We’ve talked about different points of view and here’s a related idea: different perspectives based on audience. Using any of the three POV choices (Omniscient POV, 1st Person POV, 3rd Person POV), we’ll shift the thinking a bit.

If you are a 16 year old boy and have a car wreck and you want to tell the story of that car wreck, how do you tell the story? Where do you start? What do you emphasize? It depends on the audience. What you tell your best friend, is different from what you tell your Mom. And for sure, you tell the police man something else entirely. Each version could be entirely true. It’s just that given a certain audience, you tailor your storytelling to meet the audience’s needs, interests and well, um, whether or not you’ll get in trouble for emphasizing some small point here or there.

For example, with his best friend the driver might emphasize the risk taking that led to the wreck; he might speak in jargon or use curse words. With his mom, the driver will emphasize how well he obeyed the speed limit, while gloss over his “dancing in the street with his car”; he’ll also play the wreck for sympathy, emphasizing the slightest hurt. With a cop, the driver will be straightforward, business-like in the recitation of details, giving the appearance of cooperation, while glossing over some details.

Each telling will have a different tone, different emotional content, different details.

Today, choose a character from a story you’re writing.
Choose an event.
Have your character tell about that event in three different ways. Actually choose a person to whom they will tell the story and think about how and why you’ll change the story for this person.

Again, this is NOT changing the point of view from 1st to 3rd. Instead, stay in one point of view, but just change the audience–which changes how the story is told. This is Thinking Like a Writer!

BTW, think like a reader, too. A good example of this is Orson Scott Card’s novel, Ender’s Game which is paralleled in Ender’s Shadow. The two books tell the same story, but from perspectives of two different characters.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Twitter, Facebook, Good Reads and More

When and where should authors use social media? I recently read a blog post about how businesses are using social media. Here, I go through these 10 purposes and muse about how authors might use social media for the same reasons.

1. Win Real Fans.
   For children’s book authors, gaining thousands of fans seems to work best with teen audiences, not middle grade or picture book audiences. But if you concentrate on educators, you might have a chance to gain real fans. Perhaps this is also easier for a publisher’s fan page, because there are a variety of books, not just a couple like on an author’s page. Still, it’s a real goal and one you might want to concentrate on.
2. New Way of Thinking for a Direct Response Pro
   This comes from a business person who is used to doing direct mailings and social media moved him into a different way of communicating with his audience. This advice is to basically re-purpose your communication to fit a variety of media. Certainly, authors can write blogs, speeches, twitter posts, fan pages and re-use ideas and copy. I’m also paying attention to links that I add to a posting. For example, the post about my new book, Prairie Storms, included links to the publisher’s submission information and information on the publisher’s grant programs for schools. When I posted on mailing lists that the article was up on my site, I emphasized the different links for the different audiences. Think about how communication can be used in a variety of ways.
3. Long-term relationships versus short-term profits
   This is an easy one for authors. We want long-term relationships with people who are interested in the stories we write, the passions that fill our days and our books. Those relationships may result in sales; but we also care about deep conversations about our passions, speaking engagements, connecting with kids, learning more about our craft and so on. Relationships – YOU – are important to me!
4. Virtual Tupperware Party
   This was an interesting idea, that you could develop a group of people who would support your efforts. For the business, it meant the “tupperware salesman” would get special discounts, products, etc. which they could share with friends at specified times. “. . .they could simply become discount agents for their friends. Somebody who all their friends know can get good deals on specific products or services.” Not sure how an author could replicate this; but a publisher might be able to.
5. A Straightforward Sale
   Yes. An article or post or twitter or fan page – any of these might result in a straightforward sale. Online, you have three choices: sell from your site, links to your books that take a customer to an online bookstore, or links that point customers to local bookstores. Choose one and make sure you always implement it.



6. Find Out What Your Customers Want
   Again, for children’s book authors, it’s hard to use social media to find out what tweens and below want because they either aren’t online, or because their privacy must be strictly kept. For teens, educators, librarians and the general reading public, it might be easier. For example, I’m currently running a poll about what you might like to see in a book about book trailers. Take the one-minute poll.
7. Track Lead Generation
   Keep track of where your sales came from. This isn’t so straightforward for writers and authors, but I keep track of my speaking engagements this way, to see where the invitations come from. And social media has figured into it recently. Certainly, website traffic is easy to track and Twitter has increased my page views this year. Programs like HootSuite.com for Twitter allow you to even track specific links to see how many times someone follows a link to a particular posting.
8. Present Real Value
   This business person is emphasizing the need for real value in what you represent or sell. It downplays the importance of slick communication in favor or filling a need. This is actually encouraging for authors who don’t want to do lots of social media tasks. Instead, concentrate on writing the best novel or story or nonfiction book you can.
9. Lead Generation
   This business person is talking about directly enticing customers with giveaways, contests, sample chapters, etc. We’ve all see this work to some extent. In fact, Twitter seems to be a good way to announce these promotional efforts.
10. Social Media is About Awareness, not Revenue
    This business perspective says that the most important task of social media is name recognition, reputation, brand awareness. Certainly, an online presence can raise awareness of you and your work. This type of benefit is hard to measure, of course.

