Writing 101: Getting Ahead of Yourself

Which comes first: the cover or the final draft? When I write, sometimes I'll start thinking pretty far ahead -- not just about this story, but maybe even about the next story I'm going to write. I've learned that lots of other authors do the same thing. And like me, they have to stop it from happening. Getting ahead of yourself can be harmful to your writing.

 Fast Track

Don't get too far ahead of yourself when you're writing a book, because it gets overwhelming. If you start thinking about the cover and the marketing and the blurb while you're still writing the first draft, you're doing too much. Focus on the story itself, and get that perfected first.

Take it one chapter, one page, one paragraph at a time -- don't start thinking about the cover and all of that until the first draft is finished. Because if you start getting too far ahead of yourself, you may start to feel pressured. You may start to rush the story, because you're already so far ahead of it already. You can't live in the future, you can only live in the now...so focus on where you are now. 

Get the story perfected and then start filling in the details, because you don't have to get it published right away. Take your time with every aspect of the story and plan it out carefully. Don't be in a rush to go fast, because that results in lower-quality work.

Indie News: Slow Sales? You Aren't the Only One

If your book sales took a dive over the summer months, not to worry: this is often the case with indie authors. Now that the weather is edging ever-so-slowly toward fall, you should see a rise in your profits. 

Summer Reading

People read less in the summer, particularly children (this makes things difficult for YA and children's book authors). Everyone's getting outside and going on vacation, enjoying the interesting summer TV programming and working on their tan lines. It leaves little time for reading. 

Books have natural peak times and slow times, and it's common for sales to become a little lethargic during the summer months. But the holiday season will soon be upon us, and that's the best time to sell books. So use this slow period to work on your marketing strategy, and make up for it.

Books on Film: Sphere

We're entering the month of fear and fright, chills and thrills. What better way to celebrate it than with a scary book? But be careful if you choose to explore the world of Sphere -- the movie adaptation is scary in all the worst ways.

The Book

Michael Crichton published Sphere in 1987, but it's still terrifying today. The book begins with psychologist Norman Johnson, who is just beginning to get a little grumpy as he edges into the outskirts of old age. He's being flown to a classified location by the Navy, and so far they aren't telling him anything. When he reaches a full-scale military operation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and he's told they've discovered an alien spacecraft...well, Norman pretty much wishes they had decided not to tell him anything at all.

The spacecraft has been there for a while. Judging by the coral, it's been in place for over 300 years. Norman is only one part of an elite task force that has been assembled to investigate. The rest of the team includes mathematician Harry Adams, biologist Beth Halpern and astrophysicist Ted Fielding. Norman soon realizes that this is the exact team that he put together in a report he was asked to write years and years ago by the government. Norman was tasked with creating a plan if and when alien life was discovered on Earth.

When he wrote the report, Norman thought it was a joke. Now, on a Navy vessel with his team and a crew of soldiers he realizes that this is no joke. It's definitely not a joke when they're all put on a submarine and taken to the bottom of the Pacific in order to study and explore the spacecraft.

 During the mission, they learn that the spaceship isn't alien after all...it was built by Americans. It's not a spaceship, not really, but a timeship that was (one assumes) accidentally sent back to the wrong time. But on board the ship, there is definitely something of alien origin. 

It's a sphere.

By the way, there's a storm topside (that means above the water) and the submarine has lost all communication with their support up above. The team of scientists has decided to focus on the sphere. They attempt communication with it, and Harry eventually uses his math skills to find a way inside. 

Very strange things begin to happen, and the sphere begins to exhibit a very distinct personality. It puts all of Norman's skills to the test to manage the truculent sphere and the increasingly stressed-out team of experts.

Things get really scary and really interesting, and the book is definitely worth your time. The movie...is a bit of a different story.

The Film

The book became a film in 1998, with Dustin Hoffman starring as Norman Johnson (Goodman on film), Samuel L. Jackson as Harry and Sharon Stone as Beth. It was an utter flop, and the critics hated it, too.  It earned around $37 million at the box office, far below the $80 million budget.

