All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)

Writing content for your blog: As easy as 1, 2, 3?

 

It is not always easy to come up with content for this blog. I mean about 95 percent of the time I know what I am going to talk about. It is those last 5 percent that I sit back in my chair, which our neighbor Rick gave me that is way too comfortable for its own good, that I ponder on what to talk about.

There are so many sites on the matter on what to write about. There are even people you could pay to write content for you. To me that is extreme at this point in my career. I don’t consider myself cheap. I call it frugal. If I can do it myself, even if it takes me some time, than I will do most things in life myself before paying anyone for anything.

But as I sat back it hit me. Content. I would write about the topic itself. It all goes back to what kind of blog you are running and what is the point of it. This blog is geared toward my brand, myself and all aspects of writing whatever those may be.

Now there are tons of topics on blogging. As I went over my history of what I have talked about here I have discussed a lot of things. I even discussed content. But somethings do need repeating for those new to my site or just as a refresher course.

It is when I remind myself however of the point to this blog that an idea comes to me. If you are avid in your blogging and your brand content really shouldn’t be an issue at all. If you are in the game long enough finding ideas to discuss and share with your readers should not be that hard. Just sit back and think on the conferences you go to, the newsletters you receive, the email and letters you get, the people you interact with and a host of other avenues. Everyone, if you are doing it right, has a network of all of that and they are talking about some topic of what your career is about. There is a good chance you know something about it to write on.

Take a breather. It will come to you. If it doesn’t just holler. I’ll toss ideas your way.

Children’s books deserve the same criteria as other genres.

Writing for children I been told by some authors is easy peasy. I know I have brought up this topic a few times on this site. But I feel it bears repeating.

Today a fellow author and friend came to me in a frenzy. She was asked to conduct a writer’s conference. Her, being shy, asked me what should she talk about. She asked me specifically since my books are for children primarily and they will have a section on that.

My first answer was dialogue. You can’t dumb it down or go over their head. That is a sure fire way for them to drop your book and find another. Adults are more forgiving. We will give an author at least a chapter, maybe more, before we ditch it. Kids? Good luck with that.

But also they should comes with a great hook and an interesting plot. But you know what? You also need to do character development, setting, pace and everything else. This applies to all age and genres.

Why should kids not get the same criteria as adults do? Because their kids? Give me a break. They are readers. We want them to continue to be readers.

Majority of authors are readers. Yes, I have met some authors who don’t read. I had a, “What the hell?”, moment. But most authors are. We started young and grew into avid and compulsive readers. Why did we continue? Because we came across books and authors who knew how to write for our age group.

That has not changed. Kids deserves the same steps and levels that a book for other ages go through.

If you are still saying, “Come on now, Sharon, their kids.” Well I say, “Don’t your kids or grandchildren who read deserve that?’

If you short change them because of their age you are doing them a huge disservice. But not only that. If that is your attitude you might want to try a new genre.

Welcome Jasper to Facebook and Twitter: His point of view

 

Well, Jasper now has a voice. No, wait. He has always had a voice in this house. For an animal that can learn words and learn to string words together to form a sentence(he does this on his own which shows the intelligence of this animal) he is able to show us about 75% of the time what he is thinking or feeling. I think those are pretty good odds.

But now he has a voice online. Why? Well last week Jasper was interviewed. No, not me being interviewed. Nope, the books were not discussed. Jasper himself was interviewed. I will get into that next week.

So now he has a Twitter and Facebook page account plus a few other sites and he is having a blast. But Twitter and Facebook it will be from his point of view strictly.

His Twitter account is @JasperTWilliam1

For some reason Twitter removed the s. There isn’t a @JasperTWilliams on Twitter. I checked.

On Facebook he is at : https://www.facebook.com/JasperAmazonParrot/

The title of his page is: Jasper,Amazon Parrot: What the fluff is all about

That is an appropriate title for this animal.

He is having fun though and if you are interested, and let’s be honest help a rescued bird out, check out the sites and follow him. I will let him know to check both accounts and to follow back.