Liz Andra Shaw

Journey into the Creative Mind of a Writing Reader

Keira Michelle Telford – Inside My Cluttered Head

May 12th, 2013

Send to Kindle

Today I am honored to present a guest post by Keira Michelle Telford, the author of a 10-book series of post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction novels, all centering on the lead character of Ella ‘Silver’ Cross. She shares some great advice on the art of creating memorable characters.

Inside My Cluttered Head

by Keira Michelle Telford

My head is filled with voices, all clamoring for attention. When one (or more) really take hold, that’s when a book starts to develop. For me, it doesn’t begin with an idea, or a plot, or a setting – it begins with a character.

Some characters are fleeting. I get a brief impression of some thoughts and feelings and that’s all, then they fade away. Others, like Ella ‘Silver’ Cross, show up one day and get stronger every time I think about them. The same way that Freddy Krueger feeds on fear, and gets more powerful the more you fear him, my characters gain strength every time they cross my mind.

Occasionally, a character becomes so real to me that I develop genuine affection for them. Most recently, I fell in love with a whore. (Actually, technically, she’s not a whore – she’s the madam of a whorehouse). See, the inside of my head is chock full of people. Some have already been brought to life on paper and just won’t leave me alone (they’re very boisterous), while others are standing in line, waiting for their turn. If I was born in a different age, I’d probably have been institutionalized. (Or medicated … or both).

Everything stems from the characters. Through their conversations with each other, I learn more and more about the worlds they inhabit, until a book finally starts to take shape around them. I don’t pick a setting deliberately – the characters tell me where they belong – and I tend not to plot anything out. The process of writing feels very organic to me, and I think it helps if you can just go with the flow and be flexible.

If you begin a book with very rigid ideas of how you want the plot to develop, you might end up with something that feels forced and unnatural. In my experience, the characters will always steer you in the right direction, which is why it’s important to get to know them inside and out before you start writing. After all, the more you know about your characters, the easier it is to spot moments in your writing where motivation, dialogue, or plot have gone askew.

Try writing biographies for your main characters – that can be a good way to get to know them better, as it forces you to answer questions about details of their lives you might not have thought about before. Where were they born? What’s their favorite food? Favorite color? Song? The more you ask, the more you’ll learn.

Ultimately, I probably know Silver better than I know myself at this point. I know everything about her life, from the day she was born, till the present – and that’s exactly as it should be. She’s become so close to my heart, sometimes I’m not even sure if it’s me who breathes life into her, or the other way around.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Science Fiction

Rating – 18A

More details about the book

Connect with Keira Michelle Telford on Facebook & Twitter

Send to Kindle

Top Ten Reasons Why Writers Should Join Toastmasters: #8 Surviving Critical Feedback

April 20th, 2013

Send to Kindle

Your book is so popular that you’ve been on David Letterman. The critics are raving. Everything is just as you’d hoped. And then… the one star reviews start happening. What do you do?

If you’ve been attending Toastmasters, you’d know exactly what to do. Giving and receiving feedback is one of the key ingredients of the Toastmasters experience.

You may be thinking, “Wait! I thought you said that the Toastmasters environment is warm and mutually supportive. Surely you’re not telling me now that I’d get critical feedback in Toastmasters.”

Well, yes, I am telling you that. How do you ever expect to improve your skills if no one ever helps you see your own blind spots?

Feedback in a Toastmasters meeting is given in a very supportive manner. We generally use a sandwich method. When I give an evaluation of a speech, I follow this outline:

How I saw you meet the goals for this project (positive feedback),
One area that you can improve to make your next speech even better (critical feedback), and
How I saw you master basic speaking skills in this presentation.

It’s the middle section of the evaluation – the critical center – that is going to help you become a better speaker. The warm fuzzies surrounding it are just there to help you accept the challenge.

Most people are very insecure about their speaking abilities when they first come to Toastmasters. The warm fuzzies in the evaluation help them get past the fear of being judged. They make the bitter pill of the critique easier to swallow.

