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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| Quitting I get a few newsletters on writing, and this one from John Matthew Fox struck a chord with me recently. It’s about quitting. Now, this is not about stopping writing, but when to realise that things you are doing are not necessarily working. I’ll go over John’s concepts, add a couple of my own, and hopefully give people some idea about stopping. Now, having said that: when it comes to quitting writing altogether, the simple answer is: don’t. We’re not talking about quitting writing completely, going on to become a golfer with a four handicap or a cage dancer. We’re talking about quitting habits and practices that could be holding you back, but have become so ingrained or have been drilled into you by courses that if you do not do them, you feel you have failed. So… quitting. The modern interpretation is that only losers quit. But, way back when, quitting was seen as a way of avoiding the wasting of time. We have sayings like “flogging a dead horse” which show that our ancestors knew that not everything deserved our time or effort. “Quitting… is one of the best skills you can have as a writer.” (John Matthew Fox) Fox says there are three types of quitting you might need to do as a writer: Project Quitting Method or Approach Quitting Genre Quitting I will add two more: Audience Quitting Expectation Quitting Let’s get to it! 1. Project Quitting So many top writers will tell you they quit books part way through because they were not working, the plan didn’t make sense, something in the world changed, anything. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a professional writer who hasn’t stopped work on something and never gone back to it. This is not a sign that you have failed. Not everything works, that’s all. The problem is, so many writers think because they have invested time and effort into something, they must see it through to the end. And if they don’t, that fail word crops up. The thing about giving up on a project is it can free your mind to work on something else. If you are solely focused on that piece that just is not going anywhere, then your mind has no room for any other ideas. Once that blockage is gone, the mind can once again run free. 2. Method or Approach Quitting John Matthew Fox and I have two different takes on this. Fox sees it as changing where you submit, the audience you want to write for, going from short stories to novels, changing something about the style of writing you engage in. To me, it is about changing the way you approach writing. Are you a plotter? Trying pantsing a story. Do you write in silence all the time? Try going to a café and writing in the noise of a busy place. Do you do five drafts? Try seven… or three. Do you use a certain beta reader? Try a new one. To me, it is quitting the way you have “always done things” because sometimes that change can be as good as a holiday. On a personal note, this is something I did. I went from writing a certain length of work – “this idea is a novel”; “this is going to be a 3500 word short story for XYZ Magazine” – to just writing, and letting the idea length fall where it may. I quit setting myself a definite word count. Yes, this does mean I have a number of stories of a length that is going to be difficult to sell, but the ideas were seen through to completion. Writers – especially beginner writers – who go into an idea telling themselves “this is going to be a five book epic fantasy series” and then fail to even get chapter 1 of book 1 written maybe should quit that length mind-set and just write the idea down. Fox uses the examples of self-publishing v traditional publishing and writing for fame v self-fulfilment. More methods of writing and getting writing out there that you can look at from your own personal point of view as a writer. He points out that this sort of quitting might go against some of the gatekeepers of writing, and he is not wrong. But you are not writing to keep them happy – you are writing to simply write. 3. Genre Quitting Another one I can relate to! Fox indicates that this can prove to be a career boost, and I am not one to disagree. I was selling horror short stories, but my first novel was a comedy about ancient poo. That change helped. However, a writer who likes one genre and just works in that genre risks running out of ideas in that genre’s limitations, or starting to ape others or even self-cannibalise their older works. I know science fiction writer who tried to shoe-horn every idea they had into the sci-fi genre. It was only when his wife (a poet) told him that an idea he was struggling with would make a far better urban fantasy, and worked with him to do that, and then the story sold, did he realise that there are other genres out there he could do. It is not about quitting for good, by the way, but a change in what is being written, maybe even only temporarily. Probably even only temporarily – first loves are hard to let go of. 4. Audience Quitting Who are you writing for? That’s a question I often ask people, and, at the risk of sounding clichéd, the