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 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| Writing Scandals 1: Ern Malley & Angry Penguins Schnujo is failing 2 classes asked me about writing scandals. What a great topic! Now, I am not going to go and research any. These are ones I know about from university study or personal interest. I am going to start with my favourite one, because I have met one of those involved! Ern Malley & Angry Penguins Angry Penguins was a pretentious literary magazine that started in Adelaide and moved to Melbourne. In 1944 they received a pile of poems from one Ethel Malley, who said her labourer husband had written them, and now he was dead, she wondered if they were interested. Not only were they interested, but they dedicated a whole edition to Ern Malley. Problem: Ern and Ethel Malley did not exist. They were created by two men who hated the modernist school of poetry and wrote what they considered the worst poems of all time in that style and sent them off. This was a joke that got taken seriously. The University of Adelaide newspaper suggested Max Harris, the main editor (and the man I have met) had written these “awful” poems as a hoax. Harris was offended by this, and even hired a private detective to find out all he could about Ern and Ethel Malley. Then it got worse. The wowsers in the government (and this was in the last years of the war, quite a conservative time) decided that the poems were obscene and Harris was charged with publishing obscene material. The trial was a joke. The police officer who was prosecuting said he objected to two people meeting at night in a park because he knew what people did at nights in parks, and gave us the classic quote: “I don't know what ‘incestuous’ means, but I think there is a suggestion of indecency about it.” And yet Harris was still found guilty and fined five pounds. Then the hoax came to light and Harris was deemed the hoaxed, not the hoaxer. The biggest impact was it set back the modernist movement in all Australian arts by years, if not decades. One of the people who perpetrated the hoax went on to form his own literary journal and ended up teaching English in a Tasmanian university. Harris went on to publish a new journal called The Ern Malley Journal (he leant into his notoriety) and became a renowned columnist and arts critic. Interestingly, in later years some people actually came to consider the so-called “joke” poems as serious works and worthy of discussion in Australian poetry… This is why I am confused by modern poetry... |
| Finding The Scary Question from Spud(She/Her): Which is scarier, monsters, malevolent ghosts or killers? Y'know plot line wise. Simple answer – that depends on how you write them. But that is probably too simplistic. Let’s look at the three tropes. Monsters Monsters are the creatures that are unknown. What makes them scary: Their appearance, the fact they go against nature, their base instincts and behaviours. Writing them scary: Because they are animals, the monster tends not to be a PoV character, so we get nothing about what is going on in their minds, and this means their actions are the central focus. Describing horrific actions, their smell, their appearance, and keeping them in the shadows a lot is the way these things most often work. Malevolent Ghosts These are supernatural forms of those already dead. What makes them scary: They represent death itself, which is the greatest fear in humans, and they are a reflection of people, though with added abilities. Writing them scary: They have intelligence, and so the use of writing jump scares as they come out of nowhere – through walls, out of appliances, etc – is the best way. They also cannot be harmed by physical weapons, and need to be dispelled by religion, an arcane rite, some behaviour, uncovering the body or something else that goes beyond a normal disposal. This can add to the terror level as the heroes race against time. Killers Killers are humans who just want to murder. What makes them scary: They could literally be anyone. Killers can be so normal looking. And ask animals how scary humans can be. Writing them scary: While they are people and can only do what people can do, their motivations, their actions and their responses may not follow regular people. This unpredictability is what the writer needs to work on. But they also are, if not intelligent, then understanding and know how to hide, how to open doors, how to get into places. Unpredictable and clever – not a good combination. Which is scariest? To me, humans are the scariest because of that intelligence and the fact they can be literally anyone. However, I do find animal/monster horror easier to write. Ghosts are tough because they have been done to death since ancient Greece, and it can feel like rewriting something already done. Having said that, I have written all three. So, I hope that answers your question! |
