Some act like writing a novel is easy, based on how many authors are published each year among self-published titles and the quality in many of them. There are so many ways an author can fail the reader and bore them to sleep. Here are my top ten ways us authors can bore our readers.
10. Boring start to the story.
Nothing like a massive info dump or display of the author's research to get a reader yawning before he reads past page one. . . if he makes it that far.
9. Boring movement through the middle of the story.
Despite a great start, the story bogs down into daily life and seems to be going nowhere. It appears the author is just adding filling to make the story long enough to be labeled a novel. "Whoops! Can't get to the ending yet. Let's have them talk about politics. Yeah, that will be interesting." Right.
8. Boring ending to a story.
An otherwise great story does a free fall at the end either by failing to add unexpected twists to its resolutions and/or not resolving the primary story arcs at all.
7. Boring characters.
Nothing says, "sit back and fall asleep" faster than all characters sounding alike, sounding like the author, stereotyped, and/or annoying. Go ahead. Make my day.
6. Boring dialog.
When your computer could write more compelling dialog, you know you're in trouble. In real life, small talk is engaging. In a novel, small talk will have most readers wondering when the author is going to return to telling the story.
5. Boring action.
When the reader slodges or skips long sections of action sequences with little character/story building, he will more likely equate your novel with a B-rated Kung-Fu movie than an exciting story. When you hear your son saying what mine said upon hearing a story read to him, "He took a whole paragraph to say they got off their horses," you know you're boring your readers.
4. Boring descriptions.
Nothing halts progress like pausing a story for a litany of static scenic descriptions. We might as well watch paint dry. Descriptions should paint an active picture in story, not pull out to fill in every little detail whether important or not for the sake of realism.
3. Boring climax.
Few things are more frustrating to a reader than having a story build to a climax, then having it putter out. Instead of emotional payoff, the reader gets emotional frustration, and a bad case of book-throwing.
2. Boring conflict.
So your protagonist needs to save his bedroom from roaches. Okay, maybe I can identify with that dilemma, but do I care? Not likely. Not unless, perhaps, they are aliens invading our world through a dimensional portal in the walls of your room. Low stakes for the characters means low stakes on keeping a reader interested and entertained.
1. Wasting the reader's time.
Not to mention any money spent to acquire the book. If your story is boring (You did catch that theme, didn't you?), that means the reader will regret having spent the money for the book, and the time to read it, however far they may have foraged through it. Creating an entertaining story is the first task of a fiction writer. Fail there, and you won't gain a solid following.
What other things authors do that bore you to tears?
Showing posts with label author. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author. Show all posts
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Interview: Seeking Unseen by Kat Heckenbach
Today we have a treat for our readers. Kat Heckenbach's new title, book 2 of her The Toch Island Chronicles, Seeking Unseen has just been released this month. For the Splashdown launch party, I'm kicking off the blog tour to feature her and the two books, Finding Angel and Seeking Unseen. Here's her interview:Did you always want to be a writer?
Well, yes and no. I actually grew up wanting to be an artist. I drew all the time and was very good. But, when I got to college (after deciding I'd like to teach art), I lost some of my interest in it. I had some phenomenal science teachers at the community college and ended up changing my major from Art Education to Biology. I never really went into science as far as work. I ended up teaching and tutoring (mostly math) until I had my son. Then I became a stay at home mom and eventually started homeschooling. Then, a couple of years ago I was overcome with the desire to write. I love reading Young Adult fiction--became completely addicted to the Harry Potter books and movies and Cornelia Funke's InkHeart series--and decided one day I just had to give it a try. Memories came streaming back that showed me it was a desire I'd always had. I read all the time from the time I was very young, but never thought I could do what those authors do, so I pushed the idea out of my head for so long. But, I suddenly remembered sitting on my bed when I was in high school trying desperately to start a novel. I also remembered writing fourteen-page notes to my friends all the time, which should have been a clue that I like writing :). And I always got A's on my papers and essays. I just think I was so focused on my art and never had the self-confidence in writing. I didn't think I was interesting enough to come up with any grande and creative ideas. And, I was too young back then. I didn't have enough life experience. Now, I've been through a lot and all of that comes out in my writing.
