Focus Yourself For Writing With A Slug of Dubby!

Writers, on the whole, have a reputation for consuming all kinds of strange substances while we're in pursuit of our craft. Hard liquor, beer, LSD, absinthe, opium, and even weirder substances have all crossed our desks, even though most of us tend to stick with the caffeinated trio of coffee, tea, and soda.

However, if you're looking for something unique to try to help you focus, and keep writing through the night, I'd recommend that you consider giving Dubby a try!

I'd recommend trying this stack, if you haven't yet!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Energy, Focus, and Word Count

This week's update is a bit of a Word From Our Sponsors, because I am part of the affiliate sales program for Dubby energy. However, I wasn't given a check for this review, nor was I sent any free product... I purchased the sample above, and I'm reporting on it of my own volition. However, after the experience I had, I have every intention of getting more of this to help me along in my own writing endeavors going forward.

And if you want to try some of this stuff for yourself, use the code LITERARYMERCENARY for 10% off of your order!

With that caveat out of the way, though...

So, what is Dubby?

The short version is that it's a powdered energy drink that you scoop out and put into your water, shake up, and drink at your leisure. It's got some vitamins, but mostly it's just a way for you to wake your system up, and focus your mind with some fast energy.

The Good

For the past week or so, I've been testing my 3 pack sample of Dubby. The flavors I got were watermelon guava, pink lemonade, and white peach, all of which were pretty tasty on their own. I did half doses of the packets, rather than the full dose, so I had more of a slow drip for the energy that comes with this product. However, even with a half dose, there was still plenty of energy in what I had. More importantly, though, the focus it provides isn't just a promise on the pouch. If you've got your manuscript in front of you, and it just needs you to put your fingers on the keys, this is definitely a solid jumpstart to your evening.

The energy hit (for me, at least) lasts about two hours or so, during which time I can focus well enough to get quite a lot of progress done on a piece. And, at least during my use of the product, the claim of no crash definitely appeared to be true. There was a point where I wasn't revved anymore, but I went back to my baseline standard, rather than dipping down into the negatives thanks to a crash.

The Bad

While there are a lot of good aspects for this product, there are some drawbacks that are definitely worth mentioning, as well.

First of all, while the taste is good, it was a little weak. At least part of that is likely because I was taking half doses of the product, rather than the full pouch. My way of getting around that was to mix it with a non-caffeinated soda like Squirt or Sprite rather than water, which helped fill in the taste gaps. You do have to take it stirred rather than shaken if you do it that way, though, as no one wants to shake up soda, and deal with the consequences (even if the Dubby shakers do work quite well).

The second drawback of Dubby, as a substance, is that there's always a little bit of powder silt left at the bottom of the glass. As a habitual coffee drinker I'm used to getting to the bottom of my cup and dealing with some of the grounds that snuck in, though, so this is just something that I've come to expect at the end of my caffeination experience.

Overall, Recommended

At the end of the day, Dubby won't make you a better writer, any more than it will make you a better gamer, a faster runner, etc. It's not some kind of miracle health drink, either... it's a mix-it-yourself energy drink. But it delivers on its promise of energy, it keeps you sharp, and it doesn't have a crash. It has a bit of a problem with dregs at the bottom of the cup, but other than that, I'd definitely recommend it.

As to which flavor... well, I'd recommend the Dragonade over the other two I tried, but I'm planning on getting my hands on some of the Dubsludge if I have my way!

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Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Is Your Story Too Busy? (Plots, Subplots, And When Enough is Too Much)

I've said before on this very blog that if you're writing a novel you should feel free to spread out and sprawl a bit with your story. You've got a lot of word count to eat up, and if you're a genre writer you don't need to really start wrapping stuff up until you're within sight of 100k words. Today I'd like to look at the other side of that coin, though. Because there are a lot of writers out there who will toss everything they can think of into their story, but rather than stone soup, the result tends to be a big mess of ideas and ingredients that might have worked fine on their own, but just end up being overwhelming when put together in a single book.

Because it's possible to put too much in.

As always, before we get any deeper, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter to stay on top of all my latest releases! And if you have a little extra dosh you'd like to donate so I can keep the lights on and the bills paid, consider becoming a Patreon patron as well. Or, if you just want to leave a little tip, check out my LinkTree!

How Much Is Too Much?

It's not uncommon for a story to have subplots. In fact some genres seem to almost require them in order to balance out what it's offering us. Because our main plot might be about a detective trying to catch a serial killer who's come out of retirement, but at the same time our protagonist may also be trying to be more present in their child's life in a way they weren't the first time this killer was running amok. Maybe they have some sort of counseling to fulfill, or there's a new romantic partner they're trying to get to know. Perhaps they're trying to produce a screenplay, or to write a novel of their older experiences on the force when they were young.

