Category: The Writing Life

Your Story as an RPG Campaign

Quan

One of my all time favorite comic books is Gold Digger by Fred Perry, published by Antarctic Press. It’s a fun, engaging story with amazing anime-styled art, constantly growing and evolving characters that pays heavy homage to 1980’s cartoons. In reading one of many insights from the creator, he mentioned that he plots his characters and stories as if his comic book were a tabletop Role Playing Game. That struck a chord with me. In fact, I think this can be a great mechanism for any writer looking to craft stories around their characters and worlds, especially if you’ve done a lot of character development and worldbuilding but can’t think of a story to tell about them.

How to play a tabletop RPG

If you’ve never played a Role Playing Game before, the set up is actually pretty simple. One person called the DungeonMaster creates a fictional world and scenarios within that world that the players, who are pretending to be characters with different backstories, personalities and abilities, respond to. And then the DungeonMaster progresses the scenario based on the players’ responses, and so on until either the players are killed or they accomplish their goal. It’s basically like an interactive campfire story, or even an improv script reading for actors in a movie. There are other details involved like determining levels and handling probabilities for success or failure of the player’s decisions, but at its core, interactive storytelling is what Role Playing Games are really about. And it doesn’t have to happen in just a high fantasy setting like the most popular RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve seen Role Playing games for Superspies, Superheroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lovecraftian Horror, and Feudal Japan. You can apply this model to any situation where people can assume roles. Heck, you could even argue that Monopoly is a form of Role-Playing Game, where you play the role of a real estate mogul.

You are the dungeon master

This applies to your storytelling in that You are in full control of the environment and everything that happens within it. The Dungeon Master is responsible for knowing the setting and parameters of the campaign. That includes everything from the place the adventure will be happening in and all the details of it, as well as the noteworthy elements of that place like its history and role within the rest of the world. The DM also needs to know about the denizens that inhabit that place, both major and minor. The DM needs to know how the world of this story works, and what the players can and can’t do within that world. This is you. It is your responsibility to set up the parameters for your characters and give them a world to operate in, goals to accomplish, obstacles to overcome and other people/animals/things to interact with. 

Also, as the DM, you are responsible to reacting to the decisions the players make within your campaign. Every action has a consequence, and you need to be thinking of how the environment reacts to your players’ actions. An RPG campaign is a constant dialogue between DM and players, with each reacting to each other to progress the story.

You are the players

Likewise, you also assume the role of the players. Each player in an RPG party creates his or her own character which may or may not be a reflection of the actual player. They act and react to the scenarios the Dungeon Master presents, and they gain experience in various areas in response to their decisions. When you write your characters, you are getting in their heads and making their decisions, reacting to the scenarios and challenges you placed for them as the Dungeon Master. So as a writer, you need to really thunk of how that character approaches that scenario. For my high fantasy story, I actually used the color pie from the popular game Magic: The Gathering to lay the foundation for my character’s personalities. And it is what I refer to when I need to figure out how they would act and react in general.

Actions and reactions

As I said earlier, the Role Playing Game campaign is a constant dialogue between Dungeon Master and Players, as well as a constant interaction between the players themselves. This is a dialogue you need to be cognizant of as you develop your story. Nothing in your story happens in a vacuum. The decisions your characters make in relation to the story have an effect on the environment, so that change must be reflected.  And as the situation changes and evolves in response to your characters, your characters have to respond to those changes. That interplay has to happen in a natural, organic way that progresses the story naturally. So on one hand you need to be intuned with your character’s personalities to know how they will react to various situations. But you also have to have an in-depth knowledge and familiarity with the environment your characters interact with.

Getting to know your characters

Even as the DungeonMaster has sourcebooks and reference materials to help them get a better understanding of the world an everything in it, the players have materials they can reference, also. They keep stat sheets listing their name, background, occupation, class, inventory, spells learned, weapons in hand, as well as the levels of experience they have in all necessary areas. This is valuable for a player knowing what they can and can’t do in response to the given situation. You might want to go this deep in developing your characters. It is a great way of knowing what your characters have available and what their true options are in any given situation. Keeping track of levels may help, too, because that shows just how well-versed and experienced your characters are in things they are trying to do, which greatly affects how successful they can be at it.

Variance and unpredictability

One thing RPGs feature that might be unfamiliar to you is the element of chance. Not every decision the players make is guaranteed to go as intended. The success or failure of many decisions is determined by a roll of dice or a coin flip, this creates a level of tension and unpredictability, and gives another variable the player and the DungeonMaster must react to. If you are ever in a situation where you don’t know what should happen next, perhaps you can adopt this method and let chance decide. Have your character decide to do something, and then roll the dice to see whether that decision gets the intended effect. And if the roll comes up not in favor of the decision, then you need to ask yourself what a failed decision looks like and how best to portray it.

If you are in need for some inspiration or something to jumpstart your storytelling, perhaps treating your story like a Role-Playing game might be that catalyst for you. It helps organize your ideas and plans into a cohesive narrative, and can help you truly visualize the story you want to tell, as well as all of the elements within. And who knows? It might even interest you in giving an actual Rope Playing Game like Dungeons & Dragons a try. Just don’t forget to bring your 6-sided dice.

Interview with Jonis Agee

Quan

Jonis Agee is most likely the highest-profiled author I know. She is critically acclaimed, and has won more than her share of literary awards. She also has the distinction of being one of my creative writing teachers at the University of Michigan. I learned a ton about the craft of storytelling from her, and it is an honor to post her insights on her writing process here. Get more information about her and her books at her website jonisagee.com.

What inspires your writing?

