In the Beginning

I suppose my latest theme on this blog has been opinions on writing.  Sometimes I feel a bit pretentious offering up these opinions, and someday I may find myself disagreeing with what I write today, but keep in mind these are just the mere opinions of an old man still perfecting his craft.

I was a part of an interesting discussion this week and it involved where to begin when writing a story.  In the writing world, we call this the Point of Attack.  In a world filled with expectations of instant gratification, Point of Attack is extremely important.  I guess it goes without saying (yet I'll say it anyway), it hasn't always been this way.

One of the traps that we fall into, as writers, is trying to emulate successful stories of the past, but when you do so with tunnel vision you may be setting yourself up for failure.  Would Moby Dick even make it to print in today's environment?  Would The Hobbit take so long to get off the ground?  In my opinion, no.

We are programmed to believe Moby Dick and The Hobbit are wonderful tales that must be read, so we suffer through what we would now consider shortcomings in an effort to find that wonderful tale.  If either tale was published, as they are, next week, they would fall off into obscurity.  Not because they are bad stories, but because they aren't written to match up with today's expectations.

So, as writers, we can't pick up a book written before our parents were born, copy the formula, and expect the same results.  No matter how good our tale may be.

Which brings me back to the Point of Attack.

Some people say you must engage the reader within the first five pages, others say the first five sentences, and they may both be right, so it behooves me, as a writer, to start the story off in an engaging manner.  We want to share with the readers every aspect of our characters.  We want them to see where they came from and why they are who they are today.  But, if we begin a story with the birth of our character, we may lose the reader in those first five pages and never get to share the growth of the character with them.

You can share all there is to share and still engage the reader.  Begin your story with some conflict, and sprinkle in the past along the way.  Probably not in flashbacks, as they are often overused, but a couple of sentences can say a lot.

"Ole Joe knows hospitals better than anyone in this room.  What with that cancer he had as a child."

You don't even know Joe, but your imagination just painted a picture of his childhood.

When I say to begin a story with conflict, don't take that to mean you must begin with an epic fantasy battle or the like.  A simple conflict will do.  Think about an opening chapter where Joe is panicking because he forgot to pay the water bill and it's cutoff day.  Zipping through traffic to get to the utilities office before noon.  Worried about his wife's reaction.  Hoping the check doesn't bounce.  This is real world situation that could very well connect with your reader.  They find themselves wanting to know if he gets the bill paid on time.  How much more mundane can you get?  But, this is conflict in the writing world.  And, as an added bonus, it is something the reader can connect with.

So when someone tells you to start the story at the beginning, keep in mind the beginning of the story may not be the beginning of your character's story.  If we did that, The Hobbit would have began "There once was a hobbit born in the Shire."

Imagery

It has been a typical Oklahoma spring around here.  Thunderstorms, tornadoes, and the chaos that surrounds them has been ongoing for a few weeks.  As with most Oklahomans, I have spent my days dealing with the aftermath of Mother Nature's fury, and my evenings staring at the television screen and hoping the next twister finds empty fields.

Somewhere along the way, Summer sneaked in through the back door.

I know, officially it is not Summer, but Mother Nature isn't much for schedules.  I stepped outside yesterday morning to take care of some yard work and broke into a sweat before the mower hummed to life.  So, now we shift gears into a typical Oklahoma summer; hot, humid, and windy till the sun goes down, and then the wind will sometimes calm where you're left with just plain old hot and humid.

While I'm sitting in front of the television with the AC blowing full bore and a tall glass of lemonade in my hand, an Oklahoma Tourism commercial comes across the screen.  The scenes are inviting and made me yearn to load up the camper and find some of those beautiful corners of the state.  Then it hit me; those images on the screen felt inviting, by design, but they lacked an element of truth.  They were all missing the people gathered beneath a shade tree with drinks that used to have ice in them, holding them to their foreheads while fanning themselves with the other hand.  They also missed the constant drone of cicada's in the background.

This brought to mind imagery in my writing.  Most author's know that part of bringing the reader into the story is utilizing the senses.  Most of the time we rely on sight, but there is more to story-telling than painting a picture, though we can use that image to project other impacts on our senses.

The ceiling fan creaked with every rotation and once again Jonus wrote down oil on his mental list of things to do.  It would have to wait.  He leaned back in the chair and wiped the moisture from his brow with an already damp kitchen towel.  The smell of coconut oil told him Thea was escaping to the pool before he saw her prance across the room in her new two-piece she had paid far too much for.  He unbuttoned his shirt and felt the breeze on his soaked skin.


Feeling warm?  Passages like that help bring the reader into the story, and take note that the word heat was never used.  There is something about sound of a creaking ceiling fan, or the smell of coconut oil that brings summer to mind.