Tell us about your relationship with your publisher Splashdown. Any surprises as you’ve worked with them?
The whole experience has been one surprise after another! I had no idea what to expect from working with a small publisher. But it’s been awesome. Grace Bridges is wonderful, and the whole group of authors work really well together as a team. We brainstorm back cover blurbs and such for each other, and everyone is respectful of each other’s suggestions. I will admit, I love the creative pow-wows Grace and I have when it comes to cover art. We seem to totally connect most of the time and it’s ridiculously fun. Those moments of, “What if we….?” followed by, “Oh, yes, that’s brilliant!” happen a lot—in both directions. There have been far too many for me to doubt I’m in the right place.
Kat Heckenbach grew up in the small town of Riverview, Florida, where she spent most of her time either drawing or sitting in her "reading tree" with her nose buried in a fantasy novel...except for the hours pretending her back yard was an enchanted forest that could only be reached through the secret passage in her closet...She never could give up on the idea that maybe she really was magic, mistakenly placed in a world not her own...but as the years passed, and no elves or fairies carted her away...she realized she was just going to have to create the life of her fantasies.
Now she shares that life with her husband and two kids. Ok, maybe "share" isn't the right word--more like lives that life in her writing and tries her best to be normal the rest of the time...
Kat is a graduate of the University of Tampa, Magna Cum Laude, B.S. in Biology. She spent several years teaching, but never in a traditional classroom—everything from Art to Algebra II—and now homeschools her children.
Author Website: http://www.katheckenbach.com/
Toch Island ChroniclesBook 1: Finding Angel (Sept. 2011)
ISBN: 978-1927154137
Book 2: Seeking Unseen (Sept. 2012)
ISBN: 978-1927154298
Visit the other blogs in the tour:
| Grace Bridges | http://grace.splashdownbooks.com |
| R. L. Copple | http://blog.rlcopple.com |
| Ryan Grabow | http://www.egrabow.com/rm.php?e=Prime |
| Diane M. Graham | http://dianemgraham.com/blog/ |
| Travis Perry | http://travissbigidea.blogspot.com/ |
| Paul Baines | http://www.pabaines.com |
| Caprice Hokstad | http://caprice.splashdownbooks.com/ |
| Keven Newsome | http://www.kevennewsome.com |
| Greg Mitchell | http://www.thecomingevil.blogspot.com/ |
| Robynn Tolbert | http://ranunculusturtle.blogspot.com/ |
| Frank Creed | http://blog.frankcreed.com/ |
| Fred Warren | http://frederation.wordpress.com/ |
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Publisher or Agent?
There's a growing trend among agents. Dean Wesley Smith has recently gone totally anti-agent on his blog. In previous post, he'd allowed that some writers may want to consider an agent, but now he feels he can no longer recommend that anyone use an agent.
While personally I don't see myself using one in the near future, I've not been around as long as Dean and others to really have a solid opinion on this. Obviously there are agents out there taking advantage of writers, in some cases outright stealing their money and careers. And I'm sure there are plenty of honest agents who attempt to work for their clients and give them the best chance of success. I'm not intending here to solicit examples of folks who have a good agent or a bad agent.
Rather, what this is about is not the honesty or ethic of any one particular agent, but the model that is no longer working well and how it is changing for the worst as far as writers are concerned. A quick bit of history might help here.
Agents came on the scene to help writers negotiate contracts with publishers. They handled the author's legal dealings with local and foreign publishers, and Hollywood rights. And they generally knew something about it as they often came from working with publishers and knew how they worked, how publishers sometimes leaned contracts toward their own benefit without leaving much for the writer. So they had some knowledge and skills in helping an author to get the best deal on their book.
Then something happened in the early nineties that threw a wrench in the system. Publishers, in an effort to cut staff and expensive warehouse space, decided instead of having authors send their synopsis and manuscripts directly to them, they would first need to go through a gate keeper, the agent. So the rule of publishers not accepting any unagented submissions was born.
