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Posts Tagged ‘self-publishing’

The Final 1,000 Words

January 21, 2014

It’s no surprise to anyone – author or not – that every good story needs a beginning with an interesting premise, a middle that’s full of conflict, and an ending that more-or-less resolves it all.

I know a lot of indie authors who have a gazillion good ideas that would make fabulously great story starts, and many who know that spectacular events are not what conflict is about … good conflict is about emotions.

But I’ve seen some stories that just … end … and leave you wondering if the printer forgot to include some pages, or the digital cloud decided to swallow a few. Some end so abruptly it’s as if the author failed to understand that, when crafting a story, you need to give substantial thought to the conclusion.

Resolve the Central Conflict
By that, I don’t mean merely tacking on the-good-guy-gets-the-girl, or the-bad-guys-lose. If you think about it, life seldom resolves anything like that. When it does, we usually call the outcome cute.

When I say give thought to your ending I mean, in terms of your plot, what do you need to put into the final 1,000 words, if cute isn’t your target?

It seems to me this should be a no-brainer … but in the new indie-publishing world, how many weak story resolutions have you read? It doesn’t have to be a happily-ever-after ending, but you do need to tie-up any loose ends.

Also, keep in mind readers generally look for something uplifting, regardless of genre. I always try to leave something to feel positive about, even in disheartening scenes, because whether they admit it or not, it’s what readers really want.

As an author trying to please your audience, so should you.

Surprise Your Reader
No, I’m not suggesting you write O. Henry-ish twists or Twilight Zone endings into your stories. But you don’t have to establish a picture-perfect moment either, where every minor contentious issue is neatly solved.

Yes, every question you planted earlier in a reader’s mind should be addressed, but the answer could be to suggest that a known character … or another one yet to come … might address that minor issue later, after the book ends.

And the resolution doesn’t have to be one that seems expected. In fact, it’s sometimes a stronger story if it isn’t … as long as what happens is consistent with the facts that have already been presented … and avoids those pesky contrived twists.

Tie Your Final Words to Early Events
When you begin the journey of writing your novel, you should also try to have an established destination. I’m not suggesting writing to an outline. I can’t work like that and I wouldn’t ask you to do it, either … although I know a lot of authors prefer to work that way.

But even though I don’t create an outline, I have to admit it doesn’t hurt to have some idea where the characters … the main ones, anyway … are likely to be headed.

How they actually get there is the “something” I leave up to the characters to discover as I write.

I find it much easier to make detours, twists and turns in my storytelling by using such tactics, because I’m often surprised by where a character takes me … so my reader is going to be surprised, too. And that’s generally a good thing.

But it’s always a good idea to create a feeling that the final words somehow hearken to an earlier moment in the story.

Offer Redemption to Your Heroic Characters
No matter how many mistakes your main character has made along the way, allow the reader — and the character — to realize in the end, regardless of the outcome, he/she has done the right thing.

Don’t Change Voice, Tone or Attitude
Your ending will feel tacked on if the voice of the narrator suddenly sounds alien to the voice that’s been consistent for the rest of the book. The last impression you want to create is a positive one, at least as far as the story is concerned.

So, even if your ending is not the most positive outcome possible for your characters, don’t leave your readers feeling tricked or cheated … or they won’t have nice things to say about your book, and they won’t be looking for your next one, either.

The Making of a Winner
I’ve said it before: Writing is vastly overrated. As hard as it may seem when you’re writing your story, it’s after you’ve written your last word that you really go to work.

You actually begin to craft your work into a readable story in the editing, and you elevate yourself as a writer if you can polish your story until it dazzles. Your intent should be to leave your reader spent when he/she closes your book.

Don’t use obscure words or elaborately complex sentences and, for heaven’s sake, don’t suddenly write complicated scenes with vague references or hidden meanings. The ending, more than anywhere else in your story, is the place to be direct and assertive.

So edit, edit and then edit some more, until you’re certain what you’ve done is the best you’re capable of doing. This is where you should put your best work, making sure everything that remains is essential. It’s hard to do … but your story (and your readers) will love you for it.

As I’ve said in other posts, when I do this I sometimes wind up making changes that leave me with a manuscript that’s actually longer than when I started (good writing is often like that).

But whether your climax is 1,000 words long or 10,000, your reader must feel as if they’re racing through it … and that they cannot possibly put your story down until it’s done.

When that happens, you’ve got a winner … and nothing, my friend, feels better.

