Why A Dumb Read Is a Smart Idea

 

In an earlier post I mentioned how I'd benefitted from using the "instant version" technique: sitting down and writing a first version from beginning to end, even if messy, because it gives you a starting place.

Another useful trick I learned (but I can't remember when or from where) is to do a "dumb read." It's an easy trick and can prove to be really helpful. 

(Yes I know, "dumb read" sounds a little offensive but hey, I didn't name it.)

You see, often writers THINK they've explained something clearly when they actually haven't. This is like a person who thinks they're telling the greatest joke of all time and then gets upset when no one laughs. 

If you tell something, a joke or a story, it's your job to make sure the listener (or reader) gets it. And gets it easily.  If they don't get it, it's never their fault. It's on you for not telling it right. 

With a "dumb read" you take your finished version and put it away for a few days and then go back and try to read it as if you are a reader brand new to this story. 

I've used this trick many times and have always been surprised at how well it works. The problem areas will jump right out at you. Maybe you've used a term the reader won't know, or maybe you've messed up the order of things, or some detail contradicts something that comes later in the story. 

Is there an app that can do the same thing? Probably.  But it's good to know how to do things yourself. 

Writing For Medium

 

This is my week for trying new things. First I looked into "going wide" i.e. publishing my books in many different markets (and, for right now, feeling so confused and overwhelmed I am putting that project to one side), then releasing three kindle singles (which did pretty well but guess which book started selling more copies? None of them--it was Marilyn, who continues to outsell all of my other books combined. Go figure, everyone loves that lady. So do I, so I get it.)

Anyway, the third new thing is kind of a half-new thing. I'm now a paid writer for the website Medium.com. I'm not completely new to that site but up until now I've just put my stories up there and people could read them for free.

As a paid writer, it means my stories will be behind a dreaded paywall. You've probably seen these before, I know I have. There you are, getting into an article, and suddenly, WHAMMO, they interrupt you to say "hey buddy pony up the dough if you want to read the rest." This always bugs me big time and what I do is I do NOT pony up the dough, I just click off and go find something free to read.

So I know how it is to see that paywall and feel irritated. The good thing is, on Medium.com you can read three free stories every month. If you choose to read three of mine, that would be great, I won't stop you, but I should add there are many great writers on there, writing about everything you can imagine. If you go peek onto the site (and I hope you do) you may find yourself wanting to read a bunch of them. If you want unlimited reading per month, you can join Medium for $5 a month. Cancel anytime. Or, just read the three freebies per month, that works also.

The paywall thing is an OK thing for the writers, but it isn't a guarantee they'll make any money. Readers have the chance to give "claps" for stories they like (one clap for liking it, up to 50 claps I think if you really like it) and "claps" given to your story by paid members result in money paid to you. Super industrious people are publishing 8-10 stories a week but I think I'll stick to three or four and see how that goes. The nice thing is, the writer still owns the story, so writing a lot of stories will mean that every year I'll have enough for one or two new collections. This is assuming I can come up with anything to write about, which is kind of iffy at the moment.

When I post a new story on Medium, I'll post the link here, and you can read it for free at https://medium.com/@aisforamie

Kindle Singles

Just for fun, I released three of my short stories (Marlo Thomas Is An Actress, Right Here On Earth, and The Good School) as Kindle Singles this week--$1 on Amazon US (and $1-ish on the other Amazon sites) and free on Kindle Unlimited. It was a great surprise to see, after 24 hours, that The Good School was at #1 in its category on Amazon! 

Stupid Things I Shouldn't Have To Do And Why Am I Not Rich Yet

OK so here I was thinking my five books were online and I was pretty much OK with that. They were not on every single site but they were on enough of them, and since I'm kind of a lazy person by nature, "enough" is frequently enough for me.

But then a really stupid big book retailer (who I don't want to offend so I won't name but their book has a & in their name, so I'll just call them &) suddenly changed how they were doing paperbacks and the indie ones that had been done and floated over from Amazon suddenly were POOF gone, mine and everyone else's, and & said surprise now we do print on demand and we also demand you use our template not anyone else's and you need a new file and a new ISBN. For each book.

WHAT'S AN ISBN? THIS IS AN ISBN. 

So at first I cursed a little bit and then thought well OK whatever I guess I have to do this, but when I went onto their site and created a vendor account, things got wacko.

