The business of writing

I haven't talked about writing in a while now, but it's still very much in the forefront of my non-work life. After family and vacations and other such things, of course.

Tiamat's Nest is still working its way through the critique queue. Should be finished in October, then I'll let it rest a while before getting stuck into revisions.

Meanwhile, I'm skirting the fringes of self-publication of Ghosts of Innocence. This is a three-steps-forward-two-steps-back kind of dance. I'm a planner in most aspects of my like, and this is no different.

Having the text of a novel is only the first (and an obviously important) prerequisite. But step back a bit, and there are all the other elements that go into a finished book, not least of which is the book design and formatting. Back up further, and you need cover art. Long before I started writing, I had dreams of seeing my own artwork on the covers of books. Now maybe I can realize two dreams at once.

But that means I need relevant artwork. Right now I'm working on some rough drafts and at some point will post the results for feedback.

So far, so good. But to get to the point of this post - how much do you treat writing like a business? I'm curious because I'm considering setting up a formal business to handle the sales (if any) of my books.

Yes, you can self-publish with very little financial outlay ... if you don't care too much about the end result.

However there are costs involved in doing it properly. And costs are tax-deductible if you are a business rather than just an individual.

The above-mentioned book design for a start. Plus setting up and running a promotional web site. And if I'm planning to distribute through US-based avenues such as Amazon, they'll automatically deduct 30% US tax unless I register either as a non-US individual or a business. The former route is complex and involves hefty fees. The latter is easier and free, and alone is worth the expense of registering as a business.

So, those of you who've trodden this path already, how much do you treat writing like a business, rather than just a hobby?

Google Minus

There's a creeping infestation spreading its ugly way through the blogging world these days.

It's called Google+.

A few blogs I follow have switched over to using Google+ comments. And I have sadly stopped commenting on them.

I have two issues with Google+.

Firstly there's the way comments are shared.

Maybe I'm just out of step with the rest of the world, but if I wanted every one of my online acquaintances to know every time I speak, breath, or scratch my butt, I'd go on FaceBook.

I don't. So I don't like the way Google+ assumes you want to share everything with everyone who knows you.

When I comment on a blog, the implicit deal is that I'm sharing my comment with the blog owner and anyone else who visits that blog. In my mind, the connection and community is centred around the blog and its readership.

I might visit and comment on two entirely unrelated blogs, and to me those are two separate communities. A bit like separate conversations with different circles of people at work, at home, or in the gym.

But Google, in it's infinite wisdom, seems to have turned this on its head. The sharing of comments is now centred around me and my circles of friends. It's cut the blog and its community out of the picture, unless I want to share my comment with everyone who knows me - regardless of whether they care about the blog in question. It's as if instead of the blog being the centre of a community, the blog is now a subject of discussion about it amongst groups of strangers whispering secretively amongst themselves.

Sorry, but that to me has seriously eroded the point of blogging.

That might be tolerable, but then there's the question on online identity. I've spent years establishing myself as "Botanist" both here and in other forums. It's not that I'm strict about remaining anonymous - folks out there who know me know who I am - but I chose not to broadcast my real name everywhere I go.

Google+ has taken that choice away from me.

Sorry, but when I want to go online as my real self, I would rather it was on my terms and for reasons that make sense to me. It's not up to some faceless executive or gormless tech-head to make that choice for me.

So if I still visit you but have gone quiet on the commenting front, please know that it's not personal. It's not you, it's Google.

Flying platypi, and fields of puppies and kittens

I felt it was about time to toss out another Blog of Outstanding Natural Beauty award.

Today I'm honoring Valerie, lady of the Flying Platypi.

Valerie's blog never fails to make me laugh. It's a surreal slice of life, with mannequins, drunk texting, and puppies. And nothing is safe from the impulse to lick everything in sight.

There is nothing to do on receipt of this award, no obligations, no questions to answer, no requirement to pass it on. Just bask in your own awesomeness.

And this award is free for anyone to hand out. If you see a truly beautiful blog, feel free to bestow this award. You do not need to be tagged first. Just grab the image, say why you are awarding it, and let the recipient know.

So if anyone's still out there after my highly sporadic blogging this year, pop on over to Valerie's blog and say "hello". And give her a big hug. She likes hugs.

Meanwhile, back in the Real World

I'll post about the Writing World another time, but today it's time to take a breather from all that and talk about the Real World.

