"Trope" Isn't a Bad Word

Over the past several years I've met a lot of writers and hopeful writers who have come to me for advice. Sometimes it's because I'm the only professional they know, or they heard me speak on a panel, or they read an article of mine and thought it was really insightful, so they want to get my thoughts on a story or idea of theirs. And there is a recurring theme among these conversations that I wanted to address this week; namely that so many newer writers seem particularly averse to anything considered a "trope" when it comes to their stories.

Bottom line here, you may as well tell me you want to be a mason, but you don't want to use any bricks in your construction. Every story is going to have tropes, because tropes are the mechanisms we use for telling stories.

And without gears, the plot won't turn.

Before we get started, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my latest releases. If you want to help me keep the wheels turning and the lights on, consider becoming a Patreon patron. And lastly, to follow all my followables check out my Linktree!

Now then, let's get to it!

Tropes, And How To Use Them

A trope, according to TV Tropes, is basically a kind of storytelling shorthand. It's a shortcut, a device, or a convention that, by putting it in your story, you can be reasonably sure your audience is going to recognize it. For example, if you're watching an old-timey Western, and a man rides in with a black hat and a black duster, you know he's the bad guy. The fellow in the white hat? That's the good guy. How do you know? Because this became storytelling shorthand, giving birth to the tropes Bad Guys Wear Black (or just Black Hat for short) and Good Guys Wear White (or White Hat).

For more color-coded tropes, see Disney Villain Green.

Now, not all tropes are created equal. There's a lot of tropes we don't use anymore because the sort of stories they're connected with are things we've moved past (or should have moved past) a long time ago. Consider, for example, the trope Mighty Whitey, which refers to a displaced white person who ends up living with native people of another region, and while there becomes their greatest champion, leader, what have you. Your Tarzan, your Phantom, and the list goes on. Or the trope Yellow Peril, used to refer to the xenophobic tendency of turning Asian crime bosses or syndicate leaders into racist caricatures. This is where you get characters like The Mandarin, Fu Manchu, a lot of H.P. Lovecraft villains, etc.

Some tropes are no longer in circulation for a good reason. However, a lot of the time when someone talks about how they want to avoid using tropes, what they actually mean is they want to avoid using cliches. Which is definitely something I can get behind... within reason.

What's The Difference?

A cliché is a phrase, a motif, or even a trope, that has become such a part of a particular genre or story type that its presence is expected. For example, nobody opens a horror story or a mystery with the phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night," anymore unless they're being ironic. Calling your gelatinous monster from beyond the stars indescribable isn't something anyone does legitimately in most stories anymore either.

However, the thing to remember is that even cliches have power. They are a bedrock foundation of understanding. Even if your audience rolls their eyes as soon as they see it, they immediately know what you're trying to communicate to them. And the thing about cliches is that as long as you give them a new coat of paint, or just change the lighting in the room a little bit, they can become instantly new and unique once again.

For those looking for an example...

For example, take the cliché of The Indescribable Horror. This goes back to the early days of cosmic horror where the idea was that because the creatures were so alien that to gaze upon them confused and cracked the mind of those who saw them. They violated natural law, and the number of dimensions they could exist in, leaving onlookers unable to truly describe what they saw.

Unless executed with supreme skill, that is very difficult to pull off these days. However, you could interpret this cliché in a new and unique way, reinvigorating it and putting a new spin on it so that it seems novel once again.

What would that look like? Well, you could have a creature that literally stole words out of people's vocabulary, making them physically unable to describe it; the longer they look, the more words they lose. This creature's bizarre nature might make it impossible for people's memories to store accurate images of it, perhaps going so far as to cause brain damage and memory loss when it's seen. There are all sorts of different ways you could take Howard's refusal to actually tell us what half his bestiary looked like, and twist it into a new, unique, and dreadful form that would actually affect your audience again.

So, while it's all well and good to say you don't want to have any cliches in your work, remember that these are the lingua franca of storytelling even more than the bigger tool chest of tropes. You just need to use a little elbow grease, and spit polish them up a bit so they're fresh and unique for a reader who thinks they've seen it all. You don't have to do that, of course... but just because a trope is well known, or it's become a cliché, that doesn't meant you can no longer get any use out of it.

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, You Can't Bootstrap Yourself to Success

We've all heard the phrase, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps." More importantly, a lot of us are realizing how patently, utterly ridiculous it is. After all, it was intended to showcase how absurd it was that any one individual, merely by the dint of their own efforts, could lift themselves into the air just by tugging on their feet and wishing as hard as they could.

This is for all the authors out there who are trying to hoist themselves into success all by their lonesome, and for all the readers and potential readers who keep urging us on in these fruitless pursuits. Because, as I've said time and time again, authors are actually a relatively small part of this equation; to make the thing actually work, we need help.

Tug all you want, those ain't getting you off the ground.

