How do you know if your writing's any good?
The first step to answering this question is to determine what 'writing' we're talking about.
Writing processes?
Your writing style (prose/words on the page) or your ability to put together a coherent story (plot/reader excitement)?
The Ability to obtain an Agent and a Publisher?
In this case we'll be talking mainly about two things:
1. your ability to write well (prose/words on page)
2. your ability to tell a story (plot/reader excitement)
Let's briefly go back to the question.
How do you know if your writing's any good?
I don't know. It's hard to tell. I've been writing stories since age
9 (although perhaps not as seriously then as now). This means about
twenty (frequently) interrupted years of experience (= perhaps five
consecutive 'serious' years all in all if it comes down to it). And I
still struggle.
Proposition! Writing can often not be quantified. You can read a book and immediately know it's well written (prose) or not. Or you can get 70% into an exciting new read only to be let down by the ending and realize how much the author squandered their story's potential in order to keep their darlings protected (plot) and have a happy ending.
(Case in point! The horror novel 'Into the Drowning Deep' by Mira Grant. It started out with a really cool horror premise including aquatic beings ripping apart people and then progressively became worse because the author wanted a happy ending and none of the main characters could die because then the happy ending would have failed. It's simply not realistic when the alien horde is ripping off every other characters' faces but all six main characters are left alone BECAUSE.)
Let's try another author:
Is Stephen King good at writing (prose)? I don't know. His style isn't something I'd usually read and neither is his content. This doesn't mean it's good or bad. It's simply not something for me personally. BUT I can tell you one thing for sure: He's an incredibly strong story-teller. If he weren't then people wouldn't buy his books.
Another:
Is Stephenie Meyer a good writer (prose)? Is the Twilight series well written? I want to say HELL NO! The first chapter had my eyelids drooping and the second actually made me doze off. Twilight was the first book I couldn't even force myself to finish (a common practice when you want to read widely and even read crap sometimes to know what to avoid) and had to put aside! BUT! At the same time there are a lot of people who enjoy her style and with several millions books sold you can't fault her storytelling towards her audience. It's impossible to deny her ability to tell a story people want to read.
What follows out of these examples is perhaps that one must ask oneself not if one is good at the writing process - at putting words on the page - but perhaps whether one has the ability to tell a good story. Don't get me wrong here either. I say a good story and I mean a good story (such as the most of The Drowning Deep and all of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing) and not just 'a story'. Anyone can write a story. That doesn't mean it'll be any good.
(Case in point! My own first stories - and probably everyone's first stories - written at 9-14 years old were messy and usually went unfinished. The next batch of stories 14-21 years old steadily improved in content/ideas/prose if not in the finishing part. At the age of 21 then I finally finished my first novel-length work. It is a good book but of course has some flaws. These days? I like to write short fiction and fiction that makes people think more than the simple - often YA - adventures stories that were my focus during the ages of 21-25. But with the goal of 'making people think' comes another challenge. You can't get by any more with a good story. You need a superb story. And that requires a totally different skillset than a good story.)
So.
How do you know if you're good at writing at all? There are two rules:
1. You're bound to get better if you practice a lot. This means if you've written 100 short stories in your life and you try to practice whenever you can you're already much better than the shmuck who hasn't written a single story or even ten (including your former self). There is no way you can write 100 stories and not get better.
2. If you like it and it makes sense then it's usually good. I know. This goes against most of the advice you hear around the writer's water cooler. That's usually more like: 'if you think it's good then it sucks'. But I don't buy into that theory. I believe everyone has their own compass within themselves that'll tell them 'This sucks' or 'This is great'. Writing - like any art - comes down to personal preference. If you like what you've written then there are bound to be other people who will like it as well.
Does this last part mean your prose or story structure is objectively good? It might be or it might not. The only relevant question you should ask yourself is: Does this story tell what I wanted it to tell? If the answer is no (and believe me you'll spend the magical 10.000 hours and write the magical 1.000.000 words and still say no occasionally) then there's only one thing to do to get better: Back to the drawing board.
WriteBot.
PS: If you'd like to chat with me about this aspect (or any other) of the writing craft please write a comment in the section below! If you want more of this kind of content follow me on Twitter (@Jasmingelinck) and subscribe to my e-mail list through the short form on the right!
Showing posts with label writinglife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writinglife. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
The Future Trajectory of this Blog
The Future of this Blog
I'm sorry to have been absent. I had to re-think the approach of this blog (and I'm not sure I'm done with it!). I've however come to and come to the conclusion that the blog as it was didn't work. There was nothing of real interest in the there (except the book reviews, which a lot of you liked!), so it has to change track. The new blog will focus a lot more on two specific things: 1.) MY thoughts on writing and 2.) Reviews/Analyses of books
The changes in style mentioned above will be tagged in each post. There will be three primary tags used:
FAQ: This is the 'my thoughts on writing' part. I'll be taking questions writers frequently ask and answer them with my opinion.
Review: non-fiction and fiction reviews of books I liked and think might be worth your while as well
Update/Current WIP/WIP: This is where everything related to my own stories goes.
This in turn means that there are really only three things this blog will focus on:
1. Writing-related craft questions
2. Book reviews
3. Updates on new stories I plan to publish
I expect the writing craft questions to be published once a week and the book reviews whenever it's relevant. I don't always read good books (unfortunately some turn out to suck after I'm 70% in - Hello Into the Drowning Deep!) and won't waste your time reviewing something useless.
The updates on my own stories as well are not really quantifiable at this point. I have a vague schedule with vague deadlines and that's the system that works best for me - but it also means it's hard to tell when something new will be out UNLESS I'm working on an edit right then and there. (For example: Once I start editing The Torn Planet I can be certain it'll be done in about two weeks. This also means the publishing schedule - taking account as well the time it will take my cover artists to create a cover - will be about fixed.)
As another effect of this re-structuring of the blog I'll also be cutting out a lot of the filler and make this a Busy Bee's Writing Blog (because who the heck has time to read through 2k words of blabla before the blogger gets to the point?). This means I'll stop wasting words just to make the blog post long enough to 'count' (in whatever arbitrary fashion). Instead the posts will be concise and details can always be added later should any of them come up - just like editing any book!
Today we'll start with a post on How you can know if you're good at the writing process. It should be up by day's end so check back here soon or follow me on Twitter (@jasmingelinck) or subscribe to my e-mail list (on the right-side sidebar) to receive direct and immediate updates!
WriteBot.
I'm sorry to have been absent. I had to re-think the approach of this blog (and I'm not sure I'm done with it!). I've however come to and come to the conclusion that the blog as it was didn't work. There was nothing of real interest in the there (except the book reviews, which a lot of you liked!), so it has to change track. The new blog will focus a lot more on two specific things: 1.) MY thoughts on writing and 2.) Reviews/Analyses of books
The changes in style mentioned above will be tagged in each post. There will be three primary tags used:
FAQ: This is the 'my thoughts on writing' part. I'll be taking questions writers frequently ask and answer them with my opinion.
Review: non-fiction and fiction reviews of books I liked and think might be worth your while as well
Update/Current WIP/WIP: This is where everything related to my own stories goes.
This in turn means that there are really only three things this blog will focus on:
1. Writing-related craft questions
2. Book reviews
3. Updates on new stories I plan to publish
I expect the writing craft questions to be published once a week and the book reviews whenever it's relevant. I don't always read good books (unfortunately some turn out to suck after I'm 70% in - Hello Into the Drowning Deep!) and won't waste your time reviewing something useless.
The updates on my own stories as well are not really quantifiable at this point. I have a vague schedule with vague deadlines and that's the system that works best for me - but it also means it's hard to tell when something new will be out UNLESS I'm working on an edit right then and there. (For example: Once I start editing The Torn Planet I can be certain it'll be done in about two weeks. This also means the publishing schedule - taking account as well the time it will take my cover artists to create a cover - will be about fixed.)
As another effect of this re-structuring of the blog I'll also be cutting out a lot of the filler and make this a Busy Bee's Writing Blog (because who the heck has time to read through 2k words of blabla before the blogger gets to the point?). This means I'll stop wasting words just to make the blog post long enough to 'count' (in whatever arbitrary fashion). Instead the posts will be concise and details can always be added later should any of them come up - just like editing any book!
Today we'll start with a post on How you can know if you're good at the writing process. It should be up by day's end so check back here soon or follow me on Twitter (@jasmingelinck) or subscribe to my e-mail list (on the right-side sidebar) to receive direct and immediate updates!
WriteBot.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Review of Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson
Hey folks
As you can probably guess by the title this post will be about Heidi Grant Halvorson's book 'Succeed'. (Or so I thought until it turned out my own experiences could become a prime example of why Grant Halvorson makes such a good point in her book). Succeed is one of the quickest and most useful reads (at least in the first third) I've read in the past few weeks (and if you're following my blog you'll know I've been reading a lot. This read at least 1 hour a day thing is working out well for me).
It's my fourth finished book in 2019. (Yes I'm just showing off with this statement.)
Anyway. I never thought I'd relate to someone who uses their children in examples as much as Grant Halvorson does. Seriously. There is something about them in almost every chapter post the one-third mark of the book. This doesn't so much offend me (no matter what that first line might sound like) as it actually intrigues me because this author (as opposed to other self-help book writers) brings almost as many day-to-day examples from her own life than just random laboratory situations into the book. That is enjoyable and reads a bit like a memoir rather than strictly aloof science.
I digress with the examples though. We want to get to the meat of the story.
Let's start with the most important message of the book: It is better to be someone who wants to learn and improve rather than someone who just wants to be good. Why? Because being good leaves you in a huge depression if at some point it gets so hard you're no longer incredibly good or find your work easy.
Case in point: WriteBot.
WriteBot has a history of finding things very easy and not challenging enough. WriteBot does... a little less than its best and still passes every test and project and problem with flying colours. Until it doesn't. And if it doesn't it gets depressed and can't work for months. Story of my life. You'd think a mechanical entity that lives only to write would do great at writing... and yet often there are problems not pre-configured in WriteBot's algorithms. These make WriteBot insanely unhappy when they cannot be solved as near-instantly as all other problems.
A lot of these effects (depression or feeling unmotivated or like a failure) come from what Grant Halvorson calls 'be-good' goals - which are essentially there to allow you to show off. In fact this 'be-good' mindset is a concept she talks about a lot - you have a certain skillset and you're good and you strive to show everyone how good you are. This works when you're trying to hit deadlines maybe or when you want quick results. Any results in these cases is often better than none. Not so in other areas of life/work.
Grant Halvorson then goes on to reinforce (for me) what I've learned after I realized being-good (her label for the kind of thinking described above) just didn't work. The only way to continue after you're somewhat successful and want to reach that HUNDRED MILE ALL IMPORTANT GOAL is to change your mindset to a learning mindset. This, Grant Halvorson calls getting-better mindset, as opposed to the be-good show off mindset mentioned above.
The rest of the book basically builds on those two concepts. There are optimists who often rush rush rush through tasks and do them well but maybe not excellent (be-good mindset). They won't put much thought into what they are doing because they believe they will succeed either way. And on the other side of the spectrum you have pessimists. The ones who think of everything that could go wrong and work much more conservatively. Those are often the people who take their time and try to get-better at things.
Of course it's not that simple. There are other factors to take into consideration as well but this post is simply an overview of the most important point in the book.
That being said... I do recommend you read it. It's short. It's written in an easy-to-understand way (while still being backed by scientific data of Grant Halvorson's and her colleagues' experiments) and the first third in which she explains why be-good can sometimes have disadvantages to getting-better goals is really worth it. The last two thirds are somewhat vague and perhaps a bit rushed for the pages they are given but all in all the book has given me some good information with which to work on my own goal setting skills. I hope it might do the same for you!
Have a good night/day!
WriteBot.
PS: tomorrow I'ma make Kimchi. I'm hyped.
As you can probably guess by the title this post will be about Heidi Grant Halvorson's book 'Succeed'. (Or so I thought until it turned out my own experiences could become a prime example of why Grant Halvorson makes such a good point in her book). Succeed is one of the quickest and most useful reads (at least in the first third) I've read in the past few weeks (and if you're following my blog you'll know I've been reading a lot. This read at least 1 hour a day thing is working out well for me).
It's my fourth finished book in 2019. (Yes I'm just showing off with this statement.)
Anyway. I never thought I'd relate to someone who uses their children in examples as much as Grant Halvorson does. Seriously. There is something about them in almost every chapter post the one-third mark of the book. This doesn't so much offend me (no matter what that first line might sound like) as it actually intrigues me because this author (as opposed to other self-help book writers) brings almost as many day-to-day examples from her own life than just random laboratory situations into the book. That is enjoyable and reads a bit like a memoir rather than strictly aloof science.
I digress with the examples though. We want to get to the meat of the story.
Let's start with the most important message of the book: It is better to be someone who wants to learn and improve rather than someone who just wants to be good. Why? Because being good leaves you in a huge depression if at some point it gets so hard you're no longer incredibly good or find your work easy.
Case in point: WriteBot.
WriteBot has a history of finding things very easy and not challenging enough. WriteBot does... a little less than its best and still passes every test and project and problem with flying colours. Until it doesn't. And if it doesn't it gets depressed and can't work for months. Story of my life. You'd think a mechanical entity that lives only to write would do great at writing... and yet often there are problems not pre-configured in WriteBot's algorithms. These make WriteBot insanely unhappy when they cannot be solved as near-instantly as all other problems.
A lot of these effects (depression or feeling unmotivated or like a failure) come from what Grant Halvorson calls 'be-good' goals - which are essentially there to allow you to show off. In fact this 'be-good' mindset is a concept she talks about a lot - you have a certain skillset and you're good and you strive to show everyone how good you are. This works when you're trying to hit deadlines maybe or when you want quick results. Any results in these cases is often better than none. Not so in other areas of life/work.
Grant Halvorson then goes on to reinforce (for me) what I've learned after I realized being-good (her label for the kind of thinking described above) just didn't work. The only way to continue after you're somewhat successful and want to reach that HUNDRED MILE ALL IMPORTANT GOAL is to change your mindset to a learning mindset. This, Grant Halvorson calls getting-better mindset, as opposed to the be-good show off mindset mentioned above.
The rest of the book basically builds on those two concepts. There are optimists who often rush rush rush through tasks and do them well but maybe not excellent (be-good mindset). They won't put much thought into what they are doing because they believe they will succeed either way. And on the other side of the spectrum you have pessimists. The ones who think of everything that could go wrong and work much more conservatively. Those are often the people who take their time and try to get-better at things.
Of course it's not that simple. There are other factors to take into consideration as well but this post is simply an overview of the most important point in the book.
