Think

Opinion pieces offering commentary on various aspects of book culture, publishing and self-publishing.

Quick Links: How To Make Multiple Antagonists Shine In Your Story

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Want to really ramp up your story? Make your antagonists multidimensional.  Want to take it to the next level? Have more than one antagonist – check out ‘s post at Stand Out Books for all the details! 

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How To Make Multiple Antagonists Shine In Your Story

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In Kung Fu Hustle, the hero starts off with multiple antagonists
In Kung Fu Hustle, the hero starts off with multiple antagonists

Can multiple antagonists work in a story? The answer depends on the author, but that shouldn’t be surprising when the term is so loosely defined. There are people who’ll tell you that a truly great story shouldn’t have any antagonists at all, and some who’ll tell you that you need at least three to create a narrative worth reading.

What you’ll hear less often is how difficult it can be to write a story with multiple compellingantagonists. That’s a shame, because while it’s a difficult endeavor, it’s one worth pursuing for authors who want to create engaging, realistic conflict in their stories.

Happily, that’s exactly what this article is about – I’ll be touching on how appreciating the antagonist’s role in a story can help you incorporate more than one, how to ensure minor antagonists pack a punch, and how to use differences in ‘kind’ and ‘scale’ to craft multiple antagonists who pose unique threats to the protagonist. Before any of that, though, we have to start by defining a term.

What is an ‘antagonist’?

An antagonist is a character who opposes the protagonist. At first glance, it seems like a synonym for ‘villain’, but the differences between these terms are important. To start with, a villain is wrong or immoral, whereas an antagonist just opposes the protagonist. They’re someone who stands in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals, and that means that if the protagonist of your story is a villain, the antagonist might even be a hero.

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Quick Link: Three Ways to Build a Better Plot

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

How are you NaNoWriMo‘s doing? Keeping up on your word count? Today’s offering is from Janice Harding’s Fiction University and might help.  Janice writes about three ways you can ramp up your plot. More & better plot = more words!

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Three Ways to Build a Better Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Building blocksPlot is how writers illustrate a story to their readers—which is why it’s so vital to craft a compelling one. It’s the foundation on which a story is built, and the weaker that is, the less likely the story will stand, let alone entertain. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a poor story idea, so it’s no wonder so many writers have trouble with plotting.

I love plotting myself, but even I’m always on the lookout for ways to make the process easier and more effective. Here are three things that I find particularly helpful when working on a new novel:

1. Know the Ending First

Since the whole goal of a novel is to solve the core conflict problem, knowing A) what that problem is and B) how that problem is resolved, makes it easier to plot it. Let’s look at a common way a novel’s plot is described:

Jaws is the story of a sheriff with a fear of the water who finds out a killer shark is terrorizing his beach during a major holiday weekend (the premise).

Next, let’s look at that same story with the ending as part of the idea:

Jaws is a story of a sheriff with a fear of the water who faces that fear to kill a killer shark terrorizing his town during a major holiday weekend (the general problem and how he solves it).

The premise version only gives the setup for the story. It doesn’t provide enough information to know what the sheriff does after this discovery. A large percentage of novels start out with this type of “plot” summary (I’ve done it, too), and it’s no wonder an equally large percentage of first drafts hit a wall around page 100.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: “Busting” Some Popular Copyright Myths

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Over at Writer’s In The Storm, Suzan Spann recognizes that we are not all lawyers and that there are some common misunderstandings about copyright that she hopes to clear up. Check it out. 

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“Busting” Some Popular Copyright Myths

Copyright

By Susan Spann

JULY 8TH, 2016

Copyright law can be confusing for authors, especially when it comes to issues like when (and whether) to register copyright in a manuscript, and what to do if you use a pseudonym. While authors need to understand the basics of copyright, myths and disinformation abound (especially on the Internet).

Today, let’s take a look at some popular myths (and truths) about copyright in novels and other creative works:

Myth #1: You have to register copyright as soon as you finish your manuscript.

False. Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is not a legal requirement for copyright ownership. Copyright attaches to “qualifying works*” automatically at the time of their creation.

