Counting The Days

I’ve spoken previously about the blogging process, but one I don’t know if I’ve shared is that I count the number of days in a month I need to blog, which, in turn, produces the number of blog posts I create.

I used to write all of my blog posts for the week on Sunday night, but this led to a general loss of both sleep and quality(depending on how tired I was).  I needed a way to get all of my blog posts in without compromising quality or creating a hectic pace that I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  So I decided to focus on monthly posts.

Breaking news still warrants a more timely or spur of the moment post, but many of my topics, from inertia to titles to fonts to mood creation, don’t need to be done the night prior because they’re not time dependent.  Therefore, I look at the number of blog posting days and figure out how many need to be made the month prior.  I publish late at night on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday so they’ll be visible on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

I try to write these posts several weeks prior to the end of the month – I’m not always successful, which can lead to frantic updates and shorter topics – because I still need time to actually post them.  Between formatting and adding in links, it takes about 30-40 minutes to properly schedule each post, and my work life doesn’t always lend itself to a time-friendly schedule.

Basically, this is the “secret” to the questions I’ve gotten about how I maintain such a consistent blogging schedule.  I got away from such organization once before, and it led to a severely reduced blogging schedule, simply because I wasn’t as on top of it as I should’ve been.  I don’t know if this is really worthwhile given the circulation, but one cannot get attention by just disappearing.

Epilogue Purpose

Just what is an epilogue?  Is it the satisfying final comment on/conclusion to a story?  Is it a lazy way to tell everyone everything will be okay without having to write a sequel?  Is it something unnecessary, a way for the author to not have to actually reach a conclusion within the confines of the story?

Honestly, it’s hard to know.  I’ve written books with an epilogue, and I’ve written them without.  One epilogue was about setting the stage for the next chapter without being heavy-handed with it.  Other stories didn’t seem to need one.

I’ve kind of struggled to categorize this.  I’ve read epilogues that seem mistitled, like they’re just additional chapters instead of true conclusions/after-comments.  Sometimes they’ve served a purpose, like an after-dinner drink.  Which statement fits depended greatly on how both the story and the skill of the author writing it.

Maybe it doesn’t need to be categorized, at least on a holistic level.  Perhaps they should be judged individually.  Bad epilogues can and should be called out, but maybe good epilogues give a feeling of closure.  The Harry Potter epilogue did that for me, but it was one of the few.  Most of the time, the epilogue does little for my enjoyment, one way or the other, but it sometimes fits.

So have I really said anything here?  Probably not.  Maybe it’s just another one of those stream-of-consciousness blogging things.  :-P

Conclusion Length

How long should a conclusion be?  This is tricky, because the action and main plot should carry the story, but a story without a conclusion just trails off into nothing.  The audience, in fact, will wonder why they followed the whole story since they never got closure.  So a conclusion is necessary.  But how involved/long should it be?

My stories tend to wind down quickly.  Once the action is complete, there is little desire for me to keep telling a story I feel is mostly over.  Games end, wars conclude, and life goes on.  For me, it should be acknowledged but not harped on.  After all, is there anything more to develop?

Some writers spend whole chapters – page after page – on what they think is a satisfying conclusion.  They feel the need to tie up every loose end.  I, on the other hand, think this is wasted space.  I feel that the action is part of the conclusion.  When it’s over, that’s where interest dwindles.  Sure, there needs to be some wrap up – characters hug, treasure buys security, bad guys go to jail, etc – but I can’t seem to make myself care enough to continue it for long.  Even my longest novels, Schism and Salvation Day, have conclusions that last barely two or three pages.  It either sets up the next story, or it is meant to let everyone know it’s over.

How long do you like your conclusion to be?  Do you keep on with a story after the issue has been decided, needing some kind of closure, or do you start to skim, satisfied it’s over and you just want to finish and move on?

Must Have Conflict

Conflict may be an uncomfortable part of life, but it’s a necessary part of stories.  Now this may seem obvious to most, but so many of us also like happy stories where everyone gets along since so few get along like that in real life.

