Jack Pierce's Blog, page 2

#WritingTips – The Simplest Guide To Marketing Your Book

Book Marketing 101 – Get Ready to Pull Your Hair Out

This is what I look like when I do book marketing…

This post isn’t about growing tomatoes. If you want to know how to do that I’m sure there is someone out there who can tell you. What I’m talking about is planting seeds in your life. That’s the biggest part of book marketing. To be more specific in the marketing for your book. People always tell you the generic ways to do it. Here’s a list for posterity.

Use social media
Buy Ads on Amazon
Email the 2 million newsletter subscribers you already have

That is what I see in every article. These people try to tell these stories of how they got 10,000 preorders by doing those three things. Do you have 2 million fans already before your book is released? No? Of course, you don’t unless you are Jake Paul or PewDiePie. Even with them, I doubt they could sell 10k preorders due to conversion rates. If yes, then go promote my book Second Sight: The Decay!

Plant seeds everywhere you go. Have you ever heard that old phrase “If you build it, they will come.” That’s true, but after you build it, you have to plant the seeds for people to know it’s there. That’s why you have to do book marketing. Don’t bother buying an expensive guide on book marketing. I’ve done it already, and found them all lacking. Money in the toilet if you ask me!

Cold selling/calling is like feeding a toddler. It works 2% of the time the way you want it to. People have very small attention spans and don’t take well to random strangers shoving products into their faces. To spam your book everywhere on other sites is like screaming in a stadium. Don’t even bother.

What you have to do is go up to each customer. Smile, shake their hand and offer them a business card with a link to your book. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but make that personal connection with them. They are more likely to buy your book or other product than if you spammed it on Twitter or on a Facebook shill group.

Think outside the box. Twitter, Facebook, newsletters are all fine. You can’t just do the cookie cutter and expect a return. Everyone is reading the same articles you just did, and are doing the same thing you are right now. Go beyond the cookie cutter ideas and dig in deep. It’s going to get messy.

External websites are ALMOST useless. There is a thing in marketing called conversion rate. It means how many people saw your ad vs. how many of them clicked through and bought the item. I was talking to my wonderful friend and new business partner Rick Barr, our audiobook reader, and told him this simple concept.

“Putting your money into a platform that you aren’t selling on is like trying to sell a person a Whopper that is in line at Walmart. You may influence some to drive next door to Burger King, but it will be so few it will be a waste of your time and money. Advertise where you sell. Burger King has the giant sign outside of it’s franchises telling you the product on sale. That’s still on their property, not on Walmart’s property.

“If you throw $1,000 at Twitter (where the book isn’t sold), then turn around and toss $100 at Amazon where it is sold. You are doing it wrong. Nobody on Twitter is shopping for a book ON TWITTER! THEY SHOP FOR BOOKS ON AMAZON! You can put some money into Twitter and Facebook but don’t expect a good ROI like you would from Amazon or Bookbub. Bring your product to where people are looking to buy it. That’s why so many fast food chains have giant posters of their premium items on the menu!

Let’s do some hard numbers to illustrate this point. I am an Amazon Affiliate. I use affiliate marketing to help fund the marketing of this book. When I post a link to a product or even my book with an affiliate link I get around 50-60 clicks a day. Out of all those clicks I get about a 2% conversion rate. The amount I get depends on what people buy after they click the link.

Now, if you paid for Ads you are still going to be working with a 2% conversion rate. Except you won’t make any money back that you put in to get that 2%. Let’s be realistic you, for every $10 you throw at the ad; you will get maybe 2 dollars back. That’s 8 dollars in the hole per ad.

My point affiliate marketing and posting your product on external websites only is profitable if you do it FOR FREE. It’s passive income. It’s not something you should actively throw money at and expect an ROI. Focus your money and time on the place it is sold. Otherwise, you will go into the red immediately.

Here are a few out of the box ideas to help you not “scream in the stadium” before we continue.

Get copies of your book and “forget them” in doctor’s offices or any office you go to.
Print business cards and hand them out to people. Vistaprint gives you a huge stack for $10 or less at this point.
Print out flyers on your printer and put them on bulletin boards around town. It costs you pennies on the dollar!
Find places you can leave a stack of business cards. Libraries, doctor’s offices, any office in general. Most of them will happily do this if you are a patron! Especially if they are a small business!
Join writing or book club discord servers. Discord is your friend. It plugs you into almost any kind of community.
Help others with their projects. You don’t have to be their co-author, but make a connection with them and help them. They may be a bestseller because of you and then you can ask for help in return later. If not, at least you made a new friend.
Tell all your friends you know in real life. Contact old friends and tell them you have a new book out. They will most likely buy it then tell their friends how great it is! You never know, but a sale is a sale!
Talk to every book blogger about your book. Reach out to them no matter how big they are. You never know who will say yes. If you reach out you have only 3 things that will happen. They will say no, not answer, or say yes and you got more publicity and maybe a new friend!
Reach out to everyone regardless of size. A sale is a sale. I have emailed the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and got a reply from one of his assistants. A personalized reply to my inquiry. A multi-billion dollar company CEO had someone read my email and actually replied to me. You can do that if I can!

You shouldn’t see customers as numbers. See them as business associates or even partners. Your loyal fans will go out there and talk to their friends about you. Then the snowball effect happens, and keep in contact with them, and build a genuine friendship with those customers who love you. You don’t have to call them every single day but have their back. They had yours. If they eventually have a book that comes out then return the favor they did for yours. Pay it forward and back.

Always be nice to everyone you meet. Even if they hate you. This is one that many people have trouble with, and so do I. During my years as a YouTube creator I had a lot of people that hated the character I played. I was that stubborn asshole that would talk shit about your favorite e-celebs. I was essentially a wrestling heel character. It was a good time, but when someone was man enough to challenge me to a “debate” I faced them with my genuine self.

I am a very nice, polite, and calm man 99% of the time. I faced the “enemies” as Jack Pierce instead of my character. Guess what happened? They screamed like a banshee and called me a piece of shit. Then they calmed down, and we had a pleasant conversation. We became friends, and I still talk to them today.

I have quite a few friends and associates that started out as “enemies.” People that hated my guts until they were face to face with me, and realized I’m not a bad person. When you have that barrier between you two—aka twitter, text message, or facebook wall—it’s depersonalizing. You don’t see them as another person. You see them as text and a picture. That’s the same way it goes for shilling on twitter and not shaking hands in real life or calling them on Skype. Turn your enemies, strangers, and friends into business associates.

They will help you, and you help them. If they don’t help you, that’s fine still be their friend. People are busy and have other priorities. Never yell or get angry at them. That’s uprooting the seed you planted and will most likely ruin the ones you planted around it. People talk about you behind your back. So be kind to everyone even if they are a prick.

Spread seeds as far as you can. Not only should you be talking to other authors but talk to EVERYONE. Especially if someone reaches out to you, talk to them. Never get on a high horse and think “I’m too important, or they don’t benefit me enough.”

If you do that… #1 you are an asshole. #2 you just lost a potential lifelong friend and fan. Everyone has value no matter how horrible they act now.

