C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

12/09/2010 • 11:49 AM 0

Writers: Update & three links for you

a Science fiction city (Paris in a future.)

Image via Wikipedia

I had another frustrating day dealing with tech support that, for awhile, actually made things worse. Now another modem is on order and I’m searching for a technician to come save me. Yeah, it’s that bad.

However, this too shall pass. I’m going to try to get some writing done on my little AlphaSmart Neo. Once you’ve done all you can, you’ve done all you can. I’ve messed with the computer so much I’ve lost two days of my life. While others were enjoying snow days, I was staring at a screen trying to move the immoveable. No more.

Today I get back to my life and focus on the fun parts. I’ll let the on site tech deal with the trouble. (For those who missed it, a cyber attack is to blame, but don’t be afraid. I’m not contagious.)

I recently finished a major editing stage for a client’s book so now it’s time to work on something of my own: a dystopian novel about soulful robots and a drug that improves human brains. Think Robert J. Sawyer meets William Gibson. Ooh, that’s high falutin’ talk. Anyway, I’ll put aside my present-day tech troubles and write about future tech troubles.

And finally, I’ll have some fun. Writing fiction is always fun. If you aren’t having fun as you write, your readers won’t have a chance. Stop putting it off. Go have fun, too. If you have to delegate your worries to get them away from you, then do that.

(Well…after you check out these cool links, anyway.)

The Writers Alley: The Quixotic Pull of Your Future Novel‏

10 media and tech luminaries on the future of reading

7 Ways to Help Writers Survive the Holidays

Audio from last night’s live event with William Gibson and Cory (boingboing.net)
Am I better off living a different dream? (tobiasbuckell.com)
Update: David Milch (gointothestory.com)
Duplicate Content and Ways around It (searchenginejournal.com)
Need for new utopian stories (rs.resalliance.org)
Zero History. William Gibson (regnordman.com)
William Gibson Serves Up Zero History (time.com)
Unsuccessful treatment of writer’s block: a replication (mindhacks.com)
Writers on Writing: Booklife by Jeff Vandemeer (tor.com)
The Six Gifts of the Writer’s Workshop Weekend (planejaner.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, My fiction, publishing, Useful writing links, What about Chazz?, writing tips, Author, Cyberpunk, Robert J. Sawyer, William Gibson, writers, Writers Resources, writing, writing advice

11/08/2010 • 10:35 AM 5

#NaNoWriMo: Five Advantages of Fast Writing

Traditional wisdom is that it takes a lot of time and energy to write a book. That’s generally true. However, that counts the entire process. It takes a long time to revise, edit and hone a book until you feel you’re ready to let it go. That doesn’t mean you can’t write a first draft quickly. Some purists will protest that haste will decrease the quality of a writer’s work in favour of quantity. Sure. I have a different take on that objection. Assume your first draft is going to suck anyway. Since you’re best writing is rewriting, it’s best to have something to revise. For many writers, if they didn’t write the first draft in haste, they might not have anything to revise at all. You can’t edit a blank page.

So here’s my contrarian view on why fast writing can be a very good thing:

1. You maintain your enthusiasm for the project because you get the first draft done quickly. Marathon writing takes endurance. A sprint can be advantageous, especially if you haven’t completed a manuscript in the past and you’re developing those muscles.

2. When you write in haste, you can see the whole project’s development at once. You’re less likely to drop threads when you get the first draft done in a short time. If you’ve read Under the Dome by Stephen King—a huge and heavy book of great length which, in general, I enjoyed—maybe you noticed that he seemed to have a supernatural element on the protagonist’s side that is never explained and soon forgotten. It took him three years or so to write it. That might be why something’s amiss.

3. Increased productivity primes your art pump. If you produce a lot, you tend to produce more the rest of the time, too. It’s the literary equivalent of, if you want the job done, give it to a busy person. Artists need to get into the habit of production and treat their work as a business and a craft (instead of something that can only produced when the planets align and you have a handy vial of unicorn blood to consecrate your art-making ceremony.)

4. Increased production equals more money in the long run. That’s not mercenary. That’s math. If you can produce four books (and sell them) in the time it takes someone else to write one, you’re ahead (unless the other guy is William Styron, but he’d be ahead in any case…and he’s dead.)

5. You may not sell everything you write. In fact, if you’ve got an agent, an editor and a publisher between you and the market, there’s an excellent chance someone will stand up at some point and say, this isn’t ready for your customers. (They may or may not be right about that. When Robert Munsch‘s publisher told him the world wasn’t ready for Love You Forever, he took that controversial children’s book elsewhere. And had a hit.)

