Randy A Brown

Author: Randy A Brown

  • Preparing for NaNoWriMo

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    November is National Novel Writer’s Month. This year I’m considering taking the NaNoWriMo challenge: write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That’s almost 1700 words per day. To prepare, I’ve decided to write a specific word-count on a fiction story (most of my writing is non-fiction) every day until I’ve made it a habit. Then, I will raise the word-count until I reach 2000 words per day. I have some ideas for my NaNoWroMo novel. I won’t start writing until November, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead. It’s just around the corner.

    For more information visit the NaNoWriMo website at: http://nanowrimo.org

  • Business Test

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    One of my hobbies is developing business ideas. I’m very interested in starting a business, but I have trouble deciding what kind. I found an online test that I thought I’d share:

    Business Test

    I’ve taken this test twice. Once from the book (which I have on order) and today from this website. My first top result was Creator/Builder with Advisor/Counselor and Communicator/Trainer tying for second. Today’s result was Advisor/Counselor first and Communicator/Trainer second.

    Some of my top business choices (and book topics) are:

    Management Consultant / Business Coach

    Career / Personal Coach

     

     

  • Free Kindle Books About Writing

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    Amazon’s Kindle platform is a great resource for books about writing. Here’s a short list of good writing books that are free:

    And here are a few good books that are worth buying:

     

  • Available for preorder – Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian by Bret Lott

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    All serious writers know that each word they write reveals something significant about their beliefs, something about their reason for creating, something about the one for whom they write. After all, writing lays bare the soul.

    Yet the work of a Christian artist is often pressured to fit into a popular mold, oftentimes forgoing quality for the sake of convenience or acceptance, or even simply because of a lack of the bravery necessary to look square in the eye the world, and to do so with the unflinching eye of Christ.

    In this series of intimate reflections on life and writing, critically acclaimed and best-selling novelist Bret Lott calls authors to pursue excellence in their craft through five fascinating essays and an extended memoir that explore everything from the importance of literary fiction to the pain of personal loss.

    Learn here what it means to be a writer who navigates the tension inherent to being a Christian in the public square—and to being an artist made in the image of God.

  • Niche Site Duel 2.0 – Choosing a Niche

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    For me, the hardest part of writing a book or building a niche site is choosing the topic. There are many techniques out there to help. Here’s my method.

    First, I build a matrix in Excel. I will make headings across the top of categories that I want to compare. One example would be- “is the topic podcastable?”

    Next, I start listing my favorite topics, topics that I’ve been researching, things that I’ve been searching for online, problems I’ve been trying to solve, etc.

    Next, I give each topic a score from 1-5 in each category (1 is bad, 5 is good). At first I just give a score based on what I already know about the topic. As I do more research I change the scores as needed (for example, I might not be able to make as much money from a topic as I thought).

    Then, I total all the numbers for each topic. The larger the number the better the topic would be for a niche. Here’s an example:

    excel niche selection matrix

    I then take each topic that ranked high and do more research. Long Tail Pro is a great tool for this research.

    Click here for more info on Niche Site Duel 2.0

    That’s a simple method to get a few topics to write about. Do you have a different method?

  • Niche Site Duel 2.0 – Searching for Keywords with Long Tail Pro

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    I’ve been using the trial version of Long Tail Pro to find keywords that will help me find a niche for the niche site duel. I’ve found a keyword that I like. It’s in a field that I have experience in. I’ve wanted to write a book about it for a while now. This tool helped me to decide if I should write it or not. The market looks so good that I’m considering starting a niche site to go with it. I’m still in research mode, but I’ll give out the information when I make my decision.

