Writers' Bloc

Jewel wrote in a message today! If she ends up sneaking me a link to her stuff, I’ll put it in here. :P But until then…

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Jewel says: My “method”, if you can call it that, is indeed madness. Before I’m finished with a piece, I’m already rewriting it. Specifically, I have a big problem wanting my beginning to be perfect and to catch everyone’s attention.

However, no beginning (or middle for that matter) is going to do any good without an ending. Therefore, I have a few questions:

1. How do you decide where to end a story? In the case of a serial, where does the first story end and the second start?
2. What do you recommend for staying on track from beginning to end? If I have a dozen ideas of how to start a story, how do I settle on one until I write the ending?
3. Reading aloud is a decent way to tell if a story “flows” well, but how do you blow apart the stuff you don’t like without needing to re-write the entire story?
4. How and/or where do you self-publish? Do you recommend putting short-shorts or “out-takes” on a person’s website?

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Let’s get to business. I’m going to hit these a little out of order, and they’re all going to bleed into each other, so try not to skim read! 

2. How do you stay on track? How do I settle on ideas without getting distracted by all the shiny?

HEY. HEYYYYY. Focus! I know there’s lots of shiny in the world, but you gotta keep your eyes on the prize. And that prize, at least when you are still writing, is not having a perfect story. Instead, the prize is having a FINISHED story. As the great Neil Gaiman says, “Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.”

Not to be a jerk and quote myself, but this was also said in one of our videos for Writers’ Bloc. “You are never writing to reach THE END. Writing is only the first step in a much longer process.” Your first step needs to be looking for the horizon as you construct your story. Remember that you are not making any ostensible progress until you actually have a piece of literature that is “complete,” relatively speaking. It should have a general plot arc, and have a page that says THE END, before you should even begin to think about any editing or marketing.

3. How do you avoid rewriting while trying to write?

I will say that I’m glad that you read aloud, Jewel! That’s the sign of someone who’s very conscious of the way their book is constructed on multiple levels, and shows some skill. The fact that you’re also spotting hiccups in the flow - and no doubt some random grammar problems along the way - is a great thing. 

How do you keep from constantly doing this though? I suggest two things. Firstly, MAKE AN OUTLINE. I know a lot of people like to write “by the seat of their pants.” Believe me, I do too - I love to write like a jazz musician, and let the story take me where it needs to go. But your story is kinda like a kitten: it wanders without any real objective or purpose, and chases things at random for the heck of it. So while sometimes this kitten-story will sometimes do something cute that will land you millions of views on YouTube, more often than not it’ll just roam around and get stuck up a tree. it’s probably better to keep that little kitty under control. 

Your outline is not a prison. Just because you plot out your story in advance doesn’t mean you can’t improvise certain parts of it as you go. Like Jack Sparrow once said, you outline is more of a guideline than actual rules. If you have an outline that can serve as a general blueprint for your story, you’ll always have something to keep you focused, and you’ll always know where you’re going in your story. If you do have a really good idea that alters the plot, reflect that alteration in your outline, and continue from there. 

Most importantly, and I know this might sting a little, BUT DO NOT EDIT WHILE YOU WRITE. If you are in the writing phase of your story, DON’T EDIT. 

I know this from experience. I used to rewrite as I wrote all the time. For perspective, I have been writing for 10+ years and only have two published works to my name. That should show you how effective this method is…

You are in writing mode. So you’ve gotta focus. There will be plenty of time for rewriting later, I promise. Your first draft is guaranteed to be a turd. That’s not to say you’re a writer. That’s saying that all writers are terrible writers. We think we’re alchemists crafting gold, but frankly, our drafts are usually minefields of illegible rigmarole. When you finally have THE END written on your last page, you can go back and find all the problems in your story, and fix them in a timely manner.

1. How do you know when to end a story, especially in a series/serial?

I wish I had this perfect little explanation that illuminates everything for you. But I don’t. Ending a story is kinda like trying to tell when you’re really in love with someone. It’s an irrational marker that you just have to place in your story and say, THIS IS IT. Some stories have this built in - it comes intuitively in the plot to break the story up into large sections, and it wouldn’t flow well if the story just droned on and on. Other stories are much more irrational, and you simply know you’ve reached the end when you’re there - no logic, no reason, it just FEELS right.

The easiest measure of when to end a story, though, is by the conclusion of a plot arc. Let’s look at Harry Potter for a second. Book 1, Harry learns he’s a wizard, goes to school, learns of evil Voldemort and evil plan to do evil things, stops Voldemort from doing evil things, leaves school, THE END. It’d be weird if Potter started his next adventure at the end of the first book, and to continue it on the next.

