Category: Writing

What the Hell is a Social Media Strategy?

Let’s say you’re, oh, I don’t know, an aspiring writer with a project (or two or three) under your belt, and you’re looking to expand your readership, as well as grow interest in your future projects. I’m asking for a friend.

Then you look around and read stories like this one and this one and this one, and maybe good books like this one, where everyone talks about how writers need to have some sort of “social media strategy.” And because you live in the 20th century and are at least mildly interested in new technology, you think you know what that means. It means to have an idea why and how you’re going to use the various social media tools to communicate with your loyal and ever growing fan base. And hell, you’ve got a blog, a Facebook author page and Twitter account, so there you go! You’re set for life! Now you can just sit back and let the Benjamins drop on your lap.

But then, as you sit back and stare at your empty lap, you realize that you really don’t have any idea what do now that you’re past the point of no return. You’ve got the tools, now what do you do with them? Let’s figure this out together, you and me, right now. Because it ain’t gonna social media itself and I need to make some progress on this before I launch Sun Spots next month.

So the first thing we need to do is figure out the WHY — why do I need a strategy? Well, when I look at some of my favorite authors, they all have used the internet quite successfully to interact with their readers, and I want to put the infrastructure in place to best enable that (notably, Hugh Howey is awesome at this). Even if you can’t currently tell, I have a whole lot of writing to get done, and with my upcoming Kickstarter, I want to use social media to: a) get the word out about my projects, and b) talk to my readers and engage with them, find out what makes them tick, and share cool stuff with them (because that’s what I want from my favorite writers).

The next thing we need to examine is the tools I am using, as well as those I am not (yet). For instance, I really need to get a YouTube channel going, because I have a lot of ideas for cool content, discussions, stories, lectures, etc. But I’m going to start today with those that I have at hand: Facebook, Twitter, and my blog (which you’re reading). Furthermore, I have two Facebook pages: a personal one and an author one. I recently reached out to a couple of my favorite authors who don’t use an author page, and they answered: “Too lazy, basically. If I had an Author page I’d have to update two FBs…” and “I think facebook should be fun and an author page is just a bit too formal for me. And even at the 5k limit, people can still follow me if even they aren’t my friend, since my posts are public.”

But then I see other authors who clearly use both (Christopher Moore comes to mind) and I go back and forth on which I should be using for what use. At this point, I’ll just list what I’m trying to do, and list the various tools I have, and see where things match up.

Here are the actions I would use social media for:

  • Create and share content, both long and short, whether writing on music and games, excerpts from projects, or just writing cool stuff
  • Update on what I’m working on, whether my own self-publishing or when I’m a contributor
  • Share stuff I like, as in links and posts of other cool people
  • Interact with like-minded folk, sharing ideas and having conversations
  • Place people can contact me for whatever reason

I’d really like to put this in a table, but I’m now just realizing that WordPress doesn’t allow that. Hm. So here’s a list of how these social medias could best accomplish my actions:

  • Blog: Create and share larger content (gaming, music, writing, kickstarting); project updates
  • Twitter: Share stuff I like; Create and share micro-content
  • Facebook Author: What I’m working on
  • Facebook Personal: Just stuff about me and my life

 

So you’re really stuck again, and go and do more research. You read this writer, and understand that your Facebook author page is a great place to produce more content. Well, that makes sense and falls in line with my overall goals. The other point she makes it to fully lock down my personal page, and hide it completely from anyone not specifically a fan. Hm. That also makes sense, as I have some privacy concerns with my family and other items. Finally, she says I don’t have to do this until I have hordes (even small) of followers.

I do think it’s a good idea to figure how whether I’m going to keep my personal FB page totally private or open it up for others. And I should figure that out before I start my next Kickstarter, so that, if and when backers want to find me on FB, I am easy to find and communicate with.

