Lucid Dreams and Saturn Skies The Life and Writing of Andrew Kincaid

Tag Archives: Writing

Sometimes You Just Gotta Cut Back…

May 15, 2013 12:49 pm / 1 Comment /

Lately I’ve been…discontent. it has been tough go put my finger on exactly why because it seems to be everything at once. I’ve already rambled a bit on this topic not long ago so I won’t go into much more detail here for fear of sounding whiny again (we all need to vent now and then but making it a habit isn’t a good idea!)

Recently though I did figure out one thing I can do fo help myself. My writing has been simultaneously a source of great joy and frustration for me. Lately I was having difficulty working on my projects. They just could not hold my interest, and the writing was flat and uninspired. Once I sat down and looked at what I was doing, and realized my writing lacked focus. There are a lot of people who say a writer should have one genre associated with their name. Stephen King does horror. Terry Brooks does fantasy. That’s where they stakes their claims and made there names.

But me? I wanted go write epic fantasy. And horror novels. And novellas. And nonfiction books. My mind was constantly running down different rabbit holes, switching from one thing to another. Is it any surprise that I wound up exhausted and frustrated?

So I decided to go back to my roots as it were. Meaning, I returned to some short stories I wrote for my old horror anthology, intending to rewrite them from the ground up. Something odd happened; the short stories ballooned into full blown novel ideas, but more importantly I was enjoying myself again!

It hit me that focusing my efforts into one area would be my best bet both in terms of my personal enjoyment and from a business perspective when the time comes. There is such a thing of having too many choices. Sometimes a person has to limit themselves. Paradoxically there’s a freedom in limitation, because rather than being at the whim of fancy the person who decides to limit themselves can focus all there energy on the one thing they enjoy.

Long story short, I’m a horror author. Nothing else. The choice to pursue this genre, which chose me more than I chose it, involved foregoing my childhood dream of becoming a big fantasy author. But that’s okay. I tried it, and found while some of the ideas were sound there was a lot about writing straight fantasy that just doesn’t work for me. And that’s all right. Sometimes you have to admit something isn’t working for you, even if it’s something you’ve clung to for a long time. There’s no shame in it; the only shame is in not being honest with yourself and doing something that doesn’t work for you. Life’s too short to waste time chasing after something like that; sometimes you have to figure out what really matters and cut back everything else.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , ,

Writing is a Business, and Other Harsh Truths

April 30, 2013 8:00 pm / 2 Comments /

After falling into and subsequently climbing out of another bout of depression, some things about this crazy profession called “writing” occurred to me. After all, there are a lot of myths out there about us writers. That, say, we’re famous, or untouchable savants sitting on top of a tower of genius, or that one book separates the average writer from fortune and fame. Those and many more. The thing is that, while there is some truth to all of those things — we’ve all heard of Stephen King and J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyers, all three of whom are filthy rich, famous, and the first is widely considered a genius in his field — most of us writers are folks like me. That is to say, we’re bumbling along, struggling to write around day jobs (or struggling to find a day job), hoping some day to catch that big break that allows us to sit in our luxurious manner house all day, pounding out the next Great American Novel.

…yeah, about all that. Not gonna happen.

Don’t get me wrong, you CAN find success in this business. This isn’t some bitter polemic, and I’m far from an expert. Shoot, I don’t even have a book published at the moment; the two I did have up, I took down due to quality concerns (but more on that later). So, like anything else, take what is useful out of this mess and leave the rest. Without further ado, here are some harsh truths about writing I’ve learned both through personal experience and by watching others who are way, way more successful at this than I am.

