[Link] When Your Process Isn't Working for You, Change Your Process

by Chuck Wendig

That’s it, that’s the lesson. I said it in the post headline. You can go home now.

OKAY FINE WAIT don’t go home.

So, it is once again National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, and maybe you’re doing it, maybe you’re not, maybe you’ll succeed at the task, maybe you will be overwhelmed by holiday stress and global chaos, maybe you’ll be eaten by bears, I don’t know you, I don’t know your life.

What I know is this:

When writing, and that’s true for this month or any other month, it is entirely acceptable to blow up your process with a variety of metaphorical explosives. We all think we know how we do things. We think we know how we write. We think we know how we tell stories. Over time we super-glue ourselves to our process, and in fact that process can become a part of us in a problematic way as we mythologize and even fetishize said process. (Weirder still, we will then sometimes attempt to turn our process from mythology and fetish to straight-up cult and religion — look no further than any TEN WAYS YOU MUST WRITE, YOU FUCKING HEATHEN lists.) I’m guilty of this as anybody, to be clear! I definitely put a ring on my process and stayed married to it long beyond its value. Hell, the very start of my novel-writing career was born out of me shedding some rather foolish ideas I had about my process and the wifty head-in-clouds notions that governed it at the time.

And now I’ve used ‘process’ far too many times.

Process, process, process. Princess abcess praxis.

*clears throat, tries to escape this linguistic oubliette*

Anyway, my point is ultimately this: you’re gonna eventually hit a speedbump or even a wall where you discover that the Way You Write is simply no longer working.

Read the full article: https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2023/11/02/when-your-process-isnt-working-for-you-change-your-process/

[Link] The Eternal Question: What Should I Write?

by Chuck Wendig

One of the questions I get most frequently over email is this:

What should I write?

The question presumably meaning, what kind of thing should I write? What genre? What story? Maybe it’s the first thing you’re ever going to write. Maybe it’s just the next thing in a long line of written things.

And the answer to this question is simple.

That answer is:

How the fuck should I know?

I mean, I’m not you. At least, not until I get my SOUL TRANSPLANT HELMET working, but that’s at least five years off — maybe seven if Elon doesn’t call me back (seriously, Elon, get your shit together, gimme a ring, Musk). Because I am (presently) not you, I have no idea what you should write. Because the advice of what to write is not a thing that has an easy answer — or, really, any answer. You want the answer to be something concrete, something that is the result of plugging variables in and punching the CALCULATE STORY button, but no such thing exists. You can’t “run the numbers” and end up with the perfect answer (“Ah! I should write — let’s see, mumble mumble, carry the three, put the DNA on the slide, shake the shoebox with the cat inside of it, et voila — I should write The Terminator meets The Gilmore Girls as if written by Mary Shelley. Bestseller status, here I come.”)

It doesn’t work like that.

But what I can do is tell you how I come to terms with what I should write next. Because this isn’t a question just some writers have — it’s a question that plagues us all, I think. It plagues us at the start. It plagues us throughout our career. It plagues n00bs, midlisters, even bestsellers. It plagues traditionally-published authors and indie authors. It is a question I ask myself even as I’m writing one thing because I always need to know what’s next? And what’s next after that? If this book is successful, what else can I write in that vein? If it tanks, how do I move to an adjacent track that still makes sense? Where am I? Why am I wearing pants? Is this a curse? Did I spit in the Pants God’s eye? WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN ME, OH PANTSLESS PANTHEON

Ahem, sorry.

Here is what I do to determine what I’m gonna write next.

Read the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2018/05/08/the-eternal-question-what-should-i-write/

[Link] WHY IS HORROR SO ANATHEMA IN PUBLISHING?

by Chuck Wendig

I write horror novels, mostly.

I just don’t call them horror. They’re urban fantasy. They’re supernatural suspense. They’re near-future sci-fi thrillers. But definitely, totally, super-not-horror. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, a finger thrust up before my rubbery latex clown mask where I shush you long, low and slow, shhhhhhhhhh. Don’t worry! Not horror at all.

