When I researched this rule, it was surprisingly hard to find much of anything beyond “Write What You Know.”  It’s on most top ten lists.  Writers get lectured in their critique groups to “write what you know” when they try to go outside their comfort zone.   So this result is inevitable:

1. I can’t write male characters because I’m not a male.
2. I can’t write science fiction because I’m not a scientist.
3. My character can only be a Human Resources Specialist because that’s my day job.

It all starts with what you can’t do. So it has the boomerang effect of writers either declaring you have to do it or to ignore it altogether. The reality of the advice is more in the middle.

What it Actually Means

While researching this rule, I found not a single definition.  Writers talked generally about it, some talked about how much they hated it, but no one talked about what it actually meant.  Most of the discussion was surprisingly vague.  So I’m going to boil it down to the following:

The foundation of your story starts with subjects you are familiar and confident with.  Subjects that only you can and want to write.

What the heck does this mean?!

1. Subjects you’re familiar with and confident with.

   This part is a surprisingly hard concept to understand.   I started writing when I was eight.  When I turned eighteen, I wanted to branch out into professional publishing.  But what should I write?

   That’s where I ran into trouble because all my experience was childhood.  I tried to push at those boundaries—but with what?  If I tried to imitate the books I was reading, the subjects went way outside my comfort zone.  My first book was a crime thriller…but I knew nothing about how the police worked!

   That created the second problem.  I wanted to write science fiction, but I didn’t have a science background.  I wasn’t at all confident I could even pull off a science fiction novel.

   The result ends up being writers who do their research by watching movies (always a bad idea) or picking topics that require more research than the book is worth.  Or, in my case, not writing books that I really wanted to write.

   But I did have three topics that I did know in and out, even with childhood as being my life experience (and no, it wasn’t childhood):

• The place where I lived, Los Angeles.  I could have confidently written about that because if I wasn’t familiar with a specific place, I could have easily gone out there and experienced it. I knew the history because it was a required class in school.
• Hollywood.  I grew up reading about how films were made and the history of the industry.  I might have had to do more research once I started writing the story, but it would have been from the position of filling gaps rather than researching everything.
• Ghosts.   I grew up reading my mother’s subscription to Fate Magazine and other ghosts stories.  I probably would have enjoyed researching hauntings around Los Angeles.

  Could I have done a science fiction novel with one of those topics?  Yes!  I did ghosts in space, and it focused on later life experience I had: the military.

2. Subjects you can and want to write.

   This is something that often gets left out.  Some writers write what they think will sell, like a writer who comes up with a romance novel and doesn’t read the genre.  This pushes you out of your comfort zone, but in the wrong way.

   Never compromise what you want to write.

   I subscribe to anthology calls to see if there are any topics I want to do.  Lately though, the calls have been for dark stories, or on a politically-related topic.  I used to write dark because of my Desert Storm experiences, and it’s not a place I want to venture back to.  And I’m not one to get up on a soapbox, so even in the anthology topic is something I could write on, I wouldn’t want to do a political story.

   But you really have to know yourself and what boundaries you won’t cross.

Busting the Rule

 This rule originated as a piece of advice for intermediate and advanced writers.  Unfortunately, it got simplified down to one sentence for all these writing lists—and it loses its meaning.  Kind of crazy for people with their stock in trade in words.

What you can do

1. Identify subjects that you are familiar with that you can use as a foundation for your story.

   If it’s hard to figure out—it was for me—start with the place you live.  Then look at the types of non-fiction books you like to read.  Are they on Ancient Egypt?  Or the Civil War?  How about the medieval era?

2. Gain new knowledge.

   Visit a local historical site and soak up the information.  It doesn’t matter what kind of story you write.  There might be a germ of something that you can eventually use in your story. I went to a lecture on Civil War maps.  Who knew that over the next ten years, I would use a single piece of information from it in story after story.

   Right now, I’m practicing basic navigation in the local parks.  That’s something I know I can use in pretty much any story.

   But key is that it should be something you’re going to enjoy doing.

3. Know what your boundaries are.

That one’s a bit tougher and will probably be developed with more writing over time.  Sometimes you’ll want to push a boundary and get out of your comfort zone, which is always a good thing.  But that internal compass is going to tell you what’s right for you, and there may be a wide variety of reasons.

