My Voice is an Asshole

Today's shamelessly announced trend in what agents are looking for from a voice: calling all Mary Sues especially of 'color'.  Sigh. I'm a colorless woman whose latest MC is a shameless loner asshole with a foul mouth.  He's getting me into some shit. He doesn't grow on you in five pages. Even for me, there was a detachment. I didn't want him to be likable.  I don't want to spoil anything but I like to start with a 'first impression' kind of approach.  My MCs will never beg you to like them.  While I've done so in the past, I don't regale you with how much you should like them by virtue of beauty or morality or bad-assery. Hell, sometimes it's very clear they don't want anyone getting close, to the point of flattening out, blending in or wanting to be invisible.

I'm going to admit it right out of the gate; it's not just my voice that is an asshole.  It's me. My MCs tend to inherit that from me. People who have known me for a long time will tell you I'm sweet. Their most negative word for me might be bossy. I won't deny this. I do tend to have a set way of doing things and I can steamroll people.  I don't even realize I'm doing it. Okay, I lose asshole points for this but if you say something, I'll apologize because in retrospect, I often see what I missed on impulse. Anyways, I don't give a great first impression mostly. I won't help you like me. I won't carry the conversation most of the time. Sometimes I struggle to look at you even once you get me talking. My characters are not the people I want to be, they often reflect my own flaws and lapse into flaws even when they evolve. They are often not shiny first impression people.  Those kind of people are often people I distrust like a dog showing you their teeth. 

That's not to say I don't aim for purer souls.  A YA piece I'm doing has a relatively younger cast of MCs so they're a bit more naive, still in that mentally rebellious phase where you hear good advice and swear you won't make the same mistakes if you go against it.  Even then, these aren't characters whose biggest trauma is their parents telling them no when they want a new iPhone. I'm inserting this because I'm not attached to the same voice, I just... Have a preference when it comes to character growth. Sue me.

That being said, two of the agents haven't connected with 'the voice.' heh. The poor asshole...  Either way, I've been debating setting up people with ARCs to get some more insight, but I need to do research there too.  I'm leery of people leaking it or believing they have some right to redistribute. Like the handful of hours they so graciously impart on a book they never paid for entitles them to sell an author's work. This is why so many do disclosure agreements. Smh...

Anyways, I've only queried maybe 20 agents, 4 passes. There are more to do and I could go straight to publishers even. If that doesn't work out, I'll self-publish and move on. I'll have more stories to write.  Chances are most won't get the shiny seal of approval from current markets, but I'll try and move along if not.  I'm not going to water down unpopular ideas just to ride trends. I'm doing this to fulfill a dream.

In any case, yay for joining new writers groups.  I've tried to join readers groups, but those have some serious sticks up their asses about promos.  A circle jerk for anyone they deem popular but a real fuck-you to the smaller authors.  There's only so much I can handle ten posts a day that are nothing but 'what should I read?'. Writers groups, well... Sometimes you get the 'what should I write?' that can irk me (and I mean give me my plot, not I'm thinking of doing this and this, what is your suggestion-- the latter is good discourse, the former is 'no, I'm not going to write your story.') but for the most part you'll get people sharing their inspiration and maps and excerpts, ask questions that you can't just Google or wonder if an idea makes sense. My latest group has been good discourse, I'll say that much. I hope that holds up.  I've liked a lot of the authors pages and hope to keep up with them when possible.

Okay, straying but I'm aching to get past the vagaries.  I want to know what about the 'voice' isn't jiving. Then again, these aren't agents that asked for more than 5-10 pages.  Ouch. There may be more promise in the ones that wanted the first 50. There's a lot in my novels and the beginning is not the entire mood of the novel. Not even a little. In any case, if you're a fan of my blog and want to sign a non-disclosure for a digital ARC to offer a critique, let me know. I'd be interested in hearing some valuable criticism. 

Got a cold creeping in, so I'll try not to blog whatever nonsense cough syrup possesses me to write. If there's anything you want me to blog about, personal or professional, let me know!  I'm mostly just going on a tangent.  I plan the shit out of my stories, but my blogs have been open season on ranting.  Lol

Anyways, keep writing. And reading! 

Query Chameleon, Part I

Last night, I started into the wonderful world of querying via the database on AgentQuery.com as part of the newbie author experience. Because the waters are newly tread, I might be waiting a while for some of the 'experience' to culminate.  I don't intend to put any agents on the spot or name them in the process, worry not.  I don't think it's productive to dwell on tastes or quick 'rejection' responses.  In fact, I appreciated the ones that have already gotten back right away saying it's not what they are looking for.  Sometimes, the genres they are currently after are not updated, so no hard feelings.

Right out of the gate, I'm starting with the main query process. One of my favorite blogs to turn to for advice on your basic query letter is Jane Friedman's blog. She has a lot of insightful tips for authors and writers alike and sometimes inspires my own experiences. The gist of her advice is to keep that main query under 300 words.  Because I'm doing fiction, it will split off into that requirement (keep in mind non-fiction had very different requirements). Start with how you know the agent (if applicable), then your hook (main characters, problem, sizzle), the name and word count (if it's a series, mention that), short bio, closing with contact info.  You'll find excellent online templates if you're not sure.

From there, it tends to get agent/agency specific, so I prepped a couple of other things. 

• My synopsis was a break down of the main points of each part or chapter. This is where you will want to lay down spoilers-- the agents want to know at a glance what all is there.  Not all will ask for this, so I kept it separate from the query.
• Sample pages of your actual manuscript!  This was a trickier one.  Most agents want between 5 and 50 pages, but some specifically want x amount of chapters or even words, some... don't want any at all, just a query to even consider if it's up their alley.

Once you have those things accessible, there's good news for a lot of authors here in that email queries are actually preferred in most cases. This saves you from the cost of printing and return envelopes and expedites the process (as well as turn-around time).  Many will leave the 'snail mail' option requirements available nonetheless.

For my search, I narrowed it down to the genre 'fantasy' and agents actively seeking submissions as well as email queries. I did not require they be a part of the AAR, under the advice that it doesn't separate the 'good' from the 'bad'. I will loosen my query as I look for different agents, but I thought I'd try for the most fitting out of the gate.

If you've read previous blogs, you know that the 'fantasy' genre is a beast. It covers pretty much everything from your he-man warriors of high fantasy to grimdark to light and fluffy romance and the paranormal/urban set popular in women's fiction.  Tricky, tricky, tricky. Add to that with my current entry having a foul-mouthed abrasive asshole male as a main character and I'm not disguising that I am a woman with few scruples about getting into his shoes.

The database doesn't really help you distinguish which fantasy is your jive. The database is very general and sometimes even the agent bios on their full profile only kind of hint which one they are after. A lot of the female agents were clearly into the chicklit subsets, which I knew was probably a guaranteed pass. A lot of the males that did get jive with high and epic fantasy also tended to have an author list populated with men, but again, that did not deter me from putting in a query.  One thing I did see a lot of in bios was a clear search for strong female leads, which this story does not indicate.

This is where I feel the short samples present a problem for me. The main characters outside of the beginning pages are almost predominantly strong females and mostly because it was a requirement of the story and plot.  You don't see them right out of the gate, but they are central into the evolution of the male character's usual ways. When there is actually a 60 page 'rule' of literature (it can take 60 pages into any book to set up the full picture of the book or series), then the short samples I lead with are only going to tell agents, well, this is dark, the guy's an asshole, and why the hell should we care? Keep in mind, the first word I drop is the f-bomb and I'm knocking out some of the conservative sorts right out of the gate.  Oops, but it's adult fantasy so serious contenders only.

So personal examples aside, submission guidelines are all over the map and finding your agent by genre might be a similar challenge.  Try to target an agent that jives with you, but don't be terribly picky right out of the gate. Definitely don't judge by how conservative they may look in their bio pics. If life has taught me anything, it's often the most straight-laced that have the wild side. If you're unabashedly a chick lit writer, there are a bunch of female agents looking for the empowered women of color main characters at the moment. Remember that these trends come in waves too.  Sometimes your topic is hot, sometimes you have to wait for the tides to shift towards your genre. You may end up later querying an agent that wasn't looking for you the first time around.

