing but a promo-slut.)

DON’T: Only post about yourself, your book, your blog

DON’T: Get into a tweetfest filled with negativity

I like to think of twitter as a giant cocktail party with little pockets of conversations going on in alcoves, corners and dead-smack in the center of the room. As you walk around to mingle, would you ignore the person who tells you they like your dress or your new haircut? Would not share where you got the adorable shoes on your feet? No, you wouldn’t because it would downright rude.

On the other hand, would you walk into the center of each circle your pass, blurt out that your latest book has been released and walk away? I can guarantee you those people will not rush out to buy a copy as soon as they leave the party because you didn’t treat them with respect – you treated them as a potential sale.

Am I saying you cannot ever promo your latest brilliant blog post or links to your newest book? NO! I’m saying sprinkle it in with some interaction. Let people get to know you and your voice. Let people follow you, retweet your posts AND learn about your books.

It’s about keeping it real, because no matter what stage you are at in your writing career – you’re more than a billboard.

Go out and make some friends today! Happy Twittering!

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Willow Tate is a graphic novelist who earns enough money at her craft to keep her rent-controlled Manhattan apartment and still put food in the fridge. But when she decides to write about a ten-foot-tall troll who’s a superhero, one suddenly appears, causing mayhem in Manhattan.

When no one else can see the stony red giant, Willy thinks she’s gone crazy, until she meets Agent Grant from the Department of Unexplained Events. According to him, Willy has managed to break ages-old cosmic laws that could destroy the Earth as we know it. Now she has to help him save the world, rescue a little boy, and stop a murdering kidnapper who wants to use the power of a little village in the Hamptons to become master of the universe.

 Along the way, Willy discovers that trolls don’t deserve their bad reputation, that she’s not the only person in Paumanok Harbor with special talents, and that magic and true love really do exist. 

You can read the first chapter at Celia’s website! http://www.celiajerome.com/TrollsInTheHamptons.htm

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Welcome back to Twitter Tuesday!

Have been using the hastags and getting the hang of following conversations? Whether you’ve become a master Twitter conversation follower (or even starter!) or still feeling your way slowly around – it’s ok. Take your time!

As writers we’ve all heard that name recognition begins before you sign that contract and building up your twitter following is a great way to start. Learning how to promote on twitter the best way for you now will help you get your name out there name. If you already have a book to promote, don’t lose out on this easy but effective tool.

Following and posting to twitter and all those conversations can be done in dozens of ways. You can post from your phone, from your facebook account or directly from your computer. I do tweet from my phone, but when I’m home I prefer to use twitter on my desktop. You can stick with leaving the original Twitter site running in your desktop tray or you can use a twitter desktop application – like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.

If you follow a few groups, or conversations, or just want to see your @mentions, your (DM) Direct Messages and your up-to-the minute timeline, using a desktop application like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite will make your life so much easier. You can set up columns (or streams as they’re called in twitterland) and see them all at once on your desktop. Which makes it easier to see those @mentions or when someone has retweeted one of your posts (remember Twitter is all about being a real person, this is not just a “promo and run” application! It’s very important to build your relationships by acknowledging those retweets and thanking people when they @mention you!)

My choice of desktop application is Hootsuite, maybe it’s because I love the whole “owl” idea – I don’t know. I do know that I love the way I have my choice each time I tweet to pick the account it comes from. I can tweet from DeboraDennis, DunesandDreams or my linkedIn account (or all three if I want!) I can use the calendar on hootsuite and send out important tweets automatically at any time I choose (delayed posting – a nice thing!)

So, this week I encourage you to take a look at some different ways to view twitter to make it work for you. All the applications are free and you can customize them to a feel or theme that you find pleasing. Who knows, when you start to see all those conversations going on, you might be tempted to jump in and make some friends!

Happy Tweeting!

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http://www.virginiakantra.com/CritiquesforHeather.html

My pal Virginia Kantra and four other best-selling authors are offering first-chapter critiques in exchange for donations to help cure ovarian cancer! Check either of the sites above for details, or if you follow Virginia on Twitter or Facebook, see her pages for details. Great opportunity to do something awesome, and get something awesome in return!

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Welcome back to another blog post on finding your way around Twitter!

