Everything you learned in school and know about writing is wrong. Adverbs are bad verbs. The writing world is different than the educational writing world.
Learning to write well is like learning a new language. There are many rules and guidelines that schools teach you, but in reality there’s no right or wrong way of doing things when it comes down just writing creatively for your own personal satisfaction – at least not until we get into the nitty-gritties: adverbs versus verbs; passive voice over active suddenly becomes important (hint hint); how long should sentences be? What kind?? Umm.. anyways
In Episode 7 of the Serious Writer Podcast Bethany Jett and Cyle Young discuss why everything you know about writing is wrong and what you can do to change it:
Go to a writers conference. Now.
Read in your genre and subgenre. Learn the style of that genre.
Get the resources you need from the beginning. (Emotions thesaurus & Story Trumps Structure)
TIP: The 1st book might not be published.
You can practice into publish later.
Fear: I won’t have another story after this one.
Tip: Learn the rules first before you break them.
Modern story is based on 3-act structure. Act 1 is short. Act 2 is rising action over the middle and it’s longer; character development. Climax. Act 3 is descending action.
Fantasy: Hero’s Journey of the 3-Act Structure.
04. Know how to structure a story.
05. Set a regular writing time period or a daily word count. Earnest Hemingway – writes 500 words a day. Stephen King writes 2000 words a day. Jack London – 1500. Mark Twain – 1400. Michael Crighton – 10,000 words – Jurassic Park. Suggestion – start lower until you’re consistent.
06. Just write and don’t edit.
07. Write in scene, not sequence. The Tik Tok guide to writing a book.
If you’re struggling to figure how to find content out or what kind of material your audience is consuming and engaging with, find a “mentor influencer,” that is, someone who’s killing it in your field.
Check out their website and look for these things:
Keywords. Look at blog post titles and opt-ins.
Giveaways. What are they giving away as a free opt-in for their newsletter?
Social Media. What platforms are they the most active on?
You’re not looking for content to copy, but instead, you’re looking for the formula or outline. The goal is to research the topics and method that your competition is sharing and how their audience is responding to them.
To be clear, do not steal other people’s work! The purpose of this research is to look for keywords and common topics. Add your unique experience, insights, and voice to the discussion. No plagiarism allowed!
Example:
As an example, Bethany Jett l-o-v-e-s planners. So if she’s going to create a blog post or giveaway for her audience, she might scope out some of the bigger players in the planner space.
During that research, she would find that people are asking questions about the different types of planner layouts to use when getting started. Therefore, a smart blog post for her would be How to Choose Your Best Planner Layout, along with a downloadable PDF handout to collect emails.
Then, Bethany can share a post on her social media platforms about different planner layouts. And if she was intent on getting the most from her marketing efforts, she would film a video to put on YouTube.
Basically, you don’t need to recreate the wheel. If the movers and shakers in your genre are sharing Monday Motivation tips on Tik Tok, by golly, you might want to start doing that, too!
At Serious Writer, we want you to work smarter, not harder. We want you to save time and get a high return on your investment.
Find the winners. Determine the formula. Go create!
“The ones that work the hardest and hustle the most get the book deals.” – Cyle Young
“If someone tells you that you need platform, they’re just eliminating their competition.” — Bethany Jett
“…net of minutia…” – Cyle Young
“You don’t get a pass for being new.” — Bethany Jett
“An erratic writing life produces erratic results. A consistent writing life produces consistent results.” — Cyle Young
LINK: Bethany quoted Seth Godin as building the platform “three years” ago. Here’s the actual quote we need to share: “The best time to start that was seven years ago. The second best time is right now. So start!” – Seth Godin Reference link: https://writetodone.com/seth-godin-part-2/
TikTok is a powerful social media platform that has quickly become the go-to for most people. If you’re new to TikTok and need some tips on how best to utilize this app, look no further! Here are five simple ways of using it:
Post 3-6 Times a Day
Starting out you will want to post 3-6 times a day on TikTok. Posting that frequently gives you the opportunity to reach many different types of audiences, which will help grow your account more quickly! Make sure there’s some variety in the content you submit each week – sometimes we teach our followers how to do something related to our niche and other times they might just see us being funny or even dancing if this is something I’m good at 😉 The choice ultimately depends upon what fits best with personality as well as audience/goals; however, it should try not to be boring, or you’ll be just another swipe.
TikTok Trends
Join in on any trends you see for the For You page! The reason something is trending means that everyone else has been doing it. This gives an opportunity to jump into this trend and put your own twist with what interests or feeds into who are as well. it’ll give your video something unique while still keeping within Niche genres like Comedy or News which are popular right now in order for viewers’ interest to remain engaged throughout their time spent watching them.
#TikTok
There’s more than one way to put your content on display and some people might not be aware of the power behind hashtags. Make sure you use at least 300,000-1 million viewers targeted for your video because if they are too popular then it might be difficult for people who don’t know about them yet to see what all the hype was about and miss out!
Repurpose Content
TikTok is great for creating content that you can later repurpose on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. When people enjoy your videos outside of TikTok, they’ll have another reason to come back! By repurposing content on other platforms you save time and effort, as well as doubling or tripling your odds of getting views.
Watch Time
The algorithm that runs TikTok is a complex system, but one thing you can do to help popularize your content and make yourself more visible on the platform is to sure people are watching! If your video has over 85% watch time it’s doing really well. The goal should be to get 100% or higher! The higher the watch time (coupled with a few other factors) will get you that much closer to having that 10K, 100K, or 1M video.
If you’re looking for a way to grow your following online, TikTok definitely seems like the perfect platform. It’s easier than other social media sites and doesn’t require as much strategy or effort – but don’t let its convenience fool ya! These basic tips will help get more views on videos; they just might take a little time.
