Matthew Wayne Selznick's Blog, page 14
August 14, 2012
Keoki Selznick, A Good Dog
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Keoki being a good sport for a snuggly photo shoot.
They picked him up running around at the municipal airport. He was in a shelter in an industrial area of Hesperia, California when we found him. He was a big dog, but a little under-nourished, so his blocky head looked gigantic compared to his skinny body. He looked like a canine bobble-head.
And he seemed like he might be a good dog.
We named him Keoki, which is sort of Hawaiian for “George,” but I never thought of him as Hawaiian-for-George. He’s Keoki… and a bunch of nicknames, too: Keo-kul. Blocky. Luggo. Big Dog. Keok-ul-doe-kul. You know. Cutesy names that people give to their loved ones. It happens.
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Keoki Selznick, snoot first.
When we got him home, I sat down on the living room floor, and so did he. That’s the first time I noticed that, sitting down, we were about the same height. That’s also the first time I noticed that this was a dog that didn’t mind looking you in the eye.
You know what I mean. Most dogs, a staring contest is… no contest. Not this guy. He’d just… look at you. I liked that, a lot.
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Keoki poses for his portfolio while the light catches his good side.
When we brought Keoki home, four full-grown cats — a family — were already well established. As you can expect, it wasn’t love and flowers to begin with. Still, Keoki quickly revealed himself to be one of the most tolerant, quiet dogs I’ve ever encountered.
Cat getting in his personal space? The worst he’d give was a low growl. More often than not, he’d just get up and go somewhere else. Our oldest cat apparently loves the hard-to-get type, though… she went through a long phase of trying to rub up against him. It never worked out. But he never snapped at anyone, as far as I can tell.
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Keoki tolerates the spirit of the holidays.
Keoki was so quiet, when he did bark, I had to check and make sure it was actually him. He didn’t bark at visitors, at the mailman… he was not one to talk. In fact, he made more noise sleeping — whining and chuffing, his velvet jowls vibrating and his paws twitching as he chased some dream prey — than he did when he was awake. With one notable, highly entertaining exception… that we’ll get to in a bit.
Keoki wasn’t much of a barker but he certainly was a panter. Yes, he was. It was almost a nervous habit — you could tell him to “hush,” and he’d get the hint and clomp his mouth shut. For a while.
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Keoki sharing a blanket with his brother Woody… but Woody’s not sharing a chew bone!
Keoki was gentle, and, while I’d never admit this to people who flinched at his size when we walked down the street, Keoki was a bit of a wuss.
Sadly, I suspect he was not treated kindly by the folks who had him before we came along. Even though he let me pet his snout and face right away, in the early days he was a little jumpy if you approached too fast.
Keoki hated when things were tense in the house. He seemed to think people yelling at each other equaled people yelling at him. He was not a fan of thunder… an eighty pound dog would not let the possibility of furniture damage get in his way if it meant he could slink into the smallest possible hiding space in the house. Never mind the time he tried to get into the shower during a thunder storm… while it was occupied.
An example of how timid he could be… and careful and gentle… comes to mind. I was walking him around the neighborhood in Hesperia, California. People own horses there, and sometimes you have to share the road. We encountered a horse and rider on our walk, and Keoki wanted nothing to do with that. Nothing. He kept himself on my far side from the horse, pressed against my leg, and didn’t want to go anywhere until that clomping monster was well on its way.
On that same walk, we found an elderly bitch hound sunning herself on the pavement in front of her house. She was probably fifty pounds smaller than Keoki and old, old, old. She lifted her head a little as we approached and thumped her tail. Keoki — who was never really a nose-in-ass-by-way-of-introduction kind of dog — approached her very slowly, dipped his head down to her, and the two of them sniffed noses. The old gal stood up and let me pet her while Keoki just kind of… stood by. I was touched by how careful and tentative he was around her.
Good dog.
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Keoki contemplates.
Keoki was not a dog’s dog. He didn’t like to fetch, he wasn’t a fan of shaking hands or rolling over (unless it was right after dinner, in which case rolling around on his back in the grass was a great idea). When we added a stray Australian Shepherd mix, Kona, to the family several years after Keoki had been around, the big black dog’s un-doglike ways were even more obvious.
