Picture This!

by Susan Reichert

A picture in your mind’s eye is visualization. It can be the key that opens the door. 

Draw a blue print in your mind’s eye how you want something to turn out. Maybe the picture is your life. Where are you going, how are you getting there and what will it look like when you arrive? 

This shows the brain what it needs to come up with to accomplish the picture in your mind.

The Name Game

by Gary Fearon

On Monday an author friend and I got on the subject of names.  Not names of literary characters, but those of real people.  Among the monikers that came up in conversation were Piers Tilbury and Thurl Ravenscroft.  Just in case you don’t recognize those names, I’ll tell you who they are in a moment. 

But first, don’t you get a certain feeling from each of these names?  Doesn’t Piers Tilbury convey a certain regality?  Doesn’t Thurl Ravenscroft sound a bit intimidating, like something straight out of Hogwarts?

I won’t keep you in suspense.  Piers Tilbury is a talented artist in the UK who specializes in fiction book covers.  And Thurl Ravenscroft – whose voice was as formidable as his name – did many deep-throated vocal characterizations for Disney, sang the Christmas classic “You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch”, and for over fifty years hawked Frosted Flakes as the voice of Tony the Tiger.

Think about it.  Boris Karloff is a name that overflows with menace, even if you’ve never seen Frankenstein or his other creepy roles.  In contrast, cowboy actor Marion Morrison knew his name wouldn’t hold up in a saloon showdown, and promptly changed it to John Wayne.  What a simple, All-American frontier kinda name.

Obviously, when we’re coming up with names for characters in our stories, it becomes even more important to make them a good fit; perhaps even one that reinforces the role of the character.  Going back to Hogwarts for a moment, doesn’t Harry Potter’s Professor Severus Snape sound every bit as imposing as his character?  And Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s immediately suggests someone who doesn’t take life very seriously.  (I’ve actually never seen that one but I’ll betcha.)

Not to say that a less assuming name doesn’t have merit.  Sometimes it may even be preferable, to make a certain character as forgettable as possible.  In some who-dunnits this has been used effectively to avert you from the ultimate culprit. 

Just like you give your characters interesting backstories, give them a name that goes with their personality.  No one will fault you for using normal, everyday names like Bob Smith or Jane Jones, but something in between plain vanilla and Black Forest Pistachio Chip Ripple might lend your story a few extra flavors.

Marketing is Full Contact

by, Doyne Phillips

Armed with a list of three, four, five hundred or more names of people you know we are ready for our next move. If you have yet to complete your list it isn’t too late. Go to the August 1^st Monday Marketing Blog for instruction and do so. Also remember this is a living breathing document and will need constant updates as your life and relationships change.

Old school marketing would have you sit with your list and begin calling them one by one until you have brought your message to them all. There are several problems with this in the digital age.

First we must consider the time involved. Let’s say you have four hundred names on your list and you have everyone’s phone number. A telemarketer tells me she can call eight to ten people per hour and makes calls for five hours a day. Not bad but remember she is calling strangers. Many of which cut the call short with “not interested”. You will be calling “those you know” so they may want to chat. Let’s say you can get eight calls in an hour at five hours a day so forty calls a day. If you are consistent in a matter of ten days you will have it covered. TEN DAYS?! Are you kidding?

Secondly we find many of those on your list no longer have a home phone to call. That leaves your contact by phone through their cell or business number. You may have some cell numbers and business numbers but not all. Use what you have of course but is there another way.

My telemarketer also told me she had over four hundred Facebook friends. I asked how long it takes to contact all of her Facebook friends. Yep, you got it, only seconds! You decide, TEN DAYS or TEN SECONDS?

So make those on your list your Facebook friends. Follow them on Twitter. Get Linkd in. Connect them all to your website and or blog. Tell your story to hundreds in seconds!  

If you need help with your social media platform watch this blog for Foundation Fridays with Shannon Milholland, our Social Media Director and Blogger Extraordinaire!

Friend or Follower?

by Shannon Milholland

The world's gone mad or at the very least viral.  I grew up in a world where deals prospered over dinner and a handshake.  Today agreements are reached with a click and a Starbucks.  Proximity and personal relationships are things of the past. 

