Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

[Ep 169] I’m glad to be back after an unexpected and lengthy break when I needed to care for a relative during a complicated emergency. I’m sorry I didn’t have a way to let you know in the midst of it, but it looks like things are slowing down and stabilizing. I’m back in business—able to encourage and support you and your writing again. Before my break, we were discussing how to be a better writer. I focused on small, quick wins to help you improve your writing right away with tips and tweaks. If you implement them, you will see a difference in your writing right away. But I realized I want you to see how all writing advice fits into the bigger picture of how we arrive at great writing, so I wanted to share with you the 6+1 Traits. Boost all seven traits, and you will be a better writer. 6 + 1 Traits of Great Writing The 6+1 Traits, developed by Education Northwest and promoted by the National Education Association, provides K-12 educators a way to teach and evaluate student writing. I used these categories with high school students and found that whatever their projects—essays, term papers, and creative writing projects like poetry and short stories—the seven traits gave me a way to instruct and provide input. And the traits gave them a way to think through how to make any given piece clear and strong. Not Just for Kids: Use the 6+1 Traits for Your Own Projects While it may be geared for training young writers, the categories are useful for all ages and all levels of writing experience. Whether you're writing a blog post, a social media update, or a book—fiction or nonfiction—the 6+1 Traits serve as useful reminders and guides for all stages of the writing process, from idea and developmental stages down to the final proofread. I love that they don’t focus disproportionately on conventions—usage, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. It includes that as one of the traits, but only one of the key characteristics of writing. By exploring each trait instead of fixating on one or two, we don’t neglect areas that need attention. In fact, examining all the traits, we identify strengths and weakness not only in a given project but also in ourselves as a writer. They help us move toward excellence. The Traits What are the traits? * Ideas * Organization * Word Choice * Sentence Fluency * Voice * Conventions * The “+ 1” trait is Appearance. Appearance is optional because it doesn’t relate to the writing itself—it’s about how we present our writing. Ideas Ideas form the core of our writing. When developing your project and later when you’re editing, start with the idea. To be crystal clear on it, express the big idea succinctly—in a sentence—and then read your piece in light of the idea. In nonfiction, is your writing clear and focused on that idea or are you veering off into the weeds? Do your main points and examples offer convincing support? If your idea isn’t clear to you, your idea won't come across clearly to the reader. In fiction, ensure your short story or novel idea is strong and clear: Does your plot work? Your character arc? How about theme? When you clarify and solidify your idea, you can turn to the second trait: Organization. Organization You can start thinking organizationally about how to present your idea starting with the title and subtitle (or headline, depending on what you’re writing). And then your introduction with a thesis. Will you create subheadings to chunk your ideas and present them logically?

In a recent release of Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell introduces his podcast listeners to Dr. Bernadine Healy. In this episode, he asks Johanna Schneider, who worked with Dr. Healy at the National Institutes of Health, to describe her to listeners. Schneider said several things, including this: "She had a wooden sign on her desk that said, ‘Strong verbs, short sentences.’ And that was Bernie.” Using that wooden sign’s message as a callback, Gladwell seemed to say that Dr. Healy's value of strong verbs and short sentences conveyed formidable strength, in person and on paper. A force to be reckoned with, Dr. Healy communicated with precision and clarity. “Strong verbs, short sentences” reminds me of the advice we hear so often: Write tight. “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.” ~ George Orwell. “Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.” ~ William Zinsser “Omit needless words.” ~ William Strunk Jr. I thought about stopping right there. I mean, “Strong verbs, short sentences”? Strunk nailed it. Omit Needless Words In an increasingly impatient world accustomed to texts, tweets, and sound bytes, this classic advice feels timely and, like it or not, necessary. Readers are impatient. We can’t waste their time. As we embrace this new cultural tendency toward sentence fragments and textspeak, we can write so tight we squeeze out nuance, texture, and meaning. If we interpret “Omit needless words” to mean “Write in the sparest style possible, like Hemingway,” we may be missing the point. The Elements of Style elaborates on its own concise, unambiguous, three-word sentence, “Omit needless words” when it says this: Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. (The Elements of Style) Let every word tell. Make every word count. Include Necessary Words Instead of hacking away at our work, reducing it to a series of short sentences that hammer away at the reader’s ear, we study our work to determine the necessary elements. Sometimes, we need more words for clarity. Our culture often points to Ernest Hemingway as the master of strong verbs and short sentences, elevating him to the master of concise, clear writing—so much so, someone created an app called The Hemingway Editor. From its help page, it claims the app "makes your writing bold and clear...Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting. Less is more, etc…. So, the Hemingway Editor will highlight (in yellow and red) where your writing is too dense. Try removing needless words or splitting the sentence into two. Your readers will thank you.” Using the Automated Readability Index, the Hemingway Editor evaluates the “grade level” of your writing style when you paste a portion into the app, which you can do online for free. Turns out Hemingway didn’t write like Hemingway, at least not the way we’ve oversimplified his style, reducing it to strong verbs and short, declarative sentences. Hemingway Fails I plucked The Sun Also Rises from my shelf. Listen to this sentence: He was married five years, had three children,

