Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

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Ep 93: Why I'm Committing to the Work-Ahead Advantage Mar 21, 2017

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I didn't publish a single post last week. I volunteered to serve at a four-day tournament, and my commitment left no free time. I couldn't write anything new, and I had no blog posts or podcast episodes in reserve. So last week, I published nothing. May I serve as a cautionary tale? Work Ahead on Content If you're a blogger or regular guest columnist for another publication, I urge you to do what I failed to do: write several articles or blog posts and store them up—better yet, prep and schedule them—so you'll have content for the weeks you head off on vacation, catch the flu, or volunteer to serve at a four-day tournament. If you don’t, you'll end up like me and have no choice but to recycle something from the archives or simply take the week off. Now, taking a week off is certainly an option. But your readers like hearing from you. They look forward to your updates. They appreciate your solutions to their problems. They're entertained by your stories. They show up looking for whatever it is you write and when you and your words aren't there for a week or more, they wonder what’s going on. They hope nothing's wrong. I wish I'd worked ahead, so I could have offered great content to help you reach your writing goals—and have fun. We missed a week when, together, we could have been more curious, creative, and productive. It Takes Grit to Work Ahead I know it's possible to work ahead, because I pulled it off last year when I was going to be gone for several weeks. The month before I left, I got up early and stayed up late to double the work, writing one piece for the week I was in and another for a month out, when I would be traveling. My pace was nutty—unsustainable, really—but I pulled it off and felt great having a month's worth of content finished, prepped, and scheduled. It took grit; I had to push to get ahead. But what freedom! And the beauty is that once you're ahead, you can revert back to a normal schedule, producing only one piece at a time knowing there’s a safety net. If you fall behind one week, you’ll still have something to publish. I wish I'd kept it up and maintained that work-ahead advantage. But I didn’t. And that’s why last week, I did not record a podcast or write a blog post. And that’s why this week, I’ve resolved to work ahead. Write When Productive to Have Content When Blocked The work-ahead advantage is a great gift not only when you're busy, like I was, but also when you hit a creative lull. Call it writer's block or call it a dry spell. Whatever it is, writers often enjoy mega-productive seasons followed by weeks of meager output. If you can manage to write extra when words are flowing freely, you'll accumulate essays, articles, blog posts, or poems you can continue to send out even if you enter a phase when you're unable to produce polished pieces. What Season Are You in Now? If you’re in a mega-productive season, write. Write a lot. Write more than you need. Write until you have a month’s worth of material or more. Make hay while the sun shines and all that. If you're in a dry spell, hang in there. Read some great literature and relax into it. Underline phrases that generate a sigh or laughter. Copy into your commonplace book sections that seem significant and deserve further consideration. Take long walks. Sip tea. Exercise. Write in a journal. During that lull, maybe—hopefully—you’ll have some extra content on hand that you can send out or publish. If not, that’s okay. Call it a hiatus or a sabbatical or something. At some point, the muse will return and you'll feel that surge of energy. Ideas and inspiration will once more flow through your fingers and onto the screen. Once again,

Ep 92: How to Compose the Perfect First Draft Mar 07, 2017

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Before we revise, we need something to revise. We must compose the perfect first draft. How? We write without worrying about every comma splice or misplaced modifier. We write with abandon and get the story down. The Writer Hat During the prewriting and creation stage, we must consciously separate the writer self from the editor self. It’s as if we need to wear two hats—literally two different hats you can wear at the appropriate times. In episode 91, I mentioned my literal editor hat: a Maxwell Perkins-style fedora. The writer hat—especially needed during that first draft creation stage—is more like a baseball hat popped on backward. That image comes to me from Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote: My muse wears a baseball cap, backward. The minute my daughter is on the school bus, he saunters up behind me with a bat slung over his shoulder and says oh so directly, “Okay, author lady, you’ve got six hours till that bus rolls back up the drive. You can sit down and write, now, or you can think about looking for a day job.” (High Tide in Tucson, 96) Don’t stop the momentum and start fiddling with the words when knocking out that draft. Pop on the baseball cap as a reminder to keep the words flowing. When that hat is on, we’re in a no-judgment zone, building the piece, keeping the creativity flowing, not second-guessing ourselves. Just get ‘er down and git ‘er done. “Crummy” First Drafts Another memorable source to turn to regarding first drafts is Anne Lamott. Countless writers have found freedom to write wild and free and without judgment thanks to a chapter in Bird by Bird (and I paraphrase), “Crummy First Drafts.” “All good writers write them,” Lamott says. “This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts” (21). As readers, we see the final versions of books. We pluck them from library shelves and marvel at their quality, their genius, their lyrical style, their page-turning power. We forget that every short story, poem, memoir, and novel started as an initial draft. Every writer had to get that first draft down—and that first draft was likely rambling, riddled with errors, and downright crummy. Write Like It’s Child’s Play Lamott gives another freeing image to take us into our project's initial writing stage: The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page. If one of the characters wants to say, "Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?,” you let her. No one is going to see it. (22-23) When we write our draft like it’s child’s play—free and even fanciful—she says we may end up with one line in a paragraph buried deep on the sixth page…a line that captures our imagination, and perhaps our heart. It’s a line “you just love,” she writes, “that is so beautiful or wild that you know what you’re supposed to be writing about, more or less, or in what direction you might go—but there was no way to get to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages” (23). Write Without Judgment Quiet the voices and write without judgment, without fear, without hesitation. Like a child scribbling her story. Free. I’ve never been able to confirm the original source, but Jane Smiley is attributed as saying, “Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist. It's perfect in its existence. The only way it could be imperfect would be to NOT exist.” Don’t let perfectionism hold your words hostage when you’re working on that first draft. Let it all out. It’s perfect for what it is: the first draft.

