The Indie Writer's Illusion

In just about every guide on the subject of indie publishing, or indie writing, you will find at the very beginning the same piece of sage advice, which is: you must start by writing a good book. Which I personally consider to be rather unhelpful. As readers we know a good book, but how do we make one? What does a good book consist of? And more importantly, when we've written that book, how do we massage the overwritten stack of words sitting on our hard drive into the brilliant story in our minds. Which may lead you to ask on what authority I am talking of such matters. To which I would immediately refer you to that scene in Jaws where they're comparing scars. Because that's what I'm doing here, showing you my scars. In understanding what makes a good book I've made every kind of bad book error you can imagine. If there was living proof a writer isn't born, that they're made with sweat and tears, I'm it. Likewise, if you're a writer and do read this list of lessons learned, I'd expect you to trot off immediately after, safe in the knowledge you already know better. That is the indie writer's illusion. I suspect it's a commercial writer's illusion too, except they have someone to smack them back into line. Over confidence has been my downfall too. It's not that I'm a bit of a loud mouth, or a show off. The opposite in-fact. My over confidence comes from a belief in my own potential. The trouble is, the belief is often rather premature. While I'm capable of great things, sitting down and believing I have created something quite brilliant, is often followed quite quickly by the realisation I haven't, not quite.

A very big hole.

To give you a toe curling example. I finished the first draft of Chasing Innocence exactly three years ago, almost to the day as I write this. I knew I had a great story, but I didn't see all the problems: the over writing, bad dialogue, pages of over description, excessive dialogue, dull story points, exposition and pointless literary prose. Not to mention the flawed grammatical narrative and plot holes that rivalled the Barringer crater in scope. On finishing the first draft of Chasing Innocence I really thought I'd written a masterpiece. Something that would make Lee Child green with envy. I really believed that because the story I saw on the screen was the one in my mind, not what I'd actually written. I carefully wrote a 1,500 word synopsis, a contrived letter and cycled across London to hand deliver my manuscript submission to Camilla Bolton at Darley Anderson. To which I got a very polite and honest rejection four weeks later. I was devastated. I had been convinced Camilla would call me, breathless with excitement the very next day. I had even changed phone contract to make sure I had the best signal so I wouldn't miss the call.

Fortunately my capacity for over-confidence is counter-balanced by my tendency towards introspection. Three factors have conspired to evolve this writing mind. The first was the years of lessons learned while writing blogs and cutting my teeth on writing websites. The second was to realise I am obsessively a perfectionist. Third, was to build on the first and move towards the second.

My pursuit towards understanding the mechanics of a good book resulted in a lot of hard lessons learned and many scars burned to my writing psyche. I'm sure there will be many additions as I finish books two and three. Listed below are the hardest won scars and the foundations, I believe, for writing a good book.

• The telling of a great story involves drama with deep lows to contrast against the highs. Without the lows and highs you have a flatline.
• The narrative will have a consistent perspective. If the perspective changes, the changes will be consistent.
• Great characters create an emotional reaction in the reader's mind. Anger, frustration, empathy and desire are good goals to start with.
• Every sentence and paragraph should be invested in progressing the mental image of your story in the reader's mind. If you watch a movie and it starts playing one jittery frame at a time and keeps doing it, you'll probably give up and watch a different movie.
• The end of each chapter must make the reader want to turn to the next.
• Remember you didn't like being told what to think as kid? You probably don't now, right? Well nor do your audience. Give the reader enough information to reach their own conclusions, don't tell them what to think.
• If your dialogue sounds like two lecturers talking at each other, or spends too much time explaining to the reader what's going on, it isn't dialogue, it's exposition. Which means your story is probably about as much fun as a lecture.
• There's no need to detail every colour or crease in fabric or a face, or every painting on the wall, or tree in the forest, or every brilliant dew covered bright green leaf on each tree. A lot of detail is great if your looking at a painting but not if you're reading commercial fiction.
• Trust your reader and their imagination. If they want the lead man to have dark hair, they'll imagine him with dark hair no matter how often you tell them he's mousey blond. If you push the point too often they'll get bored and maybe even drop you for someone more trusting of their imagination.
• The time taken to detail an environment should correspond to the amount of time it features in the story. If your characters briefly run through a house, describe it in the briefest terms. If your characters originally spent a lot of time in the house but now only run through it briefly, edit so the house is described in the briefest terms. Even if you absolutely adore the description of the house.
• Your clever play on words will almost certainly trip up the reader, which isn't clever.
• The human world is full of conflict, despair, love and hope. The promise of this fills every moment of our human lives, at many levels. If you have none of this in your story it won't seem real.
• Whenever you can, try to do the unexpected. Turn the moment inside out and then upside down. Some people call this a twist, it's called good story telling.
• You're not going to get away with anything. Don't think you will. If there's a nagging voice in you head telling you something isn't working, it probably doesn't. As a life-long consumer of books your mind is very skilled at knowing what makes a good story, even if the inner writer is busy ignoring it.
• If you absolutely love a sentence, paragraph or chapter, ask yourself what part it plays in the overall story. The chances are you love it too much. Ask yourself what the reader will think when they read it.
• There is nothing wrong with writing the book you want, but if you want anyone else to read it, you have to consider who you're writing it for. Don't think about individuals, think broad but don't spread yourself too thin. A top and bottom age range and gender is a good place to start. Imagine your audience reading your book in the kind of place you would read your kind of book. Write with that image in your mind.
• Edit, edit and edit. Listen to the voices.
• There is nothing like whittling your story down to a 600 word synopsis for exposing the flaws in the story. If you can't make the synopsis sound good your book's entertainment value isn't looking good either.
• Edit, edit, edit. Always listen to the voices
• For most of the human population giving criticism is hard. Friends especially find this difficult. Find proof readers you trust over those you like.
• Taking critical feedback is tough. Learn to think of each instance as an opportunity to make your story better. Do not for one minute consider any constructive feedback 'Just doesn't get it!' Or is 'Missing the point'. If you do, stand in front of a mirror and say it out loud.
• You do not need to adjust to all feedback. Weigh each in context to your story, characters and audience. Do not forget though, that you won't get away with anything. Each time you think you are, you're a step closer to losing the reader. Listen to the voices.
• No matter how grammatically anal you are. No matter how long you have been brilliant at spelling, your manuscript will have errors. You are human.
• Do not for one minute think it's OK to have errors because you're an indie author and your book will be sold for a dollar. Each error will further remove your audience from the carefully created world of your imagination.
• Check your plot is consistent. Draw charts of what happens chapter by chapter if necessary. If you dangle a carrot, make sure all of it got eaten. All red herrings must be properly cooked and consumed, bones an'all.
• Beg, borrow or pay for a copy and proof edit. They are the difference between a good story and a great book.
• Somehow, make the cover of your book the kind of picture you'd want to plaster your walls with. If you don't love the cover of your book, how can you expect anyone to stop and pick your book from the crowded virtual shelf.
• Indie publishing is to some degree technical. If you want to be an indie author, you need to geek up. Even if only a little. There's a lot of indie author's out there and a lot of them are doing some incredible things, often with little technical background. Don't get left behind. Failing that find a good looking IT geek and befriend them.

Read the list again and be honest with yourself. Don't fall for the illusion. Good luck. If you've got scars of your own to share, I'd love to hear about them.