Writing

Awesome By Accident

Garth Beyer

I wrote about voice yesterday. When a group of mine (who did the same activity) commented on my short essay, they expressed how crafty I was by neglecting indentation. As you will read in my response about voice, I talk about not needing to be perfect because it takes the humanity out, the voice out. They went on to say how not indenting made my writing flow better and drive home my point. To be forward, I simply forgot to indent.

Goes to show many might love what you thought was a mistake. If that’s the case, might as well try making a mistake on purpose to make your writing or your work more alive. An accident isn’t always a bad thing, and an accident on purpose may be just what you need.

For those interested, you can read my short essay on voice here. (3-min read)

 

Stay Positive & Give Your Work Some Voice

It Only Makes Sense

Garth Beyer

When I write long form fiction or create a business plan or branding strategy, I have a check-list by each page.

  • see
  • smell
  • taste
  • hear
  • touch

When you walk into a store, do you notice the pleasant smell? Scent marketers are paid to make the store smell pleasant so you stay longer, enjoy yourself more and generally feel relaxed while shopping. Not all stores do this, in fact, not many do.

Hostess, with their Twinkies, really sells the sound of opening the Twinkie package.

Apple does a fine job with design when it comes to their pads, you can see it. More importantly, you can touch it. You can swipe your finger, hold it in the corner with one hand, graze your palm across it.

Appealing to the five senses even comes in play when selling a home. A couple of homes at the Madison parade of homes did a fine job of checking off the list of senses.

My significant other and I could see the entire house, we could smell lemons in one and a pleasant sort of Febreez smell in another. We could taste the wine and beer just by looking at the bars downstairs. (One house did have water and sprite in the fridge for guests, but unfortunately did not advertise it.) Just outside the homes, there was a food cart. Another house had a very hotel feel to it, specifically in the bathroom. Not three steps into the bathroom my significant other was dancing. They had music playing, fit to the hotel, a Frank Sanatra-feel. And yes, we could touch the railings, the carpet, the backsplash, the cabinet knobs. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

When writing, when designing, when strategizing, let’s not forget the other senses. I can’t guarantee a sale, but I can guarantee appealing to all senses lowers the number of complaints and raises the talkability-factor of the product or service.

 

Stay Positive & Mmm Mmmm Good

 

 

10 Necessities For Becoming A Successful Writer by Nathan Bransford

Garth Beyer

In my opinion, these seem to be more life mottos than tips for writers. Take what you love and leave what you don’t. You can find more Bransford wisdom here.

  1. Enjoy the present
  2. Maintain your integrity
  3. Recognize the forces outside of your control
  4. Don’t neglect your friends and family
  5. Don’t quit your day job
  6. Keep up with publishing industry news
  7. Reach out to fellow writers
  8. Park your jealousy at the door
  9. Be thankful for what you have.
  10. Keep writing…It’s the solution to every single problem that occurs while writing

 

Stay Positive & Write On

All Sorts Of Advice About Writing

Garth Beyer

Writing is hard.

Writing is easy.

You’re bound to get writer’s block.

Writer’s block doesn’t exist.

You need to write at least 2,000 words or a chapter a day.

As long as you get one sentence down, it’s a successful day.

Connections don’t matter at first, focus on content.

Content doesn’t sell, connections and personality do. Content comes last.

 

These are all pieces of advice I’ve gotten from successful writers and I’m sure they are also pieces of advice you’ve read online too. You know what? Believe in the one you believe in. They all work as long as you believe in them.

If you believe writing is hard, don’t take suggestions from someone who thinks it’s easy. If you don’t believe in writer’s block, how do you plan to apply the tricks to overcoming what you don’t think exists? It doesn’t make sense, confuses you and breaks your momentum.

There are a hundred different paths to follow to become a successful writer. You only need to take one. The one you believe the most in.

 

Stay Positive & Remember There’s No Shortcut*

*Not in doing what you believe in and not in doing what you don’t believe in. It’s more about which one you can enjoy more and be more passionate about.

