Composition (Metal Prodigy Series Insiders Guide): Metal Prodigy Series, #9

By J.S. Snow

Are you a fan of The Metal Prodigy Series?  Want an exclusive insider's look as to how it was conceptualized and created?  Desire to know the band's final thoughts as this series comes to a close?  What exactly would A.G. tell Strings Magazine today?  How about a sneak peek at the synopsis for all four books in the Hells Redemption Series?  What did J.S. leave out of Isolation?

If you're dying to know, then this is the book for you, this is…

Composition

132,955 Words

Written exclusively for fans of The Metal Prodigy Series which is a connected set of novels, the author strongly suggests if you haven't started the series yet, then pick up Redemption and begin the journey.  Major spoilers contained herein.  Don't say you haven't been warned.

Recommended for those 18 years of age and older.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.S. Snow
• Release date: Dec 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386521761

J.S. Snow

J.S. Snow began her literary obsession at the tender age of eleven with the first voluntarily read book Dear God It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blum.  Only a few years later her fascination with fictional offerings really took root as she stepped into the mind of one of her hero’s Stephen King through his work Christine. Now seriously considering a twelve step program for her e-Reader addiction, she feeds her fascination for make believe with new literary offerings via said e-Reader, has a passion for dark chocolate, sweet tea and Heavy Metal music.  She is the proud mother of a downright spectacular daughter (who was head banging in the belly) and lives with the belief that the mind where the imagination lives is a far more entertaining place than TV or movies ever will be. J.S. Snow currently resides in Central Florida and has been in the administrative office field for twenty nine years.

Book preview

While I wrote and compiled this insider’s guide for my fans, I do realize some who may read this, will be writers as well.

So, for those of you who choose to put pen to paper as I do and create fictional worlds, know this.  The opinions in this work are exactly that, nothing more. We all have our own style, what we prefer, what we dislike, what we clearly agree and disagree about and the one thing I’ve learned along this journey is there is no right answer.

In other words, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Why take the risk with publishing what I have dared not before? Why risk being assaulted by twatwaffles on social media because I simply couldn’t keep my opinions to myself? Why risk losing friends in the writing world, because again, I can’t seem to shut my pie hole? Because my gut says it needs to be said.

My readers should understand how this author’s brain ticks. It’s not to change their mind about you in any way nor hurt you. However, I want them to keep their expectations of me high, and maybe getting to know my thoughts as a reader and a writer, will help them understand me better and what to expect in the future.

So, enjoy this insider's look, or don’t, because in the end, I wrote it for me. Saying goodbye to a series is never easy.

Regards – J.S.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Just kidding, however, I will begin this story when I was eleven years old.

On second thought, cue up the John Williams score and let’s allow the yellow writing to scroll.

The year was 1982, and I was in fifth grade. Public school educated, this is the grade which begins the mandatory book reports. Now for a kid who didn’t like reading, this was paramount to torture.

I am in no way faulting my parental units in any manner what so ever for never reading to me, but in hindsight, because I didn’t see them read, I didn’t.

They were busy making babies, so we’ll just leave it at that.

So, what the heck was I going to read to submit for the stupid report then, huh? Enter Author Judy Blume and her work, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. Now, I don’t want it to sound like I had never touched a book before in my life, but that was the first real book which peaked my interest. The Pippi Longstocking Books were good, the Beverly Cleary books were cute as were the Nancy Drew novels, but Judy’s writing on the prepubescent subject which most girls are obsessed with spoke to me.

From then on out, it was a struggle to read anything interesting and when Judy was banned from most public-school libraries a few years later for some controversial works, my nightmare got worse. Needless to say, fifth grade is not something I dwell on too much.

Let’s skip ahead to eighth grade, or, right before it. Summers for me were long, tedious and boring as hell. I come from a big family and it was rarely feasible for us to go on vacation. Summer camp? What the hell is that? So, with friends out of town because they had the money to go somewhere, what was there to do?

Summer time in the Salt Lake Valley is one word… hot.

While I was born in Washington State, Spokane if you’re dying to know, I was primarily raised in Utah.  Thanks to my dad wanting to continue his studies after Vietnam was over at Brigham Young University, we ended up there versus returning home to Washington after his service was up in Europe for the Army. My parents purchased a home in a new subdivision on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley called West Valley City.