*squeaks clown nose to comfort you, honk-honk*

Except, psst: they’re totally horror. I don’t even necessarily mean they’re horror as a genre. Horror as a genre is a bullseye on the back of a galloping horse — sure, there are certain tropes and conventions that mark something as horror, but these usually mark it more as a subgenre of horror rather than an overarching convention. Horror, to me, is as much a mood as it is a convergence of tropes or ideas. That mood goes beyond merely invoking fright. It’s about traipsing into the dark, about shining a flickering flashlight beam on some nastiness, and probing fear and discomfort up and down the spectrum. From big stuff (surveillance state, religion, apocalypse) to little stuff (hey guess what there’s a guy in your closet covered in someone else’s skin and he has a camping hatchet covered in blood and hair). I love it. I grew up reading it. I write it. Zer0es is a wet-wired hacker thriller where the surveillance state is so intrusive it might literally be drilled into the back of your skull. Invasive is a fun thrillery Jurassic Park romp ha ha ha oh and did I mention it contains ants who will cut off your skin with their mandibles in order to farm your flesh snippets for delicious fungus? Miriam Black can literally see how you’re going to die, and people get eaten by flocks of birds and there are folks with no eyes and a guy gets chopped up in a garbage disposal. Doesn’t matter that nobody wants to call them horror — the Miriam Black books are horror novels from snoot-to-chute. Exuent will be apocalyptic in its scope, and though I’m sure it’ll be labeled a thriller, it is intentionally meant to be scary, creepy, unsettling in the same way you find The Stand or Swan Song. In other words: It’s horror.

Read the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/10/26/why-is-horror-so-anathema-in-publishing/

Nugget #83 -- We Need the Dark

We need to look long into the dark. It’s part of who we are. 

We like to be scared. It gives us context. It gives us control. 

It helps us take the horror of the real world and give it 

shape so that we can conquer it, if only a little. Out of 

discomfort we find comfort. -- Chuck Wendig

[Link] TEN QUICK STORY TIPS TO USE OR DISCARD AT YOUR LEISURE

by Chuck Wendig

1. Story is, as I am wont to remind, the destruction of the status quo. A story begins when the expected course of events deviates — it’s like a bone breaking. Compound fracture, crack. The inciting incident is that break. High school is high school until a new teacher shows up and changes everything. The magical fantasy kingdom is doing its thing until the king is murdered by a murderous murdercorn (aka a once-innocent unicorn that turned super shitty). This isn’t hard to see in stories that exist: the original Star Wars trilogy has the Empire serving as the status quo, and then Luke, Leia and the gang provide the match-tip to the Rebellion powderkeg and boom, status quo shattered. This is true for the inciting incident and also true as the story progresses — any time the story threatens to return to a “new normal” or some kind of status quo, it is your job to once again break that bone just as it heals. Plot is born of this.

2. Plot is also born of agitation. Agitation is best served as conflict between characters — aka, drama. The drama llama is a storyteller’s best friend. Love the drama llama. Ride the drama llama. Make love to the — wait, no. Sorry! *sprays bleach on your brain* Characters with competing agendas, desires, and emotions agitate one another simply by dint of pursuing (or denying) these agendas, desires and emotions. It’s like putting a bunch of spiders and centipedes and beetles in a jar and shaking it up — they fight and crawl and try to escape or eat each other. Story basically starts to write itself once you’ve got these fundamental elements, because the characters will forever push the narrative forward. This isn’t magical, though, and you’ll still need to control the characters. Otherwise they will be literally born and you will wake up surrounded by them. They will have knives. Okay, maybe it is magic. Whatever.

Read the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/10/05/ten-quick-story-tips-to-use-or-discard-at-your-leisure/

Clean, Cleaner, Squeaky Clean, or Get Your Hands Off My Words?

This week, we're talking about the new Clean Reader app that has been dividing both readers and writers since it was announced. 

Many writers from world famous to local authors have spoken out about the readers on their blogs or in major news outlets, but I figured it would be fun to hear what the small press had to say about the matter too. 

If you need to catch up first, go check out the articles below, then come back here. 

