K.S. Nikakis's Blog, page 12

Responding to feedback

Liking or not liking a story can be subjective, but all feedback should be listened to carefully. I was recently lucky enough to get a reader report on one of my unpublished manuscripts. It was generally favorable but I really appreciated the criticisms. I hadn't looked at the manuscript for a while so it has been great to revisit it with the reader comments in mind. I am now following up some of the advice and I think the story is benefitting.

How much you as a writer change a work is up to you, but any reader feedback should be thought about carefully, even if you dismiss it in the end. As I said, this can be subjective and the next reader might have a different view, but I want to write the best story I can.

The author platform

This term is coming up time and time again. It basically means your brand, which in turn relates to how well known you are. The old days of writing in a garret and someone else marketing you are long gone, but I think a lot of us would like to still be left alone to write.

I really enjoy engaging with people who have read my books but it goes far beyond that. How much should you engage; through which medium and how frequently were hot topics at GenreCon. Lots of discussion about various types of social media too. It certainly is a rapidly changing landscape.

GenreCon and agents

A great weekend up at Sydney at the inaugural GenreCon. Lots of interesting panels, one run by Ginger Clark an American agent on choosing an agent. One person voiced my thoughts: how do actually get an agent? This person has published a number of books.

I had an agent briefly after the Kira Chronicles were published, but the relationship didn't continue when my publisher didn't take my next novel (Hunter). The jury seems to be out on whether you need an agent in Australia, but there appears to be a lot more agreement about needing a US one. Whether you need one if you publish online was another discussion point. Ginger described her role as a project manager for the authors she represents who are doing just that.

Personally I would love to have an agent and I continue to send our queries. I think that a good agent is of enormous benefit, but if they can't be had, it's best to press on regardless.

Conferences

I'm off to GenreCon on Friday in Sydney. Working full time gives me scarce time to write but the money to attend such things. If you want to write, are writing, or are a fan of a particular genre, Google conferences near you. Some have quite cheap rates for students and those on benefits and/or have online material you can access.

Why bother? I learn heaps of useful things at conferences; get to listen to wonderful writers, editors, agents and publishers, and generally immerse myself in the Art of writing.

Conferences are great to recharge the creative batteries and affirm that wanting to story is a worthwhile and valuable thing. Be sure to choose a conference of interest to you. I have been to those run by Romance Readers and Romance Writers - both are great; and to those relating to fantasy. I'm always glad I made the effort.

Books as Presents

We've just had a farewell for a colleague who is taking leave to have a baby, and a number of her presents were books. This is hardly surprising as she works in a writing and publishing degree. I got her one of those baby record books where you record the baby's first smile, first steps etc. It has a lovely Australian flavour being decorated with May Gibbs's gumnut babies, who I think are called Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The whole thing is a soft green and beautifully illustrated with a slightly padded cover. This lovely object suggests to me that the print book will never go out of fashion.

Writing the Kira Chronicles

I said in my last post that there are many versions of a single story that never make it to print. I guess that's why I think it's pointless getting upset when your favourite book gets made into a movie you hate. The book is one version of a story; the reader creates a slightly different version in their head; the author already has multiple versions and then the film maker makes another version. If you love a book, it's best just to relax and try and enjoy another version of it. After all, books don't work the same as films.

More of the Kira Chronicles

I was thinking over the weekend about when a story actually ends. The Cry of the Marwing had quite a lot of story that was cut from the ending, mainly to keep its wordage aligned with the first two books. Having read over the old material on the weekend, I've been toying with getting it out there. Of course, while you always want to end on a good note, there is so much more of any story that ever gets released in print. Happy for feedback on the idea.

Writing from real life

I've been thinking about the dog we recently had to have put down. She was 14 and became really sick, very suddenly. If she had gradually sickened, I might have known we couldn't 'fix' her. I regret that we didn't give her a kind death earlier, as her last two weeks were back and forth to animal hospital and vets, and she always hated vets.

As a fantasy writer, I write about sadness, grief and death often but real life is far more powerful It reminded me that grief is like physical pain. I hope it helps my writing.

Writing and Publishing

Just spent a happy day with our students (NMIT - Melbourne) who have finished their studies for the year by launching their anthology - Kaleidoscope. The degree I manage is Writing and Publishing so it goes from the creative idea, through the drafting, through to publication. We have online publications too (www.nmit.edu.au/ybp) but there is nothing quite like hard copy to stir excitement. Students read and we shared food. My little speech was about writer voice, which is probably all any of us have in the end; the way of telling a story that is uniquely ours. As I said to the students, all types of stories have been told thousands of times (perhaps millions) but not from their heart and soul.

Elddim

Elddim is Book 2 in my Angel series; the first one is called Ezam. For those of you with an eye for word play, you'll see that these names are anagrams (letters mixed up to form new words). The last in the trilogy will be called Erath - another anagram. Can you crack the code? I like word plays and names in particular are really important in stories, but particularly so in fantasy. I have an unpublished novel called Avatar (yes, I wrote this well before the more famous version)where I called the patriarchal figure Abram. It just came to me and I thought it was close enough to Abraham, a famous biblical leader, for people to make the connection. When I finally looked it up, I found that Abram was the original version of the name. I tend to trust that the zeitgeist will give me the correct names of characters. In The Kira Chronicles, Tierken (pronounced as in tear-ing cloth)just came to me too. I'm still not sure I like it, but it's his name. Kira started off as Kiera, and I got sick of typing the extra letter, so I made her into Kira. I always had the owl - the mira kiraon - (those words just came to me) and I was about 3 chpts in when I realised the connection between Kira and Kiraon and knew her name was really Kiraon. I also knew it was somehow significant in the whole story. Discoveries like this are what makes fantasy fabulous to write.