Critics and Opinions

I'm raising an eye over Suicide Squad reviews.

     First off, I'm halfway through my second of my edits through Grimmack the Goblin.  I will have this run finished by next week, and then I plan on my third run through being a lot more comprehensive and game changing.  Right now I'm happy with the state of the story.  I am looking forward to strengthening my world building and making the third run through my final one for a bit.

     Big thank you to my alpha readers on this.  They have helped immensely.

     If you haven't heard by now the critics are panning Suicide Squad.  This hurts my heart a little as I have been looking forward to watching this moving for months.  And guess what, I'm still going to see it.  Why?  Because critics aren't my end all be all with media.

     I'm that guy.  You know the one who still enjoys watching Ben Affleck's Daredevil every now and then.  That likes (not loves) Superman versus Batman and while admitting there are several issues in that movie can still sit down and enjoy it.  I liked Man of Steel.  I like the Blade movies, and even the campy Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin because I can see them for what they are.  Moments to turn of your brain and enjoy some action.  I loved the Warcraft movie despite the critics ripping it down.  It is a good movie, and I will stand by that.

    If you hate these shows, your point of view is just as valid.  I'm not going to judge you for not liking some of the weird shows I enjoy.  You are welcome to enjoy what you want, even if I don't as well.  If you like Rap and Nickelback, (ok, I like a little Nickelback) we can be friends.  If you vote Democrat, Republican, or flying spaghetti monster may his sauce be upon you, I am cool with that.  I'm going to bring my point back to critics however.

     Critics have the job to let you know if a movie is good or not.  Or a book,  or any other type of media.  They take their expertise (I'm not sure if there is a movie critic school, degree etc... but wouldn't be surprised if there was.) and give the judgement to the movie on whether EVERYBODY would enjoy a show.  Not just the fans, not just the non-fans, everybody.

      I can walk into Suicide Squad and I'm pretty certain that as long as the movie accomplishes some good action, Harley Quinn and Deadshot fun, and somewhat of a storyline I will be happy.  If it blows my expectations away I'll be ecstatic.  I have no illusions that what i'm going to watch is going to be deeply intellectual or Shakespearean.  It is a pop-corn fueled action flick.

     I look at movies that are supposed critical failures and a lot of times I see the critics points.  Avengers one was great because it was the culmination of years of work from Marvel.  Avengers 2 wasn't likely to reach that high point, but when they made it a move that not only had to be a great flick, but shoved things in there to set up the rest of the MCU that baggage dragged it down.  I look at Captain America: Civil War, and that one was great.  Why? Because it was again the Culmination of several things including Avengers 2 and wasn't bagged down by having to set up a lot of new stuff coming in the Marvel Universe.  I still love both Avengers movies, but I have to admit the second one wasn't as good.  So the critics were right to bag on it a little more.

     However, with Batman Vs. Superman, the critics were right.  If I took my daughter who hates super hero movies to it, she would have hated it.  If I grabbed Joe Shmoe off the street who didn't have an opinion, he might have looked at the ending and been, "ummm Martha?"  Or he might have turned his brain off and enjoyed the action.  The critics are supposed to judge which re-action Joe Shmoe is more likely to have.

     With writing I hear again and again authors warned not to read the reviews on their work.  There are some hateful folks out there and they are happy to let you know if they think you suck.  There are also literary critics who once again are judging based on "If anyone picked up this book," not "If a fantasy nerd picked up this book."  It makes the critics opinions pretty much invalid for a large group of people who fit in the fantasy nerd circle.

    Anyway, I've rambled.  In short, Enjoy things because you enjoy them.  Don't let people be they critics or friends make judgments for you.  If you want to see Suicide Squad vs Batman Vs Ghostbusters, go see it.  If you enjoy it, smile and enjoy it.  If you hate it, well you won't know until you see it.

    Just don't let people decide what you like for you.

Ben Marble

     As always, if you want to support this crazy habit of writing you can purchase any of my short stories on Kindle or Amazon.com.  A Fey Deal, The Choice, and The Black Oak.

Grimmack 1.1 done.

Grimmack the Goblin is done, roughly.

     So that means that I am doing a quick run through this draft, and then it will be on to Alpha readers. Ah, that step where I beg people for feedback so that I might get an idea of what to work on and what is working and not working.  This is the interesting part.

     I have already gotten some feedback because I had the advantage of having a co-worker I sent each chapter to as I finished it.  My goal, (and it was achieved a bit) was to have him laughing here and there behind me at the very serious book that is Grimmack the Goblin.

