Eric Dontigney's Blog, page 5

For the Love of Writing

photo credit: davidstewartgets Caffeine coffee cup – Credit to https://homegets.com/ via photopin (license)

I spend a lot of time talking about the business side of writing. I do that because it’s important. I also do it because writers – who tend to be insular, reclusive, shy to the point of pain/bordering on terrified of social gatherings in which they are expected to “sell themselves” or “their work” in some fashion – need to hear that most of it is prosaic.

The business of writing is primarily about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Things like setting up a website, or author branding, or figuring out what the hell Pinterest has to do with writing. These things facilitate audience building and, by proxy, boost sales.

All of that might lead people to think that I view writing purely as a business process which can be broken down into actionable steps. In some respects, that is true. There are best practices and methodologies that can let anyone construct coherent writing that is, in the long-run, saleable.

If you’re going to write well, I believe you ought to be paid for it. Other professionals with specialized skills that do their jobs well get paid and quite handsomely for it in many cases. I see no reason why that shouldn’t apply to writers. If that point of view makes me a little mercenary, I’m okay with it. That, however, is the pragmatic side of the equation.

The other side of the equation and, I think, the one that most people can relate to is the why of it. I mean, honestly, why write at all? There are easier ways to make money. There are way more profitable career paths that, incidentally, offer much more defined steps for achieving success. The reason I write is because I love it.

I don’t mean to say that I only love the fiction writing I do. I just love writing. The non-fiction writing that pays is often frustrating for me, but not because of the writing itself. The conditions that accompany that work frustrate me. Things like…

A house style guide that believes that state verbs should never appear in an article, ever, in any context, for any reason
Or a client who insists that a keyword must achieve 4% density in an article, despite my warning that Google will read that as keyword stuffing and brutally punish the article, if not the entire site
Or the times when I know that a given piece of writing could be so much better if taken from a slightly different angle

Yes, those things can make a given project a chore, but they do not change my fundamental love of writing itself. The actual drafting of sentences, choosing the right words, and drawing in interesting, unusual examples are a joy for me. That love of writing is also a curse.

I don’t want to just write novels or blog posts or articles. I want to write everything. I want to try my hand at everything….with the possible exceptions of poetry and songwriting. I want to write screenplays and comic books, satire and social commentary, speeches, and press releases. I want to write it all. I want to do it well. As with so many other things, though, this creates problems.

In our culture, specialization is rewarded. People want to know what box you belong inside of and, once they’ve determined the box, they want you to stay there. For the one trick pony, this is a boon. For the person who wants to do it all, it’s an anchor.

We once rewarded those who pursued excellence in multiple disciplines and forms with the term Renaissance Man. Although, with a nod to changing social mores, I would amend that to Renaissance Person. Now, our culture casts a dim view on such people. We suggest that they aren’t serious or call them jack-of-all-trades, but master of none.

Maybe it’s true, but I think it’s a sad thing. I think this attitude punishes curiosity and ambition. Will I let this reality prevent me from my ambition to write everything?

Not for a second, because I love writing.

Novel Getting Published and Other News

photo credit: stephenscottjenkins via photopin cc

It’s been a while. Despite all my best intentions to get back on the blogging train, I keep getting distracted…probably by shiny objects. Still, there are things happening. First, the big news that you already know if you follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ericdontigneywriter/).

My novel, The Midnight Ground, got picked up by Rampant Loon Press for publication later this year. It’s tentatively scheduled for release in July, but that’s subject to change.

Right now, it’s all the background stuff that the general public never sees. We settled on a general style for the cover art, so now they’re looking for an artist to actually do the cover. Later there will be copyedits and proofreading. All of which is very exciting to me, but doesn’t translate into interesting things for me to show you here, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Rest assured, though, that updates will be forthcoming as time goes by.

I also have a short story, titled Lenses, getting published in the next issue of Stupefying Stories. Assuming life doesn’t intervene, which is always a possibility, it’ll probably be out sometime in April.