Last week I talked about the mindset that believes growth is possible—that you are neither stuck at your current level nor have you arrived at mastery. With that mindset, you can begin to evolve and improve. Today I recommend three simple writing tweaks that will keep your readers interested and engaged. 1. Use Active, Vivid Verbs Propel your story or idea forward with active, vivid verbs. Don’t fret about your word choices as you write your draft, but in the editing stage, especially, look for places you can swap a flat, lifeless verb for one that keeps the reader alert and engaged. A few examples of flat, lifeless verbs: * “is" and other forms of “to be” (am, are, was, were, be, being, been, will be, and so on) * “go” or “went" * “have” or “had" * “made" * "do" When you identify words like these that slow down your work, you open up new opportunities to improve. Start fishing for verbs that energize your writing and dream up new ways of expressing an idea or scene. Let’s say a writer describes a troubling situation in her kitchen. She writes, “The Instant Pot made such weird sounds, I worried I’d missed a step with the lid position or the settings.” By simply choosing a more vivid verb than “made” ("The Instant Pot made such weird sounds…”), creativity kicks in and the whole scene picks up. Like this: “The Instant Pot fizzed and spit as the silver peg jiggled and wobbled. Did I miss a detail in the instruction book? Should I turn the lid one notch tighter or pick a setting lower than ‘ultra'?" The scene expanded and changed in tone. By playing with the verbs, the sentence came alive. This simple tweak can produce stronger writing in all genres. Turn to active, vivid verbs whenever possible and play around with options. 2. In General, Avoid “There was” Consider this common sentence structure: "There was a jogger who outran a terrier that nipped at her heels." Because "There was" includes a form of "to be," I could have lumped this suggestion under the discussion of flat, lifeless verbs. Instead, I want to address this on its own. >> “There was” Fills in for Unknown Subject Sometimes we use “there are” when we aren’t sure who or what the actor or subject is. Newspapers rely on this when reporting on a situation with limited information. “Last night there was a robbery at the gas station on the corner of 5th and Main.” Perhaps the reporter turned to “there was" because police hadn’t said anything about the perpetrator. If so, the reporter didn’t have enough information to write, “Two men wearing clown masks robbed the gas station on the corner of 5th and Main.” To make the deadline for the morning paper, the reporter gave readers what he had so they are aware a robbery allegedly took place on the corner of 5th and Main. >> “There was” Can Hide an Identity A writer might rely on “there was,” “there are,” or “there is” to avoid casting blame. For example, a mom might write in an email, “I’m going to miss the meeting. There was a flood in our house from an overflowing toilet.” She chose “there was” on purpose to avoid pointing fingers at the particular child who flushed an entire roll of toilet paper and clogged the toilet to overflowing. Sometimes identity doesn't matter. "There was a pine cone jammed in the gutter." No need to blame the squirrel or the wind when the focus of a scene is the pine cone itself. As you can see, this construction comes in handy from time to time. But in general, avoid using it—especially because it can so easily be rea...

Last week, we started to explore a fear that haunts many writers, which is the fear that they aren’t good enough. Or they think they aren’t enough. I hope you've explored the root of this fear and other fears that hold you back as a writer. I hope you're ready to move past the fears. Instead of worrying, wondering, or fearing you aren’t good enough to write, you’re going to do something about it. You’re going to be a better writer. For the next few weeks, we’re going to introduce, review, and practice some things we can do to improve, so that we’re getting better all the time. Ernest Hemingway said, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” In other words, we'll always be growing and changing as writers. When we have a beginner's mindset—when we see ourselves as an apprentice—we can continue to learn. Even those who feel confident in their writing skills can discover room for growth. We are all apprentices capable of becoming better writers. Believe You Can Change It sounds so simple, but any writer can get trapped in the belief they are stuck where they are in a kind of personal stasis—they assume their writing skills and ability are finite and unchangeable. The beginner’s fixed mindset This fixed mindset can haunt the insecure writer who feels he is trapped in mediocrity, unable to evolve and improve. He believes he'll never be good enough to submit his work to a journal or agent. He believes he wasn’t born with that gift of writing, so there’s only so far he can go. He settles into the space he feels he’s allowed to occupy and sort of gives up. The experienced writer’s fixed mindset The thing is, this static mentality—this fixed mindset—can also plague the more experienced writer who’s found some degree of success. He settles into a comfort zone, seeing that he can consistently turn out material at about the same level of quality and readers continue to respond with enthusiasm. Why change? Why grow? "Why fix what ain't broke?" he thinks. So he writes without stretching himself, satisfied with how his writing life has unfolded and where it’s taken him. He sees no need to grow beyond this. Both writers, stuck I'm glad for those who have reached goals and arrived at some level of success. Congratulations. But I confess...I hope to encourage those writers to believe they, too, can get even better and write even more challenging and captivating projects, whatever they may be. So wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, I’m going to try to change your mind and your mindset. If you feel you weren’t born with the writing gene and you believe have no hope of improving, I’m telling you, it’s time to learn about—and even test—the growth mindset. If you’ve built publishing credits and produced an impressive portfolio of work—if you’ve sold books and hit bestseller lists—you, too, can improve. You’ve been received well, but you can be an even better writer. Because we all can. None of us is stuck or static. Embrace the Growth Mindset If you’ve been told only some people are natural born writers who emerged into the world with some kind of supernatural artistic gifts, that’s a fixed mindset, and the fixed mindset causes us to slam a door that was actually standing wide open to us. This belief is supported by plenty of outliers we can point to—people for whom writing does seem easy, whose work astounds. But writing skills can be learned and writers—even so-called natural-born writers, if they exist—are not locked into one level of greatness. None of us needs to feel stuck,

