Category: Blog (Page 11 of 26)

10 Stories, 10 Samples

August 26, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

Monsters at Dusk

Alternate title for this post: The Monsters at Dusk sampler platter.

Why? Because, with short story collection Monsters at Dusk just 11 days away from release, I’d like to add something new to the menu. Today, I’d like to share the titles of all 10 stories. In addition, these titles come with a brief peek at each story.

If you like the sampler, don’t forget to order the main course on September 6th. Here we go!

Several Messages from Abby to God (Regarding Her Cat)

Dear Mr. Satan,

My name is Abby Thymes and my cat Pickles just died. I herd about you at Sunday skool and they said you’re kinda meen but also kinda magical I guess so I thought I’d say hi. I think Mr. God’s maybe taking a nap becuz he didn’t anser me.

Have you seen my cat Pickles down there? If you have could you send him back? If you do I would like you a lot and I would lissin to loud music with screeming and screechee gitars and stuff. My brother lissins to that stuff and he says it’s your favrit music. I’m sorry I don’t spell very good.

Anyway please send Pickles back. If not I’ll be really really mad at you.

Sincerealy,

Abby Thymes

Unbelievable

Anyway, once back at his dorm room, [Toby had] thrown on his clothes, some flip-flops, his backpack, whatever, and he’d dashed out the door. He smelled like his childhood dog Ambrose used to smell after rolling in the mud, but there was no time to care. If he was late again, the honorable professor Simon R. Briggs would fail him. And then probably murder him, just because he had tenure and he could get away with it.

We Remember

In my dream, I lie in bed beside you and I remember the outdoor concert where we first met, how hard it poured during the encore. I remember watching Troll 2 with you, our first B-movie, and laughing hard enough that cream soda gushed from my nose—still the only time it’s ever happened. I remember how hot it was the day we got married, how we all (especially me) sweat through our clothes. I remember the first time we kissed, and how my heartbeat never quite slowed around you since.

Large Coffee, Black

Some people flavor their coffee with sugar, milk, creamer, and the like. Osbourne truly hates those people.

A Good Fit in Penbluff City

Pren isn’t royalty, by the way. But that doesn’t mean she can’t feel like royalty. After all, she’s the closest thing to it these days. She’s a billionaire: first as a player, then as a landowner, now as a team owner in a sports league. And there’s no bigger sports league than the Greater Questing League.

Alice

Why would it do that? Never heard of an animal crying before, have you? That would require being sad, and being sad means you’ve got emotions. Animals only have about three: they’ve got scared, they’ve got hungry, and they’ve got horny—and don’t tell Gram I told you that last one. Animals don’t have the mental know-how to feel anything else.

Thespian: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in Three Acts

I was jobless, worthless, a base wretch and nothing more. My tyrannical landlady ousted me from my apartment, you see, just a day after my release from the theater company. The old bag cited three months without rental payment as motivation. She even cast me aside without so much as a “Good luck, and break a leg!”

Virus / Affliction / Condition / Curse

“Yeah, I worked on the werewolf Super Bowl commercial.” Giovanni Fressi frowns for a moment, then says, “Why? You wanna complain about it?”

Wings

“I can give you wings,” he said.

That was all. That and an enigmatic smile, a smile that might’ve been warm or predatory or indifferent. All he wanted was an answer. A yes.

I gave it to him.

The Megrim

When the first child vanished in the night, I called on the High Temple for aid.

Piebald the Cobbler laughed at me for doing it. “You’re always worrying, Pureman,” he said the following day as we trudged over fresh snow. “Too much for a young man like you. I’ve got a boy of my own. These children, they go wandering, they come back. Once this one starts missing his sweets and his bed, he’ll return.”

Yet a day passed without sign of the child.

[You can read even more from this one here.]

That’s all for now…

But you can buy the entire book on ebook or paperback September 6th. Look for it then!

Kyle A. Massa is the author of the novel Gerald Barkley Rocks and the forthcoming short story collection Monsters at Dusk. His stories have appeared in numerous online magazines, including Allegory, Chantwood, and Dark Fire Fiction. He lives somewhere in upstate New York with his wife and their two cats.

An Early Look at “Monsters at Dusk”

August 19, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

Monsters at Dusk

I’ve been teasing a new book for the past few months. I’m happy to say it’s nearly here.

