Adjectives, networking and the Olympics

Good morning folks, a blurry-eyed salutation from me due to a very late night watching the opening of the London 2012 Olympics. Boy, what a show! I was glued to the telly for four hours – that is not me. I won’t say how many times the nostalgic scenes made me cry but, it inspired me enough to grab paper and pen and begin drafting a celebration poem. The next sixteen days is going to prove to be a challenge – how do I write and follow the games commentary? I’ll find a way.

This week I have focused upon preparing my manuscript for entry into the Romantics Novelists’ Association New Writers Scheme. As I’ve previously mentioned, I have a self impose deadline - to which I am striving for, though the official deadline is 31^st August.

In addition, I have begun utilizing the advice offered at the RNA conference 2012 which I attend two weeks ago. Talli Roland urged writers to adopt a suitable ‘brand’ which should reflect their personality and writing. Furthermore, the ‘brand’ allows blogs, social networking interaction and marketing to link together to reinforce the brand message. I’ve heard this message at previous writers’ conferences but Talli put forward the simplest method of implementation – choose three adjectives that describe you and your writing. Armed with a online list of adjectives, I began choosing. http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/12894/adjective-list. My final chose was humorous, inquisitive and vivacious – all three describe me and my writing. Funny note, inquisitive was chosen in preference to ‘nosey’ which hubby calls me on a regular basis. Anyhow, having chosen my three adjectives were entered onto the signature on my emails, entered into the header of my blog template and invisibly stitched into my writing psyche. The importance is to provide an accessible tagline for potential publisher and readers – so please choose carefully as it forms the basics of your self marketing.

I attempted to download Tweetdeck by Twitter as a means of organizing/monitoring my Twitter traffic – sadly, the system has a problem so can’t be installed while they mend and patch – never mind I shall continue to try.

My goodie bag from the RNA conference, still can’t get over how brill they are, contained a list of all attending authors. So, I’ve systematically begun searching and connecting with each via Twitter. It has been a delight to have some authors begin to follow me, very kind of them! Yet, another little marketing tip offered at conference as a means of highlighting your name and writing. It also ticks the box regards my New Year’s Resolution ‘increase networking with other novelists’.

As a member of two writers groups there are times when you have to offer your time and resources to assist and support the group. This week saw me accept a position on the steering group of the Grace Dieu Writers’ Circle which organizes the annual programme, exercises and infrastructure of the writing group. Fingers crossed, I’ll prove to be a valued member of the committee.

The Mad Hatters’ Writing Group also met this week – just four members attended but this allowed us more time to critique our work and chat about other creative projects. The Mad Hatters are quite a mixed bunch at heart – each has their writing projects plus additional hobbies which connect to their creativity. Such a combination helps to keep the group fresh and interesting as each member brings additional skills to our meetings. Note to self: I really must complete the current exercise based on dialogue – I’ve started two separate pieces but need to make a decision on which to plum for.

My reading this week has alternated between ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins and the newly purchased ‘Summer Daydreams’ by Carole Matthews. I have to say, I’d promised myself that I was going to focus on one reading book rather than have several on the go but, I opened ‘Summer Daydreams’ and fell into it without realizing I had begun to read, which goes to show, just how good the writing is.

I shall love and leave you, as the first of the swimming heats is about to begin, after which I’ll make my way to my desk. Remember you can follow me on Twitter @odwyer_author to receive random updates throughout my creative week. Please pass my blog to anyone who might be interested. Enjoy!