The other day I was trolling around on Goodreads when I decided to check out the ratings for James Scott Bell’s book, Plot and Structure. Why? Probably just because it seemed like a fun little distraction from whatever important thing I probably should have been doing instead.  I credit this book for finally breaking my cycle of writing and abandoning half-finished novels, and giving me the tools I needed to understand how to complete a (hopefully) competent piece of commercial fiction. I was curious to see what other aspiring writers thought of it.

The vast majority of the reviews are positive, but I was more interested in the negative reviews. I thought the book was full of really excellent, practical, actionable advice. I wanted to know how and why another reader might come to the opposite conclusion. The most common criticism of the book seemed to be that Bell focused too much on how to create a commercially viable novel rather than how to craft a novel that satisfies the author’s need for artistic self-expression. In particular, he caught a lot of flak for citing Dean Koontz when it came to providing examples of how to create successful fiction that sells.

Here’s the thing: I am not a huge fan of Koontz. I read a handful of his novels and determined that he’s just not for me. For example, I read The Silent Corner and found that while the plot was generally exciting and engaging, he made choices as an author that just rubbed me the wrong way. I certainly don’t mind having an attractive female lead, but it gets distracting when nearly every interaction Jane had with a man involved him fawning over how good-looking she is. And I gave the guy a fair shake, mind you. It’s not like I only tried his recent stuff. I gave Watchers a try too, but I just couldn’t get into it.  That said, I completelyunderstand how someone else could love his works. And bottom line? The guy sells some damn books. He’s undisputedly commercially successful.

So what I have trouble understanding is this: for those of us yet to reach the status of commercial success achieved by the likes of Koontz—or hell, even just making enough money to make writing our day jobs—why are some so eager to cast aside Bell’s advice? His point-by-point breakdown of how to use the modern commercial three-act structure is an excellent framework for developing stories that modern consumers of fiction want to read.

No matter how much some want to fight it, the three-act structure just freakin’ works when it comes to modern day fiction. When done right, it provides the reader with a sense of urgency that creates that compelling need to finish the narrative. We see it everywhere in successful modern fiction:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Act 1: Harry lives a miserable life with the Dursley family, but eventually discovers he’s a wizard.

Act 2: Harry leaves for Hogwarts (first door of no return) and discovers the mystery of the stone.

Act 3: Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the trap door (the second, more literal door of no return) in anticipation of facing off against Snape, only to discover it’s Quirrell/Voldemort.

The Hunger Games:

Act 1: Katniss lives a difficult, impoverished life in the 12^th district. The upcoming 74^th hunger games are a looming threat.

Act 2: Katniss volunteers as tribute to save Primrose, goes off to the capital for the games (first door of no return) and fights for survival.

Act 3: Katniss and Peeta confront Cato, threaten a double-suicide if not allowed to win the games as a two-person team.

Anyway. I could go on, but I don’t think it would be very helpful. Apologies if this reads more like a rant than a cohesive article. Just something I had on my mind today.

So after having my first book out for about two months, I decided that it would probably be best to change my cover. This is not because I don’t think the artist and designer did a bad job—not in the slightest. In terms of sheer artistic talent, it looks fantastic. In fact, I am 100% responsible for every aspect of the cover that I think does not work, as I was the one who specifically asked it to look the way it does.

I asked the designer to draw each of the three main characters from the book, each of them essentially just standing in an environment as described from one of the scenes in the story. I asked for the two magic-users in the group to be shown actively using their magic, but not for any particular purpose. This is a problem, because it doesn’t tell the potential reader anything about what makes my book worth reading. I think the selling point of my novel is the humor involved, but you wouldn’t get any sense of that humor from looking at the cover as it exists now. The cover shouts “generic fantasy story” because I asked it to be designed that way.

I didn’t realize how much failing to be mindful of the purpose of the cover would hurt me. I think if I had a more accurate cover when I launched the book, it would have been more successful. I know now that I need a cover that better portrays the tone of my book, and this is a lesson I will take to heart as I release my future books. I know this is a bit of a shorter post, but I can’t help but feel like it could potentially save someone out there a lot of time and money by learning this lesson from me rather than learning it the hard way.

