sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Social Media Tips: How I Use Twitter

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I’m a bit of a social media addict. I love using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and, more recently Pinterest, to connect with friends, family and with readers and fellow booklovers too. But not every author feels as comfortable and, when I posted a couple of weeks ago about some simple things writers could do on social media, I had a great response.

So I thought I’d perhaps share more specifically what I do, and what you can do, too, to make social media platforms work for you as a creator.

So, here’s a quick overview of what I do on Twitter.

  1. Firstly, I use a simple handle (my Twitter name). In my case, I chose @sallymurphy, because it was easy for potential new followers to remember. If someone wants to find me on twitter, it is very easy. Also, followers will see my name regularly, building easy brand recognition for my books and for me.
  2. Secondly, I follow people. One of the simplest ways to build a Twitter following is to follow people. The majority of Twitter users will follow back – meaning if you follow them, they will follow you. It is not hard to find people to follow. There is a search functionTwitter Tipson Twitter. Search for friends, for people whose work you admire, for publishers, book reviewers and so on. And follow them.
  3. Thirdly, I do what I touched on in number 2, and I follow people back. So, if someone follows me, I usually follow them back. I say usually, because sometimes people or businesses follow me and, when I look at their profile I see that they don’t tweet about things I am interested in, and occasionally even tweet about stuff I am completely opposed to. As a general rule of thumb, I check out every new follower, and if their last few tweets are non-spammy and relatively interesting, I will follow them back.
  4. Fourthly, I tweet. At least once a day. I tweet about the weather, my walks with my dog, what I’m reading, where I am, you name it. Note that this list doesn’t include anything about me the writer. I tweet about those things too – but I try not to overwhelm followers with promotional tweets. Twitter users enjoy engaging with you, but they don’t like being sold to. Which leads to number five
  5. Fifthly, I tweet about my work and my books. I never ask people to buy my books. Rather, I share news about new covers, new reveals, release dates, appearances, and blog posts. I provide links to these where relevant.
  6. I tweet links to stuff of interest to fellow booklovers. If I come across a great blogpost, news article, or review (of someone else’s book), poem etc, I tweet it. Sure, this doesn’t sell MY book, but it spreads the love, and helps make my Twitter feed interesting which in turn increases my following.
  7. I use hashtags. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the hash ( #). Twitter users can search twitter by hashtags. For example the tag #kidlit is popular amongst children’s booklovers, so if I tweet on something likely to interest that community, I’ll add that tag. This can attract new readers to me, and makes the Twitter experience user-friendly. Note that some hashtags are simply there to entertain or add humour. For example, if I tweeted that I ate all the chocolate I might add the hahstag #sugaroverload
  8. I tag other relevant Twitter users, by ‘atting’ them. I do this sparingly, but, for example if I tweet a review of Fly-In Fly-Out Dad it would be relevant to ‘at’ Five Mile Press, the publisher. This shares the news with them, and will often result in a retweet to their followers.
  9. I retweet interesting tweets from users I follow. Again, this spreads the love, but also provides interesting content to my followers. Sometimes I add a comment, other times I simply retweet.
  10. Lastly, and this is important, I engage with other twitter users. I have conversations with fellow booklovers, using twitter, by replying to their tweets. BUT, if you are new to twitter you may be unaware that when you hit reply, and the person’s Twitter handle comes at the beginning of your new tweet, only people who follow both parties to the conversation will see your reply. If their twitter handle comes later in the tweet, all of your followers can see it. One way around this is to put a fullstop in front of their handle. Another is to compose the tweet so that their handle appears later in the tweet: I agree @joeblogs. ….

As I said in my previous post on Social Media use, using Twitter can use just a couple of minutes per day, but is a wonderful way to spread the word about your books, your writing, you, as well as being lots of fun.

Got a minute? Social Media in less than 60 seconds

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If you’re a writer or illustrator, you have probably heard that you need to use social media to promote yourself and your books. But if you’re anything like me, you are balancing your creative work with promotion, with raising a family, with reading, with day jobs and author talks and maybe some exercise or some housework or… My point is, you may well feel that social media is just one thing too many. And it can, if you let it, sap a lot of your time. There is no limit to how much time you could spend on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,  and   Instagram (have I missed some? I’m sure I have!)

