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Hindsight is 20/20: My Fifth Year in Self Publishing

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : July 20, 2018
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Category: Author Events, Inspiration

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“What’s it like being a self-published author?”

Five years. Holy shit, you guys. Didn’t think I’d ever be able to say I survived this long in this brutal, cut-throat career path. I’m just as surprised as you are to still be here, trucking along, trying to survive.

2017, in my honest opinion, was almost as bad as 2016 aka the year the Darkest Timeline started, and the only reason I say that is that because 2016 set the precedent that we’re all screwed until the end of humanity, by comparison, at least I was ready to get my ass kicked all up and down 2017. I’m just about as battered and exhausted as I’ve ever been after making it through another rough year. But there’s often a rainbow behind the thunderstorm, so it wasn’t the worst every single moment of the year.

As far as my personal life goes, 2017 was good to me in terms of vacations. I got to spend a week running around Los Angeles for the first time ever as an adult for my own personal Treat Yo-self excursion. I had an absolute blast. It might be my favorite vacation I’ve ever taken so far. Even though I totally hate Dragon*Con, they lured me in again with the promise of my husband Nathan Fillion, and meeting him was nothing short of amazing, as well as the incomparable Ming Na Wen, Steve Blum, and Michael Rosenbaum. It was an unforgettable weekend and I smile every single time I look at any of the photo ops or autographs I got from those amazing actors.

Back to Black hit bookshelves in 2017 and did moderately well sales-wise, thus proving that readers are still interested in Jordan Amador’s wacky adventures, even without our lovely archangel Michael in the picture. It also has a soft spot in my heart simply because I adore how the cover turned out (huge thanks to Brose Designz—please check out her work; it’s all gorgeous). I also sheepishly admit it was fun to dive back into the dynamic between Jordan and Belial, and I’ve heard from a few of the readers that he’s honestly a favorite of theirs. I don’t blame them. He’s such a compelling bastard. I always muse that Betty Hutton’s “He’s a Demon, He’s a Devil, He’s a Doll” is a perfect description of him.

I also re-designed the cover for Of Cinder and Bone, and was met with a massive improvement in sales. I lament that I didn’t find Brose Designz earlier. I could have saved myself the trouble of re-branding, but to be fair, I searched long and hard and couldn’t find any dragon covers I could afford the first time around. If you’ve never seen OCAB in paperback, I suggest you give it a consideration: it looks absolutely freaking beautiful in book form. The ebook cover doesn’t do it justice. I can happily say the same for Of Blood and Ashes too.

Lastly, OCAB became a permanently free title in December of 2017. I fully admit it hurt my soul to do that for a book with such a hefty word count and one that was easily one of the hardest novels for me to complete, but you’ve got to be willing to make sacrifices for the greater good as an indie author. After all, the marketing strategy with a free first-in-series gets results even at the expense of my time and considerable effort, which is a good Segway into what I’ve learned this past year.

Write what you love and you’ll find yourself surprised at the results. So I published OCAB back in December 2016, so all of 2017 was basically an enormous learning experience. I was extremely nervous about publishing this novel simply because it’s very niche concept-wise. I started out in the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre, and while some readers tend to read both sci-fi and fantasy, I knew there wouldn’t be as much overlap as any known author would have since I’m just an indie author. It went quite slow at first, to be honest, but then it slowly began to pick up consistent sales. What’s more is that while not all of the people who read The Black Parade read OCAB, I found that there was indeed a market for this concept despite how odd it sounds off-hand. One thing I truly find myself surprised with is that people don’t mind as much that the story is about chasing after the dragon rather than being about dragons in general, and that they are in fact drawn into Jack and Kamala’s friendship and eventual romance, and those were two of my biggest worries when I decided to publish it. I sheepishly admit the book is indeed too long—that’s the most common complaint in all the reviews I’ve received, positive or negative, and don’t worry, I intend to rectify the length once I’m back on my feet money-wise—but the reactions I’ve gotten have been better than I expected. I worried that OCAB was a three-star book, and people are generally telling me it’s a four-star book consistently. That’s an amazing thing to hear since I thought it would under-perform in comparison to The Black Parade, which I am slightly more “known” for. It shows that expanding your horizons isn’t always going to be a bad thing and that’s it’s quite easy to underestimate yourself as an author, and to underestimate the readers too. I wrote OCAB because it was fun and it was something I felt passionately about, and for different reasons than the Black Parade series, and it seems as if that’s what is drawing new readers to it.

