I Should Be Writing

Revolutions and Pitfalls

Seems that this has been coming up a lot lately- authors bypassing the traditional publishing avenues and doing stuff themselves. Now, don’t laugh; of course it’s been coming up, as I and my podcasting peers have been doing it for years. But now some new developments are coming up, and they bear watching.

• Tim Pratt (former guest of this show and an excellent writer) is releasing a “reader-supported novella” called Bone Shop. It’s a prequel to his popular urban fantasy Marla Mason books (first four books on the page). He’s doing it this way for two reasons: he has yet to find a market for it, and his wife, author Heather Shaw, just lost her job. So if you like urban fantasy, check out the Marla books and Bone Shop.

Marla Mason is the chief sorcerer of Felport, a woman who’s tangled with gods and monsters and come out on top (if a bit damaged in the process). But she wasn’t always a formidable engine of brute force and pragmatism; she started out alone, in a strange city, without allies or any more power than the average teenage runaway on the street. Marla was always willing to do anything necessary to survive, and it didn’t take long for her to stumble into a world of magic, danger… and even the occasional moment of grace.

Bone Shop tells the story of Marla’s evolution from runaway to sorcerer’s apprentice to mercenary magician and beyond. Fans of the urban fantasy series that began with Blood Engines will find surprising secrets revealed about Marla’s past, and new readers can meet the character from the very beginning.

• Along the same lines, fantasy author Catherynne M. Valente is writing the free online YA novel The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making. She’s using a donation model in order to shore up funds in a crappy economy as well. But she shares another similarity with Pratt in that the internet model works as it’s not a book she felt she had a market for:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making began as a book-within-a-book in my adult novel, Palimpsest, a part of the protagonist’s childhood, a strange novel for children written in the 1920s, about a young girl spirited away to Fairyland by the Green Wind, and her adventures there, battling the wicked Marquess, befriending outlandish creatures, and growing up. As I traveled to promote the book, readers asked me one question more than any other:

Is it real?

And I said no, no, it’s fiction, just part of the world of the novel. And then, every time, the next question would come:

Are you going to write it?

And again, I said no. It’s impossible—a YA book hidden in a very much not-YA novel. No one would publish it…. [more]

This is fascinating and awesome Some, like Jennifer Hudock, author of the new podiobook The Goblin Market, say it’s a revolution, and that we have a worthy fight on our hands.

… it’s time that we as writers, artists, musicians, creators of all breed, take our careers back into our own hands and make them real. It’s time that we put our energy into our dreams so we can tell our dayjobs to stuff it… and if you like your day job, that’s okay too, but wouldn’t you rather be exerting your energy on the things you really love? I know I would and I actually write for a living–just not about the things that matter to me.

A revolution doesn’t have to be a violent thing, though at times it might get brutal. The world may resist it.

Others caution creators, saying that you have to remember that good content is still the goal here. It’s not just the delivery system. Author and blogger David Niall Wilson agrees that times are changing, but content still rules.

Quality is the one factor you can never count out. Anything you think you can just flip over in a week and make a million bucks on—particularly if you base that assumption on the fact someone else made a million in a similar fashion and you think you can discount disparities in fame, talent, and hard work—is going to get you just as much nothing now as it would have before the Internet and digital content became a factor.

So we all agree that things are changing, and if there ever was a time to try something new, now is that time. But in your rush to be innovative, to be awesome, to be a marketing god, never ever forget that it is what you create when you’re NOT hanging out on Twitter or playing games on Facebook or spreading the word about your new project that makes all of this worthwhile.

Writing prompt for July 1: Your protag finds a dropped full box of popcorn with a diamond ring inside. The popcorn is fresh.

Rule 5- Don’t be an ass.

I’m adding to my Rules for Writing – as I said, it’s a work in progress, created as I discover something else people should know.

And dude, this is something that everyone should know. It’s a golden rule you learn in preschool.

Rule 5- Don’t be an ass.

While this is one of my main rules in life, I hadn’t thought to include it as a specific writing rule. But it seems people need to know. Especially in regards to the Internet. Back in The Day, a popular phrase was “on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” Well now people can not only find out that you’re a dog, but can look up a picture of your doghouse on Google Street View. Back in The Day, you had to work hard to let all your fans know you’re an ass. Now you can do it in a weekend tirade on Twitter. (Notice, of course, that Hoffman did not apologize to the reviewer whose personal information she put on her Twitter account; she apologized to her READERS. This is a passive aggressive move, and continues to break the “don’t be an ass” rule.)