I know, how original, you’re impressed I can tell.

Due to this place being new, there were no mature trees to hide under or climb, the nearest playground was literally a rocket test facility or if you really wanted an adventure, a copper mine was right next door.

Yeah, so our choices were limited. This was also back in the day when children fended for themselves. They played on their bikes without parental supervision or helmets, there were no such things as playdates and things like ballet class or karate flat out didn’t exist.

Seriously, it’s miserable in the summer there. Voluntarily kicking a ball around or throwing one in ninety degrees plus heat, not fun.

However, let’s get back to this bored with nothing to do thing. I come from a large family where my father was the only one who worked and my mom was a stay at home housewife. Funds were limited, and you were forced to use your imagination a lot or pray your friends were actually home when you went over there.

So, with nothing to do, no vehicle to be taken around in, since we only had one and dad worked, this left only one option when you had little to no money… the library.

The nearest one at the time was in the neighboring town of Magna. For those of you who are just dying to Google this shit, I lived on forty-one hundred South and sixty-four hundred West, roughly two miles from the border of this copper mining town.

So, with my brother in tow, we walked to the nearest bus stop, which was a mile away, used my dimes which I saved from babysitting and took the bus. Forty cents one way and I have no idea why I remember that.

Oh yeah, good times.

Now at the library, what to read? In seventh grade, another level I’d rather forget, some paperbacks which were banned from school property were being passed around written by none other than Stephen King. Kids went to great extent to hide these suckers because there was no way you were going to find his stuff in the school library.

Remember what happened to poor Judy?

I wasn’t cool enough to obtain a copy of whatever it was they were passing around, but the kids were loving it and I figured while I was here, its summer so I can’t be busted, may as well see what all the fuss was about.

My brother went in one direction and I another, to a place I’d never dared venture before, the adult fiction section.

Cue the suspenseful music.

I immediately found the K’s and my eyes went wide.  The man wrote so many books! How was I supposed to choose? So, I selected the biggest one and held onto hope I could read it before it was due back. This and to prevent another long ass walk in the hot Utah summer heat. To this day I can’t stand walking. If I can’t get to it by car, I’m not interested.

So, my selection you ask? Christine.

Back on the bus I perused through it and as we were half way to our stop, I began to panic. There was a reason why the kids coveted this contraband so… curse words, violence and… sex!

Gasp, shock, awe… let’s all carpool to church right now!

I’m about to give my age away, but I don’t care; I was only fourteen at the time. I was raised in a very strict religious home. A home in which you didn’t swear, drink, smoke, watch pornographic or sexually suggestive explicit content, let alone, read it.

Adult women in our religion were preached to that romance novels should be avoided and daytime soaps should not be watched, because lord forbid, unmarried people should do it.

So here I was, with a giant ass Stephen King novel in my hands about to face my mother.

Again, cue the suspenseful music and let’s go to commercial, I think we all need a pee break.

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Welcome back. Now crossing the front yard. I’m nervous as you can imagine. The home which was purchased for fifty-one thousand dollars is a split level, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Our rooms were downstairs. So, you have the slimmest of chances of avoiding mom’s scrutiny as you entered the door. The trick to it was, how fast can you run?

However, give my mother credit where it’s due, she was always faster. Knowing full well I was up to something, as I was a secretive little shit who snuck out often to toilet paper someone’s house or go smoke a stale cigarette, she knew I was up to no good. She hollered from her post at the top of the stairs and demanded to see what we brought back.

Yeah, this was not going to go well for me.

I showed it to her, and she was pissed. She never read the man’s work, but knew of it. After quite a bit of arguing, she said the final decision would be up to my dad.

I remained in my room after he arrived home and I remember their conversation as my mother fixed dinner. Yes, I eavesdropped from the bottom of the stairs. I could see her point, it had all the no no’s in it that were mentioned earlier, but just because I was going to read those things didn’t mean I was going to do them. Chances were, I wouldn’t understand what half of them were, anyway.

I was a late bloomer.

I’ll never forget what my father said, Susie, did you see the size of it? My mother’s immediate counter, Scott, it’s a horror novel with foul language in it! My dad retorted with something which launched my love of reading and eventually turned me into a writer… in a way, Susie, she’s reading, and it’s a big book! I’m proud of her for choosing something so large; she’s never done that before. Leave her alone and be thankful she’s reading.

