I know I shouldn't be focused on anything except the book I'll be publishing this month, but I'm anxious to get to the next book I plan to write so I was playing around with some new characters -- getting acquainted with them.

One of the most crucial decisions a writer makes is choosing the viewpoint character for a scene.

How do you know who should be the viewpoint character for your story, or for a particular scene? A lot of writers head-hop meaning that they go back and forth, sometimes sentence by sentence, because they have weak viewpoint skills. If you've ever wavered between one or character or another, here are 4 questions to ask to determine which character should be the viewpoint character.

4 Questions To Clarify Viewpoint

1. Who will be at the center of the action?

2. Who will have everything at risk?

3. Whose struggle toward a goal is the fuel driving the story, or that scene?

4. Who will be moved, changed, by the outcome?

Answer those questions, and you have your viewpoint character. Stay faithful to the viewpoint character and let the spotlight shine on him or her. Don't move the spotlight away unless you have very good reasons for doing so.

Back about 20 years ago there was a popular historical romance author who wrote big books. In one book that I remember, I think she was in every character's viewpoint at least once -- including being in a dog's viewpoint!

Takeaway Truth

Don't be a viewpoint slut, sliding into every character's skin. Choose wisely.

I've been doing research for a new book in which one of the characters is extremely superstitious. So, this past weekend, I researched superstitions.

I'm the least superstitious person in the world, but my mother was extremely superstitious. (Maybe that's why I'm not -- rebellion.) I always found it amusing and curious that my mother, such an intelligent woman, would have a hissy fit if someone put a hat on a bed.

In her memoir, Memory Lane: My Sentimental Journey, I helped her compile a list of superstitions. It's hard to believe intelligent people let their lives be ruled by such ridiculous rules.


I envision my character doing the "knock on wood" thing so here's what I learned from Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati about superstitions. (I've had this book forever and still find things in it to intrigue me.)

Knock Wood

Do you knock wood when you say something like, "I'm going to get that promotion." Or, maybe rather than knock on the nearest piece of wood, you say the phrase, "Knock wood."

Knocking on wood originated with the children's game of tree tag where the tree was safety. Go back about 3,000 years ago, and you find North American Indian tribes doing this. On the other side of the world, just a little later, the Greeks were doing it. In both cases, the theory was pretty much the same.

From North America To Ancient World

Native Americans saw lightning strike oak trees frequently so they believed that the oak was where the sky god lived. From the same occurrence, the early Greeks deduced oak trees were where the god of lightning lived.

Native Americans believed that if a warrior boasted about a future accomplishment that it would not happen so they "knocked wood" of the oak tree to neutralize possible retribution as a result of bragging.

In the first century A.D. in Europe, Christians asserted that "knock wood" referred to the cross on which Christ was crucified, but most scholars have debunked that belief.

Odd how just about every culture had this belief. In North America and ancient Greece, the oak tree was the wood to knock. In Egypt, the tree was the sycamore. For Germanic tribes, it was ash, and for the Dutch, the wood wasn't important as long as it was natural -- no paint, carving, or finish allowed.

Most of you know that tree cults were common throughout history and gave rise to other superstitions.

Takeaway Truth

I plan to finish my work in progress this week -- knock wood -- so I'll have time for more armchair research.

I'm up in the Hill Country this weekend, and I must say that I'm really enjoying the quiet. Everything here seems more peaceful than at home. Life moves slower. When you shop in small towns, people take time to smile and chat with you even though you're a stranger to them.

When we travel up here, leaving Houston behind, eight lanes of concrete give way to two-lane blacktop roads. Landscaped esplanades carefully planted at precisely spaced intervals with live oaks yield to fields of golden-petaled Black-eyed Susan's and vibrant orange Mexican Sombrero wildflowers.

Country Living's Lack Is Appealing

Don A. Dillman said, "Ironically, rural America has become viewed by a growing number of Americans as having a higher quality of life not because of what it has, but rather because of what it does not have!"

