The Write Focus

We’re talking Branding. In this episode, it’s the reader’s 1st Impressions.

1^st Impressions are so important. In every aspect of our daily life, whenever we encounter someone or something new, it’s the first impressions that immediately strike to our souls. There’s a reason for the clichéd “Love at first sight”.

For books, 1^st Impressions are CRUCIAL! It’s the crossing moment, the significant bridge that has the reader reach for the book. Without a strong 1^st impression the browsing reader won’t even stop at the book. Whether in a bookstore (yes, they are coming back!) or an online catalog that only requires the tap of a finger, we have to earn the reader’s reach.

We have bare seconds—nanoseconds—to catch the reader’s attention.

Let’s look at the 3 Glances we need to catch a reader. We’ll focus on the 1^st Glance and its 2 Keys today.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Start
• 00:39 Intro
• 02:07 Those Crucial 1^st Impressions
• 03:59 1^st Impressions Matter
• 06:49 3 Glances will Catch the Reader
• 09:19 Glance I: 3 Little Words
• 11:44 1^st Job
• 13:42 Keys One and Two
• 16:45 Closing

DIRECT LINK to the Write Focus blog to exhibit the first four covers for the first Ellis Peters’ Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones. https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/07/branding-1st-impressions.html

A Video Trailer showing Branding in Action: https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8

Purchase the ebook at these inks:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL8GBM1

https://books2read.com/u/bPyKQ7

Purchase a paperback 8 x 10 with Characters / Plot / Branding / Sentence Craft here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Branding: the Way Writers will Reach the Readers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Coming soon are worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

1^st, we have a last check-in for the June Writing Challenge. Even if you managed only a few thousand words or a few hundred, that’s still a success  ~ because it’s more than a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen. Set your goal anew for July, and have at it with a weekly breakdown to achieve the monthly goal.

This episode starts a series on Branding. We’ll talk the history and importance of branding and a few definitions. In later episodes, we’ll talk First Impressions and Iconography, wording with images, basically a story with words on the front cover. This is the focus all through July and August.

Timings

• 00:00 Start
• 00:39 Introduction
• 02:23 Branding
• 05:55 Branding is Marketing
• 09:02 Book Distribution
• 11:15 One Author’s Branding / Victoria Holt and her pen names
• 14:32 Our Keys to Branding
• 15:20 Closing

Total = 16:19

A video trailer showing branding in action is here:  https://youtu.be/uthI5gEWic8

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We’re counting down the last days of the June Writing Challenge. Here’s the Week 4 check-in followed by my rattling chatter on inoculation against the writing doldrums ~ when we all feel like we’re accomplishing nothing even as we accomplish something great.

Last for today ~ but not the least ~ is an excerpt from Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing. Whitney is the grande dame of American mystery and romantic suspense and a best-selling international writer, with more than 70 novels penned. In 1961, early in her career, she received the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, capping that with the Grand Master Award from MWA in 1988. In 1990, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America. She died in 2008 at age of 104. Guide to Fiction Writing presents her perspective on the craft as of 1982, 41 years after her first published novel.

The final days of the June Writing Challenge will be presented in the introductory remarks to the July 5 episode of The Write Focus.

Timings

• 0:39 Intro
• 0:59 Challenge Check-in
• 3:01 Vaccine against Writing Doldrums
• 6:24 Guide to Fiction Writing excerpt
• 10:40 Closing

Total Time = 10:06

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Three weeks of June have vanished. How are you doing in the Writing Challenge? Today’s episode starts with the Challenge Check-in. I also present how I have developed ideas from nothing in the past … which is the method I use now and in the future. That’s the section on “Writers & Ideas”.

Timings

• 0:39 Intro
• 0:44 Challenge Check-in
• 4:35 Writers & Ideas
• 11:15 Closing

Total Time = 10:44

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We have the second 7 days of the June Writing Challenge. This week is the actual start of the novel; the first week sketched out scenes that would build into chapters. We also had basic research and setting up our masterbook last week.

This week shows the benefit of foundational work as we pour into the Rough-Write stage of the novel.

