The Ever-Annoying Modifier

If you're one of the many writers asking, "What's so evil about modifiers anyway?" I don't blame you for not getting it. Too many of us have fallen victim to our culture's lazy standards of writing, perpetuated by the shorthand of social media and the explosion of self-published books that go unedited, unchecked, and are held unaccountable.

So what's the big deal about overusing modifiers? Well, let's see.

First: The Modifier

Essentially, a modifier adds information to another element in a sentence. The man didn't just walk from the room, he walked from the room slowly. A modifier can be an adjective, an adverb, or a phrase or clause acting as an adjective or adverb.

Ok, so, modifiers are words that modify things. With me so far?

Second: The Problem

Modifiers kill creative writing. Verbs should be a writer's best friend, not modifiers. Verbs lend action and speed and interest, but if you're not using the correct verbs you'll find yourself falling on too many modifiers to make up for your lazy verb selection. The end result is sloppy looking writing.

EXAMPLE
"The thief slipped stealthily into the room."

A writer who doesn't understand the misuse of modifiers won't see anything wrong with that sentence, but let's take a closer look at the problem.

The thief is the subject of this sentence. Slipped is the verb that describes his action. Stealthily is the modifier adding a descriptive element to the verb. The main problem with this example is that the modifier is unnecessary. Why is the modifier unnecessary? Because we have an inappropriate verb.

Slipped.

What does this even mean? Is the thief sliding along the floor here? Is there a banana peel in the dark? Is he disco dancing? This verb doesn't quite describe our scene. Slipped is something a stealthy thief would prefer NOT to do, I would imagine.

Let's try again.

"The thief snuck stealthily into the room."

Better. Snuck is a much better word for a stealthy thief than slipped. It could just as easily be crept or tiptoed or skulked, depending on what mood you're trying to set or your personal preference.

But now we have another problem. Remember our modifier Mr. Stealthily? He is now making the verb redundant since the word snuck implies stealth.

Let's try again... again.

"The thief snuck into the room."

Ahhh! There we go. And now we have a tightly written sentence. It's succinct. It conveys a good mental image. There are no redundant or unnecessary modifiers and the verb is strong, implying a specific action while still allowing the reader to use their imagination to conjure the scene. If you want to convey more information about the thief's movements or his demeanor, get creative!

"The thief snuck into the room, a shadow of menace and ill intent."

Ok, it's an elementary example, I admit, but hopefully this process shows you how cutting out modifiers forces a more creative use of proper verbs and can lead to stronger, more descriptive sentences.

An Example From My Own Work

In Where Evil Abides, the second volume in my high fantasy series Children of the Falls, one of my heroes starts a fight. In the first draft, the sentence read like this:

"Merek jumped over the food table and overturned it, pushing the soldiers back, but only momentarily."

There are several things I didn't like about this sentence, but for the purposes of this article I'll deal with the modifier.

I realized that the word "momentarily"—a modifier—is a useless word. Is it worth it to emphasize that Merek's actions distracted the soldiers for only a moment? Doesn't the action in the next sentence imply the next moment? What does this modifier do except waste the reader's time?

I decided to get aggressive and axed everything after the comma.

"Merek vaulted over the food table and kicked it over, pushing the soldiers back."

Vaulted was a more appropriate verb to describe the specific action, while the verb "kicked" gave the sentence a little extra, well... kick.

As for the modifer? Gonzo!

Reality Check

Are modifiers NEVER supposed to be used? There are some purists out there who might think the first sentence about the slippery thief is an abomination. There are also some very lazy writers who look at some of today's top selling fiction, see lots of modifiers, and think it's no big deal.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I try not to use modifiers, but I'm also the kind of person who writes by feel. If I feel that a sentence flows better with a modifier as opposed to a verb, I might go with the modifier, but that's AFTER I've already assessed the sentence to see if there isn't a stronger verb that works for the scene.

Here's An Exercise

Do a search throughout your document of all words that end in "ly" and get rid of them. Nine times out of ten an "ly" word is a modifier. I guarantee that most of those modifiers can be deleted without changing the meaning of the sentence. In many cases you may have to hunt for a more descriptive verb, and in other instances you may need to rework your sentence entirely. You'll find your writing getting stronger and stronger the more modifiers you hack out.

So hack away!

Could It Be Any More Depressing?

Cutting a book in half isn't easy. (See Changing An Elephant for the full story.)

At first I thought my biggest problem was finding the right point in the different storylines to make the split, but after accomplishing that I realized there's another problem: the individual endings are all kinda... depressing.

At the end of the book...

• Hero #1 and #2 indulge in a graceless massacre of enemy soldiers. No moral lessons are learned. No one grows or changes. It's just violence.
• Princess #1 witnesses the suicide of one of her friends and gets sucked deeper into a life of prostitution.
• Princess #2 is shoved off the top floor of the castle and left for dead.
• My heroine escapes an attack of enemy soldiers only to find herself trapped in the crypt of a chapel after it burns to the ground.
• My other heroine is abandoned by her mentor and left in the hands of a cruel teacher.
• My anti-hero is arrested by the high king, tortured, and thrown in prison.

And just to be clear: these are my main characters. Could it be any more depressing?

As awful as this all might sound, I really don't think I mind. This story is built on the premise that the people have been abandoned by their gods. Society has come to the brink of ruin and the last shreds of innocence are being purged. Despair is what my characters need to feel before they awaken to the reality of what's needed to save the realm.