If you click on the little tab above that says, Other Places to Read Me, you’ll find some new links to some Op-Eds I’ve been writing for the Stupefying Stories website. Some are about the craft of writing and some aren’t.

I’ve also taken on some responsibility for managing the Stupefying Stories Facebook page and some ancillary social media duties. You can find links to hardcore science content, interviews with authors in science fiction and fantasy, and a lot of other geeky content. If it sounds like your kind of thing, check out the Stupefying Stories page here.

As for new fiction writing…yep, that’s still happening. I’m chipping away at 4 or 5 books right now. If I think of it later, I’ll try to put up some status bars so you guys can stalk my progress.

Okay, that’s it for now!

 

Writing Code Is Not Writing Words

So, I’ve been learning to code in JavaScript recently. Before that it was some basic jQuery. Before that it was CSS3. Before that it was HTML5. Wait, I learned some Bootstrap as well…where was that in the order? Sigh, I can’t remember. What I can tell you is this, writing code is not writing words.

It’s not that one is inherently harder than the other. Writing words is easier for me because I’ve had so many years of practice at it. Even if I didn’t, though, I still think writing code would be more challenging for me. Constructing sentences and scenes, deploying alliteration and cadence, these things come with a lot of wiggle room. I can fudge the math, so to speak, and play fast and loose with some of the rules.

That appeals to me, which makes me wonder if there isn’t a more adventurous, anti-authority rebel hiding deep down in my secret heart of hearts.

That wiggle room doesn’t exist in coding. There are almost always multiple paths to a solution, so there’s a little room for style, but you can’t fudge the math. The rules are absolute. Forget a punctuation mark, use the wrong kind of bracket, or forget to declare a variable and the whole thing implodes in an epic fail bomb. Do not pass go. Do not enjoy a working algorithm.

That said, I suspect it’s probably good for my writing to work in a system that is so unforgiving. Having to stay that conscious of the rules in coding has a bleed through effect. I’m simply more conscious of grammar rules and the rules of good writing. I’m also more conscious of the rules that I never really learned. I cannot, to this day, explain pluperfect tense. I’d be willing to bet that I use it in my writing, though.

(Side note: I looked up pluperfect tense, and I do use it in my writing. Most writers do.)

I think the bigger point here, and one I’ve made before, is that writing benefits from new experiences in obvious and subtle ways. That heightened consciousness of rules is a relatively subtle, but very helpful, benefit of my coding experience. The more obvious benefit is that I can now include real-to-life scenes about coding in my fiction.

I probably won’t, except in the most abstract ways, because coding is a lot like writing. It’s someone tapping away at a keyboard, which is difficult to make sound interesting on the page. What I can do now is get the emotional tenor right. I can talk sensibly about a novice coder’s emotional experience. (It’s mostly rage, punctuated by brief moments of relief and happiness bordering on hysteria.) As a writer, that information is worth its weight in gold.

Rows to Hoe

The last six months have been a strange time for me. I won’t bore you with all the details, just take my word for it. For the literary among you, it felt like my whole life was moving in a widening gyre. The salient detail here is that I wasn’t doing much writing. Oh, I’d write that occasional blog post or chip away at a story here or there, but there was none of the sustained writing I was doing a year ago. I’m happy to report that that situation has finally started to correct itself.

I’ve been working on some new things recently. I’ve got a new Contingency Jones story in the works, along with a new Sam Branch short story and the beginning of a new Branch novel. I’ve been working on a couple of TV show ideas that might one day see the light of day. And I’ve been revisiting the machinima idea that I was working on last year. There’s been some revision to the scripts for the first five episodes. I’ve acquired a theme song for it, as well as looking around for some royalty free music to use as incidental music inside the episodes. I’ve also been doing some fresh video capture with my brother for the first episode.

I’ve also been, oh so very slowly, doing a little more work on the audiodrama idea I was working on last year. That one is harder because it isn’t just the writing. There’s a lot of moving pieces in an audiodrama that I don’t necessarily have total control over. Suffice it to say, work is happening on that.

