Jason Brant's Blog, page 14

Day 46 – B.S. Bestsellers

Brant rant time. Hopefully it’ll be a short one.

I’ve seen a few authors recently putting some bullshit on their covers, websites, and social media. They all say something along the lines of #1 BESTSELLER! That’s some bullshit right there. It’s deceptive and I can’t stand it. Legally, it’s all square, but morally… that’s another story.

Before I go off the rails, I’m not saying that an author who does this is a piece of trash. I’m purely talking about the marketing practice. We all do stuff we shouldn’t, so don’t find someone with #1 BESTSELLER on their cover and go after them. I’m just trying to open some eyes here, not start a witch hunt.

The first question for Mr. #1 here is… what exactly is this a bestseller in? It obviously isn’t a New York Times or USA Today Bestseller, because that would be plastered all over the cover. Rightly so. That’s a hard-earned designation that takes an enormous amount of sales. So what are we talking about here?

If I had to guess, it’s some granular category on Amazon. I’ve had lots of books hit #1 in Occult Horror Fiction and other such small niches. It’s nice to see your books up there, but I don’t think it gives you a free pass to plaster #1 Bestseller on your cover. Are you putting #1 Bestseller of Occult Horror on Amazon.com on your cover? No? Why not?

Because just using #1 Bestseller makes people think it’s more important than it actually is. You might trick people into thinking it’s a NYT Bestseller. That’s the bullshit part.

And I know some authors who do this will argue that it isn’t deceptive. Oh really? Then put what it’s #1 in. It isn’t that hard. But they don’t want to do that because it doesn’t carry the same clout.

I have another theory too.

The book in question might not have ever hit #1 in a category, but the author did at one point. So they slap #1 Bestseller on all their work, as if that’s earned somehow. A NYT Bestselling Author puts A NYT Bestselling Author on the cover. If the book hits #1, they put #1 NYT Bestseller.

See what I’m talking about? I”m rambling now, so I’ll stop.

But it does bug me. It’s bullshit. Just be honest.

Today, I edited 3 more chapters in Decayed. 6 or 7 more to go!

See ya tomorrow.

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Day 45 – Writing While Drunk

Writing while drunk doesn’t work for me. At all. There is a big misconception that authors can slam down some bourbon and then bang out Crime and Punishment. Maybe there are some of those out there, but I’m definitely not one of them.

As best I can tell, the romanticism around writing while being shithouse drunk came from the quote write drunk, edit sober. I’ve always heard that Ernest Hemmingway said that.

Yeah… he didn’t.

In fact, I’ve seen an interview with his granddaughter where she said he only wrote in the morning. My best work is also done in the morning. The later in the day it gets, the worse my writing tends to be. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.

I used to try writing at night, but everything came out super dark. My structure was shit too. I’m done working on a book by 5 PM at the latest. Everything after that is shit for me.

Hunter S. Thompson also had an incredible reputation when it came to drinking and writing. If you look up his daily routine, you’ll see a lot of booze and cocaine, with work following late at night. How much productive writing he managed in that state is the real question. And you have to consider how far his career had devolved toward the end of his life. Even if it boosted him in the short term, it fucked him over the long haul.

Just like writing at night doesn’t work for me, the same holds true for drinking. If I have a beer, maybe two, I can still write effectively. Anything more than that and I have to throw everything out the next day. I’ve tried this several times. It always sucks.

Believe me, I wish I could kick back a few tall boys and then author Asher Benson 4.

While writing Aces High with Elle Casey, we alternated working on each chapter. She wrote the first, I did the second, and so on and so forth. Because she lived in France, our schedules didn’t overlap. When I woke up each morning, I had her chapter waiting for me.

That worked perfectly for me. I had all day to chip away at my chapter before shipping it over to her.

Except for the one time I watched football at a bar all day. The Tall One had to drive my sorry ass home. For whatever reason, I didn’t get my chapter done before going to watch the games. So I got back to the house and had to crank out my chapter.

I thought it was the best writing I’d ever done. Literally. I was so pleased with myself. When I sent my chapter over to Elle, I had a big ol’ smile on my face.

The next morning, I woke up to an email from Elle asking what in the hell I’d sent her. She couldn’t make any sense of it. Obviously, I re-read the chapter after that.

It was a giant piece of crap. Words are failing me as I’m trying to describe how bad it was. I had to redo the entire thing. Fun.

