As I type this, I’ve sold less than 300 copies of my first book. I’m ranked 532,049th among Amazon’s authors. My sales graph looks like a jumbo slide at a theme park.
Writing a book is hard. It takes time and effort. Authors shove all of their heart and souls into their work, and they care about what they do. Here I am looking at all of this data, and it can be discouraging.
This is not a blog about giving up. If you’re reading this, and you think I’ll ever stop, you must be on my page for the first time.
What I’m trying to share with everyone out there is how discouraging it can be some times. I talk to my author friends about it all the time. This, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons people never write a book. They see the completion of a novel as a step to success (the sale of said novel).
What I want to do now is share with you all how I deal with discouragement. I’m in NO way an expert. But of all the things that get me down, writing isn’t on the list. Sales, marketing, and life, oh my do I have a list! But discouragement can only win if you give up. I’ve spoken about this a lot. So what keeps me going? What keeps me typing when I’m setting new all-time lows? What keeps me marketing?
You fail when you quit: This is something I was taught even as a kid. To my own detriment, I’m one who refuses to quit. I’m fiercely loyal. I’m ABSOLUTELY dedicated. When I say “I will,” I do. So when I start to feel like a failure, I try something. I try ANYTHING I can think of that I think will help me improve. I try a new marketing scheme. I try a new sales tactic.
In my life, I’ve learned that if you want to HAVE something, you must, in fact, DO something. Now…I’m a man who like momentum. I’ll take the longer, slower way to work if it lets me keep my car in motion. Try though other friends have, I refuse to believe the answer to getting anywhere is stop. The downside to this is sometimes that effort is misused. I try not to waste energy, but in this, my nature trumps my actions. Whatever happens though, the moment I feel low, I consider what I CAN do, and I do that.
Remember Where You Started: Even if I NEVER sell a book again, I’ve still written a book. It’s not easy. You see, in reference to my earlier statement, I see sales as sales. I don’t consider the sale of said book to be the goal of writing. Finishing a book is the goal of writing. Selling said book is the goal publishing the next book. No matter how low I get, I realize nothing stops me from writing another book.
This does a lot for me in other ways. Bob was my first novel, and if I had it to do again, I’d have waited to publish one book until I had three ready to go. I had no idea how powerful having multiple products was. I would categorize the decision as a mistake, but it’s not one from which I can’t recover. Caught will help. Maybe 1,200 gets me an agent? Maybe the next book gets me on the NYT Best Seller List. Even if they don’t. The data shows having more books out helps you sell more books. So even if I’m the worst selling author ever, I’m still an author. As I type this, my book is on my little trophy case. I get all sad and whiny, and then I look to my left. That’s MY book. I wrote that!
Finding Wins: This is a harder concept to grasp. For me, one of my most powerful wins is that the bulk of my readers like my book. According to Goodreads, 95% of people who rate or review my book like it. 80% offer four stars or more. Even the three-star reviews are very kind and usually have something very fulfilling to offer an author who’s having a bad day. Another win for me is starting or finishing another project. I can finish edits to Caught and tell myself, “This one will do better!”
Talking To People: This is critical. We writers can be pretty miserable at times. We’re actually very fun people on the whole (well, maybe I’m not, but I’m not all that normal a guy to begin with). The thing is we’re artists, and we artists are emotional beings. I’ve had several conversations with all my writer friends.
Sometimes I’m there telling them how great they are. Sometimes they’re around to remind me the same. This isn’t just writing. When life in general gets me down, I have friends that I can turn to. Don’t mistake the desire to move on as “happiness.” This isn’t a post about how to be happy. I’m a fighter. I am constantly fighting the me from yesterday, and I hate that dude. I want the me of today to be better, and that’s a very hard code to live by. But I find the strength and will to keep going when I talk to those I love. Sometimes we bounce ideas off of each other. Sometimes they just sit and listen because they know that’s all I need. No matter what though, they’re there for me, and that means everything.
So those four things are what keep me going. I understand that one of them amounts to, “just keep going, cause screw giving up,” but it works for me. My friends hate this phrase I quote, “I am Orwell’s Boxer, and I will work harder.” But that’s me in a nutshell. I’ll never stop. I’ll never give in. I may end up old and in a metaphorical glue factory, but I’ll never give in. When I feel the temptation to get too self pitying, any one or combination of these things helps me get moving again.
