I think the risk of failure is the biggest obstacle many budding writers face. I know I struggle with this every time I open up my word processor. But what is more important than taking risks is that if you don’t succeed, you learn from your mistakes and try again.

One of the biggest risk-takers is Sir Richard Branson who started a small company called Virgin Records and eventually expanded it into an airline, mobile phone service and dozens of other businesses. Branson has also risked his life (literally) in other ways, such as attempting to circle the world in a balloon. He’s been plucked from the ocean for several rescues.

I recently read a post he wrote on his blog where he talks about learning from your mistakes. While this post concerns business (especially for entrepreneurs) it can easily be applied to writers, bloggers and other creatives. In part, here’s what Branson says about failing an endeavor:

One of the reasons Virgin’s enterprises have been successful over the years is that we empower the staff to make mistakes— and then learn from them.

He then goes on to say:

This ability to bounce back after a setback is the single most important trait an entrepreneurial venture can possess. If innovation is at the heart of your business, obstacles come with the territory. How you react to and navigate those hurdles will make the difference between failure and success.

There is no doubt that Virgin is a successful company. But even Virgin has had its ups and downs. Virgin Atlantic Airways almost went under because of some dirty tricks play by British Airways. Branson eventually saved his airline by selling off the record company. It was a big risk that really paid off because he was able to save the airline and expand it to the worldwide carrier we know today.

Richard Branson has also seen his share of failures. Here are just a few of Virgin’s ventures that didn’t quite work out:

• Virgin Cola
• Virgin Money
• Virgin Vodka
• Virgin Rail
• Virgin Brides
• Virgin Cars

I’ve probably missed a few in there. Even after all these failures, Branson kept going. He’s still successful because he learns from these failures and doesn’t give up.

So if you’re a writer and fail at one project, learn from it and move on. Giving up means accepting defeat. Learn not to be afraid of failure (easier said than done, I know):

I suppose the secret to bouncing back is to be unafraid of failure. Setbacks are discouraging, but you should always try to channel that feeling into positive action.

I hate to say it but failure is a part of life. There’s no escaping it. What sets successful people apart is that they don’t get discouraged by failure, learn from their mistakes and move on. So if that novel/blog/short story/start-up has failed, keep going. It will eventually pay big dividends.

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I’ve never written under the influence of any drug (except for the caffeine I get from my morning coffee), so I can’t speak from personal experience. However, I have talked to people who have written while high on marijuana and they say at the time, they think their writing is pure genius. But after sobering up and reading what they wrote while high, it’s mostly gibberish.

Yes, this is anecdotal evidence. But it seems to be backed up by a doctor who specializes in addictions. The article Drunk writers were better sober, gives the reason that drugs are ineffective at increasing the quality of one’s work.

Dr Smith, an addiction expert from Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow, said: “The reason why this myth is so powerful is the allure of the substances, and the fact that many artists need drugs to cope with their emotions. Artists are, in general, more emotional people.”

He goes on to say:

“The idea that drugs and alcohol give artists unique insights and powerful experiences is an illusion,” he said. “When you try and capture the experiences [triggered by drugs or alcohol] they are often nonsense. These drugs often wipe your memory, so it’s hard to remember how you were in that state of mind.”

I think having a clear head, being observant of the world around you and the ability to look at the world in different ways are much more of an asset to a writer than drugs. Like I said above, caffeine is the only drug I have written while under the influence. But I don’t credit caffeine with writing better or being more creative. My coffee only serves to help wake me up in the morning. Nothing more.

More effective than any drug is meditation. Meditation clears the mind, relaxes the body and is able to offer deeper insights than one would normally get. More important though, meditation won’t ruin your health (quite the contrary, meditation is credited for lowering blood pressure, reducing stress and a handful of other benefits).

In closing, I’ll add one caveat. Creativity and what constitutes “good writing” is very subjective. This makes it hard to give a definite “yes” or “no” to the question of drugs improving your writing.

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• Can Twitter improve your writing?

The most obvious answer, and the one I agree with, is yes, Twitter can improve your writing. You are forced to use words selectively and make you 140 character messages as concise as possible. A lot of writers have a problem of being too wordy. It’s a hard habit to break and writers don’t see it in their own work. They only notice their wordiness when someone points it out to them in a draft.

With Twitter, there is no room to be wordy. For example, I’ll think of some great idea I want to tweet about, only to be disappointed that when written out, it goes way over the 140 character limit. So I find myself cutting out words, using shorter words, getting rid of unnecessary punctuation and so forth. It can be a lot of work to get a tweet just right.

