Mark Phillips's Blog

On the importance of Communication

I don't spend a lot of time on Goodreads anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I love the site and I think they do wonderful work. It's just that one can only devote so much time to the internet in a day.

In the early days of promoting my books I spent a lot of time here. I was active in writing groups, I posted a blog weekly, and I even set up some AMAs.

This helped me a lot. Goodreads, combined with Bookbub, and a few other promotions allowed a lot of people to know about my book and read it.

I am forever grateful for that.

As the years have gone on, though, I"ve visited this site less and less because I've been busy creating new things in different mediums, and because Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit take up a lot of my time.

As I mentioned before, I have a YouTube channel, which is mainly comedy, but I think is worth checking out. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIvz...

I also write a daily entertainment column for an online paper. You can check that out here: http://www.detroitsportsandentertainm...

My days are pretty busy now. I write and record my videos and then go through the (sometimes long) editing process. I write my column every day, and I'm working hard on new novels.

Yet, for all the output my communication with you suffers.

I've heard this from more than a couple of you lately, and for that I am truly sorry.

You see, I don't strive to reach out to any fans I may have out there just to promote my stuff. I mean, I do promote my stuff you have to, but that's not the reason I try to keep the lines open.

The reason I do it is because I'm just a fan like anyone else out there. I understand how nice it can be when someone who's created something you like reaches out and treats you like a person.

Celebrity (not that I am one at all) is an interesting concept. It places people up on pedestals simply because they're well-known. Call me an egalitarian, but I don't think celebrities are any better than anyone else.

There are some who let their money and fame go to their head and become aloof and elitist. Then there are some who were just born like that.

I like to think that majority, however, are basically normal people. They have their flaws and their virtues like anyone else, but they are basically the same as us. And if they had the time they would communicate with all their fans.

But time is the thing. Time is what stops a lot of this.

I'm beginning to see this now because my time working is spent on trying to continue to produce and that takes away time from communication.

So if you message me, or email me or tweet at me and I don't get back to you right away, that's not me trying to snub you. It really isn't. It's just that there are only so many hours in the day, but I promise that I will try and answer every piece of correspondence as it comes my way.

In the meantime, if you do want to keep up with what I'm doing it's probably best to follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/phillipswriting

That's where I am most often, and that has the most up to date information about what I'm doing.

I will continue to come back here as often as I can. This place helped get me my start, I owe it at least that.

Thanks for reading, and watching and listening and all the stuff you do to show your support.

There's more to come.

On the importance of Diversification

It has been a long time since I've spoken to you in this medium.

For those of you who are wondering, I have been keeping myself busy. Maybe too busy sometimes.

I'm working on a new novel, another one about Bentley the serial killer.

I'm also writing daily entertainment columns for

Lately, I've started playing around with editing software and making YouTube videos. Check out one of them here:
https://youtu.be/rkCWA0nOFrY

The point is, I have been diversifying.

I think that's important to creative people. Creativity needs an outlet, and one medium is not always enough.

I love writing books, and I don't believe that I will ever stop doing that. So those of you who love my novels don't have to worry--they'll keep coming.

But for those of you who enjoy reading about the entertainment world, then I've got something for you. And if you like watching funny YouTube videos, you could do worse.

So if you like the things I've done, I would encourage you to catch up on these latest ventures.

And follow me on twitter @phillipswriting to see what I might get into next.

On the importance of Set-up

Good payoffs take time.

That was the writing lesson that I took out of Captain America: Civil War the other day.

I suppose that's an odd lesson to take out of a superhero movie about a clash of two ideologies, but hey, I'm a writer, I look for writing lessons in just about everything.

This is not a movie review, so there are no spoilers nor am I going to comment on how good or bad the movie was, but I'm going to focus on one aspect of the movie that didn't work with Batman V. Superman.

The comparisons between these two movies have come up immediately and it's inevitable as they showcase a very similar storyline and hit a lot of the same beats.

For me, personally, what didn't work in Batman V. Superman did work well in Captain America: Civil War, and the reason is because of timing.

For those of you who don't know, both movies feature a clash of ideology between two superheroes. Batman and Superman in the DC movie and Captain America and Iron Man in the Marvel film.

