Zoe Winters: Burn-out and Author-comparitis

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With the increased exposure of self-publishing and small presses, many authors increasingly see "dropping out of the system" as an instant cure-all for the headaches and heart-breaks of publishing.  Veteran independent authors like Zoe Winters can attest, however, that no path to publication is stress-free.

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Two of the major struggles I've faced as an indie (and which I think are probably common in a lot of indies) is becoming burnt out from constant social interaction on the Internet, as well as comparing myself to other authors. We all know how important marketing is, but sometimes getting your name out there can be such an energy drain. Plus, the more opinionated you are, the more someone, somewhere hates you and feels the need to either tell you, or all their friends about it. With the burn-out issue, I started to back off some and take more frequent Internet breaks.

Whenever I feel the big bag of crazy coming on, I sometimes back off from the Internet for a few weeks at a time and dive into the work instead. I've become a lot more "Zen" about publishing as a result. The other issue, comparing myself... I put so much pressure on myself sometimes to achieve and succeed. And, while I know many consider me a success, there is always someone doing better. So it's easy to get frustrated and discouraged by that. To help myself through that, I started to look at some of the reasons why some people were doing a lot better than me. When I started to understand some of the issues: frequent release dates and large backlist, I calmed down about it some. We're all on our own unique publishing journey. And it was about 18 months before I started making more than a couple hundred bucks a month. This stuff takes time. Since my last release, I've decided not to spaz out over my numbers but to focus on engaging with the readers I have and building my fan base one reader at a time.

Zoe Winters

Zoe Winters is a top-selling author of  paranormal romances.  Her most recent release is Save My Soul.  She has also written the popular three-novella work Blood Lust and the highly-influential guide to indie success, Smart Self Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author.

When an Outline Isn't an Outline: Plotting From the Seat of Your Pants

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Long-time readers of this blog will recall that while I now use an outline for my long-form fiction, I used to rebel against the very notion of outlining.  When I was a teenager, especially, I preferred to think of the author's role as something like an archaeologist excavating the blank page to reveal the story.  Sure, I'm in charge of the process, but that doesn't mean I know what's going to happen.

Over time, though, I realized that I needed an outline.  Why?  Essentially because as a working adult it helps me not forget what the heck I'm doing when I'm kept away from my writing for days or weeks at a time.

But I don't really outline in a traditional sense.  To do so feels very forced and  drums the creativity out of my process.  Plus, for me there's no escaping it: as I flesh out details, I do change my mind about what's going to happen.  A proper outline isn't very forgiving of that.

Puffin
photo by Hanno

So instead I do what I call a chapter run outline.  Because this has been so helpful to me, let me walk you through the chapter run outline of a hypothetical novel, Puffin Magnus.

Because of the way I write, I know how it's going to end, or at least, how I think I'm going to end it.  Because I know that's not the case for many other writers, I'll assume I don't actually know this time.

The process always begins by identifying a starting and an ending point:

Start: Dr. Cavern builds a fish oil-powered time machine
End: Details uncertain, but there is a Roman Cult of the Puffin and the world has changed from that which we know.

Then I'll flesh it out into general chaptery bits, using completely arbitrary numbers:

1) Dr. Cavern builds a fish oil-powered time machine
2) Dr. Cavern travels back to the time of the Roman Republic -- brings along accidental puffin -- confused puffin flies into someone, interrupting an assassination
20) Details uncertain, but there is a Roman Cult of the Puffin and the world has changed from that which we know.

Then I figure out any major plot points and insert them, again with arbitrary numbers, based on roughly whereabouts in the story line I want them to happen.  So, for instance, if I want this to happen around the middle, I will call it chapter ten:

10) The romans realize it was the puffin who stopped the assassination, not Dr. Cavern.

At that point it's a matter of running through connect-the-dots iterations, inserting the plot points that seem necessary to get from one point to another:

2) Dr. Cavern travels back to the time of the Roman Republic -- brings along accidental puffin -- confused puffin flies into someone, interrupting an assassination
3) The Romans assume it was Dr. Cavern who stopped the assassination.
6) Confused and on-the-run, Dr. Cavern seeks shelter near cliffs haunted by a single puffin.
10) The romans realize it was the puffin who stopped the assassination, not Dr. Cavern.
15) All the Romans unite against Dr. Cavern.
20) Details uncertain, but there is a Roman Cult of the Puffin and the world has changed from that which we know.

Rinse.  Repeat.

6) Confused and on-the-run, Dr. Cavern seeks shelter near cliffs haunted by a single puffin.