Kona jumped. Keoki kept it four-on-the-floor. Kona loved to chase a Frisbee. Keoki… well, Keoki liked to watch Kona chase things. He’d stand in a corner of the yard and grin and wag his tail. You could almost hear him chuckling at that wacky kid.
Kona, when he was excited enough (and it wasn’t hard to get Kona worked up to this), loved to run in tight, fast circles around the front yard. Keoki… watched. I could sometimes get him to join in by slapping him on his shanks and doing the universal dog symbol for “let’s play,” which is, of course, lunging forward slightly with your feet scraping the ground. If Kona and I made it look appealing enough, Keoki would suddenly burst into movement and take a few laps.
But he was a big guy. Once or twice around was enough.
Then, the neighbors in the house behind us, their back yard separated from ours by a chain link fence, got a couple of not-quite-Keoki sized dogs of their own.
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Let’s not call it running as Keoki makes haste to come in from the snowy yard.
Once Keoki and Kona met these two doggy neighbors (through the fence), by some unspoken accord it was game on. And the game was… running. And barking!
Back and forth, as fast as they could go, billowing desert dust clouding around him, my casually motivated dog would run, all the while exercising the one muscle that pretty much never got worked… his vocal chords… with deep, bass, stentorian ruffs.
It was a joy to watch.
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Keoki, like the most attractive people, was unaware of his own beauty. Also, the concrete was nice and warm.
Now, even though Keoki was not the most verbally emotive dog and he liked his personal space, he was a very loving and supportive friend. For me, one particular memory epitomizes that.
In early 2010, as astute readers will know, I separated from my wife and was alone in our house much of the time, feeling pretty darn low. If you’ve been there, you know the low of which I write. It’s low. Your body hurts. You’re wrung out from sadness and stress and anxiety. And sometimes you just need to weep.
It was one of those nights when the pain of the situation was particularly acute. I was alone, except for Kona, four cats, a turtle… and Keoki, the giant dog who loved to be pet but didn’t like being hugged for very long.
That night, Keoki got a shoulder full of tears while he sat with perfect stillness and patience. When I ran out of steam and he lay down, he let me use his body as a pillow and didn’t move when his exhausted, sad human buddy dozed off.
I sure needed that, and he was there for me.
Good dog.
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Keoki and his sister Trixie in full puppy-ear mode, ready for good things to happen, hopefully in their mouths.
About a year ago, Keoki and I joined a household that included Trixie and Woody, dachshund sister and brother. For Trixie, it was love at first sight. She saw Keoki and ran — full tilt, head first — into his crotch, which was just above eye level. And she started to lick.
Nice to be loved!
Keoki took the rather personal attention with characteristic aplomb. Woody, not so sure about a new guy in the house, adopted a more stand-offish attitude. As some of the images in this post show, Woody came to accept Keoki as one of the family… but he never went so far as Trixie’s special treatment.
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Keoki sits in on a rehearsal with the Tiki Tones.
Keoki spent his last year with Woody and Trixie (and, of course, his four cat cousins). Even though I think he liked not having to climb the stairs of our old apartment and loved having the space to wander around… not to mention my roommate’s generous contribution of a nice meaty bone every now and then… he took a turn into old age there, too. A little blind, a little hard of hearing (sometimes I swear it was selective), a little obstinate, a little less husky; we started calling him “old man.”
One benefit of his increasingly dulled senses was that thunder, firecrackers and other loud, sudden noises didn’t bother him any more. Hilariously, we discovered he’d acquired a taste for groovy lounge and surf music when we hosted a rehearsal for my girlfriend’s band, the Tiki Tones, and Keoki cheerfully sat himself down right in the middle of the action.
Hm… how come he usually left the room when I practiced..?
Musical taste aside, he was a good dog.
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Keoki Deer Butt
Keoki, like many bigger dogs, had always had a few “skin tags” — little flaps and bumps — on his body and his head. In his last year one of those, just above his left ear, started to get very large. It never bothered him, didn’t seem to hurt him… but eventually it started to weep fluid and blood.
