Posts Tagged ‘reflections’

Self-Pub Authors: Advice From Readers

Posted: March 21, 2015 in Journalism, Writing
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My latest post from Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors has gone live this morning. This post is a special one: it’s a collection of advice from our readers, sent over the past two weeks to my inbox, all the best writing, editing, publishing, and marketing advice from writers of all sorts and degrees of experience. We call it “What’s The Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned: Words of Wisdom From Our Readers.” And I have to say, it’s all very good stuff.

If you get the chance, you should really check out the article. And if you’re so inclined, check out the rest of the website. Self-Published Authors is a site from independent authors for independent authors and has the best advice on writing, editing, publishing, and marketing efficiently and with as little cost as possible. I find it extremely helpful, and I help write for the website!

Anyway, that’s all. Got plenty to do today, so I’m going to get on that. Have a great day, my Followers of Fear.

Conversations with Angela Misri

Posted: March 18, 2015 in Author Interciew, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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Last year Angela released her first book, Jewel of the Thames, about a young woman named Portia Adams who moves into 221B Baker Street and begins solving mysteries happening in London (see our first interview and my review of JotT). Now she’s back, and she’s here to discuss her new book, the sequel to JotT, Thrice Burned and the growing fanbase around her character Portia.

RU: Welcome back to the program, Angela. Now, in Jewel of the Thames, Portia moves into 221 Baker Street, establishes a reputation for herself, and learns some very interesting things about her family history. What can we expect in Thrice Burned?

AM: Portia spends most of Thrice Burned struggling with the idea of becoming a real detective. Up until now, her cases have been small potatoes, brought to her by Brian, or friends or in the case of the missing child on a train, just the luck of being in the right place at the right time. With the full knowledge of her heritage just weeks old in her mind, Portia is truly at a juncture in her young life. Should she follow the easy route and take her law degree, fading into relative obscurity as one of the many barristers walking the streets of London? Or should she step up and take the road-less-travelled and take up the shingle to Baker Street, becoming the latest consulting detective in London? At the same time, other choices are being thrown her way when she meets Gavin Whitaker, a man who stimulates her brain in a way no one else ever has. Annie Coleson inserts herself into Portia’s life and suddenly, she has a persistent new friend (whether she wants one or not). So, in addition to the usual mysteries to solve, Thrice Burned focuses on decisions that need to be made for your young heroine to become the detective we all know she will be.

RU: Has Portia’s character changed at all between the books?

AM: Wow. Yes, it has, dramatically so. Where in Toronto she was essentially an introverted shut-in who did her best to fade into the background, since arriving in London Portia has made friends and developed a rather dramatic habit of getting into trouble. She’s still a very focused girl with introverted tendencies, but she’s starting to recognize when those tendencies move her towards depression and is trying to get a handle on it. She’s started documenting her moods, trying to avoid the extremes that her grandfather Sherlock Holmes experienced and while she doesn’t exactly embrace the lifestyle Mrs. Jones is determined to introduce her to, she does start to see its value and the value of the new friends in her life.

“Thrice Burned” by Angela Misri. Available March 24th

 

RU:  How do you come up with the cases for your books?

AM: This hasn’t changed through three books of writing about Portia. For me, it always starts with the crime – I have an idea for a crime and work outwards from there. In the case of Thrice Burned, I had a cool idea about some unexplained fires in London that could be linked back to a firefighter. In the case of my latest casebook that I’m working on for book four, I had an idea about unexploded mines from the first world war being set off at London train stations. I have a video from my series that explains my methodology (such as it is).

[Editor’s note: Angela has a series of web videos on YouTube called One Fictitious Moment about writing fiction. You can watch the particular video she’s referring to here.]

RU: Portia’s been gaining quite a fan base. She’s gotten some fan art and even appeared in a Wikipedia entry. How does that make you feel?

AM: Incredibly blessed. I still find it surreal to meet fans who know all about my characters and talk about them like they’re real people (which in my head, they are of course!).

RU: How many more volumes of Portia’s adventures can we expect? And what’s next for you personally?

