I Have a Third Book!

Just wanted to let everyone know that my third book ... I mean I guess it's a monograph (finally I get to use my favorite Sherlockian word) is available now.

Pitch 101, Or Writing Effective Pitches And Queries is now available for $4.99 You'll learn how to deconstruct pitches that don't work, re-tool them and build queries that make people take notice. You'll learn the components to a query, and how you can tailor them to suit your needs. It's a practical guide with hands-on advice, not just a thick book for your shelf that intimidates you or obfuscates the process of querying.

If you're keeping track, that means I have two '101 series' books available: Character 101, and now Pitch 101. Yes, there are other 101 series books in the pipeline -- my in-person and online writing workshops now include what will become Plot 101 and Book Marketing 101. I don't have a timetable yet for their release, but Plot will be released, then I'll probably do a compilation volume and put out Book Marketing 101.

If you've purchased the book, please consider writing a review.

Happy writing.

I Produce Books Now, Books Are Cool

I think when we're younger, we draft these big plans in our heads (I'm going to be an astronaut! I'm going to be Batman!), and while some fade out as time passes and interests change, you're always compiling a new list of plans, dreams and goals.

Maybe your goal is to live and work in New York City. Maybe your goal is to play a professional sport. Maybe your goal is to raise beautiful and compassionate children. You have these goals, and you should chase them down, do all in your power to accomplish them, hold hope and faith close to your heart and make what you dream about a reality.

When I was sick, when I was more fully in throes of mental illness, my plans got grandiose (I'm going to prove people wrong, I'm going to change the system!) and the route to those plans seemed light-years away. It felt like I'd never accomplish my goals, that I'd always be thwarted, and incidentally, that it was never my fault that things didn't work out. It didn't matter that I had unrealistic irrational goals, and it didn't matter that I didn't take more than one or two steps towards accomplishing them, it was always the fault of something or someone who wasn't me. This of course led to me staying angry, staying frustrated and making even more grandiose plans that I didn't do squat about. 

Now I'm stable. Now I'm making smarter decisions, setting smarter goals. Goals like straighten out my finances. Attend GenCon. Create new things that people like. Be honest. Be open.

One of the lingering formerly grandiose plans was "publish books", and that often got inflated to this idea that I could crank out a book every 6-8 months for the next thirty years and then stop writing and swim through the sea of money I would have no doubt made.

I should point out that while I wrote and wrote and wrote, I never finished much. Finishing meant I'd have to take that next step, and that felt like work, so I found new and exciting ways to procrastinate.

That time's over. And I'm thankful. Look what I did!

This is a link to my Smashwords page (or library, whatever they call it). You'll see there are two items on it.

86 Things I've Said On Twitter is now a single volume you can read through at your leisure. It's about 40 pages of all different kinds of advice covering writing technique and publishing advice and motivational you-can-do-it-ness. Also, it's TWO DOLLARS. Yes, that is cheaper than a big cup of specialty coffee.

Character 101, Or How To Build Effective Characters is my one-stop guide to character development that is practical, detailed and interesting. It's two dozen pages of easily applicable method and advice to turn your possibly uninteresting character into something memorable. It's $4.99. Yes, that's less than the cost of this silver bar. And may also be less than the cup of specialty coffee.

Did I ever think I'd get this far? Nope. But I'm glad I did. And I hope you stick with me on this ride. I'm excited to see where it goes.

**Note: I could have really easily turned this into a really vitriolic thumbing of my nose at certain people, deriding them, taking shots at them, and generally being a rotten person. I'm not saying there aren't people who weren't negative, toxic, unhelpful around me at various points in my life, but I am saying that the ultimate reason why I didn't do this sooner falls on my shoulders, not theirs. But I'd be lying if this didn't feel a little satisfying to prove those haters wrong. 

Things I Am Doing At GenCon, UPDATED

So GenCon is August 15-18th. It's a big deal in the gaming community, a chance for relatively disparate elements and people to convene for a week in the middle of the US and hang out, reconnect, connect for the first time and play great games together.

My first GenCon was last year. And OH WOW was it amazing. All my friends were there, I got to see my friends' successes, I got to share some of my own successes with others.

Of interest to me were the panels, where loads of people would come hang out and talk about whatever the topic was for an hour or two. I went to some great ones (Phil Menard's panel on depression was intense, but wonderful), I went to some not-great ones (there was a panel that was so disorganized I can't even recall what it was about for the whole hour I sat in the room), and I thought to myself "I'm going to run a panel at GenCon some year."

"Some year" is THIS year.

UPDATE!! All the panels I submitted have been approved.  Here are all the details.

UPDATE AGAIN!! You can help make these great panels even better by supporting my GoFundMe campaign.

SEM1345150 Depression, Anxiety, Treatment and the Gamer
Thursday  4pm - 6pm
Crowne Plaza : Victoria Stn C/D

This seminar is more a conversation between people who are struggling with mental illness (and are now in various stages of treatment), yet don't let their illness(es) define them or stop them from producing the material they love. Come hang out with us and let's talk openly about how not to let the monsters win while we make awesome games.


SEM1341483 Writing Effective Scenarios & Settings 
Friday 11am - 1pm
Crowne Plaza Grand Ballroom D

Learn what it takes to write the best scenarios and settings you can, regardless of the system used or your experience level.
This seminar will be universal in scope - not focusing on solely one system over others, but looking rather at successful components found in MANY systems that you can take advantage of when writing your own.

SEM1345042 The Writer/Editor Relationship **
Friday 2pm - 4pm
Embassy Suites : Coronation 1

Learn from Brian Engard (writer, Bulldogs! Fate Core) and John Adamus, (editor Evil Hat Productions, Margaret Weis Productions) about the relationship between writer and editor.

** aka John and Brian Talk About Shit 

SEM1341489 Writing Q&A

Saturday 11am - 1pm

UPDATE! Crowne Plaza : Hay Market B

No matter what you're writing (a game, a novel, a movie, etc) you've no doubt got questions. This seminar is the place to get answers to whatever writing-related quandaries you have.
This seminar is driven by your questions, whether they're questions about writing a good sentence, a good story, getting an agent, getting published, editing your RPG, tweaking your LARP or whatever -- if you have questions about something you're writing, this is the place to get answers and help. If you're familiar with Dreamation, Metatopia and DexCon, this is a Gen Con-sized version of the Writing Workshop held there.

Wow. Just, wow, this is amazing, and I want to just encourage everyone to drop in, say hi, hang out and have some great discussions.

I am incredibly grateful, humbled and excited to have the chance to present not only a new workshop on scenarios and settings, but also do my more traditional Q&A on a much bigger scale.

See you in Indianapolis. 

86 Things I've Said on Twitter, Part 6

We march forward in the series of things I've said on Twitter, here's Part 6. Part 5 from last week is here (and so are the other parts).

You're never going to write like Author X, Author Y or Author Z. The good news is that they're never going to write the way YOU do.

I remember being a teenager and even later into my twenties and reading books by my favorite authors and wanting to BE them -- presumably because of the wealth I assumed they had, but also for the talent they demonstrated with words. I wanted to write just like they did, because they're successful, so being like them must make me successful too, right?

No. There's a couple ways to explain this, but here's one -- the market doesn't need another Rowling, King, Stout or Hammett. The market doesn't need a Wendig or a Forbeck clone. If you're trying to be like someone else, however well intentioned that might be, you're not being yourself. And it's all about being you. YOUR voice. YOUR skill. YOUR talent.

That's what the market wants - a new story. YOUR story.

And it can be daunting to enter an arena where Kadrey, Brett, Mixon and Blackmoore are already firmly entrenched (Yeah, I'm name-dropping left and right). But there's room for [INSERT WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS HERE]. Honest.

It's not about sounding like other people, it's about sounding as yourself. Be you, tell your story, you'll be happier.

If an editor does their job right, writers, you won't see their work, you'll only see your work, more clearly.

