Podcast: Play in new window
Writing prompts can spark your creativity, and they can also be used for marketing and reader engagement! Join author, editor, and publisher Janeen Ippolito to talk about quirky writing prompts.
Janeen Ippolito.com
Weird Writing Prompts by Janeen Ippolito
Video (from Twitch and YouTube):
<p>Writing is only part of a writing career -- no one warned us that we would need business acumen and entrepreneurship to be an author. Whether you're traditionally published or an independent self-publisher, it's good to have a leg up on accounting, marketing, time management, and other key skills.</p><br><p>These recordings of live discussion on craft and development, on business best practices, on explorations of fascinating and inspiring real life cool stuff, and more will help you along your writing journey and career development. Join Laura VanArendonk Baugh as she shares what she's learned and what she's learning. (Or join the weekly live discussion with your own questions!)</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>
Transcript:
Laura
Hello. It is Tuesday night, at least where I am, so happy timezone to wherever you are and yeah, I’m Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and I still don’t have a catchphrase. And I am losing my freaking mind, you guys. Oh my gosh, today’s been such a ride and we very nearly didn’t have this stream. So I just got Internet back a few minutes ago. So we’re going to go as long as we have the Wi-Fi . Actually I have a hard line. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to go as far as we can. So please just bear with me. If something happens, we will we will do our very best.
Laura
And I just realized I can actually kill a couple of things to try to make the Internet stay up longer. We’ll see. Give me a second to make that happen. all those happened. OK, so we’re going to try to stay up, but.
Laura
Several things going on. As some of you may know, it is — well, you probably all know it’s July, but July is World Anvil Summer Camp World Building Challenge.
Laura
And along with that, because all the prompts I am bringing in (swoosh with sound effects) Janeen Ippolito to talk to us about writing prompts, so I have to I have to give you the the rundown on arginine, but I’m going to try to do it in a condensed form so we can actually still have a stream tonight because Janine’s got a lot of hats that she puts on.
Laura
So she’s an author of fiction, of nonfiction and of poetry. So she’s got all the categories going on. She is an editor. She co owns a publishing company. She consults with authors about marketing. She gosh, I need cue cards here. I’m going to run out of things. What else do you do? You have so many things. You podcast like yes. Right. Yes, because she does have a tag line because she is more together. Yes.
Laura
Oh, hold on, people, hold on. The people are telling me they can’t hear you. Why? How is that? Give me a second, because I can hear you and I see the little thing thingy flickering so somebody somewhere can hear you. Hmm, OK, I’m sorry, give me a second. I swear today, it is, I don’t know if Mercury’s in retrograde or whatever, so. OK, let’s go. ShyRedFox is saying, “give us Janeen’s words!” OK, hold on, I’m working on this, we’re going to see what’s going on. I do not know why is being like this.
Laura
Also, I have a dog who is having a minor breakdown because the search team is using my property tonight. So there are people outside hiding dead people and my Doberman does not understand why this is happening. So I am so sorry. Let’s keep going here. I know. All right. Say something for me, Janeen. Wow, why is why is that not coming through? Yeah, I know, it’s just grabbing me, which is so weird. I don’t know, this is bizarre, like I can see, I can I can see everything, I see where you should be. Thank you, thank you, Songbird in the chat is like, we’re here, we’re not going anywhere. Take your time to figure it out. Thank you so much because I’m over here, like, what the heck? All right. Let me see if I can do a little cheating over here. Yeah.
Laura
So while while I’m pushing all the buttons. Yes, yeah, a little interpretive dance to be great little ASL maybe. Yeah. Yes, so for those of you who are newer to the stream, a search and rescue group does train regularly on my property because I have acreage with woods and fields and all the things. So so it is not unusual for people to be hiding dead people on my property. Like, that’s normal. It’s just not something that my dog, you know, always understands. She doesn’t read the calendar, so.
Laura
Yeah, but she actually didn’t doesn’t care much about because we’ve done, yeah, so much training and she’s a bit of a honey badger anyway, so we made stuff that was really good. I do not know why this is not coming through, OK. I’m. I don’t think it’s you. I think it’s something to do and it’s something to do with with the zoom link. So worst case scenario, I will… Hold on. Hold on. It’s.
Janeen
Maybe.
Laura
OK, so now I suspect everybody except me can hear Janeen. Let’s check the chat and see if that’s the case.
Janeen
Can you hear me say something?
Laura
OK, it’s good. The chat can hear Janine, but now I can’t.
Janeen
So this is going to be a great. Favorite flower, favorite, I don’t know, your favorite flavor of ice cream.
Laura
I am going to make this work good. OK, so I will just lip read and eventually
Janeen
you will know by the answers if they start saying thingsice about cream, we’ll know. Well, life is always an adventure, right?
Laura
So close, so close. ShyRedFox wants you to tell all the secrets before I can get back here.
Janeen
Maybe I should try to introduce more of that, like I could do that because, like, she can’t hear me right now. So I could say all kinds of fun things about Laura. Um, I don’t know, like. Let’s see.
Laura
Why are you like this? Why?
Janeen
My mind is going really blank, except she has a really fun house and her dogs are adorable. And. I stayed at her house once in 2017, because I was there for Indy Pop Con, and she has really awesome books that like bring lots of pain. And lots of well, she has funny ones, too, but mostly like it’s doom, but in a good, positive doomy kind of way. To be honest, I’m not finishing them until she finishes the series and I get to the end and know there’s a happy ending. But if those of you who love her books, like right now, they’re really good stories.
Laura
I’m going to grab another headset, I’ll be right back.
Janeen
I have no idea if I’m still even if anyone could hear me, because I can’t see anything right now. But yes, I read her books. And. Otherwise, yay writing prompts, they’re awesome. You should use them because they’re fantastic and they can secretly help you conquer the world.
Laura
OK, hold on, I hear Janeen! Can everybody else hear Janeen while I hear Janeen?
