Building a relationship with readers is super important, so equally important is that you don’t disappoint or mis-deliver on your ending. In today’s episode, Rekka and Brian talk about common pitfalls to avoid when writing the ending to your novel.

The Entire Plot Was A Dream

Whether a nightmare that the protagonist wakes from, or a magical portal fantasy where the main character returns home by waking up, the Dream Plot can be very frustrating for readers, especially if the setup of the world-building or foreshadowing of plot doesn’t tie into changes in states of consciousness. Inception, Wizard of Oz, and a few others made it look good, and tempted too many authors to try it as well.

Deus Ex Machina

Literally translated as “God From The Machine,” in such stories, an all-powerful mechanism (either character or plot development) delivers the protagonist from the climax of the story, and drains away all the tension you’ve been building up to that point.

Happily Ever After

It’s a convention, a trope, and in some genre cases, it’s not an option. But there’s a difference between satisfying the reader and tying things up so neatly that you can’t imagine the lives and world presented in the story have anything else to do beyond the plot of the book.

You Give Your Character Expertise and Then Set Up Unwarranted Disbelief for [Plot Reasons]

Like it says on the tin: your character is an elite expert, the best at doing whatever it is they do. So in order to manufacture tension, no one believes their professional opinion. Especially if they’re right.

The Moral of this Story Is:

Make sure that the ending to your story draws from the plot and characters you set up as your plot moves along. Surprising the reader is good, but knocking them back with a hefty dose of “Where did that come from?” is 99% of the time, not so swell.

If your reader is satisfied by your ending, they’ll want to come back for your next title, and your next. If the book doesn’t hit the right notes, linger on the tongue, and lots of other wine and cheese metaphors, they won’t care what you promise them with your next book: they’ve been hurt by you before.

Stories we referenced in this episode:

Forrest Gump

Pride and Prejudice

Far and Away

Shaun of the Dead

 

For our Patreon supporters: Sorry, we kept it tight this week! To hear the usual ramblecast from each week’s episode, along with a special episode each month wherein Rekka and Brian talk about their favorite (or not so favorite) movies, visit our Patreon page and pledge your support of our podcast starting at just a dollar per month. Thanks for your consideration!

The sad, harried, substance-abusing, suffering artist has long been romanticized as the ideal creator of quality artwork. Many have been inspired to follow the self-destructive cycle of suffering and occasional creative output, or have been convinced that the suffering is a required part of the creative process, and that you will not succeed without it.

Brian’s experience as an English major was that commercial success was a failure. Classics, as determined by scholars, were considered the only permissible popular options. No one said “you should be a heroin addict,” but there were no cautionary tales associated with such behavior, and more implication that you need to suffer to truly be creative. Brian set out to show that you can put emotional strife on the page without suffering yourself.

Rekka has picked some myths to dissolve, vaporize, disapparate, and dismantle.

Listen to the episode to hear the HAPpening hosts cover:

* You need a muse

* Writer’s block

* Write every day or you insta-fail

* there is a correct process and a correct way to write

* the writer is a hermit

* the writer is a drunk

* the writer is an eccentric

* writing is a compulsion

* anyone can be a writer

* the characters are in charge

* if you aren’t a hot mess, you aren’t working hard enough

* learn grammar and spelling, and proper typing, or insta-fail

* Pantsing vs. Plotting: one is correct

* your story is only worthwhile if it sells

* your story will only sell if you “know somebody”

* you will only make money if you sell out (or you’re dead)

* (ergo, if you make money, you have sold out)

* Amazon ruined publishing / Print is Dead / self-publishers ruin the good name of authors

* first drafts get published

* a debut is a writer’s first novel

* you’ll get a book deal, quit your job, move to majorca and write in a bliss-filled existence

* read to write better, critique to write better (no, write to write better, though those things are good too)

* don’t read work within your wheelhouse or you’ll end up copying it

* only new ideas are good ideas

For our Patreon supporters, this week’s episode trimmings include discussions of Zardoz (and Amazon’s pro-Zardoz agenda), Eyeglass prescriptions, Parachute Pants, Halloween WTFuttery and being cool, Truth is a Construct). To hear the ramblecast from each week’s episode, along with a special episode each month wherein Rekka and Brian talk about their favorite (or not so favorite) movies, visit out Patreon page and pledge your support of our podcast. Thanks for your consideration!

