Matthew Wayne Selznick's Blog, page 21

What's Been Up and How's It Going – August 2011

It's been a month and a half since I've posted anything here… my, that time went fast! So… hello! Here's how it's going for Matthew Wayne Selznick, and what's been up, for those who care about such things. If you're still reading, hey, thanks so much, this is for you!

First of all, to those of you who may be checking out my website thanks to our new social media relationship on Google+… welcome! I'm enjoying Google's latest and, so far, best attempt to conquer the social media sphere, and I hope you are, too. If you're interested in adding me to your circles in Google+, find me here… and please, make sure your profile is filled out so I know what circles to put you in! Need an invitation to Google Plus? Leave a comment on this post and be sure to fill out your email with your Gmail address (I'm the only one who will see it) and I'll do what I can!

So What's Up?

I spent most of the last half of June and most of July gradually moving my worldly belongings (minus a bunch of stuff I managed to purge) into my girlfriend's house across town. I'm glad to be here… except for days when one of us was out of town, we've spent every day together for the last year anyway, so it's nice to be under the same roof for reals and for true.

I mean, really, really nice. I'm still surrounded by a crapload of stuff that needs to be unpacked and tucked away, and there's a little stress among our pets as they get used to each other, but wow, it's good to come home to her.

The move, and associated chores and logistics, has taken most of my mental and physical energy in the last month and a half. There's been no writing, very little creative time, next to no time for client work save very special exceptions. Life has been day job, packing, moving, unpacking, sleeping, repeat, with just a few gotta-have-a-day-for-myself breaks.

It's truly a joy just to be writing this blog post, even though I've got a pile of boxes to unpack.

What's Planned

I tell you, I'm excited to get back to making things. I don't know if you can relate — if you're a creative in some fashion, I bet you can — but I'm just beginning to get enough space in my life to allow that kind of itchy, wormy feeling in the back of my brain to return… it's the drive to create. The fact that the urge is nagging again is a great thing.

So I'm heeding that call. Things are coming. Things like two regular blog series. A return to writing on "Light of the Outsider" and, yes, "Pilgrimage," and that means new episodes of "Writing 'Light,'" too. Chipping away at opening the Sovereign Era storyworld to outside participation. Some music. Stuff. Things. Heck, I've even got a rare gratis voice acting gig I'll be doing in the next couple of weeks.

A Necessary Absence

I've been away, kids, but it's been a necessary absence. I've been doing things to move my life — the best part of my life — forward in wonderful ways. Now that the girl — let's call her CMW to preserve her privacy since she's not an online native like myself — anyway, now that CMW and I are under the same roof, I'm ready and very excited to get back to nourishing the creative part of my soul.

I'm back. Stay tuned.

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Falling Skies: An Invitation From The 2nd Mass

Thanks to the fact that social networking reputation monitor Klout considers me a Specialist in my areas of expertise, I received a package from TNT promoting "Falling Skies," a science fiction drama premiering Sunday, June 19th.

In "Falling Skies," it's several months after an invading extraterrestrial force has killed off most of humanity and we're following a former history professor struggling to keep his family together while his knowledge of battles past helps him fight for the future.

Jeez, read that out loud, but try it with a Don LaFontaine voice: "This summer… he's struggling to keep his family together… while his knowledge of battles past… helps him fight for the future…!" I should write copy, I tell you what. Oh, wait, I do.

Anyway, TNT sent me a box of branded "gear" to get me in the mood to fight aliens with Noah Wiley:

That's a plastic canteen, a compass, a baseball cap, a hipster bookbag, a map of Boston (the "Mass" stands for Massachussets) and a child's drawing of aliens and humans fighting. The whole thing came packed in shredded faux straw that I now have all over everything. Points for verisimilitude but the agency who put this together gets dinged for making people clean this crap up.

