Write for Whom?

For most of my life, everything I have written has been for someone else's approval. In grades K through 12 I wrote for the teachers' approval and grades. Always in the back of my mind were concerns about how to word this, or was there a better word to use than that one? If I change my punctuation, will that garner better acceptance? Is this sentence too long? Can this paragraph be shortened? Did I use enough references in my bibliography?

College set a higher standards for writing... higher stakes with which to contend; another's approval now being more critical for securing grades which could effect my future life choices. Professors strong-arming for essays that supported their views, not necessarily my own. I was writing strictly for them.

Being a manager in the military brought yet another requirement... proficiency in technical writing. Regulations being very precise in directing what to do, who could do it, when to do it, how to do it, and why it had to be done. Step by step instructions, written to the lowest level, with nothing left out. Scrutinized at all levels of up the chain of command before being accepted and put into print.

Then came my time... time to write what I wanted to. After years of writing for everyone else I found it awkward. Now writing for anyone who might read my work, but who? I had no idea. I was writing for anyone... for no one. It seemed like starting all over... writing for someone else's approval, but now with no set guidelines and unknown expectations.

Poetry was the first outlet in which I found I could express myself, in my own style, letting feelings and emotions flow. There were no formal guidelines, no expectations, no rules to follow. Writing became therapy for life experiences, so I was in total control. I was writing for myself. Thoughts flowed faster than I could sometimes keep up with. It didn't matter if it made sense to anyone else as long as it made sense to me. In sharing some of my work I found that others appreciated such honesty and openness; icing on the cake. I discovered that there will be people who will enjoy my work, just as there will be people who will not. Once I made the decision to write for myself I knew I would always have at least one fan; and an ever changing following of readers. My work is always appreciated by one, and not by all. Write to please yourself; followers will find you.

By Steve Hall

 I am a family man, close to my mother and siblings, with three children of my own, three grandchildren, a girlfriend, a college degree, several career endeavors, and retired. With all these riches, I still have what is referred to in the medical field as "brain freeze", as I continue to look for lasting fulfillment in my life.

Find out more about Steve Hall on his site.

The Three Ingredients of Indie Success

There are a lot of different success stories out there, but the failures outweigh them by far in terms of sheer numbers.  So what's the magical formula for Indie success?  As far as I can tell, there are three key ingredients to Indie success.

A Great Book:

If you want to be successful, you need to start with first things first.  You need a great book.  This means that editing, formatting, and even the cover should be the absolute best that you can produce.  Never settle for OK.  Your book needs to scream five-stars from all angles.  Take the time.  Invest the effort.  Pour every ounce of your creative genius into that baby, then refine, refine, refine until it is as close to perfect as you can get.

Luck:

Yeah.  I know.  I don't like this one either.  But let's face it.  Luck plays a huge part in this game.  The market is constantly changing, so marketing tactics that work one minute don't work the next.  Add to that fact that the market is entirely flooded with Indie books.  Add to that fact that many of those Indie books probably shouldn't be published yet because they are full of errors, etc, (sorry, but it's true), and thus readers are wary of even picking up an Indie book in the first place....  Luck plays a huge role.  The chances of someone finding your book are right up there with the chances of finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.  Yay.

Persistence:

Out of all the factors, this is the one that you have the most control over.  Sure, you control the effort you put into the creation of your book, but there are certain innate talent factors that we have no say in.  We can refine our skills, but each of us have a limit, whether we like it or not.  It's part of being human.  However, you have total control over your actions, and that is where persistence comes in.  You must stubbornly refuse to give up.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  You have to be like a rabid pit bull.  You have to hold on to that thing that you believe in, and not let go, no matter how discouraged, how hopeless, how incredibly lost in the sea of Indie authors you feel.  When you feel like giving up, you need to give yourself a pep talk along the lines of "Hell no!", keep your chin up, and keep going.  This is a marathon, folks.  Quitters are automatic losers.  Only the ones who keep going ever have a chance of running into magic ingredient #2, Luck. 

Self-Editing: Learning to Trust Your Gut

Today I'm going to talk a little about editing.  Everybody go ahead and groan.  Get it out of your system.  OK.  Moving on.

