Packing Heat: Erotica Writing Tips and Techniques

Packing Heat 123: What's Important?

Jordan Castillo Price — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:06:03 GMT

What’s important?

Recently I read a number of story-pairs at a contest being held at All Romance Ebooks . It got me to thinking about why I might like one story more than the other, and what specifically is important to me as a reader when I'm enjoying a story.

Character type

This is a really personal like/dislike. I would go for books featuring gothy or post-punk characters because that’s the type of social circle I travel in. Military types leave me flat.

Character voice

Be unique and consistent – snarky is overused

Plot

Have interesting setup. Good action is happening. So many scenes, broken down into action, would actually be “people talked” or “the main character thought.” Scenes need action!

Conflict

Characters should want something they can’t have, or need to work for. Even better if their needs block each others’ needs. In romance, it’s often helpful to start with “why can’t these characters be together?” to figure out your plot. “I misunderstood you,” is not a strong enough conflict to carry a story.

Writing style

Gramatically correct sentences are important to me.

Misused words are a huge turnoff. It says to me that an author is reaching beyond her vocabulary, probably in an attempt to sound writerly. It also tells me her editor either has a shitty vocabulary too, or isn’t paying attention.

I prefer a transparent style that’s both precise and plain. Fussy words turn me off.

An editor can help you polish up your writing style if your characters, plot and conflict are strong.

Your assignment

Read at least one or two story pairs from the contest at allromanceebooks.com. Decide what you like/dislike in that pair and articulate it, either aloud, or by journaling. If you're listening to this podcast after the contest has ended, poke around for some free reads at All Romance and find a new-to-you author to analyze instead.

Being conscious of what you like/dislike in the mechanics of a story will help you craft stories so they better fit YOUR definition of what a good story is.

Creativity Series: Notion Potion

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:05:47 GMT

When I was invited to do a regular column on Reviews by Jessewave, I decided I wanted to talk about some subjects near and dear to my heart (as any of you who listened to Packing Heat know!) Creativity, motivation and inspiration.

Notion Potion #1: One Sip at a Time is another look at one of my favorite themes, the way small steps add up to measurable results when you are consistent about taking them.

Notion Potion #2: Don't Make Yourself Hurl exposes a pernicious bully who's constantly undercutting our creative efforts...ourselves.

Stop by and say hi! You can expect new Notion Potion columns the first Wednesday of each month. Please leave a comment if there's a specific creativity issue you'd like me to write about.

Self-Publishing Guest Post

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:21:39 GMT

Jessica Broughton was kind enough to let me pick her brain about the movie biz back in episode #75 (listen here). I'm thrilled that she's followed up with me about what she's up to lately...and that includes self-publishing her first short story.

That deserves a "yay," Jessica. YAY!

Without further ado, here's the story in her own words:

Three Self-Publishing Challenges I Didn't Expect by Jessica M. Broughton

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I’m a writer (“Hi, Jessica!”). I’ve been freelancing for almost six years now, and just self-published a supernatural/horror short called “Bespoke” for the Kindle, Nook, and on Smashwords.

My story and my reasons for self-publishing echo that of many other authors. I had spent almost two years shopping my short story around, to no avail, and I was just done. I decided that I was going to submit it to one more place, and if they didn’t take it, then it was time to self-publish.

It became a perfect storm: the short got rejected; an artists’ collective that I work with, the PixelDrip Gallery, decided to exhibit at the Long Beach Comic and Horror Con Halloween weekend; and because my story is supernatural in nature, I couldn’t have asked for a better time of the year to publish the darn thing.

I decided all of this on Tuesday, October 11, and in just a little over two weeks I pulled it all together with the help of some amazing friends.

I knew that this was going to be a learning experience but there were definitely some challenges that I was totally prepared for.

To Market, To Market

So you’ve self-published a book – congratulations! Now get back to work.

Self-publishing means you have to get incredibly creative with your marketing. Really creative.

In the last two weeks I’ve spent more time online just talking to people than I ever thought possible. In addition to attending the Long Beach Comic Con, I just spent Sunday at the Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles (oh darn!). I’ve gotten myself on Goodreads, and it’s become more important than ever for me to keep in touch with every single person that I’ve met. I’m tweeting. I’m taking pictures. I’m asking friends to like my author page on Facebook. I’m reaching out to other writers and artists to figure out how we can support each other as we try to make a living out of our art.

I’m not going to lie – I’m having the time of my life. I love writing and I’m glad I decided to take this step. I’m also trying to figure out just what the hell I’m doing and to figure out what works so that I can finesse my marketing plan.

Had I had more time, I would have done more marketing prior to the book launch. But the truth is I was racing to the finish line just to get everything done and completed for the Long Beach Comic Con.

I definitely didn’t expect the way the dynamics were going to shift post-book.

Which brings me to…

Learning How to Juggle Chimpanzees While Tap Dancing

I knew I had a lot of work to do to promote my book, but right now it feels like I’m trying to do the impossible. That’s just my way of saying that I have a huge to do list, and now I’m feeling like I have no time to actually write.

I also work as a non-fiction freelance writer, and in the last five days I’ve done exactly nothing on work that I have due at the end of the month.

Jordan once said on her Packing Heat podcast that after examining her 40 hour workweek as a writer she was spending about 10 hours writing and 30 hours marketing, updating her website, and doing everything else under the sun to make sure that she promoted herself and stayed relevant.

Oh, and did I mention that I, like many authors, still have a day job?

The problem is that you can very easily and very quickly find that you’re doing absolutely nothing but marketing and promotions, and you’re not doing much writing.

