Author: Liam Carnahan

Writing Stories with the Vogler Memo | Invisible Ink Editing

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date February 18, 2022
No Comments on Writing Stories with the Vogler Memo | Invisible Ink Editing

There and back again: Writing Heroic Fiction with the Vogler Memo

Authors know that sinking feeling that can come in the middle of a first draft or deep into self-editing:

Where do I go from here?

Or maybe you have a killer opening and great idea for an ending, but absolutely no idea how to connect the two.

Get back to writing your novel with help from the Vogler memo, an important developmental editing resource based on the archetypal hero’s journey.

What is the Vogler memo?

In the mid-1980s, Christopher Vogler was a story analyst for Disney and had been a student of the famed mythologist Joseph Campbell.

To spark discussion about storytelling, he distilled Campbell’s seminal work of comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, to a seven-page memo and shared it around the office. In Hero, Campbell theorizes that archetypal hero stories from around the world all share similar fundamental elements.

Vogler knew Campbell’s teachings were invaluable to modern storytelling in animation and cinema, so he disseminated his memo to coworkers, scriptwriters, and producers in a much shorter, punchier, and less academic package.

By the decade’s end, the Vogler memo was all the rage in Hollywood, to the point where it was briefly plagiarized. Vogler eventually received proper credit for its creation and would later expand the short memo into The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structures for Writers.

Before we get Started

The Vogler memo isn’t a formula for perfect fiction. In fact, Vogler himself says that obsequiously following the hero’s journey can lead to stilted storytelling. Some of the principles below will occupy whole chapters in your novel. Others will fill a page or less. And others won’t appear at all.

With that in mind, let’s break down the stages of the Vogler memo to better understand how each step in the hero’s journey can strengthen your story:

The Vogler Memo: step by step

1. The Ordinary World

There is an ebb and flow to hero myths: the protagonist goes off to complete their quest and returns home changed, or the protagonist’s home is taken and they must reclaim it. We seek the extraordinary or it comes knocking on our door when we least expect it.

In order to demonstrate this change, a story must establish an Ordinary World for the purpose of comparison. It’s as much a question of worldbuilding as it is about your main character. A strong Ordinary World will not only introduce the protagonist and the setting; it introduces the character in a context that a reader can relate to on some basic human level.

Sure, you may not know what it’s like to be a work-a-day urchin farmer from the seventh moon of Tib Talah, or a teenager from 1970s Minnesota too distracted by books on cryptozoology to land a babysitting job. But if that urchin farmer’s urchins were withering no matter how hard they toiled to keep them alive, we can all relate to that futility. And the babysitter? Sounds to me like someone who struggles to square their interests with their responsibilities.

I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. How will you demonstrate your protagonist’s humanity in your opening?

2. The Call to Adventure

Also known as the Inciting Incident, the Call to Adventure is an event in your story that prompts your protagonist into action and eventually sets them off on their journey to achieve a goal. For a detective to solve a murder mystery, for example, someone has to die under mysterious circumstances.

What propels your protagonist into the story is not always solely external. A police detective must solve the murder before them; that’s their job. But what motivates them internally, good or bad?

Is this murder one of many, driving the community the detective swore to protect into fear, distrust, and chaos?
Does the murder parallel the death of someone close to the detective whom he couldn’t save from their fate?
Does the detective have a bad reputation or a traumatic incident they’re grappling with?

The Call to Adventure dovetails into the Refusal of the Call, the next stage of the hero’s journey, so let’s carry over the examples above for greater understanding of their value to your opening.

3. The Refusal of the Call

With your character’s humanity established and their call to adventure sounding loud and clear, it’s time for them to embark on their journey. Of course the detective will take the case eventually—or the knight will set out to slay the dragon, or the widower will start dating again, or whatever your genre demands—but the Refusal of the Call underscores the internal and external conflicts in the Call to Adventure, and establishes the consequences of not succeeding. These are the stakes.

Why and how might your protagonist temporarily reject the Call to Adventure or have the choice taken away from them?

A family member of the victim confronts a detective about connections between the murders, which the detective doesn’t agree with—at first.
Haunted by the death of a loved one, the detective asks the police chief to be taken off the case. But the chief knows they’re the person for the job.
A small-town sheriff, now in their sixties, is on the brink of retirement, so the case is going to fall on the shoulders of a promising young officer. But the sheriff demands to be part of the investigation, so they’ll have to work with the promising young officer, even though they have wildly different policing styles.

Challenges like these give your character a central conflict or threat, and makes for a compelling, high-stakes plot.

4. The Meeting with the Mentor

Before a hero sets off on their journey, or before they even know they’re going to set off, they may consult with a mentor. The Meeting with the Mentor pushes the protagonist on their quest or provides them with special insight about the road ahead.

Be careful about the role your mentor plays in the greater story. Typically, the assistance a mentor provides comes from experience; they’ve been on a similar journey before. You don’t want their story to overshadow your protaganist’s unless it’s an intentional storytelling decision.

Avoid, however, a mentor who does your protagonist’s job for them. As Vogler writes in the memo, “Eventually the hero must face the unknown by himself.” In many cases, a mentor who sticks around beyond the first act of a story is later killed off or revealed to be a villain, giving them a new veneer and recontextualizing their guidance.

5. Crossing the Threshold

Crossing the Threshold is the first, intractable step your protagonist takes into the wilderness.

It doesn’t have to be much—you don’t have to linger in the doorway between worlds. But Crossing the Threshold should demonstrate how, at first blush, the extraordinary world of the adventure is starkly different from the Ordinary World established in the opening: a Martian landscape vs. a suburban neighborhood or a misanthrope’s world suddenly filled with romantic opportunities.

And remember, like other stages in the hero’s journey, the thresholds crossed can be figurative. Many zombie apocalypse stories, for example, take place in hometowns. The setting hasn’t literally changed, but how the protagonist and others view and interact with the setting does. What was once the local high school is now a fortified base of operations.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies

Tests, Allies, and Enemies are the meat and potatoes of the second act. Here, your protagonist will undergo the trials as promised to your reader in the first act.

You can think of it in terms of genre expectations:

A protagonist in a romance novel pursues love or strives to maintain it.
A protagonist in a horror novel risks their life to confront the deadly unknown.
A protagonist in a mystery novel hunts for clues and narrows down suspects.
A protagonist in a heist novel puts together a team for the big score.

All the while, authors must pepper these genre expectations with conflict unique to their plot. How a protagonist faces the obstacles in their path is a direct result of the characterization established in the Ordinary World. A protagonist with nothing to lose will solve problems, acquire allies, and face enemies differently than a protagonist who has everything to lose.

7. Approaching the Innermost Cave

The structure of Approaching the Innermost Cave is a lot like that of Tests, Allies, and Enemies, except with a tighter focus on the protagonist’s ultimate goal. They are tangibly closer to achieving their heart’s desire, but immense obstacles still loom ahead of them, whether they know it or not.

The Innermost Cave can serve as a moment’s respite from the tribulations thus far, an opportunity for reconnaissance, or a heightening of the stakes. Think of the moments when Katniss returns to District 12 in The Hunger Games, or when Paul Sheldon sneaks around once Annie Wilkes finally leaves the house in Misery.

Whatever the case may be, use the Innermost Cave to remind the reader about your protagonist’s motivation, about the flaw that will prevent them (at first) from achieving their goal, and about the interpersonal relationships and conflicting motivations within the main cast.

If your knight is on a quest to slay the dragon in order to prove himself a worthy servant of their kingdom, the Innermost Cave might be the literal cave of the dragon’s lair. Do they place their helmet on the ground and pray for strength to face their fears? Do they survey the area to gather information? Even if your Innermost Cave is mostly an extension of Tests, Allies, and Enemies, what matters most is reinforcing your protagonist’s intangibles and showing the readers how close they are to their goal.

8. The Ordeal

By now, your story is deep into the second act, and it’s time for your protagonist to taste death, be it literal death or a spiritual death, as in the failure to achieve the core goal. It is the Black Moment, the Belly of the Whale, the Great Sacrifice.

