I was thinking about when I started writing, just a few months ago. It only took me about three weeks to write the first draft of Force of Corruption. I simultaneously wrote my short story Haunted Hunting Camp. I used the short story as my experiment to figure out how everything works. After I finished both of those books, I started book two, Force Majeure. I've been working on it for months. I tend to be hard on myself and I keep getting frustrated that I can’t seem to finish it. I know how it ends. I’m slooowly getting there. What’s taking so long?
I think I’m more worried about this story not being as good as the first. It’s an added pressure. It’s definitely much longer. Better? As good as? Who knows? FOC was just under 75k words. FM is sitting at just under 120k today. But it will probably gain another 5k tonight. It may end up twice as long as FOC. When I go back to do my first read, I have a feeling I’m going to find rambling nonsensical paragraphs of crap that nobody could ever understand. See, I’m hard on myself. What I meant to say is I’m certain it’s wonderful and after a good edit, readers will love it. Maybe if I say it enough, I will believe it.
Back when I started writing FM, I created a character that speaks with an accent. I asked in one of my writing help FB groups if anyone thought it would be offensive if I wrote her accent. I started a sh!t storm of differing opinions. The Hispanic responders all thought it would be wonderful if I did that. One woman who was very vocal that it would be horribly offensive to write a Hispanic accent, we now call them “Karens”, said I needed to hire a sensitivity reader. I had never heard of such a thing. Some of the long-time authors laughed at her and said what a crazy concept she was suggesting. Here we are a few months later, and I can’t tell you how many times a day I see Sensitivity Reader mentioned as a usual step in the editing process.
It amazes me how quickly readers and authors assimilate to the next new thing. Even more so, how quickly we as a society accept new terms and concepts. The world-wide connection and all of the internet famous people jumping on the next trending fad must have all the influence over us. Side note, don’t you feel sorry for people named Karen? Unfortunately, the Karen’s I’ve known fit the stereotype perfectly. Except for my friend Karen Peterson, in elementary school. She was great and too young at age eight, to manifest any Karenesque traits.
The character in FM ended up having the accent described and the character mixes a few Spanish words with English. I think it would have been fun for readers to see how I hear the voice in my head, but in the end, I decided it was easier to do it this way. I’ve tried inventing words and spelling out sounds, neither turns out well. Let’s face it, me writing a Spanish accent would’ve involved plenty of new word creation.
How do you write the noise you make when calling your cat? Trying to invent how the character pronounced the words was too daunting. (I came up with, spspsp, to call the cat.) I tried asking the question how do you write those sounds? on one of my FB groups. I asked if anyone had an onomatopoeia cheat sheet. The usual answers came back: Did you try Google? Onomatpoeia is a sound written, like ‘bang, zap, pow', you can’t just make one up! My eyes rolled so hard! I’m now keeping my own list of the ones I create in hopes to make it easier in the future. Besides, I feel like Stan Lee amassed a fortune making up sound words!!
Another difference since June, I know way more about paper thickness than I ever wanted to know. It’s shocking how much I have learned lurking on author groups and watching YouTube. I now know the basic functions of MSword. This is a necessity if you plan to use it to write, which I recommend. In some of my research, I found out most editors and publishers require a Word Document in New Times Roman font and 12pt. size. A friend told me a pro tip, never try to open an ePub file with Msword. Yes. It’s me, I’m the friend. In my defense I didn’t read the very helpful note at the bottom of the email from my formatting person. It said, “ePub files must be opened on computers that can open ePub files.” I would’ve still tried to open it, further in my defense, who would think a fairly new computer with a bunch of apps wouldn’t be able to open an ePub file? Trust me, they can’t. I had to download Calibre, which I mentioned before. It works like Kindle but it also works as a program to share ePub files. I was able to park my files in the app and upload from there to my distributos. It worked great, thankfully.
ePub files are the files that work best for eReaders. They are versitle and can be read on many styles of eReaders without compromising formatting quality in my experience. When you upload your book most distributors want ePub for your ebooks. PDF or docx. for your printed books, either paperback or hardcover.
Speaking of hardcover, I’m debating doing a hardcover edition of FOC. I like the idea of a special edition with painted edges. Another trend. People do it themselves or have someone do it. I've seen simple ones that just use one color and a stencil. Then I’ve seen some that would interest Leonardo DaVinci. They can be quite beautiful. Then comes the question of how to display a signed, edged, special edition. Not sure I’ve seen much succes with displays, food for thought.
I discovered IngramSpark has a “Personalize It” option. You can add a page to the front or back of the book, or both and then add a special message and an image. A special edition with a note to thank readers or maybe a thank you to a book club that orders a few copies. It’s a cool idea so I ordered a copy with a message and image to try it out. I was also able to order a copy from Barnes and Noble. I will be comparing quality, color, timeliness, condition, and anything else I can think of between the distributers. I still need to make a successful order on Kobo to have a copy from each seller. I'll update this topic in a future blog.
Found out today that someone in England bought my book. Never thought of myself as an international author. How cool is it to have the opportunity to sell my book worldwide? The first time I tried to write a book, more than twenty years ago, this wouldn’t have been an option. I was faced with going the traditional publishing route. As a devout Panster, I would’ve hated that.
A Pantser is a writer who flies by the seat of their pants. No outlines, no plot, they sit down and start writing. A Planner is exactly what the name says. They are organized, know their whole story beginning to end. Usually, they have piles of notes and outlines. Characters have a whole bio written before they ever hit the page. The truly dedicated have maps of their world, towns, and building floorplans!
As a Pantser, I literally sit down and write. I have described it as the characters talk through me and I don’t know what they’re going to say until they say it. Strange but true. I didn’t know what would happen when I sat down to write the first time. I sound like I have a mental illness, but I find things I don’t remember writing in my stories all the time, how else do you explain it?
When I worked at the library, we had a large number of patrons who were mentally ill and many of them were homeless. There was one woman who was very ill, though thankfully not homeless. She would have a hospital stay and get better for a while then she would begin to deteriorate, it was a vicious cycle. It was sad when she wasn’t doing well. One of the times she was well groomed and dressed up after a hospital stay, she very casually told me she was a medium. She was somewhat overweight and my first thought was, No way, you’re at least a large. Ugh! Great job brain.
Of course, she meant she was a Medium, as in a spiritual guide. She would randomly tell me things about my life. She was right on the sex of my second child, (she had a fifty-fifty shot). She explained that a spirit will enter her body and tell her things which she would then relay to the person she was reading. I always think of that supposedly psychic woman, when I try to explain how I write. In my case the voices come out through my fingers on a keyboard, often bypassing my thoughts all together. I’m not alone, there’s a whole bunch of us out there. Are you a Pantser, a Planner, or something in between?
As always, thank you for reading!