PERSEVERENCE
How long have you been at this game, this passion, this ahem… business of writing? It’s of course, all of these things, yet when you break it down, looking back at where you likely stand right now, it’s basically either a bunch of effort for a: nothing or b: a great deal of fun with tentative results.
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. What will you resolve to do in 2014 with regard to your writing? Perhaps 2013 brought the hoped-for success but if you didn’t get the contract for your latest effort or can’t seem to finish a project, your outlook will make all the difference as to which choice you make.
Things to consider
Do you have goals? This one’s a bit more difficult. Is it to get published? Or, is it to write? More than likely it’s both, but if you’re a true writer, it probably leans more toward the writing part. It should, because that’s where all the passion is, where your prime motivation should be or there would be nothing to take to a publisher. However, if you want anyone else to ever see what you’ve written, the next logical step is, of course, to get published.
It can be said that a true writer can just write for writing’s sake, and be happy. Yet there’s nothing wrong with wanting others to be able to enjoy the stories real, or unreal that you’ve created. You have the passion and creativity and are constantly developing your skills as a writer. However, the most difficult thing is getting it out there so someone else can read it.
All the passion for writing makes no difference to the outside world unless you can break into the world of publishing. There are hundreds if not thousands of others with the same idea, trying their best to do the exact same thing. We, as writers are flooded with advice on how to break in. I’ve heard it all. It never ceases to amaze me how many variations on the same thing come from different experts on how to break into the game.
The basics are simple
It takes writing talent, a great story, face time, perseverance and just plain luck.
Talent and a great story go without saying. Unfortunately, there are literally thousands of talented writers with great stories.
Sure, there’s dumb luck, but the only way to make your own luck is with plenty of face time. To do that, you need to go to conferences and meet agents and publishers face-to-face. If you think query letters work, I’ve got a drawer full of them, mostly ignored. If you think sending the full manuscript works any better, I’ve got a bin full of returned, mostly unblemished and unread manuscripts.
Numbers make a difference
The only thing left in making your own luck is the numbers. Like they say, if you don’t play the Lotto, you have zero chance of winning. I started querying agents in 1995. My first attempt was The Greenhouse. I’ve pitched many different manuscripts since then and have accumulated 669 rejections as of last count. Perseverance.
You’ll get nowhere if you don’t try.
In eighteen years, I’ve actually nailed two book contracts. Publication is tentative right now, but it’s a start. Many people would’ve given up long before that.
Do you have perseverance?
I’m not exactly sitting around waiting for a publisher to find my great novels, either. I’ve had multiple short stories published, a newspaper article as well as several astronomy articles in a national magazine. I also publish a monthly astronomy observing project that’s been ongoing since 2009. I’ve written 787 reviews on Amazon, so far, and am a continual contributor to the Cloudy Nights astronomy forum. On top of that, I’m always working on the next novel, which right now is number twelve (is it?). I’m also editing constantly as well as occasionally editing for friends. My world, when not working is mostly about writing. I keep busy.
Right now, even though I have two books tentatively under contract, I’m still gearing up for the next Las Vegas Writer’s Conference. More face time with agents and publishers and everyone else involved in the industry. You can’t win the Lotto if you don’t play. Perseverance!
Writing and trying to get published is all about keeping at it. You have to make your own luck. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t try. Perseverance.
Happy writing!
NOTE: Thanks to Morgan St. James for the special formatting of this page and the 2nd paragraph. You rock!
FAKE REVIEWS
I’ve touched on this subject when I discussed book blurbs and review quotes a few articles past. This time, I want to talk about blatant fake reviews. There’s a blatant fake reviewer on Amazon that some of the publishers use. I won’t mention the name so I won’t get sued, but I can tell you that what she does is quote the back blurb and give the book either a four or five star review, depending on her mood or what the marketing wizzes at the publisher tell her to do. The four star reviews are probably to try and make them look more legitimate. I strongly suspect she never reads a single word, especially since she has something like 29,000 + reviews out there. Ah, duh!
