Tag Archives: Writing

The Hard Parts

— Mark Paxson

A few weeks ago, I saw a few writers on the Tweeter express that the beginning of a story is always the hardest part for them. I thought that was interesting because the beginning is the easiest part for me. By far.

I’m a pantser, so I don’t have an outline. I just have an idea that I think may make for a good story. I typically don’t have any idea about anything beyond the idea.

For instance, a guy has a consensual one-night stand and is accused of sexual assault. That’s the idea, but as I started to write it, I had no idea how it would end, or how I would get to the end. Or, a clerk at a store catches somebody shop lifting and offers him a deal to avoid the consequences. Same thing, an idea, but I had no idea where it would take me. As I started writing that story, I didn’t even know what the deal was.

Part of this is because my stories frequently begin with prompts that I find on the various writing websites. Prompts that spark something in me and I just start writing. If the idea seems like a long story, I can typically churn out 10,000 – 25,000 words relatively easy.

The way I describe this is at the beginning, the world is wide open for me. I can go anywhere, do anything. I am exploring the idea as I write and that is a freeing experience for me.

But once I get to a certain point, I start to see the rest of the story. I start to ponder an ending, and everything just suddenly stops. Those first 25,000 words may take a month or two. The next 25,000 words may take years as I struggle with a couple of things.

First, if I’ve figured out the rest of the story, won’t the reader also. And if that’s the case, what’s the point. I become bored with the idea because I now know how it is going to end and I’ve figured out most of the in between points that will get me there. The exploration ends and the slog begins.

Second, and contradictory, is this … what if I get it wrong? The piece I’m working on now could have many endings. I’ve considered a lot of different things and landed on one that may be too much for some readers. But, to me, it fits the whole feel of the story … which is weird and quirky and full of things that don’t really make sense. So, an ending that matches that is an ending worth pursuing.

But again … what if I get it wrong?

Everything slows down at this point. Putting words down slows to a crawl. I can sit in front of my laptop for an afternoon and be fortunate to pull 200-300 words out of my head. And I really start to let the distractions distract me because anything is better than sitting there and noodling over every single paragraph, every single bit of dialogue, every everything.

This doesn’t always happen. A couple of years ago, I published a novella. A domestic thriller of about 30,000 words. For some reason, I was able to write the thing completely within a couple of months. There was no stalling, no delay, it just all came out in an orderly fashion.

Oh sure, there was one point at which I decided I wanted to change the voice and started to go through that process and then changed my mind after going through the first 1/3 of the book. But beyond that, that novella just flowed out of me.

As near as I can tell the reason for this is that the story was a surprise story. One that I never knew was in me until it just showed up one day. I never really took that story too seriously. Not in the sense that I didn’t want to do a good job on it, but it was a bit of a lark to write it.

Here’s another thing, the more I write, the more complicated my story ideas become. That domestic thriller novella — a really simple, basic story. My first novel, the same. But the piece I’m working on now (may be a novella, may just barely reach the 50,000 word mark to be a novel) is more complicated. It is somewhat dystopian, a bit bizarre, in some respects it kind of creates a whole different world, and there are elements to it that I just need to make sure are consistent and complete and carry through the entire thing.

So, here are my questions for you…

What’s the hardest part of a story for you? What’s the easiest? When it comes to those hard parts, are there any strategies you follow to get over the hump, to get past the difficulty and ease into the better parts of the story?

What Do We Know?

Over the years contributors and many commentators have shared their experiences, observations, and advice on this blog. I thought perhaps it might be a nice idea to bring it all together for the sake of anyone new to self-publishing who might find their way here – useful, practical experiences and advice from writers who’ve been at it for a while, i.e. people who know what they’re doing. Of course we do.

So what have we learned during our self-publishing journey? What would we do differently today if we could roll back the clock and start over? Any major regrets?

And having asked the question, I suppose it’s up to me to get the ball rolling.

I don’t have any major regrets. I made mistakes, but that’s part of learning.

Self-publishing was all I considered in 2015, at the age of 65, and I chose readership over pocket change. No regrets. I’m not a goal oriented fellow, so I’m mostly surprised at the 20 books I’ve written, and with my sales. Still, they’re never enough, are they?