What is the purpose of your social media efforts? Something not listed here? Or a combination of these?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Online Tools I Use Daily

As a writer and blogger, I use several tools daily to check on my published work and my online work.

To Monitor Sales of my Published Books

Salesrankexpress.com
This site will quickly return the Amazon Sales Rank of books. (Of course, you may have many other sales on other websites or offline; this is ONLY Amazon rankings.) You can search by author, title, or even publisher; it’s great to check the best sellers for a small publisher. I check it obsessively, I know, but it’s fun to see the numbers bounce lower when there are several sales in an hour.

Blogging Audience

Feedburner. Now a Google subsidiary, Feedburner (feedburner.google.com) tells me how many people are following my blog, Fiction Notes, by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or by the Email option for subscribing to my posts. (See the bottom of this post to sign up to get Fiction Notes daily in your email!)

Statcounter.com This site provides you with a java script code to put on your website and counts visitors to each page tagged. In Word Press, the blogging platform I use, it’s simple to add this code to template pages, which means I do it once and don’t worry about it again. Except to check how many countries have read my blog posts! (About 200+)

Google Analytics. Another Google offering (log into your google account for more info), the analytics program offers even more in-depth stats about website traffic. I want to know if you’re reading! Neither Analytics or Statcounter collect personal information, they just monitor the number of times certain pages are pulled up. Talk about vanity: you can get lost in things like, 35 people from India read my blog this month; or, my readership is up 3.74325234% for readers from Australia. Vanity, it may be, but I still look at it about once a week. Woman, thy name is vanity. (Don’t you love the picture of the vanity pedicure?)

To follow other blogs

Google Reader. Yes, another Google widget; again, log onto your google account for more info. This one keeps track of the blogs I want to read and has the new posts available on one page whenever I’ve got time to browse. I’m following ALL your blogs, I’m sure! To find out if I am, you could look at your own Feedburner stats – I’m there. And loving everything you post, even if I don’t always leave comments.

That only skims the surface: I also use dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, bartleby.com (Bartlett’s quotations), and many other online tools. What are your favorites?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Does Format change a story?

Format. Yes, it makes a difference. How you present information or how you present a story make a difference to the text. For example, I’ve been wanting to write a nonfiction book about a topic and tried writing a proposal for a middle grade book. It didn’t seem right. But then, I decided to try it as a non-fiction ABC book and it has worked well. That format – short snippets of information about 26 subjects – covers the topic very well. Yes, I could include much, much more information; isn’t that always true about a topic you’re passionate about? But this covers the right amount of information for the early elementary years. Just enough, but not overwhelming. The format is right.

Notice that this format change also meant a change in the age of the intended audience.

I’ve taken stories and tried them as a graphic novel, as a middle grade novel and as a YA novel. I’ve taken an early chapter book and divided it into six equal-length chapters, and then divided it again into multiple short, uneven-length chapters (such as Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little). The story doesn’t change, but it feels very different. There are books which I find I can’t read, (Heaven’s Eyes by David Almond) but when I listen to the audio version, I love it. I wonder if stories will feel different when read as an ebook?

Audience and format can change the content, the voice, the tone, or the overall feel of a story. What format do you envision for your story? How does that affect what/how you write?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Do you ever type up someone else’s picture book or a chapter from someone else’s book? I do. I find that just reading a selection, even reading aloud, doesn’t get me into the language and rhythm patterns as well as typing the text does.

My intent with this exercise isn’t to mimic the selected text, but to study something about a particular genre, publisher, target audience, etc. Then, I can break any of the “rules” I’ve uncovered because I understand better why the author made this set of choices about words, sentences, rhythm patterns and reading levels. Now – off to writing.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I’m writing a picture book that I know should work. But it’s not.

Consider the Picture Book Audience

Part of the problem with this story is that it’s set in a commercial kitchen and I have a kid who wants to cook. Critiquers tell me that the writing is great, the kid is great, but they wonder about that kid in a commercial kitchen.

Wouldn’t it violate child labor laws?
Wouldn’t the kid be in danger of getting burned?
Would a kid even WANT to be a cook? Why?
How old is this kid anyway?
Why is the kid even in this restaurant, so he gets hooked on cooking? Maybe, it’s his uncle’s restaurant and his parents work and he has to go over there after school and study.

ARGH! No!

Obviously, the adult audience for this story doesn’t connect. What about the kid audience?

At nine or ten, I was baking birthday cakes — from scratch — for my six brothers and sisters. One of the few dissenters in the group of critiquers says that her kids LOVE to make her coffee (Obviously, she lives in the great NW.) It just seems natural to me that a kid would want to cook! I’m convinced the story will work, if I can get around the adult objections.

And I do understand the objections. And I will address the objections. But it will mean starting from scratch and reconsidering both audiences for picture books, the adult and the child.

Research, then Revise

I decided to research. I’ve read through How I Learned to Cook, edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan. This fascinating book is first-person accounts from some of the world’s greatest chefs on how they fell in love with cooking as a way of life.

