Gnosis: A Psychic Urban Fantasy By Rick Hall

6/7/2019

Multi-volume, multi-genre author, Rick Hall introduces us to his new book, Gnosis: A Psychic Urban Fantasy:
Psychics, government conspiracies, and dangerous criminals swirl like a summer storm around 17yo parkour enthusiast Samantha Black.

When a series of crushing headaches lands Sam in the hospital, she wakes to an imaginary voice in her head: Alexander, an adorable ten-year-old who claims to be a telepath. The doctors think Sam’s brain was damaged after a stroke, but they’re wrong. Alexander isn’t imaginary. He’s a sentient virus, and the government knows about him. After all, they created him.

This story is so well crafted! I love it! Samantha is so resourceful; I love the parkour action also. Alexander is quite adorable.
Rick has wowed me with his writing! His plotting is magnificent, the scene-setting is excellent. I don’t think he wasted a single word. Everything moves the story forward, as the mysteries are peeled back one at a time. First person POV does it for me every time, no head-hopping here! I enjoyed how the characters developed also.
Gnosis gets a score of 4.9 stars!

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Gnosis-Psychic-Fantasy-Rick-Hall-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/-gnosis
https://www.bookbub.com/books/gnosis-a-psychic-urban-fantasy-by-rick-hall

You can follow Rick:
https://twitter.com/Stellerex64
http://www.rickhallauthor.com
https://www.facebook.com/GnosisNovel
https://www.goodreads.com/author/Rick_Hall
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/rick-hall

Tags: mystery, conspiracy, paranormal, teen, YA, father, action, adventure, coming of age, paranormal

Rick's guest blog about non-linear writing: www.wordrefiner.com/guest-blogs/non-linear-writing

Copyright © Mark Schultz 2019, except for the author’s introduction.

84 Comments

Rick Hall link

6/8/2019 11:47:37 pm

Thanks for the kind words, Mark!

Mark

6/9/2019 11:15:14 am

You are very welcome. You wrote a book that I enjoyed reading immensly.
New question.
Please, tell us a little about yourself. Perhaps something a little bit beyond your bio.

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 11:47:38 am

Something that’s not in my bio is my motivation for writing Gnosis. A few years ago, I applied to an MFA program for creative writing. I supposed it was unrealistic to expect I’d get in. I was over 50 years old with an undergrad degree in Electronics from 1986, and applying to a program that traditionally only took 18 students per year. But, being me, I applied anyway. Eight months later, I got my rejection notice. I bought a six pack on the way home from work that night. Had myself a couple of beers, and the following day, I started work on Gnosis. I suppose you could say I wrote it with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I’m refuse to let convention, or anyone representing it, tell me what I can or can’t do. That attitude pretty much defines me across the board

Mark

6/9/2019 12:03:29 pm

That is a great story! It illustrates perfectly the perseverance a writer needs to create and write. I am glad you didn't get accepted, otherwise Gnosis might not have been written.
New questions.
Have you thought about applying to that program or another since?
Are you a full-time or part-time writer?
Why did you choose this genre, or do you feel the genre chose you?

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 12:30:51 pm

Have I thought about applying to that program or another since? No, not really. Other than self-publishing a novel and getting a couple of years older, nothing else in my life has changed. I’m smiling as I write this, recalling an old quote by Einstein. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 12:31:25 pm

Am I a full-time or part-time writer? At this stage, I still have to pay the bills. It’s pretty rare for someone to be able to earn a living from the proceeds of their first book, especially when it was self-published. I’m still trying to get the hang of promotion and marketing. I expect I’ll still need my day job for quite some time to come, but that isn’t stopping me from writing. Upward and onward.

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 12:31:46 pm

Why did I choose this genre, or do I feel the genre chose me? That’s actually a really good question. My current day job is teaching videogame design in a Master’s Degree program at the University of Central Florida. One of the central concepts I’m always hectoring my students about is that idea that you have to know your audience, and know them well, if you want any hope of entertaining them. For Gnosis, I chose an audience I’m already familiar with: the 15-22 year-old female. This is a large and growing audience in video game design, something I’m already quite familiar with. I spent a decent amount of time documenting my understanding of the audience, and what they wanted in a book. That research provided me with basic constraints like: YA, Urban Fantasy, female protagonist, conspiracy theory, and, most interestingly, a de-emphasis on romance. The particular audience I’m aiming at grew up in the era of 9-11 and the 2008 economic meltdown. They have a millennial’s core, but are tempered with serious pragmatism. Lots of studies of 15-22 year-old girls show that they aren’t super focused on marriage or kids. They are focused on self-sufficiency and establishing themselves, both in life and in their careers. They can identify with a resilient, pragmatic heroine, who is driven to achieve her own goals, and doesn’t define herself by her relationships. That’s really Samantha Black. She’s plausible and can exist in a dangerous environment, not by beating up 250 pound men, but by being cagy and elusive via parkour skills. Sam is compassionate and moral, but also tough and self-reliant. I guess in that light, you could say that given my familiarity with the audience, the genre chose me.

Mark

6/9/2019 01:44:52 pm

You have done a commendable job of identifying your audience. You knew who you were writing for.
New questions.
Can you share with me some of the details about how you conducted your research?
Is there a website that has coallated and condensed survey results?

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 03:21:36 pm

My research came from a variety of sources, but fortunately the Internet is a vast space. Do a Google search for Psychographic Segmentation and you’ll come up with a LOT of options. Aside from that, you can find data on the Pew Research Center and a number of great blog sites. It turns out that audience research is extremely similar to the kinds of research that marketing people engage in, so you can find a lot of useful stuff on marketing blogs, too. But impersonal psychological data can never replace good ol’ fashioned personal reconnaissance. I found quite a number of real people in my target audience who let me ask a ton of questions. I got a spectrum of answers (because, of course, everyone is different), but I also found a number of common themes that resonated with most of them. These are the themes that I tried to weave into my narrative. I wanted to present characters and work with material that mattered to my audience, so I spent a couple of months gathering what I needed, and then let that guide me in the choices I made.

Mark

6/9/2019 04:05:38 pm

That is very interesing. I have not heard of Psychographic Segmentation. I have been participating in Pew Research studies for about a year now. They send me one survey a month. Upon completion they send me a $5 gift code for Amazon.
You are so right. Talking with the consumer is imperative to get the whole picture along with the other sources of information.
New questions.
Your writing technique is slightly unconventional. Why is that?
Is this the first book you have written? Will you be writing more?

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 04:25:28 pm

In terms of writing technique, I supposed it’s mildly unconventional to write non-linearly. The first chapter I wrote in Gnosis was Chapter 14. The second chapter I wrote was chapter 30. I work from an outline in order to avoid writer’s block. If I decide to sit down and write, but the next chapter is a dialogue scene and I don’t feel like it, I can skip ahead to whatever scene I’m in the mood for, simply by consulting my outline. But there are others who do that, so that’s not completely off the grid. I suppose I’m also an oddball in that I have a tendency to create my own software tools to help me. In preparation for Gnosis, I made a pretty sophisticated Excel spreadsheet that leverages Meyers-Briggs types in order to help me explore character personalities. I also hacked together a bunch of satellite maps in order to create an overhead view of the fictional city of Cold Forge, just because I wanted to orient the location in my head. I digitized a bunch of my writing reference books, and housed them under a cool JavaScript front end that makes it super easy to reference almost anything in just a few seconds. All together, I’m a data-and-software nerd, so you might be tempted to compare the way I go about it to the way a cyborg might. LOL.
In answer to the second question, Gnosis is the first fiction book I’ve written, yes. And yes, I plan to write more. In classic ‘Rick’ fashion, I’m working on a sequel to Gnosis, a completely new story, and a textbook on video game design, all simultaneously. I feel pretty strongly that I can get at least two of the three done within the next twelve months.

Mark

6/9/2019 06:02:20 pm

I love that idea of non-linear writing. You wrote a guest blog for me about that very idea. I will put a link to it at the bottom of the review.
Your javascript reference tool sounds interesting. Is it something you could market?
New questions.
Who designed the cover of your book?
What do the elements on the cover represent?