AM: Well, I have at least one more book with Fierce Ink Press (coming out March 2016) but I am well into writing book 4 in the series. I don’t know to be honest. I think as long as I enjoy writing them, I will continue to do that and hopefully find someone who will publish them! In my head I really want to make it to the Second World War in the books, because Brian is going to go off to fight, and Portia is going to have to get involved with the war as well (though I’m not positive as to how yet). What do you think? Keep going or wrap it up at three books?

RU:  I’d like to see some more of Portia. And speaking of which, you were in London recently. Was that mostly research or pleasure?

A little of both to be honest! I haven’t been in London since I started writing this series, so I really wanted to put my eyes on some of the locations I describe in Jewel and Thrice Burned. I visited Trafalgar Square, Old Scotland Yard, Regents Park, Kings Cross station and of course Baker Street. It was kind of a dream come true to take a picture of my first book at 221B Baker Street!

RU: Jealous! Finally, what are you reading right now that you’d recommend to others?

AM: I just started Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz and on the recommendation of a friend I’m also reading The Grammar Devotional by Mignon Fogarty.

Thrice-Burned comes out March 24th, and will be available from Amazon and Indigo.com. Angela will also be attending 221B Con in Atlanta this April as a special guest speaker. And make sure to check out her blog, A Portia Adams Adventure.

And if you’re an author interested in getting interviewed for an upcoming release, head over to my interview page and leave me a comment. We’ll arrange for something to happen soon.

Hollywood and the Coming Saturation

Posted: March 15, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections
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saturation [n]: the act or result of supplying so much of something that no more is wanted.

–courtesy of Merriam Webster Online

Lately Hollywood is all about the franchises. Disney announced recently that they are making a Frozen 2, that they’ve set release dates for a Star Wars spin-off and Episode VIII, and for some reason they’re doing a live-action Dumbo remake. Sony recently announced that alongside the new female-led Ghostbusters reboot they’re making a male led one as well to even things out (because three male-led films vs. one female-led one is true equality), plus a production company to come up with all sorts of Ghostbusters-related stuff, and a Zoolander 2 is on its way as well.

Look, I’m looking forward to some of these sequels and prequels and remakes and reboots and spin-offs and franchises. Try and keep me away from the Poltergeist remake, the new Star Wars episode, and a few other upcoming films. However, I think that all this emphasis on creating major film series and franchises is actually working against Hollywood rather than helping it. I know that place is run by money primarily, with the idea of making memories and memorable films being a far second, and all these mega-franchises has everyone wanting to have their own moneymaker. But to pursue all that without investing in new material, to me anyway, is not smart business practice.

Not that there haven’t been original films this year. Seventh Son, Jupiter Ascending, and Chappie all are original films (one’s based on a novel, but whatever), so studios aren’t totally ignoring original ideas. However, the former two were panned and didn’t do well at the box office, while the latter…well, it did well at the box office, but the critics don’t seem to like it. I didn’t either. And that isn’t good, because it might make movie studios more wary about greenlighting new projects.

Does this seem a little excessive to you?

This means more superhero movies, more film series and franchise, more reboots and remakes and God only knows what else. And that’s likely to continue. The question is, how long will it continue? Marvel and DC have films scheduled through 2019 and 2020 respectively, but will we feel like watching them by that time? Will we feel like we’ve seen these films so many times that it takes something rare to make us enjoy the film, like it is for so many horror fans today? Are we going to reach saturation point soon? And when it does, what will the film industry do?

Luckily, there’s the indie scene, which is producing original and wonderful stories all the time (particularly horror: I Am A Ghost, The Babadook, and the upcoming It Follows, though I haven’t seen that last one yet). And the comedy genre keeps churning out with originals, probably because they know that pulling off sequels are difficult in that genre. There’s a growing number of biopics coming out each year (not exactly original, but not exactly overly done either), and most of the movies nominated for the Oscars each year are meant to be stand-alone films. Maybe we won’t reach saturation too soon.

But if we do, I think we might have enough filmmakers out there who aren’t so concerned with money and sequels, and want just to tell good stories. Heck, I might even join in then: I’ve got a few idea for screenplays, so I might write one too one of these days. We’ll see.

