Posts in the "Balance" Category

• Reviews

  Balance

  

  First up: EXILE IS RELEASED! It’s in book stores and available from

  wherever you like to order online.  And since this is about reviews,

  if you read it, I’d love it if you left me one around the

  internet somewhere.

  

  Whew! On to the topic at hand. Reviews.

  Disclaimer 1: I don’t write reviews. Amazon won’t let me since I’m an author, after all that sock puppet nonsense,  plus I’m too busy writing other stuff.

  Disclaimer 2: I hardly ever read reviews for books I want, either. I’ve given it up.

  Disclaimer 3:  I hate my reactions to reviews.

  I like them too much when they’re good. I pretty much  lurve my stuff. I want everybody else to lurve it too!

  Bad reviews of my stuff messes with my writing mojo. I wish it weren’t so, but writers are mostly neurotic. I’m sure I’m hardly alone in that. I am lucky because I haven’t had a lot of bad reviews; but then I haven’t had a lot of reviews at all yet. But I pretty much  lurve my stuff. I want everybody else to lurve it too!

  Stellar reviews of other people’s stuff makes me jealous. Oh so green, and not the urpy shade. Here I am in the back row:  Like me! Like me! Pleeeease like me!

  Hey, that’s my friend you’re talking about. The SF/F community is itsy bitsy. I know a lot of writers.  Most of them are really good, hardworking people. Many of them I count among my friends. So I get the same visceral, unhappy reaction when I read a bad review of a friend’s work as I would if someone badmouthed them.

  The following peeves have more to do with reviews in general, and really they’re a collection of why I no longer read reviews of others’ work. Downloading free samples is sufficient for me.

  Reviews attacking the writer. Like I said before (it bears repeating), there is a person behind every book. I hate when people flip off folks on the internet highway and drive off.

  Posting under an alias. When I first started on the internet late last century, anonymous was all the rage. But no longer. Be you. Be proud. Be nice. Even when you don’t like something you don’t have to be a jerk about it.

  The vendetta review. There’s just something disturbing about taking the time and trouble to run around to several sites posting the same negative review.

  Reviewing books you haven’t finished. This might be considered fair among reviewers, but I think if you’re going to the trouble to talk about a book, you should go to the trouble of reading the whole thing. Not all reviews claim to have not finished the book and sometimes it’s clear the reviewer didn’t.

  Mentioning other books by other authors. Stay on topic.

  Criticizing authors for things not under their control. Obviously this applies to traditionally published writers. Here’s a list of things the publisher generally controls, not the author:

  • Cover
  • Format – including font size, number of pages, chapter and scene break glyphs
  • Copy-editing
  • Release dates
  • Cost — wholesale is determined by the publisher and distributor, retail is determined by the retailer.
  • How long a book remains on shelves is generally up to the retailer, and readers.

  Spoilers. Even with an alert, spoilers annoy the hell out of me. I think it’s fine to talk about plot in general terms but leave the details to the people who want to still read the book. I think it comes off as kind of nasty, actually, because it’s like “here, I’ll tell you the whole story so you don’t have to buy it!”

  Attacking politics, religion, or character based on what you read in a novel. It’s fiction, people.  You can’t judge what a writer likes according to their fiction, and it’s not fair to judge a plot point in a novel based on your own prejudices or dislikes. At least, people should know when personal prejudice/likes/dislikes are affecting their judgment of books.

  Disliking or Liking something to ride the coattails of the work or writer. There are plenty of hipster reviewers out there: the folks who hate what everyone else loves. Ditto sycophants, especially with famous writers.

  Clicking stars without stating your case in so many words. I admit, I’ve been guilty of this in the past. But I’ve quit since I realize that this really is of no help to readers who do like to read reviews.

  Any others I should have included? Like I said, reviews aren’t really my forte. But like them or not, they are a part of the literary landscape and have been for a long time. Other readers and writers rely on them, too, so it’s important to be thoughtful about them.

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• Requiescat In Pace

  Balance

  John D. MacDonald’s protagonist, Travis McGee, was a private eye of the 60′s and 70′s (and even into the 80′s, a little) who lived on a houseboat in Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  The titles all had colors in them, like:

  

  McGee was unique in a lot of ways, but one of my favorites was his perspective on his lifestyle.  He would describe it something like this: “I’m taking my retirement in chunks instead of at the end of my career.”

