All posts tagged Writers Resources

What is an indie?

How to Be Indie

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I had a ton of fun this weekend playing around with some movie making software you can get online. Xtranormal offers 300 bits up front to create a fun movie, so it cost me nothing. I’m no script writer and I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to write. At first, it was a whopping 2 and a half minutes long and contained a long dissertation about what Indie really is along with responses to all the naysaying blurbs like: so if you’re indie you can’t be good enough to get published? (That one really burns me)

I left in some of it, but felt it just turned into a lecture, not a fun video, so I cut it back. I still kind of like it though. Maybe I’ll do a series of these as a kind of therapy. Who knows? All I know is I had a bunch of fun playing with this, and it has become my new procrastinating tool.

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by Thea Atkinson on February 12, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on February 12, 2012

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Speaking of character…A plea to newbie writers who plan to publish

English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de...

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And The Most Important Character is…

I’ve been writing for dozens of years and most of those have been undertaken in earnest. I started pursuing publishing at age 12 and 15 and then again at 26. Since then, I’ve freelanced, edited, judged in contests, and of course, written my fair share of short stories, essays, flash fiction, and novels. In all, I have over 25 writing years in.

What I also did (and still do) over those years was critique other writers and have my own writing critiqued. In the early days, I don’t mind saying that my prose was filled with the typical new writer issues. It was unsophisticated: the characters lacked depth, the dialogue was flat and boring, and there was no sparkle to the prose. I had no idea how to move the plot along, I couldn’t keep track of more than two characters in dialogue, and I spent far too much time writing things that had nothing to do with the story.

OK. So maybe some of that is still true: I’m always learning, and that’s the point of my post today. I keep learning. I’m not afraid to hear when something doesn’t work. I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to negative reviews because I’ve spent a good many hours reading critiques of my work. Many, many times the critiques were not glowing. They could even be harsh depending on who was delivering the news. Sometimes, I felt sick to my stomach from reading a critique.

I had to learn to take the good comments AND the bad. I had to develop a distance from my writing in order to hear about the things that needed fixing.

And so I forged on. I discovered that usually after a tough critique that if I thought about the words, I’d realize it was hard to take because the information was true in some sense. Often, the critter would write something that resonated with me because I KNEW even when I wrote it that it wouldn’t work but kept it anyway.

Then I would go about fixing what needed fixing.

I’m a writer and that means rewriting. It means hearing hard-to-take information about my work in order to improve. It means realizing that the story comes first, not my ego.

Why am I writing all this? Certainly not to defend any review I’ve received lately: While I love great reviews, I don’t fret over the bad ones anymore unless I know I have some work to do because of them. We ALL get bad reviews at one time or another. It’s part of the game.

No. I’m writing about critique and reviews because I’m worried about some newbie indies.

I’m excited about indie work, really. But I know of some real newbie writers who are raring to put their stuff live digitally because they can.  I worry that newbie writers will not put in the character-building time of critique and revision that they need to, to produce good prose, and–more importantly–to survive harsh criticism.  Because it’s going to come. Like I said, we ALL receive bad reviews and harsh criticism at some point.

It’s how we deal with it that makes us newbie or veteran, I think. Our responses to the responses we receive are a mark of our own character. And many of us indies have spent the time behind the scenes developing that strangely plastic skin that allows truth to enter and pain to bounce off, (well, somewhat) and crafting that first-person character that is ourselves just as carefully as we craft the people that populate our work.

I wonder and worry about how many fledgling authors will scoot out to the web, jamming their new, untested, still-young prose onto Kindle, or Nook, or Kobo, because they can, and end up receiving harsh reviews that they aren’t prepared to receive.

And then never write again.

I beg of you newbies: please don’t do this to yourself. I’m not afraid of competition. I’m not trying to come off as superior and megalomaniacal or imply that I’m a better writer than you; Hell, I make plenty of writerly mistakes.

But I’m a fairly well seasoned, and I can take it when I’m told about the many mistakes in my prose.

It’s great to be an indie these days; we have a lot of venues open to us that weren’t open before, we have control over things we didn’t before, our stories can be the length they want to be.

But if you’ve never had your work critiqued privately, please reconsider before you publish it publicly.