Maybe I’m putting the cart before the horse here. Maybe I need to focus on creating more content before I worry about a strategy. It would certain do me well to be creating more, more often. As a middle-aged adult (I hate saying that) with a family and career, that’s my challenge — not enough time to write. I would love to write more, publish more, and share my crazy ideas with everyone.

But this exercise has taught me a few things and I hope sharing them will help as well. First, you need to know what you want out of your social media. For me, I really just need to know what I’m using each platform for, and this exercise helped me figure that out. Second, each platform is used for different things. It’s good to know the strengths and weaknesses of each of the platforms and how they can help/hurt your overall readership. You need to use the platforms for specific things, and not expect the same results from each. And finally, as mentioned, it all comes down to content. If you’re pumping out new content on a weekly or daily basis, sharing new ideas and writing all the time, then you really have the opportunity to optimize your various platforms. But until that time, you’re just another dreamer.

I’m going to keep things the way they are right now, but I am going to work harder at generating content to share. And I’ll share my content through specific channels. I am also going to drive people to my Facebook Author page and see how that works. Finally, I need to make a decision about how to use my personal FB page.

And you — it’s time for you to share some content! Get to work!

Writing RPGs vs Fiction

Yesterday I delivered the fictionalized version of He Who Laughs Last, which was the final remaining stretch goal for me to deliver on that Kickstarter project. Working on that fiction was the hardest I’ve ever worked on a piece of writing for a few reasons, which I’ll discuss below, but, more importantly, I delivered everything to my backers that I committed to, which we know is not always a sure thing.

The fiction was the final stretch goal that I came up with at the 11th hour of the campaign, and, like so many before me, it ultimately represented an amount of work that was both unmanageable and unforeseen. I very much fell into that classic trap of adding scope and effort to a campaign without actually meaning to. In my mind, I thought writing a fictionalized version of a scenario that I’ve already written would be a piece of cake! What could be so hard? I’ve already got all the scenes created along with the pacing and overall frame of the story. I just need to create a few characters, run them through the fiction (like PCs in a game), and I’ll be set. <waves hand> No problemo.

Famous last words.

I do take comfort that I’m neither the first nor last Kickstarter project owner who has over-committed with their stretch goals, but good God I don’t wish that mistake on anyone. My campaign ran from mid-February to mid-March 2014. I had the finished book sent out in PDF in July 2014, and I delivered the actual physical book, as promised, on time in September 2014. I wrapped up most of the other stretch goals by the end of 2014. It then took me an entire year more — one year! — to write the 16k word fictionalization of the scenario. That’s a pretty long dragging out of a project.

Sure, I have lots of excuses why it got delayed, but really it boils down to me not realizing that writing for RPGs is very different from writing fiction. I love writing RPGs and I love writing fiction, and a lot of the ideas are very similar in how you create worlds and characters. But so much of RPG writing is just telling how things should be, providing a framework for someone else to launch their own version of the story. There’s a lot of room to be vague and miss key elements of the story. In fiction, you are writing a very specific version of the story, with details and characters that have their own lives and speak and talk in very specific ways. Furthermore, those characters then need to talk and act just once in your fiction — their actions are what makes the fiction work — so you are putting down one specific version of the story, with no room for characters to be multiple things at various times.

Furthermore, after spending so much time working on the scenario, I was very tired of the story and found it hard to take a fresh view of the fiction. I knew how all the scenes and beats would work out, and had the story so internalized that I skipped over crucial details (in the first draft at least) and needed to make sure I added in excessive details to the story so the mystery was complete. This also took a lot of time and effort that I didn’t realize would be necessary.

Ultimately, I want to write fiction more than I want to write RPGs. I love RPGs and they have provided a bootstrap for my writing career. And writing fiction, for me now, is more difficult than RPGs. But the stories I want to write are not open world for people to explore. I want to write very specific stories with very specific characters taking very specific actions. I still have a few RPG projects to work through (including one more RPG), but I will start focusing on writing fiction soon. Very soon.

