Everything Old is New Again (Take Your Story Back to Basics)

An obsession among writers is that many of them feel their work has to be new, different, or unique in some way. They are always striving to re-invent, to re-imagine, or to alter the perception of an idea, a genre, or a story. And sometimes that genuinely leads to fresh perspectives and fun concepts that hadn't been explored on the page before... other times, though, it just leads to contorting something to try to make it look different without asking if it's actually more interesting to see it from that perspective.

So I wanted to take this week to suggest a trick I've been using a lot, and which I've had pretty good results with. In short, take whatever genre, tropes, story, world building, etc., you're using, and examine what it was before its latest incarnation. Because sometimes going all the way back to basics can really make you stand out.

You want vampires in your book, you say?

As always, before we get too deep into today's topic, remember to subscribe to my newsletter if you want to get all of my content sent to you every week. And if you want to help keep the blog going, consider becoming a Patreon patron... even a small donation makes a big difference.

Lastly, if you want to be sure you're following all my followables, check out my Linktree!

Elves, Vampires, Magic, and More!

Practically everything we use to tell our stories is built off of things established by earlier creators. Whether you're taking inspiration from the works of Tolkien, Howard, or Burroughs to write fantasy, you're drawing on folklore to populate your stories with monsters, or you're looking at folk heroes and ancient propaganda to form your semi-historical narratives, all of us are getting our ideas (if not our understanding of the raw elements of story) from somewhere.

However, as time has gone on, the ideas present in a lot of these stories have grown and changed, becoming different from what they originally were. And though it seems paradoxical, you can actually make a story feel more unique and different from its contemporaries by using something old in a new way.

Because I took my own advice on this one.

Folks who've read my novel Crier's Knife have said it has a distinct feeling of the bastard child of a pulp fantasy novel combined with a Western, which was very much what I was going for. However, in order to give it that old-time, sword and sorcery feeling I rewound the clock on how magic has often been depicted in fantasy novels. Rather than using Vancian magic (which became extremely common thanks to its prevalence in fantasy RPGs), or more modern "spell point" magic (where wizards, sorcerers, etc. have a certain pool of power they can draw on to achieve whatever effects they need), I used more ritual magic that was far more common to stories in the 1940s and before. Where the method of the magic isn't explained at all, and where the ingredients, actions, and sacrifices demanded are meant to give the audience the feeling of the spell rather than walking them through the internal logic of what it is supposed to do.

Aesthetic magic, if you will.

This is far from the only example of me using this method in my own work. It's also showing up a lot in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for Pathfinder and DND, and you can clearly see it in the elves and orcs books I've released where I've attempted to take some elements of Tolkien's original creation and show them in a different light. However, you've also seen this strategy at work if you've read Salem's Lot by Stephen King, where the celebrated author eschews the evolution of the sexy, tortured vampire and gets back to basics with a riff that's much closer Bram Stoker's original novel. You see this in more modern werewolf stories that reach back to the idea of a curse where the host has no control over what happens, and you could even see it in romance novels where the Norseman is the love interest because of his grooming and personal care just as much as because of his sword arm or linguistic skills.

There's two reasons this strategy works.

The first is that for older readers, they're seeing something familiar in a new light. It can bring back nostalgic feelings, and give them a new twist on an old recipe. The second is that for some readers, either due to their age or experience (or lack thereof) in the genre, your work will be the first time they've seen things written with those older aesthetics, rules, or sensibilities in place, which will make it feel new and unique to them.

In either situation, you come out ahead.

So if you're wracking your brain trying to re-invent the wheel, consider for a moment if you might actually make more progress (and get more interesting results) using an earlier design rather than attempting to build off of the version everyone already knows today.

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!

Leaving "Reliable" Work To Write Games and Fiction Full Time

If you've ever wanted to try your hand at being an author, a professional RPG designer, or any other creative career path, you've likely heard the warnings from the naysayers. It's not that they don't believe in your abilities or talent, but that you need to have, "something to fall back on." You need to have a "normal" job, even if that job is tangentially connected to your creative endeavors.

I took this advice... and it burned down rather spectacularly during the pandemic. So I thought I'd take this week to talk about how this is, largely, advice given by people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Never trust people who haven't been where you are, but speak as if they have.

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my latest releases, and if you have the spare dosh to help me keep the lights on consider becoming a Patreon patron today!

And if you want to follow all of my followables, make sure you check out my Linktree!

