Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

Q is for Quick & Easy Character Querying

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QI’m probably the Queen of Quick and Easy—just give me a short cut and I’ll take it. That’s why writing novels in one swift sit-down sounds so appealing—even though I’ve learned it doesn’t work for me. There’s no quick and easy when it comes to knowing my characters. Remember the old saying, you gotta live with someone before you really know him? True! It’s the same with our characters.

Often talking to my characters will set me on the right path with my book. Something about asking them questions, learning what they like or dislike reveals their personality, rounds them out, and identifies potential problems, better known as conflict.

It’s interesting to learn the different approaches writers take to reach the same destination: The End.

In one writing course I took, our instructor gave us the following list and we were to write down how we thought our character would answer. Sort of like The Newly Wed Game. 🙂 We weren’t to give it a lot of thought—just write—as if we’ve known our character for years. It’s hard to say whether such an exercise is beneficial or not, but it was fun.

My character is a 30-something wife and mom. Her name is Sas Maplewood. Whoever filled out her birth certificate wrote Sasanna instead of Susanna. They simply closed the ‘u’ and made it look like an ‘a’.  Her mom hated it but her grandmother thought it was quite original, so the name Sasanna was a keeper. In school, friends nicknamed her Sas. The following is what I know about Sas Maplewood.

Sas Maplewood’s Favorite Book:  Bleachers by John Grisham because it made her feel sad.

Favorite Movie:  Serendipity with John Cusak because it’s fun.

Favorite Drink: Give her a vanilla milkshake any time of the day or night.

Dream vacation spot: Vacation? What’s that? Oh, DREAM vacation. Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Phobia: She might not call it a phobia, but she can’t stand for anyone to grip her wrists or touch her neck. She panics! In fact, she’ll swing first and ask questions later. Needless to say, she’s not into neck nuzzling. Just ask her husband.

Favorite saying: “Suspect everybody. . .” and that’s exactly what she teaches her kids. It’s part of her “Be a Safety Kid” lecture that she gives them every morning as she puts them on the school bus.

Pet Peeve: Telemarketers.

Necessary extravagance: Junk stores and garage sales.

Who would play her in a movie: Amy Breneman from Judging Amy.

Craziest thing she’s ever done: She writes letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines. Not really crazy except to her husband and kids.

Would like to be reincarnated as: Sas would never believe in reincarnation, but if she did she’d come back as her grandmother so she could figure out why her mother is the way she is.

Do you see any benefit to this type of character interview? Have you ever asked your characters questions and really listened to their answers?

P is for Publicity and Promotion

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PThere was a time I wanted to be a publicist. I enjoyed brainstorming promo ideas with my writer friends and discussing niche markets. After researching the profession, it didn’t take me long to change my mind. A lot of busy, busy, busy work. 🙁 For very organized people!

We often wonder why writers hire a publicist or even a virtual assistant, but prolific writers face a lot of deadlines; constant writing and promotion take its toll.

What exactly does a publicist do and how much do they charge? They usually have different packages you can choose from and they can charge in the thousands.

A friend of mine hired a publicist to set up book signings and interviews across the state and library visits.  He also mailed/emailed ARCs for reviews, created and emailed press releases to newspapers, TV and radio stations.

Publicist have resources we don’t have. But here’s my question: Do we really need to do everything all at once? Why don’t we just grow into our so-called marketing plan? Learn as we go.

Long before your book comes out, you should research and make your own list of resources. List those things you want to do—like library talks and blog tours. Talk to friends who have participated in online social media events; ask them to give you tips. There’s nothing like learning from the mistakes of others.

If you develop your marketing plan long before your book comes out, it can easily fall into place. But remember this: No matter how ready you think you are, you aren’t. At least not emotionally. Something weird happens when you know your book is available for all the world to purchase. Your focus disintegrates. Suddenly it seems you have a hundred things to do and you don’t know where to start.

