GENREALITY

The best writing advice I ever received was actually reading a lot.  I think that’s absolutely the best way to prepare to be a writer.

I never took a creative writing course.  It wasn’t a big subject at West Point. When I was there, everyone got a BS.  With no major.  But we did have a concentration and mine was in psychology.  I feel psychology is the best subject for writers to study, because you have to create realistic characters.  The hardest part of developing a character is having a character’s blind spot be realistic.  Something about them that’s wrong, but they are blind to it.

My first draft of the Novel Writers Toolkit was 11 pages long.  Everything I knew about writing after publishing 4 books, fit into 11 pages.  Consciously knew.  What I had to do was move stuff from my subconscious to my conscious as well as learn more.  I just rewrote the Toolkit this past year with the latest.  I’ve learned more about writing in the past two years than in my first 20.

I don’t have an MFA; I have a Masters in Education.  My first writers conference was in 1995 and I was a presenter with four books published.  I took some writing courses.  I even took some graduate levels writing courses.  In one, the esteemed visiting writer came in.  He told us to take out a piece of paper and write what we felt.  I wrote:  “I feel like I’m wasting my time taking this course since you haven’t taught us anything.”  Needless to say, that didn’t go over well.

I’m actually not a fan of critique groups. Often the blind leading the blind.  And egos can get in the way.  Also, a novel is too big for most critique groups.  I’m a fan of beta readers.

I’m actually not sure, off the top of my head, what the “best” advice I received was.  I actually think it’s more important that I’ve had an open attitude and been willing to learn and change.  After teaching writing for two decades the biggest problem I see is that you can give the “best” advice in the world, but if someone isn’t willing to listen and change, it’s worthless.

I think we have to take every piece of advice we get by factoring in who is saying it.  Also, to be honest, writers often lie.  Hmm.  That was a weird sentence.  But I’ve heard keynote speeches and I’m thinking to myself “bullshit”.  Most of my work is sitting at the keyboard, staring aimlessly into space, with some drool coming down the side of my mouth.  Thinking is work.

The worst advice?  That part of my brain that tells me constantly I’m crazy to be writing for a living.  It’s an insane business.  It’s better now that I’m indie, but I also have to work two jobs now.  I saw on an informal list where I was one of 22 indie authors who’ve sold over 200,000 eBooks at Self-Publishing Success Stories.  I’m actually up to around 600,000 now.  That’s not many indies who are selling a lot.  It’s a tough job and if I had had any common sense, I’d have done something different.

But it’s the best job in the world.

Also, I don’t understand those people who let what someone says discourage them.  I love the classic story, told in various formats:  The young man wanted to be a great violinist.  The master came to town and the young man wrangled an audition with him.  He played his heart out.  When he was done he asked the master what he thought.  The master said:  “Not enough fire.”

The young man was crushed.  He quit the violin and pursued a different career.  Many years later he met the master at a function.  He told him about the audition and the result.  The master was surprised and said:  “I tell everyone that.  If my saying that was enough to stop you, then you really didn’t have enough fire.”  No one can stop you, but you.

What about you?  What’s the best thing you’ve heard and the worst?

My first novel was published in 1991.  It doesn’t seem that long ago to me, but I suppose it is a while. I wrote my first draft of The Novel Writer’s Toolkit in 1994 after four books published.  It was all of 11 pages long.  That was the extent of what I consciously knew about writing a novel.  In 2009, I wrote my first draft of Warrior Writer, a book designed to teach writers how to succeed as authors after my frustration over the lack of education for writers and all my experiences.  I still have not had a single response from an editor or agent showing me what their formal training program is for an author they sign or contract with.  In today’s fast moving marketplace, writers can’t afford to learn like I did—the hard way.

Over the years, I rewrote the Toolkit every six months, adding all I was learning about writing.  The Toolkit ended up being 80,000 words long and was published by Writer’s Digest in 2001.  It earned out in less than six months and had a great run.  I got the rights backs and re-wrote it one more time, adding all I have learned since 2011.

Last year I updated both books extensively, partly because I’ve grown as a writer. But also because today’s publishing environment has changed and with that change has come the ability to update books to meet the changing needs of today’s successful writers.  The Novel Writers Toolkit now focuses 100% on the craft of writing.  I removed the business section because that belongs in the other book, formerly Warrior Writer, which I renamed Write It Forward: From Writer To Successful Author.

