March 2013 Update

Brasilia? We don’t need no stinkin’ Brasilia!

Err… Okay, okay. Of course we need some Brasilia. Will have a cover very soon to share with y’all. First draft isn’t quite done yet, but it inches closer. Still on target for a 2013 release date, depending on some other people’s schedules. 🙂

Eden free tomorrow!

Starting tomorrow (Wednesday), Eden will be free on the Kindle store for 5 days (thru Sunday).

Hey, anyone have any Canadian friends? Go tell them to download & review Eden on amazon.ca for me. Need some love from the northlands… Is Winter coming?

Graphic Novel?

Yes, yes… slow, slow. Just got a few more pages today. Through sheer force of will, I shall see that project to completion.

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Yup, that’s all I got for now. I have a few other big projects & such brewing/underway… but none of those are necessarily relevant to anything here just yet. As always – once I know, you know. More to come…

NINE Writing Tips from some influential folk

Why not a “Top 10” list? I’m just that lazy… You get NINE!

In “Matt order” of importance (you might recognize some names):

1. Write with passion

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

My task…is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see. That – and no more – and it is everything. ~Joseph Conrad

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. ~George Moore

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul. ~M. K. Simmons

—

Storytelling is a personal, emotional and spiritual affair. If it isn’t? Then you’re not a storyteller.

2. Do it for love… and DO IT!

Writing is its own reward. ~Henry Miller

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay. ~Mark Twain

Action is eloquence. ~William Shakespeare

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

—

Don’t write to get paid. Write because you must or because you enjoy it. And – START WRITING!

3. Paint a picture

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

Poetry creates myth, the prose writer draws its portrait. ~Jean-Paul Sartre

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything. ~Anatole France

Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue. ~Jack Woodford

—

Simply stating something is easy enough. Sometimes you want to capture the reader’s attention and heart, however. In those cases open your toolbox and make use of similes, metaphors, and vivid imagery.

4. Write (and revise) with every spare moment

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed. ~Ray Bradbury

Half my life is an act of revision. ~John Irving

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor. ~Edgar Rice Burroughs

And a word on revising until your tombstone epitaph reads “Never published anything”:

The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. ~William Faulkner

—

Write, write, write! Revise, revise, revise! But at a certain point, push the baby bird from the nest.

5. Keep it simple

Vigorous writing is concise. ~William Strunk Jr.

Find out what your hero wants, then just follow him. ~Ray Bradbury

[Or HER, Mr. Bradbury]

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret. ~Matthew Arnold

PLOT is a four-letter word in my house. ~Matthew C. Plourde

—

You know what’s not simple? A grandiose outline with a hundred different story arcs all asking for attention and conclusion. Fifty characters all with their own POV. Plotting has no place in Storytelling either – let it go.

Write simply and from the heart – I know of no better advice for an author.

6. Cut the boring parts

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults. ~Samuel Johnson

—

Don’t start at the beginning – how boring was your life of poop and formula/breasts (okay, the breasts may have been interesting) during the first year of your life? /thumbsdownfartnoise

I don’t want to read about the main character’s home, work life or how they got to where they are in the first few chapters/prologue. I want to start right in the middle of some crazy shit!

“But, Matt, I need the reader to understand-”

NO! STOP! The reader will understand through dialog and action as the story unfolds.

“But I want to show-”

NO! YOU’RE NOT LISTENING! As a reader, if I don’t immediately know a) who’s story this is, b) what’s at stake and sometimes c) why I should care — I STOP READING. I don’t give a tiny turd about why the High elves of ForestyPlaceWithFlowers are at war with the Humans of GeneroMedievalCity… Sprinkle that shit amongst the dialog and action. I want to know what’s going on, who it’s happening to and why I care. That’s it.

Same too goes for the middle. Don’t let it drag. Don’t show every little thing that happens or explain every little detail. Keep the narrative flowing like a majestic river.

