Tag: writing tips

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.

Interview with Jennifer Fisch-Ferguson

Quan

I met Jennifer while I was exhibiting at a career fair at the high school my little sister attended. She’s a very personable and warm lady. But what drew me to her was that she was there as a self-published novelist. She was the first (of many) writers I met that found success via self-publishing, and she was an inspiration. Here is my interview with her. You can find out even more about her at her website, www.authorjff.com

What inspires your writing?

I love telling stories. Honestly real life is a great inventor. There are always real events put into the stories because what goes on around us is pretty amazing.

What is your process of developing characters?

I brainstorm a lot. I usually start with an idea of a normal every day person and see what I can do to shake their life up. Then I create a whole person- likes, dislikes, allergies, favorite foods etc. It helps me to understand them better.

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

Both. I learned to jot down an outline- because sometimes I get great ideas but don’t have time to sit down and write the story right then. Having an outline is a great guide when I get back to it later, but I always reserve the right to not follow it.

How much research did you need for your story?

It depends on the story. When I first started writing about werewolves, I researched the heck out of wolves and spoke at length to a DVM about their habits and life cycles. I like having factual details in my work. When I wrote my one and only cowboy story, I researched black cowboys and spoke at length with a family friend whose family had been ranchers and cowboys for generations.

What researching methods did you use?

I love interviews with people who know about my topics/subjects. I also look for research or scholarly works done on my topics. Despite writing fantasy works, I like as many facts to be solid as I can. I think it helps build a stronger world.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Of course. Life is pretty fantastical.

How did your publish?

Self published.

Why did you do it that way?

I had sent the script around and had some positive feedback. The process was taking longer than I wanted, so I decided to move forward myself.

How long did it take to land representation?

While I have a work with an agent it still being developed.

Who did your cover and marketing?

One series I hired an amazing artist. The other sets I developed myself with the help of photoshop.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

Many, many, many. And when I read back through works I always find things that I would like to change or make stronger.

How did you approach bringing a unique take to a well established genre?

I focus on characters and what really drives them. I want the characters to feel honest and relatable. Sometimes even having the moments where the character is either foolish or not likeable.

What are you writing now?

I’m working on 3 pieces- partially because it helps me not get stuck. I am working on Book 3 from my STEAM series which is paranormal romance, a new stand alone work- urban fantasy and Book 2 in my UnRestricted series- YA urban fantasy

What is your advice to other writers?

Make writing a daily exercise. Even if you just write a short story- write something. Use a writing prompt or something to help you get in the habit.

Be sure to check out one of Jennifer’s books! Here’s one of her latest.

Finding You Audience

Quan

I once was talking with a friend of mine who is writing a series of YA fantasy novels. But it had become clearly evident that the books she was writing had subject matter that was much too mature for a YA audience.

Sometimes finding your audience is as simple as doing a bit of market research. Looking up your chose genre and the demographics it serves is a well-traveled way to finding out who you should be writing for. You can also go the reverse route. Pick a demographic you are interested in and look up what those people are into, then see if you can craft a story that caters to their interests.

Asking around helps, too. If you have an idea of what genre your story fits under, try joining some social media groups dedicated to that genre. Pay attention to what they are posting about, and ask plenty of questions. You can get a ey good sense of what is popular with that group. I am a member of a few groups dedicated to science fiction and fantasy from the African-American perspective. So I have a finger on the pulse of what that audience is reading. It’s also a good networking tool for when I need beta readers (but that’s a topic for a whole noter post).

Another way to find an audience is to follow an example. Researching other top-selling books that are in the same vein as your story and finding out information about who is reading those books can give you a good ballpark idea of who would be drawn to your story. For instance, There was a good ten-year period where YA books were ntrenched in the Hunger Games formulas. Everything from the Percy Jackson series to the Divergent series to the Maze Runner Series followed the ragtag team of teenagers with special abiliies saving a dystopian world from adult oppressors. But the formula worked and many of those series were successful.