One key thing I added in the Toolkit was a section on Conflict, especially the Conflict Box.  I have to say I believe I’ve learned more about writing in the past two years than in my first twenty.

In the Toolkit, I teach how to answer key questions about your book including:

Can you state what your book is about in one sentence?

Do you clearly have conflict lock between protagonist and antagonist?

Do you know where your ‘camera’ is when you write each scene?  i.e. Point of View?  Do you know when you’ve done a cut?

Do you know all your characters’ primary motivations, their motivation levels, and their blind spot?

Write It Forward is the sum of what I’ve learned in 20 years of traditional publishing and two years as an indie author and publisher.  I made many mistakes over the years and I wrote this book to keep others from making the same mistakes.  I’ve included where I believe publishing is now and where it’s going.  I also focus on helping writers sort out their own path to Oz, given that each of us are starting from a different place and our vision of Oz is unique to each of us.

For example, can you answer these questions, which Write It Forward poses as exercises and then teaches you how to answer:

What is my strategic goal as a writer?  Where do you want to be in five years?

I’ll do anything to succeed as a writer, except don’t ask me to do . . . . ?

My greatest fear as a writer is?

How high is your ‘imposter syndrome’ as a writer?

Are you in command of your writing career or are you counting on an agent or editor?

Do you know where you stand on the three P’s: Platform, product and promotion?

Both books focus on building the complete writer:  one who masters the craft of writing into being an artist, and one who develops their work into being a career writer.

A writer just can’t afford to learn things the “hard way” by trial and error.  It’s also grossly inefficient.

I used to make it a point to not read my reviews on Amazon.  There were several reasons for that:

1. As any student of sampling knows, the people who post reviews are not a fair representative of the reading public.
2. Anyone who has ever purchased anything from Amazon can post a review, but that doesn’t mean they purchased the book they’re reviewing.  That makes it the Wild West.
3. Some reviewers spam all of an author’s books.  Excuse me, but if you didn’t like one book, why go paste in that same exact blistering review on all the books that author has had published?
4. Some authors spam other author books as a means of promoting their own book.  These people need to grow up.
5. Customers unhappy that a book hasn’t yet been published on Kindle often post one star reviews of the print book, as a form of protest.  All that does is hurt the author, who often has little control over when and what form the publisher releases the book.
6. One star reviews seem to carry more weight than Five star reviews.

As a publisher, I now I force myself to go over the Amazon every once in a while and check the reviews, especially to see if there are any formatting, editing or other fixable problems.  We see a definite correlation between lost sales and scathing reviews, but not great reviews and positive sales.  One aw-shit seems to outweigh one atta-boy.

Some suggestions:

1. Only people who buy the book, and that version, have the right to review it.
2. Reviewers should not be anonymous.  This prevents the bullying and spamming that is prevalent.  It also allows the author/publisher, to address the problem if need be, such as technical problems or downloads.  And thank readers who really enjoy something.  The future of publishing is an author-reader relationship, but we can’t relate with people who aren’t identified.
3. Allow people to recant their reviews if technical problems have been resolved.

A final suggestions: If you really enjoyed a book, go, review it. Review the format you bought it in. Remember, a typo is different from bad formatting and bad formatting isn’t necessarily the fault of the author, or even the publisher. Technology does fail at times. If it’s a self-published eBook or from a small publisher, take the time to go to their web site and contact them.  You might be surprised at the positive results.

The future of publishing, as we note in Write It Forward, is wide open.  And readers, more than ever, are going to determine the success of failures of books.

We get paid to invent stories.  How cool is that?  We invent something from just our imaginations.  Amazing.

So why are writers squirming masses of insecurity?

A lot of it is external:  little validation, an uncertain business, isolation, bears.

But deep inside almost ever writer is this feeling that what we do, what we produce, isn’t real.  That we are perpetuating a fraud on the world.  That we’re ‘fooling’ everyone.  We believe we got where we are via luck and contacts.

When I teach Write It Forward the #1 fear of writers is feeling like a fraud.  The word just keeps coming up, over and over.