    Really this book is very much a poke at fantasy genres.  It is silly, the main character telling the story is sarcastic, and a bit of a coward.  This book, unlike other was not a slog in parts to write because I had fun the whole time.  If I manage to do anything with this story, I think I have a few more Grimmack stories in me as well.  Like I said, it was absolute fun to write, and I look forward to doing the next one.

     The amazing thing was that this story is much brighter and more fun than anything I have written before.

     Here comes my challenge.  Right now the book is sitting at about 43,000 words.  I'm adding a bit in this edit, but to hit the "standard" length of a YA or younger book I am looking at moving that count up to 50k-75k words.  So, part of what I will be looking for from Alpha readers is "what is this story missing?" "What would you like to see more of."  part of the problem with this also being that there are some arcs I would like to make a whole story out of.  I'm fairly certain that if you read the story you will know which ones.

      So here it is, anyone who is interested in giving me some honest feedback, let me know.  I do not want anyone to feel obligated to read this, but if you are interested I will happily send you a copy to read through.

      I want to state:  I am not looking for an editor, or someone to judge the prose, though if by all means something in my writing style bugs you, let me know.  What I am looking at is people to read this story, and give my an opinion.

      Opinions like, "I think this story would be better if..." or "I think this character needs more development...."  or even "I love this part where..."

     If you tell me I am no Brandon Sanderson, I will be like, "umm... Not trying to write a Sanderson."

    So, anyone who wants to volunteer let me know.  I will keep posting about this story as it progresses.  My hope is to be marketing it in a few weeks.  If from the point where I start marketing it, and six month pass then I will probably look at self publishing instead.  However, I want to try the traditional route first.

Good reading and great adventures,
Ben Marble

Grimmack is coming.

It's been a while.

     I'll be honest, sometimes I feel I neglect this blog just because time is not my friend.  Between school and work I haven't had a lot of time.  However, a couple of good things have come from this. 

     My new job gives me some writing freedom when I don't have homework, and we aren't busy.  It's been sporadic but helpful.  I've gotten some more editing on The Dragon's Apprentice done, finished a short story ("A Fey Deal") and now I'm working on another book.

     Grimmack is the story of a goblin illegally taught magic whose world gets upended.  His master is accused of practicing black magic, and the fallout pulls him out of the safety of his studies into the big wide world of humans.  You know, the big folk who somehow don't understand how the world is supposed to work.

     I'm having fun with this one.  It's a bit of adventure story versus thumbing my nose at a few fantasy tropes.  It's not intended to be a long book, as I'm thinking of young junior high age children for my target demographic, but when I finish I plan on being a little over 50,000 words.  I was originally planning on publishing this book through Amazon and going the self-published route, but I think before I do that I want to see if I can find an agent to try and go traditional.

     I'm also hoping that doing a smaller project like this will help me get my editing brain to the point where I can finish "The dragon's apprentice."  I want to do that trilogy as well, and might jump back and forth.  Grimmak promises to be an open ended story, that I can keep going on as long as I find ideas and situations.  However I feel it will have a more limited audience.  I have an overall story arc for Grimmack in mind, but It will be a long time before he realized it.

    Other than that, I'm progressing in school. I have my A+ certification and am diving straight into my Network+ certification.  Then I have Security+, Administers, and Project+.  Seems a long way to go.

    Kids are great and out of school for summer.  Keeping me busy of course.

    That is pretty much what I have for now, other than buy my new short story, A Fey Deal on Amazon and Kindle if you would like to support me.  I appreciate any reviews, good or bad, people drop on my work as well.

Thank you,

Ben

A Fey Deal

So, my new short story is out.

     This one was a new experience.  I half wrote this a few months ago, and then picked it up and finished it at work.  This new job I have gives me time to do schoolwork and writing etc. In between calls so it's been kind of nice.  I'm looking forward to getting through school quicker, and getting more writing done now than has been possible in the past.

     In this book, my character Elias has his story continued.  It also acts as sort of a bridge between the two other shorts I wrote, "The Choice," and "The Black Oak,"  (I might need to work on more original naming schemes)

     I am going to try and do something else different this time around as well.  The other two shorts I released I did a "Free for five days deal."  That isn't happening this time.  Doing that garnered no reviews or feedback and didn't seem to do much for my stories.  This time around I am going to keep the price at the $0.99 and see what I can do with that.  If someone decides they didn't like it, all they are out is a buck.  If they do like it, hopefully they will go back and check out my other shorts.