This is a good question. I have to stop and think because it changes all the time, and it has changed over the years each time someone asks it. I always knew I would be a writer, even before I began to write. It just came to me that that would be my job. And it’s a great one! All kinds of things move me to write: it’s a form of talking to others, sharing things that move me, disturb me, fill me with happiness and beauty or outrage and a search for meaning and understanding. Each story, poem, or book I write is an investigation of something that is happening or has happened that I want to explore and address. My latest novel, The Bones of Paradise built up over fifteen years of thinking about and visiting the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, for instance. When I was told the story of what generations of ranchers did to the oldest son to guarantee their legacy, I was moved by another form of injustice and found a way to yoke the stories together to build the novel. I am currently writing a novel set in the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War and 1930 with the building of Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks. It explores the ongoing issues of racial, social and economic tension and the injustices that have never been resolved there. My people are from that part of the country and I have spent a lifetime trying to understand them. I guess that’s what finally moves me: the urge to tell people’s stories, people who are historically forgotten or ignored, working people and people whose lives are troubled, people who rise above their circumstances and search for dignity and meaning, and people who go the opposite direction.

What is your process of developing characters?

I collect old, historical pictures, the kind you find in junk shops and antique stores. I look for the faces and scenes that seem to speak to me, and then I began to listen to the stories they might have to tell. Sometimes a character will appear before a picture, and Flannery O’Connor style, I will hear their voice speaking and begin to write their words and feel their world unfold around them, a scene or story that led up to the words they spoke. I quickly have to find out where a character is, specifically, what the place is in detail. I guess I’m pretty literal about place and setting. The minute I see them in a place, watch them move around, I begin to know them. I work to get them to take over the story, to let the unexpected happen. I love how Toni Morrison lets her characters do good and bad things, regardless of where they fall on the axis of morality, so I try to open myself and the characters to those other sides of themselves. If I have a character who seems too good to be true, they usually are, so I roughen them up by seeing what is petty, mean, small or hidden inside them. We all have those moments where we don’t do or say the right thing for a whole variety of reasons, and to make a complete portrait of a human being we need that aspect too. The same is true of characters who are so dark or evil that they’re wooden tropes. I will write from their point of view, trying to get them to reveal their own story of themselves, how they see the world and what they are, which can bring some deeper understanding to the character for the reader. Or I look for what they love, without reservation, what they love so wholeheartedly that they are briefly disarmed in the embrace of that creature or thing. In one novel I discovered that a bad man, a truly bad man, really loved his dog. I mean, he treated that dog as if it were a girlfriend or a brother he never had. It had a terrific life, and seeing that capacity for positive feeling in that bad man, made him more complex and interesting. Another thing I do to develop characters is figure out what their dreams, desires, fantasies, nightmares, fears, and histories are. That takes a long time, but it’s key to grasping what a person is. I noticed several years ago when I was writing South of Resurrection that I had this urge to explain my characters psychologically too much when I was writing, I kept getting stuck on the word “because” and it was a real problem because I don’t have an advanced degree in psychology. Also, I was using too much of the pop psychology that was bombarding the media. Most importantly, my characters were tipping over into types because they were simply the result of a designated trauma. I made a rule then, that freed both the characters and me the writer: I could not use the word “because.” Characters acted and felt certain things without me having to pause for long and simpleminded diagrams of their mental health. I discovered that it’s important to let characters simply act and suffer or enjoy the results of that action, that we don’t always know or need to know or can know the root cause of behavior, that is what makes us interesting and worthy of spending time with, I believe.

Did you Start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

I wish I could outline my stories. It would make the writing go faster I think. But, no, I never outline. I’m just lazy enough that if I know how the story turns out, how and when the angles of change occur, then I get bored and don’t want to write the whole thing. I have to be surprised by the characters and the story. I often hear or see the opening, and then I go to work to figure out how this all started and what these people are going to do next.

How much research did you need for your story?

With the novels I do a lot of research, whether it’s concerning place or historical events and place. Always place has to be researched. For instance, I have to know what plants, trees, animals, birds, weather, sky, water, houses, economic issues, ethnic, racial, religions are in a place. I read histories of a place regardless of whether the novel is historical or not. If it is historical, for instance, The River Wife, set in the New Madrid area of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquake was the big inciting event for the novel. It was also the biggest earthquake in North America, with aftershocks lasting a year. The old town of New Madrid was taken by the Mississippi River then, and the land developed swamp and sand boils and bottomless springs. I spent time learning about earthquakes, the Civil War since a decisive battle over the control of the Mississippi River and war supplies occurred at New Madrid, cotton growing, the depression and prohibition, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and women’s rights in those periods. I had to learn about architecture of the time before the Civil War and Audubon who wandered in the region teaching young women to paint while he researched and drew birds. I read his letters, and he became a character in the novel. When I write historical novels, it usually takes me longer, say six years because the writing is slowed by research.

What researching methods did you use?

I go to the place where I am setting my novel usually. I drive around. I meet people, listen to their stories, how they see their world. I visit the historical museums in the little towns where I am going to put my story. I read a general history or two of the state or the region to get a sense of how the region developed. The Sand Hills of Nebraska where I have placed three of my novels, including the most recent, The Bones of Paradise, I did a great deal of research into the Lakota people who originally roamed the region until they were forced onto the reservations in South Dakota just over the Nebraska border. I spent time on Rosebud primarily but visited Pine Ridge too. I read a great deal, of course, about history, religion, and everyday life. Because the land itself is the source of every aspect of life out there, I had to research grasslands, cattle management such as diseases and the economics, and explore life in very small, isolated towns and ranches. I do a lot of just poking around to discover what stories are in a place, how the people there exist, how they get along and don’t. I read the small town weekly newspapers too. I used to look into the phone books to see what businesses were there, the names of people. That’s harder now, of course.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Always. That’s why I go to the place I’m writing about and put myself into the world, to see what it will send back. I have found scenes and plot lines and characters using this method. I sometimes draw on my own history. It’s impossible not to. But I don’t see myself as someone who writes autobiographically. I inhabit the worlds of my stories through my imagination. That’s what gives me the greatest pleasure, allows me to live a much broader and fuller life than I would otherwise. Reading and writing are absolutely linked in this way for me.

How did your publish?

I began writing as a poet, and my first published book was a long poem of ninety pages, with Truck Press, a small literary press. Then I turned to fiction and published two collections of stories with small literary presses, followed by my first novel which was published by what is now a division of Random House. All my novels have been published by large New York presses, and my last four short story collections have been published by Coffee House Press, which has grown to have a significant national presence as a literary, non profit press.

Why did you do it that way?

