Here's a link to a post from my other blog. Enjoy.
http://rumblingheartseries.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/a-moment-in-the-sun/
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Writers and Honesty
I am going to get some hate mail for this post, but this will be nothing new for me.
Being that I am a writer by profession, I obviously know a ton of other writers of various genres. While in college, I was an English major so I know a thing or two about literary writing. Not saying I am the all knowing, just saying I know good writing when I see it. This is my 2 cents.
While not concentrating on my writing, I occasionally have people ask me to read their work who want "an honest review." I am ok with that. I'm not the kind of person to massage another's ego just so they can feel good. If i see flaws or what I feel are flaws in someone work, I point it out. I feel i give real literary reviews. I don't just tear into a work and say hateful things like "THIS IS AWFUL!" or "This author sucks!" No. Sorry. That's not professional or helpful in any way. What I do point out are both the good points and the shortcomings of a book. Perhaps a character was left underdeveloped or maybe there was a loose end that was left untied. I will point those things out in a heartbeat. I will also offer praise if warranted. If the story was solid with good character development and keep the reader interested, I will say that as well. I very rarely give 5 star reviews because I feel that almost any book can always be better. That being said, I;ve discovered one thing in the writing community.
Writers do not want honesty.
They want someone to rub their shoulders and tell them that they're the next frickin Hemingway. They want only reviews that make their work sound like it's the next Harry Potter series. It's not! It's clucking horrifying! Ok, maybe not that bad, but it can definitely use some work. I cannot tell you how many people have stopped following me on twitter, have placed me on ignore, and have flat out just lied about me all because I gave what I felt was a very honest and objective review of their work. I had someone unfollow and ignore me because I gave their work a 3.3/5 on a competitor's website. Hey, last I checked, 3.3 out of 5 is not too shabby. It's obviously not perfect, but I'm also not calling your work complete and utter dog [expletive deleted].
To all my fellow writers, I say this: Grow thicker skin! The world is not a nice place. People are mean and vicious and some of them will only want to tear you down. If you get a legitimate, critical review of your book, take those words and think about them and learn from them. As a writer, I do feel we are on the same team. Heck, the same family, and like a good and loving brother, I will tell you when you need to brush up on a few things. I've had people call my work complete crap and that's ok. I've also had beneficial reviews and because of those I am becoming a better writer.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Image via Wikipedia[/caption]
Being that I am a writer by profession, I obviously know a ton of other writers of various genres. While in college, I was an English major so I know a thing or two about literary writing. Not saying I am the all knowing, just saying I know good writing when I see it. This is my 2 cents.
While not concentrating on my writing, I occasionally have people ask me to read their work who want "an honest review." I am ok with that. I'm not the kind of person to massage another's ego just so they can feel good. If i see flaws or what I feel are flaws in someone work, I point it out. I feel i give real literary reviews. I don't just tear into a work and say hateful things like "THIS IS AWFUL!" or "This author sucks!" No. Sorry. That's not professional or helpful in any way. What I do point out are both the good points and the shortcomings of a book. Perhaps a character was left underdeveloped or maybe there was a loose end that was left untied. I will point those things out in a heartbeat. I will also offer praise if warranted. If the story was solid with good character development and keep the reader interested, I will say that as well. I very rarely give 5 star reviews because I feel that almost any book can always be better. That being said, I;ve discovered one thing in the writing community.
Writers do not want honesty.
They want someone to rub their shoulders and tell them that they're the next frickin Hemingway. They want only reviews that make their work sound like it's the next Harry Potter series. It's not! It's clucking horrifying! Ok, maybe not that bad, but it can definitely use some work. I cannot tell you how many people have stopped following me on twitter, have placed me on ignore, and have flat out just lied about me all because I gave what I felt was a very honest and objective review of their work. I had someone unfollow and ignore me because I gave their work a 3.3/5 on a competitor's website. Hey, last I checked, 3.3 out of 5 is not too shabby. It's obviously not perfect, but I'm also not calling your work complete and utter dog [expletive deleted].
To all my fellow writers, I say this: Grow thicker skin! The world is not a nice place. People are mean and vicious and some of them will only want to tear you down. If you get a legitimate, critical review of your book, take those words and think about them and learn from them. As a writer, I do feel we are on the same team. Heck, the same family, and like a good and loving brother, I will tell you when you need to brush up on a few things. I've had people call my work complete crap and that's ok. I've also had beneficial reviews and because of those I am becoming a better writer.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Image via Wikipedia[/caption]
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Early On
Through the first 6 chapters, the rewrite is looking so much better than the original. It is pretty insane just how much you learn about yourself in a year. I think I've finally found a writing style that fits my personality. I think early on I was trying too hard to make certain language and insight work, so much so that some of the message was lost in translation. I am simplifying those areas that were too obtuse and making the language easier to comprehend. There are still a few things in there that are purposely difficult to understand and I am keeping them in there for certain reasons pertaining to the story itself.
