Writers in the Storm

by Justine Bylo

When New Jersey went into lockdown on March 21^st, I foolishly thought that I would get infinite amounts of writing done. During the day, I am the author acquisitions manager at IngramSpark and by night I like to write humorous personal non-fiction and romance novels. In my mind, I thought that the pandemic would give me a small reprieve from business as usual that included a very busy travel schedule.

I didn’t expect that business as usual would take on a whole new meaning.

As the publishing world began to screech to a halt with independent bookstores closing, publishers furloughing staff, Amazon focusing on essential items, and other printing plants closing, all of a sudden Ingram and IngramSpark felt the burden, more than ever, to uphold our commitment to the publishing industry to keep it all humming. Needless to say, the writing really hasn’t happened.

The Publishing Lessons of Covid

I am privileged to work with self-published authors all day. I have always been awestruck by their ingenuity and resilience. In the past six weeks those qualities have quadrupled, because the indie publishing world is uniquely suited to adapt to abrupt changes.

My clients have taught me several valuable publishing lessons recently that I would like to share.

#1- Authors Have More Power Than Ever

I keep finding myself saying, “The author has more power than ever!” Before the pandemic hit, I still found this to be resoundingly true. Now, in the time of Covid, I believe that the shift in power has become even more apparent.

When I first started at IngramSpark, self-publishing was still the “red-headed stepchild” of the publishing industry. In the years that followed, self-publishing started to become a legitimate route to getting published. I believe that the pandemic has shifted the landscape even more.

While large businesses were slowed down or forced to close, indie authors kept plugging away. In fact, they took the opportunity to grow their burgeoning businesses. Being nimble is a hidden superpower of the indie author.

When this all shakes out, no one can predict what the publishing landscape will look like. Sadly, there will likely be some casualties when it comes to publishing businesses. This will allow indie authors with small publishing enterprises to emerge as serious players in the game.

#2- Direct to Reader Sales are the Future

Early on in the pandemic, both indie authors and publishers saw the benefit in direct-to-reader sales. Larger retailers became overtaxed with the influx of orders and shipping has been taking longer than the two days Amazon has spoiled us to expect. Why not sell directly to your fans?

There are plenty of great ways to sell directly to readers.

• Shopify and other services can plug into your social media.
• Ingram has a great direct to consumer tool called Aer.io that is very easy to use.
• There has been a lot of buzz around Bookshop.org, an online bookshop run by the American Booksellers Association.

Why the buzz about Bookshop.org?

10% of all proceeds from Bookshop.org sales are put in a pot and given to independent bookstores. With those stores closed now, this is a wonderful way to support your indie bookstore. They have raised $1.1 million dollars already! The real perk about Bookshop.org is that you can set up your own affiliate shop.

Early adoption of these tools has given indie authors and publishers personal relationships with their readerships and a whole new sales vertical to explore. That brings me to #3…

#3- Direct Engagement with Readers is Powerful

Selling directly to readers is the perfect way for indie authors and publisher to engage directly with their readers and create personal, lasting relationships with them. These relationships create super fans which in turn create an army of evangelists for their books.

Authors and publishers have also found that direct sales are an opportunity to capture valuable information about your reader like their email address. If a reader opts to give their email address, this provides the huge bonus opportunity for long term engagement in the form of email blasts and personal, targeted communication.

The more an author engages with their fans, the more lifelong readers they will capture.

#4- Reading is Becoming Interactive

More than ever, during this pandemic many forms of entertainment are vying for our time. Are we going to listen to music? Are we going to Netflix and chill? Are we going to read a book? Our options are actually limitless.

The lines between the different forms of media are starting to blur. The invention of Wattpad made reading interactive, but other apps and blogs have immersed fans in their content and built communities that bring readers beyond the pages.

When these boundaries begin to cross, magic happens. It’s a multimedia experience that can capture new readers and current ones alike. It also a whole new way to be active in content. Many indie authors have seen the benefit in the new technology and taken advantage of it- especially now. 

