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Episode 97: Finding Your Social Media Stride

A recent foray into the world of social media has brought a sad fact of reality profoundly to my attention: I have a boring life.

You see, I primarily peruse social media in order to read.

I enjoy reading about the happenings in the lives of other people, the opinions of my peers, or  chronicles of events which obligation or distance prevented me from attending, often reacting with “care” or “love.” 

But that is the extent of my participation: I’m not really much of a poster.

In fact, I think I’m more of what you call a “lurker.”

So, when I was recently challenged to increase my participation on social media (and, thus, build my “author’s platform,”), I found myself with quite a dilemma:

I had no idea what to say.

I mean, not on my author’s account, anyway. On my personal accounts, I have no issue. It’s easy enough to think of areas in your life your Mom or your Aunt Sally would like to receive updates about:  but surely, my future audience – and new social-media-platform acquaintances – are not interested in the fact that my daughter’s prom pictures got rained out, or that I tried a new muffaletta recipe last weekend. 

So, what are they interested in? Nothing that I could think of to post from the world of Jamie Hershberger. Thus, I reached the sad conclusion of my introductory announcement: I have a boring life.

Ever intrepid, I wonder now, “How can I overcome my interesting-life deficit sufficiently in order to  connect with these people*, thereby creating from them connections, which eventually leads to ‘fans’, when I honestly, secretly, don’t even believe I am a writer, yet?”

Could that, perhaps, be the majority of the problem?

Tune in to find out,

Jamie

PS – Sheesh. Since I’ve become a writer, I’ve discovered I am both a “pantser” and a “lurker”! I’m going to need a notebook page dedicated to keeping up with all my nicknames!

*Jen has told me I am not allowed to call them, “twits,” no matter how many times they may, “tweet.”

Episode 96: Plodding Through Plotting

Hey, Christian Indies,

You may or may not know this, but I am a “pantser.” This means that instead of plotting my books out, I am  committed to “fly by the seat of my pants,” so to speak, a “die-hard” devotee to the idea of discovering the story as I write it. Therefore, I have never found myself in the peculiar position of being bound up in a never-ending plotting nightmare.


However, even with my limited experience, I can see how someone who has discovered the benefits and utility of the process could be inclined to “over do” plotting.  How tempting would it be to just keep adding things to the outline, when you’ve created these characters that you know oh so well: you know in which hand they hold the body pouf in their hand when they shower, what their favorite brand of microwave popcorn is, and that they’ve always wanted to drive a luxury sedan.  Thus, you (wrongfully!) conclude your novel must – whatever the cost to story structure – include a crying jag in the shower, a pajama party/movie night, and a trip to the Lexus dealership. Or, you find it impossible to turn off the spigot of setting or plot ideas once you’ve opened it, and you keep inventing little scenarios in which to position these unfortunate creations of your maniacal imagination.

In both scenarios, your plot just grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger  and you never get around to actually writing the book, or, worse, you do attempt to write this book, and end up with something that  isn’t a novel at all, but just a big wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey mass of weakly strung together occurrences.

So, how does a plotter know when “enough plotting is, (FOR REAL!) ‘enough’?” Tune in this week as our resident plotters, Jen and Rhonda – as well as Tina, who’s a self-professed “plantser” (plotter/pantser hybrid) – try to navigate this tricky topic. For special fun, we’re bringing on Rhonda’s mom, Barb, the other half of the mother/daughter writing team “Dee Dee Bouman.” They’ll talk to us about their book, “Use this Workbook to Plot Your Novel” 

See you there,

Jamie

PS – Just for fun, you can hear us talk about the difference between “plotting” and “pantsing” on  episode 11 of the podcast to figure out which is more your style!

Episode 93: Art Imitates Life #4: Inspiration is Everywhere

Hey Christian Indies,

Something readers often ask is, “how do you come up with all these ideas?”

