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One
​Writer's ​Life

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One author helping others navigate the writing world.
​Tips, ideas, and guidance for new or experienced writers,
​shared through my experience of the writing world.

Quick Tip 10: My Secret Pinterest safeguard

25/7/2020

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​Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Pinterest beyond being an enthusiastic user. I’m not being paid for any element in this post, nor have I been approached to write about it. I merely wish to share with you a tool that I find invaluable as a writer and believe you’ll find an asset to your writing.
If you haven’t yet read the rest of the posts in this series, I’ve popped easy links to my previous posts below.
​

Right now, sit back and learn about safeguarding your boards against annoying spammy pins, inappropriate content, or broken links!
Picture title Instagram image pink background, blue pinterest logo, same title as above
Here is my Pinterest secret weapon that you won’t see when you look at my account. It’s there working quietly in the background for your benefit, and you can take advantage of this simple trick too.
When I began using Pinterest, I found myself saving a few quick pins over a break time, often to a public board without having the time to click on it and read through the connected material first. I'd go back later only to find I'd saved a pin that promised tips and tricks, but gave me links to purchase an expensive book, or worse, led me somewhere I’d never intended to go. I'm also often frustrated by broken links. I hate to think how many people trusted a pin I'd saved, as I had, and been let down by my quick save!
That got me thinking about how I could safeguard my boards, and my followers, and still save the pin for a later look. I came up with a brilliant little trick that everyone can use to save those pins and check them when you’ve got time without showing them on the world: my YET TO CHECK board.

Picture of Yet To Check cover for secret board on Pinterest - red background, black text for easy location
My Yet To Check Pinterest board with bright cover to make it easy to find! You won't be able to see this on Pinterest, so I've shown it to you here.
My YET TO CHECK board is a secret board where I save anything I can’t look at straight away. I’ve named it that way so it always comes up at the very bottom of my boards list, and I’ve given it a bright cover board that’s totally different to the rest of my covers so it’s quickly located. Every few days, when I’ve got a longer stretch of time, I go through this board and check through each pin. If it’s spammy or doesn’t give me quality information FOR FREE, I’ll delete the pin. If I like it, I’ll click ‘edit’ and move the pin to the appropriate board and section.
How to make one (save the handy infographic below for later!):
  1. Click the + symbol and select create ‘board.’
  2. Be thoughtful when you name your board – I used an end of alphabet letter so my Yet to Check board always comes up at the bottom. You might prefer to have this board at the top and have Another Look Needed as a title. Yes, you can reorder your boards, but I chose to go alphabetically just in case. You could try Save for Later, Unchecked Pins, or Z Pins to Check or A Pin to Check. Adding that ‘A’ or ‘Z’ allows you more freedom with board names but drives me a bit mad!
  3. Select ‘Keep this board secret’ – this is the key – this board is for your eyes only.
  4. An additional step that you might like to take is to use Canva.com (or similar) to create an eye-catching cover image that stands out from the rest of your boards. My bright red cover helps me locate this board quickly and efficiently when I’m short on time.​
Now, if you like the look of a pin but don’t have time to click on it or read the attached material, save it to your Yet to Check board to look at later!
Hey presto, no accidental inappropriate or spam content on your boards – Yet to Check saved the day (and potentially lost followers)!

YET TO CHECK is such a handy secret board and is really worth having. If you don’t like the name, add a Z to the front of the title you’d prefer, and get saving. My one caution about this board is to check it regularly, otherwise you’ll have a mountain of pins to check and never get through them all.

So, save yourself the hassle and potentially lost followers of hastily saved pins by dropping them into your secret YET TO CHECK board now!

If you like this idea or think somebody else could make good use of it, please pin the graphics or share this blog post.

Don't forget to catch up with any Pinterest quick blog tips you've missed too!
You'll find plenty of quick and easy tips and tricks to make Pinterest a valuable tool to your followers and  creative business!
​Happy SAFE pinning!

Picture quick instructions list for creating a Yet to Check board on Pinterest

Missed a Pinterest, The Writer's Best Friend quick blog tip?
Catch them all here:

Picture link to Part 1 in Pinterest series: Why Pinterest is a MUST HAVE for writers
Picture link to Part 2 in the Pinterest series: Do it Once, Do it Right
Picture link to part four of the Pinterest series: Planning your story, creating storyboards
Picture link to Part 3 in the Pinterest series: inject your brand into your boards and get noticed
Picture link to Pinterest series Part 5: using Pinterest to learn your craft
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Quick tip 9: Pinterest for learning your craft