A few times I brought my high school English papers to my dad for him to look over. Trained as a newspaper editor, he’d reach into his desk drawer and pull out either a red pen or a soft black pencil he used at work. Sometimes he’d mark it on the fly while I was standing there, narrating his reasoning as the pencil left ominous black marks on the paper. Other times I’d leave it with him and return to find entire paragraphs X’d out, words and phrases circled or deleted, giant question marks in the margins, and arrows pointing out problems here, there, and everywhere. If I still had a copy of those drafts, I know now—as an adult—that his corrections significantly improved my work. As a teen, though, I didn’t see it that way. Corrections felt like criticism, and I walked away dejected. I wasn’t good enough. What’s your story? Have you endured an interaction where someone gave you the impression or outright told you that when it comes to writing, you aren’t good enough? Did a parent, teacher, or editor offer criticism that caused you to question your writing hopes and dreams? More recently, has anyone asked you to write something you’ve never attempted before and you thought, “I’m not good enough to write that?” Have you signed up for a writing course only to realize your classmates seem far more experienced and knowledgeable—each time you turn in a project, their harsh comments cause your heart to crumble like one of those buildings that implodes and collapses into rubble? Have you started work on a writing project feeling bold and brilliant—maybe you got some positive remarks from a few people—and then you’re suddenly hit with imposter syndrome, and you think: “I’m not good enough to do this!”? You’re not alone. Many writers fear they aren’t good enough, and some never get a project off the ground because the fear takes over. It shuts down their creativity and keeps them from finishing. If they manage to finish, they’re too afraid to share it with the world. Fears Upon Fears The fear of not being good enough is often tangled up with other struggles and fears so that we have fears upon fears: * fear of judgment * fear of criticism * fear of rejection * fear of failure * imposter syndrome * people pleasing personalities * perfectionism * self-doubt * insecurity * anxiety We're complex people and some of us are a bundle of neuroses. Understanding ourselves can give us insight into our writing roadblocks. As we identify our fears, we take a step toward overcoming them. Write the story behind your fears That’s my first suggestion: write about it. Write the story behind your fears. Not for publication; rather, write about it in a private journal, for your own benefit. If you feel you aren't good enough to write, ask yourself why you believe that. Write out scenes from your past where that message came through. Recall the scowls and frowns, those jabs and insults, those question marks and arrows and X’d out paragraphs that you carried with you into adulthood. Root out the experiences that have formed your unchanging, stifling belief. Sort out the complexities. When fears cause us to stop Whether comparing themselves to other writers or feeling haunted by criticism from their past, writers can struggle with crippling fear that they are not good enough. Sometimes it manifests as self-doubt that nips at every word they tap out on the keyboard. Sometimes it manifests as perfectionism that expects such shimme...

Over the past week I followed several women on Instagram as they traveled to London for a literary-themed trip. One woman on the trip, Bri McKoy, posted a photo of a letter preserved under glass at St John’s College Library. The letter, written by Jane Austen’s father, was sent to a publisher, describing a book about the same length as a popular novel of the time. He wondered if they might be interested in taking a look at it. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl_dpmkAeXt/ The publisher rejected the book, sight unseen, with the short reply "declined by Return of Post.” Famous Books Initially Rejected Here’s part of Bri's Instagram caption: Everybody, listen up! What you are looking at is a REJECTION for Jane Austen’s book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Her dad sent a letter to a publishing house not only asking them to publish her manuscript but also telling them he would pay for everything. Still, they rejected it. They rejected it by sending his letter back to him. Can we sit with this for a moment? Someone. Rejected. P & P. We know of many stories like this. Lithub pulled together a list of books initially rejected by publishers. The list included Madeleine L’Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, with 26 rejections from publishers, and Kathryn Stockett's The Help which endured 60 rejections from agents. The website Bookstr pulled together a list of 10 books rejected multiple times, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was rejected 12 times; William Golding's Lord of the Flies, rejected 20 times; and Carrie by Stephen King, rejected 28 times. In her Instagram update, Bri pointed out how easy it is for us to have the luxury of knowing the whole story. “Listen,” she writes, “we know how that story ends….But what if we don’t know how the refusals handed to us end? What if we are sitting in our own unknown.” Writers in Their Own Unknown Websites like Bookstr don’t pull together a top ten list of writers who got rejection letters who still are unpublished. There’s no triumph there. There’s just the rejection. They’re sitting in their own unknown, so we don’t find inspiration in them. St. John’s College Library doesn’t preserve under glass a rejection letter for a book that's still sitting on someone's hard drive, only read by a few beta readers and the writer’s mom. The rejection letter is under glass because the book was rejected AND THEN was published and became the much-loved novel Pride and Prejudice. Stephen King’s book Carrie made the list because it was rejected 28 times AND THEN it was picked up by a publisher and became a blockbuster commercial success and was made into a movie. Same with The Help. It was rejected, AND THEN. Many of us haven’t reached the AND THEN. We know the end of those other stories, but we don’t know the end of ours. Worse, if we get the rejection, it feels like END OF STORY. That’s why we’re afraid. Take Heart: This Is Not The End I’m here to say it is not the end. Bri encourages her readers to take heart. “Rejection is not an executioner. Rejection is a guide.” Then she goes through several possibilities. This rejection could guide us to keep going or to pause. To take a slight left turn even though we were certain we were to go right. The idea could be too big or too small. Then she says,

