This is Incredible!

I subscribe to a newsletter from David Farland (aka Dave Wolverton). I have to recommend his regular emails. They have incited me to examine my craft and he gives much good advice.

If he's not your cup of tea, then find someone else. Brandon Sanderson and crew have created Writing Excuses, an excellent podcast on writing. Alexa Donne has some great advice on her youtube channel.

Professor Jane Friedman has a wonderful course on publishing in the Great Courses

Or look for advice from your favorite writer. I'm sure there's a paper or interview somewhere on the internet.

My point is, you have resources. Learning how to write is a master's degree level endeavor with very little feedback from your professors. Take some time to learn about the craft. Just remember to write too.

What are some resources you've used?

A Stand Alone Novel With Sequel Potential

In one of my favorite writing podcasts, Writing Excuses, they often have Q & A sessions. In one of their episodes there were a few questions about writing endings, series, and in particular the question came up, "How do you write a stand-alone ending with sequel potential?"

There are really two questions here.

1. How do you write a stand alone story?

Writing a good stand-alone story is not the same as writing the first novel in a series. A stand-alone story requires a satisfying ending that resolves all of the important questions in the plot. Your story should not require a sequel to complete it. You are not writing the first part of a series. You are writing a stand-alone novel. You are not writing The Fellowship Of The Ring, you are writing The Hobbit.

It might be useful to think of the opposite of a stand alone story. In the TV show, The Flash, each episode has a story. Many of the episodes are linked together, but they always (especially early episodes in the series) wrap up with the bad guy being defeated by The Flash. The problem is presented, explored, and then resolved. They start out as stand-alone, or episodic stories. They have an ending. But as the episodes go on, you start to have story elements that tie between two or more episodes. Captain Cold doesn't get caught, and so we know there is more story. Not just because a bad guy is on the loose, but because we see a scene showing Captain Cold getting a new partner to fight The Flash. "Hook" scenes like this clue the audience in to the fact that there is more to the story.

If Captain Cold had just gotten away, we could have accepted that as the end of the story. Untidy endings are pretty compelling sometimes. But because we see Captain Cold planning to fight The Flash, we know that it's not really the end.

Books that are a part of a series use "hooks" like this to carry the reader through multiple plot arcs. Sometimes the overarching story actually plays out over more than one book. The Fellowship Of The Ring ended with the fellowship reaching the river where Boromir dies. It was a satisfying end to their flight from the shire and across/under the mountains, but we knew the story wasn't over. They hadn't completed their quest. It's a good book, but it wasn't stand-alone.

So, to create a stand-alone, you need to be ready to tell your whole story. Don't get caught up in writing clues about future books or adventures. If you do have something you plan on using later, make sure that it doesn't make the reader expect another book. If the emperor is going to be resurrected, let the heroes be satisfied that they defeated him. You can hint toward a "magic stone" that has the power to restore life, but don't say, "As soon as the emperor dies, his second in command will just bring him back to life." If you do, the reader will know that there is more to this particular story. A stand-alone is not afraid to end. Think of a movie rather than a TV show.

2. How do you create sequel potential?

Now this is where the answer gets fun. Short answer: make your world big enough to have more than one story.

Long answer, well as Delia Sherman says in the episode, any good story has sequel potential. Let's consider some types of sequels. Necessary Sequels - These are the sequels that are required to complete the plot arc of the first book. This is the book that someone picks up knowing before hand that they are getting into a series. A reader must be ready to commit to this story, and they can't pick it up in the middle because they'd be totally lost no matter how good the writing is.

• Perpetual Sequels - I stopped watching Arrow, and countless other american style TV shows because they never reached a satisfying ending. They aren't planning on ending until the ratings drop. LOST had this problem. These stories avoid answering any question completely. Instead they keep stringing you along by "showing" not "telling" and make you think that every situation is important. Soap Operas also use this technique. Most modern TV dramas do as well.
• Episodic Sequels - These are sequels that include the same main characters, and events from one book/episode will carry over into the next. But the reader won't need to know the first story at all to enjoy the second. Star Trek: The Next Generation is a great example of this storytelling method. They didn't have the luxury of knowing that their audience would buy whole seasons on VHS, DVD, and then watch them all on Netflix. Every episode had to be enough to attract a new fan who could pick up that episode and then start watching from there.
• World Based Sequels - These are sequels that take place in the same world, but don't necessarily include the same characters. If you liked Star Trek: The Next Generation, chances are that you gave Deep Space Nine and Voyager a shot.

Next, let's look at some of the reasons people will want to read another book.

• Character - Let's face it, if you get to know a character, and you like them, you'll probably want to read about them again.
• World - If you have created a great world, then people will want to read more about it. Think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
• Relationships - This is similar to characters, but if you have a relationship that your readers want to see more of, they'll ask for another book even if there isn't one planned.
• Persistent Conflict - If there is a bigger conflict that your story takes place in, then your readers will want to find out more. If your character's parents died mysteriously as part of their backstory, readers will want to find out about that, but since it's backstory they won't expect it to be resolved in the first novel.

