How do I write a Novel that will SELL?

"How do I write a Novel

that will SELL?" 

You begin by learning how to write Fiction properly.

Clue-by-four:

Fiction is Not written the same way one writes an essay, or journalism; how one is taught to write in school. Fiction uses a different sentence structure, (Action THEN Reaction,) a different style of paragraph division, (by Character -- not dialog,) and different grammar rules. (Adverbs and adjectives are OK! The word "as" is Not.)

Once you can do that then it gets HARD.

Disclaimer:
This article is NOT for those who do Creative Writing. It's strictly for those who intend to write for Profit; for a reading audience that will not pay for anything less than exactly what they wish to read.

"I've been writing for years, but I can't seem to get more than a few readers to buy my books."

Clearly, you're doing something Right, but just as clearly, you're not doing Enough right to widen your reader base. In other words, you're doing something Wrong.

However, instead of stopping to figure out what's isn't working in their stories, too many writers simply rewrite their story over, and over, and over... The same story with the same types of characters, in the same situations -- just in different arrangements.

STOP DOING THAT! 

Repeating yourself only increases the number of books that flop don't sell as well as you'd like.

The trick to fixing anything is to CHANGE something; a character's personality type, a character's personality issues, add a plot-reversal, add a plot-twist, cut out all the head-hopping, intensify the paranormal influences... If changing something doesn't work, change something Else. Still no good? Change something Else. Still not working? Keep changing things -- don't stop until you figure out what combination of elements Does work to make your stories popular with your readers.

"Is there an easier, faster way to figure out what my readers want in my stories?"

Actually, there is. 

Find it. Own it. Fix it.

Find the Problem.

The fastest way to find the problems in any story is by Asking the Readers. 

• Write a blog post that point-blank Asks what your readers would like to see in their stories, and what they don't like seeing. Ask for Examples from books they've read -- including yours.

• Do a poll with a list of thing you suspect might be problems and ask them: "What annoys you the Most?"  

Pay attention to what your Readers tell you!
Do your readers prefer: 

• More Description? 
• Hotter Action? 
• Less Angst? 
• More Drama? 
• More Character Development? 
• Less Character Introspection...?
• Snarky comments?
• Smart-assed, intelligent Villians?
• Non-passive Heroines?
• Non-abusive Heroes?
• More Consensual bodice-ripping?
• More man-on-man action?
• Werewolves that act like Wolves not dogs?
• Vampires that don't sparkle? 
• Stories that are Less realistic?
• Stories that are More realistic?

Once you know what they like, consider your own work. How much of what you write actually offers what your audience actually wants to read? How much of what they Don't like shows up in your stories?

Clue-by-fours:

• If your readers like your Villain more than the story's Main Character -- you have a Problem. 
• If your Romantic Hero is extremely popular, but your Romantic Heroine is an annoying bitch, or worse; a forgettable doormat -- you have a Problem.  
• If your Secondary Characters are more entertaining than your main characters -- you have a Problem. 
• If your story consists of 50% dialog, 40% character introspection, and only 10% is spent on Action scenes -- you have a Problem.
• If your story has plenty of Action scenes, but the characters are little more than cardboard placeholders -- you have a Problem.
• If your readers can guess the end of your story by the fourth chapter -- you have a Problem.

Own the Problem.

Accept that your sales are suffering because you're not giving enough readers what they want to read, and that your stories need to be adjusted to suit a wider reading audience.

Next, make a Choice: 

• I want to write what I enjoy more than I want money, so I'll just live with pleasing only a select few readers. (Go to: Option A)

OR:

• I want to make a enough money to quit the day job, so I'll find a way to write what my readers want by adjusting it into something I can enjoy writing. (Go To: Option B) 

Option A: 

Continue writing your stories the way you normally do, and Stop Reading this Article because the following advice will probably piss you off. :)

Option B: 

Fix the Problem.

If you want better sales, you'll need adjust your writing to entice a broader range of readers into buying your books. So, how do you do this?

The fastest way to make any story popular is by discovering what elements the readers enjoy then adding them to your stories. 

Just to be clear:

I am NOT telling you to Copy other people's work...!

I'm NOT saying that your vampires should suddenly start sparkling simply because the vampires in an ungodly popular book series has sparkling vampires. (THAT isn't what made that series popular, seriously!) I'm saying take those stories apart and note what that authors did Right -- and what they did Wrong.

Examine each separate component; character types, plot devices, dialog styles, locations, personality issues featured, timing for dramatic scenes, how much angst was used, how often love scenes occur and how detailed they are... What worked? What didn't?

Once you know what elements the readers like, adjust those elements into what you enjoy writing. 

Compare Notes: 
How many stories (movies are stories too!) use these highly popular elements?