/breathe /breathe

Yeah, I sometimes take this stuff seriously 🙂

7. Eliminate unnecessary words

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. ~Thomas Jefferson

The adjective is the enemy of the noun. ~Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire

—

Other offenders: “mostly”, “really”, “actually”, “extremely”. Take these words out back and do them like they did Old Yeller.

8. Learn to thrive on criticism (and some things to make you laugh)

You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance. ~Ray Bradbury

There is probably no hell for authors in the next world — they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this. ~C. N. Bovee

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs. ~Christopher Hampton

Don’t be dismayed by the opinions of editors, or critics. They are only the traffic cops of the arts. ~Gene Fowler

Publishing your work puts it at the mercy of the unwashed masses – and they are massive… And unwashed. Safe with their shield of anonymity, hecklers & trolls will assault your castle walls. Ignore the bad, ignore the good, ignore it all. And remember this quote when pondering why someone tagged your book as garbage:

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. ~Aesop

… The internet provides such a great, safe distance. /bowtoAesop

9. Be unique, extraordinary, unpredictable

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite. ~G.K. Chesterton

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. ~Oscar Wilde

There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are. ~Somerset Maugham

This one is marked as #9, but it’s not necessarily least on my list here. Instead, read the list, learn from writers who have come before you, hone your craft, be a sponge for writing advice… BUT ignore it all when the time is right. All these tips (from myself and others) paint a wide picture on how to tell a story. However, only YOU can tell YOUR story. Leverage what you need, use what you want and then add your personality into the mix to make it wholly yours.

Who’s your point of view?

I get asked several similar questions from many of the authors I mentor and I see some similarities on the writing forums I frequent as well. I’m going to take some time today to discuss one such repeat patron: Point of View (POV, for short).

As you develop your story idea (notice I didn’t say “plot”), you may ask yourself – what POV should I use?

Wrong question.

Here is the only question that should be burning in your mind: Whose story is this?

If you write with outlines (I still disagree), this should be bolded and at the top of your sacrilegious outline: Whose story is this?

If you prefer notecards with characters/ideas on them (notice the absence of “plot devices”), this should be at the top of every notecard: Whose story is this?

If you only write with the barest of notes (most of them in your addled brain), this should be already answered: Whose story is this?

Notice a pattern to my advice here?

One of the most important tasks you need to accomplish before putting pen to paper/finger to keyboard is decide a) whose story this is and b) the driving force behind the narrative.

These 2 items will both solidify your focus (which will spill thru to the reader) and give the story all the fuel it needs.

If you meander from the start, with no care to narrative or a sense of who’s driving that narrative – the reader might just close the book and move on to something more engaging. I know I do.

So, what does all this have to do with point of view?

This should be obvious at this point, but I’ll go into some explanation here.

There are three main components to your narrative mode: view, voice & time. And I do think you should fix them in that order. Wikipedia has a great overview article on each concept and I’m not going to delve into detail on their attributes. Rather, I’m going to talk more about view and how to choose it.

View is the most critical (in my opinion), as the others will fall into place (usually) based upon your preferred writing style and given writing talents (some folk are just masters of the present tense, for example).  I’m going to narrow it down further and only speak to POV as it relates to character. Does the title of this blog post make sense now? 🙂

Who’s your POV character(s)?

Ahhh… Here we are, and only after ~400 words. I’m nothing if not meandering!

Once you decide “Whose story is this?”, the question of POV kinda answers itself.

Coming of age city teen? The city teen, of course.

Human falls in love with mysterious vampire? The human of course (to keep the tension & mystery going even after the reveal)

Hero’s journey? The hero, obviously.

Crime drama following both the crime and the police effort? Perhaps one POV character from each side.

Brilliant detective and his/her sidekick? Well, either. Maybe part of showing the brilliance is telling the story from the sidekick’s perspective (Elementary, Mr. Watson).

Notice anything similar amongst all my examples here?

You guessed it. Matt Tip #1: Limit your POV to as few characters as possible… and pick the right one(s)!

