Practicing What I Preach
Practicing What I Preach
It's taken months but finally my new book is up on Kindle.
For those who haven't followed the blog before it's called "Just write already", and it's the result of a couple of years (Is it more?) of writing this blog designed to help encourage would be writers to take the leap of faith and step into the (usually) rewarding world of writing. Throughout the course of the blog I have tried to dispel the usual objections and doubts people have about their ability, and creativity. Thus the title of the book, Just Write Already.
Yes I know it will not work out for everybody, but to use the old cliche (not a fan) if you don't try you will never know (there's another one.)
My hope is the those hiding in the shadows will come out and say "What the hell", and give it a go. Nothing ventured....well you know how it goes.
This isn't a commercial, but none the less i hope you will check it out. It's available at:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D79QTCSY
Once you get to the chapters about promoting your book, you'll know what the next step for me is.
As always, thanks for reading my blog, and as before, there will be more to come.
Land Ho
I believe I used the ship analogy to mark the progress of my new project, in the last post.
To refresh your memory that is where I take the posts from this blog and turn them into a book.
Why on Earth would i do that? Simple really. I had a lot of feedback from fellow writers and fellow not writers and they all stated that they thought these posts might provide help for people who are thinking of writing, but for myriad reasons have never put pen to paper, or fingertip to keyboard.
People have their reasons, insecurity, fear of failure, even fear of success (more common than you think), no ideas, lack of time, no one to direct them, no knowledge of the process, lack of confidence. You get the idea. There are lots of reasons why people who seriously want to write, just end up never doing it.
The purpose of the blog and now the book is to help would be writers deal with these issues, and take the first step. And then to help the go through the next steps to completion.
If they want to take it further, then I have walked them through my path to publication.
All the way I keep making the disclaimer that i am not a writing professor or a best seller. However this will be my third book. I've had a lot of positive feedback and I have had a gas doing it all.
In this particular venture, I took all the posts, made each into a chapter, added a brief introduction and an illustration, just to make things more like the original blog.
I have taken several weeks to rework some of the posts, while leaving them as close to the original as possible. Also I have edited many times until I believe I am ready to send it off to my formatter.
When that's done, she will send it back to me with suggestions. I will submit it again to her, and when we agree it is ready for prime time I will upload to Amazon-Kindle for the e-book, and then send it to another publisher to make hard copies.
Having done this before, the process is no longer daunting at all.
I also have had a lot of help with publicizing my last book from my writer's group, Indie Best Writer's out of L.A. and have learned a great deal about maximizing my brand on social media.
So as you can see, I have not docked yet, but i can see land straight ahead and I hope to set my feet on dry land shortly.
I thank you for your patience, and I do hope once this is available that it will do exactly what I hoped and that's to make the writing process a little big less scary, and in fact help would be writer's get out there and give it a go, and then find out how much fun the ride can be.
Getting Things Ready For Prime Time
You have a perfect right to wonder where I have been. In fact I would be thrilled if a few people really did think about that. Thing is, I haven't been anywhere, Still at the same keyboard but busy, nay, inundated with other things.
There are writer's meeting, promotions for Teaching in the Spirit, and The Quick and Quirky, and the new Nick Bannister Story, which is rapidly evolving into a Novella.
Most time consuming is my decision to take this blog and turn it into a book. I mentioned it some time ago, but for those who didn't take notes, the idea is to use the posts from this blog and create a short book that can hopefully help would be writer's muster up the confidence to start putting their thoughts down on paper.
And then walking them through my own personal path to publication. I won't reawaken the ghosts of posts past, but over the course of my blog I described how I took ideas, turned them into stories, and then dressed up these stories until i was confident in sharing them.
I then described how they were reworked, re-edited and renovated for publication. Then there was the process of getting published, and the crucial steps of getting noticed, and publicizing my work.
Through it all I've reminded readers that this is only my take, and there are many other routes to the finish line. But they worked for me when I had no experience whatsoever. What I did have was access to some great people who were willing to share their own knowledge and wisdom. That is what I hope any would be readers will take from my posts and upcoming book.
The working title is "Writing and Other Short Stories" although it in not dyed in ink, yet. And just to mix it up, I will include a few of my newer as if yet, unpublished stories.
It's still very much in the works, but I hope it will be out there in the next couple of months, and I hope you will enjoy reading it.
Thanks for following along, it's great to have you aboard. I'll let you know when we are almost in the harbour. And yes, please enjoy the mixed metaphors and cliches.
Steve
If you were paying attention, you would remember that I have mentioned I am going to turn this blog into a new book. If you weren't paying attention then this is all new, which is just fine as well.
There are dozens of books out there which give instructions and rules to help you become a better writer. They are largely written by language scholars who really do know what they are talking about. The problem with the ones I have read, is that by the end I'm really not sure what they are talking about and how it's going to help me. The fact that reading academia is not my strongest suit, doesn't help.
I'll be the first to admit, I am not one of those writing experts. I have one thing going for me though. I love to write. Well two things. I love to write and I've turned that passion into an avid pastime, if not a career. I've done this is by listening to and asking those who know, networking with other writers and writing groups, and of course that old favourite, trial and error.
So now I've convinced you that my project may have some merit, let me just go through the steps of this undertaking in the hope that it will help you with your goals.
A couple of years ago I started writing the blog you are currently reading. Simply put, I wrote the posts to both explain how I write and the procedures I used to finally get my books out there.
Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not make these posts into a kind of how to book? A guide for would be writers, to help encourage them to pursue their passion and then walk them through the processes I've used.