I don’t care if you’re a NYT Bestseller or a wanna-be about to write your first fanfic. There are tools availalbe to everyone to search the web to find when you or your product are being talked about. (For example, I casually mentioned a Brad Sucks song on my Twitter account – and note that I did NOT @bradsucks, I just mentioned his name – and he replied within 10 min.) You can vent about rejection, about reviews, about your bad day, sure. We’re all human. BUT the moment you target someone, the moment it goes from, “Damn, I just got rejected,” to “Jane Agent doesn’t know what she’s [EXPLETIVE DELETED] talking about, she wouldn’t know a good book if it hit her in her [REDACTED],” you’ve damned yourself. If Jane Agent is online and paying attention (and a LOT of agents are, these days), she’s going to notice, brand you as a sour grapes author, and probably note that if your attitude is like this now, it may not change if your writing ever improves to make her consider you for representation.

I saw a funny tweet today from @TeresaMedeiros: “RWA [Romance Writers of America] Survival Tip: Never talk about author/editor/publisher in bathroom. Odds of them being in next stall: 100%.”

People. The Internet is the bathroom, and Google searching tools are the next stall. If you talk about someone, they will hear you. Don’t be an ass.

There are a lot more links to deal with, but that will be a later blog post. Bizzy bizzy day ahead for me.

Writing prompt for June 30: They had to lay off the executioner because crime rates dropped. Now what?

Good news on vacation!

I am happy to announce that as of yesterday, I am being represented by Brandi Bowles, an agent with Howard Morhaim Literary Agency!

#

Sudden thought today: it seems the scifi authors who wrote about things that actually ended up happening (like the Internet or nanotech) seem to happily embrace the swiftly changing landscape of the world, while others (cough*Ray*cough*Bradbury*cough) seem to hate the science-fiction-come-true of today. Do we think there’s a connection?

Vacation has been full of family and painful tumbles down stairs (i’m fine, just bruised) so posting will continue to be light. Although I do hope to get you some podcasts shortly.

Writing prompt for June 23: The light is scary because it gives you no good place to hide, right?

Pregnancy (it’s a metaphor)

Traveling always wreaks havoc on my writing – blogging included. Yesterday my family and I drove 12 hours (plus more to accommodate a 6 year old’s bladder) from Durham, NC to Buffalo, NY. Needless to say, neither writing nor blogging got done. I know people who can blog/write while they travel, but I don’t seem to be some of them.

But now that I’m here, I can blog, write, read and plan, in between family visitation. Which is good, cause I’ve got stuff on my mind, which is the topic of today’s blog post.

I feel pregnant.

Now, as I’ve actually been pregnant, I don’t literally feel pregnant. Pregnancy felt bloated, anxious, and all wiggly inside. It wasn’t not a feeling connected to creating, even though that’s what I was doing.

But the metaphor of feeling pregnant before you create still seems to apply, even though a cynical part of my brain has to be told to shut up when she pipes up (writing a book is nothing like labor – there’s no blood, no vomit, no epidural to make things easier or to fail horribly, you don’t tear, you don’t have people calling you the wrong name as they’re coaching you to push…)

Ahem.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling this great sense of potential. It’s hiding there, behind a tree. Sometimes it looms and scares me a little bit. I feel like I need to put away the shiny electronic devices and get out the old pen and paper to make some notes.

I wonder what’s lurking there, what baby is waiting to come out. What scares me is that I already have many, many projects in the queue. Apart from my WIP (Heaven Season Five: WAR), there are four more novels waiting. Also two podiodrama series. And an unknown number of freelance gigs to come in between now and, uh, later.

I’m itching to outline, to plan. I’m reading an ARC of Jeff VanderMeer’s Booklife and it’s already speaking volumes to me. Perhaps it’s the inspiration. I don’t know. All I know is I need to get back to that whole creating thing. Finish one project so I can move onto the next.

I feel vague. Unsure of myself. But absolutely full of potential.

Writing prompt for June 20: The nicest lady in town is middle aged, widowed, and has the largest private collection of carnivorous plants (even some contraband) in the US.

Links- advice for n00bs, new media, software and support

Meant to include this on the last post and forgot. So TWO blog posts today! W00t!