The burden of slush reading was shifted from the publisher and the editors who made the decisions on what books to put into print to the agents, unless the author was bold enough to ignore the agent requirement as just another hurdle publishers put before writers in an attempt to weed out the less persistent ones.
This was an amazing accomplishment for the publishers. Why? Because they no longer had to pay anyone to read loads of slush. Sure, they still got some, both from writers who submitted anyway and agents who submitted for the writers, but the load was cut way down. Instead, who picked up the tab for slush reading? The agent? Yes and no. The agent doesn't make any money reading slush directly. They only make money when they find an author and book that they can sell to the editors they know. When they make their money is when the book sells, and they get their 15%. Except, it wasn't a 15% cut of royalties and advances prior to this change. They upped the agent's pay in return for the tons of slush reading the agent now had to do.
What that boils down to is the writer now pays for the agent to read slush for the publisher. How messed up is that?
There are other issues, which Dean touches on, but for this post the main problem this presents for the writer is that the agent's loyalty has become divided. They are no longer working only for the author, but however subtly, also for the publisher. It shifted the author-agent relationship less from one where the author hires the agent to fight for them against the tricks the publisher might pull, to the author paying the agent for access to the publishers. In short, this shift of allegiances has created a conflict of interest, which in turn has produced more and more stories of unethical behavior in an industry that has no oversight short of the diligence of the writers themselves.
But even in the midst of that conflict of interest, some agents still behaved ethically and provided a valuable service for the writer, and still worked as much as possible on the writer's behalf even in the face of needing to also make the publisher happy.
Then came the Internet, Amazon, and the rise of POD (Publish on Demand) books and ebooks. Within the space of a few years, authors gained viable options to the old traditional publishing method. Options that could cut the traditional publisher out of the loop. At first this shift appeared small and insignificant, so few prepared for it. Now it is growing by leaps and bounds, and publishers are scrambling to figure out how to maintain their piece of the pie.
But the problem for publishers isn't so much the pie is going away. Few predict the end of the traditional publisher. But, there is the reality of the ever shrinking pie. They're base expenses for office space and salaries remain at a constant level no matter how many books they publish or sell. As the pie shrinks, as ebooks published by indie presses and authors take a bigger percentage of the revenues, the publisher's funds get squeezed.
Now, agents are another deal. This move to POD and ebooks threatens to bypass them totally. So how do they see themselves as surviving? By becoming a publisher themselves. This is what Dean speaks to in his latest post.
Now we move from a simple conflict of interest situation because agents are working for the publisher to some degree, needing to keep them happy in order to maintain their accessibility to the editors, you now have the situation where the agent has become the publisher. The whole point of agents originally was to fight for the author against the publisher. Now they are the publisher.
What does this mean for the author? Well, if you still want to use the agent model, it will now shift back to what it was originally. You will need to hire an agent to represent your interest to the agent/publisher. With the agent/publisher only sending out royalties after expenses are paid, the new "real" agent will work to demand a bigger piece of the pie so that they can get paid as well, leaving the author with even less of his royalty.
When you have to hire an agent to represent you to an agent in negotiations, it gets absurd. Anyone who continues to treat the agent/publisher like an agent is being set up for a scam. When they "partner" with the writer to get your ebook published, they are no longer an agent. They are a publisher and need to be treated like one.
What's my recommendation for agents? As if any of them would listen to me. Nonetheless, here's my advice. Go back to focusing on negotiating contracts for the author with the publishers, even if that publisher is another agent. It's the only point at which you are actually making money anyway. Why waste time reading slush and trying to "guide" author's careers. Give advice if asked, but otherwise work only for the author, and be willing to make a few editors angry because you don't let them get away with clauses that would hurt your author's career and pocketbook. Get good at that one thing, and you'll continue to have value. Go the hybrid route and you're only digging yourself deeper into an unethical conflict of interest that will eventually bite you in the rear.
While personally I don't see myself using one in the near future, I've not been around as long as Dean and others to really have a solid opinion on this. Obviously there are agents out there taking advantage of writers, in some cases outright stealing their money and careers. And I'm sure there are plenty of honest agents who attempt to work for their clients and give them the best chance of success. I'm not intending here to solicit examples of folks who have a good agent or a bad agent.
