Inkpunks

So you’re a writer. And you know writers. And you have to buy them gifts. Don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. There’s something for every kind of word-wrangler on our list, and even something for the normals. You do know people who aren’t writers, right? Hmmn. Maybe you should add that to your New Year’s Resolutions.

For the sophisticate:

You know the one—her stories all have those amazing metaphors that you’re not quite sure you get, or maybe it’s that guy whose newest book reads like the illicit love child of House of Leaves and something by Murikami. They’re classy and smart, and they’d be delighted by any of these delicious tasting sets from Master of Malts. If your budget allows, you might consider getting one for yourself.

For the dedicated horror writer:

Do I even need to tell you about Leslie Klinger’s The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft? I’m sure you’ve already heard the hub-hub about this delightful new compilation—well, so has your friend who’s working on that great horror novel. They’re probably pining for the darn thing right now. Go help them out!

For the serious fantasist:

I admit: I haven’t seen this movie yet. But it’s by Toby Froud and Heather Henson, and it’s Froud-y puppetry in the finest spirit of Froudian production. Watching Lessons Learned is going to be a fun experience, and your fantasy-writing friend will enjoy falling into the sweet nostalgia of the puppets of their youth.

For the intense science fiction writer:

Everyone can use a mug, and the odds are good that if you’re writing hard science fiction, you’re probably going to need some caffeine. Here’ s a cute constellation mug that will hold their favorite tasty beverage and inspire them to keep their eyes on the sky!

If you are a science fiction type, looking for a little inspiration, here’s a little treat for yourself: these FREE wallpapers based on Daniel Dociu’s awesome cover for James S. A. Corey’s novel Abaddon’s Gate.

For the SF/F/H writer looking for inspiration:

Any of the Spectrum Art books are going to rock that person’s world, because they’re filled with work from the best artists working in science fiction, fantasy, and horror today. I especially recommend Spectrum 20 and Spectrum 21, because our very own Galen Dara has pieces in them.

For the writer who needs a kick in the butt:

Every time they put on this Write Like a Motherfucker tee, they will feel your foot connecting with their bum. Consider yourself a muse.

Your editor:

Chances are that the editors in your world are tense. After all, editors live at the junction of two very weird worlds: the business world (where everyone wonders just how they’re going to make money) and the art world (where everyone wonders how they can get people to feeeeeel). You might consider a yoga DVD, such as this one for stress reduction, or maybe an anxiety-reducing aromatherapy spray for their office.

And what about those normal people? What should you get them?

Easy.

Get them pizza. Because what the people in your life really want is more time with you. So take them out for a good time—or heck, have dinner delivered—and enjoy the moment.

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Our guest post today comes from a terrific friend of the Inkpunks: Matthew Sanborn Smith. The voice behind the terrific Beware the Hairy Mango podcast, and a prolific short story writer, Matthew’s one of the hardest-working folks I know. Today he’ll tell us a little bit about self-publishing and the madness that goes along with it. Also, be sure to check his book’s amazing cover art, by our own Galen Dara!

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Hey, Folks! Matthew Sanborn Smith here. I’ve just released my first self-published short story collection, The Dritty Doesen, and Wendy offered me the chance to talk to you guys about why I decided to do such a thing. If you haven’t done it yourself, you may have considered it. You may have also talked yourself out of it. Let me tell you what went through my head. I have self-published a couple of short stories, so we’ll back up to before that happened.

 My biggest problem with self-publishing years ago was the legitimacy issue. I started submitting to mags in the early nineties when they didn’t do e-anything with the exception of e-lectricity. Self-publishing was confined to ink and paper and was looked upon with the same respect an animal might give to the bottom of its cage. It was proof the author wasn’t good enough to sell anything to a real publisher. It was an act of desperation. It was tacky. Everyone knew this save for the self-published writers themselves, and maybe a few of them knew it too.

 Although most people don’t engage in self-publishing, most do engage in self-contradiction. At the same time I was busy knowing all of those things at the end of the preceding paragraph, I was also knowing that Ani DiFranco was one of my heroes. It’s not that I was a super fan. I only knew a couple of her songs. She was a hero to me because she started her own record label at eighteen years old and released her debut album the following year. You can shut the biography right there. I don’t need to read another word; I respect the hell out of her.

 But self-publishing was for losers.