From a veteran to any newbie who will listen: it’s not just your stories’ characters that need building, it’s your writer’s character and there’s no shortcut to that.

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FREE Jan 28What do you think? Have I offended you? Have I spoken a truth that resonates? Please feel free to comment/critique/ or just plain complain.

Then go grab a free copy of God in the Machine (a short story): it’s free today only on Amazon

AND:  spread the word!

suggested tweet: Grab a FREE copy of God in the Machine  for your #kindle http://amzn.to/w8bADp

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by Thea Atkinson on January 28, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on January 28, 2012

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Is a book right for your message? guest post by @ajbarnett

Why Write A Book?

a guest post by  AJ Barnett

without reproach by AJ Barnett

Purchase Without Reproach

“Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.”

- Logan Pearsall Smith -

Message, What Message

So you have a story deep inside, and its bubbling to get out. You simply must put it across to people. You are passionate about it. You’re convinced there’s an audience waiting to read it, and you’re intent on writing a book…

Wait! Is a book really the right vehicle for your message?

 Other Mediums

Will another medium be more suitable for your idea? Have you considered writing it as a short story, or an article? Or will it be better suited to a television documentary or radio play? Okay, I realise a book can serve as a prelude to one of these, but sometimes it’s better to aim for a different medium right from the outset, rather than try to wedge your grand idea into a book.

Why write a book? A book embraces between 50,000 and 250,000 words – a lot of time and effort. Not everyone can cope with writing so much on a subject – especially if they have no previous experience. The inspiration you believe will make a novel might actually only furnish sufficient words for a short story.

 In The Swim

There’s little to be said for embarking on a writing career with a 100,000 word book as a first project. It’s rather like swimming the English Channel when you’ve never dipped your toes in water. Sometimes it’s prudent to start with lesser undertakings. Small assignments allow you to acquire a feel for words and how to handle them before embarking on a larger project. Why not learn to swim a length before swimming a mile?

Okay, so a few paragraphs in a local church magazine might not sound impressive – but you’ll finish it faster, and you’re more likely to get it published than a full length book. It will certainly be in print quicker than a book would. Writing a short piece of work will give you most of the stimulus and satisfaction of writing a long one – and you will finish it quicker and lose less, if your work isn’t accepted. So, why write a book at such an early stage in your writing life?

If you later decide to move on to larger projects, you’ll be furnished with evidence of your published material. Publishers prefer publishable writers.

 Speculate to Accumulate.

College lecturers and researchers, accumulate status by publishing articles in academic journals. Poets work in much the same way. It’s unusual for poets to launch into publication in book form. Most poets begin by introducing poems in magazines and suchlike, and move onto anthologies before progressing to their own collections.

Do be circumspect and ask yourself why you want to write a book. Ask yourself whether you’re ready to write and sell a book, or whether you’d improve your chances by gaining experience, understanding, and respect, by writing on a smaller scale.

Read more posts from AJ Barnett on Tell Me A Story

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WITHOUT REPROACH

Jenny is not related to Spanish artist, Juan Garcia. She has never heard of him, never met him, and certainly never been there before… So why does she vaguely recognize some of the rooms and smells?

It freaks her out when Juan bequeaths her the enormous villa in his Last Will and Testament… Especially when there is a painting of her in the entrance … and she is totally naked…

Without Reproach is romantic suspense, available from Amazon Kindle $2.99

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Aside from Thea: I wrote a post about my motivation for one of my novels here. Feel free to check it out.

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by Thea Atkinson on August 15, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on August 15, 2011

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Writer Wednesday: that junk in your trunk is Steampunk @goblinWriter

Prelude Ramble by thea

Sometimes you find someone on Twitter that a the most intriguing handle (@goblinwriter) (mine is the very boring @theaatkinson) , and then you discover they have mentioned you on their blog, and THEN you realize they write Steampunk. You have no idea what Steampunk is.

You don’t want to say so, because well, you’d look ignorant and uneducated and so you sully forth, chatting and Rting, and reading blog posts and then you realize: Hey! Not everyone knows what SP is! I’m not alone.

