32: Libbie Hawker Shows You How to Outline a Page-Turning Novel

11/01/15 • 61 min

Libbie Hawker is a novelist who writes historical fiction. Since launching her career, she’s published over 20 novels and novellas.

In this episode, I talk to Libbie about her bestselling non-fiction book, Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. In her book, she shares the approach she uses to outline her novels. It’s an approach that has enabled her to drastically improve her writing productivity.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground:

She dives deep into the outlining approach she discusses in her book, which is essentially a method for planning your novel to ensure that it has all the elements in place for a story that your readers won’t want to put down.
Libbie also shares her advice for encouraging readers to leave reviews and for dealing with negative reviews.
She talks about advertising on Facebook and other sites and when the best time is to invest in advertising your books.
And, Libbie talks about what it’s like to pursue a hybrid publishing strategy: while she still publishes independently, she also has a contract with a traditional publisher as well.

It’s a fun conversation that’s packed with advice for novelists and non-fiction writers as well.

For more information about Libbie and links to her books, check out the show notes to this episode over at writewithimpact.com/episode32.

Download a free PDF with 10 writing tips at Write With Impact.

Follow Write With Impact on Twitter

Like Write With Impact on Facebook

Libbie Hawker is a novelist who writes historical fiction. Since launching her career, she’s published over 20 novels and novellas.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground:

She dives deep into the outlining approach she discusses in her book, which is essentially a method for planning your novel to ensure that it has all the elements in place for a story that your readers won’t want to put down.
Libbie also shares her advice for encouraging readers to leave reviews and for dealing with negative reviews.
She talks about advertising on Facebook and other sites and when the best time is to invest in advertising your books.
And, Libbie talks about what it’s like to pursue a hybrid publishing strategy: while she still publishes independently, she also has a contract with a traditional publisher as well.

It’s a fun conversation that’s packed with advice for novelists and non-fiction writers as well.

For more information about Libbie and links to her books, check out the show notes to this episode over at writewithimpact.com/episode32.

Download a free PDF with 10 writing tips at Write With Impact.

Follow Write With Impact on Twitter

Like Write With Impact on Facebook

Previous Episode

31: Sean McCabe Explains How He Grows His Business with Writing

Sean McCabe is a hand lettering artist, writer, podcaster, musician, and successful entrepreneur who has helped thousands of people around the world to discover what they are truly passionate about.

Through his popular seanwes podcast, daily Youtube show, hand lettering course, and online community, Sean provides practical advice for creative professionals and digital entrepreneurs seeking to turn their passion into sources of additional income and even stand-alone businesses.

In our conversation, Sean explains how writing has completely transformed his business and how today, writing is the source of all forms of content that he produces.

Each year, Sean writes about a million words a year, words that become blog posts, podcast outlines and show notes, online course transcripts, Youtube episodes, book chapters, email newsletters, and more.

He shares some of the techniques he uses for getting into a daily writing habit and for getting words down on the page quickly that you can then edit later.

He also talks about what I believe is one of the most fascinating and radical experiments in work-life balance I’ve ever heard of: week-long sabbaticals that he and his team take every 7 weeks to pursue what he calls “secondary passions.”

There’s a lot packed into this episode and I recommend you listen through to the end, when talks about a brand-new online writing workshop he’s preparing to launch soon: Supercharge Your Writing.

Website, Podcasts, Video

Courses

Supercharge Your Writing

Value-Based Pricing

Conference

Seanwes Conference 2016

Social media

@seanwes on Twitter

seanwes on Instagram

Next Episode

33: Paul Smith Shows You How to Lead with a Story

Find the show notes to this episode and pick-up a free ebook with writing tips over at writewithimpact.com/episode33

This episode is all about using the power of storytelling to have more impact with your communications at work.

My guest Paul Smith is the author of a bestselling book about this topic, “Lead With a Story”. Before writing his book and launching his career as a speaker and corporate trainer helping people to develop their storytelling skills, Paul headed up the market research group for a $6 billion division of consumer products giant Procter & Gamble.

In his book, and on his popular podcast that goes by the same title, Paul shares stories of how people have used the power of storytelling to make break-through changes in their relationships at work, and how they’ve used storytelling to inspire others to rally around a vision or a cause, and substantially improved their ability to have impact.

In addition to sharing some fascinating stories, Paul gets very practical in this episode, and shows you how, for example, you can take the typical, boring corporate email, and transform it into a powerful tool for inspiring change and encouraging the flow of innovative ideas in your organization.

If you’re wondering how to have more impact as a leader and communicator - no matter how big or small your company might be - then you’ll want to hear what Paul has to say about the power of storytelling.

Paul is a master at telling stories that have impact. Several of the stories he shares in his book and on his podcast are actually quite moving and as a result, truly memorable.

I think you can learn a lot about the craft of storytelling and how to apply stories to your communications, whether you’re writing an email to a colleague, or writing a blog post, or preparing a presentation or speech.

Find the show notes to this episode and pick-up a free ebook with writing tips over at writewithimpact.com/episode33

Follow Write With Impact on Twitter

Like Write With Impact on Facebook

Visit WriteWithImpact.com