My point is, if you spend ten years writing a book and it does not sell, you will be sad. If you have other books to sell, the one disappointment won’t sting so much. You know how every second Star Trek movie was great and the others suck? It evens out when you have more out there.

If I sound like I’m blaming, shaming and pointing fingers, I apologize. I have been guilty of acting like a dilettante about my fiction. I’ve had to gather unicorn blood before I could summon the muse. That’s changed recently as I’ve reevaluated. I’m motivated now to go into heavy production and get to work on the revisions for my books and, as Seth Godin puts it, “Ship!” (Also, see the post below on Lessons Received from An Evening with Kevin Smith for the whys and wherefores. )

My book production won’t happen overnight. But it will happen faster than it was happening. Boo-ya!

Seek Library Write-In Support: NaNoWriMo Tip #6 (mediabistro.com)
Simplifying NaNoWriMo (and Other Writing) (simpleproductivityblog.com)
“Sunday Salon: Writers, readers, and NaNoWriMo” and related posts (3rsblog.com)
Use a Name Generator: NaNoWriMo Tip #5 (mediabistro.com)
NaNoWriMo Tip #7: Consult Role Playing Game Plots (mediabistro.com)
Better yet, DON’T write that novel (salon.com)
Bio Break salutes NaNoWriMo writers! (biobreak.wordpress.com)

Filed under: NanNoWriMo, writing tips, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, seth godin, Stephen King, William Styron, write fast, writers, writing fast

09/15/2010 • 12:23 PM 3

18 Steps to Becoming a Writer (via Youngblood Blog)

A nice post on John Le Carre and the writing life. Writing from a refuge on a clifftop over the ocean sounds pretty awesome to me, too.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a writer. So the appended list is intended as a little tongue-in-cheek, because those in the field who haven’t yet decided have miles to go before they sleep…. There is one great role model still out there, however, and he gave a rare interv … Read More

via Youngblood Blog

Filed under: Writers, John Le Carre, writers

08/26/2010 • 4:16 AM 0

It’s a New World. Join the Publishing Revolution

I just added a five-star system so you can rate posts, a Digg button so you can “like” posts and several ways to share posts (Twitter, Facebook, Print, Reddit, Email, etc.,…) Don’t be cruel to a heart that’s true.

Your rare shameless (and fun!) plug begins here:

If you like the blog, please let me and your friends and followers know! Hit the Digg button above the comment box to “like” it. Share on Facebook. Tweet on twitter. I’m above grovelling, but I am willing to ask nicely for your support.

This is the fun part: I have added these buttons in a craven attempt to spread the word about Chazz Writes. I have big plans for the blog. As we get bigger I want to include book reviews, contests for prizes and, ultimately, annex a small tropical island nation whose national drink will be hollowed out pineapples with five kinds of rum. I shall be king, of course, but benevolent in my clothing-optional palace. We’ll be nuclear-weapons free, nuclear-capable, solar and wind-friendly, and establish a very reasonable flat tax. There will be free healthcare for all. We’ll be weed-legalized, jerk-averse and twelve kinds of awesome sexy. And everybody will get a Mac. (Acers for jerks. That’ll teach ’em!) Also, clothes lines are allowed and I’ll keep the needless spending down by force of Nerf bats and exile to lesser, non-Chazz-infused nations. (All that therapy is really nipping my narcissistic megalomania in the bud, huh?) But I digress…

If you like my stuff, please let other people know. This is a relatively new publishing blog, but I’m not new to publishing. I do have a lot of information to share with writers from a writer’s and editor’s perspective. (Don’t know Chazz and wonder where he gets off talking publishing? Click here.) I just love to talk to people about their writing projects, publishing issues, and that book you’re going to publish some day. Every day I curate the best information on publishing I can find as I search the web for news about writers, interesting stories and stuff that helps writers figure out the best routes to getting published.

I also look for laughs along the way. We need it. The writer’s life can be a grim nobility. Unlike some writing blogs I detest (i.e. a few agent blogs and angry blogs that mock writers) you are not a minion here. You are a travelling companion and friend. I love books and I love the people who love them.

Return often for updates and keep an eye on that Twitter feed to your right

OR

simply follow me on Twitter @RChazzChute

AND/OR

go to the bottom right and subscribe so you won’t miss a thing!