But if I could pick one word to describe this story, buried in the middle of a dismal plot, heartbroken characters, despairing heroes, and prospering villains, it would be hope. Hope is a tiny thread in this story that glimmers ever so faintly. Hope—I hope—is something that becomes more evident as the series goes on.

Is that glimmer of hope in book 1 enough to keep readers from getting depressed? We'll see.

*Gulp*

Island Time: I Don't Know What It Is But It's Awesome

I think my wife and I were destined to be "islanders" the day we decided to honeymoon on Kelly's Island in Lake Erie and we got our first taste of "island time."

Actually, we wanted to hit up the roller coaster capital of the world in Sandusky, OH, but then someone told us about Kelly's Island, which is just a short ferry ride north. So on our honeymoon we rode roller coasters and spent a lot of time basking in the sun in a little island community. And I loved it!

Island time is defined differently depending on who you ask. Some say it simply means a time later than what the clock says. Others say it has to do with an unwillingness to conform to the norms and structure of modern culture.

But it's more than that.

Island time encompasses a way of life in relation to the attitude you have about the world and the people around you. It's no coincidence that islanders have far fewer worldly possessions and are happier, feeling more fulfilled with a love for life and experiences. They're enriched by enjoying every moment that passes. Not concerned about the mistakes of yesterday. Not worried about tomorrow, but fully involved in today. THAT'S island time.

When Danielle and I vacationed in Maui, HI, last January we fell in love with the place. It was like coming home, a feeling I never felt before.

Even before that, however, we were feeling called to a simpler life. We sold our house. We started downsizing our possessions. And once we got a taste of Hawai'i we slowly began the long process of moving there. Right now we hope that by January we'll officially be "islanders."

What does this mean for my writing career? I'm hopeful that nothing will change. I've been writing since I was 14. Had my first novel published when I was 18. I've authored two other books and edited, illustrated, and designed countless others.

With my fingers fully embedded into my new fantasy series Children of the Falls, I'm in for the long haul. I look forward to completing this series while sitting on the beach, enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean, pretty girls, and pina coladas.

Changing An Elephant

Writing is a lot like cooking. The ingredients don't always have to be precisely measured out. If you want to add a little more paprika, go for it! If halfway through you decide to change things up, then change things up. You don't have to follow the recipe.

On my bucket list of things to accomplish while writing the first book in the Children of the Falls series was to hit 200,000 words. Comparatively, the first Harry Potter novel was about 75,000 words, while the longest in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, was over 250,000 words. I had never written a novel longer than 129,000, and I wanted to shatter that standard with something epic.

However, when my book reached 300,000 words—that's right, 300,00!!!—I knew I was running into a problem. I didn't like the idea of beginning a new self-published series under a new pen name with a massive 300,000 word novel. I wanted the series to be more accessible to tentative readers who weren't ready to bite off such a massive novel.

My wife was the first to suggest splitting the book in half, and after I thought about it I realized there was a good midpoint at which I could accomplish that. I knew it would require shifting a few events around and possibly adding a couple extra chapters to wrap things up for a new ending, but the idea was exciting. It instantly gave me two books to start marketing instead of one. It also allowed me to narrow my focus in the first novel and spend a little more time building my characters.

Where Evil Abides, the original book one, became book two, and a new 170,000 word book became book one. This meant I needed a new title. I mulled it over for a few days, but couldn't come up with anything.

After one particularly dream-filled night's sleep I awoke around 6am with a title sitting on my lips. I whispered it, hoping to commit it to memory, and promptly fell back to sleep. Thankfully my brain was able to recall the title and I quickly plopped it onto a new cover for a new book one.

Coming soon: Where Serpents Strike.

Author Interview: J.C. Stockli

"I have always been the under dog wrapped up in a little blonde package with a sometimes overwhelming sense of imagination. In a lot of ways, I'm still that little girl scared of the dark."

—J.C. STOCKLI

Sometimes I read a book just for fun. Other times I read a book and study it. J.C. Stockli is one of those writers who actually had me taking notes. Her style is crisp and smart, and her most recent novel, The Nothingness, is a gritty paranormal mystery that grabs you by the jugular and doesn't let go.

Stockli's work was so intriguing that I messaged her and asked if I could interview her. She eagerly agreed, much to my delight!

C.W.: Your book is very dark with some frightening imagery and ideas. I've gotta to ask, what were you like as a child?

J.C. Stockli

J.C. *Laughing* I was a pretty normal kid, the younger of two siblings, two parents, a dog and cat. I had a wonderfully playful grandmother, a real quirky aunt, and some rascally cousins whom I loved to visit with when growing up. There was a lot of make-believe in my childhood. Yes, I had an imaginary friend and I'm still terrified of the boiler monster in my basement. I always had nightmares, but forced myself to get into horror movies to get over my fears. I had a neighbor who was obsessed with the Poltergeist franchise, and I'm sure she helped to foster my fears, but I learned to love them. I have always been the under dog wrapped up in a little blonde package with a sometimes overwhelming sense of imagination. In a lot of ways, I'm still that little girl scared of the dark.

Your book delves into some truly harrowing realities about the lives of addicts. Your depictions of their struggles are very real and heart-breaking. What sort of experiences have you had, or what research did you do, to capture all of that so vividly?