Janeen
I can’t see the conversation, I just. OK.
Laura
Yeah, I’m looking so. OK, so somebody said ShyRedFox said yes, they are so good books. So I hope I hope that was, I don’t know what books they are, but they’re very good. OK, we did see. No, sorry. Nobody got to help hide any dead bodies. That, that, that’s although although I will say that the search team is always looking for volunteers and they are always looking for living volunteers. This is a safe thing to volunteer for. It’s actually a really sweet job. Like you just go sit in the woods and read a book until they find you. It’s fantastic. So OK.
Oh, you can hear us both.
Janeen
They can hear us both? Can you hear me? Yay!
Laura
This was way more effort than that should have been. I’m so sorry.
Janeen
I was a teacher for eight years. I know how to deal with weird, awkward gaps where you’re there at the big event on time and then they’re like, oh, sorry, teachers. You have to entertain people for like this whole time because. Yeah. For this, I’m trained. You guys are awesome, by the way. Way easier than third graders.
Laura
They can’t throw things at you.
Janeen
Yes. Well technically the third grader shouldn’t have either, but you’d be surprised .
Here they can’t reach you. So it’s all good. Yeah. They throw things that just entertains their cats. No, so Alena in the chat and I used to emcee every other year for Anime Central and so there’d be like three thousand people in the room and we’re emceeing for the masquerade. But then any time something went wrong, it’s fill the time. Right? So like I’d run downstairs because Optimus Prime is stuck on a ramp and I’d leave Alena interviewing a chair.
Janeen
There’s your saving grace. Just bring out Optimus Prime and the dinosaur. You’re good to go like.
Laura
Yeah, yeah. So going to fill time while I get up there. So, OK, let’s get let’s actually talk about, I don’t know, our topic. So unless you covered all that while I was gone and now we’re just in the wrap up stage.
Janeen
No, we actually talked about how I’m not going to finish your book series until I know you have a happy ending because I don’t trust you.
Laura
That’s legit. That’s pretty good. OK, so. Yeah, where were we? OK, hey, I had notes somewhere. Do we actually get through, did we actually introduce Janeen?
Janeen
I was like I was talking about the other things I do like, you know, podcast.
Laura
So Own Your Unique Words is the name of Janeen’s podcast. It is her catchphrase because she has one, like a marketing professional and yes, so Uncommon Universes Press. She is a CEO, right?
Janeen
I am the CEO of that. Like, I run it with a couple of senior partners, but as they like to tell me, I get to boss everyone around. They just get to do stuff. All right.
Laura
So so marketing strategist for hire, which is just really fun to say. Yeah. Just generally writing industry businesswoman, somebody who spends a lot of time in this field and probably has good stuff to share now that we can hear her.
Janeen
Yeah. So I tell people that, like, you do all these things and like I do all the things in one industry. So like if you want me to fix your car, I mean I will literally probably call Triple A or something for for like an oil change. I don’t know anything about a lot of things, but I do know about publishing stuff.S
Laura
Specialization. OK, yeah. So I yeah. She also she also has a thing for Otters.
Janeen
Yeah, that kind of happened by accident but I just went with it like I just thought otters are neat.
Laura
Accidental otters. It happens. Yeah. It’s the best of us. So, so yeah. If you, if you hang out on Janeen’s social media you will encounter otters. It will happen and and and some death unicorns.
Janeen
That was a dare that kind of got out of hand. But I’m okay with it so.
Laura
All right. OK, so yeah. Adults. Look at how professional we are. Super professional. Let’s talk about writing prompts. All right.
Laura
So. This is like this is all precipitated by your new book coming out, which is a book full of writing prompts, but there are lots and lots of books of writing prompts and frankly, yours are a little more fun. Sorry, guys. So could you, as I totally put you on the spot, could you give us a couple of sample prompts of things that are a little bit better than maybe some other writing prompts we have seen go by?
Janeen
One of my favorite ones, and this I use a lot in my marketing, but it kind of, you know, kind of have some ones you really can’t top in a way. And this one is you stick all of your characters in an elevator with an email and the elevator breaks down. What do your characters do?
Laura
And this is great because, like you get like I have a number of characters who be like, what is an emu and why is it looking at me like that?
Janeen
And some would kill the Emi right away. And then some would be mad if you killed the emu.
Laura
And then some would be killed by the EMU because seriously, like emus.
Janeen
Some you discover have a serious fear of birds you didn’t know about.
Laura
Yeah, some of them are like, why am I in an elevator? Like, you know, you’ve got lots of I’m not happy. This metal box that moves like there’s a lot of things to go with. So so I like. One of the things you talk about is taking prompts to explore characters and and I really hit on that because I’m going to say, oh, I’m going to step on some writing industry toes, but OK, fine. Anybody who has made it this far into the roller coaster is, you know, is dedicated at this point. But I hate character interview sheets and I really hate character personality typing. And I’m sorry, but I said it and it’s true and I’ll stand by it. So that is just, and obviously that works for a lot of people. But that’s not a thing that I can sit down in a workshop and do. I discover who my characters are by watching them do things. And I’m like, oh, I don’t think I would have said that to the emu, but now I know you would. OK, so so what you have done is you have condensed my process into a paperback. So I mean, on the one hand, wow, I feel so shallow now, but but practically speaking, it’s a useful it’s a useful thing.
Laura
So I guess would you. Would you typically want to start this, for somebody like me, would you tell me to do this early on in the process? Do you usually recommend people do this when they get stuck? There are many right ways, but what do you typically recommend for this one?
Janeen
For this one I usually say do it when you’re ready to have fun. And so that usually means if you’re really bored or you’re kind of in a playful mood, if you’re really grouchy or something or you’ve had a really bad day, like these prompts unlock your creativity and your intelligence to the power of play. If you’re not in the mood to play right at that moment, you’re going to find them frustrating.