The way to know you’ve reached the conclusion of your arc is by asking two simple questions: why was my character doing [insert thing]. Did she accomplish thing? If yes, THE END, if no, keep going.

Since we’re also talking about series of stories, however, we’re working from a unique perspective and advantage. Because a series of any style means the story isn’t really over! In my serial, Star Sailor, I’ve made the episodes very short but with a full plot arc, just like a full-length. I end my stories whenever they reach the end of their arc.

Other series take different approaches. Some will wrap up at a random, arbitrary point, call it the end, and say “TO BE CONTINUED.” There’s nothing wrong with this, although it can leave some readers feeling like things were incomplete. It’s best used when the central conflict in your story is resolved at the end of the main plot arc.

The other option is to end on a cliffhanger. You build up tension in your story, stress the reader out, and then say THE END. It kinda sucks sometimes, because it’s really frustrating. But some people love that frustration, because it hooks them, and they feel the need to return to the series to see what will happen. The TV show True Blood built a career off of ending on cliffhangers, and its popularity speaks volumes.

4. Where do you self-publish your stories?

For some general advice before I get all biased, the meme speaks truths. My personal belief is that the more places you make yourself available, the more likely someone is going to see you. The biggest problem with self-publishing is that there are LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER PEOPLE DOING THE SAME THING. If books were unique little snowflakes, Bowker counted 235,000 unique little snowflakes for 2012. It’s expected to double in 2013.

When you finally start publishing, visibility will be your biggest concern. It’s so hard to get spotted, especially if this is your first venture into the literary realm. This is why many people prefer traditional publishing firms which have a greater visibility and more clout to be shared (although there is debate about how useful they actually are.

Which brings us to the original point: publish everywhere. Except for the Kindle Select program, there are no real reasons you shouldn’t publish in as many places as you possibly can. It means a little extra work, but increases your scope of visibility.

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that Ryan Gosling wants to read a good book.

By some whimsy of fate, the book Ryan Gosling wants to read is yours. But Ryan Gosling doesn’t really like Amazon and doesn’t have a Kindle; he also doesn’t use Apple products, so there’s no way he’ll download from iBooks; Nook, psh, don’t be silly. Ryan Gosling STRICTLY uses Kobo, because he loves their ethical standpoint. If you didn’t publish your story on Kobo, RYAN GOSLING WOULD NEVER READ IT, because he might not know it even exists! Sad days.

For my series, I do as I say! I publish almost everywhere. You can find Star Sailor on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and the iBookstore. (If you want to read, you can read the first few episodes for free by clicking here!).  It aggregates to a few more places via Smashwords, but I haven’t really looked into them - as far as I’m concerned, the ones listed are the major players for moving serious works of fiction.

As a side-note, the most success I see (and that most authors I talk to see) is through Amazon. I know they’re not exclusively the best (I prefer Kobo too). But as a reader, I almost exclusively use Amazon because it’s easy and convenient. I’m sure I’m not alone. And while other places may give you success, Amazon is definitely the king of the hill at the moment. So there’s that.

4.5 Should you post teasers, outtakes, and clippings?

CERTAINLY! If you’re a consistent blogger/Tumblrite, and have people who are interested in your work, there’s no reason you shouldn’t tease it a little bit. Just remember not to give your audience spoilers! Even if the scene is great, don’t risk ruining the story for them later. Also, don’t tease your story too much. If you seem to give out snippets of your book all the time, people might get under the impression that your book is going to be free.

Flash fiction and short stories are also a good way of showing readers your style of writing while still giving them yummy content to read. Both flash fiction and short stories are also good practice for your style as a writer, and a good way to break through any perceived feelings of writer’s block you might be going through. It all goes back to visibility. If you think repping your own work to your followers is something they’ll enjoy, it’ll keep their spotlights trained on you, meaning when you release your proper fiction to the world, they’ll be the firsts to see it and share it.

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AND WE’RE DONE. Hopefully that answered all your questions properly, Jewel. Hopefully it answered some other folks questions too! For anyone who has their own questions, drop one in our ask box and we’ll give you a response. If your question is kinda long or detailed, toss it in our submit box so you don’t have to deal with stupid word counts.

Hope everyone’s having a nice week!

-Chris

[read Chris’ series for free here]

mooderino:

When you first come up with an idea for a story, you don’t have to think too hard about what it is you like about the story. Something catches your interest. One idea follows another and you’re off and running.