Editors on the whole, are ghosts. We don't really leave visible signs of our presence unless something catastrophic or extreme happens. We come in, help you, and go away. Frequently, we're under-appreciated, under-credited and under-thanked. That tide is turning, especially on social media, but by and large, the view of editors is a lot like how you view the hammer in the garage -- great when you need it, but you don't have a whole lot of reason to thank it, even if it made your house possible.

What an editor does isn't (and shouldn't be) a mystery. Our job is to take whatever words you have on the page and make them not only mesh but illuminate the idea you had in your mind. We do that by changing the text on the page, by clarifying it, by fixing the errors, by taking extraneous elements away.

When we do our job correctly, you don't see the footprints, and we don't leave any scars behind from our literary incisions. All you see is the text the way it should be - in the best shape possible to deliver the idea you want it to.

When we do our job poorly, the text suffers. Ideas become muddy and confused, the pace and flow becomes sluggish and overall the text isn't one you want to read.

How can you sort out the good editors from the bad? Ask them what they've edited. Then go read it. See if you like the finished style. See if they have a website, and go read that. See how they put words together. Do they sound like they know what they're doing AND that you can get along with them?

That question is food for another blog post by itself. Maybe even two.

To avoid too many dialog tags, let the words the characters say imply their feelings. Not the punctuation either.

I had a teacher once who marked down my short story from an A to a B because in her mind "I used too many 'said's". When I asked her how many I was supposed to use, she told me that you're supposed to use enough to figure out who's speaking with whom, but that the dialogue itself should be doing the work.

I didn't understand that for the rest of the school year, and ultimately got a B in her class. No one said squat about the number of saids in college, so I just figured she was crazy.

She wasn't crazy. She sucked at explaining her point, but she wasn't crazy.

Here's a line of dialogue:

"Good job," he said loudly to her.

Does that look like he shouted? Do you feel as though, if you're in the scene, that he's hollering or exclaiming?

No, and if you had to pinpoint the issue, maybe you'd circle the verb, and say that said isn't correct for the scene. Or maybe you'd circle the comma and say that commas don't really indicate shouting.

So let's make the changes:

"Good job!" he yelled to her.

Great, now we have an exclamation point, so the dialogue is louder, and we have a clear verb.

But let's look at the sentence a little more broadly. You have two spoken words (Good job) and four words that give directions or explanations (he yelled to her). If (and yes, this could be a big if) there's only two people in the scene that we're paying attention to, why do we need so many directions? And why should we spend our time reading more than just the dialogue, which is what we came to the scene to experience anyway?

"Good job!"
"Thanks! Couldn't have done it without you!"

No tags, because we know who's speaking. And we know how they're saying whatever they're saying, because the tone of the words tells us far more than anything else.

Remember: Punctuation tells us HOW something is said, not what is said.

I'm not saying you can never use tags, or that you should cap the number of "said" tags in whatever you're writing. That's crazy. But what you can do is shape the words, the substance and subtext of what they're saying to better describe how they feel so that you don't need so many directions tacked on to it.

Not everything needs have a sequel or be part of a great series. Some stories are just stories.

The Hobbit is going to be three movies. There's already an Evil Dead sequel AND a prequel on the way. There are three sequels to Beauty and the Beast.

Most of the reason this is done is entirely financial - there really isn't a lot more you have to say in the Hobbit once the plot wraps up (but I'm sure there will be like 35 minutes of additional endings), but because we can read a book at our leisure, and a movie is a contained experience, films get stretched until their plots are translucent at best and non-existent at worst.

But if you're writing a thing, and it's the best thing it can be, don't think you need to simultaneously map five future installments so that your first product gets picked up.

Tell the best story you can, worry about sequels and series later.

You cannot mentally sigh.

Characters can't sigh in their heads. Characters don't yell through gritted teeth. Characters can't see with their eyes closed. A lot of this is cliche-hunting. But it's important that you've got your characters acting like real people so that they're taken as real people, in a real world.

It's not the stretching of believability that kills fiction, it's the lack of consistency within your own construction.

When you're writing, you can stretch credulity as far as you need to. Science fiction introduces physics-defying technology. Fantasy fiction brings us magic. But we're willing to "go with it" so that the story makes sense and is compelling.

Where things come of the rails is where within the same story, there's no consistent adherence to a set of rules.

We've talked about how writing is the act of making decisions. A corollary to that idea is that they have to be consistent decisions. The sky is blue until you say otherwise. Magic works a certain way until you explain or provide a reason why it doesn't. But when things change without rhyme or reason, the story you're telling starts to feel like a story, like something hastily composed and sped through - a rush job.

I'd recommend you make yourself some notes about how elements in your world work. What does magic look like? How does faith work? How are the angels and demons supposed to interact with humanity? Whatever the element that makes your story deviate from the experience of our real world, write it down, and flesh it out. Be consistent, it makes for a stronger story.

Do some research. Figure out how things work. Sure you can tweak things, but lay a strong base.

There's a vocal segment of the population that takes a great deal of pleasure telling the rest of us how things really work, and how the movie/book/TV show we watched is inaccurate. Now, this operates under the assumption that our favorite fiction is supposed to be just like our lives, and opens the door for debate between simulation and fantasy.

The more research your do about how things (guns, corporations, explosives, farms, taxes, whatever), you're giving yourself not only the ability to give accurate detail, but you're also giving yourself more things to write about (the components of the engine breaking down, rather than a blanket statement that the car's not working).

More specificity gives your story more depth, more credibility (if that's what you're after) and makes it feel more engaging to the reader.

You don't need to slavishly adhere to realism. You can invent brands of soda or manufacturers or streets or whatever the story calls for, but partner those faux-truths with actual truths. We won't be able to tell. Really.

If you're writing a children's book PAY YOUR ILLUSTRATOR(S).

This one's a really short one --- if you're creating something, and there are other people involved in that process, PAY THEM. Pay them appropriately and fairly and on time. They have a job to do, just like you do.

If your story ends in the middle of act 2, then either it wasn't act 2, or that's not the whole story.

One of my favorite guilty pleasure movies is The Devil's Advocate. Keanu Reeves has an inconsistent accent, Charlize Theron can't act, and Pacino triple over-acts. It's also two and a half hours long, despite the plot being resolved at just before the two hour mark. Those last thirty minutes are a chance for Pacino to rant and Keanu to stare at a naked woman. It's the whole third act of the movie.

My point is that if you resolve your plot twenty chapters in, then you're done the story. You don't need to pad the story for ten more chapters...unless you're laying the groundwork for whatever comes next, and the big climax you thought wrapped things up was just a rung on this crazy ladder of a story.

Whatever system you use to organize your thoughts (note cards, Scrivener, whatever) - if it works for YOU, great, use it. If not, move on

There are lots of ways to put together thoughts. Some people love Scrivener, I like legal pads. Other people make note cards. No one method is better than another, they're just different. Anyone who says otherwise might be selling something or looking to make themselves feel better at someone else's expense.

If you have a system and it works for you, keep at it.

If you don't yet have a system, try lots of them until you find one that suits your patience, your research and your writing method. You can even cobble your own method together, a little from this system, a little from that system over there.

Whatever works for you is ideal.

Want to see if a story makes sense? Give it to 4 readers - a tween, an adult friend, an enemy and a loved one. See what happens next.

I have a lot of people asking me how they find readers. There are websites you can use (google 'beta readers'), you can turn to writing groups, you can go to friends and family for instance.

When you're building a pack of readers, try to get a diverse group. I use a tween, a friend, a loved one and someone who hates my guts. Here's why:

1. The tween will tell you if they're enjoying the story, if they get it, if it's cool.
2. The friend will give you the highlights, saying what they like and what works.
3. The loved one will give you encouragement and support and help turn those good parts into promotional material.
4. The enemy will hate whatever you do, ground you in reality and teach you where you lose readers or bore people, so that you can improve your craft and earn their readership.

Now, I don't always talk to the people who hate me, because it's kind of annoying and dramatic and stupid to do. So I usually go to a relative stranger, someone who isn't a dick but who doesn't know me well enough to be favorably biased.

