"Write what you know."
I thought this was an interesting bit of wisdom in the writing community. "Write what you know." Think about it for a bit.
I understand the thinking. How can you write about life in a jail if you haven't been in jail? How can you relate to a person who has had bariatric surgery without being a bariatric patient?
At the same time, I think this would make for some boring stories, too. Does this mean that a male writer can't have a female protagonist (or what does it mean if he does and does it well)? What about science fiction, where I really doubt that most writers of sci fi have actually been on a starship?
I bring this up because my story's "new ending" had taken a turn for a real-life town that I haven't been to. I've been to the state it's in, but not that specific town (that's like comparing a backwoods home in the mountains of New York to downtown...New York, I suppose). I can relate only to some aspects of the area in that I've experienced the climate and some of the differences someone from the northeastern states feels in a wildly different part of the country...put it that way.
But that means that I'm incorporating details that are real without ever being there. I've been trying to get as much as I can through researching the towns. Fortunately I live in the age of the Internet; there are videos of the town online, Google Earth helps me with directions and lay of the land, and there are some pictures and images through Google Image search. It's really helped with details of things like mileage, road descriptions, and even the description of a parking lot.
I still can't help but wish that I could actually visit the site and incorporate those experiences into the story. But then again, leaving it somewhat vague keeps from bogging readers down in details that are unnecessary.
The only other solution would be to make up details and create my own places much like Springfield for the Simpsons or Silent Hill being based on Centralia, PA. I don't like that as much. Speaking as someone who went to visit Centralia after finding out some of the background of Silent Hill, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, despite finding just about nothing there if for no other reason than enjoying the, "I was there!" experience when I see it in the news or on TV. There's an almost visceral connection to a place like that, a place that you hear about or interact with virtually then experience in real life. It's similar to the thrill of participating in discussions and interacting with your favorite podcast hosts, making them more real and you feel less disconnected when they say your name and know that this faceless voice is speaking to you.
That's part of the reason I incorporated this particular location into the story. Even if it never sells, never gets published, I know that if I wanted to (if this is the ending I actually keep, that is) I could go visit these places. I could interact with them, and know that out there this place exists, hopefully as I describe them.
Does anyone else out there write like this? Or do I have the wrong idea, and should I just stick to those things that I have more direct experience with?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Knowing When It's Just Not Working
I recently cut about 15,000 words from my first draft. I was working on the scenes leading to the climax ending and I realized that it was getting harder and harder to make progress on the story.
I realized that the story was straying too far from plausibility, which is really saying something for a science fiction story. It was becoming a chore because I was trying to steer it back "on track", and I didn't like where it was going.
At some point I just decided that it wasn't going to work. There was no saving it, and I didn't feel like waiting until I was editing it to rewrite that whole section of work. So I chopped it off and started again, proposing a "what if?" scenario to steer the ending into a new direction.
Does this violate my rule about not editing while writing? I don't think so. I believe it's foolish to keep plodding forward on a plot that just isn't working; I'm using my enthusiasm for the story as it unfolds as a gauge to how well (or poorly) the story is going. This wasn't a matter of tweaking some wording or adding some choice adjectives. It was a matter of seeing that the storyline was going way off script, and fixing it by cutting off the bad part and starting over a from a few steps back.
Doing this threw me off a little, of course, since I'm wwinding back and forward to spare a section of story that did still fit while figuring out what details I thought I had and now don't. It would also be silly to have a character or detail reappear after never being introduced because I used my delete key overzealously.
Anyone else have to cut out large sections of a story to re-steer it into a better direction? I'd have a hard time believing it is that rare of an occurrence!
I realized that the story was straying too far from plausibility, which is really saying something for a science fiction story. It was becoming a chore because I was trying to steer it back "on track", and I didn't like where it was going.
At some point I just decided that it wasn't going to work. There was no saving it, and I didn't feel like waiting until I was editing it to rewrite that whole section of work. So I chopped it off and started again, proposing a "what if?" scenario to steer the ending into a new direction.
Does this violate my rule about not editing while writing? I don't think so. I believe it's foolish to keep plodding forward on a plot that just isn't working; I'm using my enthusiasm for the story as it unfolds as a gauge to how well (or poorly) the story is going. This wasn't a matter of tweaking some wording or adding some choice adjectives. It was a matter of seeing that the storyline was going way off script, and fixing it by cutting off the bad part and starting over a from a few steps back.
Doing this threw me off a little, of course, since I'm wwinding back and forward to spare a section of story that did still fit while figuring out what details I thought I had and now don't. It would also be silly to have a character or detail reappear after never being introduced because I used my delete key overzealously.
Anyone else have to cut out large sections of a story to re-steer it into a better direction? I'd have a hard time believing it is that rare of an occurrence!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Details: How Much is Too Much?
TMI. Too much information. Too little information?
How much detail should you include in your descriptions used in your story?
Part of this is, no doubt, a part of your personal voice and style. As with so many things in writing, there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut rule except when it comes to extremes.
For example, you probably wouldn't want to read a story that consisted of paragraphs sounding like, "Bill got in his car and drove to the store. He picked up groceries. He then left the store and got into an accident. He was depressed."
On the other hand, I'd grow bored reading something that sounded a lot more like, "Bill, dressed in his pleated khaki pants and favorite leather belt and his oversized button up shirt coupled with a satin red tie, ran in long elegant strides to his blue 2005 Honda with a smatter of filth on the windshield and worn windshield wipers. He pushed the unlock button on the black keyfob and the locked clicked open with a musical chirp in the key of F. Bill lifted the handle and swung his size 38 rear end into the well worn leather seat, inserted the key into the starter and turned it one-quarter turn for the three seconds necessary to allow the engine to catch. He paused and listened to the sputter of the spark plugs igniting the fuel mixture in his 98,000 mile-worn engine..." At this rate, somewhere in chapter seven he might be finally able to purchase his groceries and I'll be slogging through his pondering of monosodium glutamate.
I've found one author who advises new authors to be more sparse in their descriptions. I wish I still had the link to the author that I read this from; he basically said that when you don't fill in the blanks for every detail, the reader will automatically impose his or her own ideas to fill in the story, and make the story more their own. Describe the bare minimum detail about the heroine; if her breast size and fingernail length aren't important to the story, don't discuss it. The reader will not miss anything you don't describe, and the only things they need to know are things that pertain to the character as an intrinsic detail and things that pertain to the plot or distinguishes the character from other characters.
In other words...less is more.
Perhaps this is a lot of "duh" for other people. The way I'm wired, I need to consciously remember this detail when going through the work. As I rework my story, I'll be asking myself, "Is this important for the reader? Is this a detail that can be omitted without harming the story? If so, it gets chopped.
From what I can tell (and from stories I typically enjoy) the story should flow from point to point without meandering side trips into details that are mundane or have nothing to do with the story. Unless something is going to happen because of that detail, do I really need to know that your hero had a broken wrist when he was seven or is a huge fan of Applebee's riblets? Don't get me mired in background. Get me entrenched in the story, because the story is the thing!
Maybe other people have other viewpoints or insights on this. If so I'd love to hear from you. My first draft is coming along; I'm wrapping up the ending, then I'll give it a quick once-over rough rough edit and then read it to see if there's something resembling a decent story woven into whatever makes it to the page at that point. I'll be reading it with an eye on details that aren't really needed, and for spots that could use some better details and information. I'll be looking for a story that makes me want to keep reading; the less of a chore it is to review, the better I'll hope the story is.
If you're an author or have experience in writing I'd love to know what you think of the amount of details necessary to a make a compelling story. Please share!
How much detail should you include in your descriptions used in your story?
Part of this is, no doubt, a part of your personal voice and style. As with so many things in writing, there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut rule except when it comes to extremes.
For example, you probably wouldn't want to read a story that consisted of paragraphs sounding like, "Bill got in his car and drove to the store. He picked up groceries. He then left the store and got into an accident. He was depressed."
On the other hand, I'd grow bored reading something that sounded a lot more like, "Bill, dressed in his pleated khaki pants and favorite leather belt and his oversized button up shirt coupled with a satin red tie, ran in long elegant strides to his blue 2005 Honda with a smatter of filth on the windshield and worn windshield wipers. He pushed the unlock button on the black keyfob and the locked clicked open with a musical chirp in the key of F. Bill lifted the handle and swung his size 38 rear end into the well worn leather seat, inserted the key into the starter and turned it one-quarter turn for the three seconds necessary to allow the engine to catch. He paused and listened to the sputter of the spark plugs igniting the fuel mixture in his 98,000 mile-worn engine..." At this rate, somewhere in chapter seven he might be finally able to purchase his groceries and I'll be slogging through his pondering of monosodium glutamate.
I've found one author who advises new authors to be more sparse in their descriptions. I wish I still had the link to the author that I read this from; he basically said that when you don't fill in the blanks for every detail, the reader will automatically impose his or her own ideas to fill in the story, and make the story more their own. Describe the bare minimum detail about the heroine; if her breast size and fingernail length aren't important to the story, don't discuss it. The reader will not miss anything you don't describe, and the only things they need to know are things that pertain to the character as an intrinsic detail and things that pertain to the plot or distinguishes the character from other characters.
In other words...less is more.
Perhaps this is a lot of "duh" for other people. The way I'm wired, I need to consciously remember this detail when going through the work. As I rework my story, I'll be asking myself, "Is this important for the reader? Is this a detail that can be omitted without harming the story? If so, it gets chopped.
From what I can tell (and from stories I typically enjoy) the story should flow from point to point without meandering side trips into details that are mundane or have nothing to do with the story. Unless something is going to happen because of that detail, do I really need to know that your hero had a broken wrist when he was seven or is a huge fan of Applebee's riblets? Don't get me mired in background. Get me entrenched in the story, because the story is the thing!
Maybe other people have other viewpoints or insights on this. If so I'd love to hear from you. My first draft is coming along; I'm wrapping up the ending, then I'll give it a quick once-over rough rough edit and then read it to see if there's something resembling a decent story woven into whatever makes it to the page at that point. I'll be reading it with an eye on details that aren't really needed, and for spots that could use some better details and information. I'll be looking for a story that makes me want to keep reading; the less of a chore it is to review, the better I'll hope the story is.
If you're an author or have experience in writing I'd love to know what you think of the amount of details necessary to a make a compelling story. Please share!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Writing Rules I Live (Or At Least Write) By
I've not compiled this in a single post anywhere to my recollection, so I thought I'd put this down now for others.
First, some obligatory disclaimers. I'm an aspiring author. I have not been officially published. I have had an essay or two published in a collection, but I don't really count that since I wasn't paid for the work and the publication itself struck me as being vanity-published more than anything else; it was framed as a contest, winners were published, and on reflection they're getting content with little to nothing for the author outside of ego stroking. I count that as vanity publishing. Maybe others would have other opinions on that.
Second disclaimer: I'm a firm believer that there is no single how-to in publishing or writing novels. If there were a set of rules that you could check off in over to achieve a lucrative career in publishing your novels, I'm sure it would have already been published as a how-to book and there would be no need for people to call themselves wanna-be writers. They'd just follow the steps and collect checks.
So with that in mind, I'll tell you my current "rules to writing," in no particular order, I am currently following to create a manuscript.
Rule One: sit your behind in front of a keyboard and type. Very important step. A writer is a writer because he or she writes. Dreaming of writing makes you a wanna-be writer. I've graduated from wanna-be writer to wanna-be published author. Why? Because I'm writing.
Rule Two: write consistently to achieve a set goal. By goal, I mean a daily word count. I inevitably have some days where I don't make my count. Things happen. Life happens. Things get in the way. I have a family that needs attention as well as a day job. Sometimes that word count just ain't gonna happen. But these are rare days. Usually once every two weeks or so by my reckoning. My initial goal was 500 words a day. I've since found that I tend to get a little over a thousand words down in an hour under the right conditions, so I usually manage to get that thousand words down, far exceeding my goal. I've had several days where I managed to get 1,500 to 2,000 words.
Rule Three: I'm allowed to suck. I totally stole that from Mur Lafferty. But I need it. It gave me the permission to overlook my insecurities about writing in order to find the courage to follow my first rule...sit down and write. It ties to the next rule...
Rule Four: You can't edit a blank page. I think I heard this somewhere but I don't know the attribution. The words, however, stuck in my head. Crap or not, you can't polish the story unless you have the story down first to edit. And as it turns out, yes, you can polish a turd. I remember this episode of Mythbusters whenever I doubt that my story is good enough to keep working on.
Rule Five: If the doubt tells you to quit altogether, ignore it. Doubts are cheap, and they're found in swarms, especially if you feel you need validation in doing something new with little experience or education in the field of writing. There are always reasons to quit. I need just a few good reasons to keep going.
Rule Six: Carve some time to yourself for writing. I try to work by myself for an hour a day. I hide in the bedroom with a laptop. I make sure I take my lunch hour and type away at the desk. I've taken my laptop with me to Barnes and Noble to sit in their comfy chair with a lapdesk (I happen to have one our B&N no longer sells so I can kind of "prove" I'm not pilfering it from their sales displays) and just type away. I needed to find an environment in which I can half-focus on my story with minimal distraction.
Rule Seven: No editing. I backspace and fix obvious spelling errors. I will fix things that just bug me as they're on the virtual page. But I do not go back and rewrite scenes and pages of work. If I do that, I'll end up spending days, or weeks, or even months trying to get a "perfect opening" or making the entire novel a masterpiece magnum opus. The idea is to get a story out there on the page that can be fixed as needed, then shop it around to agents. Editing can be done after the initial draft is complete. I keep getting a strong urge to rewrite the opening and every time I end up reminding myself of this rule! It can be hard to see obvious blemishes in your baby and have to wait until later to fix them, but the danger of getting "stuck" in fixing the story and never actually finishing the story is way too big for me to hazard this road.
Rule Eight: Tell the story. Grammar, structure, etc...those can be fixed later (see Rule Seven). The important thing is to have a story! Tell your story. The mechanics can be revisited later. The story is the thing. The story is the thing. The story is the thing!
Rule Nine: Keep notes. I don't keep copious notes, but I do keep enough to go back and spruce certain things up. I keep notes on full names of characters as I introduce them in the story (you don't want to change a character midway through because you forgot if you used Matthew or Mathew as the given name...makes search and replace more difficult as well.) If you add a particular plot point or device in the story, you probably don't want to forget about it. In my case I'm keeping a text file with my notes in the same folder as the file containing the story.
Rule Ten: Make backups. I'll wager most writers now are using those new-fangled computers on which to write. Computers fail. Hardware is stolen, damaged, or data gets corrupted. Do yourself a favor and get a USB flash drive. Edit your work, and immediately save it elsewhere. Personally I have my notes and current draft on my main computer and on a USB drive, and the version on the computer gets backed up to three external hard drives. If my house burns down I may lose the draft, but I still am protected against most failures of hardware and most incidences of corruption. If you're laboring over a 100,000 page manuscript plus notes plus editing time...isn't the investment in some external storage for copying your work periodically really just a drop in the bucket? It's insurance against losing your work. I see no reason whatsoever to feel bad for 90% of writers that have data loss that destroys their work in progress when the ability to make copies is cheap and simple. "I don't know how" is not really an excuse anymore. If you're talking about writing as anything more than a hobby, then making backups of your livelihood is just part of the cost of doing business!
Rule Eleven: Write consistently to keep the ball rolling. If you decide to take a break, suddenly you forget what your protagonist was doing, or you forgot some detail that was important at the time (how did your hero pull a knife on the antagonist when he strapped on a gun before leaving his apartment?). It can be argued that these belong in the notes; they probably do. My way of working means that if it's an immediate detail I normally remember it the next day, while notes are made for things that will keep popping up or will be important a week from now. Taking a break of a few days in a row means you probably have to really push yourself to get back behind the keyboard and write again, just like skipping the gym a few days means needing that pep talk to get dressed to work out, shuffle to the car, drive to the gym...writing has enough challenges. You don't need to force yourself into a pep talk to do something you should be enjoying.
Rule Twelve: Write while you enjoy it. If you enjoy your story you increase the chances that your reader will enjoy it. I think that when it comes to fiction (or non-fiction, I suppose) you end up pushing some of your enthusiasm for the subject or story onto the reader. They pick up where you lose interest, and they know when your heart just isn't into it anymore. A good story should draw in the writer as much as the reader. If it fails to do so, you need to reevaluate the plot points and see why you're not caring about the protagonist and his or her journey through your created world.
Rule 13: Progress is progress. I have a goal of 500 words a day. I actually have come to expect 1,000+ words a day. There are some days where I fall short...like, a couple hundred words are all I manage to tap out before I have to call it quits for one reason or another. But that one or two hundred words are one or two hundred words more than that manuscript started the day with. I can't beat myself up over that. There are good days and bad days. The important thing is to keep making progress and keep getting a little farther ahead. As a result there are actually very very few days where I've made zero progress on the story, and I've had a few days that were only a couple hundred words and I have had a few days where I really surpassed my average by a significant margin. If I fall short one day...make it up later. I can't dwell on my shortcomings or I'll never finish the first draft!
