New Start

I've decided to give up writing.  After much deliberation, it's just not for me.  I'm going nowhere, and books kinda suck anyway, so why bother?  Everyone will soon have a chip implanted in their heads to give them a downloaded book on demand, so print books are sooooooo 20th Century.  I think I'll focus on rebuilding engines for monster trucks.  Working with my hands has always been my passion, and it's a far better way to spend my time than over those boring books anyway.

Now go look at the date on this post and realize what that means.  😘

PS - normally this post would've posted at 11pm on March 31st, but I delayed it by an hour for full effect.

Sensitive Writers

I dunno...maybe I'm just different.  However, I've come across numerous writers recently who seem to have egos of crystal whereby a poor review will shatter that ego and send the into a corner, curled into the fetal position and crying into their latte.  Some have tried engaging with individual reviewers on Amazon, while others are mad when someone tags them in a review that wasn't 5-stars and roses on Twitter.  I just don't get it.

Let's first stipulate that Twitter is a sewer.  Most people looking to be angry, bitter, or just mean, mostly because they're not allowed to be so so openly in real life, go on Twitter.  People will say the vilest things they'd never say to your face, but the anonymity of a keyboard lets them get away with trash that would get them punched in the real world.

That said, if you don't like how mean Twitter, or any other social media platform for that matter, is, then don't go on Twitter.  I know, I know...we need social media nowadays to promote our work, but just do that and ignore the comments.  Not everyone is going to like you, and some will say so in the most disgusting ways possible.  But you have to learn to shrug that stuff off and even laugh about it.  I recently had someone try and make a snide remark about my wife.  Did I yell and scream about how uncivilized that person was?  No.  I laughed at the person's stupidity and obvious insecurity at having to try to shove their bitterness onto others.  This person doesn't know me or my wife, so why should I care what they think?

When you read reviews, you need to detach yourself and read them constructively.  Sure, easier said than done for some people, but still a skill you must master if you want to not go insane over the hatred in the world.  Does the reviewer say something that clicks with you?  Is there a trend of people saying the same basic thing about your work?  If so, give it a closer look.  If it's some one-off crackpot, who cares?

Writing Indoctrination

In keeping with my theme of no longer caring if I piss people off, I want to address a particularly scummy attempt at forced shibboleths by a professor from Columbia University named Matthew Salesses.  As this article details, Professor Salesses is an assistant professor of writing at Columbia, and he demanded his students sign a document at the beginning of his class that his students list the race and gender of any character introduced in his creative writing class.  He also had a clause in his document saying that students shouldn't use "banned terms."

I get that educators want to guide students, and especially writing students, into ways to better express themselves, but this is not only not the way to do it, but it will create the opposite of the intended effect.  For starters, as we are always told in writing, "show, don't tell."  My expressly naming a character's race or gender, you take the show part away from the reader.  Having readers discern who the person that stands out among his or her peers is Asian, for example, gives a narrative arc to the story.  A woman fighting for recognition in the legion of knights, doesn't have to so openly scream that she's a woman - the reader will figure that out soon enough by the way her comrades treat her.  Moreover, it appears that Salesses wants his students to go beyond the dimorphous nature of biological reality, which simply narrows an audience already pissy over how much wokism is shoved down their throats.

However, so loudly proclaiming a character's innate characteristics, especially race, deprives the audience of being able to imagine themselves in the role of some of the characters.  On of the most gratifying things about Salvation Day was when not one, not two, but several of my readers, each of differing races, said they imagined themselves in the role of Michael Faulkner(the main character).  Almost none of them exactly pictured the character the way I did when I wrote him, but who cares?  I want readers to enjoy my work, and being able to put yourself in the titular role creates a bond with the story that can be magical.

As to "banned" terms, I think that's a pretty pathetic way to limit language.  A professor should be able to critique a student's work and give them feedback on why they should reword things without telling them outright to not use certain terms.  That shows that things are outside of your comfort level, but writing in general is meant sometimes to discomfort, to make people think.  If a student has to stay within a proscribed box, then that restricts the student's ability to provoke reaction.  At that point, we may as well just read an instruction manual on how to put together an entertainment unit, for that would be about as intellectually stimulating.