My major mistake was not recognizing how careless I am as a writer and how special being able to proofread reliably is. I learned this the hard way. I am amazed that with half a dozen volunteer beta/proofreaders, how little overlap there is between the lists of typos I receive back from them. Luckily in self-publishing you can upload corrected copies as needed. My first books were re-uploaded a lot.

I’ve also learned that on-line grammar correcting software can’t be fully trusted yet. But it definitely makes the job of my beta readers a whole lot easier. It is now part of my process.

I’ve always written the way words and stories come naturally to me. I’ve read writing advice pieces just to sneer at them. I never use five words where ten will do, if they add personality. I never kill my babies. This seems to work for me.

I’ve tried different covers on most of my books over the years, and never found any difference in sales. I use a uniform cover design for my book covers as my distinctive “brand.”

I’ve learned never to write sequels unless the first one is a runaway best seller, since each subsequent book sells fewer copies than the one before it. Going forward it’s all stand alone books, with open endings. On the off chance.

I’ve learned that visibility, and perhaps visibility alone is the key to sales. I don’t know how to get it. I’ve never spent any money or effort marketing my books, leaving that aspect entirely to the free price of my books. That’s worked well for me. The cool kids are all into social media in order to create the visibility and buzz needed to sell their books. Maybe it works. Anything is possible.

Lots of people read books on their phones. Make sure your books are on platforms that serve books to phones – Apple & Google. Google has been a gold mine for me, I think for that reason.

Ebooks/audiobooks reach a world-wide market on a number of platforms. A lot of people in the world read English. The more affordable your books are, the wider their potential reach outside of the US is.

Audiobooks now account for between one third and one half of my free sales. $3.99 auto-generated audiobooks on Amazon/Audible haven’t sold for me.

Selling ebooks, even free ones, has grown harder every year. The market is consolidating around a relatively few sub-genre and best selling writers who monopolize the hype. If you’ a’re serious about making money, see below. But if you don’t believe me, do your research thoroughly. Write what sells.

Self-publishing is not a viable business, unless you count buying lottery tickets as a viable business. The odds of winning are about the same. Lottery payouts are far bigger. Just say’n.

I’ve learned that being a writer isn’t likely to impress anyone, if only because most people don’t read much. If you want to be famous and respected, get very rich.

I’ve found a nice community here to share my thoughts with and be part of. A definite big plus.

Your turn.

Solo or Ensemble?

Many forms of art can be practiced either solo or in a creative ensemble. A pianist can play piano solo, in a trio, or in an orchestra. Dancers can dance solo, as a couple, or in a group, as can singers. However, some forms of art, like fine art painting, sculpture, and the like, are usually solo efforts. Movies, TV shows, and plays on the other hand are almost always ensemble creations. So where does writing fit in?

Traditionally published books can be said to be ensemble work since traditionally published books go through an extensive development process, which these days, may start with re-writes requested by the agent even before the work is offered to publishers. Once the book is purchased by a publisher, a team of editors, artists, designers, and publicists , go to work to make the work as commercially appealing as possible.

Because all these publishing house contributions are anonymous, it is hard to say how much of the final shape of the story they have contributed, but judging from the praise authors often give to their agents and editors, (which I’m certain is not a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome) as well as a page or two worth of credit to others who have helped them write the work, one has to wonder just how much of the initial form and words of the story end up on the cutting room floor. Indeed, one gets the impression that if publishing was like music, the book cover would read “Author X and the Z Publishing House Book Staff.”

Which brings us around to self-publishing. One would think that the name itself – self-publishing – would tell you what’s going on in this type of publishing. I suspect that once upon a time, it was actually a true description. Those days may be long gone. My impression is that a more accurate term these days would be “self-financed publishing,” since it seems that a traditional publishing mindset is taking hold in the self-publishing world. While I am sure that self-publishing authors have long sought feedback from other people, and the assurance that they wouldn’t be making a fool of themselves if they published their story, these days it seems that self-publishing authors are expected to employ as many professionals as they can afford to publish their work. All of which makes the only difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing being who pays the wages of all the various professionals involved in producing the book, even as traditional publishers are shedding editors and other staff positions.

