Tim Waggoner's Blog, page 9

Dealing with Self-Doubt as a Writer

As I’ve said before many times on this blog, I started writing seriously, with the intention of making it my life’s work, when I was eighteen. I’m fifty-six now. I’ve been writing for almost forty years. (It’s hard for me to wrap my head around that number. Forty? Really?) In that time, I haven’t become an international bestseller with a string of movie and TV adaptions of my work. I’m not rich, and I haven’t won a truckload of awards. But I’ve been regularly selling my fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) to traditional publishing markets for the majority of my career, and while I might not have a shelf full of awards, I’ve won a few. I’ve also taught college writing classes for most of this time. I like to write about writing, not only to help other writers but because everything about writing fascinates me, and every time I teach – whether in a class, at a workshop, or through an article or blog post – I’m able to clarify my thought and ideas about my art form. (Plus, teaching gives me a steady paycheck, healthcare, and retirement benefits, and them ain’t small potatoes.)
Coming this September, my how-to-write book Writing in the Dark (named after this blog) will come out from Guide Dog Books, an imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. It’s available for preorder now. Links are at the bottom in case you don’t want to read the rest of this before ordering, and who could blame you?
One of the things I’ve noticed over the last few years is the increasing number of how-to-write books produced by self-published writers who’ve published few other books. I’m not here to trash these writers. Anyone can learn anything from anyone at any time, and if a particular how-to book speaks to you and helps you grow as a writer, then who cares what credentials its author has? (Although I’d say the more experience a how-to writer has in the field, the more likely their book will be useful to you.) Seeing those books got me wondering when in their career is a writer ready to produce a how-to book? And what does ready even mean? Was I ready to write Writing in the Dark? Had I earned the right to present myself as some sort of expert? I hardly felt like one. For that matter, do I have the credentials – the experience, the knowledge – to even write this blog?
I had, as you might guess, doubts.
One of the great – and maddening – dichotomies of being a writer is the endless struggle between believing your work is brilliant and that you know what the hell you’re doing and believing your work is shit and that no sane person would ever listen to your advice. If you only think that you’re a genius and that we’re incredibly fortunate that you share your stellar writing and amazing insights with the rest of us, then god bless you. The rest of us aren’t so self-assured.
People are sometimes surprised to learn that I still struggle with self-doubt. “But you’ve published so much, and you’ve been teaching forever!” Doesn’t matter. Self-doubt is emotional, not rational. Even so, there are some rational reasons for me to doubt myself as a writer.·         There are already more books than anyone could possibly read in a lifetime. The world doesn’t need me to produce any more.·         If I didn’t write a book (or teach a class), someone else would, and that someone could easily be as accomplished as I am, if not more so.·         No matter what I produce, how many people I help, or what I achieve, it will always – always – fall short of what I can imagine. Therefore, in a sense, I’m always doomed to failure (in my own perception). Glass half full? Half empty? I’m not sure there is a glass, let alone any damn water.But I’ve been able to continue writing and teaching for almost four decades despite my self-doubt. How do I do it, and more importantly, how can you?
1) Realize you’re doomed and accept your fate.
For whatever reason – whether we were born to write, chose to write, or some combination of the two – we’ve gotten hooked on writing and we can’t stop if we wanted to. If we didn’t put words onto the page, we’d still be coming up with ideas all the time, but they’d have nowhere to go. We’d still create, just in our heads. Nothing can stop us from creating one way or another, and we might as well admit it, make our peace with it, and get on with our work, self-doubts and all.
2) Writing keeps you sane – and that’s more than enough.
If I go too long without writing, everyone in my family knows it. I get grouchy and depressed (well, more depressed than usual), and I’m not a lot of fun to be around. Writing gives me a way to get out all the wild and crazy thoughts that swirl around in my brain 24/7, allowing me to bring some measure of order to them. I enter into an almost meditative state when I write, and when I’m done for the day, I’m usually relaxed, calm, and as close to content as I can get. This mental benefit alone is reason enough to write, and it’s plenty of reason to keep going despite your self-doubts. And what and how much you accomplish in terms of publishing isn’t as important as tending to your mental health. For so many of us, writing is self-care. Don’t let your doubts stop you from taking care of yourself.
And here’s something you might not have considered before: Engaging in too much self-doubt is a form of self-harm. We use our doubts as a weapon against ourselves for whatever reasons. We believe we aren’t good enough, we don’t deserve to succeed, don’t deserve to be happy, that we deserve to be miserable, etc. Sometimes it’s not as important where our self-doubts come from as it is how we wield them against ourselves. We need to try to be kinder to ourselves.
3) Writing (and publishing) can get you out of your own damn head.
I live my life primarily in my own head – I read, I watch TV and movies, and I muse about everything I come into contact with. I interact imaginatively with the world, and all of these activities feed my imagination. I get irritated when something pulls me out of my head, like a loud noise or a weird smell or a chore or a need to attend to a basic biological function (like eating). But writing can be shared with other people (through both publishing and teaching), and that helps me not stay in my head all the time. It helps me connect to the world and the people in it. I get to meet readers, other writers, editors, agents, students. I get to have actual conversations with actual people. Making these connections is healthy, and it’s worth combatting – or at least learning to live with – any self-doubts I have about writing. Hopefully, it can be the same for you.
4) Writing leads to growth.
Self-actualization is high on the lists of things I need in life. A therapist once told me that I was “hell-bent for growth.” Everything I learn about writing and teaching, everything that I experience because I publish my work, helps me grow as both an artist and a human being. My need for self-actualization is stronger than my self-doubts. In fact, dealing with self-doubt is more potential for self-actualization, so it’s a win-win for me. If you can focus on the growth aspect of writing more, maybe it will help you deal with your self-doubts.
5) Focus on the writing, not the outcome.
It’s not about you – it’s about the story. Focus on the characters, the events, the language, everything that you’re trying to get down on the page. Forget yourself. Remember how I said earlier that writing is like a meditative state for me? I do experience self-doubt as I write, but each time I do my best to let go of those thoughts and refocus on the writing. I take a breath, relax, seek a balance between my self and the page, and I do my best to stay there as I write. I’ve written before about how attachment to a specific outcome makes it hard to create, even such simple outcomes as This Must Be Good. If you’re not tied to a specific outcome, then you can more easily forget yourself and stay in the moment as you write. Doubts are the result of worrying about whether or not you’ll achieve a particular outcome. It’s okay to have doubts, but you don’t have to dwell on them, and you don’t have to give them any more power than they already have. Just write.
6) Use your support network.
I hope you have one, whether in physical life or online. I’ve been lucky. I’ve never had anyone discourage me from writing. Quite the opposite. So when my doubts get to be too much, I can go to my wife, my brother, my kids, or any number of writer friends for support. Hell, just reading social media posts from my writer friends – or writers I admire from afar – can help remind me that I’m not alone, that other writers experience the same shit I do and manage to find a way to keep going. You have to be careful not to let the writer’s disease – envy – get hold of you, though. If you start comparing yourself to other writers – Why did she get a movie deal and I didn’t? How come his work is translated into fifty different languages and I only have one story translated into Esperanto? – you’ll feed your self-doubts and make them bigger and stronger. Don’t be afraid to ask your support network for a pep talk. We all need them from time to time.
7) Do a reality-check.
I’m dysthymic. This means I suffer from a constant low-grade depression that, if I’m not careful, can become a far more serious depression. Part of this is that I view the world, and hence my writing, through a distorted filter. I’m prone to see the worst in every situation, and knowing this about myself tells me where a lot of my self-doubt comes from. Knowing this doesn’t automatically help me. I’m incapable of believing positive things about myself, to the point where I almost can’t perceive them. It’s hard to explain, but those positive things don’t seem real to me. (I imagine it’s kind of like being born without a sense of smell. You would understand the conceptof smell, but not be able to experience it directly.) Knowing I have a distorted filter through which I perceive the world, I do my best to view any success or praise I receive dispassionately, almost as if it belonged to someone else. If one of my books gets a positive review, I remind myself that the reviewer’s point of view is accurate – for them. It’s what they legitimately thought of my book. It’s real. I don’t feel that it’s real, but intellectually, I understand that it is. Someone thinks my writing is worthwhile, therefore, I should write more stuff. Much of my self-doubt is due to my distorted filter, so I do my best to bypass it.
I read reviews – good and bad – of my work (and of my teaching) and I try to learn from them. The good feedback I use to help counter my self-doubt, but I also use it to see what works and what doesn’t. I learn the same thing from negative feedback, although that definitely doesn’t help my self-doubt. If you think seeing negative reviews will only make your self-doubt more crippling, ask a friend to find and send you only positive reviews of your work. Read them when you begin doubting yourself too much. Your writing won’t be loved by everyone, but it’s loved by someone, and knowing that can help you keep working when doubts start to creep in. And, of course, you can ignore all reviews, good and bad, of your stuff. Whatever works for you.
8) Create a writing persona.
I have a theory that we create a writer self – which some people call our voice – which we use as a kind of mask or filter as we write. New writers struggle because it takes time to create this persona, and they haven’t done it yet. I think we create many personas to get us through life, and they’re all aspects of us, but none of them are completelyus. I’m a husband, father, son, brother, friend, writer, teacher, co-worker . . . I’ve learned how to be those things, learned which parts of me are those things, and when it’s time to be a husband, I do it through the persona of Husband-Tim, when it’s time to be a father, etc., etc. Over time, and with no real conscious thought on my part, I’ve developed a Writer-Tim. This Tim is confident. He knows he can write and publish because he’s done both so many times before. He knows his work will be decent enough because of the positive reviews he’s received over the years, and he knows his work is of a certain quality because of the awards and award nominations he’s received in his career. This Tim has a recognizable voice that’s different than Real-Tim (or maybe Complete-Tim would be a better term). I recognize it when I read my own writing, and I’m always like, Who wrote this? I know it was me, but I’m not this assured, not this good. I don’t express myself this well. But Writer-Tim is and does. Writer-Tim allows me to ignore my self-doubts and create.
I wish I had some idea how a Writer-Self is developed. Maybe it grows naturally over time. Maybe some of it is conscious choice. I’ve heard some writers say that selecting a pseudonym to write under, even going so far as to create a fake biography for the pseudonym, allows them to write because it’s not really them. Some people write using the pseudonym but publish under their real name. Others write and publish under the pseudonym. Whatever helps you deal with your doubts and keeps the words coming.
I often show Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech to my creative writing classes at the end of the semester. (If you’re not familiar with it, here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWexCID-kA) In the speech, Neil talks about a friend of his who had the opportunity to narrate an audiobook but was afraid she couldn’t do it. He told her to imagine she was someone who could do it and then just do what that person would do. She told him it helped. Imagine being a writer who can write well and confidently, and then do what that writer would do. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what a Writer-Self is: people imagining a persona, much the same way an actor might, and then doing what they think that persona would do. I know this sounds like weird psychology, but if it works for you, who gives a damn?
9) Learn how to use doubt positively.
I’ve been talking about doubt as if it’s all negative, but it has its positive aspects too. In fact, I’d argue that it’s vital to learning, if you don’t give it too much power and let it get the better of you. Maybe “questioning” would be a better term here than doubt. Questioning whether a sentence communicates what I want it to allows me to consider ways of making it better and, if one of those does a better job at getting what I want across, I can revise my sentence. If I write a line of dialogue, I might question if it’s really good, and that might lead me to read an article or watch a video about writing effective dialogue, and I might learn something that will allow me to improve as a writer. If I question whether a specific publisher is a good one to submit to, I can ask my writing network, and then I can proceed in confidence, whichever way I choose. This is the reason I read negative reviews of my work too. It makes me question a story element I included or a writing technique I employed. It makes me consider what I might do different next time. But I don’t dwell on the negative reviews – that would be giving questioning (really, our old nemesis doubt) too much power. Using doubt this way is like using a sharp blade. You have to wield it carefully so you don’t end up cutting yourself.
10) Get back to basics.
Writing is fun and makes me feel good. I like sharing what I write. I like learning. I like helping people. When the doubts start whispering a little too loudly in my ear, when my thoughts become too complex and mixed up, I remind myself of these simple things. They’re what I need, what I am. And when I focus on these simple core aspects of myself, my doubts may not disappear, but they cease to have power over me, and I can do what I need to do.
I write.
Writing in the Dark
I had doubts that I could write this book, and that if I did, it wouldn’t prove helpful to people. I wasn’t sure I was ready to write it – experienced enough, skilled enough. I thought about doing a book like this for years, but it took me a long time before I put a proposal together for my agent to send out. And then it took a while before I found a publisher. I pitched the book during Stokercon in Grand Rapids in 2019. I almost didn’t pitch it to Jennifer Barnes at Raw Dog Screaming Press. What would Raw Dog want with a book by me? They published really good work, literary work, not the kind stuff I wrote. I didn’t listen to my doubts, though. The words may be different each time, but the voice that speaks them is the same, and I’ve learned to ignore it (although sometimes it’s easier than others). Jennifer liked my pitch, and soon my book will be out in the world. Whenever I doubted myself during the writing of it, I focused on two things: how much I love horror and how much I wanted to help writers. I tried not to focus on myself, and thankfully, I succeeded for the most part. This book was one of the fastest and easiest for me to write. Do I have doubts about how it will be received? Sure. But I’ll always have doubts. And that’s okay. I’m diabetic, I’m nearsighted, and as I said earlier, I’m dysthymic. I don’t feel old yet, but my body is aging every day. I think of self-doubt as being in the same category as these things – stuff I have to deal with and live with, but stuff that doesn’t have to define me or stop me. Eliminate self-doubt? Impossible. Write with it?
Absolutely.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
As I’ve already mentioned, my how-to-write horror book Writing in the Dark will be out from Raw Dog Screaming Press’s nonfiction imprint Guide Dog Books on September 16th, and it’s available for preorder now. Only the print version is up at the moment, but eventually the ebook will be available as well. I’ll post an update when it is.
Whether you’re a writer or not, I hope you’ll help spread the word about Writing in the Dark. While I’d like to sell as many copies as possible for my wonderful publishers John Lawson and Jennifer Barnes at Raw Dog, my goal for this book isn’t to make money – it’s to help as many writers as I possibly can and to give something back to the genre of horror. I’ll deeply appreciate anything you can to do help make that happen.
Pre-Order Links for Writing in the Dark
Raw Dog Screaming Press:http://rawdogscreaming.com/books/writing-in-the-dark/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1947879197?pf_rd_r=CV72R8B4GT0MWK71FX4S&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writing-in-the-dark-tim-waggoner/1137057460?ean=9781947879195
Excerpts from Writing in the Dark will appear on Writer’s Digest’s website and in Suspense Magazine around the time the book is released. I’ll post links when they’re available.

So You Want to Write About Coronavirus . . .