How To Deal With Feeling Like A Fraud.

Writers aren’t the only creative people who experience these feelings of being a fraud or concerned the world will found out they are an imposter.

“I still think people will find out that I’m really not very talented. I’m not very good. It’s all been a big sham.” Michelle Pfeiffer

“Sometimes I wake up before going off to a shoot, and I think, I can’t do this; I’m a fraud. They’re going to fire me. I’m fat. I’m ugly . . .” Kate Winslet.

It’s important to realize everyone has doubts. What’s debilitating is if you feel like you are the only one. You’re not. Studies of people who are identified as feeling like frauds range in percentage, but the overall number is high. In fact, studies show that many of the most successful people feel it the most. The higher up the ladder one goes, the greater the fear is of ‘being found out’.  The higher the stakes become.  The more people are watching.  And, honestly, the more people who want to see you fail.  Thus those magazines at the checkout counters in supermarkets.  The headlines don’t scream:  Actress Has Great Day And Loves Husband.

Doubts can be good: they can inspire you to become better. If you combine your doubt with your passion, it can motivate you to great success. Studies have shown that women who score high in the area of feeling like a fraud tend to compete harder to compensate for their doubts. Interestingly, men who scored high on feeling like a fraud, tend to avoid areas where they feel vulnerable to avoid looking bad.

There is a thing called The Imposter Syndrome. It’s when you difficulty internalizing your accomplishments. All those things they’ve achieved: degrees, promotions, publication, best-seller lists, etc. are thrown out.  The more you agree with the following statements, the higher your Imposter Syndrome:

I can give the impression I am more competent than I really am.

I often compare myself to those around me and consider them more intelligent than I am.

I get discouraged if I’m not the ‘best’ in an endeavor.

I hate being evaluated by others.

If someone gives me praise for something I’ve accomplished, it makes me fear that I won’t live up to his or her expectations in the future.

I’ve achieved my current position via luck and/or being in the right place at the right time.

When I think back to the past, incidents where I made mistakes or failed come more readily to mind than times when I was successful.

When I finish a manuscript, I usually feel like I could have done so much better.

When someone complements me, I feel uncomfortable.

I’m afraid others will find out my lack of knowledge/expertise.

When I start a new manuscript, I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish it, even though I’ve already finished X number of manuscripts.

If I’ve been successful at something, I often doubt I can do it again successfully.

If my agent tells me I’m going to get an offer on a book, I don’t tell anyone until the contract is actually in hand.

Women who feel like imposters tend to seek favorable comparisons with their peers.

Men who feel like imposters tend to avoid comparisons with their peers. Often, they work hard so other people won’t think them incapable or dumb.  It’s called spinning your wheels faster even though you aren’t going anywhere.

People who feel like imposters are constantly judging their success against the achievements of others rather than viewing what they do as an end in itself. For writers, this can be very dangerous, because there will always be someone who is doing ‘it better’ or ‘is more successful’.  I’ve seen bestselling authors fall into this trap.

A technique to fight feeling like a fraud is to use a version of my Warrior Writer HALO concept on yourself. HALO stands for High Altitude Low Opening parachuting.  The technique is to start from way out, and work your way in with an open attitude to try to see things differently.  Most of us see thing from our inside out.  Reverse it.  When I approach a company or team where I know nothing about what they do, the HALO concept allows me to see what they’re doing very differently from the way they see it.

Basically, the HALO approach starts from way outside yourself, diving in until you can see things clearly. Step outside and view things as if you are a stranger to yourself.. Look at your resume. Look at what you’ve accomplished in life. Ask yourself what kind of person would have achieved these things? Could a fraud have done this? When I query a conference to teach or apply to lead workshops or do keynotes, I have to send my bio. Sometimes I stop and read it and ask myself: what would I think of this person, if I didn’t know them, but just read this?

Focus on positive feedback. However, don’t ignore constructive negative feedback. The key is not to let the negative overwhelm you. I don’t look at Amazon reviews or rankings any more. First, you have to realize that only a certain segment of the population posts reviews on Amazons. It’s not a true sample of the population. Also, the motives for posting reviews often have nothing to do with your book.