I didn’t plan it out this way. I actually got a literary agent when he was judging for the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. He liked my work. Many years later, when I had a novel, I won a Loft McKnight Fellowship in Fiction, and they printed a booklet of our fiction and sent it to Editors at big presses in New York. An editor, Jane von Mehren, liked my work, contacted me, and we sold her the novel I had been working on for eight years. She was my editor for the first five novels until she became a literary agent. The editor of my latest novel, Bones of Paradise published by William Morrow, was Jessica Williams, and she did an excellent job. Meanwhile, my short story collections seemed a better fit for Coffee House Press. They keep the books in print and give me the latitude I need to take risks with my writing and subject matter. It works for all of us.

How long did it take to land representation for your latest novel?

I sent novel drafts to my agent for about six months, and then she began to submit it. It took about a month or so to sell it to Jessica Williams at William Morrow. I try to wait until I think the novel is pretty much done before I send it to my agent, and then I make revisions as she suggests. My husband, writer Brent Spencer, is my first reader.

What advice would you have for writers looking to publish the way you published?   

For novels, find a good strong story with characters that readers want to care about even if they are not paragons of virtue. Write enough drafts that it doesn’t need a ton of work on revision. Query agents, friends, other writers with agents, etc. to get an agent if you are looking to publish commercially in New York.  Get help with a good query letter for agents. Don’t expect agents and editors to do the kind of editing you read about in the past. Everyone is overworked. If you are interested in smaller, literary presses, look at what they publish and check out their websites for submission guidelines. Again, have the book in final form.

Do you use beta readers? No.

How many revisions did it take to get a final draft of you most recent novel?

At least six. I usually write complete drafts and end up throwing some of them away, restarting, reconceiving, etc. I apologize to the trees of the world. I print out each version. Each draft is too long, especially early on…say 700 pages or so. I spend time at the end of the process cutting and compressing. That is the really painful part.

What are some of your methods for establishing a believable and immersive setting you stories? 

I look for the smallest parts after establishing the big frame of a setting. I think of those long sweeping shots of the opening of films, or of the close up camera shot that gradually pulls out. I try to find where dust is, in the air, on character clothing maybe, on tables, etc. I think about what fills interior spaces in terms of “stuff” and what accumulates that indicates our living in a place. I addressed some of the business of place earlier in my comments because it’s so important to me and my storytelling.

What are you writing now?

I’m just finishing a new collection of stories that are very different for me. They cross into fable, myth, fantasy, surrealism, you name it. They explore the intersections of realism and fable or myth that create reality.

As I noted above, I am also writing a new novel, which I hope to finish this year.

What is your advice to other writers?

Write. Read. Write some more. Enjoy your job! Seriously, if you are a writer, you were chosen as much as you chose it. Throw yourself and everything you have into it! Our village is relying on us to tell their stories.

Her latest novel is The Bones of Paradise. Go get your copy now!

How Storytelling Applies to Other Types of Writing

Quan

If you have been reading my blog regularly, you know that my main focus has been on improving as a storyteller. But also if you’ve read my author interviews, you would see that many of the authors I have interviewed wrote nonfiction books. There is much more to writing than just writing fiction. There are nonfiction writers, marketing writers, journalists, technical writers, essayists, and a plethora of other forms of writing that people engage in.

But I maintain that storytelling can be, and often is, a crucial aspect in all forms of writing, above and beyond just fiction.

Storytelling makes any writing more engaging

Anyone that has read a textbook for class or research knows that a lot of writing can be dry and uninteresting. It is a reason why a lot of people dread reading. A good story takes the reader on a journey where they follow how everything progresses over time. The way you write your piece can take your readers on that journey. The reader in now invested in the narrative you are presenting, and wondering how, or even if, the subject you are presenting can solve the problem you have created. Now your reader wants to know more about the subject you are writing about. They want to know the details because each detail you present could be part of the solution to the problem, or even present more problems that need to be resolved. It’s human nature: if you witness something begin that catches your attention, you will naturally want to see it through to its completion. You can use that to your advantage.

Benefits of adding a storytelling element to your writing

Making your writing piece into a story helps make your point more digestible. Your writing is no longer just a stream of facts statistics and ideas. There is a definitive, driving point to what you have written, and all of your supporting information now has a clear direction it is pointing in. If you are marketing, or writing to sell something, telling a story help the reader envision themselves in the situation where your product or service would be beneficial. That way they can better visualize the benefit your service or product will bring to them.

Creating a narrative.

The classic 3-act structure can be used in any setting. Simply, put, act one presents a problem, act two is the process of trying to solve the problem, and act there is the resolution of the problem. So now the question becomes how to compile your writings to fit this structure. Here is a simple, three-step way to do hat.

1. Find The Problem

Whatever you are writing about, whether it be advice you are giving, a product or service you are trying to promote, a theory you are trying to explain, or an explanation of how something works, it is in response to something that created a need for what you are writing about. Start by pinpointing where exactly that need was generated. This is the beginning of your story.

2. Find The Solution

Whatever conclusion you were going o write about, whether it actually solves your problem or not, is your solution in this context. It is the end of your story and the resolution for what you are setting up.

3. Find The Process

Now you have to figure out how to get from the genesis of your problem to its resolution. This is where all of your data, or historical references, or your selling points come into play. You actually have some creative liberty here with how you present the details, you can show how each of your points responds to different aspects of the problem. You could show how your solution initially responds to the problem, how the problem reacts (or present counter-arguments to your solutions), and how the solution responds to those responses, or a number of other ways of presenting the information. The most important thing is to show a progression where the problem you have pinpointed is resolved over time. This is the journey that you are taking you reader on.

If you can mold your non-creative writing project into a story narrative, you will make your writing more engaging and appealing to the reader, and they will be much more comfortable with reading what you wrote completely from beginning to end. Give it a try and see what you come up with.