    I am presently working on getting a battery for my Laptop.  When this arrives I will be able to write and work more efficiently at my job. No emailing files back and forth.  I look forward to it.  Then I will have the Dragon's apprentice Book  1 finished in the next couple of months as far as edits go, and I will hopefully have Grimmack the Goblin poke his head up sometime as well.

    I am looking forward to considering myself a writer again, as I've kind of had a hiatus from working on my projects due to school and work.  I'm glad to be back.

Ben Marble

   

Discussing alpha readers.

So, I had a unique experience this week.

     I am working on a short story that will soon be up on Kindle.  This one will bridge my other two shorts "The Choice," and "The Black Oak" and create a connection between them, while continuing Elias' story.  I'm very happy with this piece so far and I am enjoying having time between phone calls at work to devote myself more to my writing.  I look forward to getting some long awaited editing done once I get a pass for my laptop, and I hope to do NaNoWriMo again this year.

    To get feedback I let two of my new co-workers read through the short.  It's not a long piece, at the moment sitting at about 5.5k words and it's meant to be quick and to the point.  I made a point of actually not digging into details that weren't pertinent to the story.  And happily I got two levels of feedback.

    The first reader said he rather enjoyed it, pointed out a few punctuation issues I might need to work on but pretty much left me at that.  I enjoy getting the feedback and the praise and happily discussed my other two shorts a little with him, and he may pick them up on his Kindle  (If not, I'm not worried about it.)

    The second reader immediately started discussing very technical aspects of the fey, as they are part of my story, pushing about whether my demon was the christian version, more elemental, etc... etc...  He went into naming schemes, base roots of these different aspects and pulled things a lot deeper than I had an intent to go.  I found that fantastic but heavy feeling.

    I bring this up because these are both two kinds of Alpha readers you may get, and they both have great points, and bad ones.

   First of all, remember the first person you are writing for is you.  If you aren't enjoying it, question why and fix it.  Feedback is great, but measure it against your vision of the story.  Take everything you hear and consider it, but don't get married to any one idea someone else gives you.

    The first Alpha reader was great, but I didn't get anything constructive from him.  I am glad he enjoyed the story, but I was hoping i could at least get an answer to "was there anything that felt out of place, or glaringly inaccurate" Instead I got a warm response, and that's good but it doesn't help me improve.

    The second Alpha went the opposite direction and I was getting information overload.  While he had some great mentions and ideas I may add and use, a lot of the information he thought I needed at the end of the day does not fit my vision or the feel of the story I am working on.  I am not looking at giving people a deep discussion on the Seelie/Unseelie courts or spending a long time defining my demon at this point.  That is beyond the scope of the story I want to tell.  Some of the information is important and likely to be added, but if I double my word count just to go into tangents I'm really not treading the path I want.

    The point is, remember when you get feedback to balance it.  Look for good feedback but don't worry about taking it all.  I will probably share with both again in the future.  I will also be better prepared on how to elicit feedback, or temper it from each now that I know what to expect.

    The best alpha reader I have had to date, and I have to give him credit, is Brady Frost.  On the first book I finished for NaNoWriMo he gave me incredible feedback.  That book is still being changed and edited, and I'm hoping someday to mail him a signed copy so he can see all I did to it. He gave me great feedback, didn't push too much information, and spent a lot of time making great notes.  Part of the reason I want to finish that book and publish it, is because of his contribution to it.

    That is all I have for the moment.  If you have opinions or comments, as always share bellow.  Feel free to tell me I'm full of it, or add to the conversation.

Ben Marble.

It's been a long couple weeks.

I am going to try and revise this blog.  It has seen some dust, but I need to work on myself a bit more.

      I am sitting at home tonight, tired with an arthritic knee just going over Facebook for the day.  What turned out as a quick quip from me became productive due to the magic of one Brady Frost.

   Instead of quipping back Brady linked me a great article to read. So You Want to Be A Writer... And since I was commenting on my lack of time whilst lost in the internet, you know wasting time it was a great moment to read this.
   
    Once again another author hits it home with there is only one way to be a successful writer.  WORK.  Yup, there it is.  There is a lot of other good information in here as well, but as I've been very neglectful of this basic tenant lately it's the one thing I need to turn my focus too.  The advice of actually haven't to work at this has been given to me by Brady of course.  And Larry Correia, and Brandon Sanderson, and Dan Wells, and, and, and.

