Rani Divine's Blog, page 34

Par-tay!

By the by, the submissions window for Mavguard just opened, so if you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to submit stuff for the next edition, now’s your chance! It’ll be open for a bit, but don’t wait—we all know what happens when creative people procrastinate, and we don’t want you to forget to send in your work until it’s too late to get it in at all. You know what I’m saying.
The new thing I want to talk to you about today is something that I got to experience for the first time when Ashley Gallegos’ latest novel came out. (If you haven’t heard about it yet, definitely go check it out! It’s available at RAD-Writing.com) I was really wary about this at first, because I really didn’t think that I would enjoy it. I mean, I’m a bit of an introvert, especially in the evenings. You all know this. Still, I had a lot of fun, and I would highly recommend it.
Online Book Launch Parties
Ashley hosted hers online on Facebook, on an event page, and it worked really well for what she was doing. Like I said, highly recommended, and a lot of fun.
Basically, she got together a bunch of authors to promote their own works and celebrate the release of Ashley’s latest book. Authors had to have at least one free ebook that someone could win, which also helped to make it a lot more fun.
Each auther had between fifteen and thirty minutes to talk about themselves and their work, to promote their latest stuff, and celebrate with Ashley on the release of her latest novel. We all spent a few hours online (which, let’s face it, we were going to be doing anyway) talking with each other, showing off our novels and bringing awareness about our work to people who wouldn’t normally see it.
See, the cool thing is that every author invited people, readers, to come to the event. So friends and family from all over the place, people who wouldn’t normally read anything of Rani Divine, for example, got to see some of my work. I talked about my novels, about Mavguard, and about RAD Writing – and I had so much fun doing it!
If you have a book coming out anytime soon, I highly recommend having a launch party. Feel free to contact me or Ashley if you need any help getting started with it or getting the event set up. I’d be more than happy to assist, as always!
And I’m going to say it again: don’t forget to submit to Mavguard! The newest edition has been so much fun to work on, and I honestly cannot wait to see what you all have in store for us next time!
Also, if you haven’t followed Ashley yet online, you’d better go do that right now too. She’s awesome, and so much fun!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

IBC

So this month I realized something. All my good topic ideas only last four weeks. And this month technically has five weeks. Not cool, March. Not cool. So instead of talking to you guys about *&^*#%*& (next topic is still under wraps, you know *wink*), I’m going to take this week to tell you about some cool new things that I’ve discovered over the last few months. Starting with one you might’ve heard me talking about before!
Indie Book Connect
If you’re a follower of the RAD Blog, then you’ll know how crazy cool I think these guys are. If you’re not, then you’re about to find out how crazy cool I think these guys are.
See, indie books a lot of the time get overlooked by a lot of people. I know that because I write indie books, and because I work for an indie publisher. (yes, publishers can be indie) They’re the books that don’t generally make it onto the shelves at Barnes & Noble, and if they do make it onto those shelves, they’re not ones most people would pick up.
Know what I’m talking about?
I’m sure you do, because a lot of you on here are indie writers, and you’re always on the lookout for other indie writers that you could read, because hey, we’re all indie and we want to support each other.
Well, I urge you to check out Indie Book Connect.
They’re a monthly subscription box (think Cratejoy, BarkBox, or Julep) that sends out two awesome quality indie books every month. They work with authors to get out the best work possible, in the best timing possible. Which is pretty darn cool, if you ask me. 
And these books are ones that you wouldn't normally find!
It’s a subscription box where you won’t be getting the same books as you see in Barnes & Noble, or the ones you see pushed on Amazon or on the shelves at the supermarket. These are books by people who haven’t struck gold yet, but who still have some amazing words that really ought to be read.
If you’re an author and you have a book you want to include, I urge you to contact them about it.
And if you’re a reader who loves to support the indies, then please, go sign up! 
You won’t regret it.
Indie Book Connect Online Indie Book Connect Official Facebook
[love]
{Rani D}

