Endings: The Dos And Don'ts

I'm a believer in the theory that there's no "right" way to do things in creative projects. Just think about it, if all artists followed tradition, we'd still be looking at stick-figure-like paintings or images of people only in profile. If all musicians stuck to the rules, we'd only be listening to chamber music... or probably not even that. The point is innovation and risk are a part of the creative process. However, in music, art, and writing, there are rules that are good guidelines to follow and others to avoid.

Writer's Digest recently posted an article compiling some Dos and Don'ts to creating a compelling and successful novel ending. According to the author of the article James V. Smith, Jr., they are as follows:

Don’t introduce any new characters or subplots. Any appearances within the last 50 pages should have been foreshadowed earlier, even if mysteriously.
Don’t describe, muse, explain or philosophize. Keep description to a minimum, but maximize action and conflict. You have placed all your charges. Now, light the fuse and run.
Do create that sense of Oh, wow! Your best novelties and biggest surprises should go here. Readers love it when some early, trivial detail plays a part in the finale. One or more of those things need to show up here as decisive elements.
Do enmesh your reader deeply in the outcome. Get her so involved that she cannot put down your novel to go to bed, to work or even to the bathroom until she sees how it turns out.
Do resolve the central conflict. You don’t have to provide a happily-ever-after ending, but do try to uplift. Readers want to be uplifted, and editors try to give readers what they want.
Do afford redemption to your heroic character. No matter how many mistakes she has made along the way, allow the reader—and the character—to realize that, in the end, she has done the right thing.
Do tie up loose ends of significance. Every question you planted in a reader’s mind should be addressed, even if the answer is to say that a character will address that issue later, after the book ends.
Do mirror your final words to events in your opener. When you begin a journey of writing a novel, already having established a destination, it’s much easier to make calculated detours, twists and turns in your storytelling tactics. When you reach the ending, go back to ensure some element in each of your complications will point to it. It’s the tie-back tactic. You don’t have to telegraph the finish. Merely create a feeling that the final words hearken to an earlier moment in the story.
Don’t change voice, tone or attitude. An ending will feel tacked on if the voice of the narrator suddenly sounds alien to the voice that’s been consistent for the previous 80,000 words.
Don’t resort to gimmicks. No quirky twists or trick endings. You’re at the end of your story, and if your reader has stuck with you the whole time, it’s because you’ve engaged her, because she has participated. The final impression you want to create is a positive one. Don’t leave your reader feeling tricked or cheated.

I agree with that last rule especially. One trick that always pisses me off is getting to the end and finding out something ridiculous like, "It was all a dream" or "He's actually crazy!" Learning that the story you just invested hours in never actually happened, or was all a lie, isn't intriguing. It's annoying. It makes the time feel wasted. At least, it does to me.

Are there ways to disobey every single rule on this list and still create a fantastic ending? Of course there is. Will most people who try to do that be successful? Nope. In fact, they'll probably only succeed in creating a story that makes people roll their eyes and mutter, "You have got to be kidding me." People remember endings in more detail than the rest of the story. Even if a reader enjoyed 90% of your book, you can turn them off of every buying another if you leave them with a sour taste in their mouth. So what's the best advice to follow? Write the kind of ending you like to see when you're reading someone else's book.

Characters: Writing The Opposite Gender

I was a psychology major in college and have always had an interest in the subject, so when I see friends post articles involving explanations of behavior (even though most of them are "pop" psychology rather than research based findings) I usually take the time to read them.

Anyway, I found an article this morning on Facebook called Five Ways Modern Men Are Trained To Hate Women. "Uhm, okay..." I thought as I clicked on the link. What I found was a reasoned, example filled article (written by a man). Seemingly sparked by the recent attack on Sandra Fluke who stood up and spoke out in favor of insurance-covered birth control, the article rationalizes, but doesn't excuse, the online and media lashing Sandra has been subjected to ever since. David Wong, the author of the article, says,

This current of white-hot rage has to come as a surprise to some of you, because we tend to think "sexism" is being dismissive toward women, or paying them lower salaries -- we don't think of it as frenzied "burn the witch!" hatred. Yet occasionally something like this Limbaugh thing will come along to prick that balloon, and out it pours. Like it's always waiting there, a millimeter below the surface.

