Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

It's a natural thing to want to ask everyone and their brother for an opinion about your novel or other literary work. However, there's a trap there. If you ask 100 people, you'll get 100 opinions. So what do you do? Write a book to please each of them? Might take longer than your natural lifespan. Just sayin'.

Maybe you need to question your questioning. Sounds strange, I know. But here's the reality: opinions are like belly buttons. We've all heard that one, right? Or at least one or two variations of it. (Insert wink)

Sometimes running around getting everyone's opinion is nothing more than you
wanting to share your work but you're too shy to say "hey look at this! I think it's great!" So instead you say "do me a favor and give me your honest opinion." (Is that REALLY what you want?)

Other times, you're just doubting yourself and looking for reassurance that you're on the right track. Of course, how would someone who was not there from the beginning of your vision know whether you're off-track or not? Just a side thing to think about. At the end of the day, the only person who can get you back on track is YOU.

After all, it's your story, it's your idea, it's your characters, and it's ultimately your book.
So running around to everyone and anyone asking for their opinion is just going to lead to confusion and frustration.

Ultimately, a book can only be one book, it can only have one title, and it can only have one cover. If you ask a thousand people and you want to please them all, you're going to have to write a thousand books, come up with a thousand titles, and create a thousand covers.

I'm not saying never get a trusted friend or relative's opinion. You can do that, but it's fraught with peril. That's because they're either going to suddenly become an expert and tell you all the error of your ways, which will be inevitably the parts of your book you are the most satisfied with, or they're just going to tell you it's wonderful even if it has 100 typos and 400 plot holes.

If you MUST get an opinion during your novel's creation, get it from an unbiased expert, but ultimately, STILL go with your hunch if you have a strong one that you're on the right track. Second-guessing yourself is often like changing answers on the test. Don't do it! Write on.

A trap I’ve seen a lot of writers fall into, especially new ones, is to sit there wondering why they don’t have more momentum since they have so many “fans.” I think this is primarily a conceptual interpretation problem. Believe it or not, I think a lot of people just don’t know what a fan actually is.

You can have a mailing list that just won’t quit. You may have hundreds or thousands of people who get your newsletter every month. You may have your own YouTube channel or podcast with a decent number of followers. You may have thousands and thousands of social media “friends.” Unfortunately, that’s not a fan base for your book. Especially if all those people were in place BEFORE you even wrote it.

Fans are very specific people. Number one, as elementary as it may sound, they have to be people who read your book. Everyone on your mailing list, all your social media connections, and your podcast and blog subscribers probably didn’t read your book, did they? Therefore, they can’t all be fans.

Fans are people who read and enjoyed your novel, are interested in you as the author, and are hoping for more of the same in the future. Ask yourself how many of THOSE there are. If you’re just starting out, it’s probably not that many. But never let that discourage you. A certain percentage of people who read your book will like it. It may be a large percentage or it may be a small percentage, but you WILL get fans if your book gets read. So don’t put the cart before the horse, focus on getting your book READ as opposed to trying to get fans based on your “resume.” It just doesn’t work that way.

Even your author page on Amazon is irrelevant until someone likes your BOOK. Once they like the book, THEN they want to know more about YOU. If you’re trying to do it the other way around, well, that’s only going to work with mom.

Selling books is all about marketing and distribution. Once sales are where they should be, fans will be there too. As far as reviews? Good luck and God bless you with that one. Even most fans don’t leave reviews. Not sure why. But that’s a topic for another day. Properly market and distribute your book, and this time next year, you will have fans. I guarantee it. Write on!

It never ceases to amaze me the things people like to fight about. I have seen so many writers getting into heated arguments with each other over what I refer to as the “dumbest things.” One topic is self-publishing versus traditional publishing. In a nutshell, who cares? One person may self-publish, another person may wait to become traditionally published, which may or may not ever happen, but regardless of which option anyone takes, why is it something to fight about?

There are valid reasons for wanting to do each type of publishing, those reasons are typically highly personal. Sometimes people who are very young argue about it and say that self-publishing is a waste of time and money. Well, when you’re 21, that may be true. If you’re 51 or 61, you may not want to wait any longer. So sometimes age plays into the decision.