| Novel #15 So we come to 2004 and an odd novel called Hero To…?. Clocking in at around 82000 words, it turned out not as good as I would have liked, but serviceable. I started by writing a superhero story. I always wanted to do a story with some sort of superhero as the main character – turning that graphic novel/comic book staple into a novel length treatment. But I didn’t want it to be fan fic; I wanted my own hero. I started with some sort of alien trapped on Earth, then a mutant, but the fact that both these have been done to death and anything I come up with would be just cliché after cliché made me look in a different direction. And so we have the last of my whiny emo-lite adult characters. Feeling sorry himself after being caught abusing steroids, a former sportsman in Adelaide is attacked by a creature. The poisons in this strange beast’s body – which rot the internal organs of other people – reacts with the steroid-enhanced body to create a super-strong human being. And so he goes after the creature that attacked him, all the while the River Torrens goes into flood and he has a love affair with the female owner of a gym. Having said that it didn’t work, at the time I was really happy with it, and so I sent it off to a couple of publishers and one agent. Interestingly enough, it was the agent who got back to me with something other than a form letter/rejection. She said that the story intrigued her, but that I should turn it into a screenplay or a script for a graphic novel. I had no idea how to do either those things, so it still sits unloved in the pile. I think the bad guy cop character is probably the most interesting character, the good guy cop character is way too two-dimensional, the love interest is convenient, but the hero is, I think, rather well-developed. The original concept was that there would be a sequel, Hero Two!, where the hero, now living in the Riverland of South Australia battles another water creature, and finally Hero, Too, the third book in the trilogy, where a giant snake attacks his new home in the Clare Valley, but with the other two creatures (or their relatives) returning, and the Hero apparently giving up his life to save everyone, though he survives in case I wanted to do another one. Needless to say, the two sequels were not written. Oh… and the ellipsis lives! Excerpt: Daniel hefted the barbell above his head from the floor in one fluid motion, then dropped it to his chest before slowly pressing it into the air again. He dropped it to his waist, then placed it back at his feet. He looked briefly concerned, flexed his shoulder, rotated the joint quickly. No pain, no burning sensation, no discomfort. Not a thing. He faced Lynda, standing beside him, and her expression reflected his own amazement. “What was that?” she asked nervously. “It’s better,” he grinned. “After just one shot yesterday?” she asked incredulously. “Apparently,” he returned. But she could tell he was hiding something. His eyes darted away from her quickly. But she could not for the life of her even begin to imagine what that could be. “So you don’t need the junk anymore,” she smiled, deliberately changing the subject. “No…” Daniel rubbed his shoulder. The fire had started to burn again inside it, but apart from that, this morning’s strange leakages had seemed to be a purging of his body. Even the scars and sores from the fight appeared to have cleared up a little more than would otherwise be expected. So maybe he had made a mistake when he had arrived here and spoken to Marcello… “I don’t need it…” he finally muttered. “Are you okay?” He smiled. “Fine.” He was not going to question it, though, just accept what was happening to him. This time, that was all he was going to allow himself – total acceptance… and the hope for more of the same… “Daniel…” Lynda’s warning tone snapped him out of his mental contemplation. He cast her a glance and smiled again. “What’s up?” he asked as he squatted to grab the bar and resume his exercising. “You don’t need the juice any more.” her voice was full of foreboding. “No, I don’t,” he agreed. Need was the wrong word. Because the problem was not his miraculous healing, but the way he had felt. The adrenaline rush, the muscle burn, the amazing feeling of power and strength that ran right into his brain. He had missed it. He missed the rush of being in the middle of an ‘up’ stage of a cycle. He missed the increased power he felt in his every sinew when he was on a down stage of the cycle. He even missed looking like a Greek god in the middle of a football field with all female eyes lusting after him and all males eyes filled with jealousy. I think my involvement in the drug and gym culture of the 1990s did help this story feel more realistic. The final battle is a little wimpy, but, all up, the story has a good idea and some fun stuff to it… I really should look at a screenplay, shouldn’t I? |
| Novel #14 After the not too good Power came the not too good vs. Yep, vs. Just like that. The title is relevant, though. This was from another idea formed during university study, and in fact I wrote the entire first section one day during a lecture for something. By the time I finished over the years it ended up at 60600-odd words, finished a month after Power. I think the main problem with vs is twofold – it has yet another whiny, why-me central character, and the idea or concept is actually not a good one. First, though, a positive – the style. The story is written in alternate chapters and interludes. The chapters are the story, the interludes are the reflections of the story from the first person point of view of the only surviving character ten years later. I think that works well as a mechanism, if only that character telling the story ten years