Tag: writing advice

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Publishing: My Nervous Breakdown in Ten Steps

There’s more to the writing and publishing process than swilling coffee and banging your head against a keyboard. Those caffeine injections behind the eyeball do help immensely, though. (Ask your doctor.)

Here’s how I do the deed, from words to action.

My Flowchart of Tears and Triumph is as follows:

Compose in Scrivener > revisions > Grammarly > Scrivener > Google Docs for Editor & Betas > Word Doc > Vellum > publish > exalt briefly > repeat until they nail they casket shut, squelching my screams of protest that I am immortal.

The Ex Parte Press breakdown :

  1. Scrivener is a writing program I’ve used for years. The writing interface is easy and intuitive. I love how I can jump around in a document so I can find what I need quickly. I can’t make such easy changes in a Word document. Microsoft Word was designed for business writing, not quickly finding details in full-length novels. Moving chapters around is also easy, should you feel the need. As easy as writing in Scrivener is, publishing with this program takes patience as you climb the learning curve. Since it can publish anything from manuscripts to movie scripts, the details are more complicated than the software I now use to format and publish. (See Vellum, Step 7.)
  2.  How many times do I revise a manuscript? That depends on the project. My first draft is about getting the story out of my head and on the page. Character work and action comes pretty easily to me on the first go. Tweaking the plot details and finding more jokes tends to come with the second draft. I want the dialogue to sparkle so I tinker with that quite a bit. When revising feels like an exercise in procrastination, it’s time to move on to the next stage.
  3. Grammarly is an online spellchecker. I’ve tried ProWritingAid and found that it gave me too many false positives. Grammarly doesn’t give me too much or too little to consider. No matter how many revisions I’ve done, I read the book again in Grammarly. No online spellcheck is perfect. If my typo is “he packed it” instead of “he picked it,” Grammarly won’t catch that mistake. (I also have Autocrit but that’s not part of my regular publishing process yet. I’m still evaluating it so that’s a post for another day.)
  4. Once a draft is corrected in Grammarly, I paste it back to Scrivener a chapter at a time. That’s one way of getting a sense of my progress so I can try to warn my editor how late I’m going to be with the manuscript. I write every day and it’s serious business. However, my editor understands that I need to have the book well developed before I show it to anyone. I’m self-conscious enough as it is and, as she says, “Some books need to simmer.”
  5. I post the whole thing to Google Docs for my editor (Gari at strawnediting.com) and my beta reader. Sometimes I have more than one beta reader, sometimes not. I’ve been very lucky to find editorial support from sharp people who dig what I do. Editorial support from people who understand your genre and were fans first are aces.
  6. Once the editorial suggestions and corrections are made, I weep profoundly at all that I missed. Then I download the novel as a Word doc and take a look at it one more time, basically scanning for red squiggles and spot checking. Something will be missed. My first job in Toronto was in production at Harlequin in the ’80s. There were eight levels of editorial staff then. Very few publishing houses can afford that now and fewer still pay for that much input anymore. Even with eight editorial monkeys massaging the manuscript, there could be as many as six to eight little corrections to be made. In the end, I want as clean a presentation as can be. My people do not disappoint.
  7. Uploading to Vellum is quick and easy and some of the interface is similar to Scrivener. Formatting and book design with Vellum is a joy. I’m fussy and I’ve done some pretty tricky things with certain design elements that would be very challenging without this software. When I’m done constructing the formatting for the book I have files ready to upload to sales platforms.
  8. I publish exclusively to Amazon at the moment but that will change in 2019 as I expand my options. (The why of all that is a ranty blog post for another time.)
  9. When I hit publish on my first book in 2010, I took two weeks off to recover. I poured libations to the publishing gods and rested on my laurels. As I’ve progressed with publishing plots, plans, policies and practices I take less time to rest after all those p-words. There’s too much to do to enjoy the feeling of having published more than an hour or two. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes of elation. That would sound sad, pathetic and Sisyphean except I’m always excited about writing the next book. I jump on the next project until the tale is polished to excellence and I’m sick of it. As long as I’m satisfied readers will love the book, live in the world I create for them and laugh in the right spots, I’m happy.
  10. Being a novelist now is lot like being a pulp writer in the ’40s and ’50s. I have to write the next book so maybe someone will pay attention to this one, that last one or, preferably, all my work. When people ask me how it’s going I say, “It’s like always having homework, but I love it and I get to work in a coffee shop without wearing an apron. This is the writing life.”

