Taking Care of Business

For creative types, learning the business of writing and implementing marketing campaigns can be a pain. It takes years to cultivate the knowledge, and we learn it from multiple sources. At first, it may be difficult to latch on to certain things, such as legal jargon in a contract, but with practice and more exposure, the business side of writing can become as second nature as the creative side of writing.

This month, we’ve read some great posts about marketing, attending conventions, writing while working a consuming full-time job, choosing pen names, networking, cover artists, and more.  Here are the links to each post this month if you missed a post, or would like to revisit some of the great information in a post:

  1. For the Love of Words by Lisa Mangum
  2. Get on the Train by Evan Braun
  3. The Business of Promotion: When the Hero Comes Home 2 by Mary Pletsch
  4. Blogs and Your Cash by Stephan McLeroy
  5. Working with Editors by Frank Morin
  6. Beta Reading: The Book Report You Trick Your Friends and Family Into by Gregory Little
  7. Networking: Friends with Benefits by Mary Pletsch
  8. How Writing Badly Can Help Your Career by Leigh Galbreath
  9. Commissioning an Artist by Collette Black
  10. The Choosing of Names by Nathan Barra
  11. World Fantasy Convention 2013 by Nancy Green
  12. Business Plans for Writers by Ace Jordyn
  13. Being Creative While Working a Full-Time Job by Nick Ruva
  14. Get Your Fanny Out There! by Quincy Allen
  15. The Solitary Life of a Writer by Heidi Wilde
  16. Information about Superstars Writing Seminars by Kristin Luna
  17. Cultivating Fanaticism by Sam Sykes
  18. The Editing Hit List by Joshua Essoe
  19. Happy Thanksgiving by Nancy Green

Reading over the posts this month, I was thankful for every piece of information presented. Some items were new to me, and others were important for me to revisit and reevaluate. I hope you felt the same way.

I hope you continue reading next month as we continue this discussion of thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

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It’s that time of year again in the United States, the start to the holiday season, Thanksgiving. It’s that time of year when we gather friends and family together to count our blessings. And, to fully disclose all relevant facts, to eat far too much turkey and trimmings and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and football. Okay. I don’t do that last one, but I get that others do.

What are we thankful for here at Fictorians? Well, I can’t answer for the group, but I can tell you a few things that I’m thankful for.

Wizard of Oz reruns. In fact, I’m watching the movie as I write this post. I’m not sure how The Wizard of Oz became associated with the lineup of more usual holiday specials – maybe because Dorothy learns to be grateful for home and what she has – but watching the movie has been a holiday tradition for as long as I can remember. I got to stay up late to watch it. Really, what more was needed to endear the movie to me? I’ve watched the movie over 40 times and it remains a favorite.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Growing up, I’d wake up to the smell of roasting turkey and know it was only a matter of time before Mom would take a break from cooking to watch the parade with us. The Parade was family time.

The Superstars Writing Seminar. Without the seminar there would be no Fictorians.  The members probably wouldn’t know each other or have met so early in our writing careers. We’re more than friends, we’re tribe, we’re family.

Kevin J.  Anderson and Rebecca Moesta who invited me to be part of the Superstars staff and help them share the experience with others.

Flash Fiction Online for giving me the opportunity to hone my writing skills and give other writers a chance at publication.

The clients who stuck with me as I changed firms twice within a seven month period.  I thank them for giving me the opportunity to serve.

My friends and all their support over the years. Their refusal to let me crawl into my shell and become a hermit crab.

My family.

– The many many sacrifices my parents made for my siblings and I and for the person they helped me become.

– I am eternally grateful to my brother for what he does for our parents, and his long-term employment with Disney so we can get into the parks for a lot less than we would otherwise. I am sure my sons echo that last point.

– My ever supportive sons and husband and the opportunity to return the favor for my husband as he works on a large appeal due on December 16.

– I’m grateful that my boys feel comfortable coming to me to ask those questions we all have when we start to grow up. I’m  a romance writer, right? I should be able to field those questions. Right?

I am humbled by all of you who spend a little bit of your week with us on this blog.

So, while 2013 has been full of challenges there was a lot of good too. I hope life is kind to you and your family and your life is full of things to be thankful for. And thank you for spending your time with us.

 

 

The Editing Hit List

At Work
At Work

What cursed names do you reserve for your editor? We know you have them. We know you give them to us. And we don’t care. We actually kind of like it.

When you work with an editor for the first time, you’ll start to shed preconceived notions about the shape your story is in. Getting that MS back bleeding and red can be a shock. But, I swear, we only do it in self-defense. I want to help you and your MS avoid some of that unnecessary blood loss.

I see a lot of things I wish I didn’t. Every editor does. I’ve already spoken about how important it is to pay attention to your submission guidelines, and what industry standard formatting looks like, so here are a few other things on my hit list.

