Build Your Platform, No Wood Needed

An annual book fair called Book ‘Em North Carolina brought more than 75 authors and publishers together February 22, 2014, in Lumberton, NC at Robeson Community College. I attended the conference and attended presentations by experts in writing and publishing. A subject discussed often by several of the participants on different panels was the need to build a platform.

This platform is not a raised area that’s higher above the floor level. It’s not a type of shoe. It’s not a list of principles used by a political party. It’s not a part of a deck attached to a house. The platform that authors need is a combination of methods to publicize their books. It’s advertising.

Social media are ideal methods of creating an author’s platform. The sites most often mentioned at seminars are Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin and Pinterest. These are only a few of the social networks available, and more are appearing all the time.

The sites are similar to each other in the ways you can publicize your books, stories and yourself. Presenters at this recent conference mentioned that you should use only sites you appreciate and use comfortably. Otherwise your efforts will appear strained.  

One participant at the conference talked about the need to use a blog and a website.  Once you generate some interest in your writing, a website and blog tie it together by offering ways to buy your book. The same author mentioned she often hears from budding writers that the creative part is what they want to do. Selling their books is not fun, they say. Well, talking about you book is both fun and interesting to your audience. Promotion is a natural sequence to writing short stories and books.

Offering a sample of your book on a website is an effective way of creating interest about your work. It will stretch your creativity and offer you feedback from your readers. Most importantly, you will sell more books. I rotate samples of my book, “The Device”, on my personal website in an effort to share my writing with site visitors.

Successful writers mentioned the advantage, some call it a need, of a website and blog to tease readers about a book that is not ready for print. Writers plant seeds about their upcoming books months ahead of time. This is when a sample of a short story or an interesting section of your novel will encourage readers to look for the book after you offer it for sale. Obviously, a site such a Facebook can go a long way to publicize an upcoming book.

This publicity, called advertising, is often required by publishers. After submitting your work to a publishing house, the exciting callback from the publisher often includes a question about how you will help in the advertising. Publishers want us to be responsible for part of the promotion of the book by using websites, blogs and social media sites.

Building your platform is necessary and fun. The best part is that you won’t need wood or nails to build it. I promise you won’t hit your fingers with a hammer.

I briefly touched on the changes in the publishing industry though this is a complex subject to explore in a future blog. Check my website at www.joevlatino.com. Thanks for your attention and keep writing.

Use Backstory, Not Prologue

This blog gives authors information to help them write better short stories. Readers of fiction can use this information to help them enjoy this art form.

Grabbing your readers’ interests at the beginning of your story is critical. If the story gets bogged down by too much explanation before action takes over, the reader will say “ho hum” and put the book down. Boring exposition is the result of a prologue. It’s an introduction or preface to the story that is about to begin. A prologue gives a narrative about the protagonist and background about main characters. For short stories, this is a waste of space, and it distracts the reader.

Short story writers weave a backstory into the plot to add some history to the main character. These stories usually have one main character or two at the most. Flashback, the main plot development technique used in short stories, works with the backstory to give the reader the character’s history with a minimum amount of words.

Your short story needs to start with action to identify character, one of the five elements of a story. The backstory then develops the other four necessary elements of motivation, conflict, change and resolution. You can read about these five necessary parts of the story in my blog dated January 25, 2014.

The short story “Sticks and Stones” uses backstory to move the plot. It’s in my book of short stories “The Device” that was published in 2013.

“Sticks and Stones” starts immediately in the middle of action that gives us location and one of the main characters of the story. A hired killer surprises a bar owner after closing time.  The owner co-operates with the armed man who is there to rob the bar, he thinks. The owner finds out he was condemned to be killed for not obeying the local mob’s extortion demands.

Phil, the bar owner, promises he will pay the extortion money as he begs for mercy. The hired killer responds calmly: “I’m afraid it’s too late for that. I’ve enjoyed our conversation. I’ll make it quick and painless.”

The backstory begins to reveal the killer’s history. We learn he is very proficient at his gruesome profession. He even perfected a technique of keeping his pistol quiet when it’s fired.

