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Articles about craft.

Designing Character Interviews That Really Matter (Including Genre-Inspired Questions)

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This post, by Juliette Wade, originally appeared on TalkToYoUniverse on 12/17/12.

I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of character-interview posts, but I’m hoping this one won’t be like most you’ve seen elsewhere, so stick with me. I’m writing it as an update and expansion of one of my most popular posts of all time, “Know Your Character Inside and Out.” The post will have two parts: first, a discussion of what criteria make questions more useful and less pointlessly trivial, and below that, a list of questions that deal with world and identity, and with genre (so you can skip down if you like).

Okay, so why should you conduct a mock interview with your character? What is it that makes a character interview more than just a bunch of random silly questions?

You can learn a lot from an interview if you conduct it the right way. The first thing to do is to think about who you are as an interviewer. You are the author who will be telling this character’s story, so the questions you want answered have to do with the character and his/her role in that story. You won’t be wanting to ask the kinds of questions that a neighbor or relative might ask, or the kinds of questions that an entertainment TV interviewer might ask. It’s possible you may have some overlap between your own questions and those types of questions, but only if there is neighbor, relative, or TV entertainment content in your story.

You will want to ask the kinds of questions that help you understand your character and where he/she fits in his/her world. Don’t ask what an alien thinks of coffee, for example, unless that alien will be encountering coffee in the story. You will want to know about what kinds of expectations your character holds, because story events will be judged on the basis of those expectations, and you can construct a backstory based on the type of expectations that person needs to have. You will want to know a lot about your character’s emotions, because emotions are what give dynamics to your story. The questions you choose should grow out of what you already know about the plot and conflict, and the needs of the story, which will differ according to genre. Here are some of the many things that interconnect for a character:

world, culture, personal history, psychology, judgment, reaction, motive, action

You can enter into this web at any point, but from there you should follow the interconnections to get insight into other areas.

Before I head into the questions, let me make one last point about judgment. Judgment to me is one of the most important things you can understand about a character. This does not necessarily mean that you have to show or explain that character’s judgment on the page (I like to, personally) but people need to have reasons why they do the things they do. For that reason, I like to angle my interview questions to elicit judgments, not just information. For example, I think “how many brothers and sisters do you have” is a far less helpful question than, “What do you think of your family members?” Answers to the first type of question will be numbers. Answers to the second could range from “I don’t think about my family at all because I’m too busy” to “Every time I think of my eldest brother, terrifying memories well up in me and I can’t bear to think about it.”

The last suggestion I will make is that you should always let your character answer in the first person, because that means you’ll be more likely to discover things about character voice as you go along.

The Interview Questions

Read the rest of the post on TalkToYoUniverse.

Why Side Characters Steal the Spotlight (and How to Steal Some Back)

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This post, by Susan J. Morris, originally appeared on Omnivoracious on 12/24/12.

Main characters, as we all know, are golden gods of absolute awesomeness, with sharp intellects, shiny biceps, and sparkling personalities that make fair folk of all genders faint out of sheer want—both in and outside of the novel. Okay, that’s not really true (we all know biceps can’t really shine: they glisten). But even so, it can feel like it when we think about the huge amount of pressure that rests on the glistening deltoids of any main character: the direction of the action, the flavor of the narration, and most importantly, addiction of the readership. (No pressure.)

So, given all that (and how very much time you can spend on your main character as a result), it’s amazing how some random, throwaway character, who was only supposed to have maybe ten seconds of fame–max–can suddenly steal all the spotlight and demand your readership’s full attention (not to mention the author’s). Somehow, what your imagination coughed up in a moment of thoughtless need ends up being more gripping than the most carefully crafted character, in whom you’ve invested every hope and expectation!

But what makes these seemingly accidents of ink, these minor–yet somehow spectacular–characters so enthralling? It has, I think, something to do with those very pressures and expectations that make a main character so important to begin with. Here are a few different reasons that side characters can outshine main characters, along with a few suggestions as to how your main character can get her sparkle back.

Mary Sues Always Lose

Remember all that pressure we talked about? It weighs a character down, and forces them into a tiny little box where their every personality trait is measured for its heroic quotient before being allowed out to play. And there’s a good reason that! I mean think about it: generally speaking, no one wants a hero who is unlikable, foolish, incapable, or, worst of all, boring (unless, of course, it’s a “thing”). So it follows that heroes tend to be likable, smart, and capable of extraordinary things–as well as anything else the author believes befitting of a hero.* For example, if an author admires those who can operate coolly and logically under pressure, then his main character will likely do the same.

Of course, all this pressure, constraining your character in all those ways, is almost a surefire way to make your main character dead boring. I mean, if your hero isn’t going to get herself into trouble, then you’re by definition leaving all of the most interesting parts to the side characters and villains (and getting into trouble is ever so much more fun–and more engaging–than getting out of trouble)!

Side characters, now–there isn’t half as much pressure on them. And this leaves them remarkably free to be awesome. Which is perhaps why many of the most interesting (conceptually anyway) characters start out as side characters. So here’s a trick: instead of treating your main character like the . . . well, main character, try treating them like a side character. And instead of trying to create a main character who can serve as a touchstone for ordinary in a sea of extraordinary, try to think of who the most interesting character would be, given the themes and scenes in your novel—someone who would react in original and entertaining ways. You may be surprised how much more interesting a main character can be, when they don’t have the weight of an entire novel (or more!) on their shoulders.

*Which, by and large, tend to fit in a fairly narrow box that you could set on your windowsill, and which the neighbor ladies and gents could pass by and murmur approvingly of what a well-mannered, appropriately heroic box it is.

That’s Not a Character: That’s a Camera!

 

Read the rest of the post on Omnivoracious.

Republicans Are People Too

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This year Loretta and I had just about the entirety of both families over for Christmas.

It was fun greeting them all as they came up the driveway. Everyone was waving and smiling, and as they got out hugs and kisses abounded. While most were carrying wrapped packages – I noticed that what Mom had in her hands was a large, brown paper bag.

I knew immediately what it contained.

For as long as I can remember my neighbor from the house next to the one I grew up in has been giving me a bag of persimmons this time of year – every year. That fact is more amazing when you understand that, not only do I not live next to him anymore, neither does anyone in my family.

