Springboards and pratfalls

A quick search of Amazon.ca using the words "How to Write" returned 79,549 results.  I may have purchased and/or read about 10 of those titles.  There's certainly value in learning from the experience of others; to some extent, you can learn from their own successes and mistakes.  And since there are close to 80,000 volumes out there, to say nothing of the blog posts, online articles and free-radical quotations, there's bound to be something you can learn, no matter who you are.

And Tobin Elliott, I'm happy to say, will be adding to that list, when he launches his eBook "Tweet You Write."  I'm looking forward to picking up a copy - and not just because he was my Creative Writing teacher aeons ago.  I like the whole concept of his book.  He'd been tweeting <140 character writing tips over 2011 and 2012, 100 tips over a few months.  Now what he's doing is compiling those tweets, giving some background - why he tweeted the tip - and goes into greater detail and examples of what the tweets mean.  It's like some translations of Sun Tzu's Art of War:  you're given a Big Thought and explanation, you chew on it for a few days, and then you come back for the next Big Thought.  I keep trying to convince Tobin to go to POD and make a coffee table book, or at the very least, a bathroom reader.  I haven't convinced him yet.  I'll have to wait until either the end of this year or the start of next for a copy of the eBook, I guess.  (Tobin - I can't scrawl notes in the margins of my eReader!  Just so you know!)

But you know, you could spend a year's wages looking for advice on how to write, and you could spend fifty years reading it all.  And in that time, thinking about all the rules and suggestions and tips, how much writing could you actually do?  Aside from the time spent studying (and not writing), you'll be spending all your time worrying about colouring outside the lines (and not writing).

On top of that, with close to 80,000 how-to books on Amazon alone, how likely do you think it is you'll come across two completely unique books?  There's a lot of overlap between the ones I've read already.  And how likely do you think it'll be to come across two that are in complete opposition to one another?

Added to that, there are the countless blog posts, online articles and seminars - it gets to be a little overwhelming, and I pick up very little new information.  I think I've just about hit the saturation point, and now, all I want to do is write.

I don't know about anyone else, but what I learned about writing, I usually learned by accident, and what I learned in my younger days, that's what I live and write by.   

This is not a how-to blog.  I don't have the experience, expertise nor inclination to write a how-to thingamajig.  This is just a glimpse into some of the things I've learned, and where those lessons came from.

On Character:  I totally read that wrong.

I've already written about this, so I won't waste your time.  But the point here is, I was reading Stephen King's Art of Darkness, and I totally misread a line.  Whatever the line actually was, it had nothing to do with personalities or a colour wheel, but somehow, that's the idea that got stuck in my head.  Just as colours can compliment and contrast, so could personalities.  And personalities that are too similar to one another clash like pink and red; and therefore, if as I'm writing two allied characters just don't seem to be getting along, chances are, they're just too similar for comfort.  One of them needs to change.

Then my Uncle David, a painter by profession, told me "there is no such thing as colour," which, ahem, blue me away.  Basically, colour is perceived not in the eye, but in the brain.  Your eyes receive information about wavelengths reflected back at you; but the brain interprets those wavelengths as colours.  And the way the brain interprets colours is in contrast to other colours.  By itself, a shirt may be blue.  Contrast that against a royal blue shirt, and the first shirt now looks blue-green.  To show someone who is really an arrogant snob, I have to contrast him against a haughty snob and a braggart.

Just so, in order for your human brain to make sense of a fictional personality, you have to contrast that character against someone else; another character in the book, perhaps, or against yourself. So if you don't clearly distinguish one character from another, they all blend together, and you get a flavourless, monochromatic character-sludge.

Characters in want of braaaaaaains...ngyargh...

To me, this was an important, but a really obscure, lesson in how to write characters well.

On Plot:  "You have a wonderful voice but nothing to say."

Prof Garson, if you're reading this, thank you.  From the bottom of my broken heart, thank you.

See, in my university days, I'd been super inspired to write this short story, and I was so impressed with it I ran it over to my English professor to show her.  She patiently read the whole thing, even made comments in the margins, and over a morning coffee, she spoke those infamous words:  "You have a wonderful voice, and nothing to say."

"A bit shrill though..."

In nine words, Prof Garson managed to teach me everything I needed about writing, and about living in general.  She didn't just call me down out of my Ivory Tower:  she demolished the Tower and made me dust myself off.

I had no life experience (or at least, I didn't write any of it), and worse, it was all imagery and no point.  I had no story to tell.  Now, story comes first; voice comes last.

And secondly, I've realized why I don't like to read when I'm in the process of writing a book (which accounts for why I pretty much never read).  When I read, I absorb some of the narrative style; I accidentally replicate it.  What happens is that I get a very book-sounding book.  To help me stay focused on telling a story, rather than writing a book, I tend not to read - least of all a book from the same genre or time-period.  There is value in reading other people's books (Buy Canadian!  Buy from all my friends!), but I'm too much of a narrative chameleon to read during writing season.

On Pacing:  "Now that's how you end a chapter."