Janeen
And then there’s certain personalities that really love character sheets, which I call like the driver’s license way of creating characters in the world. And that’s OK. And if you if you tend to like–
Laura
Obviously that works for a lot of people. So I’m not gonna say that people are wrong for doing it.
Janeen
No. And I tend to I usually do this after like long after the fact is created just to help categorize stuff, but don’t use it for creation very much because I just don’t think that way.
Janeen
So definitely use it when you’re curious, when you’re bored, when you need to figure something out and when you’re open to playing with things, you know. So go into it. This sounds a bit, but don’t go into these giant expectations that this is going to be the most profound experience in my life. That’s not why I wrote the book. This is the way that you can kind of sneak up on those really cool things. And so the authors who have really gotten a lot of out of this tell me it just came at me from left field. I had no idea that this even existed, like in my character. And I think a lot of times when you’re stuck in a problem or maybe you’re just stuck because you’ve been writing the same scene or book for a while and you’re just bored, you need to kind of sneak up on problems and tackle them from behind. And these questions are fantastic for that. And then they’re also fantastic for marketing, which is why I have two sections in the book, one that’s more for writing and one that’s more for marketing.
Janeen
And even with that, like they’re a fun way to market your book without marketing your book because it’s not marketing. I’m just saying, look, this is funny and cool in this funny and cool. Do you think this is cool? Do you want to know about this character more? And it opens up more low stress environment instead of the very direct. Here is my book, ta-da.
Laura
This is something we just keep coming back to here on the land of Laura, where I get to whine about all of my things and “I want to market without marketing” is a thing that we just keep coming back to because, yeah, I’m from the Midwest, like “buy my book” doesn’t flow off my tongue well. And so, hey, Janeen has a, is it I think it’s weekly or every other week at this point? I think it’s weekly.
Janeen
It’s the weekly one random question. I’ve been doing that since 2017. Yeah.
Laura
And that it was she’ll just put up like a random question like what flavor of ice cream does your character like, or why is your character chasing this.
Or one of my favorites that I did was your is taking off their clothes before bed. Where do they throw them on the ground? Do they put them in a basket, really not wearing clothes? Do they not care like all those things? And it’s one of those makes people feel slightly awkward, but it’s really great for oh, it’s showing a lot of things about your characters, including their sense of security, maybe the security of where they live. Of course, if they’re messy, you’re not messy, but you can just really expand and unpack that one in really fun ways.
Laura
Yeah. And and and I honestly don’t remember if that prompt that you just mentioned made me think of this, like recall it, or if that prompt made me write it. I but I’ll really just give you credit for it and I’ll just say that you made this write.
Janeen
I’ll take it!
Laura
Yeah. But I have a character, you know, getting dressed in the morning and his clothes are not where he would normally have folded them neatly. And there’s like a ton of information that goes with that.
Laura
Yeah. And and so that is you the same kind of like, OK, why is this different? You know, and that’s actually a ton of information. And just little things like, you know, where would it normally be, what what would make that change, you know, of that kind of stuff. And, you know, I’m one of the things I love is I don’t know if there’s a right way to say this, but I call it writing in negative space. Yeah. So you know where we are. We used real paper for this event. Well, what do we normally use? Like, why isn’t why is this different? You know, so that kind of thing.
Janeen
So does that that’s an important part of good writing. I think people miss a lot of times. And when you when you come up problems really directly, because I am a very Problem-Solving kind of person. And so, you know, when you’re creating a character, until you know what they are, that’s kind of something you have to figure out, analyze. But if you just fill out a questionnaire that says, how does your character wake up in the morning, that’s just kind of like it’s so direct that it can be boring.
Janeen
But if you ask a question that makes you feel uncomfortable, although weird, it might reveal some awkward things about the character, like maybe maybe they’re not always in bed alone or something, or this thing or that thing. It kind of unlocks that part of your brain. It makes you think about. So those sort of empty spaces more, I think helps you to think about showing characterization in different ways than just being so very direct. And again, being too direct is a little bit like, you know, telling. Whereas these kind of prompts unlock your showing side without you feeling like I have to show something. Am I supposed to do that again? Why did the editor keep putting that on the manuscript? Things like that.
Laura
Freaking editors . Yeah, I loved what you said a little bit ago about trying to sneak up on the problem and tackle it from behind because, yeah, I, I am definitely if I just sit there and I’m like, what, why is this character motivated to do X? I just know I can’t.
Method acting. What is my motivation? Right.
Laura
I don’t know. You’re sitting in a chair staring at me, that doesn’t give me anything to work with. OK, like go out and do something, and now I can see who you are and what you’re doing. And I have a process that maybe shouldn’t be emulated, maybe I shouldn’t talk about, I don’t know. But, you know, if we were talking or about Shianan in my series, like, he was so grumpy when we started and I could not figure out why he was so mad all the time. He’s like, he’s not a fun person to hang out with at the beginning of the series. And he was he was actually a prince at that point. He wasn’t an illegitimate. And, you know, he’s like, well, maybe if I weren’t a bastard, I wouldn’t be such a bastard.
Janeen
There you go.
Laura
OK, now now I know, like and of course, that’s a huge plot thing, right? But but I just didn’t know. So, yeah. So I think that’s a very long way of saying getting into like looking at things from a different angle and and just tooling around doodling, just doodle with stuff and see how — sorry, I thought I was cutting you off, so I stopped.
Janeen
No, it’s fine and I can’t get into that creative mindset and just playing with things. And I do recommend, like I have a paperback of this come out, which has nice, large, friendly, big sections to write things and write things by hand if you can. It unlocks your brain and so many better ways than typing. Actually, my latest book, I finally figured out how to attack it by writing out by hand. And now I’m just doing this weird hybrid thing which I’ve never done before in 16 books. I’m kind of like, what is this?
