Of Writers and Prose: To Blog or Not to Blog.

That is the question.

I’ve had this blog since 2011, and before that, I was on Livejournal for a couple years. I even had an account on Blogger ‘back in the day’, and even though I don’t get a lot of traffic for my posts, I still like doing it. Has it become harder to think of topics? Yes, especially about writing, but I’ve added so much more content over the last few years that I think if I miss a writing post every now and then, it’s all fine.

Over the last month I backed away from doing any writing on anything. Personal matters had to be taken care of and it left me drained to the point I didn’t want to do any writing. I’m glad to say that this rough patch is over, and May will see me back at my desk pounding away at my keyboard, but it’s left a thought lingering in my head.

To blog or not to blog?

I enjoyed the time off, and sometimes keeping to my blog schedule drains all the fun out of it. I’m not ashamed to say that if I gave up blogging altogether, I wouldn’t be sad. I have noticed that many blogs that I follow aren’t posting as much as a few years ago. I remember when people would say you had to blog every day in order to keep your subscribers happy. I did that and it damn near killed me to think of something every, single, day. It’s impossible and I found myself posting short one or two sentences to keep readers reading. It was hard and I eventually gave up doing the daily posts and put together the schedule I have now. I post 2-3 times a week, and only between Monday to Friday. Each post is something different, and I’ve found this to be so much easier. As I see it, bombarding readers every day with a few sentences of whatever, doesn’t seem like a good way to keep people interested in what you’re doing. If I see a post from a blogger who hasn’t posted in a while, I’m more apt to actually read that instead of deleting it.

I’m going to try and keep my blogging schedule the way it is. I like the topics I’m writing about, and I hope you do too, so if you don’t see anything from me for a while, take heart that whatever I was going to blog about, I didn’t find it interesting enough write about it.

For those of you who keep blogs, how do you do it? Are you and everyday poster or just when you feel like it?

5 Things Every Writer Should Know About: Newsletters.

If you ask a thousand authors what they think of newsletters, you’ll probably get an even split between those who like them and think they’re a good idea, and those who loath them and can’t be bothered. I’ve fallen into both categories at some point over the last fifteen years and I can honestly say I’m still on the fence about them even though I have one.

The biggest decision about newsletters is finding a site that suites what you want to achieve. I suggest doing a lot of research and being honest with yourself about what you expect. With that in mind, here are 5 things every writer should know about newsletters.

1. Newsletters are the perfect way to stay in touch with your audience. No worries about followers not seeing your posts as it’s delivered right to their inbox. It’s a neat and tidy way of staying connected to those who are most interested in your work and you don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re seeing your announcements. Most newsletter sites have stats that allow you to see just how many are being opened and read. This alone, is the best reason to start a newsletter.
2. You have a captive audience. If people have signed up then they are interested in your work, especially if they signed on through a form on your web site.
3. Cultivating subscribers takes time. Don’t expect a lot of sign-ups at the beginning. It could take years to reach double digits. You need to understand this, because this is the biggest complaint I see with writers. The expectation that hundreds of people will immediately sign up for theirs and then ask for a magic bullet when it doesn’t happen. It’s a slow, arduous process. Know that from the start. There are sites that offer you subscribers for a free copy of your book, but I find the majority of those who sign up, don’t really care. They just want the free book.
4. Depending on how much time you want to spend online, learning the basics and putting together a newsletter is time consuming. Don’t go into this thinking it won’t be either. You want to send out something that looks good, and that could take some time to put together. No one wants a half-ass looking newsletter show up in their inbox.
5. Interesting content. This has to be the biggest drawback. I had the worse time trying to think of interesting things to put into mine, and it became so much of a problem that I stopped doing one. It can take a while for a writer to establish a theme (so to speak), but once you’ve found it, keeping it going shouldn’t be a problem. It’s all a matter of planning ahead.

Overall, keep your expectations small at first, about what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Getting started is difficult and it may take you a while before you understand what you want. In the mean time, you’ll have plenty of time to get things organized they way you want it.

Good luck!

Of Writers and Prose: Looking Back Over the Year.

It’s the last month of every year, and I want to take some time to reflect on all the writing accomplishments I had over the past twelve months. Despite the personal crap that went on at the beginning of the year, I can say that I got a lot done, and I’m proud of everything I’ve put out, even the crappy stuff.

