Illigetimis Non Carborundum

The other day, I happened to be at my local feed store.  The cashier hasn't been there too awfully long, but long enough that I had hoped she would remember me.  She explained that she doesn't remember faces really well, and well, neither do I, so it was all good.  Then I got an idea.  I asked her if she likes to read.  She does.  Yay.  So, I handed her a bookmark and started talking to her about my books.  I bet her that she wouldn't forget me again.  

During the course of our conversation, though, she mentioned that her daughter writes books, too.  So, once I'd finished talking about myself, I asked about her daughter's writing.  She's only finished one book, but her experience with a 'professional editor' has her so down that she may never write another.  Even though the people who've read her book loved it and even though those people want more of that world and even though they told her to ignore the editor.  Poor thing.  I wish I could give her a hug and tell her everything will be alright.

Apparently, this editor wanted her to make so many changes, the book would no longer be the book she wrote.  I was livid.  Not only no, but hell no.  Instead of dropping the idea of writing, she needs to drop that editor.  Perhaps drop kick the editor.  

I told the mom what I firmly believe - editors are there to provide suggestions, and if they're messing with your story, they're the wrong editor.  Take what you agree with and ditch the rest.  And if you find yourself disagreeing more than agreeing, ditch the editor.

I also told the mom to have her daughter email me.  Not sure if I can help, but even if she just wants to vent and gain a sympathetic ear, I'm here.  Hell, for all I know, she's the next Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman.  (The book is fantasy.)  And all she needs is a little coaxing through this birthing process.  She could also be a true neophyte whose book needs a lot of work.  In either case, she probably doesn't deserve to have her dream stomped on.  New writers should all have wear the Label - Caution: Handle with Care.

Additionally, I told the mom that her daughter, pardon my language, needed to grow a set because this business requires it.  (Yes, I actually said 'pardon my language'.  I don't know this gal as well as I knew the last one.)  Because while new writers should be handled with care until their skin thickens, they also need to work on getting that skin as thick as they can make it - the sooner the better.  As most of you are aware, this writing thing will grind you into a fine powder, piss in the dust, and use the paste as grout - if you let it.

Anyway, I hope she does contact me.  If I can't help her, I can put her in touch with other writers, open the door to the community so maybe she can find someone who can help.  And like I said, I can at least commiserate.  

Lastly, I'll leave you all with these thoughts: 

"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist, you are learning your craft -- then you can add all the genius you like." - Phyllis A. Whitney

"Writers must fortify themselves with pride and egotism as best they can. The process is analogous to using sandbags and loose timbers to protect a house against flood. Writers are vulnerable creatures like anyone else. For what do they have in reality? Not sandbags, not timbers. Just a flimsy reputation and a name." - Brian Adkiss

And... Illigetimis non carborundum.  Or 'don't let the bastards grind you down'.  ;o)

Picking Flowers Off the Wallpaper

In the interest of potentially finding more people to read the books I write, I'm beginning the journey of trying to be more sociable online.  (There's not much I can do about being more social in person.  I'm a hermit, for pitysakes.)

So, here's what I've been doing this week:

I've been commenting more on other people's posts.  It's not much and I'm not being especially profound, but if I have something nice to say, I say it.  "Way to go."  "That book sounds intriguing.  Thanks for posting about it."  

I friended like 3 more people and I'm looking for people to friend in the comments sections.  So it's not willy-nilly or friending without reason.  If they make a comment and it sounds like someone I might enjoy being around online, I send them a friend request.  Hopefully, they find something of value in me, too, and accept my requests.

I'm trying to remember to post on the blogs every day.  Actually, I'm trying to have these posts scheduled at least the night before, so I don't fall down on the job again.  Last night, I fell down, so here I am at 7am creating a post.  Come on, coffee.

And I'm trying to remember to post links to my blog posts on FB and MeWe.  This was a thing I used to do, but got out of the habit of.  Back at it again.  :whipcrack:  

Like I said on Wednesday, the point of this is to gain more potential readers, BUT it's not to post more about my books - which is kind of counter-intuitive.  So, while I have posted a link or two about the books being in wide distribution, I'm making that a rare type of post.  Sprinkle it here or there.  See if anything grows.

I've thought about starting to be active in the forums at KDP.  I used to be very active at the AbsoluteWrite forums, but then they pissed me off and I left.  The thought of going back to that kind of thing sort of makes me nauseous, but if I have to do it, I have to do it.  I wouldn't mind having a little hangout online somewhere, where people of like minds can get together.  Unfortunately, with the world the way it is, finding people who have minds like mine is a crap shoot.  Is there anywhere a body can talk about life and writing without political stuff getting in the way?  Or is that like locating a unicorn?

Now, I realize that stating here why I'm suddenly being more social and the self-serving nature of my socialness could turn some folks off.  Sorry about that.  I could be all fake and junk and say I'm giving in to my herd-beast nature, but that just wouldn't be my style.  If I'm out there and I find people who could truly be my friends, then great.  If not, that's okay.  The purpose of this is to find readers.  Anything else is sprinkles on the icing on the cake.

I am what I am - a wallflower.  Or a flower on the wallpaper.  Time to pick it.  If I have to.  I guess.

(And yes, I know that 'picking flowers off the wallpaper' is a euphemism for being nuts, but I thought it was funny.  And I'm feeling a little nuts these days.)

