Steve Gannon

Writing Mistakes

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Question: How do you feel when you skip your morning coffee? Answer: Depresso.

Okay—not much of joke, but I included it here to illustrate how writers can sometimes feel when finishing a project. I recently completed a final draft of my new novel, Kane: Blood Moon, and although I’m celebrating that milestone in what for me is a long process, I’m also feeling a little depresso as well—along with maybe a bit of apprehension about sending my newborn out into the cold, cruel world. But I suppose that’s part of the process.

The good/bad news is that there’s still plenty left to do before then. In today’s world of publishing, writing is just one part of the equation, and I decided to take a break from work to post an article on some of the pitfalls writers typically face on the way to publication.

Let’s imagine you just typed “The End” at the bottom of your brand-new manuscript. Now you want to get it out there as quickly as possible. Needless to say, you want to do it right.

So now what?

Formerly a traditional publisher did the heavy lifting required to get your book into the hands of readers—editing, copyedit, cover design, promotion, and printing. I’ve gone that route in the past, and I learned from my experience with Bantam Books that even with a trad publisher, you must get involved. And if you’re an indie author, it isn’t simply your involvement that’s required. Now it’s all up to you. You are responsible for everything previously done by a huge, professional publishing house, and you must do it well. A daunting task, but nobody ever said this writing thing was going to be easy.

There are five critical areas where things can go wrong. Although there are certainly others, in the following I’ll provide some suggestions that can help you avoid the five most common mistakes.

1. Over Editing 

Solution: Cut Bait.  The revision process can go on indefinitely, if you let it—literally taking on a life of its own.  This is common in writing groups and with many insecure authors.  At some point you simply have to “cut bait” and move on to the next step.  Not to say that you don’t want your work to be the best it can be, but don’t get paralyzed by endless revision.

2. Technical Errors

Solution: “Vet” Your Manuscript.  Carefully check all technical material in your work, and then have someone knowledgeable in the field vet your story—making certain you at least sound like you know what you’re talking about.  For instance, cartridges or rounds (not bullets) are inserted into a rifle or a semi-automatic pistol via a magazine, not a clip—an error I made a few years back that garnered an avalanche of criticism from gun-enthusiasts, and rightly so.  Consult with an expert and get your details straight.

3. Lack of Reader Input

Solution: Test Market.  You don’t write in a vacuum.  Once you have your manuscript (mostly) revised, vetted, and ready to go, preview your work with friends and readers whose opinions you trust.  If they find typos along the way, fine—but what you really want is their candid comments on your story.  Listen to what they say.  Did your story move them?  Were there plot holes?  Unclear motivations?  Murky character development?  This evaluation is traditionally performed by a publishing-house editor, but in my opinion a “groupthink” approach is equally effective, possibly even more so.  Of course writing isn’t a democratic process and you want to preserve your original vision, but you will be surprised at how often you can improve your work by opening yourself to reader suggestions and criticism.

4. Sloppy Writing

Solution:  Professional Copyedit.  Most readers will not tolerate sloppy writing, typos, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical errors from anyone.  You need a clean manuscript, and for that you will have to PAY someone.  Having a friend who’s “good at editing” won’t cut it.  Find a professional and use his or her services.  Period.  After that you can do one final revision, making certain you don’t introduce new errors along the way.  And then publish!

5. Poor Marketing

Solution:  social media marketing and paid advertising.  Now that your book is out there, who knows about it besides your mom?  Unless your name is Stephen King, hardly anyone, that’s who.  Yours is one of tens of thousands of new books published each year.  To find an audience, you must market your work.  If you sit around waiting for your book to be discovered, you’re going to be sitting a long time.  Step one in marketing is to have a professionally designed book cover, for which you will probably need to PAY for the services of a graphic artist.  Step two is having a well designed website hub, along with various social media sites—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.—feeding into it. There is far too much in the social-marketing category to cover here, but there are many online sources (Jonathan Gunson’s bestsellerlabs.com or Joanna Penn’s TheCreativePen.com) that can point you in the right direction.  And last, PAID advertising on Amazon, Facebook, and other sites is necessary if you want to get noticed. Sad, but true.