That was the last time I imbibed and hit the keyboard. I abstain from any and all booze when I sit down at the computer to work. Except for this blog post – I’m drinking a beer right now.

Today, I edited 1 chapter in Decayed. I also added the last two podcast episodes to the Final Guys section of my site. And I added a new book review to the Final Guys webpage.

See ya tomorrow.

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Final Guys #111 – Child’s Play (2019)

 

We’re talking Chucky two weeks in a row as we delve into the Child’s Play remake! Is it a halfway decent re imagining? Do they keep the bonkers voodoo elements of the first? Is the body count higher? Why are we asking so many questions? The Tall One (Jason’s wife) joins us this week to give her insight on movies about scary dolls.

Our weekly horror reviews are The Heretics, Shazam!, The Golden Child, and Black Mirror.

Get free books and stories by signing up for Jason’s Newsletter or Hunter’s Shea’s Dark Hunter Newsletter.

The Final Guys: The Final Word in Horror–A horror podcast hosted by Jason Brant, Jack Campisi and Hunter Shea.

Also available on iTunes – Stitcher – Google Play – TuneIn

 

Web ► https://www.finalguys.com
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/finalguys
Jason ► http://www.authorjasonbrant.com
Hunter ► http://www.huntershea.com
Monster ► http://www.themonstermen.net


Twitter ► @finalguys
Jack ► @backinjack
Jason ► @jason_brant
Hunter ► @huntershea1

*Anything rented or purchased through the links above gives a small percentage to Final Guys which helps pay for our beer and poor movie choices.

 

The post Final Guys #111 – Child’s Play (2019) appeared first on Jason Brant.

Final Guys #110 – Child’s Play (1988)

 

Because someone keeps shoveling coal on the horror remake train, including the Child’s Play this week, we’re going back to the start of the longest running horror series ever. Directed by Tom Holland and written by Don Mancini, CHILD’S PLAY spawned a series that has run for 31 years and counting. Does the original hold up to today’s standards?

Our horror reviews are Found Footage (2011), To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story, Black Mirror, Unsolved Mysteries, Jessica Jones, Dying Light, Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne, and The Descent by Tim Johnston.

Get free books and stories by signing up for Jason’s Newsletter or Hunter’s Shea’s Dark Hunter Newsletter.

The Final Guys: The Final Word in Horror–A horror podcast hosted by Jason Brant, Jack Campisi and Hunter Shea.

Also available on iTunes – Stitcher – Google Play – TuneIn

 

Web ► https://www.finalguys.com
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/finalguys
Jason ► http://www.authorjasonbrant.com
Hunter ► http://www.huntershea.com
Monster ► http://www.themonstermen.net


Twitter ► @finalguys
Jack ► @backinjack
Jason ► @jason_brant
Hunter ► @huntershea1

*Anything rented or purchased through the links above gives a small percentage to Final Guys which helps pay for our beer and poor movie choices.

 

The post Final Guys #110 – Child’s Play (1988) appeared first on Jason Brant.

Day 44 – My Influences

Today is the 4th of July, which is a pretty big holiday here in the States. I’ve got a picnic to go to this afternoon and some fireworks to watch tonight. A couple of burgers and a handful of beers and I’m a happy guy.

But the beat goes on. I still got some work in this morning. The writing continues, the blog rolls along.

No excuses.

I thought it would be fun to list my eclectic group of writing influences. Some of them are sure to surprise you. Before I get into them, I should add that I’m leaving the obvious, most important people off this list. Without my mom getting me into reading in elementary school, I wouldn’t be here. If my dad didn’t love action and horror movies when I was growing up in the 80’s, I wouldn’t be here. If The Tall One didn’t put up with my shit every single day, and inspire me in ways I couldn’t articulate if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be here.

So with that out of the way, here are the biggest influences, in no particular order, on my writing:

Stephen King. I might as well get the big dog out of the way first. If you’ve ever listened to an episode of one of my podcasts, talked to me in person, sent me an email… then you’ve probably heard me mention Stephen King. No one’s books have ever hit me on a personal level like King’s. It, The Stand, The Mist, The Outsider… these stories speak to me on a primal level.

His style is completely different from mine, yet I think he might have influenced my writing more than anyone else. I’ve acquired a sense of story and character from reading his work that is hard to quantify. The man is a literal master. If you haven’t read any of the stories above, then stop slogging through my drivel and grab a copy. Those books changed my life.