Mind you, I'm not going to address proofreading, punctuation, or grammar mistakes.  We all know you need to produce clean, professional copy.  I'm talking about story editing that you can do yourself.  Yes, by all means, use an editor.  A good editor is priceless.  *waves at my beyond-priceless editor, Pol*  But before you ever hand your story over to that editor, it should have gone through extensive self-editing.  It should be the absolute best product that you can produce on your own.  You know... so your editor doesn't hate you 'n' stuff.

Shelf Time:

 The first thing you need to do when you finish a manuscript is give it some shelf time.  When you've just finished writing, you are way too close to the story to be able to see your own mistakes.  To some extent, you will always be too close, which is why you have beta readers and editors.  An author's mind fills in things automatically.  There is no way to not know what you know.  The best and only defense against this is shelf time.  Remove yourself from the immediacy of the story.  Let it sit.  Hopefully forget some things.  The amount of time required will vary from person to person, but I would suggest at least a month.  Lucky me-- I have a bad memory, so a month will do just fine.  While you wait, take a little time to recharge your creative batteries, if possible.  Or, if you just can't stop working (like some of us around here), stay productive by working on the cover, promo, or better yet, your next story!

 

Round One:

Think of this as all-important.  When you are alert and fresh, do your first read-through.  Personally, I don't spend a lot of time fixing things at this point, though I will make simple little fixes as I find things that irk me.  However, during my first read-through, my focus is on perceiving the flaws within the story.  Remember, you've got a bit of distance at this point.  Now is the time to see what is wrong.  Unless you plan on waiting months between each edit (which you might), you need to make the most of the first read-through.  Take a lot of notes as you read.  Write down everything that bothers you.  Everything.

Trust Your Gut:

Now we come to the heart of this little ramble, which is: trust your gut.  What, exactly, does that mean?  Well, you know how you're reading through, and you get to that part that you just don't love... maybe you're a little uncomfortable with it.  Maybe it doesn't grab you.  Maybe you know it's kind of canned, follows the same old formula, and it doesn't really have any life of its own.  It could be a line, or a whole chapter.  Then you look at it and you think "It's pretty decent writing.  There's nothing wrong with it."  And you don't really feel like rewriting that whole chapter.  Good enough.  Right?  Absolutely not.  Because if you feel that way about it, chances are your audience will feel that way too.  I will tell you the exact same thing I tell myself every time I feel the urge to pass one by:  Get off your lazy butt, stop making excuses, and put in the effort until the passage in question is as awesome as the rest of your book.  Lazy writers are not amazing writers.  And you want to be amazing, right?

Every Moment, Every Scene:

Yep.  Every moment and every scene should count.  If it's not amazing, fix it.  If you can't fix it, get rid of it.  Ask yourself why it's there.  What does it contribute?  Does it give the reader information, develop characters, etc?  Is there a way to work those things into another scene that is already up to quality?  Make sure that every single scene is the best you can make it.  This is one of the differences between writing a 5-star book and a "meh" book.  All of us should always be striving for five stars (especially if we ever hope to be taken seriously as Indie authors).

 

How I Learned All This:

When I was editing E, there were a few things I was OK with, but my gut instinct was shouting at me "Get off your lazy butt, etc."  Still, I thought it was pretty good.  And it was.  Pretty good.  But not amazing.  So I finished editing and gave it to my to-die-for editor, who read it, thought it was pretty good, and pointed out the exact scenes that my gut had already prompted me to rewrite.  Then he said "Get off your lazy butt...."  You get the picture.  Reluctantly, with a little prodding, I rewrote the things that still needed to be rewritten.  It was hard.  Some of it really gave me a run for my money.  In the end, the novel as a whole was soooooo incredibly improved for not suffering those few downfalls that would have let the story lag, or just wouldn't have done justice to key moments.  It's a solid story and the effort has paid off in some pretty good reviews.

Forging Onward:

 So now I'm editing the second book in the E series.  I've just come to this chapter in the middle that has some really cool ideas.  But there's something not quite right.  The writing is solid.  There are some interesting concepts, some nice action, great dialogue.  Nothing wrong, right?  Psh.  My gut says it needs to change.  I can't even put words to why it needs to change, but when I read it, I just get that uncomfortable feeling.  And since, last time around, 95% of the problems my editor found were ones that my gut had pointed out before-hand, I know that I need to stop and pay attention.  I need to listen to my instincts, push through the laziness, and hand my editor the best product I can create.  That leaves him free to find the things that I can't see, which is why I really need him in the first place.  Not because I'm a lazy writer.