Janeen
But, you know, I stare at screens all day when I work on client things. At the end of the day, my brain just did not want to sit there and look at a screen. There was no inspiration. So, you know, doodle it out, draw an image of what inspires you. If you’re creative, look at it and then draw the scene that’s in your head of these characters doing these weird things or something. I mean, use that scene for character art. Sky’s the limit, like go from that. And those kind of fresh raw moments are really what makes books really compelling to readers and more fun to write and and more fun to write.
Laura
This past week I’ve just been beating my head on, I’ve got a story they need to turn in on deadline. And I technically think I’ve just finished the first draft, so, you know, it’s fine. I got it till next week. We’re good. I got all kinds of time. And then I’m trying to get a thing ready to launch as a serial. And, you know, time is getting tight on that. So I’m just, you know, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, crunch, crunch. And it’s real easy to lose sight of the fact that stories are fun, you know, and like, that’s the point of it. So anything that can can kind of remind you that, hey, he remember why you got into this in the first place, you know, and so. So, yeah. So anyway.
Janeen
As I tell people, like, if you’re in it for the money, there are way easier ways.
Laura
Oh, rob a bank! So much faster. You’ll feel better about yourself.
Janeen
You may as well make it fun along the way. And like if you’re not in it for the money, then you definitely should be making it fun along the way.
Laura
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janeen
So either way there’s no harm in making it more fun. And I think sometimes at a certain point, especially as, I think a lot of newbie authors get to a place, they feel like they have to be very serious because they want to be taken seriously. And that is you get professional, you start thinking everyone’s looking at me. I can’t think about this. I can’t be goofy or funny. I can’t do this because, like, I am a serious author and all the serious author books are well, I mean, they’re really serious, like, they’re awesome. There’s a lot of great authors–
Laura
because everybody’s on the back cover going [serious face].
Janeen
Yeah, yeah. They take themselves very seriously and that’s great. But that’s not the only way that you can handle this. And sometimes you just need to realize, you know what, like I am making things randomly out of my head. This has zero impact whatsoever–
Laura
I am having arguments with my imaginary friends. All right, guys like this is how this goes.
Janeen
Like, Stephen will just look at me. He’s long past the point now of thinking that I actually know these people like in real life, which when we started dating, he was like, do you know someone? No. Then why do you care so much? Because they matter.
Laura
ShyRedFox in the chat says, yes, yes, yes. For the fresh raw moments. So yeah, absolutely. That that is that is why we got into this. You know, it wasn’t actually for the millions of dollars we roll around in like Scrooge McDuck.
Janeen
No. And with so many books coming out nowadays and, you know, people can get kind of insecure because there are so many books being published, like every single moment of every single day, having books that are fun and fresh and unique to like the way you see the world through these questions is a great way to make yourself stand out. And you might as well, because that’s, you know, something that no one else can really copy, OK? They can’t copy your awesome random brain. They just literally can’t. So far. Thank God we don’t live in that cybertech universe.
Laura
Yeah, yeah. And and this is just going to soapbox for a second while we’re here. But I’ve had several people say to me, like in the last, period of time, “oh, well, I don’t write super, like you write angsty emo epic fantasy and I just write, you know, fun stuff” and I’m like, fun stuff is important, like real. And also, did you notice 2020 went by? Like having some fun stuff was a good thing.
Laura
And yeah. So like, there is not you don’t you don’t have to be super serious to be valid or legitimate.
Janeen
Well and more than that, and this is something I work with different artists and I work with a lot of different kind of authors. And one thing that I always have to nudge authors who write that very deep style, which I have, you know, written. My fairy tale retelling is like a very intense sort of book. So I have logit cred now, but I went there. But the thing is, you have to have that contrast of something humorous in some way or something lighter in some way, or your darkness will just be like one long glommy zoomy gloomy deathy thing.
Janeen
You have to have that bit of contrast in there. There is no real reason to not know how to add some well-placed lighter moments or something, because otherwise your angst will have no texture. Right. And it won’t stand out.
Laura
And there are no stakes. Like even in the grimmest grimdark, what are we fighting for? If there’s nothing worth if there’s nothing not grim and dar.
Janeen
And the thing Is the horror authors I work with because I have a couple of those. They get that like, they get that they have to have those moments.
Laura
Oh, horror people are great at that. So I apologize for the barking. There are dead people being found in the field.
Janeen
I love that this is just like a thing on the show.
Laura
It’s not usually a problem but but yeah. This is the way we go.
Janeen
She’s trying to do her job. She’s trying to tell you people are out there.
Laura
She is. She’s like, do you know people are digging up things in our field? Yeah. It’s it’s a thing. So right now, yeah, it’s a cornfield, so let me just add and give you the full visual so you can imagine whatever you want to picture. As we were talking about horror authors–
Janeen
The cornfield works great with that!
Laura
— who are are really good at balancing lighter and heavier elements. So because that’s what makes horror work, right. Yeah.
Janeen
Oh it does. A hundred percent does.
Laura
Yeah. So yeah. So I’ve got, I’ve got prompts and I’m creating things that, I’m discovering things about my characters that I had no idea, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t know that they felt this way about salad. But now, now I do. And you know, I’ve got all these things so. So how can I — this is great, but actually I was kind of writing and angsty, IMO, epic fantasy, and I didn’t know how salad was going to fit into that. You know, what do I do with those those things that did get me thinking about my characters. But it’s not a direct translation into my manuscript.
Janeen
OK, so you never know when things are going to come up with characters and such things and you really never know what’s going to attract readers. And that’s the other amazing side of this, is that even readers of angsty dark fiction love some laughter now and then, they really do. And so I do have a lot of great character problems and they’re fantastic and let’s use them.
Janeen
But the other thing that I do, and I do this on my one random questions weekly prompts to, is that I have questions that I asked the authors, and those ones are great because you can answer those or use those as ideas to again, talk in interesting ways about your book that are isn’t just I’m writing this deeply poetic, sad book and that can make you stand out online as well.
