Bill Conrad's Blog, page 39
July 11, 2018
When I Realized I Had Become An Author
Recently, a friend asked me when I knew that I had become an author. Up until that point, I had never really thought about this question and quickly decided that I became an author when I held my first printed book. For several days, I thought more about this question and I realized that the conclusion I came to wasn’t correct.
From a very early age, I liked to think about stories and there were a few times I wrote them down. In college, I took a creative writing class to expand my abilities. This was a positive experience and I was convinced that creative writing could be a fun hobby. Unfortunately, creative writing didn’t stick and that college class was my only creative writing effort until I began writing books. I didn’t further this outlet because at the time, the internet was young and there was no real place to share my creative thoughts. If a young me was transported forward in time, it’s very likely that I would be an active blogger or post stories to Facebook.
I had always intended to write, I just never took the leap. The change occurred when I was laid off and had the time. At first, the words simply flowed. I already knew the story and it was simply a matter of capturing the essence into my computer. When I finished the last sentence of my first book, I felt no emotion and I absolutely didn’t consider myself an author. In editing, rewrites and other publishing tasks, I still didn’t consider myself an author because I had yet to produce anything. When I finally published my book to Amazon, I knew that I had “written a book” but in my mind, that achievement didn’t make me an author. I guess that I thought that a person became an author when they got some sort of award or they had their picture taken on their big pile of books. Or was it when an author attended their first book signing?
My few Amazon book sales brought little emotion. These sales were mainly to friends and family. Then the sales trickled off to almost zero. At that point, I felt that I was further from being an author than ever. Later, I updated my resume to show that I had published a book. This made me feel like I was bragging about an accomplishment that I hadn’t actually made. In retrospect, I was further from being an author than ever.
In an attempt to gain new readers and gather insight, I decided to join the Facebook group “Writers Helping Writers.” I read a lot of posts and when I felt confident, I replied to a few posts. Eventually, I became comfortable and I started posting topics to encourage discussion. Some of my posts offered advice to authors who were just starting. Interacting with this group turned out to be a fun activity and it reminded me of the ancient internet service Usenet where people would post and reply to all manner of topics.
As I continued to post to Writers Helping Writers, I began to feel more confident. I knew many of the answers to basic writing questions. The people who posted were grateful for my advice and it felt good to help. I also was reading many posts by “successful” authors. They offered opinions, ideas, and samples of their work. Most of the posts were really good, but some of them were awful. All of the interaction allowed me to gain confidence in my writing abilities and writing accomplishments. It was through Writers Helping Writers that I began to realize that indeed, I was an author. To me, this came as an unexpected revelation. Well, at least in my mind, I had become an “unsuccessful part-time author.”
Now when people ask, I tell them, “yes, I am an author.” There is even a hint of pride in my answer. In retrospect, it took a lot of effort for me to make the leap and put myself out there for the world to criticize. A lot of people want to write and they never take the leap. I made the sacrifice and I’m proud of my achievement. Good for me! A few of the people who read my work were really impressed. It really helps to read their words of encouragement. With some luck, they will tell others and my efforts will eventually lead to several sales.
From a very early age, I liked to think about stories and there were a few times I wrote them down. In college, I took a creative writing class to expand my abilities. This was a positive experience and I was convinced that creative writing could be a fun hobby. Unfortunately, creative writing didn’t stick and that college class was my only creative writing effort until I began writing books. I didn’t further this outlet because at the time, the internet was young and there was no real place to share my creative thoughts. If a young me was transported forward in time, it’s very likely that I would be an active blogger or post stories to Facebook.
I had always intended to write, I just never took the leap. The change occurred when I was laid off and had the time. At first, the words simply flowed. I already knew the story and it was simply a matter of capturing the essence into my computer. When I finished the last sentence of my first book, I felt no emotion and I absolutely didn’t consider myself an author. In editing, rewrites and other publishing tasks, I still didn’t consider myself an author because I had yet to produce anything. When I finally published my book to Amazon, I knew that I had “written a book” but in my mind, that achievement didn’t make me an author. I guess that I thought that a person became an author when they got some sort of award or they had their picture taken on their big pile of books. Or was it when an author attended their first book signing?
My few Amazon book sales brought little emotion. These sales were mainly to friends and family. Then the sales trickled off to almost zero. At that point, I felt that I was further from being an author than ever. Later, I updated my resume to show that I had published a book. This made me feel like I was bragging about an accomplishment that I hadn’t actually made. In retrospect, I was further from being an author than ever.
In an attempt to gain new readers and gather insight, I decided to join the Facebook group “Writers Helping Writers.” I read a lot of posts and when I felt confident, I replied to a few posts. Eventually, I became comfortable and I started posting topics to encourage discussion. Some of my posts offered advice to authors who were just starting. Interacting with this group turned out to be a fun activity and it reminded me of the ancient internet service Usenet where people would post and reply to all manner of topics.
As I continued to post to Writers Helping Writers, I began to feel more confident. I knew many of the answers to basic writing questions. The people who posted were grateful for my advice and it felt good to help. I also was reading many posts by “successful” authors. They offered opinions, ideas, and samples of their work. Most of the posts were really good, but some of them were awful. All of the interaction allowed me to gain confidence in my writing abilities and writing accomplishments. It was through Writers Helping Writers that I began to realize that indeed, I was an author. To me, this came as an unexpected revelation. Well, at least in my mind, I had become an “unsuccessful part-time author.”
Now when people ask, I tell them, “yes, I am an author.” There is even a hint of pride in my answer. In retrospect, it took a lot of effort for me to make the leap and put myself out there for the world to criticize. A lot of people want to write and they never take the leap. I made the sacrifice and I’m proud of my achievement. Good for me! A few of the people who read my work were really impressed. It really helps to read their words of encouragement. With some luck, they will tell others and my efforts will eventually lead to several sales.
July 4, 2018
Technical Writing (By a Fiction Author)
The first time I learned about the topic of technical writing was in college. In my senior year and the administrators had just approved a new class called Technical Writing. Up until this point, I had no idea that this type of writing was even a discipline. I just assumed all Engineers knew how to write; they just wrote “technically” when they needed to. A friend of mine took the first class and from the description, it sounded like a class that I would be interested in. Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow me to take the class and I graduated without it. As my career in Electrical Engineer began, I started down the path of writing business proposals and generating technical documents by the boat load.
When I was about 25, my boss suggested that I take a technical writing class. UCSD extension offered such a class and I jumped at the opportunity. After all, the company paid for it. The class was a positive experience that focused on being a better technical communicator. On a side note, I met a girl there and she invited me to a party where I met a girl that I dated. I also found out about the drink “boba” at the local food court. I also got many UCSD parking tickets. Punishing poor students. Jerks! I guess a few negatives as well. Back to the blog. The main takeaway from this technical writing class was to look at each sentence and make sure that it was clearly stated and conveyed the exact meaning in as few words as possible.
Up until that point in my life, my writing was all over the map. My sentences were unfocused and my writing contained extra junk. This included adding unrelated opinions, humor and thought-provoking observations. That was just my personality and it made for some very interesting technical documents. The readers of those early technical documents were probably amused and it took them an extra amount of effort to extract the relevant information.
Overall, the technical writing class forced a big change in my writing. I began carefully going over each sentence to tighten them up in order to convey only what was necessary. To me, writing became a game and I went very far with my attempts to make every single sentence “technical.” This resulted in terse and cryptic documents. In the many years that followed taking this class, I honed my technical writing skills and eventually, my writing became less cryptic. There is a definite art to technical writing. It involves organizing the facts and presenting them in a logical way.
A good technical writer must also avoid the many writing pitfalls to make a great technical document. For example, not using the first person to describe some technical subject even if the author participated solely in its operation. Not turning the document into a story or keeping the reader in suspense. Presenting the facts in order and not including irrelevant facts.
Surprisingly, there aren’t many reference books on technical writing. The ones that I have found read like an unorganized collection of writing tips with lots of examples. A great opportunity exists in making a good technical writing guide. No, I have no interest in creating such a guide. Now, writing a book about creating good business plans or great patents. AHH! Stay focused.
Since that class, I worked really hard to improve my technical writing skills. Fifteen years later, there was a defining moment in my effort to become a great technical writer. I had lost my full-time job and I was trying to switch my career to being a full-time consultant. One of my clients had their office far away and I had to do all my communications over email. Generally, on technical topics, I prefer to walk to the other person’s office and discuss it. However, due to the distance, this approach wasn’t possible.
My main communication method was email and I would work for hours crafting perfect emails to convey my exact technical thoughts. The result was a big nothing. Nobody was reading my exquisitely crafted emails. In retrospect, I think my emails were too descriptive and lengthy. This experience left me jaded and from that point forward, I put a lot less effort into my technical writing.
I was very aware of this change in attitude and I knew that my writing didn’t have much focus. I also knew that my level of pride had slipped. A few years later, I was again laid off and had time to burn. I decided to write fiction and the result was 3 books. When I submitted my first book, my editors pointed out that my grammar was poor and I began to put a lot of focus into proper sentence structure. They also pointed out that my writing was bland. Specifically, I was missing content and emotion. The result was that I put a lot more effort into my writing.
In January of this year, I got back into full-time employment and of course, began writing technical documents. I could immediately tell that my technical writing had changed. I shifted my focus from making terse logical sentences to sentences with correct structure That flowed. I think the biggest change was my new use of contractions and more “flowery” words to describe technical subjects. The overall result was a more fluid approach toward my technical documents. I suspect that my technical co-workers think that I’m a more formal person by my writings. Perhaps snooty?
This new focus and learning experience also made me realize that my fellow Engineers had really bad English skills. When I read their technical documents, the grammar and spelling mistakes now leap off the page. It takes some personal effort not point out their mistakes. Of course, I hold no malice towards my fellow Engineers. After all, I used to be an engineer who wasn’t a part-time author.
Taking an overall perspective on my writing path is amusing to think about. My English experience started out very bad. I had a lot of trouble in the beginning and it was very clear that being good at writing was never going to happen. That young boy would have been surprised that I took an interest in technical writing. He would have been stunned that I became an author.
What does my future technical writing hold? Right now, it looks like I have a bunch of boring reports and lots of emails ahead of me. I don’t mind. That’s all part of the job. If done correctly, it can even be fun.