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R.L. Herron Book Signing, January 25, 2014

Tags:award-winning author, award-winning writing, indie writers, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Market Your Book, Self-Published, Storytelling, The Dreaded Edit | 2 Comments »

Never Let Anyone Steal Your Dream

January 12, 2014

Keep On Dreaming

What Are You Going To Be?
My road to indie author has been a convoluted one. When I was a little kid, it seemed all grownups loved to ask, “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

For a long time I gave the answer all little boys around here did back then: “I’m gonna play baseball for the Tigers, and I’m gonna be the next Al Kaline.”

I would get a smile, a pat on the head, and a “Good luck, kid.”

I thought it was funny, because it was the same response I heard grownups give to kids who said they wanted to be Superman, and he wasn’t even real.

When I got a little older I realized my batting and fielding skills weren’t going to get me a major league tryout, much less entrée into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It wasn’t likely I’d even get a chance to be a batboy. I probably had a better shot at being Batman.

Changing Priorities
So, I switched my response to “teacher” whenever I was asked, even though I hated the idea.

To me, being a teacher wasn’t a choice at all (sorry to you teachers out there, but I just couldn’t picture myself dealing with a whole classroom full of me every day … although it probably would’ve put me on a fast track to sainthood).

But that simple answer kept adults from nagging me. They’d nod and smile again, like I’d just said the magic word or handed them candy, and the conversation would be over.

A precocious reader, I’d discovered all the classic writers before I was a teenager. I loved all those stories … from Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” to Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim” — and the two monumental works of Homer, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.”

And then I discovered sci-fi. Somehow, for me, Greek gods and aliens went hand-in-hand.

An Early Author
I’d been writing stories for quite a while before I finally got up the gumption to make my first submission. It was to the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I was seventeen. It was rejected.

But after that first submission, I would send another new story to a magazine … somewhere … every few months.

I collected rejection slips for most, but I actually did sell a few of them (all general fiction to publications that no longer exist). The payments were small, but the feeling was tremendous.

But when I told friends I wanted to be a writer, they told me, “You’ll never make any money at that” — and I thought perhaps they might be right.

By the time I was ready for college, I had no real idea what I wanted to do. Choosing a major was difficult … but necessary. The war in Vietnam was raging, my draft lottery number was low, but I had a scholarship — and college gave me a four-year deferment.

College Choices
I’d already convinced myself teaching was out, but I was good at math, so I looked at options like accounting and statistics.

I wasn’t exactly sure what a statistician did all day, but it had to do with manipulating numbers and it sounded much more exotic than being an accountant.

I was wrong. I found it tedious and boring. I didn’t want to play with numbers at all.

So I studied other things in school … art and design subjects I found I had a knack for doing. I earned a BA in design … and looked for work. Anything creative, I told myself.

Everyone then told me, “All you can do with a degree like that is teach.” I would shudder when they said it.

However, I was fortunate and found creative work in ad agencies. I was even luckier to discover I was reasonably good at it. I got to design ads and write copy.

I got married, started a family, went back to school to earn an MBA and then secured a nice position on the public relations staff of a Fortune 10 company, where I got to write standard PR press releases, as well as proofread and print the things others had written … whoopee.

But the fiction writing bug had already infected me … big time. I kept on writing and submitting short stories while I worked to earn the money that paid the bills.

A Voracious Reader
I also read in almost every spare moment. I read everything. I read both for the stories themselves, and to discover how other writers created worlds so believable with their words, and drew readers into them so thoroughly, they couldn’t put the book down.

I even read in precious lulls when I was supposed to be doing other things, teaching myself to speed-read so I had time for it all.

And I wrote. Constantly. During tedious work meetings. At lunch. When I was supposed to be paying bills in the evening. I’d dig-in my heels and write when bed was calling and I hadn’t slept for twenty hours.

I kept writing … and reading, and getting up the next morning to do it all over again.

Then, in early 2008, I was forced into early retirement from the nine-to-whenever routine I’d followed for my entire working life. I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have any option. Most of the people around me lost their jobs too, less than eight months later.

I looked briefly for other creative work that wasn’t there, cursed the financial institutions that had caused the new recession and started writing again, full-time.

That’s when I discovered traditional publishers wouldn’t even talk to you without an agent. I also discovered how difficult securing one could be … and how long it could take.

Lucky Again
I didn’t feel like I had that much time to search and wait, so I decided to self-publish and join the rapidly growing indie-author movement. Then, just as I’d done when I discovered the beautiful woman who became my wife, I got lucky again.

My Beautiful Bride

Four short years after my “retirement” my first novel, REICHOLD STREET, became a 2012 Readers Favorite Gold Medal Winner.

In 2013, my collection of short stories ZEBULON, was selected as the Readers Favorite Silver Medal Winner in Young Adult Fantasy.

I’ve also published another collection of general fiction short stories called TINKER … and I’m hard at work on a sequel to my award-winning novel.