I saw one political topic and thought, “Yeah, I could do a science fiction story on that.”  I knew I could keep the soapbox out and do a pretty good story.

But I was also pretty sure the editor had a certain image of what they wanted for the anthology and my story would not have fit in.  So then, my boundary was that I didn’t want to write a story that had no chance of getting published.

Sure, I could have indie-published it, but the fact that I didn’t exposed that it was a boundary I needed to stay away from.

If you want to read up on this topic, the non-fiction writing books will be a good place to start.  Non-fiction writers have to have an expertise before writing non-fiction.  Try this book as a start:

• Write Faster, Write Better, by David A.Fryxell.

When I first started writing, I just put a pencil to a sheet of notebook paper and wrote.  Didn’t think anything about it other than having fun figuring out what was going to happen next as I wrote.

People around me noticed how I was writing.  Family and friends informed I needed to outline.

Beginning and intermediate writers scratched their heads and told me that I’d learn soon enough that I was supposed to outline.

In writing circles, this divides the writers up into outliners or plotters versus pantsers (the term coming from “writing by the seat of the pants.”).

What it Actually Means

Unlike other rules, this isn’t one that was misinterpreted by time or repetition.  I think there are two reasons it exists:

1. Outlining is easy to teach.

   The instructor provides a system, forms, and off the writer goes to write the story,  It tells the writer what’s going to happen next, so when you get a free moment, you consult the outline and can figure out where to start.  You can also use it to figure out if you any plot holes.

   Pantsing….pretty much just start writing.  You discover the story as you write and get surprised a lot (sometimes for the better, and sometimes not).  You’re Christopher Columbus with his three ships, sailing across the ocean.  You don’t know what’s at the end of the journey until you get there.  That’s writing that has to be experienced, rather than taught.

   Some people want—or even need—more than “just start writing and figure it out.”  It’s just hard to figure out how to get started on a big project like a novel.  Because it is so big, it can also be overwhelming.

2. Outlining is what we know.

   In school, teachers give writing assignments that include an outline.  I think that’s why so many adults kept trying to push me into outlining short stories.  In college, they had to outline term papers as part of the assignment.  It seemed like a logical thing to do, even for a short story.

Yet, everyone also says that it doesn’t matter how you get to the story.  Then why does pantsing get such a bad rap?

Busting the Rule

The problem is three separate issues.

1. Pantsing is a messy process, especially for new writers.

   You start writing the story and somewhere along the line you go off track and run aground.  Then it’s hard troubleshooting what happened.  It can be extremely frustrating, especially with the amount of revision that you might end up having to do to fix the story.  It then easy to think you’ll never learn how to finish a story unless you outline.

2. How craft is taught.

   For an outliner, learning the craft is wrapped up in doing an outline.  So if you’re learning about structure, it’s built into the outline by doing tasks like identifying where plot points go.

   Craft is taught as process-to-craft.  That is, the outliner uses the outlining process to learn the craft skill.

   But there’s no outlining for a pantser…now what?

   This is how pantsers get told over and over again they have to outline.  An instructor who outlines can’t figure out how to teach writers to get from Point A to Point B without using an outline as an explanation.

   Teaching craft for a pantser is craft-to-process.  That is, the pantsers learns the craft skill and incorporates it into their process.

So you can see this rule’s conflict.

What you can do

First, it doesn’t matter what process is used to create the story. If you give the reader a good story, they’re not going to care.

1. Never put down another writer’s writing process, even if you don’t understand or don’t agree with it. It’s theirs. Let them own it. 

   Also, if you’ve never tried that writing process and finished a book successfully using it, don’t explain how to do it. All you need to do is search for Pantsers vs. Plotters on the internet and you’ll find a lot of writers explaining something they’ve never done. It just adds to this rule’s clutter of misinformation.

2. Own your process.

   Too often, we allow the group-think to steer us wrong. “So many people are saying this, so they must be right” instead of asking, “What’s right for me?”

   There are a lot of writers who have adopted an authoritative tone as to what everyone should do—and haven’t even finished their first book. Remember Point #1 above—there are writers stating “This is a fact” and they’ve never tried the process.

