R. Scott Boyer's Blog, page 12
July 27, 2015
A Word About Dialog
Here’s an interesting article about writing dialog. I’m not sure I agree that ‘dialog is action,’ but I definitely think dialog should be succinct (Nothing like real conversations!) and ideally work on multiple levels at the same time (Advancing plot, developing characters, building conflict, etc.). I hope you like June’s article and would love to hear people’s thoughts. —Scott
Tips For Writing Dialogue
By June Trop
Dialogue is action. It moves the story forward and demonstrates conflict, the heart of every scene. Besides, external dialogue, a character’s speech to at least one other person, and internal dialogue, a character’s thoughts, reveal personalities and relationships more efficiently and convincingly than any narrated passage.
So how can you make the dialogue you write seem authentic? Just remember you’re not trying to imitate real speech. You are, however, trying to give the impression of real speech, which is much harder.
Real speech is often boring, full of small talk, false starts, and rambling repetitive phrases. Instead, make your characters get to the point directly. Strip their speech down to the essentials. Never mind whether a sentence is complete; fragments are often better. Besides, characters interrupt each other, especially when they’re in the throes of conflict. Just make sure the idioms, grammar, speech patterns, and vocabulary uniquely reflect each character’s social class, education, and age. Even without an attribution tag like “John said,” most of the time your reader should be able to infer that John is the one speaking.
Of course, you’ll need at least an occasional attribution tag when the conversation involves more than two people or when the exchange between a pair of characters is lengthy. So what about attribution tags?
The simplest attribution tag, “he (or Jane) said,” is best. Don’t worry about being m
onotonous. You want your reader to concentrate on the speech rather than the tag anyway. And at all costs, avoid using a tag that refers to body language not speech. For example, avoid tags like this: he snarled, she laughed, or John grinned. Instead, intensify the spoken words or add a gesture to emphasize the speaker’s emotion. Change “‘I think you are being silly,’ Jane laughed,” to something like this: “‘That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever—’ Jane said, choking with laughter.”
If you find yourself writing a solid paragraph of dialogue, then break up the passa
ge. For example, insert a sentence to call attention to a change in the setting, such as a door slamming or the afternoon shadows stretching, or a character’s facial expression, gesture, or movement. Another option is to rewrite the passage as a series of shorter exchanges between the characters.
Finally, read your dialogue aloud to check that it sounds natural, and rework the parts that don’t sound authentic. We read with our ears as well as our eyes. Hear your writing come alive as you use more dialogue and less narrative to tell your story.
About the Author:
June Trop and her twin sister Gail wrote their first story, “The Steam Shavel [sic],” when they were six years old growing up in rural New Jersey. They sold it to their brother Everett for two cents.
Now associate professor emerita at the State University of New York at New Paltz, she devotes her time to writing historical mysteries with a connection to early science. Her heroine, Miriam bat Isaac, is based on the personage of Maria Hebrea, the legendary founder of Western alchemy, who developed the concepts and apparatus alchemists and chemists would use for 1500 years.
June lives with her husband Paul Zuckerman in New Paltz, where she is breathlessly recording the story of her plucky heroine’s next life-or-death exploit.
You can find out more about her on her website www.junetrop.com and on Facebook
July 1, 2015
What To Do With Your Deleted Scenes
About a week ago, I submitted an old post I’d written back in 2013 to BookDaily.com for consideration to be shared with their community of readers. Today I woke up to the wonderful news that my article is being featured in today’s Author Update newsletter. I’ve also been selected as their Featured Author of the Day!
Here is the full article listed on BookDaily.com, originally posted on this site under the title The MultiVerse (The Awesome Power of ‘Save As’).
What To Do With Your Deleted Scenes | BookDaily #AuthorTips
R Scott Boyer July 1, 2015
One of the biggest fears many writers have is not getting it right. Often times, this anxiety can be so debilitating that the story grinds to a halt, the author unable to progress because the story’s current status isn’t perfect (perfection is a myth by the way, but that’s a post for another time). The purpose of this post is to assure my fellow writers that there is a way to escape the incapacitating fear of imperfection. I call it ‘the MultiVerse.’The MultiVerse is the multitude of universes created by alternate versions of the same story. Here’s how it works: any time I feel like something I’m working on is less than perfect crap, I either make a new document where I copy and paste a specific section, or ‘Save As’ and create a whole new draft. Now I’m free to beat, bludgeon, and disembowel the scene I’m working on without fear of harming a single ‘verse’ in the original version. Heaven forbid the new draft ends up worse than the original, I just start over again with another draft in another alternate universe.
