Pitfalls, Part 3 (Book Covers!)

The pitfalls of book covers!

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=brigitte+devin+davis&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Become a patron today! Visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

Get ahold of Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing services. She does free sample edits to see if you and she would be the right fit. www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @authordevindavis

Twitter: @authordevind

The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

[00:00:00] Over the past two weeks, we have talked about the pitfalls that come in writing. So the pitfalls or these two pitfalls that come with craft. Today, we are going to do episode one of two about the pitfalls of design, layout, and design today on Writing in the Tiny House. Hello, hello. Hello, and welcome to the show.

[00:00:49] Welcome to Writing in the Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis and I live in a tiny house in Northern Utah, and writing is one of my very favorite things to do, and I write things and I have this podcast to tell you guys all about it. I have produced a number of different things in my day. I have also done a lot of research and whatever.

[00:01:13] I tend to do my best to be as current as I can be on the things that we talk about in this podcast. And I'm here to show you that a short story can be produced in three months and a novel can be produced in 18 months. And hopefully through this podcast and through whatever other resources you are using, you can get the wisdom to understand that sometimes that timeline needs to be modified.

[00:01:45] Back in October, I released the short story Brigitte and from draft to publish that short story was cranked out in two months. And it's a good short story, guys. I feel it's proof that a system can work if you are prepared for it. But as we can see, simply six months later, uh, my next short story, which is going to be Tiz, the second installment of tales from Vlaydor, is still in the drafting stage. And I have not looked at it for many Wiles for many weeks, and that is because life happens and sometimes you get to allow for that. So today we are talking about specifically your book cover if it's not going to be a book, the cover art that you are using for your stuff, the cover art that represents your work. So here's the deal, guys. I'm going to hurry and lay down some truth about your book cover, some kind of hard to swallow truth. Your book cover is your most powerful marketing tool.

[00:02:57] So here's the deal and it truly is your book cover represents a certain amount of value of what is inside the cover of what is the content of this thing. It represents that. If it is not designed correctly, your work may be misrepresented and people will not be interested in reading it or buying it.

[00:03:21] And so here's the deal, with a lot of this, especially with like self publishing. Sometimes we feel that we need to do all of the things. And the fact of the matter is even if you are traditionally published, you are going to be doing most of your promotion. Most of your advertising will be done yourself.

[00:03:40] And it's okay to know that. It's okay to be prepared for that. If you get traditionally published, I hope that your traditional publisher will give certain amounts of resources to you, especially they tend to do that for debut novelists, not necessarily for a second book. As much. And the thing is with publishers, they are here to make money, which means they funnel their marketing resources to the people and the books that are already bringing in money instead of risking all of it on all of these newbies or specifically on all these people who have written a second book.

[00:04:21] So debut novelists often make a bigger splash than the second book that they write. And if the second book is one of a trilogy, it will sell fewer copies than the first book does. And the third book will sell fewer copies than the second one, it's just how that tends to go. You will find plenty of exceptions to that rule, but you will find plenty more that fall in to what I just said.

[00:04:49] So with your book cover, a lot of us feel that we are doing all of the things by ourselves. And so in order to save money or in order to save time, we feel that we need to also design a book cover in addition to writing an amazing book. My experience is, and this is going to be hard to swallow, perhaps, but this is my experience.

[00:05:15] Not all writers make good graphic arts designer. Not all writers should design their own book cover. Me included. So if you look at Tales from Vlaydor, Installment One: Brigitte, you will see that I designed that. So here I am saying don't do what I did. I designed that on my iPhone. And the thing is, Bridgette was largely an experiment in many different ways to test a system.

[00:05:45] And I had all of the resources in place for the content of the story. I had my editor in, I had my trusted team of beta readers to bounce ideas off of, and I did not have the resource of a graphic arts designer on board with that. So I did my own because we were doing a system. We were testing a system.

[00:06:06] If you look at the book cover for Brigitte, there are too many words on it. It's okay. It's not great. I'm not going to tell you that it's great. It's okay enough though. It's okay ish. In further, I guess, versions of Brigitte when I have a larger collection of these Tales from Vlaydor under my belt, I will have better artwork that is already on the plan.