When Marvel first unveiled their plans for a cinematic universe I was excited about it even though I'm not a comic book fan nor am I a big fan of superhero films in general. The reason I was excited is because I loved shared universes. After all, Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and his books are filled with crossovers and shared storylines. There's something very satisfying about recognizing a minor character from another book in the one you're currently reading. It makes all the books seem that much more epic and exciting. I felt that Marvel had a chance to create that kind of atmosphere in cinema, and in Civil War it paid off.

The reason that the conflict in Batman V. Superman didn't work is because this is the first time we've seen them meet. The movie felt overstuffed and rushed and the conflict seemed almost artificial.

What worked about Civil War was the amount of time they spent to get to this point.

You can't expect to go out on one date with a person and immediately be ready to marry them and bare them children. You can't expect that you'll develop the marriage shorthand that all established couples seem to have. You can't expect to have hilarious inside jokes after one date. That kind of connection and intimacy takes time, and it's no different in fiction.

What works about Civil War is that we've seen Captain America and Iron Man in several movies now. We've not only seen them develop as friends and establish an actual bond, but we've also seem their characters grow in their own solo movies. They have been heavily established, their motivations are clear. Their flaws are clear.

And that's why it works.

Because when Captain America and Iron Man have a split over their different world views it's earned. We have a greater depth of emotion because we've spent time with these characters.

So how does all of this relate to our own writing and reading? Well I know many of you are writing or have written book series'. This takes the shared universe to another level as we are following a particular storyline and group of characters through several novels. My advice to you is to take a page out of the MCU. You have all that space to develop things, don't rush it. Don' t be in such a hurry to get your characters to some deep emotional place. Really take the time to allow your characters to breath and exist, to allow them to grow in the imaginations of your readers. Let it happen naturally and don't try to force it.

After all, how many second dates have you gotten after you've talked about getting married on the first date?

On the importance of Stardom

I think that at one point in their life just about everyone thinks of being a star. Maybe these thoughts aren't serious and maybe they don't last long, but they are there. In some people the thought becomes almost an obsession, a deep drive to see their name in lights.

Now, for most of us I think these thoughts tend to fade as you get older. Especially if you go down a career path that doesn't produce much stardom. However, I think that we are all stars in our own life.

They say there are no small parts, only small actors. The saying is so old and well used that it's moved into the realm of cliche, but it's true. A good director will tell an actor that they must think of themselves as the star of the play/movie/television show. It doesn't matter how small the part is, how few lines you have or how little you're on stage, you have to think of your character as the most important person there.

Directors do this because that's the way people think of themselves.

This isn't ego, it's natural. We can only really see the world through our own point of view. No matter how empathetic we are. Even when trying to understand someone else we're doing it through the filter of our own thoughts and experiences. It's impossible of us to think of anyone else as the star of our own life. Indeed, we call it our life. We take ownership of it. Our friends and family are players and we're the star.

Again this is separate from ego, we can place people above us in importance. For instance, I would do anything for my children or my wife. I would sacrifice myself is necessary for their survival, but I am still the star of my own life. Everything I see is through my eyes and my perspective.

So what does this have to do with writing? You must keep this point of view in mind when you're writing your characters. Every movie has a star and every book has a main character. And while that character might be the most important one in the book and we might see most things through their eyes, never forget that your other characters all think of themselves as the star of the book.

Let this point of view inform their actions, their dialogue. This is one of the best way to create realistic and rich characters and improve your book. It makes the world you're creating seem more real when the people seem real.

Remember, in real life no one thinks of themselves as the best friend, or the daughter, or the co-worker. People don't think their stock characters, your creations shouldn't think that either.

On the importance of Exploration

NASA doesn't do much of it anymore, and most of the land on Earth has been charted and mapped. There isn't big money in exploring the depths of the seas (except, of course, for the occasional pirate treasure).

The age of exploration is essentially over. Perhaps, if we ever find a way to solve our problems here on Earth, a new one will emerge in the future and we will endeavor to travel beyond our planet.

For now, the last great explorers left are artists.

