Quick answers 2/19-2/20

[jodi henley]

If you have questions, I sometimes have answers. With the understanding that a really really good question gets blogged (and your identifying info stripped to protect you)

I'll be on-line on and off the rest of Saturday. I'm a night owl, so mostly really late at night. And all day Sunday. If you want to work through any exercise, please do. Otherwise, you can put questions here and I'll make sure to answer them.

Thanks!
:) Jodi

[Pj Jough-Haan]

Jodi,

Thank you so much for all of your effort and good will regarding mentoring newbies like myself. Are there particular short story markets that are easier for a newcomer to target? Is the instruction that you've presented universal regarding short word counts? I'm getting in the habit of speed writing something every night for 1 hour or 1000 words, no editing, just dropping story seed. My goal is to work up about 60-80 starts and then go back without any emotion to review and check if there was something in the seed I planted which could be worked or if I was just doing the right thing and keeping the well-primed. Not every start is the beginning of a masterpiece - but every attempt has some seed of a story that could develop if co-joined with some other thought down the road.

Random thoughts while working on my move. Again, hats off to you for all of your hard work. I love your 'core' work because when I'm working on character, lots of times I get stuck on, "Naw . . . if she's this way, then if she did/thought/said that then she'd be untrue to her core values - your work opened my eyes that we're all made up of weird science - and we do weird things all of the time. Doesn't make us two-faced, just human.

pj

[jodi henley]

Jodi,

Hi Patricia!


Thank you so much for all of your effort and good will regarding mentoring newbies like myself. Are there particular short story markets that are easier for a newcomer to target? Is the instruction that you've presented universal regarding short word counts? I'm getting in the habit of speed writing something every night for 1 hour or 1000 words, no editing, just dropping story seed. My goal is to work up about 60-80 starts and then go back without any emotion to review and check if there was something in the seed I planted which could be worked or if I was just doing the right thing and keeping the well-primed. Not every start is the beginning of a masterpiece - but every attempt has some seed of a story that could develop if co-joined with some other thought down the road.

very true about those stories. And that's a wonderful attitude to have :)



Random thoughts while working on my move. Again, hats off to you for all of your hard work. I love your 'core' work because when I'm working on character, lots of times I get stuck on, "Naw . . . if she's this way, then if she did/thought/said that then she'd be untrue to her core values - your work opened my eyes that we're all made up of weird science - and we do weird things all of the time. Doesn't make us two-faced, just human.

pj

lol, I still remember getting into a very long discussion with someone on this very same topic, a long time ago back when I was first starting out. They said inconsistencies didn't work, and even back then I felt that there was a reason somewhere for an inconsistency to exist.

And I have this sneaking feeling people are going to find me at Nationals and say, "we're all many mints" lol...

but to answer your question?

that's a very gray question so I'll give you as honest an answer as I can, okay?

Back when e-publishing first started out, the houses pretty much took what they could, and developed a bad reputation for publishing anything. It's something we're all trying to overcome. Houses opened and closed. Lots of the smaller places shut down and left bad feelings when authors got stuck with no right to sell their stories "and" no royalties. The fall of Triskelion was one of the big bad things to happen to the industry and created a ripple effect. It gave the impression that the field was nothing but bad editing, we take anything, and we also take you for a ride. :(

Then the older houses realized what was going on, tightened their standards, increased the quality of edits and there was a long shakedown.

submissions went up as the field grew and all of a sudden, along came the new self-publishing platforms--and once again, there are a lot of start-up houses.

so...there is a two part answer to your first question. There is always a market. Someone someplace will need submissions to fill their pages. You can always sell. However, before you pitch, I suggest checking out Piers Anthony's internet publishing website. I know a lot of places and from what I know of them, and from what I read on his site, he tells a lot of truths.

Can you sell to a major e-pub? It depends. A good story, and they are a LOT rarer than you might imagine. A lot. Let me repeat that. A lot rarer. Will sell.

However, there are a lot of factors that go into a purchase decision and not all of them are simply about whether your story is good or bad. It's why people say the business is subjective. Maybe there are already thirty bed and breakfast heroines and forty plucky reporters already in the catalog and the numbers aren't good. Or they just bought a story just like yours yesterday, even if yours is way better.

I would say that a newcomer is on just as firm a ground as a pro when it comes to targeting a major market. Just because you've got fifty pieces out there doesn't mean anything. Occasionally you get a stinker, and occasionally, you get burnout--some people write so much it just becomes a mechanical process and they get a little lazier about the mechanics, and don't really think their heroines through. So maybe that fifty first piece isn't all it can be. And because this is a sales driven field, just like NY, it's hard to justify a purchase.

It really depends on how "you" feel about your stories. If you believe in them, and your writing--and don't let anyone tell you what to believe, you need to look inside yourself for that--start at the top, make a list and keep trying. Trying is the ONLY way to sell.

If you need the ego boost you'd get with a sale and it'd hurt beyond bearing to get a rejection, there are a lot of start-ups that need product and have the potential somewhere down the road to "become" big later, or fail--it's all a matter of research and your gut feeling.

I recommend targeting anything smaller than a publishers lowest word count to the kindle/smashwords/whatever you might care to explore platforms and doing it on your own. That's the market I feel has the highest profitability for effort expended.

You should get an outside look for typos. Copyeditor rates range from really cheap to really expensive. But a cheap editor can find a duplicate word as easily as one from NY. And buy or make a decent cover.

...so, as a general rule of thumb--self publish anything above flash to around 10k. Or give it away (promo is a good thing). Above 10k, you need to look at yourself. Do you think you'd have the dedication to maintain your social networking, website, whatever needs to be done in addition to writing/revising/editing/making covers and blurbs? Then go for it. Profit is higher.