To anyone reading this in the future: In 2020, a virus called Covid 19 spread throughout the world, and a lot of people caught it and died. People were advised to self-isolate to slow the spread, and most of us did, and it worked, and it was a really weird time. Sad, of course, and for some of us absolutely devastating. But the survivors learned things about ourselves that we didn’t expect, and the experience changed us forever . . .
It’s only natural for writers to want explore a worldwide lifechanging event like Covid 19. Writing about such events are good ways to process feelings and can be cathartic. Flannery O’Connor’s famous quote – “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say” – applies here. For so many of us, writing is thinking and feeling, and the bigger and more complex those thoughts and feelings are, the more we need to write about them.
But just as some people are expecting there to be a baby boom following our time of self-isolation, publishers are already fearing an onslaught of novels and stories about Covid 19. If you write about the pandemic just for yourself, with no intention of ever seeking publication, then it doesn’t matter what you write about Covid 19 or how you do it. So just let it rip! But one of the things I’ve learned after teaching English Composition classes for thirty years, is that there are shared human experiences that, while transformative for individuals, are common as dirt, and often as interesting to read about. Every mother has a birth story. Most people have accident, injury, or illness stories. The first time a person experiences death, loses their virginity, falls in love . . . Of course, a talented writer can make any subject into an enthralling piece of literature, but how many novels do you think publishers want to bring out each year exploring the same basic concept and theme, even if each writer has done so brilliantly? How many of those stories will readers want to read? Not a lot.
So if you feel compelled to explore your experiences during this time in your writing, and you want to try to get the resulting work published, considered listening to Emily Dickson’s advice from one of her poems: “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.” Don’t write an essay detailing how your hair got long while you self-isolated, played Animal Crossing for several months, and hoped to hell you and your loved ones didn’t get sick. That’s telling the truth straight-on. Instead, try to find other ways to write about your experience, ways that disguise the real subject while at the same time digging into the actual emotional truth.
The following areas are can be explored in any genre: horror, fantasy, mystery, romance, mainstream, literary, thriller . . . You can interpret them through any lens, but no matter how you tell your story, your pandemic experience will be the seed from which your work grows.
First off, don’t write your version of The Stand, or The Andromeda Strain, or Outbreak, or . . .This is the first thing writers are going to try to do to disguise that they’re really writing about their own pandemic experience. There will be an absolute glut of pandemic books hitting editors’ and agents’ inboxes within the next year or two. No matter what you do, a disease story will still be a disease story, and everyone and their cousin will be writing one.
On the other hand . . .You could find an analogue for a virus. (Not a zombie plague, though, unless you can come up with a really original twist.) Vampire plague, werewolf plague, a violence plague (ala The Crazies). . . Your analogue could be an ideology or a false belief that spreads and causes damage. Any type of contagion analogue could work.
Fear of deathYou can write about this on a small scale: an individual fearing for his or her life or the life of a loved one. Or you can write about it on a larger scale: a threat of death to a family, a group of people, a town, a region, a country, the whole damn species . . . The threat doesn’t have to come from disease. It can come from anything. An alien invasion. A rogue asteroid heading for Earth. Mutant cockroaches. You name it. You can write about what an individual facing death might do, as in Breaking Bad, or how humanity will behave when they know the world’s coming to an end, as in Bryan Smith’s extreme horror novel Last Day or the Seth Rogan-starring comedy This is the End.
Fear of strangersPeople fear catching Covid 19 from others, so write about the fear of the other. The classic Twilight Zone episode The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. The 1981 film The Wave, about a high school teacher creating a real-life “Movement” to teach his students how Nazi Germany happened. Don’t forget the racist reactions some have had – and are still having – to Asian people during the pandemic, either. Issues of racism, persecution, scapegoating . . . all of these can be themes to explore without you ever having to mention a disease.
Fear of doctors/medicine/hospitalsNo one wants to get sick or injured, and doctors are not only the bearers of bad news – I’m afraid you have hypertension – they often cause discomfort and pain while treating us. Just relax. This’ll all be over in a few minutes . . . Medicines that have rough side-effects, painful surgeries with complications . . . Medical fears and anxieties are fertile ground for fiction.
Fear that you’ll be unable to save a lifeThink how overworked and stressed-out medical staff feel knowing that no matter how hard they try, they can’t save everyone, and may in the end be overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients. Can you find a way to base a story on this fear, one that doesn’t take place in a hospital? I’d argue Sheriff Brody in Jaws feels this pressure. The same for the American President in Fail Safe.
Fear of not being supportedMedical professionals aren’t being supported by our government in America and feel lost and abandoned. Again, can you find a way to draw on that emotion to write a story without using disease or medicine? What about how an individual feels knowing they’re not supported by family, friends, their partner. . . ?
SurvivalWrite a survival story. (Avoid zombies.) Open Water. The Gray. Deliverance. Alive. Cujo. No disease in any of those stories, but the struggle to survive is front and center. The classic Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Breakdown,” in which Joseph Cotton plays a man paralyzed and seemingly dead after a car accident. He struggles to get someone, anyone, to notice he’s still alive before he’s taken to the coroner for an autopsy. Jack London’s famous short story “To Build a Fire.” Someone trying to survive a soul-crushing job or an abusive relationship. In many ways, survival is the ultimate story of our species, which is why it’s such a rich theme for writers.
Fear of running outOf supplies (toilet paper, anyone?). Necessities: food, water, money, a place to live . . . Any or all of these things can be threatened by circumstances other than disease. Vampires that fear running out of blood. Angels who fear running out of good souls for Heaven. The days become shorter – 24 hours becomes 20, then 14, then nine – as the universe literally runs out of time. The fear of not having enough – whatever enoughmeans to your characters – and what people are driven to do by this fear, can make for enthralling fiction.
Isolation and SeparationBird Box. Castaway. The Shawshank Redemption. Cabin Fever. Buried. Room. Silent Running. The Shining. The Lighthouse. The Breakfast Club. The Martian. Cube (and its sequels). It Comes at Night. Gravity (also a survival story). All of these movies deal with one of humanity’s worst fears – being alone (or nearly so) and being cut off from others. Sure, some of us are misanthropes who prefer our own company, but in general, humanity is a herd animal, and we suffer when we’re too long apart from others. There are many ways to tell stories of isolation and separation as there are people.
Dying aloneOne of the worst parts of Covid 19 is how many patients must suffer – and sometimes die – alone, quarantined from friends and relatives. This is the ultimate in isolation and separation, I think, and it’s such a strong fear that I think it deserves its own category. Choose a different situation than a deadly disease for your character and tell the story of their facing the ultimate human experience on their own (which is perhaps all our fates in the end, regardless of how and when we die).
Shutdown/Breakdown of societyThere’s large-scale systemic breakdown of countries, but states, cities, and families are all societies. A workplace can be a society. Same with a family. What happens when the system – whatever its nature and size – starts to show stress, break under the pressure, and shutdown in whole or in part? Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, Children of Men,The Handmaid’s Tale . . .
Empty worldThere have been a lot of the Earth is empty (or mostly empty) stories. The Quiet Earth is one of my favorites. The Langoliers is another. So is A Vanishing on 7th Street. If you can find a way to give this trope your own unique spin, it could work well for you to write about how empty our streets and cities seem right now. Or you could write about how empty your house or apartment feels.
Untrustworthy, cold, calculating, incompetent, evil leadersI think this one is self-explanatory, but the leaders in your story don’t have to be world leaders. They can be a boss, the head of a family, the dominant partner in a relationship . . .
How people behave in a crisisDo people turn toward each other or against each other? Do they work together or go it alone? Do they play it safe or take a risk? Do they calmly and rationally debate the best way to handle it? Do they argue? Come to blows? Do they continue to abide by cultural norms and societal rules, or is it Mad Max land? You can explore these ideas through any kind of crisis: a natural disaster, a war, a large-scale accident, an economic crisis, a familial crisis, a hostage situation, a home invasion,  kaiju attack . . .
Trying to live daily life/find a new normalOne of my settings that I’ve revisited for stories is the World After. I first wrote about it in my novella The Last Mile. The premise is that the Masters (basically ancient, all-powerful Lovecraftian gods) have returned to reclaim the Earth and are now its new rulers. The few human survivors find ways to adapt to and survive in the insane hellscape their world has become. My theme in these stories is that no matter how bad things get, humans will find ways to adapt, ways that might once have been unthinkable, but which – like it or not – are necessary. We’ve all been striving to adapt and create a new normal in the wake of Covid 19, but that’s what we’ve done throughout our history. It’s a quality that you can explore in all kinds of stories, not just ones about pandemics. And trying to distract/entertain/teach/manage children during Covid 19 is something that parents have had to do during times of great change and societal upheaval, which adds a different wrinkle to the theme of adaption.
Trying to maintain mental healthThe world is far more aware of the importance of maintaining mental health than at any other point in history, and people are working to take care of themselves and their families both physically and mentally during self-isolation. You can explore all kinds ways characters deal with normal mental-health challenges, but you can explore more uncommon – and interesting ones. How does the crew on a generation spaceship maintain their mental health? How would a superhero deal with PTSD after failing to save someone’s life, or maybe the lives of many someones? What sort of mental and emotional challenges would a psychic medium who regularly sees and interacts with dead people have to deal with? Think Larry Talbot, the tortured Wolf Man who suffers from guilt over the murders his fur-covered alter ego commits. The living vampire Morbius, who is driven to feed by bloodlust and then regrets his actions afterwards. How do characters like these keep going? How do they hold onto some shred of humanity? Or is it even possible to do so? Think about all the shit adventure characters go through. The various Star Trek crews, the different incarnations of the Doctor . . . it’s a wonder they’re not all locked away in mental institutions somewhere.
What’s the emotional reality of YOUR pandemic experience?If you really want – or need – to write about your individual experience during these difficult times, ask yourself what that experience is, and write about it. What fears have you had? What mental and emotional challenges? Make a list, and then go through it and consider how could view the items on that list through different lenses, how you could tell them slant. Then start writing.And we all know that writing is one of the cheapest forms of therapy, right? And sharing our stories is a positive community-building act, whether we submit them for publication, post them on our blogs, share them with friends and family, or just go back some day – when all of this is long over – reread our words, and remember.
FREE STORIES!
Want some free stories to read/listen to during self-isolation? I’ve got you covered.
I have several stories available to listen to at Tales to Terrify:
·         My Bram Stoker-nominated story “A Touch of Madness”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-to-terrify-427-gwendolyn-kiste-tim-waggoner/id492711030?i=1000470370767·        “Do No Harm”: https://talestoterrify.com/episodes/tales-to-terrify-no-39-tim-waggoner/·        “Long Way Home”: https://talestoterrify.com/episodes/tales-to-terrify-no-14-tim-waggoner/·        “Portrait of a Horror Writer”: https://www.spreaker.com/user/9319595/tales-to-terrify-show-no-106-tim-waggone·        “Picking Up Courtney”: https://www.mixcloud.com/talestoterrify/tales-to-terrify-no-129-dowker-waggoner/·        “Do No Harm”: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-tales-to-terrify-30961232/episode/tales-to-terrify-no-39-tim-32909543/
I also have several stories posted on my website:
Text: “Picking Up Courtney,” “Met a Pilgrim Shadow,” “Portrait of a Horror Writer.”
Audio: (read by Julia Morgan): “Water’s Edge,” “Foundling,” “Hungry Man.” (All Lovecraftian stories)
http://timwaggoner.com/stories.htm
Free Story Collection: My third short story collection, Bone Whispers, is currently out of print. If you email me at twaggon1@msn.com, I’ll send you a free PDF of the collection.

Writing During Difficult Times

Writing isn’t always easy at the best of times, and I think you’ll agree with me that what the world is going through right now with the Covid 19 pandemic doesn’t even come closeto the best of times. Most of us have day jobs or, if we’re full-time freelancers, we cobble together a living from different types of writing and writing-adjacent activities. We’re used to having to squeeze in our creative writing when we can, and we give it what energy we can muster.
But writing is even harder during times of great stress. A pandemic – with its health and economic effects – is obviously one of these times. But are there are more than enough personal stresses that we must confront in our lives. Illnesses, divorces, troubles at work, problems with our children, difficulty paying bills . . . It’s not a stretch to say we’re always dealing with stress of one kind or another in life, and while some creative people may thrive in the midst of stress, many of us – maybe most – find stress to be a creativity-killer.
So if you’re having trouble writing during quarantine (or any other stressful time in your life), here are some ideas that might help you get the words flowing again.
Before I continue, I should say that I’m well aware that I have it much easier right now than a lot of people. I’m an English professor at a community college in my day job. I’m full-time and tenured. My college closed down several weeks ago (like so many schools) and the faculty are working from home, teaching remotely. I’m still getting paid my regular salary (with its attendant health benefits), and there’s no reason for me to worry financially. Even so, my wife and I have some money saved up for emergencies. Not a ton, but some. My wife is great at managing money – me, not so much – and we have very little debt beyond house and car payments. We have a home to live in, and we have no reason to think we can’t continue paying the mortgage until things return to normal (or return to a new normal, whatever that might look like). I’ve also been writing and publishing for a long time, and I’ve had a lot of experience writing through hard times in my life – death of family members, my divorce, struggles with depression and anxiety . . . That experience is helping me keep writing now.
Plus, while we haven’t been officially tested, our family doctor thinks my wife and I had Covid 19 already. For me, it was like a medium-bad flu. It was more serious for my wife. She has asthma and other health issues. But we’ve both recovered, and we’re relatively confident that we’re going to make it through the next few months okay.
I don’t pretend that I know what your life is like right now and what you’re dealing with. It’s easy for me to give advice when I’m doing okay. I know that. But I hope some of what I offer might be of help to you.
And let me say this: you don’thave to write. You’re probably under a shitload of stress right now, and you don’t need to add more by thinking that if you’re sheltering at home you should be producing a ton of work. It’s okay not to write for a while. When things are better, you’ll write again. However, if you want to write during these trying times – if you find writing a good coping mechanism/release/escape – read on.
      Don’t tell yourself you have to produce a specific amount. If you decide you should write five pages a day, every day, and you don’t make this quota, you’ll feel like a failure and get down on yourself. Mental and creative energy is hard to sustain during extended stressful periods. If you write ten pages one day, two pages the next, and none for the next five days, that’s okay.       Write when you can. You might not be able to follow a set schedule for one reason or another. If that’s the case, fit writing in when you can. Try to write something between the time you wake up in the morning and the time you go to sleep for the night. However much it is, whenever you produce it, if you get it done before your head hits the pillow, that’s all that matters.       Write in short bits of time throughout the day. If you find it hard to concentrate for any length of time, write for five or ten minutes, then go do something else. Come back later and do another five or ten. Repeat this as many times during the day as you can manage. You can also set yourself a schedule: write ten minutes every hour (or every two hours or three hours). Set an alarm to help remind you.       Write small stuff. Write flash fiction or poems. Write one paragraph, one sentence. Writing small can not only relieve the pressure to produce a lot of work in one session, it’s easier when you can only concentrate for short periods as well.       Write something that’s not for publication.Forget the markets. Write something for the sake of writing it. Write something that’s just for you. Write something fun. Maybe it’ll turn out to be something you’ll polish and submit to a market later, maybe not. All that matters is that you’re feeding your creative self.       Write for (and maybe with) your family and friends. Connecting to our loves ones during difficult times can make all the difference in how we get through those times. If you have kids and they’re home all day, write a story for them. Write a play for them to act out. Write stuff with them. Collaborate on a story with a friend. Do a round-robin story with a group of friends.       Keep a quarantine journal. If all you can focus on is Covid 19, then write about it. Write about your thoughts, fears, hopes . . . If this is all you write, that’s okay. You’re still writing. But if you get your feelings out in your journal – especially if you write it earlier in the day – you might clear enough mental and emotional space in your head to write your creative work later.       Write to your new biorhythm. If your daily schedule has changed, your biorhythm might have too. Maybe you used to write at night before bed, but now you can’t. Try writing first thing in the morning. Or if mornings used to work for you, try nights. When do you feel you have the least stress during the day? Try writing then.       Try something new. The old saying “A change is as good as rest” applies here. If you normally write fantasy, try writing mystery. If you normally write fiction, try nonfiction or poetry. Write song lyrics. Write a script. The novelty of trying something new might give you fresh creative energy. And don’t worry about how good or publishable this new stuff might be. Just write it. Use it as therapy. Have fun with it. Learn from it.        Write outside. I’m not big outdoor person, but my wife is. She needs to be outside every day, even if she just goes into our backyard and putters in the garden. If you find yourself getting depressed during quarantine (and unable to write), maybe you should try writing outside and see if that helps. If nothing else, it’ll probably be good for your soul.

Whatever you do, don’t put pressure on yourself to be anything than other than who you are at any given moment, and don’t put pressure on yourself to work more than you can at any given moment. Be good to yourself. Take care of yourself. The writing will follow when it follows.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
The Forever House Released



My new horror/dark fantasy novel from Flame Tree Press came out on March 26th! I’m extremely pleased at the response the book has gotten so far. Here’s a sample:
“The horrors inside the Eldred house are spectacularly realized . . . Waggoner’s tale delivers some solid scares.” – Publishers Weekly
“By and large, The Forever Houseworks on multiple levels. It is a meticulous character study, a well-written social commentary without becoming overtly heavy-handed, and ultimately, a terrifying horror novel filled with creatures out of nightmare that will stay with you long after its astonishingly semi-hopeful yet dread-inducing ending.” – iHorror
“Fast-paced, hair-raising, and with a twist ending with enough spin to make you rethink who the real monsters are, The Forever House is the sort of phantasmagorical terror that keeps you reading through gore, grit, and grime until the very end.” – Seven Jane
Here’s a synopsis:
In Rockridge, Ohio, a sinister family moves into a sleepy cul de sac. The Eldreds feed on the negative emotions of humans, creating nightmarish realms within their house to entrap their prey. Neighbors are lured into the Eldreds’ home and faced with challenges designed to heighten their darkest emotions so their inhuman captors can feed and feed well. If the humans are to have any hope of survival, they’ll have to learn to overcome their prejudices and resentments toward one another and work together. But which will prove more deadly in the end, the Eldred . . . or each other?
You can order all three versions – hardback, trade paperback, and ebook – at the Flame Tree Press website here: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/The-Forever-House-ISBN-9781787583184.html
You can order from Amazon here:
Trade Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/178758318X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner+forever+house&qid=1583455298&sr=8-1
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787583201/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1583455298&sr=8-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B08667Y7MC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1585676025&s=books&sr=1-1
Anathemas: Warhammer Horror



The Black Library has started publishing horror fiction set in their Warhammer universes. I’ve got a Warhammer 40K story called “Skin Man” in their latest horror anthology Anathemas. Check it out!
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Anathemas-Warhammer-Horror-David-Annandale/dp/1789990505/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585703443&sr=1-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Anathemas-Warhammer-Horror-Justin-Hill-ebook/dp/B084YPPGJX/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=anathemas+tim+waggoner&qid=1585703443&s=books&sr=1-1
Newsletter
I send out a newsletter every month or so with information about new releases and writing tips. Most of the time I try to present different tips than I do here on the blog. If you’re interested in subscribing, you can do so here: http://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm

Mix it Up! Handling Diversity in Your Fiction

Several days ago on Twitter, Stephen King made this tweet about diversity (in response to the discussion about the recent Oscar nominations’ lack of diversity): “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.” This was the second part of a message about the awards, and a couple hours later, King followed it up with a couple more tweets to clarify his feelings about diversity (he said he’s for it, by the way). The tweet – as you might imagine – engendered quite a number of responses. Some people were disappointed that someone with King’s platform would post such a message. Others came to his defense and said the tweet was taken out of context. You can go check out King’s tweets and judge for yourself. All the responses to King’s tweet that I read got me thinking about how I handle diversity in my own writing. I thought this might make a good topic for a blog post, so here we are.
First off, individual writers have to make their own decisions about how to handle diversity in their work. I believe it’s important to strive for diversity in one’s fiction, and I have a host of reasons for that belief. But if you dismiss the idea of including diversity in your writing as mere “virtue signaling” or pandering to an audience for political reasons, let me offer some – for lack of better term – self-focusedreasons to consider adding diversity in your fiction.
1) We live in a diverse world. Adding diversity to your story makes it seem more real. This is called verisimilitude, and it’ll make your work better. The better your work is, the greater chance it will sell. If it sells, you’ll reach more readers and hopefully make some money.
2) Readers aren’t homogenous. They’re diverse in all kind of ways, and diversity in fiction is attractive to them. Because of this, they’ll be more interested in buying and reading your work. If they buy your work, you’ll reach more readers and hopefully make some money.
Whether you believe that representation matters and adding diversity to your work will help make the world a better place, or if you’re only interested about advancing your own career (or some combination of both), here are some tips for dealing with diversity in your fiction.
Should you write about people who aren’t like you?
“Write what you know” comes into play here. If you’re a man, don’t write from the point of view of a woman. If you’re not deaf, don’t write from the point of view of a deaf person, etc. The idea is that no matter what you do – how much research, how much you try to use your imagination and empathy – you will never be able to be anyone other than yourself. You won’t be able to write from earned experience. You’ll also be co-opting the stories of people who do have earned experience. Your story about a person of Maori descent might take away room for a story written by someone who actually is of Maori descent. Basically, you should stay in your lane and write from the point of view of people more or less like you, from more or less the same area, with more or less the same basic qualities and background when it comes to race/gender/sexuality, etc. Lots of writers do this and do an excellent job.
I understand the basic idea of staying in your lane when it comes to diversity in fiction, and to a certain extent, I support it. I think writers shouldn’t try to tell a story meant to illuminate important aspects of another group’s experience. Only a person who was raised in and still is steeped in a culture/race/gender/etc. can ever know it well enough to write in-depth fiction exploring the issues that group faces. No amount of research can ever give you as authoritative an experience as someone who actually belongs a group other than your own, and you will never do as good a job as a writer from that group would at telling those stories. That said, I think if your story isn’t about the African-American experience or the gay experience, or the fill-in-the-blank experience, you can write from the point of view of a character unlike yourself if their racial/gender/cultural identity isn’t central to the story. Men in Black is a good example. Agents J and K could be people of any race, gender, or sexuality without having an appreciable impact on the film’s plot. (One does need to be older than the other, though.) Some character bits, such as J’s jokes which arise from his race would change, but the characters’ essential personalities and how they solve problems would remain the same. The story isn’t about J being black and K being white. It’s about the weird aspects of their job and saving the world. I’m perfectly comfortable writing from the point of view of someone with a different racial/ethnic/gender/sexual orientation background than myself in this circumstance. I focus on the character’s personality, and while their backgrounds will affect the expression of their character to a certain extent, I don’t attempt to delve very deep into their race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. And if I do go a little deeper than usual, it’s because I have close relationships with people from those backgrounds, and I’m comfortable asking them if I misrepresented the group they belong to (or rather one of their groups, since we all belong to multiple ones).
If you’re absolutely determined to write an incisive character and cultural study of someone from  a group different than yourself, go ahead. Roll the dice and see how readers respond. But don’t be surprised if they want to know why a middle-aged white guy born in 1964 and who’s lived in Ohio most of his life (to use myself as an example) thinks he has any special insight into what the life of a black lesbian teenager from Los Angeles in 2020 is like.
Do a diversity self-inventory
Exploring your attitudes towards race, religion, gender, sexuality, etc. – those you had as a child, as a teen, as an adult – can help give you more insight into how to deal with diversity in your fiction. Think back over how you were raised to view people of other backgrounds – race, religion, sexuality, gender expression, physical and mental capabilities, political beliefs . . . How did your parents view people of other backgrounds? How did people in your community? In your school? In your peer group? How did your views change (if they did) as you grew older? What prejudices and fears do you have about people from other backgrounds? How much do you know about people of other backgrounds? What would you like to know that you don’t? Be honest with yourself, even if it’s painful (maybe especially if it is). If you write your responses down, no one else ever has to see them. Taking such a self-inventory can reveal areas of bias, prejudice, confusion, fears, and misinformation you might have toward or about people from different backgrounds. Such an inventory can reveal areas where you need to educate yourself. Get to know people from different backgrounds, read about their experiences in books, articles, blogs, and on social media. If you ask direct questions of people from different backgrounds, do so respectfully and remember it’s no one else’s responsibility to educate you about diversity issues. If someone does you the courtesy of answering your questions, that’s great, but no one owes you answers.
A diversity self-inventory can also reveal areas that you feel passionate about. Say you grew up in an environment of toxic masculinity or with a parent who had bipolar disorder. Maybe you had to deal with being in an abusive relationship at some point in your life. Maybe you have a sibling who struggles with addiction issues. If any diversity issues are important to you, for whatever reason, your experience with and strong feelings about them can fuel some powerful fiction.
Some elements of my own diversity inventory: I’m a cis-het white male, born in 1964, who grew up in a small town in Southwest Ohio. Prejudice against African-Americans, sexism, homophobia, and ableism were common. There was prejudice against Catholics (though this was milder than the other issues). Prejudice against Jews was rare. I never heard anything negative about Hispanics or Asians (to the point where it never occurred to me that some people considered them separate races from whites). No one ever said anything about Muslims one way or the other. Trans people weren’t highly visible yet, so no one said anything about them, and the concepts of gender expression and fluidity were unknown. Bigamy was the closest anyone ever came to the concept of polyamory, and of course, it was viewed negatively. Mental illness was a stigma and rarely discussed. Antidepressants weren’t a thing yet. Autism, learning disabilities, ADD, etc. weren’t concepts people discussed. Hyperactivity was, though. Politically, most people were Republicans, but not like today’s extreme version. Democrats were primarily centrists. Communism was viewed negatively, and no one ever said the word socialism. Religiously speaking, faith was balanced with other aspects of life, and rigid Christian evangelism wasn’t a factor. General anti-intellectualism existed, but it was relatively mild. (This was my experience of what my town was like regarding issues of diversity. The reality may have been different in many respects, perhaps drastically so.)
That’s my background regarding diversity up until I graduated high school. I didn’t possess all the same views that people in my town generally had, but I couldn’t help but be affected by them to one degree or another. I could go on and describe how my attitudes toward people from different backgrounds evolved as I went to college, then grad school, got married, became a college professor, then a father, and so on, but you get the idea. This kind of introspection can not only make you a better person, but also help you learn to deal with diversity in your writing more effectively.
Don’t preach
When it comes to exploring diversity issues in your writing, do so through story and character, not in what amounts to personal rants. It’ll only turn readers off. Even if readers agree with your point of view 100 percent, they want to experience a story, not a lecture. And for godsakes, don’t mansplain, whitesplain, het-splain, or do splaining of any kind. Don’t tell people from backgrounds different from yours how they should view their experiences and how they should behave. In other words, don’t be an asshole.
Should you draw attention to diversity?
Some people advocate not mentioning characters’ race, sexuality, and other characteristics unless they are pertinent to the story. If it doesn’t matter to the story if a character is white, black, straight, gay, bi, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc., why bring it up? Not only does doing so “other” characters by labeling them, telling readers too much about a character (even down to hair and eye color) can make it more difficult for them to picture characters in whichever way they wish. I understand this point of view, but I don’t share it. We were discussing diversity issues in one of my creative writing classes the other day, and an African-American student said that if a character’s race isn’t mentioned in a story, she always views that character as white since whiteness is the assumed default in America, and that’s what she’s been exposed to all her life. Plus, in real life, there are certain basic aspects of people’s backgrounds we can see by their appearance – basic racial background, basic gender background. We can’t – and shouldn’t – make any detailed assumptions about people based on physical appearance, but we do get some surface information. So not indicating race in our fiction seems unrealistic. If we do so, we should also describe white people as white and not assume everyone knows they’re white just because that’s been the expected default in America. I’m terrible about this. It’s so automatic for me to assume the default of whiteness that I often forget to describe a character as white even when I describe others specially as African-American or Asian. It’s something I need to keep working on.
Indicate background through names
One easy way to add diversity to your fiction is to use names – especially surnames – that indicate racial/ethnic/cultural background. If a character has a last name of Alvarez or Nguyen, you don’t have to specifically mention their race. Male and female first names can indicate gender. I think it’s harder to indicate that a character is African-American through names alone, and there’s no way to indicate sexuality through names. But while some diversity can be accomplished through names, athere’s no way a name can render a detailed background of a character.
Use random name and character generators
There are lots of sites on the Internet where you can randomly generate characters’ names and other characteristics such as race, sexuality, religion, etc. In the real world, when you leave your home, you never know who you might meet during the course of your day. Random name and character generators can reflect this. Just as we don’t choose the characteristics of real people we meet, we can let chance choose characteristics of our fictional people. This can also help keep you from defaulting to particular characteristics such as gender, race, sexuality, etc. in the people you populate your stories with.
Do your research
If you are going to write about characters from different backgrounds than yours, do your research. Talk to people from that background, read articles and books written by people of that background, watch movies and videos dealing with that background written by and starring people from that background. Ask for advice on writing about this background on social media. You might get some negative responses, but if you’re sincere and respectful in how you ask your questions, people with earned experience will answer.
Get feedback
Not sure if you got details right when writing about someone from another background? Have someone from that background read your work (or at least pertinent passages from it) and tell you where you got it right, where you got it wrong, and how to do better.
Go for it and let the world decide whether or not you were successful
I alternate between male and female main characters in my projects. Always have. I include characters of various race, sexualities, and belief systems in my work, not only because I believe inclusion is important in general, but also because it simply reflects the reality of the world I live in. I don’t dive very deep into my character’s various backgrounds, though, as I don’t feel I have the earned experience to do a good job. I’m well aware that I might screw up and offend readers. I hope I don’t, but I believe in inclusion, representation, and diversity, and I intend to keep striving to reflect them in my work. If I make mistakes, I hope readers will let me know so I can do better in the future. And if I fuck-up big time and end up at the center of a social media shitstorm, that’s okay. I’m willing to take that risk.
These are my current thoughts on effective ways to deal with diversity in fiction. I’m sure they’ll evolve as I learn more. To that end, I’d love to hear how you approach diversity in your own work. Please feel free to share your thoughts – and some tips – in the comments.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
The Forever House
My next dark fantasy/horror novel, The Forever House, will be out in late March and is ready for pre-order. Reviews are starting to come in, and so far they’ve been good! You can order all three versions – hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook – at the Flame Tree Press site. The ebook isn’t available for pre-order at Amazon or B&N yet. I have no idea why. If you haven’t already read a synopsis of the book, I got you covered:
In Rockridge, Ohio, a sinister family moves into a sleepy cul de sac. The Eldreds feed on the negative emotions of humans, creating nightmarish realms within their house to entrap their prey. Neighbors are lured into the Eldreds’ home and faced with challenges designed to heighten their darkest emotions so their inhuman captors can feed and feed well. If the humans are to have any hope of survival, they’ll have to learn to overcome their prejudices and resentments toward one another and work together. But which will prove more deadly in the end, the Eldred . . . or each other?
Flame Tree Press: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/The-Forever-House-ISBN-9781787583207.html
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787583201/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=forever+house+waggoner&qid=1579207444&s=books&sr=1-1
Writing in the Dark (the book)
In November, I turned in the manuscript for my how-to-write-horror book, Writing in the Dark (named after my blog!), to my editors Jennifer Barnes and John Edward Lawson at Raw Dog Screaming Press. It should be out sometime in 2020, but I don’t have a definite release date yet. I’ll keep you posted.
Some Kind of Monster
This is a novella I wrote for Apex Publishing. It’s about woman investigating urban legends who finds some very unexpected truths behind them. I’ve gone over page proofs and I think it’ll be out in 2020 sometime, but I’m not sure. Again, I’ll keep you posted.
Your Turn to Suffer
This is my next dark fantasy/horror novel for Flame Tree Press. I turned it in to Don D’Auria in December. This one also may be out in late 2020, and one more time, I’ll keep you posted. Here’s a synopsis:
Lorelei Palumbo is harassed by a sinister group calling themselves The Cabal. They accuse her of having committed unspeakable crimes in the past, and now she must pay. The Cabal begins taking her life apart one piece at a time – her job, her health, the people she loves – and she must try to figure out what The Cabal thinks she’s done if she’s to have any hope of answering their charges and salvaging her life.