What a great guest post that would make. Even better: what an awesome writing exercise it would make. So I asked this goblinwriter if she would guest post on my blog for Writer Exercise Wednesday and I’m delighted to say, she said yes. Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for:

Purchase for your Kindle

Writing Exercise: Escape the Dungeon!

By Lindsay Buroker

Thea asked me to talk a bit about steampunk and offer up a writing exercise for you good folks.

I’m not sure I qualify as an expert on steampunk, but I am an indie fantasy author with a fondness for filling my characters’ world with steam-powered machines and industrial-revolution-era gadgets that might have been but never were. Airships, steam-powered dog sleds, mechanical attack butterflies… You get the picture.

I also have a fondness for characters who can use their brains to get themselves out of trouble. Hey, my childhood idols were Spock and MacGyver. What can I say?

Thus, for today’s writing exercise, I’m going to challenge you to come up with a creative way to get your characters out of a dungeon cell, police interrogation room, serial killer’s basement, a garden shed, etc. The setting is up to you, and you needn’t be a fantasy author to give this a try.

Here are the rules:

  • The door is locked, there are no breakable windows, and brute force won’t work.
  • You cannot trick the guards by having your character’s sidekick pretend to be sick (sorry, but Hollywood has used that one to death!).
  • You can place up to three items in the prison for your characters to use, but they must be logical finds, such as a water heater in a basement, roadside flares in the trunk of a car, fertilizer (MacGyver’s favorite bomb-creation material!) in a garden shed.

That’s it! Have fun with this.

Oh, and while you’re thinking of your brilliant escape scenario, I invite you to check out some of my fantasy books. My goblins are particularly known for thinking their way out of situations with their inventions and schemes (hey, when you’re three feet tall, brute force isn’t much of an option!), and, Kali, the young heroine in my Flash Gold novellas is a self-taught tinkerer who’s been known to bring down a pirate-infested airship with nothing but the supplies on her steam-powered dog sled….

You can also visit my e-publishing blog if you’re looking for tips on ebook creation, book promotion, or social media. Thanks for reading!

###

If you don’t like this exercise, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different

one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.

BTW: by Thea

Free short story by Thea Atkinson

God in the Machine is free. totally free

I don’t write Steampunk and I doubt I’d be good at it, but I do think the cover of God in the Machine is reminiscent of what I would think SP conveys. It’s free at feedbooks and Smashwords. Go on and download it.

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by Thea Atkinson on August 3, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on August 3, 2011

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Talking about birds on a wire: a guest post by @jarrettrush

Prelude Ramble by thea

I get asked it all the time; you do too, I imagine, if you’re a writer: “Where do you get your ideas?”

I dread that one almost as much as I dread the question about what my book is about. I still haven’t nailed that one yet. The truth for me is that I really don’t know.In a post on Jason McInytre’s blog, I told him that my approach to writing is one of discovery and that it’s always a pleasant surprise to find something I write holds up to the research. He seemed to ‘get it’, which leads me to believe that stories and ideas are out there in the ether somewhere, waiting to be pulled down and brought to life.

One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson

If you're lucky OIT is still on sale at Amazon for 99c

For instance, in One Insular Tahiti, I wanted to freefall write from a famous first line of a novel. I picked THE most famous first line I could think of: Moby Dick’s  “Call me Ishmael.” What ensued was a full novel about reincarnation and the idea that who we were can shape who we are.

Free Stuff:

Later, Jarrett Rush will guide you through a writing exercise, but first I’d like to mention

Impeding Justice by Mel Comley

comment to enter the montly draw

that I’d like you to come back and tell us how it went. this month the gift for a lucky random commenter is Mel Comley’s Impeding

Justice. Simply comment on Writer Wednesdays and get entered into the monthly draw.

Need More Exercise?

If you don’t like this exercise or you still feel the need for some inspiration, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.

And now without further Ado:

To get your engines revving, Jarrett Rush takes over the blog post

Jarret Rush

Buy Me from Smashwords

by Jarrett Rush.

I think most writers are interested in the creative process of others. I know I am. I like to read how someone’s latest masterpiece came about. How did it go from that nugget of an idea to a finished product? It’s the nugget that interests me the most. Where does it come from? How do we get ideas? Seriously, if you know, please leave a comment and tell me.