Hot Extras:

Writing and publishing is not a race but it is a marathon. When searching for editorial support, find people who notice your clever turns of phrase and aching awesomeness. Editing is more than scolding what you did wrong. When you see what your audience likes, you get clues on how to repeat those awesome feats of prose in the future.

By the time I’m deep into making editorial decisions with other people, I’m becoming sick of the book. A cheery LOL in the margin is energizing and the odd “Attaboy!” gives me the strength to persevere and run to the finish line.

Some authors claim they want their manuscript torn apart savagely. I suspect those folks are either lying, posing, preaching, masochistic or maybe they’re just really bad writers who need a spanking. It’s true that you could learn a lot from a thoughtful savaging from a good editor but eventually, you’ll tire and find an editor who treats you like a human being with feelings. The editorial process is best when it’s a collaborative effort of the likeminded. I do learn from my editor and I know she’s trying to make my books (even!) better. She never makes me feel worse about the process than I do already.

I mention this because I have met editors who think they’re in the mock and scold business. And yes, too many of them worked for traditional publishing houses and held the authors in their stable in contempt.

Expectations:

Gari keeps a style guide written just for me. My idiosyncrasies include:

  • No Oxford commas unless required for clarity. (Yes, I’m one of those monsters who fails to worship your blessed Oxford comma. Gather your torches and pitchforks and chase me around the village.)
  • I’m not a fan of commas before but. Commas are speed bumps. As long as it’s consistent and clear, cool. I do not want to slow the reader down too much on their merry way to turning the page toward another visceral word punch.
  • One editor (not Gari) once insisted that I describe my characters in exhaustive detail. I refuse. Readers will meet us at least halfway on this. I once taught a writing class in which I read one of my short stories. That done, I polled the class as to what the main character looked like. Beyond being male and almost thirty, there was no description in the text. Despite this, everyone had a clear picture in mind as to what the character looked like. The pictures in their minds varied immensely but that did not matter to them. The guy had a live skunk in the back seat of his car and a dead ex-friend in the trunk! No one was shortchanged.
  • I’m Canadian. I use American spelling conventions because most of my readers live in the United States. UK readers don’t seem to mind but some American readers take offense if the word color has a u in it. (Probably a patriotism thing?)
  • Our style guide is generally The Chicago Manual of Style until I come across something that feels like it should be an exception to a rule. Things change. Internet used to be capitalized and I thought that was stupid. The CMoS now accepts internet. I assume they noted my objections. You’re welcome.

~ Hi! I’m Robert Chazz Chute. Thanks for reading this far down! You’re a keener, aren’t you? I like that! Maybe you’re willing to go a little farther and meet me in
Zihuatanejo, Red?

About me: I escaped the 9 – 5 for the 24/7/365. I construct apocalyptic epics and suspenseful crime fiction. My next killer thriller, The Night Man, will be released soon. Please subscribe to be alerted when Easy’s adventure in darkness is available. Thanks!


More about The Night Man: Wounded in Afghanistan, Earnest “Easy” Jack returns home to rural Michigan to train guard dogs in the family business. His high school sweetheart is on the run from a very bad husband. His father is kidnapped by a dirty cop. Easy thought his war was over. Trapped in the middle of America, the Night Man is still in a war zone.

BONUS!

Are you a fan of my work? If you dig my sling, please leave a review. Even better, join my Inner Circle on Facebook. My Facebook group is Fans of Robert Chazz Chute. I share more about the writing life and assorted fun and nonsense daily.

Membership has its privileges: Fans get free ebooks to review and, with your permission, you will be entered in a raffle to get your name on a character in a future novel. Join us here and exalt at length. 