Whatever the genre, the hero is brought low during the Ordeal. In a love story where the protagonist garners the attention of their love interest under false pretenses, this is the moment where the protagonist’s ruse is revealed right in front of their crush. In an action thriller, this is where the antagonist captures the hero, locks them away, and promises them a slow, painful death while their sinister plan comes to fruition.

Of course, scenes like these are all a setup; the protagonist will overcome the odds and ultimately achieve their goal. Death in the sense of the Ordeal is a precursor for rebirth. Your protagonist will “die” the flawed or incomplete person they were, but they will be reborn, transformed, ready to take on the antagonist anew and succeed.

9. Seizing the Reward

The treasure is within our grasp. Our hero has beaten death and now reaps the rewards for their sacrifice. They retrieve the Holy Grail. They defeat the villain. They learn the identity of the murderer. They prove themselves worthy.

Now having achieved their reward, the hero has undergone a transformation—either they changed in order to achieve their goal or the achievement of their goal changed them. Seizing the Sword can lead to the acquisition of magical powers, a new way of seeing the world, an epiphany about themselves or others.

10. The Road Back

Now that their goal is in their grasp, the hero sets a new goal, in many cases to return home or to set off on a new journey. What else is there?

Regardless, the antagonist, having been defeated, will rally in a last-ditch effort to thwart the hero, reclaim their power, or flee unpunished. As Vogler notes in the memo, Hollywood loves putting big-budget chase scenes in the Road Back.

The Road Back sets up one final confrontation in the following stage, a proving ground for the hero’s transformation. In many ways the Road Back therefore mirrors the establishing power of the Ordinary World and Call to Adventure stages.

11. Resurrection

And just like the Road Back is a miniature version of the Ordinary World and the Call to Adventure, the Resurrection is a miniature version of the Ordeal and Seizing the Reward.

Once again, the hero will face death and failure, but with the powers acquired earlier, they defeat the antagonistic forces once and for all. This is the climax of your story.

The goal is to demonstrate the change your hero has undergone at a crucial moment. It’s not enough to have them walk away with the sword, so to speak; they have to show that they are worthy enough to wield it. It’s not enough that the hero overcame their flaws when the chips were down during the Ordeal. This second opportunity in the Resurrection implies a more permanent change in character.

12. Return with the Elixir

The hero finally sets foot on familiar ground, returning from the unknown to the known. As explained in the previous stage, the hero has to bring back a piece of the extraordinary, otherwise the story was for naught.

Vogler adds that many comedies with foolish heroes don’t undergo a Return with the Elixir as stated, and thus the goofball protagonist leaves the audience feeling like they’re doomed to repeat the adventure all over again, having learned nothing.

Writing fiction with the hero’s journey

The hero’s journey outlined in Christopher Vogler’s memo, his book, or in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces are just storytelling principles, not unimpeachable rules. I’m hard pressed to name a novel without an Ordinary World or a Call to Adventure, but I can think of several without a Refusal of the Call or a Meeting with the Mentor.

And the hero archetype underpinning the narrative principles here do not align with all stories. We discussed, for example, how a comedy might have an inverted Return with the Elixir. A tragic hero might die during the Resurrection stage, though they may live on in spirit through the peripheral characters.

The point is, this timeless paradigm, found in stories across the globe, can strengthen the story you want to tell or help you fill in all the blanks you can feel but can’t name.

Tags Heroic fiction, Vogler Memo

Self Publishing Advice

7 Lessons to Make Your First Self-Published Book a Success

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date November 14, 2021
2 Comments on 7 Lessons to Make Your First Self-Published Book a Success

Self-publishing is the ideal choice for any author looking to have total control over their novel and its publication. When you walk the path of self-publishing, you can cut months, even years, off the time required to share your book with the world.

But while self-publishing is the fastest route to market, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before and after you launch your work. Without a traditional publisher, you’re pretty much on your own when it comes to finding an audience and marketing your book.

Self-published author Evan J. Corbin knows this firsthand. He recently self-published his debut novel, Atonement Camp for Unrepentant Homophobes, and worked diligently to promote his own book… with plenty of trial and error.

As his professional editing team, Evan kept us informed of what was and wasn’t working. He had so many valuable insights to share, we decided to interview him to share his wisdom with our audience.

About Evan J. Corbin

Evan currently practices law in Philadelphia, but he had always wanted to write a book. So when his first great idea came along, he leaned into it:

What would happen if a secret third testament of the Bible was discovered, one that exonerated LGBTQIA+ people of any religious guilt for their sexual orientation or gender identity?

Writing from the perspective of a closeted fire-and-brimstone preacher, Evan explores the social changes that would come about from this revelation—namely, the titular “atonement camps” for the reeducation of Christian ministers and priests. One reader described these camps as “Alcoholics Anonymous meets sensitivity training meets RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Where to find him

We were so impressed by the book and the hard work Evan put into marketing it that we knew we had to get him to talk about the whole experience. You can watch our whole interview below, or keep scrolling to read seven key takeaways from his journey.

Lesson 1: Focus on finding readers, not revenue

“Some authors assume finding readership and finding revenue are the same thing—they assume that each sale earned is a reader earned, and think no further about it.
“But if you’re a first-time author, you have to make peace with the idea that this is not going to make you rich.
“In fact, it’s probably not even going to pay for what you’ve invested.
“That’s why instead of chasing sales to earn readers, chase readers to earn sales. It’s a subtle change, but it makes a world of difference.”

Self-publishing is a highly competitive industry—something Evan learned quickly in his initial research: there are over a million new books published each year (though there are other claims that put this number much lower.)

It’s not easy out there for first-time authors. When you’re just starting out, you have no fan base, no credibility, and no experience in the field. Too many self-published authors fall into the trap of thinking that all they need to do is pay for advertising and the rest will somehow take care of itself.

Evan was one of those authors. But after conducting some market research, he discovered the reason ads and marketing and discounted prices yield so little fruit for self-published authors: readers just don’t want to spend time or money on an author they know nothing about, no matter how interesting the book seems.

Most people have been burned too many times before by the many unedited novels that find their way onto the major self-publishing platforms.

Rather than focusing on sales, self-published authors should instead prioritize building an audience of readers. There are a few ways to do this, but Evan’s found that the most daunting method of all to be most effective: he gave his book away for free.

For Evan, it seemed no matter how much he reduced the price of his novel, nobody was interested in buying it. It was only when he made it free that he found the audience he was searching for.

Writing a novel to get rich quick is the wrong motivation for entering this field—though, over time, as you build a body of work, you can expect to see some income. But when you start out, you should be writing because you’re passionate about your stories and want to share them with others. When this is the case, building a readership can be a very satisfying part of an author’s work.

What Evan learned through the publication of Atonement Camp is that building a fanbase is much more important than making a few isolated sales. Those who read and enjoyed his free book will be much more likely to pay money for his work in the future, and to recommend the book to their friends, family, or book club.

But how do you get those crucial first customers? Can you really spread word of your novel without blowing tons of money on advertising?

Of course you can.

Lesson 2: Don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled when it comes to marketing your work.

There’s more to building an audience than just handing out free samples. Before you can do that, you need to identify who you’re handing those samples to. One of the ways Evan did this was through social media marketing.

“Liam and I were talking about how I was going to market this book, and he suggested I should become active on a social media platform. He suggested Instagram, and I’m like, ‘Liam, ugh. I don’t even like using Instagram myself. Like, I don’t want to have to figure out how this works, and it’s a lot of time…’ but I decided to do it.”

And that decision paid off.

The best thing about using social media to promote your first novel is that it can be done absolutely free. There are many ways authors can use the platform to catch the attention of potential readers.

With Instagram, it’s easy to use a product like Canva to design some interesting visual posts that will attract the types of readers you want.

But you won’t be the only author using this method. To be successful on social media, you’ve got to stand out from the crowd.

“People on Instagram want to see content that makes them feel something. Whether it’s provocative, or thought-provoking, or shocking, or even just makes them smile for a bit… it’s got to be evocative.

“But sadly there’s a lot of uniformity in the way people promote their books on Instagram.

“Most book marketing is pretty… lazy. It’s always, ‘Here’s a photo of the book with some flowers behind it,’ or whatever. And that’s fine sometimes, but if you really want to stand out, you need something different. I wanted to stand out. So I spent a while figuring out how before I started advertising.