Is Controversy Required For Authenticity?

I've long counseled for writers to try and stay out of politics and controversy.  After all, you don't want to piss off half the audience, because a pissed-off someone usually won't buy your book.  Moreover, readers come to us for escape from the bullshit world they have to trudge through everyday, and it's not like writers have a greater handle on controversial concepts than other people just by virtue of being writers.  Athletes, celebrities, and artists everywhere feel compelled to share their views on everything from abortion to taxes with us for some unknown reason(*cough * ego *cough*), and it usually ends up leading to much mockery.  Therefore, I really haven't seen anything good come from wading into the culture wars from our platform as writers.

Unfortunately, so many who want to engage in the culture wars won't leave the rest of us alone.  It's gotten so bad that trying to ignore the melee looks more and more like hiding, which is something I don't do.  Two recent events reminded me that sometimes people hold their views so tightly, and want so much for others to uncritically share those views, that trying to stay culturally neutral just isn't an option.  The first was this article I came across talking about the infiltration of certain shibboleths into the world of the arts, crushing those who refuse to mutter the party's tropes.  The folks involved may even agree with the sentiment behind such sloganeering, but that so many seem to want to force others to mutter these tropes is a sign of religious fanaticism rather than a principled point of view.  I was always taught, and obviously believe, that we should treat everyone as an individual and engage them on that basis.  However, it's now become novel to try and single out folks by group identity, as if there's morality in generalizing people by the melanin count of their skin, their genitalia, or who they prefer to have sex with.  Not only are so many believing that, but they insist others believe it too(or at least say they believe it).  Sorry, but not happening.  I will treat you as you deserve to be treated - act like a civilized human being, and I'll treat you like a civilized human being; act like a prick, and...well...I promise I can out-prick you.

The other incident involves MarsCon and who they selected as their GOH(Guest of Honor) - Larry Correia.  Larry is a talented science fiction writer who does not hesitate to wade into the cultural battles when provoked.  He's perfectly gentleman when allowed to be, but he's among the only people on the planet who can match me in ability to be a prick when necessary.  He can be absolutely brutal when required, and his decidedly libertarian views have ruffled some feathers.  Therefore, a few folks who couldn't be bothered to...I don't know...just not attend MarsCon if they're that fucking offended, decided to try and intimidate MarsCon into disinviting Larry, just as they did to John Ringo and another convention a little while back.  So Larry fought back.  Loudly.  Profanely.  And only as Larry can do.  Not taking the forced compliance of those who saw him as a heretic only further fueled the tantrum on display.  So far MarsCon has not disinvited him.  So far.

The insertion of so much forced DEI and other bullshit shibboleths into the world of the arts does give me pause to wonder if it's really so many people pressing onto others, or if it's a small minority of true-believers that cudgel everyone else, and most are too scared to speak up and tell them to shut the hell up.  From my own experiences, most people just want to go along to get along, and it takes someone to give voice to their discomfort with the current paradigm.  Part of why I speak up so forcefully is because for every person that stands up, there are dozens who don't but would like to.  So to those telling me we have to include folks based solely on innate characteristics rather than individual skill or talent, or that we should exclude folks for those same things, or even because they hold a different political outlook, listen to me very carefully-  go fuck yourself.  I mean that sincerely.  If this diatribe causes you to wallow in tears of anger, just know I will happily enjoy your tears, for all you've shown is how shallow, petty, and childish you can be, and I will no longer allow the brats among us to elbow everyone out of the way just because the world won't conform to their view.  If that costs me readers, so be it.  I'd rather fail as myself than succeed as a fraud.

Offhanded Comments

Inspiration can come from anywhere.  As haughty as we writers tend to be, we love telling folks that an idea came from a sunset, or the flight of a bird, or a starry night...whatever makes us sound most contemplative.  However, the truth is that inspiration for a story, a character, or a setting can come from just about anywhere, including random offhand comments from a friend while watching a game or drinking.