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. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

You Can Only Do So Much

Though it's become a phrase referring to hard work and independent effort, Useless Etymology points out that the idea of lifting yourself by your own bootstraps was first used as a textbook case of something physically impossible. As in you found it in a physics textbook asking why it simply could not be done. And when the term was first applied to one's socio-economic status, it was often a term used sarcastically. After all, if one person could just work harder and make themselves wealthy, then surely that's what everyone would do, isn't it?

The phrase became common around the time labor fought literal wars with capital. Just saying.

"But isn't that what authors do?" you might be asking. "You write stories, books, blogs, articles, etc., and the more of them you have out on the market the more money you make over time? So if you're not making enough money, all you need to do is sit down and write more stories?"

I thought that when I first started out, too. Unfortunately if that's what you're thinking then I'm going to have to disabuse you of the notion that the main factor in your success is your talent... because it usually isn't.

Because at the end of the day, you can pour blood, sweat, and tears into your keyboard and not earn a single red cent. It's also entirely possible for you to just fart out your random thoughts, and to be showered in money. It isn't fair, but you can't do anything about it until you understand why it happens.

The Process

Regular readers probably know this already, but for those who don't I'm going to go step by step through what it means to be an author. And I'm going to cover different kinds of projects so that I have as wide a focus as I can. All right? All right.

First and foremost, you start with an idea. Maybe it's a novel, a short story, or an article. You write it up, put it through editorial, and then when it's ready you find it a home. If you're going a traditional route then you might submit your book to a publishing house, or your short story to a magazine. If you're going non-traditional you might publish the book yourself, going through Amazon or a site like Vocal (incidentally, check out my full Vocal archive to see examples of this).

And then money?

Rarely, yes. Generally, no.

In the old days when publishing was much smaller, larger companies regularly gave authors advances on their work. You'd get a check that was basically to keep your bills paid until you started earning royalties, but if your book didn't sell that was likely the only money you were going to see from it... worse, if that book didn't sell, you were unlikely to get a second shot at the market because you didn't have a good history as a publishing risk. This practice still happens at bigger houses, but it's nowhere near as common as it once was.

If you're going with a smaller publisher, or you're self-publishing, you don't get an advance. If your book doesn't sell, you don't get paid. The same is true if you're writing an article, posting on a blog, etc. You might put in hours and hours of work, but you don't get paid when it goes up... and if the public doesn't come along, then you may not get paid at all. While there are still a few publishers out there that will pay you up-front for your work, typically to put it in a magazine or on their website, those are quite few and far between these days. Worse, the rates they offer haven't gone up much from what H.P. Lovecraft and his ilk earned back in the days of the pulps, so the sheer amount of work you'd need to get accepted just to maintain a poverty wage is absurd.

So How The Hell Do You Make a Living?

This is where we come back to the bootstrapping.

Because as an author, you could write a brilliant book, or tell a phenomenal story. You could repeat this process day-in and day-out, hammering your keyboard to bits and working your fingers till they bleed. You aren't going to be able to stay ahead of your bill collectors just doing that, though, because most publishers out there either want the content you're creating for nothing up-front (promising a share of the earnings as a royalty payment), or for a pittance to keep you going (half a cent per-word was great in 1910, but not so much in 2022).

You need the readers, because without them you're just screaming into the void.

They are the ones that ride and die for you.

Every time a reader buys a book, you earn a royalty. Every time they read an article it boosts your numbers, and gets you traffic on an article archive or blog. It is the readers who follow you on social media to help you overcome the inertia of the algorithm, and it is the readers who fund your Kickstarter, back your Patreon, and who help provide the cash so you can keep your bills paid to keep making the things they like.

In order for you to succeed as a creator, you should create the best product you can. You should share it as widely as you can, and try to help it get seen by the people who are going to love it. But you can't just publish another article, or write another book because you need more money as an author. There is just as much a chance that's going to be a massive waste of time, energy, and effort as it is another pay day.

What determines that is whether your audience is eager to pick up more of what you're laying down.

So if you're an author, understand that you need a coalition of folks who are ready, willing, and able to boost your signal when you drop fresh work. And if you're a reader who's wondering why that creator you like is slowing down, or isn't making as much as they used to, remember, we need literally thousands of you all working in concert to share our messages, leave reviews, buy our stuff, and contribute to our projects in order for us to just keep the lights on and the wolf at bay.

We need you... otherwise we're just standing there in the dark jerking on our bootstraps and wondering why we haven't become bestsellers yet.

For all the folks who want to help me (and other creators like me who are having just as tough a time), drop by my Amazon author page to buy a book, leave a review, and tell your friends about it when you're done. Or become a Patreon patron, leave a tip on my Linktree, or kick me a Ko-fi. Every little bit helps, and we really do need every penny if we want to keep the lights on at the end of the day.

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 noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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!

To Write Better Stories, Set Your Ego Aside

It takes a certain amount of ego to be an author in the first place. Because anyone can make up stories in their head, but to dedicate dozens to hundreds of hours to put that story down on a page? And then, once you have manifested it in the world to put it out there for people to see? To decide that the story you have to tell is good enough that people (many of whom you have never met in your life) should take time out of their day to read it? And not only that, but that they should pay hard-earned money for the privilege?

