Writing 101: Firing Chekhov's Gun

In the first Harry Potter book, Hermione uses a spell to open a door. This same spell must be used later when the famous trio is searching for the Sorcerer's Stone. This is an example of Chekhov's gun. If you add one to your book, you'd better darn well be ready to fire that gun. At least, that's what Anton says.

Bang!

No, I'm not just talking gibberish. I'm talking about a quote from Anton Chekhov, considered by many literary experts to be one of the greatest short story writers in the world. Here's what he says:

"Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

Finding Hope's

"This is a story of sweet innocence, deep friendships, heart-warming romance, fearful-yet-fearless bravery, coming-of-age, belief in a better future, tear-jerking, oh-my-godding brilliance."

"She weaves her tale in such a way as to make you forget anything else that might be going on your life and you are inextricably drawn into the world she has crafted around our three friends, yes, they will become your friends too."

Read the newest review of Hope's Rebellion at Goodreads! And don't forget to visit the book's page here at the blog to find out where you can get a copy.

Writing 101: Do You Infodump?

Have you ever, in your entire lifetime, managed to overhear an incredibly important conversation between two evildoers whose words just happen to totally unravel the big mystery you've been secretly solving? No that's never happened to you? It happens in books all the time. And when it does, it usually occurs as an infodump. Lots of writers do it. Do you, too? 

Here's the Information You Need

The overheard conversation is just one example of infodumping. A much better one is the monologue, which is very frequently used for this purpose. You know how in the cheesy adventure movie the villain finally captures the hero and then the villain, instead of killing the hero, goes into a lengthy explanation of all his motives so that the hero can marvel at his cleverness? This is infodumping. It's giving the reader, or viewer as the case may be, a ton of data that explains various plot points which have occurred throughout the story.

And it is often quite tedious. Everyone likes dialogue when it's realistic, but most people don't want to read huge blocks of dialogue when it ought to be a narrative instead. Infodumping is an easy way to reveal certain facts about the plot, and some critics will say that it's too easy. In books, events should unfold naturally in order to maintain realism. When characters overhear shady conversations or have the luck of being treated to lengthy monologues, it tends to ring a little false.

Writing 101: Historical Figures

If you're writing a period piece, you have to really put your characters in their time frame. You have to know about the music, books and politics of the day. And you might be writing a story that takes place hundreds of years before anyone you know was ever born. So under those circumstances, is it all right to use historical figures in your fiction? 

Expiration Dates

Anything ever written by Jane Austen can be purchased for free by you today. Any publishing company can print out copies of Jane Austen books, and they don't have to pay anybody any royalties for what they sell. It's because Jane Austen has been dead for so long that all her copyrights have now expired. Anyone can publish and use her books for free these days. 

So what's the expiration date on a personality? If Jane Austen's copyrights are expired, does that mean that I can make her a character in my newest book? 

Writing 101: Tweeting About Your Books

As an indie author, you might spend more time tweeting about your books than actually writing them. Social media is your best avenue for marketing, and Twitter is an incredibly popular social media site. But tweeting about your books isn't easy...because you've got to figure out what to tweet about.

This Space for Rent

You can't tweet "buy this book" all day long, because who's going to click on that? You tweet something like that all the time, and you'll just get a bunch of people who unfollow you all the time. If you really want people to buy your books, you've got to use your tweets to make a case for yourself.

And you need to a spanking good job, too...because you've got a very limited amount of space.

Writing 101: Selling In-Between Books

The self-publishing game moves pretty quickly. Bowker statistics show that around 391,000 self-published titles were published in 2012 alone. Since 2007, self-publishing as an industry has increased by a mind-boggling 422 percent. So if you want to stay in the game, you have to publish frequently. There's just one problem: it takes a long time to write a book. But you can still stay in the game. Start selling in-between books.

On Again, Off Again

Indies have to play the perfectionist game. You'll spend more time editing than you spent writing the darn book, and lots of editing is second-guessing and fact-checking and plot-managing (and, if you're like me, frustration). Factor into this the fact that you have a day job, and time starts to get pretty short. Let's not forget that you are also human, and must spend time eating, sleeping and not working (because if you don't relax a little you're no good as as a writer). 

When all these factors come together, it's really not easy to publish new titles frequently. Books take time, and lots of indie authors don't have a lot of time. So you end up defeating yourself before you can even really get in the game. You have to publish often to keep selling often, but you haven't got the time to write often. Don't give up just yet. There are ways to start selling, even when you're in-between books.

Writing 101: Asking for Reviews

Indie authors have to promote their books all the time. They spend time on social media, they browse forums, they blog. But as an indie author, you should also be asking for reviews -- every chance you get.

Soliciting

Indies have to court the book bloggers, and it's a great way to get reviews. Keep sending your requests out every week. Keep using forums to find potential reviewers and swap opportunities,  if you do swapping. But don't stop there. If you want to get reviews, start asking for them:

Writing 101: There Is vs. There Are

Figuring out the correct use of the word there gets confusing enough, but when you start adding verbs it can become a grammatical nightmare. Do you know how to use there is and there are the correct way? Don't answer too fast. I thought I knew how to use them, too, until I caught myself making the same mistake over and over again. 

To Be or Not to Be

Why is it so hard to know the difference between there is and there are? For starters, is and are are both forms of the same irregular verb, and nothing's worse than irregular verbs. They're both forms of the verb to be. For example, I might say that Sheila is pretty, or that We are polite. Both sentences use a form of be (Sheila be pretty; We be polite). 

Confused yet? If you weren't confused about there is and there are before this post, you probably are now so my job is half done already. But I'm also going to get it all cleared up.