When I was about 25, my boss suggested that I take a technical writing class. UCSD extension offered such a class and I jumped at the opportunity. After all, the company paid for it. The class was a positive experience that focused on being a better technical communicator. On a side note, I met a girl there and she invited me to a party where I met a girl that I dated. I also found out about the drink “boba” at the local food court. I also got many UCSD parking tickets. Punishing poor students. Jerks! I guess a few negatives as well. Back to the blog. The main takeaway from this technical writing class was to look at each sentence and make sure that it was clearly stated and conveyed the exact meaning in as few words as possible.
Up until that point in my life, my writing was all over the map. My sentences were unfocused and my writing contained extra junk. This included adding unrelated opinions, humor and thought-provoking observations. That was just my personality and it made for some very interesting technical documents. The readers of those early technical documents were probably amused and it took them an extra amount of effort to extract the relevant information.
Overall, the technical writing class forced a big change in my writing. I began carefully going over each sentence to tighten them up in order to convey only what was necessary. To me, writing became a game and I went very far with my attempts to make every single sentence “technical.” This resulted in terse and cryptic documents. In the many years that followed taking this class, I honed my technical writing skills and eventually, my writing became less cryptic. There is a definite art to technical writing. It involves organizing the facts and presenting them in a logical way.
A good technical writer must also avoid the many writing pitfalls to make a great technical document. For example, not using the first person to describe some technical subject even if the author participated solely in its operation. Not turning the document into a story or keeping the reader in suspense. Presenting the facts in order and not including irrelevant facts.
Surprisingly, there aren’t many reference books on technical writing. The ones that I have found read like an unorganized collection of writing tips with lots of examples. A great opportunity exists in making a good technical writing guide. No, I have no interest in creating such a guide. Now, writing a book about creating good business plans or great patents. AHH! Stay focused.
Since that class, I worked really hard to improve my technical writing skills. Fifteen years later, there was a defining moment in my effort to become a great technical writer. I had lost my full-time job and I was trying to switch my career to being a full-time consultant. One of my clients had their office far away and I had to do all my communications over email. Generally, on technical topics, I prefer to walk to the other person’s office and discuss it. However, due to the distance, this approach wasn’t possible.
My main communication method was email and I would work for hours crafting perfect emails to convey my exact technical thoughts. The result was a big nothing. Nobody was reading my exquisitely crafted emails. In retrospect, I think my emails were too descriptive and lengthy. This experience left me jaded and from that point forward, I put a lot less effort into my technical writing.
I was very aware of this change in attitude and I knew that my writing didn’t have much focus. I also knew that my level of pride had slipped. A few years later, I was again laid off and had time to burn. I decided to write fiction and the result was 3 books. When I submitted my first book, my editors pointed out that my grammar was poor and I began to put a lot of focus into proper sentence structure. They also pointed out that my writing was bland. Specifically, I was missing content and emotion. The result was that I put a lot more effort into my writing.
In January of this year, I got back into full-time employment and of course, began writing technical documents. I could immediately tell that my technical writing had changed. I shifted my focus from making terse logical sentences to sentences with correct structure That flowed. I think the biggest change was my new use of contractions and more “flowery” words to describe technical subjects. The overall result was a more fluid approach toward my technical documents. I suspect that my technical co-workers think that I’m a more formal person by my writings. Perhaps snooty?
This new focus and learning experience also made me realize that my fellow Engineers had really bad English skills. When I read their technical documents, the grammar and spelling mistakes now leap off the page. It takes some personal effort not point out their mistakes. Of course, I hold no malice towards my fellow Engineers. After all, I used to be an engineer who wasn’t a part-time author.
Taking an overall perspective on my writing path is amusing to think about. My English experience started out very bad. I had a lot of trouble in the beginning and it was very clear that being good at writing was never going to happen. That young boy would have been surprised that I took an interest in technical writing. He would have been stunned that I became an author.
What does my future technical writing hold? Right now, it looks like I have a bunch of boring reports and lots of emails ahead of me. I don’t mind. That’s all part of the job. If done correctly, it can even be fun.
June 28, 2018
Why I Blog
Well, this is getting kind of silly. I’m now writing about 1 blog a week. The intent of all this blogging is to create buzz and hopefully, this will lead to more book sales. The problem is that this approach isn’t working. The last 5 blogs I wrote got a total of 2 views on Goodreads. Both views were on my blog about writing an intimate scene. It’s clearly understandable why people would be drawn to read that blog.
So why keep it up? As I write this, I am kind of wondering myself. My only answer is that I write blogs in the hopes that my diligent effort will eventually work. Einstein described crazy as, “doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result.” So very true. As I ponder blogging while sitting in front of a lonely computer, I realize that I probably blog more because it’s a creative outlet. But that isn’t the entire truth. For most tasks that I set for myself, I do my best to see them through. Blogging is an essential book marketing tool. To that end, I will keep blogging until I admit that my experiment with being an author has completely failed. Hmm… Is that going to be the subject of my last blog?
Or is it that I just like writing about writing? Writing is something that I’m trying to get better at and blogging is one form of the process. As I write these blogs, there is a certain freedom and enjoyment. It is nice to have a mini story arc that has instant closure. I can just take a subject and go without consequence. I also like to write about the writing process. I like the connection to other writers in this very direct way. I suppose that is why artists go to art museums and musicians go to concerts. In general, I do find writing fun and with some luck, it will eventually pay a few bills. I guess, my short answer is that I blog because I like to write.
Is there another reason I am blogging? Do I want to send some message out? Perhaps take down a few people? Matt and Trey described South Park as “a bullhorn to yell at the world” and they utilize South Park to call out arrogant people doing stupid things. I respect that attitude, and I would really like a blog to do just that, but this blog is not the forum for sending out big negative waves to change society. Why? The main reason is that I don’t like to be that negative blog guy. That person who never has anything positive to write about.
Then there are the readers who I intend to attract to perhaps making a book purchase. The people attracted to reading waves of thoughts aren’t going to want to read my books because my they aren’t full of negatives. Then there is the basic Karma. These words can be read by anybody and they probably will be stored on hard drives for all eternality. I want to be remembered for something good.
If I did choose to blog a bunch of negative thoughts (to those bad people who desperately deserve to be hurt by my negative words) it’s likely that I would have a minor amount of success. The result might hurt the very people that anger me. I have never even met these people and my negative words would make a few people sad. That approach is just not me. I’m more of a positive/logical feedback person. Hey, please stop making bad decisions and here is why. In life, people respond better to positive feedback.
Did I ever want to make my negative or controversial voice known? Sure. Like everybody, I have strong opinions. I see the world, my country, state, city and even my block all slowly going in the wrong direction. If I were to yell about all my negative concepts and describe solutions, these rants would contain the same topics of discussion that are popular on conservative talk radio. Granted, I have it in my head that my opinions are better and I can solve all the world’s problems… Yeah, I’m smart enough to know that reality would prove otherwise.
At first, it was difficult to blog and take the time to come up with new ideas. I felt a lot of pressure to be great. When I got over this initial apprehension, it turned out that I really do like to blog and this is a strange new way to communicate. In general, I do find writing fun and with some luck, it will eventually pay a few bills.
There is still a lot of ground that I would like to cover in my blogs. For example, where I see my writing going, what my next books are going to be about and what books I like to read. My future blogs hold a lot of possibilities. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. The problem is that I have got to get something going that generates some interest in my books. Otherwise, this experiment in writing will have to come to an end. For now, I’m happy to be a nobody author writing about writing all while knowing that not many people are reading my words.
So why keep it up? As I write this, I am kind of wondering myself. My only answer is that I write blogs in the hopes that my diligent effort will eventually work. Einstein described crazy as, “doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result.” So very true. As I ponder blogging while sitting in front of a lonely computer, I realize that I probably blog more because it’s a creative outlet. But that isn’t the entire truth. For most tasks that I set for myself, I do my best to see them through. Blogging is an essential book marketing tool. To that end, I will keep blogging until I admit that my experiment with being an author has completely failed. Hmm… Is that going to be the subject of my last blog?
Or is it that I just like writing about writing? Writing is something that I’m trying to get better at and blogging is one form of the process. As I write these blogs, there is a certain freedom and enjoyment. It is nice to have a mini story arc that has instant closure. I can just take a subject and go without consequence. I also like to write about the writing process. I like the connection to other writers in this very direct way. I suppose that is why artists go to art museums and musicians go to concerts. In general, I do find writing fun and with some luck, it will eventually pay a few bills. I guess, my short answer is that I blog because I like to write.
Is there another reason I am blogging? Do I want to send some message out? Perhaps take down a few people? Matt and Trey described South Park as “a bullhorn to yell at the world” and they utilize South Park to call out arrogant people doing stupid things. I respect that attitude, and I would really like a blog to do just that, but this blog is not the forum for sending out big negative waves to change society. Why? The main reason is that I don’t like to be that negative blog guy. That person who never has anything positive to write about.
Then there are the readers who I intend to attract to perhaps making a book purchase. The people attracted to reading waves of thoughts aren’t going to want to read my books because my they aren’t full of negatives. Then there is the basic Karma. These words can be read by anybody and they probably will be stored on hard drives for all eternality. I want to be remembered for something good.
If I did choose to blog a bunch of negative thoughts (to those bad people who desperately deserve to be hurt by my negative words) it’s likely that I would have a minor amount of success. The result might hurt the very people that anger me. I have never even met these people and my negative words would make a few people sad. That approach is just not me. I’m more of a positive/logical feedback person. Hey, please stop making bad decisions and here is why. In life, people respond better to positive feedback.
Did I ever want to make my negative or controversial voice known? Sure. Like everybody, I have strong opinions. I see the world, my country, state, city and even my block all slowly going in the wrong direction. If I were to yell about all my negative concepts and describe solutions, these rants would contain the same topics of discussion that are popular on conservative talk radio. Granted, I have it in my head that my opinions are better and I can solve all the world’s problems… Yeah, I’m smart enough to know that reality would prove otherwise.
At first, it was difficult to blog and take the time to come up with new ideas. I felt a lot of pressure to be great. When I got over this initial apprehension, it turned out that I really do like to blog and this is a strange new way to communicate. In general, I do find writing fun and with some luck, it will eventually pay a few bills.
There is still a lot of ground that I would like to cover in my blogs. For example, where I see my writing going, what my next books are going to be about and what books I like to read. My future blogs hold a lot of possibilities. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. The problem is that I have got to get something going that generates some interest in my books. Otherwise, this experiment in writing will have to come to an end. For now, I’m happy to be a nobody author writing about writing all while knowing that not many people are reading my words.
