The Author's Desk

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

The centre of the madness, the eye of the storm ... where the Cortii series is written, edited, and not infrequently sworn about.

Almost out of shot to the right, there is a cat shelf. It's a cat shelf because we are what we most frequently do (~Aristotle), and what that shelf most frequently does is serve as a depository for furry, mobile writer's blocks. While their preferred spot is, of course, front and centre between me and the screen (and preferably on the keyboard), the shelf is an acceptable staging point for a rather miffed wash before staging another assault on the walls of my concentration.

Other important aspects are the skull, used for conjuring lost files (yes, it's a USB hub), the speakers, and not least, the remote-controlled flying fuck helicopter (because I can give one occasionally, but frequently need to provide photographic evidence).

Along the top shelf are the ring binders holding old manuscripts (otherwise known as editing inspiration - I look at these relics and immediately feel better about my current writing), and my rear-view mirror, currently completely useless because no one can sneak up behind me unless they can walk through walls. However, it's a great idea and I like it, which is why it's there.

Aside from the computer itself, the huge, sound-deadening headphones are a vital component of writing or editing. With those on and the metal playing, the only things that can distract me is a strategically-applied claw to my rear or the inevitable passage of tea through my system.

Because 3-D cameras are a cool idea but I don't have one, I've included the view facing in exactly the opposite direction. This is the display of other assorted detritus that I like to play with and think about when I'm procrastinating, which includes a wakizashi, shells from the Caribbean, a Japanese teapot (when not in use), proof copies of Through the Hostage and Fighting Shadows, a lot of sealing wax, and my Australian hat. Oh, and a bunch of assorted books on writing, WordPress, meditation, etc. that I like to have handy but that don't really fit in the library downstairs (because we've got somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 books down there already and we need to buy a new shelf. Or three.)

I'm considering adding a warning sign on the door for when I'm working. Feel free to send suggestions.

World-building in the Cortii series

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

OK, so here’s the big, dirty secret when it comes to world-building in the Cortii series: I didn’t ‘plan’ the Cortii.

The society evolved naturally as I went through the drafts of the first few books in the series, and if I’m being honest, the characters and the situations they find themselves in have really guided all of the world-building I’ve done since on the Cortii. Essentially, I discovered Cortiian society almost exactly as a reader would; by interacting with my characters.

Case study: Khyria Ilan

Khyria was the character who initially lodged herself in my head and demanded to have her story told. From memory, I started telling myself ‘Khyria’ stories at about the age of six, maybe seven. While it took another seven years for me to actually take the step of writing any of these stories down, the core of the character had existed in my head for a long time.

When I was a child, the main facet of the character was that she rode a huge black horse. (I was six. Anything over St. Bernard size qualified as huge.) Growing up on a boat meant that I’d never been anywhere near a horse. This made the Khyria character exotic from the start, where I was concerned.

When I ended up in boarding school, the stories became my talisman against boredom in class, isolation, forcibly staying in one place, and insomnia. Because I was spending so much more time day-dreaming, the Khyria character evolved rapidly, as did her surroundings. This was probably when most of the ‘world-building’ for the Cortii really occurred.

I discovered in short order that Khyria was a fighter. That fell into place from a number of sources; the character had never been passive. She had always been competent and self-assured in my head; in my first year in formal schooling I found out why. Being able to kill someone with your bare hands in the time it takes most people to blink tends to allow a character to broadcast confidence and assurance. For the record, the school I was in at that point was a Quaker school. It wasn’t until I went to university that I was able to take up martial arts or study any kind of combative skill, so the character remained pretty damn exotic to me.

That Khyria was a mercenary followed fairly naturally from that discovery. Her setting wasn’t regulated in the way that standard armed forces usually are. The stories she ended up in reflected an inherently violent environment, and a lot of the brutality stemmed from the authority figures, which showed in Khyria’s distrust of and wariness for the Councils.

Developing the Councils led to other things. Clearly Khyria wasn’t still alive because of her good looks, so she required people who provided unofficial equipment, people who provided information, and at least a few people able and willing to provide physical back-up on occasion. In an environment where the commanders were that corrupt, there would also be people willing to profit from the chaos and use blackmail as leverage. Over the next couple of years, writing Through the Hostage and Fighting Shadows, I met more of Khyria’s inner circle, both allies and enemies.