The book is called Monsters at Dusk. It’s a short story collection (well, technically six short stories, three flash fiction pieces, and one novella). Each story concerns a different monster, some literal, some metaphorical, some you’ll recognize, others you won’t. A handful of these stories have been published around the internet; most are unpublished and original. Here they are, together for the first time. Kinda like The Avengers in 2012.

But you can’t have a book without a cover. So that’s why I asked my good buddy and eminently talented designer Nathan Rumsey to do this:

Nathan did the cover for my first book, Gerald Barkley Rocks, as well. Don’t ask me which I love more—it’s like choosing between kids. To learn more about the making of this one, feel free to read last week’s blog post, “Creating the Cover of ‘Monsters at Dusk’.”

Now what about the cover copy? I’m glad you asked, kind reader. Here’s a little more info about Monsters at Dusk:

There’s no monster under your bed, but there are several in this book.

The first short story collection from “Gerald Barkley Rocks” author Kyle A. Massa, “Monsters at Dusk” offers answers to several important questions, such as:

Do vampires use Snapchat?

What happens when a demonic cat declares war on God and Satan?

Is someone drinking your memories? If so, are they tasty?

If a mad scientist offers to build you a set of wings, should you accept?

Can sports franchises set in epic fantasy worlds make better hiring decisions than real ones?

How would the American legal system handle werewolves?

What is a Megrim and why does it keep taking everyone’s kids?

Balancing fantasy, science fiction, horror, and humor, each of the collection’s 10 stories concerns a different monster—some familiar, some original, some literal, some metaphorical, all strange and wonderful in their own way.

Monsters at Dusk arrives Friday, September 6th, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and in paperback.

Creating the Cover of “Monsters at Dusk”

August 12, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

A book without a cover is like a burrito without a tortilla. For quite some time, that’s what I had with Monsters at Dusk.

That’s the title of my upcoming book, by the way. It’s a collection of short stories (and one novella), all about—you guessed it—monsters. I had the stories, I had the title, and I even had the pretentious quotes at the beginning. But that was just the filling. I needed to wrap it all up before anyone could take a bite.

Enter Nathan Rumsey. Nathan is a designer, a former co-worker, and a good friend of mine. He designed the cover of my first book, Gerald Barkley Rocks, and he did a fantastic job. (If you haven’t seen it, please do check it out. And while you’re looking at the cover, you could, you know, buy the book. If you feel like it.)

The Cover of Gerald Barkley Rocks

I had a specific idea in mind for Gerald Barkley Rocks and Nathan executed it brilliantly. I can’t remember the exact description, but it went something like this…

Yo Nathan! I’m looking for a spinning vinyl record on a turntable. The color red is essential to the book, so I’d like that to be a key element of the cover as well. Perhaps the needle is scratching a line of blood into the disc? Also, since the book has a mostly amusing tone, I don’t want the cover to feel too creepy. Looking for more of a lighthearted feel.

He turned that description into this gorgeous cover…

Nathan absolutely nailed it, as you can see. The only part that didn’t quite work was the needle scratching blood on the record; Nathan tried it, but it didn’t translate well to the cover. Especially in thumbnail size, the record needle looked more like a water cooler.

Luckily for me, Mr. Rumsey translated the needle idea to the title font instead. Notice the droplet of blood that hangs from the letter C in “Rocks.” Love it!

What’s more, I appreciate how Nathan addressed the challenging bits of my description. For example, how does one make a bloody cover lighthearted and not creepy?

Nathan did. He used bright colors that contrasted with the black background. Furthermore, he used a faded font that suggested retrocelebrationism over anything more sinister (like how I coined a new term there?).

But enough about the past. Let’s focus on the future.

The Cover of Monsters at Dusk

Here’s an approximation of my description for Nathan:

Ahoy Nathan! This time around I’m writing a short story collection. As you can guess from the title, each story is about a monster. Dusk (or more generally, times of transition) is a key theme.

Since it’s several stories in one, I don’t want a specific character or monster from any one story featured too heavily. I want something slightly creepy, yet also somehow humorous, because these aren’t straight-up horror stories. Other than that, I have no strong opinions or ideas. Hope that helps!

Clearly not the most descriptive description. Yet I was lucky to be working with a creative guy who can make a lot from a little. I sent three stories from the book to Nathan, then waited.

