Bill Conrad's Blog, page 40

My Eternal Struggle With Grammar Continues

Sorry, it has taken so long to write another blog. Life gets busy. The good news is that my second and third book are in the editing/publishing process. Yay! The bad news is that my eternal struggle with grammar continues. When I last wrote about my struggle, I was trying to overcome the perils of the coma and the quotation mark. On the coma, I still haven’t completely figured where they should go. Lots of different opinions in this matter. I understand most the logic behind where to properly place them. The problem is that using them correctly makes my sentences read awkwardly. In that area, I still do my best, but my editor has to make many changes.
With quotation marks, I still follow the same format. Bob said in a deep voice, “Do this.” Often, I read in other books: “Do this.” Said Bob in a deep voice. I find that style confusing as I want to know who is speaking. To me, this reads like the lights are off and somebody starts talking in a monotone voice. When they stop talking, the lights turn on and it is revealed to be the main character. Then your brain puts it all together and you fill in the fact that the main character HAD a deep voice. Somewhere there is a smart reader thinking, “I knew it all along.” While the rest of us are thinking, “Ahh, now that makes sense.”
I have added a new wrinkle to the quotation mark mystery. My characters in one story are telepathic. I decided not to use quotation marks. Bob thought to Jane, There are no formal rules about telepathic thoughts because there is no such thing. For me, this is my style choice and at least to me, I think it reads well. I also think it allows the reader to feel like they are really inside the heads of a telepath. It’s also really cool to set yourself apart when you write.
Another issue is how to deal with exclamation points. One, two or three? I also struggle with italics. I use them to show a book or movie title. I also use them to emphasise a word or show when a character is thinking. Overall, I use these two writing tools like bullets in a six-shooter gun. Pick your targets carefully!!! Wait, that was wrong. Pick your targets carefully!
Overall, I think that my writing has improved. I use contractions more often and I pay more attention to my non-book writing. I also think a lot about what I am reading and I’m now finding a lot more mistakes than I used to. Overall, I can see a huge improvement.
I did fond an unlikely helper in my struggle. The addition module to Microsoft Word, Grammarly. It comes in two parts. The first is a free grammar checker and the second part offers “tips” that strengthen your writing. I was reluctant at first, but I installed it. It is a really slow interface and this presents a major issue. The problem is that while using Grammarly there is a huge delay after you make a change. Grammarly also disables Microsoft Word’s internal spell check. I find that after you make a Grammarly pass that you have to go back over your work with Grammarly again to find out what it missed. Then turn Grammarly off and go over it with the Microsoft Word checkers on. Often these second efforts reveal many misspellings and other issues that cropped up in the first Grammarly pass. What they need is a little icon that indicates, “Hey, I’m off doing my checking. So, go get yourself a cup of coffee while I think. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”
My first use showed over 1600 issues. It took a week to go through it all. Most of the issues were obvious. However, there were some issues that really improved my sentences. The majority of the issues were words that should be combined with hyphens. The other area of concern were words that were spelled correctly, but they were the wrong word. IE, “It’s two late.” Grammarly also wanted a lot of comas added and words moved around. I think the result was stronger and it saved at least 2 hours of professional editing time. I didn’t pay for the “tips” addition because this was $30 per month and I wanted to see what I was getting before I paid.
Was it worth it? I think so. When you present a stronger document to an editor, you have much more control over the process. The editor acts less like a hardcore worker and more of a manager. This allows the editor to do what they do best and I think it makes for a stronger end result. In that area, I think Grammarly is a really great tool.
I did learn something important. The spell check and grammar check in Microsoft Word are really basic. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think Microsoft is now aware of this. Hopefully, they will make some improvements.
Will Grammarly ever replace editors? Absolutely not. In the future, AI will get much better. The result will be better products like Microsoft Word and Grammarly. However, I feel that AI will only address issues in the mechanics of a document. It will be difficult to use AI to address style, fact check, logic, and flow. For example when a character uses slang or bad English, “Who dat over dere?” Or, “WWII ended on September 2, 1955.” An incorrect date could lead to endless complaints about an otherwise great document.
One of the things I do is repeat a thought. “Bob walked out the door. It felt good to be outside. Bob was now through the door.” I have no idea why I write like that. I probably get all wrapped up with emphasizing an important point and end up writing about it too often. It’s probably the engineer in me. The point is that the sentences are perfectly valid. Microsoft Word and Grammarly would never identify the issue. A good editor would catch issues like that.
I do have an interesting history with grammar programs. Long ago, there was a standalone DOS program that would take a word processing document and check it for grammar. I cannot remember the name. I recall that it was not a popular program and the company went away. After the program ran, it would insert comments like: This is a big, big {missing comma} big problem. You would then look through your document and find the {} marks to make the change. I was not too impressed with the program and I always thought that the program used a random number generator to add comments. However, I diligently used it for several papers.
There was one particular paper I did for my psychology class. This final paper was on the relationship between stress and humor. I did a lot of research, came up with logical arguments and presented my case. My professor pulled me aside one day and warned me that she had “great concerns over my grammar” and I needed to make a special effort for this final paper. I used the program, went over the document several times and had a friend with great grammar skills looked it over. He made many corrections. The result was a C with a comment that the subject matter was fine, but the grammar was dismal. As a final insult, she had scratched out a D grade and wrote a C grade.
As I was writing this blog, I decided to go back and look at the paper. I looked it over and there were some areas that needed improving. I ran it through Grammarly and it did find a few items. The items were not too severe and the mistakes were not outrageous. I needed a few commas and there were a few words that were in the wrong tense. However, in the context of a college student, this paper is not that bad. This confirmed what I thought at the time. My teacher was bat-crap crazy. I passed that class and that was all that mattered. For kicks, I put the paper up on my website.
So where does this leave me? I hope AI improves and I will keep using a professional editor. I think editors will always be needed and they are an important part of the process. The good news is that I am improving. The bad news is that I have a long way to go. “Is it less or fewer?” To me, it will always be less. Still got to work on that.
You’re the best.
April 08. 2018