This kind of blatant fake marketing doesn’t do us authors any favors, at least I my mind. I’d be flat out embarrassed to have my publisher pull a stunt like that. What’s worse is to have naive readers fall for it. Many uninformed people have no idea they’re reading total bull. However, I’ve noticed a lot of times, when she posts one of her reviews, people are quick to react with feedback. There are plenty of people that are wise to this line. So many in fact, that a lot of times, they’re censored.
This reviewer showed up on David Lynn Golemon’s book, Carpathian, a book where I really liked the story, but the writing and editing was horrific. Of course, this person copied the back cover and gave the book four stars (instead of five???). Almost immediately, a flood of feedback started on her review, calling her a fake. I even chimed in. I have no idea what I said wrong, but one of my posts was deleted. I wrote most of it again and the second time, it stuck.
It pisses me off to see that, on a book I think was superb (not Carpathian, by the way)… especially on a book that was superb. It cheapens it.
Reviews are supposed to be honest and sincere. From the heart.
Another thing, while we’re at it. I hate when a great story gets docked because the reviewer is giving the book one star because their Kindle doesn’t work right! Yeah, I’m talking about you, Mr./Mrs./MS e-book reader with the Kindle, I-pad or whatever paperless gizmo you use. You download a story that doesn’t work right, you pay what you think is too much, the font won’t expand to the right font size, or the formatting is off a bit.
That’s a great reason to slam the STORY down to one star because your DEVICE or the PRICE doesn’t make you happy. How about doing a review of Amazon, or the place you bought it from? Leave the story out of it. Just plain dumb.
Then again, I see your frustration because you may have no other outlet to vent your frustration or anger. So, you take it out on the author who has nothing to do with any of those things… usually.
Unless, they self-published the work and then… well, all bets are off, except that still doesn’t justify slamming what may be a great story because the electronic functions don’t work. Then again, the author should’ve done their homework better. It’s no different than getting their work edited properly. E-formatting is just as important in this day and age.
On the other hand, if you buy a printed book and find it full of grammatical errors and poor writing (Carpathian cough cough…), now you have a legitimate gripe.
Reviews should be real and about the story and how well it’s written, not about the electronics or price. They should be real, honest and from the heart.
They should also be from a book the reviewer actually read!
To keep full disclosure, I’ll admit, I’ve done one bad review on a book I never read. The reason is that I was a big fan of this author and he always wrote in solid third-person. All of a sudden, he switched to first-person. It upset me enough that I not only didn’t buy his book, I did a scathing review of my thoughts on how he ruined a perfectly good series by shifting gears in midstream. Probably not the most mature thing to do, but it came from the heart. You all know how I feel about first-person in fiction! There are very few cases where I’ve liked it (one I’m reading right now that’s mixed) but that’s a special circumstance. I won’t take the review back. It’s still my honest opinion.
Whatcha’ think?
Happy writing!
DOES YOUR TITLE HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR BOOK?
This is sort of a sequel to last week’s article. I talked about how not to punish your reader with words. To be exact, make your prose succinct and to the point. Don’t drone on and on. In that same vein, how about making the title somehow correspond to the subject matter?
After I did my Amazon review of the book that inspired that previous article, though the title played some part in it, that was hardly the focus of events. I had to stretch to tie it in. I guess the author had to slap some title onto his lecture, because that’s ultimately what this tome turned out to be, a lecture on British occupation of the Sudan with a quest for treasure thrown in.
To me, the title came off as a poor choice. It was an underlying theme, I guess, a common thread, but the majority of the story was about something else entirely. I could’ve thought of a hundred different titles, (some of them not so complimentary), but let’s not get off the track.
When I title my stories, I like to make damn sure the title has something to do with the actual story, something significant to do with the story, not just a minor thread to tie it all together. I suppose, using the authors logic, the title DID tie it all together, but maybe it was because I wasn’t really happy with so much of the book that the title didn’t ring true.
That still brings up my point about being careful to title your story. There have been plenty of cases of titles that didn’t fit.
What is the purpose of the title anyway? It’s a form of recognition, a way for people to identify with what you wrote, a marketing tool. At the same time, that title should have something to do with what’s between the pages. Not just a minor part, but a significant part. In the case of the book that inspired this article, I’d say the title barely had ten percent to do with the story. The beginning, an occasional mention here and there and the very end and the author’s notes, which mind you, were just as droning and endless as the narrative! I guess that’s better than some others I’ve run across, but still a poor choice, in my opiniont.