Be discerning about who you allow to have your time, effort, and content. I have to be a bit vague about this lesson so as not to invite unwanted attention to myself, but should any young authors start looking into the boxed set style of marketing with other authors, please do enough research beforehand to see who you’re getting in bed with. Sometimes results may vary. Sometimes you find out people have bad reputations behind the scenes and it’s too late to do anything but ride it out. It’s hard to see that sort of thing from the surface should you receive an offer or be interested in submitting a book to a set, but I recommend that you do some Googling and check KBoards forums before making that commitment. All I’ll say is that I’ve been dissatisfied with the sets I entered into in 2017 and you honestly won’t have to worry about seeing me post about sets for a long damn time.

Find your flock. I may or may not have stolen this from the tagline of the movie Storks. (Which, by the way, is currently on HBO and if you’re a twenty or thirty-something, you have got to watch that movie. It’s absolutely amazing.) Although it cost way too much money and was a pain in the ass, returning to my hometown of Atlanta was a good move for me because it put me back in contact with local authors, colleagues, and friends. I’ve been able to attend a handful of author events ever since I moved back, and while none of them are anything huge, it’s been great to rub elbows with like-minded folks. We get to discuss relevant topics that the fandoms and readers and world at large doesn’t always find the time to talk about and we’re able to keep each other grounded and motivated. I always recommend for new authors to try to connect with people in their genre or even in their area since it’s nice to chit-chat about the business with someone who gets it. I fully believe that the key to reaching the next level as an author lies in getting Word of Mouth generate. Sadly, if you’re a small fry indie author as well as an introvert, it’s hard to accomplish that goal, but it is possible. One step at a time, I am working towards getting myself out there, meeting new people, and finding those who might be interested in my work.

To quote a catchy tune, “We’ve got a lot of work to do!” and 2018 is half over. I’m happy to say that I am currently penning the third novel in the OCAB series, Of Dawn and Embers, and that you’ll have more news from me in the fall regarding the plot synopsis and release date. Be patient with me, my darlings. I’m so glad you’re still on this raggedy train with me and I hope to see you for the next ride.

Farewell, Castle

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : May 16, 2016
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Category: Inspiration

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Castle-promo-season-3-castle-26647897-768-1024

“Nothing goes as planned

Everything will break

People say goodbye in their own special way

All that you rely on

And all that you can fake

Will leave you in the morning

And find you in the day

Oh, you’re in my veins

And I cannot get you out

Oh, you’re all I taste at night inside of my mouth

Oh, you run away ‘cause I am not what you thought

Oh, you’re in my veins and I cannot get you out.”

Truer words have never been spoken, in regards to what is arguably my all-time favorite television show. I knew this day would come, but I never fathomed that this would be the way I feel now that it’s here.

In case you missed it, ABC’s Castle, starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, was officially canceled and is airing its series finale episode tonight at 10pm. Unfortunately, this is definitely the most bittersweet goodbye I’ve ever had with a show. (But it could be worse. At least this is bittersweet. Sleepy Hollow’s goodbye was like getting fisted by the Hulk wearing a glove made of salt-encrusted broken glass. I’m not exaggerating. Look what happened and tell me it’s not that bad.)

Anyone who knows me knows I am the most die-hard, foam-at-the-mouth fan of Castle, or at least I was until season eight began. Until about season seven, Castle reigned as one of the best written shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. It was not only funny but insightful, creative, dramatic, and just plain fun to watch. I remember seeing the pilot on my mother’s birthday all the way back in 2009, and part of me just recalls smiling to myself and thinking, “This is going to be the start of something amazing.”

Castle stars Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion. Also, massive amounts of sexual tension.