Do you like the way Hollywood is these days? Why or why not?

Do you think we’ll reach saturation point soon? What’ll happen when we do?

Social Media and Book Sales (or Lack Thereof)

Posted: March 12, 2015 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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Many authors these days start blogs or websites or Facebook pages or Twitter accounts or any of the other five-thousand different forms of social media, hoping that not only will doing so let them connect to potential readers, but these said readers will go out and buy their books. It was certainly my reason for starting this blog: I began a blog in August 2011 in order to build an audience so that by the time I published my first book I might have some readers willing to buy a copy. It’s also the reason why I started a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Contrary to this popular belief though, having a blog or any of the other things I mentioned doesn’t actually lead to decent book sales. There are numerous reasons for this, but I’d like to quote a friend of mine who recently posted about this on her own blog:

It’s like going to a movie theater and trying to sell your books to the people around you when all they want to do is watch the movie. Even worse, there are other writers in the theater trying to do the same thing you are, so the viewers are not just focused on the movie, they are purposely shutting out everything else. The challenge is to get their attention and make them more interested in you and your book than in the movie.

And like Pat, I’m not really sure how to get people interested in my book rather than the movie. While I’m lucky in that I’ve got a decent amount of followers (thanks for following, by the way!), if I charged for every time someone read one of my posts, I think my readership would be much smaller. My books cost anywhere between one to three dollars (if e-books) and a little under six to thirteen and a half dollars (if paperback). Plus I mainly write horror and science fiction, which don’t appeal to everyone.

Still, those aren’t the main reasons that I don’t make a lot of sales through social media. Other authors have had this problem as well, from romance and erotica authors to masters of mystery to sci-fi and fantasy lords and your literary connoisseurs. Like Pat said, every author is trying to get you to buy their books. I just happen to work in a genre known for its dark and macabre nature.

I think that’s the problem though. So many authors are using social media to promote their books that it’s difficult for any single one to get heard and make a lot of sales. The first few people who used blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and any other platform did make plenty of sales (or so I hear), but so many people have caught on that social media doesn’t sell as much as it promises.

It’s not easy to get sales through social media. But you can try.

 

Still, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be on my blog, let alone Facebook or Twitter. Each author discovers success on their own. I’ve known authors to gain many readers of the books and many more readers on their blogs. It depends on how you go about writing your posts, what you write about, and how you promote it, among other things.

Do I know what those things are? Well…I’m a bit better at writing a terrifying story. I don’t know all the tricks. But I’m learning them here and there. I let my readers know about important updates, what’s going on in my life, my viewpoints on important issues. I often share funny or reading and writing-related photos on my FB page.Most importantly, I let people know when I get a new review on Amazon, and use direct links to Facebook and Twitter in case anyone wants to look.

And it pays off. Literally: I got two tax forms from Amazon–one for paperbacks, the other for e-books–and together it wasn’t too bad. And I’ve only been published for a little over a year and a half!

So maybe social media isn’t the direct way to bestselling novels like it bills itself to be. But with practice, hard work, and a lot of luck, you can do some amazing things through it. #BelieveIt

Do you find social media helpful for selling books? Why or why not?

What tricks do you have for selling books through social media?

Intuition or Learning?

Posted: March 8, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
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Well today’s been a pretty good day, despite getting up an hour earlier. I went to a carnival to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, saw my parents dog, got my homework done much faster than I thought I would, edited a chapter of Rose, got in a good workout, and had an idea for a novel. So I thought I’d round out the day with a blog post, inspired by a blog post I read recently.

Do you think creative writing is a learned skill, or is it perhaps something instinctual? A lot of people, especially those who admire authors, believe that writing a novel is a born ability (yet these same people say they’ve “always wanted to write a book”, but have a hundred different excuses for why they don’t). From authors, I’ve heard different interpretations on the subject, but many feel that it’s a learned skill, while a lot also think it’s somewhat natural.

