Andy Free's Blog
July 25, 2018
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts 2
Since July 15, 2011, on a part time basis I have published 6 music albums and two books, with a third book on the way in 2018, including all the graphic arts and music videos needed for promotion.
Post # 1 of this series (see https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) explains the "seven deadly sins" I had to overcome to achieve that steady production and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people based on the view count.
This post adds some new insights and learnings along the way since then.
The Importance of Ergonomics
Under the heading of "I wish I had know that before I..." was a flare-up in an old weight training injury last year, caused by poor ergonomics and lack of sleep. Most of us work day jobs and do a lot of sitting. Many creative arts (including my own categories of music, writing, and graphic arts) also involve sitting. Be careful to vary your position frequently - stand, sit, lie down if you can. I try to change positions every 30 minutes max, and take short cardio breaks when I can too. Oddly enough, my remarkable ability to focus hurt me badly in this area until I realized it was actually a problem (the most dangerous weaknesses are the flip sides of overused strengths). Another tip: Find a good chiropractor, they are worth their weight in gold!
The Importance of Sleep
Study after study shows most adults are sleep-deprived. This can kill you if you are a commuter, and it will also hinder you in creativity and art production, resulting in less insights, less energy, greater susceptibility to illnesses and injuries, and many other deleterious effects. Fatigue itself will cause you to overlook how sleep deprived you are, further compounding the problem. Scale back your production plan, get more sleep, and you may actually find (as I did recently) that your rate of production may go UP not DOWN. Time spent grinding away at something is not productivity, it is drudgery.
Be Willing to Change Course Quickly
Hindsight eventually taught me that I have a tendency to get stuck with a certain view of or approach to a song. Album 6 (called "Freestyle") taught me to change course quickly to get significantly better productivity. When the muse stops speaking, ask her why. She may say "I don't like the current path - find a better way!" When you do, she will reward you with a better finished product much sooner.
Don't Let New Ideas Distract You Too Much
Find a way to note them down (I use voice memos or notes on my phone) and move on with the current project UNLESS the creative urge is so strong you decide you really need to try the new idea while the iron is hot. But the problem with the "strike while the iron is hot" idea is that it is often an illusion, a temporary enthusiasm based on love of a new idea that gets a lot of its allure from the fact it distracts you from the harder middle and ending work of an existing project. Learn your own tricks and foibles to stay on the most productive path.
Why Production Matters
The world is full of creative, talented people yawping about all the reasons they can't do what they dream. How sad! How boring! I would tell them this: Just start. Get something done. If it is reasonably good, get it out in the world. Keep going. Be relentless but be smart - don't spend your strength unwisely, the way I did last year.
And to all of you out there, wherever you find yourself in the journey - best wishes in your creative endeavors!
Links
http://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
http://www.andybfree.com/home.html
Freestyle album (preview full tracks free): https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/andybfree5
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna (book 3) coming soon in 2018.
Post # 1 of this series (see https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) explains the "seven deadly sins" I had to overcome to achieve that steady production and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people based on the view count.
This post adds some new insights and learnings along the way since then.
The Importance of Ergonomics
Under the heading of "I wish I had know that before I..." was a flare-up in an old weight training injury last year, caused by poor ergonomics and lack of sleep. Most of us work day jobs and do a lot of sitting. Many creative arts (including my own categories of music, writing, and graphic arts) also involve sitting. Be careful to vary your position frequently - stand, sit, lie down if you can. I try to change positions every 30 minutes max, and take short cardio breaks when I can too. Oddly enough, my remarkable ability to focus hurt me badly in this area until I realized it was actually a problem (the most dangerous weaknesses are the flip sides of overused strengths). Another tip: Find a good chiropractor, they are worth their weight in gold!
The Importance of Sleep
Study after study shows most adults are sleep-deprived. This can kill you if you are a commuter, and it will also hinder you in creativity and art production, resulting in less insights, less energy, greater susceptibility to illnesses and injuries, and many other deleterious effects. Fatigue itself will cause you to overlook how sleep deprived you are, further compounding the problem. Scale back your production plan, get more sleep, and you may actually find (as I did recently) that your rate of production may go UP not DOWN. Time spent grinding away at something is not productivity, it is drudgery.
Be Willing to Change Course Quickly
Hindsight eventually taught me that I have a tendency to get stuck with a certain view of or approach to a song. Album 6 (called "Freestyle") taught me to change course quickly to get significantly better productivity. When the muse stops speaking, ask her why. She may say "I don't like the current path - find a better way!" When you do, she will reward you with a better finished product much sooner.
Don't Let New Ideas Distract You Too Much
Find a way to note them down (I use voice memos or notes on my phone) and move on with the current project UNLESS the creative urge is so strong you decide you really need to try the new idea while the iron is hot. But the problem with the "strike while the iron is hot" idea is that it is often an illusion, a temporary enthusiasm based on love of a new idea that gets a lot of its allure from the fact it distracts you from the harder middle and ending work of an existing project. Learn your own tricks and foibles to stay on the most productive path.
Why Production Matters
The world is full of creative, talented people yawping about all the reasons they can't do what they dream. How sad! How boring! I would tell them this: Just start. Get something done. If it is reasonably good, get it out in the world. Keep going. Be relentless but be smart - don't spend your strength unwisely, the way I did last year.
And to all of you out there, wherever you find yourself in the journey - best wishes in your creative endeavors!
Links
http://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
http://www.andybfree.com/home.html
Freestyle album (preview full tracks free): https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/andybfree5
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna (book 3) coming soon in 2018.
July 10, 2018
Advantages of a Multimedia Approach
I've always been interested in multimedia platforms like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and as I have written previously, I've been forging ahead with a similar approach for my Avalon Series books. What I mean is, adding in videos and music to supplement the written word. It is possible (I am told) to incorporate music into Apple ebooks using a certain proprietary format, but I have not yet chosen to do that. Instead, I am using a multimedia approach on YouTube.
The initial results (after about a year) are positive, with some unexpected benefits. The most surprising benefit was that characters in the book, as they go through the turmoils of love and war, have generated many songs that are more than soundtrack songs - the songs are actually part of the book plots.
As a songwriter, this process has been very interesting to me, in that it has opened up a new avenue of songwriting based on imagined characters instead of just my own personal experiences. So my musical productivity has increased dramatically as well as the range of topics in my songs.
For example, a recent song is called "Bonny Portmore and Deirdre's Delight." You may remember "Bonny Portmore" as the intro song to the first Highlander movie. It is a public domain Irish folksong about a famous oak tree and Irish estate. This combined song with original content has an environmental message and is based on the experiences of Deirdre, a Shieldmaiden of Avalon, in ancient Ireland when the extensive oak and ash climax forests were still present. If you would like to listen to the full track, it is track # 9 and can be previewed free at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/andybfree5
There is also a player on my website for what I am calling "Songs of Avalon" on the Books tab:
http://www.andybfree.com/books.html
The Avalon Series itself is currently two books and I am working on the third, called "Avalon: Ravenna," due out later in 2018.
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Your comments and thoughts are welcome!
The initial results (after about a year) are positive, with some unexpected benefits. The most surprising benefit was that characters in the book, as they go through the turmoils of love and war, have generated many songs that are more than soundtrack songs - the songs are actually part of the book plots.
