Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

I'm going to offer an alternative viewpoint. My personal background is such that I don't particularly like profanity, although I have no choice but to be immersed in it. (Call me a snowflake if you wish. I think of it more in terms of courtesy.) However, it's not my place to tell other people what to write or say, so I don't.

But I will say this:

As a writer, a part of your job is to cut whatever doesn't serve the story you are telling. You must be vigilant about how you tell your story, right down to individual word choices. We know that overused words draw attention to themselves, and often we rephrase to avoid excessive repetition. Obscenities are strong words and call attention to themselves. If you use them, they should not be overused. This isn't a moral thing. It's a principle of writing that all too often is violated left, right, and center today. The result is bad writing.

My wife, who is not shy about profanity, once overheard a snippet of a cable TV show in which one of the female characters was using the f-word every time she turned around. That character could barely speak a sentence without it. My wife's reaction was, "Is that the only word that woman knows?" It was a spot-on criticism of the writers.

It's important to remember that dialogue is not conversation. Dialogue is cleaned up conversation. If you wrote your dialogue the way people really speak, it would make terrible reading. The trick is to make it sound real without including all the clutter that actually occurs in conversation. And some of that may well be excessive obscenity. Again, this is just about good writing, nothing else.

I wrote a Medium article (Clean Up Your Language) comparing the art of bonasi to writing, with regard to cutting whatever doesn't serve the story. It was not specifically about the use of profanity, but I did cover that toward the end of the article. I talk in a bit more detail there about solid writing reasons to not overuse obscenity.

Today's musings: Too Many Stories, which has to do with not blindly believing political narratives.

It depends on your agreement with the illustrator. Even if they used public domain or licensed images (as opposed to creating the artwork themselves), they may still have some rights to the whole composition.

Your agreement may stipulate that the illustrator is performing a "work for hire," in which case you pay them for the work and you are then free to use it as you see fit. But if not, they may retain rights to the work. If so, you may then need their permission to use it in ways other than those specified in your agreement. There can even be payments due for other uses, or royalties due based on sales. It all depends on how the agreement is written.

Of course, this all assumes that a written agreement exists in the first place. If not, I have no idea what would happen in the case of a dispute. I do know that in the U.S., copyright registration of a work involving elements that were made as a work for hire requires a written agreement specifying such, otherwise it's not a work for hire. But they also don't require a copy of the agreement. They just take your word for it. If a dispute ended up in court, you'd probably have to produce the agreement in order to support a claim that the work was a work made for hire.

Congratulations, Carole!

Congratulations, Carole!

The flash fiction version of The Stones on the Shore is now posted on Medium.

The longer version is available via Lit Up. Some might like to compare the two.

Thanks!

I don't often write stuff like this. A news article prompted it. I'm hoping maybe I can get the attention of Medium's editors and "go big" with it. Think it has a shot?

Re-dreaming the American Dream

Lit Up has published my latest short story, The Stones on the Shore..

This one was originally written as flash fiction entry for the Indies Unlimited competition, then I decided I wanted to expand on it. I'll be publishing the flash piece later, and will link the two together so you can see them both. That might be of interest to some people. I hope...

Theodore wrote: "Dale wrote: "From the feedback I get, lots of people keep flash fiction in their bathrooms. (;>)"

That could be disturbing . . .

Thanks, Ted. Right now I'm leaning towards Kathleen's suggestion to sprinkle flash fiction in with longer stories. I also did something interesting with my latest IU flash fiction story and wrote an longer version of it for LitUp on Medium. I may do some more of those for the collection.

Blood Moon, a descent into flash fiction madness.

Specifically to Ted, since I know he's published several of these, but anybody with experience can feel free to jump in.

How well have flash fiction collections have sold for you? I'm (slowly) pulling together a collection of short stories, the bulk of which are flash fiction, but my wife is questioning the sales potential and encouraging me to write more longer stories and use a few flash stories as fillers. Since she's my editor, I tend to listen to her unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise.

Matt wrote: "Well, nothing to be done about it. I could message the person, but that would likely generate ill will, if they are flesh-and-blood and not a bot. Just gotta roll with the punches.... "

Exactly. Besides, a low rating isn't actually a bad thing. Not everyone will like every book, nor will everyone hate every book. A spread of ratings is normal and an indication that both your work and your reviews are not shams. If you got all 5-stars or all 1-stars, that would indicate something questionable going on.

Matt wrote: "OK, so I recently released a new novel, "Primal Nature." Getting my ducks in a row before I do a marketing push, so I don't expect sales and reviews yet.

Therefore, I was surprised when I saw "Pri..."

Hard to say what's going on with Harold (assuming the name is real). According to his 2018 stats page, he's read 186 books so far this year. He's given 4 5-star reviews, 4 4-star reviews, 76 3-star reviews (if I counted right), 87 2-star reviews, 9 1-star reviews, and left 6 unrated. The spread is definitely heavy on 2-star reviews, but I wouldn't say this is necessarily a sham account. It could just be a voracious reader who doesn't give 4 or 5 stars unless a book really stands out in his mind. His 2017 and 2016 spreads are similar, although there aren't enough books in 2016 to say much.

What might be odd is that he's reported reading just over 20 books per month this year. Some of those might have been books started at the tail end of last year, but even so, that's a pretty heavy pace. He'd have to finish a book every 1 to 2 days to keep that up. That's possible for a fast reader with little else on their plate but could be considered questionable.

My latest at Writing Cooperative: Who Said That? about attributions in dialogue.

Angel wrote: "Dale wrote: "My latest at Publishous: Say It With Love"

Shared."

Thank you!

My latest at Publishous: Say It With Love

Angel wrote: "Shared."

Thank you!

I hope I won't tax anyone with this piece. It's an experimental science fiction short story, written in the form of a legal appeal by a character sentenced to death.

Testimony

Comments welcome. If you like it, please share it around. Thank you!

A new short story, The Gift, published on Lit Up. I say "new" but actually I wrote this five or six months ago for a Brilliant Flash Fiction competition. I didn't even make the long list this time, but I think it's a pretty good story anyway. Of course, I would, wouldn't I? ;-)