Once the rewrite is done for RH, I will move onto RB. Emily will need minimal rewrite, maybe a little tinkering here and there to make sure story lines are kept in tact.
Once EM is done, then it's back to the final book. I am already 70 pages onto it. The last one will need major editing when i get finished with it. As it has progressed, I have no doubt that it will easily hit 200k words, probably even 230k which is too large. I don't want it to be any larger than say 215k words and that's pushing it. I would like to see it stay around 200k at the most so that people still get all they can from the final installment, yet do not start falling asleep toward the end.
You can still purchase the current version of Rumbling Heart over on Amazon, but I won't blame anyone for waiting till the rewrite is done. I don't see it taking anymore than 10 more days.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Image by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr"]
[/caption]
Once the rewrite is done for RH, I will move onto RB. Emily will need minimal rewrite, maybe a little tinkering here and there to make sure story lines are kept in tact.
Once EM is done, then it's back to the final book. I am already 70 pages onto it. The last one will need major editing when i get finished with it. As it has progressed, I have no doubt that it will easily hit 200k words, probably even 230k which is too large. I don't want it to be any larger than say 215k words and that's pushing it. I would like to see it stay around 200k at the most so that people still get all they can from the final installment, yet do not start falling asleep toward the end.
You can still purchase the current version of Rumbling Heart over on Amazon, but I won't blame anyone for waiting till the rewrite is done. I don't see it taking anymore than 10 more days.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Image by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr"]
[/caption]
Monday, October 31, 2011
Caption
Caption
While reading the times and looking out the window,
I wonder sometimes as to why I am being watched,
constantly by the carbon products of my internet life.
The drilling of information seems far exceeding my needs, yet
before I begin with my microblogging nuances, I feel the need
to read the newspaper which is still dutifully delivered to my door every day at 5am.
After I have had my fill of coffee, a bite of a bagel, and a story
about the city council asking for another municipal bond,
I find myself on the computer, hunched over my keyboard
just as I was 15 minutes before I fell asleep last night.
Rewriting
Through the past year, I've learned a lot about myself and about writing. I've learned that there are times when I need to dive into a little more detail and there are also times where I can be long winded. I've slashed thousands of words out of my work since I began, but sometimes thousands just isn't enough. I also believe I've found my place in the writing world. On more than a handful of occasions, I've been told I tend to write more as a story teller. That may seem like a general term for a writer, but I believe it's not. Sometimes people write simply to inform you on certain events so that you know what happened. Other writers, story tellers, take you by the hand and let you walk with them as they lead you down the very same road it feel that they once took. So often I am asked if the events in my book are real because of the way I've written them. For many, it feels to them as if I am presenting to them a glorified anecdote and calling it a book chapter. I am ok with that.
It is for that reason that I am going through my previously released works and rewriting certain portions of them. Obviously, even after going over them countless times, there are still a few piece of the books that simply do not flow as well as I want them to and even a handful of grammatical errors. From my very first serious work to Rumbling Heart to my latest release Emily Martin, my style has morphed and become something very different that how it originally started. I've discovered my shortcomings and taken hold of my strengths. For this reason, I have decided to take on a simpler, story telling approach to my work from here going forward. In the first book, there is quite a bit of story telling, but I believe I made certain instances far more complex than they needed to be from a grammatical perspective. For this reason, I am sure that RH will go from about 220k words to something a little smaller; maybe about 210k. Still quite large, but smaller and still telling the exact same story. At one time I was going for more of a Hemingway type approach and style, but it seems that many of her techniques died with him all those years ago as some of my critics are calling portions of the work "old" when it comes to style. It was for this reason that I tried what I did with Recorded Butterflies. I took on a very different perspective with this work and I think i did alright. It still wasn't exactly what I was wanting to do, but I did it.
The latest book Emily Martin is the one I am the most proud of. I found my strengths with this book and I was able to really connect with my Emily character as she tells the story. While I felt I was almost one in the same when it came to my character John, it turns out that I was more in sync with Emily and the way she saw her life and handled her station in life. It was obviously not the way she grew up or the life she lived, but it was more of the place she found herself as an adult. The feelings that she had kept pent up inside her were something very close to my own so I was able to really speak from her perspective. I will make updates to this work as well, but only for the sake of continuity. Even after the release of my final work in the series, I think I will still be most proud of Emily because of the way I was able to convey my feelings through that character.
That being said, I have work to do.
Visit Richard's Amazon author page here!