James Cameron. For some idiotic reason, people have written Cameron off as a talentless, Hollywood hack in recent years. Everyone likes to pretend Avatar is some derivative film (it isn’t), while ignoring the masterpieces he’s made over the years. Aliens, The Terminator, T2, The Abyss, and True Lies were staples at my house. I had those suckers on repeat throughout my teenage years.

Go watch Aliens and then read one of my books. You’ll see the same pacing, the same story-told-on-the-fly structure. Blending horror, action, and violence are big parts of my books (plus humor), and they’re staples in Cameron’s work. Without his movies, who knows what my writing style would be.

Shane Black. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering who the hell Shane Black is. He’s a screenwriter and director who has made some movies you’ve seen. Iron Man 3? That was him. Hold your judgement. He was the hottest screenwriter (and highest paid) in Hollywood in the 90’s, before he stepped away for almost a decade. Some of the movies based on his scripts aren’t great. A couple of the movies he’s directed are… less than stellar. Don’t get me started on The Predator.

But when Shane Black is firing on all cylinders, his dialogue can’t be matched. Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys. Those are movies with great characters and better dialogue. Even The Predator had killer dialogue and that movie made me want to drive off an overpass. If you watch The Last Boy Scout you’ll see a ton of influence for Asher Benson. I learned smarmy, comedic dialogue by watching Shane Black movies. Nobody does it better.

Joe Bob Briggs. Yes, you read that right. The drive-in movie host of Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater, MonsterVision, and now The Last Drive-In was, and still is, a massive influence on me. In this regard, I’m not talking about learning how to write quirky characters, or pacing action scenes, but about taste. I discovered my love of horror through Joe Bob Briggs. Much like Stephen King influenced my childhood through literature, Joe Bob’s movie curation molded my taste in the bizarre and underappreciated.

I discovered Joe Bob in the 90’s when I stayed up too late channel surfing. Bored out of my mind, I clicked through boring crap after boring crap, until I ran across his showing of the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead. Until that point, I’m not sure that I’d seen a horror movie like that before. It was love at first sight. Plus, there was this redneck dude making me laugh at every commercial break. Joe Bob introduced me to a whole a new world of films I would have never bothered watching before.

When MonsterVision was abruptly cancelled in 2000, just as I was starting college, I could have cried. But he’s back now, with basically the same show on Shudder, the The Last Drive-In. The dude is funnier than ever. It’s a must watch if you want to understand my twisted mind.

So there you have it. I’m weird and my unknowing mentors are all over the place.

Today, I edited 2 more chapters in Decayed, worked on SBIG, and updated my website.

It’s beer thirty. See ya tomorrow.

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Day 43 – From Writing to Publishing

Because I’m almost finished with the second draft of Decayed, I figured now was a good time to go through my entire process. Each of these steps will have their own post detailing everything I do as Decayed hits different milestones. I’ll probably edit this post with links to each of those as I write them.

It all starts with Microsoft Word. This is the program I write in. It’s simple, it’s lean, and it doesn’t have anything in it distract me while I write. Except for the autocorrect. I complete two drafts in Word, then send the .docx file to The Tall One. She gives it a read, then returns it with corrections and notes.

After I fix all the horrible errors The Tall One found, I ship the .docx to my editor. She slogs through my crap, inevitably losing her mind because of how much work it takes to correct everything.

She sends me the manuscript back with a bajillion edits using the Track Changes feature in Word. It allows me to look at each change she’s made and accept or reject it. It’s simple and easy. The process can be a bit time consuming, because I suck and a lot needs fixed.

From there, I send the edited book to three proofreaders. Each of them excels at finding different oddities in my writing, which makes a big difference in the final product. I fix all the crap they found too.

If there’s one thing you should take away from all this, it’s that I get a lot of help to make my books readable. Without the good people around me, no one would ever enjoy my work.

After the proofreaders are done, I send the book to a handful of beta readers. They give me more suggestions and find a handful of errors that I’ve somehow let slip through.

When they’re done, I format the novel for ebook and paperback. I use a program called Vellum to automate most of this. Vellum outputs a different ebook for every store I publish with, changing the links in the back matter in each file. The Amazon file has links to Amazon, Apple to Apple, etc. This program has made formatting easy. Before switching to this, I had a lot of hurdles to jump through to get everything right.

