Don't pick up people's bricks...

How many times have you said to yourself: I should write a book? And then you confide your idea in someone else and they basically rain on your parade. They tell you things like: Writing a book is hard work. Are you sure you can do it? You don't know how to write. Do you know how difficult it is to get published? Why bother? Or worse, they say something that sounds somewhat supportive but you know they're just humoring you. Ouch! Suddenly that firestorm of enthusiasm you had moments before has been smothered by the bricks of negativity.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you CAN write a book! Of course, I may not know you and you may not know me, but I am familiar with that thrill of excitement at the prospect of writing your first book. And I also know what it feels like to have that enthusiasm crushed by someone's unsupportive comments. So, instead of picking up those heavy bricks and letting them weigh down your enthusiasm, cast them aside and leap upon them. Plant your flag of confidence in the center of that heap and shout to the heavens: I WILL write my book!

Don't let those naysayers distract you from what you believe deep down inside you are capable of. Their voices only reflect their own doubts and lack of self-confidence. Or, they are dinosaurs in their belief that self-publishing is a sign of the amateur. Nonsense! You don't need a degree to write. You simply need to tell a good story. And do so by using the tools you've gleaned from reading all those wonderful books throughout your life.

Self-publishing is the battering ram that breaks down the barrier between you and your right to have your very own published book. You, the writer, are one of many who are lining up to shove that battering ram forward and break down that wall once and for all. And if you think self-publishing can never be as successful as publishing the traditional way, just take a look at all these wonderful writers who started their careers as self-published authors:

John Grisham, James Joyce, Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe. And most recently, Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle. And make sure you read Amanda Hocking's success story. Fed up by all the rejections from traditional publishers she decided to self-publish on Amazon and went on to sell millions of copies of her Trylle Trilogy.

So hold your head up high, and start writing that book!

Till next time, keep reading and writing.

You CAN do it all...

You can be the writer, the editor, the cover designer, the publisher, AND the marketing specialist. We are fortunate enough to live in a day and age where we, the writers, have complete control over every aspect of our work. No more will you have to depend on an agent or a big house publisher to publish and promote your novel! Thanks to self-publishing venues like Amazon and Smashwords we now have the ability to do it all!

First off, do yourself a favor and write an entertaining story rich with vibrant characters and a plot so utterly suspenseful the reader won't be able to put your book down. You can do that by creating a likeable character with a worthy goal that can only be reached by overcoming a set of difficult obstacles. Remember to raise The Question in the reader's mind that will be answered by the end of your story. For more on this read my post How do you begin a story?

Now that you've written a wonderfully suspenseful story it's time to make sure you've dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's. An unedited book sticks out like a sore thumb, so don't put it out there until you're completely satisfied it would survive Miss Crabtree's red pen. It's not a bad idea to pass your manuscript around for second opinions. But, if you're a control freak like me, you'll learn how to edit your own work. Start with the basics: check out Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.

Most word processors have a search function that will allow you to search through your manuscript for words used incorrectly. One of the last checks I do, after exhaustively reading my manuscript over and over, is search for these words: there, their, they're, then, than, your, you're, it's, its, were, we're, sense, since, whose, who's. Without fail, I always find one or two that have been used incorrectly. We are human and therefore we make mistakes! But this final word search will help polish your manuscript and get it ready to show the world!

Now what about your book cover? The cover is the first impression the reader's going to have of your book. It should give the reader an idea of what kind of story lies between those pages. I recommend checking out books in your genre to get an idea of the style you should be aiming for. For example, many Young Adult books use real photos of handsome teens in various poses. Middle Grade books, however, tend to be more colorful and have cartoonish characters in playful poses.

If you don't know any graphic artists or professional photographers don't sweat it. There are plenty of tutorials on the web that will give you pointers on how to design your book cover all by yourself! CreateSpace is a popular one and is in partnership with Amazon.com, so once you design your book cover and format your manuscript it's a cinch to upload them to the site and start selling your book!