Even though it hasn't been 24 hours, I've gotten back three short replies, which I knew wouldn't be favorable. Two just said that my genre wasn't actually a fit for their list (which I expect might be the case in a few queries I made) and one just didn't mesh with the voice. This accounts for their taste and that can't be helped. I really can't fault them for the honesty and it doesn't reflect my talent as a writer. I would love to get some more constructive feedback, but most agents have their time frames. 6-8 weeks was the max turn-around time with most saying if you didn't hear back, it's a no. Some went so far as to say they would reply within the time frame, which I think is amazingly generous that they would take the time to put in the effort to do so. Considering some agents get around 100 queries a day, that seems unreal.

Let me add that I'm also kind of jumping the gun here. Most blogs advise you to wait until spring to query since a lot of agents disappear over the winter holiday season. I would love to see UnNamed trad-pubbed, but I won't let it slip through the cracks either.  It will get out there somehow or another, but it may take months to find that agent. I know that writing the stories that I want to read rather than market-whoring will make it difficult. 

 

I know a lot of writers have heard this bit, but JK Rowling herself faced over 40 rejections before someone latched onto Harry Potter. She was also strongly encouraged to write as JK Rowling because that market thought she'd have a better chance not disclosing her gender, that it would deter readers.  Oy, we have a long way to go, people. It's not just women though. There are also some female-heavy markets that don't easily welcome male writers.  It's a problem. I would love to say that I want to keep my name *fist pump* but when you put all of the work into something, sometimes you lose that battle just to get people reading. And yes, I do self-publish my novice works under my name, so I may lose out on using my name for traditional.  Boo to that too. Many writers assume pen names.  It's not exactly secret, but an author name is treated like a brand.  We can't all be Stephen King and write whatever crap we want and expect it to sell regardless of where it strays. In a perfect world, maybe, but in a perfect world, escapism wouldn't have quite the appeal either.

I'd like to continue to add parts to this topic here and there as I pick up more news. Somewhere out there, my soul agent is waiting for me. Even if it takes 80 rejections to find them, I know my quirky cat is on the fence. I've had people suggest that rather than do the footwork, ask other authors or read mores blogs, but here's the thing: no two experiences will ever be alike. We're all products of the times, our work, the zeitgeist and we need more personal experience to share rather than simply parroting what we're told. I blog to motivate people into taking their own journey. As frustrating and maddening as it can be, I really feel alive with the struggle as opposed to the dark places I'd wallowed in in the past.

Maybe someday I can write a memoir that will scare the hell out of people.  Chances are I'll take the easy way out and make it a literary fiction with the names changed. For now, I do like to inject the flaws and fears and triumphs into fiction.  

 

Is there a character in my books that is me so far? Not really, but they all are me in parts. Characters can be like children, but take that statement very loosely. Some of the parts of me that they 'inherit' are parts that I want to kill, so it does not endear me to them in that way. I'm never in a hurry to kill off characters. The less you build a character, the lesser the impact of their death.  Think about how many people you actually cared about dying if you followed Game of Thrones.  It was a short list for most of us. GRRM had to write tomes to get us to care about the characters before killing them off. Most of us were damn glad to see a few of them go. 

 

This is why epic fantasies are a tough sell, especially trying to build that momentum in a first book at 80-100K. I hope I can find a publisher that says word count be damned, just keep selling the story. It was difficult to trim down UnNamed to isolate the tale. Each book set in this world is intended to follow a new main plot with a new central focus on different characters, so I had to make you care about a lot of things in a relatively short span.  Keep in mind that this word count limits the new author to a page approximation of between 300-400 pages. The big fantasy writers are easily getting to write tomes spanning 1000 pages or more. In many ways, my first entry into the series is more like a sample for the genre, but agents are not going to touch your tomes until you're creating a demand.

Once again, I hope some of my research is helpful, even if the general advice might run vague for someone with a journey not so parallel to mine. Nonfiction writers and different genres are going to present different hurdles. 

I would love to hear more people's stories. If I'm a bit off on any of my facts, feel free to comment. I am happy to edit to reflect changes. Keep in mind that older posts/statistics might only reflect that time period, not a lack of information.

As always, keep writing.  Don't wait for your muse.  Sometimes you have to work without them and wrangle them up for later drafts.

Campaign is Ready!

https://publishizer.com/unnamed/

There's the link.  I'm not sure how this will work.  Let's face it; I'm new and I don't know many people at all.  I'm deep in my craft so I don't network much. Still, I decided to try a campaign to see if I can actually interest people in my latest series.

Until Christmas, the campaign will take preorders.  Once it's over, I can either choose from the interested publishers or I can dissolve the campaign (preorders won't gets charged) and petition publishers\agents myself. Whatever happens, I'm determined to make it happen.

Okay, I'm determined to make a lot of things happen. I know that. Comic books are still one of those things. I love drawing and I don't suck at it.  I have stories to tell and I don't suck at it. I do intend to at least finish the stories and series I've started before throwing my weight into comics.  It would be stupid of me to not use the talents I have to find my niche.

It's hard for artists to ever "make it." I know a couple of successful artists even though I know a ton of talented ones. They all work hard and they all work smart, but it's largely about luck. And who you know.  Which is a big ouch for me. I'm a small circle kind of gal and not an elbow rubber at that. 

I can only hope that somewhere along the way, I can make a decent living at it. We'll see. Like I said, I'm new and luck is fickle.

If you want to help, be sure to share the link on social media. I share everywhere I can, but of course I love what I do. Secondhand support is always valuable!

Dear Gawd, What Have I Done?

Look, there is nothing magical about me attempting to make a video of myself.  I really had to tear off the bandaid for this one.  And from the looks of it, I was probably chewing it.  Seriously, if Jabba the Hut had beautiful copper colored hair and was eating a bowl of 100 year old pig's feet, it would look something like this video.

There is something about a camera that makes my brain cells degenerate and words turn into mush.  I actually had to do several retakes just trying to say my own damn name right. And I called my book UnTamed when I got my name right.  You read that right; all of this just trying to get out the first sentence. "Hey, everyone, my name is Krista Gossett and I've written a fantasy book titled UnNamed."

And what the every loving fuck is my mouth attempting to do?  I've been compared to Drew Barrymore for one glaringly embarrassing reason-- my lips fly off the tracks and try to wander off of my face when I'm nervous. I cringe because I absolutely can't stop it.  It's my tell and I've never been able to get rid of it.  It's not cute.  It's not quirky. It's not even fun like melting a Barbie doll's face with a lighter.

I don't mean to down on myself.  It could be worse.  Much worse.  You can hear what I'm saying at least.  Always a bonus.  However, I'm not terribly sure this kind of campaign works in my favor.  I'm high-functioning and most things are outside of my comfort level, but this is something like my personal Kryptonite.  There's a reason I blog-- I do not have the camera charisma to be a video blogger.  One on one or answering questions, I'm not terrible at speaking, but public speaking with a script is a nightmare.  That's not even unique to me-- most people dread that.  However, there is nothing further from how I really am than when I'm trying to talk to a camera.  I know it's not trying to steal my soul, but you'd think it was.

My friend Joe is terrific at it.  He had some great pointers, which all went out the window the minute I hit 'record'.  It's just not something I see changing.  I've been attempting to do it since I was 19 and there is no evidence for a reason. It is not 'my art' and that's fine.  If you know me, you know I'm also unfairly good at a lot of things.  No one should be good at everything and I'm fine with that.  I'm a writer, I crochet, I'm a comic book artist and illustrator.  I play flute and memorize songs. I'm even decent at singing. I've made doll clothes and miniatures to customize dolls. Really, I tend to be great at things I'm just stubbornly in love with. It can be agonizing because nearly everything I can do is subjective.  Whether people think I'm bad or great has very little to do with my actual talent, but how it makes them feel. People might find me technically lacking in comparison even if I'm better than average in actuality. They say you are a master after 10,000 hours of practice.  I'm of the mind that even a master is never perfect.  Complacency is death to art. Even the most popular artists will never be perfect. Without striving for it, can you really enjoy it anymore?  I don't know. I can't imagine ever thinking I have nothing more to improve.  That's just sounds ridiculously boring to me.

So that's that.  The video is done and I'll be sharing my shame for the world to see once the campaign is in progress. I hope I can get people excited for this series.  

Honestly, I have no concept of what people like which is why I typically write what I want to see. I read a lot, aim not to borrow too heavily from anything but accept my inspirations. I show and tell because trying too hard not to do either is clunky. I'm not afraid of adverbs, but I do use them sparingly. Technically, I've improved a lot. Novels are still, well, novel to me (it's a pun--burn it before it breeds...).  I've finished ten novels at this point, with two being published and largely ignored, but they are also not traditional or marketed to be safe. I am attempting to do something different for UnNamed, but I do plan on publishing my edgier titles myself. 