I will make not make promises or pretense. This is merely my way of doing things, with the help of some very helpful people. There are many roads you can take, this just happens to be the one I landed on. I am not a writing teacher, but then again many coaches have not gone to Uni for coaching courses. It's their experience and knowledge of the game that makes them competent in their career.
This isn't a commercial, that will come later, but I do hope once this book is available, you will recommend it to those who aspire to be writers, but are unsure of themselves and have no idea in which direction to go. You see how i avoided using a preposition at the end of the sentence? That must be worth something.
The nice thing about making this blog into a book was that most of the content was already done. All the posts are in there. From there I needed to put them into a solid order, and give a brief intro for each. Following that, I needed to remove those cute little images I had put in. If you choose to put images in your work, you will need to do the same. Google images are not free domain. There are companies that specialize in that at minimal cost. One example is Deposit Photos. That way you have no worries about people claiming you are using their pictures without permission.
Unless you are a publishing savant you are going to need a good formatter. This person will help take all the information you send, and turn it into something professional looking, something you will be proud to put your name on.
They will also take those photos you have selected and put them in the places you suggest.
One of the first suggestions was to let go of the cutesy colours and fonts, and size changes to make it look more professional. Something that looks a little less like "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid." This required a pretty massive refurbishing, although it wasn't overly difficult.
And that's where i am at now. As I have advised over and over, several edits are needed before you submit this masterpiece. That will include sending it to your formatter a few times and following their advice without question, until you are both satisfied this is what you had in mind.
Over the next few weeks I will do the last edits, submit it until it is right and then go through the publishing process, which is a piece of cake compared to the rest.
Hope this helps you get an idea of what getting your ready for prime time and published entails. It's not nearly as daunting as you think. Five words: one step at a time.
More bulletins as events warrant.
Happy writing.
No Offence Intended
Di PS I used the British spelling of the word offence. I hope nobody is offended.
“causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry”
That’s fair enough. But then the question of what causes those feelings comes up. Personally, I’m not offended if someone curses. However, if a group of people are letting the expletives fly at the beach when I have family there. Then that’s a different matter.
Oh dear, then we have the question about what a curse word is. And there is intent. If someone drops a casserole on their foot and let’s the “f” word fly, is anyone going to take offense. If someone uses the word as every third word, that’s another matter.
What about subject matter. Someone once said you should never discuss religion or politics. And indeed there are people that are offended if you say anything that goes against their own beliefs. So then it comes down to the actual content of your book. If what your are saying integral to your story, then by all means say it. If you are just on a personal mission or vendetta to piss people off, then maybe you can leave it out. And even the word piss off was extremely offencive 40 years ago. Now you can hear it on the 11 0’clock news.
Then there’s sex. Yikes. Some more gentile folk bristle at the mere mention of the word. Others wouldn’t bat an eye if a bus load of tourists disembarked and started fornication in their hotel lobby.
Being offended is very subjective. So when you are writing what do you avoid; or do you?
Simple answer for me is nothing. If you have something to say, say it. But there is a caveat. Well, several. If your book is deemed to have the potential to offend two-thirds of the people who read it, then perhaps you need a few tweaks. You also don’t want a reputation as an abusive, intolerant pratt. You want people to read your book not squirm in their seats because of your comments.
The fact is, there are people who are offended if the sun comes up. They take offense like it was their day job. To those folks, I can only say no one is forcing them to read the book, so why worry?
But on the other hand, I see no purpose in deliberately setting out to say hurtful things, or to be disrespectful to the average person. You can be critical without being completely nasty. You can call out someone without resorting to childish insults.
You might have a sex scene, a violent altercation in your story, but there is a point where is just becomes gratuitous, rather than descriptive.
I could go on about this with a dozen more examples but I think you get the point. Don’t let fear of offending someone stand in the way of what you need to say. On the other hand, don’t feel you have a mission to shock or outrage people. Leave that to the shock jocks.
Now of course you can site me dozens of successful authors, even acclaimed ones who have flauted the conventions of writing and yet have ended up on the New York Times best sellers list.
Yet the vast majority of those who disregard the same rules, even if they get to publishing, have books languishing in the bargain boxes at dollar stores.
Why is that? It is in the quality of the writing. Someone like a Ray Bradbury who wrote in incomplete fragments, run on sentences which ran on for miles, byzantine descriptions, is still considered an international treasure.
An author who has real talent and inspiration is able to circumvent the usual linguistic canons because they know exactly how to disregard the traditions when they want to, and do it in such a way that people not only overlook their lawless behaviour, but also become totally bewitched by the story telling. Do you see what I did with the run-on sentence here?
Now I not going to turn this into a grammar lesson, but suffice it to say, there are literary conventions which should be regarded. Unless it is deliberately done, if you expect to have a successful writing career, it will not happen if you sound like you are a refugee from elementary school
So you're thinking, that's a fat lot of good, how do I know when I can bend the rules, and when I need to adhere more rigidly.
My answer to that is: read. Search out the successful and maybe more important acclaimed and popular authors. Examine their style. See where they stray from what Miss Spinster told you was the gospel truth in elementary school. But more important, is how they do it? Does it sound amateurish? Probably not. More likely it is seemless, so much so that if you weren't searching for the places where they meander from the accepted ordinances of the pen, you would never even notice.
They have mastered the art of straddling the line between good writing and amateurish drivel. That can make for some magical story telling. I will try to expand on this in the future.
Practicing What I Preach So now the book new book is published (time for the shameless push) and i'm into the...