Another one bites the dust!

 I wrote a fight scene this week. I hate fight scenes. You mught think this is a bit of a problem in the fantasy genre, which often has battles and such, and the answer is yes, it is definitely a struggle for me. I know fight scenes are necessary. Action is exciting and can keep a reader interested in between dialogue and diplomacy that also has to happen.

 When I was working on the second or third draft of my novel, Scripted, my Honors Thesis advisor told me I should cut out anything that  didn't drive the plot along. He also said I needed to trim down scenes where there wasn't any action. I had a battle scene that I realized didn't really do anything for the plot, but I had already sent him my latest draft with this chapter in it. I fully expected him to tell me to cut it. Insteas he sent it back with the comment, "Yes! Action! This is great!" Something like that.

So action is important. And who doesn't like a good fight scene? My problem is the choreography. You don't want a fight to end too quickly. If someone gets knocked out or wins too soon, it can be a let down. However, if I let things get out of hand, sometimes I can't find my way out of a fight and it ends lamely. Like someone tripping over a rock lame.

The mechanics of fights can be difficult, too, especially if weapons are involved. The chapter I wrote this week did not have weapons, but I still struggled even knowing where to start.

So here's what I did: first, I sat on it. I let some ideas come and go as I pondered some interesting things that could happen in the fight. I did zero writing that day, I just thought.

The next day, I typed up some of the best ideas from the day before, including the way I wanted the fight to end. That way I could at least try to wrap things up in a way that led to that ending.

The next day I still was not feeling excited about writing the scene but I made myself write at least one paragraph.

And stuff actually started flowing. I incorporated a few of the ideas I had writtwn previously, and got about half-way through the chapter. The next day, I finished it, with the ending I had planned. A few things got changed to make it flow better, and then it was done.

I can't tell you how good it feels to be done with that chapter! I don't want to say I dread action scenes, they're just not the easiest thing for me to write. Having a plan can help, though.

What are some of your most difficult scenes to write? What helps you get them done?

Author Burnout

For the past couple of months I've been super excited over the publication of Scripted, and pumped up to finish the quadrilogy I've been working on since I was a teenager. Since about the beginning of this year, I've been trying to edit the second book in that series to fix some continuity errors that happened because I changed a lot about some characters over the years, along with my writing style. I finally got about halfway through that second book and then...

I got burned out. I am tired of working on this book. I know exactly what needs to happen, I know the changes that need to be made, but I don't want to go through the process of making those changes. I just want it to magically be done.

Maybe part of my burnout is from working on the same story for so long. But I think part of it is also because Scripted has hit a dead-end as well. I didn't exactly do anything that you're supposed to do when you self-publish. I didn't get reviews before publication, I didn't do much promotion, I haven't paid for any marketing. There is a reason for this: I know that until I have my quadrilogy ready, I'm probably not going to get a lot of attention. Series are one of the best ways to hook new readers. And without any other books under my belt, Scripted alone probably won't get me noticed as an author.

So I've been waiting on promoting myself as an author until my quadrilogy is close to being done. The problem is that puts a lot of pressure on me to get it done. Scripted is sitting there like an orphaned book, and I want to get more readers and sales, but I also don't want to bother until I have more novels available for purchase... but then that brings back the pressure thing. It leaves me feeling a little hopeless.

Normally, I advise authors to write at least a little bit every day, even if it's just a few sentences. So I'm writing this blog, because I don't know if I have it in me to write my quadrilogy today. I don't want to take too big a step back from this project, because the point is to fix continuity problems; if I wait too long, I might forget what I've done, and just create more problems.

Maybe now is the time to have a beta reader help me out. If someone else can find discrepancies in my writing for me while I take a break, maybe I can come back at it refreshed and ready to work.

Anyone want to help me out?

Forbidden Words

There are a couple of words that we use everyday that, as a writer, you should avoid. It's not always possible to cut them from a sentence, and there may be times when they're appropriate. No, I'm not talking about curse words. I'm talking about words that make you sound like an amateur author. They take up space without giving meaning. They slow down your readers. Here's my list of forbidden words that you need to watch out for in your writing.