I confess it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Like many authors, I frequently get attached to my writing, which makes deleting them especially gut wrenching. Thanks to the MultiVerse, I don’t have to. Whenever I feel the need to carve out or trim down something I really like, I simply make a new file.
In my first novel, Bobby Ether and the Academy, Bobby and Jinx have had dozens of adventures that didn’t make it into the published edition. I had a sixty-page section in which Bobby and his friends explored additional levels of the archives, discovering ancient catacombs, as well as an old headmaster’s crypt.
Due to length (The book was 131k words at the time!), I reworked this section and rewrote it in twelve pages, ditching many scenes I loved dearly. At first I deeply lamented this lost, but later came to accept it. After all, those earlier drafts still exist in the MultiVerse.
The bottom line is that, courtesy of the MultiVerse, nothing is every truly gone. All of those wonderful adventures still exist, like actors frozen in time, ready to resume as soon as their audience returns.
So the next time you’re struggling with what to write next, or afraid to mess up what you’ve already got, take advantage of awesome power of ‘Save As’ and expand your MultiVerse. Then go ahead and explore the possibilities risk-free. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
Where do your deleted scenes go?
About the Author:
R Scott Boyer grew up in Santa Monica, CA and still resides in the Los Angeles area. Graduating from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley in 1996, he started writing the Bobby Ether series with the goal of blending YA fantasy with spiritual fiction. Nowadays, Scott splits his time between managing an insurance brokerage, playing with his Shepherd-mix rescue dog, Patch, and writing. More information about R Scott Boyer, as well as information about his upcoming books can be found on his website at www.RScottBoyer.com
June 19, 2015
Four Aspects of Good Storytelling
I really enjoyed this post by Patrick Brown. The only thing I would add is that the quality of the writing matters, which, to me, is not the same thing as style or editing. You can write in a very clear style (humorous, dark, witty, etc.) and be bad at it. Likewise, a story can be well edited and still not read well. Nonetheless, I thought this article was an excellent description of some of the key aspects that go into good storytelling. – R Scott Boyer
Why Readers Just Aren’t That Into Your Book | BookDaily.com #AuthorTips
Patrick Brown
I had dinner with a friend of mine the other night, and the conversation turned to novels we had recently read. More specifically, we discussed what makes a book a good or interesting read. People like to read fiction for different reasons: some may want to laugh, while others desire a real tear-jerker. Some like action, while others want drama. Some readers may want to think, but others may need to feel. Some may want pieces of all of this. But we all, at the end of the day, want entertainment. Right? So when my pal brought this question up, I thought from both the standpoint of writing my own stuff and reading the work of others. I pinned it down to four main factors and a few minor ones that make a good book good.
CHARACTERS:
This is number one. Good, strong, well-developed characters are a must. We don’t always have to like them, but they should stir some emotion in us from beginning to end. Personally, I prefer at least one likable character – a hero, if you will. Who wants to spend a few days or longer with someone they don’t like or admire? I guess those folks are out there, but I’m not one of them. Strong characters? Lee Child’s protagonist, Jack Reacher, comes to mind as well as Robert Crais’s, Joe Pike. Lawrence Sanders’s, Edward X. Delaney was another terrific guy you’d want on your side. How about Agatha Christie’s, Hercule Poirot? I’ll throw in my guy, Salem Reid, for good measure.
Stephen King may be the master at building solid characters. While less heroic usually, they are often regular folks that we can all relate to as King describes them in his folksy style.
An author can have a great story to tell, but if the characters are not interesting or inspiring, the book will not work.
STORYLINE:
Does it move? Does it flow? Is there action? Important questions. I prefer books that grab my attention in the first chapter. Hooked, I think the term is. Of course, there are other concerns. Is there consistency in the story? Did the girl with green eyes in chapter 4 end up with blue eyes in chapter 25? Not good, but it happens, you know. But my friend and I agreed that one of the most important aspects about a story is this: Does it make you think, feel, or re-assess your opinion or view about something? Did we learn something of value? And finally, the ending. If you’re like me, you’ve read a number of books that were really engaging throughout just to be disappointed at the end of the story because the ending was poor. Maybe it was contrived or unrealistic. Perhaps it didn’t end well for our favorite character, or we were left hanging. So endings are crucial to how we think about the book once we’ve finished. A lame ending to a novel can ruin an otherwise quality effort.