If you’re anything like me, you stumble and fumble to answer such questions. After all, if I knew the source of my ideas (the good ones, anyway!), I’d return to that fount afresh each morning, hauling along the biggest bucket I could carry.

We writers know that our writing inspiration does not come that way, in some predictable manner, such as a spring-fed stream which perpetually and inexorably flows from higher elevations to the lower. Inspiration is more like the wind, or perhaps like a wisp of vaporized sea, lingering – even faintly tastable on the tongue – yet impossible to directly grasp.

This sounds like bad news, until you consider inspiration – like the vaporized droplets of the Atlantic that make that region’s saltwater taffy dance on the tongue – is everywhere, all around you. This week on the podcast, we’ll learn how to recognize, collect, and distill this inspiration into a story that comes alive for your reader. 

See you there,

Jamie

Episode 91: Art Imitates Life Episode #2: Your Joys

Hi, Christian Indies,

Last week on the podcast we covered Trauma in your writing. This week, we are going to talk about writing about joy – how they can be used to make your writing better. I confess, last week’s newsletter felt easier to write than this one, perhaps because we are currently struggling, on a national basis, to find something in life to feel optimistic about. 

In an effort to get my creative juices flowing, I started to think about the times that I’ve felt joy –  on my wedding day, for example, when my heart was full to bursting with it. I cried with joyful tears at the births of my niece and nephew, and, for sure, nothing could top the joy I felt at the birthing of my own children.

Holidays also came to mind, particularly the seasons when the cultural focus seems to be on the gift that is the salvation and redemption of our creator. Now, I enjoy a turkey dinner in November, and appreciate a good fireworks show on the fourth of July as much as anyone, but I often wonder why we only celebrate certain moments, when every moment of life is equally worth celebrating with the fullness of joy that we are promised in Christ. The present, as the old saying goes, is an actual gift from God.

So, I encourage you, find a little bit of joy in your life today, whether it is in the look of wonder on a child’s face as she encounters an insect for the very first time, the simplicity of a beam of sunlight on a blade of grass, or the mere fact that in Christ, you live and move and heve your being. Then, take that joy and carry it into the pages of your novel, where it can inspire others to look for joy in the everyday.

See you soon,
Jamie

Episode 83: HELP! Tina Has Writer’s Block!

Every single writer portrayed in the media of my youth seemed to be stricken with this mysterious condition called, “writer’s block.”  This phenomena rendered said character unable to perform his craft, no matter where he went, or what remedies he tried, no matter how much his agent begged, cajoled, or threatened. 

For whatever reason – perhaps because of what I had learned about other non-real-life-threats which were, for some reason, also recurring themes in the media of my generation, such as quicksand and the Bermuda Triangle – I was entirely skeptical that this was a real life thing, this, “writer’s block.”

I mean, really, I would think as I watched such a show, licking popcorn and salty butter from my fingers in pre-Covid bliss. The dude is paid millions to write books. Can’t he just churn something out for his agent, already?

How I would have ceased to scoff had I known that my own experience with this mysterious phenomenon loomed on the horizon of my future. And little did I know that my dear Co-Host, Christina Cattane, would also someday be plagued by this creative paralyzation we call, “Writer’s Block.”

Tune in to see what advice we have for Tina, and offer yours in the live chat!

See you there,
Jamie

Episode 81: I Love You, But You Must Die!

My son showed me an episode of, “Ants, Canada,” in which the owner of a “crazy yellow ant” colony decides the population is getting too large for the space he has for them. To control the population, a move which, mind you, would ultimately benefit the ants, the keeper introduced a mantis into the enclosure.


Did ants die? They did. Did the population benefit? They did.

So, you see, the keeper of the ants was really being wise when he “hurt” them.


Is it therefore true that we, as “keepers” of our characters, sometimes need to hurt them, in order to be doing a “good job?”

Tune in this week to find out and then visit our Jamie’s blog to read several examples of this concept. You can find her here: Writing Shorts

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