The fact that men and women are different should come as no surprise to anyone. Even today boys and girls are raised under different sets of societal norms and expectations, subconscious though they may be. Nurture isn't the only factor, though. Nature--namely biological urges and hormonal differences--impact behavior just as much as environmental influence. Later in the article David explains,

Science doesn't seem to totally understand why the "base urges" part of the brain reacts differently in men. Maybe it's just a matter of having 10 times as much testosterone in their system, or maybe society has trained us to be like this, or maybe we're all spoiled children. My theory is that evolution needs males who will stay horny even in times of crisis or distress, and thus cuts off the brain's ability to tamp down those urges. Whatever -- nailing down the cause isn't the point. The point is that a man can be giving the eulogy at his own grandmother's funeral, and if there is a girl in the front row showing cleavage, he will be imagining himself pressing those boobs in his face, with his own dead grandmother not five feet away.

When that happens, when we get that boner at the funeral, we get mad at the girl showing the cleavage. Because we, ourselves, our own rational personality that knows right from wrong and appropriate from inappropriate, knows this is a bad place to get a boner. So it comes off like cleavage girl is conspiring with our penis to screw us over.

Is that a crazy thing to think? Yep! That's why it's so frustrating, especially if you don't have a whole lot of emotional maturity, and grew up with male role models who had even less.

 And then, later,

Go look at a city skyline. All those skyscrapers? We built those to impress you, too. All those sports you see on TV? All of those guys learned to play purely because in school, playing sports gets you laid. All the music you hear on the radio? All of those guys learned to sing and play guitar because as a teenager, they figured out that absolutely nothing gets women out of their pants faster. It's the same reason all of the actors got into acting.

All those wars we fight? Sure, at the upper levels, in the halls of political power, they have some complicated reasons for wanting some piece of land or access to some resource. But on the ground? Well, let me ask you this -- historically, when an army takes over a city, what happens to the women there?

It's all about you. All of it. All of civilization.

So where you see a world in which males dominate the boards of the Fortune 500, and own Congress, and sit at the head of all but a handful of the world's nations, men see themselves as utterly helpless. Because all of those powerful people only became powerful because they heard that women like power.

This is really the heart of it, right here. This is why no amount of male domination will ever be enough, why no level of control or privilege or female submission will ever satisfy us. We can put you under a burqa, we can force you out of the workplace -- it won't matter. You're still all we think about, and that gives you power over us. And we resent you for it.

Does the article reveal anything that hasn't at least been hinted at numerous times? Not really. It is, however, well written, humorous, and surprisingly insightful. A guy's look inside (most, not all, I hope) guy's heads. 



So, why am I talking about this? Because, as writers, we have to carefully study the opposite gender and try very hard to get inside their heads. This can be difficult because, especially in the case of sex, the experiences are mutually exclusive. With the possible exception of transgender individuals, you will either experience life as a boy or a girl. Most books, however, involve both sexes. How, then, can you make sure you're writing your opposite gender characters correctly?

Lots and lots of research, observation, and questioning. And even then, you probably won't get it 100% right.

Readers: Prejudice And Misinterpretation

You spend months, maybe years, creating a world and developing a cast of characters. You're in love with your story and you can't wait to share it with the world. But then other people start reading it and you suddenly realize they're not exactly seeing things the same way you are. Apparantly, this is what has happened with the release of the Hunger Games movie.

First, I saw the movie this weekend and I thought it was fabulous. I am a notoriously tough critic on book to movie adaptations, especially for books I already love, but I have to give the screenwriters, director, and crew recognition for a job well done. Were things taken out or changed? Yeah. Did those changes make perfect cinematic sense? Totally. Did they miscast any of the characters? Not a single one, but according to this article, not everyone agrees with me on that last one.

 Already, the Hunger Games has crashed through multiple opening weekend records and is only stymied by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight which both have the strength of an established series of movies behind them. Viewers, even those who have read the books, didn't expect what they got from a few characters, though. This excerpt is from the article I mentioned above:

But when it came to the casting of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna, many audience members did not understand why there were black actors playing those parts. Cinna's skin is not discussed in the book, so truthfully, though Lenny Kravitz was cast, a white, Asian or Latino actor could have played the part.
But. On page 45 of Suzanne Collins's book, Katniss sees Rue for the first time:

…And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that's she's very like Prim in size and demeanor…

Later, she sees Thresh:

The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He's one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox.

Dark skin. That is what the novelist, the creator of the series, specified. But there were plenty of audience members who were "shocked," or confused, or just plain angry.

 The author of the article goes on to directly quote a bunch of Tweets and other internet posts that range from confusion to outright racism. One of the worst, in my opinion, states "Kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn't as sad".

A moment of silence, please, to contemplate the myriad of ways that statement is utterly sickening.

...

Okay, moving on. 

Rue looked exactly like I thought she would. Actually, ALL the characters seemed to be plucked straight out of the movie that plays in my head when I read The Hunger Games. It was a little freaky. Not only did Rue look like I thought she would, she was also adorable! And she played the part very well.