Like the blurb says:

The publishing revolution has begun.

Join me.

Rare shameless plug ends.

Filed under: blogs & blogging, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Social Media, Twitter, What about Chazz?, Writers, book publishing blogs, publishing, writers

08/24/2010 • 8:00 AM 0

(Top 10 Things +1) Writers Love:

1. libraries and bookstores. Look at all those dead trees! Look at all those rotten books! Your book will be so much better. Look at all those shelves for your great books. Your books will one day share shelf space with your literary heroes and you will all enter the pantheon. Libraries and bookstores are harbingers of potential, omens of destiny, and, not incidentally, where you get #2.

2. books. Your shelves creak as you add even more books. Your iPod is full. Your heaven is a place filled with books and time to enjoy them, to savor them, to devour them. You prefer books to people, though people do have their place (i.e. they can give you a good book.) A good book is sex that lasts longer.

3. life. It’s where you get your ideas. Life is the thing you absorb so you can process it, chew and hold your ideas up against it to make your fantasy seem all the more real. Life and the limited world it comes from—that’s what you’re going to change with your writing. (Yes, life is number 3 down the list. That isn’t an error. Why? Because when you write you are god. When you don’t write, you’re…well…you.)

4. good first readers. A good reader will proofread your manuscript and find the errors you didn’t and not make you feel like an idiot about it. Good readers are very hard to find. Not unicorn hard. Good readers are platypus hard.

5. an excellent agent who’s a bitch or a bastard when they’re bargaining for you but never that way in their dealings with you. Search for agents with multiple-personality disorder. Try mental hospitals. (Or decide that in any venture you will encounter individuals who are human. You may even come to like some of them. The rest will make great gossipy stories at your book launch.)

6. an editor who’s careful and considerate. There are many. No, really! They want to help you make your work the best it can be to earn a larger readership.

7. a motivated sales force. The crop is of uneven quality. If you can, give them more motivation by offering a trip to your Florida condo for the highest seller. Failing that, make a great impression at the sales conference, smile and shake every hand. I loved Amy Tan as a person, so I sold more of her books. It wasn’t a conspiracy. It was just natural when I was selling to bookstore owners. “Yeah, I met her at the conference and wow was she great etc.,…)

8. a great book cover. Publishers may “consult” you, but if you hate it and they love it, they’ll go with the cover as is. If someone else is publishing your work, that’s a factor that is out of your hands. It will gnaw at you. You will curse them. Eventually you will accept it so you might as well start accepting it now. (Also, when your book tanks you’ll have something to blame that wasn’t your story and someone to blame who isn’t you.)

9. fans. Duh. (Yes, some superstars grow to hate their fans. In the social media/TMZ-environment, they are soon called “Uh…that guy. The obnoxious prick…what was his name again? Oh yeah. Has Been.”)

10. time to write. There’s never enough time. If you don’t have an official publisher-set deadline now (read: you’re still a wannabe writing on spec) it’s a blessing not to have that hanging over your head. Just write. Sip the coffee. Recline and give that revision sober and careful thought. You have more time now than you’ll ever have. After you sign some contracts and people are clambering for your next book, you’ll feel like you never have enough time. Ev-er.

BONUS:

11. ourselves. Inside every writer is an insecure, wounded child who started worrying about death and how they don’t matter way too early. Over top of that is a thick layer of pomposity and that is the egotist we love. How else to explain our deep need to share our thoughts with strangers? We love ourselves as we see ourselves. We want to share so others will see, hear and understand our genius, agree with us and love the broken child one layer down. We write to reach out. We write to connect. We write so others will share our visions and forgive us our sins. We write to hear our voices talk and prove we matter. We write to make worlds because they who make worlds must be gods (not spineless schmoes worrying about paying the rent.) We love ourselves so much we betray family secrets and confided stories. We love ourselves beyond reason because the world is beyond reason and we think so highly of ourselves, we have such hubris, we think that through words we can impose order. We love ourselves so much we glorify our self-hatred. We write for love because the love we have for ourselves is large, but it will never be enough to fill our hearts. We write for your love. And most of you won’t give a damn.

