What NOT to Say to Your Readers

During an interview in The Hollywood Reporter, George R. R. Martin was asked about finishing The Winds of Winter, the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Unfortunately, a quoted snippet has been taken woefully out of context by many other media outlets.

"...I'm not in the mood for that."

And ran with it they did. Esquire laments about Martin messing with his fans by not finishing the series.

I find myself a little irritated with George. As a reader, it's been fourteen years since A Dance with Dragons came out. I hate it when an author doesn't finish a series. So yes, I totally get that anger and disappointment from the fans.

On the other hand, I understand as a writer sometimes life gets in the way. It certainly did over the last six years of my life. The COVID-19 pandemic, the deaths of parents, breast cancer still being treated, the Genius Kid getting deployed and Grandpuppy moving in with us, assisting a cousin with estate planning, and the list goes on.

Not once did I not feel like writing! Even during the two-plus-year gap between A Hint of Thief and A Cup of Conflict, I was writing. Just not very fast. Frankly, I was doing good some days to get a sentence or two written before I dropped in my bed, totally exhausted. And yes, there were some days I worked on a light and fluffy story because my days were depressing enough that I couldn't work on anything deep and juicy without crying.

As a I told a reader who asked when "Coming Soon" will be for A Barrel of Vintner, I told her I always mean it when I'm working on a book, but I don't know what or when the Great God Murphy will drop another life roll on my head.

For example, GK is getting promoted to sergeant soon, and DH and I want to attend, but it's a day-long drive one-way to another state. A close relative contacted me about staying with her for a major surgery that's coming up. And I promised my cousin I'd drive her around to visit assisted living places later this summer.

That's while editing the one book that's completed and writing nine other novels before December 31st.

So I'm pleading to you Murphy, GIVE ME ONE DAMN BREAK!

As for A Song of Ice and Fire, fourteen years is an awfully long time to wait for the next book. And part of the problem I believe is George is overthinking his story. It doesn't help that the show-runners for Game of Thrones didn't stick the landing of the finale in the fans' view. So, George is probably putting so much pressure on himself to stick that landing that he ran head-first into the balance beam of his own ego.

So I do get why he's working on other projects. There's not so much pressure internally and from the fans to perform. But, George, if you're listening, maybe you need to just let the project go. Sure, you'll get some blowback, but honesty to your readers is much better than saying, "I'm not in the mood for that."

I Think. Therefore, I Am.

Actually, my existence is pretty questionable. My head's still fuzzy from the flu, but I'm eating a normally diet again. That's a step in the right direction.

However, I'm a little jealous of the friends who were able to attend last night's showing of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. More because they were physically able to attend the screenings, than wishing I could go to. However. everyone so far has said the ending was awesomely satisfying. So maybe JJ Abrams finally learned how to write an ending after all.

Yes, folks, the ending of a story is just as important as the beginning. If you haven't learned how to craft an ending, for the love of Cthulu, practice.

This is not a hate on JJ. I think the guy can come up with brilliant ideas. It's the follow-thru where he falters.

Alias. Revolution. Lost. All great high-concept ideas. But he kind of proves the adage that ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the actual story that keeps people involved. Also, the writer can't break the rules of their universe willy-nilly. Not without pissing off their fans.

Look what happened with the final season of Game of Thrones. The writers and showrunners had GRRM's notes, but they didn't have his passion for the characters. All the previous seasons, we knew who did what and why. And it's not the fact that Bran ended up with the Iron Throne, it's that the writers didn't care enough to sell that version to the audience.

Sticking with our world logic and developing an ending is something we writers need to do on a consistent basis. When I was writing Hero De Facto, I feared the May-December romance between Rey and Aisha would be the biggest sticking point with the audience. So far, there's been nary a word, which means I did my job as an artist.

So where is all this rambling going? To three craft points writers need to keep in mind:

1) Ideas are cheap and easy. Storytelling is hard. Work on your storytelling.

2) Endings are as important as beginnings.

3) Don't break the rules of your universe without a damn good reason that makes sense to the audience.

Now, I have to put together my shopping list. Genius Kid was Cincinnati chili with his football on Sunday.

Understanding Your Readers

I'm a little late posting today because I've been doing some catch-up reading. The Passive Guy posted excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article that triggered an insight:

Perhaps, for many readers, it does not make much difference whether a story is told in print on a page or images on a screen. The narrative itself is what matters. In fact, the Great American Read list confirms that there is a great hunger in our culture for grand, mythic narratives. The adoration of the Harry Potter books, like the nearly scriptural status of the Star Wars movies, involves more than just fandom. These are comprehensive universes, complete with their own laws and histories, heroes and villains, morals and meanings. They serve the purpose that was once served by epic poems like “The Iliad” or “The Odyssey,” or even by biblical stories: They dramatize the spiritual truths and longings that shape our world.

