Category Archives: Making Progress as a Writer

Writers NEED people who are willing to provide them with honest and actionable criticism. Without them, our stories and skills will be bound by our own limited perspective and experiences. This is fundamentally why editors are critical to the publishing process. They have the skills, the knowledge, and the experience to dig into a work and uncover the flaws.

However, not everyone is ready to be picked up by a publisher or pay a freelance editor to comb through their work. So, what then? Writing groups.

As it turns out, most writers are willing to share their works with a peer group and trade for feedback. Over the years I’ve had many critique groups. Some were just circles of alpha and beta readers, friends and family I trusted to be honest with me. Others were formalized circles of peers in writing classes. Yet more were collectives of like minds who walked the same path for a while. Though fundamentally different, each taught me something important about my writing.

“But Nathan!” you may say, “I don’t live in a place with writers willing and able to meet with me on a regular basis.” That’s not necessary at all. In fact, my current writing group is rather small, just myself and two others. We also happen to occupy three different time zones. Through the power of the Internet, we are able to meet once a week and spend four to six hours working through our writing with one another.

No matter what format though, I’ve found that all writing groups tend to work best when they follow 10 basic guidelines.

1) Check Your Ego at the Door
One of the most significant steps on any writer’s journey towards becoming a professional is learning to set your ego aside when receiving feedback. It’s hard. After all, we spend months or years working on a single story. It is perfectly natural to become personally invested. HOWEVER, it is your story that is being critiqued, not you. Don’t take it personal.

2) Writing Group is Business Serious
I get it. We all have lives out of group. We’re all busy. However, that’s no excuse for missing a group deadline. If your group is flexible, you’ll be able to work around life commitments, but if you say you are going to get a chapter to the group on Tuesday, it better happen. Not only are you respecting everyone else’s time, but practicing keeping a deadline is important.

3) Giving Criticism Means Acknowledging the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
I’ve known plenty of writers/editors/agents who believe that the only way to improve someone’s writing is brutal honesty. I partially agree. Whenever I hand a manuscript over to a beta reader or a writing group, I ask them to tell me what I did poorly (so I can fix it), what I did well (so I don’t break that stuff while fixing the bad), and what didn’t engage them (so I can cut the fat or make them care). Focusing only on the bad will discourage just about anybody, so take the time for a few kind words when they are deserved. Cut to the heart of the issue and be honest, but brutal may not be as necessary as you may think.

4) Silence is Golden, but Duct Tape is Silver
You cannot talk and listen at the same time. Nor can you contemplate a witty retort and listen. Writing groups are neither a thesis defense, nor a debate. They are an opportunity to listen to the opinions of others. If you have trouble holding your tongue, I find that duct tape works wonders. I’m not being facetious. In fact, one of my writing groups held a role in reserve for certain members at each meeting. The exception to this rule is to ask for examples or clarification. In that particular group, we made signs that read “Please elaborate on what you just said,” or “Can you please provide an example of what you mean?” It worked wonders for our productivity.

5) Just Because You Listen Doesn’t Mean You Weren’t Right
In the end it’s your name that’ll be on the cover of the book. Writing groups are made of people, and people sometimes give bad advice. It’s important to consider your group’s feedback, but don’t accept it blindly. However, you do owe your writing group an open mind. Listen. Consider. Decide for yourself what to accept and reject.

6) Set a Structure, but Don’t Fear Change
Though artists tend to be free spirits, business people need order to thrive. An author needs to be both in order to be successful. Your writing time is your own, but writing group is about the business of making your books better. During the first meetings, establish rules and enforce them.

However, the whole point of a writing group is to get better. By necessity, your changing skill will alter what you need from the group. Take the time every so often to evaluate what y’all are doing as a group and make adjustments where necessary. The group is there to see to your collective needs. If it isn’t doing that, it needs to be changed.

7) Meet in Person Whenever You Can
I’ve tried forum based writing groups and they never worked. My theory is that there is more accountability involved in seeing someone’s face and talking to them. Furthermore, there’s a great deal of communication that passes between the words. That’s why my current writing group uses Google Talk or Skype for our meetings. It’s worked out really well for us so far!

8) Find a Group of Peers…
For a writing group to be effective, everyone must get something out of the time. If one member is significantly behind or ahead of the rest of the group, frustration and wasted hours will ensue. Better to find a group of people who have similar levels of skill, but much to teach each other. As an example, a non-fiction writer may not have a place in a SF&F writing group.

