Make your book a STAR - Part 3

At the risk of sounding like Sesame Street, today we will begin with the letter "A" for Accentuate the Highlights of your subject. Whether establishing the characters in fiction or defining the background in       non-fiction, avoid getting so mired in the background that the reader begins to yawn. Readers want a sparkle-fix that they get from reveling in the highlights of your ideas.

Totally new, never before written topics are rare. What makes your work different from the others are the highlights that you bring to the subject or story. Think about what you have to say that makes listeners look alert or turn toward you to hear more. Those are highlights. When the idea or dialogue drives you to distraction and demands to be written? Those are highlights.  Your unique sense of humor, irony or curiosity are also highlights in the way you present a story.

To borrow the line from Miss Congeniality  . . . "Be the highlights. YOU are the highlights" in your work.

STAR System 

S = Start with your best idea

T = Tailor it with an outline

A = Accentuate the highlights

R = Research, Research, Research

Make your book a STAR - Part 2

How well do you travel in an unfamiliar city without a map or GPS? Not so well. As my graduate students can attest, when I write "wandering" on papers, the grade drops. Readers are equally intolerant of wandering words that confuse more than contribute to the story. Face it, your middle school English teacher was right: you need to outline before writing.  That's the "T" in my STAR system.

S = Start with your best idea

T = Tailor it with an outline

A = Accentuate the highlights

R = Research, Research, Research

Write or speak aloud the short version of your story from beginning to end. Make it like an abstract; 100-150 words. From that point, begin an outline. Microsoft Word and other formats have outline page template or you can type as you go ( my preference).

Remember if you have a section with only one subsection, either expand this to additional subsections or join the larger category.  Simply stated, if you have an "A" under a category, you also need at "B". Keep the outline balanced and your story will not have those odd drop-off points.

Stop whining about using an outline! Every nonfiction book starts that way - - - you see it as chapters and subchapters. Fiction books also need basic outline to keep the essence of the story on track. You have more flexibility in fiction, but that does not mean random.

If you need to brush up on outlines, go to Purdue University's Writing Lab.

More to come on the "A"

Make your book a STAR

At this week's FACCS K-12 educator's conference, I am presenting "Turn your teaching experiences into a book". Here's one idea from this presentation that applies to all authors, the STAR approach.

S = Start with your best idea

T = Tailor it with an outline

A = Accentuate the highlights

R = Research, Research, Research

The best place to begin is "start with your best idea". Writers are notorious for juggling more ideas than time. I  admit that it only takes a phrase, a casual comment overheard or an odd billboard to set my mind crafting a story or how-to piece. The crisis for creative writers is not what to when but when to focus on one concept and complete that work.

This reminds me of a old Lovin' Spoonful song about making choices; "Say yes to one and leave the others behind; its not always easy, its not always kind, but I guess you have to make up your mind."
If you sort all the options, then you can choose and start with the best idea. Keep the others for future books.

Think of it like baby names, so many wonderful options but eventually the parents have to put a name on the birth certificate. You are not abandoning those other amazing ideas, merely asking them to wait their turn.

Come back for second part - - - the "T"

Experience Tips # 8-10

Authors take heed, here are more Experience Tips from discussions at SIBA Conference. Writing is not merely a literary pursuit, it's a business. As with any product, the old sales adage applies: "nothing happens until somebody sells something".

Experience Tip # 8: Identify your book buying audience by demographics. Create a profile of your prime book buyer then look for groups or organizations where that buyer is represented. If your prime book buyer is 25-40 year old female, then don't waste time speaking to an aging, predominately male civic club.

Experience Tip # 9: Use Social Media Marketing to the fullest extent of your knowledge. Keep in mind, it's not totally free. What you spend is your time, so target your efforts rather than scatter.

Experience Tip # 10: When preparing for book signings, send press releases and announcements to your regular networks. Unless you have worked with a book store before and know their marketing style, never assume that they will do all the marketing for you. Better for the local newspaper to receive two press releases rather than none.