WRITING POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS IN 2020

By Nick Rolon

We are nearly 48 hours away from welcoming in the new year.  The clock will strike midnight, family and friends will embrace each other, toasts will be made with confetti streaming down, noise horns blown, and the singing of the iconic song Auld Lang Syne, “times gone by.” And yes – writing goals, resolutions for the new year.

Over the years, I have learned the importance of writing positive affirmations to help achieve your goals. The practice of writing positive affirmations is even more important during challenging periods in life. Writing gives us an opportunity to share our thoughts, recognize others, reflect on what we did last year and what we want to do in 2020. Sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, we make excuses for not focusing on affirmations and goals to make us better.  

In 2020, you can write positive affirmations that you repeat to yourself. These written words can help you describe a specific outcome you seek or who you want to be. It is important to understand that at first these affirmations may not be true. But with repetition of the phrases the affirmations will soon motivate you to building and achieving your goals. The two most powerful written words are, “I Am.” followed by, “I Can.” and, “I Will.”   Examples include, “I Am  strong in mind, body, and spirit.” “ I Am grateful for what I can do.” “I Am happy to be me.” “I Will Succeed.” “I Am Thankful for the love of my life.v” “I Can write this story.”

During a visit to my parent’s house, I observed m.y Dad writing positive affirmations on post-it notes and sticking them to the mirror in their bathroom. The positive messages were intended to inspire him and my Mom who is battling brain cancer. An example - “I can beat this.” “I am strong.” These positive affirmations helped during chemotherapy treatments, doctor appointments, and therapy sessions by providing hope.   

Some helpful tips to writing and using positive affirmations in the new year:

· Think of the positive outcome you desire and write it using, " I am, I can, I will."

· Write a weekly positive affirmation.

· Write the message on a post-it notes and place it in a visible location that you frequently use, - a refrigerator door, the mirror, a book marker.

· Write your affirmation and save it to your computer or cell phone home screen.

· Write your affirmation on a wall or desk calendar at the beginning of the week.

· Use a Dry Eraser Board to write your weekly affirmation statement.

· Text yourself your positive affirmations.

A positive affirmation from author A.A. Milne: “You are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem, and Smarter than you think.”  A message my mother sees daily next to her coffee table.

I would like to dedicate my blog post to Ginny Padgett, Kasie Whitener, and the entire Columbia II Writers Workshop members. Ginny, you welcomed me into the Columbia II Writers Workshop at a time I was looking to rekindle my enthusiasm for writing. You have shown me all the great attributes of a team leader - a communicator, a listener, a teacher, a professional, a motivator, but most of all – a caring, thoughtful person. Kasie, you helped me with my first blog a year ago. Your constructive feedback and insight into the disciplines of writing have been invaluable. Your passion for writing and helping others in our workshops, coordinating our Columbia II “Business of Writing” Workshop in April, and the tremendous talent that you demonstrate is inspiring. El, Sharon, Bonnie, Ruth, Dan, Sandra, Raegan, Mike, and all members, thank you. I have learned a lot from your incredible writing. I will miss everyone as I return to family in New Jersey.

Thanks, Nick

The FEAR of WRITING: Three Tips to Overcome the Beast

This is a recycled post from October, 2018.

By Jodie Cain Smith

I believe fear is healthy, for the most part. Fear prevents us from petting poisonous snakes, hugging sharks, and driving blindfolded over bridges. Fear tells us to read the expiration date on the milk carton and to put down the big, metal stick in the middle of a thunderstorm. Any fear that keeps me alive, physically intact, and free of food poisoning, I’m a’keepin’. However, one fear I must get rid of is the fear of writing.

What? Wait. Fear of writing? That’s dumb. Yes, yes it is, but it is an emotion I’ve experienced quite a bit recently.

My fear song plays out like this:  I get an awesome idea, a premise that sucks me in. For a couple of days I bask in my brilliance. I research the heck out of it, ensuring every detail is accurate, plausible. I imagine the cast of characters and setting. After all of this, there is only one thing left to do – write the story. This is when fear grips my throat and the lightning that is anxiety pulses through my veins. My idea is too complex. My writing game is subpar. If I attempt to write this and fail, my whole career is over. My fraud as a writer (yep, we all feel this at some point) will be revealed.

Over the course of the last three months, as I have pushed to finish two current projects, I’ve experienced this fear time and again. Through this experience, I was forced to design ways beyond it because, well, my fear of failure beats all other fears. So, if you find yourself in a secluded corner hiding under a blanket sure that the blank screen boogeyman is coming for you, here are a few defenses I have deployed to beat the monster that is performance anxiety. (Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about writing, perv.)