That being said... I do recommend you read it. It's short. It's written in an easy-to-understand way (while still being backed by scientific data of Grant Halvorson's and her colleagues' experiments) and the first third in which she explains why be-good can sometimes have disadvantages to getting-better goals is really worth it. The last two thirds are somewhat vague and perhaps a bit rushed for the pages they are given but all in all the book has given me some good information with which to work on my own goal setting skills. I hope it might do the same for you!
Have a good night/day!
WriteBot.
PS: tomorrow I'ma make Kimchi. I'm hyped.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Hourglass editing progress
Hey folks!
I just wanted to give you all an update on Hourglass. A lot of you have made some edits in the early Google Docs chapters. Thank you for that! I really appreciate it. At this point however I've decided to take the manuscript off Google docs to work on it by myself. It's been a long time since I did an edit on it and I realized after your first few comments that it simply needs to be updated. That's what I'm currently doing and I'm at the moment on chapter two.
It has been going quite well. The first ten pages were easier than the most recent six pages. I couldn't even do more than six because it was just really hard. However I finished them and updated most of the manuscript on my PC (I edit on paper). They will need another edit (desperately!) but for now it's time to focus on the next few pages instead. If I get bogged down here, then I'll never finish it, and that's what this draft is for. To finish a recent edit of Hourglass.
I've also considered how to best keep you folks in the loop and decided it's probably best to upload a chapter weekly once they are publishable. This is what I aim to do from January 10 onwards. A chapter a week will be posted on Google docs (link shall be revealed on January 10) and you can leave as many comments as you'd like! I appreciate every feedback you have!
Does this sound good? Great! I look forward to seeing your comments on the new draft soon!
See you again tomorrow! Enjoy your day/night.
WriteBot.
I just wanted to give you all an update on Hourglass. A lot of you have made some edits in the early Google Docs chapters. Thank you for that! I really appreciate it. At this point however I've decided to take the manuscript off Google docs to work on it by myself. It's been a long time since I did an edit on it and I realized after your first few comments that it simply needs to be updated. That's what I'm currently doing and I'm at the moment on chapter two.
It has been going quite well. The first ten pages were easier than the most recent six pages. I couldn't even do more than six because it was just really hard. However I finished them and updated most of the manuscript on my PC (I edit on paper). They will need another edit (desperately!) but for now it's time to focus on the next few pages instead. If I get bogged down here, then I'll never finish it, and that's what this draft is for. To finish a recent edit of Hourglass.
I've also considered how to best keep you folks in the loop and decided it's probably best to upload a chapter weekly once they are publishable. This is what I aim to do from January 10 onwards. A chapter a week will be posted on Google docs (link shall be revealed on January 10) and you can leave as many comments as you'd like! I appreciate every feedback you have!
Does this sound good? Great! I look forward to seeing your comments on the new draft soon!
See you again tomorrow! Enjoy your day/night.
WriteBot.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
2019 Reading List (Updated!)
Hey everyone
I've settled on the last details of my reading list. In this version I have two different lists actually - one fiction and one non-fiction.
Here it is! (By the way the reason that the authors of these books are rarely listed is because it's quite easy to find the book even by the title alone.)
1. Undersea Fleet (I find it so difficult to get a copy of this one!)
2. Dark Intelligence, by Neil Asher
3. Ascension (Water) (Another one where it's almost impossible to get a copy!)
4. Boundary
5. The Dark Tower series (These should all probably be under their own numbering...)
6. Halfway Human
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf
8. The Departure
9. Spellslinger 5
10. The Abyss Surrounds Us
11. The Deep Woods
12. The Dreaming Stars
13. Smoke in the Sun
14. Of Fire and Stars
15. The World Walker
16. The Assassin's Curse
17. Forgotten Places
18. When the Future Comes too Soon
19. Sky Dancer
20. Sky Song
21. The Winter of the Witch
22. Tides of the Titans
23. Darkdawn
24. Lonesome Dove
25. All the Crooked Saints
26. Lotus War 1 (Jay Kristoff)
27. The Man in the High Castle
28. Godblind Anna Stephens
29. China Mountain Zhang
30. The Shattered Gates (Rifter)
31. Journey to the Center of the Earth
32. 8000 Miles Under the Sea
33. Nightflyers G.R.R.M.
34. Among Others - Jo Walton
35. Wildcards
36. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
37. Muse of Nightmares
38. The Stand
39. Sunsurge Quartet 1
40. Sunsurge Quartet 2
41. Sunsurge Quartet 3
42. Sunsurge Quartet 4
43. Children of Dagon
44. Sphere (Crichton)
45. Into the Drowning Deep
46. The Swarm
47. The Deep (Cutter)
48. The Andromeda Strain
49. Foundryside
50. Outside the Gates
51. Arkad's World
1. The Compound Effect (I have listened to this as audio but would like to read it as well. I am not great with audio books and probably missed quite a bit!)
2. A book about investment (That's not a title but simply what I'm trying to find at the moment!)
3. The Hungry Brain (I'm actually reading this one right now...)
4. Brain Food
5. Fasting and Eating for Health
6. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying
7. The Complete Guide to Fasting
8. Autobiography of Black Hawk
9. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler
10. Autobiography of a Geisha
11. Wishcraft
12. The Evolution of God
13. The Future of Humanity
14. Start with Why
15. Leaders Eat Last
16. Total Focus by Brandon Web
17. Focal Point
18. Alfred Adler - The science of living
19. Man's Search for Meaning
20. The Confidence Gap
21. Think (Simon Blackburn)
22. The Slight Edge
23. This is Marketing
24. 1001 Ways to Market your Book
25. The 4 Hour Work Week
26. On Gestalt Therapy
27. Life 3.0
28. Creating A Life Worth Living
29. How to Be Rich
30. Learned Optimism
A lot of especially the non-fiction books in my list are books recommended in other books. These include How to Be Rich and Learned Optimism (which IMO sound like two great reads!).
What do you think? Do you have anything else to add to either list? I always welcome recommendations!
Did you make a list of books to read in 2019 yourself? How many are you trying to read?
Leave a comment below!
Have a good night/day! WriteBot.
I've settled on the last details of my reading list. In this version I have two different lists actually - one fiction and one non-fiction.
Here it is! (By the way the reason that the authors of these books are rarely listed is because it's quite easy to find the book even by the title alone.)
1. Undersea Fleet (I find it so difficult to get a copy of this one!)
2. Dark Intelligence, by Neil Asher
3. Ascension (Water) (Another one where it's almost impossible to get a copy!)
4. Boundary
5. The Dark Tower series (These should all probably be under their own numbering...)
6. Halfway Human
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf
8. The Departure
9. Spellslinger 5
10. The Abyss Surrounds Us
11. The Deep Woods
12. The Dreaming Stars
13. Smoke in the Sun
14. Of Fire and Stars
15. The World Walker
16. The Assassin's Curse
17. Forgotten Places
18. When the Future Comes too Soon
19. Sky Dancer
20. Sky Song
21. The Winter of the Witch
22. Tides of the Titans
23. Darkdawn
24. Lonesome Dove
25. All the Crooked Saints
26. Lotus War 1 (Jay Kristoff)
27. The Man in the High Castle
28. Godblind Anna Stephens
29. China Mountain Zhang
30. The Shattered Gates (Rifter)
31. Journey to the Center of the Earth
32. 8000 Miles Under the Sea
33. Nightflyers G.R.R.M.
34. Among Others - Jo Walton
35. Wildcards
36. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
37. Muse of Nightmares
38. The Stand
39. Sunsurge Quartet 1
40. Sunsurge Quartet 2
41. Sunsurge Quartet 3
42. Sunsurge Quartet 4
43. Children of Dagon
44. Sphere (Crichton)
45. Into the Drowning Deep
46. The Swarm
47. The Deep (Cutter)
48. The Andromeda Strain
49. Foundryside
50. Outside the Gates
51. Arkad's World
1. The Compound Effect (I have listened to this as audio but would like to read it as well. I am not great with audio books and probably missed quite a bit!)
2. A book about investment (That's not a title but simply what I'm trying to find at the moment!)
4. Brain Food
5. Fasting and Eating for Health
6. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying
7. The Complete Guide to Fasting
8. Autobiography of Black Hawk
9. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler
10. Autobiography of a Geisha
11. Wishcraft
12. The Evolution of God
13. The Future of Humanity
14. Start with Why
15. Leaders Eat Last
16. Total Focus by Brandon Web
17. Focal Point
18. Alfred Adler - The science of living
19. Man's Search for Meaning
20. The Confidence Gap
21. Think (Simon Blackburn)
22. The Slight Edge
23. This is Marketing
24. 1001 Ways to Market your Book
25. The 4 Hour Work Week
26. On Gestalt Therapy
27. Life 3.0
28. Creating A Life Worth Living
29. How to Be Rich
30. Learned Optimism
A lot of especially the non-fiction books in my list are books recommended in other books. These include How to Be Rich and Learned Optimism (which IMO sound like two great reads!).
What do you think? Do you have anything else to add to either list? I always welcome recommendations!
Did you make a list of books to read in 2019 yourself? How many are you trying to read?
Leave a comment below!
Have a good night/day! WriteBot.
Friday, December 28, 2018
Review of Brian Tracy's Eat That Frog
Hey folks.
I finished Eat That Frog as the 72nd book this year. I thought I wouldn't get above 71 but Eat That Frog was short and... very useful. I sped through it and plan to read it a few more times (I rarely re-read books in general so that's saying something).
All right. Let's talk about frog eating.
I guess the first thing you have to know that this isn't some weird book of the French culinary art. A frog (in Brian Tracy's case) is a task. A big frog is a big task and tadpoles are small and (often) unnecessary tasks. This means when he's talking about eating frogs he refers to effectively tackling tasks at work (or home).
Two things I immediately liked about the preface (surprisingly because usually I skip prefaces or am bored throughout them):
1. He promises not to waste time explaining what others have said already -the psychological and emotional explanations for procrastination and poor time management. He goes straight to the point - straight to the reason why most people bought his book.
2. The hook (the core of the book) is right there in the first few paragraphs: The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. (This is also, coincidentally, one of the most useful sentences in the book.)
Already in the first two pages of Eat the Frog it is clear Brian Tracy knows what he is talking about and it's also clear to the reader (in this case me) that their time will not be wasted. In the first chapter I already learned more from two sentences than I did in the whole of Success Principles. These sentences are:
1. [...] your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop. (Later on in the book he mentions this again but in a more poetic way: The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus - a quote apparently stolen from Alexander Graham Bell but cited. Tracy's a polite thief let's say.)
2. Do something every day that moves you towards your goal.
Here are more:
3. The second rule of frog-eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog (by which Tracy means 'do a hard but important task') at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for long.
4. Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.
5. The more important the completed task, the happier, more confident, and more powerful you feel about yourself and your work.
6. One of the keys to living a wonderful life [etc etc.] is to develop the habit of starting and finishing important jobs.
7. A simple formula I created out of a longer sentence in the book: Decision + Discipline + Determination = success-habits (concentration / focus)
What else can you learn?
You can train yourself through repetition and practice to overcome procrastination and get your most important tasks completed quickly. This involves a lot of planning as good plans = ability to get straight to work = no need to procrastinate. A lot of people seem to procrastinate because they don't know what to do/how to reach their goal - because they haven't planned how to achieve it.
I will try one of Tracy's tips immediately: Write a LIST of what you plan to do the next day to get further along with your goal
-> list of everything you want to do in the (near-ish) future
-> monthly list (made at the end of one month for the next)
-> weekly list (made at the end of the week for the next)
-> daily list (made at the end of one day for the next day)
As a person who suffers from depression a lot, it can be very harsh to have nothing to do, to feel unanchored, and I spent a lot of time chasing new experiences just to feel 'occupied', but after years of this not working out, I've begun to try new things. These new things involve planning my day (and meals, etc.) ahead, which means most of what I'm doing during any given day will be worked out by the time dawn comes around and which in turn makes downtime less painful to my brain. And if there is (unscheduled) downtime then the best way to spend it is to read on new tactics to plan/achieve my goals.
This daily planning also includes (as the book suggests as well) to have everything prepared for the day before you start. All your utensils, notebooks with thoughts, resources, and other material should be right there even before the work day starts. This puts a brake on procrastination, as it can be daunting to search for material, and it will already take a lot of your energy. If you did it the day before in your planning phase, then in the morning when you sit down, everything is ready to go, go, go!
Another useful insight connected to the daily planning mentioned above:
The 10/90 rule. The first 10% of your available time spent planning will increase your effectiveness of actual work. It will save you some 90% of the time necessary to finish a job once you started it.
These are the most useful tips in the book. They can be applied almost instantly and you'll immediately see the results (I have personally incorporated a few of these tricks in my daily schedule already and I've noticed a difference in my mood/productivity).
There are however much more tips than just these but I didn't want this post to be a replica of the book itself. All I can say is that Eat That Frog is definitely worth it. It is an incredibly useful book and it's so short you can read it in two hours (which means you can re-read it easily and quickly should you suddenly despair about your work at some point). It's right up there on my Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 list in a very bright red.
It definitely gets a recommendation from me if you're one of the people who always want to improve themselves and how they work. It's a more than just 'useful' resource to have on your shelf and I'm certain to try out more of Brian Tracy's books as a result of reading Eat That Frog.
Do you think you want to try out Eat That Frog? You can get it on Amazon at a decent price!
Let me know if it was useful to you if you decided to read it!
WriteBot.
I finished Eat That Frog as the 72nd book this year. I thought I wouldn't get above 71 but Eat That Frog was short and... very useful. I sped through it and plan to read it a few more times (I rarely re-read books in general so that's saying something).
All right. Let's talk about frog eating.
I guess the first thing you have to know that this isn't some weird book of the French culinary art. A frog (in Brian Tracy's case) is a task. A big frog is a big task and tadpoles are small and (often) unnecessary tasks. This means when he's talking about eating frogs he refers to effectively tackling tasks at work (or home).
Two things I immediately liked about the preface (surprisingly because usually I skip prefaces or am bored throughout them):
1. He promises not to waste time explaining what others have said already -the psychological and emotional explanations for procrastination and poor time management. He goes straight to the point - straight to the reason why most people bought his book.
2. The hook (the core of the book) is right there in the first few paragraphs: The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. (This is also, coincidentally, one of the most useful sentences in the book.)
Already in the first two pages of Eat the Frog it is clear Brian Tracy knows what he is talking about and it's also clear to the reader (in this case me) that their time will not be wasted. In the first chapter I already learned more from two sentences than I did in the whole of Success Principles. These sentences are:
1. [...] your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop. (Later on in the book he mentions this again but in a more poetic way: The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus - a quote apparently stolen from Alexander Graham Bell but cited. Tracy's a polite thief let's say.)