Later, when you’re deep in the belly of the beast, maybe stuck in the middle of the first draft, or struggling with the umpteenth rewrite, the very point of writing as a use of your time comes into question. You liked the idea as an idea, but this sprawling mess in front of you doesn’t seem to be that thing at all.

Why are you even bothering? Who is going to read this? Aren’t there already a thousand stories like this? What’s on TV?

You have to be able to hold onto the thing that made you want to write this particular story. When the going gets tough (and it will) you need that thing to get you through. But first you need to work out what thing is.

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• Question: Do you have any tips for fantasy or science fiction writers? - dragonridingbookworm
• Answer:

  LOTS OF THEM! I, personally, write fantasy and sci-fi almost exclusively. This means out of all genre fiction, these are my specialties, and I am well versed. :) If you’re curious about the stuff I’ve written so far, feel free to download a digital copy of my short story series for free here.

  Now, I’m not going to give you a nice fancy essay, and I’m not going to make a video for you. Because that’s better saved for some more specific questions. If you have specific questions you’d like answered, feel free to send them this way, and I’ll respond promptly! But for now, BASIC ADVICE TIME.

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  Fantasy

  • Most fantasy is narrative driven, more than character driven. It’s more about exploring a fantastic world, while the interpersonal lives are usually an after-thought. When planning a fantasy, one should think of it in terms of “a tour of the fantasy world.” Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are a great example: the story takes us all across Middle Earth, to many dramatic and important vistas, all while telling a story.
  • Turning to the story itself, part of the joy of a good fantasy usually centers around an ADVENTURE. It’s all about going somewhere, doing something; very rarely will a fantasy dote about in one place for too long. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and many more have a lot of movement in their stories.
  • Dwarves, Elves, fairies, and other magical races are the standards, most so thoroughly poularized by Lord of the Rings, that they’ve all just kinda stuck in our heads, and are fantasy short-hand. They’re by no means your only options! The beauty of fantasy is that you can make up anything you want!
  • Fantasy is great at expressing race relations in stories. If you’ve ever wanted to delve into discrimination, but didn’t want to say something that might cause offense, it’s really easy to express this controversy by demonizing fantastic creatures or characters. Harry Potter did this to express criticism of slavery via the House Elves, and also general “blood hatred” racism through the conflict between Pure-blood, half-blood, and muggle born wizards. That’s basically a crash course in eugenics, frankly…
  • Magic is usually a critical aspect of fantasy. When creating magic, TAKE YOUR TIME. Magic is usually a very logical system, and needs rules to work. In Harry Potter, it usually requires a wand-wave and vocalization. Other forms of magic use an “inner energy,” and depending on the strength of the spell, will make a character feel tired. Even more require classic rules of magick and paganistic/naturalistic witchcraft, which you’ll want to do research on before applying. 
  • While magic needs rules to be believable, those rules don’t always need to be mentioned. In Lord of the Rings, for example, we encounter a lot of magic, but aren’t given a whole lot of the context behind it. Gandalf will cast spells left and right, but his magical knowledge outweighs everyone else around him; to them, the “science” behind the magic is all way over their heads, and thus not usually discussed. 
  • Most fantasy we read is deeply entrenched in a few major schools of historical background: medieval European, medieval English, Ancient Nordic, or Roman/Greek. Why? Who the butts knows. But this means most of your content - from names of people, names of spells, names of places, types of locations - will resemble these places. Game of Thrones captures this perfectly, putting Winterhold in a very dreary, cold idealization of medieval England.
  • You are certainly not limited to this, however! Other cultures can provide rich background content for fantasy. Almost ALL culture across the planet have ideas of the paranormal, magical, and fantastical woven into their mythos and culture. A fantasy with a twist of South or East Asian culture, African culture, Middle-Eastern culture, ancient Babylonian, Native American… the list goes on and on… all these offer a treasure trove of plots, magical types, and more. Just do your research!
  • There are many sub-genres of fantasy: urban fantasy, magical realism, dark fantasy, etc. These are ways of slanting your storyline to give it a different “feeling.” For instance, dark fantasy is heavily inspired by gothic themes - very depressing, very violent, very bleak. Rather that labeling your story simply as FaNtAsY, dig a little deeper, and find which style of fantasy best suits your story - it can help give your narrative a tone that you can follow.
  • The most frequently used fantasy subgenres are High Fantasy (also called Epic Fantasy) and magical realism. High Fantasy is your traditional LOTR or GoT styled narrative, with an alternate world, and lots of magic, knights, and swordfights; magical realism is closer to Harry Potter, incorporating lots of fantasy elements, but also blending them with things we know and understand in the real world.