1) Writing is a Business

It’s right in the title, so you knew this one was coming. Yes, writing is art and fun and wonderful, but if you want to “make it” as an author, you have to also look at it as a business. I don’t really believe in writing for the market, because fiction is notoriously hard to market, and what you write now could be out of vogue when it comes time to publish. You should write what you enjoy. If you like sparkly vampires involved in hackneyed, possibly abusive romances with underage girls, write stuff like that. I like fantasy and horror, so I write that. Be that as it may, this is still a business. You still have to do marketing, accounting, and all that good stuff. If you go through a traditional publisher, you’ll have some support, but if you choose to self pub, you’ll have to take care of all that on your own. Writing is not the glamorous, romantic profession people think it is; it’s as muddy and messy as any other, and there is a lot of drudgery involved.

2) Speaking of Traditional vs Self Publishing….

Lots of digital ink has been spilled on Traditional v. Self Publishing. The truth is that both have their pros and cons, and neither one is a guarantee of fame and fortune. The rule of thumb is that with traditional publishing you get more support from a publisher in terms of marketing, sales, editing, and all that good stuff, but get a smaller share of royalties. Self Pub nets you higher royalties, but you are in charge of everything from cover design to wrangling an editor to tracking sales and, of course, the dreaded marketing. The fact is that the bulk of authors, no matter what  method they pick, don’t make enough to quit their day job. Most traditionally published books don’t earn out their advances, and most self published books only net a few hundred sales, if that.

3) Oh, and No Matter Which You Pick, It’s Going to Take Forever

“Forever” being a relative term. I mean, it isn’t going to take until the end of the universe to get a book completed. When you’re as impatient as I am, it might FEEL that way, but trust me, that’s just your monkey brain babbling. Try to ignore it. The sad fact is that it takes a really long time to produce a high quality novel. You might, if you work really hard and learn the craft, or happen to hit on a good idea, produce something really good your first try. And that’s great if you do that. But it doesn’t end with draft one. There’s revisions to be done. You have to polish book up until it’s so shiny it makes your eyes bleed. That takes a lot of time — a friend of mine said it takes about 14 months, on average, to produce a novel from start to finish. Then there is one of two paths you can take. You can farm it out to an agent, and then IF you find one, they’ll try to sell it to a publisher. Most likely it will end up in the slush pile with all the other hopefuls, but just maybe you will get a deal and be published. However, this could take several years time; the publishing industry works on its own schedule, not yours.

If you chose self publishing, the process is a lot faster. The accessibility of self pub is both its strength and its Achilles Heel. Remember when you had your masterpiece all super shiny in the above paragraph? Well, good as it might look to you, there are mistakes in there. The little buggers multiply like rabbits, I swear. Anyway, the point is you need another set of eyes, preferably more than one, to look over it and fix your boo boos. There are a lot of different ways you can go about doing this; if you’re on a limited budget and can’t afford the equivalent of buying a used car (the going cost of many freelance editing services), you’re going to have to get creative. You could pester a friend with an English degree into submission, or offer them Ramen money in exchange for editorial services. Whatever. The point is, that once you reach this point, you’re involving other people, and you  have to work with their timetables, not yours. And it is going to take time. A lot of it. The best thing to do is focus on your next project, and write, write, write! You can control what you do, not what other people do. So focus on what you can do today to move yourself forward toward your goals.

4) So You’ve Put in All That Time and Effort…Now For the Big Pay Off!

…whoa now. Hold on a second. Remember how I said that there is no guarantee that self pub or trad pub are going to net you fame and fortune on par with the Rowlings or Kings of this world? Yeah. You can do EVERYTHING right, and still tank miserably. You could have a great book, a sound marketing strategy, and a great support team, but the fact is that not everything is going to sell. The first book you publish isn’t likely to make a killing. Most writers who are successful, especially in self pub, have a pretty huge back list. It takes a lot of time to build that up, and even that is still not a guarantee. There ARE no guarantees. Sure, working hard can go a long way toward making you successful, but the universe isn’t going to crap out a golden goose just because you did everything “right”. Go tell some poor farmer in sub-Saharan Africa that if she works hard and pays her dues, she’ll make it some day. Or perhaps tell that to some kid working in a sweat shop over in China. The fact is, for centuries people have performed back breaking labor for a pittance, and never gotten anywhere for it. You aren’t any different.