I'm not a published author. I'm on the first steps towards trying to achieve that goal. I may fail miserably, and you can take my rules for what they're worth. In my world they have helped sustain me through many a doubt and many a fear, and I've written over one hundred thousand words with these rules in mind. I'm sure that as I go along I'll need to modify or add to these rules. For right now, at this stage in the game, I'm sticking to these. What do you think? Are there rules you use or rules you think should be altered here?
First, some obligatory disclaimers. I'm an aspiring author. I have not been officially published. I have had an essay or two published in a collection, but I don't really count that since I wasn't paid for the work and the publication itself struck me as being vanity-published more than anything else; it was framed as a contest, winners were published, and on reflection they're getting content with little to nothing for the author outside of ego stroking. I count that as vanity publishing. Maybe others would have other opinions on that.
Second disclaimer: I'm a firm believer that there is no single how-to in publishing or writing novels. If there were a set of rules that you could check off in over to achieve a lucrative career in publishing your novels, I'm sure it would have already been published as a how-to book and there would be no need for people to call themselves wanna-be writers. They'd just follow the steps and collect checks.
So with that in mind, I'll tell you my current "rules to writing," in no particular order, I am currently following to create a manuscript.
Rule One: sit your behind in front of a keyboard and type. Very important step. A writer is a writer because he or she writes. Dreaming of writing makes you a wanna-be writer. I've graduated from wanna-be writer to wanna-be published author. Why? Because I'm writing.
Rule Two: write consistently to achieve a set goal. By goal, I mean a daily word count. I inevitably have some days where I don't make my count. Things happen. Life happens. Things get in the way. I have a family that needs attention as well as a day job. Sometimes that word count just ain't gonna happen. But these are rare days. Usually once every two weeks or so by my reckoning. My initial goal was 500 words a day. I've since found that I tend to get a little over a thousand words down in an hour under the right conditions, so I usually manage to get that thousand words down, far exceeding my goal. I've had several days where I managed to get 1,500 to 2,000 words.
Rule Three: I'm allowed to suck. I totally stole that from Mur Lafferty. But I need it. It gave me the permission to overlook my insecurities about writing in order to find the courage to follow my first rule...sit down and write. It ties to the next rule...
Rule Four: You can't edit a blank page. I think I heard this somewhere but I don't know the attribution. The words, however, stuck in my head. Crap or not, you can't polish the story unless you have the story down first to edit. And as it turns out, yes, you can polish a turd. I remember this episode of Mythbusters whenever I doubt that my story is good enough to keep working on.
Rule Five: If the doubt tells you to quit altogether, ignore it. Doubts are cheap, and they're found in swarms, especially if you feel you need validation in doing something new with little experience or education in the field of writing. There are always reasons to quit. I need just a few good reasons to keep going.
Rule Six: Carve some time to yourself for writing. I try to work by myself for an hour a day. I hide in the bedroom with a laptop. I make sure I take my lunch hour and type away at the desk. I've taken my laptop with me to Barnes and Noble to sit in their comfy chair with a lapdesk (I happen to have one our B&N no longer sells so I can kind of "prove" I'm not pilfering it from their sales displays) and just type away. I needed to find an environment in which I can half-focus on my story with minimal distraction.
Rule Seven: No editing. I backspace and fix obvious spelling errors. I will fix things that just bug me as they're on the virtual page. But I do not go back and rewrite scenes and pages of work. If I do that, I'll end up spending days, or weeks, or even months trying to get a "perfect opening" or making the entire novel a masterpiece magnum opus. The idea is to get a story out there on the page that can be fixed as needed, then shop it around to agents. Editing can be done after the initial draft is complete. I keep getting a strong urge to rewrite the opening and every time I end up reminding myself of this rule! It can be hard to see obvious blemishes in your baby and have to wait until later to fix them, but the danger of getting "stuck" in fixing the story and never actually finishing the story is way too big for me to hazard this road.
Rule Eight: Tell the story. Grammar, structure, etc...those can be fixed later (see Rule Seven). The important thing is to have a story! Tell your story. The mechanics can be revisited later. The story is the thing. The story is the thing. The story is the thing!
Rule Nine: Keep notes. I don't keep copious notes, but I do keep enough to go back and spruce certain things up. I keep notes on full names of characters as I introduce them in the story (you don't want to change a character midway through because you forgot if you used Matthew or Mathew as the given name...makes search and replace more difficult as well.) If you add a particular plot point or device in the story, you probably don't want to forget about it. In my case I'm keeping a text file with my notes in the same folder as the file containing the story.
Rule Ten: Make backups. I'll wager most writers now are using those new-fangled computers on which to write. Computers fail. Hardware is stolen, damaged, or data gets corrupted. Do yourself a favor and get a USB flash drive. Edit your work, and immediately save it elsewhere. Personally I have my notes and current draft on my main computer and on a USB drive, and the version on the computer gets backed up to three external hard drives. If my house burns down I may lose the draft, but I still am protected against most failures of hardware and most incidences of corruption. If you're laboring over a 100,000 page manuscript plus notes plus editing time...isn't the investment in some external storage for copying your work periodically really just a drop in the bucket? It's insurance against losing your work. I see no reason whatsoever to feel bad for 90% of writers that have data loss that destroys their work in progress when the ability to make copies is cheap and simple. "I don't know how" is not really an excuse anymore. If you're talking about writing as anything more than a hobby, then making backups of your livelihood is just part of the cost of doing business!
Rule Eleven: Write consistently to keep the ball rolling. If you decide to take a break, suddenly you forget what your protagonist was doing, or you forgot some detail that was important at the time (how did your hero pull a knife on the antagonist when he strapped on a gun before leaving his apartment?). It can be argued that these belong in the notes; they probably do. My way of working means that if it's an immediate detail I normally remember it the next day, while notes are made for things that will keep popping up or will be important a week from now. Taking a break of a few days in a row means you probably have to really push yourself to get back behind the keyboard and write again, just like skipping the gym a few days means needing that pep talk to get dressed to work out, shuffle to the car, drive to the gym...writing has enough challenges. You don't need to force yourself into a pep talk to do something you should be enjoying.
Rule Twelve: Write while you enjoy it. If you enjoy your story you increase the chances that your reader will enjoy it. I think that when it comes to fiction (or non-fiction, I suppose) you end up pushing some of your enthusiasm for the subject or story onto the reader. They pick up where you lose interest, and they know when your heart just isn't into it anymore. A good story should draw in the writer as much as the reader. If it fails to do so, you need to reevaluate the plot points and see why you're not caring about the protagonist and his or her journey through your created world.
Rule 13: Progress is progress. I have a goal of 500 words a day. I actually have come to expect 1,000+ words a day. There are some days where I fall short...like, a couple hundred words are all I manage to tap out before I have to call it quits for one reason or another. But that one or two hundred words are one or two hundred words more than that manuscript started the day with. I can't beat myself up over that. There are good days and bad days. The important thing is to keep making progress and keep getting a little farther ahead. As a result there are actually very very few days where I've made zero progress on the story, and I've had a few days that were only a couple hundred words and I have had a few days where I really surpassed my average by a significant margin. If I fall short one day...make it up later. I can't dwell on my shortcomings or I'll never finish the first draft!
I'm not a published author. I'm on the first steps towards trying to achieve that goal. I may fail miserably, and you can take my rules for what they're worth. In my world they have helped sustain me through many a doubt and many a fear, and I've written over one hundred thousand words with these rules in mind. I'm sure that as I go along I'll need to modify or add to these rules. For right now, at this stage in the game, I'm sticking to these. What do you think? Are there rules you use or rules you think should be altered here?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Writing Yourself Into a Corner
My current word count: 103,157, according to OpenOffice.
The topic: writing yourself into a corner. Ever have that happen?
I was aiming for around 100,000 to 110,000 words. That seems to be an approximate target for scifi novels, and while my story doesn't really involve spaceships it does seem to fit that kind of genre.
As you can see I've already blipped over the low end of the target range.
The thing is, I was coming up on what I thought was going to be the final scenes. Then I sat back and thought about how the main character and the antagonist were going to play it out; I discovered that no matter how I sliced it I didn't like the quick and dirty ending I originally sort of pictured.
This is something that probably depends a lot on your style of creating your story, though. I had only the roughest outline in my head of what I wanted to have happen. I don't have it broken down, as some people do, into a rought skeleton on which to hang more details and layer more details until all that needs to be done by the fifth time through is to add some adjectives and voila...done!
I've heard of other writers that will picture how they want the story to end, write that scene, then rewind and work up to that point. Not me!
Nope, I started with a "wouldn't it be cool if..." then started writing. My wife looked at a part of the early first draft and right off the bat said, "This opening is horrible..."
And she was right. I know what I need for an opening paragraph, an opening sentence, and my first draft's opening was truly sucktacular. Why? Because I had an extremely nebulous idea in my head of what I wanted to story out, and I sat down and just started typing until the idea started getting traction and headed the way of something resembling a story. As a result, the opening wanders, and has little to do with grabbing reader attention. The first half of the first chapter was more an exercise in gaining focus and introducing characters.
I think this is called "organic writing".
At this point I'm over my 100,000 mark and realizing that the ending will take a little longer than anticipated. That's okay! I thought about what I was going to do, I have a tentative idea of what to do for a resolution. And it will be longer than anticipated.
Why? A few reasons.
One, this is a first draft. The ending may not work, the middle may have parts that don't work, and I may have issues with continuity in my first draft that I haven't even caught yet. Apparently there are times where parts of the story make perfect sense to me because I actually wrote the parts that make sense in my head, and not in the document. It happens. That 100,000 word count may quickly drop when I have to hack and slash parts out as well as redo scenes and details. It only takes about four pages of text to disappear to lose 1,000 words (as I recall the rough estimate is 250 words is about a page of text).
Second, I could change things. Like Paula B. left in a comment to the previous message, there could be ten or more rewrites in store. If the ending (or middle or beginning) doesn't work, I may need to rewrite entire chapters. This could dramatically alter my word count in one fell swoop of the delete key, and my word count is largely meaningless at the moment.
Third, page length is a guideline. Now, ignoring the word count entirely is a bad bad idea. No agent or publisher is going to accept an unknown author with a 300,000 word novel just because you think it's "da' bomb", and they probably don't care if you think they don't know what they're doing by passing up your work. But when you get a rough guideline of 100,000 words for a scifi novel and you come in at 120,000...well, they'll either tell you they'll take it on the requirement that you chop out 15,000 or so words, or they'll...probably tell you to chop out some of the words. If it's a good story, if they think it'll sell, they'll buy it if it's close to their guidelines. The important thing is the story. Grab them, entrance them, woo them...if they can't put down your manuscript, chances are you'll sell it to them, even if it is over (or under) size.
I'm not saying my story is the next big thing. I would hope it is, but let's face it...odds are stacked against me. A first story, from an unknown, still learning as he goes along. That's a really long shot. But if I focused entirely on reality then I'd quickly conclude this isn't worth the effort, and quite frankly I want to make a go at trying to be successful at something like this. So I have to focus on the possible positives as well as the likely negatives!
So what do I do now that I've written myself into a corner where my word count is steadily climbing and my ending is getting a little longer than I liked?
I keep writing. I write until there's something resembling a decent ending, then I give it a quick scan to fix up the beginning, alter some details here and there, give it the roughest coat of polish possible. Then I give it to someone else and see how much they recoil and how much effort it takes them to plow through it to the end, if they make it that far. I get feedback. I rework things that aren't working for them. I get this feedback early so I'm not agonizing over details in a chapter that will have to be tossed out completely.
Most importantly I keep going. I wish I could remember where I first heard, "You can't edit a blank page," so I could give proper credit where it's due. It's true. I can't stop and ponder forever what to do with the ending or wait for the perfect ending...I have to keep going, or I'll shelve my project and just never come back to it. So I just keep asking myself what should happen next, then I go with it. I know I could change it later if I have to.
I guess I'm saying that in my naivete there's no such thing as truly writing yourself into a corner. You just keep writing. Ask, "What should happen next given the current circumstances?" and you write it. Then you ask it again. And again. And again. If inspiration strikes later, you'll go back and fix it. But first, get the story down so you'll have something to fix!
The topic: writing yourself into a corner. Ever have that happen?
I was aiming for around 100,000 to 110,000 words. That seems to be an approximate target for scifi novels, and while my story doesn't really involve spaceships it does seem to fit that kind of genre.
As you can see I've already blipped over the low end of the target range.
The thing is, I was coming up on what I thought was going to be the final scenes. Then I sat back and thought about how the main character and the antagonist were going to play it out; I discovered that no matter how I sliced it I didn't like the quick and dirty ending I originally sort of pictured.
This is something that probably depends a lot on your style of creating your story, though. I had only the roughest outline in my head of what I wanted to have happen. I don't have it broken down, as some people do, into a rought skeleton on which to hang more details and layer more details until all that needs to be done by the fifth time through is to add some adjectives and voila...done!
I've heard of other writers that will picture how they want the story to end, write that scene, then rewind and work up to that point. Not me!
Nope, I started with a "wouldn't it be cool if..." then started writing. My wife looked at a part of the early first draft and right off the bat said, "This opening is horrible..."
And she was right. I know what I need for an opening paragraph, an opening sentence, and my first draft's opening was truly sucktacular. Why? Because I had an extremely nebulous idea in my head of what I wanted to story out, and I sat down and just started typing until the idea started getting traction and headed the way of something resembling a story. As a result, the opening wanders, and has little to do with grabbing reader attention. The first half of the first chapter was more an exercise in gaining focus and introducing characters.
I think this is called "organic writing".
At this point I'm over my 100,000 mark and realizing that the ending will take a little longer than anticipated. That's okay! I thought about what I was going to do, I have a tentative idea of what to do for a resolution. And it will be longer than anticipated.
Why? A few reasons.
One, this is a first draft. The ending may not work, the middle may have parts that don't work, and I may have issues with continuity in my first draft that I haven't even caught yet. Apparently there are times where parts of the story make perfect sense to me because I actually wrote the parts that make sense in my head, and not in the document. It happens. That 100,000 word count may quickly drop when I have to hack and slash parts out as well as redo scenes and details. It only takes about four pages of text to disappear to lose 1,000 words (as I recall the rough estimate is 250 words is about a page of text).
Second, I could change things. Like Paula B. left in a comment to the previous message, there could be ten or more rewrites in store. If the ending (or middle or beginning) doesn't work, I may need to rewrite entire chapters. This could dramatically alter my word count in one fell swoop of the delete key, and my word count is largely meaningless at the moment.
Third, page length is a guideline. Now, ignoring the word count entirely is a bad bad idea. No agent or publisher is going to accept an unknown author with a 300,000 word novel just because you think it's "da' bomb", and they probably don't care if you think they don't know what they're doing by passing up your work. But when you get a rough guideline of 100,000 words for a scifi novel and you come in at 120,000...well, they'll either tell you they'll take it on the requirement that you chop out 15,000 or so words, or they'll...probably tell you to chop out some of the words. If it's a good story, if they think it'll sell, they'll buy it if it's close to their guidelines. The important thing is the story. Grab them, entrance them, woo them...if they can't put down your manuscript, chances are you'll sell it to them, even if it is over (or under) size.
I'm not saying my story is the next big thing. I would hope it is, but let's face it...odds are stacked against me. A first story, from an unknown, still learning as he goes along. That's a really long shot. But if I focused entirely on reality then I'd quickly conclude this isn't worth the effort, and quite frankly I want to make a go at trying to be successful at something like this. So I have to focus on the possible positives as well as the likely negatives!
So what do I do now that I've written myself into a corner where my word count is steadily climbing and my ending is getting a little longer than I liked?
I keep writing. I write until there's something resembling a decent ending, then I give it a quick scan to fix up the beginning, alter some details here and there, give it the roughest coat of polish possible. Then I give it to someone else and see how much they recoil and how much effort it takes them to plow through it to the end, if they make it that far. I get feedback. I rework things that aren't working for them. I get this feedback early so I'm not agonizing over details in a chapter that will have to be tossed out completely.
Most importantly I keep going. I wish I could remember where I first heard, "You can't edit a blank page," so I could give proper credit where it's due. It's true. I can't stop and ponder forever what to do with the ending or wait for the perfect ending...I have to keep going, or I'll shelve my project and just never come back to it. So I just keep asking myself what should happen next, then I go with it. I know I could change it later if I have to.
I guess I'm saying that in my naivete there's no such thing as truly writing yourself into a corner. You just keep writing. Ask, "What should happen next given the current circumstances?" and you write it. Then you ask it again. And again. And again. If inspiration strikes later, you'll go back and fix it. But first, get the story down so you'll have something to fix!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Goals and Writing
My word count stands at 98,896 on the first draft.
I had been hoping to finish my first draft in November, spend December editing and rewriting, and then celebrate the New Year by starting my agent/publisher search and collecting my rejection notices.
Well, I still have a few more bits to go on the first draft. I'm thinking I'm very close to my final scenes as I have them laid out in my head, but I obviously didn't quite make my "Done In November" goal.