Once your research is done, you need to do this exercise. Take some time and describe, in your own words, what the target audience is for your story. Write it down so you’ll have a reference to go back to. Write the age range, gender ratio, racial and cultural background, average income, usual places of residence, social-political leanings, and any other hard data you can find on your target. Write down any interests, hobbies, attitudes and opinions these people might have. You can even list some of the books, movies, games and TV shows they might be consuming.

Now, with that data written down, ask yourself how exactly does your story appeal to this group of people? And how can you further develop your story so that these people will find it even more appealing?

That is the more business-like way of approaching this topic. There is a more organic way to do it, also. Just write the damned story you want to write, and then try to see what kind of audience would buy it. It’s a tougher, less organized way of doing things, but it allows you the freedom to tell the exact story you want to tell without having to make compromises or concessions for the people you think might want to buy the book.

This method will require a lot more legwork, however. You will have to find similar stories and look into who is buying them. Maybe dissecting elements of your story and looking up who finds those elements interesting may help. Utilizing beta readers and asking them which elements of your story stand out or that appeal to them may work.

Whichever way you choose to do your research, It would be beneficial for you to make the effort to find out who exactly you want reading your stories. That way you can better focus your writing, and you’ll have a better target for the next step of the process once you’ve gotten published, which is marketing your story. Give it a try.

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?

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.

Interview with Renee Scattergood

Quan

I owe much of the success of my sci-fi/horror book Godmode to book marketing guru Renee Scattergood. She offered a series of promotional programs that really allowed me to get some exposure for the book. But in addition to that, she is also a writer in her own right, with many dark fantasy books to her credit. Check out more about her at www.reneescattergood.com.

What inspires your writing?

I have a very overactive imagination. I get so many ideas for stories that I really don’t need any more inspiration! 

What is your process of developing characters?

I have a step by step process for developing the characters as well as the entire story. It’s 30 steps in all and the character development is Steps 1, 2, 4, and 10 (and there is a reason for breaking it up, but there’s too much detail to go into here). Basically it’s a process of answering specific questions that help develop the stories while developing the characters.

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

I always plan and outline my stories.

How much research did you need for our story?

My story didn’t need much in the way of research, though I did use generators to help with names for characters, places, creatures, and objects.

Did you draw on personal experience?

The magic in the world is (loosely) based on shamanism. I studied shamanism for several years, so I used that experience to create the magic that exists in this world.

How did you publish?

I self-published.

Why did you do it that way?

I’ve always wanted to be self-published. I have an entrepreneurial spirit, so it was a natural step for me. I enjoy being in charge of all aspects of publishing my work.

Who did your cover and marketing?

My cover was done by Katie Jenkins at Magical Designs. I do my own marketing (marketing is my second love).

Did you use beta readers? How did you secure them?

Yes, I do use beta readers. For Shadow Stalker, I found most of my beta readers on Facebook. Now most of them come from readers of my newsletter.

What is your process for worldbuilding and developing backstory for your fantasy and sci-fi settings?

Most of the world-building takes place in step 21 of my writing process. I do the world-building after the first draft has been written by going back through the story and making notes about things that I need to expand on to bring the world to life. Then I add those things to my world-building files. World-building is generally an ongoing process for me, however, because I will keep adding stuff to my files as needed.

The backstory comes during the character development stage. The backstory is mainly based on the characters’ backgrounds and what was going on in the world around them. I only add or include a backstory if it’s central to the story.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

With Shadow Stalker, it took many revisions because I didn’t have my current writing process to fall back on. With my new writing process, I cut out a lot of the revisions by working out the kinks before I start writing.

What are some cost-effective strategies for cash-strapped authors to promote their books?

There are a lot of free options out there. I think the best things authors can do is have a presence on social media (for connecting to readers, not selling to them); a blog to build a presence on the internet; doing interviews (like this one), guest posts, and podcasts can also help increase your visibility; and most importantly, you need to have a mailing list so you can promote your new releases to your readers.

What are you writing now?

I’m working on several projects at the moment. I’m writing a novel series called, A God’s Deception. I’m also starting a new serial called Emergence (it’s a prequel to my Shadow Stalker serial), and I’m also working on a fantasy romance novel series under the pen name, Kahlan Richards. 

What is your advice to other writers?