If it’s all learned, that means that with enough work and motivation, writing a story can be done by anyone. Put in enough practice, and eventually you can get at least the rudimentary skills down to weave together short stories or novels. It sounds good, but it also means that in the current state of the industry, where with the right resources anyone can publish, that we’ll see an even bigger flood of books from new writers. Some of these new books, unfortunately, will be poorly edited and even more poorly written, put out by people who might not be serious enough to put in the work needed for a book. They just want to see their name in print, to say they’ve published a book and are authors too.

On the other hand, if writing is all intuitive, then that means that likely there is some sort of gene or genes that allows for the imagination to come up with plots for stories and to transmit them to paper. I can only see downsides to this, personally: if writers are born, then that makes the realm of literature and its creation more exclusive than it already is. And writers who get rejected several times may get disheartened and give up writing altogether. Our next Hemingway, Rowling, Morrison or King, stopped by feelings that they aren’t worthy, or that they weren’t born with the right genes.

Personally (and perhaps mercifully), I tend to lean towards a combination of the two. It’s undeniable that there are things you can write that can only be learned. I’ve seen plenty of evidence of that in the past semester and a half, getting plenty of lessons in the course of doing a thesis and in my last creative writing class.  You learn through reading and writing, through getting feedback form readers, peers and professors, and from getting rejections from publishers, agents, and editors of all sorts. They give you all sorts of lessons in what writing is, and what good writing should be. And you never stop learning, no matter how much experience you may get.

Only with both can you become a writer.

 

On the other hand, you can’t learn imagination. You can’t learn how to dream, how to think “what if?” That is born, and so is the desire for the stories you come up with to appear on the page, to be shared with the world and be reborn in the minds of your readers. Without that, it would be very difficult to become a true writer.

The skill you are born with and the skill you acquire over a lifetime. Imagination and motivation, coupled with an assortment of lessons derived from the books you read and the stories you try to write.To become a writer, you need both. All writers with a passion for their craft need them in order to fulfill their dreams and set them down on the page. It’s these that make us who we are, the makers of magic.

Do you believe the ability to write is born or learned or both? Why?

Review: Ouija

Posted: March 6, 2015 in Review, Scary Stuff
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I wanted to see this movie in theaters, but the one near my place wasn’t playing it (or it might have but forgot to post it on their website. Believe me, they did that once). So when I got it recently, I was hoping it would break the string of  bad horror films I’ve seen lately. Sadly, Ouija has only become the latest dud on my list. Even the great horror producer Jason Blum couldn’t make this project terrifying. I blame the fact that Michael Bay also produced this film, and most of what he touches blows up in his face, even if it does make tons of money.

Ouija is about a group of teenagers who try to contact their friend after she kills herself using the titular board game. This causes them to get marked by an angry spirit that seems intent on killing them. From there, it’s a race against the clock to stop the spirit before it gets strong enough to kill them all.

This movie’s good on jump scares, but it fails to keep up an atmosphere of suspense and dread, making the movie a long drag towards the end without even gore or sex to try to make up for it all. The acting is passable, though most of the “teens” in this movie look college age or older. Two of the characters are sisters and that’s supposed to mirror the ghost’s relationship with a living relative, but they don’t go into it enough to actually make the connection more than scant at best.

Still, Lin Shaye from the Insidious films and Shelley Hennig from Teen Wolf both have minor roles in this film, so that livens up the film slightly. Slightly.

I’m going to give Ouija a 1.3 out of 5. If you want to see a horror film and tell your friends that even though you’re a scaredy-cat you weren’t scared, this is the perfect film to be the foundation of that lie. I doubt it’ll ruin Ouija boards for enthusiasts of the game, which is something considering Michael Bay’s track record and possibly the one true positive thing to say about this film.

Still, I can’t say it’ll bring anyone joy to know that there’s a sequel in the works. Not surprising, considering that it made nearly a hundred million dollars at the box office and was made on only five million. Let’s hope the sequel will be several years off and direct-to-DVD, right? And in the meantime, I hope a good horror film comes out soon. I could use one!

An Editing Metaphor

Posted: March 5, 2015 in Novel, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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The other day on my Facebook page I wrote a post about how I was doing some editing that day and I then…compared it to plucking a chicken after you’ve slaughtered it. Yeah, hearing it in my head it sounds really weird. But you’ve got to hear me out, it’s got merit as a metaphor. It even got a like or two after I posted it.