Some writers do nothing more than Facebook and Twitter. That’s fine. But really, there’s one more very important thing you really should do:

Strive to be known in the town you live in. It might sound simple–but not for us introverts.

Send press releases to all the magazines and newspapers in  your area and make sure they know you’re available for interviews. Offer to speak to service clubs and writers’ groups, libraries and book clubs. If you’re not a speaker, then start small or join Toastmasters.

Develop a good story to tell about how you started writing or where you got the idea for the book you’re promoting. Believe me, you’ll repeat that story over and over again. Don’t be boring!

And very important: stay cool and roll with the punches because there will definitely be some.

Want to share your thoughts on being a celebrity in your neck of the woods?

O is for Outdated

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OI’m blogging with thousands of others; we’re up to our eyeballs in the A to Z Challenge. My posts are about inspiration, coaching and  all kinds of writer stuff; things I love.

Today we’re talking about websites. Who would think a website would become embarrassingly outdated like square-toed shoes and leisure suits? Not me! Of course, all I know about websites you could stuff into a thimble. I had to be talked into leaving my faithful old blog for this cool site.

My friend Heather at Oxblaze Media and Marketing told me I needed to look professional. Remember, we only get one chance to make a good first impression so I let her counsel me on professional websites.

I didn’t have a clue what looked outdated but after roaming around the ‘net, it was easy to spot things that didn’t work. Seems like way too many authors are looking a little hokey. 

What makes them outdated?

Well, they use clip art, glow affects around images, multi-colored fonts and other 90s looking designs. Many use colors that remind visitors of their grandparent’s kitchen. Yeah, remember the avocado green refrigerators? If our kitchen and bathrooms can be outdated, so can our websites.

A real detriment is a non-responsive website design. Google penalizes non-responsive sites from mobile searches. A non-responsive site means it’s not adaptable for mobile and tablets.  When someone searches for you on their phone or tablet, Google will rank you toward the bottom. Google made this announcement in 2015, and said it would have a “significant impact” on mobile search.

Here’s an example of a mobile friendly website: mine of course. website testA site that isn’t mobile friendly will receive a message saying so, that text is too small to read, links are too close together or maybe that the content is too wide for the screen.

You can test your website by clicking here.

And if you think you need an update, then check out my friend Heather at Oxblaze Media. (She’s doing her A to Z here.) She also designed these two writer sites:

Linda Hebert Todd

Chris Baldauf

Believe me, there was a time I loved my avocado green kitchen, but not anymore. Remember, one chance only … good impression!

Do you have a website? If you don’t, let’s talk about why.

N is for Nashville

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NAs in conferences. There are two great writer’s conferences in Nashville and the surrounding area of Franklin.

The first conference is called Killer Nashville, August 18—21. If you’re not familiar with the Killer Nashville conference you can learn all about it at their website.  It’s a good place to meet mystery writers and readers. Of course, I don’t have to tell you that you can learn a lot at any conference so don’t be put off by the word mystery. This year guest speakers are Janet Evanovich and Kevin O’Brien. Sound fun?

In early days, Killer Nashville was held in Nashville but this year, it’s happening in Franklin. If you’re a mystery writer—thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, etc—and have an unpublished manuscript, there’s a contest you can enter but move fast because the deadline is the end of this month. You can enter the contest without attending the conference. Check out The Claymore.

Now, the following weekend, August 25-28, the American Christian Fiction Writers conference will be happening in Nashville.

This conference is pretty pricey but if you write Christian fiction of any kind, if you’re looking for an agent or want to connect with publishers, this is the place to be. Their Early Bird session (Aug 25th) is with Donald Maas. Their key note speaker is Ted Dekker.

If you’re interested in either of these conferences, I can highly recommend both. I’ve attended KN once and ACFW three times. Conferences are imperative when it comes to making connections in the publishing industry.

Do you attend conferences? If you have a favorite, tell us about it.

