“Let Me Tell You About My Novel…”
My plan to to begin the publishing process for my first official novel, this year. Whether that will be by way of agents or self-publishing I have yet to officially determine, though I plan to have that decision made by the end of winter. I will announce that here when it happens.
Regardless of which way I go, I know I need to build excitement, or at least awareness of my novel. That’s not to say of course that I’ve never talked about it here on the blog. But those have been more mechanical considerations. (When I’m editing, or what draft am I on?) I know this year I will continue to do that, but I have to also be both more open and more specific.
Based on what I’ve seen other writers do, and on some of my research, this enhanced talking-up of my novel has three main avenues:
1) Offering peeks.
This could get tricky at times, as I want to find the important balance between sharing quotations, and possibly excerpts with readers and follows and just given away the store. After all if my readers and followers know too much about the book before hand, what’s the incentive to read it?
Plus, I’m quite protective of its content before publication. Not just from a stealing perspective, (though a tiny bit of my mind still fears that), but from the perspective of giving the wrong impression. What are the good quotations to take out of context to share with the world? What scenes stand on their own, and offer hints, but don’t mislabel the whole story? How long should an excerpt be? These are considerations I have to make.
2) Theme and/or Purpose
Both of those terms mean about a million different things to a million different writers, I understand. To me, it means that in addition to sharing more content, I need to share more of my feelings about what I want the novel to be or to do. I should be talking about the aspects of life I hope the novel touches on, but again without giving away its entire nature. I don’t think there has to be a profound reason for writing a novel other than wanting to tell a good story, but why did I want to tell this one? And to whom? Which leads into the next consideration…
3) Audience
It will behoove me this year to not only officially declare a genre, (though I think the novel straddles two of them), but to consider what type of reader and what type of person would likely get the most out of my particular story. I of course want many kinds of people to read it eventually, and I believe it can appeal to a wide range of folks. But for the sake of getting the ball rolling, I probably have to think of a demographic, (if not a niche), and talk to them when I talk about the book. “They will understand” should be my mantra in this. I don’t want to shut out other demographics, or course, and I will be careful of that. But finding the type of person more likely to enjoy my novel and speaking to them is no doubt a plus to begin with.
I just have to make sure I pick the correct demographic or type.
So, these are things I’ve thought about for a while, and mentioned in passing here in the blog and on Twitter. But if I’m to build interest in this book as I get closer to it being public, I have to consider these three things (and more) as I share about it.
So much balancing to do. Let’s see how I fare.
MMXIV
Happy New Year.
It’s a tricky time for bloggers. A goal-setting, welcome to the new year, looking back on last year, compare and contrast post seem almost compulsory. “How will he launch his 2014 blogging with a bang? What wisdom will he impart? How will he set the standard?”
Bit of quasi-pressure there, folks.
Then there is my own propensity to mark occasions with some sort of ritual of observation. I’m a ritualistic guy after all. (And perhaps with certain things a somewhat obsessive one.) So there’s a little self quasi-pressure. Or quasi- self-pressure. So many options when one makes up a term.
Yet I’ve already parted from these tendencies a bit. Normally I think of something witty or at least memorable and amusing to say as the ball drops, to make it the last thing I say in a year. I follow it up a few moments later with something witty or at least memorable and amusing to begin the new year.
This go around, it went something like this, as I sat once again alone and sober on my couch with zero guests, having been invited nowhere:
Ty: (5 seconds until New Year) “I’m not going to say anything profound this time.”
Ty: (5 seconds into the New Year) “I’m not going to say anything profound this time, either.”
No particular grand gesture there. However shall the tone of my 2014 be set now? Truth be told, though I wasn’t intending to at the time, (I was just tired of trying to be witty at New Year’s), I think perhaps I did in a sense set a tone. If I had to some it up somehow, I suppose I’d say it just being instead of being profound.
That may or may not work as a motto, I have no idea, truly. But the point is, I have many goals this year, as I always do. I will achieve some and totally whiff on others, no doubt. But it’s about just being there-showing up in an authentic way to do and pursue the things that are most me. Yes even many of the eccentricities. Many of the things I can’t justify to the world. Many of the things that I have in one way or another neglected. A less worldly approach that ironically is also less profound and memorable. An approach that embraces the tortoise over the hare. An approach that allows the notion of being to combine with the notion of doing to create the magic, faith, passion we all require so to get what we want.
An approach to a year that is similar to my approach to writing a novel; have a plan, use deadlines, be flexible, seek and take advice with discernment, but in the end tell my own story my own way, a little bit every day.