Now imagine trying to cram all of that into a single novel.

Even Dashiell Hammett would find that a handful.

The important thing to keep in mind when you're telling a story is that readers, even the best of them, are housecats. If you distract them too much, or you offer them too many toys, or you let hem wander off for too long, they're going to completely lose the thread of what you going on about. Worse still, they might decide there's just too much going on here and move onto something tighter and cleaner that holds their interest a little more strongly.

And that's before we discuss the question of whether you are capable of actually wrapping up all of the various subplots going on in your story and bringing the main tale to a successful completion. Some writers can. Some of us think we can, but end up biting off far more than we can chew.

I don't recommend foregoing subplots altogether. In fact, I highly recommend adding them into your stories. However, before you do so, it's important to ask yourself a few things. Is this subplot organic? Does it serve a purpose within this particular narrative? And lastly, is it going to be interesting to read?

Because if you haven't read this yet, you really should!

In Painted Cats, the main plot is Leo trying to track down a missing alley cat named Mischief as a favor to an old flame of his. While there's twists and turns to that, the A-Plot is finding what happened to this cat who up and vanished. There are two subplots in this story, though. The first is Leo building a relationship with Trouble, Mischief's kitten who just wants to find his mother. The second is resolving the history between Leo and Delilah, his old flame who comes asking for a favor in the first place.

Now, I could have excluded both of those subplots from the novel without doing a lot of damage to the main story. However, I think the book would have suffered if I cut out all the parts about Leo teaching Trouble how to fight, and how to be a tomcat since the kitten didn't have a father to pass on that knowledge. And while I could have just left things between him and Delilah on a mysterious note, I feel like it tied the story up nicely, and ended her arc without leaving a dangling thread.

There's other stuff I could have tried to include, if I wanted to. I could have put in a whole plot about Gino's deli getting in financial trouble, and Leo having to help out on Instagram by becoming a minor cat celebrity to bring in business. I could have worked in something about the ex-fighting dog Doc and a problem he was having at home. I could have expanded Lucky's role in the plot, or had Leo trying to settle beef with a minor gang lord to secure a favor. I didn't, though, because I felt those things would have interrupted the flow of this particular story, and the themes I was working with (showing that Leo is more than just a heavy, for instance).

Every story is unique, and some of them have more room in them for subplots than others. Some genres and setups lend themselves better to subplots than others, too. I've usually found, though, that you're best off if you can keep the subplot relevant to the story in some way, if it fits organically into your narrative, and if it shows something about your cast that the main plot won't in order to give your audience a fuller perspective.

If you can do that, you'll find that it all comes together pretty neatly by the end!

Looking For Additional Reading?

If you're looking for additional stuff to check out before you go, might I recommend the following?

- 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities: I've been up to my elbows in professional fantasy world building for most of this year, and these are the tips I've found most useful for making sure places feel organic, no matter how fantastical they are.

- The Silver Raven Chronicles Part One: Devil's Night: A free fantasy short story, this tale begins in the old quarter of the city of Kintargo. A rumor whispers in the corners of a ghost risen from the past to take Cheliax to task for allowing devils into its heart, and its throne room. Most don't believe it... but one of the city's dottari finds this ghost is all too real when it steps out of the shadows with a message for her to spread to her fellow enforcers. They are no longer welcome in his city.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Good Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen (But They're Worthless If You Don't Use Them)

It isn't hard to have good ideas for books. That might sound like a controversial statement (and I'll address the elephant in the room later on in this entry), but it's something I've found to be true the longer I've been an author. From middle school kids in an after school writing club, to that hairdresser who likes to read bargain bin thrillers, to that friend of yours who only grasps storytelling in the broadest strokes, everyone you've ever met has the capacity to come up with a great idea.

Ideas are cheap. It's execution that's rare.

But I had the idea... what do you mean I have to write the book too?!

As usual, if you want to stay on top of all my latest content, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. And if you want to help keep the blogs going, consider becoming a Patreon patron today!

It's Not Hard Having Good Ideas

There's this weird obsession with the creative spark that lies within the seed of a really good idea. Whether it's a high fantasy setting full of dark magic, or a sci-fi dystopia that takes place on the dark side of the moon, that initial idea can be like taking a shot of strong liquor... or being brushed by the fingers of a wayward muse. It's intoxicating, and it can drive even normally languid people into fits of creative mania as they watch the new idea spiral out into a galaxy like a mental version of the Big Bang.

Mmm... brain juice go brrrrrrrrrr...

The problem with so-called good ideas is that this is the fun part of the creative process. It's messing around with concepts and ideas, but you don't really have commitment to anything. You're having fun, and you should be... but this isn't the part of the process that makes or breaks you as a writer. Because anyone can have good ideas.