1. Listen to your character even if that little tramp has ideas that in no way fit into your original plot scheme. It’s her story. Let her be a part of it. Let her tell it.

2. Just write. Everyday. (Well, at least Monday through Friday. Even creative genius needs a day off.) If the words are awful, write them anyway. Tomorrow is for fixing. Today we write!

3. Don’t be afraid to abandon a story and move on to a new one. They’re not all winners. Sometimes “killing your darlings” means abandoning the whole thing.

Now, don’t we all feel better? And, no one had to pay a therapist.

THE LATEST ADDITION

Meet a New Columbia II Blogger

ALEXA BIGWARFE

Alexa Bigwarfe is a USA Today Best-Selling Author, an author coach, and a publisher. Through her company, Write|Publish|Sell, Alexa loves helping other authors through the maze, and oftentimes, the confusion of publishing and book marketing. She resides in Columbia, SC, with her husband, three children, dog, and a lot of characters in her head that are just waiting to make it to print.

Alexa's first post on this page follows.

REVIEWS MATTER

by Alexa Bigwarfe

I hear it from authors all the time. “I don’t want to think about all that marketing and publishing stuff. I just want to write!” Of course you do, but the publishing industry has changed, and if you want to be successful as an author, you have to start learning the business of being an author. Whether you are published by a traditional publishing house, or you self-publish or choose to go the hybrid route, there are things beyond writing you should be thinking about.

You’ve put a lot of time, effort and energy into writing a good book, why would you not want to also put in the efforts to make sure people can find and buy that book? 

There are many important elements that go into selling a book. You need a platform (ie, readers!), you need great meta data associated with your book, a marketing strategy, and you need a lot of reviews.

Oh, the dreaded reviews. Of all the things mentioned above, reviews are probably the last thing you want to think about as an author. However, reviews, and getting them, are one of the biggest hurdles an author will face. It can take a long time and a lot of marketing before reviews just start happening on their own for your book.

Most people in your inner circle have never published a book and have NO idea about reviews or what they mean. Take some time to educate your inner circle, your readers about the importance of reviews on your book so that you can get a large number of reviews, in an ethical manner.  

1. Book reviews are TRULY influential to future sales not only from readers, but also book buyers, librarians, people looking for speakers, etc. 
2. REVIEWS MATTER. The more activity on a book – from views, sales, and reviews, the higher the book will rank in both search results and in categories. This is critical for receiving organic traffic and book sales.
3. You may NOT give away copies of your book IN EXCHANGE FOR a review, per Amazon terms of service. You MAY give away as many copies of your book as you’d like prior to (and after) your launch. But it’s only in the hopes that these readers will love your book enough to share about it and go leave a review. Gently ask them to leave a review if they would like.
4. In order for a book review to be accepted by Amazon, the person must have done one of the following: purchased the book through Amazon directly or have left multiple reviews on other Amazon products in the past. This is important for your launch team to know. 

In summary, most people have no idea what you need them to do to best help you succeed with the publication of your book, unless they are also a published author. As you prepare for your book launch, take the time to educate your advanced readers. Let them know the importance of reviews, particularly within the first few days of launch. 

Reviews matter.

GET THEE a WRITER'S PLATFORM

By Kasie Whitener

Early in my writing career, I discovered Writer’s Digest and Robert Lee Brewer who had his own blog called “My Name is Not Bob” (MNINB). In April 2012, Not Bob ran a 30-day writers’ platform challenge.

My family had recently relocated to Columbia, and I had decided to make a go of this writing thing. I started with a blog, Life on Clemson Road, a public way for me to write about being a mom to a then-4-year-old, wife to a career tire guy, and unemployed corporate refugee.

Being new to blogging, I didn’t fully appreciate the brilliance of MNINB’s Challenge. The 30-day series means you’ll have readers visiting your blog every day for 30 days, leaving comments on every post, and providing evidence of traffic.

The MNINB Platform Challenge was made up of 30 tasks writers needed to do in order to build what marketers (and agents and publishers) called a digital platform. The platform is a spectrum of digital properties you use to connect with your readers.

In 2012, I didn’t have any readers. That was okay, the MNINB Platform Challenge told me. I would get them eventually. I just needed to build and cultivate my platform.