As a songwriter, this process has been very interesting to me, in that it has opened up a new avenue of songwriting based on imagined characters instead of just my own personal experiences. So my musical productivity has increased dramatically as well as the range of topics in my songs.
For example, a recent song is called "Bonny Portmore and Deirdre's Delight." You may remember "Bonny Portmore" as the intro song to the first Highlander movie. It is a public domain Irish folksong about a famous oak tree and Irish estate. This combined song with original content has an environmental message and is based on the experiences of Deirdre, a Shieldmaiden of Avalon, in ancient Ireland when the extensive oak and ash climax forests were still present. If you would like to listen to the full track, it is track # 9 and can be previewed free at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/andybfree5
There is also a player on my website for what I am calling "Songs of Avalon" on the Books tab:
http://www.andybfree.com/books.html
The Avalon Series itself is currently two books and I am working on the third, called "Avalon: Ravenna," due out later in 2018.
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Your comments and thoughts are welcome!
March 11, 2018
Secrets of Motivation
"Writing, after all, is an act of faith. We must believe, without the slightest evidence that believing will get us anywhere." - Dani Shapiro, in Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life
My view is different. Properly understanding belief and faith, among other things, leads to real motivation. The idea that we can believe with no evidence actually undermines the concept of faith. Faith always has an element of proof, of reasons why we believe someone or something. There is no such thing as “blind faith.” Blind faith is not faith, it is merely an unsupported belief about something, and as such has no motivational value.
Why is this important? Because any writer that has no belief that his or her effort will “pay off” (be worthwhile in one sense or another) will be an unmotivated writer at best, and a depressed or even suicidal writer at worst.
In practice, with the flood of print and electronic media in today’s world, there are many reasons why a writer might despair. It is, in fact, difficult to get readers and even harder to get reviews. But it is not impossible. Even if the glass is only one quarter full, it is essential to concentrate on the full part. This is true because basic psychology has shown that what you concentrate on dominates your thoughts and, more importantly, your feelings. Focus on lack and difficulty and they will be magnified, sapping your strength and optimism. If instead, you focus on thankfulness for what you have and the possibility of success – via the value of continued hard work – you will gain strength and optimism.
There is one other factor that is important: Having enough objectivity to know whether you are an effective writer or not. Though difficult, this inward and balanced view – neither optimistic nor pessimistic – looks for objective evidence that you have mastered the skill of writing. This body of objective evidence then becomes the set of reasons why you believe in yourself and your writing.
There is also value in redefining success in terms more suited to individual effort (enjoyed for its own sake) rather than commercial success. Commercial success as a writer is not easy to come by, and is chancy enough where it may not be feasible as a full time effort. This is why I chose to work a good day job and write part time – I have no interest in the exhausting commercial struggle that a full time writer usually experiences in getting established. Admittedly, this part time choice is not without a downside – it automatically limits the time I have to write, extends the duration of writing projects, and reduces the time I have for marketing what I have written.
I write what I do because it will be my legacy, a part of what I have done in my life that is unique. I like the world of imagination, the flow of words and dialogue, and getting a scene down on paper that is exactly what I saw in my head and felt in my heart.
For examples of my writing see:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Book 3, Avalon: Ravenna Rising, is coming soon in 2018.
My view is different. Properly understanding belief and faith, among other things, leads to real motivation. The idea that we can believe with no evidence actually undermines the concept of faith. Faith always has an element of proof, of reasons why we believe someone or something. There is no such thing as “blind faith.” Blind faith is not faith, it is merely an unsupported belief about something, and as such has no motivational value.
Why is this important? Because any writer that has no belief that his or her effort will “pay off” (be worthwhile in one sense or another) will be an unmotivated writer at best, and a depressed or even suicidal writer at worst.
In practice, with the flood of print and electronic media in today’s world, there are many reasons why a writer might despair. It is, in fact, difficult to get readers and even harder to get reviews. But it is not impossible. Even if the glass is only one quarter full, it is essential to concentrate on the full part. This is true because basic psychology has shown that what you concentrate on dominates your thoughts and, more importantly, your feelings. Focus on lack and difficulty and they will be magnified, sapping your strength and optimism. If instead, you focus on thankfulness for what you have and the possibility of success – via the value of continued hard work – you will gain strength and optimism.
There is one other factor that is important: Having enough objectivity to know whether you are an effective writer or not. Though difficult, this inward and balanced view – neither optimistic nor pessimistic – looks for objective evidence that you have mastered the skill of writing. This body of objective evidence then becomes the set of reasons why you believe in yourself and your writing.
There is also value in redefining success in terms more suited to individual effort (enjoyed for its own sake) rather than commercial success. Commercial success as a writer is not easy to come by, and is chancy enough where it may not be feasible as a full time effort. This is why I chose to work a good day job and write part time – I have no interest in the exhausting commercial struggle that a full time writer usually experiences in getting established. Admittedly, this part time choice is not without a downside – it automatically limits the time I have to write, extends the duration of writing projects, and reduces the time I have for marketing what I have written.
I write what I do because it will be my legacy, a part of what I have done in my life that is unique. I like the world of imagination, the flow of words and dialogue, and getting a scene down on paper that is exactly what I saw in my head and felt in my heart.
For examples of my writing see:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Book 3, Avalon: Ravenna Rising, is coming soon in 2018.
April 15, 2017
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
Overcoming Seven Deadly Sins:
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
“In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.”
I work a full time day job and have my own part time businesses in music, writing, and software and game development. So I’ve had to learn how to create quality work in reasonable amounts of time. I get the sense that for me, and probably the overwhelming majority of people in the creative arts, the real challenges relate to emotional stance and focus, not the work involved in doing the art itself.
There are seven deadly sins that affect many artists to one degree or another. In order of how deadly I think they are (which is probably somewhat biased toward my own struggles):
1) Perfectionism
2) Emotional Challenges
3) Lack of Focus
4) The Grind
5) Caring What the World Thinks
6) Trying to be Popular
7) Departing from Joy
Perfectionism is the worst of the group because it is so uniquely deadly to the creative impulse itself as well as the production of anything worthwhile. I had to learn what was “good enough” and go with that. Perfection in the real world is nonsense. Even if it existed in human circles, no one would agree that it was perfect anyway. So give it up and move on. Life is too short to let this deadly sin get you.
Emotional challenges relates more to “self-talk” than anything else. It’s the crappy negative things we say to ourselves in our internal mental voices that often sound strangely parental. This pattern is deadly because it can drag you down in a multitude of ways. It also has a unique ability to home in on what is most hurtful to you and major on that. Listen to what you say to yourself, stop saying the negative things – they almost never have any value – and substitute positive things that are true.
Lack of focus covers two main areas, poor priority setting and using the incorrect breadth of focus. Poor priority setting is pretty obvious – if you don’t make the creative arts a priority, something else will always get in the way. An example of incorrect breadth of focus is worrying about next week when you should be focusing on the art work “in the now.” Most of your time should be spent “in the now,” it is the only truly creative state of being we have (and there’s a whole world of interesting stuff right there, but maybe that is another blog post!)
“The Grind” is the inevitable non-fun and draining chores that come along with any business. You can’t completely get rid of this component, but try to balance it out with the really valuable activities. How will you know? There is joy when you hit the right balance. In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.
