Dauntless Writing Podcast

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 22: Gamifying Productivity - HabitRPG Today I'll be talking a bit about HabitRPG and how awesome it is at making me a more productive writer. HabitRPG is a habit tracker app which treats your goals like a Role Playing Game. Level up as you succeed, lose HP as you fail, earn money to buy weapons and armor. In this Podcast: How HabitRPG can help you be a more productive writer, and person; Why Gamifying productivity pushes you psychologically; How I use HabitRPG to be more productive A chance for partying up with me through in game! Links: HabitRPG Home (Onwards to Productivity!) The Dauntless HabitRPG'rs Group ID: 2ffa028b-02c0-4229-bc0b-766ea426c287 (I think we're the only ones in there at the moment)     The post DWP Episode 22: Gamifying Productivity – HabitRPG appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 21: Writing Voice - Self-Editing for Fiction Writers How to obtain a voice as an author. We all hear that "you need to find your voice", that "this author has a fresh voice", but how do you get such a voice? Can you cultivate it or is it one of those talent issues that you'll never have? Luckily, voice can be brought forth. In this podcast: The reality of the writer's voice; What can be done  to practice your writer's voice; Character and writer's voice; Revising for voice; Internal monologues and the intrusive voice; Links Self-editing for Fiction Writers The post DWP Episode 21: Writing Voice – Self-Editing for Fiction Writers appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast  Episode 20: Why Amazon is Dominating for Indies There are more places out there to stick your indie published book on. But I advise sticking to Amazon when you're just starting out. Why? I'm not being sponsored by Amazon, and I don't agree with everything they're doing. But if you don't have a massive fanbase, I advise sticking to KDP. If you're wondering why most indies sell most of their books through Amazon, then this Podcast episode will tell you. This is why Amazon is dominating for indies. In this Podcast: It's all about discoverability for a starting authors; Platforms are search engines; The difference between platforms, such as iTunes, Nook and Kobo, and why they suck; Why Amazon rocks for Indies; How Amazon's uncaring attitude is working in your favor; Tips to getting discovered on Amazon, that does not work on the other platforms; Amazon needs competition for the good of us all, but the other platforms are unwilling to step up to the plate; Why the iBook store is useless; Links Great interview of Nick Stephenson on marketing on different platforms on The Creative Penn Nick's site that helps you get your first 10 000 readers The post DWP Episode 20: Why Amazon is Dominating for Indies appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 19: Statistically Significant Samples What is a statistically significant sample for deciding whether something works? When do I drop what I've been doing and how do I decide to do next? Below, I give a ten step example of how I go about the idea vetting process in order to try and simplify my decision-making process. In this podcast: Some things you have to do as a fiction authorpreneur; How to decide to approach these things; Sound Principles for next level organization; Finding what works for you; MVP's - Minimum Viable Product at the Minimum Viable Price for the maximal result; On giving a plan a fair run before canning it; Applying the 80/20 rule; The 10 step vetting process: 1) Get an idea, ex nihilo or from something I've encountered; 2) read up on the idea, has other people done it? How hard is it to implement? What successes and/or failures have they had? What pitfalls have they mentioned? Are people recommending it? If not, maybe shelve the idea until later. Rate each of the factors involved on a five point scale. The factors are: Time (how much time out of my day it will take 1 is none at all, 5 is a lot); Money (Will it cost money? If so, how much?); Effort (is there a lot to learn before hand? how much info is available to ease learning?); Skills transfer (can I use some of these skills that I learn somewhere else? I'm more inclined to learn things that are); and Fun factor (Does it actually sound like something I can do for the fun of it?). I give each of these factors a % weight (like the fun factor is more important to me than the time factor at this stage, but the Money factor is usually a decider) 3) Come up with a strategy of how I would implement the new idea into my current schedule. If not enough time, maybe shelve it for later, or find another activity that is not panning out and replace it with this new one; 4) Research and write a policy and procedure for the activity, include a cost-benefit analysis taking into consideration my resources, such as time and money. Then measure it against other shelved projects. Maybe you had a gem lying on the future plans list that is better than this one. 5) Set roles and goals for the activity (Look for synergy and others to help, and quantify the cost of their help). The goals are what I'll use to measure whether the activity is good or not; 6) If the activity is similar to another activity that I'm currently running, such as maybe taking on Linkedin when I already use Facebook, set it up as a split test to that activity. 