Like you, I set my goals high for the year. I jumped into the Ezine Articles 100 articles in 100 days challenge. I was on-track with my articles. I’d outlined a series of blog posts. Then WHAM!

A dear friend reminded me that sometimes we need to give our bodies a chance to catch up with our minds. If we don’t slow down, our bodies find a way to force us.

So, I’ve been cocooned, wrapped up in my soft ,cuddly robe, usually with my soft, sometimes cuddly cockatoo, resting, healing, and skimming. Since I’ve been unable to concentrate on too much for too long, I’ve been watching SHORT videos, listening to SHORT audios, and scanning articles and blogs.

While I’ve been ingesting snippets of information, I’ve been getting ideas and taking notes for my own work. I’ve gotten ideas for blog posts, articles, teleseminars, audios, and videos.

I’ve posted comments on some of the blogs I’ve read. This is a great way to build relationships and connect with new readers. I love becoming part of conversations all over the net.

As my energy returns, I’ll be able to write the articles and posts that I’ve planned. That is much easier than trying to come up with ideas and write at the same time. While I’ve rested, my mind has been busy at work fleshing out my notes. I will still be able to keep up with the 100 article challenge.

The lessons I’ve learned are

• Listen to your body.
  • Slow down before you HAVE to.
• Take time to relax and gather new ideas.
  • (Smell the roses too.)
• Write down all your ideas.
  • The palest ink is stronger than the best memory.
• When your energy starts returning, use it to heal first.
  • Jumping back to work too fast leads to relapse.
• Even if you can’t talk, you can still maintain relationships.
  • Emails, blog comments, forum posts, Twitter, and chats all work well without using your voice.
• Sometimes it’s better to be still and listen.
  • Give the universe a chance to bring you what you need.

Even though this illness has delayed my planned teleseminar series, I’ll be better prepared for it when I can talk again.

Make sure you don’t miss the calls.  Put your email address in the opt-in box on the right. You’ll receive an email announcement in your inbox.

How do you make your downtime productive? Leave a comment and share your techniques,

Write on,

Lynn

Fortunately, writing more is the best way to write better. Ezine Articles is holding a challenge to help you one your way. They have announced that the 3^rd 100 articles in 100 days challenge will start on January 1, 2010. What a great way to kick off the new year!

But, I don’t write articles, you say. I say, give this challenge a try. One of the best ways to promote your fiction is by writing non-fiction.

Writing articles for writing organization newsletters is a great way to spread your words to other writers.  Writers also read and recommend great books to their friends. Also your newsletter editors will love you.

Writing articles can give your book sales and your writing career a boost. Ezine Articles is the best internet article directory to use to build your online portfolio. More people will see your articles there, and the Google search engine places articles from Ezine Articles high in the search results.

At the end of your articles, you include a bio or resource box as Ezine Articles calls it. This is where you can promote yourself, your books, and your website. Don’t have your resource box read like your resume. Make it interesting and show what good stuff awaits your readers if they click through to your website. (Always include a link to your website.) Offer your readers more information about the book, you, or your writing process. You might even offer an excerpt or a short article telling why you decided on this setting or this plot.

People can take your article and post it on their website as well. This is a good thing. They must keep your resource box intact. Their readers will see your work and have a reason to click through to your website.

Nothing builds your credibility as well as having your writing portfolio online where people can see it. This challenge is a great way to build a large body of work fast. It will also get you in the habit of sitting down and writing every day. Once you start writing, you may find that you want to keep going.

I find that my muse loves it when I switch from fiction to non-fiction and back again. She seems to thrive on challenges.

Start the new year right. It’s much easier to start the challenge on time than try to catch up later. If you successfully complete the challenge EZA will send you lots of goodies including a coffee mug, mouse pad, and other neat things.

You can use Twitter to follow discussions about the challenge. Use the hash tag #HAHD to find others who are participating. (That means search for #HAHD to find tweets about the challenge.)

Jump into the new year by joining EZA’s challenge! Leave a comment below and tell me you are in. Also leave a link to your profile. You can see mine at EZA challenge.

Whatever your goals, have a happy and productive new year!

Write on,

Lynn

Are you where you want to be in your writing career and your life?  If not, what can you do differently to bring those goals into reality?

You’ve probably heard that people are more likely to accomplish goals that are written. That’s true. However, there are additional techniques that can move you closer to accomplishing your goals.

What do you want your life to be like this time next year?  What is your ideal life?  Sit down and imagine that life. Write down the details. What are you doing? How do you spend your time.

How do you feel?  Include your emotions. You’re a writer. Show your ideal life. Use your senses. Feel the joy of your ideal life. Why do you want this life? What are your rewards? Vividly describe these details.

