Why Knowing (and Respecting) Your Genre Matters

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: isn't it cozy?]Another musical analogy: young bands call their music “like nothing you’ve ever heard” so often it’s a cliche.

Really? Klingon opera has some similarity to music I know. Hey, Ornette Coleman’s free jazz has similarities to music I know, and that’s more of a reach than Klingon opera.

When I tell folks my music sound like Bob Dylan meeting David Gray for drinks at Roger Miller’s house, that doesn’t diminish my artistic individuality. It just gives potential listeners an idea what they’re getting. It prevents lovers of Klingon opera or free jazz from showing up for my living room concert and smashing up the furniture because they don’t like the music, thank you very much Igor Stravinsky.

But if they show up and don’t witty lyrics, a country feel, and occasional darkness or melancholy, they’ll have every right to riot because I set expectations I failed to meet. … more … “Why Knowing (and Respecting) Your Genre Matters”

More Than One Way to Write a Cat Story

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: carved in stone]When I talk about your time writing, what picture comes into your mind?

For most of you, I suspect it’s about clattering away on a computer keyboard. (Or, if you have a Mac, gently gliding over its delicate surface, nudging the keys toward their destination.)

Have you ever tried writing whatever it is you write using some other method?

… more … “More Than One Way to Write a Cat Story”

Do One Thing

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: waterfall]Drip. Drip. Drip.

Water wears away stone by constancy, not power, not volume.

Marketing with a long vision will serve you better than looking for short-term sales.

Every day, do one thing to market yourself as an author, or to learn more about successful marketing. Here are 20 ideas to get you started: … more … “Do One Thing”

Check Your Edge

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: another set of eyes]Used to work with my buddy Mike. He serviced pet grooming equipment, which is way more fun and interesting than it sounds. Huge mobile workshop.

Biggest part of the business was sharpening clipper blades. Clippers have two blades sliding back and forth past each other so unlike knives, which need a beveled edge, clipper blades need to be flawlessly flat on their face, the surfaces where they meet.

When Mike first started training me, sometimes I’d ask him to check my edge. Are these sharp enough? Am I overdoing it, grinding too much metal away, shortening the life of the blade? Am I working fast enough?

Because he’s the closest friend I’ve had in my whole life, our conversations included a bunch of personal sharing you might not expect to find in a greasy hairy machine shop on a truck. Life, the universe, and everything — we covered it all.

In time, the phrase “check my edge” came to mean more than the mechanics of blade sharpening. I’m almost 20 years older than Mike. He grew up in the country, having adult responsibilities when he was quite young. We each had a vast storehouse of experience and knowledge the other didn’t. We shared. A lot.

When one of us asked the other, “Hey, check my edge?” it was about the value of another mind and heart, another set of life experiences, weighing in on a choice, a challenge.

… more … “Check Your Edge”

Snowflake People: Backstory to the Rescue

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: Chef Joel]I’ve finished 3 mysteries, with a solid first draft of a fourth and half a draft of another. The first, Through the Fog, was a solo project, a lark, a few years ago. This year, I got more serious with A Long, Hard Look and dug a little deeper for Into the Fog, the second of my foggy Irish mysteries.

The first editing note Tom Bentley sent regarding Into the Fog mentioned that its protagonist sounded a lot like the chap in A Long, Hard Look.

All I could think was, wait ’til he reads anodyne.

All three protagonists (wait; there’s a fourth, a woman) speak with my voice. There are subtle differences, but I’ve made the mistake of allowing my writer’s voice to overwhelm these characters’ individuality.

They’re all too much me. I guess I have so many faces I want to use them all. But that’s confusing for readers.

O woe is me. How to fix?

Tom’s first suggestion sounded familiar. That’s because I’ve been recommending it to my business coaching clients since before I wrote The Commonsense Entrepreneur in 2008.

This is why we hire others: so they can help us see, over here, what we’ve been doing for 6 long years over here.

Write What Who You Know

I’d like to introduce you to Eileen Thomasina Armstrong, 36. (She sure doesn’t like her middle name.) Here are some things you might like to know about her: … more … “Snowflake People: Backstory to the Rescue”

What is Your Writing Goal for Today, for This Project, for Your Life?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: what are you aiming for?]A subtle theme, more a motif, runs through my conversations with authors. When they talk about their writing, there’s one thing they don’t mention:

When it will be done.

There’s a reason this site is named Someday Box. A reason I chose Getting Your Book Out of the Someday Box as the title for that book.

“Someday” is not a goal. Someday is a dream, a vague notion. Sir Ken Robinson tells the story of chatting with a brilliant pianist whose name I can’t remember. Robinson said “I wish I could play like that.”

The pianist said something like, “No, you like the idea of playing like that. If you really wished you could, you’d be doing something about it.”

Do you want to be a writer or do you just like the idea?

… more … “What is Your Writing Goal for Today, for This Project, for Your Life?”

Write Drunk. Edit Sober. Is That Right?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Apparently Wednesday comes a day late this week. Still sorting this new posting schedule. Glad you’re here.

Papa H famously said, “Write drunk. Edit sober.”

Just to be totally clear that I’m not advocating alcohol abuse, the point is that made by Gustave Flaubert in a letter to Gertrude Tennant (her daughter Dorothy married the explorer Henry Stanley.)

Flaubert wrote Soyez réglé dans votre vie et ordinaire comme un bourgeois, afin d’être violent et original dans vos œuvres.

Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

[image: solid old tree in the wild weather]

There is a natural balance between order and chaos. You will have a certain amount of each in life, in your personality, in your art. … more … “Write Drunk. Edit Sober. Is That Right?”

The Difference Between Price and Value and Why it Has Nothing to Do with Your Book

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: a new path] it altered how I think about the process of living. Though it is as far from a business book as you can get, it is one reason I make a good living doing things I love.

Another reason (and, to contradict what I said above, even less of a business book) is Dr. Seuss’ unknown classic I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew. A youngster, plagued by problems, sets out for Solla Sollew, “where they never have troubles, at least, very few.” The lesson he learns, again, triggered new thinking and new actions, a different path in life.

At the other end of the spectrum, I own 3/4 of Donald Knuth’s indispensable The Art of Computer Programming and haven’t made it past the first few chapters of book one (the engagingly entitled Fundamental Algorithms, which I assure is dead sexy to Knuth’s target audience.)

… more … “The Difference Between Price and Value and Why it Has Nothing to Do with Your Book”

Your Book’s Best Presentation: PubML

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: The Blue Monk]Many authors dream of including audio, video, interactive maps and more in their digital books. Alas, even color photos aren’t supported by all eReaders.

Twenty years into the internet age, how come books don’t live on the web?

Thanks to PubML, today they do.

And it’s going to change digital publishing forever for those of us who love books. … more … “Your Book’s Best Presentation: PubML”

My Free Marketing Community Needs You

Posted on by Joel D Canfield
Though the community never took off I’m leaving this here in the archives.

Last Friday’s semi-cryptic message about Commonsense Zero-Cost DIY Marketing for Authors may have looked familiar because I’ve mentioned it before.

The book is on hold while I convince myself I have something to add to the most excellent Write. Publish. Repeat.

In the meantime, how about we all band together and share what we know in a friendly safe community?

Pop over to the Commonsense Zero-Cost DIY Marketing for Authors forum and if it looks helpful and interesting, join us. Share and learn and the rising tide lifts all our boats.