This trend annoys me in self-publishing. Especially the case for hiring developmental editors in self-published works. But on reflection, I believe that is because of my particular view of art, arising out of both as a painter and from my age. I started writing all of my published works after the age of 60, when I had read close to two thousand books and knew what I wanted in a story. Thinking about it however, I realize that for writers thirty or more years younger and less read than me, a case can be made for using editors to help these writers find their way, and in a lot less time than it took me.

That said, while I have no issues with writing as an ensemble art form, it simply isn’t my ideal of art. I view my stories like I do my paintings, which is to say a unique expression of me. I want to tell my story, my way. I think it works. I know from my experience in painting that all art finds its audience. The only question is how large of an audience it will find. In art, size doesn’t matter. While iIt does matter if we’re talking about creating a product, as art, no.

And by the same token, I embraced the whole process of “publishing.” As a painter, though not an illustrator, I could nevertheless produce some sort of cover. I also worked in the printing business, so I had an understanding of the requirements for print books. Where I lack the ability – I can’t spell and I’m far too careless and blind in proofreading – I found much-need help with volunteer beta readers. In addition, I’ve been exploring other options to help me produce better books, like adding on-line grammar checkers to my process. All of which is to say, I have pursued both my writings and my publishing, as solo art. And for the same reason – I want my art to be mine. And mine alone.

As I said at the top, I’m not against writing as an ensemble art. It may be necessary for commercial products, though with only a 33% success rate, and that 33% due in no small amount to the promotional budget of a book, one has to wonder just how essential certain aspects of it are. So for me, writing as a solo art is the most authentic form of writing. Which is why I love self-publishing.

Still, where do you guys land on this topic? Are you all in on the traditional publishing method, feeling that it produces a superior outcome? Or are you all in the do everything yourself camp? Or somewhere in the wish-y-washy middle? How much input do you need and use from other people to (re)shape your story? How much of the story do you think this input contributes? As someone who has the mindset that “here’s my work, warts and all, like it or lump it,” I’m curious to hear the viewpoint of writers who are perhaps more of a perfectionist than I am, or who are more open to embracing the cooperative approach, readily incorporating into their work the ideas of alpha, beta readers, and editors.

Proofreading with Google Docs and Grammarly

I’m a sloppy writer. I simply transcribe the voice in my head, paying minimal attention to the words I’m typing. Being a lifelong touch typist, I can clip along, stopping only to correct all those red underlined misspellings. Moreover, I tend to read what I expect to read, so between these two characteristics, I can read my manuscript three to six times and still miss many double words, many missing little words, and never see the difference between where and were, or its and it’s. I need a copy editor. I need my wife. And my beta readers. And Google Docs and now, Grammarly.

I write in LibreOffice, which has a rudimentary grammar checking function – one that begins and ends at telling me when to use “a” and “an.” Several years ago, I discovered that Google Docs has a much better one, so I uploaded and ran all my books through Google Docs to clean them up a bit. For my newest novel, I decided to add the free version of Grammarly to my proofreading arsenal. So how does this system work? Can you rely on Google Docs or Grammarly, or both to do your proofreading for you?

Google Docs does a good job of finding double words, some wrong words, and most missing words. But not all, as I discovered when I uploaded the Google corrected copy to Grammarly. It is good for detecting the proper tense, but it doesn’t pay much attention to punctuation or spacing.

For Grammarly, I used the free web version to proofread my latest book after running it through Google Docs. I uploaded it chapter by chapter to be edited. Before Grammarly edits your work, you’re given several options to choose from to set the level and aim of Grammarly’s editing process. I chose “Expert” “Informal” and “Tell a story” as my guidelines. So how did Grammarly do?