A big part of my day job is spent coming up with gimmicks like this — in fact, the agency where I work pitched on "Falling Skies" but ended up not working on it. So this whole thing is interesting to me as a marketer and as a creator. Let's take a closer look:

The 2ND MASS COMMAND Plan And How It Falls Short Of Engaging

Bottom line, the goal is to get influential people talking about "Falling Skies" so lots of other people will tune in to watch. This is a buzz-building campaign that places participants in an "Army of Influence" with a prize of a walk-on role on "Falling Skies" for the top influencer.

To play along and get on the leaderboard, I have to follow @2NDMASS on Twitter. No problem; done. Then I have to tweet about these goodies I got and other "Falling Skies" stuff with the hashtag #fsincentivized. Okay. But…

This is where I think someone (probably not at the agency but rather in the chain of approval at TNT) started taking the easy path instead of really creating a fun, immersive experience that might just get people truly excited about the show.

The tweets coming from @2NDMASS, which number six as of this writing, kind of aim to create a narrative but it's lazy, lazy, lazy. There's only the barest concession to storytelling:

June 1st, we're told that "They're here." An obligatory tip of the hat to the classic line from "Poltergeist," which producer Stephen Spielberg had a hand in all those years ago, but… now what?

Later on June 1st: "They've taken our children, destroyed our homes and forced us into hiding. We have to fight back. We have to resist." And later still on the same day, "Welcome to the resistance www.2ndmass.com."

What a tremendous lost opportunity. That first tweet should have been weeks before, followed by daily tweets from someone "in world" from 2nd Mass describing the breakdown of civilization and order as the alien assault kicks our asses. The tweet about the kids being taken could have been expanded into a thrilling experience across several messages as the horrific situation becomes known, so that when the "Welcome to the resistance" call to action (that isn't actually a call to action) is posted, you're hooked, you're invested, and you're fascinated.

Instead, there's one or two more bashful tweets on June 1st and then radio silence for two weeks, when we're asked "Are you with us" and the #fsincentivized hashtag is introduced. Then nothing again until yesterday. I mean, if you're not going to take advantage of the fact that you chose a username that ties directly to the story, why bother? Just buy @fallingskies from Casey Ferrer, who has only tweeted thirty times and whose handful of followers won't miss his / her tweets about Lady Gaga and playing solitaire anyway. Seriously. Own your brand.

Also: #fsincentivized? What does that mean to someone who isn't directly involved? What does it tell the uninitiated about "Falling Skies?" Nothing, that's what. And that's a failure. This could have been so much smarter.

"Falling Skies" Could Have Been A Story World

TNT's slogan is "We Know Drama." I've seen the pilot for "Falling Skies," and they're certainly going for interpersonal, character-based conflicts over science fiction action. The show's one big science-fiction-y mystery is practically spelled out for anyone with experience in the genre and there's a lot of (here's that word again) lazy science in favor of pushing the story forward, but it's really not about making the secret a good one that makes sense… it's about having a plot turn in the middle of the second act (or middle of the season or show's run, whichever comes first) to drive the character drama.

There's a lot of hinted-at backstory in the pilot that could have been perfect for a transmedia story world. TNT claims to know drama, but when they're presented with a product front-loaded with dramatic opportunities, what did they do? They produced a comic with Dark Horse that served as a prequel, but what about all those other stories that could be told? This is a setting where most of the human race and all of our infrastructure has been wiped out. There are six billion stories to tell. Where are they? They didn't even opt to tell one with their Twitter feed, so far, at least, which should have been a given.

This is frustrating, but as I mentioned above, it's probably not the fault of the creators of the show or even the agency charged with promoting it. The fault likely lies with TNT, where, as with any large entertainment entity, the chain of command draws ever tighter around the neck of risk and innovation the higher you go. That's partly due to simple economics, of course — there's only so much room in the marketing budget and it's much safer to go with a couple of Flash games and web sites.

If that's going to be the case, perhaps it's time to make room for the development of story worlds in the production budget? Perhaps it's time to think of marketing and content as parts of the whole creative endeavor?