When I did a quick Google search on this subject, I came across this post from Copyblogger. In part, the post says:

Since you only have 140 characters to get your message across, you’re forced to dust off your dictionary and thesaurus and find new words to use—Words that are shorter, words that are more descriptive, and words that get the job done in 140 characters or less.

While I have never used my dictionary or thesaurus, I do have to carefully choose my words. But changing a word can be tricky as it can alter the meaning of what you want to say, sometimes in very subtle ways. For example, the words “good” (4 letters) and “great” (5 letters) might seem like a good substitute if you need to shave off one character. But if you’re linking to the best book of the century on Amazon, you’ll want to say the book is great, not just good.

My only issue with Twitter is that a lot of people will revert back to writing like they are going 2 txt msg their bff on their phone and use very annoying abbreviations. These type of shortcuts are only a crutch in place of working on editing your tweets down. But from what I have observed, people on Twitter who use social networking for business and marketing tend to avoid such texting lingo.

Do you think Twitter helps your writing? Give your reasons in the comments below.

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Writing is a lonely endeavor. Writers don’t sell out Madison Square Garden or have young women throwing their bras at them while on stage. The closest thing writers get to being in front of a crowd is on the book tour and panel discussions. As cool as those things are, readers only see the finished, polished product after a writer has done all the dirty work.

What Matt Bell is doing is performance art. He’s giving you, the reader, a glimpse into his writing process. Matt says on his blog Everyday Genius:

To make it more interesting, you’ll be able to watch as I write, seeing each of my decisions in real-time. The software we’re using—Etherpad—will allow you to see each word I write and delete and rewrite at the same time I do it, and the built-in chat software will allow you and anyone else watching to chat alongside my writing if you choose to.

The reader even becomes a part of the writing process by chatting alongside Matt’s writing. This would be unnerving for me, having people watching and commenting as I type. I think writing is still a very private thing for most people.

If you haven’t already done so, check out Matt’s writing project here at meetingwords. It’ll be very interesting to see how this experiment turns out. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

Would you want an audience watching you write?

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Personally, I’ve never been enthusiastic about fanfic, not because of its legal implications, but because I just don’t find it very exciting.

One author in the latter category is historical romance novelist Diana Gabaldon. I first read about her hatred of fanfic on the Teleread blog post Novelist Diana Galbadon causes fanfic furor. She does little to hide her distaste for fan fiction on her blog:

OK, my position on fan-fic is pretty clear: I think it’s immoral, I _know_ it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.

Galbaldon goes on to list a series of arguments people use in favor of fan fiction, then she gives her rebuttal on why those arguments are wrong. The first point she brings up is probably the most important: People who write fanfic don’t try to make money from it. Galbaldon’s response:

Well, see, this is where “illegal” comes in. You can’t break into somebody’s house, even if you don’t mean to steal anything. You can’t camp in someone’s backyard without permission, even if you aren’t raising a marijuana crop back there. And you can’t use someone’s copyrighted characters for your own purposes, no matter what those purposes are. Really. I’m not making it up; this is International Copyright Law.

She is right regarding copyright law – as far as US copyright law goes, copyright holders do have the right to restrict derivative works of their material. So yes, legally, a writer of fanfic can be sued for copyright infringement. However, the counterargument to this is fair use of a copyrighted work – which includes parody and criticism. Authors opposed to fanfic do have the law on their side.

I understand the arguments against fanfic, but I also wonder why authors aren’t flattered that they have a hardcore group of fans whose imaginations have been so strongly captivated by the author’s work. I know I’d be flattered. As long as fanfic writers were not trying to make money off their works by using my characters/ideas, I would not have any problem.

What do you think about fan fiction? Should authors be worried about it or embrace it as flattery and recognize it as free advertising? Leave a comment below and share your opinion.

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Finding Names For Your Characters

There are a lot of resources you can use to find names. The simplest is to get out your old phone book (who uses phone books anymore?) and start your search. There are websites dedicated to helping you find names. Most of these are random name generators. I’ve had more success with these than with the phone book. There are also those baby name websites. They also can be pretty useful.

In short, finding names is actually pretty easy given the number of resources we have available.

Finding A Name That Fits Your Character

This is probably the most difficult part of naming characters in fiction. Not any name will due for any character. Finding a name that fits the character’s personality and is an integral part of any story. I tend to write lists after list of potential names for a single character, all in the hopes of finding that perfect name. I always settle on one, but I’m never fully satisfied with my choice.

