What would we do without Aunty Acid? Thanks Story Reading Ape for all the giggles!
Monday Funnies
Day: June 13, 2022
A Cheat Sheet on Body Language for Writers – Written By John W. Howell
Hi SEers. John with you today.
As a wrap-up to the subject of gestures (or beats) to convey non-verbal communication, I found a great cheat sheet for writers on body language. The cheat sheet is below the text and was developed by ArchetypeWriting.com.
The cheat sheet can be used in developing characterizations beyond having to explain just how your character is feeling. I hope you find this cheat sheet useful and perhaps dig deeper into the subject of body language.
Why do good books fail to sell while poorly written books fly off the shelves? – by Thomas Umstattd Jr.
on Author Media:
I recently spoke at a conference for professional editors. My session was titled “How to Edit a Book to Sell.”
Editors and writers are often confounded when great books fail to sell while poorly written books fly off the shelves.
You’ve probably had a confounding experience at a bookstore when you pick up a book, read a few pages, and say, “This is awful!” When you put it back on the shelf, you notice the words “New York Times Bestseller” emblazoned on the front.
Why do great books often fail to sell while poorly written books fly off the shelves?
Some books stay on bestseller lists even though they seemingly don’t deserve it. Other books are brilliantly written, and they never crack the top 100.
A book only finds life in the mind of the reader, which means you must convince readers to buy and read your book.
You don’t want your book to be a neglected masterpiece. So how do you write a book that will sell well?
Continue reading HERE
How to Upload Your Book to KDP, Easily and Correctly [Text Instruction + Screenshots] – by The Book Designer Team
I recently published my 21st book to the KDP platform, having been self-publishing for the last 7 years. And as I was going through the self-publishing steps again, it occurred to me how the platform has evolved over the past decade. This text-based, step-by-step tutorial is your most current and up-to-date process to upload your book to KDP.
Publishing a book can be overwhelming – especially if you want to make sure you’re doing it right and to prevent any confusion throughout the process on how to publish a book. Let’s take a look at the process and what is required to become a bestselling self-published author.
If you are a first-time author—or seasoned veteran at self-publishing—you will find this brief post on publishing to KDP very beneficial.
- What is KDP?
- Uploading Your Book to Amazon KDP: a step-by-step process (11 Steps)
- Bonus Step: 3 Marketing Tools to Consider When Publishing on KDP
- Next Steps
But first…
Continue reading HERE
Using Analogies is like Giving Yourself an Ink Blot Test – Written By Charles Yallowitz
Did the title work? Maybe not, which is one of the challenges with analogies. They’re like jokes in that they depend on the audience and don’t always hit their mark. You can share an analogy that has one person nodding in agreement and another scratching their head in confusion. Why is that?
Well, the big thing is that analogies require pre-existing knowledge. I remember one from the animated X-Men that was ‘Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs’, which I’ve been told is a Southern expression. Pretty simple to understand as long as you know what a cat and a rocking chair are. You also need to know how painful that experience would be. If you’re missing any of those elements, you’re going to have to explain what you meant. Again, this is like a joke where it loses its impact if you have to explain it.
I’ve noticed that I use analogies a lot. People may have picked up on that in comments over the years. By analyzing myself, I tend to use an analogy for one of two reasons:
Writer’s Support – By Derek Haines
Derek Haines published two very interesting articles and I decided to re-blog both of them here on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’, since I think, they’re both important and interesting to read. Thank you, Derek!
Sticky Sentences And Glue Words Can Dilute Your Writing
on Just Publishing Advice:
What are sticky sentences and glue words in writing?
A sentence is sticky when it uses too many (glue) words to stick words and clauses together.
You always need to use words such as and, but, so, or with. These words help you join your ideas and actions.
But when a sentence consists of more than is necessary, it can weaken or dilute your writing.
In This Article
Defining sticky sentences and glue words
How to measure stickiness
Common glue words
How to fix sticky sentences
Where did the term originate?
