Iffix Y. Santaph's Blog, page 5
May 29, 2015
Four M's of a Strong Introduction
The hero sneaks into a top secret facility, narrowly averting various security measures to where he accesses a data point; he uploads intel on the facility to his comrades, then makes his escape, only he falls into enemy hands, and here is where the story begins.
Now, this is probably a little hackneyed. But that's because it works with an alarming consistency.
There are four M's that most strong introductions benefit from. They use these factors together to draw in readers. (Of course, you're welcome to debate these four in the comments section.)
Motion - A story that doesn't start out in motion isn't a story. Action is crucial. Your audience doesn't really buy a book for backstory. I saw an interesting thread here on Goodreads the other day. The initiator asked something like: "Which fantasy world is your favorite?" Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that question, but we generally don't flock to a story for the setting. A fantasy world has mountains, rivers, oceans, dragons (well, sometimes), and maybe even a unicorn, if the writer is into that sort of thing. But setting is only important if the action taking place there is meaningful. That being said, motion is integral, but not just any action will do.
Mentality - I'm going to use mentality here to describe a character's thought process, or the reason why they do what they do. Action for action's sake is generally useless. However, if your action serves to reveal your character, that's when it means something. Take our hero in the introduction of this article. We know he's likely involved in some manner of espionage. He didn't just decide on a whim to invade a top secret facility. We get to see who he is based on what he does. When the action reveals the character it draws in readers.
I read three paragraphs of a free e-book giveaway which I will not name here, with respect to the writer. He wrote the first page about the character, I'm assuming the main character, simply running. Now, running is good. It's action. But unless the character is running toward something or away from something, the action does very little. The character may as well have just gotten out of bed. (We'll come back to that statement.)
I read another story about a month ago where the characters were running throughout the entirety of the story. They were in a triathlon. But this story worked because it wasn't simply action for the sake of action. It gave a glimpse into the character's mentality. The character had been recovering from obesity and was running to show her family she finally could. When she passed the finish line, I cheered with her. I knew why she ran. I knew her mentality.
Mystery - Every book is a mystery, not in the traditional sense of uncovering a dead body necessarily, but in the sense that readers generally like to assemble the pieces of a story like the pieces of a puzzle. You may have seen, at one point, someone with a puzzle glued down and hung on the wall. The assembler is hardly an artist, but he feels as though he accomplished something and he wants others to know it. We meet the reader half way, allow them to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, so that when it comes time to set down the book, she still wants to read some more, discover some more. Perhaps the reader is like a paleontologist. On page one, she unearths a fragment of bone and gets excited about it. She doesn't stop until the pieces are uncovered and she can see the whole creature or at least can imagine what it might look like.
Look at our introductory example. We don't know readily why our hero is invading a top secret facility, what he uploads, or even whether he is in fact the hero. Perhaps, in the grand sceme of things, he's a minor character, and the one coming to rescue him is the hero. Perhaps he is the villain and because of the sensitive information he has just uploaded, our hero needs to stop a global nuclear meltdown.
Here again, I want to emphasize, keep any backstory until it absolutely matters. And if it doesn't, keep it for your own records but don't put it in your book. Anything that will pull readers away from the action and the hero simply isn't worth losing your audience over.
This sense of mystery may be your most important tool.
Learn the question-and-answer approach to storytelling.
Misfortune - This is another must in your introduction. Without misfortune, without friction, the plot falls flat. Generally, we want a happy ending, but how we get there should usually be filled with misfortune.
Remember what was said about a character waking up? Many stories I have read by beginning writers start with the main character waking up. It is generally the worst opening you can give to any story. No one wants to read about a character waking up with morning breath, at least not on page one. In fact, if the character is too preoccupied to sleep (a sense of misfortune), that's generally a good thing.
However, compare Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. In this story, on waking up, the main character is struck with misfortune. In addition, Sanderson put a lot of details about this character, his mentality, in this scene. And because, as readers, we know something is wrong long before we know what, Sanderson developed an excellent hint of mystery.
That being said, there are exceptions to every rule. So I would like to open this article for discussion. What elements do you feel strengthen an introduction? Remember that when we learn from one another, we become better story tellers.
Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is the first book in a series of science fiction fairytales for young adults. It is available now from Amazon.com and other online retailers.
Now, this is probably a little hackneyed. But that's because it works with an alarming consistency.
There are four M's that most strong introductions benefit from. They use these factors together to draw in readers. (Of course, you're welcome to debate these four in the comments section.)
Motion - A story that doesn't start out in motion isn't a story. Action is crucial. Your audience doesn't really buy a book for backstory. I saw an interesting thread here on Goodreads the other day. The initiator asked something like: "Which fantasy world is your favorite?" Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that question, but we generally don't flock to a story for the setting. A fantasy world has mountains, rivers, oceans, dragons (well, sometimes), and maybe even a unicorn, if the writer is into that sort of thing. But setting is only important if the action taking place there is meaningful. That being said, motion is integral, but not just any action will do.
Mentality - I'm going to use mentality here to describe a character's thought process, or the reason why they do what they do. Action for action's sake is generally useless. However, if your action serves to reveal your character, that's when it means something. Take our hero in the introduction of this article. We know he's likely involved in some manner of espionage. He didn't just decide on a whim to invade a top secret facility. We get to see who he is based on what he does. When the action reveals the character it draws in readers.
I read three paragraphs of a free e-book giveaway which I will not name here, with respect to the writer. He wrote the first page about the character, I'm assuming the main character, simply running. Now, running is good. It's action. But unless the character is running toward something or away from something, the action does very little. The character may as well have just gotten out of bed. (We'll come back to that statement.)
I read another story about a month ago where the characters were running throughout the entirety of the story. They were in a triathlon. But this story worked because it wasn't simply action for the sake of action. It gave a glimpse into the character's mentality. The character had been recovering from obesity and was running to show her family she finally could. When she passed the finish line, I cheered with her. I knew why she ran. I knew her mentality.
Mystery - Every book is a mystery, not in the traditional sense of uncovering a dead body necessarily, but in the sense that readers generally like to assemble the pieces of a story like the pieces of a puzzle. You may have seen, at one point, someone with a puzzle glued down and hung on the wall. The assembler is hardly an artist, but he feels as though he accomplished something and he wants others to know it. We meet the reader half way, allow them to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, so that when it comes time to set down the book, she still wants to read some more, discover some more. Perhaps the reader is like a paleontologist. On page one, she unearths a fragment of bone and gets excited about it. She doesn't stop until the pieces are uncovered and she can see the whole creature or at least can imagine what it might look like.
Look at our introductory example. We don't know readily why our hero is invading a top secret facility, what he uploads, or even whether he is in fact the hero. Perhaps, in the grand sceme of things, he's a minor character, and the one coming to rescue him is the hero. Perhaps he is the villain and because of the sensitive information he has just uploaded, our hero needs to stop a global nuclear meltdown.
Here again, I want to emphasize, keep any backstory until it absolutely matters. And if it doesn't, keep it for your own records but don't put it in your book. Anything that will pull readers away from the action and the hero simply isn't worth losing your audience over.
This sense of mystery may be your most important tool.
Learn the question-and-answer approach to storytelling.
Misfortune - This is another must in your introduction. Without misfortune, without friction, the plot falls flat. Generally, we want a happy ending, but how we get there should usually be filled with misfortune.
Remember what was said about a character waking up? Many stories I have read by beginning writers start with the main character waking up. It is generally the worst opening you can give to any story. No one wants to read about a character waking up with morning breath, at least not on page one. In fact, if the character is too preoccupied to sleep (a sense of misfortune), that's generally a good thing.
However, compare Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. In this story, on waking up, the main character is struck with misfortune. In addition, Sanderson put a lot of details about this character, his mentality, in this scene. And because, as readers, we know something is wrong long before we know what, Sanderson developed an excellent hint of mystery.