9) … But Avoid Group Think
Often, a group that is together a long time will all begin to write the same way. DANGER! The point of the group is to make each individual better, not to form the literary Borg.

This is often best avoided by having diversity in your group. Make sure you have both men and women in your group, as well as individuals from multiple racial or socio-economic classes. Do you aim at an audience of one or many? Why then, would you only have one kind of reader?

Secondly, find group members who write in similar, but different genres. An entirely sword and sorcery fantasy group won’t be as productive a group with one science fantasy writer, one classic fantasy writer and one writer with science fiction, literary fiction, and poetry leanings.

Based on your needs, be willing to mix the genre balance even more. Each genre has its own skills and lessons to teach. If you find that the group’s romance subplots are lacking, find a romance writer willing to join the group. Ultimately, I go to group to absorb the strengths of my group mates as well as share my own experience and skills.

10) Finally, Know When to Say Goodbye
There are two sides to this tip. On the one hand, sometimes a writing group member needs to be asked to leave for the good of the group. I had one group where one member was harsh to the point where others were afraid to submit to group lest they have their confidence and story torn apart. It would have been best for this individual to leave the group, but instead the group disbanded.

On the other hand, there will come a time where it might be best for you to leave a group. You know the time has come when the group stops being useful or is outright detrimental to your writing, when the group’s assignments feel like busy work, or the group has descended into unproductive bickering. Be polite in excusing yourself, but find another group. There’s nothing more to learn there.

About the Author:
Though Nathan Barra is an engineer by profession, training and temperament, he is a storyteller by nature and at heart. Fascinated with the byplay of magic and technology, Nathan is drawn to science fantasy in both his reading and writing. He has been known, however, to wander off into other genres for “funzies.” Visit him at his webpage or Facebook Author Page.

This Ain’t No Fortess of Solitude

August 13, 2015

Leigh Galbreath

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We talk about writing being a solitary art. We go on and on about sitting alone in a room, writing stories that only we can hear in our heads with characters we create in worlds we manufacture, an internal creation that, in it’s inception, is as separate and isolated as the writer putting down the words.

Only, it’s not, strictly speaking, true, is it? I mean, yes, the story in our heads part is real, and often we are alone when we’re thinking about said story or writing said story, but when you think about, none of us really write in a vacuum.

Let me suggest that, rather than saying that a story is an internal creation, it is actually a creation of internalized experience. Experience, of course, based on the community in which we live, work, and play. And community is essential for good fiction.

Lets start at the beginning, the inception stage when everything is amorphous and at most we have bits and pieces of plot or setting or character. But these bits and pieces didn’t come out of the aether. It might feel like divine inspiration, but it’s not really. Its our lives, our friends, something we saw on TV or read in a book. Its all the people, places and things that our minds (whether consciously or not) squirrel away for whatever reason. It percolates in our heads until something cool comes out and we think, “Gee, that could make a groovy story.”

And the more experience, the wider our personal community we take in, the more inspired that grove can be, the more diverse and deep, in sum, the more realistic the story can become. Without taking part in the world, without that community, I dare say, story cannot exist. Inspiration would fall flat on it’s innocuous face.

Now, that’s just no fun.

I personally have trouble with this part. I spend too much time in my head and not enough taking in the world around me, but when I do pay attention, I’ve found some the best characters always have a basis in people I know. The same goes for places and even plots. Even though I’ve never been to another planet, I can still describe what it feels like to get sand in my shoes on that planet because I’ve been to a beach on this one. An analogue can alway be found in our personal experiences within our community for the details that place the reader there with a character.

But it’s not just the initial inspiration that comes from our community. One of the nicest things about having a large group of acquaintances, picked up from going to seminars and classes or starting up a conversation in the check-out lane at Wal-Mart, is that not only can you gain inspiration, but also gain sources for fact and reality-checking. Don’t know how to fly a plane? Ask a pilot. Network enough, and you’re sure to find one, or someone who knows one. Need to make sure you’re plots on the right track? Pick a friend who reads or join a writer’s group, if you’re so inclined.