later did not sound so damn pathetic. Now, the story. I wanted to write an updated version of the Biblical tale of Job, of some one used as a pawn between good and evil by the powers of both, but without the ability to make the right choice. I made the powers of evil more cunning and better able to hide, but the powers of good a little more naive and almost pathetic. And so the main character was torn between his best friend and his new girlfriend, while the McGuffin of a series of priests who had performed successful exorcisms being killed was woven throughout the narrative. The names were also important. Peter Young was the main character (Peter, the rock, the younger, a new version); Michael Noone was the good guy (Michael, the archangel, Noone, no-one), and the girlfriend was Lilly Starr (Lillith, the demoness, Starr, for the morning star – Lucifer). Very clever, I thought. To say the whole thing didn’t work is an understatement. And yet at the time I liked it enough to submit it twice. One no response, one form rejection. Now I read it and cringe. Oh, and don’t worry, there’s only one more whiny, pathetic main character to come. then they become a little more realistic, and, in general, more confounded by what’s happening to them, not just pathetic emo-lite adults. But the ellipsis, that still runs rampant throughout the work. Damn those three dots! Excerpt: The dreams were some of the worst he had had since they had first discovered the body of Father Peake in the school’s chapel. Fire and death and blood and pain. That was all he could remember, but he still woke up with the sheets curled into a ball between his legs and his fist thrust so deep into his mouth that he had drawn blood with his teeth. He stared at the alarm clock beside the bed; the green numbers flashed at him ‘12:00’ over and over. He shook his head and fumbled for his watch. That also flashed with the ‘12:00’ at him. He shook his head. Power failure and watch battery broken? He grunted to himself and pulled himself to his feet, dragging the sheets with him, as he made his way towards the kitchen where the battery operated wall clock – a gift from his mother when he had moved out of home – stood over the serving counter. The second hand was not moving. That and both the other hands were all pointing directly upwards. He felt a tingle run through the hairs of his spine and he shivered a little. “Ah yes, time does indeed stand still,” came a voice from behind him. He turned quickly and immediately moved backwards until the small of his back painfully hit the counter. There was no-one there. His eyes darted about his surroundings like a frightened a rabbit but he was quite definitely alone. But he was not alone. He could feel that some-one else was here, and that that voice had not been the product of an over-active imagination. “But for you time will not.” That voice was coming from his bedroom. “You will live with your decisions forever.” He walked carefully forwards, each step feeling as though he was moving through molasses. He so wanted to turn and run, to flee this place, but he also wanted to know what was going on. After his conversation with Brother Nicholas the previous day and what he had seen in Michael’s house, he was not sure he knew what exactly was going on here… or even if he wanted to know. But he did want to know… Of course he did… He paused at the door, slightly ajar, the last barrier between himself and whatever lay behind it. “Make the right decision. Our lives depend on it,” the voice said, now filled with emotion. He pushed open the door and stared. Laying on the bed was a figure he recognised. Thinner, with less hair, a lined, drawn face and dull, lifeless eyes, but still recognisable. And if he did not know better, he would have sworn he was staring at himself twenty years older… And now he screamed, and he screamed and he could not stop screaming… Yeah. Even that excerpt is crappy. But I did promise I would be honest in my novel adventure, and this is probably the second-worst novel I have ever written. It is even worse than the stuff I wrote back when I was in high school. I’d like to say things can only get better, but… yeah. |
| Fact-checking Schnujo is failing 2 classes has reached out with another question – she wants to know about fact-checking, especially with facts changing. No matter what sort of non-fiction you write, research is vital. And, in this day and age, really, stupidly difficult. The Internet might be a liberating force and makes life easier (allegedly) in so many ways, but when it comes to research… Yikes! Yes, the Internet has long made research hard. Sort of. Here’s research basics, by the way: "20240712 Contemporary Research For Writers" .Basically, in my opinion, research should not have changed from the way we did it in the 1980s. But people think going back like that is “hard.” It is time-consuming, but I cannot see it being harder than the system that has been foisted upon us now. However, it should not be so hard that the Director of Health in the USA (RFK Jr) feels the need to tell blatant falsehoods, misrepresent data, and make up references. That is just a combination of laziness, stupidity and sheer bloody-mindedness. Online I am going to start with researching online. GOOD 1. Peer-reviewed papers. While you have access to research papers which have