Hide and Create

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Michael Sullivan, Joshua Essoe, and Jordan Ellinger continue to talk with Robin Sullivan about pulling together an indie book and putting it on the market. This is part two in our three-part series about the strategies and behind-the-scenes thinking of how to create a successful indie book.

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Michael Sullivan, Joshua Essoe, and Jordan Ellinger talk with Robin Sullivan about pulling together an indie book and putting it on the market. Ever wondered how Michael J. Sullivan sold ten thousand books a month, what the indie market place looked like for the freshman class, and how it has changed since 2010 to the present? Join us this week as we start off a three-part series with Michael’s wife, Robin, the genius behind the throne, as she describes sales numbers, money, and marketing.

This week on Hide and Create Joshua Essoe, Debbie Viguie, Michael Sullivan, and Jordan Ellinger talk about writing a book series. I want to hit on some things to keep in mind when writing a series: 1. Continuation of character history, physical and personality traits. Don’t forget if Liz has that piercing in her left eyebrow or her right eyebrow. Or if Bobby McBoberson comes from Kentucky or Nebraska. Did Grammar Girl introduce Squiggly and Aardvark to each other, or did they meet on their own? 2. How much info do you repeat to remind readers what’s going on or to inform readers who don’t start at the beginning? There is always going to be a little repetition to get people back up to speed, but the trick is to get the balance right. From a reader’s standpoint it really irritates me when I have to read a great deal of repetitive exposition — especially if I’m binge reading. 3. What timescale are you using? Do you have an immutable character who is always just the way he or she is and goes from adventure to adventure? Kind of like Jack Reacher? Does that mean that after one harrowing event takes place the next book takes place a month, a week, a day afterward? Does this go on for a dozen books? Is that believable? Even Jack effing Bauer usually has a year between his insane 24 hours of crazy. The point is, it would be helpful to have some idea of the time lapse you’re planning. Do things change between books? What? If the character is constantly in action, do the seasons change? Do characters age? Or are they eternal like James Bond? 4. Consider your cover branding and theme when you’re doing book one. Make sure that you’ve figured out how you can make all the covers look like they are a part of the same set. It’s worth considering a branding strategy. As a great example, Joshua Simon, a client of mine who writes epic fantasy, uses bright, single-color covers with a single object on them for his Blood and Tears series. An axe, a helmet, a bloody dagger. The covers are all unique and all eye-catching, but because they use same fonts and placements of titles and author names, and the same theme, they are easily recognizable as a single series. Finally, here is the link to the map-making article by Jonathan Roberts, the artist who does G.R.R.M’s maps, that I mention in the episode: http://www.fictorians.com/2013/04/29/here-there-be-dragons-maps-in-fiction/ 

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger, Michael Sullivan, and Joshua Essoe talk about the bow-chicka-wow-wow. Writing sex scenes is notoriously a difficult and potentially scary thing for writers. In loving someone else, we really do discover things about ourselves. The sex act opens up all kinds of emotional territory for us, and it’s great to show characters discovering themselves through their physical loving of each other. Everything that happens should be informed by your characters. Who are they? Are they gregarious and shameless? Well then, yeah, a character like that might just throw their clothes off, might view kisses as fun but meaningless. Is your character shy? Well that character is very unlikely to just throw their clothes off or have sex in a car — maybe they want the light turned off first, maybe they kiss tentatively and slowly, maybe they need their partner to undress first. And don’t forget about complication, ratcheting up the tension, and inner conflict. Maybe your character feigns a confidence they don’t really have and it gets tested terribly when things heat up. Maybe they’re really worried about some perceived physical defect or some lack of perfection. Maybe the character is married or committed to someone else — what kind of inner conflict would that engender? How would that other relationship inform their actions and choices in the romance or sex with another love or another fling? Are they in love with two people at once? Your characters will always inform you on the specifics of their romances and sex scenes. And be careful of tropes. Here are some super-common, misogynistic ones: a. The woman almost unattainably attractive b. The female character that has an apparent willingness to have sex with the protagonist, usually as a means of manipulation c. The female character is duplicitous, and either secretly evil or forced to act that way for some reason. Don’t be afraid to have a funny sex scene either. Coming of age sex scenes, for example, could be just as much about the humor in how awkward that is as it is about that life-changing event for the character. You can still do funny, and tender, and sexy all in one scene if you want. Life is nuanced, and so should your sex scenes be. You don’t have to view it as writing a sex scene or writing erotica. You’re writing a scene. Let your characters tell you how it goes, listen to them, just as you would with any other scene, and just write. It would be awesome to hear from listeners their experiences in writing sex scenes. Let us know in the comments below!