Yeah, that's how art should work... but you've got to admit, in this climate, it takes some serious fortitude to stand up and make that claim boldly.

However, the flip side to this coin is that a lot of us become so reliant on our egos to help us plow through those trying to stop us from making art that we deafen ourselves to legitimate criticism. Which is why it's important to maintain your forward momentum, but to also learn how to listen to people who raise issues we need to actually think about.

Is that a hater, or a helper? I can't tell...

Before we get started, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my latest releases. If you want to help me keep the wheels turning and the lights on, consider becoming a Patreon patron. And lastly, to follow all my followables check out my Linktree!

Now then, let's get to it!

Hear What They're Saying, and Evaluate

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room. You are not required to just shift gears and bow to every opinion that comes your way. A safe rule I've found is that if you wouldn't go to a person for advice, then you probably don't need to give serious weight to their criticism.

With that said, though, criticism is going to come your way whether you seek it out or not. What you need to do is figure out how to set your ego to the side, and to evaluate what's being said so that you can decide what to do about the issues being raised... or if you need to do anything at all.

Incoming negativity. Analyzing...

My recommendation is that you ask a couple of questions, and try to put yourself in this other person's shoes so that you can see your work the way they see it. Some good places to begin are:

- Is This a Matter of Taste? A lot of the time criticism comes down to whether someone personally likes or dislikes something. There's no right or wrong there, but it helps to ask if the issue is structural (something in the story is actually weak) or flavorful (the presentation/style isn't to the person's liking). Maybe they wanted a Happily Ever After, or a certain character got killed that they really liked; being personally disappointed is valid, but may not rise to the level of making edits.

- Did This Have an Unintended Consequence? Sometimes the way we tell a story just doesn't land, or brings up things we didn't intend to. Maybe a particular term is actually really offensive among a certain community, so using it to refer to characters in your story makes it racist even if that wasn't your intention (Pro Tip: The proper term is Inuit). Maybe the way a villain is queer-coded plays into problematic stereotypes. It's better to fix an issue than to double-down on it, especially if you genuinely didn't see this reaction coming.

- Is This Situation Necessary? Let's say you were writing a psychological revenge thriller, and you wanted it to have that grimy, nasty feel from films like I Spit on Your Grave. However, we aren't in the 1970s anymore, and sexual-assault-as-plot-device is pretty gross regardless of when the story was told. Is this absolutely necessary? Or could the character seeking revenge have been wronged another way? Did someone spread vicious rumors that got them kicked out of their social circles? Did someone not speaking up and telling the truth lead to them getting thrown out of school? Losing out on a big job? Being sentenced to prison for a crime they didn't commit? If someone asks whether a particular situation, tone, event, etc. is necessary, stop and genuinely ask yourself if it has to be that way, or if there are alternatives that would work better.

- How Much of an Effect Will This Have? Sometimes an issue with a story is relatively minor. You have a historical inconsistency that a lot of folks may not notice at the time (looking at you Titanic), or you have a character use a particular turn-of-phrase that isn't right for the location where this story is set. Sometimes an issue is major, and it leads to the audience rolling their eyes, or being taken out of the story entirely. Evaluate the scale of both the issue, and what changing it would cost in terms of time, energy, and effort.

Most importantly, when looking at criticism leveled at your work, ensure you have an answer as to why you aren't making changes to it. Perhaps it's because a certain event is key to a development that happens down the line, and you would have to re-work an entire plot or subplot by making too many changes. Maybe it's a deliberate homage that you feel is an important part of the story, even if not all your readers are going to like it.

Generally speaking, though, you should always have a reason beyond, "Because I don't want to change it." Of course you don't. No author ever does. But you need something more compelling than that.

You Aren't Obligated To Change Anything

The important thing to remember here is that you are not obligated to change anything in your story. It is yours, and you can tell it how you want to. However, it does behoove you to examine the criticism, and see what validity it has. When you reach this point not changing things should be a deliberate choice you make, rather than simply your standard position.

Figured I'd share a few of the ones I dealt with.

For those who haven't read Crier's Knife, it's a sword and sorcery novel I put out some time ago. It's been generally well received by folks who've actually read it, but there were more than a few criticisms that came my way when I was getting it ready for release. Some of those (and my response to them) were:

- The Introduction Is Unnecessary: The intro of this book starts with a young man escaping captivity, and sending up what amounts to a magical signal flare to let his family know he's in trouble. One person I spoke to told me I should cut it because it was a waste of space, and distracted the audience from the actual story. I was fully in agreement that the introduction wasn't a necessity, but I kept it for two reasons. First, because I wanted to make an homage to classic sword and sorcery novels where we were presented the situation before our hero came along to fix things. Second, I didn't want to make the word count up somewhere else in the book.