Tales of the Caribbean Kickstarter

It seems like such a long time ago, but sometime in 2014, I submitted a scenario proposal for a Golden Goblin Press book of Call of Cthulhu scenarios set in the Caribbean. Much to my surprise, my scenario was selected, and I spent some time this spring writing the dang thing up in preparation for the book’s Kickstarter.

Well, now the day is finally here, and the Tales of the Caribbean Kickstarter is live!

You can even see a picture that’s already done for my scenario…

Soufriere1

It’s so amazing to work with talented people! So you should go back it, now!

What I’m Working On

I’ve been a bit silent here lately and not without good reason. Things have been very busy not only with real life but with my writing life as well. So I wanted to take this moment and update my blog on what I’ve been working on…

But first, I wanted to talk a little about real life. Last month I started working at Apple, going back to JIRA administration as a full time job. The most important part of this pertains to how program management and working in a larger role (with more responsibilities) really seemed to sap my energies and take from my abilities to write consistently. With my new job, I certainly work hard, but I have a lot of time at my desk, working, as opposed to spending my days in meetings, getting people to do their jobs. It was a critical change for me to move away from a more intense role and to a position that allowed me to process my work and get things done during the day.

Now I come home and have still have mental energy, so I can wake up refreshed and ready to write. This has been a great change for me and I’m very excited for my new opportunity. Back to my current writing projects…

1. Recently I finished a first draft of a Call of Cthulhu scenario for the upcoming Golden Goblin Press Kickstarter, Tales of the Caribbean. It was a unique honor to be approached by Oscar Rios and asked to submit a proposal for a Caribbean scenario. It was an even greater honor when they accepted my proposal! So I was on the hook, and got to work immediately (this was last fall). But then work got really busy and my mental space got gobbled up (see above) and I put off writing for far too long. There was a convergence in the late spring when I realized I needed to get a new job, partly because I wasn’t writing at all! But the new job came through, and I quickly retooled my lifestyle to get back to writing. So the first draft has been delivered. Lots of work still left, but the big effort is complete.

2. While my scenario He Who Laughs Last was delivered last summer, I still have one remaining stretch goal — a fictionalized version of the scenario.  I have it mostly outlined and some of it written, but still need to just sit down and write the damn thing. If I had been more productive last winter, it would already be done. But I aim to finish it soon because…

3. I am poised to launch my next Kickstarter on July 26th, 2015, for my Cthulhu Dark scenario Sun Spots. This scenario is actually 95% complete already, and there is much history to this project that I started in 2007. Suffice to say that I’m very excited to finally have this see the light of day. You will definitely hear more about this very soon. But even though the writing is done, there is a ton of project management and preparation for this next KS project. I’ve learned a lot from my previous project and aim to make this one even more successful. Stay tuned.

So that’s it — a lot on my plate and I’m really looking forward to moving through it all. I hope you’re as excited as I am about Sun Spots (and the Caribbean scenario as well), and I can’t wait to share more. Soon!

3 Non-Writing Influences to My Writing

In reading Jeff Vandermeer’s “Booklife,” (which is by far one of my favorite writing books and I shall write up a review when I finish it) he talks about identifying the non-writing influences on your writing. The goal is to find those people/artists that indirectly affect your writing by seeking out indirect methods of influence. Jeff is a big sports fan, so his influences are athletes, which is such a different perspective than my own that I had go through the same exercise.

For anyone who has known me or read this blog for any length of time, you know that music is very important. So clearly at least two of my influences would be musicians and most likely drummers. In fact, so much of my life is influenced by music I could easily say all these influences are musicians, but I wanted to push myself to look somewhere else. It didn’t work.

1. Neil Peart, drummer: As the greatest drummer of all time (and the lyricist for Rush), it’s easy to overstate Peart’s influence on both writing and drumming. And though many people find his lyrics overwrought and too thinky, it’s actually his drumming that has a huge influence on my writing. Here’s the thing about Peart’s drumming and how it got to be so good — he has a massive imagination and creativity in his parts, but he always makes sure those parts are interesting to him. And THEN, he has these massive chops to pull off just about anything. Talk about a combination that I would love as a writer: to have a one-of-a-kind imagination that I use to keep myself interested, buoyed by a strength to just make it happen. Actually, that sounds like my favorite writer Iain Banks. Hm.