This brings me to goals in writing. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make it, obviously, but I can't let it keep me down. I have, however, been keeping to my previous goal of 500+ words per day. Almost every day I have added over 1,000 words to the first draft. For me, with my schedule, that's very good. There have been only a few days where I have skipped adding to my manuscript, and if you average out my progress I have still managed to keep ahead of my goal by a decent margin.
Writing a book, or attempting to write a book in my case, takes discipline. Wanna-be writers have a huge bag of excuses at their disposal to derail writing that Great American Novel. I have plenty of them; I lack time, I lack talent, and the odds are greatly stacked against new authors trying to break into the market, the effort isn't worth it for the amount of money the vast majority of authors make from months (or years) of toil...
...and it's all true, for the most part. Or at least in some way valid.
So I started setting goals and evaluating how to meet those goals, and admitted that it takes a certain amount of discipline to meet those goals. I cut time out of the TV time to be replaced with "placing my butt in the seat and the hands on the keyboard". I don't have a home office space so I will take a laptop into the bedroom with a lapdesk so I have a slightly quieter space to try focusing a little better on my story.
My most basic goal is to make some advancement on the story each day, be it a 100 words or 1,000 words. I have good days and bad days, but I've had very very few days where I don't add something to the first draft.
I use these goals to keep me motivated through the doubts and fears. I don't have an English degree, I didn't even really like my English classes in school. I don't know if anyone would like my story; they very well might not. I fully acknowledge that this is a first attempt at writing anything more complicated than a long email and as such it will very likely not be anything near what the masters on the shelves at Barnes and Noble have written.
On the other hand, Anne Coulter and Glenn Beck have had books released as well.
So I plug on, focusing on my goals more than my fears. If I never get published, I'll have pride in knowing that I tried, and that I gave it an honest effort in addition to the pride of having made my goals and stuck with them.
If you want to achieve something in life you need to create goals to help measure your progress. If you don't make a milestone, you reassess and move on, continuing to make progress. Only fail yourself by giving up on your goals...so...I've failed to finish the first draft in November. I'm now going to try focusing on finishing it up as soon as I can into December so I can start editing and rewriting, and still at least try to start the query process in January. It's not too late to meet that goal yet...
I had been hoping to finish my first draft in November, spend December editing and rewriting, and then celebrate the New Year by starting my agent/publisher search and collecting my rejection notices.
Well, I still have a few more bits to go on the first draft. I'm thinking I'm very close to my final scenes as I have them laid out in my head, but I obviously didn't quite make my "Done In November" goal.
This brings me to goals in writing. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make it, obviously, but I can't let it keep me down. I have, however, been keeping to my previous goal of 500+ words per day. Almost every day I have added over 1,000 words to the first draft. For me, with my schedule, that's very good. There have been only a few days where I have skipped adding to my manuscript, and if you average out my progress I have still managed to keep ahead of my goal by a decent margin.
Writing a book, or attempting to write a book in my case, takes discipline. Wanna-be writers have a huge bag of excuses at their disposal to derail writing that Great American Novel. I have plenty of them; I lack time, I lack talent, and the odds are greatly stacked against new authors trying to break into the market, the effort isn't worth it for the amount of money the vast majority of authors make from months (or years) of toil...
...and it's all true, for the most part. Or at least in some way valid.
So I started setting goals and evaluating how to meet those goals, and admitted that it takes a certain amount of discipline to meet those goals. I cut time out of the TV time to be replaced with "placing my butt in the seat and the hands on the keyboard". I don't have a home office space so I will take a laptop into the bedroom with a lapdesk so I have a slightly quieter space to try focusing a little better on my story.
My most basic goal is to make some advancement on the story each day, be it a 100 words or 1,000 words. I have good days and bad days, but I've had very very few days where I don't add something to the first draft.
I use these goals to keep me motivated through the doubts and fears. I don't have an English degree, I didn't even really like my English classes in school. I don't know if anyone would like my story; they very well might not. I fully acknowledge that this is a first attempt at writing anything more complicated than a long email and as such it will very likely not be anything near what the masters on the shelves at Barnes and Noble have written.
On the other hand, Anne Coulter and Glenn Beck have had books released as well.
So I plug on, focusing on my goals more than my fears. If I never get published, I'll have pride in knowing that I tried, and that I gave it an honest effort in addition to the pride of having made my goals and stuck with them.
If you want to achieve something in life you need to create goals to help measure your progress. If you don't make a milestone, you reassess and move on, continuing to make progress. Only fail yourself by giving up on your goals...so...I've failed to finish the first draft in November. I'm now going to try focusing on finishing it up as soon as I can into December so I can start editing and rewriting, and still at least try to start the query process in January. It's not too late to meet that goal yet...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The Reality of Making Income as an Author
Lynn Viehl had a reposted article on the Publetariat blog discussing her sales and royalties from Twilight Fall, a top twenty New York Times bestseller.
As has been customary, a quick update on my own work. I'm still plugging away on my first draft of a novel; I am currently at 92,465 words, and still keeping up an average of about a thousand words a day. I think that's pretty good while holding up another job and family. Well, my job. I don't have another family. We now return to my post-motivational-mention-of-wordcount blog post.
Lynn discusses quite a bit of information about her income on that book, which is a real jewel considering how few bits of information like this come out. The scary part is the uncertainty; she's a bestselling author, established, and that makes her not exactly in the same boat as people who are trying to break into the industry. But if I (and other beginners) somehow manage to "make it", this may be one possible outcome.
The details are spelled on on the blog posting, but she said that the total net sales for the novel are 61,663 copies. Her net earnings on this particular statement was $2,434.38...she noted that it would probably take another six months to a year to earn out the last of her advance ($50,000).
She says:
So how much money have I made from my Times bestseller? Depending on the type of sale, I gross 6-8% of the cover price of $7.99. After paying taxes, commission to my agent and covering my expenses, my net profit on the book currently stands at $24,517.36, which is actually pretty good since on average I generally net about 30-40% of my advance. Unless something triggers an unexpected spike in my sales, I don’t expect to see any additional profit from this book coming in for at least another year or two.
From what I understand, an advance of $50,000 is reserved for authors who are established and can generally be counted on as having solid sales. I don't have any solid proof, per se, but I believe that a beginning author who manages to sell their first novel is lucky to get $5,000 to $15,000 as an advance. She states in the posting that she believes, anecdotally, that her numbers are below the average NYT top twenty bestseller list, though.
She goes on to say that if she were like many writers and put out one novel with these kinds of sales per year and her family of four were dependent only on her income then she'd be making around $2,500 over poverty level. She'd be barely above the qualification for food stamps. OUCH!
I've made no bones that I'd love to be a successful author and move into that as a career. The reality is that while persistence and support could raise the odds of "making it" in such a career, or at least place it above winning the lottery, there is a very real possibility that it will only be a supplemental income (assuming it actually makes any income...)
I honestly don't know what the future will hold. There's a good chance my efforts will result in no payoff. There's smaller odds that my efforts will pay off in just enough to go out to dinner to celebrate that it actually sold. There's a very very slim chance that I'll manage to write enough books to actually get angry that the government is taking most of the advance in taxes. Odds that float around somewhere near the planet Krypton lay the chances that I could actually quit my day job and follow my dream of a home office in which I spend my days writing.
No matter the odds, I swore I'd give this an honest try to sell it. So here goes nothing!
As has been customary, a quick update on my own work. I'm still plugging away on my first draft of a novel; I am currently at 92,465 words, and still keeping up an average of about a thousand words a day. I think that's pretty good while holding up another job and family. Well, my job. I don't have another family. We now return to my post-motivational-mention-of-wordcount blog post.
Lynn discusses quite a bit of information about her income on that book, which is a real jewel considering how few bits of information like this come out. The scary part is the uncertainty; she's a bestselling author, established, and that makes her not exactly in the same boat as people who are trying to break into the industry. But if I (and other beginners) somehow manage to "make it", this may be one possible outcome.
The details are spelled on on the blog posting, but she said that the total net sales for the novel are 61,663 copies. Her net earnings on this particular statement was $2,434.38...she noted that it would probably take another six months to a year to earn out the last of her advance ($50,000).
She says:
So how much money have I made from my Times bestseller? Depending on the type of sale, I gross 6-8% of the cover price of $7.99. After paying taxes, commission to my agent and covering my expenses, my net profit on the book currently stands at $24,517.36, which is actually pretty good since on average I generally net about 30-40% of my advance. Unless something triggers an unexpected spike in my sales, I don’t expect to see any additional profit from this book coming in for at least another year or two.
From what I understand, an advance of $50,000 is reserved for authors who are established and can generally be counted on as having solid sales. I don't have any solid proof, per se, but I believe that a beginning author who manages to sell their first novel is lucky to get $5,000 to $15,000 as an advance. She states in the posting that she believes, anecdotally, that her numbers are below the average NYT top twenty bestseller list, though.
She goes on to say that if she were like many writers and put out one novel with these kinds of sales per year and her family of four were dependent only on her income then she'd be making around $2,500 over poverty level. She'd be barely above the qualification for food stamps. OUCH!
I've made no bones that I'd love to be a successful author and move into that as a career. The reality is that while persistence and support could raise the odds of "making it" in such a career, or at least place it above winning the lottery, there is a very real possibility that it will only be a supplemental income (assuming it actually makes any income...)
I honestly don't know what the future will hold. There's a good chance my efforts will result in no payoff. There's smaller odds that my efforts will pay off in just enough to go out to dinner to celebrate that it actually sold. There's a very very slim chance that I'll manage to write enough books to actually get angry that the government is taking most of the advance in taxes. Odds that float around somewhere near the planet Krypton lay the chances that I could actually quit my day job and follow my dream of a home office in which I spend my days writing.
No matter the odds, I swore I'd give this an honest try to sell it. So here goes nothing!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Mostly Through NaNoWriMo Already...
I've mentioned the National Novel Writing Month, also called NaNoWriMo. Now that we're more than halfway through the month it means that if you're pacing yourself out, you should be over the 25,000 word mark, since by midnight of the last day in November you need 50,000 words to "win".
I am not doing NaNoWriMo because I started working on my own manuscript in September, and currently have a wordcount of 83,604 words; if I stopped to try competing in NaNoWriMo (the manuscript must be started from scratch on November 1st) I'd have lost my momentum for the work I'm trying to finish.
I try to get a little further on my work each day rather than hit a specific word count since I may become discouraged when I miss the count. I was curious, though, how I would have stacked up if I were competing. So I went back through some numbers I had recorded to get an approximate number of words I had added since November first, and I hit a not-to-bad 20,000 words!
Not bad, I think. I'd be only slightly behind if I were competing.
How are other people doing? Even if you're behind, the goal is to make progress. There are no penalties for not making the wordcount. If you're ahead, keep going! If you're lagging, don't give up!
I am not doing NaNoWriMo because I started working on my own manuscript in September, and currently have a wordcount of 83,604 words; if I stopped to try competing in NaNoWriMo (the manuscript must be started from scratch on November 1st) I'd have lost my momentum for the work I'm trying to finish.
I try to get a little further on my work each day rather than hit a specific word count since I may become discouraged when I miss the count. I was curious, though, how I would have stacked up if I were competing. So I went back through some numbers I had recorded to get an approximate number of words I had added since November first, and I hit a not-to-bad 20,000 words!
Not bad, I think. I'd be only slightly behind if I were competing.
How are other people doing? Even if you're behind, the goal is to make progress. There are no penalties for not making the wordcount. If you're ahead, keep going! If you're lagging, don't give up!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
First Novel Update: November 15th: Weekends Are Hard On Progress
First draft word count according to OpenOffice: 80,391. I officially broke the 80,000 word barrier!
Too bad this wasn't a NaNoWriMo novel...
The bad news was that I only managed 909 words today. Yesterday was a bust; I spent an insane amount of time at a really cool book sale in a warehouse (already blogged about it yesterday) and...what else? Oh, yeah, blogging after I got home last night, and spending some time with my son post-shopping while watching his rented Underdog DVD and playing on the Wii and playing with trains and...you get the idea.
So it was a mixed weekend. I don't regret how my Saturday went despite not making progress on the novel. Today I didn't hit my optimistic 1,000 words, but then again my set goal is 500 words a day and I managed to make some headway. Even 100 words is 100 more than was there before.
It seems that my word count tends to go down on weekends. I don't know why exactly other than my routine for the past five days is interrupted and I have less structure on my weekends than the days I slog through my workday.
The important thing is to continue working each day and continue making progress. Tobias Buckell wrote about the issue here on his blog; if you take a significant break on writing a novel, you lose all momentum. You remember less of the events in the story, you lose the workflow, you lose track of things...and you lose the excitement that drives the story forward, and boy oh boy is it a chore to get back into the story when this happens.
In reflection, I was disappointed that I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked to over the weekend, but I am happy that I made some progress. Big or small, progress is the key!
Too bad this wasn't a NaNoWriMo novel...
The bad news was that I only managed 909 words today. Yesterday was a bust; I spent an insane amount of time at a really cool book sale in a warehouse (already blogged about it yesterday) and...what else? Oh, yeah, blogging after I got home last night, and spending some time with my son post-shopping while watching his rented Underdog DVD and playing on the Wii and playing with trains and...you get the idea.
So it was a mixed weekend. I don't regret how my Saturday went despite not making progress on the novel. Today I didn't hit my optimistic 1,000 words, but then again my set goal is 500 words a day and I managed to make some headway. Even 100 words is 100 more than was there before.
It seems that my word count tends to go down on weekends. I don't know why exactly other than my routine for the past five days is interrupted and I have less structure on my weekends than the days I slog through my workday.
The important thing is to continue working each day and continue making progress. Tobias Buckell wrote about the issue here on his blog; if you take a significant break on writing a novel, you lose all momentum. You remember less of the events in the story, you lose the workflow, you lose track of things...and you lose the excitement that drives the story forward, and boy oh boy is it a chore to get back into the story when this happens.
In reflection, I was disappointed that I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked to over the weekend, but I am happy that I made some progress. Big or small, progress is the key!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Penguin Publisher's Giant Warehouse Sale!
I just got back from a rather interesting event; the Penguin Group held their annual warehouse sale where you can purchase new titles for as low as a $1!
First...quick update. Currently my first draft is at 79,492 words. I haven't worked on it yet today because I was at the book sale...
Now for the warehouse sale. The sale took place in an old warehouse. Sounds like the opening for a book, doesn't it?
I've heard horrible things about the literacy rates in America. A tiny percent of Americans read for pleasure anymore; book sales have fallen, staff are being cut from publishers and from what I can find it's harder than ever for new authors to get a contract.
But you wouldn't know that if you were at the sale today.
The line actually wound around the parking lot. Of a warehouse.
We waited an hour just to get in to the warehouse.
Once inside it was packed. Racks and racks of books priced at a huge discount over the cover price. There is simply no way I can imagine that the publisher was making any money on these things.
My wife and I ended up spending $68 on books, and we estimated that these were $400 worth of books (we haven't counted up the cover prices, but considering that any books listed over $60 were %10 of the price, that's probably not too far off). We packed a suitcase with various titles.
Literally. we packed a rolling suitcase with books. You have to carry boxes that they had at the entrance or you could fill a kid's wagon or hand cart or whatever you have handy. They didn't have anything other than boxes; no shopping carts or baskets.
Once inside we found cardboard "aisle signs" directing you to vague sections like young adult and adult titles. It was Black Friday in there; as the warehouse got full they would shut the doors and the line outside would stall for another ten minutes before they would admit more shoppers.
The aisles were crowded; we shuffled through, trying to check out the titles and decide what we may have shelf space for. At those prices it was hard not to grab books to try; even if we didn't need it, there are always people for whom they would make nice gifts.
Leaving was also a challenge since the line to get out took an hour.
But it was worth it.
Check out the link at the beginning of the post for information on the event. It is certainly an event to behold. My question is, with such horrible horrible news coming out about the publishing industry and the general state of American ignorance and unwillingness to read, why were there so many people literally flocking to this warehouse sale?
Could it be the extreme bargains? Is the media overhyping the bad news? Was this a congregation of the small percent of people in the area that do enjoy reading and collecting books? Or is there something about cutting the price down to iTunes-like proportions that makes people show up in droves to get books?
My only complaint was there weren't any graphic novels or technology books to choose from. Then again this wasn't Barnes and Noble; they had what they had, and hey, we left with a suitcase of books for under $70. Good enough for me!
First...quick update. Currently my first draft is at 79,492 words. I haven't worked on it yet today because I was at the book sale...
Now for the warehouse sale. The sale took place in an old warehouse. Sounds like the opening for a book, doesn't it?
I've heard horrible things about the literacy rates in America. A tiny percent of Americans read for pleasure anymore; book sales have fallen, staff are being cut from publishers and from what I can find it's harder than ever for new authors to get a contract.
But you wouldn't know that if you were at the sale today.
The line actually wound around the parking lot. Of a warehouse.
We waited an hour just to get in to the warehouse.
Once inside it was packed. Racks and racks of books priced at a huge discount over the cover price. There is simply no way I can imagine that the publisher was making any money on these things.
My wife and I ended up spending $68 on books, and we estimated that these were $400 worth of books (we haven't counted up the cover prices, but considering that any books listed over $60 were %10 of the price, that's probably not too far off). We packed a suitcase with various titles.
