More Thoughts on Writing

So, this maybe some of a summation of stuff I wrote about on my blog on The Huffington Post, but here goes. I've written about this before, but it's worth repeating: You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't take the time to edit and work the craft of your writing, you're never going to get the attention you want or -- maybe -- deserve. Editing isn't just about spelling and punctuation. Writing isn't just a craft. Professional writing can sometimes be pretty rote and dry. Formal writing can sometimes be formulaic. 

Creative writing, however, is creative and can be many things. It is an art. And like any art it takes time to hone technical skills, and time and care to bring your art to life. There's definitely a craft to thinking about structure and the mechanics that make your story flow, to know where more details are required or less, to write realistic dialogue and fight scenes, and structuring your work so that a reader has both down time and still having plenty of action and interest. 

So editing is part of the revision process. Using a developmental editor ends up being a lot more about revision than simply editing, even though that is part of it too. Here are some things I've started thinking about in my revision. Hope someone finds them helpful:

1) Larger Structure: Where do things slow down? How long does it stay slow? Why is it slow? Is it because I stop the action and have a two page info dump where I explain all the details I've lovingly put into my fictional world or character? Do I have a kitchen or domestic scene? These sometimes end up times when two characters sit down and reflect on what's happened over coffee or a meal and turn out to be an info dump in disguise. They should be handled carefully and no book should have more than a couple scenes in a kitchen. But maybe things stay too fast paced for too long and the reader needs a break. That's a problem too. In order to keep the plot moving along, the character does need to reflect on and learn from what has happened along the way. They do need to strategize and plan their next move. They also need time for emotional growth. A story about a character who doesn't grow emotionally is not only realistic, but I find it boring. 

A good way to think about a novel is via the 3 Act model. Think Shakespeare. That formula is that all action happens in the course of a short period of time, I think the number is either a day and a night or two days and two nights. There is an Act 1 where all the exposition happens, characters are introduced, the setting and characters are defined -- the best way to do this is through interactions with other characters or via the character's actions rather than long thoughtful descriptive prose -- and where you set up the problem the character will face. Act 2A is where the character begins to learn about their adversaries and the problems they face and the action begins to escalate. Act 2B is when characters have to start making hard choices or facing insurmountable problems they've now identified and mysteries they think they've unraveled. Act 3A is action action action. Act 3B is when the characters face the baddie, or make their ultimate decision or take on their ultimate challenge. Act 3C is conclusion time where they face the fallout of their actions and choices and reflect on what's happened. The way I learned this model didn't break out Act 3 quite so precisely, but I found that in terms of pacing as I rewrote novel #2 it helped to identify these things as specifically as possible while still giving myself a little room for blending transitions, smoothing out the narrative, and in case things changed.

2) Writing the scene - Each scene has to represent a moment, a choice, a challenge to be faced, or an obstacle to overcome. In other words, it has to have a point. One good piece of advice I read recently was to identify what the characters motivations and goals are in each scene. At first this sounds like micromanaging, and perhaps this is something for the revision level rather than the initial getting things on paper. However you do it, each scene has to matter. If there's fluff, extraneous and unnecessarily long descriptions of the environment or another character, you're probably info dumping or getting lost in your own beautiful words. Economy of words is key to this. Think decisive statements, clean and concise descriptions, and remember that a character will only notice so much. What sticks out to them will be based on their background and motivations, and that will likely be the thing that is most important to whatever action they take. Also remember to be very careful with your -ly words, particularly adverbs. If an verb needs a qualifying adverb to give it punch, you should probably choose a verb that is stronger in describing the action. I have been gradually more aware of how to cut down unnecessary prose and generally try to stick to a rule that if the description of a character or thing is more than a sentence, they have to be unusually interesting or important. If it's more than a paragraph it needs to be massively important, since usually that second paragraph is backstory or details unrelated directly to what is going on in the scene. Remember, you should only give your readers what they NEED TO KNOW.