Let it Go

The other day I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a post from my friend Taylor Grant. Taylor wrote about how practicing non-attachment has worked for him in his life and career, so I decided to look into the concept some more. (You can check out Taylor and his work here: http://www.taylorgrant.com/). For years, I’d thought I basically understood the idea of non-attachment. I believed it was a Buddhist concept (which could also be applied to other religions, and probably to Jedi Knights as well) which describes how attachment to worldly things is the ultimate cause of suffering. I imagined that adherents to this belief needed to cut themselves off from the world and live like monks, without emotional attachments to anything, including other humans. But Taylor wrote about how many people (myself included) mistake the concept as calling for complete and total detachment from everything. It’s about working with intent, Taylor said (in other words, working toward a goal), but without having any attachment to (or expectation of) a specific result or outcome – and the reason for this is because you can’t reliably control or guarantee a specific result or outcome. If you don’t get the result you wanted – say, your novel wasn’t a bestseller and award-winner despite all your hard work and hopes – that leads to disappointment, which can metastasize into more negative emotions. Instead of being attached to a specific outcome, you need to be open to whatever happens, accepting and, if possible, appreciating that outcome. So your book wasn’t a bestseller and award-winner, but you wrote the book you wanted, you think it’s a good book, and you’ve received some emails from readers saying it changed their life. You focus on accepting the outcomes which did occur, not obsessing over the ones which didn’t.
I surfed the Web for a bit, reading some articles on non-attachment, and as I did, I came to realize that (assuming I understand the concept better now) I’ve been practicing it for a while in my life and career without knowing it. Yay me, right? Except I also realized I’ve been practicing it only in certain areas of my life and career, and not in others. And the areas in which I don’t practice it are the ones that – get ready for a shocker – I’m dissatisfied with, if not unhappy or downright miserable. I spent some time thinking about this, and after a while, I thought it would make a good blog topic – but only if I focused on the way non-attachment has (and hasn’t) worked in my career, and how you might make it work for you. (After all, the blog is called Writing in the Dark, not Overall Life Lessons from Some Random Asshole Named Tim in the Dark.)
First up – ways non-attachment works for me professionally, as both a writer and teacher of writing.
·         In teaching. I’ve taught college writing courses for thirty years, twenty of those years as a fulltime tenured professor. I teach composition as well as creative writing, and I was a faculty mentor in a low-residency MFA program for nine years. I learned a long time ago not to be overly concerned with how students perform in my classes. (The administration at my school, which like all school administrations, are focused on MEASURABLE OUTCOMES and SUCCESS RATES, and they would hate to hear me talk about non-attachment to results.) I don’t mean that I don’t care if my students succeed. I do everything I can to help make success possible for them. But I know I can’t control whether or not they succeed. I can’t make students work hard, I can’t make them want to learn, achieve, and grow. And it would be arrogant of me to believe that every student should share my definition of success. I want to help students succeed, but I’m not personally attached to their success. I try to be open to whatever outcomes occur with my students and appreciate them for what they are without letting my ego be affected one way or another. One student might be thrilled to get a final course grade of D because it’s the highest grade he or she’s ever received in a writing class. Another might get an A and demonstrate professional-level writing skills, and while they enjoy writing, it will never be a focus for them. These students got something they wanted from the class, and that’s what matters. My colleagues often speak of how calm I am, and while some of that is probably due to my basic nature as a person, I’m sure much of it has to do with my non-attachment to specific outcomes regarding my teaching.·         When I compose writing. I don’t worry about achieving specific outcomes when I write. I do have goals, of course. I want to express my ideas and thoughts as clearly as possible, I want them to be entertaining, and I try to make my writing the best it can be as I create it. I try to be open to whatever happens, though, and if new ideas pop up and I like them, I incorporate them. If what I wrote doesn’t seem to work, I delete it and try again. I remain in the moment while writing, and usually don’t do a lot of second guessing as I put words down on the page. I’m open to however the writing turns out. I don’t have preconceived notions of how it shouldturn out. I still have doubts, worries, concerns, and fears as I write, but I’ve learned to not turn up the volume on those voices. I do this by focusing on the story and only the story as I write. I enter into a kind of daydream, a sort of trance, or – and this goes with the blog topic – a kind of meditative state, and I remain there while I write. I might make a few changes as I go, simple things like rephrasing a sentence or, as I mentioned earlier, trying out a new idea to see what happens. “Let’s see what happens” could almost be my writing mantra.·         When I think (or don’t think) about my audience. This is especially helpful when I write tie-in novels. If I stopped to worry about what fans of properties like Supernatural or Alien might think of the novels I write about their beloved characters and worlds, I’d be paralyzed and never put down a single word. I know there is no way I can ever please all the fans, so I don’t try. I try to write the best Supernatural, Alien, or whatever novel I can, without being attached to a specific outcome – like a tie-in that all fans of the property will hail as a masterpiece. Expecting such an impossible outcome would not only be folly, I’m sure it would make me so self-conscious during the drafting process that, if I completed the book, it would be terrible. This non-attachment to outcomes also helps me write sequels to books. It prevents me from worrying too much about living up to the expectations that readers of the previous books might have.·         When I revise. Since I don’t have a specific expectation for how a novel or story will turn out, I don’t obsess over revision, constantly reworking material because it will never be good enough. And when I get editorial suggestions for revision, I may grumble at first, but ultimately my ego calms down, and I make them (as long as I agree with them, of course). Because I’m not attached to a specific idea of a Perfect Novel, I’m open to what the final product might become.·         When it comes to awards. I’ve only gotten better at this since I’ve won a couple for my writing and teaching. It’s a hell of a lot easier (at least for me) not to be attached to a specific outcome when I’ve already achieved a specific outcome. (Not that I don’t want to keep achieving it, of course. It just doesn’t feel like a driving need to me anymore).
Okay, those are the writing areas where I do non-attachment pretty well. Here are some areas where, to put it mildly, I could use a little improvement.
·         When it comes to the number of reviews I get on Amazon or GoodReads.When I have a new book come out, I check the book’s listing on Amazon and GoodReads obsessively for days, sometimes weeks, waiting for reviews to roll in. (No one ever seems to review anything on Barnes and Noble’s site, so I don’t concern myself with it much.) A lot of writers won’t look at reader reviews, but I always do. I want to see what readers thought of the book, see if it did what I hoped it would as a piece of art, see what I can learn that might help make me a better writer. I don’t care as much about the number of positive vs negative reviews, but I think that’s because I’ve been fortunate in that my books tend to get mostly positive reactions from readers. But I can never understand why one of my books might only get a few reviews while another will get three times as many. I expect my tie-in books to get more reviews because the properties have a large fanbase, but I don’t understand why a tie-in written about the same property by another author gets more reviews than one of mine. I sometimes check out self-published authors’ books, and many of them have a shitload of reviews, and I don’t know why. I know some authors used to buy reviews from various providers, but I’m under the impression Amazon has started cracking down on that practice. I’ve heard Amazon also removes reviews from people that authors are connected to on social media. And I’ve heard self-published writers can temporarily lower the price of a book in order to sell more and get more reviews. But even knowing these things, I still am disappointed when one of my books doesn’t get many reviews. It doesn’t eat me up, and I don’t let it get me too down, but I am definitely attached to a specific outcome here: achieving many reviews on Amazon and GoodReads. It’s an outcome I have absolutely no control over, and one I’ve been working on becoming less attached to even before reading Taylor’s post. Now I’m going to work even harder at it.·         When it comes to reviews by reviewers. I’ve published almost fifty novels along with seven collections of short stories. I’ve never had a book reviewed in Fangoria, only one reviewed in Rue Morgue (and that was Ghost Trackers, a book I wrote “with” the stars of the TV series Ghost Hunters on SyFy). I’ve had books reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly, but it’s been a while. I check these publications for reviews after one of my books is released, and I do Google searches to see if I can find reviews online. I’m looking to learn the same thing from these reviews as I am from readers’ reviews, but I’m also looking for something more: a check to see where I’m at in my career at that moment. Do I have enough of a “name” that my books are getting reviewed? Am I less of a “name” if they aren’t? What standing, if any, do I have in the field of horror? As with the lack of reader reviews, the lack of response by reviewers doesn’t depress me overmuch, but it is disappointing when it happens. I’m definitely attached to a specific outcome here: that my books will be widely reviewed (or at least more widely than they are now). And beyond hoping my publishers send out review copies and sending them out myself, there’s nothing I can do to make this outcome happen. I should be more accepting that a book will get the reviews it gets and move on to writing the next thing.·         When I see lists of writers. The Twenty Scariest Books of The Year! Fifteen Modern Masters of the Horror Novel! Lists like these pop up all the time, and I’m almost never on them. Although when someone starts a list topic like these on Facebook, sometimes someone is kind enough to mention me, but not always. Again, I look at lists like these as barometers of my career, and it’s always disappointing not to be on them. (The end-of-the-year best lists will start coming out any day, and I’m not looking forward to seeing those appear since my books are almost never on them.) Again, I’m attached to a specific outcome and disappointed when it doesn’t happen.·         When it comes to having a bigger, more impactful, more lucrative career. I had a therapist once tell me that I was “hell-bent for growth,” and I suppose I am. But while I can control my own growth as a person, I can’t control the growth of my career. I can work toward that growth, but specific results aren’t guaranteed. Larger advances. Other writers listing my work as an influence on their own. Movie and TV adaptations of my novels and stories. The lack of growth in my career – maybe plateauing would be a better word at this point in my life – is something that gnaws at me now and again. Focusing on my inner growth as a writer produces positive mental and emotional results for me. Focusing too much on the outer growth of my career, especially when I have very specific and uncontrollable benchmarks for measuring that growth? Not so much.·         When a work of mine I think is brilliant is ignored. This is a minor one for me, but sometimes I’ll write something which I think is really good, maybe something that achieves an artistic effect that I think is pretty special, and when I send it out into the world, all I hear are crickets. When this happens, it has a small impact on me, and I can move on. Maybe it’s because I’ve developed a thick skin from receiving so many rejections early in my career. I still get them now, just not as many and not as often. I don’t know. But writers being upset that the world doesn’t recognize our genius is definitely being too attached to a specific outcome.·         When I try to recapture, replicate, live up to, or surpass past successes. As I said earlier, I usually do okay with non-attachment when it comes to the process of writing. But after my novella The Men Upstairs was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, I was very conscious of trying to repeat that success – in terms of artistic quality, not in terms of expecting to be nominated for the Jackson Award again – when I wrote my novella Deep Like the River. I struggled writing it, fought to keep from being overly self-conscious during the process of creating it. I managed, and the result was one of the stories I’m most proud of. I thought it was so good that people would rave about it and that there was a good chance of it getting nominated for an award of somekind. Mostly crickets again. (Although I got some lovely blurbs from writers I admire, and that meant a lot to me.) I’ve tried to recreate past successes, attempting to create new versions of series the original publishers canceled and which I couldn’t find a new publisher for. So far, I haven’t succeeded with these reimagined series. Once again, I’m tied to a specific outcome when I attempt this, and once again, it’s one I can’t control.·         When I compare my work to someone else’s. I’m sure all writers do this, but whenever I read something, I can’t help comparing the writer’s techniques to mine, and I usually find mine wanting, even if that writer’s work is also inspiring to me and gives me ideas for techniques to attempt in my own stories later. I think “I could never write anything like this no matter how hard and how long I tried.” And every time I think this, I’m right. I can only produce my work, not someone else’s. Still, when I read something really, really good, it makes me think – even if only for a moment – that I should give up writing altogether. Learning by comparison is good. Faulting myself for not being able to produce the exact same kind of writing as another person isn’t.
So what does all this mean for me? Besides providing a list of specific areas for me to work on when it comes to non-attachment, writing this article has shown me that while I do fairly well at non-attachment to specific outcomes during the processof writing, I have some work to do when it comes to practicing non-attachment in the career aspects of writing. Again, non-attachment doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care about my career or work toward clear career goals. It means I shouldn’t be so attached to specific career outcomes. I need to learn to be more open to whatever outcomes might occur and learn to appreciate them for what they are, not feel bad because of what they aren’t.
Try practicing non-attachment in your writing, in both process and career aspects, and see what it does for you. It might not come to you easily or quickly. Remember, they call it practicefor a reason. Do your best, keep writing, keep learning, keep growing. And don’t check those goddamned Amazon reviews so often. (I’m looking at you, Waggoner.)
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
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Alien: Prototype Out Now~
My Alien novel for Titan Books, Alien: Prototype, came out this week. It’s available as a mass-market paperback, a trade paperback, an ebook, and an audiobook.
So far, reviewers seem to like it! Dread Central calls the book "An exciting new addition to the line-up, both for fans of previous books and those looking to discover this extended world.” And Amy Walker (aka Amazing Amy) says, "Waggoner... has managed to create one of the most interesting and uniquely creative variations of the Xenomorph I've ever seen... the perfect novel for any Alien fans."
If you’d like to purchase a copy of my latest magnum opus, here are some linky links:
Mass-Market Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789090911/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
Trade Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789092191/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B07PXZKC48/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner+alien&qid=1564019410&s=books&sr=1-1
Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-AlienTM-Book-7/dp/B07SBKPJW5/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
The Forever House is Up for Preorder!
The Forever House is due out in March. You can order it from Amazon (although the link for the ebook isn’t up yet.) You can order all the versions – hardback, paperback, and ebook – at the Flame Tree Press site. An audio version should be available eventually. Here’s a synopsis:In Rockridge, Ohio, a sinister family moves into a sleepy cul de sac. The Eldreds feed on the negative emotions of humans, creating nightmarish realms within their house to entrap their prey. Neighbors are lured into the Eldreds’ home and faced with challenges designed to heighten their darkest emotions so their inhuman captors can feed and feed well. If the humans are to have any hope of survival, they’ll have to learn to overcome their prejudices and resentments toward one another and work together. But which will prove more deadly in the end, the Eldreds . . . or each other?
Flame Tree Press (all versions)https://www.flametreepublishing.com/The-Forever-House-ISBN-9781787583207.html
AmazonHardback: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1787583201/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i31Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/178758318X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Blockbusting!

The other day I received an email from one of my newsletter subscribers (and if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, you can do so here: http://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm). The writer told me that she’s been dealing with writer’s block recently, so I promised her I’d write an article on the subject for my blog and send her a copy. I sat down and brainstormed ideas for an article, but after I had a list of topics to cover, I started thinking … Didn’t I already write a blog on writer’s block? So I logged onto Blogger, checked my blog, and sure enough, I’d written an article about writer’s block six months earlier. But when I read over the article, I saw that while some points overlapped between it and my newly created list of ideas, there were a lot of differences, too. I figured, what the hell? Why not do an updated article on writer’s block? So that’s what this is. I’ve included points from the original article so people won’t have to go back and read it (see how good I am to you?) along with a significant amount of new material. So here it is: Overcoming Writer’s Block 2.0!
WHY ARE YOU BLOCKED?
I think an important part of getting past writer’s block is to diagnose the reasons for it. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t understand it. There might be multiple reasons for being blocked, and there might be different reasons for it at different times, necessitating different strategies for dealing with it. So let’s figure this thing out.
Fear of failure?This one’s obvious. You’re afraid you’re going to screw up your story/book/poem/article, so rather than keep going and experience the pain of failure, you stop writing. But if you’re going to have a career as a writer (whatever shape that career takes), you need to accept that failure is part of the gig. Every piece of writing we do is, even if in only small ways, different from anything else we’ve written. There are new problems to solve each time – how to begin, what organization to use, what information to include, how to phrase that information, what tone to use, how long a piece should be, how to end it – and this means that in a very real sense, each piece of writing we do is an experiment. We try out different approaches and techniques and see what happens. And if a piece doesn’t work on any level, we toss it out and start again. More often, a piece just needs to be redrafted and revised until it does work. We have to accept that writing isn’t a product. It’s a process that results in a product. Accepting the process – accepting that you’re going to make wrong turns, go down blind alleys, need to back up and try a different route, maybe more than once – is a huge part of being a writer. You need to redefine failure. Producing a piece of writing (whether it’s an entire story of just a few paragraphs) that you ultimately decide to junk isn’t failure. It’s part of the process. It’s normal. It’s not failure. It’s how stories/poems/articles are made. The process isn’t always fun or comfortable, but that’s okay. As the saying goes, the only way out is through. Accept and honor the process and don’t disengage from it. Keep writing.
Fear of success?This one sounds like a joke at first. Who would ever be afraid of succeeding? Isn’t success what everyone wants? But success brings a whole new set of problems. What if you don’t succeed next time? What if you don’t succeed ever again? What if you produce another piece and it’s not as good? What if nothing you produce is ever that good again? Success brings expectation – from others and from yourself – and that brings pressure. And pressure causes second-guessing, and second-guessing causes creative paralysis. A number of years ago at a con, writer Gary A. Braunbeck, writer and editor Charles Coleman Finley, and I were speaking to a group of aspiring writers. One of the writers asked when we knew we’d made the transition from trying to produce professional-level work to actually doing it. Without conferring ahead of time, Gary, Charlie, and I told the same story. Each of us was working on a short story, and each of us got a point when we suddenly realized it was the best thing we’d written so far. Each of us stopped writing at that point because we feared we were going to screw it up, but eventually each of us sat down to finish our stories. The story I wrote was “Mr. Punch.” It became my first professional sale, and Ellen Datlow selected it for an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Gary, Charlie, and I felt the fear of success, that our story was a fragile, tenuous thing and, if we weren’t extremely careful, it would pop like a soap bubble and disappear forever. But in the end, we kept going. We resumed the process. Staying in the process – focusing on it and not our fears – is the most important thing any of us can do to prevent writer’s block.
Fear your writing isn’t good enough?There are a couple ways to look at this fear. One is to realize that when you feel this way, you’re again focusing on the product, not the process. Until you complete the process, there isno product. A story can’t be “good” or “bad” if it doesn’t exist. Another way to look at it is to accept that your writing will never be good enough. Perfection is a goal that’s forever out of our reach. There’s an old saying that no piece of writing is ever finished, just abandoned, and there’s some truth to that. A piece of writing can always be improved, but if you continually revise it seeking some ultimate level of perfection, you’ll be working on it forever. I had friend who outlined a fantasy series set in medieval Russia. He even traveled to Russia to research it. When he returned home, he wrote chapter one. Then he rewrote chapter one. Then he rewrote it again. And again. And again. He was never able to get past chapter one because he never thought it was good enough to move on to chapter two. Don’t worry about good enough. Make each piece of writing the best you can and try to do even better with the next piece. Again, focus on the process, not the product.
Fear of how people will respond to your writing?Will unhappy readers leave one-star reviews on Amazon? Will they send you emails to tell you that your writing sucks? Will friends, family, and coworkers read your twisted horror story and think you’re a serial killer in the making, or will they read a sex scene you wrote and start wondering what kind of kink you’re into? (You usually don’t have to worry about these kind of reactions, though. People won’t change their reading habits just because they know and love you. Even if they’re supportive of your writing, most will never read a single word you produce.) Worrying about reader response while you’re in the process of writing – or worse, before you even begin – can hobble you big time. Sure, you want to be aware of your audience when producing a piece of writing, but not overly aware, not when it takes the focus off the writing itself. I’ve written a number of tie-in novels based on the TV show Supernatural. The series has a crazy huge fandom, and if I let myself worry about trying please every single person who loves the show when I wrote an adventure of Sam and Dean Winchester’s, I’d never write a single word. I focus on the characters and telling their story. You should, too.
Fear that people won’t response at all?This outcome is far more likely than people having a bad reaction to anything you write. You produce a story, poem, or novel, and after it’s published, all you hear is the sound of crickets. And maybe you don’t even hear that. You feel like you might as well have chucked the goddamned thing down a hole for all the effect it had on the world. I’ve been there. Every writer has. I once saw a well-known writer of literary horror who, after his latest collection was released, post this on Facebook: I feel like I wrote an invisible book. I can’t think of any better way to express the feeling when your work seems to elicit no response whatsoever from readers. Hell, it feels like no one’s read the damned thing at all. It’s hard to keep writing when you feel like what you’re creating won’t matter to anyone, but it’s another case of focusing on the product instead of the process. Focus on the process during the writing; focus on the product when it comes time to market your work.
Imposter syndrome?This is so common – the fear that you really aren’t a writer, certainly not a good one, and that any moment the world is going to find out what a fraud you really are. Imposter syndrome happens because we have an unrealistic view of what it means to be a professional writer. Professionals tend not to talk about their fears and worries in public, so we don’t know they have them. They seem poised, confident, relaxed, brilliant, and untroubled. This is bullshit. They’re just like everyone else, and they have all the same neuroses you do. Professionals are simply more practiced at not letting their fears stop them. Instead of holding yourself up to some imaginary – and in all likelihood unattainable – standard of what a Writer with a capital W is, focus on being yourself, whoever that is, whenever that is. Don’t worry about who you’re not. You can’t be anyone else.
Fear you won’t be able to do justice to what you imagine?Often when I finish a story or novel, I think, How close didn’t I get this time? No matter how I initially envision a piece of writing, it always comes out different. Sometimes it’s better, but most times I feel I didn’t quite manage to capture what I was hoping to in a given piece of writing. This is not a fun feeling, and if I focused on it too much, I’d start wondering what the point of writing anything is if I can never achieve what I’d hoped to, and then I’d probably quit writing altogether. (As it is, I contemplate quitting all the time anyway. I do my best not to pay attention to myself when I get like this. It’s just part of the emotional ups and downs of being an artist.)  It’s the striving toward a goal that ends up producing a finished piece of writing I can sell. If your goal is perfection, you’ll never reach it because there is no such thing. No two people could agree on a single standard that rises to the level of perfection. It’s the striving – again, the process– that produces art.
Fear you won’t measure up to The Greats?I saw a lot of this in grad school. I was an English major (big surprise), and almost all of us wanted to write, but most didn’t try. They knew they could never be Faulker or Fitzgerald or Plath or Austen or whoever it was they idolized, so why bother trying? I tried to explain to my fellow students that the writers we studied were the fabulous freaks of literature. In the zoo of writing, they were the rare, exotic animals. But in the classroom, they were treated as normal, as if they were the only exemplars of great writing. But each of the Greats (however you define them), produced such highly individualized an often idiosyncratic work that we can never copy them even if we wanted to. We will eternally fall short if we insist on comparing ourselves to any other writers, especially ones our culture deems one of the Greats. Comparing our work to that of others can be a useful learning tool, but not when we believe we can never measure up to what others produce. Focus on writing your work your way. Don’t compare yourself to other writers in destructive ways.
Psychologist and author Eric Maisel has written a number of books to help creative people deal with the mental and emotional challenges of living the life of an artist. I recommend his books Mastering Creative Anxiety, Creativity for Life, and Unleashing the Artist Within.
PRACTICE SELF-CARE
It’s hard to be creative when your mental and physical health aren’t at their best. Are you . . .