I always saw Rue and Thresh with dark skin. IF ANYTHING, I thought Suzanne Collins was playing off racist expectations by making the only black tributes in the Games come from the agricultural district. (Come on. Field hands? Really?) If you look closely, the people in district 11 are practically the only black actors you see in the entire movie. Whether this was intentional on Suzanne's part to demonstrate another facet of the Capital's expectations and control or an unconscious reveal of her own prejudice... well, we can speculate all we want, but we can't know unless we ask her. Either way, fury over a black actress and actor playing black characters (and playing them well)? That's just flat out stupid.

Life: Playing Catch Up

It seems like whenever I get rolling on a project, something comes along that completely derails me. This time the project is my novel with co-conspirator Lani Woodland and the derailment is a full six days (including weekend) of non-stop work.

Now I need to figure out what I missed out on in my new novel project and what work (for the job I actually get paid for) fell by the wayside while I was out of town. Just trying to get it organized is a little overwhelming. Why is it that whenever I play catch up I somehow end up further behind?

Despite my derailment, my project with Lani is actually moving ahead at a clipping pace! Kind of like those adorable pigs! :D We're about a third of the way through a very rough first draft and I think it's shaping into something interesting and definitely worth sharing. Eventually. Maybe. After a lot of editing. :)

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway! Only a few days left until the prizes are awarded.

Bookstores: Lessons You Can Learn

The Strand in NYC

I'm still kind of crazy busy right now, so I'm stealing another post I like. This one I found on OpenSalon.com and it's written by a woman not long after she opened an independent bookstore. Having served my time between the shelves, I can tell you this is all true.

So, for now, enjoy 25 Things I Learned From Opening A Bookstore and hopefully I'll be back to writing my own posts next week. :)

1.  People are getting rid of bookshelves.  Treat the money you budgeted for shelving as found money.  Go to garage sales and cruise the curbs.

2.  While you're drafting that business plan, cut your projected profits in half.  People are getting rid of bookshelves.

3.  If someone comes in and asks where to find the historical fiction, they're not looking for classics, they want the romance section.

4.  If someone comes in and says they read a little of everything, they also want the romance section.

5. If someone comes in and asks for a recommendation and you ask for the name of a book that they liked and they can't think of one, the person is not really a reader.  Recommend Nicholas Sparks.

6.  Kids will stop by your store on their way home from school if you have a free bucket of kids books.  If you also give out free gum, they'll come every day and start bringing their friends.

7.  If you put free books outside, cookbooks will be gone in the first hour and other non-fiction books will sit there for weeks.  Except in warm weather when people are having garage sales.  Then someone will back their car up and take everything, including your baskets.

8.  If you put free books outside, someone will walk in every week and ask if they're really free, no matter how many signs you put out .  Someone else will walk in and ask if everything in the store is free.

9.  No one buys  self help books in a store where there's a high likelihood of  personal interaction when paying.  Don't waste the shelf space, put them in the free baskets.

10.  This is also true of sex manuals.  The only ones who show an interest in these in a small store are the gum chewing kids, who will find them no matter how well you hide them.

11.  Under no circumstances should you put the sex manuals in the free baskets.  Parents will show up.

12.  People buying books don't write bad checks.  No need for ID's. They do regularly show up having raided the change jar.

13.  If you have a bookstore that shares a parking lot with a beauty shop that caters to an older clientele, the cars parked in your lot will always be pulled in at an angle even though it's not angle parking.

14.  More people want to sell books than buy them, which means your initial concerns were wrong.  You will have no trouble getting books, the problem is selling them.  Plus a shortage of storage space for all the Readers Digest books and encyclopedias that people donate to you.

15.  If you open a store in a college town, and maybe even if you don't, you will find yourself as the main human contact for some strange and very socially awkward men who were science and math majors way back when.  Be nice and talk to them, and ignore that their fly is open.

16.  Most people think every old book is worth a lot of money.  The same is true of signed copies and 1st editions.  There's no need to tell them they're probably not ensuring financial security for their grandkids with that signed Patricia Cornwell they have at home.

17.  There's also no need to perpetuate the myth by pricing your signed Patricia Cornwell higher than the non-signed one.

18.  People use whatever is close at hand for bookmarks--toothpicks, photographs, kleenex, and the very occasional fifty dollar bill, which will keep you leafing through books way beyond the point where it's productive.

19.  If you're thinking of giving someone a religious book for their graduation, rethink. It will end up unread and in pristine condition at a used book store, sometimes with the fifty dollar bill still tucked inside.  (And you're off and leafing once again).