For me, my book, Chasing Filthy Lucre, is ultimately the result of lunch. Or really the walk back to my desk at my day job after lunch. My mom liked the movie “Bird on a Wire” when I was younger. For a reason I can’t explain, the title popped into my head while I was walking down the hall heading back to my office.  I let my mind spin the rest of the walk. I have to climb three flights of stairs and down a long hallway, so there was a little time. When I sat back down at my computer I banged out the following bit of dialogue.  (It was OK. I was still on my lunch break. )

“How long have you been on the wire?”

She was blonde, tall, and entirely fake. I could practically hear the servos fire when she batted her eyes.

She slid her long legs a bit closer and swirled her drink in her glass.

I grunted an answer and she asked me to repeat it.

“For as long as I can remember,” I said again and kept staring at our reflection in the mirror behind the bar.

“Oh, a lifer.”

“Practically.”

“Well, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you are very mature for someone who has been riding for that long.”

A flub in her language database programming. “I don’t think you mean mature. I think you mean old. And, yes, I am.”

A soft chuckle. “I suppose I do. You’re old for a lifer.”

That was all I had. Interesting, or at least I thought so.  I wasn’t sure where it was going or even what it was all about, but I liked it. I emailed it to myself and added to it that night once I got home. It’s a story I haven’t done anything with and it sits half-finished on my hard drive. It wasn’t a fruitless effort, though. That story did give me the concept of data addiction and a network that people can plug their bodies directly into. It’s a concept I fleshed out with a writing prompt from my writers group.  That story became one that I loaded to Smashwords. (Get your free copy here:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31485)

And those two bits of creativity are what turned into Chasing Filthy Lucre and the New Eden Series of novellas I’m working on. The novellas didn’t come directly from those ideas, but the concepts that my mind spun out of the movie title “Bird on a Wire.”  I find that fascinating. Now if someone could just tell me how that title got there.

It’s Wednesday.  Thea likes to give writing prompts on Wednesday and all this talk about ideas has me curious. What would you all do with the title “Bird on a Wire?” Post your creation in the comments. Or put it on your blog and leave a link in the comments. I’ll come back next Monday and read what you wrote. My two favorites will get a free copy of Chasing Filthy Lucre.

Jarrett Rush lives in the Dallas area with his wife, Gina, and their chocolate Lab, Molly. His short fiction has also appeared at A Twist of Noir. His novella, Chasing Filthy Lucre, is available at Amazon ( http://tinyurl.com/43zg5rd ), Barnes and Noble ( http://tinyurl.com/3wqzm7a ), and other ebook retailers. He blogs at Jarrett Writes (http://jarrettwrites.blgospot.com).

BTW: by Thea

Free short story by Thea Atkinson

God in the Machine is free. totally free

my free short story God in the Machine available at feedbooks and Smashwords.

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by Thea Atkinson on July 27, 2011  •  Permalink
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Rock n Roll Writer advice: Never Release a book in summer @westofmars

The Demo Tapes Year 3 by Susan Helene Gottfried

Purchase on Amazon

Guest Post by Susan Helene Gottfried

­Back in June — it feels like a lifetime ago! — I released my fourth book, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes (Year 3). It’s my third short story anthology, and the fourth in the famed Trevor Wolff/ShapeShifter series. The Trevolution, as I call it, continues to rock on.

Remind me never to release another book in the summer. This is the second year I’ve made the same mistake. It’s a biggie.

Oh, sure. I know what you’re thinking. It’s not a mistake! People read more in the summer, beside the pool. I get to include this new book in the Smashwords Summer Sale, which only has a few days left, so get over there and check out some good stuff. Releasing a book in the summer ought to be the way to go.

For me, ever the rebel, a summer release is a huge mistake. Know why? My kids are still young enough that, as soon as school gets out, I become the Mom Entertainment Unit.

Now, I genuinely like being the MEU. I like my kids. They are fun, smart, eager to embrace life and new things… oh, wait. That last one is me. My kids are more cautious than I am.

So now I have two problems. The first is that I ought to spend my summers here at my desk, making sure the world knows I’ve put out a new book. I ought to be writing new fiction, revising old. I ought to be doing this and that, all at my desk, all in the name of working and selling books so we have money to do these fun adventures. (and donating part of my royalties to charity. Don’t forget I like to do that, too.)