First off, Grammarly loves compound words. Google Doc never mentioned them. Before, I never knew when to compound adjectives, so that I almost never did. But after Grammarly, I’m going to compound every damn pair, as it seems that anything and everything goes. I’m exaggerating, but it was a lesson in the use of compound words. Besides telling me to use all those hyphens, I’d say 75% of the suggested edits involved adding or subtracting commas. I made the lazy editorial decision just to go along with Grammarly on commas, it should know, right? Before, I put them in places that I knew they belonged and when the voice in my head paused, and where I think the auto-narrator of my books should pause as well. However, Grammarly not only put in more of them, but I think it eliminated commas that my wife thinks should’ve been there. Though to be fair, while I believe that I would’ve also put in the missing ones – they were places that I would’ve put them – I can’t swear that I did actually have them there before Grammarly removed them. Grammarly also found more missing words, and corrected the wrong words, i.e. where instead of were, et al that Google Doc missed. So it was a plus, overall.

Grammarly also offered several suggestions for phases that it thought were too wordy. I ignored those suggestions. Given free reign, I’ve a feeling that Grammarly would strip creative writers of their authorial voice. Thus, my readers will read a few extra words, like it or lump it. It also would occasionally tease its premium service, telling me of two hundred ways it could make my chapter less wordy and confusing, if I paid them. The whole experience, however, was easy. You just click a button to make the suggested changes you approve of, so that it didn’t take me more than two hours to go through a 105K novel. However, you can, and should be fussier than I was. Lesson learned.

I was confident that when I handed this Google Doc & Grammarly proofread ms over to my wife, it would be a clean copy. It wasn’t. There was that question of missing commas, which can easily be addressed in the future, but both services also didn’t catch a few missing word – those little “to”s and “the”s – and neither made any objections to the semicolons I used, which my wife, a stickler for semicolons, objected to.

Note; for example, I’m editing this in Google Docs, and it underlined in red “semi-colon” just now, and suggested “semicolon,” but it didn’t object to the “semi-colon” when it appeared in the line above. These are the inconsistencies that make the Google Doc less than perfect for proofreading.)

Anyway, the semicolon issue can be fixed by going back to always using em-dashes for everything, like I have in the past.

So, looking at the big picture, when I started writing, my wife would find half a dozen or more typos and errors on every page. I’ve gotten more mindful over the last decade, so that now, together with Doc and Grammarly, there can be two, three, four pages without a single error, and most of those errors involve commas this time around. Which is to say, I’ve seen a significant improvement in the process. And knowing all the errors I corrected in Google Docs and Grammarly, I have to give a lot of that credit to Docs and Grammarly.

So, is it worthwhile to upload your ms to Google Docs, or upload it to Grammarly, or use both, seeing that neither are perfect?

The first thing to remember is that both services are free. You can’t beat the price, especially if you’re considering hiring a proofreader or editor. You have no way of knowing if that professional editor is simply using Grammarly Pro to do their work for them. I don’t think human proofreaders guaranteed their work to be error free or your money back. Given this, it would seem to me to be time well spent doing your own proofreading with the help of these two free programs. And if you want more of an editor than a simple proofreader, it might be well worth spending a little money on a month of Grammarly premium to see all those hundreds of suggestions it has to improve your writing instead of big bucks on a professional editor. All in all, I think that the free version is good enough for most of us, especially if you’re better at proofreading than I. It could simply serve as a quick quality check, and perhaps a tutorial on the use of commas and compound words.

Bottom line; you get more than what you pay for. They’re not quite good enough to produce a perfectly clean copy all by themselves, but they certainly can save a lot of time in the proofreading process.

Your Recipe for Writing

I’ve identified five ingredients that go into creative writing; talent, education, examples, practice, and life experiences. I wonder if and how everyone’s recipe for writing is different. So I am wondering, what’s your recipe for writing?

A talent for writing is an ability you’re born with enabling you to put words, sentences, paragraphs and stories together in a coherent manner. It’s the wellspring of inspiration, as well as the steel spring that drives you to write. Many people have stories in their head, but it takes a special talent to bring those stories out, find the words to fit them, and then, set them down – all the way to the end – without it being a class assignment.