[00:06:30] So here's the deal. When you look at your cover art and you go to design a book cover, or if you are hiring a graphic arts designer, there are things that you really need to pay attention to. Just like the content of your book, it needs to be recognizable as being assigned to a genre while at the same time eye-catching and interesting.

[00:06:56] And it's really hard to play that game of balance sometimes. Am I original enough to catch people's attention and to keep their focus, but Am I so different that people can't figure out where my book should be? Just because people like genres, people like to read specific genres and if your book doesn't seem to fit, they're not going to be as inclined to pick it up.

[00:07:23] And so there is a certain look to contemporary romance. There is a certain look to contemporary fiction. There's a certain look to many historical fiction, and there's a, certain look to many different sub-genres of fantasy. It's important to be familiar with what you're going for and what you feel your book could fit in with where your book could go and find that balance between

[00:07:52] interesting, but also understandable as to where it can go. So interesting. But categorizable, Your book needs to have certain symmetry. It also needs to have certain fonts, like a certain font effect. Don't use the font

[00:08:10] Papyrus. Don't use that. You don't get to have that unless your graphic arts designer is going to be modifying that in some way.

[00:08:17] Your book cover needs to be readable. And so if you are doing a big fancy something or another, with the words itself, turning the words themselves into a type of art, it needs to be readable and it needs to be readable from a distance. This was, a bit of a complication that we were having when we were going through the design process of my first novel as magic shifts.

[00:08:45] So with that book, the word magic is very artistic. It's not a font. It's. Lettered after like magical smoke. And at first the artist who did the art for the book wanted the entire title of the book to be in that style of smoke. So he wanted all three words as magic shifts to be. This smokiness and it was super fun, but it was really hard to read, especially if it's going to be the front cover of the book.

[00:09:22] So what we did was we kept magic. Magic was easy enough to read, but as and shifts, we made more legible with a font and it works. And then on the back cover where. The art history stuff is not as important because it's not noticed first. We had a smaller version of the entirely artistic title as magic shifts in that magical smoke on the back cover.

[00:09:53] And that was a fun touch. the artist also included a couple other images that he gave to me in the package deal, I guess, that we brought in to the chapter headings as icons. And so the chapter headings themselves have some original artwork, which was fun to incorporate, but that is going to be talked about on the next episode.

[00:10:16] So tune in for that next week. But like I said, Earlier your book cover is your most powerful marketing tool. When you save up your money and you hire a graphic arts designer and you hire an artist, the thing is guys be prepared to save up some money for that. There are some other options though. I have been on some.

[00:10:41] Specific Facebook groups of graphic arts designers that crank out book covers and the art is actually very good. And if you can find one that works for your story or needs some very simple modifications, you can get away with a decent book cover for 70 to $300, depending on where you look, I pay.

[00:11:06] For completely original artwork. I paid $800 for as magic shifts. For the witch's pupil, which in my opinion is even better artwork. And I can say that without hesitation, because the same artists did it for the witches pupil. I paid $650 for that because I went with the same artist, the artists who did those book covers is a man named Tyler at the time he worked for Marvel comics.

[00:11:33] I don't know if he still works there. I haven't kept in touch with him over the years. save your money when you get your book cover, Make sure that your artist or your graphic arts designer, sometimes you hire an artist for the artwork and then a graphic arts designer to design the cover and incorporate that artwork as a book cover.

[00:11:54] I'm likely going to do that when I do some bigger projects here, I don't think I'm going to do it exactly that way with my short stories, just because the short stories don't represent the same time commitment as a novel does. When all of that happens, make sure you have a portrait version of your book cover and to make sure that you have a square version of your book cover.

[00:12:17] you want those two, if not more different versions of your book cover for several different reasons. If you ever choose to do an audio book of your book. The cover art for audio books is square. Also, if you're posting your book cover, on social media, like Instagram, you post square pictures, those posts are square, and it's good to use those.

[00:12:44] If you have those two images. Ratio sizes then you can make on your own, the various different images that you are going to do to promote the release of your book, the sale of your book, and any type of other promotions that are going along so long as the book is available. And you can do that very easily through apps.

[00:13:08] that you can get on your phone, like Canva or a couple other apps like that. So the images that people are only going to see likely once. With big text about like releasing February 1st or whatever the text may be. You can do those on your own, but the book cover itself, I will never recommend a writer to sign their own book cover.