I'm probably going to have to use a ton of pen names because markets are weird and people are really weird about tying in image to name, etc.  Don't ask me to really understand that. I went to graphic design school and I've always found market branding to be hilarious.  To me, it's a story, sometimes with pictures, but those pictures are an insight to what the artist sees, not what you are required to see.  Unless it's a graphic novel, consider it fan art.  You can't unsee it? ... Sucks to be you?  Part of the reason I try new things is because I'm both socially inept and socially curious. I'm probably going to do unpopular things when I self-publish because somewhere out there is a kindred spirit that will connect with that risk. I'm not trying to muddy the waters, I just think everyone should get to swim. Everyone should have an outlet and be able to find something they connect with.  I create in the hopes I can reach people who might feel neglected by the market. And I don't suck. No matter if people are willing to give me a try or not, I'm not delusional about my talents.  I just may not always be to everyone's tastes.  If you think that's not a good way to think, keep in mind that while I love some of Stephen King's work, I equally loathe some of it too. I like that he takes chances and it resonates with me.  I hope I can do the same for someone else.

I'm just adding a few things on my personal journey, so if you're here for the writer's blog, it ends here.  I'm going to talk a bit about how my health is at the moment.

I'm continuing to work on my health.  I've dropped 50 pounds in 20 months and I'd like to say goodbye to another 40.  It's difficult for me since I do deal with chronic pain and it can cause monumental setbacks.  I'm mostly sedentary and I love food so there's some misery involved.  Alexis de Anda's Mea Culpa comedy special said it best (English translation though):"You want to be at your ideal weight? You're going to be sad, bitch!" I've talked about this in a weight loss blog, but neither I nor the comedian are downing on fitness, but the fact is, if you're a foodie, then you either have to work out a whole fucking lot or you're going to have to exercise some serious food moderation.  And it sucks.  Whether you're depressed or not, it can feel like depression.  You're hungry or you're craving or you're full but dissatisfied.  And my number one problem other than food?  Sleep.  My brain doesn't tolerate a normal schedule and getting more than a small handful of hours of sleep at a time is a pipe dream.  

People who can discipline their bodies that much are more likely to see that ideal weight.  My wrists are something I'm particularly wary of and my core too.  Injuring those muscles may mean I'm stranded from creative work too. If I can't sit up and I can't use my hands, I'm fucked.  Walking presents problems too.  Even with orthotics, I can't walk more than a few miles a day, 5 at best.  Jogging is out of the question.  I tend to roll off of my foot if I'm not careful and I feel a warning twinge, I may only have a few seconds or a few minutes to find a place to sit until the twinge passes.  Keep in mind, I'm in incredible shape right now, even if I don't look it.  Because of that, I've learned a lot about my body and how stubborn it is.  I went on an extremely low calorie diet for a month or two (1200 a day-- in case you didn't know, you are NEVER to go lower than that.  A doctor might supervise an emergency diet of 800 a day if you're severely overweight, but it is short-term, a week or two at most, and can still cause bad health complications like gallstones even in that case). Even on a low budget, sometimes I lost no weight.  And this is over the course of the 20 months since I began. Regardless of my weight, my diet and the vigor of exercise, I was super prone to plateauing when I was strictest. I would have carb loading weeks where most weight loss happened, but those weeks also made it more difficult to discipline myself for healthier eating.

My muscles are where you see the ridiculous improvement.  My flexibility is better than it has been since my early twenties. I have great balancing skills.  I can lift and bend easily (although I do have carpal tunnel issues so heavy-lifting is still a big no-- I can carry 30-50 pounds well enough, but it's tricky). I can do push-ups. Quite a lot.  I have powerful leg muscles (which accounts for part of the reason my legs just do not slim down-- when I flex the muscle, my leg is pretty damn solid). You can tell from my pelvic and shoulder bones than I am broad frames.  I will never be petite and my muscles wouldn't allow it even if my bones did.  The excess skin and padding, they are the bane.  They are thing standing between me and people actually fucking seeing just how far I've come.  I want people to see the sculpt I worked so hard on.

Anyways, if you stayed for that part, I commend you.  It's not easy to read someone's health rants. To sum it up, I bust my ass for invisible results.  It sucks. Creatively, I struggle the same. I labor to change that, knowing it can't happen overnight.  I'm a newbie, both with improving health and getting out of my creative shell and sharing it. It takes time and it can be frustrating.  Sometimes it is simply trading one sadness for another.  I can't tell you that reaching my ideal weight will be worth it.  Or that being a successful artist will be exactly what I've always wanted.  I don't live with guarantees; I just hope it won't suck. It may not be a priority to maintain that weight.  My body like to hang out at 170-180, so 140 might be destructive to my overall happiness. I'd like to get there and fucking find out though.

Wherever you go in life, it's good to have a plan.  Don't be so hung up on numbers or time limits.  Those will fuck you up. Build your towers with the intention of enjoying actually building them. Be okay with being the only one who gives a shit, maybe being lonely at the top even, or accepting that you might not have planned for so many guests. Plan for everything, but don't hitch your wagon to expectations. I hate being unprepared, but sometimes I can get a little carried away hoping for one scenario more than the others. It happens, but I'm not impractical.  I understood from the beginning that there is a lot of fuckery in pursuing this calling. As long as I enjoy it, I'll keep at it. Sometimes I push well beyond where I enjoy something anymore, but at some point, you have to change it up.

I'm still thinking about doing a WebToon in the future. My heart keeps wandering back to doing comics.  It's a lot of slooooow work rolling out stories through comics, but I miss the visual medium. Maybe too much.  I get shit for describing characters too much and sometimes I feel like my vision has to be made verbose where drawing it is far more expressive. It's not that I struggle with words.  Words have always been my friend.  However, I feel like I am learning every day which stories may be better told with different media. I'd love to go back to the tell side of writing because I'm SHOWING with pictures. That doesn't mean I feel I am done with writing books.  Far from it. You may have read already that I have a lot of WIPs that are still warring for attention. I just have a strong curiosity for a part of me I put aside long ago that may also need some TLC in my future plans. I began as a comic book artist.  It's always going to be a strong part of me.  I would also love to write for video games somewhere in the future.  I've been told my longer works would make incredible back stories for the gaming medium. I'd love to see how that holds up.

Sorry for the long posts though; some people love them, some people loathe them. I'm not procrastinating on my big projects, but I'd hate to neglect my blog. A lot of my personal struggles tend to right themselves when I write them out, so it might be selfish.  Which is why I load it up with things I learn through experience.  If I'm going to talk about myself, how the hell does it help you? I work on that too.  Self-improvement is important for writing, but sharing knowledge is essential too.  Novels are a big ole echo chamber while I work.  I do gobs of research, but I otherwise lock it up like a sacred temple. I might ask for feedback once I commit the words to paper, but keep this in mind: 5K can take a solid 8 hours to accomplish.  I tend to not share until I've neared the halfway point of 40-50K.  This is a week or two of being buried in typing only for the story alone. We're talking drafting here, at that, not a solid attempt at editing...

So yes, if I'm long-winded with racing thoughts, I'm breaking out of the discipline of a structured writing binge.  Free-writing, whether with planning or winging it on the fly, can leave me needing a bit of unstructured rambling to share. I honestly don't know who is reading or WHEN they are. But for those who do care, thank you for that. I can't see who is viewing but the numbers are higher than I expected and you keep me going. I can be insufferable and in-your-face, but this is my platform.  I need it. I don't have a colorful social life, but I am grateful that I find inspiration in the small, wonderful circle I have. No matter what changes in the days ahead, I am ever grateful for the ones that share what I offer.

Even if sometimes they do wish I would shut the fuck up. *winky faaaaace*

Ready to Juggle?

As a lot of you know (if you read my blog), I am a juggler and not the fun physical kind.  Can't do that shit to save my life.  No, I'm a task juggler. I absolutely cannot focus on one thing consistently ever.  It's how my brain works and fighting against it is like backing away from the same brick wall and running into it the exact same way. Some people see immersion as finite, like there's an actual depth to singular focus. I have to disagree with that.  My knowledge of one fandom is not watered down by my knowledge of any others. If you believe that a brain can only retain so much, that may be true, but I'm also a believer of keeping notes or talking out loud to retain the vitals, the information I am using for any current projects. I don't delve deeper just because the focus is singular.  It would be like assuming a scuba diver carries all the tanks of air they will ever need instead of having a life involving the surface world. We all come up for air, so we don't need to drag all we need with us.  The same goes for our creative projects.