first answer should be, “For yourself.” However, there are external audiences as well. if you are writing to just please these external audiences, are you giving yourself a fair go? Put yourself first. However, many writers do write for an external audience. They might see themselves as a capital-L Literature author, and so write for those people, or a modern poet, so write with those readers in mind, or even the next Stephen King, so write in that style. So this sort of quitting is easy – write for a different audience! This can be related to genre, but can also be a matter of writing in a different style. Young adult instead of adult, more formal instead of pulp fiction, form poetry instead of free-form. Different audiences can free up the mind, and quitting an audience might also mean quitting self-expectations. There is another form of this, though. A person writes and their family and friends seem to like it, but when they make it public, they get negative feedback after negative feedback for their work, and this can put them off. I have seen it so often – it puts people off writing for good. What it should do is make the writer realise that maybe their audience is not public but private. (Unless they want the feedback in order to improve; that’s different. But so many writers just want affirmation.) So, quitting the public audience for a very select private one, or even to just yourself, is a perfectly viable option. 5.Expectation Quitting This is one that a lot of people who believe they have talent and have been told they have talent struggle with. As a writer, nothing is set in stone. I might have been lucky to have well over 100 pieces of work traditionally published, and, I am going to admit, my expectation was to be traditionally published, short story, poetry and novel. I had that expectation and I made it. Not everyone is going to get there. I have a very close friend who has been trying for more than 20 years to become traditionally published. She has tried selling poetry, short stories (and I think her stories are great) and novels, all to no avail. Maybe she needs to quit the expectation to become trad published. I won’t tell her that, but maybe it’s not in the cards for her. On a smaller level, I have another friend who has an expectation of being published in one of the big-4 SciFfi-Fantasy magazines (Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, Analog, F&SF) after having a few shorts published in other trad published magazines/anthologies. I don’t think she will make it, but she has that expectation based on feedback from independent readers. The problem is, if these expectations are not met, then the writer sees themselves as a failure. Quitting these expectations and just focusing on being a writer could be better for mental health. To quote John Matthew Fox again: “I am here to tell you that it’s okay to quit. You’re not going to stop being a writer if you abandon your current project. You are not going to be a failure if you switch tracks. ”Listen to me: it’s okay. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel like you’re a failure. Think of it using one of the euphemisms the military would use about retreating: it’s a ‘tactical repositioning.’ ”You’re not running away from writing, you’re just choosing to run in a different direction.” Quitting like this does not make you a failure. The fact you are getting words out of your head into a physical medium puts you ahead of 99.99% of the world’s population. So keep on writing. |
| External Writerings V As is the norm, here are the articles I had published last month on Weekend Notes. You will find lots of music, and some movies. I have removed the local events as they have finished. Hope you find something to enjoy! Songs about battles! The original three Star Wars films looked at. My favourite songs from Eurovision 2024. (Spoiler: the song that won is not on this list, and half of this list did not make the finals… Nostradamus I ain’t!) Songs about shouting and yelling. (With a lack of Britney Spears.) Memorialising Roger Corman. Songs about screaming. (And still no Britney.) And, to counter some previous lists, songs about falling silent. Songs that say, “Thank you.” And we finish with songs about butterflies. Clicking on these does help me. Honestly. And you might even find some new songs to enjoy! |
| Publicising Your Book (Work) Another WdC question: How to publicize your book 10, 15 years ago, this was easy! Nowadays… not so much. Not at all. There are so many variables, so I reached out and asked several publishers, trad published authors and self-published authors what works for them now. In all, around 16 people responded to my email, but they are all people doing better in the published sphere than me. Interestingly, the results were reasonably universal. Paid advertising works best. If you are a self-published author, if you are doing personal marketing for a trad-published book that is not going to sell hundreds of copies, if you are hoping to make a large profit, then this option will most likely not be cost-effective. Traditional publishers with a large number of books to sell – be they a large or small business – will benefit from advertising as the cost can be spread across multiple works, but for the run-of-the-mill independent, going-it-alone writer, it is not seen as worth it at all. Having said that, here in Australia some community newspapers charge only a nominal amount for artists to advertise, as well as some newsletters, community papers/newsletters, people’s personal websites, etc. So, if you don’t mind the leg-work, you might be able to find some cheaper options. However, no matter what, this needs to be balanced alongside the money and sales you will get in return and what you have already laid out (if self-published). One free thing is to allow local newspapers, websites, radio stations, even community TV, interview you for actual news articles. (This does include writing guest blogs.) There should be no cost to you (I have yet to be charged for my forays into this in the US or Australia), but as to its effectiveness, the people I spoke to are divided. Personally, I think it is only time it is costing you, and so I would suggest this as a viable option. A personal website is something that used to work really well, but has fallen by the wayside, although indications are that it is on the way back. Swings and roundabouts in this one. The way a personal website works is not through random searching, but if someone buys a book of yours, or an anthology/magazine you have appeared in, or they saw you in mainstream media, and want to know more, especially other works to buy. It comes from referral from an external source. Twenty, fifteen years ago, it was where many authors – traditionally and self-published – got the majority of their sales. Then it fell out of fashion in the mid-2010s. The general consensus is that everyone suffered from “Internet fatigue” and were just sick of looking for things, and stuck with the sites they knew. However, post-COVID lockdowns, things are picking up again. All but one person I interviewed has their own. Find a free website host and, well, go to "20240528 Author Website" . I think I covered everything there!Sticking with the Internet, let’s go to social media. All but 2 of the people I spoke to says it makes no difference. Many use it out of habit, but it no longer results in sales. The problem is, you are talking to like-minded people who would likely have bought your books anyway, and so the effort of advertising results in not much. Twitter was never brilliant for sales; X is worse. Facebook used to be fine, but because of changes to the way Meta runs things and Meta’s relationship with search engines, you are again advertising to friends and relatives who are likely to have bought your work anyway, unless you pay them. Facebook used to be a strong platform; it is no longer. Other sites, though… Now, there is something called “BookTok” on the TikTok platform. This is where TikTokers push a book, and it works for those in terms of sales. There are three caveats, though: 1) the book needs to be adopted by that community organically; 2) the book needs to appeal to a rather specific demographic; & 3) the writer needs to be very open-minded when it comes to comments and interpretations. If you get adopted by “BookTok” – congratulations! You are going to be successful! The biggest downside? The China connection with the site; some “BookTok” successes have found their books pirated in China, meaning they are out of money from a huge market. And, no, China does not care. Discord is a strange one, and only a few I spoke to use it. If you advertise across your Discord communities, then it’s split about 50-50 through those I spoke to as to whether it results in an increase in sales. But, it’s free, the communities tend to be supportive (hence the reason they are in communities), and it certainly can’t hurt. The final big one is Instagram. I left this one for last because it was the most confusing when I spoke to those I spoke to. A group said it was exactly like Facebook, in that it made no difference. The next group said it made a small impact, in that they saw a spike when they put an initial post on the platform. The next group said it worked better than their website for people searching for them and finding older works, so they updated with older works semi-regularly. The final group said it works rather well for them. Then there is “BookGram.” If you get adopted by “BookGram” then you are made. Unlike “BookTok”, the demographic is not as restricted and the comments tend to not be as strange, but it is still a requirement that the book is adopted organically by members of that community. Yes, Instagram could be good, it could be useless, tending towards possibly helpful. Next we have “author pages” on websites. These are not personal websites, but pages dedicated to the author. Everyone I spoke to was positive about these, without exception. There are two worth considering: Amazon has the largest platform, and if you are selling on Amazon, it is a great idea. There are two issues – it is difficult to get things published in other countries to appear across all Amazon sites, and some anthologies only appear under