There’s really so much advice and info out there for authors, but when it comes down to it not everything will work for you. Everyone is different, so focus on what works for you and don’t worry about the rest. And don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas. Use your readers as a sounding board. They love feeling included in your process!

Be sure to check out one of her books here!

Is Women in Refrigerators A Neccessary Evil?

Quan

Okay, I’m going to get a bit controversial with this post. I’m going to talk about a very touchy subject among writers and readers. I’m talking about Women in Refrigerators.

For those who don’t know, Women in Refrigerators, or “Fridging,” is when an established secondary character – usually a woman – is killed off or violated in a gruesome way, for the sole purpose of motivating your central protagonist. The phrase got its origins in one of my all-time favorite comic books, Green Lantern. In this particular issue the girlfriend of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner was assaulted by one of his enemies while he was away. She was brutally murdered and shoved into a refrigerator, all for the purpose of making Kyle mad. This incident brought to light a trope where a female character is seemingly needlessly victimized (usually in a gruesome way) for the sake of the protagonist’s motivation.

Why is Women in Refrigerators a bad thing? The biggest problem with fridging is that it takes an established, presumably well-developed character and reduces her (or him, in some cases) to nothing more than a plot device. It is really a disservice to the character to victimize them in such a way, and when a character’s death or violation is handled poorly, it can leave a very bad taste in the mouth of the reader. Add to that the larger social connotations of the fact that this primarily happens to women, and you are creating a very bad feeling for the reader which has very little to do with your actual story. The perception of women in society as needing the protection of men moreso than men needing protection is also part of why this trope has been used so much. It’s only in the last few decades (let’s say starting in the 1990s) that women have been consistently portrayed as not needing a man’s protection or presence. And most protagonists that have benefited from Women in Refrigerators have been men.

But let’s do a deep dive into this trope. There are reasons why this has become a storytelling staple.

First of all, it works. Readers can get more invested into the protagonist when someone he or she cares about is endangered. And the point of everything is to get the reader invested into the protagonist. WIF is not a new thing, and has been done since there were stories to tell. One can argue that the stories of Orpheus, Persephone and Hercules all had women fridged, You can also argue that women were fridged in the Shakespeare plays Othello, Hamlet, and King Lear. It’s been done umpteen times in Television and movies (Game of Thrones and Se7en, for example), and even in video games (Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind). And of course, the trope was first given a name through comics and has many, many examples of it (Gwen Stacy, Elektra and Barbara Gordon, for starters, and let’s throw in Sue Dibny too)

But let me point out that it’s not just women that can get fridged. Though they are the vast majority. For instance, in that very same Green Lantern comic book, Kyle’s gay friend was assaulted by homophobic bullies, and all it really served was to piss Kyle off and show how badass he can be. And in Magic The Gathering, a huge motivation for Gerrard’s decisions to kick off the Weatherlight saga came from his male elf friend Rofellos getting murdered. And as of this writing, Batman’s butler Alfred was just murdered for the sake of furthering a Batman story (although I’m quite sure he will be resurrected somehow sooner or later) Also, violating children is the big no-no in storytelling, but there are instances where even that was exploited to motivate the hero.

So why do I call this a necessary evil? I think that fridging an established character raises the stakes of the story more effectively than endangering a flat supporting character. And an actual violation adds way more urgency than just endangering the character. This also provides a venue (when done well) for exploration of the protagonist and their supporting cast ‘s psyches and reactions to the violation, which can provide some great character depth if handled properly. For a violation to have true meaning, the reader has to actually care about the character getting violated. So you have to establish them for that.

And yes, I am guilty of fridging characters in some of my stories. (beware – spoilers ahead) In The Leopard Man, Ashlynn’s best friend Tesenga was murdered in front of her while they were running from some criminals. I needed to show how dangerous her pursuers were and why getting caught by them was not an option, and also to introduce that possibility when she actually does get caught by them. In Double Entry, I hint at something bad happening to a close friend of Calloway, which would have served as his motivation if I had ever written that spinoff book starring him. I admit I fridged a couple of people in Godmode. Sylvia’s death didn’t really motivate Elijah because he could barely remember her by the time he found her corpse, but his coworker Mr. Snitsky was directly under his protection when he got killed (pretty gruesomely too, I may add). I did this to raise the stakes of Elijah’s situation, and show how dangerous the monsters really are. It also gave me an excuse to show off Elijah’s darker side and make him question whether he was the bigger monster than the creatures he was fighting.