A few weeks later, Nathan presented a handful of concepts. There were many more than these, but here are several of those rough sketches:

Monster at Dusk Sketches

The concept was totally cool. In the top middle row, for example, I like how you can see the sun dipping below the horizon line. Furthermore, I was intrigued by the placement of the title, particularly the way the word “Dusk” creeps along the ground. My only concern here was that the word “Monsters” would be difficult to parse, especially in thumbnail size.

The bottom left image really caught my attention. I loved how the title was composed of early evening light passing through a window. The tree in the background gives that slightly creepy tone I mentioned in the description without branching into horror.

I told Nathan I was intrigued. He delved deeper and returned with more concepts.

Looking pretty good now, huh? Nathan worked his magic again, this time fleshing out the colors and adding a few more experimental elements. Here I loved how it was now much easier to read the book’s title. And again, I enjoyed the placement of the words along the floor and wall.

For the images along the top row, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the faces in the darkness. They achieved that subtly-creepy-yet-slightly-humorous tone I mentioned, yet they felt a bit too on-the-nose. However, I knew Nathan was onto something with these concepts.

The bottom row really got me thrilled. The tree in the reflection returned again, along with the cool font climbing up the wall. Also, the extra windows disappearing out of frame gave the image a broader sense of space.

In the middle image, you might also notice a creepy fellow wearing a bowler hat. Nathan threw that in there and confessed he wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I totally did. It wasn’t a specific character in any of my stories, yet I felt it embodied many of them: Uncanny creatures that aren’t always obvious monsters.

Next up…

Here you can see the design solidifying. We’ve got the contrast of dark negative space with bright colors in the reflection, which brings your eyes to the title. The words also move all the way up the wall, making them less cramped. The creepy guy did disappear in this iteration, though I promise he returns in the finished product. The other sweet innovation: the slippers. See them in the bottom right-hand corner?

This is one of the many moments when Nathan’s work amazed me. The slippers are perfect. They have little monster jaws on them and they’re a classic bit of bedtime attire—that connects the book’s two most important themes. Also, they’re kind of funny, which fulfills the humor request. A+ work.

So all that leads us to the finished product. If you’re subscribed to my newsletter you’ve already seen this. If not, here it is for the first time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the finished cover of Monsters at Dusk!

Now that’s a perfect burrito.

It’s all here: Creepy guy, the monster slippers, the tree (now slightly out of focus), the cool title font, even a nightstand with a plump little spider. Notice too that the font on my name is the same from Gerald Barkley Rocks—Nathan shrewdly added that to give the covers a bit more continuity. I also dig the purple color palette because it gives the sense we’re lost somewhere between late afternoon and nightfall. Or, ya know, dusk. The gradient color of the light bolsters this effect.

I’m thrilled to finally share this cover with the world. Thank you so much, Nathan. I love this cover!

If you’re looking for an amazing designer, I could not recommend Nathan highly enough. Check out his website (a work of art in and of itself) for more information.

To buy this cover and everything underneath it, Monsters at Dusk releases Friday, September 6th. If you’d like to get even more hyped for its release, don’t forget to read the excerpt. More to come!

Don’t Get Stumped: 5 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

August 5, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

Leonid Pasternak’s “Throes of Creation”

Writing’s always fun when you have something to write. But when the well runs dry, you might find that you’ve got writer’s block.

But what is writer’s block? Is it even a real phenomenon? And if it is, what can we do about it?

As the late Sir Terry Pratchett once said, “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.” Okay, possibly. But I think there’s also a common misconception about writer’s block in general: that it’s a condition where you are literally incapable of writing. I don’t believe in that either, Terry.

I do believe, however, in writer’s stump—and I’m not talking about trees. Writer’s stump means you just get stumped—like on a math problem, or with a difficult riddle. It happens to every writer, probably even Terry Pratchett.

So what can we do about it? Here are a few ideas.

1. Try Working on a Completely Unrelated Project

For me, this method works really well. I think that’s because I remain in the writing state of mind, even though I’m not working on my main project.

To get started, try writing something completely new, like a flash fiction piece or a short story. You could even try writing about how difficult it is to think of something to write, so long as you’re putting something on the page/screen. You might find that it changes your mindset from I can’t write to I’m struggling with this particular piece right now, but I’m still a good writer.

