Major Changes in the Last Year

By James M. Jackson 

Three years ago, I agreed to create and teach a course on Indie Publishing for the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. This Sunday, I’ll welcome my third group of students. In order to give students time to do the reading and suggested homework, we cover the material over six weeks.

I designed the course to provide students with hands-on experience with all aspects of Indie Publishing other than writing/editing and marketing. We discuss the pros and cons of Indie Publishing compared to more traditional publishing paths, business formation, business financials, sales and income taxes, the process of physically creating, perfecting, and publishing print, eBooks, and audiobooks, and much more.

To prepare for this new session, I reviewed the twenty lessons. Some required only minor changes from last year. Changes in four areas, however, required significant reworking of the lessons I used for last year’s class. Three relate to so-called Artificial Intelligence, AI for short. The fourth is the increasing opportunity for selling direct and using bespoke books.

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I needed to create a lesson that provides information on how Indie and Hybrid authors are using AI. With a topic so large, the lesson can only skate the surface, but my sense is that writers who consider becoming Indie or Hybrid authors cannot make a reasoned decision without understanding how AI might affect that choice.

Besides the broad AI overview, my lessons on cover design and audiobook creation required extensive revisions to reflect the significant improvements in AI over the last year. I also needed to reflect information about the increased acceptance of AI technology-assisted narration and cover creation and processes an Indie author might use.

The topic of AI use by writers is fraught with strong emotion. But ignoring it in a class for writers learning the inside skinny on Indie Publishing seems to me a disservice.

Your thoughts?

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read a free Seamus McCree short story).

LOVING REVISIONS

by James M Jackson

I have entered the final self-revision phase of my fifth Seamus McCree novel. It’s the last step before I send it to my editor. Over the years I have honed my revision process, making it much more efficient.

I’m a pantser (or as some prefer, “organic writer”), so I don’t create an outline before I start writing; I begin with only a basic premise. Ninety thousand words later, I’ve found my story. I’ve tried outlining, but it’s a waste of time for me. As I write the first draft, I discover new things about my characters and their stories. Soon the outline is as useful as a losing lottery ticket.

In my early novels, I’d take the first draft and rewrite from scene one to the end, and then repeat the process. After some (large) number of drafts, I completed the project. That was neither an efficient nor effective approach.

One of my favorite lines about writing comes from Justice Louis D. Brandeis: “There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” I’ve distilled my process to start with the largest issues and work my way down to the tiny nits that can make the difference between a frustrating read and an enjoyable one.

I share my process in the online course I’ve taught for chapters of Romance Writers of American and Sisters in Crime. (I’m offering it again this October. The details about the month-long course can be found at https://jamesmjackson.com/.) The final step of my revision process, and the one I am performing right now with the novel, is fixing the nits—putting the final spit shine on the writing.

With each new manuscript, I fall in love with some word or phrase that I overuse and then need to discover and root out. But I also have bad habits that I can only kill with conscious effort. I have developed my personal list, which I add to when I find a new problem.

Some words are redundant. For example, I don’t need to say, “She shrugged her shoulders or she nodded her head.” Have you ever seen anyone shrug a knee or nod a foot? Me neither. Shrugging or nodding is sufficient (and should not be done too often).

Other problematic words are flabby placeholders for what could be a stronger word or indicate a sentence I should revise. Going to, planning to, and trying to are three phrases I check to determine if a more determinant sentence would be stronger.

You see, I like flexibility (don’t make me commit before I’m ready) and carry that trait into my writing. Finding multiple uses of “a bit” or “about” are leading indicators I’ve fallen into this flexibility trap. I might write the sentence, “He walked about a mile to the liquor store.” Readers know the character didn’t get out his ruler to make sure he walked 5,280 feet and 0 inches. In any given novel, I’ll include about about a thousand times before I apply the scalpel.

Do you have any pet peeves about authors’ writing styles that you wish they would change?

A Writer's Holiday

Border for LRWA Summer Event

With summer, students can look forward to a break from classes and different opportunities to learn through library reading programs, camps, special activities, and vacations. For writers, summer is a time of conferences, book festivals, and research trips.

Of course, any time writers gather it provides not just an opportunity for exchanging information and networking, but for finding new creative outlets through interaction with your peers. It’s great to keep in contact by email, but face-to-face can give writers a boost through encouragement and shared experience. It’s like the difference between calling your relatives on the phone and seeing them at a family reunion. In person, the information exchanged is of a different quality.

Anna DeStefano

This weekend, my friend Susan F. Craft and I enjoyed attending the Lowcountry Romance Writers’ Summer Event, which took place on the Isle of Palms, near Charleston, SC. Twenty two writers convened to hear from Anna DeStefano, a romance writer born in Charleston who now lives in Atlanta. She met with us Friday evening for dinner and a brainstorming session, then presented a day long program Saturday evaluating how we write and offering suggestions and methodologies for structuring, drafting, and revising a novel. I really commend President Christina Sinisi (who writes as Lexie O’Neill) and the members who organized the event for a cost of $40, which included handouts, some supplies, refreshments, and a goody bag. For those of us traveling, a special rate was available at the hotel.

But, what if you don’t have the resources to travel to meetings or explore possible new settings for your work? Are you stuck at home, surfing the internet? And, if you are, can you have fun doing it?

Definitely. Many of the same organizations that offer events also provide online courses at reasonable costs. The Lowcountry Romance Writers has a monthly slate of online offerings. Every month has at least two featured courses. In July, the two four-week programs being offered are about improving punctuation and writing short stories for an anthology call. In August, the selections are Beginning WordPress and Writing from a Male POV. The cost for each is $20.

If you are a member of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, you have access to the subsidized workshops coordinated by our own blogging partner E.B. Davis. She has arranged for well-known teachers like Ramona DeFelice Long and Kris Neri, who just completed a class on writing comedy. Cybercrimes was the subject of a recent well-received course and a short stories class is now being offered.

Thanks to Jim Jackson’s teaching a writing revision course in January, I learned about the online workshops sponsored by the RWA Kiss of Death Chapter’s College of Felony and Intrigue (COFFIN). Two tracks are featured. Murder One has experts in various forensic and other specialties as instructors while Killer Instincts focuses on writing craft. The cost is $15 for members and $30 for non-members. 

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Through the Murder One track, I’m currently taking a class with Hank Phillippi Ryan about how newsrooms and investigative reporters operate and how writers can use journalistic skills to improve fiction writing. Thanks to Hank’s wonderfully generous, interactive style, the information is terrific and student participation is high. In July, for Murder One, Chef Fran Gleason will provide an orientation to working in a kitchen and how you can commit murder there. For July’s Killer Instincts, Pam McCutchen has a course about writing convincing dialogue and other tips.

Writer’s Digest University has numerous online courses covering every possible writing topic at a variety of costs. If you’re interested in writing thrillers, take a look at WD’s thriller conference that takes place next weekend and features instructors like Hallie Ephron, D.P. Lyle, and James Scott Bell. In addition, it offers an opportunity to submit a query for agent evaluation.

Consider the opportunities that may be available in your community through libraries and bookstores. Authors on tour may be stopping by for signings. Check out the meeting schedules for your local RWA, MWA, or Sisters in Crime chapters. In South Carolina, our local chapters all feature monthly speakers. Most chapters allow interested persons to attend several meetings before asking that they become members.

Seek an experience that enhances your creativity. Go to a museum or ask to interview an expert at a law enforcement agency or university. Most people enjoy talking with interested persons about their specialties.

Taking a break from the routine tasks can bring you back to writing with renewed enthusiasm. So what do you have planned for a writer’s holiday?