7) Implement the strategy. Go for it as if it's the only thing you're doing. Try your damnedest to get it to work. 8) Monitor your actual resources spent and results obtained against your projected goals and readjust your expectations and the factors that you mentioned in step number 2. No plan survives contact with the enemy. 9) After a period of time (set out in step 3 and 4 above), see which of the activities are producing the goods, and double down on those (this is your new control to measure future things against), and cut the ones that don't. The ones that don't can go back onto the future list, because things can change and you've got some data on how it worked for you in the past with ratings. 10) Start planning a new split test with the next most likely thing that may replace the thing that you're doing. The post DWP Episode 19: Statistically Significant Samples appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 18: Write First, Edit Later When someone is wearing two hats at the same time, you can guarantee that the results will be sub optimal and open for mockery. So why try to do that as a writer? Have you ever thought, while creating your first draft, that "this isn't very good"? What happened to your productivity? What happened to your writing in that exact moment. Like the sod wearing two hats, you felt unbalanced, ungainly, and unproductive. Stop wearing two hats. Write first, and edit later. In this podcast: When writing You have a main job, and it's not editing; Turn off all the things!; Saying: "I'm creating right now"; On giving yourself permission to write, and only to write; Saying: "I'll fix this later"; and On what to do then "Is this any good?" pops up in your mind. When editing The Elements of Style by E. B. White and William Strunk, Jr.; Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne, Dave King; Stephen King's suggestions On Writing (and editing); Roles and Goals for each scene; and Apps for when spell-checker is woefully inadequate. Links Hemmingway app Grammarly Stephen King on Writing Self-Editing for Fiction Writers Elements of Style E. B. White and William Strunk, Jr. The post DWP Episode 18: Write First, Edit Later appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast  Episode 17: Using Audio to Market Fiction   Using audio to market your book In this Podcast: As a writer, you may not have a lot of time writing left in you to write blog posts as well, remember priority number 1 in Episode 1; Why not use audio? There is a podcast for every genre and niche, why not for yours? People connect to your voice a lot better than to anything else, (except perhaps for video) It's easier than you think Pat Flynn's video series on how to set up a podcast Sold with video's youtube video on how to make a wireless mic for under $20 Tips on podcasting and examples of what Podcasts you can do for fiction Remember the priority (your marketing, not selling, don't talk about your books all the time) Provide value for your target audience who might like to buy your book Links http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-start-a-podcast-podcasting-tutorial/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nITukcOL44M The post DWP Episode 17: Using Audio to Market Fiction appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 16: The Harsh Truth of the World Shots fired, I've been dealt a harsh truth by a couple of articles that I stumbled across on Cracked.com. Now I'm talking about how I'm applying what I've learnt about the world in this Podcast. In this Podcast: Nobody cares until you produce the goods. Your readers don't care about your excuses, Amazon does not care that you wrote what you think should be a bestseller. All that matters is what you produce. The problem with the world is, people look at it with wildly inaccurate perceptions. They think the Karate Kid is awesome. The Karate Kid is a lie. You can't just do one training montage and go from being sucky to being awesome. Why didn't they show the montage for what it really is? Because it sucks! working hard for 10 000 hours is dull as hell. You hear of overnight successes in the Indie Publishing scene and say, huh, this is for me. You see Kindle Goldrush people selling their Udemy courses promising wealth for the low low price of $497 and think, hmm, I can afford to pay that to be successful. However, until you put in the time, you won't get the results. Scared yet? If you want the true face of success in indie publishing, go look at Steve Scott. He wrote 50 books and has 11 years as an online entrepreneur before being an Overnight Success with Habit Stacking e-book. Go look at Hugh Howie, he wrote a bunch of books and struggled on his own before Wool took him into the big time. You know what? Both of them were baffled by the book that put them on the map. Hell, Scott admitted that Habit Stacking was not his best effort, and the ratings for it agreed with him. Howie had no clue why Wool took off when none of his other works before did. If you look at that, then you will see the truth of the world. They produced the goods. They have stuff out there and is doing the thing until it made them famous