Posted to Goodreads on 8-14-21:

So from the outset, this is a 4.5 for me. I’ll say it’s closer to 5 than 4, and Goodreads doesn’t have half-stars… so there you have it.

It’s only on very rare occasions that I stray from the constant nerd-fest that is my preferred genre of fantasy. However, I happened to stumble across the author’s post mentioning that the story was about high school marching band, I couldn’t help but at least give it a try. I was a band kid myself, and I have a lot of fond memories from that time of my life.

To that end, that was probably the most enjoyable aspect of the book for me. I couldn’t believe how accurately the narrative described band life, which is something that is tied to-yet wholly separate from-typical high school life. I found myself laughing and pointing out certain passages to my wife (also a former band kid) not necessarily because they were funny, but because they were profoundly accurate and true to life.

I liked the main character reasonably well, especially when it came to her clever internal monologuing. On occasion, though, she made some rash decisions that I started to get annoyed with-that is, before recalling the emotional whiplash of what it’s like to be seventeen, and recalling that I made no shortage of cavalier decisions at that age, too.

The prose is just clean as can be, which I appreciated. This is the first book I read from start to finish on a phone.

I don’t think it would be a fair review if I didn’t explain my biggest criticism of the book, though. Without spoiling anything, there comes a point in time in the novel where two characters are confronted with their seemingly incompatible identities, causing a falling out between them. I was genuinely intrigued as to how they would resolve this delicate and nuanced issue, only to find out that they apparently worked it out among themselves “off-screen,” so to speak. It was realistic enough that this happened within the narrative, but it felt as though this conflict was being built up as a significant plot point, only to have it resolved in the space of a few paragraphs.

All things considered, I liked it. It was an enjoyable, relatively quick read.

I know sometimes the tone of my posts come off like I’m some grizzled, retired adventurer NPC hanging out in the corner of a tavern. You know the type. He sits around and drinks all day, spouting off tales of woe to anyone unfortunate enough to accidentally make eye contact with him, and he’s always wearing a cloak for some reason.

But hear me out this time. I have some genuine, helpful experience to share with you for once, even if it is by way of a cautionary tale. I have an unfortunate level of experience in this particular matter, for I tried not one, but two budget editing services before I finally learned my lesson. If you’re at the stage of your manuscript draft where you need to start considering hiring an editor, please consider the following:

After I finished my final draft and worked out the blurb for my first novel, I started submitting my manuscript to agents. I only submitted it to a handful of agents before I really started to do some research, only to come to some troubling conclusions. The more I dug into the history of many of the books being traditionally published, the more I discovered that the vast majority seemed to have only little more success than indie books, if any. This was not true of the powerhouse publishers like Penguin, of course, but I figured my chances of getting picked up by an operation like that were next to impossible, especially with my relatively unusual choice of genre.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give self-publishing a shot. The most obvious downside was the cost. I knew I’d need at least a few hundred dollars for a cover and much more than that for editing. I decided to cut costs by seeking out some budget-friendly editing services, and this is where I severely screwed up.

The first editor I hired was a grad student who was advertising her services by way of a forum post on a writer’s board. She was willing to edit my entire 92,000 word manuscript for $150. What a steal! This should have been a massive red flag, but I decided it was worth the gamble. I waited for over a month before the manuscript was returned to me. I excitedly opened the word document to find… nothing had been done.

Quite literally, almost nothing.

She had noted three typographical errors by highlighting them.  I didn’t make a fuss about it. I decided to just move on.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. I wanted to find an editor who had some credentials behind his or her name. I eventually found a guy with a pretty posh-looking website. He had a degree in English and had a number of positive testimonials on his page. I decided to give him a try for another $250. While he managed to finish his work in only a week, the results were still very disappointing. What he gave me was a word document that pointed out about a dozen typos, and a five-page document that read like a book report containing his mostly positive opinions about my novel rather than any actionable critiques. While the report did provide a nice little boost to my ego, it did nothing to help me improve my manuscript.