The Hidden Costs of Self-Publishing Your Book

Quan

I pay my bills as a freelance graphic & web designer, and many of my clients are authors looking to self-publish and promote their work. There is a lot of merit in that, especially if you are having a hard time finding an agent or publisher that will take an interest in your book. It is simpler and more cost-effective to self-publish than it ever has been before, and you have the advantage of not having to share any of your profits with a publisher or agent.
There is also a lot of work that goes into self-publishing. You’re responsible for literally everything, starting with the actual editing of your story. You’re going to have to get beta readers or hire a content editor to help you finetune your story into something publishable, and you will need a line editor to make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. And the work ramps up after you get your book to where you think you can publish it.

This was advice I gave to a client that was looking to make an illustrated Children’s book. so I’ve also added some of my rates (in case some of you might be interested in hiring me like she did…)
Okay. So you want to factor in how much it will cost to publish your book. Kindle direct can do it for free but they take their printing cost out of your sales. If you’re working on a children’s book, you need to factor in how many illustrations you need and whether they need to be in color or not. My base for an illustration is $100 per (My rates are pretty low compared to most of the industry).
Also you want to factor in actually formatting your book for publication, which I personally charge $200 for (with an additional $100 for creating your book cover).
And finally there is marketing and promotion, which scales depending on how much of it you want to do. You’re looking at creating websites, marketing collateral (flyers, posters, postcards, bookmarks, etc), merchandise (cafepress is a good free way to handle that), signage (for book signings and tradeshows), and digital marketing via email, social media and web advertising. You might want to look up the costs of those venues. Start with Google ads, Twitter ads, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, and mailchimp. or you could hire somebody to do all of that for you, which means you’ll have to get some rate quotes from marketing specialists.
You’re going to want to do some research into the type of markets that will actually buy your book, and depending on which resources you use, that might have a cost, too. And if you really want to do it big, You might need to look into how much it will cost to hire a publicist to officially spread the word about your book.
After you have a gist of how much that costs, then you have to look at how much capital you actually have to work with. How much can you actually, realistically allocate for all of this stuff? and will it be enough?

The good news is that once you have your budget, you can use crowd funding to raise the money you need to do what you want to do. I’d look up similar campaigns on kickstarter and indiegogo to see how others did it. If you have enough supporters (I didn’t for my crowdfunding campaign and it failed miserably), you can easily get the funds you need to make it happen. One of the many keys to having a successful crowdfunding campaign is having enticing enough rewards for your investors, and depending on what perks you offer, those can incur a cost, too.

Even with those costs, if you can generate enough support for your story, your book can still be profitable, especially if you can get a lot of good word of mouth about how good your book is. Check out the work of Renee Scattergood here. She is a successful self-publisher and an expert on book marketing.

All About Beta Readers

Quan

Sometimes you need an extra set of eyes looking critically at your story. Even the best writers can become blind to their own flaws, especially if they have been closely working on a story for a lengthy amount of time. Beta readers are a cost-effective, efficient way to get an honest assessment of your story that can be a valuable resource.

Where to find them

There are a lot of great resources available to help you land beta readers. I personally got mine from Facebook. There are groups dedicated to beta reading that I am a part of (like this one). There are also groups for fans of specific genres where you can find beta readers if you ask real nicely.

In addition to that, I did some digging and found a few other great links where you can find beta readers. Check these out.

www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com

www.findbetareaders.com

www.betabooks.co

How to secure them

The best way to land a beta reader is to personally contact one and establish a rapport. Try to find out what types of stories they enjoy, and see if they would be interested in giving yours a try. You also might want to ask whether they would be open to reading your entire sorry, or if they only want the first few chapters.

If you have time to do some beta reading yourself, you can offer to exchange stories. There are a lot of writers that are also avid readers, and sometimes the best critiques you can get are from someone that also has experience with the craft of storytelling.

What to ask a beta reader for

When dealing with a Beta reader, keep in mind that this is a prime opportunity to troubleshoot any questionable issues in your story. If you have any parts of your narrative, plot, setting, character development, believability, or any other issue you are unsure about, this is a great opportunity to get that addressed. Ask your reader to focus on specific aspects that you need some opinions about.

When you don’t get any timely feedback

This is actually something I struggle with often. Beta readers are people, too, and they have lives and agendas that can take priority over reading your story and giving feedback. Or maybe they’re afraid of hurting your feelings if they don’t like your story. Either way, you have to be realistic in your expectations of when you get your feedback from your readers. That being said, it couldn’t hurt to check in with your beta reader every now and then to see if there has been any update on their critiques. Just don’t be a pest about it.

Are beta readers truly necessary?

Many of the top writers in the industry and some of the writers I have interviewed don’t use beta readers at all. They simply rely on their instincts and experience, and maybe their publisher’s content editor to help refine their stories. Personally, I think that is only a wise option for established writers that have the credentials of being successful authors. This is for guys that have sold books and lots of them. For the rest of us, I think it is a wiser option to find someone to look your story over and find flaws we may have missed.

Don’t take criticism personally

This is the most important part of getting critique: expect to get stuff said to you that you don’t want to hear. It’s part of the process. Don’t be so in love with your own writing that people can’t point out flaws. And those flaws may come in unexpected areas of your stories. Getting defensive when someone is doing YOU a favor in taking time to read your story and point out ways you can make it better defeats the purpose. Even when the reader comes off in a negative way, you can still gleam things from even a totally negative critique that you can use. Be courteous and thank them for taking the time to read your story and tell you what they think.

If you can get good beta readers, they will be a vital resource for helping you tell the absolute best story you can tell. Check out the links I provided and see if you can land one for your work.

Finding Time to Write

Quan

In one of my very first posts on this blog, I wrote about eliminating your excuses to not write. If you have something you want to write about, you should be writing. No one is going to tell your story for you. (Okay, you actually can pay a ghost writer to tell your story for you, but you still ought to be an active part of the process.). When I tell people I’m a novelist, I still hear people respond with “I’d like to write a book someday.” I ask them why not now, and they say they can’t find the time to.

I call BS on that.

People will make time to do the things they truly want to do. And unless you are truly writing or a living (like a technical writer or a Journalist), then writing will not be a natural part of your daily routine. Only full-time writers can write when they want, but they have to because it’s their job. You have to make time to write, just as you make time to binge watch TV shows or make time to rant on social media. There are plenty of ways to eke out time to get your ideas out, you just have to be committed enough to do it. Here are a few techniques I utilize.