Bill’s Guild to Self-Publishing Marketing

So, you have written a book and want to market it? Well, you may have come to the wrong place, but hear me out. I am a self-published author and I have dabbled in making my book marketable. The results have been less than successful. So why read a book marketing guide by somebody like me? Well, the principals are still the same whether I have been successful at using them or not. Also, you often learn more from failure than from success. Here you will find an outline of the basic self-publishing marketing steps.
The beginning.
At this point, you have written a book, gotten it professionally edited, a professional cover designed, you have an ISBN number, it has been formatted for ebook and/or print on demand and is now available online for sale on Amazon, Kubo, Barns and Nobel. Quite an accomplishment. The problem is that 500 people a month are in the same boat. Many of them already have successful books that their readers are eager to read more. The trick to somehow get people to click “buy it now.”
In order to get attention, you need to attack this problem from several fronts. Let’s start with the most important one. YOU NEED AMAZON REVIEWS! LOTS OF THEM! As I am writing this article, I have a grand total of ZERO! Yes, this is really bad and I am working on it. The first part of the plan is to send a copy of your work to every friend you have. Two months later, pester them (often) for a review. Keep this up until each one of them writes their review. This is the essential foundation and it is absolutely critical to your success. This is also the step I am stuck on.
There is still one site that you can buy Amazon reviews. $300 buys you up to 10 badly written reviews. Should you do this? The reviews of the reviews say no, but still consider this option. Also, it is likely that Amazon will sue them into the ground soon, get their list and do something to the people who paid for reviews. Be careful!
If you read my previous blog, you will have by now written at least 200 book reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. Consider posting these reviews to Barns and Nobel and Kubo. Your new goal is to look for books on Goodreads that only have a few reviews. Comb through them to see if they have a website or some other external way of contacting the author. Email them and say that you will do a review exchange. This means that you offer to buy their book on Amazon, at least pretend to read their book and write a review. In addition, you then cross-post your review to Goodreads. The other author will look at your 200 reviews and feel that they are getting a good deal. Is this ethical? It’s a simple review exchange. You’re not getting paid or doing something dishonest. The important part of this is that you are requesting externally to Amazon and Goodreads. NOTE: both sites monitor their internal communications and “review exchanges” would get their attention. Another source of authors is on forms like Writers Helping Writers.
You need a website dedicated to your work. There are lots of great website hosting companies that have great online free website building programs. For example Godaddy. Of course, I chose not to use the online website builders. Why? I am old school and really wanted to make my own site. I wanted a program that I had on my computer that I could endlessly edit offline. My other motivation was that in case the online hosting company didn’t work out, I could take my work to any other web hosting company and put it there. The point is that I had full control. My overall motivation was that this is how it used to be done and I didn’t like the pre-made web pages on Godaddy and the other places.
So, my quest began. My first stop was the gold standard Microsoft Front Page. To my great surprise, it is no longer supported. I had used Corel website creator in the past and gave it a try. Wow, had it turned awful. I went through every possible program from Adobe, Google and a bunch of others. Pure junk. I ended up finding a free program called Rocketcake. It was small, fast, worked fantastically and I loved it. The downside was that it isn’t too powerful and it was a bit difficult to get it to work on my host company, WHP. Incidentally, WHP is the least expensive website hosting company. Coincidence? Hmm. Rocketcake did do one thing that the other website builder programs completely failed at. It showed how my website would look on mobile devices. Most Godaddy [and other similar companies] generated web pages look awful on small devices. Do people use the internet on their phones? Hmm. Perhaps there was some logic to my decision.
Your next option is to generate buzz on groups like Twitter and Instagram. How do you do this? I have no idea. Twitter and Instagram are simply not my scene. There are online guides that I chose not to read.
Next idea is free promotions. Several sites let you post your work for free to generate buzz. I tried this with KDP select with limited results. 15 people downloaded my book with little fan fair.
Hire a publicist. This is something I have to investigate further. I have no idea how much they cost or what they do. I know from reading Writers Helping Writers that they can be successful, but I don’t have any metrics.
Post often to your blog. Keep your blog fresh and mention your book often.
There are Facebook groups for authors and books. For example, Writers helping Writers. However, it seems this group has gone away. Post as often as you can, but don’t be a pest.
Do an advertising campaign on Amazon. This is completely counterintuitive. Amazon is supposed to do this for free as they are a retailer. Alas, no. Amazon makes you fork over money to up your rankings. I have not tried this yet, I need to get at least 20 reviews first. Nobody is going to buy a book with no reviews and it would be a waste of money.
Do an advertising campaign on Barns and Nobel or Kubo. They seem to be much better at promoting books and I am investigating this idea. I have to get some reviews on their site first.
Last but not least, write more books. The more you have, the more you can market on the same dime. It just takes one great book to get lots of people to “buy it now.” I am well on my way to doing this.
Unfortunately, that’s all I got on the subject of promoting a book. Now at this point, you should be upset and think, “There have got to be more options. When I search on book promoting, there are hundreds of links.” This is completely true. Let’s explore what these other links are offering. 90% of them do two things. First. they send out spam. Do you read spam? Do you want your great book to be associated with that kind of “gray” marketing? Second. they “tweet to 10,000 followers.” How does this help you? Having 10,000 nobody’s tweet to 10,000 nobody’s. Do these people even speak English? Are they just robots tweeting to robots? Where is the proof that they are doing what they claim? Where is the Return On Investment study to back this kind of marketing up? To me, this approach is a complete waste of money.
There are lots of sites that offer to promote your book on their site (for a price of course.) When you send money to “great book site” you can see your book right on their front page. Here is the issue. The only place readers go to find out about books is Goodreads; they don’t care about those other sites. Those “great book sites” only exist to extract money from authors. If you look closely, you can see that they all look kind of the same. I suspect they are made by the same 3 people.
There are lots of sites that offer a package deal. The ones I investigated are just a combination of the tweet/spam/put your book on worthless sites. Or they “manage” your Amazon advertising campaign. Or they “promote you on Google.” You can do all of the last two yourself for much less money.
What about Book Bloggers? They certainly can promote your work. First off, if they often want $ up front. Second, they are an arrogant group and can give you a rotten review even after you paid them. My suggestion is that if they have a place you can email them a summary of your work then do it. If they respond back asking for a copy, send it. I generally found that these people were high on their own arrogance. You can tell by reading their poorly worded book reviews.
What about paying to up your search rank on Google? Hard to say. People generally search for books they already know about on Google and that’s the catch. You want to be known, but nobody knows about you. That is why Goodreads is important.
What about getting your book on a website list of “100 great books you have to read.” Hard to say. It is worth investigating. Make sure you are not paying for this option. Your work should stand on its own otherwise the list is useless.
Now at this point, you are probably thinking, “You’re not inspiring me.” Ya, I know. This is a tough road to follow. The idea that your work would instantly get read, get positive reviews and the checks would roll in is a fantasy. So where does this lead us?
Well, that’s my advice on how to market a self-published book. You now know all the pitfalls and what needs to be done. My best advice is to outline a clear goal and follow it. Hopefully, you understand that this is a long road that is going to require a lot of effort.

Bill’s guide to Self-Publishing

So, you have written a book and want to make some money. Hopefully, this guide will help you in some way. Let’s start off with what you have so far. You have written a book, shown it to somebody, they liked it and you have self-edited it many times. At this point in your own mind, your work must be the best it can be without outside help.
What you now need to do:
You need a copy of Microsoft Word and your book needs to be in Word format. At this point, it should not have any formatting unless this is a major part of your work. You will then need a short 1 paragraph summary of your work (including the ending) and a detailed ~2-page summary of your work (including the ending.) You need to describe the category of our book will be placed. IE, Science fiction, drama. Look at the possible book categories on Amazon and pick up to 4.
Now comes the hardest part [well, it was for me.] You need to write a “book description.” This is an advertisement, teaser and, summary of your work. Look online for tips on how to create one and then go to Amazon and just start reading book descriptions. I recommend reading at least 50 and reading them should take at least 4 hours. Really take a deep dive into this. Look at the classics, look at your favorites, look at ones with lots of stars and then look at ones with 1 star. Your goal is to determine the format and what the good book descriptions read like and what a bad book descriptions read like. Remember when I suggested you write a short paragraph of your work? Start there and then take a stab at writing your own book description. It needs to be sharp, get the reader’s attention quickly and then deliver a knockout “buy it now” teaser blow. Show it to as many people as you can to get their feedback.
Now, you have a major decision you have to make. Traditional publishing or self-publishing or hardcore self-publishing. Let’s start with hardcore self-publishing. This means going to a printer, making 10,000 copies of your book and selling them. My father did this for many years with ceramics textbooks. While this used to be popular with the “how to” kinds of books that were advertised in the back of magazines, hardcore self-publishing isn’t really done today.
Traditional publishing has become a really strange environment. You must first locate a “book representative” to present your work to a publisher. Book representatives often want $ up front [$2K] and then they take 20% of your profit. Publishers WILL NOT talk to you without a book representative. Locating a competent book representative is a difficult task. In my opinion, traditional publishing has been dying for many years. To me, this isn’t the future and if you want to get ahead of the game, self-publishing is your best bet.
Self-publishing has two different approaches that can be done in parallel. The first is on-demand printing and the second is an electronic book (eBook.) On-demand printing is really cool. Once the book is formatted, the printing house keeps an electronic copy on their servers. When somebody orders the book, it is simply printed and mailed directly to them. This allows for a lot of flexibility. eBooks can be sold on several sites.
The second major decision you have to make is if you should use a “self-publishing helper.” This is a person who will guide you through the process and make sure your work is the best it can be. For a first self-published book, I recommend using a self-publishing helper as they will guide you through the process. The problem is that this person will be expensive. They usually charge $50-100 per hour or a flat rate for the project.
What are the costs? I know I am going to get a lot of disagreements over this, but expect to pay $5,000 for all the steps including a self-publishing helper. Yes, you’re probably can get it done for less, but if your goal is to make a profit, spending a significant amount of money up front is a necessary step. Sorry for the bad news. Also, remember that your first book will tell the public a lot about you. If your first book is poorly done with bad reviews, it will take a long time to gain the public’s interest in your subsequent works. Start out strong!
Here are the steps necessary for self-publishing.
1) A professional person needs to look over your book. You are going to need to pay for this opinion. Probably $500. They will first professionally determine if your work is worth the massive $/effort that you are about to undertake. Then they will point out areas that have major problems. IE, bad ending, move chapter 2 after chapter 5, start your book with X and part Y doesn’t make sense. A big issue for me was when my main character made several “critical decisions.” I didn’t explain to the reader what was going through their head. My character simply reacted in one sentence and then the plot moved on. I had to do a lot of additional writing to “help the reader” see what I was thinking.