Filed under: publishing, Rant, Writers, Love, On Writing, Top Ten Things Writers Love, writers

08/13/2010 • 2:12 AM 1

Ten Steps to be a Writer

1. Write. Most people want to write. Most don’t. Don’t be that guy.
2. Head down. Hands on keyboard.
3. Do not worry about rejection. (If you figure out how to do this, help me understand.)
4. Set a deadline. Don’t make it too far off and take it seriously.
5. Keep your work circulating. Repeat until you succeed.
6. Seek support. Eschew those who don’t support your dreams.
7. Be original. Don’t try to be the next anybody but you.
8. Read. It’s how you connect with experience beyond your own and it helps you improve your writing.
9. Don’t be a schmuck. Learn about the publishing industry so you can navigate it.
10. Don’t be a fraidy cat. Normal is for the mediocre. Dare a stab at immortality. (Did I mention you should write? I mean now!)

Filed under: publishing, Writers, writing tips, 10 tips for writers, Be a writer, writers, writing tips

06/17/2010 • 10:54 PM 0

The Existential Horrorist

Two movie moments hurt me in deep dark places:

In Run, Fatboy, Run Simon Pegg’s character tells his young son that you can’t run away from problems and must push through. The little boy looks up at him and says, “Is that what you do, Dad?” The look on Simon’s face is the same you make when you’re slapped across the face with a stop sign.

Then in Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller’s character tells his son that something good will soon happen with his career. His big moment is coming. He can just feel it. His boy gives him a worried look and says, “But what if you’re wrong? What is you’re an ordinary guy who just needs to get a job?”

Shit. Back to the keyboard! Back! BACK!

Filed under: movies, movies, Night at the Mueum, Run Fatboy Run, writers

06/17/2010 • 10:08 PM 0

Dr. Phil Mistreats Wannabe Writer, Then Bathes in Cash & Cackles

Dr. Phil counselled some poor slob and his desperate wife since said slob was writing a book and refused to get a job and support the family. Of course Philacious told him to get off his duff and get a job. I was supposed to feel sorry for the wife and the family. Instead I thought “Wow. Way to stand up for the brand, Dr. Dreamkiller.” He’ll trudge back to work and maybe the book will die and maybe it won’t, but despite the doc’s assurances, the dude’s chances of publication just went down. You could see it in his eyes. The wannabe (as best-selling Phil so graciously labelled him) just didn’t have a lot more energy to spare. Your other job can feed your passion or suck the creative life out of you. Be careful what you choose.*

BONUS:

Phil made some fallacious comparison of fiction to non-fiction. He told the guy he needed to submit a proposal rather than a full manuscript. Not in fiction you ain’t! When submitting fiction, you must have the full manuscript polished and prepared. Proposals are for non-fiction only, no exceptions.

DOUBLE BONUS:

Dean Koontz’s wife went to work and gave him five years to make write. If he didn’t make it in five years, she reasoned, he wasn’t going to make it. He did make it, of course, and his books are a testimony not so much to his hacking talent as his persistence. If you have enough time and persistence, talent counts less than we’d like to think. Make the time to write.

*Yes, I’m saying, if necessary, divorce your wife, leave the kids in a ditch and run away. They’ll understand eventually that you did it for Art. Yeah. That’ll go over well.

Filed under: Writers, writing tips, Dr. Phil. time to write, writers

06/15/2010 • 7:06 PM 0

On Truman Capote Love and A-Team Hate

Truman Capote once said of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, “That’s not writing! That’s typing!” Yeah, he was a real bitch sometimes. However:

1. I admire In Cold Blood very much,

2. found his biography tragic yet inspiring,

3. loved both the Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toby Young movies

4. and yearn for the good old days when a flamboyantly gay and genuinely wild character could be high on a nationally syndicated talk show and make Dick Cavett squirm.

They don’t build literary figures like Truman Capote anymore.

BONUS:

As Hannibal said, “I love it when a plan comes together.”* **

*If you catch the old reference, your childhood was wasted, too.

**If you catch the new reference, you’ve recently wasted a couple of hours at the movie theater.

Filed under: Writers, A-Team, Truman Capote, writers

06/15/2010 • 12:34 PM 0

I resolve to be a better supervillain, uh, no, I mean, writer.

Amidst a flurry of productivity pumping out short stories lately I was reminded of a book I read a long time ago. Had I heeded its message when I read it I would have several books behind me by now.

The book is The War of Art, Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield. (Highly recommended!) One key is, treat it like it’s a job. You don’t wait for time to surface, you dive deep to get it. You don’t wait for inspiration to strike, you assume inspiration will appear once you start typing (sadly this never happened for the writers of Sex & the City, the story of three hookers and their transvestite dad, Kim Cattrail.)

Don’t be a dilettante. Establish a writing schedule and stick to it.