Janeen
And I understand making sure that it fits with your brands. But I also know what catches people’s attention because I literally scroll through things and research things to see what catches people’s attention. It literally is what I study. And so in that section of the book, because it’s in two different sections, one more character and then one is more author related where I put the questions on the author, there’s all these fun things and ideas for how you can turn that into stuff that will help you with your marketing.
Janeen
Everything from stuff like if each of your characters was a candle scent, what would they be now? I mean, come on, the YA moody genre, they love their candles and their candle scents. So you should know this.
Laura
It is definitely the “something uniquely his own scent.” That is definitely the scent.
Janeen
Yeah, But that is a huge thing there. Like there are so many you know, you have the candle for your character. That is a thing that is something readers love. That is something they will want, but is something that they will join giveaways to get. So you should know these things and even then you get to be a little bit playful and think about scents and that kind of stuff. And that can actually help you add sensory detail into your story as well. So you can say, hey, this character does smell like this. They do have this kind of thing. Why is that the case? Do I need to add that sensory detail into my story? Is that going to be evocative for readers.
Janeen
Usually scent is one of the biggest things that readers notice in books, especially if you’re writing moody stuff, YA romance, paranormal romance or conversely, things like horror stuff where everyone smells creepy and there’s dead bodies and stuff like that.
Laura
And I will take any prompt I can get to help me get more, you know, like there’s some things that I’m naturally like, this is these are the senses I tend to lean into. Nobody has a clue what my characters look like. It’s a complaint I get all the time because I don’t know what they look like, because I’m face blind, I have prosopagnosia. I don’t recognize people really very well. And so, you know, I do a lot of things with body language because that’s what I do.
Laura
And and so one of those things that once once I know where my weaknesses are and you can you start finding things like, OK, you know what does their hair look like? You know, what does their, you know, things? And because all these people who cheat by getting to, like, cast their characters and put that up and I’m like, it’s a bunch of people with two eyes. Great. You know, and and so, yeah, that’s just right. I guess I bunny trailed off there.
Laura
But where I’m going is going is, you know, sometimes we need an extra boost to to get. I know that more visuals would be better for my marketing, I’m aware of that. I don’t cast my characters and I don’t draw. So I need other things.
Janeen
Other things to make it evocative to people and to give them something to really stand around to be connected to. If you’re going to build a tribe, tribe likes shiny things, tribe likes cool things. So I give you questions to help you find shiny, cool things to to fling at the tribe so that they get part of the journey and all of that.
Laura
So on that note, would you just post like here’s the prompt and here’s an answer or how would you best set that up to to get, to really maximize your marketing value from from something like that?
Janeen
OK, so if you’re looking for something once a week, literally follow me on Facebook or Instagram because I post a prompt once a week and it’s a great way for you to just say, hey, if I pay attention this Janeen’s literally going to put her teacher hat on and poke me once a week and say, hey, answer this and I do it for free. Don’t, don’t just answer this, use it on your own thing.
Janeen
Put it on your own page or something and believe it or not, that can be Eye-Catching itself. I make eye-catching graphics and anything that’s out of left field like that, you know, having these giant weird questions as you’re scrolling down, we’ll get people to stop and notice that. So even if it’s not like totally I’m branding, if you’re like my brand is like grays and Janeen put this like really bright lemon yellow thing up there, well, you know, once a week is not going to kill your brand and it will catch the attention from all the gray stuff. So it’s going to be OK for you.
Janeen
Otherwise you could, like, literally just post the question and the answer. I do recommend that you try to find ways of making it visual, if you can, because it attracts more interest. Go on to stock photo websites or something and grab something interesting that’s evocative that even if it’s not a person, grab an interesting image of a place. One of the questions I have is, what place in your story world would you turn into a theme park ride?
Janeen
And so hop to… I mean, I can I’m I’m the kind of person that I want you to stock photo websites, because I know you’re not going to get by using those if you just buy a thing with a credit. So yay deposit photos on AppSumo, you know, makes your life so much easier if you want to use something like Pixabay, the thing is, it’s not the fact that they’re not open source. It’s the things that people upload are not guaranteed open source from them. So if you must, go to Unsplash, please, because it’s a little bit you’re more likely to find things there.
Janeen
But just find I mean, a picture of an old amusement park ride. It doesn’t have to be exactly what’s in your story. And if your stories like not science fiction or fantasy, then that’s even better. But it will catch people’s eyes. It will catch their attention or write a bit of a scene off of it.
I think that sometimes as writers for a little bit too precious with our words. And I said a little time and it’s hard because, of course, you know, precious with your words, these are your words. You have to edit them. You have to look at that document 20 different times, the whole thing, why it’s made. But at the same time, you have to be willing to give out snippets here, there and everywhere at certain times. If you want to catch people’s attention, you got to give them free samples.
Janeen
So turn that into like a fun scene that might never happen or, you know, make a script out of it or make a little video or something like that. And if you really want to, you can just find a pretty picture and literally just have the question and the answer. It’ll still catch people’s attention. It’s better than doing nothing. I know some authors struggled with just showing up consistently at all. If you want to just have an image and an answer question answer, that’s OK to give you a say bar like you can really do OK, because sometimes you’re just like I just have to show up at all to get points.
Janeen
And guess what? You do get points just for showing up consistently. It literally that does do the work for you.
Laura
And then are there any prompts that I shouldn’t post like that that are not going to I mean, obviously like massive spoiler, you know, he’s the murderer.
Janeen
I have had some things that I can’t I can’t answer my own questions. Like, I had a couple of questions I posted. Like, I can’t answer this story because I would give away.
Laura
I think I think I’ve answered a couple with just “redacted,” you know, but just but yeah. Aside from massive spoiler and things, is there is there a point where I look at this and I go, OK, this was really valuable for me to do, but it is not a marketing piece? It was a for me as the author piece and it was a craft piece. Does that exist and if so, where do how do I find that line?
