Joshua Silverman's Blog, page 8

An Author’s Fear

I really want to talk about fear. It is such a monumental subject that it clouds almost everything we do in our lives. I know you’ve heard me discuss the stigma of paid reviews and the fallacy of back-scratching before through my guest blog posts on Review-Worm.com (http://review-worm.com/blog/), but I was trying desperately to come up with a reason why these biases are ingrained in our psyche as authors and writers. I’d like to think I’ve discovered it. We’re afraid.

The indie author community is mad and angry. We were rejected by a (or all) Big 6 Publishing house but we say, “To hell with them.”

We’ve got something to say and the world needs to read about it. So we self-publish and/or vanity publish our work. We know we don’t have the financing and capital of an author with the Big 6 so indie authors are competing among themselves. We are rivals, though we smile and join our “indie author communities” and try to support each other. At the end of the day, statistically, we won’t sell near as much as James Patterson. We fight for every e-book sale we get.

This is why indie authors hate paid review services. Because they think that another indie author will pay for a lot of positive reviews and get more sales than they do. It’s not really about ethics or morals. It’s about ego and money.

This brings me to the root of it. Fear. Authors are artists just like musicians or actors. We put our heart and soul into the performance of our work. We put it out into the public for their praise and criticism, for their love and their hate. And it’s soul crushing to get negative reviews.

Our whole world is seen through the eyes of fear and weakness. From our earliest ages, we are told not to touch the hot stove, we are told you can’t fly, we are told you can’t go to college or graduate school, we are told you can’t write a book or be an actor, we are told you can’t follow your passions and your dreams. This is all fear and it makes you weak if you believe it. You are not wrong to want to write, play, sing, dance, or whatever your passion is. You are not wrong to want to live your dreams. For every person who has told you no, tell yourself yes.

Life is truly very simple. Someone asked me how I wrote a book. I told her the steps.

Step 1: Turn on your computer.

Step 2: Open up your word processing software.

Step 3: Type and do not stop.

So then she said, “Yes, obviously but how do I keep doing that?”

I looked at her and said: “Step 4: Repeat steps 1 through 3 every day.”

Then she launched into a diatribe of excuses: busy schedule, work, laundry, kids, soccer practice, husband, family obligations, blah blah blah. It’s all an excuse. It’s all fear. If she wanted to write should write. No “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” End of story.

I told her the steps to do so but she has come from such a background of people saying “no” to her that she can’t see that most things in life are far simpler than we’re lead to believe.

Fear puts us in a position of weakness. It takes away our power. It says we are in the wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. Do not let fear stop you from writing. You are not wrong to want to live your dream and explore your passion. In fact, it could be the first thing you’ve done “right” your whole life.

Research is Crucial

There are several keys to writing. Some I’ve covered, some I haven’t. Some are easy, some aren’t. But one of the most overlooked areas of writing fiction is research. Most writers don’t think of themselves as “researchers”. They just want to tell the best story they can. That’s admirable, but I believe that to make a story convincing it has to be realistic. To be realistic, it has to be researched. Most research is simple, straightforward, and can be found through a Google search in less than ten to twenty minutes. If a book is not properly researched it takes me out of the action as a reader. Here are some things that I’ve found in other people’s books which a simple internet search could have avoided.

A man hears a shot from a gun then sees the victim fall. If properly researched, the author should have known most modern day ammunition travels twice the speed of sound so the action would have happened in reverse. The man would have fallen and then the witness would have heard the gunshot.

If you’re writing about the military or soldiers, do not confuse military ranks. The US Army has no rank called “Admiral” and the Navy does not have “Generals.” It’s a five minute Google search to figure this one out.

If you’re writing any type of historical fiction, you better do some serious research. Don’t say George Washington pulled out his iPhone to Google Map the road to Trenton if cell phones didn’t exist in the 1700’s!

If you’re doing any type of setting or environment work. Guess what? You should be researching that area. Don’t tell me about the earthquakes in Florida because Florida doesn’t have earthquakes, they have hurricanes. You should know the weather patterns of your environment, the produce, the politics, the immigration, you should know everything.

Don’t write a book about robots and androids without researching cybernetics! Readers are smart, we’ll know.