2) Your work needs to be professionally edited. How do you find an editor? Look online for one and there are sites where they advertise and people rate them. This is going to be an expensive process. Good editors charge a minimum of $65 an hour. $75 is a better number. There will be a few back and forth passes. You will be using the “review” function in Microsoft Word. Not using the review function will make this process impossible and it essential to have Microsoft Word. Now, there is a major problem. At best the English language is a vague collection of rules we sometimes follow. All editors are different and their edited result will likely not agree these “established” rules. Even worse, they will not agree with their own rules and flip-flop on the changes you paid them to make. In addition, they will never agree with your rules. In addition, there is the style, flow, sentence structure, dialog and paragraph breaks. These will all be different than your writing style. My advice is to go with the “flow of the editor” as best as you can because this is going to challenge you. Important tip. As you are doing this process. Make mental notes so that the next time you write, the editor will have less to do. This gives you more control and saves you money. It also makes you a better writer.

3) I am sure you have already come up with a title for your work. Now, brainstorm with as many people you can and come up with at least 30 alternate titles. Somehow pick the best one. If you have a publishing helper that knows the industry, they can help in this area. Important tip. Do not use a title that has already been used. For example, the Steven King book “Christine.” Your unrelated children’s book “Christine” would be completely confused with the one by Steven King. Parents would never buy this for their child no matter how well it is written. Another example is the Beatles song, “A Hard Day's Night.” Your book “A Hard Day's Night” about WWII combat would be associated with this song. All of this could lead to lawsuits and other issues. Play it safe and avoid this.

4) Go over your book description with a professional book person and an editor. There will be a lot of work in this area. This is the most important part of the whole publishing process. If your book description is even slightly less than perfect, people will not “buy it now.” Plan to spend as much time as you can in this area. Important tip. Print your work on an oversized paper or use a whiteboard to go over it from a large perspective.

5) Write a bio about yourself and find your best picture. Professionally edit this bio and show it to people.

6) Get an ISBN/Library of Congress/Copyright number. This is an easy step that requires ~$100

7) Now that you have a work comes a part that was extremely difficult for me. You need endorsements. IE, Bob Smith, New York Times book editor wrote, “This is a fantastic book. Get yourself a copy.” You will need to have a few of these for the back of your book cover. How do you get this to happen? That’s the hard part. I have a few suggestions. Do you know anybody that is famous in some way? Ask them first. By this point, you should have made a few contacts in your online writing groups. Start by asking them. When that doesn’t work, post and ask the group. As a last resort, pay for a review. They’re expensive and range from $99 to $3K. I know, this is an awful option and the review you pay for will most likely be poorly written.

8) You need to hire a cover designer. How to find one? Same as finding an editor. There are sights where they advertise with reviews. You will send them a 2 page summary of your work, your ideas on what the cover should look like, categories of other works and images of book covers that you like. At this point, the title and overall book will need to be finalized. For example, you cannot change the main character from male to female. The cover designer will design the cover, the spine and the back cover. How much will they charge? Depends on what you want. Also, you will have to pay for the rights to photographs you may use. Make sure you keep the documentation that came when you purchased the photograph rights. Expect to pay at least $300. Romance books all have paintings on the front. That’s got to cost a lot. Important tip. DO NOT just copy something from the internet and call it yours. This WILL BITE YOU HARD.

9) Now that everything is wrapped up and the book is finalized, you need to do a copy edit. This is an expensive process that takes a master. They go over the book and look for typos and other grammar nit-picky stuff. Ideally, they will also check facts, point out logic issues and give your work another perspective. This is the final point where you can make changes. Now, you’re committed and no more changes can be made.

10) Your book is then formatted for on-demand printing. You get a copy, look at it and make a few changes as possible. They really hate it when you make changes at this stage and it is expensive. Important tip. It has been my experience that the thing you will change the most at this stage is the copyright page and table of contents. Make sure you go over this carefully before formatting for printing.

11) Format the book as an ebook. This will generate both MOBI and epub formats. Review it in several readers to make sure it comes out correctly.

12) Create an Amazon, Kubo and Barns Nobel account. Get your AISN number from Amazon. Now, you have a decision to make. Use Amazon KDP select or not. In my opinion, the advantage of KDP select is minimal. I used it for a free book giveaway which didn’t really help. If you use KDP select then your eBook cannot be on other sites. Amazon will check, so be careful. My advice is to try KDP select for 3 months, see no benefit and never look back.

13) There are several sites that will promote your book for free. Before your book is released, set up accounts 2 weeks early and inform them of your release date. Put on your book description, bio, picture, ISBN number, amazon link, AISN number Kubo link and Barns Nobel link.

Here are the best ones I found:
https://www.bookbub.com/home/
http://bookbrag.com/add-your-book/
http://bookoftheday.org/add-book/
http://bookpinning.com/?sws=home/subm...
http://discountbookman.com/book-promo...
http://bookteddy.com/submit-book-free
http://indiebooklounge.com/register.php
http://mybookplace.net/submit-your-book/
http://pretty-hot.com/submit-your-book/
http://www.bookdaily.com/authorsignup
http://www.humanmade.net/submission-form
http://zwoodlebooks.com/submissions/
https://bookpraiser.com/listyourbook/
https://www.authorsden.com/join/Defau...
https://www.readersintheknow.com/aphe...

14) Put your book info on Goodreads and any other site that will host information about you.

15) That’s it. Time for marketing.
For more tips, check out: https://www.thebookdesigner.com/
You’re the best -Bill
February 5, 2018