5) Now That I’ve Completely Crushed Your Spirits…

…I know, that last one was harsh. Want a hug? *squeeze*…okay, now that that’s done, let’s do a bit of spirit rebuilding, shall we? We don’t want things to end on a note of doom and gloom, because that’s not my intention. I’ve tossed around the word “success” a lot during this post, but what does that mean, exactly? Frankly, that’s up to you. That’s what is cool about all of this: you can sit there, read everything I just wrote, and ignore it completely, if you want. That is because if your definition of writing success is: “Finish a novel and let a few friends read it,” or “Just have something published,” then most of what I said up until now doesn’t apply to you. If you are content that your books sales cover your car payment each month, more power to you. The real secret to success is to ENJOY what you are doing. If you don’t enjoy writing, what is the point in doing it in the first place? So what if you make a crap load of money doing it, if it’s all drudgery and frustration? I mean, if you don’t have a deep passion for writing you probably won’t make it very far anyway, but still.

Never forget why you started to write in the first place. Don’t let sales figures or notions of “success” cloud your vision for yourself. If you do want to make a living at the writing game, don’t deceive yourself by thinking that you’ll make millions right out the gate. The fact is, you won’t. But that’s okay, because most of us don’t NEED that much to be comfortable. If you write well, work smart, and figure out what works for your unique situation, it is possible to make a decent living doing something you love to do. I’ve come across people who have done it, and that is what I want for myself. That, to me, sounds like the definition of success.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , ,

And the Hunt Continues…

April 16, 2013 7:34 pm / Leave a Comment /

…the job hunt, that is. So far it has been largely unsuccessful, but that’s how it goes in this economy (especially in this area). Pretty soon I will be an unemployed substitute teacher. I’m hoping I can find a job over summer — teaching or otherwise — because I don’t much like subbing. It isn’t that the job is hard, but being on call all the time makes my anxiety all wacky and getting up at 6am five days a week, only to not have work most days, sucks, especially for a night owl like me. It has been a fun experience though, and it’s pretty enlightening to be on the other side of the desk. Most people’s experience of the teaching profession only comes from trying to stay awake through lessons they see little point in. Few see things from the perspective of the lecturer rather than the lecturee, and that’s a shame. Anyone who is qualified (it takes a bachelor degree and the ability to pass a background check) should give subbing a shot. At the very least, more people would have respect for teachers. It’s tough to know how hard a job is until you do it yourself, afterwards.

In other news, my novel Aral-Kahn is being edited. I wait with eager anticipation of the suggestions, because I know there are parts that could be improved quite a bit with some outside input. Now it’s only a matter of not driving myself crazy while I wait! So in order to stave off insanity, I’ve started writing the second book of Gods and Emperors, called The Immaculate. I don’t want to reveal much more since Aral-Kahn isn’t available yet. So far it’s coming along nicely, except for a little blip where I changed something from the outline that didn’t really need to be changed. I considered making the changes yesterday, but decided against it. I don’t much like editing while I’m working on the first draft. It sucks away all the momentum, because I have neurotic tendencies and once I start nitpicking, that’s it. Better to save that anal-retentiveness for the editing phase.

Oh and I’ve been writing science articles on Examiner for a few months now. I do hold a biology degree, so I figured writing for Examiner.com would be a fun way to keep up with the field. You can see my articles here, if that kind of thing trips your trigger.

That’s all that has been going on in my world lately. But enough about me, my friends. I want to know: How are you? What are you up to?

 

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Two Months Left! Two Months Left!

April 3, 2013 1:22 am / 2 Comments /

Man, being a substitute teacher really takes me back. Sure, I’m on the other side of the desk, but being around young people (Good lord, I sound like I’m 80!) reminds me of how it was for me back then. It really hasn’t been all that long since I graduated — back in 2006 — but it’s amazing how much things have changed. A lot of kids openly carry cell phones, for example. When I was in school, even having a phone much less using it in class would be a detention. Now? Kids can use them, openly in some schools.