I take the files Vellum spits out and I publish them to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, Apple, Draft2Digital, and Smashwords. I’ll probably remove Smashwords soon though. Createspace used to handle my paperbacks, but that has folded into Amazon.

The final steps are just a matter of sharing on social media, posting to my site, and sending out a newsletter. Up until this release, that is. I’m going to try some paid promotion on the book. I’ll let you know about the results.

If the novel I’m releasing is a part of a series, like Decayed is, I advertise the first book in that series. The hope is that new readers trickle down through the series, boosting the newest release. That has worked extremely well for me in the past.

Today, I edited two more chapters in Decayed. There are ten left, so I’m almost there. Finally. I also uploaded the newest episode of Final Guys, featuring The Tall One and our annoying Schnauzer. Fun times were had.

 

 

See ya tomorrow.

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Day 42 – Odds and Ends

It’s Tuesday, so it’s time for some Final Guys. More like Final Girl + Guy tonight. The two turd burglars won’t be joining me tonight, so The Tall One is filling in during their absence. You should feel sorry for her. She already has to deal with my crap in private. Tonight she has to do it live on the Internet. So much fun. Check us out:

 

I’m thinking about trying out a system that keeps track of my work time. Maybe a program that allows me to record how much time I spend on different tasks throughout the day. I have a feeling the numbers would shock me. I’m hoping something like that would help direct my work hours toward writing and advertising more, and away from other things that don’t progress my writing career.

Any suggestions?

Today, I edited two more chapters in Decayed. This book is taking forever. I also edited some video and started automating some of our work on SBIG. The edits in those videos take forever, so I’m trying to find ways to speed it up. Being funnier and sucking less would probably help too.

Tomorrow, I’m planning a big editing day because the 4th of July will be a short work schedule for me. Picnics and beer and all that jazz.

See ya tomorrow.

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Day 41 – Audio Changed My Writing

This post is getting into the weeds of writing style a bit, but at least it will be short. EDIT – It went longer than I expected.

When I first decided to jump into the deep end of the fiction pool, I read On Writing by Stephen King. If you haven’t checked it out, and you’re interested in the craft of writing, I highly suggest it. I learned so much from that book that I had to go over huge chunks of it multiple times. Like most people, I only knew the vague basics of punctuation. When it came to dialogue attribution, among other things, I was an amateur. At best.

Still am, honestly. I’ve always been a voracious reader, but I never paid attention to the actual design of the stories. I didn’t analyze them, just read them.

Once I digested many of King’s teachings, I started down my own path. I developed a different style, approached things from other angles. My writing and his are very different now.

One of the biggest changes to my style happened when I started producing audiobooks. Hearing someone else read your words aloud is a real game changer. I noticed a lot of quirks that I didn’t care for.

There are the obvious things, like word choices, that everyone picks up on. When you use the same unique word twice in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence, it sounds weird. That last sentence had ‘same’ in it three times. When heard during an audiobook, it stands out like a sore thumb.

I focused on varying up the language because of this.

Action is obviously a big part of my style. Listening to fight scenes play out through someone else’s voice helped me hone that part of the craft. It helped me dial things in as far as description and the pacing of the battles.

Dialogue changes came too. I always prided myself on solid dialogue, but I noticed something when listening to other authors’ audiobooks that really stood out to me. Characters that always use someone’s name when speaking to them is really annoying and incredibly unrealistic. If Lance is talking to Cass, he doesn’t call her Sally every other sentence.

How many times do you use your friends’ names when speaking to them? Almost never. Usually, it’s to get their attention, and that’s about it. Try it out now. Start calling the person beside you by their name over and over. They’ll think you lost your goddamn mind.

It sounds bizarre. Don’t have your characters do it.

The biggest change though, was dialogue attribution. After reading On Writing, I adopted King’s use of said and asked with dialogue. When reading in paper or ebook, said and asked basically disappear. Your brain flies over them, attributing the tags to whichever character is speaking, and you move on.

In audio though, you hear 37000 uses of said and it becomes repetitive. And very aggravating. It’s anything but invisible… err, inaudible?… to the listener. Fortunately, this is an easy fix. I use action by the speaking character around their dialogue.

“You suck,” Cass said. “A lot.” becomes “You suck.” Cass flipped him off. “A lot.”