I’ve spoken at a writing conference, had a write-up in two local papers, been mentioned in Publishers Weekly, and even have a high school in Florida where the creative writing teacher is trying to get REICHOLD STREET designated as required reading.

On January 25, 2014, I will be at the Michigan Book Boutique, in Waterford, Michigan, doing a book signing.

Not too bad, for an “old guy.”

All this is why I can confidently say to every indie author out there you should never let anyone steal your dream. Work at it … work hard. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.

Dreams are meant to be lived.

Tags:award-winning author, award-winning writing, indie writers, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Independent Publishing, Self-Published | 2 Comments »

Why Should We Learn to Listen?

December 13, 2013

As we start counting down to the Christmas and New Year holidays, I’ve been thinking about when I first began my journey as a writer. I was seventeen and the first short story I wrote and sent to a publisher was full of the eagerness of youth (and, thankfully, it was lost long ago).

Unfortunately, it was also full of clichés and trite plot points … and more than a few outright “groaners” for dialogue. In my eagerness to write stories and send them out into the world I neglected one very important thing: building a credible story.

My eagerness was met with rejections – lots of them.

I needed to become not only a better writer, but a better storyteller to get anyone to want to read what I had written, and that meant revisions on top of revisions. But, in order to know how to revise my writing, I had to learn to listen.

Listen to Your Critique Group
Every author’s got them. Beta readers. These are the folks we always let see our work long before anyone else does. Indie authors may have more than most, because we have such a need for – even though we don’t always want – constructive feedback.

I’ve been fortunate to have some wonderful people in my life who never fail to give me honest criticism. Their comments aren’t meant to soothe my ego. They’re meant to help me write.

For instance, long ago I listened when they told me my character descriptions were either too short, or too detailed, long and boring. They said I either left everything or absolutely nothing to their imaginations and, as a result, they couldn’t relate to any of the characters in my stories.

I also had an early reader tell me “Nobody talks that way” when they were commenting on my dialogue. Listening to their feedback made me dig deeper to make my descriptions, and the conversations of my characters, more succinct and believable.

I also heard them say “you don’t let me see the story … because you’re constantly telling me what I should be seeing.” So I borrowed the advice repeated in Stephen King’s book “On Writing” and got rid of the useless adverbs cluttering the pages.

Last year, one of the Readers Favorite reviewers made this comment about some of my recent work: “Herron is a master of the art of character development.” Another commented that my “characters come to life on the pages.”

I owe those positive comments not only to decades of practice, but to some of that earliest feedback. It keeps me focused and I will always be grateful I paid attention.

Listen to Other Authors
If you want to write a mystery series, it helps to be a fan of mysteries. Most writers know that writing begins with reading, but some don’t actually take it to heart, and many don’t realize you need to do it the proper way.

To learn, you can’t just read it as a general reader would. You have to read it as a writer and really “listen” to the way that particular author tells the story. Listen not only to the words, but the phrasing, the meter and tempo.

If you find it enjoyable to the point of suspending belief in the real world while you’re engrossed in it, then go to your own stories and see if they sound the same way to you. It might help you see if your story is falling short.

Listen to Yourself
As you’re learning and taking advice from many sources, don’t forget to be true to yourself. You don’t always have to take everyone’s suggestions. Sometimes it’s the right thing to do to stand your ground and defend what you’ve written.

But remember, standing your ground about anything you’ve written can only be done properly if you’ve first taken the time to really listen to what people have been saying.

Listen to Reviews
When your book is finally published, whether traditionally or indie, lots of people will have lots of things to say about it. Some may be good. You can usually count on some of your friends for that, even if they’re stretching the truth.

Some may be not so good. Most of your detractors, and a few real friends, will fall into that group. Listen to them all and glean what you can from it. Use every bit of feedback as a learning experience for your next project.

Don’t be overly enthused by good comments, and don’t be distressed by negative ones. The reviews of your present book will teach you things that will make your next book even better.

Finding the Best Beta Readers
Being forced to rewrite what you’ve struggled to write can be painful at times, but it’s the only way your writing will ever improve. If you don’t already have a good supply of beta readers, look to your writer friends. Network with them and offer your help and support.

Making friends with other writers (and readers) is a long-term investment in your writing career.

The best way to approach people is to make genuine friendships. Don’t “check them out” to see if they might make a good beta reader, or help in some other way, before you make friends. People can tell if you’re using them.

The Best Advice I Ever Received
Be patient and generous. Help others if you have the skill and time, even if they might never be able to pay you back. That has value in and of itself.

Trust me … it’s a worthwhile thing to do, it can make you feel good and lift your spirits. And sometimes the most surprising things come back to you, in a good way, well into the future.

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Coming Soon! An interview with indie author M.S. Fowle!