Many of the accounts are about a chef’s young adult years, or about some mistake s/he made during chef school or at a first job. But a couple were about falling in love with food and cooking at an early age. I’m also doing free-writes about why I liked cooking as a nine year old. And I’m reaffirming what is the heart of the story for me, remembering why I wanted to write this story.

A new draft will come. And it will be better.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Do you pay attention to your audience when you write, or do you write for yourself, an audience of one?

PW’s Shelf Talker Josie Leavitt has an interesting posting on when toddlers pick out their own books. Even as toddlers, boys and girls choose books differently. Both are passionate about the books they love and both love bright colors. But boys tend toward the blue, while girls go for pink and purple.

Mouse was Mad by Linda Urban and Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krause Rosenthall are reported to be popular with both girls and boys. They are still bright and bold, but Mouse is mostly yellow and Duck is black on white.

Leavitt’s column discusses color, something out of the scope of most writers; yet, her basic ideas applies to all of us: we should consider our audience when we write. We should think of their developmental age, reading level, interests, culture, etc.

Do you consider your audience as you write your toddler booK?
As you write and revise your preschooler’s picture book?
As you write and revise your children’s picture book aimed at school-age kids?
As you write and revise your middle grade novel for those tweens?
As you write and revise your YA novel?
As you write and revise that article for your local newspaper?
As you write (and revise) your grocery list?
As you write the letter to your child’s teacher?
As you write your blog postings?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Keeping in touch with kids is hard sometimes. I’ve been working on lists of picture book ideas for Friday Ideas and I find myself writing nonsense! No kid would be interested in some of the ideas I put down.

Then, my grand-daughter came to visit and I remembered what I must never forget: kids have a wide variety of interests. Still – there are some ideas better suited to preschoolers, some to school age, some for teens.

How do you keep up with kids? Here are some suggestions.

Volunteer with Kids. Volunteer in your local school, church, or community organization. Volunteer to read for a local story hour at a bookstore or library. Just an hour a week or every other week will keep you in touch with today’s slang, clothing, etc. And it will remind you of why you write for kids.

Re-read Your Favorite Children’s Books. Read for pure pleasure this time, not to analyze, but just to enjoy. Need a nudge to remember your favorite?

Read New Children’s Books. At least once a month, spend an hour or so at a local bookstore, studying the new picture books. This time, you do want to analyze. What publisher is doing what sorts of books? Any surprises? Get chatty with the children’s bookseller and ask what titles are selling well. Be a book market detective for a while. If you sit there long enough, you’ll see an elegantly dressed grandmotherly sort come in and ask for Fancy Nancy. You’ll see a mother dragging three kids with her come in and absolutely charm them by reading a story to them right there in the store. You’ll remember why you write for kids.

This works for any audience you write for: Do you write for quilters? Then attend a quilting class. Do you write for mystery lovers? Host a mystery dinner party. Do you write for fantasy lovers? Get thee a costume and attend a Con. Get in touch with your audience, and you’ll write stronger and better.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

After you’ve written the first draft of the picture book, let it cool off a week. While it’s cooling off, I’ll cover a few other things about audience and dealing with illustrations. Then, we’ll get to the fun part, revising the picture book.

The Child as the Audience

Remember that the audience for picture books is a child, so the story should be of interest to them. Unless it is a folk or fairy tale, characters are usually children. Rarely do adult characters or inanimate objects as characters make successful picture books.

Yes, I know about SpongeBob and Veggie Tales. But those stories really shouldn’t work. Really. A talking tomato? A sponge with an attitude? Only the most skilled writers can pull this off and usually not in a picture book. It takes video, with it’s moving features and accompanying voice to characterize inanimate things well.

Doubleday editor, Francoise Bui says, “It’s preferable to have a young child as protagonist, or an animal. It needs to be someone who the child reader can relate to.”

THE ADULT AS THE AUDIENCE

However, adults are the gatekeepers for childrens’ access to picture books. For the youngest child, an adult reads to them and you must remember this as you write.

Adult/child relationship. Australian writer Mem Fox says it’s important to keep in mind “the child in the lap,” in other words, the relationship between the adult and the child as you write the story. For example, include something that will make the child turn to the adult and give them a hug.

Can the adult stand to read this 100 times? Favorite books are often requested nightly by a child, so you must consider if the adult can stand it “one more time.” As you write, pay attention to how easily the words flow.

Adult needs/uses for children’s literature. Remember that often the adult is a teacher, who uses picture books to fulfill something in the education curriculum. This shouldn’t be the major concern, but if you can tie it into a curriculum need, it will help sell your picture book. For example, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman is used in social studies for map work, and in Language Arts to teach letter writing. Download the Lesson Plans (pdf download) for my picture books to see other ways they are used.

ACTION POINTS

Child in the Lap. Find five books which you consider perfect for the dual audience of adults and children. Try to find something for toddlers, preschoolers and school age kids. What differences are there as kids get older?

How to Write a Children’s Picture Book A Fiction Notes Ebook 110 pages packed with information. Everything in one, easy-to-read format. Instant access!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win