It’s not fun to admit this, but I pretty much wasted $400 before I finally wised up. I scoured the internet to find an editor who had some real, verifiable experience. That’s when I stumbled across Josiah Davis’s website and immediately realized I was dealing with a different caliber of talent. He had examples of his work available so that I could inspect his style of work before hiring him. Not only did he have excellent testimonials, he had edited a number of indie novels I had actually read and enjoyed in the past. His fee for his service was much, much higher than the two folks I had hired before him—and as it turned out, this was for a very good reason.

When Josiah returned my draft to me, I was completely blown away. He tore my manuscript to shreds, and it was exactly what I needed. Before he looked at my work, I felt I had plateaued. I was having difficulty understanding what I needed to do to improve not only my manuscript, but my abilities as a writer. Josiah not only corrected my syntax errors, but he also actively pointed out ways in which I could improve. For example, he pointed out my tendency to heavily rely on the word ‘as’ while describing a character’s actions, i.e., “Ben placed the picture on the mantle as he considered Emily’s parting words.” I was unconsciously doing this with such frequency that it was actively bothering the reader. I had recognized a similar tendency in plenty of other authors without realizing I was guilty of the same sin. There’s one indie author whose work I read quite often (who shall remain nameless) who nonetheless drives me insane with his tendency to use and re-use certain phrases with such regularity that it tears me away from his narrative and just makes me feel annoyed.

Furthermore, it was clear from Josiah’s comments that he has a true passion for what he does. At one point in my manuscript, I described a character’s actions as “somewhat pathetic.” Josiah just about lost his mind when he saw this in my prose—and for good reason. I wasn’t respecting the sheer power of language. The word “pathetic” is an immensely powerful and sometimes devastating way to describe something. It shouldn’t be used lightly, and it certainly shouldn’t be voluntarily weakened by a word like “somewhat.”

I’ll be perfectly honest. at the time of writing this post, I haven’t recovered the costs of my first novel. Not even close. To date, I’ve only recovered about 10% in royalties of the total amount I spent to produce the book. All the same, I still hold onto hope that this won’t be the case in the future. But even if I never recover the money, I will never be sorry I spent it getting proper editing services, because doing so was exactly what I needed to learn and grow as an author.

Yet another entry in the Self-Publishing Experience posts…

It’s one of my fondest fantasies to imagine myself able to go back in time—if only for a couple minutes—to absolutely kick my ass up one side of the street and down the other. Once my younger self was good and roughed up, I’d grab him by the collar and dramatically deliver him a series of messages between the hardest slaps I could muster.

Slap.

“CONSUME ENTERTAINMENT IN MODERATION! YOU DON’T NEED TO PLAY VIDEOGAMES FOR 4 HOURS PER DAY! STOP WASTING SO MUCH OF YOUR PRECIOUS, FINITE LIFEFORCE!”

Slap.

“STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT HOW HARD IT IS TO BE INSPIRED TO WRITE! PUT YOUR ASS IN THE CHAIR AND START PUSHING THE KEYS.”

Slap.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A GIFT IT IS TO HAVE THE AMOUNT OF FREE TIME YOU HAVE! HOW DARE YOU WASTE SO MUCH OF IT?!”

All right, I know that’s not exactly the most inspirational way to begin this particular post, but it’s currently 5:01 on a Sunday afternoon as I write this, and it’s hard not to feel a touch of the Sunday blues. For me, the blues are way more of an acknowledgment of time wasted in the past rather than lamenting the responsibilities I’ve taken on since then. I love my kids to death, I have a lovely home, and I have a rewarding career, but it’s hard not to lament the time I wasted doing absolutely nothing in my younger days when I could have been either developing my skill in my passion for writing or working on other productive endeavors. Hindsight is 20-20, and I didn’t realize how much precious time I was allowing to slip away from me.

But if there’s one thing that has hindered my progress, it’s this fixation on the past. It does very little good to feel sorrow for the lost opportunities of the past. What’s important is to realize that you still have an opportunity to tackle whatever indie writing dreams you have in the present, even if your progress is going to be a lot slower as a result of your current obligations.

I speak from experience in this regard. I didn’t even start writing the first novel I actually managed to finish until after my first child was born. Fellow parents know that free time is at an all-time premium when you have a newborn to take care of.