What happens is the comment fires up our imagination, and our brains go into hitherto unfamiliar places in a story that's already familiar in our heads.  I was watching Game of Thrones when one of the dragons incinerated a pair of prisoners, and the person I was watching with said something to the effect of, "I guess they should've worn stronger armor."  We laughed, but it got me thinking about what would happen to something that was armored up and encountered dragon fire.  That offhanded comment led me to a scene of a dragon melting a recon drone, which led me to the concept of a dragon corps to protect a city, which led me to think that only the strongest realm on the planet would have such a thing.  Thus one of the main pieces of my new novel was born.

This has happened multiple times, and only writers can truly understand this phenomenon.  Our subconscious is always thinking about writing, whether it's what we're currently working on, or some future project, so that subconscious grabs hold of stray electrons and tries to turn them into something useful.  So if you see one of your writers friends get all glassy-eyed while talking to you, remember that maybe you said something that sparked a train of thought.  Or maybe they're just stoned - you never know.  😝

Remembering The Cast

My new novel is expansive, possibly more expansive than anything I've yet written.  However, a story of that scale presents a new problem - keeping up with the characters.

My previous novels all made due with a main character and a couple of ancillary folks, so it was easy to remember who was who.  In my sci-fi/fantasy mashup, I've been to five settings so far, and I'm about to go to a 6th.  That makes keeping track of who's who more complex than I'm used to.  Therefore, I'm writing each character down in my outline journal as I create them.  And yes, I mean each nd every one of them since you never really know who will grow into greater importance as the story progresses.

So here's my confession - this is kinda boring.  Yes I know I should be enthusiastic about each and every facet of my writing, but some of the bits and pieces outside of writing makes me feel like I'm back in English class outlining the plot to Moby Dick.  It's not that I don't remember each realm and the basics of who's who, but specific character names for those who aren't the main guy or gal sometimes slip my mind.  In previous books, I've found myself accidentally renaming characters and have had to go back through and fix the ones I got wrong(and that was with a much smaller cast).  It would be a bit awkward for the reader to begin caring about the Elf King Vindrael and then discover his name had been changed to Tahthal down the road.  I'm sure the audience would be like, "Who's this?  Was the King replaced?  And why did we not get at least a chapter about that?"  Meanwhile, I'd be happy as a clam, muddling along and thinking people were still reading about the same guy.

I'd forgotten to write their names initially here, so as I began to write again, I had to go back through the novel and write down each person in the story so I could keep track.  I now have a couple of pages of characters and character notes, and I keep having to remember to add to these notes every time I write someone new.  Yes, this might just be another bitch-fest, but it's still one of the less sexy parts of writing.

Unnecessary Sequels

I may have written about this before, but it bears another look, and that's sequels that had no business being written.  I get it - books that make a decent amount of money will have people clamoring over them for another payday, and many authors will give in(because hey, who doesn't like money?).  Audiences also liked the first book - usually - and a sequel allows them to go back into a fun and familiar universe.  Unfortunately, some books just weren't meant for sequels.

Bad sequels usually come from forced publication.  The first story was good, but it ran its course.  The author write a stand-alone novel and never meant for it to continue.  Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee comes to mind - Atticus Finch was done in To Kill A Mockingbird, but people kept after Lee for years to write another story in Atticus' universe, so she obliged, with poor results.  The Lost Symbol was a sequel the story of The DaVinci Code that the original book didn't set up or create a need for(outside of making tons of money) since the first one wrapped up the story pretty well.  And has anyone heard of Gump & Company?  Probably not given how shitty it did.

Such sequels are forced, and it shows in the quality.  The writer is obviously flying by the seat of his or her pants, and half the time it's like they found themselves writing something they never meant to write.  Audiences end up souring on the whole series based on terrible books and stories that make the original bad just through association(much like the Star Wars sequels under Disney, Rogue One being the sole exception).  It makes me wonder how many of these bad and unnecessary sequels were written badly by accident, or if the author did it to shut up fans that wouldn't leave them alone.

