Posted on May 16, 2012 by jsclark

Making Deadlines

Since self-publishing my first novel, New Arbor Day, I’ve been wrestling with the marketing side of writing. How much do I price my ebook at? Hardcopy? Amazon? Smashwords? But those are kind of secondary to the big question of “How do I get people to look at my story?” If no one looks it doesn’t matter if your book is free or $99.

As near as I can figure, if you’re on a low budget, the way to get attention is to saturate your circle with references. Notice, I started this blog by mentioning my book? That’s a start. When someone asks me how I’m doing, I’ll mention how I’m going to do my second book signing at a local library which also gives me an excuse to canvas the town in ads.

There’s one problem. I read an interview with JA Konrath. You may have heard of him, ahem. And he said, new writing is good marketing. Or something to that effect. See, Konrath is somewhat successful, enough at least to quit his day job, but that took years to achieve. Years with little growth. Years of just his friends and family buying his stuff. So what do you do while you wait for success?

You write! Done with one? Start the sequel? Spin off! Unrelated tale!

If you want to be serious about writing (meaning make a living at it someday), you have to think of it like a business. If you’re not serious about it, then why are you reading this? Go write something for your enjoyment if that’s your reason for doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I write because I enjoy it. But, I can’t really justify the cost to my family if I don’t try to make something in return, and heck when someone buys a copy it tells me that someone thought the story had more promise than the .99 in their pocket. Not much, but it’s a start.

So, while I still do marketing, I’m trying not to let my writing languish. I’ve been working on another novel and a series of shorts, but somehow in my mind I think of it as “something to do, while I wait for New Arbor Day to make me rich.” But is that how a business man would think of it? Does Apple count on its last iphone to keep paying the bills?

J.S. Clark, get serious! Make those times at the keyboard count, because you’ve got to get it done, and if you don’t people who did like your work and did buy your work are going to forget you. You can’t ride on one success, you have to keep churning out quality work in a timely manner . . . unless your name is Valve and the world still waits for Half-Life 3.

So I pulled the trigger and started shooting off deadlines. What day (give or take) can I realistically expect to finish another major work? I can probably do an Aiyela story once a quarter, but for something novel size I want to say a year, because more than a year seems like too long. I’m not saying the sequel to New Arbor Day, but something substantial, something that says “I’m still on the clock!” That puts me at next March . . .

Holy cow that’s way too close!

But if I manage 1000k, five days a week, it should take me 20 weeks per draft, and of course the later drafts should be a little faster. With 8 months to go and already halfway through a draft, I should be golden and still with other projects between drafts.

You need to have a vision. “I want to write a novel someday” didn’t finish your first novel did it? Why would it for your next one? Put yourself on a schedule. Give yourself small, realistic goals to keep yourself serious just like you would any job.

Go ahead, give yourself a deadline!

Twitt
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Posted on May 9, 2012 by jsclark

Revising Blurbs

Not much of a post tonight. Just a pre-empt to the main event (should post tomorrow). Reading a post on the Flores Factor the other day, about blurbs. Blurbs are the hardest thing I’ve ever had to written. As a self-pubber I’ve had the blessing to say I’m not going to spend hours/days writing submissions and synopsis when I should be writing something like . . . I don’t know–stories. I have tried writing a synopsis and it was hard, but I had to write several blurbs for New Arbor Day and they were harder.

So, for your self-education, and my degradation, I provide for you the evolution of a blurb. First, is the blurb which has until tonight appeared on Smashwords and Amazon for the description of New Arbor Day and still does on the paperback, for the moment:

Former Marine, Agee Skyler is on a road trip, having just rediscovered an old flame that he thought had gone out. But before he can turn back and stop her from getting away again, his road is blocked by an impossible accident. A hundred mile per hour pileup of trucks, cars, and a semi in a fifty-five mile per zone, at right angles from the direction of travel—on a sunny Virginia afternoon. And it’s only the first.