 It took years of steady evidence piling up in front of my eyes for me (and a lot of other people) to come around. Sixteen years earlier, Rush did what Ani did before they got picked up by a major label. That Sky Captain guy made a whole feature film on his computer. Youtube people got paying gigs. Scalzi sold a novel after blogging it. Then there were those novel podcasters.

 Hm.

 I met my doubts halfway and self-published a story that had already sold to a pro market. I did this in part because a publisher was releasing one of my stories as an e-book, and I wanted to have another thing available under my name in case a satisfied reader was looking for another fix. It also felt right because the story I was putting out there myself was no longer available online, as the original publisher was a webzine and only archived authors’ stories for about three months. And so I eased myself into the water.

 BUSINESSY TANGENT

 Know, oh prince(ss), that this story made a piddling amount of money as an e-book. Here are three reasons I think that’s so: 1) I am a piss-poor marketer, 2) People that sort of liked me had already read the story when it was free, and 3) I didn’t give it a village in which to thrive.

 Only that third one requires further explanation. I let my story sit next to the professionally published one and then left them both to die. There was no more reason, other than accidental, that readers would find it after the initial week or two that it was out. Had I been the type of guy to follow through on plans, I would have self-published another story every month (at least), to regularly give people a reason to look at my Amazon page. Then each title could advertise the others. (At the beginning or end of your own e-book, remember to mention your other available titles. Because you can always update an e-book, you can keep these pages up to date no matter how long the book has been out.)

 But I didn’t do squat, and let those titles sit there for a few years. I’d like to say that I smartened up on my own, but it was my sister who got me back on track. She’s had great success through Amazon and inspired me with something as base as numbers. I know going into this that I won’t see her kinds of numbers myself. She’s publishing romance novel trilogies and I’m publishing science fiction short stories. There’s a world of difference in demand for those two things. But I’m sitting on a hundred and fifty short stories that, whether I’ve sold them or not, are now hanging out on my hard drive with nothing to do. Even after culling all the bad ones, I have enough for six collections.

 And collections are important here. I started back in by thinking I was going to publish each story individually. I only got one more story out the door though, because I had another conversation with my sister.

 Because I misunderstood Amazon’s fine print, I didn’t realize an author could pick up 70% royalties by pricing his or her work between $2.99 and $9.99, as opposed to getting 35% royalties at another price (as of this writing). I’d planned to sell each story at $0.99. (Does anyone else remember that typewriters had a key for the cent sign?) Even I, the biggest fan of my own work, think that charging $2.99 for a single story is a rip-off. By collecting the stories, I feel okay charging more. Also, I think a variety of stories increases the chance the reader will be happy with their purchase.

 You may wonder if a lot of individual stories at a 35% royalty might net more than a few collections at 70%. Let me know.

 END OF BUSINESSY TANGENT

 I write different types of stories, as I’m sure you do, and I initially planned on including a wide mix of stories in each collection. A little something for everyone. Soon I realized how awkward it might feel going from a story centering on a heart-breaking death to a silly piece of absurdism. I couldn’t find an order of contents that wasn’t jarring. It would probably be better to separate the collections by theme. Adventure, silliness, strangeness, so-dark-you-want-to-take-a-shower-afterward, melancholy, and teetering on the edge of comprehensibility. Not everything appeals to everyone. Among those choices, there are those collections a reader might seek out, and some he or she might avoid altogether.

 My art is my art and I make what I want, without a reader or a market in mind. Having said that, once a work is done, I’m going to try to make money from it and I’m going to try to be honest with the reader without sacrificing the work in either case. I have no problem telling someone I know, “This story probably isn’t for you, but you might like this other one.”

 One of the reasons I’m self-publishing is that I’m confident that some of my work does not have mass-appeal. It’s weird. It doesn’t always look like what you’d expect from a story. But I’m just as confident that someone will like it. My podcast, Beware the Hairy Mango, has only a very small following. Most people don’t care for it. But the ones who do care for it love the hell out of it. There are people out there, sprinkled amongst the general populace that are dying to read your work. You just have to reach them.

 In the past, I’ve done my own covers. I’m very risk-averse when it comes to laying out cash. But for the past year or two, I’ve been trying to stretch myself and try some new things. I realized when I reach the end of my life (assuming I know it’s happening), I’ll feel much better about the things that I tried and failed at than the things I never tried at all. For my current collection I decided to take a chance and pay a pro. I went to my Inkpunks friend, Galen Dara, because I knew she’d do something wonderful. She did.

