Category Archives: Novice Writer’s Journal

I went to Disney World with my lady friend and her younger sister last week. I know, I know, adults who go to Disney are creepy. Fine. I’m creepy. I accept that. You may or may not be aware, but it’s the most magical place on Earth. Unless you’re a writer that can’t relax, then it’s just magically painful.

I liked the idea behind taking some time off. I had just finished the third draft of my first book, and it’s rapidly approaching publication. I’ve written over half of my second book, and I’m madly in love with it. (And I’m hoping that doesn’t mean it sucks.) It seemed like a good time to stop and take stock of my situation; enjoy a little rest before finishing book two and three. I was wrong. I couldn’t relax the whole time I was in Florida. I tried to work and failed. I didn’t have anywhere to be alone. (I hate writing with other people around.) I tried just taking notes, but that isn’t the same. It was like eating a pretzel when I wanted a steak. I came up with a few good ideas for future stories, but by and large I was a miserable bastard.

If you Google “How often should I write?” you’ll find the whole gamut of results. Some people, like Stephen King, will tell you to write every day. Dean Koontz is another daily writer. I know there are a dozen more I’ve heard of, but none of their names come to mind. Other writers will tell you that’s ludicrous. One guy wrote on his website that he only writes once or twice a week, but writes for twelve hours when he does it. Another lady I read about would rent a cheap motel room for a week and finish the book she was working on there, working from sunup to sundown. Patrick Rothfuss took 11 years to write The Name of The Wind, one of my favorite books.

When I started writing I was certain I was a daily writer. Why wouldn’t I be? Nobody ever takes days off when they’re serious about a career! (Silly, I know.) Once I started actually writing, I found this to be impossible. I couldn’t do it more than five days a week. I struggled  to get 1000 words, let alone 2000 7 days a week, which was my initial goal. The book I thought would only take me two and a half months took four to write, and editing is taking about as long. But during that time a funny thing happened. It got easier. Every day I sat down the words came a little quicker than they did before. By the time August rolled around I could sit down and bang out 1000 words in 30-60 minutes every day, and most days I was getting between 1500-2000. Crazy, right?

And then Disney. I discovered that productivity is a double edged sword. Studies show that your level of stress after a vacation is actually higher than before. You get a little taste of the sweet life, but then you have to come back and catch up with the real world. A lot of people don’t like taking vacations. Looks like I’m part of that club. My idea of a good day is getting an article written on this website, doing some self promotion, and getting 2000 words down on paper. As it turns out, dicking around an amusement park is nowhere on that list. Not to say that I won’t ever go on a vacation again, I just won’t go on one that doesn’t afford me the chance to get some work done. You might be different. Maybe you’re one of those people that can write 5000 words every day. Maybe you only get 500 words three times a week. Maybe it’ll take you 11 years to write a book. Any of that is fine. Me? Daily writing from here on out.

But. BUT! I did get some very unflattering pictures of both myself and my girlfriend as pirates for your enjoyment, so there’s that. Here you go!

I can’t watch the news today. I’m tempted to stop looking at my social media feeds too. It’s all too much. I can’t believe that Robin Williams is gone. You get so used to something being a part of your life that you don’t think about it after a while. His comedy has been everywhere since I was knee high. I remember watching Mork and Mindy as a kid, and just the other day I saw him on Louis C.K.’s show. Robin has made me laugh more than any other person on this planet. I’m not one to get upset over the death of a person I’ve never met, but this hit me in a soft spot.

And why wouldn’t it? As a kid I grew up watching his movies. As a member of the military I heard about his many USO shows and thought, “There’s a good guy.” I found out he named his daughter Zelda after one of my favorite games, and we both played World of Warcraft. We grew up in the same area of Michigan. One of the few drama movies I will positively gush about is What Dreams May Come. He was a charitable soul who cared about the welfare of children and animals. Like a lot of writers and funny folks, we’ve both battled with depression. We had a lot in common. Just a downright amazing guy overall. He was a part of my life even though he was never really a part of my life…

And now he’s gone. The funny guy– the warm guy– died sad.

That’s the rub isn’t it? He died thinking that didn’t matter. It makes my stomach hurt when I imagine that.  As stupid as it is, I can’t help but wonder if he might have changed his mind if he’d seen how much he mattered. If he could have had an It’s A Wonderful Life moment– If he could have seen the article by David Wong, or if he could have heard the president’s comments— Would he still be here with us? This is a tragedy in two parts. Everyone who’s born is going to die one day, and that’s what makes our time here precious. When we cut that time short because we lose sight of life’s value it makes everything worse for those left behind. I can’t imagine what his lovely family is going through right now. It kills me just to think about it.

