Look For The Helpers (And Do Your Best To Be One)

If you were stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire and no way to change it, you might be in need of any kind of help you could get. Whether it was someone who had the right tools to stop and help you change it, somebody who offered you a ride to a garage, or just someone who handed you a bottle of water and let you use their cell phone to make a call, when you find yourself struggling what you need most is a hand up so you can get back on track and start moving forward again.

There will be some people who drive by and ignore you. There will be others who roll their eyes, and blame you for not being prepared (where's their jack, where's their spare tire, where's their lug wrench, why can't they handle this themselves, etc.). There will be some who outright mock you because they aren't broken down on the side of the road, and it provides them a moment of mean-spirited joy to kick you while you're down.

As Mr. Rogers said, look for the helpers when times get tough. And if you can, do your best to be one of said helpers.

That review really helped. Thanks, man.

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!

Authors Aren't Self-Made (No Matter What You've Heard)

Without fail, whenever an author (or any creator, really) asks for help from their audience there's always one asshat in the back who sniggeringly replies that if they're asking for help maybe they shouldn't be doing this for a living. Which, honestly, has very big, "If you want a living wage, go get a better job!" vibes to it.

And just like everyone who's worked in food service, retail, and every other genuinely necessary job during this pandemic, I would like to raise a point here. Because if you are consuming the content someone makes, then you are directly benefiting from their efforts and energies. Whether you're reading their stories, checking out their guides, watching their videos, listening to their audio tracks... you are benefiting from them. The same way that you benefit from a server taking your order at a diner, or the cashier ringing you up at the grocery store. And a lot of the time creators are making stuff for free (this blog, for instance, has no paywall. Neither do the videos I've contributed to the Azukail Games YouTube channel over the past few months), or just asking for a couple of bucks to enjoy something that took between a few months and a few years for them to create.

And for a majority of creators, that doesn't pay the bills. Not because we aren't putting in the effort, and not because of quality (which is completely subject to audience taste), but because we don't have people giving us the hand up we need.

Because finding helpers is hard.

Seriously, take a drink friend. It's rough pitching on the con floor all day.

Creators are doing our best to create a good product, and to put it out in front of people. And with startlingly few exceptions (and those of which are usually based on accidents in the algorithm), we cannot force our vehicles to go under our own power. We need our audience to reach out, and help however they can.

I've been talking about this for a while, and those who would like to help but aren't sure what would make an impact should take a look at Why Your Likes, Shares, Reviews, and Follows Matter To Creators. It's not all-inclusive, but I tried to give people some insight as to how their actions can make a difference to those of us who make content for a living.

Doom Posting (My Way of Being a Helper)

I generally try to help my fellow creators as much as I can. If someone has an idea for a project, and I know a publisher who would be interested, I try to set them up together. If someone has a new release, I share it on my channels and try to drive some traffic their way (incidentally, if you haven't read the brilliant Team Murderhobo: Assemble from Clinton Boomer, you owe it to yourself to check it out). I host reviews on my blogs to try to give people shout-outs, and I mention folks wherever I can.

There is something else I've been doing recently that anyone out there can do as well, and which I would actively recommend if you really want to help out the creators whose work you care about.

I call it doom posting.

Clock's ticking. Time to help some sorry sons a' bitches!

What I do is I pick a platform (usually Reddit, but Facebook sometimes gets this treatment as well). I then pick a creator whose work I like, and who needs to reach a larger audience. I will then find as many groups and communities as I can (ones I'm a part of and new ones) just to share the content they've made and try to boost their signal. This can lead to me making two or three dozen posts at a time when a work appeals to a lot of groups I'm already part of, or only making half a dozen posts if it's a little more niche.

I call it doom posting because I know that no matter how many posts I personally make, I'm just one individual. So it feels sort of hopeless, kind of like doom scrolling. There's always the chance, though, that these posts reach fresh eyes, get new people interested, and that even making a post that seemed like an outside chance of being noticed could lead to a much-needed landslide of attention. And since I know that admins and moderators get on creators' asses for posting their own work (often banning us from groups if we attempt to do so), I'm happy to act as the cat's paw to share other people's work so they don't have to face that kind of backlash.

And since we're on the subject, in addition to Mr. Boomer's book, I'd also suggest some of the following places for you to check out if you want fresh, free content from talented creators!