 You needn’t see the cover as an obstacle. As I said, you can always update an e-book. If you’re on the fence, you can create your own cover now and always change the cover in the future.

 So let’s boil this down. Why might you want to self-publish?

1.   Whatever stigma there might have been in the past is largely non-existent now.

2. You’ve got stories you believe in that aren’t what professional editors are looking for.

3. You’ve got stories that have previously sold, the magazine’s period of exclusivity has expired, and you want more people to read this proven material.

4. You now have the power to release whatever you want, however you want. You don’t have to worry about what’s in vogue. That’s pretty punk.

5. You’ll reach people you never knew existed. And you’ll be someone’s favorite writer.

6. You have nothing to lose. Although I did hire Galen to create the cover art for my current collection, I have done past covers myself by taking photos or using Amazon’s cover templates. You can always do the work yourself and not spend a dime.

 I’m halfway to ninety-one years old and I’ve been writing and submitting for twenty-three years. As I get older, I’m less afraid to try new things, because I’ve seen all the old things that don’t work for me. I hate to be the guy who says, “In this day and age . . . ,” but honestly, we’ve been given all the tools to steer our destinies in whatever direction we want. One less obstacle between you and your reader will only make things better for both of you.

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cover, galen dara, self-publishing, short fiction collection

We’re a third through November which means we’re a third through NaNoWriMo, for those of you who are participating. I’m sitting this year out (editing a book instead) but I went through it last year, finishing 50K in 24 days. And since it’s the eleventh day of the eleventh month I thought I would share with you eleven pieces advice. And bonus, this advice can be useful whether you’re doing NaNo or if you’re just working like usual.

One: Make a schedule. Stick to it.

Pick a time of day every day when you write. It is sacrosanct. Nobody can have you for this time. Your email cannot have your attention. Twitter, tumblr, and Facebook cannot have your attention. This time is for writing. Whether you say you are going to work for a certain amount of time or to a certain wordcount, treat this time as you would treat needing to get something done for a deadline for work or school.

The reason for this is that routine helps you write. The longer you stick with a writing routine, the easier it will be to start writing. That ‘windup time’ will shrink as you go. To help with this, consider what else you might be able to make part of the routine. Maybe you make a cup of tea before, or light a specific scented candle, or listen to the same music (my books have playlists I listen to when I work on them). When you incorporate these things into your routine, they help prime your brain for writing time, just as a wakeup routine primes you for the day and a bedtime routine primes you for sleep.

And here there’s always someone who says “I can’t write every day!” or “Not all writers write every day” which is true. “Every day” is potentially too demanding for some people with full time jobs and kids which take up a lot of time. If it’s not possible, it’s simply not possible. You have to find the balance between pushing yourself to get to work and pushing yourself into a breakdown. And that really comes down to the individual.

Two: Write, Don’t Edit.

If you’re doing NaNo, you’re going to have to learn to shut off your inner editor and simply get words on the page, even if they aren’t exactly what you want. Some writers edit as they go, and that’s what works for them. But being able to just put down words is a useful skill, regardless of what kind of writer you are.

What I did to quiet my inner editor is write comments to myself inline. I’d say “fix this later” or “research this” or “who talks like that?” Having these notes written down allows my inner editor to have its say without putting a halt on the writing process.

Three: Don’t Know It? Skip It.

Similar to the inner editor, sometimes when you’re writing you realize you don’t know the capital of a country or who is the editor of which paper or other random facts. Or maybe it’s something bigger, like how to build a house or sail a boat. Or, sometimes, you just forget something like your character’s eye color or last name. There are times when it’s good to take a step back and do some research, but when you have a good writing groove going, it may be better to just carry on and not let gaps in knowledge bring you to a grinding halt.

Research notes, like the editing notes, need to be flagged so you can find them quickly. To pull this off, type a series of characters (a “string” in technical terms) you wouldn’t normally use in your novel. I’ve seen “tk” suggested, but personally I use “%%” because you’ll never use it and it scans easier than “tk” does. And for those instances where you forget someone’s name or eye color you can say %%NAME_EYE_COLOR and when the time comes it’s just a quick search and replace on a string you can guarantee hasn’t been used anywhere else.

Four: To-Do Lists are Not Just for Chores.

Sometimes you find yourself ending with good momentum and you know where the scene is about to go. And sometimes you are able to just keep going and write out everything you’ve got figured out. But sometimes you don’t have the time. And sometimes even if you do, it isn’t the best idea because it can leave you too spent to write the next day. Remember that novels are not sprints, they’re marathons.