That being said, there are exceptions to every rule. So I would like to open this article for discussion. What elements do you feel strengthen an introduction? Remember that when we learn from one another, we become better story tellers.
Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is the first book in a series of science fiction fairytales for young adults. It is available now from Amazon.com and other online retailers.
May 23, 2015
Writer's Secret
Shh... Don't tell anyone this, okay?
I read this article this afternoon published by a prominent writing magazine which said, essentially, that writing is a horrible profession of pain and suffering.
Here's the secret. It doesn't have to be. Not if you do it right.
I have spent many years searching for the few great books I have actually stomached from cover to cover. Now, to be clear, I spend most of my leisure reading opportunities reading stories from competitors within my market. That means, yeah, a lot of middle-grade fiction. The sad thing is there are so many writers out there who feel some obligation to write down to children. It doesn't impress me. I can just feel that writer's pain. And I wonder why none of the other readers can sense that? (Was this "Best Seller" thing a mistake?)
I speak about a few specific authors who inspired me in my author profile here on goodreads.com. I learned best from these chosen few because they made it clear they enjoyed their writing. (Don't let Lemony Snicket fool you with blurbs about how much he hated to tell the Baudelaires' story.)
I firmly believe that writing can be painful at times. But writing should be enjoyable more than painful.
Case in point, if you bore yourself for someone else's sake, you're doing it wrong. If you're bored writing something, your audience will be bored reading it. Have you ever heard the expression "smile with your voice"? That's a popular mantra among telemarketers in particular. But there's a lot of sense to it.
You likely realize that when you speak about something as if you're excited about it, your listener gets excited about it too. Now, as someone who is "so much cooler on paper" I can testify that a writer's voice has very little to deal with his or her vocal chords. It's deeper. When we write, we let our heart speak. So, if we allow ourselves to be excited about a project, it carries through to our audience.
So, Fred (Yeah, that writer who was sniveling in the other article, his name is Fred), if writing is so miserable for you, make some room on the bookstore shelves for those of us who enjoy it.
And if you do enjoy writing, don't let some bozo magazine editor tell you not to. (I have mad respect for his other informative articles, seriously. But this one was just plain shameful.)
Share that joy in your writing and share it with other writers. After all, we always enjoy telling other writers about our joy, and some other writers may even enjoy listening. It's how we learn from one another.
Thank you for reading. I had to get that off my chest.
Iffix Y Santaph truly enjoyed writing his sci-fi adventure novella Impulse and fully plans to enjoy telling the other stories in the series. If you're looking for a series you can enjoy, Forgotten Princess might just be for you.
I read this article this afternoon published by a prominent writing magazine which said, essentially, that writing is a horrible profession of pain and suffering.
Here's the secret. It doesn't have to be. Not if you do it right.
I have spent many years searching for the few great books I have actually stomached from cover to cover. Now, to be clear, I spend most of my leisure reading opportunities reading stories from competitors within my market. That means, yeah, a lot of middle-grade fiction. The sad thing is there are so many writers out there who feel some obligation to write down to children. It doesn't impress me. I can just feel that writer's pain. And I wonder why none of the other readers can sense that? (Was this "Best Seller" thing a mistake?)
I speak about a few specific authors who inspired me in my author profile here on goodreads.com. I learned best from these chosen few because they made it clear they enjoyed their writing. (Don't let Lemony Snicket fool you with blurbs about how much he hated to tell the Baudelaires' story.)
I firmly believe that writing can be painful at times. But writing should be enjoyable more than painful.
Case in point, if you bore yourself for someone else's sake, you're doing it wrong. If you're bored writing something, your audience will be bored reading it. Have you ever heard the expression "smile with your voice"? That's a popular mantra among telemarketers in particular. But there's a lot of sense to it.
You likely realize that when you speak about something as if you're excited about it, your listener gets excited about it too. Now, as someone who is "so much cooler on paper" I can testify that a writer's voice has very little to deal with his or her vocal chords. It's deeper. When we write, we let our heart speak. So, if we allow ourselves to be excited about a project, it carries through to our audience.
So, Fred (Yeah, that writer who was sniveling in the other article, his name is Fred), if writing is so miserable for you, make some room on the bookstore shelves for those of us who enjoy it.
And if you do enjoy writing, don't let some bozo magazine editor tell you not to. (I have mad respect for his other informative articles, seriously. But this one was just plain shameful.)
Share that joy in your writing and share it with other writers. After all, we always enjoy telling other writers about our joy, and some other writers may even enjoy listening. It's how we learn from one another.
Thank you for reading. I had to get that off my chest.
Iffix Y Santaph truly enjoyed writing his sci-fi adventure novella Impulse and fully plans to enjoy telling the other stories in the series. If you're looking for a series you can enjoy, Forgotten Princess might just be for you.
May 20, 2015
Does a strong imagination make a reader gullible?
I thought I would change up the blog for tonight to bring up an interesting topic for conversation. I won't go too deeply into this article, simply because I am actually hoping that you, dear reader, will help me to get a better grasp on the answer.
I have always valued writing for tweens and teens. Part of this is because though my target audience is comfortable enough with reading that I don't need to oversimplify my word choices, they still have a very active imagination. That being said, I feel I can tell a more imaginative story with this audience in mind.
There's a group of readers out there who will not touch speculative fiction unless it is "real", or has this sense of "realism" based on modern accepted scientific practice. For example, these ones frown upon alien life forms in literature. They want to know the specifics of spaceship travel. And they are more concerned with the inner workings of a blaster that can melt your face (and perhaps write this off readily as impossible) than with how awesome it would be to turn your enemies into puddles at will. We call this branch of speculative fiction "hard sci-fi". I want you to be assured that, if you are of this mindset, I have the greatest respect for you though I don't share the mindset personally.
While I value a certain degree of realism in a story, I don't believe that speculative fiction needs to be accurate on a scientific level to maintain a feeling of realism. But if I encourage my audience to believe in something that cannot be explained, and perhaps even something that is altogether impossible, am I encouraging my readers to be gullible? I hardly think so. I prefer to think I am helping to strengthen the imaginations of my audience.
How do you view it? Does cultivating the imagination make a reader gullible? (Please respect other posters.)
I have always valued writing for tweens and teens. Part of this is because though my target audience is comfortable enough with reading that I don't need to oversimplify my word choices, they still have a very active imagination. That being said, I feel I can tell a more imaginative story with this audience in mind.
There's a group of readers out there who will not touch speculative fiction unless it is "real", or has this sense of "realism" based on modern accepted scientific practice. For example, these ones frown upon alien life forms in literature. They want to know the specifics of spaceship travel. And they are more concerned with the inner workings of a blaster that can melt your face (and perhaps write this off readily as impossible) than with how awesome it would be to turn your enemies into puddles at will. We call this branch of speculative fiction "hard sci-fi". I want you to be assured that, if you are of this mindset, I have the greatest respect for you though I don't share the mindset personally.
While I value a certain degree of realism in a story, I don't believe that speculative fiction needs to be accurate on a scientific level to maintain a feeling of realism. But if I encourage my audience to believe in something that cannot be explained, and perhaps even something that is altogether impossible, am I encouraging my readers to be gullible? I hardly think so. I prefer to think I am helping to strengthen the imaginations of my audience.
How do you view it? Does cultivating the imagination make a reader gullible? (Please respect other posters.)
May 19, 2015
How to Determine Chapter Length...
I have seen this question arise on many occasions, so I figured I would give it a shot. (I am happy to answer other questions about writing if you ask me on my author page.)
Is there a hard and fast rule? No. But there are a few guidelines that might be helpful.
The writing critique group scribophile.com states in their submission guidelines:
Keep in mind that Scribophile works with a variety of writers, and while some are professional to a fault, others are starting fresh. And we as readers have a greater attention span for a well-written bit of work that has already undergone this sort of scrutiny. Nevertheless, the guideline is valid.