============================================

Joanne Harris attacks Clean Reader app for replacing words in novels

The introduction of a new app that allows readers to swap explicit language with "cleaner" words has incurred the wrath of authors who believe it encourages censorship.

Clean Reader was designed to remove words deemed offensive from any book in electronic format, regardless of whether the writer has given their permission, and swap them with versions that are more appropriate for children.

Read the full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/joanne-harris-attacks-clean-reader-app-for-replacing-words-in-novels-10130869.html?icn=puff-4

============================================

And Chuck Wendig also posted about the Clean Reader app:

Fuck You, Clean Reader: Authorial Consent Matters

There exists a new app called Clean Reader.

The function of Clean Reader is to scrub the profanity from e-books.

Their tagline: “Read books. Not profanity.“

You can dial in how much of the profanity you want gone from the books.

Read the full post: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/03/25/fuck-you-clean-reader-authorial-consent-matters/

============================================ 

Now... on with the article already in progress.

It is censorship or just readers exercising their rights (or preferences -- and are the two equal)?
 Percival Constantine: It's censorship, period. It's altering the content of the book without the author's permission. This is a small group of easily-offended readers wanting to have their cake and eat it, too. Joanne Harris made a good point about a potential conservative Christian bias in the app, and looking at some of the replacements, it's easy to see why (as well as an anti-female bias). As a liberal atheist, I find it offensive that they'd attempt to sanitize my work without my consent.

John Hartness: My words are chosen with care, with purpose, and with intent. When I choose to swear, it means something. It means something about the character, the setting, and the world they are inhabiting at that moment. Changing my words is changing my intellectual property, just like changing the underscoring of a movie alters the film.

Here's a case in point - when I sold The Black Knight Chronicles to a publisher, we went through extensive rewrites on the original self-published manuscripts. One thing my editor/publisher was looking for me to do was make the books more "gritty," and one way that was suggested was to make the characters swear more. I chose not to do so because the main charaters are a product of a time twenty years ago when casual profanity was less prevalent. In the first three books of the series, the word "fuck" appears once, in a pivotal moment for the character. I chose that word very specifically, to prove a very specific point about that moment. Changing that instance of the word "fuck" to "screw" would work against a pattern of language and dialogue I had spent well over 100,000 words building to that point.

RJ. Sullivan: What makes it legal is that the filter has settings, including an off that lets you see the original content. the wording I saw was they're not changing the file, merely altering how it is presented, and the user can see the unedited wording if they choose. I have to take their word for it but I still think the way this came in and was in place before anyone could object was a bit shady and that makes me suspicious. 

Ric Martens: I kind of feel that if someone wants to avoid the swearing in my writing, that's up to them. If they have a program that does it for them that's cool. It would probably be a different thing if the publishers were doing this without talking to the writer, but that's a whole different issue.

H. David Blalock: I see this as the same as someone buying a book then striking through all the "objectionable" words manually. Once the book is bought, it belongs to the buyer. Personal property can be disposed of, damaged, or altered as the owner sees fit. If someone bought one of my books then went through it and changed the words, how would I know? As long as the altered book is not resold or presented as original to the author, I see no problem with this. If the revised work is reissued under the author's name, then there would be grounds for concern. That, indeed, would constitute not just censorship but fraud.

Lucy Blue: We've already created so many genre categories a reader can go through an entire life of avid reading and never read anything that presents any point of view that doesn't line up precisely with their own. Do we have to now make it possible to rig the rest of the books to make them fall in line, too?

Should e-readers have the option of "cleaning up" any work as written? Should it be limited to only those authors who opt in? 

Amanda Niehaus-Hard: I would not have a problem with this service at all if the AUTHOR could opt in to have their book "scrubbed." But just grabbing books from basically the wholesalers is what offends me. 

Percival Constantine: This is my biggest problem with the app—it didn't get author consent. That shows a blatant disregard and disrespect for all authors. Fortunately, Page Foundry has done the right thing and pulled their catalogue from Clean Reader (even if they did the wrong thing first by putting their entire catalogue in the app without securing permission or even so much as a simple notification email).