Education can be a university MFA degree, college or night school courses taken, seminars attended in person or online, and/or reading and studying how-to-do books or articles on writing. Education offers a tool set of established conventions and techniques that can enhance, expand, and shape one’s intrinsic talent to write.

Examples are what I call the books, movies, and TV shows we’ve read, viewed and enjoyed which have informally informed our concepts of what storytelling is all about. These are sources of education and inspiration that we unconsciously absorb and inform the way we write. While we may absorb certain aspects of styles and subjects, they are not read as text books, though I suppose one can study them as such.

Practice is simply what we’ve learned about writing from writing, writing, writing, and writing over the hours, years, or decades we’ve done it.

Life experiences are what we bring to our writing from what we’ve experienced in living our real lives. It may also include the experiences of others that we have observed in our life. I’ve also placed mundane real world considerations, like having the place, the time, and the energy to write, as well as the tools to write, under this heading.

If you can think of any other ingredients that contribute to your ability to write, please feel free to include them. The question I have for you, dear readers, is what’s your recipe? Can you estimate the share of each of these ingredients in your writing? I expect that it varies from writer to writer and I’m certain other writers would be interested to see the different approach we take to do the one thing we all do.

To get the ball rolling, I’d say that, for me, I believe that talent accounts for 50% of my writing. I’m a big believer in talent. I had the desire to be a writer from the time I started reading. When I started college, I signed up as a journalism major. I wanted to learn to write, not read old books. But I realized that I was too shy to interview people, and decided that if I had the talent, I could write, and if I didn’t, education would not make up for the lack of it. So I switched majors and took my chances. I feel the same way today, some 50 plus years later. Talent is king.

For me, education only accounts for 5%. I took an agriculture journalism course in college, and later, a written communications class in night school when I was thinking of getting a certificate in technical writing. Neither of them had any influence on my writing. The 5% comes from just one class, the most useful class I ever took; my high school typing class. Learning to touch type on manual typewriters has been something I’ve used all my life. Of course you can write novels by hand, or by hunting and pecking, but being able to touch type makes getting ideas into words almost seamless. It’s only 5%, but It’s an important 5%.

Examples accounts for maybe 20% of my writing. I’ve read several thousand novels over the last 60 years and while they have certainly influenced my writing style, I don’t consciously try to imitate any particular writer or style. However, I do think they form the basis of what I think a story should be. Plus, some books, TV shows, and genre fiction have inspired me to write my own versions of their themes.

Practice probably accounts for 15% of my writing. I find it hard to tease this factor out from talent, as it is a direct expression of one’s talent. On one hand that number seems low, but on the other hand, for better or worse, I don’t see a lot of evolution in my writing over the years. Little things have gotten better; but I think I’ve always had a certain voice, and that goes back to my first adult work, some 40 years ago.

Lastly, there’s life experiences. I’m left with 10% to allocate to my life experiences. I don’t think I’m skimping too much in this category. Thankfully, I’ve lived a nice uneventful life, so my real life plays no part in my writing. The 10% in this category comes from the tools and time of life that I now enjoy; which is to say the time retirement has given me to write, and the computer – with spell checking, – that I use to write, as well as the internet, ebooks, and the self publishing opportunities that living in the 21st century has provided. All these things have made writing so much easier. I’ve written a novel and a long novella on a manual typewriter, and when I was working, so I know it is possible to do without all these modern inventions, but they never got published, and it is unlikely that I would have written what I have published, without computers, ebooks, and the prospect of self publishing my work, making effort worthwhile.

So my recipe is 50% talent, 5% education, 20% influences, 15% practice, and 10% life, which should add up to 100% if I got my math right. Now, what is your recipe?

Do You Think About These Things

— Mark Paxson

A couple of years ago, I made a commitment to get more active in local writing groups. I joined one such group. We meet once a month to talk about what we’re doing. offer advice and support to each other, and also organize local events, including a day long conference that was presented this past September.

We are discussing putting on a few events in 2024. Each focusing on different aspects of the writing process. At our last meeting to discuss these events, the President of the group offered up some different ideas. One of them was to focus on “character.”