2. Do something every day that moves you towards your goal.
Here are more:
3. The second rule of frog-eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog (by which Tracy means 'do a hard but important task') at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for long.
4. Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.
5. The more important the completed task, the happier, more confident, and more powerful you feel about yourself and your work.
6. One of the keys to living a wonderful life [etc etc.] is to develop the habit of starting and finishing important jobs.
7. A simple formula I created out of a longer sentence in the book: Decision + Discipline + Determination = success-habits (concentration / focus)
What else can you learn?
You can train yourself through repetition and practice to overcome procrastination and get your most important tasks completed quickly. This involves a lot of planning as good plans = ability to get straight to work = no need to procrastinate. A lot of people seem to procrastinate because they don't know what to do/how to reach their goal - because they haven't planned how to achieve it.
I will try one of Tracy's tips immediately: Write a LIST of what you plan to do the next day to get further along with your goal
-> list of everything you want to do in the (near-ish) future
-> monthly list (made at the end of one month for the next)
-> weekly list (made at the end of the week for the next)
-> daily list (made at the end of one day for the next day)
As a person who suffers from depression a lot, it can be very harsh to have nothing to do, to feel unanchored, and I spent a lot of time chasing new experiences just to feel 'occupied', but after years of this not working out, I've begun to try new things. These new things involve planning my day (and meals, etc.) ahead, which means most of what I'm doing during any given day will be worked out by the time dawn comes around and which in turn makes downtime less painful to my brain. And if there is (unscheduled) downtime then the best way to spend it is to read on new tactics to plan/achieve my goals.
This daily planning also includes (as the book suggests as well) to have everything prepared for the day before you start. All your utensils, notebooks with thoughts, resources, and other material should be right there even before the work day starts. This puts a brake on procrastination, as it can be daunting to search for material, and it will already take a lot of your energy. If you did it the day before in your planning phase, then in the morning when you sit down, everything is ready to go, go, go!
Another useful insight connected to the daily planning mentioned above:
The 10/90 rule. The first 10% of your available time spent planning will increase your effectiveness of actual work. It will save you some 90% of the time necessary to finish a job once you started it.
These are the most useful tips in the book. They can be applied almost instantly and you'll immediately see the results (I have personally incorporated a few of these tricks in my daily schedule already and I've noticed a difference in my mood/productivity).
There are however much more tips than just these but I didn't want this post to be a replica of the book itself. All I can say is that Eat That Frog is definitely worth it. It is an incredibly useful book and it's so short you can read it in two hours (which means you can re-read it easily and quickly should you suddenly despair about your work at some point). It's right up there on my Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 list in a very bright red.
It definitely gets a recommendation from me if you're one of the people who always want to improve themselves and how they work. It's a more than just 'useful' resource to have on your shelf and I'm certain to try out more of Brian Tracy's books as a result of reading Eat That Frog.
Do you think you want to try out Eat That Frog? You can get it on Amazon at a decent price!
Let me know if it was useful to you if you decided to read it!
WriteBot.
Thursday, December 20, 2018
The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018
Hey folks!
I've returned. The holiday was stressful (as visiting family is) and the food superb. All I did was eat food the whole day, in different locations, at different prices, and from different countries (although most of it was British, for some reason. I had fish and chips twice).
Today let's go over the list of best non-fiction books of 2018! I had a lot of questions about this lately from random people on Reddit and wanted to see if I can make one comprehensive list of favourites to hand out. It'll make it easier and look prettier than a Reddit post!
So. I read a lot of non-fiction. Below is a list of every book I've read with a comment. The best ones are captured in red (light red meaning it's even better than dark red). All of these books are about productivity, self-improvement, leadership, writing, and all other kinds of things.
Non-Fiction 2018:
A Handbook for the Productive Writer by Bryan Collins: Meh. I wouldn't recommend this. It's just a whole lot of blabla you can actually get for free on the Internet (and concisely from my writing tips page: http://jasmingelinck.com/resources).
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker: This one is actually good! It looks at what successful people do different than most (spoiler: the most important difference as Simon Sinek says: They have a WHY that affects other people) that leads to them being successful in the first place. It shows you how many of your learned mantras about success (just imagine yourself being successful already!) are wrong and do not help you in any way. You should rather look at your own skills and/or weaknesses to find things you excel at.
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande: This book is great! It talks a lot about the day-to-day business of writing and the fears you might encounter (and how to conquer them!). I recommend this for anyone who wants to be an artist.
Wake Up and Live by Dorothea Brande: The same as above but not focused on writing alone. It's a great book for everyone who feels slightly lost in life (I know I do...)
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: This book was very hyped... but I found it mediocre at best. It has some good ideas but isn't in any way exceptional. It's a good read, still, and I do recommend at least looking at it to see if the content speaks to you, but don't force it if you don't like it.
Give and Take by Adam Grant: A great book about leadership and becoming successful. The most important message of this book is (obviously) the importance of giving - not just in order to get, but simply to enhance your life. The book attempts to give you a blueprint on how much giving you should do and when/how to expect something back (to take).
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: This was the first non-fiction of 2018 I actually LOVED. You can say what you want about JP as a person (and I'll not join that particular debate) but 12 Rules is highly relevant to everyone who wants to improve themselves/their outlook on life and the world. Of course, not all Peterson writes is Holy Grail material, and I would argue not much actually is, BUT in every chapter, there are nuggets you can pick up to improve your life and relationships. You can pick and choose what you wish to incorporate in your life or not. As such, the book is definitely worth a read.
Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor: Highly useful/relevant if you struggle with mental health issues. You'll have to read it yourself to see the value of it. I simply can't sum it up well enough. Suffice to say it shows you how to deal with your dark thoughts and how to improve your life even if your depression cannot be entirely cured.
The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition by Peter Hollins: I don't actually remember this book at all. I think it's just one of those publish-as-many-as-you-can-to-make-money life-advice craps. Not recommended.
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi: I love this book. There has been no better book in my life ever before. I actually loved it enough to buy a paper copy after reading it on my Kindle just to have it on my shelf (and that doesn't happen very often at all). This book (not 12 Rules) IS the Holy Grail of learning to live with yourself and working through/DESPITE your past traumas in a non-pretentious way. It refers heavily to the philosophy of Alfred Adler and I promise you it is impactful. If you read any book from my list at all then it should be this one.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: It took me a long time to get to this book. I knew it existed for almost a decade but couldn't bring myself to read it because the title sounds pretentious and fake as all heck. However... after hundreds and hundreds of recommendations I decided to give it a try... and it's great! It truly is an amazing book and not in the least pretentious or fake. A lot of people think 'But it will teach me to be false in order to make friends' but FAR FROM IT! The main body of the books deals with no-brainer tips everyone knows (such as smiling at people to lift both of your spirits and taking care of yourself) but needs to be reminded of because they are so easily overlooked. It also teaches you that when you are fake people will know and they won't respond to you at all - so it's the opposite of what a lot of people fear the book will try to make them do. I'll add my voice to this particular book's value: It's definitely worth it.
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone: I've written a longer post about this one here. It's quite good if you want to have an overview of how much work you will be required to do in order to get ahead. It tells you basically to multiply every effort by 10 if you truly want to succeed. If you plan to contact 10 customers in order to sell your product, instead make it 100. If you plan to make 100,000 extra money the next year, plan to make 1,000,000 instead. In essence, it is better to fall short of HUGE goals than small goals. I believe this should be read once simply so you get the concept (and possibly change your working style for the better).
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz: Another book right up there with The Courage to be Disliked and How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's on an entirely different topic (The 10X Rule was inspired by it) but so so worth it! If you read two books from my list it should be The Courage to be Disliked and this one. It's so much more accessible than the somewhat reckless airy-fairy tips of The 10X Rule and written so much more humanly relatable. In essence it's a simple guide on how to improve your life by dreaming well (however without any affirmation or visualization crap like you find in some of the more etheric self-help books) and by working on bigger and more fulfilling projects than you believed yourself capable of/could even conceive of.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: A long review can be found here. This book is definitely worth the buy and read. It will reach you to REALLY improve your life - and in a sustainable way rather than all those 'just change/just do it' books. Any change happens gradually and in increments. Atomic Habits drives home that point and shows you how you can make habit changes permanent. It's really a useful book!
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy: On the coattails of James Clear's Atomic Habits. A longer review again here. I would not read The Compound Effect without having first read Atomic Habits. All the concepts of TCE are related to (and mostly the same as) Atomic Habits - but it's not explained or written as well by Darren Hardy as by James Clear. This book is best read to deepen your understanding of atomic habits after you've read James Clear. I sort-of recommend it but it's not a necessary read if you've read Atomic Habits.
The rest of the non-fiction list is more science oriented. I read a lot about the human mind and prehistory. I also read a biography called Wild Swans. Let me just show you two of these books.
Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang: definitely recommended. The best and most gripping biography I've ever read. It's exciting, terrible, and beautiful all at once, and it's written in a style almost like a novel. It definitely grabbed and held my attention throughout the whole 500+ pages.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: Basically a vendetta against the human race. The book zeroes in on how bad humanity is and yada yada by giving (mostly unproven) examples of prehistory where humanity allegedly disturbed the peace of Paradise/the Garden of Eden by extinguishing other species (again, this is not proven through any records, and Harari simply makes the jump from coincidence to 'must be true'). The writing itself is also horribly boring and only the first part of the book (30%) are actual science and somewhat worth reading. The rest is conjecture into the future and scientifically weak assumptions pulled out of thin air.
All right! This about sums up the post.Good lord - what a wall of text! I hope you find something useful to read in my list. If you do feel free to leave a comment or even send me a message through my website!
WriteBot.
I've returned. The holiday was stressful (as visiting family is) and the food superb. All I did was eat food the whole day, in different locations, at different prices, and from different countries (although most of it was British, for some reason. I had fish and chips twice).
Today let's go over the list of best non-fiction books of 2018! I had a lot of questions about this lately from random people on Reddit and wanted to see if I can make one comprehensive list of favourites to hand out. It'll make it easier and look prettier than a Reddit post!
So. I read a lot of non-fiction. Below is a list of every book I've read with a comment. The best ones are captured in red (light red meaning it's even better than dark red). All of these books are about productivity, self-improvement, leadership, writing, and all other kinds of things.
Non-Fiction 2018:
A Handbook for the Productive Writer by Bryan Collins: Meh. I wouldn't recommend this. It's just a whole lot of blabla you can actually get for free on the Internet (and concisely from my writing tips page: http://jasmingelinck.com/resources).
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker: This one is actually good! It looks at what successful people do different than most (spoiler: the most important difference as Simon Sinek says: They have a WHY that affects other people) that leads to them being successful in the first place. It shows you how many of your learned mantras about success (just imagine yourself being successful already!) are wrong and do not help you in any way. You should rather look at your own skills and/or weaknesses to find things you excel at.
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande: This book is great! It talks a lot about the day-to-day business of writing and the fears you might encounter (and how to conquer them!). I recommend this for anyone who wants to be an artist.
Wake Up and Live by Dorothea Brande: The same as above but not focused on writing alone. It's a great book for everyone who feels slightly lost in life (I know I do...)
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: This book was very hyped... but I found it mediocre at best. It has some good ideas but isn't in any way exceptional. It's a good read, still, and I do recommend at least looking at it to see if the content speaks to you, but don't force it if you don't like it.
Give and Take by Adam Grant: A great book about leadership and becoming successful. The most important message of this book is (obviously) the importance of giving - not just in order to get, but simply to enhance your life. The book attempts to give you a blueprint on how much giving you should do and when/how to expect something back (to take).
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: This was the first non-fiction of 2018 I actually LOVED. You can say what you want about JP as a person (and I'll not join that particular debate) but 12 Rules is highly relevant to everyone who wants to improve themselves/their outlook on life and the world. Of course, not all Peterson writes is Holy Grail material, and I would argue not much actually is, BUT in every chapter, there are nuggets you can pick up to improve your life and relationships. You can pick and choose what you wish to incorporate in your life or not. As such, the book is definitely worth a read.
Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor: Highly useful/relevant if you struggle with mental health issues. You'll have to read it yourself to see the value of it. I simply can't sum it up well enough. Suffice to say it shows you how to deal with your dark thoughts and how to improve your life even if your depression cannot be entirely cured.
The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition by Peter Hollins: I don't actually remember this book at all. I think it's just one of those publish-as-many-as-you-can-to-make-money life-advice craps. Not recommended.
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi: I love this book. There has been no better book in my life ever before. I actually loved it enough to buy a paper copy after reading it on my Kindle just to have it on my shelf (and that doesn't happen very often at all). This book (not 12 Rules) IS the Holy Grail of learning to live with yourself and working through/DESPITE your past traumas in a non-pretentious way. It refers heavily to the philosophy of Alfred Adler and I promise you it is impactful. If you read any book from my list at all then it should be this one.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: It took me a long time to get to this book. I knew it existed for almost a decade but couldn't bring myself to read it because the title sounds pretentious and fake as all heck. However... after hundreds and hundreds of recommendations I decided to give it a try... and it's great! It truly is an amazing book and not in the least pretentious or fake. A lot of people think 'But it will teach me to be false in order to make friends' but FAR FROM IT! The main body of the books deals with no-brainer tips everyone knows (such as smiling at people to lift both of your spirits and taking care of yourself) but needs to be reminded of because they are so easily overlooked. It also teaches you that when you are fake people will know and they won't respond to you at all - so it's the opposite of what a lot of people fear the book will try to make them do. I'll add my voice to this particular book's value: It's definitely worth it.
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone: I've written a longer post about this one here. It's quite good if you want to have an overview of how much work you will be required to do in order to get ahead. It tells you basically to multiply every effort by 10 if you truly want to succeed. If you plan to contact 10 customers in order to sell your product, instead make it 100. If you plan to make 100,000 extra money the next year, plan to make 1,000,000 instead. In essence, it is better to fall short of HUGE goals than small goals. I believe this should be read once simply so you get the concept (and possibly change your working style for the better).
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz: Another book right up there with The Courage to be Disliked and How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's on an entirely different topic (The 10X Rule was inspired by it) but so so worth it! If you read two books from my list it should be The Courage to be Disliked and this one. It's so much more accessible than the somewhat reckless airy-fairy tips of The 10X Rule and written so much more humanly relatable. In essence it's a simple guide on how to improve your life by dreaming well (however without any affirmation or visualization crap like you find in some of the more etheric self-help books) and by working on bigger and more fulfilling projects than you believed yourself capable of/could even conceive of.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: A long review can be found here. This book is definitely worth the buy and read. It will reach you to REALLY improve your life - and in a sustainable way rather than all those 'just change/just do it' books. Any change happens gradually and in increments. Atomic Habits drives home that point and shows you how you can make habit changes permanent. It's really a useful book!
