Becoming a Better Writer - How to Do It?

      

 

ROGUE FAMILIAR has a cover!! I've been loving the enthusiasm for it, too. It's a great inspiration to me as I write Selly's hunt for Jadren. 

This week at the SFF Seven we're talking tools for writers who aren’t beginners. I seem to be hearing a lot of interest in this topic lately. I've been contemplating setting up some online classes and not long ago I asked for input on what kinds of classes people would like to see from me. (Feel free to comment or message me if you have ideas or requests!) One of the suggestions that came up often was a desire for classes for more advanced writers, targeting those who’ve written several books but want to learn how to keep getting better at it.

So, I've been working up some lists of more advanced topics I could teach - and thinking back to where I learned the intermediate and higher stuff. Some of it is always going to be self-study. Reading other authors. Listening to other writers talk about their process. Re-reading favorites to study how those writers accomplished what they did. I think those are the best tools.

But I'd also like to see more craft-focused workshops, classes, and discussions out there. For quite a few years, it seems, the bulk of information offered to writers seems to focus on business. There are countless opportunities to learn Facebook ads, newsletter marketing, keywords, BookBub ads, Amazon ads, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Why? Because those are easy to teach. Teaching craft is a much more daunting prospect. In fact, I've heard debates among creative-writing professors about whether the craft of writing can be taught at all.

At any rate, this isn't a very informative post, I know. I'm not offering any good tools here (other than the above), but rather food for thought. Improving craft is something we all (well, most of us) want to do. I'm thinking up some ways to get at it. Suggestions welcome!

Tips and Tools for Experienced Writers

 This week's topic: Tools for Experienced Writers

Uh...hmm.  This topic is harder than it seems because--regardless of how long you've been in the publishing business--when it comes to the writing side, you don't need anything fancy, but you do need something current. One-off the current release of your preferred word-processing app is as much as you can safely dally before you risk file corruption and loss of interoperability. Frankly, I recommend staying up-to-date with the release versions of your writing app (hell, make that all apps) because of security enhancements to protect you and your work from the persistent pernicious attacks of bad actors. 

Next, advice from anyone who's ever lost a file: cloud storage and external drive storage is recommended. Whether it's file corruption, accidental overwrites, or straight-up missing docs, when the poltergeists strike, we all become Captain Kirk screaming, "Khaaaaaaan" at the top of our lungs. We can breathe again once we find a "clean" copy of what went missing. Thus, two-point backups. While my files auto-save to my cloud storage, I do external backups once a year (I should do it quarterly, but...) Word docs don't take up that much data space, so it's not like you have to buy a pricey 4Tb drive. Get yourself a little 16GB flash drive for $10 and save yourself from bile-rising anxiety. Oh, and if your computer's OS has updated and/or your writing app has had a major update since your last external backup, take the 5-10mins now to do a backup. Planned obsolescence is the enemy of backward compatibility, and we live in a capitalist society. 

Now, from the business side of publishing, there's a lot of stuff you need to track in order to stay abreast of All The Things from Work(s) in Progress and Submissions, to Product Sales and Marketing Campaigns, to Costs and Revenue. For me, I'm still leaning on Excel. Spreadsheets abound, my people. Alas, I didn't keep up with the assorted releases of MS Access, so I'm no longer able to build databases that would've eased tracking and reporting.  Though, if anyone has recommendations for author/publishing-centric dBs, drop them in the comments, please!

If you're self-publishing and/or have earned enough revenue that you've incorporated (threshold varies by state), then make sure you're tracking all your expenses and earnings with accounting software like Quicken. When it comes to tax season, you and your accountant will be grateful you did.

Remember, all the extra apps and subscriptions you use for your business are tax deductible (verify specifics with your accountant as tax law changes year-to-year).

