Writing 101: If You Can't Take the Criticism...

 As a self-published author, you have to go out and actively seek reviews if you want to get them. It takes a lot of work, maybe a little bit of deal-making, some letter-polishing and plenty of time. And if you can't take the criticism, you might as well not waste it...not yours, or mine. 

You Asked For It 

Before you actually ask someone to review your work, make sure you're prepared to hear it. Some authors absolutely want to get reviews for their books...provided those reviews are filled with praise. Others react quite poorly upon getting any sort of less positive feedback, and don't at all want to absorb criticism in any way. 

There are a whole lot of reasons why you simply can't have this attitude. Even if you didn't ask the reviewer for a review specifically, even if it's just a random Amazon reviewer whom you can't track, you have to be prepared to absorb their comments in a healthy and productive way. The very second that you put your work out there for others to read, you're opening the door to criticism whether you go out and seek it or not. So whatever they say, you owe it to yourself to pay attention...no matter how painful it might be. 

Time to Get Tough

If you haven't already had the sensitivity beaten out of you by the time you've decided to self-publish, I'm sorry. You're about to have some pretty ego-pounding experiences. Many indie authors have already been rejected, at least to their way of thinking, by the traditional publishing world. Agents and publishing houses are cold, impersonal, and their repeated rejections can hurt. More in-depth reviews are often even more painful, but at least those who have weathered rejection in the past have become a little more desensitized. 

Either way, you've got to get tough and you've got to be objective. Anyone who ever reviews your work is a great help to you, no matter how cruel or hurtful their comments may seem. It's always extremely valuable to know what even one reader thinks, and every review is a window right into their thoughts. Any tiny piece of information they give you can be used to make your work better...even when it feels like they're ripping out your heart. 

As a self-published author, you're exposing a part of yourself to the world and you're opening up a door right into your soul. That's the way it is. If you aren't tough enough to take all the slings and arrows that are coming, then please close the door. Don't let the criticism wear you down or diminish your love of writing. If you find that reviews are affecting you in a negative way, stop reading them. They can be a great help, but for some authors who are sensitive to it they can turn into a gigantic hindrance. You can still be a writer...just maybe a little bit more reclusive. And if you know you can't take it or you might be too sensitive to really process the criticism you receive, then stop asking for them. Any reviewer can get nasty if you manage to push the right button, and you never know when that might happen.

Whether you're reading the reviews or not, you have to be tough on yourself. Either be disciplined enough to ignore them, or be strong enough to really absorb them. For a self-published author, there really is no in-between.

Writing 101: The Politics of Being an Author

In case you've somehow been avoiding TV, social media and most public Internet sites over the past 10 months, it's an election year. Tensions are especially high during election season, when the news media is amped up on Red Bull and rhetoric, but some politician is always out there campaigning at all times. It's easy to get swept up in politics during any year, but you can't ever forget about the politics of being an author...particularly if you're a self-published author.

Politically Speaking

When you're a self-published author, you are your own PR agent. You're in charge of all your marketing and all your promotion, and it's a really hard job that takes up a whole lot of time. So don't screw yourself by actually being yourself in the middle of all that.

That's right. When your parents and your friends and your teachers were telling you to "just be yourself," they didn't count on you becoming a self-published author and your own best friend and biggest supporter. You can be yourself when you're at home, but you can't be yourself when you're in your author persona -- at least, not really. 

Politics are polarizing, and that's a real problem for you as an author. When you're presenting yourself to the world as a writer, the social media accounts you use to tout your books are no longer your own. That means you can't start screeching about politics in the middle of a bunch of tweets about your books. The minute you make your political or religious affiliation known, you're running the risk of turning off a large portion of your audience. 

I know it's true, because I'll hit my "block" button in less than 1 second if I see someone expressing a political opinion that's opposite my own...and I will not reveal on which side my bread is buttered, no matter how nicely you ask. Why? Because when you are a self-published author, like I am, you are neutral on any and all hot-button issues and political matters. Otherwise, you're going to be screwing yourself out of readers. Isn't it hard enough to get them already?

As a matter of fact, it's not even a good idea for you to have any sort of opinion except in a very specific set of circumstances.