Copyright registration is intended to protect “published works” – so authors should make sure that their works are registered with the copyright office within 3 months after initial publication.

(*Short stories, novellas, novels, anthologies, poetry, and similar fiction and non-fiction works all generally qualify for copyright protection.)

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Just For Fun: Ingenious Recycled Brooches of Classic Books

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Just for fun – because everyone deserves a break

What a clever idea these are! I shall have to ask the hubby for one for Christmas! Culture N Lifestyle

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bookpins

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Why I Self-Publish My Literary Fiction

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Author Jane Davis decided to switch to self-publishing because it gave her more freedom, and control over her own manuscript.  Over at Reedsy, you can find the reasons behind her choice. 

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Why I Self-Publish My Literary Fiction

You Can Do It Sign Shows Encouragement And InspirationJuly 7, 2016

Self-published books are still largely associated with genre novels, while authors tend to turn to traditional publishers for literary fiction. We were curious to hear from someone who has been challenging labels and going against industry wisdom to carve her own niche in the publishing world. Indie author Jane Davis used to be bullied into changing her work just to fit into an easily marketable category. She decided to take matters into her own hands and self-publish her daring, award-winning fiction. 

Eimear McBride used the platform provided by her various competition wins to urge publishers to back challenging fiction. McBride had spent 9 years submitting the manuscript for A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing before it was taken up by Galley Press, a small publisher which puts story before profit. For many writers, 9 years would be too long.

Traditional Publishing houses ‘play it safe’

So much of what we read from traditional publishing houses feels safe or sanitised. In 2014 I collaborated with hybrid author Joni Rodgers on a multi-author box-set. She shared my frustrations: ‘As a voracious reader, I was overwhelmed with the over-editing and lack of creative risk that had come over so much of the fiction I was being fed by the marketing machine.’

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: 8 Steps That Will Help You Start (And Finish) Your Book

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

 has some great tips for starting and more importantly (at least for me!) finishing your books. Head on over to Stand Out Books for all the details. 

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8 Steps That Will Help You Start (And Finish) Your Book

From start to finish, child writing on white paperJULY 6, 2016 by ROBERT WOOD

Writing’s really hard. I don’t mean it’s hard to create something good, I mean it’s difficult to sit down and start writing. That may sound like lip-service, but the fact is that writing – especially writing a book – goes against every rule of self-motivation there is.

Generally, it’s not done to order, meaning that goals and deadlines are self-set and easy to break. It’s also rarely done in a focused, dedicated environment – even those lucky enough to have an office or dedicated writing space probably use it for other things, and utilize a device that’s also a primary source of leisure: imagine trying to do paperwork in your local pub or aquarium (we haven’t met, so I’m not sure what you like doing in your spare time). Finally, it’s ill-defined – ‘How long is a book?’ is the same question as ‘How long is a piece of string?’, but it applies to every quality of a finished work. How polished does your book have to be? How realistic should the dialogue feel? How many characters is too many, or enough?

These issues combine into a task that’s almost designed to not get done. Authors begin the writing process with no goals or parameters except ‘make a book’. What even is a book? Answers differ.

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Editor’s Note: NaNoWriMo Day One!

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nanowrimo_2016_webbadge_participant-200Any NaNos out there? There is still time to sign up!

This will be my eighth year, and every year I wonder if I can do it. So far I have managed seven years out of the eight. My NaNo name is Paula1849 if you want to connect on the NaNoWriMo site.

If you like to track your word count, you will need 1667 words today. So far I have 739.  Whoops.

Good luck!

Paula

 

Quick Link: How to Tap into Your Passion Every Time You Write

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

My favorite part of writing is the beginning. I love the excitement of putting down a new story! But once the basic story outline is done and I need to fill in the details, it becomes more difficult to find that excitement. At Live Write Thrive, C.S. Lakin shares how to tap into that excitement every time.