He escapes from the closing net carrying a cell without signal into a night without the glow of a distant city. His next stop, his brother’s house, is vacant. At every stop, signs point to a threat stalking from just behind. Or lurking just ahead.

Finally, the trap closes on him. Agee waits for death by starvation and exposure in a boat within sight of the shore, where a brutal death beckons. There, Ruts’el finds him. A messenger with a mission from god to save the world. Does he even know this god? Does he trust him? If he has no choice, can he even do it?

Humanity is pressed into the cities with only the food on the shelves as the buildings fall, to save them Agee doesn’t even know the help he will need. Will he find it in the group of strangers gathering around him? Or in the one girl who knows him? 

It sounded ok at the time, and I was up against my personal deadline (the topic of my next post by the way), so I settled. It gives a good shove into the story, foreshadowing the first eighty pages or so. I’d also say it gives some of the mystery, and briefly hints at some deeper themes yet to be revealed, but . . .  Well, its boring. At 234 words it wastes a lot on in between stuff that all is rather ho hum. Your cell phone wasn’t working? Yeah, that happens on my drive home. There’s vague mention of an impossible car accident, but impossible is intriguing as an idea but the word doesn’t communicate impossible, it communicates “unimaginative.” Even the word “finally” suggests to me as a reader that everything before “finally” was boring. As in “we’re finally getting to the good stuff.”

This lead to the re-write after the shove from my fellow writer Flores.

Agee Skyler thought the biggest problem on his roadtrip were the words he hadn’t said to Caitlin Moss, but four cars piled like crumpled pop cans against a rolled semi with no survivors, no witnesses, no skid marks, and no first responders is just the edge of an attack even a Marine wasn’t ready for.

Meanwhile, time is running out for Caitlin in a darkenedNew York Cityunder siege, and threatened from within by refugees growing more desperate as the buildings fall.

Can Agee, Caitlin, and three uncanny strangers find common purpose long enough to save the human race from total destruction?

Lessons learned from the first? Just because it happens in the story and is good, does not mean it needs to be told in a blurb that’s a couple paragraphs long. Notice I dropped the entire part about the boat, which I thought was a very important turning point in the story. But it feels like too much in a blurb and that makes it feel hurried, impersonal and distant. If I gloss over an important thing here, then what does it suggest I will do when it actually happens?

Lesson two: The word impossible is gone, instead is a succinct retelling of description about the initial event, told in an immediate touching ground sort of way while at the same time really pulling out the details that make it impossible, especially the “skid marks” comment.

Lesson three: It’s 103 words. Half the length and conveys twice as much of the interestingness. Nothing about cell phones or the glossed over boat scene, but we do have a hint about three very important and very unusual characters.

Thoughts? Better? Worse? What would you change?

Twitt
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Posted on May 1, 2012 by jsclark

Stop Thinking Silver Bullets

Socializing probably confused you. You’ve forgotten that social networking is older than Facebook or Twitter. Turn out at my first book signing was ok, the staff thought it was good, and realists thought with 10-12, it could have been better.

During the event (which was fun, by the way), I met a number of people, one in particular; Donelle R. Lacy. I mention her in particular because she is a writer like me. As such there was something of a common language, and more important a pool of like-interested contacts. The defect glaring in my rearview was that I passed over inviting my local friends. Why? Well, call me socially inept, but I thought I’d feel like a loser if I looked out at a crowd that ended up being all my friends. I mean, that’s like asking your Mom for a thorough critique of your novel.

But see, like with Ms. Lacy, I forgot that friends bring with them contacts. And even if they had all been friends other people would have seen a crowd and that would have generated interest even if the crowd itself had sentimental motives—dang, personal affection!.

And that’s the key. During the discussion, Ms. Lacy asked several writer marketing questions about how to get exposure . . .  It’s amazing the way a book signing, dresses you in a light suit of authority . . .  They were questions I didn’t really have good answers for because I’ve only generated maybe 90-100 viewings between my paperbacks, Facebook, Smashwords, Amazon, etc . . .