- A Vox in The Void: A YouTube channel that does spine-chilling reads and performances of classic horror and sci-fi stories, as well as Warhammer 40K fiction (official and non), going through the archive will take you a while. Trust me, it's worth it... so go like and subscribe!

- Alice The Author: Alice Liddell is a talented author who works in romance, fantasy, RPGs, and more! Her channel is great for authors, aspiring authors, and even for Game Masters looking for occasional bits of inspiration. Could definitely use a boost in followers.

- Azukail Games: All right, I'm cheating with the third one. As folks know I've been contributing a lot of content to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, but I'm not the only name and face putting stuff up there. So come on by, find some stuff you think is cool, and subscribe to help us hit our goals! It takes 1k subs and 4k hours of watched content in the last year (or 11.5 hours a day), so we need all the help we can get.

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!

There Are Motivations Other Than Vengeance and Tragedy, You Know

Motivation is why characters do the things that they do. Sometimes that motivation is immediate, like they need to pull one last heist because their kid is sick and needs an operation they can't afford. Sometimes that motivation is long-term, like holding to an oath they swore when they were young that they refuse to give up on even in the face of certain doom.

There is a mistake that a lot of writers make, though, and it's assuming that for a character's motivation to be interesting that it has to come from a place of pain. That rage, a thirst for vengeance, or some great tragedy are the only motivations worth bringing to the page... and I tell you from experience this can often negatively affect your writing.

So take a moment, and reflect on the motivations you use. Then ask yourself if you reach for the same ones over and over again, and why that is?

Really sit with it for a bit, and contemplate.

Before we get into it 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!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I want you to take a moment and think of everything you know about Batman. What came to mind first? Probably that he's the world's greatest detective, a deadly martial artist, and the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation. However, chances are good that you also remembered the fact that his parents were gunned down in front of him when he was a child, and that this traumatic event has become key to his one-man crusade against street crime.

That sort of fact about a character's background and motivation seems like it would be super important, right? As if that's where you'd plant the seed of a character and grow outward from there? Well, according to most reports of comic book history, the dead parents backstory was tacked on later. When Batman first landed on the comic book scene he was just a grim avenger in a cool costume fighting cultists, mad scientists, and weird mutants. He was compelling enough through his looks and actions, and didn't actually require this motivation of sheer tragedy to get the audience interested in him. It was just sort of tacked on, like some sprinkles on an already tasty cupcake. And even once it was established, it was really a huge focus of the character until his gritting up in the 1980s... it rarely, if ever, came up in depictions before that (particularly in the TV series that vaulted the character to heights of fame).

Batman could have had dozens of other motivations. From taking a vow like a literal Dark Knight (one of service and not vengeance), to civic pride, to simply obeying Rule .303 (those with the ability and the means have a duty to assist), he was a blank slate at the time. The audience was already buying the comics, proving the tragic backstory was not a necessary component of who the character was.

It worked, but it wasn't required.

Now, this is not to say that tragedy and revenge are never integral to who a character is, what they represent, or the story you're trying to tell with them. From Darth Vader, to the Punisher, to the Phantom of The Opera, these grim, tragic aspects are often central to what characters represent. However, this becomes one of those all rectangles are squares, but not all squares are rectangles sort of scenarios. Because while these motivations are central to some stories and characters, they are by no means central to all of them as some kind of necessary ingredient.

Just because you can doesn't mean you must.

Content, Happy People, and Dragon Hunting

I've talked about this subject a bit on my gaming blog Improved Initiative, specifically in the posts Do Content, Happy People Hunt Dragons? and Why So Many Sad Backstories? but I think it's worth repeating. A dragon doesn't have to have murdered someone's grandparents, or be actively threatening their family, for them to be motivated to go stop it. The character might have a strong sense of duty, demanding they protect others from harm even if they themselves are now in danger. They might be employed as a dragon slayer, meaning that this is the entire reason they're kept on the payroll. They might seek the thrill of the hunt, or even need a part of that dragon's body in order to make a medicine to stave off sickness, push back old age, or merely to become stronger.

Once you've eaten a dragon's heart, you can skip leg day.

All of this is not to say that you immediately need to alter your protagonist's motivation in your story. If you have a character who's obsessed with catching a serial killer because they murdered that protagonist's son, and that works for building drama in your story, stick with it. If your villain is motivated by a sense of aggrieved entitlement because they were never recognized for their genius, and no other motivation works as well for them, don't fix what isn't broken!