I remember the place, but not the time.  My mother and I were watching TV, and it was an episode of Flash Gordon, one of the really old Saturday morning serials.  At the bottom of the hour, our hero was trapped in some sporting arena with a ravening beast, doomed to die for the pleasure of Mongo and the Princess of Mars.  I don't know if that was what actually happened, of course, we're talking about something I watched twenty-five years ago.  Anyhow - at the bottom of the hour, we saw our hero in dire straits, and suddenly, there was a knife chord and the dreaded words...To be continued!  Then my mother got up to go do something, and she said in passing, "Now that's how you end a chapter." 

"What do you mean, 'stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion?'"

I'm not sure how old I was at the time; I was something between nine and twelve years old.  I'd spent pretty much all of my spare time writing stories on lined paper while sitting on the living room stairs.  Since I was seven, I'd known I wanted to be a writer, and since my mother seemed to know everything about everything, I took her words right to heart.  From then on, it didn't matter if the rest of the chapter was Grade A drek, but every chapter ended on an "Oh No" note, designed to intrigue the reader to at least carry on to the first page of the next chapter.

I've written like that ever since. Well, I mean, I try to get rid of the Grade A drek inside each chapter, of course, but you get the point.

On Writers' Craft:  I'll show you mine...

"What an intriguing proposition..."

If there was one thing I learned in Tobin's class, it was "Show, don't tell."

And if you don't know it by now, for shame!  In brief:  Tell = "he was so angry!"; Show = "He closed his eyes, shut his mouth and whined through his nostrils."

Occasionally, I get to critique the work of other writers.  If a section of the narrative feels slow and whiny, or melodramatic, or pointlessly poetic, guaranteed, it'll be because the author chose to tell instead of show.  This is Writers' Craft 101, and still, it's the downfall of many otherwise decent writers.

But really, the key to good narrative it doesn't get any simpler than that: show, don't tell.  Everything else is a matter of tuning your word choice to better focus the imagery you're trying to convey, and a matter of eliminating the static caused by poor grammar.

On Research and Believability:  Write what you know...or not.

I've written about this one too, but it boils down to when and how you do your research.

I attended some free seminar during my high school years.  My mother and I went to the Chapters in Ajax, and we listened to a guy who taught us how to write a book in 60 days or less (might have been 30 days or less, may have been 9 days, I dunno - it was a seminar on "how to write a book in a stupidly short time", whatever it was).  He gave his audience some tips on creative sprinting using word prompts.  He showed us how to design a story from the skeleton out (I still use this during most marathons), and most importantly:  he told us the most effective means of doing research.

In terms of research, he said that you should write the whole story first, making guesses or leaving blanks where you don't know stuff.  Then he suggested that, instead of reading umpteen tomes about submarines, go to the children's section and read a book about them.  With that kind of research, the accuracy and detail of your story will be just at the level you need to keep a reader satisfied.  Also, the fewer the details you put in, the less likely you'll make a silly mistake.  But heaven help you if you try to write a book about submarines if you don't know the difference between a propeller and a periscope.

Granted, this method doesn't work for everybody.  Some like to sit down and learn Wikipedia.  Some people don't research at all, but they can still make some pretty keen observations and get stuff right.  I prefer this method, because to me, Wikipedia is one great big maze of fascinating diversions, and left unsupervised among its corridors, I get lost and I never write anything.  Writing the story first, creating a list of questions I have to answer, and then hitting the digital library - that keeps me on track.

I believe that even the best, most well-researched author is bound to get caught with his or her scholarly pants down...unless you're James Michener, in which case the sheer volume of details will entrance your readers into a state of drowsy complacency and they never check your facts.

So many delicious facts!

If you do too much research, it hurts the eye; if you don't do enough research, someone will throw the book at you. The moral of the story is simple:  if no one notices whether you did your research or not, then you've done your job: the research is so well integrated into the story that you don't even notice it there.  But in the end, there will always be someone to throw the book at you, so don't sweat it too much.

Lately, I've really started to balk at the whole notion of "writing what you know."  Yes, it sure makes the writing easier, talking from your own experience, but dang - if I wrote what I knew, a) it would be boring, and b) it would still be wrong.

The beauty of writing any story - including and especially a historical, procedural or science fiction story - is that it forces you to go out and learn new stuff.  If you're only writing what you already know, you won't learn anything new, all the wonder and awe is sucked out of your narrative, and you don't grow - neither as a writer, nor as a thinker in general.

On Editing:  Infinite capacity for knowledge, limited capacity to apply it

When relearning French, I discovered that at first, you learn a lot. You go from "jzuh mah pell Pat" to a half-hour long conversation pretty quickly.  After a certain point, it's one new word a week, or one grammar correction, some advanced verb conjugation, or one nuanced pronunciation...It's extremely slow going.  And in fact, at that stage, a lot of FSL or ESL students get frustrated at this point, because the day-to-day improvements are now so small and gradual that students don't believe improvement is happening at all.  Looking back over the last five years, however, my French has vastly improved to the point where I could probably conduct business without any great trauma.

The same applies, I believe, to improving one's writers' craft.  After a while, you don't see a point to reading all the how-to books, and you don't feel like you're improving at all.  You read all 80,000 how-to books, and you still don't feel like you've learned a danged thing.  Take heart, dear writer - as long as you're applying what you already know, you'll continue to improve.