- The Magic is Confusing: Our protagonist comes from a family whose matriarch is a witch who lives on a mountaintop. We see her magic, as well as the magic of a strange cult, in action several times throughout the book. This criticism came from a reader whose background was more in high fantasy and RPGs, and was used to Vancian magic systems. As a piece of pulp, magic is significantly softer in this novel, and shouldn't be easily understood (especially since our perspective character is a warrior, not a witch). So while I understood the criticism, I felt it was more the reader being unfamiliar with this genre and expecting it to act like a different kind of fantasy.

- I Don't Get The Setting: The world where this novel takes place isn't like a lot of high fantasy settings where there are ancient, long-established kingdoms and nations. There are, in fact, no countries on this map. Most people exist in smaller communities like villages and hamlets, with a few large city-states existing as centers of power. The way I brought this across was how language changed from one place to another, making it clear there weren't huge highways like we often see empires build, or how most trade was done with barter instead of with coins. Input from other readers said this made the setting feel unique, so I'm glad I didn't change it to make it more conventional.

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 Need An Audience To Keep The Fires Burning

Normally I have a clever introduction, or some example of a situation that I want to expand on when it comes time to start one of these entries. This week, though, I wanted to get straight to the point. Because when you're an author you need your work to be seen and discussed. Praise is best, of course, but even arguments, disagreements, and outright hate still means people are at least seeing it.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing worse than silence.

Silence echoes between your ears. Silence makes you question everything you're doing. Silence tells you to turn around, and go in a different direction because there is nothing the way you're going. Silence smothers your fire, and leads to burnout faster than almost anything else.

And this shit is HARD to light back up again.

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. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Inspiration, Motivation, and Desperation

Writing is generally a solitary activity. While you may have beta readers, editors, and people you work through plot snares and story issues with, a majority of the work is done by yourself. Not only that, but the work could go on for hours when it comes to writing an article, weeks for composing a short story, or literal years when it comes to writing a novel.

And if you're writing something for no reason other than because you want to, then the only result that matters is that you like it. That you had fun with this project, and you're satisfied with the result. However, those of us who write professionally have concerns above and beyond that. We need to know if our audience likes the direction we're going in, if this project is sustainable, if it's profitable, and whether it's something our readers want us to dedicate more time to or not. Unless we're sitting on a massive nest egg of earnings, inheritance, or previous work that's paying royalties, we need those eyeballs to come our way, and we need to hear what the audience wants from us.

And when we're left in silence we're basically left flipping a coin and hoping for the best.

Are they watching? I can't tell anymore...

This is complicated by the fact that so many of us are limited by the means we have to actually reach our audience. I had a prime example of this come back to me recently.

Shouting Into The Void (And Hoping For The Best)

The following post was shared not just on my own Facebook wall and professional page, but in many groups where my work appears regularly.

A Request For Aid

As a lot of folks reading this know, I write for a living, and a large part of my income is from RPG content. However, I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit, give folks an idea of how the sausage is made, and ask for some specific help today.

For me to cover my bills (rent and utilities) for a month based on sheer traffic (not asking anyone to buy anything today), I would need to get roughly 90,000 reads on articles in my Vocal archive. That is a frankly absurd amount of traffic, especially when you have to fight the algorithm every step of the way. However, since good things come in threes, I have a specific way all the folks reading this can help.

Please take some time out of your day to read the Silver Raven Chronicles. This re-telling of my group's run through Hell's Rebels currently has three installments, and they're filled with atmosphere, mystery, unique characters, and kicking devil-worshiping fascists in the teeth! And if you like what you see (or don't have time to read but still want to help) please leave a like and a share to help me boost the signal!

The goal behind this was to get folks to read the Silver Raven Chronicles, a collection of free, fantasy short stories I've been putting out over the past few months. There are over 700 people on my personal friends list, over 800 on my business page, and groups I shared this post in, along with links to the stories in question, varied from a few hundred members to over 100k members.

So why isn't this a celebratory post?

Despite sharing this post pretty widely (for an independent operator, at least), and getting a signal boost from a lot of fellow creators, this basically went nowhere in terms of actual response. Because while I blared the horn as loudly as I could, the actual results of all this effort was 20 reads. Not even 20 reads per story... 20 reads in total. Barely a nickel's worth of activity for hours of promotional work, to say nothing of all the energy that went into writing the stories in the first place.

The question I was left with, then, was what caused this silence? Was it my signal being throttled by the algorithm? Was it that I was telling stories about Hell's Rebels, rather than another adventure path? Was it that RPG tie-in stories just weren't popular? Was it that this was short fiction rather than something longer? On and on the questions went, because nothing kicks attempts at pattern-recognition into overdrive quite like something going wrong. And since no one responded in comments or left any feedback, there weren't even straws to grasp at in terms of trying to course correct.