Understanding that I looooooove when endorphins flare, I know I have an addictive personality. If it feels good—I want more—period. To that end, I have never ventured beyond tobacco and alcohol because I've just never trusted myself. Sadly, I've seen others around me fall to much harsher substances. Addiction is non-discriminatory. It cripples even the strongest and wealthiest, and it can be a subtle threat. I think that's why I wanted to weave that into my story. What originally started off as a mere fantasy in my mind transformed into a fictitious platform with which I could depict how easy addiction can be. There's a stigma wrongly placed on substance abuse, and I wanted to address that.

Give us some insight into your main character, Evie. What should would-be readers know about her?

Evie is your everyday girl. She's flawed, makes mistakes, but is in fact human and has a good heart. I didn't want her to be pristine. She's insecure, doesn't realize her own worth. I've had a few reviews where people have questioned why she would have been dumb enough to do action A or B, but in reality isn't that the human condition? Don’t we always question why people do some of the things they do? Evie is just like you and me, trying to figure life out.

The Nothingness is the first book in a series you're planning correct?

Yes, the Addictions of the Eternal series.

So what sorts of places do you see Evie going to in the future—emotional, mental places?

Evie is going to run the gauntlet with her addictions. The Nothingness is only her first exposure to the drug. She's going to have others who try to shield her from it, but she's got to taste it (so to speak), experience the high for herself, succumb to it, and hopefully free herself from it. The series will carry her through the highs and lows of addiction and through said journey we'll all slowly exit reality and become immersed within the fantasy of the vampire world lurking in the shadows.

Vampires are definitely the rage these days. What drew you to write about them?

I have loved vampires since I was a kid. Who didn't love The Lost Boys? Honestly, the fact that they have become all the rage is sort of surreal for those of us who have been mystified by the supernatural our entire lives. Am I right?

So true! I've got to ask, are you a Twilight fan?

*Laughter* I read and enjoyed the books for the YA value they offer. They challenged the convention of what vampires could be, which I enjoyed... but they were too soft for me, as most YA tends to be.

Ok. We can be friends. *Laughter* So what made you decide to depict your vampires in such a gritty, realistic way?

I didn’t want superhuman powers or the traditional convention of what a vampire could be. I’ve seen other authors tackle this subject, and some challenge the norm, while others embrace it, masterfully—I wanted to challenge it. I have this firm belief that all legend must stem from somewhere. That said, the concept of a tangible origin suggested a more realistic existence than the aversion to sunlight or flying bats with no reflection. I'm not saying that I do not value the cross and garlic stuff, but that’s not real life... unless we’re going to talk about the medical conditions behind it all. I decided I wanted to stray away from tackling the scientific angle, that's been done quite well already, but what about the sociological evolution? Or perhaps the spiritual origin? We’ll see this exposed as the series progresses.

I really liked your approach to vampires in The Nothingness. I think in recent years my taste for vampire stuff has been tainted by their treatment in Hollywood and in books like Twilight, but I felt like you breathed new life into the genre for me. I can't wait to read what you come up with next!

Thanks!

Your prose has such a distinct style. It's very beautiful. Tell us about your writing process. What does it look like? How do you best like to work? Do you have any weird quirks?

This story stemmed from a nightmare that lingered. When an image is so vivid that I can live and breathe it, then it's easy to tell it. I take every experience from my day to day and make mental notes. What was that smell? What did it stir in me? I love silent exchanges of eye contact, so each time I find myself envisioning Lucca staring across the room, I try to tune it to how my body reacts. Music is a large influence, again monitoring how my body reacts to a rhythmic beat. I cannot write in silence, I need to choreograph the scene to the song. Actual writing is haphazard for me. If I have an idea, I get it out quick. I email notes to myself constantly, sometimes a full scene or dialogue. I email notes to myself throughout the day and jumble it all together when I get home and in front of the computer.

What does J.C. Stockli like to do when she's not writing?

Well, it sure isn't folding laundry! I have a beautiful family to keep me company, and thanks to e-books, I have a virtual library in the palm of my hand at all times.

What sorts of things have you learned about yourself while writing?

I’ve learned to push myself out of my comfort zone. Every writer is an introvert, and sharing is difficult. Especially being an indie author, I’ve had to suck in a deep breath and put myself out there, put my writing out there. This was a huge leap for me, but now I feel freer, liberated. It’s been a cathartic experience.

What books are you reading right now?

I just finished a fantastic adventure, Mabel Bunt And The Masked Monarchs, and I’m currently reading My Hood Your Barrio His Beat. I love meeting fellow indies and experiencing their work, working with them and doing book reviews and character interviews on my blog www.jcstockli.com. Writers can contact me if they want me to feature their work.

You're awesome! Thanks so much for entertaining my questions.

Book two in Stockli's series, The Saving, will be available next weekend, October 2. The Nothingness is available now in print and digital formats from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In anticipation of The Saving, The Nothingness is on sale this weekend for $.99. If you go to her blog she's offering a sneak peek of the next novel!

J.C. Stockli is scheduled to be part of the first ever Virtual FantasyCon, which runs November 1 to 8. Presented by Flavour of Fantasy, FantasyCon will be held online in a Facebook Event with panel discussions via YouTube, a Scavenger Hunt, Giveaways, and a Cosplayer Costume Contest with a daily prize for the best selfie and costume and a grand prize.

To learn more about J.C. Stockli's work, visit her blog at www.jcstockli.com.

"Facing Your Fears" Wrap-Up

I once heard a great little maxim: "A writer is halfway done the moment he begins."

It's a true enough statement, but why is it true? Because for many writers overcoming fear is the biggest obstacle. Sometimes just beginning is what it takes to overcome the manacles of "maybe" and "might" and "what if." Sometimes all we have to do is start.