• Excellent advice from Joanna Penn about What I Wish I’d Known Before Writing My First Book — (This inspired today’s Measurable Goals post, for the record.)
• Is anyone using the Atlantis Word Processor? It has a “publish to ebook” feature with the new update, and I’m curious how well it works. If you are using it, please let me know! (I’d test it, but it looks to be PC only, dangit.)
• More authors taking control of their own careers online: Jet Pack.
• Next month I’m going to have I Should Be Writing participate in the microloaning site, Kiva.org, looking for people to support in creative endeavors. I’ll be featuring them here.

Measurable Goals

There’s one thing I never realized about this whole writing thing until- embarrassingly enough- this year. Whether you’re doing the “get started writing” thing or the “begin to get published” thing or the “alternate/indy/new media publishing” thing or even the “established writer veteran,” there is one thing you absolutely must have:

Measurable goals.

Having a clear goal in mind when you start any project is vital to its success. And it’s something I have lacked.

Sure, when I start a project, I vaguely want to finish it. I want it to “sell” or “be a success” or “be popular.” But except for the goal of “finish what I started”- none of these are measurable goals. When will I know that my project has reached “success”?

So earlier this year I got a notebook and gave each project I’m working on its own page. I left most of the pages blank to make room for various ideas/to-dos to be completed later, but at the bottom of each page I listed a measurable goal. $X a month, Y listeners by Z date, etc. I find this helps me focus so much better on what I’m working on. Yes, I’m doing the same thing as before- writing, producing, etc. But now I know why.

Know when you want to finish that novel. Know when you want to send it out. Know when your agent hunt is going to start, and, possibly, stop. Know when you’re going to podcast or self-publish and how you’re going to market. I’m not saying you need this all laid out before you start, but you need something to work toward, something you can measure.

If you’re just starting out you need measurable goals as well. Think about how many words to write a week. Think about finishing a story by the end of the month. Think about submitting a story by the end of next month. Having a goal instead of “I think I’ll write a story” is a good way to push yourself to finish. Because one of the biggest problems with writing when you just start out is that no one else cares; I don’t mean you don’t have a support system, I mean that it’s not like your job in that you don’t have a manager giving you project specifications, milestones, etc. You will not suffer a consequence if you don’t finish that story. With goals, you will know what you need to do, and while still you don’t have another person waiting on you, you will at least have a more structured plan to work on as if someone had given you specifics.

I got some good outline info from my post on Monday, so I’ll be compiling them soon.

Writing prompt for June 17: It’s the crazy cat lady down the street’s birthday. What does one buy her?

Outlining

So here’s the deal. As you may have heard in I Should Be Writing #119, I’ve gotten a number of questions about outlining. I have decided to investigate other outlining methods than the snowball method- ALL FOR YOU. So shoot me your outline ideas/methods, or links to methods, and I’ll try them out. I have three personal projects this year, so I’ll try three different outlining methods and see if I can get some good outcome from them, reporting back to you.

So we have snowflake, what other outlining tools are there? I’ll be looking for some, but if you know any please let me know, send links!

Writing prompt for June 15: MacGuffin: a CD case with the wrong CD in it.

I’m me. Be you.

I just sat down and read Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, by Hugh MacLeod, in one sitting. It’s a quick book to get through, and it has some very basic advice on creative living. But the biggest message I go out of the book is this simple thought:

I’m me. Be you.

The first part is so freaking hard for me to stick to. My writing career has taken a weird wonderful path that is so unlike how I thought it would. But even then, it’s treading a path that is at least parallel to authors such as J.C. Hutchins, Matt Wallace, Christiana Ellis, Matthew Wayne Selznick, and Philippa Ballantine to name a few – podcast your work, build your audience, get noticed by publishers. But each of us has a different story, different publishers, different plans for the future.

Sometimes I get down and think that I wish my career or my writing or my skills were more like that of any number of authors. I wish even that I could have their fighting spirit, or their fearlessness, or their compassion. But down that road is madness.

I’m me. I’m not them. I’m me and I’m going to have the career I’m going to have. The minute I start trying to be like them, I become untrue to myself and could even squash my natural skillset, a skillset that has proven to work for me, if I could just stop whining and open my eyes. Can I take cues from my peers? Sure! It’s wise to learn from people with experience. But there’s a difference between learning from someone and trying to force their carbon copy onto your unique person. It just won’t work. At best, you’ll be seen as a copy, at worst, you’ll fall flat on your face.