Now that you are talking to everyone don’t bother them after that. Some people have a life. Most people do I hope. They have kids, family, school, and may even be working 80  hours a week. I’ve been there before. No kids, but I’ve worked 80 hours a week. Don’t be mad if they don’t answer for weeks or even months. You never know when that person will randomly think of you and call you. You never know who someone will be later in life. If you are nice to them and a genuinely good friend, it may pay off later. Grass takes time to grow, so does a business.

Almost all businesses operate at a loss for the first 4 years. This is due to the startup costs along with costs to advertise and get the ball rolling. You may not be successful now with your book, but in 4 years it may be a best seller. Expect nothing, hope for the best. Things take time. Gardens don’t grow overnight, but they won’t grow at all if you don’t plant the seeds and tend to them.

When I first wrote this book I kept saying “if it sells 10 copies I’ll be happy.” Well, we are far beyond that point. I set the bar low so I wouldn’t be disappointed later.

The biggest takeaway I can give you is be grateful for every fan you ever get. If someone loves your book or music be grateful. Show appreciation. Go out and shake their hands, sign their books, take pictures with them and smile. Your fans love you, and you should love them too. Ask anyone who has ever been a fan of mine. Anytime they reached out to me with an issue or just wanted to talk I put time aside to do it. I didn’t spend all night with them, but I gave them some time.

The post #WritingTips – The Simplest Guide To Marketing Your Book appeared first on Jack Pierce.

Simplest Guide To Marketing Your Book – Book Marketing 101

Book Marketing 101 – Get Ready to Pull Your Hair Out

This is what I look like when I do book marketing…

This post isn’t about growing tomatoes. If you want to know how to do that I’m sure there is someone out there who can tell you. What I’m talking about is planting seeds in your life. That’s the biggest part of book marketing. To be more specific in the marketing for your book. People always tell you the generic ways to do it. Here’s a list for posterity.

Use social media
Buy Ads on Amazon
Email the 2 million newsletter subscribers you already have

That is what I see in every article. These people try to tell these stories of how they got 10,000 preorders by doing those three things. Do you have 2 million fans already before your book is released? No? Of course, you don’t unless you are Jake Paul or PewDiePie. Even with them, I doubt they could sell 10k preorders due to conversion rates. If yes, then go promote my book Second Sight: The Decay!

Plant seeds everywhere you go. Have you ever heard that old phrase “If you build it, they will come.” That’s true, but after you build it, you have to plant the seeds for people to know it’s there. That’s why you have to do book marketing. Don’t bother buying an expensive guide on book marketing. I’ve done it already, and found them all lacking. Money in the toilet if you ask me!

Cold selling/calling is like feeding a toddler. It works 2% of the time the way you want it to. People have very small attention spans and don’t take well to random strangers shoving products into their faces. To spam your book everywhere on other sites is like screaming in a stadium. Don’t even bother.

What you have to do is go up to each customer. Smile, shake their hand and offer them a business card with a link to your book. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but make that personal connection with them. They are more likely to buy your book or other product than if you spammed it on Twitter or on a Facebook shill group.

Think outside the box. Twitter, Facebook, newsletters are all fine. You can’t just do the cookie cutter and expect a return. Everyone is reading the same articles you just did, and are doing the same thing you are right now. Go beyond the cookie cutter ideas and dig in deep. It’s going to get messy.

External websites are ALMOST useless. There is a thing in marketing called conversion rate. It means how many people saw your ad vs. how many of them clicked through and bought the item. I was talking to my wonderful friend and new business partner Rick Barr, our audiobook reader, and told him this simple concept.

 

“Putting your money into a platform that you aren’t selling on is like trying to sell a person a Whopper that is in line at Walmart. You may influence some to drive next door to Burger King, but it will be so few it will be a waste of your time and money. Advertise where you sell. Burger King has the giant sign outside of it’s franchises telling you the product on sale. That’s still on their property, not on Walmart’s property.”

 

If you throw $1,000 at Twitter (where the book isn’t sold), then turn around and toss $100 at Amazon where it is sold. You are doing it wrong. Nobody on Twitter is shopping for a book ON TWITTER! THEY SHOP FOR BOOKS ON AMAZON! You can put some money into Twitter and Facebook but don’t expect a good ROI like you would from Amazon or Bookbub. Bring your product to where people are looking to buy it. That’s why so many fast food chains have the giant posters of their premium items on the menu!

Let’s do some hard numbers to illustrate this point. I am an Amazon Affiliate. I use affiliate marketing to help fund the marketing of this book. When I post a link to a product or even my book with an affiliate link I get around 50-60 clicks a day. Out of all those clicks I get about a 2% conversion rate. The amount I get depends on what people buy after they click the link.

Now, if you paid for Ads you are still going to be working with a 2% conversion rate. Except you won’t make any money back that you put in to get that 2%. Let’s be realistic you, for every $10 you throw at the ad; you will get maybe 2 dollars back. That’s 8 dollars in the hole per ad.

My point affiliate marketing and posting your product on external websites only is profitable if you do it FOR FREE. It’s passive income. It’s not something you should actively throw money at and expect an ROI. Focus your money and time on the place it is sold. Otherwise, you will go into the red immediately.

Here are a few out of the box ideas to help you not “scream in the stadium” before we continue.

Get copies of your book and “forget them” in doctor’s offices or any office you go to.
Print business cards and hand them out to people. Vistaprint gives you a huge stack for $10 or less at this point.
Print out flyers on your printer and put them on bulletin boards around town. It costs you pennies on the dollar and is

freepromotion!
Find places you can leave a stack of business cards. Libraries, doctor’s offices, any office in general. Most of them will happily do this if you are a patron! Especially if they are a small business!
Join writing or book club discord servers. Discord is your friend. It plugs you into almost any kind of community and it’s a great place to

conferencecall with great people! Join mine now https://discord.gg/5EZysWG
Help others with their projects. You don’t have to be their co-author, but make a connection with them and help them. They may be a bestseller because of you and then you can ask for help in return later. If not, at least you made a new friend.
Tell all your friends you know in real life. Contact old friends and tell them you have a new book out. They will most likely buy it then tell their friends how great it is! You never know, but a sale is a sale!
Talk to every book blogger about your book. Reach out to them no matter how big they are. You never know who will say yes. If you reach out you have only 3 things that will happen. They will say no, not answer, or say yes and you got more publicity and maybe a new friend!
Reach out to everyone regardless of size. A sale is a sale. I have emailed the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and got a reply from one of his assistants. A personalized reply to my inquiry. A multi-billion dollar company CEO had someone read my email and actually replied to me. You can do that if I can!

You shouldn’t see customers as numbers. See them as business associates or even partners. Your loyal fans will go out there and talk to their friends about you. Then the snowball effect happens, and keep in contact with them, and build a genuine friendship with those customers who love you. You don’t have to call them every single day but have their back. They had yours. If they eventually have a book that comes out then return the favor they did for yours. Pay it forward and back.

Always be nice to everyone you meet. Even if they hate you. This is one that many people have trouble with, and so do I. During my years as a YouTube creator I had a lot of people that hated the character I played. I was that stubborn asshole that would talk shit about your favorite e-celebs. I was essentially a wrestling heel character. It was a good time, but when someone was man enough to challenge me to a “debate” I faced them with my genuine self.