To me, Steinbeck was a master of imagery.  Pick up any of his stories and you'll have an urge to sit in front of a fan, or snuggle up to the fireplace.  One day, I hope to be that good.

So unless you are selling vacations in a hot and humid state, don't forget imagery.  Utilizing senses other than sight alone will help bring readers into your world.
 

Pretentious Writing

I recently read a post on one of the writing forums where the individual was looking for a word to call his magic.  You see he didn't want to use the word "magic".  He felt what he used in his world was something different, grander, more far-reaching than such a simple term.  And, after reading the description, I could see his argument.  He presented a three sentence description of his magic and several of us offered up different words to use that might better represent what it was.

But, when it comes down to, his readers will call it magic.

I don't believe he was attempting to be pretentious by using another term, but the topic did bring to mind other works where the author's were being pretentious, whether they wanted to be or not.

League
Furlong
Cubit
Stone

Pop quiz.  What are the modern comparisons to those units of measurement?

Maybe you know the answer, maybe you don't.  I don't.  And quite honestly, if I am reading a fantasy novel that uses those terms, I will most likely not look them up.  Those terms are of no use to me in my daily life, so I will remain blissfully unaware for your entire novel.

Yes, those terms have a certain fantastical ring to them, but what good are they if they don't communicate the measurement you want.  Next time you see someone reading Lord of the Rings, ask them what the modern equivalent to a league is. You may just find I'm not the only one too lazy to look it up.

To me, it is like flipping open a Thesaurus and using a word for the sole sake of being different.  Instead of sounding different, you sound pretentious.  As in carpentry and mechanics, you use the best tool for the job.  In a lot of cases a simple hammer will do the trick.  No need in getting fancy.

I started to read a fantasy series that used made up terms for weight and distance.  At the back of book one was the all-to-common fantasy dictionary where it explained what those terms meant.  Why?  What is the purpose in using strange terms for measurements?  For immersion in your world?  Balderdash! (n. stupid or illogical talk)  If the reader has to flip to the back of the book, or look up the term online, you have just accomplished the opposite.  As a matter of fact, I never moved on to book two, because that was not the only area of pretentiousness in the prose.

We are story teller's.  We love to take the stories in our heads and share them with anybody who will listen.  It is as simple as that.  Don't try to make yourself seem more important than you are through pretentious writing.  Don't talk down to the reader.

Characters v. Outline

One topic that makes its rounds a couple of times a year on workshop forums is the outline.  Some writer's will create an outline for their story, a hiking trail if you will, while other's preach the evil's of such organization.  Reader's would likely be surprised about the arguments that ensue among authors about this singular tool.  I have even listened to lectures where the speaker claims that a novel sans outline is destined for failure.

To both arguments, I say whatever.

After my novels have been written in my head, an outline is created.  By no stretch of the imagination is the outline a concrete entity.  It can't be, at least for my writing style.  It's begins as a basic outline; a beginning, the outhouse orcs, and an end.  As developement progresses, the outline maps out each chapter in a general sense.  But, like any map, there are places along the road that just aren't shown and you discover them along the way.  And don't forget the occasional flat tire and blown fuel pump that can cause a delay in your journey.

Then there are those lousy, good-for-nothing, disobeying, free-will, hateful, outline trashing characters.

With my writing style, no outline is impervious to character intervention.  Aeldon, a character from the Drums of Rallinwar series, begins as a not-so-bad prince.  His qualities bring you to hate him and love him.  You want this guy to grow out of his hatred and become the good man that he is quite capable of becoming.  The outline for the follow-up to Blood of Two has Aeldon growing closer to the man we all want him to be.  The dirtbag just doesn't want to do it.

As much as I prod and pull him toward his good side, he resists.  He'll launch an inkpot across the room, punch someone in the face, and preach the virtues of keeping the elves and dwarves in their place.  There are times when I look up from the keyboard, I expect to see an inkstain on the wall, or on my outlline.

With almost every scene a character will bring cause to alter the outline.  An encounter in a city is scrubbed because somebody decides it's too dangerous to venture into it.  Another chapter has to be added because a character decides that someone needs to be thrown into the dungeon.

My outlines are organic.  They change as the manuscript is written and all of the changes are due to character's decisions.  In the war between characters and outlines, it is a stalemate.  Neither wins, they both adjust.

Shameless plug:  Blood of Two: Book One in the Drums of Rallinwar series by C. Hollis Gunter is available at most e-book outlets such as: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, smashwords, Sony ebook store, Kobo books, and Diesel ebooks.  You can find the book by searching on their sites for Blood of Two, or C. Hollis Gunter.  Buy it, read it, rate it, review it.