I took him to the vet, and, as suspected, she diagnosed it as a cancerous tumor. She advised me that the cost to remove it would be over $1,500.00, and that, in her opinion, it would grow back with a vengeance a month later.
The decision: try to keep the sore clean and let him continue to live out his days until, as the vet put it, he stops doing his “three favorite things.”
My girlfriend and I had a laugh at that… his three favorite things were sleeping in the bedroom, sleeping in my office, and sleeping in the “yellow room,” as we called it.
Well, okay.
The next three weeks of my time were largely occupied with cleaning his lump… and cleaning bloodstains off carpet, dog beds and, when he shook, the walls. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t fun. He didn’t enjoy the dried blood and fluid that unavoidably accumulated on his ear, and while he liked it when I cleaned him off, it never lasted long.
I started to think about everyone’s quality of life… not just my boy’s. Also… did I really want to wait until Keoki was visibly in pain and constantly miserable before we said goodbye? Why put him through that?
I made the decision that I would have him put down before that happened. When that would be… I wasn’t sure. The decision was hard enough.
Because he was a good dog, Keoki spared me from choosing when he would go.
The morning of August 2, 2012, my girlfriend and I were yanked out of the half-sleep between hitting “snooze” on the alarm clock by a noise from the kitchen and a “wuff” that could only be a rare but tired bark from Keoki. It wasn’t like anything I’d heard from him before… he was telling us, “Hey, guys? A little help..?”
I found him in the kitchen, where we was sprawled on his belly, his legs behind and before him like an X. His breathing was labored. He tried to get up, but his legs weren’t having any of that. I didn’t exactly know what had happened, but I knew he was going.
So I crouched down with my face near his, pet his jowls and his snout and the back of his head like he liked, and stayed with Keoki until he felt safe enough to die.
Ultimately, it wasn’t the skin cancer that got him… he was just, well, old. Probably his heart; maybe a stroke. He was anywhere from three to six when we got him at the shelter; I told people he was about thirteen. We’ll never know for sure, so I’m going with that.
It’s been about two weeks. I’m a sappy guy; I cried when I picked up his crap in the dog run for the last time. I have a a thirty pound bag of dog food, half full, that I don’t like to look at. I’m not filling in the blanks of his absence with little half-seen phantoms of his blocky, space-filling presence anymore, like I did the first few days after he died, but I still miss him a lot.
Everybody liked Keoki, and he liked everybody. He was not my first dog, but he was my first dog, the first dog I was essentially responsible for and who treated me like his only master. While we shared houses with my second wife and then with my girlfriend and he loved them both, I was his dad. His best friend.
I’m grateful for the experience, and I miss my boy.
That’s all.
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August 8, 2012
Recent Podcast Interviews Supporting The Pilgrimage Kickstarter Effort
[image error]My creative life in the month of August is largely dominated by the neo-patronage crowdfunding campaign to finance my next book, “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” In order to generate interest and build support, I’m appearing on a number of podcasts — as many as will have me in the next twenty days or so!
Each of these shows deserve your support and attention (even when they post episodes that don’t feature me as a guest)! Please give each one a listen by clicking through, and be sure to leave your feedback on each show in their comments sections. Like what you hear? Subscribe to the shows so you don’t miss an episode!
The Seekrit Projekt — August 1, 2012 episode. Hosts Scott Roche and David Sobkowiak help me get my audio legs again in my first podcast appearance anywhere in almost a year.
The Dead Robots Society — On a Pilgrimage With Matthew Wayne Selznick. Despite Justin Macumber, Terry Mixon and Paul Elard Cooley’s best attempts to drag things into the gutter, we have a fun discussion not just about my Kickstarter project, but also on the artistic friction between free and for-pay and professionals and hobbyists.
The Roundtable Podcast — On a Pilgrimage With Matthew Wayne Selznick (It’s kind of like two debutantes showing up in the same dress…) Dave Robison, Brion Humphrey and I go beyond crowdfunding and deep into the weeds on the sociological motivation behind the popularity of super-heroes… a great discussion!
