Month: February 2025

I’m participating in the PaWriCo March Madness Challenge

I’m not ashamed to admit it. I miss Nanowrimo.

Well, no. I don’t really miss the organization. I sure don’t miss their offensive dismissals of the harm AI can do to writers. I miss the writing community and all the warm fuzzies I got. I miss meeting new people, writing as part of a collective, and all the bonding. And I sure miss the productivity boost all of the excitement around challenges like this always gives me.

Of course, I’m not alone. Writing is a lonely occupation. It involves a lot of sitting in quiet rooms writing things that someday someone will (hopefully) sit in a quiet room and read. We need to get together with our people and feel like we’re doing something as a team. And since writers are generally creative and self-motivated, it was just a matter of time until one of us stepped up and made a new challenge for all of us.

In this case, it was two of us. Specifically, two authors named Rain Sullivan and Jen Woodrum. They came together and created the Pathfinder Writer’s Collective. And I am here for it!

Their first challenge started last year in November. Because of course. But it was different than Nanowrimo. It was more of a choose your own adventure writing challenge. And it was also three months long, from November first to January 31st. And I learned about this on January 29th, on a Write As Rain Instagram post.

Sad trombone music.

Reading the comments it became that, somehow, I wasn’t the only person who was just finding out about this challenge. But, the creators also gave us some hope. A hint that something was coming in March.

Enter the Pathfinders Writing Collective March Madness Challenge.

The goal of this challenge is simple. Write as much as you can in March. But you’re not just trying to hit an arbitrary number. Instead, participants will be split into two teams, Team Green and Team Orange. And every hour you write goes towards your team’s score. There are fun writing sprints and other exciting community events that will take place on the Pathfinders Writing Collective Discord. Fun, right?

Now, I’m writing this on Tuesday. You’ll be seeing it on Friday. The teams are going to be announced on Wednesday. So I can’t yet tell you which team I’m on. I can tell you that it’s probably too late to join.

Sorry about that. But I’ll have some good news for you regarding that at the end of this post.

You might wonder what I plan to work on during this joyful month of overwriting. Well, as always, it’s complicated. See, I’m going to finish the rough draft of Aurora about halfway through the month. I hope. So, when that’s done, I’ll be working on the third draft of a novel I’ve been keeping under wraps for several years now.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to tell you about it soon. Getting the third draft done will certainly help with that.

Alright, but since it’s probably too late for you to participate in March Madness, what can you look forward to from the Pathfinders Writing Collective? Well, they are of course doing their PaWriCo event in November through January. But, they’re also planning a boot camp event in June and July. I don’t know a lot about what that will entail just yet. But so long as March Madness goes well and no one else ends up hospitalized, I’ll be able to let you know. In the meantime, I’m excited to participate in a new writing challenge.

Wish me luck.

If you’re participating in the PaWRiCo March Madness, let me know in the comments. And if there’s another writing challenge that deserves some attention, let us know about that too.

Did you know I wrote a Novel Planner? You can get it now on my Ko-fi shop.

0

To write short fiction

Short novels and novellas are a pleasure. There’s a weight to them, paradoxically. Short fiction seems to punch us in the gut stronger than long fiction. Maybe it’s just me, but I often feel like the shorter the piece, the stronger the impact.

I’ve written before about brevity being a strong point in horror. But I have a deep respect for short works in any genre. Though I’ll admit that some genres lend themselves more to the form, you can find great short stories in any of them. Fantasy might not seem like something that can work well in a short time, but one of the best fantasy books I’ve read is This is How You Lose The Time War.

To write a short piece of fiction takes a different set of skills than writing a long piece of fiction. It’s one that not all authors have the ability to do. Stephen King comes to mind, much as I love him. Even his short stories are bloated, as far as short stories go. But if you want to write good short novels, short stories and microfiction, here are some things to keep in mind.

Every word matters

When you have a tight word count, every word matters. Elements of Style begins with the advice to omit needless words, and that is good advice. It’s also part of the fun of it, for me. When I write microfiction, it’s almost like a puzzle. How do I say all that I want to say within the word count? How do I convey all of the emotions? How do I tell the whole story?

One tip I love is using every bit of word count you can get. This means incorporating the title into the storytelling.

Short fiction has no room for fluff. No room for over-explanation. You have to cut it down to only the words that matter.

Subplots need to do double duty and be scarce

We all love a good subplot. Bits and pieces that add fun and flavor to a story but aren’t essential to a plot.

This one doesn’t exactly impact microfiction, as there’s no room for subplots there at all. But short novels will certainly have a few.