RJ. Sullivan: My biggest problems are this 1) authors and publishers had no options to opt out. In most cases, this is a secondary service to a major ebook distributor so the contracts a publisher set up with one did not make them aware they would also be shunted over to this. I think that stinks. I found out about it when I discovered that all the books under my publisher were part of the catalog. 2) This is a simple find / replace filter, which means the author has to download the filter and buy the file to even see how the edited version reads. That means these are essentially unauthorized edits. For all I know, my work sounds incredibly stupid, but I won't buy the file to find out. That's pretty bogus. 

Ellie Raine: When I have a child,I do intend to introduce them to more challenging books if they're unsatisfied with the children's section in any way, so in that respect, I can see the good side of this. But that doesn't mean the app shouldn't have permission from the author before becoming available... that being said, I think this article is being a bit overzealous in general. Sure, it's bordering censorship and should be addressed, but it's not going to start Armageddon.

John Hartness: If you want to read a book with no naughty words in it, buy one with no naughty words in it. If you want to buy a book that I wrote, don't fuck with the words. They matter. I write. I've spent a long time working on my craft, and I work hard choosing the words I put down on paper. Don't like words that may offend or challenge you? Don't read my shit. Gotta go now. Have a lovely day.

Lucy Blue: And as a writer, I know I have an obligation, if I intend to actually sell or otherwise publicly distribute what I write, to consider the preferences of my audience when choosing vocabulary. (I haven't called a woman's naughty place in a book by the word I call it in the bedroom for years because so many women--my target audience--find it objectionable to the point of feeling assaulted.) And if what we're all about is selling more books, then an app that makes our books saleable products to more people can only be good, right? But I'm not just about selling more books. I'm about communicating a world view, telling some truth, creating, dare I say it, some art. And in that context, this app is deeply offensive and, to my mind, a violation of copyright law and every other rule that protects the rights and work of any artist.

Who really benefits from something like this?

RJ. Sullivan: My feeling on this is complicated. I have received complaints by sensitive readers that my content has turned them off. My response has always been that most authors don't write for everyone and really by definition CAN'T write for everyone. On the other hand, apparently, the filter does not cut into my royalty (which was a major concern) and it might get sensitive readers an opportunity to give my work a chance when they would not have done so otherwise. So, you know, I'm getting paid, and that's a good thing.

Ric Martens: I think overall its a gain for everyone involved. I mean you have more people reading more books so that's a good thing right?

Percival Constantine: Authors who have been forced into Clean Reader without their permission certainly aren't benefitting. It's hard to see how readers are benefitting either, since Clean Reader replaces words without any knowledge of the context, leading to a very clunky reading experience. The only people who are really benefitting from this are the makers of Clean Reader. But with PF pulling its catalogue and a lot of authors making noise about this, soon the Clean Reader library may only consist of books that didn't need the CR app in the first place.

John Hartness: I am always grateful when people read my work, but if they buy my book, I want them to get my words, not some electronic filter's version of my words. My name is still on the cover, my reputation is still attached to the craft of the writing, and my time and effort went into the selection of every word in there. Anyone who wants to write a different book can feel free to sit down at their keyboard and do so.

[Link] Top 10 Rules for Mystery Writing

by Ginny Wiehardt

Even more than writing in other genres, mystery writing tends to follow standard rules. This is because readers of mysteries seek a particular experience: they want the intellectual challenge of solving the crime before the detective does, and the pleasure of knowing that everything will come together in the end. Of course, the best way of testing the mystery writing rules that follow is to read widely in the genre. See how others use them or how and when they get away with breaking them.

1.  In mystery writing, plot is everything.

Because readers are playing a kind of game when they read a detective novel, plot has to come first, above everything else. Make sure each plot point is plausible, and keep the action moving. Don't get bogged down in back story or go off on tangents.

Read the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/15/25-things-you-need-to-know-about-writing-mysteries-by-susan-spann/

[Link] 25 Things You Need To Know About Writing Mysteries

by Susan Spann

Mystery novels work a lot like any other genre, except that mystery writers murder their imaginary friends. To paraphrase the Hoover campaign promise, a mystery novel will deliver “a corpse in every pot.” (Mystery authors are twisted. We might as well get that straight from the outset.)