And then all we have to do is keep going.

We can study great writing. We can absorb good advice (like you're doing now. *wink, wink*). We can accumulate lists of dos and don’ts, but until we learn to keep on keeping on we're doing nothing except gathering information. Information, I'll add, that is useless until it's put into practice.

A child learns to ride a bike by riding a bike. There's no other way to teach them.

Likewise, a writer learns to write by writing. Sounds simple enough, right? Sure, unless fear is holding you back.

Over the past few (okay, many) weeks, I've examined some of the different aspects of a writer's fear—the fear of looking foolish, of being called out on our grammatical mistakes, of being boring, of being misunderstood or unliked, of failing, of not meeting our expectations—and, as I've said before, every single fear a writer can have stems from one commonality: they all MIGHT come true.

But we'll never know unless we begin.

Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony 
than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Your fear may be telling you that your words don't matter, but that is a lie. Your words do matter. Your story matters. Your story may only ever bless one single person, but until you write it and get it out there you'll never know.

If I had cancer and only three days left to live, and if I found myself sitting face-to-face with you, a writer paralyzed by fear, this is what I'd scream at you regardless of how many people thought me a lunatic:

• Don't be afraid to be you! Write what's in your heart. Who cares if the world thinks you're nuts. The universe has put this on you to write, so write it already!


• Don't get tied up in grammar and technical mistakes now. Yes, those things are important, but you'll get to them during the later editing stages. For now, just write!


• Don't try to be perfect, just write!


• Don't worry about failing. Everyone fails. It's how we learn, so just write!


• And, for the love of Christmas, just write, damn it!

So let your fingers fly across your keyboard today—or if you're really old school: the typewriter, or if you're really, really old school: the piece of paper. Whatever you've got, just have at it. Enough stalling, enough procrastinating, enough excuses, it's time to overcome fear and get to work.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go follow my own advice. :-)

Face Your Fears

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 10: Fearing Fear

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#10 Set Yourself Free Of Fearing Fear

I recently made a trip to Nashville. It was utter misery. Not that Nashville itself was miserable, the city is actually quite a lot of fun—and the sweet tea? Oooh, the sweet tea!—but repeated car trouble had left me stranded with no idea of when I could drive back home. How long am I going to be stuck here? What about my job? How do I get back home? How much is this going to cost? Oy vey!

Oh, and then I got in an accident with the rental car that I had to use in the meantime, but that's another story.

After a nightmare of a weekend I called the mechanic on Monday to see how my car was doing, terrified that I would get more bad news. I got more bad news—I was going to be stuck in Nashville for another three days. Well, at least my insurance was covering most of the problem.

I hung up the phone and, to my surprise... I felt fine. The news I received wasn't great, but it could've been worse. At least I knew what was going to happen.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that fear isn’t the problem—fearing fear is where we run into trouble.

Remember those famous words from Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

FDR was essentially telling the American people that their fear was making things worse.

When we are able to exit the crazy mental loop of fear we’ll be in a better place to see clearly, aspire meaningfully, and stop tripping over our own self-defeating feet.

Beating a fear of fear doesn't mean all of our lofty goals are realized and our dreams come true. It simply means that when we're no longer fretting over the unknown we have more room to breathe, experiment, and evolve as writers when we’re not squeezed into those small and invented stories that have been dictated to us by fear.

Your life and your writing are both precious resources. Don’t waste a drop of either. Take charge of fear by not letting it control you. When you can finally start to see around the obstacle of fear you have a chance to step into your greatest potential.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 9: Be Logical

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#9 Dose Fear With Logic

As I've said before, our fear exists to keep us safe. When you're in a new city your fear helps you identify certain parts of town you may wish to avoid if you're out walking about all alone. Fear keeps you from getting too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon. Fear keeps you from swimming too far out into the ocean where dangerous currents or sharks could harm you.

Sometimes fear overreacts. Though it may have your best interests at heart, there are times when it just needs to be reasoned with.

For example, consider an inquiry process like this:

YOU:     Why have I been procrastinating so much lately?
FEAR:   Because you know if you finish your book you might find out it's bad. If you never finish it, you'll never have to hear the bad news. You'll be safer that way.
YOU:     Who is going to say my work is bad?
FEAR:   Critics. Other writers. Readers.
YOU:     Maybe. Maybe not.
FEAR:   Are you sure you want to take that chance?
YOU:     I'd rather get some feedback, good or bad, so I can improve myself as a writer. Besides, I have confidence in my work. I believe it's good.

Your fear will have to agree.

If you are feeling fear, you are likely perceiving danger. The harder you try to silence the fear, the louder it will get to try to protect you. Therefore, I propose that you lean into that fear, and really listen to what it wants you to know. Then reason with it. Reason with yourself. You'll find that fear sometimes doesn't have a leg to stand on.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 8: Hold Your Course

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#8 You Can't Steer A Still Ship

Ever kayak? I love kayaking. It's an interest that both my wife and I share. One thing you can't do in a kayak, or in any boat for that matter, is try to steer without moving. If you're just sitting there in a calm body of water and stick your paddle under the surface, nothing is going to happen. Without a current or forward momentum, you can't steer that kayak to go anywhere.

How does this translate to writing? Simple: writers with defined goals have a better chance of achieving them, and therefore give fear less of an opportunity to throw them off course.

