Kyle A. Massa

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Why I Love Goodreads

June 23, 2017 /

Goodreads

Ever heard of Goodreads? It’s sort of like social media for books.

Here’s how it works: you create a free profile for yourself, including what genres you enjoy and who your favorite authors are. You enter any books you’re reading or have read, then share those books with other Goodreads friends.

But what else makes it so great? Here’s a quick rundown:

Track Your Progress

Think of it like Fitbit for reading. Goodreads shows you exactly what percentage of a book you’ve completed. If you sync with your Kindle, your profile automatically updates the percentage for you. If you read books the old-fashioned way (I know I do), you can manually update your progress on their mobile app. Either way, it’s even more satisfying than checking your steps at the end of the day.

Get Recommendations

Goodreads analyzes books you like, then suggests similar titles you might enjoy. This is a great way to discover new authors you might never have heard of before. And since there are thousands of books in the database, you’ll have no shortage of stuff to choose from.

In addition, Goodreads is the perfect place to find out what your friends are reading. You’ll be updated on their current book, along with any comments they make on it. Once they’re finished, you’ll also be able to find out how many stars they gave it. It’s a great way to find out which books are great (and which ones aren’t so great).

Save Books for Later

If you’re an avid reader, your to-read list might reach the moon. Goodreads lets you consolidate—and save some time, while you’re at it—using their nifty scanner feature.

With the Goodreads mobile app, you can scan the barcode of any book using your phone’s camera. In seconds, the app pulls the book’s title, author, and book cover for later viewing. Perfect for the avid bookstore browser.

In Conclusion…

…Try Goodreads! It’s a super-fun app for anyone who loves reading. And feel free to send me a friend request. One can never know too many book lovers!

Shattered Light Bulb

“Inspiration Will Fail You”

June 12, 2017 /

Shattered Light Bulb

I had a professor in college who often said, “Inspiration will fail you.” She was very right about that.

Many authors wait around to be inspired. They wait for the muse to appear with an amazing idea, one that fills the page with vivid prose and vibrant action.  And when inspiration fails to appear, those writers remind themselves that tomorrow is another day, and they don’t write anything.

That’s why inspiration will fail you. It’s lazy, it’s inconsiderate, and it doesn’t ever show up when you want it to.

Sure, sometimes we find it. Sometimes our brains spark and whisper, Let’s write this down. But this is certainly not the norm. Far more often, our work hinges on those days when we don’t feel inspired.

Think about it this way: if you only write when you’re inspired and you’re only inspired on good days, how will you ever practice your writing?  Writing, like any skill, requires hard work in exchange for improvement. If we don’t put in the hard work until inspiration hands us an idea, then we’re probably not writing frequently enough to improve.

Furthermore, there’s a common assumption that every word one writes must be perfect, or that all writing should, at the very least, be interesting. This notion can preclude some writers from writing anything at all, regardless of how inspired or uninspired they might feel. But not all writing needs to be readable.

Every, every professional writer will tell you that a written work doesn’t even come close to being readable until the second draft, at the earliest. Even then, there might be three, four, five drafts to go before it’s something worth sharing.

If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe some dude named Vladimir Nabokov: “I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”

If inspiration hasn’t paid you a visit in a while, try writing anything—literally anything—and see what happens. Try a simple sentence of a character doing something: “Lilly looked out the window at the tree in the yard, and she thought to herself, That tree wasn’t there yesterday.” 

From here, we can go in all sorts of different directions. Where did the tree come from? How did the tree get there? And who is Lilly? What does she have to do with this tree? What does this tree mean to her? Sometimes, one sentence is all it takes to get things moving.

Of course, you might decide later that that sentence and all your writing thereafter was lame, anyway. Even so, at least you’ve written something down and you’ve gotten your practice for the day. Anything’s better than nothing, even if your anything isn’t particularly good.

Truth is, successful writers are those who write with consistency. That might mean something different for everyone, but what it certainly doesn’t mean is waiting for inspiration.

Trust me. You’re going to be waiting a long, long time.

3 Handy Proofreading Shortcuts

June 5, 2017 /

I have a confession to make: I do not like proofreading. It takes time, it’s not especially fun, and I still seem to miss some errors. To quote Billy Joel, it would be nice if I could “Get it Right the First Time.”

But that’s wishful thinking on my part. There may not be any Billy Joel songs about proofreading—but that doesn’t mean it’s not essential. No one wants to read sloppy work.