Stressing the Negative Reviews

Negative reviews. If we haven't yet gotten them, we soon will. All of us. Authors, singers, actors, painters, cooks, mechanics - every one who does anything ever will be subject to critique and criticism. The trick is to laugh it off and not let it bother you. If your palms sweat and your heart races at the words of someone who has consumed what you've created, if you read those words and feel your soul shrivel, don't read reviews. I'm not kidding. Reviews aren't for the creator of a thing, anyway. Let me attempt to impose order on my disorganized thinking:

The question as it was posed suggests that one of my peers struggles with a heightened stress response when a negative review comes in. I'll start by saying this is normal. This is expected. STOP READING YOUR REVIEWS. Not because you're having a stress response, though this advice will help lower your cortisol level, honest.

Reviews are coded messages that don't come with decoder rings. They're also not meant for the author. They're meant for other readers. I'll start with the last one first. Reviews by readers and official reviewers are meant to help readers find books. They're to help readers find your book in particular and let them know that you don't kill the dog that shows up on page 112. Reviews are to help readers decide if the trigger/content warnings in your book are something they can handle. Is it true you're going to get some snobby git who questions your intelligence, sneers at your story, and awards you a single star? Yes. Ask me how I know. But it's also true that the person who wrote that review already bought your book and paid you in money, time, and energy for the privilege of taking a swipe at you. If that stresses you out, work that stress off by walking that check to the bank. Seriously. Don't read your reviews. What's the point? The book is done. It's released. You've set it free into the world. It isn't yours any more. It belongs to the audience now. (Barring obvious glitches and techie errors, obviously - I have fixed things that changed a story based on realizing I'd made a pretty big narrative mistake.) If looking at reviews is a problem for you, get another author friend to read them before you see them and remove the snarkiest. What are author friends for?

The decoder ring comment. In my experience, rarely do negative reviews mean what they say. The one star review I got on an award-winning novel went something like: "I don't know why everyone is giving this book 5 stars. It's nothing new or interesting." Sounds like a negative review, doesn't it? Except there's a message hidden in that terse little slap at my wrist. That coded message is "I had a book like this in my head but not the courage to write it. How dare you." How do I know this? Well. Factually, I don't. But when I read the original comment, I can almost hear the dismissive sniff. Then that 'nothing new or interesting' jab suggests the reviewer does have an idea that's new and interesting along the lines of what I'd written and had published. Once you begin seeing the misery and recrimination underneath negative reviews, it's easier to laugh them off.

As a bonus, let's get tight on a definition of a negative review. What is a negative review? Too few stars? Someone pointing out problems in the story or hating on a character? I'd argue that if a reader writes a review that you can act on - someone says your heroine's eyes were green on page 3 and then they were blue on page 85 - you can find that in the text and fix it. If the critique is actionable like that, it's not a negative review. That reader helped you. Thank them and move on. You'll develop a loyal reader that way. If a review is vague and whiny 'the author can't write their way out of a wet  paper bag' - well that review is useless, isn't it? Any time you see insulting statements without any constructive critique attached, you know you're dealing with jealousy. Bright, blazing, bitter green jealousy. And if someone is jealous, they want what you have. Doesn't sound like they really think your writing is all that bad, does it?

So to manage the stress of negative reviews, simply don't engage. Your sanity and your muse will thank you.

Dealing with Negative Reviews

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When you put a book out into the world it’s no longer yours and everyone that comes into contact with it will have an opinion. That’s right, we’re talking about the mentality of negative reviews this week!

The question was if we recognize our fight-or-flight response to negative reviews and do we do anything to stop it. Before you get to that point, I think it’s helpful to have a review plan. 

I know authors who read, some of them even respond, to every review. Some like to grab quotes from glowing reviews to use in promo. I chose the opposite direction and don’t read reviews of my own work. And there are countless variations between that might work for you, but having a plan of how you will handle/read reviews before they’re out there is important. 

There are a lot of reasons a reader may leave a negative review. KAK pointed out that some of the negative ones make her giggle with glee because their take on the book was exactly what she wanted. Sometimes readers misunderstand the point a book, it happens! Sometimes what hits one reader as off-putting is what will draw another reader to the book. That’s the whole there’s no bad review mentality. And yes, sometimes a review can make you question your ability to write. Sometimes it stings, and then you have to decide what to do about it. 