But if Fridging is so bad, then how as a writer can you add that resonance yet avoid falling into the trope? That is tricky and there are no easy answers. There are some excellent solutions in this article (https://www.standoutbooks.com/fridging/ ) that I want to build on.

1. Have her fight back. Don’t let your character be a victim. Give her some agency and response to the issue she is dealing with. If your villain is going to violate her, then make him earn that victory. This way your character isn’t some hapless damsel in distress that couldn’t fend for herself. In a life-or-death situation, people will use anything and everything they can get their hands on to survive. Let your character do the same.

2.Make her more vital. John Wick went on a murderous rampage because someone killed his dog and stole his car. Don’t let your character be a pet or a possession. In addition to fleshing the character out, you must also establish that this character is a vital, important part of your protag’s life, both before and after the traumatic event. Let your protagonist, and even other supporting characters, depend on this person for important stuff. She has a more vital role than being there just to die and make the hero feel bad. This also can make the reader more attached to the character which creates more resonance when the tragic event happens.

3.Show how everyone ELSE is affected by what happens. When a recurring secondary character in the second MacGyver TV show was murdered by a serial killer, there was literally less than a quarter of a segment devoted to how MacGyver and his team felt about losing one of their valued coworkers. And there was no mention of her at all in subsequent episodes, despite the murderer appearing many times afterward as a recurring antagonist. This trivialized her death, and in effect trivialized her life. Your character has relationships and interactions with not only your protagonist, but everyone else in the story. Something bad happening to her will naturally have an effect on everyone she has interacted with. She is/was somebody’s friend, somebody’s sibling, somebody’s spouse, or somebody’s mother. There are emotional connections that need to be addressed.

4.Bring her back. Obviously if a character is dead, this is normally not an option. But in the case of another traumatic violation like rape or mutilation, don’t allow that character to remain in that traumatized state. Empower her to recover and come back from her trauma, maybe with some obvious physical and emotional scars, but restored to her place of importance in the story. Jack Ryan’s wife was forced into a traumatic car accident in Patriot Games, but she was not killed, and she was able to recover and encourage Jack to “go get em,” which provided him with all of the motivation he needed to get the job done without needlessly killing off his wife and children. And even if your character does die, there are ways to “bring her back” from that, too. You just have to be creative. You don’t have to let the villain have that victory over her.

5.Don’t do it to a woman. The perception of a fridging changes drastically with something as simple as doing it to a man instead of a woman. Consider having the traumatic event happen to one of your protagonist’s male supporting characters instead of the female one. There are a lot of layers that can be explored when it is a man that is violated and victimized. Especially with perceptions of male strength and the idea of toxic masculinity and machismo. In society, a man that can be overpowered and violated “like a woman” isn’t really considered a “man.” You can do some things with that to add some extra depth to your story.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head on ways you can get that same effect without using this trope. And if you disagree with any of this, feel free to call me out on my BS and explain any alternatives you can think of. All opinions and options Can make for great tools for writers to hone their craft, and that includes myself.

Writing Musical Stories via Concept Albums

Quan

I ‘m a bit of a music buff, and I’m a sucker for concept albums. Even in this single-dominated music world. I absolutely love it when an artist takes the time to craft together a cohesive, thematic music project where every song is interconnected and all of the parts combine to make a greater whole. Most of my favorite concept albums are stories, with each song being a chapter. I think this takes a lot of thought and planning, and not every artist can pull it off. And the better ones are really engaging, with a LOT of layers to them. I eat that stuff up. I even managed to put together my own concept album telling an action-packed story as my super-spy alter ego, Agent 008 ½.