What needs to happen to bring create your ideal life? Work backward from your goal. What have you accomplished?  What was the last step before you accomplished it?  What was the step before that?

Break your goals down into manageable steps. Where do you need to be each quarter? Don’t try to accomplish the entire picture all at once.

You can accomplish great things when you stack SMART goals. Stacking means set SMART goals every week. Accomplishing a little each week adds up to big things in the long run.

SMART goals are goals that are

Specific — Your goal is well defined

Measurable — You’ll know when you have achieved it

Achievable — The results are within your control

Realistic — You are able to achieve it

Time Bound — A goal without a deadline is a dream

Specific, achievable weekly goals add up to big advanced.

Having an accountability partner is another step that will keep you on track with your goals. Tell someone your goals. Better yet, list goals for each day or each week. At the end of the period, check in and report whether or not you achieved those goals. No excuses allowed, just yes or no.

Your accountability partner needs to be someone who will hold you accountable, not someone who will provide or accept your excuses. A great accountability partner will work with you to find out what is holding you back from achieving your goals and will help you overcome your limitations.

You can use these tools in an informal setting. But, you will get a lot more accomplished if you have a structured, regular ritual for setting your goals. A mastermind structured on Andrew Carnegie’s model is a great way to do this. If you’d like to find out more about this type of mastermind, check out my mastermind page. Then go to Mastermind for Writers to submit your information for groups that are forming.

At the very least, leave a comment and tell us what your goals are for 2010. Check back regularly and tell us how you are doing. If you are having problems, let us know that too. We may be able to help.

Have a great New Year!!!!

Write on,

Lynn

Here’s a sample video I made from one of my EZA articles. It took less than 5 minutes to come up with this version.  I did a slight bit of customization. I could do more, or I could use their original version.

They now have a blog with helpful articles which make creating and using videos even easier. One blog post told me how to resize the video so I didn’t lose the right side. You can compare it to the original size Article Video Robot video in this post.

Writers need to create a presence on the internet. Using video as well as articles and blogs is a great way to do this. AVR is a tool that makes it easy.There is a free trial, so you can test it before you buy. You can keep the videos you create during the trial period.

The links to AVR are affiliate links. That means if you purchase through my link, I will get a commission on the sale. However, your cost will be the same. If you do buy from my link, email me at lcjordan@gmail.com and put Article Video Robot in the subject for a report with tips on making better videos with Article Video Robot.

If you’ve tried AVR and have tips to share, please leave a comment below.

Write on,

Lynn Jordan

NaNoWriMo 2009 has kicked off. Some people are shooting ahead and some are lagging behind. Whatever your status, just keep going. NaNo is a great way to get some words out of your head and down on your favorite medium.

The NaNoWriMo forums are a great place to get ideas, inspiration, and encouragement. I love the technology forum, since I can always find new toys…I mean tools.

Here are links to some of them.

NaNoWriMo Report Card for Google docs Save the report card to your google docs. This is a handy way to access your spreadsheet from any location.

NaNoWriMo Report Card for Open Office If you are running Open Office, this report card file is for you.

Standard NaNoWRiMo Report Card for Excel This is from the guy who is kind enough to create a new one every year.

Write or Die website A great website to get you to keep writing. Terrible consequences happen when you stop before you reach your goals.

Now Write or Die has a desktop version. It lets you write while you are off-line. It also lets you challenge others to word wars. Of course you have to be online to issue a challenge. It only costs $10 and is well worth it.

Your internal editor should already be on vacation. He/she/it will have plenty of work after NaNoWriMo is over.

Your internal critic should get lost and stay lost. Your characters’ voices should be the only ones in your head.

No matter what your preferred method, keep putting those words down and moving your story forward.

Drop me a note and tell me about your favorite NaNoWriMo technology.

Write on,

Lynn

This year’s Blog Action Day subject is climate change. At first I struggled with how to relate that to writing. The obvious answer didn’t jump out at me. I blame that on my muse sticking around Europe and not coming back home when I did.

My muse is back now, apparently refreshed and ready to work. She pointed out to me that we are in the middle of big climate changes in publishing now. Some of these changes will have a positive effect on the world’s climate.

Publishing as a business resists adopting new technology. Even when they moved from printing presses to computers, submissions still needed to be sent by “snail mail”.

Publishers didn’t take as long to shift the responsibility for publicity to the authors. Just because you receive an advance for your book doesn’t mean that the publisher will put money into your promotion. Very few authors get any publisher support for promotion.

Fortunately the Internet lets authors reach far more readers than even the largest publisher’s PR departments did in the past. Subscribe to this blog for tips on using technology to promote yourself and your writing.