But as the old cliche goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” The last few months before the end of the school year were, and from what I’ve seen still are, torture. The last place anyone wants to be, teachers included, when the temperatures rise and the trees bud is a stuffy little classroom.

Of course, a lot of kids are really busy this time of year, what with prom and all the other things that come toward the end of the year. I didn’t do a lot in school, so for me the time just dragged, the anticipation of the summer months building. I personally hated school. Sure it was easy for me, but I hated being forced to get up early and being made to socialize when I really would rather be left alone to play video games or read books.

Now again I am looking down the barrel of the last two months or so of the school year, this time as a substitute teacher. And it doesn’t mean vacation — now it means unemployment, at least until next school year if I decide to do it again. Subbing isn’t all it is cracked up to be, that is for certain. Easy job, for the most part, but the work is sporadic and frankly it’s pretty boring. It’s something since I can’t find work elsewhere. Now the job hunt begins again (okay, I’ve been hunting for the last couple of months, but still). Not certain how successful I’ll be, but hey, you gotta try right? (Quick aside: my novel is coming along nicely. If all goes well, it should be out the on Kindle and other platforms the last quarter of this year. That’s right: Aral-Kahn, Book 1 of Gods and Emperors, is on its way!)

Still, if only I could be back in high school again, on the cusp of a glorious three months of freedom, rather than having to worry about being unemployed or my health insurance running out in December. Ah well. That’s what memories are for.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

A Cemetery Walk

March 26, 2013 5:19 pm / 2 Comments /

CemeteryI like to take walks in cemeteries. To some people, that might seem a morbid or depressing past time, but I don’t see it that way. There’s nothing ghoulish at all about it; in fact, I think cemetery walks can be very healthy for both the mind and body. I believe people, especially Americans, miss the point of cemeteries. Did you know that, in its lifetime, a grave will be visited only twice, on average? Doesn’t that seem sad to you?

Of course, I doubt that the dead person cares one way or another. Not to be flip, but I’m not one of those who believe that the dearly departed are hovering around their grave sites taking tally of who visits them and who leaves the best flowers. If there is an after-life, I’m sure my grandpas are both a bit too busy doing whatever the afterlife consists of to worry about that. And if there isn’t an afterlife, well, they wouldn’t be conscious so they wouldn’t know the difference.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter either way. Cemeteries are not for the dead, but rather places for the living. They are meant to be a place of remembrance, where we go to touch the memories of loved ones who have gone on. Cemeteries are also reminders of our own finite lifespans. In this way, they are sacred places, because they show us the truth of impermanence. This life and all its trappings end. There is no way around it. There is no escape. That is simply how the world functions.

However, that isn’t a terribly palatable thought for most people. We are so disconnected from death. Certainly, most people know that they are going to die, but I don’t think it hits us where we live until a loved one moves into the great beyond. Even then, Death is held at arms length. The whole process of the funeral and burial is a whirlwind, and it feels like little more than a business transaction. When it’s all done, we’re left shell shocked, not quite sure what happened. I speak from grim experience; in the last five or six years, I’ve lost a lot of people. Two grandfathers, a close family friend, members of my old church family, and others.

Despite the loss, I still like to walk in cemeteries. They do not depress me. They are reminders of impermanence, a sacred space of quiet and peace where a person can see Reality for what it is. The fact of our inevitable Death does not have to be a frightful thing. It simply is. Everything in this world is impermanent, including the world itself. We are here for a little while, a single wave on the vast ocean of the Universe, driven by the winds of karma until conditions are no longer right for our continued existence. While we do not have to take a walk in a cemetery to realize these things, sometimes walking in peace among those who have gone on can help us realize it.

So take a walk in the cemetery sometime, if you don’t do so already. At the very least, you’ll have a peaceful walk.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , ,

We Are Back!