Politically Correct

If you write about politics, then obviously you're going to end up tweeting about it, blogging about it, and what-have-you. If you write about politics, you're already targeting a specific group and that group is interested in politics. You're going to be using political opinions and rhetoric in your promotions, and it's totally appropriate to do so. But if you write about anything else, just stay neutral. Offensive subject matter creeps into books a lot, but your author persona should never be offensive or off-putting to anyone if you can help it.

Writing 101: Don’t Forget About You

 If you’re a writer, you have lots of different people living inside your head. You’re thinking about their lives, maybe killing them off (like me), maybe hearing them speak and watching them act. It’s not crazy – it’s what it’s like to be an author. But when you’re a writer, don’t forget about you while you’re thinking about all those other ideas in your head.

Truly, Madly, Deeply

There’s a scene in a movie I love. It’s about an author who’s having trouble finding her true writing voice. She’s writing about all sorts of fantastical things and inventing all sorts of passionate plots, until someone close to her tells her that she ought to write about things she’s actually experienced and people she knows. She doesn’t take to the idea at first at all, but later it becomes her inspiration. In the particular scene I’m thinking of, she sets herself right down at her desk and begins to write.

Mind you, this is a period piece we’re watching. When I say she sits down to write, I’m talking about there’s an oil lamp on the table and a feather in her hand. So this is real writing, here. The way the scene plays, she sits there and writes all night long. By morning’s light, she awakens from a brief nap (one assumes) and there is a gigantic pile of pages next to her.

She wrote the novel in one night. I love the movie...I hate that scene. It’s utterly ridiculous. I’ve staying up late into the night writing a chapter before, sure, but you’ve got to be part robot to write an entire novel in just one night.

It’s just not that easy. I might think about a book for weeks before I write a single scene, and no matter how well-planned I’ll still struggle over that scene – maybe for hours and hours. Then I’ve got to go back and read the darned thing, and take out all the inevitable errors I’ve made and words I’ve repeated too many times. Sometimes I might end up erasing the whole thing, because the plot changes or somehow the scene becomes unnecessary.

When it takes so much time, and blood, and sweat, and tears and sheer gut to write a novel (and it does, no matter what the movies say), you have to be the sort of person who has people living in your head just to live through it. You have to tune out the world and focus on your task, think and re-think your plot, really become those characters and step outside of yourself.

Just don’t get too far outside yourself.

Who…Are…You?

All good writers have to set their own limits. Otherwise, we’d never get up from behind our keyboards. I’ve forgotten to eat and missed major events because I got too caught up in a story, and didn’t even really realize that time was passing. How can time be passing when I’m not even here? I’m a hundred years in the past, so how could any time be going by?

But it does, and all authors are only human beings at the end of every day. It takes a lot of time and energy to write a book, but don’t start losing sleep over it. Don’t start skipping meals, or blowing off your family, or forgetting about your other responsibilities. Don’t stop doing all the things you used to do before you started writing the book. If you exercise or walk the dog, keep on doing that. If you play a game for an hour each night, don’t stop. When you’re writing a book, don’t forget about you.

The brain and the body has to have a certain amount of rest and a certain amount of nutrition in order to stay healthy and continue functioning at its peak. You can definitely get by with less sleep, fewer calories and a lot more stress, but your goal should never be to simply “get by.” Your book is going to be a lot better if you approach it with a clear mind, well-rested, with plenty of energy from food in your belly. Continue doing what you do to relieve stress, and continue staying in touch with friends and family.

Self-published authors have a way of putting a ton of pressure on themselves with self-set goals and deadlines, but this can be damaging. It’s good to be disciplined, but it can be taken to a dark place. You’ve got to give yourself downtime and rest, too. You cannot work all the time, or think about the book all the time. Some of the best ideas come when I’m not thinking about my stories, because that’s when my brain is actually free to be creative. You can’t go up to your brain, scream “be creative!” when you’re tired and stressed out and expect to get results. Whatever you write under such conditions will be less than your best. And why would you ever want to present less than your best to a reading audience?

Writing 101: Writing a Message

Not all stories are mere stories, something to entertain you. Some strive to teach some lesson, perhaps make some moral standpoint, maybe brighten up your day. When you're writing a message, you have to walk a delicate line and maintain a certain balance. Otherwise, I'm just going to get ticked off...me, and other readers too.

Getting the Point

There's nothing wrong with embedding a message into a story. In fact, lots of books have been extremely successful by doing this. People like learning a little something, and having their spirits lifted. But at the same time, they also want to be entertained. When you're writing a message, you can't over-write it.