Scott Snow won the argument, and I got to keep Christine in my possession versus taking a ride back to the library to return it with my Christian head hung down in shame.

I soon found out what all the fuss was about at school, and I was hooked. Anything the man wrote ended up in my possession eventually, and they were all available at the library. Much to my mother’s objection, the book reports became a breeze and were quite interesting.

Parent teacher conference was as well. My mother ended up defending my reports with my nag of a teacher who objected to my choices and thought I should choose something more age appropriate.

Seriously, the staff at this Junior High School had a stick up their ass.

Now, let’s take a ride in the Tardis and skip ahead to 1994.

What? The phone booth from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is too small, Keanu Reeves is busy making kick ass movies and George Carlin is dead. Don’t even get me started on Keanu’s sidekick, I can’t even remember his name. So, what do you expect from me, a miracle?

Welcome to the early nineties which welcomed a new soul into it, my precious daughter, Chloe. While I didn’t have her young, I did have her alone and worked three jobs as a single mother to support us.  Needless to say, my favorite hobby of reading soon took a back seat so I could do something frivolous like sleeping.

Alright, that was a nice look around, everyone back in the Tardis, and would someone please grab my editor? He got distracted again posting a new writing tip on Facebook. Everyone in? Good, let’s skip ahead to 2011.

I’m at work, where I met my beta reader Betsey, who decides to break up the monotony of the day by asking all the girls, Have any of you read Fifty Shades of Grey?

I know, I know, you want to get back in the Tardis, but hang in there with me, alright?

I haven’t read a novel since 1993 and no one else was reading anything either and we had no idea what she was talking about. I had only known Betsey a short amount of time. She transferred to the Orlando office from her home State of New Jersey and was still considered the new girl.

I found it intriguing she was such a lover of books. She’s read practically everything and now my kid is well on her way to finishing high school, I find I have more time on my hands so I ask her about the book. She gives me the premise about it and while romance wasn’t my thing, and certainly not BDSM, I decide to give it a go. She loans me book one which I proceed devour in only a few short days. By the time I finish, she’s only a few chapters into book two and it’s a weekend to boot.

Being the impatient bitch I am, I run across the street to Barnes and Noble and buy book two, Fifty Shades Darker. I proceed to gobble it up as well in only a few short days. Betsey is pissed because I’m ahead of her and I agree to wait for her to catch up. After she’s done, we go together to Barnes and Noble and both buy book three, Fifty Shades Freed.

Okay, I see some of you in the Tardis! Get out of there, I’m not done yet.

I finish the book and I have to admit, I liked the series. However, the unexpected happens, an idea I had years earlier comes back to me and begins nipping at my heels.

Say what you want about the books, Erica’s writing or the premise of the story not living up to the hype, every author I’ve spoken to about it, and even you have to admit, her character development was spot on. She takes two self-involved young people and transforms them before our very eyes.

But seriously, Fifty Shades you ask?

Yes! No, these are not the end all be all master works of great literature, and the reason why she gets as much flack as she does is due to one thing, jealousy. She hit the writers jackpot. She had a brilliant marketing team and a damn good publisher who sold the shit out of these to resellers, who homed in on the once considered taboo market of BDSM and it took off. It doesn’t go too far and is mommy porn enough to continue selling to this day.

Be envious all you like, she’s laughing all the way to the bank. I congratulate her for her success and wish her the best of luck if she tries to write anything else.

Paint, corner… get it?

Okay, back to the Tardis, everyone pile in, we’re instead going to go back in time to 1993.

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Anyone who knows me, and you all should, my life is an open book, knows I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE heavy metal music. The harder, the better. I do like other types of music, but this genre speaks to me on a different level.

As you step out of the time machine and look around and admire the Wasatch Mountains, I remind you all this is the time where sexual harassment is the big deal in the news thanks to the judicial nomination hearings of the now Justice Clarence Thomas.

Every freaking large corporation in the United States is now covering its ass with mandatory sexual harassment training, everyone questions what is and isn’t acceptable any more and more women than ever before are now in the workforce.

Grunge music and techno pop are the big thing right now.

It’s a whole new ballgame folks.