I suppose that requires a bit of explanation, doesn't it? It is now easier than it ever has been to find distribution for your creative output. You can write a novel and have it listed on Amazon, you can make a movie and have it shown on Netflix, you can start a band and have your music sold on iTunes or Spotify. You can even create your own comedy, drama, chat, reality, or whatever, series and have it broadcast on YouTube.

The reason this is so easy is because it costs those companies almost nothing to list your creative work. Take Amazon for instance: they don't have to pay for shelves, they don't have to pay someone to stock or sell your book, they don't have to purchase copies and then send them back for a refund if they don't sell. All they have to do is give you a little digital space. If your book fails it costs them nothing; if your book is a runaway success (as has been the case for some lucky writers) they make a decent profit from it.

It used to be that getting your work out there was the real struggle. You had to get by the gatekeepers and get your books into stores. If you could do that then the battle was almost won. That's because companies used to have a financial stake in your book. They had to pay for printing, they had to pay for shipping, they had to pay for stocking. They needed your book to sell because they needed to make some of that money back. So they made sure that they poured money into promoting your book so that they could target an audience.

Those days are over.

Getting your book or movie or song or sit-com onto a platform where people can see it is as easy as a couple of clicks of the mouse.

Finding an audience, there is where the challenge lies.

It has never been harder than it is today to find a group of people who want to pay for your product, even though the internet has given rise to a thousand niche populations.

So artists have now become explorers.

We realize that finding that audience is the key and so we search them out. We scour the internet for pockets of people who are interested in what we've created and we try and tell them about it.

This creates a couple of problems, though. Not everyone is an infomercial pitch-man and not everyone has the skill to market to a demographic. In the old days, movie studios and publishing houses and record labels paid a lot of money for highly educated people who learned these skills and could try and sell you in a way that didn't come off as offensive or needy or harassment.

As a creator it can be a very difficult thing to go to a group of people you've never met and start telling them about the greatness of what you've done. For one thing, if they do buy your book and don't feel it's as great as you've led them to believe then you've just made an enemy.

If someone sees a commercial on television for a book and goes out and buys it and then doesn't like it there is much less personal animosity. They simply think, "well that wasn't very good," and they move on with their day. But when the author himself tells you personally to buy the book and you hate it, then you feel as if you've been tricked. That author lied to you.

Advertisement adds a needed barrier between creator and audience.

So maybe paid advertisement is a better way to go? That creates another set of problems. For one, not everyone can afford to pay to advertise their work. Television commercials are incredibly expensive, and that's before factoring in the cost to actually produce the commercial. There are a few companies which offer direct marketing to book readers in the form of mass emails and some of them (most notably BookBub) are very successful. However, they are also the most costly and they aren't a guarantee of long-term success.

We know the names of the winners of the golden age of exploration. We've all heard of Balboa and Columbus and Pizzaro and Cortez. But there were hundreds of others who tried their hand at exploration and didn't make it. They either died or drifted aimlessly or arrived too late. You never hear their names.

In the future, it will be the writers and directors and musicians who are the best explorers whose names we will know. They will be the ones to find their audience and build it.

Today, that's the real test.

On the importance of Narrative Drive

Narrative drive can be found in all forms of storytelling. It's what pulls readers through a story, keeping them wondering what is going to happen next.

There are two ways to talk about narrative drive. One is incredibly complicated and technical and one is pretty straighforward. Those of you who are familiar with my writing and my thought process can probably guess that I'm going to take the straightforward approach. Not that I think that there is no merit to knowing and understanding the minutiae of the writing process, it's just that I believe we can get all the information we need on narrative drive in the broad strokes.

Simply put, narrative drive is what keeps the reader reading. We've all had those nights where we're clinging to our book as our eyes start to slip shut and we snap them open to re-read the same sentence for the fifth time. That's the kind of dedication that narrative drive can bring out in a reader. So how do we, as writers, accomplish this?

There are two main aspects to narrative drive. The first aspect is the one I see covered all the time and, in my opinion, it's of lesser importance than the second reason, which I almost never see talked about.

The first aspect is story questions. Those things that you're whispering to yourself as you read the book. There are the big questions (will Luke and the rebels beat the empire) which are connected to the main arc of the story, and then there are the small questions (will Darth Vader or Obi Wan win this lightsaber battle) which are connected to the action of a certain scene.