As people progress in Toastmasters, they become more secure in their abilities and are usually able to accept more critical feedback. As they allow that to happen, they will begin receiving more and more information on how to improve more quickly.

This system is brilliant. Toastmasters gives you feedback that builds your confidence so that you can accept the more challenging and ultimately more helpful feedback down the line.

Sometimes, however, you’ll get feedback that isn’t helpful. Feedback what will make you want to scream, “That’s not what I was doing! What speech were you listening to?”

Evaluators are humans. They are biased and have their own blind spots. You will receive evaluations that are not helpful because of the evaluator’s idiosyncrasies.

I once received a terrible evaluation from someone who is usually an excellent evaluator. She spent two minutes of a two-and-a-half minute evaluation talking about what a great manual I was working in and how excited she was to be working in it as well. Then, in the final 30 seconds, she advised me that I should have done the speech with a British accent while sitting down pretending to write a letter. That’s how she would have done it, and she would have done it brilliantly. Since I can’t do a British accent without sounding like a mutant hillbilly, however, it was not useful advice for me.

And isn’t this just like real life? In every part of life, people have suggestions about things you are doing wrong, things you could be doing differently and/or better, and things you shouldn’t be doing at all. How do you deal with criticism like that from your parents? Your boss? Your best friend? Your book reviewers?

T. Harv Ecker gives this advice. When people give you feedback that is not supportive, not useful, or not pertinent, just smile and say, “Thank you for sharing.” That’s all. Don’t engage. Don’t complain. Don’t justify. Most of all, don’t take it personally. Toastmasters is helping me put that into action in my life.

If you’re having trouble dealing with negative reviews, come to Toastmasters. Learn how to give and receive critical feedback without becoming emotionally attached.

Thank you for sharing your feedback in the comments below.

Send to Kindle

Where Do Ideas Come From?

March 16th, 2013

Send to Kindle

I spoke recently at Ocotillo Breakfast Club Toastmasters, and in the Q & A after the speech I was asked “Where do you get the ideas for your speeches?” Since March is International Ideas Month, I thought I would address that here as well.

We are all surrounded by ideas all the time. If you don’t have a million ideas bombarding all day, every day, well, then you simply aren’t paying attention.

So the question isn’t “Where do you get the ideas?” No, it should be “How do I learn to pay attention so that I receive all those ideas?”

First, always have a blank notebook at hand to collect your ideas. I have them everywhere – in my desk drawer at work, in my purse, by my bedside, on the table next to my La-Z-Boy, in the car… everywhere.

If you are good with your phone, there are all kinds of note taking apps. Use those instead if you like.

It doesn’t matter where you put the notes about your ideas. Just put them someplace.

I take the notes out of the notebooks and put them into Evernote. You can use any kind of text editor, but I like Evernote because it has web clipping capability to help you collect even more ideas more easily.

Ok, now you are ready to collect the ideas, but still you’re wondering where they come from. Well, it’s simple. They come from you.

Ideas are simply your reaction to what you see, hear, feel, touch, and smell around you. They are memories bubbling up from your unconscious and mixing with what is happening right now. They emerge in a constant flow, but you’ve got to be paying attention. My question to you is, “Are you paying attention?” If you are, you’ve got so many ideas, you’ll never be able to use them all. Your biggest problem is choosing the best ones and developing them into something that connects with your audience’s needs. And that, my friend, is a completely different subject for another day.

Happy International Ideas Month! Share how you find ideas in the comments below.

P.S. If you’re ever looking for a creative boost, consider subscribing to the daily creativity prompts at my other site, The Writing Reader.

I am grateful to fostersartofchilling on Flickr for the fun graphic at the top of this post.

Send to Kindle

Top Ten Reasons Why Writers Should Join Toastmasters: #5 Find Your Voice plus a Bonus

February 3rd, 2013

Send to Kindle

Jeff Goins defines voice as “a unique way of communicating your message, so that people will immediately recognize your writing when they read it.”

We each have a unique voice when we’re speaking, but when it’s time to put fingers to the keyboard it disappears. What’s up with that? And how do we get past it?