·       *Getting enough sleep?
*Eating right?
*Tending to your health/medical needs?
*Getting enough exercise?
*Getting enough downtime?
*Tending to your emotional/psychological needs?
*Dealing effectively with work stress?
*Dealing effectively with interpersonal/relationship issues?

These are all things we need to do to be healthy people in general, of course, but problems in any of these areas affect all aspects of our lives, including our creative selves. Self-care is a lifelong task, and it’s impossible to have all aspects of our lives in balance all the time. The point is to do our best to take care of ourselves, so that we can be healthy and happy as much and as often as possible, not only so we can live well, but so we can write well, too. I’m dysthymic. This means I suffer from a low-level constant depression that will never go away and, if I’m not careful, can turn into a major depression. I also have sleep apnea and type-2 diabetes. I need to tend to all three of these major health concerns in order to be a functional human being. So I take my meds, try to watch my diet, use my CPAP machine when I sleep at night, etc. Some days are better than others, but overall, I’m healthy, and I have the mental, emotional, and physical strength to do my writing. Although ingesting a significant amount of caffeine helps.
PRACTICE GOOD “CREATOR HYGIENE”
I’m not talking about showering regularly, using deodorant, or brushing your teeth. (Although I do encourage you do these things at least semi-regularly.) Sleep experts say people should practice good sleep hygiene, which means following a set routine every night that prepares your mind and body for sleep. Writers (and other creators) can do the same thing to get their minds ready to be creatively productive. Following are several things to try to improve your creative hygiene.
Have a special place for writing.At the moment, I’m writing this sitting in a chair beneath skylights because it’s raining and I love the sound of rain. I guess it’s this morning’s special place for me. In general, I have two special places that are dedicated solely to writing. One is a home office, and the other is Starbucks (any of several in the area where I live, although I do have a couple favorites). My house is where I live, and even though my family know not to bother me when I’m writing, I find myself tempted to go talk to them and procrastinate, or worse, to do household chores instead of writing. It feels like home isn’t just for my writing, I guess. But when I go to Starbucks, there isn’t anyone or anything there to distract me. I can sit and write as long as I want and no one needs me, as might be the case at home. Plus, I grew up in a noisy household, and I need a certain amount of sound and activity happening around me to concentrate. At a Starbucks, there’s usually just the right around of noise and bustle to allow my mind to relax and work.
If you have a home office, decorate it in ways that mark it as your writing space. I have different toys – a shelf of Godzilla figures, several shelves of Funko Pop horror figures, a collection of writer figures, all of my author copies arranged on bookshelves, a display of books that were important in my development as a writer, a display of awards and nomination certificates, etc. All things that make my home office feel like Tim’s Writing Place.
Have special materials for writing.I usually write fiction longhand first and then type it into my computer later. I do the former at a Starbucks and do the latter in my home office. Why this process works for me, I couldn’t tell you. I came to it after years of experimenting with different methods of composing prose. I like to use 70-page spiral bound notebooks, the cheap kind, nothing expensive. And I like to use black gel pens. I have a black bag that I carry my writing stuff in, and when it’s time to type, I use a laptop. I like to have a cup of coffee when I write – a venti black coffee from Starbucks, or I may brew one at home. All of these materials are special for my writing, and they tell my mind that it’s time to write whenever I pick them up/touch them. Having a comfy, office chair with good back support is important, and there was a time years ago when I liked to wear a “writing sweater.” I would leave it hanging on the back of my office chair and put it on when it was time to write. I only wore it when writing. It was another prop that, when I put it on, it told my mind that writing time had arrived.
Create writing rituals – things you do every time to prepare you to write, like brewing coffee, choosing music to listen to, wearing special writing clothes, etc.I mentioned coffee and my old writing sweater above. I don’t always listen to music when I write, but when I do, it’s instrumental music. Music with words distracts me from writing my own words. Simply driving to Starbucks is a ritual that gets me ready to write. Whatever rituals you create, going through them will prepare your brain to be creative.
Develop habitsWrite at the same time every day, write for the same length of time each session, or write with a specific page goal/word count every day. Any of these habits, like writing rituals, will help get your brain ready to go.
Get to know your writing biorhythm.I’m usually good for a two to four-hour writing session at a go. After that, my brain becomes sluggish. But I can do two of those sessions a day, one every twelve hours. I don’t usually do two sessions per day unless a deadline is fast approaching, though – or if I’m getting into the last third of a book and I’m energized and excited to complete it. Are you a morning person? A night person? Do you work better in a number of small spurts throughout the day or do you work best with long stretches of uninterrupted work time? Knowing your writing biorhythm will help you work when you’re at your most effective, and you’re less likely to feel blocked then.
GET OUT OF YOUR DAMN HEAD
Writers can be our own worst enemies. The busy mind that allows us to create can also get in our way when it starts to get too busy and begins doubting and second guessing itself. When that happens, try to keep the following in mind.
Forget the audience – write for yourself.Some writers advise never thinking about readers when you write. Otherwise, you might become so self-conscious about the choices that you’re making that you’ll stop making them altogether. Some writers prefer to keep the audience in mind the entire time. After all, we write for others to read our work, don’t we? If we don’t keep them in mind, how can we ensure we’re communicating effectively?
Both ways of working are valid, of course. But if thinking about readers paralyzes you, then need to forget about them. After all, you can’t have readers if you don’t finish your story/article/poem, can you? Think about the words you’re putting down. Readers will (hopefully) come later.
And while you’re at it, forget about yourself, too.Being self-aware is vital for an artist. Being self-focused to the exclusion of all else? Not so much. Worrying whether your writing is good enough – whether you’re good enough – with every single word you write is a fast track to creative paralysis. And even if you do manage to produce writing, it probably won’t be your best work. How could it be? You were working with a good portion of your brain cells tied behind your back. (How’s that for a mental image?)
Forget career concerns.Worried that you should be working in a more marketable genre? Concerned that your thriller doesn’t have enough action or your steamy romance doesn’t have enough steam? Are you driving yourself crazy worrying that your science fiction novel is too similar to other books on the market or is too wildly different from what’s out there? Afraid that your new novel isn’t on brand? Thinking (especially to the point of obsession) about your career while you’re working on a project can kill it before it even gets started. We all want success however we define it, but if we’re constantly searching for some magic formula that will give us the best chance at success while we’re writing, we once again risk summoning our old enemy creative paralysis.
Don’t think about editors, agents. teachers, friends, or family members . . .For the same reasons I’ve already mentioned, worrying about what others think – regardless of who those others are and how important their approval might be to you – is a great way to find yourself blocked.
Forget others’ advice – including mine – on what and how you should write, and just write.I’ve known writers who take class after class, read one how-to-write book after another, attend every workshop and conference they can. They absorb so much advice on writing, some of it contradictory, and they try to keep it all in mind as they write. How can someone write with so many other writers’ voices in their head, constantly exhorting them to do it this way and not that way? The only voice you should listen to when you write is the voice of the story (or poem or song or whatever).
Think STORY and nothing but STORY.
This, I think, is the best defense against writer’s block. Focusing on the work (again, whatever it might be) will keep your mind from wandering down unproductive avenues. Only the work is the work; anything else is a distraction. Just write. When you’ve got a completed draft, then you can get feedback and revise. But you need to get the work done first.
USE DIFFERENT WRITING TECHNIQUES
There’s no magic bullet that will kill writer’s block, but there are some writing techniques you can use that can help you break through it. Here are a few.
Make a choice – ANY choice!I often tell students that in many ways, writing is nothing more than a series of decisions that we make, one after the other. This idea, not that idea. This word, not that word. The easier it is for you to make decisions, the easier it will be for you to write. I’m lucky. I usually don’t have much trouble making decisions. But I know that’s not the case for everyone. When you feel blocked, maybe what you’re experiencing is fear of making the wrong decision, of taking a wrong turn in your writing that will require you to throw out a significant chunk of text and start over. But if you’re paralyzed with indecision, you can’t move forward. Isn’t it better to chance taking a wrong turn? At least you’re moving. And there’s a chance you won’t take a wrong turn at all. And if you can’t decide what’s the best choice to make at a specific point in your writing, make a random one. Do the very first thing that pops into your head. Is your character asleep? Have them wake up because someone is standing outside on their lawn reciting Shakespearean sonnets at the top of their lungs. Continue from there, see where the story goes. Maybe it won’t go anywhere and you’ll back up and try again. But at least you’ll keep moving, and that’s the important thing. And who knows? You might end up writing a story that’s a lot more interesting than the idea you started with.
Try a different point of view.Maybe you’re telling your story from the wrong perspective. If you’re using third person, try first or second. Maybe tell it from the point of view of the family dog instead of the father. Tell it from the point of view of a distant but intrusive narrator, as in a fairy tale or parable. (Like Lemony Snicket does in A Series of Unfortunate Events.) The right point of view can be the key that opens up the world of the story to a writer. And sometimes when we’re confronted with a locked door, we have to keep trying different keys until we open it.
Skip what you don’t know and write what you do know.Beginning writers think that writing is created the same way it’s experienced when it’s read: the first perfect word followed by the second perfect word followed by the third perfect word in an unbroken chain until the end. Even experienced writers who should know better sometimes fall into this trap. After all, we never experience a piece of writing from conception through drafting and revision to the final – including all the thoughts and artistic intuitions that writers never record. We only experience our own writing this way. We experience everyone else’s as final drafts. (Unless we teach or are in a writers’ group or do developmental editing on the side. And even then, we only see a draft or two. We never see it all, including all the stuff that happens in a writer’s subconscious. We can’t.)You can create a story/poem/article in any damn order, whether you choose that order or it occurs organically. All that matters is that all the information – the concepts and the words you use to express them – are in an effective order in the end. So if you’re blocked because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next scene, skip to what you doknow and write that. Jump around all you like. You can organize your bits and pieces later and create connective tissue for them then. The point is to keep writing, keep moving. I think of being blocked not as having an obstacle ahead of me, but instead as being stalled. I need to turn the ignition, get the engine going, and start driving forward again.
Change your main character from passive to activeA common problem I see in student fiction – whether at the undergraduate or graduate level – is that characters are too passive. In these stories, things happen to the characters instead of the characters choosing to do things. Characters in fiction tend to be more active than people generally are in real life. You need your characters to make choices so that stuff happens. Even if your character is initially reactive – as often happens in a horror story – you can make your character activelyreactive. If your character is confronted by the ghost of her dead brother, what does she do? Stand there and look at it? Boring. She could scream, run, try to talk to her brother, try to touch him, try to hit him with something, yell at him to go away because he doesn’t exist . . . And if she does stand there in shock, describe what’s actively happening inside her. Too many student science fiction/fantasy/horror stories have characters that show absolutely no mental and emotional reactions to weird shit happening – shit that’s beyond their experience and completely upends their view of reality. Keep your characters active, keep them doing stuff, and you’ll keep your story moving forward.
Shake up your story’s status quoI tell students that stories are constantly in motion. Once they start, they don’t stop moving until they finish. Sometimes the movement is faster or slower, sometimes simple or complex, but they never ever stop before The End. So if you feel stalled on a project, maybe it’s because it’s gotten into a rut. It’s ceased moving. If that’s the case, shake things up. Kill a character, introduce a new character, reveal a hidden secret, go back and change a character’s gender, race, sexuality, profession, personality, history, etc. Keep injecting new elements into your story until you get the damn thing going again. Plus, if your story has no status quo, it’ll be fresh, interesting, and unpredictable.
Ask yourself what couldn’t possibly happen now and make it happen.I pass along this tip to students all the time. When you get stalled in a story, ask yourself what’s one thing that couldn’t possibly happen now and make it happen. I don’t mean make something silly happen, like suddenly the universe ends for no reason, or everyone turns into cartoon animals who only communicate by singing showtunes. I mean if your character is driving across town for an important job interview, and your plan is for the character to get there and go through the interview, make that not happen. Have the character’s car get a flat tire. Have another driver T-bone their vehicle. Have someone run up to their car at a stoplight, pound on the driver’s side window and plead for their help. By doing this, you wake up your mind and get it excited by this new story direction you’ve given it. And if you’re creatively engaged by this sudden unexpected turn in the plot, your readers will be too. And who knows? Your story might head off in an entirely different – and maybe better – direction.
If you don’t outline, do so.Maybe you don’t outline. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you don’t normally need it. That’s cool. But if you find yourself blocked, maybe it’s because this time, for this project, you need to know where you’re going ahead of time. You need a map. You don’t need to outline in exhaustive detail (unless that helps). Just a simple list of this happens, then this happens might do. And once you get going, you may not need the map after a certain point and can start navigating by your instincts again. As long as your map got you going again, that’s all that matters.
If you do outline, throw it out and write by the seat of your pants.On the other hand, if you’re normally a planner and you outline like crazy, have outlines for your damn outlines, if one day you find yourself blocked, throw out your map and start heading off into the great unknown without any navigational aid. One of the downsides to outlining (and I say this as someone who always writes novels from outlines and often – but not always – uses them for short stories) is that once you’ve created them, you’ve already told the story to yourself. It’s like chewed meat. Bland, tasteless, gross. Readers read for the joy of discovery. Writers write for that joy, too. Sometimes over-outlining can rob a writer of that joy. If you think that might be the reason you’re blocked, throw out your outline, just start writing, and see where it leads.
Work on two projects at the same timeMaybe you’re blocked because you’re bored with your project. Writers, like a lot of creative types, suffer from ADHD – or if they aren’t clinically ADHD, they’re functionally this way. One way to combat this is to have more than one project going at a time and switch between them as needed. These projects can be in different genres, too, to keep things even more fresh for you. I tend to work on one project at a time, but I remember seeing Brian Keene post projects updates on his blog. He works on multiple projects at a time, and he posted bar charts showing his progress on various books. One book might’ve been at 15%, another at 78%, and still another at 94%. Moving between projects keeps things fresh for him while at the same time keeping him moving on various projects, until he eventually completes them. I think I’d find this overwhelming, but it could be a great way to keep you from getting bored with your own work.
Use different tools.The old saying “A change is as good as a rest” applies here. If you usually write on your laptop, try writing longhand in a notebook. Or vice versa. Use a different color pen. Alternate between different colors of pens. Write your story on notecards. Outline it using PowerPoint (I did that for this article, and now I have a presentation I can use in classes and workshops. too.) Draw pictures of characters and settings (if you don’t normally do this). Dictate your story into a voice recorder. Video yourself acting out a scene. Keep trying different tools until your writing gets moving again.
Write at different speeds.Maybe you’re normally a slow writer. Try writing faster. If you usually blaze through your writing, force yourself to go slow. Switching up the pace of your writing can be a good way to break through whatever mental or emotional block that’s hampering you.
Write at different times of the day.Earlier, I mentioned getting to know your writing biorhythm. I suggested you experiment with writing at different times of the day to see when you’re at your most productive. Now I’ll add that writing at different times of the day can also be a way to shake up your routine. Sometimes a regular habit can help us focus and be more productive, but sometimes varying our routine is what we most need.
Write at different lengths.If you’re stuck on a long project, try working on a short one for a while. Maybe a very short one, like a small poem or a fifty-word piece of flash fiction. Completing some small projects can restore your confidence and help you remember that, yeah, you can do this.
Write in a different genre.If you normally write romance, try a mystery. If you write articles, try a poem. Even if all you do is play around with a different genre and never finish the piece (let alone publish it), the whole “Change is as good as a rest” might be all you need to get your writing flowing again on your main projects.
Write something that’s not for publication.No concern for publication means no worries about whether what you write is going to be any good. No one’s going to read it. You don’t have to worry about pleasing agents, editors, readers, or reviewers. Just yourself. You can play again, simply for the sheer joy of it – and that joy is a big part of why we started telling stories in the first place. As with my advice about writing in a different genre, you don’t need to finish your “just for fun” pieces. You might even have a specific file on your computer where you save your play-time writing. You can be absolutely committed to never publishing any of your fun writing, or you can mine it for material that you’ll eventually use to create something for publication. All that matters is that you can play when you need to, that you can relax and reenergize yourself so you can return to your work-writing refreshed and renewed.
Write using a pseudonym.This might sound like a silly technique, but it goes along with the play-time writing I mentioned above. Writing is at its core imaginative play. It’s a game of pretend. And sometimes it’s fun to pretend to be someone different from ourselves. If you’re having trouble making progress on a project, try picking a pseudonym for yourself and writing the story as that author. Writing is all psychological anyway, and if a small trick like using a pseudonym gets you going again – even if you’ll eventually publish the work under your own name – that’s all that matters, right?
Flip a coin – literally.Can’t decide what your protagonist should do next? Can’t decide which scene should come next? Get a quarter, assign one direction heads and one tails, flip the coin, and abide by its decision. Taking the choice out of your hands can keep you from worrying over every little decision. You can be like the Batman villain Two Face and let fate decide.
Use The Cup of Destiny!My dark fantasy novel The Forever Housecomes out in March of 2020. I reached a certain point in the book when it was time to start killing off some of the main characters, but I liked them all so much I couldn’t decide which one should go first. So I made The Cup of Death. I wrote each character’s name on a piece of paper, put them in the cup, and selected one. I chose the one character I wanted to live until the climax of the book. I tossed the name back into the cup and asked one of my daughters to select one. She did, and she chose the same damn name. I figured the Universe was trying to tell me something, so I killed that character first. In the end, I think it made the novel better.So I suggest creating a Cup of Destiny. Whenever you’re stuck, write some story elements on pieces of paper. These can be characters to die (like I did) or actions characters can take, places they can go, etc. Toss the bits of paper into the cup, and when you find yourself stalled, select a piece and do whatever it says. This technique, like others I’ve suggested, removes the pressure of decision-making and gets you writing again.
START MOVIN’ AND GROOVIN’
Earlier, I suggested getting out of your head. Now I’m suggesting getting out of wherever it is you live. Physical movement can often be the key to getting things moving mentally for us again. Humans have a tendency to forget that everything about us is physical, including our brain, which creates and houses our consciousness. Getting other parts of your body moving can get your brain moving, too. I spoke about exercise in the section on self-care, but it also fits in this category as well. And getting out of your living space can also mean a change in venue that stimulates your mind.
Go for a walk or a drive.Some writers go for long walks to break creative blocks. Some incorporate walking into their regular creative process. Kevin J. Anderson dictates his books into a voice recorder while hiking. Whenever I feel stuck on what do next in a story, I often go for a drive, maybe run some errands while I’m out. By the time I get back home, I’ve usually solved my story problem and I’m ready to resume writing again.
Do something that requires mindless repetitive motion so your mind will wander.Ever do a job where your body had to repeat the same motions over and over? If so, remember how quickly your mind began to wander? When your body is occupied performing repetitive actions that don’t require the active participation of your brain, your mind is free to flit around wherever it likes. I suspect this is a big part of why walking and driving helps people think. Some people get ideas in the shower. Others get them while doing household chores. Others might play a simple, repetitive videogame. Try doing different (and simple) body-occupying activities and see if they don’t help you break through your block. Just be careful that you don’t do chores as a procrastination technique, as a way to feel productive in one area of your life when you’re out being productive with your creative work.
Change your writing venue.If you’re blocked trying to write at home, going somewhere – anywhere – else might help. As I said earlier, I go to Starbucks. Sometimes I write in the library at the college where I teach. You might go to a bar or a park or a restaurant or an all-night diner. Sometimes a change of scenery is all we need to get our creative juices flowing again.
Set up a writing date with a friend.I’ve known a number of writers who work alongside a buddy, someone who is supportive, someone who understands how difficult writing can be. Writing dates can help create a habit and can help get your mind ready to be creative because you anticipate the writing time to come. Just don’t spend too much time gossiping or commiserating over your latest story rejection. Make sure you spend most of the session writing.
Go on a writing retreat, alone or with writing friends.Maybe you need a big chunk of solitary, uninterrupted writing time to break through your block. Check into a hotel for a weekend where you can write in peace. Maybe go to a hotel in another town for a change of scenery as well. Going on a more formal retreat with friends might work better for you. It’ll feel more like an event, and you’ll have support and people to help hold you accountable (in gentle ways) for getting work done. Once you’ve made some significant progress on a project during your retreat – whether it’s with a group or solo – you’ll hopefully be able to keep that momentum going when you return home.
Attend a writers’ workshop or conference.A lot of writers, myself included, feel creatively energized and recharged after attending a workshop or conference. You get to spend time with like-minded people who are interested in the same weird shit you are, people who get you. That’s something many of us aren’t fortunate enough to experience on a daily basis. You also get to have stimulating conversations, share tips and tricks, talk to people about writing problems (like being blocked) and hear how they deal with them.
Join a writer’s group.When a writers’ group works well – when it’s comprised of people who are serious about writing and who are supportive and provide honest, useful feedback – it can be like a miniature workshop or conference, but one you can attend more regularly (and more cheaply). A group that isn’t creatively stimulating – or worse, which is toxic – is to be avoided at all costs. If you don’t live close to other writers, you can try hooking up with some via social media and create a virtual group that “meets” through the Interwebs.
Feed yourself creatively.Go to a concert. Check out a museum. Attend a dance performance. Take in a theater production. See a movie. Surround yourself with artistic expression. Feed your creative self. You can do this by reading, too, of course, but I often find myself more energized from experiencing different forms of art than the one I work in – especially if I have to leave my house to experience those forms. I prefer live events to watching a performance on TV at home. I find it more stimulating to be surrounded by an audience who’s experiencing the same things I am but who might have very different reactions from me. There’s an energy there that I don’t find in any other situation. I always feel ready to write once I’m home. Maybe you will, too.
LAST THOUGHTSDamn, I guess I didn’t have writer’s block writing this article. I didn’t expect it to turn out this long. But I wanted to give you as many ideas as I possibly could to help you stave off or recover from writer’s block. I hope I’ve succeeded. Now go write something.But before you go . . .
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
ALIEN: PROTOTYPE OUT NOW!