And that’s it. Shows over. Slow clap and walk off the stage. Too soon and too suddenly. Look folks, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But I swear if anyone reading this ever needs help, you just have to ask. This breaks my heart into a thousand pieces. If he could have just seen how much he mattered it could have been prevented. If you need please, please, please, call the suicide hotline or 911. Hell, if you can’t or won’t do that drop me a line. I’ll give you my number and we can talk. Do something, please. If not for your own sake then for the sake of the people who will be crushed by your passing.

At the end of July I got my novel back from my editor. It was quite the humbling experience. What I had up to that point was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself, but seeing all the red ink and suggested fixes was a clear indicator that I still have a lot of work to do. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating- editing makes a novel. No, it doesn’t just clean up a novel, it makes it. Editing builds it. Turns it from a collection of coherent words divided by poor punctuation (personal problem) into a good story people will enjoy.

The ending of Darker Shadows had to be changed. I liked what I had before this round of edits. My bad punctuation aside, the last 10% of the book was good, it just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the book. If that were the ending to a slightly different book I’d have been delighted. I wasn’t comfortable with it. Some of my beta readers liked it, but others didn’t. The final straw came when my editor didn’t like it. She’s the deciding vote in every decision I make with this book. Because she was able to point out the problems with it where I couldn’t, I was able to come up with something different. Something much, much better. I don’t feel shy about saying that this new ending is going to knock your socks off and scare the bejesus out of you, friend.

I don’t agree with her on everything, and that’s okay. On more than one occasion she fixed something and I decided not to accept the change. Don’t get me wrong, 98.99999% of her fixes were accepted almost immediately. My advice with this blog post? Unless you can clearly explain why you didn’t agree with your editor, you should accept their changes. Even when you can articulate your counter points, you should strongly consider their advice.

EXAMPLE
Bill walked down the street to the corner, same as always. “Always walking, always got somewhere to be. I wish I had a car.” His sister had gotten a car. She always got everything she wanted. Mom and Dad just up and forgot they had a son once that blue eyed little lady showed up. He spit on the sidewalk as he walked. Lost in thought, he didn’t see the man walk around the corner. They walked into each other. The man stumbled back and fell to the ground. Bill kept walking, an asshole as always.”

That example is laughably bad– I think I’d always walk off a cliff before I put something like that in a book– but the point gets across. This paragraph is ripe with unintentional repetition. Writers aren’t always aware of things like that when they work. Sometimes I’m so caught up in what’s happening in my story that I don’t see what’s going on the page. Editors notice things that so readers don’t have to. If you fought to keep that short paragraph unchanged then you’re wrong. Not, “Oh maybe it could work if…” No. Wrong. Stop it. Listen to your editor.

On the other had…

EXAMPLE
BEFORE
This guy seemed high strung enough without something like this happening.

AFTER
The guy was high-strung enough without something like that happening.

FINAL
The guy was high-strung enough without something like this happening.

This example is taken directly out of Darker Shadows. As you can see, there were a couple changes to that sentences. I accepted one, but I didn’t change the “this” correction in the final version. I think using “this” draws the reader in and makes them feel like they are part of the narrative. Additionally, I feel like using the word “that” feels a little clunky in this particular narrative sentence. Technically, the change is correct, but I decided against doing it.

I declined the change in this draft, but as you can see I explained why. (I also explained it in a side note to my editor)  If you want to disregard a piece of advice from your editor, I highly suggest that you do the same. Who knows? Your editor might come up with a clear counter point that makes you see it from their perspective in the next draft. You don’t owe your editor an explanation, but you owe yourself and your readers one.

Self-Doubt, every artists worst enemy. I have a friend who paints as a hobby, and she is fantastic at it. This isn’t just notebook doodles either, the woman has some serious talent. At the mere suggestion of selling her work however, she goes into full fledged panic mode. The thought of showing her work to someone besides close friends and family upsets her. A lot of writers I know feel the same way. I have a friend who won’t read his own work after he hands it off to the editor for a final look. This is a guy who sells a thousand books a month; a full fledged indie success story.

What I’m getting at is you’re not alone. Every writer goes through this at some point. You look back at what you’ve put on paper and tear it apart. You hover over the keyboard waiting to type, certain beyond a doubt that whatever you’re about to say is garbage.