My blog posts on writing have been sporadic, and let’s be honest, there’s a finite number of ideas that one can write about on the craft of writing, and there are so many other writing blogs out there that sometimes I feel I’m just regurgitating what they’ve already said, but not as eloquently. Same with my Pagan posts, which is why I haven’t posted that much on that subject.

I created more online content this year. I’ve done more newsletters, Patreon posts, and Tiktok videos over the last couple of months, and I have ideas for future ones. The key here is balance, and following a schedule I created really helped with that. It’s just enough to keep things fresh, but not so much that I’ll get weighed down or behind.

I think I’ve found the right content for my newsletter. The spotlights I did during the summer were okay, but I lost a few subscribers because of it. I also purged my subscriber list of all emails that weren’t engaging. I knew there would be a lot, as they all signed up as part of a marketing promo to get a free kindle and a pile of ebooks. About half opened and I tagged each of the remaining emails with a percentage. I’ll write up a blog post in the new year with more details about how it went.

Tiktok is still a strange beast to me, but I like it and posted more videos on my account. Right now, everything is kind of scattered. There’s no theme, no real consistency, but I started a series of posts that, hopefully, will keep me accountable to my writing schedule. My writing queue has six books, and each week I post how much I want to write that week on the specified novel. I want to build on that so at the end of my writing week, I post a video about how well I did. Scrivener has my writing history in the drop-down menu of the Project tab and it shows how many words I’ve written over the course of the week.    

I put out another book this year. Not a sequel to The Quiet Dead, but a cozy paranormal mystery, Down Finnegan’s Hollow. I made a cover art video for TikTok and it looks awesome. I don’t mind putting out one book a year. It takes time to do one properly and I’d rather put one out that was the best it could be, with an awesome cover than something quick. With my increase of work hours I’ll be making more money and will be able to put more away for upcoming books. At least that’s the plan.

That’s it for looking back over the last year. Overall, I really do think that it was a good year.

5 Things Every Author Should Know About Dialogue and Dialogue Tags.

Out of all the writing topics out there, this has to be one of the more controversial ones. First off, there are two minds on this subject of dialogue tags. One that says all you should use are the words ‘said’, ‘asked’, and ‘replied’, stating that the writer should be able to convey the emotion other ways. The other camp firmly believes that you can use descriptive words like ‘groaned’, ‘bellowed’, or ‘gasped’ to strengthen the emotion the character is experiencing. Which ever camp you are a part of, there are five things that govern both dialogue and tags.

Dialogue Tags:

1. Use them sparingly. Even with ‘said’, a writer shouldn’t depend too heavily on tags, especially if there are less than two people in the conversation. The whole ‘he said, she said’ might not make the conversation as interesting as you ‘d like, but too many of them, or constantly using them throughout the narrative can, and will, pull a reader out of the story.  

2. Understand that tags can be distracting. This is the biggest complaint in the ‘anti-tag’ group arsenal. Dialogue is supposed to flow seamlessly, and anything that describes or enhances the tone of the conversation is seen as a distraction. The reader hears the conversation in their head one way, and then a dialogue tag comes along and it changes the tone of the entire thing.   

3. Not all dialogue needs tags. Your characters aren’t standing still the whole time, staring into each other’s eyes as they’re talking. They’re moving around, gesturing, maybe fiddling. Include this in your dialogue. You an convey so much with a few simple movements. Ask yourself, what movement would you make if you were having this conversation in real life? How can I convey emotion with a simple gesture?

Dialogue:

4. Avoid including massive amounts of information when writing dialogue. This is a biggie. Better known as the ‘As you know, Bob’ syndrome, info-dumping in your dialogue not only is a waste of time, it’s redundant, and a big annoyance to the reader. It implies the writer doesn’t think the reader understands the plot and must explain, in great detail, what’s going on. Simple thing is, if the writer has done their job correctly, they don’t need to do this. The same goes for adding to little. Dialogue is a delicate balance of need to know information.     

5. Dialogue must feel and read smoothly. This is another biggie. Naturally-flowing dialogue is easy to read, insightful, and has just enough information to keep the reader interested in what’s going on. It’s a difficult balance to obtain but it can be done. I model some of my dialogue from real life. I listen to how other people talk when I’m in public. I watch their gestures and observe as much as I can (without being creepy about it) to understand the fine nuances of conversation.

All this is from my personal observation over the last fifteen years of writing. I consider dialogue the ‘blood’ of a story. It permeates every part of a novel, bringing the fuel needed to feed the plot and enhances the story. It’s one of the most, if not *the* most important elements of a novel, not an easy task either. I’ve rolled my eyes at a lot of bad dialogue, and swooned over good, so take your time, and craft it well.

