Getting the most from a webinar

Over the last month or so, I have been focused on learning more about the non-writing aspects of an author’s publishing experience. While I’ve found a wealth of information through a variety of sources, I’ve also been taking part in a significant number of webinars.

Lots of great information is available online in the form of webinars. Some require a registration fee, others are offered for free. Your time has value, so how do you maximize the benefit of a webinar?

1. Register ASAP.

Some webinars offer a limited number of seats for any given webinar, and some webinar programs can only handle a finite number of attendees. So if the webinar is being offered by a poplar personality, there is a chance that you may not find a slot. Register as soon as you think you might be interested. (Remember, you are providing an email address that will put you on a mailing list. I’ve found it useful to be on a couple presenter’s mailing lists, but there’s always an unsubscribe button.)

2. Register anyways.

Even if you’re not sure you’ll be available during the live webinar (or if you’ve miscalculated the time zone change), most webinars will offer a free replay after the event for registered attendees. The replay will typically have a limited window of availability but it gives you a chance to catch up or to review your notes.

3. Sign in early.

The day of the webinar, make sure you know where you filed your access link (usually provided when you register). Then sign in 10-15 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. 

Why? Two reasons:

First, there may be some set-up work to do. 

• You may need to install an app to run the webinar. This doesn’t take long but you want to allow time to be sure all the technical issues are settled at your end (including making sure your webcam/microphone is muted so noise from your end doesn’t distract others). 
• Presenters may provide a down-loadable resources (a “notebook” or worksheets or pdf of some kind) to help you follow along, and you’ll want them downloaded and open before you begin. 
• Familiarize yourself with the browser interface to know how to ask a question or leave a comment

Second, webinars are sometimes a little like airlines – they’ll confirm more participants than they have seats available (this is definitely more likely with free webinars, btw). For a very popular topic or presenter, they may simply max out before you get signed in. Signing in early makes sure you are able to access the webinar.

4. Turn off distractions. Usually.

You don’t want to miss the information you are there to hear. So minimize your browser, mute your phone, whatever you need to do. (I’ll get back to the "usually" bit in a minute.)

5. Be patient as things begin.

I’ve run into two different time sinkholes as webinars begin: technical problems and promo.

• Technical problems. Hopefully, the webinar presenter has made sure things are running smoothly at their end, but sometimes hiccups happen. Or they need to respond to others that are having difficulties. If the presenter doesn’t have a technical team behind them, this can eat up minutes until everyone is ready to go.
• Promo. Almost every webinar I’ve ever attended starts with some sort of explanation of what they will deliver or why you are there. (Hopefully, you know why you are there.) They will cover their credentials, the need for the information they are about to share, and what you will take away from the webinar. And they’ll do this without actually telling you what you’re there to hear. (It’s kind of impressive, actually). Sometimes, an associate or a host will handle this section and there may even be a little rah-rah-get-the-crowd-interacting time.

So here’s where I say you should “usually” turn off the distractions. After you’ve attended a few webinars, or if you get familiar with a certain presenter’s style, you’ll know you might have a little time before you get to the meat of the presentation. And sometimes you’ll have a LONG time. I’ve attended several webinars of a very well-known presenter, and ON AVERAGE, it takes 15 minutes before anyone says “Let’s begin … “ (for one webinar, he didn’t even come on screen for 25 minutes!)

(This next bit is an aside. Feel free to skip ahead.)

It’s become a personal amusement of mine to time the webinars to see when the content actually begins, and when it ends vs. when the webinar ends. In fact, most of this post was written while listening to the intro material for a webinar – 16 minutes 52 seconds before he said “Let’s begin … ,“ and the content stopped (“There you have it!”) at 25 minutes and 25 seconds out of a 31 ½ minute webinar. 9 minutes of content in a 30 minute webinar. Was it good content? Absolutely! But I’ve learned, with this particular presenter, that I don’t need to hang onto every word of the intro to get to the heart of the content. (The irony is that often the presenter will tell you they know how busy your time is, but it has never shortened that lead in time.) 

But back to the webinar …

6. Take notes.

However you retain information, be prepared to use more than one method to learn. Webinars by their nature offer listening (auditory) and watching (visual) but if you take notes (kinetic), you will retain the information even more fully. 

