How the Conjuring Universe is affirming my writing / Happenings In The Outhouse 25-June-2021

Once again, I feel like I'm late to the party on this one.  I just recently discovered the Conjuring universe.  The latest movie, The Devil Made Me Do It, just came out in the theaters.  I binged the other two before watching this one, but as they're like standalone movies anyway there is no need to watch them in order.  Yes, they are truly based on true events.

There are other movies in the Conjuring universe (7-8 movies at this point) and what struck me when I watched the first one, it did something that I started in my writing long, long ago.

One of the old writing adages is that if you introduce something at the beginning of your story, it had better be resolved by the end.  For example, if a treasure map comes into someone possession by the first few chapters, by the end it better lead to somewhere important--think Goonies for example.

My very first novel I ever wrote was a deer hunting horror story, set in a fictional town in northern Minnesota.  This one has yet to be published, and there is a LOT of work I need to do on it IF it is ever to see publication.  Anyway, there were elements in the first story that I introduced that weren't going to be resolved until book two or three.

Then, I've introduced a few elements to the Central Division thriller series, like in a few prologues and side chapters, that won't be resolved until later.  True, mine is part of a series, but with how the Conjuring does it, it affirms that I'm on to something.

The pitfalls of having only writers as your followers / Happenings In The Outhouse 18-June-2021

There is an interesting trend I've noticed in social media, and it's not a new trend either.  It doesn't matter what business you seem to be in, those who seem to follow you are in the same business as you and seem to demand that you follow them back.  Business leaders follow other business leaders, actors follow actors, musicians follow other musicians, and so on.

I'm going to bring this to writing, since that's a business I know a bit about.  So, therefore, writers following other writers.

There is a local writer I know who self-published her debut novel last year--which is an amazing accomplishment!.  This writer is VERY active on Twitter, and I'm amazed at the over 18,000 followers.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these followers are, much like myself, other writers.  Now, on the surface, you may wonder what the big deal is.  Here's the deal: who's buying your books?  Readers.  Readers of that particular genre.  Not necessarily writers.  Now, this is no fault of this author, because I follow a fair amount of writers myself, but you can't believe the ton of follows that I get and they demand that I follow them back.

But I don't.  Then they disappear.  Good riddance.

On a side note: I used to follow them back, until I noticed that they weren't the ones buying my books.  So I stop that in its tracks.

One of the pitfalls to this trend occurred just last week with this author.  She posted on Twitter that she was having a book signing.  Cool!  I read the Twitter thread and other authors gave her advice.  Good advice?  I'll zip my lip on that one.  Then, the day before the signing, she posted a picture of her "author" signing shirt.  It was pretty cool, and there was more advice in the thread.

But all this time I was wondering the key questions: where and when?

Of that, nothing.

Did any of the other writers ask this?

Nope.

You're right, I didn't either.  Maybe I should've, but I wanted to see if any readers would ask her.

In fact, this author didn't even say, "Hey if you're near (fill in the blank), I'll be signing my book at (date/time)."

Again, nothing.

Now, I'm a complete shit when it comes to marketing my own works too, but I at least posted a link when two of my stories was on a recent podcast and when I have a new book out I post links to it.  If I had a book signing, you better believe it that I'd be posting about it.

Be careful who you're attracting as far as followers.  For the business of writing, readers are your audience.  Go after them.  Don't follow others back if they demand it.  Readers only buy books.  Writers, not so much.

To put this in perspective, I checked out mega-bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson's Twitter numbers.  He has a little over 12,000.  Less than the local author.  And how many does he follow?  A few hundred.  Neil Gaiman?  Over 2 million followers.  How many does he follow?  Less than a thousand.  That's quite the ratio.

On a final note: she did post a picture during the author signing, but again there was no where and when.

Lesson learned?  I pray it does, and the reason for this post isn't to shame the writer.  I'm happy she was given an opportunity to have a book signing, in a real bookstore.

We all make mistakes.  We just need to learn from them.

Thinking Ahead / Happenings In The Outhouse 11-June-2021

I'm only on the sixth chapter of my latest novel and I'm already looking forward to what's next.

As you may (or may not) know, my latest project is a writing of a horror novel I wrote more than two decades ago, and is the second novel I ever completed.  I'm using the old book as an outline.  It's going great.

Beholder's Eye, which is my first full-length published book, was the fourth book I ever completed.  Between Beholder's Eye and my current project was another horror novel, set up in Lake of the Woods, in northern Minnesota.  This book actually got some interest from literary agents back in the day, but nothing came out of it.  Thank God.  Knowing what I know now about book contracts, royalties, and publishing rights, I'm sure I would've given as much away as possible with little to show for it.

Anyway, it's that book that I will be bringing to life.  And again, I'll be using the old book as an outline for the new one.

As a writer, what would you change? / Happenings In The Outhouse 4-June-2021

I recently went to the movie Cruella with my youngest daughter.  I was surprised that it was over two hours in length, as most movies run the gambit of 90 to 120 minutes.

In a nutshell, it was a fun, entertaining movie.  As we hopped in the car the drive way, my daughter asked me, "Dad, as a writer, what would you change about it?"

My, what a question!

As a writer, I do look at movies or books and ponder how I would change it if given the chance.  What do I look at in a good story?  My first threshold is the entertainment factor.  Did it entertain me?  Even some bad movies/books pass the entertainment factor.  Take the last three Star Wars movies.  I liked them, they entertained me, but I did find issues that made them pale in comparison to all of the other movies.  I also didn't care much for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book) as Harry was always yelling, as it was loaded with exclamation marks, and that took away from the story.  But it still entertained me.

I take those things that I would change and incorporate them into my stories--and this may be an area I'll expand upon later.

Besides the entertainment factor, I look at character depth and pacing.  If both are done well, then I call it a decent movie.

Cruella had a lot of character depth, it was intriguing, and the pacing was well-executed.  I don't recall a single moment where I wondered when it would ever end.  Also, you didn't seem to require any watching of the previous movies to understand it.

My answer to her: nothing.  I wouldn't change a thing.