I’ve actually had to start dividing up my days so that I can accomplish everything without driving myself batty, burning myself out, or being incapable of having a normal conversation with a real human being.

It just means I have to cowboy up, get organized, and prioritize.

For me, that means breaking things down to the basics – writing every day, eating regularly and eating healthy (as I am prone to skipping meals), exercising, and getting enough rest. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little bit of fun thrown in there, too, just for sanity’s sake.

I’m happy to report that by just taking care of myself I’ve noticed a huge upswing in my energy levels, my productivity has gone through the roof, and I am juggling everything quite nicely. For today, at least, but it’s something!

Getting my Inner Critic to Shut Up

It’s going to happen whenever you take a step in the unknown: your inner critic is going to go hog wild.

If you decide to self-publish, your inner critic is going to go bonkers.

My image of my inner critic is a cigar smoking Gollum in a three piece suit. He tends to jump up and down like a monkey and is quite the little douchebag.

Gollum-monkey decided to pipe up the minute I had a minute to myself. It was the first day at the Long Beach Comic Con, Mark Batalla (of the PixelDrip Gallery) and I had just finished setting up the booth, and it was the first time in two weeks that I had the time to think.

Big, big, BIG mistake.

“Who do you think you are, precious? You don’t belongssss with themsssesssess! You are nots a real writersssszzz!” The little Gollum monkey whispered these things in my ear and hopped up and down begging for attention. I was already tired, and by 3 p.m. I looked and felt like I could have just put my PJs on and gone right to bed.

Then I walked around the Con and talked to many other artists and writers who had done THE EXACT SAME THING. They were tired of waiting for someone else to validate their work, so they just put it out there. Once I realized I was in good company (even though my logical brain knew that already), Gollum-monkey crawled back into his corner and had a pity party all by his lonesome. I sure as heck wasn’t going to join, and I had a great Con as a first-time exhibitor.

Jessica Broughton is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction with a penchant for swing dancing, Art Deco, and vintage typewriters. She writes speculative fiction and horror from her home in Pasadena, CA. Bespoke is a dark, alternate history tale of two lovers caught in the grasp of a dictatorship rampaging across Europe. Visit her on her site at Grrlwriter.com

Picking a Pro

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:10:00 GMT

While I don't have time to record shows nowadays, I find I still have thoughts and ideas I'd like to share, so you might see a written post from me now and then.

We writers need the services of other professionals both as businesspeople, and as human beings. Unless you have some very specialized training, it's not a good idea for us to install our own toilets, cut our own hair, edit our own books, or (in my case) do our own taxes. But sometimes we hook up with a professional in what should be a mutually beneficial arrangement, only there's something subtly wrong with the relationship. You feel bad after you meet with them. Inadequate, somehow. You feel guilty for asking them to do the work you've both agreed they would do for you, and that you're paying them for. You start feeling anxious days, or even weeks, before you need to meet with them.

And by you, I mean me.

I had a dentist who made me extremely uncomfortable. (In fact, every dentist I've ever had in my life was hideous except one in Chicago 20 years ago who was nice.) Finally, when my insurance dropped him...back when I HAD dental insurance...I remember thinking, "Oh boy! Now's my chance to get free of him!" The dentist I switched to is like a dream! He's smart and funny, and all the work he's done on my teeth is wonderful.

Okay, how about my accountants? My first accountant was great. So great that he developed a numbers-system and used it to win the lottery and retire. My second accountant...that was one of those awful relationships I was talking about "you" having a few paragraphs up. So I decided I wasn't going to give her any third chances. I prepared all week long and met this morning with my third accountant...and he is great! I'd been re-inventing the wheel every three months to pay my quarterly taxes, and he says he can do my 2010 return AND prepare my estimated quarterly payments for 2011 and all I need to do is mail them in. No re-figuring everything every three months.

Hallelujah!

He's in the same building as my good dentist. Coincidence? I think not.

So anyway...here's my thought on picking a professional to help you out, whether it be with your plumbing or your cover art or your typesetting or your taxes. You are in charge. It's your business or your body or your affairs. There's no reason for you to feel guilty or inferior, and if for some reason this other person manages to make you feel this way, switch! I wish I had switched dentists earlier. The good, funny, competent, smart dentist was three blocks away from the creepy one who whispered all the time and always acted like I was in need of a full mouth transplant. I wish I had picked the current accountant instead of the bad one the last time I was in the market. I had a call in to each of them and ended up going with the bad one because she returned my call first, and seemed intelligent when I met with her. Yes, I realize in psychobabble-talk, no one can "make you feel" anything, but I do know this: sometimes we come away from dealing with certain people feeling worse than we did before.

When you see this pattern, walk away. You're in charge. You.

Packing Heat 124: Final Ep

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:40:00 GMT

Recommendation: Accidental Genius

We all know how to freewrite, right?

Mark Levy’s book Accidental Genius is all about freewriting. You may be wondering what there really is to say about the practice of writing with the internal editor switched off to generate ideas and solve problems. More than you’d think!

Mark did an awesome interview on the podcast Six Pixels of Separation to talk about the new revised edition of his book. His talk got me so excited, by the time that podcast was done, I’d visited his website , signed up for his newsletter, downloaded his free PDF and MP3, and bought his book from Amazon. Then I listened to the whole podcast again. How’s that for a testimonial?

A few key things about Mark’s technique:

Aim for a time-goal rather than a substance goal. It’s okay to freewrite and not come up with something usable from the session, as long as you’ve put in the time. You're trying to develop a habit.
After you do a block of freewriting, go in and underline the key points.
Do another freewriting session to further explore some of the key points you underlined.
Don’t stop once you get a good idea. Trust that you’ll spot it when you do your underlining.