The other side of this coin is just stepping away from writing entirely—but just for a little while, I hope. If you’re feeling especially enraged about your writing, Nicolas Cage-style, then you might want do something else for a while.

2. Look to One of Your Favorite Works for Inspiration

I find this one either works really well or just pisses you off (Cage-style pissed? See previous paragraph). For example, I might pull my hardcover of American Gods down from the shelf, pick a random paragraph, read it, and say to myself, “Wow. When I grow up, I want to write like that.” And then, hopefully, I’ll go back to my piece with a smile and newfound inspiration.

Or, on another day, I might read the same random paragraph and exclaim, “Wow. When I grow up, I will never, ever be that good. Woe is me.”

Your reaction to this method will probably depend on your temperament or what kind of mood you’re in on that particular day. Be careful with this one.

3. Look Back at Something You’ve Already Written

Similar to number 2, but try it with your own work. I would suggest picking something you wrote a while ago and were always very proud of, but haven’t looked at for a while. That way, you might surprise yourself with some especially crackling pieces of dialogue, or a beautifully-written image.

This one is especially effective because writer’s stump is often just a symptom of self-doubt. You get stuck, which makes you wonder if you’re actually a good writer, and suddenly, you have no good ideas anymore. By looking back at a good piece, you’ll see that you’ve already written some amazing stuff, so there’s no need to feel like you can’t write.

Or, for a little fun, try revisiting a piece you wrote when you first started writing. I did that once, and it was awesome. You come out of the experience realizing that you’ve improved a ton more than you might realize.

4. Ask yourself, “What is this piece really about?”

This, like the other tricks I’ve mentioned, is certainly not foolproof. But it’s one of my favorite techniques. If you sit back and look at your story as a whole, not just as one event leading to the next, you might spot the way out of the stump you’ve gotten yourself into.

I think Stephen King sums this method up perfectly in his nonfiction masterpiece, On Writing. He describes a particularly nasty case of the block when writing The Stand thusly:

“I liked my story. I liked my characters. And still there came a point when I couldn’t write any longer because I didn’t know what to write…I circled the problem again and again, beat my fists on it, knocked my head against it…and then one day when I was thinking of nothing much at all, the answer came to me…If there is any one thing I love about writing more than the rest, it’s that sudden flash of insight when you see how everything connects.”

Just taking a step back and looking at the big picture sometimes makes all the difference.

5. Grind it out!

This method isn’t for everyone, but I think it’s worth a try sometimes. If you’re writing a novel and can’t think of a way to get your character from Point A to Point B, just plop her/him at Point B and figure out the “how” later. You might find that the answer comes to you as a result of your subsequent writing. Furthermore, this avoids the blank-stare-at-the-screen-or-page moment, which just leads to more of the same.

Closing Thoughts…

The stump/block, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, is one ugly you-know-what. Thankfully, there are many ways to defeat it. I’m certainly no expert, but I like to write about writing and the methods I’ve listed here sometimes work for me. How do you fight the block? Feel free to leave your favorite techniques in the comments below.

And keep on writing!

Kyle A. Massa is a speculative fiction author living somewhere in upstate New York with his fiancee and their two cats. His stories have appeared in numerous online magazines, including Allegory, Chantwood, and Dark Fire Fiction.

The Curious Case of Why Short Story Collections Don’t Sell

July 29, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

“Short stories are loose change in the treasury of fiction.”

That’s what J.G. Ballard wrote in the introduction to his Complete Short Stories collection. Considering the dwindling attention spans of many readers, you’d think that short stories would be more popular than ever. But when’s the last time you saw someone reading a short story collection? Just like Ballard wrote, it seems short stories are the pennies, nickels, and dimes of literature.

So why don’t short stories sell?

First, I think it’s about the characters. Take a series like A Song of Ice and Fire, for example. Fantasy fans and non-fantasy fans alike revere that series in large part because of the characters. They’re dense, they’re layered, and they evolve over the course of many volumes. In short stories, however, you don’t have hundreds of pages to devote to character development. That’s not to say that short stories don’t have good characters—it’s just that, with such limited space, writers must focus on a few key characteristics rather than many.