As far as world-building goes, the technique has proven to be remarkably effective. I rarely write myself into a plothole. Not never, but rarely. Most of the basics where Khyria are concerned are things I’ve been playing with the concepts for for so long that if I find myself with a question, my memory usually coughs up a flash card pretty fast. It wasn’t until I’d published my first book that I actually started keeping written notes on details to do with my world and my characters that went beyond a basic vocabulary.

The other payoff, which I didn’t actually realise was a payoff until I did a lot more formal research on writing as an art form, came when I realised that a lot of authors start with world-building, and then end up having to figure out things such as there’s no possible reason for their hero’s major city (for example) to be a major city aside from the fact that their hero starts his life there (no trade, no travel, no supplies, or some similar list of grievances) – and they discover this after they’ve started writing. Since I started with a character, and her surroundings grew organically from interacting with her (as you can see at the end of my case study), I didn’t have those types of problems.

There were mutations. When I first came across the akrushkari in a story, I came across them in the context of torture and a secure cell. It took a bit more of the story to find out that they were actually under command of the Councils, and a bit more again to find out what else they did, what their origins were, etc. However, because of my bass-ackwards world-building, I didn’t have to invent them in isolation. As soon as I came across the Councils in a story, it was immediately obvious to me that if the leadership of a mercenary culture that proficient was that autocratic and that sociopathic, there had to be some very tangible reasons why they were still alive and in power.

In case it hasn’t become apparent from all this: as writers go, I’m not a plotter.

Author website transition

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

… boldly going where no reader has gone before.

Today officially marks the day when I change over all my various links and redirects to the cool, new, jcsteelauthor.com author website. Well, that’s the plan. In real life, it’s going to take a few days of thinking I’m done, remembering I forget such-and-such a site, and going into a flurry of profile editing.

WordPress was a new learning opportunity for me, and a new learning opportunity for my neighbours as I explored my vocabulary of profanities through WordPress’s purportedly user-friendly, simple, and intuitive user interface.

However, after a four-week learning curve, welcome to my new author website. I hope you like it, and I hope you find out new and fascinating things about the Cortii and Wildcat Cortia in particular.
There will be more links coming over the next few weeks, most especially a contact form. There is also an e-store in the works to supplement the links to all the third-party retailers where you can pick up a copy of the Cortii novels – and of course, MOAR blog posts.

In the meantime, enjoy the site, and if you want to chat, come and find me on any of my social media networks!

• Goodreads
• Twitter
• Facebook

Don't annoy your readers - self-editing for dummies

Readers are picky beasts, and just because they couldn't necessarily correct your writing, it doesn't mean that they can't recognise and be annoyed by constant technical issues. Leave enough editorial screw-ups in your manuscript, and not only will you lose readers, but arsehole book reviewers, like me, will call you on it in public. Actually, so will Amazon.

Yes, editing is expensive - or time-consuming. And boring, for the most part. But no, people won't cut you slack just because you're indie - and nor should they have to.

When you publish a book, you're producing something you've spent months or years on. You owe it to yourself, not to mention your readers, the respect of doing it properly.

You may not be able to afford to have your 350-page manuscript professionally edited at $45/hour.

However, there are a number of things you can do yourself.

Will this self-editing be as good as having it done professionally? No, probably not. But at least you can minimise the chance that someone's going to use your precious manuscript for toilet paper because the typos, homophones, and other easily-avoidable technical eff-ups are making their brains hurt.

Step 1: Eliminate the obvious

I use MS Word, but whatever word-processing tool you use, either find the native spellcheck option or mug someone for their computer and load your MS up into software that has one.

1.  Highlight your entire MS. (In Word, Ctrl+A.)
2. Select the dialect of English (or whatever language you're in) that you want your MS to use. I use UK English.
3. Go through your entire MS and check out all the errors. 
• If a word, phrase or sentence has a coloured line under it, that means you either have a spelling error or a grammar error - or the spellcheck thinks that you do.
• If you write fantasy / sci-fi, or some other genre that you've made up words for, I recommend adding them to your dictionary. It saves you having to 'ignore' them several times a page.
• Spellchecks can be wrong. If you aren't certain that your red, blue or green wavy underline is actually right, go online and do your research.
• Spellcheck, for the most part, will not catch homophones (words that sound identical but mean different things). You're going to need to figure out that a horse doesn't have reigns yourself.

Step 2:  Use your brain

Go back up to the very first sentence in your MS. You know, the one you hoped never to see again, because you agonised over it for weeks.

