Want a Writing Life? Enter the Writing Business

Are you heading into a Fall Writing Challenge? Visit The Write Focus podcast to listen to the Enter the Writing Business series and inspire your writing.

Want a Writing Life?

Enter the Writing Business offers, in eight episodes, everything you need to transition your mindset from a wannabe writer to a pro-writer mindset.

Check out the opening blog post at https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2022/10/343-dream-it-enter-writing-business.html

There, we have direct links for the podcast to YouTube and Podbean as well as links to Apple and Spotify.

The Write Focus is also on Samsung Podcasts, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Tune-In, and many many more. Look for our green logo.

Workbook!

A workbook for Enter the Writing Business, book and podcast, is now available.

Visit Emily Dunn / M.A. Lee (buymeacoffee.com) to get yours now!

Here’s the book description for Enter the Writing Business.

How do I succeed at writing? Most answers to that question focus on creativity ~ story development, character explorations, poetic contemplations, blogging topics, and more.

Business needs to be added to that list.

Refine the question ~ How do I succeed at the writing business?

Even our refined question can be divided into several.

  • A] What are the best systems for writers?
  • B] What are the best daily procedures?
  • C] The best ways to balance creativity and practicality?

These are the first decisions to build a writing business.

Think of writing as running a small business. Writers create content ~ stories, poems, blogs, any of our writing. That content is our product to sell.

As creators of quality products, when we want a writing life, we need a Writing Biz.

Imagine a writing career. What is the reality? No, not the fantasy. What will the actual day-to-day writing life be?

Daily writing requires that we find ways to cope with the soul-suckers who interfere with your creative energies.

Enter the Writing Business offers the reality of the writing life.

This guidebook is a series on the daily creative process and the daily devotion to writing. Transitioning to business decisions, wee look at the necessary writing space then the essential hard and soft skills. To succeed, though, we need a business plan designed for writers. That biz plan will direct our daily actions, weekly plans, and monthly reviews and previews :: the Do’s that few consider until swamped by the constant Do-ing of them.

This guidebook is more than a tossed life preserver. With the practicalities discussed here, you can avoid the swim across the channel and build a bridge to cross from newbie to pro writer.

As part of the five-year publication anniversary of her first book, Edie Roones filled last August  with a blog series about these basic business decisions. The last two posts in the series chatter about the Hell and Heaven of Writing to answer every writer’s constant unspoken question: Is it worth it?

Interested in reading rather than listening? Here’s a link to purchase the ebook. On Amazon    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848CK3C2

A paperback version of Enter the Writing Business is located in the 8 x 10 big bundle Inspiration for WritersThe other books in Inspiration 4 Writers are Just Start Writing and Write a Book in a Month.

Achieve the Writing Life as the Author Did

Most new writers drop out before the five-year mark. Edie Roones (a pseudonym of a professional writer who has published over 50 titles) began her commitment to writing in 2012. “I’ve made mistakes,” she says, “but I’m seeing better results every day.” Avoid those mistakes in actions and expectations, and achieve success applying the lessons in Enter the Writing Business.

Roones’ fantasy series of Seasons in Sansward  has three novels Summer Sieges, Autumn Spells, and Winter Sorcery.  Her most recent endeavor is the Wild Sherwood series, with the two collections Into Wild Sherwood and Outlaws of Wild Sherwood, ten stories than fuse the Robin Hood legends with the Faeries of British myth.

Write to Edie at winkbooks@aol.com

Plot ~ All Writers Need to Know

From September to December, The Write Focus podcast will focus on Plot.

Everything to do with Plot.

Freytag’s Pyramid and the Beats.

Plot Points and Pinch Points and the Complex Plot Structure.

Three-Act … or Four-Act Structure.

Shakespeare’s Structure.

And the best Structure of All, the most adaptable to every writer’s needs, able to be stripped down to the basics or built into cycles for epic length.

We cover it all, every Wednesday as the year cools into autumn and winter.

Information comes from our host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Discovering Your Plot, with assistance from Edie Roones and Remi Black.

What do writers want from plot?

What do writers need from plot?

As wordsmiths, we writers know that want and need are two different words.

  • The want is a circumstance that we writers can control. We want plot specifics to help us craft story and exceed reader expectations.
  • The need is a circumstance of obligations from reader expectations of story. While readers may want the comfort of the genre elements (the tropes), they also wish to have their interest and curiosity piqued.

Can we writers deliver on the expectations and the surprises in order to please our readers?

That’s the involved question that our series based on Discovering Your Plot hopes to answer.