For those of you that enjoy songwriting, or for you prose writers that have thought about getting into songwriting, This may be an interesting exercise to help stretch your writing muscles. Songwriting is a different animal than prose writing, and even to so extent poetry writing. You have a much more limited framework with which to get your point across, and your words have to fit a specific cadence and rhythm, which puts another limit of which words you can use and how many. You also have a length limit in that most songs usually follow a 3 verse structure broken up by choruses, refrains and bridges. And at some point in time music will be involved, so your song has to actually fit the music it is being written (or you have to craft or find music to fit the lyrics). Now take those challenges and multiply them by about 10, and try to make all of these songs fit together in a cohesive narrative. It is quite a puzzle to solve, but for those that are up to the challenge, it can be quite the rewarding experience.

So if you’re interested in writing a concept album, the question now becomes, “where do I start?” here is the process I went through when creating mine. Some concept albums are more thematic than linear (Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder or Petsounds by The Beach Boys), but this article focuses more on albums that follow a narrative path.

  1. Consider the source. All concept albums tell a story of some sorts. So the first step is figuring out what story you want to tell. So take a deep look into your source material and parse out the most essential elements. For me, it was taking your typical James Bond movie and boiling it down to its most used tropes. Each of those tropes became a subject for a song.
  2. Figure out your format. What does each song represent in the context of your story? I treated my album like a musical novel. Each song was a chapter driving the narrative forward. But this is not the only approach you can take. For the Root’s Undun album, every song was a vague memory of a dying man, but with more emphasis on what he is thinking and feeling in that moment.
  3. Make a list. Now comes the simple part. List what each song is going to be about. Once you have enough songs listed to tell your story, then the real work begins.

After those steps, then it’s a matter of just writing the songs. It helps to have some music to write to or at least have a song format in mind. You might also want to cross check you songs to make sure details of your story stay consistent. I made sure to plant details in earlier songs that become crucial elements of latter songs (i.e. many of the gadgets mentioned in my Q-branch ode “The Quartermaster” are used a few songs later in “On the Run”). This helps make the project sound more like a compete project and not just a collection of loosely related songs.

Then there is the actual music. When searching for or composing the music, you want to make sure that the music is not only consistent from song to song, but that it also fits the overall mood you want to set with your lyrics. My concept album drew direct inspiration from the James Bond movie scores by the legendary composer John Barry (except with some Hip-Hop flair added).

Now, you don’t actually HAVE to put your lyrics to music. You could just make your concept album a collection of songs or poems. Essentially, you could say that the epic poems of The Illiad, The Odyssey and Hiawatha are concept albums that just haven’t been set to music. I even took my lyrics for my album and self-published them as an illustrated chapbook. But if you can put your story to music, it would enhance the narrative that much more. I would essentially be like recording a built-in audiobook.

For examples of good concept albums, here’s a list (in no particular order) of a bunch of my favorite concept albums:

  1. Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City, by Kendrick Lamar
  2. To Pimp a Butterfly, by Kendrick Lamar
  3. Undun, by The Roots
  4. 12 Reasons to Die parts 1 and 2, by Ghostface Killah
  5. American Gangster, by Jay-Z
  6. Disposable Arts by Masta Ace
  7. The Long, Hot Summer by Masta Ace
  8. Black Materia, by Mega Ran
  9. Language Arts, by Mega Ran
  10. River City Random, by Mega Ran
  11. Gotham Down vols. 1-3 by Jean Grae
  12. Love and Divorce, by Babyface and Toni Braxton
  13. Prince Among Thieves, by Prince Paul
  14. Deltron 2000, by Del the Funky Homosapien and Dan the Automator

Finally, since I’ve explained how I put my concept album together, aren’t you wondering how the final product came out? Give my album “You Only Die Once” a listen here, and if you like it, then download it.

Asimov, Zelda and Grandfathering Continuity

Quan

One of the many past times I like to indulge in is playing classic video games. I am particularly fond of the Legend of Zelda series of open world adventure games. I enjoy that series and games like it for many reasons, chief of which is that the exploring scratches a problem-solving itch: it’s reassuring to know that problems and obstacles in life have solutions, just so long as you know where to look to find them.

But that’s not why I brought up Zelda.