___ until you ___

Friends, it’s time for the final thing that you should be doing, as a writer. In a month full of dos and don’ts, this was the one that I deemed important enough to leave for last, that I thought would be the most fun to talk about in this, our last post of the month. (Yeah, yeah, I know there’s one more Monday in the month, but who wants to end a series on a Monday? Not me)
Anyway.
This is the topic that’s really been stuck in my head all month, as I’m deep in the throes of edits in more projects than I’ve ever had to work on at a single time before. I’m good at that, did I mention? But this is what’s stuck with me, after a full month of it.
Revise, Until You Can’t Stand It
And I don’t mean it's revisions that you can’t stand. I mean, revise until you know your manuscript inside out and upside down, until you know every single facet of every single thing, until you’re so weary of looking at these words that you really have to get someone else to look at them, because you can no longer tell what’s good and what isn’t.
Believe me, I know that feeling very well. As an author and an editor, I’m very well acquainted with it. Not that it’s my favorite feeling in the world, but I know what it means.
See, when you get to that point in writing your manuscript, in revising to the point that you’re pretty sure you know absolutely everything, that’s when you’re best able to ask for help—and that’s something all of us need to admit, whether we want to or not.
We can’t do this alone.
We need other authors to help keep us upright, because writing is a lot harder than people make it out to be.
We need friends to remind us that the whole world does not revolve around our writing.
We need editors to keep our work standing on its own legs, even after we’ve revised it so many times that we’re not entirely sure how it stands anymore.
We need others, around us, to make sure this thing gets a running start.
So friends, revise. Revise until you can’t stand it, until you have to fall back on someone else because you just can’t look at these words anymore. Do it one time, at the very least. Do it once, and you’ll know what it is to be helped by someone else. You’ll see what a lift it is, to hand your work off to someone else, for them to manhandle.
And you’ll feel an amazing sense of release, to know that you’re not the one doing it anymore. Because you’ve already done your part. You’ve revised and revised and revised, and now it’s someone else’s responsibility to put on the polish.
Know whose responsibility that is?
That’s right. Your editor.
Find one yet?
[love]
{Rani D.}

Broken Record

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m going to say this one more time. And I’m going to say it because not enough of you are listening, whenever I say it. You’re still looking at me with those blank stares, like you don’t understand why I would ask this of you, when you already know that your work is amazing. That’s why I’m telling you again.
Get an Editor
See? Broken record. I just keep repeating myself. But I’m repeating because it’s an important fact, which some of you seem to be neglecting. And in a month of dos and don'ts, this is one I really want you to take to heart.
And here’s what you’re not seeing, whenever I tell you this:
I believe you, when you say that your work is awesome. I believe you, when you say you don’t think you need an editor. I believe you, when you say you think an editor would spoil your plans for this work. I believe you, when you look me in the eye and tell me you think I’m wrong.
But I think you’re wrong, too. Because I’ve done it the other way, without an editor to my name. I’ve self-published a book, one that was copyedited by outsourced people in India who didn’t understand that sitting across from someone wasn’t the same as sitting across someone. I’ve cried my eyes out wondering how I was ever going to fix the mess that my so-called publisher had gotten me into.
And I’ve seen a lot of other good authors go through the same, when really, they didn’t need to.
I know it sounds daunting. It sounds like I’m asking you to go out and spend a ton of money on your work, when you don’t even know what the finished product will look like when it’s over. Some of you are afraid that it won’t look like your work anymore, that you won’t even recognize it.
But again, I think you’re wrong on that.
Not every good editor charges an arm and a leg. Not every publishing house will screw you over. There are good people out there, who only want to help authors. I happen to know several of them.
The thing is, your work literally (and I mean that in the literal sense of the word, not the figurative) cannot reach its full potential without editing.
Believe me when I say that you cannot catch every mistake that you make. And no, your editor won’t catch them all either, but you know what they will do? They’ll find those three plot holes you missed. They’ll fix that grammar error that you couldn’t figure out how to mend. They’ll make sure your characters stay in character. They’ll make your story what it wants to be, and what one person on their own could never make it be.
They’ll make it shine.
So, friends, listen to me. Please, listen to me. And understand what I’m saying, when I tell you that you need an editor.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Accept it