I went through a particularly bad case of the doubts after I finished the third draft of Darker Shadows. I read over it again, stared at the last page for twenty minutes, and seriously considering not publishing it. (Keep in mind this is before anybody has seen it, including my editor.) “Nobody is going to care what I have to say in this story, ” I said. “I should just start over and try again. I can do better.” I pushed past it and handed it out to my beta readers. An English professor, a writer, and an avid horror reader- a daunting crew of literary hitmen/hitwomen if there ever were one. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Two of them have said it’s the scariest thing they’ve ever read. My professor friend told me it’s the first time she’s handed back a novel and had good things to say. Every one of them would recommend it to their friends.

But that’s not really the issues with self-doubt is it? It’s not about how others see our work, it’s about how we see it. I’m a firm believer that all artists leave a piece of themselves in their work. You’re going to look at what you made and ask yourself a lot of hard questions. Why does this matter? What does this mean? Will anybody else see the subtext? Will they care?

You have to remember that you’re inside the bubble. You’ve seen the story and how it works. You’ll remember every bad scene in a book even when you’ve removed them. You’ll ask yourself if your characters are realistic, and you’ll torture yourself with the minutia while you’re writing them. In a first draft it might slow you down- in editing it will nag you constantly- but it isn’t terrible as long as you don’t let it stop you from writing. You’ve got to push past it. Trite advice, I know, but it is what it is. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a writer that doesn’t suffer from the doubts, and if you do I’ll bet they’re terrible. No writer has ever finished a book without overcoming this at some point in the process, you can too.

If you think you’re writing is terrible it’s also entirely possible that it is. That’s when that nagging voice really matters. If you have self-doubt screaming in your ear I recommend you use it. Go back over the story. Suffer the small stuff and fix it. Let that voice tell you when a sentence is junk. Let the doubt convince you that one section doesn’t fit. (Just cut and put it elsewhere, don’t erase it.) Google things like, “shine versus shone,” and really dig into the language. Don’t be the guy/gal who just says, “Good enough,” and hit the publish button on KDP- there’s enough terrible fiction out there already. When it gets to the point where you just can’t figure out what to do next, it’s time to send it to the great and powerful editor. They might ask you to re-write parts, or maybe the whole damn thing. It might take you a long time to figure out how to massage the language into a good story. Nobody ever said it would be easy, but nothing can’t be overcome with perseverance.

Remember, that voice is going to yell at you regardless. Don’t let it stop you from finishing the story. Don’t let it stop you from being a writer.

Modern folk love multitasking. We do it all the time. It seems nobody can go so much as a whole movie before they pull out their cell phones to check e-mails. That being said, do you want to juggle multiple projects? It can be very appealing if you’re trying for a high volume of books a year. (I’m more of a quality over quantity guy.)

The big pro of working on multiple things at once is getting more done. If you can write short stories, multiple novels, blog posts, guest posts, and still manage to shower, go for it. When I’m working on all three of my projects at once I get 3-6 hours a work in a day. Those of you who don’t write full time might say, “So what?” Well let me put it this way. I can get out 2,000 words in about 45 minutes if I’m really in the zone. Not just 2,000 random words either. Good stuff, stuff I don’t cut out the next day or in editing. Today I got several articles polished up to be submitted for other websites, got this blog written, kept up on correspondences, and I’ll be writing about 1500+ words in my next novel tonight. That’s a lot of work. If I got all of that done every day I’d put out three novels a year and have the marketing on lock. Some people swear by multiple projects. I read a post on an author’s website that said she could only work on one project if she knew she was blowing off another.

The downsides are a little harder to suss out, and are a lot more subjective. I can’t work on multiple creative projects. Guest articles and a short story? Fine! A novel and a daily blog post? No issue! But a short story while I’m working on a novel? No thanks. I take a lot of pride in the believability of my characters. They’re all real people to me. They each have a specific way of talking. They have hopes, dreams, and opinions all their own. Each of them had a whole life before the novel started, even if you never see it. When I work on multiple creative projects my characters suffer for it. Writing for me is like doing Kung Fu: It’s better if I don’t think too much about it. When I write multiple projects I have to focus on who each person is and where they fit into the story. Not so when I only have one story going. Their world is the only one I live in, so it’s not like I’m going to forget who these people are. Multiple projects means I’m working in two worlds at once. I don’t like it. Hell, I don’t even like working on a story when I’m editing. (Although for time’s sake I occasionally do.) It’s like texting in the middle of a conversation; you aren’t giving those people your full attention.

You might not have this problem. The only way you’ll find out is by doing. Everyone’s different. All the advice in the world isn’t going to write that book for you.