Let's keep in mind that someone often DOES do just one thing when the demand for it both creates livable revenue and a number of other rewards. I don't ever pretend that applies to me.  Whether or not I am successful, fans will need to understand one thing-- I am not the sort to ever focus on one thing I do just because it is popular or demanded.  Sorry, but muses aren't tempted by money or fame.  Believe me, I want to do all the things and as quickly as possible, but you should also take comfort that I'm not just churning out bullshit for a buck. I'm putting my talents where they are best served. Part of an artist's skill set is largely about project management.

Incidentally, the person that can work for 14 hours straight is not necessarily more productive than the person that only works 3 hours at a time.  I've seen some really interesting articles on the maximum productivity of humans.  I won't belabor this myself, but there's some interesting research if you want a rabbit-hole to chase...

Article on Productivity

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that taking advantage of when you are most productive is far more valuable than how much you push yourself to work.  More is better?  Not always.  Sometimes you spend much more valuable gobs of time simply correcting what you did when you probably should have been taking a break.  If you're paid by the hour, sweet deal.  Doesn't matter what you do as long as you're keeping the bosses happy.  For the creative, time efficiency holds much more value. 

In any case, I bring up stuff like this so you, as a consumer/artist/all-of-the-above, might see a little from both sides of the fence. You may grumble about how an artist would have THIS done if they weren't fucking around with THAT, but I will posit that the artist might be blocked from THIS if they aren't utilizing THAT to keep moving when one thing presents a problem. Artists do want to make fans happy, but we're an extremely self-critical lot already. We'd love for every problem to be Point A to Point B, but part of what makes us hit or miss is that it's not that simple. We blog to give you a little insight, but it's never going to account for the explosion of thought processes that really assault us. We try to understand you or the market or our own motivations, but the art is number one and we all move with the muses whether they are our own or not.

So, the subject of juggling came up for good reason.

I started UnSung today.  One thing I have to admit-- I hate starting things.  It's always a hurdle for me.  If I manage to think of an opening line, I am DIVING for the keyboard to start that new manuscript because it is the hardest part for me always. Starting that was a necessary evil.  Until I finish this series, I will always feel the need to have one of them on WIP status, no matter how much I can put into it. However, this puts it running alongside Piscine and the Dreampunk Chronicles in terms of current WIPs.

You probably heard me mention a romance story I did.  Yeah, it had to get pushed. I want to do a cover for it then throw it on Wattpad.  It was never a grand venture, but it will see the light of day eventually. I'll have updates on that when I am certain.  Romance isn't a genre I feel passionate about, so I'm not rushing this. It was just one of many challenges and while I enjoyed it, it's not a niche I care to create a demand for.  None of my books are devoid of some sort of romance, whether in mention or in a bigger plot.  Focusing solely on it is another matter entirely. It may be a genre that becomes more appealing to me over time, but right now, I'm a fan of action, adventure, intrigue, and lore being at the heart of what I write. (Even my more sexually laced fantasies still tend to be lore-heavy. It's not enough that there's a world floating around the characters-- I have to splash a lot of paint on it too.)

If you're a fellow juggler, revel in your flightiness. It's not a shortcoming. Artists may have to remind their fans that is helpful to their process and fans should know that the output actually is more favorable when they are always keeping busy.  BioWare fans aren't all fans of everything they do. I'm a Dragon Age fan, but not interested in Mass Effect. This means that, unless they have teams working on both, that there will be a wait for that next Dragon Age game while they are appeasing their Mass Effect fans. As a series gamer, I've had to wait as long as 7 years between the next installment of a series.  Not all companies are big enough to have several teams working at once on multiple games.  Whether or not I understand the popularity of one of their series, I don't begrudge their other fans that work. I don't know if being an artist that works on many things simultaneously makes me more sympathetic, but I have never felt entitled to someone's hard work just because I like it.  

There are a ton of arguments on how long something takes to make and what time is appropriate to make fans wait. Seriously, fuck that debate. Are we still debating that artists are people? Artists often labor to tell people what they are working on or even that they need breaks and I am gracious enough to know not to ask why.  Artists are talkers.  If they want you to know, it would have been said. It's cool if someone is getting fancy with progress percentages, constant blogs, etc. but they aren't setting a gold standard of expectation. Yeah, series are tricky.  We all want to know what happens next. However, I have never had my enjoyment dampened by the next book not coming out on some time frame I deem adequate.  That time frame doesn't exist.  I just always hope it didn't get phoned in when they didn't cave into some demand.  For me, the integrity of the work is most important.  Not when, not how-- surprise me, entertain me, and that's all I need.  Hang the guarantees.

All right, things to do still, so I'm shoving off. I'd love to do more for my blogs eventually, but things are not incredibly exciting for me outside of writing.  I'm hoping a bit of advice and insight is helpful at least, even if I don't have a lot of bells and whistles at this point. Things will only get better, so I do hope that everything I do benefits from some TLC over time.  Feedback might eventually help me get a rein on things. I'm in a bit of an echo chamber there, so I just keep soldiering on with what I've got. I'm just happy sharing both for free and through markets.  That is plenty to keep me going.

It's Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating!  If you're not, cool.  I had those years where my family was on the outs/grieving and it became voluntary time-and-a-half day at work. If the holidays have you down, don't do that. There is nothing about holidays that is mandatory and you're not a failure if you don't take pictures of food and friends.  I ate food with my family this year and it was delicious, but it's not an expectation or a requirement for me to have it either.  Sometimes, I take the cold and quiet and use it to belt out some serious creative work.  If you or someone you love is down, turn to a hobby-- make one up if the one or two you are already into aren't cutting it.

So, just an update but I have to make a video for my campaign this week.  A video of myself talking about my book, only a minute or two, but I have to say I'm completely dreading it.  I have never liked making videos or taking many pictures of myself. I've actively spent my life avoiding that kind of vanity, preferring to let my vanity come out in creative work that doesn't involve my face.  Don't get me wrong; I have a nice face. I've just never gotten the hang of fourth-wall videos. I would have been okay with it being just my voice and throwing up some slides, but my face had to be involved and I have no clue what sort of hideous transformations happen when I'm talking to a camera but it's not good. In any case, that is what I'm planning for the weekend-- one and done and then I can get my book campaign rolling. Hoping I can avoid this in the future once I secure an agent and publisher because the video craze with crowdfunding is a nightmare for the socially questionable AKA me.

Honestly, I'm really excited about getting the book going though. I have a lot of plans for this four book series with more ideas cropping up daily.  I can see the map grow and become solid, feel the squirming of characters kicking in my brain, watch the magic dance around behind my eyeballs. One thing I love about fantasy is the parallels between logic and possibility. How you can take things that don't exist in our world but build them to be possible. It's a place you can make rules and break them.

For those of you following my vanity project, the third book illustrations have officially been edited so they'll begin the coloring process. Once I get the third book in order, I'll start work editing for the text only compilation. I don't intend to rewrite them, but I did want to edit some of the rough edges I caught in the first book. I don't intend to change the content-- they aren't for everyone, but then readers aren't every genre's little clones. I started writing because it felt lazy to keep saying what I wanted to see in books. I've been writing short stories, poems and comics for so long that it was time I reached higher. It's insane to expect writers to write for me, so why not write what I wanted to read? My vanity project was one that I KNEW was going to be difficult to place which was why I wrote the entire thing before letting doubts skew the vision I had for it.

Right now, I'm debating where my writing time will go next. Since both Piscine and my Dreampunk Chronicles are warring for the spot, I might tinker between them unless one becomes more prominent. I'd love to get the Dreampunk Chronicles going since it's my only young adult/child friendly entry so my younger fans, AKA nephews and friends' kids, can enjoy my work too. I consider it a challenge, writing under a rating.  It's not even a sacrifice for me-- these books were based on a very PG rated dream I had and I'd honestly have to labor to make them adult. It's about two young women who try to find out how to fix an unraveling world. It's dangerous and intriguing but I don't see an abundance of sex or violence in this one.