Luckily I have a couple of very talented friends who are willing to design my book covers. But at the same time I've been learning the basics of Adobe Photoshop with the goal of one day taking over this aspect of the book creating process. It's a lot of fun and not that difficult to learn. Mastering the many tricks and techniques in Adobe Photoshop will put you that much closer to doing it ALL!

Okay, you've written a suspenseful novel, free of errors, and with a superbly inviting cover that not only entices your readers to snatch it from the shelf but also clues them in on what kind of story they'll be reading. You're ready to publish! But where do you start?

First off, you shouldn't have to fork out any up front money! CreateSpace, the publisher I use, allows you to publish and make your book available for free. The customer pays a price that is decided by you and, once your book is purchased, you earn a royalty--which is equal to PRICE - COST. For example, if your book is priced at $15 and the cost to print one is $5 then you'll earn a $10 royalty!

Also, digital books are the hot item these days and there are several venues to upload and sell the digital version of your book. Among my favorites are Amazon (Kindle), Barnes and Noble (Nook), and Smashwords. In fact, most of my sales have come from the Kindle version! It would be crazy to ignore such a quickly growing market, so jump on the digital bandwagon!

That's it! Your pride and joy is out there in both paperback and digital version. Now all you have to do is kick back and wait for all those sales to come rolling in! Wrong! It's time to put on another hat. You must market and promote your book. But how? It's not like you have a gazillion dollars to buy up ad space in the New York Times or plaster your book title on hundreds of billboards.

The first stop: Social Media. Facebook and Twitter can be very helpful in giving your sales the little nudge it needs at the start. Encourage friends and family to buy your book, and once they do, encourage them to write a review for Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This will help your sales and your book will stand out to potential customers perusing the digital bookshelf.

Get involved with the author communities at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Goodreads.com. Networking is key to selling more books. Everywhere you go you should be talking up your book. Check out the local book store in your town and ask the owners if they'd be willing to take your book on consignment. Organize book signings in your town. Encourage local newspaper columnists to do a story on your new book. The key to selling more books is to talk it up whenever you can and wherever you go.

Till next time, keep reading and writing.

How do you begin a story?

The basic idea of a story is quite simple: Character A wants something and the story describes his or her journey to get that something. But it’s never a straight line, is it? That would be boring, wouldn’t it?

Instead, the story is filled with obstacles and secondary characters whose sole purpose is to thwart Character A’s progress. Now this is all pretty basic stuff but it’s essentially the gist of every story. And it’s the reason why the reader keeps reading—if, of course, the story is told well and Character A is sympathetic and his or her plight is worthy enough to hold the reader’s interest.

Okay, now that we understand the barebones of a story, where do we begin? For me, Character A is the most important ingredient to our story. If our character is likeable and his or her goal is worthy and the path to that goal appears fraught with interesting diversions that keep the reader guessing at Character A’s success, then you might have captured the reader’s interest for the duration of your story.

I say might because what happens along the way can determine whether the reader stays interested or lays the book down and grabs the remote. How do you keep the reader interested, you ask? Simple. Always have several unanswered questions lingering in the air until the very end of the story. And as you tell your story you answer those questions, one by one, while throwing newer questions out there for the reader to ponder.

Example: The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins is a genius. The main question in the first book is: Will Katniss Everdeen die in the Hunger Games? And since Katniss’s character is so well liked from the get go, we’re on tenterhooks the entire time. The next question: Will Katniss choose Gale or Peeta? And this question remains throughout all three books. Also note that Stephenie Meyer famously used the love triangle technique in the Twilight saga. Team Edward or team Jacob, right?

The point is clear: Build a strong, likeable, sympathetic character. Then give your character a goal that is interesting. Katniss’s goal was to survive the Hunger Games. And her goal raised the question for the reader: Will she survive? And the reader just couldn’t put the book down until that question was answered.

So build that character. Come up with your main question to hold the reader’s interest. And then think of all the ways you can make your character stumble along the way, while raising other interesting questions to hold the reader’s interest.

