To plot or not to plot?

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1624 Location : UK

Weaving dreams into reality. Congratulations Susie! Well done!

You're enthusiasm is admirable and your attitude to sales is one that every self-published or subsidy published author should adopt. sunny

Unfortunately, unless books sell in their thousands, most of the authors I meet are unhappy and disappointed with what they consider to be poor sales and low royalties. They expected to make enough money to increase their income but when they take into account money spent on promotional items, gas for the car to get to book signings and other events and the time they put into promoting books that they could have used in paid employment, they don't even break even. They have spent more than they earned from the sale of their books.

Lin is trying to make these dissatisfied authors more realistic in their expectations but you only need to look at the length of the line of hopefuls auditioning for Pop (American) Idol to realise that what people want and what they are capable of differ enormously.

I can see lin's point and agree with him but I don't see that writing is much different to any of the other creative arts.

I saw a film recently set in Ireland, Once (2006):

"A Dublin busker, who ekes out a living playing guitar and repairing vacuum cleaners for his dad's shop, meets a young Czech immigrant who sells roses on the same street. She likes his song, and what's more … she has a broken vacuum cleaner! They soon find themselves playing music together in a nearby music store (since she can't afford a piano, the owner lets her play his floor models). Over the course of a week, they form a musical rapport and, newly inspired, decide to record an album."

They had to raise over two thousand pounds ($4,000) to hire a studio for the day to make a demo cd to take to England in the hope of finding fame and fortune. It reminded me of writers who pay to see their own work in print in the same hope of finding success in the shape of a publishing contract.

I'm rambliing! This is suposed to be a salute to Susie for being such a refreshing inspiration! Well done Susie! sunny

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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Mon May 12, 2008 1:50 pm

When I look at Susie's avatar, I see an optimist with a glint in her eye that says she is always on the lookout for better ways, and methods that work.
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Zada Connaway
Mother's Journals: parts 1, 2 and 3 ISBN # 1-4241-6969-0

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Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Mon May 12, 2008 2:51 pm

Not different in that respect at all.

In LA there are clubs that charge bands to play there because they are places than help build recording success.

Motion pictures industry is like writing, except much more so. (The spread of agent-driven processes into publishing from Hollywood accounts for a lot of problems: you didn't used to HAVE to have an agent)

And you find the same mentality there, regarding "how to predict a hit". Most people see through a lot of it: the remakes, the sequels, the formula films. And one thing that happens is that people get tired of it and are suckers for something new and different.

So you get "Napolean Dynamite" or "Blair Witch" or "Juno" coming along and blindsiding the industry.

But the big secret nobody will admit, because they want to seem like hard-working saavy pros who build success to justify their pay, is the role of...luck.

There's a great article about this, which created a school of thought on the matter. It's based on math and formal logic and statistics. It's called "The Black Swan", after the occurence of black swans in that population.

Basically, it is saying that hits like that are the result of luck. Not quite random, but unpredictable successes. There are several ways that people can interpret that success as something else. None of them ever produce similar successes.

The guy who wrote Napolean Dynamite didn' succeed by working hard and studying and networking. It so happened that his quirky weird script, which just about any reader would reject immediately, struck a chord. After he ran into people who would finance it.

The hilarious thing is: if you talk to the really successful writers and ask them how they got where they are, they will almost always tell you they were lucky.

Ask a cute young starlet with nice tits the secret of her getting a film role and she'll always tell you it was because of her hard work and diligence in perfecting her craft.
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Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Mon May 12, 2008 2:59 pm

BTW, I sold 300 books in the last two months. There have been times when the book was my sole source of income, and I was selling 10 a day. At present it just pays for me to be able to live on a Caribbean island instead of some cheap flat in a city.

I did everything myself except the artwork. Most of the thousands and thousands of books I've sold, I collated, stapled, trimmed myself.

The subject matter is the result of years of learning, the structure (and important factor in this) is the result of much thought and re-working. I created my own website after learning to write HTML code.

I made the trailer video myself, after learning how to use video editors for animation.

Basically I was lucky that there are a lot of people who want to know this stuff.

And that I'm a good writer that can make people laugh. That's not something you can work for. I was just lucky to have been born with a way with words and a sense of humor.

Anybody who says there's no such thing as luck is flattering themselves.

Hell, we're all lucky to be alive.
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Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1624 Location : UK

A close neighbour of mine in Scotland, where the summers average about one good summer in six but don't appear one every sixth year (sometimes two consecutive good summers followed by seven years of poor ones), is a very keen gardener. Each spring, he would clear the ground around the rose bushes, prune, mulch and feed. He would stake all the tall herbaceous plants and plant annuals and biennials. Backbreaking work that he did every year.

On a good year (when luck was with him) the garden looked spectacular -- a riot of colour and rose blooms that filled the air with sweet scent as you walked by.

On a bad year, the wind and rain flattened everything and the blooms rotted into the ground.

The work was always the same, the results unpredictable and the outcome of all the hard work often demoralising and disappointing.

It's a lesson I never forgot.

The luck you need has to come after all the hard work.

"The harder I work, the luckier I become."
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Three Star Member Joined : 17 Jan 2008 Posts : 183

I don't think anyone has ever told anyone else here, or on any of the message boards I've visited, that a writer doesn't need to work hard at becoming the best he or she can be.