Join us.

How to Find Us

 

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music / Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are links to the easiest podcast services. Find our green logo and follow.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to the last playlist on Branding: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7L4OtDk2Bde7LDwQ2l7K8NE 

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-in https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

The Write Focus presents information on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

For up-to-date links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

 

Branding is The Write Focus

All through July and August. The Write Focus podcast presents BRANDING for a book, a series, and a writer’s business.

cover by Deranged Doctor Design

To hook readers, savvy writers manipulate cover imagery, titles, and the back cover market copy. With the right keys, presented in this series, writers will learn how to generate a brand for a book and a series. This knowledge will translate to their own writing business.

The series is based on M.A. Lee’s guidebook Discovering Your Author Brand, part of the Discovering series.

  • July 5 History and Keys
  • July 12 First Impressions Matters with Glance I and Keys One and Two
  • July 19 Clever Iconography and Keys Three and Four
  • July 26 More on Iconography and Keys Five and Six
  • August 2 Clever Titling
  • August 9 Market Copy: Taglines and Blurbs
  • August 16 Branding, Curious Readers, and a Blurb Script
  • August 23 Books Trailers and Video Clips
  • August 30 Key Fundamentals for Trailers

Thanks for listening to the Podcast. (Links below)

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

  • You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music and Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Deezer and Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are the 4 easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. Here’s a direct link to the first episode in the series on that service. https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/428-branding-the-key-for-writers-to-reach-readers/?token=0df527c4f966d5a924de4f2dc2d7425a 

YouTube direct link to the Branding Playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7L4OtDk2Bde7LDwQ2l7K8NE

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Writing Challenge Rewind ~ All through June

On The Write Focus, we’re posting a daily podcast from Write a Book in a Month, by Remi Black.

Daily check-ins include the project stage progressing word count as well as speculations on writing in general and the writing business in particular.

Click this link to visit TheWriteFocus blog.

 

Criteria for the Challenge ::

1] Daily Word Count

2] Length to Goal

3] Reason for the Goal

 

Each episode runs less than 10 minutes. Listen briefly every day or hoard up several episodes for when you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

Lessons for writing happen along the way!

Each episode will conclude with the two quotations from professional writers (Hemingway! Heinlein! Atwood! More!!!) that opened and closed the day’s writing sessions.

Episodes ::

  • 1 :: No Fooling
  • 2 :: Change of Plans
  • 3 :: Stick with the Plan
  • 4 :: Nix Distractions
  • 5 :: Watch for Warnings
  • 6 :: Life Rolls
  • 7 :: Win-Lose-Wind
  • 8 :: Critical vs. Creative
  • 9 :: Eat the Frog First
  • 10 :: The Tax Man Cometh
  • 11 :: Cocoons
  • 12 :: Six Words Short
  • 13 :: Wonders Never Cease
  • 14 :: One Project, Two Project
  • 15 :: Promotions
  • 16 :: Covers
  • 17 :: Frittery Jittery
  • 18 :: Flipping Out
  • 19 :: Input / Output
  • 20 :: Looking Ahead
  • 21 :: Short Post
  • 22 :: Biz Monday
  • 23 :: Master Book
  • 24 :: Expect the Unexpected
  • 25 :: Carpe Diem as Writers
  • 26 :: Nose to the Grindstone
  • 27 :: Writers’ Groups
  • 28 :: First Celebration
  • 29 :: Writers Conferences
  • 30 :: An End that’s Not an End and Lessons List
  • July 5th :: Aprés-Draft Update

Listen on the following sites. 

Bookmark your favorite to come back daily.

Podbean: The Write Focus (podbean.com)

Apple podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=0GFku2PbShWXiDhRp7JaDQ

YouTube Channel Writers Ink Books – YouTube

Join us!

Resources as of April 20

Amazon links are given because it’s easy, and for no other reason.

Purchase Write a Book in a Month at Amazon here.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848MWXGD

Also mentioned in the first 10 episodes (March 31 to April 5) ~

Patty Jansen’s Self Publishing Unboxed Amazon.com: Self-publishing Unboxed (The Three–year, No-bestseller Plan For Making a Sustainable Living From Your Fiction Book 1) eBook: Jansen, Patty: Kindle Store

Purchase Think/Pro at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-like-Pro-Advent-Writers/dp/1983248266/

The Think/Pro planner for writers can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Pro-Planner-M-Lee/dp/1983248673/

Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Selling-Writer-Dwight-Swain/dp/0806111917/  

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gifts from the Sea https://www.amazon.com/Gift-50th-Anniversary-Anne-Morrow-Lindbergh/dp/0679732411/

Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing/dp/B00RC3ZGN4/

Going Indie? Afraid about Formatting?

