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Recording Stories

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on May 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

In my last post I wrote about recording some of my e-published stories. Here’s my progress and what I think I’ve learned.

I got the microphone and set it up (which really just meant making sure that plug-and-play had the right settings). I downloaded the recording software. (Audacity). I purchased the e-book of a fellow Smashwords author on how to go about recording something.

As recommended in the e-book, I tried a test.

Heart of Oak Test

Now, this clearly isn’t ready to go, yet. I need to work on my technique a bit. I probably want to find some music or, well, for this story I’m considering bird songs for occasional background and markers between scenes. I think it’d be appropriate.

But this recording gave me some new ideas, too. I’ve tried reading my stories out loud before, which is often recommended. All I got was a sore throat. You see, I hear my stories in my head when I’m writing them, so reading it out loud didn’t really add anything to me.

Until I listened to this recording. I hear things in the recording that I didn’t hear just reading it out loud and my fingers itched to make a couple of revisions. Now that I’ve got everything set up, I think this is definitely something I’ll be trying with my writing.

Gotta love serendipity.

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E-Publishing Goals

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on May 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

My initial steps into self e-publishing haven’t exactly set the world on fire. Not that I expected them to. It would be nice, of course, but so would winning the lottery and they’re both about equally likely. Fortunately, I had more than one goal in e-publishing these stories (and a couple more to come over the next few months).

One of the things self e-publishing is going to force me to do is learn to market. This is a good thing. Someday, when I have an agent and a publishing contract, I’m going to need to know this.

I’m not doing it very well, yet, which would surprise absolutely no one who knows me. As a Girl Scout, I was the little girl who knocked on doors (yes, we used to sell door-to-door back then) and ask “You don’t want to buy Girl Scout cookies, do you?” My marketing technique has improved some since then. But then, it had so very far to go to start with. It could hardly have gotten worse, now could it?

It’s not something I really can work on effectively, or have any way to discern whether I’m doing it well or not, without something to market. So, I’m feeling my way, a little at a time, into marketing my ebooks, experience that I hope will serve me well later on. Over the next weeks and probably months, I’ll be stretching slowly–and sometimes probably painfully–out of my comfort zone.

Things that I expect to be trying out soon.

  1. Twitter: I’ll have to break down my resistance to anything that resembles a chat. I’ve always hated chat rooms. (I was only ever in a couple for classes that I was taking.)
  2. Pinterest: I’m a little worried about finding still another way to waste some of my writing time, but SFWA had a recent guest blog on how this can help an author.
  3. Audio books: I just bought a microphone so I can record my e-pubbed works, starting with “Heart of Oak” (it’s much shorter). I’ve got the microphone installed. Now I have to learn how to use the recording software. Maybe I’ll put some of my early efforts up here.  
  4. I also want to put my books up for sale on GoodReads. It’s another outlet. But to do that, I’ll have to get my own e-pub compiler, because that’s the only format GoodReads will accept.
  5. And I’m still working my way through Smashwords Marketing Guide.
  6. I don’t think I’m up to running contests on my blog, yet. Maybe a little one later on. Last week I got a taste of what I definitely don’t want to do, though. You don’t want to leave your readers feeling cheated. I think that may be a subject for another blog post.

Any other marketing suggestions? I need all the help I can get.

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Characters and Stories that Are Not for Me

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 1, 2012| 12 Comments »

Blogging a touch early because tomorrow morning is going to be too busy.

Over the last couple of years I’ve read several stories that just didn’t work for me. I want to be clear: this isn’t a judgment of whether these stories are good or not, just whether they’re the kind of story I like to read.

Of those that come immediately to mind–and no, I’m not going to name names or titles–two are by well-established and well-loved authors and one is a debut novel.

The thing all these books have in common and that makes them not work for me is a relatively inactive protagonist. It’s an inactive female protagonist in each case, but the fact is that I can’t think of a novel with an inactive male protagonist. I don’t really think that’s coincidence. These stories make me absolutely crazy.

Now, what I mean by an inactive protagonist is that this character doesn’t seem to be taking the lead in trying to solve the problem of the story, whatever it is. For one reason or another, this putative protagonist isn’t the real hero of the story. And that bugs me. It bugs me so much that it ruins the whole story for me. It bothers me even more when the story is aimed at a YA audience.

The one I’ll talk about was a very famous fantasy trilogy. Some of you may even guess which one it was. There’s no doubt the author is one of the premier fantasy writers of our time. The story was just wrong for me.

The first book was great, with a really kick-ass female protagonist. The second book was very hard for me to finish, in large part because that female character placed herself behind a much less capable male character (and love interest). They were actually, potentially, a very good pair–each providing strengths the other lacked. He was the thinker, she was the fighter. Cool!