20.  If you don't have an AARP card, you're apparently too young to read westerns.

21.  A surprising number of people will think you've read every book in the store and will keep pulling out volumes and asking you what this one is about.  These are the people who leave without buying a book, so it's time to have some fun.  Make up plots.

22.  Even if you're a used bookstore, people will get huffy when you don't have the new release by James Patterson.  They are the same people who will ask for a discount because a book looks like it's been read.

23.  Everyone has a little Nancy Drew in them.  Stock up on the mysteries.

24.  It is both true and sad that some people do in fact buy books based on the color of the binding.

25.  No matter how many books you've read in the past, you will feel woefully un-well read within a week of opening the store.  You will also feel wise at having found such a good way to spend your days.

Writing: Aspiring Isn't Being

This week is kind of hectic at work, so this post isn't technically mine. I found this list of 25 Things I Want To Say To So-Called Aspiring Writers on TerribleMinds.com and I think it's fabulous! So, because I simply don't have the time or brain power to create my own post right now, I'm reposting theirs! I enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully, you will too.

Also, don't forget to register for my giveaway!

(FYI, some bad language is used.)

1. No More Aspiring, Dingbats

Here are the two states in which you may exist: person who writes, or person who does not. If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not. Aspiring is a meaningless null state that romanticizes Not Writing. It’s as ludicrous as saying, “I aspire to pick up that piece of paper that fell on the floor.” Either pick it up or don’t. I don’t want to hear about how your diaper’s full. Take it off or stop talking about it.

2. Kick Your Lowest Common Denominator In The Kidneys

You can aspire to be a lot of other things within the writing realm, and that’s okay. You can aspire to be a published author. Or a bestselling author. Or a professional freelance writer. Or an author who plagiarizes his memoir and gets struck with a wooden mallet wielded by Oprah live on primetime television. You should aspire to be a better writer. We all should. Nobody is at the top of his game. We can all climb higher.

3. Aspiring Writers, Far As The Eye Can See

Nobody respects writers, yet everybody wants to be one (probably because everybody wants to be one). Point is, you want to be a writer? Good for you. So does that guy. And that girl. And him. And her. And that old dude. And that young broad. And your neighbor. And your mailman. And that chihuahua. And that copy machine. Ahead of you is an ocean of wannabe ink-slaves and word-earners. I don’t say this to daunt you. Or to be dismissive. But you have to differentiate yourself and the way you do that is by doing rather than be pretending. You will climb higher than them on a ladder built from your wordsmithy.

4. We All Booby-Trap The Jungle Behind Us

There exists no one way toward becoming a professional writer. You cannot perfectly walk another’s journey. That’s why writing advice is just that — it’s advice. It’s mere suggestion. Might work. Might not. Lots of good ideas out there, but none of it is gospel. One person will tell you this is the path. Another will point the other way and say that is the path. They’re both right for themselves, and they’re both probably wrong for you. We all chart our own course and burn the map afterward. It’s just how it is. If you want to find the way forward, then stop looking for maps and start walking.

5. The Golden Perfect Path Of The Scrivening Bodhisattvas

Point is, fuck the One True Way. Doesn’t exist. Nobody has answers — all you get are suggestions. Anybody who tells you they have The Answer is gassy with lies. Distrust such certainty and play the role of skeptic.

6. Yes, It Always Feels This Way

You will always have days when you feel like an amateur. When it feels like everybody else is better than you. You will have this nagging suspicion that someone will eventually find you out, call you on your bullshit, realize you’re the literary equivalent of a vagrant painting on the side of a wall with a piece of calcified poop. You will have days when the blank page is like being lost in a blizzard. You will sometimes hate what you wrote today, or yesterday, or ten years ago. Bad days are part of the package. You just have to shut them out, swaddle your head in tinfoil, and keep writing anyway.

7. Figure Out How You Write, Then Do That

You learn early on how to write. But for most authors it takes a long time to learn how they in particular write. Certain processes, styles, genres, character types, POVs, tenses, whatever — they will come more naturally to you than they do to others. And some won’t come naturally at all. Maybe you’ll figure this out right out of the gate. But for most, it just takes time — time filled with actual writing — to tease it out.

8. Finish Your Shit

I’m just going to type this out a dozen times so it’s clear: finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit. Finish your shit! FINISH YOUR SHIT. Finish. Your. Shit. Fiiiiniiiish yooooour shiiiiit. COMPLETO EL POOPO. Vervollständigen Sie Ihre Fäkalien! Finish your shit.

9. You Need To Learn The Rules. . .

…in order to know when they must be broken.

10. You Need To Break The Rules. . .

… in order to know why they matter.