To reiterate:  Self-marketing is absolutely essential.  Most successful writers, even traditionally published authors, devote around 70% of their average workday to writing and about 30% (or more) to marketing.

Oh, one last pitfall I forgot to mention: procrastination.  Speaking of which, it’s time for me to grab some coffee, get over my final-draft depresso, and head back to work.

In your reading, have you encountered any sloppy writing lately? Does it irritate you? What are your pet peeves when reading? What are your main writing/publication problems?  How do you get the word out about your work?  Please leave a comment (click here) and join the conversation!

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The Future of Cinema?

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Screen Shot 2014-07-12 at 7.34.24 AM

There is a revolution coming in the world of filmmaking, and the first shots have already been fired. This coming revolution will transform the way feature films are financed, produced, and especially distributed—exerting as profound an influence on Hollywood as eBook publication has had on the world of publishing.

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I just watched an example of cinematic things to come—Joss Whedon’s sci-fi love story, In Your Eyes. And I viewed it on Vimeo-on-Demand for four bucks.

In Your Eyes is a sweet little romance wrapped in a paranormal dressing—starring Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David as telepathically-crossed lovers, and ably directed by Brin Hill. Check it out. It’s worth a watch.

Anyway, what’s more important is the way in which In Your Eyes was distributed. Online. Worldwide. And direct to the consumer. But you can already watch plenty of videos on YouTube and Vimeo, right? So what’s the big deal?

Just this: For those who don’t know, Joss Whedon is a heavyweight Hollywood screenwriter-producer-director best known for his 2012 film, The Avengers (third highest grossing movie of all time at $1.5 billion plus)—not to mention his numerous hit television productions including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel, Dollhouse, and more.

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Buffy: Serious Vampire Hazard

The point is, Joss is a multitalented Hollywood player. Following a debut of In Your Eyes at the Tribeca Film Festival, Joss elected to distribute his new film online—making it available directly to the public worldwide. His words at the time were, “This is exciting for us because it means we get to explore yet another new form of distribution.” Damn right, Joss. It also means sidestepping traditional distribution and its huge associated costs, so you (and other future artists) keep a much bigger piece of the pie. Which is a good thing for filmmakers. And maybe for viewers like you and me as well.

Think of major publishing houses and traditional bookstores before the advent of eBooks, publish-on-demand, and Amazon. My first novel, A Song for the Asking, was traditionally published by Bantam Books. It took almost a year to grind through the process, and although the book was a critical and commercial success, publishing and distribution expenses ate up much of the profit. Today, as an indie author, my works are available in all formats almost immediately upon completion, and eBook publishing costs are nil. It’s a seminal change that has resulted in writers retaining more money from their writing, as well as making the future of mainstream publishing questionable.

Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon

Now think of Hollywood studios, independent production houses, and nationwide theater chains—presently the accepted outlet for quality, first-run feature films. Don’t get me wrong: Major studios, independent production houses, and theater chains will always exist. But with the opportunity to view quality, first-run feature films online, which Joss Whedon has now made a reality, movie distribution may be transformed forever.

And that could change everything.

Have you watched any movies online lately?  What’s your favorite? Any streaming issues? Please leave a comment and join the conversation!

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Dangers of Writing in Italy

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Euscorpius alpha Caporiacco in Attack Mode

Writing can be deadly. Especially in Italy . . .

At one time or another, many of us have probably dreamed of holing up in a cabin somewhere to finish a particularly troublesome project. For a writer like me, that would be the essay that’s taking forever, the manuscript that got sidetracked, or a novel that keeps getting postponed by life’s day-to-day interruptions.

Even better than a cabin in the woods, how about an isolated, 800-year-old casa in Italy? No distractions there, right?

That’s what I thought before I learned about the scorpions.