So enough of my rambling. Tackling the issue at hand, how does one actually manage to finish an entire novel when it seems like you haven’t got the free time to do so? Here’s a few things that worked well for me:

Capitalize on Every Moment of Potential

If you analyze your day carefully, you’re bound to find at least a handful of times in your schedule where you could be doing some form of writing while doing something else. In a lot of jobs, you have the opportunity to write for 20-30 minutes at a time while taking your lunch break. It doesn’t need to be a hectic scramble to write as much as you can, but there’s no reason you can’t jot down a couple paragraphs at your leisure while you eat your sandwich.

You can multitask at home as well. Find a decent voice-to-text app on your phone and get into the habit of speaking into a headset as you complete chores around the house. It feels really awkward and stilted at first, but once you get into a groove, it becomes a lot easier to crank out work. You’ll need to do a bit of editing to straighten out the occasional misinterpreted word, but you’ll make a hell of a lot more progress doing this than if you did nothing at all.

Write Something, Literally Anything, Every Single Day

I think that this habit more than anything else was responsible for pushing me across the finish line to my first completed draft of an entire novel. Back in 2018 I promised myself that I would make a habit out of writing something every single day, irrespective of how much I wrote and the quality of what I wrote. Some days I wrote over 3,000 words, and on others, I wrote 10. On one really lousy day, I wrote into my manuscript:

“I don’t know what to write. Goodnight.”

That was the entirety of the writing I did that day. I’m not even sure who I was supposed to have been bidding ‘goodnight’ to. Obviously, the next day I deleted it and moved on to writing something of substance.

So why even bother doing something like that? Because it forced me to make a habit of writing. To keep going and at least attempting to do something to reach my goal every single day so that it became almost as natural as making the bed in the morning. If you do this, soon enough writing will just become a part of your lifestyle rather than something you need to be motivated to do.

Focus on Production, not Outcome

I should have learned earlier on to try to enjoy the process of writing rather than focusing so much on the outcome of a completed novel. When you don’t have hours on end to write every single day, it’s easy to focus on the fact that your progress from day to day is not as wonderful as you would like it to be.

Sometimes life gets in the way. You have to work late, or a child falls ill and needs to see the doctor right away. On those days, you might not have any real time to write at all. Do your best to see the bigger picture: You’re making whatever progress you can every day, and that’s all that really matters. There are plenty of people out there with all the free time in the world, but it doesn’t matter that they’ve got the time if they choose not to do anything productive with it. You’re going to get a hell of a lot more writing done in a year working only an hour or two per day compared to the couch potato who only writes when the mood strikes.

Whatever happens, if you really love to write, just keep going. Maybe it’s a bit lame to say so, but if you need a voice of support: I believe in you.

I’m the all-time grand champion of flops.

The GOAT of missing the boat.

I botched it. I blew it. It’s been buggered up, loused up, screwed up, and goofed up to the heavens. It chilled there for a moment and then it fell down, hit its crown, and it didn’t wake up in the morning.

Long story short, I didn’t exactly nail my first book’s release. Go figure.

This is going to be a bit of a weird take, because I really have nothing valuable to tell you in terms of how, specifically, you should market your indie novel. I don’t claim to be some kind of magical self-publishing guru. There’s not much in this post that will help you determine what steps you can take to effectively market your book. My posts here are really more about how I’m slowly, painfully learning the ropes of this weird-ass industry.

“So why the hell should I read any of this?”

Excellent question, reader.

I’m not entirely sure of what I expected to happen when I self-published my first novel, but it wasn’t… well, what happened. So here’s the long and short of it, it ain’t gonna get much clearer:

Don’t do what I done did. Consider another course of action, and just keep these points in mind when you proceed to launch:

DON’T BLINDLY THROW MONEY AT ADS

“But Mr. Reinstra,” I hear you lament as you take a delicate sip of an Appletini, “I watched eighty-two thousand videos on YouTube about the magical targeting techniques to get hella Facebook clicks for pennies on the dollar! How could you possibly suggest that immediately dumping a few hundred dollars into ads isn’t an effective strategy?!”