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy: On the coattails of James Clear's Atomic Habits. A longer review again here. I would not read The Compound Effect without having first read Atomic Habits. All the concepts of TCE are related to (and mostly the same as) Atomic Habits - but it's not explained or written as well by Darren Hardy as by James Clear. This book is best read to deepen your understanding of atomic habits after you've read James Clear. I sort-of recommend it but it's not a necessary read if you've read Atomic Habits.
The rest of the non-fiction list is more science oriented. I read a lot about the human mind and prehistory. I also read a biography called Wild Swans. Let me just show you two of these books.
Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang: definitely recommended. The best and most gripping biography I've ever read. It's exciting, terrible, and beautiful all at once, and it's written in a style almost like a novel. It definitely grabbed and held my attention throughout the whole 500+ pages.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: Basically a vendetta against the human race. The book zeroes in on how bad humanity is and yada yada by giving (mostly unproven) examples of prehistory where humanity allegedly disturbed the peace of Paradise/the Garden of Eden by extinguishing other species (again, this is not proven through any records, and Harari simply makes the jump from coincidence to 'must be true'). The writing itself is also horribly boring and only the first part of the book (30%) are actual science and somewhat worth reading. The rest is conjecture into the future and scientifically weak assumptions pulled out of thin air.
All right! This about sums up the post.
WriteBot.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
KDP Select and Planning Progress
Hey folks
Today's post will be a short notice.
The first (and most relevant) news is this:
A few of my books will be going up on KDP Select from today until the next three months!
The novels and short stories/story collections participating will be:
Elegy of the Stars
Warlike
Xenos
Worlds of Magic
Plus the stand-alone short stories:
Iana
The Hungry Worlds
Catching Fireflies
What does this mean for you? It means you can read my books for free if you have a KDP Select subscription (which you should!)! Check them out in my author profile here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01H703DRC
Why did I decide to do it?
I love it when people read my stories and I love to share! KDP Select is a great opportunity to find more readers in any genre but especially science fiction. It also gives readers the chance to read something new and cool for free.
Do take this limited opportunity to familiarize yourself with my stories!
The second piece of news is that I'll be doing a short hiatus from posting every day. I'll be visiting family in Austria (my home country) and have decided not to take my PC with me. As much as I love everyone on here I do need a break from the internet.
Instead I'll be taking my Kindle and spending all my time reading the last few John Wyndham books I haven't gotten to yet! I'm currently about 70% into The Secret People.
Another important (and cool!) piece of information: I finished another short story today. This one is called Heart of Askelion. It's a love story at heart (strangely enough considering those are not usually my jam). Then again... I recently finished another (called A Thousand Frontiers) which is also a love story...
Anyway. All that has to happen is for them to be edited. Heart of Askelion is currently 15k words long and will be complete at about 20-25k. It lacks some details as of yet and will probably need a few more scenes.
A Thousand Frontiers is complete at 3.5k words. This one will likely not get over more than 5k.
Once they have been edited I'll upload a few glimpses and scenes of it for you to sample! I really think they are great.
All right. I'll chat again next week Tuesday! Until then, have a great time!
WriteBot.
Today's post will be a short notice.
The first (and most relevant) news is this:
A few of my books will be going up on KDP Select from today until the next three months!
The novels and short stories/story collections participating will be:
Elegy of the Stars
Warlike
Xenos
Worlds of Magic
Plus the stand-alone short stories:
Iana
The Hungry Worlds
Catching Fireflies
What does this mean for you? It means you can read my books for free if you have a KDP Select subscription (which you should!)! Check them out in my author profile here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01H703DRC
Why did I decide to do it?
I love it when people read my stories and I love to share! KDP Select is a great opportunity to find more readers in any genre but especially science fiction. It also gives readers the chance to read something new and cool for free.
Do take this limited opportunity to familiarize yourself with my stories!
The second piece of news is that I'll be doing a short hiatus from posting every day. I'll be visiting family in Austria (my home country) and have decided not to take my PC with me. As much as I love everyone on here I do need a break from the internet.
Instead I'll be taking my Kindle and spending all my time reading the last few John Wyndham books I haven't gotten to yet! I'm currently about 70% into The Secret People.
Another important (and cool!) piece of information: I finished another short story today. This one is called Heart of Askelion. It's a love story at heart (strangely enough considering those are not usually my jam). Then again... I recently finished another (called A Thousand Frontiers) which is also a love story...
Anyway. All that has to happen is for them to be edited. Heart of Askelion is currently 15k words long and will be complete at about 20-25k. It lacks some details as of yet and will probably need a few more scenes.
A Thousand Frontiers is complete at 3.5k words. This one will likely not get over more than 5k.
Once they have been edited I'll upload a few glimpses and scenes of it for you to sample! I really think they are great.
All right. I'll chat again next week Tuesday! Until then, have a great time!
WriteBot.
Monday, December 10, 2018
Updated Cover for Elegy of the Stars!
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to give you a quick update today on the new cover of Elegy of the Stars. I shared a sketch recently. Here it is again:
The image has now been finished. Here it is!
You can see the full version and buy the book here!
What are your thoughts on it? I like it better than the old one and it will be up on the book by tomorrow!
Have a good night/day.
WriteBot.
I just wanted to give you a quick update today on the new cover of Elegy of the Stars. I shared a sketch recently. Here it is again:
The image has now been finished. Here it is!
You can see the full version and buy the book here!
What are your thoughts on it? I like it better than the old one and it will be up on the book by tomorrow!
Have a good night/day.
WriteBot.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Review of Darren Hardy's The Compound Effect
Hey folks
I've been listening to the audio book
these last few days (I don't usually like audio books at all but non-fiction seems to be easier to listen to than fiction) and wanted to give you a review of it!
All right. The Compound Effect. Most of the book's advice is pretty generic and
not actual fresh and/or unique research. It's the sort of book that tells
you 'The more you practice the luckier you get'. (The usual spiel
about people not being actually 'lucky' but working hard so that when the
opportunity arises they can take it. Whereas other people don't work
hard enough so they cannot get 'lucky' when an opportunity presents
itself.)
The author also likes to pat himself on
the back with how many famous people he knows at different companies
(Apple for example) and how their CEOs personally interacted with him
at some point. That can be a bit annoying.
The gist of the book is hard/diligent/persistent work over time =
success.
A piece of important information in the
book is that small changes (in things such as habits) should be
pursued over time rather than every big change you'd like to have in
your life all at once. This means when you want to exercise regularly
and get a better body it's important to start small-ish (say about 20
minutes of exercise a day) because if you start big (2 hours of
exercise a day) then you won't be able to keep it up infinitely. It
is important to create small habits that over time will compound into
big habits with visible effects.
The concept is very similar to James Clear's
Atomic Habits. Review of Atomic Habits here.
As Hardy explains his concept of compounding effect he also cautions against giving up
too easily. It's quite obvious that if you go to the gym twice or eat
one less meal once (if you're trying to lose weight) you won't
immediately see the benefits. The same goes for writing. If you want
to write a book, write 500 words on two days, then give up because
you don't have a book yet, your whole endeavour is somewhat
pointless. If, however, you keep going to your desk and you keep
adding words, 500 words a day will eventually stack up, and in less
than a year your novel of 100k word will be finished (as finished as
a first draft usually is in any case). At the start of any endeavour
you don't want to burn yourself out with either exercise (2 hours a
day) or writing 9000 words a day (been there done that) and then not
have the energy to finish at all. If you're just starting out it's
fine to write 100 words a day. Or 200. And maybe exercise only for 20
minutes or only do 10 push-ups instead of the 100 you're yearning to
do (crazy folks!).
You can obviously increase the amount
of x you do once you get better at it. If you start small you can up
the ante after some time: If you're used to writing 200 words a day
it's much easier to make the jump to 300 and later 500. In no time
you'll be writing those elusive 2000 (or even 5000/10.000) words a
day.
However. The compound effect does not
only refer to creating good habits but also how the small little
tasks you do every day (conscious or not) make up your bad habits.
This could be for example eating a piece of chocolate every day after
lunch because you crave it (I usually crave something sweet after
lunch). It doesn't matter much on one day, but if you do it every
day, it has the same effect as writing 500 words a day. After a while
it will become a detriment to your health. This is why Hardy also
talks about how to break bad habits. He suggests to write down your
habits in a list in order to easily see what you could 'drop' so to
speak. An example he gives is saving more money than usual. How can
you see where you're spending money unnecessarily?
You are to write down every single
thing you spend money on during the week.
A cup of coffee at Starbucks? A candy
bar from the shop to treat yourself after work? That's a few dollars
right there you can save if you know about them. And in a week, or
month, if you buy these things regularly, the amount you can save
instead of spend will exponentially increase. The same goes for
calories when you're trying to lose weight. Are you actually eating
more than you need? Tracking your habits will tell you exactly WHERE
you can change your behaviour to go from loss (for example of money
by spending on 'little things' or loss of health by eating too many
'little unhealthy things') to gain.
The same loss goes for accumulating
knowledge (in the news) that you will not use and which therefore
goes to waste. Ask yourself: Do you really need to watch/read the
news three times a day? How much of 'useless' knowledge are you
gaining this way? Wouldn't it be better to spend the time to read up
on information you can actually put to use (perhaps a book on weight
loss/nutrition/personal finance/other hobbies you have long been
interested in)?
Hardy also maintains that as you're doing
all these little things to improve yourself it's also important not to be discouraged. As with
anything you do there will be setbacks. If after two months of
training at the gym or writing on the novel you still don't have that
thin stomach or the complete novel, it's easy to become lazy. It
takes a lot of time to obtain significant results. (Here the old adage
comes into play, doesn't it? 'Nothing worth having comes free'.)
You're guaranteed to want to quit at some point (can confirm this
from personal experience with both exercise and writing!), but then
you must become the proverbial tortoise and soldier on. Slow and
steady wins the race. You put your head down and you take one step at
a time. One scene at a time. One minute of exercise at a time.
I hope you enjoyed this review. If you'd like to check out Hardy's book on account of this review it's probably best to buy it at Amazon (am still not affiliated with them). The Kindle ebook is somewhere around $7 and from the audio book it sounded like a fairly easy read. Although if you've already bought James Clear's Atomic habits it might not be as relevant for you any more.
WriteBot.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Art for Seafarer!
Hey everyone!
I wanted to share with you a piece of art that was made for one of my stories:
Seafarer. Seafarer is one of the stories that will be published in Worlds of Magic when it is released on the 7th of December. The story of Seafarer follows a young woman as she tries to find out how her mother fell in love with her partner. It's a tale of how the pirate queen acquired herself a princess. The two main characters are shown on the image!
In a way this post is a character introduction as well. I give you: Aaea and Isolde! (Click to enlarge!)
(by Ngo Hung)
Isn't it pretty?
This story is one of friendship and love and light. It is about mysterious magics and screaming kings and pirates who steal underwear. It's a fun story of adventure as well as deep and insightful into the nature of human relationships.
Excited? It's coming out on the 7th of December! Stay tuned.
WriteBot.
I wanted to share with you a piece of art that was made for one of my stories:
Seafarer. Seafarer is one of the stories that will be published in Worlds of Magic when it is released on the 7th of December. The story of Seafarer follows a young woman as she tries to find out how her mother fell in love with her partner. It's a tale of how the pirate queen acquired herself a princess. The two main characters are shown on the image!
In a way this post is a character introduction as well. I give you: Aaea and Isolde! (Click to enlarge!)
(by Ngo Hung)
Isn't it pretty?
This story is one of friendship and love and light. It is about mysterious magics and screaming kings and pirates who steal underwear. It's a fun story of adventure as well as deep and insightful into the nature of human relationships.
Excited? It's coming out on the 7th of December! Stay tuned.
WriteBot.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Why you need to raise the stakes
Hey everyone!
How are you doing this fine day? My own writing is... suddenly not going well even though it's been perfect the last few days (???) and I'm going a bit crazy. Ah well. It might sort itself out.
Today let's talk about the importance of raising the stakes.
The most recent example of a series (TV) that failed at this is The Man in the High Castle. I've been dying to talk about this for at least a week since I started to watch Season 3. There will be some (minor) spoilers so if you don't want to know the end of Season 2 stop right here!
What is there to say about The Man in the High Castle.
It started great. The first two seasons were coherent, connected, and everything made sense within the universe where it's set. I liked some of the characters (Tagomi) and hated others (Frank). All of them had their part to play and the first two seasons had UNITY. It had a plot.
Cue Season 3.
The unity evaporated like water in the desert. The characters are no longer doing ANYTHING related to any plot or within their character (established in the first two seasons). They've all gone insane, there is no plot, and the only thing the season has established so far is to put in a lot more fluff. This fluff comes mostly through kissing and unnecessary sex scenes as well as dramatic (emo) scenes where people talk about their emotions that are way too prolonged. Of course I have nothing against either romantic or 'deep' scenes but those are neither. The 'romantic' scenes often happen to characters I don't care about (who were introduced badly in season two and three and with whom the audience has no emotional bond whatsoever) and the emotional talk scenes... well. There's about ten every episode and it's getting old.
There is also (as I have mentioned before) no plot in Season 3 whatsoever. Unless you count the three or four scenes where a dark tunnel is mentioned that needs to be investigated.
All right. Let's get to WHY it doesn't work though. I've talked a lot about WHAT doesn't work. It's time to look at the details of WHY.
The WHY in this case is actually very simple:
The STAKES are not high enough after Season 2. In fact there are almost no stakes at all.
Consider the characters.
At the end of season two they have already lost everything they could lose (Smith his son, Chief Inspector Kido his second in command, Frank is supposedly dead, Juliana everyone she loved, Ed and Childan their shop, livelihood, and family, Joe his honor and pride and so on and so forth, and Tagomi gave up his family for the greater good). These are characters who have absolutely nothing left (and Juliana's sister reappearing in the second season? Well in the third that plot point is made completely useless as the only journey they go through is 'how can we get sister back to her world').
All right. The characters then have nothing left = no personal stakes.
Let's examine the public stakes of s1 and s2 briefly. In s1 the public stakes were beautifully set up and in s2 climaxed upon.
Here is season one's storyline for each main character: What's up with (Juliana and) the films? What will the death of Frank's sister and her children make him do? How far will he go? Will Joe betray them all? Will Tagomi be able to help his spy get the blueprints for the Heisenberg to the science minister and get him out alive? Will Chief Inspector Kido successfully apprehend the resistance member who has the film?
These (mostly personal) stakes are all set up and solved. At the same time Season 2 is set up neatly.