My parents sold that house years ago.

And yet my old neighbor, remembering that I love persimmons, picks a bag for me every year and sees that it gets to my mom – who then sees that it gets to me. And every year I mean to sit down and write him and his wife a nice thank you note.

You know, I don’t think I’ve written one yet.

I mean I deeply appreciate what he does – I really enjoy those persimmons – but I cannot seem to write the man a letter of gratitude. It’s not like I don’t know his street number (I read it on his garage most days between 1973 and 1982). And it’s not like I don’t have the time (especially since he has the time to fill a bag for me every year).

I think the reason is this: I’ve become a little complacent about the whole deal. Not terribly so, mind you. I do still swing by my old neighborhood every now and again – and when I do I stop in to say hello, chat him up, and thank him for sending persimmons. But I think I’m taking the old boy just a little bit for granted. Isn’t it weird how we can do that? Take something that was once new and come to see it as normal – even commonplace.

Sort of like that whole voting deal from a while back.

You remember the election about a month and a half ago? You recall what happened, right? The Republican candidate – this fellow from Massachusetts – got run out of town pretty handily by the sitting sheriff. It wasn’t predicted to go down that way, but now that it has it seems like that was normal – but at the time it was kind of exceptional.

Stunning defeat might be slightly overstating the thing, but not my much.

What that defeat capped was sort of a disavowal of the course that some more vocal factions within the Republican Party had taken over the last few years – most notably the Tea Party.

You know, the Tea Party has been more than a little assailed over the past year (trust me, I was among the assailers) and as strongly as I disagreed with them on most points, I also feel their pain.

I know where these people come from – I have an idea what caused them to adopt the beliefs they came to hold. Our country has weathered some very hard times recently – very hard. The housing market crashed, which led the economy to crash. Many of these people owned houses that became worth nothing near what was paid for them. At the same time lots of these folks lost their jobs as the economy stayed sour. That left a whole lot of people in the position of owing more on a house than it was worth, with no real way to pay for it.

That is a deeply frustrating place to be.

So what do you do if you find yourself in that position? Change the housing market? No, you don’t possess the power to do that. Grow the economy so that you can find work? You don’t have the power to do that either. And when people are not in control of their situations – when they feel powerless – well, that’s about the best recipe for frustration and anger.

So what do they do with their anger? They vent it – because anger has to be vented. To not vent it is to invite more frustration and anger. And where can it be vented, I mean in a way that could eventually affect its underlying causes?

In the voting booth, that’s where.
We had – still have – some angry people who were deeply frustrated. People who were raised on the American Dream. Who were told get the job, buy the house, follow the rules, and everything would turn out OK. But it didn’t turn out OK. They lost their jobs, and their health care, and their houses. And, sometimes, their self-respect.

And when you get people in that mindset they want answers – and they want change – and they want those things now. So when some blowhard politico rides into town and tells you that he or she can change things so they’re back like they were before they went to hell in a hand basket, you’re tempted to believe them. At the very least you kind of want them to be right, right?

Didn’t it seem like just about everybody in the Republican Primaries was leading at some point or other? I take that to mean that people were frustrated – and though they may not have known which way to turn, they still knew they wanted to turn. It was almost like watching Karl Rove implode on Fox News during election night coverage – everything was going wrong, all at once, and there didn’t seem like a way to make things right.
But we’re through the election now – the reach of the Tea Party seems to be lessening as people start to see a brighter future. The economy is starting to come back – housing is beginning to show signs of a recovery – and people are letting go of the panic that had them feeling they had nowhere to turn.

You know, it’s tempting to vilify certain factions of the Republican Party now that it appears their influence is dissipating. I don’t mean those politicos who took advantage of a nation when it was down, I mean people – good, everyday people – who were trying to follow the rules and do the right things and make a good life for themselves and their families.

I would tell you that, based on what I know of my old neighbor (he’s a former police officer and small business owner) his politics are probably decidedly right of mine.
But you want to know how important that is at this moment?

Far less important than me writing him a nice note to tell him how much I’ve appreciated him all these years.

The Anatomy of Fan-Fiction (And How it Can Help Us Write Better)

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This post, by Karen Rought, originally appeared on her The Midnight Novelist blog.

I recently admitted to some of my online friends that my exposure to fan-fiction was fairly limited. Once they learned that I hadn’t read some of the “classics,” and after some stunned silence and a lot of “omg omg omg,” they gently nudged me down the right path, with the promise to take me under their wings.

The first one they had me read was called The Shoebox Project. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a novel-length Harry Potter fic about the Marauders – James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. The fic basically shows us what kind of relationship those four friends had with each other, how they got mixed up in the Order of the Phoenix, and what happened that made Peter betray his best friends to the Dark Lord.

If you’re interested, you can go to this website and read the fic for yourself. It’s extremely well written, and the characters pop out of the page at you, fully-formed and in color. It’s also an easy read, but be warned that, although it falls in line with Rowling’s books, you may be surprised by what happens in the story. Many fans consider this to be something of the official un-official backstory to the Marauders.

All that aside, it really got me thinking. Why does fan-fiction work so well? Why do people spend hundreds of hours writing it? Why do hundreds of thousands of people read it? Why is fan-fiction becoming more and more popular amongst those who enjoy reading books and watching television/movies?

And, most importantly, what can we learn from it as writers?

ONE. Fan-fiction isn’t afraid to break the rules

One of the drawbacks to immersing yourself in fan-fiction is that it’s not always well-written. That’s certainly a problem, but I’ve found plenty of fan-fiction that was poorly written that I couldn’t put down. And I’ve read plenty of published works without a single typo that put me to sleep each time I cracked them open.

The thing with fic is this: it isn’t afraid to break the rules. It doesn’t have to worry about critique partners and editors and agents and publishing houses. The authors of the fic aren’t always aware of the rules, of when to use a semi-colon or even what “syntax” means. And they don’t care. And sometimes this works really well.