Books 2 Read and D2D

Natural Causes is up at most of the D2D retailers now, too.  

I'm actually managing to snag all of the custom links I want.  Which tells me people aren't using that function at Books 2 Read very much.  I probably shouldn't be talking about this until after all my books are wide, so I don't lose any of my future custom universal links, but that would be kind of a dick move.  So, if you're out there and reading this, set your custom links so they SAY your book's title rather than a series of gibberish.  Like Natural Causes is "https://books2read.com/natural-causes".

Don't know how?  If you're at your book's page at Book2Read, there's a little thingy near the bottom right that says "Is this your book?  Add additional stores."  (You have to be logged in, but if you're already logged into Draft 2 Digital, you should be logged in at B2R.)  

Okay, so you click that and then at the new page, on the left side, there are Link Tools.  Right there in the middle is Custom Name Your URL.  Click that.  Then type in what you want your URL to be.  If it's available, it gives you the option to Save.  And voila!  

By the way, while you're on that page, check to make sure they have all the links for your books.  If you're not having D2D submit to Amazon, because your books are already there, you have to add that link.  And at the bottom, there's a place to add your print book links.  Do that, too.  And every rare once in a while, links for stores D2D has submitted to are missing, so make sure those are there, too.  No use having a tool like this and not using it to your full advantage, eh?

To the gal who suggested I do this whole 'Universal Link' thing years ago, I'm sorry I ignored your advice.  But back then, I really only had Amazon to worry about, so I didn't think it mattered.  It does and I should've listened to you. 

So, now if I want to share my books with anyone, especially if I'm out and about, all I have to say is 'you can find it at 'books2read/<book-title>'.  Huzzah.  

OR, I can just tell them to find all my books at the Custom Page URL.  Mine is at books2read.com/BESanderson.  Easy Peasy, eh?

Hope that helps. 

Ahem, and I didn't get the genie books uploaded yet.  Maybe today.  

Change It Up

Everyone's got their own way of writing, and that's a good thing.  Everyone also has their own way of editing, which is also a good thing.  As long as it actually is a good thing.

See, I have this usual way of editing my books.  I send the first draft to my Kindle, then I sit down with a big notebook and read the book while making notes about things that need changing.  I then input the notes and when I'm done with all of them, I send the next draft to my Kindle.  The second time, I generally input the notes as I go, once I get a page or so I enter them.  Other than that, it's lather, rinse, repeat until the book is as far as I can take it by myself.  At which point, the book goes to my readers so they can make notes however they make them and send them back to me.

It's a pretty good system that worked well for a lot of books.  So, I was working on that system for this book.  I did the first round and everything was fine.  Then I sat down to do the second round and it wasn't working for me at all.  And when things aren't working well, I tend to not want to do them.  I made about five notes and then I didn't want to pick up the book again.  Blerg.  

Then I sat down to input the notes, even though there were so few of them, thinking it might jump start the process.  Took like five minutes.  At which point, the general rule is to get up off my ass and go make more notes.  But the thought of that made me want to go play poker instead.  

So, what's a gal to do?  Change it up.  If doing the way I've done it for years isn't working, do it a different way.  Instead of making edit notes, I sat my ass down here, opened the manuscript, and started over from the beginning, changing anything wrong with the story.  I usually need the middle man, but I cut him right the hell out.  And it seems to be working for me.  Right now, anyway.  

Anyway, doing this goaded me into getting sixteen pages edited last night.  After only doing three pages during the previous session.  And two pages the session before that.  Yes, this deep, line by line editing is going to take longer, but I believe the end result will be closer to finished than the other way.  And if it isn't, well, at least it got me working again.  If it's closer to finished, I may only have to do a proofreading pass, which would cut the time off the end considerably.  We'll see.

The point is, there is no one right way to do any of this.  There isn't one right way from person to person, and there isn't even one right way for the same person from book to book.  Do what works until it doesn't work.  Then change.   If you feel like you're pushing yourself to work instead of being pulled by the work, mix it up a bit.  Do something... anything... a bit differently.  Hell, do it all differently, if you have to.  Put some jumper cables on that dead battery and get the engine to turn over again.  

At least this is working for me.  Your mileage may vary, but what could it hurt to try?

What NOT to Do

Last night, I sat down to watch the remake of the original movie for the series The Waltons.  I do love me some Waltons, doncha know.  I've seen every episode of the series multiple times.  And with the way entertainment is these days, I wasn't so sure I wanted to watch this remake.  But there was nothing else on, so I waded in.

It was bad.  So bad.  I mean, we watched it all (Hubs joined me about halfway through), but it was not good.  The acting was bad.  Most of the time, it was like they were reading the lines instead of acting the characters.  But this blog isn't about acting.  It's about writing.

And the writing was bad.  The dialogue was bad.  Good god, people.  Did you even think about how people talk to one another?  Especially how people talked to each other in 1933?  Some of the slang for today would not have been slang then.  I wish I could remember some of the instances, but I don't.  Trust me, they were there.  Glaring.  Spotlight right to the eyes.  

And it wasn't like writing the script would've been hard.  The movie followed the original plot for the most part.  They could've used the original script for petesakes.  Geez.