"Falling Skies" Still Has A Chance To Be Interesting

Let's say viewers take to the soap-opera-with-guns tone of "Falling Skies" and show up for the first few episodes, and TNT gives it a full season or even picks it up for a second. It's not too late to build the "Falling Skies" story world, and it doesn't even have to cost a whole lot of money. The fans can build the content, the producers decide what becomes canon (maybe even integrating viewer content into the show) and as for paying for it all, well, that's what the sponsors are for, no?

I've got a few notions of how this would actually work, but rather than spilling them all here, let's see what happens across the summer as "Falling Skies" succeeds or fails. If the fans show up across demographic lines like TNT hopes, the producers of the show will have a lot of creative raw material at their disposal. Will they use it?

What do you think about "Falling Skies" and their marketing efforts?

Matthew Wayne Selznick - Telling stories with words, music, pictures and people.

Welcome, Dead Robots' Society Readers

Have you arrived here after reading my guest blog post over at The Dead Robots' Society, "What Every Modern Writer Needs To Know?" Well, hello… and please, don't mind the mess!

You see, I've been hard at work on a variety of changes and refinements here at mattselznick.com, including the steps necessary to put into motion the very thing I wrote about over on the Dead Robots' Society site: building an online environment suitable not just for a writer but for a creator… and more, a storyteller. In fact, I'll soon be opening the doors on the first of several Story Worlds and putting my creativity where my mouth is. I'm designing ways for creators to work together to tell the stories of an entire universe through a mosaic of content. Stay tuned — sign up for the Matt Selznick / MWS Media email newsletter, or "like" my Facebook page to learn the latest!

Despite my best efforts and several late nights, I wasn't able to get everything in place in time to coincide with my guest blog post appearing at The Dead Robots Society. For the moment, you may find some things just don't work. Breaking eggs to make omelettes, and all that. Even so, I hope you'll stick around, and I'm very interested in reading your comments on "What Every Modern Writer Needs To Know."

Welcome!

Some Trouble In These Parts?

Hi there! If you're visiting this site via Chrome or Firefox and you're a Google user, you probably aren't reading this… instead, you're seeing a grim, nasty screen warning you that this site contains malware. Which is kind of unfair — dig a little deeper and you'll find that the warning really just means the site might contain malware… but who's gonna stick around and find out?

Rest assured, I'm not trying to spread digital herpes. Someone else might be, and they might be using my site to piggyback on. I'm working that out. Meanwhile, if you can see the site at all, you'll see it looks a little different while things get squared away.

While that's all getting taking care of, you can still find me — and updates on my creative endeavors — over on my official Facebook page. "Like" my Facebook page to get a special deal on my latest short story in a signed and numbered limited edition handmade chapbook edition!

Meanwhile, I'll be hunting wabbits over here…

Thanks for reading "Some Trouble In These Parts?," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

No Side Projects. Only Projects

My last episode of Writing "Light," the video podcast sparked a bit of discussion with, and a blog post by, Tim Ward about how focus on your current creative work can be threatened and diverted by the pull of all those other things you want to make and do. After a few months of very consciously exploring how I work and understanding more precisely how I'd like to work, I've come to have a new perspective on the apparently not uncommon war between the Big Project and all those pesky Side Projects.

How does one avoid feeling guilty about the siren call of all those ideas in your head, those creative germs that have yet to achieve the status of "endeavor" because you're putting all your time and energy into the thing your trying to get done now?

Simple. Recognize that there are no side projects. There are only projects. Each one has the value of a primary project while you're doing it. When do you focus on one project over another? When you feel like it.

This is how I've been doing it. The approach is adapted from Mark Forster's Autofocus system, which is explained by this handy little interview:

To summarize:

Make a list of things you want and need to do
Review the list and see what appeals to you the most
Do that thing until you don't want to do it any more
Is it done? Scratch it off the list
Is it not done? Scratch it off the list and add it to the end of the list
Repeat

Since I have several creative projects in mind at any one time, this is an excellent way to determine what I should be doing right now. Everything appeals to me in varying degrees at different times, and each one has equal potential for artistic and fiscal reward.