I guess he was right because time spent up here is more relaxed because of the technological aspects of life which are absent -- by our choice -- here.

The air smells differently up here. The sky seems bigger. We look east to the horizon and whirl around to look west and see where the land curves down to the other horizon. Spectacular. At night, there's no light pollution to diminish the light from the heavens. Stars twinkle brightly, and the full moon, at perigee this weekend --the point at which it makes its closest approach to the Earth -- is like a spotlight hanging over the house.

I can feel myself relaxing as if the tension inside were physically manifested as a tightly-wound spring suddenly weakening and uncoiling. As the stress ebbs, I find my imagination stirring. An idea I'd been "playing with" surfaces, just begging to be explored. With no television, video games, or even people except for my husband, I can yield to my creative self and explore all the ideas that pop up.

Albert Einstein said, "I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind."

Takeaway Truth

I think Einstein was right. Without other interruptions and disruptions, a quiet life nourishes the imagination. 

I'm getting ready to junk an old computer, but I'm going to donate it to a charity-operated resale shop.

If you ever donate or even junk an old computer, take a few moments to do it correctly. Yes, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it, and in this era of identity-theft, you need to do it the right way.

Properly De-Commission Computers

Whether you’re going to give the old desktop or laptop to a family member, donate it to Goodwill, send it to a recycling center, or set it on the curbside for garbage pick-up, be smart and wipe that hard drive clean.

Surely you all know that just because you delete a file, doesn’t mean the file has disappeared. Anyone with a few skills can recover deleted files. So obtain software that wipes the hard drive clean. There are many software packages available that do this.

WipeDrive by White Canyon is one, and it’s inexpensive. The Department of Defense used this product so that should tell you something. There are other softwares on the market. You may even find some freeware or shareware that accomplishes this task.

Shop online or your local stores for a software that meets your budget and needs. Then use it to ensure your private information remains private.

Takeaway Truth

The few minutes you take to secure your private data is a time investment well spent.

Most writers know how important tags, or keywords, are. However, tags are important elements for readers too because it gives them an opportunity to express their opinions about a book.

(A version of this article previously appeared on Writing Hacks, my subscription newsletter for writers. Subscribe today if you'd like articles like this as soon as they are published.)

Tag or Keyword Defined

Tags, often called keywords, or the words or phrases used to describe something in a way that someone entering those specific words in a Search Engine can find the information for which they search.

Keywords are important in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and that means you want the best and most popular keywords (meaning used most often) to send searchers to your information or product. With books, you want to use the perfect keywords in writing your Product Description and in tagging your book. Using the perfect keywords is optimizing the search engine results. That's your goal.

Amazon

I'll be talking about Amazon today, but all the ebook sellers use keywords or tags.

Amazon allows an author to specify 7 keywords when you upload a book file through KDP.

After the book is live on the webpage, the author may add another 8 keywords. Always do this so you have 15 keywords that you have specifically selected to describe your book so that Search Engines (and that's what Amazon is) can find your book.

Readers can also add tags if they don't see one on there that they think describes the book. That's why you see some books with far more than 15 tags--readers added the others.

The more times someone has clicked to AGREE with your tags, the higher in the rankings your book will appear. This means, for example, that if my book has had my tags agreed with by web visitors 50 times, but another very similar book has only had 1 person agree with their tags, my book will come up in a search result sooner than the other writer's book.

Anyone who visits your book page can click to AGREE with the tags or to DISAGREE. If you want to agree or disagree with a writer's tags, make sure you expand the Tag list so that all tags show so you'll know what you are expressing an opinion about.Don't forget, you can also add other tags.

Authors love it when readers who like their books, agree with tags, add new favorable tags, agree with good reviews, etc.

Only 1 Per Customer

Since all ebook sellers place tracking cookies, you can only undertake these actions above only once. That's right, 1 time per authorized user. That keeps people from voting themselves up or a competitor down. (Yes, it happens. There are jealous authors out there.)