So a good way to carry that momentum into the next day is, at the end of each writing session, regardless of where you are and how you’re feeling, write down notes for the next little bit. Like “she confronts him about the broken vase” or “they start the chase, but are diverted away from the museum and into the library.” Whatever you need to have on hand so you remember what comes next. So that the following day, when you sit down to write, you know which direction you’re going in.

Five: Eliminate Distractions.

Twitter and Facebook are obvious, but we’re very good at inventing distractions when we don’t want to do something. Maybe you need a glass of water or some cookies, some socks because your toes are cold, maybe you should turn up the heat, oh but the air is so dry obviously you need a humidifier gotta go find one online… it’s not hard to keep from doing something difficult. And writing can be difficult on a brain that isn’t used to going for long stretches.

Part of eliminating distractions is removing temptation, but part is being vigilant over your focus and keeping yourself from inventing and chasing petty distractions to keep your mind from being still enough to do the hard work of writing.

Six: Pedaling Uphill vs Pedaling With the Brakes On.

But sometimes, when your brain is trying to take you away from your writing, it isn’t because it’s having a hard time. Sometimes it’s because something has gone wrong in the book and you simply haven’t figure it out yet. I describe this as pedaling uphill versus pedaling with the brakes on. They’re both hard to do, that’s for sure. But one is hard because you’ve hit a hard patch, and one is hard because something is wrong. The trick is to figure out which one it is.

Seven: Do the Dishes.

Get away from your writing. Stop thinking about it. Do something simple, repetitive, and finite, where your brain can idle. Do the dishes, clean the bathroom, something that doesn’t require creative thought or problem-solving skills. Let your brain rest and sometimes the solution to that tricky scene will simply come to you.

On a related note of solutions that suddenly surprise you, consider picking up some AquaNotes to hang in the shower. They’re waterproof notepads that you can write on with pencil so you don’t lose those ideas that hit you when you’re washing your hair.

Eight: Take Regular Backups.

Dropbox. You don’t really have an excuse at this point. Set up dropbox, and save all your writing in your Dropbox folder. You’ll have an automatic offsite backup for all your writing. (And make sure you set up two-step auth while you’re at it.)

Nine: Sit Up Straight.

So you’ve probably heard about how the way we sit (and the fact that we sit so much) is bad for our health. And you’ve probably heard about the long-term benefits of good posture, the reduced instances of repetitive motion injuries such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel. But for most people, thinking that far in the future is a little hard to do in the moment, especially when you’re trying to sort out what happens next in your novel. Well, did you know that good posture also helps your creativity and productivity? It helps with your focus and your mood which directly impacts how well you think and how much you can do. Unfortunately there is no One True Posture, but the good news is that just means you get to figure out what works best for you!

Ten: Try Cowriting.

Writing is a solitary and potentially lonely activity. Not only are the hours spent writing keeping you away from social interaction, but then there’s a lot of work to be done before you can really share what you’ve done with others. The long gap between work and recognition and the long hours spent alone can be psychologically taxing, even if you’re a wee introvert like me.

So to help combat this, I like to write with others around. It’s nice to have somebody there who’s going through the same crap you are. Every so often you can take breaks from writing (try 45 minutes of writing and 15 minutes of rest) and celebrate or vent what’s going on in your book, and nobody can sympathize with writers like other writers. It’s a great way to get out of your head and realize you’re not as on your own as your solitary work may lead you to believe.

Eleven: Butt In Chair.

Ultimately though, the only way to get a book done is to sit your ass down and do it. It’s not going to get written by just staring at the page and hoping words show up, and it’s never going to get written by puttering around doing things that look like writing but aren’t. And it’s easy to get sucked in by the things of writing that aren’t writing but still make you feel like you’re doing something writing. Tracking word count, futzing with your word processor settings, picking a font, even useful research, none of this is actually getting words on the page.

Even this blog post, as useful as it may be for me to write, is not actually getting my novel edited! So, beware the siren song of anything that keeps you from getting your book done. And good luck with NaNo!

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We’re so excited to welcome Laurel Amberdine to the blog today! I’ve had the wonderful fun of working with Laurel at Lightspeed and the special Women Destroy issues, and let me tell you: she’s awesome. Here’s some great advice to get you ready to kick some serious word count butt.