WACKO THING #1: They asked me to confirm that my book does not contain "anything that could be considered upsetting or controversial." Well I don't know what that means but I think it's a stupid question so I checked the box YES

WACKO THING #2: You have to pick one of two categories for your book to go in. Category one is: 18 and older only, contains adult themes. Category Two is: Appropriate for all ages. WHY IS THERE NOT A THIRD CATEGORY. Either choice is wrong. I start really actively hating & (even though let's be honest I could walk into any of their stores and drop $200 bucks no problem)

WHOA WACKO THING #3: Their website is next to impossible to use as far as uploading any book files. Amazon's is a little bit tricky but it's doable, especially if you're motivated. But this, &, this was really nuts. I considered the possibility that maybe I was just a moron, but then I went online and asked other authors who had tried to use the site and they said it was wacko also.

So I sought out alternatives, but I should add I also may opt for two other choices which are frequently available to everyone but sometimes we forget about them: 

a) I COULD BE LAZY AND DO NOTHING

b) I COULD DECIDE NOT TO DECIDE RIGHT NOW

c) OR....

So I may or may not have to redo all five files. If I were a millionaire I wouldn't have to deal with these problems. Maybe my only problem would be that Nicolas Cage keeps calling and calling. That would be a great problem to have.

#BooksForMaui

As you may have seen, of my sweet book babies, Starfish is the attention hog, and it's doing it again. Starfish is one of the books available in the Books For Maui online auction to raise funds for Maui relief.  

The auction is set to run this week from Monday morning until Friday midnight and the original fundraising goal was $25,000 but guess what? In the first 12 hours of this auction, they have already raised over $61,000. I'm not sure how much they'll end up getting by Friday but I can tell you, the people of Maui need every dollar these books can get. If you've wondered how you might be able to help the people of Maui, this is a great way to do it. If you'd like to visit this auction site, please go to    https://www.32auctions.com/BooksforMaui. If you'd like to specifically bid on Starfish, you can go to https://t.co/cs43YqhipT.   

Writing A Film Treatment

When my book STARFISH ON THURSDAY was optioned, I had hoped it would be greenlit for production. Unfortunately, by the end of the one-year option period, this didn't happen.

I decided it was time to be proactive. 

This was easier said than done. Dabbling in an industry where people can make a lot of money also means you can get sued for a lot of money. So where to begin?

Step One: Don't be a dumbbell.

What that means is decode the terms, find out the rules, and protect your work.

Step Two: Don't get sued. 

Before you enter into any agreement, make sure it doesn't violate the terms of any current agreement you have with someone else. 

If you get good news, especially if it involves money, stop everything and consult with an attorney who specializes in entertainment law. Most attorneys will give you the first consultation for free. 

Don't assume you understood the rules the first time. George Harrison assumed he knew how to write a song and he lost his court case. 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/george-harrison-my-sweet-lord-plagiarism/

I decided to write a film treatment to send to casting directors and producers. Prior to this, I had only written a logline and summary for the Starfish project, and Taleflick had written a page pitch.

A logline is a one or two sentence summary that tells what the story is about, who the main character is, and what they're up against. Think of any TV series or movie you've ever seen and  try to summarize it this way in 2 sentences. It's hard to do.

When I pitched Starfish for Taleflick, I didn't realize I'd have to come up with a logline. At first I was stumped and then I tried out several ideas and each time realized I needed to condense it more. The finished version I sent in was this:

Plucky female Kevin Arnold type comes of age in 70s and 80s Seattle while loving and fearing her abusive pillhead mother.

That final version surprised me, but it did the trick.

This week I wrote a film treatment for Starfish. A treatment includes the title, logline, character descriptions, and a detailed synopsis of the story. The length of a treatment can vary between 1-50 pages but from what I could gather, unless you're a famous hotshot, most people won't read it if it's longer than 10 pages. My treatment came in at 6 pages.

I was able to skip the step of getting permission of the author of the book because I'm the author and sole owner of the intellectual property.

Prior to sending the treatment anywhere, there's another step: registering the treatment with the Writer's Guild of America (WGA). If you skip this step, most legitimate people won't read it and it puts you at risk for someone stealing it and claiming it as their own.  Registering a treatment can be done online: it takes 5 minutes and costs $25. The WGA gives you a registration # and that goes right on the treatment itself.

This doesn't absolutely guarantee you that someone won't try to steal it, but registering it (with the date, your full legal name, address, phone number, and driver's license number or social security number) gives you enough to prove your case pretty well. 

The next step: sending it out to studios.

Happy to announce Juanita High School and Lake Washington High School have both added my books to their libraries. #WashingtonState