June 20, 2018
Writing About a Controversial Topic
Books often try to break new ground to gain the public’s interest. Just about every single plot concept/type has been tried and every character type has been explored. The result is that it’s getting harder to be unique and really stand out as an author.
One of the ways that an author tries to stand out is by writing about a controversial topic. This generates buzz and excites readers. It also benefits society by bringing exposure to these unspoken topics. For example, writing about a character that has an alternative lifestyle. Initially, this shocked readers and was considered very taboo. When I was growing up in the 70’s, I remember the big controversary about men wearing small earrings and the huge significance of their outrageous choice. Is it on the left or right side? Since that time, many authors and the media have had characters with alternative lifestyles. Now, this very controversial topic doesn’t raise an eyebrow and men wear all kinds of earrings without a second look.
An example of a very old controversial topic is scary monsters. When Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came out, it was explosive. People were afraid to go to sleep because scientists might have created a monster out of body parts. At the time the book came out, this concept was truly terrifying and it generated a huge amount of interest. Now, the concept of a scientist sewing a monster together out of random body parts is timid and evokes little interest. Unfortunately, this added exposure eventually makes controversial topics bland and authors must keep trying to push the envelope. That is both the power of the press and its curse. Topics such as this are longer special. The result is that a book that focuses on an outdated controversial topic will no longer automatically sell due to shock value.
For me, I take the opposite approach and try not to write about controversial topics. My biggest controversial topic is in my second book, Kim and Gabe Survive which is now in the editing stage. In that book, I write about a 17-year old female and a 34-year old male who get together. Originally, her age was 15 and this writing choice wasn’t intended to evoke shock, but instead, it was an important part of the plot. After talking to some friends about my book, their negative opinion of her age made me uncomfortable. I felt there was no other choice and changed her age from 15 to 17. The result was that it deluded the controversy. Well, in my opinion, it made the story less dramatic. Did I bow into the pressure that society places on a writer? I caved in without a whimper! Honestly, it was just too uncomfortable. I wanted my work to stand out because it was a good story and not because it was controversial.
My conservative personality has always put blinders on my life. However, there’s another aspect to my personality which wants to avoid criticism like, “That was a terrible book. A 34-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl. How shameful!” While some writers would live for stirring up this very kind of trouble, that’s not my personality. Is that bad tactic for an upcoming writer? Tragically, yes it is. A writer needs to be bold in order to make an impression. Really good writers have figured out how to write about a controversial topic in such a way that they get positive reviews. For example, the book 50 Shades of Grey had a plot full of controversy. The result was great sales and a movie deal.
In my case, I do my best to push the envelope while remaining conservative. For example, I wrote several intimate scenes in Kim and Gabe Survive. I did my best to do craft these scenes in a dignified manner and tried to focus on the passion, emotions and inner thoughts. I couldn’t bring myself to deeply describe their naughty body parts, outrageous exploits, and lusty emotions. My description was very basic and wouldn’t have even been a footnote in 50 Shades of Grey. However, their intimate interactions were critical to the plot and in my humble opinion, the scenes [the concepts surrounding the scenes] broke a very small amount of new ground in the writing world.
In my upcoming third book, Cable Ties, my story involved FBI agents. I have never met an FBI agent and I did a lot of guessing as to what their culture was like. I put a lot of effort into making the story exciting and relevant. However, my efforts with regards to the FBI were not supposed to be controversial and I treated them as dedicated people who were diligently doing their job in a professional manner. The problem is that in writing a book about the FBI, I may have messed up a critical aspect of how an FBI agent actually conducts themselves. This may have unintentionally made my work controversial by my lack of direct experience. Accidental controversy is something that most authors try to avoid. Granted, any publicity is good publicity. In my case, the FBI was simply a basic plot device and the last thing I want is a comment like, “This book trashes the FBI. What an awful story!”
So where does my lack of controversial topics ultimately leave me? Well, I will probably always go out of my way to avoid controversy in my writings (and my life.) This conscientious choice of avoiding all types of controversy was present from a very early age. Does this mean that my books will never be bold, take risks or push the envelope? Tragically, yes it does. To me, this aspect of my writing is just fine. I can sleep at night knowing that my work isn’t upsetting people. In some ways, I wish this wasn’t the case. But that’s my choice and it’s a choice I can live with.
One of the ways that an author tries to stand out is by writing about a controversial topic. This generates buzz and excites readers. It also benefits society by bringing exposure to these unspoken topics. For example, writing about a character that has an alternative lifestyle. Initially, this shocked readers and was considered very taboo. When I was growing up in the 70’s, I remember the big controversary about men wearing small earrings and the huge significance of their outrageous choice. Is it on the left or right side? Since that time, many authors and the media have had characters with alternative lifestyles. Now, this very controversial topic doesn’t raise an eyebrow and men wear all kinds of earrings without a second look.
An example of a very old controversial topic is scary monsters. When Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came out, it was explosive. People were afraid to go to sleep because scientists might have created a monster out of body parts. At the time the book came out, this concept was truly terrifying and it generated a huge amount of interest. Now, the concept of a scientist sewing a monster together out of random body parts is timid and evokes little interest. Unfortunately, this added exposure eventually makes controversial topics bland and authors must keep trying to push the envelope. That is both the power of the press and its curse. Topics such as this are longer special. The result is that a book that focuses on an outdated controversial topic will no longer automatically sell due to shock value.
For me, I take the opposite approach and try not to write about controversial topics. My biggest controversial topic is in my second book, Kim and Gabe Survive which is now in the editing stage. In that book, I write about a 17-year old female and a 34-year old male who get together. Originally, her age was 15 and this writing choice wasn’t intended to evoke shock, but instead, it was an important part of the plot. After talking to some friends about my book, their negative opinion of her age made me uncomfortable. I felt there was no other choice and changed her age from 15 to 17. The result was that it deluded the controversy. Well, in my opinion, it made the story less dramatic. Did I bow into the pressure that society places on a writer? I caved in without a whimper! Honestly, it was just too uncomfortable. I wanted my work to stand out because it was a good story and not because it was controversial.
My conservative personality has always put blinders on my life. However, there’s another aspect to my personality which wants to avoid criticism like, “That was a terrible book. A 34-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl. How shameful!” While some writers would live for stirring up this very kind of trouble, that’s not my personality. Is that bad tactic for an upcoming writer? Tragically, yes it is. A writer needs to be bold in order to make an impression. Really good writers have figured out how to write about a controversial topic in such a way that they get positive reviews. For example, the book 50 Shades of Grey had a plot full of controversy. The result was great sales and a movie deal.
In my case, I do my best to push the envelope while remaining conservative. For example, I wrote several intimate scenes in Kim and Gabe Survive. I did my best to do craft these scenes in a dignified manner and tried to focus on the passion, emotions and inner thoughts. I couldn’t bring myself to deeply describe their naughty body parts, outrageous exploits, and lusty emotions. My description was very basic and wouldn’t have even been a footnote in 50 Shades of Grey. However, their intimate interactions were critical to the plot and in my humble opinion, the scenes [the concepts surrounding the scenes] broke a very small amount of new ground in the writing world.
In my upcoming third book, Cable Ties, my story involved FBI agents. I have never met an FBI agent and I did a lot of guessing as to what their culture was like. I put a lot of effort into making the story exciting and relevant. However, my efforts with regards to the FBI were not supposed to be controversial and I treated them as dedicated people who were diligently doing their job in a professional manner. The problem is that in writing a book about the FBI, I may have messed up a critical aspect of how an FBI agent actually conducts themselves. This may have unintentionally made my work controversial by my lack of direct experience. Accidental controversy is something that most authors try to avoid. Granted, any publicity is good publicity. In my case, the FBI was simply a basic plot device and the last thing I want is a comment like, “This book trashes the FBI. What an awful story!”
So where does my lack of controversial topics ultimately leave me? Well, I will probably always go out of my way to avoid controversy in my writings (and my life.) This conscientious choice of avoiding all types of controversy was present from a very early age. Does this mean that my books will never be bold, take risks or push the envelope? Tragically, yes it does. To me, this aspect of my writing is just fine. I can sleep at night knowing that my work isn’t upsetting people. In some ways, I wish this wasn’t the case. But that’s my choice and it’s a choice I can live with.
June 12, 2018
How A Plot Develops
When people find out that I’m an author, they immediately ask, “What’s your book about?” A reasonable question and I cheerfully answer, “It’s about a 500-year-old woman forcing an author to interview her.” The people seem to understand this premise and their next question is, “How did you come up such a far-out idea?” I tell them that I thought up my concept up a long time ago and worked on it for many years until I had the confidence to write about it. They then say, “I have always wanted to be an author. How did you go from your idea to a book?”
That is a complex answer. In my first three books, I mentally modified the story hundreds of times over many years. When it came time to actually write them, the words just flowed. However, that approach created a big problem. When my beta reader (mom), editors and book helper read my story and they had big concerns. The basic plot had several major issues. In just about every area, I was missing the motivation. A big part of this missed motivation was the “critical decision.” This is when a character decided to do something and the author has to pull their thoughts out of the characters heads. For example, “Bob killed Fred.” Why did he do this? What happened afterward? How did Bob feel about his actions? What did he tell people? Well, I just kind of assumed that the reader had been paying attention and magically knew what was in Bob’s head. Oops.
Overall, I was missing was the basic flow of a good story. A character gets into trouble and then either get’s out of trouble or they don’t. When I’m writing, I like to resolve issues as quickly as possible. A character simply cannot remain in indeterminate trouble over several chapters. I guess that’s a part of my engineer personality. Everything I have control over in my life is neat and organized. The problem with a logical approach is that it doesn’t build conflict and sustain the reader’s interest. Readers like to have a good long read about how a conflict starts and then have their hand held through the resolution. That is how a good writer builds a great story and this is the difference between a news report and a novel. One is presentable and the other is enjoyable.
Not all stories have to have deep conflict in order to be great. The book, The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Repair has a very basic story. A dad takes his son on a motorcycle road trip. There’s no controversy, adventure or radical concepts. However, it is an astounding book that everybody should read at least once. Why? Because of the way the simple story flows. This book goes far over the top to expand the characters and their motivations in a very mellow way. The plot builds over several chapters and then slowly settles with a gentle conclusion.