The point of this exercise isn't to tell writers to rely less on dark, tragic motivations for their characters and stories. It's to ensure that, before we reach for those backstories, that we examine all the options we have available to make our story work. Sometimes it's an old vow taken by an aging, cynical knight that hits us even harder than someone trying to settle an old score.

And for those who could use a bit of a jumpstart on thinking outside this particular box, I'd recommend giving 100 Character Goals and Motivations a look! While written for RPGs, it's just as useful for writers trying to find some fresh inspiration.

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!

Why Your Likes, Shares, Reviews, and Follows Matter to Creators

All of us watch YouTube, and for a lot of us it's because there are creators on there whose channels we particularly enjoy. Video game streamers, DIY crafters, guerilla news shows, there's all kinds of creators on that platform. While it seems like every, single video has creators asking us to like and share, as well as subscribe to their channels, most of us don't even hear that request anymore. It's the neo-commercial of the Internet age; we just tune it out until we get back to our regularly scheduled program.

However, creators make that request because they need their audience to do those things in order to help them actually get paid for the stuff they make. That's the reason they put it in every, single video. Because there's no knowing which video is going to be seen by which people, and even if someone is a regular viewer getting your audience to do something can be like trying to get a toddler's attention; you have to say it seven or eight times before they actually hear and process what you're asking for.

And we don't do this just for kicks, or because it's part of the formula. We do it because we literally need your help to overcome algorithm inertia so we can actually get our work seen by the Internet at large.

Trust me... we don't like doing this anymore than you like hearing it.

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!

Seriously, We Cannot Do This Without You

I've given this statistic before, but I feel like it bears repeating. YouTube requires a channel to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watched hours of content before it will actually allow the creators to be monetized. That's 11.5 hours of content watched per day for an entire year, for those of you who don't want to do the math. On that platform it doesn't matter how much time and effort you put in, how many scripts you have, or how much content you produce... if you can't get at least 1k people to click that subscribe button, YouTube is keeping all the earnings your content generates for itself... because it's still putting ads on your videos, but it's just putting the proceeds into its own pockets instead of splitting them with you.

Worse than that is that even once you are monetized, you basically only earn $3-$5 per 1k views on your videos... and if you don't have a large audience that's helping boost your signal, even getting your channel monetized might mean you're now making a couple bucks a month, and that's it.

One for me, none for you. Two for me, none for you...

So what, you might be thinking. After all, maybe the creators you like aren't on YouTube, so this isn't a concern of theirs because they're bloggers, podcasters, novelists, and so on. Well, the unfortunate facts of life are that while the platforms might change, the problems of overcoming algorithm inertia remain the same.

For example, consider my Twitter account. I've got 1,700 people following me there, which is enough to blow my mind a little bit (especially since I just crossed that threshold this past weekend). However, if you start looking behind the scenes at how many followers you need to have before the site actually starts promoting your tweets (showing them to people who don't already follow you, but who might be interested in your content), you don't really get any attention at all until you hit 5,000 people. Not only that, but you won't receive any kind of meaningful notice from the algorithm until you've got 10,000 followers or so.

Just in case you needed perspective about what counts for "good" numbers in this particular game.

You find this on basically any social media site, and on marketplace sites as well. For example, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife is the most-reviewed book I've written on Amazon. With that said, it's only got 28 reviews, and not the magical 50 it takes to get the site's wheels to start turning, putting your book in promotional banners that other shoppers will see. Facebook is happy to promote you if you have thousands of followers, but much like Twitter's system you won't even show up in the newsfeeds of people who have liked your page until you hit a few thousand (my Facebook is at just over 800, for folks who are curious).

This list goes on, but you get the idea. There are literally millions of people online looking for books, RPGs, videos, and so on, but without an audience to magnify a creator's signal (and to get them a megaphone) they can't reach a very big crowd.

Clicking Those Buttons Makes a Difference

Creators, whether they're writing novels, creating RPGs, making videos, or putting together some other kind of content, do the best we can to get it seen. Most of us spend a majority of our days posting on social media, leaving links in forums, giving interviews, and doing absolutely anything we can to keep our heads above water and get people to notice us. Because sure, it's possible we could just buy ads, and that those ads could help us find the audience we need... but most of us don't have a budget to buy ads. And if we spend money we can't spare rolling the dice on that, and it turns out we get nothing out of it, we've just cut off our foot before we have to run a race.