8) Dr. Cavern bonds spiritually with the puffin

10) The romans realize it was the puffin who stopped the assassination, not Dr. Cavern.

13) Romans begin resented Dr. Cavern's special relationship with the puffin.

15) All the Romans unite against Dr. Cavern.
16) Dr. Cavern appeals to the puffin for mercy.

And so so on, until I have what feels roughly like a plot.

1) Dr. Cavern builds a fish oil-powered time machine

2) Dr. Cavern travels back to the time of the Roman Republic -- brings along accidental puffin -- confused puffin flies into someone, interrupting an assassination

3) The Romans assume it was Dr. Cavern who stopped the assassination.

4) Factions develop, one idolizing Dr. Cavern and the other resenting her.

5) While being honored by one faction, Dr. Cavern's life is threatened by the other.

6) Confused and on-the-run, Dr. Cavern seeks shelter near cliffs haunted by a single puffin.

7) Dr. Cavern tries to secure fish oil for a return time travel trip, but fails.

8) Dr. Cavern bonds spiritually with the puffin

9) Dr. Cavern takes to walking with and dwelling beside the puffin.

10) The romans realize it was the puffin who stopped the assassination, not Dr. Cavern.

11) The cult of the puffin begins to develop.

12) Dr. Cavern becomes inconsequential to both factions.

13) Romans begin resented Dr. Cavern's special relationship with the puffin.

14) Dr. Cavern tries to take advantage of the puffin's persuasive aura to secure her own safety and prestige.

15) All the Romans unite against Dr. Cavern.

16) Dr. Cavern appeals to the puffin for mercy.

17) Two groups of Romans encircle Dr. Cavern to kill her, but the puffin tried to intervene

18) Details uncertain, but there is a Roman Cult of the Puffin and the world has changed from that which we know

You'll notice that I'm not concerned about details of action, character, setting, or historical research.  I'm just laying out the foundation for my story so that I have a coherent vision -- a foundation from which to attack those details, and a guideline to which I can appeal when I get lost or confused.

.Nevets.

Soundtrack for writing the post provided by Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Yngwie Malmsteen, TV on the Radio.

Aliya Whiteley: You're Not Always Brilliant

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Most writers know the sting of criticism.  We know it's going to come.  When we believe in our writing, we also want to believe in everything we've written.  Historical fiction novelist Deborah Swift has talked here about the importance of developing a thick skin.  As avant-garde blackly comic crime author Aliya Whiteley discovered, though, that no matter how good a writer you are, you need to be open to criticism.  You can be a good writer and still need to change what you're currently writing:

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Before I was a crime writer I was a sci-fi writer. Before that, when my first novella was published, I was an experimental writer. And before that I was a writer of terrible romances.

I'm glad to say this romantic claptrap stage did not last long, but it did give birth to three particularly ugly manuscripts which I'm determined to keep locked up in a cupboard forever-more. But writing terrible romances taught me a lot about pace, and structure, and character; the form of the romance novel is not flexible, so I learned the craft of telling a story in which the hero must kiss the heroine by chapter two and they have to have moved on to at least third base by the end of novel, while having some sort of reason to keep bumping into each other that doesn't overshadow the kissie bits.

One of these horrible efforts actually made it to the acceptance stage. Caught By The Cougar (I told you it was terrible) got picked up by a brand new E-Book publisher back in the days when nobody bought E-Books. And a professional editor got her mitts on my ugly baby. She ripped it to shreds, and rightly so, but boy, did it hurt. I seriously considered ignoring her thousands of comments - after all, I had written a book and someone was going to publish it, so it had to be brilliant already, right? - but in the end, common sense overcame my ego and I got down to the business of making all my passive sentences active, and taking out most of the awful adverbs, and tightening up the pace where it flagged, and slowing it down when the hero and heroine got to the making out stage. I learned a huge amount from that experience, and I am undoubtedly a better writer because of it. I spent months making changes, and at the end of it, I had a book that wasn't bad. It still wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. Of course, my careful editing took so long that by the time I returned the manuscript the E-publisher had already folded.

When someone really criticises your baby, you want to put your hands over your ears and pretend that they're an idiot who didn't understand the first thing about your writing. But learning to be open to criticism and to act on it when necessary - this is what turns an amateur into a professional, I think. It's a painful process. But I'm glad I went through it.

I'm also glad it was never published. But that's a retrospective gladness.

Aliya Whiteley

Aliya Whiteley is the author of Three Things About Me and Light Reading, both also available in the US after-market.  Light Reading is also available on Kindle.