Literally. we packed a rolling suitcase with books. You have to carry boxes that they had at the entrance or you could fill a kid's wagon or hand cart or whatever you have handy. They didn't have anything other than boxes; no shopping carts or baskets.
Once inside we found cardboard "aisle signs" directing you to vague sections like young adult and adult titles. It was Black Friday in there; as the warehouse got full they would shut the doors and the line outside would stall for another ten minutes before they would admit more shoppers.
The aisles were crowded; we shuffled through, trying to check out the titles and decide what we may have shelf space for. At those prices it was hard not to grab books to try; even if we didn't need it, there are always people for whom they would make nice gifts.
Leaving was also a challenge since the line to get out took an hour.
But it was worth it.
Check out the link at the beginning of the post for information on the event. It is certainly an event to behold. My question is, with such horrible horrible news coming out about the publishing industry and the general state of American ignorance and unwillingness to read, why were there so many people literally flocking to this warehouse sale?
Could it be the extreme bargains? Is the media overhyping the bad news? Was this a congregation of the small percent of people in the area that do enjoy reading and collecting books? Or is there something about cutting the price down to iTunes-like proportions that makes people show up in droves to get books?
My only complaint was there weren't any graphic novels or technology books to choose from. Then again this wasn't Barnes and Noble; they had what they had, and hey, we left with a suitcase of books for under $70. Good enough for me!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
First Novel Update: November 11th: Thoughts About Dialog
My first draft is currently at 75,764 words according to the word count on OpenOffice.
I have been writing quite a bit of dialog in this story (big surprise). Part of the issue with this is that it's not always easy to write "realistic" dialog.
As someone with Asperger's I already notice certain details in people's speech. Primarily because there are certain things...verbal tics, if you will...that drive me NUTS.
I hate people saying "umm" or "uh". Can't stand it, and refuse to listen to public speakers that stammer constantly.
Or people that use taglines in their speech like "or whatever."
Or...well, I could go on. But I won't. Because the point is that dialog written in books isn't like dialog that we use in everyday speech. In real life we clip our words, use filler language, and use words that don't really contribute to the advancement of the plot. Probably because our lives are viewed as having plots while generally a novel is supposed to have a plot.
I'm not going to go back and edit for that quite yet but this is a topic that I have to keep in mind when editing time rolls around. I'll need to review a list like this one from fictionwriting.about.com that gives some helpful hints on how to trim dialog so it's readable and...well, readable.
In general dialog should read as if it were being said by real people in an actual conversation, but at the same time should be trimmed of excess verbiage and filler that doesn't serve to advance the plot or emphasize some aspect of the character.
If you have a character that is supposed to be dumb, then you'll end up doing things like adding pauses and "um" and "y'all"; something that many people do in normal course without being dumb, but when it's emphasized in the written form, you turn it into a characteristic of a personal stereotype despite the fact that these things are quite common in everyday folks. Characters that are supposed to be intelligent sometimes show it through excess or complex verbiage that nearly talks over the heads of the readers (but hopefully not completely over their heads or who would want to read that? Authors do still need audiences, after all...)
It's a complex thing to do, creating that balance between authentic dialog and dialog that isn't so transcribed that the reader has to slog through the words and get bored out of their skulls. I don't know if I have any skill with this because I'm still in the first draft; I'm focusing on just getting a basic story completed before I go back and evaluate the dialog.
Personally the only thing that has stuck out to me is that I think I ask too many questions in the dialog. In my head I really see the characters saying this and as I'm working on it I see these conversations coming out this way. I think maybe...just maybe...I am more into getting information by asking questions and don't know if people really do this in real life as much as I do. The first read (which is to say what I'm hearing in my head as I type) sounds fine.
I won't know until I go back to edit, I suppose. Or I have my first reader come back to me with some feedback on the dialog.
That's my reoccurring fear for now; my dialog is either too contrived or not varied enough to sound realistic. But it's a worry to focus on later. Right now I need to get back to writing.
I have been writing quite a bit of dialog in this story (big surprise). Part of the issue with this is that it's not always easy to write "realistic" dialog.
As someone with Asperger's I already notice certain details in people's speech. Primarily because there are certain things...verbal tics, if you will...that drive me NUTS.
I hate people saying "umm" or "uh". Can't stand it, and refuse to listen to public speakers that stammer constantly.
Or people that use taglines in their speech like "or whatever."
Or...well, I could go on. But I won't. Because the point is that dialog written in books isn't like dialog that we use in everyday speech. In real life we clip our words, use filler language, and use words that don't really contribute to the advancement of the plot. Probably because our lives are viewed as having plots while generally a novel is supposed to have a plot.
I'm not going to go back and edit for that quite yet but this is a topic that I have to keep in mind when editing time rolls around. I'll need to review a list like this one from fictionwriting.about.com that gives some helpful hints on how to trim dialog so it's readable and...well, readable.
In general dialog should read as if it were being said by real people in an actual conversation, but at the same time should be trimmed of excess verbiage and filler that doesn't serve to advance the plot or emphasize some aspect of the character.
If you have a character that is supposed to be dumb, then you'll end up doing things like adding pauses and "um" and "y'all"; something that many people do in normal course without being dumb, but when it's emphasized in the written form, you turn it into a characteristic of a personal stereotype despite the fact that these things are quite common in everyday folks. Characters that are supposed to be intelligent sometimes show it through excess or complex verbiage that nearly talks over the heads of the readers (but hopefully not completely over their heads or who would want to read that? Authors do still need audiences, after all...)
It's a complex thing to do, creating that balance between authentic dialog and dialog that isn't so transcribed that the reader has to slog through the words and get bored out of their skulls. I don't know if I have any skill with this because I'm still in the first draft; I'm focusing on just getting a basic story completed before I go back and evaluate the dialog.
Personally the only thing that has stuck out to me is that I think I ask too many questions in the dialog. In my head I really see the characters saying this and as I'm working on it I see these conversations coming out this way. I think maybe...just maybe...I am more into getting information by asking questions and don't know if people really do this in real life as much as I do. The first read (which is to say what I'm hearing in my head as I type) sounds fine.
I won't know until I go back to edit, I suppose. Or I have my first reader come back to me with some feedback on the dialog.
That's my reoccurring fear for now; my dialog is either too contrived or not varied enough to sound realistic. But it's a worry to focus on later. Right now I need to get back to writing.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Getting Good at Something
I found this interesting tidbit of motivation (anti-motivation?) at the zenhabits blog. It's called, "The Only Way to Become Amazingly Great at Something."
We are a society that is fixated on the idea of being on the move. We never have time for anything. We rush through our day with one task after another with little thought to what could or should be done, just what we must get done.
This same society that values rushing so very much has devalued the art of learning. We want quick fixes; we recoil at the thought of having to actually spend time enhancing our skills. Bookshelves, as pointed out in the article, have a healthy population of books promising to master programming languages and skills in a month's time.
But to truly master something it takes more time. Far more. People who take the shortcuts show their shortcomings the moment they run into someone who has already learned this lesson.
The post outlines what it may take to be great at something. Seeing the estimated journey outlined in stark black and white is daunting to say the least, and more than a little scary.
But then I remember what Randy Pausch said (as quoted on this website, from his Last Lecture):
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.
- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )
Writing...becoming an author...maybe my fear in failing to achieve that goal is my brick wall. I have every reason to give up. The hardest part is keeping the reason to keep going in view.
We are a society that is fixated on the idea of being on the move. We never have time for anything. We rush through our day with one task after another with little thought to what could or should be done, just what we must get done.
This same society that values rushing so very much has devalued the art of learning. We want quick fixes; we recoil at the thought of having to actually spend time enhancing our skills. Bookshelves, as pointed out in the article, have a healthy population of books promising to master programming languages and skills in a month's time.
But to truly master something it takes more time. Far more. People who take the shortcuts show their shortcomings the moment they run into someone who has already learned this lesson.
The post outlines what it may take to be great at something. Seeing the estimated journey outlined in stark black and white is daunting to say the least, and more than a little scary.
But then I remember what Randy Pausch said (as quoted on this website, from his Last Lecture):
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.
- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )
Writing...becoming an author...maybe my fear in failing to achieve that goal is my brick wall. I have every reason to give up. The hardest part is keeping the reason to keep going in view.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
First Novel Update: November 8th
Ironically it seems that my weekend sees a drop in word count. We took my daughter out college touring yesterday so we spent most of our time on the road; combined yesterday and today, I added 925 words to the first draft of the manuscript.
That brought the total up to 73,102 words as of tonight.
I'm tired and at the moment want to start unwinding before facing the next workday. I need to get to bed and I keep coughing like something is stuck in my throat. Annoying!
I have read more and more material about what it's like to try to transition into a career in writing. It's not a pleasant picture; I'll probably blog more thoughts and discovery as time goes on, and a progress update on the state of the novel isn't the right place to put such things, right?
Anyway...weekend = lower word count, but I still made headway. That's what's important. Butt in seat. Fingers on keyboard. Words on...screen...
That brought the total up to 73,102 words as of tonight.
I'm tired and at the moment want to start unwinding before facing the next workday. I need to get to bed and I keep coughing like something is stuck in my throat. Annoying!
I have read more and more material about what it's like to try to transition into a career in writing. It's not a pleasant picture; I'll probably blog more thoughts and discovery as time goes on, and a progress update on the state of the novel isn't the right place to put such things, right?
Anyway...weekend = lower word count, but I still made headway. That's what's important. Butt in seat. Fingers on keyboard. Words on...screen...
Author Yearly Income, and First Author Advances
With my other worries involved in trying to write a first novel I sometimes try to picture what would happen if I actually did sell a manuscript. What kind of windfall could I expect? Will I be able to make the bills and mortgage payment, so I could quit my day job? Or will I be able to afford that helicopter pad in the backyard? Or will I instead be lucky to afford a kiddie pool for the backyard?
It's terribly difficult to get solid numbers due to the factors that affect the amount a first time author can receive. Agents tend to get higher advances for authors (but they take a cut). Publishers sometimes only take agented queries, so you may need to acquire an agent before making it into the "big time". Genre selection affects income as well as what topics are "hot" (Probably too late to start writing that novel about a vampire fighting a werewolf for the love of Mary Sue...by the time it gets into the queue to be published, mummy romance will be the next big thing, unless you're writing about a vampire wizard fighting a werewolf wizard who-shall-not-be-named...)
Being an author today is very much a business of branding yourself. From what I can find a new author is expected to bootstrap him or herself, drumming up their own popularity and online following, touring bookstores on their own dime...following a career path in writing is very much a labor of love that unless you are a fortunate lucky stars-smile-upon-you soul who hits the mega big time is going to take a lot of hard knocks along the way.
The averages I found? A 2005 survey done online by Tobias Buckell said $5,000. I found some statistics saying that yearly income is in the $10,000 to $12,000 range.
Ouch.
This means that most likely I'm not going to hit a jackpot. It means that if I want to be successful at this "writing thing" I will need to keep trying. It means that I need to remind myself of Mur Lafferty's rules of writing and that it's okay to suck. I may even need to face the possibility that this side project won't ever amount to much and I'm pouring an hour a day or more into a project that will cost me...well, a portion of my life I won't get back.
On the other hand the same could be said of much of the TV I've absorbed in my life.
Maybe this will be a long exercise in keeping perspective.
It's terribly difficult to get solid numbers due to the factors that affect the amount a first time author can receive. Agents tend to get higher advances for authors (but they take a cut). Publishers sometimes only take agented queries, so you may need to acquire an agent before making it into the "big time". Genre selection affects income as well as what topics are "hot" (Probably too late to start writing that novel about a vampire fighting a werewolf for the love of Mary Sue...by the time it gets into the queue to be published, mummy romance will be the next big thing, unless you're writing about a vampire wizard fighting a werewolf wizard who-shall-not-be-named...)
Being an author today is very much a business of branding yourself. From what I can find a new author is expected to bootstrap him or herself, drumming up their own popularity and online following, touring bookstores on their own dime...following a career path in writing is very much a labor of love that unless you are a fortunate lucky stars-smile-upon-you soul who hits the mega big time is going to take a lot of hard knocks along the way.
The averages I found? A 2005 survey done online by Tobias Buckell said $5,000. I found some statistics saying that yearly income is in the $10,000 to $12,000 range.
Ouch.
This means that most likely I'm not going to hit a jackpot. It means that if I want to be successful at this "writing thing" I will need to keep trying. It means that I need to remind myself of Mur Lafferty's rules of writing and that it's okay to suck. I may even need to face the possibility that this side project won't ever amount to much and I'm pouring an hour a day or more into a project that will cost me...well, a portion of my life I won't get back.
On the other hand the same could be said of much of the TV I've absorbed in my life.
Maybe this will be a long exercise in keeping perspective.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Consumer vs. Producer...Thoughts on Legacy
What do you want out of life?
I've thought about this since I've undergone surgery to give myself the final kick-in-the-arse to lose my excess weight. If I'm going to live longer, shouldn't I have a good reason for it?
I did it in part because I have a young son and realized that as the comorbidities...diabetes, apnea, etc...mounted on my list of ailments then the odds of me living long enough to embarrass him in front of a potential wife were growing shorter. He's not yet in kindergarten and my list of issues from the doctor's visits were getting as long as he is tall.
But living just to hopefully see something eighteen years down the road isn't much of a good reason to live in itself, I think. Stress from work makes those 18 years...if I stay with that job...a very good reason to just allow my body to degenerate into a pile of convulsing bubbles of angst.
I decided that I wanted to leave a mark on the world. As an individual chances are I won't make a huge change. The vast majority of people don't. They live, they sweat, they toil, they die, and if they have children, they pass on genes to another generation and hopefully they'll be remembered for the next two or three generations in some way by their family.
I decided I wanted more than that. I had a child. He might remember me as an important influence on his life. Hopefully. The stepdaughter...she's a teenager. I don't know if she'd acknowledge my existence unless it suits something she needs. I'm told it's a teenager thing.
So how could I make some kind of footprint out there?
I started this blog initially as a record of the surgery. It's become kind of a sanitized (read: cleaned up...I constantly question my sanity) version of some of my views and issues in life. I figured my little dude, my wife, and perhaps even the teenager could have something to look back on and think about as being an extension of me.
Aside-I'll admit that part of me is saddened that a teenager that can sit and read an entire Twilight novel in the span of five hours would rather play an online video game for several hours than take three minutes a day to read my own little ramblings on the web...but again...guess that's a teenager thing. I hope.
I also started journaling at the behest of my insurance-mandated-for-surgery psychologist. I'm still surprised at the stack of papers pouring from the printer when I am prepping for another visit. My next printer will need to handle double-sided printing, and at a minimum I'm going to need more binders to hold them all soon.
I decided that I wanted to try my hand at one of two things (since I didn't think I'd be good at trying both at once): writing a novel, or writing software.
The software would be a challenge because I haven't programmed, really, since college. I'm in my early thirties now. I would dream of working in an environment like Fog Creek Software (if you haven't looked up how Spolsky treats his programmers...OH...MY...GOD...HIS company is a model of respect towards employees. It is a true dream job.) A true dream come true would be to START a company with a good software product. Work from home, distribute over the web...hmm...warm dreams.
The novel is a challenge because...well, face the reality. I don't have an English degree. You toil and toil for months writing the draft, then editing, and editing again, and perhaps again, then shopping for an agent, then finding a publisher (if you ever find an agent), then a year or two later you might be a published author and all you have to show for it is a piddly advance and if you have poor sales you may not see that publisher again. Ouch. And at any stage that career path can be derailed. Most authors don't quit their day jobs. Not to mention that America is largely illiterate; people don't read for leisure anymore (on average). The publishing industry isn't handing out sweet deals to unknowns anymore; the bubble there burst. If you see a "big thing" on the shelves like vampire stories have been (thanks a lot, Twilight) then decide to write the next big vampire novel, guess what? Unless you're an established author with a fast track into the publishing line, when your novel comes out everything will be mummies. You can't get a novel churned out quickly enough to hit the current wave of popularity.
Most novel writers never make it big. They're lucky to make a living.
I turned this over in my head. I decided that I really had the least to lose in trying to write a novel. I am inspired by the likes of Scott Sigler (who worked for 15 freakin' years before throwing in the towel and deciding to podcast his novels for free...leading to an actual publishing contract. Finally!) and Mur Lafferty (who also got a publishing contract after working her butt off on projects like I Should Be Writing and her own novels being released in podcast form) and Paula B. with her podcast The Writing Show, giving insights on the publishing and writing industries.
I didn't mention the worst part of taking this path. I fully realize that I'm working about an hour or more a day on a story that may never sell and will get rejected. When you work on something that could be about 100,000 words (mine's currently at 40,000 as a first draft, and this post is appearing several weeks after I'm prepping this posting) along with the work it takes to edit and polish the manuscript, those rejection slips from agents and publishers is going to hurt.
Having a story in your head and thinking that you have what it takes to write a great novel is one thing. In your head you can do anything. But to actually try...and fail...that's tough. I am essentially making the conscious choice to invest months of my time into something that may do little more than confirm that I'm going to fail.
Ouch!