It's not a great gamble to take if you can't afford the loss.

That is where you come in.

Now, I said back in Direct Donations Really Are The Best Way To Help Creators You Love that you will have the biggest impact just dropping a tip into someone's jar, buying some of their merch, or becoming a Patreon patron. Hands down, no question. However, if you want to do more to help a creator that you want to encourage (or you need something you can do for free that will help), then giving their content on social media a react, and making sure they have one more follower, does make a difference.

Even if all you are is a warm body who subscribes to a social media page, that vote of confidence is one more hash mark that lets the algorithm know this creator is more popular, and they should be promoted. And the more you interact with that creator's content (likes, shares, retweets, comments over 5 words, etc.) the more of a splash that makes. At the end of the day, it's sort of like recycling; individually it might not look like much, but if you can get your friends, family, and community to help out, it's going to make a bigger impact than you think.

So if you want to do something nice for the creators whose work you enjoy, give them some online love. Leave reviews on the books you've bought, and help get them noticed by other readers. Leave a thumbs up on a video of theirs that you like, and toss a comment on it so it gets a little extra notice. Like their Facebook creator page, follow them on Twitter, and maybe leave a heart on a post of theirs that you want to boost. When you make these kinds of behaviors a habit, you start helping creators without really having to think about it... and trust me, we need all the help we can get!

If You'd Like To Start With Me...

For folks who've stumbled across this post, and would like to help me haul myself up a rung or two, here's a handy list of the places you can go where your efforts would be much appreciated!

- My Twitter

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

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!

You Always Have Room For Improvement

Every writer has that wincing experience of opening an old notebook, and seeing what a past iteration of them put down on the page. And if you stick with things long enough, you may even get to have that experience by picking up an old book you wrote, or an older collection you contributed to.

It's important to remember that no matter how good you think you are, there's always room for you to perfect your craft. The flip side of that is that no matter how bad you think your writing is, you can always use that last attempt as a ladder to climb a little higher.

Trust me, nobody's perfect.

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!

Get Those Gains!

One of my favorite metaphors to describe writing, as my regular readers know, is to compare it to weightlifting. Because while your natural strength (talent) matters, it's only one component. There's also your discipline, the particular routine you do, your form, advice from more experienced lifters (mentors and other writers), your diet (what you read), and a hundred other factors!

Bro, do you even know Dostoyevsky?

Another similarity between writing and weightlifting, though, is that it can feel like you make a lot of progress when you start, but after a while you slow down. Even if you're still adding plates to the bar, it may not be as significant as the difference between your first month and your first quarter check in.

Because of that it's easy to get complacent. To go in and do the same routine, getting similar results every time. And even if what you're doing is good, you can still actively choose to make yourself better!

This doesn't mean you have to utterly change up your writing and do something completely different, though; as with the weight room, you can alter any number of factors as you see fit. Maybe you want to take a break from longer projects, and work on short stories for a bit to tighten up your plots and word choices. Perhaps you want to swap genres, switching out your blood and scares for some heartfelt romance. Or maybe you just change the media you consume and study, examining how other creators do things so you can take apart their tales and add useful tools to your box.

Sometimes these changes are going to go poorly. After all, just because you're a strong power lifter doesn't mean you're going to be good at endurance exercises. But no one is good at everything on their first try. Learning from your failures and mistakes is key, and all the lessons those previous attempts teach you will come in handy down the line.

Because if you never challenge yourself, and you never try anything different, then just like in the weight room you're going to plateau... and nobody wants that.

A Project That Put This On My Mind

The subject of learning and growing as a creator trying to do different things is on my mind because I've been working on making short audio dramas based on some of the fiction inside my various RPG supplements that have come out over the past few years. While my fledgling efforts could be called fine under the most generous of measures, I'm genuinely impressed by how much improvement has gone into the project in a relatively short period of time. They're still not perfect, of course, and I have a lot of improving still to do, but I find it encouraging to see things get a little better every time.

More on that process in Making Improvements Over Time (Progress on My RPG-Inspired Audio Stories) if that's something you'd like to take a closer look at!

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!