Don’t get me wrong – I like happy endings.  I’ve written often before about how dark stories can lead to brighter resolutions, and how I detest writers pulling the rug out from underneath me and giving me a shitty ending that makes me feel awful.  That’s not what I’m talking about – I’m talking about how stories must have conflict to be interesting to the read.

Let me tell a story from my childhood.  There was a great board game I used to love called Survive.  You had to escape from an island that was breaking apart and get to safety, all while avoiding sharks, waves, and other hazards.  One game, my friends and I decided we wouldn’t try to put any obstacles in anyone else’s way.  The result was a disaster – very boring and everyone tied.  We decided right then and there, for the sake of entertainment, that we had to have some conflict.

Novels are the same way.  People won’t read a book where everything is hunky-dory because nothing is at stake.  So find some stakes.  Find some conflict.  You don’t have to be an asshole and try to be overly shocking, but there has to be something.  Even children’s books have conflict.  If you do otherwise, then you’ll have an audience smaller than that subset.

When Sequels Don't Measure Up

Sequels can be fun.  When a story gives us a satisfying ending, one where we cared deeply about the characters, we want to stay in that world.  It’s familiar and comfortable, so we look for more stories set in that universe, preferably with the same characters.  Unfortunately, not all sequels measure up.

When a sequel is done well, such as with UnionForever or Harry potter and The Chamber of Secrets, we view it as little more than a continuation of the world we fell in love with.  However, when a sequel is done poorly, like Ready Player Two, it can be soul crushing.  Badly written sequels can destroy the world we loved if it upends that world in ways we loathe.

Some authors write with the express purpose of creating a sequel, so the flow is seamless.  However, so many authors write with a single story in mind.  They said all they wanted to say, so they concluded their story.  But that doesn’t mean that they won’t succumb to demands for something else based on the love the audience had for the previous story.  This, in my opinion, is where writers get into trouble.  When a continuation is forced, the reader can sense it.  Sometimes, the writer will do something so against a character’s template, or change part of the world so extremely, all in pursuit of mixing it up to create new pull towards a story, that it makes the story fall apart.  If done badly enough, it can make the whole world(ie, previous stories) also fall apart.

A writer should only create a sequel if they find a good story, either because there was always meant to be one, or because they truly found inspiration.  Trying to appease the audience doesn’t rank as good enough reason and is dangerous.  The author tends to get either rushed, or get insane ideas that would have never otherwise made it into the story, or both.

Before you clamor for a sequel, see if it’s natural.  And if there wasn’t a natural continuation, go in with a jaundiced eye.  Maybe the author will re-create the magic that once captivated you, but he or she may also destroy a beloved part of your past.  Just know that going in.

Short Stories Versus Novels

Just as I noted that there’s a difference between blogging and writing a novel, there’s also a distinct difference between writing a short story and a novel.  Both are far more involved than blogging, but each involves a different skillset.

Novels are meant to be engrossing.  Much like a drive along a coastal highway, sometimes the view is the point.  Although needing to be on point, novels can be more circuitous.  This allows for greater character development and more suspense as the plot develops.

Short stories, on the other hand, are like going to the grocery store – you want to get there and back as quickly as possible.  Readers don’t expect to get caught up for days or weeks in the world created.  The world is considered mostly in place, and the story is augmented by the action or characters.  It’s kind of in-your-face, and it rarely allows for folks to get fully engrossed.  Writers must be much more precise.

Great writers can, of course, do both well, but that’s not to say that a writer who is good at one is necessarily the master of the other.  Like any part of writing, it takes practice to figure out each one, and that practice should be solely devoted to that task at that time.  Trying to multi-task will lead to a half-assed attempt that will be lacking, and the audience will notice.

