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Monday, November 5, 2018

WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL_IWSG post



With pandemics, riots, senseless violence
What we can control in our lives
Seem non-existent.


What you can control as a writer 
these days 
seems to amount to very little,
 doesn't it?


You cannot control being knocked down,
but you can control getting up
one more time than they knock you down.


There is no secret formula 
to become a best seller
else we would all be Stephen King.


The common concept 
of Social Media Marketing
is NOT the answer


How tired are you of reading 
BUY ME! novel tweets?

How frustrated are you of FB requests 
to like a Book Page?



It is like selling a kiss.

Even if you make a sale,
there is no satisfaction to it. 

It is like kissing your sister.

So what control do we have?


We can choose to grow as a writer, 
as a human being.

Each story we write 
we strive to make better 
than the last.


We do not market an individual book.

We market ourselves.
We are the Brand that will sell.


If each blog post we write 
is evocative or funny or touching,
then, our readers 
will feel those qualities
will be in any new novel we write.


Take  
The HAUNTING of Hill House.


Based on the evocative book 
by Shirley Jackson,
the series will inspire you 
to rise above the
ordinary limits of 
whatever genre you are writing.


How do you make each new story, 
new novel better?

You start with the 
hearts of your characters.
Make them people to root for,
 to like, 
to mourn when life 
extracts its tuition from them.


Hill House is filled with decent, 
charming people
in an originally crafted 
series of dangers
whose explanation at the end 
will have you crying.


Each of your characters,
like each character in Hill House,
should have have a scene

where they come alive 
in the minds of the readers,
giving them an 
"Yes, I've been there" moment.



What do you control?  
What are your chances of success?

You are like a WWII fighter pilot.

All you can do is your best.
Fly the heart out of your dream.

You may be shot out of the sky.
But before then,
you will have flown!

14 comments:

  1. Haunting of Hill House is an excellent series.
    Very true that we are marketing ourselves.

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    1. The Haunting of Hill House surprised me with its depth, lush visuals, and resonance of what it means to be human. :-)

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  2. Hi Roland - yes .. the most important thing is living life with the things we can control and not wasting time worrying about things that we can't do anything about - cheers and all the best - Hilary

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    1. And there are more than enough things that I can control that fill my day!! :-)

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  3. Control is really not a reality. Even when we try to control something it's never what we intended, or maybe that's just me.

    Great post!
    teresa

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    Replies
    1. The only person we can change is ourselves, right? :-)

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  4. Solid advice here. Easy to get lost in the marketing arena, and to lose sight that we are the brand, not the individual books. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we can so easily get lost in today's digital arena. Thanks for visiting and chatting a bit. :-)

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  5. I get turned off to the constant buy my book posts. They're right up there with cat videos in the annoyance department. As to control--I have very little to brag about in that area, but I try hard to work on "attitude."

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    Replies
    1. Attitude and perspective can get us through some rough patches that is for sure!

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  6. Even though success would be a mixed bag for me, I love to write too much to give it up. (I'm one of those people who's afraid of success.)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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    Replies
    1. Anna, success is just an illusion. We reach one goal only to see that there are a dozen more past that one! Ouch!

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  7. My wife wants to watch Haunting of Hill House as our next Netflix binge. I didn't know much about it but now I'm looking forward to it! You're right that we can get caught in the spiral of promo tweets and posts, but if we don't keep our creativity alive, we'll have nothing to offer people.

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    Replies
    1. I believe that the Haunting of Hill House will be diverting, riveting, and educational for your writing, Nick. I hope you enjoy it! We can't draw the lightning to our work, but only prepare a good back list of engrossing novels for new fans to enjoy. :-)

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