Most books published today have an average of 10 pages per chapter. (I have considered quite a number of published books and calculated word counts and page numbers.) This is not an arbitrary number. While many say that the average word count is 250 per page, I have done enough calculation to know that the number is actually closer to 300. Indeed, Impulse, my debut novella, averaged 307 words per page and was quite standard. What do all of these calculations mean?
Traditionally published novelists also average 3000 words per chapter. That really isn't a coincidence. The very presence of chapters is designed to pace a book properly so as not to overwhelm readers.
If your reader doesn't have a lot of time, she may appreciate reading your story in shorter increments. Of course, if she is an avid reader, reading multiple chapters at a time may not be uncommon. But these readers generally will not be turned off by chapter breaks, whereas readers with less opportunity may be turned off from a work with rare chapter breaks.
Now, that being the case, there are other factors besides time which come into play, but these are related to time in important ways. What are these factors? I believe you will find that such matters as genre and target audience come into play here.
Say, for example, you are writing an epic fantasy. Many who are drawn to an epic fantasy readily acknowledge a willingness to spend a great deal of time reading. After all, most epic fantasies are very thick books. Take Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Most of the prologues in the Wheel of Time books are longer than most books. Robert Jordan built a fanbase who simply expected this sort of thing. So he had no need to write based on industry standards. (And as already stated, there are no hard and fast rules.)
Considering your target audience, if you are writing for grade-school-aged children, these will likely read at a slower pace. So chapter and middle-grade books may differ greatly from what is expected. I remember reading Louis Sachar's novel Holes. It sticks out in my mind as one of the few that broke the guideline, averaging perhaps 1500 words or 5-6 pages per chapter.
So, if the rules are meant to be broken, how can you determine chapter length for your stories? Consider a few factors.
1) What is the central theme of the chapter? Some writers use chapter titles. Others do not. But even if you choose not to, having a clear concept of your chapter theme will give you a basic guideline. What do you hope to achieve?
2) It is a tried, tested, despised but honored practice to leave a reader in suspense at the close of a chapter. Note that ending a chapter while the action is revving up is better than ending a chapter while the action is winding down. Revving up action means your reader has a good reason to return to see the next plot-hook unfold.
3) You do not always need to end in suspense. Some chapters are better for character development and world building, so vary your pacing. Whatever the case, make certain you leave your audience feeling good that they chose your book, each step of the way.
Beta testing your story will certainly help you with this. Ask for advice from a good friend who will be objective. (I know, finding a good friend who will be brutally honest isn't easy. But it's worth it. As you're starting out, your good friends will likely make up a large part of your target audience.)
You know what you have in mind as you write a chapter. So ask your beta reader, "Is this chapter ____ enough?" and "If you could change one thing about this chapter, what would it be?"
I hope this bit of advice will help you in some way. And since we learn best from one another, how do you determine the proper length for a chapter? What questions are good to ask beta readers? Please share your comments below.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the sci-fi series Forgotten Princess, available now from a variety of on-line retailers, including amazon.com. Deception, the second book in the series, will be released in July.
Is there a hard and fast rule? No. But there are a few guidelines that might be helpful.
The writing critique group scribophile.com states in their submission guidelines:
After many years we've found that the longest length of writing the average person can critique in detail and in one sitting is about 3,000 words. That's the longest—not the minimum, or even the average.
Keep in mind that Scribophile works with a variety of writers, and while some are professional to a fault, others are starting fresh. And we as readers have a greater attention span for a well-written bit of work that has already undergone this sort of scrutiny. Nevertheless, the guideline is valid.
Most books published today have an average of 10 pages per chapter. (I have considered quite a number of published books and calculated word counts and page numbers.) This is not an arbitrary number. While many say that the average word count is 250 per page, I have done enough calculation to know that the number is actually closer to 300. Indeed, Impulse, my debut novella, averaged 307 words per page and was quite standard. What do all of these calculations mean?
Traditionally published novelists also average 3000 words per chapter. That really isn't a coincidence. The very presence of chapters is designed to pace a book properly so as not to overwhelm readers.
If your reader doesn't have a lot of time, she may appreciate reading your story in shorter increments. Of course, if she is an avid reader, reading multiple chapters at a time may not be uncommon. But these readers generally will not be turned off by chapter breaks, whereas readers with less opportunity may be turned off from a work with rare chapter breaks.
Now, that being the case, there are other factors besides time which come into play, but these are related to time in important ways. What are these factors? I believe you will find that such matters as genre and target audience come into play here.
Say, for example, you are writing an epic fantasy. Many who are drawn to an epic fantasy readily acknowledge a willingness to spend a great deal of time reading. After all, most epic fantasies are very thick books. Take Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Most of the prologues in the Wheel of Time books are longer than most books. Robert Jordan built a fanbase who simply expected this sort of thing. So he had no need to write based on industry standards. (And as already stated, there are no hard and fast rules.)
Considering your target audience, if you are writing for grade-school-aged children, these will likely read at a slower pace. So chapter and middle-grade books may differ greatly from what is expected. I remember reading Louis Sachar's novel Holes. It sticks out in my mind as one of the few that broke the guideline, averaging perhaps 1500 words or 5-6 pages per chapter.
So, if the rules are meant to be broken, how can you determine chapter length for your stories? Consider a few factors.
1) What is the central theme of the chapter? Some writers use chapter titles. Others do not. But even if you choose not to, having a clear concept of your chapter theme will give you a basic guideline. What do you hope to achieve?
2) It is a tried, tested, despised but honored practice to leave a reader in suspense at the close of a chapter. Note that ending a chapter while the action is revving up is better than ending a chapter while the action is winding down. Revving up action means your reader has a good reason to return to see the next plot-hook unfold.
3) You do not always need to end in suspense. Some chapters are better for character development and world building, so vary your pacing. Whatever the case, make certain you leave your audience feeling good that they chose your book, each step of the way.
Beta testing your story will certainly help you with this. Ask for advice from a good friend who will be objective. (I know, finding a good friend who will be brutally honest isn't easy. But it's worth it. As you're starting out, your good friends will likely make up a large part of your target audience.)
You know what you have in mind as you write a chapter. So ask your beta reader, "Is this chapter ____ enough?" and "If you could change one thing about this chapter, what would it be?"
I hope this bit of advice will help you in some way. And since we learn best from one another, how do you determine the proper length for a chapter? What questions are good to ask beta readers? Please share your comments below.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the sci-fi series Forgotten Princess, available now from a variety of on-line retailers, including amazon.com. Deception, the second book in the series, will be released in July.
May 18, 2015
Nix Fan Fiction and Maximize Your Potential
Many of us, as writers, start out by writing fan fiction. I did it too, for a while, before I knew better. Now, the practice of writing fan fiction is not a worthless pursuit. You can learn and hone your craft this way. After all, it is far easier for any writer to describe a character from a clear concept than the haze of an imagination. I know this well. Before I began writing my series, I asked a wide variety of artists to contribute concepts and help me shape the universe of my story. And what I described to these artists was, in reality, a fan fiction concept.
I'm going to actually go digging back to a letter I shared with an artist I didn't really know in an artistic community. Her name is Sayla Barnes and she is an exceptional artist. (You can actually find a collaboration Sayla and I worked on together on the book cover of Impulse.)
There were others who I also contacted about this project, and they each contributed a little something wonderful, until I had worked out a storyline that, in truth, had very little to do with the Grimms' classic Little Snow White.
For example, from Sayla's contribution, I began to imagine removing those dwarfs and installing a few teen characters in their place. I also discovered who my villain was and why she was so determined to destroy my protagonist.
Even my protagonist changed with a bit of help from some very talented artists. I don't wish to reveal too much about this change, but suffice it to say, she was no longer Snow White.
This process is a small demonstration of how a fan fiction can be ever so much more.
Now, imagine, dear reader, if I told you that I planned to plagiarize the basic ideas of your story and gain fame and fortune from your hard work. That would be a horrible thing. Yet, it is, sadly, what many fan fiction writers expect to happen when they "borrow" characters and worlds from TV shows, movies, books, video games and other media.