The best example I can give is the dialogue in Shoebox. An editor probably would’ve thrown the entire MS in the trash if he took a single look at it. But it works so well for the story. So well. There are whole paragraphs full of run-on or half-formed sentences. And the entire book is written like that. But it’s used to convey the nervousness and doubt and excitement of the characters. And it’s so realistic. Most of the time if you read dialogue out from a book, it’s a little too perfect. It doesn’t sound natural. And although this dialogue is chopped up and crazy, it sounds exactly how a 17 year old boy would talk. It’s perfect.

TWO. Fan-fiction doesn’t do anything more than simply write a good story.

The previous point logically leads into this second one. The writers aren’t worried about making everything perfect. They’re not worried about pitches and query letters and trying to land an agent. They just want to write a good story.

There’s a lot of freedom in fan-fiction. Sometimes that’s a bad thing. Sometimes people get carried away. But sometimes, when the planets align and the wind blows in just the right direction, sometimes this is a very, very good thing.

When you’re not worrying about anything other than the story, your story comes alive. It’s not weighed down with doubt. There’s no worry about it needing to impress someone. Whenever we write and edit knowing that we’re eventually going to pitch this story to an agent, there’s that nagging feeling of did I do everything in my power to make this as perfect as possible? And sometimes that’s what makes it so imperfect. Readers can often tell when the writer places every word carefully, rather than just letting the story develop on its own.

I liken it to those Hollywood stars with the perfect hair, the perfect clothes, the perfect makeup, the perfect smile. It’s nice, they’re pretty to look at it, and you do kind of envy it. But it’s not natural. You know they’re putting on a show, and at the end of the day you’d much rather surround yourself with real people.

THREE. Fan-fiction gives us what we want.

Read the rest of the post on The Midnight Novelist.

Rewire

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This post, by Andrew E. Kaufman, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective Blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

I’ve been thinking about doing some rewiring lately. Not in my house, but in my brain: my writer’s brain. It seems to have gone a bit wonky.

Because I’ve realized that being a good writer isn’t just about grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Plot arcs are crucial, but they don’t mean a damned thing if your own story is out-of-whack. Writing is about being in the right place emotionally, not just on paper, but in your head.

So in doing my rewiring, I’ve identified some short-circuit issues—places where I seem to be getting in my own way, where a fuse or two got tripped. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Comparing Myself to Other Authors

I don’t do this as often as I once did (not really), but occasionally, I find myself slipping down that slope. It’s a bad one. Here’s me reading a book. It goes something like this:

Me: (First chapter) “Damn, what an awesome passage.”
Me: (Fifth chapter) “Damn, the dude can write.”
Me: (Tenth chapter) “Oh, Damn….”
Me: (Midbook) “Oh Sh#*… I’ll never be this good,”
Me: (End of book) “Ohgoodlord. I seriously suck.”

Coveting thy author: bad move. It’s a prescription for failure. It’s a trap, a self-imposed esteem ambush. Even worse, it’s the fastest way to kill inspiration and creativity. I can’t compare myself to other writers because quite simply, I am not That Writer.

Worrying About Numbers

I’ve decided to decide that numbers don’t matter—not in the overall scheme of things; or at least in the little one, that worrying about them doesn’t do a damned bit of good. Worry all you want, but whether you do or not, numbers are still going to happen. They’re a unit of measure, not a way of life. Sales rankings, book units, word count, my age, my checking account balance: all unhealthy obsessions. Life matters. Numbers don’t.

Forgetting Why I Write

I still do this. Sometimes (he said, grudgingly) . I get so caught up in deadlines, book deals, sales, and everything else that writing isn’t about, that I forget why I do it in the first place. And then I remember the times when none of those things existed, when it was just me and the written word, and the more I do, the more I realize, those were the best days of my life. It’s so easy to get caught up in the business of writing instead of the passion that drives it.

Not Trusting My Process

The moment I’m about to give up–when I’m chewing the ends off pencils, throwing things, and doing the primal scream–is always the exact moment before I make my biggest breakthrough, when the most amazing things happen. I’ve come to accept that this is part of my process. It’s how I roll. I can’t change it, so I’m going to learn to live with it and accept that I have to go There before I can get Here (even if it sort of sucks sometimes).

All Work and No Play:

That’s me.

I’m the first to admit it. All do is write. I don’t mind that all I do is write, because I love being a writer—but still, it feels like all I ever do is write. And it feels unbalanced. And unhealthy. And it feels like I have no life outside of writing. So my goal this year is to make time away from writing (After my deadline, of course–just in case Thomas & Mercer is reading this). To take Caleb to the beach more often and to simply enjoy. To live more. Writing is my passion, but my passion can’t thrive in a vacuum; I have to feed it with living.

Fear of Failure

‘Nuff said.

How about you? Got any bad wires that need fixing? Here’s the place to come clean. Promise, I won’t tell 😉

Writing A Book: What Happens After The First Draft?

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Many new writers are confused about what happens after you have managed to get the first draft out of your head and onto the page.

I joined NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year and ended up with 27,774 words on a crime novel, the first in a new series. It’s not an entire first draft but it’s a step in the right direction and the plotting time was sorely needed.

Maybe you ‘won’ NaNo or maybe you have the first draft of another book in your drawer, but we all need to take the next step in the process in order to end up with a finished product.

 

Here’s my process, and I believe it’s relevant whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.

(1) Rewriting and redrafting. Repeat until satisfied.

For many writers, the first draft is just the bare bones of the finished work and often no one will ever see that version of the manuscript. Remember the wise words of Anne Lamott in ‘Bird by Bird’ “Write shitty first drafts.” You can’t edit a blank page but once those words are down, you can improve on them.

editing arkane

My rewrites and edits for Pentecost

I love the rewriting and redrafting process. Once I have a first draft I print the whole thing out and do the first pass with handwritten notes. I write all kinds of notes in the margins and scribble and cross things out. I note down new scenes that need writing, continuity issues, problems with characters and much more. That first pass usually takes a while. Then I go back and start a major rewrite based on those notes.

After that’s done, I will print again and repeat the process, but that usually results in fewer changes. Then I edit on the Kindle for word choice. I add all the changes back into Scrivener which is my #1 writing and publishing tool.

(2) Structural edit/ Editorial review

I absolutely recommend a structural edit if this is your first book, or the first book in a series. A structural edit is usually given to you as a separate document, broken down into sections based on what is being evaluated.