Seems like July is nearly over before it's begun. Canada Day feels like a mere blink of an eye in the past. Ali and I found our usual spot to watch the Sidney parade, where we've been every year since we moved here in 2005 (when not actually taking part in some way or another).

The sporadic and heavy rains that had characterized the year so far stopped at the end of June, and we've had unbroken summer all July. I just hope it remembers to hang around for August, when we're taking our usual camping vacation!

We got an exceptionally early delivery of firewood this year...

This is now all stacked away ready for winter. One less job to worry about later on.

The blitz on all things botanical that I talked about in May has withered in the heat. Battle will be resumed when things cool down again.

With Megan getting ready to go off soon for three weeks on a Guides international jamboree, I took a couple of days off work to make an extra-long family weekend.

On Thursday, we packed up the propane barbecue and a picnic and headed off to French Beach.

Note for future reference, although the sun was out, there's always a strong and chill wind coming off the Pacific. We sunbathed for a bit, played bocce on the grass, then the kids wrapped themselves up in towels and picnic blankets to keep warm.

Next time, bring sweaters!

Yesterday we played mini-golf.

In between times, we've had long rounds of cards on the deck (did you know Uno could be so competitive?) and badminton on the front lawn. Megan and Matthew both started playing this year and are both getting good.

Under Heaven

This is a first for this blog. I've sometimes mentioned aspects of books I'm reading, more than anything to comment on how reading/publishing tastes have changed over the years, but I've always left the books themselves firmly anonymous.

Until now.

I've just finished Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, and felt the need to rave about it! Only rarely do I find it so hard to put a book down, and so easy to make excuses to abandon other tasks in order to pick it up again.

Shen Tai, mourning the death of his father General Shen Gao, pays homage by setting out to bury the bones of thousands of warriors killed in battle high up in the mountains. The site is said to be haunted, and no-one willingly ventures near there, let alone stays after dark.

During his lonely assignment, Tai is kept supplied by monthly visits from military outposts on either side of the mountains, from his own Kitan empire to the east, and from the rival Tagurans to the west. The visits are staggered so the rival soldiers never have an excuse to fight, and they are careful to leave again well before nightfall, leaving Tai to his labors and the sounds of a hundred thousand ghosts moaning outside his cabin walls.

One such visit becomes anything but ordinary, when Tai is handed a letter. While he's been cut off from the outside world, the world has nevertheless taken note of his courage and determination. The Tagurans have gifted him 250 prized Sardian horses. An extravagant fortune beyond imagining, and an unwittingly deadly tribute. Tai realizes he has no way of claiming his gift and staying in one piece.

That same day, an assassin tries to kill him. He realizes he has to abandon his labors and re-enter the cutthroat world of Imperial politics that he'd set aside while in mourning. He develops a plan to ensure he is worth more alive than dead, while he tracks down the person behind his would-be assassination and fends off the powerful factions vying to trap him and claim control of his fabled horses.

His journey takes him into the heart of the Imperial court, through a maze of intrigue, and into a cataclysmic civil war.

The novel is set in Tang dynasty China. It is classed as a fantasy, but the fantastical elements are very subtle - hints of sorcery with just enough substance impinging on the story to lift them above easily-dismissed superstition.

Throughout, Kay did a first class job of immersing me in another culture, distant in space and time and yet portrayed with such everyday detail and matter-of-factness that it felt like home.

His writing style took a bit of getting used to, with sentence structures and lengthy departures and asides that made some demands on my patience and memory. Kay delights in making teasing statements and leaving them dangling for a while before eventually circling back with an explanation. But he always does tie up the dangling ends, and once you commit yourself to his storytelling care the waits are worth it. It's a bit like re-discovering the hidden treasures of winding country roads after too long on the highway.

If you like mystery and suspense, intrigue and action, with breathless rollercoaster twists and turns, along with historical detail so vivid you can reach out and touch it, then this is a must-read.

Being critiqued - you're the boss

Wow! I'm shocked at how long it's been since my last post. Real life is drowning me this month, mostly with end-of-school-year activities, but also doing some reading and relaxing too.

Plus pushing Tiamat's Nest through the queue on CC, critiquing, and being critiqued.

Oh, look! Back on topic!

In this mini-series on being critiqued, I've talked about the pain of hearing things you don't want to hear, some tips for recognizing comments worth paying attention to, and some cautionary tales about comments best set aside.