“In my book, at these atonement camps, they have pool boys. Beautiful, scantily-clad men going around like bellhops, performing tasks like mail delivery for the campers. I decided I wanted to bring these pool boys to life for my marketing. I found some friends who were willing to pose in that get-up and got some shots of them in front of my blown-up book cover and some other fun props.

“Even though those posts were clearly promoting the book, they were unique, and they were still relevant to the product. That meant Instagram users would be interested in it. Those who liked it would even follow me, and maybe go on to buy my book. I think that pool-boy campaign was a way for me to break through the noise a little bit and express myself through its promotion.”

This doesn’t just apply to self-publishing either: Most people advertise in ways that are so safe, they fall on the wrong side of boring and end up attracting no one’s attention.

People have gotten very good at tuning out ads that scream “NOTICE ME!” over the years. But leveraging organic, relevant, and unique content to market your product or art works incredibly well when building an audience.

Lesson 3: Leveraging existing audiences is the quickest way to grow.

When it comes to advertising your work, be careful what you pay for. For first-time authors, there are so many different ways to spend any budget you have to promote your book, and it can be virtually impossible to know which ones are legit and which ones are a waste of money—or worse, a downright scam.

“I’ve probably spent a couple of thousand dollars on every possible way that I could market the book and get it in front of people. Pay-per-click advertising on Amazon. BookBubs is a good one too.

I could name a dozen or more that I’ve invested in, and absolutely none of them materialized in any discernible sales.”

Without an audience to build on, these big and indiscriminate pay-to-play options often aren’t worth it for your first novel. But Evan did find that there were some advertising options out there that were more personalized, and therefore more successful at helping him find and build his audience.

“I found out there are companies that’ll organize Bookstagram (the book-focused side of Instagram) tours for your book. My book caters to an LGBTQ audience, so I found a Bookstagram advertising company that works in that niche and reached out to them.

I don’t remember exactly how much it was, but it wasn’t any more than $50, and relative to a lot of advertising options out there, that’s pretty affordable.

What this company does is reach out to their network of Instagram accounts—popular users who’d already reached out to them—and find individuals willing to adopt, promote, and share your book for a given period of time.”

An Instagram tour is one of the more novel ways to market a book. Using a service like Bookstagram, an author finds readers willing to read and review their book, or at the very least post about it on their public accounts. Over the period of a few weeks, their book will feature prominently on these readers’ accounts, showcasing their work to the accounts’ audiences. However, as with most methods of book marketing, this won’t be effective by itself.

“And that got me no sales. I thought it would (it didn’t), but this is a two-step process.

“Once someone would like a post, what I would do is I would go and I would follow that individual. And then a pretty substantial number of the people I would follow, who already engaged with my work by clicking the like button, would follow me back.

“And that’s the start of a relationship. They’ve already been introduced to my work. They’ve already manifested their interest in it by clicking the like button. And then when I reach out to them with a solicitation, a fair number of them would either buy a book or we would engage in dialogue.

“It’s one thing to see a book on the shelf. It’s another to have a direct phone line through Instagram and direct messaging to the person who wrote it. “That makes it more personal. And I think that personal connection is what you need to build that authenticity.”

Of course, Evan didn’t do all this himself.

“My time is valuable. No one wants to be hunched over their phone following Instagram users all day… so I used a program called Inflact instead. It’s a cheap subscription-based service that does quite a lot of stuff, but I only use it for one purpose: every time someone followed my account, I had Inflact send them an automated welcome message on my behalf.”

Over time, Evan saw results from this form of (paid) Instagram marketing on top of what he was doing organically. As people replied to his welcome message, and he developed a relationship with them, they’d sometimes go on to become readers.

Lesson 4: The quality of your manuscript matters… a lot.

There’s a persistent stigma that self-published books are of a lower standard than traditionally published books. And honestly, there is some truth to that. Many self-published works don’t go through the rigorous “quality assurance” books taken by full-scale publishing houses do. As a result, there are plenty of error-ridden, poorly developed novels out there that make it harder to overcome the trust barriers between you and your audience.

That’s why the only way to succeed as a self-published author is to apply the same strict standards of quality to your own work that traditionally published novels are subject to.

And that means editing.

When you type The End on your novel, don’t let your first instinct be to research publishing platforms. Finishing your first draft should be seen as just that—finishing a first draft. There’s more involved in the process of finishing your book.

“There are certain things that I did that I’m absolutely going to do again. Developmental editing, line editing, proofreading (essential), good cover design. The benefit is I don’t have to search the world now for these professionals to assist me with those things, because I’ve used them before. I’ve worked with them.
“I trust them. So it’s going to be easier and faster for me to go through that process.”

Evan worked with the team of book editors at Invisible Ink Editing to polish his novel draft and help him successfully launch his first self-published book.

Lesson 5: Find real beta readers to give you feedback.

Beta readers are market testers for your novel. Typically, beta readers aren’t professional editors or marketers themselves. They’re laypeople, average members of your desired audience who can offer feedback and critique from the consumer’s perspective.

Making good use of beta readers is an essential part of the editing process. The order of operations we recommend is to finish a first draft, self-edit that draft at least once (if not more!) and then do a manuscript evaluation, which is sort of like a review of your outline. Only after all this is done should you think about beta reading.

Evan has some insight on how he went about it himself.

“One of the first platforms I discovered in my research is BetaReader.io. It costs a couple of dollars a month, but it’s well worth the money.

“BetaReader.io is populated by individuals who’ve volunteered to beta read for writers. Once you sign up as an author, you can reach out to them and let them know a little bit about your work to see if they’re interested in reading it.

“If they are, they read it through Betareader.io’s own platform, which lets them react in real time to your story. If they like a line, they can highlight it, respond with an emoji—thumbs up, heart, cry, laughter—or they can leave a comment. And at the bottom of every chapter, Betareader.io leaves a space for readers to give a mini review of each segment, telling the author what they liked or didn’t like about it, what they’re hoping to see next, etc.

“So once you’ve got a few beta readers, you can look at the document and see their collective comments and all the things they like, even the patterns of what works and what doesn’t. You can tell right away that, “Wow. You know, once people get to chapter seven, that’s when they’re all going to freak out, because there’s this big plot twist.” And sure enough, you see the evidence of that.

“And then after a while (and I noticed this later again when a lot more people read the book), the things that work and don’t work become much more obvious. You know instinctively what readers are probably going to like, because you’ve had seventy other people telling you the parts they enjoyed, many of which are the same parts!

It was so good because it gave me the confidence to know, ‘Hey, this isn’t a dumpster fire. People actually like this, even in its raw, unedited format’.

“So that gave me the confidence to reach out to an editor after that and say, ‘This is worth my investment for us to collaborate and turn my manuscript into a polished diamond rather than just an unpolished stone.’”

Lesson 6: Embrace the process.

Writing is a skill like any other—it takes time to develop your style, and it may be a while before you’re recognized for your skill.

For every breakout success you have—think Joseph Heller and his bestselling debut, Catch 22—you’ve got a Brandon Sanderson, whose eleventh book is the one that eventually got him an agent. We’ve all got different journeys as creatives, and for some of us, our roads will be riddled with potholes and roadblocks. There’s nothing you can do to get past them besides what you should be doing anyway: writing, working, and growing as a creative.

That said, you shouldn’t view your “roadblocks” as obstacles so much as steps on a ladder. Every mistake you make is another important lesson. Assuming you’ve got the courage to take ownership of them, there’s something to be learned from every one of your beautiful screw-ups. Evan has firsthand knowledge of this fact.

“I think I had to make a lot of mistakes and go down a lot of dead-end roads just to prove to myself that, yeah, these are actually dead-end roads. Because you don’t know! Like, what’s going to happen if this ad gets 10,000 impressions on a website, surely that will work!

“Oh no, it didn’t.

“Maybe someone else would have had a different experience. For me, it didn’t work. But I needed to make those mistakes in order to know for sure that they were wrong for me. Even though there were wise voices at the time telling me that’s exactly what was going to happen.”