Which brings me back to having a plan before the reviews are posted. I guess that’s my lab background creeping in again, follow the process and things will turn out alright. 

If a review gets under your skin and you can’t shake it, go back to the reasons you wrote the book in the first place—what was your definition of success for that book before it was released and did you achieve it? If a reviewer points out some technical aspects that could be improved upon, be prepared to step back and examine them, you may want to take some time before really digging into it if it triggered anger, but there may be some useful points that could strengthen your next book. Maybe the reviewer can’t articulate what lead them to not like your book. In which case, don’t dwell on it as those have no merit. Sometimes a bad day makes for a bad read, nothing to be done about it. 

If all else fails, and the whole art is subjective thing makes you want to snap your laptop shut, check out reviews of a book you love. You’ll find good and bad reviews and it will remind you that not everyone likes the same thing. 

Do you have a method or plan for handling reviews? Has it changed over the years?

Handling Negative Reviews with Poise and Humor

Here's a little tease of the cover of ROGUE FAMILIAR, book 2 in Renegades of Magic, releasing at the end of February. Cover reveal coming soon!

This week at the SFF Seven we're talking about the Mentality of Negative Reviews. Specifically, the person who posed the question asked: do you recognize your fight-or-flight response to negative reviews and do anything to stop it?

I'm including the full text of the question because I'm disagreeing with the initial premise. I don't think I have a stress response to negative reviews. It could be that I've been writing long enough (nearly thirty years *gasp*) that I've become more or less inured to negative reviews. I remember a review of my first book, the essay collection WYOMING TRUCKS, TRUE LOVE, AND THE WEATHER CHANNEL, that was mostly glowing - but also said I used adverbs too much. It came from a professional reviewer at a venue I can't recall, and that was long before I realized that many reviewers are aspiring writers who cling to the "rules" of writing with the tenacity of an apprentice seeking the magic formula to catapult them to true wizard status. Mostly I was surprised that, if my professional, experienced editor at a university press hadn't minded my adverbs, then why did a reviewer? I understand now. I also know more about the weird anti-adverb stance some writers absorb.

Mostly. <- See what I did there? Humor is key.

Anyway. Experiencing a flight-or-fight response to a review means that you feel attacked. I suppose some reviewers intend it that way. They like to speculate about the author's emotional life, intentions, or deadline pressure. Authors are occasionally accused of manipulating readers to extract profit. Sometimes our moral integrity is questioned. But that's all par for the course on social media. I think what's most important for writers to do is separate themselves from their work. YOU didn't receive a negative review; the book did. Even if the reviewer specifically attacks the author, they're still not actually reviewing you as a human being, because they don't actually know you. The author is a construct in their mind that has very little to do with reality. 

Keeping your poise, a sense of yourself as a person separate from the work, and keeping a sense of humor about it all is what gets you through. After all, a review isn't a tiger. No one's going to die over a review. It's fangless, toothless, and ultimately dust in the wind.

 

Negative Reviews: Toddlers vs Champions

This Week's Topic:
The Mentality of Negative Reviews:
Do I recognize my fight-or-flight response to negative reviews and do anything to stop it?

I admit that a one- or two-star review is a gut punch, but...whether that punch is thrown by a petulant toddler or a 250-lb champion martial artist makes a world of difference. I can keep my intestines in place and unbruised from attacks by the toddlers of the interwebs. (I eat enough cheeseburgers to give me plenty of padding!) End of day, my reaction to those public tantrums is, "O-okay, nothing to learn here. Moving along."

Folks who want to correct my spelling, get into grammatical debates, or who seek to inflict their religious oppression on others fall under the category of Toddler. I don't waste brain space or emo spoons on those. 

The 250-lb champion martial artist can make me double over with a whimpered "oof" while my insides turn to goop. Once I regain consciousness, I take another read. Why, oh, why would I subject myself to that? IMHO, these readers articulate why they feel what they feel about my book in such a way that shows their love of the genre even if they have no love for my book. Often, on my second reading of the poopy review, I have to admit ...they're not wrong about this or that piece. Perhaps they found the gaping hole in the plot, a sameness of supporting characters, an (unintentional) insensitivity to a marginalized group, or that I was too coy with my clue reveals, which made the mystery fail. D'oh! 

