Art Challanges

The styles and techniques between short stories (1-10K words) and novelettes (10,001 to 18K words) on the lower word count side and novellas (18-40K) and novels (40K+) on the higher sides are radically different. Please note that these are the averages I learned over the last thirty years. Each publisher can have different numbers for their specific requirements.

(Don't get me started about flash fiction, i.e. a story less than 1K words. It's a talent I haven't mastered, and mad respect to those who have.)

It's been a while since I've written the shorter forms, so my skills are a little rusty. A writer still needs descriptions and strong characters, but there's fewer words to drag a reader into the story. The genre and editor requirements make a difference.

There was a time I was a natural short form writer, but I was leaving a lot of stuff out that would make my work a better story. In fact, a couple of published author friends said I was writing screenplays, not novels.

But the freedom of being indie is that I don't have to force my stories into particular boxes. I finish the first draft. I edit it. I send it off to my alpha reader. That's it. Whatever the final word count is only matters when I go to make a print version. If it's a short story, I'll publish it as an e-book, and then I'll decide to group stories of a particular theme or by characters and group theme into a an anthology. For example, the Bloodlines short stories and novellas are collected in one paperback.

Unfortunately, when an editor contacts you with an invitation to write a story for them, they have a specific genre, word count, and theme already decided. I have to force a story into their dimensions, which for me is pretty damn difficult. And frankly, it scares me a little bit.

But if it scares me, then I need to do it. That's part of growing in our art.

Back in the Saddle

I've been writing since January 1st. Not much. My body is still getting used to my bionic vision so I can only stay on my laptop for short periods, but longer than I could with the double vision. However the small amounts are a start.

What I needed to do was go back and re-read the last couple of chapters of the wips in order to remember where I'd left off back at Thanksgiving. I didn't get as much writing done on our vacation as I'd hoped. Before we left, DH was rather passe about what he wanted to do or see in Las Vegas. But when we got there...

He had something scheduled for every day. Or multiple things for a day. It was such a hectic schedule I ended up napping quite a bit in our car.

So it feels good and weird at the same time to be writing again.

I'm considering participating another challenge Dean Wesley Smith is running this year--2024 words per day for 2024. The buy-in is $600, which would light a fire under my butt. In theory, the challenge is totally doable. I just don't want to tempt the Great God Murphy into throwing another life roll at me,

2023 was pretty good because I was taking it easy. Or I was until I decided to do the Witchstarter at the last minute. Then, I ended up in a surgical bay with a laser cutting up my bad eye lenses.

I know the readers will be all for it. More books for them after all! But I want plenty of time to make sure the stories are good.

So, it's something to think about for the next two days before sign-ups close. For those writers who want to check out Dean's challenge, here's the details in his own words.

Kickstarter Goals: Figuring out the Overhead

I'm still studying Loren L. Coleman's book about crowd funding. I've been supporting various Kickstarters for ten years, but this is the first time I've considered doing one.

The hardest part is estimating the overhead. The Kickstarter fee is easy enough. But it's the physical rewards that are a mess.

Loren recommends keeping it simple for your first Kickstarter and only use digital rewards. The problem is I know several of my readers prefer paper. I'm not even trying to do something new like hardcovers yet. That will come next year.

I'm looking at my basic trade paperbacks. The shipping in the U.S. is bad enough right now. But there's also my overseas readers who want paperbacks.

I've already ordered magnets and stickers as promo for my new series in preparation of the Local Author Fair in November. And a part of me wants t-shirts to wear at the fair, so if I'm going to order them, why not offer them as a reward on the Kickstarter.

It's all something to consider and calculate and make sure shipping is covered.

Budgeting and accounting makes my head ache.

Kickstarter and the Weirdness of a Mid-range Career

I'm in the odd position of not being a beginning professional writer. After releasing fifty books, I hardly qualify. Yet most classes or courses are aimed at newbies. It's a bit frustrating.

Because I know there are things missing from my repertoire. Lots of things. Like some aspects of marketing. I just don't know enough yet to ask all the right questions.

So I've been experimenting with some advanced courses. The big one lately involves learning how to run a Kickstarter.

Why Kickstarter? Because I want to experiment with issuing hardcovers, and Kickstarter seems to be a way to kill the proverbial birds with one stone. It would *hopefully* increase my readership through a new avenue while evaluating the interest in my tiny little publishing company issuing a new medium.

Ironically, there's a Kickstarter about running a Kickstarter right now. Crowdfunding Your Fiction: Best Practices seems to be a good starting point. Why? I was at the writer's workshop where Loren Coleman asked his initial questions.