While jumping from mind to mind can be effective for your book, here are some examples of where it chops the narrative and hinders the story:

• Going back in time (either to rehash the narrative from a different POV or to spend a few pages in a past event, for another character… ugh)
• To Explain (why do some writers feel the need to explain every little thing? no, we don’t need to know why Nancy reacted the way she did – show it from Bob’s discovery or from dialogue later. don’t tell it from her POV because you feel the reader needs constant explanation.)
• To world build (common in fantasy works, this traps the reader in endless exposition for the sole purpose of building the world. ugh.. it combines the top 2 bullets into a dark abyss of narrative suck.)
• Wants. As a storyteller, you might want to add something (the villain’s POV, for example). When push comes to shove, you must clearly define your narrative wants and needs. Step back and objectively look at your story. You may want to show something from a different POV, but do you really need to? Can you still show what you want to show from your main POV and thus keep the narrative flowing? Usually, the answer is “yes.”, and you’ve solved that POV quandary.

The best way to avoid these narrative sinkholes? Strive to have as few POV characters as possible. I suggest ONE. Your story will dictate if you need another.

Matt Tip #2: If you must have multiple POV characters, don’t switch mid-paragraph

I’d go as far as to yell: don’t switch mid-chapter, but I’ve seen talented writers pull this off. So, I dunno… As a rule, perhaps you shouldn’t even try.

Matt Tip #3: Keep your Voice and Time consistent

This should be a no-brainer for any fiction writer, but I feel the need to re-emphasize:

• Don’t change narrative timing.
• Changing voice within a narrative is quite common & useful. Just don’t do it without a smooth/obvious transition.
• Voice changes should be temporary, always snapping back to the “main” voice.

Closing Remarks

As with all my “advice”, I caution: your mileage may vary. You may not agree with all I have to say and that’s just fine. As much as fiction is subjective, so too is advice on writing fiction.

If you have more views on character points of view – feel free to post in the comments below. You can try to sway me from my belief in the almighty “one POV character”, but you will fail. Miserably. Embarrassingly. And Grammatically. 🙂

Amazon Removes TAGS from their Book Marketplace

Hrm.

“What’s a tag?” you ask? Well, you must not be a self-published author. This is a listing of TAGS for some random Amazon novel:

Amazon tags, now extinct?

These tags assisted book visibility to potential readers. An amazon customer could, say, search across all books tagged as “apocalyptic fiction” and find just what they’re looking for – a “genre roadmap” if you will.

And now they’re gone. Maybe. Sorta. For some of us. Potentially.

When I queried Amazon they sent a muddled response hinting that tags could be “Restored” at some later point and they are “testing customer purchasing features”.

Whatever. I’m just here to relay the news in case you’ve been asleep the past 2 weeks. Several others have noticed the now invisible tags and have blogged on the topic as well.

My advice? Don’t load your book descriptions with your now invisible tags just yet. Let’s see what our Amazonian overlords decide to do and then act accordingly.

You wanted easy? Doing it ourselves is never that…

 

December Update 2012

Nope, I’m not dead. Not yet at least. Been a crazy fall, I’ll tell you that much. Unfortunately, the crazy was in life not writing. Sigh.

The good news? Brasilia is still coming along and remains set for a 2013 release. (hey, a book a year ain’t bad for someone doing this very part-time) 🙂

More good news: The Kindle version of Eden will be FREE for 5 days right after XMas. So, tell your friends/family. 🙂

Even more good news: The Eden graphic novel is still on its way. Crossing fingers for a 2013 release on that as well. Don’t believe me? Koneh says “Believe it, sucka!”:

I guess that’s all for now. If you celebrate any upcoming holidays, enjoy yerselves. See y’all on the flip.

To Pseudo or not to Pseudo?

Ya know, it’s kinda funny, SUDO means a whole different thing in my everyday life. But I’m not talking about switching users on a UNIX system – I’m talking about switching names when you write fiction. Writers sometimes decide to use a pen name, or pseudonym, to publish their fiction under a name other than the one their mommy gave them when they arrived into this world covered in fetal slime.

When is it a good idea? Should you do it? What does it mean?