Some people love to get words for their money, but I’d prefer to have fun with my words. Some of you probably, as readers, have a lot of fun reading college-lecture style adventure. I don’t. When it comes to misleading titles, that just adds insult to injury. Then again, back in the seventies, I remember plenty of the goofy psychedelic-era tomes that had said titles that didn’t have a thing to do with the content. They’re out there, and some of them are probably considered classics.
The title is extremely important. It sets the whole premise for the book. If the title is called Horse and the book is about bank robbers who use VW Beatles and a horse is only mentioned once as a side comment somewhere in the middle, that’s a crummy title. If the book is called All The Boatmen yet the book is about a lumber mill, and the only reference to boats are two lovers in the story going on a canoe trip one weekend, that’s a misleading title.
Those two examples I completely made up, so don’t think I took them from real examples. If they happen to be real books, that’s pure coincidence. If so, that really makes my point!
I’ve seen more real examples but don’t want to disparage any authors directly so I won’t go there.
What I will say is I’ve read a few with nonsensical and misleading titles. The one that inspired this article barely qualified. It’s in the past now. Even though I’m a completeist, I probably won’t be filling the gaps with the books I’ve missed in the series unless I get really desperate for something to read.
Please do your readers justice and give them an accurate title!
Happy writing.
LEAVE A LITTLE SPACE ON YOUR PAGES!
I just finished reading an adventure-thriller by an underwater archaeologist. The main characters echo the author’s passion and are also underwater archaeologists. Though I’ve almost begged off continuing the series and skipped a few, I had a weak moment and picked up the latest. The problem is that since he is an archaeologist, he can’t seem to leave the lecture hall behind.
He’s among a few authors that make for a very tough read. There’s another author that writes alternative history in the science-fiction mold. Though the series is quite good, the reading is tough to get through because the paragraphs tend to drone on-and-on and there’s not a lot of empty space on each page. Even the dialogue can be half-page paragraphs.
Why do these authors insist on punishing their readers with extremely high word count (Robert Jordan, cough cough)? I personally find this lecturing style to be excruciating. The paragraphs often take up half to a full page, tend to have sentences with thirty to forty words or more, and drone on-and-on with detail after detail. When I turn the next page, I see solid text with little air space for a breather. That makes it very hard to keep my place, especially while reading during commercials. Sometimes I can’t even get through a single paragraph during a commercial break, even speed-reading.
I know everyone has their own style, but to me, the whole point of a story is to move. In the case of the archaeologist author, his pattern is to have a little action, then find a way to pause things so the characters can go into lecture mode to explain a bunch of historical background for multiple pages before something else happens. Usually, the historical lecture takes up more space than the actual story movement. A lot more… I’m not kidding.
As for the alternative history author, he writes very detailed and meticulously, and slooowwww… It’s a fascinating world, but he doesn’t write anything in short bursts or does he give any room to breathe.
You have a path to get from point A to point B. Along that path, whether it’s seat-of-the-pants or outlined, I encourage you to parse it out in a palatable way so that you don’t punish your readers with a wall of words, huge paragraphs and super-long sentences. Break it up a little! Give them a bit of space on those pages! I can convey every one of my ideas without resorting excruciating detail as in a wall of words. I’m pretty sure these two authors (and they’re not the only ones) could do the same if they really wanted to.
Of course, they have their fans. They keep publishing books and making sales. They get mostly decent reviews and even some great ones. Mixed in are a good dose of negative comments as well.
I like both the worlds these authors created, but had to suffer to get there. I, for one, don’t what to make my readers suffer to get there. There are better ways to do it.
Remember, you’re writing a story, not a college textbook!
Happy writing!
THE POLKA-DOT SEWER STRIKES AGAIN
I’ve always valued the random thought when it comes to inspiration. During the creation of my stories, as I’ve stated many times, I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer. I know where to start and where I want to end, with everything in-between a total surprise. Of course, considering the subject matter, that in-between has to follow certain guidelines. The path and any actions within those guidelines can be purely random, inspired by the littlest, most trivial things.