Furthermore, I think agents and publishers are less likely to go for collections because they don’t have the potential for a series. This one’s a no brainer: once readers get attached to the first book in a series, you’ve got them locked in to buy the rest. The Harry Potter series, for instance, only got more and more popular with each new release. And once the series ends, publishers can package the whole thing into a box set for even more sales. All told, that’s a heck of a lot of money.

And another thing: authors often use short story collections to explore different styles and genres, which is the opposite of what they do with novels. Another truism of the publishing industry states that once an author makes it big with one book, she/he should pretty much rewrite that story, only make it a little different this time. For readers, this is a good thing; you can pick up a novel by an author you know, and you’ll probably end up liking it.

Short stories don’t necessarily follow that rule, though. Things like second person narrative and interview style, which rarely work in long-form narratives, suddenly spring to life in a short story. Authors also tend to explore subjects they stray away from in their longer fiction. Roald Dahl is a great example. Sure, you know him as the guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But have you ever read his short fiction? Just to get a taste (sorry for the pun), try Lamb to the Slaughter. It’s a clever short that includes murder, adultery, deception, and dinner.

Or, in other words, good fun.

Will short stories ever sell like novels do? Maybe not. Historically, the novel has always been far more popular, and, for the reasons listed above, I can see that trend continuing for a long, long time.

But don’t let that stop you from trying short fiction, if you haven’t already. There’s an elegance to a good short story, a brevity and directness that many novels are missing. Some of the greatest short stories I’ve ever read say much more with far less.

So, for J.G. Ballard’s sake and the sake of short story writers everywhere, always hold on to that loose change.

Kyle A. Massa is a speculative fiction author living somewhere in upstate New York with his wife and their two cats. His stories have appeared in numerous online magazines, including Allegory, Chantwood, and Dark Fire Fiction.

5 Ways to Excel at Taking Criticism Poorly

July 22, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

This is a good start.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Very, very few people enjoy taking criticism. It’s not fun to spend hours of your time on a piece that you really like, only to have someone point out all the things they didn’t like. In fact, sometimes it can be downright discouraging.

But let’s not get discouraged. Because any writer will tell you that the first draft is always going to stink. Which means that the feedback you receive is invaluable to your writing process. Without it, you can’t improve.

Still, there are those out there who just can’t take criticism. If you want to be one of those wonderful folks, here are five great ways to excel at taking criticism poorly.

1. Treat Every Comment Like a Personal Attack

Whenever you get negative feedback, assume that it isn’t directed at your piece—it’s directed at you. When a reader says your character acts like a dick in that one scene, don’t be fooled. The reader thinks that you are the dick.

Make sure to act appropriately mad or hurt, matching the ostensible nastiness of the comment made. This informs your readers that you’re taking everything personally, and that from here on out, you’re going to continue to do so.

Some helpful retorts to try:

“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”
“Wow, tell me how you really feel.”
“Well, I think I don’t buy you as a character.”

This is a great way to ensure that you’ll receive cautious, unhelpful comments from your group members.

2. Whenever Possible, Explain Why Everyone Else is Wrong

When receiving feedback, you’ll oftentimes find that your readers just don’t understand you. They can’t comprehend your wit, your subtlety, and your mastery of the craft. So when readers tell you they don’t understand what’s going on in chapter two, kindly explain that, “It’s not me. It’s you.”

Furthermore, make sure to pontificate on every subtlety of the work, just in case people aren’t getting it. Always be sure to explain, in excruciating detail, the symbolism behind each character’s name, your inspiration for the story, the ways in which you’ve outdone all the other writers in the genre, and so forth. People will love it.

3. Assume That No One Else Knows What They’re Talking About

First thing with this method: make sure to always have a notebook. No no, don’t write anything down. Think of it more as a prop.

Leave your notebook open. Keep your pen hovering just above the page, but don’t use it. This sends a clear message to your readers: nothing they say is relevant to you, so you won’t even write it down.

Unless they compliment that metaphor you had in the first paragraph. Go ahead, write that down. Compliments are totally useful. Everything else is nonsense.

This, in general, is a great rule to live by if you want to push people away. Everybody loves a know-it-all, right?

4. When Readers Offer Feedback, Just Talk Over Them

Monologues work fabulously with this method. Feel free to use the following as a template.

“What’s the point of criticism, anyway? To quote Ringo Starr, I’m the greatest. So of course I know that all the adverbs I’m using are completely necessary. And if I’m not using two to four adjectives per noun, then I’m sure you just won’t get the picture.

