Five (More) Gifts for Speculative Fiction Writers

Those of us living a solitary writing life can sometimes get a little too addicted to Google Analytics. It’s a validation to us if people are reading our blog — and comments are like gold. I freely admit I poke at mine from time to time, trying to figure out what drives numbers up. So here’s five things I’ve noticed that do:

1. Repeat yourself a little. It’s okay to tweet about the same blog post more than once, but space it out so you know you’re reaching a different group. Not only do I repeat announcements of blog posts, I sometimes go back and remind people about old posts that were particularly noteworthy, like my Pink Hair Manifesto or Three Strategies for Snaring the Senses. Similarly on Sundays, lately I’ve been posting a recap of that week’s activity.
2. Post or tweet outside your time zone. Apps like Buffer or Hootsuite allow you to queue up posts in advance. I have mine set up to tweet several times during the night because I know that’s a different group accessing my Twitter stream than the ones showing up when I first get online in the morning.
3. Be responsive. Remember that social media’s a conversation, not a soapbox. “But Cat,” you’re saying, “what about the point just above, where you told me to use some canned tweets?” You don’t always have to respond immediately. But do at some point.
4. Think hard about titles. Some titles are attention grabbers. Intrigue your reader or tell them why they need to read your piece. For example, one of my most popular posts, which still gets a lot of hits, is Popping Pimples on Paragraphs.
5. Be consistent. I’ve started using the scheduling function on WordPress to make sure something goes up every day, and if I feel the urge to blog, well then, cool beans, it’s a two (maybe even three) post day, and that’s fine too. A consistent post schedule gives people a reason to visit your blog on a consistent basis.

Something I’m trying to do this year is pay things forward as much as possible. Recent technological upgrades means I can now fit more than 8-9 people in a class (can now handle up to twice that many, which is more suited to some classes than others), so I figured one way to do that is to make more class slots available to people who couldn’t otherwise afford the class.

So, each class now has three Plunkett scholarship slots, the third of which is specifically reserved for QUILTBAG and POC applicants. Everyone is encouraged to apply, but I want to make sure it’s getting to a diverse range. The only qualification for a Plunkett is this: you would not be able to afford the class otherwise. Just mail me with the name/date of the class and 1-3 sentences about why you want to take it.

I have had several classes lately with no Plunkett apps, so I want to stress this: please take advantage of them if you’re a writer working on your craft. You will be helping me by ensuring that I have interested people to teach to.

That said, here’s upcoming classes if you want to look them over:

Classes Offered April-June 2017

• Creating an Online Presence for Writers, Saturday, June 3, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time
• Description and Delivering Information, Wednesday, April 26, 4-6 PM Pacific Time
• Fantastic Worldbuilding with Fran Wilde, Saturday, April 8, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time
• Literary Techniques for Genre Writers I, Saturday, April 22, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time
• Flash Fiction Workshop, Wednesday, April 12, 7-9 PM Pacific Time
• Moving from Idea to Draft, Saturday, May 6, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time
• How to Rewrite, Edit, and Polish Your Fiction, Wednesday, May 3, 4-6 PM
• How to Write Steampunk and Weird Western, Saturday, May 13, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time
• Story Fundamentals, Wednesday, April 19 4-6 PM Pacific Time OR Saturday, May 27
  9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time OR Wednesday May 31 7-9 PM Pacific Time
• Writing Your Way Into Your Novel, Saturday, April 29, 9:30-11:30 AM Pacific Time