The Word Count Trap

I took years to write Blood of Two.  What was the hurry?  I have a well paying job that I enjoy; writing was a hobby.  Now, I have a deadline for the follow-up (self-imposed as it is), and writing has transformed from hobby to second job (that I love).

In order to meet my deadline I should probably have a goal of where I should be at certain time; rough draft done by a certain date, first edit done by another date, etc.  Well, I don't.  Kinda.  Sorta.  Okay, I have a rough idea of where I need to be.  For example, by May I need to be working with editors on the almost finished manuscript.  By the end of July I need to be wrapping it all up in a pretty bow, and by August I should be publishing it.  Really, really, loose goals that some writer's would cringe at, while others would be like "That's about right."

In the writing world there is a lot of discussion about word count production.  Two thousand words a day!  You have to write at least two thousand words a day.  I stick my tongue out in your general direction.

I work a sixty hour week.  According to some studys, I should be getting about 56 hours of sleep a week.  Which leaves behind 52 waking hours I am not at work.  Take those hours and subtract a little thing called life.  Unclogging a drain, paying that guy named Bill, fetching groceries, eating said groceries, actually speaking with that other person who has tolerated you and your fantasy world for 25 years, and finally just a few hours of kicking back and enjoying what you have worked for.  Not much left over for a second career in writing.

I spend anywhere from seven to fifteen hours a week on writing.  Don't make the mistake in thinking that all of those hours are spent typing the next book.  I have to sell what I have already written, so a significant amount of time is spent in the marketing arena.  Then there is research, which just baffles me; I write fantasy because I'm too lazy to do research, yet I find myself looking up things like the anatomy of a sword...  And of course, there is other prep work involved with the new novel.  Maps to be drawn up, new characters to be fleshed out, etc.  All told, I probably spend around seven hours a week actually writing the book.

So word production should be a primary goal, right?  Wrong.  Granted, my initial brain purge is crap when compared to the finished product, but if I focus on that word count on the bottom left of the screen, then my focus is not where it should be.  My focus is creating an engaging story.  If you are focused on word count, then the story could very well suffer.

This is not to say that I don't track my progress by word count.  Every night, just before I close the laptop, I will write down the word count of the novel.  Sometimes I look at that notebook page and think "Damn, did pretty good last week."  I like to see that number get larger on a daily basis; it means I am moving ahead.  The number of words I write each night fluctuates between 900 and 3000.  I am happy with either number (though admittedly ecstatic with 3000).

Of course, I work in the Quality department at my regular job, so quality before quantity is embedded in my being.  Just don't get caught up in that word count trap.  If you have a smile on your face when you finish up for the evening, then I think that alone is worth 2000 words.

Shameless plug:  Blood of Two, Book One in the Drums of Rallinwar series by C. Hollis Gunter is available where e-books are sold.  Check it out at outlets such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Deisel, and Smashwords.  Read it, rate it, review it.

Sometimes it just works

Since the release of Blood of Two in August, I have had conversations with readers (some friends/family, some not).  To my pleasant surprise, some elements of my story worked how I wanted them to.

When I created Tarimot, he was to be the comic relief, but he didn't agree.  He became more of the advisor to the group and not so much funny, though he does have his moments.  But, one of the things that I used to round him out was his speech pattern.  I actually have a file called Tarimots cadence that I revisit from time to time just to make sure I write his dialog correctly.  In my mind, this wasn't really a big thing, but many of the readers picked up on this and were complementary of it.  I was told by one reader that he felt like I could write a paragraph of Tarimot's dialog, and it would be apparent that he was the speaker without the use of a speaker attribute.  If I could pull this off with all of my characters, I would be ecstatic.

Blood of Two had its share of unexpected events, at least I hoped it did when I was writing them.  Again, I was happy to find out that they worked as I wanted.  One character was expected to go off the deep end, but most of the readers didn't expect the degree of the dive.  There were a couple of deaths in the book, and one in particular that made a reader or two really ticked at the author (mission accomplished).  I wanted to create characters that got the reader hooked, and for the most part I succeeded.

One death scene received the greatest complement I could hear.  The reader told me that the emotion and reactions of the characters around this one death was so spot on that he assumed that I had suffered the same loss.  I was so taken aback that I failed to tell him that I hadn't.

And finally, there was the end of the book.  I agonized over it for months.  It still bothers me from time to time.  It came across as so damned altruistic, but the readers liked it.  That's what counts in this business of sharing the imagination.