So you see, it’s not profound. It’s not unique. It’s not amazing. I’m an actor and writer, so I look for and embrace the dramatic and memorable. Believe me I’m sure positive examples of such things will be a part of the equation. A transcendent property, perhaps. But for the first time in a while, I think in the end, my answer to “What are you doing?” is going to be, “what I’m doing.”
Think about it.
I’ll see you on Monday with some more solid, tangible announcements and plans. I just had to get the damn, “welcome to 2014” stuff out of the way. How’d I do?
Reverb13 Day Twenty-One: The End Of It
The previous two times I did the Reverb project, it continued through to the end of the month. And since there are usually multiple sources for the Reverb prompts, some of the other Reverbs are in fact continuing through to the end of the year. I thought about doing so along with them.
Unlike last year, however, I’ve stayed with the same source of prompts for the entire month. In deference to that, I believe I will bow out on the 21st as well, with thanks to Kat McNally for organizing and sending the prompts I followed, plus her comments on my various posts throughout the project.
So the final prompt is a look back, obviously:
2014 is going to be MY YEAR because… I’m going to insist upon it.
In 2014, I am going to do… do more, and wonder less.
In 2014, I am going to feel… Tired, frankly. And worried. Confused and more than a bit annoyed and frustrated. But such is the case with me when I try to do new stuff in a world that doesn’t give me much help.
In 2014, I am not going to… Over-analyze. Consider, ponder, and get on with things. If I screw it up, I guess I will deal with that.
In December 2014, I am going to look back and say… it was worth it. Let’s do it again.
I followed several sources for last year’s Reverb, so looking back on it isn’t exactly the same. But in general, I think I let a few things get ahead of me in 2013 that I didn’t intend to last year this time. I laid a solid foundation for thinking more creatively, more proactively, but I didn’t execute as often or as often as I would have thought I would had you asked me in December of 2012.
On the more positive side, however, I’ve created more art than I perhaps thought I would a year ago. The work that I’ve done in certain areas had been of better quality than I might have suspected back then. And I’m more willing to embrace intentional change, not just simply accepting that life itself is gradual change. I think I’m more willing to believe I can sometimes a control the change…to be deliberate in it. For the better.
Am I right? I guess one will have to tune in during December of 2014 to know for sure.
Thanks to any fellow Reverbers who may have read my posts this year. They were a challenge, as always.
I may write a few more blog posts here and there before New Year’s but if not, enjoy your holiday season, everyone.
—Ty
Reverb13 Day Twenty: In the Mirror
Look at what you see in the mirror. How does it change if you view yourself with eyes that can only look forward?
That is difficult for me to do, for any number of reasons. The past present and future are so tightly entwined within my perception that only looking ahead seems nigh unto impossible. What’s past is present, and what’s present is future to a large degree.
I know that isn’t the most productive way to view things, according to some. In fact, I agree; much more could be done in life, and probably in my own life specifically, if I only looked forward. But while I am not covered in open wounds, I am covered in scars from many previous open wounds, one or two of which may have disfigured part of me. (I’m still assessing that possibility.)
In the mirror I do see what I am, and what i used to be. The former, not especially fantastic, and the latter with a lot more potential. I am living the future of what I used to be, and it’s not what I’d hoped for in several categories.
Perhaps the future doesn’t lie in the mirror for me. Perhaps I need to avoid mirrors when the goal is to press forward. I said a few posts ago that my keyword for 2014 might be “charge”, and one can’t charge while looking in a mirror. Nor effectively anyway.
And charge it is for me when I make progress, it seems. I have to declare war and proceed with a full on attack of my circumstances. I have to fight through, instead of riding a wave. Most things are indifferent to my struggles at best, and are programmed to derail my particular journey at worst. In such cases, moving forward is a matter of getting dirty, getting beaten up, and in general struggling. It isn’t as much about introspection and looking into mirrors. I wish it were more often, believe me. Maybe some day it will be. But for now, if I am to have even the slightest hope of using eyes that only look forward, I need to rid myself of mirrors.
Reverb13 Day Nineteen: Self Compassion
The Buddha said, “You, yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” How will you practice self-compassion?
One of the finest lines one must navigate is that which separates compassion for the self, and simple laziness or stubbornness.
I see my own inadequacies. I wish to improve myself, and so I instill self-discipline in order to do so. That self-disciplinarian at times is not at all accepting of the rest of my nature, as it seeks to change me into something more successful, more lovable, more powerful. But if the message from that self-disciplinarian is that I am not currently good enough in many fields of endeavor, is that compassion?
In a sense I suppose it is, because the goal is to improve what I am. But in so doing, I often feel like less, and not more. One has to conclude that compassion, even for one’s self, should result in an uplifting feeling, not in a feeling of failure and smallness. Usually I feel the latter when I push myself too hard.