The thing that ties Zelda into this blog is the lore, mythology and backstory running through the games. Over the course of 19 disparate games, which really had (for the most part) nothing in common aside from a guy named Link rescuing a girl named Zelda from a monster named Ganon (or Ganondorf, in some games), an epic, generation-spanning mythology was created with tons of fascinating twists and turns. What makes this even more fascinating is that most of these games were created in a vacuum, with seemingly little regard for the storyline of the games that came before it. Despite that, the masterminds at Nintendo were able to link (pardon the pun) every official Zelda game into a cohesive storyline that makes all of the games feel like one epic narrative.

So what does this have to with you as a writer?

If you ever find yourself with two stories that are only tangentally related, or aren’t really related at all, and you’re wondering if you can somehow tie them together, then Zelda proves that it is indeed possible. Sci-Fi legend Isaac Asimov did something similar when he found a way to link his three biggest book series (Robots, Galactic Empire and Foundation) together via his latter Foundation novels. So let’s break down how these two franchises did it.

1. Find common threads that connect your stories. If you look hard enough, you may find themes or tropes that your disparate stories have in common. With Zelda it’s simple: Link, Zelda and Ganon. Almost every Zelda story flows from this trio of characters. And the games that don’t feature all three have good reasons not to. Nintendo’s solution was to create a curse of reincarnation, where Ganon was fated to always reincarnate every generation or so, and there would always be a Zelda and a Link fated to oppose him. For Asimov, the natural evolution of his universe and the progression of mankind were what tied his worlds together. You could envision a scenario where a civilization that used sentient robots could find a way to expand into a galactic empire, and the Foundation concept could be seen as a natural evolution of the empirical concept. He even insinuated as much in the first two Foundation novels.

2. Pay attention to detail so you can explain inconsistencies and incompatibilities. Inconsistencies and incompatibilities are things that routinely plague dense continuities, timelines and universes. If something gets big enough or lasts long enough, you are bound to find stuff that doesn’t quite mesh together. This is a routine problem that plagues massive comic book-styled universes like with Marvel, DC and Magic: The Gathering. Asimov had this problem long after he passed, and his estate commissioned three of his friends and peers to write new books in the Foundation saga. Their goal was to fill in gaps, explain inconsistencies and modernize the mythology to gel with current technological trends (i.e. there was no such thing as the internet when the Foundation books were written, so now how does the internet fit in the psychohistory of the future? Their solution was a galaxy-wide web that crumbled into disrepair towards the beginning of the Foundation series) For Zelda, it was a matter of taking ideas and concepts that were hinted at in Link To The Past and Ocarina of Time (the two most foundational Zelda stories) and placing them in future games while expanding on their history and roles. The roles of the three goddesses (which started off as unspectacular gems Link quested for in Link To The Past) and the importance of the Master Sword (Which was really just one of a few sword upgrades in Link To The Past) was greatly expanded upon in future games.

3. Make a story that ties everything together. This is a simple and obvious way to link your stories. If you can craft a story explaining how everything links together, then you can help your readers connect the dots and see how everything ties together into one larger narrative. Origin stories can do a great amount of heavy lifting by showing how everything got its start. The Zelda franchise did this masterfully with Skyward Sword, which illustrated how all of the mythos that form the basis of Zelda originated, as well as creating the reincarnation vehicle that would carry the narrative from game to game and through various settings and scenarios. Asimov did the same thing with Prelude to Foundation, which firmly and definitively established that Foundation was set in the universe of the Galactic Empire books, while also including a key character from the Robot books to establish that those stories were also part of the narrative.

4. Decide what and what not to reference. Sometimes you’re going to run into elements that just won’t fit no matter how hard you try to explain them away. It’s at this point where you need to be judicious about what you reference and what you just retcon away or leave to the reader’s imagination. It’s okay to let some things be mysterious and let the reader ty to connect the dots in his or her own headcanon. The analyses, theories, conversations and debates among Zelda faithful about where things fit in the three distinct timelines that comprise the majority of Zelda games provide fuel for the fandom between games, and only serves to strengthen the franchise. Breath of the Wild claiming to have happened so far along in Zelda history that all previous games had faded into (pardon the pun) legend only added more fuel to the debates, with questions like “why did the merfolk-like Zora race evolve into the avian Rito race when the world was submerged in Wind Waker, only to show up alongside the Rito in Breath of the Wild?” Likewise, Asimov’s Robots/Empire/Foundation saga left a lot of unanswered questions that his successors tried to address in their Foundation books (with varying degrees of success).