What works for you? Do you have some motivation that keeps you moving when everything and everyone says you should stop? Share it down below or post it on your blog and throw up the link.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
(AFTERWARD: The day after I typed this, I sold a book. I also received one three-star review and two, five-star reviews since writing this post. So you see, just keep going. No matter how low you are, the only time you fail is when you quit.)
So I often talk about a lot of books and things of that note, but a few people have asked me about my favorites, and I thought now was as good a time as any to share a few with you. I’m probably already talked about these in one way or another, but I think it’s a good idea to have them all in one spot. After considering my options, I’ve decided to give you my top five, because everyone likes a good countdown. These are my all-time favorite. They are books I’ve read more than once simply because I love them.
5) Beowulf: Probably the first book I was ever made to read in school that made me realize that books existed that I actually liked. There’s a lot here in this story. Beowulf is probably why I’m drawn to the types of characters to which I’m drawn. I created a role playing character named in his honor.
3) Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson: I’ll confess. I read this because I learned that Sanderson was finishing the Wheel of Time (see below). I wanted to get to know him so I would just judge him on what he “didn’t do that I thought Jordan WOULD do.” So I read his blog when he spoke about Jordan’s passing. That alone helped me see what a good man he was. Then I read Mistborn. Game over! He’s the best in the business. He’s a brilliant writer and an amazing individual in the community of authors. On my list of “writers whom I drop what I’m reading for,” he’s number one.
1) The Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey: This has been my favorite series for decades. I fell in love with Ruth. I love the Master Harper. It’s one of a few books I freely confess to openly weeping over while reading. It’s so beautiful and touching. The drama between characters just pulls in the reader. The covers are simply amazing. Every time someone asks, “If I want good fantasy, where do I start reading?” This is my answer.
I love 
What I thought I could add or build from this wonderful tool was how to use it when writing a book. I don’t see this as a character development tool myself. Rather, I try to anticipate how readers will see the character. I’m editing 
Case study: Naruto is a moron. He’s a goof, who’s just winging it. He can’t do a single normal jutsu and really only has the one major trick. But look at how hard he works! Look at how much he cares about his comrades? Look at how he struggles to maintain his bonds. In fact, each time he wins, it’s usually DESPITE his competence. Still, if he NEVER learned anything, he’d eventually get boring. So at certain points, he becomes ever so much less stupid. This is how we see his progression as a character. Don’t mistake progression as moving forward.
Now that I’ve done a few case studies, let’s turn that microscope on myself. While writing Bob, I was very concerned about the first act because the conflict is subtle. Most reviews regard the first act as the best, which makes me feel good I didn’t cut it from the book. In the first act, Bob is sympathetic and proactive. His proactivity is what causes the conflict. Police notice him, and now he has to evade them. He’s not very competent. He doesn’t know anything about his job. He doesn’t know how to avoid police. He’s not even very good at covering his tracks. This leads to the climax of part one.
In Part 3, I make Bob more competent. I do this by showing him learn. I had to bring in the “mentor” archetype. I had to give Bob a few wins. This made it so when he got to the final conflict, he looked like he stood a chance.
That leads me to my last point. The Mary Sue character. Corey would be awesome and tell you where that term came from, I just learned it an moved on. (The difference between a gardner and an architect if I’ve ever seen one). A Mary Sue is a character that is the most compelling, most powerful, most proactive, most competent character ever. Dear God, do I hate those characters. I argue that if a character is too powerful and too competent, the sympathy bar naturally slides down for me. It’s a risk writers take. But here’s my twist:
One reference for how to adjust sympathy is 
One of my betas for Journals hates Richard. When she told me why, I smiled, and said, “Sorry, but that’s exactly what I wanted you to feel.” The degree to which readers hate Richard is one thing, but if they hate him for the same reason my beta hated him, I did my job right. Characters can’t be completely rage worthy any more than they can be completely sympathetic. The masters (who in my opinion are George R.R. Martin and Peter V. Brett) can make you hate a character and then a book later, make you at least understand them. This particular ability allows you to have an extra arch with your characters.
Those characters are unique, but they can get boring quickly. I’ve failed in my life, so I look for characters who have flaws, but are generally decent folk. One of the more common compliments I get for Journals is Bob. He’s a good, white-hat, guy. He has his slumps, but he’s consistently kind and compassionate, and that makes him sympathetic when he’s faced with tragedy. Others don’t like him because he’s too nice. I think the world is just about done with antiheroes, then again, maybe not. I think it’s an archetype like any other. Use tools for a reason.