More podcast appearances and guest blog posts to come… and if you’d like to have me as a guest on your show or site, please let me know! Together, we’ll tell everyone we know about the Kickstarter campaign for “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” and make sure it succeeds!
This is a post from Matthew Wayne Selznick. Thanks for reading Recent Podcast Interviews Supporting The Pilgrimage Kickstarter Effort -- please click through and comment! If you like what you've read, I hope you will subscribe to Matthew Wayne Selznick's free e-mail newsletter for exclusive content and deals on Matt's products and services.
July 28, 2012
A Crowdfunding Campaign For Pilgrimage – A Novel of the Sovereign Era
Seven years after the publication of a little thing called “Brave Men Run,” it’s time to see if the world is ready for a new novel in the Sovereign Era storyworld. Presenting: a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to finance “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” Here’s the skinny:
As I reported in early June, friends and fans surveyed were very strongly in favor of a crowdfunding campaign to bring a new Sovereign Era novel into the world.
It’s taken me since then to work out the logistics of the campaign — estimating expense, balancing that against what I might actually receive in-hand after fees and taxes, and weighing that against the amount other campaigns for novels seem to be able to support. It was an education!
I’ll know in a month if I made the right choices… and if fans of my work are truly ready to invest in another Sovereign Era book.
You Can Help Make “Pilgrimage” A Reality
If you’re a friend, a fan of my work, a supporter of independent creative endeavors, or a patron of independent publishing, I’d love your help in seeing this crowdfunding campaign reaches its goals. Here’s how:
Pledge $1.00, $5.00, $10.00, $25.00, $50.00 or more to financially support the creation of “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” This is the most direct thing you can do, of course. Be sure to visit the campaign home page to learn more about the rewards planned for each pledge level.
Spread the word to your friends! You’ll see a bunch of social media icons at the bottom of this post — share it! You can do the same thing if you’re reading this in an RSS reader. The important thing is to tell everyone you know about the Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” — everyone who might be interested, that is!
Link to the campaign home page on social bookmarking and “cool stuff” aggregation sites like Reddit, BoingBoing, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest and Tumblr (for starters!)
Thanks for your support, folks. I can’t wait to see what happens with this!
This is a post from Matthew Wayne Selznick. Thanks for reading A Crowdfunding Campaign For Pilgrimage – A Novel of the Sovereign Era -- please click through and comment! If you like what you've read, I hope you will subscribe to Matthew Wayne Selznick's free e-mail newsletter for exclusive content and deals on Matt's products and services.
July 7, 2012
Introducing Storyworlds Magazine
[image error]Since late May, in between chasing freelance gigs and keeping my financial head above water, I’ve been building something. Storyworlds Magazine is a webzine that “publishes stand-alone fiction set in an author’s larger storyworld, as well as art evoking worlds extending beyond the edges of the image, into the imagination.” Storyworlds Magazine is a subscription-supported paying market via a royalty sharing and affiliate model that might be the first of its kind. And the Storyworlds Magazine submissions desk is open!
The Big Ideas Behind Storyworld Magazine*
Storyworlds Magazine is the offspring of a creative conviction and a storytelling passion.
The Creator’s Responsibility
A few months back, I wrote about what I assert are the six essentials for fiction writers. Number five on that list is Publication / Marketing.
After more than a quarter century of releasing music, zines and other creative endeavors according to the DIY ethic both online and off — especially as widespread acceptance of disintermediation and neo-patronage has spread in the last decade — I’m convinced of two things:
Creators have a responsibility to reach the largest, best audience possible for their work
It is essential to develop a direct relationship between creator and audience that is simultaneously one-to-one and one-to-many
It’s just not enough to create something and leave it to others to promote and market it. Indeed, writers, especially, are expected to promote their own work. Publishers either don’t have, or won’t dedicate, the budget, and besides, there are long-term career benefits to a writer who embraces this essential responsibility.
Storyworlds
For as long as I can remember — certainly as long as I’ve been consuming narrative media — I’ve loved the concept of the storyworld.