17/7/2020

1 Comment

 
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Pinterest beyond being an enthusiastic user. I’m not being paid for any element in this post, nor have I been approached to write about it. I merely wish to share with you a tool that I find invaluable as a writer and believe you’ll find an asset to your writing.
​Pinterest is a tool of many uses. Thus far I’ve blogged about (click links to visit previous posts) why Pinterest is great for writers, how to do it right the first time, injecting your brand into your boards, and storyboard creation. In this post I’m going to talk about how Pinterest was my classroom as a beginning writer, and how it can be yours too!
Picture instagram title image Using Pinterest for learning your craft - writing or whatever else that may be.
Pinterest was my best source of learning when I decided to commit to writing as a career. I wanted to learn as much as I could to make my writing quality, and worth reading. Trawling the internet was a start, but saving and categorising my learning sources was difficult. I needed to know about plot development, character development, setting description, and eventually how to revise and edit, then how to publish. I can tell you, there is an absolute multitude of information out there, and it pays to keep what speaks to you in a handy place. At this early stage I’d been using Pinterest for teaching ideas and home improvement things, and then it occurred to me that Pinterest would be the perfect platform to collect my learning and preserve it for others who’d like to use it.
When I started out, I found bits and pieces of writing wisdom all over the place. There are several superb websites with a large amount that interested me, but there were also sources with just an article or infographic I was interested in. I spent hours and hours collecting items together, and I wanted to cut out all the searching for quality pins for others, and provide boards that contained quality pins and what really worked for me. So, when looking at my Write boards and Biz boards, what you’re looking at right there is all the research that’s made me the writer I am today. My Pinterest account is a resource I add to daily, and revisit several times a week – it’s a working resource for me, and you too can use my boards to develop your craft and save and/or share what works for you.
A bonus about Pinterest is, when you’re setting up your account, you can choose to do it your way – have your own titles, sections, and ways of saving everything so it works for you (I’ve written a post about this already, see link above). I suggest looking at other people’s accounts to see how they set out their boards and jotting notes down as you go – map it out even. Instead of having several boards under WRITE, you may have a single WRITE board and create your sections from there e.g. character development, plot development, setting development.
Picture Tips on using Pinterest as a learning tool - a roundup of what is discussed in this post
Side note: I chose not to do it this way because you can only create sections within a BOARD, not sections within a SECTION, and I felt I needed to be able to separate out, especially in the case of my Character Inspiration boards – each section represents a person with their name and birthdate, so it had to be that way. Incidentally, you can have up to 500 sections within a board (yes, I’ve found that out through creating 500 sections in my character boards and having to start second boards!). Give yourself room to expand and, if you’re keen on building a following, do your best to avoid deleting boards, as this deletes all the followers of that board (whom sometimes don’t follow your whole account, just that board).
I encourage you to pop on over to my Pinterest account and have a good look through my setup. It may or may not suit the way you’d like to do things, but therein learning happens. Truth be told, I’m not entirely happy about my Business boards setup, but for now, they work ok. They’ll most likely be my next rework at some time in the future. I’m very happy with my Write boards, particularly my character banks, and image bank. There is so much of great value to writers there, and I offer it to all of you to save you the time and hassle of beginning completely from scratch.
Picture logo image link to Emily Larkins's account on Pinterest
So, if you know anyone headed in the writing direction, or anyone else wanting to learn a new craft, let them know about my account and share away. Pinterest isn’t just a ‘save’ space, it can be utilised as a learning space, for marketing, sharing, and so much more!
Enjoy!
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Flash Fiction Fridays - JULY

1/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

July Release:
​Grandad's Wild Ride

*Due to unforeseen circumstances, Grandad's Wild Ride won't be released until the second Friday in July. INSTEAD, my latest short story, Burning the Cow will be free for the entire weekend, the 4th and 5th of July (from 12:01am US Pacific time, or 7pm 4th until 7pm 6th New Zealand time). Next Friday's planned Free Flash, One Last Cuppa, will still be free too.
Picture cover image Burning the Cow by Emily Larkins. Artistic image of cow on it's back in flames
Free for a strictly limited time! Click the cover to get Burning the Cow FREE on the 4th and 5th of July!
Picture Cover Grandad's Wild Ride. Close-up image of old man's face laughing
Click to visit Free Flash Fiction Friday stories!
Picture Pinterest inspiration board image for Grandad's Wild Ride.
Click to visit the Pinterest Inspiration Board
Now, onto Grandad's Wild Ride, behind the scenes...
It all started with a small red go-cart being restored on the TV show, The Repair Shop. A sweet grandfather had brought in the small, red racing car he'd played in as a child. Beaten up and rough around the edges, it sparked just enough of something for me to write down little red racing car in my notebook. The grandfather wanted his cart restored for his grandchildren to enjoy, and the result was a candy-red racer fit for children to have a ball with!
My story didn't come easy though. My children have had colds, the children I look after have had the colds too, and to top it off, I got the cold, but still, I had a story to write for all of you! I had many false starts, not writing more than a few words. Finally I stepped back and decided to mull it over without the pressure of writing anything down. I thought about the grandfather's cart, and his hopes for his grandchildren. A memory came to me of my Mum's father, Grandad Lance, who passed away a decade ago, and his dare-devil, get-stuck-in attitude with us, his grandchildren. Many years ago now, my father made my sisters and I a go-cart out of a tip-trolley. It was narrow and a bit tricky to steer, but boy could it go! We only found just how fast after Grandad visited and couldn't resist having a turn himself!
I've also written about my father's father in the last couple of months. He passed away two years ago, and with my grandmother passing recently, my grandparents have been on my mind. Grandad Ray's story is Burning the Cow, and it felt as if Grandad Lance wanted a turn too.
The melding of all these fragments of ideas has resulted in Grandad's Wild Ride, a fast-paced flash fiction full of fun! Enjoy!
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    Hi, I'm Emily,
    I'm an indie-published author and busy mum working hard to make my dreams come true.
    I'm passionate about helping other beginner writers find confidence and get motivated to give their writing dreams a shot with help along the way.
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About the Author
    • News
  • STORIES
    • All Books and Stories
    • Flash Fiction Fridays
    • Anthology: Flash Fiction Fridays Project
    • Victory Island
    • The Weight of Expectation
    • On Thin Ice
    • Late
    • Thirty-Four
    • Into the Mist
    • Burning the Cow
    • The Sirens Series
  • RESOURCES
  • One Writer's Life Blog
  • CONTACT