And the application of knowledge is key.  Sometimes, when looking over Tobin's work, I catch him on things that make him do a face-palm.  If I'm going to catch him making an error, chances are, the King of Show Don't Tell has told instead of shown.

For some people, it's usage of the passive voice (though they know better),  for others, it's head-hopping, or tense shift, stilted dialogue, whatever.  For me, I still get hung up on "character sludge."  The problem is not the lack of education of the author; the problem is, every author has a fatal flaw, and it hides in their blind spot. You need mental side-view mirrors, and you need a spotter.

On Growth:  Don't make the same mistakes again.  Make new ones!

 
I can't remember the time or the circumstances, but I do remember I was on the phone almost in tears about some colossal FUBAR at work, and how it had been all my fault.  My mother, as usual, managed to talk me back from the ledge (usually starting her crisis hotline speech with "awwww, poor you").  She asked me this and that, and I bared my soul, and then she said, "Well, just remember not to make the same mistakes twice.  Make new ones!"

And I do!  I never make the same FUBAR twice.  And now, I've excelled to the point where I can create such wonderful, convoluted and concurrent calamities that one calamity will actually disguise the other!  In terms of creating technical problems, I have mastered the secret ninja art of Sna-Fu.

In short:  so long as you're learning, then what's flawed in Book 1 won't be the same flaw as in Book 2.  You learn to fix one weakness, but in your dedicated efforts to fix one thing, something else breaks down.

So, regardless of everything I've learned so far, I've found that the most effective way of improving the narrative is by having a reader tell you where you've excelled and where you've messed up - not just in one or two projects, but in all new projects.  And that takes a lot of tough love.

First readers, beta readers, whatever you want to call them, are the best possible allies you can have.  They are your side-view mirrors.  What's a blind spot to you is no obstacle to them.  Cherish your beta readers.  Adore them.  Bribe them.  Feed them and tenderly braid their long flowing locks.  And for crying out loud, don't ever argue with them, or they'll run away and never talk to you again.  Mike Lorenson and Tobin Elliot both have acted as first readers for me, and they never pull punches.  Unfortunately, neither have flowing locks quite long enough for me to braid, but I have heard tell that they like food, so I'm okay.

All the time, I hear complaints like "I can't write this, I know I'm just going to mess it up," and "I'll never get it right, so screw it."  I say, "Good grief - if you can make that many mistakes, imagine how much you're going to learn!"  If your next story is just as bad, there's not a problem with your ability to write; there's a problem with your willingness to learn and to apply what you've learned.

Make the mistakes.  Find out why, where and how it went wrong.  Come up with a strategy to avoid that problem in the future.  When you write the next story, chances are you'll have avoided 75% of the mistakes you made last time, and the other 25% you can fix in draft two.

On Writing about "On Writing"

So, you can see that most of what I've learned about writing, I learned by not learning about writing.  My education has been 20% deliberate (reading how-to's, attending seminars, interviewing authors), and 80% incidental, having little to nothing to do with writing.

And worse:  everything I know about writing I've pretty much summarized right here and right now.  I can't write a how-to, 'cause I ain't gots 'nuff material. So I leave it to others to write the how-to's.

Like I said earlier, I'm really looking forward to seeing Tobin's book in the near future.  His course was undoubtedly the most formative in my writing career (he accounts for most of the 20% deliberate education).  And if I never take another writing course again, I'd be fine with that.  Tobin has spoiled me from ever taking another general Creative Writing class.

I look forward to his book, not just because it has some new material; I look forward to the refresher.  It's like Tobin's written down all his class notes for me, in an orderly and legible manner!

And I look forward to the refresher because nine times out of ten, if I've made a mistake, I should have known better.  If I faithfully put into practice everything I already knew, I'd improve by leaps and bounds.

Now go buy "Tweet You Write" as soon as it comes out.  That's the best writing advice I can give you.

Arthur Ellis Shortlist Event / Shrier Family Reunion

I started planning this event back in March - an almost last minute thing, in the way that AE shortlist events go.  It was the first time I went completely solo, too, at least during the planning and organizational phases.

The goal of the night:  to read the shortlisted nominees for the Arthur Ellis Awards, and to host Howard Shrier as he read from three of his current books.

In terms of turnout, it didn't have quite the penetration rate I was hoping for - but the family of one Mr. Howard Shrier is a dedicated bunch, and they turned out in force.  In fact, not only did Howard's mother and father come out to the event, but even his grandmother braved four flights of stairs, and she's turning 101 years old in a couple of days!

We had a lot of food there, too, and all sorts of drink.  I managed to pick up a couple of boxes of coffee before the event too, and my half-exhausted, half-delirious smile managed to charm a free cup of coffee and a 15% discount out of the manager.  Of course, drinking a medium java from Second Cup in under three minutes, not so good for the already-frazzled nerves, but I'm not one to turn down free coffee. 

In fact, there was so much food that I had to tackle those same four flights of stairs, what, five times?  Stairs:  those are good for the nerves.  Jogging up and down all those stairs, especially loaded down with boxes and bags, they're great for burning off nervous energy.

And yeah, I went a little overboard with the goodies.  Listen, when somebody declines an invitation to an event in Toronto - and flies in that day from Boston by way of Toronto - you go all out.

