..:: Written .:. Off ::..

First off, thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post. It’s great to see that there are writers out there who are able to think past what they are told by all the naysayers in the world. If you have some time, take a moment and read some of the comments on my last post. Some of them are quite interesting and eye-opening.

Now…onto the novel…

I’ve been thinking about my idea for the sequel, and unfortunately, it’s not lighting up my creativity. My first novel has a clear ending. I did not want to fall into the Fantasy Trilogy Trap. I like books that stand on their own, and swore that I would never write a trilogy, just because it seems to be the trend. For some reason, three is the magic number.

Yawn.

So why am I writing a sequel? Well, it’s so much a sequel, as a continuation of the main characters story. Since the first novel is very personal, I figured that I would make the second more epic. It just seemed to be the logical move. I had an idea for a story that dealt with huge armies from different dimensions converging on the world in question to battle for power. While this idea has possibilities, I’m still not sure if it’s the right story to tell at this point.

Last night, while tossing and turning in bed, I had a much better idea on where to go with the sequel. It’s a much smaller scale, but a lot grittier. I like gritty, and most of all, I want the story to be different. My philosophy when it comes to art is to do things that have not been done before. I don’t see the point in writing something that has been done to death a thousand times over.

I also find that I can’t just write for the sake of writing. Writing prompts and flash fiction challenges hold no interest to me. I’ve tried these before and my output is mostly crap. The only time these seem to work for me is if I already have a quality idea floating around my head that doesn’t fit into my current project. Some writers do well with writing on the fly, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

I know I’m on the right track with a story when I get a flood of ideas. I had a lot of ideas last night as soon as I came up with the new direction for the story. The challenge now is to sort through them, and then combine them with the bits from the original idea that are worth keeping.

It’s always good to keep track of any ideas that you might have, even if they don’ seem relevant to your current project. I’m not really organized, so sometimes I will jot stray ideas down in a notebook, or create a computer file with a few sentences. So don’t throw anything away! You never know when you will need it.

All of this novel planning makes me feel complacent. I haven’t actually written much in the past few weeks. My next steps will be to organize my ideas, and write a chapter or two. Even if I don’t use these chapters, it will help me establish the tone of the novel.

One of the reasons that I started blogging was to meet other writers. Many of the writers who I’ve met through this blog have been have been really cool, and open-minded individuals.

It’s when I move into the general populus of writers, that I get into trouble. The more writers that I encounter, the more I find that they are a drain on my personal drive to be a successful writer.

My annoyance always mounts when it comes to the subject of Self-Publishing. I was talking to some writers about my novel and immediately found myself on the defensive because:

• I’ve hired a professional to proofread my novel.
• I firmly believe that Self Publishing is a viable alternative if you are willing to create a product that is as professional as a book published by the “big houses”, and you are willing to promote your novel to death.

The general consensus seems to be, if you can’t get your novel published traditionally, then it’s not good enough and should be shelved. Self-publishers are considered to be hacks. Well, guess what, I’d like to have a $1000 (no need to be conservative) for every traditionally published contrived, poorly editied novel I’ve slogged through over the years. The book shelves are lined with hack writers. Being published does not mean you’re not a hack.

I’ve also been told that you can only hope to sell about 250 copies of your novel if it’s self-published. These same people seem to be ignorant of the fact that many traditionally published novels never even sell 2000 copies. Being published is not the be all, end all it’s made out to be.

I don’t argue too much with these people because I realize something; they’re thinking is way to rigid. Sure, there is a huge stigma when it comes to self-publishing, but I think that most of the bias is perpetuated by us writers.

Why do I think this? Until I started writing seriously, I was blissfully unaware of terms such as Vanity Press, POD and Self-Publishing. With decades of book-buying under my belt, I never once knew if a book I was buying was from a traditional publisher or from a self-publisher. I would just buy a book and read it. I didn’t check the spine to see who published it. If the book looked good, or was recommended to me, I bought it.

End of story.

Only now, since I’m a writer and read books on the subject, and interact with other writers, am I aware of these different publishing avenues. And the only reason I may have thought that books from PODs or Vanity Presses are bad, is because I’ve been told so by other writers. I’ve never once had a non-writer tell me, “Don’t buy that book! It’s self-published!”

Writers moan about how publishing eludes them, but will turn around in an instant and burn their bridges by condeming viable alternatives.

It’s funny. A rock band that self-produces a CD, and sells it by hand is considered to be “grassroots” and given credit for having a DIY work ethic, while the writer who takes this path is considered to be an amateur who couldn’t make it with the big boys.

I think that if you are going to succeed at anything, you have to be flexible, and open to any alternatives. If you believe in your work, you should be willing to promote it, and do whatever it takes to get it out there. If I can’t get my book published traditionally, you are damned right I will self-publish. And if you are too good to do it yourself, then it’s less competition for those who do.

I remember reading Henry Rollin’s Get In The Van (which is self-published), which chronicles his years as singer of the hardcore band Black Flag. In one section, Henry is depressed because only one person has shown up to the gig that night. To paraphrase, the guitar player says, “Whether there is one person in the crowd or a hundred, you still give it your all every night.”

I firmly believe in this philosophy. No matter how you are publishing your book, if you put out a polished product, and get behind it, at least you can say that you tried. I don’t want to be 70 years old, lamenting about how I once wrote a book but couldn’t get it published. I’d rather 250 people read something that I wrote, than nobody.

I was trolling the forums at Absolute Write today and stumbled upon a post about Blogs VS Website, in regards to being an author.

As an author, I prefer a blog because it’s more personal. I have direct contact with my readers, and I enjoy the feedback that I receive regarding my posts.

The author of the post said that he tried blogging, but quickly grew bored of it since no one was reading it. I suspect that the poster didn’t do much to let the world know about his blog.

There are a few things you need to do to promote your blog:

1. List your blog in the search engines. You can do this for free at Add Me and Submit Express.

2. Come up with a theme. Unless your readers are you close friends and family, they probably don’t care about what your cat did last night, or what you had for breakfast.

3. Find other blogs similar to your own and comment on them. This is a great way to meet like-minded people.

4. Respond to comments on your blog. Let the readers know that you are reading what they take the time to post!

5. Post often. I like to post at least 2-3 times a week.

6. Ping your blog every day! This will let blog sites know that you have a new article posted. You can ping your blog at Ping Goat or Ping-O-Matic.

7. Join a blog surfing site such as Blogexplosion. This takes some work, but I always manage to pick up a few readers.

If you are looking for a blog service, I recommend WordPress. Blogger is just plain buggy. Both of these hosts are 100% free. I don’t see any reason to use any of the pay services.

    Novel writing is a long process, and frankly, it should be. I think that some writers are in a rush to get their first book written and published, but is that really a good idea?

We all know that a poorly written book has very little chance of being published, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Sometimes a story needs time to simmer in your head. The longer that you take, the more time you will have to think about different aspects of your story and characters. I think if you rush a story, it may not be as good as it could be if you took your time and really thought what you are writing.

Many of us are inspired by things in our everyday life. Even a fantasy writer like myself, incorporates things that I see and experience into my work. If I would have rushed my first novel, there are so many details that would not be in there had I tried to pound it out over a short period of time.

Take your time, don’t rush. When people ask me how long it will take to write a novel, I alway answer, “As long as it takes.” The same thing applies to how long a novel will be page wise, but that’s another post.

I’m currently getting ready to do my brain dump. I use the following items for the brain dump:

• Several black gel pens
• 1 non-ruled journal
• Lots of tea
• Lots of time