[00:13:35] Also, if you're a writer and you are reaching out to an artist and a book designer, don't require them to read your book, you get to be talented enough to write. a summary of your book anyway, or a hook or the stuff you're, you're going to be including on the back of your book called the back matter or whatever, or on the inside sleeve, that needs to be enough to make the book understandable.

[00:14:02] And that needs to be enough for, you know, a person to start a basic design and then get some feedback along the way. requiring an artist to read your book cover to cover in order to effectively design artwork is not feasible and nobody is probably going to jump to do that. So I have seen some artwork by writers that is usually pretty laughable.

[00:14:26] the artwork tends to be pretty low Rez. It tends to be a patch work of stock images, which is fine. But, a graphic arts designer will often use stock images, but they know how to knit it all together and make it. Professional looking. Sometimes it can include original photography, which becomes really weird and confusing.

[00:14:51] If you are doing a fantasy book and your homemade cover arts is like your neighbor dressed up in a homemade wizards, robe beside a Creek in your backyard. And they're like chanting and casting a spell and it looks like someone snapped a polar or. it can get really weird and confusing. So my challenge to you is to find a sub genre.

[00:15:19] If you are in fantasy or whatever, find a genre or a sub genre that your book belongs in and See what the other cover arts of many books that belong in that genre looks like, see how they do things. just see and pick out some things that you like, pick out some things that you want to represent.

[00:15:39] and then finds an artist That can mimic that or do that, or has the style that is similar to that so that your book cover will be original, but still fit. So that is my take on book covers. If you are a writer, don't design your book cover. just don't do that.

[00:16:01] You have already written a big thing and you have gone through the revision process and whatever else, but I can tell you, it is not the same work to design art as it is to design. A story. It's not the same work. It requires a different set of skills. So cut yourself some slack and simply save up some money to hire somebody hire professional or get professional work done somehow.

[00:16:26] So that is it for today on cover arts. Join me next week. As we talk about the layout of your book on writing and the tiny house.

[00:16:38] 

[00:16:38] And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time. 

Check out this episode!

Pitfalls, Part 2

TOO MUCH DESCRIPTION!

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=brigitte+devin+davis&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Become a patron today! Visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

Get ahold of Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing services. She does free sample edits to see if you and she would be the right fit. www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @authordevindavis

Twitter: @authordevind

The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

[00:00:00] Last week we began another mini series because thus far, this year has been the year of mini-series. But we started another mini series on the pitfalls of writing, just some things to avoid. And we are carrying on with the pitfalls of writing today with the second episode of this little mini series on craft.

[00:00:25] So I explained last week that we're going to do craft, we're going to do a couple other things, but we're talking about the pitfalls of craft today on Writing and the Tiny House. Hello, hello. Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Writing in the Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis, and I am the guy who writes things in a tiny house in Northern Utah, and then tells you all about it.

[00:01:14] So the point of this podcast is to give you the tips and tricks to create a good finished piece in order to share it with whomever you want to share it with. If you want to make money, if you want to sell it and make a profit, which is making money, this is kind of how it can be done. So I'm here to show you that a short story can be written in three months.

[00:01:38] From drafting to publishing, and a novel can be written in 18 months. I'm also here to tell you that sometimes if you decide to do things that way, or if you rush through the process, you can kind of screw yourself over. And so we're giving you the wisdom to avoid all of those things as well. The writing process can be done pretty rapidly if you know what you're doing, and if you've done it before, if you have not done it before, it can take a little while longer.

[00:02:08] last week we talked about the pitfalls of L Y adverbs. It's just a way to doll up your work. A way to add words, a way to increase your word count. but a better way is to use verbs that don't need adverbs and to use stronger descriptions so you can get rid of your L Y adverbs. Today on Writing in the Tiny House

[00:02:34] so we are going to be talking about using too much description. So there is a lot to be said about this. I Recently started a short story. It was a thing on Amazon Vela. So it's a serial novel, I guess. Vela is a way for authors to release short story segments periodically, or I guess, chapters of a novel periodically so that you can kind of have this serial

[00:03:05] effect like, this is what, this is how things happened in like the Victorian days. A lot of the classic literature that we call classics now, like Lamees and some other ones were actually released serially. They were released in parts and it's just kind of a fun way to revisit that, to revisit the way that things were, but with a modern adaptation.