Yes, there are some writers who will bang out a book in a month and have it on the Kindle the next day. I can’t do that. I torture myself with the particulars of the craft. I want to make a compelling story. I want readers to have an insight into my characters and the way they see the world. I had no sense of the timing for writing when I started Darker Shadows in January. I wanted to have the book finished and released by the end of April, and I honestly expected that to happen right up until about March. That timeline now seems laughably ignorant. I’ve discovered a few other things in that time that make me a better writer. For instance, I can’t write all day. I’m jealous of the people who can. Sometimes narrating around something is better than just showing it. (Not telling the reader about it mind you, but hinting at it in other things.) Most importantly, I’ve discovered that the second draft of a novel is where I actually put it all together.

Editing is to writing what ovens are to baking. You don’t have a cake just because you put all the ingredients in a bowl. Without an oven you just have a sloppy mess- The same goes for editing. I don’t think what I have as my first draft is bad, but bad is a relative term. It’s a pretty damn good first draft if I do say so myself. You’ll see my butt before you ever see that draft though. The only person allowed to see it is my partner, and after that I can’t look her in the eye for about three hours. First drafts are for us, the writers, not for the world at large. Like the title says, you’ve got to take an axe to that puppy first. Cut it apart until it lies in splinters at your feet then take the pieces and see what makes it tick. Glue it back together into something stronger.

I started editing last week. I knew before I started that I wanted to re-write the first few chapters and expand on the ending. I also knew that I’d read the whole thing out loud after the edits and polish up every line and paragraph. What I didn’t expect is that I would feel compelled to change the timescale of the novel altogether. Darker Shadows takes place over a few weeks in the first draft. Now that I’m looking at all the pieces I’m wondering if the story wouldn’t be better spread over a few months. Between that and the rewrites we’re talking 20-40k words of rewriting in a 106k word novel. (Not to mention the line edits) If you’d asked me when I finished the first draft in April if I needed to do that much rewriting I would have said no. It’s tough to do, but it’s a labor of love. It’s only going to make my novel better.

An experienced writer will probably read this and say, “No shit, Al.” But this isn’t for the experienced writers, its for the chums like me; people just starting out, people who want to go the indie route. I’ve read a lot on how indie writers do their thing, and the current thinking seems to be that you need to get your novel out there as quickly as possible. After all, everyone wants more books on the shelf so that they have better odds of getting a sale right? There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you can write, edit, get it re-edited, and market it without cutting corners. But you wanna know a secret? You can’t. You aren’t an exception to that; nobody is. You don’t just want to bang something out and throw it on Kindle. You need to edit it. You need to peel back the layers of your baby and see what’s under the hood.

Who am I to suggest something so audacious? I’m a lifelong reader, that’s who. When I decided to to indie publish instead of doing the rejection dance I immediately noticed that a lot of the writing community looks down on us. Sloppy they call us. Amateurs. People with no respect for the craft. At first I laughed it off. Well read people can sometimes be a bit elitist. (Myself included) Then I started looking at the competition. I’ve put down more novels after the first five pages in the last four months then I’ve put down altogether across the rest of my life. The amount of poor writing in the indie market is obscene. I’m not just talking about bad stories, I’m talking about run on sentences in the first paragraph, more adverbs than you can find in a dictionary. (Even if you search widely, exhaustively, and enthusiastically) I’ve seen more than one book at this point where the entire first chapter is the protagonist’s back story told as passively as possible. Yuck!

You know what could have fixed that? Editing. Going back and looking at your novel while asking some hard questions. Does the reader need to know this? Does this add anything to my story? Is the pacing good? Should I up the tension here? Would this book be better told from a different perspective? Do I need to change protagonists? Those questions hurt, and they’re supposed to. It’s called storytelling, and it isn’t as easy as a lot of people think setting out. (Once again, myself included) Take an axe to your love. Pour a hundred hours of work into something and then chop it to bits. After that is when you go back over it with a fine shammy to polish out the sentences. I’m begging you to consider this advice if you haven’t already done so. Not just because I want to see others succeed mind you, but because I’m sick of buying books and putting them down fifteen minutes later. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Go sharpen your axe.

After twenty years of talking about it, I finished my first book. Just reading that line makes me grin like an idiot. I’m a writer now. Me. This guy! I can say that to people with a clean conscious knowing full well I’m not saying it and hoping it’ll be true one day.  It’s fascinating to me that it took this long to just do it. I’ve finished projects before: Short stories, backgrounds, fan fictions, mods for games, and a few other things- But never something on this scale. The first draft ended at about 105,000 words. I already know I want to put another chapter in, and that the first two are total rewrites, so I expect that the final product will be between 110k-120k. Quantity is no indication of quality in books or anything else, but I think it’s is pretty damn good. I’m sure my editor- the lovely Jenn Loring– will help me keep it under control. (That and my hit or miss punctuation.) Big shout out to Jenn by the way for getting a big book deal recently. Congrats again!