I am a very nice, polite, and calm man 99% of the time. I faced the “enemies” as Jack Pierce instead of my character. Guess what happened? They screamed like a banshee and called me a piece of shit. Then they calmed down, and we had a pleasant conversation. We became friends, and I still talk to them today.

I have quite a few friends and associates that started out as “enemies.” People that hated my guts until they were face to face with me, and realized I’m not a bad person. When you have that barrier between you two—aka twitter, text message, or facebook wall—it’s depersonalizing. You don’t see them as another person. You see them as text and a picture. That’s the same way it goes for shilling on twitter and not shaking hands in real life or calling them on Skype. Turn your enemies, strangers, and friends into business associates.

They will help you, and you help them. If they don’t help you, that’s fine still be their friend. People are busy and have other priorities. Never yell or get angry at them. That’s uprooting the seed you planted and will most likely ruin the ones you planted around it. People talk about you behind your back. So be kind to everyone even if they are a prick.

Spread seeds as far as you can. Not only should you be talking to other authors but talk to EVERYONE. Especially if someone reaches out to you, talk to them. Never get on a high horse and think “I’m too important, or they don’t benefit me enough.”

If you do that… #1 you are an asshole. #2 you just lost a potential lifelong friend and fan. Everyone has value no matter how horrible they act now.

Now that you are talking to everyone don’t bother them after that. Some people have a life. Most people do I hope. They have kids, family, school, and may even be working 80  hours a week. I’ve been there before. No kids, but I’ve worked 80 hours a week. Don’t be mad if they don’t answer for weeks or even months. You never know when that person will randomly think of you and call you. You never know who someone will be later in life. If you are nice to them and a genuinely good friend, it may pay off later. Grass takes time to grow, so does a business.

Almost all businesses operate at a loss for the first 4 years. This is due to the startup costs along with costs to advertise and get the ball rolling. You may not be successful now with your book, but in 4 years it may be a best seller. Expect nothing, hope for the best. Things take time. Gardens don’t grow overnight, but they won’t grow at all if you don’t plant the seeds and tend to them.

When I first wrote this book I kept saying “if it sells 10 copies I’ll be happy.” Well, we are far beyond that point. I set the bar low so I wouldn’t be disappointed later.

The biggest takeaway I can give you is be grateful for every fan you ever get. If someone loves your book or music be grateful. Show appreciation. Go out and shake their hands, sign their books, take pictures with them and smile. Your fans love you, and you should love them too. Ask anyone who has ever been a fan of me. Anytime they reached out to me with an issue or just wanted to talk I put time aside to do it. I didn’t spend all night with them, but I gave them some time.

Click Here To Read My Next Blog Post!

Click Here to Buy My Novel!

The post Simplest Guide To Marketing Your Book – Book Marketing 101 appeared first on Jack Pierce.

#WritingTips – How to Finish Your Novel Featuring Bob Ross!

Keep mind before you read this. I love writing. I love reading. I love the process of making worlds and characters. It is my passion, and I love it more than anything.

BUT IT CAN BE A PAIN IN THE ASS!
LET’S GET STARTED!

I would love to tell you all that writing Second Sight: The Decay was easy. It wasn’t. In all reality out of all the projects I have ever done it was the biggest nightmare if anything. More nightmares than you’ll get reading it I’m sure. I’m going to explain how I did it and how you can save yourself the heartache of never finishing your first novel.  Toughen up and tough it out. It’s worth it in the end.

Writing a novel is like being in heaven then falling into hell. That’s one way to put it. You are so excited when you write it, losing yourself in that world, then it’s time to edit. This is where the fire starts roasting your ass. Editing is the devil’s work if you don’t have a budget for an editor. Even if you do have the money you still have to polish it to a sheen then send it to the editor to destroy your work. Suck it up buttercup get to work and make it as perfect as you can, but done is better than perfect.

How it all started. This is a bit depressing, but it’s necessary for all my fellow writers. I’m sure you are in my spot too. The reason I started writing this book was I was having severe anxiety attacks on a daily basis. Sometimes multiple times a day. I had to get out of the new situation I was in. It gave me an escape from the Anxiety Attacks along with other issues in my life.

I had just moved back to my hometown—like Rick does in Second Sight—To have all the stuff I ran away from come back to me. No, I didn’t see demons, and there were no ghostly images here. It has been tough though. My situation is not ideal, but no situation will ever be perfect. Don’t let your situation or home life stop you from chasing the dream.

I was on my own for years with a successful career. I had hope that I could get back into the tech field and get back to living “the life.” To be honest, most of the work I was doing after that point were garbage freelance jobs that didn’t pay or Youtube Streams that grew too physically painful to show up. I couldn’t stream in my office chair. My back would hurt after an hour because of 3 car wrecks. None were my fault by the way.

Now I sleep in a recliner every night, because of my back issues. Can’t fit a bed in this room and this is where I eat, sleep, and write. All in this one tiny room.

Depressing right? Keep reading I promise you it’s worth your time!

Why did I keep going? I had two options. Stay in this shitty situation or escape to that world I created. I chose the latter as it was better for me even though it’s a scary place.

Use writing or music or whatever you do as a hobby as your escape. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. If you are writing for money, forget it. If anything you’ll throw a lot of money in the air like I have on this book to try and make it stick. If you do it as a way to get away from your situation that’s fine. It’s normal.

Stephen King wrote books for the same reason I’m sure. Everyone has a reason for creating their worlds. Most people who write an entire novel to completion have some screws loose. It’s a lot of dedication, and almost all creative people have something wrong with them up top.

Writing a novel is much different than music or YouTube. On YouTube, you can take it whatever approach you want. There are no real rules or standards on it. You can turn on a 20 dollar shit webcam and get huge. Or not.

With writing a novel, I feel there is more dedication if you want to do it well. You aren’t just making a goofy youtube clip of you dancing to a song. You are essentially creating something brand new, from nothing, and having to make it all make sense. It’s very difficult and stressful. Any author that says writing isn’t a rewarding but also stressful endeavor is full of shit. Full stop. Don’t pass go every author has been stressed to high hell while writing a 300+ page novel. Don’t beat yourself up thinking others have it easier. THEY DON’T!

Writing a novel is like running a marathon. If you sprint to the end, you are going to burn out. You have to let it evolve into its own life.

Listen to what Stephen King says at 1:05

“Writing a novel is like building a little campfire on an empty, dark plane. And one by one these characters come out of the dark. Each one has a little pile of wood and they put it on the fire. And if you’re very lucky before the fire goes out it’s this big bonfire and all the character’s stand around and warm themselves” ~Stephen King

When Lotus and I started we had a very tiny scope. I had two short stories one called “Norcastle” and one called “The White Room.” Both were supposed to be creepypasta radio drama videos for YouTube. He came to me and said they had the potential for a novel. I already thought of making it into one, but I figured if we failed it could be a long series on YouTube. That was the hope I had for it. A novel is never dead. Set it aside if you can’t do it now and pick it up later.

I had people scheduled to be voice actors in the radio drama for White Room and Norcastle before I made into a novel. Now I have the best of both worlds because of my wonderful narrator we hired named Rick Barr. Follow him on twitter @ https://twitter.com/RicksVoice26. Because of him, we can have both the Radio Drama and a novel in one because of Audible. So, in the end, it all worked out perfectly!