The one area women aren’t dominating in is hard core music. Yes, Heart is big at this time, as is Lita Ford, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Jett, etc, but who exactly with a vagina is melting the faces off of fans like Metallica is?

No one.

The more I watch MTV or attend a concert, the more frustrated I get. It seems if you are female in the music industry, then you are only good for shaking your ass, rolling around on stage and being a fashion icon.

Where the hell are the women who can truly rip it on a guitar? I know they’re out there. As I lead you all to the Acord Arena at the old Salt Palace before it was imploded in 1994, I tell you all about the numerous concerts I attended and most despite my parent’s objections. I list the artists Utah has banned from performing and one of you asks what was the greatest concert I ever saw here?

My answer surprises most of you, since it’s not heavy metal, Journey’s last concert with Steve Perry, The Raised on Radio Tour. Many of you nod your heads in agreement and some of you wince realizing you blew off going because you didn’t know it would be Steve’s last and you are a little pissed at yourselves.

Finally, one of you asks, Okay, so how did A.G.’s story pop into your head?

A twatwaffle of all things. Yes, you read that correctly. Remember Justice Clarence Thomas from earlier? His confirmation hearing was being hijacked by a woman by the name of Anita Hill. If you don’t remember this, then you were either too young or living outside of the U.S. at the time.

Her accusations in my opinion were politically motivated and…

One of you gets in my face and you are shocked and appalled. You question if I’m really a liberal. Justice Thomas is a conservative.

Yes, stranger things have happened, but I believe in a balanced court and I believed his side of things. He was found innocent and sits on the bench today.  Now, if he would simply lighten up or even smile every now and again, the world might be a happier place.

Seriously, could the man look any grouchier?

The aftermath of what happened set two things in motion. First, men in the workforce who were already dealing with the fact we were taking over and were alright with it, now had to walk on eggshells. Instead of this benefiting our advancement, it hurt us. Second, have you ever wondered how we became such a pansy ass politically correct society? It all started with this historic event folks. For you see, it wasn’t only sexual harassment classes we now all to sit through, but workplace respect, tolerance of other cultures and yes, Merry Christmas was officially replaced with Happy Holidays.

Lawsuits prevailed and someone was always in a snit over something.

Millions were spent on changing the language in the laws. Versus the word, men, it had to be persons or people. Women like me, who were tolerant of a man old enough to be our grandfather calling us honey or sweetheart in the workplace, now had to bust these guys and potentially get them fired.

Things all around sucked in the nineties.

Daydreaming one day at work, and all the while letting a sweetheart comment slide, I began to wonder if this drastic change was happening everywhere? The one area it wasn’t, was the music industry, namely, in heavy metal.

Women weren’t taken seriously, and it was allowed. There was no law which had to force independent contractors from bringing a female into their band, and, the new sexual harassment laws now in effect made it even tougher for gifted musicians who happen to have a vagina from even being given a shot.

So, the story idea formed and took root in my head. With the whole, please don’t see my gender as a launching point, I formulated a story around this premise. In this earlier version though, it’s Alex who is the quiet and introverted one, the band is trying to make her come out of her shell, and she remembers everything that happened to her and witnesses the execution of Vic Davone. Yes, she does fall in love with John, but Sister Maria Therese and Father Martin don’t exist and are instead an old couple who work maintenance at a run-down Baptist church. For whatever reason, Victor wasn’t a mobster, but a billionaire Brazilian businessman and he buys Alex from her birth parents only to kill them when they come back because they changed their minds.

Happy with I wrote instead? Yeah, I thought so.

So, why wasn’t it written in 1993? Simple, I had no idea even where to even start. I wasn’t reading the romance genre at the time, didn’t know rock star romance novels even existed and laptops were freaking expensive. I didn’t even have a home computer. Then again, most people didn’t.

Okay, get your butts back in the Tardis, it’s time for another trip, and seriously, would someone please grab my editor? He’s now doing the virtual tackle hug thing on Facebook again.

Someone really needs to show him the poke feature.

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Welcome to 2013. I know this place looks familiar to you all, it was only four years ago for crying out loud. I have now read not only the FSOG novels, but hundreds of romance novels and recently read the Sinners Series by Olivia Cunning.

If you haven’t read it, you are missing out. You think the guys in HR are amazing, the band Sinners will have you eating from their hands. I love these guys and except for Olivia using a certain spelling for a particular word, the books are genius. Again, it’s all about character development. Nail that down, and you have something.

