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The Rain, Family and Friends

November 17, 2013

Standing Out in a Crowd

I’ve been sitting here looking at rain, instead of the usual south Florida sunshine, waiting for the clouds to pass … and thinking about heading to Miami later this week, to the Readers Favorite Awards ceremony, where I’m supposed to pick up the Silver Medal for my short-story collection ZEBULON.

It’s kind of fun to be here … with nothing much to do except enjoy the warm weather (it was in the teens up north at home last night) and my grandkids, when they’re home from school.

I’ve already seen dance rehearsals, a basketball game and a Tae Kwon Do practice. I’ve gone shopping with my bride, been the only adult around for an afternoon play-date of six-year-olds and will soon get to travel north to experience Legoland … the dream spot of every sixty-something … right?

In truth, I can do without it.

But it isn’t for me; it’s for my grandson, and watching his eyes will make it a treat … so in a way it is for me. What price can you put on a memory like that?

I’ve been trying to work on ONE WAY STREET, the sequel to my first novel, REICHOLD STREET, but it seems to be genuinely stalled right now at about 42,000 words. If anyone who read the first book has any suggestions to get me jump-started, I’d sure like to hear a few of them in the “Comments” section.

Journey
I also put together select blog postings to offer in book form on Amazon. It talks about some of the things I’ve discovered about indie publishing, and offers what I hope is some practical advice. It’s called “The Journey of an Indie Writer” and you can find it in paperback here.

Journey of an Indie Writer

In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out how to earn my audience. I’m like most indie writers who have a story to share with the world, but find nobody seems to care. And there’s no big publicity machine behind me to help spread the word.

If you’re like me, you keep writing and publishing anyway, hoping someone will come along and find out you have something readable to say. Perhaps something brilliant. Maybe even award-winning.

You Need to be Different
Unfortunately, sitting and waiting is probably the worst way to find an audience, and I should know better. The way to get the attention of an audience is to earn it, not demand it, because here’s the truth:

People don’t care at all what you have to say until they know who you are.

Earlier this year, J.K. Rowling (who wrote the Harry Potter series, in case there’s anyone on the planet who doesn’t know) published a new novel under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.

She wanted to test the market and find out if it was still her writing that sold so well, or her name. She found out in a hurry. The book got very good reviews, but readers didn’t care.

Then, people somehow discovered the book was actually written by Rowling and the book immediately became a bestseller.

Same book. Same story. Same writing. But a different name on the front caused the book to become an instant success.

Why? Because readers are busy.

They pay attention to names they recognize and don’t always take the time to explore new authors. Plus, audiences are notoriously fickle. They quite often don’t care what you have to say, or how you say it; they care who you are. It’s what makes a crappy book by someone like Snooki a best-seller.

Best-Selling Author?

And if they haven’t heard of you, you might as well be invisible. So how do you become visible? What do you have to do? (see my Earned Media post). You need to discover your unique writing voice and build a platform around it. Sounds tough, I know. But it’s actually simple.

Others have said it. I’m just repeating it … because it’s true. Talk to your friends. Make new ones with social media tools … but make sure they’re Friends, not just marketing targets.

You Need to Find Your Tribe
You want them to become people you actually talk to, share information with and help out when they need it … not just someone to whom you’re trying to sell something.

Then you leverage those relationships to get in front of the right people, the friends of your friends. Word-of-mouth information and recommendation is so powerful that before long readers will come to you, not the other way around.

Like I’ve said before … earned media.

Think of It This Way:
There once was a man who had ten good friends. These friends would do anything for him. But for some reason this wasn’t enough for him … he wanted more.

So he campaigned and lobbied trying become famous. Soon, he had a hundred followers. Then, there were a thousand. He campaigned and lobbied some more. Made lots of noise. Not all of it was very nice, and he spent a lot of money doing it. Pretty soon he felt like a rock star, with millions of followers.

At first, he thought the apparent attention was nice.

But he soon found that there were expectations associated with his new-found status. People constantly asked for favors and handouts, wanting special attention. They made demands he couldn’t meet. But they never helped him with a thing. He felt trapped, overwhelmed and confused.

Isn’t this what he wanted? Why was he so discontent?

Not knowing where to turn, the man went on a search. He weeded through the crowds of countless quasi-admirers and “yes men,” looking for a few, dedicated followers. People he could comfortably do things for … and who would do anything for him.

Finally, he found ten people.

They were his original true friends. Turns out that was really all he ever needed.

You don’t need fans. You need friends.

Tags:award-winning author, book marketing, indie writers, self-publishing
Posted in Book Promotion, Market Your Book, Storytelling | 4 Comments »

Do You Make Your Words Sparkle?

October 24, 2013

Photo/Bigstock Images

To Proof or Not to Proof
I’ve been looking over the last few posts I’ve made, wishing I’d done things a bit differently. They seem a little preach-y and, while I packed as much info into them as I could, they’re short on stuff an indie writer can actually use.

So, to get back in the groove, I thought I’d pass along some notes I made for myself about proofing and editing … that actually work.

Writers rarely like to revise their work (how well I know), but it’s a hard, cold reality of the writing process. It’s the most important thing you can do after the initial draft.

When you write, if you’re anything like me, you heave a big sigh (of accomplishment? relief?) as you put the period on that final sentence, sit back and look at what you’ve done. It actually feels pretty good for a few minutes.

Then the nit-picking begins.

OMG that’s awkward! What was I thinking? Jeez, why did I write it that way? That’s about as interesting as a margarine label!

Relax. It happens to most of us. That’s what editing is for. Here are five self-editing questions to ask as you begin to proofread your work:

1. Have You Applied the Second-Draft Rule?
Stephen King is one hell of a good writer, whether you like his subject matter or not. In his remarkable book On Writing, he shows a before-and-after example of how editing can improve a story.