7. Ask questions.

Most webinars offer either live questions or questions via comments so if you want clarification, ask. It may or may not be answered, depending on how many questions are submitted, but listen to the other’s questions as well. Extra information always seems to come to light during these Q&A sessions.

8. Recognize they have something to sell.

Whether it’s a program or product of their own, or an affiliate product they support, you will most often be offered a special deal on a service or product. The presenter I mentioned above will spend from 10-35 minutes on the sales portion of the webinar. 

Don’t get me wrong - it can be a great chance to get a reduced price for a helpful product, but never forget you are looking at a sales pitch. (I'm probably the only one that keeps hearing, "But wait! There's more ... " as they talk.) Make sure it will be right for your goals before you click the link!

9. Be grateful.

The presenter has shared from their experience and expertise, and because of that, you have an advantage – even if it’s just what NOT to do. Share a link or give a social media shout out. At the very least, thank the presenter for their time and sharing their information. It's good manners, it's good practice, and it might even be good business.

10. Listen to the replay. 

If a replay is made available, take the opportunity to review the material. It will “lock it in” a little better and give you the chance to fill in any missing notes or pause the playback to do any suggested action steps.

11. Put it into action. 

There are volumes of great information available through webinars and the best way to make the most of the time you invest in them is to put them to use! And who knows – maybe one day you’ll be presenting webinars of your own. 

Just remember that our time has value too, please.

 

Editing your rhyming picture book manuscript (a head start)

I love editing, but I will confess that I sometimes have mixed feelings about editing a picture book manuscript when it shows up in rhyming text.

It's not that I don't like rhyming text. I know much of the advice from editors and agents suggests that rhyming texts are a hard sell (and they can be) but when they're done well, they can be brilliant. So why the hesitation?

Because they are hard to write well. And that means that as an editor, I know it's going to take 2-3 times longer to get that piece polished into shape. That represents a bigger investment on the part of the writer (although kudos to those that recognize when they need that level of help), and a harder road if they want to take it to publication with a traditional publisher.

So here's my compromise. I'm going to give away the top 3 things that I find most rhyming picture book manuscripts need to work on. That's right, for free. Because then you can use your editing budget to really polish that piece and not use it laying the groundwork for your rhyming text.



1. Rhythm

The challenge with any rhyming text is not just a matter of finding the right rhyming word, it's also in mastering rhythm, or the places key words are stressed in the lines. When writing for children, rhythm is just as important as rhyme. Did you get that?

Rhythm is just as important as rhyme.

Yes, it may come intuitively for some people, but just in case that's not you, I recommend you establish a math-based pattern for your text so that readers don't find themselves tripping over where the sentence should rise and fall. (You know when you've had to do this and so have I when reading rhyme.)

What I will do on a rhyming manuscript that I'm editing is put a syllable count and stress pattern at the end of each line. It might look something like this:

Christopher Robin (5/1,4 = 5 syllables, with the emphasis on syllables 1 and 4))
Had wheezles and sneezles, (6/2,5)
They bundled him into his bed. (8/2,5,8)
They gave him what goes (5/2,5)
With a cold in the nose, (6/3,6)
And some more for a cold in the head. (9/3,6,9)

(from Sneezles by A.A.Milne)

This may not look like an easy pattern to identify, but there are several consistencies about it that make it very easy to read. (And I've cheated a little by giving only one section of the poem.) The first is that the strong syllables (those with the emphasis) are always 3 syllables apart (1/4; 2/5; 3/6, etc.); the second is that the last syllable always has a strong beat (in a sense you count the pattern backwards from that final beat in every line); and the third (this is the cheating bit) is that this pattern of 5/6/8/5/6/9 continues throughout the entire poem. 


If you find there is no discernable pattern throughout your rhyming text, my recommendation is that you choose the stanza pattern that you feel is the strongest of the entire manuscript, and then use that as your blueprint for the rest of the stanzas so that they are consistent. It might mean backing up and taking a new run at a few of them, but it will make the overall rhythm much stronger.

Note, too, that rhythm doesn't just have to do with the pattern of emphasis, it also has to do with a multitude of word play options: alliteration, onomatopoeia, internal rhymes, assonance, ... all can help move the story along to a rollicking, frollicking finish.