I’m gonna start off by saying: don’t do it. Not strong enough? Okay. Don’t fucking do it. My detailed reasons appear below, but it all comes down to one central point: stand up for yourself. This includes believing in yourself, embracing honesty, taking responsibility for what you write and so much more. We writers aren’t tortured souls, recluse oracles nor should we strive to be celebrities. We are storytellers. Part of pre-history and history. We’re adding to the fabric of the human experience, just the same as everyone else in their own way.

So fucking do this as yourself. Do it as John Burgess Wilson, not Anthony Burgess. Do it as Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum, not Ayn Rand. Do it as Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry and Victoria Holmes – not some conglomerate called Erin Hunter. (yes, there is a Wikipedia site dedicated to linking the real names of writers to their pen names)

Maybe there are solid reasons to use a pen name. I’m not saying there aren’t. Screw it – let’s dive in already!

The Shield

Here, the writer needs to protect themself (or feels they need to protect themself) from some harm which could befall them if they attached their real name to the work. A solid argument can be made for this in the nonfiction world. Perhaps. Fine. Protect yourself if the conditions merit camouflage.

But for fiction? In today’s world where freedom is enjoyed by a majority of the nations?

What do you have to fear? Are you really writing something that will rattle the feathers of the topmost levels of some xenophobic or criminal group? Why obscure your name if there is no realistic fear for retribution? And who would gun you down over your fiction? Do you fear your family?

Will you get fired from your job? Hmm… Okay. Let’s say you write furry porn (crap, my search hits just got a little wider for this blog). And your employer finds out about it. And fires you. I guess you have a few questions to ask yourself: Why did you write furry porn? Are you really passionate about writing porn? Do you believe in what you wrote? Do you think your employer was “right” to fire you?

Personally, I say write all the furry porn you want. And if your “day job” has a problem with it, tell them they can keep their job. If your work hasn’t been impacted by your writing, what business is it of theirs?

So… if you cannot afford to lose your job, and you really really want to write all that furry porn — maybe you should consider a pen name as an option. Now, I used an extreme example here, but who’s to say your science fiction doesn’t cause your employer to wonder if you belong on their payroll? Maybe they harbor rigid views about how each of their employees should behave, and writing about the planet Zoxorn isn’t on that list. It doesn’t need to be pornographic for someone, somewhere to decide they take issue with what you’ve written. It’s a human decision based on ignorance and a sense that their idea of “proper” society is a one-size-fits-all ideal.

Fuck those people. I still say: write what you want, and standby what you write. Come at me! I don’t need a shield.

Now, if you’re writing to harm someone else, and want to use a pen name as a shield, then you and I might have a problem (and you might want a shield). Jesus’ first rule is: “don’t be a dick”. Direct quote! And while I’m never in danger of being accused of following Jesus (or Yeshua, if you prefer his given Hebrew name… which I respected in Eden), I do try to follow that simple rule. If you’re writing nonfiction, harming others all comes down to cause and effect – so maybe you have your reasons. But in fiction? Are you trying to affect social change? Prove a point? Sure, you can draw parallels to people (living or dead), but be very very careful how you go about it. Avoid libel. Don’t stand on  a soapbox. And for Gods sake – keep it entertaining! We’re storytellers, and stories are only valuable if they entertain. Otherwise, leave it to the News. And don’t use a pseudonym – stand by your assertions & fiction if you truly believe them (you should).

The Facelift

Maybe your name is “Ivanna Dikinme,” or something equally fun/boring. Maybe you think a female author will have a better chance of selling chicklit books than your given name of Harvey McGuyver – so you perform a sex change for the novel. Whatever the case – you decide your name just isn’t good enough.

Um… why? If you’re ashamed of your name, you can legally change it with town hall.

Otherwise, my earlier advice still holds: stand by what you do. Don’t try to prop it up with some additional fiction (like a name/sex change). Let the work (and your integrity) stand on their own. It’s the same argument with adverbs: don’t give crutches to your verbs. If your work needs some artificial help, then maybe you should reconsider your choice to publish.