What was different for me:

The creative outpouring was interspersed with analysis to guide it.
Multiple sessions are done back to back—and Mark goes a lot longer than I’ve ever done, sometimes 5 to 8 hours!
Many people stop and pat themselves on the back once they get a good idea. Keep going. Who knows, another wonderful idea might be right around the corner.

Drawing the Podcast to a close

I’ve been doing the show for three years, and I think I’ve told you all I know about writing. I’ll leave the 147 episodes up—tagged for searching—so that both old listeners and new can refer to them.

Thanks for listening. Now go put your butt in the chair and write!

Packing Heat 122: Fight for your Rights

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:55:00 GMT

I was getting set to tell you all about my idea generation process for a short story I was entering in a contest...and then my two weeks of work came to a screeching halt when I discovered that the terms I would be signing over by entering the contest were different than I had been told. No nefarious bait-and-switch, just an honest mistake, but it still prevented me from entering the contest because I wouldn't sign over those rights, and they wouldn't alter their terms.

There are some agents who are beginning to take on epublished clients, but it's a very new field. Most epublished authors end up negotiating their own contracts. Here are a few things to consider when you're looking at that piece of (electronic) paper:

Think Ahead

The ebook business is changing incredibly rapidly. In 2008 when I started publishing my own Kindle books, very few authors were doing it. Now lots of authors are doing their own Kindle books, and some are making a nice paycheck doing so. There's no way to know what will happen in two years, but before you go signing some right away that your gut is telling you to keep, try to imagine yourself at the next level of writing success, two years in the future, looking back and telling past-self, "Don't do it!"

Terms

Rights - Which rights are the publisher asking for? Electronic, print, or both? Are they asking for print rights when they don't have a specific plan to put your work out in print? Ask to negotiate for those separately. Are they grabbing audio rights? Translation rights? Movie rights? Wouldn't you kick yourself if a flashy Mexican indie writer-director approached you and wanted to do a Spanish-version film of your ebook...but you couldn't because you'd signed those rights away to someone who would never even try to sell them for you?

Duration - How long do they want it? Get the shortest term you can, because the ebook business is changing so rapidly, you don't want to get locked into something that looks advantageous now, but is a ridiculously poor deal for you two years from now. I prefer to sign for three years, though most contracts now are skewing longer, and most epublishers will not negotiate this.

First refusal - When you sign over first refusal rights, it means that when you write a followup story, you must submit it to the same publisher. You can't take it elsewhere, and you can't self-publish it, not unless they look at it first and turn it down. This locks you into publishing with this publisher whether you want to or not. Some publishers demand first refusal rights on subsequent books in the series, some try to snag it for ALL your subsequent writings. I never agree to this.

Set In Stone

Is the publisher unwilling to alter their contract even one tiny bit for you? I see that as a giant red flag. There are lots of other publishers, as well as the self-publishing route to consider. Don't sign anything you disagree with.

Your Assignment

Read through the list of epublishing contract red flags at epicauthor.com/redflags.html - I haven't seen each and every one of these situations up close and personal, but I have seen quite a few of them! Even if you're still starting out and you don't have a contract on your plate, it can't hurt to start getting familiar with some of these things so you can make an informed decision when the time comes.

Packing Heat 121: Skipping Ahead

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:13:00 GMT

Skipping Ahead

I know several authors who skip sex scenes and don't write them until the story is otherwise done. I always wonder why.

embarrassment
frame of mind
need to know how the story goes to shape the scenes
separation of plot and sex in the author's mind

I consider the sex scene too critical to skip over. The tenor of the sex scene will affect every single thing that happens afterward in the story. It's a very powerful comment about the revolution of the relationship.

Working Backwards

Let's say you do fill in your sex scenes later. It might give you an advantage in shaping your scene, if you know how the relationship is between your characters in the scene before, and how you want that relationship to have changed in the scene after.

How would that play out?

If you know you want to solidify the relationship, you know that the arc of your sex scene would be to start out shaky and end up solid and wonderful.
If you want your characters to be more unsure of one another after the sex scene, you can have them misread one another's motivations in bed.
If you want to reveal something about the non-POV character to the POV character, have them do something surprising during the scene.

How I do it

Since I'm a discovery writer, I'd have a rough time of leaving all my sex scenes until last. That would be like leaving out all the conversations. My characters always end up somewhere new after each sex scene, otherwise the scenes would be superfluous. And how would I know where to start the subsequent scene with an unknown starting point?

I find that I do tend to skip disagreements and arguments when I write, and fill them in later. They're not quite as delicately balanced as sex scenes, so you can write "they argue" and a little summary of how the argument ends without much damage to the narrative flow of the finished piece.

I suspect I skip these types of scenes for the "frame of mind" reason. I hate arguing or disagreeing with other people, and even writing about it makes me uncomfortable.

Your Assignment

Create a Post-It that says "why did I stop?" and stick it to your monitor. The next time you want to skip a scene, take five minutes and reflect or journal about the reason why. Let me know what you come up with!

Packing Heat 120: Owning Creativity

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:47:00 GMT

Is Fun Overrated?

I’m back from Photoshop World! I recorded a podcast there, however it’s probably for the best that I’ve lost the files. I sounded a bit tweaked at the time.

Las Vegas bills itself as fun place, but I wouldn’t exactly classify my time there as “fun.” However, I didn’t go there to have fun. I went there to take classes and have experiences. My 2-1/2 hour bus ride to the Clark County Museum is a prime example. Was it enjoyable to deal with the bus driver who pulled over and freaked out because her windshield wiper broke? No. It was nervewracking. But I learned in a very direct way about the manner in which environment affects behavior. If it seldom rains in your setting, then your characters will make a big deal out of it when it does rain!