Today, Rekka and Brian are joined by Jennifer Foehner Wells, author of the Confluence series of Space Opera novels which launched in 2014. The latest entry in the series, VENGEANCE (Book 5), just released on August 31.

Hybrid Author, sold her translation rights to Random House Germany, Japan, and Russia localization.

Met Judy Blum (maybe) in 4th grade at a young writers conference. At age 11, neighbor loaned her Bradbury short stories and her love of SFF was born (A Sound of Thunder). Captivated by the What If and the building of characters (over the science). Day of the Triffids by John Windham still comes to mind for her in the tree-filled wilds of Pennsylvania.

Not a lot of confidence or life experience. Starting novels that were medieval historical romance. Pre-internet, it was difficult to seek answers about where she was getting stuck. Didn’t think she was ‘smart enough’ to write SF.

Wrote for recreation as her kids grew up, and shared her SF fan fics to great response. She was told she should be writing for profit and began writing Fluency. Wrote a particular scene that she felt very proud of and which gave her the confidence to keep going. The novel-length fan fic, Future Memoratia, is still on fanfiction.net.

She sought an agent to find her more streams of income by selling foreign language rights to international markets, Danny Bearor. She also hoped to possibly sell her domestic print rights while this was still happening in traditional publishing. Toby Mundy, who was works with film and television rights for which interest keeps being expressed.

With Fluency’s release, Jen hit a need in the marketplace that traditional publishing seemed to be serving. Indie SF authors were still rare at the time. There was a resurgence in SF movies (Guardians of the Galaxy and others), so the audience was there and wanted more. Some people suspected she was a more accomplished author working under a pseudonym. She picked the cover, after searching on DeviantArt for an artist, because she worried that a photomanipulated cover would result in a copyright infringement filed against her. She spotted Stephan Martiniere’s art on National Geographic’s website. The artist was able to come down on price to fit within the budget.

She has two parallel storylines happening in her series, and the covers for her second character, Darcy, are in a similar color palette but created by Galen Dara.

She had 10,000 followers on Twitter before she launched her first book and by engaging with them genuinely was able to get sales by announcing, “I did a thing!”

She contacts editors when she hits 20% in a new draft, to schedule the editing process and keep herself accountable to a deadline.

Sirantha Jax novels by Anne Aguirre gave Jen the confidence to write more character-based stories. People who are looking for hard science fiction are not her audience. She even got yelled at for using “coded” hard SF cover art while including romance and character building.

Sporks wielders unite!

Visit Jen at jenniferfoehnerwells.com or on twitter.

If you find our discussions helpful, please support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were discussions on professional wrestling (and Batman,

In today’s episode, Rekka poses the question of how many drafts a story requires to reach completion, knowing full well this could result in a very short episode.

* Brian’s answer: Three.

* Rekka’s answer: As many as it takes.

* Both of them are applying a full process to the story, but how many steps go into each pass make the difference.

* We’ve talked about pre-work before. Brian makes his first draft his pre-work. Rekka makes an outline her pre-work.

* The point is, there are certain phases the story goes through, and how you work determines the number of times you revise a draft.

* You figure out the story: via outline or via exploratory drafting

* You get to a point where the pieces are laid out and you can take an objective look at them

* Figure out what works, structurally, figure out what needs touching up

* Get some outside opinions, preferably from professionals (sorry, mom)

* Map out arcs (plot, characters) and see where they can be massaged to increase effect

* Make passes for structure

* Make passes for pacing

* Make passes for QC/details/continuity

* Make passes for foreshadowing

* Make passes for word flow (by now you want to read it out loud if you haven’t already)

* Make passes for grammar and spelling (here there be homophones)

* Now if at this point you’ve had no other readers, you could be entering another round of the above (depending on responses)

* Stop when the effort you are putting into the process stops resulting in quantifiable improvement. At some point you have to be done and the story has to move to production or go in a trunk.