Caring what the world thinks is always a mistake. Anyone with any discernment and sensitivity knows that the world (the great mass of people out there) doesn’t really know a lot about anything. We see evidence of that every day. It may sound elitist or conceited, but it is common sense. Why waste emotional energy caring? Worse yet, why pander to that fickle and ignorant audience? They will flock like sandpipers toward the next buzz of the moment, leaving you behind.
Trying to be popular is shifting your focus from the inward (the internal muse, your source of power and the very wellspring of creativity itself) to the outward (the vast throng of fickle sandpipers that know nothing and rarely do anything worthwhile). There’s nothing wrong with being aware of when you hit a chord (no pun intended) that appeals to more people than usual – I enjoy that – but it is not something worth chasing after.
The last deadly sin is the saddest, when you depart from joy – that intensely personal interaction with the inner muse – and, figuratively, wake up months later wondering what on earth you have been doing with your life. We are not immortal. Grab ahold of today. It’s really all we have.
In conclusion, there is no doubt in my mind that what I am doing right now is the most worthwhile thing I have ever done (though there may be heights yet to scale). It is also by far the hardest, when I take the overall effort into view. Yet perhaps the strangest thing of all, though, is realizing how extraordinarily easy creativity really is when you learn to get out of the way in the now and “just start.” The inner muse is a wellspring of power, a gift from on high, numinous, and full of grace. She sings always in the silence, in the deep places of the heart.
For examples of what I do, see my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
And three books so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna Rising
See post 2 in this series: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Secrets of Steady Production in the Creative Arts
“In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.”
I work a full time day job and have my own part time businesses in music, writing, and software and game development. So I’ve had to learn how to create quality work in reasonable amounts of time. I get the sense that for me, and probably the overwhelming majority of people in the creative arts, the real challenges relate to emotional stance and focus, not the work involved in doing the art itself.
There are seven deadly sins that affect many artists to one degree or another. In order of how deadly I think they are (which is probably somewhat biased toward my own struggles):
1) Perfectionism
2) Emotional Challenges
3) Lack of Focus
4) The Grind
5) Caring What the World Thinks
6) Trying to be Popular
7) Departing from Joy
Perfectionism is the worst of the group because it is so uniquely deadly to the creative impulse itself as well as the production of anything worthwhile. I had to learn what was “good enough” and go with that. Perfection in the real world is nonsense. Even if it existed in human circles, no one would agree that it was perfect anyway. So give it up and move on. Life is too short to let this deadly sin get you.
Emotional challenges relates more to “self-talk” than anything else. It’s the crappy negative things we say to ourselves in our internal mental voices that often sound strangely parental. This pattern is deadly because it can drag you down in a multitude of ways. It also has a unique ability to home in on what is most hurtful to you and major on that. Listen to what you say to yourself, stop saying the negative things – they almost never have any value – and substitute positive things that are true.
Lack of focus covers two main areas, poor priority setting and using the incorrect breadth of focus. Poor priority setting is pretty obvious – if you don’t make the creative arts a priority, something else will always get in the way. An example of incorrect breadth of focus is worrying about next week when you should be focusing on the art work “in the now.” Most of your time should be spent “in the now,” it is the only truly creative state of being we have (and there’s a whole world of interesting stuff right there, but maybe that is another blog post!)
“The Grind” is the inevitable non-fun and draining chores that come along with any business. You can’t completely get rid of this component, but try to balance it out with the really valuable activities. How will you know? There is joy when you hit the right balance. In the now, doing what I love, is the most intensely joyful thing I know of. Find that thing, whatever it is. Grab it and don’t let go, until they pry your cold, dead hands from it.
Caring what the world thinks is always a mistake. Anyone with any discernment and sensitivity knows that the world (the great mass of people out there) doesn’t really know a lot about anything. We see evidence of that every day. It may sound elitist or conceited, but it is common sense. Why waste emotional energy caring? Worse yet, why pander to that fickle and ignorant audience? They will flock like sandpipers toward the next buzz of the moment, leaving you behind.
Trying to be popular is shifting your focus from the inward (the internal muse, your source of power and the very wellspring of creativity itself) to the outward (the vast throng of fickle sandpipers that know nothing and rarely do anything worthwhile). There’s nothing wrong with being aware of when you hit a chord (no pun intended) that appeals to more people than usual – I enjoy that – but it is not something worth chasing after.
The last deadly sin is the saddest, when you depart from joy – that intensely personal interaction with the inner muse – and, figuratively, wake up months later wondering what on earth you have been doing with your life. We are not immortal. Grab ahold of today. It’s really all we have.
In conclusion, there is no doubt in my mind that what I am doing right now is the most worthwhile thing I have ever done (though there may be heights yet to scale). It is also by far the hardest, when I take the overall effort into view. Yet perhaps the strangest thing of all, though, is realizing how extraordinarily easy creativity really is when you learn to get out of the way in the now and “just start.” The inner muse is a wellspring of power, a gift from on high, numinous, and full of grace. She sings always in the silence, in the deep places of the heart.
For examples of what I do, see my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree
And three books so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Avalon: Ravenna Rising
See post 2 in this series: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
April 2, 2017
Secrets of Character Building
As a new author who has spent most of his career working for big American corporations where political correctness is important, it is sometimes a struggle to feel comfortable writing about real people – particularly real villains. In just about any story that is interesting, some of the characters “just won’t behave” – and that bad behavior normally drives conflict and therefore dramatic interest. Try writing a story about happy people doing everything nicely and let me know if you find any readers. Perhaps reviewers will be kind and say: “Delightfully namby-pamby… In this routine novel of sanitized everyday life, there are no surprises and everyone is just so nice! Warm, fuzzy and cute as a cuddly puppy… highly recommended!”
Sometimes, as an author, you just have to take all your clothes off and dance naked in the rain. What I mean is, you will not be able to write convincingly about characters unless you are able to put yourself in their shoes (or bare feet, as the case may be). You need to feel what they are feeling and think what they are thinking. Once you do, you will know what they will say and do and your prose and dialogue will come alive.
Of course, I am not suggesting you shock your neighbors during the next rainstorm. But to build real characters that are convincing, you need at least three things:
1) Real world experience interacting with as large a variety of people as possible
2) A vivid imagination (i.e., a highly developed mind’s eye)
3) Keen self-awareness of your own wide potentials of behavior
#1 can be a challenge for introverted authors, but perhaps your strong interest in the craft of writing can drive you to interact more with people. People are endlessly fascinating in their variety and complexity, as subtle and unobtrusive as chameleons or as beautiful and deadly as coral snakes. #2, a vivid imagination, comes naturally for some people, but it can be enhanced by reminding yourself that all scenes in your mind’s eye should have sounds and smells and rich textures of context and emotion. I often build scenes as vivid daydreams. When the characters in them start to move on their own and decide what they want to do, I know I have something worth writing down.