Richard Hall link

6/9/2019 09:47:04 pm

I thought about selling my tools, but I know enough about software development to understand that if you’re going to do something like that, you have to commit to tech support, updates, installation packages, customer support, etc. I’d rather be writing than maintaining software. Occasionally, people ask for copies of my tools, and I happily supply them. (I’m happy to give the Excel Spreadsheet for character creation to anyone that wanted it, but the Javascript front end for my textbooks isn’t something I’d give out without first stripping out the actual textbook material, which is, of course, not mine to distribute.) A few weeks ago, I recorded the tools in use and stuck the video on YouTube. I didn’t make any effort to make it pretty. I just stashed it up there because people ask about it regularly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFeCqAHu1k&t=365s

My book cover is my own work. It’s a stock photo that has been Photoshopped to look like an oil painting. I wanted to capture something that gave a parkour flavor. The gold-dominant color scheme serves two purposes. Firstly, it is the color of Sam’s psychic healing ability. Secondly, in a more practical vein, it’s a color that isn’t used often in book covers, which makes it stand out a little more in an Amazon grid of book covers.

Mark

6/9/2019 10:06:19 pm

Have you considered licensing the software to someone who is equipped to support it and pay you a royalty? Passive income is good. Multiple income streams are good.
Thanks for the YouTube link.
I caught the parkour feel, Sam is hanging on a ledge. I didn't catch the reasons for the gold color. I love it.
New questions.
Was it hard to come up with the title? What was the process?
Were the character names difficult to develop? How did you choose them?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 09:22:23 am

Lots of folks in the writing community were generous with their time for me, giving me insight, suggestions, and feedback on my writing. If any of my tools could be helpful to another writer down the line, I’d just consider that to be paying it forward. I feel better just giving them to anyone who asks for them.

Was it hard to come up with the title? What was the process? The title came near the end. I’d established the phrase ‘Gnosis Point’ in the story (the moment when the virus becomes self-aware). The word ‘Gnosis’ means a knowledge of spiritual mysteries, and it seemed to fit the process. By the end of the manuscript, it also struck me that Sam learned about herself too. I just decided that ‘Gnosis’ could serve double duty, so it fit.

Were the character names difficult to develop? How did I choose them? I’m anal about names. They can’t just be labels. They have to mean something. For instance, in Aramaic, Samantha means ‘Listener’, which made sense for a character who hears a voice in her head. Alexander means ‘defender’ in Greek. Again, it matches Alexander’s purpose in the story, as he is Sam’s staunchest defender. Melvin means ‘leader,’ which is also his story purpose. Gabriella means ‘harbinger,’ which worked for a precognitive. That’s the way I chose almost all of my character names.

Mark

6/10/2019 11:26:10 am

Paying it forward is very cool. After the first draft is complete, writing usually becomes a group effort with beta readers, editors, proofreaders, graphic artists and publishers. I have found the #WritingCommunity to be very helpful.
The only real competition a writer has is found in the mirror. To make each book better than the last.
I like that process you went through for the title and the names.
New questions.
Have you entered any writing contests?
Have you won awards of any kind for your writing?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 12:17:29 pm

Yeah, self-promotion is definitely my weak point. I did enter the Reader’s Favorite contest, which won’t see results until September 1. As far as I know, the results are sort of ‘black box’, in that the submissions are evaluated by a completely unknown group, presumably editors or site managers. Other than that, I haven’t entered any other contests. A big percentage of contests won’t consider indie-pubbed work. Of those that do, the overwhelming majority charge an entrance fee (For Instance, Reader’s Favorite charges over $100 just to enter). Of course, being a cynical Internet user, I’m aware that there are a lot of predators that charge an entrance fee for their sham contest, and the resultant ‘awards’ mean basically nothing. I’m not made of money, so it would get expensive just firing off entry fees in a hit-or-miss fashion. This is definitely an area where I could have used the assistance of a traditional publisher. I’m sure experience helps a lot, and of course, they can gain entry into contests that an indie author cannot. I did win a handful of awards for some short stories and flash fiction I wrote a few years ago, but that world is easier to gain entry to, and often doesn’t involve substantial money.

Mark

6/10/2019 02:39:59 pm

Your lament about book promotion is very common. I think it's the hardest part of the business of being a writer, because it never ends. There are so many different ways to promote aa book. Promotion is essential to get noticed because there are about a million new books published on Amazon each year.
On annerallen.com she lists current and safe contests that writers can enter. That might be useful for you.
New questions.
Did you go through the query process or did you go straight to self-publishing, and why?
How do you think your book compares to a book published by a major publisher?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 02:56:22 pm

I’ll have to take a look at her site. Thanks!
I did take a stab at querying Gnosis, but as you’ve said, these days there is a rather large army of people doing the same thing. There are so many that agents really don’t have any particular incentive to take a risk on an unpublished author who doesn’t already have a big, ready-made audience. I didn’t take it personally that I couldn’t attract their attention. I’m in no way opposed to traditional publishing, but I think for someone like me, it’s necessary to get a few self-published books out there first. In all honesty, I’m glad it worked out that way anyway. I’m the type of person who really wants to know how everything works. In my journey, I had to do everything from the manuscript to the website, the cover design to the keyword research, the marketing to the interior layout. I have no doubt that a publisher could have done all of those things better, but I’m also happy that I got to learn it all first hand. If I manage to land an agent and a publisher in the future, I’ll be much better positioned to assist them.
As for how it compares to a book that has been published by a major publisher, I’m happy with my concept, my characters, my plot, and the general execution. Of course, the writing would have been tightened up with a top-notch professional editor, and no doubt the cover design might have been improved. But I think the biggest difference would have been the promotion and marketing. Even doing everything on my own, my pre-launch event managed to push me into the #4 position in its category on Amazon. And I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to marketing. I have to think that a top notch publisher could have taken it higher and held it there longer. And yet, all things considered, I’m proud of my accomplishment anyway. For an indie author on his first book, I’ll take the #4 ranking in my launch week as a win.

Mark

6/10/2019 04:05:04 pm

That is a win! Without question. You bootstrapped yourself through the entire process. Many publishers put your book up on their website and do very little else in the way of promotion. It's hard to blame them with the shrinking margins they face, since the 800 pound gorilla turned the publishing world upside down.
A lot of authors are doing exactly what you are thinking, self-publish a few books, build a fan base of a few thousand, then start seeking an agent or publisher.
New questions.
There are many unethical practices in publishing, which one is the most unbearable in your mind?
Do you ever read a book more than once? What book?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 05:08:32 pm

I can't claim much experience with publishing, so anything I could point to would be mostly hearsay. I think the vanity press world sounds pretty sociopathic. Authors spend a lot of time and love making their craft. They want more than anything to see it in print, and sometimes they naively trust a vanity press with their money. These 'publishers' who ask for up-front money aren't just running a financial scam. They're destroying dreams. Dante needs to invent another level of Hell just for them.

And yes, I read lots of books more than once. I've read the Once and Future King twice. The same goes for the Dune trilogy, and the entire Harry Potter series. Actually, I know I've binge-read the entire Harry Potter series from start to finish at least four times.

Mark

6/10/2019 05:55:05 pm

Reading books more than once is something I have done also. I recall reading the Lord Of The Rings three times before graduating from high school. I was completely entranced by the world Tolkein had created.
What do you like the best about the Harry Potter series? Rowling had a rough time getting HP published. According to reports she had 12 rejections. That doesn't seem like so many now. I have heard many authors talk about having dozens of rejections, even close to 100.
New questions.
Why is it important for writers to tap into the emotions of the characters?Does writing have a spiritual or healing component for you, does it energize you or make you feel tired?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 06:47:00 pm

I don't ascribe that sort of meaning to it. I think people read in order to live vicariously through characters that are like an exaggeration version of themselves. I think readers like to imagine that they *might* make similar decisions in similar situations. Reading is, and always should be, an escape. You "tap in" to emotions by presenting situations that aren't real, but reactions that ARE. We all want to feel like a hero, but are rarely in a situation to do so. The art of the story, to me, is to create the scenario that is possible, but real people never get to live through, and then presenting a character that acts like they would. That, to me, is the way to create engagement.

Mark

6/10/2019 09:07:04 pm

That perspectivve makes a lot of sense to me. I never thought about it like that before.
New questions.
Are you an under-writer or an over-writer? When the first draft is done, do you need to add more to it to flesh it out or do you have to cut material because there is too much there?
Have you ever used yourself or other acquaintances as a character for a starting point in a story?