Here’s an example for you. Stephen King’s first novel was Carrie. He had written some things for magazines before that, but not a published novel. King said something along the lines of:

“I had a few pages of Carrie—a book where I had to enter the world of a teenage girl that I’ve never been in—and I gave up. I threw it in the trash. Then my wife came into my study and found it in there and took it out of the garbage. She told me to set it aside and work on it later.”

Another example he did was on a newer novel called “Under The Dome” where he wrote parts of it when he was a young teacher. He said, “it was too big for me, and I was too young for it.” Then around 30 years later it came out.

I think the worst thing you can do in writing is throw something away. For example, in my new novel Second Sight: The Decay. The white room story was completely tossed out at first. That was going to be its own novel, but I couldn’t do anything with it. The white room was written when I was around 16 years old. I threw it away many times, but it kept coming back to me. Don’t throw it away, unless you have a great memory!

I looked it over and realized it was perfectly fine in Second Sight. It just needed a few tweaks, and it would fit perfectly fine. After a week of toiling with it, it came out perfect in the novel. Don’t throw anything away! Put it in a different word file or a new google doc file. It isn’t going to give your computer a virus, just put it aside!

Novel’s don’t need to be written RIGHT NOW! Take a breath. If you are burnt out on your novel, put it aside and work on something else. Or sit there and watch South Park. Actually, no South Park is trash now watch something else!

A novel is finished after the first draft. Yeah, I said it! You can scream all you want in the comments. A novel to me is done after the first draft is complete. Everything after is editing. Think of it that way. You just finished a huge 40-100k manuscript. That’s a novel! It may be a turd because it’s the first draft, but it’s YOUR TURD! Be happy at that giant log you pushed out! Embrace it! Okay, don’t hug turds. That’s not a good idea…

After the novel is done, start editing when you feel like it. I hear the mantra all the time of “Leave it for a month, or 3 months then edit.” Absolute nonsense. I think you should give yourself some time away to relax and let it all sink in that YOU WROTE A NOVEL, but go back and pick at it when you want. Don’t force yourself away from it. Think it over, write down ideas that can add to it then add those ideas as it goes on.

Your 2nd draft is like Bob Ross’ happy little trees. Have you ever watched Bob Ross paint? It always goes like this. He paints a beautiful background image. Then he screws it all up with HAPPY LITTLE TREES that cover that beautiful background up. To me, that ruins the painting. To you, that’s what you do during the second draft. Except skip the trees and paint something that adds to the book to make it BETTER. Don’t be Bob Ross! Don’t be afraid to add or take away things. This is your painting!

That Bob Ross analogy also applies to your first draft. The blank canvas is your word processor. When you finish writing the first draft that’s your Bob Ross background. Now, you can add your “happy little clouds” and “happy little trees” all you want. Then, you repeat this process into the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, whatever amount of drafts you do until you think it’s a complete picture.

Now after the editing is done we get to the fun part. MARKETING! 

Yes… marketing is where you will REEEEEEEEEEE the most. It is by far the biggest pain in the ass of a writer’s life. It is like doing a root canal, blindfolded, while you’re up to your neck in hot lava. IT SUCKS! What can I say about marketing? Remove all sharp objects from the room, throw out all your guns, and pray to god you survive this phase. That’s all I can tell you.

What’s the point of all this depressing shit? It’s to inspire you! To let you know that you are not alone in your bad situation. A bad situation should encourage you to write more to take you away from it all. Then when you pass it on to others, and it will help them too. It’s like an endless stream of helping people by helping yourself is how I see it.

The post #WritingTips – How to Finish Your Novel Featuring Bob Ross! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

How to Finish Your Novel Featuring Bob Ross!

Keep mind before you read this. I love writing. I love reading. I love the process of making worlds and characters. It is my passion, and I love it more than anything.

BUT IT CAN BE A PAIN IN THE ASS!
LET’S GET STARTED!

I would love to tell you all that writing Second Sight: The Decay was easy. It wasn’t. In all reality out of all the projects I have ever done it was the biggest nightmare if anything. More nightmares than you’ll get reading it I’m sure. I’m going to explain how I did it and how you can save yourself the heartache of never finishing your first novel.  Toughen up and tough it out. It’s worth it in the end.

Writing a novel is like being in heaven then falling into hell. That’s one way to put it. You are so excited when you write it, losing yourself in that world, then it’s time to edit. This is where the fire starts roasting your ass. Editing is the devil’s work if you don’t have a budget for an editor. Even if you do have the money you still have to polish it to a sheen then send it to the editor to destroy your work. Suck it up buttercup get to work and make it as perfect as you can, but done is better than perfect.

How it all started. This is a bit depressing, but it’s necessary for all my fellow writers. I’m sure you are in my spot too. The reason I started writing this book was I was having severe anxiety attacks on a daily basis. Sometimes multiple times a day. I had to get out of the new situation I was in. It gave me an escape from the Anxiety Attacks along with other issues in my life.

I had just moved back to my hometown—like Rick does in Second Sight—To have all the stuff I ran away from come back to me. No, I didn’t see demons, and there were no ghostly images here. It has been tough though. My situation is not ideal, but no situation will ever be perfect. Don’t let your situation or home life stop you from chasing the dream.

I was on my own for years with a successful career. I had hope that I could get back into the tech field and get back to living “the life.” To be honest, most of the work I was doing after that point were garbage freelance jobs that didn’t pay or Youtube Streams that grew too physically painful to show up. I couldn’t stream in my office chair. My back would hurt after an hour because of 3 car wrecks. None were my fault by the way.

Now I sleep in a recliner every night, because of my back issues. Can’t fit a bed in this room and this is where I eat, sleep, and write. All in this one tiny room.

Depressing right? Keep reading I promise you it’s worth your time!

Why did I keep going? I had two options. Stay in this shitty situation or escape to that world I created. I chose the latter as it was better for me even though it’s a scary place.

Use writing or music or whatever you do as a hobby as your escape. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. If you are writing for money, forget it. If anything you’ll throw a lot of money in the air like I have on this book to try and make it stick. If you do it as a way to get away from your situation that’s fine. It’s normal.

Stephen King wrote books for the same reason I’m sure. Everyone has a reason for creating their worlds. Most people who write an entire novel to completion have some screws loose. It’s a lot of dedication, and almost all creative people have something wrong with them up top.

Writing a novel is much different than music or YouTube. On YouTube, you can take it whatever approach you want. There are no real rules or standards on it. You can turn on a 20 dollar shit webcam and get huge. Or not.

With writing a novel, I feel there is more dedication if you want to do it well. You aren’t just making a goofy youtube clip of you dancing to a song. You are essentially creating something brand new, from nothing, and having to make it all make sense. It’s very difficult and stressful. Any author that says writing isn’t a rewarding but also stressful endeavor is full of shit. Full stop. Don’t pass go every author has been stressed to high hell while writing a 300+ page novel. Don’t beat yourself up thinking others have it easier. THEY DON’T!

Writing a novel is like running a marathon. If you sprint to the end, you are going to burn out. You have to let it evolve into its own life.