I love that today’s theme comes from a newsletter subscriber who responded when I asked for ideas to address on the podcast or in articles. So this is a real writer with a real struggle—a reality for many writers. This person wants to know: How to write when you work full time? That’s a tough one. It’s hard to have any kind of hobby or side hustle when you work full-time. When you put in the hours at work and come home exhausted, how can you possibly devote your depleted brain and energy to a creative project? Don’t Ignore the Ache I stayed home to raise our four children and we chose to home educate, so while I didn’t work full-time in a traditional sense, I had my hands full most hours of the day. Writing was extremely challenging during those years. My dream was to have an entire day at my disposal, no interruptions, no diapers to change, no activities to organize. But that wasn’t the overall lifestyle we’d chosen. I thought if I couldn’t have the day to write—and if, in fact, my reality felt like I had NO time to write—why bother? But I couldn’t ignore the ache. I ached to write. Some days I felt hopeless. Some days I felt sorry for myself and didn’t bother even trying. Most days I wanted that all-or-nothing writing life. So a lot of days I didn’t write. After all, I didn’t feel like I had the energy; or if I started, I’d only be interrupted. Why try? But that ache wore on. Address the Ache I couldn’t go on like that. I had to address the ache. I suspect that’s where a lot of writers are—maybe the person who sent in this idea for a podcast. You’re feeling the ache, that soul-ulcer chewing away at your creative impulse. You’re losing hope. How do you write when you work full time? Assuming you can’t quit, I hope you’re feeling something else rise up in you—something louder and stronger than the ache. Voice It It’s a voice, a determination within. A resolve. You have something inside of you that must be voiced. A barbaric yawp you’re ready to sound over the roofs of the world. I. Must. Write. That’s it. You must write. Yes, there’s writing in you, ready for the page. You can’t wait any longer. There’s a writer in you, ready to yawp, and you know it. You can’t wait for the perfect conditions. You can’t wait until you inherit some distant relative’s fortune so you can quit your job. No more waiting. You must sound your yawp over the roofs of the world. You must write. Today. Look for slivers of time and the occasional chunk of time here or there. Settle for less than the dream of a cabin in the woods. Whatever you can, grab it and write a few lines. Where Will You Write? Let me tell you a story. Joseph Michael developed a Scrivener training course while he was working full time at another job. Scrivener is writing software, also an app, that many authors use because with it, you can manage longer, larger, more complex projects more easily than you can using Word or Google docs. But Scrivener is a little confusing to most newbies; at least it was for me. So I grabbed his training course years ago when it was on sale and started watching, hoping to avoid bumbling around, losing important pieces of projects. I felt frustrated because I didn’t understand the system, so I walked through his short training lectures and made sense of Scrivener. Years later, because of the success of his Scrivener course, Joseph Michael came out with some additional training on how to build courses—a course about courses.

Last week I told my email subscribers I'd love for future content to be inspired by the very issues that trip them up or hold them back. Today I’m going to spotlight one of the first responses: What do you do with the initial ideas once you’ve got them? This writer continued by saying they're great about coming up with a brief synopsis and sometimes even an outline but then they get stuck. "I never know where to begin! What’s the best way to start any story?” Story Ideas Are Gold—Store Them in a System First let me address at a practical level what to do with those initial ideas. Not every writer generates a lot of motivating, marketable ideas, so if you have more than one, you're sitting on a creative gold mine. Take good care of your ideas and you’ll always have options. Store any and all ideas in a safe place—ideally in a system designed for easy access, one that supports your project’s progress. Your Writing Pipeline I suggest setting up a Writing Pipeline, which I’ve explained in another article. Allow me to mention briefly that my Writing Pipeline consists of different folders set up in Evernote marked: * Ideas * Drafts * Final edits * Shipped * Archive I have two more folders in the same stack that aren’t part of the actual pipeline but feed the pipeline, and those are: * Notes & Quotes * Research While Evernote has worked well for me, your Writing Pipeline folders could just as easily be set up in Trello, Google Docs, or any project management app or system you use. But the point is to be sure you have a place to capture, store, retrieve, and develop your ideas. Initial Idea Development Let’s say an idea comes to you one morning. You capture it in an Idea folder where you’ve stored several other ideas. Later that evening you review your ideas and decide to develop that one. An idea needs time to grow and develop. You may want to map out a plot or flesh out a concept. You might make lists, draw mind maps, jot the main ideas or plot points onto Post-It notes, and assemble all that into a working outline. This is where the writer who posed that question finds him or herself. If we’re at the same stage, we’re staring at files filled with at least a few ideas in early stages of development—with a synopsis and maybe an outline. What now? Pick Your Favorite Story Idea It’s time to pick one of those ideas and write. Not long ago I waded along the edge of a body of water. Scattered across the hot sand were not shells but stones. I picked up a few and gazed at them, admiring the lines that cut across one, the soft red hue of another, and the smooth feel of a flat gray stone against my fingertips. I showed my selection of stones to a friend. “I love stones!” she exclaimed. Then she headed out to the water’s edge to find her own choice handful. Others in our group did the same. Next thing you know, we were running up to each other, showing off our favorites, admiring the beauty. Out of all the stones piled along the edge of the water, we’d all identified our own small selection that pleased us. In the same way I was drawn to one of those stones more than another—and who knows why?—I sift through my Ideas file now and then, and find myself drawn to one of my ideas more than others. The same can happen to you. You’ll read through ideas and for whatever reason, your mind will ignite just a little more when thinking through one idea than it does for another.