Richard Hall link

6/10/2019 11:31:24 pm

I think I write approximately what I need, I change some things in editing, but usually add about as much as I subtract. Yes, I am one of the characters in my book :)

Mark

6/11/2019 11:08:50 am

Very good.
Are you talking about sentences, paragraphs or a chapter that didn't survive the final cut?
Did you save the bits that didn't make it into the final version?
Would family members and close friends recognize that character as you?

Richard Hall link

6/11/2019 11:32:20 am

I had several chapters that didn’t survive the final cut. Then again, I had an equal number of chapters that I decided to introduce in their place. I also had a number of other chapters that were quite short, and I decided to merge them together into larger chapters. And all editing involves sentence craft and paragraph modification. I didn’t keep anything that was cut, though. If I decide to kill an entire chapter, there’s a reason for it, and I don’t expect that reason to change. I keep the original chapter just long enough to assure myself that I like the replacement better, and then I delete it.
As for whether any of my friends and family would recognize which character I see as me, I doubt it. If you wrap a character in a different body from the person you modelled it after, at a different age or even gender, with a totally different situation in their lives, and give them a different speech pattern, the average person isn’t going to see through that to the personality and decision making underneath. I’m pretty sure friends and family would be surprised if I told them which character I modelled after myself, but if they thought about it, it would eventually make sense.

Mark

6/11/2019 12:09:07 pm

I know some authors save all the parts they cut out. They hope to use it in a sequel or perhaps a side story. A number of authors use side stories as a means of drawing interest to their website and building the mailing list.
That makes sense that family and friends would not recognize you in the story.
New questions.
If you used a close friend or family member in a book would you tell them or make sure that they wouldn't recognize themselves in the story?
Which is more fun to write, the protagonist or the antagonist?
What is one thing you hate about your protagonist and one thing you love about the antagonist?

Richard Hall link

6/11/2019 01:15:44 pm

In general, I don’t know that it’s the best idea to tell people that you’ve modeled a character after them. I mean, nobody wants a villain version of themselves, but even good characters occasionally do questionable things. It would be too easy for your friends to think you were placing value judgements on them based on what the character did.
Regarding which are more fun to write, protagonists or antagonists, I really wish I could answer that one definitively, but I truly enjoy writing all of my characters. They’re all quite different from each other, and it’s fun trying to get inside their heads. I suppose if I was really forced to choose my favorite character from Gnosis, I’d go with Gabi. She’s volatile and blunt, openly hostile to everyone but Alexander. She’s emotionally damaged, and yet at the core of it all, there’s a reason to empathize with her. Ironically, in about half of the scenes that featured her, she went and did something I totally didn’t expect. Gabi was the character that constantly tried to wrest control of the story from me (and succeeded on more than one occasion).
I can’t think of anything I ‘hate’ about Sam. She has ‘negative’ qualities, of course. She’s stubborn, quick to judge and has a temper. She’s anti-authority and suspicious. But she needs most of those traits to navigate her world, so I don’t hate them. Regarding the antagonist, I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I’ll have to be circumspect about that. There are several ‘bad guys’, like Hayden, Lucas, Winger, Reuben, and Dr. Galloway. Of all of those, I like Reuben Flynn the best. He’s a thoroughly misunderstood character. He appears dispassionate and cold, but is also thoughtful, rigidly correct, and totally honest. He’s only a bad guy by virtue of his situation, which isn’t something he chose.

Mark

6/11/2019 02:19:12 pm

That was fascinating. Thank you for the tour of those characters, getting inside their heads is something you have done quite well. I am a little surprised that Gabi was trying to take control of the story, but her need to protect herself makes a lot of sense, considering her traumatic past and gifts.
I bet some readers wonder why Samantha had 10-year-old boy as her avatar of the trella gondi virus. I was reminded of people who struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder. People with DID can have hundreds of alters, all different ages and purposes to fit each traumatic experience of their life.
Were you intentionally playing with ideas of gender identity, if so why?
What is your writing routine when you sit down to write?

Richard Hall link

6/11/2019 03:07:41 pm

Thanks. I actually consulted an expert friend when it came to Gabi. Given her background, I felt like she probably suffers from a kind of Reactive Attachment Disorder, so I wanted to be sure I wasn’t heading too far astray in her personality and affect.

And yes, I’m absolutely exploring gender identity with Alexander. The more I considered him, the more it felt natural. As a trella gondii virus, Alexander’s identity is ‘chosen’, rather than being bound by biology or societal norms. But he gets his views of what it is to be a boy filtered through the thoughts and memories of Sam, a girl. This produces a novel effect, with a character who has elements of both. He isn’t encumbered by gender expectations, and feels free to mix and match behaviors and mannerisms because they suit him. At times, Sam struggles to understand and accept this, but Alexander is a strong-willed individualist. He is exactly who he wants to be, and opts to cheerfully ignore anyone else’s attempts to change him. Of all the characters in Gnosis, Alexander is the one most comfortable in his skin, which is ironic, given that he’s technically an ‘invented’ person. I chose to explore this particular theme with him because it’s so current and important, especially to my target audience. Alexander is sort of the poster child for tolerance, both in his own choices, and in his unconditional acceptance of others (Gabi, for instance). I think the world needs more people like Alexander, personally.

When it comes to my writing routine, I get far too easily distracted. As a result, I can’t do it if there are other people around or the television is on. I kind of have to block out several hours at a time and barricade myself in a little room. And I learned long ago not to edit as I go. I write the entire chapter in one shot, no matter how long it takes. I consult my outline to see where the chapter is supposed to go, and then just start writing, avoiding all attempts to edit, even typos, until I get to the end of the chapter.

Interestingly, one thing I learned with non-linear writing is that you have to take your outline as a ‘guide,’ not something set in stone. I discovered that if I tried too hard to stay on plot, I had a tendency to water down Sam’s emotional responses in order to ‘stick to the script.’ So I stopped fixating on the end of the chapter. Once I start a chapter, I let the characters do whatever feels natural. If I like the scene, but it has moved in the wrong direction to support the plot, I’ll modify subsequent chapter outlines to fix the problem and get it back on track.

Mark

6/11/2019 05:55:40 pm

Alexander is quite an interesting character. It seems to me that all of us have characteristics of both genders in varying amounts.
Gabi is a fascinating character for that matter, also. I bet her back story would be interesting. I think she could star in her own book, now that she is rid of her virus. He could be trusted to look out for his and Gabi's interest and very little else.
New questions.
Now that your book is published, is there anything about it you would like to change?
What is the one thing you hope readers will remember from your book?

Richard Hall link

6/11/2019 07:31:34 pm

I don't think the author has been born who wouldn't like to completely rewrite everything they've ever published. LOL. But if I had to choose one thing to change, I'd probably make an effort to cut the word count down a bit more. 103K words is a bit long for Urban Fantasy. That would be hard, though, as almost everything contributes to the story in such a way that it is referenced or acted upon later. So simply removing any large chuck would entail patching up the holes created by its absence.

I suppose the moral to the story, or more accurately Sam's character arc, is that she comes to understand the nature of sacrifice. The sacrifice her father made, Melvin's sacrifice, even Dr. Galloway's sacrifice. what people need to understand is that when you love someone, even to the point of being willing to give up your life for them, it's not a 'sacrifice'. The word sacrifice implies giving something UP. But Steven Black wasn't giving something UP for Sam, he was giving something TO her. He was giving her freedom. a life. That's how he saw it from his perspective. Hence the cryptic smile that crossed his face the moment before he died. He wasn't dwelling on what he'd just lost (his financial future). He was happy at what he'd just given to his daughter. In Many ways, Dr. Galloway was cut from exactly the same cloth. And Melvin too. Only the person RECEIVING the gift perceives it as a sacrifice on the part of the giver. The giver sees only the results, and is happy.

Mark

6/11/2019 08:33:53 pm

Gnosis might not quite fit the mold of the basic UF book. I think it is just fine the way it is. I don't see anything you could easily trim. If anything I would like to see more of Gabi and Melvin.
That is an important lesson. You described it quite well. A gift and a sacrifice are two sides of the same coin. Regardless of the level, there are three parties in this social contract. The giver, the gift, and the givee. I like that perspective you bring out, the receiver of the gift needs to see the transaction from the POV of the giver to understand the true value of the gift.
New questions.
What software do you use to write and publish your books, and why do you use those?
How do you keep track of all the characters and events in your books?

