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Why You Should Keep Improving Your Skills #3

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In life, everything is constantly changing. This applies to books and their current trending genres. One week, fairies are topping the charts, but the next, Greek goddesses have taken over. Depending what genre those examples delve in, the writing is different. Gone are the days when Tolkien’s style of writing was popular. Now, stories told from a First Person POV and leaning heavily towards romance are selling the best. Those two elements can be applied to any setting and genre, but only if you know how to execute it.

Reading in your genre is the best way to see what readers are looking for. As the saying goes, readers want to read the same exact thing, but with minor changes and some originality. Once they pick up a book by you, they expect the others to be similarly written.

If you’re expecting to sell a lot of books, it’s best to stick with the current writing styles of authors topping the charts. It’s a personal decision to attempt getting a book into all of the current trends. Sliding into even one of them will drastically boost your ratings and get the attention of new readers.

At this point, you may be getting a bit defensive at the fact you should improve your skills. There is a vast difference between style and skill. Style is the art of the storytelling. Your style may always be changing or you may have nailed it down earlier on. The skill is the execution of the writing and should always be improving.

In order to succeed, your writing skills will need to constantly be advanced. There’s not enough room for the famous “show, don’t tell” speech here, but you can find our previous articles for reference: Pitfalls to Avoid: Showing vs. Telling and Show, Don’t Tell.

Continued from
Why You Still Need an Editor After Multiple Books

Why You Still Need an Editor After Multiple Books #2

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A question that often comes up for seasoned authors: “do I still need an editor? I have x number of books under my belt now. Surely I can self-edit to save money and time.”

Famous authors like J.K. Rowling, R.A. Salvatore, Stephen King, etc. still use their editors. Why? They’ve written multiple books and have been writing for years. Shouldn’t they be self-sufficient by now?

Writing a book and editing a book is not the same thing. That’s why an extensive process has been created for publishing. Yes, your work will definitely improve over the years if you continue honing your skills and pay attention to some of the things your editors suggest. There will still be mistakes that another pair of eyes need to catch.

You may be thinking at this point of the article that “It’s okay. I’ll have my best friend or family member read over it and it’ll provide a professional result.” This is often not the case. Even someone who reads books extensively or has an actual college degree in English won’t be able to catch all of the mistakes. Degrees are a piece of paper awarded to someone who completes courses. It doesn’t show their experience or dedication to the work.

Normally, there are three stages to editing: Structural/Developmental, Line Editing, Copy Editing. Laid out like that, it looks easy, but it’s far from simple. A manuscript is normally read through and edited a minimum of five times. Professionals who have studied current genres, story structures, sentence structures, etc. are worth having edit your story and getting it to a traditional publishing level, whether you are attempting that route or self-publishing. Readers expect professionalism and will stop reading after finding mistakes in the book.

“But that’s okay. I’ve already established a reader base.” It’s extremely easy to lose readers once they realize your future books are not up to par with the others. The more books you release, the better they are expected to become. Not the opposite.

Continued from
Why You Shouldn’t Withdraw Your Submission Early

To be continued in a later blog post called
Why You Should Keep Improving Your Skills…

Why You Shouldn’t Withdraw Your Submission Early #1

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After being in the business for so long, one ends up seeing multiple dreams being squashed or coming true. One of the worst things is getting in your own way and causing everything to crash and burn. This has occurred many times and as such, has warranted this article.

Many publishers have the option of manuscript and anthology submissions. When someone submits to both outlets and one gets rejected, the automatic response is to withdraw all submissions from that publisher. This is the wrong way to do things. Just because one thing was rejected does not mean everything will be.

There are so many possibilities as to why it was refused. Some of the most common reasons is it needed more editing or that story didn’t fit in that particular anthology. No matter the reason, none is cause to withdraw all of your submissions. More often than not, the publisher is planning on accepting one even though another was rejected.