Frankly, a crowd-funded book wasn't something I'd considered before. I didn't think I had the audience for it to be a worthwhile endeavor. But I'm reconsidering the idea. I've already purchased the covers for a new fantasy trilogy that won't be written until late this year at the soonest, and I planned for a 2022 release.

So I've got some learning to do if I want to use that trilogy as a Kickstarter.

This will be so much fun. *rubs hands gleefully*

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 166 - Back to Writing

I'm under quarantine for another ten days since getting back from Texas. Over the weekend, I spent most of my time editing or catching up on household and business management tasks. But today, I need to hunker down and get some writing done.

The final version of Murder Most Fowl is already uploaded and ready to drop on September 15th. However, I'm also trying to reboot Alter Ego's career.

Frankly, it was hard to think about romance and sex while facing breast cancer over the last couple of years. Now that I'm finally starting to feel like myself again, I've jumped back into the romance pool. I put up a boxed set of a series last month that included a brand-new novella. Right now, I'm working on a prequel novel of a spin-off series. Plus, I was dared to write a dirty Jane Austen Fan Fiction book by a couple of friends, so I'm looking forward to doing something new and fun.

But don't worry folks! I did work on Hero In Camera while on the road last week. I'll do my damnedest not to fuck up that release!

My work keeps me from looking at the pandemic stats too much. Honestly, quarantining makes me feel better about not being out and around other people right now. Our county cases are closing in on 500, and nationwide, we're closing in on  6 million cases and 179,000 deaths.

It was a gratifying to see most people take this damn disease seriously while we were on the road last week.

Now, back to writing some fun shit...

Tell Me Again How There's No Global Warming

I can honestly say I haven't been tempted to go outside and enjoy fall weather when I should be working on my wips.

We haven't had any. Fall weather, that is.

Our trees should look like this. I should be able to enjoy a hot cup of pumpkin spice latte in my hands. I should be wearing jeans by now.

Instead, it's October and ninety effing degrees. I'm wearing shorts. Even Bella is flopped on the other recliner because it's too damn hot for her to be in my lap.

And that's with the A/C on.

You expect this kind of weather in south Texas in October, not northwest Ohio.

I think I may nudge the thermostat down another couple degrees, and I'll get back to my wip.

Perfect Writing Weather...Almost

It hasn't been above freezing in Ohio since two weeks before Christmas. Our whole, whopping high for the period has been 18F. And today's the first time we've gotten above single digits since Christmas Day. (It's 10F as I write this.) In fact, when I took my car in for its oil change on Wednesday, the guys didn't wash my car like they normally do because it was only 1F.

In our old house in Texas, cold weather would prompt me to light a fire in the family room fireplace, curl up on the couch with my laptop and a cup of Irish Breakfast tea, and write to my little heart's content. Or I'd be in the kitchen baking and writing while the timer counts down on the oven for bread or cookies or pie.

But right now, we're stuck in an apartment. Genius Kid has had a two-hour delay every morning since school started back up. (Frostbite is a very real danger for the kids waiting at bus stops or who walk to school.) Darling Husband is constantly on the phone because this is his super busy time of the year. There's only so much my iPod and earbuds can block out. Nor can I simply move to another room for a change of scenery like I used to do.

What I have done here in Ohio is go to a coffee shop to get some writing in, which I tried Wednesday morning after the oil change. Unfortunately, my favorite place was louder and busier than usual. Apparently, quite a few people were still in town visiting family or they were taking the first week of the year off.

And I've been reluctant to go out any more. The flu is sweeping through my father-in-law's assisted living apartment complex and though the high school. I'm paranoid about germs because if I'm infected, I'll be down four-to-six weeks. And that's assuming I don't get a secondary infection on top of the original, which is usually what happens.

I didn't realize how much I'd gotten my hopes up when we placed an offer on a house last Sunday. It would have been perfect for us. The rooms DH and I would use for our offices were on the west and east sides while our bedroom and GK's would have been on the south and north sides. Reasonable quiet and privacy all the way around. Unfortunately, another buyer also loved that house and made a better offer we couldn't match.

So, back to the drawing board.

In the meantime, I need to find a way to cope with the distractions in our apartment without expanding my waistline. If anybody has a brilliant idea, I'm all ears!

Discipline and the Indie Writer

I could make a lot of BDSM jokes with that title because (1) Alter Ego writes that genre and (2) I have the sense of humor of a twelve-year-old American male.

Which meant I was rolling on the floor in tears when the Russian hookers/golden showers story broke.

But that's not the point I wanted to make.

