Monday, October 12, 2020

On Retweet Day we share tweets with members #MFRWauthor @MFRW_ORG

It's Retweet Day for MFRW on Twitter. All Marketing for Romance Writers are invited to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg You can share up to 280 characters per tweet.

Once the tweet has been posted, click anywhere in the white background of the tweet. This will open it and allow you to highlight and copy the URL.

Navigate back to here and paste the URL in the comment section of this post.

Each month, the RT post goes live the Monday before RT day. You can post your tweet until Wednesday of the same week.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of each month. Retweet everyone on the list who uses one of the hashtags.

HINT:
To help people find your tweet, click the the white background and then the down arrow (found on the right side). Choose "Pin to Your Profile Page." This will keep the tweet at the top of your Twitter feed so more people can find it.

Retweet Day Rules

1. Must have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)
2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.
3. Please do not use adult topics for this one tweet.
4. Limit hashtags to three (3) per post.
5. Return on Retweet Day and click each link in the comments.**
6. On the tweet, click the heart and then the retweet button.

** To share a tweet, highlight the url, right click, and you will see an option to open the link or go to the url. Do that, and it should open in a new window and take you there.

Come back after sending the tweet and go through the entire list. 

PLEASE NOTE: If a tweet doesn't fit your stream, you are under no obligation to share it.

Here's to a great day of retweets!

Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She is the author of multiple books, novellas, and short stories. She's also a US Navy veteran and has been married so long she's tenured.




Saturday, October 3, 2020

Five Idea Engine Kickstarts – Just to Get You Writing by Alice Orr @aliceorrbooks #MFRWauthor #writingcommunity

Alice Orr - Author of No More Rejections


Every Now and Then the Idea Well Runs Dry
. That's what it can feel like anyway. And it is likely to give a writer what, where I come from, they used to call a conniption fit. Not to worry. As Anne Lamott says, "Help is on the way. One hundred percent of the time."

Get Out Your Writer's Journal. Remember the Writer's Journal? I talked about in my last column, "Your Life as Idea Central." A notebook that is special in some way for you personally. If you don't have one, get one. If you have one, open it up. Either way, prepare to be gifted with help ala Alice.

Read Through the Following Story Idea Kickstarts. Do so quickly. It's a gut reaction you're after, not a head one. Pick the possibility that strikes you hardest. Maybe because you'd love to write it. Maybe because you dread writing it. Either way, your gut is engaged. Your imagination is sure to follow.

Here we go. Five Story Kickstarts.

You have a particular fear. What would happen if that fear materialized? For example, what if those brakes you've been meaning to repair on your car gave out? Think of all the possible consequences of that occurrence. Make the absolute worst of those consequences into a story situation or a scene for a novel.

Make a list of people who frequent a place with which you are familiar. Your neighborhood laundromat, your favorite deli or diner, the place you most enjoy stopping for a cocktail or a beer or a diet soda. Choose the three most intriguing, or potentially most intriguing, of those people. Imagine past histories for them and present circumstances. Go way beyond what you actually know about them. Specifically, give each of them a serious life problem they are struggling with, and write how those pressures cause them to interact in a story or a scene set in this place.

Choose a favorite, or better still, a least favorite relative. Recall an incident from that person's life, or create an incident that could have happened to that person. Choose a situation that puts this person in extreme conflict, maybe even life versus death. Build a scene or story around this person, that incident, and what happens to her or to him.

Think of a close relationship you envy. A family relationship, or a romantic one, or a friendship. (The envy lends emotional intensity on your part.) Imagine a situation that alienates these individuals from each another, maybe causes them to hate one another, or even makes one want to kill the other. Build a story, or the beginning chapter of a story, around what happens. Maybe make yourself a character in that story.

Go through photographs of people and scenes. Choose two photos. Imagine a connection between them, and build a story or scene around that connection. Make sure there is something disturbing or unsettling or even dangerous involved in the way these people and scenes connect. Make that threatening element the heart of your story.

If You are Using Real-life People or Situations, Change the Details. The names, the physical descriptions, anything else that would make these folks recognizable to themselves or each other. In other words, fictionalize everything, for your own safety. Never forget we are an extremely litigious society, and this story or scene might get published someday.

Consider Yourself Kickstarted. Don't worry. It won't leave a bruise. But it could lead to an injection of imagination juice straight into your psyche. Now, there's one thing left for you to do. JUST WRITE!!

For more insights into writing and publishing – Visit my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

About Alice Orr

Alice Orr is author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. Hero in the Mirror: How to Write Your Best Story of You is in progress. A former book editor and literary agent, Alice now writes full-time. Her latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Find all of Alice Orr's books on Amazon. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and lives with her beloved husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E