Final Thoughts

None of us know for certain how this will all end. For all we know, things will go back to business as usual and I’ll finally get to finish my book. But for the time being, it seems as if the world is a bit topsy-turvy and indie authors and publishers alike should take advantage of that. Out of chaos comes invention and change. Why not change it in your favor?

What do you think publishing in general, particularly indie publishing, will be like after the pandemic? Are you taking steps to bring your book direct to market?

About Justine

Justine Bylo manages the author acquisition program at IngramSpark. She works with authors and independent publishers to expand their flourishing literary platforms through smart sales and marketing strategies.

Justine has worked with Ingram Content Group for 7 years. During her tenure, she’s launched several author focused programs, been the host of the IngramSpark podcast, Go Publish Yourself, helped get print books into Rwanda for a literacy initiative, and even taught many co-workers to love romance novels.

Justine started her career in the unlikely place of television. She was a writing intern for The Colbert Report, where her snappy one-liners landed her jokes on the air. She later worked in reality TV development and production at Oxygen and Bravo before making the leap to publishing. Justine was a graduate of NYU Tisch in Dramatic Writing. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and their Corvette and continues to work on her own novels during her free time. 

by Ellen Buikema

The antagonist is a character that many readers love and many writers hate. In fact, one of my author friends told me that writing her antagonist was a painful experience. “It was a really hard book to write. I had nightmares when I was writing about this character. It was one of the best feelings in the world when I finished writing this.”

In writing my current book, The Hobo Code, I learned what she meant. The book’s main antagonist is a psychopath. To capture the essence of the character, I picked the brain of a retired forensic psychologist and her suggestions surprised me. For example, she recommended I not write chapters from that antagonist’s perspective. “You don’t want to go there,” she said vehemently. “It will give you nightmares.”

I wonder how many forensic psychologists have PTSD by the time they retire.

The Delicate Balance Between Hero and Antagonist

As in all life, there must be balance. Your protagonist needs someone or something, to push against, overcome, or to come to terms with. Some examples:

• Nature:  Sebastian
  Junger’s The Perfect Storm
• An institution: Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger
  Games
• Disease: Stephen King’s The Stand
• The supernatural: Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight
  

Note: Twilight is an interesting case as Bella’s humanity might be considered one of the story’s antagonists. Her humanity conflicts with her desire to become a vampire.

Observation and various discussions have led me to the conclusion that most people feel they are the heroes of their own life story. People in power who we believe are in the wrong likely feel that their reasons are good and just—merely not understood by the average person. Antagonists feel the same.

No matter how horrific the means are to the ends, the antagonist believes his or her actions are justifiable.

Give Your Antagonist Some Depth

The antagonist needs a story arc. This character must grow and change, even if it’s only into a more heinous monster. At the same time, he should have qualities the reader can empathize with, such as liking dogs, enjoying cake baking, or taking time to teach children how to make a homemade fishing rod.

House-sit your evil one.
Spend time with him.
Learn his motivation.

Flesh out his backstory to know why he acts as he does. The more you know, the easier it will be to determine what makes him tick. How does he react to triggers? People are truly  the sum of their experiences. What life choices or chance encounters have helped make your antagonist what he is?

Different types of antagonists create different kinds of conflict.

Psychopaths have an inherited condition, often related to under-developed impulse control centers of the brain. They can make interesting antagonists. In Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the Dexter character is a psychopathic protagonist with charm—an anti-hero. Dexter’s main antagonist is a copycat serial killer. Both have strong anti-social tendencies but we find ourselves rooting for one and detesting the other.

The antagonist doesn’t have to be evil. He may cause conflict by acting in opposition to the protagonist, erecting barriers against the protagonist’s goals. Samuel Gerard, in D.J. Manly’s The Fugitive: A Novel is an antagonist. He stands in opposition to Richard Kimble and is definitely not evil. In this case, the protagonist understands this antagonist is just doing his job.