The third act is never a great time to introduce new characters.

"There are no drive-ups in the third act" is the old Hollywood saying, which means that by the time the third act is about to kick off (or underway) you're not introducing critical elements or people who just sort of appear and then prove themselves vital. We're not really connected to these new characters, and when they accomplish more than the established characters, it makes those characters we have been following less cool and less capable - and that's not good for the story.

By the time we get to the soon-to-be climax and the story is moving at top speed, we should have all the characters in play and have relationships and a connection to each of them. Sure, it doesn't need to be the same reason, but we need a reason, other than "it's what the story needs". No one wants to read something that feels convenient.

There's still plenty more to come in this series. I hope you have a great week.

Happy writing. 

86 Things I've Said on Twitter, Part 5

We continue the series of things I've said on Twitter. Part 4 is here.

Note: 86 things is a lot, isn't it? Hope you're enjoying the series.

Fancy pieces of paper on your wall will not come sit behind your desk and do your writing for you.

I talk to a lot of people about how they got their start, how they do what they do and how they finish what they create. People come from all walks of life, all different places in their lives and all with their own unique stories. Some go to big universities and earn big fancy degrees. Some don't. And some of the people with degrees look down on the people without degrees, as if it's the degree's job to validate who or what the earner is.

The degree doesn't make you anything. Maybe in debt. Maybe better networked. But the degree is just a thing on the wall, and a benchmark of something you've done. Like the patch I got in my billiards league when I played my first game. Or the little trophy my brother won for winning the science award.

What matters is the work. The writing. The performance of your task and craft. You don't need a big fancy degree to do that. You just need the ability to get your ideas across to others. That's all.

Does the degree make you a professional? If you judge professionalism by the pieces of paper on your wall, then yes. (And by that measure, there are far more unprofessionals than professionals on the planet).

Does the degree make your work better? Not definitively. I've read material from degree-awarded, long-time 'professionals' and hated it. I've read drafts from college dropouts that made me want more.

If you want the degree, go get the degree. If you've been bullied into the degree (as I was), then get it if you want it. But understand that what matters is the work you do, not the papers on your wall or the title after your name.

It's totally okay for writing to be a hobby and not your career. But understand that if you want the career, you gotta do the work.

Writing isn't for everyone. I don't say that to dissuade you, I'm just saying that writing isn't for everyone, the same way that not everyone loves gardening or brewing or watching reality TV shows.

Sometimes that's because you don't have the time, you keep busying yourself (intentionally or otherwise) or because you need more practice and training but don't have the time, money or inclination to get better. So then writing is a hobby. I have hobbies. I play games. I read. I used to collect stamps as a boy.

But my job is editing. Or creating games. Or helping other people create the thing they want to make.

Nothing wrong with having hobbies. But understand that it's hard to transition a hobby into a job. It takes work. It takes discipline. You have to be willing to fail, work harder and get better. You have to be willing to endure really rough times so that you can discover the good times. Hobbies are all good times, because they're on your schedule, at your pace and at your leisure.

Jobs are...work. They're not always on your schedule or at your pace or leisure. Sometimes there's a real jerk standing over your cubicle telling you to come in on Saturday. Sometimes there's a person hundreds of miles away writing you emails about how things are due in HOURS, not weeks. It's out of your control. But this is your job, and ideally, you're getting paid for that job, so you do the work.

The amount of work and your dedication to the work is what distinguishes a hobby from a job. Nothing wrong with either, other than a perception that a career is going to take more of your time than a hobby will.

Game Designers - FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THE CANDY - Don't deem your ideas crappy while the book is still being written.

When you're making something, especially something that other people are supposed to enjoy, you should be happy about making it. You should be excited. Maybe some parts of it excite you more than others, but on the whole, there's a baseline of excitement as the foundation of your efforts.

And then doubt shows up. And doubt is a bastard. Doubt fabricates all these reasons (some of them really wacky) why what you're doing should be more scary than exciting. That you're not good enough. That your idea isn't good enough. That no one will be interested. That you're wasting your time. Whatever.

What you're forgetting in this exchange is that so long as you're still writing and creating the thing, ANY AND EVERY part of it can be changed, can be made more exciting. Sure, that may require you asking for help, or looking at examples and coming up with new ideas, but nothing is set in stone until you hand the created thing off to the publisher or distributor or whoever makes those final certifications.

When a thing is still being made it isn't crappy and it isn't genius. It's only "in development". And the act of developing a thing is what should excite you.

Don't pass judgment on a thing in development. Here's an example -- you're making a loaf of bread. You mix the dough, you get it in the pan, you put the pan in the oven. It starts baking. Is it a bad loaf of bread? No, it's just dough. It's not bread yet. You won't know if it's bad until you get it out of the oven.

The same is true for your idea. Don't deem the dough bad. Let it get out of the oven first.

Want to do a dream sequence in a book? Keep it organized and preferably short. Dreams aren't where the plot advances.

Unless you're writing Inception or the third Nightmare on Elm Street or that weird Stephen King movie about aliens and the army, dreams aren't the spot for plot advancement. Why? Because dreams are supposed to happen when the character is asleep. And when a character is asleep, the outside world (where the problem is supposed to be affecting things) isn't being dealt with. (Okay, yes, if the whole book takes place in a dreamscape, why do I need to know people are asleep?)

Too often, dreams are where characters have "A-ha!" moments where they figure out who the killer is or figure out how to solve the riddle of the tomb or defuse the bomb. Next time, please give me some wine with that cheese.

Dreams work best when they're lateral moves - when they show us more depth and develop what we already know. Just like our dreams give us insight into who and what we are (last night's dream involved screaming children being loaded into the Ghostbusters vehicle and lobotomized, what does that say about me?), so too should they give the reader more connection to the character.

Keep them short. If that means you need to have more dreams to describe your idea, that's okay. But a dream that goes on and on doesn't accomplish what you think it does, other than confuse or bore the reader.

Keep them organized. Just because your dream involves floating opera singers, sex acts, your fourth grade teacher yelling at you for clapping wrong (seriously, that's a thing that happened to me) and a purple sky doesn't mean you need to convey that information in a weird way to demonstrate how "trippy" things are.

Seriously.

If your whole story is a flashback, maybe you should just tell me the story without the bookended present scenes.

Flashbacks are a good way to give us more information without moving time forward. They're a cheat, but a helpful cheat. Like the money code in the Sims.

The problem is that if most of your story is told in a flashback, you can chop off the parts where the flashback starts (I remember...) and where the flash back ends (And that's the story of...) and just tell the story in the past tense.

I love The Young Indiana Jones Adventures. When I first saw them on TV, they had these bookends, scenes where old Indy would talk to people about a time he remembered, then it would segue into the episode. And at the end of the hour, old Indy would come back and say "That's the story". It made for a nice TV episode.

Years later when I watched them a second time, I watched without the bookends. They're still great TV, because the focus wasn't on the bookends, but rather on the story within the flashback.

And without the bookends, it's not a flashback, it's just a story. Which is still awesome.

Chapters/sections in a book are supposed to handle two tasks - add one thing to what you already know and move you forward.

Everything in a story has a role to play. Characters are the do-ers of action. The plot is the problem they face. And chapters are how the action is divided up, both for narrative construction purposes, and for pacing. Chapters also have a job to do, to move you to the next chapter and give you more information to take with you once you get there.

A chapter that doesn't give you new information, of some kind, is a chapter that can be cut out of a manuscript. Why? Because without new information, nothing's changed since the last chapter.

Now maybe the chapter gives you new information but doesn't encourage you to go forward, that can happen. That means the chapter is boring (or it's the end of the book). If it's the end of the book, good job, hope it was satisfying. If it's not the end however, then you have to make the reader want to keep reading. Keep them hungry for what happens next, so that they turn the page all the way until the end.

The key to that is making decisions. Decide what the character is going to do. Decide how big the bang is going to be. Decide if this is the scene where someone gets shot. Make decisions, take action. Tell good stories.