I expect this is more true of you as a writer: Do you dream of enriching your favorite settings and characters with your own imagination? That is a wonderful pursuit, and one with potential that can be maximized. I will explain a little further in a moment.
For now though, consider this. There are real writers out there who are hired to write fan fiction. Think of all of the published stories in your favorite universe that were not written by the original author of that universe. I have geek friends who swear to me that Star Wars would not be as awesome as it is today without Drew Karpyshyn and Timothy Zahn. (It crushed their dreams when Legend and Canon were divided last year, because Thrawn and Revan are far greater characters than Jar Jar will ever be. I will grant anyone a free opportunity for rebuttal in the comments section of this blog.) But neither started by publishing Fan Fiction. They built a trusted name for themselves and were then given license to expand an established universe. What that means is, if your heart is truly set on publishing a fan fiction, with the copyright holder's consent, you must draw an audience to other work. Once you have built your platform (here meaning a significant following), you may get the attention of the copyright holders in a favorable way.
Before write off your fan fiction as lost, though, consider this: might it be possible to cut the strings which tie your fan fiction to the preexisting universe that inspired it? For example, are there certain traits of your favorite character or setting which could be rebuilt in another way and expounded upon? Authors are inspired in this sort of way all the time.
Walter O'brien from Scorpion (CBS) is an exceptionally intelligent man who uses a deep understanding of technology to solve problems. But then, so is Hardison from Leverage (TBS). So is Tony Stark (Marvel Comics). So is Bruce Wayne (DC Comics). So is James Bond in the various novels of Ian Flemming. A character envisioned one way could be reimagined another.
If you contemplate how many settings in speculative fiction mimic others, you would likely never finish your list. But just for the sake of argument, you could draw many parallels between the Na'vi of Pandora (Avatar, 2009) and the Ewoks of Endor (Return of the Jedi, 1983). There are marked similarities between Tatooine (Star Wars, 1977) and Barsoom. (A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1911). These examples prove that writers have been inspiring each other for years.
As we consider other works for their inspirational qualities, we find new ways of telling stories that don't require us to write fan fiction. Using our own imaginations without the safety net of someone else's work may be a greater challenge, but readers admire those who accept this challenge. So cut the strings of fan fiction and maximize your potential as an author. Someday, others will learn from your stories and the cycle of learning from one another will continue.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the six part series Forgotten Princess. His next book Deception will be released in July.
I'm going to actually go digging back to a letter I shared with an artist I didn't really know in an artistic community. Her name is Sayla Barnes and she is an exceptional artist. (You can actually find a collaboration Sayla and I worked on together on the book cover of Impulse.)
I think your monsters are totally epic!
I'm in the process of designing ... the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in an alien setting ... called DwarfStar.
Anyway, I was wondering if it would be okay to use those creatures. ... You would, of course, be credited, and you would keep the rights to your work.
... If that sounds good to you, I'd love to hear from you.
There were others who I also contacted about this project, and they each contributed a little something wonderful, until I had worked out a storyline that, in truth, had very little to do with the Grimms' classic Little Snow White.
For example, from Sayla's contribution, I began to imagine removing those dwarfs and installing a few teen characters in their place. I also discovered who my villain was and why she was so determined to destroy my protagonist.
Even my protagonist changed with a bit of help from some very talented artists. I don't wish to reveal too much about this change, but suffice it to say, she was no longer Snow White.
This process is a small demonstration of how a fan fiction can be ever so much more.
Now, imagine, dear reader, if I told you that I planned to plagiarize the basic ideas of your story and gain fame and fortune from your hard work. That would be a horrible thing. Yet, it is, sadly, what many fan fiction writers expect to happen when they "borrow" characters and worlds from TV shows, movies, books, video games and other media.
I expect this is more true of you as a writer: Do you dream of enriching your favorite settings and characters with your own imagination? That is a wonderful pursuit, and one with potential that can be maximized. I will explain a little further in a moment.
For now though, consider this. There are real writers out there who are hired to write fan fiction. Think of all of the published stories in your favorite universe that were not written by the original author of that universe. I have geek friends who swear to me that Star Wars would not be as awesome as it is today without Drew Karpyshyn and Timothy Zahn. (It crushed their dreams when Legend and Canon were divided last year, because Thrawn and Revan are far greater characters than Jar Jar will ever be. I will grant anyone a free opportunity for rebuttal in the comments section of this blog.) But neither started by publishing Fan Fiction. They built a trusted name for themselves and were then given license to expand an established universe. What that means is, if your heart is truly set on publishing a fan fiction, with the copyright holder's consent, you must draw an audience to other work. Once you have built your platform (here meaning a significant following), you may get the attention of the copyright holders in a favorable way.
Before write off your fan fiction as lost, though, consider this: might it be possible to cut the strings which tie your fan fiction to the preexisting universe that inspired it? For example, are there certain traits of your favorite character or setting which could be rebuilt in another way and expounded upon? Authors are inspired in this sort of way all the time.
Walter O'brien from Scorpion (CBS) is an exceptionally intelligent man who uses a deep understanding of technology to solve problems. But then, so is Hardison from Leverage (TBS). So is Tony Stark (Marvel Comics). So is Bruce Wayne (DC Comics). So is James Bond in the various novels of Ian Flemming. A character envisioned one way could be reimagined another.
If you contemplate how many settings in speculative fiction mimic others, you would likely never finish your list. But just for the sake of argument, you could draw many parallels between the Na'vi of Pandora (Avatar, 2009) and the Ewoks of Endor (Return of the Jedi, 1983). There are marked similarities between Tatooine (Star Wars, 1977) and Barsoom. (A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1911). These examples prove that writers have been inspiring each other for years.
As we consider other works for their inspirational qualities, we find new ways of telling stories that don't require us to write fan fiction. Using our own imaginations without the safety net of someone else's work may be a greater challenge, but readers admire those who accept this challenge. So cut the strings of fan fiction and maximize your potential as an author. Someday, others will learn from your stories and the cycle of learning from one another will continue.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the six part series Forgotten Princess. His next book Deception will be released in July.
May 12, 2015
The Q&A Approach to Storytelling
It’s every fiction writer’s goal, a story so compelling that the reader picks it up and closes it hours later when the book has been read from cover to cover in a single sitting. A couple of days may have gone by, with the reader barely stopping to eat or sleep. They eat your words. Your story keeps them awake with a flashlight beneath the covers. How can you tell this sort of story?
Regardless of your genre, a simple trick will keep your story compelling. We will call this the Question and Answer approach to storytelling. Remember that first scene you read in the book you couldn’t put down? It didn’t regale you with lengthy back-story or world-building before the action ever began. If the back-story is filled in, and the world is built clearly in the reader’s mind, there is no reason to keep reading. If your reader has all of the pieces of the puzzle assembled, the element of curiosity is lost, and the reader along with it. However, sprinkle the right details into the mix of a story in motion and you can spoon-feed a captive audience like a baby.
It is usually best if your story begins with a boost of adrenaline and very few questions answered. Who is that character? Why is he doing what he’s doing? Wait. Why did that just happen? When your audience begins to read, the questions should readily emerge. Answer them gradually. If your audience doesn’t fully know or understand your character or your world until the end of the book, they keep reading until they find the answers.
As you tell a story, you want to give answers to the questions that arise, but make certain your readers don’t have all the answers until the very end. A good rule of thumb is that, until the climax, each chapter of a story should leave the reader with as many or more questions than it answers. Keep track of these questions as you write, and you will always know where your story is going. As a result, you will actually reduce your chances of writer’s block. But that’s just a positive side-effect of the overall endeavor.