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking (here’s my article reviewing it), but I had my voice before I started using that. I found it at Toastmasters.

Before I joined Toastmasters, of course I had a natural voice in my speaking, but it was fuzzy and unfocused. Toastmasters taught me how to say what I need to say colorfully and concisely.

The standard time for a Toastmasters speech is 5 to 7 minutes. That translates to about 600 words.

[side note: If you don't care about your audience keeping up or enjoying your speech, you can actually fit in about 1,300 to 1,400 words. I know. I did that for years. I'm over it now.]

It’s not a lot of words / time to tell a story and make a point. To make an impact, you have to develop a memorable style of delivery and a unique voice.

Don’t worry. Toastmasters will teach you how to do this, through the manual projects and through the feedback you receive on your speeches. As your speaking style develops, your writing style will follow suit.

And if you’re a fiction writer, you get a bonus!

By studying the speaking styles of others, you’ll learn how to write dialogue so that your characters can each have their own voice as well.

There are all sorts of people in Toastmasters. In the same club, you might meet a doctor, a plumber, and a work-at-home mom.

Many clubs have people from all around the world – I’ve been in a club with people from Kenya, Guatemala, Honduras, Malaysia, India, Mexico, England, Canada, and I’m sure few countries that I’m forgetting.

Many clubs have people of all ages, from college students right through the retirement years.

Toastmasters is a great place to watch people, get character ideas, and learn to write dialogue.

Find a club near you at the Toastmasters International web site.

Picture by yugenro

Send to Kindle

Ultimate Blog Challenge Wrap Up and Thank You!

January 31st, 2013

Send to Kindle

I made it! With this post I finish the UBC successfully. It’s been a long month, and I am tired! But proud.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of what I learned.

If I can write a post a day for a month, then I should be able to set and keep a reasonable schedule of posting once a week here and once a week at my speaker site. That’s a big win.

I started the month with the intention to do a vlog once a week as part of this challenge. I ended the month having done exactly zero vlogs. I still have a deep resistance to this that I need to explore. I’m up for the challenge. One day soon, I promise, you’ll be seeing a vlog here.

I followed some new blogs, picked up some yummy recipes, learned some healthy information, and made some new friends. I found a lot of great new resources in many different subjects. Excellent!

I got some clarity on what the heck I’m doing here. More clarity would be good, and I’ve got resources now for working on that. Fantastic!

Thank you so much to Michelle Schaeffer and Michelle Scism for organizing this and for providing so much support throughout the challenge. You ladies rock!

Bloggers, if you missed it this time around, they’re doing it again – every January, April, July, and October. Sign up at UltimateBlogChallenge.com

Send to Kindle

Top Ten Reasons Why Writers Should Join Toastmasters: #4 Learn How to Lead a Team

January 28th, 2013

Send to Kindle

Toastmasters offers leadership opportunities of all sorts, from performing functions in meetings to serving on the international Board of Directors. My favorite, however, is called the HPL or High Performance Leadership.

An HPL can be done for any project that is complex enough to require a team to accomplish. It is ideal for a writer who is going to self-publish a book or a blogger who is setting up a joint venture project, especially if that person has never lead a team before.

The HPL materials supplied by Toastmasters International include a manual for the person leading the project and 3 manuals for the guidance committee. The manuals cover skills such as developing a mission and vision, goal-setting and planning, identifying values, and building a team.

I’ve done an HPL that took just a month and another that lasted for a year. They were very different experiences, and I learned a great deal in the process of completing both. I’ve served on several guidance committees, which is always a privilege and a great opportunity to learn from another leader.

I attended the first meeting for a new HPL project on Saturday. I’m on the guidance committee for a leader who is planning our club’s first anniversary party. Following the event, this leader is going to put together a manual on how to plan a special event for your club. This HPL has the potential to benefit many club leaders in the future.

A writer who wants to self-publish a book has to juggle many tasks besides writing the book. There is cover design, editing, compiling, choosing a printer/publishing house, and release promotion just to name a few aspects of the process. A guidance committee can support the writer as he or she navigates through the process of bringing the vision to life.