The point of this post?  I once read, in one of my many writing books, that if you are particularly proud of a scene, or phrase, get rid of it.  Balderdash.  If after a few edits, you are still proud of it, then it must be good.  I have several readers that will back me up on this one.

Sometimes, it just works.

Shameless plug:
Blood of Two (Drums of Rallinwar: Book One) is available at most e-book outlets.  Check it out at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Diesel, Smashwords, and other electronic retailers.  Buy it, rate it, review it.

Lessons Learned

Now that the dust has settled on my start into this e-publishing adventure, I thought it might help others if I shared a few of the things that I have learned through this process.  By no means am I an expert now.  I think it's safe to say that I know just enough to get the job done.  I still have a lot to learn, but here is what I have learned to this point.

There are several resources available to the new author, and the more you read the more prepared you can be.  One of the first things you have to remember in the world of e-readers is:  What you see is not what you get.  By this I mean that your manuscript, as it appears in MSWord, is not as it appears on a Kindle, Nook, or the plethora of other mechanisms.  You have to take that wonderful manuscript and butcher it up to make it look good.

The best place to start is BEFORE you begin your manuscript.  Unfortunately, most of us don't know this until we have spent many long hours on our manuscript.  So, be prepared to spend hours doctoring up your work.  Be patient.  Don't skip any steps in the process, it will only prolong the process.

Save your original manuscript and modify a copy of it for the conversion process.  This way, you always have the original to fall back on.

A good starting point is to read David Dalglish's blog entry on this subject.  It is a good quick-and-dirty look at prepping your manuscript, but it is not the end all.  There are aspects of the journey that he doesn't cover, but I would consider this a must read.  Especially for those of you who are not on friendly terms with your computer.

Amazon Kindle

Step one is to download a free copy of Building Your Book for Kindle.  Give it a read at work, during your breaks of course.  Then open up your manuscript and just follow the instructions in the book.  Again, don't skip any steps in the process (especially the table of contents part...).
Amazon actually makes this whole thing fairly simple.  Once you have finished following the process that the book spells out, you will have an html file ready to upload to Amazon.  The most challenging part for me was formating the book cover correctly.

Smashwords

Download the free copy of the Smashwords Style Guide.  Just like with Amazon, follow the instructions in the guide, and do not skip any steps.
Smashwords is bit more demanding than Amazon.  This is because of the premium outlets like Apple and Barnes and Noble.  Your electronic book has to be formatted properly before they will send it on to other outlets.  Keep in mind, the 'meatgrinder' at Smashwords will not catch some formatting errors.  So even though your book may be approved by the software, issues can still exist.
When I uploaded my book the first time, I saw that text on the left hand side was cut off on Apple devices, and the map in my book would not show, yet the 'meatgrinder' accepted the book.  When the book completed the second step of the process (real people taking a look at it), I was instructed to fix these things.  Without a doubt I lost some sales here, because before the book made it to the second part of this process several people had already viewed the sample and most likely written it off because of formatting errors.
Again, do not skip any steps outlined in the style guide and you can avoid losing sales.  Take your time going through all this.  I know, you're ready to get your book out there, but getting in a rush will cost you.

Createspace

So you spend several hours working on your manuscript formatting it in silly ways to translate to the multitude of e-readers.  You head is stuck in the what-you-see-is-not-what-you-get mode.  Go eat a sandwich, watch TV, mow the lawn, whatever you need to do to get out of that mode.  Because when it comes to creating the print version with Createspace, what you see IS what you get.

Quite frankly, the print version of Blood of Two is embarrassing.  I love the cover, but the inner content looks cheap.  It looks cheap because I failed to make it look like a standard book.  Set up your word processor to reflect the print size of your book.  In my case it was 6x9.  Once you do that, grab a book off your shelf and see what you can do to make your document emulate that professionally published book.  What you see on your computer screen is what you will see on the printed page.

Again, take your time.  You want your book to look its best.  Take no shortcuts.  You took months to write your book, take a few hours to present your book at its best.  Do not make the same mistake I made.

I know there isn't much here, but the main thing to remember is patience.  Don't think that you will go home on a Tuesday night and be published by the time you head to bed.  While it is very possible that will happen, you can't jog into the process with that attitude.  Take your time to do it right.  It doesn't matter if you've written a masterpiece if people can't read it.

Guidelines Part 3

A line in the sand has been drawn by writers, publishers, editors, agents, and readers. You are instructed to follow that line. Sometimes it is necessary to step off the line to pursue a better path, not easier, just better. And, of course, those lines that have been drawn don't always follow the same paths.

I have had the opportunity to watch a friend enjoy The Lord of the Rings in written form for the first time. He's made several comments about the writing style, which brought to mind a few things Tolkien did that are well off those lines in the sand. Considering those lines were different in the 1950's, it really brings to light to ever-changing world of our language.

