Dealing with Twitter Megaposters - Redirecting the Flood

I've had my Twitter account forever, but haven't started using it until just recently. I was following a few people and rarely checked it, but as I get ready to start shopping for a publisher for my debut novel, I've started using it more and more.

Part of it is you need to market yourself. Since I have no creds, zero, zilch, zip as an author, nothing published save for a few fitness related articles in an eZine a couple years ago. I need something, anything, to offer in my query letter and though a healthy Twitter following is not as good as published short stories or a series of articles it's better than nothing. When you are supporting a family and trying to write on the side, it's the best some of us are able to muster.

Surprisingly what I discovered is a huge wealth of knowledge from authors and publishers willing to share their knowledge and advice. It's amazing to read about their experiences, making me realize that some of the frustrations and obstacles are not uniquely mine but common among those in the field. Nothing teaches you faster than getting the inside scoop from the pros.

But what I have also found is the tendency for some authors to spam the hell out their followers. How exactly do people, especially those who claim to be writing novels, have time to post every 15 seconds 'round the clock? Coming from a technical background, my first inclination is think they are using some kind of application to find content and post it for them. Google reveals hundreds of such programs. I suppose it's also possible they hired researchers to post for them.

It isn't that the content isn't relevant, there is just so frigging much of it!

A lot of the posts are repeats, like they doing a Twitter version of "the best of" a long-running TV series, say Cheers or Family Ties--yes, I'm THAT old--will do to celebrate reaching a milestone, say their 100th episode. I get it. As a rule I don't go back more than a dozen tweets or so of someone I'm following and everyone wants you to see their insightful content. Perhaps when I have a 1000 posts I'll do the same thing, who knows. My focus is on writing my books, self-promotion seems like a secondary priority.

Perhaps this is an indication I am going to fail? Going down not in a blaze of glory but to simply fizzle in obscurity. A writer's fate worse than death.

In the mean time I am being blasted by a few who are watering down the content of my feed such that the voices of ones that are more focused on writing are being being drown in the flood. So, I have decided to set up a second Twitter account, LJayScottS--the S is for spammer--that I can still follow these super-mega-posters but keep my main feed to a manageable flow. I have a spam email account for the same reason.

Maybe just admitting to this is akin to Twitter suicide, don't know, I'm still pretty new to this universe and learning the ropes. If someone has insight into this, maybe found a different way of dealing with it, please ping me.

I choose the people I follow because I think their content is interesting, insightful, informative, or just amusing. I will also follow anyone who follows me, but I don't have time to read 250 tweets an hour. So, if you are a megaposter, please don't be offended if you find yourself with a new follower of LJayScottS. I love you, I just don't have time to always deal with the flood.

Carry on.


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Getting Your Book on Kindle and Nook - Tool for the DIYers

I have been investigating apps to convert my Word document to something besides PDF my eReader can view. Found this free tool, so thought I'd share it.

I use Google docs and Word 2013 and had to save each in a Word 2007 format to get it to work (File->Save As and from the menu choose Word 2003). Once I did that the tool worked pretty well and was super simple to use. Can't say I'd self-publish the result, though admittedly I'm a bit of perfectionist, and maybe with some tweaking it could be, but for the ten minutes I spent it made a very decent eReader version.

The format it creates is ePub which supposedly is view-able on any eReader, though so far I've only tried it on my Nook and in the Overdrive app on my laptop.

The tool is by Aspose and as far as I can tell there are no limitations on it. It doesn't watermark your document, nor does it prompt you to "upgrade" to get the "full" version. You can download it here.

Editing this on 04/18/2013 because I just found a post by the unsinkable Molly Greene about editing on your Kindle. She uses a tool called Calibre to convert documents to a Kindle-editable format. View her blog Best Editing Tip Ever #2 - Mobi Files!.

One thing she talks about is proofing on your reader as one of the most effective ways of finding problems with your manuscript that are almost impossible to see when in Word format. It's totally crazy, but it's true. I have read my script 100's of times, but when I took it for a spin on my Nook I found glaring problems that a could have been caught by a kindergartner. Misspellings, bad grammar, plot holes, you name it. If you have an eReader, and I highly recommend getting one, they are worth their weight in paper.

Carry on


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Healthy Prose

I love working out. There, I've said it. It seems like such a simple thing, but Americans at large seem to equate it to slaving in the salt mines or sleeping on a bed of hot coals. Personally, I love the feeling of my body transitioning from rest to work in a sheen of sweat. Nothing quite like it.