If you’re writing about flying, know many Gs a trained person can pull before passing out or suffering serious harm. If you’re doing aerial battles, know weapon systems, fuel consumption, etc…

If you’re writing suspense/murder mystery then you should know a lot about police procedures and the legal system. Don’t tell me the CSI guys do the interviews like on one show I know but they don’t in real life.

Don’t tell me your horse galloped 200 miles in a day. Your horse would be dead.

If you’re writing a sci-fi novel about time travel, you better damn well research quantum physics and current time travel theories because it can get very confusing.

These are just some examples. But I want to stress balance. A writer can spend quite literally years in research. There comes a point, however, when “research” becomes an exercise in procrastination of writing. If you’re writing a western, you should know that the gunslinger was using a Colt Paterson pocket model 1837 five shot revolver with a .28 caliber percussion and 1.75” barrel length. But, as a reader, I don’t care. You can just say “Colt .45 revolver” and leave it at that. I’ll know what you mean.

Research tells me you cared as an author. You cared enough about your work to take the time to research its authenticity and accuracy. Don’t be a lazy writer.

I believe in a one to one ratio. For every hour of writing, you probably needed to do an hour of research. Since the Emerald Tablet is based in Greek and Egyptian mythology and culture, I read over 20 non-fiction history books and spent countless hours trying to capture the feel of these ancient societies. Even so, it was easy for me to say “I need to do more research”. Even today, as I begin writing book 3, I’m still researching.  Don’t go overboard but make it realistic and believable for your readers. They’ll appreciate it and get lost in the story.

The Fallacy of Back-Scratching

This is a guest blog post I did for review-worm.com. Check it out. I encourage all writers to expand their mind and shed their ingrained biases.

http://review-worm.com/blog/the-falla...

 

The Power of Why

When I was a kid, my favorite question was “Why?” Everything my parents said to me I would respond with “Why?” until they got so fed up they ended up saying something like “because I said so” or “that’s the way it is.”

What I’ve found, though, is as we get older, we accept things the way they are and stop asking why.

Knowing why you are doing something is important. I offer you two view-points of being an author.

“I don’t know much about creative writing programs. But they’re not telling the truth if they don’t teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.” – Doris Lessing

“I’ve never worked a day in my life. I’ve never worked a day in my life. The joy of writing has propelled me from day to day and year to year. I want you to envy me, my joy. Get out of here tonight and say: ‘Am I being joyful?’ And if you’ve got a writer’s block, you can cure it this evening by stopping whatever you’re writing and doing something else. You picked the wrong subject.” — Ray Bradbury at The Sixth Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, 2001

I agree with both of these quotes, even though, on the surface, they are contradictory. Writing is hard “work” in that it takes up most of your time and, as Doris Lessing said, you will sacrifice much of your personal life for your dream. By the same token, writing should not be a “job”. You should write because you love your characters and story. If you can’t find that passion, then maybe, as Mr. Bradbury suggested, you’re writing about the wrong subject.

If you want to be a writer, newsflash, it takes a lot of discipline. As I said in my “Schedule of a Working Writer” post, if you don’t have the willpower and discipline to write for 2-3 hours after you’ve done your day job – maybe you shouldn’t be a writer.

To accomplish anything you must have a clear understanding of WHY you are doing it. If you don’t know your why, you’ll end up wasting a lot of time, getting frustrated, and most likely, quitting.

So ask yourself:

Why do you want to write? 

To write in the present or the past, that is the question.

A crazy thing happened today. ReviewWorm.com posted a question on Twitter: “Is it better to write in the simple past tense or the more trendy present tense? What are your thoughts?”

Had you asked me this question two years ago, I would have answered without hesitation—present (as evidenced by my first book: the Legends of Amun Ra series, The Emerald Tablet, is written in present tense.)

Why? Because I like the way it sounds. Something about “he runs” rather than “he ran” sounds more immediate, more vibrant to me. Maybe I’m weird, but to me the present tense makes the action real.

If you ask me that question now, I would say simple past is the way to go. Why the change you ask? Simple, I say, because it’s less confusing and obtrusive to the reader when you do a tense shift. Watch and learn kids.