[00:03:28] So I was reading this piece from Vela and there was so much description in what I was reading, that it was hard to actually understand what I was reading. It was hard to pick up on the plot. It was hard to identify with the characters. It was hard to do all those things just because the writing was so heavy Laden with description. It was down to the sounds. It was down to the appearance of everything, the appearance of absolutely everything. I mean, the story opened up with this like undead army coming to life and like storming this farmhouse, which is a really exciting concept. But. There was so much of the farmhouse and so much of the method that these undead soldiers were marching and so much of the bunny Hutch and the various different things found in the farm that it was hard to pick out the story itself.

[00:04:33] So this is the thing when it comes to description, a lot of us think that the more we add, the more delicious the piece becomes. And that is not always the case. I mean, sometimes like if, if we are having a cake, if we want to move away from writing and talk about cake, because really who doesn't want to talk about cake, it is entirely possible to add too much crap onto a cake and it ruins the cake.

[00:05:02] It is entirely possible to have too much frosting, to have too much decoration, to have too much stuff. So that the cake itself is not really a part of the dessert anymore. And we miss the cake because of everything else. The same is true with writing. So if things are. So descriptive. If we describe every little bug movement, if we describe every little freckle on a person's face if we describe every thread in their clothing, everything, it pulls us out of the story and more into the description.

[00:05:39] Which isn't what we want. And it's funny that that is entirely true. What I just said, it pulls this out of the story and sinks us into the description instead. that's not, it, that's not what we want. So I have been reading still the book, a swim in a pond in the rain, by George Saunders. And one of the things that he talked about that relates to description, but can also be tied into many other things.

[00:06:06] In a work in progress in any other book that you can think of is it is the difference between having a conversation with somebody where it is give and take, and the conversation happens, and you're both expressing your original thoughts but still following the same train of thought, it is the difference between doing that and having.

[00:06:32] A conversation that is pre scripted. So. stay with me cause this totally it made sense to me. If you were meeting a person for the first time and you meet them and things are great and organic and you're having a great time and it's easy to exchange ideas it's easy to communicate what's on your mind and share beliefs and whatever else, things get super interesting.

[00:06:57] And you end up leaving feeling like you are full. However, if you are a nervous type and this, brings memories of the show monk that came out years and years ago, if you are the type where you are nervous by a conversation. And so you kind of write down some talking points and you go to sit down with somebody and you're talking and then like you pull out the next talking points and then you talk about that and then you pull out the next talking point.

[00:07:25] The other person is not as involved in the conversation as you are. You are dominating the topic of the conversation by leaving out that. It's kind of like a job interview. That's how job interviews tend to work much of the time. And so with writing, it is best to simply use enough that works and then stop.

[00:07:49] you, as the writer are conveying thoughts that are super important to you and you certainly want. Everything to work in a desired way. There is a formulation to what you are doing. There is a reason why things are being laid out as they are, because you get to get there.

[00:08:07] You get to take a person from the beginning to the end, and this is the way you do it. However, oftentimes we forget that the reader has a brain and the reader is a person and the reader has. Memories and backgrounds and similar interests and things to us that they can draw from if they are allowed to, to make whatever you are writing, just as enriching to.

[00:08:36] And so it is important to sit down and see kind of where you are going with the current chapter that you're in or the short story that you're in or whatever, see where you are going and see if all of the description is 100% necessary, just because it is super great to allow a reader to fill in some of the blanks.

[00:08:58] Sometimes I have had. Discussions with many of my closest friends about books. always seem to be about books and with something like a novel with something like fiction, it is interesting to talk about how they envision things, how they envision the house, especially if the layout of the house isn't super important.

[00:09:23] To describe or how they envisioned the person's outfit or the person's hairstyle or whatever. And from those conversations, I have come to see that my friend and I had different experiences overall of many of those stories. They were different experiences that led to kind of the same feelings and the same life lessons and the same, you know, stirring moments.