#3 deserves its own paragraph. Keen self-awareness of your own wide potentials of behavior is essential to write well. We all have the potential to do very good or very bad things. A lot depends on the circumstances we live through and the decisions we make along the way. As an example, let’s suppose that you are an ardent pacifist and a writer without a lot of actual experience of violence or being violent. The example is a bit of a cliché – it has been overused in modern fiction and movies – but it will illustrate the point well. If someone were to torture and kill your family and friends in front of you one by one, one would imagine that sooner or later you might become violent and seek revenge on the torturer, even if you initially believed strongly that taking revenge under any circumstance was wrong. It helps your imaginative process a lot to realize those potentials for violence within yourself. The pitfall is usually that people with strong moral views are reluctant to fantasize about things they believe are wrong. However, I personally do not see any way around that imaginative step as you build a story. This approach does not require going into a country-western bar given to bar fights and giving everyone the finger and insulting their mothers – interesting though the results might be – but at least in your head and heart you need a “scenario player” for a wide range of behaviors, especially the behaviors you do not personally agree with or feel comfortable with. As a writer, being self-aware enough, and honest enough to admit your brightest and darkest potentials is critical. You will only be able to write effectively within exactly that same range of awareness.
In conclusion, if you want to write convincingly about the bad guys in your novel, you need to dance naked in the rain, brandishing a hunting knife and yelling out curses and threats. It will do your writing good. Just keep the curtains closed so the neighbors don’t call the police.
As examples of this character-building approach see my first two published novels. Avalon: Kings and Queens (Book 2 of the Avalon Series), in particular, would have been impossible for me to write without this approach. As you will see if you read it, the story’s core ideas of unrestricted genetic engineering lead to some very good and heartwarming things, but also to some very disturbing behavior on the part of the villains. It’s the widest range of human behavior I’ve ever written about. Not everyone will like the books – I’ve had people get offended by things the villains think, whether political or otherwise. Perhaps that is a mark in my favor – hitting readers’ nerves here and there may be a mark of real writing that has impact. Please let me know what you think. I am always interested in getting comments and reactions back, on my blog posts or on the books.
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
Sometimes, as an author, you just have to take all your clothes off and dance naked in the rain. What I mean is, you will not be able to write convincingly about characters unless you are able to put yourself in their shoes (or bare feet, as the case may be). You need to feel what they are feeling and think what they are thinking. Once you do, you will know what they will say and do and your prose and dialogue will come alive.
Of course, I am not suggesting you shock your neighbors during the next rainstorm. But to build real characters that are convincing, you need at least three things:
1) Real world experience interacting with as large a variety of people as possible
2) A vivid imagination (i.e., a highly developed mind’s eye)
3) Keen self-awareness of your own wide potentials of behavior
#1 can be a challenge for introverted authors, but perhaps your strong interest in the craft of writing can drive you to interact more with people. People are endlessly fascinating in their variety and complexity, as subtle and unobtrusive as chameleons or as beautiful and deadly as coral snakes. #2, a vivid imagination, comes naturally for some people, but it can be enhanced by reminding yourself that all scenes in your mind’s eye should have sounds and smells and rich textures of context and emotion. I often build scenes as vivid daydreams. When the characters in them start to move on their own and decide what they want to do, I know I have something worth writing down.
#3 deserves its own paragraph. Keen self-awareness of your own wide potentials of behavior is essential to write well. We all have the potential to do very good or very bad things. A lot depends on the circumstances we live through and the decisions we make along the way. As an example, let’s suppose that you are an ardent pacifist and a writer without a lot of actual experience of violence or being violent. The example is a bit of a cliché – it has been overused in modern fiction and movies – but it will illustrate the point well. If someone were to torture and kill your family and friends in front of you one by one, one would imagine that sooner or later you might become violent and seek revenge on the torturer, even if you initially believed strongly that taking revenge under any circumstance was wrong. It helps your imaginative process a lot to realize those potentials for violence within yourself. The pitfall is usually that people with strong moral views are reluctant to fantasize about things they believe are wrong. However, I personally do not see any way around that imaginative step as you build a story. This approach does not require going into a country-western bar given to bar fights and giving everyone the finger and insulting their mothers – interesting though the results might be – but at least in your head and heart you need a “scenario player” for a wide range of behaviors, especially the behaviors you do not personally agree with or feel comfortable with. As a writer, being self-aware enough, and honest enough to admit your brightest and darkest potentials is critical. You will only be able to write effectively within exactly that same range of awareness.
In conclusion, if you want to write convincingly about the bad guys in your novel, you need to dance naked in the rain, brandishing a hunting knife and yelling out curses and threats. It will do your writing good. Just keep the curtains closed so the neighbors don’t call the police.
As examples of this character-building approach see my first two published novels. Avalon: Kings and Queens (Book 2 of the Avalon Series), in particular, would have been impossible for me to write without this approach. As you will see if you read it, the story’s core ideas of unrestricted genetic engineering lead to some very good and heartwarming things, but also to some very disturbing behavior on the part of the villains. It’s the widest range of human behavior I’ve ever written about. Not everyone will like the books – I’ve had people get offended by things the villains think, whether political or otherwise. Perhaps that is a mark in my favor – hitting readers’ nerves here and there may be a mark of real writing that has impact. Please let me know what you think. I am always interested in getting comments and reactions back, on my blog posts or on the books.
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
March 30, 2017
Avoiding Uphill Battles: Secrets of Motivation
Secrets of Self-Motivation in the Real World
I don’t believe in fighting uphill battles. Unless my home is being invaded at the top of the hill and I was caught unawares out grocery shopping. Then I “have it to do.” I’ll get the sword and shield out of the car trunk and start chopping away. But life is too hard to pick battles that are unusually difficult, unless you have no choice. Fighting that way all the time will wear you down in the long run. So one of the secrets I use to motivate myself is something I call: “And now for something completely different.”
First, a little stage-setting: I work a full time day job that is quite technical and has a lot of left-brain elements to it. This choice of day job was a deliberate one and I did it for several reasons:
1. I’m not a big believer in the creative arts as a steady income source, though I do make some money from them.
2. I’d rather not tie my livelihood tightly to my creative pursuits.
3. The day job is completely different from my creative interests, but the day job is quite interesting and worthwhile. It just uses different talents and abilities than the creative pursuits.
# 3 turns out to be a very important component to how I keep myself motivated and productive, not only in the creative pursuits themselves but in the day job too. When I come home, I look forward to doing something completely different from the day job. I feel refreshed. When I go back to work the next day, I look forward to doing something completely different from the creative pursuits. I feel refreshed. This is a cycle of synergy that has worked powerfully and consistently for years. It’s the reason I was able to do five solo music albums on YouTube (also distributed worldwide) since mid-2011 (see https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree). I will also (if all goes well) complete and publish three novels in my first year as an author. Two are done so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
That is remarkable productivity for a part-time effort. (If you hear a slapping sound, that would be me patting myself on the back in a really smug and annoying manner).
So, when undertaking a creative pursuit, see if there is a cycle of synergy – something completely different and refreshing that you can toggle back and forth. It’s a huge plus and source of energy if you can identify something like that. If you do find it, protect it – don’t let the excruciating minutiae of day-to-day life erode it.
And do remember to sleep enough! My number one issue that I deal with is not getting enough sleep because I am too darn interested in what I am doing and the wheels will not stop turning.
I don’t believe in fighting uphill battles. Unless my home is being invaded at the top of the hill and I was caught unawares out grocery shopping. Then I “have it to do.” I’ll get the sword and shield out of the car trunk and start chopping away. But life is too hard to pick battles that are unusually difficult, unless you have no choice. Fighting that way all the time will wear you down in the long run. So one of the secrets I use to motivate myself is something I call: “And now for something completely different.”