If you have something more interesting to focus on than fear, it’s far less likely that fear will hog the spotlight of your attention. One way to hold your focus and build forward momentum is to clearly articulate for yourself why you’re working on a particular piece of writing, what motivates you to stay with it, and what the imagined end result will be.

For example, if you know that the article you're writing about famous women in history is going to teach you something that aligns with your core values, you have an intrinsic reward that's worth fighting for. If you work for a newspaper or magazine and understand that when you finish your articles you'll get a paycheck, you're more likely to invest yourself in what you're writing about. If you have a chapter by chapter outline of that novel, then you can see the end result and don't have to worry so much about running into hick-ups in the narrative.

When you have your eyes set on the next goal you create forward momentum. When fear creeps back in, it's easier to steer around it because your moving toward your goal.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 7: Do What Scares You

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#7 Do What Scares You

I was a very shy, anti-social teenager. I was nerdy. I was awkward. I was like red meat for playground bullies. When I grew up and took a job at a local newspaper I had a hard time coming out of my shell—making phone calls, interviewing people, walking up to police officers and politicians and striking up a conversation to "get the inside scoop." People terrified me, and, honestly, they still do. I much prefer to live in my little bubble.

But I actually love talking to people now. After six months at the newspaper making phone calls to complete strangers felt like second nature. I could walk up to anyone on the street and strike up a conversation with them. To this day I'm continually embarrassing my wife because I'll talk with anyone about anything.

My point is simple: It's worth it spending time doing the things that scare you because the more familiar you get with those things the less intimidating they will become.

Be smart about it, of course, and assess whether this thing you fear can do you harm. If the answer is yes, don't do it. Obviously. If the answer is no, then I invite you to make a point of doing that very thing as much as you can until you exhaust fear's charge around it.

This process will likely take time, but once you beat down that fear by wearing it thin you'll find yourself a more confident person.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#6 Retrain Your Bad Habits

Do you tend to write and rewrite an endless succession of drafts, unable to decide when a piece is finished? This is actually a common problem I hear from many writers. They often struggle to get any work done on other parts of their work because they're continually revising one particular chapter—usually chapter one.

Or maybe you're on the flip side of this problem and you hesitate even starting on a writing project because it feels too daunting, you haven't fleshed out the next chapter, or it just seems too difficult.

If you can relate to this, try setting some performance standards for yourself.

Give yourself a time limit. Say, for example, that you just keep revising and revising and revising chapter 2 of your awesome novel. Tell yourself that today you're only going to work on it for 10 minutes and then you're going to move onto chapter 3. If you're on the flip side of this problem and you can't even get started, give yourself 10 minutes to sit down and write. MAKE yourself do it. Whatever happens, happens, and then you can go procrastinate by watching TV or scrolling through Facebook. Just. Do it. Once your writing starts to come out you'll find your flow, but, like all good habits, it will take discipline and practice.

The point is to balance all the time you're wasting—be it procrastinating on a task or spending too much time on said task—with time spent on things that actually advance your goals.

I have a personal rule I try to follow when I'm working on a book: I won't create more than three drafts of a chapter before moving onto the next. Oh, I'll come back to those chapters when the book is finished and revise some more, but not until all the rest of the chapters have had the attention of three drafts. The point of this is so that I don't get in my own way.

Like any practice, the more you implement whatever standards you’ve set, the more reliable you will become. Experiment with your own ways to accept and move through your resistance.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 5: Navigating Hardships

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#5 Don’t Make Things Harder Than They Need To Be

Here's the truth about fear. It makes things hard. And if you’re used to approaching your writing life from a place of fear, you’re likely to believe that being a writer is really hard. You may even dread sitting down to write. Over time your subconscious is going to wake up to the belief that: writing = bad. And then you won't find yourself carving out time to write anymore.

Fear gets us all knotted up in such a way that we have to work twice as hard at writing, publishing, promoting and presenting just to overcome our own resistance. Such an attitude lands you shoulder-to-boulder, on an eternal uphill climb. This gets tiring fast.

When you find yourself working at a pace that feels unreasonable or exhausting, take a step back to consider whether or not fear is at play. Being driven to accomplish and succeed can be a very useful quality in the writing life. But your drive could also be the fear of failure in disguise.

Sometimes, just being still is all our writing lives need from us. I've even heard it said that the subconscious continues to work when we're asleep. I can attest to this. While working on Children of the Falls, the first book in the series ended up becoming so long that I split it in half. Suddenly I found myself in need of another title, and I struggled for days to come up with one. Then one night I dreamed of giving book 2 the title of book 1, and I woke that morning with a whole new title for book 1 sitting on my tongue.

So, take a break. Take a nap. Give your brain some rest and then come back. More will happen creatively.

Now imagine a writing life that isn't so hard, that's made a little easier because the creative juices flow a little more freely. Fear doesn't have any time to take hold because you're having too much fun! I’ll bet you could work faster and more efficiently—and even get better results—without fear weighing you down.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#4 Overpower Perfectionism

If you were to ask me if I'm a perfectionist, I'd have to say yes. It's one of those things that's like, "Once an addict, always an addict." Even though I'm living a life of recovery from perfectionism, it will always be a potential pitfall.

The conclusion I've reached after years of battling perfectionism is that perfectionism is not a helpmate. It's a hindrance. Though there is a side to perfectionism that can drive you to make something better, there is another side that just delays, and delays, and delays... and ultimately gets you nowhere.