Additionally, sometimes writers simply don’t want an editor somewhere completely rewriting their whole story. This happens a lot. Editors used to simply look for errors, uncover plot holes, or challenge the writer if things didn’t make sense. These days, a lot of editors essentially rewrite the author’s story, in which case the writer may choose to self-publishing order to keep control of the novel and make sure that the work being published is THEIR work. Editors are not ALWAYS right. They’re invaluable, but they’re not infallible.

A person may want to self publish simply to get the ball rolling because they don’t plan to make writing novels a career, it’s just something they do on the side. In that case, why wait and go through the agony of sending out query letter after query letter only to be ignored, which is what happens 90% of time. At any rate, there’s great reasons for doing both traditional publishing and there’s great reasons for opting for self-publishing, but no matter what, it is definitely nothing to fight about. Authors should spend more time perfecting their craft and less time telling other authors what to do. Make sense? Write on!

In this day and age of "everything is ok," it's time to mention something that's NOT. It's not ok, as an author, to let apps take over your life! Years ago, a writer sat down with a typewriter or word processor and wrote a book. Authors didn’t rely on software to carry them every step of the way. Although some software is helpful and it’s convenient, you still need to perfect your craft.

You CANNOT rely on software for everything. Look what happened to music when they decided to let computer programs write the songs instead of hiring people to do it: one measure repeated for 3 minutes; there's your song.

There are even individuals who offer “editing” services on platforms such as Fiverr and UpWork and all they are doing is spinning it through Microsoft spellcheck and grammar check. Believe me…Microsoft, Grammarly, and all kinds of other apps and programs CANNOT take the place of true editing. There are also some great programs that will help you with passive, versus active voice if you do AP style writing, but AGAIN, they are not foolproof.

YOU HAVE TO LEARN YOUR CRAFT!

If you don’t know how to do all that already, WITHOUT the software, you’re not ready yet. That may be hard medicine to take, but it’s the truth.

It’s also important to avoid “plot generators.” Honestly! If you don’t have a story in your head, or at least the beginnings of a story cooking, you’re not there yet. You’re just plain not ready. I’ve actually seen people on writing groups/pages say, “I want to write a novel, what should be about?”

Ridiculous.

I’m not trying to be condescending but come on! If you have no idea what you want to write a novel about, then you’re simply not ready to write a novel!

It’s very important to follow all the steps: you need command of the English language–or command of whatever language you’re writing in–you need to learn good grammar, you need to learn how to create a book through scene, sequel, scene, sequel in a straightforward or patchwork pattern, and you need to understand how to wrap it up at the end so that it’s satisfying, whether in a good way or bad way. Just those basics alone are vitally important, not to mention everything else.

Don’t jump the gun and try to get there in one big step with software, advice from other people, and plots spun from apps. The results will NEVER be as good as organic results. Go the long way. It will be WELL WORTH IT!

The best advice I can give any aspiring novelist is to, through trial and error, learn how to sift through all the “rules” and figure out which ones are breakable. Yes, some are made to be broken. The fine line is… which ones? I’ve seen new writers make horrible mistakes because they broke some of the rules, and I've seen new writers make horrible mistakes because they FOLLOWED some of the rules.

Yes, it is difficult to know the difference sometimes, but not ALL rules apply to every novel. Creative writing courses will tell you that EVERYTHING is a formula, and the formula must always be followed. For example, “the subplot should be introduced in chapter four.” Always? Really?

Of course not.

I couldn’t do that in my novel. For one thing, mine really didn’t have chapters per se, it had sections. It was more or less up to the reader to decide when to stop and start reading. I did that to avoid readers missing what’s most important: it’s my humble opinion that one of the worst things that happens when you’re reading a book is when you start to get fatigued and you say “okay, well, let me just get to the end of this chapter.” You’re actually too fatigued to keep going and should stop right there. But we’re programmed to think we have to finish the chapter we’re on and I didn’t want people skimming because you miss too much in my book if you skim. So that was one rule that sure didn’t work for me.