And whoever researched the historical period should be slapped.  1933... Virginia.  A black police officer?  Come on.  Really? And considering, it was post-Depression, so why the hell was everyone dressed so nicely?  Oh, sure, they put Mary Ellen in overalls, but they were nice overalls, like they'd been bought recently for her instead of the hand-me-down ones she would've been wearing.  And all the other children were so nicely dressed they looked like they were sporting their go-to-church clothes instead of the cheap, raggedy play clothes the children of a poor mountain family would've been wearing.  Everything should've looked well-worn, like they'd been passing the clothes down for years and making everything else by hand.  Hell, even when the dad was laying in bed in his long-johns, the damn things looked like he bought them online last week.

Did they even bother to watch the original movie???  They could've made it all so much better if they had simply followed the formula that worked so well it spawned a hit TV series that lasted for NINE YEARS.  (Okay, so maybe they should've stopped after Richard Thomas left, but that's just my opinion.)

Anyway, if you're writing a period piece or anything else, pay attention to how people talk to each other.  Pay attention to the period you're writing.  Otherwise, you'll leave your readers like that movie left this viewer... irritated and wanting to write a scathing one-star review.  

Embracing the Old Stuff

 Every Wednesday, my most awesome and wonderful friend, Silver, posts a thing called Wednesday Words, wherein she takes a prompt and posts a snippet with that particular word in it.  And asks others to post their own snippet.  Today's word was 'telescope'.  And it made me trot out my first book.  (Because I don't think any other book I've ever written has that word and I can't seem to write to spec.)  You can read my snippet over there.  Warning: It's pretty bad.

And that's what I want to talk about today.  

Early writing can be awful.  Actually Fear Itself can't have been that bad.  It helped Hubs fall in love with me, after all.  But it's not where I am right now.  And looking back at it makes me want to cringe.  

That snippet alone... ugh.  I used 'breathed' as a dialogue tag for pitysakes.  

It's nearly 18 years since I started writing that book, though, and I've grown a lot.  Thank goodness for that.  Eighteen years.  I don't know how many books I've written in those years, but 16 of them are now published.  One would hope after all that, I'd learned some things.  I don't use 'breathed' as a dialogue tag anymore, that's for damn sure.  LOL

I think every writer should go back and read the early stuff they've written, though.  It helps to see where you've been.  And then you can celebrate how far you've come.  

Even better, go back and try to fix your early stuff.  It helps stretch the editing muscles.  I still love that book, flaws and all, and I have tried, from time to time, to fix the writing.  I may do it yet.  I'm stubborn that way.

One thing you should never do is shitcan your old stuff.  You need it.  Even if you never look at it again, it's part of your journey.  It's your history.  It's like an old movie of you learning to walk.  You'd never destroy that because you walk perfectly now, would you?  No, you embrace it.  

Embrace your early writings.  They may suck.  They may make you cringe.  You may never want to ever show any of it to the world, because, frankly, it can be a little embarrassing.  But they're part of who you are now as a writer.  Don't cringe.  Smile.  The same way you'd smile at uncovered art from Kindergarten.  You've grown, sure, but that burgeoning writer is a part of you.  Embrace her.

People Don't Talk Like That

I started reading a book the other day and within a few pages, DNF'd that sucker.  The problem was the dialogue.  It was stilted and wooden with loads of 'as you know' stuff where the author used the characters to supply backstory without any reason for them to be talking about the past.  

People don't talk like that.  And they don't converse that way.

I realize sometimes it's hard to see where your dialogue might have gone wrong.  (And as such, I hope I never present dialogue to my readers that's anything like that.)  For me, though, writing and reading is like listening to someone talking in my head.  Basically, it's all dialogue up in there.  So, when the dialogue goes wrong, it really sticks out.

If you're not like this, a basic way to figure out if your dialogue has gone wrong is to read it out loud.  If you find yourself tripping over stuff, it's because the way you've written it isn't the way people generally talk.  If it sounds wooden and hollow, it is.

Your mileage may vary if you're writing high fantasy.  People don't talk like that anymore either.  Still, even then, there should be a flow to the words.  Read Shakespeare aloud.  (Which, imo, is the only way to really enjoy Shakespeare if you're not actually at a play.)  Shakespeare's old stuff, but he's still relevant because he had the ebb and flow of human conversation down.  If you're worried about reading Shakespeare, read the newer fantasies of Brooks, Butcher, Farland, etc.  They do good dialogue.

Of course, the book I was reading was YA.  I think that only made it worse.  People don't talk like that.  Teens definitely don't talk like that.  It's been a while since I was a teen or had a teen, but I don't think the general drift of teenage conversation is towards more formal and stilted.  (Would that it were sometimes.)  It was also paranormal, which made the stilted dialogue even worse.  Ebb and flow is key there, folks.  

Ebb and flow is key everywhere.  Any well-received book of any genre has an ebb and flow to the dialogue.  Hell, there's an ebb and flow to the whole damn thing.  If the reader is tripping and stumbling and trying to make the writing make sense in their heads, they're going to put the book down.  Or throw it against the wall.  And never pick up another one by that author.  None of wants that, now do we?

Anyway, I'm probably the last writer to go to for advice - since my sales are dismal - but since I'm also a prolific reader, you should probably take note.  A little.  Maybe.  Do yourself and the world a favor and make your dialogue sound more like the way people actually talk.  K?

If you're a writer, do you read your stuff out loud?  From a reader standpoint, can you think of any writers who do dialogue especially well? 