Rather, what this is about is not the honesty or ethic of any one particular agent, but the model that is no longer working well and how it is changing for the worst as far as writers are concerned. A quick bit of history might help here.
Agents came on the scene to help writers negotiate contracts with publishers. They handled the author's legal dealings with local and foreign publishers, and Hollywood rights. And they generally knew something about it as they often came from working with publishers and knew how they worked, how publishers sometimes leaned contracts toward their own benefit without leaving much for the writer. So they had some knowledge and skills in helping an author to get the best deal on their book.
Then something happened in the early nineties that threw a wrench in the system. Publishers, in an effort to cut staff and expensive warehouse space, decided instead of having authors send their synopsis and manuscripts directly to them, they would first need to go through a gate keeper, the agent. So the rule of publishers not accepting any unagented submissions was born.
The burden of slush reading was shifted from the publisher and the editors who made the decisions on what books to put into print to the agents, unless the author was bold enough to ignore the agent requirement as just another hurdle publishers put before writers in an attempt to weed out the less persistent ones.
This was an amazing accomplishment for the publishers. Why? Because they no longer had to pay anyone to read loads of slush. Sure, they still got some, both from writers who submitted anyway and agents who submitted for the writers, but the load was cut way down. Instead, who picked up the tab for slush reading? The agent? Yes and no. The agent doesn't make any money reading slush directly. They only make money when they find an author and book that they can sell to the editors they know. When they make their money is when the book sells, and they get their 15%. Except, it wasn't a 15% cut of royalties and advances prior to this change. They upped the agent's pay in return for the tons of slush reading the agent now had to do.
What that boils down to is the writer now pays for the agent to read slush for the publisher. How messed up is that?
There are other issues, which Dean touches on, but for this post the main problem this presents for the writer is that the agent's loyalty has become divided. They are no longer working only for the author, but however subtly, also for the publisher. It shifted the author-agent relationship less from one where the author hires the agent to fight for them against the tricks the publisher might pull, to the author paying the agent for access to the publishers. In short, this shift of allegiances has created a conflict of interest, which in turn has produced more and more stories of unethical behavior in an industry that has no oversight short of the diligence of the writers themselves.
But even in the midst of that conflict of interest, some agents still behaved ethically and provided a valuable service for the writer, and still worked as much as possible on the writer's behalf even in the face of needing to also make the publisher happy.
Then came the Internet, Amazon, and the rise of POD (Publish on Demand) books and ebooks. Within the space of a few years, authors gained viable options to the old traditional publishing method. Options that could cut the traditional publisher out of the loop. At first this shift appeared small and insignificant, so few prepared for it. Now it is growing by leaps and bounds, and publishers are scrambling to figure out how to maintain their piece of the pie.
But the problem for publishers isn't so much the pie is going away. Few predict the end of the traditional publisher. But, there is the reality of the ever shrinking pie. They're base expenses for office space and salaries remain at a constant level no matter how many books they publish or sell. As the pie shrinks, as ebooks published by indie presses and authors take a bigger percentage of the revenues, the publisher's funds get squeezed.
Now, agents are another deal. This move to POD and ebooks threatens to bypass them totally. So how do they see themselves as surviving? By becoming a publisher themselves. This is what Dean speaks to in his latest post.
Now we move from a simple conflict of interest situation because agents are working for the publisher to some degree, needing to keep them happy in order to maintain their accessibility to the editors, you now have the situation where the agent has become the publisher. The whole point of agents originally was to fight for the author against the publisher. Now they are the publisher.
What does this mean for the author? Well, if you still want to use the agent model, it will now shift back to what it was originally. You will need to hire an agent to represent your interest to the agent/publisher. With the agent/publisher only sending out royalties after expenses are paid, the new "real" agent will work to demand a bigger piece of the pie so that they can get paid as well, leaving the author with even less of his royalty.
When you have to hire an agent to represent you to an agent in negotiations, it gets absurd. Anyone who continues to treat the agent/publisher like an agent is being set up for a scam. When they "partner" with the writer to get your ebook published, they are no longer an agent. They are a publisher and need to be treated like one.