Wake up an hour early or go to bed an hour later

Sometimes making time to write means literally making time. If your story is worth the hours of lost sleep, then those moments are perfect fodder for writing. Heck, for some, the creative juices flow best right before bedtime or right when they wake up anyway.

Write during your lunchbreak or downtime if you can

I admit I’ve snuck pieces of scrap paper onto the floor when I worked at factories. When the machines are down I’d jot a few quick notes down before picking up my broom to clean the area (Not something I recommend, though). Mostly if I had a long enough lunch break, I’d write ideas down then.

Jot down notes

This is something every writer should do. You should always keep a means of recording ideas handy at all time, whether it be a pen and some scratch paper, a note taking app on your phone, a notebook you carry around, or whatever. Inspiration can strike any time and anywhere under any circumstance, and when it happens you need to write it down, and yes, even jotting down notes counts as writing.

Vocal recorders

If you don’t have access to pen and scrap paper, or like me you find thumb-typing ideas onto the note app on your phone to be too tedious, you can always turn on your vocal recorder and dictate your ideas onto your phone. I personally haven’t tried this because I just like the feeling of writing or typing my ideas out better and it allows me more freedom to better organize my thoughts. But if it works for you, then go for it.

Email yourself

A good way to record ideas is to send them to yourself via email. You can write as much as you want, and they will always be in a place where you can retrieve them. I’ve done this plenty of time. In fact, I’ve backed up entire manuscript drafts be emailing them to myself. I actually trust that more than The Cloud.

Write instead of doing something else in your leisure time

Instead of watching the game, or going out partying, or hanging with the crew, or playing video games, or watching cat videos on YouTube, how about taking a half hour to write about what’s on your mind? You would be surprised at how must time you spend a day on mindless entertainment. That time can be spent writing. Or you can even multitask. Keep your laptop or tablet handy and type while you’re watching TV, or in between gaming sessions.

Write when you don’t feel like writing

This is a big one. Oftentimes you just don’t feel creative. It could be fatigue from the daily grind, or you’ve been through something particularly discouraging. The thing is, this is a perfect time to vent out your feelings of despair or frustration or fatigue. You can pour those negative feelings onto the paper, and into your stories. My negative feelings about my life at the time were the genesis of my book The Hand You’re Dealt. The emotions you get as my characters struggle with their careers and relationships are very, very real and were things that I was dealing with when I concocted the story.

Write when something major happens to get the feeling and reactions while they are fresh in your mind.

Likewise, when literally anything of importance happens in your life, that is a perfect opportunity to record it and put it into a story. Take note not only of what happened and why, but how everyone reacted to it, and how it made you feel personally, and even speculation what comes next. This is a great exercise to help develop your skill as a writer, and may provide material fr future stories.

JUST WRITE!

Like I said, if you really wanted to do it, you’d find a way. For writers, the ideas and revelations will churn inside us, nag at us constantly, and pretty much drive us insane if we don’t get them out of our heads and onto some recordable form. It’s an unexplainable thing that drives us. If you have that type of creative passion, you get everything I’m saying. If you don’t, then you won’t. But you can generate that passion by taking the time, even making the time, to cultivate that germ of an idea you’ve got until it consumes you like our ideas consume us. Even something as simple as writing a sentence a day counts. And there’s no better time to get started than RIGHT NOW.

So what are you waiting for?

Do Your Research

Quan

It is a very rare occasion where you as a writer are able to create a complete story based on just your own creativity and inherent knowledge. Whether it’s getting a more accurate setting, or more detailed historical knowledge, or being able to reference how certain things work, at some point in time, your story will require you to do some research. There are many, many ways to gain the information you’re going to need to properly write your story. But here are a few that I’ve utilized for some success.

Libraries

This is the oldest, and still one of the best, ways to get pertinent information on anything you want. There is just something about being in a library, where it’s quiet and you’re surrounded by books, that is conductive to the creative process. At least that’s how it was for me. I spent a great deal of time in the Library looking up African myths to use as the basis for The Leopard Man. Here you can find books about darned near anything, and you can be pretty sure that the information is vetted and can be verified.

Web Searching

I can attest that Search engines are your friend. A lot of information I’ve picked up for Godmode, Double Entry and The Hand You’re Dealt came from online sources. True, you may have to do some cross referencing and self-verification to make sure the information is 100% accurate, but it is worth it. And sometimes, it might even be better for your story in select circumstances if the information isn’t accurate. But Search engines like Google and Bing, and reference sites like Wikipedia are an extremely valuable resource for gathering pertinent information.

Interviews

If you can find someone that knows a thing or two about what you are trying to write about, then you should by all means get in contact with that person to pick their brain about it. There is nothing like getting information about a topic directly from an expert, or someone that was an eyewitness. They can offer personal insights and antec dotes that you might not be able to get from any other source. A very crucial moment in The Leopard Man came as the result of interviewing a lady about her experience in that same situation.

Observation

Yes, being nosy also counts as research. Oftentimes to get a feel for how people behave, you have to actually observe and take notes of people. Especially when you are trying to chronicle a culture of a particular region or group of people. You will be taking notes on speech patterns, slang, language, customs and body language. Pay attention to habits, and personality tics. There are also reference books like the one I have listed below that can give some great reference points for behavior.

Observing also extends beyond individuals. Watching groups of people behave can help, too. Groups behave differently than individuals, and there is a lot of interaction between people within groups. Heck, you can learn a lot even by just watching traffic at an intersection for a few minutes.

Touring Locales

When writing The Leopard Man, I wanted to have a major part of the book happen at Flint, MI’s Forest Park. Since I wanted everything to be accurate, I actually went to Forest Park, looked around, and mapped out a route through with the events in that scene transpire. I was able to take notes on all of the flora, fauna and landmarks, and record as many details as possible to make the scene that much more believable. This is the advantage of actually visiting a locale you want to use for your setting. Take as many notes of everything your five senses encounter as possible. You can use this to really put your readers where the story is at.

