Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Get Woke, Go Broke

Okay, maybe this post will get me in trouble, but I'm growing increasingly concerned by the whole "woke" movement overtaking many writers nowadays.  It's not enough to simply write a good story - writers nowadays must show their bonafides by writing culturally sensitive novels that cater to every group in existence.  And woe by unto the writer who fails to do so.

What's more, even trying these days isn't enough.  Laurie Forest wrote a great book called The Black Witch, where she even tried to be as "woke" as possible.  But she wasn't woke enough, because a few busy-bodies took her novel to task and nearly crashed it before it had a chance to get off the ground.  Fortunately, not everyone is a killjoy and rightly recognized Laurie's talent vice her ability to properly virtue-signal.

Being woke is about being superficially diverse, and it most often feels forced.  The Marvel Comics Universe is on the verge of going broke from changing its primary stories to accommodate this movement.  Social justice warriors may celebrate the new levels of wokeness, but they aren't the ones who buy comic books.

Not only is it supremely hard just to write a good story, but it's damn near impossible to do so while trying to check every box in the universe to make sure you don't offend someone by including, or not including, something.  Further, it's actually an insult to various groups to try and shoehorn them into characters already written.  Rachel Weisz of Oz The Great and Powerful and The Lovely Bones said it best when asked about who should play the female James Bond, she opined, "Why not create your own story rather than jumping onto the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors.  Women are really fascinating and interesting, and should get their own stories."  Bravo for her!  Women have incredible stories, as does every ethnic group in existence, so why cram them into already created heroes and into already created story universes?  The new Ghostbusters movie flopped terribly because most fans knew the original, and they knew this version was merely a way to create wokeness on the back of an already created universe.  Couldn't the writers come up with an original story that didn't piggyback off of something else?  Did they think that women would be unable to carry a new story in an original universe all by themselves?  Isn't that just a tad bit sexist?

Our stories have to come from within, and they come off as fake when we try to write everything to please everyone.  There are some things I'm no good at writing because I don't have the background or context.  For example, I originally wanted to write Wrongful Death from the perspective of a high school girl, only to discover I knew nothing about how high school girls thought, so writing as one would've been fake.  It'd be the same to try and include every intersectional movement out there.

This is not to say that we should write stuff that is intentionally offensive or that doesn't see the world as it is.  However, we can't force it if we want our stories to be readable.  Let it come naturally and let the audience decide.  The outrage mob will always be there, but a group that genuinely enjoys your work will abandon you if you try to be what you're not.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Cutting

I finished a short story this afternoon that I intend to enter into The Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition.  Actually, I finished the story more than a week ago, but I had to trim it, and by trim it, I mean cut it to the bone.  You see, the competition has a word count limit of 4,000 words, and my story came in at 4,952.  That meant I needed to cut roughly 20% of the story in order for it to be eligible for the contest.

This isn't something new.  I'm an old hand at editing.  I just had to put the story away and come back to it with fresh eyes, so I let it sit on my computer, untouched, for a week.  I then went back in and started cutting.

At first, I thought, This is a breeze.  I found lots of extraneous words, so I was slashing lines like I was a killer from a low budget horror flick.  I hacked and slashed, and by the end, I felt pretty good...except that I was still nearly 200 words over the limit.  That was disheartening.

Going back in this morning, I reworded and cut again until I felt like I wasn't just trimming fat, but rather had reached bone.  I've had a shoulder surgery where they shaved some bone, so imagine that pain, but with a story.  The story is 11 pages, so I had to average cutting over 15 words a page.  By the end of the first page, I'd cut...12 words.  That was when I knew that this would be harder than I thought.

All writers despair at cutting their babies.  We're so certain that our words matter, that the story will lose meaning if we cut too much.  Unfortunately, I had no choice here if I wanted to enter this tale.  So I cut.  And I cut.  Then I cut some more.  Finally, on the far end, I was down to 3993 words.  I still wonder if I left in some extraneous stuff I could've gotten rid of so I could keep more descriptive parts of the story, but it's done.  I will send it off this week, and someone else can tell me how I did.

That doesn't make this any easier.  Cutting a story near and dear to you is always hard, and it never gets easier.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Time To Get To Work

With life and everything, I nearly forgot that I'm supposed to have a book coming out soon.  Wrongful Death is due out June 28th, and I've got a lot of work left to do.  I've got to finalize the cover, finish getting it edited, and get it in the proper format.  Honestly, time snuck up on me.  Best for me to get to work!

Oh, and I promise that my next post will be longer.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

More Praise For Salvation Day!

Salvation Day has made the Best Reviewed Books Of March on the IndieReader website!  I'm thrilled for others to have recognized my work, and I'd love it if you headed on over to check it out.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Trying To Restart

I know I've been a slacker.  I'm trying to get back into blogging, especially since I've been one of the ones so vehemently chastising folks for not consistently blogging. 

It really is like going to the gym - the more you take a day off, the easier it becomes to take the next day off.  And it hasn't just been my blogging that has suffered; I haven't been writing like I want to.  Some of that is work/life related, but not enough to account for all of the non-work.  So, what have I done to rectify this?  For starters, I'm working on a short story to enter in the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition.  It's based on an idea I've been tossing around for a while, so I'm actually into it.

I also need to try and start work on either the Salvation Day sequel or the reworking of my sequel to Akeldama.  I've got the ideas for the next installment of both, so just getting something on paper could spur me back into a rhythm.  Akeldama's sequel is done, but it's in serious need of revision, and I haven't done anything with it in a year.  Salvation Day's sequel has been floating around in my head for nearly that long as well.  I've got to pick one and knuckle down.

Part of this could be that I've got a few more books already done.  Wrongful Death is in the final stages of being edited now, and it should be out around the end of June.  I never counted on having finished books as being an impediment to more writing, but I think that not having the pressure of getting something done has lulled me into some false sense of security.

I just have to find the time to do a little bit each day.  It doesn't have to be much, but it needs to be something, even if that something is only 500 words and 15-20 minutes.  But hey, isn't time the bugaboo we all face?

Sunday, April 1, 2018

IndieReader Review For Salvation Day

Sorry I haven't blogged in almost a month.  Life has been busy, and I've been lazy.  What I'd like everyone to know about is the IndieReader review for Salvation Day!  IndieReader has given it 4.6 out of 5 stars.  Here's a quick sample of the write up:

"SALVATION DAY is a book that blends together science-fiction and fantasy into a tale that has been told for eons, but never quite in this way."

"This story is ambitious in its scope and ultimately very satisfying. The descriptions of things never seen by human eyes are vivid and feel real. The plot is tightly structured, and the ultimate confrontation is full of action."

"The reader can take a journey that is both familiar and original, and a lot of fun."

I was gratified they like it, and I hope some of you will check it out at their page.