the editor’s by-lines, as some small publishers refuse to list all the authors, and Amazon is bound by publishers wants. Still, a good idea. And then there is Goodreads. The Amazon issues do not exist on Goodreads, as publishers must allow all contributors to list books, and it is not geo-blocked or geo-specific. The other good thing is that it is a site for readers, so people are more likely to go there to look for things just to read, and you won’t get lost in the shuffle of them selling everything, like Amazon. It does not yet have the reach of Amazon, but it is getting there. Goodreads also allows friends to share recommendations and authors to include their own blogs. Finally, the very best way, and something that is really only open to writers in North America – the convention circuit. Yes, it costs, but if you team up with other authors, these costs can be shared., But it is the networking, the chance to listen to talks, that sort of thing that makes these so worthwhile. And you might even be asked to join a panel. While I’ve heard sales do not necessarily cover costs, the publicity and people you meet more than make up for it. I do not know about the UK scene, but in Australia there’s the annual comic-cons in most capitals, and we in Adelaide (a city, I should remind you, of more than a million people) have only a book convention, which is cross-genre. Sydney has a spec fic con, a romance con and a general con; Melbourne has a spec fic con; Brisbane used to have a general con, but I don’t think it still happens, and I don’t think Perth has any extras. Cities of less than half the population base in the US and Canada have conventions! So, yes, you have that in North America – if you can, take advantage of it! Having said all that, Australia has the country market scene, and many self-published authors sell enough books at each of these to cover the nominal cost of table hire. However, they will say once you add in petrol and accommodation, it can be pushing it. I will also say, on a personal level, that it seems I have had a small number of sales from writing.com members (and have bought 3 books by members here), so do not ignore the power of this community as well. (Please buy my books!) Final notes: Author photographs are not as important as they were in the 2010s, author bios are now recommended to be short, and if you want to include quotes from reviews, don’t just use one, but don’t put up any more than 5. Just recommendations. And that’s what I have learnt in the past 2 weeks about publicity! |
| Leaving Contracts I have looked at agents and publishers, what to look for, what to avoid, etc. However that leads us to this series of WdC questions: What to do if you don't like your agent and when to jump ship Same as above with your publisher What to do if you disagree with your editor/publisher Okay, first and foremost, if you’ve signed a contract and there is no “out” clause, then you are stuck. Contracts are legally binding, and if you signed one that did not give you (or the publisher/agent) an “out”, then that is, unfortunately, on you. That is something else about Hybrid Publishers – often they do have “out” clauses (it makes them look legitimate), but these often do not come into play until six or twelve months after the contract starts, so disgruntled writers are stuck with them – including having to pay them over and over – until then. Sneaky, but also perfectly legal. If in these situations, a lawyer is your only recourse in the USA. Otherwise, you need to abide by the way of getting out of a contract through the legal system open to you through the terms of the contract. Publishers can be awkward to get out of a contract with. First point of recourse, to my mind, would be to discuss your issues. It might be marketing, it might be covers, it might be editing, but make sure you are clear, concise, not too emotional, and not at all abusive/obnoxious or passive-aggressive on your communications. You might think that goes without saying, sure, but in the heat of the moment, with your “baby” (your work) on the line, sometimes it is not always the case. The reason publishers are harder to break deals with is that they have already invested money into your work, based on the fact you have signed a legal contract with them. As such, you may be required to buy them out of your contract so they have not lost money, for example. However, if the publisher has not come up on a Preditors & Editors site (and if they did, why did you sign with them in the first place?!), word will get around and you may find yourself blacklisted, at least for a while, as a writer hard to deal with. I know the excitement of having that first book published can overwhelm everything else, but you need a clear head. Don’t sign every contract put in front of you. I have refused three in the past 5 years (including one book) because I could see issues arising. So, agents are actually easier as there is less money involved. A simple exchange of polite emails often sees agents willing to let a potential or unsuccessful client go. If, however, they have found sales for you, then you will still owe them