So be you. When you write that book, write your book. When you decide how to release it, decide what’s best for you. When you decide how to promote it, decide what fits you best. When you decide how to communicate with your audience, do what fits your personality. Learn from your peers, but BE YOU.

Writing prompt for June 13: Begin writing a scene. The moment you stop writing to think about what to say next, write, “what I really want to say is-” and get going. Maybe you’ll continue. Maybe you’ll end up writing the scene you were meant to write. It surprises your mind into being more honest.

Video of the day: Being you can be scary. But neat things can happen when you’re you. (watch till the end. It’s so worth it.)

Titles

I hate hate hate coming up with titles. Hate it. Sometimes they come to me, but that’s very rare.

My favorite title is for my short story, I Look Forward to Remembering You, about time travel and how our main character hires someone to go back in time to change her past. So it fit. I feel like that was my ONE CLEVER TITLE I’ll ever get.

Playing For Keeps’ working title was Keepsie’s Bar. That changed when Cory Doctorow workshopped the first chapters at Viable Paradise and wrote “GET A REAL TITLE” on the cover page. I’m still not 100% happy with it.

I wonder, if HEAVEN ever sells to a publisher, if i’ll need to change the title simply because it’s not a Christian book, it’s not inspirational, and the title could be misleading. Interesting that I never worried about this when it was a free podcast.

My work in progress after HEAVEN Season 5- War is called merely Project: Underground. That’s named after one of the businesses in the novel, Underground Publications, but I do know that the final book won’t be titled that. I still don’t know what to call it. It’s driving me mad.

Another book I’m brewing in the back of my head had a perfect title. Then I found out that a YA book is coming out this fall with the SAME DAMN TITLE. I know it doesn’t stop some people- hell, there are several books title “Playing For Keeps.” How many songs are titled “I Love You” or “Lullabye” or “Crackity Jones”? (OK, I’m pretty sure the last one has only one.)

Titles can come from characters’ names. Or settings names. The setting names seems like a cop-out. I just read Amberville by Tim Davys and the book takes place in Amberville. On the other hand, the TV show “The Office” is perfectly name, as it brings across the bland existence that the characters endure in the office. Titles can come from something that happened, or a specific maguffin in the story (”Charlotte’s Web”). But what symies me is when to decide what path to take. Person, place, thing? Action? Specific occurance in the book? How about a quote from the Bible or Shakespeare?

This is more of a rant than anything else. I struggle with this with everything I write. Sometimes I feel like I hit it, othertimes not so much. And I always wonder if a story/book would have more resonance if they had had the perfect name.

I’m dealing with a funk that was supposed to be done with on Wednesday night (Yes, sometimes I do demand my moods stay on schedule, don’t you?) and I’m really hoping to kick it this weekend. I don’t like functioning like this. So pardon the lack of useful blog post.

Writing prompt for June 12: New supporting character: The half-brother no one ever talks about comes home. He doesn’t need money, a job, or hiding from the law or the mafia. What does he want?

Don’t make hasty decisions

The more I deal with professionals in my career, the more I have to be vague. I’m not going to blog my rejections, or even who did them. It’s unprofessional, and if an agent/editor googles you and sees you talking crap about people who rejected you, you’re going to look bad.

If you and I were in a bar somewhere, I’d have no problem telling you anything going on. I just don’t want it in public, or searchable. Gotta be professional.

So with that said, yesterday I got a great disappointment. I was pretty upset, and as I was driving around yesterday afternoon, I was going through all the situations of what I could do now. What my next step should be. I was brainstorming at top speed, coming up with 100 different ideas.

Then I stopped.

Yesterday at the height of disappointment was not the time to make decisions. As I’ve said before, I needed to give myself a definite span of time to feel bad, to mourn, for lack of a better word. It’s not a good idea to make any decision when emotions are high, and that fits in writing as well.

And the next step is always clear in writing:

1. Write.
2. Finish.
3. Send it out.
4. Work on the next project – AKA- GOTO 1. (Sorry. A little BASIC joke.)

So I have my next step. And when the emotions calm down, I can think about what to do about Yesterday’s Great Disappointment.

But for now, I write.

Writing prompt for June 11: Someone gives your protag a gift certificate to a spa for a day of pampering. Does s/he go?