My point is that you do not, in fact, live in a fortress of solitude. It’s not difficult to bring community into our writing lives. It’s already there. We just have to take the time to pay attention to it. Actually, it’s kinda hard to truly be alone in our writing (that is assuming you’ve not locked yourself in a bunker without the internet or television or anything, but let’s face it, if you had, you wouldn’t be reading this, so you wouldn’t notice to argue with me, now would you?).

Your community is right there, now go use it!

And while your at it, use our community to give you some seriously nifty books. Scoot that cursor right on over to the right and sign up for this week’s give away. And come back on Monday, and do it again for even more nifty books!

Post 1000: How on Earth Did We Get Here?

August 11, 2015

Evan Braun

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As near as I can recall, the Fictorian blog was birthed—at least in idea form—on March 20, 2010 in the lounge of the Westin Hotel in Pasadena. (See photo to pinpoint more or less the exact spot.) A group of writers had assembled for the first annual Superstars Writing Seminar to learn about the ins and outs of the publishing business. We were a big group of strangers with a whole lot of high-flying ideals.

I’d like to think those ideals haven’t gone anywhere, but that big group of strangers doesn’t exist anymore. Alas, we are currently a big group of friends and trusted colleagues.

Of course, none of us went home from that seminar ready to start blogging. It took just over a year to get organized. Our first blog post, “The Benefits of Holding Hands,” went live on March 30, 2011—and it goes like this, courtesy of Fictorian alumnus Nancy DiMauro:

Writers help you stay motivated and hold you accountable. It’s like having an exercise or diet buddy. After all, who can understand the ups and downs of writing better? Writers need to network, commiserate and, well, get honest feedback about what they write from others who are wrestling with the same questions…

I don’t know if Nancy set out to write a mission statement, but this one would certainly do the trick. Four and a half years later, and one thousand posts, it still holds true. The Fictorians is about writers holding other writers accountable, keeping them motivated during the many and varied troughs of the writing life, and helping them to network.

All of these years later, the names and faces have changed, but none of the original Fictorians are at the same place in their writing careers than when they started. Without question, this blog has helped us to grow and stay connected with our tribe.

So, one thousand posts. Four digits. A really big part of me can’t believe we’re here. I’ve read somewhere that the average blog lasts two years or less. If that’s true, we’re beating the odds—and that’s largely due to the fact that we’re doing it together. Holding hands, so to speak. It’s not easy to keep an online presence going day after grueling day. With the Fictorians, it’s pretty effortless. When everyone makes a small commitment (one post month, loosely), it’s not hard to fill up the calendar with great content.

Well, perhaps you’ve noticed that we’re really very extremely excited about our 1000th post. It’s a big deal, a big milestone, so we figured, why not throw a little party? That’s why we’ve been giving away books all month. Seven last week, seven this week (it’s actually thirteen, since one of the prizes this week is a seven-book bundle), and fourteen more as the month rolls on. These are books we’ve written, books that our friends and guest bloggers have written, and even books that our mentors have written. There’s a lot of good stuff. For more details, click here, or simply log in to the Rafflecopter interface to your right.

Our celebration isn’t all about the giveaways, though. For over a year, we’ve been working behind the scenes to bring you this upgraded site interface. It was ready just in time for this month, the most pivotal of months. We hope you’re enjoying it so far!

If you’re a writer and you’re looking for a tribe, consider us in your corner. Read and comment on our articles. Get in touch with us. And if you’re really serious about doubling down on your writing career (and we’re all hoping the answer is yes), then consider signing up for the Superstars Writing Seminar. That’s right; the Fictorians are still around, and so is Superstars, going strong into its sixth year. There’s no better place to fulfill the above mission statement.

Evan Braun is an author and editor who has been writing books for more than ten years. He is the author of The Watchers Chronicle, whose third volume, The Law of Radiance, has just been released. He specializes in both hard and soft science fiction and lives in the vicinity of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Good Omens Gone Bad: Why I Shouldn’t Be Writing

July 30, 2015

fictorians

Aaron Michael Ritchey Contests Interacting With Fans Interacting With Professionals Making Progress as a Writer Publishing Reader Investment & Empathy Self-Motivation Starting a Career Submissions The Writing Life No Comments

A Guest Post by Aaron Michael Ritchey

I recently read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, and it’s about dreams, or more precisely, the following of dreams, the wretched path that narrows, and the splendor of the vision. As you follow your dreams, Paulo writes, it’s important to notice omens along the way.