Many writers — veterans included — think Indie Publishing is hard because of Formatting the Manuscript.

I tell you now, Formatting is EASY compared to writing character dynamics and events that surprise the reader.

If you’ve ever wondered about formatting, MS basics and keyboard shortcuts, the essential documents of Front and Back Matter, and the essential Masterbook, time to stop wondering and start doing.

You can do it. I did it. Let’s celebrate  Indie Publishing together.

It’s the last Foundations week for Discovering Your Novel, the summer series for The Write Focus.

Listen at this link. 

Write Focus ~ Summer Podcast Series ~ A Mixed Miscellany

The series begins May 18.

We have various short topics to discuss. Compiling them into our Summer Series seems a smart idea. (Of course, what looks good on paper sometimes doesn’t translate to reality!)

Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction / Interviews with Writers 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros as well as veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Looking for Links? All the way down!

Episodes links will not be active until the date of the episode passes!

MAY

May 18  Research / 3:21 / Episode 110

Research: a Ho-Hum topic? Not quite.

Research is necessary in all realms of writing.

Whether discovering the details that given veritas to our fiction, the details that we shouldn’t get wrong in commemorative poems, or just adding specific and elaborating details to our nonfiction, HUMDRUM RESEARCH is totally necessary.

The challenge comes in determining how many research details to use.

  • 1:11 Check-In
  • 2:50 Opening
  • 3:27 Challenges
  • 3:49 Fiction and Research
    • 4:31 Light Hand
    • 5:17 Active Use of Research
    • 5:52 Amount of Research to use
  • 7:26 Poetry and Research
    • 9:11 3 Chief Elements when presenting Occasional Poems
    • 9:16 4 Requirements of Song
    • 10:06 Public Ceremonies
    • 10:35 Writing for Independence Day
    • 12:50 Checklist for any poem / 10 To-Do’s
    • 13:46 Walt Whitman
    • 17:45 R. Waldo Emerson
  • 20:40 Nonfiction and Research
  • 21:40 Next Week
  • 21:54 Inspiration / Ezra Pound

May 25 Short Narratives, part 1

Having trouble with short narratives? Short stories? Narrative poems? Anecdotes in your blogs and essays/articles?

I had trouble. Free admission. I would launch into a story that I hoped would be 8,000 to 10,000 words only for the word count to top 20,000 or more. I was rather proud of myself when a planned short story ran less than 15,000 words.

My narrative poems ran longer than 5 or 6 stanzas. Think “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” length. For the blog I wrote, my example stories ran more than 15 to 20 sentences.

Too long. What’s that acronym? TL;DR. “Didn’t read.” Oops.

What was I doing wrong? Surely there’s a secret to short narratives? Guess what? There is! In this episode, I’ll share what I found.

Timings

  • 1:45 Opening
  • 3:28 Paul Simon’s “America”
  • 4:17 Avoiding the School-Taught Plot Pyramid
  • 5:15 Erle Stanley Gardner
  • 6:28 Lester Dent
  • 7:10 LDent’s Plot Formula
  • 8:32 The Basics
  • 12:00 Closing / Next Week
  • 13:00 Inspiration / Raymond Carver

JUNE

June 1 Short Narratives, part 2

Success with short narratives? That’s our current goal. We’ve found Lester Dent’s Plot Formula.

We’re creatives, so we can adapt the formula to fit our genre needs. We know the four parts of the 4 movements. We’re writing fiction / poetry / non-fiction. What’s next?

The details, man. It’s all in the details … of the narrative.

Timings

  • 1:05 Opening
  • 1:52 Check-in
  • 2:55 Lester Dent’s Plot Formula
  • 7:21 Coincidence is a No-No
  • 8:04 Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” with the Formula
  • 15:08 Riddling: a Tricky method to end any story
  • 15:53 Closing / Next Week
  • 16:28 Inspiration / Joyce Cary

June 8

June 15

June 22

June 29

JULY

AUGUST

Resource Links

Lester Dent’s Plot Formula / printable pdf / https://mgherron.com/2015/01/lester-dents-pulp-paper-master-fiction-plot-formula/

Paul Simon’s “America” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulsimon/america.html

Video of above  America – Lyrics – Simon & Garfunkel – YouTube

Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/thethunderrolls.html

Video of above “The Thunder Rolls”