You don’t have to have achieved any specific level in Toastmasters in order to do an HPL. Even a brand new Toastmaster can take advantage of this powerful program. Once you are established in a club, take note of who the leaders are, whose experiences would be helpful to your HPL, and whose personalities would work well with yours. Invite them to serve on your guidance committee. They’ll get credit toward a Competent Leader award, but be sure to thank them in your book as well.

Send to Kindle

Creating The Writing Reader, or the Importance of Having a Workflow

January 27th, 2013

Send to Kindle

My first blog, The Writing Reader, is a work-intensive undertaking. In order to stay sane, I created a weekly workflow that makes it seem less like work and more like fun. Here’s a behind the scenes look at how it’s done.

Monday night:

Massage after my day job. (I know this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with blog workflow, but take my word for it. If you want to stay sane, make a weekly appointment to do something that decreases your stress and helps you stay healthy.)
Choose the four quotes, word of the week, and first line of the week. This is actually the most time consuming part of the week. I choose 2 book quotes and 2 quotes from online sources. The last 2 take some surfing time to find. Sometimes this part bleeds over onto another night.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights:

No work on TWR due to Toastmasters

Thursday night:

Find the images for the week on Flickr. Some weeks this goes quickly. Other weeks, I berate myself for the readings I’ve chosen for the week, because nothing on Flickr seems to match up with what I need.

Friday night:

No work on TWR due to writer’s group

Saturday:

Put image and quotation links and information into post templates in HTML-Kit.
Paste post templates into WP Calendar and save as drafts.
Write prompts, add tags and categories, and schedule posts.

Sunday

Collect blog carnival contributions from blogcarnival.com and my Google spreadsheet and add to carnival template in HTML-Kit.
Add links I’ve found during the week through Facebook and email.
Paste template into WordPress, add tags and categories, and post.

Daily:

Promote new posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and She Writes.
I need to add promotion on Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others to my routine.

One thing I’ve learned from doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge this month is that I need to develop a workflow for this blog, too. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it won’t be nearly as ambitious as The Writing Reader.

What’s your workflow for your blog? Do you have a schedule? What programs and plugins do you use that help your workflow.

Send to Kindle

I Love Words!

January 26th, 2013

Send to Kindle

I love words.

Lots and lots of words.

Fancy words, everyday words, words no one has ever heard of, words that are fun to say, and ugly sounding words. I love them all.

I love lots and lots of words.

I love using lots and lots of words.

What I don’t love is limitations on words.

My 5 to 7 minute speeches for Toastmasters used to run 1,200 to 1,600 words. Then I learned that my audience needs spaces between words so that they can digest and react to the words.

Now my 5 to 7 minute speeches are only 600 to 800 words. That’s a 50% unemployment rate for words, which can’t be good for the word economy.

Here’s even worse news for words: 6 times a year, I have to give a 2 minute speech to the District 3 Executive Council. Two minutes.

There is an 1,100 word document describing what I need to cover in those 2 minutes.

Forget giving the audience time to digest and react. This is the moment for me to speak faster than is humanly possible because at 2 minutes I get clapped down.

There is nothing more humiliating than being clapped down. Trust me.

Two minutes. That’s less than 300 words. And about 80 words are a standard greeting and closing that are required.

Am I even capable of saying anything in 200 words?

If I talk really quickly, I can actually get in about 320 words plus the greeting and closing. If I burn rubber. If I’m really fast. FedEx guy fast.

I’m going to do it! For the love of words!

Picture provided by Nina J. G.

Send to Kindle

The Monthly Blog-a-thon

January 24th, 2013

Send to Kindle

Tonight is the night of the monthly blog-a-thon for the Blogging Writers of Gilbert. It’s pretty slim attendance tonight, though.

Eula is missing tonight, because her husband has a leaky lung.

Wilma is missing in action. [my Fred Flinstone voice] Wilma!!!!

I don’t know where Siobhan is, but she just enrolled in grad school. I hope she’s not giving up on blogging.