1. Re-read your entire MS. Don't skim. Read it as a reader.
• If a sentence makes you pause, highlight it. 
• If you see an error you missed and the spellcheck missed, either fix it or highlight it. 
• If something doesn't seem logical, highlight it (possible plothole).
• If you find yourself starting to skim, ask yourself if it's because you've inserted four words, four paragraphs, or four pages of unnecessary yak. Highlight it.
• Does your scene suddenly change view-points? Highlight it. 
• Got sections where the hero's rugged face took on a look of surprised dismay before he began to reach out to gently touch the heroine's velvety, petal-like cheek? Highlight 'em.
• Be consistent. If you hyphenated 'cloud-filled' in chapter 1, hyphenate it in chapter 20. If you spelt it 'adrenalin' in chapter 3, don't use 'adrenaline' in chapter 4. 
• If you find yourself wondering about a word or words each time, make a list of the things you keep having to back-check on and use the list to stay consistent.
2. Go back over all the sections you higlighted.  
• Could you rephrase the sentence / paragraph / section to get rid of whatever made you uneasy when you read it? For example, have you used the same sentence structure multiple times in a row? Is there a pet word that you've just used too often? Is the sentence structure just clunky?
• Get all the weird and wonderful things that spellcheck missed and you highlighted. Spellchecks are tools, not a substitute for your brain.
• Check the places where something struck you as not logical or missing something. Maybe you need to add an explanation or tie up a loose thread. 
• Check the spots were your eyes started to unfocus. Do you really need them in the book? Or are they pacing disasters that are going to put your reader to sleep?
• Check your point of view. If you needed and planned to head hop, fine. If you're just slipping from one character to another at random, or sliding into the omniscient view-point, re-write.
• If you think that a lot of adjectives and adverbs enrich your writing, please think again. They're like spice. Add none, and you're bland. Add a bit, and you're great. Add too much and you need to start freezing toilet rolls.

Step 3: Use someone else's brain

 

Yep. Really. Even if you can't afford a full edit (we get it: they're expensive), there are a number of options that won't cost you $3,000-plus.

1. Beta readers. Get some. Beta readers are free, if occasionally difficult to come by. Ideally they should be people who read your genre, but who don't know you, don't care about you, have never seen your manuscript before, and will tell you the absolute truth. Try Goodreads as well as the options in the other links.
• Give them some guidance (The Killzone Blog questionnaire is a good start)
• Give them a timeline
• Give them a free copy of your spell-checked, re-read, re-edited manuscript
2. Get a manuscript critique, or partial manuscript critique. This may probably will cost money, but it'll be double digits to low hundreds money, not thousands. 
3. Friends / family. Not ideal because they will for the most part want avoid hurting your feelings, but they're usually easy to come by. Again, if you choose to go this route, give them some guidance (like the Killzone Blog questionnaire). Tell them when you need the feedback by. 
4. Join a writers' group. Again, the standard on these varies wildly, but they're another free option to get some feedback.
5. Read some bloggers who publish editorial hints and tips. Here are a few to get you started:
• Erindor Press
• Killzone
• Live Write Thrive

Most important: while the manuscript is out with your critiquers / beta readers / Aunty Mae ... don't open it, don't edit it, don't read it, don't think about it. 

Step 4: Use your brain some more

 

First off: Thank your betas / friends / family. You're not obliged to agree with what they had to say, but all these people did donate their time to try and help you.

And now ... oh yes. Now that you've got your beta read feedback, your manuscript critique, your Aunty Mae's 4,000 word essay on why she never reads science-fiction except when it's yours ... grab a beer / cup of tea / relaxing beverage of choice and open up all the emails / documents / spreadsheets where people have taken their best shots.

Throw a pity-party, get over it, and spend a few profitable and possibly pleasurable minutes duct-taping your ego to the bedframe. I'm not judging.

Then, go through all the feedback. I recommend sorting it into at least two categories (1) things everyone, or more than one, of your sources is saying; and (2) the things only one person has noted.

If more than one person has highlighted something, put a big red circle around it for serious consideration. If only one person has it as a pain-point, well, it's worth considering, but not agonising over.

Now ... 

Yup! You're going to read your manuscript again!

The good news is, the time while your readers were doing their thing means you haven't seen it in a while. That means you will have got a bit of distance from it and you'll probably be much more efficient (and ruthless) with the remaining errors.