Not everyone can take those ideas and turn them into a story. And that's where your execution comes in.

Execution is the process of taking your idea and turning it into a completed work. It's all the time you take to craft the narrative, figure out the characters, re-write sections of the manuscript, and basically do anything else that would fall under the actual "writing" part of the job.

Because I'm going to let you in on a little secret; good ideas aren't required for a good story. So don't obsess over them.

A Really Good Burger is Better Than a Poorly-Cooked Steak

Have you ever tried to tell someone a story about a dream you had? Or an experience that hit you while you were on psychotropics? Well if you've never done either of these things, generally you do it because you want to convey the feeling of elation, terror, discovery, or astonishment you had. Writers generally do the same thing; we had this amazing explosion go off in our heads, and we want to share it with our readers in a way that lets them take the same journey we did. However, the reason those narratives rarely go over well is that they're muddled, confusing, or outright nonsensical, filled with, "you had to be there," kinds of moments that felt profound to the storyteller but which don't grab the audience at all.

Or, put another way, your idea could be an extremely fine cut of steak. But if you scorch it black, don't season it properly, or worse just try to serve it to someone raw, they aren't going to like it. On the contrary, your idea might be plain, ground hamburger meat. Nothing special, and nothing unusual. But if you prepare it properly, add the right seasonings, pair it with the proper flavors, add a bit of sauce, and cook it just right, the result is going to blow the steak out of the water, even if it was technically a finer cut to begin with.

What I'm saying is that good ideas aren't as special as we think they are. It's how we prepare them and present our ideas to the audience that matter. And a concept that's just run-of-the-mill with no mind-blowing revelations or bells and whistles can easily outpace what should be an extremely engaging idea that's executed poorly.

Focus on your cooking. If you can make any story taste great, then you won't spend all your energy trying to find the right "good" idea to wow the audience with.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Authors, Don't Put Your Cart Before The Horse

I've talked with a lot of authors over the years, and there is something that I've found to be true. Authors who focus on the task at hand (writing the book, making sure the story is good, getting the proper spin on their marketing, etc.) tend to be successful, by and large. Those who get overly concerned imagining the future of their book (how many copies will I sell, how big will my fandom get, how large of an impact will I have on my genre) tend to go nowhere.

We're all entitled to a bit of day dreaming now and again, don't get me wrong. But if you don't hitch up the horses to the wagon, then you aren't going anywhere.

All right, first novel's out... my go a bit faster if we hitch that second one up, though.

Focus On The Book (Let The Rest Take Care Of Itself)

Let's be real for a moment here; when was the last time someone told you, "This book made me re-think my political stance on an issue," or, "Reading this changed my life," and you immediately decided you needed to go out and get it? If you're like most of us out there, you probably nodded politely, rolled your eyes, and moved on with your life unless that person was very important to you, and you put a lot of weight behind their opinion.

But if someone came up to you and said, "Oh my god, you have to read this book! There's demons, witches, a sentient car with the soul of a dead jazz singer under the hood, and a blind chain smoking nun who stole the archangel Michael's sword and refuses to give it back to him!"

Well shit, now you're curious.

No, I haven't written this book yet. But it may be on the list now.

It All Starts With Your Story

We've all had those stories that change our lives as readers. At least a few of us remember the big trends that seemed to encapsulate moments, or the books that became the voice of entire subcultures, or even generations. And sure, that's a nice goal to have. It's up there with winning a big award, or making the sort of money where you can just buy a house in cash, and kick up your heels.

But if you focus on that, then you lose sight of what actually gets you there... your book. The one you're supposed to be writing.

Seriously... it's a trap within your own mind.

By all means, have goals. Know where you want to go with your work, and your career. But remember that when you're a creator that you're essentially closing your eyes, spinning around in a circle, whispering a prayer, and hoping to the gods of chaos that the dart you're about to throw happens to hit a bullseye in a completely dark room.

As I said in Writing a Bestseller is Like Winning The Lottery, you have a 1 in 200 chance of hitting bestseller status. That's better odds than playing the lottery, but you aren't going to improve those odds by figuring out what message you want to give to a legion of adoring fans you don't have, or coming up with important political stances to take once you're famous. What will improve those odds, though is making sure that you write the best book you possibly can, doing your market research, having a solid promotion plan and schedule in place, and making sure that you've got a network of people who are willing to help you spread the word when your title drops.

Practical stuff, in other words.

But even if you do all of those things, there's no guarantee you'll become famous. The odds are, in fact, pretty damn poor. You may not sell a meaningful number of copies of your book for years, and it could take grueling efforts to promote, peddle, and hand sell your stock until your name is finally known to people who aren't your friends and family.