Finding Your Best Time to Work

Okay, so I kicked my own ass yesterday and got the final three pages of notes taken care of.  Then I emailed the book to my Kindle again.  This morning I opened it up and read a little bit.  

Ugh.

And I have officially entered the 'this is dreck and I hate it' phase of book editing.  I may end up doing a total rewrite of the beginning.  Again.  Or I might see how it looks later after I've had more coffee and a few more cigarettes... Maybe lunch... and a nap.  First thing in the morning is never a good time for me to judge my own work.

That's an important thing to realize about yourself and your own writing, you know.  When is the best time to be objective about your work?  

Personally, in order to be as objective as possible, I don't go through a first draft until I've had enough time to sort of forget what I wrote.  (Not hard for me, with my memory.)  Time brings distance.  Two weeks is usually a good amount of time for me.  With this book, I didn't wait the two weeks because it had been so long since I wrote the beginning, I had distance from it.  This is something I've learned about myself and my writing.

Like I said, I don't function well in the morning.  At least not the creative part of my brain.  Editing or writing first thing is out - even if I'm under deadline.  Why put myself through that and potentially make things worse?  

Being aware of when you work best is key.  If you've been around here long enough, you've seen me talk about the fact that I write at night.  I started doing it when I was homeschooling and the only time I had to write was after dinner when the school day was done and the house was quiet again.  And it stuck, so even years after Owl was grown and moved away, I write at night.  I do other things during the day - edits are okay, marketing is fine, business stuff during the day is best.  New words?  After dinner only.  In a pinch, I can write new words in the afternoon.  It's my process and it works for me.  

The point is doing what works for you.  Regardless of what anyone else says about their process.  This is my process.  Find your process and work it.

When is your best time to write?  Do you give yourself time between writing the book and editing it?  If you're not a writer, what time of day do you do your best work?

It Ain't Easy But It's Necessary

Writing every day ain't easy, lemme tell ya.  There are days when the world has had its way with you.  There are days when you're just tired.  There are days when the words just won't come out.  There are days when you spent 7 minutes kneading pizza dough earlier and now your hands/wrists/arms hurt too much to want to type.  (Oh, wait, that last one is just me.)

Previously, when any of those types of days happened, I would give myself a pass and not write that day.  I'm the CEO of this business.  I can give myself a day off. 

Except one day off leads to two days off and two days off leads to...  You get the gist.  And genuine reasons for taking a day off lead to excuses for taking a day off.  'My hands are killing me today' as a reason turns into 'I'm a little sore' as an excuse.  And the next thing you know, you haven't written a damn word for weeks... err, months. 

At least that's how it works for me.

So, this month, no matter how I feel physically or mentally, I'm writing every day.  Sure, it's not always a lot of words.  That 300-something day, oddly enough, wasn't due to anything but that the story wasn't talking to me.  I ended up forcing it to talk and got the 300+.  Right now, I'm averaging just under 950 words a day.  That seems about right, seeing as I was shooting for about 1K a day.  And more than that in a session makes my hands hurt. 

One day, I was totally not in a place where I wanted to write.  Everything was coming at me in a perfect storm for not writing, so I decided to give myself a pass.  Then, long about bedtime, the guilt hit me.  I made it perfectly clear I was going to write every day.  Not every day unless something made me not want to write.  Lucky for me, the cat helped there.  I ended up not going to bed because the cat decided she didn't want to pee at the time I wanted her to pee.  And since I was up and the house was quiet, I sat my ass down at the keyboard and wrote.  Not a lot of words and not great words, but I got words out. 

Writing every day ain't easy.  But it's necessary.  For me.  At this particular time and place.  Get the words out and get them down.  Finish the damn book that's been waiting to be finished for months now.  And I will do it.

Writerly Things to Do Amidst the Chaos

Since we're all pretty much stuck at home, which isn't actually a real difference from how writers usually live, here are a few writerly things we can be doing amidst this chaos.

- Writing/editing.  I'll admit I'm having a tough time with this one because my brain is in a non-writing place right now, but I'm going to try to get back on the horse this week.

- Marketing.  Have a sale.  Make things free.  Throw some ads up on social media.  Again, not in a place personally to do this yet, but I'm going to try once things settle down - so I'll probably address this after Wednesday.

- Create some new marketing materials.  If you're into doing it yourself, go for it.  If you've never done it, give it a try.  

- Re-evaluating your blogs/websites/online presences.  If you think your stuff needs a makeover, now would be the time to do it.

- Evaluate your covers.  Are they still right?  Could you make them better and more saleable?  Now would be a good time to change them if you can.

- Do your taxes.  If you haven't done them yet, now is the time to get them done.  The federal government is supposedly going to be throwing some cash our way and the word is that they'll be sending it to you the way you chose when you did your taxes.  If nothing's changed from last year, no problem.  If it has, get your taxes done ASAP.

- Organize your stuff.  Get all your physical stuff into some kind of order to make the days ahead easier to deal with.  Get all your digital stuff organized, too.  Now would be a good time to delete files you're not using or going to use.  Once you've done that...

- Back up your files.

- Clean your work space.  I know I have this one desk drawer I just kind of throw things into that could really use a good cleaning.  Plus, the dust bunnies are starting to take over.  And my monitor could use a wipe down again.  And my computer's intake fan could use a good swabbing again.  Dust... it's a killer.

- Make plans for the coming weeks/months.  Look ahead to some things you can do once this settles down - plan sales and marketing events, work out a writing schedule, set goals.

