Good morning, Readers!

I was having dinner with a friend of mine the other day, complaining about what I've currently got written in Outcast.  Halfway through the complaining, an idea hit me about how to spice up the beginning of the book.

The problem with Outcast is that is has a lot of slow moments.  Unlike Soldier, this one is mostly set in a castle.  The main character is recovering from a serious injury.  The major conflict here is political.  It's clashes between people in power with barely a sword drawn.  If done well, it'll hold people's attention and keep them tense.  If done poorly, it's SO BORING OMFG I WANT TO GOUGE MY OWN EYES OUT.

Ahem.

Aaaaaanyway...

I'm fairly comfortable writing battle scenes.  I can manage that pretty well.  I'm fine with decapitation and spilled guts, unfathomable fatigue and numbness and all of that in-battle stuff.  I'm terrible at politics, and so writing it is frustrating me a bit.

I think the angle I'm going for is wrong.  I'm trying for political, I think I need to go more horror.

I was complaining about this to my friend, when a scene just popped fully formed into my head.  I think starting the book off with this scene will set a much better, much darker tone to the story, and might help me moving forward.

Weird, how inspiration strikes.  I was literally mid-sentence when it struck, and I had to stop speaking just to write the idea down in my notebook, before I could continue.  The conversation changed after that, obviously.  I didn't have anything to complain about.  I might, a little later on, be complaining about the same thing.  We'll see how today's writing goes.

And on that note, I must go and get to work.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

This weekend was great.  Some of my kickboxing students and I participated in the Ottawa 5K Foam Fest run on Saturday.

It was a perfect day for running; clear and warm, without being ridiculously hot, and the atmosphere was absolutely great.  There were four of us in our team; myself and three of my students, and we were stoked to be there.  All of us were looking forward to getting silly and grubby.

The run itself was great.  Despite my injured foot, and my lack of training (due to said injured foot), I was able to run, and I ran well.  Normally, running is a slog, but for some reason that day, it was the best.  Remember when you could run forever when you were a kid, and it felt good?  Like breathing and feet and hands were all so perfectly in sync that it almost felt like you were flying?  That was me on Saturday.  It felt really, really good to run.

I think that trail running might be my running thing.  Running on a treadmill, or on pavement in the city is dull as watching paint dry.  But running through a forest on a trail is actually really great.

Also, the obstacles were so much fun, and I honestly wish there was a permanent obstacle course for public use somewhere in the Ottawa region.

As to how it compares to the other obstacle course races I've done, I much preferred this one.  The focus here was on silly fun.  You weren't timed.  It didn't matter if it took you all day to finish the course.  The point was to get out and have fun.  And it was.  The Spartan Race was a lot more... competitive.  I felt judged while on the course for not being great at the obstacles.   Which is fine, if that's what you're after.  I'm not.  I'm after a challenge, sure.  But I'm also much more interested in having fun.  The Badass Dash was one of those ones that was much more fun and less competitive, but between the two, I still much prefer the Foam Fest.  The great company helped, I think.

Unfortunately, we lost one of our teammates after the fourth obstacle.  She slipped in the mud, and broke her ankle.  By the gods, she was a trooper, though; all smiles when we met her at the medical tent after the completion of the run (she didn't want us to accompany her back to medical from the site of injury).  We were all hoping it was just a bad sprain.  I got a message later that day that it was, in fact, a break.

I feel awful, because it happened on my watch.  As team captain, I am responsible for my team members, and the injury on course is partly my fault.  She's out for two months with a cast on, and then it'll be careful training to build up her strength around the injury again.  I'm determined to be there for her whenever she needs it.  It's the least I can do.

That's what I was up to this weekend.

Right, I have to get to work.  My goal for writing this week is another ten thousand.  Let's see if I can get my manuscript up to the 20% complete mark!

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I am writing again.

The story I'm currently working on is Outcast, book two of The Great Man series (the first, Soldier, is currently languishing in submission hell).

I started in earnest last week, but after three thousand words, I found myself utterly demoralised.  It was three thousand words of utter crap, and I hated it.  I HATED IT.  I ended up scrapping everything I had written and tried again.

The rewritten prologue was much better.  I still don't think it's good, but it is good enough to permit me to continue writing.  I'm not happy with what I've got thus far, but hopefully that's just me holding myself to impossible standards and it's actually fine.

After four writing days I have just under seven thousand words.  It is my hope to reach ten thousand by the end of this week.  If I was up to snuff, I would have twelve thousand words by now, but I seem to be slowing down in my old age (joking. I'm only old for a Hollywood actor).  I really miss the days when writing three thousand words in a day was easy for me.