DIALOGUE:
Dialogue is number three for me. Witty, clever, and thoughtful banter between characters makes a book come alive. I’ve heard it said that dialogue drives the story. Joseph Wambaugh creates some great characters in his books. The two surfer cops, Flotsam and Jetsam, who debut in “Hollywood Station”, are hysterical. Their dialogue with each other while cruising the seedy streets of Hollywood is some of the best I’ve encountered.
The four teenage boys in Stephen King’s “The Body” are so real to me because I had those same conversations with my young friends in my youth – it’s the way young guys talk to each other. And it’s timeless; nothing has changed over the years on that score in terms of content.
So slick dialogue moves the book along and keeps us turning pages.
STYLE:
Style is number four for me. A writer that can make you feel that you are “right there” with the characters, involved in the action and setting, is a talented writer indeed. Use of metaphor is the first one that comes to mind, and Gillian Flynn in “Gone Girl” used this tool wonderfully throughout the book.
Humor is my favorite though. I recently read “Casting Shadows Everywhere” by LT Vargus and Tim McBain. I laughed on damn near every page. It was Beavis and Butthead colliding with “Catcher in the Rye”. But despite the humor, the book was pretty dark most of the way through, but these two witty and clever writers pulled it off.
So style points are huge.
It’s worth mentioning that editing has some impact on the overall experience of reading a book too, but unless it is grossly flawed, stumbling through a few errors here and there is mostly tolerable. I want people to tolerate the ones in my novels (and any I make in this blog, please). I’ve yet to see the perfect book, so I think most of us can be a little forgiving in that regard.
So to sum it up, characters, storyline, dialogue, and style are the aspects of writing that will send me back to read an author over and over again, or send me away for good if they can’t pull it off.
What makes a good read to you?
About the Author:
Patrick Brown is a longtime Georgia resident. He currently lives in Northeast Atlanta with his wife and two children. “Varied Traits” is his first work of fiction. He is currently working on his second novel, “Heavy Hour”.
To discover more about Patrick, check him out on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
May 20, 2015
How to Create Conflict In Your Novel
I wish the following article focused more on how to build conflict in the story at large, rather than just in dialog. I don’t necessarily agree with the sentiment that there should be conflict on every page. Sometimes, you need a transition scene, or a cooling off period in between conflict in order to set something up for later. Despite its limitations, however, this post still serves as a useful reminder that story is conflict, and that nuances in the level of conflict can greatly impact character and plot development. – Scott
James R. Callan May 20, 2015
Conflict on Every PageAn important aspect of any novel, be it romance, mystery, western, fantasy, whatever, is conflict. There are many who say there should be conflict on every page. But how do you get conflict on every page? Dialog offers a great opportunity.
Example:
“You sound different today.”
“No I don’t.”
There’s conflict, in seven words.
Now, you might say, that’s not much conflict. That’s okay. Every instance of conflict does not have to be an all out war. But, actually, even this seven word conflict can be as much as you want. It can be slight. “No, I’m fine.” Or you can make it much stronger when the second person is hiding something. Whom that affects, and how it affects him or her, can determine the degree of conflict.
Suppose the first person, a woman, has never met the second person, a man. She has only talked to him on the telephone. Now he sounds different. Is it the same man? Or perhaps the second person has been threatened by a vicious thug who made it clear her child would be killed if she let anyone know about his threat. She is still terrified and her voice is not the same. If the first person pushes it, this can become a full-fledged conflict. But we’ve set it up in just seven words of dialog. Powerful stuff, this dialog.
Think about your novel. How many instances of small conflicts can you add through dialog? Of course, you need to make certain that the conflict fits in nicely with the story. Don’t force it. Look at your characters and determine which ones will be willing to disagree at the drop of a hat. You may have a character who is going through a bad time and is generally mad at the world. He may take exception to almost everything that is said to him.
Example:
“That was a great movie.”
“No it wasn’t. It was terrible. I can’t believe you liked it.” (Conflict)
“Oh, I’m sorry you didn’t like it. I didn’t mean to push my opinion off on you.”
“Stop it. Don’t be so wish-washy on everything. You liked it. I didn’t. That’s it.” (Heightened conflict)
“Sorry.”