When I was in college, I bought a small recorder. A Sony, I think. You’re wondering the year? Well, let’s just say I bought packs of cassette tapes for this gadget. My goal was to record the lectures so I could play them back as I walked or biked across campus, listening to the material a second or third time. I took notes during the lecture, but if I re-listened to them on the go, I only needed to skim my notes to perform well on quizzes and tests. Ideal Input for Auditory Learners Many years later someone suggested I might be an "auditory learner." Though I love to read and I enjoy visuals, their label sounds about right. Auditory learners like me tune their radios to talk shows, borrow from the library CDs of The Great Courses, download audiobooks, and subscribe to podcasts. Recorded content isn’t for everyone—podcasts may not “stick” with visual and kinesthetic learners, after all—but for me and many other auditory learners, they're ideal. The stories, ideas, encouragement and teaching delivered via podcastsprovide valuable input without the need to crack open a book or stare at a screen. Podcasts Offer Flexibility Through podcasts, in particular, I can learn while jogging, walking, weeding, folding clothes, or driving down the road. If I’m sick in bed, I can press play to passively take in ideas. Through podcasts I keep up-to-date with technology, I follow industry trends, and as much as I love audio, I am, of course, an avid reader, so I tend to take in most words from the page or screen and don’t always know how to pronounce them. When I listen to a podcast, people's voices become familiar, new words roll off my tongue with greater ease, and names of industry insiders become easy to pronounce—with the added bonus that ongoing exposure to the hosts' ideas and laughter makes them feel like old friends. So maybe I'm preaching to the choir, and maybe you're already one hundred percent sold on the power of podcasts to deliver just what you need to boost energy and inspiration—even replacing conferences to some extent—but I’ll say it anyway: If we subscribe to podcasts, we can learn on the go and supercharge our writing. Depending on the podcast, the content might even contribute to personal growth and professional development. All for free. Find Your Friends I find podcasts through recommendations from people I already listen to or read. I’ll skim the lists and stop on the titles or subject matter that sounds interesting. I’ll search for the show, sample an episode or two, and then decide whether or not to subscribe. Sometimes those shows send me down yet another rabbit hole. If I enjoy the guest on an interview-based show, for example, and find out the guest has her own show, I'll give that a listen. And so I meander, finding more and more podcasts to stimulate my mind and bring me up to speed on best practices and industry twists and turns. Shows to Sample In my podcast player, I subscribe to shows that seem like they’ll consistently produce appealing, useful, encouraging material—and a few that are unpredictable. Those surprise me with a perspective completely different from mine. Sometimes I keep listening; sometimes I unsubscribe. I invite you to sample a few I've enjoyed. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and you might not click with them. If none feels like a good fit, I do hope at least one of the shows leads you to someone else who ends up becoming your next favorite podcast. Nine Writing-Related Podcasts to Try Here are nine writing-related podcasts to consider. I’ll include descriptions from their notes, to help you know the direction of that show. Novel Marketing Podc...