And it was. For all the rancor that I’ve felt for the eighth season of the show, no one can do what Castle can do. It was one of the only shows on a major network to say ‘screw the Moonlighting curse’ and it found a way to tease at a romantic relationship for four seasons without making it intolerable. It found a way to write a main female lead so that she wasn’t a snob or a bitch or a Mary Sue or anything less than a phenomenal character. It found a way to use Nathan Fillion’s charming good looks and playful nature but then put it against a backdrop of an immature but caring man growing up as he realizes that working with the foxy Beckett was more than just an excuse to woo a fine lady, but a path to make him a better man than he ever thought possible. One of the greatest experiences of the show is to see where Castle and Beckett start off in the pilot and then watching them grow. They just blossom into these two immensely interesting people who you can’t wait to spend time with every Monday night. They are fascinating. Not only that, but even after six seasons, you still found yourself surprised by them and wanting to know more and more with every episode. You’re never bored with Caskett. They can entertain you on so many levels, and not just by being charming and kick ass.

For instance, Castle is the only television show to date that got me to cry—and I mean, cry. As in huge globs of tears and snot pouring down my face and sobbing brokenly. Yes. I did that. The Queen of Mean Kyoko M actually cried like a baby during the season three finale of Castle, “Knockout,” during its final two scenes. It takes a lot of investment to get me to cry, and they did it. I was a wreck. Do you know how important it is to me to have anything that can draw that level of emotion out of me?

To be honest, Castle changed me. It gave me a greater appreciation for the craft of writing in so many ways. It taught me that it really is important to build a relationship, romantic or otherwise, to the point where your audience will never leave their side. It taught me to add layers onto your characters not only for their own good, but for your own good as a writer. It challenged us to stand by Beckett’s bullheaded actions regarding her mother’s case, or to ponder if there is a line between revenge and justice, and if Castle was ready to commit to the biggest thing that ever walked into his life. It’s just an outstanding example of a ton of people coming together and working hard on a project to make it as excellent as humanly possible, and for a long time, Castle certainly pulled it off. I always refer people to it when I want to give an example of how to introduce a dynamic partnership without making it corny or without having the issue like the Winchesters on Supernatural where it becomes clear that the writers favor one partner over the other. It’s completely even handed the way that they characterize Castle and Beckett, and especially in the romantic sense. Sure, there were times where I wanted them to hook up, but you could always tell that they just weren’t ready in the first three seasons. They needed time and perspective, and while it was frustrating, it never felt like it was some kind of manufactured conflict just to keep the ratings going. Castle and Beckett’s hookup is legendary. To this day, many people cite it in the Best Kiss for a TV show lists, and for good reason.

I mean, tell me you can watch this scene and not get your jimmies rustled. It’s flawless. Just flawless.

The truth is…I don’t know how to say goodbye to Castle because this isn’t really a true goodbye for me. A year ago, I’d have been crushed. I’d have ranted and raved about what a poor decision the studio execs made. Sadly, I can’t do that, because season eight has been so terrible that I stopped watching the show over a month ago because it’s not my show anymore. It’s a beautiful car being driven by a drunken asshole teenager, so I quit and just let it keep recording on the DVR out of respect for what it once was. However, I will do them the honor of watching the final episode because I owe them that much.

And the other truth is that even though it won’t have new episodes, but Castle’s not going out of my life. I will still keep my DVDs, I will still watch the reruns in syndication, and I will still refer anyone who ever asks for a great show to it (and tell them to stop at season seven) without any malice. It’s clear the television is on a downward slope with making garbage calls, from renewing the lackluster Agents of SHIELD to imploding Sleepy Hollow to canceling the phenomenal Agent Carter. TV is on a bad track these days, and I think keeping an eye on Netflix is where the future is headed.

I will never forget the thousands of laughs and smiles Castle gave me. I will never forget the tears and the clutch-your-couch-cushions-and-squeal action sequences and theories about 3XK or how Castle got into writing mystery novels (mostly because the canon reason was weak-sauce). I will never forget the adorable relationships between the main cast, and between their fictional counterparts. I will never forget the strength, poise, sheer will, and majesty of Detective Kate Beckett. I will never forget the kindness, charisma, heart, and levity of Richard Castle. No matter how much it hurts to say goodbye, no matter how much it hurt me to see it end on a rotten season, no matter how angry I am that they let Stana Katic and Tamala Jones go before canceling the show, no matter how unsatisfying the series finale is, no one can take away the fun I’ve had these past seven years.

Thank you.

Thank you for changing my life, Castle.

Thank you for being a friend and a comfort and a shining example of excellence for so many years.

