Tuesday Takeover: To Genre Hop or to Not Genre Hop, that is the Question by M. A. Phipps

I’ve wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. I think that’s the case with most writers—it’s something we feel we were born to do and stories have been rushing through our heads pretty much from the day we entered this world. Throughout my twenty-eight years on this planet, I’ve had more story ideas in my brain that I can even keep track of, all in a variety of different genres. Once again, I’d say that’s probably the case with most fiction writers. Hence why so many of us carry journals wherever we go!

With that said, you can imagine my surprise when I learned that some publishers don’t actually like when authors stray from one particular genre. Granted, I’ve recently heard this is beginning to change, and as a side note, there is nothing wrong with writers who do stick to one particular genre. You’ve found your niche, and that’s great! I just personally think I’d feel stifled sticking with only one genre my entire life.

So, why is it that the publishing industry feels that way? I’ve researched the topic a fair bit, and it seems like the argument for niche writing boil down to two major points:

  1. Branding & marketing: it’s much easier to build a brand (and stick with it) if you aren’t jumping from genre to genre. The branding for a science fiction novel would be completely different than the branding for a contemporary romance. If you tried to market them the same way, one or both would probably flop.
  2. Building an audience: although there are many readers out there who will happily follow their favorite author’s career and read whatever they publish regardless of what it is, most readers have specific genres they prefer. If you capture an audience with a YA dystopian novel and then decide to write a steamy erotica, chances are you will not attract the same audience, and the followers you have gained will not pick up that book. You’d have to start over from scratch and build up from the bottom all over again.

Learning this was particularly jarring for me. My debut series is YA dystopian, and the thought of only ever writing in that one genre makes me break out in hives. Now don’t get me wrong, I love dystopian. I LOVE dystopian (obviously, I wrote a trilogy of it!) but my creativity would be seriously dampened, and realistically, I don’t think I could come up with a lifetime’s worth of original ideas for it. On the other hand, considering how hard it is to build up any sort of following as an indie author, the thought of starting over from scratch or having to create a pen name just to write something different also gives me severe anxiety. So, what is a girl to do?

Well, do not despair fellow writers. For although you may be in for a much harder and longer road, there are also advantages to genre hopping. Not only are you following your creativity and inspiration (and let’s be honest, your best work always comes when you’re most inspired), but you are showing your versatility to not only the world but to yourself. You will learn more, and above all, over time, you will reach out to a wider audience. Now I know that seems to contradict what I said before, but hear me out. The audience for a YA dystopian may not pick up your sexy erotica, but you now have TWO audiences who potentially love your books! They might not all be rushing out to buy both, but you do have double the people who are listening to what you say and who may in turn become fans of your future works. As they say, there is always a silver lining.

Okay, so sure—being a genre hopper will require a bit more time and dedication, but in the long run, it could also be so much more rewarding. Follow your inspiration. Treat each new genre you tackle as a sort of palette cleanser and learn what you can from it. Widen your horizons, and in turn, you just may end up doing the same for your readers.

M.A.Phipps

Author Bio

M. A. PHIPPS is an American author who currently resides in the picturesque English West Country with her husband, daughter, and their Jack Russell, Milo. A lover of the written word, it has always been her dream to become a published author, and it is her hope to expand into multiple genres of fiction. When she isn’t writing, you can find her counting down the days until the new season of Game of Thrones.

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Jun 21, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: To Genre Hop or to Not Genre Hop, that is the Question by M. A. Phipps

Tuesday Takeover: How to be uncanny in your writing by John Hancock

Mimics. You know what I mean, those people that can do amazing impersonations. The one I’m most recently impressed by is Ross Marquand, an actor on The Walking Dead. His takes on Kevin Spacey and Michael Caine are uncanny. Uncanny — remember that word. In a discussion with a coworker, I put forth my favorite theory on why some people can be accomplished mimics, and some can’t. Oh, for sure, you grew up knowing that guy who could act like the gym teacher and make everyone laugh. But I’m not really talking about that guy. That guy has a light quiver. His only arrow might be the gym teacher and maybe a really mediocre Christopher Walken.  One that makes you cringe but you go along with it because, well, its bad form to point out someone trying that hard is pathetically failing.

These are the average schmoes, guys and gals like you and me that might have only one impersonation. And none of us are uncanny. There’s that word — uncanny. Ok, so back to my theory, and here it is. Or actually I’m going to creep up on my theory by first making an observation. Have you ever seen yourself filmed or recorded and thought “OMG, is THAT my voice? I don’t sound like that at all!”

But of course, yes you do. Because everyone else in the shot sounds like everyone else sounds. But that means you DO sound that. How far is it off for you? For me, my recorded voice sounds more tinny, more sibilant and less masculine than what I hear in my own ears when I talk. Yes, it’s a bit of a blow to my ego. But we’re not talking about me now, are we?