I want to wrap this theme up with some final thoughts.

When you put up a story for feedback in a good forum, the good news is that you'll get lots of impassioned feedback. The bad news is ... you'll get lots of impassioned feedback, and you'll have a hard time deciding what to do about it.

The hardest part of receiving critiques is developing your own judgment about what advice to accept, and what to set aside.

Regardless of all the tips and techniques for sorting the wheat from the chaff, there is one fact that you need to engrave in granite and hang on the wall above your writing space, tattoo on the back of your hand, and scribe on a large sheet of paper in mirror writing and staple to your forehead so you see it every time you gaze in the mirror wondering if it's really all worth it.

This is your manuscript, 

and regardless of all the critiquing, 

the end result is up to you.

Don't ever forget it.

Some folks will tell you that you have to kill adverbs, make the MC more likeable, cut the description, throw in a love interest, rewrite the whole chapter... You must, must, must follow their advice because otherwise your manuscript sucks and they know best because you asked them for your opinion, didn't you?

Yes, you asked them their opinion, and what they gave you is exactly that - their opinion. Not law. Not inviolable edicts that you are bound - on pain of testicular separation - to follow to the letter. They gave you an opinion, which it is up to you to decide what to do with.

That doesn't mean simply ignore any advice you don't like. After all, some comments will hurt like heck but may be just what your manuscript needs.

It means exercise judgment and discretion and make a choice.

Easy to say. So hard to do well.

Being critiqued - treading the minefield

Being critiqued can be overwhelming. I've talked about the need to pay attention to things that you might not want to hear, and not disregard painful advice out of hand. Now, I'm cautioning against the other extreme - trying to pay heed to everything.

There is a skill to scanning a critique and picking out things to take action on. An equally important skill is deciding what to ignore.

Not all advice is equal. Not all advice is good. Even good advice is not always applicable.

Here are some reasons to be cautious, and things to watch out for...

The compulsive rules junkie: This is the critiquer who likes to wave the rule book at every opportunity. Some "rules" seem to acquire inviolate tablet-of-stone status. No adverbs. No passive voice. No telling. I'm sorry, but adverbs and passive voice have their place. If I see someone embarking on a relentless mission of adverb annihilation then I can see that actual critical thought - the point of a critique - has flown the nest.

Inaccurate advice: More insidious than the blatant rules junkie is the "wrong rules junkie" - the critiquer who insists on some rule that simply isn't true. I once had someone tell me that every piece of dialogue absolutely had to start on a new line. He'd clearly misunderstood the actual rule where someone new is speaking, but was most insistent. He then went through my MS pointing out every single instance of my "error". The trouble is, that was the sum total of his critique.

Plain old unhelpful: "Boring" or "this sucks" is simply not helpful. If you make no effort to explain why something is not doing it for you, I'll probably make no effort to listen.

Personal taste: Some advice amounts to little more than personal preference. That doesn't necessarily mean it's worthless - it is a genuine reaction from a reader, after all - but neither is it gospel.

Trying to rewrite your story: Personal taste taken to extreme can lead the critiquer to try to rewrite your story how they would have written it. This is far more dangerous. Write your own darned story and leave me to get on with mine!

Wrong audience/just doesn't get it: Personal taste is especially dangerous if the critiquer is clearly far removed from your target audience. There's no problem critiquing outside your comfort zone, you can give a fresh perspective as well as general writing comments, but if you don't "get" the specific conventions of the genre then be wary. If this is a hard military sci-fi story, don't bleat about the technology or the lack of a mushy love triangle.

Wrong advice for your story: This is very hard to detect, and needs great confidence and judgment to stick to your guns. Sometimes none of the above is true, and the advice might even be good in its own way, just not right for you.

Conflicting advice: In my previous post I mentioned looking out for things several critiquers agree on. The converse is also something to watch out for. If different critiquers are leading you in conflicting directions then it's a sign you're in territory where there's no clear right answer. This is bad news if you are looking for definite advice, because you're on your own. The good news is, you're on your own. If you aren't doing anything clearly wrong, then you are free to carve your own path.

Cheerleading: It's always good to be told nice things about your story. The trouble is that if the critiquer is overly complimentary then you probably aren't getting any worthwhile advice. I am more inclined to pay attention to odd bits of praise if the critiquer has also shown no qualms about shredding bits that needed shredding. Then I know it's genuine, and not just empty cheerleading.