If you're a regular reader, you know I've had a harder than usual struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Thankfully, we had a full day of sunshine yesterday so I'm feeling better than I have been through the month of January.

Bu last month, EGADS! Not only was I dealing with the physical issue, but my own lack of empathy for myself. Normally, I get up, brew some tea or pour a cup of coffee if DH made some, and write my blog post if one is due. Then I work on a wip.

Usually, I can do 1,000 to 1,200 words in a couple of hours. At the end of that time, DH and I break for lunch and watch a program. Currently, we flip between Season 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Season 7 of Star Trek Voyager. DH paraphrases Dr. Sheldon Cooper and says we watch them in the order in which Rick Berman wanted us to be disappointed.

By the time the episode is done, I go pick up Genius Kid. (I'll be sooo happy when he has his driver's license. I think.) Then I write another 1,000 to 1,200 over the course of two hours before I have to consider prepping for supper.

If the guys have something going on, I can squeeze in another hour or two of writing time. But to be perfectly honest, I've been catching up on Season 11 of Bones or binging on Arrow. (I fully blame Angie for the Arrow fixation!)

Needless to say, I've been mad at myself for not being able to concentrate during my normal writing times. Heck, I haven't even had the energy to leave the apartment and head to one of my writing haunts to jumpstart the process.

So what does my bitching and whining have to do with discipline?

The people who are accused of "fast writing" (like me) aren't writing faster than anyone else. We have the discipline to keep our butt in the chair (or standing in front of our computer stand). We spend the time actually writing/typing. We don't check e-mail/Facebook/new feeds constantly. We don't play games on our computers.

Well, all right. I admit to playing Mah Jong. I swear I only do it after the first five hundred words are written. And truth be told, if I can make to that five hundred, I usually can't stop to play Mah Jong.

But when I maintain my writing discipline, I can hit 3,600 words a day. And frankly, that's wa-a-ay slower than a lot of prolific writers I know.

The issue with indie writers is that we're not faced with external deadlines, such as detailed by our publishers in contracts. Any deadlines are completely arbitrary.

In order to succeed, we have to want to write. We must enjoy writing. Otherwise, there's a zillion other thing to do with our time.

My schedule above? That's only the current schedule. The one I've been following since 2015. Once GK has his driver's license, it will change. And when he moves out, my schedule will probably change again. And that's okay.

When you sit in the chair, or stand, to type, or write long-hand, isn't important. That fact that you do so consistantly is the important thing if you want a career as a writer.

Why I Don't Talk About My Writing Process

In case you don't follow Dean Wesley Smith or Joe Konrath (and frankly, if you're indie publishing or want to indie publish, you should be), both of them are talking about their writing process.

In Dean's case, he's been doing a writing in public series for August. He's a true panster, and for a hybrid like me, it's interesting watching him go through his day.

Yesterday, Joe came clean on four humor books he published under a pseudonym. In his case, he was trying to find the fun in writing again by doing doing something crazy and off-the-wall. He claims he blew his own rules of indie publishing out of the water, but is still making money on these books. (Personally, I don't think he did break his rules, but that's a post for another day.)

So, two different experiments, two experienced writers. But it's the comments that are most educational.

Basically, writers are afraid to let their freak flag fly. "Oh, my god, what would people think of me?" "I'll ruin my career!" "You can't write that fast! The book won't be any good!"

*sigh*

I give both Dean and Joe a lot of credit for growing a damn thick skin over the years. They don't let the stupid comments from people get to them. And I really do admire them for that.

I, on the other hand, am so fucking sick of confrontation. After the kerfluffle when I announced I was going indie, I've been actively avoiding most writers.

In the year since I quit the day job and started writing full-time, I've been working pretty damn hard to improve my craft. Writing faster. Trying new forms such as short stories. Experimenting with styles and techniques. And I'm getting the same comments from writers as Dean and Joe. "Oh, my god, what would people think of you?" "You'll ruin your career!" "You can't write that fast! The book won't be any good!"

Which means I'm down to a handful of people I can talk writing with. And it isn't anything I've actually done "wrong." It all comes down to the other people's fear.

So if you ask me for advice, you might only get a platitude from me until I get to know you better. Nothing personal, but I don't want your fear.

Now, if you can let go of the fear-monster and want to try something new, Joe's running a challenge at his blog. Write a short story, edit it, format it, create a cover, and upload it to Amazon within eight hours. Once it goes live, e-mail Joe the link and he'll mention you on his blog. I did it in seven hours and thirty-four minutes, but I got side-tracked looking at cute bulldog pictures. A lot of people did it much faster.

Try it. I dare you. In fact, I double-bulldog dare you.