The book is one of the best lessons on the craft of writing I’ve ever read. I suggest you get a copy and read it (it’s a memoir not a story, so don’t worry about demons or magic or spooky places).

His Second-Draft Rule is:

2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%

As writers, we have a tendency to believe every word we write is precious – and have a natural reluctance to cut our material – (you do that too, don’t you?). After all, we remember how hard it was to get it down on paper.

However, editing is about making your prose lean and exciting, compelling the reader to turn the page. Try it, it’s worthwhile … but I warn you, it’s much harder than you think. It makes you weigh and measure every word.

2. Is That Adverb Necessary?
If you’re using a lot of adverbs in your fiction, chances are you’re violating a cardinal rule of good storytelling by simply telling the reader about the action … not showing them.

For instance, imagine one of your characters has just obtained some special, long-sought-after prize. Something anyone would recognize as a thrilling moment.

Instead of telling us he was “yelling joyfully,” why not have him jump up-and-down screaming and yelling, creating so much ruckus the family cat runs under the bed in terror?
Photo/United Artists

Or maybe, like Rocky Balboa, he runs through the streets at dawn, climbs the park steps and throws his hands in the air to the rising sun, letting the world know he intends to claim his shot at immortality.

Both of those descriptions show you how the character reacts instead of telling you … and they’re certainly more descriptive and alive than the word “joyfully.”

3. Where Does the Story Really Begin?
Carefully re-read the first few pages of your story. Where does the action start? A major fault with many first drafts (mine included) is too much background material showing up before conflict is introduced and the characters take over the story.

In several first drafts, my stories didn’t really begin until halfway down page two … or later. So, I found I frequently re-wrote or cut significant portions of the draft’s first few pages.

If I thought any of the cut material was somehow essential for the reader, I had to find another way to get it back into the story, perhaps through dialogue.

Occasionally, the edited work was a bit longer than the original, but the action began sooner and the pace of the story actually got better.

4. Are Your Adjectives Doing Their Job?
Get rid of empty adjectives. Instead of relying on “amazing,” “exciting,” “fascinating,” “scary” and other similar boring descriptions, use sensory details that bring to life what you’re describing:

“The wind swirled dirt and debris across the fields, but it was the immense slab of stone, rising on that wind like a feather, that robbed my sight of everything else.”

or …

“Even in the bright midday sun, the shadow exuded the damp, earthy worm-laden smell of the grave and left a bitter taste in my mouth.”

Find ways to get all the readers’ senses to work. When you do, it means you’re making the story real for them.

5. Have You Read Your Story Out Loud?
Believe it or not, one of your best proofreading tools is the sound of your own voice.

Reading your story aloud to someone is a fabulous way to find inconsistencies or clumsy phrasing, because if you stumble and hesitate over something when you’re reading, it’s likely your reader will find it awkward, too.

However, you want your reader to suspend disbelief, stay in the story and not wander off wondering what the hell you were talking about. If you find that happening, that’s a part you need to rewrite.

Consider Revision a Reward
A lot of people look upon editing as a chore (OK, I confess … that’s MY hand up over here in the corner). It’s harder than writing, and as difficult as marketing. Well … almost.

But remember … if you’re revising and editing, it means you’ve finished the first draft of your project.

How exciting is that?

Let me know what you think.

Tags:award-winning writing, book marketing, indie writers, proofread and edit, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Storytelling, The Dreaded Edit | Leave a Comment »

How Do You Deal With An Uncooperative Muse?

October 13, 2013

I mentioned last week my writing muse has abandoned me. It’s probably to make me wonder if I’ll ever finish the last half of my REICHOLD STREET sequel so the book will actually see the light of day this year, as I more or less promised.

Or maybe it’s just to make me sweat.

I’m not sure. Those nine Greek muses were notoriously unpredictable. Not to mention there was no muse specifically for fiction.

Don’t believe me? Check the list:

Calliope

was the muse of epic poetry

Clio

was the muse of history

Erato

was the muse of love poetry

Euterpe

was the muse of music

Melpomene

was the muse of tragedy

Polyhymnia

was the muse of sacred poetry

Terpsichore

was the muse of dance

Thalia

was the muse of comedy

Urania

was the muse of astronomy

See? No muse at all for historical fiction, mystery, westerns, sci-fi, fantasy, spy thrillers, horror, young adult or zombie romance.

The tragedy and comedy muses might work, if you’re considering a reprise of Shakespeare’s Romeo and that Capulet girl … or think you have a shot rewriting Joseph Heller’s fabulous “Catch-22” into the latest zombie apocalypse fable, featuring a worried Yossarian and the dispassionate Colonel Cathcart as dancing corpses.

So, since the literary muse I don’t even have has abandoned me for the moment, I’ve been spending time foraging around the Internet … mostly because (1) I don’t have the inclination to visit the library, and (2) the web of nets is faster.

Anyway, I was surfing again on the web of nets and came across another remarkable comment by reformed journalist Guy Bergstrom, this time from a post on his blog back on October 11, 2011. I have to mention it, because this particular entry almost had me sitting down to write my stalled novel again.

He said it doesn’t matter what you’re writing: “spy thrillers, speeches, newspaper stories or romances about men in kilts” … the only thing readers truly care about is the journey you take them on.

Here I’ve been struggling to paint with words, and he says the roller coaster ride you take a reader on is more important than how pretty you’ve painted things.

In other words, story structure beats pretty words.

Wow … what a concept! All you other indie writers out there, are you listening? Readers want a thrilling ride.

Wait, there’s more!