been peer-reviewed in a much easier manner than having to go to various universities hoping they have the journal you need, you do need to pay for access (sometimes a lot) or, like me, be a permanent student. That is easier for people like me, yes, but not for the general public. Peer-reviewed papers, where the reviews support the paper (and not every peer review is supportive; there is a paper often cited by a particular group as being peer-reviewed, but the reviews were negative, so be careful) are the best place to find information. And there are journals for nearly everything! So, if you have access, first point of call. 2. dot-gov. Sites marked “.gov” are supposed to be trustworthy places for governmental information, including geography, government, laws, etc. Some governments have a lot of oversight over their websites, but generally the “.gov” sites of the USA, Australia, Canada, UK are very separate from the politics of the ruling government of the day. That is an easy access and readily available site. I did say USA there, but at the moment that is even not the case, so you need to be aware of political changes. Also “.gov” sites do not cover everything. 3. Encyclopaedias. Then we have online encyclopaedias. Brittanica.com is generally regarded as the best online encyclopaedia, but that is because it maintains the paper version’s format and style. Basic info presented for people to use to begin further research, with citations and references. If you understand German, apparently the German equivalent is also very good. 4. Trove. Trove is the Australian online trove of digitised old newspapers with a good search option. Just newspapers scanned in and there to use for free. I know there is a similar set-up in the UK. There is a great US one at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Most others require payment. Three things, however – searching can be difficult because the scanning can obscure the words to not make for an easy search. Two, journalistic truth is a thing that can be suspect. It is not good nowadays, where biases abound in the reporting of news; in the old days, they would make stuff up to fill in the gaps. And third, opinion was often reported as actual news, not an op-ed piece. So you do need to be careful. But, in general, a great resource. 5. Public media. This is the media owned and financed (but not operated) by the government. The ABC in Australia (there is some left bias, but that has diminished markedly, and is not as bad as the right bias in any other Australian media), the BBC in the UK (some royalist bias), and PBS in the USA (depending on their funding). Still, for media sites, these three are by far the best when it comes to accuracy of information. MEDIOCRE 1. Wikipedia. Wikipedia is good only for the footnotes. As an information source, it does tend towards being rubbish. Like all user-curated sites, because it is written and edited by people who think they know, the information should not ever be taken at face value. And, doing some research for my monster book, I discovered some of the footnotes are made up and the references do not exist. It’s not like I am looking for obscure stuff, but Wikipedia’s “vetting” process has allowed falsehoods in. Literally anyone with an Internet connection (who has not been previously banned) can edit or write for Wikipedia; it is a communal pit of some good stuff and some made-up stuff and a lot of opinion stuff. Not a great resource in and of itself, and hardly a usable resource. It is banned as a university reference in Australia. 2. dot-org. The “.org” suffix indicates the site is run by a registered organisation, including charities, but excluding businesses. The thing is, they all have a barrow to push, so their bias is right there in their established name and statement of organisation. However, because a lot of charities are run through them, blatant falsehoods (especially in Australia and the UK) can see them lose that “.org” suffix and so taxes would apply. Be wary, and find other sources, but they can be a good place to start. 3. Interviews with experts/ witnesses. Why is this in mediocre? Ask a police officer. If you have three witnesses to a crime, you will get three different versions of events, even though they all saw the same thing and are sure they are telling it perfectly. Experts are often a good source, but even they will not know everything and might make suppositions on areas they do not know based on what they do know, they might have biases, or they might just be at the far end of the Dunning-Kruger Effect and be unsure of their own knowledge. But an expert or someone who was actually there is always going to be better than hearing it second or third hand. 4. General websites. Sure, general interest to narrow interest websites are great resources. However, unless they have included their own research sources, trusting them can be fraught with danger. Is that information they have found, information they half-remember, something they were told, something they saw on Facebook, or something they made up? And how do you know? Further, some websites go out of date if they are not upkept. A great example is the old dinosaurs.com. It is now an “untrustworthy site” because of viruses and bugs, but it was last updated in 2007, before the latest information on feathering was really established. Great site, but out of date based on new discoveries. Less trustworthy than a “.org” but still a good starting place. BAD 1. Social media. People make stuff up, put forth conspiracy theories, use anecdotes as evidence, everything on social media. And they misrepresent themselves all the time. Problem is, people see it, believe it, then put it forth as the truth. Completely useless. And memes mean nothing. 