Well, we’ve come at long last to the final week in our series on dos and don'ts. It’s always a strange feeling for me, when that happens. Mostly because it means the month is over, and I suddenly realize just how quickly the weeks have passed. Have you noticed they seem to be moving faster, each year?
I’ve digressed again, haven’t I?
We’d best remedy that.
Now, I know this topic may seem familiar to some of you, but that’s because I came at it from a different angle, a couple weeks ago. Today, I want to take a new spin on it. Let’s look at it in the positive—which is something a lot of us (even me) struggle to do.
Accept Criticism
I know. It seems contrary to everything you’ve ever wanted to do. Why on earth would we want to hear all the negative things someone has to say about our work? How could we possibly hope to just sit there and take it all, to listen to all these things and not be able to bite back, to say how stupid that person is for not understanding the brilliance of our novel?
But that’s not a positive spin at all, is it?
Here’s what you should really be asking yourself, when someone criticizes your work:
Are they right in what they’re saying? Are their words simply biting, or do they hold purpose? Is their intention to help you, or to hinder? Have they come to you with kindness, or with pride? Is this a person whose words you can trust, or who you know to be untrustworthy?
These are all things that we need to consider, but we tend to ignore them and go straight to the rage. Friends, let’s not do that. Responding with anger only begets more anger, and that’s really the last thing this world needs. Seriously. Have you seen the news?
So here’s what we need to remember:
Some people only mean to lash out, when they criticize. That doesn’t give you the right to snap back at them. You don’t know what’s going on in their head. Maybe they just got fired, and they need to yell at someone. You don’t know. Consider that, before you respond.
Some people honestly mean to help. Again, you’ve no reason to chew them out for it. They thought they were doing a good thing, by critiquing your work. It didn’t occur to them that you might take offense to it. Consider that, before you respond.
And above all, remember this:
No work is perfect.
None.
And no one will ever write a book that everyone on earth loves and cherishes and thinks of as the greatest book ever.
There will always be people out there who don’t like your work. And there will also be people who do. But some people in both categories will critique you, and you need to learn to take it. You need to learn to see through their words, to understand the angle from which they’re coming, and learn to use their words for the betterment of your work.
That’s what critique is for, whether the criticizer intended it to be used that way or not.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Keep Going

Most of you probably already know this, and you’ll agree with me right from the start. Others won’t, which is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to write on this topic, today. Because we all need to understand it, from the very beginning.
Don’t Write Only One Draft
See? I told you a lot of you would agree with me. But there are still some of you out there who won’t, and for that, I’m going to continue.
First drafts are meant to be not very good. They’re our first efforts to get everything onto the page, to get it all out of our heads and where we can look at it and see what it is, and admire it in all its slimy, bloody glory. But that’s just the thing. It’s intended to be a mess, to be the birth of a crying baby that needs a lot of work before anyone really wants to be in the same room with it. Except, of course, its parents.
But we’re not meant to just leave it at that one draft. It's not meant to stay a baby.
Yeah, I know, when you finish it, it seems like the most beautiful thing in the world and like nothing could possibly be better than this draft, but you’re in the just-finished-my-novel high. And you can’t let that high get the better of you. Your novel needs to be edited, by you. You’ll need to go through it at least once, cut out what doesn’t need to be there, mend what needs mending.
You need a second draft.
A third.
Sometimes a fourth.
Even a fifth.
And I know by then it gets really annoying, and you’re more than ready to be done just so you never have to look at these words again, but this is a very important step. Before you send your work to an editor, before you even consider trying to get it published, you need to get beyond the first draft.
In order to really learn what your story is about, you need to get to draft two. To find out what’s really going on with your characters, you need to get to draft three. In order to get the attention of a publishing house, you should really get to draft four.
But before you get an editor, you should at least get to draft three, in my opinion. Get to where you really know your book, to where you really understand its ins and outs and where you’re getting to the point that you’re just plain done and ready to never read it again. Then, send it to an editor. Let someone else look it over, and let them make sense of it. Because at that point, you’ll probably be unable to spot the errors that are left—and that’s when an editor comes most in handy.
I would know. I’m an editor. And a writer.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Entirely Necessary

