Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Episode 106B – MT Bass – Community
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Episode 106B – MT Bass – Community
Overview
MT attributes much of his long term success to being in a good group. Community and hearing from other authors is critical to long term success.
An aspect that is difficult is getting feedback or getting criticized. MT has some words of wisdom for this and we talk about how authors can use groups to improve their craft.
YouTube
https://youtu.be/tTA5KUmOPRE
Transcript
[00:00:48] Stephen: All right. So let's roll into some author stuff because I love talking to people that have been writing. My goal is to talk to authors that aren't know and help get word out, which you fall [00:01:00] into that category where you started off before the whole self publishing thing and you've rolled into it. So what have you learned from when you first started to now, especially with things being so digital, what have you learned that you're doing different?
[00:01:17] MT: Yeah, I'm doing different. Excuse me. The one big thing is nine out instead of. Writing out my pencil on paper, on the college rule paper, I do everything. I do everything direct into a Scribner. That's the program I use. It's a great program. That was one of the best things I bought was a little $19 Bluetooth keyboard.
So I can just sit. And that was a big change. Yeah. Other than that, you just, you gotta get up and write and do it just all the time. And then beyond that, like we were talking earlier trying to build a community people, editors, and [00:02:00] you know, other authors and things like that to spread out because we're all loners.
It's not really a group activity. So we belonged in the Cleveland writers. And that's pretty valuable because Dave is focused on the marketing end of things. So once you have a book and getting it out and promoting it and getting it sold, that's a huge prospect besides just putting together a book so that, so that's valuable, they're coming up with different ideas to promote it.
And then I'm in another group called the west side writers group, which is a small. I think there is five or six of us and we get together the third Saturday, and it's a critique group, which you put out about three or 4,000 words, and then you get a critique on it. That's really important to, you know, to hear what other people perceive about what you're [00:03:00] writing like mysteries.
I know that I know the ending, so I can't pull myself. But you get important feedback about what they think is going to happen. What are the red herrings what's working? What isn't and that's pretty valuable too.
[00:03:17] Stephen: So doing this for a while, I assume checked out other groups or they've come and gone. Why choose these particular groups and stay with
[00:03:26] MT: them?
Like I said, most of the other writing groups I was involved with were critique group. Like the west side writers group, some of them were, their focus was like game of Thrones stuff. That's all they wanted to read about. And so I don't fit that. So I just moved on. Whereas with the west side writers group, it's all different genres outcome does Saifai and I do mysteries.
What kind of a.
[00:04:00] Yeah, I get to see him twice a month when we get together. So, you know, so there's a wide variety. There it's a small enough group that you can consistently get critique. Cause it gets tough to join a group critique one month and then you don't get critiqued for another three months.
View all episodes
By S.A. Schneider
5
33 ratings
Overview
MT attributes much of his long term success to being in a good group. Community and hearing from other authors is critical to long term success.
An aspect that is difficult is getting feedback or getting criticized. MT has some words of wisdom for this and we talk about how authors can use groups to improve their craft.
YouTube
https://youtu.be/tTA5KUmOPRE
Transcript
[00:00:48] Stephen: All right. So let's roll into some author stuff because I love talking to people that have been writing. My goal is to talk to authors that aren't know and help get word out, which you fall [00:01:00] into that category where you started off before the whole self publishing thing and you've rolled into it. So what have you learned from when you first started to now, especially with things being so digital, what have you learned that you're doing different?
[00:01:17] MT: Yeah, I'm doing different. Excuse me. The one big thing is nine out instead of. Writing out my pencil on paper, on the college rule paper, I do everything. I do everything direct into a Scribner. That's the program I use. It's a great program. That was one of the best things I bought was a little $19 Bluetooth keyboard.
So I can just sit. And that was a big change. Yeah. Other than that, you just, you gotta get up and write and do it just all the time. And then beyond that, like we were talking earlier trying to build a community people, editors, and [00:02:00] you know, other authors and things like that to spread out because we're all loners.
It's not really a group activity. So we belonged in the Cleveland writers. And that's pretty valuable because Dave is focused on the marketing end of things. So once you have a book and getting it out and promoting it and getting it sold, that's a huge prospect besides just putting together a book so that, so that's valuable, they're coming up with different ideas to promote it.
And then I'm in another group called the west side writers group, which is a small. I think there is five or six of us and we get together the third Saturday, and it's a critique group, which you put out about three or 4,000 words, and then you get a critique on it. That's really important to, you know, to hear what other people perceive about what you're [00:03:00] writing like mysteries.
I know that I know the ending, so I can't pull myself. But you get important feedback about what they think is going to happen. What are the red herrings what's working? What isn't and that's pretty valuable too.
[00:03:17] Stephen: So doing this for a while, I assume checked out other groups or they've come and gone. Why choose these particular groups and stay with
[00:03:26] MT: them?
Like I said, most of the other writing groups I was involved with were critique group. Like the west side writers group, some of them were, their focus was like game of Thrones stuff. That's all they wanted to read about. And so I don't fit that. So I just moved on. Whereas with the west side writers group, it's all different genres outcome does Saifai and I do mysteries.
What kind of a.
[00:04:00] Yeah, I get to see him twice a month when we get together. So, you know, so there's a wide variety. There it's a small enough group that you can consistently get critique. Cause it gets tough to join a group critique one month and then you don't get critiqued for another three months.