This week on Hide and Create, Jordan Ellinger, Michael Sullivan, Debbie Viguie, and Joshua Essoe talk about morally ambiguous heroes. I think we’re seeing a surge in popularity of these types of characters because more than any other type of character, they seem real to us. They’re nuanced. They’ve got all the problems, and hopes, and the desires to be good (or at least the desire to be okay with themselves) that the rest of us have and can relate to. But, just like any other character, you have to understand the gray or anti-hero’s character’s arc to effectively craft them. I’d like to mention that you don’t have to redeem your gray hero at the end. They don’t necessarily have to see the error of their ways, change their mindsets, or turn into goody-goods. That shouldn’t be confused with saying that they shouldn’t change at all. Character growth in one way or another is important. I’m just saying that most true-to-life characters are complicated and troubled, and fall into messes and uncomfortable life-situations, and that there is rarely, if ever, black and white. Sometimes a character’s morality isn’t easy to pin down. Be careful with the flaws you chose to give your gray hero, too. There’s a tipping point where too much angst, anger, secrecy, cold-bloodedness, or aloofness will turn readers against the character. It might be fun while you’re writing it but once you step back and see the final product you might be a little horrified. An anti-hero usually falls into one of a number of different categories — the badass, the loner or outsider, the rebel, the charmer. But they rarely reflect the high values of a society. They are not role models. They’re FAILED heroes. So honesty, integrity, and compassion, even strength, won’t always be displayed by these characters — so sometimes when they’re faced with a choice between right and wrong, they’ll chose wrong. Maybe because it’s better for them, or maybe because it is simply easier. However, there is always a line they won’t cross and that sets them apart from villains. Wesley: “There is a line, Lilah, black and white, good and evil.” Lilah: “Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn’t matter how much white you try and put back in, you’re never gonna get anything but gray.” —Angel, “Habeas Corpses”

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Michael Sullivan, Debbie Viguie, and Jordan Ellinger talk about publishing with small presses. A small press can be the stepping-stone to your big, bad career, and unlike in self-publishing, your work is endorsed by a gatekeeper who believes in you and your work. And that counts for a lot in the minds of many readers. When signing on with a small press, though, ask questions. Don’t hesitate to ask lots of questions, like what the expected print run would be, for example, before signing a contract—especially if you’re doing so without agent representation.

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger, Michael Sullivan, and Joshua Essoe talk about just who you’re writing your great [insert country here] novel for. I really like the thought: “Write for yourself and edit for your reader.” This ties in a little to Writing for Love or Money: if you want your book to reach the widest audience–and really who doesn’t want that?–I think writers need to realize that the book they’re writing isn’t theirs at all. It’s their readers’. Frankly, I think this is quite a liberating thought. So after you write your heart out, and after you’ve written the book that you wanted to write, take out your red pen and start cutting. 1. Take out all the unnecessary, and excessive detail–whether that be on your favorite setting or the full explanation of exactly how that crushed-almond paper is milled. Most readers are not going to care about those details the way that you do. 2. Tighten or cut the pages of dialogue or exposition as the narrator or the characters explain the plot to readers or to each other. Even if you’ve got great dialogue, show this, don’t info dump it. 3. Revise sentences with twenty-eight words that could be told in eight. 4. Unless it’s the style and voice you’re banking on — for example, if you’re writing an autobiography, a memoir, or perhaps a travel journal — remove yourself from your writing as much as possible. What I mean by that, is leave the story and text as open as possible for your readers to fill it with themselves rather than feel like that space has already been taken by you. Who knows, maybe someday all that luscious prose can go into an author’s-cut special edition, and you can revel in all that you removed that you loved so much as an homage to you – but until then, let your readers revel in your story for themselves.

This week on Hide and Create, Michael Sullivan, Jordan Ellinger, Debbie Viguie, and Joshua Essoe talk about writing genius characters. Naturally this is an intimidating prospect, I mean you are only as smart as you are, so how do you write a character that’s even smarter than that? How do you write a genius? Well, to put it simply, you cheat! In the episode, we talk about how you can write backward, use secondary characters as mirrors, the powers of observation and precision, but I want to use this space to touch on jargon. Don’t use jargon unless necessary for the character. Don’t throw it in just to hopefully add a flair of authenticity. Unless the jargon is easily understood through context, all it will do is muddle your text, and not only make it harder for readers to understand, but make it harder for them to be immersed in your story. That isn’t to say that an expert in his or her field shouldn’t use appropriate jargon if it fits that character and helps establish them as a genius, or as someone who really knows what the heck their talking about. Use Jargon Dictionaries and interviews to get this right. Writing a genius-level character can be a lot of work, but if you pull it off, you can truly have an epic, memorable character. Lots of work is worth it. I think at minimum you should give it a shot. Write a short story about a genius or featuring a genius and let us know about your experiences or questions in the comments!

This week on Hide and Create, Michael Sullivan, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger and Debbie Viguie talk about what to write for: your art or your living. I believe your writing will be stronger if you write what you love over what you’re paid for. You’re going to be more into it, more inspired, more creative, more motivated. So the trick is to love what you have to write, no matter what it is. Find whatever joy you can in it and exploit that. And then you’ll find that the more love you find in your work, the more types of work you’ll love doing.