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How to Tap into Your Passion Every Time You Write

Pedestrian in urban environmentJuly 6, 2016

Let’s say you have a great idea for an article, blog post, short story, or novel. You’ve brainstormed your main points and you feel the topic is fresh and interesting.

After a bit of work, you come to the moment when you are ready to write. You hope to infuse that initial excitement about your idea into your writing, but when you get down to the nuts and bolts of actually putting the idea down on paper (or typed into your Word document), it seems to fall flat.

You know it’s not the idea that’s the problem. Nor is it your writing ability; you have the chops to write well. So what’s the problem?

The Difficult Transition from Idea to Execution

Sometimes that transition from idea to execution causes problems. At times the story seems to be hovering over some lost horizon. You could be wandering a bit lost, and as the cliché goes: you can’t see the forest for the trees. And if you are working on something as enormous as a novel, it can seem like a huge forest with so many trees (elements) that your vision can get muddled and your eyes tired from trying to “see the big picture” all the time.

Kahlil Gibran said in his famous book The Prophet that “thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.” I memorized that line more than forty years ago because of its profound wisdom. Just how do we get our terrific ideas to “fly” in a cage of words?

We do so by tapping into our passion. Passion for our topic and passion for shaping words.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: What is a Media Kit and Why You Need One

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

There are many extras an author needs to appear professional. You may already have some things, such as a website and social media presence. But according to at Bad Redhead Media, you also need a media kit. Find out why you need one and what your media kit should consist of.

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What is a Media Kit and Why You Need One by @MFlicksAuthors

social-networking_110003568-012814-intJuly 1, 2016 By Rachel Thompson

Whether you are a multi-published author or in the process of penning your first novel, an author media kit is an essential time-saving tool. Also known as a “press kit,” a media kit is a collection of information pertaining to you, the author, and your book(s).

Why do you need a media kit?

Your author media kit will come in handy when you are reaching out to book bloggers, setting up book tours, contacting event planners, inquiring to publishers and agents, planning online promotions…etc. Imagine having to search through your computer files every time someone requests your author and book information. What a pain! Having it in all together in one doc will cut down on wasted time and let you get back to doing what you love- writing!

(Here’s an example of Rachel’s media kit.  We update it frequently.)

Making your media kit available on your website and blog is also a great way for others to easily find information on you and your book. You can add your media kit as an individual page, on the sidebar in a downloadable link – either way, be sure to label it clearly.

What should you include your author media kit?

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News – How To Write Better Without Becoming A Better Writer

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Good writing also means being a good author. Check out the HuffPo post on how taking care of himself, made Matt Hearnden a better writer.

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How To Write Better Without Becoming A Better Writer

Updated Jun 29, 2016

Health concept
Health concept

Matt Hearnden Human being who writes

(this story first appeared here: The Writing Cooperative)

Andre Iguodala, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP, likes to sleep.

It didn’t always used to be that way though. He used to have terrible sleeping habits. He used to stay up until 4am, watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and only then would he fall into a restless sleep for just a few hours. Then he’d sleep for a few more hours before playing a game in the evening. This was considered a “supplement” to the few hours he’d sleep at night.

Unsurprisingly, he’d end up exhausted during the game. More exhausted than a professional athlete should be.

It was only when he decided that enough was enough – the thing that happens before every big change in our lives – that he sought out a sleep therapist.

It worked. Iguodala experienced a 29% improvement in points per minute, and a 37% decrease in turnovers per game when he slept for 8 hours. Meaning 8 hours in row – not some split of a few hours here and a few hours there.

Another quick stat: players shoot 9.2% better from the 3 point line when they get 10 hours of sleep. For context: a player shooting 35% from the three-point line is an average three-point shooter. A player shooting 44% from the three-point line is an elite three-point shooter. More context: for this NBA season, shooting 44% would’ve made you the 5th most accurate three-point shooter in the NBA. Shooting 35% would’ve made you the 90th most accurate.

More sleep is the difference between average and elite.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Don’t Overdo it! Examples of Overwriting

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Oh some of these examples are really funny. There is one that I have to read with my best William Shatner impression. You will know which one!  at Books and Such shares her expertise on how not to overdo your writing.