My dad started smoking when he was a teenager and smoked like a chimney all the way through college and into adulthood. He worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newsroom, where smoking cigarettes and cigars was the norm—almost expected. Isn’t that the stereotype from the movies? Well, in the 1960s, when my mom realized she was pregnant with my brother, Dad quit smoking. Cold turkey. The overnight switch must have been strange for his colleagues at the paper, with their coworker showing up to work the next day no longer shrouded in smoke. Overnight, unannounced, he changed a huge part of how others perceived him. He never smoked again. Rebranding Cold Turkey Can Be a Shock If you would make a sudden decision like that, it’s great for your health, but a bit of a shock when it comes to rebranding. Yet, people do it. I’ll bet we’ve all seen people suddenly stop writing with barely an announcement. They essentially shut down their blogs and social media accounts and walk away from whatever they’ve built. A clean break. No ambiguity. One hundred percent certainty. Then they begin with a new project, a new focus, a new tone. They end one thing so they can start the next thing. They move on to new ideas, new projects, new topics. The Type of Person to Rebrand Cold Turkey They may be the type to rip off the Band-Aid all at once. Or they leap into the cold pool without even pausing at the edge of the diving board—one bounce and splash! Perhaps they leave up one blog post or article explaining their reasoning and that leaves their readers without any question or confusion as to what happened. It can tell people where to find them as they launch the new space for the new brand. That way it may be sudden, but it’s spelled out. Reasons People Rebrand Cold Turkey It happens. People rebrand for lots of reasons. Maybe they grew weary of the subject matter. They got tired of the storyline. They felt drawn to something new. They ran out of energy or ideas. They changed in core ways and wanted their brand to match. For whatever reasons, they decided it was time to move on. Cold Turkey Rebranding Benefits Rebranding in a sudden way certainly offers some benefits. Clarity A cold turkey switcheroo can throw faithful readers for a loop, but at least they have no question what’s happening. It’s clearly out with the old, in with the new. Readers See If New Content Feels Relevant If you rebrand cold turkey instead of choosing a slow transition, your long-time readers, while perhaps surprised, even baffled, at first, will see right away whether the new brand is relevant to them. Writer Can Focus Right Away on the New Another benefit of a sudden switchover is that the writer gains immediate freedom to focus completely on the new brand. He doesn’t have to drag it out over days, weeks, or months. If he’s excited about the new possibilities of the new look, feel, and content, he can get started right away building that. Cold Turkey Rebranding Disadvantages Rebranding in a sudden way may result in negative repercussions. Upset Readers An unpleasant possibility is that readers who felt they had no time to prepare or say goodbye leave with a bitter taste in their mouths. You can explain your reasoning sympathetically, trying to see it from their perspective. And you can explain your reasoning clearly, trying to help them see your perspective. But you can’t control how they’ll feel or respond. Hopefully they see your logic and understand your decision and direction. Even if they stop following your work, I hope they wish you the best. Writer Loses Momentum Another challenge of rebranding cold turkey is that it takes time to build the new audience of ...

If you’ve concluded you really need to leave behind who you are and the writer you’ve been, and transition to a completely new look, feel, tone, and type of writing, you’re going to rebrand yourself. You have options for how to go about it. Ways to Rebrand: Trial Run We’ve already discussed starting with a trial run, which often leads to integrating the new brand with the existing brand. During the trial run, you have time to experiment before fully committing yourself—in fact, you could still back out and return to your existing brand if you don’t like how it sounds and feels, and you can’t imagine this focus for the next few years. Ways to Rebrand: Integrate But at some point, let’s say you decide to move forward and follow through. When you decide to keep the old and add in the new, that’s a way to rebrand by integration. Instead of completely changing, you actually absorb and expand. Ways to Rebrand: Slow Transition Now we’re diving into total change—the true pivot. When you leave it all behind, you can do it right away—suddenly—or you can transition over time. When you take your time rebranding, I think of that as a slow transition. If you’re the type to pull a Band-Aid off in millimeter increments, stretching out the process over several minutes of tiny tugs instead of ripping it off all at once, this might be a good fit for you. It might also be for you if you know your readers hate surprises—and you hate pulling the rug out from under them. Time to Adjust The slow transition eases your readers into this new you. And it gives them time to adjust to the idea that you’re changing—that eventually you’ll discontinue their favorite articles, posts, and tweets (or whatever) that you’re known for. They get a taste of what’s coming before the full shift takes place. With the slow transition, readers have time to prepare, to find other writers offering similar content or styles, to adjust to the idea of life without your signature words and tone. As you slowly shift from the old brand to the new—when it’s clear what’s happening—you might even recommend to your readers other writers and authors who are similar to you and your style. Personal Rebranding: First, Integrate, Then... I’ve mentioned before that my website content was much less focused in the past. I wrote random stories about family and faith and eventually food. When I added food, those articles integrated with the existing brand, so readers never really felt a shocking jolt. I continued with that kind of content for years on my personal website. In addition, I served on the editorial team of two online organizations. I taught composition and creative writing and coached speech once a week to high school students. I led writing workshops. I wrote another book. I became a writing coach. A friend and mentor nudged me to focus my website on that and that alone. If I did that, it meant my core me—my core brand—would have to change. It meant I’d have to rebrand. I was nervous. I hate making people upset. And I definitely hate pulling the rug out from under someone. Shifting to Slow Transition So I did it in stages, in a slow transition. My tagline “Ann Kroeker, Writer” shifted first to “Ann Kroeker: Writing Coach, Editor, Friend.” About a year later, I dropped “Editor” and “Friend,” which my son thought was hysterical because it implied I wasn’t a friend anymore. My brand became, simply: Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach. It was a slow process, but I rebranded. Rebranding Aftermath: Readers Decide to Stay, Linger, or Leave And all those readers who followed me because I posted recipes on Friday witnessed the slow change.

