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A friend and I sat down for lunch a couple days ago, and all she wanted to do was complain about the book she'd just gotten done reading.  So, like I often do, I started questioning her and picking apart what hadn't worked.  Since she's also the one who was the unfortunate recipient of my previous "Middle Books" rant, and since the book she complained about was the latest (not last) book in a series by an author she normally loves, we ended up focusing on middle book issues.

We began with what worked:

• It was a well-written book, with a strong plot, strong characters, and it completed its major story arcs...

Which means it's not any of the problems that I mentioned in the previous post.  It's not a "chapter" book, nor is it a "move the ship" book.

• ... but it was still a deeply unsatisfying read.

Why?

After some discussion, we pinned it down.

Many authors write ongoing series that have very large over-arcing plots: save the world from armageddon, win the war, stop the world-war before it starts, etc.

• For the sake of this middle-book-problem, these series-types include both series that follow one character, and series that each book is a new set of characters on a common background.

So, the simplified picture for these types of series books would look like this:

It's easy to see that each book significantly advances the overall arc of the series.

But what happened in the book my friend complained about --and several other books I've read-- is: (Read more)

I just got done reading a book from one of my favorite authors and found myself seriously annoyed at it.  So, like I usually do, I pondered why I was so upset with the book. Because writing-wise, it was fine.  So what annoyed me?

As I pondered, I realized that it had the same problem that I've run across in many other middle books.  So I broadened my pondering, and pondered why middle books are often so bad in comparison to other books in the trilogy or series.

As I pondered, I drew myself pictures to define concepts better for myself.

There seem to be a two kinds of series:

1. A series of books -- no overall arcs:

2.  A series with arcs carried over multi books:

Since I read for character, my reading repertoire contains, almost exclusively, the second type of series.  So that's what I focused on in my further ponderings.

As I pondered, I came to the conclusion that there seem to be two kinds of problems with middle books, which can appear in either type of series, but as I said, I'll focus on the second type of series.

First Middle-book Problem

The first problem with many middle books is that they are really the first part of the end book, or the next book. 

In other words, the last two books in the trilogy are not two books, but really one book that has been split into two parts.

Since I'm an author, it seemed obvious to ask:

When you are writing a book, how do you tell the difference between two separate books, or one book in two parts?  (Read more)

I realized a while back that I have this blog categorized in my head as my "fiction writing blog", so if I'm not writing fiction, I tend to not post here.  Then I decided the other day that this needs to be my "writing" blog and to not limit myself to "fiction". 

Meaning that I should start talking about what's kept me up day and night, and prevented me from doing many, many of the things I should have been doing.

So, where have I been for the last six months, and what have I been doing?

I've been writing a non-fiction book:

Is that enough to account for the majority of the last six months?  175,000 words.  500 pages.

I'm glad to have it this far done, but it's only a raw draft.  Now the chore is to make something coherent of it.  Which, of course, should prove as interesting (in the Oriental curse sense of the word) as any fiction I've written.

It'll eventually be a book on how to take control of your life from your subconscious and your limiting beliefs.  It won't be a cure-all or make-a-million-dollars-this-week book.  For anyone who actually does the exercises, when they're done with the book, they will be consciously running their life, which makes it tremendously more likely that their conscious goals will actually be realized... whether it be a cure or a million dollars, or just plain being able to say "I want to do X" and not have their subconscious sabotage them every step of the way.  :-)

To pay the bills, I'm a web designer, and one of the biggest problems I run into is people who think that websites magically get filled with content.

Most prospective clients think that all they have to do is hire somebody to build their website (somebody who knows nothing about them or their business) and somehow, magically, POOF! that stranger will fill their entire site with pages and pages of content that tells everything about them, in just exactly the way they want it told... all without any input from the prospective client, and all without paying any money for it.  **sigh**  It's one of the most frustrating parts of the business.  I tell my clients: "I know nothing about you, nor do I know anything about your business.  How in the world do you except me to write the content for your website?"

So, faced with my own issues of needing to put together a whole section of content for my Literary Midwifery business that I intend to fire-up in the near future, I'll tell you the process I'm going through.

1) Search the web (google, yahoo, and/or other search engines of your choice) for existing businesses similar to yours.  Find 6-10 that are as similar as you can get.

2) For all of these sites, print off copies of their websites.  Print off "Services", "Fees", "About Us", and all their other major pages... don't worry about blogs and stuff like that.

3) Read through the stack of printed web pages, and with a bright-colored pen, highlight the sentences/ paragraphs/ sections that ring true to your business and your imagined website.  Don't think too much, if something catches you eye, highlight it. (Read more)

There are some days and some chores that the only joy to be found in them is the joy of finally having them done.

The last of the contest entries are judged and sent on their way.  Now I can finally go to bed, so I can get up early tomorrow to do all the work that I should have done today but didn't have time for.

I understand that people enter contests because they don't have other means of critique available to them... but if you're one of these folks, please take a moment to appreciate the time and energy that the judge on the other end put into your entry... especially if yours was one of the really bad ones that the judge spent an hour just trying to figure out one useful thing they could say.

