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Mistakes I made...That you should avoid
V.M. wrote: "Usually we would advocate against chasing trends, but hey, if it works for you do it. One mistake to avoid is to try and cater an existing story that you wrote to a particular trend. You'll end up ..."We need "LIKE" buttons. I agree very much with this, V.M, The Gentleman Ninja.
Idav wrote: "V.M. wrote: "Idav wrote: "Ava wrote: "Proofreading is pretty key. Not to say that mine are perfect, but I try hard to make my writing as error-free as possible. Besides, I don't want to include the..."Haha. Niiice. I've heard of T-Rex erotica before. Bigfoot erotica is a nitche with some following. I find it all silly. :P
I had to learn #4 and #5 the hard way. Running four social media accounts on your own (as I'm doing) is murder to the social/family life! And to the carpal tunnel as well. :PGreat list!
Good suggestions, Erik. I expected the outline bit to be controversial. I have mixed feelings about that, because before I started outlining I couldn't complete a book. After that first one, however, with all those revisions and false starts caused by excessive outlining at the start, I backed off and I now use a synopsis only. That seems to work best for me.
I also appreciated the comments on IP. One of my fellow writers was afraid to mention song titles in her work; to me that's silly, as long as you're not quoting the lyrics. It harkens back to the 1960's where TV writers were forced to act as if pop culture didn't exist. In a fairer world, short quotes with proper attribution (as with the Laws of Robotics) would always be considered fair use. It is, after all, free publicity. Under current law we can paraphrase and rearrange and the originator gets no credit at all. And yes, ideally we should strive to be original but there are very few (if any) new ideas under the sun.
Also: BACKUP YOUR WORK!A friend of mine fried his harddrive last week. Two completed (but as yet unpublished) books got deleted and the only backups he had were in folders on the same harddrive.
I went straight home and backed mine up to the cloud, a USB stick and on a second computer. Just in case it's contageous...
Back ups are super important. Overall I think having readers read various drafts is the one of the most important things.
Kat wrote: "Also: BACKUP YOUR WORK!A friend of mine fried his harddrive last week. Two completed (but as yet unpublished) books got deleted and the only backups he had were in folders on the same harddrive.
..."
I'm a paranoid author and I approve of this message. ;)
Email yourself each chapter or bit as you write and save them to a cloud service like Drive or Dropbox. Passport drives have gotten super cheap as well. I think the last one I picked up was right around $60 for 1tb. Not even ten years ago, I paid the same for a 256mb SD card! Gotta love the future.
Christina wrote: "Kat wrote: "Also: BACKUP YOUR WORK!A friend of mine fried his harddrive last week. Two completed (but as yet unpublished) books got deleted and the only backups he had were in folders on the same..."
I save my drafts with year-month-date in the title (for version control) and email them to myself. I also use Dropbox. I am too wary of computers to not have a plan B and C.
I always back my stuff up and put on cd's/external hard drives/ and printed out. I am super paranoid about losing everything. I like the idea of emailing them to yourself. Think I will try that also!
Not paranoid, but remember there is also the risk of a corrupted file. I backed up my first novel regularly on a removable drive, but my working copy became corrupted (two versions of Word that didn’t love each other) and you guessed it, I over-wrote the good backup with the bad file.Semi-happy ending, I’d recently saved a Version 1.1 and only lost about 15% of my work… coulda been worse. I now use Google Drive regularly as an offsite backup for earlier versions.
Who knows, Microsoft, malware, ransomeware, computer malfunctions, wardrobe malfunctions; it’s a dangerous business we’re in. Write safely all…
Kat wrote: "I went straight home and backed mine up to the cloud, a USB stick and on a second computer..."I just use Dropbox. I do all my writing directly in the Dropbox folder on my laptop. That automatically gets uploaded to the cloud as I write/save. And, the files gets backed up automatically to a Dropbox folder on any other PC/device connected to my account.