But, that’s what sparked the concept for this blog. See, every indie writer (and traditionals for that matter) is looking for that silver bullet. What is the one thing I do or series of things I do that ensure I’m a success? There’s a reason for the phrase “There is no silver bullet.” See, every time someone finds a silver bullet, they use it and it works. Guess what? Some bright-minded competitor (other authors) sees it worked and they do the same thing. That’s why when you walk through a book store aisle there are lots of books, packed tight, spines out 98% of which will be ignored and only that one book stands out. Take Twilight‘s cover for example. Looks pretty striking by itself, now put it in the appropriate section and it gets lost in the thick of competing books about emo girls with dark covers, fallen angels, werewolves, vampire chicks, other chicks with curses (and tattoos) and some hunky, hairless boy wishing he looked like a man.

The point is, the silver bullet stops being a silver bullet because everyone mimicks success. If there’s a silver bullet, it’s undiscovered and only works once. So in the meantime, let’s talk about what actually works.

This advice has been around since my Dad’s time, you know, back when years began with 1′s and 9′s.

Network.

It sounds boring and archaic, but accounting for the popular myth if everyone is using the same tricks there’s only two ways to get attention for your product. Be louder, which in the case of an indie writer is impossible, unless you’ve got stacks of money. Or be nearer. Even a shout can be beaten by a whisper in the ear.

It’s not fast, and it’s not glamorous, but again back to old time wisdom, real success is built slowly and steadily. So network. And I’m not talking about Facebook. Sure, that’s one aspect, but it’s only one leg. Make a page for yourself, make one for each story. Make a blog, etc . . .  Then, get off the computer and hit the pavement! You don’t have to make an obsession out of it, but realize that the only way you’re going to get more readers is by casting a big enough net that you find those enthusiastic fans who will do what fans naturally do. Tell other people.

In practice? Do a book signing, check. Step every other? Talk about your book. You’re in the checkout line, cashier says “How are you doing?” “Doing great, sold my first book the other day.” Hanging out with a friend of a friend, “What do you do? Well, I’m an independent speculative writer, who does something boring on the side. I wrote a book about . . . ” Get a t-shirt, a car magnetic panel, things that start conversations or at least leave a subliminal mark on passers by. Put a copy on your desk at work, as a conversation piece. Pass it around the office for free if that’s what it takes. Donate an autographed copy to your library or a local auction, etc . . .

And this is all stuff you do during your everyday activities so its not an extra chore that you have to do, it doesn’t interrupt your ‘other work’, its just what our forefathers and folksy folk in small communities still do, its called being social. Let that sink in. Sure, it feels lame that you “know” all your fans, but personal impression/personal service is going to give you a bigger mind share than many other writers out there. On top of that, isn’t even Walmart trying to pass itself off as personal? There’s something to be said for “I know the guy who wrote that, he’s . . . ”

So stop looking for one shot that’s going to fell a million readers and start thinking machine gun and boxes and boxes of ammo.

Twitt
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Posted on April 25, 2012 by jsclark

Character Avenues

There’s a balancing act between writing about plot and writing about setting and character. The opposing tensions of what is happening vs how it is happening and to whom and by whom it is happening. Another way to look at it, is action vs actors. Take Dark Knight and remove all the character development scenes and cityscape shots and leave only scenes where something is happening. The action becomes boring, meaningless, spectacle. Take the same movie and remove all the action and leave only development, then it’s a boring soap opera.

That’s a bit simplistic, but you get the point. I mean, I just compared Dark Knight to a soap opera.

When New Arbor Day was first critiqued, I got several readers who said that nothing happens for the first 50-60 pages. That left me flabbergasted. It sure seemed like stuff was happening to me. Tension was building, complications were mounting. During the final draft I did reluctantly realize, that the reason “nothing” was happening was in fact because I was zoomed too far out. I needed more detail, not more circumstances but more detail. Teeth to the circumstance. A vaguely worded car accident became a much more vivid one, and as I worked through the details it also became more real, and yet larger than life. More cars, more bodies, and a resulting tension building dialogue that grew organically out of it. Another portion of the “nothing” was showing too many things that could have been told.