For me, this can be an extremely frustrating part of writing a short story.

Your Input Needed

My question to all of you is: How do you go about finding names for your characters? How do you pick a name that fits the character’s personality? Leave a comment below and share your answer. Since I really struggle with this in my own fiction, I’m looking forward to your own methods and advice.

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The post was prompted by an article I read by Angela Hoy from http://www.writersweekly.com entitled Think Twice Before Giving Away Your Entire Book Online for Free. While I have a lot of respect for Angela and read her weekly newsletter every week, I have to disagree on this point.

Just after my last post on this topic, I stumbled upon another post named Sales Impact of Free eBooks Dissertation Published. The dissertation was researched and written by a doctoral student studying the effects of “free” on ebook sales. You can read exactly how his study was set up, so I’ll get to the meat of what this student discovered:

During the ten weeks of the study the books were downloaded 102,556 times. Collectively, the books sold 68 more copies in the ten weeks they were online for free versus the ten previous weeks. This was an increase in sales of 26%. Over the same period of time in 2008, sales of these same books decreased by 38%.

The post continues:

There was a moderately strong correlation (r=.65) between downloads and Internet print sales (the more books that were downloaded, the more books were purchased online). Thus if more books had been available and downloaded the number of additional books sold would likely have increased.

The post does talk about the limitations of this study. These limitations include the relatively small number of books studied and the short, 10 week, duration of the study. Despite the study appears to prove what I (and many others) have been advocating, I think it’s important to disclose possible problems with the study.

Writers need to market themselves, just like any other business

In the end, writers need to think of themselves as a business. All businesses need to advertise and market their products. When an author gives away ebooks for free to sell future ebooks, it’s really just the author marketing him/herself. Most businesses out there use the same principle of giving stuff away for free because it increases sales of other products. Writers should be no different.

The main point of those who disagree with authors giving books away for free seems to be that authors should be fairly compensated for their work (an idea I totally agree with). However, giving back titles away is in investment in the marketing of future titles and other works. It’s a sales strategy that, if implemented correctly, will pay big dividends.

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The main argument in favor of giving your works away for free goes something like this: You provide an ebook or two for free, and it will give readers a sampling of your work, enticing them to buy future ebooks that they would, of course, pay for. This has worked for many authors who claim that giving their stuff away does increase their sales of other books.

On the flip side, the argument against giving your work away for free is that readers will expect it for free and will expect the same thing with all of your books, thus no one will want to pay. Why pay when you can get it for free, right? The other issue that comes into play here is that authors should be fairly compensated for their work.

I recently read good article about this subject by Angela Hoy who runs writersweekly.com. I have been reading her site and subscribing to her newsletter since at least 2002-2003, so I highly respect her opinions and what she says. In her recent article Think Twice Before Giving Away Your Entire Book Online for Free she argues against what I often promote here at Brad’s Reader, and many other writers/bloggers promote as well – giving stuff away for free as a promotional tool.

A big part of Angela’s argument is this:

Giving someone an entire ebook for free, especially for unknown authors, gives the potential buyer zero incentive to buy your book. Why pay for something (by an unknown author) that’s completely free, especially in this economy? Some authors think doing this will generate lots of press (it won’t – too many authors have done it before so only well-known authors get big press for this now). Others think giving away their book will increase their readership and help sales of future books.

Based on my own personal experience, when I download a free ebook (either onto my iPhone or Sony Pocket Edition), I want to like the author’s work enough to buy their future novels. I’ve bought many ebooks from authors who offered their back list titles for free, and I know a lot of others who have done the same.

Obscurity or Making Money as a Writer?

Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author, blogger and a tech guru is one who knows something about giving his work away for free. Whenever he has a traditionally published novel released, he also releases it as a free ebook and audio version – making the title available in as many formats as possible. He says this increases his sales. He also makes an interesting comment about obscurity.

“I really feel like my problem isn’t piracy,” Mr. Doctorow said. “It’s obscurity.”

While piracy is another subject for another day, the issue of obscurity rings true in the whole should-I-give-stuff-away-for-free debate. Unknown authors have a big problem: No one knows who they are. By itself,  this makes it very unlikely anyone will read his/her work whether it’s free or not.

So what’s the unknown author to do? My first response is to get out there and start publishing your work on sites like Smashwords. But more than that, you need to somehow establish yourself. This involves more than just giving a few titles away. This also means:

• Setting up your own blog to build a healthy base
• Being active on Twitter
• Starting a Facebook fan page
• Connecting with other like-minded authors
• Continuing to write, write and write some more!