You will be deeply, sorely missed.

I guess the only thing left to say is something you said so very, very well during arguably the best episode in your entire run.

Goodbye, old friend.

You’re in my heart.

Always.

 

The Slippery Slope

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : November 11, 2014
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Category: Book & Movie Reviews, Uncategorized

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Castle stars Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion. Also, massive amounts of sexual tension.

Castle stars Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion. Also, massive amounts of sexual tension.

It’s not easy being a fangirl and an author.

Not to be melodramatic, mind you, but it has unintended consequences when you’re both an admirer of good storytelling and a storyteller yourself. You know the tricks, the procedures, the tropes, and unfortunately you are almost always the first to recognize when there is a decline in the quality of writing.

If you know anything about me, you know that I am a die-hard fan of ABC’s ‘Castle’. My entire life unknowingly changed when I watched the pilot on my mother’s birthday all the way back in 2009. ‘Castle’ became a singularity. It was my favorite show, the first show I’d truly fallen in love with since the DC animated shows ‘Batman: The Animated Series,’ ‘Batman Beyond,’ and ‘Justice League/Unlimited.’ I immediately glommed onto the sharp writing, the superb acting, the atypical humor for a crime procedural drama, the deeply interwoven storylines, and of course, our delightful cast of actors. At the time, I had happened past Nathan Fillion in ‘Waitress’ and I hadn’t heard of him before, so I looked him up and that’s how I found ‘Castle’ and later ‘Firefly.’

‘Castle’ has been going strong for seven seasons including the one currently airing at the time of this blog post. Seven years.

Unfortunately, this season is the very first one that shows the first sign of the slippery slope into poor quality.

And I don’t know what I’m going to do if my show becomes bad.

The slippery slope is nothing new to me. In my life, I have lost several shows to bad writing: Supernatural, Futurama, The Legend of Korra, Community, and Scrubs. The slippery slope, as defined by me, is not the same as Jumping the Shark. The slippery slope is early signs that your writers and showrunners are running out of ideas and start retreading things they have already explored with the show, whether it’s rehashed plotlines or backwards characterization.

Last night’s Castle, “The Time of Our Lives”, had all the signs of the show starting on that downward curve into bad.

1. It introduced a concept that was too outlandish for the format of the show. ‘Castle’ has had some delightfully weird and quirky themed-episodes from a Star Trek-esque convention murder to Santa Claus murder suspects to even a 70’s themed retro precinct to even a time-traveling killer, but the alternate reality universe where Castle and Beckett never met is just way too silly for the show. By the end, of course, we’re sure that it’s simply a dream that Castle had after hitting his head during a nasty gun fight, but we’re still expected to believe what happened might be real on account of some weird little Incan artifact. That is a lot to expect an audience to absorb in a show that is pretty much grounded in reality with the exception of some fun themed episodes.

2. It didn’t commit fully to the alternate reality concept. Things were different, but not to the point where I felt like this needed to be an episode that made it off the cutting room floor. For example, sure, there were differences: Alexis lived with her Mom, Castle never wrote Heat Wave or created Nikki Heat so he wasn’t as filthy rich, Martha was a famous actress, Esposito never got back with Lanie, Ryan never married Jenny, and Beckett never caught her mother’s killer and became the youngest Captain of the precinct. Still, these are just slight changes. The most major one should have been Beckett never finding her mother’s killer, but it didn’t have the impact on her personality that it should have. The show has always implied that without Castle, Beckett would be that same closed off, eternally angry and unhappy cop that we met back in the pilot. The Beckett we met in the alternate reality was still way too understanding of Castle’s antics. She despised Castle when he first started shadowing her, and even though there was a seven year time difference, she was not hard enough on him. She still let him get away with practically everything when we saw season one Beckett smack him silly for getting out of line or disobeying direct orders. The fact of the matter is that AU!Beckett was simply not different enough to warrant focus on. This could be Stana Katic’s way of playing her as softer, but I bet a quarter it’s the weak writing rather than her performance.