However the male character’s agenda was allowed to overwhelm the female protagonist’s. Even though she knew there was something she should be doing, she hung back, letting the male character take the lead. I had to force my way through that book, telling myself that the second book in a trilogy is often the worst. The third book would be better, I was sure, because I had liked the first so much.

At the end of that second book, the male character was magically given the same abilities that the female had. Not only that, he was stronger. Ugh! And once again in the third book, the female protagonist sublimated her goals to his. To me, they were essentially fiddling while their world burned. I couldn’t even finish this book because I frankly just didn’t care what happened to these characters anymore.

The other books I referenced above have similar patterns. Female characters waiting for some guy to come along and make a plan and lead the problem solving. I don’t care if the protagonist has to enlist allies. That’s fine. I don’t even care if the allies turn out to have special skills that place them in leadership positions during part of the story. I do very definitely mind when the protagonist is not the one trying to solve the problem of the story. Oddly, that only seems to happen with female protagonists, which really burns me.

I want my protagonists to be active in trying to solve the problem. Now you know what kind of story you won’t be getting from me.

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Reviews

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on April 29, 2012| 6 Comments »

It’s a fact of life when you publish something that not everyone is going to like it. And some of them are going to say so in the form of reviews on Amazon or some other forum. Brace yourself for it.

As a writer, I just have to get used to that, the same as I had to get used to taking–and using–critiques of my work in order to improve as a writer.  And, especially when it comes to reviews, the one thing you must not do is argue about it. That only leads to a downward spiral. Doesn’t mean that’s easy, though.

I had to remind myself of this earlier this week when someone gave my novelette “Heart of Oak” a one-star review. Ouch.

Now, by definition, a reader cannot be wrong about their experience of a story. It’s their experience, after all. So this reviewer read some things into this story that I had actually tried consciously to suppress. To me, it’s a story about an outsider trying to cope with a world she doesn’t understand and a bit of a romantic fantasy (as in, yes, there’s romance in it, although not ’til the very end). This reader found an environmentalist message that had not been my intent. But that’s what they read, so I won’t argue with it.

The part of the review that stung a bit was where the reviewer referred to me as a “beginning author”. Well, yes, this is the first thing I’ve published. But it’s not close to the first thing I’ve written. I didn’t just jump in without first practicing and honing my craft, as the reviewer implies. I’ve been working at this for four years now. Believe me, the first short story I wrote (the first that actually was a story and not a vignette) won’t ever see the light of day again.

I don’t, in fact, write very many short stories. I’m more comfortable taking my characters on longer, novel-length adventures. But I wanted to put my toe in the e-publishing waters with something that wouldn’t be too complex to format. Short stories, even novelettes, don’t have things like hyper-linked tables of contents.

I selected “Heart of Oak” as my first attempt at e-publishing for a couple of reasons. Most everyone who had read it, liked it. And, yes, I do have critique partners who will tell me if I accidentally turn out complete drivel. It happened earlier this year with a misguided attempt at science fiction. I’m just not comfortable playing in that sandbox, yet and it showed.

“Heart of Oak” had been submitted to most of the paying publications that will accept that genre and length (almost 10,000 words is a tough sell). And, although it hadn’t sold to any of them, it had gotten some personal rejections and kind words. Including, from a well-respected and professional-paying market, that they liked my writing and characters, inviting me to send more stories.

Between what my critique partners said and that rejection, I felt confident that “Heart of Oak” was good enough to be the first thing I put out. If anyone found it a disappointment, I’m sorry.

Nothing will kill sales faster than a bad review. I always think about that before I post a review on a book that doesn’t work for me. Just because it’s not my cup of tea, doesn’t mean it won’t be the best thing someone else has ever read. So much depends on personal taste. (Which is a topic I’m going to take up next time.)

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Launch Party, Sort of

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on April 25, 2012| 4 Comments »

In celebration of having e-published BLOOD WILL TELL last week, here’s a snippet of my next writing project. Here’s the first page of THE BARD’S GIFT:

Astrid leaned into the freezing wind, staggering down the beach hunting for driftwood to feed their meager fire. She kept one eye open for anything edible. The gale felt like needles of ice penetrating her threadbare woolen dress and even the thick white bear pelt she wore as a cloak. What she longed to do was lay down and curl up around her empty belly. In sleep, she might forget how hungry she was, but that wouldn’t keep them warm through the night or put any food on her father’s table.