Throughout Season 2 there are even more questions that need answers. There is a new film Juliana needs to see. It is terribly important. Will she manage to get the film to the Man in the High Castle? Who is the Man in the High Castle? Will Frank be found out? Will he be accused of shooting the Japanese crown prince? Will he survive the Yakuza? Will Joe reconnect with his father? Will Tagomi reconnect with his family in the alternate world? Will Chief Inspector Kido apprehend the resistance before it's too late? Will Smith's son survive the season? Will we (the audience) find out more about the films and alternate worlds? Will all of them be able to somehow avert the coming war?
The public stakes here are HUGE. If the Nazi Reich and the Japanese fight over America then millions of people will die. Hundreds of cities will be destroyed. Thousands of communities. And the stakes are averted only at the last minute.
Then we get to Season 3. All the questions above have been answered masterfully. It wasn't perfect (some loose ends and red-shirt setups) but there was a silver lining through all of the two seasons.
Let's see if we can find ANY stakes in this season.
Season 3 starts with Juliana's sister back in her life BUT she has to go back to her own world for reasons unknown - which means the whole plot point of her appearing AT ALL has just been made redundant. It would have been a good ending for Juliana who believes in people and always helps them to get something BACK. But no. Season 3 destroys this.
Frank meanwhile has been hiding out with some jews in the mountains of somewhere. (Denver?). The first and second seasons he has always been adamant about not being a jew (and not just because the Nazis would kill him but because he simply did not wish to live the jewish life). Suddenly, all he wants in life is to be a jew. (And anyway how did he survive the explosion when the girl standing right next to him got smashed up?)
Smith does not react to what happened to his son. He's chill as usual. There is no emotion there where it should have been. Then again... I guess it IS six months later. Smith also has problems with people trying to do him in (or at least get him into prison for treason). A new character is introduced as the 'antagonist' but killed off relatively quickly because ???
Chief Inspector Kido is (as always) doing his own thingamagic. However, all that translates to is his growing relationship with some white woman in a club. I will admit, that's at the moment the only part of the series I enjoy. I like how Kido went from 'I don't talk to working girls' to her being the only woman (person) he talks to honestly. Also she's taller than him which is cute.
Tagomi... is a mystery. He has averted the war in his world. He achieved his mission and why he left his family back in World 2 and returned to Nazi World. So why didn't he go back to them? He was happy there and they were starting to accept him again. BUT he has a new girlfriend (some Japanese painter who says she has a husband but still flirts with Tagomi every chance she gets???). It's all fine. He only loved his wife enough to learn how to traverse worlds.
All these characters do throughout 2/3 of the third season is... nothing whatsoever. Oh of course they're running around doing stuff but none of it has any stakes. Random romantic (or not so romantic since I don't care about these random insert characters who only popped up to have sex with one of the main/side characters) scenes happen. Juliana goes crazy. Frank suddenly becomes a jew. Smith kills more people. Joe loses his mind and then his life (in a rather graphic way that didn't fit the rest of the series at all). Tagomi is just derping around. Chief Inspector Kido... well at least his relationship with the woman from the club is cute.
There are no personal stakes for either of the characters throughout the season. The only characters with personal stakes (Smith and Tagomi) solve them pretty quickly.
There are also no public stakes.
Remember the war that almost happened at the end of s2? Knowing there was a s3 I kept thinking 'something must happen'. The atomic bomb MUST BE dropped onto the Japanese (by accident after the 'bad guy' is apprehended or just SOMEHOW). The atomic bomb MUST be dropped. Well. It wasn't. The war was averted when (thinking about setting up s3) it SHOULDN'T have been. Because what happened in s3? All the stakes were suddenly gone. The characters (as I mentioned) went through so much and lost so much they have nothing left to lose. The public has nothing to lose either at this point.
There simply are no stakes. And that's a terrible thing when you've watched s1 and s2 and know how much opportunity it had!
The best I can figure about the stakes of s3 is that the public stakes are supposed to be the fact that the Nazi Reich is trying to build a wormhole/whatever into other worlds to spread the Nazi Reich into them.
But why? They haven't even conquered their own world yet. They are too afraid to start war with the Japanese but at the same time they're working to conquer whole new worlds? What? It makes just as little sense as the 7-10 kiss/sex scenes in every single episode.
I applaud you if you've stuck with me so far. I would have kept it shorter but I wanted to make a good example of this. (And also the horrible storytelling of s3 makes me really angry after how good the first two seasons were).
This is story-telling 101.
If your first book ends in preventing a war then your second book can't hang on to all kinds of personal sob stories of your characters. You raised the stakes by starting a horrible war... and then let everyone down by going back to 'oh yeah but listen these characters are suffering individually' (and then they're not even suffering anyway but just being or randomly jumping into bed with everyone else).
Of course it's hard to top two great seasons and make the third better. But s3 was just horrible to watch - and so are many other book and TV series these days. The purpose of raising the stakes is to keep reader/audience interest. It doesn't work when they first avert a war and then go back to doing nothing at all for a whole book/season.
I really hope this wall of text will help you figure out why stakes are so important and how to use them well! And if your book two is already great and you just can't figure out what to do for book three? THINK HARDER. THINK BIGGER. If they averted a war in book two it's time to deal with that exact same war in book three OR bow out. There can be no going back to a normal 'comfortable' life after that. Not if you don't want your readers to fall asleep while reading your book (cough Authority by Jeff VanderMeer).
WriteBot has said its piece. Have a good night/day!
How are you doing this fine day? My own writing is... suddenly not going well even though it's been perfect the last few days (???) and I'm going a bit crazy. Ah well. It might sort itself out.
Today let's talk about the importance of raising the stakes.
The most recent example of a series (TV) that failed at this is The Man in the High Castle. I've been dying to talk about this for at least a week since I started to watch Season 3. There will be some (minor) spoilers so if you don't want to know the end of Season 2 stop right here!
What is there to say about The Man in the High Castle.
It started great. The first two seasons were coherent, connected, and everything made sense within the universe where it's set. I liked some of the characters (Tagomi) and hated others (Frank). All of them had their part to play and the first two seasons had UNITY. It had a plot.
Cue Season 3.
The unity evaporated like water in the desert. The characters are no longer doing ANYTHING related to any plot or within their character (established in the first two seasons). They've all gone insane, there is no plot, and the only thing the season has established so far is to put in a lot more fluff. This fluff comes mostly through kissing and unnecessary sex scenes as well as dramatic (emo) scenes where people talk about their emotions that are way too prolonged. Of course I have nothing against either romantic or 'deep' scenes but those are neither. The 'romantic' scenes often happen to characters I don't care about (who were introduced badly in season two and three and with whom the audience has no emotional bond whatsoever) and the emotional talk scenes... well. There's about ten every episode and it's getting old.
There is also (as I have mentioned before) no plot in Season 3 whatsoever. Unless you count the three or four scenes where a dark tunnel is mentioned that needs to be investigated.
All right. Let's get to WHY it doesn't work though. I've talked a lot about WHAT doesn't work. It's time to look at the details of WHY.
The WHY in this case is actually very simple:
The STAKES are not high enough after Season 2. In fact there are almost no stakes at all.
Consider the characters.
At the end of season two they have already lost everything they could lose (Smith his son, Chief Inspector Kido his second in command, Frank is supposedly dead, Juliana everyone she loved, Ed and Childan their shop, livelihood, and family, Joe his honor and pride and so on and so forth, and Tagomi gave up his family for the greater good). These are characters who have absolutely nothing left (and Juliana's sister reappearing in the second season? Well in the third that plot point is made completely useless as the only journey they go through is 'how can we get sister back to her world').
All right. The characters then have nothing left = no personal stakes.
Let's examine the public stakes of s1 and s2 briefly. In s1 the public stakes were beautifully set up and in s2 climaxed upon.
Here is season one's storyline for each main character: What's up with (Juliana and) the films? What will the death of Frank's sister and her children make him do? How far will he go? Will Joe betray them all? Will Tagomi be able to help his spy get the blueprints for the Heisenberg to the science minister and get him out alive? Will Chief Inspector Kido successfully apprehend the resistance member who has the film?
These (mostly personal) stakes are all set up and solved. At the same time Season 2 is set up neatly.
Throughout Season 2 there are even more questions that need answers. There is a new film Juliana needs to see. It is terribly important. Will she manage to get the film to the Man in the High Castle? Who is the Man in the High Castle? Will Frank be found out? Will he be accused of shooting the Japanese crown prince? Will he survive the Yakuza? Will Joe reconnect with his father? Will Tagomi reconnect with his family in the alternate world? Will Chief Inspector Kido apprehend the resistance before it's too late? Will Smith's son survive the season? Will we (the audience) find out more about the films and alternate worlds? Will all of them be able to somehow avert the coming war?
The public stakes here are HUGE. If the Nazi Reich and the Japanese fight over America then millions of people will die. Hundreds of cities will be destroyed. Thousands of communities. And the stakes are averted only at the last minute.
Then we get to Season 3. All the questions above have been answered masterfully. It wasn't perfect (some loose ends and red-shirt setups) but there was a silver lining through all of the two seasons.
Let's see if we can find ANY stakes in this season.
Season 3 starts with Juliana's sister back in her life BUT she has to go back to her own world for reasons unknown - which means the whole plot point of her appearing AT ALL has just been made redundant. It would have been a good ending for Juliana who believes in people and always helps them to get something BACK. But no. Season 3 destroys this.
Frank meanwhile has been hiding out with some jews in the mountains of somewhere. (Denver?). The first and second seasons he has always been adamant about not being a jew (and not just because the Nazis would kill him but because he simply did not wish to live the jewish life). Suddenly, all he wants in life is to be a jew. (And anyway how did he survive the explosion when the girl standing right next to him got smashed up?)
Smith does not react to what happened to his son. He's chill as usual. There is no emotion there where it should have been. Then again... I guess it IS six months later. Smith also has problems with people trying to do him in (or at least get him into prison for treason). A new character is introduced as the 'antagonist' but killed off relatively quickly because ???
Chief Inspector Kido is (as always) doing his own thingamagic. However, all that translates to is his growing relationship with some white woman in a club. I will admit, that's at the moment the only part of the series I enjoy. I like how Kido went from 'I don't talk to working girls' to her being the only woman (person) he talks to honestly. Also she's taller than him which is cute.
Tagomi... is a mystery. He has averted the war in his world. He achieved his mission and why he left his family back in World 2 and returned to Nazi World. So why didn't he go back to them? He was happy there and they were starting to accept him again. BUT he has a new girlfriend (some Japanese painter who says she has a husband but still flirts with Tagomi every chance she gets???). It's all fine. He only loved his wife enough to learn how to traverse worlds.
All these characters do throughout 2/3 of the third season is... nothing whatsoever. Oh of course they're running around doing stuff but none of it has any stakes. Random romantic (or not so romantic since I don't care about these random insert characters who only popped up to have sex with one of the main/side characters) scenes happen. Juliana goes crazy. Frank suddenly becomes a jew. Smith kills more people. Joe loses his mind and then his life (in a rather graphic way that didn't fit the rest of the series at all). Tagomi is just derping around. Chief Inspector Kido... well at least his relationship with the woman from the club is cute.
There are no personal stakes for either of the characters throughout the season. The only characters with personal stakes (Smith and Tagomi) solve them pretty quickly.
There are also no public stakes.
Remember the war that almost happened at the end of s2? Knowing there was a s3 I kept thinking 'something must happen'. The atomic bomb MUST BE dropped onto the Japanese (by accident after the 'bad guy' is apprehended or just SOMEHOW). The atomic bomb MUST be dropped. Well. It wasn't. The war was averted when (thinking about setting up s3) it SHOULDN'T have been. Because what happened in s3? All the stakes were suddenly gone. The characters (as I mentioned) went through so much and lost so much they have nothing left to lose. The public has nothing to lose either at this point.
There simply are no stakes. And that's a terrible thing when you've watched s1 and s2 and know how much opportunity it had!
The best I can figure about the stakes of s3 is that the public stakes are supposed to be the fact that the Nazi Reich is trying to build a wormhole/whatever into other worlds to spread the Nazi Reich into them.
But why? They haven't even conquered their own world yet. They are too afraid to start war with the Japanese but at the same time they're working to conquer whole new worlds? What? It makes just as little sense as the 7-10 kiss/sex scenes in every single episode.
I applaud you if you've stuck with me so far. I would have kept it shorter but I wanted to make a good example of this. (And also the horrible storytelling of s3 makes me really angry after how good the first two seasons were).
This is story-telling 101.
If your first book ends in preventing a war then your second book can't hang on to all kinds of personal sob stories of your characters. You raised the stakes by starting a horrible war... and then let everyone down by going back to 'oh yeah but listen these characters are suffering individually' (and then they're not even suffering anyway but just being or randomly jumping into bed with everyone else).
Of course it's hard to top two great seasons and make the third better. But s3 was just horrible to watch - and so are many other book and TV series these days. The purpose of raising the stakes is to keep reader/audience interest. It doesn't work when they first avert a war and then go back to doing nothing at all for a whole book/season.
I really hope this wall of text will help you figure out why stakes are so important and how to use them well! And if your book two is already great and you just can't figure out what to do for book three? THINK HARDER. THINK BIGGER. If they averted a war in book two it's time to deal with that exact same war in book three OR bow out. There can be no going back to a normal 'comfortable' life after that. Not if you don't want your readers to fall asleep while reading your book (cough Authority by Jeff VanderMeer).
WriteBot has said its piece. Have a good night/day!
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Character Introduction: Thresha (Warlike)
Hey folks!
I just came home. Today was the first time I had Dim Sum and it was pretty tasty!
Anyway. Today's post will focus on something different than usual. I usually like to do book reviews and give writing advice but this time I want to introduce you to the fun and adventurous main character of Warlike.
Why? Because I think she's really awesome and also because Warlike has gotten quite a lot of good reviews lately and that just makes me very proud.
All right.
Let me introduce you to:
Thresha. The jungle girl.
A sketch by one of my artists:
Thresha is a warrior in a small tribe within a jungle-like forest. Adjacent to a large desert (the End of the World) this jungle-forest is plagued by great reptilian hunters called the raptors. These are quite dinosaur-like in both appearance and demeanour (think Jurassic Park!) and prey one everything they can catch. They are also quite smart and this means Thresha's tribe has been hunted almost to extinction.
Thresha herself is a strong-willed and stubborn (one could say they are the same) girl who doesn't believe in hiding to assure the tribe's survival. Her philosophy is like that of any warrior out to prove themselves. Thresha wants to fight for her tribe and especially the girl (her clan-sister) she loves.
Thresha gets the chance to stand up to the raptors when her tribe's most skilled warband is killed by the raptors. Warlike's story starts after this elite band of warriors is vanquished and Thresha does not agree with lying low. The death of the venerable hunters Ion and Tarin pushes her to question the Elders of her tribe and in effect chose her own path to fight the raptors.