    I can recommend Long Tail Pro for helping you find niches. Click here for more info: Long Tail Pro

    Click here for more info on Niche Site Duel 2.0

  • Niche Site Duel 2.0

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    Non-fiction writers often write for specific niche’s. For this reason, many non-fiction authors run niche sites. To help me choose niche’s, and maybe even start my own niche site, I’ve decided to join Pat Flynn’s Niche Site Duel 2.0. The project will take you through choosing a niche, building a site around it, and make a nice passive income. This is an awesome project that I recommend trying. Even if you’re not interested in running a niche site, choosing a niche is still an important decision for non-fiction writers. You never know, you might end up with a nice passive income, but more importantly, you will learn a lot in the process.

    For more information see: Niche Site Duel 2.0.

  • My Influences – Authors

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    There are many authors that have inspired me in my writing over the years. Here’s a short list of some that come to mind in no particular order.

    Isaac Asimov

    I loved the I Robot short stories when I was a teen.

    J. R. R. Tolkien

    Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are some of my favorites books for several reasons. I love the world-building, the characters, the good vs bad choices that characters have to face.

    H. G. Wells

    The Time Machine and War of the Worlds are timeless.

    Orson Scott Card

    I like Card’s work, like Ender’s Game, because it’s easy to follow and keeps my attention. What I like the most about Card though is his book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. This book game me the tools I needed to build an entire world and fill it with characters.

    Hannah C Brown

    Hannah’s my daughter. She’s been a story-teller ever since she could talk and a writer ever since she first learned to use a keyboard. Her fairy tale retellings are hilarious and I can’t wait to see them in print. She’s very inspiring.

    Robert Jordan

    Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is epic. What’s really cool is that he was able to keep the epicness going for 10+ books. That’s inspiring. I like his settings.

    R A Salvatore

    Salvatore has the world settings that I like. I also like the monsters and creatures; and the characters.

    Agatha Christy

    She’s simply brilliant. I love the way she intermingles clues throughout the story and I still miss who done it. All of the clues are there, with no information held back.

    Terry Brooks

    I like the settings of the Shannara series.

    Terry Goodkind

    The Sword of Truth series has interesting characters and settings.

    Jules Verne

    Verne writes long journeys and the story is as much about the journey as it is the destination.

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Sherlock Holmes and The Lost World are awesome.

    Robert E. Howard

    I like the settings in the Conan series.

    The Bible

    I can’t talk about writers and stories without talking about the ultimate writer and story. The Bible is filled with stories of struggles and war, trials and troubles, champions and overcomers, visions, dreams, prophecies, kings, peasants, slaves, archaeology, history, builders, creation, science, love, songs and wisdom, devotion and strength, and much, much more. The Bible is rich with ideas for characters and plot, and is great for all levels of story-building.

     

    This is just a quick list. There are many others I could mention. I don’t necessarily like everything an author writes- I’m just focusing on influence. Who are your influences?

  • The Creative Penn

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    It can be difficult to get motivated to write. It can also be discouraging when you think about the odds of becoming a published author. To help me with these issues, I’ve been listening to the podcast at The Creative Penn (http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/). The Creative Penn podcast is from Joanna Penn and available on her website TheCreativePenn.com. Joanna interviews authors, publishers, editors, and just about anybody else in the publishing industry. She also gives many tips on writing, publishing, and marketing. Her site and her podcast are great for a boost of positive thinking and I find her tips invaluable. Thank you Joanna!

    You can find her site here:

    Homepage – http://www.thecreativepenn.com/

    Blog – http://www.thecreativepenn.com/blog/

    Podcasts – http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/

  • Using Bing for Inspiration

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    Writing can become stale if authors use the same tired locations and descriptions too many times. Readers like to be taken to new places, but it can sometimes be difficult to dream up new landscapes, cityscapes, animals, settings, etc. Rather than just looking at specific pictures online, which tends to propagate ‘sameness’, sometimes a writer needs to be inspired by something a little more random. One trick I’ve used for a fresh shot of inspiration is Bing.com. Bing shows a new photo every day. Sometimes there’s nothing there to spark the imagination, but sometimes you might find a real gem in a landscape, or animal, or even a tree. One thought can then lead to another… and you never know what it might turn into.

    Check out today’s photo at Bing.com