11. What I Mean By Rules Is–

Writing is a technical skill. A craft. You can argue that storytelling is an art. You can argue that art emerges from good writing the way a dolphin riding a jet-ski emerges the longer you stare at a Magic Eye painting. But don’t get ahead of yourself, hoss. You still need to know how to communicate. You need to learn the laws of this maddening land. I’ve seen too many authors want to jump ahead of the skill and just start telling stories — you ever try to get ahead of your own skill level? I used to imagine pictures in my head and I’d try to paint them in watercolor and they’d end up looking like someone barfed up watery yogurt onto the canvas. I’d rail against this: WHY DON’T THEY LOOK BEAUTIFUL? Uhh, because you don’t know how to actually paint, dumb-fuck. You cannot exert your talent unless you first have the skill to bolster that talent.

12. Oh, The Salad Days Of College!

Why are the days of our youth known as “salad days?” Is “salad” really the image that conjures up the wild and fruitful times of our adolescence? “Fritos,” maybe. Or “Beer keg.” I dunno. What were we talking about? Ah! Yes. College. Do you need it? Do you need a collegiate education, Young Aspirant to the Penmonkey Order? Need, no. To get published nobody gives a flying rat penis whether or not you have a degree. They just care that you can write. Now, college and even post-grad work may help you become a better writer — it did for me! — though, I’d argue that the money you throw into the tank getting there may have been better spent on feeding yourself while you just learn how to write in whatever mousetrap you call a domicile. You can only learn so much from someone teaching you how to write. Eventually you just have to write.

13. Reading Does Not Make You A Writer

That’s the old piece of advice, isn’t it? “All you need to do is read and write to be a writer.” You don’t learn to write through reading anymore than you learn carpentry by sitting on a chair. You learn to write by writing. And, when you do read something, you learn from it by dissecting it — what is the author doing? How are characters and plot drawn together? You must read critically — that is the key.

14. Here Is Your Tin Cup, Your Hobo Bindle, Your Rat-Nest Undies

You’re going to starve for a while, so just get used to that now. Don’t quit your day job. Yet.

15. Commerce Is Not The Enemy Of Art

If you think commerce somehow devalues art, then we’re done talking. I got nothin’ for you. Money doesn’t devalue art any more than art devalues money — commerce can help art, hurt art, or have no effect. The saying isn’t Money is the root of all evil. It’s The love of money is the root of all evil. Commerce only damages art when the purpose of the art is only money. So it is with your writing.

16. Overnight Success Probably Isn’t

Suddenly on your radar screen is a big giant glowing mass like you’d see when a swarm of xenomorphs is closing fast on your position and it’s like, “Hey! This author appeared out of nowhere! Overnight success! Mega-bestseller! Million-dollar deal!” And then you get it in your head: “I can do that, too. I can go from a relative nobody to America’s Favorite Author, and Oprah will keep me in a gilded cage and she’ll feed me rare coffees whose beans were first run through the intestinal tract of a dodo bird.” Yeah, except, those who are “overnight successes,” rarely appear out of nowhere. It’s the same way that an asteroid doesn’t “just appear” before destroying earth and plunging it into a dust-choked dead-sun apocalypse: that fucker took a long time to reach earth, even if we didn’t notice. Overnight successes didn’t win the lottery. They likely toiled away in obscurity for years. The lesson is: work matters.

17. Meet The Universe In The Middle

My theory in life and writing is this — and it’s some deeply profound shit, so here, lower the lights, put on a serious turtleneck with a houndstooth elbow-patched jacket over it, and go ahead and smoke this weird hash I stole from an Afghani cult leader. The theory is this: meet the universe halfway and the universe will meet you in return. Explained more completely: there exist components of any career (but writing in particular) that are well beyond your grasp. You cannot control everything. Some of it is just left to fate. But, you still have to put in the work. You won’t get struck by lightning if you don’t run out the storm. You must maximize your chances. You do this by meeting the universe halfway. You do this by working.

18. Self-Publishing Is Not The Easy Way Out

Self-publishing is a viable path. It is not, however, the easy path. Get shut of this notion. You don’t just do a little ballerina twirl and a book falls out of your vagina. (And if that does happen, please see a doctor. Especially if you’re a dude.) It takes a lot of effort to bring a proper self-published book to life. Divest yourself of the idea that it’s the cheaper, easier, also-ran path. Faster, yes. But that’s all.

19. No, Total Stranger, I Don’t Want To Read Your Stuff

I really don’t. And neither does any other working author. It’s nothing personal. We just don’t know you from any other spam-bot lurking in the wings ready to dump a bucket of dick pills and Nigerian money over our heads. That’s not to say we won’t be friendly or are unwilling to talk to you about your work, but we’re already probably neck deep in the ordure of our own wordsmithy. (Or we’re drunk and confused at a Chuck-E-Cheese somewhere.) We cannot take the time to read the work of total strangers. Be polite if you’re going to ask. And damn sure don’t get mad when we say no.