• A Wolverine-type romantic Hero? 
• A Frodo-type nice-guy Hero? 
• A smart-assed Captain Jack Sparrow-type of Anti-Hero?
• A Princess Buttercup 'suffering behind her smile' style of romantic Heroine?
• A Trinity-type kick-ass Heroine?
• A smiling, psychopathic Moriarity-type Villain?
• A 'Hero's Journey' adventure plot-line?
• A 'Beauty and the Beast' romantic plot-line? 
• A Great Escape scene?
• A Plot Twist that changes everything you thought you knew about what was going on in the story? 
• A Self-Sacrifice scene that allows a character to redeem themselves?
• A Wedding at the End?
• An Ironic Ending?

What do You use in Your stories? 

More to the point; what can you change, adjust, or remove altogether to make your stories suit a wider range of readers? 
.

In Conclusion:
Pay attention to what your Readers tell you then Use what they tell you to write a story they already Want to Read.
 

THAT'S how you create books that will SELL.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke

The Difference between SHOWING & TELLING

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Where do you put Character Flaws?

-----Original Message -----

Characters have to have flaws, but sometimes it's a bit hard to add those flaws in.
 -- Concerned About Characters

First of all...
What is a character Flaw?

Well, a character's Flaw is a crack in their personality and/or talent. Something that both helps them AND harms them. Kind of the way true artists (and brilliant nerds) tend to also be serious flakes, and really socially awkward. 'K?

Now then...

Where do you Put a Character's Flaws?

A character's greatest strength should appear in the first scene that character occupies. The character's Flaw makes its first appearance at the end of that scene -- but only a hint of it.

Scene One: If the opening scene features the main character, I show that character In Action showing off their greatest strength. To close that scene I show a small portion of that same strength's crippling weakness, but without exposing that it's a weakness.

In The Hobbit:

 -- Bilbo Baggins's greatest Flaw is that's he's 'nice' and 'polite'. In other words, he has Good Character. Not something one would generally think of as being a weakness.

Scene Two: As the story progresses that strength (and their dependence on it,) devolves openly into a crippling weakness that nearly destroys what's most important to them. 

In The Hobbit:

 -- Bilbo Baggins's  Good Character is what allows Gandalf and the dwarves to take advantage of his home to get a free dinner -- for 14 people!-- and take advantage of his person. He is quite literally managed into signing a contract to go on an Adventure he doesn't want, and in fact something Hobbits do not do. 

Later in the story, Bilbo Baggins's Flaw of Good Character nearly gets him eaten by trolls because he's too polite to attack them.

Scene Three: At the center of the story The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen occurs. The character becomes utterly helpless and sunk deep in depression. That weakness they'd originally depended on as their strength is what they must overcome to find a new source of strength to proceed.

In The Hobbit:
 -- At the center of the story, Bilbo falls into a deep, dark pit. Faced with Gollum, who tells Bilbo point-blank that he intends to Eat Bilbo, Bilbo once again is too polite. He refuses to see Gollum as a the deadly threat he is, and bargains with Gollum, fully expecting the creature to keep his word and let him go should Bilbo win their little contest.

Once Gollum reveals that he has no intention of honoring his word, what saves Bilbo isn't Bilbo's sword, but a single moment of Bad Character; Theft. Bilbo keeps a gold ring that he knows belongs to Gollum. This one act of Bad Character ends up being his salvation against Gollum because the ring is Magical.

Scene Four: Validation; when the Flaw proves to be an actual strength.

In The Hobbit:
-- The ring that Bilbo stole allows Bilbo to save the dwarves when they're attacked by Spiders, then again when the dwarves are captured by the wood elves, then Bilbo himself when he is faced with a fire-breathing dragon, and so on and so forth... 

By the end of the story, Bilbo has finally learned that Not being Polite has it's uses too, such as when demanding back all his belonging that had been stolen from his home during his long absence -- and actually getting them all back because everyone else is too polite to refuse him. 

How to use this in Writing.

Example: A Romance Story

The Main Character's (MC) greatest strength is he's The Perfect Gentleman; he knows exactly the right thing to do and say no matter the circumstances. He's honest, trustworthy, and kind.

The flaw that comes with this talent is that Everyone Knows exactly what kind of man he is. (It's not like he can hide it.)

Scene One: MC interacts with 3 females; an office lady, his childhood playmate, and the girl he actually likes. To each of them he is The Perfect Gentleman; he says and does exactly the right thing each time.

Scene Two: He becomes the guy to go to when their heart is broken because he always knows what to say to make a someone feel better. The guys envy him, and the girls adore him.

During this time, he begins to court the girl he likes: flowers, gifts, dates... At the end of the scene, he finally gets up the courage to confess his love. She smiles and Refuses to take him seriously. Why? Because he ALWAYS says and does the right thing, no matter who they are; he treats Every girl the same way. She doesn't feel special; she doesn't feel loved.