  Sci-fi

  • Like fantasy, sci-fi is often very heavily narrative-based. It has a very diffinitive story structure. Another similarity is that sci-fi often uses adventure as a primary storytelling method. Imagine Star Wars: If Luke Skywalker sat around talking to people on Tatooine all day, it would’ve been boring. Instead, we get to explore the galaxy on a crazy, whirlwind adventure.
  • There are also a lot of different storytelling styles that can be adopted, however. Most common following adventure is political intrigue. It shows the political who’s-who of the fictional landscape, negotiating treaties, and strategizing intergalactic wars, and exploring foreign land for the name of science, not adventure. Star Trek (the old version, not the new version) and Mass Effect are great examples of this.
  • Sci-fi is also HEAVILY influenced by its subgenres, and there are a lot of them. Traditional sci-fi usually falls in one of two central categories: hard and soft sci-fi.
  • Soft science-fiction (also called science fantasy) is more about the fiction, and less about the science. The outer-space stuff is more of a backdrop to discuss larger issues of society at large, and explore different ideas and culture. Star Wars fits firmly here: there are forms of magic, types of technology, and situations that could NEVER be real. But we accept them because they’re just part of the story.
  • Hard science-fiction (also called speculative fiction) focuses more on the SCIENCE, and less on the fiction. The fiction is merely a backdrop for the awesome science that’s explored in the narrative. The focus here is to highlight outer-space life as REALISTICALLY as possible. No hyperspace, no laser blasters; space flight takes thousands of years, requiring cryogenic freezing, and danger is everywhere, as humans are weak and fragile. There is a lot of focus on the workings of astrophysics, exo-biology, and quantum theory would work if they were actually possible to be used.
  • There are many other forms of sci-fi that are very popular, as well, which I don’t have time to discuss. Nevertheless, they all play off the idea of a futuristic, semi-realistic idea of what life could be like, usually with a lot of emphasis on how technology affects the world. Here’s a nice list: dystopian, cyberpunk, steampunk, post-apocalyptic, zombie, time travel, superhero, space westerns. I trust you all know what Google and Wikipedia are, so for specifics, either send us an ask-message, or research it yourself!
  • To generalize, sci-fi is very interested in exploring the human condition. While adventure plays a big part, sci-fi - more than fantasy - is interested in digging into people’s brains to see how they work (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally). Much of sci-fi is focused on interpersonal relations in a way fantasy is only done here and there. Think of Game of Thrones in space; sci-fi is a reaction to the foreign, the different, and provides an impossibly probable landscape to act out these bizaro potentialities.

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  Again, both of these lists are SUPER generalized, and I am probably making some die-hard fantasy/sci-fi buffs angry with some of these statements, because there are a lot of particulars I simply can’t say without boring you to death by writing an essay that’s OVER 9000. If anyone has specific questions, I’ll be glad to answer those in much more explicit detail. But hopefully this brief run-down was sufficient for now. :)

amandaonwriting:

Feelings Extrapolated - The roots of your characters’ emotions.

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[source]

1. Stop Running Away

Right here is your story. Your manuscript. Your career. So why the fuck are you running in the other direction? Your writing will never chase you — you need to chase your writing. If it’s what you want, then pursue it. This isn’t just true of your overall writing career, either. It’s true of individual components. You want one thing but then constantly work to achieve its opposite. You say you want to write a novel but then go and write a bunch of short stories. You say you’re going to write This script but then try to write That script instead. Pick a thing and work toward that thing.

2. Stop Stopping

Momentum is everything. Cut the brake lines. Careen wildly and unsteadily toward your goal. I hate to bludgeon you about the head and neck with a hammer forged in the volcanic fires of Mount Obvious, but the only way you can finish something is by not stopping. That story isn’t going to unfuck itself.

3. Stop Writing In Someone Else’s Voice

You have a voice. It’s yours. Nobody else can claim it, and any attempts to mimic it will be fumbling and clumsy like two tweens trying to make out in a darkened broom closet. That’s on you, too — don’t try to write in somebody else’s voice. Yes, okay, maybe you do this in the beginning. But strive past it. Stretch your muscles. Find your voice. This is going to be a big theme at the start of 2012 — discover those elements that comprise your voice, that put the author in your authority. Write in a way that only you can write.

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Hey look, we actually made a video for once! This is partially in association with a flurry of comments and asks on the Yeah Write Tumblr, talking about Twilight. Thought we’d toss our literary voice into the fray. 

This time, we’re talking about Twilight, and what makes it a good series. You read that properly. And no, this video is not sarcastic. 

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hydeordie:

Austin KleonSteal Like An Artist 2012

Buy the print here.

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