Richard Hall link

6/11/2019 08:53:56 pm

I keep my workflow pretty simple. I keep all of my research and character bios in Scrivener. It’s useful for organizing disparate materials, and making them easy to find, all under one umbrella. I write the actual text in Word, because it’s more full-featured and user friendly as a word processor and has tools for navigation that feel more intuitive to me. I use ProWritingAid to try to catch the majority of the grammar, typos, overused phrases, and formatting errors. ProWritingAid also helps me keep track of the reading level. Of course, I mentioned in a previous answer that I write some of my own software tools as well.

To keep track of characters, every one, no matter how minor, has a bio that I keep in Scrivener. I make all sorts of notes about what they would do in a variety of situations, quotes and lines of dialogue that seem to suit them, particular speech patterns and idioms, that sort of thing. I also go on a Google image hunt in order to find a photo that looks the way I have the character pictured in my head. Whenever I’m getting ready to start a scene, I review the character bios of all relevant characters in the scene, and then keep their photos open on the Window desktop The character’s pictures are literally surrounding my word processor window, so I can see them. I often do the same kind of image referencing in order to get a feel for the scene’s locale and use of space. I literally need to ‘see’ the entire scene in my head before I start.

Keeping track of the events is easier, because I have my outline, which is kept in Scrivener. I take advantage of Scrivener’s corkboard feature, and condense events down to little graphical index cards so that I can arrange them all together on a single screen and see them all at a glance. That also helps when my characters go ‘off script’ during a scene. I know I’ll have to adjust the outline to compensate, so being able to see all the scenes laid out like that makes it easier for me to know what has to change as a result of a character not reacting the way I’d planned.

Mark

6/12/2019 11:24:37 am

I have read about Scrivener, it is a very powerful program. I have heard it has a steep learning curve, but most who have mastered it say it's very worthwhile. Writing in MS Word is quite ubiquitous, so many authors use that program. You have a good system for writing, easy to adjust on the fly.
New questions.
Action, dialogue, or narration; which is easiest to write?
Of the five senses which is the easiest to write and which is the hardest?

Richard Hall link

6/12/2019 03:23:57 pm

For me, dialogue is the easiest to write. I have a very methodical way I go about it, After I’ve made a first pass at the chapter or scene, I go back and highlight each character’s dialogue in a different color. So for instance, all of Sam’s lines will be red, while all of Alexander’s will be blue. Then I’ll read each character’s lines, ignoring everything else in the scene. I’m specifically looking for speech patterns. In an ideal world, you should be able to look at any line of dialogue and tell which character uttered it, simply because it is in ‘their style of speaking.’ Each character in Gnosis has distinctive speech patterns. Sam only refers to Alexander as ‘Alexander’, but Melvin calls him ‘Alex,’ and Victor calls him ‘pipsqueak’ or ‘runt.’ Alexander refers to all adults as ‘Mr. Melvin’ or ‘Miss Reece,’, while Sam refers to adults mostly by their first names. The words each character uses, their slang and idiomatic speech patterns should be unique and distinctive. For me, it’s a weirdly fun process.

Writing about the senses is one of my weak points. I tend to be overly reliant on sight and hearing. Tactile sensations and smell are underutilized, and taste is my most rarely used sense.

Mark

6/12/2019 05:06:50 pm

That is brilliant, I didn't notice the speech patterns, just as you planned, but that does make it easier as a reader. That is a good system you have set up.
Most of us are heavily reliant on vision and hearing, those are the dominant senses unless one or the other is missing. Have you ever heard of synaesthesia? It's a fascinating mix up or crossover of our senses. It varies for every person, apparently, that has it.
New questions.
Have you ever participated in theater in some way?
What kind of marketing are you doing or planning on doing for your book?

Richard Hall link

6/12/2019 06:37:34 pm

Have I participated in theater? I wouldn’t give it that much credit. In 1976, every member of my 6th grade class was required to participate in a rendition of Macbeth. I played Banquo. Easily the most introverted student in the county, I have only a hazy memory of quivering under a sheet (Banquo was a ghost), stammering “Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!” After successfully delivering my line, I shambled off stage and vomited in a corner. Properly traumatized, that was the start and stop of my thespian career.

My marketing mojo is only marginally better than my acting ability. I made a promotional site and did a great deal of trolling to find a handful of book reviewers (you have my eternal gratitude for being one of them, by the way) who would look at a debut novel by an indie author. It was a challenge to somehow stand out against an apocalyptic zombie army of about a million other hopeful authors. I’ve managed to gather nearly two thousand Twitter followers, but with a classic engagement rate of about 0.5%, this translates to a whopping 10 clicks. I have tried my hand at clickbait advertising on Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub, with the best (well, mediocre) results on Amazon. I mentioned earlier that I entered Gnosis in the Reader’s Favorite contest, and I’m still tripping my way through the promotional wilderness. Although I was happy with my launch event, the maintenance aspect of marketing and promotions is a baffling black hole of a time sink. I say this with a smile, though. All of life is a learning experience, and this entire process has given me a clearer picture of the gaps in my knowledge. I plan to continue rushing face first into the stone wall of promotions until I knock it down.

Mark

6/12/2019 07:18:14 pm

I will skip the other questions about theater and acting. One and done, you were. Promotions and marketing are another matter. You have learned that marketing is a daily grind, if you want to be a commercial success. There is something that can be done every day. There are many different angles to try also. You can play the Local Author angle in several ways, with local newspapers, radio stations, cable access, local book stores, local colleges, local tourist attractions, bed and breakfast, hotels and motels. Some of these places will allow you to place a countertop holder with several books. you can leave books at bus stops, train stations, restauarants. There is at least one guest post about promoting books and one about getting your first 1,000 readers on my website. With a million new books published every year, it takes a lot of work to stand out from the crowd.
New questions.
Have you ever thought of adding music to your books, like what the characters listen to or they went to a concert as a plot point?
How long does the research process take before you start to write a book or do you do the research as you write the book?

Richard Hall link

6/12/2019 07:46:07 pm

I’ll have to track down the posts and check them out.

It never occurred to me to add music to Gnosis. I’ve seen some authors do that, didn’t think to put any effort into figuring out how to work it in. I’ll have to put that on my list of possibilities for the next one. Thanks!

My plots seem to be far too complex to try something like that. I’m sure it’s a matter of how my brain works, because I know plenty of people who prefer to just start writing and see what develops. I can’t bring myself to do that. I have to research obsessively. I did a lot of it while putting together my outline. But then because I do allow the story to evolve, I invariably wind up putting in more research the rest of the way, even during the editing process. I have a lot of writer friends, and we often laugh at the insane things we research. Some of the weirdest once I looked into for Gnosis were:

1) How much money in $100 bills can fit in a shoebox?
2) How do intelligence agencies can passively track cell phones with a Stingray truck?
3) What is the necessary level of body armor to withstand a .50 caliber bullet?
4) What are the causes and affects of a variety of behavioral disorders?
5) What is the appropriate statute that allows a federal agency to seize jurisdiction over local police investigations?
6) What are the typical performance characteristics of commercial drones?
7) What is peduncular hallucinosis?
8) How does focused ultrasound surgery work?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m on an NSA watch list, like most writers.

Mark

6/12/2019 09:10:07 pm

I am sure you will find those useful.
I am a knowledge junkie also. As a kid growing up in the sixties, we had encyclopedias and big dictionaries. We had an unabridged dictionary, the thing was almost 6 inches thick. It was heavy! It was easy for me to spend an hour or more in that dictionary, just following a new rabbit trail no matter where it went.
That is a great research or shopping list! I couldn't resist, I had to look #7 up. Funny stuff! I can't imagine there is any body armor that will protect the wearer from a 50 caliber bullet. Oh, wait, yes there is, a tank! ;-)
New questions.
How much time passed from when you got the idea to write Gnosis, to actually starting the book and finishing the first draft?
How many drafts did you go through to have a ready-to-publish manuscript?

Richard Hall link

6/12/2019 09:24:38 pm

I got the general idea couple of years before I started it. I tinkered with it a bunch. The original Samantha Black was a 26 year old female cop, and Alexander was an unnamed, semi creepy man. I was exploring different points of view, including Sam, Melvin, Hayden Reece, Sam’s virus, and Hayden Reece’s virus. I wrote about 60K words, and then decided I more-or-less hated it. I deleted the entire thing, and drifted on to other projects for a couple of years. Then when I decided to pick it up again, I kept the idea of a sentient virus that provides telepathy, and scrapped everything else. I totally re-visualized the entire plot, did a ton of research, wrote a 22,000-word outline, and then wrote the first draft of the manuscript in a period of about 5 or 6 months.