I lift, do cardio, and usually something on the weekend. Last Sunday it was 45 miles on my bike, yesterday my daughter and I went skiing. If I can figure out how to squeeze it in I want to start climbing and learn to swim--no, unlike almost all other kids I never learned. Oh and there's Tough Mudder in June. Need to start training for that.

So what does this have to do with writing? Everything actually. I find I can hardly write if I start missing my workouts. This is true for my regular 8-5 too. Miss my cardio or lifting session and by the end of the day I'm exhausted and can hardly move, and trust me, no one wants to be around "the grump". The worst part is I feel like crap and, mentally, things just don't seem to function right.

Writing is bitch if I don't take care of myself. I wonder at the famous writers who were alcoholics or drug users and smoked like chimneys. How did they do it? Did their imbibing take them to the place they needed to go to bust out the prose? Sometimes, I'll find a Corona or a glass of wine will help get my mind in the right place, tonight it's white wine, but I do 90% of my writing drinking coffee first thing in the morning, headset in, music blaring. This is how I go to my place and find my muse.

But if I haven't been working out, it's almost impossible to get to my place. This is true of writing HTML as it is of prose. Something about it clears out the cobwebs, or greases the cogs, or whatever.

Also, it is my social time. When you spend seven plus hours a week with your friends "pumping iron" or a couple hours with friends in spin, it gives you time to talk. This too, can help your story. How can you write good dialog if you never have good conversations?

My point here, is don't sacrifice your health for writing or anything else. At least for me, it doesn't work, I don't get more done even though I have more time and what I do get done needs more editing. At the very least if you aren't as around as long, you have less time to write, right?

"I don't have time," is the most common excuse in the universe. I hate excuses. I work full time, write a couple hours a day--in the mornings before the IT world has leached the creativity from my bones and have two teens. Lunch time is for lifting. My evenings are spent with my kids, reading, working my blog, and on occasion, editing that simply cannot wait. Also, weekends. Usually up by 6:30 writing until everyone else gets up and disturbs my writing world.

Life's busy and full, but never boring and I love it.

The next time you find yourself dragging the words from your muse, change your scenery and maybe go run a mile or two. You never know.

Carry on.


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Writer's Digest and Other Quick Methods to Success

I read Writer's Digest every month.  Okay, honestly it's only been the last three, but still. There is a lot of good information in it, but I get a ton of spam from them at the same time. There is hardly a day goes by I don't get three or four emails from them promising to help me "wow, my audience with an adventurous opener" or "hook my readers with a deep character". I know I'm a novice in this field, but the first thing that comes to mind is "really?"

What they are saying is if you give them $19.95 they'll give you the formula for the perfect story. Wow! What a deal! Wait? If it were that easy wouldn't everyone just plunk down a 20 spot and write a best-seller?

I spend a lot of time working out and have investigated how to help further my quest in developing more muscle, being more physically fit, and being pushing my endurance. Open any fitness magazine and there are hundreds of ads for the "secret" to making huge gains. The "secret" to losing weight, packing on muscle, whatever your little heart desires. Just take this pill, drink this potion, perform this goat-sacrificing ritual and the results will just roll in.

Snake oil. That's what it is.

You can't gain success without hard work and know-how. I've been taught that lesson over and over. Before I went to the university and get my CS degree, I went to a business college. They promised I could be just as successful using their program, more-so even. So being young and naive, I did it. What did I get? A ton of debt for one. Second I got...no job. No one was interested in my "degree". So I swallowed my pride and went back to school got my bachelor's and never looked back.

15 years later I am still reaping the rewards of that hard work. The bottom line here is there are no short-cuts, no magic pills, that will give you success in any field, ever. Stephen King spent years writing stories and getting rejected before he became successful and he's a genius. The athlete's in the Olympics have put in thousands of hours of training. The best musicians have put in hundreds of thousands of hours of monotonous scales and practicing.

Let me say this one more time: You cannot be successful in anything without hard work.

Besides, doesn't that make success that much sweeter? Maybe I'll never get published. Maybe I don't have what it takes. That's okay. You don't know until you try. Besides, I'm having a hell of good time. Writing is one of life's little pleasures--for me anyway--and I am glad to have discovered it, even if I am a little late to the game.