My Alien novel for Titan Books, Alien: Prototype, came out this week. It’s available as a mass-market paperback, a trade paperback, an ebook, and an audiobook.
So far, reviewers seem to like it! Dread Central calls the book "An exciting new addition to the line-up, both for fans of previous books and those looking to discover this extended world.” And Amy Walker (aka Amazing Amy) says, "Waggoner... has managed to create one of the most interesting and uniquely creative variations of the Xenomorph I've ever seen... the perfect novel for any Alien fans."
If you’d like to purchase a copy of my latest magnum opus, here are some linky links:
Mass-Market Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789090911/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
Trade Parback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789092191/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B07PXZKC48/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner+alien&qid=1564019410&s=books&sr=1-1
Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-AlienTM-Book-7/dp/B07SBKPJW5/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
THE FOREVER HOUSE IS UP FOR PREORDER!



I mentioned earlier that The Forever House is due out in March. You can order it from Amazon (although the link for the ebook isn’t up yet.) You can order all the versions – hardback, paperback, and ebook – at the Flame Tree Press site. An audio version should be available eventually. Here’s a synopsis:
In Rockridge, Ohio, a sinister family moves into a sleepy cul de sac. The Eldreds feed on the negative emotions of humans, creating nightmarish realms within their house to entrap their prey. Neighbors are lured into the Eldreds’ home and faced with challenges designed to heighten their darkest emotions so their inhuman captors can feed and feed well. If the humans are to have any hope of survival, they’ll have to learn to overcome their prejudices and resentments toward one another and work together. But which will prove more deadly in the end, the Eldreds . . . or each other?
Flame Tree Press (all versions)https://www.flametreepublishing.com/The-Forever-House-ISBN-9781787583207.html
AmazonHardback: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1787583201/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i31
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-House-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/178758318X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Do More Stuff!

This week, I started writing Your Turn to Suffer,my next horror novel for Flame Tree Press. (Next for me, that is. There’s another in the queue still to come out for the rest of you!) This will be my forty-sixth published novel. I’ve also published ten novellas and 171 short stories. And I’ve written articles and blog posts (like this one), but I’m too lazy to count those right now. All of this doesn’t seem like a lot to me. I’ve been writing steadily since I was eighteen, and I’m fifty-five now. You write long enough, all that work starts to add up, you know? (This is all traditionally published work. I’ve never self-published anything. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as they used to say on Seinfeld. I just haven’t done it yet. Maybe someday.)
Still, I do more than write. I’ve taught college composition and creative writing courses for thirty years (ten years part-time, twenty years full-time), and I’ve raised two daughters who are now adults. When people learn how much I’ve written and published while still maintaining a full-time job and a family life, they ask me how I do it, as if I have some sort of secret that, if they could just learn it, they’d be just as productive as I am. I don’t have a secret, though. I’ve always been a creative person. I have more ideas in a day than I’d ever be able to bring to fruition in a single lifetime. Plus, I love writing. I mean love it. Even with all the ups and downs, the successes and the setbacks, there’s nothing else I’d rather do. I love teaching as well, but if I had to choose the two, I’d take writing, no contest. (Although I’d be sad that I couldn’t teach again.)
Every year the faculty at my college have a couple training days before Fall semester starts. This year – because I’ve written and published so much while still teaching full-time – I was asked to present a session on productivity for writers and scholars on campus during one of our training days. I said, “Sure!” (because evidently I’m not busy enough), and I put together a PowerPoint presentation I called “Do More Stuff!” The people who attended the session seemed to like it, and afterward, someone suggest I could take the presentation on the road to conferences, etc. I may very well do that, but I thought it might make a good blog post. Rather than turn the presentation into an article with paragraphs, I thought I’d keep it primarily in list form. Why? Partially because I think it’s more effective that way, but also because by not taking the time to rewrite something that’s fine as it is, I can put my energy into writing something new. (See me practicing what I preach?) So here are the strange and forbidden secrets of how to be more productive.
First off, productivity . . .
·         Doesn’t just happen.·         It’s a choice.·         It isn’t easy when you have other responsibilities demanding your attention. You still need to choose it.·         It isn’t easy when you have pleasant distractions tempting you to have fun instead of working. You still need to choose it.·         Sometimes it’s a trade-off. You may need to give up some things in order to be more productive.·         Sometimes it’s a negotiation – with yourself, with family and friends, with your day job – to find ways to be productive.·         Sometimes it’s a desperate need – and if you don’t tend to this need, your mental and emotional health will suffer. Being creative and productive can quite literally save your life. (It has mine, and on more than one occasion).
Basic Ingredients of Productivity
            Desire. You have to want to be productive.·         Time.·         Space.·         A rested, healthy energized body and mind.·         Materials.·         Support.·         Encouragement.·         Permission from yourself.·         Selfishness (or if you prefer, self-focus or self-discipline).·         Do what you need to do in order to obtain the  above “ingredients.”
Productivity requires commitment and boundaries
·        Make a commitment to being productive.·         Make sure others know about, understand, and respect your commitment to being productive.·         Organize your life so that you make productivity not only a possibility but a certainty.·         If necessary, be flexible and creative in how you manage this organization.·         Keep a closed office door at work. Put a Do Not Disturb Sign on the door of your home office.·         Learn the power of NO. You can’t do everything, and if you overcommit to other things, you won’t be able to get to the work you truly want and need to do.·         Stay away from email, social media, the Internet, videogames, etc., during work time. Turn your devices off, throw them out of the window, sell them on Ebay. . .
Goal-Setting is Key
·         Set short-term goals: How much to you want to accomplish during today’s work session?·         Set long-term goals: How much do want to accomplish in a day, a week, a month, a year?·         You can make these goals general: I want one hour of uninterrupted work time a day for a week.·         You can make these goals specific: By the end of the month, I want to produce a polished, ready-to-submit short story (or whatever).·         Setting goals makes it easier to explain to others what you’re doing. Instead of saying, “I’m trying to write,” say, “Today I'm working on a sidebar for the gardening article I finished last week." ·         Don’t let it get you down if you don’t make a goal. Goal-setting is supposed to be a motivating force, not another reason to beat yourself up for failing. Set a new goal and work toward that one. Continued forward movement is what’s important.
Declutter Your Life
·         Examine how you spend your time.·         Do you really need to do everything you do?·         Cut back on some activities and time-wasters: Who needs TV? A clean house? Clean clothes? Sleep? Food?·         Sometimes you’ll have to pick and choose.·         Sometimes you’ll have to make sacrifices.·         It’s okay if other work is a priority sometimes. Sometimes it has to be.·         You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) spend every moment working, but should seek ways to spend your time wisely.
Paths to Productivity
·         Work first thing in the morning before the day starts making demands on you.·         Go to bed an hour earlier and wake up an hour earlier to carve out some time to work.·         Work before going to bed. You may lack some energy, but the day’s other work is done, everyone else is asleep, and you can finally do what you’ve been looking forward to all day. Your mind most likely has been preparing you mentally for your before-bed work session. It’s your reward for making it through the day! Because of this, you might produce more, and produce it faster and easier.·         Work during breaks. Even small increments of work time add up.·         Make an appointment to work, perhaps the same time every day or on the weekends.·         Make a work date, an appointment with someone else who also wants to be more productive. You’ll work next to each other, support each other, and keep each other accountable.·         Set a quota for how much work you want to produce – a day, a week, a month, etc. Always strive to make your quota, but don’t beat yourself up if you miss it. Try to hit the next deadline.·         Get away from home. Work at a coffee shop (I do this), a restaurant, a bar, a park, a monastery, wherever.·         Take a weekend getaway for just you and your work.
Decisions, Decisions
·         Being creative is nothing but a series of decisions (or choices, if you prefer), one after the other after the other.·         Decision Fatigue: After someone makes a number of decisions over time – say during the course of a workday – the quality of those decisions deteriorates.·         The more decision-fatigued you become, the harder it is to keep making decisions.·         If possible, make creative-work decisions before you need to make day-job decisions.·         Do creative-work in smaller chunks of time and take breaks.·         Plan before you begin creative work so you can make the best use of your time.Try any or all of these techniques and discover which ones work best for you. And if after a while, you find your productivity decreasing, try some different techniques. Sometimes we have to be just as creative about how we get our work done as we do when making the work itself.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
Alien: Prototype
My Alien novel for Titan Books, Alien: Prototype, will be out in October 26th – just in time for Halloween! But why wait? It’s available for preorder now.
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789090911/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B07PXZKC48/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner+alien&qid=1564019410&s=books&sr=1-1
Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-AlienTM-Book-7/dp/B07SBKPJW5/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
They Kill
They Kill, my latest horror novel for Flame Tree Press, was released in July, and it’s been garnering some fantastic reviews! Here’s a taste:
“They Kill is horror in all its dark, squishy, over-the-top glory.” – Bookshine
“They Kill is a cornucopia of original horror ideas and visceral graphic images and it hardly gives the reader any time to breathe, before the story comes together in an unexpected climax.” – Devoted to Thrills
“Waggoner displays a talent for surreal body horror that reminded me of the work of film director David Cronenberg. He also fills every page with an energy that is infectious. It’s like he’s made a great amusement park ride and you’re on it with him.” – SciFi and Scary
“This is gory, unsettling and definitely strange and I loved every minute. It’s what a horror story should be and has reignited my love for the genre. Brilliant.” – The Bookwormery
“They Kill plunges readers deep into the heart of pulse pounding supernatural horror with a story that could only come from the mind of Tim Waggoner.” – This is Horror
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787582558/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019125&sr=8-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B07TKMJC92/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NGHOT182WFCV&keywords=tim+waggoner+they+kill&qid=1564019125&s=gateway&sprefix=tim+waggoner+they+kill%2Caps%2C804&sr=8-1
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787582574/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019125&sr=8-1
Audio: Available soon.