“Mary sees the picture on the nightstand. It reminds her of her mother, full of hope and life. When Mary was twelve, she saw her mother get hit by a car. She screamed a dreadful shriek. Mary almost fainted…”

See what happened there? We went from the present tense “Mary sees” and “it reminds” to the simple past “was twelve she saw” and “she screamed.” You noticed the tense shift didn’t you?

Now watch what happens when we go from simple past to past perfect. (If you don’t know what past perfect tense is, it is when something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.

Example:

“Mary saw the picture on the nightstand. It reminded her of her mother, full of hope and life. When Mary was twelve, she had seen her mother get hit by a car. She had screamed a dreadful shriek. Mary had almost fainted…”

See that? The difference and tense shift was so subtle you may not have noticed, especially if you didn’t know the rules of grammar.

So why will everything I write be written in simple past? Simple, I say, because I don’t want ignorant people coming up to me and saying my tenses are wrong when I go from present to simple past. It’s a simple thing really, if you know the rules of grammar.

P.S.  I do want to stress that writing in either present or simple past is perfectly fine and correct. Doing a tense shift from present to simple past is the same thing as going from simple past to past perfect. Great literature has been and will continue to be written in both tenses.

What is the Emerald Tablet?

Okay, I’ve done two trade shows/conventions so far, Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles and the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco. By far the most common question I have gotten (in between getting enormous praise about the awesome cover art and the freaking ridiculously cool emerald dragon) is, “Just what exactly is the Emerald Tablet?”

Ah, the mysterious Emerald Tablet—it has gone by many names in the past. You may have heard of it referred to as the Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, the Secret of Hermes, the Book of Thoth or the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. They are all the same thing. To understand what the Emerald Tablet is, you must understand the basic mythology about the ancient Egyptian god Thoth.

Thoth was rumored to be a man who was from the mythical and fabled city of Atlantis (yes, that Atlantis). He brought all of the secrets and knowledge of Atlantis with him to ancient Egypt and was revered as a god, so much so that they called him divine and made him the god of wisdom and magic! But he was more than that. He supposedly wrote the secrets of the universe down in the Emerald Tablets (there were actually 13 or 14 of them). This earned him the title of the scribe of the gods.

Through the years and the blending of the Greek and Egyptian cultures, the Emerald Tablets were now purported to be authored by Hermes Trismegistus, who is essentially a fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes. They are, in fact, the same god as viewed by two different cultures (like Zeus is to the Greeks as Jupiter is to Romans).

Yes, yes, all this history is fine and good, but I still haven’t answered the question. What the hell is the Emerald Tablet? The answer: a written record of the secrets of the universe.

In its pages, if read and understood correctly, is the formula to take a mortal man (or woman, let’s not be sexist) into an immortal state. To turn a person divine, if you will, releasing the soul from the confines of the body and allowing it to travel through time, space, and alternate dimensions unencumbered. This, my friends, is true power and throughout history, people have killed to find the Emerald Tablet.

Alchemists like Nicolas Flamel, who was mentioned in book 1 of the Harry Potter series, The Sorcerer’s Stone (more on that later), purportedly used the formulas in the Emerald Tablet to turn any basic metal into gold and formed the foundation for modern chemistry.

But how does this relate to the book? I, as the author of the Legends of Amun Ra series, use the Egyptian mythology surrounding the Emerald Tablet and its secrets to weave a complex fantasy world filled with mythology, spirituality, adventure, mystery, and treachery for a fun and enlightening game of what if Thoth really did write the secrets to the universe down for us to find? And what if we found them?

Check out the website: www.legendsofamunra.com for more information on the book series.

P.S. This blog has been edited by my friend Joy. She wanted a shameless plug for her wonderful help so I have therefore obliged.

Was John Locke Wrong?

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for me. First, September 15-16, was my opening show at Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles, California, which had an estimated 40,000 people. Then this weekend I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Las Vegas Comic Expo, though I wasn’t an exhibitor at that event.

But, while I was in Vegas, I went around to a few local bookstores, not the chains, and had some awesome meaningful conversations with them about the difficulty new authors have in getting their books out into the public, especially when not with a Big 6 publishing house.