What else have I got?  Ah, yes, let's talk about main characters (MCs). I've seen some debates in fantasy groups over the choices authors make concerning the sex/gender of their main characters. I'm going to tell you from my own experience that the sex of the main character is not something I particularly plan. Often the plots and ideas are the first to come and then I consider how I want them to move through the society.

Let's take a male-dominated society as an example.  Despite what you may think, this isn't the global norm, even in our world.  If you assume that is the case then you have a few ways to go right out of the gate:

1) The MC is a woman with a rebellious streak that directly butts head with the system. A Type A that seeks to either change the norm or just has no intention of letting it define her.

2) The MC is a woman that uses her sexuality and cleverness to manipulate or sway people since she knows it's better to go with the flow. A Type B personality that makes it a point to pick her battles.

*NOTE: it's possible to combine the two given a situation.  Whether she is dealing with men or women may change her tact, as well as whether she is dealing with a stereotype of society or a rebel. 

3) The MC is a man who used the perception of men in charge to coast through. If you don't want society to be a part of the problem, then this is the path of least resistance. Allows you to focus on other parts of plot.

4) The MC is a man who doesn't benefit from that society.  He may be a quiet sort that was burned by laws or women or other situations and does his best to avoid both perceived benefits and disadvantages. 

These are just a few generic examples but, using current world models, could you flip the genders and still make it believable? In these examples, yes.  I'm not using the biological advantages or disadvantages of men and women to define the characters, only their power level in society. In a female dominated society, are the women physically stronger or is their power dynamic based on their ability to wield a magical power that men do not have? What if your challenge offers a truly neutral society, one where perhaps gender definitions and pronouns are so redundant that there are no masculine or feminine assignments in the language itself? In my friend's sci-fi story, she touches on a planet of people where they refer to everyone neutrally and only with direct mention of genitalia are the separations ever made. There is no agenda behind this idea, just a curiosity in how people would interact were the emphasis just not important.

I know I wandered a bit deep here, but believe it or not, these are thought processes that only take a few minutes (and usually while I'm taking a walk) and are the key influencers on the choice of an MCs gender. It's a whole other rabbit-hole but I've chosen gender neutral characters on occasion too, not to make a point, but because the character decides for themselves whether they want it to be important or not.  To be honest, I don't try to write just to hide my own agendas or current trends. I write based on curiosity.  I am genuinely curious about problems I present and how I might maneuver a character through those problems. 

Even in the basic examples I gave, it's just the tip of the iceberg.  A woman born into a more prominent family might have far more sway than a peasant.  Then again, a peasant is far more likely to rebel against a norm. This is assuming that there is a hierarchy we are familiar with.  A lot of authors choose to model from government and classes that actually existed, but what if a male-dominated society is overseen by a goddess that is just jealous of other women?  Are all power-structures fair and logical or is there some gaping flaw that has room for chaos to ensue?  This is also the reason why I don't shy away from sex.  When it comes to humans, it tends to be a blindspot in choices they make as well as a deciding factor in their motivations. Is the character getting too much or not enough? Is the deplorable playboy really looking for someone to settle with or is the fedora-wearing 'nice guy' killing prostitutes that turn him down?

Disclaimer: I do not particularly hate fedoras, but they are not a magical piece of clothing that instantly makes you mysterious or cool.  At least outside of fantasy books. 

In any case, I hope I'm able to provide some insights into how I work. It's not like a writer can really give away all of their crucial secrets because the process isn't something any of us can really pinpoint. I do know, as a writer, I do love to pick people's brains, learn the basics of their processes. There's no right or wrong way, but sometimes a certain approach does make it easier to tackle those unique ideas. In a genre like fantasy, the devil is often in the details so any process that tightens up a character or plot into a manageable force is always a plus. So many people fall into a trap where they try to make their character be too much and you end up with pulp. It's realistic for a character to make big leaps when trauma is involved, but everyone has an essential make-up that doesn't alter.  Even someone who cracks up still retains pieces.  When you build an MC, how many of those pieces are essential? If their gender plays an important role in their perceptions, then make sure that is kept in mind.  Even if your story involves a gender swap or they aren't what they appear to be, what kind of an impact does that have?

As always, research is a great jumping point.  I've been in writing groups where people waste a lot of time asking about shit that you could find in two seconds on any Google search. However, if you're tackling something out of the ordinary, you may need to get creative. Let's assume you have a character like Valys on Game of Thrones (a eunuch). You can easily dig up historical accounts, medical records on complications, etc. to cover the facts, but consider the trauma of the character.  While some eunuchs, like slaves, didn't really act out because 'it was the norm' (lets not pretend eunuch and slave rebellions weren't a thing though), what circumstances might make it 'abnormal'? In Varys's case he vividly remembers the horror of being taken in by a sorceror who needed his male parts simply for some spell or experiment, that the sorceror had simply paralyzed him but he felt the pain in keen detail. Sometimes it's a writer's job to imagine the horrors of a situation that isn't normal.  Could you ask someone who had a limb removed in wartime without anesthetics? Sure, but what would be the impact of that being done to a reproductive organ? How would your character handle it?  Would it empower them or drive them to psychosis or even suicide?  

This is why some of the questions in writing groups are ones I find off-putting. Asking me how I would write your character seems as pointless as asking you to tell people how I think. Perhaps writing groups are a great place to ask people, after you've already written something, if what you've come up with makes sense.  It's a place where they can question things that might not be in the excerpt as a way to see if you've considered it for later in your story.  That twitch you mentioned in his face every time someone mentions cats. Does he hate cats or is he remembering something painful about them? 

I've seen a lot of mixed feelings concerning writing groups and how helpful they actually are.  A few rare souls seem to get a lot of valuable feedback, although that is questionable because I've never actually seen examples of this valuable feedback, just their word of mouth.  In most cases, I've seen hug boxes and destructive feedback and, holy hells, people who really want their hands held the whole time rather than do much thinking for themselves. Keep in mind, this even goes for fan fiction where you already have books of fucking canon to work with. 

Motivation is important, experience is important, but with anything, I would always keep in mind to step away from what feels right and really look at what it is actually helping you accomplish. Writers have to do this to edit and draft all the time, but I think many writers get damnably impatient and maybe even let their readers push them to release things way too soon. Hey, it's not always important either.  My vanity project is a lovable mess, but I also needed it published because I just don't trust ARCs and beta reading, etc. I've had friends tell me they've been burned by leaks and such and I just didn't want to deal with that.  I can't say I fault anyone for wanting to just get things out there.  It's why I made an exception to 'releasing things before they are ready.' I suppose some people scrap things after years of not being able to make them work.  I still found a lot of enjoyment in reading my books though, so at some point I just had to release them. There will be other books, so it was time. I don't treat every project the same. However, you will see writers making the same mistakes over and over and their hug boxes are clearly shitting on their progress. They want 'more', but the 'quality' is often sacrificed to rush to please people.

This is why I can't hate authors for waiting years between books. If they're anything like me, there's no way in hell it's just over one series either. You can't chain yourself to something until it's done. Sometimes you need a few pet projects or series to bounce your head around. Sometimes you just need a damn break, to let the series haunt you in vivid dreams before you can do it justice.  I'd rather wait a decade than end up with a disappointing tome of garbage. Think of it this way-- it's like that ridiculous fucking ten year plan I've mentioned interviewers bringing up.  Where will you be in ten years? Sure, we're impatient to jump in a time machine and see this place in time where we imagined we're awesome.  We're just as likely to stumble on ourselves in the throes of a raging heroin addiction. Impatience doesn't guarantee you'll have some smug sense of satisfaction at the end of it. Do other things. Live life without the impossible expectations of guarantees.  Once in a while, you might actually find some hidden gems.  Don't be in such a damn hurry that you're rushing past all of it.  Stop waiting for life to show up.

What the fuck am I doing?  I have leftover turkey to demolish.  Keep writing, people! Or whatever it is you do on holidays or any other day of the year...

Word Counts and Motivation

Sometimes, like with weight loss, people get a little too obsessed with the numbers in writing. Can't say I haven't been there, but it's an old habit from my college days and one I don't feel inhibits the process.

The guideline for most fiction novels is widely stated to be 80K, which I always hold to be the minimum especially on the first book in a series.  Fantasy is usually given the green light for 120K or more. Intermediate children's books and pulp romance often ends up as low as 35K. If you're self-publishing, psh, the max page count of whatever service you use is really the only limit. I think CreateSpace's limit is in the 700-something page range, which even at a big font with adequate spacing can still put you past 300K to accomplish so it's hardly a limit unless you're trying to squish up a big compilation into one volume.