• • • 

Today, I will tell you about the scene template, a tool to defeat writer’s block, overcome literary weak spots, and make revision a breeze! Or at least a way to get your thoughts together and enjoy some pretty colors.

A few years ago, I went into NaNoWriMo with something beyond writer’s block—it was utter terrified paralysis. After coming back from a long break from writing, I’d spent a year planning a complicated science fiction epic. I’m a big planner. I’d outlined and mapped, designed the solar system and the ecosystem and consulted with scientists. I knew everything about this novel. In my head it was amazing. And I couldn’t write the first word.

But I knew everything! How could this be so hard? I knew I needed some kind of interim planning. I’d used notebooks in the past, but I was traveling constantly, and couldn’t lug all that around.

Finally, I developed a kind of worksheet, which included everything I needed to write the scene. Who was in it and what they wanted. Where it was set. What the conflict was. What I might foreshadow. What I wanted the reader to get out of the scene. And so on, all the way to an actual blow-by-blow list of how the scene should play out, including the opening and closing lines. I called it a Scene Template.

(My particular template uses a rainbow palette, because if it looks pretty I will have more fun filling it in. I like to make the process of writing as pleasant as possible.)

Prior to every scene, I would fill out one of these template sheets. Not the whole thing, necessarily, just enough so I felt comfortable starting. Most of the time I never even looked at them after I got going. Even the most intractable scenes fell before the scene template. Once I filled in all the blanks, I necessarily knew what happened in that scene. It worked great, I won NaNoWriMo, and I have used it ever since.

This is not to say I was suddenly a fantastic writer. Like everyone, I have weak spots, and some of them became more apparent through practice, feedback, and revision. In one case I kept forgetting to include unique emotions or personal quirks for characters. Thinking about how to improve, I realized: I could add an item to the scene template! And now I add a new entry whenever I notice something I need to pay particular attention to.

Most recently, when revising, I had to rewrite enough scenes from scratch that I pulled out the template again. But, a lot of the template entries weren’t so useful, and I couldn’t find a place to put some of the planning I wanted. So I wrote up a specific template just for revision, which focuses on what I need to change, rather than figuring out background information.

I’ve shared the template with a few people, and they’ve customized it or created their own. Turns out that everyone thinks about story and scenes differently, and it’s important to have your template suited to your personal narrative schema. I update my template a couple times a year. Sections get added or expanded or dropped, depending on what I’ve learned recently, or how I find myself using it.

So, if you find yourself struggling with your novel, consider trying some kind of structured planning tool, like a scene template! I’ve included the current versions below. Feel free to take and modify them, and let me know if you have any questions.

Scene Template — click to download (These are Word documents in .rtf format)

Revision Template — click to download

• • •

Laurel Amberdine was raised by cats in the suburbs of Chicago. She’s good at naps, begging for food, and turning ordinary objects into toys. She recently moved to San Francisco with her husband, and is enjoying its vastly superior weather. Between naps she writes SF/F and YA novels and works as an editorial assistant for Lightspeed Magazine. Find her on Twitter at @amberdine.

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I’m excited to share a fresh guest post from Jonathan Wood, author of No Hero and the brand-new Yesterday’s Hero, which is being released in only a few short days! Jonathan is a great writer, both funny and fun, and his first book read like a Weird Kurt Russell movie. Luckily for us, he’s got some pointers here that will give your next writing project some Kurtly verve.

***

From the beginning, the basic concept behind my Hero series has been to graft an urban fantasy story onto an action thriller backbone.  Basically I want to have magic and aliens, and zombie T-Rexes, and I also want things to blow up in the most impressive way possible.  It’s a standard having a cake and subsequently eating it scenario.  Obviously, I am not alone in this desire.  A few people have been kind enough to say nice things about my action scenes, so I thought I’d share a few pointers that I’ve learned along the way.

Watch trashy action movies
For better or worse, these days people see most of their action scenes at the movies. Your audience’s understanding of the language and grammar of violence will be strongly shaped by this influence. Therefore, you should be familiar with it too. So go on Netflix, get out your ladle, and start scraping the bottom of the barrel. Watch martial arts films, watch B movies, watch Hollywood blockbusters. Hell, Michael Bay may direct a shoddy movie, but the word “Bayhem” has entered the English language for a reason. That said, there are some action movies that may be more worth your time than others. For my money, both The Raid and The Raid 2 are master classes in cinematic violence, and well worth your time.