Your job as a writer is to write, not edit-every-sentence-ten-seconds-after-you-write-it. That's an editor's job. LET THEM DO THEIR JOB.

I am an editor. My job, what I receive money to do, is make things better. Fix errors, explain mistakes, break bad habits. Presumably someone (a writer) hires me to help them.

The writer's job in this relationship is to write (or have written) something I can help them with. If you, writer, change every sentence moments after you write it (I don't mean that you don't fix spelling, I mean that you write a good sentence, start doubting it, then erase it to write a new replacement sentence), when do I get to do my job? You know, the one you're paying me for?

If this writer-editor relationship is going to work the way it should for best results, we need a division of labor. You write whatever you write, I edit it to make it the best it can be, together we produce awesome things.

But you have to let me do my job. I know what I'm doing. Really. Trust me to help you. Trust my skills to help your work.

In talking directly to your audience, you shouldn't have to say "Take note" or "Pay attention - unless you think you suck at focusing.

Sometimes the writer creates something where they talk to the audience. Maybe it's an aside. Maybe it's an intro. Maybe it's just the way the narrative works. And if the audience knows that they're being spoken to (using "you" is a pretty good indicator), then there isn't really a need to say "Take note" or "Pay attention" to whatever you're talking about...because they're already paying attention. Because they're reading.

Don't assume they're not paying attention. That's kind of rude and says more about you than it does them (that you make assumptions about who reads your work and how well those people pay attention to things that allegedly interest them, for starters).

Also, if you're using language that gives attention-paying directions, are you saying that as much for yourself as you are for them?

Don't hate your audience. Trust them to be paying attention. Trim out those instructions. Just tell the story.

The "traditional" method of publishing hinges on two questions - 1) Can you follow directions? 2) How patient are you?

My friend Chuck Wendig wrote this awesome article this week (hang on, I'll pick up that name I dropped) about self-publishing versus traditional publishing. It's good, you should read it.

So there are many ways to skin the "I'm going to get published" cat. Traditional publishing is one way to go, but it's not without its pitfalls and things-to-be-aware-of.

Part of the process for traditional publication involves query letters and draft submission. And the method by which you deliver the manuscript and query varies from recipient to recipient. But everyone has guidelines that dictate how they want to get your material. When you don't follow those guidelines, your work doesn't get read, no matter how great it may be. Not following directions dooms your work to the scrap heap.

Likewise, traditional publishing is not a race car. My other friend Cheri Laser (I miss her) and I spoke of this often - that there was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, with weeks and months going by between progress made on a book.

I'm not saying that self-publishing is naturally faster, I'm just saying that traditional publishing can sometimes take a while. Maybe weeks. Maybe months. Maybe longer. Every situation is different, so I can't flat out give you specifics. Be patient, you'll get the results you want.

Or not, then you'll just have to find another route to get published.

Seriously you don't always need a prologue. Just get to the good bits of the story.

I see this a lot in fantasy. People love prologues. Sometimes they're scenes that didn't have a place in the book, but the author really loved writing it. Sometimes it's this big setup section, that explains what happened bajillions of years prior to when the story is going to happen.

Prologues can be great. They can condense information down and paint a timeline and a context for the story we're about to be a part of. But they can also be nightmarishly plodding, ill-conceived and be more masturbatory than productive.

They work sparingly. Sort of like that weird wrench you keep in the toolbox. You use it maybe once a season or only when you buy a new grill.

When they work, they're awesome. When they don't, I'd sooner scrub my eyes with broken glass, lime juice and sandpaper.

What I came to this book for is the story. Give it to me. Not because I'm in a rush or because I'm busy, but because that's what I sat down and want to read. If it really helps my enjoyment of the story to know that three millennia ago a sandstorm ravaged the city of Ab-al-kuz'zad, then great, I expect to see the ruined city in the book somewhere. If you're just writing things to write them, I'm going to either skip it, feel pissed off that I read it, or editorially cut it.

Books can only take you so far. Seminars can only take you so far. A lot of this journey is you writing. Regularly. 

I love the people who come to my seminars. I get people who come exclusively to conferences just to hear me speak, which is incredibly flattering. I get people from all over the place to sit and take notes and ask questions, and that makes me feel great.

I love the people who read my blog (well, most of you anyway), and hopefully, you read these posts and get something out of it and go forth into your writing better armed for success. (Or maybe you're just keeping tabs on me, whatever).

But the point of all this information, the point of all the lists on twitter, all the blog posts, all the seminars and workshops and Q&As I give is so that you, whoever you are, wherever you are on your path to whatever writing creation you're on, actually go write the thing.

See, the point isn't just to hear me talk, or hear my voice when you read my words, or just read my words while other tabs load in your browser. The goal is to have you write a thing, have you make something awesome that wasn't there before you started and be excited about it. If I played a hand in that process, fantastic, I'd love to hear all about it, but I'm totally not just doing this so that people tell me how great I am.

Be the awesome writer you're going to be, whether that's a hobby or a career, or just this thing you tried once after that relationship ended and you didn't feel like getting back into dating or because your kids encouraged you or because you wanted to show your ex that you can accomplish what you set out to do and you'll be damned if you let their bullshit words echo in your head for a minute longer (I may have said too much there).

Write and write regularly. Get on a schedule. Give yourself some structure. Train yourself. Discover that discipline in you to do a thing, make a thing and see it through until the end.

Happy writing.

Part 6 (!!) of this series will be out on Monday.

86 Things I've Said on Twitter, Part 4

After a pause last week (lots of things going on, blogging got pushed so far down the schedule), we resume the series of 86 Things I've Said on Twitter. Part 3 is here.

Guess what? You can talk to an editor ANY time during your creative process to help steer you through tricky sections and past blocks.

There's this thought travelling around that editors are who you talk to AFTER you write, as if we're summoned from the ether when all the words are still cooling on the page. And as we've talked about elsewhere, that's still where an editor gets used. But, there's ZERO reason to think that you can't talk to editor WHILE you're writing. We can steer the writing past the problems, we can help you learn new strategies to overcome bad habits, we can help make the writing better *as* it happens. That is, if you let us. 

Get a healthy supportive network of people around you and creating what you love never feels like a JOB.

I love what I do. There's a reason why I so frequently use the #livingthedream hashtag on social media (and this blog). It never feels like a job. Sure, I make a living doing all the editing, developing, creating and consulting, but it's not a go-to-a-cubicle-farm-and-file-TPS-reports-and-listen-to-my-soul-die job. It's my lifestyle, expressed through actions. It's just what I do, and the reason I can enjoy so much of it is because I have around me the most amazing support system of friends and family (and friends as family) who support me and who care about what I'm doing and who want to hear about it. 

Disclosure: A lot of my support system does the same sort of work, so we can often and easily talk about the work and how best to accomplish it, but the point stands - we're all in this creative endeavor together. 

Now if you're thinking to yourself, "How do I build this? How do I get a support structure?", start by being honest with yourself. You have to be your biggest fan. (And I can say this because it's something I'm still working on) From there, you have to engage other people, telling them that your writing is important to you (no, it doesn't have to be a career, unless you want it to be) and getting them excited too. You'll be able to weed out the people who will support you from those who scoff based on whether or not they get excited and encouraging. Take the good ones, don't sweat the bad ones, whoever they might be. 

Hey, how long were you planning on only just talking about making your thing? Do you think it's going to create itself?

There two Johns: The John who talks a lot of about doing things, and the John who does them. Talking-John has a lot of big ideas and big hopes and dreams but never gets around to making them happen, because doing things is scary and because (he thinks) that talking about them is far more fun than doing them. Talking-John is a shitty coward. He doesn't take any risks, he doesn't expose himself as vulnerable or human, he doesn't try. 