1. "Was/Is"

Of course you can't always avoid using was or is in a sentence. They're conjugations of the verb "to be," after all, and there are many times when you need them. But "was/is" are often used in phrases that are detrimental to your writing, so if you see "was/is" you need to be on the lookout for these situations:

        A. Passive voice.

Passive voice is where the subject of a sentence is the receiver of the action. For example, "The rock was picked up by Scarlet." It's much better to say, "Scarlet picked up the rock." As you can see, "was/is" almost always accompanies the passive voice. If you know who is doing the action, cut out "was/is" and make the person doing the action the subject. It makes for a much stronger sentence.

An English professor told me there is one occasion where passive voice is okay, and that is when the person receiving the action is being victimized. So, the active voice would be, "Someone killed my friend," and the passive would be, "My friend was killed." The passive here emphasizes that the friend was the victim and puts focus on them rather than the killer. 

        B. Present participles (-ing verbs)

I don't mind this one so much in the present tense (how often do you say, "I go to the store," rather than, "I'm going to the store"), but I try to avoid it in the past tense when writing professionally. Instead of "I was changing diapers constantly," write, "I changed diapers constantly." Instead of "He was coming toward me," write, "He came toward me." It makes the verb stronger and so makes your writing stronger, too.

The exception for this is if the action is interrupted. So, "She was running when the rock hit her," is okay. Especially since, "She ran when the rock hit her," means something different. Also if a character doesn't notice something until the action has already been going on for a while, using the past participle might also be okay. For example, "The girl looked up. The ball was flying at her." But I still try to avoid this unless it really feels right.

Like I said, was/is are sometimes necessary, but if you see them often in your writing, ask yourself what they're doing in a sentence and whether there is a better way of expressing what you want to say.

2. "Started"

I used to use "started" all the time until a creative writing professor said I should completely cut it out. She said I don't need to describe the start of an action, I can just say what action happened and be done with it. So instead of, "I started running," say, "I ran." If you really want to emphasize that it happened without preamble, use a strong verb like, "I broke into a run." 

3. "Suddenly"

Similar to "started," you don't need to describe the abruptness of an action with "suddenly." If you do, then the verb you're using to describe the action isn't strong enough. There are other ways to convey that an action is interrupting another action, too. You can cut someone off mid-sentence ("He said, 'I am tired of telling--' The woman slapped him" doesn't require that you say she suddenly slapped him), or use onomatopoeia ("The girl sat quietly. Bam! Something hit her from behind"). Suddenly, started, and all their synonyms are throw-away words that make your writing weaker.

4. Adverbs

This one is the hardest for me. Who doesn't like a good adverb? But adverbs are a bit of a crutch for weak verbs. "He said angrily" can be replaced with, "He snapped." "She slowly backed away" can be turned into, "She inched out of the room." Do you see how those new verbs have so much more flavor and description to them? I don't know if you have to cut every adverb from your writing (though I had a professor who thought you should), but if you are describing every action with something-ly, it can get annoying and you ought to consider some better verbs.

Art by Juhele

In creative writing, we want our words to pop. We often think of adjectives and adverbs as being descriptive words, but in reality, verbs and nouns can be just as descriptive. If you avoid the forbidden words above and replace them with bold verbs and nouns, your writing with be much stronger and more enjoyable to read.

Maturing My Books

I've had a burst of motivation for writing since publishing Scripted. Honestly, publishing a novel has probably made me more excited about working on my books than almost anything else has.

Way back in high school, I started writing a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy. It took me about four years just to finish the first volume, and I'm not even sure how long the second took since I took a break from it for several years in college. I'm still working on the third. My writing style, some of the plot, and the background of some characters have all changed since I started writing that first book. I decided last year that I wanted to go back to the first book and update everything so the first, second and third books were more cohesive, and so I could feel semi-okay with having someone read it to give me feedback.

Besides having to completely rework a few chapters to fit with the plot changes I made later on in the trilogy, the biggest problem I've come across is dialogue. My main character is a teenager, and I wrote the first book while I was a teenager, so you would think that she would talk like a teenager. She doesn't. She talks like some wizened old war veteran. Which, given her age, actually makes her sound very conceited, not to mention unrelatable.

So, ironically, in trying to make my high school writing more mature, I am making my main character sound less mature. But I find myself liking her much better. She actually has a personality. I think originally, I wanted her to be this strong heroine that girls could look up to. Now, I still think you can look up to her, but you can also relate with her.

