Writing Pet Peeves - Blog hop edition

When some people pass away, they want to be remembered for their work or what they’ve done. I honestly want to be remembered for how I am as much as for what I did because I try to be as kind as I can as a tribute to my parents and a great childhood.

That said, there are things that do annoy the piss out of me because after all, I am Only Human.

The highly talented Larysia Woropay made her list of things that spur the Amazon woman to behead a worthy victim or two, which you can explore by clicking here. In the process, she tagged me and several classy people to give our version to the list. Looking at pet peeves from a writer perspective, there’s tons of things that do annoy me, but here’s a list of the ones that REALLY get on my nerves:

In writing

• False advertising: Blurbs that are nothing like the book, misleading interviews, or people who say they kinda sorta include certain elements yet jam their stories full of it. I.e. a bit of romance is different than nut cringing lines about how much love is shared by two people that can’t be together but will, but can't, but maybe, but they should… sigh. I don’t mind romance, just be honest about it.

• Abuse of hinting… eventually you should stop being a complete tease and give us info but not hinting…. And hinting….. and hinting…. And hinting…. It can get old and you should always explore great care when hinting to pique interest but not annoy.

• CLEARLY using the synonym function of your word processor. It’s good to push vocabulary but it’s not good to abuse that and be hard to understand. The best stories shall never rely on big words and you should focus on story rather than vocabulary.

• Excess of typos. A typo can happen, but when you find over 30 typos in a book two things happen: 1. You look sloppy and take me out of the groove of the story and 2. you make me feel better for having books with less typos and basically doing all of this solo.

In Social media

• The Follow/Unfollow tango: This refers to the people that click follow and no sooner have you sent a thank you message that they unfollow you, so they can have a bigger follow to follower ratio. Sincerely, bite me.

• Automated messages: It is as big a turn off as I can ever get to interact with anyone. Seriously, I’m interested in people, not bots. No offense Skynet.

• People who lash out after a bad review. Firstly, what are you? 9? Bad reviews happen and you should take them as constructive criticism and push yourself harder. After all, there’s no crying in baseball and shouldn’t be any crying in writing, on our side of the writing at least.

In general

• Spamalamadingdong – you have a book and you want me to read it. Guess what? So do I, but I don’t send you dozens of messages force feeding my work because it is not the right way to establish a connection. I know I under promote myself, which is on me, but I prefer that than leaving that spam after taste with every message.

Are there more things that annoy me? But of course, but instead of rambling on, I’ll tag some highly talented people that can add to the list:

Cate Evans (https://lifeviewpoints.com/)

Miss Evans may be an incredible professional in her field, but don’t let that distract you from her writing talents. She is thoughtful, kind, and has a level of intuition that connects at a very deep level. I’ve had the pleasure of reading her work on Wattpad and as a Beta reader and I can say with every certainty that you can expect great things from her.

Sarah Brentyn (https://sarahbrentyn.wordpress.com)

The snark shark of the Lemon Shark reef is one of the most interesting bloggers I’ve ever read and I’ve been reading blogs for about a decade. Deep, questioning and with a heavy dose of smartassery, her blog is not only excellent in the content, but the comments are always, and I mean ALWAYS enlightening, showing that great communities can come together and share the snark.

Kimberly Vanderhorst (http://www.kimvanderhorst.com)

Yet another lovely Canadian I’ve been able to connect with through social media, Kimberly grew up sandwiched between the mountains and the sea of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A writer of books, great flash fictions, and a good kind person, how could I resist peeking into what brings out the fury? Lol.

Hope Denney – (https://twitter.com/HopeDenney2)

Hope is a great gal from the state of Tennessee. Fun, bubbly, kind, and talented, It’s always nice to see what she’s up to and what surprises she’ll tweet up.

Reve Ree – ReedWithaBee (http://dodoaugogo.blogspot.com)

Hailing from down under, ReeDaBee has a blog, a fascinating twitter account, and an intense amount of stories in her head, she’s prying away one word at a time. A wonderful traveler of the River of Imagination, many delights await if you give a click.

SR Martin (http://srmartinblog.blogspot.com)

A Shih Tzu lover into Harry Potter, movies, books, and video games, SR Martin has a lovely blog and does great interviews of which I was able to be a part of. Great blog from good people are always appreciated.

How about you though? What annoys you to no end? What peeves grate your nerves to the next level? Let go of that anger. After all it'll make it easier to enjoy the...

Peace, love, and maki rolls

The Power of Momentum

It doesn’t take much force to keep a three ton block from going down a hill. It’s also pretty impossible to stop a six pound bowling ball if it’s been rolling down that same hill.

The difference?

Momentum.

People are the same.

A single person can move a mountain with enough momentum while an army can halt to a standstill without it. Inertia is as much a mindset as it is a physical characteristic.

That’s why I always write and don’t take a day off. More than my passion and a basic part of who I am, I have been swept up by the enthusiasm of momentum.