“The small-caliber gun made very little noise. Phil’s head served as a silencer. The stranger was smiling as he picked up the two small casings and put them into his pocket.”

The story gives the reader background about the killer by showing, not telling. That’s necessary in any story. I’m using two more characters in “Sticks and Stones” as examples.

One character is Susan Thompson, a licensed investigator. She has a backstory that explains her short career as a police officer. Her interesting tale is dominated by her unusual physical condition. The backstory shows that she was wounded during a police shootout during a convenience store robbery. She survived a bullet that went into her heart.

Susan’s client asks her about the incident that resulted in her being wounded before she retired from being a police officer: “I was shot in the heart during a convenience store robbery. My partner was killed. The doctors decided to leave the bullet alone. It’s still in me.”

Susan’s good friend and counselor, psychiatrist Dr. Johns, describes the story about the killer who is now her patient. Dr. Johns shows the relevant facts about the killer and helps to advance the plot.

Using backstory and flashback made this action story flow and stay short at 24 pages. Prologues are unnecessary writing tools that only make a story slow at its most important part—the beginning. Using the cumbersome technique of a prologue will drive off readers and, worst of all, editors who might buy our stories.

Thank you for reading this blog. A new one will be posted in about one week. My web page at www.joevlatino.com has information about “The Device.” 

Vowels and Consonants

This blog provides information to help authors write better short stories. Fans of fiction can use this information to help them increase their understanding of this art form.

“The alphabet is made of vowels and consonants. The vowels are A E I O U and sometimes Y. All the rest of the letters are called consonants.”

This is my best recollection of a lesson given to my first grade class in 1952. The teacher was Sister Mary Denise. I was six years old. Our teaching nun used repetitive drills and flash cards to teach us reading and language skills.

I remember watching our teacher at the front of the class as she showed us different words on five by seven cards and telling us to “sound it out.” She dominated the room in her black-and-white habit that included a coif (tight fitting cap) and veil. Picture the nuns in “The Sound of Music” for a visual.

Naming the vowels and consonants was simple enough, but I was always at a loss why the letter Y was only sometimes a vowel. Also, it was many years later that I learned the specific use of the two types of letters.

I personally feel Y is a vowel most of the time.  It carries an I sound into words that don’t have another vowel. Examples are my, why, try and shy.  An exception is the word gypsy that doesn’t have an I sound and uses two Ys, both vowels. The letter Y is all over the place as a vowel. We need to identify it in the list of vowels as usually Y, not sometimes Y.

In its use as a consonant, letter Y starts or ends a word as in the few examples of yes, young and yoke.  The twenty-six letters of our alphabet put vowels and consonants together to create the sounds of our English words. They work differently to create the sounds of our words.

A consonant sound is produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream from our lungs into our mouths. A vowel sound comes from the open configuration of the vocal tract.

Every word in English must have at least one vowel to produce the sounds of our words. Consonants guide us to use our lips to create explosive sounds such as P and B. Our teeth and tongue make the consonant sounds of S and F.  The many combinations of consonants and vowels make the sounds of our English language, according to Sister Mary Denise.

Here is an interesting fact about the number of letters our language uses that Sister Denise never mentioned. Our alphabet consisted of twenty-four letters for more than 700 years after the Roman Empire created it. In approximately 100 AD, the letters Y and Z were added from the Athenian Greek alphabet. That allowed bringing more Greek words into the Roman language.

I want to single out the importance of two more letters—S and X, both consonants.  More English words begin with the letter S than any other word. Conversely, the letter X begins the fewest number of English words.

This blog includes components of our language that I could expand to many pages. As authors, it’s important we explore our words and always keep learning about our craft of communication through creative fiction. 

Thank you for reading this blog. Another one will appear here in about a week. Until then, visit my web page at www.joevlatino.com

Five Elements of a Short Story

This blog offers information for authors who want to write short stories.  Fans of fiction can enjoy reading this information to appreciate what makes stories fun to read.

Good short story writing contains five important things: character, motivation, conflict, change and resolution.

