I thought something was wrong…cause….nothing was wrong. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Sorry.
I’ve never had so many cool people allow me to entertain them like this, each and every week, and I keep expecting something bad to happen and it just…doesn’t.
Hmm.
QUESTIONS:
My mind is in such a weird place. They just keep coming up. While I’m walking, talking, trying to write…and it’s starting to overwhelm me. It’s crazy. SO crazy.
Here are seven of them that hit me as I was doing coffee this morning:
If a character eats their own backstory for breakfast, does that make their plot gluten-free?
If a villain only thinks about monologuing but never does, is that considered inner dialogue or heroic mercy?
Why do heroes never have to stop for a wee during an epic chase scene—does magic cure bladder urgency?
If you write a romance between two punctuation marks, which ones would be forbidden lovers? (I suspect semicolon and ellipsis are scandalous.)
Can a narrator get arrested for narrating a crime in progress — or is that a fictional loophole?
If you spill a metaphor on a simile, does that stain come out in the wash?
Why do wizards always have beards, and what happens if they try to grow sideburns instead — would the spells explode?
I HAVE NO ANSWERS.
Ah, well. It’s the beginning of the week. Maybe something will get solved.
Oh, hey, I’d appreciate your feedback about the T-Shirt idea.
Okay, I’ll leave you alone mow.
Love you tons. Have a great week.
You’ve got this.
You are MORE than you THINK you are!
Until Next Time,
Jaime *I-believe-in-magic* Buckley
If you would you like to help Jaime with office supply needs, or send him a treat, you can. He keeps a public list of what he’s saving up for to buy for Life of Fiction when he has the funds.
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20 minutes well spent. I’m so glad to hear your littlest grandchild is doing well, and I adored Ruby’s singing. Thank you
She is, and I'm so glad you feel this time well spent, Shannon.
SO much to be grateful for and to look forward to in life...for all of us.
Sometimes we just need to hear it out loud.
Morning coffee this week was more of a self-reminder than anything else.
I'm grateful you allow me to be silly to start off my week.
[grin]
Have a lovely week, my friend!
One of the craziest things I found out after I published my first book, was how few negative comments a book could get. I knew when I published it, as a first time attempt, that there would be tons of things I did wrong. Everybody said it was great which just helped that niggling voice in my head work harder at telling me my stuff was junk. That it was so bad that people didn't know where to start with how bad it was. Who knew a writer, especially one who wants to get better, craves negative feedback? You have a good friend and I'm glad she could point you towards some definite concrete positives about Life of Fiction.
Thanks DW.
Yeah, reviews and feedback are a delicate balance. Most folks just won't tell you what needs to be said.
Something about people, not willing to tell another, "Your baby IS ugly."
What's worse, IMO, is when you get a bad review, and zero reason why.
No explanation, nothing to fix, just one star and crickets.
That does no one any good.
Oh, or a bad review rating and "I didn't like it."
Or, "I would have given it a higher rating, but this isn't my preferred genre."
Yeah, that last one got to me.
...but when you sell tens of thousands of books, DW, and you have under 10 negatives?
You always wonder if you're getting the feedback you need.
Yeah, I have no clue if that is good or bad. 1 in each 1,000 could be more indicative of the kind of person you attract. Wrong genre remarks aside, have you gotten a good negative comment?
Not sure that exists.
If you mean constructive criticism, then yes.
"I wish this was formatted more like....[insert a type of book]"
Made the changes, then got MORE negative replies....so I figured something out, about 15 years ago...:
When you get a negative comment, don't worry about it.
If you get two about the same thing, don't worry about it.
Once I hit FIVE of THE SAME THING, then I jot it down. I don't go fix it. I just am aware...and I wait.
Once it hits 50, I'll make it a priority. Otherwise, I'll fix it as I fix other things and that gets added on.
Now, there are many factors with this you should consider.
One, if you've only sold 20-100 books, you're going to take a correction more seriously. Just don't be too hard on yourself.
Went you sell 1000 of that book, look at that percentage. Is it above 5%? Because my personal experience is that under 5% are people who can't read a book if there's a single spelling error. 5% of people get pulled out of a story when they see a coma out of place, or missing....
Once you sell 10,000+ of a book, that negative 5% that was vocal, is likely to drop to less than 0.5%. If it scales with the number of sales, pay attention.
Until then?
Success in motion.
Ask 2 questions:
1) Were you able to stay IN the story, even though there were errors? [yes/no]
2) Did you enjoy the story? [yes/no]
Yes to both questions = leave it and keep writing.
Some fresh nuggets of Buckley wisdom. This is a paved road map if ever I saw one. Really, really wish there was a way to save notes into special folders for later perusal because this is gold. Thanks a ton for this because I still wonder if people are just humoring me sometimes.
You know what's THE most odd, but realistic 'fact' [what I have personally experienced, but cannot prove to anyone else, you have to do it yourself] about self-publishing?
The GOOD things that happen re rarely what you think they will be.
Don't take silence and crickets as silence and crickets.
....unless you SEE the crickets, it's just background music for progress.
When I thought i was at my lowest, I experienced the largest influx of sales in a 48-72 hour period.
When I thought no one was reading my stories, a crippled young girl from a hospital told me her little brother brought my book to her to cheer her up after a car accident and she lost her legs....and it did =).
You...will...not...know....AND you never will know just how far your influence goes.
[mic drop]
I'm so glad your granddaughter is doing better! Ruby is awesome, and in about a year, you are going to be a great grandfather. Congrats all around!
Already great grandfather (have 2 so far)....AND I was given an invitation to my granddaughters wedding....in 2 weeks.
Time moves SO fast.
So cool. It’s wedding season!
Isn't answering Yes to the shirt question going against the whole point?
No.
See what I did there?
LOL
Feels like the shirt question would comfortably fit in with your other questions.