My ego is not so massive that I can't learn. Thanks to constructive feedback and experience, I can now see the glaring mistakes I've made in the first books in both my series. (Sorry, readers! Truly!) Continuous improvement is part of the joy I derive from being an author. 

Now, that's not to say that I believe reviews are written with me as the target audience. Of course not. Reviews are written by readers for readers. I don't respond to reviews--glowing or craptastic. Again, they're not meant for me. Readers with an intention to school me via review are not likely to succeed. I'm a brat like that. 

Don't misunderstand, I value reviews. I'm grateful my work moved someone enough to take 3+ minutes from their day to publicly post their opinion. Naturally, good reviews are better because I'm trying to sell books, but if what I wrote pissed off a reader so much they need to leave a scathing review, that's their catharsis and not my problem. 

Little secret: what some readers may see as a red flag, I might not. What the reviewer is opining could well be what I intended. Some of my favorite reviews call my works "weird," "bizarre," and "unlike other books in the genre." They make me giggle with delight. I write in genres that are rife with roads that have been well-trod, so whenever a reader says I've done something different, I break out the full Snoopy dance. 

A Heroine to Aspire to

You would think, when I suggest a topic, I’d have a response to my own question in mind. You would think incorrectly. So, apparently, do I.

Like Jeffe, I very much dislike picking a favorite anything, so I’ll claim I haven’t. I’ve just selected a heroine I really wish I was good enough to have written. There are plenty of those, but in the spirit of playing by my own rule, I’m just picking one.

I wish I’d written Charlotte Holmes from Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series. She’s autistic. She’s brilliant, logical, and driven. She’s focused and her energy propels her story. The key to her humanity, though, is that she’s deeply unwilling to face or admit her vulnerabilities. I love the combination of clever intellect and sloppy emotion that she refuses to process. She stonewalls almost all tender feeling, and her reactions are predictable enough that she leaves herself open to being manipulated (by people she believes she’s manipulating.) I love her because she plays a long, long game. It’s fun.

The thing is, I don’t know if it’s the character I admire, or Sherry Thomas’s exquisite writing. Her facility with Charlotte’s character is exhilarating. I admire the heck out of how lightweight the craft feels when I’m reading the stories. I want to learn how to do that – to create someone complex, filled with contradictions that make complete sense within the story. I still have a lot to learn.

What makes your favorite hero/heroine?

We love gushing about things we’re fans of because what’s better than loving something? Sharing it with someone and loving it together! And this week we’re talking about our favorite fictional heroine that we didn’t write. 

The topic says heroine, and I’ve read some truly amazing heroines! But I don’t want to limit my character pool, so I’m going to go with favorite hero/heroine! 

Please let me introduce to you: Kvothe. 

If you’re scratching your head a bit, the author, Patrick Rothfuss, explains this name here. If you’re cheering at your screen, I see you. You’ve got great taste in books. 

Kvothe is a young man who makes dumb, young person mistakes. He had a wonderful childhood, which was stolen from him in a moment of voilence. He learned how to live on the streets. Then he pulled himself out of the gutter and managed to get himself into the most prestigious school. Kvothe isn’t some tough bad-ass strong-man, though he’s gone up against gods and walked away. He’s a lute player. And with those strings he makes magic. 

I picked Kvothe because of all those reasons listed above, but more importantly because he is a young man who has been molded by his circumstances, turned around, and said he wanted to make himself. And he didn’t do it by twirling swords and bashing skulls. He willed his world to be different, closed his eyes, and threw his entire being into making it so. 

I want to live like Kvothe. And yes, I absolutely wish I’d written Kvothe. If you’re in the mood for a thick epic fantasy, check out The Name of the Wind. 

How about you? Who is your favorite hero/heroine and why?