Last Thoughts:

If you do this-- really pay attention to your instincts and put in the work-- your writing is only going to get better.  Now, as I always say, every writer's process is different.  You do what works for you personally.  So once you get past shelf time and a perceptive read-through, you will probably find your own path.  One thing I would say is just to be careful to find a balance.  You can over-edit and under-edit.  Yes, find those mistakes!  And please, I implore you, for all our sakes, do not publish until you have clean copy.  But as for the rest of it, you could spend twenty years editing.  My first novel is still not ready.  I started writing it in 2006.  Part of that is because it is a truly difficult story, which I won't get into right now.  Part is because I was still figuring out my novel-writing process, which caused some speed bumps.  But a large part is because I keep editing and editing and editing the damned thing.  At some point you have to stop and move forward.  Don't stall out.  Maybe you need to move on to the next book.  E is the third (and best) novel I've written.  It took me almost exactly eight months from the first word to the date of publication.  Yes, I have a full-time job to boot.  So, (trying not to go off on a big ramble), the point is that you need to keep your timing goals in mind, edit enough to make it amazing, but at some point, let it go.  (Or move on.)  It is never going to be perfect, no matter what you do, because perfect for one reader is not perfect for another, and vice versa.  Make it amazing, and get it out there.  Then do it again!

Writer Tip: Less is More

My two cents worth of writing advice for the day...

Less is more.
Places where "more" kills your writing (complete with cheesy examples):

• explanations
• "The tribe of elves needed to suck the blood of their victims during the last night of the festival because Zorko, the warrior god of bloodletting, had gotten his start centuries before on that certain night, and so his powerful magic was more available to his elfin ancestors during this time frame because... yada yada yada."
• descriptions
• "The dark green velvet chair was placed on the left side of the room at an angle near the doorway, across from a carved wooden table upon which a lace doily..."
• emotional dialogue
• "I just love you so much," he whispered.  "I have never been complete without you, and now, I'm so incredibly complete because I have you.  I mean, I'm so damned complete.  You complete me.  I love you."
• narrative attempting to convince the reader to feel a certain way
• "Johnny had gotten the wrong end of the stick.  Everyone treated him so badly, and no one ever considered his feelings.  Poor, poor Johnny.  But really, he was a hero.  He was selfless and bold and... Etc."

Instead, try getting to the essence of the scene or description.  

• Explain the necessities during the course of action.
• "Calling upon the dark magic of Zorko, the elves fell upon their unwitting victims on the final night of the festival, when the power was at its strongest." 

• Add a couple of key details during description, and allow the reader to place them, unless placement is absolutely necessary.  Include all this in the course of action.
• "I sank into the dark green velvet chair and propped my muddy feet unceremoniously on the carved wooden table.  My eyes settled on the starched lace doily, now crumpled under my boot.  I glanced at the old woman who was scowling at me."
  

• Overdone emotional dialogue = cheese.  Just like in real life, love is more believable through action than through words, and that happens in the rest of your story.  Balance can be tricky in certain situations where you want to get a lot of impact.  Remember not to repeat yourself too many times.  That applies to extended repetition as well, unless you do something new with the emotion in question.  So... if you are inclined to over-emphasize your romance, edit like crazy:
• "I love you," he whispered, his eyes filled with the pain of longing.

• Instead of telling your reader how to feel, let them see through the eyes of another character, or the character in question:
• "She turned her face away, not wanting to witness the pain in Johnny's eyes.  Her anger would not allow her to feel sorry for him, but still, a part of her remembered the time he'd taken her place-- and her punishment."

This is just a starting point for the "less is more" rule, but hopefully you get the idea.  It's one of the most common issues I see with developing writers.  The good news is that a little awareness can go a long way.  Keep your eye out for these things, especially during editing, and you can easily smooth out anything that was accidentally overdone.

As with all writing "rules", I just want to say...  break and bend it as necessary.  There are a few times when more is actually more.