He screamed. She screamed. It screamed. They screamed.

"Oh my gosh! If one more person screams, I'm going to!"

It has been a few days since I read that classic series, but apparently, the father of modern fantasy was quite fond of that speaker attribute. It is a practice that breaks two of the guidelines that I follow:
1 - Try not to repeat phrases, words, etc. multiple times.
The reason is clear, just from my friends reaction to the screaming fellowship.
2 - Construct the exposition and dialog in a manner that, in most cases, speaker attributes can be dropped altogether.
That is so easy to say.

One of those dreaded catch-words in the writing industry "voice". That word annoys me almost as much as "muse", unfortunately it applies to this discussion. If your characters have distinctive voices, such as dialog mechanics unique to him or her (or even it), then the reader will have an automatic sense of who is speaking. At that point the speaker attribute becomes moot.

I know; easy to say, hard to accomplish. I suppose this would force some of us to step away from our tablets, keyboards, or typewriters, and actually (gulp) engage real, living, humans in conversation. Pay attention to how people speak. Some will use "proper Kings English", other's litter their speech with and's, but's, well's, like's, and slang, and then there are those that are walking Webster's and Thesaurus's. How can you use these real world examples and infuse them into the voice's of your characters?

Read your dialog without the attributes. Can you tell who is speaking? Can you tweak the dialog so that you can?

He screamed. Wow, you want the reader to understand that Jorge screamed, don't you need that attribute? Maybe. Maybe not. Remember what I have said about guidelines. This can be more difficult than giving your character a voice, but in a lot of cases it can be done, but keep in mind that sometimes it just can't be avoided. If your antagonist is standing on a dingy in a gale wind with quarter sized raindrops pelting his yellow raincoat, the reader expects them to speak at an elevated level. The "he screamed" then becomes a "duh" moment for the reader.

Does the exposition that leads to the dialog lead the reader to expect the character to scream? Can this be done? Should this be done?

Sometimes she needs to scream. The key for the writer is to recognize when the scream is already inferred. Speaker attributes can either hinder, or help the rhythm of the story. Read your dialog aloud. Listen to yourself and you should recognize when that attribute has gotten in the way.

He said.

Guidelines Part 2 - ing

Write without rules, because you will inevitably (ahem, -ly?) break them. The guidelines you work from are the guidelines that you have adopted from other sources; ones you have chosen to agree with. The ultimate judge of your choices will be your readers.

Never be afraid to veer from your own guidelines, but always try to adhere.

There are three letters that suck the impact right out of a statement; ing. You will often hear me say: If you felt the need to put it in print, don't belittle it with a passive word.

Reaching for the gun, Jordan felt the searing pain of the bullet tearing through his shoulder.

Jordan grabbed his gun just as the bullet tore through his shoulder like a fireball.

Two sentences, same meaning, different emotional impact.

There are times when you may want to use passive passages to dictate the pace, or ambiance, but again, I have to question whether passages such as those really belong. I sometimes feel that such writing is lazy.

When I write a passive phrase, or paragraph, I read it over and over. I ask myself if there is another way to put it. I ask myself if it even belongs in the story. Am I setting the scene with such an aside, am I setting a pace, or have I just constructed an action to stall until I can come up with something better?

Sometimes passive is good, but you always look at it and question if it is the correct method of travel.

My rough drafts are packed with ly's and ing's,as are my emails and posts, it's a quick way to purge the thoughts from my head. This is why I have guidelines. The brain purge that is my rought draft is right next to junk. Guidelines are used to refine that junk.

Guidelines

Guidelines. There are no rules, and anyone who tells a writer that is not as smart as they think they are. There are, however, more guidelines than you could possibly imagine. What some educators, editors, and writers don't like to admit is that guidelines blend in with personal preferences.

I have compiled my own guidelines over the years. Those, combined with my Chicago Book of Style, Roget's Thesauraus, and good ole Webster, have helped me create a novel and about 20 short stories. Some are good, other's are not, but that's another conversation altogether.

Sometimes openly, sometimes quietly, I despise the use of the old hack -ly adverb. It is hack, in my opinion. They are used in advertising, warning signs, and catch-phrases; all of which are mediums where brevity matters. Work safely, drive carefully, see clearly...

In the story setting, these words have no place. Again, my opinion, my guideline, my personal preference. These adverbs muddle the action; they give the reader an opportunity to check out.

Jerika drove as safely as she could.

Jerika placed her hands at ten and two, just like her husband had taught her, and crept out onto the snow packed road.

You tell me. Which sentence has you more engaged?