Mistakes are an opportunity for growth if you allow them to be. They’re a product of your actions, not a consequence of a universe that’s out to get you. Channelling their power will take your writing, your work, and your life to the next level.

Every mistake you make brings with it the opportunity to avoid making it again in the future. In Evan’s words:

“I think the benefit is… I’m not going to make the same mistakes. I’m going to make different ones!”

Lesson 7: Stay positive

In this article, we’ve talked a lot about the difficulties of self-publishing. First novels don’t typically see massive sales, advertising takes a ton of personal effort, most paid advertising doesn’t produce results, brutally honest feedback is the only way to get your book up to snuff… it’s a lot. Especially if you’ve waltzed into this expecting an easier ride than traditional publishing.

But that’s no reason to get disheartened. Just as writing, editing, and even beta reading are iterative processes—with multiple drafts, multiple readings, multiple chances to better yourself and your work—your journey as a creative is iterative too.

In the end, the writers who quit before success are the only ones guaranteed not to make it.

If F. Scott Fitzgerald had packed it in when his agent hated the first draft of his novel, we’d have never gotten The Great Gatsby.

For most of us, it takes time and effort to succeed—so don’t beat yourself up just because your journey’s taking longer than you’d like. Appreciate it for what it gives you. Learn to love the potholes; they’re the only way to find out how good your tires are.

Tags self-publishing

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

Joanna Homer, author of the Encounter series, gives inspiration and advice for writers

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date February 6, 2018
No Comments on Joanna Homer, author of the Encounter series, gives inspiration and advice for writers

Joanna Homer, author of the sci-fi romance Encounter series, lives in London with her husband, her five-year-old son, and her basset hound. In addition to writing, she works in human resources for the NHS.

Since Joanna was young, she’s loved losing herself in the magic of stories, and any free time she has (which isn’t much!) is spent curled up with a book or at the movies.

We interviewed Joanna to learn more about her inspiration, her process, and what she has planned for the future of her series.

Tell us how you conceived of the Encounter series. Have you always been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrials?

The idea of aliens has always interested me, and movies like Independence Day and shows like Roswell are among my past favourites.

The Encounter Series, however, was originally an idea about a guardian angel begrudgingly tasked with protecting a teenage girl. The bank raid scene with Dray came first, and once the time-freeze happened, the story moved to sci-fi and aliens pretty quickly.

Do you think aliens have been to Earth?

My son has been learning about planets and the solar system at the moment and the sheer enormity and vastness of the universe really is mind-blowing. Whenever I find myself being cynical, I remind myself of how small we are. Why shouldn’t there be more intelligent beings out there who have visited us?

You’ve done a lot of world-building in your books. How do you keep track of all of the different types of aliens, cultures, and histories in your novels?

I’ve created a series bible to keep track of all the history, alien races, locations, and characters. It has been really useful so far and saved me a lot of time. When I finish the series, I may add in some extra/deleted scenes, maybe some character artwork, maps, et cetera, and give all that to my readers.

I also created a glossary for my website, a quick and easy way to remember the names of Aethian words and what they mean.

Your books are a blend of romance and sci-fi. How do you think those two genres work together?

Personally, I enjoy a little bit of romance with all my genres. In my eyes you can’t beat two characters with amazing chemistry. Having relationships face challenges and obstacles makes it all the more exciting.

And if those obstacles happen to be of an otherworldly nature, then the possibilities are limitless.

Tell us about your book editing process.

Once I have completed my first draft I don’t look at it again for a while. My aim is to wait a couple of weeks, but I usually crack before that. I read though the draft and, aside from making some notes here and there, I just read to give myself an idea of how well it flows. Next, I go through and make my corrections and edits until I feel it is in good shape.

Sometimes my manuscript goes through a few beta readers, depending on timescales. Then I hand it over to my book editor at Invisible Ink for a developmental edit to look at the pace, tone, characters, and so on. I always book an editing bundle, which includes a developmental edit, a line edit, and a final novel proofread, as the improvement to the quality of my novels is invaluable. Plus, I learn a bit more from the feedback every time.

Your latest novel in the Encounter series, Alliance, is vastly different from the first two novels in the series. Without giving anything away, it’s fair to say that you took the world you built and turned it upside down. What was that experience like? Was it difficult to do that to Eliza and her world?

I intended for things to go that way right from day one, and I was looking forward to doing it. Yet I was surprised to find that, when it came down to it, wreaking havoc in the world I had created was more difficult than I had imagined. Having your characters operate on such a high level of fear and anxiety without losing impact is hard to maintain, too. But as a reader I think I would enjoy going on the adventure with Eliza.

Any hints at what’s up next in the Encounter series?

Well, the title of the next book is Aether, and, considering how Alliance ended, I expect you can imagine where things are headed, but I probably shouldn’t give away anything else. One thing I can say, though, is that Eliza finally comes face to face with Queen Aylaiana, which will certainly be interesting!

Are you working on anything else at the moment, outside of the next installment in the Encounter series?

Yes. Alongside Aether, I have started writing Dark Fire, a new Urban Fantasy series. It begins when a girl teams up with a couple of demon-hunting brothers in search of the monster who murdered her family. Initially it will be a trilogy, but I have a whole range of books/spin-offs planned in the same world. So far it has been strange yet fun to write different characters and create a different world.

What advice would you have for other writers getting started? What do you wish you had known when you were in the early stages?

Thinking back, the main piece of advice I would give myself is something I still tell myself all the time:

Just write.

I am constantly looking into the latest software that helps writers, or reading up on social media fads, or things I can add to my website.

While this can be helpful, at the end of the day you need content. If a reader enjoys your book they will want to read more from you. You need words on the page, which means you need to set aside time to sit down and write.

It can feel overwhelming at the beginning of a novel, but even if you only do a little bit each day, it all adds up.

You can read Joanna Homer’s Encounter series and learn more about the author by visiting her homepage: www.joannahomer.com. Connect with Joanna on social media via Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Tags author interview, Joanna Homer

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

How to edit your own novel

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date January 11, 2018
No Comments on How to edit your own novel

A guide to self-editing a manuscript

When a new author submits their manuscript to us, one of the first questions we ask is, “Has this manuscript been edited before?” It may seem like a funny question coming from a group of book editors—after all, isn’t our job to take an unedited manuscript and clean it up?

Not exactly. In fact, we turn down a significant portion of manuscripts that have never been edited before. This isn’t because we don’t think new novelists have potential; rather, we know that even the best authors have to revise their own work before submitting it to a professional book editor.

RELATED: An author’s guide to the editing process

The self-editing process is just as important as the editing process you go through with your Invisible Ink editor. Submitting your novel before you have given it several self-revisions will waste both your time and your money. Instead, you should aim to make the novel as good as it can be on your own, then seek a professional second opinion.

Below are our top tips for editing your novel on your own.

Already done editing? Submit your manuscript for editing here.

When to begin self-editing

When in the process should you begin self-editing? The answer is different for every author. Some authors prefer to do long bouts of writing before rereading any of the work. Others have a more methodical approach, stopping to read each page or chapter after it’s complete.

Whichever style you prefer, self-editing slots into every step along the the editing process. You should self-edit your work before it goes to beta readers, and then again after you make changes based on their feedback. Another round of self-editing should happen between the beta reader stage and submitting your novel. From there, any time you write something new or make substantial changes to your manuscript, you’ll need to self-edit your work as it moves toward the final stage of novel proofreading.

Read your novel as you go

You may have heard stories of authors who do their writing blindfolded—literally—to stop themselves from reading (and subsequently cringing and deleting) their own writing. This may seem like a romantic idea, but reading your own work as you go is vital for several reasons. (We do recommend, however, going easy on your delete key when you’re self-editing if you find yourself deleting large passages.)

Rereading what you wrote recently helps you maintain continuity throughout your novel. It’s easy to forget small details, like what a character was wearing at the beginning of a scene, if you take breaks between writing sessions. Best practice is to at least reread the last few pages before you begin writing a new section of your novel.

You may also find that rereading small portions of your novel is a great way to help you overcome writer’s block. Not sure where to take the novel next? Go back and read a few chapters—ones you haven’t worked on in a while, or the last one you wrote. You’d be surprised how your own words can lead you in new directions if you’ve allowed them to “cool off.”