I have nothing against WD, they have a ton of great information with the best of intentions. I understand they are a business and need to have advertisers to pay the bills. But, like anything you take what works for you and leave the rest.

One more time: You cannot be successful in anything without hard work.

Carry on.


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The Muse Is Back

So yesterday I posted about being on the brink of a hill on my roller coaster and not being able to see what is ahead. This has been keeping me awake and a constant layer of acid in my stomach. I can be kind of a control freak I know, and want to see what's coming. Maybe to prepare myself, don't know. Well, I should have known that my muse would not let me down.

Part of my stress was that I thought the story was going one way when that wasn't the way he--yes, my muse is a guy--was planning. This discord, this second minor chord, was the source of my anxiety. I just needed to stop worrying about it and let my guy lead the way. Last night when I was showering, some of my best thinking happens when hot water is cascading over my head for whatever reason, I realized that I was wrong. In my head my character gets on a plane and flies off to parts unknown. Didn't know where, who he was going when he got there or before, or any of that. My muse let me in on part of his grand plan while I was thinking about something completely different.

The thing was laid out so nice and neat, and he handed it to me like a perfectly wrapped present at Christmas, complete with bow and ribbon. It was enough that I jotted down some notes and was able to sleep like I hadn't been able to do in days.

Did I say I was nervous about this writing session? Jeez, what a dork. We went over the precipice of my roller coaster and flew down the other side. Between two sessions today over 4500 words spewed out and I got to meet one of the most interesting characters ever. Holy crap, this dude is funny. The shit he says. Oy.

The first part was at the airport, when that went okay, was I able to relax and be happy that everything went beyond great? Nope. Of course not. I fretted most of the day about, well, what happens next? These two characters, the one from my first book and this new one, start to talk and they are gelling and I think they are going to be hell good friends. The new character is hilarious and just fun, and his personality seems to fit my established one like a couple of puzzle pieces.

I just need to sit back and let my muse do his work and I'll be the transcriber for the story he has found in the ground. It's all there. It's just a matter of trust.

Carry on.


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It's Here

I finished my first manuscript, 122 Rules, last week and started the second, for now it's titled "Jake" and is about one of the characters from 122, the next day. It has been exactly one week and I am 19k words into it. One of the chapters I wrote while working on 122, the rest is all new.

When I have the story formed in my mind it's difficult for my fingers to keep up on the keyboard. Part of 122 was struggle, having to drag the words out of the ground. They came, sometimes kicking and screaming, but they eventually came. Other parts, it was like the content jumped out of the earth forcing its way into existence. Like trying to drink all the water from a garden hose that is turned on full blast. Several sections come to mind, the last 40-50 pages for instance, I felt like I wasn't so much writing as vomiting.

The first part of Jake has been like that. The sonar picture was relatively clear, and the content just flowed. Not to say there weren't still some surprises. I LOVE the surprises, the parts that I don't know are coming until they are down on digital paper. It's the writer's equivalent of the toy prize in the bottom of the box of Cracker Jacks.

But now I have finally reached the part that has been keeping me up at night. Spoiler! My character is headed to the airport. That is where I stopped, for a lack of time this morning and where the sonar image becomes unreadable. So I have the base of the statue--the beginning of the story--and I know what the very top looks like--the end, but I have no idea what's in the middle.

Does my character meet someone at the airport? If so, who? If that were to happen, which I think it most surely does, what happens next? This is the part I don't know.

I remember having similar feelings in the last manuscript and it's kind of a scary place but also an exciting place. Like riding the roller coaster and climbing climbing climbing and you reach that precipice you know is looming in your future. You can't see past the edge and your heart starts fluttering and your stomach lurches in anticipation.

The drop I have been dreading is finally here. What's there to be afraid of?  Well, writer's block for one which is the storyteller's equivalent of the big bad wolf. What if the place where my stories come from doesn't have this section and I'm left with a gap of 60k+ words? That's a pretty damn big hole to fill. It's ominous and may as well be the Grand Canyon if you don't have any idea what to put in it.

So, say there is a story there. My muse knows what happens next, but what if it sucks? I love the first book, what if part two is the equivalent of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull? One of those well-it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time. In some ways that's almost worse than not knowing what happens next.