Ep 90: The Long-Term Results of a Faithful Writing Life Feb 22, 2017

Show notes

Christian author Eugene Peterson wrote a book called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He explains where he got that phrase. Christians, he says, are looking for quick results, but shortcuts don’t lead to Christian maturity. Peterson writes, “Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw this area of spiritual truth at least with great clarity, wrote, ‘The essential […]

Ep 89: The Rush to Publish - How to Pace Your Career Feb 14, 2017

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In chapter 7 of On Being a Writer, my coauthor Charity Singleton Craig highlighted what L.L. Barkat calls the “Fifteen Years of Writing for Your Grandmother Rule” (On Being a Writer, 86). Charity included this excerpt from Barkat’s book Rumors of Water: It is not uncommon for writers to seek a large audience too early […]

Ep 88: How to Develop Your Own Self-Study Writing Course Feb 09, 2017

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As you go about the work of writing, and the business of writing, don’t forget to study the craft of writing. Find ways to continually learn and improve. A lot of writers feel a strong urge to enter an MFA program to do this. If you feel compelled to pursue that, by all means, research it and see if that’s the right next step for you. But what I’m suggesting is you set out to invent a kind of self-study writing course using resources readily available online or at your local library. You'll learn efficiently when you develop a self-study writing course that includes practice and study pertaining to your biggest areas of struggle or weakness. Novelist James Scott Bell wrote an article about how to strengthen your fiction the Ben Franklin way. He explains how Ben Franklin came up with his own self-study course to grow in virtues. Franklin made a grid and evaluated whether or not he was successful in his pursuit of a given virtue each week. In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father concluded he did not attain perfection, as he had hoped, but "was, by the endeavor, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.” James Scott Bell proposes the fiction writer identify key areas to develop into a stronger writer much as Franklin identified his list of virtues. Bell calls these key area "critical success factors," or CSFs. He explains: Business and sales folk have been using Franklin’s system for decades to improve their own performance. Not via Franklin’s virtues, but by determining their own areas of competence. These are called critical success factors. Bell goes through each CSF a fiction author would want to develop and points to related resources: if the reader wants to learn about scenes, voice, or other aspects of fiction, Bell provides links to articles or books that can address each of those. By tapping into these resources, the writer develops his own self-study course. You can do the same. You can make a list of what you feel are your personal CSFs—this could be something like organization or productivity or time management. Then list CSFs of whatever writing you do. In this way, any of us can identify an area to improve in and find instruction pertaining to that exact skill or technique. For fiction, you could check out James Scott Bell's list in that article, where he cites the seven key elements a fiction writer could focus on plot, structure, characters, scenes, dialogue, voice and meaning (theme). You could make a list of CSFs for nonfiction writers. This might include research, idea development and organization, grammar skills, or something as focused as transitions. You could list key skills a poet or essayist could work on to improve your craft. Consider some of the areas you’d like to grow in first, and then find online courses, books, articles, webinars, and podcasts created to address those key skill sets. Work through them, over time, as a self-study program custom-made for you, and by you. When you realize you've learned all you can from that phase of study, fully absorbing and applying what you found, you can revisit and reconsider those CSFs, and see if there's a way to ramp up your training, as if you're ready to move up to the 300- or 400-level courses, or grad-level understanding—even though these are all your own lifelong learning efforts as an autodidact. In this way, you can and will improve. You can and will grow. You can and will gain confidence. You will arrive at some level of success. And if you feel you aren't as successful as you'd hoped, you can look back and see that by this endeavor, you're a better and happier person than you otherwise should have been if you had not...