On her journey out of the jungle-forest to find the legendary weapons that she knows have once existed on Earth she will however meet a lot of resistance. This adversity comes in a lot of shapes and forms as a world opens before her she and her tribe didn't know exited. Thresha learns there is more than just the jungle-forest left of Earth. A chance encounter with a young man from outside the jungle-forest takes her into a spiral of discovery and danger. Among them are a woman who wants her dead because she disrupted the balance of her enclave. And a host of flying metal men (called 'sems') intent on destroying the rest of humanity and assimilating them into more sems. But that's not all. As Thresha is taken far and wide by her ambition to destroy the raptors once and for all she will learn more secrets about the torn Earth she inhabits than her whole tribe thought possible.
Does this sound like something you'd love to read? It's a great adventure with a badass main character who won't let anyone tell her what do (even when she suffers from her decisions).
Check out the book here: (goodreads link)
It has five reviews so far and they're all quite good! WriteBot is quite happy people are enjoying the novel.
WriteBot hopes you'll love Warlike and Thresha! Check them out and have a good evening/day with it!
I just came home. Today was the first time I had Dim Sum and it was pretty tasty!
Anyway. Today's post will focus on something different than usual. I usually like to do book reviews and give writing advice but this time I want to introduce you to the fun and adventurous main character of Warlike.
Why? Because I think she's really awesome and also because Warlike has gotten quite a lot of good reviews lately and that just makes me very proud.
All right.
Let me introduce you to:
Thresha. The jungle girl.
A sketch by one of my artists:
Thresha herself is a strong-willed and stubborn (one could say they are the same) girl who doesn't believe in hiding to assure the tribe's survival. Her philosophy is like that of any warrior out to prove themselves. Thresha wants to fight for her tribe and especially the girl (her clan-sister) she loves.
Thresha gets the chance to stand up to the raptors when her tribe's most skilled warband is killed by the raptors. Warlike's story starts after this elite band of warriors is vanquished and Thresha does not agree with lying low. The death of the venerable hunters Ion and Tarin pushes her to question the Elders of her tribe and in effect chose her own path to fight the raptors.
On her journey out of the jungle-forest to find the legendary weapons that she knows have once existed on Earth she will however meet a lot of resistance. This adversity comes in a lot of shapes and forms as a world opens before her she and her tribe didn't know exited. Thresha learns there is more than just the jungle-forest left of Earth. A chance encounter with a young man from outside the jungle-forest takes her into a spiral of discovery and danger. Among them are a woman who wants her dead because she disrupted the balance of her enclave. And a host of flying metal men (called 'sems') intent on destroying the rest of humanity and assimilating them into more sems. But that's not all. As Thresha is taken far and wide by her ambition to destroy the raptors once and for all she will learn more secrets about the torn Earth she inhabits than her whole tribe thought possible.
Does this sound like something you'd love to read? It's a great adventure with a badass main character who won't let anyone tell her what do (even when she suffers from her decisions).
Check out the book here: (goodreads link)
It has five reviews so far and they're all quite good! WriteBot is quite happy people are enjoying the novel.
WriteBot hopes you'll love Warlike and Thresha! Check them out and have a good evening/day with it!
Thursday, November 22, 2018
The importance of resetting your mind when you're stuck
Hey folks!
I survived the mouth hygienist and my teeth look all fancy now. I did however bleed like someone who was stabbed... Aaaand of course they told me to floss every day. I'M TRYING! They recommended me some tools and I actually bought them. A few different kinds of sticks and pokey-thingies and brushes to clean my teeth.
Anyway. I guess that's enough about my teeth.
Today's post (as you can see from the title) will be about inspiration and ways to get un-stuck in your writing project. Let's start with inspiration itself. There are lots of people who will go around and ask authors the age-old question 'Where do you get your ideas??'.
This question is both easy and very difficult to answer. As a lot of authors have said before me 'I get my ideas everywhere!'.
But this is of course quite vague. 'Everywhere' is not a place you can go to in order to get your ideas.
So what are you supposed to do?
I think there are really only three secrets to getting fresh ideas. They all have to do with getting out of your OWN head and into someone else's. Or just out of your own head.
-read a lot
-go outside and meet people (that favourite of mothers' which is almost always ignored)
-think a lot
These are my personal favourites.
Why? Or: Why is it important to get out of your own head? It's simple. Your brain needs to reset. If you've been working very closely on something for a long time you'll eventually become biased (and usually against it). Ideas that seemed fresh and AMAZING the first time around are suddenly stale and boring and your brain keeps telling you 'no one wants to read this kind of stuff'. And anyway. You don't know what to write/edit any more either way.
When this happens this is usually a cue that your brain wants some rest. It's a good opportunity to take a break and do something else: gaming/reading/watching TV.
Will you feel guilty? Perhaps.
Will you be angry at yourself for not working on your own project? Probably.
But will it help you reset your mind and in the long run give you more and better ideas? Also yes.
If you don't have any hobbies -
If you know nothing about the world -
If you don't know PEOPLE -
If you have no experience -
What are you even going to write about? So take a break when necessary! Breaks are just as important as 'actual work'. No matter how much you love something, you can't do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And you probably don't want to either.
Does this seem like a no-brainer? It is. But still a lot of people become workaholics when they truly care about a project, and they needed to be reminded every once in a while that it's ok to rest. You don't have to wear yourself out. You don't have to throw all of your splendid ideas at one project. It's fine if you wait until later with some of them.
WriteBot out.
PS: This particular piece of advice is valid not only for writers but ALL professions. If you're stuck, take a break. The world will look fresh and new pathways will open up for your tomorrow.
Enjoy your night/day!
I survived the mouth hygienist and my teeth look all fancy now. I did however bleed like someone who was stabbed... Aaaand of course they told me to floss every day. I'M TRYING! They recommended me some tools and I actually bought them. A few different kinds of sticks and pokey-thingies and brushes to clean my teeth.
Anyway. I guess that's enough about my teeth.
Today's post (as you can see from the title) will be about inspiration and ways to get un-stuck in your writing project. Let's start with inspiration itself. There are lots of people who will go around and ask authors the age-old question 'Where do you get your ideas??'.
This question is both easy and very difficult to answer. As a lot of authors have said before me 'I get my ideas everywhere!'.
But this is of course quite vague. 'Everywhere' is not a place you can go to in order to get your ideas.
So what are you supposed to do?
I think there are really only three secrets to getting fresh ideas. They all have to do with getting out of your OWN head and into someone else's. Or just out of your own head.
-read a lot
-go outside and meet people (that favourite of mothers' which is almost always ignored)
-think a lot
These are my personal favourites.
Why? Or: Why is it important to get out of your own head? It's simple. Your brain needs to reset. If you've been working very closely on something for a long time you'll eventually become biased (and usually against it). Ideas that seemed fresh and AMAZING the first time around are suddenly stale and boring and your brain keeps telling you 'no one wants to read this kind of stuff'. And anyway. You don't know what to write/edit any more either way.
When this happens this is usually a cue that your brain wants some rest. It's a good opportunity to take a break and do something else: gaming/reading/watching TV.
Will you feel guilty? Perhaps.
Will you be angry at yourself for not working on your own project? Probably.
But will it help you reset your mind and in the long run give you more and better ideas? Also yes.
If you don't have any hobbies -
If you know nothing about the world -
If you don't know PEOPLE -
If you have no experience -
What are you even going to write about? So take a break when necessary! Breaks are just as important as 'actual work'. No matter how much you love something, you can't do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And you probably don't want to either.
Does this seem like a no-brainer? It is. But still a lot of people become workaholics when they truly care about a project, and they needed to be reminded every once in a while that it's ok to rest. You don't have to wear yourself out. You don't have to throw all of your splendid ideas at one project. It's fine if you wait until later with some of them.
WriteBot out.
PS: This particular piece of advice is valid not only for writers but ALL professions. If you're stuck, take a break. The world will look fresh and new pathways will open up for your tomorrow.
Enjoy your night/day!
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Cover Reveal: Xenos
Hey everyone!
This post will be pretty short as it's late and I'm stressed because I have to go to the mouth hygienist again tomorrow. It will be painful and unpleasant so please forgive my lapse. I promise there will be more informative posts again from tomorrow onwards!
All right.
Let's see about that cover!
I promised the reveal would happen in my post two days ago about my current WIP. Xenos is almost finished (only one more story to edit this week!) and will be out on the 7th of December.
Today I wanted to show you the actual cover!
This is how it looks! I'm quite pleased. The idea was that there's spaceships/missiles coming down on a city at sunrise. It's all quite mysterious (just like the anthology itself).
Do you like it? Please comment! I'd love to know what you think!
Also: keep the date in mind! December 7th the anthology will be out! It will contain several short stories at the price of one! The stories include themes in the areas of:
ALIENS
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
ALIENS
cosmic horror
ALIENS
If you like Lovecraft's works... check out Xenos! It's the best in cosmic horror you can get these days!
WriteBot needs to sleep and try not to have nightmares about the mouth hygienist... WriteBot will see you again tomorrow!
This post will be pretty short as it's late and I'm stressed because I have to go to the mouth hygienist again tomorrow. It will be painful and unpleasant so please forgive my lapse. I promise there will be more informative posts again from tomorrow onwards!
All right.
Let's see about that cover!
I promised the reveal would happen in my post two days ago about my current WIP. Xenos is almost finished (only one more story to edit this week!) and will be out on the 7th of December.
Today I wanted to show you the actual cover!
This is how it looks! I'm quite pleased. The idea was that there's spaceships/missiles coming down on a city at sunrise. It's all quite mysterious (just like the anthology itself).
Do you like it? Please comment! I'd love to know what you think!
Also: keep the date in mind! December 7th the anthology will be out! It will contain several short stories at the price of one! The stories include themes in the areas of:
ALIENS
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
ALIENS
cosmic horror
ALIENS
If you like Lovecraft's works... check out Xenos! It's the best in cosmic horror you can get these days!
WriteBot needs to sleep and try not to have nightmares about the mouth hygienist... WriteBot will see you again tomorrow!
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Review of James Clear's Atomic Habits
Hi folks!
This post will be a quick review of James Clear's Atomic Habits. I finished it about an hour ago and found it... all right. It didn't blow me away (although some tips were useful!) and the writing was quite dry. It took me several days to finish (that should be an indicator how dry the writing was!) and I want to with this post simply give you an overview of Clear's most important (my opinion) points.
Why did I read it? I thought I could improve my work ethic when it comes to writing - but I'm not sure it actually worked. I am still tired after writing only a little bit (hello depression!) and can't think of any way to improve my habit of doing nothing whatsoever instead of writing most of the time.
All right! Let's get started.
Atomic Habits is a book about... well you guessed it. Habits. Atomic means small and therefore the book is about (guessing it again?) SMALL HABITS. And how SMALL HABITS stack up to over time become BIG HABITS/YOUR LIFESTYLE.
The first point Clear makes is that you should not try to change your whole life all at once. It's much too difficult (can confirm. I've tried it multiple times.). You're supposed to start small. AND you're supposed to change not because of the goal you want to to achieve (example: you want to lose weight and therefore decide to run) but because of the type of person you wish to become (example cont.: you want to become a healthy person at a good weight).
This way of thinking will supposedly help you stick to your habits much easier than if your goal were simply to lose a few kilos. Let me elaborate on that example a bit.
Your goal: lose 10 kilos
Your habits: eating cheeseburger every day for breakfast (don't judge. It has happened to me. Incl. pizza)
IF you only attempt to lose weight then you might do so by sheer force of will (been there done that - eat fruit/cereals instead of that cheeseburger for a few weeks). This is extremely hard and a bit pointless because as soon as you go back to your old HABITS (eating cheeseburger for breakfast) you will rapidly regain that weight.
HOWEVER.
If your goal becomes to change your lifestyle (be a healthier person) then James Clear suggests building small habits around that (as opposed to using SHEER FORCE OF WILL) will serve you better in the long run. This means you are replacing your habit of cheeseburger for breakfast with a habit of something healthy (???) for breakfast instead. This is a small change and you can even start by only going through the motions. Instead of warming up that frozen burger/pizza/sweetened cereal you'd start taking out your healthy cereals and fruit and what not. You don't even have to eat them just yet. The habit of taking them out of your storage needs to come first. You do this every day and at some point you'll be like 'heck I'm starting to make two meals (you're still taking out your burger/sweetened cereals/etc too at this point) and this is inconvenient'. 'Heck. The healthy stuff is already out - might as well eat that and then the cheeseburger if I'm still hungry'.
This is how it starts.
In a few months then you'll cultivate the habit of eating your healthy foods (the things you started taking out of storage first thing in the morning) and will (hopefully) forget all about pizza for breakfast entirely after a while.
The same principle goes for anything else you want to do. Write a book? Start by switching on your PC/writing program or carrying a notebook with you. Commit yourself to writing only two minutes a day. You are allowed only to make this SMALL CHANGE. You must do it every day. After a while you will be tempted to write more. And then more. And suddenly you have a BIG HABIT.
The second (most useful) tip in Atomic Habits is this:
Have a schedule and schedule the habits you want to cultivate one after another. This can be done by certain time or after another activity. The formula goes something like this:
If I wake up at 7:00 AM the next step in my day will be to make a cup of tea (habit you're probably already doing?). After this habit or while the water boils I will do (if you want to change to a healthier lifestyle) five pushups. This will usually be around 7:02 AM.
In this way you have two 'schedules':
1: At 7:02 AM I will do five pushups.
2: While the water boils for my morning tea I will do five pushups.
You can schedule other things this way as well.
If you want to be more productive at work: After getting on the train and finding a seat I will take out my notepad and write 2 new ideas I could develop during the day.
If you want to reduce your calorie intake: After sitting down to eat a meal I will drink a glass of water.
If you want to get better at drawing: I will draw one object every day before sleep (ca. 10 PM)
If you want to learn about physics: During my lunch break (12 lunchtime) I will read an article/watch a video on physics
You get it? After a habit you're already doing (going to lunch break/getting out of bed) you will 'stack' up another habit (referred to as HABIT STACKING in Atomic Habits).
The third piece of juicy advice:
MAKE IT EASY.
This is one very no-brain and yet very difficult to follow through with.
We all know this issue: If you're hungry you'll just grab whatever snack is available no matter if it's healthy or not. (And you're probably still hungry afterwards so have to eat a normal/healthy snack on top of it.)
We also all know this: There's an exciting book/new game/TV series RIGHT THERE when you're supposed to be doing work. What is easier? Sit back and relax or work on that difficult project you've been procrastinating on the whole week? Which one will you automatically do? Grab the controller or try to make your brain solve your work issue?
You don't have to answer that (but you can if you want to!). All of us have good intentions but rarely choose the difficult thing over an easier option.