I mentioned that 3 authors were merged into one body in my short pseudonym list above. Now, I don’t know what the deal was there – perhaps they decided to do that on their own, or maybe the publisher demanded it. Maybe they were ghostwriters? I dunno. Whatever the case, what’s the point? Why do this sort of thing? Do publishers feel the average buyer wouldn’t buy a book with 3 authors on the cover? Is that all it is – a business decision?

Well, in my opinion – it’s a crappy decision. Everything else in the world is so fake & concocted (see: “Reality Television”), must storytelling also have an air of misdirection/lies around it as well?

/stuffydouchebagvoice

“But Matt, authors have used pseudonyms since there have been books.”

/enddouchebaggery

Yeah. Fuck most of those guys/gals too. It’s all part of the whole “I don’t have to take responsibility for my own actions” mentality which I absolutely won’t be teaching my kids. Whatever their reasons, I still don’t think a pseudonym for sake of a facelift is the best choice. Embrace your name, embrace who you are ’cause there’s only one of you… and your name is ___________.

The Switch

Imagine for a moment, your dream is to write novels. You bang out your first book (or several), and the reviews come in: rubbish, trash, not fit for public consumption. Maybe the feedback isn’t even from strangers. But you forged on anyways.

And come to find out: you’re better at drywalling than stringing prose into meaningful chapters. Shit, maybe you are “okay”, but you think you damaged your name in some way with your previous work. Whatever the case – there’s some awful reviews of your little babies out there in the world.

And you want to forget all that and try again. Under a different name. Start over from square 1. Reincarnation!

Hold on there, Skippy. What went wrong the first time? Was it because you can’t write or was it all just “bad luck”? (followup: ask yourself how anything can be 100% attested to “bad luck”) How do you think you can change things for the better this time around? Is your material enough to carry you past your previous spot? You got some new mad skillz? New publicist? New strategy? New brain? New computer? New shoes?

Whatever the case, think long and hard about your decision to get back in the game and also under what name you do it. Even bad press is good press, so consider carefully your name change.

As a footnote to this, I also had a colleague of mine ask me if she should write with a pseudonym because she had several books published in one genre, and she didn’t want potential readers to question whether or not she was “fit” for this other genre.

I’ve heard stuff like this before. Where does it come from? Agents? Publishers? The Internets?

My advice: stop worrying so much about markets, sellability and whatever other distractions you may have. As a storyteller, your first and only responsibility is to tell the damn story! Fuck the rest of that noise.

To Sum it All Up

You may very well have some valid reasons to use a pen name for writing your fiction. But, if you think you do, I suggest you ask some critical questions and decide why you’re doing it.

If it’s all a matter of privacy in the end, then I suggest you reconsider your decision to publish. Part of storytelling (I believe) should be engaging in dialog with your readers – and it’s hard to do that with any integrity if your name is really Clarence McGraw, not Sally Storm.

Embrace integrity.

Anti-Trust Settlement

In case you missed it, three of the largest publishing houses settled a $69 million anti-trust lawsuit which was raised by the State Attorneys General office. The lawsuit claims there was a conspiracy to fix & raise ebook prices.

But the settling publishers (Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster) claim they did nothing wrong. That sort of statement is always there in a settlement. It’s the final claim of innocence before the defendant(s) pays a lump of money over this act whereby they “did nothing wrong.”

Sigh.

Of course they did nothing wrong. The States Attorney just had nothing better to do that day. The courts had a lapse in judgment which allowed such a frivolous case to be filed. The publishers engaged in no activity which raised suspicion.

Yeah, and I’m a Chinese jet pilot (couldn’t find a YouTube clip, sorry!).

Early in my never-launched law career, I learned to never debate a legal case where I didn’t have all the facts. Classic example is the McDonald’s hot coffee spilled in lap case. We’ve all heard of it. Woman in McDonald’s drive-thru spills a coffee in her own lap while driving away and sues McDonalds. Crazy, right? What right did she have to sue? It was her own fault.