In terms of how the event went:  there was the original plan, there was plan B (cooked up about four hours before the event), and then, five minutes into the event, the plan went completely out the window.  We did a better job off the cuff anyhow.  And funny enough, I had a lot of people approach me after the event, complimenting me on how well organized it was!  I laughed a lot on the inside.

But there's one thing I will say:  I saw Howard Shrier in Toronto as he read from his latest book, Boston Cream, and I was impressed by his composure.  But this time, watching him read from all three of his books, I was really impressed by his ability to read so fluidly, rarely referring to his own books or notes, as if he had memorized whole pages and rehearsed night after night in front of a mirror.  And when he spoke of the research he had done in the past, and the research he's doing this weekend while he's home in Montreal, he spoke with an enthusiasm and passion that was contagious.

He wasn't on the list this year, but that's only because of a matter of timing.  Boston Cream came out this year, not in 2011, so he didn't qualify for this year.

Nancy Kilpatrick was there.  That darling sweetheart of an angel asked me yesterday morning if she could help in anyway, and boy, did she.  She helped me arrange all the food and drink, and she acted as a semi-co-hostess and everything!  I showed her my shaking hand, and she laughed at me, which, ironically, helped to settle me down.  Considering she's been a past guest of Nine Day Wonder and of Fusion Fiction (a mixed-genre event from a couple of years ago), I'm really indebted to her.

Michael Lorenson was there, too - and he played the part of Vanna White when I introduced the raffle.  He won a copy of Boston Cream - and three or four more of his tickets were drawn after that, but we only let him win once. 

Christopher Huang - a former NaNoWriMo participant and a current FB friend - was also there, and he helped me "fix" the microphone by actually reading the instructions taped to the top of the speaker and clicking the "ON" button for me.  I have no brain when I'm under duress.  I've got to fix that.

Michael Blair was in the audience. - he's been a previous guest of mine in events past, and we've had a few chats here or there too.  During my initial spiel, he corrected me about the origins of Arthur Ellis - it was the pseudonym of the last hangman in Canada, not the first.  And that was a ridiculous error to make on my part, considering I'm the one who wrote the Wikipedia article on the Crime Writers of Canada!

Speaking of which, that went over better than expected!  We raised about $135 for the YMCA literacy programs - so all those funds are going directly into the donations I'll bring up to Muskoka in July.

Through the raffle, we gave away sold several copies of Howard's books.  Howard also "donated" a character in his next book, Miss Montreal.  Unfortunately, I missed the winner's full name, but I believe his first name is Hendry.  So congratulations to him.  Howard also "donated" a five page critique - the lucky winner submits the first 5 pages of a work in progress, and he critiques it.  And funny enough, it was Howard's father who won!

Judith Warne from Libraire Clio and her husband (who I've met at least twice before and still I can't remember his name) - they were there, and they sold a full box of books, so they declared the event a success.  Considering how many members of the audience already had a copy (or two), that's really saying something.

After the event, Michael Blair approached me and said, "You did a great job, but if I could offer you one piece of advice..."

I laughed and asked, "Introduce myself?"  It was about half way through the event when I'd realized I had introduced the Crime Writers of Canada, the Arthur Ellis Awards, the raffle, the agenda and my guest star, but that no one in the office except my Facebook friends knew who I was!

Michael Blair laughed and said, "Well, that, and next time, print off the Arthur Ellis shortlist."

Before I'd left home, I'd written a two page list of things I had to bring, up to and including a change of clothes "just in case" (ask Tracey Webster or Mady Virgona about my recurring wardrobe failures).  I'd printed off the agenda, all the stuff I had to say about AE and the CWC, everything except for the Arthur Ellis awards.  Gah.  The one thing I had to print and actually read off, and I'd forgotten to print it.

Fortunately, a netbook and a handy USB modem saved the day, but it's really tricky to read a list of names from a screen that's only six inches tall.

Otherwise, no lights went out in the middle of our wrap-up, no fire alarms went off, and no one choked on the cookies.  I still wish more people had come out, but at least there were more people than raffle prizes.  I think there were about forty people, maybe?  I went home with fewer bags and boxes of food than I'd arrived with, and people seemed to enjoy themselves throughout.

So, all in all, I think it was a success. 

But I'm telling you: next year, I'm getting someone else to help me with the planning and organization. Doing it single-handedly, especially in a month like this one, especially when I'm working full-time, it's bloody exhausting!  Fun, but exhausting.

Someday never comes: Gearing up for the launch of my own business

This is one of those weeks when I wish I could go back over my time sheets and change "VACATION" to "SICK DAYS".  I want a do-over on this vacation.

Anyhow, despite the F4 migraine over the last three days, I did manage to get some things accomplished.  Writing wasn't one of them, unfortunately - not on any kind of a novel, at least.  Interviews - also neglected, though I intend on fixing that in an hour or so.

But:  I did write my first flash fiction (a story under 600 words), I've slept about 50 hours in the last 4 days, I won an eBook (from Ed Kurtz, horror writer), I'm attempting to volunteer at the YMCA / YWCA for literacy programs, I've edited something for the Crime Writers of Canada, I did a story consultation with Mike, and I've started setting up my own business.