Finally, rereading as you write may help you pick up on some of your own writing quirks—phrases, punctuation marks, or words that may be too common in your prose. Eliminating these issues before you submit to your book editor will allow him or her to focus more on the meat of your book and less on correcting small issues.

Perform a final read-through

Editing while you go is important, but when you’ve finally written the last few words, it’s important to do a final read-through of your novel from start to finish. We’ll be honest: this can be a very painful process, not unlike hearing your own voice on a recording. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s a vital step when it comes to editing your own manuscript.

Reading the novel from start to finish will allow you to pick up on the smaller issues we mentioned above (like repetitive phrasing), but also on larger issues that may be plaguing your manuscript, such as undeveloped scenes, plot holes, or missing information.

Read your words out loud

It may feel silly, but reading your words out loud is one of the best ways to catch mistakes that you missed your own rereads.

When you read words out loud (even if you do it in a whisper), you’re less likely to skip over those errors, because you’ll stumble over your own words as you’re reading. It may be too much to reread the entire novel out loud, but doing so for at least the parts of the novel that you spent the most time on can make major improvements to the quality of your manuscript.

Perform a search for common writing mistakes

When you’ve read and reread your own words and can no longer bear to look at the page, it’s time to perform a search for common errors. The search function on Microsoft Word is an author’s best friend, so don’t be afraid to run a full search for issues like these:

Double spaces. Industry standard is a single space after a full stop, so running a search to eliminate errant double spaces is a wise self-editing tip.

Numerals. Do a search for the numerals 1 – 10 (we mean the actual numerals, not the written-out words like “one.”) There are many rules about numbers, so if you’re unsure, check your Chicago Manual of Style or ask your book editor for advice. (If you don’t have a book editor yet, give us a shout.)

Capitalization. The find-and-replace function on Word allows you to search specifically for words that are capitalized or uncapitalized. (Look for the box that reads “Match case.”) If you have a word that you know should either always be capped or always be uncapped, use this function to find any that you may have missed.

Your own common mistakes. Every writer has common typos. If you know you commonly misspell a word, such as using the wrong form of “compliment” vs. “complement,” then run a search for all variations you can think of to clear them up.

Online editing tools for writers

You’ve probably already run spell-check through Word a number of times on your manuscript. If you haven’t, that should be top priority! Unfortunately, Word’s grammar and spell-checker is far from perfect, and so using a few different tools can help make a big difference.

Before we get too deep in our recommendations of software to use, one caveat to note: none of these tools are foolproof or able to work on their own. There is no “set it and forget it” tool for checking grammar and spelling; for all of these tools, you must be an active part of the process. These tools will make recommendations to you, but you must be the final judge on whether you want to make the suggested changes.

Grammarly

Let’s start with what is arguably the most common online editing program out there: Grammarly. While the software still has its flaws, its grammar and spell-checker is far better than the one built into Word. It will likely find errors and mistakes Word missed, and if you sign up for an account, it will start to learn your most common mistakes and even provide you with stats on your writing.

Grammarly integrates with Word, but it can also be installed into your browser. This makes it not only useful for editing your manuscript but also any email or social media marketing you may be doing to promote your book and connect with fans.

Hemingway App

The Hemingway App is less focused on strictly grammar and more on things like sentence structure, passive voice, and repetition (issues your book editor would address during the line editing stage.) The free online app allows you to cut and paste in your own text, or you can pay a flat $20.00USD fee for the desktop app if you find you like it.

Our recommendation is to use the Hemingway App on passages that don’t feel quite right to you—perhaps they are too clunky, or too long, or have been called out by your beta readers or book editors as problematic.

Autocrit

This is one online editing tool that was designed specifically for fiction writers. Autocrit gives you a full report on a number of factors involving your writing, from repetitive vocabulary to sentence variation and even to volume of unnecessary filter words. It also gives handy recommendations on how to adjust the issues it calls out.

You can get a free report on a section of your manuscript, or upload the full document to get an overview on your first draft. However, the free report generated is only an overview—to get the full rundown, you would need to buy a subscription. Still, the overview is a great way to identify areas where you can improve your writing.

Slick Write

Unlike AutoCrit, Slick Write isn’t just for fiction writers, but it’s still a very useful tool with an intuitive and simple interface. Many of its features are similar to those mentioned above—you of course have a grammar checker, can run vocabulary checks, and get detailed, personalised statistics on your own writing.

The text reader is free—you simply need to copy paste your text to get information. On top of that, you’ll see some fun tools that help combat writer’s block and expand your vocabulary prowess.

One thing to note—Slick Write is made with students in mind, so some of the information is more applicable to academic writing than fiction writing, but it’s still a great tool.

What to do after you’ve finished self-editing

It can be tricky to know when the self-editing stage is over. Many writers feel like they could self-edit forever. While it’s a good idea to adjust your manuscript continually over a long period of time, there must be a moment when you decide you’ve done everything you can and are ready to move on to the next step of either submitting to your beta readers or your professional book editor.

If you find yourself feeling burnt out, or you are starting to feel discouraged and like you want to delete major sections of your novel, then it’s probably time to step away from your computer and leave your manuscript in the hands of someone else (namely, your editor).

Be sure to make a list of the issues you think are outstanding with your manuscript—writing out these kinds of insights will not only be cathartic but also will help your editor know what particular issues you’d like them to focus on.

If you’ve recently finished self-editing your manuscript, we’d love to hear from you. Just submit your novel manuscript, and one of our editors will be in touch.

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

Bradley West, author of the thrilling Lies series, talks process and inspiration

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date September 19, 2017
No Comments on Bradley West, author of the thrilling Lies series, talks process and inspiration

Bradley West is an American expatriate who has worked and lived in Asia since 1983. His website, www.bradleywest.net, hosts the True Lies blog, which showcases conspiracies and mysteries featured in his fiction, plus deleted scenes, and book reviews. He also has an author webpage on Facebook at Facebook Bradley West.

West is the author of Sea of Lies (2016) and Pack of Lies, which comes out on October 11th (though you can pre-order now). The culmination of the Lies trilogy, End of Lies, is scheduled for release at the end of 2018.

He lives in Singapore, where he writes, exercises, and drinks red wine on a daily basis.

Your book series centers around a real event: the disappearance of Malaysia Airways flight 370. How did this event inspire you to write this series?

Remember the scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone was hiding in Sicily and saw Apolonia, the village beauty, for the first time? One of Michael’s bodyguards observes to his companion that the boss just got hit by the thunderbolt. That was what happened to me on March 8, 2014—the day MH370 disappeared. Three and a half years later, I’m two books deep into MH370, with many, many other conspiracies addressed as well. The tragic irony is that the actual plane hasn’t been found in all that time. So now I’ll still be able to use MH370 as a subplot of the third book in the Lies series.

What interests you about this genre of novels—conspiracy thrillers?

Shortly after I moved to Asia, I shared a flat with a newly single businessman, and a year later a regional newspaper named him as a senior CIA operative. “What was appearance versus reality?” became one of the core questions of my life.

In business, you’re always trying to infer or deduce the truth from imperfect information. Over the years, I collected stories about weird goings-on, mostly in Asia. Who knew that the secret war in Laos in the early 1970s saw the US drop more tonnage of bombs than in all of WWII in Europe? More recently, we have had regional prime ministers with unexplained billion-dollar bank balances, Osama bin Laden hid in plain sight for six years a kilometer away from the front gates of Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, and there’s still what I would consider a multi-government-led cover up in respect of MH370’s fatal descent. Since the 1980s, I’d had all these unanswered questions bottled up, so when I shifted to writing as a career the first order of business was to research them. If I found a novel suggested by the material, then that would be the natural next step.

Talk us through the process from conceptualization through to edits.

I’m new to writing novels, and as a result my process is also in flux. I started Sea of Lies with a twenty-eight page book outline. That took at least two months after I’d spent three or four months researching the real-world conspiracies featured in the True Lies blog. Outlining proved to be an enormous time-sink, but I’d always outlined before writing a business report, so that’s how I approached the first novel.