“Don’t say you’re sorry. There nothing to be sorry about. We disagree.” (Escalating conflict)
They will still remain friends, but we’ve added conflict through dialog. And we’ve enhanced the reader’s understanding of both characters.
It’s me against me!
(I guess grammatically it should be, “It’s I against me.” But, even though correct, it will stop the average reader. Your book has to read smoothly and sometimes, by a conscious choice, you need to violate a grammar rule.)
The conflict can be within one character. In fact, this is often the case. Certainly Hamlet had a pretty good conflict going on inside his own mind. This will most often be expressed for the reader with internal dialog.
Example:
He looked through the wallet he had picked up off the sidewalk. There were credit cards, driver’s license, other cards. And a wad of money. I could keep the money, sort of a finder’s fee. Return the rest. Say I found the wallet but there was no money in it. Who would know? He looked at the stack of fifties. I would know.
Here, conflict exists, not with another person, but within himself. And this conflict will further the plot, and allow the reader to know this character better.
So remember to introduce conflict through dialog and maybe you can get conflict on every page.
April 23, 2015
What Exactly Does Being A “Successful” Author Mean?
What Exactly Does Being A “Successful” Author Mean?
Christina M. Abt April 23, 2015
A day in the life of an author holds many challenges, the least of which is critical feedback of our work. Recently I received some feedback about my latest book, a work of historical fiction titled, Crown Hill, A Novel of Love, Life and The Afterlife.This particular feedback came from someone close to me who is a part of the publishing world. He told I was wasting my time trying to promote my book, as it had not sold thousands of copies since its publication six months ago. Further, he stated that no reputable publishing house or agent was ever going to be interested in my work at those sales levels.
I have to admit, this well-intended feedback was tough to take. It also was contrary to my purpose and intent in writing and publishing Crown Hill—the thing that has mattered most throughout my life—storytelling.
I mulled over the feedback through a restless night and well into the next day. To be honest, it cast a pretty dark shadow over my heart and soul, to the point that I questioned my writer’s purpose and ability. From there it was a slippery slope towards a vow to never write again. That’s when I knew I needed to take the necessary step upon which all authors rely— writing.
I began with an email to a friend, outlining my quandary. She replied immediately with an inspiring essay titled, “Reasons to Write”, none of which included multi-book contracts or healthy bank accounts. From there I wrote another email, this one to a co-worker, who replied with a reminder that people across the United States are reading and enjoying Crown Hill, an accomplishment in and of itself.
As the day went on I received unsolicited emails and messages from engaged Crown Hill readers offering help and options to advance my novel to wider audiences. I also discovered some new Crown Hill reviews paying the highest compliment—that they would miss the characters inhabiting my story of love, life and the afterlife.
Finally I sat down and had a little chat with myself, sort of an author one-on-one. Me and myself discussed my writing and the “money” feedback. We agreed that the critique was accurate and held truth, in that I have not yet sold ten thousand or more books. At the same, we decided that it was also one-sided, based on the short, six-month time period since Crown Hill’s publication. From there is was an easy leap to acknowledging best seller status is as much luck as talent and definitely out of any author’s control.
We came to the accord that the measure of a writer’s success varies according to individual standards. And while I aspire to author my way to a healthy bank account and a notch or two on the NY Times Best Seller List, at this moment I am thrilled with continual Crown Hill reviews reflecting a love of my storytelling and a fondness for my characters, which readers describe as, “… missing long after the final page.
So here I am, days later, still working through this “success” critique. The good news is that I have figured out the only true and important definition of Crown Hill success belongs to me. I have also determined that my storytelling purpose has always been to have a voice, engage an audience, make a difference. And that purpose is not focused on selling millions of books/making money, rather it’s a passion for crafting words that touch readers blended with a determination for those words to reach the world.
The question is, can one happen without the other?
About the Author:
Christina Abt is an accomplished author, newspaper columnist and radio broadcaster. Her written work has been featured in national publications including an array of Chicken Soup Books and national equine publications, as well as The Buffalo News, Artvoice, Buffalo Spree, Traffic East and EVE Magazines. Her first book, “Chicken Wing Wisdom: Western New York Stories of Family, Life and Food Shared Around the Table” became a regional best-seller (http://www.chickenwingwisdom.com/ “Crown Hill,” is her first novel.
You can catch her on her website www.christinaabt.com and Twitter.