Mystery offers plenty of room for variation, too. Murder is universal—it can happen in any setting and any time. A sleuth can be a professional, an amateur, or a NINJA (though I’ve already done that last one), and your victim and method can vary just as widely. One warning, however: killing your imaginary friends is a lot like eating potato chips. Nobody I know can stop with one.

Sound like fun? Awesome. Let’s get going:

1. DEATH: IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNER

Occasionally, a mystery succeeds with a central crime other than murder, but generally speaking purloined papers, missing mutts, and the seizure of family jewels doesn’t get you very far in the mystery world. (However, properly handled, the family jewels have great potential in other genres.)

On the positive side, if your imaginary friends are at all like mine, they’re better off dead.

2. PUT THE HATCHET DOWN AND FIND A SLEUTH

It’s easy to rush prematurely into the process of fitting imaginary friends for cement waders. When real killers rush the process, they end up in jail (or dead). The best way to keep your novel (and your career) off the writers’ version of death row? Plan it thoroughly. Plan it well. And plan to start with an interesting sleuth. Readers don’t turn the pages because they care about fictitious corpses. Readers want to help the cool kids solve a crime.

3. KNEE THE DICK IN THE GROIN

What’s better than an intriguing sleuth? A BROKEN ONE! Hooray! Is your detective emotionally damaged? Physically impaired? Addicted to Hostess Fruit Pies? Excellent: good times lie ahead.

If not, stop now and take a hammer to your sleuth’s emotional kneecaps. Bust those suckers good—and be creative. Divorces, tragic accidents, and dead relatives are dime-a-dozen. You can do better. Make your detective allergic to coffee, or phobic of houseplants. Squash her beloved iguana beneath a Zamboni and then force her to solve a murder at an ice rink.

You get the idea.

Read the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/15/25-things-you-need-to-know-about-writing-mysteries-by-susan-spann/

[Link] 25 Things Writers Should Know About Theme

by Chuck Wendig

1. Every Story Is An Argument

Every story’s trying to say something. It’s trying to beam an idea, a message, into the minds of the readers. In this way, every story is an argument. It’s the writer making a case. It’s the writer saying, “All of life is suffering.” Or, “Man will be undone by his prideful reach.” Or “Love blows.” Or, “If you dance with the Devil Wombat, you get cornholed by the Devil Wombat.” This argument is the story’s theme.

2. The Elements Of Story Support That Argument

If the theme, then, is the writer’s thesis statement, then all elements of the story — character, plot, word choice, scene development, inclusion of the Devil Wombat — go toward proving that thesis.

3. Unearthed Or Engineered

The theme needn’t be something the writer is explicitly aware of — it may be an unconscious argument, a message that has crept into the work like a virus capable of overwriting narrative DNA, like a freaky dwarven stalker hiding in your panty drawers and getting his greasy Norseman stink all over your undergarments. A writer can engineer the theme — building it into the work. Or a writer can unearth it — discovering its tendrils after the work is written.

Continue reading: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/26/25-things-writers-should-know-about-theme/

[Link] Amongst The New Pulpeteers (Or, “What The Good Goddamn Is ‘New Pulp,’ Anyway?”)

By Chuck Wendig

I’ve long admired writers who bend genres to their whims instead of being bent to the strictures of genre — a guy like Joe Lansdale is all over the fucking map in terms of what he writes. Everything from crime thrillers to sci-fi to satire to Southern Gothic to Weird Westerns to whatever the hell wants to come out of his head at any given moment. Sometimes this turbid genre muddiness is found in a single book. Hell, look at Stephen King’s Gunslinger series. What is that? Horror? A little. Fantasy? A little. Western? A little. It’s its own thing, that series. You might describe it using one of my favorite non-words: “unpindownable.”

A New Pulp writer doesn’t know what to call himself. He can’t say, “I’m a thriller writer,” or, “I write crime.”

He just writes. Whatever crazy-ass shit enters his head goes to the page one way or another.

It isn’t just psychic dinosaurs. Or noir tales of moral doom. Or sex, or heroism, or Batman, or serial killers, or steampunk assassins or any of that stuff. It isn’t about what’s written. It’s about what can be written.