Think of it as the difference between an old-school TV episode, and the season-long stories shows have now. An episode of a show will have an A plot and a B plot. They might or might not impact each other. But a season of a modern show will have at least a handful of storylines. Maybe too many, depending on the show.

With short fiction, of course, you want to have as few subplots as you can get away with.

Maybe you have a romantic subplot that also foreshadows a backstory for the antagonist. Maybe a lost pet leads to a comedic story and gives more character development to a secondary character. Or maybe the main character. We’ll talk more about that in the next portion.

Fewer characters

In short fiction, you’re not going to have a huge cast of characters. It’s not like Wheel of Time or The Stand. Long fiction has lots of space to grow many, many characters.

Short fiction feels more intimate, and part of why is the smaller cast. Consider This is How You Lose The Time War, which only had two characters.

When you only have space for a handful of characters, it’s like the difference between attending a big party and an intimate dinner. You have more opportunity to get to know the people at that dinner. For better or worse. You’ll be more likely to learn secrets about others in that setting. Who went off their meds. Who cheated on their partner. Who has a dark secret about something hidden in their basement. Something that makes them afraid to go down there.

Something that might reach out through the shadows.

Having fewer characters to focus on means you can know those characters inside and out.

Writing a short novel, or any short piece takes practice. It’s not easier than writing a long piece. It sometimes might even take more time than the longer pieces because they require so much attention to detail. But a good piece of short fiction can be a gut punch in the very best way. And even if you don’t intend to write short forever, it’s a good skill to have.

Want a way to organize your novel writing journey? Check out my novel planner on Ko-fi.

0

Is all writing art?

I’ve been busy recently. My darling husband is home, finally. And I am overjoyed. But a stroke is a serious thing and it takes a lot of work and care to recover. It’s a team effort. So it’s been a little hard for me to spend time on my writing.

We all go through these times. It’s nothing new. Right now I’m spending a lot less time writing and a lot more time cleaning and caretaking. Since my time is limited, I’m focusing on things that have actual deadlines. Sometimes, that means that all the writing I’m doing is reviews, blog posts and my daily freewriting.

That’s, um, not a lot. At least not compared to what I’m used to. And the writing I’m doing isn’t what I consider super artistic.

At least, it’s not the sort of writing most people would consider to be particularly artistic.

When you think of artistic writing, what do you think of? Everyone’s going to have a different list, but here’s mine.

Poetry

Songwriting

Short stories of all lengths

Novels and novellas

Now, I don’t write music. But I usually write all those other things. Even if I don’t always share the poetry, this is the writing that makes me feel like a real writer. A real artist!

But of course, there’s lots of writing that is, in fact, artistic writing. Let me give you a list of writing that counts as art.

All writing. All writing can be art.

No, I don’t think there’s an exception. I’ve written ad copy that is art. I’ve ghostwritten blog posts that were art. Everything I post here is art. Even my reviews of horror content on Haunted MTL are art.

If you’re creating something new, you’re making art.

If you’re writing something that gives you joy to write, you’re making art.

If you’re pouring your heart into your writing, you’re making art.

I believe that a lot of the rules some people have about art are bullshit. It tends to be quite elitist, relying on having the approval of the right people. But that has many issues. First off, art is subjective. What I consider art and what you consider art is going to be completely different. Visual artists have been poking fun at this forever. Consider the banana taped to a wall that sold for just so, so much money. I consider this art, not because the banana itself is somehow valuable. It’s art because its existence says something. Thought went into that piece. Intention went into that piece.

You get to decide what counts as art for you. Don’t worry about if anyone else agrees with you. People have also been misinterpreting art forever. Consider the heartbreaking story behind Portrait of Ross in LA, by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. If you haven’t heard of this piece, it looks different every time. It’s a pile of candy. People are invited to take a piece of candy, or even a few.

This piece represents the life and death of a man named Ross, who was the artist’s lover. He wasted away and died due to AIDS. This art piece represents the sweetness of his life wasting away. It’s beautiful and sad and meaningful. It captures the honest and raw emotion of a man who lost his person. We are gifted a glimpse of that pain in the pile of sweets that slowly diminishes. It is art.

What is art to you? To me, it’s a piece of work that’s created with joy. It’s something that is crafted with care. It’s creative work that we make to share with others, or just to take our own emotions and memories out of ourselves and into ink or paint or scraps of paper put together in a collage. Take this post. I wrote this for you, and I wrote it for me. I wrote it to share something with you that’s been making me feel better. I took care with the words I used, bringing some poetry to my prose. I put thought into it. It brought me joy to write. I hope that it brings you joy to read. My reviews of slasher flicks and gory anthology TV shows are also a joy to write. I hope that they’re a joy to read and that they help you find good stories about things that slither in the night.

