Okay, so I’ve realized I have to bite the bullet and learn to do some graphics stuff or else be dependent on other people, which is irritating. So here’s an attempt at a postcard advertising my classes, which I thought I’d use at cons to promote them. I know this is lame, but suggestions are very welcome. First up is a different font, I think.
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
I’m finishing up converting the workshop I did at Surrey International Writers Conference a month or so ago, Dunking Your Readers in the Details, as an on-demand class. That class was in turn based on an hourlong online writing class I did for Greg Wilson’s Twitch channel a few months ago.
The class has been fun to put together. Over the course of being taught multiple times, it’s evolved to a point where it presents a dozen tools for writing more immersive worlds, and includes several exercises to allow you to test out the different techniques and see what works for you.
Curious about it? Here’s the section on prioritizing the senses.
A common tool of “Golden Age science fiction” “” the late 1930s through the 50s, when science fiction was first coming into its own as a genre “” was to invoke all five senses within the first page of a story.
It turns out there’s some science behind that method, in that writing that uses the senses creates more brain activity, setting off mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons that fire under two circumstances: when you are experiencing an event and secondly when you are watching someone else experience it. Writing that invokes the senses makes mirror neurons fire, which makes your reader feel as though they’re experiencing what you are describing.
But beyond that, three of the five senses are more useful to you and should be focused on. Sight and sound will come naturally, and we’re inured to them from watching television and the movies. What you need to push to invoke are smell, taste, and most importantly: touch.
Why is the last the most important? Because touch is more than a question of smooth or rough, velvet versus pebbled. It includes:
â—¦ Temperature like a chilly breeze, the warmth of a sunbeam
â—¦ Bodily sensations such as pain, nausea, exhaustion, fever, itches
â—¦ Motion moments like falling, flying, and floating
When you use these senses in your writing, you are making the reader feel as though they are in the body of the point of view character and experiencing the story world through them. This is a key technique when writing an immersive world.
Update: the class is now available here!
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Making Wormhole Lite More Accessible
People told me the way we had Wormhole Lite configured didn’t work so well, because of time differences. So I’ve swapped things around and made it so you can get the recordings and not worry about time zones, but instead watch them at your leisure, because I’ve also extended the amount of time they’ll be available from 30 days to three months.
You can take them individually or as a group – and best of all, we implemented sliding scale so more people can afford it. Please check out what’s available and spread the word if you know people who might be interested.
Who’s teaching what?
Results of Our First Pitch Session
Based on a suggestion, The Rambo Academy hosted a special practice pitch session. People submitted their pitches ahead of time and I read each one out loud, then we took 5 minutes or so to discuss each one after it had been read. We had an amazing time with this, and people found that having their pitch read out loud and being able to discuss it without people knowing it was there was comfortable and productive. Speaking as a teacher, it was a great session, full of good energy.
I plan to do one of these every other month going forward, so keep it in mind when you’re getting ready to develop a pitch for your novel.
If you’re a Patreon supporter, remember that this month we’re discussing Karen Joy Fowler’s “Standing Room Only.” There’s a Wednesday session and a Saturday one; both will be recorded for people that can’t make it.
Also for Patreon supporters, we have a special talk this month with Michael R. Underwood discussing American writers and unions – why we can’t unionize, and what we can do about it. The date had to get moved, and it’s now October 24th at 12 PM Eastern time.
Want to join us? Details here.
This weekend’s classes are:
Sign up for both of Sunday’s classes for a total cost of $99! All class recordings are available to Patreon supporters for $40 or $50 for non-supporters.
Find the full list of upcoming classes here.
Find the list of available videos here.
In November, Jennifer Brozek will be leading the Wednesday Writing Games session. Come play and write for an hour in a comfortable and enjoyable session designed to kickstart your creativity! See the Patreon schedule to find out how to join.
Want to find me on your favorite social network? Here’s all the places I have a presence, along with other pertinent links.
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6 Responses
Is the whole graphic the post card, with the cat image in the background? Don’t feel you need to lose valuable space for your words by scrunching them together in the corner. Give them a little room. One tip is to keep your sentences short and sharp, something a person can digest in a glance. I’d suggest your opening line read: Take your writing to the next level! Fewer words, and a sharp declarative.
I like that Courier-type font. But I am no designer.
Fwiw, a friend has used GIMP to design his own covers for four of his books; he says that once he got used to the interface it was a pretty powerful program. (I assume from the title of your post that you’re playing around in GIMP.)
Just my few thoughts. And of course, like literary criticism, this is all IMHO, and use or don’t. I could be full of crap. It’s been known to happen before.
Nice photo selection and the weighting on the lower right feels pretty good for asymmetry. I agree, you want a nicer looking font. If you’re just doing this as an online ad, you have a lot of choices for fonts meant to be read on the screen, although with higher resolutions that starts to be mitigated and you can have a wider range.
Use higher resolution unless this is meant to be 640×480 (which will only work as an online ad).
You might want to rethink the crop of the image. Show more of the eyes at the top of the cat glass bulb, right now there’s just a sliver, not enough to give us the “it’s looking at me” feeling, and not cropped off. It feels like a mistake instead of being on purpose.
I would suggest rewrite second paragraph to continue focus of first sentence. “Be launched to new heights of productivity as Cat Rambo’s online classes teach you”¦” or some such. While the focus of the sentence is still the reader, burring them six words in defuses the hook. Also, make the ad about them. Sure, it’s for your classes, but as David Ogilvy (I think) said, “I could make an full page ad in the NYTs that was only text. The first line would read, ‘This ad is all about you”¦’ and you would read the entire ad.”
Try ghosting a white box over the background instead of a solid blue box. The white will need to desaturate, and push the tones of the photo toward the lighter end of the spectrum to make the text as readable as possible. the box also feels a little large, it’s too close to the center, but not on it. Think of proportions of 2 to 3 or 3 to 5 for a more pleasing arrangement (this small, I would go with visual proportion instead of by the numbers).
You don’t need the “http://”, at this time most kids get that part, and very few of us old timer ever type it in anyway. The “www.” is enough for people to get it’s a website (actually, the “.com” is all that’s needed, but some people’s configurations differ). That will help the text look a little cleaner.
Finally, with the line breaks it feels to me like you’re shaping the text (the ragged right makes a nice over all curve if you average out the ends). And both paragraphs end with one word on the last line. Try to avoid that.
Hope that all helps.
I like the design, but I’m iffy on courier, but anything other than Comic Sans is probably a win. I have played with GIMP a bit now and like it, though I do prefer InDesign and Photoshop which I used regularly back when the fed paid me to design
As irritating as I know it is to depend on other people, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s better to use my time on my strengths, rather than trying to learn something that other people have already mastered. I mean, if you truly want to learn graphic design, that’s one thing. But if you would rather be spending your time on writing, editing, and teaching, then it might be wiser to delegate the task out, rather than learning the idiosyncrasies of GIMP and the rules of graphic design. Perhaps you could trade postcard design for a story crit or something? I’d be happy to help you out, as would, I’m sure, many other talented graphics people in the SF-writing world. (Not to say that your postcard attempts so far are horrible–they’re fine and should suffice for your purposes. Just that, as a visual arts person, I do see a bunch of things that could be improved to help make them better. As an editor, you know how it is…) OTOH, if you want to learn because you want to learn, then I’m happy to give you tips.
I think that’s true, and for something important, I’d spring to hire someone. But I’d like to be able to throw together prototypes, at the least, I like messing around with graphics, and sometimes when one is a habitual procrastinator, it’s good to know these things. 😉