A fisherman uses a variety of lures to catch a variety of fish. A storyteller uses a variety of lures to catch an audience. Not every question will be as compelling for every reader. Some will be genuinely interested in the world you are building. Some read because of characters they can relate to. Of course, the simplest question you want your readers to ask continually is “What happens next?” But most stories cannot maintain a break-neck speed throughout, and most readers don’t really look for that sort of story. Strong pacing is vital. Action is only part of a compelling story. A fisherman will begin luring fish to his spot by throwing a few pebbles into the lake, because movement attracts the fish, but if what happens to be moving isn’t at all interesting, the fish swims away. In a similar way, for your reader to be interested in the plot, the characters have to be interesting, and if the audience has a bunch of questions in their minds when reading about your character, then the character is interesting. The same can be said for the world you’re building. Each time your audience discovers the answer to a question, they will feel a hint of satisfaction. And a satisfied audience continues reading. As they piece the puzzle together to reach the satisfying conclusion, they can stand back and marvel at the full picture in all its beauty.
Consider this: every successful author, whatever the genre, is really a mystery writer. Whether the mystery is "Will Lord Jareth vanquish the princess and rescue the dragon in time for dinner?" (I may have gotten that backward; forgive me.) Or "Will these two characters realize how perfect they would be together in time for dinner?" A mystery is a question unanswered. That said, what sort of mystery may vary greatly, but the approach doesn’t. Why not? Because the best storytellers learn from those who came before them.
I've said it before, not simply because I like to end my blog this way, but because I have truly felt it and firmly believe it. When we learn from one another, our stories always become better as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph’s debut novella Impulse is a sci-fi fairytale flavored with a hint of mystery. It is available now from amazon.com and other online retailers. Deception, the second novella in his Forgotten Princess series, will be released in July, 2015.
Questions for discussion: What questions arise in your story’s introduction?
Regardless of your genre, a simple trick will keep your story compelling. We will call this the Question and Answer approach to storytelling. Remember that first scene you read in the book you couldn’t put down? It didn’t regale you with lengthy back-story or world-building before the action ever began. If the back-story is filled in, and the world is built clearly in the reader’s mind, there is no reason to keep reading. If your reader has all of the pieces of the puzzle assembled, the element of curiosity is lost, and the reader along with it. However, sprinkle the right details into the mix of a story in motion and you can spoon-feed a captive audience like a baby.
It is usually best if your story begins with a boost of adrenaline and very few questions answered. Who is that character? Why is he doing what he’s doing? Wait. Why did that just happen? When your audience begins to read, the questions should readily emerge. Answer them gradually. If your audience doesn’t fully know or understand your character or your world until the end of the book, they keep reading until they find the answers.
As you tell a story, you want to give answers to the questions that arise, but make certain your readers don’t have all the answers until the very end. A good rule of thumb is that, until the climax, each chapter of a story should leave the reader with as many or more questions than it answers. Keep track of these questions as you write, and you will always know where your story is going. As a result, you will actually reduce your chances of writer’s block. But that’s just a positive side-effect of the overall endeavor.
A fisherman uses a variety of lures to catch a variety of fish. A storyteller uses a variety of lures to catch an audience. Not every question will be as compelling for every reader. Some will be genuinely interested in the world you are building. Some read because of characters they can relate to. Of course, the simplest question you want your readers to ask continually is “What happens next?” But most stories cannot maintain a break-neck speed throughout, and most readers don’t really look for that sort of story. Strong pacing is vital. Action is only part of a compelling story. A fisherman will begin luring fish to his spot by throwing a few pebbles into the lake, because movement attracts the fish, but if what happens to be moving isn’t at all interesting, the fish swims away. In a similar way, for your reader to be interested in the plot, the characters have to be interesting, and if the audience has a bunch of questions in their minds when reading about your character, then the character is interesting. The same can be said for the world you’re building. Each time your audience discovers the answer to a question, they will feel a hint of satisfaction. And a satisfied audience continues reading. As they piece the puzzle together to reach the satisfying conclusion, they can stand back and marvel at the full picture in all its beauty.
Consider this: every successful author, whatever the genre, is really a mystery writer. Whether the mystery is "Will Lord Jareth vanquish the princess and rescue the dragon in time for dinner?" (I may have gotten that backward; forgive me.) Or "Will these two characters realize how perfect they would be together in time for dinner?" A mystery is a question unanswered. That said, what sort of mystery may vary greatly, but the approach doesn’t. Why not? Because the best storytellers learn from those who came before them.
I've said it before, not simply because I like to end my blog this way, but because I have truly felt it and firmly believe it. When we learn from one another, our stories always become better as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph’s debut novella Impulse is a sci-fi fairytale flavored with a hint of mystery. It is available now from amazon.com and other online retailers. Deception, the second novella in his Forgotten Princess series, will be released in July, 2015.Questions for discussion: What questions arise in your story’s introduction?
May 9, 2015
Eureka - Why You Should Reread Your Novel A Lot
This may surprise you, since this is perhaps the simplest bit of advice you will probably ever hear. But reread your story many times before you publish it.
I got massive writer's block on my current WIP, which represents books 3 and 4 in my novella series.
No, I didn't bite off more than I could chew, though it isn't uncommon to write more than one book at a time. Some writers even recommend it. In this case, I did an overhaul and turned novels into novellas. So books 3 and 4 in my series were one novel, which I happened to be working on at the time.
I suppose my second bit of advice would be to work on another project to give yourself space from the first, so that when you do return to edit, you have enough space to look with a fresh set of eyes. (That's handed down advice; we do learn best from one another. Thanks, Brandon Sanderson.)
Having finished my first book and started the sequel, I wrote until I lost track of myself and ceased horribly. Why did this happen? I wondered.
The answer was actually rather simple. I made mention of it on my Ask a Writer comments on my author page.
I was forcing my characters to do what they had no desire to do. You know, it's one matter, in an action adventure novel, for the character to square off against his nemesis and not have a choice in the matter. And there are plenty of things that your character will not have control over, just as we cannot control every aspect of our own lives. But for the most part, our characters largely have the freedom to think for themselves and decide what they will do in any given circumstance.
If our characters disagree with us, which does and should happen, they need to win out, or else we will have writer's block. Treat them like actual people and dignify them. If we make them stupid by forcing them to dance like puppets on a string, our audience will not enjoy our characters and we will have a harder time writing in the long run.
So back to that theme, how does rereading grant the Eureka moment, and how does it help to fix a single story and a series?
As we reread our own works, we will notice typos. The first batch are easy to find, because we are smart writers. On our second pass, and each subsequent pass, the errors are slightly harder to catch. But here's where it gets interesting. Each of these passes will give our story time to linger in our own mind, and things we regret will naturally pop out. We will notice something that makes our characters seem incredibly stupid, and not the good kind of stupid.
Having a stupid character is perfectly acceptable if it is intended. And even smart characters act stupid from time to time simply because of the stress of a situation. (If our situations don't have enough friction for our characters to act stupid at least once, we probably have a weak plot.)
But to elevate our characters, we need to change out those details. We can usually do so without ruining the rest of our premise, with a bit of thinking outside of the box to bring our story back into line. A bit of peace of mind: if you are a good writer (and usually that's the case, if you've stuck with it long enough), your characters are usually doing what they would do in a situation, in which case not much must be changed in your plot. And sometimes, something small can change everything for the better.
When we write a series, many features of our next book will be based on what our character showed a capability for in the first. So as we go forward too, reading our old books will help us to farm for ideas for subsequent books. And as we bring in ideas that our followers recognize from former stories they feel this excitement, their own "Eureka!" moment about what is to follow. So, if we happen to be stumped on what our character would do in a given situation, we can refer to older scenes to get a better grip on our characters.
We'd do better not to assume, as authors, that we know our stories inside out and will continue to do so. Robert Jordan, who wrote some of the lengthiest, and most incredible, fantasy novels of the last two decades (and sadly died in 2007), was known for keeping files of his universe far beyond what was ever in print, because he knew that remembering everything about the Wheel of Time would be impossible. Now, I will most gladly and readily admit that I am nowhere near the writer Robert Jordan was, but I don't think the length of a book or series has any impact on whether we keep personal notes and refresh our minds from time to time with our former published works, particularly if we are writing a series. Keeping notes, however, doesn't necessarily mean we can skip rereading our works. Notes and actual books work very differently on our thought processes.