20. Your Jealousy And Depression Do Not Matter

All writers get down on themselves. It’s in our wheelhouse. We see other writers being successful and at first we’re all like, “Yay, good for that person!” but then ten minutes later we get this sniper’s bullet of envy and this poison feeling shoots through the center of our brain like a railroad spike: BUT WHY NOT ME? And then we go take a bath with a toaster. Fuck that. Those feelings don’t matter. They don’t help you. They may be normal, they may be natural, but they’re not useful and they’re certainly not interesting.

21. Talking About Writing Is Not The Same As Writing

Needs no further comment.

22. Pack Your Echo Chamber With C4 And Blow It Skyward

Aspiring writers lock themselves away in echo chambers filled with other aspiring writers where one of two things often happen: one, everybody gives each other happy handjobs and nobody writes anything bad and everybody likes everything and it’s a big old self-congratulatory testicle-tickling festival; two, it’s loaded for bear by people who don’t know how to give good criticism and the criticism is destructive rather than constructive and it’s just a cloud of bad vibes swirling around your head like a plague of urinating bats. If you find yourself in this kind of echo chamber, blow a hole in the wall and crawl to freedom.

23. Learn To Take A Punch

Agents, editors, reviewers, readers, trolls on the Internet, they’re going to say things you don’t want to hear. A thick skin isn’t enough. You need a leathery carapace. A chitinous exoskeleton. Writing is a hard-knock career where you invite a bevy of slings and arrows into your face and heart. It is what it is.

24. You Can Do Whatever The Fuck You Want

As a writer, the world you create is yours and yours alone. Someone will always be there to tell you what you can’t do, but they’re nearly always wrong. You’re a writer. You can make anything up that you want. It may not be lucrative. It may not pay your mortgage. But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about what’s going on between you and the blank page before you. It’s just you and the story. If you love it and you want to write it, then wire your trap shut and write it. And write it well. Expect nothing beyond this — expect no reward, expect no victory parade — but embrace the satisfaction it gives you to do your thing.

25. The One No-Fooling Rule

Is “write.” Write, write, write, motherfucking write. Write better today than you did yesterday and better tomorrow than you did today. Onward, fair penmonkey, onward. If you’re not a writer, something will stop you — your own doubts, hate from haters, a bad review, poor time management, a hungry raccoon that nibbles off your fingers, whatever. If you’re a writer, you’ll write. And you’ll never stop to look back.

Giveaways: Congratulations To Me!

I've finally hit the 200 post mark (this is post 201!) so in order to celebrate (and because Rita is hosting a blog hop for the month of March), I'm giving away bracelets I've made. Two bracelets will find special homes by the end of the month to be chosen from the selection you see pictured here. You can enter using the widget below.

Sorry, because of shipping, this particular contest is open to US residents only.

Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more giveaways and chances to win:

Legalities: A Follow-up

Not too long ago, I wrote a post talking about the power-plays companies like Amazon and PayPal have been making in recent years. This morning I stumbled across more information on two of the specific cases I mentioned in that post.

Nathan Bransford talks about the DOJ investigation into ebook pricing on his blog, specifically how the decisions made in the case could impact the publishing industry as a whole. It's an interesting insider look at the big picture and I highly recommend heading over to his blog to check it out. Jut in case you don't have time to do that, here's just a little bit:

Up until now, conscious or not, consumers have grown accustomed to the idea that e-books cost what they cost. The decision of what e-reader to buy or which app to read on has largely been driven by user experience preferences.

Do you like the feel of the nook? The ease of the Kindle app? The pretty iBooks page animation? Those are the decisions people have been basing their decisions on - the reading and buying experience.

But if the agency model is dismantled in whole or in part and Amazon and others can go back to pricing as they see fit, suddenly price is going to be at the forefront of consumer choice.

It doesn't take a genius to see that Amazon and their deep pockets are going to have a big advantage in that environment.

 And, just an fyi, he explains the difference between the agency and the wholesale model in the post.

In my previously mentioned post, I also talked about how PayPal was using its leverage against ebook distributors like Smashwords to ban certain types of erotica. Apparently, they're backtracking fast. Their new policy is much more reasonable and will only refuse the sale of books containing graphic (and potentially illegal) imagery and anything hinting of child pornography. The new rules will also look at books on a case by case basis instead of making sweeping statements about entire genres or topics. Mark Coker, founder of e-book distributor Smashwords, said:

"This is going to be a major victory for writers, readers and free speech. They are going to build a protective moat around legal fiction." 