In other news, I’ve been reading Neil Gaiman’s new book, Norse Mythology. It’s awesome and you should read it! Also, I’ve started to learn to code in JavaScript. Yeah, I knew you’d be excited about that.

Making with the Crazy

There are days when my ambition outstrips my talent. There are days when my ambition outstrips my understanding. Most days, though, my ambition outstrips my reserves of energy. It’s a sad truth that, after 30, that’s a battle you’re going to lose 9 days out of 10. You just aren’t 18, or 24 or even 28 anymore. You cannot, no matter how much coffee you drink, get by on 4 hours of sleep. And it is damn frustrating. No, it is crazy making.

I suspect, like most creative people in their 30s, my talent and skill have finally started to catch up with my ego. I can actually pull off writing some of those stories that were just too complicated or too thematically deep for my younger self. I see possibilities where I didn’t before. I marvel at what technology makes possible for anyone with a computer, an internet connection, and a freaking smartphone. I marvel, people. I marvel! I make plans. I see the future. Then, I yawn. Not because I’m bored, but because I’m not 18 anymore.

This isn’t the sour grapes of someone who let their health slide, either. For the most part, I eat right and in more-or-less appropriate portions. I get semi-regular to regular exercise. I even get enough sleep about 65-75% of the time. I am inside the ideal body weight range from someone my height and build. My big health sin was smoking, and I’ve switched over to vaping because it seems logical that it’s less awful for me. The next step is nicotine gum, then quitting. No, it’s not sour grapes. It’s just the reality that my body has started to slow down at a time when I could have actually put all that youthful energy to creative, productive use. It’s a hard pill to swallow.

I know I’m not alone in this, but that doesn’t make me less angsty when I realize I won’t get those last two pages that would finish a new short story. It’s not that I couldn’t power through and write them, because I could. I don’t because of the knowledge that I’d just wind up tired the next day and still need to rewrite those pages. It’s a fact that tired writing is a bad writing…pretty much always. Even that isn’t the worst part.

The worst part is knowing how much I could be getting done, if I still had that boundless energy of youth. I’m painfully aware of how many idea and projects I’m not pursuing, will probably never pursue, because my cells aren’t generating energy as efficiently, that the myelin sheathes in my neurons don’t replenish themselves as rapidly, that my body just needs more hours of rest than it used to need.

Then, after I work myself into this tizzy of self-pity, I take a breath. I think it through. Yes, there are stories and novels I’ll never write, projects I’ll never pursue, because my energy isn’t equal to the sustained effort they require, but that was always true. That is the basic truth of being alive. Everything we do, every commitment we make, is a conscious choice not to take the other path. Would I like to be a world-class chef/guitar player/philosopher/novelist/astrophysicist/painter/neurosurgeon? Sure. Hell, who wouldn’t?

Is the fact that I’m not, and could never realistically ever be, a world-class all of those things some kind of failure on my part? Not in the slightest, despite what my overweening ambition tries to tell me some days. I need to remind myself occasionally that most of my interests, an admittedly eclectic and unusually wide range of them, are hobbies. They’re things I dabble in or waste an evening on. They are not full-blooded pursuits.

Not devoting the full measure of time and energy necessary to master them is how I afford myself the time and energy to devote to writing. Picking one writing project over another is a way of trying to maximize what I see as the most viable projects. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, but not pursuing every idea is simply a way to maintain sanity. So, to everyone else out there who makes themselves crazy because they can’t do it all, I tell you this…

It’s okay. No one can do it all. Everyone has that stuff they wish they could do, but can’t find the time for in their schedule. So, stop beating yourself up about living in a world with limits and work on the things that really, really matter to you. You’ll find it’s easier to look yourself in the mirror and get to sleep at night.

Contingency Jones Giveaway

Just a quick post this week. The Contingency Jones 3-day Free-Day event is in full swing! If you want a free kindle copy of the first season of this time-twisting, magic-slinging series, you’ll want to do it tonight or tomorrow. It goes back to its regularly scheduled price on July 28, 2016.