Think of it like when professional wrestling tried to keep having matches during the pandemic with no audience. Without the crowd to give feedback to help guide the course the match takes, and to help decide how the performers act, it really struggled to maintain the level of energy and enthusiasm that kept it interesting. Same thing, and with the same issue of trying to reach an audience on the other end of the screen.

What You Can Do To Help

I've said this several times, but anything true bears repeating when appropriate. You, the readers, are the ones who make or break us as creators. You are the ones whose time, energy, clicks, and purchases we base our work off of. Because while I have no plans to write a sequel to my dystopian thriller Old Soldiers right now, I'd reconsider those plans if 10,000 people all bought copies and started asking when the next one is coming out. I actually have a sequel planned for my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, but it's never sold well enough for me to spend a year of time putting it on the page.

When you demand, we listen. But when you stay quiet we move onto something else, even if you may have wanted to see where that other project was going.

Like this one, for example.

So if you don't have money, but you want to help, here's a list of things you can do.

- Follow my social media pages found on my Linktree.

- Like and share my posts to help me increase the number of people who see them, and to fight the tyranny of the algorithm.

- Read my posts (this is particularly important for stuff in my Vocal archive, which pays me based on reads, but which ignores clicks that don't involve scrolling or other activity).

- When you see me make a post, leave a comment of 5 words or more, and preferably one that starts or participates in conversation. That stuff always increases ripples!

For readers who specifically want to help boost my numbers on the free fiction I have out (especially if you're stuck inside on a snow day like I am here) make sure you take a look at Devil's Night, From The Ashes, and The Raven's Nest, which are the first three installments of the Silver Raven Chronicles... a free fantasy series all about punching fascists and undermining a corrupt government of devil-binders! And for folks who are more interested in grimdark sci-fi, consider my other stories Waking Dogs: A World Eaters Tale, which is about a fallen space marine who takes the first step toward reclaiming his honor, and Field Test, which is about an inquisitor who's using an ork invasion for target practice to test out a fresh weapon she's been cultivating.

And for those of you who DO have money...

If you're one of those readers who does have a bit of spare dosh to throw around and you'd like to help give me a boost with it (my thanks in advance), I'd suggest the following:

- Become a Patreon patron! Or if you're not ready for a big commitment, buy me a Ko-Fi as a tip.

- Buy a book! My recent release Tales From The Moot is a collection of quality Werewolf: The Apocalypse fiction, but I've also got my hard-boiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats in addition to any other books I've mentioned above.

- Buy an RPG supplement (or five). I've got 130 titles on the market at the moment, and they're all on a convenient pin board!

Any combination of these things is good for me as a creator, but in addition to the tangible benefit it provides (which is sorely needed), it also gives me some numbers to actually work with. The more copies a particular kind of book or supplement sells, the more likely it is to be further explored down the line. The more reads an article gets, or the more buzz a particular topic gets, the more of that stuff I'm going to produce until people signal they're done with this topic.

I cannot stress enough that there's only so much that I or any other creator can do. Because we need our audience. Your views, your purchases, your reviews, your comments, buzz, and word-of-mouth are what sustain us. Without that, sooner or later the fire is going to go out.

So take a moment to throw a few twigs into the embers, will you?

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 noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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!

3 Simple Ways To Avoid Info Dumping in Your Story

There are few things more frustrating as a reader than the dreaded info dump. You're just getting stuck into the narrative, engaging with the characters and the world, and then the author jerks up on the hand brake in order to give you a miniature lecture on how hyper drives function, or the political history of the Sisterhood of The Seven-Fold Veil, or to go on at length about orc biology to the point that you just want to close the book and pick up something that feels less like a textbook and more like a novel.

If you've found yourself prone to info dumping in your work, and you're looking for a way to stop, I'd recommend trying some of the following solutions. They aren't perfect, but I've had pretty solid results following these guidelines over the past several years.

Open your mouths, it's all coming your way!

Before we get started, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my latest releases. If you want to help me keep the wheels turning and the lights on, consider becoming a Patreon patron. And lastly, to follow all my followables check out my Linktree!

Now then, let's get to it!

Method #1: Provide Context Clues Instead of a Lecture

"They did what? To who? Oh... oh no."

Readers are able to intuit a lot of information from context clues in a story. Everything from the reluctance someone has to talk about a subject, to the reaction the protagonist has to the sight of a space ship engine or a display of super strength fills your audience in on the world. Even a quip like, "You remember back when guys had to wear body armor to be bullet proof?" said by a detective engaged in a firefight with a metahuman bank robber fills the reader in on a lot of information; metahumans are relatively common now, this happened within the memory of a single cop, and it's become normal enough that it's a frustration rather than something to leave them in awe over.

Little clues like this, peppered throughout your narrative, can paint a picture for your audience. While it might be tempting to present them a full timeline of when the first metahumans emerged, explaining who they were and the powers they possessed, and then talking about legislation, normalization, cultural backlash and adjustment, etc., don't do that. Instead, just clue your readers in through observing how the world functions, what people say, and how they act. Trust them to fill in the blanks without taking them aside to explain the full history of this world they find themselves in.

