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Daily Writing Tips

Don't talk politics or religion.

 It's happened again. Baen Publishing evidently had an issue with material on one of their forums that has caused an explosion in science fiction fandom, or at least those who follow the Internet drama. 

I'm not going to talk about who is right or wrong, because as far as marketing your books goes--it doesn't matter. 

Pictured: Typical political discussion on an internet forum. 

If you have a forum, you may have a similar problem, unless you follow the wise advice of my Granddad: Don't talk politics or religion.  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't have opinions (though not many people enjoy being preached at) but political forums? No.  

The thing is that debates over politics and religion have winners and losers, even if it's just someone getting tired of the argument. And especially for something important (and most people who argue this type of thing feel it's important) losing, or even winning may leave a bad taste in their mouth. 

A bad taste associated with you.  Maybe enough of a bad taste that they go somewhere else to buy books. 

Not good, is it?

There are plenty of places on the Internet to talk politics, or as happens often, bloviate and howl like a gored hippo. Lots of places not associated with you.  You want people to, as much as possible, walk away from your forums with smiles on their faces, or if they've had an argument, at least not one about subjects that many people consider to be of life and death importance.  

Lastly, this can be especially important to smaller authors. People like us don't have the money to buy big ads, or a widely known publisher brand. Often our online advertising and social media presence is a huge part of our ability to sell things.  And if the first thing a visitor to our forums sees is a screaming argument, complete with the kind of vulgarity that causes soldiers to blush... Well, as they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. 

Now there is one exception--if you're a political writer. In that case, having forums that occasionally go off like a strategic nuclear device may actually be a plus. If so, invest in moderators and asbestos gloves--you'll need 'em. 

Of course, this doesn't get into the question of whether or not you should have a native forum, and we'll talk about that later. 

But for now, remember: No politics or religion at the dinner table keeps food fights from breaking out. 

Once more, with feeling.

 Normally, we're not supposed to use vulgrity in social media posts...

But 2020 sucked. 2020 sucked very, very badly.  Which is why you haven't heard much from me. Covid, family issues, monetary issues, rains of fire from the sky, rains of frogs from the sky...

Yeah. It's not been very good.   

So now, we shall try to start again, and we shall start the year on a good note:

Have some kittens

It's beena while.

 I'm going to blame Covid because well, it's caused a lot of issues at home and work. But hopefully we'll be getting back on track as 2020 comes to an end. 

But for now, take a look at something really neat:

It's a fan production of the original series end script. Really nice and yet another example of just how far the fandom has come in the years since it was accepted that funny books, cartoons and games were "just for kids."

And Chapter II of Dimension Breakers is up!

Chapter II: The Man With the Bags. 

In which our heroes save a pair of foolish kids--only to have to ask the question, who is going to save them?

The dangers of uncritically accepting automated writing advice

There are a metric ton of grammar programs out there, and many of them are worth it. Grammarly is one of the most popular, but there are many others. 

BUT... as with all things involving computers, remember something. They're not intelligent. Your book may have an overarching storyline, but Grammarly won't care. It'll simply ram your writing through a program that compares it to a variety of standards and then tells you what, according to those standards, is good or bad.

Note, I don't say: What it thinks. Computers don't think. Not like humans do, which means that when I read a passage nailing a single phrase and nod along with the character's words...  

Grammarly is going to be nailing you with "this sounds monotonous, would you like to change it?"  It'll do it with very official-looking red indicators. Writers, especially new writers can be very intimidated by that, and it's made worse because you're not talking to a real human editor, who can guide you through the process and most importantly, does understand what you're trying to do.  

So never forget this--automated editing software can be very good. Just about everyone I know uses it. But it is not a person, and it will never see your book as a book.  It will just see it as collections of words, and judge it by a list of rules in the program. Remember that, and don't be afraid to ignore the program.

On the other hand, if Grammarly tells you your sentence is too long, and you notice that the sentence in question is two pages long... Well... Maybe the program has a point. :)

Getting ready to write.

 Well, I've finished the first part of  my upcoming webnovel, Dimension Breakers, though I need to give it one last pass for grammar. 

Grammar, like stairs, my great enemy. 

This is going to be a first for me, since I'm used to writing in traditional style novels, but it should be interesting and well, between Covid, summer and the kid being in, it's not like I have a lot of time to do other things.

Stay cool and stay safe!