Some stories stand alone, and we need to be able to accept that.  It's hard, because we so enjoyed the first, but it's that thirdt for just a bit more that makes a book good.  Otherwise we end up with hyponatremia.

Be Bad To Be Good

Any writer worth his or her salt has written bad stuff.  I know some people believe that someone of Stephen King's or Harry Turtledove's prowess just churns out masterpiece after masterpiece fresh from the computer as they type, but that's simply not reality, and successful writers will be the first ones to tell you so.

I personally have three novels written that will never see the light of day, and a fourth that requires some serious re-writes before publication.  My very first full length novel, On Freedom's Wings, was a novel I'd played around with for year and which I was convinced, upon completion, would be my ticket to the big time.  Looking back at it over 20 years later, I'm pretty embarrassed by it.  It's little more than a cheap Star Trek ripoff, right down to a Scottish engineer(something I didn't pick up on until long afterward...I patterned the character after a buddy of mine who had Scottish heritage, and it honestly never occurred to me the parallels with Scotty from Star Trek).  The physics were laughable, the battle sequences forced, and the moral lessons ambiguous at best(and horrifying at worst).  It will stay tucked away somewhere far away from prying eyes.

The Onyx Cluster and Fight Or Flight will similarly stay out of the public eye.  The Onyx Cluster was based on a dream I once had and is just weird.  It also spun completely out of control, with characters rushing off to small towns in NC, resistance groups showing up in time loops, and the super-scary villains being more cartoony than frightening.  The whole book was supposed to be based on mood, and it never got there.  All it really showed me is that my mind, and my writing, will go to scary places if left unchecked.  And Fight Or Flight, intended originally to be a prequel to Homecoming, started out okay but went down unrealistic paths with a protagonist I ended up hoping died in the end.  Maybe one day as a re-write(much like my sequel to Akeldama), but people who read it would likely never read my stuff again.  Yes, it's that bad.

None of this is to say I regret writing those putrid pieces off garbage.  I learned a lot from them, and I'm trying to apply those lessons as I go forward.  Lessons like...
        - don't rush
        - check your outline to make sure it matches the vision
        - don't be afraid to re-write whole sections when they're bad; many written words doesn't justify badly written story
        - think through what you write; does it make sense?
        - get beta readers early who will tell you if you've gone off the rails

So although bad books hurt, they hopefully lead to better ones from you down the road.  Just make sure you quality control yourself so you don't show the general public that which will turn them from you forever.

Doomsday Countdowns

I enjoy writing.  I'm a writer, so I hope that statement seems obvious.  When I write, I try to get in at least 1000 words a day, and I shoot for 2000.  If I devote a whole day to writing, and I have an outline ready, I can do 5000 words in a day.  However, that doesn't mean I'm always in the mood to write, and that can lead to a trap for writers.

Writing should flow.  Writing flows best when you enjoy it.  However, we all get tired and sometimes don't feel like writing.  If I set a daily goal of 1500-2000 words, and I find myself counting down the words until I get there, meaning I'm tired and just want to be done, then I stop writing because I know the quality of what I'm writing will suck.  It also means that I'll probably have to go back and rewrite it anyway since I wasn't as into writing at that time as I should've been, so the writing will be bad if I get through it at all.

When you find yourself hoping the end will come, it's already there, so just acknowledge it and end when you should.  Otherwise your writing will suffer, and if you stick with it, the audience will notice.

Titles of Nobility

I almost named this “What the hell am I going to call my novel,” but that seemed a bit verbose for a blog post title.  Still, the question is valid – what kind of title can I use for my sci-fi/fantasy mashup?

Titles are always tricky.  They’re usually the last thing I come up with when writing.  I think I came up with Akeldama pretty early on, and one of my horrible, never-to-be-published novels got a title from the beginning, but the rest have come either halfway through or at the end.  Salvation Day even got its title after my wife read the whole thing all the way through.