So there you have it. Writing advice handed down.
1) Reread your novel or novella a LOT, at least enough to be irritated by the plot. Then fix it.
2) Work on another project to give yourself space from the previous one before editing.
3) Let your characters choose their own course. Look for ways to make your characters smarter.
4) Keep notes about your series to refer back to later. Use these to complement your rereading process.
Some of this, you might already have known, but the advice cannot be shared enough. Some of this, you may not have been aware of. Either way, as we learn from one another, our works always become better as a result.
Iffix Y. Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in a series, which is available now at a variety of online retailers, including Amazon.com. The sequel Deception will be available in July.
Question for discussion: How has rereading your own work helped you to strengthen your story?
I got massive writer's block on my current WIP, which represents books 3 and 4 in my novella series.
No, I didn't bite off more than I could chew, though it isn't uncommon to write more than one book at a time. Some writers even recommend it. In this case, I did an overhaul and turned novels into novellas. So books 3 and 4 in my series were one novel, which I happened to be working on at the time.
I suppose my second bit of advice would be to work on another project to give yourself space from the first, so that when you do return to edit, you have enough space to look with a fresh set of eyes. (That's handed down advice; we do learn best from one another. Thanks, Brandon Sanderson.)
Having finished my first book and started the sequel, I wrote until I lost track of myself and ceased horribly. Why did this happen? I wondered.
The answer was actually rather simple. I made mention of it on my Ask a Writer comments on my author page.
I was forcing my characters to do what they had no desire to do. You know, it's one matter, in an action adventure novel, for the character to square off against his nemesis and not have a choice in the matter. And there are plenty of things that your character will not have control over, just as we cannot control every aspect of our own lives. But for the most part, our characters largely have the freedom to think for themselves and decide what they will do in any given circumstance.
If our characters disagree with us, which does and should happen, they need to win out, or else we will have writer's block. Treat them like actual people and dignify them. If we make them stupid by forcing them to dance like puppets on a string, our audience will not enjoy our characters and we will have a harder time writing in the long run.
So back to that theme, how does rereading grant the Eureka moment, and how does it help to fix a single story and a series?
As we reread our own works, we will notice typos. The first batch are easy to find, because we are smart writers. On our second pass, and each subsequent pass, the errors are slightly harder to catch. But here's where it gets interesting. Each of these passes will give our story time to linger in our own mind, and things we regret will naturally pop out. We will notice something that makes our characters seem incredibly stupid, and not the good kind of stupid.
Having a stupid character is perfectly acceptable if it is intended. And even smart characters act stupid from time to time simply because of the stress of a situation. (If our situations don't have enough friction for our characters to act stupid at least once, we probably have a weak plot.)
But to elevate our characters, we need to change out those details. We can usually do so without ruining the rest of our premise, with a bit of thinking outside of the box to bring our story back into line. A bit of peace of mind: if you are a good writer (and usually that's the case, if you've stuck with it long enough), your characters are usually doing what they would do in a situation, in which case not much must be changed in your plot. And sometimes, something small can change everything for the better.
When we write a series, many features of our next book will be based on what our character showed a capability for in the first. So as we go forward too, reading our old books will help us to farm for ideas for subsequent books. And as we bring in ideas that our followers recognize from former stories they feel this excitement, their own "Eureka!" moment about what is to follow. So, if we happen to be stumped on what our character would do in a given situation, we can refer to older scenes to get a better grip on our characters.
We'd do better not to assume, as authors, that we know our stories inside out and will continue to do so. Robert Jordan, who wrote some of the lengthiest, and most incredible, fantasy novels of the last two decades (and sadly died in 2007), was known for keeping files of his universe far beyond what was ever in print, because he knew that remembering everything about the Wheel of Time would be impossible. Now, I will most gladly and readily admit that I am nowhere near the writer Robert Jordan was, but I don't think the length of a book or series has any impact on whether we keep personal notes and refresh our minds from time to time with our former published works, particularly if we are writing a series. Keeping notes, however, doesn't necessarily mean we can skip rereading our works. Notes and actual books work very differently on our thought processes.
So there you have it. Writing advice handed down.
1) Reread your novel or novella a LOT, at least enough to be irritated by the plot. Then fix it.
2) Work on another project to give yourself space from the previous one before editing.
3) Let your characters choose their own course. Look for ways to make your characters smarter.
4) Keep notes about your series to refer back to later. Use these to complement your rereading process.
Some of this, you might already have known, but the advice cannot be shared enough. Some of this, you may not have been aware of. Either way, as we learn from one another, our works always become better as a result.
Iffix Y. Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in a series, which is available now at a variety of online retailers, including Amazon.com. The sequel Deception will be available in July.Question for discussion: How has rereading your own work helped you to strengthen your story?
May 5, 2015
Why Self-Publish a Novella? Four Reasons Worth Considering
I figured I would touch on this as it is bound to be asked sooner or later. Many who acquire a copy of my debut novella Impulse will soon realize that the story is among the shortest sci-fi books published today. Indeed, the novella was so short a traditional publisher wouldn't touch it. And to make the matter more complex, Deception, book 2 in the series, was near completion when I published the first book. So what happened? Why not just clump the books together and try to publish traditionally? This might be helpful for you if you, too, are contemplating publishing a novella or series of novellas.
One of my readers actually told me today, "I was so happy when your book arrived because it was short." The reality is that for a relatively unknown author, releasing a Novella as a debut work is really a smart choice. Each page that is added to a book increases its cost slightly, and convincing someone to take a chance on a new author while at the same time asking them to shell out a large amount is actually risky. What if the book wasn't as great as you thought? What if the audience hated it? They might be more willing to forgive you if they didn't exhaust their savings account.
Most of my current sales stepping into the business have been through Amazon.com so the audience doesn't see the page count immediately, nor gaze upon its thickness in comparison to other books on the shelf. But what they do see is a small price-tag they can generally afford to risk to see if the book is of a certain quality. (And it is.)
While many in our target audience may not realize this, a book's quality has actually very little impact on whether or not it is published traditionally. Yes, there are other factors involved. We're not going to exhaust all of them here. If you want to know more, visit my group Support for Indie Authors, who would be happy to explain this further. In fact, we often do talk on this subject amongst ourselves.
Moving on, I have recently concluded that I really don't know a lot about finance, so no, my answer is not strictly finance related. My answer rather ties to the sort of story I like to tell.
I like my characters to have a range of personalities. This means that, at any given time, my main characters may be sad, angry, injured into a coma, elated, etc. So I chose to end Impulse in a situation where the greatest number of characters were happy all at once. (In other words, even if it wasn't true, I wanted the illusion of "Happily Ever After" however short lived.)
Spoiler Alert: Not every book I write will end happily ever after. But I wanted my audience to know I fully intend to get back to that, and I wanted to start off on the right foot.
In addition, as I have been writing Conspiracy and Retrospect side by side, I got lost. The books were screaming to be separated. (I made reference to my plans to expand the series with a universal approach in a previous blog. That approach is being experimented on as early in the series as Books 3 and 4 in my series.) It was this rending of a book in two which led me to ultimately begin releasing Novellas. And I've been happy with the result, thus far.
Keep in mind that starting with a novella does not mean every book in your series must be a novella as well. Search your local library for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books for example. You will notice that he began with a very short book, but as his readers grew more comfortable, as his characters grew more complex, his books got longer. (This approach is actually quite common among middle-grade and YA fiction series.)
So, in review, why self-publish a novella?
1) It's a great way to introduce yourself to the reading community.
2) Not everyone has the time or money to invest in a large book, regardless of the author.
3) Shorter stories mean simplifying storylines. That means greater control of characters and less confusion for readers.