Not a massive change, but it makes the audiobook listening experience a lot better.

There are a bunch of other minor changes I made, such as more aggressive phrasing at the end of chapters to operate as cliffhangers, that are just stylistic choices you’ll have to decide on for yourself. I highly suggest you either record yourself reading your work, or have someone else give it a go, so you can listen back to it. I bet you’ll hear a lot of things that you’ll want to change.

Today, I edited 3 chapters in Decayed. It should have been 4 or 5, but one of them was very long and pretty piss poor. A lot of massaging went into that one. I’m heading into the final confrontation now, so we’re almost there!

See ya tomorrow.

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Day 40 – An Accountability Day

It’s Sunday. No one wants to work. But the grind continues. Getting this post up to hold myself accountable. Just a short blog today, but I’ll have more tomorrow. Big editing day, starting early!

Today, I edited 2 chapters in Decayed. I also finally got to see the new Child’s Play for Final Guys this week. Should be a fun episode with a guest appearance by The Tall One.

See ya tomorrow.

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Day 39 – Sacrifices

This is an extension of my No More Excuses post from a few weeks back. The more I listen to people, and myself in particular, the more I hear how much we make excuses for everything. There’s always a reason we can’t get something done.

If you just had time, you could write that book you’ve had in your head. But you’re just too busy.

That’s bullshit.

If we want to achieve something, we have to make sacrifices to make that happen. You want to lose weight? You gotta sacrifice that pizza and beer. Want big muscles? Gotta sacrifice that leisurely lunch break so you can hit the gym. Want to write a book? You gotta sacrifice that hour you spend watching Judge Judy.

When I first turned writing into my full-time career, I made a lot of sacrifices. Before I quit my last job, I worked a lot of hours that I didn’t want to so I could pay off my debt. We wiped out our car and college bills, cut cable, whittled down our cell phone and internet plans. I sold my car, which I freaking loved. That got rid of that payment and my insurance.

I still don’t have a car. No sick days, no vacation. Zero health insurance.

We cut out a lot of stuff we didn’t need so I could do this. Over time, things have accumulated again. Comfort has set it. I’m realizing how far I’ve let things slide over the past few years, so I’m cutting back.

No more excuses.

Many more sacrifices.

My biggest excuse right now is sleep. I’ve had a hell of a time getting more than 5 hours a night recently. It really screws me up the next morning when I’m that tired. For some reason, I’ve been waking up really early, for me anyway, and it’s killing my productivity. I’ve fought it for a while now, hoping it would get better.

It isn’t. I’m a night owl, so staying up late is  something I’ve done since I was a teenager. But I can’t do that anymore, because of this stupid sleep thing. I’m going to bed much, much earlier now, because I’m sick of constantly using an excuse about being tired. I’ve gotta sacrifice my nights if I want to accomplish everything I want with this career. That probably doesn’t sound like much, but nights are my relaxation time. I watch movies, play games, and generally relax then. Giving a large of chunk of that up is going to be difficult for me. I probably haven’t gone to bed before midnight more than a handful of times in the last 25 years.

Is it a huge change? No. But it will make a big difference. If Brian Adams, who comments on all these posts, can write a goddamn book on his phone, then what excuses do I have?

And I truly think this is something we, as a whole, need to realize more than ever. Modern life is making everything too easy. It gives us too many built in excuses. It’s way too convenient to veg on the couch, than it is to get home from work and start cracking away at your personal goals. But the truth is that most of us aren’t willing to do whatever is necessary, and then we blame our lack of success on anything other than ourselves.

So drop the carbs if you aren’t losing weight. Cancel Netflix if you aren’t finding writing time. Go to bed early if you aren’t getting sleep.

You should have zero excuses. If you do, then it’s time to sit back and really be honest with yourself. Why haven’t you finished that book? Is it because you just don’t have time or is it because you went to happy hour and then scrolled through your Facebook feed? It’s time to cut the bullshit and get to work. You can do it.

We have to be honest with ourselves and sometimes that’s the hardest part.

Today, I did some more video editing on SBIG, reworked two more chapters in Decayed, and then almost had a heart attack throwing football with The Tall One. I’m in really shitty shape. Need to hit the gym. Oh, and The Tall One has a sick spiral. Way, way better than mine.

See ya tomorrow.

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