Blogs Versus Novels

I thought this was understood, but judging by a few comments, many don’t get the difference between writing a novel and blogging.  Lots of people seem to think that writing is writing, and if you can blog, you can write a novel, or vice versa.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Blogging is done usually through stream of consciousness.  Although I write out the subject I want to discuss, along with maybe one or two notes to make sure I hit those points, it’s very seat-of-the-pants.  The flow is intended to be more of a conversation, and unless we’re part of a debate club, few of us have notes for conversations(it tends to be off-putting).  The blog post can go off in any number of directions, and it’s chock full of adjectives and adverbs that wouldn’t survive editing in novel writing.

Novel writing, on the other hand, is much more deliberate.  I outline what I want to write, and even though some of it is general so I can allow the story to develop as I write, there are some pieces of dialogue or action sequences that I want to be pretty specific, so I’ll write it out very explicitly.  Even then, I’ll go back and revise the sequence to make sure it’s just right.  At the end, I put it away, as opposed to publishing a blog post right away(or at least on schedule), and then I go back to it and start cutting words.  A 120,000 word manuscript may end up at 75,000 words once I’ve revised and cut away the fat.

So next time you encounter a novelist who also blogs, understand that they switch mindsets and styles depending on what they write.  Think of it as the difference between the teenager who says whatever comes to mind, and the adult who (hopefully) has a great deal more discernment.

Making Time To Read

One of the best ways to become a better writer is to read.  Read good authors.  Read bad authors.  Read authors you like.  Read authors you dislike.  Read authors you’re indifferent to.  Basically, read as much as you can to broaden your vocabulary and style repertoire.

Unfortunately, life does happen, and finding time to read can be challenging.  Between work, kids, helping with homework, after school sports, cheerleading, and everything else, just getting time to breath can be tough, let alone pulling out a novel and becoming engrossed.  And it does take time since reading is something to get immersed in rather than just hit spottily.

Social media is also a distraction, if an avoidable one for those with discipline.  I’d love to say that was always me, but it’s not.  Sometimes I can ignore it, but other times I just get caught up(as most people do).  That can eat up reading time I should be spent with the latest tome I purchased rather than looking at pictures of cats that resemble Santa Clause.

If you can’t read, you will be unable to write well.  Seeing the various styles helps you see what you think works and what you think doesn’t.  The works of Harry Turtledove, Alan Dean Foster, Stephen King, Tad Williams, and numerous others has really helped me hone my style.  In fact, whenever I think my writing is getting thin, I pull out The Two Georges or Specter of thePast and refresh myself on how the writers slowed themselves down to tell a story without getting into Billy Budd territory.  That said, I need to write shortly thereafter in order to take maximum advantage.

So read.  If you don’t, don’t gripe about how tough writing is.  And I need to take my own advice.  I have three novels on my table now – it’s time to knuckle down.

Inflation

An unfortunate economic reality is that when the price of production increases, prices passed on to the consumer must also naturally increase.  As unfair as that sounds, I know of literally no one in business that is nice enough to just eat the new expenses.  After all, they have a profit margin to maintain, for as great as it is to write, one must also put food on the table, so breaking even just isn’t an option.  Selling books entails (hopefully) making a profit.  It may not be an extravagant profit, but it still need to be above what you paid for production.

I bring this up because one of my imprints has just raised the cost of production by 6%.  No, it’s not a lot, but it still eats into what was already a slim profit margin.  That’s going to dictate either an across the board increase in the prices you have to pay for my work, or I’ll have to cut ties with the imprint.

Honestly, I wish I could just cut ties, but I sell a reasonable number of books through this imprint, and my lack of general fame does not enable me to reduce my distribution channels.  It also means that I’ll likely have to raise prices in other places my books are sold so as to reduce disparity and maintain consistency for the public, although, admittedly, I haven’t fully decided on that yet.  I’m still analyzing the situation.  However, I only have until the beginning of November to make that decision.