* Other episodes we reference:

* Episode 16: Outlines

* Episode 23: Gathering Advice and then Personalizing It

How many drafts do you write before you call a story done? 

Comment on the episode webpage or on the Hybrid Author Facebook group to let us know how your revision process goes!

 

If you find our discussions helpful, please support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were discussions on professional wrestling (and Batman, of course) that only patrons will hear! In addition, the movie discussion ramblecast has begin with a discussion of Disney’s The Incredibles. Patreon funding goes directly to paying for the production costs of the podcast. We appreciate your support!

In today’s episode, Brian and Rekka talk about how you can set yourself up for success when it comes to writing your scenes. Here are some of the main questions or ideas we talk about.

* Are you beginning with an outline, or beginning from thin air?

* Do you write from page one to page done?

* Have either an outline or a concept of where you’re going. What needs to happen. Who your characters are.

* Exploratory writing –  The next scene is the next thing that occurs to you.

* Outlined writing – do you skip around or do you begin in chronological order and keep going til the end? •Some people write the most interesting scenes first and fill in later.

* But what about scenes you don’t find interesting. Why not.

* In your final story the scenes need to pull the reader through, so why do you have scenes you don’t want to write?

* Is research needed? Okay, enjoy following rabbit holes because we all like to procrastinate anyway.

* Is it boring? Why would you put a boring scene in your book?

* Is it a triggery scene for you? Why would you trigger yourself with your own book? There’s a difference between a book that exercises emotion and drama and a book that just makes you want to hide.

* Are you not sure where to go next? Maybe the scene is just filler. Write the next thing you know must happen for the plot.

* Are you suffering from “Ooh shiny” syndrome, and want to work on something else? Whether that’s a good idea is up to your track record. If you have never finished a story, you might have just reached the middle point of a work that we ALL reach where literally anything else sounds like a better idea than this one. If you have a track record of chasing the shiny, try finishing this one first.

* How do you fill in any gaps you create? Tackle these during revisions. Think of your initial draft as the “Zero Draft” so you forgive yourself for the messy process and handle things in a proper first draft.

Patreon – Thanks to Clare Chandler – Hopefully she enjoyed the new Bantercast episode wherein we talked about The Incredibles. Next month will be Ghostbusters (’84).

How do you find inspiration? 

Comment on the episode webpage or on the Hybrid Author Facebook group to let us know what inspires you, and how you hang onto that inspiration while you do the other stuff you gotta do during the day.

 

Did you know? You can support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were discussions on professional wrestling (and Batman, of course) that only patrons will hear! In addition, the movie discussion ramblecast has begin with a discussion of Disney’s The Incredibles. Patreon funding goes directly to paying for the production costs of the podcast. We appreciate your support!

In today’s episode, Brian and Rekka talk about where their inspiration comes from, and the challenges they face trying to find the time to allow it and to act on it.

Brian posits there are two types of inspiration: the inspiration to act, and the inspiration for the stories themselves.

Allow room for the input that inspires you in both ways.

There may not be any ‘new ideas’ but there’s always a new voice in the making which will come at the old ideas in new ways.

How do you find inspiration? 

Comment on the episode webpage or on the Hybrid Author Facebook group to let us know what inspires you, and how you hang onto that inspiration while you do the other stuff you gotta do during the day.

 

Did you know? You can support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were discussions on professional wrestling (and Batman, of course) that only patrons will hear! In addition, the movie discussion ramblecast has begin with a discussion of Disney’s The Incredibles. Patreon funding goes directly to paying for the production costs of the podcast. We appreciate your support!

What does writing space even mean?

Rekka was thinking of the topic as describing your physical space, Brian says it’s the metaphysical space.