As we authors trudge into the murky waters of social media, I want to pose a question.  Are those we meet on the information superhighway friends or followers?  The term follower implies we possess absolute sway over life and opinion.  Even the President of the United States couldn't claim that power.  So if not follower, perhaps these are friends.

I have chosen the posture of friend in my social media presence.  I keep my head aligned to this commitment of my heart with a few easy principles:

Gratitude

I take a moment to offer thanks and blessings over each person who clicks "like" or "follow".  They honor me with their time and commitment.  Gratitude keeps my heart focused on the other party.

Service

When I retain a new follower, I've trained my mind to make the first question, "How can I serve them?"  The knee jerk reaction is to consider how they might serve me.  When I reverse my natural thinking, I place the emphasis on the other party.  Service keeps my heart kind.

Kindness

I want the moment my new friend spends with me to be one filled with kindness.  When asked to check out their fan page, peruse their website or investigate their product, I attempt to live sincerely by doing so.  Offering kindness to others is not a guarantee of reciprocation.  It is a opportunity to place priority on others.

As I practice the principles of gratitude, service and kindness my internet presence steadily grows.  While the world grapples for position and press, you can join me in the quest to give instead of take.  Together we'll propel a friend revolution.

How I Overcame My Fear and Began to Blog (...Again)

by Erin Melby

The address to a friend’s blog appeared in my e-mail inbox on a regular day in 2005. She had posted pictures of her beautiful family and was recording the special events that occurred in their lives. “How cool!” I thought. “But I’ll keep jotting stuff down in my well organized, spiral bound calendars that sit nicely on each of my baby’s dressers.” I wasn’t exactly sure if the world needed to see my life revealed on the World Wide Web. I was clearly very naïve about the nature of the blogosphere. The more I kept up on my friend’s life via her blog, the more intrigued I became. I would typically take a spin by her blog as I would sit down to write in my computer journal that consisted of multiple Word documents. The more I wrote in my journal, the more I discovered that I might be able to encourage someone with my words. 

By 2005, the world of blogging was far from new. But in my little circle of friends, blogging was just catching on. And even at that, there were only a few testing the waters of blogging. 2006 was the year I took my first dip into the blogosphere. The name of my first blog was aptly named “Three under 3”. At that time I had 3 children all under 3 years old. The content of my blog was not hard to come by as each and every day of my life was filled with a new adventure to be sure. I blogged regularly for nearly 2 years and had some followers, which is a huge boost to any writers ego! But I confess that life happened. I didn’t stop writing, but it stopped being public. 

After some major life events and changes, God began to stir deeply in the place of my heart that is passionate about writing. I no longer had an active blog, but I was filling pages upon pages of journaling and inspiration that God laid on my heart. At the time, I was blessed to be part of a sweet community of women who urged me to listen to God’s leading. I dug my heels in and resisted the idea of becoming a blogger again because between 2006 and 2011, it seemed that every person that breathed had also become present in the blogosphere. The non conformist in me said, “No! Find another writing outlet!” I did not want to be like everyone else. 

However, the fact is that the invention of the “blog” has created a place for people to be in a community, so to speak. I’m clearly not the only one who discovered that. In my estimation, blogging has gained popularity for 2 main reasons; it’s a place for people to be known, whether it’s to inform or inspire and it’s also a place for people to know, to be informed and inspired. These are the reasons that I finally broke through my fear and resistance to be like everyone else, and began actively blogging again. The writer in me is happy to be putting myself out there again in hopes that my passion will inspire those who read and follow my blog. 

You can now find me jotting things down at: www.desperatemomandwife.wordpress.com

Be Alert...to Opportunities

by Susan Reichert

 

Many times, many ways opportunities come to us. We aren’t looking for them so they continue to move past. Hence, opportunities are lost. 

 

For those we do see, we may not look into them because they will take too much effort or perhaps we just don’t want to do them. Again, opportunities lost. 

Today, be alert, watch for opportunities to come your way and when they do, look at each one, see where it will lead you. It could be the opportunity of a lifetime for adventure.