More is always better, but I hate having to remember to do manual backups to anything. USB stick, other computers, whatever. Make it as easy on yourself as possible.
D.L. wrote: "I always back my stuff up and put on cd's/external hard drives/ and printed out. I am super paranoid about losing everything. I like the idea of emailing them to yourself. Think I will try that also!"Ugh. All that's too labor intensive. I hate having email backlogs. And if you print and save to CDs or external drives and your house burns down...they're all toast too.
C.B. Matson wrote: "Not paranoid, but remember there is also the risk of a corrupted file. I backed up my first novel regularly on a removable drive, but my working copy became corrupted (two versions of Word that did..."That's why, like Robert, I always start writing or editing by doing a Save As and add today's date on the new file. If one copy gets corrupted, you might lose a day's work at the most.
See, the thing about being paranoid is this:I don't trust my computer to not explode, so I back up on a passport.
I don't trust the passport not to fritz out, so I email myself my work
I don't trust my email not to get wiped/corrupted/lose my password/etc, so I use a cloud service.
I don't trust that the servers hosting the cloud won't totally go 'splody so I am glad I have redundancies.
Yes, I am THAT paranoid about losing my work.
Micah, I'm too much of an atavist (or too paranoid, [cue spooky music] who knows what the government...[/spooky music] never mind) to work directly from a 3rd party like Dropbox. However, if I had to re-enter from a hard copy these days, I think I'd rather strangle myself with a typewriter ribbon.
Actually, I skipped the part where when I email myself, I download the files to my phone and tablet as well.
I just update the backup on my computer monthly, and if I make major changes or additions to my manuscripts in between I'll save it to the cloud. I don't think you need any more than that.
Kat wrote: "Also: BACKUP YOUR WORK!A friend of mine fried his harddrive last week. Two completed (but as yet unpublished) books got deleted and the only backups he had were in folders on the same harddrive.
..."
I've been in the computer business for forty years now, and I've seen so many dead hard drives that I don't feel dressed without several backup systems running.
Talking about throwing money at a problem. I had about $900 budget to get my book published and market it. I wasted $265 on a website, that I could have gotten for free on one.com for the first year. That money would have best been added to what I was willing to spend on a book cover. So in the end, the more important things were scrimped on while I wasted money on the less important. Rookie mistake, I know now.
Robert "All of this is true, but let's not overstate the case. I've had more than one person warn me about "copyright infringement" in the first chapter of my book. My characters watch Disney's Mulan and talk about the movie as they plan a birthday party."
I went to an intellectual properties lawyer to discuss some things I had in my book. I quoted from song lyrics, mentioned Star Trek, the name of a restaurant and a hotel, quoted from the book, "The Art of War," etc...
What he told me is this: though there is a gray area concerning usage of some copyrighted materials, there is a doctrine called "the fair use doctrine." This includes your characters watching TV, a commercial, hearing something on the radio or background from a jukebox, etc... I even think there is fifteen second rule in motion pictures that allows you to play a song in the background for up to 15 seconds without permission or royalties being paid.
For instance, in my book, one of my character's call-sign was "Kahless" after the Star trek Klingon. The Lawyer said this was fine, calling it "fan fiction" since all I was doing was having a fictional character name himself after the Star Trek icon, saying that all I had to do was give credit to "Star Trek" for mentioning them.
And concerning the quotes from "The Art of War," Sambhalla Publication's own website said I can quote up to 250 words from their book without permission.
Legally, references seem to be okay, reprinting an entire work for profit is illegal. Keep this thought in mind... What you meant to do was flattering to the brand, and in essence is advertising "Mulan" and promoting it in a positive way. This can hardly be considered damaging.
A direct quote from the fair use legal definition: "The third factor assesses the quantity or percentage of the original copyrighted work that has been imported into the new work. In general, the less that is used in relation to the whole, ex: a few sentences of a text for a book review, the more likely that the sample will be considered fair use."