Action-John (now with kung-fu grip) is newer to the scene, for a while he was just the shunted-off, pushed-into-the-corner voice that started sentences with "I hope..." He wanted to take action, but was too scared. Too scared to fail. Too scared to get a negative response, thinking that it was a reflection on who he was, and that if he failed, everyone would hate him. But then the fear became smaller, or maybe the drive to do things became bigger, and he started doing things. Big things, the things Talking-John always said would happen. Sure some things stumbled out of the gate (see: TWO people at the first Pay What You Want Seminar), but then there's a whole stack of things that took off like a shot right out of the gate. (So many games!)

Talking is good, but Action, though scary or hard or uncertain is better. The things you want to do won't do themselves, you need to be creating them. They're *your* things, so get out there and make them happen.

Rejection sucks. But it only stops you if you let it. Also, the rejecter is just ONE person - plenty of ways to accomplish your goals.

Ahh rejection letters. The kryptonite of writers. The scourge of creatives. 

Hey. It's a piece of paper. Or an email. Or one person's words to you. ONE person. And they might not even know you. 

Not everyone is going to reject your work. And that's what you should remember - they're rejecting your work, not you as a person, a parent, a spouse, a partner, a friend, a whatever-else-you-might-be. And if you want to split hairs, they might not even be rejecting the work itself, they're just rejecting how you introduced the work (your query).

It's not about what number rejection you're on - a lot of talk is about how many times a particular book was rejected - it matters what you do AFTER you get rejected. I'm not saying you can't be upset. I'm not saying you can't eat ice cream out of the carton and sit on the couch in your bathrobe and watch episodes of old TV on Netflix. (by the way, Coldstone Creamery totally knows how to ease rejection...so I've heard)

If you get rejected by one agent or publisher, there are others. Loads of others. Or you can go a different route. It's up to you. You're in charge. 

Not everyone is going to love what you create. Do you love it? That's the starting point. If you don't, who will?

I'll keep this one short -- You have to love what you do. Otherwise, why are you doing it? If you're not happy making the thing(s) you're making, what can you do to make yourself happy, and how can you change  your situation around?

Other people aren't going to like it. That's okay. Your job is not to please everyone. Your job is to please yourself and make awesome things. 

Do not ever, ever, ever let anyone at conference/convention/whatever-event make you feel guilty for loving what you do.

One of my good and dear friends speaks quite well (and extensively) about women in gaming. Recently, she was at PAX (a big video game/gaming convention) and the panel she was on took a LOT of flak for her being "big" or for the panelists being lesbians or for them being "feminazis" - basically a huge swarm of adolescents got together and got quite aggressive with these women (emailing them rapey death threats, being otherwise angry and mean to them).

That's upsetting. There's plenty of room for everyone at the creative table, no matter who they are, what they are, what they believe in or what they make. Just because *you* disagree (however intensely) with what people make or who they are doesn't make the other person "wrong". 

I have been on panels, attended conferences and conventions where the speaker addressing the audience just shot down people. Giving malicious advice. Throwing around a lot of shame. Throwing around tons of guilt. 

Yes, there are going to be people, even people who are supposed to know better, who are going to make you feel guilty for who you are, what you love and doing whatever you do. I'm not telling you this because I want you to rage against them, or to set you on the defensive, I'm telling you because you don't have to be guilty. You don't have to be afraid of being a whatever/whoever-you-are and doing/making whatever you make. 

Sure, some people are going to rail against you because they're idiots. Or bigots. Or sexists. Or other '-ist's. 

Other people are going to shout you down because if you're not in the picture, you're not competing with them for what they perceive to be finite resources. (Newsflash - there's never going to be a shortage of awesome)

Do not give these voices any mental real estate. They're not accurate, and not an accurate representation of anything other than hate-speech and close-mindedness. 

If there's a #1 tool in your toolbox as a writer, let it be discipline. To do the work, to endure rejection, to keep believing.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. And it's not like you're forever at mile 1. It takes time to make things, to do the best job you can, and there are a lot of distractions out there. And those distractions can really pull you away from getting things done. (Hey look, an Xbox! Hey look, a relationship! Hey look, nachos!)

Discipline is what makes things go. The ability to park my butt in this comfy office chair and do the writing and thinking allows me to go out with that relationship, allows me to buy new Xbox games and afford nacho supplies. 

Discipline also weathers me against rejection. Keep running the marathon. Keep believing down to a sub-atomic level that I'm on the right path for me. That I can do this, that I'm good enough. 

Writers, if things aren't working out, you can totally fire the people you've hired. If you've been hired, you can totally fire clients.

There's a great George Carlin bit about getting pulled over and telling the cop that they're a public servant, so as a taxpayer, you pay their salary. And while that's comedy and exaggerated, there's a truth in there - you can fire the people you retain if they're not working out. 

Have a bad experience with an agent or editor? You don't need to keep that relationship. Yes, you can get a new one. It may be embarrassing or awkward or a tough thing to do, but it may also be the right thing to do, if the dynamic isn't what you hoped for and despite your best efforts it's not getting you what you want. 

Likewise, if you've been hired by someone and it's just not going well (you're butting heads, arguing, they're not listening to the advice they came to you for, etc), you can fire them. Yes, a client can be fired. Ending that relationship works both ways. 

It's not fun (I've only done it twice in the past few years), but in order to preserve your sanity, salvage your work or get through the day without huge anxiety and stress, it might be just the thing that needs to happen. 

Just do it fairly, honestly and openly. Don't beat around the bush and don't be a jerk. 

Sure there's an element of "luck" in success, but there's far more hard work, perseverance and discipline involved.

How did Author X (insert "named" author here) get to the place they're at? How did this book or that one sell tens of bajillions of copies? 

Luck played a part in it, that the right person came along at the right moment and took a chance on making the book happen. But it wasn't all luck. The manuscript had to be in some semblance of good order or interesting for someone to say "Let's make this a thing". (Granted, this does sometimes mean that you may be sending your work to be looked at by idiots and not-the-best people, but that's for another post) 

What you're not seeing in this process, what we don't know firsthand and can only assume is how hard the author worked to get the manuscript to the point where someone could come along and help make it a reality. We're not seeing the number of hours spent writing, the late nights, the arguments with people about how the book should go or when it'll be done. We're not seeing the person writing during their lunch breaks and after the kids are in bed. We don't get to see the construction process, we only see it once it's built. 

Work hard, be passionate, be disciplined, and you'll find that luck is on your side. 

Or you can make your own luck. Remember, you're in charge.

If someone is helping you with your project (and their help is actually good) THANK THEM. Recognize their good work.

A book is likely not a solo effort. Lots of other people helped you get this book into shape and out the door. Your agent got you the deal. Your editor helped work out the story's problems. Your friends read the drafts. Your writing group gave you ideas. Your parents conceived you, so that you could write this book. 

Sure, as an author you get the spotlight more than the others. Which is great, your hard work should be recognized. But not at the expense or ignorance of the other people who helped. Share the spotlight. Let other people feel as good as you do. Maybe other people who want to be in the position your in can benefit from your example (and by extension benefit from the same help you got), so by calling out who helped you, everyone wins. 

This also includes paying them fairly and on time.

Last bit of the day. If you hired someone to help you, pay them. Pay them what you owe them. Pay them when you say you're going to. Yeah, I know, money's tight and it's a rough economy, but honor your arrangements. Yes, we love to help you make the things you want to make, but this is still our livelihood. It's not too much to ask that someone owed money receives that money. 

Don't be the person who doesn't pay. Word will spread, and not necessarily good word. If paying people is tough, then at least do them the courtesy of being up front about it. Let them know what to expect. That way everyone knows where everyone else stands. 

More to come later in the week.

86 Things I've Said On Twitter, Part 1

If you've been following me on Twitter over the last two days, I've just been bombarding social media with punchy little lists of writing tips and advice. I hope I didn't upset or offend anyone in blasting a stream of thoughts, it wasn't my intention.

In part this is because I have a Workshop (I've recently found the phrase "creativity workshop" which is pretty great) coming up Tuesday night (details here) and in part because these thoughts constantly rocket through my brain and I usually just bite my tongue because some other editor or a respected writer says these things at a much slower pace. And frankly, it's felt pretty good to just throw all these things out there, and see how they help people.