So my theory: Our voices sound differently to ourselves because it has to travel through a different medium. Other people hear us directly through the air. We hear ourselves through the distracting interference of our bones and flesh as it reaches our inner ear. We can’t hear ourselves correctly. Well, most of us. And that brings us back to mimics.

I believe people that are actually uncanny in their ability to mimic a wide ranges of celebrities can do this because they’ve either learned to ignore the distracting interference of their own skull and work around it, OR their interference simply doesn’t exist. They hear themselves exactly as the rest of us do. Either way, this allows them to actively modulate their voice to become the voice of their target of impersonation. So, what does this have to do writing? You’ve probably figure out I’m an author, I could tell you about myself yadda yadda yadda who cares?  I want to talk about when writing actually works, when it comes together like a perfect storm of fate, coincidence or sheer effort to produce a compelling believable piece of writing. I’m suggesting it best happens when we learn to sabotage the distracting interference of our own lives and begin to actually hear and speak what the characters want to say. We become better mimics of them, we follow their speech patterns, their thoughts, their desires, their goals, everything about them. But if we let our own thoughts, our own distractions, our own goals get in the way, then we become that guy who did the gym teacher’s voice, badly. 

It’s a Zen, thing. I love it when it happens. I can plan and plot and intend almost anything, but as I’m writing, the voice of the character tells me “no, John, I’m not saying that. Why would I say that? Don’t you know this scene scares the crap out of me? Don’t you know this guy reminds me of my father, who beat me? I would never politely tell this guy to shove off, I’d do it with a sledgehammer.” The trick, you see, is to let your characters write the story.  Honestly, they’re better at it. It’s their life story, after all. If you MUST look me up as an author, for some reason, I’ve got a few books out. Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Dystopia, short stories. If you’re a fan of Sarah Noffke’s, and you’d be an idiot not to be, the book you’d likely be most interested in would be ROOF.  You can find it or me on Amazon.

Thanks for listening… through the bones in your skull.

John Gregory Hancock

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John Hancock

Bio: John Gregory Hancock is a storyteller.

A graphic professional for many years (which is one way to tell a story), his graphic journalism garnered international awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer. He incorporates his visual sense in his ability to spin compelling yarns.

Currently, he has seven books of his own, and has written for The Future Chronicles anthology series, whose titles have hit the overall Amazon Top 10 Bestsellers list. The Immortality Chronicles – a Top 5 SF Anthology and Hot New Release – featured his story ‘The Antares Cigar Shoppe’, which was also nominated for Best American Science Fiction. The collection won best anthology from Preditors and Editors

His work has appeared in other anthologies, including; Prep For Doom, Bite-Sized Offerings: Tales & Legends of the Zombie Apocalypse, Flying Toasters – The DeadPixel Tales, and Off the Kuf.

Check out John here: http://www.johngregoryhancock.com/

May 10, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: How to be uncanny in your writing by John Hancock

Tuesday Takeover: How authors choose their characters by Kyle Perkins

First of all, I would like to start off by saying that I am no expert on the matter and this is not so much a guide to creating characters, as it is my own personal experiences.

A little bit of backstory on me, I never actually aspired to be an author. I was more into gaming my entire life, and I joined a text based role playing group centered around some of my favorite games. From there, I learned everything you SHOULDN’T do with a character, as well as things people really respond well to. When you filter through dozens of characters a day, and read their stories, and actively participate with them, you learn who is universally hated and who is loved. That being said…

Never make your characters invincible. They need to be roughed up a bit. This is what is known as “God Modding” in the community and it is hated more than anything else. No one is interested in characters that can pull abilities out of thin air to get past an obstacle. We look at that as cheating, and so do readers. Instead, use what you have at your disposal in your character’s history. Make it fun, unexpected and exciting to read.

What I like to do is make a character sheet for all of my characters. It’s a basic bio full of their stats and history. So, if I need to know how tall my guy/girl is, I have it. If I need to know what special abilities he/she possesses, I have it. It details their personal story for me, so that if I ever need to get out of a situation I put myself in, I can refer back to the character sheet to decide how I could get it done, based on the character.

People want characters that are down to Earth and relatable. Think back to any TV show, book, or movie you really enjoyed. Chances are, the reason you enjoyed it was due to a character or two you really liked. The reason you like them is because you can relate. You see aspects of yourself in them. How many times when you were little did you say “I’m Leonardo!” or “I’m Optimus Prime,” Chances are a ton. You liked those characters and emulated them because you liked their personalities. Even as an adult I am sure people have said, “This character soooo reminds me of you,” and you liked them based on that alone without even seeing the character. That is what makes a character well rounded. All of your favorite characters are relatable and have flaws, because in real life, we all do too.

Another thing to watch out for is making your character too “edgy.” Which is defined as “Taking coolness to its extreme and generally beyond the realm of actual possibility, while at the same time seemingly unaware of how ridiculous it is.” Your character of course can be cool and funny, but when it imposes on reality and becomes farfetched, again, you have a problem with your reader finding them relatable. For instance, if your guy speaks in cool one liners, dresses in all black all the time, has armor on and carries around a samurai sword in Manhattan, chances are he is a bit too edgy.