Then again, that like might’ve come from my dad, so…

Anyway, let me explain my reasoning for comparing editing to plucking a freshly-dead chicken (still sounds weird in my head). An author writes a book, edits it so that when the reader gets it it’s not full of boring speech, grammatical errors, plot holes, etc., and then turns it into a neat little consumable package that readers can pick up in stores or on Amazon for their own perusal. Similarly, a farmer will raise a chicken from the moment it hatches, feed it, make sure it grows, and once it’s ready, kills it, prepares it, and then sends it in a neat little consumable package so that grocers can eat it at home.

See my metaphor? So now that the first draft has grown to full size and been slaughtered with a butcher’s knife been written, I’m in the process of editing it. And if editing four other books has taught me anything, editing is a lot like plucking a chicken and getting rid of all the other bits you don’t want to eat. Yeah, every word, every description and every flourish of the pen (or keyboard) seem absolutely necessary when you’re writing the first draft. But then you give yourself a little bit of time to distance yourself from this book you’ve just finished and then you see that there are parts that need work. Some things could be phrased much differently, others could be shortened or expanded upon. And a lot of the work you slaved over, you just decide to get rid of it. Why? Because on reflection you find that it’s extraneous or doesn’t make sense to you anymore. So you nix it.

See, that metaphor does work! At least, I feel it works, especially in my case. I put in all these big words and beautiful flourishes and lots of explanatory stuff, and on the second draft I realize (or my beta reader points out) that a lot of it is weighing the book down. Sometimes you have to pluck them out if you’re going to make the story ready for sale in your local supermarket in bookstores and on Amazon.

What metaphor do you use for editing?

Oh by the way, Rose is coming along great. I’m a little bit over a third of the way through my novel-that-doubles-as-a-thesis and will start a new chapter after this post. And can I just say, I forgot how scary and unpredictable my antagonist can be. He can be very strange, and you never know what’ll set him off. I’m definitely trying to emphasize that in the second draft. I think people will like him very much when they meet him. Or they will fear him. I seriously hope they fear him.

Moved Into a Haunted House? Here’s What You Should Do

Posted: March 1, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I have never lived in a haunted house, as much fun as that would be. I have experienced paranormal activity (the hand!) and I stayed in a bed and breakfast at one point that I’m pretty sure had a few spirits in it (that door didn’t close on its own, I’m pretty sure of that!). But I would really love to live in a haunted house, provided the spirits sharing space with me were friendly.

However, I know that most people would prefer that their homes were spirit-free and if they move into a genuinely haunted house, they may not know what to do when such things occur. And since there’s only so many articles on the Internet about what to do if you move into a haunted house, I thought I’d add my two cents. So here’s what I say:

First, are you sure it’s haunted? Creaky sounds, cold drafts of air, a feeling of being watched. These could be signs of a haunting…or it could be an old house settling down and your own paranoia. Lots of times people think their house is haunted, but it’s actually just reasonable explanations. For example, a lot of times when people wake up, unable to move and see a figure standing over them, it’s more likely a condition called sleep paralysis, in which the body is interrupted by REM sleep and wakes up still dreaming, which is why you can’t move (lest you try to fly in real life while dreaming you can fly) and why you think someone is in your room.

So if you think your house is haunted, make sure that it’s not just problems with your old house or something normal causing problems before you call the Ghostbusters. Other common signs of hauntings include shadow figures or apparitions, voices that seem to come from nowhere, balls of light with no discernible source, mysterious footsteps or bangs, objects moving on their own, etc. This leads to our next topic:

Confirming you have a haunting. The wonderful thing about the modern age we live is that with the right tools, you can do just about anything. If you’re sure your house is haunted or you can’t find anything normal to pin the strange happenings on, there are numerous ways to get a better lay of the land, so to speak. One would be to consult paranormal research groups in your area. Reputable ones won’t charge you to investigate the house (I wouldn’t use psychics or mediums though, because there are a lot of frauds out there and they’ll tell you what you want to hear for a fee). Another thing to do would be to research the house’s history, see if any deaths (including violent ones) or any other odd happenings in its time. Ghosts have to come from somewhere, right?