Omens, as in messages from the gods, or God, or the big bright Whatever in the sky. In pursuing my own writerly dreams, I’ve had omens, I guess, maybe. I’m a hugely dramatic man, and the only omens I care about are either engulfed in flames or splattered with the blood of sacrificial virgins. I want impossible-to-ignore omens, dammit, crows that caw my name, and if I don’t get the cawing, it doesn’t count.

As you can guess, I’m disappointed much of the time. I can easily discount every single omen I’ve been gien on my writer’s journey. And I can point out to you, in exquisite detail, the omens my fellow authors have been given. Sure, the crows caw their name, but not mine.

Let’s talk about my first good omen. My dad had a friend who worked for the Modern Language Associations, you know, the MLA. They were to the English language as the KGB was to communism. Nobody messed with the MLA. My dad gave his friend a story to read, and she loved it and praised my talent. It was an omen. Or was it? She was my dad’s friend. I was sixteen and fragile and she was probably just sparing my feelings. Screw that omen, it doesn’t count.

In high school my stories were chosen to be in the literary magazine. That’s an omen, right? No, I had to vote for my own stories in order to win, and Pat Engelking always beat me. No omen for me!

A year after college, I finished my first novel. I gave it to a friend. He cried reading it. Omen, yeah? No, that first book was so bad that my wife couldn’t read it. And I dedicated it to her! The crows sat in silent scorn in the trees outside my house.

I wrote an epic trilogy after that, and my audience doubled to friends loving my work, but it still doesn’t count. I still wasn’t published.

Then? Eight books later, my lucky thirteenth book I’d written, The Never Prayer, not only was a finalist in a writing contest, but a publisher wanted to publisher it! Omens galore! Hide the virgins, the dagger is thirsty tonight!

I didn’t win the contest, and the publisher went under. As in glug, glug, glug. Going down three times, and coming up twice. No omens.

But my second book, er, fourteenth book, Long Live the Suicide King, found a publisher, and I got a strong Kirkus Review! Not just strong, glowing, put on your sunglasses. That’s GOT to be an omen. Kirkus, son, they don’t mess around.

But I’ve read other books that got glowing Kirkus Reviews, and those books were iffy. Some downright bad. Not. An. Omen.

But what about my last book I published, Elizabeth’s Midnight? Omens? Another good Kirkus Review (Indie, so it doesn’t count), more good reviews on Amazon (blah, blah, blah), and even fan mail. Am I rich and famous? Am I hanging out with Lady Gaga? Do editors read my work and say, “Sorry, man, I’d like to edit it, but it’s too damn good.”

No. No omens.

So yeah, that’s me. I’m a small-minded, ungrateful, hateful little man. I’ve never had a literary agent. I’ve never been signed on by the big six, or five, or one. I’ve not been chosen by the elite.

For me, and this is only for me, my omens come in small packages, and I have the freedom to recognize them as omens, or discount them and be the lead kazoo player in my own pity-party band.

For me, I have to work to believe in my omens. Omen #1? My wife loves my books and is willing to spend money on them. That, my friend, is a bush on fire. She’s a frugal, level-headed sort of woman, and if she didn’t think I could make it, we wouldn’t be spending the benjamins.

Omen #2? My daughters read Elizabeth’s Midnight and loved it. If my wife is frugal with our money, my daughters are even cheaper with their literary praise.

Omen #3? I’ve had fan moments, where actual people, who have read my book, looked at me in wonder. I’ve gotten fanmail. Not a lot, but what I have gotten? Astounding.

The last omen? The only omen that really counts? I WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. I want to write a lot of books. If the good Lord didn’t want me writing, he wouldn’t have given me the desire to create stories. That is the crow cawing my name.

I have been chosen because I am choosing, choosing to write books and get them published, by any means necessary.

Omen enough for me.

About the Author:

Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of The Never Prayer and Long Live the Suicide King. Kirkus Reviews called his latest novel, Elizabeth’s Midnight, “a transformative tale for those who believe in magic and in a young girl’s heart.” In shorter fiction, his G.I. Joe inspired novella was an Amazon bestseller in Kindle Worlds and his steampunk story, “The Dirges of Percival Lewand” was part of The Best of Penny Dread Tales anthology. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two ancient goddesses of chaos posing as his daughters. Visit his website at www.aaronmritchey.com.