But I'm producing something. (Bet you were wondering when I'd get to the point, eh?)
I'm working on a legacy. I see teenagers who spend most of their time texting, playing games, and watching TV. The big thing in schools now is creating a portfolio of work; very rarely do I see anything that they produce willingly on their own. Their portfolio is filled with assignments, things that curriculum dictates they work on so they'll have something to show later on. Nothing with their heart or passion defining some part of themselves in the process.
I am producing something that I wished I had growing up. I know very little about my parents as they grew up. Their memories now are selective. I have things in my journal that hopefully will only be read when I'm too far senile to care what others close to me hold as an opinion. But it's there.
I want to have things for my kids to refer to later on and know this is what Dad was like. Really. Well, not the incident involving jello wrestling during the fraternity/sorority mixer. But what is in that journal and is in this blog is me put into a more lasting form for posterity.
If I do through some miracle happen to get published as a novelist, or (dare I say it?) become successful enough to become a full-time writer, I'll be listed in the Library of Congress and available in bookstores for my children to be able to point and say, "That's your grandfather, son!"
It makes me sad sometimes. I look around and wonder if other people ever think about leaving a legacy behind. I see them more concerned about fashion or reality TV shows than thinking about trying to make a little movie for fun, or blogging their thoughts for the world, or creating artwork that even if it only makes it onto the walls of the bedroom is still something that can be a reminder that "I was here. I mattered. I made that."
"But what about sites like YouTube? Or Facebook?"
I suppose that at the most base level those are examples of producing material. But I don't see it necessarily as that.
The barriers to entry for things like podcasting, video production and blogging have never been lower. Never. You can get a cheap camera for $200 bucks that fits in your pocket. You can get a computer for $500 on which to edit the videos, and an account on YouTube to upload your resulting masterpiece for free.
The difference in my view is that there's a difference between some tweener capturing ten seconds of their friend falling on her giggly ass or adding the three hundredth lipsync of the latest music abomination on the radio to YouTube and finding something that took time and care to produce like this trailer for Scott Sigler's novel Contagious.
Basically I see a producer as someone creating something of pride; it is a work that they have put a part of themselves into as a way of putting the best representation of their skills forward.
This blog isn't exactly the top-notch in grammar or structure. Much of it is just rambling from a guy trying not to be fat. But it is honest. It is a facet of insight into a part of me. The same goes for the journal. The novel is a story that I wanted to tell. Keeping up with the journal, the blog, the novel, and my job right now fills most of my time, so I don't have as much to try my hand at making videos, or doing theater work, or polishing my programming skills or working on a podcast.
But I am producing.
Perhaps I'm just fixated on the wrong goals in life. I get depressed watching others doing things that in a day or two will likely mean nothing, leaving behind nothing as a legacy. Maybe that suits them so it isn't anything to grieve for. Maybe they're happy filling their expected roles as consumers.
What do you think? Do you have an opinion on this? Do you want to leave behind some kind of legacy and if so how?
I've thought about this since I've undergone surgery to give myself the final kick-in-the-arse to lose my excess weight. If I'm going to live longer, shouldn't I have a good reason for it?
I did it in part because I have a young son and realized that as the comorbidities...diabetes, apnea, etc...mounted on my list of ailments then the odds of me living long enough to embarrass him in front of a potential wife were growing shorter. He's not yet in kindergarten and my list of issues from the doctor's visits were getting as long as he is tall.
But living just to hopefully see something eighteen years down the road isn't much of a good reason to live in itself, I think. Stress from work makes those 18 years...if I stay with that job...a very good reason to just allow my body to degenerate into a pile of convulsing bubbles of angst.
I decided that I wanted to leave a mark on the world. As an individual chances are I won't make a huge change. The vast majority of people don't. They live, they sweat, they toil, they die, and if they have children, they pass on genes to another generation and hopefully they'll be remembered for the next two or three generations in some way by their family.
I decided I wanted more than that. I had a child. He might remember me as an important influence on his life. Hopefully. The stepdaughter...she's a teenager. I don't know if she'd acknowledge my existence unless it suits something she needs. I'm told it's a teenager thing.
So how could I make some kind of footprint out there?
I started this blog initially as a record of the surgery. It's become kind of a sanitized (read: cleaned up...I constantly question my sanity) version of some of my views and issues in life. I figured my little dude, my wife, and perhaps even the teenager could have something to look back on and think about as being an extension of me.
Aside-I'll admit that part of me is saddened that a teenager that can sit and read an entire Twilight novel in the span of five hours would rather play an online video game for several hours than take three minutes a day to read my own little ramblings on the web...but again...guess that's a teenager thing. I hope.
I also started journaling at the behest of my insurance-mandated-for-surgery psychologist. I'm still surprised at the stack of papers pouring from the printer when I am prepping for another visit. My next printer will need to handle double-sided printing, and at a minimum I'm going to need more binders to hold them all soon.
I decided that I wanted to try my hand at one of two things (since I didn't think I'd be good at trying both at once): writing a novel, or writing software.
The software would be a challenge because I haven't programmed, really, since college. I'm in my early thirties now. I would dream of working in an environment like Fog Creek Software (if you haven't looked up how Spolsky treats his programmers...OH...MY...GOD...HIS company is a model of respect towards employees. It is a true dream job.) A true dream come true would be to START a company with a good software product. Work from home, distribute over the web...hmm...warm dreams.
The novel is a challenge because...well, face the reality. I don't have an English degree. You toil and toil for months writing the draft, then editing, and editing again, and perhaps again, then shopping for an agent, then finding a publisher (if you ever find an agent), then a year or two later you might be a published author and all you have to show for it is a piddly advance and if you have poor sales you may not see that publisher again. Ouch. And at any stage that career path can be derailed. Most authors don't quit their day jobs. Not to mention that America is largely illiterate; people don't read for leisure anymore (on average). The publishing industry isn't handing out sweet deals to unknowns anymore; the bubble there burst. If you see a "big thing" on the shelves like vampire stories have been (thanks a lot, Twilight) then decide to write the next big vampire novel, guess what? Unless you're an established author with a fast track into the publishing line, when your novel comes out everything will be mummies. You can't get a novel churned out quickly enough to hit the current wave of popularity.
Most novel writers never make it big. They're lucky to make a living.
I turned this over in my head. I decided that I really had the least to lose in trying to write a novel. I am inspired by the likes of Scott Sigler (who worked for 15 freakin' years before throwing in the towel and deciding to podcast his novels for free...leading to an actual publishing contract. Finally!) and Mur Lafferty (who also got a publishing contract after working her butt off on projects like I Should Be Writing and her own novels being released in podcast form) and Paula B. with her podcast The Writing Show, giving insights on the publishing and writing industries.
I didn't mention the worst part of taking this path. I fully realize that I'm working about an hour or more a day on a story that may never sell and will get rejected. When you work on something that could be about 100,000 words (mine's currently at 40,000 as a first draft, and this post is appearing several weeks after I'm prepping this posting) along with the work it takes to edit and polish the manuscript, those rejection slips from agents and publishers is going to hurt.
Having a story in your head and thinking that you have what it takes to write a great novel is one thing. In your head you can do anything. But to actually try...and fail...that's tough. I am essentially making the conscious choice to invest months of my time into something that may do little more than confirm that I'm going to fail.
Ouch!
But I'm producing something. (Bet you were wondering when I'd get to the point, eh?)
I'm working on a legacy. I see teenagers who spend most of their time texting, playing games, and watching TV. The big thing in schools now is creating a portfolio of work; very rarely do I see anything that they produce willingly on their own. Their portfolio is filled with assignments, things that curriculum dictates they work on so they'll have something to show later on. Nothing with their heart or passion defining some part of themselves in the process.
I am producing something that I wished I had growing up. I know very little about my parents as they grew up. Their memories now are selective. I have things in my journal that hopefully will only be read when I'm too far senile to care what others close to me hold as an opinion. But it's there.
I want to have things for my kids to refer to later on and know this is what Dad was like. Really. Well, not the incident involving jello wrestling during the fraternity/sorority mixer. But what is in that journal and is in this blog is me put into a more lasting form for posterity.
If I do through some miracle happen to get published as a novelist, or (dare I say it?) become successful enough to become a full-time writer, I'll be listed in the Library of Congress and available in bookstores for my children to be able to point and say, "That's your grandfather, son!"
It makes me sad sometimes. I look around and wonder if other people ever think about leaving a legacy behind. I see them more concerned about fashion or reality TV shows than thinking about trying to make a little movie for fun, or blogging their thoughts for the world, or creating artwork that even if it only makes it onto the walls of the bedroom is still something that can be a reminder that "I was here. I mattered. I made that."
"But what about sites like YouTube? Or Facebook?"
I suppose that at the most base level those are examples of producing material. But I don't see it necessarily as that.
The barriers to entry for things like podcasting, video production and blogging have never been lower. Never. You can get a cheap camera for $200 bucks that fits in your pocket. You can get a computer for $500 on which to edit the videos, and an account on YouTube to upload your resulting masterpiece for free.
The difference in my view is that there's a difference between some tweener capturing ten seconds of their friend falling on her giggly ass or adding the three hundredth lipsync of the latest music abomination on the radio to YouTube and finding something that took time and care to produce like this trailer for Scott Sigler's novel Contagious.
Basically I see a producer as someone creating something of pride; it is a work that they have put a part of themselves into as a way of putting the best representation of their skills forward.
This blog isn't exactly the top-notch in grammar or structure. Much of it is just rambling from a guy trying not to be fat. But it is honest. It is a facet of insight into a part of me. The same goes for the journal. The novel is a story that I wanted to tell. Keeping up with the journal, the blog, the novel, and my job right now fills most of my time, so I don't have as much to try my hand at making videos, or doing theater work, or polishing my programming skills or working on a podcast.
But I am producing.
Perhaps I'm just fixated on the wrong goals in life. I get depressed watching others doing things that in a day or two will likely mean nothing, leaving behind nothing as a legacy. Maybe that suits them so it isn't anything to grieve for. Maybe they're happy filling their expected roles as consumers.
What do you think? Do you have an opinion on this? Do you want to leave behind some kind of legacy and if so how?
What's My Audience?
As I write my story I sometimes stop and wonder if the story I'm telling will have appeal, or at least appeal to the audience I intended it to appeal to.
My primary goal is to sit down and get the words to the page, a little each day. Whether it's 500 words or 2,000, I need to get a little further into the story and keep the momentum up. I figure I can smooth the rough spots in rewrite/editing.
Since my primary goal is to get the story advanced a little each day I find I'm more focused on telling my story than fitting it into a specific criteria. The story is more or less, in my evaluation, a modern-day science fiction story. So...sci fi, right?
Maybe. The thing is that I worry my story is too simplistic. Too straightforward, maybe. That leads me to wonder if it isn't Young Adult sci-fi.
Which would be bad. It's pushing 70,000 words now (69,937 at the moment, give or take) and YA novels are in the 50 to 80 thousand word range. Mine will most likely be pushing 100 thousand, give or take.
So what to do? Is it even worth worrying about at this stage?
If I keep second guessing myself I think I'll stutter and lose my momentum or at a minimum lose the story that I'm trying to tell. So I figure the best thing to do is continue with the story and see if the turd at the end is something that can be polished, then worry about how to summarize and pitch and query it.
Unless someone else knows of a better way...that's my course of action. Finish story and worry later. Yeah.
(Does anyone know a good "litmus test" for a story to tell what genre and subgenre it would fit into, like whether this story will be best a sci-fi or YA sci-fi story?)
My primary goal is to sit down and get the words to the page, a little each day. Whether it's 500 words or 2,000, I need to get a little further into the story and keep the momentum up. I figure I can smooth the rough spots in rewrite/editing.
Since my primary goal is to get the story advanced a little each day I find I'm more focused on telling my story than fitting it into a specific criteria. The story is more or less, in my evaluation, a modern-day science fiction story. So...sci fi, right?
Maybe. The thing is that I worry my story is too simplistic. Too straightforward, maybe. That leads me to wonder if it isn't Young Adult sci-fi.
Which would be bad. It's pushing 70,000 words now (69,937 at the moment, give or take) and YA novels are in the 50 to 80 thousand word range. Mine will most likely be pushing 100 thousand, give or take.
So what to do? Is it even worth worrying about at this stage?
If I keep second guessing myself I think I'll stutter and lose my momentum or at a minimum lose the story that I'm trying to tell. So I figure the best thing to do is continue with the story and see if the turd at the end is something that can be polished, then worry about how to summarize and pitch and query it.
Unless someone else knows of a better way...that's my course of action. Finish story and worry later. Yeah.
(Does anyone know a good "litmus test" for a story to tell what genre and subgenre it would fit into, like whether this story will be best a sci-fi or YA sci-fi story?)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Writing My First Novel
This is more appropriately titled "Writing My First Novel's Manuscript". The odds are stacked way way against being published, so while I think my story is okay, it's still a first effort and I have no illusions that it will be the next Harry Potter.
It would be nice, but I really doubt it would happen.
I figured that seeing as this was supposed to be hints and tips and information about writing, I should probably post some updates once in awhile to what I'm working on. My first manuscript is currently listing in OpenOffice as having 68,918 words and no it's not finished.
The story is a current day science fiction story. My goal is to have at least 500 words a day added to the first draft; my typical word count average has been over 1,000 words a day, so I've been happy with that progress. Some days are worse; I've had times where I was so tired I added a couple hundred words and fell asleep. Other days were fantastic. Today, for example, I added 2,599 words so far, and am contemplating hiding in the bedroom with the laptop to see if I could pound out a few more words and get a little further on the story arc.
It will still need heavy editing, of course. And parts will probably benefit from a rewrite. The way I figure it, the hardest part is actually getting the story down so I'd have something to edit.
Hopefully the finished product will be good enough to polish. The only way to tell is to finish it and start editing, right?
It would be nice, but I really doubt it would happen.
I figured that seeing as this was supposed to be hints and tips and information about writing, I should probably post some updates once in awhile to what I'm working on. My first manuscript is currently listing in OpenOffice as having 68,918 words and no it's not finished.
The story is a current day science fiction story. My goal is to have at least 500 words a day added to the first draft; my typical word count average has been over 1,000 words a day, so I've been happy with that progress. Some days are worse; I've had times where I was so tired I added a couple hundred words and fell asleep. Other days were fantastic. Today, for example, I added 2,599 words so far, and am contemplating hiding in the bedroom with the laptop to see if I could pound out a few more words and get a little further on the story arc.
It will still need heavy editing, of course. And parts will probably benefit from a rewrite. The way I figure it, the hardest part is actually getting the story down so I'd have something to edit.
Hopefully the finished product will be good enough to polish. The only way to tell is to finish it and start editing, right?
I Should Be Writing and NaNoWriMo
Episode 135 of Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing podcast is all about the NaNoWriMo. She interviews a big name author that actually supports doing NaNoWriMo, David Niall Wilson, the big guy that started NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty, and a writer that is extremely prolific and has accepted a challenge to write 50,000 words in 21 days (he's aiming for 100,000 words for November) and with his prior track record will probably make his goal, Nathan Lowell.
This is a special podcast dedicated to all things NaNoWriMo. If you're participating I'd strongly suggest checking it out!
This is a special podcast dedicated to all things NaNoWriMo. If you're participating I'd strongly suggest checking it out!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Word Count for Novels
As I try to draft my first novel's manuscript I try to pay close attention to information whatever information I can get on the "right" way to do things in the publishing world.
I found a recent post by Jessica on the BookEnds LLC blog regarding approximate word counts for novels. Basically, when in doubt, aim for 80,000 words.
She broke it down further in the post, by thousands of words;
Mystery: 70-90
Romance: 80 to 100
Fantasy/Scifi: 80 to 125
Young Adult: 50 to 75
Women's Fiction, literary fiction, etc.: 80 to 100 (literary fiction can be 125)
This pretty much fit in with the numbers I'd found previously. My aim (the manuscript I'm drafting now is a present-day science fiction story) is around 100,000 words. I'm currently at 64,000 words and working towards the climax.
The thing is that these are rules of thumb. From what I can tell if you have a good story, one that is compelling and pulls the reader in, you have a chance of getting it sold to an agent and/or publisher, unless you go WAY outside of the limits. If the numbers are off your agent/editor will have you alter the story to fit their needs for publication.
If I remember right this was a problem for J.C. Hutchin's 7th Son trilogy. He wrote a 300,000 word monster and then couldn't sell it to publication houses he pitched to...because it was too long. Way too long. He eventually broke it into a trilogy and podcast it for the masses rather than admit defeat and trash the manuscript, which in the end was a good thing because after a long road he got a publishing contract for book one.
Hope the information here was useful to you!
I found a recent post by Jessica on the BookEnds LLC blog regarding approximate word counts for novels. Basically, when in doubt, aim for 80,000 words.
She broke it down further in the post, by thousands of words;
Mystery: 70-90
Romance: 80 to 100
Fantasy/Scifi: 80 to 125
Young Adult: 50 to 75
Women's Fiction, literary fiction, etc.: 80 to 100 (literary fiction can be 125)
This pretty much fit in with the numbers I'd found previously. My aim (the manuscript I'm drafting now is a present-day science fiction story) is around 100,000 words. I'm currently at 64,000 words and working towards the climax.