Bill’s Guide to Writing a Book

I have been on the Facebook group Writers Helping Writers for a while now. People often post questions about the writing process. Since I see the same questions posted over and over again, I thought that I would come up with my own guide for writing a book.
Some background first. At present, I have written 4 books and I am now writing my fifth. One book has been published to Amazon and 2 more are now in the works. Book number 4 is about to enter the editing process. Book number one is beginning to gain some traction, but sales are at best limited.
Now, you are probably asking, “Wow, you are not exactly a prize-winning author. Why should I read this?” Hmm. Good question. My only answer is that when you are trying to develop your technique [in anything] it is important to look at several sources. Then take the best ideas and go with it. In addition, I am certainly classified as a “new writer.” Times have changed and people do not write like they used to. So, there may be value in my words or this could just be useless junk. Never know until you read.
The beginning.
So, you have never written a book and want to write one. Where to start? First, get a Goodreads account, an Amazon account and an Amazon authors account. Make a list of every book you have ever read and start posting reviews onto both sites. I would recommend about 2 per day and you review at least 200 books. You can cheat a bit by looking at other reviews and get some ideas in case you forgot about what the book was about. Important tip. Review only the books you really liked. Why is this important? All will become clear in my next, next 2 blogs on self-publishing and self-marketing. Writing lots of reviews will also help you write. You need to be aware of what people think of works that are already out there and get into the mindset that people will be reading your work. You then have to think that you want people to buy your work.
Second, join Facebook and write a short bio about you. Also post stuff about you. Important tip, post only light-hearted stuff. If you like/hate famous person X, keep it to yourself. Remember, there are many potential book buyers who just love X. Try to make as many contacts as possible. Again, this will help you our later. Build up some hype. “Hey, just about to release my book.” Third, join a writer’s forum like Writers Helping Writers. There are many other writer’s forums on the internet to choose from. Find one that works for you. Important tip. Start by reading lots of posts. Do this for at least two weeks before making your first post. Then post as often as you can, even if it is just a “thumbs up” to somebody else’s comments. Another good post is, “That makes a lot of sense.” The point is that you are getting yourself out there. This will help you later on. Fourth, READ A LOT. Just read, at least 2 hours a day. Try to read in the same area you are thinking of publishing. This will improve your writing ability and help you come up with ideas. It will also get you into the mindset that you are writing for others.
Fifth, start a blog. I have one on Goodreads and cross post it to Facebook. Talk about how your writing is going, what books you like to read and what it means to be a writer. I recommend that you keep it lite. No politics or other controversial topics… yet. Unless it is your thing to offend people.
Sixth, start thinking about marketing. Begin doing research on how to get your name out there. This is a long process that will consume a lot of your time later on.
What you will need.
A computer with Internet access that has a good word processor. You can pick up an old copy of Microsoft Word [like 2010] for $30 on eBay. I would not recommend any other programs. Despite all the evil that Microsoft is, they make a great product. You will avoid issues like “It looks good on the screen but when I print, the margins don’t work.” In the end, the minor cost will save you lots of time. The reality is that this is what the professional world uses. If you do not consider yourself a professional writer (or are at least trying to be one) then you have to ask yourself why you are even trying. Trust me, there is a lot of hard work ahead of you and your need the right tools. In addition, if you have a Microsoft word related question, you can always find the answer on the internet. Other word processors, not so much. Often the answer is, “Ya, we know that’s an issue.” Important tip. BACK YOUR WORK UP!! The number of times I read, “My computer was stolen and I lost 5 years’ worth of work.” Get a memory stick, back up ONCE A WEEK and put the stick in a fire proof safe. Easy and NO EXCUSES for not doing this.
How to begin? First off, you have to stop and ask yourself if you have it inside of you to really do this project. This is going to be a LONG and COSTLY road. To give you an idea, at least 6 months of effort (2 hours per day) and $5K. Yes, that is a lot of money. There are helpers, smart tips and people you can beg to do free stuff, but no real shortcuts. Remember, 6 months and $5K. If you are not prepared for this sacrifice then writing a book with the intentions of making a profit is not for you.
Now, let’s say you use a shortcut like not having your work professionally edited. Trust me, no matter how good your efforts and skill with grammar/spelling/punctuation, the readers will tear you apart. You will get one-star reviews and harsh comments like, “This reads like a 5-year-old wrote it.” There is nothing more crushing than that. My point is that readers will not be able to get beyond an unpolished work. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing correctly.”
If you have it in you, start with the main concept of your work. Write a short paragraph on what your book is about. Take some time to work it over in your head. It should be a polished work. Important tip. Keep this paragraph, you will need it later.
Next step. STOP. Just stop. Put the computer down. Now, take your concept and show it to people. Ask them what they think. This is why you made this paragraph a polished work. If people seem apprehensive when you tell them about it, I would go back and ponder your idea some more. Normal people are generally good at telling you when a simple concept is not in the right direction or that it is not something they would like to read.
Example bad children’s book idea: Wilber the farting bulldozer. Your friends should say, “I’m not sure about this. Parents might not want their kids reading about a farting bulldozer.” Also think about the positive comments you may get. “Cool idea, you can introduce kids to sex at the same time.” Clearly, there is an issue.
Then do some research. If the concept has been done before, then you will face a lot of competition. For example, writing a book that has the exact same plot as Harry Potter is going to get 1 star reviews like, “This is just a re-write of Harry Potter. What a rip off! Don’t bother reading!” There are a lot of writers out there and a lot has already been done. Remember, your work needs to stand out if you ever plan to make a buck.
How much does your work need to stand out? Say 40%. [I have discovered that 40% turns out to be an important number in publishing.] Another part of your concept must have a foundation and you cannot go too far out of the normal books. Look at the various categories on Amazon.com. Ask yourself, Which category would my work be in? What other books are already there? How does my idea stand up to these books? Would readers of book X like my work? If your idea is too difficult to grasp, then readers will have a difficult time making that initial purchase.
Now the important part. What is your hook? What is the magic that will make people want to “buy it now.” I often see the book idea in Writers Helping Writers, “I had a messed up life and I want to write my story.” I typically reply, “What is your hook?” Their answer usually is [if they answer at all.] “My life was so bad that people will naturally want to read about me.” They seem to have it in their head that I should somehow connect with their plight. Why would I ever want to read this book? A depressing person told their story. Not much there. Where is the hero? Why should I feel sorry for you? Where is the spunk? What did I learn? HOW DOES THIS HELP ME?!! Honestly, if your answer is, “My concept is a great story, but not really that special” then you should reconsider the project.
Now let’s consider story with a hook. The book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is an interesting account of a funeral home worker. Lots of info and insight. Did the author have a bad childhood? Yes, but that was not the focus of her story. Remember, your book must stand out. Doing what has already been done is essential. That was where the book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes stood out. The author told the reader all about the mysterious world of working at a funeral home. It made for a really great read and I recommend you check it out. As a side note, you will see that I gave a positive review in Goodreads and Amazon. More on that later.
So, what idea should you peruse? There I cannot really help you. Your story has to come from within while at the same time has to be worth reading. Important tip. You must be passionate about your story. This is going to be a long road and if you have no passion, it is probably a waste of time.
Now that you have your concept with at least a partial hook and people like it. STOP. You need to understand if your idea has marketing potential. This is a different question from “I have a good idea.” At this point, I would post your idea to a writers group. Specifically, ask: Would you buy a book like this? Even better, get the opinion of a professional book person who knows the publishing industry. How do you find such a person? Well, that’s the tough part. Ask on a writers group for advice. Often this will cost you $ to get a valid opinion. It is worth it and could save you $$$ for writing a book that nobody will ever buy.
When you are at least 40% sure that you have a marketable concept, you’re ready to begin. How do you see the story unfolding? When are you going to introduce your main character? Ask yourself how you want your book to be structured. Look at how other books are structured. When you are confident on the format of your idea, start with an outline. This outline is for you, so don’t get too wrapped up in making it look great. The goal is to develop a simple guide to show how the story flows. There are many outline formats you can use including the flower method. Here is chunk of an outline that I did to give you some ideas on the format:
They travel around Italy. [Research towns in Italy. Find one near the coast.] X find evil man H, he is in a bad way, not good at making money, confront him, argument, X feels the evil for the first time. [chapter break] Learns H has been killing a lot of people to steal their money. X captured by evil army W, escape. H reveals he did not find the secret and said, “Damn what would my hero Jake do?”
Notice there is some sample dialog, notes and I used X, H, W for names. Remember, your outline isn’t made to be perfect and my sample is clearly far from it. The idea is simply to get the essence of the story and to show the story flow. When you have completed your outline, go over it several times. Try to take a high-level approach and pay attention to how the plot unfolds. At this stage it is easy to make huge changes, move chapters and alter the direction. Ask yourself questions like, Should I introduce the main character now? What would happen if I did X. Is the reader going to get confused? When you are confident, show it to somebody. The outline should just be enough to get you some feedback. Stand firm, but do not be afraid to make bold changes.
Now, start a list of the characters. You can also do this as you write. For each character, make up a name and a basic bio. Group your characters together. Add any notes and add inspirations about the characters. For example,
Smith Family
Mom=Karen, Father=Joe, Son=James. Cat=Mr. Tumbles. Live at 1010 East Street. Joe is like an angry Darth Vader
Now, as you write you can refer to this list to get spelling and facts strait. Readers will immediately pick up on a mistake like: Sara Doyle lives at 1010 East Street. Important tip, don’t have characters with the same first name. This will confuse the reader.
To help you with this character effort, use a random name generator to make character names. They have them for different countries, medieval times and science fiction. My advice is to keep hitting the generate button until something pops.
Now some basics of writing. There are some key areas that you need to remain consistent. The first is dialog and quotes. This is how I deal with this strange issue: Tim was happy and said, “That’s good.” Here are two other ways: “That’s good.” Said a happy Tim. Or
Tim was feeling happy.
“That’s good.”
Whatever method you decide, stick to it. This makes it easy for editors to go over your work and make corrections. Next, you have to think about “dialog management.” In your work, dialog is not dialog. It is another form of written communication. In real life, we just talk but this assumes that the other person is a person that is understanding you. In a book, you have to give the reader an idea about who the person is by the words they use. For example, a silly person would say, “What’s up, my peep!” and a serious person would reply, “That’s inappropriate.” Remember, dialog should only be used to convey what cannot be written. IE, thoughts, emotions and understanding. Ideally, the writing supports the dialog to make it special. Keep in mind that your dialog has to and keep the story moving. Also, remember that the reader is not a mind reader, so the dialog has to make sense. Don’t get too caught up in slang or other crazy stuff.
My overall “dialog management” point is that when creating your character, think of their voice. Assign some personality to them. For example, person Bob talks like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. Bob said in a serious voice, “Now that’s a really good idea. Stick to it.” As you can see from my short quote, you absolutely cannot tell that Tom Hanks is speaking. My point is that when you write this dialog, the sentence flow came out from the Tom Hanks prospective in your mind. Tom Hanks would never say, “Golly gee, that’s goody-goody.”
Next, focus on your grammar and spelling. Look up the many resources that are available to you online. Now for the easy part. Start writing. In this area, my only advice is keep at it. If you get stuck, exercise, talk to people, post on writing groups and take a short period of time off. A moderate amount of wine also helps. Keep plugging until you are finished.
In my experience, I use 40-90% of my outline. Generally, the overall plot is followed, but often there is a big chunk that is different. The good thing about an outline is that you can make huge changes at the outline stage. If you finish your work, then make big changes then it will get complex. For example, a big change is converting the main character from a man to a woman. What ends up happening are mistakes like accidently refer to the woman as ‘him.’ If you have enough mistakes like that, one or two will get through the editing process. A subtler issue is when you are writing, there is a mindset to the character. “She drove her pickup truck like a bad-ass boss!!” This is a perfectly valid sentence however, readers would comment [or think as they are reading]: A woman would just not drive like that. Readers are really great at picking up on the small details and their comments will be brutal. Ideally, you want to make the least number of big changes after you have finished. This is where proper planning comes in.
Now the fun begins. Read over your work and make edits. Do this at least 5 times without any specific goal. Then start with a goal like: Consistency, punctuation, spelling, continuity and most importantly, CHECK FACTS. For each of these items, I would do one complete pass. Then read over your work and make edits at least 5 more times. Trust me, this will make for a much more polished work and save you a lot of heartache. Of the works I have done, I make at least 30 passes. Some passes take 5 days or more.
When you have done all of this, give your now first draft to somebody to look over. See what they think. Then more edits biased on their work. That’s it. You’re done. Now for the harder part, publishing your work. Then the impossible part, marketing your work.