  Of course, when your life consists (as McGee’s does, when not working) of cruising around on a houseboat with bikini’d ladies, drinking Plymouth gin and having fascinating conversation about any number of topics, I suspect most people would rather do that throughout their lives than wait until the end.  That’s my perspective on taking time off from writing: chunks are better than whole days. (more…)

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• To Sin or Not To Sin, That Is the Eternal Question

  Balance
  

  G.J. Koch

  I’m a full time author, meaning I’m a full time believer in doing something in my career every day, which includes writing every day.

  But some days…I don’t.

  Most of those days involve being at conferences, dealing with the business side of the writing business, interacting with fans, promotion, and so on. Those aren’t “off” days. Those are days when the hours are filled with work that ensures the writing career continues, because, yes, if you don’t do the business side, it’s hard to keep getting your books onto the shelves and into the hands of readers.

  However, I still try to get writing in, as much as possible, every day, even if it’s only 100 words (I’m a proud member of Club 100 for which I give a great deal of credit for my becoming focused enough to now have to do all the business side of the writing business).

  Recently, though, I’ve heard a voice in my head. Oh, don’t get me wrong — I hear voices in my head all the time. I mean, I’m an author. Of course I hear voices, and lots of them. Constant, whining voices, demanding that their stories be told, and first, and hurry it up, will you?
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• “Why Ask? So That You Ask Yourself”

  Balance
  

  Carol Wolf and Tay, having finished digging the pond, will now build a garden.

  I’d like to thank Night Shade and the Night Bazaar for the opportunity to think about some ideas I wouldn’t otherwise have tackled. It’s always interesting to go down a new road. You never know where you might find yourself.

  Writing a story, for me, is like walking a trackless wasteland, barren from horizon to horizon, and finding a bump in the sand. Hm. You uncover the sand and find a perfectly round cement stone. Hm. You dig down a bit, and find it’s attached to a filament. You get your shovel and get to work and reveal a whole little circular building, with filigreed windows, with the ball on top as a decoration. You dig down with a will and reveal that you are standing at the top of a tower buried by the sand. You uncover the steps, which leads to a road, which is lined by buildings. Each construction is beautifully designed, its purpose obvious from its architecture; the palace, the bath house, the gardens, the mansions, the shops, the public square, the temple, the smaller temple across the street with the mosaic of desperate petitioners . . .

  All of this is implicit, from the first discovery of the stone in the sand. That is the initial idea. If you pick it up and walk off with it, you never find the city hidden below, with all its infinite possibilities.

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• Stay away from the shiny things

  Balance

  Along the tortuous path of writing a novel, there will be many, many things to tempt you away. Some of them will be shiny (the sun! The cinema! The pictures of cats on the Internet!) and some of them will be less shiny (staring out of the window. Writing grocery lists. Pairing up socks. Things that are utterly unappealing until you’ve got 100,000 words to produce and a blank screen, when suddenly, illogically, any viable distraction is screaming “Pick me! Pick me!”). Giving your mind a break is important – and I definitely believe that finding a bit of time where you don’t think at all can do you the world of good – but it’s also important to distinguish between resting and procrastination.

  Because there will be days when you’re bored. There will be days when you hate your characters – who made them up, anyway? Why do they have to be so bloody difficult? And why are you stuck with this impossible story, why can’t you go off and write that space opera or, you know, something fun like Panda Face: The Harrowing? These are the days when a trip to Tesco sounds like a holiday destination.

  But if you’re going to hit that word count, and if it’s going to be something you’re happy with, you have to write as much as you can fit in, wherever you can fit it in around work, loved ones, and the things you do to keep you sane. (more…)

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• Sleeping on the job IS my job

  Balance
  

  Paul Tobin

  This week’s topic is about taking a day of rest from writing, and whether it’s a necessary part of writing or a horrible and wretched sin.

  Right up front, let me say that there is only one absolute sin when it comes to writing a novel. Not getting it done. That’s it. Beyond anything else, you must finish the first draft, and the first revision, and all subsequent revisions. However you go about it is up to you, but you must have that moment when you look at the file on the computer, or you look at the stack of papers, and you say, “Done.” There is no sin beyond not working for and having that moment. Anything else is just how you play the game.