 I have to agree with Mr. Coker. It's fantastic PayPal was made to see reason because otherwise this could have been a dark day in the annuls of literary history.

Oh, and, in completely unrelated news,  

THIS IS MY 200th POST!  

Go me! :D

Look for a giveaway of a bracelet I made to celebrate this milestone.

Writing: Collaboration

People have this image of writing as this solitary art where a writer is locked away in an office or bedroom or within their own head for weeks or months or years trying to get their ideas down on paper. While this image isn't exactly wrong, it isn't always right either. Everyone needs friends; writers are no exception. Sometimes, though, what's even more awesome is having a partner.

My friend Lani Woodland and I have recently decided to try collaborating on a new project. I have never worked with anyone on a novel and it's especially difficult in this case because Lani and I live on opposite coasts of the country. We've only been working on it for a couple of days, but so far I'm enjoying the change.

With a writing partner you are guaranteed to have someone to bounce ideas off of, someone who will care whether or not you add the main character's cousin to that one scene in chapter four, someone who won't think you're crazy when you start spouting off sections of dialogue to see how it rolls off your tongue. That kind of energy can help spur you forward in your writing, to get through your section so you can pass it off and see what your friend will return to you.

Of course, it's not all good times. Conflicts can crop up in a myriad of places and unless you have a clearly defined decision-making method, you may get stalled more often than you want. More likely than not, you and your writing partner will argue over style, dialogue, characters, and even punctuation if you're feeling particularly contentious. However, if you have enough common ground to stand on, the resulting story or novel could be something beautiful neither of you could have created alone.

How will co-writing work for me? So far, it's fantastic! Now I just have to wait and see how the rest of the story unfolds from here.

More resources:
Tor.com
Right Writing.com
Write For Your Life.com

Creativity: Boundless Possibilities And Directed Goals

I grew up in what I like to call the technologically intermediate era. They taught us how to use computers in elementary school even though few of us had one at home and toys had started to do more than squeak and roll, but most of my toys didn't do much of anything. Now I don't know a single person who owns a computer and it's hard to walk through a toy store and find a toy that doesn't have eight different tricks and gadgets.

Why am I talking about technology and toys? Because I found an article online talking about current college students and whether they're getting better or worse. Written by history professor Akim Reinhardt of Townsend University, this article talks about the demographics of the student body at different colleges and the professor's perception of the change in the student body (and it's interesting reading, should you be so inclined), but the part that really caught my attention came at the end when he started talking about LEGOS.

"LEGOS?" you may ask. Yes. LEGOS.

When I was little you could buy a huge bucket filled with little color coded building blocks. It came with "instructions" but those usually got tossed aside in the first five minutes and you were left with the endless possibilities of an infinitely solvable puzzle. Now? The only LEGOS I've seen in years come in pre-fab, branded kits that basically discourage creative thinking.

Below the break I copied the section of the article about LEGOS (just in case you don't want to read the entire original post). What intrigued me most is the implications for future generations of writers. What will happen when an entire generation of children is raised around single goal toys and formulaic games? If we don't exercise our collective imagination, will it slowly deteriorate?

Giveaways: What To Give?

Rita, the wonderful editor of Transcendent, is hosting a giveaway/blog hop over at her blog. She's invited me to participate (yay!), but there's one small problem. I don't have anything on hand that would make a very good prize!

To help solve this dilemma, I'm taking a vote. What would you like to see on the blog for prizes? Books (if so, what kind?), gift cards (from where?), or other (explain, please)?

Comment so I can get this giveaway started!

Writing: Getting Unstuck

Sometimes you're not blocked so much as stuck. For example, I have about twenty-five different novel projects because random bits of dialogue and setting pop into my head, but only seven of them contain more than a couple scenes. Sometimes these incomplete ideas are because I haven't invested time in plotting the story, but sometimes I just get stuck. This isn't always the same as writer's block (the difference for me is when I'm blocked I can't write ANYTHING, but when I'm stuck I just can't write anything for a particular project), but how do you get unstuck?

This article from Writer's Digest showed up in my inbox a little while ago and it offers a few different ideas to move you forward. The author specifically talks about research, conflict, and genre switching to help open your mind to possibilities, but these aren't the only possibilities. Switch POVs and try writing a scene or two from a different character's eyes. Try writing a scene completely unconnected with the story where your characters have to deal with an extremely odd situation (OMG! Where did all those tiny ninjas come from?!). There's no wrong answer, but that's really because there's no right answer. No solution is guaranteed. On top of that, the solution that gets you unstuck on one project might not work on your next. Also, you should try a few different methods, but don't let yourself get distracted researching cures for writer's block. Sometimes a story isn't working because it doesn't work. If that's the case, you might be sitting there forever if you don't one day realize it's time to throw in the towel.