1. Single quotation marks.

I sometimes wish writers weren’t taught they existed. In fiction writing, the most common use you’ll have for single quotation marks is to indicate a quote within dialogue. Enclose the speaker’s dialogue in double quotation marks, then enclose the phrase they are quoting in single quotation marks. You nest them, with the double quotation marks on the outside.

“So this guy, he actually growls at me, his eyes turn red, and he tells me, ‘Give me a keg of beer.'”

Is that the only time you can use single quotation marks? No, outside fiction, it’s the convention in studies like linguistics, philosophy and theology to infer special meaning by enclosing some words in single quotation marks. They’re also used by the Associated Press for headlines.

Use double quotation marks for dialogue (obviously), around titles of short stories, magazine articles, and TV episode titles; they can be used as a style choice when you are writing a sentence and you want to refer to a word rather than use its meaning, as I will in the next item on the hit list.

Double quotation marks can also sometimes be used as scare quotes. I’m sure you’ve heard the term. All scare quotes do is indicate that a word is special in some way, usually a sarcastic or ironic author showing that he doesn’t believe or buy into the meaning.

And I see . . . hell, everybody sees double quotation marks used incorrectly in this way all the time. Check this out.

2. Mixing up “a” and “the.”

I see this more than a little. And I can see you shaking your head already. You totally don’t do that, that’s dumb. Well, not so fast, Speedy. I see it a lot for a reason.

These words infer very different things. Only use “the” when referring to something or someone that has already been introduced to your story, and “a” for something new to the story.

For example, when introducing a new element, like a big, slashy red pen, upon the first mention of that red pen, it is always, “a” red pen, not “the” red pen. “The” references a specific red pen, and since the red pen has never appeared nor been mentioned in your story thus far, the characters couldn’t possibly know to which red pen you were referring when you said “the red pen.” In this instance, it would be “a red pen.”

Thereafter, since the red pen has now been introduced, and your readers and your characters know about it, it would be “the red pen.”

3. Paragraph breaks.

Give them to us. New paragraphs are important for your readers. They tell when you’re switching time, place, topic or speaker, and they break the page up so it is not a solid block of words.

Don’t downplay the psychological impact of how the writing actually looks. It is intimidating and discouraging to see huge blocks of uninterrupted text, and you don’t want your reader to be discouraged before they even start to read, right?

Paragraphs create white space on a page and that white space provides a visual and mental break for readers — like coming up for air. New thought, new paragraph. It is often a good idea to separate lines of dialogue into new paragraphs; and the same goes for thoughts.

There are a few standard times to make a new paragraph:

a. when you start in on a new topic,
b. when a new person begins to speak,
c. when you skip to a new place,
d. when you skip to a new time, &
e. when you want to produce a dramatic effect.

Some of these breaks may require a new scene, or even a new chapter, but at the least, give us a new paragraph.

4. Action sequences.

Action is usually the most difficult for writers to become proficient in. Time and again the manuscripts I work on will have the heaviest line editing concentrated in action scenes. I start hacking harder when characters do, so here are some rules of thumb.

Less is more. Use fewer words; more words merely gunk up the flow and muddy clarity. Action should be sharp and fast, your words should suit that.

Use only the actions that are necessary to show what is going on and no more. If there is no reason to include an extra dodge, sway, swing, leap, scream or twist, then don’t. Each movement should build off the last and serve to increase the stakes and the tension until the climax and resolution. If it doesn’t, cut it.

Save your big, dynamic action verbs like “slam,” or “jolt,” or “roar” for action scenes. You can only use each a finite amount of times, so save them for when they fit the scene and when they’ll have the most impact.

Anything that slows the tempo doesn’t belong. Tempo is the level of activity within a scene via dialogue, action or a combination of the two. Together with rhythm (the way scenes interact with one another), tempo dictates the pacing of your story.

Pay close attention to that pacing too. Is your story filled with action scene after action scene after action scene? The whole point of an action scene is to get the blood moving, create tension, make readers fear for your characters. It’s easy to make your readers numb by overdoing it. If your tension is getting stale, it is because you’re hitting the same emotional beat too many times. Too much action — but this can be applied to any kind of scene, any emotional beat.

When that’s happening you have to use an opposing beat. So change it up and throw in some romance or mystery. Or mysterious romance. Give readers a rest so they can step back and appreciate your action again. To put it another way, if you love bacon (and you do), and so all you eat is bacon (and you might), you’re going to grow tired of bacon . . . this is a bad example.

With that, I close my hit list to you for now, and leave you to your own devices. But I’ve got my eye on you. My big, bright, baleful, red eye. Go ahead, call me all the bad names you want. I’m here for you.

Joshua Essoe is a full-time, freelance editor. He’s been editing and writing for twenty years in one form or another, but has focused on speculative fiction in the last several. He’s done work for David Farland, Dean Lorey, Moses Siregar and numerous Writers of the Future authors and winners, as well as many top-notch independents.Together with Jordan Ellinger, Diana Rowland and Moses Siregar, you can find him waxing eloquent (hopefully) on the writing podcast Hide and Create.