What’s a storyworld? Here’s how I define it at Storyworlds Magazine:
A storyworld is a common milieu, setting, or universe for multiple works of narrative fiction. Often, the distinct works set in a storyworld tell a larger, interconnected story, but the threads between each piece may be slender indeed. Sometimes, the only commonality between works is the storyworld itself.
Examples are easy to find in every medium and genre:
The Marvel and DC comics universes
The New York of Archie Bunker, Maude Findlay, George Jefferson, and Florida Evans
Stephen King’s Castle Rock, Maine
Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton universe
Larry Niven’s Known Space
Jan Karon’s Mitford
Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City
Robert Lynn Aspin’s Thieves World
The shared universe of “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful”
I believe one of the most exciting opportunities for storytellers today is the development of their own storyworlds to drive their careers and personal franchises.
Put It All Together: Storyworlds Magazine
Storyworlds Magazine combines these concepts to present short fiction set in the author’s established storyworld, from creators who possess an demonstrable online presence and the willingness to promote their own work.
Reading issues of Storyworlds Magazine requires a monthly subscription (planned at $2.97 per month). Once I have six months of inventory, I’ll roll out a bi-annual subscription rate; once I have twelve months, the annual subscription rate will be introduced. Each month, 50% of revenue will be used to pay authors and artists according to something I’m calling the Contributor Collaborative Compensation Model, which you can read about on the Storyworlds Magazine About page.
The basic idea behind the Contributor Collaborative Compensation Model: I expect creators to support their creations through promotion to their audiences, and the compensation model addresses that editorial philosophy directly.
Authors, Artists And Readers: Find Out More About Storyworlds Magazine
I’m currently vetting fiction and art submissions for the first few issues. If you’re an author or artist who fits the Storyworlds Magazine submission guidelines, I encourage you to submit something before August 31, 2012 in order to be eligible for acceptance in the first issues.
Whether you’re a potential reader or contributor, I hope you’ll sign up to the announcement mailing list for updates as Storyworlds Magazine gets closer and closer to its first issue.
What Do You Think About Storyworlds Magazine?
Storyworlds Magazine is already generating some passionate discussion among writers and readers. I’d love to hear what you think about this authorpreneurial endeavor… please leave a comment, and don’t hesitate to share this with folks you think might be interested in Storyworlds Magazine!
Apologies / acknowledgement to John Scalzi
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June 9, 2012
What’s Next For The Sovereign Era Storyworld
[image error]About a month ago, I asked folks to answer six questions on the viability of a new Sovereign Era book. That survey closed when May ended, so it’s time to go over the results and talk about what it might mean.
Brave Men Run and What Might Come Next – Survey Results
There were six questions, and some of the answers took you out of the survey. 173 people participated.
Are you familiar with the book “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” by Matthew Wayne Selznick? — All but thirteen people answered yes, which isn’t surprising given that “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” was my introduction to most of the people interested in my creative work. For the thirteen people who answered “no,” this was a one-question survey.
How have you experienced “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” by Matthew Wayne Selznick? — Ten people replied that they were familiar with the book but had not read or listened to it. They were shown the exit, in so far as the survey as concerned. Of the remaining 142 folks, almost 68% (117) heard the free podcast edition. Happily, 91 also spent money on one of the for-pay editions of the book. A sub-question revealed that, for those who had not, 32 folks planned to buy the book in the next six months. Thanks, future supporters!
Would you purchase a new book featuring Nate Charters and other characters from “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era?” — 131 say yes, and 11 people are finished with the survey.
Would you contribute monetarily to a crowdfunding campaign to fund the creation and publishing of such a book? — Ah, here’s the big question, and the point of the survey. Twenty five people respectfully declined, but 106 folks said yes — and most of them left an e-mail address so they can be notified when and if a campaign is launched.
What Does This Mean For The Sovereign Era?
The next novel set in my Sovereign Era storyworld, most likely titled “Pilgrimage,” is plotted and outlined. The answers to two questions will determine when and if it gets written and published:
Are people interested in it?
Can I afford it?
The survey, if I assume that respondents represent a sampling of my larger audience, indicates that there is sufficient interest in another Sovereign Era book, even seven years after the first one. That’s nice to know!
Why Even Ask If I Can Afford It?