Fortunately, we can make it easier on ourselves with a few tricks. Here are a few I like:

Read It Aloud to Yourself

Yes, our teachers were right. Reading work aloud forces us to pay closer attention to the words. If you stumble over a sentence, you’ll need to smooth it out. Or, try reading aloud to someone else. They’ll give you tips on the sentences that stick out.

This trick is especially effective with dialogue. You’ll notice details while listening that you won’t  notice while reading. For example, I tend to append characters’ dialogue with the phrase “or something.” It’s sort of like my trademark, or something.

I’m not sure why, but my first-draft brain seems to think “or something” makes dialogue come alive. It doesn’t. I read my work aloud to catch them on the second go-around.

Use Your Computer’s Voice Command

Sometimes it helps to have your own work read back to you. This allows you to listen for any weirdness you might’ve missed while reading. However, you won’t always have a human reader handy. In that case, you can use your computer’s voice command.

I do this one all the time. I’m not sure how it would work on a Windows or Linux computer, but on a Mac, you set a keystroke command, then highlight the text you want to hear. Hit your command keys and a pleasant robot voice will read the words to you.

Be warned: this voice is emotionless. Think Ferris Buehler’s professor. It’s about listening for mistakes, not getting a sense of rhythm. (Unless a boring computer voice narrates your story. In which case, please feel free to exclusively use this method.)

Use Online Tools

Hemingway Rewritten is a pretty killer app for this proofreading. It gives you suggestions on how to make your writing more concise.

When you copy and paste a paragraph into Hemingway, the program highlights overlong and strangely-structured sentences (like this one). It also catches passive voice. Plus, Hemingway is totally free. I think we can all appreciate that.

Bonus Tip: Let Commentors Proofread for You

The internet loves finding flaws in everything. Therefore, if you make a mistake, you can be sure someone will notify you in the comments.

Boom. Free proofreading!

In Conclusion

Proofreading is like eating vegetables—it’s not especially fun, but it’s essential for growth. I hope these tips have been helpful (and more palatable than brussel sprouts).

Now please excuse me. I have to proofread this thing.

My Favorite Quotes About Books and Writing

May 22, 2017 /

I love writing, and I love books. I often attempt to express that love in my own words, but this week, I’d prefer to steam words from others. Here are some of my favorite thoughts on books and writing. I hope you get something out of them (especially the last one):

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.” – Neil Gaiman

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’Tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” – Kurt Vonnegut

“I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

“If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready.'” – David Mitchell

“When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.” – Elmore Leonard

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.” – Ray Bradbury

“A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.” – George W. Bush

Pen and Paper

How the Cosmic Eating Contest Went Awry

May 1, 2017 /

Writer

(Disclaimer: the title of this blog post has nothing to do with its content. Rather, it’s meant to get you to read the piece. Apologies to those interested in cosmic eating contests.)

I went to an art show last week with my mom. She entered a painting of my aunt’s cat (it was the best one there, in my opinion). Before the winners were announced, we browsed through the other paintings. Each had a title, and one in particular caught my eye.

Its name was: “Waiting for the Slutty Nun.” I needed to see this piece.

No, I don’t have a thing for slutty nuns. Rather, the title was so outrageous, so striking, that I couldn’t not be interested in the painting. I wasn’t the only one; people chattered about the piece before they’d even seen it.

For me, this experience reinforced the idea that a good title is essential for any piece of art. An accurate label isn’t enough. If we want to get people excited about our work before they even see it, a good title is essential.

For writers, the title of a book or story is often the first point of contact between the reader and the work. If they’ve never heard of you or your writing before, you want to make a good first impression. A great title sparks that initial interest—which is exactly what we’re looking for.

Furthermore, a good title can help our work stand out from others. For instance, let’s say you wrote a truly outstanding crime novel. It’s suspenseful, unpredictable, and exciting. Plus, it’s unlike other crime novels because it takes place on the moon. Clearly, this is a pretty unusual story. Yet if you give it a generic title like “The Murder,” you’re not showing how your piece is different from others.

Lastly, great titles are perfectly paired with their stories. I’m thinking of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Imagine if that book had a different title, like The Firemen or The Book Burners. Wouldn’t it just not be the same? No other title quite captures the essence of the story so perfectly (451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper ignites, by the way). Plus, that title would never fit quite right on any other novel. Fahrenheit 451 is the perfect name for that book, and only that book.

For us writers and artists in general, I think agonizing over the perfect title is well worth it. Let’s not settle for the generic—let’s be inventive. Evocative. Bold. Or, if you’re a nun, maybe even a little slutty?