Something they don’t tell you in the travel brochures: There are LOTS of scorpions in Italy! Fortunately they aren’t the kind that kill you. Of the approximately 1400 species of scorpion worldwide, only twenty-five are deadly, and Euscorpius alpha Caporiacco – the black, nocturnal species prevalent in Italy and southern Switzerland – isn’t among them. The sting of the Italian version has been likened to that of a wasp, fatal only to someone who happens to be allergic.

Nevertheless, it can be more than a little unnerving to pick up a houseplant or look under a cabinet and find one of them staring back at you. They are definitely . . . creepy. The good news is that travelers visiting Italy can avoid being stung by simply hanging up clothes (don’t leave anything on the floor), shaking out shoes, and never walking barefoot at night.

 

IMG_0153_2

Pranzo on the Terrace

Unfortunately for me, scorpions aren’t the only distractions in bella Italia. For one, there is traffic noise at all hours, especially first thing in the morning. Nothing a chicken dinner wouldn’t fix, though.

Speaking of food, the produce here is great! Fresh vegetables, fruits, cheeses, pastas, pizzas, meats . . . did I mention chicken? I’ve been doing a lot of cooking over here. Hmmm.  Maybe I can work something about that into my writing?

Sardinia

And then there’s the coast. Tourist season is coming up soon, so my wife Susan and I decided it would be much smarter, not to mention cost effective, to travel to the beach now rather than later. Here’s a picture of us on the sand of Sardinia.

We also visited the island of Elba, where I did some firsthand research on Napoleon that might come in handy . . .

Elba selfie

Anyway, am I getting any writing done here in Italy? You bet. In fact, I’m just about to get back to work on my L.A. Sniper manuscript – the fourth in my “Kane Novel” series—right after I swat a couple scorpions, BBQ some chicken, and kick back for a while on the terrace.

What’s your worst insect encounter? Do bugs creep you out? What distracts you from your work? Please leave a comment and join the conversation!

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The Importance of Stories

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A lot has been written on the topic of “Why We Need Stories,” but after reviewing a good chunk of the literature, I think I can add something on the subject. First, let’s back up a second and examine the question: Do we really “need” stories?

Sure, stories are fun, but is that all they are? Well, the nonscientific answer to that is that stories have been being told around campfires and passed down from generation to generation for as long as we’ve had language, suggesting that from the very beginning stories have played an important role in our social commerce. Clearly, at least in the past, stories fulfilled a definite “need,” passing on information, history, wisdom, and knowledge.

The scientific answer as to whether we “need” stories, an answer that has been proved exhaustively by experimentation time and again, is that our ability to understand and retain information is far better served by listening to stories than by studying bullet points, graphs, and textbooks. The Watson Selection Test, for example, an important logic puzzle used in the study of deductive reasoning, can be solved by fewer than 10% of people when tackled as a logic problem, but is easily solved by 70 – 90% of people when the test is presented as a story involving the detection of social-rule cheating. Stories engage our entire brains, not simply the cerebral centers that are involved in reasoning (Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, for those who care). Stories just work better. It’s the way our brains are built.

There’s more, but to explore the scientific approach further would be boring (unlike listening to a story), so I’ll cut to the chase: The takeaway from all the scientific experimentation and whatnot is this: If you want to reach people⎯if you want to engage them, change them, move them⎯tell them a story.

In the past it was generally accepted that the use of language was our defining human attribute. Now that we are discovering other species on our planet with previously unsuspected communication skills, it is currently being proposed that the true and defining attribute of humans is our ability to tell stories, and through our stories to pass on the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of our species. Storytelling may turn out to be the most human art of all.

Do we still need stories? The answer, at least for most of our human existence, has been a resounding “Yes!” For one, in the past stories gave us an immeasurable evolutionary edge over the competition (Your great-great-grandfather ate some of those funny-looking mushrooms over there and got sick and died). For another, the power of our sacred stories to unite entire peoples (the Holy Bible, the Qur’an, the I Ching, the Book of Mormon, and The Bhagavad-Gita, to name a few) is undeniable.