The Goal of Becoming an Author

When I was in the fifth grade, I attended May Scott Marcy Elementary school in San Diego. This school has since been renamed Mission Bay Montessori Academy. The funny thing is that, to this day, I have no idea who May Scott Marcy is. The year I attended the 5th grade, the best teacher was Mrs. Hanson. She was an amazing teacher and I have many fond memories of her class. However, there was one downside to being in her class that particular year. My school participated in an “integration” program and this was the only year Marcy Elementary tried this experiment. One day a week, our entire class was taken on a bus to Chollas-Mead Elementary school [we pronounced it: choy-us] way across town. Several kids from Chollas Elementary were then bussed to Marcy.
The kids that were sent to Marcy Elementary apparently just kept to themselves as a group. As I was not at Marcy Elementary on those days, I had no interaction with these kids and only got stories. My experience in being bussed across town was quite eye opening. Chollas Elementary was a much larger school with a vastly different student population. I often felt intimidated by this surrounding. Eventually I made some friends and life settled down on that one crazy day of the week.
One of the kids that I made friends with had a lifetime goal that he proudly told everybody. He wanted to become a gang member, make a million dollars and buy a low-rider. He spoke of the certainty of purchasing a low-rider with great pride. Often, he would pop his hand up and down while making the hydraulic “veeeet” sound.
When I met him, he was well on this way to achieving this goal. His brothers (who were already in a real street gang) told him that he needed three things to be accepted into their gang: Know how to count up to one million, be able to add/subtract [simple numbers] and form his own “starter gang.” I found it comical that the reason for counting up to a million was so that he could appreciate how much money he would be making. My friend was well on his way and he was the founding member of the “Logan Hills Gang,” the toughest gang in Chollas Elementary. I never actually met the other members and nobody I talked to was aware of the Logan Hills Gang. Every day he told me how may days were left until his 15th birthday when his brothers would allow him to “be tested.” If he passed this apparently criminal/violent test he would proudly become a member of his brother’s gang.
As we shared PE and both hated to run, we would walk around the field together. Often, we talked as there was nobody else walking slow like us. I told him that my goal was to become an electrician. He thought this was a stupid goal and I should join his gang. Apparently, joining the Logan Hills Gang was easy. All I had to do was steal a bunch of stuff and give it to him. He actually 100% thought that he was pulling a fast on me. Of course, I wasn’t too interested in becoming a gang member but we still shared many conversations on the topic.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This boy was smart, had a real talent for art and was really good at reading. He had a lot of potential and spirit. The main difference between us was that we had vastly different family backgrounds. I suspect that if circumstances were different, his life goal would have been a Mechanical Engineer or an art teacher.
When the school year was over, we parted ways without fanfare. I went through grade school and changed my lifetime goal to become an Electrical Engineer (the best kind of Engineer.) Two years ago, I was laid off and decided to give writing a try. My first book was edited and it was then time to market it. In doing research, I learned that one of the items necessary to market one’s work is a blog. I had always liked the idea of blogging and decided to give it a try.
As I was thinking up blog topics, I though about this young boy from my elementary school days. I am absolutely sure he achieved his lifelong goal and became a full-fledged gang member. I have always wondered what happened to him. Did he commit crimes and get caught or did he see that the life of crime was not that great? Of course, I don’t remember his name and I have no way to look him up.
All of this made me think of my life’s goals and some of my other choices. Is it a worthy goal to become a writer? I’d like to think so. A writer can create something from only the thoughts in their head. Writers have had a powerful influence on history and they still have a strong place in our society.
One day, I placed my book on Amazon and suddenly, I was a writer. Just one click. There were no printing presses, no meetings with “the big wigs” at the publishing house, no book launch party and no book signing tour. In many ways it was kind of a letdown. At the same time, I was happy that I had achieved this difficult goal.
Unfortunately, at the time I entered the writing field, there had already been a lot of great writers. It’s difficult to come up with new ideas and often after I have an “original” idea, I do some searching and find that my “new” idea has already been done at least once. Fortunately, it’s much easier to publish and this has allowed the writing field to flourish. For example, this blog entry costs me nothing. If this were the 1970’s, the best I could do would be to mimeograph some typed up copies and distribute these few pages to friends. Now, with the click of a mouse, I can reach the entire world. As an example, yesterday on Facebook, I commented on a post in “Writers Helping Writers” from a woman in South Africa. How amazing is that?
Overall, I like sharing my ideas through writing and feeding the creative side of my life. However, I am about to go back to my former full-time roll. That of an Electrical Engineer. Engineering is a different kind of creativity. The joy comes from overcoming a challenge with a technically creative solution. The sharing is seeing your creation being used by others.
There is still a lot of writing in Engineering. However, Engineering writing vastly different from the writing in a blog or novel. The focus of Engineering writing is to clearly state a concept or process in such a way that other Engineers can quickly grasp the concept. Since becoming a writer, I have gone over a few of my old engineering documents. As I looked at them I find them to be terse and unimaginative. This makes me wonder what my writing will look like as I again join the Engineering community. Only time will tell.
Did you like this blog? There is more where that came from. Please buy my book!!! It’s a good book, trust me, I wrote it.
You’re the best -Bill
December, 21, 2017