I’m using my own short story, “Lace”, to show examples of the five elements. “Lace” is one of six short stories in my 2013 book called “The Device.”  

A short story and even a novel begin with a character. Once that main character begins to move, we as authors write what he or she does and says. Stories are about people, not ideas or even events. Ralph is the main character in “Lace.” He is a poor cotton farmer who lives on a long- time family farm with his wife.

Ralph has invented something that will glean more cotton off the plants at harvesting. This will give more tonnage and profit to the farmers. Ralph’s motivation is to develop his invention and use it to improve the yield of cotton from his farm and the farms of his neighbors and friends.

Conflict is a critical part of any story. Ralph’s story begins with conflict. In the opening paragraphs, Ralph is beaten by two thugs hired by a ruthless corporation. The company wants his invention to increase the yield from the cotton fields. The two hired enforcers try to convince Ralph to submit to their demands.

Change happens quickly when Ralph’s wife, Phyllis, kills the two intruders. She’s a tiny woman, but Phyllis can handle a 12 gauge shotgun.  This is where a flashback is used to tell the reader the whole story. Flashbacks are a literary device we will explore in a future blog. 

Ralph and Phyllis use resolution to get benefits from the antagonists who tried to kill them.  The story has a surprise ending that adds to the importance of giving the reader a conclusion, either good or bad.

Authors who like to write short stories should keep these five parts in mind. However, the most important thing to remember when writing fiction is to simply tell me a story.

Thank you for taking time to read this blog. A new blog will be here in about one week.

See my web page at www.joevlatino.com.

Rhinoceros and Fog: Handling Criticism

This blog provides information for fiction writers. It gives readers of fiction some background information to help them better enjoy this art form. 

Someone reads one of your short stories and criticizes your use of character development.  Maybe the critic says the story is boring.  Whatever the comment is, it hurts your feelings and makes you burning mad.

I’m addressing the ways an author can cope with harsh, unjustified criticisms.  Being criticized and sometimes insulted about the stories we write can hurt our egos and infuriate us.

Authors have fears like everyone else that affect our actions and reactions to the people around us. Two common fears most of us have are the fear of rejection and the fear of being criticized.  These two similar fears are strong within us, especially among young people who depend on forms of social media to establish their standings with their peers. These two fears can make authors defensive when their writings are targeted by caustic evaluations.

Criticisms are routinely passed against the works of creative people. The stories we write are unique and personal. It’s natural to feel defensive against anyone who makes remarks against our stories. The best way to respond to someone’s mean, often cruel comments about your writing is to avoid your impulse to react to the critic’s words. The only reaction that works is to not respond at all.

Two quite different things that can help you cope with criticism are (stay with me) a rhinoceros and fog. People who are overly sensitive to anyone’s comments about them are said to have a thin skin. Think about the thick-skinned rhinoceros. Those animals have a hide so dense that it is difficult for spears or arrows to penetrate. Imagine that your skin is thick enough that criticism about your stories bounce off you the way spears and arrows bounce off the rhinoceros.

When you are confronted with harsh criticisms in a face-to-face situation, make yourself a wall of fog. The words directed at you simply pass through the fog without any resistance at all. Keep smiling and simply tell the critic thanks for his or her opinion and interest. Explaining your story or defending your writing won’t do any good.

If you confront a critic who has written or spoken harsh words against your work, the situation worsens and it can result into an upward spiral of arguing back and forth. The conversation between the two of you will take on a continuing dialogue that serves no purpose. Remain quiet and professional.

As writers, we need to be aware of the social and legal limits that affect critics of our work. Anything we write for public consumption is available for reviews and comments from anyone who has an opinion he or she wants to express.  The creative works of fiction we write are available for criticisms the same way any artist’s works are open for comments.

It’s the price we pay to get our hard work read. That freedom of criticism stops, however, if libel or slander is leveled personally at the artist. Only the creative work can be targeted, not the author personally.

Professional writing is a highly competitive field where criticisms are always present. Everyone is a critic, because everyone has an opinion. Welcome the input and keep writing.

Thank you for reading this blog.  In about a week we’ll have more information for writers and for people who like to read fiction.