Owning Creativity

In another milestone in awkwardness, I attended a workshop in which everyone was made to say, “I am creative,” and then have the nervous titter that followed pointed out to us. (Nice.)

The experience did get me to thinking about how loaded the word “creativity” is, and how many of us have been trained to not say it about ourselves. I think “creativity” lives on too high of a pedestal, and much of it is actually a combination of persistent work and thoughtful analysis, both of which are learnable.

Your Assignment

Check out the resources at johnpaulcaponigro.com />
Finish the following sentences:
If I were creative, I would ____.
Because I am creative, I will_____.

Packing Heat 119: Specializing

Jordan Castillo Price — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:10:00 GMT

Yay

I won a pass to Photoshop World in Vegas! I'll take a week off Packing Heat and rejoin you the week after.

Another Yay

Charles just completed the third draft of his 66,000 word m/m paranormal! He also asked me the following:

...as soon as I get caught up on other things, I will go back to make a fourth draft to eliminate participial phrases. I don't look forward to it, but I believe you and I also find that in Stephen King's recent works, such as Under the Dome, he almost never uses participial phrases. I don't want my writing to rely on a construction that is passé.

The reason I am writing is to ask if you can recommend any good advice books with guidelines on how to vary sentence structure and keep writing interesting without relying on dated gimmicks like the participial phrase.

I loved the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. You can find more info about why participle phrases weaken your prose in the chapter about writing with sophistication. There's a really big excerpt on Google Books so you can read a bunch and see if it's something you'd like to own.

When to Specialize

Nobilis Reed asked:

When should an author specialize? Develop a niche?

I noticed that your books are very focused; always M/M, with only a few genres. It seems to be working well for you.

So far I've been writing fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk, trying my hand at many different things to see what people like. I'm even considering having a go at urban fantasy to see what happens.

Am I making a mistake? Would I be better off picking something and sticking with it? Or should I wait and see how what I've done so far is received?

I love writing, but I can write lots of different things, and I'm happy writing in lots of different genres. I could easily pick one setting and just write there and not get bored. Should I be doing that?

One thing to remember is that you're already writing in a genre: erotic romance. I think a lot of the categories you mention (like sci fi and steampunk) have so much crossover they could be considered variations of each other.

You'll do better with being experimental if you keep your audience in mind. Someone who likes reading straight erotic SF might also love straight erotic steampunk. I think where the ground gets shaky is when you start playing around with the types of erotic romance you're writing--in other words, writing straight romance then suddenly going menage, or m/m. These types of preferences are deeply hardwired in our readers, and while some established authors do have readerships who will follow them from erotic genre to erotic genre, for many writers it's a quick way to lose a readership.

I'm curious how Nobilis' work would do if it were marketed toward men rather than women, since he's a self-proclaimed "boobiesexual." Most erotic romance publishers are geared toward women, so he'd need to look at some more hardcore markets.

I did a survey and asked my existing readers what kinds of story elements they wanted to see.

Most of them seem to want the elements that already exist in my most popular series, in a new story. Nobilis might consider doing a survey like this, however I'm not convinced that what readers say they want and what they actually buy are necessarily the same thing. He'd need to analyze a big pool of existing sales to really know for sure.

Your Assignment

Take either the current thing you're reading or the last thing you read, and list 10 things you like about it. I find this gives me greater clarity on which elements might work well in the story I'm writing.

Packing Heat 118: The Stuck Day

Jordan Castillo Price — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:51:00 GMT

Today I’m checking in with all of you throughout my writingday to talk about my attempts to work through this part of my story that’s justnot flowing!

8:00 am

Well, it’s a little bit early in the morning for me, Iusually record my podcast later in the day, but I’m stuck on a project, and Ithought it would be really interesting if I could sort of talk through this “stuckness” so thatother writers could see what methods I’m going to use, and we can figure outwhat’s going to work for me.

I know it’s not like an internal resistance to writingthat’s got me stuck right now because I really want to write this scene…

12:30 pm

So, first of all, I took some of my own advice from lastweek and I found a notepad and I put it next to my keyboard, and as I was stuckI was like, “Okay, I just need to say what they’re both feeling.” So I wrote alittle paragraph about what each of them were feeling, and okay, that wasgreat. I went back to writing, and I found that the way the were feeling wasn’tinforming the scene…

4:30 pm

All right, I’m back, checking in again. I’ve written for afew hours, I think about three hours, and what I initially wrote…you know, Iwrote for a while and then I just suddenly hated it….

Hopefully I fixed whatever was broken in my story and I willnow be on track to finish this elusive thing! I hope hearing me try to handlethe weirdness will give you some inspiration the next time you’re feeling likethose words are just not flowing.

No assignment this week. Go write!

Packing Heat 117: Journaling Techniques

Jordan Castillo Price — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:28:00 GMT

Yay

Congratulation, Nobilis, on having your story accepted by Circlet Press!

Cool Site

I heard a podcast recently where the CEO of Evernote was interviewed and decided to give the service a try. It seems really good for making lists of goals and to-dos, and for storing bits of info you find online. It also features a simple text editor, and the interviewer mentions he's writing a whole book in there. Free and multi-platform. The Evernote site.

Journal That

Often, I recommend people "journal about it" when they get stuck in their writing, but lately I realized that the technique I'm using can probably be broken down and explained a bit better than that.

Why Did You Stop Writing?