Some folks reading this might be confused. “What do you mean, ‘can I afford it?’ Just write the thing, Selznick.”
Here’s the reality of the situation: I do a lot of creative stuff. Some of that creative stuff is for other people… some of it is for myself. Either way, most of my revenue comes from my creativity. It’s not a hobby; it’s not a part-time job.
I depend on creativity to pay my bills, put food on my plate and in my pets’ bowls, and pay the rent.
So, when I look at creative projects, those that earn me money today take priority. That means, for now, my clients’ needs earn the majority of my attention, time and energy. My own creative projects come second… and my own creative projects are further prioritized based on their potential for income, weighed by the time and effort involved in bringing them to market.
That’s just part of what it means to be a professional creator.
A novel takes a huge chunk of energy, resources, money, and time to write, edit, produce, bring to market, and promote. That’s energy, resources and time deducted from the pool I can spend on paying clients… and that means, likewise, a novel-sized deduction to income necessary to live.
Right now… I can’t afford it.
Unless a big portion of that novel-sized deduction to my income is accounted for while I’m creating the book.
Crowdfunding Pilgrimage
I’m planning to crowdfund the writing, editing, production, publication, distribution and promotion of “Pilgrimage — A Novel of the Sovereign Era,” which may also be referred to as volume two of the Charters Duology. I’ll be getting cozy with a spreadsheet in the coming week, figuring out exactly how much money I’ll need… and if that number matches what I realistically think I can raise in a thirty day campaign.
And to those of you who participated in the survey… thanks very much!
This is a post from Matthew Wayne Selznick. Thanks for reading What’s Next For The Sovereign Era Storyworld -- please click through and comment! If you like what you've read, I hope you will subscribe to Matthew Wayne Selznick's free e-mail newsletter for exclusive content and deals on Matt's products and services.
June 6, 2012
Thank You, Ray
“When you’re a child, you begin to dream yourself into a shape… and then you run into the future and try to become that shape.”
“A writer’s past is the most important thing he has.”
“I discovered — along the way — I was a collector of metaphors.”
“Love is at the center of your life. The things that your do should be things that you love. And things that you love should be things that you do.”
Ray Bradbury was a more profound influence in my life than either of the men I could call “father.” Today, after more than ninety one years on the planet (seventy eight of them spent at the age of thirteen), my story-father has died.
I miss knowing he’s out there somewhere, surrounded by the artifacts of his imagination, working away.
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I am so grateful for his words, and his worlds, and his example. Would that we could all, like Ray, live forever.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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June 1, 2012
Talking Copyright For Authors On the Books and Beer Show
[image error]I had the honor to be a guest on the Books and Beer video show hosted by the folks over at Epublish Unum. Intellectual property attorney Ruth Carter and I took questions from hosts Evo Terra and Jeff Moriarty on copyright for authors, illicit file sharing, Creative Commons, and other subjects of interest to independent creators.
Watch Books and Beer: Copyright Realities for Digital Authors
Check it out!
What did you think about our Books and Beer show on copyright for authors? Let me know in the comments!
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Presenting Eighth Day Genesis
[image error] I’m pleased to announce the new anthology of essays on worldbuilding and subcreation from Alliteration Ink, “Eighth Day Genesis,” which happens to include an essay from yours truly.
The book is intended to be treated as a textbook for worldbuilding and features articles and essays from nearly two dozen authors and other creators (here are some of their other works). My own piece, “History for Story’s Sake, or, No One Cares Who The Emperor Was 500 Years Ago. Unless They Should,” addresses how one’s worldbuilding should never overshadow the story it serves, and how crafting a fictional world’s history, in particular, is an opportunity to enhance and enrich a storyworld. Here’s a taste:
There are those who worldbuild for the sake of worldbuilding, and those who worldbuild in order to add verisimilitude to a particular storyworld and depth to the stories set there. Those who worldbuild for fun can, and do, refine their creations to as detailed a degree as they like. A hobbyist can spend years adding to their creation, right down to descriptions of individual shopkeepers in every village and every proverbial (or even, perhaps, literal) blade of grass… or whatever passes for grass in their world.