   Always be the skeptic. I learned pretty fast that if I asked “Is this workshop pantser-friendly?” and got “Sure. We work with pantsers and outliners,” it was code for, “We expect you to outline.” I was very shocked when I asked one writer that same question about his class and he said, “Sure. That’s how I write.”

3. Have fun!

   Everyone tends to focus on following the rules instead of just having fun. Fun is never going to steer you wrong, and it’ll show up in the story.

References for Pantsers

• Story Trumps Structure by Steven James
• Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith
• Pantser’s Guide to Writing by Linda Maye Adams
• Storytelling for Pantsers by Annalisa Parent

There aren’t any actual instructions on how to write novels for pantsers. Read all of the books. Take what you need from them.

Introduction

This book was inspired by a writing course I took in 2015.  As part of one of the assignments, I had to write down every writing rule I’d run across over the nearly fifty years of reading about the craft of writing.

The list was shocking.

Much of the advice actually probably started out with good intentions.

Too often though writers want rules to tell them what they need to do to get published.  The result is that a lot of advice got simplified into lists in magazines and online, often as “Don’t” or “Do.”

As a result, the original meaning is lost and writers fill in what they think it is.

At the point where I was when I took that class, I was overwhelmed by all the writing advice.  Instead of helping, it twisted up my writing and kept me from getting published.

Yeah.  That’s hard to believe from the way experts talk about the rules.

But there is a point where the advice needs to be questioned.  Writing is anything but set rules that you can follow and have success.  The creative part of writing changes the dynamic where rules don’t matter as long as the story’s good.

So off to bust some writing rules.

Give Yourself Permission to Write Crap

I’m starting with this one because I think it’s a truly destructive rule.  You’re probably going, “Wait a minute!  How is it destructive?”

It’s a piece of advice that started with good and admirable intentions.  What it evolved into is less admirable.

What it actually means

Don’t strive for perfection.

Perfection is the enemy of creativity.  It triggers the inner critic, who picks apart every word, every sentence, every paragraph.  Nothing will ever suit the inner critic.

When I watch the baking competitions on TV, there is always one baker who declares she is a perfectionist.  It’s often said with quite a bit of pride.

Then she makes first contact with the time limitations of the competition.  Things get ugly

Perfection keeps her from changing course when something doesn’t work or is too ambitious.  Suddenly everything starts falling apart.  She scrambles just to finish the cake.  It’s not her best work.

For the writer, the inner critic can be a constant nag.  There’s something wrong with the first chapter!  That sentence is terrible!  What were you thinking when you wrote this?

So the rule’s intent is to shut off that really destructive thinking that keeps you from writing.

National Novel Writing Month, which is in November, was meant to break through the perfectionist tendencies.  If you write 50K in a month, you don’t have time to let the inner critic take control.  It’s a very exhilarating experience because the writing is downright fun!

But then what’s so destructive about the rule?

Busting the Rule

The problem  is the word “crap.”

As writers, our stock and trade are the words.  This one has a huge emotional impact.  It’s usually said when we’re angry or frustrated.

A lot of people come into writing with impostor syndrome.  They expect at any moment someone is going to call them out as an impostor.  That they’re not really writers.

So when they hear “Give yourself permission to write crap,” they hear something else completely different:

• “My writing is crap.”
• “All first drafts are crap.”

That turns the inner critic on full force.  The writer goes into the story not thinking about how bad a writer they are.  Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Because if the writer thinks the story is crap, they start writing sloppy and get stuck a lot.

The result is that writing the first draft, which should be a fun exploration of the story, becomes a torturous, painful process.

Even the editing process is affected because the story is still not good enough.

Maybe you don’t send it out to a publisher because it’s never going to be good enough.

Or when you get a form rejection, your first reaction is that it must be that comma mistake on page ten.

The worst part of perfectionism is that it’s vague.  There’s no checklist or standard you can follow.  So you ending up feeling like a failure.  The story can never live up to the vague ideal of perfection.

What can I do?

1. Never use any negative words like crap or garbage to refer to your writing. 

   Some are so common that most writers don’t think twice about referring to them.  But your stock and trade are those words.  Listen for the negativity and kick it to the curb.

2. Turn off the perfection voice. 

   One of the things that I’ve found very useful is writing down what I’m grateful for at the start of the day.  It’s a simple thing, and often only one thing, but it does change my mindset.  Perfection is never glad for anything.