Well… not so much if you know the facts of the case. The lid was 1 size too small for the cup. The coffee machine wasn’t turned down to the “daytime” heat levels after store opening (it was still at “mega hot” for store “warmup”). And so on… So, when you get all the facts, you start to see where the blame can be placed on both parties.

And so too, this case about ebook price fixing. Can anyone honestly stand in front of me and tell me why an ebook was priced at or higher than a paperback? Really? Where is your argument? Ebooks require no manufacturing, warehousing, distribution or infrastructure beyond a few KB on a server somewhere. And formatting my ebooks is FAR easier than the print counterparts (or, they are equally “fun” if you really want to argue the point. Both have their quirks).

So, why were/are ebooks from this big publishing houses priced so high?

Here comes the other side: we paid those prices as consumers. (well, I didn’t… fuck that shit. I ain’t paying $10 or more for an ebook… are you insane? Unless that ebook gives me a handy and cooks me eggs: no freakin’ way.)

But many, many consumers did pay those prices. And the prices stayed high. If you believe in Capitalism, then a free market would have seen prices lower over time for all the reasons I mentioned above: it’s FAR cheaper to produce ebooks than print books. Supply is limitless. Demand should be reasonably equal to print books (but with no supply factor, demand shouldn’t be an issue).

But the prices didn’t lower.

Now, we can throw accusations around all day, but I can only assume the Attorneys General didn’t just file this case on a hunch or random bullshit. There must be some evidence that prices were maintained at a high level by these publishers thru some sort of clandestine agreement (or “backroom, winky” agreement).

I’ve heard stories of publishers cheating their writers and all kinds of other crap. And my own experiences in the publishing world turned me quite sour to the whole enterprise. So, this really doesn’t surprise me. Even without knowing all the facts, I do believe these publishers did indeed band together to set prices on a market they all but control.

How do we fight such an evil empire? Blow up their Death Star?

Nah… go out there and support quality indy writers 🙂 Start Here.

You go, Chris Roberts!

Before I explain the title, here’s a story from my childhood:

I was in junior high (“middle school” for you non-New-Englanders) and I had kinda grown up on my Atari game system, arcades and (later) my Apple IIc.

Sometime during those wonder years I met a friend with a PC:  a 486 Windows 3.something. And he had Wing Commander. I hadn’t played anything quite like it, and I’m not sure anyone had. It was a quasi-3d space shooter which had so much more. The storyline won’t knock yer panties off, but the game had a storyline! This was revolutionary back then.

Storyline PLUS great gameplay = I rode my bike 3 miles after school to go watch my friend play this game. I eventually did play (and got my own PC), but this game shaped all my future gaming in so many ways. Wing Commander was the benchmark by which I measured many other games that came down thru the years (even non-space-sims). Between this game, Pool of Radiance and Railroad Tycoon, my gaming pedigree was established.

The man behind Wing Commander kinda disappeared for a while. But now he’s back.

And he’s crowd-funding his next project.

Watch his video explaining the project. He talks about how he could have signed with a publisher (with his street cred, publishers line up for him), but he doesn’t necessarily agree with current publishers’ visions of the future of gaming. He wanted to retain control of his own project and develop it for his beloved platform: PC.

God damn, we live in an exciting time! I see projects getting “crown funded” all the time on sites like Kickstarter nowadays. Creative people with great ideas can see their projects come to life and succeed/fail based on their own merits – rather than on some gatekeeper’s whim (sound familiar?). To see this sort of “do it yourself” invasion spread across many aspects of life today is truly inspirational. We self-published writers might have the best toolset of them all (Amazon, ’nuff said), but sites like Kickstarter and Gamecrafter are spreading the revolution into other creative avenues.

Bravo to these pioneers. And Bravo to Chris Roberts. I’ll be happily funding your project and eagerly await the release of Star Citizen (or whatever you call it in the end).

Yes, Your Shit Stinks Too

If you’re planning to put your fiction “out there,” or you’ve already taken that leap – chances are you’ll be dealing with criticism. No work of fiction, even if it was ejaculated upon the author from On High, is universally accepted as perfection. Literature is subjective. People have their own likes/dislikes.