March 18, 2013 1:20 am / Leave a Comment /

We are back folks! I’ve successfully transferred everything over to Blue Host. So far as I know, I’ve worked out all the kinks, but as with anything there will be unforeseen issues that will arise. So bear with me as I work out any kinks. I have not been able to determine if those of you who followed me using the old wordpress.com features have made the transition with me–I hope so, and to me it seems likely since I kept getting notifications of your guy’s activities while I had the site down. So if you get this in your feed or however you see my posts, give me a shout out so I know you’re still around!

As for some of the other things I’d planned to do, I am holding off on them for now. It’s enough to get the blog back up and running. I’ve missed it during my hiatus, brief though it was. It’s time to get back in the swing of things, and then worry about fancy stuff.

So, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled mayhem this week. Just a reminder that new posts go up Tuesday and Thursday each week, with the occasional Saturday post. I’ve got a lot more good stuff coming for you guys, so stay tuned!

Posted in: Uncategorized / Tagged: ,

Under Construction–That’s Right Folks, Change is a-Comin’!

March 5, 2013 5:53 pm / Leave a Comment /

So after much deliberation, I have decided to self host this blog. I feel it will give me better control over traffic and content, and it will allow me to do some of the marketing things I will need to do in order to make this writing thing a success. Because that is now my new goal–I want to make a living doing my passion. After all, it consumes enough of my time and effort that it might as well be a job!

So now I have a plan, and part of that plan involves big changes to this here little blog. I’ve outgrown it. I rather miss the simpler days about three years ago when I primarily used it as a way to vent my frustrations about work and to wax philosophically, but I’ve grown and so have my aspirations. I will still maintain the same posting schedule when the change happens, so you can expect Tuesdays to be an eclectic mix of me waxing philosophical and/or talking about my own life or writing projects and for Thursdays to be about the wonderfully weird in our world.

What will change is the appearance and the tone of the blog. I’m still trying to decide what direction I want to ultimately take it, but at the very least I intend to step up my game. I feel the new platform will allow me to better present my content to you, the reader. While I do write about whatever interests me, I always do it with you in mind. Whether I seek to inspire, to inform, or to induce a bout of head scratching, it’s all about you guys. Thank you so much for everything these last three years, and I hope you’ll join me in this new phase of my personal evolution!

This will be the last post for awhile. I still need to figure out how to go about all this, and I don’t want to make things anymore complicated than I have to. I’m hoping I can transfer my current subscribers to the new blog, but if not, I’ll find a way to get a hold of you all and show you the new, improved site!

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , ,

Forays into Flash Fiction: Harbinger

February 26, 2013 8:54 pm / 4 Comments /

In lieu of a regular blog post, I’m dusting off my flash fiction section and presenting another one of my super short stories. This is again inspired by the lovely Angela Goff’s VisDare. I strongly suggest you check it out if you have any interest in trying flash fiction. It’s a fun time and good for helping you become more concise. Without further ado, I present “Harbinger”:

***

Everyone in these parts know that the black and white cat with its too bright eyes means Death.

Nobody knows where it came from. It just drifted into town like a thunderhead in summertime. People who’ve seen it and lived long enough to tell claim you feel its eyes on you first, drilling into your back like twin augurs. The itch is so strong you can’t help but turn and look. Then it has you.

Oh and there’s one other thing too–dogs don’t much like it. There are lots of them these days, since cats make folks nervous. They make a big fuss when He comes around, yelping like someone lit a fire under their paws.

I write this with an itch between my shoulder blades and howling in my ears. I’m shaking, trying to fight the urge to look. Maybe just a peek…

***

Posted in: Flash Fiction, Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , , ,

The Fail Whale: Moby Dick and How Not to Write a Novel

February 19, 2013 5:01 pm / 5 Comments /

Moby DickI recently finished reading Moby Dick. I hadn’t read it back in high school, so I decided to challenge myself with Herman Mellville’s classic. Now I am glad it is done–it was a tough read, and in places not too entertaining. But I did learn a lot about how not to write a novel, besides all I could ever want to know about 19th century whaling.