The Warded Man/Arlen from 
ke to start this story out by telling you about my senior year in high school. I promise, this is relevant. I don’t know about you all, but my algebra class had a rubric which accounted for showing your math. This infuriated me. I’d get the answer correct, but lose a point because I didn’t demonstrate how I got there.
The first book I ever finished writing was discovery written. I wrote a chapter a day for a few months and finished a book. I made it up as I went. I knew what my ending was, and I had a few general ideas, but I just sat down and typed. I’ve mentioned before that book never worked, but while numerous drafts are a consequence of discovery writing, the technique isn’t a bad one. I was just so inexperienced and raw, I didn’t know what to do.
This is what I tend to do now. I develop my characters. I plot their progress. I do this by typing a summary of their through line of the story. If I hit a scene I really like or just want to flesh some things out, I do. If my pace starts to slow down, I just summarize what’s going on and move forward. I’ve written whole chapters that way. Once all my characters are done and their through lines prepped, I tie them together in an overall outline. Again, as I copy and paste these plots together, I let the 17-year-old me come to all the conclusions he wants.
My fingers still fly across the keypad. I don’t stop for anything. Inevitably, I come to a new chapter, a new character, or pretty much anything that needs description. Description is the molasses in my swimming pool. I get better with every book, but inevitably, I get frustrated, or just flat out bored. So what do I do? I use parenthetical symbols.
I’ve found that really works for me. It took just about three years to write my second book. (That first book I mentioned, I wrote it 21 times through a 15-year period). This new system allows me to write about one a year. It still takes a hot minute to edit and make them ready to publish, but not nearly as long as Journals took me.
A note on content and content warning. Not only is this book designed for adults, I must admit that this has some aspects of tone and conduct that strike me the wrong way. While this affected MY enjoyment of the book, it does not diminish the quality of the writer or it’s narrative. This is important for me to say because I developed this new review format to be objective. The reasons I struggled with the book have more to do with my own past and my own issues than it does with why this book might be of interest to other readers. That said, readers with an aversion to certain sexual situations may want to speak to a friend who’s read this book before reading it themselves.
For the longest time, I kept writing because Ben (my brother) was reading my work. I gained friends, joined a writers’ group, and found myself on the HMS Slush Brain. I have support, and this milestone matters. EVERY milestone matters.
getting any traffic, so he pretty much clapped his hands and wiggled his nose, and I had a website before I knew it. He’s a great man, a brilliant writer and one of the most dedicated friends you can ask for. He helped me get set up on WordPress, and was my first follower.
Sinister Dark Soul
Whilst wandering the Earth in search of more skills, I came upon a scroll. I don’t know how it came to be under a rock in a cave I didn’t realize I’d need to sleep in until the snow grew so thick I couldn’t see, nor do I understand why I bothered to glance at it before I burned said paper for much-desired warmth. The important thing is I read it.
I re-read the word over and over. Was there more? Nothing. Who would waste so much paper for a single, five-letter word? The excitement I felt when I saw the title was replaced by the need for self-preservation. My body was shaking from the cold at this point and my fingers were likely to become individually wrapped popsicles.
“You gonna hold me all day, or do you mean to do something?”
“I still don’t have any ideas.”
Frustrated, I stabbed the pen onto the scroll and started writing a story about an argumentative quill destined to help an aspiring author create the greatest story ever told.
I’d decided to be a writer, and I realized all I needed to be so was to write. I started out as a discovery writer. I just made crap up and wrote until it made sense to me. I kept going until I’d finished my first book. It was awful. The description was lacking. The setting made no sense. The plot was trite.
I joined the Navy and learned how to be a journalist. I saw a bit of the world. I got distracted, but I eventually recommitted to what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a writer, so I wrote. I tried to save that first book. I literally tried 21 times to make that book something ready to be published. It’s still not. So I wrote a new book. I joined a writer’s group. Those words came more and more easily to me. The more I wrote, the more I wrote. The more times I typed “the end,” the more times I started a new book.
Everyone with a dream has that moment of calling. It’s almost never some obvious magical moment in a cave with a magical, talking quill. It’s hardly ever some wise old traveler coming to change your life. The real world isn’t that kind. The real world lets you do, whatever it is you want to do.
I don’t care what you write. Just write. I don’t care if it’s good; that’s what editing is for. I don’t care if no one likes it; write what you like. Just write. It doesn’t have to be a thousand words. It can be a block of time or a smaller number of words. But every day you write, you’ll find it easier to write. I promise! Every day you write, you’ll find you’ve written more and more. I promise!
M.L.S. Weech 