Besides our check-in for the first 13 days, I discuss how I’m a puzzler in the sketching stage, a pantster in the Rough-Write stage, and a Plotter in the Draft stage.

Also, here are the 8 Steps to a Perfect Scene, which I picked up somewhere ages ago and still find very helpful.

Timings

• 0:39 Intro
• 0:43 Challenge Check-in
• 3:39 Puzzler / Pantster / Plotter
• 8:15 8 Steps to a Perfect Scene
• 12:35 Closing

Total Time = 13:36

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge, starting on June 1 and continuing to June 30, with check-ins on June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, and July 5.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

It’s the Writing Challenge, this June on The Write Focus.

In addition, we give the #1 indicator of writing success and introduce the 7 writing stages for building any content type, fiction and nonfiction.

The Writing Challenge started on June 1 (we promoted it in our May 31 episode). We’re attempting 1,500 words per day throughout the month. Achievement = 45,000, but even if we’re far short, we still have success ~ because we’ve avoided the dreaded blank page.

TIMINGS

• 0:39 Intro
• 2:10 Stages of Writing
• 8:21 Challenge Check-in
• 11:13 Closing

Total Time: 12:12

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the June Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook as well as templates from the Discovering Characters series.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

In this episode, we finish the series Discovering Characters.

Tomorrow starts June, and The Write Focus will have a June Writing Challenge. We hope to write the equivalent of 1,000 words per day, giving us 30,000 words by the end of the month. That’s a great start on a novel or nearly a complete novella, or a handful of short stories. 1,000 sounds not a lot, but summer is filled with distractions and disruptions. Join us for the June Writing Challenge, 1,000 wpd. We’ll share our progress starting on June 7, then June 14 and 21 and 28, with a final check-in on July 5.

As for this episode, last in Discovering Characters, we’re going through what I call Ornaments to the story. These are significant lists. Characters. Items. Events.

Ornaments add richness of detail to our plot, just as ornaments add richness of celebration to a Christmas tree.

TIMINGS

• 0:37 Intro
• 2:15 Ornaments
• 3:33 Honorable and Dishonorable
• 5:15 Professions and Others
• 7:55 Stereotypes than can Enrich
• 10:25 Archetypal Situations and Shapes
• 14:18 Closing

Total Time: 14:18

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We have two more episodes in the Discovering Characters series. Today’s episode is the 3^rd of the Sliding Scales, the first being Progressions and the 2^nd Transgressions. This 3^rd Sliding Scale is Transitions.

Circumstances can cause growth and change even when our hearts and minds may have intended to avoid any transformation.

We often are pushed into our transitions, in ways that we never anticipated, and so it is for our characters. People may linger at a plateau for years. Eventually, however, they will tip into the next stage. Transitions are never chosen; they come from outside forces that propel our changes.

 

Timings

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:52 Transitions
• 2:42 Stages of Grief
• 5:00 Example
• 5:37 Psychological Stages to Maturity
• 14:14 Example
• 20:30 Closing

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

We’ve almost finished our Discovering Characters series. In the last episode, we presented how characters can be developed to reveal their growth or decline or their alterations.

In this episode, we present the dark side of characters: the Transgressions.

Only a couple of episodes remain in this series then we’re off on a Summer Challenge. For now, on with the episode.

Timings

• 0:39 Intro for Transgressions
• 1:10 Aristotle’s Tragic Hero (5 elements)
• 6:25 Examples: Macbeth, The Bookshop, Ophelia
• 12:30 Sevens
• 15:37 Writer / Protagonist / Antagonist
• 19:33 Closing

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

From the beginning of this Discovering Characters series, we’ve built our primaries from the ground up with templates and interviews We’ve looked at our individual primaries, the protagonists and antagonists, as well as our secondary characters and their relationships with our primaries.

The best characters are not static but change, whether they grow or decline. That’s today’s focus: Progressions.

Timings

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:14 Sliding Scales
• 1:39 Progressions
• 1:47 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (with a bit on PTSD)
• 8:58 Examples: 2 by Jane Austen & 1 by Jack London
• 12:07 Closing

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk