Tag Archives: motivation

Business, fiction, Marketing yourself

5 Infographics for Writers

by Diane Holmes, (a) Chief Alchemist of Pitch University, (b) lover of learning, and (c) writer of fiction, non-fiction, and the occasional manifesto.

#1  Put Butt In Chair

How to Get a Book Published at Writer's Market
WritersMarket.com shows you How to Get a Book Published

The writer’s experience. Ah, good times.

#2  Curvaceous Story Structure

Kurt Vonnegut - The Shapes of Stories
This is your story.  This is your story in conflict.  This is your story over time. Any questions?

#3  Your Brand Is Your Best Story

Storytelling is Not Just for Campfires

Storytelling: what is it and how to do it all in one infographic.  It’s like a college class in 5 minutes.

#4  Zombie Critique – Time-Line Method

The Walking Dead episode breakdown infographic

Also see beautiful Zombie Death and Dispatch infographics and super-awesome Zombie skull-graphic. Want more?  Many more HERE.

#5  All Roads Lead to You

another-little-piece-infographic

Incredible, engaging marketing tool that invites potential readers to learn more about themselves, be true to their personal taste, and agree that, why, yes, your book IS perfect for them.

(Bonus: Also, check out 4 Best Writer’s Block Infographics)

Ode to an Infographic

A well-designed infographic uses images to convey importance size, scope, concepts, relationships, power, trajectory, speed (and even humor) instead of using words.

While most infographics do use words, the picture element does not just illustrate exactly what the words say.  Instead, the illustration is the main message. 

With a great infographic, you can gain a complex understanding in an instant. You can stand back, be global at the same time that you also get up-close-and-personal with the details.

Best yet….

Readers are engaged and asked to take action (spatially follow along). A well-designed infographic is an interactive stroke of genius.

Do You Have an Infographic?

  • For your novel?
  • For your business?
  • For your marketing strategy?
  • For your clients?
  • For self-motivation?
  • For further education and understanding?
  • To save your sanity?
  • To sum up the hilarity your average day?
  • To figure out exactly what it is you do or know?
  • To mourn all the things you don’t know?
  • To make better decisions?
  • To show just how you’ll kick ass in 2013?

You could, you know….

—

clip_image001[4]Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: (1) Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and (2) Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Writing.

client relationships

Why You Should Love Negative Feedback

3 Comments

By Jake Poinier

I’m an optimistic, positive person. Which is why the conclusions from this article—the positive role of negative feedback—caught my eye the other day: “What marks the transition from novice to expert?”. It describes freelancing to a “t.” It’s worth taking a minute to read the whole thing (it’s very short) and even downloading the source document, “Tell Me What I Did Wrong: Experts Seek and Respond to Negative Feedback” from the Journal of Consumer Research.

The researchers found that novices sought and responded to positive feedback, while experts sought and responded to negative feedback. Their conclusion? “Positive feedback increased novices’ commitment and negative feedback increased experts’ sense that they were making insufficient progress.”

This dovetails with my experiences as a freelancer, and even within my career as a whole. At first, you’re concerned if you have done a task correctly—you simply can’t judge it yourself because you don’t have enough experience. You love it when you get praised, because it means you’re figuring it out.

As you mature, it’s still nice to hear “Good job!”, but that’s no longer your sole motivation. Thoughtful, negative feedback is much more instructive. Indeed, it can be somewhat disappointing when someone gives you positive praise on a project that you know isn’t your best work!

In hindsight, the people who have pushed me the hardest have taught me the most, starting with the first editor I ever had (who bought red pens by the metric ton), and most recently this morning, with a client who kept saying “no, no, no” to every suggestion I made for an email subject line. It can be frustrating, sure, and I would never retain a client who’s a jerk about it. But in the end, negative feedback, taken professionally rather than personally, is one of the many keys to becoming an expert.

Jake Poinier is the owner of Phoenix-based Boomvang Creative Group and blogs as Dr. Freelance.