Back to the teeth. The final draft was much stronger, especially in those opening chapters, but you do have to move on, even if the old is imperfect. NEWS FLASH: it will always be imperfect. The biggest lesson—I learned from my wife. She thought that I had a lot of interesting characters, but that by the end “we” still didn’t feel like we’d gotten to know them. Now of course, being a man, I chalked up a certain amount of this to her being an obvious woman wanting me to write Twilight with a bunch of characters emoting like . . . well . . . teenagers across each page. “I felt really bad about having to make pink mist out of that pirate. I could just die. It reminded me of the day I was at home as a young boy, and the girl from down the street moved out. She was like an angel forever out of reach, oh how I pined for her . . . “ 

Just kidding, honey!

She doesn’t like Twilight, or really any vampire fiction, and neither of us have read the story. I’ve just heard there’s a lot of girl-head stuff. Not knocking it, just not something I ever plan to write.

But, after my ego went to bed, I listened (brownie points, guys, brownie points) . . .  I had counted on the plot to reveal character. It did in a limited sense, a couple of remembrances aided that objective, but my wife was right. What did I really know about Agee, Caitlin, and the others? I had been so focused on telling the story that I neglected many avenues for exploring who each of these characters were. How didCheyenneget into the Jewelry business? How did Peter grow up? What made Agee independent too a fault? It sounds like a noble sacrifice, after all, its for the story, right?

Well, yes and no. Stories are about people, not events. It is the character not the outcome that we root for. If you don’t know Katniss then would it matter who wins the Hunger Games? The Hunger Games is not about the Hunger Games, it’s about Katniss and Peeta, and everyone else.

PracApp for me. I just wrote a scene involving Duncan, a “secondary” POV character in Evangeline. I started thinking it was a waste of time, I can’t for the life of me see how it moves the plot along. I was only writing it in the first place because I was approaching the end way too fast. 100k is a minimum for me. But along the way, I’ve been incorporating these recent lessons and I realized this “detour” actually serves to strengthen the bond between reader and character. Not only does it allow me to create some nice mind candy with an alien race, but it allows me by their relationship to revealDuncan’s character.

So it is all about story, but story is all about people. Don’t sacrifice getting to know your characters because you feel the urge to move the plot. The plot can be summarized in a paragraph and forgotten in the time it takes to close the book, it is the characters and their exploits that will be remembered. So when you’re flying along your direct route to your conclusion and you see some avenue about your character, don’t assume it’s a stop over in lame town located on the outskirts of the story. Sometimes it is, but it could also be that defining attraction that you actually remember after the journey. Heck, you know what is my most immediate memory of Star Wars:New Hope?

Luke leaning on a berm looking at two suns with that somber, aching song. And it doesn’t move the plot at all. 

 

Twitt
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Posted on April 18, 2012 by jsclark

My First Book Signing!

Alright, keep it together. Act like you’ve been here before.

Hey! I think I’m entitled to be excited about this sort of thing. What does it say about an artist (or any worker) who no longer gets excited about their work?

Then again, does a surgeon get up going “Today, I get to cut someone open!” Maybe they do, but some aspects of our work will probably end up being more “work.” I was glad to finish my taxes (by hand, thank you very much), but I’m not looking forward to it.

Anyway . . .  The details:

Book Signing with Local Author!

5 – 7 P.M., April 26th atWest UnionPublic Library! Meet & Greet with refreshments!

J.S. Clark is a former Marine and speculative (what-if fiction) author who you may know as Jesse at the Happy Turtle where he works with his wife Alisa. At the signing, his debut novel New Arbor Day will be available for purchase. It will also be open for discussion along with its sequel, his next novel, and other works in development including his short story series, Aiyela the Space Gypsy. You can see what else he’s cooking at pen-of-jsclark.com, and follow him on twitter @jsclark5768.