A title needs to cover the theme of the novel enough to draw in the reader, but not give away too much.  This novel, about a group of humans traveling through a wormhole and finding a fantasy world of magic, is so wide-ranging that getting something to encompass it may be the most challenging yet.  From dragons to spaceships to demons to particle physics to political intrigue what blends those together in a way that makes readers want to find out more?

Fantasy Length

It’s hard to put a finger on why, but every fantasy novel I’ve ever come across seems to be of inordinate length.  Even the sci-fi/fantasy mashup I’m currently working on appears like it will be a hefty tome.  But the question when it comes to fantasy is why…

Maybe it’s because the worlds are so unfamiliar that we need to spend a great deal of time setting the scene.  I don’t think I’ve yet encountered a fantasy novel that has been set on Earth and used nations/kingdoms we’re all familiar with, outside of tales of Arthur and Excaliber.  Therefore, we need to familiarize the reader with the world, and that’s before we start getting into things like magic.  The audience should know why Mordor matters, or how The Seven Kingdomsare separated and why they’re contiguous while the realms in Essos aren’t.  We all understand why the West stands against Russia, but most won’t know why, in my novel, the Braalmin Empire kills pirates on sight even though the Federated States of Scolara might tolerate them.

Then there are the beings and creatures of fantasy.  When Tolkien first wrote Lord of the Rings, no one knew what an orc or an elf was, so he had to use page after page to draw the reader into those societies and the racial characteristics.  Since every fantasy writer is different, each one spends at least some time delving into the lore of each race, even now-familiar ones like dwarves.

Special magical creatures are a whole different area that requires time.  Sure, most folks know a little about dragons – even if each world may have different rules – but what happens when you introduce a city of sprites, gnomes, or The Children of the Forest?  Readers may have heard of them in passing, but they won’t know the specifics or why they should care, and if these creatures are to have an impact on the story, you need to know about them.

And magic.  Magic tends to be different from story to story.  Some books use magic as interdimensional energies.  Some use it as coming from runes and crystals.  In some, only certain races can use magic.  And some use magic in a widespread way and make it part of everyday life.  However, depending on how unique the magic is to that particular story, the writer will need to spend time explaining it, and that explanation can’t just be in the form of exposition.  It needs to be used in ways that bring the reader to understanding without just flat out saying what the specifics are(show, don’t tell).  And again, that takes time.

Maybe it’s not terribly difficult to understand the reason why fantasy novels seem to go on forever.  The more unfamiliar the landscape, characters, and intricacies, the more time that will be required to draw the audience into the world, even before the story can get properly going.  And that’s a whole other ballgame…

Book Progress - Return Of The Outline...

As stated previously, I’ve begun to write on my sci-fi/fantasy mashup novel recently.  Unfortunately, it had been so long since I put in a concerted effort, that I had to remember how to write.

By that I mean that although I remembered my place, I had no outline to go off of, and I’d even forgotten its utility for a minute or three.  When I returned to where I was in the novel, I tried remembering the path forward(ie, what was I meaning to come next?) and promptly hit a wall.  That’s when I recalled I’d used an outline prior to remind me of the path I wanted to travel.  So I went to look back at the outline, and know what I found?

Disappointment.

There was no outline waiting for me to pick up off of, so I had to pick it up again.  I re-read my novel – highly recommended if you leave it alone for long periods of time – and sat back down to enjoy the movie in my head, jotting notes along the way.  Once I resolved the scene I was on, I returned to writing and found it to be as exhilarating as I recalled.

When last we left our heroes, adventurers from Far-future Earth had been captured by natives of the planet they’d once hoped to colonize, and these natives were looking to use them as bargaining chips in the world’s internal politics.  Therefore, Super-Advanced Fleet sent down a rescue mission using technology the natives don’t recognize.  The results turn out about as you’d expect, but they only rescued most of their comrades, while one more went to another global player for political gain.  Additionally, Super-Adventurers left behind a rather large piece of technology, and our natives are going to fight over its retrieval with magic and mystical beasts.  Intrigue to ensue.