I watched those videos too, okay? But you’d be just as naive as me if you think it wise to test out some of those ad targeting techniques right out of the gate and on your first book. I’m not saying that I think that a decent ad campaign can’t be effective, but don’t waste money on day one of your launch just because you have an intense anxiety about being noticed right out of the gate. Even if you pay for your book cover to be shoved in front of tens of thousands of faces, it doesn’t change the fact that there are much more important factors at play here, such as…

NOBODY KNOWS WHO THE HELL YOU ARE

This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Truth is, nobody knows who I am yet, and unless you’ve got some kind of massive internet following from some other endeavor, it’s unlikely anyone knows who you are.

For all you or anyone else knows, I could have written a series whose popularity would one day put the Harry Potter franchise to shame, but you sure as hell wouldn’t know that just because my book popped up as suggested reading on your Kindle. For the first few days of my book’s launch, I had about 5 total sales. I was scratching my head as to why my numbers weren’t higher. I had ads running, so plenty of people were at least seeing the book cover on their feeds, even if they weren’t clicking it. I paid for a professional cover, and I also had my book professionally edited—surely the potential readers should have respected these things?

But as I thought about what was happening, I tried to consider my situation from the point of view of a reader. It went a little something like this:

“Huh. A new novel from someone called G.M. Reinstra. Could be interesting, let me just click on this and… oh. $2.99? And this is Book 1 in a series he hasn’t finished? And he hasn’t written any other books? What if he gives up on the series? What if I pay the money, and this book sucks? Nah. I’ll pass. What else  have we got here today…”

I think you’ll agree our consumer has some fair criticisms. Which brings me to my third and final point…

YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T SLEEP ON THE FREE BOOK PROMOTION OPTION LIKE I DID

This was my first big breakthrough, and short-lived though it was, I’m hoping to have another soon. Almost the instant I offered my book for free through Kindle Direct Publishing’s 5-day promotion option, my “sales” went through the roof. I wasn’t earning any money, but I didn’t care. I was far more concerned about getting my novel in the hands of potential readers rather than making money, at least for now. During the entirety of the free giveaway, I moved something like 300 units.

Since that time, things have slowed down again, but I’m not giving up.  As I continue to draft the sequel to my novel, I’m continuing to experiment with all kinds of marketing strategies, and I’ll be sure to keep you all posted as I discover what works and what doesn’t.

This is the single-worst pile of garbage that any human has ever had the audacity to write. I should be dragged through the streets by my hair and pummeled by the justifiably enraged masses for having thought this could ever have been a worthwhile endeavor. I cannot believe I spent countless hours of my precious, limited time on this earth tainting my keyboard with the idiotic prose I so wantonly smushed into it with the shameful instruments of failure I once called ‘hands.’

-You, probably.

It is not at all unusual for a self-published author to have tried—and failed—to write a novel multiple times before finally managing to finish a first draft of a complete manuscript. Personally, I had about seven half-finished novels on my hard drive before I finally managed to finish an entire book. I’d usually get somewhere between thirty-five to forty-five thousand words into my draft when I would read what I had written from start to finish, then spout off a diatribe similar to the paragraph above, rapidly proceeding through the five stages of grief as I did so:

1. Denial: “Okay, it’s pretty bad. But maybe this project can be salvaged.”
   
   
2. Anger: “How the hell could I have spent so much time on this only to end up with this trash?!”

…huh. You know, now that I think about it, I really only experienced three stages. After anger, I’d tend to jump over bargaining and go straight to depression, where I’d remain for a few weeks. Then I’d quit writing altogether for several months before starting the process all over again.

I think everyone’s journey to discovering how to end this cycle and actually produce something will be slightly different, but I figured I would at least share my thoughts on what broke me from this pattern in the hopes that my experience will be helpful to you:

Make sure you have the right tools.

I mean this on a metaphorical level. You don’t need to go out and buy a $2,000 laptop or some goofy-ass digital typewriter to be able to write. Install OpenOffice on a $50 rig from 2012 and you’re good to go. What I mean is, know the basics of how to write a novel.

Hear me out! Don’t close the tab yet.