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Don’t Overdo it! Examples of Overwriting

Must. Resist. Over-dramatizing.
Must. Resist. Over-dramatizing.

I read at least three proposals every week, sometimes more. In many of these proposals, I notice common writing errors, and I’d like to point these out so you can check for them before submitting your work to editors and agents.

One mistake is overwriting. Many authors believe their writing style is what makes their project appeal to readers. This is the case within certain limits. Finding your “voice” and using it effectively is a learned skill. Below are some overwriting examples.

1) The Thesaurus: It’s a really good idea to have a thesaurus on your desk while you’re writing, but don’t overdo it.

“The whyfor for a thesaurus is to ameliorate a skald’s word stock rather than to regurgitate the same jargon.” (Or: A thesaurus is to help you come up with new words rather than using the same words over again.)

If your reader has to pull out a dictionary to figure out what you’re talking about, you’re doing it wrong. Unusual or little-known words should be relatively discernible from the context. Plus, while readers want to understand the subject matter and to read beautiful words and phrases, if reading the book is too difficult, they’ll quit. We all want to be challenged, but we need to be built up at the same time. We want to know that we’re smart enough to read the book in our hands, or we’ll find something else that entertains and encourages us. This applies to nonfiction too. Be careful that your writing doesn’t become too technical if you are trying to write to readers who aren’t experts in the subject matter.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

In The News – Why Good Storytellers Are Happier in Life and in Love

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Good news fellow authors and storytellers, apparently we are awesome! Or at least happier in life and love. The Wall Street Journal says so!

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Why Good Storytellers Are Happier in Life and in Love

Studies find the way people tell their own stories has an outsize effect on their life satisfaction

By Elizabeth Bernstein
Updated July 4, 2016

Happy artistIn William Shakespeare’s time, the word “conversation” meant two things—verbal discourse, and sex.

That’s how intimate the most well-known poet and playwright in the English language viewed the act of talking with another person.

Since the dawn of language, people have shared stories with others to entertain, persuade, make sense of what happened to them and bond. Research shows that the way people construct their individual stories has a large impact on their physical and mental health. People who frame their personal narratives in a positive way have more life satisfaction.

They also may be more attractive. New research, published this month in the journal Personal Relationships, shows that women find men who are good storytellers more appealing. The article consists of three studies in which male and female participants were shown a picture of someone of the opposite sex and given an indication of whether that person was a proficient storyteller. In the first study, 71 men and 84 women were told that the person whose picture they were looking at was either a “good,” “moderate” or “poor” storyteller. In the second study, 32 men and 50 women were given a short story supposedly written by the person in the picture; half the stories were concise and compelling, and half rambled and used dull language. In the third study, 60 men and 81 women were told whether the person in the picture was a good storyteller and were asked to rate their social status and ability to be a good leader in addition to their attractiveness.

Quick Links: Turning Losing into Winning: The Kindle Scout Experience

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Have you heard of Amazon’s Kindle Scout program? I love it! Authors submit their titles to the program in hopes of winning a publishing contract through Amazon. Users vote on the different titles and if a book that they nominated is selected, they get a free copy.

But even if you are not selected for a publishing contract, authors can still win. The people that voted for you are notified when the book goes on sale at Amazon. I have purchased titles this way because I didn’t want to miss out on the story.  Melissa Bowersock at Indies Unlimited has all the details.

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Turning Losing into Winning: The Kindle Scout Experience

Melissa Bowersock

Posted on

kscoutWhen I finished my latest book, Finding Travis, a time travel story, I sent it out to beta readers and prepared to self-publish as I always do. But then a friend began broadcasting the news that she had entered her latest book in the Kindle Scout program and was looking for nominations. I remembered that another friend had entered his book in the program months ago, and had won the coveted publishing contract with Amazon. Because I really, really liked this new book of mine, and because I had built up quite a decent fan base, I decided to try Kindle Scout for myself.