Minor Reporting, an Announcement, and The Aeronaut’s Windlass

Most of my current projects are chugging along at one speed or another, but there haven’t been any real milestones. New fiction writing has happened. A novel summary was written. I leveled up a video game character some more. All necessary (yes, even the video gaming), all important, but none of it earthshaking.

I am, however, planning to run a Free Kindle deal on my latest book – Contingency Jones: The Complete Season One – from July 25, 2016 – July 27, 2016. So mark your calendars for that, because I don’t run these kinds of promotions very often. J

I recently listened to audiobook version of Jim Butcher’s book, The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, as read by Euan Morton. This book has come under fire since its release for reasons both fair and unfair. One of the recurring complaints I’ve seen is that there are chapters told from the perspective of a cat. I think that this is a fair criticism. I don’t think it’s fair because I’ve got a problem with a talking cat, because I don’t. It’s not because I think Butcher handled the perspective of the cat badly, because he didn’t. It’s simply because it happened too often. I admit that I found myself resisting the urge to skip ahead during the cat chapters because they didn’t always convey information that forwarded the story.

That being said, I’ve also seen some criticism that Butcher was off-form when compared to his recent Dresden books, that the world building was poor and that readers couldn’t relate to the characters. To all of those I say, what a load of crap. Go back and re-read the first Dresden book, or the first book in any series you like for that matter, and you’ll discover that it’s shot through with flaws and holes that the author tried to retcon later. This is the first book in a series and, as first books go, it was very cleanly written.

The world building wasn’t brilliantly rendered, but it never is when you’re making up a universe from whole cloth. For the most part, Butcher didn’t info-dump on the readers, but included world building information as and where it could be organically fitted into the story. The world that he built was consistent unto itself and consistent with the neo-Victorian stamp of Steampunk. That approach of organic information inclusion and self-consistency is the best solution to the world-building problem that anyone has come up with so far. It’s also used almost universally by all writers. Knocking Butcher for not transcending the limitations faced by all world-building writers seems both petty and unrealistic.

Yes, some of the characters were assholes. Yes, some of the teenaged characters acted like self-involved, cocky teenagers. Some of the characters were also noble to a fault, duty-bound to a fault, and loyal to a fault. Some characters were compromised by circumstance and some were compromised by choice or position. In other words, the people in the book were like the cross-section of people you meet in real life. Some are good, some are bad, and all are flawed. If you go into any novel expecting to like all or even most of the characters, you probably shouldn’t be reading books aimed at adults.

I’d give The Aeronaut’s Windlass a solid 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it as a breezy, Sunday afternoon read for anyone who professes to enjoy Fantasy/Steampunk.

Finding Inspiration

Inspiration is a tricky thing. Based on what I’ve read by, heard from and discussed with other creative types, I’m pretty lucky. On the whole, I get more than my fair share of ideas and I’m usually able to see them through to a something resembling a finished product. I have not, to my knowledge, suffered writer’s block, a condition in which all writing is supposedly impossible. At worst, I’ve experienced the occasional bout of project block, where a given project is fighting me, but other writing endeavors continue to work just fine.

From time to time, though, I hit a stretch where I’m just not energetic. Everything feels like work, no matter how much I like a project. I tend to think of these stretches as my non-inspired periods. I can still write, but it’s all very cold-blooded and painfully grueling. It wears me down, which just exacerbates the problem. So, what do you do when you find yourself in these kinds of straights? You need to look outside yourself. I know that’s a pretty counter-intuitive mindset for most writers. We’re solitary beasts, roaming the prairies of the imagination like wolves on the hunt. Yet, looking outside myself has been the most effective strategy for me.