3. This episode is unnecessary because we already know what their lives would be like if they never met. This issue is largely the fault of good writing, not bad, though. This show has explored so many avenues between Beckett and Castle that it goes without saying how the two would be living without each other. Castle starts out the show as an arrogant, cocky, irresponsible but charming author who has glided through life with little care in the world until he became bored with Derrick Storm. Beckett starts out extremely closed off to any of the great mysteries of life. Coming together matures them both and helps them grow into people who are open to change, love, and a desire for justice. We didn’t need to see an alternate reality episode because we know these characters so well that it’s redundant.

4. Lack of creativity. As mentioned above, this episode’s main purpose is redundant, so that means they made this based on the humor factor. Alright, I admit it, there were some scenes that were comedic gold, and most of them came from Jon Huertas (Det. Esposito) completely nailing his lines and facial expressions of total annoyance with Castle. Nathan Fillion also did a great job being his usual goofy self and while panicking about no one in the precinct knowing him and his family being completely different. However, they didn’t take the concept to the extreme and that’s what would have made this episode actually work. We needed to see extreme versions of our beloved characters instead of just those that were tweaked. They weren’t good foils to the originals, so it felt phoned in. We didn’t sign up for phoned in, guys.

5. The wedding was lackluster. I’ve been preparing for the Caskett wedding literally since the end of the pilot episode. We knew without a doubt from the look on Richard Castle’s face when Beckett walked away that he was going to marry that girl. I mean, look at him, he is so smitten with her:

Richard Castle Flowers For Your Grave

And what did I feel during the Caskett wedding last night?

Nothing.

I felt happy that they were finally married, but I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I wasn’t rushing to Tumblr to instantly reblog every single photoset of them saying their vows.

Do you know why?

It’s too after-the-fact.

The season six finale had all the right set up for the wedding, but for the sake of cheap drama, they ruined it. That’s six seasons of sexual tension and love culminating into a wedding, and you denied me that just so you could draw it out longer. You can’t do that. You can’t do that because it sucks out all my energy to know that everything would have been perfect, but you wanted to make me wait yet another summer to see my lovely darlings say their vows, and even the vows were phoned in. Hell, Ryan and Esposito—arguably family members—weren’t there and that just hurt worse.

The wedding didn’t work because ‘Castle’ is not just about our lovebirds. ‘Castle’ is about so many things and we feel so much for this entire cast of characters, not just Castle and Beckett. I wanted to see Ryan and Esposito in the background grinning their asses off. I wanted to see Lanie dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief as her best friend got married. I wanted to see the late Captain Montgomery’s family standing beside them and being proud of the woman that Montgomery helped build up. We were denied so much by Caskett deciding to elope, and that’s the biggest sign that we might be heading into dangerous territory, into a dark place that the show cannot come back from.

I’m scared, guys.

I don’t know where I’d be without ‘Castle.’ It’s given me so much inspiration and joy over the years, and I love these characters enough to know that they deserve better. As much as I don’t want the show to end, I think we’re nearing the end of the line here. That’s over 100 episodes now and we’re treading water between this episode’s poor writing and wasted concept, not to mention the groan-inducing season opener that literally made my sister-in-law give up on the show. (In her defense, yes, it was the very first truly bad episode of ‘Castle.’ It was just so poorly done.)

I will not quit ‘Castle.’ I know in my heart that I can’t give up on them like I did Supernatural or The Legend of Korra because it means way more to me than other shows I’ve quit. But I am worried for them. Very worried. It’s still very early in the season to make a full assumption—we’re six episodes in and they always have a season of 23-24 episodes—but there could be a storm on the horizon for my beloved Caskett and it’s not going to be easy to get through it.

Sadly, ‘Castle’ isn’t the only show in danger. If you’re involved online, you might have heard about the utter shitstorm that ‘Sleepy Hollow’ just got itself into thanks to a truly badly written episode revolving around Katrina, Ichabod Crane’s wife. The show is only in season two so it is way too early to say they are also on the slippery slope, but trust me, it’s toeing that line. I discuss their issues next, so here’s Part 2 to the Slippery Slope.

-Kyoko

Things National Novel Writing Month Taught Me About Writing

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : November 1, 2013
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Category: Inspiration, Things X Taught Me About Writing

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Holy crap. It’s November. NaNoWriMo is here. HEAD FOR THE HILLS.

Ha, that was a joke. You’re not going anywhere, writers. I’ve chained you by the ankles and now you have to sit and listen as Grand Master Kyoko tells you about NaNoWriMo and why you should be doing it.