[00:09:54] But as far as envisioning who Mr. Darcy is, or whatever, the person that I envisioned was different from the person that they envisioned. And that was okay to allow me that wiggle room as a reader. To fill in the blanks as I could, in ways that made sense to me was beneficial to me it allowed me to be more involved with my reading experience and it allowed me to enrich the experience on my own to use my own brain and to understand things in my own.

[00:10:32] Realm of understanding so that I was more involved in my own reading experience sometimes we choose to fill in a lot of description because we don't trust that our reader knows what they are supposed to be envisioning. And sometimes that can serve the reader a disservice. So. I invite you to come over your work in progress and to think about the moments where it feels like the job interview with the descriptions where you are not allowing a moment for the reader to fill in the blanks on their own.

[00:11:09] Allowing the reader to draw from their own understanding of words and understanding of situations and enjoy the book in their own way. So next week we are going to carry on with some of these pitfalls that we are changing to another subject. We are changing over to design and cover art. So be sure to join in next week on a new episode of Writing in the Tiny House. Thank you so much, guys. We will see you then.

[00:11:42] 

[00:11:42] And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time. 

Check out this episode!

Pitfalls, Part 1

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=brigitte+devin+davis&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Become a patron today! Visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

Get ahold of Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing services. She does free sample edits to see if you and she would be the right fit. www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @authordevindavis

Twitter: @authordevind

The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

[00:00:00] So you're a new writer. You are about to get started on your very first work in progress, but you are a little timid to get started because you don't know some of the danger that lies ahead. We are going to be talking about the pitfalls of writing. Today on Writing in the Tiny House. 

[00:00:21] Hello. Hello. Hello and welcome to today's episode of Writing in the Tiny House.

[00:00:48] I am your host Devin Davis, and I am the guy who lives in a tiny house in Northern Utah who tells you about writing as I write. Or as I want to write right now, my works in progress are a little bit put on pause due to personal reasons, but I love to share the way that writing works and the way that publishing works and the way that self publishing works.

[00:01:16] I have decided to do this next little series, because I guess this year, we're all about the series of episodes. This upcoming series is all about the pitfalls of writing. Some of the things that we get ourselves tangled up in that can make writing hard or disappointing, and that is anything from craft to publishing.

[00:01:39] And so I'm going to do two episodes on craft, two episodes on design, and then wrap up this little mini series on publishing itself. So let's get into the first episode on the pitfalls of writing that many newbies find themselves doing, and that is the trap of L Y adverbs. If you have ever read the very first Harry Potter book and you have read it out loud,

[00:02:15] I encourage you to do that. Most of us have read Harry Potter and so take Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and sit down for a while and read it out loud. L Y adverbs, if you are new to the game of writing, L Y adverbs are one of those things that we do in order. There they are a crutch. They are words that we use to make things pretty, to make things prettier sounding, but they are a crutch to not using better words.

[00:02:52] L Y adverbs allow us to use weak verbs And then put a bandaid on them by using an L Y adverb. L Y adverbs are the difference between

[00:03:05] speaking loudly and yelling or

[00:03:09] walking quickly and running. L Y adverbs you will find, can usually just be stricken from your manuscript. And if you really like your L Y adverb and what it's doing for you, see if you can simply use a stronger verb so that you can get rid of the L Y adverb. So a writer who struggles with L Y adverbs, it is usually something that can be pinned down very early in the editing process.

[00:03:42] You send your work to a critique partner or whatever, usually a critique partner can pick up an L by adverb problem within the first 500 words of your manuscript. And if they know what they're doing, they will send it back to you with that type of feedback before having to read the rest of your manuscript. Or if you are early in the drafting process and you haven't finished your work yet, sending your work to do ,a quick, like first five pages or whatever, first chapter to a critique partner

[00:04:19] so that you can get feedback like L Y adverbs, like passive voice, some different things like this, so that you can correct it early in your craft, early in your work in progress, and then address that as you carry on. So, like I said, L Y adverbs are the bandaid on a weak verb. And the way to get around L by adverbs is to use stronger verbs.

[00:04:44] Now I'm not ever going to say that L Y adverbs are off limits, but I might as well, especially if you are new to the game. L Y adverbs are great. They serve a purpose and using them sparingly is great, but it is better to lean towards not using them at all. And so if you want to just open up your work in progress and do a quick find for L Y it will bring to your attention all of the times that you use L Y adverbs.