The women I spoke with were very supportive, letting me drop off my promotional books with them and leaving giant stacks of fliers on their front desks. But, while we were talking, we got on the subject of the trade shows and conventions available to authors, other than general book fairs, and social media. Nothing beats “boots on the ground” marketing so to speak.

I write historically and mythology inspired fantasy novels. That’s a pretty niche category when you think about it. It’s not general fiction, it’s not mystery, romance, science fiction, or even general wizards and sorceresses’ fantasy, it is historical inspired fantasy, which means the people who read my book must like history or mythology.

Trade shows, fairs, and conventions specifically for science-fiction/fantasy novels are few and far between, however, there are crap-loads of comic-book, sci-fi, fantasy expos.

John Locke says know your target audience.

While I may not have many options when it comes to trade shows, the comic-conventions are about the closest thing I’ll get to a real writing expo. But, that still leaves me with one problem. Comic conventions are, by definition, catered to people who read books with pictures in them. That, obviously, eliminates a lot of my audience.

But, I think I did one thing smart at Comikaze. I hired an artist to do comic-book styled pictures of my characters. Then, I put his art on a big banner and put that in front of my booth. This drew A LOT of attention to me because now I had a picture to go along with my book and comic book fans love their pictures. It gave them something to relate to.

By doing this strategy, I sold over 100 books at Comikaze in two days. Is that awesome? I think so for an unknown author and being my first published book with no writing resume. But it did prove John Locke’s point, know your audience. If I had gone to Comikaze and just piled up my books on a table, I am certain I would have gotten maybe 15-20 books sold. However, by using something that I knew comic book fans would like, I easily increased my traffic and quadrupled my sales.

The lesson here is John Locke was right, know your audience. If you wrote the latest erotic paranormal romance novel, don’t expect to sell a lot going to a strict religious book fair.

The Emerald Tablet

Was John Locke Wrong?

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for me. First, September 15-16, was my opening show at Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles, California, which had an estimated 40,000 people. Then this weekend I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Las Vegas Comic Expo, though I wasn’t an exhibitor at that event.

But, while I was in Vegas, I went around to a few local bookstores, not the chains, and had some awesome meaningful conversations with them about the difficulty new authors have in getting their books out into the public, especially when not with a Big 6 publishing house.

The women I spoke with were very supportive, letting me drop off my promotional books with them and leaving giant stacks of fliers on their front desks. But, while we were talking, we got on the subject of the trade shows and conventions available to authors, other than general book fairs, and social media. Nothing beats “boots on the ground” marketing so to speak.

I write historically and mythology inspired fantasy novels. That’s a pretty niche category when you think about it. It’s not general fiction, it’s not mystery, romance, science fiction, or even general wizards and sorceresses’ fantasy, it is historical inspired fantasy, which means the people who read my book must like history or mythology.

Trade shows, fairs, and conventions specifically for science-fiction/fantasy novels are few and far between, however, there are crap-loads of comic-book, sci-fi, fantasy expos.

John Locke says know your target audience.

While I may not have many options when it comes to trade shows, the comic-conventions are about the closest thing I’ll get to a real writing expo. But, that still leaves me with one problem. Comic conventions are, by definition, catered to people who read books with pictures in them. That, obviously, eliminates a lot of my audience.

But, I think I did one thing smart at Comikaze. I hired an artist to do comic-book styled pictures of my characters. Then, I put his art on a big banner and put that in front of my booth. This drew A LOT of attention to me because now I had a picture to go along with my book and comic book fans love their pictures. It gave them something to relate to.

By doing this strategy, I sold over 100 books at Comikaze in two days. Is that awesome? I think so for an unknown author and being my first published book with no writing resume. But it did prove John Locke’s point, know your audience. If I had gone to Comikaze and just piled up my books on a table, I am certain I would have gotten maybe 15-20 books sold. However, by using something that I knew comic book fans would like, I easily increased my traffic and quadrupled my sales.

The lesson here is John Locke was right, know your audience. If you wrote the latest erotic paranormal romance novel, don’t expect to sell a lot going to a strict religious book fair.

How I wrote Two Books in a Year!