You can't actually do any of that, though, until your book is done and on the market. And if you spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about controversies your stances might generate in the genre as a whole, or worrying that people might attack you for daring to defy tradition, let me tell you this with all sincerity; those are problems you'll be lucky to have.

Because it means enough people noticed (and read) your book to give a damn who you are, and what you have to say.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Paintings on The Ceiling (Why Your World Building Needs Immediacy)

Picture your story as a grand cathedral. There are gleaming tiles, niches filled with statues, and candles that shed light and provide ambiance. Subtle signs are left out, and ushers direct your readers to their proper places, ensuring they can follow along with the ritual of your tale. The acoustics lets your narration reach everyone, drawing them along in the wake of your story.

Your world building, in this case, is all around your audience. It's the smell of the wood polish, the quality of the light, the murals on the walls. However, most people who show up are there for the sermon, the grand tour, and the story you're telling. They don't show up to admire the walls, because they're just there to set the scene.

Sure, this is fun... but is this what matters right now?

That is not to say that all those details are not important to your story. But the question you need to ask is whether those are the things you should be focusing on?

Because if the elements you're pointing your readers' attention at don't matter to the story, then they have no immediacy. There is almost no faster way to lose someone's attention than that.

Paintings on The Ceiling

Give you an example of what I'm talking about with a conversation I had with a fellow creator a while back. Names shan't be mentioned, nor details given, as they aren't necessary to understand the point being made.

This person had their world all figured out. They'd laid out the ages of history, which parts were known and which parts were unknown, and what sorts of relics had been left behind. They understood the world's magic system, as well as what level of technological development was in which part of the setting. It made for a fun mixed bag of sci-fantasy, which was fun and engaging, giving the reader a lovely world to romp around in.

And if they'd just stopped there, they would have been fine. But the ball wanted to keep rolling.

No, really... you can stop building now...

Because, you see, there was not just a world but an entire cosmos at play here! There was space travel, and alien empires, and extraterrestrial organizations of cybernetic peace keepers, and all sorts of other cosmic craziness. And there was nothing wrong with any of that. It was fun, it was engaging, and it was interesting.

But it did not enhance the story that was being told. All it did was drag the focus off the primary setting (this fun little rock with it's odd nations that were one part post-apocalyptic badlands and one part nouveau medieval kingdoms with wizards and shotguns in them), and add a bunch of additional stuff that was just going to be a distraction.

All that other stuff was the fresco on the ceiling of the church. Sure it might be beautiful, eye-catching, fun, and filled with all sorts of amazing details, but if it isn't actually a part of the sermon you're there to listen to, all it's doing is making you tune out, lose focus, and miss big swaths of what's being said.

The Need To Know Basis

When you're writing a story, you only give out information on a need-to-know basis. You, as the creator, need to know all the little nooks and crannies of your world. If it's pertinent to you to know that the sword your protagonist found in a tomb was forged in fires heated with the bones of dead warriors, and the carbon that introduced into the process is where the steel developed such unusual properties for an iron age style setting, then by all means put that in your notes. But don't take time out of your book to have someone explain the intricacies of chemical changes during the forging of a blade if it is in no way relevant to your story, and it does not move your plot forward in any way.

I love this documentary, too, but don't waste the reader's attention.

This applies to basically all your world building; it needs immediacy in order for it to be relevant, rather than a distraction.

Now, that doesn't mean you should just ignore things that aren't on the straight path of your plot. If a major city is the headquarters of the Wyvern Knights, mention that. Have them flying around, or put one of two of them in the background. But don't step away from the story you're actually telling to give us a history lesson on that order, and on wyverns in the region if it's not germane to the story you're telling. If your setting has two moons, you should probably mention that during a night time scene, but don't go on for an entire paragraph about what those moons' affects on the planet are, or the mythology surrounding them if it doesn't affect your main cast and what they're doing. If there's a wizard in your scene, and they're doing wizard shit, describe what we see rather than giving us a big damn aside about how magic works in this world, unless you have a novice character receiving a lecture about it, and that lecture somehow fits into the journey that character is taking.

Everything, and I do mean everything should be in the service of immersing your reader into the story you're telling. Let them drink in the details, but remember that those details are not your story. They're stage dressing. They're atmosphere. Let them be that, instead of putting them in center stage so you can talk about them. Because unless these facts are important for the readers to know to understand what's happening, all you're doing is distracting them.

And if you do need to explain to your readers what's happening, don't just have your narrator do it. Work it into dialogue, build scenes around the learning process, or provide enough clues to pick up context. We don't need to know the intricate process of becoming the Sanctum Dominatus of the library, but we can probably figure out by the way other people react to the title that this person is serious business, and that if they are displeased with you then you're in a lot of trouble.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!