Now that you’re signed up, have a few followers and have started following people too, you’ve probably noticed a few things: @ and #.

When someone uses the @(followed by a twitter name) – it’s as if they are talking to that person or mentioning that person. Using that symbol is how you respond and carry on a conversation within the Twitter universe! And when someone uses your name and the @ sign – it will show up under “mentions” in your twitter dashboard (or in a stream if you use a twitter client – which we’ll get to next week!) to make it easy for you to follow along and respond. Twitter is all about responding, letting people know someone is listening.

Next up is the # and it’s a little more confusing until you “get” it. Boiled down, the # (hashtag) is a conversation or a topic of conversation. Imagine you’re at a party and as you’re walking around there are these little groups of conversations going on around you. All those different topics are really what a hashtag is. If you do a search for keywords on Twitter you can follow a whole conversation with everyone and anyone on Twitter talking about that subject – as long as they’ve put #subject in their post! It’s like you’ve stepped in their circle – you can listen or join in and comment – the choice is yours!

For instance, a few weeks before the 2011 RWA National Conference I started following the #RWA11 hashtag. If someone used that hashtag in their post – I saw the conversation. It’s fun and easy and can instantly make you feel like part of the Twitter crowd.

To get you started here are a few hashtags (conversations) you can start to follow:

#myWANA (a conversation by Kristen Lamb’s group for writers – We Are Not Alone)

#iamwriting (you guessed it – people writing!)

#DunesDreamsRWA (our own Dunes & Dreams members on Twitter!)

But it can be fun too. A month back there was a hashtag “replaceawordinafamousequotewithduck” – yes, it’s long – so you have to keep your post short to make it all fit, but it was hysterical what people were coming up with. It was a nice break to a stressful day to read some of them. In case you’re wondering, I did join in and posted a few quotes of my own!

Go out and join the conversation this week! Have you been using hashtags? Do you have one to share? Let us know!

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Recognize this guy? If you’ve been around the internet, blogs and social networking, you’re probably pretty familiary with the Twitter Bird. If not, it’s okay, I’m here to help!

The question today is, are you following him? Are you getting your biggest bang from the twitter social networking wonder?

First you have to get over your fear that this little bird is going to be time-consuming – it doesn’t have to be. You just need a little self control (I’m currently working on that!)

Today we’re going to start with a few basics to get you started. If you don’t already have a twitter account, head on over to Twitter.com and sign up – it’s FREE! You can use your real name, your pen name or whatever you’d like as long as people can identify with you (if you’re going to use this to promote your writing – make it professional!)

Next you’ll want to create your profile. Twitter is based on quick 140 character “mini-blogs” – think short bursts of conversations. Your profile is no different. You want the pertinent details to entice people to follow you. Don’t forget to add a link to your website or blog!

Here’s mine as an example:

Author. Novels with spicy romance with a slice of adventure! A Knight in Her Arms now on Kindle! Proud co-founder of Dunes&Dreams RWA Chapter of RWA.

Now, you’ve got a twitter name and a profile – it’s time to start following people! I know this seems like stalking – but trust me it’s not! I think the best way to start out is to follow people that you know will follow you back, giving you an instant ego boost and will give you the feeling that you’re not alone out there in the big blue world of Twitter. My advice? Search (in the profile area) for some of your Dunes & Dreams chaptermates (I’m there, DeboraDennis.)

Now it’s time to experiment and play with it. Take a few minutes each day to interact with your new friends. DON’T start out by posting only promo! The twitter universe is huge, but it’s also like a small community of friends meeting at a local coffeehouse. They want to get to know you, not just what you’re selling or promoting.

Go out and have fun with it.

Stay tuned next Tuesday to learn some twitter tricks!

(And don’t forget to send me a tweet to let me know you’re there and I’ll welcome you!)

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I wish I had paid more attention during those high school English classes when Mrs. Schmidt taught us how to outline. Imagine that! A writer, one who was already dreaming of writing the Great American Novel even then, admitting to not paying much attention in class. I was too busy jotting down notes and sneaking peaks at the pages of my dog-eared copies of The Writer magazine, a magazine I still enjoy reading today. I won’t even tell you the year I found the magazine that helped me along my writer’s path; it would date me. Let’s just suffice it to say the digits began with 19__ and platform shoes were all the rage.