Needs Be When The Devil Drives

I have been a writer as my main profession for going on a decade or so now. I've been a newspaper reporter, I've written for magazines, and I've blogged for dozens of websites and hundreds of clients. My goal was always to write novels like my hard-boiled cat series Marked Territory and Painted Cats, or to switch over to writing RPG supplements and gaming guides full-time, but those were always considered a "risky" use of my abilities. It was better, according to a lot of people who felt compelled to give me advice, to stick with business-oriented clients who needed ad copy for their sites, or articles for their blogs. After all, they weren't making games. They were serious people, and serious people paid their bills.

I am here to tell you all in no uncertain terms that this is utter horseshit.

This is a fact. Not a discussion.

On its face, it seems like sound advice. After all a plumbing company or an environmental clean-up business seems more grounded than a company that produces games or novels... but it overlooks the fundamental point that behind the colorful splash art and the rolling dice, these companies are also looking to make a profit. You're creating a product, no matter who it is you're doing the work for. And in that regard the clients are all the same; like bags of cereal once you take them out of the boxes.

And when the pandemic hit, all those serious-minded business clients who needed blogs about their home repair services, moving aids, or garbage clean-up? They folded up and blew away in the breeze. I had several thousand dollars worth of work waiting to be approved by these clients that just went up in smoke. Some had the decency to inform me an order was cancelled. Most just vanished without a word, leaving me to try to track them down. So I went from having a relatively steady stream of income from all my "day-job" ghost writing and blogging gigs down to a bare trickle, if that, around the late Autumn of 2020.

You know who didn't go anywhere, though? You know who had all the work I could handle, and then some? My creative clients. RPGs had been doing pretty well during the pandemic as more virtual games than ever before started up, and people needed new, fresh content to consume. People needed stories and books to read to stop themselves from going stir crazy as they stayed inside except for the most unavoidable of chores and errands. Which is why it was around this time last year that I dusted my hands and said I was done with so-called "safe" and "serious" clients who needed a blogger, a stringer, or somebody to fill text on their pages. Because when things got rough, they abandoned me en masse without so much as a peep.

How's It Working Out So Far?

Starting early in 2021 I increased my monthly output on RPG supplements and projects. I started my own fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, which has covered location like Ironfire: City of Steel and Moüd: City of Bones, in addition to getting into metaphysical aspects of a setting with no alignment system in Gods of Sundara, or discussing how the creatures of the setting are strange and unique in the Species of Sundara series, which has covered elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, and the Blooded (half-elves and half-orcs) so far.

That wasn't all I was doing, though. I also released two novels (Painted Cats, the second of my hard-boiled cat series, and Old Soldiers, which is a dystopia thriller about defunct super soldiers hunting down a conspiracy), in addition to a fair amount of World of Darkness content. From Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries, to 100 Mokole Kinfolk, to 100 Hobs To Meet in The Hedge, I put out 12 supplements for this setting when all was said and done.

And then money, yes?

The end result of all this work, and the massive archives of articles, supplements, novels, and even my patrons? Well, as the year draws to a close, it looks like it's going to earn me about $10,000 and change for the year. Some of you are likely staring at that number in shocked horror, wondering how anyone could survive on that. However, what I earned in 2020 with all of the safe, steady, business-oriented clients while I wrote stories and gaming content on the side was about $12,000 and change. A difference, but not one as significant as you might think.

Now, I am broke as hell doing what I do. I'm going full-bore, hitting that grind every day, and I make less in a year than some people make in a quarter. But something you should keep in mind is that among creative professionals (especially those who work primarily in RPGs), I'm considered above average. The idea that you can just write books, create games, and then kick up your feet and wait for the royalty check is an absurd fantasy that might have been true for a handful of people in the 80s, but sure as hell isn't the case today.

So if you want to help me (and other creators like me who are having just as tough a time), but 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!

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!

If You Don't Have a LinkTree as an Author, You Should Get One

As I mentioned recently, I've been looking into expanding the platforms I create content for, and the ways in which I reach out to my potential audience. After all, insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting different results, so when the numbers aren't what I want it's time to change what I'm doing. While I was asking questions about what one needs for success over on TikTok (my channel there, by the by, is TableTopTips for all the fans of tabletop RPGs who'd like to see my face), one of my friends mentioned that I should get a LinkTree.

Honestly, it was one of the better suggestions I've been given in a while. So I thought I'd talk about it today if you haven't come across this particular platform. And, of course, if you haven't been to my Linktree yet, go give it a look!

Come get all my nonsense all in one place!