whatever moneys are dictated in the terms of the contract signed. This could be a percentage of royalties in perpetuity (a standard clause, by the way, for agents) and so you will never be rid of the agent. But it is also the same as a publisher in every other regard. Buying out of contracts, risking that negative reputation, all of it applies here as well, just that the initial breaking of a contract, before any sale has been made, is easier for both parties. Disagreements! If you disagree with a publisher, try negotiating. I have done this with every one of the books I have had published. Mostly it was to keep Australianisms, but in one case I didn’t like the first cover (they changed just the female figure and it became amazing!). If that does not work, look at your contract. You might have signed these rights over to them. If not, then, yes, always try negotiating, and listen to their reasoning for what they want to do. If you disagree with an agent, the vast majority are open to discussion. What would you disagree with, though? I have a friend who has told her agent not to sell to any company that has ties to Walt Disney. This did result in a book being sold to a lower paying publisher, but the agent was fully aware of my friend’s wishes and it was settled before the agency contract was signed. If that agent had then on-sold to a Disney subsidiary, my friend, under terms of the contract, would have been within her rights to fire the agent without financial recourse. Make sure those contracts do not disadvantage you! (As an aside, Disney and subsidiaries are the worst major company/ies to sign with. I could explain why, but don’t want to rant.) If you disagree with an editor you pay for, then there is nothing to say you have to take on board their edits. It’s just money you’ve wasted, and don’t use them again. If you disagree with an in-house publisher, then you better have a good reason to. Like I said, my desire to keep my work “Australian” has seen me have discussions with editors, and it has nearly always resulted in something we can both live with. Be polite and decent, and you will generally come out okay. So, in the end, everything comes down to the contracts you have signed, and what they say. It is really that simple… and also that complicated. |
| Hiring An Editor Next WdC question: To hire an editor or not. What to do if you disagree with your editor. When to stop editing and submit. Okay… here’s my thing. Hiring an editor or not is up to you. BUT I feel having an external editor is vital for success in traditional publishing, and to be taken seriously as a self-published writer. So, here’s my deal. I started by using a friend who edited my work until I came to realise he was not that good. I used another friend for a while, but when she got married, her husband didn’t like our close friendship. Then myself and a fellow writer decided to do swaps. It was slightly unfair as I would write 2 or 3 long works a year, she would write one every eighteen months, and yet she was quite happy to go along with it, and that lasted for over 20 years. Then she had a stroke, and could no longer do it. So I used a student studying editing and professional writing at TAFE for a couple of years, then she wanted to charge me too much, so I found a local retired writer who does it for me in return for me doing some computer stuff for her. Using an editor has been vital to me being published. And I will state here and now: an editor who relies on Grammarly or the like is a waste of your money and time. Now, when you submit, the publishers will also do an in-house edit. Especially coming from Australia and submitting to US and UK markets, there are differences in style, and not just spelling. So traditionally published will see your work edited twice. And that is not a bad thing. So, what happens if you disagree? Well, with the editors you pay for or use personally, if you disagree with a suggestion they make, then ignore them. They won’t know. However, if you think they are wrong, look it up to make sure. Not online – use Strunk & White or something else decent. If, on the other hand, you disagree with the in-house publisher, you had better have a good reason. You can negotiate – I’ve done it to keep my stories “Australian” – but if you argue every point, you will get quite the negative reputation. As I’ve said before, many publishers talk; this will not go well for you. But if you really do disagree, explain yourself. The final question above I think is more about personal editing, going over works again and again, though it could well be hiring editor after editor – when to stop. This is not easy. Once I’ve given it to an editor or a beta reader, then I stop. But some people use self-editing as a crutch to avoid submitting. It’s a mental thing. If you are going to use an external editor, then rely on them and stop. Way too many will edit over and over again. If you find yourself going back and forth between two phrases in the same spot, if you find yourself just adding words and deleting them, if you find yourself moving sections only to return them, then it’s time to pass it on to an external person. While over-editing is often an avoidance tactic, it can also be an indication of genuine fear. While it’s easy for me to say, you need to trust yourself and at some point let go. And that’s working with an editor. NOTE: I am not going to go into the different types of editor. There are three reasons for this: 1) the different types of editing has different names to different people (Wikipedia and Google are rubbish); 2) too often people do not agree with what various types of editors actually do; & 3) having people look for spelling, grammar, punctuation, context, etc., is what an editor should be doing; story beats can also be done, but that is also what a beta reader is for. IN MY OPINION! |