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The Flash: Five Surprises for a New Fan

I started watching The Flash on Netflix as a stress reliever. I wasn’t too invested at first. In fact, given the names of the villains and the source material, I mistook the series for something breezy to help me chill out. I was wrong. Though much of the dialogue is jokey, the characters are earnest and there’s a whole lot of death going on for a CW show. The show is not just bubblegum for the eyes, after all. I picked up on a few details which made it better than I expected (and useful to writers.)

Here’s what I learned from The Flash:

1. The Art of the Cliffhanger


These writers are the masters of cliffhangers that advance the plot. If this were a novel, each chapter would be a page-turner. They often throw in a double cliffhanger.

It’s great for Netflix viewing because the narrative makes you want to surf straight into the next episode to find out what happens next. Someone will curse imaginatively and shout that they hate cliffhangers. I know. The details of dealing intelligently with cliffhangers is a blog post all its own. I’ll give that objection a short answer here, though: We’ve been trained by decades of serial television to endure cliffhangers. Everybody hates pop ups on websites, too. But they work.

BONUS ANSWER: Lots of people say they hate cliffhangers but they will be back after the obligatory performative rage quit. It wasn’t the cliffhangers that drove people to wander away from The Walking Dead. It was the brutality of Glen’s death and the relentlessly grim outlook that left viewers questioning the value of surviving the zombie apocalypse. Since the producers of The Walking Dead seem to be bringing hope back, I suspect the show will regain some viewers who walked away.

SIDE NOTE:

The Flash springs from comics, obviously. I used to collect comics but I didn’t understand the art of comic book writing very well until recently. I aspire to write a graphic novel based on some of my previously published work. In Words into Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis, the author points out that a truly well-written comic has a cliffhanger at every turn of the page. That could be twelve cliffhangers for one twenty-four page story! Writing comics suddenly sounds more daunting, doesn’t it?

2. Plot and Plan Long Story Arcs

On the surface, it was a little too easy to dismiss a show that kept hammering a couple of solutions hard: “Run, Barry, run!” and “Believe in yourself.” I began watching carelessly so I popped into the show midway through the first season, just for a taste. Later, after watching the rest of the run, I circled back to the beginning. That’s when it hit me how much forethought seems to be involved. I’m impressed.

There are seeds planted early on that grow to mighty trees later. In the first season, the camera pauses on a shot of a cage labeled Grodd. The gorilla is a fixture later but the writers don’t answer all questions immediately.

If you’ve ever taken a writing class or watched comment threads devolve into insanity, you’ve seen someone demand that all the answers come front loaded and quickly. Long story arcs are for readers and viewers who like a little mystery. Quick answers are for impatient people who aren’t losing themselves to the narrative (AKA not in the reading/viewing demographic. If you’re into it, you’ll wait.)

I’m guessing that since the creators of the TV show had decades of original material to draw from, they could plot and plan far ahead using the source material. Sometimes you can get there the way Breaking Bad found their ending: pantsing it. Still, I do appreciate that the creators of The Flash appear to have planned well ahead (even if they didn’t).


3. The Art of Raising Stakes


After saving the planet (or at least Central City) from utter destruction over and over, you might finish a season of The Flash and think: Where can they go from here? The villains get even more interesting as the series progresses. They become more dangerous and meaner. The characters you’ve grown to love, or at least like, suffer more. When the hero is up against a villain and you’re thinking that the good guys can’t possibly win, you’ve got a compelling story.

SIDE NOTE: You know that famous hallway fight scene in Daredevil? Of course, you do. On The Flash, Neil Sandilands as The Thinker has a scene where he uses a conglomeration of powers to take out a SWAT team that is epic. When they composed that epic fight scene, I’m sure they had the Daredevil scene in mind. It’s a lot of fun.


4. Fearlessness


The Flash is a series that isn’t afraid to be complex. You know a time travel plot is difficult to deal with when you have actors drawing timelines and flowcharts as if they’re teaching metaphysical physics. But they’re also brave enough to be silly and good for them for having fun with it. If Christopher Nolan had more of a sense of humor, he could be the greatest director of his generation instead of one of the greatest.