Still, it's good to be to writing after all that editing, and submissions preparation, and website updates, and all the work surrounding writing and publishing that isn't, in fact, writing itself.  If only I could split myself in two and and one of me take care of the surrounding stuff, and the other me can handle to writing part.

I've had worse ideas, let's be honest.

Right, I have to get to work now.  I hope you're all well.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

With nothing really exciting to talk about (the final edits for Skylark are done and handed in, and there is obviously no news yet on Soldier), I thought I'd talk about something I tried and was skeptical of, and was pleasantly surprised by.

And that's Lush's shampoo bar.

I go through shampoo really quickly, on account of my swimming and needing to wash the chlorine from my head every second day.  I felt a little guilty about all the plastic bottles I was throwing away, and the shampoo bar offered me a small way to cut back on the waste I personally produce.  The shampoo bar doesn't come with any packaging.  You have to by a small round tin to carry the thing in.

I chose the bar titled Jason and the Argan Oil not least of all because of the name, but also because it contained argan oil.  I don't use conditioner (I stopped a long while ago, and found that my hair has improved without it), but I do need plenty of moisture for my hair.  My previous shampoo also had argan oil, and I really liked it.  I was looking for something similar.

The reviews were all pretty positive, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I bought it (and the little round tin), and I've been using it for about a week or so now.

I honestly did not think it was up to the task.  Well, guys, my hair is so soft.  Even though I swim every second day and get chlorine in my hair a lot.  This shampoo bar, it really works.

For the record, I have baby fine hair (like stupidly fine), but there's lots of it.  I cannot speak to how this shampoo bar will work for other hair types.

Still, consider me impressed.

I really like that because this shampoo is solid, you can move it around your head and get it into places that liquid shampoo doesn't seem to go easily.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but I've always had problems getting the hair the the bottom back of the head properly cleaned without using a copious amount of shampoo.  It always winds up still a little oily after a wash.

Despite being solid, it works up a great lather, and it really does clean well.  It doesn't have that weird, slick feeling of conditioner after the shower.  My hair is squeaky clean.  But once dry, however, my hair gets really soft.

The fragrance could be better.  I wish it smelled more like roses and less like jam (the scent is literally called rose jam), but that is a small gripe.  It's not terrible, just a little... jammier than I would like.  They promote it as smelling a little of lemon-rose, which would be an amazing combination if that's what it actually smelled like.  It does not.

So, yeah.  I'd recommend this one, guys.  It does the job, my hair feels great, and I feel a bit better for cutting back a little bit on the waste I'm producing.  On step at a time, not matter how small.

If you're interested in trying it for yourself, you can check out their full line of solid shampoos here.  This post was not sponsored.  Promise.

Right, I have work to do.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

You've finished your manuscript.  It's all shiny and new, and after months of feeling like crap about it, you finally feel accomplished.  It's your baby.  Now it's ready to be published!

No.  No, it's not.  It's not even close.

You need beta readers.

Luckily for you, beta reading is done for free.  But it does take time and patience and some toughening up.  Here are some things that I try to keep in mind when I send stuff off to beta readers.

The first is to find beta readers that you trust to do the job well.  You'll want honest, helpful people.  As tempting as it is, you don't want people who will just gush meaningless praise all over your manuscript.  I know I always get extremely suspicious. The point of beta reading is to improve.  You can't do that if you consistently surround yourself with hapless sycophants.  By the same token, you don't have to put up with people who offer nothing more than, "this is crap."  Beta readers don't exist to take you down a peg.  Their job is to take your writing and point out things that do and don't work.

It may take some shopping around.  You might have a bad experience or two.  The hunt is worth it.  A good crew of beta readers will really help forge you into a better writer.  I know I owe mine everything.  So, do the work, find your crew.

Once you've found your beta readers, there are some courtesy things that I feel are important.  Try to ensure that your manuscript is as clean as possible.  I'm terrible at self-editing, so I struggle with this one.  I still try to make sure that there are as few spelling and punctuation errors as I can before sending it off to my beta readers.  There are two reasons for this.

One, readers can often be distracted if the errors are too many or too egregious and they stop concentrating on the things they're supposed to be concentrating on and focus on the things that don't matter at this stage of the manuscript's life.  I would much prefer they concentrate on ensuring the story/characters/timeline/whatever.

The other reason is that I think it's just good manners.

To achieve this I do three editing passes myself before I feel the manuscript is decent enough to be sent off to others.  I put the thing away for a couple of weeks and work on something else.  Then I edit it, put it away again, and edit it again.  Somewhere in those three edits, I take the time to have the computer read the text back to me.  It is so helpful to me to hear the thing out loud.  It's not fool-proof, but it helps.

Once you've edited your manuscript, it's time to send it off into the world for criticism.  Gulp.