More about fair-use doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
I went to an intellectual properties lawyer to discuss some things I had in my book. I quoted from song lyrics, mentioned Star Trek, the name of a restaurant and a hotel, quoted from the book, "The Art of War," etc...
What he told me is this: though there is a gray area concerning usage of some copyrighted materials, there is a doctrine called "the fair use doctrine." This includes your characters watching TV, a commercial, hearing something on the radio or background from a jukebox, etc... I even think there is fifteen second rule in motion pictures that allows you to play a song in the background for up to 15 seconds without permission or royalties being paid.
For instance, in my book, one of my character's call-sign was "Kahless" after the Star trek Klingon. The Lawyer said this was fine, calling it "fan fiction" since all I was doing was having a fictional character name himself after the Star Trek icon, saying that all I had to do was give credit to "Star Trek" for mentioning them.
And concerning the quotes from "The Art of War," Sambhalla Publication's own website said I can quote up to 250 words from their book without permission.
Legally, references seem to be okay, reprinting an entire work for profit is illegal. Keep this thought in mind... What you meant to do was flattering to the brand, and in essence is advertising "Mulan" and promoting it in a positive way. This can hardly be considered damaging.
A direct quote from the fair use legal definition: "The third factor assesses the quantity or percentage of the original copyrighted work that has been imported into the new work. In general, the less that is used in relation to the whole, ex: a few sentences of a text for a book review, the more likely that the sample will be considered fair use."
More about fair-use doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
Just wanna thank everyone so much for contributing to this, this will be really helpful to read and learn from :)
Mod
That's what it's meant for!
Morris wrote: "Robert "All of this is true, but let's not overstate the case. I've had more than one person warn me about "copyright infringement" in the first chapter of my book. My characters watch Disney's Mul..."Not to be argumentative for the sake of being so, but as fair use and copyright issues are vital to those of us who write for a living and such, I had to point out some discrepancies.
There is actually no 15 second rule, or any "seconds" rule of any kind for fair use. A single frame of a movie inserted into something can be considered outside of fair use, if permission is not granted from the copyright owner. Whether they bother to kick up dust over it, is another issue, but they are well within their rights to do so, depending on the nature of that one frame. It's one of those persistent fair-use myths.
Colin Farrell ad-libed less than ten seconds of "We Will Rock You" while shooting a scene from the movie "The Recruit" and it took the producers quite a bit of energy and time to secure the rights to keep it.
Also, attributing something does not insure fair use in its own right. That's another myth. Something may or may not be fair use, but it does not become so through attribution or length of what is used.
Just wanted to add to that, and though i don't know you, I would seek the advice of different/additional lawyers pertaining to Disney or Star Trek names in regards to fair use.
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=2...
http://studentpressblogs.org/nspa/the...
Just to reinforce what Ty says above, the nature of the content is a critical consideration when it comes to fair use. Quoting one line from a source where that short excerpt could be seen as encapsulating the essence of the work in question can violate copyright, where a longer passage from the same work might still fall under the heading of fair use. If there's any doubt, it's probably a good idea to seek permission or legal advice.
In my case, I brought the material I was concerned about to the lawyer for examination and he said I had nothing to worry about.
Thanks to the advice Erik, I'm realizing that I've made some mistakes with the release of my first book and it's helpful to see some simple advice to help me mentally straighten things out.
Libby, I have a trick I use so, that in any given day, no matter if my PC crashed, I never lose more than one day's work. For instance, let's my book was "Robinson Crusoe." My WORD doc for today would be RC_091715. I save every time I make a change, then tomorrow morning, i start by saving it as RC_091815. I put the old one in a folder marked OLD RC.
I once lost the beginning of the third novel in my series, about thirty pages, which was heavily based on Soviet military logic, which I had a former Sovier citizen proofread for me. I couldn't find it on my PC anywhere, I had lost my previous jump drive, and broken my last one is an careless accident. I had actually printed those first 30 pages and thrown them in a drawer. Relieved, I copied them back into electronic format. Make sure you make several copies of your latest work, keep them in different places, heck even email yourself a copy.