What's my recommendation for agents? As if any of them would listen to me. Nonetheless, here's my advice. Go back to focusing on negotiating contracts for the author with the publishers, even if that publisher is another agent. It's the only point at which you are actually making money anyway. Why waste time reading slush and trying to "guide" author's careers. Give advice if asked, but otherwise work only for the author, and be willing to make a few editors angry because you don't let them get away with clauses that would hurt your author's career and pocketbook. Get good at that one thing, and you'll continue to have value. Go the hybrid route and you're only digging yourself deeper into an unethical conflict of interest that will eventually bite you in the rear.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Look Ma, No Practice!
In the creative arts, practice is the norm. It's expected that a pianist will spend hours and years perfecting their playing ability. Rock bands spend days and months practicing a song before releasing it. Actors attend numerous rehearsals for plays, or do a movie scene numerous times before the director is satisfied. And before that goes years of practice in most every profession before an artist ever gets on stage or in front of a camera.
So why do people who want to become published authors expect their first novel to sell? Why do people think authors don't need to practice before snagging a publishing contract?
I was no exception. In October of 2005, I'd written my first speculative novel. Sort of just happened, really. An idea had crept into my head early that month, and I wrote the first chapter to it. My wife and daughter read it and wanted the next chapter. So the next evening I sat down and wrote it. They read it and wanted the third chapter. And so it went all month until by the end of October I had a 94K novel finished. And when I reached that point, I realized this was what I wanted to do.
My wife was so excited, she was sure I would be a best selling author in the following year. I was a little more conservative. "It will probably take a couple of years for that to happen." I figured I would get it edited and ship it off to a publisher. They'd accept it within three months or so, and within a year it would come out in print. So in November of 2005, I figured the book would appear in print sometime in 2007, and the next J. K. Rowling would be born!
Well, that manuscript is still sitting on my hard drive. A couple years ago, I decided to rewrite it by starting over. Too many things wrong with the original to just fix. I needed to write it fresh. I got halfway done with that project. And since then, I have had two books published, a novella and a novel, and so far the world hasn't rushed to my feet begging for the next installment.
But really, what did I expect? That I would be writing at professional levels on my first book, knowing nothing about how to write good dialog, story pacing, believability, and a host of other issues that require--yes you guessed it--practice.
Yes, there are exceptions. There is always a J. K. Rowlings or Palolini who hit it big with their first book. But the exceptions don't make the rule. Doing what they did is higher odds than hitting the lottery. But generally for a book to make it, it has to first and foremost be entertaining and done by someone who knows what it takes to write a good book, and has the words behind him or her to do it.
I've heard the number of words an author will need to reach the professional levels of writing to be around one million. That is, for most writers, it will take one million practice words before you'll start writing well enough to capture people's attention.
The problem is, few potential authors go into writing a novel thinking its a practice session. They don't see it as something they are going to simply write, edit for typos and grammar, then send out to a publisher (you never know when one will love it and take it), and then start practicing on another story. Keep going that way until you learn enough, have written enough words to get not only a good feel for the writing process that works best for you, but your voice develops enough that it shines.
Rather, what most authors do is write a story, then spend years rewriting it. Unfortunately, rewriting is very limited practice. It tends to not use the creative side of your brain, but focus on the editor side. So words reworked there don't contribute in most cases to practice with your creative brain. Instead of putting in more creative words with a new story, the old story gets more and more passes until years have passed, and it still sits on the hard drive.
This is due to not seeing that book as a practice session. We've invested too much work and emotional sweat. We love the book. It has to be perfect, and it has to work!
"But I do have my life invested in this particular story. It is a story that needs to be told."
There are those stories that are special to you. If you think the story is worth something, after some time has passed, you can always do a full and complete rewrite. That is, start off writing from scratch is if you were writing it for the first time. What you've picked up by practicing your writing will make it a better story, and you'll be writing more, and so practicing more. But to go back over it and edit it, picking at it here and there, is lost practice time. Naturally some of that may need to happen to a degree. But cut it off. Do only the essential things. And if there is too much wrong with it, and you really want that story told, redo the whole thing rather than try to fix what isn't working. You'll learn and get in practice at the same time.