Writing in the Tom Clancy Universe

Sorry for not posting in a while. Life has been a bit complex and it has taken me some time to get back into blogging.
From my perspective, there are a few ways to write a fictitious story with regard to the setting/timeline.
1) Nonsense. This is a story that is set in complete fiction like in the movie Star Wars. You can make up any rule you want. Trump was never elected in this universe because there is no earth.
2) Close to home. In this universe, reality is far away like in Star Trek. Trump was elected, but he died a long time ago and nothing he did matters to the story.
3) Parallel. In this time line, the story takes place and nothing major changes. This is easy to write for, because all the history is available. How did WWII end? Just look it up in Wikipedia. Trump was elected and he did what he did.
4) Skewed. In this reality, things are skewed. Think that awful Watchmen movie where America wins the Vietnam war because the naked big blue guy smashes everything. Trump is probably elected unless the big blue guy smashed his house.
5) Time travel. Everything can change. Trump who?
6) Tom Clancy Universe. In this universe, everything is normal up until the first book takes place. Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan enters in the 1984 and he steals a submarine. By the 90’s, Jack Ryan is president. In this universe, Trump could never be elected.
7) Sort-of Tom Clancy Universe. In this universe, there is a major event and then everything turns back into normal. For example, the JFK assassination isn’t successful. JFK finishes his term and eventually, Trump is elected. This type of story is an attempt to slightly re-write history, yet bring everything back to normal.
Let’s look at the specifics of the Tom Clancy Universe. There was a split in 1984 and we entered an alternate timeline (the Tom Clancy Universe.) The characters grow along a similar path to our reality. Some things didn’t change and some did. For example, Apple still invented their iPhone. However, some things get murky. Did 911 occur in Tom Clancy Universe? This is more difficult to answer. A lot of political events helped build the powerbase that created the circumstances to allow this unfortunate incident. Afterwards, there was a huge political response that completely changed the world.
In the Tom Clancy Universe, President Jack Ryan or his successor would be president 911 occurred. Thus, everything would be different. The powerbase or response might have been subdued or amplified. The answer is: This tragic event was simply not covered by a book. This has major consequences. For example: Would the Patriot Act have been approved? Hard to say.
All of this makes the Tom Clancy Universe an interesting place to write it. Once a writer chooses this path, it’s a slippery slope that’s full of traps. This makes it hard to get back to reality. The best way to navigate through the Tom Clancy Universe is to avoid writing about it. For example, President Jack Ryan’s Secretary of Defense is not actually named in any of the books. In this way, we cannot compare this person to a real person such as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
The good part of the Tom Clancy Universe is that it allows the writer to have a big story that isn’t bound. President Jack Ryan can increase taxes without protest. He can even have WWIII with full public/media support and not worry about how to pay for it. Tom Clancy wrote 3 books where this occurred. The problem is that the further down the Tom Clancy Universe we go, the farther we are detached from reality.
For example, who was the last president? We all know it was Obama. In the Tom Clancy Universe, who was the last president? Well, we have to read the last three books to find out. Who started Facebook? Was Facebook mentioned in the last Tom Clancy book? No. OK, the answer is Mark Zuckerberg. The result is that in the Tom Clancy Universe, all recent political “facts” are now in question.
Is the Tom Clancy Universe bad? I guess it depends on your prospective. My answer is that you just have to accept the Tom Clancy Universe when you start reading a Tom Clancy book. My point is that the more books in the Tom Clancy Universe that are written, the farther away from reality we get. This can lead to issues when a dramatic political event occurs such as 911, the Gulf War or Trump unexpectedly winning the presidency.
When I wrote Interviewing Immortality, I decided to take the parallel approach. I felt that the Tom Clancy Universe was too complex. I even went one step further and set this book slightly in the past. This allowed me to have some leeway to grow and be sure of the facts. For example, I know what TV shows were on 5 years ago. That will never change. I found that this was easier than the present, because the present is actually part of the future.
In my upcoming novel Cable Ties, I did enter the Tom Clancy Universe. All the political leaders were made up and the story flowed from there. I was careful not to mention what political party was associated with the characters and limited their background. I also intentionally didn’t mention any dates in the story. This prevents the reader from comparing the story to current events. All of these decisions allowed me the freedom to make huge political changes. In Cable Ties, the Vice president and President were both accused of major crimes and several politicians were arrested. In addition, the world was nearly taken into WWIII. When the novel concluded, I did my best to bring everything back to normal. This was to allow the reader to imagine that this story could have [or will] taken place and they were not aware of it. In my opinion, this is easier for the reader and it allows their mind to easily transition into believing that the farfetched story could have occurred (just under different circumstances.) If I had used real names such as Trump and Obama, then Cable Ties would have gotten crazy, complex and dated.
Now comes the hard part. I am writing a sequel, Cable Pairs. This will involve several of the main characters on a new adventure. Like the Tom Clancy Universe, I have declared a fictional character as president. Also, like the Tom Clancy Universe, I purposefully didn’t include the media reaction and all the crazy probing that people naturally do.
For me, this sequel is going to be difficult to write for because I will have to be very careful how to treat the characters. Readers can be really sensitive and if they find inconsistencies with the previous book.
Overall, a writer has to make a choice about how what setting they want to place their fictional story in. The Tom Clancy Universe is challenging and fun, but there are drawbacks as more details are added to the story. It is going to be interesting to see how my sequel pans out. Thanks for reading.
PS, Please buy a copy of Interviewing Immortality!!! It’s really a great read! I’m going major crazy here.
You’re the best -Bill
December, 12, 2017

My Eternal Struggle With Grammar

Wikipedia defines grammar as: The set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. A lot of wisdom in those words.
I define grammar as a complete pain. It’s not that I am against the use of grammar or have some objects to the rules that have been set up. I’m lucky to speak a language that indeed does have so many well-defined rules. My issue is that the iron clad rules of grammar are less iron and more rust.
Where did these grammar rules come from? Long ago, people started speaking. They didn’t have rules; they just spoke. Later on when the rules were written to give the language some consistency. In order to do this, the rules had to have many exceptions and not every instance is covered by a rule. For example, we have the basic spelling rule, "I before E, except after C." And yes, I know. This is technically a mnemonic and not a “rule.”
Today, we get these rules from various sources. For writers, the gold standard is The Chicago Manual of Style which proudly proclaims it is “the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar.” There are other modern sources like “The PC is not a typewriter” and one that I occasionally use “Grammarly Handbook.” The problem I have is when the “experts” don’t agree or they have no opinion.
I will be the first to admit that my grammar is at best, OK. [Example side note. Is it: ok, Ok, OK or okay?] The good news for me is that there are excellent editors and they are really good at cleaning up my work. But what happens when the editors disagree with each other? Often their answer is: “What you’re asking doesn’t matter that much. Either way is fine.” In the end, I do my best to be consistent.
Here is an easy one. How do you write numbers in a sentence?
There are 52 playing cards.
There are fifty-two playing cards.
There are fifty two playing cards.
This should be easy. Pick one of the three and go with it. The Chicago Manual of Style states that for under 100, one should write out the numbers and use a dash. “There are fifty-two playing cards.” For numbers over 100, one should write in numerals. “There are 152 playing cards.” Other sources dictate that it should always be one or the other and not both. Another source says that you should use written out words inside of the quotes and numerals outside. Another source says that for non-technical books, the words should be written out and technical books should exclusively use numerals.
For me, I don’t care. I just want to be consistent and so, I made up a new rule. For numbers over 5, I use numerals unless it is at the beginning of a sentence. This rule seems to make my writings read a bit better. However, I know that my personal made up rule is not even close to the gold standard.
Let’s look at a complex example: ?!
What’s your problem?!
What’s your problem? !
What’s your problem!?
What’s your problem!
WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?
In this sentence, somebody is yelling out a question. This yelling is expressed with a “!” My dilemma is: What’s the proper way to use punctuation in this instance? This isn’t clear. The Chicago Manual of Style has no specific rule to cover this issue. Even the Internet [Should Internet be capitalized? Some say yes, others no. Another confusion.] has many discussions on this issue that generally result in disagreement. For my writing, I decided to go with “?!” as the Internet discussions suggests that “?!” is the most appropriate usage. My opinion is that “?” trumps the emphasis “!”, but the emphasis “!” is still required. I also don’t like WRITING IN CAPITOL LETTERS.
What an impossible example? “There are three two’s in the English language.” That’s a perfectly valid sentence, but it is impossible to actually write. Should we make up a fourth two? Call it “tu” “There are four tu’s in the English language.”
There is another overall issue with grammar and this comes down to “writing style.” While this is technically not grammar, I am just going to call it grammar. For example, the dialog for a play/movie/book might have random grammar. This is because the person who is “speaking” just talks that way. This gives the impression that the character is uneducated. A technical or legal document would have terse sentences that don’t make much sense. A poetic or dramatic work has flowy words without punctuation. Why are all these different with regards to grammar? I would prefer that clear rules apply without exception to all forms of writing.
I find that some particular people are complete stickers for the rules. I also find that these same people never seem to have anything nice to say about my writings. They cannot get over their own grammar safeguards enough to enjoy my written thoughts. For me, this issue has been present since my dawn of my writing. On a side note, I nearly flunked my college Psychology class due to this issue.
On a personal note, I find that the writings from the grammar stickers is at best bland. They go out of their way to use direct “flowerily” sentences with “big words.” IE words that are not in common use. As a result, I have to keep asking questions to get them to tell me what is really going on. This is especially troubling in Engineering when I just need the facts and not “big words” loaded with endless punctuation.
Another issue I have with grammar stickers is that their writings begins to look like a legal document. Every other word has a coma or semicolon after it and it seems to be a contest to see how long a sentence can actually be. Reading one of these “correct sentences” out loud is like reading with a mouth full of rocks on an empty stomach. My college roommate referred to this as “dieseling” from when you turned off your carbureted car and it would still run.
The comma is intended to give the reader a chance to breath and should be used with moderation. The period is there to separate thoughts and give the mind a break. The use of normal words helps get the point across quickly. That same psychology teacher that tried to flunk me loved to use the word “Cynosure.” [Definition: A focal point of admiration] Valid word? Yes. Did anybody in the class know what the word meant? No. Was it an attempt to make that teacher seem important? Defiantly!!!
Where does that leave me? I have an overall goal in my writings with regard to my grammar. I try really hard to check my grammar and I do my best to make it consistent. Before I release something to my editor or on my blog, I go over it several times. When I send my works off to an editor and they work overtime to clean my messy material up. I accept all their changes without question. I look over what they corrected and try to duplicate their changes on my next work. That’s the best I can do.
I wish there was a better solution for me. The real problem not having a single gold rule to follow. Also, what happens when the software grammar checkers and editors disagree? In other languages, there is a board or governing body that settles these questions. The English language has no governing body. In 1906, the Simplified Spelling Board was created to reform the spelling of the English language, making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminated many inconsistencies. The board operated until 1920, the year after the death of its founding benefactor, Andrew Carnegie who had come to criticize the progress and approach of the organization.
I believe the Simplified Spelling Board or something like it should be resurrected. Perhaps a Wikipedia version of the The Chicago Manual of Style. Let’s pretend this is true for a moment. They met, had a discussion on the “?!” issue and determined the conclusion: As of 2017, the correct way to emphasize a question is “?!” No other format shall be tolerated. This rule would then be incorporated into textbooks and software grammar checkers. The results will be that the grammar monsters have less to complain about and all writing would be consistent
Now if there is one thing I really hate is a rant that offers no solution. So, everybody. Let’s set up some sort of governing board and then accept their words of wisdom. One a side note. Please buy my book!!! It’s a good book and so far, without exception, everybody that read it, enjoyed it. I’m going crazy without any sales.
You’re the best -Bill
October, 24, 2017