First, a little stage-setting: I work a full time day job that is quite technical and has a lot of left-brain elements to it. This choice of day job was a deliberate one and I did it for several reasons:
1. I’m not a big believer in the creative arts as a steady income source, though I do make some money from them.
2. I’d rather not tie my livelihood tightly to my creative pursuits.
3. The day job is completely different from my creative interests, but the day job is quite interesting and worthwhile. It just uses different talents and abilities than the creative pursuits.
# 3 turns out to be a very important component to how I keep myself motivated and productive, not only in the creative pursuits themselves but in the day job too. When I come home, I look forward to doing something completely different from the day job. I feel refreshed. When I go back to work the next day, I look forward to doing something completely different from the creative pursuits. I feel refreshed. This is a cycle of synergy that has worked powerfully and consistently for years. It’s the reason I was able to do five solo music albums on YouTube (also distributed worldwide) since mid-2011 (see https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyBeFree). I will also (if all goes well) complete and publish three novels in my first year as an author. Two are done so far:
Avalon: Companions
Avalon: Kings and Queens
That is remarkable productivity for a part-time effort. (If you hear a slapping sound, that would be me patting myself on the back in a really smug and annoying manner).
So, when undertaking a creative pursuit, see if there is a cycle of synergy – something completely different and refreshing that you can toggle back and forth. It’s a huge plus and source of energy if you can identify something like that. If you do find it, protect it – don’t let the excruciating minutiae of day-to-day life erode it.
And do remember to sleep enough! My number one issue that I deal with is not getting enough sleep because I am too darn interested in what I am doing and the wheels will not stop turning.
February 12, 2017
True Love: What it is Really Like
"Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn..."
Recently I was asked: Who is my favorite fictional couple and why? This prompted some thoughts on what true love is - and is not. Now, in some ways, my answer will at first look like naked and egregious book promotion, but bear with me because the explanation will be interesting and has some value to just about anyone.
I like my own fictional couple in Avalon: Companions, Dan Monroe and Claudia Chantal better than any other I can think of right now. The reason is that they are light-hearted most of the time but love each other intensely. Real love has warmth. Real love is not complicated. Real love has no fear. I write from experience. I have been down some exceedingly dark and painful roads for love, mostly because I was attracted to the wrong kind of women (kind of like a "fatal opposite"). I learned eventually that getting uncomplicated is hard. Unlearning the patterns of youth (when they were hurtful) was hard. Retaining belief was hard. But love itself, though not easy, was not hard.
Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn. The thing that I like about Dan and Claudia is that they both came from backgrounds similar to mine, and won through to a better place as I have. No wimpy neurotic maundering for them. No constant fear and self-doubt. So their light-hearted banter is not shallow, but floats on a deep ocean of steady good feelings. It is possible. More than anything else in the book, while trying to tell an entertaining story, I wanted to show that in their relationship. I hope people will see it, and more than that, feel it in their hearts as they read the book.
Avalon: Companions
Recently I was asked: Who is my favorite fictional couple and why? This prompted some thoughts on what true love is - and is not. Now, in some ways, my answer will at first look like naked and egregious book promotion, but bear with me because the explanation will be interesting and has some value to just about anyone.
I like my own fictional couple in Avalon: Companions, Dan Monroe and Claudia Chantal better than any other I can think of right now. The reason is that they are light-hearted most of the time but love each other intensely. Real love has warmth. Real love is not complicated. Real love has no fear. I write from experience. I have been down some exceedingly dark and painful roads for love, mostly because I was attracted to the wrong kind of women (kind of like a "fatal opposite"). I learned eventually that getting uncomplicated is hard. Unlearning the patterns of youth (when they were hurtful) was hard. Retaining belief was hard. But love itself, though not easy, was not hard.
Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn. The thing that I like about Dan and Claudia is that they both came from backgrounds similar to mine, and won through to a better place as I have. No wimpy neurotic maundering for them. No constant fear and self-doubt. So their light-hearted banter is not shallow, but floats on a deep ocean of steady good feelings. It is possible. More than anything else in the book, while trying to tell an entertaining story, I wanted to show that in their relationship. I hope people will see it, and more than that, feel it in their hearts as they read the book.
Avalon: Companions
January 16, 2017
The Better Mousetrap Fallacy
I’m continuing on my mission of disagreeing with well-known authors who know more than I do. Why not? It’s more interesting than bland agreement. Fame of the person I am disagreeing with doesn’t matter to me anyway – finding what’s true matters, and no one has an exclusive license on that activity. So, here goes…
Wally Lamb is a well-known author with at least two best-selling novels (She’s Come Undone and This Much I Know is True) that skyrocketed their way to success after being selected by the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. He wrote: “If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.” I disagree unless a major caveat is inserted. My edited version would read: “If the book is true, and you promote the hell out of it, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”
Lamb’s most successful books were written in the early and late 1990s, before the massive explosion in media quantity that eBooks brought. Even in those days, I have to believe that Lamb, his publicist, or his publisher, put in extensive effort to get Oprah Winfrey’s attention in order to get a Book Club recommendation. This is not meant as a criticism. It doesn’t matter how good something is, it takes effort to get it in front of the right people. The explosion in media quantity and pervasiveness of the Internet, with its insidious ability to distract people and shorten their attention spans, combine to make the challenges in book marketing greater than ever before. As an author, don’t ever be misled into confusing “ease of posting” with “ease of promoting.” The hard work of writing a book and editing it is followed by the brutally difficult (and many times relatively unrewarding) marketing effort. Or perhaps it is more correct to write that the experienced author combines promotion with writing and editing, in order to get as successful a book launch as possible. Then the marketing effort continues.
Let’s first debunk the “better mousetrap” analogy. (By the way, as a humorous side note, when I first typed that it came out “musetrap,” which seemed eerily appropriate for a writer!) The idea goes that if you create a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Okay, so let’s talk rodents: Wily little beasties. Hard to catch. Smelly and disease-laden. So a better mousetrap sounds pretty good, and would appeal to a vast number of people. But first you have to design it, patent it, and manufacture it in enough quantity to meet demand – a significant challenge. Second, you will still have to promote it, probably pretty heavily. Why? Because people probably will need to be persuaded that it really is better before they shell out money for it. Eventually, if it really is noticeably better, word of mouth might reduce or even eliminate the need for heavy promotion.
So now let’s shift to the realm of books and my better, er, musetrap. Here we are facing a hidden but very significant challenge that our mousetrap in the last paragraph did not face. This challenge is prevalent in the eBook and music markets – lots and lots of free competition! Worse yet, many of the potential audience members are not even interested in your little musetrap (maybe it’s not their favorite genre). Just about anyone who has a home will be interested in your mousetrap. Not so for your literary musetrap.
Let’s close with a depressing but accurate analogy (which I will follow with an optimistic word of cheer so I don’t leave anyone discouraged). When you post your eBook without having done a lot of prior promotion, as I did, you will notice that it immediately begins to drop in the rankings (such as Amazon’s rankings). It is as if you are magically transported with your manuscript into an open grave, and people immediately start shoveling dirt in your face. Desperately, you try to claw your way out, but the dirt just keeps coming, so it takes a lot of perseverance to keep going and not be buried alive. What is the “dirt” in my analogy? It’s the continuing stream of books by better known authors that come flooding in on top of yours, pushing it down in the rankings.