Now, as you may know, I'm great at giving suggestions but not so great at following them, so how much of this list I will actually do remains to be seen.  This list is as much a poke in my butt as it is a nudge for you. 

We'll get through this.  Hang in there.

What are some things you're doing while you're on forced isolation?

Oh, and by the way, the whole 'stay inside' thing is only to keep you away from other people.  If you're in a place or can drive to a place where there are no people, get your ass outside and soak up some fresh air.  Humans need sunlight and fresh air as much as any other living thing.

Getting Out of My Own Way

As you know, Bob... Umm, uhh...  As you know, I was having a difficult time getting back into writing Cinder Ugly.  I was stuck at 19K words and just couldn't seem to get over that hump.  So, once again, I set the damn thing aside so I could focus on editing Ugly and the Beast.  As the end of editing approached, though, the fear of what the hell would happen when I sat down to write again rolled over me like a herd of frightened buffalo.

What's a gal to do? 

Well, I'm not sure I did this consciously, but I got the hell out of my own way.  I sidestepped the herd.  When I sat down to write again, I did NOT go back and read what I'd already written.  I didn't check to make sure I had everything in line.  Which is good because I already knew I'd backed myself into the corner of boring and meh, so going back over that crap again wasn't doing me any good.

At first, the writing was slow and kind of crappy.  Then I hit a stride and the fingers were flying.  I pounded out almost 3K words and I felt really good about them.  Then I had a flash of insight for what would happen next and I've been writing on that ever since.  To the tune of around 7K words so far this week.  Woohoo.

Sure, I'll have to go back and fix a bunch of stuff in that muddy part.  But that's what edits are for.

I have to remind myself of that fact more often than I'd like to admit.  Write crap, edit it later.  Everything can be fixed in edits.  Except blank pages.

So, as always, getting out of my own was the trick.  I wish I'd figured that out sometime in the last year, so I would've gotten more work out, but better late than never, eh?

Right now, Cinder Ugly is sitting at around 26K words.  Onward and upward.  The plan is to have this first drafted by the end of the month, edited in April, and out not too awfully long after I get Ugly and the Beast into the world.  :fingers crossed:

Feeling good about it all.  Yay.

Writing Advice is Everywhere

Lately, it seems like everyone has advice on writing.  Or maybe it's just me because I'm on Pinterest and there's an awful lot of writing quotes on there.  In fact, I have a board devoted to writerly quotes*.  Anyway, like I said, it seems like everyone is giving advice.

Many times, I find advice from people I never heard of.  Some of it seems kind of logical and on point, some of it is like 'WTF?'.  I have a tough time following the advice of someone I've never heard of.  It's like 'who the hell is that to be telling anyone anything about writing?'  I guess, for most people, I would fall into that category.

As I've said before, take only the advice that seems pertinent to you.  If I sound rational and sane, and my advice seems good to you, by all means, take it.  If not, toss it into the circular file**.   These days, I feel like I shouldn't be giving anyone advice about anything, but occasionally, I might toss out a kernel of wisdom. 

Sometimes I run across advice that seems okay, but it's from a person I don't respect as a writer or as a human being.  Oh, they're quite successful at what they do, but I can't bring myself to consider what they're saying.  I mean, there are certain people who are continually on the best seller list, but I wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire, so it seems kind of hypocritical to look toward them for advice. :shrug:

Besides, there's every chance someone I do respect said the same or almost the same damn thing.  I can follow that and still feel good about myself.

Anyway, as always, keep the good stuff, chuck out the bad stuff.  Write what you write your own way.  And if something someone says inspires you, go with it.  

Onward!


* not everyone on there is necessarily someone I respect or have even heard of.  Sometimes I just click Save without thinking about it.  Gut reaction clicking.  You know how it goes.
** circular file = garbage can.  Also known as File 13.

Do As I Say Not As I Do

There's a line in Alice in Wonderland (the old Disney animated one, if not also the book) about giving very good advice but seldom ever following it that I think applies to me.

I'm awesome at giving advice.  And from the comments I've gotten, it seems like it's very good advice.  I am, however, horrible at following my own advice.  I'm also good at giving pep talks to inspire others, but not so much good at pepping myself up. 

Not for any length of time anyway.

And you might be thinking I'm a hypocrite.  Well, I'm thinking it, too.  But I don't want my apparent hypocrisy to stop anyone else from succeeding where I am failing.

If you happen to find good advice here, follow it.  Pay no attention to the gal behind the curtain.  And as much as it's been drummed into my head to hate the phrase... 'Do as I say, not as I do.'

If something you read here inspires you to write by, do it.

If you found a piece of encouragement here, use it.

It doesn't matter if I'm following my own advice, if the advice helps you.  Who knows, you could be the next breakout indie writer who ends up read by millions - like Andy Weir. 

And I'll keep giving advice and pep talks and waving my pompoms in your face, and maybe someday all that will filter through into my own brain. 

Shut the Voices Up and Write the Damn Book

I'm writing again.  Three days in a row now.  I'm not burning up the keyboard or anything, but it's progress.  And I had a major plot point jump into my head yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty good about what lies ahead.

As you all know, it's been a rough year writing-wise.  And it seemed like the longer I went without writing, the less I felt like I could write.  Sunday broke that all apart.  Here's what I did...

