Writing Worry #7: A good story isn't the end of the story

I've always been fascinated by what makes one person successful when so many other people never make it. What makes a successful business person, politican, inventor, etc.? I've a hard time believing it is random luck or even fate. A news program on NPR about the non-fiction book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell said it was a combination of opportunity and ability. Would Bill Gates have been Bill Gates without his early access to computers? Would Facebook have been a runaway hit without Myspace and other social networking sites breaking ground? Would Stephen King have been the successful author he is if his wife hadn't rescued his Carry manuscript from the trash?

Last week, I mentioned that a good story is all an author really needs to get published. However, success in publishing, as in any endeavor, is a combination of opportunity and ability.

When an author hits it big, the news is about the numbers of books sold, movie deals and rags to riches overnight journeys. What often gets overlooked or downplayed is the years of attempts, the failures, the thoughts of picking up a different hobby and the sacrifices made. Sherrilyn Kenyon gave a wonderful interview on Writing Excuses about the perserverance her journey to the status of successful author required. Brandon Sanderson often mentions the ten novels he wrote before landing a meaningful publishing contract.

There no doubt that behind any success story is a lot of hard work. A good story is just a good story until it finds an audience, or market.

Some authors, like Scott Sigler and Nathan Lowell, have had great success podcasting their novels or releasing them as audiobooks. E. L. James, author of 50 Shades of Grey, found her audience via fanfiction sites. Mur Lafferty has used a combination of blogging, podcasting about writing and audiobooks to build her audience over the course of years.

Amanda Hockings and other Amazon.com authors have relied on self-publishing to get their stories to an audience. The stigma attached to self-publishing is lesening, but it still remains as more and more people post their gems only to find out they are rougher than they thought.

Authors still make it to the big through the slush pile, personal contacts, networking and any meals possible. As more and more people find new ways of putting their words in front of eyeballs, the background noise of mediocre and downright bad novels is increasing. Authors have to scream louder and louder for the chance to have their good story noticed.

From there it's a matter of marketing and publicity. These days, authors need an online presence. They need to be accessable to potential readers and reach out to them in any way they can. A novel is cold one book at a time-I'm not sure who first said this, but I've heard it repeated over and over by authors. It's no longer just about writing. There's a lot more that goes into making a good story a successful novel. And if an author wants to make a career of writing, the author must be prepared to start the journey all over again each time they produce a good story or the market changes.

Successful authors are a rarity. Their journey might have started with a good story, but it doesn't end there.

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Writing Worry #6: All you need is a good story to get published

Sometimes it amazes me that some novels get published. I know this is probably a measure of hubris on my part, but I often reason that if 'this book' or 'that book' gets published surely something I wrote could be as well.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have put down a book mid-way through or even finished it and thought I could do better. Plot holes, poor writing, badly developed or predictable characters etc. certainly don't stop a book from being published. I can think of a few books that if I was an editor I probably would have sent back to the author for another re-write or would have even declined altogether - like all the agents and publishers before the author got that big break.

And I would have been so wrong. Despite numerous flaws, these books find their audience. The authors of these books have found something that appealed to an agent, publisher, and editor enough for them to put their time into making a published work. Some books that I have cringed while reading have gone on to huge success and movie deals.

Taken the Twilight series. I had first seen the movie than a friend offered to lend me the series to read. It wasn't something I was interested in enough to purchase, but who can resist a free book read? Plus I wanted to see if the movie has simply missed what made the books so successful. To me the movie was a lot of toothless teenage drama. But the love triangle and the attraction to what could kill you intrigued me enough to look beyond the bland performances of the two lead actors.

The first 50 pages of Twilight were a real slog. The writing was mediocre at best and involved a lot of teenage introspection and moodiness. If I hadn't been so determined to find out what made this series such a success, I would have stopped reading before hitting page 100.

I pressed on and was rewarded with wishy-washy characters, a slim at best plot, a passive heroine, a stalker hero, and no actual threat. I continued reading the series determined to see if it got any better.

The central premise of the book is what hooked me. The forbidden love that could kill the lovers is a core romantic plot. The twelve year old girl in me was relishing in all the angst, while the adult in me could barely tolerate it. The worst part was the lack of on screen action. Every time something violent was about to happen, Meyers would remove her characters from it.

In all, the series is not one I'd read again. And yet, I've seen most of the movies and will am still curious about the graphic novel. The Twilight series strikes a cord with me even though I don't love the writing or the plot. I can understand why writers use it as a basis for their fanfiction. The love triangle strikes all the fundamentals, the danger of a lover who could kill you is like catnip to angst lovers like me, and the back story of the vampires and werewolves is interesting even if the main characters often feel one dimensional.

A novel doesn't have to be perfect - really, there's no such thing as perfection. All it has to do is have some grain that appeals to the very nature of being human. Be it vampires, BDSM, Amish romance or any number of genre, a good story isn't held back by its flaws.It just needs a chance to find its readers and shine.