There is a genuine art to developing a flow within the plot. There has to be an overall plan and I have only recently begun to formalize that approach. I do this with an outline that allows me to really craft the story. With a basic outline, it’s much easier to tie story elements together over multiple chapters. For example, a person can have a mysterious health issue for the first 90% of the book and then get it resolved at the end. Readers generally like this approach when they read a story. However, I still prefer to get the major issues resolved quickly. The good news is that using outlines is helping me resist this trend. The bad news is that I still hate when a character is in trouble.
The next book I’m going to work on is a spy drama. This sequel to my third book Cable Ties (in the editing process now) and the overall plot while straightforward has many elements. I’m going to try to have a few unresolved conflicts, open-ended questions and other areas that leave the reader confused. I’m also working much more on the motivation behind each of the characters to give the reader a better perspective.
The problem with this new book (which is still in the outline stage) is that the plot isn’t too strong. While there are some really good ideas, I’m not sure it will hold the reader's interest. Overall, it’s a messy plot without a core focus. I have been going over the plot for a while and come to no revelations. I think the overall problem is that there is no central adversary with a central agenda. However, this is often the case with real-life spy stories. This type of story is about one big government organization versus another with thousands of individual people making their big goals happen. Their overall plan (with regards to spying) is to keep their country safe and ahead of the other country. I am trying to keep it real with a focus on the many little people who are diligently doing their job. The important part of the plot behind this book is to weave through the characters’ lives. They are going to have real dilemmas and have to work hard to resolve their conflicts. For me, the worst part is going to be that I am forcing myself to make this happen over several chapters. I still have a lot of work to do before I start writing. The outline needs a lot more tweaking and I know that I need to make several big changes. That’s why this book is still at the outline stage for the last 6 months.
What will my future plots hold? Well, I have many ideas that I want to explore. I also have wondered about a book of short stories. One of them is a great idea about time travel involving Amelia Earhart. The good news is that I am getting much better at crafting the overall story. The bad news is that I still want to solve my plot too quickly. Got to work on that.
That is a complex answer. In my first three books, I mentally modified the story hundreds of times over many years. When it came time to actually write them, the words just flowed. However, that approach created a big problem. When my beta reader (mom), editors and book helper read my story and they had big concerns. The basic plot had several major issues. In just about every area, I was missing the motivation. A big part of this missed motivation was the “critical decision.” This is when a character decided to do something and the author has to pull their thoughts out of the characters heads. For example, “Bob killed Fred.” Why did he do this? What happened afterward? How did Bob feel about his actions? What did he tell people? Well, I just kind of assumed that the reader had been paying attention and magically knew what was in Bob’s head. Oops.
Overall, I was missing was the basic flow of a good story. A character gets into trouble and then either get’s out of trouble or they don’t. When I’m writing, I like to resolve issues as quickly as possible. A character simply cannot remain in indeterminate trouble over several chapters. I guess that’s a part of my engineer personality. Everything I have control over in my life is neat and organized. The problem with a logical approach is that it doesn’t build conflict and sustain the reader’s interest. Readers like to have a good long read about how a conflict starts and then have their hand held through the resolution. That is how a good writer builds a great story and this is the difference between a news report and a novel. One is presentable and the other is enjoyable.
Not all stories have to have deep conflict in order to be great. The book, The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Repair has a very basic story. A dad takes his son on a motorcycle road trip. There’s no controversy, adventure or radical concepts. However, it is an astounding book that everybody should read at least once. Why? Because of the way the simple story flows. This book goes far over the top to expand the characters and their motivations in a very mellow way. The plot builds over several chapters and then slowly settles with a gentle conclusion.
There is a genuine art to developing a flow within the plot. There has to be an overall plan and I have only recently begun to formalize that approach. I do this with an outline that allows me to really craft the story. With a basic outline, it’s much easier to tie story elements together over multiple chapters. For example, a person can have a mysterious health issue for the first 90% of the book and then get it resolved at the end. Readers generally like this approach when they read a story. However, I still prefer to get the major issues resolved quickly. The good news is that using outlines is helping me resist this trend. The bad news is that I still hate when a character is in trouble.
The next book I’m going to work on is a spy drama. This sequel to my third book Cable Ties (in the editing process now) and the overall plot while straightforward has many elements. I’m going to try to have a few unresolved conflicts, open-ended questions and other areas that leave the reader confused. I’m also working much more on the motivation behind each of the characters to give the reader a better perspective.
The problem with this new book (which is still in the outline stage) is that the plot isn’t too strong. While there are some really good ideas, I’m not sure it will hold the reader's interest. Overall, it’s a messy plot without a core focus. I have been going over the plot for a while and come to no revelations. I think the overall problem is that there is no central adversary with a central agenda. However, this is often the case with real-life spy stories. This type of story is about one big government organization versus another with thousands of individual people making their big goals happen. Their overall plan (with regards to spying) is to keep their country safe and ahead of the other country. I am trying to keep it real with a focus on the many little people who are diligently doing their job. The important part of the plot behind this book is to weave through the characters’ lives. They are going to have real dilemmas and have to work hard to resolve their conflicts. For me, the worst part is going to be that I am forcing myself to make this happen over several chapters. I still have a lot of work to do before I start writing. The outline needs a lot more tweaking and I know that I need to make several big changes. That’s why this book is still at the outline stage for the last 6 months.
What will my future plots hold? Well, I have many ideas that I want to explore. I also have wondered about a book of short stories. One of them is a great idea about time travel involving Amelia Earhart. The good news is that I am getting much better at crafting the overall story. The bad news is that I still want to solve my plot too quickly. Got to work on that.
June 6, 2018
Confusing Writing With Real Life
I like to write fiction and I have no desire to write non-fiction. Non-fiction requires a lot of research that has to stand up to intense scrutiny. The really hard part about writing non-fiction is uplifting dull facts so that they are entertaining while keeping them 100% correct. I have also learned that there isn’t a big market for non-fiction unless your subject is really special. That kind of writing is probably not going to happen for me. Granted, I do have an amazing non-fiction idea that would defiantly be a best seller, but the research would take far too much effort. Wait a second. A few blogs ago, I wrote all about book marketing and writing. All true. But that was a minor amount of writing and not many people follow my blog. Something to work on…
When I write fiction, I get into this mental area where I’m free to make my characters do or be anything. I mentally move them through all kinds of possibilities and try every angle to see how they react. I imagine an entire backstory and create a complete existence for them. I mentally go over this made up reality several times and then create an outline. I put a lot of effort into tweaking the final story in outline form. Then the typing begins where I hammer out all my thoughts into Microsoft Word. In time, the results come close to my mental images.
For months after I have completed my first draft, I self-edit. My second book actually had over 30 cover to cover self-edits before it went to my beta reader (mom) for review. During this long duration of editing, I think a lot of the mechanics of the story and the specific logic. This effort uncovers plot errors and other flaws. I do my best to make my stories believable so that the reader can really put themselves into the story.
There are a few exceptions to keeping my plot in the real world. For examples, the aliens in my second book. It is difficult to write about something that doesn’t exist and I do my best and try to keep the plot remotely possible. However, I’m aware of one major plot hole in my third book. To get my story moving, I took some liberties in how a modern air conditioning system works. Apparently, there is a vent on the roof of every modern office building that sucks in a massive amount of air without a filter. My bad… In my defense, they do this in movies. A publically accepted lie?
I like to stay as close to reality for a few reasons. The first is that the story is much more relatable. The second is that I have no idea how to picture a character that is outside of my domain. For example, a comic book type superhero, a soldier in jungle combat, a child fighting against a drugged out parent or a homeless man trying to survive in China. To me, those stark realities are a bridge too far. I know that readers would immediately have strong issues with the imaginary characters I have no knowledge. An example comment would be, “This author clearly doesn’t know how a child would realistically defend themselves against an abusive father. This book is not worth reading!” The result would prevent my works from ever becoming successful and they would permanently tarnish my already fragile reputation.
In my carefully constructed mental world, I have all my characters organized and I picture what they would be doing in my made-up plot. As I get really into the process, my mind becomes focused and I try to see all the possibilities. While still in my made-up world, I do my best to capture my thoughts into my word processor. When the typing is done for the evening, it’s back to reality. The real kind of reality with family, friends, coworkers, and other normal people.
The problem is that my mind is not fully switched off and my characters are always trying to get out. For example, I want to add to the dinner conversation, “(Fictional characters name) did the craziest thing today…” I catch myself in this thought line and it takes a lot of effort not to add to the conversation with my delusions. I also get hung up in the real world. Why can’t it work like my fictional world? In my world, the people all do the right thing until the plot needs a twist. In the real world, there are long-term consequences, responsibilities, true evil, laziness, and corruption. In my fictional world, all of that negativity is there, but it’s a plot device. The people are really not really evil, just misunderstood.
I have been fortunate that I have never actually talked/posted about my characters as if they were real. Well, I have never been caught doing this. However, I feel the pull of my imagination and I know that it has led to decisions in the real world. An alternative perspective could be that I want the world to work like my imagination. I want the word to work better than it does. I want people to get along and the only conflict that exists is in my words. When I get off this blissful line of thinking, the real world is a bleak landscape where people make bad decisions.
I have read many interviews with writers and they often have lofty views on how the world works. I suppose that this is part of the creative process and this is what a writer wants to see. Their interviews sometimes show their imaginary world peeking out. They have quotes like, “(Fictional characters name) would never have voted for Trump!” Statements like that make me laugh. Is the logic not obvious that a fictional character cannot vote? To me, a statement like that is a testament to being a dedicated author that actually believes how their made up character would behave.
I think overall there is a fine line between being a sane dedicated author and a delusional author that needs professional help. Perhaps the best authors jump into this delusional world while they write and then jump back into reality for the rest of their day. Perhaps some of them have made one jump too many. History is full of amazing artists and writers who were truly mad.
For me, I will keep trying to keep my imaginary characters inside my head. I know they are safely contained and can do no harm. The good news is that I know the difference between my imagination and the real world. Well, at least I think I do. We have to remember who is writing these words. The bad news is that one is better than the other. Hopefully, the two never meet.