Listen to what Stephen King says at 1:05

“Writing a novel is like building a little campfire on an empty, dark plane. And one by one these characters come out of the dark. Each one has a little pile of wood and they put it on the fire. And if you’re very lucky before the fire goes out it’s this big bonfire and all the character’s stand around and warm themselves” ~Stephen King

When Lotus and I started we had a very tiny scope. I had two short stories one called “Norcastle” and one called “The White Room.” Both were supposed to be creepypasta radio drama videos for YouTube. He came to me and said they had the potential for a novel. I already thought of making it into one, but I figured if we failed it could be a long series on YouTube. That was the hope I had for it. A novel is never dead. Set it aside if you can’t do it now and pick it up later.

I had people scheduled to be voice actors in the radio drama for White Room and Norcastle before I made into a novel. Now I have the best of both worlds because of my wonderful narrator we hired named Rick Barr. Follow him on twitter @ https://twitter.com/RicksVoice26. Because of him, we can have both the Radio Drama and a novel in one because of Audible. So, in the end, it all worked out perfectly!

Here’s an example for you. Stephen King’s first novel was Carrie. He had written some things for magazines before that, but not a published novel. King said something along the lines of:

“I had a few pages of Carrie—a book where I had to enter the world of a teenage girl that I’ve never been in—and I gave up. I threw it in the trash. Then my wife came into my study and found it in there and took it out of the garbage. She told me to set it aside and work on it later.”

Another example he did was on a newer novel called “Under The Dome” where he wrote parts of it when he was a young teacher. He said, “it was too big for me, and I was too young for it.” Then around 30 years later it came out.

I think the worst thing you can do in writing is throw something away. For example, in my new novel Second Sight: The Decay. The white room story was completely tossed out at first. That was going to be its own novel, but I couldn’t do anything with it. The white room was written when I was around 16 years old. I threw it away many times, but it kept coming back to me. Don’t throw it away, unless you have a great memory!

I looked it over and realized it was perfectly fine in Second Sight. It just needed a few tweaks, and it would fit perfectly fine. After a week of toiling with it, it came out perfect in the novel. Don’t throw anything away! Put it in a different word file or a new google doc file. It isn’t going to give your computer a virus, just put it aside!

Novel’s don’t need to be written RIGHT NOW! Take a breath. If you are burnt out on your novel, put it aside and work on something else. Or sit there and watch South Park. Actually, no South Park is trash now watch something else!

A novel is finished after the first draft. Yeah, I said it! You can scream all you want in the comments. A novel to me is done after the first draft is complete. Everything after is editing. Think of it that way. You just finished a huge 40-100k manuscript. That’s a novel! It may be a turd because it’s the first draft, but it’s YOUR TURD! Be happy at that giant log you pushed out! Embrace it! Okay, don’t hug turds. That’s not a good idea…

After the novel is done, start editing when you feel like it. I hear the mantra all the time of “Leave it for a month, or 3 months then edit.” Absolute nonsense. I think you should give yourself some time away to relax and let it all sink in that YOU WROTE A NOVEL, but go back and pick at it when you want. Don’t force yourself away from it. Think it over, write down ideas that can add to it then add those ideas as it goes on.

Your 2nd draft is like Bob Ross’ happy little trees. Have you ever watched Bob Ross paint? It always goes like this. He paints a beautiful background image. Then he screws it all up with HAPPY LITTLE TREES that cover that beautiful background up. To me, that ruins the painting. To you, that’s what you do during the second draft. Except skip the trees and paint something that adds to the book to make it BETTER. Don’t be Bob Ross! Don’t be afraid to add or take away things. This is your painting!

That Bob Ross analogy also applies to your first draft. The blank canvas is your word processor. When you finish writing the first draft that’s your Bob Ross background. Now, you can add your “happy little clouds” and “happy little trees” all you want. Then, you repeat this process into the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, whatever amount of drafts you do until you think it’s a complete picture.

Now after the editing is done we get to the fun part. MARKETING! 

Yes… marketing is where you will REEEEEEEEEEE the most. It is by far the biggest pain in the ass of a writer’s life. It is like doing a root canal, blindfolded, while you’re up to your neck in hot lava. IT SUCKS! What can I say about marketing? Remove all sharp objects from the room, throw out all your guns, and pray to god you survive this phase. That’s all I can tell you.

What’s the point of all this depressing shit? It’s to inspire you! To let you know that you are not alone in your bad situation. A bad situation should encourage you to write more to take you away from it all. Then when you pass it on to others, and it will help them too. It’s like an endless stream of helping people by helping yourself is how I see it.

The post How to Finish Your Novel Featuring Bob Ross! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

#WritingTips – Write For Yourself, Not Other People!

If you have ever talked to me on social media, you know I write novels to you. I am not a short and to the point type. I don’t type novels to get your attention. That’s just how I talk!

I am a very open person when it comes to texting/direct messages. When I am in person or on the phone, I’m much less talkative. I am actually very quiet and reserved. Even shy to an extent when I’m not putting on a show for someone.

I am a writer at heart. I talk a lot in text, and I’m always writing something. When I was a kid, I wrote horror stories in high school. I sat there in detention—yes I was a problem child—and have a plain paper notebook and write for 8 hours. I would write like 20-30 pages. Some of the notebooks would be full by the end of the day!

I have that natural ability to write from scratch, and it comes naturally. I don’t think about what I’m writing, that can be fixed in post. Grammarly is my best friend at this point! It was worth the $30 I spent on it during the final draft stage. See I’m rambling already. Let’s get substantive for once.

Write for yourself, not other people.

What I mean by this is if your own story doesn’t immerse you, you’re doing it wrong. I know I griped about “writing advice” channels, but this ain’t youtube. When I wrote Second Sight: The Decay I was completely in that world. You can ask my co-author Lotus Token. I would reference characters from the book outside of the writing. I would say “I feel like Rick right now.” That’s how I knew I was doing something right!

I have so many scrapped novels at this point that I have far more than I’ll ever finish. The reason for that is there are some books I don’t get “that connection” with. I am hard to impress or become immersed in a book. Movies, yes. Books, not as much. If I wrote a book just because I thought it would sell it would be garbage. Why? Because I wouldn’t bother finishing it and it would never be published. I have to feel that connection tot he characters.

To me, Starr, Rick, Gault, Mori, Jim, Chief Lewis, and all the others are “real” to me. They are based on real people. They are fictional sure. I know there is a real-life counterpart to them that I hope one day I can meet. Except for Gault. The idea of meeting a 7-foot tall black man with a giant hammer isn’t ideal for me!

That’s why I wrote this book. It was something to help me escape a very dark period in my life that I’m still in. I had just moved back to my hometown, I have no money, and I still can’t find a job after making 56k a year for easy work. It was a moment that hurt my ego for sure. So due to the failing of my YouTube show, along with constant drama, I retreated into my default thing. Writing and playing guitar. I can do both of those all day. They both give me that escape from the world feeling. When I pick up an electric guitar and improvise, it takes me to another place away from it all. Same with writing.

When you are writing to sell copies, I doubt you get that. It’ll be a drag because you are more worried about marketability than actually losing yourself in it. Remeber this as well. You could write a 1:1 fan fiction of Harry Potter and go the 50 Shades of Grey route and sell a big fat goose egg.

Now, what did that accomplish? Nothing. You got all the frustration of doing marketing, editing, paying all that money out and got a fat goose egg for a piece of shit. Good job! You have become the Nickelback of the writing world except you’re broke now.