2. Blogs/ Vlogs. This is a website or video site where a person simply writes/ talks about their own opinions and life. Different to social media in that it is intended to be personal, but with all the same pitfalls. 3. Private media. This is media owned by one person or a corporation. Their biases affect the “facts” they put forth. 4. Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a programme that learns. Here is the problem with AI – it learns from the Internet. Not just places which are good sources, but social media. In fact, for a long while the only site that allowed AI to scrape it was Reddit, so AI was telling people blatant falsehoods. When Grammarly was first released, it was just a form of MS Word’s F7 spell/grammar check with a function that allowed for summarisation. However, now it is based on AI and is learning from the Internet, it makes more and more mistakes to the point that it is useless. tl;dr Finding actual hard information on the Internet is very hit or miss, and separating the wheat from the chaff – fact-checking –is like looking for a needle in a haystack. (Metaphor mixing is my super-power.) The upsurge in user-curated platforms, like the sheer volume of wikis, ancestry.com and social media, means facts are buried under crap. User-curated sites are generally not good, and they are what the online world is being filled with… Offline Let’s move to offline research. In this case I am not going to go good, mediocre, bad because they are all these things all at once! 1. Books. Books are, of course, a great resource. Especially in the “old days”, publishing was expensive, so we did not see the plethora of self-published books we do now, and because of laws regarding dissemination of information, the publishers had to ensure that the information was accurate, or as accurate as possible. However, those information laws are no longer in existence, and with self-publishing so cheap (comparatively), anybody can print a book about anything. Unfortunately, too many modern books use the Internet as a referencing source, and so it does cast their information in a dubious light. So, what to do? It’s easy, actually. Utilise books from the twentieth century. Not all are perfect (the 90s saw a lot of opinion as fact tomes start to appear as creative non-fiction started to take hold), but more often than not, they are more useful than the Internet. This will require reading, and will require not being able to use the “search” function (e-books excluded) but the index, but I have found when researching my book that it is better to be safe than sorry. Do not dismiss sites like Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, et al. either for electronic books and scanned items that are much older. Sort of like the best of both worlds. 2. Letters. If you want information about a time period, reading letters sent by those alive at the time probably give the best impression of life. Yes, they will be biased, maybe ill-informed in some areas, but their observations are coming from real people. Letters from soldiers give a much more impressive and personal history of war than a textbook, for example. It is not a source of undeniable truth, but these perceptions can help colour a non-fiction work. 3. Newspapers. Everything I said about Trove is here, only there is more bias in many of today’s papers. Of course, reading the old papers yet to be digitised is just Trove the long way around. 4. Word of mouth/anecdotes. This is often a good start, but should never be taken as gospel. People’s memories are fallible, they change over time and over telling, and they could be born of mis-perception. Documentaries I have put documentaries separate as they exist in all spaces, on and offline. And I include podcasts here as well. Documentaries tend towards a bias the film-maker wants to put forth. They might not lie outright – and most documentaries made pre-Internet were pretty good in this regard – but they will pick and choose the information to support their arguments, maybe show footage out of order, maybe look at the past through a modern eye. Again, they can be a great start, but they should not be taken as the be-all and end-all. However, two things have made modern documentaries – say the past 10 years or so – more untrustworthy. The first is the “mockumentary”, where a fake documentary is created. The Last Dragon and Mermaids: The Body Found are the two most notorious examples. Though they were admitted to being fake after the fact, there are many others out there that could well be following their footsteps. The second is the use of deep-fakes, AI created visuals and CGI created films, then all of this is put forth as real. Computers have destroyed trust in what we see in the documentary format. Dunning-Kruger Effect I mentioned in passing the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and this is something that needs to be considered when looking at sources, especially from so-called experts who blog/vlog or appear as talking heads on shows. What this effect states basically is this: a person with a little or surface level knowledge of a topic tends to over-estimate how much they know and are confident in espousing that information; a person with some knowledge realises there is so much more to learn, and think they will never get there; an expert knows there is still more to learn and understands they will never know everything, so while they speak with some confidence, are never completely sure. They will also back up their statements with evidence. The rule of thumb is if someone acts like they know everything, they tend to know next to nothing.  