The Schedule of a Working Writer

I decided to write about this topic because it’s been brought up a number of times by many friends and readers. As fledgling first-time writers or authors, whether your project is a comic book, graphic novel, book or scriptwriting, unless we are blessed by some miracle, we have to have a day-job (or someone to financially support us) while we are trying to write out our dreams. This basically means you are going to be working two jobs for at least a year, or more likely three or four years, before you become successful enough to financially support yourself solely with your writing. And the second job will be one you don’t even get paid for, though it is something you want to get paid to do. This is not a “you’ll never make it big” post, but a sobering reality, even for me.

I started writing The Emerald Tablet in early July 2011. That’s when I first put pen to paper (actually fingers to keyboard) as it were. I finished the rough draft of the manuscript in late October 2011. From October 2011 through December 2011, I did edits, rewrites, and redrafting. Then, the book went to my publisher and its editors where it spent the next 6 months in more rewrites and edits.

I started writing book two, The Soul of the World, in January 2012. I completed the first rough draft of that book in July 2012. Then I spent July through September 2012 doing rewrites, edits, and redrafting parts of Soul of the World. It is only now, in September 2012, a full eight months after beginning the book, that I handed it off to what will be another year of editing.

So you can see, there is some overlap there and a “fuckton” (yes, that’s a real word according to www.urbandictionary.com) of blood, sweat, tears, raw man-hours, and fights with your family or partner involved in these projects.

I did all this while I was working 40-50 hours a week with a wife. It was a beyond a delicate balancing act and I won’t mince words, there were times when there was a heated discussion or two with the Mrs. about “family time” verses “work time.” There just didn’t seem to be enough time for everything. But I also want to stress something else. Family time, if you have one, is EXTREMELY important. You don’t know now how much their love and support means. So you must make an effort to spend time with them, even though you may be thinking about work in the back of your mind. Be present. You do not want your family to end up resenting your project because you chose IT over THEM.

To help balance all my commitments, I made a schedule, and I stuck to it. I stress this—I RARELY deviated from my schedule. And in fact, it is a schedule I still use to this day.

 Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and leave the house for the office by 7:00 a.m.
 At the office by 7:30 a.m. I didn’t work on the book at all during work hours. I’m just not that kind of guy. But, that didn’t preclude me from working during my lunch break, which I did, for an hour at mid-day EVERY DAY, while I ate as quickly as possible.
 Worked until 5:00 p.m., at which time, I would rush over to the gym to get an hour of something in.
 I typically got home (with traffic and travel time), around 7:00 p.m. I committed myself to two more hours of writing work, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. It could have been writing book two or editing book one, but EVERY NIGHT I did an extra two hours of work minimum (sometimes I did three).
 9:00-10:00 p.m. or 10:00-11:00 p.m., would be scheduled family time with the wife. You know, we’d do the normal, sit at home and watch hours of Netflix because we’re hooked on a particular show (currently, it’s Burn Notice).

I rarely took a day off. I worked almost every Saturday for a minimum of 5-6 hours, and I worked most Sundays for A YEAR AND A HALF straight. If this seems callous to you, it probably is. But it was the only way I could stay sane and do what I had to do get my book done in the time I wanted to do it in.

I give you fair warning, be prepared to get calls from your parents bitching you out because you never see them anymore and they don’t feel like you’re part of the family. Take this in stride, they don’t mean it; they just miss your company. Also be prepared to get cussed out by your friends because you’re missing poker night, the barbeque party, the bonfire, the birthday party, happy hour, etc., and they think you have abandoned to them to some crap dream you have. Again, take it in stride. They’ll support you when the time comes. They are your friends and will remain so through your work. Try to keep up the communication with them; do the best you can. I preach balance, but you and I know, it’s a terribly difficult thing to achieve, time management. That’s why they have classes on it.

Knowing how hard it can be, I wish you the best of luck in your quest to write your dreams. The most important advice I can give is to keep writing. Write, write, and write, even when you feel like there is nothing to say. Write like your life depends on it because you’ll need that sense of urgency to keep going when you get discouraged, when your eyes want to close, when a warm bed and clean sheets look oh so comfortable.