Researching History

Historical research can come in handy whether you’re writing historical fiction or not. Often times it helps to understand the whys and hows of certain elements of your stories. And your research into the history of that element can oftentimes reveal historical details that can be mined for new elements to your stories, or for new stories altogether.

Technical research

If your story has gadgets in it, then chances are the believability of your story will be aided by some explanation of how they work. And furthermore, if you have a better understanding of how a mechanism works, then you can more accurately write about it in your story. I honestly can’t remember the first time I fired a gun, so I actually consulted with a buddy of mine that was a gun enthusiast about what first-time gun users experience. He gave me a veritable treasure trove of technical information that proved to be very valuable for a crucial moment in my story.

Research for style and technique

Sometimes you will need to research for HOW you write more than for WHAT you are writing. If your story requires a particular writing style or a different voice, you will need to do some delving into how to pull that off believably. For a story I am currently seeking representation for, one of the minor characters speaks entirely in iambic pentameter. So to make sure I got the cadence of it correctly, that meant a lot of reading and rereading of Shakespeare, Milton and Browning.

Parsing the Data

Now that you’ve collected a bunch of data for your story, the next step is organizing it all and deciding what to use and when. A lot of that will come down to your instincts for your story. You will inherently know what information is useful and which isn’t. But creating an appendix for yourself is a good exercise because you can organize the information into a format where you can easily get to what you need when you need it. And from there it’s just a matter of integrating the information seamlessly into your story (something I wrote about earlier at this post).

These are a few of the techniques I’ve employed to get the information I needed for my stories. To be honest, the process of researching is a never-ending one, as you will always be on the lookout for new data you can integrate into your stories. But if it will lead to more believable, engaging stories, then I think it would be more than worth he effort.

Here is a cool reference book about facial expression and body language that I’ve used before.

Everyone Has A Story

Quan

Writers are nosy. It’s just a fact. My wife often berates me for paying attention to the conversations of others. What she doesn’t understand is that it is part of my makeup as a storyteller to have an interest in the stories of others. One can never tell what tidbit of info will generate new inspiration for a new story, or a way to enhance an existing story. Many of the more interesting elements of stories that I have written have come from observing…or even flat out eavesdropping…others as they talk and interact.

A favorite scene from my book The Hand You’re Dealt came directly from watching people while waiting in line to sell my blood plasma at a clinic in Flint (Yes, that actually happened). The speech and body language of the people was so colorful, it would have been a waste to not use that material in a book. It also added the the authenticity of the region represented in the book, which helped with achieving the feeling of “city as character” I wrote about a bunch of months back.

Be Observant.

One of my all-time favorite TV shows was The Mentalist, about a Charlatan sleuth who’s main claim to fame is “reading” people. He can tell hidden details about people by the way they dress, the way they talk and the things they say, their body language and by other behavioral quirks that might escape the casual observer. These are techniques you can learn to employ. By being able to see beyond a person’s outward facade, you can gleam great details about that person’s life that you can mine for story details, or even full stories within themselves.

Be a good interviewer.

You don’t have to formally conduct interviews like I do in my monthly author interview series. But when talking to people about things they have experienced in their lives or are experiencing, be sure to ask them questions about it, and get to the core of what they are dealing with and how they are reacting to it. You’d be surprised ad what people will reveal about themselves and their world just by talking to you.

Always take notes.

You never know when you will see or hear something from somebody that will be worthy of inclusion into a story. So always keep a means of recording these moments handy. Most cell phones have access to vocal recorders you can use to record conversations or observations. In the absence of a phone, there are portable vocal recorders available for purchase, too. It is also good to keep a pen and notepad handy in case you can’t use a vocal recorder.

The key to collecting these little gold nuggets of information and inspiration is to always have you antennae up, and be ready for them to come at any time in any circumstance. And it does require a bit of training to be able to catch them. I advise taking a bit of time to just do people-watching. Go to a public place, have a seat, and just watch & observe the people there. And take notes on what you discover. You’ll be surprised at the cool tidbits of usable information you get from that.

Vanity Press, Thy Name Is Mudd

Quan

My first novel, The Leopard Man, was published through a nefarious book publisher called PublishAmerica. Some of you may know of them and their reputation. I did not renew my contract with them and have since self-published The Leopard Man, even offering it for free on my website. This is an account of my experiences good and bad putting a book out through PublishAmerica.

1. I had just spent 9 months working on my new manuscript. It was an involved process, and I was very proud of the story. But I was intimidated by the process of seeking an agent and publisher. I had failed previously with two other manuscripts, and I wanted desperately for this one to succeed. I was also unemployed, and I was spurred on by the rags-to-riches stories of Tyler Perry and Michael Moore. They succeeded by working hard and believing in their dreams, and I wanted to do the same. I was jobhunting when I came across an ad for PublishAmerica on Careerbuilder.com. I was a little wary, wondering why a book publisher would be on a job hunting website, so I looked them up. I thought I was researching them. I visited their website, where they implicitly said they weren’t a vanity press. So I took their word for it and sent my query and then my manuscript to them. They accepted it without any problems. I was elated to have my book coming out, and told all my family and friends as much.

I missed a few clues that something was wrong. First of all, I had to edit my own book. In addition to that, I only got a $1 advance, they offered a bare minimum (not even that) of promotional support, I had to approach bookstores myself to get the book stocked. Also, The family & friend list idea seemed unprofessional, and I didn’t see any books by this publisher in bookstores near me.

I had made plans to go on a deep, involved marketing campaign. I had read Terry McMillain’s article on self-promotion, and took it all to heart. I was determined to make this book a bestseller, if I had to do everything myself (which I eventually had to do anyway). I had gotten quotes from various publicists. I had contacted numerous Writers conferences about setting up booths or doing appearances to promote my book. I had found an alumni from my college who would help me set up shop in Chicago. I had talked to an uncle who had a Movie producer friend about maybe getting the producer to buy the movie rights. I designed my own book cover, and programmed the promotional website myself. I told everyone at my high school reunion about my book and signed everyone up to my mailing list. I contacted both my Creative writing professors (Jonis Agee, who wrote Strange Angels) and a novelist who was an old classmate of mine (Anne Mallory, who wrote Masquerading the Marquess) about reading my manuscript and endorsing it. I was going to approach my church about endorsing the book, and had planned on taking out ads in local newspapers and magazines. I had gotten price quotes from merchandisers for book-related items like t-shirts and mugs I could give away or sell. I talked with a local bookstore about having a book signing the month my book was released. I had even talked to some music producers I knew about putting together a movie-styled score for my novel. I was thinking up sequels to the book, also.