What I'm saying is, don't hit me over the head with it. If you're continually spelling out your message, you're just being repetitive (and repetition is boring). The message has to be faint, subtle, so carefully placed that I'm not really sure if there was a message there. I read a book once where the author related inspirational stories in gigantic monologues, then went on to repeat and sum up the message I was supposed to get to end each chapter. Each message was a joyous and inspirational one, but each was getting pounded into my brain with each and every chapter. 

You can't force-feed your message to your readers, and you don't need to give it to them in multiple ways to make sure they're getting it. It has to be faint, slight, something that supports the story. The message shouldn't be the story.

Dying of Suspense

"The reader can't help to want to know more about what will happen." 

Death (Deck of Lies, #3) has been reviewed at Kritters Ramblings. See how it rated on the YA shoe scale when you visit the blog for the full review!

Books on Film: The Raven

Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven isn't actually a book, it's just a really long poem about a crow. But the epic poem is about more than a bird or a man who can't seem to get to sleep, and it beautifully showcases the dark nature of Poe's work. Poetry doesn't translate easily into film, or in fact into any other medium. The three films loosely based on Poe's work reflect this truth rather spectacularly.

The Poem

Edgar Allen Poe published The Raven in 1845, and it became rather famous right away. The musical lines of the poem are studied often by scholars of all ages, and some people can recite entire passages. Reciting the entire thing takes a whole lot of study -- it's more than 100 lines long, but the rhyming scheme does help. 

The Raven mourns the loss of the lovely Lenore. A man wracked by grief for this woman, presumably a lost love, is being taunted by a raven who repeatedly tells him "nevermore." It's all the bird will say, and it's maddening. At the end of the poem, the bird is still sitting "perched above my chamber door" and still haunting the man who has lost his beloved Lenore.

It's heart-wrenching, and sad, and beautiful. But it doesn't necessarily made a great movie. Like, who would want to see a movie about a man sitting alone in a room with a talking bird? If you can get an audience to sit through 90 minutes of that, you're a genius. 

You will have also accomplished something that no director has ever accomplished before, and the three film adaptations of Poe's The Raven prove it.

The Films

The first film to borrow Poe's stark title premiered in 1935, with two masters of horror among the cast. Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi joined forces to bring the film to life. Lugosi plays a surgeon who is absolutely obsessed by Poe. He has his own torture chamber for his victims. Karloff's character is no better. He's a murderer currently on the run from police and living as a fugitive. 

In the film, Lugosi is asked to operate on a beautiful young woman who has been injured in an automobile accident. He agrees and succeeds, and begins to form a friendship with the young woman he's saved. As their friendship blossoms, he reveals his great love of the writer Edgar Allen Poe. He even shows her his prized collection of Poe's works, which includes many poems and short stories.

Her father, however, doesn't approve of the budding relationship. By the time the murderer shows up at the surgeon's home, Lugosi is angry enough to mastermind his own macabre plan. Using his surgeon's skills, he forces the murderer into carrying out a terrible plan about the family that has upset him so. He invites them all to a dinner party, and one by one they each come to some horrible fate as inspired by Poe's stories. The surgeon eventually falls prey to one of his own traps, and the beautiful young woman escapes (because that's the way of such movies).

Another movie named The Raven was made 30 years later, in 1963, but this time it had a totally different plot. Boris Karloff appears again, this time with legendary horror master Vincent Price. Though the plot was different, the theme of the film was the same: Edgar Allen Poe. This time, the story is set all the way back in the 15th century (long before Poe was born).

Price plays Dr. Craven (get it?), a wizard who is in mourning for his wife Lenore. He's been grieving for more than two years, a fact that distresses his daughter. Just like in the poem, Dr. Craven is visited by a raven who is actually a wizard named Dr. Bedlo (I'm not making this up). The two work together to create a potion that will transform the raven back into a man. Bedlo, you see, was transformed by yet a third wizard (they're coming out of the woodwork!) -- Boris Karloff. But the plot thickens, because Bedlo has actually seen the ghost of the beloved Lenore at the evil wizard's castle! 