Unless you've written as long as you can physically keep your eyes open and you're falling asleep, I think the reason most people stop writing is they get to a point where the next thing that happens is unclear, so they need to let their subconscious work on that next step for a while.

Let's break it down even more.

You Don't Know What Happens Next

This is more common for pansters than outliners, but it can still happen to outliners, albeit in a more subtle way. (They usually know what's supposed to happen next, but some detail of that next thing is unclear, enough to stump them.)
In this case, I recommend the "ten things" exercise. Ask yourself, "What are ten things that can happen next?" or "What are ten ways this situation could resolve?" Do try to force yourself to write all ten. Ideas 1-4 are usually pretty sturdy and obvious, 5-7 start getting a bit farfetched, and 8-10 are often golden, because you really have to stretch out of your comfort zone to find them.

If you are only mildly stuck, and you want to take a quick journaling break and get right back to writing, a "three things" variation could work, as in, "What are three ways in which this scene could end?"

The Thing You're Writing About Feels Wrong

Sometimes scenes just feel dead, flat or wrong. I find it's usually because we're worrying about the logistics of the scene and we've lost touch with the emotional lives of the characters, and so their actions are no longer informed by anything that feels genuine.
If your scene feels off-kilter and your characters are uninspired, take a break and write down how every important player in the scene is feeling. What do they want that they're not getting?

Methodology

Notebook - I use a 5-subject spiral notebook, and I also leave the area where I'm writing and go in a different room to write my journal. Once I've learned whatever it is I need to learn about my scene through my journaling, the notebook itself becomes unimportant, though sometimes I flip through and get a smile out of reading about the way I've worked through old problems.

Scratch Pad - How about a cheapo 99¢ scratch pad next to your computer? Take your hands off the keyboard and write about your writing stall for the space of that little sheet of paper, then toss it once your writing starts flowing again.

Dictation - If you truly hate writing by hand, how about creating a file called "my writing journal" and filling it up with dictation software? I often find when I start verbally telling someone else about a stuck-point in my story, I realized the answer before I even finish stating the problem.

I don't think typing your journaling at a keyboard will work. Ideally, you want different parts of your brain to light up to help you solve the problem, and if you use the same input method you do while you write fiction, it won't happen.

Your Assignment

At least three times in the upcoming week, when you come to a stopping/pause point in your writing session but you'd like to keep going, use one of these journaling methods. At the end of the week, assess your work and see:
-Did you write in flow more often?
-Was your word count higher?
-Did your writing go "deeper" and seem more connected to the story?

Packing Heat 116: Easy Peasy

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:05:00 GMT

Feedback

In response to my advice last week to self-publishers to have their work professionally edited, Tracy wrote on my Facebook page:
"My self-editing is better than some "professional" editors I've seen with their names credited on a book."

Agreed, Tracy. In the epublishing industry, I think many of the staff are what I call "enthusiastic amateurs." They saw a product they felt passionate about creating, and set about teaching themselves how to do it without any formal schooling. As a writer, editor and publisher, I fall into this category, too.

In case a potential self-publisher thinks that's a free pass to fling unedited work into the world willy-nilly, though, I still recommend that just because you may be able to sling a comma better than the proofreader who's been assigned to you doesn't mean you shouldn't have your own self-published work edited. Editors are necessary to ensure you haven't skipped whole thoughts. Proofers are necessary to ensure you haven't dropped and words or inserted any "repeaters" in your work.

It Ain't Easy

The undertones of many of the questions that I get from new writers intrigued by the world of self publishing are as follows: they want to know if they can whip out a novel on Monday, throw it on Smashwords on Tuesday, and without building an audience or promoting it in any way, hand in the resignation of their day job by the end of the week.

I doubt it.

While it may seem laborious to shop your work around to publishers who keep rejecting it, it won't do you any good to publish something yourself if it's not ready to be published, and if you're not willing to put the work into marketing it.

There are two groups of people I can think of for whom self-publishing will probably do more harm than good:
1. A new, new, newbie. Chances are, you have no audience to buy the book, and if you've been submitting it to publishers who would normally publish the sort of thing you write and no one's making you an offer, it's possible your work is not ready to sell at a professional level.
2. A midlist author who hates the business end of things. Plenty of midlisters who already have an audience glaze over when they hear about the business and production end of things, and they have no desire to wear all the hats. They just want to write. These writers are better off sticking with publishers rather than burning themselves out taking care of self-publishing details.

Your Assignment

I've taken the leap and hired a Sporadic Assistant. I anticipate I'll have difficulty delegating, however I know it's for the best.

Can you think of a repetitive task you spend time on that doesn't feed your writing spirit? Can you delegate it? Can you hire someone to do it? Or can you skip it entirely?

Packing Heat 115: Don't Cut Your Own Hair

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:09:00 GMT

Make it Your Job

In thinking through some of the response I've had to last week's show, I've decided that, while my situation and yours are probably too different for you to follow exactly in my path, one thing we can all do right now is to treat our writing like a job.

Mental Flip

Saying, "I'm working," on my days off from my day job was a really big leap for me--despite the fact that I was indeed writing novels, promoting my work and building my business. Would it be no big deal for you to consider writing a "real job", or is it a struggle?

Separate Bank Account

Get a separate bank account for your writing. You'll be glad you did when tax time comes around and you have all the expenses separate.

Goals

Decide how many hours per week you want to work at your second job. A 20-hour week might break down to 1.5 hours per weekday and 12.5 hours over the weekend. If that seems like a lot, how about a 10 hour workweek, or even 5? I'll bet you could write a novel over the course of a year if you did a consistent 5 hours every week with no dawdling.