Scrivener: Disorganization Gets the Boot

April 3, 2017 /

Papers

If you’ve ever written written a novel, then you’ve probably experienced an especially terrifying organizational nightmare. I’m talking character outlines, story outlines, pages and pages of research, random ideas, maybe even illustrations of people or places—and that’s all before you even start writing the actual draft. While programs like Word and Pages might be just fine for the average writer, you need something with a little more umph.

Enter Scrivener.

Created with long-form writers in mind, Scrivener might be one of the best tools a writer could dream of. I found it more or less on accident (I thank you, almighty Google), and I was happy to purchase it. Let’s take a look at some features.

1. You know those story ideas scattered all over your desktop? Put them in one place.

This is probably my favorite feature of Scrivener: you can consolidate everything in one document. No more flipping between pages to see your research and your working document. You can do a split screen with the manuscript on one half and your overly-detailed character outline on the other.

The research function is also very cool. Let’s say you’re writing a crime novel set in the 20’s, and you’d like to know what sort of forensic capabilities folks had back then. You’ve found your article, but you already know you’ll have to refer back to it many, many times before the book is done. With Scrivener, you can add the web page right to your document and glance at it whenever you want.

2. You can view and rearrange chapters.

I have a pretty lousy memory, but I doubt I’m the only person who can’t remember what happened in chapter one, especially when working on a really long piece.

Scrivener allows you to enter quick details about your chapters in notecard form. You can give yourself a brief summary of what happens in each chapter for quick reference. If you’re juggling multiple POV characters, you can even throw that onto the notecard. It’s a great way to save yourself some time.

Furthermore, Scrivener lets you rearrange entire chapters. Say you have a flashback that you think needs to come sooner. Instead of doing a massive cut and paste in Word (that just sounds dangerous), you can pick the chapter up and place it elsewhere.

3. You can compile your manuscript with ease.

Many authors find it difficult to compile manuscripts into ebook form. I’ve never had to do it, but I can only imagine the struggle of convincing word processors to agree with me. Scrivener compiles your writing into many forms, including regular manuscript form and, yes, ebook form. And it doesn’t fight about it, either.

#

A program as complex as this has a steep learning curve. I had to take a few hours just to go through the tutorial materials, including text and video, in order to learn how to do some of the fancier features. However, the time you spend on this step will be saved many times over in the future, when you’re not fumbling over formatting.

I really like Scrivener. It helps organize my work, puts everything in one place, and, best of all, makes me look like I actually know what I’m doing.

5 Reasons You Should Be Hyped for Starz’s American Gods

March 27, 2017 /

On April 30th, one hell of a TV series comes to Starz. I’m talking about American Gods, based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman. This is my favorite novel ever, and I am hyped for the series. Here’s why you should be, too:

1. The Story is Especially Relevant Today

American Gods is about a stoic man named Shadow Moon (played by Ricky Whittle) who’s released from prison, only to find that his wife Laura (Emily Browning) has tragically died. Lacking direction, Shadow encounters a grifter by the name of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), who is far more than he appears. In fact, he’s the Norse god Odin.

Here’s the coolest part: Mr. Wednesday is recruiting forgotten gods for an epic confrontation with modern gods. The old gods consist of deities brought to America from other countries. The new gods represent airplanes, the internet, cell phones, and modern technology in general.

That’s an apt metaphor for how we live today. And though Gaiman first published the novel in 2001, this central premise is even more accurate today. We devote so much time, money, and energy to our tech that it really is almost like worship.

2. The People Behind the Show Are Outstanding

For starters, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green serve as creators. Though you might not recognize their names, they’ve worked on series you know, such as Pushing Daisies, Heroes, Hannibal, and Gotham. These guys are good.

Also, the cast is excellent. In addition to the aforementioned Whittle, Browning, and McShane, the show also features Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black), Crispin Glover (Back to the Future), Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein), Peter Stormare (The Big Lebowski), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Orlando Jones (Mad TV), Dane Cook (Dan in Real Life), Kristen Chenoweth (Wicked), and Corbin Bernsen (Psych).

Impressed? Me too.

3. Neil Gaiman is “Very Involved”

They’re taking a page from Game of Thrones’s book with this decision. Clearly, the person behind the original story should be the one with heavy input on the project. Plus, Gaiman already has experience in television; he created the BBC series Neverwhere. The guy knows what he’s doing.

4. They’re Expanding on the Original Story

Adaptations are far more interesting when they go beyond the source material, rather than regurgitate it. Good news is, American Gods seems to be doing just that.

The first season will cover the first third of the novel or so. Then, if we get later seasons, they’ll cover later parts of the book. Also, the companion novel Anansi Boys could become part of the show, should popularity allow it. Let’s hope so!