But we’re living in a digital  world, and the fact is, the things you do on social media can and will attract readers and purchasers, as well as getting your name known for potential speaking gigs.

The good news is, that once you have set up accounts on your chosen social media platforms, there are lots of things you can do in a minute or less that keep your feed ticking over.

  1. Take a photo. Your desk, your bookshelf, a cloud or a bird you saw on your morning walk, your Pelicans through the windowcat, your dog, your book cover, you. Add a sentence or two and you have a perfect post for twitter, Instagram or facebook.
  2. Share a link. Anything you find interesting online, someone else will find interesting too. Again, add a line or two explaining what the link is for, and pop it on twitter or facebook. If you struggle to find interesting stuff, set up a Google alert, or check out Feedly.
  3. Share someone else’s content. Retweet a clever tweet, share a facebook post, repin a pin. Again, adding a sentence or two of your own shows why it’s significant to you.
  4. Interact by liking or commenting on someone else’s status. Start a conversation on twitter, facebook or Instagram.
  5. Join in a challenge or meme. There are lots of such challenges on both Twitter and Fecbook that challenge you to post something every day for a set period (such as the #postitnotepoetry challenge on Twitter in February). Joining up gives you one topic to post about every day for that time. Some ask for a photo each day, others a poem or piece of writing.

You’ll notice that most of these are not about directly promoting yourself. Rather, you are building relationships, with the two fold benefit that when you do promote it becomes more meaningful and effective, and at the same time you are having fun and making new friends. Perhaps that’s the topic for another blog post.

A minute is not a lot of time, and these five things can each be done in less than a minute. Social media doesn’t have to be an all-day every day proposition. In less than the time it’s taken you to read this post, you can tick promotion off your to-do list each day.

(PS. If you want to see what I’m doing on Social Media, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,  and   Instagram ),

 

 

 

Tips for Writing Issues-Based Stories

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So I’ve been talking lately about how I’m okay with my books making people cry, but how I’m concerned when they are classed as issues books first and foremost, so I thought perhaps I might talk a little about how I as a writer I ensure that the issue doesn’t overshadow the story. Here are my  tips for planning and writing an issues-based story

  1. Try not to start with an issue. If you are planning to write a book about bullying, or about cancer, or about environmental degradation, then consider writing nonfiction. If it must be fiction, then work hard to ensure that the issue is explored through the story, rather than the story taking a back seat to lists of information. When I wrote Fly-In Fly-Out Dad I knew I waFly-In Fly-Out Dadnted to write about a family living the FIFO lifestyle, but I also knew that I couldn’t explore very aspect of that. Instead I focused on one family’s story.
  2. Build characters. Whatever the issue you are exploring, the character is key! Without a strong character at the heart of the story, readers just don’t care. In Fly-In Fly-Out Dad  I chose one child, Tiger (a family nickname – his name is actually Riley), and shared his version of the FIFO lifestyle. In 1915 I chose one soldier, Stanley, and followed his wartime experiences, and in my verse novels, I have always started with a character long before I knew what their particular issue was.
  3. Build plot. Every plot needs a conflict, and a resolution. And, along the way, ebbs and flows. In Fly-In Fly-Out Dad Tiger hopes Dad will stay home this time, but we don’t see how that resolves until the end. In the meantime we see good times, as Dad tells of his time on site, and as the family spend time together. But, every now and then, Tiger remembers that Dad might leave again. This keeps the tension mounting, and reminds us of the conflict.
  4. Don’t try to cover every aspect or possibility of the issue. In Fly-In Fly-Out Dad I only cover one swing (the rotation of time on site and at home – in this case 3 weeks on, 1 off), one workplace (a mine site ‘up North’), and just one family set up (Dad away, Mum and two kids at home). Trust children that they can relate it to their own experience.
  5. Don’t try to cram fiction with facts. The facts should appear naturally. Rather than saying ‘Dad 1915sleeps in a donga, which is a transportable building….’, I have Dad telling the family about the donga, and the illustration helps here. In 1915, which is historical fiction, I worked at including dates, important battles and so on, into the action, rather than listing them. As a result, we see how these events impact the characters rather than simply being told that they happened. Show don’t tell.
  6. Don’t tell readers how to feel. It’s a story, not a sermon. In Fly-In Fly-Out Dad readers can see that Tiger misses his dad, and that he is sad about him leaving. They may feel the same way, and may benefit from seeing their own situation reflected in a book, opening up opportunities to talk about their own lives. But they may not feel sad. Their family life might work just fine. And they shouldn’t feel that Tiger’s experience has to be theirs, which leads me to my final point.
  7. Issues fiction works best when it is written for a wider audience than those facing the situation. When you make the story interesting for people who haven’t had that experience, it also seems to work better for people who have. You don’t have to have a FIFO dad (or mum) to connect with Tiger’s family. You don’t have to have lost a grandmother, to connect with Pearl. And that’s because the character comes before the issue (see points one and two above).