What has been your experience with dialogue and tags? Which camp do you fall into? I’d love to know!  

Of Writers and Prose: How I handle being an author of multiple genres.

It used to be (and still is, to a certain degree) that authors were discouraged from writing in multiple genres, and if they did, they had to use a pen name for each one. Something about their audience won’t accept the author’s new books in a different genre? I understand that reasoning, but I think in this day and age, especially with self-publishing, an author can write about or in any genre they want, and not have to hid behind a pen name. BTW, the reason I use a pen name is a topic for another day.

If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I write in multiple genres. I can’t help it. I started with science fiction back in high school and over the years, it’s grown to include fantasy, and horror. The reason being, I love movies, books, and shows in multiple genres, so why can’t I write in multiple genres?

I will be the first to admit there are drawbacks to this. The main one being not enough money to publish them all. It would be great if I sold a lot of books and could use that money to publish the others, but I don’t, so saving up takes time. During the covid lockdowns, I completed three first drafts, and revised the first drafts of two other books. Not bad, but my finances allowed me to put out one per year, which I have for the last couple of years. The Quiet Dead was the first book I’ve published in close to seven years, and while the logical move would be to work on the sequel, I instead, choose to put out a book in a different genre, simply because it was ready to go. The sequels for both are still in the first draft stage, and I have one more book in another genre that I will most likely put out next year. 

I like doing it this way. I have to do it this way. It keeps me from becoming bored with my writing, which would happen if I jump right into the sequel because in my mind, I’ve been ‘in’ this particular world too long and I need to switch things up. The notion that I *had* to work on the sequel was engrained within me, so much so, that when I became bored with my story, I just stopped writing altogether. It was only when I began genre-hopping that the momentum returned, and I keep it going by working on a different story every week. To a great extent, this is why I dove into script writing as well, and now the challenge is turning all those scripts into novels.

Personally, I don’t think any author should be limited to one genre and it’s nice to see others branching out and flexing their creative muscle. Different genres have certain requirement and if you write in one, it can be difficult to switch it up, but I find that not only does it feed my creative energy, but it helps me to overcome plot obstacles for other stories. I’m odd, but that’s how I work.

Do you write in multiple genres? How does it work for you? I’d love to know how you handle it.

Of Writers and Prose: One Million Words?

Back in 2011 I read an article about how a writer needs to write one million words before they are ‘ready’ to be published. I did a blog post on it back then, with my tally at over 500,000. Since then I’ve added several more books to that, all around the 85k mark—The Quiet Dead, Down Finnegan’s Hollow, Eva and Skye, not to mention the first drafts of several other stories and I can say with confidence that I’ve reached the one million words threshold, but I question whether or not I should have waited until I wrote the million words to publish. Granted, my writing has improved over the years BECAUSE I continued to write, but to wait? That part I’m unsure about.

One million seems like an arbitrary amount, but is it? It would be ridiculous to think you could display your first painting in the Louvre, or become First Chair after playing an instrument for a month. Crafting a good story, like anything else, takes time to learn how to do properly. When I mean properly, I’m referring to that point when you come into your own style of writing. I have a talent for creating interesting plots, but that doesn’t mean the story itself will be interesting. There’s a lot that goes into that second part and I feel that’s where the one million mark comes into play.

I found my writing voice several years ago, but I’m always keen to learning ways to improve my craft. How to create flowing dialogue, or develop interesting prose that will keep the reader hooked. I strongly feel it’s a never-ending learning process, because writing a good story doesn’t come naturally, and can take several years to produce the desired result. Does that mean you have to wait to publish your novel? It’s up to you, but remember that your writing will improve as with each new book.

Will I ever reach that point where I feel my writing is at it’s best? I don’t know. Each draft of every story is a step toward bettering my craft. It’s taken me years to get to a point where I know how to write in MY style. How I structure my plots, create my characters and scenes, and how I execute it on a page, but that only came a few years back and I’ve been writing non-stop (or thereabout) for thirty-five years.

I found this article on D2D about One Million Words. Click HERE. It’s worth a read, and remember . . .

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Practice. Practice.

Of Writers and Prose: Online Promoting 101.

Recently, I read a screenshot of a two writers interaction on Twitter. The first, dismayed at the lack of sales they had with their books (apparently they were writing a trilogy) was debating whether or not to continue to write the third book due to lack of apparent interest. The second writer offered some help. A simple way for readers to find their books, put a link to them in their bio.