“Some people dream of being something; others stay awake and are.” Author Unknown

The Schedule of a Working Writer

I decided to write about this topic because it’s been brought up a number of times by many friends and readers. As fledgling first-time writers or authors, whether your project is a comic book, graphic novel, book or scriptwriting, unless we are blessed by some miracle, we have to have a day-job (or someone to financially support us) while we are trying to write out our dreams. This basically means you are going to be working two jobs for at least a year, or more likely three or four years, before you become successful enough to financially support yourself solely with your writing. And the second job will be one you don’t even get paid for, though it is something you want to get paid to do. This is not a “you’ll never make it big” post, but a sobering reality, even for me.

I started writing The Emerald Tablet in early July 2011. That’s when I first put pen to paper (actually fingers to keyboard) as it were. I finished the rough draft of the manuscript in late October 2011. From October 2011 through December 2011, I did edits, rewrites, and redrafting. Then, the book  went to my publisher and its editors where it spent the next 6 months in more rewrites and edits.

I started writing book two, The Soul of the World, in January 2012. I completed the first rough draft of that book in July 2012. Then I spent July through September 2012 doing rewrites, edits, and redrafting parts of Soul of the World. It is only now, in September 2012, a full eight months after beginning the book, that I handed it off to what will be another year of editing.

So you can see, there is some overlap there and a “fuckton” (yes, that’s a real word according to www.urbandictionary.com) of blood, sweat, tears, raw man-hours, and fights with your family or partner involved in these projects.

I did all this while I was working 40-50 hours a week with a wife. It was a beyond a delicate balancing act and I won’t mince words, there were times when there was a heated discussion or two with the Mrs. about “family time” verses “work time.” There just didn’t seem to be enough time for everything. But I also want to stress something else. Family time, if you have one, is EXTREMELY important. You don’t know now how much their love and support means. So you must make an effort to spend time with them, even though you may be thinking about work in the back of your mind. Be present. You do not want your family to end up resenting your project because you chose IT over THEM.

To help balance all my commitments, I made a schedule, and I stuck to it. I stress this—I RARELY deviated from my schedule. And in fact, it is a schedule I still use to this day.

Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and leave the house for the office by 7:00 a.m.
At the office by 7:30 a.m. I didn’t work on the book at all during work hours. I’m just not that kind of guy. But, that didn’t preclude me from working during my lunch break, which I did, for an hour at mid-day EVERY DAY, while I ate as quickly as possible.
Worked until 5:00 p.m., at which time, I would rush over to the gym to get an hour of something in.
I typically got home (with traffic and travel time), around 7:00 p.m. I committed myself to two more hours of writing work, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. It could have been writing book two or editing book one, but EVERY NIGHT I did an extra two hours of work minimum (sometimes I did three).
9:00-10:00 p.m. or 10:00-11:00 p.m., would be scheduled family time with the wife. You know, we’d do the normal, sit at home and watch hours of Netflix because we’re hooked on a particular show (currently, it’s Burn Notice).

I rarely took a day off. I worked almost every Saturday for a minimum of 5-6 hours, and I worked most Sundays for A YEAR AND A HALF straight. If this seems callous to you, it probably is. But it was the only way I could stay sane and do what I had to do get my book done in the time I wanted to do it in.

I give you fair warning, be prepared to get calls from your parents bitching you out because you never see them anymore and they don’t feel like you’re part of the family. Take this in stride, they don’t mean it; they just miss your company. Also be prepared to get cussed out by your friends because you’re missing poker night, the barbeque party, the bonfire, the birthday party, happy hour, etc., and they think you have abandoned to them to some crap dream you have. Again, take it in stride. They’ll support you when the time comes. They are your friends and will remain so through your work. Try to keep up the communication with them; do the best you can. I preach balance, but you and I know, it’s a terribly difficult thing to achieve, time management. That’s why they have classes on it.

Knowing how hard it can be, I wish you the best of luck in your quest to write your dreams. The most important advice I can give is to keep writing. Write, write, and write, even when you feel like there is nothing to say. Write like your life depends on it because you’ll need that sense of urgency to keep going when you get discouraged, when your eyes want to close, when a warm bed and clean sheets look oh so comfortable.

“Some people dream of being something; others stay awake and are.” Author Unknown