Yeah, the studio poured a ton of money into the film. They hired the best actors they could get. And they chose an excellent source of material to create a story. So why is this film so very bad? 

The special effects are good, but somehow the roles never quite fit the actors. Hoffman isn't methodical enough to be Norman, Jackson is too angry to be Harry, and Sharon Stone is sort of just...there. Too much quick dialogue pull and push the viewer through the plot, instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally.

And that's only part of the problem.

What Got Adapted?

Sphere as a movie didn't follow the book too well. Where the book exposes many of Norman's inner thoughts, the movie jumps from perspective to perspective to confuse the narrative. Many events are changed or eliminated, and some characters are removed before their time should come. Many, many writers have called this movie one of the worst adaptations ever...so think about that before you take the plunge and watch it.

Writing 101: Twist Ending

Nothing affects you quite like a truly great twist ending. Famous examples include Shutter Island, Fight Club and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. But nothing is quite as infuriating as a twist ending done badly. You're the author, so the ending isn't supposed to surprise you...so how do you know when your ending is a surprise to someone else? 

Surprise!

Twist endings, by definition, completely change the plot of the story. They come as a surprise. Something unexpected happens, and everything is different. This can be done for dramatic or comedic effect...and it can be done poorly either way, too. 

Bad twist endings can appear pretty much anywhere, and you can blame all sorts of culprits. It's much easier to learn how to recognize the elements that make a twist ending good, because lots of stuff can make it bad. 

• Logic. Good twist endings don't ignore logic. If I read your book for 300 pages and I'm trying to figure out whether the girl and the guy will end up together or if the mean ex-girlfriend and stepmother will be successful in their plot to unhinge the romance and all of a sudden a serial killer with a chainsaw comes along and kills everyone and there's been no previous reference to a chainsaw killer in the book...well, I'm not going to write you a very nice review. Crazy serial killer is a twist ending, but when it's totally random it is not a good one.
• Reveal. A really juicy twist ending often reveals some new piece of information about a character that was kept secret for the whole of the book (until now). Revealing that the main character is actually a woman disguised as a man and she's the one who was having the affair with Steve -- not Carol, who was killed for the aforementioned affair in Chapter 2 -- is an example of this technique. 
• New development. The new development is a classic type of twist ending. A letter arrives in the mail, a rich relative dies, someone gets killed -- some brand-new plot happens that completely changes someone's circumstances. This is a tricky method, because you have to maintain the logic. The relative must be mentioned in the book, the victim must be introduced early...it has to make sense. 
• Really? It's hard to do this, but shock and awe can also be used as a twist ending. Unexpectedly killing the main character (or several characters) will leave readers with their mouths hanging open. A catastrophic event is certainly a memorable ending, but make sure it brings some resolution. You have to provide satisfaction when you dole out chaos. 

After you write your twist ending, run it through a couple of beta readers to see how they feel about it. Read it yourself, and check for the elements that make endings good. A well-done twist ending will leave readers feeling something about your book, and that's a good way to leave them.

Writing 101: Writing the Title

In some cases, writing the title can be the hardest part of writing the whole book. I know this to be true, because I worked on a book for about 10 months before giving it any sort of title at all (and I later rejected it). This is why I wait to announce my titles. So what should you do if you find yourself in a similar place...and can't seem to get around to writing the title? 

What's in a Name? 

The importance of the book title cannot be overestimated. It's the first (and sometimes only) thing readers notice. The title has to grab them and interest them, or they won't take a look at the blurb. If they don't read the blurb, you don't make the sale...and that all starts with the title.

It's okay to take a long time to figure out what the title of your book should be, though I've read some author tips where experts tell you to title your project right away. Don't do this unless you get struck by inspiration and you're certain this is the title for you. Some book titles don't reveal themselves until the very end of the book (which was the case with my current project) and that's fine because you can't publish before you're finished anyway.

But sometimes, inspiration doesn't strike. When a title just isn't coming to you, it might be necessary to jog your creativity a little.