Cultivating Fanaticism

A guest post by Sam Sykes.

The first rule of being a successful writer, as any author will tell you, is to write a good book.

Indeed, if you felt so inclined, you could call this the sole rule of being a successful writer.  For if your book is even just pretty good, it will sell and your needs will be largely taken care of.  And if your book is very good, it will likely sell very well and you’ll find yourself doing what all successful writers do, which is largely hiding in a dark room and weeping into a glass of whiskey as you struggle with the desperate self-conviction that you are a fraud.

While this is still technically possible, it’s much rarer than it used to be.  Because it used to be quite common, with a fantasy author’s readership largely pre-defined as small, humble geeks who would buy whatever you put out because they were immensely starved for entertainment.

But it’s not quite the same anymore.  There’s no 02_finalshortage of absolutely thrilling fantasy authors these days and the audience is much, much broader.  The geeks are louder, more outspoken, more eager to be open with their passions.  You see this scrawled out in events such as Comicon, where movie geeks, comic geeks and video game geeks all brush shoulders with your readership, the book geek.

This is frequently the source of bemoaning the end to Comicon’s purity, but I view it as a good thing.  To find a niche-specialized nerd these days is increasingly uncommon, as the more we brush against each other, the more our passions are shared.  Suddenly, gamers are comparing the stories they play against the stories they read and comic book readers are keen to devour any story they can, be it illustrated or not.

This is the future.  This is your audience.  They are massive, they are multitalented and they are hungry.

And with a new, varied audience comes a new opportunity to draw in potential readers.  While your book (undoubtedly very good) will be the thing to hold their attention and make them a fan, there are a number of ways you can draw people in.

One such means I found was in creating a comic book with the help of the tremendously talented artist, Ashley Cope, creator of the webcomic, Unsounded.

Set as a prologue to my newest book, The City Stained Red, due out in 2014 by Orbit Books, it’s a means of quickly and vividly conveying what my book is all about to an audience increasingly focused on absorbing information quickly through visual stimuli.

05_finalThat all sounds dreadfully scientific, perhaps even a little coldly mercenary.  I assure you, though, that any thought and study as to the practical effects of this were an afterthought.

Because I am one of the new nerds.  And my first thought was for the simple fact that I freaking love comics and wanted to see my characters, my stories made into one.

Now, it’s certainly a good idea, from a business standpoint.  It stretches across the medium to reach a new audience and it’s quick to be digested to hook new readers.  So, if this sort of thing appeals to you, as an aspiring author, I’d like to offer you three tips as to how to make it work for you.

Let Enthusiasm Guide You

One of the big things you’ll learn about geeks is that they can smell crass corporate dictation.  A lifetime on the internet has left them cynical and suspicious of anyone pretending to be like them.  But this also means they are more easily infected by enthusiasm and passion.

Hence, be enthusiastic in all your side projects.  Never do anything unless you’re excited about it.  Never let yourself be dictated solely by business.

If you don’t understand comics and aren’t interested in them, it’ll seep through and alienate people.  Likewise, if you’re absolutely mad about directing and cinematography, then putting together book trailers or short web videos to act as supplement to your books will draw people in.

 Always Be a Professional

One of the biggest joys of this sort of thing is the creative collaboration between artists that occurs.  I, for one, can’t draw with any great skill, and thus I sought out Ashley Cope (who can write with incredible vigor, how unfair is that).  It was a tremendous joy working with her and learning how to let my thoughts be made into something illustrated.

I have an immense respect for artists.  I’ve worked with several of them and I know, as I implore you now, that you must treat them well.

Always be respectful of their time; good artists are always in demand and have busy schedules.  Always be prompt with payment; they work hard for you, you owe them the courtesy and the payment.  Never be afraid to offer feedback; they’re interested in making the work come alive, not in having their butts kissed.

And never, ever, ever offer to “pay them in exposure.”

I will seriously kill you if you do.

Remember Rule One

Supplemental side projects are just that.  They are only as strong as the story you’re going to write and it’s always going to be the story that holds the attention of your readers.

You can have the finest comic, the best trailers, the coolest web series around, but if it’s based on a crappy book, it’s not going to mean much.

Don’t get caught up in the excitement.  Finish the book.  Then make plans.

Good luck, and keep writing!

Sam Sykes Bio: Sam Sykes
Sam Sykes is the author of The Aeons’ Gate trilogy, a vast and sprawling story of adventure, demons, madness and carnage.  Suspected by many to be at least tangentially related to most causes of human suffering, Sam Sykes is also a force to be reckoned with beyond literature.At 25, Sykes is one of the younger authors to have arrived on the stage of literary fantasy.  Tome of the Undergates and Black Halo are currently published in nine countries.  He currently resides in the United States and is probably watching you read this right now.