I know what I just wrote sounds too obvious to be helpful, but allow me to give an example of what I’m talking about. In my first handful of attempts at writing a novel, I understood the very basics of how to write prose when it came to grammar, syntax, formatting, etc. (Try not to laugh at that if you’ve spotted a typo somewhere in this article… I write these in my limited free time and can’t always edit as thoroughly as I’d like to.) That was all well and good, but I had a fundamental misunderstanding about how to structure a story. I’d consumed hundreds of novels, movies, and plays, up to that point, but I never really took the time to understand why my favorite stories worked so well and felt so satisfying.

When I accidentally stumbled across Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (which I cannot recommend enough to any aspiring novelist, by the way) it completely blew my mind. I looked back at some of my prior attempts at writing and realized one of the biggest recurring problems I had was writing a first act which was WAYYYYYYYY too long. This made my stories drag something awful, and even though I was substantially invested in my own stories, I could just feel how slow and unsatisfying my method of development was.

When I finally understood the basics of structure, I scrapped my most recent novel and started over, this time designing my story around proper elements of structure. I knew right away that I was doing something right this time. How? Well, in all my other projects, I’d always ask my wife to read a few chapters and give me her thoughts. Though she was always very supportive, this was the first time she read my work and immediately asked whether I had more for her to read.

Know when to scrap an idea you love.

The first book I wrote, A Quest for Chumps, has a strong emphasis on humor. I had a phenomenal time writing comedic scenes throughout the book. At one point early in the second act of the story, however, I had the characters engage in a series of activities which ultimately had very little impact on the plot. On some deeper level, I think I always knew that the only relevant information provided in these chapters could have been delivered to the reader in a much more efficient and satisfying way. Before I knew it, I’d written nearly ten thousand words describing the antics the main characters were getting up to. At first I thought what I had written was great, because I thought the humor was especially enjoyable in those scenes.

As I continued to draft, though, I noticed that the novel was becoming a bit too long, and that the second act was slowing down too much. I analyzed everything I had drafted up to that point and finally decided that I’d have to slash the ten thousand words and replace it with something else. I spent way too much time agonizing over whether the cut was necessary when I could have just cut my losses (literally, with Control + x) and decided to be productive instead. As I’m drafting the sequel, I already have a separate document full of scenes and paragraphs I’ve cut from the initial draft. I am much more comfortable cutting things out this time around because my attitude has changed. I know that what I wrote was not a waste of time, but rather a necessary step in the drafting process on the road to discovering what the final draft should look like.

Push through the inevitable doubt.

I was only partially joking when I wrote the first paragraph in this post. There will likely come a certain point where you think that your novel isn’t worth writing anymore, and if you really love the story you have in your heart, you need to try to push through it. This is far easier said then done. When you convince yourself that the novel is terrible, it’s nearly impossible to find the motivation to work on it further.

Take it from someone who has far too much experience with this feeling: You essentially need to take it on faith that you’re going to come through on the other side. As you force yourself to keep writing, things will begin to fall into place. You’ll fix up some prior scenes, draft elegant new ones, and perfect solutions to what were once insurmountable problems will seemingly pop into your head as if from nowhere.

You’ve already suffered through the hardest part. It’s time to push through to the finish line.

For those interested in Plot and Structure: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20181.Plot_Structure

I’m already working on it, I promise! The outline is complete and I’ve drafted all of Act 1 and into the beginning of Act 2! I’ll provide further updates as I go along.

Wow. Color me surprised. I didn’t actually think anyone would come here, but here you are.

I’m afraid I wasn’t really prepared for this. At least not as much as I should have been. Presumably if you’re here, that means you’re at least somewhat interested in my future writing.

I’ve got a couple of things in the mix, the first of which is, of course, a sequel to the first Departed Dimensions book. The second project I’m working on is a free serial series! Why a serial? Well, because writing a novel takes quite a bit of time. In addition to my writing, I’m also a father of two and I’ve got a full time day job…so it’s probably going to be a minute before I wrap up the sequel.

So anyway, there’s really not a whole heck of a lot to do here just yet other than sign up for my newsletter. Feel free to shoot me a tweet @GMReinstra for plenty of pasta shenanigans. I’ll be around.

Wishing you well,

-GMR