The Kindle Scout campaign is a two-pronged deal. Amazon evaluates the book on its own merit, but they also look at the number of nominations a book receives from potential readers. Because Amazon doesn’t ever tell us how it writes its algorithms or how it decides what’s a winning book and what isn’t, it’s hard to know exactly how to go after the win. The only things that were in my control were (1) writing a good book; and (2) getting as many people as possible to nominate the book. So that’s what I did.

Some people might balk at the idea of nominating a book they haven’t read. I totally understand. However, Kindle Scout creates a landing page for each book and includes the cover, a short blurb, and the first chapter as a sample for voters to read. Readers can then decide for themselves if they feel the book is a winner, or they might simply go on the author’s past performance.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: A Tale of Two Writers

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I have to admit I am more pantser than plotter, but I do actuality-sort-of have a general outline. I will run story arcs in my head and organize them before I write. That said I am a big believer in learning the dynamics of good story telling, and a massive believer in lots of editing. So while Larry Brooks’ post at Kill Zone seemed a bit biased towards plotters, the real take away is that it is important to learn the essentials, because you may write it but there is no guarantee anyone will read it.

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A Tale of Two Writers

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Larry Brooks

Guess which one is the evil one?
Guess which one is the evil one?

Adam and Brent (who go by A and B, respectively here in analogy-land). Both have a novel in their heads. Both have big dreams for their books. Both can write sentences that would make the ghosts of Hemingway and John Updike exchange high fives.

Which is why they became writers in the first place.  The reason many of us took up that sword.

Adam

Adam’s book is about a guy who loves a woman who doesn’t love him back. That’s all he knows about it when he sits down to write. It’ll come to him. He trusts his gut and the creative process, which is isn’t sure how to explain, because someone told him it is not describable. He’s not really sure why he trusts his gut, but he does.

He’s never read a craft book (other than that damn Story Engineering, which suggests there is actually a wrong way and a better way to structure a story, based on the forces of story that always apply, for better or worse, so screw that…) or been to a writing workshop. But he’s hung out on online forums full of writers who have, who sound like they know what’s up, none of whom have sold anything but are self-published because, as if they could be if they wanted to be, quoting all kinds of folks who say publishing is dead anyhow. These same folks have all read On Writing and hey, if Stephen King can write a novel out of the right side of his head, so can they. And him. Besides, he once saw a DVD based on a Nicholas Sparks novel and he;s pretty sure he can do better.

Adam believes that if you just write, no matter what you write, everything will turn out fine.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: First Chapter Blues: Tips and Fixes

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I love what Ruth Harris has to say about rewriting the first chapter once you get the story done. By then your story has settled down and is more cohesive. So then the first chapter needs a serious re-look.  She has a bunch more tips, so head on over to Anne R Allen‘s blog and check it out. How do you manage unruly first chapters?

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First Chapter Blues: Tips and Fixes

June 26, 2016 by Ruth Harris

All the hoping and wishing won't make it better.
All the hoping and wishing won’t make it better.

Someone waves a gun in the first sentence.

In the second sentence, Jim (or is it Jill?) is walking his (or is it her?) dog in the rain.

In the third paragraph, the dog gets loose, runs into the middle of a movie set where the handsomest/most beautiful/most famous movie star in the world falls instantly in love with the owner of the toy poodle/doberman pinscher/golden retriever.

In the last paragraph, Jim (or is it Jill?) is tied up in a cellar. She or he is getting fired/laid by his/her billionaire boss. Or s/he is in the kitchen making cupcakes. Or driving a Ferrari on the Grand Corniche while some people (good guys? bad guys?) are going somewhere in a truck/tank/bus/boat/private jet.

So what is this? A mystery? A thriller? A cozy? A romance? Urban fantasy?

Who the hell knows?

Certainly not the reader who by now is gone, girl, gone.

Basically, what we have here is a mess.

Of course I exaggerate but, based on a recent random reading of “Look Inside” samples, I didn’t completely make this up, either.

Your first chapter needs to be seductive, enticing, compelling and coherent. Getting it right is crucial—and it’s not easy.

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