I had a structural edit for Pentecost in 2010 and reported back on that experience here. As the other ARKANE novels follow a similar formula, I didn’t get structural edits for Prophecy and Exodus. However, I will be getting one for the new crime novel when it is ready because it is a different type of book for me.

Here’s how to vet an independent editor if you are considering one.

(3) Revisions

When you get a structural edit back, there are usually lots of revisions to do, possibly even a complete rewrite. This may take a while …

(4) Beta readers

Beta readers are a trusted group of people who evaluate your book from a reader’s perspective. You should only give them the book if you are happy with it yourself because otherwise it is disrespectful of their time.

This could be a critique group, although I prefer a hand-picked group of 5 or 6 who bring different perspectives. I definitely have a couple of people who love the genre I am writing in as they will spot issues within the boundaries of what is expected, and then some people who consider other things.

My main rule with beta readers is to make changes if more than one person says the same thing. Click here for more on beta readers.

(5) Line edits

Editors Notes Exodus

Line editor’s notes for Exodus

The result of line editing is the classic manuscript covered in red ink as an editor slashes your work to pieces!

You can get one of these edits before or after the beta readers, or even at the same time. I prefer afterwards as I make broader changes of the book based on their opinions so I want the line editor to get the almost final version.

Line edits are more about word choice, grammar and sentence structure. There may also be comments about the narrative itself but this is a more a comment on the reading experience by someone who is skilled at being critical around words.

The first time you get such a line edit, it hurts. You think you’re a writer and then someone changes practically every sentence. Ouch.

But editing makes your book stronger, and the reader will thank you for it.

(6) Revisions

You’ll need to make more changes based on the feedback of the beta readers and line editor. This can sometimes feel like a complete rewrite and takes a lot of detailed time as you have to check every sentence.

I usually make around 75% of the changes suggested by the line editor, as they are usually sensible, even though I am resistant at first. It is important to remember that you don’t have to change what they ask for though, so evaluate each suggestion but with a critical eye.

(7) Proof-reading

By this point, you cannot even see any mistakes you might have made. Inevitably, your corrections for line editing have exposed more issues, albeit minor ones.

So before I publish now, I get a final read-through from a proof-reader. (Thanks Liz at LibroEditing!) After Prophecy was published, I even got an email from a reader saying congratulations because they had failed to find a single typo. Some readers really do care, for which I am grateful and that extra investment at the end can definitely pay off in terms of polishing the final product.

(8) Publication

Once I have corrected anything minor the proof-reading has brought to light, I will Compile the various file formats on Scrivener for the ebook publishing platforms. I will then back the files up a number of times, as I have done throughout the whole process.

(9) Post-publication

This may be anathema to some, but the beauty of ebook publishing is that you can update your files later. If someone finds a typo, no problem. If you want to update the back matter with your author website and mailing list details, no worries. If you want to rewrite the whole book, you can do that too (although some sites have stricter rules than Amazon around what is considered a new version.)

Budget: Time and money

Every writer is different, and there are no rules.

But in terms of time, your revision process will likely take at least as long as the first draft and probably longer (unless you’re Lee Child who just writes one draft!). For my latest book, Exodus, the first draft took about 3 months and the rewriting process took about 6 months.

In terms of money, I would budget between $500 – $2000 depending on what level of editing you’re looking for, and how many rounds. You can find some editors I have interviewed as well as their prices here.

I believe editing at all these different stages is important, because it is our responsibility to make sure our books are the best they can be. But if you can’t afford professional editing, then consider using a critique group locally or online. The more eyes on the book before it goes out into the world, the better.

What’s your editing process?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments [on the original post]. Do you have a similar approach or something completely different? 

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

What I Learned Writing Dreamlander: Why Non-Writers Give the Best Critiques

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This post, by K.M. Weiland, originally appeared on Wordplay in November of 2012.

What qualifies someone as a beta reader?

The term itself tells us this person is someone who reads an early draft of a story. But they’re so much more than just that. I like to think of beta readers as sort of junior grade editors. They’re not full-fledged, bona-fide, paid-and-professional types with half-glasses pushed down their noses and red pens behind their ears. But that doesn’t mean they’re any less savvy—or any less important.

Something that was reinforced to me over and over again during my years-long journey with my fantasy novel Dreamlander (coming December 2) was the importance of beta readers. I was blessed to have the input of nearly twenty editors, critique partners, and beta readers. They educated, encouraged, occasionally humbled, and always helped me. Without them, the book would never have made it past the pile-of-pages stage.

Two Types of Beta Readers

Most of my beta readers are writers in their own right. Their knowledge of the craft augments and reinforces my own. When we start talking about POVs, voice, dangling participles, and plot points, we’re all speaking the same language. They’re riding right alongside me in their own sometimes bumpy writing journeys. They know what it’s like to be a writer, and our shared experiences and knowledge create a solid foundation of trust in our relationships as givers and receivers of literary criticism.

But there’s another category of beta reader that is just as valuable as my fellow writer. And that, of course, is the non-writer.

Why Are Non-Writing Beta Readers So Valuable?

Non-writers can’t bring technical knowledge of the craft to the table, but they bring something else: their objective experience as readers.

Most readers aren’t writers. They’re not gonna know the technicalities of the craft. They may not even recognize or care about some of the gaffes that would have our fellow writers gasping in horror. But they know what they like, and they know what they don’t like. The very fact that they aren’t writers keeps their opinions from getting tangled up in the technicalities.

 

Read the rest of the post on Wordplay. 

Popular Searches on Publetariat

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Have you noticed: there’s a handy little search box here on Publetariat, right up there at the top of the right-hand column? If you haven’t used it lately, or ever, you might be interested in seeing all the great resources, articles and tips others are most frequently searching for when they come to Publetariat.

 

Click on any link to view a listing of all articles on the site related to that topic.

Book Promotion

Ebooks

Ebook Pricing

Author Platform

Mistakes Self-Publishers Make

The Writing Life

Book Cover Design

Amazon KDP

Why Go Indie

How to Write

Writer Tools

 

Enjoy, and feel free to try a few searches of your own!

 

What Do I Know?