A great idea to double-check your rhythm is to ask someone else - that hasn't read it before - to read it out loud and see if there's anywhere they falter. You might have put the stress (or emphasis) in places that you didn't mean it to fall and hearing another person read it is the best possible gauge of how well you succeeded in establishing the rhythm of your text. Remember that your test reader will probably be typical of any cold reader for your text, so if they can't figure it out, the next editor/parent/child/teacher that picks it up probably won't either.

2. Rhyme

Of course rhyme matters! That's why it's a rhyming text, right? Rhyme is fun and teaches language skills and so much more. So here's what I'd be checking if I was editing the manuscript for you:

a. Near rhymes are a no-no.
     Children's editors, especially, are aware of any deviation to the pattern you first establish, and near-rhymes (words that almost, but not exactly, rhyme) can disrupt the pattern of the text. (It's much easier to get away with in song lyrics because enunciation is less distinct. But don't get sidetracked ...)

Don't use them! The role of a rhyming text (among others) is to teach reading skills and a near rhyme does nothing to help a young reader predict the word that they will be seeing next.

b. Natural language is a yes yes!
     Okay, yes-yes isn't really the way we say it in English, but you'd be surprised what people will try for the sake of shoehorning that rhyming word in.

It never fails - I'll be sailing through a story, and suddenly Yoda pops up in the middle of a stanza - "I heard the buzz/Rhyme matters it does." Really?

In English, the typical word order is Subject Verb Object (SVO). It's possible to change sentence order to SOV or OVS but, especially for children's literature, that's not your best choice. First, it changes the sentence word order to a pattern less familiar to a young reader, and second, the end result usually just makes the sentence feel awkward. Rule of thumb: "Don't do it!" Especially not for the sake of making a rhyme work!

What's the solution to these problems?

It might be to start again.

Seriously, it might mean finding a better word for one line, or it might mean backing up that entire segment of the story and starting with fresh words, fresh ideas, and a fresh twist in the story. It might mean scrapping the entire story (or converting it to prose - see below) if you can't make this version sing.

c. Made up words can be fine fine.
     Yep, stretched the point again, but guess what? By doing that I created a pattern and it starts to look less odd in the overall text, doesn't it? If I wrote "The End End" at the end of this post, it wouldn't be too surprising anymore.

The same is true of made up words. Sometimes the temptation is to add a syllable to make the word you want fit. And that's okay, as long as you use the same kind of wordplay GENEROUSLY sprinkled throughout. Jabberwocky would be a very different poem if "brillig" was the only nonsense word that made it in, wouldn't it? A.A. Milne uses eight made-up rhyming variations of "-eezles" scattered throughout the poem Sneezles. Go find a Suess and see how he does it.

The point is, use them with intention, not just for convenience.

3. The Story

Above everything else, a rhyming text still needs to have a story. Or at least a flow that builds and falls throughout the manuscript. (It might be a lilting, lulling, let's-leave-the-day-behind story but it still needs to have some shape.) All the elements of a good story are just as important as when you're writing prose so don't think you can skip over them just because you're rhyming.

So that's my top three. But there's one more.

THE BIG QUESTION:

If you're really struggling with a rhyming text for a picture book, the really big question to ask yourself is

"Why does this story have to rhyme?"

It's a perfectly valid question. And it might mean the difference between tearing your hair out over a routinely rejected manuscript or publishing a truly fun piece of prose. So ask yourself honestly, "What is it about this story that will be stronger if the text rhymes?" If you're only using rhyme as a technique to camouflage a half-hearted storyline, or to prop up a premature idea, then you might need to reconsider. But if you're convinced that rhyming is the way to go, then make it shine.


And there you have it. My top three pieces of advice, with some sub points and the Big Question thrown in for good measure. Once you've worked through these, an editor will be happy to help with the final tweaks. Make the most of that investment by being sure you've tackled what you can first.

It takes some intentional work, but your ultimate goal is to get them to the point where they will delight every reader by tripping off the tongue.

The End End

Another tweet harvest

“Dont underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,of just going along,listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering” - A.Milne - @BooksBestQuotes

"#Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McKee @TheGrok

It can be so inconvenient when life gets in the way of my writing. @gregorywalters

Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait 2 years to know whether or not it was funny. @alaindebotton