| Story Ideas More questions from WdCers! Where to get story ideas How to tell if your idea is a short story or a novel or a series Nothing like something simple, huh?! Where to get story ideas Okay, where. This is something writers get asked a lot – where do your ideas come from? On a personal level, there are 3 main areas. First, and most commonly, I see something and ask myself, What if…?” Being one who writes mainly in the speculative fiction field, this makes sense in my case. Sometimes, it’s a memory, sometimes it’s something I see, sometimes it’s a newspaper article – could be anything. But that question is what gets me. Second, the lyrics of songs have been known to suggest stories. And the stories can be weird. ‘This Ole House’ by Shakin’ Stevens suggested a zombie story, for example. And third, I tell myself, “I wouldn’t have taken it that way.” This is when I read a story, see a film, watch a play, whatever, and think the story had a component I wouldn’t have included. Or maybe I think it has a flaw. Or maybe I think the idea is great but the execution was all wrong. So I simply rewrite it. Now, I have not done this too often, but often enough to include it here. Like what, you may ask? Well, one Stephen King story springs to mind because I sold my version as well… That’s me, though. Where else can ideas come from? Dreams are common. I have sold a story based on someone else’s dream! He told it to me, I took the idea, wrote it, made it creepier, and – voila! – a sale. Prompts work for many people. It might be a word, a phrase or something longer, like a quote or a poem. Or it might be visual. But many people rely on prompts to spark their creativity. Overhearing a conversation has worked for a few, taking it into strange directions. Some create a character first, then try to work out what would happen to them. Some even see a person who is a complete stranger and just write what they think their backstory could be based on how they look and act, and then set a story around that person. In a similar vein, some create a location first, then try to work out what happened there. And, again, they can even take a place they see but do not know, and write what they think its history could have been, its backstory, who lived there or worked there or died there, and use that as the central story. Now, some people have a message they want to push, or have a theme they want to investigate and write to that. I personally dislike stories written that way, but if it floats your boat, so be it. How to tell if your idea is a short story or a novel or a series Okay, when it comes to me – I don’t think about it. I have an idea, I write, and how long it is is how long it is. That does mean I have a lot of works that are a difficult sell because of their weird length. But that’s the nature of the beast. So, first, I think the more characters and the more side-quests, the longer the story. In general. But it was what is going to happen that dictates if it is a short story, novella or novel. Going into write something of a certain length can be fraught with danger, especially in a first draft. I would say just write and use subsequent drafts to reduce it or extend it to a length that you can sell. If you are not looking at selling, then why does length matter? Just write the story as well as you can and let the length fall where it may. Now, as to a series… if you set about writing a series, especially if it is the first long work you are writing, you are setting yourself up for failure. Sorry. People who set about writing series from the word go tend to fall flat in the middle. Now, if you are a detailed plotter, you can plot out your story with all the beats, including sub-stories, etc., and that can often tell you how long something will be. If it looks short, add a complication. If it looks long, remove an obstacle. This could be where you see you have a series going, but each book needs to be a story of its own, as well as leaving an open ending for the next instalment. Having a book that is just filler between other volumes sells the reader short and says you are writing for the sake of writing a longer piece. But if going for a series, plot the entire series out before even beginning book one. That way you know where it’s going and have a plan to end it. Of course, that is all my opinion. So, those are my answers to those two queries. |
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