For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a competition in which we write a novel in a month, starting on November 1st and ending on November 30th of every year. What do you win? A cool little button from the official website and eternal bragging rights.

Now, if you’re not a writer, you might be thinking, big deal, it’s just a novel. Uh, no, newbie, let me shut you up right there. It’s not a book. You have to write exactly 50,000 words in thirty days. And no, John Bender, I don’t mean the same word repeated 50,000 times. You’ve read a novel before. That entire story typically takes a writer between four and eight months, depending on what level they’re on. And they are expected to do that within thirty days so you had damn well better respect it before I box you upside the ears.

Back to you, writers. As it says on most of my author profiles, I participated in NaNoWriMo in 2011 and actually completed it. But I’m not trying to brag when I mention it—I’m trying to add some authenticity to this post. That crazy, painful month taught me a lot and I’d like to share it with you to give you encouragement on your first day of writing.

Writing is f@#king hard. Now, granted, you already know this, authors, but trust me, NaNoWriMo is going to enforce it like a bouncer outside of a sexy night club. You’re going to feel like Judge Doom at the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit—flattened while you flailed and screamed in a high-pitched voice. It’s hard enough to pound out 50,000 words a year for a paycheck (or for nothing if you’re an indie author like me hahaha it hurts to laugh), but cramming all of that process into a month is going to make you want to eat a bullet. But you’re not going to do that. Tuck in your skirt, lady.

Writing is hard because it’s worth it. You’re going to have days when you write the full 2,000 word a day quota, and then you’ll have days when you write two sentences and then eat a bucket of Americone Dream while sobbing that you are a total failure. You’re going to struggle over character motivations and action sequences and witty one liners and it’s going to suck. You’re going to stare at the clock and wonder how you ever thought this was a good idea. You’re going to curse God and try to make a deal with Lucifer in order to inspire you to reach that finish line.

And you know what?

That’s a good thing.

It’s all about pacing yourself. This is also a concept that is infinitely hard for writers because the creative process isn’t like the scientific method. There isn’t a quota or a calculation to writing. There is no formula. It’s all free ideas flowing constantly through your brain and your soul. It comes and goes. But you don’t have time for that hippie stuff when you only have a month to write a full on novel. What NaNoWriMo taught me is to simply let go: let go of the perfect dialogue, the flawless landscape of the plot, the meticulous character details, all of it. NaNoWriMo is all about raw materials. A diamond isn’t beautiful until it’s polished, but it’s still a diamond. No one said you had to pull it fully cut out of the ground—you simply have to dig for it and you’re there. Your draft is going to be total garbage at first, but that’s the entire point. NaNoWriMo is dumpster-diving, plain and simple. You learn to dig through different piles each and every day. You’ll find some yucky stuff and toss it aside, but you’ll also find buried treasures that you never thought you could find.

There are also plenty of resources to help you with pacing yourself each day. To total up to 50,000 words in a month, you basically have to write 2,000 words a day, but that’s rounding up. There is an exact number of words (around 1,600 or so), but I think it’s healthier to aim for 2,000 because then if you fall short one day, you’ll still be ahead by a little bit. That way, if you have a long day at work and you don’t have time to write, you can realistically catch up.

Let go of your inner perfectionist. I feel like such a hypocrite saying this, but it’s definitely a hard lesson that NaNoWriMo taught me. I get my perfectionist habits from my parents—a business consultant who is working on his Ph.D and a registered nurse who works in case management, respectively—and they aren’t easy to kick. I take it ten times more seriously in my writing than in my real life, too. I obsess over every single word and where it is and how it’s phrased and how I can make it so perfect that publishers will bang down my doors and filmmakers will run up to me begging to make my book into a movie so that I can finally achieve my dream of meeting Nathan Fillion and marrying him and oh wait I lost my point back there, didn’t I? Ahem. I fret over my own writing day and night. I think I’m substandard. I weep that I’m not Jim Butcher. I read my favorite novels over and over in vain attempts to soak up their greatness and squeeze it back out over my own manuscript.

But you can’t do that in a month.