The thing is that these are rules of thumb. From what I can tell if you have a good story, one that is compelling and pulls the reader in, you have a chance of getting it sold to an agent and/or publisher, unless you go WAY outside of the limits. If the numbers are off your agent/editor will have you alter the story to fit their needs for publication.
If I remember right this was a problem for J.C. Hutchin's 7th Son trilogy. He wrote a 300,000 word monster and then couldn't sell it to publication houses he pitched to...because it was too long. Way too long. He eventually broke it into a trilogy and podcast it for the masses rather than admit defeat and trash the manuscript, which in the end was a good thing because after a long road he got a publishing contract for book one.
Hope the information here was useful to you!
Publishing Is Changing: Giving Away Your Content?
Mur Lafferty posted a blog entry to Storytellers Unplugged about her view on the changing winds in the publishing industry. She is a podcast author that has given away much of her content in an effort to grow an audience, and as a result has become a published author for her Playing for Keeps novel. I became a fan of hers after hearing the first of her Heaven novel series.
She discusses how publishers could be taking some lessons from those who are on the forefront of this change in the industry; struggling new authors like her are focusing on growing an audience through free content. Larger audience means more people have heard of you, more people hearing of you means more sales. It's worked pretty well for names like Scott Sigler, Cory Doctorow, J.C. Hutchins, and of course Mur Lafferty.
There could be a flip side to this too. These are people who aren't just authors. They're promoters and marketers. They are learning how to brand themselves. For example, Scott Sigler isn't just a podcast author. He's a brand that promotes himself as the FDO, the Future Dark Overlord. His fans are self-branded Junkies that need their Sigler 'fix. He tirelessly puts out content into his feed, including the Bloodcast, short stories that are leading to other stories and novels, and he has written most of his released work in a way that they tie together like a more overt version of the Stephen King works that make subtle nods to one another across novels (for the FDO there are hints that aliens in the Rookie have made multiple appearances in novels like Infected and Contagious, for example, and there's a shared character name in the Rookie that is a descendant of a certain hornball in Nocturnal...) Sigler has also recently concluded his tour around parts of the country while holding Junkie contests to determine where he goes next in order to draw crowds.
Most people who want to be authors want to write. What Mur seems to be pointing to is a future where that may not be really possible except for the really fortunate authors; publishers expect authors to brand themselves and promote themselves rather than investing in the author. This picture is saying that a career as a writer is as dead as becoming a teacher.
I have relatives that are teachers. They can't be just teachers as they thought teaching would be when they went to college. Instead teachers become mentors, surrogate parents, guidance counselors, psychologists, babysitters, hall monitors, politicians, and students having to complete "continuing education" credits. The idea that you go to school to learn about a topic and then go out to mold young minds is complete bull. It seems that actually teaching fills about thirty percent of their day. The rest is unrelated politics and crud that people outside the field have no clue about and people inside the field know burns out most new teachers within the first few years.
Indeed in the future painted by that blog post authors will need to focus on building an audience, interacting with their audience, updating websites and twitter accounts and facebook pages and podcasts and cross promoting with others in the podcast community. The new wave of authors will need to be savvy in using tools like the Internet to track their Google ranking and set up notifications when their names appear online so they can move to other blogs where people mention their names and interact with potential audience members on other blogs.
And this may work for many. The problem is that I see this through a myopic lens; I am a podcast freak who likes listening to audio on the iPod and have discovered some of these authors like Mur and Sigler. As a result I get a lot of my information from this insular community for whom this approach to gaining sales works. They are author/marketers.
I can't help but think there are others who want to just be authors that won't be able to do this. In the comments for that blog, a commenter with the name Joe Cottonwood posted that he podcast 3 books on podiobooks for free but already has 9 books in print with major houses. He said that he has increased his audience by a huge number and has had great fan mail and he really enjoyed going back to storytelling roots by doing the podcast. But he hasn't seen much in the way of sales being generated; his podcast of Clear Heart had about 10,000 listeners and the book sold about 200 copies, according to his comments. "One problem, of course, is that I suck at marketing. Apparently I’m a pretty good writer and a popular podcaster, but I’m a terrible publicist. I can live with that."
I appreciate Mur and Sigler's advice to new authors. To paraphrase, "Write your book. Just plant your butt in the seat and write. Clean it up. Try everything you can to get an agent and get it published the traditional route. Podcasting your content for free isn't for the faint of heart and should be a last resort." They aren't giving up entirely on the old way of publishing but rather are acting as pioneers on a new approach to doing things at a time when the traditional houses are starting to see a storm on the horizon and in the process authors will end up having to roll with the punches or change careers.
Will the podcaster-free-content-author-turned-marketer become the norm? Only time will tell. In the meantime it looks like the curse of living in "interesting times" is coming and everyone in the industry will be waiting to see just how interesting things get.
She discusses how publishers could be taking some lessons from those who are on the forefront of this change in the industry; struggling new authors like her are focusing on growing an audience through free content. Larger audience means more people have heard of you, more people hearing of you means more sales. It's worked pretty well for names like Scott Sigler, Cory Doctorow, J.C. Hutchins, and of course Mur Lafferty.
There could be a flip side to this too. These are people who aren't just authors. They're promoters and marketers. They are learning how to brand themselves. For example, Scott Sigler isn't just a podcast author. He's a brand that promotes himself as the FDO, the Future Dark Overlord. His fans are self-branded Junkies that need their Sigler 'fix. He tirelessly puts out content into his feed, including the Bloodcast, short stories that are leading to other stories and novels, and he has written most of his released work in a way that they tie together like a more overt version of the Stephen King works that make subtle nods to one another across novels (for the FDO there are hints that aliens in the Rookie have made multiple appearances in novels like Infected and Contagious, for example, and there's a shared character name in the Rookie that is a descendant of a certain hornball in Nocturnal...) Sigler has also recently concluded his tour around parts of the country while holding Junkie contests to determine where he goes next in order to draw crowds.
Most people who want to be authors want to write. What Mur seems to be pointing to is a future where that may not be really possible except for the really fortunate authors; publishers expect authors to brand themselves and promote themselves rather than investing in the author. This picture is saying that a career as a writer is as dead as becoming a teacher.
I have relatives that are teachers. They can't be just teachers as they thought teaching would be when they went to college. Instead teachers become mentors, surrogate parents, guidance counselors, psychologists, babysitters, hall monitors, politicians, and students having to complete "continuing education" credits. The idea that you go to school to learn about a topic and then go out to mold young minds is complete bull. It seems that actually teaching fills about thirty percent of their day. The rest is unrelated politics and crud that people outside the field have no clue about and people inside the field know burns out most new teachers within the first few years.
Indeed in the future painted by that blog post authors will need to focus on building an audience, interacting with their audience, updating websites and twitter accounts and facebook pages and podcasts and cross promoting with others in the podcast community. The new wave of authors will need to be savvy in using tools like the Internet to track their Google ranking and set up notifications when their names appear online so they can move to other blogs where people mention their names and interact with potential audience members on other blogs.
And this may work for many. The problem is that I see this through a myopic lens; I am a podcast freak who likes listening to audio on the iPod and have discovered some of these authors like Mur and Sigler. As a result I get a lot of my information from this insular community for whom this approach to gaining sales works. They are author/marketers.
I can't help but think there are others who want to just be authors that won't be able to do this. In the comments for that blog, a commenter with the name Joe Cottonwood posted that he podcast 3 books on podiobooks for free but already has 9 books in print with major houses. He said that he has increased his audience by a huge number and has had great fan mail and he really enjoyed going back to storytelling roots by doing the podcast. But he hasn't seen much in the way of sales being generated; his podcast of Clear Heart had about 10,000 listeners and the book sold about 200 copies, according to his comments. "One problem, of course, is that I suck at marketing. Apparently I’m a pretty good writer and a popular podcaster, but I’m a terrible publicist. I can live with that."
I appreciate Mur and Sigler's advice to new authors. To paraphrase, "Write your book. Just plant your butt in the seat and write. Clean it up. Try everything you can to get an agent and get it published the traditional route. Podcasting your content for free isn't for the faint of heart and should be a last resort." They aren't giving up entirely on the old way of publishing but rather are acting as pioneers on a new approach to doing things at a time when the traditional houses are starting to see a storm on the horizon and in the process authors will end up having to roll with the punches or change careers.
Will the podcaster-free-content-author-turned-marketer become the norm? Only time will tell. In the meantime it looks like the curse of living in "interesting times" is coming and everyone in the industry will be waiting to see just how interesting things get.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Authors Are Expected to be Marketers
I'm not published. Hopefully it's more accurate to say that I'm not published yet. But I do spend some time trying to get a feel for what it takes to move from unknown wanna-be author to published (and income-generating) author.
One theme that is being visited and revisited is that an author's publisher is not going to spend money on publicizing new books. They do the bare minimum and that's it.
Unless, of course, you're a sure bet.
What does this mean? It means a few things. One, publishing houses will spend tons of money on authors that are guaranteed to bring in money. The flip side is that the authors that really need support in getting word out about their book and don't have the financial means to do so will get zilch help.
Second, authors are expected to market themselves. I've been finding more and more online articles like this one and it's rather disconcerting. Authors aren't expected to just be authors; they have to market themselves, brand themselves, grow a following, nurture their fans...oh, yeah, and write a book.
Stephen King, Stephanie Meyers, JK Rowling...the big name authors have no problem getting someone else to foot the bill if they wanted to go on a tour or appear in public to drum up publicity. Ironically they have a following that is already gossiping about release schedules and probably have no problem selling their latest works even if they did nothing to promote the release at all.
New authors today need to create a web site, interact on forums, appear in bookstores on tours often sponsored by themselves, and grow the thick skin to accept those times where they spend an entire day sitting alone in a Barnes and Noble making maybe two sales of their book because the people coming in have no idea who they are.
The fact is that publishers often aren't making back the advance they pay authors for their books. They would rather bet on the known rather than the unknown. So when they accept a new author, they're essentially paying for the gamble that your book will somehow, miraculously, create the next JK Rowling.
New authors, beware. If you want to be an author you need to explore a path that may include writing the manuscript, editing it, fixing it up, finding an agent, shopping it around to publishers, creating a website, interacting on forums, actively engaging your audience, touring bookstores (on your dime), appearing in podcasts for interviews, creating promotional blurbs for podcasts, interviewing in newspapers, and creating trailers on YouTube for viewing as well as storm through other social media outlets your audience may be lurking in like Facebook and Twitter.
Oh, yeah, and you need to try working on the next novel in there somewhere as well...
Not a pleasant thought, but if you really want to become an author, it's time to steel up and get prepared!
One theme that is being visited and revisited is that an author's publisher is not going to spend money on publicizing new books. They do the bare minimum and that's it.
Unless, of course, you're a sure bet.
What does this mean? It means a few things. One, publishing houses will spend tons of money on authors that are guaranteed to bring in money. The flip side is that the authors that really need support in getting word out about their book and don't have the financial means to do so will get zilch help.
Second, authors are expected to market themselves. I've been finding more and more online articles like this one and it's rather disconcerting. Authors aren't expected to just be authors; they have to market themselves, brand themselves, grow a following, nurture their fans...oh, yeah, and write a book.
Stephen King, Stephanie Meyers, JK Rowling...the big name authors have no problem getting someone else to foot the bill if they wanted to go on a tour or appear in public to drum up publicity. Ironically they have a following that is already gossiping about release schedules and probably have no problem selling their latest works even if they did nothing to promote the release at all.
New authors today need to create a web site, interact on forums, appear in bookstores on tours often sponsored by themselves, and grow the thick skin to accept those times where they spend an entire day sitting alone in a Barnes and Noble making maybe two sales of their book because the people coming in have no idea who they are.
The fact is that publishers often aren't making back the advance they pay authors for their books. They would rather bet on the known rather than the unknown. So when they accept a new author, they're essentially paying for the gamble that your book will somehow, miraculously, create the next JK Rowling.
New authors, beware. If you want to be an author you need to explore a path that may include writing the manuscript, editing it, fixing it up, finding an agent, shopping it around to publishers, creating a website, interacting on forums, actively engaging your audience, touring bookstores (on your dime), appearing in podcasts for interviews, creating promotional blurbs for podcasts, interviewing in newspapers, and creating trailers on YouTube for viewing as well as storm through other social media outlets your audience may be lurking in like Facebook and Twitter.
Oh, yeah, and you need to try working on the next novel in there somewhere as well...
Not a pleasant thought, but if you really want to become an author, it's time to steel up and get prepared!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Becoming Batman
I thought with Halloween coming up tomorrow this blog posting would be somewhat topical. I just finished a book called Becoming Batman by Dr. E. Paul Zehr.
This isn't really a book on creating a costume so you can go out and have some actual fun with tricks when you don't get treats.
Wow...that sounded wrong.
This book is about the feasibility of training yourself to become Batman. Batman is unique among the superhero genre in that he doesn't have magic powers, he doesn't have alien superpowers (like a well-known Kryptonian), and he didn't get any of his powers from a freak accident or by tempting the fates by playing God or any other origin story posed as a moral. He was a kid who was screwed up at the injustice of seeing his parents murdered.
He trained himself to the peak of athletic perfection, training his body.
He studied the arts, forensic science, martial arts...training his mind.
Then he pursued his inner demons by ridding Gotham City of criminals. Seeking justice.
He was an ordinary man. His powers came from gadgets purchased from his millionaire holdings in Wayne Industries and his physical prowess came from hard work.
(Sure, some will bring up Iron Man, Marvel's answer to Batman, but this is about a man that gained his talents through hard training, not technology. Although for the record I think Iron Man still rocks and is quite possibly still better than most of the Batman franchise.)
Batman's history is, of course, subject to some editing and revision over history. A great summary is here.
Aaaand thus ends the history lesson. The book was an uneven read in my opinion. It presents excellent information on physiology and training and exercise, and the author carries a "Dr." in his title as well as being a martial artist. He presents information on topics such as hardening bones and the biology behind it; basically the structure of the bone gains microfractures, and in the process of "healing" they get stronger. He gives an overview of a technique that some martial arts masters had used and he had once tried that basically amounted to "hitting something really hard 1000 times a day until you hurt like a !@# and wait for it to heal"...a tree, a wall, a thin pad on a concrete wall are all good. And it works. I remembered reading outside this book that Bruce Lee (if you don't know him...you don't have any interest in martial arts) used to punch buckets of stones hundreds of times a day to harden his skin and bones in his hands. The author tried a similar technique and found that while it does work, it also seemed to damage nerves in his hands because his fingertips began to tingle, which interfered with some of his day job duties at the keyboard.
There was information on sleep deprivation, effects of aging, muscle growth, even physical stresses and how it affects the body.
The problem I had were relatively minor. First, the book is called "Becoming Batman". But it's not a how-to. It's more of an overview of whether it's possible to train to become someone like Batman. And he gives an answer. But if you're looking for an overview of what you would have to do to become a physical specimen of athletic perfection like Mr. Wayne, you're not going to find it here. If you want to know what your bones are made of at the cellular level, this is perfect for you.
Second the book read more like a physiology lesson given by a comic-obsessed nerd. Which is okay given that this is a book about Batman. But it wasn't really written focusing on Batman. It was focusing on the body and how attempting to train it to a condition like Batman's body would affect it while being sprinkled liberally with Batman references. It's like reading a book about how to send men to the moon with references to Battlestar Galactica thrown in, sans Cylons (We'd need armor plating made of ___ ___ inches thick to withstand the radiation of space while traveling en route to the moon, just like Galactica repelled nuclear blasts during the attack on the colonies! Okay, bad reference, but that's the gist of the feeling I got).
In the end this could have been a good book on the affects of training your body even if the Batman references were removed. It wasn't a bad read but it isn't on my gotta-gotta save shelf either. I'll probably pass it on to someone else who might benefit from the information. Any fans out there interested? Let me know.
This isn't really a book on creating a costume so you can go out and have some actual fun with tricks when you don't get treats.
Wow...that sounded wrong.
This book is about the feasibility of training yourself to become Batman. Batman is unique among the superhero genre in that he doesn't have magic powers, he doesn't have alien superpowers (like a well-known Kryptonian), and he didn't get any of his powers from a freak accident or by tempting the fates by playing God or any other origin story posed as a moral. He was a kid who was screwed up at the injustice of seeing his parents murdered.
He trained himself to the peak of athletic perfection, training his body.
He studied the arts, forensic science, martial arts...training his mind.
Then he pursued his inner demons by ridding Gotham City of criminals. Seeking justice.
He was an ordinary man. His powers came from gadgets purchased from his millionaire holdings in Wayne Industries and his physical prowess came from hard work.
(Sure, some will bring up Iron Man, Marvel's answer to Batman, but this is about a man that gained his talents through hard training, not technology. Although for the record I think Iron Man still rocks and is quite possibly still better than most of the Batman franchise.)
Batman's history is, of course, subject to some editing and revision over history. A great summary is here.