Remove the excess glue
Continue reading HERE
When You Publish Your Writing Online You Can Never Delete It
on Just Publishing Advice:
When you publish your writing online, there is very little chance that you will ever be able to delete it entirely.
You might write articles, blog posts, or submit your short stories or poetry to posting sites.
Whatever form of writing you publish online, you need to know how permanent it can be.
Even if you edit a blog post to make some corrections, the original version with the errors may still be online.
Continue reading HERE
The Ins and Outs of Blurb Requests – By Liz Alterman
on Writers Helping Writers:
After tons of hard work, your book is almost ready to be published. But before the celebration begins, you have one more hurdle to overcome…securing author blurbs.
What are author blurbs? They’re those ringing endorsements that grace the front or back (or both) covers of a book that can often sway readers from a “maybe” to a definitive “yes” when browsing bookstores or libraries. We can all picture those coveted quotes from Stephen King in which he professes he couldn’t put a book down or Ann Patchett extolls a novel as “brilliantly faceted and extremely funny.”
A blurb from a masterful storyteller lends credibility to your work and encourages readers who might otherwise be on the fence to give your book a longer look.
Continue reading HERE
3 Ways to Ramp Up Your Fiction Pacing and Tension – by C.S. Lakin
on Live Write Thrive:
Strong pacing and tension are critical in a fictional story, but they’re some of the hardest elements to understand and master. That’s because there isn’t one “right” way to pace a story, nor is there one definable factor that creates tension.
One thing readers will attest to, though: if a story’s pacing drags for too long, they’ll stop reading. And if they don’t feel tension, they’ll likely start falling asleep.
What is pacing? It’s the pulse rate of your story. At times you’ll want a slow, thoughtful pace. Other times a racing one. And those elements that create tension impact the pacing of a story. No tension means a sluggish pace.
Continue reading at:
The Culprits
Ancient Surgery – Written By Nicholas Rossis
Plenty of ancient resources mention medical procedures such as surgery. The early Chinese surgeon Hua Tuo (c. 140-208) is credited with being the first recorded person to use cannabis as an anesthetic. He reduced the plant to powder and mixed it with wine for administration prior to conducting surgery. Indeed, the Chinese term for “anesthesia” literally means “cannabis intoxication.”
In Ancient Greece, the oldest sources of information about Hellenic medicine are the two Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey (7th–8th century BC). Iliad provides an unforgettable picture of army surgery and anatomy at the time of the Trojan War in Asia Minor. It contains realistic descriptions of wounds and injuries of widely differing types. The most dangerous wounds were sword and spear thrusts, while less-dangerous were those inflicted by arrows. It is obvious that in Greek expeditionary force included professional healers, skilled in the extraction of embedded weapons, the arrest of hemorrhage, and the relief of suffering.
Write FAST & Furious! Outrunning “Spock Brain” – Written By Kristen Lamb
Fast drafting is a technique that I have used successfully on quite a few books. What is fast drafting? Fast drafting is when we sit down and write a book within a given amount of time. It can be as short as two weeks, but I don’t recommend longer than six.
WHY, KRISTEN? WHY????
Many new authors slog through that first book, editing every word to perfection, revising, reworking, redoing…and they never finish. So they start another book and edit and nitpick and…don’t finish.
Wash, rinse, repeat…mildew.
When I used to be a part of critique groups, it was not at all uncommon to find writers who’d been working on the same book two, five, eight and even ten years.
I have been guilty myself…which is exactly WHY I fast draft.
Every time I’ve ever fast-drafted all the way to The END? I have published that book. Comes in handy when you’re also ghostwriter.
Conversely, every time I thought I was too smart and I didn’t NEED to fast-draft, I’ve stalled.
Those ‘bright ideas’ are all sitting in my Documents hanging out with the digital dust plot bunnies.
Writer's Treasure Chest 
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