Re-read it with the feedback, especially with the feedback where multiple people had the same thing to say. Implement what you feel needs implementing.

Keep in mind, however, the beauty of being indie: if you truly feel, after reviewing a bit of feedback and your book that you prefer your original set-up ... well, you're indie. Your call.

Now that you've added, deleted, struck scenes out altogether, spell-check it again. (You remember how that works, we did this already.)

Then, if you're using Track Changes, get the final view, or print out a clean copy, or copy the whole thing into a 5x8 print template - make it look totally new and different - and repeat Step 2.

Step 5: Publish your masterpiece

This is the easy bit, right? You've got your cover, you've decided if you're going Kindle Select, or Kindle and everywhere else you can get your book formatted for, you know if you want to do print-on-demand or not ...

Good luck and thank you from all your prospective, un-pissed-off readers.

What makes a good book?

Don't look at me, I don't have the definitive answer. I like sci-fi anti-heroes that swear like sailors and definitely will stab you in the back, so my taste in literature is idiosyncratic to say the least.

But I do know what a lot of people think we, indie authors, don't have - a properly finished product. We get bashed (a lot) for stick-figure covers, editing where it looks as if we've treated punctuation like a game of 'pin the comma on the sentence', formats that make your eyes cross ... you name it, we've probably been bashed for it. Sometimes, because professional editing / critiques are just so damn' expensive, we don't even know what needs fixing because we've never been told it's an issue. I've had a lot of people respond to a review with something along the lines of: "Thanks, man, I didn't even know about that one."

So I was excited, relieved, and enthusiastic when I came across the blokes over at Indie Book Screener (http://www.bookscreener.com/).

Why all the noise, you ask? Fair enough. I got all excited because they're a one-stop-shop for a response to indie-bashing (at least on the technical side of things).

Indie Book Screener evaluates the sample of your book on Amazon (no cost, at least right now) and gives a rating for the cover, the formatting, and the quality of the editing, which they then publish on their website with the cover and a buy link (yup, free publicity, ain't life grand?).

Here's what they had to say about Through the Hostage as a sample. Given that I do everything except my covers myself, I was a very happy author that morning. If you ask nicely, they'll even give you a few extra details on what they based your rating on, which is really, really valuable.

I'm hoping they stay around. Let's help them help us.

Myers-Briggs and the INTJ author

Since I'm an author, Q.E.D. I have a day job that provides the money to keep me sheltered and fed while I write. Since said day job is in an office, I've been exposed to various personality tests etc. that are supposed to improve my interaction with my co-workers and supposedly let me know how best to manage myself.

One of these tests was, of course, the Myers-Briggs test, based on the work of Charles Jung. According to Wikipedia, this is 'designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.'

Turns out I'm INTJ. I also write quite a lot of INTJ-type characters. My principal in my sci-fi series is an INTJ woman. As per Elizabeth Craig's rather awesome post, these are the character that most authors get wrong ... mostly because they're so damn rare. About 2% of the population are INTJ, and it is the rarest type, end of story, for females. (Yes, there are a lot of links. Suck it up, it's all educational.)

In the shortest form possible, INTJs are highly dominant types who have no desire to lead. The INTJ is also, on average, the personality type correlating to the highest IQ segment. Think dominant, intelligent, arrogant arseholes who really don't like having to deal with people and you're pretty close. This meme pretty neatly encapsulates the INTJ outlook. They may make great villains, but in my view, they make even better anti-heroes.

So, for me, being an author is pretty awesome. An author, by definition, is not a social creature. An author's ideal world includes a screen and keyboard, a massive amount of books, tea (or caffeinated beverage of choice), and food. It doesn't include, as a general rule, other people. An author also isn't, generally, required to explain how their head works to other people (whose intellect, in the viewpoint of an INTJ, may not be able to keep up anyway) - they can simply point to the book and say: "Read, and ye may be enlightened."

Being an INTJ author is also pretty awesome because it gives me a leg up on the twisted inner workings of the INTJ character type.

Again referring to Elizabeth Craig's awesome post (see above), they are voted best villain every time. For most people, they're also really, really tough to write. Fair enough. I mean, a strongly dominant personality who really, really, doesn't want to lead? A character who evaluates and correlates input, making almost instantaneous judgement calls based on those evaluations - and, this is the kicker, does it more or less automatically, so the data that led to those decisions is never going to be 100% clear to the supporting characters? I absolutely do understand why these people are difficult to write - and how it could be almost worse trying to integrate them and the reactions they elicit with the other characters in the storyline. 