Then a strange thing happened. I was applying for the Poets & Writers author database and was rejected. They said my credentials weren’t good enough. I wondered why, so I looked up the rules. It said “we don’t accept book published through Vanity Presses…like Publish America.” My heart hit the floor. “vanity press” is one of the most reviled phrases in the writing community. And I felt that I had basically been lied to.

That’s when I did some REAL research on Publish America. I googled them and found a plethora of information, mostly from authors complaining about them or warning others not to do business with them. There were complaints logged in the BBB about them. There was an extensive pro vs. con site about them, with the vast majority of comments being on the con side. Book Reviewers, magazines and industry resources didn’t consider their books as legitimate. Book stores would not carry anything published by them. Legitimate agents and publishers held any works done through them against you when considering future books for publication. Basically, publishers like PA don’t make their money off of actually selling books, they make their money off of the author buying the books from them. And my book was under contract with them for seven years. I saw my hopes and dreams of being a full-time author slipping out of my hands.

I was despondent for about two weeks. I was embarrassed that I had asked my Teacher and Friend, both established authors, to endorse what they could have easily seen as hack work. I was ashamed to be telling people of a book they couldn’t go to their nearest Borders (back when brick and mortar bookstores were a thing) and buy, especially since a great deal of my friends and family didn’t have access to Amazon.com, where my book was being sold at. I canceled the majority of my promotional plans. No more writers conferences. No more movie deal. No hiring of any publicist. No merchandising or ads in any publications. No book signings. I even canceled the soundtrack project. I stopped updating the website. My story covered some powerful topics – one of which I got the permission of a lady who had been through a very traumatic experience to use in my story, and I felt that I had let her down in not getting the issue addressed. I was on the verge of abandoning the book – and my writing – altogether. I had even gotten to the point of questioning how good the book really was, and whether I had what it took to be a successful writer.

Then a few things happened. First, I had gotten a response from the classmate, saying she loved my story and would gladly endorse it. I had told her what happened, and she gave me some words of encouragement, saying that this misstep didn’t have to be the end of my writing career. Some of the friends and family on my mailing list said they sympathized with what happened to me and would support me and tell people about my book. And then the book actually arrived. Vanity Press or no Vanity Press, NOTHING can compare to the feeling of seeing your first book in print. It’s an amazing thing. On top of that, I gave one of my two complimentary copies to Ashlynn, my wife’s teenaged niece, who allowed me to base the heroine of my novel on her mannerisms, opinions and personality. Seeing her face light up as I gave her the other copy of the book reassured me that I did the right thing in getting the book out. It inspired me to redouble my efforts to promote the book, if only to see how I could make the most of my situation.

I decided not to go all-out to promote the book like I had originally planned. I didn’t have the time or funds to sink into a huge promotional campaign (especially if I was doing it all myself), and this was before internet and social media book marketing became a viable thing to do. but I did manage to make some things happen. I approached a few libraries in my hometown and told them about my book. They ordered a few copies and even asked me to autograph one! I got a kick out of seeing my book on their shelves next to Grisham, Clancy, McMillan and Tyreese. I continued to update the website, adding Anne’s endorsement and even moving the site to my personal website when the domain expired. I contacted my college’s alumni magazine and they reported the debut of my novel and how to get ahold of it. I joined up with Amazon’s marketing partnership to help direct visitors to my site to Amazon to buy the book. A middle school English teacher who heard of my plight invited me to speak about it and creative writing in general to classes of young writers at a few schools in Ann Arbor. I still went to one of the conferences – the Sweet Auburn festival in Atlanta – and passed out postcards and flyers promoting my book. And, of course, I wrote this article.

A supporter of PA once said that they were satisfied with PA. The company treated them nicely, and they were happy to have their book published. And that really is fine and dandy…if all you want to do is get a book published. For those hoping to make a career out of writing, however, Publish America’s sordid reputation is a serious detriment. I learned that from experience. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken a more serious look at them, and checked around before sending or signing anything. It wasn’t all bad, though. For one, I did sell a few books: the libraries bought a couple, and a couple of family members bought books. I didn’t get much in Royalties, but with all of the money I spent writing and promoting the book, it counts as a huge benefit for me come tax-time. Since I lost more than I made, I can write all of that off and get some of that money back. I still get a kick out of seeing my book in the library, and my wife’s niece was so happy to be the star of her own novel that she took her copy of the book with her everywhere she went, up until she started attending college.

And I haven’t stopped writing. I’ve since gotten two other novels published with legit publishers or e-publishers, and I made sure I did my homework on them before I signed anything with them. Red Rose Publications, King Jewel and Necro Publications have been very good to me and my novels. My contract with PA finally expired, and I now offer that book as-is as a free PDF download on my website, www.quanwilliams.com. And now I am seeking an agent for two fantasy manuscripts I have completed as of tis posting, and I am , I promisecrrently writing follow-ups to both of them, But when I do finally garner the interest of another publisher, I promise to look before I leap into a situation with a suspect publisher. I don’t want to publish in vain again.

The book in question, The Leopard Man, is available as a free download here.

Dear Warren Elliss…

Quan

Just for laughs, here is an open letter I wrote to Sci-fi & comic book writer Warren Ellis back in 2001 on the evolution of the comics industry. Let’s see if my opinion then holds up to what the industry is like today…

Hey, Warren (and anyone else reading this).