Yes indeedy:  my own business.  My own workshop, my own livelihood, my own hours and office...

...No one responsible for my success or failure but me, no internal office politics...

...new and unusual bills, complicated taxes, screwy retirement contribution policies, uncertain future, uncertain and unsteady incomes...

...long periods without any income at all...Feast and famine workloads...

...supplementary health and dental insurance that I have to pay out of pocket...

And that's why I won't be quitting my day job any time soon.  Before I make the jump, there are certain milestones to achieve first, including "find and advertise niche, collect $x in savings, gain x number of regularly paying contacts, spend x time in the business, collect x number of recommendations," etc.

But, once it's all legal, I'll be actively working my way toward full-time self-employment.  And I think I'm making some good strides already, including work on a business plan (really rough draft), researching the market, scouting prospective clients, and securing business cards.  I should have the cards in about two weeks or so.

Grand plans?  I have none beyond "don't starve and don't let the power go out."

So why bother?  Two reasons:  one is rational, and the other, not so much.

From a pragmatic position, it comes down to "I want to be a full-time writer and I want to keep eating." 

Let's say I manage to land a book contract and/or self-publish.  Chances are slim that I'm going to be able to earn enough from royalties and advances to uphold the standard of living to which I have become accustomed.  Additional money has to come from somewhere, meaning:  day job. 

My existing day job has a structured schedule and lots of perks - like a steady and predictable income, for example.  But, if I'm asked to do a book-signing on a Tuesday afternoon at a library in Montreal, I have to move around my existing work and my vacations around.  Heaven help me if I'm invited off island.  My schedule revolves around the quota of hours, the workload and when it's due.

Fortunately, my existing day job is quite flexible in terms of hours and location.  I can work virtually from anywhere in Canada.  If my passport was up to date, I'm sure I could work anywhere in the world, so long as I have access to the internet.  But what is less flexible is the amount of work, when it's due, and what meetings I need to attend.

So what's the problem?  Fulfillment.  I don't have that sense of fulfillment I once had, and it's not because of the work itself.  It's because every morning, when I log in and start updating my databases, or building new ones, or sending off my routine reports, it feels like I've betrayed myself.

And worse, I've been finding more and more that writing is distracting me during the day - the harder I try to focus on building a database, the more I think up awesome modus operandi for murder.  That can not be a good thing.

I work hard, I deliver accurate and easy-to-read reports on time every time, but I have to confess, my heart's not in it, and lately, my brain isn't either.  I've been spending more and more time going over the reports making sure they're accurate, because I don't know when a wild car chase in my head has distracted me from a critical decimal point.  That's not an efficient way to work.

And then, when I do sit down to write, all I can think about is queries, layouts, internal politics and the seeming futility of it all.

My two worlds have become mutually invasive.

I'm not doing what I set out to do.  In fact, in recent years, I feel like I've been getting farther and farther away from where I wanted to be, and that I've been settling for the easy way out.  I could quite easily work for the next thirty years at this company, have evenings and weekends off, take the odd vacation, and retire to a life of easy living.

And I would hate myself for it.  That's the irrational reason for starting up my own business.

Writing is in my blood.  It's what I do.  It's all I want to do.  Achieving a particular goal - writing as livelihood - is what I've been striving for since I was seven years old.  I can't turn my back on it without betraying who I am.

But I also like to eat, I like to go out for coffee, and I absolutely adore the fact that when it's been snowing and freezing rain for eight solid days, I can go downstairs and drive my car out without chipping, shoveling or swearing.  I also know that an optimistic advance will provide me enough for bookmarks, a website and maybe a week's vacation in Cuba.  Not enough to live by, not for a sustained period of time.

So, I want to set up a business that's "writing-like".  Editing, proofreading, ghostwriting - things I'm already good at.  Things I'm already doing for free.

And, I would much rather have an established sideline business to fall back on, rather than trying to establish a business at the same time as building up my reputation as a writer. 

Yes, for the first little while it's going to hurt, working full-time and running a business and writing and and and...but in the long-run, it'll be worth it.  I don't expect a flood of contracts the minute I open the door; I don't expect a flood of contracts even after the first 5 or 10 successful projects.

But it's the experience I'm looking forward to, as much as the cash:  editing, proofreading and ghostwriting.  I know, that sounds about as fun as building databases, but it's something I'm good at.  It's something I enjoy.  It allows me to read more, it allows me to see more of the market, and it teaches me how to be a good self-employed professional - in the event that I can write fiction full-time.

And I know the old adage: the grass is always greener on the other side.  But you know what?  I'd like to have my own lawn and make it green.  It's been a twenty-year dream of mine to own and operate my own business.  I almost had one going for a while there, too, but I was lousy at it, and I let too many other things get in my way.  I've grown up a lot in the last ten years, and I've learned a lot from people with entrepreneurial expertise (Mady, here's looking at you, kid).

I figure, if I try to set up my own business and if I fail, I might lose some money and maybe get discouraged.  Okay.  That's the risk.  And that's why I'm not quitting my day job.

But if I don't try, I'm going to regret it, because I would have assumed I couldn't do something I put my mind to, and because I didn't make an effort to try.  I would have let fear hold me back.