When I write fiction, I get into this mental area where I’m free to make my characters do or be anything. I mentally move them through all kinds of possibilities and try every angle to see how they react. I imagine an entire backstory and create a complete existence for them. I mentally go over this made up reality several times and then create an outline. I put a lot of effort into tweaking the final story in outline form. Then the typing begins where I hammer out all my thoughts into Microsoft Word. In time, the results come close to my mental images.
For months after I have completed my first draft, I self-edit. My second book actually had over 30 cover to cover self-edits before it went to my beta reader (mom) for review. During this long duration of editing, I think a lot of the mechanics of the story and the specific logic. This effort uncovers plot errors and other flaws. I do my best to make my stories believable so that the reader can really put themselves into the story.
There are a few exceptions to keeping my plot in the real world. For examples, the aliens in my second book. It is difficult to write about something that doesn’t exist and I do my best and try to keep the plot remotely possible. However, I’m aware of one major plot hole in my third book. To get my story moving, I took some liberties in how a modern air conditioning system works. Apparently, there is a vent on the roof of every modern office building that sucks in a massive amount of air without a filter. My bad… In my defense, they do this in movies. A publically accepted lie?
I like to stay as close to reality for a few reasons. The first is that the story is much more relatable. The second is that I have no idea how to picture a character that is outside of my domain. For example, a comic book type superhero, a soldier in jungle combat, a child fighting against a drugged out parent or a homeless man trying to survive in China. To me, those stark realities are a bridge too far. I know that readers would immediately have strong issues with the imaginary characters I have no knowledge. An example comment would be, “This author clearly doesn’t know how a child would realistically defend themselves against an abusive father. This book is not worth reading!” The result would prevent my works from ever becoming successful and they would permanently tarnish my already fragile reputation.
In my carefully constructed mental world, I have all my characters organized and I picture what they would be doing in my made-up plot. As I get really into the process, my mind becomes focused and I try to see all the possibilities. While still in my made-up world, I do my best to capture my thoughts into my word processor. When the typing is done for the evening, it’s back to reality. The real kind of reality with family, friends, coworkers, and other normal people.
The problem is that my mind is not fully switched off and my characters are always trying to get out. For example, I want to add to the dinner conversation, “(Fictional characters name) did the craziest thing today…” I catch myself in this thought line and it takes a lot of effort not to add to the conversation with my delusions. I also get hung up in the real world. Why can’t it work like my fictional world? In my world, the people all do the right thing until the plot needs a twist. In the real world, there are long-term consequences, responsibilities, true evil, laziness, and corruption. In my fictional world, all of that negativity is there, but it’s a plot device. The people are really not really evil, just misunderstood.
I have been fortunate that I have never actually talked/posted about my characters as if they were real. Well, I have never been caught doing this. However, I feel the pull of my imagination and I know that it has led to decisions in the real world. An alternative perspective could be that I want the world to work like my imagination. I want the word to work better than it does. I want people to get along and the only conflict that exists is in my words. When I get off this blissful line of thinking, the real world is a bleak landscape where people make bad decisions.
I have read many interviews with writers and they often have lofty views on how the world works. I suppose that this is part of the creative process and this is what a writer wants to see. Their interviews sometimes show their imaginary world peeking out. They have quotes like, “(Fictional characters name) would never have voted for Trump!” Statements like that make me laugh. Is the logic not obvious that a fictional character cannot vote? To me, a statement like that is a testament to being a dedicated author that actually believes how their made up character would behave.
I think overall there is a fine line between being a sane dedicated author and a delusional author that needs professional help. Perhaps the best authors jump into this delusional world while they write and then jump back into reality for the rest of their day. Perhaps some of them have made one jump too many. History is full of amazing artists and writers who were truly mad.
For me, I will keep trying to keep my imaginary characters inside my head. I know they are safely contained and can do no harm. The good news is that I know the difference between my imagination and the real world. Well, at least I think I do. We have to remember who is writing these words. The bad news is that one is better than the other. Hopefully, the two never meet.
May 30, 2018
The People We Want to Read About
In this wonderful world, there are certain people with special knowledge and we love it when they write a book. They could be astronauts who know what it’s like to live in space. Or they could be doctors who have a revolutionary theory of weight loss. Or, they could be famous people who we are so enamored with that we want to know everything about them. Side story. Did Linda Carter ever write a book? She probably has some great stories. Back to the blog.
Then there are people who have worked hard to make themselves interesting like an author that has written 5 wonderful books and we are on pins and needles waiting for book number 6. Or a person who spent their life learning about spiders. I bet they would know why spiders have 8 legs. Why not 6?
For some people, fate intervened and overnight some people became extradentary. I watched a video today about a man that climbed up the side of a multi-story building to save a baby. What a hero. I bet he could get a book deal. Others fell into it. The child of a famous person could easily get a book deal even if they have nothing to say. Or the person who lived next door to that famous/terrible/fun person. They certainly have stories to tell.
Tragically there are awful people and we want to know the terrible reason why they made so many bad choices. Do they just decide to be evil one day? Are they completely unaware of how bad the world perceives them? What was their true motivation for hurting so many people? Why did they claim to be innocent when it was so clear that they were guilty?
Then there are those who we wish would tell us about themselves. What happens in area 51? Are there really aliens living there? What really happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Could he still be alive? That guy at work who’s always happy. What’s his secret? Is he faking it? That lady that just walked past me. Why did she smile at me? Why is she wearing different colored socks? These deep dark secrets somehow remain out of the printed word.
Readers flock to purchase books that have this special knowledge about special people. The result makes for enjoyable reads and readers are filled with wonderful knowledge. This is one of the many sparks that makes life worth living and it drives the publishing world to reach new heights.
Yeah, I got none of that. Here are my best life experiences: I was scuba diving off the coast of San Diego during an earthquake. I knew something strange was happening and watched as the sand moved off the seabed. There was a strange dunk-dunk-dunk sound above me; like a large ship’s propeller. Only a few people ever have been diving during an earthquake. It’s likely that more people have been in outer space.
I climbed a rock face at the Gunks in New York. While every day at least 100 people climb the exact same rock, I considered this achievement to be one of the highlights of my life. I passed my second Electrical Engineering course on the first try. Not many people at my school did this because it was a gatekeeper class. I went skydiving once. I got really dizzy and wanted to barf. Never again. And finally, I got married. It was a really big day that had a lot going on. How did I feel about my best life experiences? Good at the time. Now, I don’t think about them much. In short, they don’t define me.
It appears that my life isn’t too exciting. Please do not misinterpret my words as being negative. I enjoy my life very much and appreciate every day that I’m privileged to be alive. My health is good, my family is normal, my friends are normal and my chosen profession isn’t too adventurous. I grew up in a nice part of San Diego with wonderful parents and a great sister. I have never been in jail, never been in a major traffic accident, never gotten into a major fight and I make a strong effort to be a pleasant person. The area where had low crime and not much happens. Not that I’m complaining, it is just that there are very few readers who would purchase my autobiography. In fact, you have just read all the major highlights. Presenting, average guy.
Now you might be tempted to think, “Hey, you just haven’t hit your stride. You can still do something great.” Not likely. I actually like living a boring life. I have no desire for fame and I go out of my way to be just a normal person. I never want to post a YouTube video, do something to get on the news or act in a movie. That’s just not my personality. I really don’t want to be recognized for anything other than being a good writer and potentially a good business person if I ever get back into trying to get something started.
In some ways, it is easier to be a normal writer doing normal things. Readers aren’t expecting something great. Hey, you won 4 Olympic skiing medals and you wrote about painting flowers? Boring! You lived through the great depression, fought in Iwo Jima, built a successful business and your book is about raising chickens? One-star review! With me, it is just some guy trying to write a book that I hope a few people will enjoy. I think that my work is easy to relate to because it is the product of my humble experiences in life.
In my opinion, it is a good realization that I understand my fate. In the Facebook group “Writers Helping Writers” I often read posts about people wanting to write their autobiography. I find that the vast number of these people are trying really hard to write something very big out of their very normal life. Often, I write the comment, “What is your hook? Lots of people have books like this. What would make me want to read it?” I understand that many of these people had bad childhoods or traumatic experiences. However, I feel that the vast majority of these soon to be writers have nothing exceptional to offer readers other than a depressing read or a desperate need for fame. I guess it is sad fact that so many people want to be recognized and loved by people they have never met. I realize that I’m fortunate that I need no recognition other than perhaps enough people to buy my book so that I can break even on my editing costs.
What I do have on my side are some basic life experiences and I read a lot. The works that I create take from this limited knowledge base and I try to write an interesting and plausible story. I hope that readers will relate to my “down to earth concepts” and this makes for a more tangible story. I fell a lot less pressure to succeed because readers aren’t expecting something amazing. Hopefully, they will be pleasantly surprised.
My lack of major life experiences does limit me in many ways. For example, I have an idea for a book where a princess in modern Japan has an adventure. What do I know about the royal Japanese, Japanese society or Japanese women in general? Nothing. Probably not going to write that story. In my first book, the main character is Russian. It took a lot of research to make her background believable. Fortunately, I was able to use the Internet and a Russian name generator to help me out. I also didn’t get too deep into her background. Hopefully, as more people read it, they will not find too many flaws.
What about the aliens in my second book? That is a perfect example of something that I have no knowledge about. Do aliens exist? The odds say that they defiantly exist. Physics dictates that it is very difficult to travel from a distant world to earth. As such, there has never been any real proof. The result was that I did my best to create a story that I feel could have happened with the little knowledge I have.
What will my writing future hold? I will keep doing my best with what little life experiences I have. What would happen if I were part of something really big and people wanted to read about it? Well, at least I now have the basic skills to write an autobiography.
Then there are people who have worked hard to make themselves interesting like an author that has written 5 wonderful books and we are on pins and needles waiting for book number 6. Or a person who spent their life learning about spiders. I bet they would know why spiders have 8 legs. Why not 6?
For some people, fate intervened and overnight some people became extradentary. I watched a video today about a man that climbed up the side of a multi-story building to save a baby. What a hero. I bet he could get a book deal. Others fell into it. The child of a famous person could easily get a book deal even if they have nothing to say. Or the person who lived next door to that famous/terrible/fun person. They certainly have stories to tell.
Tragically there are awful people and we want to know the terrible reason why they made so many bad choices. Do they just decide to be evil one day? Are they completely unaware of how bad the world perceives them? What was their true motivation for hurting so many people? Why did they claim to be innocent when it was so clear that they were guilty?