The whole purpose of all this is to avoid the obscurity trap. If you establish yourself online and have a following (even if it’s only 20 loyal readers on your blog), you are much more likely to have success giving a few titles away for free, and when the time comes, charge a reasonable price for your work. Your base of readers and followers, those who value what you have to say, will have no problem paying for that new novel you just published.

One blogger I follow is Joanaa Penn who started Author 2.0, a package of information that shows authors how to leverage technology and the principle of free to establish a following. She gives away a lot of free information to build her brand and help sell books.

What do I give away for free?

The short answer is anything you want. However, I have always felt that short fiction is the perfect “teaser” to get readers to buy your novels. If you have a few novels under your belt and are releasing new ones on at regular intervals, giving away your old back titles for free will give readers a taste of your work and will entice them to buy your newest release.

Another strategy is to give your readers something when they take a specific action. For example, you send out a monthly newsletter to your blog followers (you do have a blog, right?). Offer a free title or two (whether it’s a short story or novel) when they sign up. Make it exclusive to subscribers only. This will not only bring you more followers, but will help disseminate your work to more people.

In the end, the name of the game for all writers is marketing. Using a healthy mix of free and paid content can help you climb out of the obscurity trap so you can start commanding higher (but still reasonable) prices to those novels you work so hard to write.

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Writers can be a lonely bunch, which is why every writer needs a writing buddy. Mine just happens to be my cat, Kirby. This morning she made herself comfortable on my desk, behind my computer – trying to catch a few rays of sunshine coming in through the window.

What you don’t see in this picture is Kirby sniffing at everything on my desk (my writing tools must smell good) and batting at my pens, paperclips and anything else that’s easy for her paws to move. She also has a habit of biting at, and even eating paper, if it’s handy to do so.

Okay, maybe she’s not the perfect writing buddy, but she does keep me company and definitely keeps me amused as I work through the day’s business.

Who is your writing buddy?

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I’m continuing this theme of healthy ways to better writing (a theme I did not plan ahead of time, it just kinda happened) by talking about exercise and how it can have a positive impact on your creativity and writing. Exercise is obviously one of the most healthy activities one can pursue as it helps keep you in shape and reduces the risk of a lot of diseases.

Exercise and the brain

Most people think of exercise as only helping the body (as I talked about above). But staying active also has a positive impact on the brain. In fact, exercise can do everything from reduce depression to helping you feel more alert. I found an article from the website Medicine.net called Train you Brain with Exercise:

“I like to say that exercise is like taking a little Prozac or a little Ritalin at just the right moment,” says John J. Ratey, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of A User’s Guide to the Brain. “Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being.”

Christin Anderson, wellness and fitness coordinator at the University of San Francisco goes on to say:

“When one exercises,” Anderson says, “you can think more clearly, perform better, and your morale is better. This is pure science — stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level.”

Thinking clearly. Improved performance. Increased morale. All of these can have a positive impact on your writing. Just being able to think clearly will help you in terms of organizing your writing, structure, ideas, editing and so forth. For example, if you’re writing a novel, being able to think clearly could help you organize your plot and create more rounded characters.

The good part about exercise is that it really doesn’t take all that much to reap its benefits. The article states that working out (whether it’s running, walking, swimming, etc. for 30 minutes 3 times per week is enough to keep your brain in top shape. Of course, the more you exercise the more benefits.

Exercise as a creative boost

People who exercise regularly often report a ‘meditative’ aspect to their fitness routines. As I wrote in a previous post, meditation and meditative-like states can really increase your creativity and improve writing. Furthermore, when one feels that sense of well-being and euphoria, stress and other worries seem to fade away, giving your brain a chance to focus on other things.

From my own experience with exercise, after I’m finished with a workout, I really do have more energy and feel ready to tackle any writing project – often with a fresh perspective. The only problem I have is keeping a regular exercise schedule.

No drugs needed!

There is a general stereotype about creative people that they often use drugs to enhance their art. While this might apply in the short-term, in the long run, people who use drugs to increase their creativity are only hurting themselves. How many famous artists, musicians and writers have died from complications of drug use? Quite a few. This goes without saying, but it’s hard to be creative when you’re dead.

The cool part about meditation and exercise is that the benefits increase over time by improving your health. A side-effect of drugs is that you need more and more of the drug to get the same results. With meditation and exercise, that doesn’t happen. And if it does, it’s only benefiting you.

Do you exercise on a regular basis? Has it improved your writing or other creative endeavors? Leave a comment below and share your experience.

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