When a reader reads your story, the most important thing you can do for them, is make it as easy as possible for them to put themselves in your character’s shoes. Otherwise, they lose interest. Making a character relatable will actually keep a reader reading in a genre they wouldn’t normally seek out, just BECUASE they can relate to it. Let’s face it, we all want to be the star of our own movies in our mind.

Now, I am not above any of this. When I started out roleplaying, I had the edgiest characters around, because it’s a game and you typically go out of your way to win games. When people stopped wanting to play with me, I sought out answers as to why. That’s when I learned it was more about a mutual story than winning, and when you make a great, relatable story, everyone wins.

So, in closing, make your characters relatable, down to Earth, flawed and realistic. If you follow those four things, it won’t matter what genre you write in, because people will keep coming back for more.

Kyel

It was only recently that Kyle Perkins discovered his love of putting his imaginative daydreams in writing for others to enjoy. He founded and managed some of the largest text-based roleplaying groups on Facebook, which sparked his passion for storytelling and helped him sharpen his skills as an author. Since the January 2016 release of his debut dystopian novel, Reddened Wasteland, Kyle has published three other works with plans to release several more in the upcoming months, including the second installment of the Reddened Wasteland series. He’s a dog person, an Aquarius, and he lives in Florida, though he’ll tell you he lives on the internet.

Facebook ~ Amazon

Apr 26, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | 1 comment

Tuesday Takeover: What Ever Happened to Happy Science Fiction? by J.N. Chaney

JN photo - blog

Anyone who goes to the movies or reads any science fiction is probably familiar with at least one dark dystopian　story. Whether or not your selection includes　The Hunger Games, I Am Legend, or　Wool　is besides the point. You’ve probably been exposed to the genre, which means you’re at least partially familiar with the state of modern sci-fi.

I say “modern” because the truth is that science fiction hasn’t always been this depressing. Seventy years ago you’d be hard pressed to find anything as dark or engrossing as　Ender’s Game,　Dune, or　Old Man’s War. That’s not to say that those types of books didn’t exist, but they were extremely rare. Many science fiction stories chose to focus on the science rather than the fiction, putting aside the characterizations and story elements in favor of a single idea.　War of the Worlds　(1989) focused entirely on an invasion from Mars, but it didn’t even bother to name its characters, including its narrator. We never know anyone’s backstory, who they are, or anything truly significant about them. If the Tom Cruise adaptation had actually been faithful to the original book, Cruise would’ve only appeared for a handful of scenes. But that’s how it was back then–science fiction was a different kind of beast.

In other words, the science and the idea were the real characters, not Joe Whatshisname, who was really only there to give exposition like a walking wikipedia article and press the imaginary buttons on the big “what if” machine. Those aren’t necessarily bad things to do, but they don’t exactly make for accessible character literature.　The Time Machine　was great, but when your protagonist doesn’t even have a name, it can be a little difficult for modern audiences to relate to him.

Science fiction has changed, but only because it started trying to balance both the characters and the “big idea”. To understand this change,　you have to remember where our society was and where it is today. Ever since the bombs fell on Japan, most people have come to appreciate the potential horrors of technology. When scientific discovery can lead to an entire metropolitan city getting wiped off the face of the Earth in a single heartbeat, suddenly everyone’s optimism goes down the drain. Don’t even get me started on the perpetual state of fear and anxiety that arose because of the Cold War. Throughout the last several decades, our culture has become obsessed with the apocalypse. Every other day there’s some religious figure telling us the end is near. Our global media has allowed us to hear and know about every little skirmish taking place on the other side of the globe, in regions we previously would never have heard about. We look on with utter fascination, absorbing it all.　It’s only natural for our culture’s literature to reflect this newfound obsession. We just can’t help ourselves.

This isn’t exactly new. People have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years. The difference is that now we actually have a reason to talk about it, because we have the means with which to make it happen. Look at what famed dark satirist and science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut said back in 1970:

“I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better.　I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty — and sold it to　Popular Mechanics　magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.”

Why is it like this? Why would we rather hear about the world blowing up than about a utopia where people are so happy they piss glitter? It all boils down to how we feel in the moment. Science fiction is a reflection of today, not tomorrow. It’s about how our culture is right now and how the person writing that story views it. If the world looks like it sucks and everything’s gone to shit, you aren’t going to see as many happy stories of Captain Spaceheart running through the cosmos saving space princesses and battling space monkeys. These people are writing stories about the future, but that future is only an extension of today, and if today isn’t turning out so well, then neither will tomorrow.

J. N. Chaney has a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and is the author of the Amber Project. You can get J.N. Chaney’s very own dystopian science fiction novel absolutely free by going to the following link: http://jnchaney.com/stay-up-to-date/

JN Chaney

Feb 9, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: What Ever Happened to Happy Science Fiction? by J.N. Chaney