3) Actions Speak Louder Than Words - If the rule is "Show, Don't Tell," most of the character's perception of what's happening is going to probably be through action and reaction. This is perhaps more specific to first person point of view. However, in any story with a lot of action there isn't time between punches or pauses before the opponent throws a punch for the main character to reflect on their opponent's fighting style or what rings their wearing, unless the rings cut their face. Also, most brooding warriors aren't going to brood when they're in a shootout, relatively simple characters are likely going to be motivated and think in relatively simple ways. Emotional characters need a little more finesse, especially when dealing with the overuse of adverbs and adjectives, but that's where you need to rely on your craft. Something my editor pointed out in my first novel was the amount of shrugging and nodding that was going on in some of the scenes. That was something that got changed in the revision process. Although I'm not necessarily a big believer in all of the "how to write a break-out novel" books, there are some that are particularly useful, even if the advice is often general or maybe not conducive to your style of writing. I DO, however, recommend not only a great online or hard copy thesaurus, AND the cheap books on Amazon that are thesauri of emotions, actions, writing prompts, etc. When I've gotten stuck, I've often looked through these for other descriptive words. Even if they weren't as exhaustive as I'd have liked, they were cheap on Kindle and words they associated with the one I'd already been using triggered other words in my head, other turns of phrases, or gave me something else to type into my thesaurus search engine that did end up in a result.

4) Readers Need to Feel It - One of the things I find most conducive to being pulled into a story, something my favorite authors do well, is give me enough of the physical environment or the character's physical interactions with objects or other people to feel it. This doesn't conflict with the exhaustive description problem. All it needs to take is one word or one short phrase about the way something feels in order to trigger sense memory in a reader. Avoiding -ly words here is, again, tricky. But, if you rely on verbs or strong descriptive words than the prose shouldn't get too flowery or fluffy. An object on fire might glow red hot rather than hotly, it might give off waves of heat, or shoot pain through a character's hand when they grab it. Someone's gaze might be flat and cold, guarded and unreadable, or eyes narrowed with suspicion, rather than coldly or suspiciously. A character's stomach might clench, instead of using any kind of phrase with the word "anxiously."

5) Characters Are People, and People Are Complicated - I found through the various revisions and rewrites of the second novel that the characters were too one-dimensional. They needed to react to things beyond be in constant panic over the big stuff. Here it is good to keep in mind at least three levels of the story: Global, regional, and local; or however you want to think of it. The global sense will be in terms of the entire story, or their general mindset. The regional will be related to multiple scenes, perhaps related to a timeframe, and maybe best expressed in relation to a plot thread. The local will be for each interaction or scene. There can be more levels than that, I'm sure, but that's a place to start. I tend to like a plot that has unexpected twists, which require subplots and sub-subplots. Each character interaction has a subtext. Each conversation includes the conversation that is, the conversation that was, the conversation that will be, and the conversation that is being avoided. Issues from the character's childhood might play a role in specific situations. Triggered memories might come up. They're skills or powers may be linked to something that affects their behavior or reactions. Map all these out via notes or analysis. None of this should be left up to chance. 

I suppose that's enough to think about for now, but I'll post a list of the resources I use and books I recommend soon.

Now Blogging for The Huffington Post

I just wanted to say that I am now blogging for The Huffington Post. My archive page is www.huffingtonpost.com/j-nelson-aviance. If you'd like to follow my posts there, I will be blogging on current events and topical issues on issues of masculinity, LGBTQIA issues, politics, writing, and the performing arts. I will likely be posting on a weekly basis. Check me out!

Self-Pub Authors: Do us ALL a favor! (Note: I'm one of you)

To my fellow Self-Pub authors out there, do all of us a favor and take your craft seriously. There are many of us who spend years honing our skills, finding our voice, creating our story worlds and imagining great characters. We invest time and money into writing classes, workshops, and editors. It's our dream to be successful writers, to have people love our books, and maybe even be financially independent along the way. All of that is hindered by the stigma that follows us for having self-published.

Things are shifting in the publishing world, that's obviously. While traditional publishing isn't dead, the advent of digital publishing, and now the proliferation of avenues for self-publishing, are pushing the market. A couple of the Big Five publishing conglomerates have purchased companies that had been avenues for self-pubs. Those authors who build followings and catalogues of work sometimes find the big publishers knocking on their doors with offers. Wouldn't that be nice? It might not happen often, but it does happen.