It is for that reason that I am going through my previously released works and rewriting certain portions of them. Obviously, even after going over them countless times, there are still a few piece of the books that simply do not flow as well as I want them to and even a handful of grammatical errors. From my very first serious work to Rumbling Heart to my latest release Emily Martin, my style has morphed and become something very different that how it originally started. I've discovered my shortcomings and taken hold of my strengths. For this reason, I have decided to take on a simpler, story telling approach to my work from here going forward. In the first book, there is quite a bit of story telling, but I believe I made certain instances far more complex than they needed to be from a grammatical perspective. For this reason, I am sure that RH will go from about 220k words to something a little smaller; maybe about 210k. Still quite large, but smaller and still telling the exact same story. At one time I was going for more of a Hemingway type approach and style, but it seems that many of her techniques died with him all those years ago as some of my critics are calling portions of the work "old" when it comes to style. It was for this reason that I tried what I did with Recorded Butterflies. I took on a very different perspective with this work and I think i did alright. It still wasn't exactly what I was wanting to do, but I did it.
The latest book Emily Martin is the one I am the most proud of. I found my strengths with this book and I was able to really connect with my Emily character as she tells the story. While I felt I was almost one in the same when it came to my character John, it turns out that I was more in sync with Emily and the way she saw her life and handled her station in life. It was obviously not the way she grew up or the life she lived, but it was more of the place she found herself as an adult. The feelings that she had kept pent up inside her were something very close to my own so I was able to really speak from her perspective. I will make updates to this work as well, but only for the sake of continuity. Even after the release of my final work in the series, I think I will still be most proud of Emily because of the way I was able to convey my feelings through that character.
That being said, I have work to do.
Visit Richard's Amazon author page here!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Writocrisy
It seems there are countless people out there who want to tell you how to write. I find it rather alarming that there are more people looking to change my style of writing than there are people reading my material. To have someone tell you to change your writing style while never having read your work is absolutely ridiculous.
If there is any confusion as to what I am saying, here it is in plain English: there is no one, single way to write.
Write the way you feel is best for you. All these people out there telling you to write this way and that way are completely full of crap. Example: I've had three different professional editors tell me three different things and of course each of them thinks the others are full of it. So...who is correct? Maybe none of them are. Maybe they are so self serving that they don't even realize that they are just hurting themselves by constantly disagreeing with each other. Each of us has our own style of writing and our own methods. For anyone to come out and tell me what I am doing is wrong while not even taking the time to read any of my novels or short stories, or even my poems has no place in my life. Read my work, look at it from a literary standpoint, then maybe you can offer some critical review. Until then, I could care less about your "writing advice." Sharing experiences is fine, but when you tell me I am doing it all wrong, maybe you need to look in the mirror and say the same thing to yourself. You cannot say you support all writers, yet tell us we are all wrong in one form or another. Just as I have never said I am perfect nor is my work, I have also never told anyone they are wrong in the methods used for their creativity.
Pushing ideals on people is wrong, especially when you can't do the same thing for yourself. And as I've always said, you cannot force people to do things they do not want to do. In my mind, doing that is a form of slavery and no one respects a slave master.
If there is any confusion as to what I am saying, here it is in plain English: there is no one, single way to write.
Write the way you feel is best for you. All these people out there telling you to write this way and that way are completely full of crap. Example: I've had three different professional editors tell me three different things and of course each of them thinks the others are full of it. So...who is correct? Maybe none of them are. Maybe they are so self serving that they don't even realize that they are just hurting themselves by constantly disagreeing with each other. Each of us has our own style of writing and our own methods. For anyone to come out and tell me what I am doing is wrong while not even taking the time to read any of my novels or short stories, or even my poems has no place in my life. Read my work, look at it from a literary standpoint, then maybe you can offer some critical review. Until then, I could care less about your "writing advice." Sharing experiences is fine, but when you tell me I am doing it all wrong, maybe you need to look in the mirror and say the same thing to yourself. You cannot say you support all writers, yet tell us we are all wrong in one form or another. Just as I have never said I am perfect nor is my work, I have also never told anyone they are wrong in the methods used for their creativity.
Pushing ideals on people is wrong, especially when you can't do the same thing for yourself. And as I've always said, you cannot force people to do things they do not want to do. In my mind, doing that is a form of slavery and no one respects a slave master.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Amazon Author Biography
I spend a little time and worked on the biography on the author page I have set up on Amazon.com. It seems pretty solid and I think I will leave it as it is, but I wouldn't mind a little feedback. I tried as much as I could to focus on the work and how it came to be. Although I don't have any reservations about keeping many of my personal details out of it, I still wanted to make the page about the books so that could be focused on and not so much on me. I figure if people really are that interested in the work, then they will eventually want to find out more about me. That will come with time. Have a look at the page here and let me know what you think.
I duplicated this data for the Smashwords bio page as well which can be viewed here.
I duplicated this data for the Smashwords bio page as well which can be viewed here.
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