 I went to see WORLD WAR Z this weekend with my husband and a couple, who are our great friends. I loved this movie and I was TERRIFIED. I punched at invisible foes, I jumped numerous times, and I struck out at my husband as well (when I get scared I tend to slap his arm...not sure why. I guess it makes me feel better). As I was getting lower and lower in my seat, with my hands on my face while the movie grew and grew in intensity, my friend leans over to me and whispers, "But you write about zombies, this shouldn't scare you."
WHAT?!? Perhaps that makes sense to her, but not to me. Who says I can't be scared of zombies? And HELLO...the zombies in WORLD WAR Z are like zombies that have slurped sown a combination of steroids and meth--they're UBER zombies! I have every right to be scared. Dang. I don't think there is a set of zombies out there that could scare me worse than these ones. These suckers move fast! By nature, I am a wimp. There. I said it. It's true. And yes, I do write zombie books--but for friggin' heck (my Utah swearing), I KNOW what's going to happen as I'm writing it. I know who's going to die and I can make my zombies as creepy or as tame as I want them. I don't get that luxury as I'm watching a movie that I'm not familiar with. I have decided that I prefer slow zombies, shambling awkward zombies. That's how I like them. Not running. Not tipping over buses or climbing over one another to hop a wall. I don't like that. I want to know that I at least have a chance (yeah, right...I'm so toast), but still...there's just something not right about a fast zombie. That's just me, though. Anyhoo...I did enjoy this movie quite a bit, and I firmly believe that is you are a fan of zombies and enjoy high intensity, then this is a movie you'll enjoy. I watched it in a packed theater, and EVERYONE was having an amazing time. It was well worth the money. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think? Do you prefer your zombies shambling or hyped up on speed and hunger? Leave a comment. I love me some comments :)
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“A session of boasting won't attract any real friends. It will set you up on a pedestal, however, making you a clearer target.”  Ahhh...the balance of self-promotion and that of keeping your big trap shut is such a tricky thing. It's tricky because you, the author of a novel that you've slaved over for months, years, perhaps even decades, are really the only one responsible to get your books into the hands of potential readers, but at the same time...no one wants to hear about it. When an author attempts to even say, "Hi there. I have a new book that I think you might be interested in reading," people either roll their eyes, "There she/he goes again" or their eyes simply gloss over with indignation. So basically it's the conundrum of: GO CREATE SOMETHING AWESOME, BUT SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT IT. What most readers and people in general don't understand is that a great portion of marketing and self-promoting of a novel is placed in the author's hands. Very few authors have a publicity person at their disposal, even authors signed on with agents and large publishing companies are still required to handle most of their own marketing. This is terrifying for an author who spends most of their waking hours wearing pajamas and muttering to themselves about plot twists and character development. Authors use mounds of sticky notes and drink a lot of caffeine--how can they be expected to promote their work without having panic attacks? Then to top it all off... the author has to promote in a sneaky kind of way as not to tick off potential readers and be flagged as a spammer (ooooo...no one wants to be labeled a spammer).  I feel like this all the time Is your head spinning yet?
The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that as authors, we HAVE to promote our work because no one else will. No one else has an invested interest in it as much as we do--not our publishers, not our editors, not even our wee-little marketing team (if you're lucky to have a marketing team at all). Some will lead you to believe that you should just sit back and let nature take its course (ha,ha,ha...nature will chew you up and spit you out), while others say go NUTS and self-promote like a crazy person--to which you may end up being black-balled (it has happened). So what are authors supposed to do? I truly wish I had the answers. Heck, I truly wish SOMEONE had the answers, but alas, it seems as though NO ONE really does. Believe me, I've done a ton of research and no one has yet to figure out this paradox, because honestly, what may work for one person will bomb for another. The one thing that is certain is that authors have to promote their work. That's a fact that will never change. How we go about it is a difficult and troublesome thing, one that is almost a mystery for all involved. It's a balancing act of being consistent in whatever we choose to do--frequency garners attention. We've been told that a person needs to see a brand repeated numerous times before they are persuaded to try it. Yet, the line between frequency and annoying is a VERY thin line indeed. One would hope that when a reader joins an author's blog, or Facebook page, or follows them on Twitter, they'd understand that there will be some shameless self-promotion going on and be somewhat forgiving of it. For a lot of authors, this is all they have to work with. Some advice for readers: If an author could whisper about their new novel, or better yet, say nothing at all, believe me they would. Authors, for the most part, are introverts and HATE bringing attention to themselves, let alone three times or six times or twenty times. That's where readers come in handy: if you like what you've read, tell your friends and leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you like to leave them. This is the best kind of marketing an author can get and works much better than anything an author can do for themselves. Please be a little forgiving when you see an author promoting their work. It's something they have to do, but if they overdo it, then by all means feel free to let them know. Sometimes they just need a little reminder to pull back. Some advice for authors/writers: Don't be an asshat. If all you do is yell, "Buy me! Buy me! Buy me!" then you're a big ol' jerk. Don't email links of your book to your whole contact list. Don't send messages to people you DO NOT KNOW on Facebook telling them to buy your book (I've had this happen numerous times and it is annoying and of bad form and is a sure way of getting me NOT to buy your book). Conduct yourself in a manner that you would want to see from other authors/writers. Be friendly. Be fun. Be warm. Help promote others works besides your own. Be supportive of your fellow writers. And yes, by all means toot your own horn...but do it with dignity. If you're not sure what you're doing is dignified, then ask someone. People are really good at letting you know... and you'd probably like to know it before pitchforks and flames are headed your way. So shake your booty, because we must pimp ourselves, but do it with class--pole dancing is fine but lap dances are not :)  I was on facebook the other day (okay, I'm on there EVERY day, but still...) when a group of fiction writers I follow started a long thread discussing the act of killing off characters in their novels. The person who started the thread had a bone to pick (paraphrasing here): "Why do authors insist on killing off their characters? Why do they do this? I believe in happily-ever-after and don't want to read these kinds of books. It's depressing. Just let the characters be!"