I worked with only one draft, but edited it so heavily that if you wanted to count total words written, it would probably be up over a quarter of a million. So maybe you’d count that as 2 or 3 drafts? The editing process took close to a year, but about 5 months of that was waiting my turn in the queue of freelance editors.

Mark

6/13/2019 12:49:16 pm

That is remarkable. You thoroughly explored a good idea. At the end you knew this wasn't the right way to tell the story. You let the idea die, instead of forcing the issue. With it still percolating in the background it came back to life, almost like a resurrection.
Instead of saving drafts, you just kept massaging that one. I find that interesting also.
New questions.
Why did you not save interim drafts of your book?

Richard Hall link

6/13/2019 01:09:26 pm

It's probably just a personal quirk. I usually forge my own approach to everything. I used to be one of those pack rats that kept evolving versions and revisions of everything I did, whether it was computer code, writing, organizational plans, etc. And over the years, I discovered that I basically never looked at them. I might fill up an entire folder with a hundred different revisions of something, and invariably if I wanted to look for something specific, it was too much trouble to go sifting through a mountain of text to find it. I was just saving files for the sake of saving files. Sure, I keep backups in case of accidental file deletions, but for me at least, a trail of revision versions is just useless clutter that takes up space for no purpose.

From a more philosophical point of view, it’s reasonable to assume that one’s writing craft improves over time. Practice has a tendency to produce that effect. So, in theory at least, more recent versions will likely be better crafted than previous versions. If that is generally true, then a previous draft is an inferior draft. Why would I want to look at that?

Is it possible that I might have some great idea that I delete, and now can’t recover it? Sure. But like I tell my game design students, “Obsessing over last year’s great idea sounds like you lack confidence. Don’t you believe that you can come up with something even better next year? Either you trust your creativity or you don’t.” Good ideas come and go. It’s execution that wins in the end.

Mark

6/13/2019 04:13:26 pm

That is an interesting and refreshing perspective for an old packrat; me, not you. You finished your 2-step program, it sounds like. ;-) You make such a good point.
I must concur with your philosphical thought, conscientious work usually leads to improvement. It's okay to trust the process and your own abilities.
New questions.
Going back in time, did you do any kind of creative writing, even back in grade school?
How early was it that you realized how powerful words can be?

Richard Hall link

6/13/2019 05:55:55 pm

Ironically, back in 12th grade as I was preparing to apply to college, I sat down and asked myself what path I wanted my life to take. I came to the conclusion that I’d be equally happy as an electrical engineer, a computer programmer, a teacher, or a writer. I was interested in all for subjects. In 11th and 12th grade, I took electrical shop instead of wood shop. I also wrote computer games in BASIC on the school’s PDP-11 system. I occasionally tapped out chapters and stories on my primitive TRS-80, and constantly created detailed storylines for my friends when we played Dungeons & Dragons. And, being me, I was forever annoying people by explaining things like binary math or how the American rebels managed to win their independence.
Ultimately I made the choice to take up electronics in college, mostly because it seemed like a solid, in-demand paycheck. Over the course of the next thirty years, I was an electronics engineer, a computer programmer, a video game designer, and then a teacher at UCF. Publishing Gnosis completed the grand slam. I’ve now managed to earn money at all four occupations that made my list 37 years ago, plus a bonus occupation as a game designer.

Mark

6/13/2019 08:12:45 pm

I love that journey. You have done a lot of things. A modern renaissance man.
I remember playing with BASIC and fiddling around with a TRS-80. I was drooling over a Kaypro, the first portable computer, for sometime, I wanted one so bad.
New questions.
A lot of new authors struggle with finding beta readers. Because, after the first draft is done, fresh eyes and feedback become very important.
Do you have beta-readers to help you smooth out a lot of wrinkles before publishing? If you don’t, why?
If you do, how did you find them?

Richard Hall link

6/13/2019 09:20:51 pm

I got situationally lucky when it came to beta readers. My Facebook contacts list is huge. When you count nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, in-laws, and high school friends, it’s already a couple of hundred strong. Adding to that, I’ve worked with hundreds of students at UCF over the years, and I stay in contact with many of them, even a decade after graduation. I always took an interest in my student’s careers, and being the great people they are, they took an interest in mine. And if that’s not enough, my contacts list is even bigger because quite a few of my writing critique group are also on it. The entire list is close to 900, and these aren’t ‘fans.’ They’re entirely family and good friends. So when it came time to hunt for beta readers, I made one post on Facebook, and friends and family came charging like a platoon of librarian commandoes. I literally had three dozen volunteers in less than 24 hours.

I sent them my manuscript, asked them to fill out a survey, and invited them to provide feedback. They even agreed to adhere to a turnaround time of 45 days. And their feedback was FANTASTIC. They had a rainbow of experiences to use as filters, ranging from military experience to psychology, writing and poetry. They included parents and teenagers, historians, law enforcement, nurses, and even one in politics. I got to see tiny details through the eyes of experts.

Common wisdom says that your friends and family might be ‘too kind’ with your work, and not as forthright as a stranger. But my friends and family are more awesome than that. They knew I wanted to get it right. They were diplomatic, but didn’t dance around the problems. It was what I wanted, and they came through for me.

Now, I can say with confidence that whether readers love Gnosis or hate it, there’s no question that it improved as a result of my beta group.

Mark

6/14/2019 11:52:52 am

You are so very fortunate. That is a great group of beta readers. Such a diverse group.
So many authors struggle with finding beta readers. I have a list of beta readers on my Twitter home page. I have over two dozen lists of people offering different services to authors.
New questions.
What kind of questions did you ask them to get the feedback you wanted?
At what stage in your writing process do you bring in the readers?

Richard Hall link

6/14/2019 12:33:27 pm

I asked for some demographic and psychographic information, so that I could put their feedback in the proper context. I also asked them to stop for 30 seconds at the end of each chapter and rate the chapter in terms of how clear it was, how tense it was, how engaging it was, and whether they planned to stop for the day or move on to the next chapter. This gave me so ideas for pacing, as well as identifying specifically which chapters were unclear or poorly written. I was literally tracking individual statistics for each chapter. Of course, I also invited them to leave more detailed comments about anything at all that seemed wrong, could be improved, or worked really well for them.

After reading the last chapter, I asked them to rate the major characters in order of those they liked most. Ironically, some of the bad guys made the list, though the absolute favorite was a four-ay dead heat between Sam, Melvin, Alexander, and Gabi. In the end, Alexander won. But this information was useful, because I was able to take the characters that were dead last, and give them specific attention to make them more memorable.

Personally, I wrote the first draft, worked with a content editor, made a couple of rounds of edits based on that, and then cleaned up the writing. So within five months, I was done with that, and that’s when I went to the beta readers. After that, I spent about four months reworking things to react to their feedback, and then went to copy/line edits next. I’m sure my order wasn’t ideal. But I’m making it up as I go along, you know?

Mark

6/14/2019 01:19:16 pm

That sounds like a good system to me. You are well equipped to gain the maximum advantage from all that advice.
New questions.
Will you seek out new beta readers or work with the same ones as before?
Do you reward the beta readers in any way particular?

Richard Hall link

6/14/2019 01:43:52 pm

I’d certainly work with any of them again if they had the time. Of course, I’m also happy to hear different points of view. The more the merrier. I’ll check in with them next time, since I got a lot of requests to work on the sequel, but I’ll also poke around and see if I can identify any else. It’s best to have a big list to draw from.

Rewards? Hah. Now you’re going to give them ideas! My beta readers were all friends and family, so they did it for that reason. Plus, I try to be there for them when they need something, and I’ve done favors for quite a few of them in the past. But with that said, I’m not opposed to the idea of giving rewards or trading favors (my personal preference). Free signed copies, acknowledgement, return critiques and beta reads, Amazon gift cards, and lots of other possibilities are easy.

Mark

6/14/2019 04:17:49 pm

You have a great situation to work from. Some authors want to work with strangers for one reason or another. Favors are a good trading currency.
One more question about betas. Do you give them an e-version like a PDF or a hard copy you printed off?
More questions.
Do you have other writers you connect with, as in a critique group or support group?
What is the most important thing you learned from publishing your latest book?