I grabbed a new notebook and began to outline. Before I knew it, Seth, Drake, Hiatt, John and Cole were born. Alexis Grace or A.G. as we all know her was already created twenty years ago, so now it was time to put it all together and make them a band.

How did their name come about? I wanted the unexpected and an oxymoron if you will. While I was raised in a Christian dogma religion, the one part which has always bothered me was the whole, you are going to hell if you don’t do the following thing.

Yeah, when I finally realized we’re all going back to heaven, things became a bit lighter in my world. I often wondered, how do those who are punished for what they did while on earth find redemption? If Hell does exist, it is even possible? What if a modern day heavy metal band used the bible as a premise for their story telling in their lyrics, but at the same time didn’t come across a Christian rock band? What if the war between good and evil started tomorrow and a group of warriors paid those in the fiery depths a visit and showed them a way out?

Hmmm, Hells Redemption, I like it.

Oh, and for the record, I purposely omitted the apostrophe to be a shit and because I can. To the grammar Nazi’s, stick that in your pipes and smoke it.

I never once claimed the full-length novels were professionally edited and do you know how much it would have cost me? Give financially challenged independent writers a break, would you? We all work and have bills to pay and are no different from you.

Seriously, would one of you please tackle my editor?  He’s run amuck again. What’s that? You thought I said I didn’t have one? He did edit the novellas in the series. Why did I hire him for those? Wait for it, wait for it… I could afford it!

Okay, I’ll play nice now. Back to the story. The premise of my original idea bothered me. It was too dark.  All the rock star rogue novels I read were funny and light, but a bit too one dimensional. They were also predictable. I don’t care for it and you can only read one novel after another with the same HEA before you start rolling your eyes and next wanting to gouge them from your memory. I need to be surprised every now and again. So, for the next month I wrote ideas down on post it notes, cocktail napkins, receipts, you name it and eventually a lighter, more workable story began to form.

Remember how I said I didn’t have an idea where to start? Now I did and six months later, Redemption was finished and in December 2013 my writing career was launched.

The rest… you should have read by now.

The only original fiction writers in my opinion are the dudes who wrote the bible. Now, don’t get your Christian panties in a wad, I know it’s non-fiction, but to my point, they were the only original writers throughout human history. There is no such thing as a unique idea in literature because even the breakout hits that go on to be Oscar winning movies are remnants of something written before.

We humans have been around forever and writing ever since we lived in caves. The best we can do is take an idea, put our own twist on it and regurgitate it and hope it sells. Besides the bible dudes, the other which adds to my theory is the power of the subconscious. It’s always working in the background contributing to how we act and think.

Is this Insider’s Guide an original idea?

Nope.

Is interviewing my characters something no other writer has thought of?

Fat chance.

Does featuring them on my website constitute a genius marketing move on my part?

Not even.

The one thing I am learning during this journey is if you’re still on your own for the promotion and marketing of your books, then get creative. Involve your readership. Create the world as if it exists.

For the idea of this guide, my hats off to New York Times Best Selling author J.R. Ward. She published something similar for her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. In reading her insider’s guide, especially the interviews section, I could tell she was working on character development, and she has more primary characters to deal with than I do.

The first interview with a character I ever did was with A.G. I was surprised how much it helped me as a writer to develop her. Through talking with her, I was able to mold her easier for future works. Then of course came the band’s interview with me on the airplane and wow did I learn a lot there.

A hat’s off and a bow to Best Selling Author Olivia Cunning. The idea of Hells Redemption having their own space on my website was something I saw on hers with her fictional rock group, Sinners. While mine isn’t as involved as hers is, she taught me putting pictures to the names, giving them a bio and making them appear as if they are real helps further create the world in my mind and in my readers. It’s also a lot of fun.

Being a series writer and creating characters which have to live on in book after book can be challenging. Putting them in a world of their own can help manage them easier.

I’ll paraphrase Olivia who said corralling multiple characters is like trying heard a group of cats. It generally doesn’t work out very well, but when it does, magic!