You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. How will you go about it? We already discussed one option: the trial run. Rebrand Yourself: Integrate Today we’ll see if choosing to integrate will work best. When you rebrand yourself in this way, it’s almost a continuation of your trial run in that you integrate the new brand with the existing brand. Instead of completely changing, you actually absorb the new and expand the old. If you like the brand you’ve built and you love the people who read your work, this may be the best approach for you, because you don’t have to completely abandon what you’ve built or turn away from the people who know, like, and trust you. New + Old This isn’t a true pivot in that readers will still recognize your brand. When you rebrand in this way, they’ll get new content—possibly in a new tone—alongside the old. It’s like a merger takes place. If you’re the type to set more places at the table for a dinner party and try new recipes every time, maybe this is how you can rebrand. Cook up new content and invite new people to sit at your table. My Integration Last time you heard about my food integration—how I launched Food on Fridays and added it to the lineup of articles I published at my website. Existing readers thought it was fine and some of them loved it. Then I gained more readers, which was fun. To top it off, the Friday feature provided my website with much needed rhythm and focus. So after my experimental phase, which lasted about a month or two, I kept it. I integrated Food on Fridays with all the other content I created. In fact, this new content served as a highlight of the week that many readers looked forward to more than any other stories I might publish. I would have abandoned it after the trial run if readers hated it, because I wasn’t completely married to the idea, but it turned out to be a good move, a good experiment, a great addition. I avoided jolting faithful fans and longtime readers and I added new ones by integrating content that didn’t clash with the existing brand. Rebrand Tone and Attitude But it’s not just content that inspires a rebranding effort. I’ve seen some online professionals shift from an edgier tone to one that sounds more professional. They don’t dress dramatically different if you compare old video footage of them with more recent clips, but I noticed a few have dropped their bravado. In some instances, when I first encountered these brands, they were perfectly comfortable dropping the F bomb. Later, as they rebranded, they reduced and in some cases completely eliminated it. Now, I don’t know their reasons, and I don’t feel I should point them out by name, but I do wonder if they lost any original readers who liked that edge of the original brand’s tone and attitude. At the same time, I wonder if, with the rebranding, they gained new fans who might not have felt comfortable learning from the previous persona? Whatever the outcome, I witnessed their brand shift from one “feel” to another, even though their content remained basically the same. They train and teach in the same field, so the rebranding was less about what they wanted to talk about and more about how they’d talk about it. They integrated a different approach when it came to their tone. Set Up Your Rebranding Experiment If you’re itching to rebrand in any way, whether content or tone, and you haven’t set up a trial run yet, do it now. Decide on a simple experiment to test out new content with your existing readers. Your readers like what you’ve been doing. That’s why they keep coming back for more. Try new content with them a few times in creative ways without stopping what they love.

You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. How will you go about it? You have options. One is what I’ll call “Trial Run.” Next time, we’ll talk about “Integration.” Then “Slow Transition” followed by “Cold Turkey.” Only the second two represent a true pivot—a total change in direction, where you’re moving on and not going back. Today let’s talk “Trial Run.” One way to find out if a total change is in order, is to give the new content a trial run. Publish New Content on Website Try dedicating one day a week or once a month to writing and publishing new content in the new voice on your existing website and other spaces while maintaining the old content. Gauge reader response. How responsive are they and is it positive or negative? See how you feel, too—decide if you like creating and sharing it as much as you thought you would. Ways to Measure Reader Response Back when I wrote about family and faith, I felt inspired to write regularly about food. This was in the early days of food blogging. In fact, a lot of the biggest names had not even launched their websites yet; food photography was far less formal or fancy than it is now, so it seemed like a reasonable idea. I started a Friday feature focused on food and added one of those link-up tools bloggers use so others could write about food at their own websites and link their articles to mine. Evidence Through Linkup and Comments The response to my trial run confirmed a strong interest. Other bloggers loved linking up posts that had something to do with food and thanked me in the comments for creating it. Usually their posts included a recipe, but I didn’t insist. When I launched Food on Fridays, I didn’t know if I would continue—it was an experiment. But the number of enthusiastic bloggers joining the linkup and the cheery comments from readers encouraged me to continue. I kept that up for years, posting about food every Friday, even when I was on vacation. Evidence Through Social Media Shares Also, when Pinterest became a thing, some of my recipes were pinned and shared numerous times. That, too, provided useful data further solidifying my decision to change up my existing brand a bit and add in food. It didn’t clash with my content and it brought in new readers. Evidence Through Correspondence Depending on what kind of experiment you’ll be conducting, people may hesitate leaving a public comment under that article. Those who feel they know you well may send you an email, instead. Some may offer a thought on a social media platform, when you share a link to your article there. All of this can help you decide if this is the direction you want to go. Publish New Content on Social Media You can distance the experiment from your existing content by sharing nuggets in a new style or tone on a social media platform. Write about the new topic or in the new genre and publish it on Facebook—in fact, maybe you push it out on your personal profile instead of your professional page. See how your friends respond without committing your primary website to hosting that content right away. It’s a low-risk approach that still gives you helpful input as you consider rebranding. I’ve seen friends post about cultural or political concerns in these spaces before they publish similar content on their blog. They get a chance to express their concerns and see if they want to completely switch. I’ve seen writers post in a different tone, as well, to see how friends respond with likes or comments. Pitch Other Publishers You can also pitch other publishers in hopes they will feature your new passion in another space altogether, like a magazine with a narrow niche that aligns with your new brand.