Other rules are a bit more important. Like understanding how to make a book flow. You can know how to write wonderful sentences and terrific paragraphs, but still not know how to write a book. Writing a novel is an art form, and you have to understand how to keep it flowing and keep your readers engaged. Otherwise even the best plot will just go flat.

Ultimately however, it’s actually up to the writer to decide which rules to break and which ones to follow. The type of story you’ve come up with may not fit the typical “formulas” that every editor thinks a book must have. It’s knowing when to stick with the tried-and-true methods and knowing when to go out on a limb, and unfortunately, no one else can tell you that. But don’t be afraid to rattle some cages and break a few rules, because as the old saying goes, “nothing ventured nothing gained.” Write on!

Writing and education are topics I rarely address because they can erupt so quickly into heated arguments. I've met many people who want to write for a living. They may have a novel in mind or their goal may be to work for a newspaper, magazine, or other publication. Naturally, I agree it's a wonderful ambition. However, wanting to do it and knowing how to do it are two different things.

I met a young lady one time who showed me a poem she wrote and the raw creative talent literally jumped off the pages. Unfortunately, she had "there," "they're" and "their" mixed up. Enough said. Sadly, instead of taking my advice, which I rarely give, she reacted with a bit of a chip-on the-shoulder attitude and informed me that you can't "teach someone to have talent," and therefore further schooling was unnecessary.

Actually, she's right and she's wrong. You absolutely can't teach someone to be gifted. You can't teach a person to have talent if no natural talent is there, and you can't teach creativity. Nevertheless, you CAN teach someone how to take their skills, gifts, and talents and use them to their best advantage. With writing, this can't be done without an education. You can have all the raw talent in the world, but the minute the editor sees the "there," "they're" and "their" issue, he or she won't bother to read another word. I'm sure I don't have to explain why.

THAT'S the difference between wanting to do something and knowing HOW. Some people have an outstanding aptitude for math, but unless someone shows them the steps and the formulas, the numbers don't mean anything and the raw talent will go forever unrealized. Some people would make exceptional athletes, but without someone showing them how to do the jumps and the twirls and the spins, they're probably only going to end up with a broken ankle when they hit the uneven bars.

No one likes to take the long road these days, but for some careers you absolutely MUST have a certain level of education, and writing is one of them. A friend of mine described a book once that was so horrible she didn't know what to say. Unfortunately it was written by a friend of HERS. I finally asked to look at it and after three tries I couldn't get past the midway point. It had fragmented sentences, punctuation problems, misspellings, and so many issues with the dialogue that some parts I had to read three times to figure out who was speaking. Now, ALL books have typos. Even the "greats." Primarily because editors now use software to catch all the mistakes, and software doesn't catch all mistakes. Enough said there. However, this wasn't a software problem, this was just simply someone who didn't know how to write.

Sadly, this writer has three books on Amazon and the last time I looked (just out of morbid curiosity) a customer had said in a review "I really wanted to love this book, but it was so full of sentence structure problems, juvenile dialogue, and punctuation issues that I couldn't get past the second chapter. Readers like me pay good money for books and we expect that at least the author would polish their craft before putting it out there for people to spend money on."

YIKES!

Yet the book was still there several months later. Honestly, after a review like that, the writer should have removed it and had someone edit it or waited until she could afford to hire someone to do so. I can only think maybe she had the same attitude as my poet friend I met all those years ago. In other words, thinking it's okay the way it is and it's just everyone else picking on her.

Sometimes those critiques need to be taken seriously. The bottom line is, I would never try to talk someone out of trying to become a writer, but no matter WHO you are, you DO need some type of formal training to make sure you know how to do it before you put yourself out there as an author. It's kind of like those crazy American Idol auditions. The people who couldn't sing will live on in infamy on YouTube forever and who wants to be known for making a fool out of themselves? I know that sounds harsh, but it's not nearly as harsh as the criticism you'll get if you try to do something that you clearly don't how to do. You also won't get anywhere in your career, which is the whole point of you wanting to write. There is no shortcut on this one. Sorry. Write on!

There is a lot of controversy about whether or not "thinking" counts as time devoted to writing your novel. Most would say it doesn't. I disagree. I think authors who force themselves to sit down and write before the scenes are fully cooked in their head end up straining and pressuring themselves. I also think it shows in the writing.