Right now the e-Reader wars are heating up. This week Amazon announced a big jump in earnings. They attribute a large part of the increase to the Kindle, both the device itself and the books, blogs, and magazines sold for it.  The International Kindle version is now shipping.

Plastic Logic has said that they will release the product details and the price of their e-Reader device at the Consumer Electronic Show in early January. It will probably be called the Que or the QueproReader. AT&T will be the wireless provider. It will read PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Design Spring has announced an ebook reader based on the Google Android operating system. It will have full browser capability and a patented dual screen. The Alex will have an electronic paper display for reading and an LCD screen, running Android, for better web access with browser features for bookmarking, history, and security. It’s also mobile enabled with smart phone capabilities.

You are now able to pre-order Barnes and Noble’s ebook reader, Nook.  It’s also a dual-screen reader and has similar features to the Alex. Due to release at the end of November, you can check out the features on Nook.com or at Barnes and Noble.

These readers are great for those of us who freak out about running out of reading material. It’s especially handy when traveling. I saw lots of people reading Kindles on my recent trip.

As more readers accept e-readers and the e-readers themselves improve, the amount of paper used to print books will decrease. This will benefit the entire planet.

Do your research before you buy. Pick the reader that works best for your reading habits and your eyes. These readers will continue to improve. If you plan to upgrade, make sure you can read the books you’ve purchased on the new device.

If you haven’t already subscribed to this blog, sign up on the right. I’ll keep you updated on the latest changes in e-Readers and other technology. Remember that the climate of publishing is changing. I’ll help you keep up with it.

Write on,

Lynn

Related articles by Zemanta

• Que and Alex set to challenge e-reader leader Kindle (seattlepi.com)
• Kindle is More Environmentally Friendly Than Old-School Books [Ebook Readers] (gizmodo.com)

After a great presentation on promotion (one of my favorite subjects) by a couple of the rising stars of the group and celebrating some great new contracts, a bunch of us went out to lunch. I finally got to catch up with a few friends who I haven’t seen in several months.

One friend has recently started writing again after several months of dealing with life’s obstacles. She bemoaned the fact that her writing wasn’t flowing as smoothly as it had in the past. The words weren’t coming easily, and her writing didn’t evoke emotions of the reader as it had in the past. She asked me how to improve her writing skills.

You’ve probably had this problem at one time or another. When you sit down to write, your fingers don’t fly over the keys or your words would be better gracing the bottom of the bird cage instead of shining in your next novel.

Writing is a skill that rewards momentum. It’s a skill that benefits from practice. Writing begets more writing. The more you write, the better you write.

Deadlines also help get the words flowing and build up momemtum. If you don’t have an editor or agent breathing down your neck, you might benefit from contests and challenges.

Contests provide a deadline and also get you some feedback on your work. You want to make sure that your writing is polished before you submit to a contest.

Challenges provide a deadline and are a great way to get the words flowing. I’m a big fan of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It’s a great way to get a rough draft completed by sending your inner editor on vacation and getting the words down on paper (or the computer screen).

Recently a friend ask if she should try to do NaNoWriMo, since she’s recently gone back to school.  I asked her if she really wanted to write a novel. She said she did. Then I asked if she thought she could devote a couple of hours a day to the effort. It takes about that long to write the 1667 words a day to reach your NaNo goals. She thought she could do that.

I asked her what she had to lose.  Even if she doesn’t complete her 50,000 words, she will still have more written at the end of November than she did at the beginning.

Article writing is something that fiction authors should do to build  their readership and platform. Writing articles also provides a change from fiction and can spur your creativity when you return to your book.

Ezine Articles is the leading online article directory. If you aren’t submitting articles there, you should start. They are currently running a challenge of writing 100 articles is 100 days. It ends in the middle of November. There’s some neat loot for finishing.

If you start now, you can catch up. Even if you don’t make it to 100, you’ll still have lots more articles than you do today. You’ll get into the flow of writing. This is a great warm-up for NaNoWriMo.

What do you do to keep your writing flowing and maintain your momentum? Leave a comment below and share your tips.

Write on,

Lynn

Seems as if everyone is talking about Virtual Books Tours. This great promotional tool is being an industry buzz word.

Not long ago I was talking with a fellow writer. We were discussing setting up a virtual book tour.

We agreed they are great ways to publicize a new release (or even a not-so-new release). We talked about  promoting on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and forums. We agreed that we needed to send reminders leading up to the event.

It was only as we planned the technical details that we realized we were talking about two very different types of events.

People use the same term for different types of promotions.