I once lost the beginning of the third novel in my series, about thirty pages, which was heavily based on Soviet military logic, which I had a former Sovier citizen proofread for me. I couldn't find it on my PC anywhere, I had lost my previous jump drive, and broken my last one is an careless accident. I had actually printed those first 30 pages and thrown them in a drawer. Relieved, I copied them back into electronic format. Make sure you make several copies of your latest work, keep them in different places, heck even email yourself a copy.
^ completely agreed. I've been emailing myself copies of my writing for years! I also save a copy on the proverbial "cloud." Speaking of which, I need to do that today!Going back to the numbered list:
"3) Things always take much longer than you think."
THIS. This is 110% true! Be prepared for any and all projects to take 10 times longer than you initially anticipated! Don't get impatient and submit something that is only 99% perfect--the temptation is strong because you are excited about your work!
To make sure I never lose more than a day's work, I just use a portable hard drive (USB) and set my work files to automatically backup every 24 hours.File backup is built into Windows and instructions are online.
I had one computer completely die on me, and I didn't lose a thing.
I believe those who hate outlining feel controlled by it, perhaps because they don't understand how to make it work for them. An outline can be 4 bullet points or multiple pages, depending on your need. Outlines are useful for looking at your work from a distance. I call it the landscape perspective. As opposed to up close, or the tree perspective. The outline is your map to the big picture. It can help you to focus your story, if you understand plot structure and the story 'type' you are working on. If you don't get the structural needs of your story, an outline becomes a bureaucratic exercise.
C.M. wrote: "I believe those who hate outlining feel controlled by it, perhaps because they don't understand how to make it work for them. An outline can be 4 bullet points or multiple pages, depending on your ..."Writing is a creative process and as such, there are no rules that dictate said process. Outlines work for some people because the brains of those people work one way. Outlines don't work or are completely unnecessary for others simply because their brains work another way. This is not necessarily a matter of them not understanding how an outline works.
True. An outline is a tool. And each writer needs to figure out if it's useful to them, or not and how it can be useful.
Mod
Aye, my problem with outlines is I get to restricted by them. I put something in a bullet point, I NEED to include it. Until I get over that I'm going to be restricted by them.
Mod
No, it just simply doesn't fit with my style of approaching a work. I've tried it and it wastes precious time... for me. A story sounds great and fantastic in the planning stages, then when the actual writing comes along, I find that it doesn't play out well. It's easier for me to see how a story plays out by just writing it instead of planning out on paper what I have in my head already. Instead of making a tool work for me that isn't, I would rather stick with the tools that do work. Why try to learn to cut a board with a hammer when you already know how to use a saw? It has nothing to do with hating something or not being able to comprehend it.
If others can make outlining work, great for them. But, it's not for all of us.
Former outliner here. ;) I'm now a pantser. For some reason, pantsing works better for me than outlining. We all have different methods and different brains and different ideas. Your mileage may vary.
Question: once a story is published, is there a "right" way to get it known?
Artsolameelian wrote: "Question: once a story is published, is there a "right" way to get it known?"We have an entire folder full of answers to that question. Please take a look through the posts in the Marketing and Promotion Questions folder.
I often clashed with my outline during my first adventures into writing. I settled on using a very straight-forward map of my story, but I allow my characters to choose which roads they want to take along the way.
I'm a visual person and can't outline, absolutely hate it. BUT I like to know where I'm going...so I found a free app that helps me remember where I'm going mindmapmaker.org. It gives a grid page to draw on. If you're not one to outline, or maybe even if you are, give it a whirl! and no, I do not make any money or endorsements off this, it just freed me to work
My first book started as something completely different back in 2007. I had a book written out, but it was really bad. Later on I re-wrote it, then re-wrote it again but changed the main character from a lesbian to a straight male, made him into a secondary character, and wrote the female romantic lead as one of the main characters instead. I did an outline with that same book, but gave up when I had too many ideas. It helped give direction, but after so many years I'd eventually thought it out to the point where I knew what I wanted to write, so I just wrote from my mind's memory.