• Word list. Make a list of words that you might use to describe your book. Anything that comes to mind is okay -- nothing is off-limits when you brainstorm. Keep going until you run out of words, then sit back and look at your list. As you explore your words, something might leap out at you. 
• Expand. If you have a handful of good words that fit, but none that are really shouting at you, it's time to expand. Take the best words from your list and look them up in your favorite thesaurus (or two or three). Write down any new words that strike your fancy. 
• Name game. Using the words you've got, just start throwing dummy titles together. Come up with 5 or so and start playing with them. With some tweaking, you may write something perfect.

When all else fails, turn the title into a promotional event. Release a well-polished excerpt and your book blurb and stage a contest that allows fans to choose the title for your book. This is risky, but it can give you a decent marking boost and help you solve your titling problem, to boot. Include a note of thanks to the fans who named the book in the dedication or the Author's Note, and make it part of the book's history.

Writing the title can be one of the hardest parts of being an author. Keep working at it until you come up with something that you love, and don't rush the process. If you take your time, you'll craft the perfect title.

Writing 101: Don't Be Trendy

If you wrote a book about wizards when Harry Potter came out, a vampire story when Twilight became a movie and a dystopian action drama most recently, you're not a slave to inspiration...you're being way too trendy. Authors are terminally uncool...so it's really just best not to try to keep up with the tide of public favor. 

I'm a Barbie Girl

Everyone loves a fad, and I'm no exception. I turn certain movies into full-blown events. I consider myself to be pretty fashionable and trendy...but I don't try to follow book trends. For one thing, they come and go too quickly. By the time I started considering writing a book about wizardry, Twilight was already the next big thing. And before I even had the chance to consider writing a vampire book, it was all about The Hunger Games. 

But even that isn't a good enough reason not to follow trends. You only really need one: you should be writing what you want to write. If you've ever started a novel, grown bored and started four more different novels, you know what I mean. When you have a story that's just aching to be told, you can hardly stop writing -- or thinking about it. If you're only writing something because it's trendy, you aren't writing at your best...or with your whole heart.

So ignore the trends in books, and stick to the trends in fashion (like me). This will help you design more attractive book covers, which is really the only literary trend you ought to bother following at all.

Writing 101: Loneliness

When you write, you're doing it alone. It follows that if you can't embrace loneliness...you can't really be a writer.

My World

There are times when the world is only me and the screen right in front of me, a scrolling marquee of black text that just keeps getting longer and longer with each new thought that enters my head. Writing is a very self-involved experience. The real world goes away as you sink deeper and deeper into the one you're creating.

And that gets lonely. As a writer, you can get lonely even if you're writing in a room surrounded by people. It's just you and the screen. Sometimes, that's great. You're in the zone and you're typing and it's all flowing well. Other times, it's terrifying. The white screen is staring at you, mocking you, taunting you.

You are alone with the screen. You're on your own with the plot, the characters, every twist and turn. Perhaps you have someone to bounce your ideas off of, but only you really understand the world you're writing. Only you do the typing, the editing, the agonizing and the imagining. 

That's lonely. There are going to be times when you drive yourself a little crazy. Doing great writing means being isolated, totally within your own head and totally living on the page. The rest of the world fades away. So remember to step outside of that space every once in a while. Make an effort to connect with real humans (not just Twitter followers) and get away from work to have fun. 

Indie News: New eBook Store Broadens Indie Market

Amazon, B&N and lots of traditional booksellers have opened the door for indie authors to publish and market their work...but in these bookstores, indies have to compete with traditionally-published authors. Libiro, a new ebook store, will allow indies to enjoy more even odds.

Knocking Down the Door

Libiro was created by self-published author Ben Galley and Teague Fullick, a designer.  The website "devotes its shelf-space entirely to self-published and small press titles," Galley told Forbes.

Galley wants to eliminate the stigma that surrounds self-published books "because it simply isn't true. Libiro, being a purely indie store, can showcase the indie market...We want to create our own bestsellers."

And for authors who want to publish on the site, there's another perk: 80 percent royalty. Regardless of your book's length or price, this is the standard.

The store is pretty new, and still rough around the edges. Users are saying they don't get enough analytical data regarding their book sales, and Galley admits they've still got work to do. For now, he says, they're focusing on providing readers with a large selection of books.