Read trashy action books
You’re writing, not directing a movie, so it’s also good to see how others have translated the cinematic language into the literary form. Well… with the books I’m talking about, literary might be stretching it. But there are a couple of authors who have already taken this model and run with it. Clive Cussler often gets top billing in this department, but personally I have found the top-line action thriller writers to be James Rollins, Andy McDermott, and Matt Reilley. Adrenaline junky pulp-tastic reads each and every one of them.

Make us care before we get there
Possibly the single most important thing to remember about action scenes: they mean nothing to us if we don’t care about the people involved. This is why so many action movies fail. Because they don’t make us give a damn before the fuse ignites. An action scene is a character struggling violently to get something they want. For us to care about the struggle we have to be invested in the character getting what they want.

Know the rough blocking of the scene
OK, once you’re ready to put pen to paper for your action scene, probably the most fundamental thing to know is where your characters are and when. Action scenes are frequently chaotic, and having a good basic sense for where everyone and everything is at any point in time can help you keep track of things. For example, Jack can’t get flipped over the leaping great white shark into the car’s windshield until Sally has detonated the oil barrels behind the car sending it flying into the air. Obviously. One word of warning, blocking is an area where I think it’s easy to get lost in the details. I’ve personally never needed to draw out a map (though I know that works for some people). I usually just like to have a rough sense for where and when as I go into the scene. But I also like to give myself some room to play as the scene develops.

Concentrate on the telling detail
Speaking of details… Action scenes often involve a lot of description. This is going on over here, therefore this goes on over here, but then this happens, which, etc, etc. Just as with any descriptive passage, less is more. Describe the general action and then throw in the detail that makes it real. “The car detonated with a massive whoomph,” gives you one impression. “The car detonated with a massive whoomph, catapulting Mrs Hodgkin’s flaming tabby cat through the windshield,” gives you quite another.

Keep yourself firmly within the POV character’s head
Not sure which detail to include? Again, stick with the basics – what matters to your POV character? It’s impossible for a character to pay attention to everything going on in an action scene. Rather, they are going to pay attention to what matters to them and their immediate survival. The fate of Mrs Hodgkin’s cat may be critical to them, or it may be an incidental bloody smear if what really matters is retrieving the original text of the Necronomicon from the back seat of the car. Your POV character’s experience is your route map through the chaos of your blocking, and they’ll point out the interesting stuff along the way.

As a side note, by focusing on POV and telling details, you should find that a lot of the pacing of the action scene will take care of itself.  Less important moments will speed by, while those that make a difference will get highlighted and take more time.

Throw in stuff because it’s cool
OK, this one’s a little dangerous, but if ever there was a time to throw stuff in because it’s cool, the action scene is it. These are your big show-stopper moments. So, indulge. Have the backflipping great white shark. Have the fire create a flaming arch that your protagonist has to drive her motorcycle through. Have some fun. Drop a few jaws.

Escalate, escalate, escalate
This is a basic macro-plot rule. Escalate the scale of the problem the characters face over the course of time. But it also works on a micro level for action scenes. And it’s a good guideline for throwing in “because it’s cool” elements. These frequently belong later in the scene once the scale of the conflict has escalated. A fight can start as two guys slugging it out in a bar. But then a guy with a gun shows up. And then a supporting column gives way. And then the fire starts. Which means the police are on their way. Which is how the running gun battle through the street starts. Which is sort of how they end having a massive hand-to-hand battle up on top of the racing L-train. Really where you stop is up to you.

And those are pretty much the basics.  As with every part of the writing toolbox, practice makes it easier, so I’ll end this with a writing prompt.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it: write a single action scene that starts in a bar and ends on top of an elevated train.  And for good measure, at some point you have to include a great white shark.  Now go have fun.

***

Thanks so much, Jonathan! And for all our friends and readers, go check out his books!

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I know this blog post (told in gifs–oh, you’ve got to go check it out!) is about first novels, but I think a lot of the feelings are the same, no matter how many books you’ve written.

Today I am SO:

The hearts of my word enemies! Bwa-ha-ha!

But yesterday I was hiding under the couch.

These bad ideas are all out to get me.

How are your projects going?