     As a matter of fact I have yet to read a book on writing, or hear advice from an author that doesn't have that basic bit to it.  So that is my next goal.  I am not going to tackle it all at once, but I am going to start to work more writing and editing into my schedule.  I am going to make a point of unplugging at this time as well, since one of my biggest problems is losing myself as soon as a notification pops up etc...

    I am going to start by doing a once a week post on this blog.  It might get moved soon, but for now here it is.

    To close out I want to give a bit of remembrance to a fellow writer who passed away last week on Friday.  Zachary Hill was a good guy, and I'm sad to say I came late into his life a was just getting to know him.  Larry Coreia puts it better than I. In memory of Zach Hill.  Please if you have time too, buy one of his books such as Sins of Prometheus.  There is also a link in Larry's post if you would like to donate to his young Widow.  I won't lie that despite now knowing him well, Zach's death has hit me a little hard.  He was the same age, had a lot of similar interests, and felt in a lot of way similar to myself.  You can also find his page at http://minimumwagehistorian.com/.  I know it's a little late, but get to know the greatness that has passed from this world.

I promise I will have a lot less links in my next post.   I'm going to go write now for a couple of hours and do that... umm... work thing.

Ben

Support Your Local Writing Friends.

     So, you have a friend who has self-published.  Or even traditionally published.  How do you support them best?

    Look, this is a question on my mind as I've now delved into the world of self-publishing.  Not only do I wonder how to best get people to support myself, I ponder the best way to support my friends who are venturing into this abyss where you cast you net of words and hope to pull something back from it.  I have thought of a few ways.

     First and formost, buy their book.  Look, if it's $0.99 it's not a big deal.  If it's a tad bit more expensive just remember that you are supporting someone.  When you are first starting out on this adventure every little sale makes your heart leap and gives you a bit of a grin.  I know I have purchased a couple of R. Brady Frost's books from the Nook Store, and when his latest Chlorophyllium 9: A Short Story comes to the Nook I will buy it too.  This short story I have already read (and enjoyed) but it's not about just reading it to me.  It's giving that little ego boost that every author needs every now and then.

     Rate their books honestly.  Now wait a moment before you raise and eyebrow and hear me out here.  I know you want to give your friend a five star, ultra awesome, changed my life rating.  That's cool because you are a good friend.  However, think of what it will do when someone browses over his book, see's that 5 star rating decides to give it a go.  If the story does not live up to that hype this prospective fan could be turned off.

     Think of it this way, there is a movie you really want to see.  You hear all these rave reviews, your buddies tell you it's awesome, and everything builds the expected Wow factor higher and higher.  Then you see this movie.  The movie can be good, even great, but if it doesn't meet  that Wow factor you have build for it you feel a sense of dissapointment.  The same kind of feeling can happen if you read a bunch of five star reviews, then find you don't like the story or you feel it's not that good.  The sense of betrayal you get could turn you off of an author before you get to see some of their work you might really like.  This could also cut your friend off from prospective fans if you oversell the experience to them.

    So give them a rating that fits the story for you.  You can speak positively about what you like about their story and try to sell it for what it is.  If you don't have anything nice to say, don't leave the review.  Seriously, it's O.k. to tell someone you didn't like their story.  If your are writing you have to accept not everyone will like what you write.  It might sting initially coming from a friend, but be honest and tell them why and they might be able to improve their writing off the feedback.  If not, well like I said above not everyone is going to like what you write.  That includes friends.  And family members.

     I have already decided that when the day comes that someone tells me what a crappy writer I am, and how horrible my story or writing is that I'm just going to smile.  Then I'm going to thank them for taking the time to read my story and tell them I'm sorry they didn't like it and keep it at that.  I know when the time comes it will harder then just writing these words down and making the plan, but I feel this plan is solid.

     My last bit of advice is help your friend share their story to the world.  Take a moment to share their link on facebook.  Retweet a link for them.  Talk about their book if it comes up in discussion and do what you can the help raise awareness.  I think of it this way.  If all my friends have one hundred friends on their Facebook accounts, and two share my post.  That is two hundred more people that will glance at my book that I may have not reached.  That number only goes up with each share I get.

     Most of all, just be supportive.  Let your friend know your excited they are writing and taking the risks that come with it. (Rejection, Mental Breakdowns, Self doubt, and all the other fun)  Let them know you are happy for them every step of the way.  Even if I never sell a single copy of anything I write, I know just having people like that in my life helps keep me writing.

Ben Marble

P.S.  My short story The Choice is now available on Amazon.com.