*sigh*  I swear every year that I'm not going to do it next year... and I do anyway.  I'm such a wuss when they beg and plead.  :-)

But!  IT'S DONE!  And that's a joyous thing!  :-)

I'm reading contest entries this afternoon (yes, they're waaaayyy late, I know), and I found myself writing the following, then I had to go take my kid someplace. As I drove, I thought about what I'd written, and I realized that I'd never thought about it that way before, and it seemed fairly profound, so I thought I'd share it.

Historical entry page 7:

Ben took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He preferred the backwoods of the colonies to this dangerous jungle of London’s upper society. At least there, he could shoot his predators. {{This is good, but totally out of character for who he’s been presented as so far. Nothing has been mentioned of ‘backwoods’ or ‘shooting’, so I-as-reader assumed he was American upper-crust. If he’s not, it needs to be mentioned waaaaay before this. Don’t make the reader go back and re-evaluate the characters. You need to build the character from one point to the next, not contradict the character from one point to the next. The reader’s assumptions about the character are often based on the words that aren't on the page even more than the words that are on the page. If he’s not American upper-crust, then he’d be doing a lot of thinking of how he should act and re-act. If living the life of the British upper-crust comes naturally, then he wouldn't need to think about how to act or re-act, so he wouldn’t be thinking about it, so the words wouldn’t be on the page. So you can see how the reader’s assumptions are often made by the words that are not on the page.}}

We-as-writers spend tons and tons of time working and tweaking the words that are on the page....  How much time do we spend on the implications of the words that aren't on the page?

I feel like I'm suddenly back in the saddle. 

I haven't written for months because I've been busy on another project that is so off-topic for most of this stuff that I'll just leave it at that.  If it actually grows into anything viable, then I'll go into more detail.

But last week, out of the blue, I started on a new story.  Which, of course, is the last thing I need to be doing as I've already got too many stories in process.  And this morning, my main characters from my very first manuscript started yammering at me, for the first time in years.  So, I'm assuming that I'm getting back into the fiction business.

Nothing's moving in the submission process for my erotica.  The one place that asked for the full replied thanks-but-no-thanks, and everybody else has either said we're-too-busy or not replied.  So, need to send it out on a second round when I have the time.

Beyond that, all the kids except #3-son are home for the summer, so the house is full and noisy.  #3-son is working for my brother in Texas.

And, for the most obvious change, I redid the look of the website.  Obviously tons more to do on it, but I decided that if I was going to be serious about getting my act in gear, I had to quit act like the cobbler whose kids didn't hae any shoes, and get my own blasted websites in some kind of reasonable order.  I have my work cut out for me, but it'll be nice to have it done.

Anyway... obviously late, and I have early plans tomorrow, so best head to bed.

The community college cancelled the last of my community education classes for this semester, because not enough people signed up for it (only three signed up, they need six).  So, of the four classes that I had scheduled this semester, I actually only taught one. 

That's irritating.  Especially since this particular college's website is so stupid that I suspect that I had a bunch of people who wanted to come to the class, but the people couldn't figure out how to sign up for it.

I'm a computer professional and a website professional.  You'd think that I'd have a step up in trying to figure out how to accomplish things on a website.  By the time I was done I was absolutely astounded at the counter-intuitiveness of their process, and I'm actually flabbergasted that those three people could actually figure out _how_ to sign up for the class.

First off, before you can sign up for any class at this college, you have to have an ID number... and they make that a stupidly idiotic process. You can't just click on a webform and get a number.  No... you have to snail-mail something in and wait for a snail-mail back, or you have to fax a form in and wait for a snail-mail back... before you can even begin to sign up for a community education class!! 

They're kidding, right?  Don't they know that community ed classes are impulse buys?  People want to click on a link and sign up for a class, all in one quick session.  But apparently this college doesn't know that.  And no, unfortunately they're not kidding.  Morons! (Read more)

Today I spent researching medieval Europe.  Oh, what fun.  **sigh**  There are reasons I swore I'd never write historicals.  And then when this fantasy jumped out and bit me... now there are reasons I swear I'll never write another fantasy. 

But, now I've got a fair amount of the research done, so maybe I will.  Who knows.

However, I did accomplish my aim.  I was stuck because I didn't have words for stuff.  The first scene starts with the hero walking into the king's presence.  What is the hero wearing?  What rank is he in the military?  What are the ranks of his subordinates?  Where does he live?  What does the great hall look like?  etc. 

I know I'm not historically accurate, but I'm close enough to make myself happy.  So maybe I can actually get to work on the blasted book.

Because the first books that are being submitted are erotica, and since erotica isn't inteneded to be the only thing I write... I decided long ago that I needed a pseudonym for my erotica works.  And being the lazy sort, I decided on "Jacqui" Powers, and bought the domain.

Now, finally, I have the website up: www.JacquiPowers.com

It doesn't have much content, but the layout is pretty much set.  If you view it in Firefox, the main text over the book will be columned across the book's pages. 

I must admit that I'm vastly amused with it.

So, as always, more to do, but it's a significant start in the process.

And... as for submission statuses... the agent who asked for the full said "thanks, but no thanks" and another agent finally got around to telling me she was too busy.  So I need to get back to researching agents.