At their best, stories have illuminated and entertained, wreaked havoc and righted wrongs, shown us the consequences of our actions, and carried messages across the centuries. Stories have been an instrument of change, transcending space and time, allowing us to walk in another’s shoes and experience emotions without paying the full price of those feelings. Stories tell us where we’ve been; stories tell us where we’re going; stories tell us who we are. Stories tell us how to be human.

Powerful stuff.

But times have changed. Does the power of stories still hold in our modern age? For most of our presence on Earth, storytelling has been an oral tradition. Since the advent of the printing press, film and TV, and the internet as “story delivery systems,” stories have morphed into countless new and exciting forms. People no longer have to be in the presence of a storyteller; that bond has been forever broken. You can now read a story in the privacy of your bedroom, you can sit in a darkened theater and watch a story played out on the screen, you can jam in your earbuds and listen to a story narration long after the storyteller is gone and forgotten.

No one knows what the future will bring for the art of storytelling, but one thing is certain. Stories and all the forms they now inhabit will continue to change. Nevertheless, despite present changes and those to come, I believe that at its heart, in its truest incarnation, the essence and power of storytelling will endure. So if you want to reach people⎯if you want to engage them, change them, move them⎯tell them a story.

 

What do you think about the power of stories? Have any stories you’ve read (or seen or heard) had an impact on the way you view the world? If you’re a writer, what are the goals of your own stories? Please leave a comment (click here) and join the conversation!

 

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Scorpions: Hazards of Writing in Italy

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Euscorpius alpha Caporiacco in Attack Mode

At one time or another, most of us have probably dreamed of holing up in a cabin somewhere to finish a particularly troublesome project. For a writer like me, that would be the essay that’s taking forever, the manuscript that got sidetracked, the novel that keeps getting postponed by life’s day-to-day interruptions.

Even better than a cabin in the woods, how about an isolated, 800-year-old casa in Italy? No distractions there, right?

That’s what I thought before I learned about the scorpions.

Something they don’t tell you in the travel brochures: There are LOTS of scorpions in Italy! Fortunately they aren’t the kind that kill you. Of the approximately 1400 species of scorpion worldwide, only twenty-five are deadly, and Euscorpius alpha Caporiacco – the black, nocturnal species prevalent in Italy and southern Switzerland – isn’t among them. The sting of the Italian version has been likened to that of a wasp, fatal only to someone who happens to be allergic.

Nevertheless, it’s more than a little unnerving to pick up a houseplant or look under a cabinet and find one of them staring back at you. They are definitely . . . creepy. The good news is that travelers visiting Italy can avoid being stung by simply hanging up clothes (don’t leave anything on the floor), shaking out shoes, and never walking barefoot at night.

 

IMG_0153_2

Pranzo on the Terrace

Unfortunately for me, scorpions aren’t the only distractions in bella Italia. For one, there is traffic noise at all hours, especially first thing in the morning. Nothing a chicken dinner wouldn’t fix, though.

Speaking of food, the produce here is great! Fresh vegetables, fruits, cheeses, pastas, pizzas, meats . . . did I mention chicken? I’ve been doing a lot of cooking over here. Hmmm.  Maybe I can work something about that into my writing?

Sardinia

And then there’s the coast. Tourist season is coming up soon, so my wife Susan and I decided it would be much smarter, not to mention cost effective, to travel to the beach now rather than later. Here’s a picture of us on the sand of Sardinia.

We also visited the island of Elba, where I did some firsthand research on Napoleon that might come in handy . . .

Elba selfie

Anyway, am I getting any writing done here in Italy? You bet. In fact, I’m just about to get back to work on my L.A. Sniper manuscript – the fourth in my “Kane Novel” series—right after I swat a couple scorpions, BBQ some chicken, and kick back for a while on the terrace.

What’s your worst insect encounter? Do bugs creep you out? What distracts you from your work? Please leave a comment and join the conversation!

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  1. orthodad2001@aol.com'Kenny GREENBAUM says

    Good to hear you are “surviving” the scorpions and the fruit/cheese plates. We were in Stresa two weeks ago, anywhere near you?