With the second book, I thought everything out and planned it. I wrote a bunch of it all at once, and there was never anything that I outlined. However I did change a ton of things from first draft to actual book form. There were a number of typos and weird characterization issues. It was a mess.
Mistakes I made that you should avoid: don't trust spell-check to fix everything because they do NOT catch every grammar mistake. If you spell a word right but it's the wrong word, spell-check will not help you. For proofreading, I recommend putting your manuscript aside for a few months once it's done - that way, any errors you've made will jump out at you.
With the second book, I thought everything out and planned it. I wrote a bunch of it all at once, and there was never anything that I outlined. However I did change a ton of things from first draft to actual book form. There were a number of typos and weird characterization issues. It was a mess.
Mistakes I made that you should avoid: don't trust spell-check to fix everything because they do NOT catch every grammar mistake. If you spell a word right but it's the wrong word, spell-check will not help you. For proofreading, I recommend putting your manuscript aside for a few months once it's done - that way, any errors you've made will jump out at you.
Bethany wrote: "Mistakes I made that you should avoid: don't trust spell-check to fix everything because they do NOT catch every grammar mistake. If you spell a word right but it's the wrong word, spell-check will not help you. For proofreading, I recommend putting your manuscript aside for a few months once it's done - that way, any errors you've made will jump out at you. "I second the last part. The longer I'm able to put a book aside, the more mistakes I'm able to catch. What really helps is to work on something else, either writing something else or editing it. It really cleanses the mental pallet when you turn your focus to another project.
Yes! I call this "drawer time" and it's not only essential for grammar / spelling, but hyperbole as well. Where I get over-dramatic, try too hard, dialogue feels stilted...
Be able to summarize your entire story in one sentence. If you can't you do not have the right direction of the story.
Not all promotions are created equal, nor are they necessarily effective just because you pay good money (to avoid the wrath of MODS ;-) I will not include any link in this post, but to those who are interested to know which promos I refer to, please feel free to send me a note and I will share what you need to avoid). The following are not mistakes but learnings.
- Authors, especially self-published authors, are generous in sharing their ideas, tips and tricks, and experiences; majority of them are genuinely looking out for the success of the collective many
- There are tens of thousands of books in all genres to choose from every year, so it is a fiercely competitive market out there
- Though I'm a newbie in the self-publishing world, given point #1, it's my turn to pay it forward, which leads me to sharing additional learnings below
- Write, read, write, and read some more - remind yourself what got you started in the first place, and what will carry you throughout the journey
- Share your writing for free, example blogs; it's a win-win situation, you're doing what you love, your potential readers are getting a sample of your writing and if they like it they will stick so that when you're ready to publish your next book, they'd be spreading the news even before you hit the 'publish' button
- You can't get away from social media, so choose those that feel right for you, and those most frequently used by your target audience
- Take those rejections (slow sale, libraries that won't carry your books, prominent book reviewers who won't return your emails or calls) as fuel to write better and to work harder
- Write, read, write and read some more - that's right, a repeat of above, because this is what got you started in the first place
You must take your time outlining or you will have lots of rewrites to do and your story can lose its focus and become like Swiss cheese; full of plot holes or convolted. That's the only one I can't run with. I subscribe to the Stephen King model of begin with a "what if?" and let 'er rip. With the addition of Scrivener to my writing tools, plot holes will be filled a lot more easily. I never know how my stories will end. They take on a a life of their own.
But everyone has their own method and in the end, it's the story and how well it's told that counts.
One should also have their plot proofed before writing it so one doesn't have any plot holes which are way too common in movies and novels.