So, in general, fact-checking is really hard. It will take a lot of work to ensure the truth. But it is worth it. |
| External Writerings June 2025 Okay, I admit I forgot, but it is time I listed the writing I have done for Weekend Notes (and any other places that could be bothered publishing me online). Songs only this time. One is a memorial to a dead singer. Standard stuff, but lots to listen to! Remember, you do not have to listen to the songs (though I would be grateful if you did), but every look at the articles from a different IP address with no ad blockers helps me out in my increasingly desperate attempts to make money as a person who writes. A list of songs with “today” in the title. A list of songs with “tomorrow” in the title. A list of songs with “yesterday” in the title. Remembering Brian Wilson through Beach Boys and solo songs. A list of anti-war songs. Not songs about peace, but distinctly anti-war. 5 articles this month. I have to do at least 4 to keep my ranking in the top 25 contributors, so your clicks will also help me in that regard. As usual, if you want a certain topic covered in songs (I can do films and books as well), leave a comment below. I would love to give readers what they want. |
| Novel #13 Two years passed. In this time I went back to university and managed to get a second degree, but it was a compacted degree, meaning we did three years of work in eighteen months. That means most of my writing was assignments and the like. But it also meant I had a lot of ideas swirling around. I did write many of them down, hoping to get to them one day when I had time. And after that time at uni was over, the first one I came to ended up being a 52200 word story called Power. The concept was something I had been thinking about for a while – what if magic existed in the real world? Not a Hogwarts school, not a different world, an alternate world, but in our world. This story (an urban fantasy, I guess) tells the tale of an evil magic-user trying to usurp the power of great magicians in order to rule the magic of the world. He is confronted by a young man who almost died in a motorcycle accident, and who has a young girl as his own student. Of course, in the end, the good guys win. It’s just that sort of story. I guess it could be called young adult, but I don’t think it really fits into any real age category. As far as the story goes, yet again we have a whiny main character. The young girl was based on a girl I went to high school with and who I had recently at that stage caught up with again after many years. In high school she was always pretty needy, and so I made her a bit younger and turned her into the young girl. The bad guy is just a 2-dimensional Loki-type character. But, if you ignore the characterisations, the story itself actually reads as something unique. I think the descriptions of the magic battles work okay, though I should have chosen a better arena than roof-tops at one stage. The metaphysical stuff even reads okay. Just a shame the characters are not real interesting, and that ever-present ellipsis dominates the punctuation. This one was never submitted anywhere, and the one person who read it called it, “Okay.” That’s it. I’m guessing that means she thought it was crap and didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Hard to argue with her, though. Excerpt: Something was about to happen. And he just knew that it was another Power surge. It was coming. He wondered exactly what they were, what was causing them. And he wondered also how in the hell he knew? And, in that moment of doubt, he allowed his mind to fly before he could control it, bring it back to himself. But it came back with two words: Page 4. That made no sense. And despite his misgivings, he concentrated briefly on those words. An image of the front of that day’s local newspaper entered his mind and he nodded to himself. He strode to the kitchen table and grabbed it from where Amanda had left it. Page four… “Girl found dead in apartment,” the headline read. The photograph was not anyone who looked familiar, but she was a pleasant looking young girl. He quickly scanned the story. Christy Moore, twenty years old, a few months short of turning twenty-one. Had not turned up for a job interview on Saturday. Sunday night her father broke into her apartment and found her laying on the floor. No sign of violence. Autopsy showed a massive cerebral haemorrhage, as though her brain had “exploded”. International investigators had been called in to work out what could do that to a human brain. Something struck a chord in Paul’s mind. Her brain had exploded? That was