This is not easy.  I struggled with it a lot my first few times.  There are some things you will have to practice if you're going to get through this stage with any grace whatsoever.

The first thing to practice is patience.

Patience.

I'm terrible at it.  However, you have to remember that your beta readers have lives and projects of their own.  And their doing you a huge favour by agreeing to take on your book.  Don't expect to receive word of their  thoughts on your manuscript any time soon.  You might be anxious to send the book out to agents and publishers, but rushing the beta process will almost always guarantee failure at the submission stage.  Give your beta readers the space to work.

If you have a deadline, let them know before you send the book to them, and don't get upset if it's too tight for them and they have to decline.  A month is usually a reasonable deadline, but be prepared to give them more.  These are volunteers, not your slaves.

I know it's tough.  My first few times, I had to fight hard to resist the urge to send follow-up emails every week after sending of a manuscript.

The worst part is, that's not even the worst part.  That comes when the feedback arrives in your inbox.

Criticism is hard, even if it's done gently and with the most tact in the world.  It can feel deeply personal, whether it is or not, especially since you've poured so much time and effort and soul into your manuscript.  It took me longer than it should have to be able to separate self from work when accepting criticism on my manuscripts.  Sometimes I still get a little wounded when reading criticism, but I've developed the ability to pull back and get a grip when I feel that coming on.

You will have to find that same distance.  Your manuscript is not you, and criticisms of that manuscript are not criticisms of you.  It's easier said than done, but if you want to improve your craft, you're going to have to find a way.

To that end, flipping out at a beta reader for any of their notes is an enormous no-no.  Don't do it.  Lashing out because you're feeling wounded over a criticism is a quick way to lose a beta reader... or many, if your readers know one another.  You might vehemently disagree with their notes, and that disagreement may even be free of ego, but emailing or calling a beta reader to tell them they're wrong is a really stupid idea.  Don't do it.

That doesn't mean you absolutely must agree with them, either.  You can disagree with a beta readers note/s.  If that's that case, all you have to do is ignore it.  Do take the time to think on it thoroughly.  If you still feel the note has little merit, you can absolutely ignore it.  It's your manuscript.  You may do whatever you wish with it.

A good rule of thumb for ignoring or accepting notes is this: if multiple readers have the same or similar notes, it's a problem and you really should change it.  That happened recently with my Soldier manuscript.  All three readers made the same note at the same spot.  I definitely needed to change it up.

Your manuscript is something you should be proud of.  You've written a book.  Not everyone can say the same.  Not even everyone who has tried can say they've succeeded.  It's a huge accomplishment, and you should be proud.

Now you must set aside your pride, and ask for help to make this manuscript the best it possibly can be.  You must accept that help, and try to do so with grace.

And once you've received that help, make sure you thank those who have helped you.  They've gone out of their way to try and help you succeed.  They didn't have to.

This is the end of my beta reading serial.  Is there anything else you want me to write about? Let me know in the comments below.  Until then, I have work to do.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Quicky Skylark update before we get on with today's blog post. I received the final round of edits from Renaissance Press.  I will be doing that today, after I make notes on the story stuff for Outcast that hit me as I was showering last night.

Now, onto more about beat reading.

Perhaps you want to open yourself up to being a beta reader, or a friend of yours has asked you to become one for their latest manuscript.  For some reason, you've agreed, even though you've never done this before and you have no idea what the hell you're doing.

Don't freak out!

There are a few things to keep in mind for the job you have agreed to.  The first is that beta reading is voluntary.  You shouldn't expect to get paid for it.  You are doing it out of the goodness of your heart and a genuine desire to see your friend succeed.  If you're not coming at it from this angle, perhaps you should decline the job.

Next, beta reading is not an editing job.  Editor is a paid position, and it's not your job to comb through the manuscript looking for spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes.  I mean, you can, if you feel up for it, but that's not really the function of a beta reader.  Your job is to comment on the story and the characters, the timeline and perhaps even the flow of text and make sure that it makes sense; that the characters behave in believable ways, given what you know of them, and that the time of year doesn't change from on paragraph to the other in the same scene (and other such things).

The last thing that you much remember is that as a beta reader, your opinion on the manuscript is simply that; your opinion.  A writer can take these opinions on board and change their manuscript accordingly, or they may disagree with you and so no implement any or all of the changes you suggest.  That is at their discretion.  Try not to get offended if that happens.  It certainly does not mean that the writer doesn't value the work you've put in to beta reading for them.  We do. Absolutely.

But this manuscript is not yours.  It's the writer's.  It's for them to do with as they will.

With that in mind, here are some things that I do and do not do when I'm beta reading.  You may take these a guidelines for your own workflow, or you may decide to do something completely different.

