Some links I’ve come across lately that have made me think:

So I worked in search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet marketing for several years, and I know Google can be daunting. Rick Daley has a good guest post on using SEO for authors. My favorite tips are that you need to go beyond your name and book title. You should be ranking for those anyway! Think about what people who are looking for a book like yours might type in to search. You can use tools from search engines to see if people really are using those keywords or similar ones.

Want to really up your productivity? Check out how one author quintupled her daily output. (via @LuisaPerkins via @AnnetteLyon) I’m trying these methods out and I have to say I really like the idea of making all those tiny little decisions BEFORE rather than DURING the actual writing process.

I’m having a lot of conversations with one of my critique partners about setting lately (it’s something we’re both working on), so when I saw this article on active vs. passive backstory/description tweeted, I had to click. Great examples from published novels, too. (Sorry, I couldn’t find who’d tweeted this in my stream .)

Edittorrent blogged about Dean Wesley Smith’s latest article on the history of literary agents and whether we need them today. The comments on Smith’s article lead me to Laura Resnick’s website and her three-part series on agents as well as her article on experiences with the agent-author business model. OTOH, I know lots and lots of people who really like working with their agents—people who are getting big book deals, too. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is that I’m so glad I don’t have to make this choice right now.

What links are making you think right now?

Okay, so yesterday was the finale of the series on emotions. But there’s always so much more to learn about getting emotions on the page! So here are some awesome resources on writing emotions:

• edittorrent: Don’t undercut the drama
• The Bookshelf Muse: Description 911: Over Expressed Emotions
• “The conflict of the earlier scene guides the emotion of the next scene. The reader will assume (rightly, of course) that the first event will have some effect on the characters, and that they will show that effect, even if they try to hide it, in the immediately succeeding scene.” — edittorrent: Sequence and emotion
• “Make the reader care by giving them a reason to care. Show your characters’ emotions to invoke a similar, sympathetic response in your readers. Up your characters’ emotional stakes by revealing what’s at stake in the plot. If you’re able to do this and get your reader invested in your character, they’ll become invested in the story. They’ll turn page after page not because you’ve written the next episode of Jack Bauer’s 24 and the entire world is going to end, but because they care about the characters.” — * Fiction Groupie *: Guest Blog: Author Ashley March on Character Emotions
• Showing vs. Telling—Feeeeeeeeeelings . . . « KayeDacus.com
• “Don’t shorthand important emotional moments. Naming an emotion is probably the most common form of emotional shorthand. (She said angrily, he appeared baffled, she felt anxious, etc.) This is weak writing, though it’s appropriate for moments when you want to downplay the significance of a character’s reaction and move on quickly to other things.” — Ask An Editor: Adding Emotion | Romance University
• “Then came a suggestion that held the key to increasing tension: heighten the emotions of the point-of-view character. Even better, create conflicting emotions. Bingo. Suddenly the moment sprang to life. Both the interest level and uncertainty of the outcome spiraled up.” — Writer Unboxed » It’s Not the Cougar
• Tribal writer: 5 ways to put more ‘soul’ into your writing
• “Melodrama is when emotions, plot, or actions are too over the top. My litmus test is if a scene that is intended to be emotional/heartfelt/painful would tempt readers to groan, roll their eyes, or laugh, then I've crossed over the line.” — * Fiction Groupie *: Oh no! Melodrama! — Avoiding the Reader Eye Roll
• “This ‘emotional exposition’ scene shows a lack of confidence in the story! And this is something to watch out for in our own books. If we've done our job setting up and developing the character journey, and if we've created scenes that show the emotion, no one should ever have to state out loud the emotional revelation.” — edittorrent: Emotional exposition.
• The Bookshelf Muse: Stocking Stuffers for Writers: Emotion
• Author Liz Talley – Pass Me a Tissue: How to Add Emotion to Your Writing | Romance University
• Emotion without Sentiment by Alicia Rasley
• Emotion is Physical by Alicia Rasley
• Empowering Character Emotions course by Margie Lawson
• Getting into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors by Brandilyn Collins
• The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass

Emotion is how we get into our readers’ hearts. Emotion can take our book from “well written” to “captivating.” We read for an experience, and emotion is the best way to convey that experience. In fact, it is the experience.

So, the bottom line on backstory: your characters need it, and your story might, too. But we have to be very careful to balance backstory with the present story, which should be more compelling and only enhanced by the backstory, never impeded. (Oh, is that all? )

I’m not the only one who feels this way. Just last week, literary agent Kristen Nelson singled out backstory and minutiae as the two biggest reasons why novels start in the wrong place (and we looked at how to start your story in the right place, too).
Here are some of the great articles and books I’ve studied and referenced as I worked on this series:

• Don’t Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden
• Revision And Self-Editing by James Scott Bell
• Redlines Ten: Backstory by Theresa Stevens at edittorrent
• Revelations and Flashbacks by Alicia Rasley at edittorrent
• Got Backstory? What Do You Do With It? by Theresa Stevens at Romance University
• Ask an Editor: Backstory and Pacing by Theresa Stevens at Romance University
• Backstory Problems by Alicia Rasley
• Character Motivation by Alicia Rasley
• Sympathy without Saintliness by Alicia Rasley

(Can you tell I’m a fan?)

What articles have you come across on backstory that have helped you understand more about this tool?

Photo by Sue Clark

This month, we’ve learned about creating sympathetic characters—giving them strength and struggles, balancing each of those elements, and specific techniques for making our readers identify with even unlovable characters.

If you want to read more on creating sympathetic characters, here are the absolute best, most useful resources I’ve found:

• Sympathy without Saintliness, an online article by author/editor Alicia Rasley. Alicia takes us through some of the most beloved characters in literature capture our sympathies, as well as dispelling some common authorial misconceptions about how we can make our readers like our characters.
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II by James N. Frey, specifically chapter one, which shows internal and external techniques to create deeper and deeper sympathy in your readers (which we’ve discussed here briefly).
• The Unlovable Character, a blog post on Writing on the Wall Blog by Julie Wright with an exhaustive list of techniques and characteristics to make readers love even unlovable characters (which she graciously expanded with more examples for us here).

[Update: here's a great quick overview on techniques that do and don't work for character sympathy.]

By request, in July we’re going to celebrate summer by taking a plunge in the deep end of POV. (Don’t you just love the clichés?) This is a great way to follow up a series on characters, since we have to know our characters well to get into deep point-of-view, and since we’ve been working all June to help our readers lose themselves within our characters.

What resources have you found that helped you improve your characters? What would you like to read about in deep POV?

Image credit: Svilen Mushkatov

Over at Write Bravely, Stephanie, whom I was very happy to meet at the LDStorymakers conference in April, gave me a blog award!

Of course, as with every Bloggy Award, there are A Few Rules. They are, forthwith:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

I’m going to cheat just a little. Over the weekend, I had six people give feedback on my query. Many thanks to:
Heather Justesen
Nichole Giles
Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen
Rebekah Olsen
Christine Bryant and
Josh Perkey

Thanks so much, Stephanie! And of course, thanks to Heather, Nichole, Ronda, Rebekah, Christine and Josh for your input on my query letter!