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CBD is helpful in treating medical issues like anxiety, insomnia and pain problems. These effects, combined with studies that show THC to have anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic effects, have led to it’s designation as a medical cannabis ingredient by the DEA.
Who is truly behind the legalization of Cannabis? It should come as no surprise that those who benefit the most from this is the very little minority who are not able to access medical cannabis. Those who are treated on a daily basis with the very same medical cannabis that can cure the suffering in your life, while allowing you to focus on your personal recovery.
Organizations like Cannabis Is Medicine and Healing from the Mind
Currently there is a grand total of one documentary on the subject of cannabis. You might be asking yourself “what about those who are not able to afford it?”. You would be wrong. You’d be completely incorrect. Millions of families depend on the medical cannabis that can replace toxins in their bodies, and without the legal green oil the kids could end up in a burning hospital room.
When I talked to Courtney Sainsbury in her documentary about the effects of medicinal cannabis on kids, she told me that she receives a total of 150 calls a day about the medication, and that it’s extremely important for those kids to be educated about this form of medical treatment. There are many reasons that a kid with a chronic medical condition should be allowed to use medical cannabis, and also hemp oil, which you can find with different products online. Learn more here.
The reason that kids can use medical cannabis to replace toxins in their bodies is because medical cannabis works on several levels at the same time. It breaks down the body’s ‘immunity’ against certain side effects caused by the cannabis molecule, further allowing them to use THC without the side effects associated with CBD or the psychoactive THC. A certain level of tolerance to THC occurs after the majority of adults in the United States began to smoke marijuana around the turn of the century, meaning as a child you should be able to have normal ‘high’ levels of THC, while continuing to be able to sleep and function normally, when looking to get some help achieving a good sleep,  check with an expert that has an sleep consultant certification. If you are a medical cannabis patient or are dealing with a family member who is ill, check out the infographic below for an in-depth look at the medical benefits of medical cannabis.

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Today we’re happy to welcome back guest blogger James Sutter with some thoughts on social media. Thanks for your contribution, James!

Here’s the scene: You’re fiddling around on your smartphone, maybe killing time in line at the grocery store, when suddenly—ding!—there’s a new message on your Twitter. Somebody liked your book! Not only did they like it, they’ve given it a glowing 140-character review! Your chest expands, and your finger heads for the “retweet” button.

And then you pause.

Should you rebroadcast that praise? On the one hand, you’re proud, and you also think that maybe it’s a good way to remind people that you, ya know, have a book out. But at the same time, you don’t want to come across as a braggart or a huckster.

This is an issue I’ve wrestled with since 2011, when I published my first novel, Death’s Heretic. I can still remember the tweet that first brought the dilemma to my attention: a mean-spirited quip by someone whose name I no longer remember, saying, “Hey people who retweet praise—your parents’ divorce is showing.”

Now, I think that statement is pretty shitty on several levels, but the basic sentiment came through loud and clear: that rebroadcasting praise on social media is a sign of insecurity. Since I didn’t want to appear desperate for validation—though really, what author isn’t?—I proceeded to be very careful about what sort of praise I retweeted, avoiding anything that wasn’t a review by an “official journalist.”

Over the last few years, though, I’ve been rethinking my position. I’ve watched several highly successful new authors like Chuck Wendig and Robert Jackson Bennett retweet casual fan reviews (tweets along the lines of “Was up all night reading so-and-so’s new book—what an awesome story!”). And I’ve begun to realize that maybe I’ve got things totally backward.

So here’s why I now think retweeting praise might not only okay, but advantageous.

It works. Here’s a secret that politicians have known for a long time: name recognition is powerful—like, really powerful. Ever wonder why people put up a million signs in election season that just have the candidate’s name, without so much as a slogan or key position? It’s because studies have shown again and again that, in the absence of other data, simple familiarity with a name can make you positively inclined toward a candidate. They don’t need to win your vote—they just need to stick in your brain.

That recognition works for authors, too. Given that your audience has an overwhelming number of books to choose from, even something as simple as a familiar-sounding name can make the difference between a reader clicking on your book or the one next to it. Moreover, since you’re retweeting praise from a variety of folks, you’re giving people the impression that everybody’s talking about you. I find myself responding to this effect all the time, buying books because my brain sees a bunch of tweets and says, “You keep hearing about this book—it must be pretty good!” That’s despite the fact that I know they’re only in my feed because the author’s retweeting them. That’s powerful mojo.

It rewards reviewers. This is the second great thing about retweeting praise: you incentivize its creation. When a fan knows you have a habit of responding to praise on twitter, they’re more likely to tweet about you—because who doesn’t get a thrill when their favorite author responds to them? Retweeting also rewards reviewers by introducing them to your audience, even if only for a moment. Given that those reviewers are probably scrambling for exposure as well, you’ve just turned a one-way transaction into a mutually beneficial one.