I kid, I’m not trying to be a dick but think about that thought process. Writing for other people instead of what you’d like to read is insanity. A novel is 50k words. That’s 250 words per page. 50,000/250 is 200 pages! You wrote 200 pages that took months to churn out shit you didn’t even like!

You would have done yourself better by taking a whole bottle of ex-lax and sitting on the toilet for three days. At least you would weigh less, and pushed out more shit than you did spending four months on a derivative turd you hate!

Write what you want to read. Same goes for YouTube. Make what you want to make. Make stuff that doesn’t exist that you want to see. A perfect example of this was a show I did called Psycho Circus. It was initially called “Legendary Lolcows.” It was a direct ripoff of Mister Metokur’s Internet Insanity Series. I admit that. I never denied that fact.

People said it was a fresh take though due to our delivery differences and how I’m more of a direct prick. At least my character was one, in real life I’m very reserved and friendly. However, I still love those episodes. I think they are great content that I enjoy watching. So it wasn’t a total loss.

Doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?! You scream at your screen while reading this.

No. It doesn’t. I made those episodes for me because another guy inspired me. I didn’t fanfiction Metokur’s show. I did a show in a similar vein that was inspired. I’m sure if you ever watched any Anti-SJW show that creator was inspired by another person. Mine was originally Sargon of Akkad.

Inspiration is fine. Direct copies to sell copies and write something you don’t like is not okay. Write what you want to read. Write what makes you happy and what lets you escape from your everyday problems. That’s what it’s for. That’s why people read or watch movies. If you didn’t escape into the world, you wrote then how do you expect anyone else to?

The post #WritingTips – Write For Yourself, Not Other People! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

Write For Yourself, Not Other People!

If you have ever talked to me on social media, you know I write novels to you. I am not a short and to the point type. I don’t type novels to get your attention. That’s just how I talk!

I am a very open person when it comes to texting/direct messages. When I am in person or on the phone, I’m much less talkative. I am actually very quiet and reserved. Even shy to an extent when I’m not putting on a show for someone.

I am a writer at heart. I talk a lot in text, and I’m always writing something. When I was a kid, I wrote horror stories in high school. I sat there in detention—yes I was a problem child—and have a plain paper notebook and write for 8 hours. I would write like 20-30 pages. Some of the notebooks would be full by the end of the day!

I have that natural ability to write from scratch, and it comes naturally. I don’t think about what I’m writing, that can be fixed in post. Grammarly is my best friend at this point! It was worth the $30 I spent on it during the final draft stage. See I’m rambling already. Let’s get substantive for once.

Write for yourself, not other people.

What I mean by this is if your own story doesn’t immerse you, you’re doing it wrong. I know I griped about “writing advice” channels, but this ain’t youtube. When I wrote Second Sight: The Decay I was completely in that world. You can ask my co-author Lotus Token. I would reference characters from the book outside of the writing. I would say “I feel like Rick right now.” That’s how I knew I was doing something right!

I have so many scrapped novels at this point that I have far more than I’ll ever finish. The reason for that is there are some books I don’t get “that connection” with. I am hard to impress or become immersed in a book. Movies, yes. Books, not as much. If I wrote a book just because I thought it would sell it would be garbage. Why? Because I wouldn’t bother finishing it and it would never be published. I have to feel that connection tot he characters.

To me, Starr, Rick, Gault, Mori, Jim, Chief Lewis, and all the others are “real” to me. They are based on real people. They are fictional sure. I know there is a real-life counterpart to them that I hope one day I can meet. Except for Gault. The idea of meeting a 7-foot tall black man with a giant hammer isn’t ideal for me!

That’s why I wrote this book. It was something to help me escape a very dark period in my life that I’m still in. I had just moved back to my hometown, I have no money, and I still can’t find a job after making 56k a year for easy work. It was a moment that hurt my ego for sure. So due to the failing of my YouTube show, along with constant drama, I retreated into my default thing. Writing and playing guitar. I can do both of those all day. They both give me that escape from the world feeling. When I pick up an electric guitar and improvise, it takes me to another place away from it all. Same with writing.

When you are writing to sell copies, I doubt you get that. It’ll be a drag because you are more worried about marketability than actually losing yourself in it. Remeber this as well. You could write a 1:1 fan fiction of Harry Potter and go the 50 Shades of Grey route and sell a big fat goose egg.

Now, what did that accomplish? Nothing. You got all the frustration of doing marketing, editing, paying all that money out and got a fat goose egg for a piece of shit. Good job! You have become the Nickelback of the writing world except you’re broke now.

I kid, I’m not trying to be a dick but think about that thought process. Writing for other people instead of what you’d like to read is insanity. A novel is 50k words. That’s 250 words per page. 50,000/250 is 200 pages! You wrote 200 pages that took months to churn out shit you didn’t even like!

You would have done yourself better by taking a whole bottle of ex-lax and sitting on the toilet for three days. At least you would weigh less, and pushed out more shit than you did spending four months on a derivative turd you hate!

Write what you want to read. Same goes for YouTube. Make what you want to make. Make stuff that doesn’t exist that you want to see. A perfect example of this was a show I did called Psycho Circus. It was initially called “Legendary Lolcows.” It was a direct ripoff of Mister Metokur’s Internet Insanity Series. I admit that. I never denied that fact.

People said it was a fresh take though due to our delivery differences and how I’m more of a direct prick. At least my character was one, in real life I’m very reserved and friendly. However, I still love those episodes. I think they are great content that I enjoy watching. So it wasn’t a total loss.

Doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?! You scream at your screen while reading this.

No. It doesn’t. I made those episodes for me because another guy inspired me. I didn’t fanfiction Metokur’s show. I did a show in a similar vein that was inspired. I’m sure if you ever watched any Anti-SJW show that creator was inspired by another person. Mine was originally Sargon of Akkad.

Inspiration is fine. Direct copies to sell copies and write something you don’t like is not okay. Write what you want to read. Write what makes you happy and what lets you escape from your everyday problems. That’s what it’s for. That’s why people read or watch movies. If you didn’t escape into the world, you wrote then how do you expect anyone else to?

The post Write For Yourself, Not Other People! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

#WritersLife – Listening To Music Helps You Write Better!

When I wrote Second Sight: The Decay I listened to music the entire time. It depended on the scene but my writing is very much guided by music. As you will see in the book there is a lot of references to music and sound. That’s for good reason. I’ve been a musician my entire life and everyone in my family plays or sings. They have played music for generations.

For some examples. When I wrote a scene in the book involving a ship I was listening to Cross by Kip Winger. It’s a great song and the album is called “Songs from The Ocean Floor”. It’s a great album that has a very progressive feel. Absolutely recommended if you are into soft rock with a progressive edge.

So, when I’m writing a scene I don’t plan it out. I let the music I’m listening to dictate where it goes. I know what kind of scene it will be. I know from the get-go “this is going to be a scary scene” so I’ll put on some scary music. Or if I am writing a placid, beautiful love scene—yes there are a few in Second Sight—I’ll put on Ghost by Devin Townsend Project. That album is so underrated. If you don’t own it you need to right now. Even if you aren’t a writer it’s the most beautiful, seamless, immersive albums of all time. It’s gorgeous.