The big question should be ever present in your story until the climax. Not that it needs to be stated on every page, but rather that it informs the action of the story. This big question is what leads the story from the opening scene to the next scene to the next...and so on in a logical order. What comes before is what drives what comes next.

The small questions are what give each scene a narrative tension. And keep in mind that by tension I'm not just talking about adventure stories or thrillers or horror. There can be just as much (or more) tension in a romantic scene or a character building scene. The key is that there is something at stake, whether it be life and death or romance or rejection or friendship or hatred. There should always be something at stake in every scene and our hope or dread of what will happen will drive a reader to turn the page.

The second aspect of narrative drive is character connection. This, to me, is the most important aspect of not only narrative drive but of your entire story. If I don't care about your characters then I won't bother asking myself any questions about them. Why should I care if they live or die? Why should I care what the stakes are if I don't care about the characters?

That's why I think this is the most important aspect, it is the underpinning for everything else in your book or movie or television show. When people complain about a movie being shallow or forgettable or having no heart, what they're complaining about is that they don't care about the characters. This is one of the things wrong with Michael Bay's Transformers movies. We are never given any reason to care about the characters and we never connect with them. Therefore none of the danger seems real and we ultimately don't care about the story.

So if you want to build narrative drive then you must remember to make us connect to your characters. Let us to get to know them and get to love or hate them. Then give them an ultimate goal and drive each scene with story questions that create tension. That's the basics to how to write a successful story. Now actually doing all that with style is the hard part, but that's where your talent comes in. And, trust me, you have the talent, so put in the drive.

On the importance of Star Wars

The new Star Wars movie is coming out on December 18th and fans are cautiously optimistic. This isn't like 1999 when everyone was pulling out of their skin in anticipation of the prequel films. See, we've been burned before.

If someone wanted to make a presentation about how to write both a wonderful fantasy series and a terrible fantasy series they would only need to include one franchise: Star Wars.

Now, none of the films are completely flawless I'm not trying to say that (although The Empire Strikes Back comes pretty damn close) but what I am saying is that the original trilogy is clearly better than the prequel films.

The original trilogy had a clear arc and powerful themes. It introduced us into a wonderful fantasy world that we loved.

But wait, the prequel films had a clear arc and powerful themes too. In fact, you could argue that the arc of one man's descent into evil is a much more powerful storyline than anything in the original trilogy. The prequels were able to use better technology to fully explore that fantasy world and bring us wondrous visuals that could excite and entertain.

So why did the prequel's suck? And why were the original movies good?

Basically it all comes down to characters. Or, rather, getting to know our characters.

In the original film we spent basically the first forty minutes with Luke Skywalker. We learned about his life, we learned about what he wanted, he got to know him as a character. We met Obi Wan and got to know him. We met Han Solo, Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2D2. By the time the movie was over, we felt like we knew these people and we cared about them.

In the second film we got to know the bad guys. We learned more about Darth Vader and his history, we met the emperor and hated him.

In the third film good and evil collide for an exciting climax and all story points are resolved.

Throughout all of it there were special effects and space battles and lightsaber duels and adventure and action. But all of those elements were a consequence of the situation the characters were in. Sure, they added to the movie and made it enjoyable, but all the adventure in the world means nothing if I don't care about people. That emotional bond is what draws people into a story. It's the basis of all great fiction.

The prequel films fail at this. There is the same action, the same adventure, the same space battles and improved special effects. What those films lack though is the heart of the original trilogy. Save for one exception, there is no character in the entire trilogy that we get to know in the same way as we get to know the characters in the original trilogy. There are no bonds formed between characters like in the original trilogy. Luke and Han don't start off as friends, their friendship grows organically from their situation. Same with Han and Leia. They don't start out loving each other, it grows from what they've been through.

In the prequels we are told that Obi Wan and Anakin are friends, we are told that Anakin and Padme love each other. There is no real attempt made to actually show Obi Wan and Anakin become friends. No scenes where we see that bond grow. We are simply told they had adventures and became friends. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not a good way to tell a story. It's hard to live vicariously through your characters when I don't get to see any of the moments that formed their bond.

There is a lame attempt at showing how Anakin and Padme fall in love, but it's as if it were written by an alien who only had a partial understanding about how people actually fall in love.