3. Be alert for things that triggers calls for perfection. 

   Everyone’s going to be different.  The inner critic is also likely to change tactics once something no longer works, so keep your eyes peeled.

But this is also a common enough issue that there are plenty of books on the topic.  Browse through the library not just in the self-help section but also the business section.

Sometimes being aware of the problem in the first place is enough to get started.

Other “rules” I’m going to bust in August:

• Make Your Character Suffer
• You Must Outline (well, yeah, you knew I have to hit this one)
• Write What You Know

This bundle is now available for pre-release!

Magic invites . . .

Curses and blessing, sorcerous time travel, shape-shifters, hidden enchantment and corrupted blood.

Magic demands . . .

Saving those you love, courage, betrayal and fights against unspeakable forces.

Magic promises . . .

Last best hopes, reluctant and desperate heroes, ancient power unleashed and the compulsion to overcome death itself.

Magic risks . . .

Forbidden spells and deadly bargains.

Here be magic!

From life to death, from realm to realm, from past to future and in between—dare you adventure with wizards?

Pick up your copy early! https://bundlerabbit.com/b/here-be-magic

Here’s the cover from Busting Writing Rules: 12 Rules That Hurt Writers.  Chapters of the book are going to appear on the blog starting the first week in August.  These are all the topics:

1. Give Yourself Permission to Write Crap
2. You Must Outline
3. Make the Character Suffer
4. Write What You Know
5. Keep Description to a Minimum
6. Write Straight Through
7. Best Sellers Don’t Know What They’re Doing
8. Only Use Said for Dialogue Tags
9. Show Not Tell
10. Avoid Passive Voice
11. No Dream Sequences
12. No Adverbs

Now I get to do the behind the scenes for the cover.

Covers for writing books are hard.

It’s just a hard topic to illustrate.  What represents writing?

• Pencil, fountain pen, quill
• Typewriter (usually an old Royal), typewriter keys, computer
• Light bulb, or some other sign of creativity

For me, just a “Meh.”

But cats, books, and writing are linked together.  Cats sitting on books…usually the one you want to read…cats sitting on keyboards when you want to write…

Plus, cats are rule breakers anyway.

So I went looking for cats and books.  Wasn’t generally what I was looking for.  Too busy, not quite right.

Maybe…cats and glasses?

And I found this image right away.  All the colors are sampled from the cat’s fur.

This week, I have some interesting links for you:

Dave Farland on Avoiding terrible advice.  He has a weekly newsletter, and when he’s judging Writers of the Future, you’ll get a lot of insight into the slush pile.

10 Rules for Writing Fiction: This is not as bad as the title implies.   It’s got lists from many different writers, including some recognizable names.  But scroll down first and look at Roddy Dowell’s, and then Neil Gaiman.  Take it all with a heaping of salt and a laugh.

How to Write a Novel in One Draft:  A writer breaks down Dean Wesley’s Smith’s methods for producing a novel in one draft.

Are you making your writing harder than it is? I’ve heard plenty of writers talk about writing as if it were tortorous.  They’re making it harde than it is.

And to finish up with a smile, The Writer’s Dog.

It’s not a secret that your internet travels often end up on Facebook.  It’s worse when you’re a writer because we can research some pretty odd things.  I looked one the name of one of the goose-necked cigarette things for a story–and ended up not using it–and Facebook gave me ads for them.  I don’t smoke.

Writer Anne R. Allen reported mentioning a drug in one of her Facebook posts.  She doesn’t take it.  But suddenly she was receiving MAIL from drug companies to get her to buy the drug!

So I thought I’d post something to help cut back on the weird advertising.

Part I

This step you’ll have to repeat about once a month.  The first time will be the worst because you’ll be cleaning out years worth of accumulated data.

1. Click the upside down triangle in the upper left corner for the menu.
2. Click SETTINGS.
3. Click ADS.
4. Click on YOUR INTERESTS.
5. Go through each category and delete everything.

I was pretty shocked the first time I did this.  There was a lot of entries, dating all the way back to when I first got on Facebook.  Some of the entries were just plain strange.  Sports teams periodically show up, though I have no idea why.

Part II

You’ll only have to do this once.  As far as I can tell, it doesn’t turn back on.