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie interviews our new co-host, Michael J. Sullivan! Welcome Mike Sullivan to the crew, taking over our Indie Sensation seat from Moses. Mike has decades of experience, has sold 10,000 books a month, and been published every which way but loose.  We are happy having his wisdom added to our collective–yes, he has been assimilated.

This week on Hide and Create, Moses Siregar, Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger and Joshua Essoe talk about how and why authors should use Facebook. On this super-sized episode we have sad and happy news from two of our hosts. Another farewell will usher in a new host next week that we’re sure you will all enjoy. So listen on and say “so long for now” to a member of the team you’ve come to know and love, and congrats to another who got some pretty great news. In addition to what we have to say in the episode here is a short list of faux pas to avoid when using Facebook: — Do not post self-promotional messages or comments on other people’s walls or groups. Epitome of rude. I have an author in my feed who does this continually. In fact I rarely see a post from him, comment or otherwise, that doesn’t list his publications in a copy/paste list. It turns me off every time I see it, and I see comments from other people whom it has the same effect on. I don’t defriend him as a reminder to myself that I should never ever do that. — Do not create Facebook groups, then add people to those groups without permission, for any reason — especially not to market and promote your work. — Do not send private messages to your entire friends list, asking them to market and promote you—or to read your work. If you’re going to do something like that, the message should be personalized and directed toward a select few people. — Finally, don’t send blanket invites to events!

This week on Hide and Create, Moses Siregar, Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger and Joshua Essoe start talking about point of view. Week one of our discussion about POV where we discuss pros and cons of writing stories with multiple viewpoints, why you should and shouldn’t, what might be better about sticking with a single character and when you might want to do it, what is good about third person, what is good about first, and pitfalls to avoid.

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Moses Siregar, Joshua Essoe, and Jordan Ellinger talk about writing action. I see a lot of manuscripts and a lot of action scenes, and I end up spending most of my line-editing time working on them. It’s safe to say that action is one of the most difficult things for authors to write well. I’ve said in the past that as soon as characters start hacking harder, so do I. Anything that slows your tempo doesn’t belong. Tempo is the level of activity within a scene from action, dialogue or a combination of them. Tempo and rhythm are what set the pacing of your story — rhythm being the way scenes interact with each other. Pay close attention to that pacing too. It is possible to have too much action, just as it’s possible to have too little, so take a look. Do you have action scene after action scene after action scene? The whole point of an action scene is to get the blood moving, create tension, make readers fear for your characters. If you overdo it, if you keep hitting that same emotional beat, it’s easy to make your readers numb. They stop feeling and start thinking, “Oh, it’s just another action scene, no big deal.” So if your tension is getting stale, it might be because you’re hitting the same emotional beat too many times. Too much action — but this can be applied to any kind of scene, any kind of emotional beat. What do you do when you keep hitting the same emotional beat? That’s when it’s time to use an opposing beat. So throw in some romance or horror. Give your readers a rest so they can step back and appreciate your action again. To put it another way — if you love eating tacos, so all you eat are tacos, eventually tacos are going to become un-stimulating, and to regain that joy you once had eating those tacos, you’re going to have to eat something else . . . I think this is where Diana would have said that’s where you go for the whole enchilada. Anyway, you get my point.

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Debbie Viguie, Moses Siregar and Jordan Ellinger talk about writing a good mystery. One of the most important things in constructing a mystery is determining why your readers care about the mystery. Is the victim someone likable and innocent? Will readers want to avenge the victim’s death? Is one of the suspects wrongly accused and needs to be vindicated? Is the sleuth somehow personally involved or emotionally connected to the case? So I’m going to say this because it bears saying, even though it’s  obvious. When you’re writing a mystery, make sure you write believable characters. Nobody should be a cardboard cutout. Everybody should be real human beings that come alive for your readers. I would argue that mysteries are very much character driven stories. Your sleuth is going to have to be an intelligent person and ACT like an intelligent person. But remember to keep that sleuth human, give them flaws, make them relateable. Finally, if you’re submitting, you have to know your sub-genres. The kind of details and language you use will dictate your readership, therefor your target audience. I found a really helpful list of sub-genres from Writer’s Digest. There are a lot of genres listed, including mystery, and all are helpful. P.S. Yes, I did mean “Ten Little Indians” in the recording!  

This week on Hide and Create, Moses Siregar, Jordan Ellinger and Joshua Essoe speak with book-reviewing super star, Sarah Chorn about writing characters with disabilities. Writing a character, whether a viewpoint character or supporting character, with a disability requires special consideration. Listen on for our thoughts on how to do this honestly, with sensitivity, and with accuracy. Check out Sarah’s reviews, and Special Needs in Strange Worlds!