Here are some other tools you can use.

• Job - If your character has a job that will present opportunities for drama/conflict, then readers will probably be willing to check out another book. Superheroes have villains. Doctors always have new patients. Detectives will have new crimes to solve.
• Backstory - Give your character a backstory that is unresolved.
• Conflict - create a persistent conflict. Your character has an arch enemy who he puts in jail (e.g. the joker) or who flies off in a space ship (e.g. Darth Vader). Your hero saves the day for one town, but the bandits are now one town over.
• Exploration - This could fall into the Job category, but Dr. Who is a time traveling explorer. He has great episodic stories, but we always know he's going to explore something new next time.

Be careful not to make your first story dependent on future story arcs. Don't set "hooks", but give Easter Eggs. When a reader reads your second novel, you want them to be glad they read the first, but the first book has to be solid on its own.

In the end, any good story has sequel potential even if the sequel takes place 2,000 years later after the end of civilization. You just have to make your world big enough to hold it.

On Critiquing

TLDNR WARNING: This is a longer post. Be careful.

In writing, revising, critiquing, etc. I have my own style. I know other writers who work differently, but I've run into enough circumstances that support my view that I think it might be worthwhile to share.

First, when asking for feedback it's important to know what you're asking for. Here are a few stages I've gone through:

1. "I've got this great idea!" - This is the stage that people are in who don't actually want to write a story. Sometimes when I give an unfinished story to someone I want them to finish the idea, tell me how to end. In short, I want someone else to make my idea great but I still want the credit.
2. "Just tell me it's good." - Sometimes I pass a story along and (no matter how complete it is), I just want them to tell me that it's working. I usually know there are problems, and I've got ideas on how to fix them. You might think this is a weak stage, I'm just fishing for compliments. But that's not quite what it is. I don't need someone to tell me that it's perfect and will make puppies weep in joy at the sound of it. What I want is someone to tell me, "You're not wasting your time. Keep writing." This stage can lead to problems if you don't know what you're asking for, but it's not necessarily a problem in itself. Everyone needs encouragement sometimes.
3. "I have a specific problem, and I need help finding the answer." - Sometimes I have a specific problem area with my story. I turn to someone else to help me solve the problem. Brainstorming is useful here, or just having someone to bounce the idea off of. But be careful how you approach it. If you ask someone for an answer, they'll give you the answer from what they know. If they don't know where you're headed with your story, then you might be in for a frustrating conversation.
4. "Tell me if this works." - This is a working stage for me. I want someone to read and point out big items, but I'm not done writing so I don't need fine details. This is very useful to me, so I'll expand on it below.
5. "Something doesn't work." - In this stage you know something is wrong, but you don't know what. It's useful to have someone else look at what's going on here. Just be careful how you approach it. You might not want your someone else to provide answers. You just need to know where to focus your efforts.
6. "Ignore the ------. I just want to to tell me what you think about -------." - Sometimes I need to see if a specific part of the story is working and I don't need my reader to tell me that I have typos. Feedback is always useful, but unless I give specific instructions I find that my readers usually will hone in on something that I didn't need them to fix.
7. "I need you to fix this." - You need to be careful with this stage. This isn't someone else's project, it's yours. But if you do turn to someone to play doctor with your work, be sure that it's someone you really trust.
8. "I'm ready for the full workup." - I never hit this stage until I've finished my rough draft, or even a few revisions. By this point I've done all that I can to make my story (or other writing project) the best I can.

These are only some of the stages you might go through, and you might do things differently. But the point is that readers don't know what you want back from them unless you tell them.

The next problem - You can't ask someone to read the same thing over and over again. I've heard some writers suggest that a reader is only good for one reading. So be careful of when you're bringing your readers in. I'd suggest keeping it to a minimum. Here's how it's worked for me. (I got this from Orson Scott Card's Characters and Viewpoint, and added something from Mary Robinette Kowal from Writing Excuses.)

I have one or two people reading along as I write (i.e. I give them each chapter as soon as you finish it), and I ask them just to respond as readers. Mark the manuscript when:

1. You don't understand something.
2. You had to re-read a sentence or section.
3. Something knocks you out of the story. (You're reading a long and say "I don't believe that." to yourself.)
4. Something is absolutely wonderful.

They shouldn't be telling me how to fix things, just where they had problems. Then if I need, I can ask probing questions about specific notes. This kind of response isn't natural for most people. You'll probably have to teach one person and hopefully they're willing to keep reading for you on many projects. Inexperienced readers won't mark anything, and experienced readers/writers will pick out details that you would have easily caught yourself when revising. These readers are just here to "Tell me if it works," so I can keep going. They also fill the function of "Just tell me it's good" encouragement because they're not bogging me down with too many details. I can address the major plot issues so that they don't cause me problems later, but I can also keep writing and the response doesn't interrupt my flow. And getting into a flow when writing is extremely important for me.