So, I want to try.

That leaves me too options:  start today, or start someday. 

And as Credence Clearwater Revival has told us over the years:  Someday never comes.

Marketing your Blog: It's more than "Blarfing".

As part of my "get out of my head and into someone else's" campaign for 2012, I'm following more blogs than ever, and I read more one-off posts now, too.

In order to know who's updated what and when, Blogger gives me a nice snapshot of all the blogs I'm following, even if the post is written through WordPress or a private website.  Partially because Michael Lorenson and Lee Lofland are writing their blogs daily, I'm reading daily.  So I check my reader summary daily.  Sometimes two or three times daily.  Sometimes I check it like a maniac, because data is taking forever to run, or because I can't figure out how to fill a plot hole and it's killing me.

That got me thinking about how we market our blogs.  How do we get more readers?  And why bother, if you're an unpublished author?
 
I know Facebook has a "Networked Blogs by Ninua".  Here, you can search blogs by category, twenty blogs at a time.  I'm registered there, too, under "Writing."

But under the "Writing" category, blogs are ordered by number of existing followers.  And I tried to find out how many blogs under "writing" there were.  Apparently Ninua can't count that high, but it's probably more than 5000.  (And for the love of all good things, don't put "Muse", "Musings" or any variant thereof in your frigging blog post title.  It's.Over.Done.)

And as for the count of how many are "following", that's Ninua's count, not Blogger's count.  I gave up scrolling through blogs in the "writing" category, because after almost 3000 registered blogs, I still hadn't found myself.  I'm at the very bottom of Ninua's list, because according to Ninua, I have only two followers, and I'm one of them.  Only the most already-popular posts are going to float to the top and attract new readers.

So basically, I would have greater success handing out business cards to strangers on the street than I would if I relied on Ninua's listings.  That means I can't leave anything to chance.  I have to work to get more exposure, if I want more readers.

Once a new post has gone live, ordinarily I send out a notification through Facebook and Twitter.  Facebook is still my biggest referral URL (shouldering that spambot domar.ru out of top spot), so I know that FB is a good way to notify folks of a blog post update.

Some blogs I follow now because I've been perusing author websites or being referred to certain blogs by other readers.  That's why I started following Annie Off Leash by Annie Boreson.  So, yes to old-fashioned word of mouth. But I've found the majority of my new reading material through a post recommendation on Facebook.  That's how I found Graveyard Shift. So, yes to Facebook, too.

But I also found that readership through FB has everything to do with the timing of your post, and with the popularity of your readers.  If you have a family member with few friends (and assuming they like you enough to check up on you daily), the message will get through to them easily enough. But if someone has a gazillion friends and professional contacts, your FB status update and/or link are going to get buried quickly under that reader's slushpile of status updates.

I still haven't found the timing sweet spot for FB links.  Post in the morning, when everyone's checking their FB news?  Lunchtime?  In the evening?  Post repeatedly until people de-friend you?  I dunno.

And most importantly, unless someone else re-tweets your post or shares the link on their own FB profile, your tweets and FB status updates never reach beyond your own established circle of contacts.

Or does Twitter or Facebook even matter, if people tend to use things like RSS Feeds, Google Reader, and Reading Lists, which allow us to check out the posts we want to view, when we want to view them?

It does matter, if you want to attract new readers.  You need to get yourself on to new RSS Feeds, or they won't ever read your work.

I look to how Tobin was "pimping" our interview from late last week.  I posted the interview just once on Facebook, around my lunchtime.  That's my normal activity.

But Tobin posted the interview several times to Twitter, he posted it on five different spots in Facebook (his fan page, his personal profile, and at least three different Writer's Group discussion group pages); it was referred on from there by his friends and family - and some my friends too!  I wouldn't be at all surprised if he got on the phone and called people to tell them to read it. 

The results were fantastic:  within a week, his was the most popular post in the history of the blog - and not just a bit, but by an additional 25% more views than the next most popular post.

Compare that against other recent interviews and blog posts.  On average (including some recent interviews), I've had only 1/5th of the views as Tobin's interview - over the same period of time.

So there's the answer to the how:  increased readership = social media + word of mouth.  You can only reach so far.  Your reach doubles the moment one other person reposts or retweets your link.  Your reach expands geometrically every time someone else passes on the word.  You need to meet people who are willing to believe in you and point people in your direction.  And you need to return in kind.

But that begs the next big question:  why would someone like me (prefamous) want to increase my readership now - months, maybe years before an actual paying publication contract.

Tobin and I had a good discussion about it.  After all - Tobin needs students for his class, and he needs readers to buy his work; this is one more means of advertising.  Increased exposure makes sense for him.  What benefit is there to me, if I should a) blog at all, or b) make a point of increasing readership?

Tobin would argue that I do have something to sell, and that I need to get off my bum and go direct to Kindle.  I'm old-fashioned and I'm still holding out for the classic print (but more on that in later posts).

But there is an argument to be made about posting regularly and actively marketing my blog, even if I'm a "nobody" in established circles.

Let's say a publisher has received my work, and they want to know more about me.  They can Google me and my blog.  Here's what they're going to see.