So, rather than just drop all 86 without explanation, I'm breaking them into chunks. Here are the first six.


1. Don't think about writing in terms of "getting published", think about it in terms of "I want readers to read stuff". Aim for audience. 

It's really tempting, and a lot of books reinforce this idea that publishing is some be-all, end-all that once you get published, it's all sunshine and roses and puppies. But, talk to published authors, and a lot of them are working harder now than before they were first published -- almost as if publishing isn't the end of the marathon, but the start of a new one. To that end, I caution you not to go so far down the "must get published to be legit" road, and think instead of what publishing translates to, which means readers get their hands on your creations. The goal is to get readers (as that assumes they've spent money to purchase your things, right?). Think of all the books that sit unread on a shelf. Sure, they're published, but are they being read?

2. How long should a book be? Long enough to show me a plot arc, some interesting character growth and some insight about you as a writer.

One of my favorite amusing things to Google, aside from "the A-Team theme song", is "how long should a book be" because the answers are so varied, yet so certain of themselves. Novels have this many words. Novellas have that many words. Oh you have some other number that's just a hair over? Well then you fall into this third category.

See, these categories are imposed on authors by publishers for a lot reasons (read: costs to print, edit and produce) and aren't really indicators of quality or requirement. A novella is a short novel, but a short novel is also a short novel. A book of poems might just be ten words, but a children's book might also be ten words. The labels and connotations of those labels don't always translate well to the people writing whatever they're writing - because if you get it into your head that you have only a certain number of words to say what you have to say, then you're going to panic as that number approaches.

Take a different tack. Let the story be however long it's going to be, so that over the course of the story, the reader can see the plot get introduced, developed and solved as well as the character(s) involved get some expansion and maturation as well. How you do this, however you choose to accomplish those goals will share some insights about who and what you are as a writer. (Because you'll favor certain terms, build sentences in a certain way, shy away from some details while promoting others, etc)

3. If you're writing for young adults, the keyword is "adults" - treat them smartly, accept them. Don't lecture or talk down to them.

I have a lot of cousins. And while they're older now, for many years family gatherings were packed with children, running around, making noise and generally being children. Universally though, across age ranges and gender, every single one of them would roll their eyes, sigh and take a tone with an adult who got it in their head that as an adult there was a great deal more superiority than there actually was.

As an author, you're the adult. But, don't be THAT adult. You're not doing these kids a favor by coming down from on high to grant them a little morsel of word-ambrosia. You're SHARING a story with them, you're SHARING this experience of "I made a thing, I hope you enjoy it".

Children aren't miniature adults, you can't expect them to express the full depth of maturity and understanding that adult readers do - but not because they lack the understanding, merely because they lack the experience. Let your book be something that gives them an experience they can take forward.

4. Not every kiss is fiery. Not every embrace is passionate. Not everything a character does is at 100% efficiency. Let them be wrong

I've talked about this here and elsewhere - that a character who never fails and always super-succeeds is kind of a let-down. It's the risk in a character's actions, the chance that they'll fail, that makes us care about the character.

And while that talks about big potentially bad things that the character faces, we can also apply it to the not-dangerous behaviors as well. What's interesting about a character who always kisses the best kisses on the planet? Or who always makes the best omelets? Hyperbole aside, if everything is special, nothing is special. Also, the more perfect the character becomes, the less connection to them we (the imperfect audience) feel. Because our kisses aren't always earth-shattering. Because we burn breakfast. Because we get really nervous talking to one another. It's our mistakes AND our successes that define us, so why isn't that true for characters?

5. If you're setting the story in a kingdom and we're not learning about politics or social class, why do we need to know it's a kingdom?

This is about focusing and distributing details. As readers we assume that what you're giving us is important, because you're, well, giving it to us. Telling us about something, tossing some adjectives about down on paper draws our focus to it. And if you spend even more than an adjective on it, we conclude that it has to be even more important than that, so when you talk about it and then move on without ever coming back, we feel deprived and a little misled. (I'm looking at you numerous unfinished plots in TV dramas)

If the scale (how big the set pieces within the story are) doesn't include or involve the big landscape details you're giving them, why are you giving them? (Hang on a second, we'll talk more about this)

6. When figuring out which details to keep and which to cut, ask "Does this detail show me a new thing or explain an old thing?" Stay new.

Just like we talked about above, it's important to know WHY you're giving detail X at the moment you are. If I'm describing...the room I'm writing this in, I may talk about the way to the desk is worn and aged. I may talk about the view out the window to my left. I may talk about the mess of papers to my right. Those details help you paint the mental picture about what the desk looks like and tells you a little about how I keep my office space. But...do you need to know the color of my shirt? Sure, you can find out about it later (purple t-shirt), but how does knowing the shirt's color tell you more about the desk or the office? It's a stretch to say "oh he's wearing a t-shirt, that explains a lot about how organized he is" -- that's you imposing your conception of how an office should run onto my story. And that's not fair to you or to the story.

When it comes time to edit and trim, one of the things I look for is why details are in the places they're in. That question above asks "what's the purpose of this detail?" which is key for knowing what has to stay in a draft and what has to come out. Likewise it helps pare down the number of different ways I express the same detail. How many various ways can I call my desk "full" or "active"? Breaking out the thesaurus doesn't further the story, it just moves things laterally, heaping similar repeated statements atop one another in a slowly stalling strata of story.

Part 2 (the next ten) will be out on Monday. Have a great weekend. Hope to see you on Tuesday night.

My Dreamation schedule

One of my favorite conventions is next weekend. Dreamation, to me, marks the beginning of a long stretch of conventions and good times that stretches from now until November at Metatopia. I've been attending Dreamation now for a few years, and never had a bad experience, felt unwelcomed or generally thought it sucked.

So, I urge you to attend. Come to panels, come play games, spend four days embracing your inner nerd/geek and make yourself happy. Although my stuff is only on the weekend, I WILL be there all four days.

Let's cover the big one first:
D814: "The DREAMATION 2013 Writer's Workshop" presented by John Adamus. A discussion and workshop of what's needed to take your ideas and make them practical - turning your imagination into a real game or book. Join John Adamus in this discussion of what you can do to make your creation come to life, while avoiding typical pitfalls, stumbling points and roadblocks along the way. 
Sunday, 12:00PM - 3:00PM;

Okay, this is huge. THREE HOURS?! It's going to be awesome. This year's topic is

"How to use Fate Core, Cortex-Plus, GUMSHOE and D20 To Write Your Story/Novel/Game/Whatever"

Go sign up! You WILL NOT regret it.

This year I'm being more ambitious than usual - in addition to the Writing Workshop, I'm running two games. Here are all the details:

Game I: R248: Night's Black Agents; "The Paris Sanction" presented by John Adamus. A deadly strain of the flu is up for auction, and plenty of terrorists have converged on Paris to bid. A week ago, a team of agents was dispatched to impersonate Basque separatists, but they haven't been heard from. Now it's time a replacement team to find out what happened, and hopefully stop the bio-terrorist weapon from getting into the wrong hands. Saturday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM

Why should you play in this game? How about PASSENGER JET CAR CHASE? It's early, I know, but it's going to be worth it.

Game II: R330: Night's Black Agents; "The Budapest Disaster" presented by John Adamus.  There was a terrible accident in Budapest. Two trains collided, a tragedy of epic proportions, killing hundreds. Lost in the twisted wreckage though were some precious cargo - a suitcase full of diamonds en route to the Queen of England, and the launch codes for a portable nuclear device. A team of agents has been dispatched to recover at least one, and it's up to the team to prioritize. Will it be the diamonds or the nuke? 
Sunday, 10:00AM - 11:59AM

Okay, I know the schedule on the website says until 2pm, but since I have not yet mastered quantum physics (Note that I go from Night's Black Agents to the Writing Workshop, back-to-back), I can't be in two places at once, I'm shortening this game. Also, this is more a playtest of some new mechanics I'm checking out, but I'll explain all that on Sunday.