All of these things are projects. None of these things are side projects.

Will it take longer to get any one thing done? Perhaps. But life is unpredictably, unfairly short. I'd rather get some of the way into many things, inevitably finishing one after the other, than do one or two things completely at the expense of getting to at least begin playing with all the others.

The lovely thing about this approach is that it's self-regulating. Remember, the point is to look at your list and do the thing that "speaks" to you the loudest. If you trust yourself, you'll be drawn to the project that is most enticing at that moment. A particular project will likely get a larger portion of you total attention because you're really enjoying it, or because, perhaps in the case of a commissioned work, there's an external incentive. The same reasons will dictate how long you spend on the project before moving on to something else.

Take this blog post. I put it on my list last week. I created a draft post on May 10th but apparently didn't feel like doing much more with it then, because I didn't start writing it until May 12th. It's May 16th and I think I might finish it tonight… but I didn't even start on it until I wrote six hundred or so words of "Light of the Outsider," ran out of gas on that but still had some creative energy in me. A glance at the list and this blog post jumped out.

Earlier this year, before I adopted this approach, I was spending pretty much all my creative capital on "Light of the Outsider" and on "Writing 'Light.'" I wasn't really blogging at all, though I felt like I had some things to say. I also felt the nagging pressure of my still-unfinished website redesign, and the formatting of a new short story e-book… but I mostly pushed those things aside or, worse, felt a little guilty when I succumbed to working on them instead of adding words to the first draft of "Light of the Outsider."

Now, with the freedom to do any creative endeavor I want whenever I want, I feel like I have more incentive and more ambition. Writing until you are (for the moment) no longer interested, rather than writing until you meet some arbitrary word count or log a specific amount of time in the chair, is a little like the difference between eating until you are full and eating until your plate is clean. The former leaves you satisfied, while the latter just leaves you uncomfortable, sore and maybe even resentful of the whole darn situation.

It's working well for me. I'd love to hear how you deal with the press of many projects. Do you maintain tight focus on one creative endeavor at a time and manage to keep all the others in check (or not?) Or do you flow from project to project, letting each one accumulate a little more nacre until you have a pearl or two? Perhaps you have an entirely different approach to dealing with the demands of you creativity.

Let's talk about it in the comments.

Thanks for reading "No Side Projects. Only Projects," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

Writing Light Episode Ten: Process, Expectation, Responsibility

Every time I write another five thousand words of my new fantasy thriller, "Light of the Outsider," I film another episode of "Writing 'Light.'" In this episode, I talk about learning what my process is and how it ties in with my own expectations and self-imposed responsibilities as a creator.

Please spread the word about "Writing 'Light'" and "Light of the Outsider" by "Liking" and sharing this post on Facebook, favoriting and rating the video on YouTube, embedding episodes on your blog, and telling everyone you know. Thanks!

Thanks for reading "Writing Light Episode Ten: Process, Expectation, Responsibility," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

A Last Word On E-Book Pricing

There's been a lot of discussion in certain niches of the Internet on the subject of e-book pricing. Like most passionate debates, it's very important to a very small number of people: mostly independent authors or wanna-be authors who are excited at the possibilities offered by inexpensive electronic publishing. The subject was made even more compelling when the high-dollar paydays of a few authors became big news in the publishing industry.

I've sold e-books since 2005, but I've remained mostly quiet on the subject. I wanted to watch what other others — particularly friends and colleagues — had to say. The more I read in blog posts or heard on podcasts, the more convinced I became that e-book pricing is almost entirely an arbitrary matter of personal judgement and philosophy.

So. Here's my last word on e-book pricing.