  One of the questions that I get asked a lot is, “How do you do it?” It’s a fair question, and some people are actually asking exactly what it sounds like, but a far larger amount of people are actually trying to ask, “How can I do it?” And that’s an entirely different question. It’s also one I can’t possibly answer. Every person is unique, and every writer is even MORE unique, and a system of writing that works wonderfully for one person might actually kill another writer’s career, or even passion to write.

  So, when talking about taking a day of rest, I can only answer what works for me, and that is that I simply don’t do it. I write every day I exist. I can’t help it. I don’t want to help it. I’ve applied to no support groups. What does work for me is an occasional nap during the work day… a time where I sprawl out and read and then nod off for a half hour or so. Some authors would be horrified at the thought of losing an hour or two in the middle of the day, but for me it extends the day and refreshes my mind. Those horrified writers can toddle off with their own writing methodologies, and for those who do like to take naps in the middle of the day, I can only say that my bed is reserved between 4:00 and 5:30, so unless you’re very pretty and either have a permission slip from my wife or a reasonably decent forgery, you’ll have to go elsewhere.

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• Still Life With Grumpy Logic

  Balance

  About three years ago, I started doing something that sorta shocked my poor Mom, who had to spend my high school years parading up and down the hallway every morning, banging a metal garbage can a la R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket to get me to school on time.

  I started setting my alarm for 5 a.m.

  It is possible that there are weirdos out there reading this who think such a thing represents normal behavior. Oh, perhaps it comes naturally to you? Are you a “morning person?” Go back to Alpha Centauri, freak. It’s not normal at all, at least not for me. (more…)

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• With enough caffiene, I can control the world with my BRaiNzZzz

  Balance

  I swear to god, not only am I psychic, but I’ve got Courtney’s brain on speed dial.  I was sitting down to suggest we talk about finding time to write and she’s already on it.  So, last week I made a spreadsheet of my normal week and mathematically proved that it’s impossible to be me.  With MATH, people.  MATH.

  There just isn’t enough time to do everything I do in a normal week and when I start trying to figure out how to do more? Imaginary numbers get involved.  There was a bit with Avagadro’s number before I realized it was just a fools errand.

  I LOVE writing.  I have ideas outlined out for another ten books if I just had time to write them.  But time is the ultimate scarce resource.  After work, kids, eating, cleaning, exercise, six hours of sleep a night, I have exactly 25 hours a week to write, watch TV, spend quality time with The Spouse, go out and Do Things, or sleep more.  It’s more like 12 hours of probable writing time if the kids don’t get sick and nothing catches on fire.    Lately not so much due to the implosion of my childcare situation.  If I could stop watching Castle and Fringe, I’d increase my available writing hours by 15%, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.  I obviously need to learn to sleep less. (more…)

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• Schmalance

  Balance

  Consider Batman. He’s Bruce Wayne in the day, crime-fighting vigilante at night.

  Consider Janus, the two-faced god. God of gates, of doorways. Of portals.

  Consider the thermos. It keeps the hot hot. It keeps the cold cold. How do it know?

  Yeah, that’s a lot of considering.

  Here’s the deal: forty years ago, if you had a book deal, you could live off the advance for the year it took you to write your next novel. Not well. You wouldn’t be living large, but you could get by.

  Back then – when all the world was young and there was no internet, iPhone, iPad to distract you and the American populace still spent money on books -  if you sold your novel, you could assume the auctorial mantle, buy a bunch of turtleneck sweaters with patches on the elbows, a pipe, some funny hats and dedicate your days to deathless prose. Writing – something you might’ve done at night or catch-as-catch-can – could now become your life. (more…)

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• Do you manage success or failure? (Hint: It’s both…)

  Balance

  

  In some ways, this is not so difficult a nut to crack. How do you find time for writing? You make the time, that’s how. You’ll hear this said from different author in different ways. “Butt in chair” is a common refrain. There’s also “just do it” and “you have to make the time” and, my personal favorite, “there’s only room for one obsession in your life.”

  These can seem a bit callous, but the reality is that there’s no easy way to become a steady, professional-level writer if you don’t commit yourself. I think people can fall into the trap of thinking that writing is easy. After all, we all read, and plenty of us write in our daily jobs. Writing for a living can’t be that much tougher, can it?

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