A free website is still a website

If you’re not sure exactly what you want to achieve with your website, start with a free one. There is nothing wrong with a free website. Using providers like WordPress.com, you can create professional sites with little effort, without it costing you the earth.

Free websites from providers like WordPress.com, Weebly, and Wix all have a few things in common.

All of them have no contracts or fees when starting out. They will allow you to choose a domain name, but they will give you a subdomain URL in the form of chosenname.provider.com This is not a bad thing, because at least you are building your brand recognition with your chosen name.

They often use user-friendly page builder tools, though some are more user-friendly than others. And there are often a number of themes that you can choose from for your websites. No technical skills are required to get your website up and going—you just need the content.

However, the free options also possess similar cons too.

The options and resources available for your websites will be limited. For example, Wix and Weebly don’t allow you to embed signup forms on your website to external providers. On WordPress.com, you might not be able to have an embedded form, but you can use a popup signup form to common email list providers.

The free sites also tend to offer limited technical support, and they might require you to pay for add-ons or upgrades to become fully usable sites. They will restrict how much customization you have access to, limiting how much of your branding you can incorporate into your site.

And the biggest con: the cost of a free website is the advertising that providers put on your website. Sometimes, you can influence what ads are shown, but more often than not, you can’t.

I know I’m sounding a little negative about free sites here, but seriously, they are a good option for newer and emerging writers. I started out on a free website from WordPress.com with a custom domain mapped onto it. If it wasn’t for business decisions that I made years ago, I would likely still be using that free website, nearly a decade after it was first created.

Building a Basic Author Website

There are so many things that a writer needs to think about as they navigate the publishing industry, and the internet has added a whole other layer of complexity to the equation. There’s social media and the headaches about building a fan base there. There’s the email list and the management of a newsletter.

But if there is only one thing that you do on the internet for your online platform, create a website.

All writers seeking publication, traditionally or self-published, NEED a website. No exception. Your website is your online home. It’s the place where readers will go to get the latest information about your various projects, both old and new. You will likely have a list of all your published books, links to where they can be purchased, and links to interviews and other goodies. Yes, your social media will likely have information about the latest happenings too; however, any older material is quickly buried.

Seriously, folks, the moment you decide that you ultimately want to be published, start thinking about that website. And you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on fancy website designs either. No need to stress yourself about learning HTML or CSS. Just focus on the page content and get it out there.

In today’s post, we’re going to explore the bare-minimum website for writers.

How to Write Realistic Dialogue with non-native English Speakers

Writing takes a community, sharing ideas and supporting one another. So, when we get approached with an article that shares hard-earned knowledge, we couldn't be happier to pass that information.

When Meredith Rankin reached out to me with an article about how to write dialogue with those who are still learning how to speak English, I was over the moon. While I am surrounded by those whose first language wasn't English (my own husband being one of them), it never occured to me how to treat this in the written form. But Meredith has some solid advice for writers.

Over to you, Meredith.

Fiction often treats second language fluency as an all or nothing issue. Either the characters are completely fluent in the second language, or they’re completely ignorant of the language. That’s unrealistic. In my latest manuscript, I tried to convey the complexities of language learning.

Realistically, becoming totally fluent in another language takes years for most adults. Everyone learns at different speeds and the learning process is affected by myriad factors, including some outside the learner’s control. When I volunteer-taught English as a foreign language (EFL), I had students who were homebound because they had poor health or caring for loved ones; I had other students who were immersed daily in the language. Their progression differed accordingly.

Understanding the Nature of the Antagonist

When we start the conversation about the protagonist and the antagonist, some writers instantly jump to the conclusion that we are referring to a good-guy-vs-bad-guy story.

One might ask, "What if I don't have a villain in my story?"

My response: "Not all stories have villains. But all stories have characters striving towards a goal of some sort… and there is always something getting in the way."

I dove deeper into this idea in a previous post, highlighting that the role of the antagonist in a story is to get in the way of the protagonist achieving those goals, whatever those goals happen to be. But your protagonist is not necessarily the good guy of the story. And the antagonist is not necessarily another character. The good-guy-vs-bad-guy concept is one of many protagonist/antagonist pairings that might exist.

It's time to take a dive into the different types of antagonists found in stories. And not all of them are characters. We'll be looking at the classic good-guy-vs-bad-guy trope, but we're also going to dive into man-vs-nature and man-vs-self.

Should you hire an editor who isn’t published?