Math, sorry... but it's important math for any aspiring author. The limits I mention outside of self-publishing are where you're looking to land for traditional publishers and agents. You'll notice a big series like Harry Potter started off modest, but once Rowling got the green light, those books got much bigger. Nevertheless, if you're looking to take advantage of traditional publishing to market you, knowing the standards is important in the beginning.  Your first book is your business card so they want to see you can both write a decent novel-length story and not take up gobs of their time while they are actively seeing if you're worth taking out of the slush pile.

Word counts, though; what else are they good for? I like to use them to get a good feel for how I want to divide up scenes. In UnNamed, I introduced a lot of side characters that needed a face. I wrote the bulk of the book, made it to about 76.5K words and decided to go back and humanize some of those characters. So I set a word count on the five characters that needed a little boost, giving each of them an approximate scene addition of 2K each. I did the same for the epilogue at the end-- get it up to about 5K.

It seems to be a common writer issue where some writers just get too beefy.  I believe King has a personal rule of 'first draft - 10%', meaning if his draft is at 100K, he makes it a point to chop about 10K. However, all of my works aren't built the same and I often find my first counts underwhelming while I'm pounding through central ideas.  Some scenes get colorful and detailed, others read like 'there's this guy and he's gonna be important but we'll come back to that'. 

While I was poring through my first draft, I found it much more productive to mark spots where I could elaborate without too much side-tracking, once I'd gotten to know their roles better over the course of that first sweep. I didn't take time dissecting chapter counts or parts.  Part I is substantial.  Part II is definitely the biggest, and Part III?  Pretty little actually; more like a chapter than anything. However, the division I chose holds importance in the flow.  The epilogue was reserved for leading the end of this book into the next, so it's pretty much a separate story with a few familiar faces popping up.

I do like to break convention, but I certainly don't go out of my way to do it. Generally, I can agree that you shouldn't be a slave to word count. However, you do have to consider what you want for your work. If you're free or self-publishing, obviously you have more freedom to toss around. There are plenty of authors who use free publishing but make a killing on donations. I wouldn't expect this to be the norm unless you do have a day-job that pays the bills. The popularity of your work is never guaranteed, so how you brand your work can be a part of whether it succeeds or fails.  Some works are successful giving your audience the ability to choose your worth. It's not typical and it can look like a lack of confidence, but that sort of perception can clearly be countered. Put a price on something and you have different concerns, such as the piracy of your work, whether people think it's fairly priced, etc. Back to word count here, but popularity can also depend on length.  You may want to consider whether your target audience likes short bits or epic tomes. This may not exactly be a matter of word count, but if you're finding it slow-moving, this may come up in reviews or comments.

Let's switch over to a little motivation...  A lot of people seem to wonder where I get it from. I've been a squishy can of worms, hesitating on getting anything done for years.  I called it a block but the ideas were always there; the confidence, not so much. Did I have the right words?  The right skills in art?  Even after achieving two degrees in graphic design with honors, I had those days where I questioned my abilities. I couldn't improve when I wasn't finishing anything and I wasn't improving or sharing. Even lacking confidence, I just wanted to share SOMETHING, anything. Starting small can help you warm up into a workflow and confidence.

Plenty of writers get jealous over 'lazy successes' (like poorly written novels like Twilight and 50 Shades or short poorly-drawn comics about everyday life). I've been there, but in some ways it's been motivational.  You do want to keep your integrity and your visions, of course, but frequency can play a role.  For some of us, those short stories and short comics STILL take up gobs of time, but not so much as the big projects and they offer exposure. You may want to take advantage of some of those exposure sites for your smaller works: DeviantArt, Soundcloud, Line WebToon, Wattpad, all great places for artists to protect and post projects of any size to drum up interest. Yes, it can be extremely unnerving when you start comparing successes or telling yourself you might deserve it more, but these people are often lucky or just diverse enough that something strikes gold on the many, many social outlets they use to find their audience. Until you create a demand, those months and years of working on bigger projects aren't going to guarantee your successes, but they will have valuable lessons. You can keep striking until the iron is hot, but if you lose motivation, you may need to make some mini-breaks to refresh your course. Shorter competitions, awards, there are plenty of other things to work for while trying to find that coveted fanbase.

That doesn't mean you have to work for that eye-rolling 'exposure'. You'll always get people that think they can define the value of that for you and those people are usually looking to benefit from your work while subtly devaluing you and exploiting it for their own purposes.  YOU decide what exposure will be valuable. Your best bet is to use protected public social sites, some with the incentive of income opportunities if you achieve a certain number of subscribers.  Don't do 'exposure' work if you can't afford it, either in time or money. Don't be so eager to slap your name on everything if you don't feel it will benefit your goals.  You'll find that motivation is much harder to come by when you're slave to what someone else thinks you should be doing.  Do those things if you're curious or stand to gain something from the experience.  

One thing I always found discouraging was leaping into a project that someone else was way more excited about. It's not that I don't have interest in collaborating with some people; if they are patient, often I will find the inspiration after my own priorities are taken care of. Currently I have a handful of solo projects that may keep me very busy for a couple of years. If someone has put an idea by me that I really like, it can take years for me to get back to them. If your one big passion project relies on someone else to collaborate with you, you may want to take on some smaller projects rather than badgering them. Hell, it might influence them to get on board sooner if they see you are actively working on improving too.  Some of us just get worried we'll get suckered into work where we're doing most of the actual labor involved.  That can be anti-motivational. 

If you have a proposal, write it out, plan the project with division of labor considering the amount of time everyone might be putting in, even the division of pay in accordance with the effort. You might be screwing yourself out of a working partner if you want 50/50 but your output is 80/20. It's always helpful to an artist if you have a solid grasp of these things before wanting to dive in. For one person, it may just be an idea they've been playing with, but the other person may need some solid motivation to rely on someone else.

You can find motivation everywhere, some things very simple like a soundtrack while you're working but other things might include security and contracts. Everything about creation is not flighty and fun, but you don't want it to be just work either.  Motivation can often be about adjusting expectations. If you've been working too hard, you may need to make it lighter so you don't burn out or you may need a break altogether.  If you feel things have been moving too slow or you're not doing enough, you may need to restructure and reprioritize to achieve some of the things that aren't progressing. Motivation to do one thing is sometimes about stepping away until those ideas you want so badly come back to you. Even the most well-planned projects can peter out. Even with deadlines, try to plan for those. I usually give deadlines twice the actual project time it will take. If there are any setbacks, blocks or breaks needed, that is what I make the time allowance for.  Sometimes I can be a machine and get something done in the shorter time, but stress to finish can be a motivational killer.

In personal news and to finish up, UnNamed is pretty much wrapped up during NaNoWriMo, putting my final WC at nearly 90K with nearly 55K done for NNWM itself. I'm hoping my readers/fans/ family will support the campaign to get publishers interested in my work. Production values will get bumped up from my current self-publishing projects and I hope I can start getting some bonus swag going for early adopters. What I can offer my readers will increase with my ability to financially invest in my projects, so as always, if you want to see what an artist is capable of, be sure to donate or preorder!  I'm excited to get things moving.  

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Sometimes, Someone Already Said It

I love digging up writing tips.  Not because I like rules (anyone who uses that word is selling horseshit), but because I like breaking them.  Sometimes bloggers just hit the nail on the head with contradictory arguments on popular rules that, damn, just resonate with my own experience.

I'm all about taking the things you're not supposed to do and making a writing exercise out of it.  They will never end up published if I keep them at all, but I do like to challenge those claims and see both why people might overdo things or ruin their work by trying so hard to avoid them.

Now, despite the deceptive heading, I think this blog post:

https://litreactor.com/columns/the-ten-worst-pieces-of-writing-advice-you-will-ever-hear-and-probably-already-have

Is pretty spot-on otherwise. The header is a bit of a deceptive attention grabber but it's also not claiming to have hard rules.  The language in the post only suggests that you may be clinging too hard to popular advice that could prove harmful to your voice, pacing, etc. 

Namely, most of this advice is meant to be applied sparingly.  

Beginning writers do tend to make the same mistakes, but concepts like 'show, don't tell' are assuming the novice understands the subtleties.  No, you don't want  a book that explains everything about the present.  The advice with 'show, don't tell' means that it's okay to set the scene, to tell the monotonous details THEN show the action that pulls you in.  Being all about the tell is why prologues fell out of fashion.  Often, that set up might contain a crucial piece of info where the reader might sigh and say 'I wish I was there.' Writers who have had experience and feedback will get a more personal sense of what should be shown or told according to their unique voice-- too much 'show' often leads new writers down the dark paths of purple prose. 