I told myself to stop listening to the negative voices.  And there were a lot of them.

- the reviewer who thought Jo was too whiny in In Deep Wish... can't have whiny... is Jeni too whiny?  SHUT UP
- the reviewer who hated all the characters in Accidental Death... can't have people hating my characters... is Jeni too hateable?  SHUT UP
- the editor* telling me I have too much backstory in the beginning and a character did this in chapter one but did something the opposite in chapter two... gotta have continuity... SHUT UP
- the editor telling me I am using too many thats or justs or evens.  SHUT UP
- the marketing whiz whispering to me Sleeping Ugly isn't selling so why am I writing a third book?  SHUT UP
- the agents rejecting me for whatever reasons... (yes, it goes back that far).  SHUT UP
- the little voice reminding me that I haven't finished editing Ugly and the Beast, so what the hell am I doing writing the next book?  I have to finish editing before I start new words.  SHUT UP
- the accountant shouting that I don't have the money to publish anything right now.  SHUT UP

Once I got them all to shut the hell up, I went through what I had already written on CU and then started writing where I left off.

Is it any good?  Who the hell cares?  If the beginning sucks, I'll rewrite it.  LATER.  Right now, I'm writing new words.  Editing is for later.  Is Jeni whiny?  Hell, yeah, but who cares?  Will people hate her?  Probably, but who cares?

All those voices are doing is stopping me from doing my job.  My job is writing.  I get weird when I don't write.  (Well, weirder.)  So, I need to stop worrying about every little freakin' thing and write the damn book.  Any worries that might actually be legitimate can be dealt with after I finish the damn book.

So, that's where I am right now.  Writing the damn book.  I'm at 6500 words.  Like I said, not burning up the keyboard, but it's progress and I haven't really made any progress in months.

*No offense to my editor, but I do not need her in my head when I'm writing a first draft.

It's All Been Done

We all appreciate the known and sometimes we crave it.  But on occasion, it feels like Bare Naked Ladies is singing 'It's All Been Done' in the backs of our heads. 

Recently, I was reading a cozy mystery and as I was reading along, it seemed like I was reading the same book I'd read a dozen times with the characters and setting slightly changed.  You know the book...  'amateur detective with a failed marriage comes home to start a new life, finds a body, meets an old love who happens to be a cop who doesn't want her involved in the mystery, but she keeps solving it while battling the bitch from high school'.  It did, of course, differentiate itself eventually, but it felt all 'it's all been done' for a while there.

It's the same with romance.  If you read enough romances, over the course of time, you will see that they're pretty much the same.  I mean, at the basic level, of course they are - boy meets girl, they start to fall in love, tension happens to screw it up but they work it out, boy gets girl.  And that's what we want in our romance.  But when you look at the differences in how to pull that off, you could probably find a slew of them with the above mystery premise slightly changed: 'woman/man with a failed marriage comes home to start a new life, meets an old love while battling the bitch/bastard from high school'

Sometimes that's a good thing.  Other times?  :yawn:

And SF is the same way.  I know of several 'estranged from their family, heroine/hero goes out into the universe to seek their fortune and kick alien ass' series out there.

I guess what I'm talking about are 'tropes'.  Wikipedia gives this description: "The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works."  Like the 'secret baby' one in romance.  (He and She get together, she gets pregnant and for some reason or other hides it from him until sometime in the future when they reconnect and he discovers he's a daddy.)

Like I said, sometimes tropes are a good thing.  Readers want the known.  They just don't want too much of it.

Thinking about this yesterday morning, I discovered I have a recurring theme in my books - a lot of my heroines/heroes have bad family things in their backgrounds.  I mean, Jo in the genie books is probably the queen of that - both daddy and mommy issues there - but Jace lost her family to a fire and Ned's family hated that he's a Fed.  Mary's a foundling.  Rue's dad pretty much tortured her.  Jeni's mom is a total bitch.  And let's not even talk about Dennis' sister.  Not sure why I lean that way - it doesn't reflect my own family in any way.  Maybe it just makes for a certain pressure-laden background that produces diamonds and heroes.  I should probably fix that in my next new MCs' backgrounds.

And that's what the point is.  Finding a way to make the tropes just a little bit different, so readers aren't feeling like they've read the book before.  I almost DNF'd the mystery I talk about up there.  Which would've been a shame.  It was fun.  And I've said this before - don't give a reader a reason to stop reading your books.  

The above book added in some things that weren't present in other books of the same trope.  She made it interesting.  The only problem was she threw all the same-same stuff at me right up front.  

And I talked about this the other day - with Oliver now Kazimir - and the sameness I was feeling from reading other paranormal mysteries.  Look for sameness in your writing and try to winnow it out.  

Remember when vampires were all the rage - the Anne Rice Syndrome, if you will.  I can't bring myself to read a paranormal with vampires anymore.  It's all been done.  (If you know of one that's different, let me know.  I still like the idea, I'm just bored with the execution.) 

Of course, you can't help but ascribe to the sameness of your genre, but you can find ways to stand out from the crowd.  You have to if you want to grab a piece of the market share. 

Using Situational Awareness to Protect Yourself

I was having a chat with my postal-person friend yesterday about situational awareness.  In case you're not familiar with the term, it's pretty much what it sounds like - being aware in whatever situation you're in, particularly when the situation has become hazardous to your health (i.e. someone has come to assault you, rob you, or rape you.)  She's alone in a rural post office all day - one that has been robbed before, albeit at night when she wasn't there.  And this post office is about 3 miles from the little country store that was robbed at knifepoint last year.