the exact word the article had used. So why would this story be sent to his mind? Power. Something with Power had killed her. And that meant she had to have had some Power as well. Not enough to be able to put up any sort of a defence, but there was Power there. He swallowed and quickly read through the rest of the paper. Another story struck him. A ninety-eight year old man had died in a nursing home of a stroke. The story only written because they were trying to trace his family. He had been in the home for forty years, according to their records, and his family appeared to have abandoned him some time ago. Why would that story interest him? A stroke; something to do with the brain… As much as he tried to deny it to himself, he knew why he was attracted to that tale. There was Power involved there as well. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind, but to no avail. This is one of those stories where idea overwhelmed delivery. Characters were second to the idea as well. I think the idea behind it is quite good – and I have revisited magic in our world since, but not to this extent – but the writing is not. After Mary, maybe study had dulled my writing muse a little. I mean, I still wrote short stories and poems, but Power was a real let-down for me personally. I only hoped it would get better. |
| ARCs Schnujo is failing 2 classes asked me a heap of questions. I looked at the easy answers in "20250702 Answering Questions" , but there are two more topics to examine. This is the second.The benefit of ARC readers (at least for self-publishing -- IDK about with traditional) It seems that these questions have been quite anti-trad publishing, but I do understand most people on WdC prefer the self-publishing route. I don’t (and cannot, with very specific exceptions, see why people would), and have put forth my views enough in this blog. Now, for those unaware, an ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. It is also called an ARE (Advanced Reader Edition) or a Pre-Release Copy. These are the copies that go out after the proof-reading stage. They are sometimes missing things like links, dedication and full publisher details, but they always have the ISBN or ASIN (though nowadays they tend to be as complete as possible). Sometimes the cover is stamped with something to indicate it is a pre-release copy. In the past ten, fifteen years, most ARCs I have seen (say, 95%) have been e-books. They are given to readers who then register them with the publisher (I am guessing this does not happen with self-published, so they can just be shared around) and read them. Why do them? Reviews. It is that simple. You tend to give the ARCs to people who will be sympathetic to your cause to get the first lot of reviews as good as possible. Amazon sometimes doesn’t allow ARC reviews (what day of the week is it?) but Goodreads, personal blogs, Bookgram, Facebook, etc. all do. It gets you out there with a review before the story hits the public, and suddenly people are confronted with a bunch of 4 and 5 star ratings, which does help push it in front of more eyes. ARC reviewers will be expected to give more than just a “this book was good” sort of fluffy review, but to list some things that they really did like. You want people who read in that genre, and who know at least your name or the name of your publisher. I guess self-published people choose their ARCs. I am a regular ARC reader for poet Sakshi Narula, for example, and have done some ARC reading for some self-published works by people I know. Many publishers, on the other hand, have lists of ARC readers who they know will give honest reviews, but they also pick and choose them from the list based on what they like to read. I was an ARC reader for a US-based company (that sadly died in the pandemic with my accepted book unpublished…) and read around 4 of their books a year. Now, are ARCs important? Publishers seem to think they are. I am in two minds. Yes, because those first positive reviews can matter. No, because there’s a heap of sales I’ve missed out on. But that could be the greed part of me doing this for a living talking… However, there is nothing better in marketing than to be able to put a five-star review with a complimentary comment on the ‘please buy this’ blog post! Anyway, so that’s ARCs. |
| Types Of Editing Schnujo is failing 2 classes asked me a heap of questions. I looked at the easy answers in "20250702 Answering Questions" , but there are two more topics to examine. This is the first.The different kinds of edits, when to get them, and why So, there are 4 different types of editing. 1) Developmental editing This is the big picture stuff, and is what a good beta reader does. They look at the plot, the characters, the facts, the inconsistencies, and the way the different levels of story (plot, sub-plots, tertiary character arcs, etc.) work, together and on their own. So it is an advanced form of beta reading. Extremely important in long works. 2. Line editing This is looking at how easily something is able to be read. This is where things like paragraphing, info-dumps, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, etc. are examined. There is also a quick look at grammar, punctuation, spelling and homophones, but the main thing is how readable a piece is. It is like a more detailed beta read. However, the main thing a good line editor will look at is show vs tell. They should indicate where the tell is and leave it up to the writer to change it to show. This is the main thing you will get out of a line editor, and it is so important this is done to make the book the best it can be for a reader. Line editing occurs after beta reading. 