Many of us have this idea that we’re meant to be perfect as writers. Instead, try thinking of your writing as akin to your fingerprints. They are what they are—unique patterns that exclusively represent you—not good or bad or better or worse than anyone else’s.

Instead of trying to perfect your writing, then, strive to get acquainted with this pattern and become more and more proficient at expressing it. There is no endpoint in this process, and we will never arrive at “perfect.” So why not give up the chase right now, and just enjoy the resonance and beauty of our humble, flawed writing as it is? As Leonard Cohen sings, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Rather than “perfect” as an end goal, try setting your sights on “finished,” and see if that gives you a bit more appreciation for the light that seeps in.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 3: Shift Your Focus

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#3 Ignore the Endgame... For Now

Fear almost always has to do with the unknown. What if they hate my poetry? What if my books don't sell? What if the publisher says I suck?

But if you KNEW your book was going to successful and loved, you'd run to the post office to mail your manuscript as soon as possible, and probably even pay the exorbitant price of overnight shipping. If you KNEW your parachute would open and that you would land on the ground totally unharmed, you might give skydiving a try. Right? (Hehehe...)

Fear tends to be focused on projected outcomes—which we cannot definitively know. So, why not use fear as a signal to turn your attention to your process instead? When you give your attention to following through on a goal, taking steps to improve your craft, researching places to submit, or reading that book on marketing, you are creating a forward motion that makes it harder for fear to hold you back.

You don't have to TOTALLY ignore the results you want. Obviously, there are long-term goals to consider here, but when the ultimate result becomes your focus it distracts from all that can be accomplished in the now, especially the creative stuff.

Now, you've got an unfinished something sitting somewhere don't you? Go attack it, dude!

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 2: Admit You're Afraid

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

Fear can be so damaging, crippling us to the point of leaving us stagnant. Heck, writing this series of blogs was intimidating enough at times. I'd ask myself, "Why am I doing this? Do I even know what I'm talking about? Who am I to write about fear? I'm no expert!" And the more questions I asked, the more fearful I became of writing this. Surely there are experts better equipped than this poor sap.

But, hey, I've felt fear. I know what it's like to hover over that blank page and wonder if I'm good enough to write what I want to say. I've opened that letter of rejection just dreading the criticism. I've read those emails from readers calling my work... all sorts of nasty things.

But, fortunately, when it comes to fear, I've had my small measures of success in rising above it. So maybe I've got a thing or two to share that will help. Like how conquering fear isn't really about conquering fear. It's simply saying, "Yep, I'm afraid."

#2 Admit You're Afraid Without Letting Fear Take Over

When we're afraid, there's a plethora of inner voices that come to life and tell us all sorts of lies—that we're not good enough, that no one cares about what we have to say, that we're alone, that we're too weird... whatever. These negative thoughts can short-circuit our creativity if we let them, so it's up to us to re-wire our thinking so that we can short-circuit fear.

In the film A Beautiful Mind, when someone from the Nobel Prize committee asks schizophrenic mathematician John Nash how he silenced the voices that threatened to interfere with his work and his life, Nash replies something to the effect of, “I didn’t. They’re talking to me right now. I have simply made a choice to stop engaging with what they’re saying.”

This is every writer’s opportunity with fear—to learn to live with the negative stories that get airtime in our minds without letting them limit what we know we are called to do.

Chances are good that your fear is just trying to protect you from feeling pain. And this is good. This is the way we are wired as human beings. But fear can usually be reasoned with. Once you convince your mind that even if that manuscript gets rejected, you're going to be ok. Even if your beta readers are overly critical, there will still be some good feedback to mine from. Tell your fear that you'll never reach your goals without taking some risks. Once you convince it that you’re going to be just fine, it will likely let up, and eventually even shut up for good.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 1: Identify Fear

You stare at the blank page.

You hesitate dropping that manuscript in the mail box.

You look out at the audience with your book in your lap and butterflies in your stomach.

For a writer, there are many things that can trigger fear. Sometimes that fear is so intimidating that we don't move at all. Our books don't get written. Our poems don't get read. Our words don't get published. And that's when fear becomes a problem.

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#1 Identify Fear

Fear is neither good nor bad. It’s simply an emotional reaction that lets us know where we are meeting or anticipating challenge. Fear can be healthy when you're doing something like touring the Grand Canyon and you don't want to fall over the edge. The fear of gravity is merely self-preservation at work. So is the fear of rotating lawn mower blades, live electrical wires, and great white sharks (actually, my shark fear may have more to do with seeing Jaws when I was eight, but, never mind...)

Fear becomes a problem when we do (or don’t do) something to try to avoid feeling it. For example, if we let the fear of rejection prevent us from sending in that manuscript, we are ensuring that we’ll never realize our aspirations.

It can be difficult identifying fear when it's subtle. If you’re overperforming, underperforming or avoiding performing altogether, chances are good that fear is in play.

For example, did you ever consider that the piece of writing you just can’t get right—and therefore endlessly revise—may be a reflection of your fear? Fear of perfection, maybe? Fear of pleasing others? Fear of not measuring up to someone's standard? When we find fear at the root of a challenging habit or behavior, we are fortunate—because with awareness, we have choices. And choices lead to progress :-)

Where might fear be creeping into your life?

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Getting Over Your Fear Of Letting Others Read Your Work

What if they don't like my writing? If people say nice things they're just lying so they don't hurt my feelings. Gasp! Oh no! Someone said my writing is bad. That's it, I'm never handling the English language again! I suck. I'm awful. I'm moving to Australia!