I’m trying to write about 750-1000 words a day, but I haven’t hit that every day yet.  And I still get distracted by other internet-related things, like movie trailers and commentary I like, but I’ve been more fastidious than I’ve been for the past year.  The trick is to focus and not let internet-related things consume your limited free time.  It’s real easy to get distracted by shiny objects, so you need to wear blinders.

We’ll see where this story goes, but now that I’m back into the swing of things, I’m excited about it.  However, much like a marriage, I need to stay on top of it or interest and excitement will rapidly wane.

Sci-Fi Techno-Babble

As I both read and write science-fiction, I find myself wondering how much readers get that a great deal of the “science” is bullshit.  There’s no way to actually go faster than light, no one knows what travel through a wormhole would safely look like, there’s no such thing as a matter transporter, and bombarding living beings with radiation usually results in death rather than awesome genetic mutation with superpowers.

Obviously there has to be an enormous suspension of disbelief in science-fiction.  The real question is just how much effort the writer puts into trying to make the science behind the story believable and based on real scientific knowledge, or if the writers are just hoping most folks are too scientifically illiterate to notice.

There has to be some flair, because true science is not only very technical, but extremely dry to read.  Lasers are cool as a concept, but reading about how refraction arises from directional change as it propagates from one transparent homogenous medium into another is enough to make anyone want to drive rusty nails into their eyes just for a level of excitement.  Instead, better to write about using refractive crystals to create intense energy weapons that rip through a titanium alloy.

But just how much techno-babble does science-fiction need?  Some sci-fi novels read like technical manuals, and although fun for some, are not my cup of tea.  I tend to like it when the technology enhances the story rather than becomes the primary framework for it.  That said, the science-stuff also needs to be consistent, ie – cyborgs that can interface with computers don’t suddenly need to be able to access human brains unless that is established early on.  And keeping track of this techno-babble is as hard as remembering which characters did what in Chapter 1 when you’re writing or reading Chapter 24.

Although there are leaps of faith in sci-fi, the science involved at least needs to be believable on a surface level.  Faster-than-light travel isn’t going to fool an actual astrophysicist, but throwing in tachyon emissions or opening up wormholes will at least stave off disbelief rather than just pushing a button and the jet engines suddenly have you at Proxima Centauri by using gasoline.  Taking advantage of the reader’s ignorance is a staple of good sci-fi.  However, throwing in too much can turn off readers who just want to see where the story is going.  I don’t need a 15 page treatment on genetic resequencing, or a whole chapter on the particulars of matter/energy transport.  What I really want to know is how that resequencing leads to uncontrollable mutants, or whether or not a machine malfunction reassembled the story’s hero into an unrecognizable being or transported him through time by accident.

Of course, I’m sure sci-fi drives real scientists crazy, much like I can’t watch or read military fiction written by people with an obvious lack of experience in military operations.  Maybe those scientists would be happier reading detective novels.

Three In A Row!

Here we are, March 1^st, and we have yet another month’s worth of posts.  Call me butter, ‘cause I’m on a roll!

If it seems like I’m tooting my own horn, it’s because I am.  I know lots of people have done more – built the Eiffel Tower, fed the multitudes, saved children from dying ofdiabetes – and even that lots of writers have done more, but I’m just happy that I’ve maintained this for three straight months(I promise, there will be a month’s worth of posts behind this).  Remember, I went silent for a looooooong time, overwhelmed by work and family and life in general.

So, what has changed?  Honestly, creating time.  I’ve intentionally carved out time at the beginning of each month to prep the following month’s posts.  Part of the problem earlier was that I waited until around the 20^th or so to get started on the next month, and if a day or two slipped by, I ran into the deadline with next to nothing, so it became easy to just do nothing rather than show my laziness in a slipshod post or two.  Now, however, I focus on the first three or four days of the month and don’t write on any other project during that time(that part of the problem also helped paralyze me when I couldn’t decide which I should be working on more…time division solves that).

This month will include such wonderful missives as an update on my sci-fi/fantasy novel, reviews of my previously horrible books that will never see publication, controversial publishing contracts, and just how apolitical writers should remain.  So stay tuned!