Sorry for the basic lesson in economics, but I wanted y’all to know what the deal was when you saw my prices go up.  For the pair of you that are loyal readers, I hope you’ll continue to patronize my work and not let the extra buck or so bankrupt you.  :-P

Bigotry Through Exclusion

According to The Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of bigotry is “the fact of having and expressing strong, unreasonable beliefs and disliking other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life.”  We’ve been taught since we were small children that bigotry is morally reprehensible, an outmoded trope from an intolerant past that we’ve long striven to overcome.

That’s why I wonder why some in the writing world are so enamored of it.

Now I’m not talking about racial stereotypes we’ve seen in history that we have moved past.  Anyone trying to pump up a narrative about white supremacy or running down a minority race would, quite rightly, be excoriated.  Sure, they’d have every right to publish, as anyone who holds free speech dear would say, but that wouldn’t mean people had to buy their work or couldn’t trash them for writing such rubbish.  After all, freedom of speech and association runs both ways.

Unfortunately, a trend has emerged in the last few years where folks seem to think it’s okay to run down straight white men.  I get shunning or ignoring those who’ve said or done horrible things.  I do the same thing to people I think are execrable.  However, I make those judgments on an individual basis, and not on a group of people as a whole based solely on their gender, race, or sexual orientation.  That said, folks like Jessie Tu have come straight out and said things like she would “probably never read another novel by a straight white male.”  Let’s take down this bunch of bigoted bullshit a piece at a time, shall we?

First, and most obviously, imagine the outcry if she’d said the same thing regarding literally any other subgroup of people.  She’d be universally condemned for such out and out prejudice and racism.  Handy tip – if you can change the race, sexual orientation, or gender of any of your words, and they’d then produce a frisson of horror in your mind, you might have crossed some line that displays ignorance and bigotry.

Second, I wonder at the wisdom of eschewing a whole sub-section of authors.  I’m sure there are a lot of straight white male authors who suck…just as there are authors of every color and creed who suck.  However, there are also lots of brilliant authors who are outstanding from each and every race, gender, and sexual orientation.  You’re missing out on some great work if you exclude any particular group based on how they look or who they choose to fuck.

Third, if you’re mad at the publishing industry in the past for not being inclusive enough, the answer isn’t to go off on a childish tantrum.  The answer instead is to write your own inclusive stuff.  If you dislike the traditional publishing industry, then go indie and publish your own version of how you’d like the world to be seen.  Include characters you want involved, and set them in stories you think the audience would like.  But don’t trash or so openly exclude any group because you’re a small-minded fool who takes joy out of hatred.

It’s the story that matters.  If you have a compelling story that finds an audience, then you’re a success.  People will buy your work and you can write more in that vein.  However, if you decide to trash entire groups based on immutable characteristics, regardless of the group, then you deserve every but of scorn and exclusion you’re gong to find.  At that point, we know all you’ll do is then bitch about how some other part of the system is holding you down…

The Write Equipment

A surgeon needs a great scalpel.  A fireman needs a great water hose.  A porn star needs a great…co-star.  Bottom line, every professional needs the proper equipment to be the best they can be and ensure they reach their maximum potential.

I say this because I had to recently upgrade my writing equipment.  I originally had a traditional keyboard that was plugged into the back of my computer, but the cord was unruly and got in the way.  So I upgraded to a wireless keyboard.

At first, it was paradise.  All the wires were gone, and I could type away without a care in the world beyond the content of what I was trying to say.  Unfortunately, I started noticing a few issues.  Occasionally, the keyboard would skip over a single letter.  It didn’t happen often, and I remember reading that this could be an issue on the reviews, but it was very intermittent, so I didn’t pay much attention.  After all, it was rare and only required a brief correction.

Then it started more often.  The keys would print out several of the same letter(imagine writing, “appearing hhhhhhhhhhhigh above the skkkkkkkkkky”).  Then it would skip over entire words(usually shorter words like “to” and “for”).  In time, it would require more time to correct my work than it did to write it in the first place.  I need time to go back anyway, so it became pretty frustrating to have to more than double my correction time.  Worse still, sometimes words were spelled correctly, but the missing keystrokes would provide the wrong word in that space(open became on, through became though, and so on), making it much harder to find mistakes.