Now, don’t get me wrong: this was a good book. The story of mad Captain Ahab and his doomed quest to kill the White Whale is phenomenal. The writing is beautiful and there are times that the work feels almost like a horror novel, with all the signs and portents and strange things that happen. There are some hints of humor as well, although I’m sure if I lived in the 19th century rather than the 21st I’d find them that much funnier.

But those strengths do not make up for the fact that the book could have easily been half its 521 page length. There were vast sections about all the minutia of 19th century whaling, from the tools to the process of stripping whale blubber to the scientific classification of whales (where the author argued that they are indeed fish). There really was no need for ALL of that detail. A modern author would have probably injected these sections into the narrative itself, rather than devoting entire chapters to them, seemingly separate from the plot itself. It occurred to me that this style might have been the intent of the author; namely, that you were to imagine yourself sitting in some smoky tavern, nursing a beerstein and listening to Ishmael unravel his tale in person. It certainly took the meandering path that characterizes a verbal narration, as if the reader interjected questions and got old Ishmael off on a tangent that lasted about fifty pages.

While that sort of thing might have worked back in the day, I don’t think that leisurely approach to writing works very well in the modern world. Modern readers have a lot of things vying for their attention, and if you’re going to go on a twenty-five page tangent about how trade routes brought tobacco to such and such a fantasy land from another fantasy land, I’m pretty certain that your reader is going to opt for something slightly less painful. Books these days, especially in genre fiction, have to be lean and mean.

It isn’t that you CAN’T include a tangent about tobacco or whale classifications, but that it damned well better be directly relevant to the plot. If your character is involved in that industry, it’s perfectly okay to include those details. But keep in mind that most modern stories are told from the character’s perspective, not as the character narrating to the reader directly. So if they are a part of the industry, they’re not going to be thinking as they work: “Well okay this is step by step how to skin a whale”. You might get away with something like that if the character is new to the job, but again that has to be somehow relevant to the plot. If it doesn’t move the plot forward, it has no business being there. That is this writer’s opinion, at least.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , ,

Wrestling With Ghosts

February 5, 2013 7:49 am / 4 Comments /
The famous photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Probably not a good idea to try a flying elbow drop in this instance...

The famous photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Probably not a good idea to try a flying elbow drop in this instance…

I have problems with anxiety. Sometimes even the silliest thing will become a massive, overwhelming problem that fills me with a sense of dread. It could be something as simple as a friend spontaneously calling me to see if I want to hang out. Maybe a school calls me early in the morning wanting me to sub. Actually ANY time the phone rings it gives me a pang of anxiety, as does any loud buzzing noise.

Now none of this is new–I’ve known for a long time that I have anxiety problems, among other things. But only recently have I realized just how deeply anxiety is entwined into my life. And not just anxiety, but other negative emotions and mental constructs that I’ve managed to pick up over the last quarter century of life. But that’s all they are–emotions and mental constructs. Real, but not as real as they seem. While the suffering they cause is very real, they themselves are like illusions; existing, but not as they seem to. It reminds me of watching the show Ghost Hunters on SyFy (fun show by the way).  Usually the guys go in skeptical, attempting to debunk claims of paranormal activity by finding a pragmatic cause for the phenomena their clients describe–leaky pipes, air flow problems, and other such things that could sound like a ghoul going bump in the night.  More often than not, they find some sort of common explanation for the so-called paranormal activity. The phenomena are very real, but the cause is not what the clients thought it was. They are simply mistaken, in many cases.

It is the same with our mental life. We deceive ourselves, seeing a ghastly ghost where there’s only a billowing curtain. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know that in my life I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with ghosts. I think a lot of people do. They’re the ghosts of our own faulty perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. And we’re so busy wrestling with them that we don’t really live.

So breath deep and don’t shy away from that scary spirit clanking chains and moaning through the halls of your mind. A closer look might just show a billowing curtain and a bit of faulty plumbing.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , ,
%d bloggers like this: