Writing 101: Easing Into It

It's very dramatic to kill a character suddenly, or allow raeaders to walk in on a cheating husband. Many authors write moments like this in order to provoke an emotional reacion. But your readers aren't going to buy it unless you're easing into it. Abrupt plot turns need to have some backstory. Otherwise, readers just aren't going to care. 

Slowing Down

You're writing a story about Beatrice and her friend Ursula. But if you kill Beatrice in the first four pages of text,  what do I care? I barely had time to meet her before she was suddenly gone. If the remainder of the story is all about Beatrice's loss, I'm not really going to identify because I'm not feeling the pain of that loss. In other words, I won't like that story. 

There is merit in slowing down and setting the stage, something that many great writers do before they introduce too much action and plot. Show me some scenes with Beatrice before you take her away. Show her doing something admirable, or intriguing. Get me interested in that character and invested in that character, and then yank the rug out from under my feet. Otherwise, I won't feel the impact of that big moment. 

You want to make an impact with your words. Do it properly by setting the stage and letting the reader establish some feelings before you throw them into the meat of the story. Easing into it is a delicate art form, but once mastered you'll be able to jerk those heartstrings much more successfully.

Writing 101: Retaliation

Ever given someone a not-so-glowing review? Ever had that come back to you in equal, or even greater, measure? The indie author community is a close-knit bunch of folks that do a lot of interacting with each other...but artists do tend to be a little touchy. You too could be a victim of indie author retaliation. 

Spite

I'm a big advocate for the indie author community as a whole. Self-published authors need each other, and honestly if you're doing it right you're going to interact with them anyway. You'll bump into them in forum groups, on Twitter, and you'll find them commenting on your blog. 

And you're not going to become BFF with every last one of them, because this is not summer camp. Even worse, if you start reading books by other indie authors (and chances are, you will) you're going to discover that some of them just don't suit your particular reading tastes. You're not going to enjoy every single self-published book you read. If you're honest about those feelings (and I believe you should always be honest), you may face retaliation. 

One-star reviews may appear out of nowhere, comments that belittle you may suddenly crop up...you might even get a rage-filled email accusing you of pretty much everything except being a Republican. It's going to hurt your feelings, because that's the point. You hurt their feelings...by being honest. This doesn't make sense, I know. When you're a  professional, you know that you aren't going to please all the readers all the time. You know that you may face comments and criticism that sting a little, and you know you've got to simply absorb that information, use it however you can, and write the next line. You'll get 'em next time.

But every indie author you meet isn't going to have this attitude. Some indie authors think they are geniuses, their words so brilliant and perfect they can do absolutely no wrong. You are wrong for not liking their work. You are wrong for being critical (even if your mission was to review their work and therefore, to be critical). And by Jove, you are now the one who's going to hurt.

This is the path to retaliation, and believe it or not it's pretty easy to walk. It beckons and it calls, and it traps many different indie authors and in some cases, their friends and supporters. You may not be attacked by the author in question, but by one of their network of fans/friends/whatever.

It may never happen, but if you dish out reviews then it's probably going to happen in some form or fashion. When feelings are hurt, people tend to lash out. And as a professional, you're just going to have to absorb it. Look at the bad reviews and the ugly comments, and feel sad about them. Cry if you like. And then shove it away from you...and write the next line. 

As an author, that's just what you do. Don't ever retaliate against one of your fellow authors, or anyone really. Stay professional, stay cool, and they'll end up leaving you alone. If you react to their reaction, it could lead to a full-blown war...and who's got the time?

Writing 101: Publicity Stunts

What's the craziest marketing idea you ever had? A few years back, I launched a one-woman email campaign under an assumed name in an attempt to get a certain right-wing, conservative talk radio host to publicly denounce a book I wrote (under a different pen name, in a former life). I happen to believe that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, and there's an entire school of thought that controversy sells books...but I digress. The point is, I'm not above at least attempting a publicity stunt (because my campaign didn't work, FYI)...and you shouldn't be, either. 

Hanging Upside-Down from a Building

I saw this movie about Houdini once. It was based on his life (they call that a biopic) and it really wasn't very good (it had everything to do with the actor that played Houdini, whom I won't name). But I do remember this one thing about it quite distinctly: he was a master of the publicity stunt. Houdini resorted to all sorts of stuff in order to get attention for his feats of daring magic-do, and it worked. He had himself locked inside jail cells, punched in the gut, tossed into bags...and once, in Las Vegas, he put himself in a straight jacket and hung upside-down from a truly eye-popping height.

Suspended above one of the city's tallest buildings, Houdini hung there...until he started to draw an enormous crowd. This is how he introduced himself to the city. And whether you care for his tactics or not, you've got to admit that he did something right -- because you've probably heard the name Houdini before you ever found this blog. The man died almost 9 decades ago, and you still know his name. 

That's good marketing. Publicity stunts are a fantastic way to get lots of attention very quickly, but you have to tread lightly. Writing inflammatory (and fake) emails is one thing, but publicity stunts of Houdini's ilk are life-threatening (go back and read that again: life-threatening). So if you're going to pull a publicity stunt, please come up with one that couldn't possibly cause you or any bystanders any injury. If there is any risk or danger involved whatsoever, take all necessary safety precautions. 