Indeed. The two magical men set out to take on the evil wizard. Estelle the daughter joins them, as does Bedlo's son Rexford (played by none other than Jack Nicholson). Bedlo ends up getting killed by one of his own spells, or so it seems. He's really hiding inside the castle. Craven ends up recovering Lenore, who is also not dead as we believed. She actually faked her own death in order to take up with the evil wizard, because the guy does have his own castle. A magic duel is really inevitable at this point.

Naturally, Bedlo ends up getting transformed into a bird again. He tries to plead with Craven at the end, who tells him (what else) "nevermore." I'm not sure how Poe would have felt about it. 

But he may have liked the most recent film adaptation, in which he actually appears as a character and not just a subject of conversation. John Cusack plays the man himself in the 2012 movie The Raven. He doesn't really resemble Poe, but it's all right because he gives the famed writer an appropriately sad, hopelessly romantic aura.

The film opens with a mysterious teaser about the last days of Poe's life before it centers on 1849 Baltimore, where the writer spent his final days. The movie does mention The Raven and it does contain Poe as a character, but most of the plot is pure fiction. It's a very engaging murder mystery, and you know I love those. Many of Poe's stories are referenced, as they become clues in the mystery, and the writer's mysterious death is "solved" at the end of the flick. It has almost nothing whatsoever to do with the poem The Raven, other than a few references and some quoted lines, but it does draw from some true facts surrounding Poe's life. The movie does reflect the darkness and mysterious suspense that surrounded Poe's tales, but the twist wasn't all that startling and the pseudo-happy ending is a little too neatly done. It's a fun murder mystery, perhaps a little too fun to do Poe real justice, but it's well put together enough to warrant watching. It'll take you almost as long as reading the entire poem.

De-Mystifying the Tower

"Maneuver through this new world of money and lies and mystery."

"The characters were dynamic and so entertaining." 

Kitters Ramblings has followed up their review of Justice with a new review of The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2)! Read the spoiler-free review to get a taste of where this installment of the series will take you.

Fiction Fashion Icon: Holly Golightly

Holly Golightly first appeared in the world of fiction in 1958, but her character lived on the page in the 1940s. By the time she debuted on film, she'd aged 10 years and moved into the early sixties. But no matter where you find her, she's always one thing: incredibly stylish. 

The Little Girl in the Little Black Dress

In any era, Holly Golightly's style transcends the page. She was introduced in a novella written by Truman Capote, ostensibly based on someone he actually knew when he moved to New York as a young writer. Holly's love of style and fashion are revealed early in the book when she talks about going to Tiffany's, the famous jewelry store, and how safe she feels when surrounded by the men in their dark suits. Holly is a party girl who loves the night life, and she's usually dressed for it even at seemingly inappropriate hours of the day. The story struck a chord with readers, and Holly became a well-loved fiction heroine (or anti-heroine, depending on your point of view) quickly. But it wasn't until she was transferred to the big screen that she became a true fashion icon.

And so did Audrey Hepburn, who played Holly for the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. The 1961 movie cemented Audrey as a true film fashion icon, and made the little black dress the must-have garment for every single woman in America. The costumers who designed the movie did a great job of re-capturing Holly's look, as told by Truman Capote's narrator in the book.

But even Audrey thought of herself as a bit of a mis-cast in the role. She was thin and willowy like Holly, but the similarities ended there. In the book, Holly has messy blonde hair and she's rather unapologetically a high-class call girl for New York society's cafe set. Capote famously wanted Marilyn Monroe in the part, but she didn't want it and the producers didn't want her for it. In that ultra-conservative time of making movies, when the famous Code was in full effect, it was extremely important to downplay Holly Golightly's sexual nature and various escapades. Hepburn, who was the epitome of classy elegance, was strongly courted for the role and personally persuaded by the director to accept the part. 

When Holly Golightly first appeared onscreen wearing her trademark dark glasses and a long, black cocktail dress, fashion history was made. In the story, Holly is known for wearing her sunglasses and stylish, thin black dresses that are perfect for late evening hours. Whenever she's feeling down, Holly goes to gaze at the glittering, ultra-expensive pieces on display at Tiffany's. She doesn't own a whole lot of real jewelry herself, but she does hope to marry a millionaire one day so she won't ever have to worry about money. 

Holly's fashion plays a big role in the story, and it became the focal point of the film. For her role in shaping the little black dress as the must-have style garment, and for showing us how to wear dark sunglasses while window-shopping for jewelry, Holly Golightly is one of the most famous and best-loved fiction fashion icons.