So now you know why you need to accept criticism, but now I want to take it one step further. It’s more than just accepting what people say about your work, about than just accepting the fact that some people will not like what you do and others will, or about the fact that some people want to help you better your craft, and others don’t. It’s about making your work better than it could ever have been before—because you could never be your own editor.
Don’t Avoid Editors
I know the thing to do these days is to just go out and get self-published, to do it all yourself so you don’t have to deal with an editor and the so-called mess they’ll make of your novel… but that’s really not the way you should go about things.
If you’re going to self-publish, and you’ve determined that that’s the road you want to go down, then you need to make sure that you get an editor. A lot of self-publishing packages tell you that they come with professional editing, and let me tell you right now, as someone who’s been through that process: they’re lying. They’ll have someone try to edit, but it won’t work out very well, and you’ll be left with a mess of typographical errors that a real editor would’ve caught.
I know, I know, you’ll remind me that I recently told you there are always errors, in every published work. And that’s very true. But there are far more errors found in self-published works than there are in regularly published ones, all because of the editing.
You can’t avoid editors forever. Really. You can’t.
And you shouldn’t. 
At some point, you need to learn that editors really are here for your benefit. And not all of us will charge you an arm and a leg to edit your manuscript.
We’re here to help you, to get your work to a much better place than it is right now. We’re here to point out some errors you might have missed, to make sure you don’t have any plot holes, and to generally ensure that your book will be far better received.
You can’t do all that on your own. You just can’t.
For one thing, as I often say, you’ll never be able to catch every typo you make, and you won’t notice when something doesn’t read right—because you wrote it, and your brain automatically reads it the way you meant it to be, always.
That’s not a good thing! 
We want our readers to not be confused by our work, to understand everything as we meant it to be, not to have to sit there and wonder how this phrase even makes sense in the constructs of the English language. That what editors are here for, to make sure all that confusion gets weeded out, so that everything (or at least, mostly everything) makes sense within your story. 
Remember, it's not the editor who shines when you release an awesome novel. It's you. We're just your backup. 
Our ultimate goal is to be releasing work that the public enjoys, that’s good enough to be picked up by the persnicketiest (yes, I just made a word) of readers, and believe that they’ll enjoy it. Our goal is to get your work to the highest possible level before publication, so you don't have readers coming to you with a list of typos that you need to fix. We want you to release work that people will say is well written, whether they liked the story or not.
Can you honestly say that, without editing?
The answer is no, whether you admit it or not.
It’s blunt, but it’s the truth. You need an editor.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

No Biting

After a week of don’ts and a week of dos, it’s time to return once more to the don’ts! And this one is a doozy, so hear me out. Seriously. Hear me out. I know you won’t want to, but you need to hear this.
Don’t Bite the Head off Anyone Who Criticizes Your Work
And I don’t just mean editors. I mean anyone who reads your work and doesn’t enjoy it, or anyone who has some ideas for how you could expand your work. That means beta readers, regular readers, family, friends, and yes, editors too.
See, all too often, we writers struggle to accept any negativity pointed toward our work. We snap at anyone who points out even the most minute of flaws in our stories, shout and scream whenever someone says that they don’t like our work.
You know what that makes us sound like?
Two-year-olds.
And you know what we’re not?
Two-year-olds.
It’s important that we get over this. To that end, I always suggest giving yourself a few months or years space between yourself and every first draft, so you’ll know more of what’s wrong and not be so enraged when someone points out a flaw. And I suggest growing some thicker skin, otherwise you’ll never make it in this line of work.
We need critique.
Plain and simple. We need it, if we’re ever going to get better at writing. We need to hear people’s honest opinions on our work, to see from another perspective, what is and is not working properly. I guarantee that some of what you’ve done, some of the words you’ve written, are not as they should be. I guarantee it because it is always true. Even when you’re book has been published, it’ll still be true. We all find flaws in our own work, all over the place.
That being the case, we need to get better at hearing it from other people. A lot better.
If we keep biting heads off anyone who tries to help us get better at our craft, then no one will want to help us anymore. We’ll be on our own, and our work will suffer for it.
That, my friends, is the last thing any of us wants.
We’re all striving to get better at our craft, to write better work so that people really see what we’re capable of. And we can’t do any of that without critique.
Don’t take my word for it. Just stop biting off some heads, start listening to what people have to say, and take it to heart.
We could all do that, more often.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Diversity is key