In the last episode, I finally attempted to define an author brand. Before that, we talked about staying consistent with the core you—the brand you’ve developed, the tone you take, the voice your readers have come to enjoy. The episode before that, we discussed setting aside a place to play online—perhaps on a social media platform—so you can let your hair down and play with new topics or new approaches to your writing. While you’re playing, you may find a new love, a new passion, a new you. Even though you understand you have a core you, the process of playing led you to realize you’d like to change focus and shift to new subject matter or new genres using a new tone or voice. And by gum, you’re gonna redesign the whole website to match. Despite gaining a following and discovering readers who like what you have to say and how you say it, you decide you want to pivot—to rebrand. You Can Use Your Platform First, let me say you certainly can write whatever you want to write. And if you’ve built up a substantial readership and have a good number of fully engaged followers, you may feel compelled to use your platform to talk about something important to you. That’s the privilege of having a platform. You can use your influence to impact the people who are listening to you, even if it means writing off topic once or twice and publishing content that’s off brand. Think Twice Before You Pivot But if you’re feeling the itch to make a global shift, a true pivot where you change dramatically and permanently to speak and write differently from now, you might think twice. You’ve been writing about food, let’s say, and now you want to focus on travel. Or you’ve been writing about family and now you want to switch to politics. Your novels are selling well, and now you want to publish nonfiction. I’m not stopping you from rebranding. But before you make that decision, consider some questions. What's Behind the Shift? If you've worked hard to develop a platform and got results—you gained a following—why the change? What’s behind this shift? I’ll toss out some questions to help you think about what's behind it: * Are you tired of the topic? Bored by the subject matter? * Do you find this new passion has completely captured your heart and mind to the exclusion of your original focus? * Do you love a billion different things and hate being pinned down and pigeon-holed? * Are you gravitating to shiny new possibilities? Does this new idea seem fresh and exciting compared with what you’re currently known for? * Is the desire to change rooted in avoidance—that is, are you avoiding doing work related to this audience and this project and this commitment? * Are you afraid of success? * Do you worry your words will be taken the wrong way by your growing audience? * Now that you’re more visible and prominent, are you wondering if people will grow tired of you? * Are you afraid you’ll run out of things to say? * Do you sense a deep discomfort in your spirit, like you need to abandon something that feels wrong? * Do you sense a deep stirring, like a call to step into some new vision? * Are you yourself changing and you want your writing brand to match the person you’re becoming? See if you can diagnose the motivation and then decide if you want to change. You may rethink things, or you may conclude it’s time. Just know that it’s a big decision with ramifications. So do think twice before flipping the switch. After all, you developed your existing brand because you believed in it. Aspects of it must still feel true and right and good. Remember Your Readers And your friends, followers,

I guess I got ahead of myself. I’ve been talking about author branding, but I didn’t describe or define it. And in this world of author branding, you may be wondering, “Uh...what’s an ‘author brand’?” Sorry to leave you full of questions. Like: * Is it the logo you design and the colors you choose for your website? * Is it the font you use for your name? * Is it the banner image you use on Facebook or the photo that shows up in Gravatar? * Is it the art on your book cover? * Is an author brand more about voice and style? * Is it tied to the subject matter you’re known for? The topics you tackle? * Is your brand revealed in the way you manage your Instagram feed and select images for your blog? Maybe all this talk of “brand” sickens you. “Seriously?” you’re thinking, “Brands are for jeans and perfume and hotdogs, not writers!” Thinking of yourself as a brand feels slick, commercial, and product-y. “Brand” sounds like marketing manipulation or sales-speak. “I’m a Writer, Not a Brand!” “I’m not a brand!” you’re shouting. “I’m a person! A writer! An artist!” And of course if you’re shouting that, you’re right—absolutely right. We are not neon signs to flick on and flash in a window or a color palette and typography design hoping to entice interest. We are people—people who love words. We tell stories. We pour out our hearts and hold out hope to the world. We’re essayists, memoirists, novelists, poets. We are artists. (But I Would Love Readers to Read My Work) And yet, if we seek publication, we’re trying to draw interest. If we’re doing more than write in a journal, we must be hoping to find readers for our articles, our poetry, our short stories, our books. If we write for the public, we want to impact people. If we’re honest, we’d love readers to read our work, wouldn’t we? Readers Default to “Brands" And readers face a lot of choices. When a person shells out money for a book or sinks time into reading an article, she wants to be pretty sure it’s worth it. So she’s choosy. Sure, she’ll read someone new, especially on a friend’s recommendation, but she tends to gravitate to the writers she has come to know, like, and trust. She turns to those writers who turn out content that consistently addresses her need or lifts her up or makes her think or laugh or sigh. She reads the writers she knows will help meet her need. She probably doesn’t think of it this way, but she turns to author brands. A Brand Is a Promise So that’s a way to think of brands and writers. How can we become that trusted writer who consistently addresses a reader’s needs or lifts her up or makes her think or laugh or sigh? How can we offer an unspoken, informal promise of sorts, that when a reader finds us and reads our words, he will get to know us and we’ll deliver content in the same general vein. If, for example, I don’t use four-letter words in my content then suddenly spew a stream of them unexpectedly, I broke my “promise,” so to speak, and went off brand. I blindsided my readers who had come to trust my tone and turn up my podcast or read aloud my articles within earshot of their conservative grandmother or grade school kids. A Brand Accumulates, Forms, and Strengthens Over Time Whether intentional or random, everything we write and send out—from social media updates to podcast episodes—is leaving people with an impression about who we are and what we’re like. Over time, one blog post, magazine article, short story, or poem at a time, you’re becoming known for something. Over time, you gain visibility. And over time, your brand is forming and strengthening into something. A group or groups of people are beginning to recog...