Time Log

Try keeping a time log for a week and see how close you can get to your goal. Don't count dawdling time, meaning re-reading your old stuff, browsing Wikipedia, looking at calls for entry. Actually write or edit the whole time. I suspect a lot of time we give ourselves credit for "working" when we're really dawdling.

On Self-Publishing

Nearly every article I read about the rise of self-publishing treats self-published work as a cesspool of dreck that readers will never be able to wade through. I figured journalists must have some agenda to want to slant thier stories that way. The weird thing is that I've been getting a lot of email from unpublished writers lately that have rather hostile or belittling undertones.

I suspect they think self-publishing is "easy" and it involves writing a book, putting it at some online venue with no editing and a poorly done cover, and having customers miraculously flood in and buy it via word-of-mouth.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Yes, You Need an Editor

On recent episodes of both Writing Excuses and The Writing Show, it was assumed that self-published means unedited. I can't say, "That's just stupid!" emphatically enough. If you're an author and you think self-publishing means skipping the editor, then you will never get off the ground.

Readers don't care if a book is self-published.

Readers do care if a work is quality or not.

You need an editor. You need a professionally-designed cover. You need professional typesetting. I wouldn't dream of cutting my own hair, nor would I dream of editing my own book. Be a grownup and hire an editor.

Your Assignment

Give some serious thought to how many hours per week you're willing to devote to your second job, and keep a time log. You'll probably put in more hours because you're keeping track--and that's great! I want you to get a good idea of what you can accomplish with consistency.

Packing Heat 114: Taking the Leap

Jordan Castillo Price — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:24:00 GMT

Yay!

Petit Morts1: Sweets to the Sweet hit #1 in Gay & Lesbian literature on Amazon.de, and #7 in Romantic Suspense. You can buy it with worldwide free shipping at The Book Depository.

Taking the leap

VJ wrote in my Yahoo group that she'd be interesting hearing my take on "the sheer terror of quitting my day job." Since quitting that pesky nine-to-five ranks very high on the "Yes, please!" list of many writers, I thought I'd share my 10-year journey to self-employment.

Your Living Situation

My first step was to move to a place where the cost of living was less expensive. (This cost-of-living analysis turned out to be flawed, and then an emergency wiped out my savings and I had to grab the first day job I could find...which I ended up staying at for nine years.)

Despite the unforseen emergency, my move ended up being a useful one, as I was paying a mortgage on a trailer rather than a rent on an apartment, and with some creative financing, I managed to pay it off. Ah! Relief! Now I didn't have as much pressure to earn grownup paychecks.

Can you Do Part-Time?

When my first paperback came out in 2006, I cut my day job hours back as far as I could cut them while still retaining my sick days, vacation and health insurance. (I had to pay for half my health insurance, which sucked, but it made my take-home paycheck so low it was added incentive to leave.) Is it possible for you to switch to part-time? What if you did that, and then treated writing as your second job, with as many weekly hours as it would take to reach 40?

(Also, I didn't mention in the cast, but I turned down a promotion at this point as well, both because I knew I'd be miserable as a manager, and I knew that working 40 hours per week would take me farther from my ultimate goal: to be a full-time writer. There was incredible staff pressure to take this job, too, because they knew I'd be an easy manager to deal with. AKA pushover.)

Savings

I wouldn't recommend leaping into writing full-time without half a year's worth of salary saved up. Is there any way you can build your savings faster? Maybe you can cut out some unnecessary utilities. I got rid of my satellite TV and land line. Do you have credit card debt? Pay it off and stop buying anything you don't absolutely need. Think of your savings as your freedom fund.

Expect the Unexpected

Right after I ended my day job, my partner and I split up, and my halved household income was halved again. Because I was well-prepared with a cheap living situation, good writing connections, my own business in place, a good credit rating and no debt, I was able to stay on my path and not go screaming out the door looking for a job flipping burgers. It's fortunate that I wasn't relying on him for my health insurance, though if I had been, I would have done the same thing I did when I lost my day job's coverage: obtain an independent policy.

Jordan's "Ditch the Day Job" Checklist

Find a cheap place to live
Pay off your debts
Save half a year's salary
Treat writing like a real part-time moonlighting job
Go down to part time in your day job and increase your writing job hours
Double up on the jobs as long as you can stand it, but know when to let go

Your Assignment

How much money do you spend, really? Where does it go? I challenge you to do your budget for the month at Budgetsimple.com and really verify the numbers. Don't estimate. I discovered that I overestimate my income and underestimate my spending. Surprising, since I'm so thrifty!

Packing Heat 113: Creative Limitations

Jordan Castillo Price — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:34:00 GMT

Listener Feedback

In the show notes at my LiveJournal last week, Ocotillo Dawn said:
I outline or I wander. Outlines keep me on track. But they can change (I try pretty hard to stick to them, but not so much that I'm not listening to my better sense).

I find that when I veer from my outline, I always do it in the same direction -- which is fine for the first story, maybe, but I don't want all of my stories to be so similar, with the same characters, the same reactions, the same plot complications, etc. And my lazy brain will take that easy/known track if I don't jerk it back to a plan now and then.

That is the greatest use of an outline for me.

I love this! It got me to thinking about various limits I impose on my writing to help my creativity flourish

Creative Limitations

Sometimes when the sky's the limit and you have no parameters whatsoever, writing can be tough to start, and can end up being predictable. It's like being handed a marker and being told to "draw" without knowing upon what, and for what purpose. Here are some ways to impose limitations on your writing to force yourself to keep it fresh.