Then there are those who we wish would tell us about themselves. What happens in area 51? Are there really aliens living there? What really happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Could he still be alive? That guy at work who’s always happy. What’s his secret? Is he faking it? That lady that just walked past me. Why did she smile at me? Why is she wearing different colored socks? These deep dark secrets somehow remain out of the printed word.
Readers flock to purchase books that have this special knowledge about special people. The result makes for enjoyable reads and readers are filled with wonderful knowledge. This is one of the many sparks that makes life worth living and it drives the publishing world to reach new heights.
Yeah, I got none of that. Here are my best life experiences: I was scuba diving off the coast of San Diego during an earthquake. I knew something strange was happening and watched as the sand moved off the seabed. There was a strange dunk-dunk-dunk sound above me; like a large ship’s propeller. Only a few people ever have been diving during an earthquake. It’s likely that more people have been in outer space.
I climbed a rock face at the Gunks in New York. While every day at least 100 people climb the exact same rock, I considered this achievement to be one of the highlights of my life. I passed my second Electrical Engineering course on the first try. Not many people at my school did this because it was a gatekeeper class. I went skydiving once. I got really dizzy and wanted to barf. Never again. And finally, I got married. It was a really big day that had a lot going on. How did I feel about my best life experiences? Good at the time. Now, I don’t think about them much. In short, they don’t define me.
It appears that my life isn’t too exciting. Please do not misinterpret my words as being negative. I enjoy my life very much and appreciate every day that I’m privileged to be alive. My health is good, my family is normal, my friends are normal and my chosen profession isn’t too adventurous. I grew up in a nice part of San Diego with wonderful parents and a great sister. I have never been in jail, never been in a major traffic accident, never gotten into a major fight and I make a strong effort to be a pleasant person. The area where had low crime and not much happens. Not that I’m complaining, it is just that there are very few readers who would purchase my autobiography. In fact, you have just read all the major highlights. Presenting, average guy.
Now you might be tempted to think, “Hey, you just haven’t hit your stride. You can still do something great.” Not likely. I actually like living a boring life. I have no desire for fame and I go out of my way to be just a normal person. I never want to post a YouTube video, do something to get on the news or act in a movie. That’s just not my personality. I really don’t want to be recognized for anything other than being a good writer and potentially a good business person if I ever get back into trying to get something started.
In some ways, it is easier to be a normal writer doing normal things. Readers aren’t expecting something great. Hey, you won 4 Olympic skiing medals and you wrote about painting flowers? Boring! You lived through the great depression, fought in Iwo Jima, built a successful business and your book is about raising chickens? One-star review! With me, it is just some guy trying to write a book that I hope a few people will enjoy. I think that my work is easy to relate to because it is the product of my humble experiences in life.
In my opinion, it is a good realization that I understand my fate. In the Facebook group “Writers Helping Writers” I often read posts about people wanting to write their autobiography. I find that the vast number of these people are trying really hard to write something very big out of their very normal life. Often, I write the comment, “What is your hook? Lots of people have books like this. What would make me want to read it?” I understand that many of these people had bad childhoods or traumatic experiences. However, I feel that the vast majority of these soon to be writers have nothing exceptional to offer readers other than a depressing read or a desperate need for fame. I guess it is sad fact that so many people want to be recognized and loved by people they have never met. I realize that I’m fortunate that I need no recognition other than perhaps enough people to buy my book so that I can break even on my editing costs.
What I do have on my side are some basic life experiences and I read a lot. The works that I create take from this limited knowledge base and I try to write an interesting and plausible story. I hope that readers will relate to my “down to earth concepts” and this makes for a more tangible story. I fell a lot less pressure to succeed because readers aren’t expecting something amazing. Hopefully, they will be pleasantly surprised.
My lack of major life experiences does limit me in many ways. For example, I have an idea for a book where a princess in modern Japan has an adventure. What do I know about the royal Japanese, Japanese society or Japanese women in general? Nothing. Probably not going to write that story. In my first book, the main character is Russian. It took a lot of research to make her background believable. Fortunately, I was able to use the Internet and a Russian name generator to help me out. I also didn’t get too deep into her background. Hopefully, as more people read it, they will not find too many flaws.
What about the aliens in my second book? That is a perfect example of something that I have no knowledge about. Do aliens exist? The odds say that they defiantly exist. Physics dictates that it is very difficult to travel from a distant world to earth. As such, there has never been any real proof. The result was that I did my best to create a story that I feel could have happened with the little knowledge I have.
What will my writing future hold? I will keep doing my best with what little life experiences I have. What would happen if I were part of something really big and people wanted to read about it? Well, at least I now have the basic skills to write an autobiography.
May 22, 2018
Overcoming Critics
In the movie/book, The Princess Bride, there is a great quote, “Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” There is much wisdom in these words. Like all great quotes, there is more than one interoperation and more than one lesson.
The truth is that I will probably never be a big-time author. I accepted this fate long before I started writing. That is not to say that I will not strive to be my best, but rather, I know the reality of the situation. With this knowledge, I put aside my self-doubts and self-published a book that I worked really hard on. In doing so, I learned a lot and I felt that the experience has helped in many ways. I also have enjoyed the experience. The few people who have read my work been kind with their sentiments, but a few haven’t. Their criticism was simple. I was too descriptive. I immediately wanted to yell, “What does that mean!!!” How can a book be too descriptive? The point of a book is to describe something. That’s why it’s called a book and not a rainbow!
I moped for a week and eventually got out of my negative funk. I accepted responsibility for my failings and agreed with their assessment. At my core, I’m an Engineer. I’m not an artist who is full of flowery words. I’m meticulous and my descriptions are precise. Simply put, when I write, there are no extra words. But then I go back over my work several times and try to flower it up as much as I can. An example of an initial attempt is, “The man walked into the room.” Clearly, this simple statement is boring and it evokes little in the reader’s eyes. However, it is a perfect description of what is occurring at that exact moment. With a lot of effort, my words evolved, “Bob noticed a man enter the room. He was approximately 5” 8” tall with blond hair and smartly dressed. It was clear that this man had a lot of intent as he scanned the assembled people. The fact that the man didn’t seem to recognize anybody worried Bob, but there was little he could do about it.” Wow, much better. Yet it still reads like an Engineer might have written it. Sorry. Best I can do.
Even with all my effort, comments from my beta reader (Mom) and updates from editors, I still got complaints after it was published. Honestly, they really hurt. Granted, I should have expected some pain. Haters have to hate, but that’s not the real story. This was my first work and there was bound to be a painful learning curve. Otherwise, everybody would be writing books. Being a logical person, I had planned for a learning process and only released 1 of 3 books that I had written. I wanted to test the waters and see what it was like to publish.
As an Engineer, I always had known that negative feedback is more important than positive. It takes more energy to be negative. For example, I could immediately give 10 compliments about the show Rick and Morty. That effort would be easy and fun. This is the definition of a positive experience. What would those compliments tell you? Obviously, I appreciate Rick and Morty. While my compliments are nice, they would only confirm that I am a fan of the show and that information would mean little. What do the creators of Rick and Morty gain by reading my compliments? My words wouldn’t help them improve their work other than to give them a warm feeling and perhaps the drive to continue.
Alright, let me try to be mean. Recently, I started to watch the Liam Neeson movie, “The Commuter” on Netflix DVD. I just couldn’t get into the story. Maybe it was the mood I was in or that I just was not into that kind of story. After 15 minutes, had had enough, I ejected the DVD and gave it 2 out of 5 stars on the Netflix site.
So, Mr. Negative. What feedback would I give the writers of The Commuter? How can I crush their dreams? Send some negative waves their way? Alright, challenge accepted. The Commuter should have been edited to shorten the beginning. This would allow viewers to get to the action scenes faster. Secondly, this plot was farfetched. There needed to be a better reason for Liam Neeson’s character to overcome his good morals. The outside mystery person influence was distracting to the overall plot and the result was a frustrated viewer.
How unfair was that? I just trashed a movie that hundreds of people put a lot of effort into. My flippant statements were all based on watching a movie for 15 minutes. Do I feel good about trashing their movie? No. Why? That’s not my personality. I don’t like to be a hater and it’s not good karma. There is already too much negativity in the world without me filling the Internet up with more. I felt my comments were honest and were intended to be constructive, but I would never post them on Netflix.
Now, hold on Mr. Wonderful. I have written a few reviews on Netflix and one was really bad. I completely trashed the movie, “The Thin Red Line.” I called my review, “Yentl meets Hamburger Hill.” Funny. Right? Why was I so cruel? I was looking forward to The Thin Red Line and I went to the theater opening day to watch it with my father. By the end of the movie, half the audience had left and the ones that remained loudly spoke of how bad the movie was. To me, it was two vastly different movies slammed together. One was an awful poetry movie and the other was a so-so WWII action-drama. The result made me upset over how much time I had wasted. I was so angry, that I took the time to write a scathing review on Netflix. I went even further to tell 4 of my friends not to see The Thin Red Line under any circumstances. They ignored my sound advice and 2 out of the 4 actually liked it.
Did that angry review make me feel a bit better? Absolutely. My venting made me feel much better and this relieved some of the pain of paying for this movie in the theater. The knowledge that my words might help somebody skip renting this awful movie is a good feeling. Let me be clear. It was my direct intent to tell others [people I had never even met!] never to watch The Thin Red Line. That is the very definition of hate.
Going full circle. What would the people involved in The Thin Red Line and The Commuter feel about me? As I read my own insults, I am beginning to wonder. I think that if I were them, I would be proud that I was part of a movie that many people know about. How would I feel about a person mocking my movie with the words, “Yentl meets Hamburger Hill?” I would probably think that this person was being mean and had no real knowledge of my great movie.
But then, I would have to take a step back and wonder if that person had a point. Eventually, I would realize that this mean critic indeed had a valid point. In time, I would realize that I should be grateful for their negative words. Yes, the pain would sting (really badly) and it would force me to try much harder. I recall a scathing criticism of my favorite band Rush. The critics call them, “tragically un-hip.” What would a person write such an unfair statement? Rush used that statement as a badge of honor. I guess that is what I need to do. So, bring it. Call me out and trash my work. All I can say is that I’m trying my best and I will continue to try my best even if I am being too descriptive.