“What’s that? You think the flow of the sentences is disrupted by all the adverbs and adjectives?

“I’m sorry, have you ever read Shakespeare? Well I read Hamlet in high school, and let me tell you, that guy uses lots of adverbs and lots of adjectives. And he’s the Bard. So that means I’m right. And you’re wrong.

“Anything else?”

5. Allow Every Piece of Criticism Destroy Your Confidence in Your Work

You’ve worked for so long on this piece, and now that you know everything that’s wrong with it, you know the truth. It’s not even worth saving! On to the next one, right?

Don’t spend time trying to fix it. Sure, you could probably take the advice you’ve been given and make your piece better than it was, but why do that? This thing is more tragically flawed than Prince Hamlet.

So go ahead. Throw it out. Start over. Ask for criticism not because you want to make your piece better, but because you want affirmation that it’s already the best.

Congratulations on a bad job well done. It’s not easy taking criticism this badly, but together we can do it. Bonus tip: getting visibly angry always works when these other methods fail.

Has Your Antagonist Stolen Your Story?

July 15, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

Protagonist: the character who propels your story forward. Usually the main character. Antagonist: the character who impedes that forward progress. Usually a supporting character. Seem simple enough. Except when it’s not.

What if your antagonist is more compelling than your protagonist? Contrary to conventions, what if your villain feels more like the main character than your main character does? What if it feels like your antagonist has stolen your story?

Let’s look into some answers to these questions.

Option 1: Improve Your Protagonist

If your antagonist is a 10 out of 10 and your protagonist only a nine, it’s time to turn the latter up to 11. In other words, maybe it’s not that your antagonist has stolen your story. Maybe your protagonist just needs to be a little stronger (or louder, as it were).

Voldemort

This imbalance is sometimes caused by focusing too much on building likable main characters. Since we most likely want readers to root for our protagonists, they can turn into types rather than individuals. Traits like courage, resourcefulness, and fairness are great. But they can also be a little boring all by themselves.

If your protagonist feels uninteresting, try adding flaws. These tend to create internal conflict, which builds good characters.

For instance, imagine you’re writing a heroic protagonist. We’ll call her Solara (after one of my cats). Since you want Solara to be likable, you write her as a kind, intelligent, capable character. Whenever she encounters a challenge, she succeeds. Although Solara sounds like an awesome person, she’s not a particularly interesting character. Pretty much any antagonist you set against her will overshadow her.

Instead, let’s add a flaw. What if she succeeds all the time, yet fails for the first time when the world needs her most? How does she react to that? How does she live with herself?

By adding this simple flaw of overconfidence, we’ve enhanced our protagonist greatly. Doing so returns her to the forefront of the story, which simultaneously reclaims some mojo from your antagonist.

Option 2: Shift the Focus of Your Story

If you feel your antagonist is the best character in your manuscript, it’s entirely possible that your antagonist should’ve been the protagonist all along.

Gollum

But in the words of Treebeard, don’t be hasty. Agonize over this decision before you make it. Sometimes it’s exactly what your manuscript needs. Sometimes it means months of work with little (or no) payoff.

Furthermore, this solution is rarely correct because an author’s instincts are rarely wrong. You know your story better than anyone. Therefore, if you decided to tell it from your original protagonist’s point of view, that’s very likely to be the correct decision. Because when it comes to writing, initial inclinations are usually right.

Bottom line: This solution works, though not as often as you might think. Consider it, but don’t expect it.

Option 3: Accept It

The Joker

Stories are best when conventions are broken. So maybe it’s alright for your antagonist to be more compelling than your protagonist.

The Dark Knight provides an excellent example. This film came out when I was in high school and became an instant hit. I myself saw it three times in theaters (and nearly a fourth, that time in IMAX). Everyone saw it. I remember the conversations about it vividly.

No one talked about Batman. Everyone talked about the Joker.

On its face, that might sound backward. The film isn’t called The Joker, after all. Shouldn’t Batman be the character everyone’s talking about?

Not necessarily. Ultimately it comes down to the story you’re writing. The Joker’s popularity works because villains are an essential ingredient of comic book films. In addition, the Joker himself is one of the most famous antagonists there is. Making him the emphasis of the film works, and works well.