She’d been hungry before. It wasn’t even unusual at this time of year, but this had been the hardest and longest winter in her memory. The dried cod was all gone and there was still too much ice out in the fjord for the ships to go out to fish for more. The schools no longer teemed just offshore, as they had in her grandfather’s day.

The force of the wind doubled as she rounded the headland, almost knocking Astrid backward. She had to go farther and farther afield to find anything these days. An overpowering stench assaulted her nostrils. She looked up, seeking the source. The massive grey shape in the shallows was not a rock; it was beached whale. Food for weeks. Maybe even enough to get them through until the ships could get out of the fjord again.

She dropped her few sticks of driftwood, picked up her skirts and ran back for the long house. It would take every hand to harvest this windfall. No one would mind because they’d all have full bellies tonight for the first time in over a month.

Do  please check out the link over on the right to BLOOD WILL TELL. That isn’t just a pretty image of the cover.

Now, I’ve given myself an assignment to do something marketing related every week (besides querying FIRE AND EARTH, that is). This week it’s author’s pages–Smashwords, Amazon, Goodreads.

 

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Project Status

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

Almost a month ago, I posted this set of priorities:

  1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
  2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
  3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
  4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
  5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

I’m doing pretty well on these goals.

  1. I’ve finished the revisions to “The Music Box” and have it out to one reader. I’ll probably seek more readers at the beginning of the month, and then decide what, if anything, I need to change before e-publishing it. There simply isn’t any other market for a romantic fantasy novella. I’m also waiting to hear about a novelette, “Becoming Lioness”. It’s currently out on submission and I expected to hear back almost a month ago. Maybe that’s good news. If not, I’ll be e-publishing that one, too.
  2. I’ve now sent out nine queries on FIRE AND EARTH and gotten one request for a partial.
  3. I’ve started THE BARD’S GIFT, but only barely.
  4. I’ve just about completed the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’ll be looking for new readers soon.
  5. I haven’t yet done anything about preparing BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publication.

So, here are my current priorities:

  1. Keep querying FIRE AND EARTH.
  2. Complete the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL and find a couple of new readers to see if I’ve solved the problem of the slow beginning. The revision should be complete by the weekend.
  3. Mark up the revision notes for the last segment of BLOOD IS THICKER. That’ll only take a couple of days at most. I’m not ready to actually start on the revisions, yet, though.
  4. Then I’m going to concentrate on getting BLOOD WILL TELL e-published. That’ll also involve getting way more serious about some marketing.
  5. And once all of that is out of the way, I can go full bore on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT.
  6. I’ll probably tinker with the first draft of MAGIC’S APPRENTICE during any slow spots on THE BARD’S GIFT.

That’ll do for at least the next month, don’t you think?

 

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The Brighter Side of Querying

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on April 15, 2012| 9 Comments »

The other side of querying, of course, is waiting for the replies. When you open your mailbox and see a response to one of your queries, there’s a moment of anxiety, because, statistically, most of those replies are going to be some variation on “Thanks, but no.”

Then, every once in a while, you open the response to find a partial or a full request and your heart starts beating a little bit faster. There’s a chance.

I had both experiences last Friday. I have to say it’s just a little nerve wracking to be getting query responses on Friday the 13th. The first query reply I recieved was of the “no” variety. The second, though, was a partial request–my first partial request for FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS).

I sent off the partial and did a little happy dance for most of the rest of the day. It always feels really good that one of these busy professionals wants to see more of my work.

Now, for a few weeks, I get to day dream about getting a second request for the rest of it and maybe, just maybe, that offer of representation. The next step on this path I’ve set myself on.

I will get there one of these days. And I really believe FIRE AND EARTH just might be the one.

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Query Time Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on April 11, 2012| 4 Comments »

I’m always more nervous when I start querying a new story. Not as nervous as the very first time I started querying, but much more nervous, or is it anxious, than when I’ve been querying the same story for a while.

I started querying FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS) a week ago. I’ve sent out six queries so far. I already have a couple of form rejections racked up, too.

Here’s the query:

Now that she’s lost it and gone berserk, seventeen-year-old Casora is doubly cursed and there’s no going back.

Born with the mark of the berserker, she’s been sent away to learn war craft. Those skills are no use when her home is invaded while she’s far away. She turns mercenary, leading a band of teenage warriors looking for the chance to avenge themselves on the marauders.

What she really wants is to find a cure for the curse so she can go home. When she prays for an answer, she’s told to rescue the youngest prince to find what she needs.

Tiaran, third prince of a neighboring kingdom, is considered more a scholar than a warrior, but he’s determined to fight for his home. When the raiders attack, he’s trapped on the wrong side of the city walls. Casora and her band are sent to rescue him. With the capital city now besieged, there’s no option but to keep him with them and teach him to be a warrior.