A month gives you enough time to map out where you want to go and then you just trail-blaze, like Miguel and Tulio. Don’t stop for all the little stuff. You have words to write. It’s like cutting through vines in a jungle—you’ll get stuck if you stop every five minutes to clean the mud off your boots. You have to let go of all the things that make you want to stop and edit and erase what you’ve written. You can’t do that. You have to accept your faults and move on because this is about the end game. You’re heading for that pyramid with the huge diamond on top. You have a goal and by God, you’re going to reach it and don’t let that crazy person in your head talk you out of it no matter what.

The reward outshines the difficult journey. First of all, don’t you dare get down on yourself if you are unable to finish NaNoWriMo. You are NOT a failure. This is one of the hardest competitions any writer will ever face, so don’t even think for a second that you are less of an author if you don’t complete it in time. I’m not saying this to coddle you, either. The truth is that NaNoWriMo has more than one reward. It’s not just about the bragging rights. Even if you don’t finish on time, there are still great things to gain from it.

First of all, you still have an original idea in manuscript form. That’s fantastic. Once November is over, you’re free to go back to being a regular crazyface author and you can do whatever the bloody hell you want with your new story. You can chop it up into bite sized pieces, you can make it into a series, you can turn it into a screenplay, you can do anything. That’s an incredibly liberating notion, isn’t it? All the rules no longer apply and you can take it wherever you want, including nowhere if you don’t like it (like I did. The Starlight Contingency was a one time gig and I have no plans to finish it, but it’s still great that I did it. But if you’re curious, you can read the entire thing for free right here: The Starlight Contingency.)

Second of all, if you do win, you can always look back on that victory no matter what happens in your future career. No one, and I mean no one, can take away that fresh, exhilarating thrill when you think about the fact that you condensed months’ worth of work into thirty days. Not everyone can write a novel. Sure, some hacks can fart one out and become bestsellers, but they didn’t do it in a month. You did. You’re awesome. You’re a god. You’re Elvis. You’re one bonafide bad mother sucker.

And after you do it, take the time to celebrate. Strut down the street like you’re a sexy piece of ass and don’t let anyone tell you anything different. You did something worthwhile and that very few people could ever do. That’s the real reward of NaNoWriMo. It’s a celebration of the writing process and celebrating the brave souls who do it, whether just for a month or a year or for their entire lives.

And that might sound corny, but I truly think that is why every single writer should try it at least once in their lifetime. Whether you complete it or not, you’re going to learn something for free.

Who doesn’t want that?

Good luck, my darlings. Open that document and get started.

Don’t worry. I got your back.

-Kyoko

Things Castle Taught Me About Writing

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : September 29, 2013
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Category: Inspiration, Things X Taught Me About Writing

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Monday is usually everyone’s least favorite day  of the week, but it isn’t for me thanks to a wonderful cop procedural dramedy known as Castle. It hit the airwaves in 2009 and has been kicking ass ever since with the help of geek god Nathan Fillion and the delicious Stana Katic.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be the same person I am now without this show—both as a writer and as a fangirl. In honor of its sixth season premiere, I’d like to share what this wonderful show has taught me over the years.

Unresolved sexual tension exists for a reason. Sexual tension. It’s a tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme…wait, no, sorry, wrong story. The titular Castle and his muse, Detective Kate Beckett, wasted no time in sharing steamy chemistry by introducing it literally in the first episode. The first words out of his mouth upon meeting her (at a book release party where dozens of women gathered to drool over him) was, “Where would you like it?” while holding up a Sharpie to presumably sign her chest. Ever since then, it’s been a tango between the two. Castle fancied her from the second he laid eyes on her while Beckett remained unamused and uninterested for most of the first season, but she eventually warmed up to him. One of the most admirable things this show has done is taking the stigma out of the “Will They or Won’t They” trope, which is commonplace in all types of fiction. Castle was able to successfully introduce, explore, and resolve the sexual tension between the characters because the creator, Andrew W. Marlowe, and the cast actively disagree with the “Moonlighting Curse.” For any of you whippersnappers out there, Moonlighting was a 1980’s TV show with starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd as a dynamic duo of sorts who solved cases and had massive amounts of lust between them. However, after the two finally hooked up, the show immediately lost the audience’s interest and got canceled.