2. Terry Chambers, drummer: We call Chambers the “meat and potatoes” drummer. As the original drummer for XTC, Chambers played on their three essential albums “Drums and Wires,” “Black Sea” and “English Settlement.” That weird backhanded rhythm on Making Plans for Nigel? That’s Chambers. He has an amazing strength that is usually reflected in his four-on-the-floor — that chugging rhythm when the bass drum is hitting all four beats in a measure — but he also has an amazing range of power that is best illustrated on the English Settlement album. This record is a bit of a mess. The first side (back when we had LP records) contains perhaps the greatest five songs in a row; a pop masterpiece that very few people have ever replicated. But from there, the record has another ten songs that vary in tempo and rhythms and don’t always work. However the drums are always very interesting and never miss their beats. See, when we talk about “meat and potatoes” we’re talking about how Chambers never misses the fundamentals. As the listener, you never worry about where the beat is and there is always a drum beat to guide you through the song, even if in some backhanded way (like on Nigel). Chambers understands that a drummer doesn’t have to be fancy (but can be creative) to do his job. I think that’s a great MO for a writer as well.

3. James Murphy, musician/record label owner/DJ: Murphy is best known for being the one-man band behind LCD Soundsystem, but he’s also known for running DFA Records and being a great DJ in his own right. So he’s a master of dance music and understands what works and what doesn’t — great. But here’s why he’s such a strong influence on me: when LCD was alive, Murphy would write and perform his own songs in the studio, and then take his own band (“the world’s best LCD Soundsystem cover band in the world” he would say) on the road, and they would translate all of his electronic music into music played by people’s hands. The implications of this musically are impressive, but let’s transplant that to writing and see what comes out. Imagine writing a novel, by yourself in your room, and publishing it. Great, nice work. Now go and hire six people to work as voice and Foley artists to perform your book with you on tour. The idea is staggering, imaginative and embodies true art — to create a unique experience that the reader/viewer will never forget. Damn.

This has been a very powerful and fun exercise (especially at 530 in the morning) to open my mind to all of my influences. Which non-writers influence your writing?

Five Short Stories

So I went and posted all my short fiction over here for you to read. Going back and reading through it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, mostly because I seem to actually have a vision for the style I was trying to develop at the time, and I more or less still like that style. It’s definitely me writing, and some of the decisions I made are very clearly made from a place of total defiance to all of the external pressures and expectations of what short fiction should be like.

Is my short fiction that much different from other short fiction? I’m not really sure, but I know that I never knew where exactly it fit. I tried, at the outset at least, to fit in with all the literary journals and styles that a young writer is supposed to. In college I took a course from Ehud Havazelet and learned two things — I still had a lot of work to do before I had control of my writing (very true) and that the writing I enjoyed did not fit in with the writing all my other classmates seemed to enjoy writing (even more true).

At the same time, I would read short Cthulhu Mythos fiction and not really care about that either. Most of it seemed so derivative and poorly written that I just had no interest in trying to be a part of that movement either. I think my story Independent Coordination, as my one attempt to write in the horror genre, shows me wanting to do something drastically different.

And I think that’s really the crux. I’ve wanted to “be a writer” since I was ten, but that was ultimately because I my head is filled with all these goddamned stories that I really have no other option. I’ve tried to keep them at bay, or even just walk away from them, but my sanity won’t let me. There is just too much to write about, too much to get onto paper.

So looking back on stories I wrote 15 years ago isn’t so bad. Yes, they need editing and I made a specific choice not to touch them in any way before posting them here. But they also show me defiant and confused and just working really hard to figure out how to get the images in my head down on paper. And that’s a pretty good way for a writer to spend his 20s.