3. Copyediting This is where every single line is looked at in detail. The story is ignored here – the first two look at that – and this is where the actual technical aspects of writing are pored over. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are hit hard. If a person needs a lot of copyediting, a traditional publisher will generally pass on them, because editors cost a lot, and this is a huge expense; they might have to sell an extra 50-plus books to pay for it. I’ll give a personal example. Invasive Species had a grand total of 23 copyedits needed for a 96k-plus word book when the editor at the publisher went through it. This meant the publisher (AM Ink) did not have to pay a lot for an editor, and used the money set aside for that in marketing, and the book has been my best seller. The publisher had more money because I gave them the cleanest copy I could, and used this to market the book. Many writers – and I have encountered them here at WdC – think a copyeditor will clean up their work. Two things – copyeditors are human, and the more mistakes they are confronted with, the more they are likely to miss; and it makes you look like you don’t care. Self copyediting before submitting to a publisher or paying for an editor (and the more mistakes, the more it will cost you; I have worked as a freelance editor, I know) can save money and improve your own writing technique and style. End rant. 4. Proof-reading Proof-reading is the final run-through. The book has been accepted and edited, or you have done the self-publishing work, and you get a galley proof. A proof-reader goes through to see if anything is amiss. This includes missed edits, names that have changed, formatting issues, things like that. This takes place right before final publication. Even in short stories, I am generally given a galley proof copy of the book and expected to go through my own story to find errors (including the author bio). Last chance to fix mistakes here! And that is the types of editing, and when they happen. A lot of editors will do line and copy editing at the same time, but I prefer to keep them separate. I will do one or the other for a writer. I do feel that a different line editor and copyeditor help. First, it is two sets of eyes; second, the second time they read it, they know what is happening or going to happen and might miss errors through complacency or familiarity. Developmental comes with the beta reader. Line editing is something I feel a writer should pay for. Copyediting is done by the traditional publisher, so a self-publisher will need to pay for it. And proof-reading is generally done by the writer themselves. Hope that explains it all. |
| Answering Questions Schnujo is failing 2 classes asked me a heap of questions. I am going to answer the easy ones or previously answered ones here, and use the rest in upcoming columns. 1) Good 1st lines/ Good 1st pages This is so subjective as to be insane. What one editor/ publisher/ reader likes, another will hate. For example, I have been told to never start with dialogue; I’ve sold more than a dozen that start just that way. But one thing that you should never do is start with an info-dump of world-building or personal description. However, I’ve covered it here: "20240612 Starting A Story" 2. Good endings Covered here: "20240618 Endings" 3. Writing unlikeable protagonists we still want to read about Not 100% sure if I did this properly, but protagonists are covered: "20241208 Protagonist and Antagonist" I have to say, I have not come across this much in literature, except where the villain is the protagonist. Artemis Fowl (in the books) is the only great example where this is done deliberately. 4. The difference between alpha and beta readers and why we probably want both (at least for self-publishing -- maybe traditional doesn't) I cover readers here: "20240522 Readers" However, the tl;dr is: alpha readers are not necessary, in my opinion, for any writer. But beta readers are vital for all writers. 5. Writing what readers want to read, not just what you want to write How long is a piece of string? This is sort of like bandwagon jumping, and today’s flavour of the month will be tomorrow’s cringe. I always say write what you want to write. You are the first reader, after all. Don’t write to a market is my advice. 6. Book marketing on the cheap No idea. I publish traditionally – my publishers market for me. But I will say this: nowadays, social media is only selling to friends and people who know you, and whereas in the late 2000s through to the pandemic, socials really helped, now it is not making perceivable differences. I have no idea, in other words. 7. Know your audience Covered here: "20241014 Know Your Audience" So, thanks, Schnujo is failing 2 classes, and the other 2 things you asked for will be upcoming topics of their own! If anyone else has things they want me to look at, drop a line in the comments or Newsfeed or in an email! |
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