And, yes, your literary shit stinks just like everyone else’s.

What am I saying? It’s simple, really. Until you can accept that your work isn’t a flawless gem, I’m not sure you’ll have the tools you’ll need when strangers read and critique your “finished” product. But this has nothing to do with being thick-skinned. Even fragile flowers deserve to tell their stories if they dedicate themselves to the craft. But, when the jeers come, those delicate souls can indeed weather the storm without changing their personality. And it all comes down to accepting the truth: your work isn’t a timeless paragon of literary brilliance.

Instead, like us humans, each work of fiction is a unique lump of matter. Complete with flaws, quirks and uniqueness. The sooner you realize this, the better off you’ll be in the end. If you’re at peace with the truth, you’ll be prepared to absorb valid critique, recognize a mismatched reader and deflect worthless chatter. For the valid points, you can choose to make changes (if you have direct control over your work) or mark it down for a possible revision later on. Or, perhaps, you’ll just earmark the advice for future works. In the end, your fiction will improve and your reviewers may be telling you something you already know. Perhaps a certain scene or character never sat 100% with you. As more people read your work, your chances of running across constructive criticism rise (as does the number of internet asshats). For me, I embrace anything that helps the story. So, if a reviewer points out something negative that I happen to agree with, chances are I’ll change it. I know my shit ain’t perfect, and I’m willing to make sound revisions.

You should too.

Now, the reverse of this is also true – believe in your work! Just because some anonymous internet goon gives you a “1-star” doesn’t mean you suck as a writer. If you’re be better suited for handing out stickers at Walmart, then I hope you realize that before writing book number two. But if you truly think you deserve to be called a “Storyteller”, then don’t let bad reviews get you down. Easier said than done? I don’t think so. If you truly believe in your work, and that you deserve to share shelf space with other authors – this is an easy state of mind to keep going strong.

You thought it. You wrote it. You shared it. It won’t ever be perfect, but fuckin’ believe in it!

At the end of the day, we’re all a day older. (sorry) But, it’s also all comes down to the story. If you can take a step back and view negative comments as possible constructive criticism – you’ll become a better writer. And I don’t see how that’s ever a bad thing.

Post-Apoc on TV!

I’m talking about NBC’s Revolution, of course, which premiered on Monday. Post-apoc? On semi-primetime TV? Sweetness. Let’s dive in!

Things I liked:

• Post apoc on TV/film is quite a rarity throughout the history of that media. Nice to see!
• Neat science. I haven’t done research on electromagnetic waves and how they could knock-out our technology, but it’s certainly a fun topic to delve into. Reading the FAQ on iMDB.com, it seems like the idea is that “something else is afoot.” Being a sci-fi writer, I certainly don’t have a problem with that, and even welcome it.
• Female midriff… yeah, I went there.
• Post apoc scenes (though entirely too clean, like NYC in Newsies)
• I kinda trust Bad Robot and many of the production peeps on this series

Things I’m not so sure about:

• Did they say they were close to Chicago? I musta missed it if they did. But they kinda “warped” to Wrigley field and I had no sense of the length of their journey. Length of journey is kinda important in post apoc (see: The Book of Eli, Eden, Waterworld, etc etc). What? Did I just pimp my own shit AND mention Waterworld in the same note? Insanity…
• Everyone is so clean and pretty… sigh. I guess it’s a necessity in today’s film & TV… even in a high fantasy, medieval or post-apoc setting.
• Satellites must be in the sky, or else that end scene t’aint makin’ any sense!
• Not so sure on the main character yet (despite my “like” of her midriff)
• I know next to nothing about the captured brother, which makes it difficult to care if he lives or dies at the hands of Gus Fring (that was Gus, wasn’t it? He’s so fabulous.)

So… will I keep watching?

Fuck yeah. The show isn’t a Breaking Bad or a Firefly, but it’s the only post-apoc fare besides Walking Dead right now. I’ll take what I can get! 🙂