Tag Archives: discussion

News & Contests

Your topic here!

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I love using the new year as an opportunity to revamp my blog (and lots of other aspects of my life!). For example, in 2012, I devoted Mondays to marketing (I worked in Internet marketing for five years before that). In 2013, I’ve tried to stick to Mondays about the writing life (what I’ve learned as a writer), Tuesdays for the TBR pile, Wednesdays for writing craft, and goals & accountability on first Fridays, with other stuff thrown in there, of course.

But, hey, I’m not just writing this blog for me—I’m writing it for you. What topics do you want to see more of here in 2014?


Can’t see the poll? Click through to vote!

And to press my luck, do you have any feedback about the schedule/format?


Can’t see the poll? Click through to vote!

Oh, how polite! 😉

And how do I feel about my blog? Ambivalent—and not in the “I don’t feel strongly about it/don’t actually know what ambivalent means” sense—in the “I can use a dictionary and I feel strongly about it both ways” sense. I love being able to share my thoughts. I love the idea of connecting with other writers and readers here, and yes, I’m sharing my thoughts 😉 and I continue to get pageviews, and of course I have friends that comment here—but overall, it just doesn’t feel like my vision and my goals for this blog are coming to fruition.

I was looking back through the last couple months’ posts, and more than half of my posts in October, for example, got no comments—including the posts in a requested series. I’ve been blogging for over seven years, and comments have seriously dried up across the blogosphere, but at some point, I do begin to wonder whether the time and effort I put into blogging is worth it—especially when the thing I love most about blogging, teaching writing craft, could be done via . . . I don’t know, selling books on writing craft?

Could I do a better job promoting my blog? Absolutely. Would it help these problems? No idea. Will I ever stop blogging? Well, who knows, but apparently I can’t shut up, so I’ll probably be around for a long time. Will the blog change? Well, yes . . . just like it does every year 😉 .

What are your blogging plans for 2014?

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Reading

TBR Tuesday: How do you review a (sort of) “bad” book?

A lot of elements go into a book: the characters, the plot, the writing style, the voice, the grammar. Getting them all perfect—or even just really, really good—is tough! Writers know that better than most readers, because we (hopefully) have worked very hard at getting all of those elements juuuuust right in our own works.

ok stars

After my most recent reading kick (though all those books were quite good), I’ve been thinking about this. Minor mistakes, or things that just aren’t my personal taste are kind of easy to compartmentalize. But how do you review a book that gets some of those major elements great, but one or two are executed only “fair” (or worse)?

Let’s discuss.

Is one element more important than the others?

I listed five of the biggest elements of a book above: characters, plot, writing style, voice and grammar. Assuming none of them is bad enough to make you stop reading, do any of these elements bother you more than the others when executed badly?

For me, I’m most inclined to forgive minor punctuation errors. Though I try to avoid them myself at all costs, and though I know the rules, I don’t freak out over things I consider minor slips—using commas with interrupted dialogue when inappropriate, for example.

I can still enjoy a book that doesn’t have perfectly executed characters, or one that has a kind of bland voice. Writing style can get on my nerves sometimes. A bad plot? Bugs me after the fact, usually.

Does review = endorsement?

Another issue I find, especially as I’ve entered the publishing arena, is worrying about putting my name on a review—especially a book I review on my blog. I seldom write negative reviews—I typically don’t review books I don’t enjoy (and I try not to read them in the first place 😉 )—but what about a book with good characters or plot or voice, but poor mechanics?

Is giving the book a positive review an endorsement of every element of the book? Do you worry about someone buying the book based on your recommendation, and then being disappointed in your grasp of grammar/whatever? Do you feel compelled to make a note of particular elements—especially mechanics—when writing a review? Or is that maybe just appeasing your own pride, saying “I’m better than X author”?

I don’t know. I hope not the last, but sometimes it feels like it.

What do you think? How do you review?

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Works

Work in Progress Check-in

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In the wake of NaNoWriMo, many of us have just finished a new novel. Now what? Here’s what I’m planning to do in writing this month. Come share your plans, too!

So, that Nano novel…

We talked a little about my Nano novel. The first week of the month I devoted to editing my Nano novel—the final polish on the last section of pages on my Nano 2011 novel and a critique group meeting for those pages, and exporting my Nano 2012 novel into Word.