Anyway, I was talking about making sure that wherever you are, you should always be aware of the things within reach that can be used to defend yourself - provided you aren't already carrying a gun somewhere on your person.  In seconds, I pointed out the things right there at the postal counter she could use - including a hefty-looking metal postal scale.  And she thanked me. 

I also showed her my pepper spray and told her she needed to at least get one of those.  I carry mine everywhere.  99% of the time, it's in my pants pocket.  The other one percent, it's in the front pocket of my purse (because I'm wearing pants without pockets).

I also carry my keys in my pocket.  Keys can be an excellent way to defend yourself.  Put the biggest one sticking out from between your finger and you can either stab at someone who's attacking you or slash at them.  My key fob also has a button on it that sets off a really loud, annoying alarm in my car which could attract the attention of others.  (Provided they don't ignore it the way most of us ignore car alarms these days.) 

When I'm out at the lake, by myself and a long way from most other humans, I also have the knife in my tackle box.  If I can't reach that, I have my fishing pole which I could beat someone with.  And that's gonna hurt.  Barring that, there are a lot of rocks just the right size for grasping in my hand and hitting someone with.  Hell, if I have to, they're getting a bobber to the eye.  (I use the pointy stick-like bobber, not the round ones.)

I also have my cell phone, but that's less about defense than calling for assistance.  Which could take a while out here, and which I hope I have time and signal enough to use at any given time.

Running is good, but with this bum leg, I can't really use that as an option.  It walks fine, but running?  Nope.  The best I can manage is a kind of weird hop/run thing.  It ain't fast enough to get away from any attacker. 

I may not survive the encounter because all of these things are fairly non-lethal and only stopgaps, but I hope they're enough to give my attacker pause.  One thing's for sure, I won't be going down without a fight.

And since this is a writing blog, thinking about situational awareness is good for your characters.  Joan Wilder used her attacker's own cigar against him and a stick to beat him off.  Think about it.

Anyway, what kinds of weapons do you have within your immediate grasp right now?  For me, I have scissors, pens/pencils, a really heavy ashtray, a paper weight, my stapler, and depending on the time, I might have a lit cigarette.  I used to have a letter opener... I wonder what the hell happened to that...

Creating Marketing Materials

I read an interesting newsletter article this week on creating marketing materials.  It was specifically geared toward materials for that venue, but it got me to thinking.  And creating.

Starting next Wednesday, the SCIU books are on sale.  Taking ideas from the article, I came up with this:

I think it still needs some tweaking.  The white 'Bringing Killers to Justice One Book at a Time' on the gray background might have been on the no-no list.  When I made it, it looked pretty good, but seeing it now, it's kind of hard to read at this size.  Might need to outline those words like I did with the SCIU words.

Still, I think it carries the message I wanted and it's not too busy (which was another of the marketing no-nos).  You can tell that's a prison fence, right?  Yeah, not all the villains in the series make it to behind the fence, but I was trying to find one image to convey a theme for all three books and nothing says 'justice' like a prison. 

I found the fence picture at Morguefile.  Then grayed out the image because a pretty blue sky wasn't right and the colors would've distracted from the covers.  I think.  And I tweaked the brightness and contrast to come up with a sufficiently gloomy feel.

Then I added the covers and wording, moving things around and trying different fonts and tweaking everything until I came up with what you see above.

Anyway, creating marketing materials is a learning curve.  I hope this image works.  The proof is in the pudding.

So, yeah, the article said to make the image clear as to its purpose.  Prison fence... Got it.  And to not make it too busy so it doesn't distract from its purpose.  Three covers, minimal wording... Check.  And to make it easily read.  Umm, I'll work on that.  Clear, concise, intent on its purpose... check, check, check?

Now, the question for you all is: If you saw this, would you be inclined to explore the series further with the intent to buy?  Because that's really what all of this is about.  If you can't achieve that with your marketing materials, you're spinning your wheels.  And lord knows, none of us has time for that.

A Gentle Reminder

Time again for a gentle reminder...

PROOFREAD YOUR MARKETING MATERIALS!

Twice in the past few days, I've seen marketing materials with typos in them.  One, the author used your instead of you're.  The other, the author used there instead of their - twice in the same blurb.  :headdesk:

Seriously, folks, this shouldn't be that hard.  I mean, we're talking a few short paragraphs.

The first one was in a Facebook group.  So, free advertising.  The second was in a marketing newsletter that they obviously had to pay for.  Which makes it doubly egregious. 

FB group marketing... Sometimes shit happens.  Lord knows I'm not perfect, and I've made mistakes.  Which I then catch and edit.  Yes, you can edit FB posts.  There's a little ellipsis looking thing in the upper right corner of your status update.  When you click it, you get a dropdown menu...

And there's an 'edit post' option.  So, if you see an error, you can fix the error. 

Once, I had to go back and fix a half dozen marketing posts because for some stupid reason the UK sales link was broken and I didn't notice until I'd posted the damn thing all over the place.  Caught it, fixed it.  It was only live to users for about ten minutes. 