I hope you like them.

Do you have any art you created earlier in your life that you still like?

A Year to Say Goodbye

Just about one year ago, my favorite author Iain Banks died of cancer. Before he died, a site was setup to let people post messages to him, which he tried to read before his time ran out.

His cancer and subsequent death came very quickly and I don’t think I ever took the time to say goodbye. But as a good friend of mine recently reminded me, there is always time to say goodbye. Now seems like a good day…

 

Dear Mr Banks,

Long before I read your books, I wanted to write weird, crazy stories. It’s something that’s lived in me all my life, but I never knew what it truly meant. I couldn’t see what it would take to sit down, take all these strange and wonderful ideas in my mind, and commit them to paper. To bring it all together and have it come together into something someone else would not only want to read, but to also transform imagination and creativity. We read to escape, yes, but we also read to be inspired by authors whose vision resonates with us. We love authors that not only tell amazing stories, but allow their personalities to become part of their work.

Twenty years ago, I lived in Glasgow for six months, living with another aspiring author (Neil Williamson) who shared with me a number of new authors, including yourself, Neal Stephenson, and Michael Marshall Smith. Again, good writing does not just lead us to sharing a good story, but also brings enthusiasm for that writer. Finding a new author with any number of books is like winning the lottery – you now have a back catalog of imagination and creativity to pour through again and again, returning to a well that continues to provide a connection for the rest of your life.

This is what I felt like after finishing The Wasp Factory, like I had won the lottery and found a writer and his books that could continue to reward and inspire my imagination. Then I read The Bridge and my life was changed. That was the book that I had wanted to write all my life, a strange concoction of amnesia, 20-something angst, and dream-state that proved to me that I could write any story I wanted. You had cracked the code for me.

Returning to the states, I found your books hard to find, but over the 1990s collected most of them so that I could not stop talking about you. All my friends know you are my favorite author, and many of them became fans of yours as well. The connection had been made, and you had yourself a lifetime fan.

So it was with great sadness that I heard of your illness. My friends sent me emails and texts because, again, they knew how important to me you were. But I didn’t know what to say to you, how to express my deepest gratitude to you for your work. Because it wasn’t just that you wrote The Wasp Factory, The Bridge, The Crow Road and A Song of Stone (my favorites), but it was the sheer amount of work that you put into your writing.

If you had written four or five books, you would have still been my favorite author. But you did so much more than that. Your work ethic and ability to write and write and write – that is what truly inspired me. As an aspiring writer, I always have more writing to do. I know that. But what you helped me see was that the authors that I admire the most (you, Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) all built careers writing and writing and then writing more. You refused to get caught in the pretentious headspace of considering your work too precious to let go – you knew and proved that the best writers write and leave their works for others to judge, because there is always more writing to do.

This is the gift you gave me – setting the bar high, leading by example, showing us that a writer’s job is to write, nothing else. You gave us dozens of books over a 30 year career that 99% of writers will never – and can never – replicate, just by sheer effort alone.

And so that is what I will miss most. I always hoped to meet you in person, but now you are gone and so your fans must move on with what you have already provided. Fortunately for us, it is a lifetime of stories to be read and read again. Your imagination excites, but your work ethic inspires. You showed us the way by giving the world the ultimate gift: art, deep and transformative, that we can experience again and again. And again.

Thank you so much. I will miss picking up your newest book. But I will not miss your work, as my bookshelf has everything I need to read your stories. Again.

Rest in peace.

Dave

Max Barry Interview

Nine years ago I sent out a chance email for a shot to interview one of my favorite authors, Max Barry. Just that the guy would take time out to answer an email from a fan like this is amazing. Clearly he’s awesome. Read:

Update October 2004

Pie Driver interviews Max Barry

When you were 12 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be the newsreader on TV. That guy really seemed to have his shit together.

What’s your daily writing regiment?