I read books where it seemed like that was exactly what happened: the author sat down to force himself or herself to write so many words in order to prove that he or she is dedicated to finishing the book. But who are you proving it too, after all? You know in your heart whether it's just a hobby or you're actually going to do it. You know how dedicated you are. You don't have to prove anything by writing a certain number of words each day.

Sometimes when you stop straining and let your mind wander, the best ideas present themselves. I've gotten some of my most poignant scenes when I'm wandering around on the acres surrounding our house daydreaming. My mind find itself going over details of my book– in this case the sequel to Hot Winter– and suddenly scenes are pouring into my head and there was no straining involved. No stress, no pressuring myself, and no forcing of words that don't want to come.

I'm not saying you can default to "thinking" every day all day long and kid yourself into believing you're going to write a book that way, but sometimes there is cause for pause. It may take you little while to figure out when those times are, but when you find your stride, your books will come out a lot better. Write on!

I love a good political thriller. I read Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. I like Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne, and a lot of other characters by a lot of other great political thriller authors. So what's my point?

Well, that's a specific genre, and it's supposed to be that way. But it is my humble opinion that that's where politics belong. In their own genre. Nevertheless, a trend was started decades ago that every novel must have social-political overtones or the work is meaningless. I don't believe that. Sometimes people just want a good story. Sometimes they're reading to escape heaviness. Sometimes they're reading because they want to feel better. Sometimes they're reading because they want to see if they can figure out a mystery before the novel ends. Sometimes they're reading to GET AWAY from politics for a while.

There is tension all over the world, but as a United States author, I become utterly fatigued with the political civil war being waged in my country right now and I wish that more people would be willing to walk away from extremes and try to be at least somewhat moderate on some issues so that we can talk again instead of spewing hated each other. (I know. I'll be waiting a long time for that.)

Sometimes when I'm reading, I'm reading to escape all the insanity and I just want to read about people who are simply PEOPLE, rather than party members. I know I'm not alone.

We all have political bias, but when and where does it belong? Launching a political campaign in your novel is probably not the best idea in this day and age. For one thing, you don't know who's reading. You may have someone who's completely absorbed and engaged in your book, but he or she becomes so turned off at the political slant that the book eventually gets tossed. At that point, you have to ask yourself it was worth it? You got your licks in for sure, and you let people know where YOU stand politically, but did it help you or hurt you, and was it really necessary?

Those are the questions I urge writers to ask themselves. If you know why you're doing it and what you hope to accomplish, and you feel it's the best way to write your stories, then of course, go for it! But if you're doing it just because you think you're supposed to, you might be losing some readers for no other reason except that you're doing something "just cause." And "just cause" really isn't enough of a reason as far as I'm concerned. That's why I stay away from it.

Of course, depending on the era you are writing in, there may be a lot of political unrest or war or something similar, and of course that has to be worked into the story to make it authentic. However, you can do it in a neutral way. The latter of which essentially means do it without inserting your opinion. LOL.

I won't mention the author's name, but a very very popular romance writer got so political with her books that it actually started to hurt sales. Virtually every novel was a 350 page object lesson about why you should belong to a certain party. I'm sure even people in that party got tired of it after a while. We need a break from that stuff, peeps. That's the bottom line.

I urge other writers out there to consider eliminating politics from a novel every now and then and simply write an engaging book that other people can relate to and enjoy without working in your political bias.

Just a quick post today to reach out to any fellow author who is thinking about that odd novel, short story, poem or article but you are afraid to write it.

Sometimes the best things we have inside of us are muffled because in this day and age we' re supposed to go along with what "they" say, and if not, something is wrong with us. This approach eats away at our creativity, and we hold ourselves back by saying "what will 'they' think if I write it that way?"

Unfortunately, this philosophy sometimes leads to a mediocre life. Imagine going through life afraid to do the things you really want to do because "they" might think you're strange? Guess what? We're all strange in our own way. So if it's the difference between living a mediocre life and doing the thing you're scared of doing, why not just go ahead and do the thing you're scared of doing? Go write it!