Living in a Dystopian Present

Wikipedia defines dystopia as “an imaginary community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated from Greek as ‘not-good place,’ an antonym of utopia.” For as long as there have been fiction writers, they have been envisioning a dystopian future. We see it today in stories such as Mad Max, Enders Game, Blade Runner, The Walking Dead, Book of Eli, 1984 and many others. The dystopia future allows writers to paint the picture of a bleak future where people run amuck. This allows writers to have the plot freedom that cannot be achieved in the present “normal” world.
There is a twofold reason why people are drawn to this kind of plot. Let’s use the Mad Max franchise as an example. The characters in Mad Max are on the brink of starvation and they drive around in crazy cars attempting to survive. Why do we like this? Because society does not allow this this kind of outlandish behavior. If somebody were to drive a “non-street legal” car around while committing many crimes, it would be big news and the person would be arrested. This is a good thing because bad driving and crime is detrimental to a pleasant society.
When we let our imagination wonder away from our normal society and enjoy the Mad Max story, it’s kind of fun. How cool would it be to drive around in a super charged monster car? Breaking everything in sight and overcoming adversity? That is precisely why we like the Mad Max dystopian future. There are no rules and this helps us cope with the rules we don’t like in our society. The result is essentially an entertaining pressure release.
The second aspect we like about dystopian future is to compare this horrible future world to our own. For example, we might think, Meatloaf again? Well, that is not as bad as when Mad Max was grateful to eat a can of dog food. This terrible future reminds us how good our present lives are.
The only problem with dystopian future stories is that the envisioned dystopian future simply does not come true. Sometimes the readers panic over what they think might happen. For example, The Walking Dead inspired a LOT of people to buy guns.
When writers attempt to predict the future, the results are lofty and creative. If we rewind back to the 1950’s, it was predicted by many writers that in the 1980’s, there would be: flying atomic powered cars, robots walking among us, space travel, oppressive governments and nuclear wars. Obviously, none of these basic predictions came true. Of course, there were more realistic [conservative] writers that did a much better job of predicting the future such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Their stories predicted such ideas as satellite communication and realistic computer usage.
Another aspect of the dystopian future stories from the 1950’s that has not come true is an oppressive society. Let’s take for example the George Orwell book 1984 written in 1949. It predicted a tightly controlled state where all people are closely watched all the time. Any crime is instantly detected and severally punished. May people have said that this dystopian future is here today. The point out that there are millions of security cameras along with millions of computers that automatically monitor our everyday activities. In addition, they point out an effective criminal system that uses technology such as DNA resulting in an unfair trial.
I do not disagree with the abundance of cameras, spying computers and unfair trials. However, our present is not even close to the dystopian future that George Orwell predicted. Few of these cameras are actively monitored. The cameras images are generally only looked at after a crime has occurred. In some public places, the cameras are actively monitored by security people. It is also true that in these places, the security people have abused the public’s trust. Has the abundance of cameras really stopped crime? Arguably, yes. Has it made our world better by stopping crime? Arguably, yes.
As for the computers monitoring our every move? Yes, there are sophisticated computers automatically monitoring us and sophisticated computers are even other computer systems. Are big government organizations monitoring me? Yes, but I am a nobody. The government doesn’t have the resources to prosecute my little crimes that are caught by cameras or computers. What about the computer monitoring? The main aspect of computer monitoring that truly affects me is that companies gain an edge for advertising and better marketing. [Do I really know what I am talking about? Check out patents 09/589,552 and 13/507,371] Is this computer monitoring wrong? Ya, probably. What effect does it have on me personally? I buy more stuff. Some of that stuff makes my life better and some of it is junk. Most of what I buy, I need or at least that is what I convince myself.
Have I lost all kinds of freedoms as the result of all this computer monitoring? Probably. Does this really affect me? Not really. Are computers listening to my phone conversations? Technically yes, actually no. Criminals spend a lot of time on the phone and computers and are generally not caught in this manner. Are my rights being violated by computers? Ya, probably. What is the worst aspect of this dreadful violation? The worst (in my opinion) is identity theft. Do I like it? I have been the victim of identity theft several times and I think the people that perpetrate this crime should be shot without trial. Why? When they took on my identity and in the process, they lost their own identity so technically they don’t exist. Will my punishment ever occur? Absolutely not. What does this have to do with government and society? Not much. Identity theft is just a new way for criminals to operate. People will always look for short cuts and identity theft is the new short cut.
What about AI? Will it destroy us all? It’s very unlikely. Computers are programmed by people and people still want to live peaceful lives. If we rewind back to the 1950’s there was a big scare with robots and computers. Robots first entered the factories and started taking the jobs from welders. What percentage of the factory did they take? Up to 1%. How about today? Now robots may have taken up to 20% of the assembly line jobs. But that’s misleading. Who builds and maintains the robots? People. Robots have just moved the jobs around.
Computers in the 1950’s took away jobs from people that worked with numbers. Today, computers take away jobs like: supermarket cashiers, bank tellers, newspaper printers/paperboys and record/tape/CD manufactures. However, like the factory robots, these jobs just got moved around to places like Facebook and Google. The overall result is that some jobs have been permanently taken away by computers. One could just as easily argue that increased government regulation, taxes, economic changes and worldwide labor shifts [jobs moving to different countries] are far more responsible for job loss than AI, robots or computers.
What about the oppression of the poor and disadvantaged? People will always be taken advantage of and this has been going on since before even writers could put words on a printed page. The good news is that the poor and disadvantaged now have many more options. For example, a person can get an accredited college degree online for nearly free.
Dystopian future writers have envisioned a world where the poor and disadvantaged rise up against “the man” and overthrow society into chaos. I would argue that this is actually occurring, but in a different form. It turns out that the poor and disadvantaged can vote just fine. It also turns out that they can use the internet/media to organize and their votes are now a force to be reckoned with. It also turns out that people can use internet/media in countries that you cannot vote to make effective changes in the government and society. So, in many ways the revolution has been going on for a long time with great results.
The point of this blog article is that the dystopian future predictions that all of these writers made in the 1950’s never really came true and that present dystopian future predictions are not likely to come true. Now let’s look at some things that did happen. There have been horrific events since the 1950’s that have deeply disrupted our lives. This included wars, natural disasters, manmade disasters, terrorist attacks and great social shifts due to technology.
Take for example, the horrific 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. This dreadful natural disaster was so big that it actually changed the maps of Japan. After the horrific incident, the proud people of Japan, mourned their losses, cleaned up, rebuilt, learned some lessons and got on with their lives. The point is that the people of Japan did not turn their country into anarchy like The Walking Dead where everybody killed to survive. Their society naturally dwelled toward getting back to a peaceful existence. Why did their society not turn into anarchy? The people of Japan wanted a peaceful society. They liked having safe streets, clean water and their children going to school. This horrific situation is a great example of how all the makings of a dystopian future were present and yet the people went far out of their way to make sure that they went back to a peaceful boring existence.
Our world is going to have wars [as I write this, North Korea looks like they might even start a nuclear war] and epic world changing natural disasters such as: super volcanos, comet impacts and plagues. Humans are survivors and it is in our core values to get through the bad times. It won’t be easy and there will be significant losses. However, it is in our “human” nature to return to a peaceful boring existence. When the next tragic event occurs, we will tough it out and get back to the way we are now.
My point in writing this blog article is that there is a natural drive within humans to live quiet boring lives and that’s just fine. There will always be writers that write about the dystopian future and that is also just fine. I personally like the Walking Dead and never miss an episode. We like stories that have excitement/drama/conflict and this is why the dystopian future stories were invented.
However, we must keep the concept of the dystopian future in check. These dystopian future stories are farfetched predictions are simply not going to come true. If you watch an episode of the Walking Dead and decide to build an underground survival shelter, you may want to reconsider your motives. History simply does not support that kind of possibility.
I was just about to post this blog and I noticed something. When I was in college at WPI in 1993, there was a student paper and this paper had an anonymous writer who went by the name of Froto. He took this penname from the Lord of The Rings character. Every week, Froto had a new rant that went on and on. Nothing was ever good and he whined about all that was bad while offering no solutions. I was annoyed by all of Froto’s writings and I generally skipped over that entire section of the paper.
It began to dawn on me that this blog post was kind of in the same vain. Here I am complaining about some minor aspect of our wonderful world. This made me think back to Froto’s endless complaints and it gave me time to pause. We are privileged to have the extra resources to employ writers and bring their visions to the wide screens. As proof of this; not a lot of North Korean fiction writers out there. What I have written in this blog is a simple observation. In essence, the dystopian writers envisioned a bleak dystopian future that never materialized. I am hoping that the people who read this blog do not feel that I am whining about dystopian future works. There are plenty of specific examples of fictional dystopian future’s that did indeed come true and I enjoy reading/watching dystopian future stories.
Now for the important part. BUY MY BOOK. PLEASE!!! MY CHECKBOOK IS LONELY! MY BOOK IS ONLY $2.99 ON AMAZON!!! Putting a review online will help me out even more.
You’re the best -Bill
September 24, 2017