An antagonist may be a good person who has become corrupt due to life circumstances. Something pushed him over the edge. Most of the royal characters in George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” are corrupt. Did the position of power cause corruption? Perhaps there was childhood trauma? The Cersei Lannister character is ruthless, yet still has love for her children. She has some softness in her character to put a dent in her emotional armor. Lord Voldemort of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was once Tom Riddle. He wasn’t always someone to be feared.

Your protagonist may have an internal antagonist in the form of character flaw, like Bella’s humanity (according to Bella) in Twilight. Sometimes desires are in the way of needs. There might be fear or regret to overcome before tackling the primary antagonist.

What if you have more than one antagonist?

Some stories have secondary antagonists to give your protagonist trouble, a warm-up of sorts. Here are some ideas for handling multiple antagonists:

• Deal with something small before taking on the
  major issues.
• Give your protagonist plenty to work on to reach
  his goal.
• Your secondary antagonist stirs up trouble for
  your primary antagonist and your protagonist.

Digging deep into the dark, dredging up fearful situations, pains the mind. I don’t know anyone who enjoys revisiting demons from the past, but getting to know your antagonist well will make for a better, more balanced story.

Have you delved into your antagonist’s backstory? What motivates your antagonist?

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Work In Progress, The Hobo Code, is YA historical fiction.

Find her at http://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Image by Comfreak from Pixabay

by Tiffany Yates Martin

It sounds like a writer's dream: hours of time at home, no expectations to go anywhere or do anything outside your house. You can really dedicate the time to better your writing, right? But what if you don't feel like writing? Many writers have experienced a short-circuiting of their creative energy during this quarantine, with everyone stuck at home.

Maybe your creative space and time have been crowded out. Maybe worry, uncertainty, and even fear make it hard to concentrate on your craft. Perhaps the very sensitivity that makes artists artists might be working against your ability to create your art in such unsettled times.

But even if all you’re able to manage right now is curling up on the sofa with a book or the remote control, taking in other people’s stories can actually be a wonderful opportunity to learn to objectively assess your own and hone your skills.

So don’t worry if you just can’t find your creative spark at the moment. Trust me, it’s there—like a pilot light that never goes out—and you can feed it no matter where you are mentally at the moment.

The Beauty of Passive Intake

“I just want to curl up and couch surf.”

If you’re finding you simply can’t get off the sofa and all you’ve got in you right now is binge-watching and binge-reading, that’s fine. Stay right where you are and carry on—what I call “passive” intake of story is still an effective way to develop your storytelling skills. There’s no need to actively analyze; just relax and let it wash over you, allowing yourself to osmose it.

Did you like the story? Did it draw you in? Were you invested in the characters? Was there a sense of urgency or momentum that kept you watching/turning pages (or not)? Did the emotional moments affect you? Did the plot hold together and feel complete, the end satisfying? Don’t think; just feel the story.

The beauty of passive intake is that there are no right answers; you're observing you and your reactions, just noticing, as in meditation.

Did something make you cry? Why? Can you pinpoint it?

Were you on the edge of your seat at any point? How come...can you trace it back?

Don’t try too hard; just gently see if the reasons jump out at you. For instance, “I really cared about Vivian and she wanted to shop so badly” or “Dammit, I know Carole did it and got away with it.” Whatever raised a reaction in you, just tease out that thread a little bit.

This kind of passive reading/watching is the equivalent of the initial cold read editors do to orient ourselves to a story—and it’s the first step I suggest to authors in editing their own work with an objective eye. In the examples above, for instance, you’ve noticed very concretely how making the viewer care about the protagonist and then making her care passionately about something is how you create a visceral reaction. In the second, you’ve seen that tapping into a viewer’s sense of injustice can evince a visceral sense of outrage. You’re learning how to deeply and directly invest your readers.

So if this is all you have in you at the moment, it’s still valuable training in storytelling techniques when the time comes to write or revise. (But no rush! For now just sit back and start that next episode of Ozark….)

When Creativity Is Elusive

“I’ve got a little bit of juice in me, but my creative side is comatose.”

No worries. You can still serve your writing from under the covers while you stay up all night reading (why not? who can sleep?). If your brain is working but you’re not in creation mode, you’re in a great position to dig a little deeper and let yourself start to analyze a bit.

Start asking yourself the kind of questions editors ask as they begin to assess a story—in parentheses after some of the ones I suggest below are the storytelling elements you’re enhancing your understanding of:

• Is there a central story question? Can you sum up what it
  is? (Plot, character, stakes)
• Who were the protagonists, and were they the engine of
  the story—meaning did they directly drive the action? (Character, plot, stakes)
• Did you feel you knew them—that they were real people? In
  what way? (Character)
• Did you care about them? Why or why not? (Character,
  stakes, point of view, voice)
• Did the story keep propelling you forward? If not, where
  did your focus lag? (Stakes, character, plot, momentum and pace, suspense and
  tension)
• Were the story events believable? (Plot)
• Were there extraneous story events, or loose ends? (Plot,
  character)
• Did it all tie together cohesively? (Plot)
• Did the story take you on a clear journey? Were the
  characters changed somehow by the end of the story? Was that change a direct
  result of the story events? (Character, plot, story arc)

If this is all you do, you’re still helping your own writing and storytelling by learning to actively and objectively analyze what makes an effective, engaging story—or what hampers it. You’re an animal behaviorist patiently observing your subject and learning how they behave, what makes them tick, and that understanding becomes part of your own creative process, making you a more deliberate, knowledgeable writer.

When Motivation Is Elusive

“I’m still sharp as a tack, but couldn’t feel less like writing.”

This is when you can switch to a more active type of art intake—you’re not just watching your subjects; now you’re going to dissect them to really find out how they work.

For this deep-dive approach I recommend using a book, movie, or show you’ve already seen and re-watching or re-reading. When you’re no longer taking it in for the first time you can be more analytical. This is the equivalent of the editor’s main edit pass, when we immerse ourselves fully in the manuscript and really start digging down.

Now you’ll more deeply examine the answers to some of the questions I suggest asking. This isn’t an exhaustive or prescriptive list, just suggestions to get your mind jump-started on the kinds of things you might investigate. When you find yourself reacting to something in a story, that’s when to pith the subject—press pause or stop reading—and go back and start dissecting.

I’ve made some book or movie suggestions with each question, but literally any story can be analyzed this way.

• Do I really care about this character—or am I somewhat indifferent? In either case, why? (Examine specifically the ways the author/filmmaker made you invest in the central characters, or didn’t, for example Marriage Story, or Hitch, or The Hate U Give.)
• Am I hooked—do I have to turn the page or watch the next episode? Why? (Analyze anything you ever binged, in any genre: Big Little Lies, The L-Word, The Americans. Thumb through first and last lines of chapters/sections, or episode ends, or scene transitions, and pinpoint exactly what made you keep going: for instance, unresolved tension, an unanswered question, a mystery, a cliffhanger?)
• Am I surprised…or can I figure out the plot? How did the author/writer keep me guessing, exactly—and if they didn’t, what telegraphed the plot? (Dissect a story where you were or weren’t surprised and parse out what gave it away or set it up, or alternatively, how the storyteller misdirected you or created uncertainty: Ozark, The Good Place, Fight Club, etc.)
• Is every scene essential in moving the story forward? If so, how—what does each one accomplish? (Analyze scene by scene stories with great momentum, and those where your attention lagged: The Princess Bride; Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri; Little Fires Everywhere.)
• Am I on the edge of my seat, heart pounding? What specific elements created that in me? (Dissect how a storyteller created suspense and tension, paying extra attention to places where you’re especially hooked: Get Out, The Kite Runner, Finding Nemo.)
• Is the story multitasking—working on various levels and accomplishing more than one thing with each scene? Specifically what, and how? (Pick a scene you loved, for any reason, and parse out what it accomplishes as far as storytelling, like character development, moving the story forward, emotional layers, motivations, etc.—and how: Crazy, Stupid, Love, Walk on the Moon, An American Marriage.)
• Does the end satisfy me? If so, how? If not, why not? (With so many shows ending right now, it’s a great chance to analyze this storytelling element and what does or doesn’t create satisfying story resolution: Will and Grace, Schitt’s Creek, Modern Family.)