I think part of it has to do with placing yourself in a larger context. Not to be unkind to my fellow writers, but we can pretty a pretty self-involved group of people who overestimate the scope of our own issues. The truth of the matter is that there’s always going to be people who are struggling a lot harder than we’re struggling. Sometimes it’s your neighbor, and sometimes it’s a celebrity. So, to that end, I recommend the following two books. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day and The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) by Chris Hardwick. Both are readily available on Amazon and at other book selling-type places.

Wait, you say, what about (insert tragispirational memoir/biography/autobiography here)? Yes, I’m sure those are tragic/inspiring, but I assume I’m mostly talking to other creative types here. Day and Hardwick’s books both speak to those who are actively involved in the creative spheres, as well as to the geek/nerd/dork set which seems to be a nearly one-to-one with the writer set. Both Day and Hardwick talk about their struggles with mental health, anxiety, self-doubt and finding ways to continue being creative. In short, a perfect inspirational soup for the soul/world-weary creative type at low ebb.

Anytime I start feeling drag-ass about my books, short stories, and other projects, I go back to those books. They help me put my creative troubles into a broader context, to see which ones are just me being a melodrama queen (most of them) and which are actually problems that require some real attention. Most of the time, I realize that my big issue is being stuck in that awful middle phase of a project. You know the phase I’m talking about. It’s the spot where you’ve already poured a ton of time and energy into an idea, it’s nowhere near done, and you’ve got to put a ton more time and energy into it before you can show it off to people.  Yeah, that phase makes me feel tired.

That said, it’s not a real issue in terms of the work. It’s a psychological, rather than creative, roadblock. If you’re like me, though, you need something to jumpstart your perspective. I use those books to do that.

How about you all? Any tips or tricks for getting over low-inspiration periods?

Hey, I’m Not Dead, Really

So, it’s been a while. Do you remember me? I remember you. Despite outward appearances, this blog/site/author hasn’t died. I’ve just been crazy busy with the writing and ideamancy. So, here’s what’s been going on.

Last year, I wrote 2.5 books. One of them was released as a series of short stories that are now collected and available under the title Contingency Jones: The Complete Season One. You can get yourself an ebook or print edition on Amazon here. It’s a good time, promise. I also completed what I hope will be the first book in a new series. It’s titled, The Midnight Ground. Unlike my previous efforts, I’m preparing this one for submission to agents. I think it’s good enough to secure representation, so I’m foregoing my usual strategy of self-publication until/unless it’s proven to me that no English speaking agent anywhere in the world will represent it. I’m also about to pick up writing again on the half-written book, which takes place in the same universe as The Midnight Ground, but makes only glancing references to characters/event of The Midnight Ground. All told, that accounts for about 250,000 words of productive writing last year and is, I think, a pretty respectable output.

In addition to those projects, I’ve also been working on an audiodrama. For those of you who looked at the word “audiodrama” and thought, “He just made that word up,” I didn’t make it up. It’s a real thing with a proud tradition. In ye olden days of the early- and mid-Twentieth Century there was this really popular device called radio. You might know this device as the thing in your car that plays the stuff on your smartphone/mp3 player. Well before the iPod and largely before the television, radio filled the entertainment void. They used to do these things on the radio called radio dramas and radio serials. These were either one-off or serialized stories that aired on whatever schedule the Powers That Were decided. A few examples you might be aware of are The Shadow radio serial and the Superman radio serial. More contemporary examples include pretty much everything put out by ZBS (you should check them out, because they’re awesome!) and the Prairie Home Companion skits done by Garrison Keillor.

Well why didn’t I say radio drama? It’s not going to land on the radio. It’ll be hosted online somewhere and, being audio only, I’m calling it an audiodrama. The current plan is for a limited run of 9-12 episodes. Why 9-12 episodes? Sanity. This is a labor of love and most of the work will be done by yours truly. I put together the first episode and it ran to about 20 hours of work. I assume that as I get more proficient, each episode will go a little quicker, but it’s just a lot of work. So I’m limiting it to 9-12 episodes. I’m still outlining/writing scripts for it, so the final tally of episodes isn’t set yet. Once I know, you’ll know. Despite already being underway, the timeline for this project is very long. In my ideal universe, this project will see the light of day sometimes in early/mid 2017.