But Tiaran has something to teach them, too. It’s just possible that Tiaran and Casora may be the answer to each others’ prayers.

FIRE AND EARTH is a 76,000-word young adult fantasy. Readers who liked Kristin Cashore’s GRACELING will enjoy FIRE AND EARTH. I have included the first three chapters per the instructions on your website.

Thank you for your time.

Fingers crossed for the four queries that are still out and for the queries I plan to send out in the coming weeks.

If this one doesn’t work–get me at least a partial request–after a few more tries, I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and try to revise or rewrite the query. That’s the way this process goes.

In other news, Mary Robinette Kowal published this terrific guest post on writing sequels. I just wish some of those points were more adaptable to my sequels to either BLOOD WILL TELL or MAGIC’S FOOL. I’m definitely going to have to put some thought into how I could incorporate at least some ot those tips.

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Using Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on April 8, 2012| 7 Comments »

I can’t over emphasize the value of critiques–both getting and giving them. They’re not only how we make a story better, they’re also how we grow as writers.

I’m starting to work through the critiques of MAGIC’S FOOL so the topic of how to make the best use of these critiques is very apropos.

Some critiques are like ringing a bell. They start an avalanche of ideas that makes the writer jump up and down shouting “Of course. Of course, why didn’t I see that.” Those critiques are precious. Sometimes you have to work a little harder for that same insight, but it’s just as valuable when you do see it.

Often a critique or a group of critiques will point out a problem that the writer isn’t aware of. After all, as the writer, you know all sorts of things about the story that didn’t make it onto the page and no matter how long you let it rest you can’t ever completely come to the story the way a reader would. If three or more people say the same thing, you probably ought to pay attention because there likely is a problem there. But, and here’s where things get interesting, it isn’t always the problem that the critiquer points out. It might be something deeper. Occasionally, it’s something much simpler that leaves me saying to myself something like, “Yes, but if I hadn’t been an idiot and cut this paragraph, that would have made much better sense and you wouldn’t have been confused.”

In this case, I’ve got an interesting mix of critiques. One reader says that I need an external antagonist. Another keeps asking me to show not tell and says the first half was slow, but the second half was great. Still another says that the story has potential, but lacks excitement. As a writer what am I to make of this? 

The first thing is to wonder if they’re all reacting to the same thing and just saying it in different ways. I think they are. I think what they’re trying to say is that they’re not feeling the protagonist’s problem, at least during some parts of the story. I haven’t done a good enough job of ratcheting up the conflict.

 And now I have at least some ideas of how to make my protagonist’s conflict much stronger. I’ll need more, but that’s what revision is all about. So, thanks to my great beta readers. It’s going to be a much stronger story when I’m through with this revision.

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Themes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

A theme is the central concept of a story. I don’t generally write a story with a theme in mind. However, it often happens that when I finish a story, I realize that there is a theme in there. When that happens, I can use that knowledge to inform choices that I make in the revisions to strengthen that theme, if I want to. Often, I don’t even ask myself what the theme is. I’m focused on telling a good story. Though, when I do, I can usually identify it pretty quickly. Sometimes, it surprises me.

For example, MAGIC’S FOOL, and in fact the entire series that starts with MAGIC’S FOOL, is about acceptance in various forms. (I really am going to have to think of a title for the series as a whole soon. Something to do with the two kinds of magic, I think.) In this case, though, it’s a little different for me because MAGIC’S FOOL and it’s sequels are rewrites of earlier stories with the unfortunate titles THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY (TSC and TIP for short). Now that I’ve decided it should be a middle-grade story, the events of TSC with a little of TIP thrown in will be broken down into three separate stories. The fourth book in the series will cover the central plot that was planned for the end of the original trilogy, but never written. It’ll actually flow much better this way.

What’s different this time is that I recognized the theme in those earlier versions, so I could construct the story around it in the first draft of the rewrites.

In MAGIC’S FOOL, the theme actually comes close to also being the central conflict as the protagonist has to learn to accept the things that make him different from who he expected to be. That works, I think, as a good middle-grade internal conflict. My beta readers who have it now will let me know if they feel bludgeoned by it, I hope. But I don’t think it came off as that strong. The two critiques I have back so far haven’t mentioned it, at least.

Still, that conflation of the theme and the central conflict is not something I necessarily want to continue throughout the series. In this case, I’ll have to be aware, not of what theme is developing in my story, but of keeping the theme and the central conflict at arm’s length.

That’s a little different than my usual course, where I don’t even recognize the theme until I finish the first draft. In the long run, of course, that’s all to the good: a learning opportunity.

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