Aw, my book is growing up.
"Growing Up" by Lomasi_ is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Paperback Nightmares

Kindle Direct Publishing has this really nice tool called Kindle Create that lets you format and prepare your e-book before uploading it to their site for self-publishing.

I didn't know it could also format print editions.

So I worked for several days to get the paperback edition of my book ready to upload, but without Kindle Create to do everything for you, you have to figure out exactly how to set up the pages so it prints properly. Kindle does provide Word doc templates to help with this, but I forgot that if you copy and paste text from one doc to another with CTRL+V, it will keep the formatting and page setup from the doc you copied. 

After several minutes of trying to figure out why some pages were larger than others and realizing my mistake, I then tried to fix it manually, instead of just starting from the beginning and re-pasting the text only. This was frustrating as well, because I kept having to compare the page setup of the original template with what I had, but as far as I can tell you can't have two page setup windows open in the same time in Word.

Finally I discovered that Kindle Create has a beta version that will work for paperback editions. I am often wary of beta software, since of course it's still beta and usually comes with a ton of bugs. But trying to format my book by myself was driving me nuts, so I tried it.

It worked perfectly.

All this to say, Kindle has some pretty cool tools if you're self-publishing. You don't have as many options when it comes to fonts and stylized features as you might if you formatted everything yourself. But if you don't care too much about that, Kindle Create is a super easy way to get your book ready for publishing on Amazon.

Oh, and Scripted is now available both as an e-book and a paperback.

(Finally) Getting Published

Anne Lamott explains how you know you're ready to publish in her book, Bird by Bird. She says, "Finally something inside you just says it's time to get on to the next thing. Of course, there will always be more you could do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.... Even though you know that your manuscript is not perfect, and you'd hoped for so much more... if you also know that there is simply no more steam in the pressure cooker and that it's the very best you can do for now--well? I think this means that you are done."*

I wrote a novel for my Honor's Thesis back in college. This was almost eight years ago. I went through several drafts even after submitting it to my committee and graduating. And then I sat on it for several years. I had several friends give me some feedback, and I still didn't publish it. It wasn't good enough. And I was working on some other projects.

Then, this year, I told myself that I would get it published. And I mean, submit it to an editor and start the whole process of signing with a publishing company. My dream of being a published author would finally come true.

So I read through the whole book, fixing errors and re-writing some passages as I went. And by the time I finished, I swore I would never let it see the light of day. I didn't think it was good enough to send to an editor. And I knew that I didn't want to work on the book any more, so if an editor sent it back to me and requested extensive revisions I would not be able to bring myself to do it. The book is done. I can't work on it any more.

And I remembered the above quote. No, the book isn't perfect, but it's be very best I can do. The way it is now is the way it will probably always be. And the truth is, I like this book. It has problems, but it's a story I would like to share, even if it is only among a few people.

And I sort of thought about self-publishing. I wouldn't have to please an editor or a publishing company. And I wouldn't have to sign any deals that I release more books with them. I have a kid now, and my writing time is very limited; I can't guarantee a book will be done every year.

And either Google reads minds or I don't remember searching for self-publishing options because I randomly started getting suggestions in my Google feed related to self-publishing. The articles talked about women in India who only self-publish and make a living out of it. One woman had almost fifty books on Amazon, and she said she loved the freedom to release as many stories as she wants when she wants.

So the idea grew in my mind until I finally decided to do it. I've always wanted to be published. I had thought for a long time that that meant signing with a publishing company. But in the end, this might actually work out better for me and my family. After reading through Kindle Direct Publishing's process, I'm getting excited to release my ebook through them. And I'm excited to share this story with you.

If you're sitting on a piece of writing, maybe take a look at it again and ask yourself: is it done? And if it is, what are you going to do with it?

Scripted, my first novel, is now available exclusively on Amazon Kindle. The paperback will also be available shortly.

*Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Anchor Books, 1995, pp. 93-94

This Blog Lives?

 And something is coming.

Get hyped! ("File:Jim Gaffigan making
a goofy excited face, Jan 2014, NYC (cropped).jpg"
 by Alan Gastelum is licensed under CC SA 1.0)