Other articles you might find useful:
Advanced Fiction Writing.com
Cynthia Sally Haggard
Mindfully Different
Psychology Today
Story Hack.com
Tarah Lynn

Technology: Digital Power Plays

Have you ever met someone so sure of their own power over the world around them they could hold up their hand to block the sun and swear they'd created an eclipse? I have and sometimes it feels as though certain digital entities are beginning to see themselves this way.

Amazon has been facing charges of monopolistic action for some time now, even before they deleted copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from customers' Kindles back in 2009. The furor of this action (supposedly taken because the copies were from a pirated version of the book) was not any less despite the company granting ever customer a full refund of the purchase price, which I completely understand. It's just an unheard of proposition! No one ever had to worry that Borders employees were going to break into your house and steal back a copy of the book (leaving your refund on the kitchen counter, of course) just because a publisher no longer owned the rights to that book. We expect that once paid for, the book belongs to us. Apparently, we were wrong. And it's not the only time they've been accused of this. But this is old news and now customers aren't the only ones dealing with Amazon's power plays.

In February, CNET reported that Amazon shut down the sale of over 5,000 Kindle titles in a pricing/discount dispute with distributor Independent Publishers Group. The President of IPG suggested this was a strong-arm move by Amazon to increase their margins and get better terms from the publishers. Amazon refused to comment, but the sudden disappearance of those titles does kind of speak for itself. The article also mentions an issue with major publisher MacMillan over pricing when the internet giant refused to price ebooks higher than $9.99. This reminded me of an article I read a couple months ago about an official investigation into ebook pricing by the federal government.

According to the LA Times, "A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed that the probe involved the possibility of "anticompetitive practices involving e-book sales."" Major retailers have been controlling the prices of ebooks and despite their price being lower than the paperback or hardcover versions, prices have been rising steadily until there's barely a difference between buying a physical copy and downloading the ebook version. One of the major draws of ebooks (at least for me) is the price drop. If that goes away, they may see sales start declining across the board.

But pricing isn't the only issue. Apparently PayPal has taken it upon itself to become a moral compass and content censor as well. Ebook distributor Smashwords was threatened by PayPal in February that the company would revoke it's account unless Smashwords banned certain types of erotica from their site. While the content banned would all be considered by most immoral (and in some cases illegal), Smashwords spokesman and founder Mark Coker said,

"it’s a slippery slope when we allow others to control what we think and write. Fiction is fantasy… A reader should have the right to feel moved however they desire to be moved,” he writes. “We do not want to see PayPal clamp down further against erotica. We think our authors should be allowed to publish erotica.  Erotica, despite the attacks it faces from moralists, is a category worthy of protection."

And he's right. Letting a third party who is essentially unconnected with the production of content dictate what you are and are not allowed to print is ridiculous and probably unconstitutional. However, because PayPal is literally written into the code of the Smashwords site, switching to another payment provider is not a feasible (or fiscally responsible) option. 

What does this all add up to? I have no idea. These are all pieces of the still shifting publication puzzle. All it seems to me is that digital self-publishing may not be as free form as it is currently for much longer. The major players are taking control.

News: The Best Kind!

Yesterday, I got an incredible phone call. I entered two novel contests in January and the coordinator for one of them informed me yesterday that I'm a finalist! This is especially exciting because the prize is a thorough reading of the manuscript by a published author. I have been waiting for something like that for years! Probably the best prize they could offer other than straight-up publication.

I won't know if I've won for at least another month, possibly two, but this is still an incredible honor! And it's also fantastic to get validation from people I've never met that my work doesn't completely suck. ;)

As soon as I hear whether I've won or placed, I'll post it here.

Publishing: More Opinions

Today was a busy day, so I didn't have the time to get something up here. Still don't actually. So instead, I'm going to link to two articles you may be interested in.

What are the pros and cons of traditional publishers?
Almost like someone looked over the posts I've done and pulled out a highlights version. A quick, simple look at traditional publishers. The post also links to a pro-con list for print on demand and self publishing.

Five editors and authors discuss the role of the editor
This also links to the actual radio interview the brief recap article is based on. It's always interesting to hear from people with actual experience in the industry, although of course editors are going to think their role is important. ;)

Work may be as crazy tomorrow as it was today, but hopefully I'll be back with a full post. If not, definitely one in the next few days. Just in case I'm not, though, enjoy your weekend!