Secrets and Mysteries

My novel They Kill, my second release from Flame Tree Books, is now out. Like a lot of my horror fiction, the novel is filled with weird shit. Like, a lot of it. I don’t really label my horror in any specific ways, although readers, editors, and reviewers have called it surreal horror, nightmare horror, weird horror,and dark fantasy. And several of my short stories have appeared in volumes of Year’s Best Hardcore Horror. Any of these labels is fine with me, but I just think of my fiction as being my horror, fiction where the psychological states of characters are mirrored in the outer world – sometimes figuratively, sometimes quite literally. When I write this kind of horror, I walk a fine line between explaining exactly what is happening and making it seem plausible and allowing the images and concepts to speak for themselves without much, if any explanation. Not every reader or editor likes my approach to horror, but it’s worked pretty well for me over the last twenty-five years. But it first appeared in my work about thirty-three years ago, in a story that wasn’t horror at all.
I was an undergrad in college – we’re talking mid-eighties here – I wrote a short story whose title escapes me now. I have a vague memory of calling it “The Clearwater Monster,” but it could just as easily have been titled something else. But I certainly remember the story’s plot. It concerned two young boys who live near Lake Clearwater. One of the boys has a fanciful imagination (I wonder where I got that idea) and he likes to make up stories about a monster living in the lake and pretend that there really is one. The imaginative boy drowns in the lake one day, and his friend grieves. Years later, the friend – now an adult – returns to Lake Clearwater for the first time since the imaginative boy died so many years ago. The friend looks out upon the lake and is amazed and delighted to see a lake monster, just like the one the imaginative boy described, swimming in the water. He believes the monster is a manifestation of the boy’s spirit, who’s made his stories become reality and who’s appeared to say a last farewell to his old friend.
I showed this story to a guy I worked with at the university writing center. We’ll call him Bob (because that was his name). Bob read the story and gave me two pieces of feedback. One was that I should specify where the lake was located. I hadn’t done this because I wanted to create an almost fairy-tale sense that Clearwater could be any lake, anywhere. “But you have to say where the lake is” Bob told me. “You’re an American writer and all American writers are regionalists.” (And that, boys and girls, is why you shouldn’t take Lit majors too seriously.)
The second bit of feedback focused on the story’s ending, where the grown-up friend sees the lake monster swimming by, as if purposefully putting on a show for him.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Bob said.
I explained my concept to him and said that I didn’t want to overexplain it in the story because I felt doing so would rob the final image – and the character’s emotional reaction to it – of its impact. Bob insisted that the ending needed to be clearer, and since the story was an experiment for me, I figured I’d try to do what Bob suggested and see how it turned out. Giving Lake Clearwater a specific location was easy. I lived – and still live – in Southwestern Ohio, so that became my lake’s home. But as far as explaining the ending, everything I tried only made the story worse. A lot worse. Instead of depicting a moment of magic in a person’s life, a brief instant when he felt connected to his childhood friend once more, the ending became bogged down with authorial narrative, and the more concrete reasons I provided for the lake monster’s manifestation, the less magical the image seemed. Eventually, I said to hell with it and gave up on the story entirely. My creative instincts told me that my original approach was the right one, but the rational part of my mind decided Bob was right, my instincts sucked, and I moved on to other stories.
Bob’s feedback wasn’t the only reason I abandoned the story. I’d read a ton of how-to-write books back then. (This was long before the current wave of self-publishing, when only professional authors wrote writing guides.)  So many of the books and articles I’d read advised beginning writers to always be specific, never vague, and they advised writers to avoid such literary tricks as leaving a story ending up to the reader to decide. They also warned that purposefully making a story too abstract didn’t make you brilliant. It meant you were an artistic poseur.
But as I kept writing, my urge to write these kind of abstract, imagistic stories grew, and from time to time, I’d give it another try. But when I did, I always made sure to offer at least some explanation/justification for the story’s central image. A couple of these stories sold to small-press magazines, back when the small press was reallysmall, but most didn’t sell at all.
And then one day when I was twenty-nine, I decided to submit a story to a pro-level horror anthology called Young Blood. The concept behind the anthology was that all the stories in it had to have been written before the author’s thirtieth birthday. I wrote a story about a monster tree called ‘Yggdrasil” that was quickly rejected. Then I wrote a story called “Mr. Punch.” I’ve talked about writing this story a number of times over the years – in interviews, and in past entries in this blog. “Mr. Punch” was a total trust-my-instincts story, and when I received feedback from friends that the ending needed to be explained more clearly, I didn’t listen. I submitted “Mr. Punch,” the editor bought it, and it became my first professional sale. Later, Ellen Datlow selected it as one of her honorary mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.
I continued writing and selling such stories, ones that – as a colleague at the college where I teach once told me – center on the “logic of the image.” Eventually, I tried to write this kind of story at novel length. The result was The Harmony Society, which was followed by my first Leisure Books release Like Death. (You can buy more recent edition of these books in both print and ebook versions – hint, hint.) Today, thirty-something years after writing about the Lake Clearwater Monster, this is the type of horror fiction I’m known for, stories that have garnered awards and appeared in various Year’s Best anthologies. Even so, I still occasionally have editors ask me to explain my stories’ central concepts a bit more. Sometimes I make changes, sometimes I don’t. It depends on whether I think a clearer explanation will make a story better.
I can write stories that are clear and easy to understand. I do it all the time when I write my urban fantasy or tie-in novels. But there are very specific reasons why I think overexplaining can be death for a horror story. (See what I did there?) Let me tell you why.
JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” – H.P. Lovecraft
If you’re a horror writer, you’ve likely seen this quote a jillion times before. The word unknown is key here. Vampires ceased being scary as fictional characters long ago. They’re too known. Not only do readers – especially rabid horror fans – know everything about basic vampire lore, they’ve been exposed to images of vampires in media since they were kids. When it comes to horror, overexplaining and overfamiliarity have killed vampires (and werewolves and ghosts and . . .) with more finality than sunlight and wooden stakes ever could. This is why vampires relocated to urban fantasy and romance. Vampires are now primarily adventure and romance characters. They aren’t Monsters with a capital M. By not overexplaining a supernatural entity in a story – perhaps not even naming it – you keep readers guessing, keep them uncertain, make them uncomfortable, make your story not safe. . . Do these things, and you’re harnessing the power of the Unknown.
EXPLANATIONS – ESPECIALLY DETAILED ONES – AREN’T REALISTIC
I know this sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out. Imagine yourself as a character in a horror story. You’re driving down a country road in the middle of the night, and you see a full moon in the sky. You find this strange because you could’ve sworn a full moon isn’t due for a couple more weeks. You peer at this unexpected moon through your windshield, only to see its lid rise upward, revealing a single, horrible gigantic eye gazing down at you. Do you really think you’d ever be able to understand what the fuck was happening? That you could pull over to the side of the road, park, grab your phone and do a Google search for “big-ass moon eye” and a web page would pop up telling you exactly what the monstrous eye is and precisely what to do to defeat it? Fuck, no! In real life, shit happens all the time, and we hardly ever know for certain why it happens the way it happens. We just have to try to deal with it the best we can.
The movie Sinister is a great example of unnecessary and story-damaging overexplaining.The monstrous fiend in the film is called Mr. Boogie (as in Boogeyman, of course), and the shit that he causes to happen is creepy as hell – until our hero consults a college professor who explains that Mr. Boogie is really an ancient god called Bagul who collected the souls of human children a thousand years ago.
Yawn.
Mr. Boogie was scary when he was a thing, a creature of unknown abilities and motivations, who might not have any motivation, at least none mere humans could ever understand. But Bagul? He’s just a fifth-rate god in some obscure mythology text. What could be more dull? (My guess is that Bagul shit was added at the direction of some dumbass studio executive.)
MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Overexplaining kills any sense of mystery in a story. There’s mystery in the Xenomorph in Alien. Not so much in the sequel Aliens. In that movie, the Xenomorphs are more numerous, easier to kill (at least as individuals), and their capabilities and life cycle are much better understood by Ripley (though not completely). The Xenomorph in Alien is a monster. The Xenomorphs in Aliens and every other sequel are basically animals. You could replace them with a pack of hyper-aggressive wolves and get pretty much the same story.
Alien: What is this thing? Where did it come from? What does it want? What can it do? How does it hunt? Reproduce? What can it do to me? How can I kill it?
Aliens: “Look, Xenomorphs!” Colonial Marines fire a shitload of bullets at Xenos, tearing them to shreds.
Now I love Aliens, and while I think of it as an action-adventure movie with monsters, I don’t consider it horror. Horror-adjacent at best.
Want an example of a fantastic horror story that is drenched in mystery and the unknown? Read Jack Ketchum’s “The Box.” You can also watch a great film adaptation of the story as one part of the anthology film XX.
BUT SOMETIMES A LITTLE DOESN’T HURT
Sometimes readers (and viewers) don’t respond well to stories that are only metaphor, so giving them some explanation can help. It’s like Mary Poppins’ spoonful of sugar – it helps the medicine go down. After I saw Darren Aronofsky’s Mother in the theater, I had to hit the restroom. The guy using the urinal next to me asked if I’d just seen the movie and if so, did I know what it was about? I told him what I thought, he told me his theory, and then when were finished and our hands were washed, he went into the hallway to look for other people who’d seen the movie to find out what they thought it meant. While it was weird to have a discussion with a stranger about a movie while we were both pissing, it was a good example of an audience member who was almost desperate for a little more guidance in how to view a story. So while I bitched about the Bagul stuff in Sinister earlier, a line or two that at least hints at an explanation can go a long way to help audiences who need something to hang onto when reading (or watching) a weird story.
PURE IMAGINATION
I like stories that stimulate my imagination. Explanations – especially unnecessarily detailed ones – don’t feed my imagination. On the contrary, they starve it. They keep me outside a story, when as an audience member, I want to be inside, interacting with it intellectually and emotionally. Remember our old friend Mr. Boogie? For most of Sinister, he was a mysterious, malign, inhuman presence, and this invited me to try to imagine what the hell he might be, what he could do, and what he wanted. But when I was told that he was just another pagan god, there was nothing left for my imagination to work with. The script told me what the story was instead of allowing me to help make the story. People attempt to define the difference between simplistic fiction meant solely for mindless entertainment and stories that strive to achieve more artistic goals. I’d say that inviting the audience to collaborate in the creation of the story by allowing room for their imaginations to interact with the text (or film) instead of merely spoonfeeding them everything, is a pretty damn good definition.
There’s nothing wrong with stories that are designed primarily to be fun. I’ve written two creature-feature novels for Severed Press – The Teeth of the Sea and Blood Island – and I created them solely to be enjoyable pulp adventure-horror. There’s no great mystery to them, no strange imagery or ideas dredged up from my subconscious, nothing but monsters chomping on people and people trying to escape being chomped. But these books are the kind of thing readers read once and then forget about. These stories don’t have any impact on readers, don’t make them think or feel, and – most importantly to me -- they don’t stimulate readers’ imaginations in any meaningful way. They’re the simplest kind of horror, Goosebumps for adults. They’re fun, but that’s all they are.
CONCLUSION
If you want to write more challenging horror stories – stories which I think get closer to the dark heart of what horror is instead of merely using horror tropes to create simple entertainment – try playing around with how much, or how little, you explain the weirdness in your stories and see what happens. Who knows? You’ll at least add to your toolbox of narrative techniques for writing horror, and you might just find a brand-new writer’s voice for yourself as well.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
They Kill
As I said earlier, They Kill has just been released, and is available simultaneously in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audio. Advance reviews have been good! Here’s one of my favorite review quotes:
“This is gory, unsettling and definitely strange and I loved every minute. It’s what a horror story should be and has reignited my love for the genre. Brilliant.” – The Bookwormery
Can’t beat that for a blurb, can you?
Here’s a synopsis:
What are you willing to do, what are you willing to become, to save someone you love?
Sierra Sowell’s dead brother Jeffrey is resurrected by a mysterious man known only as Corliss. Corliss also transforms four people in Sierra’s life into inhuman monsters determined to kill her. Sierra and Jeffrey’s boyfriend Marc work to discover the reason for her brother’s return to life while struggling to survive attacks by this monstrous quartet.
Corliss gives Sierra a chance to make Jeffrey’s resurrection permanent – if she makes a dreadful bargain. Can she do what it will take to save her brother, no matter how much blood is shed along the way?
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787582558/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019125&sr=8-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B07TKMJC92/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NGHOT182WFCV&keywords=tim+waggoner+they+kill&qid=1564019125&s=gateway&sprefix=tim+waggoner+they+kill%2Caps%2C804&sr=8-1
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787582574/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019125&sr=8-1
Audio: Available soon.
Writing in the Dark – the Book!
I’m thrilled to have recently signed a contract with the good folks at Raw Dog Screaming Press to write a horror-writing guide named after this blog: Writing in the Dark. I’ll post information about release dates, etc., as it becomes available. For now, you can find the official announcement about the book here: http://rawdogscreaming.com/book-deal-tim-waggoners-horror-writing-guide/
Prehistoric Anthology
I mentioned earlier that I’ve written a couple monsters-chomping-people books for Severed Press. I’ve also written a story for their anthology Prehistoric, which presents stories about dinosaurs eating people. My story, “Closure,” is actually a reimaging of a story I wrote for one of my college creative writing classes when I was an undergrad over thirty years ago. I thought it would be cool to see what I could do with the idea now, and “Closure” is the result. Check it out!
Trade paperback: https://www.amazon.com/PREHISTORIC-Dinosaur-Anthology-Hunter-Shea/dp/1925840875/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TSSCLXG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Alien: Prototype
My Alien novel for Titan Books, Alien: Prototype, was recently approved by Fox Studios, so it’s good to go! It’ll be out in October, and it’s also a fun monster-eating-people novel – but in SPACE! Why should you read it? One word: Necromorph. (Yeah, I got to invent my own alien species!) It’s available for preorder now.
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789090911/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B07PXZKC48/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner+alien&qid=1564019410&s=books&sr=1-1
Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-AlienTM-Book-7/dp/B07SBKPJW5/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564019410&sr=1-1
Writing in the Dark Newsletter
Besides this blog, I also have a newsletter you can subscribe to. I send issues out a bit more frequently than I post here, and while the announcements about my current and upcoming projects are mostly the same, I include writing and publishing articles that are different than what you can read in my blog. The current newsletter has an article on “The Rule of Twelve.” If you want to know what that is, subscribe! You can do so by following this link at my website:
Newsletter link: http://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm

Riding Out the Storms

Over the last month or so, I’ve seen social media posts from writers who are discouraged – so much so that they want to quit writing entirely (and some who have already done so). A writer who believes he wrote a book that was essentially invisible. Writers who are depressed because their newsletter stats show that no one clicked on the links to their books for sale. Writers encountering one rejection after another, dealing with shady editors and agents, volatile and unstable markets, markets that take forever to pay (if they ever pay at all), lack of reviews, lack of readers . . . And maybe worst of all, feeling like they’ve made no impact at all, that they might as well have chucked their stories down a hole for all the good they’ve done in the world.
I know that a lot of people use social media to vent, and that these feelings of discouragement might only be temporary. But I also know that there are plenty of people who struggle to keep writing day after day. I know writers who’ve quit. You might even be one. Over the years, I’ve spoken to people who’ve gone to intense workshops such as Clarion or gotten an MFA and haven’t written a word since. I know writers who’ve written three books, had their publisher pass on a fourth, and who have stopped writing altogether. I know writers whose books are constantly pirated and who see no point in creating new content if other people are only going to keep stealing it. And of course, I’ve known writers who’ve had so much to deal with in their personal lives that finding time to write seems impossible.
I’ve had my share of discouragement, too. My first novel contract was abruptly canceled by the publisher because they “no longer felt comfortable with the book.” I’ve been nominated for awards nine times but I’ve only won once. My first agent gave up on me after a year. My second agent lasted nineteen years, but toward the end of our relationship, he stopped responding to my attempts to contact him. Editors have lied to me. I’ve pitched short story collections to some who tell me they don’t do collections, except they’d already published a bunch and went on to publish many more in the future. I’ve had editors tell me their publisher doesn’t offer advances only to learn they are giving other writers advances. I’ve requested blurbs from writers who say they don’t have the time but go on to regularly blurb others. There are editors who, after I’ve made progress on a project with them, ended up ghosting me. I’ve had editors publish my stories and never pay me. I’ve had interest from and worked with Hollywood people on stuff that goes nowhere. I’ve been offered tie-in projects that end up never happening, getting canceled, or which are given to someone else. I’ve written and published books that got little notice and few reviews. There are a lot of Year’s Best anthologies I’d love to have stories in but never have. I’ve had publishers drop me after a few books. I’ve had book contracts canceled after I’ve written the book for the publisher. And I could go on.
I didn’t write the above to engender any sympathy (but if you want to feel bad for me, I’m not going to stop you). I want to show you that writers who most people might see as successful (or semi-successful), have plenty of things happen to make us discouraged, too. The truth is, discouragement is a perpetual part of a writing career.
 So how can writers – those who are just beginning, those who’ve stopped writing, and those who’ve been writing for a while and find it hard to keep going – do to deal with discouragement?
·         The Darwinian view. Many professional writers take the attitude that if someone can be discouraged from pursuing writing as a career, then they don’t have what it takes to become a writer. And maybe there’s some truth to that view. But it’s also a facile way of avoiding any responsibility for nurturing the next generation of writers, said nurturing being part of what makes a good literary citizen. But as I often tell students and attendees of workshops I present, a writing career is, in many ways, about mental and emotional resilience. And ultimately, that can only come from within us. No one can give it to us, not even the most gifted of teachers and devoted of mentors.
·         It’s okay to stop. No one ever tells you this, but it’s perfectly fine to explore something – like writing – and decide for whatever reasons it’s not for you. Or to write for a while and then decide you’ve gotten what you needed from that time, and move on to explore something else. If you do this, you’re not a quitter or a loser.
·         It’s okay to take a break.You don’t need to write 24/7 365 days a year to qualify as a “real” writer. You can write for a couple years, take a few (or many) years off, and come back to writing when you’re ready, when you feel like you’re creatively energized again. Plus, while you’re taking a break, you’re living life, which means when you return to writing, you’ll have more experience to draw on. And sometimes you need to take a break for your mental and physical health, what I call “maintaining the machine.”
·         Don’t buy into society’s – or any other writers’ – paradigm for success. In America, people are what they do, and their success is judged by how many things they can acquire with the money they make. Writers often believe that that the ultimate expression of a writing career is to be able to write full time and support yourself financially solely with your writing. That’s when a writer has “made it.” But this is bullshit. I’ve known many writers who write full time and are barely living above the poverty line. Plus, they have no healthcare. They are so stressed by trying to pay bills and so worried about getting sick or injured, that they don’t produce any more work than writers with day jobs. Stress is the enemy of creativity. Feeling like you have to live up to some imaginary standard that others have created – and feeling that you’re constantly failing to reach that standard – can make you feel like you’re a failure before you even begin. Each of us make our own path as a writer, and it’s fine if your path is different than anyone else’s. In fact, it should be different. It’s yours. Do what you need to do to be able to make a life that’s conducive to writing, whatever that means for you. I decided a long time ago that what I wanted wasn’t to become rich or win a ton of awards or have millions of readers. I couldn’t control whether or not I got any of these things. I decided I wanted to have a life in writing. That aim was entirely within my control, and I’ve achieved it. I won’t know the ultimate shape that life has taken until right before I die, but there’s no doubt I’ve created it.
·         It’s okay to have a small audience.Writers are often told – either directly or implicitly – that they need to have the biggest audience possible. We need as many followers on social media as we can get, as many subscribers to our newsletters as possible, as many reviews as we can get on Amazon, as many books sales, and on and on. If your goal is to make a ton of money, then all of this is true. But if you want to make money, why the hell did you choose to become an artist? If you want to make money, go to law school or medical school. We pursue art because it’s what we love, it’s who we are, we can’t imagine living life without doing it . . . If you’re writing what you love and feel satisfied with your work, then it’s fine if you have a small audience. If you cook a meal, how many people do you need to serve it to in order to feel satisfied? Bigger is better is a fallacy created by American consumer culture. Better is better, and you decide what’s best for you.
·         Stick to your guns or explore new territory? Writers are often told they need to pick a genre, to create a brand, and then stick to it. That’s marketing talk, not artist talk. There’s nothing wrong with taking a market-based approach if it helps you create your best work and you find that approach fulfilling. But you don’t need to write the same kind of thing forever. It’s okay – and healthy – to explore different types of writing from time to time, especially if you haven’t had much success with one type so far. By trying different types of writing, you might find the success that’s eluded you so far. A friend of mine in college wanted to be a science fiction writer. Instead, he became a well-published author of sports articles. I know writers who started out in one genre – YA – and became a hit in another, like romance. If nothing else, trying something new can re-energize you when you return to your main focus. Earlier this year, I wrote a one-act play, the first play I’ve written in over thirty years. I wrote it just for fun, as a kind of creative vacation from the horror and tie-in fiction I usually write. Remember the old saying: A change is as good as a rest. I don’t know if anything will ever come of this play. I’ve submitted it to a theatre company, but even if the play is never produced, it still gave me what I needed, and I returned to my usual writing feeling refreshed.
·         It’s a long haul. Sometimes REALLY long. How long does it take to establish a writing career? If you go immediately to self-publishing, hardly any time at all. (And whether that’s a good thing or not is very much up for debate.) But in the case of traditional publishing, the amount of time I’ve heard most often from people – and which my experience bears out – is about ten years. And that’s just to get to the point where you’re regularly selling your work. How much longer does it take to become a “success”? The rest of your life. In any art form, there is always more to learn, more to explore, more to achieve, both creatively and in terms of the business aspect. The truth is no artist probably ever reaches whatever they consider to be ultimate success. Stephen King craves acceptance from the literary establishment. Literary writers want a larger audience and more money. Writers of entertainment-based fiction covet awards for literary excellence (to the point where some of them tried to rig the Hugo Awards in their favor several years in a row). Dissatisfaction and restlessness are important fuel to an artist. They might even be two of the defining qualities of an artist. Once you reach the summit, there’s nowhere left to climb, and the climbing is where all the fun and challenge is.
·         Rejection means nothing more than a no from one person at one time. Rejections are the most common part of a writer’s life. They are inevitable and, when you’re starting out, they’re numerable. They begin to add up fast, and they have a cumulative effect. They seem like a chorus of voices saying your work sucks, you suck, and you should never write again. Now it’s true that at the start of a career, when a writer is still learning his or her craft, that the stories they produce may not be publishable yet. But if you keep writing and growing as an artist – and you get better at targeting your submissions to specific publications/publishers – you’ll start selling. The rejections will still come, though, (I still get them) and you have to remember that unless you get specific feedback that helps provide insight on how to improve your writing (which editors are under no obligation to give you), one rejection is just one, and it’s not a statement about you and your writing. It’s just a no. Do your best to put it behind you, keep sending your work out, and keep growing as a writer.
·         Don’t set unreasonable deadlines for yourself. When I decided to become a professional writer (I was probably eighteen or so) I gave myself until I was thirty to sell a novel. If I couldn’t do it by then, I’d put my energies into some other career. As my thirtieth birthday approached, I still didn’t have a novel contract. But on my birthday, the man who would be my second agent called and offered to represent me, and I figured that was close enough. I’m sure I would’ve kept writing anyway, but I soon realized that it was foolish of me to set a stupid deadline like that. Don’t set yourself up to fail – or at least feel like a failure. The writing life is hard enough without making it harder on yourself.
·         Envy is the writer’s disease.I have no idea who first said this, but I’ve heard it many times over the years. It’s too easy to compare ourselves to other writers who get larger advances, have greater sales, larger audiences, better reviews, more awards. Don’t do this. I repeat DO NOT DO THIS. This way lies madness. Admire other writers’ work, learn from it, learn from their accomplishments and their setbacks, but never compare yourself to them. Unless you’re a narcissist, you’ll always come out second best when you compare yourself to someone else, if for no other reason than it’s impossible for you to be someone else. You can’t have anyone else’s career. You can only have yours.
·         Social media makes envy worse. I’m fifty-five. As I said earlier, I started writing seriously when I was eighteen. Back then, there was no Internet. You learned about other writers’ careers by reading interviews with them in physical magazines or by watching them be interviewed on TV. You could also read books about writing and the writing life written by authors. I didn’t start going to writing conventions until my late twenties – by which time the first public message boards were appearing – but you could learn from other writers there (especially after they had a few drinks). Since there was less information out there, there was less to be envious of. Now every writer trumpets their successes (no matter how minor) on social media as part of relentlessly promoting themselves (as they’ve been told they have to do). Now there’s a shit-ton of information out there to make us feel bad about ourselves. It’s harder than ever to stop ourselves from making destructive comparisons. That’s why it’s so vital that we keep fighting the writer’s disease.
·         It’s a calling. We write because we have to. It’s an essential aspect of ourselves and how we manifest those selves in reality. We can stop writing, but if we do, something inside of us withers away. We stop being our authentic selves. (And if this isn’t true of you – especially if you have other creative outlets – then the thought of quitting writing shouldn’t bother you at all.) So regardless of what level of success we achieve, we have to write anyway, so why let success or failure bother us? They are both immaterial to producing writing. But on the other hand . . .
·         It’s a job. I don’t know if the magazine still does this, but for years, The Writer proclaimed on its masthead that it was the oldest magazine for literary workers. That’s a wonderful way to think of ourselves: literary workers. Everyone knows that a job isn’t all sunshine and rainbows every day. Hell, it’s almost never sunshine and rainbows. And we don’t get upset by that. We expect it, we deal with it, and we keep forging ahead (assuming the job isn’t so awful we have to quit to protect our mental and/or physical health). But by thinking of writing as a job, it’s easier to accept the drawbacks and the hardships because you understand that sure, they suck, but they’re also par for the course. So keep grinding it out.
·        We need to create many things to make one truly lasting, impactful thing. I read an article recently that discussed a study on creativity. The researchers came to the conclusion that an artist needs to make a lot of things to create something truly special, something that strongly resonates with an audience and has a chance to make a lasting impact. And the kicker? Artists don’t know when they’ve made a special thing. In fact, they’re a terrible judge of their work. As an example, the researchers talk about Toto’s hit song “Africa.” It was a song they tacked onto the album just to finish it, and no one thought much of it. But almost forty years later, it remains well known, by old and young alike. Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery.” Poe’s “The Raven.” Sure, these authors produced other great works, but those two works are the most famous, at least as far as the general populace is concerned. The lesson here? You’ve got to write a lot of stuff in order to have a shot at producing your own “The Lottery” or “The Raven.” One work of art that you’ll be known by, that will become your ultimate brand. Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, Bram Stoker and Dracula, George RR Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire (which will undoubtedly always be better known by the TV show title, A Game of Thrones.) Yes, you can find examples of artists who produce one work – Margaret Mitchell and Gone With the Wind, Harper Lee and Death of a Salesman – but they’re exceptions. So if you don’t keep writing, you may never produce the one great work (which could be a series or a character, not just one story or one novel) that will become your artistic legacy, and perhaps change the field you write in forever.
“Perseverance furthers” the I-Ching tells us, and writers love to pass along this piece of advice to each other. This advice has the beauty of being absolutely achievable. It doesn’t guarantee how far perseverance will take you, but it clearly implies that it’s the only way you’ll get anywhere. The trick is to think of your path as a journey of learning, discovery, and growth as opposed to a race to some imagined finish line. Write, write, write. Send your work out into the world. Write some more. Get better. Repeat.
And don’t get the bastards get you down.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTIONMy novel Supernatural: Children of Anubis was recently released.Sam and Dean travel to Indiana, to investigate a murder that could be the work of a werewolf. But they soon discover that werewolves aren't the only things going bump in the night. The town is also home to a pack of jakkals who worship the god Anubis: carrion-eating scavengers who hate werewolves. With the help of Garth, the Winchester brothers must stop the werewolf-jakkal turf war before it engulfs the town - and before the god Anubis is awakened...
You can buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Supernatural-Children-Anubis-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1785653261/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1558406289&sr=1-4
My horror novel They Kill is coming this July from Flame Tree Press.
Sierra Sowell’s dead brother Jeffrey is resurrected by a mysterious man known only as Corliss. Corliss also transforms four people in Sierra’s life into inhuman monsters determined to kill her. Sierra and Jeffrey’s boyfriend Marc work to discover the reason for her brother’s return to life while struggling to survive attacks by this monstrous quartet.
You can preorder it here: https://www.amazon.com/They-Kill-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787582558/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1558406289&s=books&sr=1-2
My novel Alien: Prototype is coming in October.
Corporate spy Tamar Prather steals a Xenomorph egg from Weyland-Yutani, taking it to a lab facility run by Venture, a Weyland-Yutani competitor. Former Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks--now allied with the underground resistance--infiltrates Venture's security team. When a human test subject is impregnated, the result is a Xenomorph that, unless it's stopped, will kill every human being on the planet.
You can preorder it here: https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Prototype-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1789090911/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1558406289&s=books&sr=1-1

The Power of You

            “This is a hell of a story, but I’m not sure this is the way to tell it.”            A number of years ago, I submitted a story titled “Ghost in the Graveyard” to an anthology called Gothic Ghosts, edited by horror legend Charles L. Grant. I knew Charlie a little from the Genie boards (a forerunner of today’s social media), but not so well that I felt comfortable writing him and asking him to clarify his comment. I didn’t really need him to explain, though. I knew what he was reacting to: the story was written in second person. For some people, reading a story in second person is an acquired taste. while others would rather gargle with battery acid than subject themselves to second person.            I can’t remember if “Ghost in the Graveyard” was the first time I wrote in second person, but a quick glance at my bibliography shows that it was the first such story I had published. It appeared in All Hallows in June 2000. Since then I’ve written around twenty more second-person stories, which is about a seventh of all the short fiction I’ve had published. Not a huge proportion of my overall output, perhaps, but enough to form a collection of its own. As the years go by, I seem to be writing in second person more often, and one of my most recent second-person stories, “How to be a Horror Writer,” has been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award.            If readers have been exposed to second-person fiction at all, it’s most likely through Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. But unless they read literary fiction or were an English major in college, they probably haven’t encountered it anywhere else. Which is a shame, because second person can achieve effects that first and third person can’t. Here are some things to consider when writing in second person.·         Use present tense with second person. Past tense – “You were eating an apple and you thought it was delicious” – doesn’t work well with second-person stories. Using you already keeps the reader at a distance from the story (which I’ll talk about later), so using past tense would push them away even farther. Present tense works better for second-person stories. Present tense is weird in fiction. You would think that present tense would indicate to readers that the events they’re reading about are happening right now, this very instant, creating a sense of immediacy and urgency. But instead present-tense narratives come across as passive and lacking in energy. This is one of the reasons literary writers often favor present tense. They want to avoid any hint of melodrama in their work, want it to appeal to the intellect rather than emotions. The passive nature of present tense can intensify the distancing effect of passive voice.·         Second person creates cognitive dissonance in the reader. You’re constantly telling the reader that he or she is doing something when they damn well know they’re not. It’s almost as if their subconscious is always reminding them that You are not this person and you are not doing this thing, you are not this person and you are not doing this thing. This is one of the main reasons readers have trouble with present-tense stories, I think. But it’s also one of the great strengths of second person. Instead of inviting readers to relax and fall into the story, second person makes them wrestle with it mentally. Reading is always an interactive experience for readers, but second person creates a different sort of interaction. This effect works well for horror and weird fiction. Readers feel uncertain, unsure what to expect. They aren’t safe. Safe fiction is comfort food for the mind, and there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that. But unsafe fiction can affect readers far more deeply and leave a lasting impression.·         Second person creates a distancing effect. It puts the reader in the position of being an observer rather than a participant in the story. It keeps them at arm’s length, keeps them off balance. This isn’t the normal way a story is told (as far as they’re concerned), so they aren’t quite sure what’s going to happen. They aren’t sure of the “rules.” As I said earlier, they aren’t safe. And good horror fiction – any fiction that matters – should never be safe.·            Second person creates a numbing effect, and it has a flat, steady pace. If a character is experiencing something outside of what they believe to be the norm, something that is unreal or nightmarish, second person can create the same sort of detached numbness people experience when they’re dreaming. Second person allows readers to experience the same dreamlike detachment that the viewpoint character in a story experiences. The flat pace works well to create a sense of creeping menace, of a slow, inexorable progression toward whatever awfulness awaits at the end.·            Second person tends to work better at short lengths rather than long ones. Jay McInerney’s famous second-person novel Bright Lights, Big City is a slim book, running under 50,000 words. I think the effects of second person – the distancing, the observer effect, the numbing, the flat, steady pace – can wear on most readers after a time. The effect can’t be sustained past a certain point. Exactly where that point is depends on the individual reader, but in general, I’d say that second person works best at short story or novella length.·            Second person appeals more to readers of literary fiction than readers of commercial fiction. This is another reason narratives written in second-person are rare. Commercial fiction doesn’t necessarily mean hackwork. I write a great deal of commercial fiction, usually for the media tie-in novels that I do, and I strive to make these novels just as good as anything else I write. But commercial fiction is intended to appeal to the widest audience possible. To do this, it needs to be relatable and readable. It needs to welcome readers to the story and its characters, not keep them outside the story, as second person does. Since Choose Your Own Adventure-type stories directly address the reader at each decision point – If you want to open the door, turn to page 37. If you want to leave the door closed, turn to page 113 – second person works well. This is the only regular use of second person in commercial fiction that I’m aware of, though. Second person is more of a literary technique than an entertainment-focused technique.           Second person can broaden a reader’s perspective on what fiction is and what it can do. It’s always good for readers to encounter narrative styles they may be unfamiliar with. The more varied reading experiences they have, the better readers they become overall. Stronger readers are more likely to expand their reading tastes and try new types of stories, which in turn makes them even better readers, further enriching their lives. Second person can be one more tool to help readers gain a deeper appreciation of literature, making writers better ambassadors for our art form.How do I decide when to use second person? 1.      When I want to create any of the previously mentioned effects.2.      Instinct. Sometimes a story feels as if it should be written in second person. Why, I don’t know. When I feel this, I don’t question it. I just go with it.3.      When I’m not sure how to find my way into a story, I play around with different techniques. My short stories tend to be less plotted out than my novels, and they often focus on very abstract or imagistic ideas. This means that I’m not always certain how and where to begin a story. I’ll draft different beginnings, using different techniques and voices, and whichever turns out to be the key to unlock the story for me, that’s the one I use. Sometimes second person is that key.4.      What I’m writing is very personal. I mentioned Bright Lights, Big City earlier. McInerney’s novel is based on his experiences as a young man living and working in New York City during the 1980’s: lots of partying, lots of coke, lots of sex. He had trouble writing the book until he tried second person. I believe using second person created the distancing effect he needed in order to write about his experiences, even in a fictionalized form. It works the same for me. When I’m writing a story that’s drawn very closely from my own experience, so much so that it could almost be a personal essay if I wrote it differently, second person gives me the distance I need in order to write about that experience. It helps me be a more detached observer of my own life, which allows me to work more effectively with my experiences as words and ideas on the page.5.      When I’m having trouble getting started on a story, I often go straight to second person without trying different techniques. Writing stories in second person is as natural to me as breathing. The words pour out of me like water when I use second person. I’m not sure why. Maybe there’s a part of me that’s always a detached observer of my own life. (I wouldn’t be surprised if most artists are like this.) Writing in second person allows me to tap into that observer part of me. I serve as a mentor for the Horror Writers Association, and a while back I was mentoring a gentleman who was an award-winning playwright and teacher of playwrighting. He wanted to learn to write fiction more effectively, but when I read his stories, I could see that he was writing them as if they were plays, just with more words – description, narration, etc. – surrounding the dialogue. I knew that he was writing stories from the same perspective as he was writing plays: from the perspective of someone sitting in the audience and watching. I wanted to show him that he needed to write with a close attachment to one character’s viewpoint, as if he were one of the actors on stage experiencing the events of the play as they progressed. I wasn’t sure how to explain this, so I sat down to write a story, paying attention to how I focused my awareness when I wrote, hoping that I’d come up with the right concepts and vocabulary to communicate to my mentee the difference between writing from an audience member’s perspective and writing from an individual character’s perspective. I wrote a second-person story, which already has a detached observer’s point of view embedded in the technique. It worked. I was able to show my mentee the difference between the two ways of approaching writing. And the story I wrote just as a teaching tool? It was “How to be a Horror Writer,” the story that was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award.If you’ve never tried to write fiction in second person, read some examples then give it a shot. You might find it an interesting and rewarding, challenge. You’ll add another technique to your writer’s toolkit, and who knows? You might discover a new voice to speak with.DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION


If you’d like to check out an example of my second-person fiction, you can read one of my stories for free on my website. “Portrait of a Horror Writer” was originally published in Cemetery Dance 48: http://timwaggoner.com/portraitof.htmIf you’d like to read “How to be a Horror Writer,” you can find it in Vastarien Volume 1, Issue 2: https://www.amazon.com/Vastarien-Vol-1-Issue-2/dp/0692141456/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1556892690&sr=8-3The Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented at Readercon on July 14th. Wish me luck!