April 8, 2015
Character
Below is an interesting article about Creating Authentic Characters written by Sherman Smith. As with previous articles I’ve reposted in the past, I enjoyed the message and want to offer a few observations of my own a well.
When it comes to creating characters, I was taught not to try too hard to create a deeply unique persona. Doing so, I was told, can strip away a character’s humanity, leaving them alien or cartoonish—difficult for the reader to identify with. Rather than embellish or bloat a character’s persona in an effort to make them more interesting, I was taught to closely observe what might at first appear to be a boring character in order to discover what is special about them.
A character that is allowed to simply be will, over time, reveal the quirks of their personality much as a infant develops personality traits that quickly distinguish them as a unique and special human being.
The key is to envision your characters fully, see them for who they truly are, rather than thrust ridiculous idiosyncrasies upon them in a heavy-handed attempt to make them more engaging. Ever single person, past, present, or future, has qualities that make them interesting. Your characters are no exception.
With this in mind, the question becomes not, “Can I come up with an authentic character?” but rather, “Can I envision my authentic character clearly enough to portray them to the reader?”
For more on envisioning your characters, as well as your story, check out my prior post on The Pool.
Happy writing. —R Scott Boyer
Creating Authentic Characters | BookDaily #AuthorTips
Sherman Smith April 7, 2015
What is character? A simple definition of character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Bringing this to characters in your writing is what makes them truly memorable. It defines them allowing the reader to like, love, or hate the character that drives your story forward. Think for a moment about the great characters in books such as ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, ‘Finnegans Wake’, ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter’, The Sand Pebbles’ to list a few. Readers can even relate to dark characters as illustrated in ‘Lord Of the Flies’ and ‘Clock Work Orange.’Character is also generational. “The old man accepted a hand shake as another man’s word of honor.” Today there are few that grasp that. After seventy years of living behind the Iron Curtain some words like ‘Is it the truth’ or ‘Is it fair’ were not translatable in Russian; at least not with meaning. So when you paint your character with CHARACTER make sure it fits the time and the world they are moving through.
Your readers will grow to love or hate the characters you have created because they know that you to feel the same way.
About the Author
Sherman Smith
April 3, 2015
Comments on Action Scenes
I recently read an interesting article about Crafting Killer Action Scenes. Written by Francesca Pelaccia, the article is wonderful but long, with lots of examples to illustrate the author’s points. I might repost the article later, but in the meantime, I’ve decided to offer a summary of some of Ms. Pelaccia’s key points, along with a bit of my own advice on the subject of crafting quality action scenes :
(1) In her article, Ms. Pelaccia discusses the importance of avoiding extraneous descriptions during action scenes. My advice on this point is to set the scene beforehand, thus avoiding the need for description once the action is underway. As my old writing instructor use to tell me, “Nothing happens nowhere.” In other words, you must first tell the reader where your character(s) are before they start performing actions. To do otherwise is to leave the reader utterly confused as to where the action is taking place. Plus, describing the scene upfront is tremendously helpful later on because it allows you to focus on what’s happening rather than the surroundings when things get moving.
(2) Avoid internalizations during action. Another excellent piece of advice. I was taught to visualize a movie or television camera — when it comes to action, try to stick to what the camera would see (or hear). Focus on the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, etc.). Once again, clearing the decks ahead of time of any extraneous items such as dialogue or internalizations paves the way for smooth, faster-paced action.
(3) The other tips about using short sentences and short paragraphs are pretty straight-forward. Rather than elaborate on these topics, I will refer you once again to Ms. Pelaccia’s excellent post Crafting Killer Action Scenes| BookDaily #AuthorTips.
You can find out more about Francesca Pelaccia on her website www.francescapelaccia.com and on Twitter
Also, in case you missed it, I recently posted my own article on Finding Motivation in times when you might be struggling to move forward with writing. As always, I encourage you to leave your comments and suggestions on future topics. – R Scott Boyer
April 1, 2015
Creating a Feedback Loop
The following article is obviously an solicitation at its core, and yet I found the underlying message quite compelling and informative. In the year and a half since publishing my first book, I’ve discovered that marketing truly is everything when it comes to gaining an audience.
I hope you find this post interesting. Also, for anyone who missed it, I wrote a post a few days ago about Finding Motivation, which can be located here. After a five month absence, I’m ready to wrap up number three and get started on Bobby Ether book number four!