This has the added benefit that readers will be interested to know more, and you can peel back the curtain slowly to maintain engagement... much like we see with the world building in the film John Wick, for those who want a concrete example of this tip in action.

Method #2: Work It Into (Natural) Conversation

"Oh dear... come take a look at this. Let me tell you what it means."

Originally I was just going to leave this tip as Work It Into Conversation, but an info dump with quotation marks around it is still an info dump. Having the barkeep or detective vocalize the necessary information out loud doesn't inherently make it less of a dump... you need to have context for the conversation so that it slides naturally and organically into the narrative.

For example, say you want to clue your audience in on certain incidents that happened between Mars and Earth. If you just so happen to have a Martian marine present who was there, you could have them talk about what they saw, and what they did during the war in question. Maybe the context is that they're doing a weapons check or armor and suit maintenance, and another character wants to know just how serious this basic task really is. So the marine starts listing off death toll numbers from the Void Reach conflict, talking about how many died on each side... and how often it was improperly-maintained suits rather than actual enemy fire that lead to death tolls. This provides some of the hard facts you want your readers to have, but it also leads to context clues regarding character habits and personalities, as well as why there may still be bad blood between particular factions.

You may not be able to fit every detail you want into a conversation, but if you flex your mental muscles you can fit a surprising amount of relevant information into scenes where characters are doing something else, but talking at the same time.

Method #3: Ask If The Audience Needs To Know

You know... they probably don't, now that I think about it.

Info dumping, in general, comes out of a need to gush about something in the story you're telling. Maybe it's just cool background stuff that you're really proud of, or you did a lot of research to understand a particular aspect of law enforcement, military tactics, medical examination, or astrophysics, and you don't want to just let that sit in the background.

However, consider how much information your audience needs to have in order to understand your story. Not only that, but how much of that information do they need right now in order for the ride to continue on down the tracks? Because contrary to the way a lot of us feel, your audience doesn't need to know everything up front in order to get stuck in. And if they do, you should restructure it so that they don't have to chew through an entire dump of information in order to actually get to the story. Because the background is just that... background. People like worldbuilding, but that's the sauce on the sandwich. Just enough really pulls it together, but most of us don't want a mouthful of mayo with a bacon garnish on the side.

As such, evaluate what information your audience needs to have. Once you know what they need to know, figure out how to spread it throughout your narrative. Work it into conversations and observations, show the audience these things in action, or just make simple statements that fill in a gap without going on and on about it for half the chapter. Most importantly, let things go if they aren't helping your story. Because while the mythology of the ancient elves or the inner workings of dragon engines might fascinate you, if you're putting a stop to everything to tell your audience about them, there's a lot of people who are just going to get off the ride.

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!

Short Stories, Werewolves, And Rolling The Dice on a Book

There are a few things I've learned over the years as an author. Perhaps the biggest thing, and a lesson I learned early on in my career, was that selling the reading public on short stories (much less on short story anthologies) is really damn hard to do. Additionally, while there are a lot of folks who might read an ebook, convincing people to buy something that's ebook exclusive is also one hell of a marketing feat to pull off.

So, of course, my dumb ass proposed a project that was both a short story anthology and an ebook exclusive. And while I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, I don't regret rolling the dice in the slightest. I might, however, need a little bit of help from all my regular readers out there to really pull out a decisive win on this one.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet!

Before I get into talking about this week's topic, remember to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get all of my latest releases fresh in your inbox! And if you have a bit of loose change you'd like to contribute to help keep the blog going, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Every little bit really does help.

Lastly, be sure you're following all of my followables by checking out my Linktree.

The Seed of The Idea

For folks who don't know me, I spent a lot of my teenage years as an avid reader of RPG tie-in fiction. If you're not familiar with the term, it refers to stories that take place in the same world as a roleplaying game, and they're meant to act both as supplemental reading for folks who enjoy the game, but also as a funnel to pull in people who aren't players, but who might consider trying out the game after reading a story they really liked. From Battletech to Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms to Bloodshadows, these stories were my introduction to so many worlds it's easy to lose track all these years later.

These books were extremely common in the 1980s and 1990s, and even up until a few years ago there were several companies putting out regular novels and short stories meant to keep their existing audience happy while luring in a new audience with tales of adventure and horror alike. I even managed to land one of my own short stories, The Irregulars, with Paizo during the Pathfinder Tales era. It's still available, for those who'd like to check it out!

Come on... you know you want to.

While there are still plenty of these books for sale, they aren't produced with anything near the regularity they once were. Which makes sense, because as many companies shift budgets and adopt different marketing strategies, this method of engaging the public likely wasn't as effective as others. Especially when you consider how much time, energy, and sheer sweat goes into publishing a book, and how easy it is for them to lose money rather than make it.