Aaaand thus ends the history lesson. The book was an uneven read in my opinion. It presents excellent information on physiology and training and exercise, and the author carries a "Dr." in his title as well as being a martial artist. He presents information on topics such as hardening bones and the biology behind it; basically the structure of the bone gains microfractures, and in the process of "healing" they get stronger. He gives an overview of a technique that some martial arts masters had used and he had once tried that basically amounted to "hitting something really hard 1000 times a day until you hurt like a !@# and wait for it to heal"...a tree, a wall, a thin pad on a concrete wall are all good. And it works. I remembered reading outside this book that Bruce Lee (if you don't know him...you don't have any interest in martial arts) used to punch buckets of stones hundreds of times a day to harden his skin and bones in his hands. The author tried a similar technique and found that while it does work, it also seemed to damage nerves in his hands because his fingertips began to tingle, which interfered with some of his day job duties at the keyboard.
There was information on sleep deprivation, effects of aging, muscle growth, even physical stresses and how it affects the body.
The problem I had were relatively minor. First, the book is called "Becoming Batman". But it's not a how-to. It's more of an overview of whether it's possible to train to become someone like Batman. And he gives an answer. But if you're looking for an overview of what you would have to do to become a physical specimen of athletic perfection like Mr. Wayne, you're not going to find it here. If you want to know what your bones are made of at the cellular level, this is perfect for you.
Second the book read more like a physiology lesson given by a comic-obsessed nerd. Which is okay given that this is a book about Batman. But it wasn't really written focusing on Batman. It was focusing on the body and how attempting to train it to a condition like Batman's body would affect it while being sprinkled liberally with Batman references. It's like reading a book about how to send men to the moon with references to Battlestar Galactica thrown in, sans Cylons (We'd need armor plating made of ___ ___ inches thick to withstand the radiation of space while traveling en route to the moon, just like Galactica repelled nuclear blasts during the attack on the colonies! Okay, bad reference, but that's the gist of the feeling I got).
In the end this could have been a good book on the affects of training your body even if the Batman references were removed. It wasn't a bad read but it isn't on my gotta-gotta save shelf either. I'll probably pass it on to someone else who might benefit from the information. Any fans out there interested? Let me know.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Novel Fears
I wrote already that I'm working on a draft of a novel. It's progressing...but there are fears.
I'm averaging something like 700 to 1100 words a day on the draft. Then it would need a second pass to clean it up. Then I pass it to my editor-wife who actually knows something about things like grammar and punctuation. Then probably another pass or two. Assuming that the feedback doesn't point it in the direction of the garbage can, I would probably either start an agent or publisher hunt or find an editor for hire with more experience in the field of publishing and see if they can polish it up for an affordable fee.
But there's always doubt.
I'm dedicating probably an hour and a half to two hours a day on it. It's not perfect and I don't think of myself as a professional writer (my wife asked me when I'd stop thinking that way and I said, "When someone hands me a check in exchange for the manuscript and says they'd like to see more for another check, that's when!)
I try to remain realistic. The vast majority of writers never make it through the slush piles. Many writers, including some famous ones, collect hundreds of rejections before finding the first break.
I hear horror stories like the ones in the (current as of this writing) ISBW podcast episode talking with an editor from tor.com. They say science fiction just isn't selling now...yikes! Big publishers are in trouble due to the economy (and probably because most Americans don't read)...they are hesitant to have new writers into the scene when the moneymakers are the established authors...the list goes on and on. The podcast goes on to mention that beginners writing most likely does suck, and it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill like writing. Triple yikes! It's very possible I'm laboring for something that no one will ever want and will never make any money, which is even scarier since I put off another venture in trying to program an application that might be a better money maker in the long run (although running a business is a jar of hurt unto itself, really).
So in the end I'm working rather hard on something that may never see the light of day.
I try to cheer myself up by saying, I'm not a professional writer. There's no slap to the ego or personal hit in trying this.
I see plenty of horror stories about wanna-be authors that blatantly break common sense rules in submitting manuscripts; they send horror stories to young adult-representing agents, or don't bother to follow an agent's preferences by using fancy fonts and colored paper and pretty pictures. Still others do no research on how to properly query an agent or publisher. Or they just write a first draft and send that out with hardly any attention paid to detail in spelling or grammar.
I'm not perfect in that regard; heck, this blog probably has broken most of the grammatical rules since its inception, but these are typed off the top of my head. I rarely go back and repair entries unless my wife finds something that makes her eyes bleed. I do these so far in advance that when she asks about it I usually don't remember what she's referring to.
I really wish there were statistics somewhere regarding writers and publishing for relevant information I could use to not be so anxious about this dipping of the toes into the water. Sure, 95% (making that up...probably close though...) of people trying to get published are rejected. Maybe only .05% get a fat contract that lets them quit the day job and focus on their love of writing. But how many of the 95% were writing pure crap? Or never even heard of Standard Manuscript Format?
How many fit into my spectrum of skill (or lack thereof) and still get rejected? I want to filter out the people that make the mistakes I am trying to avoid. Would it skew into my favor then?
All I can do is keep plugging away and hope for the best...
I'm averaging something like 700 to 1100 words a day on the draft. Then it would need a second pass to clean it up. Then I pass it to my editor-wife who actually knows something about things like grammar and punctuation. Then probably another pass or two. Assuming that the feedback doesn't point it in the direction of the garbage can, I would probably either start an agent or publisher hunt or find an editor for hire with more experience in the field of publishing and see if they can polish it up for an affordable fee.
But there's always doubt.
I'm dedicating probably an hour and a half to two hours a day on it. It's not perfect and I don't think of myself as a professional writer (my wife asked me when I'd stop thinking that way and I said, "When someone hands me a check in exchange for the manuscript and says they'd like to see more for another check, that's when!)
I try to remain realistic. The vast majority of writers never make it through the slush piles. Many writers, including some famous ones, collect hundreds of rejections before finding the first break.
I hear horror stories like the ones in the (current as of this writing) ISBW podcast episode talking with an editor from tor.com. They say science fiction just isn't selling now...yikes! Big publishers are in trouble due to the economy (and probably because most Americans don't read)...they are hesitant to have new writers into the scene when the moneymakers are the established authors...the list goes on and on. The podcast goes on to mention that beginners writing most likely does suck, and it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill like writing. Triple yikes! It's very possible I'm laboring for something that no one will ever want and will never make any money, which is even scarier since I put off another venture in trying to program an application that might be a better money maker in the long run (although running a business is a jar of hurt unto itself, really).
So in the end I'm working rather hard on something that may never see the light of day.
I try to cheer myself up by saying, I'm not a professional writer. There's no slap to the ego or personal hit in trying this.
I see plenty of horror stories about wanna-be authors that blatantly break common sense rules in submitting manuscripts; they send horror stories to young adult-representing agents, or don't bother to follow an agent's preferences by using fancy fonts and colored paper and pretty pictures. Still others do no research on how to properly query an agent or publisher. Or they just write a first draft and send that out with hardly any attention paid to detail in spelling or grammar.
I'm not perfect in that regard; heck, this blog probably has broken most of the grammatical rules since its inception, but these are typed off the top of my head. I rarely go back and repair entries unless my wife finds something that makes her eyes bleed. I do these so far in advance that when she asks about it I usually don't remember what she's referring to.
I really wish there were statistics somewhere regarding writers and publishing for relevant information I could use to not be so anxious about this dipping of the toes into the water. Sure, 95% (making that up...probably close though...) of people trying to get published are rejected. Maybe only .05% get a fat contract that lets them quit the day job and focus on their love of writing. But how many of the 95% were writing pure crap? Or never even heard of Standard Manuscript Format?
How many fit into my spectrum of skill (or lack thereof) and still get rejected? I want to filter out the people that make the mistakes I am trying to avoid. Would it skew into my favor then?
All I can do is keep plugging away and hope for the best...
NaNoWriMo!
In a scant three days is National Novel Writing Month!
Shortened to NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month is a fun way to try jump starting the novelist in you by writing a 50,000 word novel (about 175 pages) between November 1st and midnight on November 30th.
That's roughly 1,667 words a day.
This isn't to write a masterpiece. It's not about a high quality story at all. This is about sitting down and writing. Fast. Hard. No editing. No rewriting. Just 50,000 words in a story.
You write it and then upload the story before the deadline for verification. You don't win anything more than a certificate and the knowledge of knowing that you have "won"...while it's easy to cheat, the people who do in this contest are really pitiful.
Another benefit lay in the act of writing each day. You gain some discipline in the act of setting a goal in word count and having to nail it each day to meet the goal. Sometimes novels that started from NaNoWriMo. For example, JC Hutchin's 7th Son started as a NaNoWriMo entry. At least, I believe that's what I heard in the "Get Published" podcast interview with J.C. The NaNoWriMo site has a list of some of the novels published as a result of participation in the festivities.
Now, of course there are detractors. NaNoWriMo focuses on setting goals and hitting deadlines, not refining the craft of writing. And perhaps these people who shake their heads in disappointment at the idea of NaNoWriMo have a point; it flies in the face of those who work hard at refining the craft of writing, reducing it to little more than a marathon with a line to be crossed rather than an art of telling a good story.
Personally if you're the kind of person that thrives on a deadline to accomplish a goal then NaNoWriMo isn't a bad thing. It might help encourage people to pursue their writing dreams. Is that necessarily bad?
There's no fee to enter. No penalty for "failing". Just sign up, write like crazy, and if you make it, you get a certificate. Let your inner novelist out to play a little.
(My wife is planning on trying to write 50,000 words this November. I'm not; I have a story I'm working on now, and part of the contest rules state you must start the novel on the first. Outlines, notes, etc. are okay beforehand, but the novel itself must start on the first, and I am not willing to suspend the story I'm working on now in order to start a new one for November and risk losing my momentum.)
Shortened to NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month is a fun way to try jump starting the novelist in you by writing a 50,000 word novel (about 175 pages) between November 1st and midnight on November 30th.
That's roughly 1,667 words a day.
This isn't to write a masterpiece. It's not about a high quality story at all. This is about sitting down and writing. Fast. Hard. No editing. No rewriting. Just 50,000 words in a story.
You write it and then upload the story before the deadline for verification. You don't win anything more than a certificate and the knowledge of knowing that you have "won"...while it's easy to cheat, the people who do in this contest are really pitiful.
Another benefit lay in the act of writing each day. You gain some discipline in the act of setting a goal in word count and having to nail it each day to meet the goal. Sometimes novels that started from NaNoWriMo. For example, JC Hutchin's 7th Son started as a NaNoWriMo entry. At least, I believe that's what I heard in the "Get Published" podcast interview with J.C. The NaNoWriMo site has a list of some of the novels published as a result of participation in the festivities.
Now, of course there are detractors. NaNoWriMo focuses on setting goals and hitting deadlines, not refining the craft of writing. And perhaps these people who shake their heads in disappointment at the idea of NaNoWriMo have a point; it flies in the face of those who work hard at refining the craft of writing, reducing it to little more than a marathon with a line to be crossed rather than an art of telling a good story.
Personally if you're the kind of person that thrives on a deadline to accomplish a goal then NaNoWriMo isn't a bad thing. It might help encourage people to pursue their writing dreams. Is that necessarily bad?
There's no fee to enter. No penalty for "failing". Just sign up, write like crazy, and if you make it, you get a certificate. Let your inner novelist out to play a little.
(My wife is planning on trying to write 50,000 words this November. I'm not; I have a story I'm working on now, and part of the contest rules state you must start the novel on the first. Outlines, notes, etc. are okay beforehand, but the novel itself must start on the first, and I am not willing to suspend the story I'm working on now in order to start a new one for November and risk losing my momentum.)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
SASE your Manuscript!
For some reason I've been running into this advice a lot online recently.
If you query with part of your manuscript, it is vital that you include a self addressed stamped envelope. Apparently this is one of those things that is thought to be "common knowledge" in the trade, but much of the time new authors are oblivious to it and are thus rejected outright.
Worse, it's an automatic rejection flag in many agencies. Send something in without the SASE and they'll heap your entry into the trash. Yikes!
Here are some links to additional information regarding proper mailing etiquette for your manuscript:
SASE Guidelines
The Logic - and Illogic - Behind the SASE
20 Tips for Writers
If you query with part of your manuscript, it is vital that you include a self addressed stamped envelope. Apparently this is one of those things that is thought to be "common knowledge" in the trade, but much of the time new authors are oblivious to it and are thus rejected outright.
Worse, it's an automatic rejection flag in many agencies. Send something in without the SASE and they'll heap your entry into the trash. Yikes!
Here are some links to additional information regarding proper mailing etiquette for your manuscript:
SASE Guidelines
The Logic - and Illogic - Behind the SASE
20 Tips for Writers
Monday, October 26, 2009
Scott Sigler's The Rookie
Scott Sigler rocks.
I first was introduced to Sigler's work with his debut podcast novel called Earthcore. This totally free book was released as a podcast and was a rich blend of science fiction, science, thriller and horror. I. Was. Hooked.
He released other novels, all freely available online, like Ancestor, Infected, and Nocturnal. The following garnered by his audio novels enabled him to finally get a publishing contract while continuing work on followups to many of his titles (Contagious has already been released as the followup to Infected, and I'm STILL WAITING FOR EARTHCORE'S SEQUEL!); and like many of his fans I've purchased some of his work to give as gifts to support an author whose work I truly enjoyed.
But you know the neatest part?
Well, aside from his strong integration of science into his horror/scifi style, of course...
He had me enjoy a book that with every chapter released I thought, "I'll probably delete it soon..."
His story The Rookie is once again a thriller/science/scifi mix with a dash of mobsters and sports stirred into the pot. And I hate sports.
Here's the synopsis from his own website (linked above):
**********
Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of "Any Given Sunday" with the space opera style of "Star Wars" and the criminal underworld of "The Godfather."
Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.
Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he'll wind up just another stat in the column marked "killed on the field."
*********
I mean it. I can't tell a touchdown from a linebacker. "Third in ten" is like speaking Aramaic to me. If they're on the ten yard line I don't know if it's good or bad.
Despite thinking I was going to delete the chapter from my iPod until he would release more of something my style, like The Crypt, I listened to every chapter the bastard released. And I enjoyed the story.
For someone like me that's really saying something about the story.
More than that Sigler ties his stories together; The Crypt takes place in the Rookie universe. Aliens from The Rookie are hinted at in modern-day Infected. Like a sociopathic sci-fi Stephen King, the man makes his audience feel as if they're part of a greater story arch with inside references that newbies won't "get" until they're initiated into the Church of Sigler.
He's worked 15 years to reach that point in his craft. And he got pretty damn good at it.
Sigler is one of the big names in podcasting of novels. As a matter of fact he was one of the handful that inspired me to actually sit down and try writing a novel. Not because he made it look easy, but because he made me realize that maybe I had a story to tell. And he was frank about his own story in trying to get published and what the industry was like; there are no gummy bears or rainbows in his off-book stories (although if there were I'd bet that the gummy bears would wield the rainbows as weapons to slice your head off, and there'd be a feasible line of reasoning behind how they did it, too).
If you have ANY interest in horror and science, or just horror and science fiction, check out his stories. They're freely available. I dare you to not have the urge to purchase one of the print books after listening to even two of his books. The crossovers, the hard science, the fact that the man goes out of his way to connect with his audience...all this comes together into a perfect storm of entertainment. He's a pioneer on the ground floor of podcast novels. Grab your media player and download them TODAY!
I first was introduced to Sigler's work with his debut podcast novel called Earthcore. This totally free book was released as a podcast and was a rich blend of science fiction, science, thriller and horror. I. Was. Hooked.
He released other novels, all freely available online, like Ancestor, Infected, and Nocturnal. The following garnered by his audio novels enabled him to finally get a publishing contract while continuing work on followups to many of his titles (Contagious has already been released as the followup to Infected, and I'm STILL WAITING FOR EARTHCORE'S SEQUEL!); and like many of his fans I've purchased some of his work to give as gifts to support an author whose work I truly enjoyed.
But you know the neatest part?
Well, aside from his strong integration of science into his horror/scifi style, of course...
He had me enjoy a book that with every chapter released I thought, "I'll probably delete it soon..."
His story The Rookie is once again a thriller/science/scifi mix with a dash of mobsters and sports stirred into the pot. And I hate sports.
Here's the synopsis from his own website (linked above):
**********
Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of "Any Given Sunday" with the space opera style of "Star Wars" and the criminal underworld of "The Godfather."
Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.
Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he'll wind up just another stat in the column marked "killed on the field."
*********
I mean it. I can't tell a touchdown from a linebacker. "Third in ten" is like speaking Aramaic to me. If they're on the ten yard line I don't know if it's good or bad.
Despite thinking I was going to delete the chapter from my iPod until he would release more of something my style, like The Crypt, I listened to every chapter the bastard released. And I enjoyed the story.
For someone like me that's really saying something about the story.
More than that Sigler ties his stories together; The Crypt takes place in the Rookie universe. Aliens from The Rookie are hinted at in modern-day Infected. Like a sociopathic sci-fi Stephen King, the man makes his audience feel as if they're part of a greater story arch with inside references that newbies won't "get" until they're initiated into the Church of Sigler.
He's worked 15 years to reach that point in his craft. And he got pretty damn good at it.