Rekka and her husband just built a private studio for their creative activities, but right now it’s serving as its own distraction. So is it a successful writing space? Having a dedicated space is not alone enough to “cure” procrastination, distraction, writer’s ‘block’, and other writerly complaints.

If you’re waiting for the ideal place and ideal inspiration, it doesn’t happen. If you create a practice where you are able to switch into writing mode wherever you find yourself with whatever time you have, you will be able to write consistently because you write consistently.

For Rekka, her private space compounds the time she allocates to daily writing. She also enjoys going to a coffee shop full of people and writing, even without headphones (in most cases). The coffee shop is free of “other things” she feels pressure to do (straightening up, unpacking, doing other work).

Brian argues your ability to be distracted wherever you go is the same, whether it’s noise and conversation or to-do list items, but if you’ve trained yourself to write anywhere and anytime, you are better able to. If you can both find a quiet space and train yourself to be focused on writing, you’re a superhero.

Your writing ‘space’ might also be a series of cues that help you find that focused space, like a NASA launch sequence or a Pavlovian trigger. If you rely on less outside elements to create that focused space, the entire world is your writing space and you’re ready to go at any time.

Brian references this interview of George R.R. Martin and Stephen King. He also references Heinlein’s Rules for Authors. He then goes on to suggest freedom.to to force yourself to avoid internet distractions, which he recently started using, or leave your phone in another room and disconnect everything but your word processor application.

Start with the physical space to develop your habits, then work to moving to other tables or rooms to increase your flexibility. If you start to notice that you’re depending on very specific settings and situations.

It’s okay to have a favorite space and conditions, but build your ability to focus wherever you are so that you have unlimited opportunities to write.

Listeners, tell us about your writing spaces. Do you have multiple spaces? Can you write anywhere? Or have you not found your physical OR metaphysical space?

You can now support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were 15 minutes of bonus audio (mostly about whether it’s possible to enjoy Quentin Tarantino movies based on their own merit) that only patrons will hear! Starting in September, the movie discussion ramblecast will begin with The Incredibles.

Many writers have heard the advice to “kill your darlings” to become a better writer. It’s vague and can easily be misunderstood.

In today’s episode, Rekka and Brian break it down to dispel the confusion.

* It doesn’t mean kill off your protagonists;

* It doesn’t mean rewrite a sentence you love until you hate it;

* It means be willing to do what’s necessary to improve your story, and put aside your ego to hear the advice for what it is;

* That can be removing a scene or rewriting a section, or even starting over;

* Not mentioned in the episode, it can also mean losing a character who isn’t serving the story (by combining two similar or redundant characters, for example)

* Yet don’t be intimidated into killing your darlings if it’s not appropriate advice;

* If you feel strongly, ask yourself why, maybe get a second opinion, and be ready to kill that darling anyway.

You can now support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Patron rewards include a monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were 15 minutes of bonus audio (mostly griping about Batman Ninja) that only patrons will hear!

Noms de plume. Pen names. Literary doubles. Aliases. Stage names. Handles. Appropriately, pseudonyms go by many names, themselves. theWhat are they? Why do people use them? Should you use one (or more)? Today, Brian and Rekka break down the pseudonym discussion into easily digestible chunks.

What are pseudonyms?

* Pseudonyms are part time names that do not replace your legal orthonym

* Adopted to mask an identity (either to hide that identity, evade legal repercussions, create distinctions from other names, or to fit in with peers in that realm of use)

* Notable pseudonyms: Richard Bachman, James S. A. Corey, George Sand, J. K. Rowling, Marion Zimmer Bradley (allonym), R. J. Theodore (hey that person sounds amazing!)

What goes into the decision to use them?

* Keeping your genre work separated by pen names to control your also-boughts on Amazon

* Teaching your readers what to expect from you (and not disappointing that expectation)

* If you change your pen name, you are a ‘debut author’ again

What are the pros and cons of using a nom de plume?