I published first and promoted second partly through ignorance and partly through “wanting to get the damn book out there” after years in the hopper being subjected to my endless perfectionistic maunderings. “Either put up or shut up,” I said to myself, and I felt I needed to focus on finishing the book and publishing it. I have a full time day job, write part time and also have a part time music studio, with an occasional sleeping hobby, so sometimes these priorities must get set.
And here is the optimistic note of cheer I promised to offset my depressing and melodramatic “open grave” analogy: So far, though I am struggling to stay optimistic some days, it has been worth it. I’m getting useful feedback from readers and reviewers on Book 1, Avalon: Companions. It is starting to sell (though I am holding onto the day job!) I am writing Book 2 of the series and hope to publish it in February 2017 if all goes well. I’m getting the hang of book promotion and social media. I’m doing some killer graphics and art along the way (an older interest that I had to dust off hastily in order to do the book promotion).
In the end, life is just plain hard for almost all of us, but I plan to beat the ever-loving hell out of it before I exit the arena and am carried out on my shield, maybe even to some accolades one fine day. Right now, the sky is blue, my sword is sharp, my eyes are keen, and the blood runs hot in my veins. I was meant to be a warrior, not a lamb, and this is one of my battlefields. (I really do have to apologize for that last pun at Mr. Lamb’s expense, but there was absolutely no way I could resist once I thought of it. I am JUST KIDDING. Oops, another lamb-related pun!) Okay, I’ll shut up now.
Books mentioned in this blog post:
She's Come Undone
I Know This Much Is True
Avalon: Companions
Wally Lamb is a well-known author with at least two best-selling novels (She’s Come Undone and This Much I Know is True) that skyrocketed their way to success after being selected by the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. He wrote: “If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.” I disagree unless a major caveat is inserted. My edited version would read: “If the book is true, and you promote the hell out of it, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”
Lamb’s most successful books were written in the early and late 1990s, before the massive explosion in media quantity that eBooks brought. Even in those days, I have to believe that Lamb, his publicist, or his publisher, put in extensive effort to get Oprah Winfrey’s attention in order to get a Book Club recommendation. This is not meant as a criticism. It doesn’t matter how good something is, it takes effort to get it in front of the right people. The explosion in media quantity and pervasiveness of the Internet, with its insidious ability to distract people and shorten their attention spans, combine to make the challenges in book marketing greater than ever before. As an author, don’t ever be misled into confusing “ease of posting” with “ease of promoting.” The hard work of writing a book and editing it is followed by the brutally difficult (and many times relatively unrewarding) marketing effort. Or perhaps it is more correct to write that the experienced author combines promotion with writing and editing, in order to get as successful a book launch as possible. Then the marketing effort continues.
Let’s first debunk the “better mousetrap” analogy. (By the way, as a humorous side note, when I first typed that it came out “musetrap,” which seemed eerily appropriate for a writer!) The idea goes that if you create a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Okay, so let’s talk rodents: Wily little beasties. Hard to catch. Smelly and disease-laden. So a better mousetrap sounds pretty good, and would appeal to a vast number of people. But first you have to design it, patent it, and manufacture it in enough quantity to meet demand – a significant challenge. Second, you will still have to promote it, probably pretty heavily. Why? Because people probably will need to be persuaded that it really is better before they shell out money for it. Eventually, if it really is noticeably better, word of mouth might reduce or even eliminate the need for heavy promotion.
So now let’s shift to the realm of books and my better, er, musetrap. Here we are facing a hidden but very significant challenge that our mousetrap in the last paragraph did not face. This challenge is prevalent in the eBook and music markets – lots and lots of free competition! Worse yet, many of the potential audience members are not even interested in your little musetrap (maybe it’s not their favorite genre). Just about anyone who has a home will be interested in your mousetrap. Not so for your literary musetrap.
Let’s close with a depressing but accurate analogy (which I will follow with an optimistic word of cheer so I don’t leave anyone discouraged). When you post your eBook without having done a lot of prior promotion, as I did, you will notice that it immediately begins to drop in the rankings (such as Amazon’s rankings). It is as if you are magically transported with your manuscript into an open grave, and people immediately start shoveling dirt in your face. Desperately, you try to claw your way out, but the dirt just keeps coming, so it takes a lot of perseverance to keep going and not be buried alive. What is the “dirt” in my analogy? It’s the continuing stream of books by better known authors that come flooding in on top of yours, pushing it down in the rankings.
I published first and promoted second partly through ignorance and partly through “wanting to get the damn book out there” after years in the hopper being subjected to my endless perfectionistic maunderings. “Either put up or shut up,” I said to myself, and I felt I needed to focus on finishing the book and publishing it. I have a full time day job, write part time and also have a part time music studio, with an occasional sleeping hobby, so sometimes these priorities must get set.
And here is the optimistic note of cheer I promised to offset my depressing and melodramatic “open grave” analogy: So far, though I am struggling to stay optimistic some days, it has been worth it. I’m getting useful feedback from readers and reviewers on Book 1, Avalon: Companions. It is starting to sell (though I am holding onto the day job!) I am writing Book 2 of the series and hope to publish it in February 2017 if all goes well. I’m getting the hang of book promotion and social media. I’m doing some killer graphics and art along the way (an older interest that I had to dust off hastily in order to do the book promotion).
In the end, life is just plain hard for almost all of us, but I plan to beat the ever-loving hell out of it before I exit the arena and am carried out on my shield, maybe even to some accolades one fine day. Right now, the sky is blue, my sword is sharp, my eyes are keen, and the blood runs hot in my veins. I was meant to be a warrior, not a lamb, and this is one of my battlefields. (I really do have to apologize for that last pun at Mr. Lamb’s expense, but there was absolutely no way I could resist once I thought of it. I am JUST KIDDING. Oops, another lamb-related pun!) Okay, I’ll shut up now.
Books mentioned in this blog post:
She's Come Undone
I Know This Much Is True
Avalon: Companions
January 2, 2017
Pros and Cons of Changing a Published Book's Ending
In the historical publishing industry, before the eBook (and in particular before Amazon Kindle), it must have been very onerous to make changes to a published book. So if bad reviews occurred, an author probably would not change a book in response. With eBooks, though, there is a paradigm shift that an author can use to make book writing more interactive with readers.
The really odd thing is, that in some ways this harks back to early verbal storytelling, when bards, poets, or tellers of tales could and would change stories on the fly to suit the audience – hence the vast profusion of varying stories (such as fairy tales or folklore) with similar themes or characters. Of course, I am not suggesting the eBook makes that kind of frequent change possible or desirable, but it does make some changes relatively easy, and then the question is, should the author make the change or not?
My second novel (first published novel) is Avalon: Companions, a science fiction thriller set in present day Arizona and an alternate world called Avalon. In general, reviews so far have been quite positive, but one reviewer was critical of the ending, saying it was a cliffhanger and complaining that it left the reader without enough closure on the first book’s story. My original thought behind the ending was that it was a clever plot twist that was consistent with the historical background I had given throughout the novel. The book ended where it did, I thought, because the plotlines of Book 2 made it too complex to bring anything additional into Book 1 without making Book 1 much longer than made sense. To be clear, the situation the hero was in as part of the Book 1 cliffhanger, when resolved in Book 2, was going to be a huge conflict in Book 2 with many plot streams feeding into it.