In addition to that, I’ve completed the first draft of scripts for a 5-episode machinima project in cheerful collusion with my brother. I can hear you…“mahchimiwha?” Machinima is a style of filmmaking that uses a video game as the visual core for storytelling. You move your characters around the video game universe to sync up with existing dialogue, capture the footage, and then edit the footage together with dialogue, post production effects, and a soundtrack (if you can afford it or find the right royalty free music) to create episodes. The most famous example of this is probably the early seasons of Rooster Teeth’s series, Red vs Blue, which you can check out here. The later seasons employ pre-rendered animation which, to my mind, makes it less machinima and certainly beyond the means of most machinima filmmakers….though, no less entertaining. As with the audiodrama, the timeline on this is long. Also expecting this to be a project that won’t see public consumption until 2017.

That brings you up to speed on what I have been up to. Upcoming in the Eric’s parade of productive insanity…

There is Contingency Jones: Season Two that’s tentatively set for later this year (fall/early winter). There’s pre-production and production on the audiodrama and machinima projects. Querying agents for The Midnight Ground. Finishing the half-finished novel, as yet untitled. I’ve also tentatively scheduled starting the writing of the 4th Sam Branch novel, Rises, for December 2016. And somewhere between now and mid-2017, I’m planning to get moving on the sequel to The Midnight Ground, which has been tentatively titled, Favors Given. Yup. I’ve got some stuff going on. That said, I will be doing my best to check in with you on my various and sundry projects at much more regular intervals. I’m aiming for once a week.

CNN’s Marketing Fail…

photo credit: Justus Koshiol via photopin cc

(…Or, A Major Multinational News Service Inexplicably Obfuscates its Intention of Advancing Understanding of Innovative Consumer Interaction Restructuring.)

So I just read Erik Wemple’s article about CNN’s Redesign and was struck, as he was, by the God awful marketing speak CNN used to describe the redesign. However, as is so often the case, we can learn more from failure than success. The redesign itself was, of course, intended to facilitate access from a wide range of devices, incorporate social sharing and encourage engagement. By all appearances, the redesign accomplishes these tasks. The descriptions of the changes to the site, however, leave a lot to be desired.

The descriptions were littered with nigh meaningless phrases, such as “seamless integration,” “total re-platforming,” and “automatically re-optimizes.” Yes, Strunk and White are rolling over in their graves. Clarity is the heart of good communication, and phrases like these – common as they have become – are the enemy of clarity. What is worse is these phrases defeat the purpose the redesign they attempt to describe.

CNN’s site modifications/upgrades improve the user’s experience. The changes make it easier to share, easier to discover, and easier to access. So, one might ask, why employ language that is more appropriate to a political cover-up than a renovation that should generate increased traffic? After all, that is the holy grail of online news reporting.

There is no way to know for sure exactly what the point was, unless it was an attempt to make the changes sound more impressive. It might be that simple. There is a lesson to be learned from this failure, though. When it comes to marketing yourself, your site, or your product, keep it straightforward.

Trying to bury the purpose of your marketing in obscure language not only insults your audience, it undermines your marketing efforts. If I’m trying to encourage people to buy my new novel in eBook format, I don’t call it “an opportunity to invest in a re-optimized version of an entertainment experience that seamlessly integrates with ereaders.” I say, “Get your copy of Rises: A Samuel Branch Novel, available for Kindle.” (Achievement Unlocked: Shameless Self-Promotion)

The second version of that statement doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. It’s a pitch, albeit a short one best used on Twitter. Maybe someone clicks on the link, maybe they don’t, but no one is left scratching their head. If they do click, it’s because they understand exactly what they’re getting into. What CNN did was try to reinvent a wheel that already worked. In doing so, they confused rather than clarified and, by proxy, undermined good communication.

If you want your marketing to work, deliberately forego utilizing needlessly complex linguistic machinations. I mean, embrace clarity.