So what's my point? It's all about quality. There seem to be watermarks that separate the different levels of authors from those who are truly successful, with regular contracts, bestsellers to their name, and a good sized catalogue, to those who think about characters or plots and jot a few words down. It all depends on how seriously you take it. Just like any career path, it's hard work, takes time and skill, and even having great talent only gets you so far. And most people don't have great talent. A lot of writers build their skill at the craft. They learn the hard way how to put together stories, refine characters, and polish dialogue. There are great writers who had talent, but who were never wunderkinds and mastered their craft. There are great writers who are talented and do the same.

Our problem among self-published authors are the number of people who simply use their word processing program's spellcheck and think that's enough. Or that they would do a revision or two and think it's ready. Any time you say or think the phrase "good enough" in regards to your work then it's #FAIL! "Good enough" is the mantra of the never-weres and also-rans. For those of us who seek to nor be in that category, the aching worry is that it will never be ready. This is a good point at which I'll interject that working with an editor helps a LOT with that. Having someone who's a trained professional, knows the business, and has a lot of experience to look at a piece gives you both an outside perspective to let you know when something's ready and the kind of constructive criticism and attention to detail you need in order to get it there. A lot of people don't take this route, to varying degrees of success. There isn't one road to take, I tried a writers' workshop but didn't find it was getting me where I wanted to go. I needed someone who would go through my manuscript with a red pen and scribble all over it with notes and corrections, not just general comments or only a few specifics.

So...back to my point...If you want to take your writing seriously, to respect yourself and the craft, take time to work through your piece. Show it to people who know what they're looking for and ask questions. Polish it. Find someone who can do a good cover for the cover art, and not just a do-it-yourself digital mess. If you want to be treated like the authors who get their books on the shelves of the local bookstore, with their glossy covers and all, then that is the standard by which you must hold yourself. For those who aren't interested in putting in all this work, there are plenty of places to post your writing for free, whether it be fanfic or original. Audiences can tell almost right away whether they like a story, and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the writing. They see spelling or grammatical errors or awkward dialogue in the first page and a half and they tune out.

All I'm saying is, do yourself and all the rest of us a favor and take it seriously.

Balance and Creativity

It's been a month since I posted last. That's a no no in marketing life. It seems the secret to self-promotion is consistency and frequency. Unfortunately I have a firm deadline of when class starts this fall, so have been going a bit crazy to get the novel, which my professors see as peripheral, a side-gig that should take a back seat to their assigned work if I want to be serious in the career path, and mayhaps they're right. But I can't just do one thing. Like most of the writers I've met, for me it's somewhat cathartic, something of an obsession, and something they can't stop doing. Being successful in anything often requires single-minded focus bordering on obsession. My problem is having more than one passion. I mean many people don't even have one, and I have at least two, three if you split the music into performing and studying history.

Yeah. So, I have a definite deadline. And I already didn't get as much done this summer as I wanted to, spending more time working on the novel than I'd originally scheduled. My therapist says it's because I took on too much. He can see where he kind of has point. I mean, as is I suppose I pulled off a small miracle between learning Italian, studying 20th century classical music history, gathering research on a 40 page academic research paper I meant to write, and revising and polishing a novel that in manuscript format is 347 pages, about 92K words. Isn't that enough? No. But I can't put out a piece of work that is mediocre. It has to be the very best it can be. I even managed to have a little fun along the way this summer, going on a few dates, meeting new friends, and going away for a weekend in Chicago for Market Days.

So...at what point do I have the mental energy to blog?

Authors are having to do a lot of their own promotion these days, I see even major names doing a fair amount of it on social media. The nature of that promoting changes when you become huge, like Jim Butcher or Neil Gaiman. They promote their novels via interviews and guest posts on blogs. They have people at their major label publishing companies to do the tweeting and posting on social media or crafting attractive ads and getting people to review their work. These people seem to be the exception, however, not the rule. For me, I have to maintain a regular presence on Goodreads, which, by the way, has a giveaway for my short story collection Three By Moonlight during the rest of the month of August. I'm also on Twitter (@jnelsonaviance), and on le Facebook.