Potential:  They can see what other writing styles I'm capable of.  They can see the extent to which I research, what my passions are, and how seriously I take my writing craft.  (Typo spotted post-publication?  Kill it kill it kill it!  Then update the post and pretend like it never happened.)  They can see how much writing experience I have, and what I intend on pursuing.  They're going to see what else I'm working on, or have worked on in the past.  And they're going to see that I'm not afraid to post things that are uncomfortable to talk about.

Thought: Let me never publish a post that hasn't taken more than 4 hours to write and refine (usually spread out over two more more sittings).  And may these posts do more than express my own thoughts; I won't ever be satisfied unless they make the reader think, too.

Audience:  I'm attempting to build up a readership now, well in advance of publication.  Networking is one thing, learning from other people another; but building up a readership, getting people interested in the stories I intend to publish - that's all one great big teaser campaign.  And it shows that I'm ready, willing and somewhat capable of marketing, even when I have "nothing to sell" yet.

Dedication:  I'm not just blarfing whatever comes into my head.  I'm researching.  I'm learning, and processing new information, and putting it into practice.  I'm audaciously contacting new and established authors, publicists, agents, publishers and editors, and I'm putting them through the interview wringer - even though I'm neither an online magazine, nor writer's group, nor a publisher, nor even an established author.  I'm not doing it just for myself, either - though I do learn something new every time I interview someone.  I'm doing it so I can share best practices with others in my position, and so I can advertise great new Canadian writing to audiences here and abroad. And they're going to see that I'm actively writing - more so than ever, with or without their publication contracts.

So do I have something to sell?  Yes - best practices, advertising, and one very prolific writer.  There's no price tag, but I'm still "selling" something.

Do I have something to gain?  Absolutely.

Does everyone benefit, if I continue expanding readership?  Beyond doubt.  I benefit, so do my guests, and so do the readers.

So how, fellow writer, how do you market your blog? And for a bonus question:  how important is it to you that you increase your readership, if you're not getting paid to blog?  Leave your comments below!

Also, if you're new to this blog, can you do me a favour?  Follow me.  I promise, I won't let you down.

Stuff I actually read

For a while last year, I'd stopped writing in my blog - not only because I had little to say, but because I thought it was unfair of me writing more and more material without taking the time to read other blogs.

That said, I'm going to take a moment to post a couple of blogs that I actually read on a regular basis.  That's not to exclude any blogs of any of my friends!  This is a list of blogs I've been reading for six months or better, and doesn't necessarily include those blogs I've started following.

Naturally, I have to mention two of my buds - Tobin Elliott over at Left to Write, and Michael Lorenson at...well...Michael Lorenson, both publishing through WordPress.  Tobin's usually got a laugh or two for us, though you never know when he's going to hit you with some naked and uncomfortable honesty.  And Michael - bless his heart - is trying to write a blog post a day as part of his New Years' Resolution.  So far so good!  And I know, because I've been salivating for the moment when I can pop him in Facebook and tease him for not writing that day.

There are a couple of other blurb-worthy blogs I follow, written by folks I've never met.

Now you have to understand, I'm a slow reader - I find it painful and frustrating.  So if I read something on a regular basis, it must be super interesting!

Graveyard Shift, by Lee Lofland (whose name I always read as "Lee Of Land").  According to his "About" page:

Lee Lofland is a veteran police investigator who began his law-enforcement career working as an officer in Virginia's prison system. He later became a sheriff's deputy, a patrol officer, and finally, he achieved the highly-prized gold shield of detective. Along the way, he gained a breadth of experience that's unusual to find in the career of a single officer. 

I love, love, love reading his stuff, because it helps me to separate out "real" from "TV".  This blog forces me to examine the assumptions I make in my own writing.  Plus, Lofland writes in quick, short bursts on a daily basis.  Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's bittersweet.  But I've never been disappointed.  On Friday, he pays hommage to those who have fallen in the line of duty that week, and sometimes, that's the grounding I need.  It brings a perspective I need:  it prevents me from glorifying gun battles and it prevents me from underestimating the courage of a police officer, or what they put on the line every day and night.

Annie Off Leash is another one I read on a regular basis, though she doesn't write as frequently as either Tobin or Mike.  She actually started following me before I started following her.  I don't know what it is about her style - except to say that when Annie Boreson writes a retrospective on her life, there's something indy-cinematic about her style, as if she writes using Super 8 film.  If there's one thing I really enjoy about her blog, it's that she doesn't write a lot about writing!  And that's something I need to learn to do.

I would be remiss if I didn't add the Crime Writers of Canada National Crime Writing Blog.  If you go there RIGHT NOW you'll find a funny blog post by Melodie Campbell, about firearms and their (mis)use in crime fiction.  If you don't get there in time, follow this link and you can read the same article at your leisure.  This is one of those blogs I should have been reading more often, but haven't been.  Must get back into the habit!

So, like I said, this is just a short sample of some of the blogs I've made a point of reading over the last six months.  This list should grow over the next couple of months, as I add more blogs to the list.