If you’re engineering a storyworld, writing a piece of fiction, or designing a video, role-playing, or other game that calls for some degree of worldbuilding, it can be easy to fall into the trap of going too far in the development of the secondary creation that is meant to serve that larger creative endeavor. It’s possible to go too far down the rabbit hole of worldbuilding and never emerge to tell the actual story, especially for independent creators working on spec, when the actual creative process might just be their only reward.
One area in which this creative self-deception can be especially seductive is the in-world history of a storyworld. After all, histories are, themselves, little stories…
It was fun to write, and serves as a nice sidebar, of sorts, to my own ongoing series, “Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creators.”
Buy “Eighth Day Genesis”
“Eighth Day Genesis” is available in ebook formats for the Kindle, Nook, and as an epub/mobi bundle directly from Alliteration Ink. The publisher splits 70% of net proceeds between the authors, so the more we sell… the more we make!
Thanks! And if you’ve read “History for Story’s Sake,” I’d love to hear about it in the comments here… and a review at Amazon.com wouldn’t hurt, either!
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May 24, 2012
Six Essentials For Fiction Writers
[image error]Everyone loves a pithy list, right? I’ve written a couple of them, myself. This list of six essentials for fiction writers originally appeared in the Indie Writers Unite Facebook group in a discussion that asked the questions, “Are your stories plot based or character based? Which do you prefer writing?”
My short answer was that the question presented a false dichotomy — that both are essential and interwoven. As the discussion went on, I came up with a list of six essentials fiction writers must address with equal priority. Ignore any of these — favor one over another — and the work will suffer.
I want to bring the list to a larger audience and open the discussion to you, dear reader. So here we go:
Six Essentials For Fiction Writers
Conflict: Two people are thirsty and there’s one glass of water.
Plot: What do they do to get the glass of water?
Character: Why do they do what they do?
Theme: What does the expression of conflict, plot and character say about the human experience?
Publication / Marketing: Who experiences the work?
Art: What emotions are inspired by the work, and do they match the author’s intention?
I believe that all of these elements are equally essential… and that the work that comes after the writing is just as important as the writing.
Yes, publication and marketing are part of being an author: to call the work complete, it must be experienced by someone other than its creator.
Emphasize any of these elements above the others, and your fiction will be less than it can be.
Is it difficult to balance all the essential elements, and to do each one well?
Absolutely. It’s certainly something I struggle with. But it’s necessary. Nothing worthwhile is without challenges, right?
How Well Are You Addressing The Six Essentials For Fiction Writers?
Where are your strengths and weaknesses with regard to these essential elements? Do you think I’m on to something here, or do you disagree? for exclusive content and deals on Matt's products and services.
May 19, 2012
Introducing Consultation Services
[image error]Lately, I’ve had a few meetings, both virtually and in-person, with independent authors to help them with their branding and social media marketing strategies. It occurred to me that I might want to make that an official part of my kit bag of services.
Announcing virtual or in-person consultation from MWS Media!
Real Time Consultation
I do a lot of general mentoring via e-mail and in dedicated groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and elsewhere on the subjects of writing, storyworld construction, ethical social media marketing and search engine optimization, website usability, and other topics related to the execution and promotion of independent creative endeavors.
It’s fun, and fulfills my commitment to building community as part of the DIY ethic.
Sometimes, though, the best way to help someone with their specific needs is a conversation.
That’s what I offer with my consultation service: personalized advice in real time via the telephone, Skype (audio only, or video if the client prefers) or Google+ Hangout (video). If the client is within twenty miles of postal code 90807 in the United States, we can even meet in person.
Learn More About Scheduling A Consultation
Visit the brand-spanking new Consultation page at MWS Media for more details on my availability, pricing, and a few possible ways I can help you in a one-on-one consultation.
If you’re sold and want to jump right in, schedule a consultation right now!
How can I help you?
This is a post from Matthew Wayne Selznick. Thanks for reading Introducing Consultation Services -- please click through and comment! If you like what you've read, I hope you will subscribe to Matthew Wayne Selznick's free e-mail newsletter for exclusive content and deals on Matt's products and services.