So let’s look at this from the other side. Let’s say I practice total self-compassion. What does that entail? Surely, so it would seem, that entails self-acceptance. I accept my weaknesses. I treat myself in a gentle manner even as I fail over and over again to improve who and what I am. I rush nothing, insist on nothing, and evaluate nothing that I do, say, think, am, or desire. I allow myself the freedom to luxuriate in whatever is totally me at any given moment, without judging myself. Compassion.
In this scenario, I fear the things I cannot do now will never be possible. Things I do that may be wrong are never corrected. I gain no strength, no wisdom. Indeed I sometimes think I would do nothing at all, because society can be a quite exhausting place for me. Its standards, its judgments, its expectations and demands, (all of which seem arbitrary) can, if left alone, lead me to a certain numbness.
There is little point in someone like myself attempting to swim in that superficial, hissing cauldron of accusations and indifference that is society today. So, I could easily revert to doing nothing. Just existing, loving myself, creating when I can, and accepting that I am a failure unable to combat all that is out there trying to destroy me. Why beat myself up for not having the constitution to get through all of that? I’m a writer, not a soldier.
Self-compassion. Self-discipline. How to weigh them. How to allocate the proper proportions of both so as to accept what I am, weaknesses, quirks and all but still allow for success on my own terms without either giving up, or being swallowed up.
I can say that over the last several years I have allowed self-compassion to at least be a part of the equation. For much of my life, I proceeded only with self-discipline. I did so because I have failed in life far more often than I have succeeded, in just about anything I try to do. Society, both off line and online has never had a shortage of explaining what I did wrong, or how I am not the right kind of person. How I think is wrong, how I act is wrong, what I am is wrong, what I want is wrong, the way I go about it is wrong, the reasons I do so are wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong is, in summary, what most people have told me most of the time for all of my life when they see how much I have failed.
A guy starts to accept that after a few decades, and self-compassion tends to fade.
But in the last few years I have at least added self-compassion to the equation. Much like my freshman algebra class, I can’t seem to balance the equation no matter what I do, but I at least acknowledge the need to do so. As a result, I’ve thought about this balance for several years, and have come up with a few things which may or may not help me solve for X:
-I must accept the fact that I have tried to change certain things about myself for most of my life. Tried to become certain things. Many side-issues have been resolved during these attempts, but certain other things have remained an issue forever. Part of it may be the anxiety I think I have, and I suppose a counselor will help me determine if that is so. But some things, even the things that make life more difficult, are just who and what I am. If I haven’t been able to change them by now, they are not changing. Even if the world insists I need to (and can) change such things, I have to accept that a few traits, even the counter-productive ones, just aren’t going anywhere.
-I need to ultra-concentrate on those traits, skills and tendencies of mine that are productive, useful, positive. I need to convert much of the energy I have dedicated to “fixing” all of the parts of me that don’t work into mastering those aspects of myself that do work. True, there is a risk of becoming a locksmith in a village without doors, but if I have to find another village, I’ll do that. But first I must pursue what works, even if I have less that works than most other people.
-I need to discover the goofy, out of the way routes to get to certain places, and accept them. Believe it or not, I can illustrate this point with another high school math reference.
Geometry. It’s the only math class at which if I did not excel, I at least succeeded. Geometric proofs, (wherein you prove something is true about a diagram given information you already have) were friends of mine, because I could understand them, even if I could not love them.
The best part about them, was that efficiency was not a requirement. There was more than one way to do it! I remember my teacher using a neighboring town to illustrate this point:
“You can drive from here to Walkersville via Miami if you want to, so long as you get the names of the roads and the order they appear correctly.”
That’s the closest thing to beautiful I had ever or shall ever encounter in mathematics. I got a B in that class, mostly by going to Walkersville via Miami. (And sometimes, via Brazil.) I didn’t usually have the shortest proofs in the class, but they were accurate and correct more often than they were not.
If I can think more geometrically about myself and my life, and less algebraically, self-compassion may just trickle in. If I let myself get somewhere in a round about way, I may not have to beat myself up over my weaknesses as much.
-Making extra sure I show compassion for the weaknesses and inadequacies of others. There is a limit to this, of course; I won’t sacrifice my morality nor allow myself to get walked all over. But by and large, showing compassion for someone’s else’s difficulties, (which I have always tried to do) will hopefully show me how to show it for my own. My own soul may need to come first, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn self-compassion through the process of compassion for others.
So, in closing, the balancing act goes on between self-compassion and self-discipline. I long to accept myself for what I am and what I am not even as the world does not. But I also long to move forward. To succeed. To improve. Maybe, with the above things in mind, I can find a way to do both.
Ty Unglebower 