One way of dealing with ‘feeling like a fraud’ is to internalize more of your accomplishments via real, external symbols.  In the military, we always joked that everyone had a “Look At Where I’ve Been And What I’ve Done” wall in their home, covered with photos, plaques, flags, etc. Those walls serve a purpose, though. (In our A-Team room, we had to wire down all the knives, hatchets, edged weapons that were usually on the plaques because people might start using them after a few beers.)

I have all my published books in my office on the top of two bookcases, all lined up. The row is over three feet wide. I look at it sometimes to fight the feeling that I can’t write another book, that I can’t get published again.

I love this quote from a Python:

“Talent is less important in film-making than patience.  If you really want your films to say something that you hope is unique, then patience and stamina, thick skin and a kind of stupidity, a mule-like stupidity, is what you really need.”  Terry Gilliam

You’ve got to actively work on building that tough outer shell around your creative self. Have a bizarre belief in yourself even in the face of apparent reality.  You’re being bombarded  with negative messages about publishing.  It’s so hard.  The odds are against you.

You have to believe in yourself. If you’re unpublished, walk into the bookstores and don’t let all those published authors overwhelm you. Use them to motivate you. Tell yourself you belong there. I always look and say: “Hey, these people got published, why can’t I?”

List your accomplishments. They can range from a picture of your family, degrees achieved, awards won, whatever. Put them where you write. Use them to remind yourself that you are not a fraud. YOU ARE REAL.

Oh yes. FREE eBooks. We’ve got five books going free on Amazon starting today:

Atlantis Bermuda Triangle through Friday.

Area 51 Legend—just today and tomorrow.  This is a standalone book even though it was the last one published.  It’s actually a prequel to the story.

Bitter Moon Lane by international bestselling author Colin Falconer is free all week, ending Friday.

The Templar’s Seduction by bestselling romance author Mary Reed McCall through Thursday.

The Royal W.E. Unique Glimpses of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Victoria Martinzez through Friday.

Write It Forward!

I tend not to read much in my genres any more.  Growing up, I read everything I could get my hands on in thrillers and science fiction.  Once I started writing, though, I find it sometimes muddies the water.  Actually, I don’t really consider genre when I read.  I follow Stephen King’s advice to read better writers than I am.  I just finished Defending Jacob and was blown away by the author’s use of point of view.  I’m usually not a fan of first person, but it fit this story perfectly.

I read a lot of nonfiction.  Mostly research.  I call my ‘genre’ factual fiction.  I take a lot of facts and add a fictional element and I’m off to the races.  Duty, Honor, Country, A Novel of West Point and The Civil War is historical fiction.  It goes from 1841 at West Point, through the Mexican War and ends on the first night of the battle of Shiloh.  The fictional element are two characters who travcrse that history with the real people.  Sort of like HBO’s Rome miniseries.

My Area 51 series rewrites the entire history of mankind, but uses facts, just giving a different explanation.  I have the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid, Easter Island Statues, the Great Wall of China, Temiltepec, Qian-Ling, Jack the Ripper, Stonehenge, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Area 51– you name it, I’ve got it.  I just add a fictional reason for a lot of those things.  My Atlantis series uses famous battles such at Little Big Horn, Islandwha, Gettysburg, etc. but for an entirely different reason.  So to write those books, I have to do a lot of reading.  I’ve found that while the internet can be a great source of information, reading books is much better because books give you a deeper picture and add details that you’d have to really dig for on the internet or might not find at all.

I also read for craft.  To see how other authors do things.  I got a deeper insight into using omniscient point of view re-reading a bunch of Dennis Lehane novels.  I also– and this will upset some purists– watch a ton of TV.  My wife and I sit in bed with our two yellow labs and watch hours and hours every night.  Except she has the remote and it’s her DVR and I watch everything she puts on.  We watch old movies (just re-watched Suddenly Last Summer), comedy (Daily Show & Colbert & Family Guy and a new one:  Key & Peele), various series, mini-series (if you haven’t seen The Wire, you haven’t seen nuthing), and lots of nonfiction, especially what we call the murder and mayhem channels.  There’s a lot of information in those shows and also great story-telling.

I really believe I should be able to tax deduct my cable bill, but my accountant says no.  Sigh.  However, I believe all of life is learning for a writer.