1. Form
Different forms flex different writing muscles. If you usually write novels, consider a novelette to force yourself to be more focused and to the point. 100-word drabbles are challenging short-shorts. Flash fiction can be many lengths. I've seen 300-word, 500-word and 1000-word flash fiction markets.

2. Random
Seventhsanctum.com is a goldmine of random prompts. Sometimes it's easier to ask a disinterested party what you should do--as long as you make sure that the options they can choose from are all options you can work with.

3. Call for Entry
Calls for entry bring out our competitive natures. When our brains see the challenge, "How can I participate in this project?" it's often happy to start cranking overtime to provide you with solutions.

4. Collaboration
Collaboration is hard--really hard--but if you're willing to set your ego aside and pitch in to the good of the project, having collaborative partners can really open up new and exciting possibilities.

5. Challenges
Nanowrimo or flashfic-a-day are a couple of ways in which to challenge yourself. Sometimes the goal of meeting that deadline is enough to influence your brain to cast farther for interesting solutions.

From Composer Ray Drossaert:
"In the creative professions isn't it about freedom? Creative freedom? To a degree yes. But it is my experience that creativity functions best when there is a pressing need for it. When there is a very specific situation to find a solution to. And that's something that hardly exists if there is complete creative freedom... Funny, eh? ... So let's see if we can create some 'problems' to give your creativity that needed boost! You can describe a problem as "a set of limiting circumstances". So to unleash your creativity you might as well set up some artificial limits, because these limits push you away from your habitual 'solutions', thus prompting you to find a different path. Of course you obviously want to produce better quality work instead of worse, so you need to pick these limits intelligently."

Your Assignment

Write a flash fic this week. I don't care which length! I want you to have a story in your stable you can whip out at a moment's notice to participate in a newsletter/antho/project/whatever.

Packing Heat 112: Late Additions

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Listener Feedback

Nobilis Reed asked me to add a word to my "please don't" list: lave.
The primary definition:

verb [ trans. ] poetic/literary
wash : she ran cold water in the basin, laving her face and hands.

It had never occurred to me that the primary definition of the word "lave" was to wash. But if that's the case, why is it commonly used in erotica as a synonym of "lick?"

-Many erotic romance writers read primarily in their own genre. All it takes is one writer to say "lave" rather than "lick," someone else to repeat the weird usage, and so on. Pretty soon, much of the genre thinks it's a great synonym.

-It sounds writerly. Even the piddly dictionary on my computer marks it as poetic/literary!

I challenge you to get in touch with the reality of something, your own shoes, and to observe and describe them multiple times in plain, honest words. Don't try to sound like a writer. Look, and analyze. Look, and analyze. Feel, and analyze.

Try to break the habit of going through multiple filters, of describing what you think something is like rather than observing it, and then saying it in a way you think a writer would say it, instead of just using honest language.

Late Additions

Spoilers ahead for the TV show Heroes!

As I'm working my way through the final season of Heroes, I'm shocked that I don't like one of the story lines more. It's a carnival. I love carnivals! I think the main guy is hot! So why don't I like it?

Because it's dropped in out of nowhere, as if they hope the coolness, the spectacle of it, will be enough to carry the story.

Another new element was a flashback to a 1960's interment camp that featured teenaged versions of many of the show's past and present older generation characters being rounded up and experimented on. I LOVED IT. It felt like it was seething under the surface of the show for the past three years.

I think we can use this as writers. If we need to introduce a new element toward the end of the book, we can do so--but only if we tie it in to something that happened early on in the story and make it seem as if we've been hinting toward it all along.

Your Assignment

Take your longest work in progress and re-read the first few chapters, focusing on what sorts of promises you made. How can you fulfill them--maybe with a twist--in a way that will satisfy your readers?

Also, I'd welcome comments or questions I can use on the show!

Packing Heat 111: Phrasal Verbs

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:39:00 GMT

Yay

!I had a lovely interview last week at Reviews by Jessewave in which I told my big secret for writing great sex scenes. Really!

Style and Substance

It can be overwhelming how many things a writer needs to pay attention to. Not only do we need to ponder every little word choice to determine if we're saying what we mean, but overall we've got to then worry about whether our ideas make sense. I'm reading a Dresden Files book where the prose is clean and the descriptions of magic are amazing, but the female characters don't ring true for me.

Phrasal Verb

A phrasal verb is a verb+preposition that means something different as a set than the words do individually.

Example:
I settled down once my neighbor stopped making noise.
versus
I settled the lawsuit with him out of court.

Get Thee a Style Guide

There's no guarantee in erotic romance that the proofreader assigned to you is any more experienced than you are. I once had a proofreader try to change all my "sit downs" and "stand ups" to sits and stands, when clearly, the meaning is entirely different. This is when you need a style guide to fall back on, so you can say, "No, this is not a redundancy. It's a phrasal verb that I used deliberately." I use the Chicago Manual of Style. If the publisher you work with uses a different style guide, see if you can find a copy of that.

The dreaded "at"

I've noticed romance and erotic romance writers tend to wreck perfectly good verbs by adding "at" to them

Licked at
Sucked at
Nibbled at
Lapped at

These phrasal verbs pull me out of the sentence each and every time. There's a tentativeness to "licked at" that just isn't present in "licked." It makes me feel like the person performing the action really isn't into the sex act at all, that they're not doing it with any gusto. I'm not totally sure why a author would choose "licked at" rather than "licked," but I suspect it's one of the following reasons:

It never occurred to them the presence of "at" made any difference in the way the verb reads
They like the extra beat in their sentence
They see other authors do it so they've assumed the bad habit

Now, if your intent is to make your character seem dainty and constrained, perhaps shy and unsure of him or herself, and if you're adding "at" with the knowledge that it pulls back the action and that is the effect you want, then by all means, go for it! But if you're adding it because it sounds writerly to you--give some thought to your desired effect.