All the better to catch crazy stuff like this.

And if you have the means to do so, you can go full Paranormal Activity, putting cameras around the residence so you can catch anything odd whenever it happens. Of course that means someone has to review all the footage, but them’s the breaks.

And if you do confirm you have a spirit in the house, there are several things you can do.

But first, don’t be afraid! God forbid it’s a malevolent spirit, it will latch onto that fear and use it to make your life hell. So remain strong and don’t let what’s going on get you down. If that’s happen, you can choose from several options on what to do next.

For example, you can live with it. Most spirits don’t realize they’re dead, or they do and they’re just looking for a connection with the living. Normally they’re also harmless, so all you have to do is say you acknowledge that there’s a spirit living in the house and that should be the basis for a good relationship. If you have any idea of its identity, I’m sure the spirit would appreciate it if you played music from its era or had objects around that it would find familiar. Like I said, all it wants is a connection.

Or you can ask it to go away. Strange as it seems, one article I read before writing this one claimed that if you ask a spirit with a firm voice to leave, it will. Or at the very least the ghostly hauntings will calm down a bit. No guarantee it’ll work, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Of course if it does continue to happen no matter what you do and you can’t exactly move, you might as well live with it. Unless of course…

One of these in your house? Get an exorcist or get the f@&k out!

It’s malevolent or demonic. In which case I think you should call an exorcist or look into some purification rituals. Yes, there are exorcists and purification rituals do exist. Call your local religious organization and see what they can do. And if that doesn’t work out, you might want to get the heck out of Dodge, because no one wants to be near a dangerous spirit.

What’s your take on living with spirits? Do you have any tips?

Do you believe in spirits? Do you think I’m crazy?

If yes, I’m not sure I want to hear your opinions.

Spring Semester 2015: Half-Time Report

Posted: February 25, 2015 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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It’s as close to a halfway point as we’re going to get. Normally semesters start on Wednesdays, giving the semester sixteen weeks, plus a week or week and a half for exams. For some reason this semester it started on a Monday, so it’s fifteen this semester, plus exams. We’re halfway through the seventh week of class, so I say time to update people on how my last semester is going.

And going it is, rather fast. I’m having trouble believing it’s the last week of February. I’m also having trouble believing how cold the weather is, but I guess that’s part of the deal when you live in Ohio. Anyway, school is going well. If you don’t know, I have three classes this semester. Business and Professional Writing is taught by one of my favorite teachers, so you know I’m enjoying myself. I’m also learning a lot that I can apply to my professional life, like some tips for job searches and resumes. I’ve already applied some of it by making slight modifications to my resume, and I keep modifying it depending on where I’m applying for a job. Whether or not those modifications are helping, I’ll write an article on that later this week if I get the chance.

History of Magic and Witchcraft in Europe is, as you can probably imagine, full of interesting stuff to learn. It’s not like reading demonologies or the court records of particular witch hunts. It’s more like learning how certain beliefs evolved, how people formed their views on witchcraft and how it came to be demonized. Right now we’re diving into the Malleus Maleficarum, the definitive work on witch-hunting of the Middle Ages. Trust me, it’s heavy stuff. And believe me, I’m getting plenty of inspiration for my own writing, as well as plenty of opportunities to go “Nyah ha ha ha!” like a witch.

History of Magic and Witchcraft in Medieval Europe. If you pass, you get a pointed black hat (I wish).

Restoration and 18th-Century Literature is also pretty interesting. The class is mostly focused on depictions of masculinity in plays and poetry of the era. It’s pretty raunchy stuff (believe it or not, we even read a poem about a living sex toy called Signor Dildo. Hilarious stuff!) and a lot of what we’re reading is pretty comedic. We even read a play I read my first year at Ohio State. It was quite the flashback. Sadly though, the teacher of this class has come down with a sudden illness and has had to cancel class a couple of times because of it. He’s currently rearranging the syllabus due to the missed days and he may have to give up some teaching duties, so I’m hoping and praying he gets better soon. He’s a good guy and I enjoy the subject matter, so I hope he doesn’t have to take off too much time for his health.