Something old, something new

Aiming really high, I’d love to spend the next couple weeks working on a short novella, a prequel to another piece, from a minor character’s POV. My first draft goal would be around 18,000 words, and at the rate I write, that should be two weeks of work fairly easily.

And then?

Time off for the holidays! That’s all I’ve got planned writing-wise for the rest of the year, but there’s always lots more on my plate (case in point: some of the handmade gifts I’m planning this year).

How about you? What are your writing plans this month? Come join in the conversation!

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Technique, Works

What’s in a name?

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Although the very first draft is “done,” I haven’t totally settled on a working title for my Nano novel. I’ve got two titles in mind. I’m using one because I like it better, but I kind of feel like the other one suits the book better.

The two candidates? Slash and Burn and Scorched Earth.

About the book

A quick synopsis of the premise:

The war for Earth is over. But the battle’s just begun.

In a depopulated post-apocalyptic California, 17-year-old Adrienne Lucas has finally found some semblance of normalcy in a collective farm led by her father. Then newcomers arrive, promising a return to the comforts from Before. Adrienne’s father represents the voice of reason against the newcomers’ siren song—until they silence him forever.

Adrienne’s devastating loss is compounded when she discovers the man she’s loved for years, the man who saw her father as practically his own, the man who lives in her home as part of her family is also the man who betrayed her father and sentenced him to death.

Now Adrienne will destroy them all. Starting with him.

Or, in video form:

Don’t see anything? Click through to view the trailer!

You can read a little more about the project here.

What the titles mean to me

I was discussing this with a wise writing friend (who will GO PLACES), Wendy Swore, at a retreat last month. She asked a very incisive question: What do the titles mean to you?

Naturally, my interpretations of both of the titles have a lot to do with the origins of the phrases, but there’s a lot more to the psychological processes drawing me to them.

Scorched Earth refers to a war-making policy of attacking civilians and burning down everything in your path. Sherman’s March to the Sea is often used as an example (and I’m Southern, though not Georgian).

But I think the reason why this popped into my mind was a blog post I read earlier this year that stuck with me. Nathan Bransford very candidly discussed the implications of divorce in the Internet era, and he mentioned his ex-wife had pursued a “scorched Earth” policy in social media, deleting her Facebook account and blog and starting over. While he avoids rancor in his post, the image stood out in my mind.

To me, “scorched earth” brings to mind images of leaving a wide, blackened swath in your wake.

Slash and Burn has some similar connotations, of course. It denotes a agricultural technique for clearing land: slashing and burning the existing underbrush. (Sounds kinda dangerous.) The agricultural angle is kind of nice, since the main characters live on a collective farm.

“Slash and burn” is a little more proactive, in a way. You’re not just burning as part of total war, a reaction to your enemy. You have a purpose, a goal, and you’re taking the initiative. In reality, it isn’t as violent as it sounds, and the blackened swath here becomes the fertile fields of future growth. But it leaves the same image of destruction, which is very appropriate for the novel. Or, at least, I want it to be and hope it will be after revisions 😉 .

The covers!

I made up a book cover this year, because I love looking at my mock covers for a little burst of inspiration. As always, it’s a very rough draft, but here’s the idea:

Come vote!

What do you think? Which title attracts your attention more?

What images and connotations do these titles bring to mind for you? Come share your thoughts!

Photo credit—Burning Fields IV by Gary Scott
COVER IMAGES: Girl: Self-portrait by Kelsey; Fire by Marion Doss;
Blood drips: Pooling Blood by Joleene Naylor; all via CC

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Marketing

Book trailers: Yes or no?

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Book trailers are short videos designed to promote your books like a movie trailer does for a movie. But are they effective?


I haven’t read this book, but the obviously professional production and the VERY short run time caught my eye

The Yes Camp

One theory of marketing says that every time a potential customer sees your product (read: book) name increases the likelihood of a future purchase. The tipping point, in this theory, is that it takes seven of these exposures before someone makes a decision to buy.

A book trailer can be one of these exposures. Realistically, odds are low that you can definitively trace any particular purchase back to any particular marketing tactic, but rather the collective total of those exposures. Anything you can do to help get your book out there and gain publicity and most importantly eyes will help your sales in some way.