People will argue and wail and gnash their teeth (as some the comments on TPV show) of the main points of the article. But it was the highlighted one that made me understand why the Justice universe resonates with readers. Why more people comment on it. Why people want more stories.

All my other series are firmly rooted in contemporary society. The Justice universe takes our world as it was in the 6th century B.C.E. and twists it through an unimaginable conflict to become a nearly unrecognizable. But I try to make it firmly rooted in the (to me) natural progression of politics, economics, and technology if certain major factors are skewed a different way or if they never happened.

I'm not trying to compare my stories to Homer, J.R.R. Tolkien, or even George R.R. Martin. But I think readers do want a fictional world that's a little bigger in scope to escape to with all the craziness in the real world these days.

And there's not a damn thing wrong with that. I know I need a little quiet in another time and another place. I've been reading quite a bit of Gail Carriger and Jonathan Moeller the last couple of months. But now I know what some of my readers want and more importantly why they want it.

State of the Writing Address

My awesome plan to put out a bunch of books in 2018 has already hit a snag. For some reason, A Modicum of Truth has turned into a 100K+ opus. It is the longest book I've ever written, and it doesn't look like the third book in the Justice series will be any shorter.

For once in my life, I actually feel sorry for George R.R. Martin.

On the plus side, I did send the files to my formatter yesterday at exactly 5:00 p.m. EST. The second novel in the Justice series may not be out in January as planned, but it will be released shortly.

Today, I'll get back to the edits on Sacrificed, but last night, I worked a little bit on Hero De Facto. I needed something a little lighter to cleanse the writing palate before burying myself back in the Bloodlines universe. Between the intensity of the Justice series and the black moment of Bloodlines' overall story arch, I definitely needed a mental break.

The next step I'm considering as publisher is whether or not to use pre-orders. Amazon's rules are pretty sticky. A lot stickier than the other retailers. And I'm still not very good a estimating my time in this career, as shown by the delays in getting A Modicum of Truth out.

Let's see how I do on editing Sacrificed over the next couple of weeks. However, I am shooting for releasing it thirty days after A Modicum of Truth.

Stephen and George in Albuquerque

Stephen King and George R.R. Martin did a recent talk in Albuquerque, New Mexico. An interesting look on how each writer's thought processes work.

Description - Love It Or Hate It?

Description.

Some people love long passages talking about landscape and foods and battles. This is the stuff many epic fantasies are made of. Westeros and The Shire are as much characters in their respective books as Jon Snow and Frodo.

On the other hand, thrillers go for the short minimalist approach. If I asked a fan for a description of Jack Reacher, any specifics, other than height, they would give me would come directly from their imaginations. Why? Because the only thing Lee Child says about Jack's physical attributes is that he's unusually tall.

Which is better?

Neither. Both. It totally depends on the purpose of your description. Are you conveying information? Mood? Setting? As a writer, you need to ask yourself, "What is the purpose of this description?"

What brought up this subject?

Alter Ego released her latest book last week. A reader sent her a note the day after the release, saying she loved it. That it made her feel as if she were in the heroine's shoes.

I realized something that had been bugging me for over a year.

The biggest gripe one of Alter Ego's editors had was that there was so little description of the heroine. She thought there should be more details of the heroine's physical appearance. Not just height, hair color and body shape, but those of her snatch and breasts as well. I resisted, though at the time I couldn't say why.

I mean, I had no problem with physical descriptions of secondary characters, and my written picture of the hero could have been used for a police artist's sketch.

But the reader helped me answer the description question. I put so little detail in these types of books because I know, deep down in my heart, that most women reading romance and erotica want to BE the heroine. By only giving a rough idea of the heroine, they could imagine themselves in her shoes, especially since I write these stories either in deep third person or first person POV. And I haven't written one from the hero's POV. (Yet.)

So how do you use description in your stories?

You Can't Fuck Over Your Audience

When it comes to indie writers, there are two major gripes by readers:

1) The story is too short.
2) They are getting ripped off.

Frankly, the readers have valid complaints, but what most writers aren't understanding is that this isn't two different problems. It is the same problem; readers are not getting a COMPLETE story.

Much of the writers' confusion stems from from a couple of misconceptions:

1) Short stories don't sell.
2) Readers love series.

In regards to short stories, a single short is not economical to print. So trad publishers would bundle them into one volume, and then not market the book. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In regards to series, yes, readers go bonkers about them because they enjoy spending time with characters they love. But in a series, each individual tome needs a complete story.

For a story to be complete, it has to have a definitive arc. A beginning, a middle and an end. Stopping in the middle of the story is like stopping in the middle of sex. It's just not satisfying.

Then there's the promise of the genre itself. For example, in erotica, the protagonist's sexual journey changes her. In romance, the heroine and hero find their HEA, or at the very least their HFN. But if an indie writer advertises her story as an erotic romance, she needs to deliver on both promises.