This chapter should be entitled for Aspiring Writers in retrospect, but actual writers need advice as well.  Lord knows I’ll take it.  Again, I don’t know it all, there is so much I need to still learn, but I’m willing to share what I have and you can utilize it or shit can it, it’s up to you. If its expert advice you’re seeking, I’ll point you to the self-help section for writers in the bookstore but not before I hand you a copy of Practical Writing Tips for Every Author by Steve Soderquist first. Give it a read, it’s good.

I formulated the acronym P.O.W.E.R. and live by it every day with my writing.

Plan

Outline

Write Daily

Expect the Unexpected

Remember the Surprise

I am an E-Book author.  I take full advantage of this fact because my books can be what they want, can change frequently, not set in stone (i.e. paperback) and be as long as I want them to be.

So, with this is mind, this first step is crucial.

Plan

You have to map things to organize them in your head, because if you’re not careful, one thing can come along and throw a wrench into the whole thing which could delay your release forever.

I first decide on how many months the book is going to take me to write. I have the story idea in my head, and I think about the potential length of it. How many words is each chapter going to be max? How many chapters total? How bad am I going to toss the readers off the cliff to keep them intrigued to read the next book?

Because of the length of my novels, I edit as I go and send the beta readers six to nine chapters at a time to read through. Now comes the calendar and the spreadsheet. I list the chapters in one column and the steps to tick mark in subsequent columns for each chapter. This assists in keeping me from going insane.

Next, the dates. One of my books takes anywhere from six to nine months to produce from the time I conceptualize the idea. So, I circle the date I want to release the book and plot the timeline to first write, then edit, send to the betas, when they are to have their feedback to me, final edits and finally insert it into the book and consider it checked off. I realistically look at how many chapters I can crank out a day and how many on the weekends. I look at my personal life and what comes first and plan my writing around it.

Outline

Not all writers do this, but again, not all of them have a connected series. If you decide to write one, especially with multiple characters, its essential and will save your sanity.

Each chapter is on it, the meat and potatoes underneath each, and then I color code. Grey is for chapter breaks, light blue for sex scenes and fuchsia for when a chapter is done.

Once I have it written and finalized, I convert the file to an ePub and send it to my tablet. I reference it often to remind me what should be next. It also assists if a chapter is too long, has to be broken up into others and is key in deciding what should go in the next book or be pitched altogether.

O should also be for Organize. You have to have your ducks in a row or you’ll go nuts. Keep your files consistently named. More on that later.

Write Daily

First, make a decision. How long do you want the book to be? What’s your word count goal? This can come in handy if you decide to take part in contests like NaNoWriMo or to some of us who know it as Nanowrites. National Novel Writing Month, takes place every year in November. Writers are challenged to start and complete a fifty-thousand-word novel between November 1 and November 30. Learn more at http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Once you have the total word count settled on, decide how many words each chapter should be. This can be subject to debate, but the only time my betas actually growled was when any of the chapters exceeded six-thousand words. So, I set my chapter lengths at four-thousand. Do I go over with some, of course, but this is offset by the smaller ones. Once you’ve decided how many words you plan on producing, you’ll have a chapter count. The books length of course is also determined by the other key elements you need to remember to include. Copyright page, table of contents, acknowledgements and the page about you.

Big book, small one, short story, whatever, every single day, write something. Since most indie authors still work a full-time gig and have families, finding the time to write can be challenging. Stay consistent with your schedule and place importance on it like you would anything else. If you really want to do this, then making excuses doesn’t even occur to you. If you struggle with how to find the time, might I suggest taking a hard look at your schedule and your downtime habits.

When my daughter was in middle school, I started getting up at four in the morning. This was so I could have some me time before she woke up and the husband who would demand my attention and time before getting out the door. I ran a business from home, so there wasn’t the stress of going to work myself.

Even after she got older, I continued the habit of getting up before the sun rose. I returned to the workforce, and grew to appreciate the free time I give myself in the morning to get things done before I have to give eight hours a day to someone else.

My routine hasn’t changed in years. I write when I get up and for an hour and a half, my current work in progress receives all my attention. I save what I have in the cloud and at lunch time, again, I’m writing on my tablet in the car.

After I get home from work and dinner and miscellaneous chores are completed, I write some more. I eliminated time wasters from my life which take me away from my writing. TV? Don’t watch it. Not to say I don’t binge watch something every great now and again, but anything current? Not happening, I have a book to finish.