Okay. So, after two weeks, we know that you shouldn’t write snippets but should write as often as you can, that you should read even if you don’t feel like it, and that you should work on more than one project at a time when it comes to creativity. So what are we to talk about today? Well, it’s one of the things I think about every day, because technically, I didn’t do it—but it's still something that I think should be done. 
Diversify
What do I mean by that? I mean that if you’re a writer, you shouldn’t just be a writer. Try being something else, too. Go get a day job.
That’s the thing I never did. I got a degree in writing. I write every day. I write for a living. And I edit for a living, too. So in some ways, you might say I haven’t done anything but write, in all my life. Not that my twenty-five-and-a-half years have really been all that long at all in the first place. But you see my point.
See, we write about life, most of us. Even if we write science-fiction and fantasy, even if we’re writing about alien creatures or robots or what have you, we write about a form of life. And in writing life, it helps to live. Which people say most writers don't do... and I guess I would be one of those, since most of my daily doings involve writing, and if not writing, editing.
By diversifying, we get a better idea of what the real world is like, and might even get some great ideas for what to have our characters do, or think, or feel, about any given situation.
Having never been to a high school, I can’t honestly write about high school life.
Having never worked in an office, I can’t really say what goes on there, what people are really like in that setting.
Some of you, on the other hand, probably do. And that's a good thing!
But even if your diversifying only means branching out into editing, then edit. Do something other than writing, just to get your mind off writing for even a short amount of time. We can’t live our whole lives around writing, if you ask me. There has to be more to life than just that.
So, do something else.
Get a day job.
Find a hobby.
Do anything other than write, at least for a little while, every day.
You might find that you have a lot more ideas, when you do sit down to write. 
What do I do, you ask? Well, I'm still working on that. We're all works in progress anyway, aren't we?
[love]
{Rani Divine}

These are words

Last week, if you remember, I talked about why you should always be reading, as a writer. If you don’t remember it, Click Here to give it a read.
Today, I’d like to expand on that idea, at least a little bit. Because reading is a big thing, for writers. And it’s something that a lot of us have trouble doing, even if we refuse to admit it. We don’t like people to know that even writers struggle to find time for reading, that even we have a hard time finding a book that we can read.
But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t read. So…
Read, Whenever You Can
Now, I frequently have a hard time finding books that I really want to read, that I won’t struggle to continue reading beyond the hundredth page or so. But I’ve recently figured out a way to find books that I have an easier time reading, because (get this) I actually enjoy them.
Here’s what I do:
Head over to Goodreads. Now look up one of your favorite authors. Now, read some of their book reviews, and find a reviewer who you agree with. Go to their page, look at what else they’ve read, and see how they’ve reviewed things. I know it’s a bit roundabout, but it really works very well for finding a book that is along the same vein or in the same wheelhouse as something else that you really enjoyed.
For me, that meant finding some fascinating fiction similarly written to Michael Crichton’s work. I apologize, I don’t remember the author’s name, the book is packed in a box, and I bought it in a store. *sigh* Such is life... I'll find his name when I get a bigger house and have all my books on shelves, instead of in boxes. 
I digress.
There’s a lot of great writing out there, but reviews are frequently the easiest and best way to separate the good stuff from the blasé. I used to read reviews on Amazon, but it’s harder to find good reviews on there, somehow. Goodreads also allows you to contact some of the authors online, so if you have questions, you can ask them.
How cool is that? 
Thing is, for this to work for as many people as possible, you'll need to be writing reviews as well. So when you find a book that you like, or even one that you didn't like, head back over to Goodreads and leave a review for someone else to find. I guarantee there's someone out there who agrees with you on that book, and on many others. Help them find this book that you enjoyed, or stay away from a book that you think wasn't so great. 
Whatever you do, make sure you’re reading. Honestly, even if you read the same ten books over and over again, as long as you’re reading and learning something from those words, I’d say you have a good start. But you need to branch out, at least now and again. 
Please.
Read.
[love]
{Rani Divine}