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This post, by Gayle Carline, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog on 12/6/12 and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

The first piece of advice given to any writer is to write what you know. Actually, the first piece of advice is don’t quit your day job, but that makes a depressing post and tis is the season to be jolly.

When I decided I wanted to write a novel, I took that write what you know business to heart. I wrote about a Midwestern girl who jumps in her car and travels to the West Coast, something that I had done. The problem was I didn’t know how to write a novel. To my great surprise, the characters all revolted, and the girl’s car broke down in Amarillo.

What the hell did I know about Amarillo? I’ve been there once, long enough to visit the American Quarter Horse Museum, and eat at Cracker Barrel. That (really sucky) novel sleeps peacefully on my external hard drive, where I use it for spare parts.

After writing what I knew turned out so abysmally, I threw caution to the wind and tried writing what I wanted to know: a mystery. Much like Amarillo, what the hell did I know about writing a mystery story?

Not much. But I knew how to read and enjoy them. I knew what to expect when I watched them on TV. I had to have a crime, and a plucky character who would poke around in all of the corners, looking for the solution.

As far as writing what I knew, I used a few familiar things to help me. For example, I made my private investigator, Peri, a former housecleaner. I like a clean house, and know how to do it. Having that little background story gave me a bond to her. I like dirty martinis, so I made that her signature drink.

I also know my hometown of Placentia, California. It’s a small town squished between other towns. I know its streets, its neighborhoods, and its feel. I know how it tastes and smells. Setting a mystery there meant I didn’t have to create someplace else.

 

I now had a protagonist and a location that I knew.

As for the mystery part, well… how does a bland little Midwestern gal inject suspense and thrills that she’s never experienced?

In the end, I used two of my own hobbies: puzzle solving and communicating with my husband. Mysteries are a lot like puzzles. There are pieces that you must gather, data you must analyze and slip into the correct slot. This translates to clues, alibis, and information that is collected by the protagonist and the reader in order to come to the “AHA” moment.

As far as my husband is concerned, I am married to possibly the most laconic man on the planet. He also possesses a soft, deep voice, which is sometimes inaudible to me due to some hearing loss at the lower registers (yes, too many concerts in my youth). If I want to know anything, I can either chase him down and hound him until he speaks clearly, or just follow the clues he leaves behind.

I remember one day, when we were supposed to meet friends for lunch. It was in the days before cell phones and there was a mix-up at the restaurants, and we were trying to figure out whether Dale would be able to find us. I mentioned that he had taken clean clothes with him that morning, so he was probably changing at the tennis club, making it useless to leave a message on the home phone.

One of the women looked at me, agog. “Don’t you two ever talk?”

Well, not that much. I make assumptions about where he’s gone, what he’s doing, and what my next move should be, if any. Maybe I am a private investigator. A very private one.

I’ve now written three Peri mysteries (and one short), and a lot of times I feel like I’m in the weeds and don’t know why I’m not writing what I know. That’s when I remember my horrible first novel, and I go do a little research until I can move forward.

I hope this gives other writers the encouragement to take what you do know, write it into what you don’t, and stop stressing about the rest. It’s fiction, people. You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it believable.

And if readers think that I make writing sound like it’s as unknown as most of life in general, well, it’s true. We don’t just want to tell you a story. We want to lead you through an experience.

If we knew where we were going, it wouldn’t be half as much fun.

 

 

Book Trailers: Do Authors Get Enough Bang for Their Buck?

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This post, by James Moushon, originally appeared on The Self-Publishing Review on 11/26/12.

Because book trailers are becoming a popular online marketing tool, I thought it was time I did a study of what was going on in this phase of book promotion. First, a trailer has to be a part of the total book package. You must keep that in mind as we proceed.

I reviewed 50 trailers, some from the HBS Author’s Spotlight group and some from high-profile authors. That should give us a good cross-section of the development of this relatively new process.

 

Are they worth the time and money? What did I see and hear that made a good book trailer? It must be noted at this point, the following are my opinions and hopefully some helpful observations.

Plan your Trip

Before you go down this trail, you must plan where you want to end. As you’ll find out, it is more detailed than you would image.

The first major decision to make is how I am going to produce the trailer? Am I going to do it myself or outsource it to a professional? Cost is the primary question in this decision I would guess. As you’ll see in this blog, there are some real good trailers created at a very reasonable cost.

Start of the trailer

Most start with a storyboard in which they create a scene list and match script text alongside each picture or slide. For example, the majority of trailers in my review start with the book cover or a slide with the Title and Author displayed. You may think that is elementary but there were several that didn’t give you that information until well into the video.

How does it sound?

This is important to the effectiveness of the trailer. The music and sound should fit your vision of your book. The sound includes music, voice, singing and special effects. Here are some observations.

Some trailers had great mood music which fit right into the story line. Some had singing in the background. A couple started off with strong music right up front which was a great attention getter.

There was one that was streaming along at a steady pace then out of the blue there was a loud gun shot. That got your attention. Several had cry outs, screams, eerie sounds and even the sound of arrows whizzing through the air.

Two observations: if you are going to use voice over for your slides, use a professional or not at all.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Self-Publishing Review.

KDP Select: Is It Worth It? (6 Takeaways From My Experience)

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As if it wasn’t difficult enough for us to keep up with our social media accounts, emails and writing — the authors’ life also calls for us to stay on top of ever-changing technology.

We were just getting the hang of Smashwords when Amazon rolled out their new pride and joy (and their charming mea culpa for withholding a huge chunk of author’s eBook profits for so long), Kindle Direct Publishing.

 

KDP and its more devout sibling, KDP Select, offer a bevy of new options and promises for the modern day author — higher royalties, exclusive promotional opportunities and access to the Kindle Lending Library, among them.

But these bonuses come with one pretty heavy stipulation. Authors participating in the KDP Select program cannot sell their eBooks through any other website (Barnes & Noble, Apple, Smashwords, etc.) during their 90 day sign-up with Amazon.

So the question becomes: Is it worth it?

I decided to take the plunge and submit my debut novel to KDP Select during the holiday season.

After removing my title from Smashwords (and waiting a full month for B&N and Apple to catch up and remove it from their catalogs — make a note if you plan to do the same, it takes a while) I upgraded my book from Amazon’s regular KDP program to the shiny, new KDP Select.