Purple prose, though.  I'm not a fan but I can't say I haven't used it to exercise my perception. Sometimes I want to notice everything around me, but keep in mind, it's like an acid trip. Not everyone can or wants to see what you're seeing. The reason most seasoned writers avoid purple prose is because it does distract from pacing.  Poetry is made for frothy description, but novel readers are going to be on a long journey with you. If you feed them too much, it can bore them. Sometimes they want to walk your worlds at their own leisure.  They don't want to know every smell in the air.  If the smell of cinnamon is key to the plot, by all means point it out. Otherwise, focus on painting a scene that is relevant to the plot. Is the character focusing on the dark shadows of those alleys because they are paranoid or being followed?  Unless you are intentionally running a distraction, I find it best not to fall so in love with my voice that I'm not leading them like a toddler saying 'what's this?' to everything.

There are plenty of things that I do that some might advise against. I don't mind self-publishing things I am in doubt about. I do, however, believe that I'm not the only one that might enjoy them.  If I derived enjoyment out of it, enough to pound out and edit that much of the story, then it's worth trying. Maybe I'm a bit avant-garde in that, even cringing at flaws, I don't go out of my way to bury something I might be a little embarrassed by. I'm sure there is snobbery about indie authors that market for themselves, family and maybe a couple friends.  I like that PoD lets me put out my books with all their flaws and glories, affordable enough that I can put that print copy on my shelf. I'm sick of reading them for all the times I scanned through them, but ten years from now, I want to pull them out again.  Regardless of what flaws ten more years of experience lends to them, I know I'll still be able to fall in love with the story all over again.

I used to obsessively redraw old drawings because I can 'do them better now.' And sometimes in the right spirit, it is still a fun exercise. With writing, I don't feel the same way.  Some things just have to be left how they are, some ideas worked out later in entirely different stories.  As long as a story is not completely sloppy, I find some flaws to be endearing.  This is why I balk at rules. Creativity is not a finite thing and taste isn't either.  If you hesitate to put your work out there until it's perfect, you will never let it go, never get feedback that will challenge you to grow.  I've said it before, but all forms of art are brutal. You have to take a lot on the chin and still stay true to your visions. Sometimes even when you're doing well, the self-doubt can hit with crippling unpredictability. You might think that fan demand would always be flattering, but if you hit a rough spot and they have to wait a few years, that adoration can evolve into something nasty.

I would say that iliciting strong reactions means you're doing it right, but if the scales are tipping too far into the negative or positive, you may have to investigate. Negativity doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad writer, but if you continue to make the same mistakes without listening to feedback, you might just be one. Good feedback?  It's great to have support, but watch out for cheerleaders.  Abrupt but shining reviews similarly work as ineffectively as refusing to take criticism at all. Those in-depth reviews are rare but golden creatures and, good or bad, deserve some consideration.

All right-- another writing marathon planned today after I sneak in a nap. Before I go, let me add that I don't get a lot of feedback.  I don't ask it of anyone, for one. This shouldn't discourage you. I'll admit it was unnerving at first until I remembered that I always intended my first books to be a vanity project.  It was never intended to be a best seller, just a footnote for posterity. Let me get my feet wet with trad-pub on a book I wrote for a market and then I'll worry if no one is reading it. Like most people, I do want my overtime art career to support my independence someday.  I'm also not going to get discouraged while I learn the ropes. Ffs, I got the balls to put myself out there only a few short months ago. A shot in the dark. One of the first things I read is that it can take 30 months for an author to become 'known.' I still have a lot of work to do before I can even begin to say I've done all I could.

Writing Styles

I've seen a lot of articles that seem to hint at everyone taking the same basic approach to writing or assuming their way is successful for everyone.  I'm always here to defy convention and elaborate where advice could be more harmful than helpful.  Noooot because I'm an expert, but because I talk to people and do research. I always hope I can narrow some things down.

I may be off on my terminology to start but by writing styles, I'm talking about how you get words on the page.  I guess it could encompass everything from voice to pace to what equipment you use, but I've always assuming that style, like with fashion, refers to your unique output.

One thing I've noticed is that I don't tackle every writing project the same.  Some are meticulously planned before the actual writing ever starts.  Some are creative flow followed by technical editing.  My current project is a Frankenstein.  I wrote the first 36.5K, then made outlines and plots, then attacked it with creativity for 35K.  I actually started second draft editing at that point.  I'm writing some character development scenes in,something I held off on until I was sure that the story moved in the right direction to develop those scenes.  Those will be separately edited, pieced in at bookmarks, and given one final read through.

Some stories are less demanding on our ability to form details. Extensive lore and world building often entails a lot of forethought before you get going unless you are prepared to do a lot of adding later. Genres like romance tend to be emotion-driven, so elaborate plotting is usually unnecessary.  Thrillers even tend to be pretty direct, even when it's a puzzle to the reader.  Genres like fantasy tend to attract the large-scale ambitions of detailed authors, but can be more lighthearted once you attach subgenres like romance or paranormal to them.  How you write, how you put things together, is often a matter of what you want out of your story.

If you know me at all, you know I absolutely hate deciding what 'genre' I fall under, but I sure as hell don't want anyone doing it for me.  However, your writing style, your voice, often draws certain crowds with certain tastes.  Genres aren't meant to limit the writer; they are simply meant to draw in the largest possible market for those ideas.  They aren't foolproof and are often deceptive and wrong.  If a writer is worth their salt, they're spitting in the face of convention and writing to tell a story, not fill a market demand.

I wish I had more juice on this subject, but I pulled a 7K day, working from 4PM to 11PM and I am bushed. As usual, shoot me a question in comments if you have any specific questions or curiosities.  My email is also available for more personal questions (this doesn't mean to turn my inbox into Tinder hell, but if you have writing questions you may be too shy to ask publicly or are curious about my education or something, by all means, let's correspond on that).

As always, keep writing.  Even when it sucks.  Especially when it sucks. You learn way more from the goofs.

Taking a Break

I don't do that enough, that header thing up there. If you're any kind of creative (and all it takes is the enjoyment in making things to be one), then you have probably hit one of those stubborn spells where you just don't want to give up until it's done.  Sometimes it's putting together that impossible piece of Ikea furniture that can help anyone relate to this.

With these monster projects, it's just not feasible, which might very well be the reason why the fanfic scene hit a point of annoyance for me right now. I'm not in instant gratification projects when it comes to sharing (the work, yes, but the output is secret until it's done) and I can't relate so I don't try to.  I need to take breaks.  No matter how much I burn the midnight oil, I have to multiply that by two months to get a draft into something I'm proud to start petitioning for a market. On a side note, I love fanfic, but I realized it's something for me and not something I want a fandom for.

Which brings me to a thought I've been considering.  I would love to do a webtoon.  There, I said it.  It's one of those things I can do for free that doesn't have to be a huge undertaking. It will give me a chance to share my art and short visual stories, gain exposure that could generate income if it is successful. That might be a nice in-between project in the years to come that lets me ease back into comic book art once more.  I do have a couple friends that have asked me to do comics with them, but it's also something I don't have the equipment to do quickly unless the art quality is low or the process is tedious shouldering all of the art myself.  

After doing everything myself for my first self-published vanity project, I'd love to be able to delegate some work to other people and have time for more projects I actually want to do-- namely drawing and writing.  I can do the technical part, sure, but I'm not fond of it.  People who love it should do it and I'm more than happy to hand it to someone who actually doesn't have the blind devotion to it that I do.  Let them catch things with their cold icy reflexes.

I've resigned myself to giving up some control to let UnNamed be more market-friendly, let it get the attention it deserves.  I wrote nine books, fanfiction, blogs, a few other incomplete (so far) drafts in other genres to get UnNamed where I was confident it would succeed.  