During a Blog Virtual Book Tour, during a period of a week to a month

• The author makes guest post on different blogs.
• The author answers questions from the blog’s readers.
• The author may offer a prize to some of the readers who comment

The number of participating blogs and the amount of time the guest author spends on each blog dictates the length of the tour. It’s a great way to have conversations and build relationships with people who may not have read your work or to meet up with avid fans.

Preparations consist of

• finding blog owners who what to participate
• arranging your timeline
• preparing different material appropriate for each blog
• deciding on contests and/or prizes
• promoting the event to the blog’s readers and your contacts

At the appropriate time, provide the blog owner with your article. During the tour make sure to read and respond to comments quickly. Enjoy yourself and the conversations with your readers. Be sure that the prizes are distributed quickly.

The other type of Virtual Book Tour uses a teleseminar format. You give the same type of talk and offer books for sale the same as you would in a bookstore.

Advantages of this type of tour include:

• Not needing to travel
• Not depending on having books delivered
• It’s easy for the participants to attend
• You can record the session and make the replay available
• Not worrying about how many people will show up

You use your voice to build a relationship with your readers. Holding a questions and answer session gets the participants involved just as they would be in a bookstore.

Have someone interview you or conduct the session yourself. You can even record a session yourself without any participants. Be sure to record it, and put the replay on your blog or on in your social network.

When you are getting started, or if you won’t be doing many of these tours, you might want to find someone who has experience running teleseminars. They are more technically challenging than the blog tours.

I use Instant Teleseminars for my virtual book tours.

• They make it easy to set up a seminar with its own webpage.
• You can make the instant replay instantly available or edit it and upload it to your own website.
• Participants can listen by telephone or with their computer
• You can include a link where people can buy your book (ideally where you get the highest commission).

Both methods are great for promoting your books. They are even more powerful when used together.

Whatever events you do, make sure you advertise them throughout all of your social networks.

• Create an event on Facebook
• Use Twitter to announce the event frequently
• Mention it on your blog
• Talk about it in the forums you visit
• Put the announcement in your newsletter
• Email your fans

If you are interested in learning more about both types of Virtual Book Tours, leave a comment below.

What is your favorite promotion method?

Write on,

Lynn

The Balkans is an area with a very rich history. It’s been ruled by almost every conqueror in the history of the world. Area names change along with the rulers. They can’t build a parking lot without uncovering a Roman ruin and launching an archaeological project that must be completed first.

They built walls around their cities and even across their mountains. Still the invaders arrived. Earthquakes leveled the area on a regular basis.

These resilient people rebuilt, adapted to the changes and continued on with their lives. They are an amazingly friendly and resourceful folks.

Roofs of most of the building in Dubrovnik’s  old town were destroyed in the shelling of 1991. Now most are rebuilt and look much cleaner and fresher than the originals.

The persistence and resilience of these people teach lessons that can be applied to your writing career. Like these cities, as a writer, you experience triumph and defeat. Like these people, you need to celebrate your victories and regroup after defeats.

When you receive a rejection letter,

• take time to honor your emotions
• re-read the letter
• determine if any of the comments resonate with you
• are any of the comments things you’ve heard before
• make any revisions you like
• resubmit

When your publisher folds, your editor quits, or something else happens to sidetrack your career,

• honor your emotions
• consider your options
• take the next step forward

Don’t let rejection and setbacks block you from your writing goals. The only way you can lose is to quit trying.

Write on,

Lynn Jordan

• Be a member of RWA
• Have written a complete manuscript
• Not have work published by an RWA recognized publisher

Recognized publishers and requirements vary from year to year. The 2010 rules and deadlines haven’t been published yet. Check the Golden Heart Contest page on RWA’s website to get the latest information.

These details remain the same from year to year.

• Entries usually run around 55 pages including a synopsis.
• This contest provides no feedback, only a numeric 1–10 score.
• It’s designed to be for writers who are ready to publish.
• The final round judges are editors and agents.
• The awards are presented at the national RWA conference at the Awards Ceremony.
• Categories may vary, but currently there are 10 categories covering everything from Young Adult to Novels with Strong Romantic Elements.

The Golden Heart is a good way to get your work in front of publishers who accept manuscripts only from agents. It’s a very prestigious award. You get to wear a finalist ribbon at the conference.

A good warm-up contest to prepare your manuscript is  the Rose City Romance Writer’s Golden Rose Contest. It has the same page count requirement, but provides plenty of feedback from the judges. Also, your book doesn’t have to be complete. The deadline for entry into the Golden Rose has been extended until August 8.

I will be judging in that one as I do every year. Judging in these and other contests is a great way to improve your own writing skills. It’s much easier to see problems in someone else’s work. Also, you get to read some great manuscripts. I have a long list of entries that I can’t wait to see in print.

I hope to add your work to my to-be-read list.

Write on,

Lynn