Graeme Rodaughan's Blog: Writing The Metaframe War Series - Posts Tagged "writing"

As some will know, I've recently published my second book.

Pre-publish activities include a great deal of review, and trying to eradicate every last issue.

Well it doesn't work - at least not perfectly.

I get my first physical copy of the published book, and leafing through it, my eye settles on a classic mistake.

"blah blah!" He said.

Capitalisation of a personal pronoun directly after an exclamation mark, as if, the exclamation mark was the end of the sentence???

I spit chips ... spill my coffee and throw my mug at the nearest wall where it shatters into a thousand pieces... steaming ... crushed ... I drop to my knees, throw my shaking fists into the air and scream, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I check the source file, and do a search for '!" H' and the possible variations involving a '?' and an 'S'.

I find another instance....

Spewing!

I then discover an internal dialog quote, you know the sort where someone says, "And then Bill said, 'blighty,' and I just couldn't believe my ears."

Where the trailing ' was some other sort of 'other' notation, something like `, or some other font???

My right eye started to twitch uncontrollably....

[INSERT Cluster F-Bomb]...

Then I'm looking at one of my combat scenes, something I'm actually quite good at, and I'm just not happy, it's looking clunky - I'm sure it could be better. I want to change it...

(This is me drawing a line...) _____________________________________________

Right - I'm just going to let this go. Allow a couple of very small errors that 99% of people will just gloss straight over because they wont see it - because they're absorbed in the story....

Because I know where this road leads, and that is to a personal hell of endless revision and rework, and zero productivity.

I just thought I would share this experience of 'being a novelist,' with all of you. I'm sure some of you will relate to my little tale of woe and the necessity of drawing a line under a finished piece of work.

Putting the ending of HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu through a makeover. This is fan fiction and not intended for profit.


March 22nd.
S. Latitude 49 51, W. Longitude 128 34.

Gustaf Johansen, formerly 2nd mate of the Emma and now in command of the privateer, Alert, pushed his dirty-blond hair back from his eyes, and stared at the photograph of his wife. He trembled with reaction for a long moment, his hands shaking from the aftermath of battle. The photo slipped from his grip, but even with his strained nerves, he caught it again before it fell to the floor.

He longed to return to her. He missed her terribly. Silently praying for their reunion; his prayer a slim flame of faith before a storm of doubt. Captain Collins and 1st mate Green were dead; slaughtered by the mad crew of the Alert. Now the safety of the surviving crew fell to him, an unexpected and dreadful responsibility.

With a metal clip, he pinned the photo onto the mirror of a locker room door in the captain’s cabin. He glanced in the mirror, taking a second look before he recognized himself. His face was black with soot, speckled with the blood and filth of other men. The eyes peering back at him were shrouded with a nightmare of sudden violence.

The original crew of the Alert had attacked the Emma with fanatical determination, but had died as the Emma sank beneath the waves. The desperate crew of the Emma, led by Johansen, had slain them all in a vicious battle of sharp knives, lethal hooks and heavy bludgeons. Now, counting himself, there were eight survivors to crew the Alert back to a safe harbor.

Heavy storms had blown the Emma far off course before the fateful encounter with the crew of the Alert. They were deep in the South Pacific. Johansen wondered to himself what dangers remained to be faced on the return voyage. Would he be able to bring his crew safely back to port? Would he be reunited with his beloved wife?

And what part would be played by the strange, squid-dragon idol? Whose presence had sent a dreadful shiver up his spine before he had even laid eyes upon it. Whose sight had almost unmanned him with terror. An object of veneration by the crew of the Alert, who had chanted its foul name as they attacked with crazed abandon.

‘Cthulhu! Cthulhu! Cthulhu!’

He had to know. He vowed to himself to uncover the mysteries of the idol and the terrifying madness it inspired or die trying.

* * *

Read it in full here.

Here's my attitude and advice about negative comment about my books.

Check out,




Scroll down to the community reviews and filter on the "1 star," reviews.

There are 3161 of them today.

Stephen King has sixteen times more 1 star ratings on one book than I have total ratings for all my books.

Here's the bottom line, negative comment, snarky comment, etc, indicates that my book is reaching more people.

If my marketing is successful, I will attract one star reviews. The fact I don't have 1 star reviews is not an indication that my books are marvelous (and I love my books and I love the stories I tell, but I'd be kidding myself if I thought that they were for everyone), but that my marketing is not reaching enough people.

When my marketing is successful, I'll start getting 1 star reviews.

I'd love to have 1000 one star ratings at 1% of my total ratings. Let's add in 4000 two star ratings at 4%, for a total set of critical reviews of 5% (like the Salem's Lot profile) for 100,000 ratings.

If I have 100,000 ratings for A Subtle Agency, I've sold 10,000,000 books. I've paid the mortgage. I've retired from the day job, and I'm writing full time, and producing three books a year instead of one.

The day I get my first genuine 1 star review, I'm breaking open a bottle of champagne as my marketing is beginning to reach enough people to find those inspired to criticize my books.

Today is a good day to get a 1 star review.

(H/t to Klingon philosophy...)

As a general rule you need a verb to complete a sentence.

HOWEVER: Grammar Nazis be damned - if it improves the telling of the story - frack 'em and write the words that tell it best.

(Just needed to get that off my chest...)