Editors have their insecurities just as much as writers do. One common insecurity among editors is how to handle the situation where people won't hire us (or trust our knowledge) simply because we aren't published ourselves.

Editing can be very expensive, so writers want to ensure that their money is not being wasted. They want assurances that the editor being hired is able to do the job and do it well.

However, just because a person has published a book doesn't mean that they would be a good editor. And just because they haven't published doesn't mean that they would be a lousy editor. All it means is that they've published… or haven't published.

Yet, I have seen this rotten advice given to newer writers time and time again on social media feeds.

Let me say it right now: Anyone who swears by this rotten advice is missing out on the services of some extremely talented editors who have years (and, in some cases, decades) of experience behind them.

In today's post, I want to take a deep dive into why this rotten advice is rotten, and explain why you can't focus entirely on an editor's personal publication history when seeking their services.

7 Simple Ways to Reinvigorate Your Creative Spirit (Guest Blog from Marcus Lansky)

Writing takes a community, sharing ideas and supporting one another. So, when we get approached with an article that shares hard-earned knowledge, we couldn't be happier to pass that information.

Today's post is written by Marcus Lansky. Marcus is what he calls an abilitator, working with people with differing abilities to start their own businesses. Writers, as much as they might hate the idea, are small business owners, particularly if they are selling their books and earning money from their writing (even if it is a small amount of writing). Marcus reached out to us with some ideas on how to get the creative juices flowing.

Using stock images doesn’t mean your covers are AI-generated

I'm not going to argue that the introduction of AI-generated material has changed how we view things. From copyright to the quality of images and writing, systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney have been a game-changer. I'm not going to even talk about the ethics that revolve around using such systems. No, that is a discussion for another day.

But the technology, or more appropriately the lack of understanding of the technology, has led to some ludicrous statements.

How would you react if someone tried to tell you that because your covers used images found in a stock photography website catalog that your covers were AI-generated? That because the fonts used on your covers were in a catalog on the internet that your covers were AI-generated? Oh, and because the graphic designer used Adobe Photoshop to create the cover makes that cover AI-generated?

Well, if you were me during that conversation, you would have had a field day.

Let me set the stage.

The Role of the Antagonist

When we start the conversation about the protagonist and the antagonist, some writers will instantly jump to the conclusion that we are referring to a "good guy vs bad guy" story.

One might ask, "What if I don't have a villain in my story?"

My response: "Not all stories have villains. But all stories have characters striving towards a goal of some sort… and there is always something getting in the way."

It is that understanding of a character's goal, and consequently what is getting in the way, that helps us to understand the protagonist and antagonist for our story.

In today's post, I want to examine what really makes the protagonist the protagonist… and what the role of the antagonist is.

Set Learning Goals

There is a saying: You're only as good as the last book you published.

The newer writer might look at that statement and suddenly panic about not yet having a publication. Let me alleviate those fears right now. It's okay if you are still working on your first publication.

The saying above is just a reminder to us writers that we have to continually evolve. Just because you have published a book doesn't mean that you can stop learning. With every book that we write, our skills should be improving.

While some writers are able to take the same formula from one book into the next, for most readers, the same-old book quickly becomes boring. So, we writers need to adapt as a consequence.

The industry is constantly changing. New technologies are becoming available to us. As such, we have to be prepared to change too… or get swallowed up by the evolution of the industry and be left for dust.

So, how is a writer meant to survive when you are only as good as your last book?

Well, for every book that I write, and with every stage of the production process, I aim to learn something new to help me along my journey.

In today's post, I want to talk about setting learning goals for our projects.

While waiting for feedback, LEAVE YOUR MANUSCRIPT ALONE!

The work of a writer is never really done. We are constantly tinkering with that manuscript, because there is always something that could be changed to make it better. But eventually, there comes a point when we have to put that manuscript into the metaphorical drawer and leave it alone.

When that manuscript is in the hands of another person, that's the perfect time to ignore that manuscript. Resist the urge to fix that typo or change that sentence. Just forget about it. Because if you keep tinkering, then the comments that come back might no longer be valid.

But some writers believe they have the perfect solution for this: Just send the editor the latest version. Never might that the editor is now screaming into the void, because everything that they had done up until that point has been made redundant and they have to start over again. But, at least they have the right version now, right?

Excuse me while I sit here with the phone at arm's length as my editing buddies go into a complete meltdown over the situation.

And the fallout is never pretty.