Will the same work for your work? As with all of these tips, you’re the best judge. Figure out what’s best for your story, your protagonist, and your antagonist, then act. Because no one knows your story better than you!

For Writers, Hoarding Ideas Is a Big Mistake

July 1, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

We all do it, even though we probably shouldn’t. It’s that thing where we say to ourselves, “I’m saving this idea for my next story.” Or, “That character isn’t entering until the third book in the series.” Or, “I had this great idea for a line of dialogue, but I’m keeping it for the project after next.”

As writers, we all hoard our ideas from time to time. And I think we should all try to do it a little less. Here’s why.

Hoarding Makes Ideas Less Fresh

Let’s say you’ve got an idea you’re really excited about. Maybe it’s a character, a setting, a plot point. Whatever it is, it’s a fresh idea. Why allow it to go stale?

That’s what we do when we hoard ideas. Stephen King wrote this in the classic On Writing and I agree—ideas come out best on the page when we’re most excited about them. So if an idea intrigues you, I say go for it. Don’t allow those fresh ideas time to cool off.

Hoarding Assumes We Won’t Have New Ideas

Hoarding food in preparation of the impending zombie apocalypse makes sense. Good eats are going to get scarce once the zombies shamble into town (unless of course, you are a zombie yourself). By its very nature, the act of hoarding implies scarcity. But unlike food, ideas are completely renewable resources. When we hoard them, we’re forgetting that fact.

We’re writers, right? We make stuff up for fun or work (or both), then we pour our imaginations onto the page. Just because we haven’t thought of the next idea yet doesn’t mean we never will. The idea will present itself to us when it’s ready. So let’s not get into this scarcity mindset.

Hoarding Can Limit Quality

Let’s say you’re writing a trilogy. You want books two and three to be just as good as book one, so you save some of your best ideas for the later two volumes.

My question is, do you still have enough good ideas for the first book? Because if you extract concepts and inject them into the later volumes, you might be left with a rather shriveled first book. Not a good place to be. Readers are highly unlikely to complete a series when they don’t enjoy the first entry. And if readers don’t make it to your sequels, they’ll never enjoy those great ideas, anyway.

Focus on making your current project the best it can be. Cross future bridges when you come to them.

In Conclusion

Sure, sometimes ideas must wait. For structural reasons, you might not be able to include every great idea in every story you’re currently working on. But if you have a great idea and you can incorporate it into the story you’re working on now, I say go for it. Now is the time!

Proofreading Tips for Writers

June 24, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

Proofreading

If you want people to read your stuff, it usually helps to make sure it’s readable. That’s why proofreading is so important.

Submitting a messy manuscript is like showing up to a job interview in shorts and a hoodie. And if you’re trying to collect feedback from your writers group, friends, or family, they’re going to have a tough time focusing on the writing when all they notice is that you’re using the wrong “their.”

With that in mind, here are some proofreading tips that work for me. Hopefully, they can work for you, too.

Print It Out

If you do your writing on a computer, try printing your piece and editing right on the page. I’m not really sure why, but I tend to catch way more mistakes on a physical page than I do in a word processor. Plus, you can handwrite your edits directly onto the paper, which makes you look like a serious and dedicated writer to anyone passing by.

Be Patient

When I’ve got a piece I’ve dedicated a lot of time and thought to, it’s tempting to send it out immediately. It’s exciting, after all, to think that someone might read it and love it as much as I do. It’s tempting, but don’t jump the gun. Sit on it a while.

Allow yourself ample time to review your piece. Come back to it a day later, and then a week later, even a month later. Doing so will give you some much needed distance. Oftentimes, you’ll come back to your piece, cringe, and then ask yourself, “Why the hell did I write that?”

Be Critical of Everything

When you’re proofreading, don’t just look for spelling and grammar mistakes. Those are important to weed out, but proofreading gives you the opportunity to refine your style as well. Are you repeating certain words over again? Are you varying your sentence structure? Is your tone consistent throughout?

One way to be critical is to treat your piece like it’s not your piece. Pretend that you’re an editor and that you’ve been given a stranger’s manuscript, and it’s up to you to make it better. Doing so gives you the distance you’ll need to make those necessary cuts.

Sometimes it hurts to hit that delete key, but in the words of George Orwell, “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.” ‘Nuff said.