Janeen
In general, I chose questions that you should be able to answer and get something out. So I tried to weed through all of my, like, hundreds of questions and find the ones that were going to be the most likely to be engaging. And then I had like my beta readers look over and I had my husband look over. He’s actually a very he’s very picky about my questions because he was an elementary school teacher and he knows fun things. “That’s not quirky enough.” Like, you know what?
Janeen
But I think, like some of the questions I have are things that are designed to get you interested. So the whole you know, what what scent would your characters be? That’s not really something you’re going to want to share. That’s more of something I want you to do something. What they want you to use that in some way in your story. Don’t start talking about character scents, that may not connect with your readers.
Janeen
Now, conversely, if you want to say, hey, what scent do you think they would be, then you have an engagement question. And engagement means that it drives the algorithm up. And it’s a beautiful thing. And there’s ownership and we all get to talk about fun things together.
Janeen
So things like that where I’m prompting you like your favorite candy that you give away with your book or what books would be next to your book on a bookstore shelf. I’m doing that to try to help you figure out things about your marketing. The one about, hey, if you were in a bookstore, what books would be next to your books on the shelf is a sneaky way of trying to make you find titles because authors don’t like doing that. And so I’m always trying to find a million ways to get unlock your brain, say, hey, think about it this way. What would be next to it? You know a bookstore, where would it be?
Laura
And that is so good because like the freeze, the total mental freeze that happens when I’m like, I’m going to sit down and write a marketing plan, you know, absolute panic. So I’m sorry. Give me one second.
Laura
You don’t understand there are right outside with stuff. Yeah, so I’m just going to collect collect this poor dog who’s trying her best to save us all from the zombies and. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for saving us. We’re safe now. Thank you.
Laura
So, OK. Anyway, where was I going. Oh yeah. But yeah it’s just the, the I’m going to sit down and write a marketing plan and I need comp titles and I need teasers and and I’m just going to give you a shout out. One of the best things that happened for… You know when you write, you’re like clicking along and you’re going and you write that sentence and you just write that sentence, and it’s like, yes, yes. I’m not terrible after all! It’s a really good sentence! and you’re so happy and and nobody’s going to see it for, like, I don’t know, two and a half years.
Laura
And Janeen told me to copy it and put it in a file and then like use it in marketing. And I was like, oh well that just makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, OK. But now I have permission to share the thing that made me go [happy].
Laura
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And I still have to do a lot of filtering because a lot of times the reason context matters and that’s why I’m giggly. Oh yeah.
Janeen
Tiny shout out for Janeen. I am working on a whole challenge and things on how to choose book quotes that I actually work well with you and I, you can put them out. They’re just not happening in July because I’m launching a book.
Laura
But where will we find this challenge?
Janeen
So if you actually sign up for my email newsletter, they get to know about everything first. Including first access. And actually I kind of use it as my guinea pigs as well. So if you want testing out for things, that happens on my email.
Laura
Awesome. So I will keep an eye open for that. No, seriously, like, that is a thing where now I have permission. Because I am definitely that person who is like, I wrote the thing. Let me reread it twenty seven times. Move that comma, move the comma back. And now I have permission to know I can share it in its raw and distilled form because, one, it’s social media, nobody expects spelling anyway, but two, it’s going to be cleaned up by the time it ends up in a book.
Laura
And so if I screw up — I posted a snippet this week and my mom private messages me and she’s like, you know have a typo in your snippet? And I’m like, OK. She was a journalist. Like, that’s a thing. But I was like, yes, she’s right. So I went in and I edited it like, you know, it’s fine.
Janeen
Can I say something? Typos will always happen. And I get really specific about them because I’m an editor and I do occasionally do some copyediting for people. My style is a bit different because I also do it a market focus. So I actually will look at your individual itemized words and help you figure out how to connect with readers because I’m a nerd.
Janeen
But I get kind of like really nervous because I people are going to look up to me and everything. But in the end and I have a I have a good friend or two to just say, Janeen, post it. Do it. No one will remember it in a week. You’re the only one who’s thinking about this. Just do it.
Janeen
And people who just look at me like you will do this now. And I do. And then it’s done and then everyone is great with it. And even though the real wasn’t perfect, they thought it was awesome.
Janeen
So doing is better than perfect. That’s like an axiom, but it’s very true. Yeah. So just do it.
Laura
And I, I think really there’s something, because I’m the same way I’m like, you know, like words are the thing that I use. But I — ShyRedFox just signed up for your newsletter. So these words are my currency, words are my job. So if I get it wrong, that’s, I’m bad at my job, right? Like that. That makes sense to me. But also I have to understand that ninety eight percent of the time I’m using the right word, I’m spelling them correctly. I don’t have dangling whatevers and, you know, all of these things.
Laura
And then so the time then I do, you know, like look at this. And I’m like, who put that comma there? Jeez. But the people are going to know that that’s not happening in every post. Right. So I don’t I can I can just tell myself to get over my hang ups and move on with my life.
Janeen
Well, and here’s a couple of things. This is one of my sort of stomping grounds with this is that I think in the writing world, we need to have a lot more grace with ourselves. We need to keep striving for excellent things. But we need to have a lot more grace with the idea of perfectionism, because it’s not going to be there. And one of the things that I, I try to sort of steer clear of is places where people are really harping on, well, I hated this book because one period was out of place.
Janeen
And I’m like, you know what, you have every right to do that because you are a free individual who is allowed to have your own opinions. But that lack of grace, I would have difficulty, I mean, honestly, feeling safe from people. If you can laugh at your mistakes and you can be humble about it, then that actually makes readers feel safer around you, feel safer to be vulnerable in your books, feel safer to connect with you as a person because they know that you’re not going to look down your nose at them.