Create a Feedback Loop for Book Marketing
For sixty millenniums, civilization has exchanged information by word of mouth. Ideas rise and fall in discussion where messages are repeated again and again with others until a generally held belief is developed. Little has changed, except the method of talk. Whether you are promoting a book or tube of toothpaste, the name and message must be repeated, and if you control a small group of messages about your book, you can build a feedback loop that will drive its popularity.
Any experienced author knows that few members of the media provide original book coverage. For a variety of reasons, reporters digest the media kit and whatever information is available on the newsfeeds and repackage the existing information as a fresh offering for their audience. They are echoing the available feedback and, most specifically, the message your media kit presents. When fresh material appears, you get to choose what to incorporate into your ongoing campaign.
Readers behave this way as well. When they visit the major Internet stopping points for reader-generated book feedback, such as Amazon or GoodReads. they will not only decide to read a favorably reviewed book, but they will likely post similar experiences. This works for negative feedback as well. Whether accurate or not, a negative feedback loop is almost impossible to defeat. Just ask Monica Lewinski. The cycle of negativity launched against her did not occur organically. It was generated for political purposes and has been nurtured for twenty years. Again, the key is to control your own message.
When building talking points for a publicity campaign, first decide if your book is timely or timeless. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, timely books can be attached to current and relevant subjects. Each day, the news media drives people through specific topics and trends. Just saying your book is related will garner media attention. If your book is lucky enough to relate to the topic du jour or you are a topical expert, make the messaging about only that issue until the news cycle burns out.
If your book is a timeless read, identify the genre or subject matter that best identifies your book and highlight the many ways that your book is different or better than what exists on the shelves. As the author, your experience should enter the discussion. Remember, first the reader comes to the author, and then the reader notices the book. Like the book, there should be a singular description about you that helps pique interest and focus the message.
With the recent saturation of Twitter and Facebook promotional pages, publishers admit that social media isn’t what it once was, and they are returning emphasis to the three tier media approach: local, regional, and national, where each level builds on the other until a large feedback loop is underway. This fact likely makes veteran authors chuckle. For years, they’ve worked news clippings within their media kits to focus the discussion regarding their books. These clippings, by the way, are easily reintroduced and reposted on social media platforms. So again, not a lot has changed since the dawn of civilization. A few standout facts, placed in front of an interested audience, will be repeated, and the positive feedback will pile up.
The US Review of Books seeds feedback loops with professional reviews sent to 15,000 monthly subscribers, including additional followers on GoodReads, Facebook, and Twitter.
March 30, 2015
Finding Motivation
I openly admit that I’ve been lacking motivation lately. I haven’t written or even edited much of anything in the past five months. First it was the holiday season. Then it was work and personal issues that I claimed got in the way. The truth is that it’s tough to remain motivated at times. The lack of a wide audience has left me with questions about my future as an author that writing alone can not answer. Maybe I’m not destined to be a successful. Maybe I should abandon Bobby and friends and start another series. Maybe I should focus my energies in other directions—like earning a decent living, and let my stories fade into forgotten dreams.
And then I read good writing…
Funny how reading well-written prose draws me back to my computer, itching to resume my own literary explorations. I won’t bother mentioning who I read or why. We all have our favorite authors, and when we struggle, it’s often these authors who serve as motivational coaches, encouraging us to continue our craft. I want to write like that guy…
I met a woman at the dogpark recently who has published seven books over the past twelve years. Sometimes she takes over a year’s hiatus between novels. I don’t want to go that long between (re)discovering my motivation, yet I accept that I may, at times, drift away from writing to focus on family, finances, and other important aspects of life.
Besides reading good writing, another huge source of motivation for me is compliments. On this issue, I admit that I’m not above turning even the mildest praise into fuel for the creative fire. My best friend’s eight-year-old son has heard all my novels recited to him by his mother. Together, they’ve read book three and want to know what I have planned for book four. Knowing that there are people out there who truly care about what happens to Bobby and his friends is powerful motivation.
Which brings me to social media..,
Despite having studied business and marketing in college, being active and promoting myself via social media does not come naturally to me. Truth be told, I originally disdained Myspace and Facebook. I found the notion of publishing the details of my personal life on the web utterly distasteful. Nowadays, I have shifted my views, considering social media more of a necessary activity than an outright crime of personal over-sharing.
When it comes to being an indie author, truly blessed are those who actively enjoy the use of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the like. More than a few authors have been discovered by agents and traditional publishers more because of their social media prowess than their actual stories or turn of phrase.