I wish I had taken notes of what was said about what this event would cover, because I spent the entire conversation thinking “people actually think about these things while they write?” For instance, how to make character drive your story. Do you think about that as you write a story?

Another potential topic was point of view. I kind of get this as a topic, particularly after reading the last manuscript I read for another writer. It definitely had point of view issues, but I don’t know how this topic could be turned into an effective workshop topic.

My approach to POV is to decide what the POV will be when I start writing. Sometimes it’s first person, sometimes third, and sometimes it is multiple POV. One of my novels has a first person POV, but from three different characters’ perspectives in alternating chapters.

Once I decide, I stick with that POV choice and I hardly think about it again as I write. The POV is the POV.

I am intrigued by how different writers approach writing a story. Pantsers versus plotters. Idea boards. Mood boards. Character sketches. Back stories that never make it into the story. Writing from beginning to end versus jumping around. Do you know the ending before you start?

Here’s what I do and what I think about while I write. I get an idea, frequently from a prompt, but occasionally from something I observe or just come up with out of thin air. If the idea intrigues me, I consider whether I want to give it a try. If I do … I just start writing.

I think my typical start is to think of the story in first person, because most of my ideas are about putting a specific person, or type of person, into a specific situation … and then seeing where it takes me. Occasionally, I decide from the outset that third person might work better, or at some point during the wriing, I realize that third person would work better so I convert what I’ve already written to third person and proceed from there.

I almost never know what the ending will be when I start writing. I just finished a draft of a short story. It’s first person and it doesn’t need to be more than that because it’s pretty short and there’s no need for a third person narration. When I started, it was from a prompt, and I had no idea what the story was going to be, except for the prompt to start me off. As I pondered the story, I came up with an idea to go further with the prompt into something, but the end still mystified me.

And at some point, I came up with what I thought would be a great final line, and that guided me towards a potential ending. Except something else happened … I came up with an ending that didn’t match that “great final line,” but I thought this new ending was a better way to end it, so that’s the direction I went in.

But that’s about it in terms of what I think about while writing. I don’t think about “character” and what to do with it. I find a POV and I stick with it. And just see where the words take me.

Maybe this is the difference between being a pantser and a plotter. I’m a pantser, definitely a pantser. Maybe plotters think more about these types of things?

Anyway, do you think about things like this while you’re writing? What do you think about while you’re writing? Do you think while you write? 😉

Going Straight To The Source

With all of noise about AI and whether creative folks, including writers, should be worried (yes, there was just a tweet asking this very question … again), I decided to go straight to the source.

I asked ChatGPT whether writer should be afraid of artificial intelligence. Here is the answer that I hope settles the debate. 😉

As an AI language model, I can understand why some writers may have concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of writing. However, I don’t believe writers should necessarily be afraid of AI. Here are a few points to consider:

  1. Augmentation, not replacement: AI technology can be seen as a tool to enhance and support the writing process, rather than a direct threat to human writers. AI can assist with tasks like grammar and spell checking, generating ideas, providing suggestions, or helping with research. Ultimately, the creative and critical thinking abilities of human writers are still invaluable and difficult to replicate.
  2. New opportunities: AI has the potential to create new opportunities for writers. For example, AI-generated content has been used for various purposes, such as generating news stories, product descriptions, or sports reports. While this may raise concerns about the authenticity of the content, it also opens up new avenues for writers to collaborate with AI systems or explore creative projects that incorporate AI elements.
  3. Uniquely human skills: Writing involves more than just assembling words; it requires emotional depth, unique perspectives, and the ability to connect with readers on a personal level. These are aspects that AI currently struggles to replicate convincingly. Writers can focus on developing these distinctively human skills, which are highly valued in creative and literary works.
  4. Ethical considerations: It is important to be aware of the ethical implications of AI in writing. Issues like plagiarism, copyright infringement, and the responsible use of AI-generated content need to be carefully considered and regulated. By upholding ethical standards, writers can ensure the integrity of their work and maintain trust with their readers.

In summary, rather than being afraid, writers can view AI as a powerful tool that can complement their skills and offer new possibilities. Embracing AI and understanding its limitations and potential ethical concerns can help writers navigate the evolving landscape of writing in the digital age.