However, while reading through the rules and limitations on Storyteller's Vault (the community-use platform for White Wolf/Onyx Path RPG properties like Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, etc.), I noted that it expressly allowed fiction to be set in the approved games provided that it was faithful to the published setting. While these stories had to be published on the Storyteller's Vault platform, and they could only be published in electronic format, it was still an option.

And, as they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Why An Anthology?

After examining the options available, I decided to propose Tales From The Moot, an anthology of short stories for Werewolf: The Apocalypse that had the framing device of stories told by the various tribes of werewolves around their fires about the great deeds they'd done, horrors they'd witnessed, and so on. I took the idea to High Level Games because I felt that a book of short stories would pair nicely with the 100 Kinfolk project I'd penned for them previously, and that the two could act kind of like companion pieces.

But why an anthology, though?

After some back and forth on precisely what shape the project should take, and how much time and energy I wanted to sink into it, I eventually proposed it as an anthology for several reasons. The biggest among those included:

- Faster Turnaround Time: If you have half a dozen people writing a book, it gets done faster. That's just math.

- Shared Marketing Efforts: I have no illusions about the size of my audience, and I figured it would be easier to market a book with half a dozen other contributors helping out.

- Effort V. Return on Investment: I was more than capable of contributing 1-2 good short stories, but the more I had to put in, the more it would need to earn to be worth that effort.

There were also drawbacks to using this format, of course. For one thing the earnings would be split between contributors, meaning that each of us only gets about .30 per sale (which is less than my affiliate cut for actually selling a copy of the book through one of my links by about .10 for those who are curious). Additionally the more people who are part of a project, the bigger the chance there is for something to go wrong (someone has to duck out, there's delays caused by family or health crises, etc.). And there was definitely a lot of reshuffling, reaching out, and follow-ups that had to be done to finally get this project out in front of the reading public.

At the end of the day, however, I didn't expect this project to be some viral sensation that paid my bills for the rest of the year. What I was hoping to accomplish was that this book would act as a proof of concept that there was an audience out there for tie-in fiction, and that it was a viable product worth pursuing... in no small part because I'd like to write more stories about some of my favorite games.

So Why Am I Telling You All This?

I told you all that story so you would have context for what I'm asking this week. Because the one truth I've tried to drive home in my Business of Writing posts is that financial success and quality of writing are not really connected at all. Books full of great stories and interesting prose will languish in bargain bins unseen and unread, while poorly-written schlock climbs to the #1 slot and makes its creators rich beyond the dreams of mortal men. What decides a project's success isn't the talent or drive of the writers... it's the voice of the readers who scream for more.

Whether you're someone who enjoys RPG tie-in stories, a person who likes werewolves, or just somebody who wants to see me write more fiction in general, I would like to ask you to please check out Tales From The Moot. My goal is to get it to at least Copper sale status (51 sales), though Silver status (101 sales) would be preferred. If we manage the former goal, creators will make about $15. The latter would net us each $30 or so. More to the point, though, even selling that many (or that few, depending on your perspective) copies would mark this out as a success by RPG product terms.

So even if you're somebody who wouldn't usually pick up an ebook, or anthologies are something that is a once-in-a-while thing for you, consider giving this one your time and energy. Especially if you want to help lay the ground work for future projects that might range across the World of Darkness, into Golarion, and other settings with community use platforms that are ripe for new tales to tell!

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 noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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!

3 Tips For Writing RPG Tie-In Fiction

Regular readers out there are aware that in addition to writing books about feline investigators and retired super soldiers (Marked Territory and Old Soldiers respectively), I also write a lot of content about tabletop roleplaying games. In fact my more popular blog, Improved Initiative, is all gaming all the time. And while I've been a regular gamer for going on 20 years now, before I ever picked up a set of dice I found myself drawn to RPG tie-in stories. From the Dragonlance books to the Elder Scrolls novels, and from comics about the World of Darkness to books like Hell's Feast, these stories gave me a glimpse into wild, fantastical worlds. They made me want to learn more, dive deeper, and in many instances made me excited for the prospect of playing in a setting I'd only ever read about.

And since RPGs are having a huge boom at present, I figured it was a good time to roll up my sleeves and dig into producing more tie-in tales myself. For those who want to do likewise, allow me to offer some advice from the trenches on this one.

A list of my current game tie-in work can be found down at the end, for folks who want to check my bona fides.

Though this lovely project is fresh, and Werewolf fans should check it out!

As always before I get too deep into stuff, remember to subscribe to my weekly newsletter if you don't want to miss any of my updates. And if you have a little coin to spare, consider tossing it my way by becoming a Patreon patron to help keep the wheels turning!

Lastly, to make sure you're following all of my followables, take a look at my Linktree, too!

Tip #1: Don't Write Stories That Alter The Setting

And then the archfiend was redeemed, and hell shook to its very foundations!

Tie-in fiction is meant to bring the readers into the world. For readers who are familiar with the game and the setting, it's an interesting romp through an adventure, mystery, or campaign where they get to see a familiar place through unfamiliar eyes. For readers who aren't familiar with the setting, though, these stories may be their first exposure to what this world is like. As such, it's important to make sure that your depictions are faithful, but also that you don't change major parts of the canon as that will just end up confusing readers on both sides of the aisle.