First hike of the season: Flying Mnt ANP

Mud season isn't quite over even though the mosquito have started to hatch and the dandelions are flowering. Unfortunately, the snow-less winter meant little to no skiing of snowshoeing. On the flip side, it's also meant that the trails have dried quickly. Last Wednesday was the inaugeral hike of the season for the Jax hiking club.

Seeing as this was the first hike, we decided to tackle the relatively short and sweet Flying Mountain trail. The peaks rises to a max of 284 feet and the trail looping around by the fire road and checking out several scenic outlooks took a leisurely 1.5 hours for 1.7 miles.

The first rise definitely work up sleepy muscles and lungs. However, within minutes we reached the summit and enjoyed the view of Northeast Harbor.

The rest of the way down and around was quite enjoyable and relaxing other than a few slippery rocks.

The views are plentiful from the top of the mountain to the small cove before the fire loop road takes you back to the parking lot. This is a great starter hike for the beginning of the season.

For more photos check out the Jax Hiking Club facebook page.

I could Have Died: Red Flags

I was fortunate enough to be invited to write a guest blog post over at Oh Get A Grip for the  theme 'I Could Have Died.' For the post, I wrote a fairly candide short piece about realizing that an emotionally abusive relationship could have killed me. It's called Red Flags.

Writing Worry #5: Lots of ideas, few finished manuscripts

Many people suggest that authors keep a notebook on them at all times to write down ideas and observations as they occur to them. The reasons for this written thought process is probably because ideas are fleeting and that they numerous.
Just about anything can spark a writing idea in my brain. It might be a news story on the radio. Maybe it's something my co-worker said in a passing conversations. Sometimes it's as simple as imaging living in the shoes of someone I see. The point is ideas are everywhere. I know authors often talk about writer's block and it might seem like a lack of ideas. When it happens to me, writer's block is more about not having the confidence to try something that might not work.
Great you say. With all those numerous ideas, I must have numerous stories to write. I do. The problem is that the road from idea to completed manuscript is a long one. An idea must be fleshed out and filled in. Usually I spend several days, weeks or years, daydreaming about an idea. It gets molded and shaped. It gets made into one story then torn apart to make another story. There's a lot of thinking and sometimes even planning that has to happen before an idea is ready to be made into a story.
Most ideas are just fragments. A character. A setting quirk. A plot twist. Sometimes that's enough to spark writing. Most of the time the ideas get pushed to the back of my mind or, if I am lucky, onto a random piece of paper. Eventually the idea will bug me enough that I have to start writing.
I'm somewhere between a discovery writer (pantser) and an outliner (plotter). I've actually got two novels fully outlined. Only one is at the top of my must write list. Most of my writing involves a spurt of typing until I can no longer see where the story is going or I realize I am missing something about the back story. Then I turn to outlining. I pick up a stack of paper and a pen. Most of my best outlining happens when I am supposed to concentrating on something else, such as at a meeting, presentation or a busy cafe. I outline until I feel I have enough to take me through the next section of the story.
OK, now I'm on a roll and typing. The grueling slog of writing and outlining continues until the story is done (hopefully). I've gotten sidetracked by competing ideas and waylaid by the real world. To date, I've complete first drafts of around 8 novels (from 50-100K words), 2 novella (20-40K words), and a handful of short stories and flashers. However, the first draft is really only the beginning.
On to the next stage, re-writing. I'm currently re-writing one of my novellas to incorporate a second point of view. It may actually bump the word count up to the novel range. I finished the first draft last fall and have been working on the re-writing since. It's a slow process.
When I'm confident that my story is worth sharing, I have to find beta readers. They are invaluable in finding fatal character and plot flaws. Writing groups, including online critique groups, can help with this. Of course, any criticisms must be taken with a grain of salt. I decided to re-write Spar after a reader pointed out several times how one-sided the story was.
Re-write. Edit. Repeat.
Finally, a finished manuscript. I've only been in this position four times (two novels and two short story). Of these, one novel and two short stories were published. Dark Heritage has yet to find a home, but some suggestions by a beta reader has given me inspiration about how to re-write it. Hopefully that will lead to a sale.
Ideas = uncountable
Sold manuscripts = 3
Unfortunately, I am not a person who can work on multiple stories at the same time. It tends to fracture my attention. So while I re-write Spar, my brain tumbles over the re-write possibilities for Dark Heritage and I try to resist the ideas that keep nagging me to be written.
There's the Alpha/Omega homosexual paranormal romance, the polyangry werewolf romantic erotica, the alternate history steampunk romantic adventure...
Ideas are plenty, but it takes discipline, creativity, skill and a lot of hard work to bring even the most brilliant ideas into fruition. And don't most ideas seem brilliant at the time?