I should probably also caution you not to break the law, though in some of my crazier moments I've often thought that even a jail term is negligible. But seriously, don't break the law and don't implicate me if you do. I am not advocating in any way that any authors go out and break laws in order to gain publicity.

However, I do condone a perfectly legal and relatively harmless publicity stunt. There are lots of good examples of safe, legal stunts. The most famous publicity stunt ever just may be the Boston Tea Party, but please don't go declare war to sell some books.

Ever heard of the Tour de France? A French newspaper organized the first one, back in 1903, to get more readers. It worked, by the way. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was also a PR stunt for the department store, back in 1924. In 1999, 11 UK ladies from the Women's Institute posed nude to raise money for charity. They cleverly used flowers and bakery items to hide the more R-rated areas of their anatomy, and got so much attention it even inspired a film.

And in the UK, a student glued himself to a billboard for a book promotion. Publicity stunts can work sometimes, and sometimes they fail. The beauty of a really good publicity stunt, however, is that even a failure can be a success because they may get media attention, too. By the way, I don't think you should glue yourself to a billboard.

Writing 101: How To Make Readers Visualize

Break it down to the basics, and writing is simply this: painting a picture with words. You have to use 26 letters, repeated in millions of different patterns, to make someone else picture exactly what you want them to see. That makes you a little bit insane, really. You've set yourself to an extremely ambitious and difficult task. But if you break it down to basics, there are a few tricks you can master to make painting with that word brush a little bit easier. 

Do You See What I See?

Picture me standing next to a tree. You're going to come up with an image of me, and an image of a tree, based upon your own experiences. If you're from the Pacific Northwest, you might be seeing a towering redwood in your mind's eye. Someone from the southern US may conjure up an image of a drooping weeping willow, or a fragrant magnolia. 

So maybe I ought to tell you to picture me standing next to an elm tree. If you've never seen an elm, you aren't going to be able to draw a clear image. So now I've got to tell you the elm is tall and slender, with a straight trunk covered in grayish bark. 

Is that picture getting a bit more clear? That's the first thing to remember: if you're going to draw a picture, draw a complete one. Give me enough details, as a reader, to fill in the details. The more clearly I can see that picture, the more deeply I'm involved with your story. 

• Make comparisons: Give readers a frame of reference when needed. Lot of people have never seen caviar, an expensive delicacy. So tell people it looks like shiny little black marbles, only about one-tenth the size. Most people have seen marbles. 
• Add color: Don't ever forget to include colors. Tell people to envision a girl and they will. Tell people to envision a girl with flaming red hair, and now you're in control of the scene.
• Include background: I can picture a red-haired girl floating in a white space, but it's going to feel much more real if you tell me to see her in a wide, flat meadow filled with small, white flowers. Include background, and paint a clearer picture.

Make your reader visualize, and you'll make them like your writing much more. Authors have to paint with words -- a monumental feat, to be sure, but not an impossible one.

Writing 101: Stop Being Humble

When you're an indie author, you have to be your own publisher, literary agent and biggest fan. In other words, stop being humble. You are an amazing writer and anyone who isn't reading your book is totally missing out. Remember that. Write it down if needed. Keep it close by...and when all else fails, just pretend. Because if you're going to promote yourself, you have to be capable of selling yourself. 

Buy Me

You don't have to convince readers to buy your books, whatever they're about. You have to convince readers to buy you as an author. That's the real secret to selling books. So first things first: convince yourself that you are awesome. If you can't do that, you certainly can't convince anybody else. 

Fooling yourself is an important part of being an indie author. But there's no reason to be ridiculous about it. Read and re-read your book. Check it, double check it, triple check it for errors. Make sure there are no plot holes or glaring grammar mistakes, no crazy punctuation and no excessive junk you don't really need. Once you feel comfortable that you have done the best you possibly can, there's no reason not to get out there and start marketing yourself and your work with absolutely everything you've got.

Now's the time to drop all pretense of being humble. Tell everyone about your book, and that it's great. Write down a few short, concise sentences that sum up what your book is all about. Repeat them, memorize them, and use them when people ask (and even if they don't).

Tweet about your book...every single day. Write Facebook updates about it. Blog about it. Guest blog about it. Look for book review sites, and sell it to them -- at least once a week. Post excerpts of it. Find Goodreads forums where you're allowed to talk about it. Give the damn thing away, always reminding everyone how fabulous it is. Once you get some reviews, make a list of all the good quotes and share them all over the place -- with a link back to the book, of course.

And meanwhile, conduct yourself like a professional author. You are always selling yourself as an author with everything you put out there, and you should always be in a mindset that you are an amazing one.

Writing 101: Don't Describe Too Much

I'm not too sure how it happened, but I started reading one of my really old books the other day. Predictably, I was quite appalled by what I saw. One of the many things I've learned is this: every single thing does not need to be described.

Adding Adjectives

What does that mean? Aren't writers supposed to be descriptive, paint pictures, put their readers in the middle of the action? Yes, to all of it. But there is such as thing as too many descriptive words. Let me give you an example of the type of stuff I've been reading in the past week: 

"It looks like rain," she said quickly, glancing to her left at Lola. 

Lola hurriedly rushed to the window, peeling back one side of the drapes to press her nose close to the glass. "It does!" She cried excitedly, turning to look over her shoulder at Dev. "It really does!" She added with a big smile. 

Bad, right? Felt like it was sort of dragging you along, didn't it? Let's eliminate some of those unnecessary descriptive words and see what happens: 

"It looks like rain," she said, glancing at Lola. 

Lola rushed to the window, peeling back one side of the drapes to press her nose close to the glass. "It does!" She cried, turning to look at Dev. "It really does!" She added with a big smile. 

When you use too many descriptive words, you may sometimes unintentionally repeat yourself. Excessive words also make the text feel clunky. In the example above, hurriedly rushed, for instance, is redundant. Clearly she's hurrying if she's rushing, so you don't need that descriptor.

Read your words more carefully, and remember that more isn't always more. Eliminate what you don't need to make your work more streamlined and easier to read. You want the writing to flow, and readers to turn the pages quickly because they're captivated by the story. It's impossible to be captivated if you've got too many words getting in the way.

Writing 101: Targeting Your Marketing

They say that being successful as an indie author requires spending a lot more time on promotion than on actual writing. But if you're just throwing stuff out there at random, you're not doing a whole lot of good. First, you've got to figure out where your target audience is. Then, you've got to actually target them. 

Ready, Aim, Fire

It's a lot like playing basketball. If you close your eyes and start chucking balls in the general direction of the basket, sure a few of them will go in. But if you open your eyes and actually aim at the center of the target, it's likely that you'll land even more of them. Targeted marketing just makes sense, and it will save you time that you can spend on actual writing.

• Define your age group. The first step in targeted marketing is defining the age group that would be most interested in your books. This is really easy for some genres, like children's and YA. You already know who you're writing for. When you write other types of books, however, it gets tricky. Romance novels can appeal to people of all ages, but women in their thirties and forties buy the bulk of romance novels. Scifi novels are largely read by people in their teens, twenties and thirties. Look at demographics and data specific to your genre, and get a better idea about who's most likely to purchase your books. 
• Define your gender. Both men and women read books, but they're largely drawn to different genres. Women overwhelmingly buy romance novels, as compared to men, for example. When you start thinking about gender, you can start getting really specific and figure out that teenaged girls are likely to be the most interested in your YA paranormal romance, for instance.
• Find your market. So now you know more about who your audience is. The next big step in targeting your marketing? Finding them. Where are these people? If you're spitting a bunch of links out on Twitter all day and your books are most appealing to college-educated divorcees, you're wasting a ton of time because Twitter is largely populated by teens and twenty-somethings. Facebook is more appropriate if you're looking for people who are a little bit older. Look up information about your target demographic. Find out which websites they like, what activities interest them and what sort of blogs they read. Once you figure this out, you'll know where to spend the bulk of your promotional efforts. 

Targeting your marketing is the best way to connect directly with your audience. Focus your promotional efforts, and you'll see much bigger results from your hard work.

Writing 101: When Fiction Writers Use Brackets

The Internet has totally blurred, if not altogether obliterated, the lines of good punctuation. Now, people are using punctuation to make little faces at the end of the sentences. This is not the use for which punctuation was originally intended, and it's darn confusing. Maybe that's why it's so difficult to know when to use brackets in fiction writing. It's almost never okay for authors to do so...even when you're writing about what happens on the Internet. 

Thou Shalt Not Use Brackets

Brackets are not a parenthesis...they're the more twisted cousin. While parentheses have gently curving lines, brackets have hard edges. That's to remind you that they're used only in the most extreme of circumstances. In fiction, they're used almost ever.

In other types of writing, brackets can be used for a handful of different reasons. 

• Math: In some complicated mathematical problems, brackets are used to show specific number groups or functions or what-have-you.
• HTML: Look at an HTML how-to anything online, and you're likely to see brackets. They're commonly used to show how the code is written.
• Quotations: Brackets are found in online articles and other pieces that contain quotes. When a word needs to be added or a pronoun needs to be changed to a proper noun, the word is put inside brackets.
• Direct address: The direct address is the only time you're likely to see brackets in fiction writing. As the name would suggest, this is when the author directly addresses the reader with the words inside the brackets. This by no means requires that you have an entire conversation with the reader. It's usually one to three words at most. It's always done to clarify or emphasize. Example: "Bob and Hugo stared on in shock. He [Hugo] decided to open the umbrella."

Fiction writing doesn't necessarily need brackets, because there are much better ways to clarify what you mean. Using them can help streamline and save time where otherwise a long explanation may be required. Brackets definitely have their place, but like any good punctuation they have to be used sparingly and correctly. Use too many, and it will just become disruptive.