Sandy has some kind of new adventure in her life that she’s being vague about. She hasn’t really committed to blogging even thought she is so close to being a famous children’s author. (Sandy, I know you’re reading this. Is your query done yet?)

So it’s just Emi and me unsupervised with Mexican food and laptops. Actually, Emi’s laptop gave her some trouble at the start, so she shut it down, ejected the battery, unplugged it, and let it think about its sins while she enjoyed her carnitas. It’s now back up and chugging away.

We’re blogging! And that’s what a blog-a-thon is all about.

Do you have a local bloggers group? If not, you should start one. Here’s some of the great benefits of creating a bloggers group.

Support – someone in the groups knows the answer to your question, or they know someone who does, or they’re better at Google than you are.
Ideas – the other folks in your group will hear ideas come out of your mouth that you don’t hear yourself say. There’s nothing sweeter than hearing your fellow bloggers say, “You should blog that!” Especially when you thought you had nothing to say. Someone as prolific as Eula generates five or six blog ideas at a blog-a-thon. Seriously, that woman is a force of nature.
Push! – some people have a little trouble getting themselves started blogging on a regular schedule. If you do a monthly blog-a-thon, those folks will blog at least once a month.
Fun – it’s entirely possible that there is more laughter than blogging at most of our blog-a-thons.

I didn’t mention the food (it’s delicious at Rio Rico Mexican Grill in Gilbert, AZ) or the movie and book recommendations. These non-blog related benefits are just happy side effects of the monthly blog-a-thon.

I was going to link to Rio Rico, but in looking up their website, we found that it’s a parked domain that hasn’t been developed. So here’s another possible benefit of our monthly blog-a-thon: Emi might be able to talk them into a web design job.

Do you already have a local blogging group? Have I convinced you to explore the idea of starting one? Let me know in the comments.

P.S. If you’re near Gilbert, AZ, and would like to join us, we’re on Facebook.

Picture provided by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Send to Kindle

Top Ten Reasons Why Writers Should Join Toastmasters: #3 Advanced Manuals Will Help You Promote Your Writing

January 20th, 2013

Send to Kindle

When you first join Toastmasters, you will receive the Competent Communication manual which helps you learn the basic skills of creating and delivering a speech. What many new Toastmasters don’t realize is that their member initiation fee also includes their first two advanced manuals.They are ordered by the Vice President of Education when he or she enters the information for your Competent Communicator award.

There are 15 advanced manuals to choose from, and a number of them are perfect for writers.

Nonfiction writers will love the Speaking to Inform manual which will help them learn how to effectively communicate their ideas in a workshop or speech setting.

If you provide group consultations, coaching, or if workshops are a marketing tool that you want to use, then the Facilitating Discussions manual will also interest you.

Any writer will enjoy working in the Storytelling and Interpretive Reading manuals.

Do you want to improve your video marketing skills? Try the Communicating on Video manual to learn how to present an editorial, appear as a guest on an interview program, be the host of an interview program, conduct a press conference and use video to train.

If you’d like an overview of several different types of speeches, try the Specialty Speeches manual and learn about impromptu talks, preparing inspirational speeches, selling a product, reading out loud, and introducing a speaker.

Here’s one that is chock full of marketing advice: The Persuasive Speaker. In it you’ll learn about selling a product, making “cold calls,” preparing a winning proposal, convincing an audience to at least consider your side of a controversial issue or subject and persuading listeners to help bring a vision and mission to reality.

If you’re thinking of branching into keynotes or motivational speaking, you might want to check The Professional Speaker manual.

These are just the manuals that I thought would interest writers, but there are several more, including The Entertaining Speaker, Public Relations, Speeches by Management, Technical Presentations, Special Occasion Speeches, Humorously Speaking, and Interpersonal Communication.

There’s a lot to explore and learn in the Advanced Communication series. I hope you’ll find a Toastmasters club in your area and get started building speaking skills to promote your writing and services.

Picture by Mosman Library

Send to Kindle

Journey into the Creative Mind of a Writing Reader

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: