writers – Cynthia D. Griffin

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5 Twitter Tags For Writers

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Twitter is becoming my favorite place to hang out. I’ve had an account for many years, but it’s been within the last few months that I’ve really started using it. I really enjoy the conversations and the uplifting environment, especially for writers. Here are five Twitter tags that I keep an eye on, and sometimes use myself to help support the writing community.

#amwriting It’s inspiring to see so many people writing and talking about writing in this tag. Sometimes people talk about writing successes, and sometimes writing failures. It’s nice to see both. Writing is such a solitary activity. Much of what we do is never known or discussed, but it’s nice to know that we share the same solitary activity with so many others out there.

#writingcommunity This tag is used for a number of reasons. If a writer needs to ask a question, or get feedback on work or an idea, or just share some exciting news with other like-minded individuals, this tag is perfect. I always love seeking out this tag to get a real feeling of writer connection. It really is the best writer networking tag I’ve found so far.

#writerslift This tag is all about writers helping writers. This is usually used to help writers grow followers, but it can be used to make an offer like reading books for reviews or a place to post links for published works, author websites, or blogs.

#writerslife I love seeing all the different types of lifestyles that writers have. This tag can be writers talking about what sort of writing routine they have, where they write, or just about writing stuff in general.

#pitmad This tag is mostly used three times a year during the Twitter Pitch Party, but it’s great fun to get in on. It’s so fantastic to see so many people either participate by putting up a pitch, or fellow writers who help retweet pitches to get more exposure for the pitchers. Then agents and publishers can like the pitches they want to approach for a potential book deal. The next one this year is December 5th. You can go to pitchwars.org for more information.

Those are the top writer Twitter tags that I keep an eye out for. Do you have any writer Twitter tags you favor? Feel free to post them below!

Want to connect with me on Twitter? Come say hi at @Awesome_Dawn. See you there!

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Novel Submission Part 2: Writing an Effective Cover Letter

Posted on August 3, 2015July 7, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

We talked about Novel Submission Part 1: The Query Package, but now let’s get more specific and discuss how to actually write a cover letter (and FYI, writing a novel cover letter is different than a short story cover letter, in fact there are some publications that don’t even require a cover letter for short story submissions).

The following post is an accumulation of what I learned from Gary A Braunbeck’s worksop on cover letters and synopses, research I’ve done, and my own observations as I wrote the cover letter for my novel.

Here are some important things to keep in mind as you begin to write the cover letter (or what some call a query letter)…

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Writing Groups: Not for All Writers All of the Time

Posted on July 20, 2015July 7, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

One of the first pieces advice I received as a young writer (about eight or nine years ago now) from multiple sources (mostly from writing books and sage advice from published authors) was that to be successful at writing one must join a writing group. I was told writing groups would make me a better writer by giving me a place to talk and learn about writing as well as put me around other like-minded individuals for the support I needed to keep writing.

I took that advice to heart and joined a writer’s group two years after I began my cool hobby of writing, because I wanted to take my cool hobby to the next level.

It was the best decision of my life.

Until that defining moment of joining my first writing group, writing was a fancy. Something I did in my spare time. I had big ideas of being published, but it was a pie in the sky kind of thing. Joining a writing group made me realize that writing isn’t as romantic as I first thought. It’s lot of hard work (and a building of strict discipline and great effort), but work that had a hell of a pay off in the end (and I’m not talking about being published).

Through the help of my new writing friends, I learned that writing was not just something to do or some passing fancy for me, it was a way of life… my new way of life. And for two years, I went to every single writing meeting religiously (every other Saturday afternoon). And no sickness or excuse would keep me from going (okay, so if I was running a fever I wouldn’t go, but you get the idea).

Then I started getting restless. Something was wrong, very wrong and I didn’t know what it was. The meetings weren’t as fulfilling anymore, and more times than not I would come home from a meeting totally frustrated, wondering why I’d wasted hours talking about writing and other things that had nothing to do with writing (because my writing group did love to get off topic a lot).

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