4) It is just a start. As the audience grows, your books can increase, sometimes significantly, in length.
There are certainly other reasons. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it was a good enough reason for me. Perhaps it is worth your consideration as well. Remember that as writers, we learn from each other, and our work is improved as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is the first in the novella series Forgotten Princess and is available now from Amazon.com and various online retailers.
Questions for discussion:What other reasons are there to publish a novella or novella series?
One of my readers actually told me today, "I was so happy when your book arrived because it was short." The reality is that for a relatively unknown author, releasing a Novella as a debut work is really a smart choice. Each page that is added to a book increases its cost slightly, and convincing someone to take a chance on a new author while at the same time asking them to shell out a large amount is actually risky. What if the book wasn't as great as you thought? What if the audience hated it? They might be more willing to forgive you if they didn't exhaust their savings account.
Most of my current sales stepping into the business have been through Amazon.com so the audience doesn't see the page count immediately, nor gaze upon its thickness in comparison to other books on the shelf. But what they do see is a small price-tag they can generally afford to risk to see if the book is of a certain quality. (And it is.)
While many in our target audience may not realize this, a book's quality has actually very little impact on whether or not it is published traditionally. Yes, there are other factors involved. We're not going to exhaust all of them here. If you want to know more, visit my group Support for Indie Authors, who would be happy to explain this further. In fact, we often do talk on this subject amongst ourselves.
Moving on, I have recently concluded that I really don't know a lot about finance, so no, my answer is not strictly finance related. My answer rather ties to the sort of story I like to tell.
I like my characters to have a range of personalities. This means that, at any given time, my main characters may be sad, angry, injured into a coma, elated, etc. So I chose to end Impulse in a situation where the greatest number of characters were happy all at once. (In other words, even if it wasn't true, I wanted the illusion of "Happily Ever After" however short lived.)
Spoiler Alert: Not every book I write will end happily ever after. But I wanted my audience to know I fully intend to get back to that, and I wanted to start off on the right foot.
In addition, as I have been writing Conspiracy and Retrospect side by side, I got lost. The books were screaming to be separated. (I made reference to my plans to expand the series with a universal approach in a previous blog. That approach is being experimented on as early in the series as Books 3 and 4 in my series.) It was this rending of a book in two which led me to ultimately begin releasing Novellas. And I've been happy with the result, thus far.
Keep in mind that starting with a novella does not mean every book in your series must be a novella as well. Search your local library for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books for example. You will notice that he began with a very short book, but as his readers grew more comfortable, as his characters grew more complex, his books got longer. (This approach is actually quite common among middle-grade and YA fiction series.)
So, in review, why self-publish a novella?
1) It's a great way to introduce yourself to the reading community.
2) Not everyone has the time or money to invest in a large book, regardless of the author.
3) Shorter stories mean simplifying storylines. That means greater control of characters and less confusion for readers.
4) It is just a start. As the audience grows, your books can increase, sometimes significantly, in length.
There are certainly other reasons. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it was a good enough reason for me. Perhaps it is worth your consideration as well. Remember that as writers, we learn from each other, and our work is improved as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is the first in the novella series Forgotten Princess and is available now from Amazon.com and various online retailers. Questions for discussion:What other reasons are there to publish a novella or novella series?
May 4, 2015
Into the Goldmine: Mining a Story for Additional Content
There is a tendency many new authors have of allowing a secondary character to steal the story. During our long history as storytellers, certain conventions have been established. These insist that a writer discern a "main character" and follow that character through the arc of a novel or perhaps even a series.
But while it is important to be cautious of story-stealers, a character who begs to be the subject of his own story might also be seen as a well-rounded character.
Consider: a character who exists solely for a role of the story being told is a flat character. A character who has dimensions, perhaps indications of a deep backstory, will be more meaningful to your audience. A flat character isn't always a bad thing. We need not know everything about a character's life to enjoy his part in the story. But, choosing to make your characters more meaningful will be more rewarding to your reader as she loses her fiction-sense and is drawn into the story.
If your audience loves the character as much as you, the writer, that is a very good thing. It will mean earning her trust in you as the storyteller and establishing a following. But if your reader follows you to learn more about her favorite character and your "main character" is another character in the story, well humble apologies dear reader, you can't dwell on this new interesting character you enjoy. The character fades quietly into the background, and a large part of that effort goes to waste. Is there a better approach?
Take a lesson from what Comic Book companies have been doing for years. These groups of storytellers introduce a collection of heroes, sidekicks, and villains; then they proceed to mix and match heroes, sidekicks, and villains however they like. If the story being told expands into different arcs, these characters may diverge, form another story arc, and introduce more exciting heroes, sidekicks and villains. And the process blooms from a bud to a blossoming flower to a tree full of flowers. Fans of comic books eat this up. They can't wait for Hero X and Villain Y to square off, even though Hero X and Villain Y may have completely different storylines right now. As long as the audience knows that the writers will get around to it sooner or later, they continue enjoying the ride.
Now, this is frequently referred to a universe and applies in many series. Marvel, for example, has a wide variety of universes running parallel. Each universe is based on what characters are unique to it so the storylines don't collide. It's a complicated process, and frankly it's mindboggling the further the universe expands. Star Wars also has a universe, and that universe has recently split into "Legends" and "Canon", again to determine which storylines are possible cinematically.
This is slightly to the side of the point, but it helps to visualize the goldmine of a universal approach to storytelling. As a storyteller, you control any characters within your universe. Whereas a common series contains one over-all arc, approaching storytelling from a universal mindset means allowing any number of characters to be the "main character" of his or her own storyline. Think of all the Superheroes which would not exist if DC chose to focus on Batman as the only "main character". This would mean that any character who never crossed paths with the caped crusader would cease to exist.
Telling a story from a universal approach is a very old method and does not just apply to speculative fiction. Mark Twain wrote a pleasant story of a kid named Tom Sawyer. Then he followed up the story with a less-pleasant story of Tom's best friend Huckleberry Finn. In so doing, Twain expanded on the universe established in Tom Sawyer, which was--by today's standards--a Historical Fiction.
Taking a less linear approach to story-telling is slightly more complicated, since there is more to keep track of, but in some ways it is actually easier. You don't need to start over with a brand new character. Continue with a pre-existing one, a character whom your audience is already familiar with and whom they might already like. And what is neat about this approach is not every expansion on your universe needs to be a novel-length project. You can use these additional bits to promote your website. You can release them as e-books. Or you can compile them and release an anthology related to your novel project. At the very least, you as the author have more than a snapshot of your "secondary" character so that if and when he recurs in your linear series, you know what he's been doing since his story diverged from the main arc.
I hope this bit of advice has been useful for you. When we, as authors, take the time to learn from one another, our stories become far better as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella series Forgotten Princess, which he plans to expand with a universal approach in the years to come. Impulse is the first novella in the series and is available now from Amazon.com
Questions for discussion: Which other series have expanded using the universal approach? Have you tried using this approach for your own fiction? Tell us about it.
But while it is important to be cautious of story-stealers, a character who begs to be the subject of his own story might also be seen as a well-rounded character.
Consider: a character who exists solely for a role of the story being told is a flat character. A character who has dimensions, perhaps indications of a deep backstory, will be more meaningful to your audience. A flat character isn't always a bad thing. We need not know everything about a character's life to enjoy his part in the story. But, choosing to make your characters more meaningful will be more rewarding to your reader as she loses her fiction-sense and is drawn into the story.
If your audience loves the character as much as you, the writer, that is a very good thing. It will mean earning her trust in you as the storyteller and establishing a following. But if your reader follows you to learn more about her favorite character and your "main character" is another character in the story, well humble apologies dear reader, you can't dwell on this new interesting character you enjoy. The character fades quietly into the background, and a large part of that effort goes to waste. Is there a better approach?