I want you to choose words deliberately, not haphazardly.

Your Assignment

See if you can find a spot in your prose where you're trying to be writerly, and then take a moment and envision that part of the scene until you can see it in your mind's eye. Once you have a clear vision of your scene, state what's happening using simple, direct language. See if it's stronger than the part where you tried to sound like a writer.

Packing Heat 110: Spinning Your Wheels

Jordan Castillo Price — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:32:00 GMT

Spinning Our Wheels

We all spin our wheels in different ways:

Watching TV, especially compulsively watching hours at a time when you could normally take it or leave it
Playing video games
Checking email, checking email, checking email

Finding yourself doing some of these things when you think you'd rather be writing is a signal that something is up with you!

Only you know your own habits. It may be normal for you to decompress with a few hands of solitaire, but if you find yourself playing Minesweeper for three hours when you have a deadline looming, chances are you could be deliberately avoiding your task.

Is something going on in your life that's upsetting you? Some of us (me included) have a difficult time writing when we're feeling low.

Or does your story need to cook a little bit longer before you serve it up?

Your Assignment

Identify the way you spin your wheels, so you can be proactive next time, rather than going into autopilot.

Think of a plan B and a plan C so that you don't fall into your wheel-spinning pattern so long that find yourself wandering a week later, dazed and confused, with 10,000 games of Minesweeper and a full season of The Biggest Loser under your belt.

You might try a short walk to jog your creative juices, or a simple, "what happens next?" exercise
If the writing's really not coming, you could have a to-do wishlist of tasks you've been meaning to handle around your house that will give you a good sense of accomplishment when you complete them

Packing Heat 109: Procrastination

Jordan Castillo Price — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:42:00 GMT

YAY

Yay for Caroline from the Netherlands whose short story thriller won a writing contest. She wrote to thank me for tips and advice she got from the podcast.

Keep going

The past month I’ve been focusing on Newbie Mistakes, ie. What NOT to do in your writing. Judging by the feedback I’ve gotten, I think some of you find it discouraging if I tell you what’s considered incorrect or trite or hackish. So for this week I want to switch gears into territory that’s a little more encouraging.

Procrastination

I heard a tidbit an interview by David Allen today that I wanted to pass along to you. Procrastination is not doing something, and feeling crappy about not doing it.

I think a lot of this happens in writing. Back when I used to leave my house, I got people schlepping up to me looking pathetic and saying, "I haven't written anything lately." Why is this? Why would people not-write and then feel bad about themselves for not writing?

I think we want it too much. We want to write well so intensely that we psyche ourselves out and, rather than write something flawed, we don't write anything at all.

Stuckness

Sometimes we get stuck because we don't know what the next logical step is in our story, or we've begun to go down a dead-end and we need to turn around and get back on track. We get the little niggling feeling that something's not quite right and it causes our writing to grind to a stop.

Your Assignment

The next time you find yourself procrastinating, determine if you're psyching yourself out, or if maybe you need to fix something in your story and determine what you should write next. If you're psyching yourself out, give yourself permission to suck. Assure yourself you can fix your problems in edits. If you need to regroup, consider either showing your piece to a critique group to gain some clarity, or do some journaling or mindmapping to figure out what needs to happen next in your story.

Packing Heat 108: Obvious Opposites

Jordan Castillo Price — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:06:00 GMT

Yay!

I’ve finished Zero Hour, the story that took shape in Packing Heat #5. I’m leaving the first draft up for readers to enjoy for free, and I’ll be producing it as both an ebook and paperback.

Here are my thoughts on the writing process of Zero Hour .

Newbie mistakes #4

Obvious Opposites

I read a story excerpt yesterday where one of the characters is referred to twice as “the young prince” and three times as “the younger man,” all in one chapter. This is called an epithet.

I was curious whether the Chicago Manual of Style had anything to say about epithets—and what I found was mainly explanations on how to punctuate them (no great surprise.)

However, this rule caught my eye: Temporary epithets. When preceding a name, role-denoting epithets such as citizen or historian should be lowercased and treated as if in apposition. CMOS 8.37

“Role-denoting” is what stuck out to me! When newbie writers use epithets, so often they’re there to remind us who’s older and younger, who’s the fireman and who’s the arsonist, who’s related to whom.

I find it clumsy. The over-reliance of continually reminding your readers who’s younger by referring to them as, “the young man” rather than their name might indicate that you haven’t dug deeply enough into their personality to show them acting younger. Not that every “younger” person acts the same way—but how does that particular character manifest his or her age? Are they foolhardy, insecure, ignorant, impetuous, or what? Probably, you haven’t explored what the actual ramifications of the characters’ age difference are, otherwise you wouldn’t need to resort to “the young man” to remind us of that character’s age.

I also think you’ll get much more mileage out of the old saw “opposites attract” if the opposition isn’t the main theme of your story. I think you’ll unearth much more interesting interactions if your characters agree in some places but disagree in others.

Think of it as the ten-after-six model. On an analog clock, at six o’clock (am and pm) the minute hand and the hour hand are opposite each other. At ten after six, the minute hand has moved a few degrees toward the hour hand. They’re no longer totally opposite—but they’re different enough to provide all sorts of interesting conflict.

Your Assignment

Are there polar opposites in your story? Think about placing them at ten after six and finding a few areas were they’re in synch.

Readers and listeners have been talking about the shows and shownotes on my LiveJournal. Join in the conversation.