The weekends are also devoted to my writing. I take care of personal items first, family responsibilities of course and whatever free time I have and nothing is scheduled, I’m writing. I write every day of the week. I don’t set a goal for a word count, but I do have the goal in my head to have at least one chapter done a day. On the weekends that number bumps up to four.

Expect the Unexpected

Life happens, it’s unavoidable. Factor into your publishing deadline time it would take to recover if you get sick, your kid is ill, the spouse, etc. Vacation and personal time should be taken into consideration. And this may sound morbid as hell, but what if someone in your family dies?

Then, there is if all things electronic in your life crash. What if your laptop dies? What if your tablet or phone is stolen? Factor this in as well.

Do your best to plan for eventualities and if necessary, extend the deadline. Due to some of these things happening in my own life, padding the goal date a few months is a pretty safe bet.

Count on hitting a writing wall. It happens to all of us. You’ll be cooking along, following your outline and all will come to a full stop. It’ll happen out of nowhere too. Also factor in the story taking another direction you didn’t count on. It went that way for a reason, follow your gut.

Remember the Surprise

If you’re a series writer, giving too much away too soon can kill your next novel. Don’t forget, you have to keep them coming back for more, so don’t forget the shock and awe. Constantly ask yourself if what you just wrote would be considered predictable and entertain any ideas to mix things up.

I for one am always delighted when I deliver the shock and awe and a reader makes it a point to contact me on social media and proceed to have a freak out. If your readers are bonding with your characters, then they care about what happens to them. However, this can cause complacency in the writing and dull them out. Give them some edge and perhaps have them do something even you didn’t expect.

Here are some examples of what surprised me:

Alex: The f-bomb rolls right off her tongue effortlessly.

Seth: He actually slept with Alex’s best friend.

Drake: Is willing to try his hand at being a DOM.

Hiatt: Is still in love with John after all this time.

John: Is a closeted gun toting conservative.

Cole: In the end showed his real fear about gays.

R should also be for reading. If you are not reading other authors works, you are not honing your craft. Stephen King touches on this a lot and he’s right. Yes, you create the stories, but at one time, you read them. Factor time in your schedule to absorb the vocabulary of another.

R should also be for–read it back. The death of a story is three-fold in my opinion. Avoid at all costs anything which could induce an eye roll from your reader, lord forbid them skipping ahead and the final nail in the coffin for your story, them not finishing it. Your beta’s will be essential with this. If they do any of these, go back and rework it. More on how to pick them in the next chapter.

This chapter contains the tools I use to make the magic happen behind the scenes. By no means do I intend this to be the end all be all of Self-Publishing. Use this advice, or don’t, you’re the writer and there are plenty of experts out there, many much smarter than me.

Now let’s get the meat and potatoes about self-publishing. The reason why I’m sharing this with all of you is because when I have an idea and you have an idea and both of us share them with each other, we both have two ideas.

There is no reason in the world why this should be a selfish business. Unfortunately, it can be, but there are plenty of readers out there for our genre’s and until we all achieve the ultimate goal of signing a large publishing contract that will shoot us into the stratosphere of fame and notoriety, we’re all on our own. Why not scratch each other’s back now and then.

A little to the left please… ah, thanks.

So here is what I use to get the job done. Don’t only take my word for it, do your research, ask questions and even post one on FB. Plenty will reply with what they use and you may run into something that works.

Tools of the Trade

One of the smartest and most expensive investments I’ve made for this adventure was purchasing a Mac.

Oh yes, I’m going there.

They’re pricy for a reason folks, they’re indestructible. The reliability of these things is incredible and I’m super impressed. I purchased a windows office suite package with my MacBook Air and I’ve had ZERO issues. My Dell that sits on my desk? Do not get me started on the pains I’ve had to endure using it.

Bottom line in my humble opinion? Windows sucks! Get a reliable tool you can use and not have to worry over.

For editing software, there are plenty available and it feels like I’ve used them all, but for my money, you can’t beat ProWriting Aid. Now here is where having a Mac bites me in the ass. Their software is only for Windows.

Talk about twatwaffles.

So, the Dell is strictly used to use the features of the program during the editing process.

To review my own work, I use an electronic tablet. Mine happens to be a Samsung Nook I bought at Barnes and Noble. I love this thing. My next will more than likely be an iPad because eventually windows based products