Soon enough, I realized that Steve King was right: the characters begin to take on lives of their own. Somewhere early on, maybe chapter four or five, Bob Nolan and his cohorts weren’t sticking with the script. What I’d thought they were supposed to do no longer rang true. Characters that were supposed to end up allied to Nolan ended up enemies, and vice versa. Eventually I threw away the outline and moved to a chapter-by-chapter, modified “panster” approach. The majority of Sea of Lies and all of Pack of Lies ended up written on a Lego-block basis.

I have a quote from a thriller writer written on a sticky on the bulletin board next to my desk. It reads, “Determine what is the worst thing that can befall your protagonist, and then make it happen.” Words to write by!

Pack of Lies was written faster with less waste than Sea of Lies. I’m still using Lego blocks, but abandoned large-scale outlining for an accretive process called the Snowflake method that places more emphasis on characters and slightly less on story.

Bob Nolan is far from the typical action hero. What prompted you to create someone like him?

I created Nolan to be a pure anti-action hero. Modern bookshelves are full of Jason Bournes, Jack Reachers, John Rains and other hyper-capable secret agents. I wanted to write about a younger analog of George Smiley with maybe a little Walter Mitty thrown in. Ordinary readers can pick up my books and say, “That could be me in that impossible situation!” instead of, “I wonder how many years you have to study to achieve a 7^th degree black belt in karate?”

Nolan also has a strong moral compass. He’s not a goody-goody—in fact, he’s a lawbreaker when it suits him—but he tries to do the right thing (at least in matters other than adultery). He shares my deep cynicism in respect of the competence of many arms of the US intelligence community, but never gives up. Being a physically weak man, his survival in these harrowing circumstances is due to a combination of high intelligence and strong support from people who are more adept in martial matters.

As time progresses, Nolan grows in self-confidence and competence. By the time we get to the end of Pack of Lies, Nolan is out of his shell and no longer the introvert we met in Sea of Lies. Nevertheless, you won’t see Bob fighting anyone hand-to-hand or taking sniper shots from a mile away in End of Lies.

What can we expect from Pack of Lies, out on October 11th?

Pack of Lies starts off just weeks after Sea of Lies concluded with a happy ending. The first few chapters take everything good away from Nolan. In short order the action shifts from Singapore to Pakistan before winding up in Sri Lanka. Four threads interweave, led by MH370 and then a corrupt Malaysia prime minister, Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, and Osama bin Laden’s lost years.

**You’ve also got a third book in the trilogy scheduled, End of Lies. How about a sneak preview?**

I’ve got an entire magazine holder full of plastic folders with typed up scenes, handwritten pages for plot lines and ideas scribbled on beer mats. It’s still very much up in the air. We know that Bob Nolan will remain the focus, the action shifts largely to the US, and in addition to finally tying up MH370 we’re going to address the recent history of the Deep State in the US, going back to the 1960s and the Secret Team, and then the more recent incarnations. Nolan’s children are back in the picture, as are his nemeses Chumakov from Russia and Yu Kaili from China. I think you’ll like it, but I won’t know how it ends until April next year.

Any closing advice for fellow novelists?

My best advice is to write about topics you feel passionate about, and then try hard to discover a readership with similar tastes. As is always the case with building a brand, most of the work is done by word of mouth, which always takes time. You need to be in this for the long haul and resist the temptation to buy into the “instant success” hype.

Tags author interview, bradley west

Resources for Authors Self Publishing Advice

Publishing tips for indie authors: Setting a book launch date A guide to launching your novel

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date May 25, 2017
2 Comments on Publishing tips for indie authors: Setting a book launch date A guide to launching your novel

We asked indie author and publisher Nelson Suit to answer a question we often see from our authors. Nelson is editor of the e-journal Inkspokes.com, which showcases authors, illustrators, and other creatives working in the world of independent children’s publishing.

Q.: How do I choose a release date for my novel? Setting dates often increases stress for me, and I am afraid I’ll miss my own deadlines. Any tips?

A.: Since you are choosing the release date for your novel, I’ll assume you’ve decided to independently publish your book. Congratulations, by the way, for not only taking on the task of writing but also the challenge of publishing. For us as indie publishers, choosing a book launch date is a really exciting part of the publishing process. It’s the first bit of planning for the coming-out party for your book! It’s important to understand though that you’ve now taken on two roles. Even as your novel writing comes to an end, thinking about the release date (your ever-exciting book launch) means your publishing role has now come to the fore.

There are a couple things that might be said about setting book launch dates. First, when setting such a date, it makes sense to think like a traditional publisher. But, second, as an indie, you should also not be afraid to think like yourself. Here’s what I mean. There are many resources both online and otherwise on setting a timeline for a book launch that looks at what large publishers do. One of the first considerations might be whether you want to have your book launch tied in to a particular window or season within the retail calendar. For example, a lot of books are sold in November and December during the year-end holidays. So a book might have to be released by Halloween so that there is buzz leading into this busy buying season. Or some books might tie in to summer beach reading, or a self-help book might tie in to January sales as readers attend to their New Year resolutions. Consulting editor Alan Rinzler has a terrific post on his blog about seasonal tie-ins for book launches. Another important consideration traditional publishers look at is really just time—how much time do you need to have your novel ready for launch? And this timeline encompasses more than just having a book printed. If you wanted to do all the recommended items (as a publisher might), you might have a timeline that might run eight to twelve months from the time you substantially finish your manuscript. Why such a long lead time? There’s a long list of tasks to consider, but to name a few:

Beta reading
Novel editing
Book cover design
Illustrations (if you will have any)
Book design and layout
Proofreading
Connecting with your super-fans who may be able to spread the word about your new book
Preparing marketing materials (including your back-cover blurb)
Developing and executing a social media plan for the release
Identifying early reviewers and people who might endorse your book with a quote
Contacting local media sources to publicize your book release

The list goes on, and Joel Friedlander has a helpful checklist to look through as you think about how much time you will actually need. It is, of course, easy to be overwhelmed as you look at the checklist, but don’t be. That’s where my second thought on the topic comes in. This is your book. You are also the publisher, and so, while you consider all the things you might do, you decide how much time you need and which tasks you will do without. You can add in creative alternatives to what others have done that work better with your temperament. You decide what tie-ins you would like based on what you know about your book and your own schedule. The good thing about being indie is that you can be you as you go about this process. Truth to tell, we’ve done what many indie authors and publishers do, which is to hurry the process and skip more book launch tasks than we should—which, of course, we end up regretting. Books, like babies, are only born once (well, at least first edition books!), and you realize later what a unique opportunity a book launch really is to generate exposure for your new creation. Tailor the timeline to what is comfortable for you. Make it your own. Make it fun. Create special days in it for silliness and time off. That in turn might help with the stress. It’s not an easy process. Both writing and publishing take dedication and a lot of time, but you can also make it your own. In addition to editing Inkspokes.com, Nelson manages Inkspokes Media, an independent publisher, and is on the board of directors of the Independent Publishers of New England. Nelson Suit has written his own middle grade children’s book series and has spent many days and nights thinking about books, book making, and publishing. He loves handmade books and is ever curious about what other indie authors and publishers are doing (because they are mostly fun, creative, and more often than not, crazy passionate about what they do). You can connect with Nelson Suit on Facebook and Twitter (@inkspokes).

Tags book editing, book publishing, novel editing, novel publishing, publishing

Writing Advice

How to come up with character names

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date November 12, 2016
No Comments on How to come up with character names

Struggling to come up with a name better than “John Smith”? Here are a few strategies you can use to create interesting, memorable, and believable names for your characters.

Hannibal Lecter. Veruca Salt. Atticus Finch. Katniss Everdeen.

Simply reading the names above can summon vastly different emotions—anything from terror to admiration. The names are memorable not just because of whom they represent. These are successful character names because their sounds, shapes, and root meanings support the lives and environments of the characters and their stories.

The names of your main characters will be among the most common words to appear in your novel, so it’s important to get them right. Fortunately, there are a few tried and true ways to choose the perfect name.

Each author will have their own method for picking names, but if you’re ever feeling a bit lost on what to call your characters, try out these suggestions:

Get a baby name book

Many years ago, at a garage sale, I stumbled upon a tattered copy of The Baby Name Survey Book by Bruce Lansky. It’s since become an essential tool in my writing toolbox.