Aside from the 70% royalties (which are contingent upon the length and price of your book) the biggest benefit of KDP Select is the option to offer promotional days (5 per 90 day period).

Promotional days allow authors to give their book away for free on Amazon, which not only puts the book into a different promotional list on Amazon itself, but gives you a chance to promote the book on a plethora of available websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that all exist exclusively to alert readers of free Kindle books.

So I dove in, November 9th – 11th, with my first promotional KDP Select experience.

I learned a lot in a short time, and thought it would be valuable to my Duolit author friends to know more of what the experience is about so you can decide for yourselves if it’s worth it.

6 Things I Learned from KDP Select Promotional Days.

1. Planning is EVERYTHING.

Full disclosure: I screwed up.

I did the one thing we tell you guys never to do — I jumped in headfirst, with no planning or prep-work for my promotion prior to the first of my three promotional days.

In my defense…nope, there’s not really a valid excuse here, I just let a killer combination of procrastination and laziness get to me.

I didn’t realize I was in trouble until I started going through a lot of the available websites for free and paid promotions of Kindle books. Most of them required a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to add your book to their promotional lists/blogs for a specific date.

Oops.

If I’d planned ahead, I could have gotten my book onto a lot more websites during the start of my promotion, plus I could have built up the free days as more of an event for my fans.

I should have had events on Facebook and GoodReads and built anticipation the week before. I should have given my mailing list a heads up and shared the details on Twitter as well.

The only thing that saved me from suffering complete embarassment was having my promotion for three days instead of one or two. If it had been any shorter, I would have had no time at all to get the word out.

So lesson learned: Plan ahead!

2. Choose your days wisely.

photo by mufan96

I picked the weekend of November 9th – 11th for two reasons:

  • My book is Christmas-themed so it’s a good time of year to get people in the holiday spirit.
  • My birthday is 11/11 and I wanted to center my marketing campaign around the idea of giving presents rather than receiving them for my special day.

These were not flawed ideas in and of themselves, but when I actually did *research* about using KDP (afterwards, of course) nearly everything I read advised against using your promotional days on the weekend (especially Saturday) because people are typically away from their computers and spending time with their families on the weekend.

Valid point.

Worse yet, I chose a *holiday* weekend in the U.S. when a lot of folks take short vacations or just generally veg out watching football and relaxing.

So for future reference, weekdays are generally better and if you can have at least two days back-to-back you’ll have more time to build momentum for your promotion.

3. Push for more reviews before your promotion.

I discovered that a lot of the popular free eBook promotions blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter(ers?) require a certain number of reviews for your book to be included in their promotions.

If I’d known that beforehand, I would have done a push with my mailing list to try and beef up my Amazon reviews before the promotion days (which I really should have done anyway, but you know how that goes).

4. Add action steps to your eBook.

This is the one thing I actually DID do right for my promotion (Yay!). 

Before your promotional days, make sure your eBook file is updated to include a page asking readers to leave a review for you on Amazon (you can include a link as well).

You should also have a page in your eBook with a link to your website and advertising any other books you have as well.

This is especially critical for your KDP promotion days. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from people who’ve used KDP Select is that the high numbers of downloads on promotion days don’t often lead to long-term growth.

While you can’t expect every person who downloads a free copy to become a fan or leave a review, if you can get even a third to make the effort, you’ll come out way of the game. So use opportunity you have to encourage readers to take action after they read the book.

5. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on social media.

The best, most effective way to get the word out during your free promotion days is to advertise via social media.

You have to toe a very dangerous line here by not spamming your friends (especially on Twitter) while still making sure your free book is shared with as many people as possible.

Try to notify all the free eBook promoters at once with your mentions on Twitter so you can get that big blast out of the way.From there, plan to tweet a link or announcement every couple of hours.

Don’t use the same tweet every time — mix it up offering different quotes, loglines and other reasons why people would love to read your book for free. Also be sure to hashtag like a Boss on Twitter.

On Facebook, share a link on your fan page first, and then you can also promote your link on several other Facebook pages (just make sure they allow that kind of self-promotion, some don’t and they get very ornery about that, which is fair).

Scheduling these posts can put you at a disadvantage because services like HootSuite sometimes don’t get shared as much through Facebook’s algorithm and on Twitter you’ll probably find (as I did) that you get a lot of interactions from others that you should really respond to right away.

So be prepared to really spend your promotion days glued to your computer or smartphone milking your social media accounts.

6. Manage your expectations.

I came away from my KDP experience feeling really good.

In three days, my book was downloaded almost 400 times. My Facebook and Twitter following grew by several likes/followers, I got five new sign-ups for my newsletter and I reached as high as #991 on Kindle’s overall list of free eBooks (not bad given my lack of planning).

Whatever your opinion of KDP Select might be, there is absolutely NO other medium that would allow you to get your book into the hands of almost 400 people in three days without costing you one red cent.

Is it a great tool for making money? In the short term, no of course not. You’re giving your book away for free and other than maybe a few peripheral sales right after your promotion ends, you’re probably not going to make any dough.

But in terms of fan building, I think KDP Select delivers in spades.

Even with my egregious lack of planning, I felt like I took a giant step forward with my promotions, so I can’t imagine how someone who actually planned and executed their free days like a major events could benefit from KDP Select.

And it’s especially fantastic for us indies, because it’s so cost effective as well.

What lessons did you learn from your KDP Promo Day experience?

If you’ve participated in KDP Select, do you have any additional takeaways for other authors from your experience? Do you think it’s worthwhile?

For the folks who haven’t worked with KDP Select yet, if you have more questions, let us know in the comments and we’ll get you some answers! 

 

This is a reprint from the Duolit blog, by Shannon O’Neil, the author half of the Duolit team.

Science Fiction Aesthetics and Sensibility

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This post, by Timmi Duchamp, originally appeared on the Ambling Along the Aqueduct blog on 11/30/12.