And finally, my thesis is coming along great. I’ve been working on the second draft of Rose, and I got two chapters done last night.  I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I should be ready for my thesis defense in April. I’m meeting with Manny and Paul tomorrow after work to talk about progress in our theses and maybe our defenses, so I guess I’ll have something to write about after that.

Am I forgetting anything else? Well, I guess I can say that I’m on track for graduation in about ten and a half weeks. Still a few things to knock off my checklist, but I’ll get them done before too long. Also, work and home life are going well. I know I’m forgetting something…not the job search, I’m writing about that later this week…oh yeah, now I remember:

After the semester started last month, the Ohio State Buckeyes took on the Oregon Ducks in the National Championship and defeated them 42-20! This is something I’ve been hoping would happen since I started at Ohio State and I’m delighted and proud to say that it happened in my final year. I’m going to have to get a commemorative T-shirt or sweatshirt one of these days. GO BUCKS!

Well, that’s all for now. Lots of editing and other stuff to do. Have a good evening, my Followers of Fear, and stay warm if you’re like me and you’re stuck in a place with lots of snow and chill.

Back to the Original Idea

Posted: February 23, 2015 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I’ve been struggling with some story ideas, trying to make them much more terrifying or compelling or just plain better. One is a potential novel, the other is a short story I’ve been struggling with on and off for about nine months or so. Both involve witches, strangely (maybe it’s a sign of something).

The novel has been a big struggle for me. The way I work with potential ideas, I write down a short summary of the story, like a blurb for a back cover, which allows me plenty of time to come up with ways to modify it, come up with new scenes and characters, and whatever else you do when you create a story. For the past couple of months, I’ve been looking into ways to modify this one novel. Maybe it’s been my experience with the initial story path of Rose, which was so expansive and crazy that it required modification and a new outline a month into writing, but I was worried I was going the same direction with this novel idea, and that I had to find some way to simplify it while keeping the original theme the same.

Well, I haven’t been able to think of anything yet. Ideas come to me but they don’t work out, I just shove them aside because they’re not what I’m looking for. I really like this idea, but I can’t think of anything that’ll work for this story. I’m a bit of a perfectionist that way. I don’t want to write a story that I don’t think is any good.

And then today while I was walking to class (to History of Magic and Witchcraft, ironically), I was thinking about this story, wishing that I could think of some way to make the story work and at the same time wishing that the original idea could still work. And then that errant voice that is in all of us, the voice that questions our beliefs and convictions, asked me, “Well, why can’t the original idea still work?” It actually made me pause (metaphorically, I still had to get to class) and think. I looked at the bare-bones idea of the story and thought. It made me realize that the idea’s original plot wasn’t as expansive as I thought it would be. It might make for a long novel, but it wasn’t so expansive that I had to create a whole world in several books. It actually was pretty solid.

Why was I so worried? If I wrote it right, it wouldn’t have the same problems as the initial draft of Rose. In fact, it might work.

So I’m not thinking about how to modify the story right now. Instead I’m thinking of this initial plot, how it could work after all and how I might support it. I’m not too worried about changing the plot. I can make this one work, if I’m careful.

And as for my stubborn short story, I had another idea on how to fix that. Don’t know when I’ll get around to working on that, but the idea will stick in my head for sure.

You know, authors are constantly learning something new, improving their craft and looking for ways to tell better tales. I learned this past fall that you have to be careful not to get too crazy with your story’s plot or you’ll lose the point of your story and it’ll be boring or confusing. That was the problem with my first attempts with Rose, which I made so big and sprawling because I was worried that if I kept it simple it might get boring.

That lesson is important, but one I got today is that you shouldn’t let fear of being too expansive get in the way of trying to make a good story.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to get some schoolwork done, and leave it at that for the night. Expect another blog post soon, my Followers of Fear. It’s about halfway through the semester, after all. Until then, goodnight and pleasant nightmares.

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