enough for a scrub like me to know about their struggle. Do you find that depressing? Then go produce the goods. Always be creating. There is a reason why that's Podcast number 1. You'll find yourself feeling better. We are creative beings, we are supposed to sit in a cubicle following orders, we are supposed to create stuff. You know what's holding you back? Your fears your doubts? Am I good enough? It's you that's holding you back. Only you. do you know what freedom means? It means that you are free to fail to do anything and then blame others. Or you can be free to get on with it and produce the goods. People will critisize what you've produced, and say that it's worthless. Do you know what? They are not producing the goods, and that's why they're nasty. Deep down they know that they need to produce too. The only thing that is worthless is someone who does not produce something of value, and you're not one of them. Go out there and produce. That's how you get your 10 000 hours to mastery. Butt in seat. You alone have the power over failure and success. It's not the market, your mum, your upbringing, your opportunities, it's all you. Didn't hit that book deadline? You're not producing the goods. Book didn't sell enough copies? You're not producing the goods. Don't know what went wrong? find out! the Internet is there for everyone. How do you change all that failure into wins? By producing the goods. Do what you know is your best work right now, in marketing, organizing and marketing. You know what? You will find your capability expanding. So what if it's not as good as Stephen King? You're not him. He got where he got by producing the goods and that's the only difference between you and him. You have yet to produce the goods to the level that he has. I'm sure he sucked when he started too, but he did his best, and his best became better and better. So will yours. Links: http://www.cracked.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 15: Morally Dubious Characters   Why I like George RR Martin and Lannisters In this Podcast: Morally dubious and lovably gray characters; Why Superman is dull; How Batman walks the line and is thus popular as heck, but in the end you know he'll do the right thing; Why Jamie Lannester is a compelling douchebag; Why Tywin Lannester is a monster you can relate to; The fact is, people are not black and white, and neither should your characters be; People might not like what they do, but they will understand, and sympathise if you provide enough reason for them to act the way they do; How to get your morally dubious characters believable and what to avoid in pursuit of that goal.     The post DWP Episode 15: Morally Dubious Characters appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 14: Using reviews for marketing In this episode, I am talking about using reviews for marketing yourself and your work. By helping others find your audience, you may just find theirs. In this podcast: Making a list of all the books you can think of that are relevant to your field; Scheduling in learning how to write copy for sales; How sales copywriting will help in other aspects, such aas writing the copy for your own books; Copyblogger and Problogger - Great resources; Writing reviews of books that you've read and found useful and makes a contribution to your target audience; How to grow your audience by telling the person who you are reviewing that you've reviewed their book if they'd like to link back to you (and how backlinks are good, and readers are more good (gooder also?); You're an authorpreneur, give your readers a link to buy to book through your affiliate link. Think win-win and be dauntless. Links: AWAI (American Writers and Artists Inc) Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting (still looking for a decent link to this) Copyblogger.com - The best resource online for learning how to write effectively Problogger.net - Just as good as Copyblogger The post DWP Episode 14: Using Reviews for Marketing appeared first on Dauntless Writing.

Dauntless Writing Podcast Episode 10: Learning Programmes Proactively. Taking the time to learn programmes that will help you on your way can save a lot of time and stress down the line. These are programmes like Gimp/ Photoshop, Scribus, Scrivener, Evernote, podcasting software, video editing for vlogs/vcasts and sound editing software. In this Podcast: Best way to do that? Just do it! Authorpreneurs need to think optimised; Think of all the tools you need, and learn to use them on the trot in your own time, and not when the deadline looms; Schedule learning time; Wordpress, Leadpages, Aweber; Get e-books and watch video's; Always make time for learning before you need it, a counter case to just in time learning; Always look for ways to optimise your writing business by reading a lot; Write policies and procedures for your repetitive tasks (Episode 7); This will help when you want to start to outsource that task; and If you can’t buy the programmes right now, at least now you know about them and can start planning when you'd like to buy them, and then schedule it in. Think win-win and be dauntless   Links: Leadpages Aweber Scrivener Evernote The post DWP Episode 13: Learning Programmes Proactively appeared first on Dauntless Writing.