That got me thinking...really? No books with any character deaths? Again I say, really? That makes no sense to me. Many of those that responded made statements that most often times the death of a character is necessary to the progression of the story (which I agree with) but the original poster wouldn't have anything to do with that. She simply wanted NO death and believed that most authors do it for the shock value. And the kicker, there were other responders that agreed with her! Yes, they did! "They're doing it just because they can", "They're not taking into account their readers feelings!" That got me thinking again...do I kill off characters to shock my readers? Am I not taking my readers feelings into account? Am I doing it just because I can? OH, HECK NO! Whenever I choose death for one of my characters, I don't do it willy-nilly (yep, I like that word. It's awesome), especially when I've invested a lot of time developing those characters. I love my characters. I really do, so to put them (and myself) through something so devastating, there better be a good reason for it. I write about zombies in The Wild West. Characters are bound to die. I can't have a trilogy and NOT have a character get eaten, that would be weird. Someone would call me out on that. I would like to hope other authors think this same way. They're not out to kill of characters "because they can", but because it is necessary for the story. Do readers get mad about character deaths? Yep, they do. There have been cases where authors have had to go back and rewrite a book, bringing a character back from the dead, to please the masses who protested such a move (it has happened more often that you know). Here's the thing: As a writer it is my job to get a reader invested in ALL the characters, so when that character dies, the reader will be emotional and saddened because of it. That's what a good writer does. Do we want you to be heartbroken? Yes. Do we want you to feel horrible for the other characters involved? Yes. Are we doing it to torture you? No, of course not. 1) Killing off a character has to have purpose. You don't want the reader to be numb to it. 2) Killing of a characters has to propel the plot or affect the arc of another character. 3) Too many deaths and the readers will no longer trust the writer and will refuse to bond with any of the characters for fear of them being chopped. (A big example of this is THE WALKING DEAD. I for one, no longer invest any emotions in the characters, especially any new ones. The writers kill them off left and right. Think about it: only Carol is left of the original females from season one. And what about Axel? I liked that prisoner. Shoot. Anyhoo...moving on). 4) Let there be an aftermath. Let the other characters explore their feelings over the death and give the reader a chance to understand its purpose. 5) The whole point is to get the reader to care about the characters so their death does have an impact on them. Throwaway characters are just that--throwaways. No reader will care about those deaths, but a main character...that has to mean something. 6) Keep in mind that when you kill of a beloved character there will be some aftermath. Readers will have favorite characters and will be heartbroken, but as long as there is a purpose and a reason, most readers will get through it and be understanding. In DEAD PLAINS, two beloved characters will die. I knew at least one death would happen while I was writing book one. The other surprised even me, but needed to happen to show the growth process for one of my main characters who had never experienced such a loss. I didn't write the deaths willy-nilly. I'd never write a characters death that way. That's not the kind of writer I am. And even though I enjoy a good happily-ever-after, I know that life has it's ups and downs and so that's what I write. So what do you think about character deaths? How does it make you feel? Do you steer clear of them? Does it make you angry when a beloved character dies in a novel? What say you? Leave a comment. “I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing: it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.”  Yesterday, I met my deadline. I did it. I wrote and wrote and wrote like FOR-EV-ER...and this time (after two previous failed attempts) made my third (yes, third) extended deadline. It is done. The manuscript is in my editors' hands. I've turned it over and now I wait for content edits to come back my way. It's about freakin' time. I should be delighted. I should be shouting from the rooftops. Yet, I sit here, staring at the submitted manuscript, thinking I could've done more. I can't sit here and wait for content edits -- I NEED to do more. I really shouldn't even be writing this blog. I should be fiddling with my work. I should be tweaking away at it RIGHT NOW! Shoot! Did I really submit THAT? Poop! I think I'm going to start messing around with it again. . . . Then that got me thinking: When is a book DONE? I mean done-done? I don't know that they ever are. I don't think there is one book out there that is absolutely perfect. Oh, I think there are books that are near perfect, and can think of several that left me in awe. But could they have been better? Yes. There's always room for better. If you don't believe me and think you know a PERFECT book out there, I want you to go to Amazon and take a look at some of the reviews for that "perfect" book. You may have thought it was perfect, but I'm certain there is someone out there that totally disagrees with you. And there it is. . . No perfect books. Oh, there are some things in life where you only get one chance to be perfect--a sniper comes to mind, they usually have to get it right on the first shot--but a as a writer/author, the process to keep doing it over and over and over is a daunting one. There is always editing, fixing, adding, deleting. . . . But at some point the writer has to stop. At some point the writer has to say, "I think this is pretty good. I'm satisfied." Or else there would never be completed books on a shelf for anyone to read. "Perfect is the enemy of the good. Write till it’s good, not till it’s perfect. Because you don’t know *** about perfect. Aim squarely for a B+, and then it’s time to let others have a shot in getting the novel to that A/A+ range."--Chuck Wendig So that's what I'm doing. I'm handing it over and hoping for some help and fresh eyes to give me perspective (and my editors are awesome at that). It will never be perfect. I will please some and I will offend others, but until this book is bound and sitting on a shelf. . . I'm going to keep screwing around with it, because, well. . . I can.
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