***Look for my web site at www.joevlatino.com 

Similes and Metaphors

This is the first blog for 2014. Our goal is to provide information for new fiction writers and to give fans of fiction something interesting to read.

Today’s entry clarifies the confusion between similes and metaphors. There’s a personal note at the end of this post that is strictly my opinion about using similes. I hope you enjoy the blog.

A simile (sim-a-le) and a metaphor (met-a-for-er) are figures of speech that work in similar ways. They both compare something to another item or person. The comparisons can involve items or things that have very different qualities.

Creative writers use a simile or metaphor to put vivid descriptions into their verse and poetry. They are used almost exclusively in fiction rather than nonfiction.

The best way to explain these similar but different parts of speech is to provide some examples.

“The color of her cheeks looks like roses,” a simile. “She has rosy, red cheeks,” a metaphor.

“She’s as fierce as a tiger,” a simile. “She’s a tiger when she’s angry,” a metaphor.

“She eats like a bird,” a simile. “She has a bird’s tiny appetite,” a metaphor. To be accurate, we should point out that most birds eat proportionally much more than we do.

A simile uses the words like and as to describe the comparison. A metaphor describes a word or phrase aimed directly to an object or action. “It’s raining cats and dogs” makes the comparison in metaphor terms without any qualifications. “It’s raining as hard as cats and dogs” is a simile with some qualifications instead of the definite comparison a metaphor provides.

Two examples of a simile comparing two items as similar but not the same are “My love is like a red, red rose” and “He was as cold as ice.”

The fool-proof way to know when a simile is used is to find the qualifiers like or as. Otherwise the comparison came from a metaphor.

Actually, the important thing to remember is that similes have become self-serving, verbose descriptions that you should avoid completely. Don’t use similes at all—not ever.

My personal opinion is that the simile may come back into fashion someday. Now, however, that figure of speech is completely overused. The metaphor accomplishes the same end as the simile except in a direct way. Metaphors give more meaning to a concept. It helps an author use his or her words to paint a vivid word picture.

Thank you for reading this blog. In about a week we’ll have more information of interest to new writers and anyone who reads fiction.

***Look for my web site at www.joelatino.com

The Most Important Sentence

Welcome to another edition of our blog for new writers of fiction. We diverted from our usual comments about writing for the past three weeks to provide some entertaining subjects relative to the holiday season. Hopefully, you enjoyed our diversions into Christmas subjects.

We emphasize the short story art form, but any composition contains parallels that apply to all writing. This week we are focusing on the single most important element to capture our readers’ interests. It’s the first sentence that influences a reader to keep him or her interested enough to keep reading.

A skillfully composed introduction grabs a reader’s interest.  That interest in the written word must compete against all the distractions that surround us every conscious minute. The first sentence carries the most important stimulus to keep the reader reading. It must bring you into the picture, present an image and the main character of the story.  A first sentence can be surprising and even funny.

Franz Kafka wrote a novella in 1915. The first sentence is a perfect example of how to start a story.  The work of fiction is “The Metamorphosis.” It begins with the sentence, “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

That 20-word sentence tells us the name of the protagonist, the setting (his bedroom), and the conflict that he must attempt to overcome. The opening is very interesting and designed perfectly to keep the reader engrossed in the story.  Gregor is never called a cockroach or a specific animal at all.  However, literary critics often use the roach reference in describing him.

A famous first line comes from Melville’s “Moby Dick.”  “Call me Ishmael” starts the novel and lets us know who the main character is.  The location and story conflict are shown quickly in the next few sentences. 

“Mark worked at a desk crammed into a small office.”  That’s the first sentence of a new short story written by me. The main character is portrayed as someone who works as a manager in a small, seedy office.

 Stephen King said during an interview that he goes back to a first sentence several times while he is composing a story.  Then he goes back to a finished story after several days.

It’s a cliché that good writing comes from rewriting.  Taking time to rewrite the first sentence to give it impact will make an improvement in any story.   

Thank you for reading this blog.  In about a week we will have a new blog that will explore another topic of fiction writing.