5. The Trailer Looks Sick

I don’t think I need to say much more about this one.

I hope I’ve successfully hyped you up for this show. Check it out on April 30th!

3 Podcasts Writers Will Love

March 13, 2017 /

Sound Wave

I love podcasts. I listen to them when I work, when I work out, when I do the dishes, when I drive. I pretty much listen to them all the time. For those who don’t know, they’re kind of like free downloadable radio shows for your phone. In other words, they’re great.

There are tons of podcasts for writers out there. Here are some of the best I’ve heard. They’re all free to download, so check them out!

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

Geek’s Guide has been my favorite podcast for quite a while. If you like fantasy, science fiction, and geeky stuff in general, it might become your favorite too.

Each week, host David Barr Kirtley interviews writers, movie producers, scientists, theorists, journalists, and more. Some of the show’s more notable guests have included George R.R. Martin, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Simon Pegg, and Michael Chabon.

Recently, author George Saunders joined the show to discuss his new novel Lincoln in the Bardo. This episode will make writers salivate. Saunders goes in-depth on inspiration, speculative elements in fiction, and his origins as a writer. Really good show here.

This American Life

If you loved Serial (of course you did), you’ll love This American Life, too. It’s a similar structure, only instead of one story told for an entire season, each weekly episode examines three to five smaller ones.

Though this show isn’t aimed specifically at writers, this show is sure to inspire you. Depending on the week, you’ll get stories that are amusing, strange, profound, exciting, or tense (plus some other adjectives I can’t think of).

One of my absolute favorite episodes features a story about two comedians who just so happened to appear on Ed Sullivan on a very special night in 1964. I won’t say anything else.

Dissecting Dragons

I discovered this show a few weeks ago, and I already love it. Hosted by authors Madeleine Vaughan and Jules Ironside, the show explores every aspect of writing speculative fiction.

The hosts are well-read and have a tight grasp on what makes stories tick. When they discuss a subject, they go in depth. For example, their episode on dragons covered all sorts of dragon myths from numerous different cultures, as well as more contemporary fiction. They even have a establish the key distinctions between dragons and wyrms, so you know they did their research.

Those are just a few of the podcasts I enjoy. What shows are you listening to? Let me know in the comments below.

Using Duotrope to Publish Your Short Fiction

February 13, 2017 /

Writing short stories is tough. Getting them published might be even tougher.

But hey, you’re not alone. Though you might not know it from a quick Google search, online markets for short stories are plentiful. The key is finding the right place for your story.

The best solution I’ve found is a handy little site called Duotrope. If you need help tracking submissions, learning more about publishing tendencies, or discovering brand new markets, you’re gonna dig Duotrope.

Track Those Submissions

When you create your account, here’s what you’ll see first:

screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-6-48-16-am

Duotrope shows how many pieces you’ve got out in the wild currently, how many submissions you’ve made in the past 12 months, and your acceptance ratio. Plus, you can get knee-deep in the nitty and the gritty.

screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-6-51-24-am

I love this screen because it gives me a quick glance at what stories are where and what’s happening with them. Also, the constant rejections make you feel like a real writer.

Detailed Market Details

Hate waiting? Me too. If you want to know what markets get back with a “yes” or “no” the fastest, this is your screen.

screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-6-57-38-am

As you can see, these range from the expedient to the glacial. Honestly, unless I absolutely love a particular market, I won’t submit to them if they’re on the slowest list. By contrast, if they’re on the fast list, I’m much more likely to send them my story.

This next report is one of my favorites. The percentages listed here indicate what portion of submissions are accepted.

screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-7-03-17-am

For writers, getting our names out there is essential. Approachable markets allow us to do that, even if they can’t always pay us.

Discover New Markets

Before I found Duotrope, I searched for new markets with search engines. I soon found that though Google is great for finding memes, it’s not so great for finding online fiction magazines. Here’s why:

When you search with Google, their systems prioritize sites with high domain authorities. This means that sites which generate more web traffic and have more content will appear higher on the results list. However, since you’ve probably heard of all these places before (think F&SF, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed), Google probably isn’t helping you find anything new.

Duotrope, on the other hand, allows you to get super specific with your searches. By doing so, you can find far more new destinations for your writing.

screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-7-19-34-am

Check out all those criteria. For best results, mark off as many categories as possible. You’ll be amazed at how many as-before unknown markets appear.

In Conclusion

Duotrope is one of the best companions a writer can have. Though there is a $50 yearly subscription fee, I think it’s well worth the small investment. Check it out and decide for yourself!

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