I call these my alpha readers.

Next I go to my beta Readers. I never move on to beta readers until I've written "The End" on a project. Here's my reason. I have a theory about creating. It goes something like this, "Nobody cares until the whole thing is done." And it was confirmed a bit in this Writing Excuses podcast.

Whenever I hand an unfinished story/project over to a reader, they immediately want to finish it. As readers (well as humans really) our brains are set up to encounter a new ideas, struggle with them, and find answers/resolution. We do it over an over every day of our lives. It's called learning. (Look at Piaget to see how it works.) Stories follow the same pattern. We are introduced to the ideas/characters (exposition), some conflict is introduced, and then it's resolved.

But when that resolution doesn't happen, our brain starts working overtime. Some writers use this effect on purpose to get their audience thinking. (Ever watched the final scene of Inception with the spinning top?) The same thing happens if you give your story to someone when it's not finished. If you ask them to help fix things, then they start fixing problems with no specific end. They have to make up an ending just to come up with a suggestion. It may not be a fully formed ending in their mind, but it's a direction that they're headed whether you wanted that or not. So when they respond to a problem area, their response may not fit with your story. This can be useful feedback in some cases, but more often I've found it frustrating because I'm trying to tell a story and all of a sudden my readers are telling me how to fix a different story. It's like someone interrupting you in the middle of a sentence and finishing the sentence for you...only they get it wrong. After they try to finish the same sentence three or four times, it's just not worth it.

Now I have writing friends (usually English majors) who ask for all this feedback at once, getting criticism for the entire book after every chapter. Steve Bohls is a great example of this type of writer, and I hope you'll be seeing a book out from him soon. But I always find myself stumbling when I hand out my work too early. Who knows, maybe that's fault that I've got to overcome as a writer. I have one reader that I trust that I use for alpha reading, and then when I'm finished I go to my English major friends.

"Nobody cares until the whole thing is done," has become something of a motto for me whenever I'm working on a creative project. It's not that they don't care that I'm working on something, or that they don't care about the idea. It's that a whole story is a single idea. Someone responding to only part of the idea, and their response to that part of the idea, is not going to be the same as their response to the whole idea.

So the bottom line is this: You should know what you're looking for in a response. Do you want someone to do your work for you? Do you want someone just to tell you that you should keep writing? Or do you want someone to give you useful feedback on how to express and refine the ideas that you've already got.

Each question is searching for a different answer. Be aware of which question you're asking.

Bored

I had a friend tell me recently something to this effect.

When I get bored of writing a story I just stop writing. I figure that if I'm bored writing it, then my readers are going to be bored reading it.

I admit, there's some truth to this statement, and I'm sure that the way he meant it was true, but I'd like to compare it to something I learned in acting. When a play is emotionally moving, it's not because the actor is feeling sad, or angry, or happy, or brave. It's because the audience members feel that way. An actor could feel like they are just going through the motions, they could have a stomach ache, and if the audience felt the right emotions then the actor's performance would be a success. I can't tell you how many times I've told someone that their performance was very moving and they'd respond with, "Really? I felt like it was really weak this time."

It is a somewhat disturbing truth that an actor learns certain skills that allows them to portray emotions and invoke certain responses. A talented actor can literally control your emotions (much more so when you've placed yourself as a willing audience*). And very often the actor relies on those skills rather than actually feeling an emotion. This is especially true in stage plays where an actor might be asked to perform a death scene hundreds if not thousands of times. It doesn't matter one iota what the actor is feeling when they perform. It matters what you feel as an audience member.

The same is true in writing. You will often feel excited about your work, especially at the beginning. There's a reason it's called the honeymoon phase. But there will also be times when you are anything but excited about what you're writing. It's when you're not excited that you'll begin to rely on the skills that you are developing as a writer. You'll push through until the next moment when you are excited. There are some tricks to get excited (I'll put that it another post), but sometimes you just aren't. Sometimes you just don't feel like writing, but the only way an audience will know that is if you stop. They'll know because the story isn't finished. Here's a quoty way to say it, I'll even put it in italics: If you don't feel like writing, write until you do.

You could test this. As an experiment, write consistently, every day for a month, no matter how you feel. Then at the end of the month read over what you wrote and see if you can tell your mood from the writing. I bet you'll be surprised with the results. You might even find that you produce better work when you're not excited about writing.

(NOTE: It is entirely possible that you are bored of the story and that is a sign that the story itself is boring. Keep it in mind as a possibility, but it's just as likely, if not more, that you just need to push through. Developing the skill to understand why you're feeling hesitant about writing is a post for another day.)

(*NOTE AGAIN: As a writer you will also develop this creepy ability to manipulate other people's emotions. Novelist Mary Robinette Kowal, on the Writing Excuses podcast, has even called it mind control from a distance. Be careful with this power, it is super cool.)