Other places I'll be this weekend:
L040: The Dresden Files; "Dog Days" by Phoenix Outlaw Productions. The New York supernatural scene has been rocked by territory disputes, wars, and battles in the last few years. A great warlord, Raoul Ortega, has fallen and now his people are trying to put the pieces back together. Rising in the ranks? The werewolf and wereform population. Years ago there was nearly a were-form revolution and some believe it might be time yet again for people to be afraid of the tooth and claw. When the sun comes up, who will rule the streets? "Dog Days" is a live-action roleplay event set in the Dresden Files universe run by Phoenix Outlaw Productions. This event will also be the playtest of a brand new adaptation of a LARP adaptation of the popular FATE system. New players encouraged; previous players of the New York Dresdenverse games most welcome! 
Saturday, 8:00PM - 12:00AM

Shameless confession - I co-wrote the plot and mechanics. I'll be on hand to make sure things work, and/or fix them on the fly.

I'll be popping in on my other friends/clients/projects too (Project Ninja Panda Taco, Revelations, the Fate Core games, etc).

Also, I'll be tweeting the hell out of things. You are following me on Twitter, right?

Hope to see you there, would love to meet you and say hello.

Using Fate Core To Write Your Novel

Good morning, strap in and let's get to work. We start today with a story.

I was having lunch with someone yesterday and over the course of our discussion (which naturally covered what he could do to bolster his newly rejected novel), I began describing how he could flesh out characters to make them less static and make them multi-dimensional.

As I was talking and gesturing, I used the word 'aspect' a few times, and realized that there's a way to meld my two great passions, gaming and editing/helping people write better, and that aspects are the key.

Everyone go look at your most recent copy of your favorite Fate product. (There's still a week on Kickstarter! Get to it!) Now, go get a legal pad. And a pen.

For today we use Fate Core to write your novel.

We'll start by identifying what "aspects" are. For the purposes of our discussion, let's use this definition --

Aspects are phrases or sentences that express some element of the character, either physically, mentally or emotionally.

For example, that tall nervous blonde you work with has the aspects "Tall" "Blonde" and "Nervous Wreck".

So, how does this help you? Let's look at step 1.

Step 1:: Identify (and write down) 5 Aspects your primary character(s) has/have. (A primary character is your protagonist, your antagonist and anyone you spend more than 45% of the book describing)

Yes, five. I like to do them in some combination of physical and emotional/psychological descriptors, usually three and two. I'd stay away from a 4-to-1 ratio (particularly 4 physical and 1 emotional/psychological), because that may lead to your character looking pretty, but being sort of hollow inside. (This may or may not be called 'Kristen Stewart Syndrome')

What does this look like on paper? Here, let's talk about Batman.

Batman
- Forever avenging the death of his parents
- Rich & handsome playboy
- The greatest detective in the DC Universe
- Master martial artist
- Has a Rogues' Gallery (translation: lots of enemies)

Here I mention who he is - a rich & handsome playboy, master martial artist, and the greatest detective in the DC Universe - but also what he does - forever avenging the death of his parents - and what that brings him in return - lots of enemies.

What we've got is a snapshot of the character, and ideally something that isn't *only* a physical run-down of traits. This isn't a dating profile, we don't need to go on and on about someone's appearance in a superficial or sexist way - this is a chance to distill character down to key emotional hooks and connect the character to both other characters AND their world.

Just as character have aspects, so too do scenes. Most of time, scene aspects in novels are expressed as tension-beats, creating dangerous complications like a building burning down or a badguy about to shoot or a bomb about to explode. (They don't always have to be melodramatic like that, it can also be an uncomfortable conversation between two characters or something.)


Example: Barry is trapped in a burning office building. He can hear the sirens, so he knows that at some point, he'll get rescued. But until then, he's stuck in a smoky room that's growing progressively hotter and hotter. It's getting hard to breathe. He's not a strong man, but he's got to at least to try and make a break for it - maybe out the window before it's too late? 

In this example, the building has the aspects "burning down", "getting hotter and hotter" and "slowly suffocating in a growing furnace". Barry has the aspects "not the strongest" and "not quite Hero material".


Step 2:: Identify (and write down) how the character(s) make use of the 4 Actions. 

Fate Core has four key actions available to players. They cover a multitude of possibilities. Admittedly, I'm tweaking them here for our purposes.

a) Create an Advantage -- This is the ability of a character to use their skills and talents to take advantage/make use of the environment or situation they're in.

The ability of an author/creator to conceive of a scene's aspects (the elements that describe it physically, emotionally or psychologically) and parse them into phrases or short sentences is an invaluable tool for world-building, tension-crafting, or general descriptive capacity. Thinking about what goes down on paper and being able to think about it in an observational way, allows you to control and shape the scene more to your liking in a more intimate way.

So, look at your characters and look to their aspects and skills. Now look at your scene and its aspects. How can the character, in this one particular situation, use their aspects and skills to partner with a scene's aspects to reach the desirable outcome? Note: The desirable outcome is not always the same as the perfect outcome - the character's best option may not be coming out of a scene unscathed.

Now, you may be tempted to change aspects to suit the scene. Take caution - you're doing yourself a disservice (and creating a crappy character) if the character's aspects change at the start of every scene, just so that they come out smelling like roses and being perfect. Here's the rule - if you've got to change aspects, change it AFTER AND BECAUSE OF the scene that just happened, and remember, keep it to five.

To continue our previous example....

Barry has to smash a window to escape the fire. He realizes that he doesn't have the brute strength to smash the glass by hand, but if he can pick up one of the chairs, he can hurl it through the window. Summoning courage and strength, Barry wades through the smoke, grabs the sturdiest looking chair he can find and in a run, sends it hurtling through the window, raining glass down onto the street!

Here, the scene aspect "full of chairs and desks" is created so as to provide Barry the tools he needs to make good his survival. This is justified because the building is an office building, so it's reasonable to assume it has office equipment in it. So while Barry isn't Hero material, in a survival situation, he takes the initiative and creates an advantage for himself - allowing him to make it to the next scene.

b) Overcome an Obstacle -- This is where the character(s) face down a challenge that requires them to use their skills. This is a test of the character's ability. And with that test comes risk - often injury of a physical, mental, emotional or social nature - but again, it's what makes the scene compelling to both read and write.

We keep with our example...

Barry finds himself looking out the hole the chair created. Yes, he thinks, this is where he gets out of here, but look down, it's higher up than he thought. And he's no athlete, but the fire's getting worse and if he doesn't jump now, he might not last long enough for the firefighters to rescue him.  So, he backs up as far as he can into the room and makes a run for it, jumping out the hole and into the alley.

Barry's obstacle is both internal (his fear) and external (he's got to try and run, then jump out of a burning building).  It's through these overcome scenes that we learn what sort of characters we have. Are they brave? Will they do the right thing? Are they capable? Are they cowards? Overcoming obstacles should be a challenge, not in some great Herculean way, but some element of who they are or what they can do should be tested.

Success brings the reward of character growth. Failure can also trigger growth, but carries with it consequences - the character ends up hurt in one way or another.

c) Attack -- Note: Because we're writing a story and not rolling dice, I'm changing the nature of Attack. My apologies to my Fate Core friends. An attack action is anything the character(s) do(es) to change the status quo or current situation. (Also, this can cover fights) This definition may seem a little broad, but coming off the heels of overcoming an obstacle, an attack action may partner up nicely here.

Whatever occurs in the scene, characters are going to react to it, because of it and through it. They are going to attempt to alter it, changing the circumstances and possible outcomes so that they're more favorable...and so that they can then go ahead and create more advantages. (See how this is starting to come together?).

This is NOT a call to make your characters more selfish, this is a raising of awareness that characters are a part of the scene, not always at the scene's mercy. Flat, one-dimensional characters can get tossed around the scene like red-shirted crewmen on Star Trek. Characters with some heft to them can weather the scenes, and push back.

Our example marches on...