A couple of days ago, Jonathan McCalmont posted Annoyed with the History of Science Fiction to his blog. "Annoyed" notifies us, from the top, that it’s to be read as a rant rather than a sampling of his thoughts on the subject of the history of science fiction. Fair enough. The title also– unintentionally, perhaps– conflates some hypostasized notion of all the existing histories of science fiction distilled into a single "history" with what non-academics usually mean by the word "history" (viz., the past, which inevitably becomes singularly dicey when treated as a conceptual entity). By "history," McCalmont, I believe, means the former. Rants can be interesting and useful, though, and "Annoyed" is both.

It seems a piece by Gary Westfahl provoked McCalmont by making the sort of generalization that seems always to be with us in the sf/f sphere: "the works of Robert A. Heinlein are still occupying a considerable amount of shelf space, and the evidence of his broad impact on the genre is undeniable." McCalmont explains his annoyance thus: "The reason I am singling out Westfahl’s essay is that it illustrates the field’s lamentable tendency to allow these types of broad historical claims to go completely unchallenged and unsupported." So far so good. But when he says 

I believe that the historical approach to science fiction lacks the critical apparatus required to support the sweeping claims made by people who use this approach. Far from being a rigorous analysis of historical fact, the historical approach to genre writing is all too often little more than a hotbed of empty phrases, unexamined assumptions and received wisdom.

Here, I have a bit of trouble with McCalmont’s own generalization. Yes, I see what he calls "the historical approach" used by some academics and many non-academics in the field all the time, but unlike McCalmont, I assume they’re doing so because they’ve chosen to ignore the variety of attempts quite a few smart academic critics have lately made (and continue to make) to grapple with the ungainly, difficult-to-grasp subject without falling into pitfalls Samuel R. Delany has often and effectively excoriated (and which McCalmont duly alludes to). A science fiction work’s closeness to the culture and politics of its time means that any history necessarily has to take shifts in culture and politics (and scientific practice as well as science!) into account. There are scholars in the field attempting to do that– taking a variety of approaches that try their damnedest to eschew generalizations like the one McCalmont cites about Heinlein’s influence.

Now let me get on to the interesting and useful parts of McCalmont’s post. He takes John Berger’s excellent Ways of Seeing and David Bordwell’s On the History of Film Style as examples of approaches to an aesthetic field’s history (art history and film history, respectively) that is illuminating rather than stultifying. Bordwell, McCalmont tells us, pays special attention to the impact certain film techniques (particularly "deep focus," "long take" and "dynamic editing") had on film-making and how we watch films. I think McCalmont gets to something important when he writes:

 

Read the rest of the post on Ambling Along the Aqueduct.

Are You Still Submitting? Determination Is The Key.

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[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language]

You’ve heard it before, I’m sure – you have to keep swimming. That’s true for the actual act of writing in the first place. No matter how hard it is, you just keep going. To quote the erstwhile Chuck Wendig, “I will finish the shit I start.” And then, to explain why, we’ll quote the incomparable Angela Slatter: “You can edit shit, but you can’t edit nothing.”

Notice how shit features in both those quotes? Subconscious, I’m sure, but it helps to make the point. Nothing is shiny first time around. In writing, you really can polish a turd, if you keep at it, make the necessary changes, listen to critique and so on. But you have to have a turd to start with, and that means working hard, writing, writing, writing, essentially, keep pushing until you’ve squeezed one out. And then start polishing.

But I think it’s time we moved away from the crappy analogies. Sorry, it seems I can’t help myself.

Let’s assume you did get the thing finished, be it novel or short story or whatever. Then you started polishing. You edited, tweaked and buffed till it was perfect. Then you sent it out to your critiquing friends and beta readers, and those bastards pointed out all the imperfections. So you listened, because you’re smart like that. And you polished again and again. Eventually, it really was about as good as you could make it. So you submitted it to your favourite market.

And it got rejected.

“Fuck ‘em!” you cry, and send it somewhere else. Their loss if they can’t recognise your genius, right?

Yes, to a degree. Because no matter how good a story is, it might not be right for that publisher’s catalogue, that editor’s taste, that publication’s readership and so on. You have to have a good story – that, above and beyond everything else, is a pre-requisite – but you also have to find the right home. And that’s as much luck and determination as it is smart planning and skill. Of course, if you send your werewolf story to a soft porn magazine it’s not going to sell. Are you laughing? Cos that happened to me.

To be fair, it wasn’t really my fault. When I was moving to Australia permanently, I asked an Australian friend what magazines out here might be good for fiction. I thought I’d start submitting, see if I could get a bit of Aussie publication going before I got here permanently. He said to me, “Picture Magazine publishes fiction, give them a go.” And he sent me the submission address. Old-school post back in those days. Of course, he was winding me up, but I didn’t know that Picture Magazine was a soft-core porn publication. I sent them a story about a werewolf detective. I got a letter back. It said, “This is a beaut yarn, mate, but really not the sort of thing we publish. Thanks anyway.” That’s because the fiction they usually publish is a reader’s-wives/confessions-of-a-randy-plumber type of thing. I didn’t know this before I submitted or when I got the rejection.

When I got to Australia I looked into it. I laughed. Then I went and kicked my mate in the nards for being such a douchebag. Then we both laughed about it. True story. Anyway, write good shit and know your market, is the core of what I’m saying here.

After that, it becomes all about determination. I write this post now because I was recently reminded of the importance of determination by a friend of mine. Ian McHugh is a bloody brilliant short fiction writer. He’s sold stories to such pro markets as Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s and many more. He’s a Writers Of The Future winner and his first collection is coming from Ticonderoga Publications in 2014. Yes, he is one accomplished bastard.

Why am I citing Ian as an example of determination? Well, even with a record like his, he still gets a lot of rejection. He recently made a pro sale with a story that has taken a long time to find a home. How long? I’ll let Ian explain:

This was actually the 19th time I’d submitted this particular story, so it’s my new record holder for number-of-rejections-before-selling. Previous best was 14. My general rule has been to trunk a story after 15 rejections. I broke it for this one because I got some lightning-to-the-brain feedback with the 14th rejection and rewrote the ending.

That means that not only was it rejection 14 times before he had a sudden realisation about how to improve the story, but it was subsequently rejected another four times withthe new ending before it found its home.

As Ian said, “Take whatever lessons you will from my Obsessive Compulsive Bloody-Mindedness Disorder (OCBMD).”