M is for Momentum and Motivation

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MMomentum: something I’m sorely lacking tonight. It’s 11:30 pm and I’ve been staring at the M-word for several hours, trying to come up with something super-encouraging to talk to you about. Inspiration hasn’t hit me yet. But I did get hungry. In fact, I’ve started craving chocolate. And that reminds me of the cake I used to bake–before we gave up eating sweets. 🙁

So now I have momentum and motivation because I want to share my recipe with you.

This is the perfect recipe if you’re a dieting writer or a writer on deadline, or a writer who has written all day and forgotten about baking a cake for the church social or book club.

This is a busy writer’s cake that will come to your rescue over and over again because it only has two ingredients. It’s good and it’s a no-brainer.

cakesTake your favorite chocolate cake mix and pour in one bottle of Chocolate Slim-Fast. Mix well. You can bake in a sheet pan, cup cakes or traditional rounds. Just follow the baking directions on the box. This cake is super moist and delish. Feel free to pile on the whip cream and drizzle chocolate syrup. Bake nuts in it, or sprinkle on top. Anything goes, get creative, because this is a writer’s cake! It can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be.Slimfast

L is for Learn

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LHas anyone ever heard of Udemy? Since L is for Learn, I thought I’d tell you a little about this online learning community. Udemy offers thousands of classes priced between $20 and $50.  Some are even FREE. I discovered Udemy on Facebook. An ad kept popping up so I finally clicked on it. By now, you might know that I’m a “course-taking-addict.”

I’ve taken several writing courses from Udemy: poetry writing, brainstorming, and writing from the heart to name three. I’ve signed up for many others but haven’t completed them yet. This is a work at your own pace thing; handouts are available and there are assignments and teacher/student interaction if you want it. I seldom do. Some of these classes are good, some not so good, but all of them are interesting in one way or another. If you’d like to learn more about their history and the Udemy founders go to the Udemy Wikipedia site  .

Some exciting news is that there’s also opportunity for YOU to teach a class. Now don’t get nervous.  😉 For those of you who don’t yet call yourselves writers, you can teach anything: cake decorating, quilting, even crafting jewelry or braiding rag rugs. Udemy has free instruction on how to pull your class together.

Explore their user-friendly website to see what’s available for you. Remember, check out all the FREE classes. Did I mention that once you sign up for a class, you have life time access to it?

I’m curious… have any of you taken classes from Udemy?

K is for Keys

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KIf you’re just finding me among the hundreds and hundreds of A to Z bloggers, I’m thrilled. I’m sharing about writing, coaching and inspiring others.

I’m tempted to blog about Kritiques, but I guess I should keep it real. 🙂 Today I’ll give you keys to writing and publishing; my tips that will benefit you for as long as you’re a writer.

Read. Don’t read just anything—read the best of the best. I could give you a list of books, but my opinion of “the best” might differ from yours. Just remember, the saying garbage in-garbage-out is true.

Write. Every day. Some people argue that writing daily isn’t necessary. I believe the more you write, the better writer you become. And yes, I believe in forcing yourself to write. We force ourselves to wash dishes and clothes and toilets (or am I the only one?) so why wouldn’t we force ourselves to do something we truly love?

Write long. Tell your story then cut it short. You’ll be surprised how many unnecessary words you’ve used. Make every word count.

Write short. I believe writing fillers, letters to the editor, very short pieces teach us to write tight. I’ve heard writers say they can’t create anything in a 100 words. Like my mama always said, “Can’t never could do a thing!” If you can’t create in 100 words how will you ever write your book blurbs?

Submit. Find a couple of markets to conquer: Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Sun, Women’s World. There are many opportunities within those three markets.

Join a local writers’ group. If there’s not one in your town, start one. You might belong to thirty online groups, and that’s great, but there’s nothing like gabbing with other writers at your favorite coffee shop.

