Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

I had changed the name to Dr Velikov Zonk, but I was thinking about changing it back. Maybe I'll put an author's note in and explain.

Thanks, Jim.

Recall also that "zonk" or "zonked" is American slang for "intoxicated with (perhaps illegal) drugs."

Right. How about Velikov Bonk?

Bonk (sometimes spelled "boink") is US slang for "to have sexual intercourse with."

As in "I wanted to bonk Mary Sue, but I was too zonked to do it."

How about Manuel "Super Skier" Velikov.

James D. Macdonald said:

On artists, and the making of art.

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Absolutely wonderful.

I've just learned that there's a theoretical reason that vanity-published authors tend to max out at 150 sales: By a weird coincidence, 150 is Dunbar's number, the theoretical number of close social relationships that a person will have.

I'm not surprised about the 150. A fellow writer/entrepreneur is trying to convince me to put a novella on Smashwords (the novella is part of a shared world he made up and includes several novellas). He's a devotee of Konrath. However, I put a short story on Smashwords 6 months ago as an experiment and sold none -- that's my circle of close social relationships. Nothing against Smashwords, but unless you're famous or have a heck of a platform, you can't succeed with e-publishing. I'd rather take the characters I created out of my friend's shared world and write them into a novel eventually.

And thanks for the link to the (Dutch?) site. That was great!

Laura_6 said:

However, I put a short story on Smashwords 6 months ago as an experiment and sold none -- that's my circle of close social relationships. Nothing against Smashwords, but unless you're famous or have a heck of a platform, you can't succeed with e-publishing.

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Short stories aren't likely to sell well unless you are famous, or you're selling them as a collection. A novella should do significantly better, if it has a good description and sample chapter(s).

Even then, Smashwords is a much smaller market than Amazon so you'd want to put it on both.

Smashwords feeds into B&N, iBookstore, and several others. It's more a distributor. But still, getting your story noticed when they're posting 'em over there at the rate of 3,000/day is going to be a challenge.

I'm experimenting myself, but so far all I'm doing is short stories. We'll see, eventually, what becomes of it.

(Anyone who wants to read 'em, review 'em, and so on, is invited to do so: The list so far. If you want to read 'em for free, let me know and I'll give you a coupon code.)

I must admit to running over to your page and getting the coupon for "Crossover", which I found to be cerebral and tightly written. You have a bunch on Smashwords. I hope you sell some of those puppies.

Jim, in the world of novels, short stories and such, is platform as important as in non-fiction? I understand that having an audience ready to buy your next book makes sales much easier, but is it as essential as some publishers are suggesting?

Allen, when you're talking about fiction, "platform" is meaningless.


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Department of All Art Is Related:

Quotes from Julia Child. Substitute "writing" for "cooking" and learn.


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Guerrilla Marketing 101: Why look pathetic when you can actually be pathetic?

Uncle Jim, I love those quotes (properly modified or not).

"Always start out with a larger (plot) than what you think you need."

Great!

FOTSGreg said:

Uncle Jim, I love those quotes (properly modified or not).

"Always start out with a larger (plot) than what you think you need."

Great!

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This is interesting. I'd love to see a discussion on this since I think it's one of the things that I feel is holding me back.

I look at my plot and tremble in my bunny slippers and wonder, 'is this too ambitious for my story?' What if it is? How do I trim back to fit what is written? Or should I forget trying to trim back and keep writing to the 'fill line'?

Keep writing to the fill line, and perhaps a bit over. If you have too much plot, your editor will tell you.

Removing plot in revision is much easier than adding plot afterward.

James D. Macdonald said:

Keep writing to the fill line, and perhaps a bit over. If you have too much plot, your editor will tell you.

Removing plot in revision is much easier than adding plot afterward.

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I've heard other published writers say the same thing. Load up the first draft with plot, tension and drama. Stretch it out. They also said it's easier to remove excess then add later. I thought that was interesting.

I have the same fears as bearilou. In fact, I recently got so badly bogged down in too much plot that I started cutting ruthlessly even though I'm still writing the first draft. Now I'm afraid I'm abandoning too much without testing the ideas out.

I write thin to begin with. My first draft is mostly just a string of paragraphs that have a central theme and I rush right to the conclusion. It is a skeleton that I will later hang meat and fat on. This works better for me, but I can also see the other side.

Different strokes.

What, exactly, is plot? Is it the same as 'What the story's about'? If not, could it be defined in Dummyspeak?

Plot: This happened, then that happened because.

Aha. What The Story's About, in other words. Thank you.

I'm with bearilou. I was circumspect in the ms I'm revising now, came out well within an acceptable word count, but I secretly find it a boring story (at this point anyway). I know I"m going to have way too much plot for my next novel, and it will be a complex of inter-weaving plotlines -- but I love books like that. So what if the agents all turn tail and run. I'm finally going to write a book I want to write!

Quick question, Jim:

One of my stories, set in a far distant future, features clones of famous people - Bill Gates 4173, Tiger Woods 1007. That won't get me into (legal) trouble will it?

euclid said:

That won't get me into (legal) trouble will it?

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1) Anyone can sue anyone for anything.

2) I'm not a lawyer, I can't give legal advice.

3) Probably not.

If anyone's looking for a publishing-related job in the Boston area, here you go: Publishing Technologies Specialist