Richard Hall link

6/14/2019 04:39:33 pm

My beta readers all requested either PDF or DOCX. The DOCX readers wanted to be able to comment in-line, while the PDF readers returned their feedback in a separate document.

And yes, I have participated in more than one critique group. I was a member of Scribophile for quest some time, and although I have drifted away from it, the experience was very positive, and I’m still good friends and critique partners with several people I met there.

If I could give one piece of advice, well, that would be hard. I’d rather give two. Hopefully, that’s not sidestepping the question.

First, as an indie author I learned from several friends who’d done the same thing, and they all agreed that you *might* make money on your first book, but you should commit to the more pragmatic notion that you’ll probably *lose* money. You’re going to have to pay for a lot of services, like editing, cover design, advertising, physical ARC copies, etc. That can pile up into thousands of dollars. But if it’s your first book and you don’t have an established audience yet, then you should probably sell out to the idea that creating an audience is more important than trying in vain to immediately recoup your investment. Price is a barrier to entry. The higher the price, the fewer customers you’ll get. Take advantage of the free promotional events and set your normal prices at rock bottom. You’ll get more eyes on your work, and if you can create enough of an audience, it will pay off on your second (or third) book. It’s a long term strategy, and applies mostly to authors who don’t yet have an established audience or any name recognition.

The second piece of advice is to have your marketing and promotion plan set up several months before you launch. Book Bloggers often have lead times of 3 months or more. You’ll want to set aside a budget for marketing, and for most of us, it’s easier to accumulate that little stash of money over a period of time. If at all possible, try to have at least one “reveal” event per week already scheduled, for at least two months after launch. Each event creates exposure, but the exposure only lasts a few days. Your launch event will hopefully make a big splash for a week or so, but if you can’t keep the ball in the air, then any momentum you create at launch will be wasted. Understand that reviews on Amazon, GoodReads, Bookbub, and other places are critical. Lots of shoppers want to see at least 40 or 50 customer ratings before they’re willing to trust that the book might be good. But your early customers have to have time to read the book, and a lot of them won’t leave a review. You might get one review for every 50 people who buy the book. It will take time to accumulate the necessary critical mass of approval. So you have to keep pinging the mind-share. Keep the book alive long enough for the reviews to come in. When you reach that critical mass, that’s when you might start to see some organic sales. But if you just chuck your book over the wall and hope for the best, it’s going to die, no matter how well written it is.

Mark

6/15/2019 12:28:44 pm

That is great advice. So many new authors get discouraged right after publishing their book, when the sales don't roll in like a tidal wave. Reality is that they are lucky if they get a trickle, and that usually only with a a lot of promotion.
You are 100% correct, most authors won't make any money until the second or third book. It's a very predictable and emotional roller coaster for the new author; unless they make the commitment for the long haul.
Thank you for going above and beyond my question.
New questions.
What has been the biggest surprise in your writing journey?
Now that you have a published book, are you writing anything strictly for yourself or are you concentrating on writing for your readers?

Richard Hall link

6/15/2019 12:48:32 pm

The biggest surprise was the sheer size of the writing community. Everyone knows that hundreds of thousands of new books stampede onto the scene every year, but that only sank in when I joined the herd. The online world is crammed full of people shouting for attention. Like most authors, I’m an Introvert, and howling for the spotlight isn’t in my nature. In the back of my mind I naively bought in to the notion “If you build it, they will come,” but this was wishful thinking. I wasn’t ready for the reality of total invisibility. It’s a bit overwhelming.

Writing something for myself? That’s an odd notion to me. In the darkest little corner of my soul, I’m an entertainer. It might sound counterintuitive, but writing for the readers IS writing for myself. I love trying to get inside people’s heads, whether that’s my characters or my audience. That’s far more interesting than the genre. I’ve been doing it for thirty years, first as a video game developer, and then as a teacher. I’ve ALWAYS needed to see the world through other’s eyes. Writing is just another medium for that.

Mark

6/15/2019 04:01:59 pm

Good observation. I have heard that a million new books are published each year. That is a thundering herd, without a doubt.
I wonder if Amazon knew that would happen, or hoped it would happen, when books became so much easier to publish. Amazon turned the publishing world upside down. Of course, there is no turning the clock back, at this stage.
That helps me to understand your intense customer research and it makes a lot of sense. When you understand your customer, you can give them exactly what they want. I love it, I never thought of it in that way.
New questions.
What are common traps for beginning writers?
Do you think a strong ego is an asset or liability for a writer and why?

Richard Hall link

6/15/2019 07:28:07 pm

I fell into a number of easy traps when I first started writing, but I can cover them in three easy bullet points:

1) Write every single day. Even when you’re sick. Even when you aren’t inspired.
2) Don’t edit as you go. You have to see the completed big picture before you can start editing.
3) Accept that your first draft will be garbage. Don’t melt into a puddle. Just fix it. You’ve already done the hard part by getting a draft written.

Concerning whether or not a strong ego is good for a writer, you could define ‘ego’ in two ways: Either as a measure of self-esteem or as a measure of self-importance.

If we’re talking about self-esteem, then a certain amount is good, as it helps a writer to accept critical feedback without being hurt by it. But too much ego, and it may prevent the writer from taking useful advice from their editor or beta readers. Have you ever given feedback to a writer, and they disagreed with your comments systematically, one topic at a time, justifying why they won’t change whatever you pointed out? That’s a writer who will never improve. They’re convinced that their work is good, no matter what the readers say.

If, on the other hand, we’re defining ‘ego’ as ‘self-importance,’ it’s especially useful to indie writers. I’ve observed that the writers who think they’re God’s gift to the literary world have very well-developed skills of self-promotion. They’re not inhibited. They don’t feel pretentious marketing their work as “like Harry Potter, only better.” And that kind of hyperbolic claim seems to be at the heart of marketing. Indie writers who don’t have giant egos refuse to make claims that they can’t back up, and as a result, they’re more likely to understate their work, which is a terrible marketing approach.

Mark

6/15/2019 09:15:00 pm

That is some great advice for a beginning author, even an advanced author can benefit from some of that. I think that a big portion of writer's block comes from trying to make the first draft perfect. The inspiration or muse can get lost in the details of chasing a perfect first draft. Good words.
I knew you would break this question down. I intentionally keep many of my questions vague.
I have heard of that writer that believes every drop of ink on their page is gold. Fortunately, I haven't met that person. Of course, the market will tell them exactly how good their book is.
I certainly agree that the balance between self-esteem and self-importance is delicate. A writer needs a certain amount of self-esteem to carry them through the rough draft period and during the marketing period also.
New questions.
Do you have anything you consider to be your writing lucky charm?
What is your writing Kryptonite and how has it affected you?

Richard Hall link

6/16/2019 10:28:51 am

I don’t know that I buy into the notion that luck is in any way connected to writing. I suppose you could say that an author who has written something bad that sells a lot of copies anyway has experienced luck (though I’d be more likely to chalk that up to aggressive marketing).

Kryptonite is whatever weakness distracts me from writing. In my case, that’s research and tool making. Sometimes I have a hard time stopping myself when I find a fascinating line of research to look into, or I get an idea for a new software tool I could create that could make my writing easier. I suppose I’m still being productive when I dive down those rabbit holes, but they do tend to bring my writing to a grinding halt.

Mark

6/16/2019 12:16:21 pm

I agree with the ancient philosopher, Seneca, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
Your "kryptonite" makes a lot of sense to me, mostly the research part. I don’t know anything about writing software. I think it's an issue for a lot of writers, because it's fun going down the rabbit hole and learning something new and obscure.
A number of years ago, my neighbor started buying sterling silverware and pieces on Ebay. He noticed makers' marks before melting them down. He started researching those marks and is now quite an expert on stuff going back to the Revolutionary war and earlier.
New questions.
Do you see an advantage of writing under a pseudonym, why or why not?
If you branch out into a different genre, will you use a pen name, why or why not?

Richard Hall link

6/16/2019 12:35:28 pm

J.K. Rowling writes under the name Robert Galbraith now because J.K. Rowling’s name is basically a brand. That makes perfect sense to me. Her British crime mysteries don’t fit under the Rowling brand. I think other people write under a pseudonym because they would simply rather not have people pestering them, which make also make sense if you have popular-but-controversial work. I don’t fit under either category, so for the moment I can’t see a good reason not to use my own name. But that’s a matter of taste, and I certainly don’t judge people either way.