Take a lesson from what Comic Book companies have been doing for years. These groups of storytellers introduce a collection of heroes, sidekicks, and villains; then they proceed to mix and match heroes, sidekicks, and villains however they like. If the story being told expands into different arcs, these characters may diverge, form another story arc, and introduce more exciting heroes, sidekicks and villains. And the process blooms from a bud to a blossoming flower to a tree full of flowers. Fans of comic books eat this up. They can't wait for Hero X and Villain Y to square off, even though Hero X and Villain Y may have completely different storylines right now. As long as the audience knows that the writers will get around to it sooner or later, they continue enjoying the ride.
Now, this is frequently referred to a universe and applies in many series. Marvel, for example, has a wide variety of universes running parallel. Each universe is based on what characters are unique to it so the storylines don't collide. It's a complicated process, and frankly it's mindboggling the further the universe expands. Star Wars also has a universe, and that universe has recently split into "Legends" and "Canon", again to determine which storylines are possible cinematically.
This is slightly to the side of the point, but it helps to visualize the goldmine of a universal approach to storytelling. As a storyteller, you control any characters within your universe. Whereas a common series contains one over-all arc, approaching storytelling from a universal mindset means allowing any number of characters to be the "main character" of his or her own storyline. Think of all the Superheroes which would not exist if DC chose to focus on Batman as the only "main character". This would mean that any character who never crossed paths with the caped crusader would cease to exist.
Telling a story from a universal approach is a very old method and does not just apply to speculative fiction. Mark Twain wrote a pleasant story of a kid named Tom Sawyer. Then he followed up the story with a less-pleasant story of Tom's best friend Huckleberry Finn. In so doing, Twain expanded on the universe established in Tom Sawyer, which was--by today's standards--a Historical Fiction.
Taking a less linear approach to story-telling is slightly more complicated, since there is more to keep track of, but in some ways it is actually easier. You don't need to start over with a brand new character. Continue with a pre-existing one, a character whom your audience is already familiar with and whom they might already like. And what is neat about this approach is not every expansion on your universe needs to be a novel-length project. You can use these additional bits to promote your website. You can release them as e-books. Or you can compile them and release an anthology related to your novel project. At the very least, you as the author have more than a snapshot of your "secondary" character so that if and when he recurs in your linear series, you know what he's been doing since his story diverged from the main arc.
I hope this bit of advice has been useful for you. When we, as authors, take the time to learn from one another, our stories become far better as a result.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella series Forgotten Princess, which he plans to expand with a universal approach in the years to come. Impulse is the first novella in the series and is available now from Amazon.comQuestions for discussion: Which other series have expanded using the universal approach? Have you tried using this approach for your own fiction? Tell us about it.
May 3, 2015
FLASHBACK: Softening the blow of Character Deaths
It is never fun to kill off a character. Most readers may not fully realize that we as authors experience the same heartbreaks when we find ourselves obligated to remove a character. It is as if we lose a part of ourselves. I think Zora defines the feeling well in my upcoming novella Deception.
Crudely, each character is a robot in the author's mind which he wields to perform a function. But each character, written well, feels far less like a robot and more like a unique being. As authors we know that an audience, 'our people' so long as they're holding our books, are working very hard. If an author doesn't work just as hard for you as a reader as you do for him, he isn't worthy of your effort. (Believe me, any author worth his ink is slaving over every word.) So it does come with a price.
You might remember I wrote at length in my previous blog about dealing with character deaths. You may have seen a popular trope featuring a character that's "not dead yet". (That's only amusing when Monty Python does it.) You know the character. He died. You saw it. But then he was restored as though it never happened. This sort of thing angers your audience whenever it is done because it cheapens emotions. Most audiences don't enjoy this sort of playing with death, especially the older they get. Death should have a serious repercussion. (Compare the tragic deaths of two popular Disney Characters in The Lion King [1994] and Beauty and the Beast [1991]. I cannot state with any degree of certainty why The Lion King received greater honors, but I can tell you which movie made me cringe as a child and which scene sticks in my mind more vividly 20 years later.)
The strange thing here is that, as a fiction writer, if you're going to bring back a character, audiences actually prefer when the bad guy survives to unleash further chaos to the sympathetic restoration of a good character. (I don't fully comprehend this logic, but it isn't any less true.)
So, what can be done? As a writer, when you decide to kill a character, this character has a clear end point in time, the proverbial "point of no return". This is especially true if the audience has already seen a corpse. But you can soften the blow. How?
As an author, you have the freedom to write scenes which feature the character any time before his death. And since flashback is always an accessible tool for an author, you can share the vignette in a later work with a tremendous emotional impact on readers who wish they had more time with the character in question.
For example, if you were to use such a flashback in the prologue of your sequel with subtle hints to how the new storyline will be resolved, the character will take on a greater meaning for the audience. And said prologue may have a better chance of being read by your followers. So here's a win-win situation.
As an author, even if you choose to hold onto the flashback for a more appropriate time, it may provide you personally with a bit more closure and peace of mind as you continue your efforts to tell a great story.
Thank you for allowing me to share this bit of writing advice. If you are a writer, I hope it will strengthen your storytelling as it has mine. We learn from each other and our stories become better as a result.
About the Author:Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is available now from Amazon.com; Deception is book two in the series Forgotten Princess and will be available in July, 2015.
Question for discussion: Where have you seen this sort of flashback used well? Have you used it in your own writing? Please share.
"Every one of those robots was painstakingly built by someone. And every time one of those robots dies the time the builder spent on its construction goes to waste. I can’t expect my people to lose what they worked so hard for if I’m not willing to put as much effort into this myself. It just wouldn’t be right."
Crudely, each character is a robot in the author's mind which he wields to perform a function. But each character, written well, feels far less like a robot and more like a unique being. As authors we know that an audience, 'our people' so long as they're holding our books, are working very hard. If an author doesn't work just as hard for you as a reader as you do for him, he isn't worthy of your effort. (Believe me, any author worth his ink is slaving over every word.) So it does come with a price.
You might remember I wrote at length in my previous blog about dealing with character deaths. You may have seen a popular trope featuring a character that's "not dead yet". (That's only amusing when Monty Python does it.) You know the character. He died. You saw it. But then he was restored as though it never happened. This sort of thing angers your audience whenever it is done because it cheapens emotions. Most audiences don't enjoy this sort of playing with death, especially the older they get. Death should have a serious repercussion. (Compare the tragic deaths of two popular Disney Characters in The Lion King [1994] and Beauty and the Beast [1991]. I cannot state with any degree of certainty why The Lion King received greater honors, but I can tell you which movie made me cringe as a child and which scene sticks in my mind more vividly 20 years later.)
The strange thing here is that, as a fiction writer, if you're going to bring back a character, audiences actually prefer when the bad guy survives to unleash further chaos to the sympathetic restoration of a good character. (I don't fully comprehend this logic, but it isn't any less true.)
So, what can be done? As a writer, when you decide to kill a character, this character has a clear end point in time, the proverbial "point of no return". This is especially true if the audience has already seen a corpse. But you can soften the blow. How?
As an author, you have the freedom to write scenes which feature the character any time before his death. And since flashback is always an accessible tool for an author, you can share the vignette in a later work with a tremendous emotional impact on readers who wish they had more time with the character in question.
For example, if you were to use such a flashback in the prologue of your sequel with subtle hints to how the new storyline will be resolved, the character will take on a greater meaning for the audience. And said prologue may have a better chance of being read by your followers. So here's a win-win situation.
As an author, even if you choose to hold onto the flashback for a more appropriate time, it may provide you personally with a bit more closure and peace of mind as you continue your efforts to tell a great story.
Thank you for allowing me to share this bit of writing advice. If you are a writer, I hope it will strengthen your storytelling as it has mine. We learn from each other and our stories become better as a result.
About the Author:Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is available now from Amazon.com; Deception is book two in the series Forgotten Princess and will be available in July, 2015.
Question for discussion: Where have you seen this sort of flashback used well? Have you used it in your own writing? Please share.