Ok, crazy person. Relax. Sure, your mom may not be the best person to seek advice from, and, yeah, some strangers may totally crap all over your work. But here's the truth: you gotta learn to take it.

First, learn to weed out the jerks. Any critique I get that starts with something like, "This sucks! This is so stupid! I've read better work from Stephanie Meyer!" (NOTE: No one has ever compared me to Stephanie Meyer. Thank God!) I immediately disregard. I've received enough positive feedback over the years, and I have enough self-confidence to know that my writing isn't awful. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I know it's not the greatest American prose in history, so anyone who wants to crap all over it is just wasting my time.

Second, learn to take feedback collectively. Let's say you send out ten manuscripts for critique. One person says your main character felt too boring, while everyone else says they loved the character. Chances are that one naysayer is the one with the problem, not your main character. On the other hand, if EIGHT people say your main character reads like a floozy, they might be onto something.

Don't be like Jerry Seinfeld's mother and think that EVERYONE has to like your babies. "How could anyone not like him?"

Taking feedback gets easier. It's never fun to get a complaint, but you will learn to make critique work for you. Writing is uncomfortable, and it makes you vulnerable. You open yourself up for critique when you put written words out there. Being afraid of what others have to say is going to lead you to pulling punches. Your writing will suffer. You'll lose the truth. You'll be so afraid of getting hurt that you'll never get anything. THEN your writing will suck.

"You make this decision now to be afraid

and you'll never turn back your whole life.

You'll always be afraid."

—Unbreakable (film)

By letting others read your work prior to publication will give you perspectives on your material that you've never thought of before. Some of those perspectives will lead to new ideas that will enrich your stories and your characters more than you could ever do on your own. Closeted writing is limiting. As hard as it is to open yourself up to critique it is so essential to developing a fully realized novel.

The absolute best work you have in you is always going to be the stuff that’s closest to your heart, the stuff that’s absolutely the hardest to let another human being read. It’s risky to show people those deep and true parts of yourself, but life is risk. Look that fear in the eye, spit it in the face, and then write more effing words.

"Well Aren't You Just The World Traveler"

Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park.

In January we took a celebratory trip to Maui, HI, for finally selling our home and becoming debt-free. My wife took a trip to Florida for a business convention, and we both just returned from a two-week visit to the west coast.

When people from a tiny rural part of the northeast (like us) go anywhere, they'll get bombarded upon their return with the phrase, "Well aren't you just the world traveler!" Because to go anywhere when you're home town is very, very pathetically small makes you a "big deal." Apparently.

Travel has been enlightening for my writing. Every time I visit some place new I get a different perspective on things. While we were in Oregon I kept looking around at nature and saying, "I need to figure out what kind of trees these are because this is just what I imagine the kingdom of Tay to look like!" It drove my wife nuts.

175 feet up in Seattle's famous ferris wheel. 

Dutch Bros. coffee!

Nothing grabbed my heart more than the coffee though. Up and down the west coast there are these little drive-through coffee stands called Dutch Bros. And they. Are. Amazing! My wife doesn't drink coffee, but even she was hooked on Dutch Bros. by the time we left.

We have tentative plans to visit California next month, and possibly Tennessee in July because, hey, when you become a "big deal" there's no stopping you!

Make Your Goals Specific And Measurable... Like Batman!

Batman is the quintessential problem solver. Since his inception in 1939 he has always been, first and foremost, a detective. A costumed Sherlock Holmes. More than his martial arts skills, his money, or his gadgets, Batman's intellect has always proven to be his most valuable asset.

Though the movies have often failed to demonstrate this aspect of the Caped Crusader, there's a great scene in "The Dark Knight Rises" that shows Batman's intellect and how victory can be achieved when you first break down your problems and tackle them one step at a time.

First, you've got to understand, that in "The Dark Knight Rises" Batman had spent the majority of the movie getting beaten to a pulp. He had grown too cocky, over-confident, and had lost his edge. As a result, when he finally comes face-to-face with the physically superior villain Bane, Batman gets pulverized and tossed into a third world dungeon with a busted back.

As his body heals, Batman considers what he did wrong, and when he finally returns to Gotham City he approaches Bane like a surgeon, dissecting the threat before they come to blows. First, he recruits some allies. Then he gathers his equipment. Then he spreads hope to the citizens of Gotham and fear to the bad guys. Finally, after months of planning, Batman springs his trap and defeats the antagonist.

With a little planning, determination, and some allies, nothing is impossible to overcome.

• Don't try to tackle your problems all at the same time. I find if I think of writing and editing and marketing and networking and plotting and characters and printing and... Sigh. It gets overwhelming. So every now and then I break down my priorities.


• As Batman so clearly demonstrates in "The Dark Knight Rises," your goals must be specific and measurable. When he returned to Gotham City to face Bane again, he had a detailed plan. It's an example of the obvious—if your goals are too vague they are just dreams. My wife turned my onto the idea of a "power hour." Every day for one hour I have a list of things I need to accomplish related to my writing: check Facebook, upload/download content, check-in with crit group, network, etc. If I don't have a plan, I forget, and the work doesn't get done.


• Long-term thinkers are the ones who win. Batman knew that defeating Bane was essential to the survival of Gotham City. His plan took months to form, but it was for a far-reaching purpose. Today's culture doesn't think like this. We're all about immediacy and convenience, and rarely do we think beyond our needs for the day, week, or maybe even the month. But when we keep our eyes on the future instead of our immediate circumstances, the possibility of reaching our goals becomes more and more inevitable.

