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Top 5 Ways To Make Your Web Series Successful

Web series can be a great way for a writer to making content that is meaningful to them. It’s also a fab way to get that content in front of an audience without waiting around for a network or commissioner to greenlight a project. But just like every other part of a writing career, producing a successful web series requires planning and persistence. Here’s my advice and top tips after creating my own web series BLACK GIRL IN A BIG DRESS, which currently has over one million views online! 1) Know your goals and plan specifically for them To use… Read More »Top 5 Ways To Make Your Web Series Successful

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Writers, Everyone Hates Us On Social Media. Here’s Why …

Social Media Hate If you spend a lot of time on social media like I do, you’ll have noticed a LOT of writers blotting their copybooks lately with their potential friends and followers. Here’s what’s happened to me lately, in just the past 2 or 3 weeks: Facebook Fiends. Writers may send me Friend requests. That’s obviously fine, but within SECONDS of accepting their request, they may send another asking me to LIKE their page. (Plus the really persistent ones will send a private message as well). Facebook Fiends #2. Writers on Facebook may ‘tag’ me from their timeline, especially into… Read More »Writers, Everyone Hates Us On Social Media. Here’s Why …

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Top 5 Tips To Deal With Writer Burn Out

All About Burn Out So with not one, but TWO of my novels to edit recently (not to mention various other deadlines, including my IFS students’ end projects), I have been feeling the BITE of burn out lately. So, when Rachel Jackson got in touch with me to share some ideas on how to combat this feeling, I was all ears!! I particularly like her points 3 and 5. Enjoy! What Is Writer Burn Out? Burn out is silent and sneaky. It creeps up on people when they least expect it. Stress levels slowly begin to rise … Before you… Read More »Top 5 Tips To Deal With Writer Burn Out

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5 Things I Learned About Going Viral on Twitter

B2W likes to offer perspectives from writers on the ‘X Things I Learned’ series, not just about writing or careers, but also some of the weirder things our lives may include from time to time … Cue children’s author Maz Evans, who went SUPER viral on Twitter recently! If you’re on there, you may have seen this play out in real-time, like me. Here’s what Maz learnt during a crazy 72 hours and I’m sure it’ll pop up in her writing at some point. It’s all material! Over to you Maz … It was no big deal. I was awaiting… Read More »5 Things I Learned About Going Viral on Twitter

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Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make With Reviews

So, you’ve received an angry one-star review for your novel? Maybe it’s something like this: This is nothing like the brilliance that is Romeo and Juliet. I know everything about books and this one sucks balls. A Tale of Two Cities, it is not! More like a Tale of Too Shitty! AVOID! Do not waste your time and money!!! Take a deep breath … Before you start digging a six feet deep hole in your back garden, read my solutions to the top five mistakes writers make with reviews: 1) Murdering the Reviewer Your first instinct might be to find… Read More »Top 5 Mistakes Writers Make With Reviews

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How To Write Fast Like A Pro

1) Set a DEADLINE ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by,’ said uber-author Douglas Adams, but seriously? If you want to get stuff done – and done FAST – set yourself one. I always advocate looking ahead at the calendar, breaking down what’s possible in what time and having THREE deadlines: one ‘likely finish’; one ‘hopeful finish’ and one ‘unlikely finish’. Try it! 2) Work out your BEST TIME I work best mid-morning till lunchtime on my own writing. This is because first thing in the morning I’m doing admin and social media… Read More »How To Write Fast Like A Pro

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Top 10 Myths About Instagram For Business

I’ve written a fair amount about social media on this blog, especially Twitter and Facebook. This is because these are the platforms on which writers hang out the most. No-brainer! That said, in the last eighteen months or so, in comparison to many platforms that bring B2W a stable (or even decreasing) amount of traffic, one platform really stands out in terms of its growth: INSTAGRAM! I launched on instagram as @LucyVHayAuthor just over a year ago. Like all my other platforms, I have a strategy for it: on this account, I share my visuals for both this site and my… Read More »Top 10 Myths About Instagram For Business

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20 Things That Will Make You A Better Writer

So, it’s a new year … and no doubt you’re limbering up for some serious writing and smashing of your goals. Why not chew on some of these for size? HAPPY NEW YEAR! 1) Read Screenplays I’ve been working with screenwriters fifteen years now, yet STILL there are wannabes out there who’ve never read a script in their lives! WTAF. Put yourselves on the naughty step AT ONCE. Also, 5-10 in your entire writing lifetime won’t cut it. Commit to reading a script a week. That’s right – 52 in a year! A great script only takes 1-2 hours to… Read More »20 Things That Will Make You A Better Writer

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How To Stop Wasting Writing Time Procrastinating Online

A new year must be round the corner, because Bang2writers KEEP asking me about goal setting, productivity and ensuring writing gets done! 😉 One of the biggest problems B2Wers seem to have is procrastinating online – they tell me they spend waaaay too long chatting or watching cat videos or funny memes and gifs. So when Bernadine suggested this post, I was only too happy to hear her ideas — and I hope you are, too! Don’t forget to add your tips to the comments section, too. Enjoy … It’s easy to procrastinate online. Dilly-dallying is never difficult, especially when… Read More »How To Stop Wasting Writing Time Procrastinating Online

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Revealed: 3 Surprising Ways To Sell More Books

‘How do I sell more books??’ This question is something that is always on the mind of the author, self-published or traditionally published; fiction or non fiction. Sales is what unites all of us, because – quite simply – without readers, there really is no point in what we do! Eeek! Many thanks to Michael Alvear for this illuminating graphic below!I knew about finding #2 about series, but numbers #1 and #3 were completely new to me. I was surprised that Amazon users pay such attention to ads, which means I’ll be looking into this in more detail for 2018.… Read More »Revealed: 3 Surprising Ways To Sell More Books

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6 Ways To Get Great Writing Ideas From Social Media

Social media gets a bad rap as a ‘time suck’ for writers, but as any Bang2writer knows, I think social media is BRILLIANT for us … Not only can we get ideas and inspiration, we can use it as a ‘water cooler’ to chat ideas through (either overtly or covertly). We can crowd fund for opinions and answers to our queries, as well as observe debates, talks and even flame wars too. What’s more, we can even find out what our potential audiences are interested in (or conversely, NOT interested in!) too — this is one of the main reasons… Read More »6 Ways To Get Great Writing Ideas From Social Media

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How To Avoid Stereotypes When Writing Diverse Characters

How To Avoid Stereotypes If you Googled how to avoid stereotypes, you’ve come to the right place. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll know September 2017 saw the launch of my new B2W book, Writing Diverse Characters For Fiction, TV and Film (Creative Essentials). Marginalised characters have been a focus of B2W for years, so it made sense that I finally pull all my resources and experiences with this important element together, in one handy guide. So, from talking to the Bang2writers, a common cry is: ‘I want to write diverse characters … but I’m SCARED of getting it… Read More »How To Avoid Stereotypes When Writing Diverse Characters

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