For the last week or so, however, I've been going through the manuscript and first entering the corrections my editor suggestion with the ever-subtle red pen, then, and this is something I've only been doing more recently, reading the text out loud. This helped a lot in catching things I had otherwise overlooked. It especially helped realize where I had used words too often In too short a time. Power, for instance, comes to mind as it is necessary in a number of different contexts. And there were a few pages where every character reacted by jerking their head in the direction of a new speaker, or seemed to nod like a bunch of bobble heads.

This takes time, though. On average, and this is the same when I'm reading an academic paper during a presentation, I take about two and a half minutes to read a double-spaced page. The editing process means that with my manuscript I probably only managed three or four minutes per page. Needless to say I finished last night close to four, so am  running on about five hours sleep right now.

I'm hoping that I'll find a greater balance, since even the editing process often doesn't feel that creative, which is a lot of the fun and catharsis of writing stories in the first place. But even that is more creative than trying to strategize about effective uses of Twitter, or tracking sales, or hunting down places to submit for reviews. Those things have their own appeal, but they aren't the free flow of ideas that makes my left-brain sizzle.

My World: Cosmology - More on Faerie

In my forthcoming novel, I deal with several scenes in Faerie. While you only see a small part of the lands of Winter, ruled by the Unseelie Court, you see a fair amount of the Summer lands, ruled by the Seelie Court. 

Faerie is a region of the spirit world which touches the mortal world in places. It is a realm that embodies broader concepts of nature, of which the fey and sidhe are anthropomorphic exemplars. These lands are wild and primordial, though function according to the qualities and concepts endemic of their elemental associations. 

The Summer lands, for example, are like vast natural wildernesses in high summer. Life is celebrated, including the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Wild animals roam freely through wooded dells, river valleys, and grassy plains. Every tree, flower, and blade of grass is in full bloom, fertile and full of life. Sickness is almost nonexistent. It rains in the mornings and evenings, though never obscuring the beautiful dawns and sunsets or the stars at night. The fey natives are merry. They hunt, make music, craft items of great beauty, and garden. Food is plentiful. 

The lands of Winter, by contrast, are harsh and foreboding. In places there is enough free flowing water, or winter blooming foliage, to support animal life. There are wild packs and herds that cross from Summer into Winter, but packs of wolves roam the colder lands, and all manner of fierce beast preys mercilessly on those who stray too far from the herd. Everything is covered in snow or ice. Mountain ranges dwarfing all but the tallest peaks of the mortal world are frequent in these lands. Their collection of forbidding peaks and impossible cliffs providing ideal cave-dwellings for flying beasts. The fey native to this land are hungry, wicked, and, while they too make merry, it is often cruel and at the expense of others. 

Larger than the Summer and Winter lands combined is that of the Wyld, which encompasses the rest of Faerie. These are the lands of fey not tied to either Court by oath or nature. It is a place both glorious and dangerous. Here the fey hunt to survive. They do so with stealth and without the ceremony or music of Summer, but also without the malice of Winter. It is composed of wilderness in autumn or spring, lands that can be plentiful in places or barren in others. There are giant shadowed forests, as well as cloud-covered plains. 

My World: Cosmology - Regions of The Shadow

Throughout the stories in Three By Moonlight: A collection of werewolf tales, available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and at most retailers nationwide, there are references and explicit statements about The Shadow. I've described it in an earlier posting, but having gone much further into the cosmology of it.

The Shadow is a region of the spirit world, though it is the one most easily accessed from the mortal world. It is coexistent with the mortal world, but there are other "planes," if you will, which are somewhat coexistent, or at least have specific areas tied to the mortal world, possibly acting as either anchors or doorways. These planes often link to parts of the Shadow as well.

Note, though, that these planes aren't just like floating islands adrift on the an ocean that is the spirit world. Although that analogy is somewhat useful, it doesn't describe the otherness, the nature of alternate realities, that are part of it, so fails to grasp their size and scope. Some planes are fairly limited in geography, and especially when they are realms ruled by a single powerful being or group of beings, like the realms of some deities or pantheons. Others are massive, such as Faerie, and seem almost infinite in their size, though, in fact, Faerie is only slightly larger than the combination of the US and Canada. The Shadow, on the other hand, may make up most of the spirit world.