In case it isn't blatantly obvious, my mind has been spinning on this for days. Weeks really. It started to fret over it even before I finished editing 122. Maybe that's just a symptom of someone who writes prose? Stephen King talks about how he writes every day. EVERY day he puts down 2000 words. Birthdays, Christmas, the 4th of July too. Yes, he's a genius and probably a workaholic, but one thing he mentions in On Writing aside from the fact that he feels it necessary to get his first draft out in three months or less or his characters become stale in his mind, is that the work keeps the doubts away.

So, if my literary hero, my storytelling rockstar, has doubts about his craft, who am I, a newbie to the writing/storytelling world without a formal education in the art and only a vague notion of what I'm doing, to think can get away Scott free?--pun intended. Who exactly do I think I am to have such gall? Shouldn't such a person question their every move and motive?

Yes, and if I let my mind spin too much it does question every word, every sentence, every character and choice. So I try and push it all away, because if there's one thing I have learned in life is that the part of the brain that is "in control", the rational part, the filter, is also the thing that get's in our way of being successful. It is this part that "over-thinks", causes us to move jerkily like a badly programmed robot, and stifles the creative process.

Right now I am trying to exercise those demons by talking about them here and for the rest of the day I am going to try and ignore them.

Tomorrow morning I face the precipice. It's here. Let's see where it takes us.

Carry on.


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On Writing

On Writing
It may not be lost on you that the title of my blog is named after a book by Stephen King. Like everything else I write, this may or may not be just about writing--spoiler alert! probably not!--but I named it after him because he is my literary hero.

Arguably there are authors who write with a larger vocabulary, create better more vivid descriptions, have a higher Lexile reading level, blah blah blah, but there is no one that can tell a better story, and for me it is all about the story. Rather or not you like his genre is immaterial. The man can spin a yarn that hooks you from word one.

I remember riding around in the back of my dad's old Barricuda, the one with the huge dent in the side. The dent was made when he turned left in front of an oncoming Beetle and there wasn't quite enough time to get across the lane before the car was struck...in the passenger rear...where is oldest son--that would be me--sat watching as the oncoming car made impact less than a foot from his face. The back window was shattered and the bug had to be towed away from the scene, but the Barricuda was built like a tank and kept me safe. To this day I can still see that bright orange bug as it sailed across the macadam under a grey sky and the face of the man behind the wheel when he realized the inevitable.

In the back of the car I could here my dad playing, on 8-track I think, old Homer and Jethro concerts over and over. The beauty of that particular format was you could just let it spin, never having to flip or rewind. He loved those guys and as the years go by I can still hear them singing Camp Kookamonga and We Didn't Sink the Bismark. On one of the tapes they boys are mocking their own considerable talents, they were like Jack Benny in that they constantly made fun of themselves, and how they were jealous of another singer, like Johnny Cash or Jim Reeves--my Google skills are not up to the task of tracking down this particular quote--about how this singer, whomever it was, could "sing the phone book, and get a hit!" Well, that's Stephen King.

His subject could be about the phone book...and get a hit! It doesn't matter what he writes about, his tales are compelling, his characters relateable, his antagonists deliciously bad, and his stories are something you can happily spend an afternoon getting lost in. That's what it's all about for me.

I have finished my first book, 122 Rules, a couple of weeks ago. I love to read and listen to pod casts and audio books--my commute is 45 minutes one way--but while dumping the content of the book was afraid to listen to anything that might break the spell that I get in during the throws of the creative process. After I started the editing, I listened to his On Writing book for which this blog is named. In it he talks about how he doesn't plan his books, that they are organic, something discovered like a fossil that has to be dug up from the ground. This absolutely amazed me, because a year before after I had been writing a few months, I described the process to a friend almost verbatim.

For me it's a statue, at least thus far it had been, I am digging up from the ground. It already exists and I have a team working with some large piece of equipment, for whatever reason in my minds eye it looks like a small Zamboni, scanning the desert. For days they will find nothing, then ping something fuzzy and often large shows up on the little monochrome screen. The image is always fuzzy with just a hint of the outline, but when they find something the workers are insistent that I deal with it...NOW!

It happened this weekend, my crew found something buried in the earth and woke me at 4 AM to deal with it. "Wake up, boss. We got us sometin' you need da see." I mulled it over for an hour or so and finally got up and wrote the outline of what I think could be a pretty good little story. That makes two in the hopper after I finish the follow-up to 122.

There is more, so much more, that I could say about the man and his work and what he wrote in On Writing, and undoubtedly I will. But will leave it at that...for now.

Carry on.


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