Oh, and just for my occasional visitors, that will also be the day of the launch of Aiyela the Space Gypsy Meets Lord Yasha, to be available free on Smashwords and Amazon (when I get more of them together, I’ll put a paperback on Lulu).

Twitt
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Posted on April 12, 2012 by jsclark

What I wish I’d known about finances

I shudder to think how l long it’s been since my last post. I’ve been a bad blogger. Yet, still far more consistent than my previous attempts at the art. In my defense I’d like to say, I did write a blog, but its going to be a future guest post on The Prosers (whom you can find under the blogs I follow since I’m too lazy to look up the address).

For now, I offer you something more about life and less about writing.

I’ve been learning and relearning a lot while running a business. Mostly, “if only I knew then . . . ” So I thought, maybe I should share some of those for parents whose kids might be getting to the age where they could stand to learn economics (if they have chores, they’re old enough to learn).

1. I wish I’d developed a Vision to know where I wanted to be economically by the time I moved out on my own, about a 15 year outlook. What would have helped? Inject danger into your child’s ‘ok life.’ ”What if you no longer could live here? What if your friends did outlandish things like get married and move all around the country?” By putting the status quo in jeopardy mentally, you uncover what it is you actually want. Now you can start thinking about how to get there.

2. I wish I’d learned to judge my purchasing decisions based on the Real Value to me. A child, and even most adults, do not understand what money is. Money is a form of credit for the value of your time and energy. Dad/Mom get paid $$$ because someone else buys eight hours of their day for them to do the boss’s will. When a person makes a bad financial decision, it is not paper that is consumed, it is those hours already worked. What would have helped? Put the purchase in terms of what it cost to gain that “credit”. Assuming that you’ve explained there is no allowance (welfare), there are wages (reward for labor), ask the child “Is this candy bar worth a day of chores?” Or “Is this toy truck worth a weeks chores?” Also, when they’ve made their decision, help them to see how long the value lasts to them. Do they enjoy that item for a month? A week? A day? “You spent a days wages for a candy bar, and you enjoyed it for ten minutes. Was that worth it to you?” Better yet, ask them while they’re doing the chores. 

3. I wish I’d learned to think of wealth building as a skill. You do not reach your goal by chance, not even by providence alone (though certainly not without it). You do not reach that goal by those things anymore than chance and an open field make you a successful farmer. Like anything, you must engage it. You must labor over it. You must wisely consider it. Most people don’t like accounting, I don’t, but the accounting is the practice of knowing how much you have, where it is, and where it is going. I could teach a simple course on this, but basically you record your transactions. This enables you to see “Wow, I’m spending a third of my days earning groceries? Why is that?” eventually that will lead you to “Hey, I get a lot more food if I don’t buy boxed stuff with cartoon characters on the marketing.”

Accounting is a tool, that lets you look at your finances like a game, with that top down perspective looking for patterns. Then you look at the gameboard and ask “What can I do better?” For example, I used to buy tomatoes at Sam’s club. It was a decent price that could sustain the biz, but I kept buying there for two years before, I noticed that another store had them by the box. By then I bought three or more cartons per trip, which happened to equal about the cost of one of these boxes, but the box held about 11 times as much. Or, I realized I’ve been recycling my cans for two years, but wait! What’s their value in scrap? About two tanks of gas every three months!           

4. I wish I’d learned a percentages way of saving to reach my goal. That’s just my own name for it. I always knew saving was good, but that was too vague for me. Things that are vague are not good motivators. That’s why I get riled when people talk about a ethereal non-physical hazy ‘heaven’, if you can’t sink your teeth in it (and you are meant to) then you will not have any lasting drive to obtain it. So, here’s how I suggest learning to save:

            1. Understand how interest works, a handy equation like Future Value = Principle Value times one plus rate of return to the power of periods (years, months, days, etc . . . ), might come in handy. This equation by definition shows that a $1 saved today is worth more than a dollar in the future. What you do with your money today, is always more important than what you will do tomorrow.