Call yourself a writer. Tell people you meet for the first time that you’re a writer. Yes, it’s hard because they always ask what you’ve published and you may not have published anything. That doesn’t matter. Tell them you’re working on short stories, a novel, a screenplay and hope to submit soon. The more you say you’re a writer—out loud—the more you’ll believe it.

Recognize opportunities. When you talk about writing and call yourself a writer, opportunities will come your way–from local magazines and newspapers, the Chamber of Commerce, or from church or club newsletters. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity that falls in your lap.

Learn. How-to books, trade magazines, online classes and writing blogs are at your fingertips. Take advantage of them. You may become a New York Best Selling author, but that doesn’t mean you know everything. You never will. Never. Educate yourself about markets, the business of writing, agents and publishers, traditional and indie publishing. Don’t depend on anyone to do your research for you. Your career is your responsibility.

Don’t ever, ever quit learning.

J is for Juggle

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JJust out of curiosity, how many projects can you juggle? Most of you are pretty experienced at handling a spouse, kids, housework and/or jobs and other life things—but how many writing projects can you manage at the same time?

Several of my writer friends juggle multiple contracts. The author I just interviewed has four series going, all with different publishers. That means she has four different deadlines for completing each novel, deadlines for her revisions—and she has to create blurbs and excerpts for each novel, approve covers and numerous other things for editors and the promotion department. She will have to read her novel (each of them) no less than three or four times–looking for errors or making minor corrections. She can’t miss any of those deadlines because each department is on deadline too.

Even if you have plans to indie publish, you have to deal with covers, blurbs, excerpts, blog hops, author interviews, Facebook parties and sending your pdfs for reviews—not to mention creating that list of reviewers and arranging speaking engagements. I’m sure there are other things I’ve probably forgotten or don’t know about.

Hey gals, remember when housewives were humorously called “domestic engineers?” We were in training to become entrepreneurs.

I don’t know about you but I’m sort of an out-of-sight-out-of-mind sort of person. Once I finish my book, it’s out of my mind. And if I don’t write things down–preferably in a planner or on a calendar–I’ll forget. Some authors keep a journal for each book they write. They record everything, and I mean absolutely everything that has to do with their book: names of characters, hair color, eye color, ages, professions, as well as all promo info. Everything! That sounds pretty wise to me.

Let’s use excerpts as an example. Your publisher is going to ask you for a short blurb, a longer blurb and an excerpt from within the book.  Remember, if you’re like me, once you get to the end of your story the excerpt is the last thing on your mind.  Why not find your excerpt as you write your book. There will be scenes you especially love. Make note of them; put them in an email to yourself or a book journal as you journey to the end of your story. It’s better than having to scan through your entire manuscript looking for an enticing excerpt for the inside cover or the Amazon page. Be prepared.

Some authors keep a secret Pinterest board for each book they write. Your traditional publisher will often ask for pictures of your characters as well as scenes that might be used on your cover. Be ready. Have ideas.

I promise you the notes you keep in a book journal or on a Pinterest board will come in handy when you start creating promotion too. You’ll need a lot of blogging topics!

Writing is fun but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that it isn’t work. It’s to our advantage to be as organized as we can be. Let’s not add to the chaos by procrastinating or being sloppy.

So tell me, are you organized and methodical by nature, or do you need to work on your juggling skills? Feel free to share some time-saving tips with us.

I is for Invisible, Inspiration and Instruction

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IFunny how the words we blog about during this A to Z Challenge come to us out of the blue. Or not. I had such a block with my G words but the minute I sat down to write about I—Invisible, Instruction and Inspiration popped into my head. Okay, I have a point, but it’s still a little murky in my mind so bear with me while I work it out—at your expense. 🙂

Most of you know I interview authors for Southern Writers Magazine. I send questions to the interviewee—anywhere from 15 to 20—and then I write an article from their answers.Southern Writers_Lori

Sometimes I’ll read their response to my questions, feel inspired and recognize a hook and theme right away. Sometimes I struggle. Even though they’ve gone into wonderful detail with their answers, there are times I don’t see anything I consider interesting—and by interesting I mean something that gives instruction and inspiration to our audience who are other writers. When their answers don’t interest me, I have to make myself work on the article. Talk about a struggle!

