In Today’s Journal
* Introductory Note
* Writing vs. Publishing: Two Vastly Different Things
Introductory Note
While I was revamping and resizing my new Blackwell Ops covers a couple of days ago, I received a few questions from a fellow writer who’s in Dean’s “How to Make 40K a Year” seminar.
I responded to her personally, then posted my somewhat expanded responses yesterday in “Ten Important Things”. Naturally, I recommend you read it.
And then while I was uploading the ‘large’ covers for my Blackwell Ops series and my two horror novels to my online discount store yesterday, I had a few thoughts about writing and publishing.
It struck me that those thoughts might be of interest to some of you too, so here they are:
Writing vs. Publishing: Two Vastly Different Things
The main thing to know about the first half of this is that, if you’re doing it right, writing fiction is a pure pleasure and the most fun you can have with your clothes on. But publishing is only a necessary PITA, and it’s only necessary if you want it to be.
I’ve got that covered. I can teach you the mechanics of writing.
From what I’ve seen online and in the “how-to-write-fiction” section of bookstores, I’m not bragging when I say I can teach you a lot better than most of the so-called pundits out there. Because I can.
For example, I can teach you the reasons-for and value-of
- openings and grounding the reader, hooks and cliffhangers, and faster and slower pacing,
- characters and character arcs,
- description of setting and characters and when it’s necessary and when it isn’t,
- dialogue and dialect,
- high-tension and/or high-action scenes, intentionally slower “resting” scenes, and transitional scenes,
- how to write the psychology of a character and what difference it makes to the story and the reader,
- whether and when and how to use innuendo,
- the the different lengths of sentences and paragraphs,
- “power” words and when how to use them,
- how and when and why to switch PsOV in a multiple POV story,
- how to write first- or third-person POV and the use of second-person POV,
- the purpose of present, past, and future tense and when and why to use them,
- how to use punctuation to direct the reading of your work,
- etc. etc. ad nauseam.
- Oh, plus the nuances and intricacies of all of that.
In fact, I can almost teach all of that stuff in my sleep. And if you follow my guidance, you WILL be a successful, entertaining fiction writer.
I can even copyedit for you, and teach you what a copyedit is and why you don’t need a copyeditor. Maybe a critique for the mechanics and the sequence of events inside the scenes, but not a copyeditor.
And of course, I’m available by email pretty much all the time if you have questions or want to learn something.
But I’m not actively soliciting business here. I’m only making a point.
The point is this:
As capable as I am at teaching fiction writers—from beginners to old hands to some of the ‘bestsellers’ whose work I’ve read—the various aspects of how to write fiction, I am woefully inadequate as an example for anyone to follow regarding publishing.
For example, I understand that publishing to paper is probably important, and I understand that publishing to audiobooks is all the current rage. Seriously, I get all that.
But I choose to publish only to ebooks and only wide because that particular publishing process is quick and super easy for me and takes less time away from my writing.
Scott Carpenter’s WIBBOW test (Would I Be Better Off Writing?) was even more important when I was starting out and building my inventory, but it’s still important to me because I love telling stories.
And that isn’t something I just say and then go off and do a lot of other stuff. I really do love it.
In fact, I still might put some of my nonfiction books in paper. But if I do I’ll hire someone to do it for me. Period.
For me, publishing simply isn’t the point of writing.
The point of writing—again, for me—is to explore more characters and more worlds and put more new words on the page and selfishly entertain myself.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy my characters and worlds and novels and stories entertain others too, but that isn’t the be-all end-all for me.
In fact, if publishing to ebooks was as difficult for me as publishing to paper or audiobooks—or if publishing to ebooks gave me as minuscule a return on my investment of Time—I wouldn’t publish at all.
Well, one caveat—I would still send my novels and stories to my first reader and a few others who really enjoy them. And I might still put stories or serialized novels up on Substack for people to read if they want to.
Back in the day when my poetry and nonfiction was traditionally published and even nominations and awards were coming in, I put up with far more than enough tiny RsOI. I literally made ten cents on the dollar.
And in this new golden age of publishing, it turns my stomach to see so many writers giving in to all the money-grubbing non-creatives out there (like Amazon’s ACX/Audible, for example, in audiobooks) who bleed writers dry and pay them a pittance of 20% of the cover price.
Shame on them. I feel sorry for writers who feel they have no choice but to work with those kinds of people and entities.
But even if I wasn’t publishing at all, I would still write because I love writing fiction.
I love my characters, I love their worlds and all the situations they get into, and I love the anticipation and excitement as I record their stories and learn whether and how they’ll get out of the situations. When I’m writing a new story, I can hardly wait to get back to it so I can see what happens next.
If you’re reading along with A Most Unusual Day over on Stanbrough Writes, I can even tell you one of my favorite parts of writing that particular story: Remember when when Nick’s brain went south in the leadup-to and immediate aftermath-of his first hit? (If you want to study how to write the psychology and mindset of a character, read Chapter 23.)
I love writing that ‘brain-gone-south’ stuff because
- it forces me to (or maybe lets me) focus way down into the story and the character,
- it gives readers an intimate, almost visceral psychological insight into the character, his mindset, his temperament, and his world, and
- writing that stuff informs and improves my writing in everything from description to dialogue and back again.
Writing with that kind of intimacy is the best way I know for a writer to study and learn from his own work ‘on the fly’ even as the story’s unfolding.
Plus as I’m writing I very seldom have even a clue what’s going to happen next, and that’s nothing short of exhilarating. In my life, nothing is more fun or more enjoyable than that.
And frankly, I wish the same for you. Believe me, it’s a blessing, not a curse.
No matter how successful you become or how many covers you decide to re-do or how much sales copy you have to revise on your way to being a successful fiction writer, I hope you’ll never lose that love for simply telling a great, entertaining story.
In the end, in writing fiction, that’s what matters above all else.