The reason many authors are not successful with traditional publishing is because they don’t follow submission guidelines and once refused, they automatically give up. “Self-publishing is such an easier way to go” has been a saying going around writing communities. It may be easier, but you will never have the same opportunities that traditional publishing gives. And so, the story that was rejected due to poor editing is uploaded for self-publishing without further improvement and gets nowhere with sales.

The worst of all is that, more often than not, the author never continues improving their writing. Critique is the most important way to continue honing your writing skills. If you think you’re already the best and have nothing further to improve, then you’re already in the wrong mindset.

To be continued in a later blog post called
Why You Still Need an Editor After Multiple Books…

Author Interview with Kris Ashton

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Dragon Soul Press sat down to interview Author Kris Ashton after his appearance in the Lethal Impact anthology.

  1. What inspired you to start writing?

If it was any one thing, probably Stephen King’s short fiction in Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. But an interest in reading and writing has been an innate part of me as far back as I can remember. I always enjoyed writing fiction and penned my first full-length short story in my early teens.

  1. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing the story?

Most of the time an idea hits me almost fully-formed. If I’m convinced it has potential, I roll it around in my head for a few days to work out the characters, detail and finesse the plot, examine everything for problems. Once the way seems clear, I put my head down and go.

  1. What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

I imagine almost every author has periods where motivation and self-belief are in short supply. Some days you’re an F-18 Hornet streaking across the sky, other days you’re a dung beetle trying to push your manuscript uphill. Those dung beetle days are especially hard while writing a novel. Discouragement comes easily when you still have 40,000 words to go. Keying in changes on each draft of a novel is the least enjoyable part of the process for me.

  1. On a typical day, how much time do you spend writing?

I’m a journalist as well as an author, so few are the days where I’m not hammering away at a keyboard. If I’m at work on a new piece of fiction, I try for a thousand words a day bare minimum. That can take an hour if I’m really blazing or three if my mental state is boggy.

  1. Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.

I almost died from bacterial meningitis when I was two years old. A night doctor misdiagnosed it as gastroenteritis and I ended up being rushed to hospital the next day. I survived, obviously, but suffered nerve damage that left me with next to no hearing in my left ear.

  1. Where do you get your inspiration?

Reading fiction definitely helps. It stimulates the creative centre of my mind and I’ve had more than a few story ideas arise from a nifty line or image in another writer’s novel. Sometimes inspiration comes from true-life stories I hear from friends and family. Other times I’ll simply be alone with my thoughts when two independent concepts crash into one another, exploding into a new story idea.

  1. Who is your favorite author and why?

Stephen King in his early years. Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Cujo, Pet Sematary, Different Seasonsand his short fiction collections wowed me as a reader and shaped me as a nascent writer. In those days he had the perfect balance between ‘soothing’ narrative voice, thematic weight, and plots packed with verve and energy. His post-1980s stuff didn’t resonate the same way and his 21st century output has been hit-and-miss, in my opinion.

  1. What are you reading now?

I’m making my way through Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now (1875). Like most authors from that period his books require a large investment of time and concentration, but he was a gifted writer with a fine sense of humour.

  1. How do you come up with your book titles?

Some authors agonise over story and book titles, but I’m not one of them. For me it’s simple word association. I distill the story down to its basic elements in my mind and then see what phrases pop up in response. ‘Blood and Light’ in Lethal Impact is a good example. It’s a long story with a lot going on, but ‘Blood’ and ‘Light’ (which act as verbs as well as nouns) came to me almost right away. They sum up the story’s plot and themes on multiple levels.

  1. Where can readers learn more about you?

On my website at krisashtonwrite.wordpress.com I keep a blog and publish the ‘stories behind my stories’, which are the literary version of making-of documentaries for Hollywood movies. I’m also @KrisAshtonWrite on Twitter because authors are supposed to have a social media presence these days (I don’t have a high regard for social media’s overall effect on society).

Author Interview with S.O. Green

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With the upcoming release of Dragon Soul Press’ Lethal Impact anthology, DSP interviewed Author S.O. Green featured within.