The Wizard and I

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director

When the Broadway show Wicked came to town recently, my oldest friend Ron was dragged kicking and screaming by his wife, who had been waiting years to see it.  Ron’s reluctance was multifaceted, but the bulk of it had to do with his distaste for musicals.  (This is the same guy who’ll spend five months out of the year watching American Idol.) 

Having already experienced this tuneful, colorful spectacle myself – and enjoying every minute – I was hoping Ron would emerge a changed man, on whom Wicked – and the Great American Musical in general – would have worked its magic.

“I’d rather go through four root canals than sit through that again,” was Ron’s next-day review, or something similarly periodontal. 

“Didn’t you like the songs?” I asked.

“The songs were fine,” he replied, as were the performances, the costumes, the sets and everything else I could think of.

“Then what didn’t you like?” I pressed.

“They ruined it.”

“What do you mean, they ruined it?”

“They changed the story.”

Ron didn’t mean it wasn’t The Wizard of Oz we all remember; he knew that much going in.  What he objected to was that they introduced different backstories and relationships for the main characters, adding new twists to familiar plot points.

“It’s ridiculous.  It would never happen that way.”   His indignance was so dramatic that I thought he was joking, but he was as serious as a house falling on you.

Now, I respect the L. Frank Baum classic as much as anyone; in fact I’ve even analyzed that adventure as a metaphor for the writers journey in my “Yellow Brick Road” series for Southern Writers Magazine (shameless plug alert).  Yet Wicked’s reinventing of the original characters didn’t disturb me any more than the many different cinematic variations of my childhood idol Batman.  I find revisionist interpretations creative and dimension-opening, leaving you pondering fresh possibilities.  And of course, it’s merely a reimagining which doesn’t have to replace the beloved classic.

But here’s the deal.  The Wizard of Oz has been revisited hundreds – actually thousands – of times, using entirely different characters and settings.  In how many books and screenplays has the protagonist been sent to a strange world, met new allies and mentors along the way and had to conquer their greatest enemy before they could reach their goal?  Sometimes a scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion are portrayed as a gunslinger, a robot and a Chewbacca.  May the force be with you, Dorothy.

Virtually every tale we tell as writers – whether intentionally or inadvertently – will have some correlation to the great classics.  Part of the fun is discovering the new spin we can put on the same old story.

Personally, I like knowing why the Wicked Witch was green.

Who Do You Know?

by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

Who do you know? How many people do you know? Have you ever thought about it? Psychologists tell us on average we can handle personal relationships with five hundred people. Knowing who you know and contacting them is one of the basics of marketing. This sounds elementary but it is vital to your success. The question is, “Do you know who you know?” We can help you with this.

Old school marketing would have you sit down with a legal pad and start a list of everyone you know. One hundred names come to mind quickly. But it has been found to be more productive with a, “I know these people because” list. Defining your list by your relationships opens your mind up to a greater number of people. Here are some examples starting with one of the easiest.

I know people because they are: Family, Friends, neighbors, former neighbors,  school or college class mates.  This is what we usually think of but we need to go further.

I know these people because they are interested in my children: teachers, parents of playmates, school administrators, music teachers, dance teachers, coaches etc.

I know these people because:

• They are Church members, Sunday School members, study groups, religious societies.
• They are active in organizations in which I, or my family, are members: College Alumni Associations, PTA, United Way, Red Cross, Cancer Society, Salvation Army, Literacy Council, sorority, fraternity and civic clubs.
• They are interested in my home: Realtors, landlord, builders, building supplies, carpenters, plumbers, painters, landscape architects.
• They are interested in my hobbies: golf, photography, music, tennis, public speaking, chess, movies, travel, drama, WRITING, members of your club. Chances are if you are reading this your writing has gone beyond a hobby or you are certainly headed in that direction.
• They are merchants, grocers, bakers, business owners I do business with.
• They are interested in my car: dealer, gas station owner, repair shop, and parking lot attendant.
• They are former business associates, clients, competitors, employees and employers.

Now that is a mind joggling list. I bet as you read this you are coming up with names you haven’t thought of in years. If these people are like most, they would love to know that you are writing, published, or about to be, and will want to know more. Everyone wants to know the author!

Do you know who you know? Work on your list this week. You will amaze yourself with the number of people you know. Next week we will take the next vital step and begin contacting them with your great news!