1. Scroll to the YOUR INFORMATION section.
2. In the ABOUT YOU section, turn everything off.
3. Then clean out the categories section.

When I first did this, it even had my “political affiliation” (which, in my word swapping, I accidentally typed affliction). It also got that wrong.  I turned it off, and its since disappeared from the list altogether.

Part III

Finally, this one will help clean things up overall.  I remember when I first signed up for Facebook, it had me select books, movies, TV, music–all data mining on consumers.

1. In the top banner, click your NAME.
2. Click MORE and pick something like BOOKS.
3. Start deleting.

Part IV

While you’re at it, take a few minutes to review your friends and the pages and groups to see if there’s any you can take off.

I did a mass update myself during the 2016 election and then a second time in the last year.  I unfollowed a lot of people with the following criteria:

1. Anyone over the top on the politics.  It wasn’t everyone, by the way.  I’m okay with differing opinions as long as it’s civil.
2. Any writer who appeared to follow me for the purpose of selling books to me.  Not entirely sure why writers think other writers are their market…
3. Anyone I didn’t recognize or had stopped posting.

It used to be that it was a badge to have a certain number of followers.  But I’ve seen recent traffic that social media is a great way to keep in contact with fans of the books, but it isn’t a great way to find new readers.

The landscape’s changed a lot. Now it’s important to protect yourself from the data mining.

– – –

Next week, we’ll have some more cover refreshes.

The cover refreshes are my most popular posts—who knew?  So I thought I’d do a behind the scenes on the process.

Why I’m Doing Them

The first reason is that I changed website addresses and it’s wrong in a lot of the books.  I’ve been using a new template with the correct link, an updated bio, and links to my email newsletter.

I also updated the Books By with a more generous list of stories, complete with links.  I learned my lesson on this one—the link has to go to Books2Read, not to a specific vendor.  A book was kicked back by Apple because it mentioned Amazon.

The fantasy template has a sample chapter of Rogue God.  The science fiction one will have Crying Planet.  The only person who’s going to toot my horn is me, so I’d better do it!

I started just with the interiors for the first few books and then I realized the covers needed to be updated too.

Just like a traditional publisher, the covers have to be changed up every few years or they start looking tired and old.  Tastes change.  So did my knowledge.

The First Step

Each book is in its folder, so when I prep for publishing, I check the folder.  Draft2Digital allows me to create an ebook I can post on the other three vendor sites.  But in the early days, I created an Amazon document and a Smashwords document.  So I’m cleaning out those old files.

Then I create folders for:

• Book Formats (for the epub, mobi and PDFs)
• Book Masters (for what I used to create the above)
• Cover Art
• Submission History
• Copy Edits

This is just to get everything consistent so I can find files.  Organizing is very important in indie-dom!

Da Cover, Da Cover

Then I go hunting for a cover image.  I’ve been using IStockPhoto lately since they have a huge selection of images.  My focus right now is on the fantasy stories.  Covers with character are trending, so that’s what I’ve been searching for.

It’s hard because I have to figure out what the right keywords are to discover the images.  For the fantasies, I’ve been trying “medieval men” or medieval women.”  Sometimes also “fantasy women” and “fantasy women warrior.”  One story I used “princess warrior” to search.

I pass on a lot because they don’t look like they’re protaging.  It’s one of the things that really starts separating one image from another.  Some stories are stubborn, so I have to keep looking.

If I find something I like but it isn’t quite right, I go to images page and browse through the creator’s other images.  Sometimes I can find one that’s just right.

I’m like a hoarder with the images.  I’ll save a bunch of them to my board until my brain works out what it wants.  Then I download the image and delete the others.  Sort of like pantsing a cover!

I use Adobe PhotoShop Elements to build the cover.  It’s a home use program like PhotoShop, but pared down.  Works fine for book covers.

I use a template I created in the proper size (1600-2400).  Guides are set up in the file for each boarder and at all the one-third points.  The locations of the guides comes from DIY eBook Covers: Design Principles for Non-Designers (How to sell more books, 1).  I know a lot about graphics from my day job PowerPoint days, but from this book, I learned something I did not know.