The first and most important thing to do is be honest.  Your job is to give your opinion on what you think would make a manuscript/story stronger.  Some manuscripts are really rough when you get them (that's why it's called a rough draft, folks), and they may require a lot more work than the writer thought when handing the manuscript over to you.  That's alright.  It's your job to let the writer know.

That said, be tactful.  It's entirely possible to be honest without eviscerating the soul of the writer you're reading.  Do not be aggressive, or haughty, or condescending.  I mean, unless you want to make your friend cry themselves to sleep at night.

Do explain why something doesn't work for you, don't just say that it doesn't work.  That doesn't help anyone.  Explain why something in the manuscript doesn't work.  For example, I beta read a story where, at the end, the protagonist just trusts her new boss, despite being betrayed by her old boss and damned near killed by him.  That didn't work for me, so I explained why.  Whether or not the writer agrees and changes it is entirely up to them, and honestly it's not my business.

Sometimes it might help to offer suggestions as to how to fix a problem.  I've offered ideas that are sometimes simple (like switching paragraphs to make it flow better and remove the confusion about timelines), or suggesting that a writer insert a paragraph or change up a sentence (with examples) to clarify meaning.  I do so fully knowing that they might not take my suggestions at all, and I always present them as something to consider doing rather than something that must be done.

For this reason, all of my notes are done in 'comments' (MS Word) rather than in-line changes.  In-line changes to me are too damned confusing to read, so I try not to inflict that on others.  Even notes on punctuation, spelling and grammar are done in comments.  This is very particular to me, though.

I despise in-line edits.

Do not rewrite the thing yourself.  Ever.  It is not your story.  The way you would manage a particular plot point/scene/paragraph/whatever is not the way they would do it.  Sometimes a writer made a very deliberate choice with regards to whatever you think is an issue, and they'd like to keep it that way for a very specific reason.  It's alright if that doesn't work for you.  Simply make a note that it doesn't, explain why, and maybe offer a helpful solution.  But don't ever rewrite the thing yourself.  Voice is important in writing.  It's kind of an unconscious, unseen signature of the writer.  Their voice is not yours.  You must be conscious of this fact as you're going through your beta reading duties.

I cannot stress this particular point enough.

Lastly, do point out places that were really great, things that really worked for you, and why.  These help the writer bear the weight of a bunch of criticisms. Criticism is hard to take, no matter how constructive or tactfully put, and so writing little bits of encouragement or praise where appropriate is helpful to keep the writer from giving up entirely, and it can also be instructive about the right way to go about things for future books.  Praise in this way is just as valuable as constructive criticism.

There, that's everything I try to keep in mind as I beta read another's manuscript.  I hope this was helpful to anyone who has been or will be beta reading.  For the old pros, have I missed anything?  Are there things you do or look out for while beta reading?  Leave all your tips and tricks in the comments below.

Now I'm off to make story notes, and then to editing.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

It's Friday. I don't normally post on on a Friday, but since I missed so much over the past couple of weeks, I am posting now to try and make up for it.  Today, I wanted to talk about beta reading.

Beta reading is quite different to sensitivity reading, in my mind.  In sensitivity reading, the writer is looking to make sure that they've represented minorities correctly, and haven't done anything that might be insensitive or contribute to the terrible misrepresentation of that particular community.  If you have any minorities in your manuscript at all, I cannot, CANNOT recommend sensitivity readers enough.  They're important if you care about people at all.  They'll let  you know if you've miss-stepped, and you can fix it.

Beta readers are somewhat broader than that.  They're there, should you choose, to make sure that your overall story makes sense, that your characters remain, well, in character, that your timeline isn't all screwy and so forth.  They're not necessarily focused on the representation of any particular community (though that is not necessarily out of their purview, either).

They are there to provide constructive criticism of your manuscript, to make you a better writer, and make your manuscript the best it possibly can be before it's sent off to any editors, acquisitions or otherwise.

What beta readers should not do is tear you down, offer criticism with barbs, provide you with nothing more than simple statements about any issues they have with your work, and, perhaps more importantly, they shouldn't rewrite your stuff to suit them.

Choose your readers carefully.  I've had a couple of bad ones, and they can do a great deal of damage, both to your manuscript and to you, personally.  It might take a bit of fishing and testing to find the beta readers you trust to handle your manuscript with respect, but also challenge you to become a better writer.  That trial and error, however, is definitely worth it.

I would not be half the writer I am without my beta readers.  I owe them so very much.

So, writers, find thyselves a beta reader - preferably more than one.  Three, at minimum.  It's scary sharing your work, and opening it up for criticism, but it will help you so very much.

Next time, I'll talk about my experience with being a beta reader, and some dos and don'ts that I personally abide by.

​Ciao!