Even more frustrating would be that just as I got to my wits end, the keyboard would work flawlessly for a day or two.  But just as I began to sigh and get back to the way things should be, it would happen all over again.

I’m a heavy typist and like to pound on the keys, but I’m not doing that much damage.  So I had to spring for my third keyboard in the last year.  The right equipment is essential to the writing experience and final product, so just slogging on wasn’t an option, if for no other reason than the momentum I’d lose making corrections…assuming I found them in the first place.

Therefore, I’m now getting used to a new keyboard that is different but isn’t supposed to have the issues the last one did.  The mouse is quieter, but the keyboard isn’t as raised.  Still, my previous issues are not supposed to happen with this product.  Let’s hope so, or I’ll go insane.

Get An Editor!

Editing.  It’s the bane of a writer’s existence.  None of us thinks we need it, yet experience shows we all do.  I was reminded of this recently as I read some of the comments on my novels.

I had an editor for three of my five novels.  Now understand that when I say editor, I don’t mean someone curating for content.  I simply don’t believe in using a single editor for that, b/c content curations are subjective.  For that kind of thing, I use beta-readers.  No, by editor, I mean someone who makes certain everything is spelled correctly and makes sense when read by someone of average intelligence(not that my editor is “average” intelligence…she’s actually far above that grade of thinking).

As I said above, I did not use an editor twice, on Akeldama and Schism.  Both times the decision was made based on cost(editors don’t do stuff for free) and arrogance(I was certain I had everything correct after multiple readings).  Having learned my lesson, I will never not use an editor again.  Akeldama required multiple revisions by myself, sending those revisions off to the print conversion folks again(and again, and again).  Very frustrating, especially as this was my first publishing novel(frustrating?  Maybe Embarrassing would be a better descriptor).

Schism is where it has hurt me the most.  It’s not secret that I think SalvationDay is my best novel, but the audience has decided that it’s Schism.  I’ve gotten several good reviews and some decent exposure for that novel.  However, in almost every instance where it got four stars instead of five, the reviewer noted that they marked it down for editing.  That stings.

Save up.  Get a credit card.  Do whatever you have to do, but do not publish prior to an editor looking at your manuscript.  That doesn’t mean you have to accept every edit suggestion – it’s your work, after all – but it gives you the chance to decide if the edit makes sense or not(hint – it usually does).  You can decide if you meant it a certain way or you just had a brain fart.  Without that bit of pause, you come off looking like an amateur, and I promise this will apply whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned author with multiple best-sellers.  Such embarrassments can lead to a loss of credibility and a hesitancy to correct after so long because you’re afraid of being embarrassed.  How’s that for a paradox?

Quirky Corrections

No shock – I can be quirky.  I don’t know a single writer that doesn’t have his or her share of quirks.  Some folks can only write in the morning.  Some need to have a red flower in a cup of water on the desk.  Still others write in one font and publish in another.

My quirks tend to come from the way I correct my work.  First off, if I misspell a word, and I know I misspelled it, I have to correct it right then and there(fat finger typing, keyboard got stuck, etc).  And weirdly enough, I tend to go a letter or two beyond the place where the misspelling occurred, as if I’m punishing the letter prior for creating the screwup in the first place.

I also have to italicize or bold words I intend for that emphasis almost immediately.  If I don’t, then I get an itch in my brain I can’t scratch.  If I decide to change fonts to create mood, that too must be done immediately, or else I can’t get the tone of the words.

Parentheses must be done right next to the word(the pause is too long to me otherwise), and entire sentences must be erased if I got to the end and there was a mistake halfway through(I’m getting better at this one, but it’s hard to overcome).

What are your quirks?  We all have them, so don’t be ashamed.  Just let your freak flag fly!  :-P