Why I write

Writing fiction is supposed to be fun. The great part is that you can do anything you want. Write a about a big space adventure? Sure! How about a crime drama set in the old west? No problem, knock yourself out. But what about writing fiction for money? Well, it’s still supposed to be fun. You can still write about anything you want. One would imagine it’s like being a race car driver. You get to race around the track and they pay you to drive an expensive car. It’s the same thing. You pen something up and then other people ohh and ahh over your fantastic words and then you collect a check. Simple. Right?
I got into writing for profit for a seemingly unlikely reason. I was laid off. Sunstrand [Pratt and Whitney] [UTC] dissolved their San Diego location. I could see what was going to happen long before my coworkers suspected there was a problem. The company was in such poor shape that I sent my resume out six weeks after I started working there. There were rumors and all kinds of plans to keep the place going. In the end, I worked there for just two years. The work was good I made several friends.
After I was laid off, I began working part time for a medical product development company. This work was sparse and there is not a lot of money in it, but it keeps me sane. For many years I had several stories that I wanted to write and I thought about them often. One day I just decided to write up my best three ideas. At the time, I great hope that these three books would lead to instant cash. I was quite naive on how publishing worked.
When I first started, I was under no delusion that I was an accomplished writer. My background is Electrical Engineering. I know that I am good at being an Engineer and I know that in general, people only get one bite at the talent apple. My plan was to write three books and then figure out what to do.
The three ideas I had were completely vetted in my mind and the words just flowed out. The process took 3-4 weeks each. My last story did have some minor issues wrapping up the ending, but I figured it out. I would not describe the process as fun, but it was satisfying.
It was now time to get them published and I started with my first one, Interviewing Immortality. [Hey, quick authors tip. Always put your book title in Italics, it makes you look sophisticated.] After I wrote the three books, I had my mother edit them. She has a lot of English talent and this helped me immensely.
And so my financial quest began. I three books and surly one of them would be popular. This process was supposed to be simple and the Internet should now make this easy! Just send the word document off to hundreds of publishers, one of them would like it and they send me a big fat check. There is probably a website that will do all of this for you! Instant payday!!!
Well, sending your book off to publishers no longer works that way. In fact, I probably never really worked that way, but it is a nice dream. The reality was that publishers “do not accept unrepresented manuscripts.” [Hey, quick authors tip. Publishers call your book a manuscript. It makes them sound sophisticated.] Getting someone to represent your work is at best expensive and generally impossible. After you do get a book represented, they want at least 20% of your profit.
It was pure luck that I got connected with a self-publisher helper and she convinced me to try self-publishing on Amazon. The problem was that I had to put out a lot of my own money up front to get the ball rolling. And again, I thought that after I did this simple self-publishing step that the fat checks would magically appear. I quickly learned that Amazon self-publishing doesn’t work that way. A smart individual like myself would probably have suspected this and done a bit of background research.
So, now I had a book on Amazon and I needed to get the word out. In my natural state, I’m a quiet person. I didn’t have a Facebook account or any other kind of online presence. [Well, a few patents… But that is another painful story.] I quickly understood and began building my outward personality. There were ~100 sites for promoting books and I found ~30 of them that were free. That was a start, but that was not a solid connection to the audience I was attempting to connect to.
I had always wanted to start a blog. This seemed like a fun thing to do. When I signed up for Goodreads, there was a blog section. This seemed like a good idea and I decided to give it a stab. With some luck, people will enjoy my ramblings and want to learn more. BUY MY BOOK!! ITS LIKE THIS BLOG BUT MUCH BETTER!!!
However, this does not answer the main question. Knowing what I know now, why do I write? I am now fully aware that writing for profit is a long road. I have three more books ready for editing and publishing. Getting this done is an expensive process [$5-7K each] and that expense comes right from me. I’m not sure how many more times I can keep self-publishing books with no light at the end of the tunnel.
But again, this still does not answer the question that is in the title of the blog. Why do I write? For me, coming up with an idea is easy and I have the ability to put it down on paper. For the moment, I also have the time.
Do I get any joy out of the process? That is a more complex answer. How cool was it when I did an internet search and came up with my name as an author. The answer was: so-so. There was also not much joy in telling my friends about my book. I wrote for two years and they didn’t know what I was really doing until I showed them a copy. One friend shook my hand and this was actually a really nice gesture.
The true answer to this question comes from a strange place. After I have written a book, I do many self-edits. Tighten a sentence, add a concept, clarify, delete and re-arrange. Each time I go through my book, there is a new application of the story. It may sound strange, but I get a lot of happiness while I am doing this. The story is familiar and I completely know what is happening within the words. I can fully picture what the character is doing and feeling. There is a really strange comfort level to the editing process. I guess it is sort of like putting on shoes that you have had for a long time. They fit, they work, they get you to where you are going and I know for an absolute fact that they will protect my feet.
There was an unexpected end to this warm feeling. At some point, I had to let the book fly out of the nest. The edits had to stop and then your work gets to be enjoyed by others. Will they like it? Will they hate it? In my case, I have generally gotten positive feedback with my book, Interviewing Immortality. [Hey, quick authors tip. Mention your book a lot. Repetition leads to sales.] Granted, this feedback was from my friends, but still they liked it. The real issue is getting others interested and then having them tell their friends.
Well, there you have it. I like to re-read my work and that’s probably the strangest answer for why a person wants to write. It makes me wonder if other writers are like that. I read an interview of an author when I was in high school and this author said he was in love with one of his characters. At the time, I thought this was really weird. As I was writing my three books, I thought a lot about this statement and it now makes more sense. I do have an attachment to the characters I create, but I would not use the word love. A better word is “understanding.”
Now, Interviewing Immortality is available for sale and the edits have completely stopped. When I was writing the sequel, I went back to the first book a few times. It was a good experience to get back to the original story, but it was not the same. I absolutely couldn’t make any changes and this was a letdown. I suppose in a way it was like meeting an old girlfriend after she was married and reliving old romantic times knowing that you can never kiss her again.
Strange way to end my first blog entry. With some luck, there will be many more blogs to follow. One last thing. BUY MY BOOK. Seriously, not having full time work is killing me. I need the money! Spending $2.99 will really help me out. Putting a review online will help me out even more.
You’re the best -Bill
September 10, 2017