You may find yourself beaten at times, overwhelmed by writer's block or a discouraging review. You may find that there are some Banes out there who are going to catch you off guard, knock you down, and thwart all of your efforts, but you can't let your circumstances overwhelm you.

The Dilemma Of My Ballooning Word Count

At roughly three quarters of the way through my first draft of Where Evil Abides, book one in my upcoming fantasy series Children of the Falls, I did a word count—169,000 words. Yikes!

On my bucket list of things to accomplish with this book, reaching 200,000 words was one of them, but with many chapters still to go I'm kind of in freak out mode right now because this book is sure to be much longer than that.

Do I forge ahead and hit 250,000 words? By contrast, the first Harry Potter book was about 77,000 words, with the longest book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 257,000 words. The first edition in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire was almost 298,000 words, with the sequels easily surpassing 300,000.

Staying on this path means continuing with an insane level of detail. On the other hand, I can strip it down, simplify the narrative, cut to the chase, and make a more streamlined story. Less immersive? Absolutely. Better? I don't know yet.

My aim at this point is to punch the last of these chapters and hand my manuscript off to a trusted friend who has agreed to give the story a once over.

Are Your Fellow Writers Today's Editors?

Long ago, in a galaxy of writers far, far away, where editors edited and agents agented, the world of publishing was very different.

Editing is just a small part of what editors actually do these days. If you're submitting your manuscript to a publisher, it's likely being looked over by an editor who is also acting as acquisitions chief, proof-reader, query letter reader, sample chapter checker-outer, and other respectable sounding roles.

The truth is, the world of publishing has changed. The cost of printing books has become expensive. More and more people are using e-readers, and fewer and fewer writers are seeking publishers, with many opting for self-publishing. Big publishing houses no longer have the time/money/resources/manpower to spend lots of time editing manuscripts, especially from unproven authors, which leaves editors looking for stuff that needs a minimal amount of work. They want books they can put on the market asap.

So how does a poor author get the much needed editing he or she deserves?

Increasingly, the advice on writing websites is: other writers. A number of critique websites have popped up over the years, providing authors with just the right perspective they need to polish their work. Granted their manuscripts may still have to pass through a professional editor, but a critique group can help them get their work to a point where an editor may actually take it seriously.

But no number of online critique groups should ever replace the work of a decent editor.

Still, online groups deliver rapid-fire feedback to help pinpoint a problem. The range of responses will sharpen your writing. Some “critters” specialize in grammar and syntax, while others may suggest ways to improve structure. You’ll receive advice on plot, pacing, suspense and characterization. Seasoned writers are usually generous with hints and tips that improve your piece.

Nothing in life is without its drawbacks and online crit groups are no exception. Quality feedback can be spotty. Don't assume that everyone who sounds authoritative knows what he or she is talking about.

Security is always a concern. Though the United States offers strong copyright protection, there's no way to stop someone from plagiarizing or attempting to market your work. On the other hand, crit groups can actually help stop plagiarism because by submitting your piece, you record proof that work went online at a specific time.

What's you take on using critique groups?

Critique Circle: Feedback To Advance Your Novel Several Drafts

A while back I joined an online writing community called Critique Circle. It's a safe place for writers to submit their work and get feedback from other writers. It's been a valuable tool for me to gauge my story and characters, catch problems before they get out of hand, and also encourage myself to keep being excited about writing.

Critique Circle works like this: You sign up for free. To get critiques, you need to give critiques. For every critique you give, you get credits (usually 1 or 1 1/2, though maybe more if it's an especially long piece you're critiquing.) It costs 3 credits to submit your own work for critique. Once you submit something, your work goes up at the start of the next critique round, which happens once a week. People read your work, critique it, and you get to read the critiques as you receive them.

Pretty slick, eh?

Before I discuss the cons of Critique Circle, let me just say I've found it incredibly helpful. I have a tendency to fall in love with my own words, and I know I use too many words, so having someone read a chapter and say, "You know, you could say this in about half as many words," is great for me. Most of the people who give critiques are very nice. Sure there's a few jerks on there, but, hey, this is the internet. If you can't handle a few jerks you probably shouldn't be online.

The downsides of Critique Circle:

• Lots of high school and novice writers. You'll notice this as you start critiquing work. It's difficult because, A. You can tell the work stinks, but B. You need to be constructive about it especially if you want a constructive critique in return. I mean, everyone starts out as a crappy writer. We all need help in order to improve, but it does get tiring reading young adult ripoffs of Twilight and The Hunger Games written by teenage fans.
  
  
• The time it takes to get a critique is too long. I've got 60+ chapters to get critiqued, but you can only submit one a week. There is a "novel system" on Critique Circle that allows you to submit all of your chapters, but this requires a fan base of reliable "critters" who will plow through your manuscript. You also need to sign up for the paid membership, which is $34.

Is it worth it? So far I'm going to say yes, it is. Having other readers give me feedback this early on in the process is already taking my work to where it would be after three or four self-edited drafts.

Is Critique Circle for everyone? No. If you can't take feedback, you're probably not going to like this site. If you don't like not knowing who is on the other end, you should probably try to find an editor or agent. There aren't a lot of non-fiction works on Critique Circle, so if you're a law student writing an essay on the practice of criminal defense, or a surgeon writing How To Perform Open Heart Surgery, you probably won't get a lot of valuable feedback. For creative writers though, it has the potential to be a gold mine.