Scene Three: He continues to pursue her, and confess his feelings, but the more he talks, the less she believes him. Even worse, none of the girls believe that he's even capable of having feelings for only one girl -- after all, he's the Perfect Gentleman to everyone he meets.

Scene Four: Deep in despair, he sees her one more time only this time he's unprepared and a total mess; his appearance has gone to crap from depression, he hasn't eaten, he hasn't slept. He weeps angry tears while shouting in anger that no one believes him. In short: He's not a gentleman at all. This time she believes him because for the first time she can see the man hiding under the mask of 'Perfect Gentleman'.

The End

Enjoy!

Making Ideas into Stories

Moonfish by SnowSkadi

----- Original Message -----
How do you develop an idea? How do you come up with the details behind stories? Do you get them from reading books? Do you get them from modern concepts? Or do they just come to you (if so, lucky you XD)? How do you develop the world in which it takes place? People or settings first? Do you include cults/religions/mass groups? How do you come up with these groups?
 -- Thoughtful Game-maker

In other words, what you want to know is:

How do you build a Story

from an Idea? 

Let's begin by breaking this huge pile of questions down to smaller, bite-sized pieces...

"How do you develop an Idea?"

I start with a Climactic Event.

My ideas may originate from anything at all; from a piece of music to a picture I saw on the 'net, but to make a Story from those ideas I start with What I want to Happen at the very heart of my story -- a central Climactic/Crisis Event. I then create a Plot Concept around it to make that event happen, and tie up loose ends after the event. 

Plot concept:

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act 1: What caused the Event.
Act 2: Climactic/Crises Event.
Act 3: What happened after.

Example: What I want to Happen.

• I want the central climactic/crisis event to be an epic space battle between a Galactic Empire and a tribe of Space Privateers, and I want the characters to carry Swords. 

"How do you come up with

the Details behind stories?"

"Do you get them from reading books? Do you get them from modern concepts? Or do they just come to you (if so, lucky you XD)?"

RESEARCH. 

The Details I come up with are mainly generated by reading stories similar to what I want to write, and researching what I need to know to make such an event plausible. This tends to reveal unexpected facts which often give me MORE ideas to add to the story.

How do you make something in a story Plausible? 

You use Facts to give its existence a Good Excuse.

Examples: Facts

• Did you know that privateers had Written Permission from their home country to attack the ships of the countries their country didn't like --especially if there was a war going on-- as long as they turned over a certain percentage of 'booty' to their home country? (Ah ha! I now have a 'good excuse' to make the privateers the Good Guys!)

• Did you know that Empires (the British Empire in particular,) routinely hired Merchants to be Privateers when they didn't have enough ships in their fleets BECAUSE Merchant ships were extremely well-armed specifically to fight off Pirates (other Privateers)? (Ah-HA! Now I have a good excuse to have a Privateers vs. Pirates battle!)

• Did you know that those same empires that hired Privateers would also systematically destroy their Privateers once a treaty was signed with the country they had gone to war with, mainly because this was often a condition for a treaty to be signed? (Ah-HA! Now I have a 'good excuse' for Privateers to become pissed off at an empire!)

• Did you know that using a projectile weapon of any sort on a spaceship spelled Instant Death should that projectile shoot through the outer hull? (Ah-AH! I know have a 'good excuse' to have all my characters carry Swords!) 

"How do you develop

The World in which it takes place?"

"People or Settings first? Do you include cults/religions/mass groups? How do you come up with these groups?"

.

I begin with the World.

I always start with the SETTING, the World my characters will inhabit. I research everything to look for clues about what kind of cultures, politics, employment, social positions, religions, etc. would come into play in such a story because a character's culture and civilization will be what makes each character who they are -- the same way that your culture and civilization made you who you are.

Examples: Space, Empires, and Privateers.

• How do Empires happen, and how are they governed?
• Why would Privateers would be hired?
• Under what conditions would Privateers be attacked by an Empire?
• What are the conditions for living in space?
• What kinds of space travel would I need, (Faster-than-light? Folding space? Jump-gates...?) and can they be adapted to what I want to do?
• What kind of weapons would a spaceship have?
• How would a space battle be conducted?

Then Characters.
Once I have a good grasp of the cultures my characters would inhabit, then I decide what kind of characteristics and backgrounds the Characters would need to make my Event happen -- or Not happen.

Examples: Characters.

• Why would people (or a whole family) become privateers?
• Why would someone hate the empire?
• Why would someone hate privateers?
• What kind of training would be needed to fight in space?
• If I make the main character a neutral party, where would such a character come from, and why would they have such a mindset?

And that's how I build a Story from an Idea.

 

Enjoy! 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

BDSM Chat on GoodReads!