Ep 87: You Can Impact Readers Right Now through Social Media Feb 02, 2017

Show notes

In episode 86, we discussed first steps you can take to launch your social media presence. I suggested you could start simple and slow by establishing a bare-minimum presence at each of the big social media platforms. I encouraged you to secure your avatar, your handle, your username—ideally using your author name—and fill out your […]

Ep 86: Your Writing Platform - First Steps to Launching Your Social Media Presence Jan 26, 2017

Show notes

When people talk about building a platform, they often think immediately of social media. I suppose it’s because the word “platform” is often used to describe them: Facebook is a social media platform, Twitter is a social media platform. It’s referring more to the technology that makes it possible for that service to run. But […]

Ep 85: Now Is the Time to Start Building Your Platform Jan 18, 2017

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There’s a proverb that says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” It’s true of so many things, isn’t it? We would be in such a different place if only we had started years ago. Building a platform might feel a little bit like that, […]

Ep 84: Your Writing Platform - Do People Expect Writers to Be Speakers? Jan 12, 2017

Show notes

Last week I volunteered to serve at a speech and debate tournament for junior high and high school students. One of the women I served with asked if I thought writers were expected to speak more than ever before, whether through all the video options that are popping up like Facebook Live, or in person […]

Ep 83: Your Writing Platform: What’s the Definition of Platform (and Do I Really Need One)? Jan 03, 2017

Show notes

At a writing conference a few years ago, I attended a panel discussion that included acquisitions editors from several publishing houses and a couple of literary agents. I’d been wanting to meet one of the agents, so after the session, I stood in line to introduce myself. I told him I was a writing coach working with several authors who were developing book proposals. These authors had questions about platform. “What kind of numbers are agents and publishers really looking for?” I asked. “And how would I know if I have an author you might be interested in?" He said he couldn’t speak for all agents or publishers, but as an example of the platform size he was looking for, he would only consider authors with a minimum of 10,000 Twitter followers. Platform: Numbers Matter I asked another literary agent the same question recently, especially regarding platform. Though she didn’t commit to 10,000 as the ideal, she said numbers do matter. “It’s not me,” she said. "It’s the publishers. They’re the ones asking for us to bring them authors with significant platforms because they want to guarantee a certain number of sales.” Authors as Business Partners Chad R. Allen, editorial director for Baker Books, said in an interview that when he’s reviewing book proposals, he always has three things in mind: "concept, platform, writing.” After he looks at the book idea to see if it’s a fresh, marketable concept, he then turns to the author bio, to learn about the author "not only in terms of how good a writer they are, but also in terms of what are their connections, what’s their platform, what is their ability to bring exposure to their own book.” He says, "Authors are artists–we all know that–but they are also business partners, particularly when they sign a book contract.” Chad said, "The #1 reason we turn books down is no platform or lack of platform.” Definition of Platform So we can’t ignore the need for platform, but still…what is it? Chad offered a quick definition when he said he wants to learn about a writer’s connections and their ability to bring exposure to their own book. Literary agent Chip MacGregor says essentially the same thing: "a platform is simply the number of people you can reach with your words.” He then lists several ways you can reach people: through speaking events, a blog, articles in other publications, television or radio appearances, leadership positions that would give you influence over a large group or organization. Chip says, "All of those are points of contact with potential readers…[A]dd up the audiences for all the ways in which you reach out, and that’s your platform." That’s what it comes down to: How do you reach people with your words and can you reach more of those people? Does Your Platform Reach the Right People? Literary agent Rachelle Gardner emphasizes that "the key to platform is your target audience and what you are doing to reach them.” In other words, who cares if you have 10,000 Twitter followers if they aren't the target readers of your next book? If I plan to publish a cookbook for backpackers but have been building a huge connection with business professionals focused on developing powerful speaking skills simply because I have an interest in both of those topics…I may need to rethink my strategies and find ways to build up a following among outdoor enthusiasts, campers, and, well, backpackers. I could write articles for Backpacker Magazine and join forums that talk about gear and destinations and food as some platform-building efforts. Or I could write a different book. About speaking techniques for business professionals. The point is: build a relevant platform.

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