It is #3 which is why AI just isn’t much of a risk, at least currently. I believe that AI will always struggle with that. It’s one thing to be able to vacuum up data and predict an answer. It’s a whole other thing to be able to inject human emotions into the output. We shall see.

Why?

— Mark Paxson

A sneak peek into our next video chat, which will be recorded this coming weekend …

One of the topics we’re going to discuss is “why do we read,” which I saw somebody ask on Twitter several months ago. Hell, it’s one of those questions I see people in the Twitter community ask at least once a week over on Twitter. But I thought it was an interesting question so I added it to our list for our conversations about writing.

Why?

Because, well, I guess if we don’t know why people read, how do we know what to write? And maybe even as important a question that grows out of that opening question of why we read is … why do we write?

So … in advance of our weekend chat, is there anybody out there who wants to share in the comments why they read? And for the writers out there, does that play at all into why or what they write?

Pick a Genre. Any Genre.

— Mark Paxson

I spent a couple of days at Lake Tahoe this weekend. By myself. Which means I spent a lot of time in my head. On the drive home, I started thinking about our last video chat. At one point Lucinda Clarke commented during that chat that she had screwed up by writing in multiple genres. I responded that I had done the same thing.

A few days after that chat, I met a friend for luinch. I took him a copy of my latest book. Until this book, he hadn’t realized I wrote fiction. We had a lengthy discussion about books and writing. At one point, he asked me what genre I write in. There is no easy answer to that for me. My published works can be broken down this way:

Courtroom drama; young adult, coming of age; quirky, all dialogue oddball of a story; a novella that is the opposite of coming of age — a literary take on a life of loneliness and despair; and dozens of short stories that are all over the place.

My works in progress can be broken down this way:

Dystopian — I have three different WIPs that are variations on a dystopian future (one is a sexy space romp, one is a tale of a President who declares martial law and rules for years afterwards, destroying the country, and the third is something I actually can only dream about — a story told in reverse like the movie Memento). Then there are … a baseball novel; a collection of short stories that interconnet to produce a larger story (actually, I think I have two of these on the drawing board); And a few other things I’ve forgotten at the moment.

Genre? I don’t need no stinking genre!

But what I thought about this morning on the drive home was that maybe Lucinda was right. Maybe it’s a mistake to write stories that are all over the place. I got to thinking about people who might read my latest novel (the YA tale) who then would look at my other books, maybe even buy one, and then be disappointed that nothing else I’ve published is YA.

To some extent, I can’t help myself. This is just who I am. As I’ve said during our video chats, part of writing for me is exploring new ways to tell stories and new stories to tell. I simply don’t think I could have stuck with courtroom dramas for every story I wrote. It would be too stifling for me to stick with one genre — even if that novel was my most successful.

If I’m going to create, I want to keep creating. Which means, to me, spreading out into different genres, different voices, different stories. I guess what fascinates me the most about the art of writing is the ability to tell a story that people want to read. It’s not about the genre. It’s about an idea that comes to me and if it interests me, I’m going to pursue it, and see if I can write a story that is compelling enough and good enough that it gets readers’ attention.

But the question for this post is … in search of a reading audience, does that hurt me? As Lucinda suggested during the chat, does switching genres hamper a writer’s ability to attract and grow a consistent and loyal audience.

I think about when I first started blogging and there were all sorts of experts who counseled that a blog should be on a specific topic. Find a niche — whether it be cooking or traveling or writing or politics — and stick to it. That was the best way to grow an audience for a blog. Well, readers of my blog know that I did not follow that advice. Like my stories, my blog is all over the place. It represents everything in the world that fascinates me — music, politics, current events, cooking, gardening, exercise, writing, and whatever moves me on a day that I decide to write a blog post.

Maybe it’s time to write the next chapter of that courtroom drama. 😉 Maybe not. Because here’s the thing. After I finished that novel, I thought of two more books I could write about the main character, because that’s what mattered the most about that story. Not that it was a courtroom drama. No. What mattered was the characters and I had two ideas for more misadventures that would befall good ol’ Jack McGee. But even Jack couldn’t keep me interested and I ditched those two ideas and moved on to other stories, newer characters. (I’m struggling with the same dynamic with my most recent novel.)