As I've said before, I've always known that my first series was rough.  I knew it broke the anal rules of 'show, don't tell' and more besides, but it would have been pointless to completely rewrite them when the ideas were more important.  Maybe it's because I'm a comic book fan writing a book.  I don't give a shit if you tell me what to see-- I can override that with my imagination and never held it against an author.  I did however keep that in mind for UnNamed.  I kept a lot of things in mind for the market, but ultimately, it has to keep me entertained too.  There is me and people like me who will not have what we want if we write for everyone else because it's what we're supposed to do. Writers claiming 'rules' are pretentious.  Someone's success does not dictate yours.  I pore over advice blogs a lot, but some of them just border on ridiculous when applying common sense.  Chapter length equating success? Purple prose vs. short and sweet? At some point, you are assuming way too much about taste.  Bookmarks are a thing, skim what you don't like, or just move on.  That's what people do and some advice kind of just seems condescending and pointless even for beginners.  Hell, even harmful for people of all skill levels that DO take things literally.  

I'll say this again-- it's extremely oxymoronic to be subtle about writing advice.  There is no point in giving it unless it is literal.  Explain the shit.  Vague advice is fucking pointless.  And you know I mean it because I used my dirty, foul, uncouth emphasizers which clearly show my lack of intellect, if you believe everything the internet tells you.  

In any case, authors have a range of goals and definitions for success, I don't have to tell anyone that (or maybe I do because assumptions don't do a lot of good). 

What was I even talking about?  That header tells me I took a weird turn into the wrong part of town.

Who plans blogs anyway? (Not me...)

In any case, breaks are super important, whether I like them or not.  Sometimes 'breaks' are mini-projects, not just stopping to eat or relieve myself or the basic needs like exercise. Did the same thing with crochet, where I always had two big projects laced with smaller ones to get some smaller gratification from sharing things that were done quicker. I find that this applies to any current obsessions.  Some people are completely absorbed in one project.  Good on you, but that never works for me.  I keep my worlds ready in containers and can easily reabsorb multiple places. Then again my childhood was about waiting for people who didn't show up, so call it a survival skill that I could always slip into many places at once.  And while it does boggle my mind when people literally only do one thing ever-- what do you other than write? You mean there are other things?-- it usually becomes a little clearer once you learn about their lives.  Some people who are creative hold long, boring day jobs and are lucky to get an hour or two of what they really like to do.  I was there once.  Still had a million hobbies that I spread thin, but to each their own. Even then, take breaks! And I will keep hoping for the day that the economy really works for people someday. Without going into politics, I do believe it is possible to stop touting the 8+ hour work day as viable.  I've seen some good articles on the productivity of people.  Only thing stopping it is corporate greed.  Sorry, capitalism, you're crippling human progress.

Okay, back to my editing.  I love bloggy breaks, but I really had no point but to ramble. I kinda need to do that sometimes.  Whoever had the advice to use a blog as an author rant, I love you.  Really.  Because there is zero gratification in taking it to the dinner table with family or starting shit on social media.  This is the absolute best outlet that still lets my friends and family choose to be a part of it. Or lets passive-aggressive randoms drop hints about stalking me. Whatever. (See what I did there?  Counter terrorism...) No, seriously-- I just don't want people telling me what they consider appropriate. Agree to disagree on morality, always...

I did say back to editing. I'm turning into my mom on the phone.  Good-bye can signal another 30 minutes of talking. Man, I miss that though.

Mwah!  Keep writing... or doing all the other things.

Ugh, When you Love the Thing and Can't Stand the Fandom

In all fairness, this only happens about 50% of the time in my experience and there are always red flags for me when most of a group is female. I try to be direct, end up offending someone sensitive, they turn passive aggressive and then to 'subtle' insults. Not that subtle or clever though.

Fanfiction.  I love doing it for fun.  It was never meant to be serious. I gave it a go with a group.  My joking around was always well-received, but let's be clear.  Many of these groups say they aren't but they are hug boxes.  Big ole ego-filled hug boxes.  You start to get a feel for that dynamic from the first when the same three or four look-at-me types post asking for discussion but not opinions, look at what I can do self-inflating posts on hits (when you can easily score 10 hits off of one person with a poorly loading tablet), and no actual pushback. The only thing I can honestly say didn't irritate was people posting their links.  Totally expected.  What I hadn't expected was the same phenomenon I faced in college where some people want to hang with creatives, but pretty much ask people to walk them through damn near every scene they write.  You can say it's optional, but the frequency of these posts dictates otherwise.

I turn to fandoms to avoid the drama and politics of the real world.  I turn to fandoms for intelligent discussion.  When I can't meet that criteria, I move on.  Sometimes I end up adding a few friends before I go, but sometimes I just wipe the slate.  I would never presume everyone in a group is all the same, but I have a demand on my time and that means quickly weighing the value of things to determine whether they actually help me grow or hinder me with irritation.

It's sad, but it has to be said too: I am posting this publicly, which means anyone can see it.  If you are 'stalking' me and take umbrage to my assessment, even though I've been kind enough to not name names or specifics, kindly fuck off. I normally attempt to be diplomatic, but I do not take kindly to internet harassment.  This blog is for recording experiences, favorable or not.  Doxxing, harassing, or negging, whatever tf you want to call it, is unacceptable. Go ahead and blog about what a horrible person you think I am on your outlets. This one is mine.

These fandom spazz-outs though; I've had this happen with anime.  It's happened with dolls.  Hell, even crochet groups can run into speed bumps with people taking offense.  I don't deal with it.  Life is way too short, too precious, to let random internet faces bring you down.  By all means, let them lift you up, but it's not a marriage and you can terminate things that are destructive to your personal goals.  It doesn't make them bad people, just bad for you.

Yeah, I've lost a lot of people I care about and it made me see that being the best me means I had to change a lot.  It means I've had to be stricter on some aspects, gentler on others.  It means recognizing people and actions that are toxic for me.  It means finding strength by understanding vulnerability. It also means not tolerating people who don't care whether I succeed or fail.  You shouldn't put up with it either.

Professionally, I have goals that require a lot of discipline.  Creative fields are subjective, volatile, terrifying.  The most commercially successful are both loved and hated.  Making friends is terrific, but I suspect I'll make plenty of enemies too. Art attracts obsession and mania.  This is part of the reason I briefly addressed some of the issues with fandoms-- when people feel strongly, clashes have more impact.  Often with fandoms, I find the best course is finding people who don't immediately balk at your approach. Find a handful of people who you don't rub the wrong way and build each other up. Don't linger and try to iron out kinks.  More often than not, it's just like petting a cat in the wrong direction. People decide pretty quickly whether they like you or not.  Don't waste your time-- there are plenty of people out there who are going to love your take on things...

On a work note, my goal is getting UnNamed up to speed by this weekend.  Got a campaign to start after. It's a lot of work, but daaaaamn, nothing gets me higher than the zone!

Weee-oooo, Weeee-oooo, Editing Squad...

I am now 170-some odd pages into the red-pen expedition.  Words have been murdered, held hostage, forced into service, and volunteered as tribute. Another 100 or so pages until I can go back to tackling the last big chunks of word count to finish this beautiful bastard and set it free into the world, complete with Stockholm Syndrome and denial of their captivity.

I've found perfect places to make it beefy...  I'm really hoping to get it into semblance of completion by Sunday.  Let's face it; Thanksgiving week is not the place for ambitious word sprints, if you're spending time with family/friends that qualify as family.  Monday and Tuesday are those last ditch days before the 'phews get their break and I plan on jamming some headphones on and doing some line editing on my illustrations rather than any ambitious writing projects.  I easily do 2-3K daily on my lighter writing days, so that is where NaNo will go until the last week of the month. 

Yeah, it doesn't end with 50K and NaNo is a beginning, no matter where you fall.  It's the time we battle our personal best and come out on top.  I think the 50K goal is deceptive towards the point and why so many people opt out. Even the vocabulary of 'winning' seems like an odd choice for encouragement. The real point is the community.  I love sending messages to my Buddies and letting them know how I'm faring, seeing where they are in return.

If 'falling behind' creates too much stress, why not set up a more modest goal while participating.  'Winners' just get limited account access to writing services I don't see myself using.  As a fantasy writer, spellcheckers have very little help to offer me. Going trad-pub, I'll have editors working with me regardless.  Don't know about you, but my first draft is never so awful that they want to pluck out their eyes.  Actual human feedback always trumps a fancy program.

And that's really all I see.  It's bragging rights, discounted programs-- those may not be terribly exciting.  However, I can definitely vouch for the fun of an event that brings some lightness to the labors of love that we writers toil over. I highly encourage all writers to throw their hat in.  I'd like to do this annually, regardless of my personal goals.  We're creeping up on the halfway point and I am not less thrilled than that charge out of the gate.