Getting back to the subject, because I didn’t pay attention or just because it goes against my grain, I don’t outline. I am a pantster. I am a pantster and I like it. I’ll admit I did try a rough form of what I thought might be an outline once. But when the writing got underway I found myself spending too much time crossing out ideas and squeezing in notes in between pages of what was supposed to be ‘the’ story. I like being a pantster but even us pantsters need some kind of system to get the words on the page and to keep our stories on track. For me that’s my novel notebook and I keep one for each novel I am writing.

I completed my first novel in February of this year. Even though I had participated in a Nanowrimo challenge back in 2007, I didn’t think I could do it. And this novel was 85,000 words – no small feat for me! There were no outlines, no character sketches and no extensive pages of notes. I just turned on the computer, faced the blank screen and off I went.

After the first two or three chapters I had already begun to realize that keeping track of who and what was getting to be too much. I grabbed a notebook and began filling out a page for each character, writing down the details of the setting and actually tracking what characters ‘appeared on stage’ each chapter. Because my idea was a story set in a small town where everyone knew everyone, I was juggling a cast of twelve characters. That’s a lot of names and faces to remember.  After a few months I found that not only could I complete a novel this way, but I had filled up the entire novel notebook with information that made it easy to keep track of characters, verify dates, ages, and too many details to list.

What is a novel notebook? I use my notebook very loosely.  In it I list my cast of characters. For my second novel I have written up character sketches for each one. I also have notes on the setting of my story with tidbits of research that are key to the story. I have my main character’s family tree as family is a big theme in this particular story. I have significant dates like anniversaries, births and deaths so that I don’t end up putting a character at a fair in 1950 only to find out she wasnt’ born until 1963. I know that it’s the little details that make or break the story.  Just this morning, while getting my daily word count done, I realized that I had used two different names for my character’s client. Lily is working on the floral arrangement for Mrs. Johnson on one page and six pages later Mrs. Johnson had suddenly become Mrs. Hudson. I stuck to my original choice, Johnson, and in capital letters noted that in my notebook.

Another great aspect of my novel notebook is the fact that I keep notes by chapter. As opposed to an outline, which might have what is going to happen written down BEFORE the writing, I write the chapter and then write down what happened in the chapter AFTER it’s written. So my notebook ends up having a breakdown of the entire book in chapter order. Though I haven’t attempted it yet (ugh) I would imagine my notebook will help me as I attempt to put together a synopsis for an agent or editor.

Other than this notebook, I keep a file folder of any photocopies, pages from magazines I found and pulled out and other printed information. This is all I work with when I am writing my novel. I’ve got one novel complete and in the editing stages, and my second is now one quarter of the way done. And, like any other writer, I’ve got a third story on the back burner simmering, waiting for its turn.

I don’t know if my novel notebook will work for you but if you’re still trying to find something that helps you get your novel written, it might be worth a try.

Happy writing!

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Today, the enigmatic Meghan Schuessler celebrates her natal day, and we’re all thrilled to send her our very best wishes for a successful year ahead.

Meghan, dear friend and chapter mate, may you realize all the dreams you dare and catch the stars meant for you! Happy birthday!

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• Happy Birthday, Jeannie!
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• Happy Birthday, Trudi!
• Happy birthday, Debora!
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Coming October 2011!

How Do I Write?

I write 6 days a week with a week or two off between manuscripts.  I am blessed with the ability to stop in the middle of a page, go attend to whatever needs doing, come back and pick up where I left off.

If this sounds terrifying don’t be intimidated.  It’s just a strong work ethic discipline.  I don’t outline. I write. The days I love best are the ones where nothing disturbs my train of thought the entire day and I can just work.

I do recommend getting up, and moving around a bit ever hour or two.  The days I hate are the ones where the story comes slooooowly.  I get up a lot on those days. Try to do at least 3 pages a day.  Don’t be a “Penelope”.  By that I mean don’t spend the next day pulling apart what you wrote the day before. No one gets a book written that way.

When you have it all written go over your manuscript making your changes, fixing your mistakes.  Once. No more. If you sell your work the editor will tell you what to do to make your work better. When someone says “polish” to me I think silver and shoes.

And in the end no one can really tell you how. It’s a personal and a private trip.  Just do it.

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