Till next time, keep reading and writing.

Write what you like...

How many times have you heard the advice: Write what you know? Well, I’m here to tell you I rarely follow that advice. Sure it makes sense for John Grisham—he’s a lawyer and therefore writes legal thrillers. Exciting stuff! But I’ve worked in retail most of my life and I’d rather poke needles into my eyes than write about obnoxious customers roaming the aisles in search of the next clerk to verbally abuse.

I’d rather write about places and subjects that are new to me. It gives me a chance to explore areas I’ve never ventured into. I’d rather spend my free time fathoming the possibilities of other worlds and the fascinating creatures I might find there.

And sometimes I get to research occupations unfamiliar to me. For instance, I have a short story called The Plumber and the Goat Sucker about a plumber who gets called to remove a slimy alien creature from his ex-wife’s toilet. But I know nothing about plumbing! Or ex-wife’s, for that matter. Goat suckers, however, are not a problem.

Time to do the research. One of my favorite sites to peruse is howstuffworks.com. I now know more about a toilet than I ever thought possible. And the hour or so I spent absorbing the intricate movements of levers and floats during the flushing process totally paid off. My character came across as a bona fide plumber.

So don’t get boxed in by the write what you know mantra. Instead, explore subjects that interest you. Revel in the research. Grow with your character. Every story should be an exciting journey—not just for the reader, but for the writer as well.

For now, keep reading and writing.

Thoughts on writing...

Writing isn’t just a hobby to me. It’s part of my daily routine. Like brushing my teeth or combing my hair, I couldn’t imagine a day without putting words on paper. Writing is my bowl of ice cream. It’s my Christmas morning and I’m eight years old. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up.

But getting started isn’t always easy. I have to sort of psyche myself out before I can begin pounding away at the keyboard. Everything has to be perfect. My workspace has to be clean and tidy—the room must be quiet and the cat off in her room. There can’t be a single dirty dish in the sink. I know…OCD, right?

I’ve learned not to stare at a blank page. You have to start typing. That’s the only way you’ll get anything accomplished. Once I have the protagonist, the setting, and what it is he or she wants to accomplish, I begin pummeling my character with obstacles to overcome. Soon other characters join in—some helpful and some downright nasty. But all serve to either help the protagonist along or stand in his or her way. They are the story.

Hemingway says to stop writing when you know what’s going to happen next. But I can’t do that. I stop when either my eyes get too tired or life interrupts me. Or, the dreaded but all so real, writer’s block rears its terrifying face. Writer’s block for me is when my character arrives at a fork in the road and the right direction is unclear. That’s when I stop and think about other things. I usually have to sleep on it.

The next day I do my best to continue where I left off. What about you? What does writing mean to you? By the way, my eyes are getting tired so this looks like a good place to stop.

For now, keep reading and writing.

Lift Off

Why write? I ask myself this question sometimes. Why do I write stories? What good does it do me to sit down and pull out what little hair I have left?

The answer I come up with is the same answer to the question: Why read? I do it for entertainment. To satisfy curiosity. To learn. To explore. To escape.

Though reading is a lot easier and takes little effort. Writing, on the other hand, can be both excruciatingly painful and terribly satisfying. That final sentence that ends months and months of carefully weaving the perfect story makes all that brain pain so worth it!

I think anybody can write. If you can read, you can write. You learn the elements of storytelling by reading good stories. Just remember, you write to entertain--yourself and your reader. So avoid clichés and easy way outs. Your character should go through hell before things work out at the end. Don't be easy on him or her. Where's the fun in reading about a guy who gets everything he wants at every turn?

Have fun but don't bore the reader with mundane tasks. Each chapter should have a purpose that propels the story forward and launches your character toward his ultimate goal. We don't want to read all the tedious details of Jack's life: how he brushes his teeth, takes his shower, clips his toenails. Please get to the point. Unless Jack's a werewolf and those toenails are a foot long, don't mention them.

Later I'll talk about the two very different approaches to novel writing.

For now, keep reading and writing.