While this may seem like a no-brainer to most of us, it’s a new concept for those writers who are dipping their toes into the promotional landscape for the first time, but to the rest of us, this is the first and foremost promotional tactic we have at our disposal. All of my social media sites as a direct link to my books. The reasoning is, you want the reader to find your work with as little effort as possible. If you have all your books on Amazon, then link to your Amazon page, but for me, I have a wider distribution channel so I link back to the page on my web site that lists all the novels I have published.

Let’s go back to that ‘make it easier for the reader’ part. Most new authors think that if they publish, readers will naturally follow, but that isn’t how it works and why we promote (note I said PROMOTE, and not MARKET). The internet has shortened all our attention spans, so the quicker a future reader can find your work, the better. One click is best. Two is good. If they have to click beyond three, you can forget the sale. As Sithboy would say, “That takes effort”. As harsh as this may sound, this is a cold hard fact. Are there any exceptions? No. Don’t believe me? Take a look at your favourite author’s web page. How many clicks did it take before you found their books? I’m guessing two. ALL writers link everything back to their books. Generally it’s front and center on their web page, but if not, it’s only one click away.

1 click – this should lead directly to your books. That’s what I have set up. Most of my online presence is focused around my novels, so if a potential reader is interested in what I’ve posted, they can click the link in my bio and it takes them to my latest release.

2 clicks – this leads to an author’s web page. The second click should be to their books. Many authors have a lot going on that they want you to discover, hence to their introduction page, but their cover art is always the first thing you see. Afterall, they brought you there for that reason, and now they want you to stick around and see what else they’ve got going.

One click to the web page. One click to the page you set up (or picture) that will take them to your novels. A one/two punch. It’s that simple. Twitter. Goodreads. Tiktok. IG. Even your blog should all have one or two clicks, that way, as you promote your other social media sites, you’re also promoting your work. Even if what you put on social media has nothing to do with anything your writing, you’re still promoting it. Welcome to the writing life. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Of Writers and Prose: So. Many. Stories.

If you read any of my feeds, you know I struggle with Too Many Stories Syndrome (TMSS for short), and I have for years. I know a lot of authors who do as well, and for the most part, they have managed to rectify their particular situation. I have not been so lucky. It’s a rare thing when I can focus on one novel for more than a month, and it pains me that as I have so many that I want to publish, but I think I’ve found a way to fix my situation.

This month, I started a new writing routine where I focus on one story each week, and so far, it’s working. I have six stories that are in the que and by the time I complete one rotation, I’m back at the beginning, but the best part is, I’ve made progress on all of them. I like this routine for the simple fact that all my stories are worked on, instead of waiting months or years down the road for me to open the file. Oddly enough, this helps keeps the plot fresh and there’s just enough time in between that each story is seen with fresh eyes.

Two of my biggest problems are becoming bored with my stories and overthinking the plot. These reasons are connected. It was a problem with the previous drafts of my zombie story. I looked for input because I felt the story was stale, and then I tried to write in all the suggestions. Granted, it did give me some wonderful plot elements that I did keep, but the majority of those suggestions were eventually written out when I went back to it a couple years ago. The only element that I did keep was the subplot of someone looking for my MC, and even then, I had to change the who, what, and why.

Over thinking a plot makes me add in things that I think will enhance the story, but ends up conflicting with the plot and I either changed some of the plot to make it fit or delete it all together. This is true for my second ghost novel. It started as an erotic romance (back when they were all the rage), and there were three love interests in the MC’s life. I added the third just to keep the erotic side going, and had planned on using him in another story, but after the first draft the entire thing felt stale and I put it away, only to open it again years later and realizing that not only was the third love interest not needed, but I didn’t even care for the erotic part anymore.

I want to say that if I had implemented this new schedule back then, that I would have seen this and corrected it, but hindsight is always 20/20, right? What’s important is that I’ve identified and corrected a long-time problem and projects are moving forward. Each one is at a different stage which makes things even easier, and my plan is to have at two of them published within the next twelve months.

Yeah, that’s doable.

Of Writers and Prose: When the plot no longer suits your story.

The title of this blog may sound strange, but consider the quote below from The Write Practice. You can view the article HERE.

“Plot is a series of events in a story in which the main character is put into a challenging situation that forces a character to make increasingly difficult choices, driving the story toward a climactic event and resolution.