5. Create a timeline. This was done masterfully with both Zelda and Foundation. And is often used when sorting out major events in large sagas. When you create a timeline of the events in all of your stories, you can easily show how events in one story lead to or influence events in other stories, and readers can see the progression of things and gleam the bigger overall picture. Zelda’s taking the three possible outcomes of Ocarina of Time and splitting them into three different timelines to fit games into was brilliant.

When done well, linking your disparate stories can breath new life into your older stories. Readers new to your mythology will have reasons to go check out your older material to see for themselves how it all connects. And the meta-narrative is great for building the brand of your saga. You might even be able to take themes and ideas established within your newly created continuity and mine them for new stories. The two novels I am seeking representation for as of this writing are separate and happen in seemingly unrelated universes, but I have snuck in Easter eggs and hints in both stories (and plan to in future stories as well) that more than hint that the two worlds are somehow connected.

You do run a risk of confusing your readers if you only haphazardly try to connect everything. So if you are going to go this route, make sure you do it with the utmost care.

This time I’m giving a double recommendation. This official Zelda compendium outlines the narrative that connects every official Zelda game from the very first Legend of Zelda all the way through a Link Between Worlds. And Asimov’s Prelude To Foundation provides the framework of that informs everything you read about in all of his Robot, Galactic Empire and Foundation novels. I strongly recommend both books as examples of what I’m writing about.

Zelda: Hyrule Historia on Amazon

Prelude to Foundation on Kindle

Plotting the End of Your Story

Quan

If you were ever wondering how to end the story you are writing, I may have some ways to help. I had a couple of tricks for figuring out the endgame of a couple of books. For Double Entry, at the penultimate scene, I literally had my protag voice out how I was feeling. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, so I had him literally tell that to his love interest, and wrote her reaction. It came together well, allowed me another moment to let them bond, and reinforced some of the themes I had been pushing in the book. Having them talk also clarified how the primary antagonist was going to behave during the final confrontation. So sometimes if you don’t really know where a story is going, it’s okay to let your characters articulate your uncertainty or frustration. It might lead to some new insights.

The other trick was to envision what a follow-up to the story would look like. If/when your book gets a sequel, what are some of the themes and ideas you’d explore? Where would you take your most important characters? If someone dies, how would they be remembered in your sequel? How would the sequel make things worse for your hero or heroine? Now, with those ideas germinating in your head, grandfather your climax and denoument to set up those threads in your potential sequel. Maybe you want your protag hellbent on revenge against his arch-nemesis in the sequel…so maybe the bad guy needs to do something deserving of revenge at the end of your current book (just an example. I’ve been talking with people in my James Bond fangroups on Facebook on why many of us have On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as our favorite bond movie, so that’s on the brain). And this would work even if you don’t intend for the book to get a sequel. I specifically let Calloway (my main antagonist in Double Entry) get away because I liked the idea of doing a hardboiled action-crime follow-up that was a complete shift in tone and theme from Double Entry, where Calloway goes on a mission to undo the mess he made in DE, with predictably disastrous, violent results. I never wrote the sequel because that would require more knowledge of the inner workings of drug gangs in Portland, OR than I have the stomach to learn, but leaving the door open for that sequel is what helped me decide Calloway’s fate in Double Entry.

I’m also a proponent of “just follow you character around and see what happens.” The only issue with that is knowing when to stop following. Where is the jump-off point where you know the main character arc of the journey has been completed, and a new one is about to start? For that answer, you have to look at where the journey started. When did the central problem present itself, and has the problem been resolved? The jump-off point, and therefore the ending of that arc, is when the prevalent problem comes to its resolution. And as a writer, you should be able to tell when that moment happens.

These are just a few of my go-to techniques for finishing stories. Please comment with any that you may have come up with. Here’s a book from Wizards of the Coast that handled its ending particularly well.