If I write in a different genre, yes, I may just use a pseudonym. In that case, it would simply be to avoid confusion. If people like one of your books in a particular genre, then they may buy another book of yours in a different genre simply because they recognize the name, and wind up disappointed.

Mark

6/16/2019 01:47:45 pm

That is a good reason, and there are many others also, I have no doubt.
I know of at least one author that has several pen names. She has a URL for each of them, they all point to her main website that has all the pen names on the landing page. The visitor can visit their favorite page and I bet she hopes they will explore the others also. Maybe get some crossover readers, ultimately. I think it's a good idea.
New questions.
Are there any writing styles or genres that you disliked at first but soon came to like?
Do you think reading, playing video games, watching movies or listening to music help you be a better writer?

Richard Hall link

6/16/2019 06:21:57 pm

Stylistically, I have never liked present tense writing. The idea is supposedly that it’s more immediate, and draws the reader closer to the story. I’m sure it works exactly that way for lots of people. It’s quite popular. But for me, I can’t stand it. I’m probably to logical. By definition, if the story has been committed to paper, then it happened in the past. So reading it on a page, as if it’s happening right now, is a physical impossibility. It feels artificial and awkward, and I can’t make myself read it. When I consider purchasing a new book, I’ll open it and read the first chapter. If it’s present tense, I’ll move on. (Recently, I bought a book where the first chapter was actually a past tense prologue. The rest was all present tense, and after I’d shelled out the $10 for the book, I found out. I was really bummed. I tried reading it anyway, and gave up by chapter 4. I just hate it, and I don’t see that changing. Just a personal preference.

Do I think participating as a customer helps me develop? No, I don’t. Playing video games doesn’t make you a better designer. Watching movies won’t make you a better actor. Reading won’t make you a better writer. Listening to music won’t make you a better composer. I honestly don’t know why that particular piece of advice gets passed around so much. It makes some strategic sense, but only if you already have experience, and some idea of what you’re doing. But especially for those who are just starting out, WRITING makes you a better writer. READING just takes time away from the thing you SHOULD be doing.

Mark

6/16/2019 07:12:50 pm

You are a bit of a rebel. But I am glad for that. Differing opinions are important in a discussion.
That piece of advice is very popular, I have heard it repeated many times.
New questions.
Do you think it important to read widely in the genre you write in?
What type of book is your favorite guilty pleasure to read for fun?

Richard Hall link

6/16/2019 08:59:43 pm

LOL. Well, I’m not likely to contradict my previous answer. Obviously, one has to read enough within one’s genre to understand the expectations, but again I would think that WRITING is more important than reading if you want to be an author.

With all of this in the past two responses, I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t read a lot personally. I do. I read in the urban fantasy genre, and lots of YA, thrillers, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, medieval fantasy, and lots of nonfiction. I was specifically responding to the notion that reading somehow makes one a better writer. To me, that’s like saying that if you go to a lot of museums, you’ll be a better painter. I just don’t see it.

For fun, I actually really enjoy reading history. I have something like a thousand history books on my shelves.

Mark

6/16/2019 09:43:11 pm

Glad I could make you laugh. I have read in all those categories also. But probably not nearly as wide as you. For most of my life I read mostly science fiction with a little bit of fantasy thrown in for variety.
I won't argue, if you want to be a writer, then you must write. You have to put stuff out there and learn from the failures. Most of us learn far more from the flops than the successes.
It sounds like you have a wonderful library.
New questions.
Have you ever read a book that changed the way you look at writing?
Would you agree or disagree with the statement: suffering is a requirement to be a good writer, and why?

Richard Hall link

6/16/2019 10:43:20 pm

I also want to make the distinction that I see a difference between reading a book for entertainment and studying that same book. There is some value to studying books, but that’s quite different from simply reading them.

And yes, my view of writing has been illuminated by several writers. Patrick Rothfuss amazes me. That man can write a twenty-page description of his protagonist playing a lute, and it’s fascinating. I can see why it takes him five years to write a book. I’m also a deep fan of J.K. Rowling. She has (in my opinion) perfected the art of making every single character, no matter how minor, memorable. Even the bus driver, Stan Shunpike, shines brightly in my recollection of the Harry Potter series. And, of course, we can’t forget Cormac McCarthy’s throwback to oral tradition in the way he treats punctuation. Very few living authors could get away with his lack of quotation marks for dialogue. It is worth study, even if one can’t reproduce it. No Country For Old Men has that incredibly immersive feel of old-time storytelling.

Does one need to suffer to be a good writer? If the act of writing is torture, it’s hard to believe one can do it well. But I think the notion of the suffering has its roots in the idea that some authors suffer in their personal lives and are great writers, thus establishing a correlation without causality. I have to imagine that these individuals take solace in their writing, but their suffering isn’t the cause of their greatness. Their greatness is their escape from their suffering. To get the correlation versus causality idea, take two data points: 1) The temperature in the Caribbean has been rising steadily for a couple of hundred years. 2) Pirate activity in the Caribbean has been steadily declining during that same time period. So from these two facts, can we conclude that global warming has reduced pirate activity? No, that’s ridiculous. Just because there is a correlation between the data doesn’t mean one causes the other. I think the suffering writer follows similar lines. Suffering doesn’t make a writer great, in my opinion, even though sometimes people who suffer greatly can alleviate their pain by escaping into the words they commit to the page.

Mark

6/17/2019 11:14:33 am

Your comments about those books make me want to read them. They sound quite special.
Your answer about suffering is very thorough and full of insight. I think you have nailed it. I think the idea of "the suffering artist" is a very old trope from a couple of centuries ago.
New questions.
Do you ever brainstorm with non-writers and if so, is it effective?
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer to enhance your career?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 12:27:17 pm

Brainstorming is a process of using associations to discover a connection between disparate ideas that is unusual. Quite a few of my game design lectures focus on this particular phenomenon. It goes something like this:

Take a central topic. It can be anything. Let’s say it’s vampires. Write that in the center of a whiteboard, and circle it. Then think of all the obvious, cliché things that come to mind. Fangs. Drinking blood. Turning into mist, or becoming a bat. Hypnotic gaze. Bloodlust. Aversion to sunlight, holy symbols and water. The need to return to the coffin at night. Supernatural senses. Predatory attraction. Write these things down in a cloud around the central topic of vampires, and connect them to that topic with a line. Next, take all of these things and treat each one as if it is the center of its own little cloud of words. So, for example, around bloodlust, you might associate this with sociopathy, compulsive behavior, survival, animal instinct, etc. Do this for each of the words in your cloud, and draw a line back to the idea you associated it with. Then extend outwards, each time expanding the cloud, so that any given idea can relate back to vampires with just a few stops. After you’ve filled up the white board, start to look for patterns around the edges.

One of my students did this, and she noted that blood if a vampire’s food, and bloodlust is a compulsive act. The vampire has literally an uncontrollable appetite… for food. This sounded to her like an eating disorder, and she immediately found the concept that vampires could easily take this too far, and quickly become morbidly obsess. That’s not your typical vampire, but it actually makes sense. And then if you map that new version to the existing vampire tropes, you can get weird, fun results. This morbidly obsess vampire turns into mist, but it’s a thick, chocking cloud that anyone can see. When he turns into a bat, it’s massive body can’t be supported by its tiny wings, and it flops to the ground with a thud. When he tries his hypnotic gaze on the pretty girl, she shows him the hand and says “dude, I am not feeling it.” Out vampire would quickly develop self-esteem issues. Not the typical vampire at all, and if you wanted to write something funny, there’s a lot of material there.

Looking at it from that perspective, literally anyone can help you brainstorm. It’s a simple matter of organizing your associative process in a methodical way and asking the right kinds of questions.

Probably the best money I ever spent was splurging for the paid version of Scribophile, rather than sticking with the free version. It’s a good writing community with lots of people who are willing to help and provide feedback. As a paid member, it is easier to work with a collection of chapters, easier to communicate with in-app messaging, and just a better experience. It’s just a few dollars a month, so dollar for dollar, I don’t think anything contributed to my writing more than that.