Art is subjective. But don’t let yourself think that you’re not creating art. It’s a big tent, and all kinds of writing are welcome.

0

What I learned launching four books in four months

Last year, I launched four books in four months. It was a massive project that took the better part of a year to do. But it’s done now. Well, at least it’s mostly done. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Launching one book is a project. Launching four in four months is something I will probably not do again.

And then, of course, while I was just at the tail end of this marathon of launches, the unthinkable happened.

Was it a success? Well, the books are out, and they’re selling, so I guess so. Could I have done more? The answer is always yes. The answer is also always no. So, let’s talk about what I learned during this marathon of launches.

It’s going to take so much more time than you think it will

This is the most crucial thing to keep in mind before you even start. Everything, and I do mean everything, is going to take more time than you think it will. At no point during this past year did I think, wow, I’m ahead of schedule and everything is going smoothly. Promoting takes time. Writing additional content takes time. All the little minute details of launching take time. And all of it is going to take more time than you think it will. Especially if you’ve never done this before. Keep this in mind for the next part.

Plan everything out ahead of time

When I decided to relaunch Woven, the first thing I did was sit down and make a plan. And, being the anxious person that I am, I planned everything down to the day. When was I going to make promo material? When was I going to write and post? What sort of blog posts was I going to write that had something to do with Woven so I’d get the right audience to look at the book? When was I ordering covers? When was I announcing covers? When would the presale go up?

Most importantly, when was I going to need to take breaks? When was I going to be busy with family stuff and holiday stuff and not be able to full steam ahead on this massive project? Remember, I work a full-time job. And I had decided to launch these books during the holiday season. Now, if I ever do this again, I’ll certainly plan to do it earlier. But as I had the glorious idea of having all four books available for holiday gifts, my path was sort of set already. So I needed to make sure I had some time blocked out for family and holiday time.

This includes promotional planning

I of course had a promotional calendar ready. Before I announced a launch, I had a five-month promotional calendar set up which included what books I’d be promoting and how during which times. Even if this just meant what book I’d be posting about on Instagram, I knew.

This was important to me because I tend to suffer from decision fatigue. And when I’m already thinking of a hundred things that need to be done, need decided on and need attention right now, little things get lost. So having a written plan of action I could just follow took a few decisions off my mind. And there were days I needed that.

The work starts long before you even announce a launch date

As I mentioned before, the work to relaunch Woven started much earlier in the year. Remember, I actually launched five books last year, including Nova. The work for this marathon year started in December of the year before. I was already planning and working on the material and details. So if you’re planning to do something like this, plan for it to be a long-term project. Rapid releases only look rapid to those outside. To you, it’s going to be a long, slow process.

Plan for the unexpected

I’ll be the first to say that my launches went surprisingly smoothly. There were no issues with Amazon. The covers came back on time and looked great. There were no technical issues at all.

But that doesn’t mean things went to plan. As you might already know, my husband suffered a severe stroke in December. He was hospitalized for a month before he could be released to a rehab facility. As I write this on February 4th, he is only coming home today. And so a lot of the things I’d planned to do, like be on podcasts and do guest blogs and a bunch of other fun promotional stuff got put on the back burner.

Thanks to all of the heavy lifting I’d done at the start of the project, I was still able to release all four books. Because by the time the stroke happened, everything was pretty much set up on autopilot. I didn’t have to think about whether the book would come out on time or the sale prices would go up because I’d already seen to that.

The point is, to be ready for things to go wrong. Because really, anything could happen. This is why it’s important to plan far in advance and don’t announce a launch date until everything, and I mean everything, is ready to go.

The work doesn’t end when the books are out

Finally, I’m still working on this launch. Because this is, again, a huge project. While I delayed a lot of outreach promotions, I didn’t cancel them. And, of course, there’ll be some buzz when the books go wide. (Spoiler, that’s starting sometime soon)

Promoting and selling a book doesn’t stop once it’s out. It’s kind of a long term thing. Which in a way is a huge relief. I don’t need to rush. I don’t need to feel like I messed up my launch by not being on ten podcasts last month. I can streatch out. I can get to things when I get to them.

I can go at my own pace, and so can you.

So now I want to hear what you think. Would you ever consider doing a rapid release? Let me know in the comments.

If you want to support Paper Beats World, or get some exclusive stories and writing planners, you can do so on Ko-fi.

You can also get my Novel Planner! Make a plan and get writing with this thirteen page planner.

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