I  started with bemoaning being termed an issues writer. To be honest, I’m proud of writing about issues which impact young people. But I hope that this works because my first aim is to write stories which they enjoy, about characters they can connect with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting the Scene

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During my recent spell at the Literature Centre in Fremantle, I really enjoyed talking about my book 1915 and about developing setting. One of the passages I read was from the opening pages. In this scene, Stanley (my main character) and his friends are climbing a pyramid to have a photograph taken. While Stanley is a fictional character, the photo he is posing for is very real. It is the famous photograph of the 11th Battalion AIF posing on the pyramid of Cheops, taken in January 1915.

Image result for 11th battalion cheops

When I was looking for a starting point for the novel, I realised that this photograph, which I had seen and marvelled at many times, was a perfect opening scene. Stanley, my character, is from WA and consequently a member of the 11th. If he were real, he would have been in that photo, in January 1915. A perfect starting point.

So Stanley climbs the pyramid and poses for the photograph. As he does, of course, he can survey the landscape, including the training camp where he is based. He can also give details about other elements of the setting – the sounds, the smells, physical sensations, emotions and more

I read this scene to seven different groups of students, and asked them what they learned about that setting from what I read. Here are some of the things they came up with:

  • The sight of the pyramid Stanley is on, and the others nearby
  • The view of landscape of the camp, with tents, Artillery Road, water reservoirs and more
  • The sounds of the camp – men training, food being prepared, animals moving, hawkers nearby
  • The smell of sweat on the men, who’d been training for months, and were busily climbing the pyramid
  • The tastes of the dusty pyramid and the desert sand.
  • The feel of the pyramid under Stanley’s hands and feet as he climbs
  • The feel of the heat of the sun and the sweat trickling down his back
  • The feeling of wonder in being n this place so far from home.

Every group found different things – because as well as what was in the words, their personal experiences made them imagine things which the words merely implied. For example, a student who had been to Egypt said she could taste and smell the food that the hawkers were selling.

The reading and discussion were precursors to a writing exercise in which the young writers wrote their own descriptions of favourite places. And what descriptions they were! Rich not just with visual description but with sensory detail which made me want to visit (or revisit) the places they described. (As an aside, these pieces, and those written by TYP participants from around the state will be displayed as part of WA Week Celebrations in June).

Think about your own writing. When you build a setting, are you evoking a range of senses? Remember your old science lessons where you learnt about the five senses (and then think beyond that to senses you may not have covered, including emotion, temperature and more). And how do you deliver this information? Is it all in a big block, or is the information gleaned from what the action?