Although book trailers are used more and more often, they can still be a unique way to catch the eye of a potential readers. Award-winning and bestselling authors use them (well, their publishers do). They’re a fast way to catch someone’s attention and convey a lot of information about your book in an intriguing way.

Possibly the biggest advantage is that a good, interesting book trailer is inherently share-able, or it should be if you manage it right! People who see your book trailer and get excited about your book, or even just the trailer, can post the trailer to their blog, Facebook or Twitter feed, exposing even more people to your book. This can be especially beneficial for mid-list and self-publishing authors.


Teaser trailer for my friend Don Carey’s book. Legos!

The No Camp

Like many people, I don’t think I have ever seen a book trailer and thought even so much as, “Hm. I might like that.” In fact, the only times I’ve purchased a book after watching a trailer, I’d made the decision to buy before I’d seen the trailer.

Additionally, book trailers can be expensive. They’re all too often amateurish, and that will never help your marketing efforts. The “medium mismatch” of the printed word and the visual storytelling of film sometimes doesn’t work out so well, and you have to consider whether book trailer viewers are your target audience at all.

In short, the no camp varies from apathetic to militant opposition to this marketing tactic, which they decry as a useless waste of time and money.

Making the call for you

Whether or not you decide to do a book trailer for your own book is a personal decision. Here are a few factors I think you should consider:

  • Do you have the video software and skills to do it yourself? (There are several free video editors.)
  • Are you willing to learn?
  • Do you know (of) someone who can and will do it cheaply and well?
  • Do you want a book trailer?
  • Do you have realistic expectations of the results?

Have you decided? Great new if you’re in the “yes” camp: next week, we’ll look at how to make an effective book trailer!

What do you think? Do you want a book trailer? Would you make it yourself? What else would you ask yourself before deciding? Join in the discussion!

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News & Contests

So, who are you?

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What a fun Blog Hop last week! I’m happy to meet you all, and you’ve made me glad I broke down and added Google Friend Connect 😀 . And since some of you are new to the blog, I’d like to get to know you, and to know what you’d like to see here! I’d love to hear from you, whether you’re an old or new reader, so I can make my blog worth your while.

Sooo . . .

Aaand

If you have anything else to add, please feel free to make a comment!

Oh, and lest I forget . . . WINNERS! Chosen totally at random, with the aid of Random.org, we have our winners!

The eBook of Monarch by Michelle Davidson Argyle goes to:

TRISHA!

The $30 Amazon Gift Card goes to:

Lynn Parsons!

Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who entered this month’s giveaways!

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Technique, Publishing

Should fiction be moral?

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In case you missed it (and you probably didn’t), recently there was a bit of a debate in the blogosphere over a certain article which decried the darkness prevalent in YA fiction. I can’t remember if I actually read the article, but I did read the responses of many who took issue with the premise, claiming that YA fiction reflects the dark reality teenagers today know.

I’m not going to argue with that point—but I am going to say that I don’t think that a bleak, hopeless vision of reality is a good way to help someone cope with a future that feels tenuous and perilous at best. Even if a book ends in tragedy, it can still reaffirm readers’ hope.

A YA dystopian I read recently is set in a world without love. It’s illegal to even use the word. Already that sounds pretty bad, eh? Naturally, the MC falls in love, and *SPOILER ALERT* the novel ends tragically. And yet we’re left with hope for the MC to have a better life because of the sacrifice made for her.

I think I tend to side with author John Gardner, at least as his On Moral Fiction is summarized by Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

[F]iction should be moral. Gardner meant "moral" not in the sense of narrow religious or cultural "morality," but rather that fiction should aspire to discover those human values that are universally sustaining. [I assume this means things like hope, character, etc.] Gardner felt that few contemporary authors were "moral" in this sense, but instead indulged in "winking, mugging despair" (to quote his assessment of Thomas Pynchon) or trendy nihilism in which Gardner felt they did not honestly believe.

What do you think? Should fiction be “moral”—by this definition or another?

Photo by Tahmid Munaz

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News & Contests

What series would you like to see next?

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I have a couple ideas for writing series competing in my thoughts right now, so I thought I’d turn it over to you: what series would you like to see next?

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