 

  1. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I’ve always wanted to write. That, to me, was more important than being a writer. I wrote fan fiction as a way to flirt with my girlfriend (actually, I still do) and as a way to hone my craft. It was only two years ago that I started looking at professional writing, and only this year that I started to take it seriously. So here I am.

  1. Describe your writing process.

I usually start with a concept or a theme. That’s why I love Dragon Soul Press anthologies. The themes are always so strong. Once I have a theme, I brainstorm a premise using some of my favourite character archetypes. Then I write out the plot as it comes to me, fix up the holes and improve the flow before starting to write. I add layers as I go and always allow room for growth but I’m a planner at heart. I try not to research anything until the story is written because I prefer to focus on character and drama rather than detail. Once it’s written, I let my girlfriend take an axe to it.

  1. How do you come up with the titles to your stories?

The title is the very last thing I decide on. Early drafts are always entitled things like ‘The Demon Story’ or ‘Reign of Queens Story’. When I finish, I look back through and see if I can find a phrase that describes the entire piece. My latest story for Dragon Soul Press is named ‘Eve’s Apple’, after the main character’s love of apples. That quirk wasn’t even in the original plan but, once I started writing, it became important pretty quickly.

  1. What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I do all my writing on an Alphasmart Neo. It’s basically a keyboard with a calculator screen. No games, no internet, no nothing. There are no distractions. It’s the main reason why my output is so high. I’ve typed over half a million words since the start of 2020 and it’s great because I used to really struggle with my output. Oh, and there’s also usually a redhead in my stories somewhere.

  1. How do you handle writer’s block?

Honestly, I try to just not get it. I start every day with a little writing. Something rough with low stakes so I can just let it flow. It might never see the light of day. On the other hand, it might also be the first draft of something. If I get blocked on a specific project, I try to approach it from a different angle – a new point of view, a new character or a new starting point. My experience of writer’s block is less about the writing and more about motivation.

  1. Where do you draw inspiration from?

I tend to say the empty spaces. I read; I watch TV; I play video games. My stories come from the spaces between stories. ‘What if?’ scenarios or events I felt should have happened but didn’t. ‘Eve’s Apple’, was based on the question, ‘what if a main character knew they were an android all their life?’ You can find the answer in the upcoming Lethal Impact anthology.

  1. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Mainly, I search for new ways to make plants delicious and learn to kill people with my bare hands. I play a lot of video games – classic survival horror, epic open world and twee farm simulators tend to be my favourites. I try to read a lot too. I’ve found some brilliant indie authors since the start of the year whose work I adore, like Carrie Gessner and Dan Trudeau. I also have a job but who cares about that?

  1. What are you currently working on?

My current project is for Dragon Soul Press’s Fairytale Dragons anthology. Really, I’ve been spoiled for choice with DSP’s catalogue of submission calls. They’ve recently added a call for steampunk as well so I’m going to be very busy over the next few months. I usually try to have a few projects on the go at once so I can flit between them and keep my motivation up. Short fiction is a fever I can’t sweat out, but I have a novel I’m revising for self-publishing and a novella that is under consideration with a publisher as well. I like to keep busy.

  1. If you could travel to any fictional world, where would you go?

Frank Baum’s Oz. The characters are all so nice and it really is a paradise. Baum’s descriptions of it were always so beautiful and it feels like anything might be possible there. Guilt-free, plant-based chicken dinners grow on trees. Ozma of Oz is also one of the first transgender characters in Western literature, having spent her formative years as a boy named Tip. Reading his original canon recently, I was amazed at how relevant the series still is. On the other hand, I don’t think they’d appreciate my work there, being of a significantly more cheerful disposition.

  1. Where can readers learn more about you?

I update Amazon and Goodreads whenever something new comes out. There’s also my blog, where I review what I read and tease out issues that interest me. I’m also there for the banter on Twitter and Facebook.

At some point, I’ll grow into them all and they’ll look pretty and professional. Until then, enjoy the chaos.