* If you have spent the time to develop your voice, Brian suggests that you can write in any genre under one name and people who will enjoy your voice and style will enjoy all your titles

* The name can change at any point before the book publishes unless it’s tied directly into the book (Lemony Snicket)

* Brian senses overt “thumbing your nose” with comedic/cheeky pseudonyms where the audience might not respond well to that or where it contradicts the tone of your writing

* If your writing takes off, and you have a throwaway pseudonym, you have to live with that

* In this “information age” (get off my lawn!), it’s not likely you can hide your true identity behind a pseudonym

* If you write under multiple pen names, you’ll have to handle the entire internet marketing sphere for each one as a separate entity

* If you’re relying on distribution algorithms to boost your books when you release new titles, going back and forth between pen names may break up your natural rank momentum

Additional Thoughts:

* Rekka’s book, FLOTSAM (written under the name R J Theodore) is available via a price promotion at $1.99 for just another day or two (thanks, Parvus!).

* Octopi – proof that the vernacular dictates language

Listener questions:

* What’s your favorite pseudonym?

* Did we miss anything you wanted to know about pen names?

* Any other topic suggestions for future episodes?

You can now support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon!

Member rewards include an monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a specific movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Trimmed from today’s episode were 10 minutes of bonus audio that patrons will hear.

You can now support Brian and Rekka’s podcast on Patreon! Member rewards include an monthly “ramble cast” in which Brian and Rekka sit down to discuss a specific movie (and then very probably veer directly off-course). Today’s episode intro is a good taste of what that will be like.

In today’s episode, Rekka wants to talk to you about an important issue: proper email list management.

Most indie authors already know it’s super important to build a newsletter list, and sometimes it sounds like “AT ANY COST! BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!” But there ARE things that you can do wrong if you aren’t aware of email newsletter basics and best practices.

For the most part, this episode won’t go into the design of your email. This is more about responsible list management and not ending up blacklisted by your readers (or your mailing list service).

* Use an email marketing software provider: Constant Contact, Mailchimp, MailerLite, ConvertKit (who did not change their name after all and we applaud them for their response to criticism on that topic), aweber, and others.

* Do NOT mail directly (not even with BCC). Brian and Rekka go into detail on why, but yours is not to question why. Just don’t do it.

* Verify your server’s mail settings to increase the credibility of your From address.

* Behave like a good human to avoid being blacklisted, getting your account canceled, and alienating your readers.

* Make sure people know that they are signing up for a mailing list (as of May, GDPR requires this, but it’s always been a good idea)

* DO NOT add people to your list without their consent. Don’t add friends and family to your list because you assume they’ll want to hear from you.

* Don’t buy lists, and don’t sell yours.

* Enable double opt-in for your newsletter sign-up pages and forms.

* Keep a record of where and how people signed up (and how they expressed their consent).

* Periodically cull your list of non-openers to avoid overpaying for subscribers, but don’t assume that someone who’s never opened a link according to the stats doesn’t want your content and send that specific segment an invitation to stay on the list (hint: when they click the ‘No! I want your emails!’ link in your mail campaign, it can move them out of that segment).

* There MUST be an unsubscribe link in every email. If you’re worried about people unsubscribing, offer them options for email frequency.

* When Rekka re-dedicated herself to sending newsletters again (after years of silence), she put her old subscribers on a separate list, sent them one email to ask them to re-subscribe, then deleted that list, leaving it up to those folks to decide whether they still wanted to hear about her projects.

* Email on the schedule that you promise – be consistent to stay fresh in their memory but don’t send them daily emails if they signed up for weekly (or random updates if they signed up for book release alerts).

* If you write in different genres, make sure folks have the option to opt-out of the content they don’t want.

* Use segments and groups to make sure you send the right content to the right people.

* Don’t put Amazon affiliate links in your emails (Amazon TOS demands this).

* Think like an email recipient when you design your campaigns – what would you want to read from an author you like?

* Don’t overdo it on the graphics – Don’t write a wall of text. Give folks one key thing to focus on.

The simplest rule of thumb is to remember that you want your readers to be dedicat...