If I have a point, it’s this: whenever you struggle to keep writing, find whatever motivation you can to keep going. Whether it’s hearing from fans that they enjoy your stories, or reading an author whose style you envy, getting back to your keyboard is all that matters.
January 29, 2015
Beating the Odds
Following is an absolutely fantastic article from an author I both greatly admire and deeply respect. A couple of years ago, I exchanged several emails with David and found him to be the ‘real deal’—genuinely nice and earnestly interested in helping other authors. On top of that, he is incredibly hard working, yet down to earth.
I realize his post is long, but it’s well worth the read for any aspiring author hoping to chart a course to success. Obviously, not everyone can write twenty books in four years (I’m still amazed that anyone can do that), yet the fundamental message remains the same—pursue your passion with your whole heart, work hard, never give up, and good things will happen. —Scott
Originally posted on Rock the Book.
Due to the explosion of ebooks and the destruction of publishing barriers, there are now literally thousands of Indie authors all screaming at the top of their lungs that their books are worth reading. That’s pretty daunting if you’re trying to make your book(s) stand out amongst the crowd. When I started seriously writing four years ago, I was CLUELESS as to what I was really getting into. And yet, somehow, some way, I’ve managed to “make it” after a zillion mistakes, a lot of hard work, and plenty of good old-fashioned luck. Although I don’t pretend to have all the answers or the magic bullet for success, here’s my story along with a few tips that have helped me get from bored fulltime accountant who liked to write stories to fulltime Indie author. Roll back the tape of my life. I hated being an accountant. Desperately hated it. Long hours, high stress, corporate politics. So I quit my job and switched to another desk job that I’d heard would be less hours and less stress. I had two weeks off in between, and my Aussie wife asked what I was going to do with my break. “Uh, sit on the beach?” I said. She gave me that raised-eyebrow look and said, “Why don’t you start writing that book you always talk about?”
Although the thought of even looking at my laptop during my vacation gave me a stomachache, I listened to her pointed advice. I did it. I started writing. She hasn’t been able to get me to stop since. In four years I’ve written twenty books and published sixteen of them. Two years in I was able to quit my boring day job to pursue my dreams: I became a fulltime fiction writer.
My first trilogy was a huge success, right? Um, no. Not even close. When I published The Evolution Trilogy (a unique non-religious spin on angels and demons) a year after I started working on it, I was ready. Ready for success. Ready for a big payoff from all my hard work. I’d been reading about Amanda Hocking’s success as an Indie author and I said, “Hey, why not me?” Well, because my writing wasn’t good enough. My book idea was awesome and unique and had huge potential, but my writing was amateurish, sloppy, and in desperate need of a good editor. While I wouldn’t say The Evolution Trilogy bombed (it has sold 3,000 books in 4 years), it didn’t come anywhere near my expectations, and it most definitely wasn’t paying any real bills. The reviews were mediocre at best, which was a major reality check. Writing wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. At first I was heartbroken. Thousands of hours of hard work down the drain. All that hope dashed on the rocky coastline of failure. I didn’t have what it takes—never would.
SCREW. THAT.
I’m the type of person that hates failure. I don’t like losing, especially at something that I love. And I LOVE writing. That’s a major key to success as an Indie author. If your goals (like mine were) are to make millions and be rich and famous, then you’re in the wrong business.Most of us will make a few bucks here and there, and a lucky few will be able to scrape out a living. Even fewer still (the Amanda Hocking’s, Elle Casey’s and Hugh Howey’s of the world) will hit it big. Right now I’m in the middle category—scraping out a living. I’m not complaining, I’d rather scrape out a living as a writer than be earning six digits a year in some job I hate. I’m happy.
My second series was the one that allowed me to quit my day job. Originally I planned another trilogy, but eventually the project turned into a 7-book epic series that combined two separate trilogies, The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga, in a 7th book that brought characters and plotlines together. So far it’s sold in excess of 30,000 copies in just over two years.