As I thought about the reviewer’s comment, I realized I agreed. From the readers’ perspective, it is not entirely fair to get them emotionally invested in characters and then leave the readers hanging with a clever but unsatisfying ending. The critical reviewer then went on to say that I used this cliffhanger approach “just to sell another book.” Since the book is only $0.99 as a get-acquainted sale price, I felt like commenting on his review: “Yes, and I am laughing all the way to the bank clutching my ill-gotten $0.35 (my share of the proceeds)! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!” So his comment on the cliffhanger itself was fair, but his overly cynical analysis of why I did it was not.
It took a few days of thought to see if I could somehow extract something from Book 2 (as yet unpublished) to make the ending of Book 1 better and provide more closure. Fortunately, I was able to do that, and interestingly, I think the change will not only benefit Book 1 but Book 2 as well, by decoupling some plot streams that were too tightly tied to a specific situation in Book 2. This was a learning experience for me as a new author, in several ways:
1) I forgot to think about the reader’s perspective, and in particular, their likely emotional state at the end of Book 1. I got so caught up in my storyline I forgot the audience. Oops.
2) Being an “expressive” personality (in the social styles sense) means I am prone to getting caught up in dreams, visions, and stories. This is good. It also makes me forget the audience sometimes by getting too caught up in the dream and my evocation of it. That part is bad.
3) I let plotting overcome characterization and story outcome. What I mean is, story outcome (the hero’s story, the resolution of Book 1) should have come first, leading to effective character portrayal, with plotting coming a distant third. But it’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of writing and lose sight of these priorities.
So now that I had my new ending (about 6,000 additional words), how would I make the change? In my case, I had two editions of Book 1 already (for various reasons). I didn’t want to create a third edition. This is where the eBook is such a convenient platform for an author that does want to make changes to an already-published book. My comments here mostly center around Amazon’s approach. My 2nd Edition, Avalon: Companions (Book 1 of the Avalon Series), is published via Kindle Direct, so all I had to do was update the interior text and (for other reasons) the cover image, and the change took effect over the next few days. I also asked the publisher for the 1st Edition to update across all retailers. The only problem this left me with was what to do about readers who had bought the older version – how would I get them the new ending? I have been emailing it where possible, and also have put alerts within the book descriptions and on my author web site at http://www.andybfree.com/books.html and have a free download link there for a PDF of the new ending (of course, this has major spoilers): https://digioh.com/em/23486/112784/4j... (this link goes to a secure file storage company called “Digioh” that is one of my third party providers).
But I sort of skipped ahead to the solution. Are there any reasons I might not have wanted to make the change? I can think of several:
1) It could make it look like I am vacillating as an author and not confident. Okay, but in this case I agree with the critical reviewer. I blew the first rendition ending in a way that might unnecessarily irritate many readers. So I should fix it.
2) It could confuse readers as the different editions are in flux. (Hence the need for communication and planning as noted above).
3) For plot elements that are truly a structural change, I run the risk of confusing myself as I finish Book 2. Any author knows how hard it is to keep track of a complex plot. Making last minute changes to the prior book in the series can be very tricky. In this case, I was just plain lucky – my last minute change to Book 1 will not make Book 2 harder, it will make it easier by decoupling some plot streams and making a very tricky timing problem for one of the Book 2 plot climaxes go away. I still do have a bit of an issue with a time travel sequence that will be, in essence, like a very long flashback for two of the characters, but I think I can make it work.
What Do Readers Think?
So let me open it up to the court of public opinion. What do Goodreads readers think of such ending changes to published books? Was I being courageously responsive to criticism or caving in to an Internet troll? (The critical review was quite mean and biased in some ways – so I had some justification to blow it off entirely).
More specifically, for those willing to read the book, did I get it right with the new ending? I have not by any means, even with the new ending, tied up all the loose ends of Book 1 – it intentionally portrayed several plot streams that only get resolved later, much like events in real life.
Avalon: Companions
The really odd thing is, that in some ways this harks back to early verbal storytelling, when bards, poets, or tellers of tales could and would change stories on the fly to suit the audience – hence the vast profusion of varying stories (such as fairy tales or folklore) with similar themes or characters. Of course, I am not suggesting the eBook makes that kind of frequent change possible or desirable, but it does make some changes relatively easy, and then the question is, should the author make the change or not?
My second novel (first published novel) is Avalon: Companions, a science fiction thriller set in present day Arizona and an alternate world called Avalon. In general, reviews so far have been quite positive, but one reviewer was critical of the ending, saying it was a cliffhanger and complaining that it left the reader without enough closure on the first book’s story. My original thought behind the ending was that it was a clever plot twist that was consistent with the historical background I had given throughout the novel. The book ended where it did, I thought, because the plotlines of Book 2 made it too complex to bring anything additional into Book 1 without making Book 1 much longer than made sense. To be clear, the situation the hero was in as part of the Book 1 cliffhanger, when resolved in Book 2, was going to be a huge conflict in Book 2 with many plot streams feeding into it.
As I thought about the reviewer’s comment, I realized I agreed. From the readers’ perspective, it is not entirely fair to get them emotionally invested in characters and then leave the readers hanging with a clever but unsatisfying ending. The critical reviewer then went on to say that I used this cliffhanger approach “just to sell another book.” Since the book is only $0.99 as a get-acquainted sale price, I felt like commenting on his review: “Yes, and I am laughing all the way to the bank clutching my ill-gotten $0.35 (my share of the proceeds)! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!” So his comment on the cliffhanger itself was fair, but his overly cynical analysis of why I did it was not.
It took a few days of thought to see if I could somehow extract something from Book 2 (as yet unpublished) to make the ending of Book 1 better and provide more closure. Fortunately, I was able to do that, and interestingly, I think the change will not only benefit Book 1 but Book 2 as well, by decoupling some plot streams that were too tightly tied to a specific situation in Book 2. This was a learning experience for me as a new author, in several ways:
1) I forgot to think about the reader’s perspective, and in particular, their likely emotional state at the end of Book 1. I got so caught up in my storyline I forgot the audience. Oops.
2) Being an “expressive” personality (in the social styles sense) means I am prone to getting caught up in dreams, visions, and stories. This is good. It also makes me forget the audience sometimes by getting too caught up in the dream and my evocation of it. That part is bad.
3) I let plotting overcome characterization and story outcome. What I mean is, story outcome (the hero’s story, the resolution of Book 1) should have come first, leading to effective character portrayal, with plotting coming a distant third. But it’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of writing and lose sight of these priorities.
So now that I had my new ending (about 6,000 additional words), how would I make the change? In my case, I had two editions of Book 1 already (for various reasons). I didn’t want to create a third edition. This is where the eBook is such a convenient platform for an author that does want to make changes to an already-published book. My comments here mostly center around Amazon’s approach. My 2nd Edition, Avalon: Companions (Book 1 of the Avalon Series), is published via Kindle Direct, so all I had to do was update the interior text and (for other reasons) the cover image, and the change took effect over the next few days. I also asked the publisher for the 1st Edition to update across all retailers. The only problem this left me with was what to do about readers who had bought the older version – how would I get them the new ending? I have been emailing it where possible, and also have put alerts within the book descriptions and on my author web site at http://www.andybfree.com/books.html and have a free download link there for a PDF of the new ending (of course, this has major spoilers): https://digioh.com/em/23486/112784/4j... (this link goes to a secure file storage company called “Digioh” that is one of my third party providers).