So … let me ask again. Writers and readers out there … should a writer stick with a particular genre or two? Or should a writer write whatever the hell he or she wants and take a chance with each new product? What do you do? Stick with one genre? Go all over the place? What’s your motivation — because at the end of the day, that’s the ultimate reason for what each of us do.

Social Media. Do We Really Need It?

— Mark Paxson

When I started writing and then thinking about submitting short stories and eventually publishing my work, a common refrain was “You gotta have a blog. You gotta be on Twitter.” There was this emphasis on having a social media presence. After years of curating a social media presence, I’m not sure all of those experts are right. But then, maybe it’s just me.

A writing acquaintance had a contract with a small publishing house for his first two books. He writes cozy mysteries. A genre I had never heard of until I started reading his. After those two books, the publisher refused to consider anymore because he didn’t have much of a presence on social media. Sure, he had a blog, but he didn’t blog much. He was also on Facebook, but wasn’t super active. As far as I know, he never got on Twitter.

It’s a shame that his future efforts were rejected, not because of the quality of his writing or whether his books could sell, but because of his relative invisibility on social media. It’s another instance of traditional publishing going by something other than the quality of the story to make decisions.

What I’ve come to realize is that, except in incredibly rare circumstances, being on social media does not produce huge sales. To be honest, I’m not even sure what those rare circumstances are. I don’t know anybody who claims their social media presence has produced a lot of sales.

Earlier I said, maybe it’s my own fault. My social media presence is all over the place. I talk politics on my blog and on Twitter. A lot. I post pictures of food and beers and my trips out into the world. I blog about family life. Work life. I share all sorts of things on my social media outlets. It’s not just about writing.

And what I don’t do is constantly hawk my books on my blog, on Facebook, on Instagram, or on Twitter. When I publish a book, I’ll send a few tweets out, announce it on my different blogs, try to push it on my friends via Facebook. Then, every once in awhile when a good review gets posted, I’ll quote from it and remind people that I still have books out there in the world for them to consider.

A lot of writers I follow, particularly on Twitter, tweet and retweet blurbs about their books on a regular basis. Weekly and, in some cases, every single day. When I look at their sales on Amazon, it doesn’t look like they’re doing much better than me. So …

Here’s what I think I’ve figured out. On the one hand, my blogging and tweeting has produced some sales. Those sales, however, come mostly from people who, although we’ve never met, I’ve developed a connection with via social media. Bloggers I follow and who follow me where we have regular “conversations” via our blogs. Or the same on Twitter. There are a lot of great people I’ve “met” through social media and many of them have become regular readers of my books. As have I of theirs.

My reading audience basically consists of about 100 people. Friends and family, and those social media acquaintances with whom I’ve formed a bond. Beyond that, I don’t see anything I do on social media having any noticeable impact on my book sales.

With my latest novel, I ran an Amazon ad for a week. It produced no sales. I also tried one of those services that promises to tweet your book to their tens of thousands of followers and to feature your book in an email to even more of their followers. It produced no sales. (With both of those efforts, the price for my book for Kindle was $4.99. I wonder what would happen if it was .99 or free.)

On some level, I get it. I’ve never bought a book via an Amazon ad. Nor have I ever bought a book from one of those email/Twitter services. To be honest, I don’t even crack open their emails anymore. Why? Because the vast majority of books they feature are in genres I simply don’t read — like romance.

If I’m unwilling to buy a book via any of those avenues, why would I expect other readers to buy my book that way? Well, because it worked once. With my very first novel. EReaderNewsToday did wonders for sales and downloads for One Night in Bridgeport. Since then, however, nothing has worked. Nothing. Except for developing relationships with others. That, however, is a slow way to build a reading audience.

So, writers and readers out there … what about you? Does being active on social media produce results for your books? If you’re a reader, do you buy books via any of these social media outlets? And, if social media doesn’t work, what’s a better way to do this?