Just finished a couple of your essay books, namely COME IN ALONE and FROM THE DESK. Brilliant stuff, and I agree with nearly all of it. I love reading up on creator’s opinions on the industry and on the craft. As an aspiring writer and lover of comics myself, I always gain new insights from what you all have to say, whether I agree with it or not. Comics were the reason I started writing and drawing, and it led me to a Graphic Design degree and three finished novels I’m seeking publication for (Okay, one was already published, but by a vanity house. I got suckered into thinking they were legit, so that doesn’t count).

Like I said, I agree a lot with what you say about diversifying the comics market past the superhero, and I think the industry takes stabs at it periodically, with mixed results. I remember the brief time that fantasy comics like Tellos and Battle Chasers were all the rage, and that was followed by the boom of crime comics such as 100 Bullets, Powers and Losers. And then there were the 80’s licensed comics, which were big for a little bit (actually they DID bring back the Micronauts like a lot of these geex were begging for, but ironically, nobody bought it). And now Marvel’s trying on the sneak to bring back romance comics (at least, it seems that way to me).

I try when I can to support new comics ideas and independent publishers. If the premise on a book is intriguing enough, or if the buzz on a book is big enough, and I can afford it, then I’ll add a non-Marvel/DC/Image/DHP book to my usual pulls (currently Fred Perry’s GoldDigger, New Avengers, Joesph Linsner’s Dawn and The Green Lantern Corps). I want to be one of the geex telling the world “I told you so” when the next Ninja Turtles or The Crow or Road To Perdition becomes a worldwide phenomenon. I loved telling the movie geex drooling over Frank’s awesome SIN CITY flick that “the books were better.”

I am blessed to have also dealt with comics shops that heavily support books that are alternatives to the superhero, also (too bad the majority of them are out of business now). The one I currently get my books from is big into that. They display their independent stuff right next to their mainstream stuff, and the staff talks with the customers and encourages them often to try some of the non Marvel/DC stuff. Also, when people come in and request specific books they often order a few copies for others to try out, too. They were big supporters of Alias (that umbrella publisher of various indie studios) and a lot of people who frequent that store gave Alias a chance. Ditto with Antarctic, Crossgen (RIP), Devil’s Due and Dreamwave (also RIP). I do wish they’d carry more Oni, but I’m splitting hairs.

I think the industry has taken a shift towards some of the things you’ve been preaching about. Publishers are now expanding their book marketing way beyond the comic store crowd, and I’m seeing Marvel comics in supermarkets next to the magazines. The Graphic novels section in the bookstores is constantly growing, and there’s been a big push to get readers buying commix in new and unique ways. The cross pollination of commix into other media (Video Games and Movies, most notably) hasn’t hurt. Publishers are now also realizing the selling power a well-known or highly reputed creator has. I think that’s part of why Bendis and Millar write 75% of the Marvel Universe (with Claremont getting the other 25%), why Johns writes roughly 75% of the DCU, and why Jim Lee draws damn near every cover for DC. I think it’s only a matter of time before we get that Powerpuff Girls book written by Johns and illustrated by Lee, BTW.

In my hometown, surprisingly enough, the biggest and best place for quality comix has been the library, with its ever-increasing collection of graphic novels and TPBs. It’s the latest trend in libraries, apparently. They stockpile these things and hope it draws in more young readers (or in my town’s case, it gets the all the brats hanging out at the library after school waiting for the bus or surfing blackplanet.com on the library’s computers to actually pick up a book while they’re there). And only half of the books they get are of the Superhero, Marvel/DC variety. True, a bunch of it is manga, but I’ve also used the library to pick up lots of great Graphic Novels and trade paperbacks I wouldn’t been able to afford by myself – stuff like Little White Mouse, Blankets and Persepolis. I recommend stuff to them all of the time, and they go out and get it. One time, they even had all of their American Splendor Books on display next to the DVD of the movie!

That all being said, I still love the Marvel/DC superheroes and make no apologies for it. At their best they are iconic, excellently designed characters who use their unique abilities to solve unique problems, mostly in spectacular and creative ways. To me, superheroes speak to the ability in everyone to find a way, to overcome and to make things happen. It’s great to see these heroes put to the ultimate test in so many different ways, to see them pushed to their breaking point and beyond, to see how they make it through and whether or not they compromise their principles in the process. These guys are metaphors of aspects of the human condition, the everyday trials and tribulations we all go through except with the volume turned up 100-fold, the stakes incredibly higher and the clothes tighter and stretchier (unless you’re Brittney Spears or Lil Kim, in which case that last point is debatable). It’s great entertainment, when handled with intelligence, creativity and integrity. In my opinion, the principles in superhero stories are prevalent in all great stories. James Bond is a superhero. Hari Seldon from the Foundation series is a superhero. La Femme Nikita is a Superhero. Stone Cold Steve Austin is a superhero. The CSI guys are portrayed in a superheroic light, as has been George W. Bush at times. In fact, I even believe that King David and Jesus Christ are superheroes! No one can tell me that the feats of the great people in the Bible aren’t comparable to today’s superhero stories (I’m also unapologetically Christian).

I agree that it’s ridiculous how superheroes dominate the industry, but I still believe there is a place for good superhero stories. I’ll read a good Green Lantern comic (the Kyle Rayner one) just as quickly as I’ll read an issue of Scud the Disposable Assassin. I love the vast ensemble cast of GoldDigger as much as I love watching how the disparate personalities in New Avengers try to coexist. I enjoy the epic, widespread, unpredictable mayhem in Infinite Crisis as much as I enjoy the terse, understated, controlled action in Usagi Yojimbo. I respect Bone as much as I respect Astro City. I just wish I was filthy stinking rich, so I could buy every single book that I want to read and support. I also wish I was rich so I could pay these ridiculous gas prices, but that’s another rant altogether.

But don’t mind me. I’m just a ranting and raving comic book geek who’s only real wish is to see more well-written, quality black characters in comic books. (God bless Grant for putting two of us in 7 Soldiers. How much you want to bet he kills one of them off?) Hopefully someday you’ll be mentioning me in one of your essays in the same breath as your other writing buddies like Grant, Mark Waid and Garth Ennis.

Take care, and keep writing the cutting edge stuff.

To everyone else: Ellis has written a TON of awesome stories, both in comic book and prose form. This one is by far my favorite.