So now that we’ve explored—in coldly mercenary terms—why retweeting praise is good marketing, I want to throw out some potential caveats.

Don’t Be a Spammer. The cardinal rule of social media still stands. While I personally find retweeted praise less offensive than authors constantly pushing their books, that doesn’t mean it can’t go too far. If you’re filling my timeline with every nice comment anyone’s ever made about you (“James L. Sutter is a reasonably hygienic author”), I’m gonna reach for the mute button. The burden is still on all of us authors to be insightful, funny, educational—whatever it is that we think draws people to us in the first place. Endless, blatant self-promotion is rarely entertaining. Make sure that retweeted praise is the exception, not the rule.

Choose a Praise Threshold. Everyone is likely to draw their line in a different place, but personally, I feel that an important distinction is whether the comment was directed toward the internet at large or toward me personally—the latter feels too much like a one-on-one conversation for me to be comfortable using it as marketing. So if someone tweets, “I just finished @jameslsutter’s The Redemption Engine—I love his creepy-ass angels!”, that’s likely to get retweeted. But if someone tweets at me directly and says, “Hey, I liked your book!”, I would probably just respond with a thank-you. In the former case, the person is already intentionally endorsing you to a wider audience, which in my mind makes it okay to publicize the comment.

 So now that my second novel, The Redemption Engine, is finally out, I’m going to take the plunge and try to retweet praise more often. I won’t say that I’m not a little anxious about it—regardless of rationalizations, there are clearly people who find it gauche—but I feel like I owe it to my book, and to any awesome people who go out of their way to say nice things about it.

That’s my plan. What’s yours?

James L. Sutter is the Managing Editor of Paizo Publishing and a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. He’s the author of the novels Death’s Heretic and The Redemption Engine, the former of which was #3 on Barnes & Noble’s Best Fantasy Releases of 2011 and a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. In addition to numerous game books, James has written short stories for such publications as Escape Pod, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the #1 Amazon bestseller Machine of Death. His anthology Before They Were Giants pairs the first published short stories of speculative fiction luminaries with new interviews and advice from the authors themselves. For more information, visit jameslsutter.com or find him on Twitter at @jameslsutter.

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While listening to a Writing Excuses episode called Engaging Characters, their guest Nancy Fulda, mentioned character generators. (Season 9 Episode 10 http://www.writingexcuses.com/2014/03/09/writing-excuses-9-10-engaging-characters/ )

I’d never heard of such a thing!

Since I’m working on a new novel outline, I was curious enough to check it out. I do already use a name generator to help name my characters. Way back in May of 2011, I wrote a blog post about it called Naming Your Characters. I still use the Random Name Generator for almost every project I work on. (here’s that post if you’re interested)

On the podcast, while discussing character quirks and the pitfalls that can bring, Nancy says the character generators can be a “useful way to make sure your characters are not all homogenous” but, it’s then “even stronger if you then take that list of unusual elements of your character and look for causalities.”

I agree. While I wouldn’t take a character fully as it comes up in the generator, it does make you think about what you could use or what different directions you could go in. I found this character interests generator at Springhole.net. I kept refreshing the generators until something popped out at me. Someone who loves to make birdhouses? Yes, please. I’ll give that to the person that’s my nurturing, true believer character.

Here are some generators I found:

 Ran Gen: Personality Generator:

 Springhole.net: Has several generators including: Character Personality, Character Motivations, Character Skills, Character Flaws and Weaknesses, Character Secrets and more!

Writing Exercises: Random Character Traits Generator

 Fantasy Names Generator: Character Descriptions

 Character Generators for Writing Prompts?

I also thought these generators would make for some great story prompts and writing exercises. I’ve told myself that I’m going to do this. Here’s a few examples from the generators at Springhole.net. Feel free to use them!

1. Your character’s interests include radios, crystal balls, and magnifying glasses.

2. Your character’s interests include country music, ferrets, and drawing.

3. Your character’s interests include stained glass art, old computer games, goldfish, and war memorabilia.

4. Your character’s interests include television mystery shows, yo-yos, and elves.

5. Your character is chronically ill, afraid of a common animal, and possessive of people.

6. Your character would do almost anything to create an unforgettable piece of art.

7. Few know that your character is having an affair with a spooky call center operator.

I hope you find the generators useful for practice or your current and future WIPs. Have fun and happy writing!

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