In marketing efforts you've paid for, fixing the flaw isn't necessarily possible.  Here, you really need to pay attention.  Because once you've sent it out to the powers that be, it's stuck there.  Well, I guess you might be able to contact them if you have enough time.  And then you can hope someone over there is paying attention and is nice enough to allow you to fix the error.  But I wouldn't count on it.  Proof, proof, proof. 

Otherwise, you might as well put on your big red nose and floppy feet because you'll look like a clown.

In either of the above cases, the author may have proofed the holy hell out of their manuscript to make it all shiny and clean, but their marketing materials tell the world that they probably didn't bother.  All that work down the drain. 

So, yeah, a gentle reminder this morning... proofread your stuff, folks.  It's kind of important.

People Want a Deal

Okay, I think I figured something out.  People don't want to buy 99c books, but they want to pay 99c for books.

Lemme explain...

I regularly use Kindle Countdown Deals and typically price my books at 99c for the duration of the KCD.  Unless it's a series.  Then I put the first book at 99c and the others at like $1.99.  This time I made all the books in the OUAD series 99c just to see what would happen.  My last KCD for OUAD, I sold a bunch of Wish In One Hand, but not that many of the other books.  This time, people are buying all 4 books.  Oh, they're still buying more copies of WIOH than the others, but WIOH is the one in the ad, so that's expected.

Additionally, a while back I had the bright idea that if people were buying my books when they were 99c for a KCD, then it stood to reason that they wanted 99c books.  Nope.  Wrong.  I think I actually sold fewer books when they were all regularly 99c then when they were at their usual prices (which, at that time, was $2.99 across the board).  And I definitely sold less than when they were 'on sale' for 99c.

Turns out, people want to feel like they're getting a deal.  And regularly priced at 99c is apparently not a deal. 

Also, I know there's a mindset out there that 99c books are low-quality books.  I read a blog post once, by a bestselling author no less, that books priced at $2.99 and under aren't worth reading cuz they obviously all suck or they'd be priced higher.  (No their exact words, but that was the gist.  And thanks for gisting that publicly, asshole.)  But books on sale for 99c don't suffer under the same misconception, I guess.

So, I raised all my prices back to $2.99 and then raised most of them to either $3.99 or $4.99.  (Accidental Death, Natural Causes, and Sleeping Ugly are all at $2.99 for the time being.  May change that soon.)  I still see most of my sales when they're 'on sale', but I think simply having my books priced higher makes those times I discount my books more attractive to buyers.

:shrug:  The psychological aspects of book sales.  Weeee.

Hope that helps.  I'll probably do a numbers post on this sale sometime next week, so y'all can see what's going on.  Meanwhile, I have a round of FB posts to do.  Catch ya later.

Public Mistakes

The other day I saw a typo in the title of a book listed for sale on Amazon.  Two letters were transposed in one of the words.  An easy enough mistake to make when your fingers are flying over the keys writing a book.  (One MS Word ought to catch and if not, then your editor, and if not, then you on your many pass throughs.)  Perhaps an easy mistake to make when you're getting everything typed in on the Amazon pages because you're both nervous and excited. 

But it's also an easy mistake to catch and fix.  Not only did this person not catch it when they were checking everything over (and rechecking), but they were sharing the link on FB and not catching it. 

I actually searched Amazon just now to see if any others had made the same mistake (and to see if perhaps the author had caught it, but Amazon was slow to update the link - they didn't).  One book, one MP3 album, and one set of pretend tattoos.  Won't nobody be finding any of that searching off the typographically challenged name.

Now, I know my regular readers and commenters wouldn't be caught dead doing this.  We're all checking and rechecking and double rechecking.  But for the newer self-publishers out there, please take note of this mistake.  And don't do it. 

Oh, I've made some tragic mistakes.  I've made so many mistakes I can't even begin to remember a specific one to use as an example.  Suffice it to say, they're there. 

We're not immune. Cuz, yeah, we're human and humans make mistakes.  It's kind of a thing.  But humans are also pretty good at catching mistakes if we take the time and put forth the effort.  The above?  I wouldn't think it would take much time or effort, but that's me.  Then again, shit happens.

If you catch me making a monumental mistake, please tell me.  (Privately, please*.)  Point your finger and laugh at me.  (Again, in private.)  It'll hurt and I'll learn from it.  Like stepping barefoot on a Lego because you didn't put your toys away, you'll never make that mistake again.  (Of course, if you're rude or snotty about pointing it out, you may find yourself getting the Anderson treatment**, but them's the breaks.)

Mistakes happen.  Be on the lookout for them and catch them when you can.  Constant vigilance will help keep you from making them publicly.  Privately?  Well, that's just life.

What say you? 

*Outing someone's mistakes in public and in such a way that everyone knows exactly who you're talking about is just cruel.  You'll note I try to scrub every identifiable marker from posts like this, so no one gets hurt.  And yeah, I didn't contact said author in private because people don't like when you point out their mistakes and can often get testy about it.  I'm not into confrontation.  If I'd known the person and felt comfortable with them, I would've pulled them aside and said, in the nicest way possible, 'hey, you have a typo there'.

** The Anderson Treatment - years ago, I had a particularly obnoxious neighbor whose last name was Anderson.  She was so bad that eventually I pulled down an invisible wall between us.  I no longer acknowledged her in any fashion unless I absolutely had to - like the day her friend's RV was blowing carbon monoxide into my house.  I had to deal with her face to face then.  Otherwise?  Whoosh.  It's an effective way of maintaining my calm.