I’ve shared a breakdown of social media platforms, along with how they’re used, on my blog in the past. But things change frequently in the digital world so it’s time for an update.
When we know what the focus of particular network is, it’s easier to evaluate if it’s a valuable addition to our personal plan.
So today I’m sharing a new list of social media platforms and how they’re used.
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Sit down. I want to talk about writing in First Person.
How many of you are writing in first? Yeah, I love First Person, too.
I long to write in First again. But the structure and texture of my stories, and the fact I’ve chosen to write in the romance genre (and I’ve already broken a few rules there) doesn’t lend to First Person these days.
I started out writing Third, then went to chick lit where first was part of the genre voice, and I “found” my-writer-self.
I think keeping diaries for 17 years helped me tap a deeper emotional layer when I hit the First Person trails.
Early on, I stumbled upon a truth while writing in First. Use dialog!
I’m not a great prose, expository type of writer, so I automatically go to “people talking.” Even in my diaries, I wrote dialog.
It’s the drama part of me. When I was a kid I’d walk around having pretend conversations with people. Mainly Donny Osmond but that’s for another post.
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I watched the season finale of Once Upon a Time last night (*warning! Spoilers!*) and it was one of the best episodes in the series. Why? The tension! The plot was simple – the heroine, who’d finally found her happy ending with her family, accidentally fell back into time, and thwarted the epic, historical meeting of her parents. She pulled a “Back to the Future” and erased her future.
What does she want? To return home and live happily with her family. Her goal – make sure her parents met, somehow. Why? Because after a horrible childhood, she’s finally found a home. What’s at stake? Her life – and her son’s life.
And…standing in her way is the Evil Queen (as well as the lack of magic needed to open the time portal.)
Great set up for the episode – and even better, it makes for exactly the right ingredients to talk about how to create powerful tension in a story – and especially how to keep your Act 2 tension from saggy by creating tension in every scene.
Let’s start a definition of tension. Obstacles and Activity are not Tension. Tension is derived from a sympathetic character, who wants something, for a good reason, and who has something to lose, who then creates a specific, identifiable goal, only to run up against compelling, powerful obstacles, which then creates the realistic fear of failure.
In other words, the MBT Scene Tension Equation.
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Social Media Minute—7 Tips to Get More Comments on Your Blog
Even today—with as many blogs on the Internet as there are—blogging is still a valuable part of building and maintaining an online community. But it’s rare for a blog to take hold and grow, if it’s not a place where comments proliferate. Almost no one likes to be lectured, and that’s what a blog can feel with it the conversation is only one-sided.
I’ll go one step further and add this comparison. Your blog is your Internet home. And because it’s your home, you are responsible for being a good host and making people feel welcome.
Facilitating conversation is just one of the duties of a good host, but it’s the one I want to concentrate on today as I share tips to get more comments on your blog.
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