Barry has jumped out the window and luckily avoids breaking both his legs when he lands. He separates his shoulder, probably fractures some bones in his foot, but for the most part, he's going to make it out of here alive. Thankfully, the firefighters arrive and the blaze is contained. We then join Barry getting interviewed by a cop, who believes Barry started the fire and got trapped inside. Barry has to change this situation, so Barry stands up for himself, saying that he knows who started the fire because he heard Larry talking about it the day before. 

Barry attacks the situation by challenging the cop's assumption that Barry is the culprit. (For the game mechanically minded, this is Rapport). The revelation that Larry is a suspect both moves the story forward by introducing new character Larry, but also introduces Larry's plot...setting up Larry as the likely antagonist if we haven't done so already.

d) Defend -- Again, I'm really sorry, Fate Core friends, I'm changing this. A defense action is when the character must preserve themselves from harm or preserve the status quo for the continuation of the story.

Our example...

Barry confronts Larry, just as he's about to set another fire. They tussle, but not before Larry reveals every detail of his master plan. Barry manages to get the upper hand for a moment, long enough to press Larry's hand into some freshly spilled paint, leaving palm prints all over the room. The police arrive just before the fire is set, and combined with the palm prints, Larry's going to jail. 

Here Barry has to use a combination of attack and defend actions, both during the altercation (obviously) but   also in a test of wills to coerce Larry's villain monologue out of him, which Larry was happy to do, because Larry was a jerk.

It's the synthesis of these four actions that tells the compelling saga of Barry and Larry. Story is about expression of aspects through challenges, created advantages and the attack and defense of the characters along the way.

It's my hope that this quick-and-dirty toolkit is helpful when you're writing. If you have any questions, please let me know. (Twitter, G+, email)

Happy writing.

The Writer And Fairness

Good morning everyone. I'm writing this morning not because I'm angry, but because I'm content, and I want to share HOW I got to be this way -- because I see and talk to a lot of writers who...just aren't so content. They want to be, but for whatever reasons, either internal or external, they just can't seem to get into the spot that they want to be. I'd like to offer some solutions for that.

One of the biggest problems I hear about, and thankfully have seldom experienced, is getting treated unfairly within the gaming/writing industry (yes I'm lumping them together - I believe in this case the Venn diagrams overlap). So let's look at the roll fairness plays in getting you where you want to be.

I'm a woman/part of the LGBTQ community/I'm not a white male -- Despite owning a lab coat, I am not a scientist, and this is not a science blog. Nor am I a trained sociologist or anthropologist. All I have is my opinion, shaped into a sense and a feeling that your race, your gender and your preferences are all factors outside most of your control. It's not like you purchased "woman" or "black" from late-night television and you can return them after thirty days if you're dissatisfied. You are who and what you are. People and institutions (read: businesses) who cannot recognize that should be either ignored or encouraged/educated to change whatever sexist, racist, phobic views they persist. Who and what you are, whatever that might be, however you choose to identify yourself, has ZERO bearing on your ability to work.

As an editor, I get a chance to read and deduce a lot about a writer. I can tell their level of education, maybe where they're from, sometimes their gender. But not their race, not their sexual preference. Also, and I'm not sure you're aware of this -- those things don't matter when the goal is to write the best thing you can, tell the best story you can, and get it into the hands of people who want to read it. And my job is to help the author, whoever they are, do that.

I run a company, I want to be taken seriously, so I have this hugely exclusive and limiting contract, replete with NDAs and clauses to protect my work -- The very thought of this makes my stomach churn. Not because I don't believe you shouldn't be taken seriously, I just don't think that a big contract that limits rather than encourages is the way to go. It's also patently unfair to the people who have to work under that contract. I'm not sure if you know this, but restrictions aren't really all that great a fuel for creativity. Now, don't confuse boundaries for restrictions, they're not the same thing. (Boundaries limit range, restrictions limit actions). Everyone needs a little boundary now and then, just to keep them moving forward rather than in a constant lateral loop, but when you're trying to get that business going, keep it chugging along, so that one day you can be a big deal in your respective field(s), nothing slams the brakes down on progress like a contract that prohibits writers from writing, or speaking about their writing.

See, I get it, the company is afraid that their property, their idea, is going to be stolen by other people if word gets out. Now this assumes a few things:
1. That there are some sort of idea-pirates roaming just on the edges of your workspace, waiting to rob you.
2. That your idea is so...revolutionary that everyone is going to want it.
3. That you need this level of security.

There are no pirates. There might be some jerks out on the fringes of your respective communities and arenas, but here's a pro-tip - everyone's so afraid their ideas are either going to be stolen or "ripped off" that no one's doing any active stealing or "ripping".

Your idea, no matter how revolutionary, is going to be wanted by people, who will want to exchange currency for your efforts (more on this concept in a minute). Whether you have an audience of one or one million, someone somewhere is going to want it. Not "everybody" because even in the "global audience", not everyone is interested in all things.

Your need for security screams two adjectives: "childish" and "insecure". Like a child who won't shed their security blankie for even a moment, you cling to big fancy "adult" things like contracts and NDAs because you think that's what's done, because you think these pieces of paper somehow empower and entitle you to be treated like the larger more successful companies.

I propose a radical idea -- treat people fairly, treat them kindly, encourage their good efforts, educate them on their bad habits and reward them more than equitably when they help you accomplish a common goal.

For those people who think that's utterly impossible, I can point to three companies I work for who do exactly this, and not surprisingly, they're very successful. (Yes, there are more than three who do this, but I'm making a point here)

Want to be more successful? Don't obfuscate and limit your work behind contracts, clauses and limitations, show the creative processes, encourage demonstrations and relax your fear that people will steal it -- that attitude shift alone will create interest in your work.

I am a writer/editor/artist. I don't think my work is worth what the industry rate is, so I undercharge -- There's a variation to this "I'm just helping out a friend, so I can't charge them that much".

Look, what you do has a value to other people, beyond their appreciation or liking you for doing it. This effort, be it with words or inks or whatever, deserves compensation at a fair value. Regardless of how quick it was for you to dash out the task, you are entitled, just by the act of creating something for someone else's consumption, to receive a fair amount of reward for doing so.

I tell this story often: When I was starting out writing and editing, and I didn't think I was worth anything, and I didn't know about pricing per word, I charged EVERYONE $40, regardless of the project or how long or short it took me. Because $40 was an amount of money that, at the time, seemed very large to me (read: I was always broke and hungry), so I thought I was asking for the moon anytime I did work. This sometimes led to me not even asking for money, because I thought there was no way I'd receive forty whole dollars for reading 300 pages and making notes. That just sounds absurd.

And then I came to realize that what I'm doing, even if I'm good at it, is something that sets me apart from other people. I have a talent, and a passion for editing, just as you may have a talent for writing or art or music or book-binding or whatever.

Listen to me carefully - Talents get rewarded. Period. They deserve, they merit, they are good enough for remuneration. Whatever art it is you do, whatever skill you apply, you deserve a fair wage for good work. It's simple. You are good enough at something to earn money for doing it. However, it's up to you to educate yourself on how much that money can actually be, else you'll be charging everyone $40 for a nearly a decade and wondering how anyone ever gets by.

It is criminal, it is an atrocity that there exist people in the world who let those of us who doubt ourselves keep doubting ourselves by reinforcing our "we don't deserve it" attitudes. When we get paid less than what we deserve, the idea of "not being good enough" cements into our thinking a little more, becoming harder to prise loose and convince us that we are in fact good at something and can make money doing it. Flat out, the people who underpay intentionally are scumbags and I strongly believe they should be drummed out of their industries. How dare people treat hard working writers and artists and editors so poorly. Do they think that word won't (if it hasn't already) spread? Do they think that won't have an effect on sales? Or popularity?

Stand up for yourselves. Educate yourselves. Have the courage and the faith and the strength to believe in yourself and your art to receive what it properly is owed.

I hope these ideas about fairness help those who need them. I hope you share them, practice them, and encourage their spread.

We'll talk soon, probably about gaming.

Happy writing.