But for new authors, don't think you're going to sit down, crank out a novel, sell it right away, and be a best seller in a couple of years. Plan on putting in a few years of writing, learning, perfecting, practicing, just like any other creative profession you can think of. Don't be fooled by the exceptions. This will take some work before you can make it.
How about it? Are you willing to put in the practice needed to write well?
So why do people who want to become published authors expect their first novel to sell? Why do people think authors don't need to practice before snagging a publishing contract?
I was no exception. In October of 2005, I'd written my first speculative novel. Sort of just happened, really. An idea had crept into my head early that month, and I wrote the first chapter to it. My wife and daughter read it and wanted the next chapter. So the next evening I sat down and wrote it. They read it and wanted the third chapter. And so it went all month until by the end of October I had a 94K novel finished. And when I reached that point, I realized this was what I wanted to do.
My wife was so excited, she was sure I would be a best selling author in the following year. I was a little more conservative. "It will probably take a couple of years for that to happen." I figured I would get it edited and ship it off to a publisher. They'd accept it within three months or so, and within a year it would come out in print. So in November of 2005, I figured the book would appear in print sometime in 2007, and the next J. K. Rowling would be born!
Well, that manuscript is still sitting on my hard drive. A couple years ago, I decided to rewrite it by starting over. Too many things wrong with the original to just fix. I needed to write it fresh. I got halfway done with that project. And since then, I have had two books published, a novella and a novel, and so far the world hasn't rushed to my feet begging for the next installment.
But really, what did I expect? That I would be writing at professional levels on my first book, knowing nothing about how to write good dialog, story pacing, believability, and a host of other issues that require--yes you guessed it--practice.
Yes, there are exceptions. There is always a J. K. Rowlings or Palolini who hit it big with their first book. But the exceptions don't make the rule. Doing what they did is higher odds than hitting the lottery. But generally for a book to make it, it has to first and foremost be entertaining and done by someone who knows what it takes to write a good book, and has the words behind him or her to do it.
I've heard the number of words an author will need to reach the professional levels of writing to be around one million. That is, for most writers, it will take one million practice words before you'll start writing well enough to capture people's attention.
The problem is, few potential authors go into writing a novel thinking its a practice session. They don't see it as something they are going to simply write, edit for typos and grammar, then send out to a publisher (you never know when one will love it and take it), and then start practicing on another story. Keep going that way until you learn enough, have written enough words to get not only a good feel for the writing process that works best for you, but your voice develops enough that it shines.
Rather, what most authors do is write a story, then spend years rewriting it. Unfortunately, rewriting is very limited practice. It tends to not use the creative side of your brain, but focus on the editor side. So words reworked there don't contribute in most cases to practice with your creative brain. Instead of putting in more creative words with a new story, the old story gets more and more passes until years have passed, and it still sits on the hard drive.
This is due to not seeing that book as a practice session. We've invested too much work and emotional sweat. We love the book. It has to be perfect, and it has to work!
"But I do have my life invested in this particular story. It is a story that needs to be told."
There are those stories that are special to you. If you think the story is worth something, after some time has passed, you can always do a full and complete rewrite. That is, start off writing from scratch is if you were writing it for the first time. What you've picked up by practicing your writing will make it a better story, and you'll be writing more, and so practicing more. But to go back over it and edit it, picking at it here and there, is lost practice time. Naturally some of that may need to happen to a degree. But cut it off. Do only the essential things. And if there is too much wrong with it, and you really want that story told, redo the whole thing rather than try to fix what isn't working. You'll learn and get in practice at the same time.
But for new authors, don't think you're going to sit down, crank out a novel, sell it right away, and be a best seller in a couple of years. Plan on putting in a few years of writing, learning, perfecting, practicing, just like any other creative profession you can think of. Don't be fooled by the exceptions. This will take some work before you can make it.
How about it? Are you willing to put in the practice needed to write well?
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