If you're a total introvert, consider a publisher. There are lots of good publishers and they can do it all for you, but you still have to maintain at least some kind of web presence and the profit isn't as high.

I wish you good luck :) And if you go for a house--remember to start high, okay? All they can do is say no.

[Pj Jough-Haan]

Thank you Jodi, you are forever on my list of gratitude - and I will follow your classes and take them they are offered. You are quite the Lady of Wisdom.

Blessings and Aloha,
pj

[Janet Chamberlain]

Hi Jodi,

Thank you for doing this course, I've learned a lot.
Character backstory especially core events is so important in working out what drives our characters' actions. I don't want to use overdone cliched backstory in my writing (I've read so many stories where a man believes he can't love again because he was betrayed in the past) Do you know of any psychology books (for the laymen) that could help with ideas for character motivation and wants. Something with case study examples maybe

I need something psychology-based to kick start the ideas but don't know where to start.

[Janet Chamberlain]

I love it when you answer questions :) Jumping out of lurkdom with a couple of quick questions on core events.

1. "Basically it just means that core events aren't really pegged to a certain time. I like to think of them as backstory, because most times they "are" part of backstory. But sometimes the inciting incident is actually the core event."

Is that character epiphany that follows the black moment also a core event? It's equally as important as the one in the past (as the character forms a belief out of this event too --- or lets go of the belief that the backstory core event cause.)

2. If the backstory core event is something like the hero's girlfriend cheated on him, is this enough on it's own to make him wary of forming a new romanatic relationship --- or would he need another event to go with it? Would just one core event give him an altered perception of life and love and make his swearing off women credible? Or would he also maybe have needed to see his father hurt by his mother cheating, or his best friend hurt by his wife's cheating?

[jodi henley]

Hi Jodi,
Hi Likes!


Thank you for doing this course, I've learned a lot.
Thank you! I learn a lot from the workshops too. There's always something new. :)


Character backstory especially core events is so important in working out what drives our characters' actions. I don't want to use overdone cliched backstory in my writing (I've read so many stories where a man believes he can't love again because he was betrayed in the past) Do you know of any psychology books (for the laymen) that could help with ideas for character motivation and wants. Something with case study examples maybe

I need something psychology-based to kick start the ideas but don't know where to start.

ahhh...not a problem. :)

I really like this particular book

The Normal Personality by Steven Reiss

http://www.amazon.com/Normal-Personality-Thinking-About-People/dp/0521707447/ref=pd_sim_b_1

his other book is also good

Who am I

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Am-Motivate-Behavior-Personality/dp/158542045X/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IL0CD2I5EMQEN&colid=18IKPUWZZU1ZJ

and this is a good portal for articles. They're defined into scholarly and pop.

http://www.psychology.org/links/Environment_Behavior_Relationships/Motivation/

((hugs))

I hope your ideas get a little nudge. I've always been partial to selfish heroes who can't love the heroine until they let go of their own self-interest.

Thanks for being here, Likes. :)

[Janet Chamberlain]

Thank you so much for your answer. :) I'll head over to Amazon to find those books. Selfish heroes sound great for potential transformation.

[jodi henley]

I love it when you answer questions :) Jumping out of lurkdom with a couple of quick questions on core events.

1. "Basically it just means that core events aren't really pegged to a certain time. I like to think of them as backstory, because most times they "are" part of backstory. But sometimes the inciting incident is actually the core event."

Is that character epiphany that follows the black moment also a core event? It's equally as important as the one in the past (as the character forms a belief out of this event too --- or lets go of the belief that the backstory core event cause.)

nice catch! Yes, the realization that flows out of a black moment is the core event that drives the end of the story. Usually it's a layer to the original core event, but it can sometimes be a separate and distinct core event.

I did a really long post on subconscious need and conscious want that ties into how that happens. I'll post it for you, okay? It's actually part of the transformational character arc.

A lot of core event things tie into other aspects of craft, and CE and the arc are very close.


2. If the backstory core event is something like the hero's girlfriend cheated on him, is this enough on it's own to make him wary of forming a new romanatic relationship --- or would he need another event to go with it? Would just one core event give him an altered perception of life and love and make his swearing off women credible? Or would he also maybe have needed to see his father hurt by his mother cheating, or his best friend hurt by his wife's cheating?

lol, good question.

and the answer is it depends. It's really a question of intensity levels. Not really how many layers there are to the events.

You can definitely add layers to trigger a bigger reaction--like you said? If he'd already had issues with his mom cheating on his dad, or maybe his sister's husband slept around on her? That would create a situation where the core event would grow faster. It'd make sense your hero would swear off women. The intensity of the event itself isn't very deep, it's just that the weight of the stuff around it makes it deep.

Think of red food coloring?

If you drop a drop of food coloring on a paper towel, especially a wet paper towel, because of the structure that's already there (fiber or damp fiber) you get instant spread with frayed edges.

If you drop a drop on a clean, dry plate or pie pan, it just sits there. The perfect half-bead. There's no reason for it to spread unless you tilt the plate or break the surface tension.

so if the hero has a girlfriend, it's kind of unlikely that her cheating on him (if he doesn't already have backstory that deals with it) will create a fundamental change.

But...if the hero had worshiped the heroine from afar, loved her since they were kids, and had an almost stalker like devotion to her and was invested in her up to his eyeballs, then yes--her cheating will create major change. Because it's now a major event. In other words--it matters. The event "means" a lot.

It simply depends on how you see your hero. Someone with that kind of depth already? Or someone that needs a couple of personal triggers to create it? They both get you where you want to be at the start, but the story that flows out of the different intensities are different. :)