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I’ve recently been roped into a writerly blog chain called the Next Big Thing. It involves writers doing a Q&A about their latest work in progress, then tagging five other writers at the bottom of their post. The Q&A posts from those writers, then appears exactly one week later and so on. . .

It’s reached quite a few corners of the web already, which is not surprising. I’m not quite sure where it all started, but I do know that the number of writers involved must be pretty impressive by now.

The thing is exponential.

And interesting. I’ll probably end up getting involved myself.

(Cover, Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work)

I’m coming into the homestretch on finishing the first draft of the initial book in my trilogy, The Rise and Fall of the American Republic, currently titled Death and Destruction.  (The second and third are, respectively, Revolution and Rebirth, and Vengeance and Victory).

Unfortunately, just finishing the first draft means the work only continues.  Copyediting is always a necessary PITA.  Because I’d like to sell these books in a package deal, I need to do detailed outlines of the second and third, as well.  Then they go off to my agent, Caitlin Blasdell, who was also my editor at Harper Collins, and she will work her editorial magic upon them (probably considerably more magic than I may be able to find at any publishing house, given these parlous times).

The book seems as if it’s taken forever, although it’s only been five months – but I was once used to doing five or six books a year.  This is a big one, though, and my industrious habits had gotten a bit rusty, so I probably shouldn’t beat myself up over it too badly.

I do have to say that Richard Presssfield’s Do the Work was a huge help in getting me back on track with good writing habits.  Yeah, you ought to read it – especially given that it is free.  And in this case, you get one hell of a lot more than you’re paying for.

So, I’m hoping to have everything wrapped up and out of the house by Christmas – which will be a wonderful holiday gift for me.

Then, of course, I start work on the next one….

Quick, Get Me A Flashlight | According To Hoyt

Doesn’t matter anyway. Literary value is a will o’ the wisp and has been used for centuries by those-who-know-better to tell the masses what ’orrible little people they are and what ’orrible ’horrible taste they have. (Shakespeare. All that blood. Ghosts. Inaccurate history. Rotted the mind like cheap candy. A favorite of truculent apprentices and low brows. Why, he had the violence happen right htere on the stage, while all the well bred people knew the way to do it was to have a messenger come and announce it. In the more fraught plays, messengers crossed back and forth on the stage, but it was good taste. Everyone knew that. As a literature major I’ve had to read those plays. They’re very illuminating of the human condition. Like Tolstoi.)

What literary value is not is a predictor of sales, unless you are talking ONLY sales to a small subset of status-insecure people who want to show how intelligent they are. Now, there are any number of those and there are scam– er… authors who make a living off them, but I am not an artist – I work for a living – and I’d rather sell stuff people genuinely enjoy.

The question is… what is that?

And that is the question all writers who are actually serious wrestle with constantly. If you claim you’re not interested in selling – which actually means you’re not interested in having folks read what you write – then you’re probably a liar. If not, the obvious question is, why are you writing in the first place?

Oh, sure, I understand that the internet now gives everybody a platform to blather anything you like, and people don’t need to pay a red cent to read it, so, technically, you have no need to sell your work. If that’s you – if that’s what makes you content – then stop reading this now, because what I have to say will be of no interest to you. Nor will your literary exibitionism have much interest for me, given that I hew to Samuel Johnson’s admonition: “”No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

I’ve spent well on to 40 years trying to figure out what sells. There don’t seem to be any guarantees, and certainly trying to figure out what will bring the Stephen King/Harry Potter/Tom Clancy lightning down on your head is probably a mug’s game.

That said, a good story seems to be a necessity. By that, I mean a plot that makes sense and has a logical, interesting progress to a satisfying ending. Happy endings – that is, where the hero triumphs over the fascinating problems you have littered his path with – seem to work better than tragedies. Everyman characters rising to the occasion are always popular. People want to identify with heroes, although you need to keep your villains reasonably sympathetic as well. Pure black only works with anarchists and hipster fashions.

Oddly enough, it takes many would-be writers a long time to figure out even these basics. I blame the plethora of creative writing courses that populate the modern academic curriculum, wherein wannabes are instructed that lapidary prose and endless character dissection are the ne plus ultra of good writing.

Story? Plot? Attractive, likable characters struggling and triumphing over near-insurmountable odds? How passe. No, even worse than passe. Reprehensible. To be avoided if you value the purity of your art.

Let me tell you this: If you call your writing your art, you are probably going to be able to number your readers without using all of your digits. You want to be rich and famous? Learn what average people like to read, and then do your damndest to give it to them.

The Big Idea: Richard Kadrey – Whatever

Richard Kadrey’s “Sandman Slim” series is one of my favorite sets of fantasy books from the last few years, so it’s a pleasure to bring Kadrey back to the Big Idea to talk about its latest installment, Aloha From Hell. This time around, and with a nod to his series’ main character, Kadrey’s here to talk about the value of persistence, even when by all indications you’ve been entirely left for dead.

Call it coincidence, serendipity, whatever. I’ve known Kadrey’s work for decades, but hadn’t read anything recently, until I discovered (through an Amazon recommendation, of all things – and that will be the substance of another post here shortly) his Sandman Slim series. I read the first, Sandman Slim, and immediately glommed onto the remaining two (so far) in the series and, as it happens, I’m reading Aloha from Hell right now.

I have to confess that, aside from my enjoyment of the books, my first reaction was utter envy. Why can’t I come up with a character/concept like this? The closest I ever came was my Calley/Berg duo in the Dream Trio series, but I’m still looking for that Killer Koncept.

Anyway, read Richard’s inspiring tale of ultimate success after a period of depressing failure. It will help you keep the dream alive. And a big thank you to John Scalzi for the interview.