I’m going to copy and paste what I sent to my therapist on Wednesday because I feel like it’s solid gold. It really captured a big moment in my NaNoWriMo journey this year!
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Social Media for Writers 1: General Social Media Advice
First, let’s establish some street cred: I went from a little over 60 followers to over 1,600 Twitter followers in one week. That wasn’t a fluke. It also wasn’t some kind of tricky manipulation. I’m still dusting off my social media on my writer platforms, but I am not new to social media in general. I’m friends with people who have huge, highly active followings, and they’ve coached me on how to develop real relationships in my social media networks. I normally don’t talk about things in these terms, but in the interest of establishing that I do have experience: My personal Facebook page has a rock solid algorithm with strong engagements.
Let me give you a quick rundown of how unbelievable this week has been: When I dusted off my writing Twitter, it grew from 60 some followers on a Friday morning to over 800 by Sunday afternoon.
Continue readingSocial Media For Writers 3: Selling Through Social Media
Confession: I sold makeup online. And I was good at it!! I made it into the top 15% of an international company. Guess what? My friends still tell me they miss my makeup posts! My friends who don’t even wear makeup tell me they miss my makeup posts, and I haven’t sold makeup in two years!
What?!?! People actually miss my sales posts? Yup!
Continue readingSocial Media For Writers 2: Building Engagement by Developing Content
Engagement seems so elusive doesn’t it? I’ll let you in on one big secret: It’s not about you.
It’s not about finding the right blend of followers. It’s not about writing beautiful words or being hilariously funny. It’s not about figuring out the magic that makes a viral post. It’s not even about algorithms and posting times and all that stuff.
Continue readingStoke Those Embers!
As of this morning, I’d been working on character profiles and backstories for about two weeks. I was done. I was beyond done.
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Sneak Peak!
From The Elements of Time (work in progress)
I watched my pen loop from beginning to end, tracing shadows over light on my page. Saman Nasrin Jahandar. My new name. I picked it this time.
Don’t get me wrong, the names my mother picked were nice. In Germany, I was Roxana Laijani. In Switzerland I had been Leila Esfahani. In New York, I was Continue reading
Castle Building: Anshan!
I am super excited! I had an awesome discussion with my husband – who is an architect – and we came up with some great ideas for the castle, Anshan.
Anshan was built by people with a culture that echoes the Persian people. Given the importance of astronomy in Persian culture, Continue reading
Success!
Just trimmed my synopsis down from 2 paragraphs to 1 sentence.
Saman Jahandar is reading a book she wrote thousands of years before she was born in a desperate attempt to figure out how her missing classmate ended up dead in her book.
Are there lots of other things I can add? Of course! But that, right there, captures what drives my book.
I kind of feel like a rock star right now.
Might celebrate with some fancy tea.
Livin’ large, folks!
Livin’ large.
Snow Days & Villains
I am loving the work I’m doing with my antagonists right now. I realized that I kept using my antagonists simply to foil my protagonists’ plans. Continue reading
Breakthrough
Today has been one of those days. One of those very, very good days.
I had a chance to chat with my college roommate about some really deep ideas, and I finally figured out my antagonists. I’ve had a loose idea of what my antagonists were up to for a long time, but it always came back to plain old world domination.
And that’s boring.
I wanted to know why. Why were these people after world domination. Sure, some people go for world domination just for the power, but I knew there was more to what was making my antagonists tick.
As George RR Martin says, “A villain is a hero of the other side.”
Life is full of grey areas.
Emlyn Boyd 