This struggle comes from within me–not because of who I’m interviewing or their answers. Sometimes I’m resisting writing. Writing anything!

But, it never fails that when I force myself to start creating, I discover an invisible thread of instruction and inspiration within myself and within the story.

I looked up the definition of invisible and read the following sentence:

She feels as if her success is being blocked by an invisible barrier.

How appropriate.

I know from experience that if we play around with our articles, our chapters, our short stories, almost anything we’re working on … that invisible bone structure will reveal itself to us; that invisible barrier will disappear. That’s because we’re calling forth what we know–and creating our own inspiration.

I have inspiration and instruction deep down inside me. It’s an essential part of my make up. You have it too.

Believe me, if you’ve read how-to books and the writing magazines … if you’ve attended writers’ meetings and conferences, listened to professional authors speak … if you’ve read instructive blog posts, then you have deep within you sufficient instruction and inspiration that’s invisible to you—until you force yourself to create. Too often, we get frustrated and give up too soon. We lose faith in ourselves and our abilities and everything we know about creating.

Don’t wait until you feel inspired because that’s almost like taking backwards steps; leap into your project and success will follow. Try it. Just try it … and let me know what happens.

H is for Heart

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HThe Merriam-Webster online dictionary says that the heart is the organ in your chest that pumps blood through your veins and arteries. It’s in the front part of your chest and it’s thought of as the place where emotions are felt.

I like that simplified definition.

Like everything else I see, hear, touch, smell and taste … I apply “heart” to my writing and the books I read. Heart is what makes our books live.

Do my stories have heart? Do they make readers laugh, cry … feel anything at all?

I’ve watched my daughter, an avid reader, sob through most of Karen Kingsbury’s books. If you’re familiar with KK you know she’s one of the top Christian authors of our time, and writes heart-rending fiction. I’m sure all her readers sob.

But how about this: Daughter also cried uncontrollably when she read Dean and Me: A Love Story by Jerry Lewis. That book is nonfiction about the 10 year partnership of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Figure out those tears!

She read (and cried) in The Paris Wife about Hemingway and Hadley, his first wife.

Now before you accuse Daughter of being highly emotional and able to cry at the drop of a hat, no. That’s not her.

However, I do know why she cried. Those books have heart.

That should be our goal. To conjure up such emotion in our readers that they laugh or cry beyond their control.

How do we do it?

First, we use the senses, we know our characters inside and out, we use active verbs and words that paint pictures, but until we’re capable of putting ourselves in a character’s POV and walk in their shoes—suffer with them, cry with them, feel their pain and loss, we won’t be able to pull it off.

We must also consider pacing.

A reader has to develop a relationship with our characters. If our pace is too fast, the reader doesn’t sufficiently bond with our characters. If our pace is too slow, our readers get bored.

Tricky, isn’t it.

I’ve read books where good characters die and I didn’t shed a tear. The last time I cried guise-of-another-225while reading a book was in The Guise of Another by Allen Eskens. Guise is about two brothers, both detectives, and one of them is on a downward spiral. The relationship I developed with these two brothers surprised me. I think Eskens broke a lot of rules when it came to creating this story—but he knew what he was doing and he pulled it off. His characters are still with me–in my head and in my heart–even though I read his books last year. 

The next book you read, study it for heart. Pay attention to the emotion you feel while reading it.

But honestly, I wonder if we can teach writers how to write “heart” into their stories. Doesn’t it have to come from within us? Maybe we have to pour our own love, sadness, brokeness, and fear into our characters before their stories truly touch a reader’s life. What do you think?