The lesson I take from it? Trust in yourself and keep looking for a home. My personal record of rejections before a sale is the same as Ian’s previous best: 14. What really surprised me was the people on our email list expressing amazement at Ian’s tenacity, saying things like, “I couldn’t handle that much rejection” or “I give up after two or three rejections.”

What!?

Let me share some of my own numbers. My recent short fiction sales are all stories that didn’t find a home right away. In fact, my stories hardly ever do. Only a handful of things I’ve written have sold to the first place I sent them, and those are usually things written for a specific themed anthology, or stories written by request/commission. Of the 3 recent stories that I wrote simply because they were in my brain-juice, and then tried to sell, I got 11 rejections, 2 rejections and 6 rejections before they sold to the 12th, 3rd and 7th market respectively. That’s actually a fair cross-section of submission numbers. (And I was bloody happy with the one that sold on the third attempt!)

So, don’t give up on writing something – finish that motherfucker. Then, when it’s finished and polished to its highest possible sheen, start submitting and do not give up. Stay open to the possibility of change, like Ian’s sudden inspiration. I recently did that and changed a story’s structure entirely after something like 10 or 11 rejections, but it’s still essentially the same story and it’s still out there looking for a home.

Finish it, polish it, submit it, repeat.

Off you go.

Caveat: It gets to a point when you have to admit that your story might not be a polished gem at all, but actually just a stinking turd. Sometimes you do have to trunk a story. Ian’s method is give up after 15 rejections. Mine is probably about the same. But when I give up, I never really give up. I rewrite the story, use the ideas in a different way, make it into something else and then send it out there again. Never. Give. Up. 

 

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

Avoiding Common Grammar Mistakes

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This post originally appeared on the George Mason University English Writing Guide site. While it’s intended for use by students of that University who are following a specific essay-writing curriculum, the common errors it lists will be helpful for anyone who’s doing a self-editing pass.

Introduction

By this point you’re done composing your essay. You’ve written an introduction and conclusion, incorporated transitions, and you’ve made use of textual evidence to support your argument. But you’re not done with your first draft yet—you still need to comb through what you’ve written to make sure that you don’t have any grammar mistakes.

 

Common grammar mistakes not only get in the way of your reader’s ability to understand your argument, but they can also undermine your credibility in the reader’s eyes. We’ve compiled here a list of common grammar mistakes that came up most often for professors in the English Department.

Common Pet Peeves for Teachers

Grammar Errors

  • Comma splices—A comma splice is where a comma is used to join two independent clauses which should be separated by a period. An independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence. Do not simply use a comma everywhere a reader would pause.
     
  • Subject/pronoun disagreement—There are two types of subject/pronoun disagreement, shifts in number and shifts in person.

    • Shifts in number—This phrase means the shifting between singular and plural in the same sentence. Be consistent.
       
    • Shifts in person—This error occurs when the person shifts within the sentence from first to second person, from second to third person, etc.
       
  • Its/it’s—"Its" is the possessive form of "it." "It’s" is the contraction of "it is." They are not interchangeable.
     
  • Mis-use and abuse of semicolons—Semicolons are used to separate two related independent clauses or to separate items in a list that contains commas. Do not abuse semicolons by using them often. They are best used sparingly.
     
  • Dropped commas around clauses—Place commas around words, phrases, or clauses that interrupt a sentence. Do not use commas around restrictive clauses, which provide essential information about the subject of the sentence.

    • Interrupting clause—This clause or phrase interrupts a sentence, such as "however." Place a comma on either side of the interrupting clause.
       
    • Restrictive clause—This clause or phrase provides essential information about the subject of the sentence. Without this clause or phrase, the meaning of the sentence changes.
       
    • Non-restrictive clause—This clause or phrase modifies the subject of the sentence but does not change the meaning of the sentence if left out.
       
  • "Naked this"—Always include a referent with "this," such as "this sentence" or "this rule." With no referent, "this" can confuse the reader.

 

Read the rest of the post on the George Mason University English Writing Guide.

How to Use (not abuse) Jargon, Slang and Idioms

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This post, by Susan Bearman, originally appeared on Write It Sideways on 4/20/12.

I started my writing life as a business writer, compelled to try to improve the tortured, often incomprehensible language I found in operating manuals, annual reports, memoranda, and other formats that some bad writers tried to pass off as business “communication”. There seems to be a great misconception that passive voice, undefined acronyms and abbreviations, and loads of jargon make for good business writing.

Not true. All writers—whether writing for business, science, or academia, or those writing fiction and creative nonfiction—should strive for clarity.

But does that mean jargon, slang, and idioms are always taboo? Not if you do your job to make them serve your writing, rather confuse or bore your readers.

Jargon

jargon (noun) — specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject; a characteristic language of a particular group.

To use jargon effectively, you must know your audience. Almost all industries use jargon to some extent, and that’s OK, because most practitioners of a particular profession have a basic understanding of the material and its associated jargon. Business and sports writers are notorious jargon users, as those in medicine and education.

For most writers, the goal is clarity. Unless you have a specific reason to use jargon, it’s best to avoid it. If you must include jargon, be sure to define it or make it understandable within the context of your story.

Bad writing is often the result of too much jargon. While jargon can be helpful when communicating within a specific group, too much jargon, or jargon that is not clearly defined can lead to muddy, confusing writing. If you find yourself having to reread a sentence over and over again, it is often because it contains confusing jargon.

Well-placed jargon in a piece of fiction can lend the voice of authority or the face of authenticity to a particular character. If one of your characters is a pompous Wall Street trader, using some insider jargon will help readers hear his voice on your page. Genre fiction, such as crime fiction, often relies heavily on the use of jargon. Here again, know your audience.

One way to help define jargon in your writing is to spell out acronyms or abbreviations the first time you use them:

Fuzzy: SCBWI announced on June 19 both the winner and runner up of the Don Freeman Memorial Grant-in-Aid.

Better: On June 19, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced this year’s recipients of the Don Freeman Memorial Grants for picture book illustrators.

See if you can translate the following jargon into language that could be understood by a general audience (note, I did not make these up). You may need your search engine to help you. How many clicks around the Internet did it take you to understand the original jargon?

 

Read the rest of the post on Write It Sideways.