The same it is with habits. Our bad habits are usually easy. The TV controller is right there. So is that greasy snack that won't fill you so you'll have to eat more later/immediately.
James Clear proposes this:
Make your GOOD HABITS EASY and your BAD HABITS HARD.
In practice this means:
Food: Don't buy unhealthy snacks. If you have to go to the store before you can eat them... well there's a good chance you'll be too lazy to go to the store and thus won't eat them.
Pre-cut your healthy snacks during the weekend (says James Clear - but personally I think the healthy fruit and vegetable snacks he's referring to will be rather gross later on if you pre-cut them too early) so they're always ready to eat. I want to suggest rather than pre-cutting the whole week's cucumbers and apples on the weekend to simply make them more visible and pre-cut them the evening before or in the morning of. How to make them more visible? Put them everywhere. Put them in your (unhealthy) snack drawer. Put them on your tables and desks. Put them on your nightstand. (This is a trick learned from a hotel. They had apples in a basket and I was hungry. I ate an apple instead of unpacking my candy from my bag simply because it was THERE already.)
TV: If you want to reduce the hours spent watching TV - Hide the TV. This is paraphrased from Clear's idea to PUT YOUR TV IN THE CLOSET. This will automatically make you roll it out only when you DESPERATELY want to watch something. Alternatively (and easier): hide your remote or remove its batteries.
Sports: Prepare your workout clothes in advance. If you have to search for them, you're likely to skip your workout. If they're right there, well, then you're just lazy if you don't go, and nobody wants to be lazy.
Obviously this can be done with a lot more than just these three categories of habits! Try to come up with new tactics yourself! I'd love to hear about them in the comments too!
Overall thoughts:
They book was dry as Parmesan (PS: cheese should only be eaten in moderation) but had some valuable tips (as listed above). I would definitely recommend the book simply because it has more tips than what I've personally listed and everyone has their own style of learning/changing and their own goals to meet. This means that while the above advice is valuable to me there might be other important things in the book for YOU to learn.
Only YOU know what YOU need to change/learn about yourself/in your life. That is why you personally should read this book.
WriteBot thinks everyone can benefit from this book. It can be found easily on Amazon (I am not affiliated with James Clear or Amazon in any way by the way) and probably other stores and isn't very long either. You might learn something about yourself with this book!
WriteBot out.
This post will be a quick review of James Clear's Atomic Habits. I finished it about an hour ago and found it... all right. It didn't blow me away (although some tips were useful!) and the writing was quite dry. It took me several days to finish (that should be an indicator how dry the writing was!) and I want to with this post simply give you an overview of Clear's most important (my opinion) points.
Why did I read it? I thought I could improve my work ethic when it comes to writing - but I'm not sure it actually worked. I am still tired after writing only a little bit (hello depression!) and can't think of any way to improve my habit of doing nothing whatsoever instead of writing most of the time.
All right! Let's get started.
Atomic Habits is a book about... well you guessed it. Habits. Atomic means small and therefore the book is about (guessing it again?) SMALL HABITS. And how SMALL HABITS stack up to over time become BIG HABITS/YOUR LIFESTYLE.
The first point Clear makes is that you should not try to change your whole life all at once. It's much too difficult (can confirm. I've tried it multiple times.). You're supposed to start small. AND you're supposed to change not because of the goal you want to to achieve (example: you want to lose weight and therefore decide to run) but because of the type of person you wish to become (example cont.: you want to become a healthy person at a good weight).
This way of thinking will supposedly help you stick to your habits much easier than if your goal were simply to lose a few kilos. Let me elaborate on that example a bit.
Your goal: lose 10 kilos
Your habits: eating cheeseburger every day for breakfast (don't judge. It has happened to me. Incl. pizza)
IF you only attempt to lose weight then you might do so by sheer force of will (been there done that - eat fruit/cereals instead of that cheeseburger for a few weeks). This is extremely hard and a bit pointless because as soon as you go back to your old HABITS (eating cheeseburger for breakfast) you will rapidly regain that weight.
HOWEVER.
If your goal becomes to change your lifestyle (be a healthier person) then James Clear suggests building small habits around that (as opposed to using SHEER FORCE OF WILL) will serve you better in the long run. This means you are replacing your habit of cheeseburger for breakfast with a habit of something healthy (???) for breakfast instead. This is a small change and you can even start by only going through the motions. Instead of warming up that frozen burger/pizza/sweetened cereal you'd start taking out your healthy cereals and fruit and what not. You don't even have to eat them just yet. The habit of taking them out of your storage needs to come first. You do this every day and at some point you'll be like 'heck I'm starting to make two meals (you're still taking out your burger/sweetened cereals/etc too at this point) and this is inconvenient'. 'Heck. The healthy stuff is already out - might as well eat that and then the cheeseburger if I'm still hungry'.
This is how it starts.
In a few months then you'll cultivate the habit of eating your healthy foods (the things you started taking out of storage first thing in the morning) and will (hopefully) forget all about pizza for breakfast entirely after a while.
The same principle goes for anything else you want to do. Write a book? Start by switching on your PC/writing program or carrying a notebook with you. Commit yourself to writing only two minutes a day. You are allowed only to make this SMALL CHANGE. You must do it every day. After a while you will be tempted to write more. And then more. And suddenly you have a BIG HABIT.
The second (most useful) tip in Atomic Habits is this:
Have a schedule and schedule the habits you want to cultivate one after another. This can be done by certain time or after another activity. The formula goes something like this:
If I wake up at 7:00 AM the next step in my day will be to make a cup of tea (habit you're probably already doing?). After this habit or while the water boils I will do (if you want to change to a healthier lifestyle) five pushups. This will usually be around 7:02 AM.
In this way you have two 'schedules':
1: At 7:02 AM I will do five pushups.
2: While the water boils for my morning tea I will do five pushups.
You can schedule other things this way as well.
If you want to be more productive at work: After getting on the train and finding a seat I will take out my notepad and write 2 new ideas I could develop during the day.
If you want to reduce your calorie intake: After sitting down to eat a meal I will drink a glass of water.
If you want to get better at drawing: I will draw one object every day before sleep (ca. 10 PM)
If you want to learn about physics: During my lunch break (12 lunchtime) I will read an article/watch a video on physics
You get it? After a habit you're already doing (going to lunch break/getting out of bed) you will 'stack' up another habit (referred to as HABIT STACKING in Atomic Habits).
The third piece of juicy advice:
MAKE IT EASY.
This is one very no-brain and yet very difficult to follow through with.
We all know this issue: If you're hungry you'll just grab whatever snack is available no matter if it's healthy or not. (And you're probably still hungry afterwards so have to eat a normal/healthy snack on top of it.)
We also all know this: There's an exciting book/new game/TV series RIGHT THERE when you're supposed to be doing work. What is easier? Sit back and relax or work on that difficult project you've been procrastinating on the whole week? Which one will you automatically do? Grab the controller or try to make your brain solve your work issue?
You don't have to answer that (but you can if you want to!). All of us have good intentions but rarely choose the difficult thing over an easier option.
The same it is with habits. Our bad habits are usually easy. The TV controller is right there. So is that greasy snack that won't fill you so you'll have to eat more later/immediately.
James Clear proposes this:
Make your GOOD HABITS EASY and your BAD HABITS HARD.
In practice this means:
Food: Don't buy unhealthy snacks. If you have to go to the store before you can eat them... well there's a good chance you'll be too lazy to go to the store and thus won't eat them.
Pre-cut your healthy snacks during the weekend (says James Clear - but personally I think the healthy fruit and vegetable snacks he's referring to will be rather gross later on if you pre-cut them too early) so they're always ready to eat. I want to suggest rather than pre-cutting the whole week's cucumbers and apples on the weekend to simply make them more visible and pre-cut them the evening before or in the morning of. How to make them more visible? Put them everywhere. Put them in your (unhealthy) snack drawer. Put them on your tables and desks. Put them on your nightstand. (This is a trick learned from a hotel. They had apples in a basket and I was hungry. I ate an apple instead of unpacking my candy from my bag simply because it was THERE already.)
TV: If you want to reduce the hours spent watching TV - Hide the TV. This is paraphrased from Clear's idea to PUT YOUR TV IN THE CLOSET. This will automatically make you roll it out only when you DESPERATELY want to watch something. Alternatively (and easier): hide your remote or remove its batteries.
Sports: Prepare your workout clothes in advance. If you have to search for them, you're likely to skip your workout. If they're right there, well, then you're just lazy if you don't go, and nobody wants to be lazy.
Obviously this can be done with a lot more than just these three categories of habits! Try to come up with new tactics yourself! I'd love to hear about them in the comments too!
Overall thoughts:
They book was dry as Parmesan (PS: cheese should only be eaten in moderation) but had some valuable tips (as listed above). I would definitely recommend the book simply because it has more tips than what I've personally listed and everyone has their own style of learning/changing and their own goals to meet. This means that while the above advice is valuable to me there might be other important things in the book for YOU to learn.
Only YOU know what YOU need to change/learn about yourself/in your life. That is why you personally should read this book.
WriteBot thinks everyone can benefit from this book. It can be found easily on Amazon (I am not affiliated with James Clear or Amazon in any way by the way) and probably other stores and isn't very long either. You might learn something about yourself with this book!
WriteBot out.
Monday, November 19, 2018
What I'm working on: current WIP
Hey everyone!
Today I'll give you an incentive to check out my webpage (www.jasmingelinck.com) more often!
Why should you do it? Because there is soon to be a new story (collection)! At the moment I'm working on an anthology of short stories (among other things) called Xenos. Xenos means strange - and boy are those stories strange (and some of them are horrific)!
In the anthology there will be six stories all centered around one of these topics:
aliens
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
aliens
cosmic horror
aliens
The stories in the anthology will contain old(er) stories as well as brand-new stories! A story that's been on Amazon for a while and is doing well on its own is 2115. This is about a band of people trying to survive the first phase after the aliens landed and their city (Detroit btw) was destroyed. All I can tell you is they're getting outta town real quick! Here's the official blurb:
2115
In the year 2115, aliens landed on Earth. A worn-out soldier, an obliv-addicted EMT, and a little girl take a group of survivors out of the destroyed city to establish a survivors' shelter in an old highway tunnel.
The other stories included in the anthology are:
Moonfarer (a weird Solaris-esque story)
Of One Mind (weird as heck science experiments mentioned above ft. the connection of human minds - alert! Horror!)
Eye in the Sky
Gate (< this one needs a different title yet. It's not complete and not 'done' either at this point)
Immortal (I sent this story off to some magazines and got really good feedback... even though they didn't take it Q_Q)
If you like Lovecraft you might like this anthology. If you like weird as heck cosmic horror/existential horror then you will love this anthology. I know I do (and not just because I'm biased!). I'm actually getting to the point where I write the things that actually TOUCH ME in some way or other. And they're all weird as heck. Please don't tell my therapist.
The anthology will be out on the 7th of December! (A day before my birthday incidentally! What a coincidence!)
Anyway! Stay tuned, sing in tune, check out my website now and then again tomorrow and the day after that, and so on and so forth. There should be an update on Xenos soon. The cover is done. A sneak peek? Hmmm! Soon. I promise.
Have a good day/night!
WriteBot
Today I'll give you an incentive to check out my webpage (www.jasmingelinck.com) more often!
Why should you do it? Because there is soon to be a new story (collection)! At the moment I'm working on an anthology of short stories (among other things) called Xenos. Xenos means strange - and boy are those stories strange (and some of them are horrific)!
In the anthology there will be six stories all centered around one of these topics:
aliens
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
aliens
cosmic horror
aliens
The stories in the anthology will contain old(er) stories as well as brand-new stories! A story that's been on Amazon for a while and is doing well on its own is 2115. This is about a band of people trying to survive the first phase after the aliens landed and their city (Detroit btw) was destroyed. All I can tell you is they're getting outta town real quick! Here's the official blurb:
2115
In the year 2115, aliens landed on Earth. A worn-out soldier, an obliv-addicted EMT, and a little girl take a group of survivors out of the destroyed city to establish a survivors' shelter in an old highway tunnel.
The other stories included in the anthology are:
Moonfarer (a weird Solaris-esque story)
Of One Mind (weird as heck science experiments mentioned above ft. the connection of human minds - alert! Horror!)
Eye in the Sky
Gate (< this one needs a different title yet. It's not complete and not 'done' either at this point)
Immortal (I sent this story off to some magazines and got really good feedback... even though they didn't take it Q_Q)
If you like Lovecraft you might like this anthology. If you like weird as heck cosmic horror/existential horror then you will love this anthology. I know I do (and not just because I'm biased!). I'm actually getting to the point where I write the things that actually TOUCH ME in some way or other. And they're all weird as heck. Please don't tell my therapist.
The anthology will be out on the 7th of December! (A day before my birthday incidentally! What a coincidence!)
Anyway! Stay tuned, sing in tune, check out my website now and then again tomorrow and the day after that, and so on and so forth. There should be an update on Xenos soon. The cover is done. A sneak peek? Hmmm! Soon. I promise.
Have a good day/night!
WriteBot
Sunday, November 18, 2018
The experiment (part 2)
Hey folks
About a week ago I started an experiment with the designer website 99designs.com. I wanted to update you all on the progress.
If what happened can be called progress.
Initially there were some designs coming in for my business card that looked promising. They were well thought-out and showed some creativity. The first phase of the contest lasted about three days and about 7 people participated. The designs were varied. Two of the designers created work that seemed to fit well with what I had requested (a sci-fi business card). The other five either ignored my requests completely or just slapped some generic images/colours onto a card and called it a day. I spoke with a few of them and requested changes. Most of them were done and the cards looked somewhat better. (However... the amount of people who insist on putting an extra e at the end of my first name or start spelling my last name wrong when before they had it correct... yikes.)
The contest entry phase ended... and I wasn't blown away by any of the designs. They were 'ok' but not suitable to my writing/style at all.
I contacted 99designs customer support (These guys are actually on the ball! Helpful advice and fast answers!) and asked them what to do. They offered to extend my contest and I did.
A few of the designers stuck around and have been making changes/submitting new designs.
Another designer - one of them who did not stick around - told me he would no longer waste time on this contest (He actually had one of the best designs but got butthurt when I rated his last half-hearted attempt to spell my name correctly with a 2-star). All right. He hadn't spent a lot of time on the contest in the first place (his design was the most creative of them but needed an hour or two more of detail work) and apparently expected to just get a 270 euros prize by doing half an hour's work. (???)
Another designer yet has been working round the clock on the contest. He has submitted thirty designs and made every change I asked. He's not the best (sadly) but I can tell he's making an effort. He's available online most of the day and actively communicates with me to let me know what he's doing. This guy gets 5 stars on worth ethic but unfortunately only 3 stars for design concepts.