    Reply

    • Steve says

      Hi, Kenny,
      Yep, still surviving, and actually getting a little more work done than I suggested in my post. We’re near Perugia, which is halfway between Rome and Florence. LONG way from Stresa. Beautiful up there in the lake region near Switzerland! We plan to visit there sometime too — as soon as we take care of the chicken situation.

      Reply

  2. suncoastreader@gmail.com'Suncoast says

    Great legs (both of you) and great selfie. No wonder you are still working on the new book. Have you had any target practice at dawn when the chooks wake up first?

    Down Under we are faced with a few nasties, including sea water crocs up North that make some wonderful beaches almost unusable. Generally it is spiders we fear when gardening, especially the Red Back (poisonous but not normally deadly) and Funnelwebs (sometimes fatal but there is now an antivenom) which are pretty common in parts of Sydney.

    One of the most famous old Bush songs is “Redback on the Toilet Seat” because in the old days one of their preferred habitats was the outside Dunny (toilet).
    http://youtu.be/TjDAiq2-xeU

    Reply

    • Steve says

      Hi, Suncoast,
      Your insects (and crocs) in Australia make our problems pale by comparison! I remember a National Geographic (?) video on all the poisonous varieties of snakes and spiders Down Under. Scary! I guess I shouldn’t complain. Do you have any dangerous chickens?

      Reply

    • jimcrocker@ymail.com'Jim Crocker says

      Mind if I join the party? I just hit the Slim Newton link and that’s just precious. I’ll be firing that one off around the web.

      I talked to a woman in northern Florida with a huge rattlesnake problem. Her and her husband would go out after dark with big headlamps on there hats and a Mossberg shotguns and walk the property blasting away for hours.

      Reply

      • Steve says

        Hi, Jim,
        Yeah, snakes . . . especially poisonous ones. I saw a lot of them when I lived in California. Swatting scorpions is definitely preferable.

        Reply

    • Steve says

      Hi, Larry,
      Ditto. I used to like them as a kid. Later that changed — maybe because I ran into so many rattlers in California. Not crazy about big spiders, either, except possibly tarantulas and daddy longlegs.

      Reply

  5. kazult@earthlink.net'Tony Stewart says

    Steve,
    I`m anticipating your new book but impatience is just one of my virtues.
    You already know most of my vices.
    I wish I could post a few images: one of a huge black scorpion from here in my home, & one of an even more terrifying big black hairy monster.
    Both are real, but I`ll let readers imagine.
    As you well know, most terrifying in man`s psyche is his imagination.

    Reply

    • Steve says

      Tony,
      I promise to have “L.A. Sniper” completed before too long. It’s going well, better than I indicated in the post, and I’m too far along now not to finish. I’d love to share your monster images. You have a great eye and it shows in your photos. Let’s figure out how to do that . . . maybe a guest post?

      Reply

  6. lgannon@aarp.org'Larry Gannon says

    Any centipede in Italy? Those are the bad boys in Hawaii .

    The beach looks fantastic

    Best place for a pizza margarita?

    Reply

    • Steve says

      Hi, Larry,
      Yep, we have centipedes here, but they are the little kind. Not dangerous, but they are irritating, as they seem to be able to get inside no matter what you do, and they will get on cloth (like the bed), which scorpions seem to avoid.

      Great pizza, margarita and otherwise, is everywhere! Interesting, however, is that people don’t share pizza much over here. You will see a table of eight and everyone has their own. The pizzas aren’t huge, but they aren’t little, either.

      Reply

  7. elaineandmike@tphillips.org'Elaine Phillips says

    Glad to see that you two are having a wonderful time – scorpions and all! The countryside is so beautiful – we have been to Italy three times and loved each visit. Things are nice and green here in Sun Valley – very pretty – wildflowers are magnificent. Glad to hear the book is coming along! Can’t wait to read it! Love to you and Susan from Mike and Elaine

    Reply

  9. allender_jay@yahoo.com'jay allender says

    Hi Steve. Glad to hear from you and about your current adventures. We have scorpion also but have seen very few since our arrival in Arizona (9 years already) Plenty of rattle snakes though and some close encounters. At present we are enjoying Sidney, B.C. for the month June. Great area. Anyway stay safe and away from the critters. J&S

    Reply

  10. Steve says

    Thanks, jay and Sonja
    Stay safe yourself. I think your scorpions are more dangerous than ours, and of course rattlesnakes . . .