This book not only lists out more first names than you could ever hope to imagine—it also tells you what people think of that name based on survey data. To top it off, it lists the meaning of each name in its root language, as well as any celebrities who share that name. (Fair warning: It was published in 1998 and desperately needs an update, but it’s still useful.)

We all have our own associations with names, thanks to our personal relationships and experiences, but being able to see the patterns that names evoke is truly valuable. If you aren’t as interested in survey results, then I still highly recommend having a baby name book on hand simply because they list out so many names that may not be on your radar.

Of course, there are also websites with endless lists of baby names available. But sometimes opening a random page of a book is the best way to start.

Google it

Any character name you are considering must go through a Google search to make sure it’s not associated with anything or anyone unintended. Use quotation marks around the name to ensure that Google searches for the exact name, and be sure to try searching for some variants just in case.

Of course, most common names will probably have some matches. You may find, however, that your character shares a name with a public figure—like a politician or serial killer—that you weren’t aware of and don’t want associated with your novel.

Interrogate the name

Once you have a name or two you’re considering, try answering and experimenting with the following questions:

What are the character’s initials?
What nicknames would this character’s loved ones use?
What nicknames would this character’s enemies use?
Would the character like this name? (Note: They don’t have to!)
How would this character introduce themselves?
How would the character answer the question, “Why are you named ________?”
Is this character named after anyone?
Say the name aloud in all its variations. How does it sound?

By the time you finish this exercise, you will hopefully have a better understanding of the name itself, and know whether or not it’s right for your character.

Compare and contrast

Unless this is the first name you’re choosing for your book, the next step is to compare the name to other character names in your novel.

The best way to go about this is to write out each of your characters’ names in a list. Pay extra attention to the first letter in the names—if possible, your main characters’ names should all start with a different letter.

Of course, there are circumstances that call for similar names—telepathic identical twins, for instance—but overall, the more unique your characters names are from one another, the easier it will be on your reader.

For example, if you have a main character named Tyler and you want to add a new character named Taylor, you are almost guaranteed to confuse some readers, even if these two characters have starkly different personalities and behaviors.

How to choose a character’s last name

Coming up with a first name is one thing, but a last name can be a bit trickier. Thinking of something off the top of your head can result in awkward, unrealistic, and/or utterly boring results.

A good way to start is to consider your character’s ethnic, racial, religious, and demographic backgrounds. Unlike first names, which are typically chosen, a last name usually has a long history. Even if you don’t plan to reveal your character’s family background in any great detail, as the author, you should still have a full understanding of whether your character’s ancestors were Greek or Peruvian, or born on a distant planet in an alternate dimension.

Once you have that figured out, dig up a list of common last names that fit your character’s background. This is, once again, a great opportunity to use trusty Google—searches like “common Jewish last names” is more than likely to bring you solid results. (Just be sure to check out a few sites to make sure you’re seeing similar results.)

Of course, a common last name isn’t always what you want, so don’t be afraid to stray from the norm. But if you start out by finding a common last name and then playing with variations on that name, you’re much more likely to end up with a result that is believable and doesn’t catch your reader off guard.

Don’t latch on to it

After you’ve assigned a character name that feels right, it’s easy to become infatuated with the name. In an ideal world, your beta readers will always agree with you, but in some cases, you may find that you’re getting negative feedback around a particular name.

With any feedback, it’s important to weigh it carefully and with an open mind, particularly if you have several readers who all tell you the name doesn’t work. In such cases, it may be best to go back to the drawing board and try something different.

Ask your editor

If you’re still feeling conflicted when it comes time for a professional edit or critique, let your editor know when you submit your manuscript. It’s always useful for us to hear about the feedback you’ve already gotten, and any areas of the novel you’re concerned about.

How do you choose your character names? Any tips or tricks we missed?

—Liam Carnahan, Founder and Chief Editor

Tags authors, character names, choose a character name, name a character, naming your character, self-publishing, writing, writing a novel

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

5 useless fears all writers should dismiss

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date February 23, 2015

Foggy dark woods with trees surrounding a path and blog title

If the pen is mightier than the sword, it stands to reason writers can be more courageous than knights. However, there isn’t a writer alive (or dead, for that matter) who hasn’t felt some fear when working on and publishing a novel.

Some fears can help you closely examine your work and improve your quality, while others are completely useless. Here are five common fears among writers, and the reasons you should try to get over them as soon as possible:

1. No one is ever going to read this

This may be the most common fear among authors, and it’s also the most challenging to overcome. Many famous authors were convinced they would never make it big–and they had the evidence to prove it! Gone with the Wind was rejected thirty-eight times, and that’s just one example.

Of course you want people to read your novel, and while there’s no guarantee it will sell, the self-publishing industry, coupled with social media, makes it easier than ever to find your audience. But if you’re only writing so others will read your work, you’re short-circuiting the process. Write because it feels good. Write to express yourself. If you do that well, the readers will follow.

2. I don’t know how to [fill in the blank]

What’s your writing weak point? Maybe you struggle with dialogue, or you just can’t seem to really capture the description of your setting. All writers have strengths and weaknesses, which is part of what makes it so exciting to read different authors.

If you are convinced that you fundamentally don’t know how to do something writing-related, however, you are lying to yourself. Like any skill, writing is honed through practice. If there’s something you’re not good at, then find a way to focus on it. Join a workshop, ask your editor for advice, or just give yourself a writing prompt centered on your weakness. Saying you simply can’t do it is a lazy excuse!

3. My novel doesn’t have any depth

There are two ways to overcome this fear, which is something many authors worry about. First, consider whether depth is really what you’re going for. If every book were as full of meaning as The Grapes of Wrath, then the world would be a much drearier place. Some genres, like romance, erotica, or action, are more about having fun than making astute observations or questioning the meaning of life.

But if you are aiming for depth, consider this: The only way to truly know if your novel has depth is to show it to others. Your beta readers, editors, or peers will be able to give you feedback that will indicate whether you’ve gotten your message across. If they don’t interpret what you intended, then you have two options: Find peace with the meaning you unintentionally put on the page, or, during your next round of edits, use their feedback to tease out the meaning you wanted.

4. My editor thinks I’m an idiot

Show me an editor who makes you feel like an idiot, and I’ll show you a person who’s in the wrong line of work. The reason we editors choose this career path is for the love of helping authors revise, improve, and succeed. We are not here to make anyone feel bad about his work, and if you find your editor is being cruel or unhelpful, it’s time to send her the pink slip.

This does not mean your editor will sugarcoat her feedback. You’re paying for a service that shines a light on the areas of your work that need more attention, and with a good editor, that’s what you’ll get. However, honest feedback shouldn’t come with insults, humiliation, or didactics.

5. I have no idea how to publish

The publishing industry is notorious for being a labyrinthine nightmare, but times have changed. Thanks to the advent of e-readers, publishing your work has never been easier. What’s more, there are individuals out there who specialize in helping you get published, and they’re usually a lot cheaper than the book agents of yesteryear.

Publishing through Amazon or CreateSpace is as easy as clicking a few buttons (literally!). On top of that, there are myriad small publishers out there who make it simple to send in submissions–without those extra fees or silly snail-mail requirements. The thought of getting your work out there may be intimidating, but the avenues to publication are open and ready to be explored.

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

Author Cate Beauman takes us inside her wildly popular Bodyguards of L.A. County series

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date January 21, 2015

Cate Beauman fell into writing more than she dreamed of it. “Writing novels never made my bucket list,” she says. “One day I picked up a pad of paper and scribbled down the thoughts in my head. Next thing I knew, I had over 100,000 words. I’ve been obsessed ever since; now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

A former New England resident, Cate now makes her home in North Carolina with her husband, two boys, and their St. Bernards, Bear and Jack.

Cate is currently working on Reagan’s Redemption, the eighth novel in her best-selling romantic suspense series, The Bodyguards Of L.A. County.

For information on new releases, monthly giveaways, and upcoming events, sign up for Cate’s newsletter. Cate can be reached on her website, www.catebeauman.com, or on her Facebook page. You can follow Cate on Twitter @CateBeauman.