These two examples just about sum up my experience with 99designs. There are those designers who want to make a quick buck and don't intend to 'waste time' beyond half an hour's work and those who put in a congratulatory amount of effort but just don't have the skills (yet) to create a good design.
I'm not sure who deserves the prize money at this point. I'd love to have a design I really like for almost 300 euros but none of the ones submitted is it.
At the same time my second contest for a book cover is trudging along... not at all. The only cover submitted is a terror that quite frankly fits on a creepy 80's horror film but not a story about friendship and starlight. Like what! The main character (a headstrong little girl) looks like she's some sort of psycho escaped from Cthulu's army. I'm going to have nightmares of her tonight.
So far WriteBot doesn't like the 99designs experiment very much. WriteBot would like to have a lovely sci-fi business card but isn't sure it will still be possible until the end of the month (when there's ComicCon). But WriteBot refuses to just obtain a mediocre design. WriteBot wants the BEST business card.
I guess WriteBot will have to wait a while longer to start handing out cards...
All that being said... I think 99designs isn't a great place if you want quality work. A lot of the designers don't want to put in the amount of work required to complete a good design (even when ten hours of work could get them about 270 euros - which is quite a lot more than most people make in a day) and think they can make a quick buck by putting something together in photoshop and throwing it out there as a design. It's a bit disappointing... but I guess people want to find shortcuts everywhere.
WriteBot out!
About a week ago I started an experiment with the designer website 99designs.com. I wanted to update you all on the progress.
If what happened can be called progress.
Initially there were some designs coming in for my business card that looked promising. They were well thought-out and showed some creativity. The first phase of the contest lasted about three days and about 7 people participated. The designs were varied. Two of the designers created work that seemed to fit well with what I had requested (a sci-fi business card). The other five either ignored my requests completely or just slapped some generic images/colours onto a card and called it a day. I spoke with a few of them and requested changes. Most of them were done and the cards looked somewhat better. (However... the amount of people who insist on putting an extra e at the end of my first name or start spelling my last name wrong when before they had it correct... yikes.)
The contest entry phase ended... and I wasn't blown away by any of the designs. They were 'ok' but not suitable to my writing/style at all.
I contacted 99designs customer support (These guys are actually on the ball! Helpful advice and fast answers!) and asked them what to do. They offered to extend my contest and I did.
A few of the designers stuck around and have been making changes/submitting new designs.
Another designer - one of them who did not stick around - told me he would no longer waste time on this contest (He actually had one of the best designs but got butthurt when I rated his last half-hearted attempt to spell my name correctly with a 2-star). All right. He hadn't spent a lot of time on the contest in the first place (his design was the most creative of them but needed an hour or two more of detail work) and apparently expected to just get a 270 euros prize by doing half an hour's work. (???)
Another designer yet has been working round the clock on the contest. He has submitted thirty designs and made every change I asked. He's not the best (sadly) but I can tell he's making an effort. He's available online most of the day and actively communicates with me to let me know what he's doing. This guy gets 5 stars on worth ethic but unfortunately only 3 stars for design concepts.
These two examples just about sum up my experience with 99designs. There are those designers who want to make a quick buck and don't intend to 'waste time' beyond half an hour's work and those who put in a congratulatory amount of effort but just don't have the skills (yet) to create a good design.
I'm not sure who deserves the prize money at this point. I'd love to have a design I really like for almost 300 euros but none of the ones submitted is it.
At the same time my second contest for a book cover is trudging along... not at all. The only cover submitted is a terror that quite frankly fits on a creepy 80's horror film but not a story about friendship and starlight. Like what! The main character (a headstrong little girl) looks like she's some sort of psycho escaped from Cthulu's army. I'm going to have nightmares of her tonight.
So far WriteBot doesn't like the 99designs experiment very much. WriteBot would like to have a lovely sci-fi business card but isn't sure it will still be possible until the end of the month (when there's ComicCon). But WriteBot refuses to just obtain a mediocre design. WriteBot wants the BEST business card.
I guess WriteBot will have to wait a while longer to start handing out cards...
All that being said... I think 99designs isn't a great place if you want quality work. A lot of the designers don't want to put in the amount of work required to complete a good design (even when ten hours of work could get them about 270 euros - which is quite a lot more than most people make in a day) and think they can make a quick buck by putting something together in photoshop and throwing it out there as a design. It's a bit disappointing... but I guess people want to find shortcuts everywhere.
WriteBot out!
Thursday, November 15, 2018
How to plan a story 3 and Impatience-block
Hey folks!
Today's post will concern itself with the single most important line I've gotten out of The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone.
It goes something like (paraphrased) this:
If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock - THINK BIGGER!
Why is it so relevant?
Let me start off with an example right away. As you know I've been working on the outline of a new book (series) in the cyberpunk genre. I had a specific question in mind about what it should be about. BUT I am not an outliner. I used to pants my way through everything... until the concept I wanted to talk about became so big they stopped making sense when pantsed. I then decided to outline despite the failure of earlier attempts (I've tried a LOT of writing techniques over the years) to do so.
The outline was going quite well. It wasn't perfect or perfectly detailed but it did make sense - somewhat.
Until yesterday.
I was chugging along nicely with my plot for the second installment of the series (each installment has its own 'question' I am trying to answer) when I realized that 'damn this character turned into a Mary Sue' and 'damn this sounds a lot like Deus Ex Machina'. I ignored these voices for a while and finished the initial outline anyway.
At night, then, it was difficult to sleep, which it hadn't been when I worked on the first installment. This made me concerned - because I know what this means. It means something is wrong with the book I'm writing at the moment!
I slept. I woke up in an even worse state. It's a bit like being concerned about something when a plot just feel 'wrong'. I can't get my mind of it and am distracted because I NEED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. I'm big on problem solving and I recognize problems very easily. This means if there is an unsolved problem I'm just antsy.
Ok.
It's now about an hour since waking up and I've just finished breakfast (sweet sticky rice! Don't judge!).
The 10X Rule came to me as I was eating breakfast.
What if I'm working on the wrong section of the book series? What if the plot of installment 2 actually belongs to installment 1 still? It hit me then. I'd been working on the wrong question (I try to answer a question with each book of the series so installment one is connected to question one and installment two to question two). I'd skipped ahead to question two when question one was not yet sufficiently answered.
Oh boy.
So what's next? This is where the line from The 10X Rule comes into play: If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock, THINK BIGGER!
I can say without any shame that my first plan failed. I did not think big enough. This means in order to fix the outline for the first question I'll have to THINK BIGGER. I hit a roadblock precisely because I was getting impatient. I wanted to finish the outline for at least installment 1 and WRITE ALREADY. I started to hurry. I missed the entire point and ended up with bad plot and unnecessary Mary Sure characters.
This means today I'm going back to installment 1. Will it be easy? Nah. It will be even harder than what I already have. Will it 'take a while'? I think it might. I've already been working on the outline of installment 1 for a week (though admittedly only about an hour a day). BUT! I refuse to settle for 'mediocre'. I refuse to settle for 'this will do'. AND. It will be FUN! And you know the even bigger benefit? It will make the story so much better! It will make it so much more meaningful. It might even be possible in this way to come close to the vision of the story I have in my head.
The moral of the story?
You don't have writer's block. You have impatience-block. You did not think as much or as elaborately about your story as you should have. You need to re-do your outline/first draft. You need to truly understand what and why things are happening in order to fix your stories and make them the best they can be!
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
WriteBot, bleep bloop!
Today's post will concern itself with the single most important line I've gotten out of The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone.
It goes something like (paraphrased) this:
If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock - THINK BIGGER!
Why is it so relevant?
Let me start off with an example right away. As you know I've been working on the outline of a new book (series) in the cyberpunk genre. I had a specific question in mind about what it should be about. BUT I am not an outliner. I used to pants my way through everything... until the concept I wanted to talk about became so big they stopped making sense when pantsed. I then decided to outline despite the failure of earlier attempts (I've tried a LOT of writing techniques over the years) to do so.
The outline was going quite well. It wasn't perfect or perfectly detailed but it did make sense - somewhat.
Until yesterday.
I was chugging along nicely with my plot for the second installment of the series (each installment has its own 'question' I am trying to answer) when I realized that 'damn this character turned into a Mary Sue' and 'damn this sounds a lot like Deus Ex Machina'. I ignored these voices for a while and finished the initial outline anyway.
At night, then, it was difficult to sleep, which it hadn't been when I worked on the first installment. This made me concerned - because I know what this means. It means something is wrong with the book I'm writing at the moment!
I slept. I woke up in an even worse state. It's a bit like being concerned about something when a plot just feel 'wrong'. I can't get my mind of it and am distracted because I NEED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. I'm big on problem solving and I recognize problems very easily. This means if there is an unsolved problem I'm just antsy.
Ok.
It's now about an hour since waking up and I've just finished breakfast (sweet sticky rice! Don't judge!).
The 10X Rule came to me as I was eating breakfast.
What if I'm working on the wrong section of the book series? What if the plot of installment 2 actually belongs to installment 1 still? It hit me then. I'd been working on the wrong question (I try to answer a question with each book of the series so installment one is connected to question one and installment two to question two). I'd skipped ahead to question two when question one was not yet sufficiently answered.
Oh boy.
So what's next? This is where the line from The 10X Rule comes into play: If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock, THINK BIGGER!
I can say without any shame that my first plan failed. I did not think big enough. This means in order to fix the outline for the first question I'll have to THINK BIGGER. I hit a roadblock precisely because I was getting impatient. I wanted to finish the outline for at least installment 1 and WRITE ALREADY. I started to hurry. I missed the entire point and ended up with bad plot and unnecessary Mary Sure characters.
This means today I'm going back to installment 1. Will it be easy? Nah. It will be even harder than what I already have. Will it 'take a while'? I think it might. I've already been working on the outline of installment 1 for a week (though admittedly only about an hour a day). BUT! I refuse to settle for 'mediocre'. I refuse to settle for 'this will do'. AND. It will be FUN! And you know the even bigger benefit? It will make the story so much better! It will make it so much more meaningful. It might even be possible in this way to come close to the vision of the story I have in my head.
The moral of the story?
You don't have writer's block. You have impatience-block. You did not think as much or as elaborately about your story as you should have. You need to re-do your outline/first draft. You need to truly understand what and why things are happening in order to fix your stories and make them the best they can be!
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
WriteBot, bleep bloop!
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Why you should read Warlike
Hi folks!
Let's talk about WARLIKE.
Warlike is my second book published. The official description depicts a young woman's quest to free her (jungle-forest) tribe from a menace called raptors. The young woman is called Thresha. After the most skillful war-party of the tribe is killed on a hunt, Tresha wants to go out and kill the raptors herself. In essence, the raptors are dinosaurs, and they've been plaguing the tribe for decades. The book is set in the year 2250.
Let's start with a simple question: Why dinosaurs? In 2250? In this story the Earth is practically abandoned. It's not been left behind by space travel but rather humankind caused themselves to become extinct. There were several wars and so much pollution the Earth changed. What's left of the great cities are structures like the Deep (a crumbling hospital). The rest has been covered (at least in Thresha's part of the world) by a jungle-like forest. As forests are not the most food-producing ecosystems (this is a fact) the tribes that sprung up are small hunter-gatherer tribes with some degree of awareness of technology although nothing technological really has survived.
In this setting then Thresha is told to stay down even as her tribe's most revered hunters are killed in the fight against the raptors. But Thresha is very stubborn and has a strong urge for initiative. She won't be kept down. She will be fighting not only for herself but her whole tribe. At the beginning of the novel she starts to do exactly that, even against the wishes of her tribe's Elder, and as a result, Thresha is exiled. She has freedom then, but no security with her tribe any more, and the world is much, much bigger than she thought.
I love this book simply because it's such an adventure. It's really fast-paced with a view out of Thresha's own mind and it is still able to slow down at some point to include Thresha's core values as a character - what she loves and what she hates. All in all it's the one YA-like book I always wanted to read but no one wrote. There is no romance (because who isn't tired these days of all YA books having a romance? I wouldn't have read that as a girl) but great focus is put on meeting new people and navigating their worlds. Friendship is made the central theme of the story instead of romance. (Think about the first Pacific Rim film! I loved it simply BECAUSE it had no stupid romance but focused entirely on Raleigh's protectiveness and friendship-love for x)
Do you think WARLIKE might be something for you? I'd (obviously) love for you to read it!
As a second piece of news: I got my second review for Catching Fireflies! I love it!
This piece of news: In a few days my books will be on goodreads! This means you can review them there as well and add them to your lists! A post about that should follow soon!
WriteBot off!
Let's talk about WARLIKE.
Warlike is my second book published. The official description depicts a young woman's quest to free her (jungle-forest) tribe from a menace called raptors. The young woman is called Thresha. After the most skillful war-party of the tribe is killed on a hunt, Tresha wants to go out and kill the raptors herself. In essence, the raptors are dinosaurs, and they've been plaguing the tribe for decades. The book is set in the year 2250.
Let's start with a simple question: Why dinosaurs? In 2250? In this story the Earth is practically abandoned. It's not been left behind by space travel but rather humankind caused themselves to become extinct. There were several wars and so much pollution the Earth changed. What's left of the great cities are structures like the Deep (a crumbling hospital). The rest has been covered (at least in Thresha's part of the world) by a jungle-like forest. As forests are not the most food-producing ecosystems (this is a fact) the tribes that sprung up are small hunter-gatherer tribes with some degree of awareness of technology although nothing technological really has survived.
In this setting then Thresha is told to stay down even as her tribe's most revered hunters are killed in the fight against the raptors. But Thresha is very stubborn and has a strong urge for initiative. She won't be kept down. She will be fighting not only for herself but her whole tribe. At the beginning of the novel she starts to do exactly that, even against the wishes of her tribe's Elder, and as a result, Thresha is exiled. She has freedom then, but no security with her tribe any more, and the world is much, much bigger than she thought.
I love this book simply because it's such an adventure. It's really fast-paced with a view out of Thresha's own mind and it is still able to slow down at some point to include Thresha's core values as a character - what she loves and what she hates. All in all it's the one YA-like book I always wanted to read but no one wrote. There is no romance (because who isn't tired these days of all YA books having a romance? I wouldn't have read that as a girl) but great focus is put on meeting new people and navigating their worlds. Friendship is made the central theme of the story instead of romance. (Think about the first Pacific Rim film! I loved it simply BECAUSE it had no stupid romance but focused entirely on Raleigh's protectiveness and friendship-love for x)
Do you think WARLIKE might be something for you? I'd (obviously) love for you to read it!
As a second piece of news: I got my second review for Catching Fireflies! I love it!
This piece of news: In a few days my books will be on goodreads! This means you can review them there as well and add them to your lists! A post about that should follow soon!
WriteBot off!
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