The entire prequel films treats the characters as just another set piece. Something to put where you need it, have it say what you need it to say and then move on to the next plot point. Everything is in service to the plot and nothing is in service to the characters.

And that is the failing of the prequel films. They don't give us characters to root for and thus why the hell should we care? Turns out, we don't.

I did say there was one exception, didn't I? That would be the emperor. He is is the only character in the prequel films that actually had depth. He had a clear goal and everything he did was in service to his character working for that goal. He was power-hungry, evil and duplicitous. And that's how he was portrayed. His character was fully fleshed out and so his actions were able to have clear character motivation.

When you're sitting down to write your own story (space epic or not) make sure that you keep this in mind. The dazzling visuals and the exciting battles are nice but that's not what keeps people coming back. The characters are what keep people coming back. Learn from George Lucas's triumphs and mistakes. We can only hope that J.J. Abrams has.

On the importance of Thanksgiving

Well the holiday season is upon us once again and this Thursday we kick it off with Thanksgiving. What I love about Thanksgiving is that it is truly an American holiday in that the truth of it has been buried deep and it has been transformed into something else.

Think about it, we do it with almost all of our holidays.

Halloween was a holiday invented by a group of Celts who believed in demons and ghosts and would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off the evil spirits.

In America it means kids and candy.

Easter is supposed to be the celebration of the rebirth of Jesus Christ after suffering on the cross and being placed in a cave.

In America it means bunny rabbits, eggs and candy.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but it came from a Roman tradition of a week of lawlessness. The Roman courts were closed and people could not be prosecuted for any offense committed during this period. Think, The Purge. There were rapes, human sacrifices, drunk people going from house to house singing and the eating of human shaped cookies--some things are the same.

In America Christmas means Santa, gifts and candy...canes.

Then there is Thanksgiving, which celebrates a group of mass murderers who were celebrating the fact that they hadn't died yet. Over half of the people (many of them small children) died during that first brutal winter.

In America it means food, giving thanks and candy...ed yams.

You may think that I'm slagging off our country for these whitewashes, but it's actually the opposite. While I'm not proud of some of our nation's past and do think that there is a time and a place to keep those things in mind, I actually love our ability to make these holidays what they are.

If America is the melting pot for people of various nationalities and beliefs, it is also the melting pot of our own ideals and history. We have taken these days, some of them horrible in origin, and made them our own. We have put a uniquely American face on them and I think that's wonderful.

I have a lot to be thankful for during this holiday season, but as this is a blog about writing, I will keep it to that subject.

So I'd just like to take a minute and thank my readers. Writing is lonely work and connecting with readers makes a big difference. I have been lucky enough to connect with many of you throughout the year and I always try to respond to everyone I can. If I haven't gotten to your email or twitter post yet, I assure you that I will.

As a bit of a gift for my readers I will leave you with this tid bit of information: I am currently working on a book series that combines fantasy, horror, dystopian and sci-fi elements. I actually conceived of this idea when I was about sixteen years old (longer ago than I'd like to think about) but I have begun work on it. The series should be comprised of six or seven books and I anticipate it will be available in about a year's time. I'm taking a page from Netflix in that this book series will be available for bingeing. I will not publish it until all the books are finished, and they will all be released at once. Again, I'm thinking about a year from now. I'm very excited about this series and I think that you will all love it.

So, again, thank you for all your kind words and correspondence. I look forward to connecting with you in the future.

And have a great holiday.

On the importance of Violence

The winter finale (somehow now a thing in television) of How to Get Away with Murder aired and we now have an answer to the question of "who pulled the trigger".

Now some of you reading might not watch this show (but you should, you really should) so I won't post any spoilers here. What I want to talk about is the larger issue of violence in the media.

For years I have heard that television and movies is becoming more violent and that this will destroy our youth and make our society more barbaric.

Well as an author of a pretty violent book series, Beneath the Mask of Sanity, I know that the writers of such fiction can often be the subject of vitriol. There are few days that go by where I don't open my email to hear from someone who thinks that I stepped over the line.

All of which is to say that I might be biased in my opinion, but hell, it's my blog and I'll be biased if I want to be.