We should do our best to learn all that we can about the craft of writing, about word usage, good grammar, developing and building plots and characters, and every other aspect of being the best craftsman we can be. In addition we should learn what we can about market targets, who our readership is and whether or not our books are what those readers are looking for. We need to learn all that we can about promotion, about making sure that as many people as possible know about what we have written, and exactly why they will want to read it. We need an internet presence, reviews, people telling other people, and we need to work at each point of this as hard as we can.

But even with all of the talent, the hard work learning everything we can about the business, only a few of us will be chosen by the major publishers to become part of their group. Only a few will see their work in bookstores and made into movies. An even smaller percentage of those will ever be able to earn a living from their writing alone. An even smaller, almost microscopic few will ever become Kings, Grishoms, or Rowlings. And we have absolutely no way of knowing which of us will be chosen. Some will self publish, or go with a publisher that accepts works that other publishers turn down, and some of them will become successful. But again, we have no way of knowing which of us that will be.

True, as in Shelagh's very good example, we can do things that might help us position ourselves to be standing smack dab in the middle of where the luck storm might strike, but we still have no control over where it actually hits, and who will be on the receiving end, or even if it will strike in the general location of where we have set up shop.

You can call it luck, or you can call it something else, but the fact is that without it, all of the hard work in the world, all of the hours spent learning and honing and polishing and submitting will not cut you from the herd. Without someone, somewhere, looking at what you've done and making a decision to invest their time and money in your work, you will simply continue to be one of the rest. True, you may be somewhat above many of the others, your work has lofted you to that position, but without that indefinable something, you will still not attain that lofty plateau that you were sure your hard work was going to take you to.

But the fact that every now and then one of us does hit the jackpot, the fact that it strikes when nobody expects it and takes someone to fame and riches and their works to near immortality, is what keeps us all doing the very best we can, and keeps the dreams alive.

Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Mon May 12, 2008 8:06 pm

Actually, I wasn't saying that a writer doesn't need to work at improvement. Quite the opposite in exactly so many words, in fact.

But now that you mention it, I don't much consider writing work. And I don't slave away to try to do anything "better"...I work on solving the problems at hand.

I'm used to popping out $2000 articles in a couple of hours and sending in first or second drafts. Sorry, but I did it for years. I'm not the only one, either.

I don't understand all this "Oh, we have to work and slave to write anything worthwhile" stuff. It sounds like loser talk to me. Sorry, but that's how it sounds.

It just isn't the way people talk who sell a lot of stuff. You can get upset at that. Or you can think about it and file it away in your "actions of the succesful" file somewhere. If you're bleeding on your keyboard, you probably aren't doing it right.

When I was just a kid I read a quote by somebody...and I'm sorry I can't recall just who. A major seller: Michener maybe.
What he said was, "I keep a perspective. The whole world's out there knocking themselves out to make a living, working their butts off. And some lucky SOB gets to be a writer."

If I'm advising anything here--other than having a firm grip on who you are and where you want to go with it--it would be something this:
Put your sweat into the marketing; writing is a natural flow of energy. Solving problems isn't work, it's part of the process. Don't waste time thinking you have to practice or memorize or do exercises. If you're a writer, you know how to write your stuff.
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Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Mon May 12, 2008 8:23 pm

I want to thank Shelagh and Zada for their kind words. You have no idea what they mean to me coming from the two of you! I have never felt as an equal here on the forums. Not your fault, it is a fault of mine. I always felt that everyone here was much more experienced than me and had all the answers. However, I am beginning to realize after your statements and typing up my story to tell you all on another thread, that in some ways I am up there with you. I may not have sold as many books as you have, or written as many (so far) as you have, but the experience I have had, in some areas, has been far greater. (Though I probably will still ask questions. )

So yes I am an equal and proud to be among all who are here on this forum!!!!

Thank you, Sheiagh and Zada, for helping me see that!
sunny

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http://suesunshine.blogspot.com/
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Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1624 Location : UK

I love it when I see people grow in confidence!

I can still remember a group of school girls falling over each other as they tumbled into the art room after a school trip to Venice.

During their first term studying for a major exam, I set them drawing exercises. In the first set of exercises, they were only allowed to use a dot. In the second set of exercises they were only allowed to use straight lines and in the third set of exercises they were allowed to draw with curved lines and finally with circles.

A whole term passed and they hadn't drawn a single picture. They hated art and they hated me. In the second term they had to learn how to apply pressure to a pencil to determine the quality and depth of a line. They had to learn how to control the pencil without lifting the pencil from the paper.

The first time I asked them to draw an object of their own choice, they had to draw the object without using any shading. The three-dimensional appearance of the object had to be represented by the width and depth of line.

They produced some amazing pieces of work. When I placed sea shells, wood bark, leaves and coral before them, I asked them to study the objects before they started to draw. Suddenly, the exercises started to make sense.

The day they fell over themselves as they entered the art room they couldn't stop talking.

"Oh miss, we went to Venice and saw EVERYTHING"
"We saw the reflections of the buildings in the water, the bridges, the boats, the colours and the textures."
"WE saw things that everyone else missed because we do ART and we are SPECIAL."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you lot are special all right.

Funny isn't it that they were the ones who were special? LOL!
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Subject: Re: To plot or not to plot? Tue May 13, 2008 2:14 am

Still seems to me that the "luckiest" among us are really the ones who do lots of work. Whether it is energy applied to honing writing skills, marketing or all those related activities, there is plenty of sweat equity going in to what we do. I congratulate all of you for the efforts that you make and the results you reap.
We all measure success differently, and so it is really something to see that we can all achieve it in one way or another. Very Happy

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Pam Robertson

http://andthebandplayedonmylawn.blogspot.com