When I wrote the action scenes I’d toss on something super aggressive. My go-to for those scenes was always Immortal’s At The Heart of Winter Album.

My point is I always have music on all the time. Sometimes it’ll be classical music like Albinoni or Vivaldi’s slower pieces. Sometimes it’s something nuts like Black Metal. Other times I’ll sit back and enjoy a country song or two. I listen to it all. Music is a big determiner of how a scene comes out. I know it’s still me writing it but if I’m listening to Immortal when I’m writing a love scene it’ll be pretty weird.

The one thing I hate most in life is silence. I don’t like a lot of chaos, but I need sound. Even when I’m writing with the music off I have a fan on in the background. It’s just how I am. I always have to have some kind of sound around me or I’ll go nuts. Which was a big reason I decided to make Second Sight available on Audible. I love audiobooks more than Kindle and physical books.

There’s something engrossing about hearing someone read a book to you. Like when you were a child, and you wanted your parents to tell you a story at night. Even as an adult at 29 years old; I still love that feeling from Audiobooks.

When I first heard our audiobook reader audition I was blown away. He had that feeling I wanted. He gave me that feeling like I was there. I know there are others who may be able to have a better voice or more feeling but this guy captured that character. That’s what gets to me about music or audiobooks. The lyrics/words can be incredible, but if you can pair that with the perfect singer/narrator it makes it so much better.

My question for you…

What do you think about audiobooks? What music do you love that helps you escape everyday life?

The post #WritersLife – Listening To Music Helps You Write Better! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

Music & Writing Novels Are Like Drugs

When I wrote Second Sight: The Decay I listened to music the entire time. It depended on the scene but my writing is very much guided by music. As you will see in the book there is a lot of references to music and sound. That’s for good reason. I’ve been a musician my entire life and everyone in my family plays or sings. They have played music for generations.

For some examples. When I wrote a scene in the book involving a ship I was listening to Cross by Kip Winger. It’s a great song and the album is called “Songs from The Ocean Floor”. It’s a great album that has a very progressive feel. Absolutely recommended if you are into soft rock with a progressive edge.

So, when I’m writing a scene I don’t plan it out. I let the music I’m listening to dictate where it goes. I know what kind of scene it will be. I know from the get-go “this is going to be a scary scene” so I’ll put on some scary music. Or if I am writing a placid, beautiful love scene—yes there are a few in Second Sight—I’ll put on Ghost by Devin Townsend Project. That album is so underrated. If you don’t own it you need to right now. Even if you aren’t a writer it’s the most beautiful, seamless, immersive albums of all time. It’s gorgeous.

When I wrote the action scenes I’d toss on something super aggressive. My go-to for those scenes was always Immortal’s At The Heart of Winter Album.

My point is I always have music on all the time. Sometimes it’ll be classical music like Albinoni or Vivaldi’s slower pieces. Sometimes it’s something nuts like Black Metal. Other times I’ll sit back and enjoy a country song or two. I listen to it all. Music is a big determiner of how a scene comes out. I know it’s still me writing it but if I’m listening to Immortal when I’m writing a love scene it’ll be pretty weird.

The one thing I hate most in life is silence. I don’t like a lot of chaos, but I need sound. Even when I’m writing with the music off I have a fan on in the background. It’s just how I am. I always have to have some kind of sound around me or I’ll go nuts. Which was a big reason I decided to make Second Sight available on Audible. I love audiobooks more than Kindle and physical books.

There’s something engrossing about hearing someone read a book to you. Like when you were a child, and you wanted your parents to tell you a story at night. Even as an adult at 29 years old; I still love that feeling from Audiobooks.

When I first heard our audiobook reader audition I was blown away. He had that feeling I wanted. He gave me that feeling like I was there. I know there are others who may be able to have a better voice or more feeling but this guy captured that character. That’s what gets to me about music or audiobooks. The lyrics/words can be incredible, but if you can pair that with the perfect singer/narrator it makes it so much better.

My question for you…

What do you think about audiobooks? What music do you love that helps you escape everyday life?

The post Music & Writing Novels Are Like Drugs appeared first on Jack Pierce.

#WritersLife- YouTube “Writing Advice” Channels Are Morons!

I am not saying all “Writing Channels” or “Writing Advice” channels are crap. But 99% of them are. I’m sure there are plenty out there that have good advice for you.

However, during the beginning of writing Second Sight: The Decay I ran into a lot of bad advice. I am going to debunk some of that here. I won’t name anyone. I don’t want the drama. This is a cautionary tale about when I wrote this book.

Let’s get started…

I have been writing stories for over 20 years now. I am an avid reader. I love horror, mystery, and anything dark. I have been a horror movie freak for the longest time. Maybe one day I’ll make a blog about horror movies, but this isn’t it.

When I started writing Second Sight: The Decay as an actual commercial product I went to YouTube for advice. I wanted to hear from published authors what the best practices were. I figured if they were published—even if it’s self-published—they would have some insight.

A lot of these channels had THOUSANDS of subs. Far beyond the sub count that I had when I did youtube for ten years. A big reason for that is most of them were young, attractive women. Call it sexist all you want; they were the mass majority of “Advice Channels.” They had a nice personality, and some tried to be “funny” so that could account for some of it. I’m just giving you the demographics of who showed up first in the Youtube search results.

I’m going to toss out a theory about these channels. It’s not about them personally. I’m sure they are wonderful people. I feel like they give advice an English teacher would. English teachers and professors give you the “proper way to write” to pass their class. I’m not saying poor grammar is a good thing. I’m saying that being strict like you are in English class papers DOES NOT translate well into novels.

For example, I heard a lot of people have lists of words you MUST DELETE from your novel. This was the most common piece of advice. Words like JUST, FEEL, REALIZE. Now, what’s the problem here?

We don’t all speak like English teachers. We don’t all write like them either. We shouldn’t if you ask me. To me, if you do that you sound robotic and clunky. By setting up rules like that where you are prohibited from using certain words it kills your writing voice.

I remember going through an early draft—one before the first draft was even completed—and changing it to follow those rules. Low and behold it turned out to look and read like garbage. It was godawful, and I wondered “What am I doing wrong? It sounded fine before.”

Then I had “that moment” when I was at a thrift shop. It’s a thrift store that sells books for a nickel. It’s a nonprofit, and it’s sad to see books being sold for a shiny new nickel but still. I walked in and grabbed a bunch of novels from my genre and took them home as a guide. Not to teach me how to write, but to give me that idea of how super successful authors wrote.

I picked up a few Tom Clancy books, along with Silence of the Lambs. As soon as I opened to page one from one of the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy. He broke EVERY SINGLE RULE the “Advice Channels” gave. Every. Single. Rule. Was repeatedly broken in many different ways! It was as if Tom Clancy listened to some “genius” in his past saying you can’t use those words, so he said: “oh yeah watch me!”

Tom Clancy used the word “JUST” in the second paragraph! He also didn’t always say “SAID” or “ASKED” he had all sorts of dialogue tags. TOM CLANCY BROKE THOSE RULES. Then it dawned on me. It’s not about following rules that makes you successful. It’s about telling a story people enjoy, remember, and think about after it’s over. At least that’s how I see it.