Before we get any deeper into it, make sure you sign up for my weekly newsletter, and if you've got some spare dosh consider becoming a Patreon patron today!

All Your Followables in One Place

All right, so, what is Linktree?

At its most basic, it's a single link people can go where they can log in to all your various social media, crowdfunding, and other platforms in one place. This means that instead of listing out three dozen different places people can go to follow you and get all your updates, they can just click one link and it takes them to the hub of all your activity. From there they can choose to click and subscribe to what feeds they want, or just bookmark your Linktree since it lets you add links to recent articles, videos, and other forms of content for folks to check out in your feed.

Herding cats is tough... don't try to get them to do too much.

At my last check, my Linktree has my Facebook, Twitter, Patreon, TikTok, Amazon author page, email, Pinterest, and my LinkedIn. In addition to all of that there's a newsfeed to let folks checking out my page know what my latest and greatest updates are (and to bring them up to speed on older stuff). The platform even allows you to accept tips, which is why I have a box for that permanently in my top slot.

This does more than give your audience a convenient spot to check out all your various socials and platforms, though doing that would be enough given that it's free to use. It also gives you a single link you can put in all of your various communications. It fits neatly in your bio, you can slip it into your email signature, and you can link it in your articles without too much extra strain.

Will not getting one doom your career? No, not likely. But if you're a creator who's been trying to keep as many plates spinning as you can, while ensuring your audience can find you, it's a good idea to use Linktree to organize all your outlets, releases, news, and updates.

So give it a try! See if it helps cut down on some of the madness.

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!

Authors, Don't Take Yourself So Seriously

If you've ever sat down to talk marketing with a romance author, then you know just how serious professionals in the trade can be when it comes down to the bottom line on book sales. Everything from which sales pitch works best, to cold-reading someone at a convention, to which social media platforms are most effective for moving product, what goes on once the manuscript hits the market is definitely serious business.

But before that? Let's all just take a moment to be honest with each other... we're making up stories. They might be heartfelt stories with moments of great pathos. They may have a lot of meaning to you, and hopefully to your readers. But they're also about wish fulfillment, Vikings riding dinosaurs, impossibly good looking secret agents, vampire princes, and zombie love triangles.

We should be serious about our work, but our work itself is rarely serious... and if we take it too seriously, the work suffers. Badly.

But what is the true meaning of this work? Do you understand?

As always, before I get too deep on this week's topic make sure you sign up for my weekly newsletter to make sure you don't miss anything! Also, if you want to help me keep the wheels turning around here consider becoming a Patreon patron as well.

Lastly, to get all my information in one place, just click on over to my Linktree!

Most Great Work Wasn't Written To Be Such

You've heard of Frankenstein I'm assuming? That book which is one of the great entries in the canon of horror, and which one could argue was the seed that created the entire science fiction genre? A work of important literature, no doubt, as I'm sure most of us acknowledge.

What we sometimes forget, though, is that it was also written by one of the OG teen goths during a long weekend full of sex and drugs with one of the more infamous party animals of the day. A book that was created on a bet during a stormy night as Mary, her husband, and their host were taking a break between threesomes.

Mary knew how to party, is what I'm saying.

Example of this are everywhere in so-called literature. Shakespeare might be considered high-brow these days, but it's just a collection of dick and fart jokes where characters get progressively gayer and more outlandish. Also, it was written as popular entertainment for the masses. The whole basis of The Lord of The Rings is because Tolkien was telling tales to his kids, and one of them was very concerned with canonical consistency. This led to The Hobbit, and demand for more of those tales led to one of the more influential works that created the genre of high fantasy. Jane Austen's work is arguably one, big eyeroll from the author about the tedium of social nicety, wrapped up in flowery language and with a story a lot of readers can identify with.

This list goes on.

The point of all of this is that most of what we think of as "serious" books (and even a lot of films) were not made with the intention of being great, foundational works of art, or redefining the way we look at stories. They were written on a whim, on a bet, or as an example of crass commercialism to get butts in seats, or books in hands. And while the authors arguably took the work seriously (constructing good narratives, creating engaging characters, telling a good tale, etc.) they didn't take themselves and their task seriously. Because while good books will often stand the test of time, it's the story they tell, and the way they engage the audience that matters.

So lighten up already! Just embrace that, at its core, what we do is a silly kind of magic. It can touch people's lives, brighten their dark days, and stab them through the heart, but the more seriously we take ourselves the more it's going to take our focus off of telling a good story.

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!