Blogging for Writers

I'm on the Panel for the Writer's League of Texas Third Thursday, April 19th at Book People

I'm so excited to be part of the WLT Third Thursday panel for April. “Writing in the Digital Age: Blogging as a Creative Outlet” is the topic. I started blogging in 2005*, but still enjoy talking about it, especially to a semi-captive audience. Learning from the other panelists will be a treat, too. 

*Serendipitously, I started blogging on April 19th. Participating on the WLT panel is a fun 7th blogaversary celebration for me. (In my mind, anyway.) 

Come joins us and get some blog knowledge. You'll be glad you did. 

 

 

 

Social Media Slant on January's WLT 3rd Thursday

Welcom to the first intstallment of the Social Media Slant series for the WLT 3rd Thursday program. 

January was a bit different than usual Third Thursdays because the panelists came to accept the 2011 WLT Book Awards. In addition to reading from their works, they graciously shared about their writing experiences and answered questions from the audience.  (For the generall recap of the evening, you can check my post on January's 3rd Thursday Wrap-Up on the WLT blog.)

Meet the Panelists

Daphne Kalotay won the 2011 WLT Book Award for Fiction with Russian Winter. She has taught creative writing at several colleges and a non-profit.  Read her complete bio at DaphneKalotay.com.  Russian Winter is her first novel.  She also published Calamity and Other Stories in 2005.

Gary M. Lavergne won the 2011 WLT Book Award for Non-Fiction with Before Brown: Herman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice.  Gary is the Director of Admissions Research and Policy Analysis at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to other non-fiction books, has been published in scholarly journals and has made numerous television appearances speaking to the topics of his books.  Learn more about him at GaryLavergne.com.

Dean Rader won the 2011 WLT Book Award for Poetry with Works & Days.  He is a professor at the University of San Francisco and writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Huffington Post.

Barb Stuber won the 2011 WLT Book Award for Children & Young Adults with Crossing the Tracks, her first novel.  She lives in Kansas City, where she is a museum docent.

Social Media Snippets from the Evening

• Barbara noted that having a website eases the discomfort of self-promoting.  (A Facebook page, not personal profile, could do the same.) 
• Daphne enjoys the interaction with readers Facebook provides.
• Dean likes RedRoom.com for poets because it provides the hard-to-find community poets need.
• Dean is on Twitter because of writing for the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Dean’s poetry  sometimes gains new readers due to his writing on the San Francisco Chronicle and Huffington Post.
• Gary enjoys writing the code for his own website.  
• All the panelists have their names registered as a domain.
• All the panelists are on YouTube, but they don’t all create their own content.
  • Gary has an informal YouTube channel, which includes his segment of tonight’s awards, recorded by his ace videographer, his wife.  Videos of many of his television appearances are on his  website.
  •  Barb has a book trailer she commissioned and some videos of readings she has done.
  • Dean and Daphne both have videos of their readings that someone else put up. (During the panel they realized they had both been at the same event doing a reading.)
  • For Barbara’s book trailer, she found someone who works for a local TV station who thought he wanted to start doing book trailers. He did the whole thing for $500. He hired actors, wrote the script and filmed for 3 days to get a 90-second trailer. It took 40-45 hours.  (I think she said he decided not to do it again.)
  • Daphne said the publishing industry is still figuring out how to leverage social media, noting that HarperCollins (Russian Winter’s publisher) had a room dedicated to making author’s videos. The videos weren’t great and that idea was nixed. She said most authors do their own videos, either themselves or pay someone to do it.
  • Per a Goodreads entry, Daphne read fellow panelists Barbara Stuber’s book & reviewed it. Barbara’s first novel was Daphne’s first YA read. (How cool of Daphne to look up her Barbara’s book, actually read it and comment on it. Social networking, indeed.)

 

Social Media Synopsis

After listening to tonight’s authors, my main take away is the varied use of social media. They did have two things in common:  websites with their names registered as domains and a Facebook page or profile, updated with varying degrees of regularity.

Another thing they had in common was their low-key approach to social media. There were aspects of being online they enjoyed, but it wasn’t a primary focus of their writing life. As much you hear about the importance of platform and social media, it is still secondary to actually writing.

 

Panelists’ Linkage (If I missed a link, leave a comment with the link in it and I'll update it ASAP.)

Daphne Kalotay

• DaphneKalotay.com
• Facebook.com/DaphneKalotay
• GoodReads.com/DaphneKalotay
• HarperCollins.com/DaphneKalotay
• YouTube.com (Someone else posted a clip of her reading.)