This is a fraction of the kind of questions you can ask, the areas of story you can dissect. Once you’ve noticed your own reactions during the passive-intake first watch or read, reverse-engineer the story as you re-watch or re-read those sections and parse out exactly what created those reactions in you:

• Did you get bogged down in backstory? Why?
• Did the characters seem flat to you? How come?
• Did you lose interest anywhere? Where and why, exactly? 

You can also consciously dissect how authors, actors, or directors convey emotion, state of mind, reaction, interaction and dynamics—the “non-verbals” and subtexts of story that create depth and nuance.

Replay a scene with your eyes closed, for instance; then watch it again with the sound off. Notice how an author describes physicality, reaction, expression, emotion—or what those traits look like in an actor when those feelings are evoked.

You can dissect how skilled writers effectively use show and tell by listing out everything you know about the characters and plot in the scene based on what you read or saw—and see if you can pinpoint exactly what let you know it.

Or see if you can define how the author/filmmaker created their unique voice. Is it the language—the words or phrasing the author uses? Is it some identifiable orientation toward the world or the subject that feels distinctive to you? Is it the author’s or screenwriter’s personality or aesthetic or worldview that shines through? A Phoebe Waller-Bridge show is very different from a Shonda Rimes one, for instance—can you verbalize why, exactly?

If an author’s style or a certain passage delights you (or disgusts you), stop and break it down to figure out specifically why.

It’s equally valuable to do this with stories you didn’t like as much as those you did. Notice or analyze why they didn’t work for you.

These observation and analysis techniques work with anything story-based, which is almost everything: books, TV shows, and movies, but I’ve also learned loads about storytelling from magazine profiles, from investigative journalism and provocative think-pieces, from Bernie Taupin lyrics, even from especially effective commercials. As this kind of analytical thinking about story becomes habit, you can glean a wealth of knowledge about effective storytelling every single day of your life, whether your muse is dancing nearby or not.

Be kind to yourself, artists. Take the pressure off yourself to write or create during these unprecedented times, and let yourself just be still and take in for now. You’re still serving your craft, and I promise the creative spark is still burning—and the flame will flare up again.

About Tiffany

Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and bestselling authors as well as newer writers, and is the author of Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing. She's led workshops and seminars for conferences and writers' groups across the country and is a frequent contributor to writers' sites and publications. Visit her at www.foxprinteditorial.com, and connect on Facebook and Twitter.

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"I trust Tiffany Yates Martin with the editing process even more than I trust myself. Read this book and steal her secrets!"—Kelly Harms, Washington Post–bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler

"Tiffany Yates Martin is an exceptional editor, so of course her advice and counsel in Intuitive Editing is exceptional as well. Whether you're a seasoned author looking to fine-tune your craft, pacing, or tension or just starting out and looking for guidance on building overall structure and engaging characters, this book is a must-read that will take you from idea to finished manuscript."—New York Times–bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch

"This book is a must have tool every author needs in their toolkit. When you are ready to go deeper, to dig into the revision process, using Tiffany's Intuitive Editing strategies will help you take your writing to the next level."—New York Times– and USA Today–bestselling author Steena Holmes

 "Authors, if you can't be lucky enough to have Tiffany as your editor, then Intuitive Editing is the next-best thing. Her advice is sound, thoughtful, no-nonsense and given with the compassion that every author and their book deserves."—Elisabeth Weed, literary agent, the Book Group