            2. Figure out what you would expect to spend on an ongoing basis, in the future, for your largest liability purchases. I’m using a loose definition, but liability is what you bought on credit. That would be like your house, your car, etc. . . I would throw into that all kinds of insurance as well. I can explain it more fully, but the essence is that the services for which we ‘need’ insurance cost less than the premiums, I believe the insurance industry exists basically due to the brake down of community in the same way that social security and the lack of respect/compassion for the elderly are interrelated. No disrespect meant to those who work in that industry, it fills a void in the market, its just not the best solution.

            Take those payments for as many of those items as you’d like, then figure out what percentage of a future reasonable salary will be. It doesn’t matter too much about the disparity, because if you think you’re going to make 1 mil a year, you probably don’t think you’re going to live in a bare bones hole in the wall either. Just figure out the percentage of what you will plan to pay as itemized percentages of what you will make.

            Remember we’re talking to a child right now, so you’ll have to do the heavy lifting.

            Add in percentages for normal expenses like food, utilities, etc. Everything but luxury items. When I did this I ended up with about 50-75% expenditure. Now, teach to your child that this is the amount of every payday they should be saving.

            Why so high? This should go without further explaining, but some day your child will be paying for these things, so:

            1. You’re training them to live on less than they make, so when they need to it won’t hurt. And several other skills.

            2. Imagine wages (misnamed allowances), early jobs, monetary gifts, etc . . . all sitting in an appropriate investment vehicle (a savings account of course, a     physical liquid cache, and as they mature something like a short term bond) for fifteen years!

            3. By the time they need it, they will have lots of options. Say they’ve saved 25k (no reason that should be unthinkable). That’s enough for a starter house. An   investment house. More than enough for a car. Or depending on which state you live in, that could be enough to qualify for financial responsibility for minimum coverage so instead of paying auto insurance, the person could lock that chunk away in a bank, then pay himself premium payments. If he did that for 5 years (when his driver’s insurance would become ‘reasonable’ if he wanted to go that route), assuming about $600 a year for his self-premiums, his 25k could have become (through short term bonds on the premiums and an insiginificant savings return on the principle) $28,684. And that assumed that he never got a raise and that he wasn’t still allotting for other insurances.

The bottom line is that it is all about vision. That’s the main thing that I plan to teach my kids.  

 

 

Twitt
Filed in Everyday Trenchs | 3 Comments
Posted on March 29, 2012 by jsclark

Crash

Alisa and I were talking about Psalm 1 the other day. About how the word blessed is also the word happy both in English and in Hebrew (esher from Asher, like our son). We were talking about many of the like Psalms, they don’t say “blessed is the man who whatsoever he doeth prospers”. Psalm 84 doesn’t say “blessed is the man who goeth from strength to strength.” They both say things along the lines of “who trusteth in YHVH.” Not exactly, but its a visible theme. The blessing is not in the stuff, it’s not in the outcome, the blessing/the happiness is in the trusting, in where your well of strength is. It is the trusting that gives happiness because it frees you from worrying about things you cannot control and that have a long history of breaking, crashing, and burning.

Practical application: Say I wake up one morning and try to open my thumbdrive where I keep all my business files and MY WRITINGS FILES. An error message comes up and then shows you the contents as “0 objects”. I could be very distraught. Years of work gone. I might comfort myself by saying “I have backups, not current, but I can rebuild.” But there’s this skulking truth in the back of my mind . . .  “You think those can’t crash? Lulu, Smashwords, they can’t crash? A fire couldn’t take your hard copies? The Titanic is unsinkable?” I could spend all my energy worrying and safeguarding those files, but . . . none of that would make me happy.

So, I trust that what was lost, was lost for a good reason. YHVH has got my best in mind. And his hard drive never crashes =)

But, because God is the savior and the Author of authors, he loves the twist and the desperate save. So when the protag of this story having trusted and being blessed opened his thumbdrive on the same computer half an hour later. All files restored.