During the seven years that I didn’t put out a book, I was busy writing (among others) The Quiet Dead. The first draft went well, but as I revised it, I realized certain plot elements had to be changed. In the end, the story I published is nothing like the original first draft because many of these key points were challenged and changed by new ideas. The same can be said of all six other books that I worked on during those same years.

I once said that massive changes like this are the result of not knowing what your story is about, and I still stand by that statement. I didn’t know what my stories were about. Sure, I had an idea and expanded on it. Characters came and went. Ideas were fleshed out and then discarded, but the story would fizzle, and I would put it away, opting instead to work on something else until I became frustrated with that one for the same reason and put it away.

Why does this keep happening?

It’s part of the writing process. Chipping away at the stone to get the gold underneath. Switching things up, changing a character or re-writing lines of dialogue over and over. It’s all about revealing. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You understand the nature of creating, and sometimes it takes a little longer and a lot more work for the final product to come out the way it was intended. Some writers can create a story every three months. They’ve understand their writing process and have refined it, and the more you write, the more refined your process will become. 

Looking back, I don’t see any of my massive revisions as a waste of time. They revealed parts of the story that had to be told. I pushed through the muck to get to the gold, and I’m glad I did because these stories are better because of it.

Interested in reading a bit? Starting this month and running once a month, I will be posting an excerpt from one of my WIPs. I’ve got zombies, ghosts, high fantasy, and Scifi, so if any of those interest you, subscribe so you don’t miss out!

 

5 Things Every Writer Should Know About Self-Publishing.

Since the rise of sites like Smashwords and Amazon in 2007-08, self-publishing quickly became the go-to for many authors who could not get a deal with Trad or Indie publishing houses. Soon, the lure of doing it yourself and keeping all the profit skyrocketed in the self-publishing world, and now millions of books are unleashed to the world every year.

Yet as thousands of new authors soon realise, it ain’t as easy as it looks, so here are five things every writer should know about Self-Publishing. Note; this is ALL from my years of experience.

1. You have to do EVERYTHING: I do mean everything. Without the support of a publisher, authors are left to find and pay for editors, cover designers, formatters and everything that goes into marketing and promoting a book. This can cost you thousands of dollars. At the onslaught of the self-publishing wave back in 2010, book covers for SP books were amateurish and sloppy. You could pick out an SP author from the thousands of books that were released every month. It quickly became adherent that if you wanted to compete with the big boys, you had to look like them, and that meant a cover and everything in between. Authors 

2. No real deadlines: There are a few advantages to doing it yourself, but the biggest one (and the one I like the most) is no set deadline. Authors can choose when their books come out and can push back a release date if they’re not ready. Try being a new author and telling your Trad publisher that the deadline they gave you just isn’t going to work.

3. Expect your book to be swallowed up: I don’t know how many times I see authors upset that their first book is not being seen, especially first-time authors. There are, on average, close to two million books self-published each year, and it’s a slow process to find a steady audience who will buy your books. This is where promotions come into play. Promoting your story is a part of your writing career, and people expect you to do some. I write books in genres that aren’t really popular, so I don’t get a lot of traction, and I’m fine with that, but be warned that even if you write in a ‘hot’ genre, you’re still going to find it difficult. Be patient and write that next book. Having a catalogue of stories helps out and will help with #4. One tip; don’t spam social media for sales. Nothing will get you ignored faster, and how are you going to sell books if everyone is ignoring you?

4. You won’t get rich.  This goes hand-in-hand with #3. As soon as people realised you could make money writing books, everyone started doing it, and there were a lot of scams out there, and Amazon was ripe with them, which is why I will never make any of my books exclusive to that platform. There is an unrealistic ideal that if you write a book, you’re set for life. You’re not, as a matter of fact, it may take you dozens of books and constant sales before that dream actually happens. You have to be realistic about this. Here’s a good article on the subject. https://medium.com/real-life-resilience/heres-why-so-many-writers-fail-7bdb5d647e4c

5. More rewarding – Yes, you have to do everything yourself. Yes, you will easily spend more to put your book together than you earn, and there is a good chance a handful of people will see your novel and even fewer will purchase it, and yes, there will be constant anxiety about promotions and marketing, but at the end of it all when you look online and see your novel for sale there is something incredibly rewarding about it. YOU did that. That story came from YOUR imagination, and you worked on it for months, if not years, and how many people in your life can say they wrote a book? That is your small chunk of immortality, my friend. Something that will stay around as long as the internet exists.