The BDSM Chat
on GoodReads!

April 23rd 2014

 Read the
Question and Answer Session
HERE!

Books I recommend for writing BDSM:

Screw the Roses, Send me the Thorns

Miller & Devon

SM101

  Jay Wiseman 

The Topping Book 

The Bottoming Book

Easton & Liszt

The Sexually Dominant Woman, a workbook for nervous beginners

Lady Green

The Fine Art of Erotic Talk

Bonnie Gabriel

 Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

John Grey, PHD.

For writing BDSM, I can't recommend these books highly enough.

A Note on Internal Monologues

Art by Kaori Yuki

A Note on

Internal Monologues

“I was just wondering what you think about interior monologues, long passages of reflection?” -- Curious Kitty

Whether you are considering adding a lengthy monologue to a story, or intend the monologue to be the story itself; where the focus of the entire story is on one character’s thoughts and feelings with very little action, from my observations and experimentation, the readers either love them or hate them. There's no in-between.

However, it is notable that the internal monologue stories that are sought out most frequently usually focus on a profound emotion of some kind: grief, loneliness, heartache, loss... Usually by those seeking to deal with such an emotion as a kind of therapy, or by those that have never felt such emotions. (Strong emotional stories are extremely popular in the Young Adult genre.)

In both cases, not only does the reader seek to submerge themselves in these profound emotions, they are also looking for a solution, a way back out from under these feelings.

In short...

Don’t write about Emotional Trauma 
without a Solution already in mind. 

Don't leave your readers hanging. You don’t want the hate mail that will come. Really.

I'm an escapist by nature, so I fall into the other category -- those that can only handle internal monologues in extremely tiny doses. I've actually had to deal with these sorts of emotions; death, grief, heartache, loss... on a far too personal basis, so dwelling on them (reading long emotional passages,) isn't something I'm comfortable with. I prefer my emotional deep thoughts mixed in with the character doing something; an action scene flavored by internal narration, rather than a monologue.

In Conclusion…

When deciding whether or not your monologue is appropriate for what you are writing, consider your target reading audience.

If you’re writing a story steeped in emotional upswings such as a romance, a monologue or two will probably fit right in.

However, if you’re writing something with lots of action such as an adventure, you just might want to consider sprinkling bits of light action among your passages of deep thought to keep it from dragging down the pace you’ve already set for your story.

How Much Smut for Your story?

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Dealing with Creative DOUBT

Dealing with Creative DOUBT

 ----- Original Message -----
...I'm at the point where nothing seems right. Everything I write down is cliche, badly written, and has bad pacing. Yet when I was younger I would turn out stories one right after the other like a non-stop machine. But now...thanks to all those instructors and classes, the creative edge is now limping along like a dog with only one leg.

...I don't have an agent or anything published in the first place. So that does paint an extra layer of doubt upon the situation. 

...when I discuss this, usually I'm berated with people saying, "Stop being so emo." As if depression were something that one can simply switch on and off.

...I guess what I'm doing here is ... trying to find some kind of sign, revelation or clue that I'm not a bad writer or that I'm just another writing loser.

You're not a bad writer or a loser of any kind.
-- You're NORMAL.

The truth is all artists of every kind have to deal with Doubt, from the rank beginner to the professional. All of us, without exception.

The dividing line between an artist and a loser is actually simple; sheer, mule-headed, Stubbornness. Losers give up. Artists won't.

Those of us writers (and artists) that actually make it to publication are monumentally stubborn. We write / create in spite of being less than perfect, in spite of being depressed, or angry, or tired, or blind, or crippled...

The best of us, like Niel Gaimen, Stephen King, and Nora Roberts USE that doubt and stubbornness to improve our skills by refusing to settle for 'good enough'. We dig up every trick we can find and scribble our discoveries into notebooks, on notepads, (or into writing tips,) and Practice them in little stories (or fan-fiction,) until we can actually make use of them.

NO ONE is perfect, but that doesn't mean we can't tell a good story -- that we're not Artists.

Be stubborn. Seriously. It will carry you far further than anything else will -- even skill.

Think I'm kidding? Well then, how about hearing it from one of the pros?

A Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman  

from: NaNoWriMo.Org

Dear Author,

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more--and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun.

You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began---a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read---it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.

That's how novels get written.

You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realise that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interlocking stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in.

The search for the word gets no easier, but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering,) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist.

And instead of sympathizing or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm--or even arguing with me--she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

That's the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes into Chapter Nine, it's the only way to do it.

So keep on keeping on. Write another word and then another.

Pretty soon you'll be on the downward slide, and it's not impossible that soon you'll be at the end. Good luck...

Neil Gaiman
www.neilgaiman.com

Feel better now? I know I do.

SMUT Does Not = POPULARITY

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