I’m a conveyor belt for the covers.  It’s 30 minutes or less to build the cover.  I drag the image onto the template.  There’s always an adjustment to put the image in place.  Sometimes I flip it.  Sometimes I make it bigger.  Sometimes I adjust the central image to be right on one of those one-third points (it looks so much more balanced).

Then I sample a contrasting color on the image for the text, update my name.  I try to find a second color and use that for the title.  Save it as a JPG, and it’s done.

Book Interior

This one’s also a conveyor belt on the ebook side.  I have templates for fantasy and eventually science fiction, each with a different sample chapter in it.

Paste in the story.  Make sure the scene breaks end correctly.  Update the copyright information.  Add the cover art information.  And it’s done.

Print books are more complicated. I saved the temple from Amazon.  Then it’s copy the story one chapter at a time.  After that, I have to go through the entire book to match up the chapters and make sure I haven’t skipped any or duplicated any.  It’s tedious enough that it usually takes me a few days.

The Blurb

I always end up putting this one off.  My critical side keeps saying that’s really hard, but for the most part once I get into it, it’s about 30 minutes.  I took a blurb class from Dean Wesley Smith last year—another reason for the refresh.  I thought I was doing pretty good with them…and noooo.  They’re so awful!

The most important thing about the blurb is getting out of fiction writer mode and into marketing mode. I think that’s why my critical side keeps stepping in.  I have to reset my brain to do them.  The key thing is to use the first page or first scene in a short story or first chapter in a novel—not try to summarize the whole story.

Keywords

This is an area where I’ve learned a lot just since February. Which was when I went to Superstars.  One of the writers there, James Hunter, introduced me to the concept of keyword stacking  Basically, you’re on Amazon, filling out the keyword field.  Type keywords until you run out of space.  Then go to the next one.

I also hit Amazon for search terms.  That’s how I came up with the title for the Digital Minimalism book.

And I was still finding two of the 7 categories were too generic.  So I hit the thesaurus for some of the words and add those as well.  That causes me to discover a common theme I have so far: Ambushes.

The blurb and the keywords are saved in the same file.

Publishing

The story goes to Draft2Digital first.  They allow me to create an ebook that I can upload on the other four sites.

Conveyor belt here, too.  Copy/paste the blurb.  Then the keyword strings.  Upload the cover and the Word file.  Save the three flavors of ebooks and publish.

Then it’s off to BundleRabbit, then Amazon, then PublishDrive (thanks for that site, Harvey!), and Smashwords.  I have a list of what D2D and Smashwords publishes to so I don’t duplicate it.

Everything gets recorded on an inventory sheet.  I mark off each book title as I get it up on each of the sites and when I refreshed it.

The most important thing about these refreshes is to keep things as simple as possible.  Finish one and then move on to the next.  With some 40 titles that need to be updated, it’s easy to get overwhelmed!

This cover refresh is from one of the first three stories I put up. I renamed the story when I indie-published it. The story was originally called Six Bullets. It is a fantasy, but with guns like from the Civil War (a repeating rifle with six bullets). But I figured that people might think it was a Western with the title. So River Flight it became.

The story was published in anthology where I had to use a princess, a boatman, and a lizard.  So I made the princess a boatman (soldier rank), and the lizard was the nickname of bunch of bad guys hunting her.

First Cover

Like with the previous one, I had a hard time finding good images of women in a fantasy world. I also tried hunting for setting images in lieu of people–but there were not many images of water that would have fit the story.  I finally found this one and went with it.

Second Cover

While looking for a different image for another cover and ran across this one.  “That’s River Flight!” I said.  So I made the cover.  It’s still a good image, but in a way, the image is a little dark in content for where I’m at now.  The story itself is not dark.

Third Cover

This time, I searched images for “princess warrior” because the character is a princess-turned-soldier.  The hard part was my head going, “But she’s not dressed like that.”  Yeah, but if she’s dressed like a warrior on the cover, then it’s not obvious she’s a princess.  Being a princess is a big part of the story, so I hung a lantern on it.

The image itself is much larger.  You can see the original here.  I flipped it and then adjusted where she’s standing to be at one of the one third points to balance it on the cover.  Colors for the sample text are all from her dress.

This one also needed a keyword update, though I had done that back in February with a blurb update.  It’s amazing how much I’ve learned about them in the last few months just doing these refreshes.

Link to where the book can be bought.