Loving. Heavenly. Father. For the win.

Twitt
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Posted on March 28, 2012 by jsclark

People are stories, Events are not

Lot’s been going on. Hint: that was my way of excusing myself from substantive blogging, substituting instead status updates on New Arbor Day.

There’s a couple subjects I’d like to tackle. A couple political ones, which I will not. My thoughts on how The Hunger Games was awesome, possibly approaching Dark Knight, but that should wait because this is a writing blog.

Working on Evangeline. I’m still deep in the muggy middle, trying to remember what this story is actually about. It was/is getting pretty murky. Being a story about an Empress being an Empress (as opposed to Princess Leia for example who never really does much princessing), the story calls for some politics and related intrigue. But . . . I’d never tried to do this before.

In my unpublished Qurav saga, I dabbled into some political/military intrigue but it was shown from the narrators perspective so you only had to know the outcome, not the mechanics. Here, the mechanics matter but, well, political mechanics are boring. I mean read the news, watch C-SPAN, look over someone’s record and 9 times out of 10 you’ll figure out that they’re lying/blowing smoke/or throwing rhetorical spaghetti and hoping something sticks. And that’s what makes it boring, they’re saying and doing stuff, but the outcome has nothing to do with it. Someone complains about a spending increase and then passes it anyway, for example. I was getting bored just trying to figure out how to write it.

But with the help of the Hatrackers, I realized that’s it’s boring because it doesn’t matter. The gyrations, the rhetoric, have nothing to do with what’s going to happen—it’s a performance for the constituents. [Aside: I'm not saying this is always true, but usually the louder the voice, the more likely.]

What does matter is the real aim. Sure, Mr. Bigmouth is screaming about funding issues when he had no problem with his pet bill having twice as many zeros, but he’s really saying this so that he can be “in” with the opposition. Later on, because he’s “one of them” he’ll be able to persuade some of his tagalongs, that gives him leverage with his opponents. “Hey, Joe, I know this bill is ok, but some of my guys aren’t really into it. If you could, you know, give me something I could argue to them, like . . . that port upgrade on Sentius Prime, I might be able to save your star attraction from going down in flames. You might even keep your seat next election.”

It’s the hidden story that is the story (or subplot at least), that’s the one that needs to be told.

Now in my scenario, the Empress does not need to be re-elected. Politically her position is safe . . . or is it? Regardless, for politics of any kind, like with Joe and Bigmouth one person has to find what another person wants as leverage. The lever is not important, it’s that it’s important to them.

Bigmouth doesn’t care about the bill, he cares about that port upgrade (behind that he cares about entrenching his own power base). That’s the key. C-SPAN is boring because what’s being said has a little-tangible connection to an outcome. The players don’t seem to care about the bill, it looks like a game. It’s the personal consequence that make this story. Recall the emotional impact of seeing Alderon destroyed in New Hope, compare that with Primrose in The Hunger Games. Alderon was destroyed, millions or billions of people died, but all we got is a blurb from Obi-Wan, it doesn’t stop what’s going on, and it doesn’t bring any more weight to the story then reminding us that the Empire is bad. Primrose is only put in danger, but she’s the baby sister of the main character, we know she cares and we care about her, so we also care about her sister. Primrose, though not present, shapes Katniss by giving her motive, then motivation because she promises to stay alive, she even causes her to bring out nobility in the way she treats other tributes. Alderon = little emotional impact because it was impersonal. Primrose = high emotional impact, very personal.

So to make politics, combat, a day at the office, a sports game, or writing a blog interesting it has to become about a person not an event. This blog is about whether or not J.S. Clark will be able to get through the muggy middle to finish Evangeline, because he’s working really really hard at becoming a writer who might be able to better provide for his family! Care, dang it!

Twitt
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Posted on March 8, 2012 by jsclark

New Arbor Day now through Lulu!