Why don’t I take a break? Because it makes me happy to be working on my stories, because although I’m thrilled with my finished projects, I’m eager to continue creating. I have dozens of ideas for projects and am currently finalizing several. I get a new idea and I write it down.

By putting it to paper, that’s me saying one thing:

“I’ll be with you soon.”

So you want to write a book Part 3: Plot the course

Where do you want your story to go?

For me, I went from writing one book to working on a series. At one point it was going to even be a tetralogy, but when I got a hold to the story, lo and behold, I saw that four books was too much for the Human Cycle. So a trilogy it was to be.

When was I able to see this? When I wrote down the major plot points. And yes, it was as complicated a process as writing itself. For Only Human, I took a world Atlas and literally plotted the map and where I was going.

History, geography, topography and folklore then allowed me to flesh everything out but seeing that line on a world map helped me see where we were going, literally. The research filled in the blanks of several whys about why we were going there.

Every project is its own beast and I tackle each plot very differently. Sometimes I include notes, dialogue and other tidbits because there are plenty of lighting-in-a-bottle moments that you NEED to capture. Some chapters I have tons of notes. Other times, a word or two is all I require to know what I need to do. The thing is that I plot the course so I have a direction which often allows me to avoid contradictions, plotholes and other literary complications.

Still the most important lesson I’ve learned from writing plot points is comparable to one of the truths stated in the Whovian universe: some points are non negotiable, they cannot shift, they cannot be altered. They must endure.

For me, some plot points cannot and most likely will not be changed from the beginning of a project to its end. But I’m flexible with the rest. I do so because in that freedom I find my story while those anchors keep me focused and on my way.

So here’s to sailing on in the seas of our stories and knowing when to flow, and when to remain.

The two sexiest words to any author

The End.

When you are able to write down those words and know you’re done with a story and publish it, it is one of the greatest reliefs you could ever imagine. Mind you, you don’t need to write THE END, you just need to truly and fully finish something.

When you finish writing, it’s rewarding, but when you’re done with a project? Wow… just amazing.

For me, Only Human was an intense learning experience when it comes to truly being able to say I finished something.

I finished writing. Then came transcribing.

I transcribed. Then came editing.

I edited. Then came formatting.

Then registering copyright. Then submitting to the website where I sell my work. Then copy proof. Then receiving the final shipment. Then searching for reviews.

Before you know what’s happened, the book is live, it’s out there, you finished it… but you have to get it in front of people and you realize that there is never an end and that realizing such a thing is marvelous. 

So here’s to our neverending stories.

Taipos arr Peinful

Tu meik ay kople ef poynts, grammer ees ay berry eemportunt ting two preserb. Hau  yu rait seis a lat abaut wat yiu haft tu sei. Di werse yiu rait, di lays chanz yiu haf ouf meikin an eempact. 

Now tell me you didn’t throw up a little at the above train wreck of a paragraph. Although exaggerated, it does clearly share the point that grammar matters and that lack of grammar hurts retinas. As a writer, you have to be stuck up when it comes to grammar, at least that’s my take on it and I suspect I’m not alone in my grammar Nazi sentiments. 

Case in point, it’s not that your book can’t have any typos whatsoever, it’s just there’s a very small threshold a reader’s patience will endure. If you take the Peter and the Star Catcher’s series, the stories were quite enjoyable although I found myself cringing at the variety and abundance of typos. Having paid full price for a book, I expected more from the publishing house, the writers and the editors. 

For me, every time I’ve learned of a typo in my first book, I’ll admit it, I die a little because even if it tops 164,000 words, I’m disappointed in myself that I allowed something to take away from the experience. I don’t want ANYTHING to distract from my story because I have something to say. 

So here’s to proof reading, to being anal retentive and OCD oriented and never settling. 

If it scares you, odds are it's worthwhile

There you are... looking at what you’ve just written on the page... you think about your mom and dad, your friends and your significant other... what will they say? What will people think about what you’re committing to paper... you even question whether you should leave something in your story or not......

Odds are you should.

When you’re writing, it’s natural to have fear because once you publish something, your words cease to be yours, they become the readers’ and that’s a frightening thought because what if people understand things incorrectly. Well, this is actually a possibility with anything you do any day of your life. If people feel the need to misconstrue what you say over coffee, you’ll hear about it.

So that’s when you have to ask the real question... why do you want to include that part in your story? Is it just because you want to irk someone or is it because it’s something you believe in. The deeper the reason and motivation, the more you should follow your instinct because if something moves you, odds are it’ll move someone else.

Then what to do?

The decision to not include something is based on fear... imagine letting go of your fear. Imagine being true to your vision and committing to a topic you think is important to share. Picture yourself not judging and not being judged... engaging in dialogue, conversing.

Now imagine depriving yourself of this bliss, just because you want to remain in someone’s good graces. The problem is that eventually, if you only write to make others happy, you will be left without things to say, because someone, somewhere will take offense to your perspective.

So by all means... let go, be true to your word... and put it down on paper.