**Tell us how you originally got the idea for the Bodyguards of L.A. County series.**

I never planned to write a series. The thought never occurred to me as I wrote Morgan’s Hunter, the first novel in the series—and really, my first work as a serious writer. I was simply telling the story of a bodyguard who was protecting his feisty principal in the backwoods of Montana. But then I introduced Ethan and Sarah to the plot. As the manuscript started to unfold I became very intrigued with the idea of giving Ethan and Sarah a story of their own. Not long after finishing Morgan’s Hunter, I wrote Falling for Sarah, which was supposed to complete a two-book series. Then Austin and Hailey were added to the storyline, and I realized I had a series on my hands. The rest, you could say, is history!

**Tell us about your upcoming book, Reagan’s Redemption. Who will we meet in this novel? What kind of excitement can we expect?**

Reagan’s Redemption is the story of Doctor Reagan Rosner and her bodyguard, Shane Harper. Reagan is at a crossroads in her life after a heartbreaking and unexpected tragedy. Unsure of what to do, she joins The Appalachia Project, a government-run program aimed at bringing aid to some of America’s poorest citizens.

Shane Harper is assigned to keep an eye on Reagan and the pharmaceuticals they have on hand in the odd and often hostile little town of Black Bear Gap.

As Reagan and Shane work together to help a reluctant community, they uncover secrets the town intends to keep hidden at all costs.

You are a master at balancing both romance and suspense in your novels. How do you make sure you give your readers a healthy dose of both, without crossing any lines?

That’s a tricky question. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure how I do it. I love romantic suspense. I’ve read the genre for years, so I think I try hard to give my readers what I would want. Romance always plays the central theme in my stories, but sprinkling in elements of danger really adds something special. Love and romance are hard enough, but when the characters’ lives are in peril and the odds stacked against them, it heightens the entire experience. I love weaving the two together.

What sort of lessons do you hope your readers take away from your novels?

I don’t typically write with messages for my readers. Basically, reality bites sometimes and I love to give my readers a place where they can go and get lost in someone else’s problems for a while. Mostly the stories I tell are for pure entertainment. I strive to make my characters flawed and relatable and their experiences exciting yet plausible.

You’re quite the prolific author. How do you keep coming up with fresh ideas on a similar theme?

I spend my time off watching lots and lots of crime television. When I find myself running low on ideas, I sit down with a pad of paper, turn on the television, and wait for a documentary or situation on a crime show to pique my interest. When I see something special my brain kicks into high gear and ideas just start flying. Sometimes I can see scenes for the new story I will tell in my head right then and there—one of the true gifts of an overactive imagination!

What is your editing process like?

Typically I write in a three-draft form. First draft is getting the ideas down in a loose story form. My second draft is when I get the story right by adding more of the emotive and physical descriptions, and the third is when I run my manuscript through a program called AutoCrit Editing Wizard. The program helps me find overused words, slow passages, so on and so forth so that when I send my work off to Liam at Invisible Ink Editing he’ll have as clean of a copy as I can give him.

What is your publishing process like?

I self-publish, so my publicist and I handle the workload ourselves. We do lots of blog tours and interviews. I also spend a lot of time with my Facebook fans on my author page getting them ready for the launch of each new story. I think that is one of my favorite parts of this whole journey—meeting and interacting with so many great people.

Do you have any advice for budding authors?

Never give up on your dreams. When I started out in this business I almost quit after the first editor I contacted told me I couldn’t write and I shouldn’t quit my day job. Luckily, I have a lot of really supportive people in my life who encouraged me to keep writing. I’m glad I did because telling stories is one of my biggest passions and has changed my life for the better. Write because you love it and the rest usually falls into place.

Last question—you are being pursued by thieves intent on stealing your latest manuscript. Which of the hunks from your book would you want to protect you?

Oh, wow. This is truly an impossible question to answer! All of the agents from Ethan Cooke Security are more than capable of keeping my manuscript and me safe, but they’re all so different and intriguing in their own ways. It’s kind of like asking which of your children do you love more. I love them both with the same power but their unique qualities are what make me adore them. How’s that for an answer?

Tags authors, editing, interview, writing, writing a novel

Self Publishing Advice Writing Advice

An author’s guide to the editing process

Post author By Liam Carnahan
Post date January 12, 2015

By Liam Carnahan, Founder, Invisible Ink Editing

You’ve finally typed out the final word of your novel and hit “save,” and now you are ready to take a step back from your work. This can be a scary moment for any writer, but if you can find a reliable editor you trust to provide you with honest and helpful feedback, there’s no reason to worry.

But what do you do next? Don’t let your anxieties about editing be a roadblock on your path to publication. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can complete the editing process (especially if you’re working with Invisible Ink).

Step 1: Read it again

This is absolutely the most painful part of the process, but fortunately you can get it out of the way first. Many, many famous authors have dreaded rereading their own work, so if you cringe when looking over your words, you’re not alone.

The key here is to remain calm and to keep your hand away from the “delete” key. As you’re reading, you may feel the urge to slash and burn sections you think don’t work, or you may begin to feel that the entire manuscript is hopeless. Don’t let yourself make those decisions—if you do, your piece will never reach the bookshelves (or online marketplace).

Instead of deleting or revising, make a note of the sections that give you pause. Remember that your beta readers and professional editors will let you know when they think something needs to be adjusted. You can tell your editors about the sections that give you concern if it puts your mind at ease, but sometimes it may be best to let them do a cold read of your piece. If they don’t single out the same sections you did, then you can probably put those anxieties to rest.

Step 2: Send it to the beta readers

Many people out there enjoy reading so much that they’ll read an unfinished manuscript to help an author grow. Some authors choose to tap their friends and family as an audience for this stage, and if you have loved ones who will give you honest feedback, then this route can be a good one.

If you aren’t comfortable showing your work to your friends and family, then you can reach out to online communities to get this done. Goodreads is an excellent place to start, but there are many options out there if you take a look around. Bear in mind that we here at Invisible Ink also offer an affordable beta reading service. The number of beta readers you need depends on their skill and insight. If you have a loved one who is an avid reader and experienced editor, or if you hire a professional editor at this stage, a single beta reader should be fine. However, you may want three or four beta readers if they are less experienced at providing insight.

Once you receive all the feedback, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Submit to Invisible Ink Editing

This may seem like an odd stage to get in touch with Invisible Ink, but we so often encounter authors who wait until the final steps of their self-editing process before reaching out. Our schedules book up in advance, so you likely won’t be able to book in an edit until several weeks from when you first contact us.

For this reason, getting in touch with Invisible Ink sooner rather than later is a better move. It’s much easier to push back an editing date (provided you give us notice) than it is to book you into a full schedule!

Once you send us your inquiry, we’ll get back in touch and request a segment of your novel—typically 5,000 words or so—that adequately represents your style, tone and the level of editing necessary for the entire piece. We’ll perform a free sample edit of about 750-1,000 words and return it to you with a pricing suggestion and an estimated turnaround time.

Step 4: Perform edits and read it again

Now that you’ve gotten feedback from your beta readers, it’s time to go back to your work and make the changes they suggested if you feel they are valid. Odds are, if more than a couple of your beta readers pointed out an issue, it’s something you’ll need to address.

This stage should be a bit easier than step one, because you’ll already have read all your words. However, if you are adding, removing or otherwise altering big sections to the manuscript, you’ll need to do another thorough read-through to make sure the entire work is ready to be sent off to a professional editor.

Step 5: Send over the manuscript

This is the easiest part! Just send your editor the finished draft of your manuscript with any additional information you think he or she will need, then take a deep breath and take a load off – you deserve a few weeks of rest.

Step 6: Review your edits and ask any questions

The final step of the editing process comes once we return your review. If you opted to receive a full critique as well (something we strongly suggest, particularly for writers publishing their first books), then you’ll have plenty to read through in the coming days or weeks.

Once again, you will very likely have some questions about the edits we made, and we are always available to give you the answers you need. In some cases, we will set up a Skype or phone session to discuss the edits live; after all, our goal is to make sure you’re fully satisfied with your work and walk away with a publishable version of your novel.

Tags authors, editing, writing, writing a novel