New Pulp says, “Fuck genre.” Then it clubs genre on the head like a sailor clubbing an unruly tuna.

Continue reading: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/07/17/amongst-the-new-pulpeteers-or-what-the-good-goddamn-is-new-pulp-anyway/

[Link] 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

[this link rated M for language for those who have an issue with that sort of thing]

by Chuck Wendig

I read this cool article last week — “30 Things To Stop Doing To Yourself” — and I thought, hey, heeeey, that’s interesting. Writers might could use their own version of that. So, I started to cobble one together. And, of course, as most of these writing-related posts become, it ended up that for the most part I’m sitting here in the blog yelling at myself first and foremost.

That is, then, how you should read this: me, yelling at me. If you take away something from it, though?

Then go forth and kick your writing year in the teeth.

Onto the list.

1. Running Away

Right here is your story. Your manuscript. Your career. So why the fuck are you running in the other direction? Your writing will never chase you — you need to chase your writing. If it’s what you want, then pursue it. This isn’t just true of your overall writing career, either. It’s true of individual components. You want one thing but then constantly work to achieve its opposite. You say you want to write a novel but then go and write a bunch of short stories. You say you’re going to write This script but then try to write That script instead. Pick a thing and work toward that thing.

2. Stop Stopping

Momentum is everything. Cut the brake lines. Careen wildly and unsteadily toward your goal. I hate to bludgeon you about the head and neck with a hammer forged in the volcanic fires of Mount Obvious, but the only way you can finish something is by not stopping. That story isn’t going to unfuck itself.

3. Stop Writing In Someone Else’s Voice

You have a voice. It’s yours. Nobody else can claim it, and any attempts to mimic it will be fumbling and clumsy like two tweens trying to make out in a darkened broom closet. That’s on you, too — don’t try to write in somebody else’s voice. Yes, okay, maybe you do this in the beginning. But strive past it. Stretch your muscles. Find your voice. This is going to be a big theme at the start of 2012 — discover those elements that comprise your voice, that put the author in your authority. Write in a way that only you can write.

4. Stop Worrying

Worry is some useless shit. It does nothing. It has no basis in reality. It’s a vestigial emotion, useless as — as my father was wont to say — “tits on a boar hog.” We worry about things that are well beyond our control. We worry about publishing trends or future advances or whether or not Barnes & Noble is going to shove a hand grenade up its own ass and go kablooey. That’s not to say you can’t identify future trouble spots and try to work around them — but that’s not worrying. You recognize a roadblock and arrange a path around it — you don’t chew your fingernails bloody worrying about it. Shut up. Calm down. Worry, begone.

5. Stop Hurrying

The rise of self-publishing has seen a comparative surge forward in quantity. As if we’re all rushing forward to squat out as huge a litter of squalling word-babies as our fragile penmonkey uteruses (uteri?) can handle. Stories are like wine; they need time. So take the time. This isn’t a hot dog eating contest. You’re not being judged on how much you write but rather, how well you do it. Sure, there’s a balance — you have to be generative, have to be swimming forward lest you sink like a stone and find remora fish mating inside your rectum. But generation and creativity should not come at the cost of quality. Give your stories and your career the time and patience it needs. Put differently: don’t have a freak out, man.

6. Stop Waiting

I said “stop hurrying,” not “stand still and fall asleep.” Life rewards action, not inertia. What the fuck are you waiting for? To reap the rewards of the future, you must take action in the present. Do so now.

7. Stop Thinking It Should Be Easier

It’s not going to get any easier, and why should it? Anything truly worth doing requires hella hard work. If climbing to the top of Kilimanjaro meant packing a light lunch and hopping in a climate-controlled elevator, it wouldn’t really be that big a fucking deal, would it? You want to do This Writing Thing, then don’t just expect hard work — be happy that it’s a hard row to hoe and that you’re just the, er, hoer to hoe it? I dunno. Don’t look at me like that. AVERT YOUR GAZE, SCRUTINIZER. And get back to work.

For the full article: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/03/25-things-writers-should-stop-doing/