I think I’ve passed this down to my grandson. This past Saturday night, we went out to my favorite dark-sky location so I could do some deep-sky visual observing with my telescope. He likes to come along so he can use his punky little telescope that I won in a raffle at our latest major star party at Cathedral Gorge this past September. He loves that scope, though truth be told, at this stage in his life, it’s merely a prop so he can get out of the house and do his real favorite thing, talk incessantly.
Yup, before we even leave the house, he’s jabbering away. He doesn’t stop until he either falls asleep over halfway home, or when we back into the driveway (to unload the telescope) and he runs into the house ahead of me. The chatter is one endless random stream. Over the past few months, he’s been “writing a book” in his head. I won’t go into the details because I don’t have a clue what they are. I’m not kidding. His story is so random, I can’t make heads or tails of it except once in a while he puts two or three sentences together that sort of make sense. I may go “Uh huh,” or ask him a question which sends him off on another tangent. He’s happy, I drive!
I sometimes wonder how, when he gets older, he could channel that randomness into a creative outlet with real stories. I was that way when I was his age, eight, except I didn’t talk near as much. However, I had my share of stories even younger, as in kindergarten, like when my sister went down the bathtub drain, or later in elementary school where I was a crew kid on a whaling ship that visited Calee’fornia from Hawaii. These stories I told with a straight face to my teachers and classmates. Who knows where that inspiration came from?
Whether my eight year old grandson will be able to develop his talent for gab into a creative outlet is to be seen, but I know he must’ve inherited a bit of that creativity and randomness from me.
Now that I’ve finished a totally true, but with fictionalized dialogue (for story flow) account from my childhood for our writer’s group anthology, I can get back to my fantasy novel. Of course, Gods Of The Blue Mountains is in a completely fictional world, so I have a different set of rules, yet there are rules. I can’t do something jarring. I can do startling and maybe exciting, but not jarring. I can’t jerk people out of the world, but I can up the ante with tense scenes or do something goofy. My random process will be intact, all with the ultimate goal still on the horizon and firmly entrenched.
I think back to the Polka-Dot Sewer drawing I did in kindergarten, and how I amazed my neighbor mothers when they asked me what it was. The title just popped into my head and there was the beginnings of my lifelong creative streak. I see that same creativity in my grandson, and I’ve seen multiple Polka-Dot Sewers come out of his head.
For you, the new or experienced writer, if your game is fiction, how much do you make up at random and how much do you meticulously plan out from convention? How much do you pull out of the air?
The whole point of this article, I suppose, is a big thumbs down from me on outlining. I suppose one could use that same randomness in the outlining process, then turn the same principle to the details. A little organization can help some of you from going off the rails. For me, even the hint of planning ahead spoils the muse, it spoils the adventure. Yet, I applaud those of you that work that way. Each of us is different and it really doesn’t matter how we get there. What we end up with is all that matters. Either the end result is good or it sucks.
Happy writing.
BENEFITS AND CONSEQUENCES OF RESEARCH
I’ve talked several times about how important it is to do your research. When you’re writing a story based on some form of reality, and don’t want your readers to call you on a fact you blew because of your ignorance, that standard “despite extensive research and help from others, all errors are the authors alone” statement a lot of authors use just doesn’t cut it.
Another problem is that many times, simply relying on the Internet may not be enough. It all depends on the situation. However, this is all old news and my issue is when you become involved in a subject beyond the mere “getting the facts straight” phase.
Case in point is one of my someday upcoming novels about a lake. I won’t name either the title of the novel or the lake. Those of you that care enough can probably dig deep enough into my past and find out what I’m referring to, but because of the situation that’s evolved over the past few years, the tragic decline of a situation I’ve been following closely, I’d rather not bring up the name.
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with this body of water. It made for the perfect inspiration for a thriller forty years later. When I started my research, I got to know several people involved with it. Because of that, I became emotionally involved in the sad story and the tragic state of what should be a natural wildlife area.
This whole saga should’ve been a lot simpler. However, once I started digging, it turned into a quest for the truth about legends, the science behind the reality, and the politics behind the effort to save it from various forces out to use it and/or abuse it for various means.