Here are six tips for building setting:

  1. Give essential information, but don’t dump too much at once. Really think about which bits are essential to tell us, and which bits are implied (do we need to know the exact shade of green of the grass, or will we know the grass is green because it springs beneath the characters feet?).
  2. Trust your readers to build their own picture from key details (there is no mention of the smell of sweat, or of food, in the opening pages of 1915, but most readers said they were invoked).
  3. Try to activate senses other than sight, though visual details are still important. When discussing this opening scene I realised I missed an opportunity to focus on the sounds of the camp, although they were implied in what Stanley sees and thinks about.
  4. Consider the feelings the setting invokes in your character – and how to convey this to readers. I wanted them to feel Stanley’s sense of wonder at finding himself on a pyramid, in Egypt, such a long way from his life back home. I have attempted to do this by contrasting this photo sitting, with one he had back home the year before.
  5. Show don’t tell. While some description may be necessary, a lot of your setting will be built through action. Stanley is climbing a pyramid. His exertion, and the fact that he struggles to hear the sergeant’s orders down below, suggest the scale of the pyramid.
  6. Consider how much of your setting might be already familiar to your reader and hence not need a lot of description. When preparing these workshops on setting, I realised that my verse novels have very few descriptions of setting. When I thought about this, it was because the settings included family homes and school classrooms. A few key details were enough to invoke these settings for readers, whereas Egypt and Gallipoli, are likely to be unfamiliar to most readers, as well as the differences between the world of 1915 and of 2015.

One other thing I learnt from these workshops is that being the teacher doesn’t exclude you from learning things yourself. I am now busily thinking about setting in my work I progress.

Poetry Friday: Poetry Tag

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It’s Poetry Friday, and this week I’d like to tell you about the poetry game I play with my friend Rebecca Newman, called Poetry Tag. The game, which was Rebecca’s idea, involves each of us taking turns providing the other with a set of words which must then be included in a poem and posted on the Poetry Tag blog.

We’ve been playing tag for just over a year and it’s a lot of fun – though both of us have had times where the set of words we’ve been given has caused consternation. But we always come through, and along the way we’ve stretched ourselves in surprising ways.

The most recent set of words Rebecca set for me were: supper, my and virtue

It took me a while to come up with a poem I’m happy with, but here’s the opening lines of The Last Supper:

At that last supper
the men ate and drank
and hung on your every word
Little knowing it would be
their last meal together –
even when you, my heart,
told them one would soon betray you,
one deny.

(You can read the rest of the poem here).

A poetry challenge is a great way of stretching your poetic muscles. I would never have written a poem on this topic if Rebecca hadn’t chosen those words. What writing challenges do you set for yourself or others?

Looking for more poetry? The Poetry Friday roundup is at Tabatha Yeatts’ Blog.

 

Five Signs You’ve Had a Productive Writing Day (and Five Signs you Haven’t)

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Yesterday I blogged about the need to keep writing, even on days when you don’t feel like it. I also compared it to exercise (or, more specifically, walking) and the fact you can measure steps taken more easiluthan you can measure writing output. So I thought I might take the time today to think about how to tell thatyou’ve had a productive writing day.

 

So, here goes.

 

Five signs you’ve had a productive writing day:

 

1. Your word count has gone up (this, of course, works best if you’re using a program that counts words. It’s not terribly productive to manually count your hand written words, in spite of the numbers of hours I wasted as a uni student doing exactly that).

2. You have a satisfying pile of pieces of paper with words on them, words which you’ve written, on your printer, your desk, or your coffee table. And they’re not shopping lists or notes to your off springs’ teachers.

3. You have writers’ cramp.

4. You stared the day with a writing goal (or goals) and you met it/them.

5. You end the day with the warm glow of accomplishment that follows a perfect poem/draft/sentence.

 

Five signs you have not had a productive writing day:

 

1. Your house is spotless and your pantry is arranged alphabetically.

2. You beat your high score in <insert favourite game title here>.

3. Over dinner your spouse/child/friend asks what you’re working on And you say ‘oh, a few things’.

4. Your email inbox is empty, when it started the day full.

5. You end the day promising yourself you’ll do better tomorrow.

 

Lucky for me, today’s been a productive day. Now I’m going to take my writers cramp for a walk.

sallymurphy.com.au