To me a book could be perfectly written and following Hemmingway’s style to a T. Hemmingway is the way English teachers make you write 9 times out of 10. Well not everyone wants to read Hemmingway. He was great, sure. Was he the only way? No.

To me, nobody talks about Hemmingway’s language or how many commas he used outside of fart huffing academics who try to be sophisticated. They remembered him for his STORIES. HIS STORY WAS THE #1 THING PEOPLE TALK ABOUT.

To me, I don’t care if Michael Chrichton screwed up a comma in Jurassic Park! I remember the amazing scenes and story he wrote in the book. Same with Thomas Harris with the Hannibal Lecter novels. I don’t care about format, punctuation, or if he used an adverb. I’m not an English professor, and most likely 99.9% of your readers aren’t either.

When have you seen a negative Amazon review that said “Too many adverbs” or “HE SAID THE WORD JUST! 1 STAR!”

If you have… comment below and give me a link so I can laugh at it in a later post!

Yes, you should use proper grammar. Yes, you need to know the basics, so you don’t look like it was translated by a Nigerian you hired on Fiverr to ghostwrite the book. But to me, it’s more about how well does it flow when you read it out loud. How does the plot move you forward? Does it make you think? Does it make you feel a strong connection? Do you wonder about possibilities that aren’t explicitly explained? Do you remember the story? Did you ever put it down because you were bored? That is what I am concerned with far more than being, for lack of a phrase, academically correct.

Also.. one small note. When one of these “Youtube Novelists” dictates to you how to write your story. Do two things. Look up their Amazon Reviews or if they even have a published book at all! One, in particular, had 25 novels written. None of them published and she gave “advice” to thousands. Bad advice at that. Point and laugh at them. Don’t listen to any of that. Write the story that you want to read. Write one that YOU become lost in that makes you escape the real world. That’s why people read or watch movies!

A funny thing I noticed with “advice channels” is even their fans think their work is awful! Why? Because they wrote it like an English term paper not like an entertainment medium.

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The post #WritersLife- YouTube “Writing Advice” Channels Are Morons! appeared first on Jack Pierce.

#WritingCommunity – YouTube “Writing Advice” Channels Are Morons!

Before I start this controversial post let me say this. I am not saying all “Writing Channels” or “Writing Advice” channels are crap. But 99% of them are. I’m sure there are plenty out there that have good advice for you.

However, during the beginning of writing Second Sight: The Decay I ran into a lot of bad advice. I am going to debunk some of that here. I won’t name anyone. I don’t want the drama. This is a cautionary tale about when I wrote this book.

Let’s get started…

I have been writing stories for over 20 years now. I am an avid reader. I love horror, mystery, and anything dark. I have been a horror movie freak for the longest time. Maybe one day I’ll make a blog about horror movies, but this isn’t it.

When I started writing Second Sight: The Decay as an actual commercial product I went to YouTube for advice. I wanted to hear from published authors what the best practices were. I figured if they were published—even if it’s self-published—they would have some insight.

A lot of these channels had THOUSANDS of subs. Far beyond the sub count that I had when I did youtube for ten years. A big reason for that is most of them were young, attractive women. Call it sexist all you want; they were the mass majority of “Advice Channels.” They had a nice personality, and some tried to be “funny” so that could account for some of it. I’m just giving you the demographics of who showed up first in the Youtube search results.

I’m going to toss out a theory about these channels. It’s not about them personally. I’m sure they are wonderful people. I feel like they give advice an English teacher would. English teachers and professors give you the “proper way to write” to pass their class. I’m not saying poor grammar is a good thing. I’m saying that being strict like you are in English class papers DOES NOT translate well into novels.

For example, I heard a lot of people have lists of words you MUST DELETE from your novel. This was the most common piece of advice. Words like JUST, FEEL, REALIZE. Now, what’s the problem here?

We don’t all speak like English teachers. We don’t all write like them either. We shouldn’t if you ask me. To me, if you do that you sound robotic and clunky. By setting up rules like that where you are prohibited from using certain words it kills your writing voice.

I remember going through an early draft—one before the first draft was even completed—and changing it to follow those rules. Low and behold it turned out to look and read like garbage. It was godawful, and I wondered “What am I doing wrong? It sounded fine before.”

Then I had “that moment” when I was at a thrift shop. It’s a thrift store that sells books for a nickel. It’s a nonprofit, and it’s sad to see books being sold for a shiny new nickel but still. I walked in and grabbed a bunch of novels from my genre and took them home as a guide. Not to teach me how to write, but to give me that idea of how super successful authors wrote.

I picked up a few Tom Clancy books, along with Silence of the Lambs. As soon as I opened to page one from one of the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy. He broke EVERY SINGLE RULE the “Advice Channels” gave. Every. Single. Rule. Was repeatedly broken in many different ways! It was as if Tom Clancy listened to some “genius” in his past saying you can’t use those words, so he said: “oh yeah watch me!”

Tom Clancy used the word “JUST” in the second paragraph! He also didn’t always say “SAID” or “ASKED” he had all sorts of dialogue tags. TOM CLANCY BROKE THOSE RULES. Then it dawned on me. It’s not about following rules that makes you successful. It’s about telling a story people enjoy, remember, and think about after it’s over. At least that’s how I see it.

To me a book could be perfectly written and following Hemmingway’s style to a T. Hemmingway is the way English teachers make you write 9 times out of 10. Well not everyone wants to read Hemmingway. He was great, sure. Was he the only way? No.

To me, nobody talks about Hemmingway’s language or how many commas he used outside of fart huffing academics who try to be sophisticated. They remembered him for his STORIES. HIS STORY WAS THE #1 THING PEOPLE TALK ABOUT.

To me, I don’t care if Michael Chrichton screwed up a comma in Jurassic Park! I remember the amazing scenes and story he wrote in the book. Same with Thomas Harris with the Hannibal Lecter novels. I don’t care about format, punctuation, or if he used an adverb. I’m not an English professor, and most likely 99.9% of your readers aren’t either.

When have you seen a negative Amazon review that said “Too many adverbs” or “HE SAID THE WORD JUST! 1 STAR!”

If you have… comment below and give me a link so I can laugh at it in a later post!

Yes, you should use proper grammar. Yes, you need to know the basics, so you don’t look like it was translated by a Nigerian you hired on Fiverr to ghostwrite the book. But to me, it’s more about how well does it flow when you read it out loud. How does the plot move you forward? Does it make you think? Does it make you feel a strong connection? Do you wonder about possibilities that aren’t explicitly explained? Do you remember the story? Did you ever put it down because you were bored? That is what I am concerned with far more than being, for lack of a phrase, academically correct.

Also.. one small note. When one of these “Youtube Novelists” dictates to you how to write your story. Do two things. Look up their Amazon Reviews or if they even have a published book at all! One, in particular, had 25 novels written. None of them published and she gave “advice” to thousands. Bad advice at that. Point and laugh at them. Don’t listen to any of that. Write the story that you want to read. Write one that YOU become lost in that makes you escape the real world. That’s why people read or watch movies!

A funny thing I noticed with “advice channels” is even their fans think their work is awful! Why? Because they wrote it like an English term paper not like an entertainment medium.

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The post #WritingCommunity – YouTube “Writing Advice” Channels Are Morons! appeared first on Jack Pierce.