The geography of the Shadow, however, is odd in more ways than just described earlier. Its characteristics, layout, and even physical laws change the further from mortal reality you go. The area generally referred to as the Shadow is, in fact, the Near Shadow. The next region is called the Deep Shadow. This area is far more nebulous and malleable, and is where more powerful demons and creatures of dark power choose to make their lairs. Beyond that is the Dark, sometimes called the Deep Dark or the Nether. This is a place of no light, where terrors live out immortal lives. It is said that there are places in the Deep Dark which connect to the Pit, what we might identify as Hell or the Abyss.

Another area of the spirit world is the Pale. This is, quite literally, the Border. While mortals conceptualize the Border as barrier to pass through, like a thin veneer that can be peeled away, it is actually a whole plane of existence, or, more accurately, a plane of being. The Pale is maybe close to the Christian concept of Limbo, or in D&D terms the Ethereal Plane. It is the place where ghosts exist, though as they are tied to places and events in other worlds often exist on both planes at once. In the Pale they aren't incorporeal, but rather their spiritual energy composes a type of conceptually solid form.  For all intents and purposes, they have a real body in the Pale.

There is, however, another area of the Shadow that is critically important to understand, and that is the Lands Beyond, a seemingly infinite space beyond the borders of our universe, a place of chaos, utter entropy, and nothingness. It is the Void. Yet there are creatures from this place, mostly dangerous and or powerful monstrosities and aberrations, alien intelligences completely devoid of what we might consider reason, or driven by nothing more than their desire to destroy.

One of the forces at work in reality is a kind of natural balance. For whatever reason, there are creatures of exceptional power who cannot reach our world in their true form. That doesn't mean they can't communicate or affect the mortal world, but they couldn't appear in their full strength. The Fallen, the angels who rebelled against heaven, are some of these. Their twisted natures prevent them from reaching beyond the Pit. It is, quite literally, a force like gravity. The Void, though, is like the Pit, in that it is a repository for things that want to destroy our reality. Unlike the Fallen, however, these creatures can cross into the mortal world from time to time, under particular circumstances, or with help. Also unlike the Fallen, they don't seek to re-order reality, they look for it's utter destruction. When they are set loose in the world, terrible things happen.

My World: Character Profile - Doniol Thomas

Occupation: Marshal of the Covenant
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Age: 25
Eyes: Green
Hair: Blond
Weight: 154lbs.

Doniol is a good guy. He's a hard worker, smart, thoughtful in decision making, and decisive in action taking. Unlike some of his peers in Vancouver, Doniol went through several years of a traditional apprenticeship before entering training as one of the battle mages. Because of that he has a bit more versatility than other marshals.

Doniol's family background is Welsh and, though he doesn't have an accent, he speaks some of the language. He also has some fey blood in his background, which gets alluded to on several occasions. The Unseelie Queen comments that his ancestor was one of hers.

He often uses his sword to channel his energy, rather than a staff like Duke does. He also carries a hawk-hilt dagger and various other magickal and mundane weaponry. He is very accomplished with air magick, his default element to use in combat is lightning, and is skilled with both veils and dealing with incorporeal beings. The shield he employs is the more common force-shield many marshals use, though this is in part because of the preferences of Evert Harcourt, the High Marshal in Vancouver where he did all his training.

He is inexperienced when he gets assigned to Minneapolis. He believes Harcourt made the assignment because he was a supporter of Captain Fredrik Thornwell, whose friendship with Duke Soller was the final straw in the strained relationship between the two men. Doniol believes that when Harcourt realized Fredrik was going to get reassigned and promoted, the High Marshal wanted to get rid of as many of Thornwell's supporters as possible. Whether that is true or not, it colors his opinion of the commander of all the marshals in North America.

Still, he tries his best to take control of the situation in Minneapolis after he is assigned. He gradually comes to like Duke, developing a deep respect for the mage's skill and compassion.