As promised (though later than intended), New Arbor Day is now available as a paperback! It retails for $18.99 so it’s a little pricier than an ebook, but what can you expect it’s a physical book! It does look nice if I do say so myself. Thanks to Stephanie Mangus for helping me with the cover (same as the ebook version). If I can scrape a couple pennies together I’ll have to get one!

Twitt
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Posted on March 4, 2012 by jsclark

Finally here! New Arbor Day! And a word about Smashwords formatting.

Well, it took much too long (I’m getting the hang of this so Evangeline should not take nearly as long). But my first published novel is now available through Smashwords for $3.99. A paperback version will be coming through Lulu in less than a week (hopefully). Unfortunately, my wallet is rather thin so I’ve been working without photoshop for sometime, and it’s pretty hard to make a cover without it. So I had the ebook version squared away, but my Lulu one might need some tweeking.

[Added Edit: What was I thinking? I just published my first novel and most of this blog was talking about Smashword's mechanics. What am I thinking?!?! I JUST PUBLISHED FOR SALE MY FIRST NOVEL! Suwweeet! That warrants a little more emotion doesn't it? It definitly feels great, to finally have it done and out there, imperfect and late, but out there. I hope everyone gets into their God given talents enough to experience that.

Oddly though. There's this kind of "after the holidays" feeling with it. As soon as it was done, it was like . . . ok . . . now what? That's not really a bad thing. I believe dwelling too long on it would be, living clothed. That's one of my new phrases, its a long story thinking about Adam (the first man, yes, that Adam). In a nutshell, Adam 'realized' he was naked, he didn't become naked. He just became conscious of it. What I glean from that is that, I bumble through my life constantly thinking; how will this make me look? Will I feel good if I do this? What will I do to change the way I feel about that? Oh look this person is talking, why don't they understand it's about me?

So I'm using the phrase living the "naked life" as asking God to help me not be concerned with my reflection upon myself. And part of that is not worrying about the condition I am in, how I look, how I feel, what about me, etc . . . but just being me and looking outward and upward. So, that's a long way to say, instead of getting this book done and wondering why I feel like it wasn't such a big deal now that it's done, I savor it for what it was and rather than hang on to it . . . I leave it behind. I'm not meant to stay here. Not meant to build my world on this point. It's just a flower beside the road. I'm not tied to it. Thanks New Arbor Day, it's been real. Now what? End of Edit]

For anyone, looking at using Smashwords. I would recommend taking abit before you get to the publishing stage, in fact as early on in your manuscript as possible, and studying their formatting guide. It’s not necessarily that you want to marry yourself to their format, but along the way I discovered there was a lot of work that I could have done ahead of time.

See, it turns out that in the era of the computer-does-it-all your basic word processor “Word” which seems the near universal choice of us writers, does a lot of little things for you that don’t make you a better writer and make formatting later more difficult. For example, we all know about auto-correct getting in your way and changing your correct word that it thinks is wrong into another correct word which is actually wrong.

Well, it does that sort of thing with a lot of things. Inserting formatting all over the place that will not help your epub aspirations later, so I would suggest turning it all off before you even start. Besides making the conversion later, but more importantly it forces you as the writer to know everything that is going on in your manuscript.

For example, until earlier would use a TAB for an indent, well since not every format will support a tab the same way, I have no idea what it will look like on Kindle vs Ipad vs Nook. But if I use the format/paragraph/indent, it’s ok. Or, before I would let word figure out whether it was body “normal” text or chapter/title “heading” text. Well, it gets the job done right so what’s the big deal? Well, later if I decide I want to change that text, I have to individually change all of the chapters and titles, but if I use the heading setting for all of them, then I can change ALL of them with one action instead of 39.

It’s something I should have known using Word as long as I have, but le sigh, I didn’t spend the time getting to know it so now I have to and it would have saved me a lot of time to know it earlier.

So, read the guide you might learn a thing or two.

One last thing. Go buy New Arbor Day by j.s. clark. Do it now.

Twitt
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