That brings me to another key for success: Building your backlist. Unless you’re extremely lucky and far more talented than me, writing one book a year like most traditionally published authors simply won’t cut it as an Indie. I wrote and published the 7 books in the Dwellers/Country Saga in 20 months. By that point I’d written 1 million words in three years. There are a few good reasons for writing and publishing like a fiend. One, practice is the only way to get better. By having a crazy-aggressive writing schedule you’ll force yourself to improve. Two, every new reader multiplies your potential sales. Suddenly a new reader doesn’t mean just one sale. It means a potential sale for every single one of your books, particularly if your books are in a series. It also means you can magnify the impact of giving away free copies of your books. I’ll pretty much give away an ebook of The Moon Dwellers to anyone who wants one. Why? Because if they like it, they might buy the other SIX books in the series! Quick side note: the BEST way to give away free ebooks is buy making your book free on Kindle through Amazon’s KDP Select program. The BEST way to advertise that is via BookBub, which seems extremely expensive but which is WELL worth the money. As an example, I advertised The Moon Dwellers for FREE on BookBub and had 30,000+ downloads in three days. Then I did Fire Country a month later and had 27,000+ downloads. Obviously, I made zero royalties from these downloads, but sales of the sequels took off, and I had four straight months of 2,000+ full price sales. These months changed my life. You might have tried BookBub. You might have been rejected multiple times. I was too. They are extremely selective, which is also what makes them so valuable. Keep trying. Continue to build your reviews on Amazon. If you can get over 100 with a decent average rating, that’ll give you a chance at being accepted by BookBub. Don’t give up!
So you’re probably thinking the Dwellers Saga was an instant success, right? Try again. My third year as an Indie was decent, far better than I ever could have expected. Although I wasn’t making enough to live on, my wife and I had savings and we decided to quit our jobs to make a go of my dream, with her as my editor. A big risk, but that’s what life is anyway: one massive risk. My writing was improving, and I wasn’t going it alone anymore. I’d learned the hard lesson that good writing takes work. It also takes serious criticism from serious critics. I started using a beta reading team, and I stopped brushing negative feedback aside as “Just one person’s opinion.” I realized my writing sort of sucked and that I needed to learn how to improve it. I focused on every single sentence, every single chapter. Making them tighter. Making them better. I read books on writing, like Stephen King’s On Writing and Donald Maas’s Writing the Breakout Novel. I improved with each book, and my readers noticed. They appreciated my efforts. They were fully along for the ride.
Partway through the third year I started a Goodreads fan group. Right off the bat I had 300 members. Woohoo!! I was ecstatic. Over the moon. Six months later I was churning out the sequels to The Moon Dwellers and I still had around 300 members. What? I couldn’t understand why my membership wasn’t growing. The Dwellers Saga was getting great reviews, but my fan group was dead. No activity. No interest. I decided to change things up. My biggest problem was that I made the group all about me. And who was I? Nobody. Just another person who writes books, another tree in the forest. So I changed things up. I made the group all about books. My books, someone else’s books, reading in general. Anything was fair game. It became a place where anyone could hang out and talk about their interests, passions, and experiences. The group started growing and now has more than 2,600 members, many of whom have never, and may never, read my books, which is perfectly fine by me, so long as they read other books. You see, it’s NOT all about you as a writer. It’s about READERS. The more readers we have, the more readers enjoy reading, the better it is for everyone. Become part of a book community, not for the purpose of selling your books, but because you love books like all the other people. I recommend Goodreads, but there are many others out there. Take it seriously. Participate in discussions. Make friends. Don’t spam about your book. Readers will realize you’re a valuable member of the community and they’ll click on your profile and discover you’re an author and get EXCITED about that fact and potentially try your books. I’ve had numerous people message me on Goodreads to say they’ve been my friend for over a year and never knew I was an author, but loved all the book recommendations I gave them (books that weren’t mine!). In most cases they said they’d give my books a shot.
Year four. The best year. Part luck. Part hard work. Part good timing. The Dwellers Saga was listed as one of 15 Series to Read if you Enjoyed The Hunger Games on Buzzfeed. Sales shot up. A couple movie inquiries came in, as well as a TV inquiry (nothing has panned out so far, but it’s still cool!). An agent contacted me and eventually signed me. I wrote another trilogy, Brew, and although it had interest from publishers including a purchase offer, my agent and I decided to sign on with Amazon White Glove. Brew, and its sequel, Boil, hit the top ten on genre bestseller lists almost immediately. I stopped eating away at our savings and started paying bills with my royalties—ALL our bills. It could happen to you, but don’t expect it to. Expect to have to fight for every reader. Treat every reader like your ONLY reader. Be generous with your free books, especially the first book in a series. Never stop writing. Never. Do it because you love it and good things will follow.
Never give up.
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