How to Get Away with Murder, and other shows like it, are popular not because they are violent, but because they do an excellent job of weaving that violence into the very fabric of the story. It comes from the characters, it comes from the situations, it is organic.

And that's the point. Violence is not only an organic part of some of our favorite stories, but it's an organic part of our human nature. How many episodes of How to Get Away with Murder do you think the terrorists who attacked Paris watched? My guess is zero. My guess is that they don't have the time or inclination to watch American television and yet they are violent.

Violent television and books do not make people more violent. Violent television and books are popular because people are already violent. It's part of who we are, and that is mostly an okay thing. It's not okay when someone decides to carry that violence into a real-world scenario and actually hurt others, but while that happens much too often for any of our tastes, it's only a very small percentage of the total population who engage in those acts.

Instead, I posit that violent television and books are a net good for humanity. They offer us a catharsis that is vital to the overall mental health of a society. Deranged minds might pervert things but with or without television and books they will still be deranged and they will still act out.

So do yourself a favor and check out How to Get Away with Murder if you haven't already done so. It's a brilliantly written and acted thriller that I'm sure you and your subconscious will greatly enjoy.

On the importance of Clarity

Writing is communication.

Maybe that seems simplistic or obvious, but you'd be surprised how often writers forget this basic fact. Good writers too, some who are considered giants of their time.

I recently read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and that was a man who had forgotten (at least in that novel) that writing was communication.

The book is such a jumbled mess of ideas and transgressions and asides and stream-of-consciousness and technical jargon that it becomes almost incomprehensible; it certainly becomes tedious to read, just like this sentence.

Now I'm not against the modernistic literary movement in any way. Experimental novels can be great fun, and as a writer, it can be a joy to toy with such new ideas to tell a story.

But, one thing that a writer must always keep in mind is that writing is communication, and the hallmark of effective communication is clarity.

My biggest gripe with Wallace's novel isn't that it is experimental (Kurt Vonnegut was a genius of experimental fiction and Breakfast of Champions is one of the greatest books ever written) my biggest problem is that it is so often inscrutable simply for inscrutability's sake. That's not an effective way to communicate.

There are pretty much no rules to writing a book and every person comes at it at a slightly different angle. Though it is important to remember that if you do not have a firm grasp of the rules of composition then you will never be sure if you're doing good or ill when you break those rules.

All of us write because it fulfills us, because it makes us happy. Most of us also write to tell the world how we feel about a certain issue or group of issues. What literary critics and academics call themes. We're all different, but in my experience I am first writing for myself (to make myself happy and to try and understand what I believe) but also for the potential reader (to entertain them and show them my point of view).

Clarity is essential to this second part of the equation. If all you're writing for is yourself then why not write your story down, put it in a trunk and come back to it whenever you want to read it? In that case you can be as cryptic as you'd like. You could write in code if you pleased.

I suspect that most of you, like me, write for an audience as well as for yourself, and if that's the case than it's important to be clear in your writing. Now, I'm not suggesting that you dumb down the language so even the thickest person could understand you. Nor am I suggesting that there isn't room for ambiguity in your plot. What I am suggesting is that you give your reader a fair shake at understanding what you mean and what you believe.

Take a murder mystery for example. During the book you're trying to guess who the real killer is, but when the end comes we discover that the killer was a character only talked about once in almost no detail and never actually seen in the book until the reveal. Did you have a fair shot at figuring that out? It seems like a bit of a cheat doesn't it?

In the same way if you don't give your readers a line that can be followed--and yes it can be a well covered line--then you are cheating your readers out of a valuable part of the reading experience.

Whenever I edit one of my books I also take one pass to examine each sentence and make sure that I'm being as clear as possible. Unless, of course, I'm being a bit coy to hide a piece of information that won't be revealed until later. And even in that instance I never completely cover my tracks. A perceptive reader could pick up on it in the first read through and certainly will see the train of logic on the second.

Even abstract painters or avant garde film makers give you enough to go on so that you can see the point of their art if you look from just the right angle.

Clarity is important, it's how you are understood. The greats understood that: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Updyke, Faulkner.

Some of them were wildly experimental and deliciously metaphorical but they all brought clarity to their writing. We should all strive to be like that.