The Challenge started with registrations like “get a Facebook page” and “get a Twitter account.” Each day the writers participating would read Robert Lee Brewer’s advice on the value of these various platform elements, his quick instructions on how to do them, and then go and execute the prescribed action. Then leave a comment on his blog as evidence.

Some actions like, “Visit another blogger’s blog and comment on it,” were meant to help us explore the blogosphere. Some, like “share a blog to one of your social channels,” were encouraging reciprocal behavior. In any case, the Challenge actions were all meant to fully immerse the would-be writer into the digital world of selling books.

In conference after conference, we’ve been told that publishers are less likely to do your marketing for you. If they take on the expense of printing (editing, layout, cover design, printing), they really won’t market for you. We’re also told your platform is one of the ways you can endear yourself to publishers – encourage them to select your book.

When I finally landed a publisher (thanks, Chrysalis Press!) I already had a platform. I have a well-branded blog (Unapologetically X), a Facebook Author page, a Twitter account I use almost exclusively for a weekly tweet chat about writing (Tuesday’s #wschat), and a radio show with digital properties (podcast and show notes blog).

And yet I’d neglected some key parts of my platform. For example, my Facebook page needed about 175 more likes – friends I should have invited long ago. Even so, the show, the digital stuff, and a great party at a local bar earned me some early interest, early sales, and early reviews. I have a long way to go. Moreover, I have a full appreciation for the value of a digital platform. 

THE LATEST ADDITION

Meet a New Columbia II Blogger

JERRY D. PATE

Jerry D. Pate is a retired trade association executive and broadcast news director, reporter, anchor. He has written nearly 20 short stories and is working on a book about a South Carolina cotton mill and its people. 

Jerry's first post on this page follows.

MASTERING PLOT TWISTS

By Jerry D. Pate

This week’s contribution comes from Jerry Pate, new member to our Columbia II Chapter. He takes some lessons in character & plot development from “Mastering Plot Twists” by Jane K. Cleland (full citation below).

“A Three-Question Assessment Model Delves into People’s Longings:

1. Who longs for what?

2. What are those people willing to do to satisfy their longings?

3. Who or what opposes them? (Pp 22-23)”

“Actions and Reactions Propel Your plot:

Incidents exist in a vacuum until the people involved react. Once people care about a situation though, an otherwise benign incident transforms from ho-hum to captivating. If people don’t care, a conflict is averted but you have no story. If they feel passionate about an issue, the opportunities to create conflict abound  (Pg 25).”

“Homing in on the Relationships Between Key Elements:

      Once you know what a person longs for and what they’re willing to do to satisfy that longing, you can identify a worthy opponent –which, by definition will create a conflict. You can ensure that conflict is significant enough to carry your story by confirming it aligns with a prime motivator…

“Examining works you admire enables you to identify patterns. Adapting this approach to your chosen genre equips you to make informed decisions about your plot… (Pg 53).”

“CAPITALIZE ON PERCEPTION GAPS:

Whatever we believe, it rarely occurs to us that we might be wrong, just as it rarely occurs to us that other people, as fair-minded and principled as we are, might look at the same events or facts and reach different conclusions. Yet it happens all the time. I call this dichotomy a “perception gap,” and capitalizing on its potential reveal meaningful information about your characters is a reliable way to develop believable characters and intriguing plots….

“Perception gaps encourage readers to delve into your characters’ motivations, to become more involved in your story, and to place themselves in the incidents you describe… (Pp 73 & 74).”

“ICE DOWN TRDs FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT

TRDs = Twists, Reversals & Danger

“At their best TRDs tap into strong emotions. However, you can’t randomly select emotions to tap into. Only those emotions that ripen organically from your stories and characters will work…”

Cleland suggests using the acronym ICE as a guide:

· Intrigue. Your goal in developing TRDs is to create tension through the unexpected. The word intrigue combines two irresistible facts that drive readership: curiosity and appeal…

· Credibility. Credibility requires more than creating believable situations: credibility demands trust. Readers must trust you are revealing emotional truth through believing incidents, and those incidents must relate to your [overall] narrative question…

· Evidence. One of the most oft-repeated pieces of writing advice is to show and not tell. As Mark Twain put it: “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.” Don’t report on events: present them. By consistently challenging yourself to provide evidence of what you’re describing, you’ll be certain to write episodes readers can see, hear, feel, smell and touch. It is these sensual references that bring your story to life…(Pg 152).”

Full citation:

Cleland, Jane K. Mastering Plot Twists. Writer’s Digest Books: 2018. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: ISBN-13:978-1-4403-52331.