Janeen
So be a little more vulnerable. Guys, it’s OK if you have some people who decide that they hate your stuff because it’s not perfect. You don’t want to have to measure up to that every day of your life. For individuals who who have that, you know, you don’t want to put that on yourself. It’s hard enough doing this job without trying to please people who are being really perfectionist by their own choosing or their life or whatever. It’s OK to work to attract people who are going to be a lot more gracious. OK, so, you know, take yourself a little less seriously and let’s just try to do that in general.
Be excellent. I mean, I am an editor, so I look for excellence. But you’re never going to be perfect.
Laura
Be excellent. But also be excellent to each other.
Janeen
I give you permission to not be perfect, because it won’t happen anyway.
Laura
If I set that expectation then that’s also on me, right? I’m pretty open about, here’s today’s snippet. Like it’s really raw. Like this could look totally different by the time the book comes out.
Janeen
Can I tell you a secret? Half the time and I don’t even mind sharing this because I’ll openly say this on my reader group. I’m just this very weird person. Sometimes I’ll share things in my reader group that like later I literally have read the entire chapter and it doesn’t even exist any more. I have this whole chunks of things and they’re like, wow, this is intense. I’m like, yeah, I deleted all of that because I had to go in a different direction.
Janeen
So don’t be precious that those things, they still connected to the words, they still got a taste for my writing. They felt seen because, you know, I don’t always have books out as quickly as other authors do. I maybe have like hopefully one or two out of here, which is a lot for some people.
Janeen
But, you know, there’s something about once a month and I’m like, never. So it’s that connecting that authentic connecting point saying, hey, I’m just going to throw this out. One of the most terrifying things I did was throughout some excerpts that I hadn’t edited on my email newsletter list, got some major love call. People said, hey, you know, you had a typo here. But I put at the start, this has been unedited. I haven’t done anything to it. This is just what it’s going to be. And they just love getting to see it.
Laura
I want to know about that. Like, if I get a book out with a typo, tell me guys. Like don’t cuss me out, but tell me, that’s fine. But yeah, if it’s in snippet form, there’s a good chance that none of those words are going to look the same next week anyway. So.
Janeen
Yeah, and if you and if you are insecure, just say here is an exclusive or special or super cool unedited thing. Yeah. And it lets them know, you know, this is like a deleted scene from a movie. You’re not going to have the cinematography perfect. There’s not any background music.
Laura
Well, when you look at the deleted scenes, the film, like a lot of times they’re wire frames. They don’t have a background, they’re still in green screen. Like, just set that expectation up. I say this is going to be a finished, this is a really good scene. This is all done. Then OK, then it needs to be. But if it’s like I wrote this this morning at three a.m..
Janeen
Yeah. That’ll get you lots of actual people who want to see what you’re writing. You’re right.
Laura
And that’s probably what it happened. And I can’t necessarily tell you that all those verbs were supposed to be in that order at that time. But yeah. Yeah, yeah. So OK, cool. So.
Oh my gosh. How did it get to be. It’s ten minutes till. What the heck.
Janeen
Do we have any questions?
Laura
I haven’t seen any questions come through the chat but apparently guys we’re going to keep going until the room runs out of oxygen. So if you have questions now would be a good time to get them in.
Janeen
Yeah pick my brain. That’s OK. Yeah.
Laura
I will say and and Janine did not prompt me in any way to say this, but she has a lot of really good services for authors. You should probably check out her website. I know I’ve done some some marketing consulting stuff with her, and it’s worthwhile. So just get on her newsletter list and watch for her things. You can pick up a lot of really good stuff that way.
Janeen
It is encouraging with lots of homework, and that’s pretty much what every client says. Like this is really encouraging, you also give me fifty things to do. I’m like, but isn’t it gonna be great?
Laura
I just wanted you to pat me on the head and tell me it was fine, it was going to be perfect. I just needed that. So no, but legitimately there are there are really good, really good things, both free and paid services. So definitely check those out.
Janeen
Well, thank you for the shout out.
Laura
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there was a reason I wanted you to come talk to things. You have good stuff to offer. So. So yeah. Did we actually talk about where to find this book that we keep discussing? Should we mention that at any point?
Janeen
We should probably mention that, yeah.
Laura
So where can I find your book, Janine?
Janeen
So the best place for you to do that is just to hop on to like Kindle or your nearest online book retailer. Most of the time it’s Kindle. But if you happen to love Kobo or something, guess what? This book is wide. I try to keep my writing resources wide so that as many authors as you know, out there can access them. So it’s called Weird Writing Prompts. There’s no other book with that name out there. I checked and no other book looks like it and no other book promises what it does. So if you find that weird writing prompts, I guarantee you it’s the one you’re probably looking for with all the pretty colored pencils.
Laura
And it’s an e-book and paperback, I believe.
Janeen
The paperback is coming out, yes.
Laura
OK, so paperback is hovering in the wings waiting.
Janeen
I might just sneak it out in the next couple of days, but the Kindle is on the official preorder. So I can’t because I mean, I could. But no, I think I have some marketer people in my lovely launch team would be a little cranky about that because they’re planning the exact release date. So I won’t be OK to them.
Laura
OK, yes. So so anyway, these are things to look for and grab that on preorder and. Yeah. And then her website, which is on the screen, and her newsletter, which is somewhere on the website.
Janeen
It’s chock full of stuff. Yeah. There’s plenty of links on the website, there’s lots of blog posts, this podcast episodes, there’s free worksheets. If you click this button or that button and it’s fun, it’s happy.
Laura
So much homework you can sign up for.
Janeen
You’re right. And I just keep making more and more.
Laura
But but that’s good because, again, I mean, I can easily work myself into the rut of I have to fix this problem. I have to fix this problem. And like now let’s back off of that. Let’s do something else. Let’s do something fun. And then let’s come the oh, by the way, there’s a solution to your problem, you know? And, you know, I think there’s there’s a lot to be said for. Let’s go on a guided tour in another direction and then see where we loop back around to.