The relationship between Castle and Beckett worked because it developed naturally instead of being corralled by the writers. Their actions stayed true to the characters. They constantly made each other better and strengthened their bond before they took a tumble into the bedroom. Many writers struggle with this concept by making several rookie mistakes: resolving the tension too quickly (ex. Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood), dragging the tension along for too long (ex. Ross and Rachel), creating a pointless love triangle where one love interest is clearly the winner and the other gets strung along (Katniss Everdeen and Gale), etc. We’ve all seen this happen in shows/movies/anime/books we love. Castle taught me to fight the urge to force characters together too late or too soon. Allow each character to grow first and then worry about when and how they’ll connect. That will keep things steamy as well as preventing the reader from losing interest or becoming frustrated with the couple.

Supporting characters are the cream in the coffee. If for some bizarre reason you don’t fall in love with Castle and Beckett at first sight, the show has a fantastic spread of supporting protagonists to keep you happy. It is also one of the few shows that found a way to balance these people in Castle and Beckett’s lives, as in no one character steals the spotlight all the time.

More importantly, the secondary characters often provide the subplots that can help enhance the enjoyment of the main storyline. It has become a joke in the fandom that Castle’s daughter Alexis and his mother Martha have helped him solve as many murders as Beckett has due to their troublesome personal lives. It can be difficult building one’s own “cast” in a novel or short story, but it’s ultimately worth it because of diversity. Having more than just one or two characters allows comparisons to be drawn among them. It can highlight implicit and explicit conflict. It can give the character someone to antagonize or sympathize with. Supporting characters are just what their namesake says: they help hold the weight of the story and distribute it evenly.

Themes can be important and juicy tidbits to add to the story. There are a lot of themes in Castle—from overarching concepts like justice vs. revenge or lust vs. love, all the way down to the coffee that the two constantly share and their repeated phrase “Always” in favor of saying, “I love you” before the two became a couple. It has been one of the most enjoyable things about the series over the years. The writers of Castle know their stuff. They are careful to weave the threads throughout the series and create delightful parallels to entice the viewers and make them feel even more connected with the characters.

For example, (spoiler alert!) there’s the line that convinced Castle to begin shadowing Beckett for “research purposes” was after he offered to take her out on a date (and debrief her, ha-ha) and he tells her that it was too bad because it would have been great. The normally no-nonsense Beckett then bites her lip and whispers in his ear, “You have no idea.” Guess what happens the morning after the pair finally sleep together? Castle says, “You were right. I had no idea.” And that’s a distance of five seasons from the pilot to the season five opener. Keeping themes, lines, gags, and ideas like that is what makes the show so much fun to watch. Giving the fiction a definite continuity can further involve your readers and make them a part of what they’re seeing. Furthermore, they can end up hungering for more, like how us Marvel fans eagerly watch the Marvel Universe movies to see small shout outs to other heroes, and the always delightful cameo of Stan “The Man” Lee. Themes, when done properly, are just one more thing to love about a good book.

Keep an eye on your fans. This concept is dangerous, but also well worth the trouble if it works out just right. The Castle writers, creators, and actors are all connected to their audience through social media. Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion both live tweeted the season six premiere, and have done it more than once. They answer questions, post Behind-the-Scenes pics, and generally goof off just like their fans do. They make us feel welcome and tease us with all kinds of interesting things that the show is involved in.

As a writer, it’s important to stay connected to the readers for several reasons: (1) to gauge the general reception of your work (2) to find new readers (3) to catch flaws, criticism, or accidental plotholes that their eyes were good enough to catch (4) to discover new avenues that your work can travel that you may not have considered. For instance, the portmanteau couple name for Castle and Beckett in the fandom is “Caskett” (adorable, right?) and the show’s creators were so tickled by it that they snuck it into a season five episode. This caused a huge uproar of pure glee from the fandom to know that we had influenced our own show. It is a bit harder to integrate something like that into fiction, but it can result in further engrossing the readers when they know that they have your attention. They may even spread your fanbase by telling their friends what they helped create on their favorite show.

Castle’s sixth season has a lot left to show me and I can’t thank the writers/actors enough for giving us such an incredible run over the years. If you’re curious, tune in Monday nights at 10pm EST on ABC to see more of the lovable mystery novelist and his sexy detective. Maybe you’ll learn a little something too.

Kyoko