Ask Someone to Read Your Piece Back to You

This is probably my favorite method of proofreading. It helps to have the text in front of you as well, so you can follow along and mark down any errors either of you spot. Since your reader must pay extra attention to the text in order to read it aloud, he or she will be more likely to pick up on mistakes. And since you’re hearing it, you will too.

Take notes on where your reader struggles. If he or she has to go back and re-read a passage, there’s a good chance that passage needs some work. Likewise, note where your reader thinks you’ve succeeded. For example, if you have a line that supposed to be funny and your reader laughs at it, that’s a pretty good indicator that you’ve gotten your point across.

Use Your Computer’s Voice Command

Let’s say you don’t have anyone around to read your work to you. No problemo—we live in the 21st century, after all. Have your computer read to you!

On a Mac, head up to System Preferences, then click on Dictation & Speech. From there, choose the key combination you’d like to press to have the computer read your work (mine, for example is Command+Alt+S). Now head back to your document, highlight the desired text, hit your keys, and there you have it. Your computer should read whatever you highlighted.

I’m a big fan of this feature because sometimes, even when I read a piece many times over, I’ve still got errors. Fortunately, when I hear the work read aloud, I tend to hear things like redundancies and duplicate words that I might not otherwise notice.

What Else?

How do you proofread your work? Do you have your own secret methods? Maybe a sweet computer program I haven’t listed? Post it in the comments!

Lastly, if I’ve made any proofreading errors in this blog, shame on me.

What To Do With a One-Star Review

June 3, 2019 / Kyle A. Massa

one star review

I recently received my first one-star review. This was my reaction:

Nah, just kidding. I was pretty bummed at first, but now that I’ve had time to think about it, I have some fresh thoughts. In this post, we’ll discuss ways to make something good out of a bad review.

Write About It

…But please don’t write a scathing hit piece against the reviewer. Remember, every review is valuable, even those with one star. Instead, it might help to write a piece that helps other writers going through the same thing.

Okay, I know this sounds a little like a support group for something that isn’t that bad. It’s just a review. However, bad reviews sting, and they can be jarring blows to your confidence. So do what you do best. Write about it.

Give others tips on how to overcome their disappointment. Discuss ways to do something positive with a negative. That can help turn things around.

You might even take this one step further and use it in your next story. Every experience can contribute to fictional work, so keep this one stored away. Write about a writer who’s struggling to move on after receiving bad reviews. Or, more generally, apply this feeling to a character who’s experiencing momentary failure.

Remember That Everyone Gets Them

Really. Everyone. Here’s a review for Margaret Atwood’s latest:

Here’s another for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, one of the most successful novels of all time:

And even the master of horror himself, Stephen King:

It’s just like mom said: You can’t please everyone. Your carefully crafted plot twist is going to be labeled predictable by some readers. Your favorite character is going to be someone else’s punching bag. Your most intricate passage is going to feel unwieldy to a less patient reader.

It’s the nature of art to be controversial. If everyone feels exactly the same way about it, then maybe it’s not doing its job well. Some of the most enduring stories are those that people argue about.

For example, consider the latest Avengers film. Without giving anything away, let’s just say that Marvel Studios made significant changes to some of its most beloved characters. Some people liked it. Some didn’t. Yet even those that didn’t are joining a conversation about the film. And that’s a good thing.

Consider the Aggregate

If I may take an example from my cardboard addiction, Magic: The Gathering, consider the aggregate. In Magic, if your goal is to win every match, you’ve set an unrealistic expectation for yourself. Even Jon Finkel, the Michael Jordan of Magic, wins only about 65 percent of his games. So if you can’t win every match, what should be your goal?

In Magic, the goal is not to win, but to increase your percentage chance of winning. The best players in the world squeeze out that additional one percent of win likelihood, which doesn’t sound like much, but really is. Over the long term, that extra one percent could be the deciding match in a championship game, or a difficult-to-navigate situation most other players would lose. Percentage points are what separate good players from the greats.

The same goes for reviews. Even if that one-star review feels like a loss, your skill will be shown in the overall record of your book. The aggregate scores will drown out some of the worse ones, and overall, you’ll find success.

Summing It Up

One-star reviews are hard to stomach in the moment. Give yourself time to be sad about them, but then move on quickly. Find something positive to do with that negative review, and then do it. It will be a huge help in the future.