If I were a millionaire, I’d buy the property and settle things once and for all, but that’s just a pipe dream. All I can do is periodically check on it, watch as things continue to deteriorate, and stay on the sidelines, helpless to not only get involved, but even campaign in anyway because doing so could hurt people that don’t need the grief.
Instead of merely a simple research project for a novel, I’ve become emotionally involved in something far deeper. It’s also part of my heritage. As it stands right now, I can’t use the real name or location of the lake, which was part of my original research goal (to gain permission from the owner).
When you do research, as I do, I normally don’t become this involved in something. It’s usually a lot of fun and I learn many things. In this case, fortunately or unfortunately, I also came away with a personal interest that has lasted far longer, along with friendships beyond just a contact person.
Has this happened to you as a writer? Are you in this situation right now?
If things work out, saving the lake would be far more valuable than anything I would ever get from the book. At this point, it doesn’t look like things are going to work out so well for the lake.
Research can be simple, or you can end up in a situation like I’m in. Either way, writing is still a kick, ain’t it?
Happy writing!
GROWING YOUR CHARACRERS THROUGH A SERIES
I was on the verge of doing another article on authors I like when I thought of author Michael Slade. That’s a pseudonym for what used to be a group of authors spearheaded by one Jay Clarke. He’s a hoser from the Great White North (a Canadian, and technically, we Americans are the hosers). I loved his dark thrillers, at least the early ones. They involved a special section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police called Special X. They took on some real sick characters. After the first one or two novels, Jay took over the series completely, and later added the help of his daughter, Rebecca (at least that’s the way I think it went down).
I loved reading each one and used to haunt the bookstores waiting for the next installment. Slade had a habit of growing his characters with each release. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem with this bunch of characters is that they either tended to die or lose body parts. By the fourth or fifth book, the main characters were either dead or wearing multiple prosthetics. Too many more stories and any survivors either wouldn’t have any natural limbs left or would be unable to function in some other way. I lost interest in the series when in the last one I read, he became so overbearing with background info, I titled my review “The Hitler Channel.” After that, I still might’ve tried another one but it never made it to the local bookstores.
Lots of authors grow their characters. It’s a natural thing. In any series, you can’t have someone go through a myriad of adventures and not age, or progress and have them be realistic. The key is to do it so the person remains interesting and likable, not mundane or a cliché.
Another of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler, took his Dirk Pitt character, aged him and gave him a son and daughter. He advanced Dirk to director of the agency he worked for, and made his boss the Vice President. Dirk is less involved in the adventures while his son and daughter have taken up the baton. A lot of readers didn’t like this progression. Clive kept Dirk in the mix for some of the action, but since he’s aged considerably, how realistic can it be for a gray-haired middle-aged guy to be gallivanting around beating up the bad guys?
In the case of my Gold series, Detach progresses, but at a microscopic pace. I don’t want to write myself into a corner where he ages himself right out of a job. If I want to keep going beyond a few books, I need to make him advance in years very slow. That means the time span of each story needs to be carefully planned so I don’t have one take place over a year or several years. If your adventures add up to forty years but the character has only aged five or ten, you have a math problem!
When you progress a character, make sure you don’t write yourself into a trap you can’t get out of. Don’t, for instance, give them a lot of baggage that will get in the way of the great plot you come up with for the next one. Be very careful to parse this stuff out and think it through.
I’ve seen plenty of series ruined because the authors have progressed their characters right out of the series. What attracted me to the series in the first place is no longer there. They’ve written themselves into a trap where they can’t continue the series with the same spark, the same charm that attracted their audience.
Some writers grow their characters so their audience won’t get bored with cookie cutter characters and plot. Sure, doing the same book over and over again will get boring. Changing the character too much can also lose the original reason the reader liked them in the first place. Make the changes slow so the series will last.
The other side of the coin is if you have no intention of making the series last. Your plan may be limited to begin with. If that’s the case, your character can grow right out of the series after several books and you’re off to something else. I prefer longer series I can come back to. After all, there were over seventy Doc Savage novels. Then again, I have a longer attention span that most people! I can’t be the only one…
Happy writing.
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 