[00:05:19] And I'm going to throw in the word. Very is not an L by adverb, but it is an adverb that can just be removed from your manuscript. I believe it was mark Twain that said the way to deal with, or I'm paraphrasing. I'm not quoting this directly and it may not be from mark Twain. Don't. Quote me on any of this, but a great writer once said, and I'm paraphrasing that an easy way to to deal with the word very is to change all of the instances of very, to the word.

[00:05:55] Damn. And then your editor will remove all of the times you swore in your manuscript, and it's an easy way to get rid of all of it. So very and L Y advert. Oftentimes can simply be deleted if you read your work in progress and you come across all of these L Y adverbs, read it again with the LOI adverbs simply deleted.

[00:06:22] Sometimes the fix is easier than you think. Sometimes we don't have to futz around with $10 words. Or fancy words or consult our thesaurus so that we can still come up with a good verb. Sometimes the verb is okay and the LOI adverb can simply be removed.

[00:06:46] So this was one of the things that I struggled with with my first book as magic shifts, which was released, I think in 2008. As magic shifts took me, I think, 13 months to complete the first draft and my editor, Luanne Staley, who is no longer with us. She passed away a number of years ago. She did exactly what I just described to you.

[00:07:15] She took my manuscript. She didn't have to read it all in order to address some things that I could work on myself to clean up throughout my manuscript. Oftentimes, that can be a big waste of time for both of you. And she addressed my LOI adverbs and what she did was in my document. She actually highlighted them.

[00:07:36] She went through and made them all yellow. And so I had these glaring. From my document and it was obvious to me that I was using them too often. So I invite you to do the same, simply do a search for L Y and see how many instances you use L Y adverbs and work on greatly reducing them. LOI, adverbs, weaken your voice.

[00:08:03] They weaken the strength of your tech. They weaken your pros and they can really get in the way with pacing with the way that the words are flowing and the way that things are unfolding in your story, they can trip you up. And another way, aside from the search that I suggested a moment ago is to read your manuscript out loud.

[00:08:26] If you can tell that you are saying words that. And in the sound Lee too often, and you can tell that it's tripping up the cadence of your sentences and it's tripping up the flow of your words and it's tripping up all the other things that I mentioned. Then you need to remove your L Y adverbs. So replace them with a stronger verb.

[00:08:53] Or just delete them and see how your verb holds up on its own. So that is L Y adverbs for today. This is kind of a shorter episode. Next week, we are going to be focusing on another pitfall, which is too much description. So join me then on the next episode of writing in the tiny house, have a great day guys.

[00:09:18] 

[00:09:18] And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time. 

Check out this episode!

Writer's Block, Part 3

The final part of our Writer's Block series. What to do when you encounter writer's block because of your mood and the circumstances of your life.

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=brigitte+devin+davis&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Become a patron today! Visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

Get ahold of Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing services. She does free sample edits to see if you and she would be the right fit. www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @authordevindavis

Twitter: @authordevind

The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

So we've talked about writer's block for a couple weeks. Now this is week number three. We talked about the structure of the outline itself. We talked about the story arc, but what if it is simply you getting in your own way? We've all been there too, my friends. So let's talk about your inner environment and how that can lead to writer's block today on Writing in the Tiny House.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Writing in the [00:01:00] Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis, and I am the guy who lives in the tiny house in Northern Utah. And I write things and I tell you about the process so that you can write things. The whole point of this podcast is to give you the tools and the knowledge necessary for you to do your own creative writing so that you can crank out a short story in three months or crank out a novel in 18 months and still have the wisdom and the foresight to adjust that timeline if you feel you need to.

Most things aren't done that fast, but it's good to know that they can be. So today we are on part three of our little mini series on writer's block. And today we are talking about the inner conflict that each of us has with our work in progress.

So regardless, especially if you are writing a long thing, if you are writing a thing that is not going to be over [00:02:00] and done with in like one day, you are bound to have days where you hate what you've written. And you hate your work in progress. You hate your computer. You hate the place where you write, you hate your desk.