    Reply

  11. jimcrocker@ymail.com'Jim Crocker says

    Very nice, Steve. I have fond memories of scorpions in southeast Asia and the giant centipede. Would not want to be locked in a box with any of those things. Other than one thing that quickly pops to mind, I wouldn’t want to be locked in a box with anything. The bug will do it every time, Steve. Ruin a night’s sleep. Ruin a vacation, even. And Italy at that, eh?

    We don’t have any serious bug issues where I live in Montana. It’s our big secret. Not even snakes. There’re bears and mountain lions, but hey. Many people don’t even have screens. Motion detectors for nightly predators is something else again. I never leave the house at night. Sometimes you can actually hear ’em howling and growling out there. Yikes!

    Reply

  12. Steve says

    Hi again, Jim,
    I have been getting a lot of responses mentioning giant centipedes, especially in Hawaii. I’ve never seen one, and I hope I never do. I think I”d rather deal with a bear or mountain lion, which we do have in Idaho. Actually, I feel lucky if I get to see one of them. They are pretty shy in our area. Don’t think I’d like to run into a grizzly, however (see my post on Hollywood Killers).

    Reply

  13. suncoastreader@gmail.com'Suncoast says

    Steve,

    I have just had the worst attack from the smallest bug, the midge. Last Saturday we were sitting on our patio when an almost microscopic midge flew past my face. On Sunday I had a couple of small bites on my right eyebrow and on Monday they scabbed up. On Tuesday the eyelid was swollen and I went to the Doctor and got antibiotics and antihistamine but by Wednesday my right eye was part closed and my vision was like a blind pulled down over my right eye and it was so swollen and painful. I went around telling my friends how my wife had socked me!!

    Thursday morning it was still partly closed but by the end of the day (now) it is getting slowly better but the 2 bites are still inflamed and sore. Tomorrow, hopefully all will get back to normal.

    So you don’t need a big bug to lay you low!!!

    Reply

    • Steve says

      Hi, Suncoast,
      You’re making me feel grateful for only having to deal with scorpions! Damn bugs . . . Hope you feel better soon.

      Reply

      • suncoastreader@gmail.com'Suncoast says

        It wasn’t bug, it was ophthalmic nerve SHINGLES! My GP spotted it and put me on antiviral pills a couple of days ago and it seems to be under control with only a couple of blisters near my right eye.

        My best friends tell me that the perfect treatment is very cheap white wine – and my local bottle shop has a drinkable one at $3 per bottle. Maybe it would be easier and cheaper in Italy.

        The eye seems to be fine – in the past before antiviral medication it could be dangerous. It’s times like this that you realise how vulnerable and valuable your eyes are.

        Reply

        • Steve says

          Damn, Suncoast,
          I’m really sorry to hear that. I had a case on my chest and my back years ago, and I still suffer some aftereffects including occasional pain. I hope you recover quickly and completely.

          BTW, there is a vaccine to prevent shingles, or Herpes Zoster, and I would recommend that anyone reading this who hasn’t already done so, GET IMMUNIZED. I did after the fact, as the disease can reoccur.

          Reply

  14. dawilk@me.com'Debbie says

    I was running on the trails in Whiting Ranch(Orange County) downhill, and literally ran into a bee. I was stung smack in the middle of my breast(the nipple to be exact). Feeling the pain, shock, and panic, I noticed a ranger jeep coming up the hill. Lucky for me it was a woman ranger with a great remedy for stings. She had a “bee”pack that was a 2×2 gauze pad with ointment on it. She told me to slip it into the jog bra and by the time I was back to my car, the stinger would be out and I would have no pain. Yea! It worked. I guess I was just too fast for my own britches.

    Reply

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