 

Step Into Your Artist Pants

Garth Beyer

You’ve got to flip the switch on, you’ve got to bully yourself into it, you’ve got to step into your artist pants and walk with confidence. You can’t expect to do remarkable work if you don’t feel it, if you’re not in love with what you’re doing.

The most common thread in all the writers’ institute workshops this weekend is to do only what you will really love doing. If you don’t love the novel you’re writing, scrap it. If you don’t like a particular social media outlet, avoid it. If you don’t love what you need to sacrifice to go the route of traditional publishing, don’t try to traditionally publish.

Yes, you need to try each pair of pants on, but when you find the right ones, the artist pants, don’t exchange them for any other pair no matter who holds up a different pair and says “you need to wear these if you want success.”

 

Stay Positive & Stride With Passion

First Get Good At Consistently Creating

Garth Beyer

So often you’ll not follow-through with a project or an idea because you know how much marketing you’re going to have to do when it’s complete.

To you, the world might not seem approving of someone writing a book and just throwing it on a digital bookshelf. No. You have to write the book, make sure it’s excellent, put it on the digital bookshelf, and then advertise it, get reviews on it, have bloggers cover it, give it out for free, set a Skype chat interview up for you to talk about it, make sure it’s translated to 20 different languages, beg the NYT reviewers to read it, and so much more.

It’s all a lie. It’s all a trick to stop you from creating. It’s fear speaking up. It’s an excuse and you and I both know it.

First get good at consistently creating. Write five books and throw them up on Amazon. Chat with friends about it, naturally, but don’t worry about heavily marketing it. Think about it in terms of time. If you create something, a book, an art piece, a business plan or a TED talk (and it takes you a month), then you spend the next seven months marketing it, getting people to see it, buy into it, subscribe to it, admire it, blog about it. You’ve just stopped yourself from creating seven more incredible works of art.

Obviously this post isn’t meant for the experts, the famous, the already envied. It’s for you, it’s for me, it’s for all the people out there who think things need to be perfect and need to have their total commitment for a year before they move on and create the next thing. It’s not necessary. The best marketing strategies come natural, the best art work doesn’t need to be pushed, the greatest connections often come from chatting about what you’ve done lately, not what you did six months ago.

And you know what? The act of consistently creating might be the greatest marketing strategy known to man.

 

Stay Positive & Interesting, Isn’t It?

 

There’s No Point In Complaining About What Is Or What Was

Garth Beyer

Hell

I’ve joked around about complaining, but other than that, I don’t bring it up too often. The reason is simple. I don’t surround myself by people who complain, thus, I don’t feel obligated to find something to complain about. Nor do I end up complaining that so many people complain. There’s just no point in complaining. Let me share a quick story of why.

I was chatting with some colleagues yesterday when one of them recalled me tweeting about the novel I was wrapping up edits on. I proceeded to tell her about National Novel Writing Month and how I wrote all 50,000 words in one month to produce my first novel. I broke it down to her and the other colleagues now listening that it comes out to roughly 1,700 words a day. A different colleague then asked me how I did that. I said to him, “It was hell.” (It really was.) He shook his head. He didn’t believe me.

The fact that I had written 50,000 words in one month seemed like a miracle to them. But when I stated that I went through hell to do it. All the sudden they didn’t believe it. They couldn’t. All they saw was a completed novel. All 50,000 words. (How could it be hell if you did it? I’m sure they thought.)

There are two lessons I really want you to take from this. The first is the majority of people who complain while they are working, don’t finish. In a sense, they complain themselves out of the goal they originally had. They complain themselves into quitting. They complain until everyone they complain to doesn’t care about what they are doing and so why continue doing it?

The second is no one is going to believe you when you tell them all that you could have complained about before you met your goal, shipped your novel, painted your masterpiece, booked that NYC gig. They will gladly accept words of inspiration and encouragement. But complaints? Forget about it.

If you’re afraid to go through hell, by all means, go through it afraid. But don’t by into the idea of once you’re in hell, you’re stuck. There are people all around you everyday coming out the other side (whether you hear them complain about it or not).

 

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