The truth is that I will probably never be a big-time author. I accepted this fate long before I started writing. That is not to say that I will not strive to be my best, but rather, I know the reality of the situation. With this knowledge, I put aside my self-doubts and self-published a book that I worked really hard on. In doing so, I learned a lot and I felt that the experience has helped in many ways. I also have enjoyed the experience. The few people who have read my work been kind with their sentiments, but a few haven’t. Their criticism was simple. I was too descriptive. I immediately wanted to yell, “What does that mean!!!” How can a book be too descriptive? The point of a book is to describe something. That’s why it’s called a book and not a rainbow!
I moped for a week and eventually got out of my negative funk. I accepted responsibility for my failings and agreed with their assessment. At my core, I’m an Engineer. I’m not an artist who is full of flowery words. I’m meticulous and my descriptions are precise. Simply put, when I write, there are no extra words. But then I go back over my work several times and try to flower it up as much as I can. An example of an initial attempt is, “The man walked into the room.” Clearly, this simple statement is boring and it evokes little in the reader’s eyes. However, it is a perfect description of what is occurring at that exact moment. With a lot of effort, my words evolved, “Bob noticed a man enter the room. He was approximately 5” 8” tall with blond hair and smartly dressed. It was clear that this man had a lot of intent as he scanned the assembled people. The fact that the man didn’t seem to recognize anybody worried Bob, but there was little he could do about it.” Wow, much better. Yet it still reads like an Engineer might have written it. Sorry. Best I can do.
Even with all my effort, comments from my beta reader (Mom) and updates from editors, I still got complaints after it was published. Honestly, they really hurt. Granted, I should have expected some pain. Haters have to hate, but that’s not the real story. This was my first work and there was bound to be a painful learning curve. Otherwise, everybody would be writing books. Being a logical person, I had planned for a learning process and only released 1 of 3 books that I had written. I wanted to test the waters and see what it was like to publish.
As an Engineer, I always had known that negative feedback is more important than positive. It takes more energy to be negative. For example, I could immediately give 10 compliments about the show Rick and Morty. That effort would be easy and fun. This is the definition of a positive experience. What would those compliments tell you? Obviously, I appreciate Rick and Morty. While my compliments are nice, they would only confirm that I am a fan of the show and that information would mean little. What do the creators of Rick and Morty gain by reading my compliments? My words wouldn’t help them improve their work other than to give them a warm feeling and perhaps the drive to continue.
Alright, let me try to be mean. Recently, I started to watch the Liam Neeson movie, “The Commuter” on Netflix DVD. I just couldn’t get into the story. Maybe it was the mood I was in or that I just was not into that kind of story. After 15 minutes, had had enough, I ejected the DVD and gave it 2 out of 5 stars on the Netflix site.
So, Mr. Negative. What feedback would I give the writers of The Commuter? How can I crush their dreams? Send some negative waves their way? Alright, challenge accepted. The Commuter should have been edited to shorten the beginning. This would allow viewers to get to the action scenes faster. Secondly, this plot was farfetched. There needed to be a better reason for Liam Neeson’s character to overcome his good morals. The outside mystery person influence was distracting to the overall plot and the result was a frustrated viewer.
How unfair was that? I just trashed a movie that hundreds of people put a lot of effort into. My flippant statements were all based on watching a movie for 15 minutes. Do I feel good about trashing their movie? No. Why? That’s not my personality. I don’t like to be a hater and it’s not good karma. There is already too much negativity in the world without me filling the Internet up with more. I felt my comments were honest and were intended to be constructive, but I would never post them on Netflix.
Now, hold on Mr. Wonderful. I have written a few reviews on Netflix and one was really bad. I completely trashed the movie, “The Thin Red Line.” I called my review, “Yentl meets Hamburger Hill.” Funny. Right? Why was I so cruel? I was looking forward to The Thin Red Line and I went to the theater opening day to watch it with my father. By the end of the movie, half the audience had left and the ones that remained loudly spoke of how bad the movie was. To me, it was two vastly different movies slammed together. One was an awful poetry movie and the other was a so-so WWII action-drama. The result made me upset over how much time I had wasted. I was so angry, that I took the time to write a scathing review on Netflix. I went even further to tell 4 of my friends not to see The Thin Red Line under any circumstances. They ignored my sound advice and 2 out of the 4 actually liked it.
Did that angry review make me feel a bit better? Absolutely. My venting made me feel much better and this relieved some of the pain of paying for this movie in the theater. The knowledge that my words might help somebody skip renting this awful movie is a good feeling. Let me be clear. It was my direct intent to tell others [people I had never even met!] never to watch The Thin Red Line. That is the very definition of hate.
Going full circle. What would the people involved in The Thin Red Line and The Commuter feel about me? As I read my own insults, I am beginning to wonder. I think that if I were them, I would be proud that I was part of a movie that many people know about. How would I feel about a person mocking my movie with the words, “Yentl meets Hamburger Hill?” I would probably think that this person was being mean and had no real knowledge of my great movie.
But then, I would have to take a step back and wonder if that person had a point. Eventually, I would realize that this mean critic indeed had a valid point. In time, I would realize that I should be grateful for their negative words. Yes, the pain would sting (really badly) and it would force me to try much harder. I recall a scathing criticism of my favorite band Rush. The critics call them, “tragically un-hip.” What would a person write such an unfair statement? Rush used that statement as a badge of honor. I guess that is what I need to do. So, bring it. Call me out and trash my work. All I can say is that I’m trying my best and I will continue to try my best even if I am being too descriptive.
May 13, 2018
Writing an Intimate Scene
In the beginning, before people were even called people, they had intercourse. At that time, people didn’t even have a word for intercourse or understand their own biological mechanisms that were driving them. Over time, people came out of the caves, made clothing, formed societies, built cities and became civilized. Along with this development, the subject of intercourse went from a basic human utility to a deeply controversial, personal topic that holds a special place in our society.
Because intercourse is a controversial subject, it is difficult to write about. For me, I felt like writing such an intimate description would somehow stain my writing reputation or offend everybody that read my works. Books, magazines or newspapers that discuss intercourse can be considered “dirty” or at the very least, forward. However, mass media now provides an overwhelming amount of intercourse descriptions with the result being that the subject is less shocking. The problem with this is that our children are absolutely overwhelmed with intercourse information.
As a father, I have mixed feeling about this somewhat recent development. When I was growing up, it was difficult to get any information on the subject. Now with this information freely available, it will make it easier for my daughter to learn about the topic. However, I don’t want my daughter to be bombarded by intense graphic descriptions that are now in every corner of modern life. For example, we allow our daughter to watch the television program, Family Guy. There are intercourse references in almost every episode. I find it amusing that as we are watching television together, she isn’t even interested in the topic. In short, the topic of intercourse no longer holds the same special place it once did. It has become buried in the noise of everyday life.
In my second book (tentatively titled Kim and Gabe Survive,) a romance develops between the two main characters. When I had the idea of the book, I thought that writing an intercourse scene would be easy because I knew the plot. The words flowed into my computer and the result was a very steamy description. Overall, it was passionate and showed a lot of intense emotion. When I finished the book, I went back and self-edited my creation. Upon reading the intercourse scene, I was shocked. It was a very graphic adult description that wasn’t appropriate for what I was trying to achieve.
I toned down the scene to make it more mainstream. Unfortunately, I want a bit too far and the description was almost mechanical. Essentially, I had taken out all of the good stuff. I realized that I needed to better understand who the reader was. Was the reader expecting a graphic adult description or were they expecting a timid rated G description?
I went back over my description several times and made many changes. My goal was not to offend the reader while at the same time, keeping the passionate emotion present. One of my main writing rules I set for myself was not to use 4-letter word descriptions. To me, this is the definition of crossing the line between intercourse and filth. Instead, I used commonly accepted words to describe the intimate anatomy and the feelings shared between two loving people. I struggled with the exact wording to achieve this careful balance. The physical result was in-between an adult and textbook anatomy. The emotional element was in-between Playboy and a courtroom dialog. There is a lot of distance between these stark realities.
I have read a few romance books, and they generally take a different approach. They use lofty words to describe intercourse. For example, the male anatomy would be called something like, “his personal area” or a made-up word like, “gobble horn.” It is then left up to the reader to decode these cryptic descriptions into something understandable. There are hundreds of articles, web pages and writing books to help out romance writers in this effort. Yet, I decided not to take this path.
My reasoning is that the world has changed. Mass media has educated people and they are now mature enough to handle the reality of an intercourse description. In addition, birth control has turned intercourse into a fun normal activity as opposed to onetime privilege. This new level of acceptance is why the book 50 Shades of Grey was so popular. Was it a breakthrough book? In my opinion, it wasn’t. Graphic intercourse descriptions have steadily become more mainstream and 50 Shades of Grey surfed this news wave of reality. Did 50 Shades of Grey somehow help me out? Not really, books/tv/movies have been heading in this direction for a long time.
What will the future hold? Unfortunately, mass media has made the topic of intercourse so mainstream that the impact is nearly gone. The result is that this deeply personal experience is less special to the reader. I think that for many older books, the intercourse encounter was the apex of the story. Now, it’s simply a task. This me that is a bit depressing. At the same time, some people will still remain in past and the topic of intercourse will still be offensive to those people.
The good news is that it is becoming easier to write intimate scenes because there is less pressure to be timid. The bad news is that in the near future what used to be considered XXX rated will simply an unimportant part of all television shows or required reading for our children’s children.
Because intercourse is a controversial subject, it is difficult to write about. For me, I felt like writing such an intimate description would somehow stain my writing reputation or offend everybody that read my works. Books, magazines or newspapers that discuss intercourse can be considered “dirty” or at the very least, forward. However, mass media now provides an overwhelming amount of intercourse descriptions with the result being that the subject is less shocking. The problem with this is that our children are absolutely overwhelmed with intercourse information.
As a father, I have mixed feeling about this somewhat recent development. When I was growing up, it was difficult to get any information on the subject. Now with this information freely available, it will make it easier for my daughter to learn about the topic. However, I don’t want my daughter to be bombarded by intense graphic descriptions that are now in every corner of modern life. For example, we allow our daughter to watch the television program, Family Guy. There are intercourse references in almost every episode. I find it amusing that as we are watching television together, she isn’t even interested in the topic. In short, the topic of intercourse no longer holds the same special place it once did. It has become buried in the noise of everyday life.