As an example, if you're writing a story set in the world of Golarion then it's important to make sure you have your city names, directions, historical events, etc. accurate to the game world. It's equally important, though, that your story doesn't make huge changes to the setting by the end of the tale. Whether it's your protagonist slaying named creatures in the world, the fall of particular empires, or even the death of gods, your story shouldn't cause changes big enough to require edits being made to the maps, bestiaries, and setting bible going forward.

While this is often stated directly in content use platforms such as Storyteller's Vault, Pathfinder Infinite, etc., it's important to keep in mind as this is something you should be thinking about right from the get-go.

Tip #2: Make It Accessible to Everyone

And the Great Mother cast her Mystery, and the Avernian Gate yawned before us...

Some people who read tie-in fiction are already familiar with the game and setting. In a lot of cases they're reading these stories precisely because they love this game and setting, and they want more stories about it to enjoy. There are also going to be people who have no clue what it is you're talking about, and who are immediately going to lose interest if you start throwing around a bunch of locations and descriptions like they're supposed to know what those terms mean.

Your story needs to be enjoyable by both of these groups.

As with anything else, you need to introduce your reader to the setting, and give them flavorful, interesting descriptions to really bring them into things. Treat it the same way you would as if this was a world and setting entirely of your own invention, and you had to educate your readers about what all your terms mean, how magic works, and what creatures exist in this world. If you focus on doing that then you'll have a story that the former group will still enjoy, but which the latter can read, and use to draw themselves even deeper into the world as they follow the adventure.

Tip #3: Tell The Stories in Your Own Voice

The rule books are great... but they're just a guideline for your story.

One of the flaws I noticed early on when reading a lot of the tie-in novels that were popular in the late-80s and early 90s was that many of them felt like they were quoting the rule books as far as the world descriptions went. It's one thing to maintain a consistent style, but it's another thing entirely to use descriptions of spells, magic items, etc. that felt word-for-word taken right out of the reference guides. Toward the end of my obsession with tie-in fantasy RPG novels it often felt like the writers should have included footnotes with the book title and page number that particular spells, classes, and magic items could be found on, and that really dragged down the narrative for me as a reader.

Don't do that. Even if you're talking about a noted place in the game setting, or you want to use an ability or power that's detailed in the rules as they're already written, you need to put it in your own words. Keep the description in-line with what already exists if that's what serves the story best, but don't feel the need to break your flow in order to quote the way a fireball is cast, or to copy/paste the description of a holy avenger into your story.

You are the unique voice of this tale. Don't bring yourself down by stopping to make sure you're quoting chapter and verse as long as you're keeping the story between the lines.

How Can You Be Sure I Know What I'm Talking About?

For all the folks looking for my list of bona fides, I figured I'd list them here so you can check them out at your convenience. First, the official pieces:

- The Irregulars (Pathfinder Tales): Molthune is revving its war machine for conquest, and if no one stops them they may finally succeed in conquering Nirmathas to the north, and taking a bigger place on the world stage. It's up to a small squad of Andoran irregulars to throw a wrench into those gears before the war drums truly start beating.

- Tales From The Moot: The tales told round the moots by the garou are how they learn their history, and spread the deeds of greatness throughout the nation. This anthology features an introduction story by yours truly, as well as the short story "Late Bloomer" about a Silver Fang whose first change finally comes at the worst (or the best) time... while his unit's chopper is being shot down over the mountains of Afghanistan.

The above audio drama by A Vox in The Void is a reading of my Warhammer 40K story "Almost," and I would highly recommend checking out the channel if you enjoyed that short. Also check out the following, free stories!

- Waking Dogs- A World Eaters Tale: Crixus remembers little throughout the long war. But in a moment of clarity on a forgotten rock, the World Eater remembers who he used to be. Will this former War Hound shake off the leash, and remind his fallen brethren that some of the old dogs still have their teeth?

- Silver Raven Chronicles Part One: Devil's Night: Kintargo has always chafed under the rule of Cheliax, and the burning fires of Devil's Night was a statement that the city would fall in line... but Kintargo has a guardian spirit, and the Ghost isn't going to relinquish his hold without a fight.

- Silver Raven Chronicles Part Two: From The Ashes: Though the fires of Devil's Night have been put out, the citizens are far from cowed. Bloodied and angry, it's clear that Kintargo isn't going to just roll over and show its throat... which leads to Barzillai Thrune literally turning the hounds of hell loose on the citizens. This is only going to get worse.

- Silver Raven Chronicles Part Three: The Raven's Nest: Oddfellow Bodkins has had some weird jobs, but this one might just take the cake. The private detective has been involved with movers and shakers before, but this cadre has big names, and cast long shadows. He can smell trouble, and if he's right it's going to rip Thrune out by the roots by the time all is said and done.

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!