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 12:29:28 pm

I've no idea why Word kept changing 'obese' to 'obess'. Apologies about that

Mark

6/17/2019 01:29:47 pm

From obese to obsess. That is fairly comical. Sometimes auto-correct is our worst enema. ;-)
Before you finished the explanation of brainstorming with the whiteboard I was laughing out loud. Some pretty funny stuff. That method of brainstorming is quite funny.
I don't recall hearing about Scribeophile before. It sounds like a great place to connect with other writers.
New questions.
Do you subscribe to any magazines, newsletters, blogs or podcasts that enhance your writing career?
What are your favorite reference books for grammar and writing?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 02:10:20 pm

I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson’s weekly podcast Writing Excuses. It helps that I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time, but the podcast is short, makes sense, and has been going for a over a decade. When someone with as much success as him talks about writing, it’s always worth hearing. I also found a lot of value from Joanna Penn’s TheCreativePenn site.

I’ve collected a LOT of reference books on the subject of writing, but I’ll try to keep my list manageably short. Here are the books that I really got a lot out of:

The Emotion Thesaurus – Puglisi and Ackerman
Both the Urban Settings and Rural Settings Thesaurus books – Also by Puglisi and Ackerman
Superstructure – James Scott Bell
Conflict & Suspense – James Scott Bell
Inciting Incident – H. R. D’Costa
The Story Grid – Shawn Coyne
The Writing Active Hooks and Writing Active Settings books – Mary Buckham
Story – Robert McKee
The 22 Rules of Storytelling According to Pixar – These were originally presented as tweets, but Stephan Bugaj did a nice analysis of it, which can be found as a free PDF here:
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52675998e4b07faca3f636a5/t/527f0a75e4b012bf9e7361c5/1384057461885/Pixar22RulesAnalyzed_Bugaj.pdf

Mark

6/17/2019 02:54:24 pm

I like the sound of Sanderson's podcast. I have been following the creative penn blog for a long time. I also like Anne R. Allen's blog that she does with Ruth Harris. I have found good info on the Kotobee blog as well. The New Publishing Standard keeps a close eye on the international markets.
You have listed some books that sound great! I bet many authors could benefit from those.
New questions.
Do you think you were born to write or did you have to learn the craft?
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
How did you celebrate when you published a book?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 05:05:20 pm

I know very few people who I think were ‘born to write’, and I definitely wasn’t one of them. I’ve hard to learn, and am still learning, every day.

The most difficult part for me was trying to wrap my head around ‘voice.’ It’s something EVERYBODY talks about, and yet no one seems to be able to define or quantify. You constantly get feedback from seasoned writers saying “the writing voice is weak” or “you need stronger voice.” Yet if you get any of the books on voice (which I’ve gotten quite a few), they’re filled with examples of “good voice” and ‘weak voice”, but very few, if any, principles of how to go about it. I got to the point that I had to take time out of writing and make a study of this mysterious quality. I wound up writing a blog post about my findings. It’s incomplete, but the act of writing it at least gave me some quantifiable scraps to latch onto, and introduce in a consistent, methodical way into my writing.

In terms of celebrations, people that know me know that I avoid parties of all kinds unless I’m completely backed into a corner. That being the case, they were nice to me and didn’t try to force me into an awkward environment where a spotlight would be shining on me for several hours. LOL. I got many, many personal notes of congratulations, with lots of little conversations and exchanges 1-on-1, and honestly, that’s the way I prefer it.

Mark

6/17/2019 06:26:43 pm

I found "voice" hard to understand also. I and my audience have benefitted from your research about "voice". You shared your findings about "voice" in a guest blog elsewhere on my website. Here is the link: https://www.wordrefiner.com/guest-blogs/the-writers-voice
New questions.
What was the earliest experience that made you realize that you could influence and change lives with the power of writing?
What is the message, moral, or takeaway that you hope people will get from reading your book? Is there more than one?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 06:43:51 pm

I don’t know if I want the responsibility of changing anyone’s life. LOL. I don’t take myself that seriously. At my core, I’ve always considered myself an entertainer more than a philosopher. I absolutely believe that there are authors who can accomplish that, and it’s awe inspiring to see it in action. My goal, however, isn’t so lofty. I aim to create a world where people can escape for a while and enjoy the ride, maybe seeing a little of themselves in one of my characters. I’m content if people read my work and have fun.

As mentioned in the response to an earlier question, my central theme, or moral to the story, was the distinction between viewpoints of someone who has ‘sacrificed’, and someone who has been ‘sacrificed for.’ That is the essence of Sam’s character arc, coming to the realization that those love her haven’t looked at their own efforts as ‘losing’ something, but rather they’ve seen it as ‘giving’ her something. It’s a perspective shift that might make her history easier for her to live with.

Mark

6/17/2019 07:12:02 pm

That is a heady responsibility. I doubt if most authors set out with that goal in mind. But every once and awhile an author will hear from a reader about how the story helped them through a rough patch in their life. Entertainment can be quite a balm for a person in pain.
New questions.
Do you have any problems when writing about characters of the opposite sex, why or why not?
How do you balance the demands on your time as a writer with personal relationships?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 07:46:46 pm

It is the responsibility of any author to figure out how to get inside their character’s skulls and see the world through their filters. If we do our jobs correctly, put enough thought and time into understanding our character’s motives and backstory, then it shouldn’t make a difference. If an author can only write about characters who are just like them, then books would be pretty dull. I haven’t lived a life of extreme affluence, but I wouldn’t hesitate to write about a character who did. I’m not a retired Israeli commando, or a parkour athlete, government agent, cop, gang member, voyeur, homeless girl, or a neurosurgeon, but all of those were in Gnosis, too. Don’t get me wrong. The more divergent one is from one’s characters, the more work it requires to render them accurately, but that’s part of the job.

There is no getting past the fact that writing as a secondary occupation eats into family life. For it to work, it takes participation from loved ones. But you can’t just abandon them for months at a time. I’m sure there are lots of ways to do it. For me, it has to be scheduled. You set aside times when you can work, and people respect that. And you set aside time to be with them, and you don’t cross that line either. You have to be disciplined, and compartmentalize your world. And that compartmentalization has to be balanced. Yes, it will take longer to produce a book than if you were writing fulltime, or if you were to devote 100% of your free time to it, but that wouldn’t be much of a life. And honestly, if I tried it that way, I imagine it would create such an imbalance that writing would become a negative. It has to fit into my life, occupying a space without dominating everything else. You have to create the boundaries and stick with them, no matter what.

Mark

6/17/2019 09:27:24 pm

That is what imagination is all about. I have heard whispers that an author can't write about history unless they were there. What a silly idea!
Life is full of choices, if we have balance then we can enjoy many different choices.
Last questions.
Do you have any other passions or creative outlets to pursue if you didn't write?
What can you tell us about your next book?

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 10:03:08 pm

If anything, I have too many interests. I still design video games for fun. I love to write software. I love to read about economics, philosophy, history, politics, and psychology. I’m a chess fanatic. I design web pages. If I wasn’t writing, I’m pretty sure I’d be working on a machine learning project that’s currently on the back-burner. I’m never at a loss for things to obsess over.

I’ve currently got two simultaneous Works In Progress. I’m working on book two of Gnosis (intended as a trilogy, and I already know how the series ends). I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say that the government is still chasing Sam, and you haven’t seen the last of Gabriella Ramos.

I’m also tinkering with a thriller, where a sociopathic investigative journalist is investigating a series of politically motivated serial murders. Of course, anyone who has read Gnosis knows that I love complex plots, and this one will not disappoint.

And as these are the last of the questions, let me say how much fun I’ve had answering your questions. We’ve covered a lot of ground, and maybe we’ve introduced a few folks to the world of Gnosis. I’ll be returning to it, and I hope your followers take the time to follow me on Bookbub, Amazon, Goodreads, or my web site, where I’ll keep everyone informed of my progress.

Mark

6/17/2019 10:14:43 pm

Knowing that Samantha's story will continue and we haven't seen the last of Gabby makes me happy.
Since I love the way you write the other story is intriguing to me also.
I am very grateful that you have shared your time with me and the audience of my website. This week has nearly been a record breaker in terms of the audience. As of this morning, there were more than 1600 views of the review and interview.
Thank you for being such a great guest. Your passion for the craft of writing is amazing.

Richard Hall link

6/17/2019 10:36:46 pm

Thanks, Mark! When I'm ready to release either of my two WIPs, I'll be sure to give you a shout. And in the meantime, your followers should all remember that the best thing you can do for an author whose work you like is to leave reviews. Especially for indie authors, reviews are a huge part of survival. Even more valuable than the revenues they get from book sales, there's nothing more valuable you can do to support your favorite authors.

Gnosis: A Psychic Urban Fantasy By Rick Hall

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