In my second book (tentatively titled Kim and Gabe Survive,) a romance develops between the two main characters. When I had the idea of the book, I thought that writing an intercourse scene would be easy because I knew the plot. The words flowed into my computer and the result was a very steamy description. Overall, it was passionate and showed a lot of intense emotion. When I finished the book, I went back and self-edited my creation. Upon reading the intercourse scene, I was shocked. It was a very graphic adult description that wasn’t appropriate for what I was trying to achieve.
I toned down the scene to make it more mainstream. Unfortunately, I want a bit too far and the description was almost mechanical. Essentially, I had taken out all of the good stuff. I realized that I needed to better understand who the reader was. Was the reader expecting a graphic adult description or were they expecting a timid rated G description?
I went back over my description several times and made many changes. My goal was not to offend the reader while at the same time, keeping the passionate emotion present. One of my main writing rules I set for myself was not to use 4-letter word descriptions. To me, this is the definition of crossing the line between intercourse and filth. Instead, I used commonly accepted words to describe the intimate anatomy and the feelings shared between two loving people. I struggled with the exact wording to achieve this careful balance. The physical result was in-between an adult and textbook anatomy. The emotional element was in-between Playboy and a courtroom dialog. There is a lot of distance between these stark realities.
I have read a few romance books, and they generally take a different approach. They use lofty words to describe intercourse. For example, the male anatomy would be called something like, “his personal area” or a made-up word like, “gobble horn.” It is then left up to the reader to decode these cryptic descriptions into something understandable. There are hundreds of articles, web pages and writing books to help out romance writers in this effort. Yet, I decided not to take this path.
My reasoning is that the world has changed. Mass media has educated people and they are now mature enough to handle the reality of an intercourse description. In addition, birth control has turned intercourse into a fun normal activity as opposed to onetime privilege. This new level of acceptance is why the book 50 Shades of Grey was so popular. Was it a breakthrough book? In my opinion, it wasn’t. Graphic intercourse descriptions have steadily become more mainstream and 50 Shades of Grey surfed this news wave of reality. Did 50 Shades of Grey somehow help me out? Not really, books/tv/movies have been heading in this direction for a long time.
What will the future hold? Unfortunately, mass media has made the topic of intercourse so mainstream that the impact is nearly gone. The result is that this deeply personal experience is less special to the reader. I think that for many older books, the intercourse encounter was the apex of the story. Now, it’s simply a task. This me that is a bit depressing. At the same time, some people will still remain in past and the topic of intercourse will still be offensive to those people.
The good news is that it is becoming easier to write intimate scenes because there is less pressure to be timid. The bad news is that in the near future what used to be considered XXX rated will simply an unimportant part of all television shows or required reading for our children’s children.
April 22, 2018
Using A Pen Name
When I decided to become an author, I had to make a minor decision. Should I use the name Bill Conrad or William Conrad? Growing up, everybody called me Bill and to me, that was my name. However, my birth certificate has my name as William and this is what I put on documents. It is also how I sign my name. Funny side story. 10 years ago, I was a contractor going onto a military base, Port Hueneme in Oxnard, CA. Due to paperwork confusion, my contractor identification listed my name as Bill while my driver’s license listed my name as William. The security guard manning the gate actually wanted to arrest me. When he told his supervisor what he had “discovered” and the supervisor biffed him on the side of the head. I was free to go.
For me, the decision of who my identity should be was an obvious choice and I became Bill Conrad, the author. Obviously, my decision didn’t make any headlines. In my mind, there simply was no other option and using a pen name would be a lie. To me, my work is a line in the sand. This is my book. If you don’t like it, that’s your opinion. I’m proud of the effort that I made.
Well, that should have been the end of this simple topic. As I began reading some of the posts on Writers Helping Writers, I could see many authors fretting over how their pen name sounded. Bob Smith posted, “How does the name: Randolph Drake sound? Is it too charismatic? Will it attract women to read my book? Will men be too emasculated to buy my book?” I couldn’t believe what I was reading and I hoped it was just a onetime post. But then I read more posts just like it. Then I thought, wait a second. Bob Smith just confirmed he was actually Randolph Drake! Wow, I just learned a big [open] secret! Then to my great surprise, people responded to Bob Smith’s pleas for help. “As a man, I would buy a book written by Randolph Drake.” “Randolph Drake does sound kind of sexy. How about Julian Drake? I always liked the name, Julian.”
The more I read these posts, the more confused I became. Were people ashamed of their own name? Did a pen name somehow elevate their reputation? The great books I like to read were by Tom Clancy, Neil Gaiman, and Ken Follett and they all used their own names. However, we all know authors who used pen names such as Joanne Rowling, AKA J. K. Rowling, and Robert Galbraith. Now, part of this I do understand. For example, if a person were writing about sensitive material where keeping one’s identify a secret is important. Also, if a man is writing romance novels which are traditionally written by women. There is even the case where a name just will not be taken seriously like Maynard Smellmore. Or if your name actually is Tom Clancy, you obviously have to have a pen name to keep your work from being confused with that popular name.
However, I still don’t understand why authors fundamentally want to disguise a perfectly valid name. I hit the random name generator and came up with: Tom Drake? Judy Collins? Not exciting names, but I would buy a book from Tom Drake or Judy Collins. These “plain” names certainly don’t offend me. In order to better understand this issue, I began searching the Internet to see if I could find the answer. I located many articles on the subject and read through them. The majority of them seemed to encourage authors to accept their choice of using a pen name. One of the articles did give a clue. It seemed that a pen name was kind of a safety net. If your first book was a flop, you could always change your pen name and nobody would know. I then read another account where Bob Smith leads a boring life, but Randolph Drake was liberated! Bob Smith had an escape and the freedom to write. This was the very definition of an alter ego. Bob Smith is a boring guy, but he turns into the fantastic writer Randolph Drake and bangs out incredible works. Somebody once told me, “Authors are a secretive bunch.” Was that it? You have to be alone to effectively write and a pen name helps get you into the mood?
The more explanations I read, the more confused I became. To me, my name is my name. Writing under a different name would not be honorable. An author should be proud of what they created. If they cannot be, then don’t publish. After a few hours of contemplation, I began to calm down. It all reminded me of what Bird Person said on Rick and Morty, “Wubba lubba dub dub which means, whatever floats your boat.” I guess I still don’t get it. Writing is just something from within and a pen name is something that other people use. A person has the words or they don’t. How the words flow is just another mystery like how one painter can really capture a stoic face in oil.
Would I ever use a pen name? What if my books all flop? What if next week a serial killer named “Bill Conrad” does something terrible? What if I decide to write a deeply controversial book about Area 51? The answer will be that “Bill Conrad wrote this book.” If I cannot be happy with my humble life being who I am, then that is my fault and nobody else’s.
As for other authors using pen names? I guess I still don’t get it and that’s alright. Being an author is difficult enough and if an author feels that a pen name will somehow give them an edge, then more power to them.
For me, the decision of who my identity should be was an obvious choice and I became Bill Conrad, the author. Obviously, my decision didn’t make any headlines. In my mind, there simply was no other option and using a pen name would be a lie. To me, my work is a line in the sand. This is my book. If you don’t like it, that’s your opinion. I’m proud of the effort that I made.
Well, that should have been the end of this simple topic. As I began reading some of the posts on Writers Helping Writers, I could see many authors fretting over how their pen name sounded. Bob Smith posted, “How does the name: Randolph Drake sound? Is it too charismatic? Will it attract women to read my book? Will men be too emasculated to buy my book?” I couldn’t believe what I was reading and I hoped it was just a onetime post. But then I read more posts just like it. Then I thought, wait a second. Bob Smith just confirmed he was actually Randolph Drake! Wow, I just learned a big [open] secret! Then to my great surprise, people responded to Bob Smith’s pleas for help. “As a man, I would buy a book written by Randolph Drake.” “Randolph Drake does sound kind of sexy. How about Julian Drake? I always liked the name, Julian.”
The more I read these posts, the more confused I became. Were people ashamed of their own name? Did a pen name somehow elevate their reputation? The great books I like to read were by Tom Clancy, Neil Gaiman, and Ken Follett and they all used their own names. However, we all know authors who used pen names such as Joanne Rowling, AKA J. K. Rowling, and Robert Galbraith. Now, part of this I do understand. For example, if a person were writing about sensitive material where keeping one’s identify a secret is important. Also, if a man is writing romance novels which are traditionally written by women. There is even the case where a name just will not be taken seriously like Maynard Smellmore. Or if your name actually is Tom Clancy, you obviously have to have a pen name to keep your work from being confused with that popular name.
However, I still don’t understand why authors fundamentally want to disguise a perfectly valid name. I hit the random name generator and came up with: Tom Drake? Judy Collins? Not exciting names, but I would buy a book from Tom Drake or Judy Collins. These “plain” names certainly don’t offend me. In order to better understand this issue, I began searching the Internet to see if I could find the answer. I located many articles on the subject and read through them. The majority of them seemed to encourage authors to accept their choice of using a pen name. One of the articles did give a clue. It seemed that a pen name was kind of a safety net. If your first book was a flop, you could always change your pen name and nobody would know. I then read another account where Bob Smith leads a boring life, but Randolph Drake was liberated! Bob Smith had an escape and the freedom to write. This was the very definition of an alter ego. Bob Smith is a boring guy, but he turns into the fantastic writer Randolph Drake and bangs out incredible works. Somebody once told me, “Authors are a secretive bunch.” Was that it? You have to be alone to effectively write and a pen name helps get you into the mood?
The more explanations I read, the more confused I became. To me, my name is my name. Writing under a different name would not be honorable. An author should be proud of what they created. If they cannot be, then don’t publish. After a few hours of contemplation, I began to calm down. It all reminded me of what Bird Person said on Rick and Morty, “Wubba lubba dub dub which means, whatever floats your boat.” I guess I still don’t get it. Writing is just something from within and a pen name is something that other people use. A person has the words or they don’t. How the words flow is just another mystery like how one painter can really capture a stoic face in oil.
Would I ever use a pen name? What if my books all flop? What if next week a serial killer named “Bill Conrad” does something terrible? What if I decide to write a deeply controversial book about Area 51? The answer will be that “Bill Conrad wrote this book.” If I cannot be happy with my humble life being who I am, then that is my fault and nobody else’s.
As for other authors using pen names? I guess I still don’t get it and that’s alright. Being an author is difficult enough and if an author feels that a pen name will somehow give them an edge, then more power to them.