I roll out of bed about 7:15am. I iron my wife’s clothes for the day (she’s a school teacher), because yes, I am just that sensitive. Then I go into my study and start writing. I stop when the words do, or when I start to feel faint from hunger, both of which usually happen around 11 o’clock. Sometimes I write in the afternoon, but more often I do all my creative stuff for the day before noon.

Do you outline before or during your writing? While Syrup has a more evolving storyline, Jennifer Government seems more structured. How are your story-telling techniques evolving?

I start with an initial idea, usually about a couple of characters and what they might want to do, and go from there. I very rarely know what’s going to happen more than a couple of chapters in advance. That helps the story from becoming too predictable, and, more importantly, keeps me guessing. I can’t think of anything more boring than planning out an entire novel, then having to write it. As much as possible, I try to avoid ending up pushing characters around like chess pieces, trying to get them to hit particular plot points. I much prefer they take the lead.

It’s funny that Jennifer Government seems more structured. That’s only because I rewrote it so hard; those story threads didn’t come together so neatly in the first draft, I promise you that. This is the downside of not doing outlines.

What has made Syrup and Jennifer Government keepers as opposed to the other novels that were shelved?

Mainly that they were not crap. That’s a big reason. Crap novels, onto the bonfire. Good novels, I call my agent.

How did it feel to finish Jennifer Government and yet have no publisher want to publish it?

My SYRUP publisher (Penguin Putnam) didn’t want it; other publishers were much more receptive. But yeah, it was pretty shocking. When I first got published, I felt so pathetically grateful to everyone that helped me there that I swore I would always stick by them, even if I became hugely famous and popular. They were all so very nice. But they had to make a business decision, and they made it. Tough for me, because I seriously thought my career was over. And I’m very attached to my career. But it was a rough time for Penguin Putnam financially. If I’d been in their shoes I might have cut me, too.

Has Jennifer Government been a success? By what standards? Do you think it will help sell your next book?

Any novel that allows me to keep doing this for a full-time job is a success to me. Getting good reviews is nice, too. In terms of sales, yes, Jennifer Government has done great. I get a stack of fan e-mail, which is just brilliant.

I have a feeling that the sales of novels tend to reflect the quality of the one before them. If you like this one, you buy the next one; if you don’t, you won’t. So very possibly Jennifer Government was just a reaction to Syrup. But hopefully not. Hopefully my next one will get out there and do even better.

Has NationStates been a success? What the future plans for it? Did this evolve as a game or a marketing ploy?

Oh yeah, very much so. I created it as a game to hopefully attract 1,000 people, and so far somewhere it’s had around 400,000 players. I’m not exactly sure what to do with it, since it has become such a big deal all by itself — many, many more people have played the game than read the book — but I’d like to do something.

The idea for NationStates.net — that you get to see what a country based on your idea of perfect politics would look like, and play with it — was one I’d had for a while. And it tied in to the concept behind Jennifer
Government. But I probably wouldn’t have ever coded it unless I could justify that time and expense as a way to promote my novels.

Who do you see as your peers, whether in story-telling or as a novelist? Any authors that you model yourself after?

It really depends on the novel. Two writers I adore, though, are Neal Stephenson and Chuck Palahniuk.

Has being a young author been an asset or a detriment to establishing your career?

I think it’s an asset on the promotional side. The media is definitely more interested in talking to young authors. But as for the actual writing, I think I’ll be creating better novels with another ten or fifteen years’
experience. I sure hope so, anyway. If I’m not, I haven’t been paying attention.

Now that making shit up is your profession, what do you do for fun?

The thing is, though, making shit up is fun. I have that rare and amazing thing: a fun job. But these days, when I’m not writing, I’m trying to maintain NationStates.net. That thing is a real time sucker.

What’s so bad about being Australian?

There seem to be an awful lot of us, wriggling our way into the bastions of American culture. It started with Aussie actors, then came directors, now we’re all over the place. You can’t take five steps in the US entertainment industry without tripping over an Australian. So I apologize for being yet another one.

Max.