With The Flash‘s multiverse packed with so many versions of one character, it is a joy to see Tom Cavanaugh play Harrison Wells et al in many hilarious iterations. He goes from cold and deadly to a stereotypically comedic German scientist to Matthew McConaughey parody to a French detective named Sherloque. When Vibe charges off to save the day, Tom Cavanaugh gets to deliver the gleeful line: “Good luck storming the castle!” Classic!

SIDE NOTE: The actor Tom Cavanaugh is a Canadian national treasure. Candice Patton is so gorgeous I’m not absolutely positive she is real. She might be CGI.

BACK TO THE POINT, ROB:

I appreciate The Flash‘s flexibility of tone so much. Too many shows (and books) have one note and hit it as if they’re playing triangle in the high school’s junior band. I want ups and downs and loops on my story’s roller coaster. The Flash delivers. As a guy who dared to include whales as part of the solution to a zombie apocalypse, I love that.

 

5. Heart and Relatability.

It’s interesting to see how the characters have evolved on The Flash. When the series begins, Jesse L. Martin plays Detective Joe West a little like he’s still NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order. Later, we learn he’s a big softie. In his first appearance, Wentworth Miller plays bad guy Leonard Snart more seriously. Later on, his portrayal is looser, more fun and unexpected. It’s as if the show runner took the actor aside and said, “Have more fun with it.” And so we have more fun watching.

I love James Bond movies and I read all the books, too. However, that character is so iconic, he doesn’t change. He could be an android programmed with a very narrow range of emotions and a list of one-liners. I like when fiction is more connected and characters develop over time. History affects the future (or on The Flash, the future can rewrite the past).

Characters develop and change on this show. They don’t have to change much to be compelling but their ability to change over time makes them human and relatable. The transformation doesn’t have to be a preachy, “I learned this” moment, either. When Cisco hates Barry for a while, he doesn’t really have a big “I forgive you” moment. He just does what we all do when a good friend pisses us off: We get over it eventually.

What makes a hero? Barry Allen believes in empathy and the willingness to sacrifice. What’s more interesting is that he does not save the world alone. Unlike most other superheroes, he can’t do it alone. That’s where the heart of the show comes through. They’re friends. They’re family. They get annoyed with each other but love keeps them together and in the fight for the rest of us.

I know. It’s just a TV show and some of the lesser villains can be childish. However, this moment in history feels like a great time to be childlike. We need more empathy and hope. This is a great time for love so strong it keeps us together despite the fact that sometimes we hate each other.

We all want to be heroes but we can’t do it alone. I love the writing life, but sometimes I feel very disconnected from our current reality. I came to The Flash looking for a distraction from the endless scroll of bad news in my news feed. I grew to appreciate the writing. Then I forgot about the mechanics, left my stress behind and simply enjoyed watching the show. I didn’t expect to become a fan but I did.

P.S. I saw Grant Gustin on Glee before he sang on The Flash. Yes, the star of the show sure can sing. The musical team-up with Supergirl star, Melissa Benoist was a delight. However, the actor who plays Cisco is a singer as well as an actor. Carlos Valdes oozes charm all over the place. The show made it to its 100th episode on December 4th. I hope Carlos gets to sing a bunch on the show before The Flash finishes its run. 

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Authors & Publishers: How to Make a Media Kit Part 2

For more writing & publishing advice, you could go nuts and buy Crack the Indie Author Code. Just sayin’.

Part One of this article and points 1 -7 appear at ChazzWrites.com. For a sample media kit, please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter in the link to the right or send your email address to expartepress at gmail dot com and I’ll email the pdfs to you anyway. However, if you mention your website in the newsletter sign-up form, I’ll give your page a plug in the All That Chazz Podcast. I’m easy that way.