Sigler is one of the big names in podcasting of novels. As a matter of fact he was one of the handful that inspired me to actually sit down and try writing a novel. Not because he made it look easy, but because he made me realize that maybe I had a story to tell. And he was frank about his own story in trying to get published and what the industry was like; there are no gummy bears or rainbows in his off-book stories (although if there were I'd bet that the gummy bears would wield the rainbows as weapons to slice your head off, and there'd be a feasible line of reasoning behind how they did it, too).
If you have ANY interest in horror and science, or just horror and science fiction, check out his stories. They're freely available. I dare you to not have the urge to purchase one of the print books after listening to even two of his books. The crossovers, the hard science, the fact that the man goes out of his way to connect with his audience...all this comes together into a perfect storm of entertainment. He's a pioneer on the ground floor of podcast novels. Grab your media player and download them TODAY!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
What if I Fail?
If you're like me you have had an idea or five tickling the back of your mind where you wanted to become a published author. The problem is that it's always tickled the back of your mind and never actually became a full story.
I found this article on Cracked.Com that may give some inspiration to overcome that fear. It lists 5 people who "failed" their way to fortune.
Usually I wouldn't find inspiration on Cracked.Com, a site largely dedicated to funny lists and satirical social commentary. But this list had an author named Amanda McKittrick Ros and I thought, "This would be a perfect first post topic on a new blog about my progress...or lack thereof...in trying to get published!" (there are other posts appearing "previous" to this...but those are migrated from another blog. This is the first "official" post to the NAC blog.)
From the Cracked article:
***
Amanda McKittrick Ros is believed by many to be one of the greatest bad writers who ever lived. How do you earn a distinction like that? You earn it by opening your novels with sentences like this...
"Have you ever visited that portion of Erin's plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?"
***
Her first novel, Irene Iddesleigh, was self-published by her husband as a gift. The book managed to gain a following that counted among the members C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who publicised the book with a contest daring readers to see how far they could read it without bursting with laughter. Even Mark Twain commented on the book with a witticism.
Probably not how she meant to be known, but her books did gain readers and that is ultimately what an author wants. What's more, she managed to turn these successful failures into a career from which she made a decent living financially.
So I figure...if someone like this managed to break into being a published author...I must have some chance, right? Maybe slightly more than winning the lottery?
I found this article on Cracked.Com that may give some inspiration to overcome that fear. It lists 5 people who "failed" their way to fortune.
Usually I wouldn't find inspiration on Cracked.Com, a site largely dedicated to funny lists and satirical social commentary. But this list had an author named Amanda McKittrick Ros and I thought, "This would be a perfect first post topic on a new blog about my progress...or lack thereof...in trying to get published!" (there are other posts appearing "previous" to this...but those are migrated from another blog. This is the first "official" post to the NAC blog.)
From the Cracked article:
***
Amanda McKittrick Ros is believed by many to be one of the greatest bad writers who ever lived. How do you earn a distinction like that? You earn it by opening your novels with sentences like this...
"Have you ever visited that portion of Erin's plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?"
***
Her first novel, Irene Iddesleigh, was self-published by her husband as a gift. The book managed to gain a following that counted among the members C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who publicised the book with a contest daring readers to see how far they could read it without bursting with laughter. Even Mark Twain commented on the book with a witticism.
Probably not how she meant to be known, but her books did gain readers and that is ultimately what an author wants. What's more, she managed to turn these successful failures into a career from which she made a decent living financially.
So I figure...if someone like this managed to break into being a published author...I must have some chance, right? Maybe slightly more than winning the lottery?
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Music and Writing
I was listening to the StackOverflow podcast (number 69) went over, among other things, the topic of programmers listening to music and some of Jeff and Joel's anecdotal evidence of how it affects programmers' concentration.
I am not a programmer. I did a little coding while in college, and while I probably should have considered staying in that track or something related to it I did not...I became a techy tech. But when it comes to listening to something that is potentially distracting while concentrating on something else, I do this quite a bit.
My Aspergian tendencies make me more comfortable when I'm not disturbed from what I'm concentrating on. Sometimes it doesn't work very well because we're always being distracted by people walking in, interrupting with questions totally unrelated to what I'm there to work on, or phone calls (the bane of any work environment, I think). I used to try listening to my iPod at times when I wasn't even supposed to be interacting with people but then I got into "trouble" because "someone" felt I was unapproachable when wearing headphones (um...wasn't that the rule to begin with?). So I was forced to return to the less efficient way of interacting with my routines with more interruptions.
That said, I have noticed that there are certain things that are impaired in unexpected ways when listening to my iPod. I know it's not music, per se, but rather it is basically listening to audio content while performing some other task. I normally listen to podcasts. StackOverflow. Pseudopod. I Should Be Writing. The Writing Show. Escape Pod. MacOS Ken. And more. Can you tell I love my podcasts? It's like my version of NPR. I've discovered that if I'm trying to do something like writing, concentrating on a repair to a system, basically anything that takes more than rote actions, I find I can't retain the information form the podcast. It's like parts of it just disappear from time...I can't recall anything for periods of the podcast.
Another observation. I am trying to write a first draft of a novel. My goal has been 500 words a day. My writing area is usually at my desk, which is in the living room near the TV and the family. It's a long story as to why it has ended up there, but this is about observations on listening to something while concentrating on another task. anyway, I when I'm at that desk trying to work on the story I usually end up doing this in the evening. I get distracted easily by conversations, the television, the four year old, and even the fidgeting of other people. (It's weird since Aspergians are supposed to be very focused on things, supposedly...).
To help isolate myself I put on a set of headphones and listen to a loop of music videos I fetched from YouTube. It's basically the same list I've heard many other times and once in awhile I'll add one or two more. The background noise helps me focus a little more. I typically get somewhere between 400 and 700 words after roughly an hour of work under these conditions.
If I go somewhere else and work in quiet for an hour, I've hit upwards 1,000 to 1,100 words or more on average.
This tells me that, for me, music or other sounds while concentrating on a task is a distraction. I'm not a neuroscientist, but as I recall the brain breaks tasks down and processes various tasks in ways that don't break down into what to us are logical units. Even when making sentences, bits and pieces, like the nouns, the verbs, the structure of the sentence coming out of your mouth...are pulled from different areas of the brain to be assembled in another part before erupting from your speak hole.
So I'm thinking that music or listening to audio content stimulates parts of the brain that otherwise are part of the creative process.
It doesn't seem so bad when listening to music that I've listened to a hundred times before. It's like once the brain has something imprinted and it's not something that is being operated on...analyzed, thought about, etc...then it is background noise that helps drown out some of the ambient noises. It obviously isn't completely unprocessed in the mind, but it does have different effects depending on how it is "memorized" or imprinted in memory.
There is obviously some disconnect that people have with perception vs. reality in dealing with distractions. Countless studies have shown that texting while driving, talking on the phone while driving, even eating while driving increase your chances dramatically of being involved in an accident. Yet hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people do this every day. I've often said that adults are really kids with bank accounts and more responsibilities...as much as many don't acknowledge it, adults have the same "it won't happen to me" attitude that idiot teenagers carry when taking irresponsible risks. I think adults quash some of the impulses...perhaps through experience their impulse control becomes a little more refined...but at heart, I know that people are still having that attitude poke through in different ways (like seeing someone reading the @#$ newspaper while driving down the freeway. If that isn't dangerous and irresponsible, I don't know what is.)
A huge number of people while say that XYZ helps them when in reality studies show that it's a distraction, or that they're actually being counterproductive. What it comes down to is that some people get into certain habits that they are comfortable with. For people like me, I need to try to isolate myself from distractions while concentrating on things that take deep or creative thought.
How about you? Have you noticed any affect from listening to something while concentrating on an unrelated task?
I am not a programmer. I did a little coding while in college, and while I probably should have considered staying in that track or something related to it I did not...I became a techy tech. But when it comes to listening to something that is potentially distracting while concentrating on something else, I do this quite a bit.
My Aspergian tendencies make me more comfortable when I'm not disturbed from what I'm concentrating on. Sometimes it doesn't work very well because we're always being distracted by people walking in, interrupting with questions totally unrelated to what I'm there to work on, or phone calls (the bane of any work environment, I think). I used to try listening to my iPod at times when I wasn't even supposed to be interacting with people but then I got into "trouble" because "someone" felt I was unapproachable when wearing headphones (um...wasn't that the rule to begin with?). So I was forced to return to the less efficient way of interacting with my routines with more interruptions.
That said, I have noticed that there are certain things that are impaired in unexpected ways when listening to my iPod. I know it's not music, per se, but rather it is basically listening to audio content while performing some other task. I normally listen to podcasts. StackOverflow. Pseudopod. I Should Be Writing. The Writing Show. Escape Pod. MacOS Ken. And more. Can you tell I love my podcasts? It's like my version of NPR. I've discovered that if I'm trying to do something like writing, concentrating on a repair to a system, basically anything that takes more than rote actions, I find I can't retain the information form the podcast. It's like parts of it just disappear from time...I can't recall anything for periods of the podcast.
Another observation. I am trying to write a first draft of a novel. My goal has been 500 words a day. My writing area is usually at my desk, which is in the living room near the TV and the family. It's a long story as to why it has ended up there, but this is about observations on listening to something while concentrating on another task. anyway, I when I'm at that desk trying to work on the story I usually end up doing this in the evening. I get distracted easily by conversations, the television, the four year old, and even the fidgeting of other people. (It's weird since Aspergians are supposed to be very focused on things, supposedly...).
To help isolate myself I put on a set of headphones and listen to a loop of music videos I fetched from YouTube. It's basically the same list I've heard many other times and once in awhile I'll add one or two more. The background noise helps me focus a little more. I typically get somewhere between 400 and 700 words after roughly an hour of work under these conditions.
If I go somewhere else and work in quiet for an hour, I've hit upwards 1,000 to 1,100 words or more on average.
This tells me that, for me, music or other sounds while concentrating on a task is a distraction. I'm not a neuroscientist, but as I recall the brain breaks tasks down and processes various tasks in ways that don't break down into what to us are logical units. Even when making sentences, bits and pieces, like the nouns, the verbs, the structure of the sentence coming out of your mouth...are pulled from different areas of the brain to be assembled in another part before erupting from your speak hole.
So I'm thinking that music or listening to audio content stimulates parts of the brain that otherwise are part of the creative process.
It doesn't seem so bad when listening to music that I've listened to a hundred times before. It's like once the brain has something imprinted and it's not something that is being operated on...analyzed, thought about, etc...then it is background noise that helps drown out some of the ambient noises. It obviously isn't completely unprocessed in the mind, but it does have different effects depending on how it is "memorized" or imprinted in memory.
There is obviously some disconnect that people have with perception vs. reality in dealing with distractions. Countless studies have shown that texting while driving, talking on the phone while driving, even eating while driving increase your chances dramatically of being involved in an accident. Yet hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people do this every day. I've often said that adults are really kids with bank accounts and more responsibilities...as much as many don't acknowledge it, adults have the same "it won't happen to me" attitude that idiot teenagers carry when taking irresponsible risks. I think adults quash some of the impulses...perhaps through experience their impulse control becomes a little more refined...but at heart, I know that people are still having that attitude poke through in different ways (like seeing someone reading the @#$ newspaper while driving down the freeway. If that isn't dangerous and irresponsible, I don't know what is.)
A huge number of people while say that XYZ helps them when in reality studies show that it's a distraction, or that they're actually being counterproductive. What it comes down to is that some people get into certain habits that they are comfortable with. For people like me, I need to try to isolate myself from distractions while concentrating on things that take deep or creative thought.
How about you? Have you noticed any affect from listening to something while concentrating on an unrelated task?
Monday, October 5, 2009
Novel Writing
I chronicled my progress on entering The Writing Show's Halloween short story contest. What I haven't really discussed was that since I entered that contest I was working on a novel.
I think writing is one of those ideal jobs for people with my mental wiring. I kind of live in my head already. I have stories to try telling. I want to work alone, without having to get stressed by other people. Unfortunately the life of an author is seldom the life of the Stephen Kings in the world. Very few authors get to make a life of their writing; most do it as a side job or labor of love. And that's the small percentage that actually get published.
I've heard that an author is someone who manages to get published despite really knowing how the odds are stacked against them.
I want to get a book published. I wondered if I could manage to defy odds and get a novel out there, maybe get someone to read it and like it.
I'm not an English major. I can't accurately dissect sentences into parts of speech. I just wanted to see if I could tell a story in a compelling way, compelling enough to sell it to someone that would hand over a decent advance and say, "Hey, kid, how about you send me another manuscript and we'll see about getting it published a year after this one?"
But I was afraid. See, something like this is best kept in your head. My head was filled with stories. Great stories. Stories that would make you tingle with delight at the valor of heroes and gape in awe at the entrance of the starship that swoops in at the last moment to the riffs of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero". Your head would explode from the sheer amount of awesome in my imagination.
Actually trying to get these things on paper was another story. In my head, I am successful. I am great, as a matter of fact. To actually try it...that's putting yourself out there. It's a way to perhaps validate that I'm a failure. One of the only things I thought I could do as an alternative to the stresses I currently live with in my current job would be finally acknowledged as a non-alternative.
But I still toyed with the idea. I listen to I Should Be Writing. I listen to The Writing Show. Both give inspiration for wanna-be writers. I started reading magazines aimed at writers with tips on how to create decent characters and plots and how to avoid common pitfalls in beginner's writings.
After the contest entries I sat down and started working on a story. I'm near the 25,000 word mark at the time of this writing. It will require a lot of polish and enhancement before I really show it to anyone for editing. I still have fears that it'll get to a point where if there is a decent story in the chaff, I'll get stuck at a point where it can't be fully developed or completed. Or I might sabotage myself and give it a crap ending, validating my fear that I'm not able to cut it as an author.
I desperately wish I knew what I was doing, if what I have is "right". But it's subjective. And I can't send it out to people for comments if it's not minimally reworked; one of the bad things I've read about is asking for comments from someone then telling them a week later, "Wait! I redid these parts. See if it's better with this instead!"
I could be wasting my time completely.
But for now...I'm making goals to stick to. I wanted to add at least 500 words a day to the draft. I've been pleasantly surprised to be hitting about 1,000 almost every day.
So who knows? Maybe I'll have something good with this. Maybe it'll end up thrown away. If I can polish it, then get it edited a few times, I'll try shopping it around to a few hundred agents and see if there's interest. If not then at least I finally tried. I really haven't failed until I have tried, right?
I think writing is one of those ideal jobs for people with my mental wiring. I kind of live in my head already. I have stories to try telling. I want to work alone, without having to get stressed by other people. Unfortunately the life of an author is seldom the life of the Stephen Kings in the world. Very few authors get to make a life of their writing; most do it as a side job or labor of love. And that's the small percentage that actually get published.
I've heard that an author is someone who manages to get published despite really knowing how the odds are stacked against them.
I want to get a book published. I wondered if I could manage to defy odds and get a novel out there, maybe get someone to read it and like it.
I'm not an English major. I can't accurately dissect sentences into parts of speech. I just wanted to see if I could tell a story in a compelling way, compelling enough to sell it to someone that would hand over a decent advance and say, "Hey, kid, how about you send me another manuscript and we'll see about getting it published a year after this one?"
But I was afraid. See, something like this is best kept in your head. My head was filled with stories. Great stories. Stories that would make you tingle with delight at the valor of heroes and gape in awe at the entrance of the starship that swoops in at the last moment to the riffs of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero". Your head would explode from the sheer amount of awesome in my imagination.
Actually trying to get these things on paper was another story. In my head, I am successful. I am great, as a matter of fact. To actually try it...that's putting yourself out there. It's a way to perhaps validate that I'm a failure. One of the only things I thought I could do as an alternative to the stresses I currently live with in my current job would be finally acknowledged as a non-alternative.
But I still toyed with the idea. I listen to I Should Be Writing. I listen to The Writing Show. Both give inspiration for wanna-be writers. I started reading magazines aimed at writers with tips on how to create decent characters and plots and how to avoid common pitfalls in beginner's writings.
After the contest entries I sat down and started working on a story. I'm near the 25,000 word mark at the time of this writing. It will require a lot of polish and enhancement before I really show it to anyone for editing. I still have fears that it'll get to a point where if there is a decent story in the chaff, I'll get stuck at a point where it can't be fully developed or completed. Or I might sabotage myself and give it a crap ending, validating my fear that I'm not able to cut it as an author.
I desperately wish I knew what I was doing, if what I have is "right". But it's subjective. And I can't send it out to people for comments if it's not minimally reworked; one of the bad things I've read about is asking for comments from someone then telling them a week later, "Wait! I redid these parts. See if it's better with this instead!"
I could be wasting my time completely.
But for now...I'm making goals to stick to. I wanted to add at least 500 words a day to the draft. I've been pleasantly surprised to be hitting about 1,000 almost every day.
So who knows? Maybe I'll have something good with this. Maybe it'll end up thrown away. If I can polish it, then get it edited a few times, I'll try shopping it around to a few hundred agents and see if there's interest. If not then at least I finally tried. I really haven't failed until I have tried, right?
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