I like reading blogs that are about more than just writing, or being a writer.  Take Graveyard Shift, for an example:  Lee writes about what it's like to be a cop, and about, as a cop, how he reacts to things he sees in the movies or that he reads in crime stories.  I find blogs like this endlessly fascinating - not only because it helps me challenge and improve my own writing, but because it gets me out of my own head and into someone else's for a change.

Feel free to leave your recommendations below!

You say you want a Resolution...

Like I said in my previous post, resolutions are no fun unless you can make fun of 'em.

But they are more fun when you go out for a "Resolution Forging Coffee Klatch" with Mady Virgona and Mike Lorenson!  Thanks to them both for some good planning and loads of laughs!

Below is an abbreviated but public record of my resolutions for 2012, so that this time next year, we can all sit back and chuckle uproariously at them.

Health resolutions
-  The inevitable "lose weight" resolution goes here.  For modesty's sake, I won't say how much I plan to lose, but it is an accomplishable goal.  I know, because I accomplished it a couple of times last year.  I just kept putting the weight back on.  And then Christmas happened and I discovered the joys of cooking foods with yeast in it.  Mmm...bread...
- Go to the gym 2x a week (or more).
- During the spring/summer months, go play tennis at least one week with Mike and Mady.

Creativity resolutions
- Write 500 words daily.  While it doesn't seem like a challenge to someone who can write 60,000 words in a weekend, it is more of a challenge than you'd think.  It's the "daily" part that will be the problem.  I'm like the whippet of the writing world:  a 50-mph couch potato.  Once I actually get off my butt and do something, I do it fast and relatively well; but the problem is that I spend more time goofing off than creating something.  Which brings me to the next two resolutions.
- Zero Facebook games in 2012.  I'm well on my way, actually - I haven't played any in the last three weeks.  YAY ME.
- As with last year, no more than 1 hour of TV or movies daily.  Hours can be banked, though, which means I can watch a whole movie in one sitting, if I haven't watched any TV the day before.  Because nothing says LOSER like leaving the theatre after an hour.
- Read two books a month, and post a *brief* review after.  I'm going to try and split my reading into 50% fiction, and 50% non-fiction, because I have such a backlog of research to do...If I do more than that, I can read more fiction!  Especially the classics.  I love the classics.  But reading is a real challenge for me, because I do have a short attention sp - ooh!  Squirrel!
- Bake more.  Buy no store-bought bread.  My bread's better anyhow, and comes free with a sense of self-satisfaction.  Self-satisfaction burns calories.
- Paint one picture.  I used to do that all the time, back when I had no floor space and nothing but carpets.  Now that I have space and hard wood floors, I should be painting more!

Other resolutions
- Learn sign language!  If I can find a good (and cheap) course, I can claim it as research for Mummer.  Barring that, I have ASL dictionaries at home, and I can always access that fabulous repository of all common experience:  YouTube!
- Volunteer 1-2 hours a week as a literacy and/or ESL tutor.  A) I have to get out of the apartment from time to time, and B) since I can't donate as much, financially, as I used to, I'll donate more time instead.  I'll see if I can volunteer through the YWCA.
- Submit more short stories and novels for publication.  That means a focus on critical editing, synopses and proposals.  This is more of a business and self-discipline thing, and less of a creative thing.


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Now, I've made resolutions pretty much every year, with varying degrees of success.  But I have discovered there are five keys to increasing your chance of success.

1.  Make them SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely).  "Be kinder," does not qualify as a SMART goal.  "Volunteer for 1-2 hours weekly at a YWCA literacy program starting the third week of January" is a SMART goal.  Lose weight does not count as a SMART goal.   "Lose 15 pounds by June 15th" is SMART, as is "go to the gym twice or more per week".
2.  Make them known.  Doesn't have to be public, but do discuss them with friends and/or family.  Don't just state your resolutions, but make it clear - to them and to yourself - why these resolutions are important and attainable.
3.  Have a resolution partner (or two) - preferably someone else who has also made resolutions and is determined to keep them for the whole year.  Be accountable to someone for your success, because if they ask you "Have you been writing 500 words a day like you wanted?" you're forced to account for why you haven't been upholding your resolutions.
4.  Review your resolutions and success with your resolution partners in a regular and structured way, throughout the entire year.  If you don't, by March you'll have forgotten all but one or two of your resolutions.  Besides, it helps you, it helps your partners, and it's a great excuse to get out for more coffee with friends.  More importantly, it helps you to stop, reflect and digest your year so far, and it allows you to re-track if you've been derailed.
5.  State your bad excuses out loud, then keep your resolutions anyhow.  I'll bet you buckets of money, if you were to make a list of excuses, "Too tired," "Too busy" and "Too broke" are going to hit the top of the list.  Structure your resolutions - and your year - accordingly.  If you know well in advance that you're going to counter your resolutions with one excuse or another, then you can either change the goal or ignore the excuses.

I already have two resolution partners, but if you're interested, drop me a line in the comments below, and I'll check up on you, too!  You don't have to list all your resolutions in the comments field, not unless you want to make your resolutions public.  But don't forget to make them SMART goals, first.

Thus concludes the 2011 series of blog posts, and I'll leave you with one simple New Year's Wish:

Your new year may not be an easy one, but here's hoping the laughs outnumber the tears.  You have control over that much, at least.