How You Make Your Opinion Known

Readers, if you like a book or an author, show them in these ways:

1. Click LIKE right below the book title.

2. Click AGREE on any good review if you agree.

3. Click DISAGREE on any negative review if you think it is without merit.

4. Write your own favorable review. It doesn't have to be long.

I think everyone has a right to their own opinion about a book. I would never vote against a review that was thoughtful and stated why they didn't care for the book. Everything is subjective. However, if I had a review that said things like a lot I've seen, i.e., "I hate romance but I read it anyway and it was a piece of garbage." or "This was only 99cents and it wasn't worth that." or "This author is stupid and doesn't know what she's talking about." or "This book was about adultery, and that's a sin so I give this book 1 star."

Those are subjective comments, not reviews. A review tells what's good about a book as well as what was lacking. Too many of the reviews you find on Amazon and other ebook seller sites sound like the snark you find at office parties. So think carefully and analyze before you take action.

5. Scroll down and find the TAGS. AGREE, ADD, or DISAGREE.

Make sure there are no typos in the tag you assign or the book may end up with a meaningless tag like OMANTIC rather than ROMANTIC.

6. Don't use your ability to express your opinion about a book as a forum for airing any personal grievances or grudges or for expressing political, religious, or sexual opinions.


Takeaway Truth

The ability to express an opinion online also carries with it the responsibility to be fair. Authors work hard at their craft so please be objective and honest. What you say may impact their ability to earn a living.

I've written a couple of books, Just One Look and Jane (I'm Still Single) Jones, populated by characters who had so much emotional baggage from high school that their experiences had a lasting effect on them.

A few reviewers took issue with the fact that a person would be so profoundly affected, 10 or more years later, by something that happened in high school.

I was thinking about that this morning when I learned that Is There Life After High School by Ralph Keyes is now available as an ebook.I read that book long ago and agreed with everything it said!

In my first ebook romantic comedy, Just One Look, my heroine Jennifer Monroe comes face to face, in a most embarrassing manner, with the man who had broken her heart when they were both in high school. When he not only doesn't recognize her but also inadvertently insults her, she wants payback--and she goes about getting it!

If you didn't read Mr. Keyes's book when it was first published in 1979, I recommend you do so now. It's a great resource about the effect of one's high school experience. Even 33 years later, the book is still relevant and is often quoted by other psychologists in papers, blogs, and websites.

Backstory

Mr. Keyes interviewed hundreds of people across the U. S. from the obscure to the famous...  "successful and unsuccessful, after reading countless magazine articles, books, and scholarly treatises, after listening to stacks of 45 rpm records, watching television and movies, and after attending all manner of reunions (from a fifth to a fiftieth), Ralph Keyes has come to the conclusion that Kurt Vonnegut was right — high school is closer to the core of the American Experience than anything else I can think of."

Forced To Agree

I concur with Mr. Vonnegut and Mr. Keyes. In fact, I've listened to so many high school stories of heartbreak, embarrassment, and humiliation--from my generation to my kids' generation--that I often wonder if we ever leave high school behind us. For so many, the way we were treated in high school made us who we are--the good and the bad. Many of us carry those high school hurts inside just as many of us strove to excel just to prove that we were more than our high school image showed.

In JANE I'm-Still-Single JONES, my second book with past high school angst as a defining moment, my heroine Jane Louise Jones agrees to attend her 10-year high school reunion only because she thinks that Morgan Sherwood, the high school geek who left town--and her--to make it big to the tune of millions, isn't going to be there. Unfortunately, Morgan shows up, the problems begin, and the sexual tension skyrockets.

Those Who Disagree

Maybe the naysayers--those who don't believe that high school has a lasting traumatic effect--are those who were the popular kids in high school. Maybe they were the football heroes, the cheerleaders, and the beauty queens--Miss Most Popular or Mr. Most Likely To Succeed.

Takeaway Truth

I wasn't one of those. Chances are, you weren't either.