But I sort of skipped ahead to the solution. Are there any reasons I might not have wanted to make the change? I can think of several:
1) It could make it look like I am vacillating as an author and not confident. Okay, but in this case I agree with the critical reviewer. I blew the first rendition ending in a way that might unnecessarily irritate many readers. So I should fix it.
2) It could confuse readers as the different editions are in flux. (Hence the need for communication and planning as noted above).
3) For plot elements that are truly a structural change, I run the risk of confusing myself as I finish Book 2. Any author knows how hard it is to keep track of a complex plot. Making last minute changes to the prior book in the series can be very tricky. In this case, I was just plain lucky – my last minute change to Book 1 will not make Book 2 harder, it will make it easier by decoupling some plot streams and making a very tricky timing problem for one of the Book 2 plot climaxes go away. I still do have a bit of an issue with a time travel sequence that will be, in essence, like a very long flashback for two of the characters, but I think I can make it work.
What Do Readers Think?
So let me open it up to the court of public opinion. What do Goodreads readers think of such ending changes to published books? Was I being courageously responsive to criticism or caving in to an Internet troll? (The critical review was quite mean and biased in some ways – so I had some justification to blow it off entirely).
More specifically, for those willing to read the book, did I get it right with the new ending? I have not by any means, even with the new ending, tied up all the loose ends of Book 1 – it intentionally portrayed several plot streams that only get resolved later, much like events in real life.
Avalon: Companions
November 24, 2016
My Writing Will be a Hit Because It's a Myth
The single most interesting fact I have ever learned about writing - one so significant that it affects me more than anything else as a writer is this: Knowing the power of the monomyth, a type of story structure, George Lucas went to comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell for advice on his Star Wars story. Why does this matter? Because the monomyth is by far the most powerful and prevalent story type there is. (Look at the staggering commercial success of Star Wars or Harry Potter to get a sense of how important this story form is).
So then... What is the monomyth? It’s a term that Campbell borrowed from James Joyce that means "the hero's story," the transformational journey that a hero takes that defines him or her. The term was coined by James Joyce in "Ulysses," but was adopted and probably gained its preeminence via Campbell’s writings and lectures, particularly in his book "The Hero With A Thousand Faces."
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
Campbell summarized the monomyth this way: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
The monomyth is critically important as a story structure. It gives a story tremendous cohesion and power. Campbell’s research across thousands of years of mythology showed a remarkable similarity across time and across cultures in the stories that are elevated to the highest level a story can have in any culture – the status of myth. So, if you want a hit, use the power of a myth!
In "Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation," a book drawn from Joseph Campbell's late lectures and workshops, he says about artists and the monomyth: “Artists are magical elfs. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.”
Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation
What was significant for me in all of these insights was that I finally realized my deepest motivations in story-telling and why I write stories. The monomyth is a transformational idea that, like the theory of gravity or relativity in scientific areas, has a remarkable power to explain why certain stories are powerful and endure for generations and others are weak, valueless, and ephemeral. For me, that insight sent a deep radar pulse into my deepest heart and – finally! – showed the outline of a face that should have been familiar all along but was not.
The power of the best stories comes from striking deep and primal chords in the human heart and mind. It’s not just thousands of years of mythology and fairy tales that depend on the hero’s story – modern stories like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and many others were either patterned after myths directly, or knowingly patterned using specific knowledge of the monomyth. Why do I dislike reading most modern fiction? Precisely because it tends to depart from the monomyth. I refuse to waste my time reading about complicated neurotic wimps who talk endlessly about their problems and never resolve anything. I want to read about - and write about - believably heroic men, women, and children who will inspire me to keep trying in my own personal monomyth. And we all have our own hero’s story whether we realize it or not.
Naturally, when it comes to writing, I gravitate toward the monomyth too. For me, much of the language of my heart and spirit is the monomyth. Writing my own myths with believable heroes is the “boon for my fellow man” with which I have returned: Hard-won truths about love, courage, and loyalty like those that hero Dan Monroe exemplifies in his relationship with Claudia Chantal in my first published book, "Avalon: Companions." I believe these truths make for a powerful story about the fate of two worlds and a hero and heroine caught up in their love for each other and in modern-day events unleashed by inexorable forces from the dawn of Earth's history.
So, using Campbell’s terminology, don’t keep this “magical elf” on the shelf too long! Please read the book and let me know what you think! There’s not much point in being a magical elf if nobody pays any attention. Fortunately, reviews are starting to come in from around the world, and so far, people seem to really like the book. My web site www.andybfree.com/books.html has some reviews so far with more expected soon (see bottom of the page).
Avalon: Companions
So then... What is the monomyth? It’s a term that Campbell borrowed from James Joyce that means "the hero's story," the transformational journey that a hero takes that defines him or her. The term was coined by James Joyce in "Ulysses," but was adopted and probably gained its preeminence via Campbell’s writings and lectures, particularly in his book "The Hero With A Thousand Faces."
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
Campbell summarized the monomyth this way: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
The monomyth is critically important as a story structure. It gives a story tremendous cohesion and power. Campbell’s research across thousands of years of mythology showed a remarkable similarity across time and across cultures in the stories that are elevated to the highest level a story can have in any culture – the status of myth. So, if you want a hit, use the power of a myth!
In "Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation," a book drawn from Joseph Campbell's late lectures and workshops, he says about artists and the monomyth: “Artists are magical elfs. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.”
Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation
What was significant for me in all of these insights was that I finally realized my deepest motivations in story-telling and why I write stories. The monomyth is a transformational idea that, like the theory of gravity or relativity in scientific areas, has a remarkable power to explain why certain stories are powerful and endure for generations and others are weak, valueless, and ephemeral. For me, that insight sent a deep radar pulse into my deepest heart and – finally! – showed the outline of a face that should have been familiar all along but was not.
The power of the best stories comes from striking deep and primal chords in the human heart and mind. It’s not just thousands of years of mythology and fairy tales that depend on the hero’s story – modern stories like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and many others were either patterned after myths directly, or knowingly patterned using specific knowledge of the monomyth. Why do I dislike reading most modern fiction? Precisely because it tends to depart from the monomyth. I refuse to waste my time reading about complicated neurotic wimps who talk endlessly about their problems and never resolve anything. I want to read about - and write about - believably heroic men, women, and children who will inspire me to keep trying in my own personal monomyth. And we all have our own hero’s story whether we realize it or not.
Naturally, when it comes to writing, I gravitate toward the monomyth too. For me, much of the language of my heart and spirit is the monomyth. Writing my own myths with believable heroes is the “boon for my fellow man” with which I have returned: Hard-won truths about love, courage, and loyalty like those that hero Dan Monroe exemplifies in his relationship with Claudia Chantal in my first published book, "Avalon: Companions." I believe these truths make for a powerful story about the fate of two worlds and a hero and heroine caught up in their love for each other and in modern-day events unleashed by inexorable forces from the dawn of Earth's history.
So, using Campbell’s terminology, don’t keep this “magical elf” on the shelf too long! Please read the book and let me know what you think! There’s not much point in being a magical elf if nobody pays any attention. Fortunately, reviews are starting to come in from around the world, and so far, people seem to really like the book. My web site www.andybfree.com/books.html has some reviews so far with more expected soon (see bottom of the page).
Avalon: Companions