So what am I doing now? Am I knee deep in the editing phase making sure that story is as perfect as it can be before I send it out into the world? Nope. I’m not touching that thing for at least a month. If I can help it I won’t even be thinking about it until I open that file up again. Getting good distance from my book will let me go back and look at it with a fresh perspective. I, and I’m sure others, have a tendency to see what I meant and not what I typed if I go back to something shortly after finishing it. If I go back now, I risk either missing obvious problems because I think its perfect, or seeing ghosts where there are none and chopping it to bits. (Get it? Ghosts? It’s a horror novel. Yuck, yuck, yuck.) Neither of those things is going to make the book better, so the best thing I can do for now is step away.

I intended to fill the space between, “The End,” and edits with short story writing. Whenever I get an idea I jot down a few quick notes on it, stick it in my idea folder, and head back to whatever project I’m working on. After I finished Darker Shadows I went to my idea folder and picked out a short story that caught my attention right away. I got about three thousand words in before I realized that I didn’t want to tell a short story. These characters are on a journey, and although they wouldn’t want you to know about it, I do. So my short story turned into a second novel. As of today I’m about 15,000 words in. I have no idea how this keeps happening. Darker Shadows was supposed to be a short story as well. Part of me is kinda proud of that. I see what the characters are going through, I see who they are, and I realize that there is more to the story than I first realized. Another part of me is a bit annoyed- I won’t be able to edit Darker Shadows until I’m finished with this book. (That being said it’s going by really quickly. This story is telling itself.)

I’ve also decided- under advisement from my good friend Ernie Dempsey– that now is the time to start getting myself out there and selling books. The unfortunate truth is that as an indie writer, finishing projects is only a small part of the job. Not only will I have to edit my book, re-edit my book, have my editor edit my book, and edit my book again, but I’ll have to sell it as well. Selling it is in my mind the hardest part. Mark my words: Anonymity is our enemy fellow indie writers. In a world that is choked full of books, how do we get anybody to read ours? After all, nobody backs us up but the few close friends we are lucky enough to have. The solution that has been presented to me is to get the word out there as much as possible.

Make a website with a mailing list opt in and draw people to it. Guest write on websites, answer questions on Qurora, and show off your book cover on Facebook. Get to know the innumerable communities for readers that are out there on the internet. Talk to local bookshop owners, and speak with books reviews sites about taking a look at your work. (Paying careful attention to their guidelines) Tell all your friends, make a Google+ fan page for yourself, link your website in everything you do online- The list goes on. The point to take away is that you have to sell yourself once you have that book. You are a writer now. You have a product to sell people- Sell it. Whatever you do though, do it tastefully. It’s one thing to mention to other people you talk to on Goodreads that you’re a writer, it’s another thing to bring up your book every time someone says a word that starts with b. (Nobody likes that gal/guy)

Why start selling so early?  The book is going to happen- It’s done now. Making money as an author is just a matter of when at this point. By the time that book is out on Amazon I would like at least a few people to already be talking about it. I’ll show off my cover, post excerpts, and discuss the book in broad strokes with people all over the place. I’ll draw them back to this website by engaging them wherever we meet. When Darker Shadows does come out people will want to read it. Think that’s crazy? Have you ever seen a movie preview and said to yourself, “Hey, that looks cool! I’m gonna see that.” That’s what I’m going for.

Truth be told I’d rather spend all my time writing. In an ideal world I could edit Darker Shadows, hand it off to Jenn, and be writing the next book a day later. Selling books is essential though. As an unknown indie author who wants to do this for a living, I’m going to have to be something of a salesman. I don’t like that- I’m bad at it and it felt sleazy at first. The thing I taught myself is to constantly remember that I’m not just selling books- I’m getting to know my possible readers. Like I said before, if you go onto social websites just trying to sell your book you’ll look like an asshole. Don’t do it, nobody likes a pushy salesman. Go out and meet people. Let the world (and the internet) see you for who you are. If one in one hundred people you interact with buys a book then you’ve made fans, friends, and sold a book all at once. Not a bad deal, huh? So every day- after I write at least two thousand words- I dive into the various social outlets I have at my fingertips and I mingle. Hell, writing is about telling a story, and every person you meet is full of them. You never know where the inspiration for your next novel might come from.

I hope my journal is helping a few people. If it is drop me a line in the comment section. I’d love to hear from fellow writer’s about ways they’ve found that work for them when it comes to selling books.