The second problem is that I’m more adventurous than my kids. Granted, that will probably change as my kids get older. They may be a bit on the young side for things like hanging off zip lines and the world’s best wooden roller coaster and deep sea fishing and all the other things they back away from when I give them the chance to realize their ambitions.

I’m not sure I have the time to wait for my kids to catch up to their mom. Daily, I’m falling apart. Not like a zombie — I don’t go to unclip my bike shoe from a spin bike at the Hoity Toity Health Club and find I’ve left my entire foot and shoe attached to the bike. Rather, despite being rather young for such a thing, I’ve got some osteoarthritis that’s developed. I’m that creature yoga and pilates instructors hate: my joints are hyper-mobile. That leaves me more prone to injury, even as it protects me from breaking bones.

So between now and when I can’t anymore, I want to get out there and do stuff. Live, not merely exist, as my favorite modern-day wise man once said.

For that reason, I don’t begrudge days spent at the pool, or adventures with the kids. People tell me they aren’t this age forever and while I know that’s true, part of me remains convinced I’ll be that rare parent who is so utterly cool, the kids — and their friends — will want me around forever.

That’s why summers are hard for me. I miss being here at my desk, writing. I love what I do, or else I wouldn’t do it. I often say I need to write the way I need to breathe, and maybe that means I’m a writer first and a mother second.

I don’t tend to look at it that way. To me, they’re both equal.

So… Demo Tapes: Year 3 is my last summer release, at least until the kids are old enough to not want or need much more than the car keys. After all, any book needs publicity. If I’m off with my kids all summer long, there goes my publicity department, off to the science center or a bike ride or whatever else it is I’m taking them.

I can’t begrudge it. I really can’t, even as I see my newest literary child struggle to be heard in the deluge of other books released this summer. After all, if we writers never come out from behind the computer screen, if we never experience life, what will we have to write about?

Still, it’d make me feel a lot better if you’d go take a look at Demo Tapes: Year 3. Like I said at the beginning of this post, it’s on sale at Smashwords for another few days yet. I’ve marked it down to half price, which means for $3, you can have all four of the books in the Trevolution. $3 will let you hang with a rock band and as old and falling apart as I am, not even I remember when a concert ticket was that cheap.

I’m glad of that last part. Heck, I’m glad of all of it. To be a writer, to be here visiting with Thea’s readers today, to have made the time to write this post in between hikes in the woods and trips to the library. Heck, I’m probably at one of these locations I’ve mentioned today, but I still welcome you to chat with me in the comments. As I dart in and out, I’ll stop in and see what you guys have to say. If you love/hate summer book releases, if you read more in the summer, or even what you do to fill your summer days. Let’s talk. It’ll make me feel better about telling the kids we gotta cut it short so I can make some new friends.

Stay cool for the rest of the summer — and read some great books!

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Bio:

Susan Helene Gottfried is the author of ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 1, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 2, Trevor’s Song, and ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 3. She can be found online at http://westofmars.com, where you can find The Meet and Greet, among other goodies.

A tone-deaf rocker-at-heart, Susan worked in retail record stores, in radio stations, as stage crew, and as a promoter while earning two college degrees in creative writing.

Susan walked away from a continued career in the music industry in order to write books, so it makes sense that most of her fiction revolves around rock bands. Once you get those record stores, radio stations, and fellow roadies and promoters under your skin, they never leave.

When not writing, Susan captains the team at Win a Book, a promotional site for authors and book bloggers — and readers like yourself.

Buy links for Year 3

BTW by Thea:

Free short story by Thea Atkinson

God in the Machine is free. totally free

I met Susan on Facebook and then we started chatting on Twitter. I’d love to meet you too on Twitter (I’m @theaatkinson) and I’m sure

she’d love a follow (@westofmars)

No rock gods were harmed in the making of God in the Machine: a free short on Feedbook and Smashwords. You’re welcome to grab it

up and enjoy for your Kindle, Nook, or whatever.

2 Comments
by Thea Atkinson on July 25, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Thea Atkinson on July 25, 2011

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