Gary M. Lavergne

• GaryLavergne.com
• Facebook.com/pages/Gary-M-Lavergne/124628807623721 (This is a page, not his personal profile. It could be shortened to Facebook.com/GaryMLavergne with a bit of tweaking. His personal Facebook profile is not public.)
• YouTube.com/gml21

Dean Rader

• DeanRader.com
• Facebook.com/Dean.Rader1 (This is a personal profile that Dean makes public.)
• HuffingtonPost.com
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Twitter.com/DeanRader
• Weekly Rader blog (Active from 2008-2011)
• YouTube.com (link to search of  Dean Rader)
• 99 Poems for the 99 Percent (Active blog of reader contributed poems and Dean’s poems.)

Barbara Stuber

• BarbaraStuber.com
• Facebook.com/people/Barb-Stuber/1166057713 (This is a personal profile page.  She could make it look like Dean’s Facebook url with some adjuments.)
• Goodreads.com (URL isn’t shortened like Daphne’s Goodreads’ url.)
• Twitter.com/BarbaraStuber

Thanks for reading. Don't forget about February's WLT Third Thursday at Book People in Austin. The topic is Burning the Midnight Oil: The Balancing Act of Life & Writing. 

 

New Series: WLT 3rd Thursday Social Media Slant

The WLT 3^rd Thursday Social Media Slant series at BloggingForWriters.com is the synthesis a few of my interests:

• access to publishing professionals through Writers’ League of Texas  (WLT) 3^rd Thursday program
• interest in those professionals’  thoughts on social media
• desire to help writers learn about publishing and social media

I already write a general Third Thursday Wrap-Up for Scribe, the WLT blog, but wanted more room to dissect the authors’ use of social media, aka, socmed.  Thus, this series was born.

Each month's post will have these sections:

• Meet the Panelists
• Social Media Snippets
• Social Media Synopsis
• Panelists’ Linkage

Finding time for learning about and using social media is a challenge for everybody.  How does an author keep up? Is it worth the effort? The insights gained from the panelists will help you navigate the web of social media.  (Get each month’s post via email or RSS by subscribing to BloggingForWriters.com in the upper right corner of this page.)

Grammar Girl : Writing with Slang :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™

Grammar Girl : Writing with Slang :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™

It's hip to be square. Sometimes bad is bad. Both are sentences wrought with slang and dated references to Huey Lewis songs. I'm amused, but my audience may or may not get the references.

Sal Glynn's guest article on Grammar Girl's blog reminded me to be aware of my audience, yet also validated my desire to use a bit of jargon in an upcoming post.

I stumbled across this article while seeking permission to use a word I came up with.

Writing the same phrase over & over was bugging me, so I morphed the phrase into a word I had not heard or seen before. I wasn't sure how to first mention it or if anyone had used it before. So I googled it. (Speaking of new words.) Turns out it's used in some circles, though not widespread...yet. So, I didn't coin it, but I feel clever for using it. I just didn't want to be too clever and be wrong in my usage.

After a quick serach, I found this article. I also found clarity and confirmation in using my word, which I will do soon. Stay tuned. (Ooooo....a cliff hanger.)

Finding My Writing Groove - It's a Baroque Thing

 

Photo by James Lin via Stock.xchng

Two hours of solitude. A comfy chair, outlet and mocha at Starbucks. Gifts I didn't want to putz away online. (I'd already putzed a bit.) Time to write. Something. Anything. 

Not the time to do volunteer work on the computer, as I've done a few other times this week. Not because I'm so altruistic, but because I was running from writing. 

While trying to make myself eek out even a 300 word crappy draft, I knew I needed some music. Since U2 is my favorite, I started with them on Pandora, sprinkling in some Depeche Mode, New Order and The Cure. Nope. Listen to words while trying to write words doesn't work for me. 

On to Alex Bugnon. Nah. 

Next up, Vivaldi. The Four Seasons always inspire me. (Not you, Frankie.) Finally, I found my soundtrack. 

Antonio and his counterparts are apparently what I need to get me writing. Sorry, Bono, your music is a constant in my life, but not for writing. Depeche Mode and New Order - great for dancing, working out & housework, not so much for writing. Mr. Bugnon, you help me relax but you don't help me write. 

Bach's Brandenbrug Concerto and Tocaata and Fugue are perfect. (Though the Fugue does make me pause. Fugue-itaboutit.) Throw in a few piano nocturnes, maybe George Winston for some contempoary piano. 

Then I discovered the browser windows, with Pandora in a separate one, need to be minimized and resized so I can easily  like, dislike or skip tracks. Ahhh...my writing sweet spot. 

This points toward the importance of writing as a habit. If I know what works for me and find what it takes to create a Pavloving response of wriing (hopefully not salivating), I'm setting myself up to succeed.

Next step, figure out if I can squirt out bits of drafts at home, with the laptop open on the bar, in between the rest of my life. 

Do you have any rituals, conditions or wacky idiosyncrasies that help you write?