Janeen
Yeah, that there is something to be said for hyper focusing on a problem being unhelpful. And so whenever I can help people to just steer around that and I can sneak attack it, then you should sneak attack it.
Laura
And your brain can do so much when you let it chill for a little bit. At this point, I just know that, OK, I’m beating my head on this thing and beating my head on this thing. I’m gonna go eat something with sugar in it and I’m going to do something totally else. And I’m and I’ve just learned that my subconscious will work better if I get out of its way. And yeah.
Janeen
And again, don’t be afraid to try something different to get it out of its way, whether you’re a first time author or if you have written many books. OK, we’re all on this journey together. We’re all having to work with these weird neurotic brains that for some reason want to turn imagination and nothing into words on a page that make others happy. OK, it’s a very weird thing to be doing and that’s OK to find it weird. It’s OK if you have to do weird things to make it work.
Laura
And it’s perfectly normal if different things work for different books, because that’s — I loved, I’m pretty sure it was Neil Gaiman, I hope I’m quoting the right person and I think it was American Gods and Neil Gaiman. And he said, I finally figured out how to write a novel. Which, we all get a little, if Neil Gaiman’s like, I finally figured out how to write a novel, like, OK, I get a little grace for my screwed up… Anyway.
Laura
But then he, and I have no idea now who he was talking to and they said, No, you figured out how to write THAT novel. I know. But on the other hand, it means whatever I’m doing that’s working is the correct thing for this book. Right. So.
Janeen
Yeah, exactly. The thing is, this is something I actually just brought up with it. Just bring up. I just turned it into audiogram. So I was thinking about it. We think about writing so much as a business and a productivity and, you know, an exercise. Writing is also therapy. And unfortunately for you authors, just because you don’t want it to be therapy doesn’t mean it won’t work as therapy. There have been so many psychological tests and scientific studies to prove that it’s writing something out is part of processing things in your brain.
Janeen
So no matter how much you want to treat it like, you know, a system or anything, your brain is not a Ford Motor Company assembly line. OK, like it or not, you are processing stuff in your head. You are processing trauma, you’re processing issues, you’re processing joy through your writing. You can’t help it.
Laura
You’re probably not processing the thing you’re writing about. OK, so don’t even try that. Just just let it go. Yeah. Yeah.
Janeen
But you know, you’re going to hit weird stuff because our brains are weird places and you can’t just say, well, this will not be therapy. I will not do that this time. Yeah. That good luck with that. Yeah. Yeah. Which is why sometimes when I talk to my coaching clients they’re like, why are you asking all these weird questions and I’m like, well, that’s probably where the problem is coming from, because our brains connect weird things together all the time, which is what makes us fiction writers to begin with. If we’re not connecting weird things, we’d be writing like technical manuals, you know.
Laura
Yeah. And, you know, there’s so much again, I’m like how we relate and how we process things by turning them into stories. Yeah. Whether or not we meant, you know, something like, you know, oh, “one time, one time this kid like didn’t stay close to his grandmother and he got kidnapped. So this is why you need to stick close when you go out to the mall.” You know, all this stuff. So we don’t just say stay close to me, we do it in a story form. Usually crazy urban legends, but it happens. When my horror career takes off, I’m going to blame my grandmother. That’s how that works.
Janeen
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I’m actually I’m going back to my, my, my horror comedy stuff and that’s just going to be a boatload of fun.
Laura
I’m just going to write all the things she told me about when I was small. OK, yeah. So it is it is time that we should actually wrap up at this point. So I have not seen any questions come in. We have people but no questions. So yeah. Let’s just find like I they probably couldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise with the way we were going, so.
Janeen
Yeah, that happens.
Laura
So so guys, check out Janeen Ippolito dot com. It is on your screen. Yeah. And. And just, yeah, just watch for all the all the tools that are that are there, there’s a lot of really good stuff there. And I definitely read Janeen’s newsletter every month when it slides into my inbox. Yeah, I know, because it’s usually full of good things and and it gives me permission to share things that I don’t have to obsess over.
Laura
So yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then brief housekeeping notes next Tuesday. I don’t have a calendar in front of me and I have no idea what we’re doing.
Janeen
It’s the 13th. I know that.
Laura
Yeah, that’s nice.
Janeen
I’ll be on on the road.
Laura
So I wonder what’s on the schedule. Yeah. So yeah, Janeen is going to be on the road heading to the RealmMakers writing conference, and I will be on the road on the 14th, heading to the RealmMakers writing conference. Oh cool. So yeah we’ll see you there. So there will be a stream on the 13th but I have no idea what that will be. So I’m so organized. I’m such an adult. I probably knew that at some point earlier, but it’s gone now.
But that is our, let’s see, this was our craft. I’m sorry. This was our marketing. That will be our craft week. So it will be something craft related and maybe we’ll be doing prompts. I don’t know. Oh and yeah. So that’s just keep it on that. After that we will have our create-in and you know, all of our usual, our usual themes.
Laura
But yeah, I think I just wanted to mention the I was heading to the conference and I probably had a point when I started. Oh my gosh.
Janeen
Yay, we can do a conference this year in person.
Laura
I know, I know, I know. This is actually the first one I’m going back to live for all of my events. Yeah. And I’m still have some virtual conferences later in the year. And then I’m actually going to be teaching at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and doing two or three sessions there, and that’s hybrid. So that’ll be live and virtual. So that’ll be fun. But I’ll be live. So yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re going back to the stuff.
Laura
So anyway, all that to say we got, we got good things going on. Just keep an eye on, on stuff and I’ll tell you things when I write them down because that’s why I write things down.
Laura
And that is it. Janeen, thank you so much for joining me on this utterly chaotic ride tonight. Wow. But hey, we we got the Internet back. We got to we got to like we got your audio up. We got all the fun things. It is a lesson in perseverance.
And then I will see you next week and I will see everybody else next week on the stream. And that is it. Have a fantastic week. Happy writing. Go create something cool. Take care, everybody.