Now, on to more fun yet crucial points about creating a killer media kit: 

8. Some people think email is easier to delete so they send boxes to media outlets. Stick with email. You’ll never hear from a bunch of the journalists you approach. Printing out a fancy press kit and trying something UPS-delivered with a red ribbon on it is not worth the expense. Better to hit them up for editorial coverage several times through the year and do it cheaply instead of betting it all on one killer package that has to hit now to pay off. Save some of your chips for the next roll. Seriously, please save your money. A document that arrives in the mail is just as easy to dump in the garbage can beside the desk. If the package is perfumed in any way, you just went from quirky and interesting to creepy stalker.

9. Unless you’ve cured cancer and have been keeping it a secret from the world’s medical community until now, don’t pay for a huge media release from a press release propagator. I tried it and, besides jumping through their annoying hoops, it had all the amusing charm of throwing money out the window of a moving car. It was expensive, had no measurable impact and their sales team kept calling until I got mean.

10. Keep the press release short and to the point. More than one page is a strain and a mistake. If you’ve got too much to share it will get lost so use it in your catalogue page. Bullet points are awesome if you can fit your content to your pitch. A solid FAQ page with lots of white space is an alluring alternative. Don’t send a video on CD. There’s a good chance the production values will be too low and they’ll also be afraid that if they watch it, they’ll die in seven days. (Give them a Youtube link instead if you feel your video is that strong.)

11. Provide some detail in your author bio that establishes you as an expert: Awards won, relevant job experience, books written or other media in which you’ve appeared. Keep it short (or go longer if it tells a story. Rags to riches is good. Plucky, spunky and coming up will probably have to do.) You have an advantage over all the other press releases your target will receive today: Every reporter wants to publish  a book, too, so they want to meet you and find out how you cheated, lied and took enough drugs to get this stupidly quixotic. 

12. Think visually and use images: Luckily, this is where your killer book covers come in. To make sure the attachments got opened so they could see and appreciate all my awesome covers, I used this ad designed by Kit Foster of KitFosterDesign.com at the bottom of my cover letter: 

13. Provide your name, contact numbers, email address and websites. It’s a really good idea to remember this point so they can contact you for the interview unless you are wicked clairvoyant. 

14. When they interview you, be positive and chipper and helpful. It’s not in the bag until it’s in print or on air, so pretend you’re an extrovert. Later you can go back to being miserable in private. I am.

15. Hit multiple news outlets over time. It’s unlikely one media event will sell a lot of books. You could get a bit of a bump depending on the venue, but awareness takes time. Sales usually require repeated encounters as you permeate the world’s consciousness. Don’t bet everything on one roll of the dice and keep your expectations low to very conservative. Success always pleasantly surprises me.

16. Someone will be unhappy about your apparent success, however deceptive appearances may be. Ignore them. Several someones may contact you to write their book idea (as happened to me after a much-publicized contest win.) Run away screaming at full speed with your hands over your head. Change phone numbers, and country of residence if they persist.

17. Remember that you don’t do this for the fame and riches. It’s all about the writing and the orgies with the Roman toga theme. Get back to the keyboard and TO-GA! TO-GA! TO-GA!

~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of a bunch of cool, helpful and suspenseful books that you can buy here. How suspiciously convenient.

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Freebies, Giveaways & Mission Possible

Shower yourself in free ebooks & hear two chapters of Bigger Than Jesus! My hardboiled crime novel of twisty suspense is free to you from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9. That’s Book One in The Hit Man Series, but wait, there’s more!  

Sign up for the newsletter at AllThatChazz.com and answer a question from Higher Than Jesus (Book 2 is only $3.99 as an ebook)  and you’ll get another free ebook.

There are similar offers in the back of my writing guides, too: Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire. Sign up for the newsletter and answer a qualifying question correctly and you could get free coupons to read the ebook of Self-help for Stoners and/or Sex, Death & Mind Control.

Anyone who signs up for the newsletter gets a plug on the podcast. Jordanna East of Journey of Jordanna East and she got a plug this week. 

Podcast sponsor: Kit Foster of KitFosterDesign.com

Intro clips: Mitt Romney, Charlie Chaplain from The Great Dictator, Barack Obama

Author reading on this podcast: “Mission Possible” and “What Will Stop Him”