These types generate confusion. They arouse resentment, even anger. They frequently elicit avoidance tactics. As my sci-fi series is set in a  mercenary cult, my principal not infrequently attracts gunfire. Even the side they're theoretically on will almost certainly suffer the urge to murder these characters on a daily basis.

However, due to the flip side of an INTJ, these homicidal urges are going to be tempered, for the most part, by the fact that these people are really useful. They're (mostly) unpleasantly intelligent, they're capable of absorbing complex concepts in the blink of an eye, and they're decisive. These traits also mean you need to get up very early if you expect your assassination attempts to be successful. Since INTJs also have issues with forgiving, and they're more or less incapable of forgetting, if your plot includes an attempt to take out an INTJ, make sure it succeeds first time, because otherwise that INTJ is going to make you a personal project.

All in all, I find this personality type a lot of fun. They can throw fantastically rich wrinkles into any part of the plot from the personal to the galactic levels. Here are some very brief pointers that may be useful if you're planning an INTJ character:

Do:

• drop them in strife. INTJ characters have all the personality traits to deal with life-threatening situations. Think war, disaster, apocalypse. These people are human cockroaches.
• use them as villains. Oh yes. Machiavelli was an amateur.
• use them as anti-hero types. They're not nice people, but they will do the right thing - under the right circumstances, well past the point of ruthlessness.
• use them as lone-wolf characters. INTJs really don't like other people much.
• use them as hermits. The 'I' part of INTJ makes that quite effective.
• match them either with laid-back types who are fast on the uptake, or against loud-mouth boasters. (Trophy tip if you're planning a female INTJ, that last.)
• capitalise intelligence / earned respect /  loyalty. These are traits an INTJ will get.

Don't:

• try and write them as social butterflies. Really. Doesn't work.
• write them good little settled family types. Apocalyptic, suicidal levels of boredom will ensue.
• try and make them understanding of others. They're not. INTJs are like Sherlock Holmes on crack.
• make them seek the approval of others. Mostly, they could care less provided they're left alone.
• try and make them value empty words, sparkles and rainbows, or faulty logic. Nothing will get an INTJ disinterested quicker.

Writer's block? - Rarely. Editor's block? - Frequently.

So writer's block is pretty much like erectile dysfunction - there's a lot of remedies out there, from the snake oils to positive mental attitude.

For me, this is a good news / bad news thing. The good news is, I very rarely (long may that last) suffer from writer's block. The bad news: the thing I do find myself suffering from, which could probably be described as editor's block, has no listed remedies.

Symptoms of editor's block (correctus petrificus) include: staring blankly at a draft; spending inordinate amounts of time on social media; writing copious amounts of another first draft(s); baking; doing housework.

It's not pretty. Especially those last two. Partly because editor's block side-effects include the attention span of a fruit fly on crack (I mentioned social media already, yes?).

Solutions range from the 'nuke the ground and salt the earth' options right through to sitting down and trying to adult my way through it (see my post on 'Scene it here?'), and vary in successfulness depending, really, on which way the wind is blowing.

Topical application of ginger beer also helps.

Option 1: Nuke'em!

At this point, I take a fresh document, run it side by side with the draft that I can't edit any more, and start re-typing the draft into a fresh manuscript. This is a drastic and very long-winded approach, and not one I use often. Downsides: you're re-writing an entire manuscript. Not for the faint of heart or those on a hard deadline. Upside: occasionally my fingers have wandered off in fruitful new directions using this approach and spawned entire new (and much better) storylines.

Option 2: Call the external contractor!

Persuade, bribe, or threaten someone else into reading it. Upside: A fresh set of eyes (a) means you aren't looking at it for a week or so, and (b) a fresh set of eyes will see things you've missed - no matter how good an author / editor you are. Even if your reader isn't an editor, they'll ask questions that require fresh pieces added / deleted / clarified, which may shift your block. Downside: you need a willing victim.

Option 3: Put your big-editor pants on!

Take a scene. Edit the hell out of it. Reward yourself with ginger beer. Repeat. Downside: requires dedication and ginger beer. Upside: the edit gets done and you get ginger beer.

Option 4: Sod this!

Go and write something else for a while. Upside: you get some writing done. Downside: your edit is still waiting for you.