I read a story that was novella length and was advertised as an erotic romance where the heroine was changed by her experience, but she left the hero at the end of the book. The writer received a large number of one-star ratings complaining that the story was too short. The writer believed the readers wanted a novel-length book. What they really wanted was the hero and heroine together at the end.

Our audience is not stupid. As long as you've set up the premise properly and deliver on your promise, they will generally accept your complete story no matter the actual wordcount.

Example 1
Brie's First Day of Submissive Training by Red Phoenix, 47 pages, first book in a nine-book series.

Red's best-selling series is a perfect example of short works combining into a cohesive whole. In the first volume, Brie makes a decision to attend a submissive training school, follows through on that decision, and learns something about herself in the process. This story is perma-free with sexually explicit content, but I strongly suggest downloading it to study Brie's character arc.

Example 2
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, 720 pages, first book in a seven-book series.

Another best seller at the opposite end of the spectrum--the epic fantasy. Reader complaints about George don't include the "It's too short" wail. While the character arcs for the other POV characters are just as complete, Daenerys Targaryen deserves special mention. Her storyline was sliced out of the main book and put together as a Hugo-award-winning novella, Blood of a Dragon.

Example 3
Se7en, (1995) starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey, directed by David Fincher, written by Andrew Kevin Walker.

I include this because Andrew's story and script is so gut-wrenching, yet makes perfect sense. Pitt, Fincher and Walker battled the studio to keep the original ending, and they did the right thing. When the detectives are chasing a serial killer so perverse that sadism should be renamed to "doe-ism," giving the movie a Mary Sunshine ending would have pissed the audience off more. This is a prime example of a not-so-happy ending completing the story. Spacey's Doe, who has been pulling the strings from the first minute of the film, manipulates Pitt's Detective Mills into committing his final murder.

Example 4
The shortest story ever has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway: "Baby shoes for sale. Never worn."

Is this a complete story? You betcha. The entire arc, beginning-middle-end, is there.

The Final Take
Your story can be any length. One of the great things about e-publishing is that writers don't have to worry about the physical limitations or expenses of print. Your story can be as short or as long as it needs to be. Just make sure your story is COMPLETE, the full story arc without any filler.

And don't insult your audience's intelligence by selling them one incomplete snippet at a time. They will know and they will not be pleased.

I'm Such a Dumbass

I decided to re-read George R. R. Martin's Songs of Fire and Ice series. I finally got DH to try A Games of Thrones after he finished Jim Butcher's Cold Days last winter and he needed something new. He wanted to discuss aspects of the books, but it had been sixteen years since I originally read the first book. I didn't remember some of the little things.

So I'm bebopping along a couple of nights ago, and it hits me. I realize who Jon Snow's mother is.

I wanted to smack myself for not realizing it back in 1996. Martin did such a delicate and delicious job of laying down the clues. It's actually been an interesting study as I wrap up Blood Sacrifice.

And this is why writing teachers say you need to read in order to write. By studying the masters, you can figure out their strengths and practice your own version in your manuscripts.

I just hope that George lives long enough to finish the series because I can't wait to find out how Jon and his half-sister kick ass!

Patience, My Writers, for Winter Is Coming...

Seventeen years ago, I was at a family wedding reception. My cousin Frank shoved a hardcover in my hands and said, "You have got to read this! You'll love it!"

Now, Frank and I were born literally sixty days apart. He's one of the very few people I trust when it comes to literature. Hell, he was the one who introduced me to the Uncanny X-Men when we were ten. If Frank says to read something, I read it.

The book Frank shoved into my hands at his brother's wedding reception? George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.

While the orginal novel received excellent critical reviews, much love from the fantasy fanboys/girls and a Hugo award for Blood of the Dragon (Dany's chapters excised to form a novella), the rest of the world passed by this excellent book with nary a gasp.

With the success of Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings, rumors flew about a film version of A Game of Thrones. However, HBO required the rights in 2007 and decided to turn A Game of Thrones and its sequels into a series. The long-awaited series finally debuted in April 2011. Now, you can't avoid Game of Thrones merchandise everywhere you look.

What does the history of A Game of Thrones have to do with writers?

So many of us expect instant fame and fortune. However, Martin is a perfect example of an overnight success--one that was nearly twenty years in the making.

Don't go into this business wanting silver and gold dropped in your lap. Do it for the love of story.

George R.R. Martin has been a professional writer for forty-three years. A Game of Thrones wasn't a story that George slammed out because someone shoved a shitload of cash in his face. This was the project of his heart, the one he walked away from a successful Hollywood career to write.

One of my favorite sayings is from Marsha Sinetar. It's the title of one of her books. Do what you love and the money will follow.

Write the best book you can and make it available to readers. Don't fret because you're not an instant success. Just keep writing.

And remember! You're nobody's bitch.

This same process worked for George. It can work for you, too.