My e-books are / will be priced as follows:

Flash fiction (up to 1,000 words): $0.50

Short stories and essays (1,001 to 7,500 words): $0.99

Novelettes (7,501 to 17,500 words): $1.49

Novellas (17,501 to 40,000 words): $1.99

Novels (40,001 to 100,000 words): $2.99

Anthologies: $2.99

Book-length non-fiction: $4.99

What's my reasoning? Not surprisingly, entirely arbitrary and personal. I don't believe price denotes quality. I do believe that word count = time spent creating. I've got various calculations connecting words written per hour to copies sold to recoup that time… you should see the spreadsheet, it's ridiculous.

I also believe that non-fiction should be more expensive than fiction, either because non-fiction has repeat value as reference material or because it requires more rigorous research — take your pick; I told you it was arbitrary. Finally, anthologies (regardless of length) have to be at least as much as novels because the profit is split between the contributors.

Make sense? That's okay; it barely does to me.

So that's my last word on e-book pricing. Until such time as I change my mind, that is.

Thanks for reading "A Last Word On E-Book Pricing," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

Writing Light Episode Nine: Five Thousand Words To Go

From February through May, 2011, I'm sitting down in front of a camera every week to share my progress and insights as I write my second novel, "Light of the Outsider." In this episode, learn about the new schedule for episodes of "Writing 'Light'" and how that schedule is directly dependent upon my writing productivity.

Please spread the word about "Writing 'Light'" and "Light of the Outsider" by "Liking" and sharing this post on Facebook, favoriting and rating the video on YouTube, embedding episodes on your blog, and telling everyone you know. Thanks!

Thanks for reading "Writing Light Episode Nine: Five Thousand Words To Go," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

Writing Light Episode Eight: Feedback Episode: Who's Afraid of the Hero's Journey?

From February through April, 2011, I'm sitting down in front of a camera every week to share my progress and insights as I write my second novel, "Light of the Outsider." This show, "Writing 'Light'" also encourages viewer feedback… and this episode is entirely in response to a voicemail from viewer Roberto Scarloto.

In it, we dig a little deeper into Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" and talk about how awareness of the Hero's Journey motifs can enrich your stories and character development, as well as why I keep the monomyth firmly in mind as I craft "Light of the Outsider" and the rest of my fiction.

Every storyteller of every kind should read "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." Get your copy, and when you do, you'll help me out with a small, automatic commission to support this video podcast.

Have you read "The Hero With A Thousand Faces," and does it resonate in your own writing or other creative endeavor? Tell me about it — or anything else you want to say about this episode of "Writing 'Light'" — in the comments!

Please spread the word about "Writing 'Light'" and "Light of the Outsider" by "Liking" and sharing this post on Facebook, favoriting and rating the video on YouTube, and telling everyone you know. Thanks!

Thanks for reading "Writing Light Episode Eight: Feedback Episode: Who's Afraid of the Hero's Journey?," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.

Writing Light Episode Seven: Tools and Traits

Every weekend from February through April, 2011, I sit down in front of a camera and talk about my previous week's progress writing my second novel "Light of the Outsider." This week, by request, I talk about my habits and the tools and resources I use to write "Light of the Outsider."

Links to places and things mentioned in this episode follow. Note that many links are to Amazon.com, and when you buy the item (or any other item through those links) you'll help me out with a small commission!

The Library Coffeehouse
Fujitsu LifeBook A6020

Windows Vista Home Premium

YWriter
Open Office
Q10
Photoshop
Fractal Terrains
Fractal Mapper
Contour

Dramatica

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Becoming Human

Self-made Man and His Undoing

The Hunting Apes

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

I'd love to hear your experiences with the software and books I've mentioned. I'm betting the viewers would benefit from your suggestions for resources that help you with your own writing, too! Leave your feedback in the comments, or leave a voicemail at 1-757-DIY-MATT (349-6288). Thanks!

Thanks for reading "Writing Light Episode Seven: Tools and Traits," which is from the official website of creator Matthew Wayne Selznick. Click through to comment and find books, short stories, music, videos and more from the author.