You hate your chair. I don't have a chair. I hate my floor. I hate my standing desk. There are days where you will have a really bad attitude and there are days where t he energy of your work in progress doesn't match what you are going through. Sometimes this can be a really big thing. Most of the time it will be kind of a smaller thing that you can figure out and push through or figure out and resolve, and then get back to work on your work in progress.

And other times it might require something else. So with your work in progress, if you are a person who has been pushing and pushing to get your word count in, and you have developed this cool writing routine, you have developed [00:03:00] this wonderful routine of writing every day, you have a nice lofty word count, and you have been achieving that word count all the time, but sometimes you feel like you're still spinning your wheels just because the work in progress can be a pretty complicated and a pretty long thing.

It is completely normal to set out and think that your short story is going to be 9,000 words and it ends up being 20 or that your novel is going to be 95,000 words. And it ends up being like 125,000 words. That happened with my first book. I wasn't expecting it to be as long as it was. So anyway, word counts can surprise us.

And sometimes even though we're writing a ton of words and we are being these good disciplined writers, sometimes some times writer's block can happen just when you need an emotional break. [00:04:00] Sometimes you need a break. Sometimes the very best thing to do is to put some distance between you and your work in progress and let that work in progress cool off. And when we say that work in progress cool off what we actually mean is you get to cool off.

All of these attitudes, all of this despair, all of this, you know, grumpiness or whatever. All of the negativity associated with your work in progress. If you take a second, you save your work, you close it out and you let it sit there for an amount of time. If you have wrapped up a novel and you're at the end of your novel, it is good to let it sit there for at least two weeks and let it cool down.

If you are struggling through a work in progress, sometimes, give it a day, give it two days, give it a weekend. If you are going on vacation, maybe you can write up until the day before you go on vacation and then like go on vacation and make sure that your vacation is [00:05:00] a way from all the things. And perhaps it needs to include your work in progress.

And then when you get back, you can pick it up again and you'll be in a better place. Sometimes it can be just letting it go for the night. So that you can go outside, you can breathe some fresh air, you can get some exercise, you can play with your kids. You can play with your dog. You can go see a movie.

You can go do all of these other things that perhaps you have not done as much of, because you have been focusing more on being your version of this studious dedicated writer. And taking a break from your work in progress can be enough to simply let your brain calm down, let the negativity that has been building up, disperse, disappear, go away so that after your break and I don't mean forever.

I mean sometimes, I mean, forever in a second, I'm [00:06:00] going to mean forever, but let your break be a simple way to recharge your batteries in whichever way charges your batteries best so that you don't develop a negative relationship with your work in progress. Just because if you have. A story or a novel or whatever that you're working on and you absolutely hate it.

It will show in your writing. And if you are, writing as a way to beat yourself up, because you have something to prove or because if you don't write every day, then you're not a good writer, which is not right. Then developing a negative relationship with writing will eventually wear down your desire to write, and it will wear that away.

And so I personally don't ever want to get into the spot where I hate writing period, the end. I instead find ways to give myself space and find ways to take care of myself so that [00:07:00] I can pick it up at a later date. Even if I don't know when the later date is going to be.

So let's talk about a time where maybe you get to step away for forever and all ways. This shouldn't happen to you a lot. There are plenty of writers in this world who have written a lot more than they have shared. I am one of those people. So to just be cranking out creative content is certainly a possible thing too.

it's a thing that we can do. It's a thing that I've done, but sometimes a person's published list is not an accurate reflection of all of the writing they've actually done. Back in November, if you have been following this podcast you are aware that we have been on the air, so to speak for more than a year now.

We are in the sixties with our episodes, which is super cool. And like the downloading numbers for this podcast have been going [00:08:00] up slowly but surely this is pretty niche. I mean, creative writing is pretty niche when it comes to podcast content, but we're doing it. We're growing, we're getting more people involved and things are fun, and it's really fun to see it grow.

But if you were around, back in November, You may remember that I was drafting a short story called auto and auto was something that I was really passionate about at the time. However, the content of the story itself was going to be really heavy. It was going to kind of take on an amount of like the little match girl.

Type of story where there are definitely some glimmers of hope, but the overall story is pretty sad. I mean, with a little match girl, the poor girl dies at the end. It wasn't going to be exactly like that, but it was a thing where everything was just really sad and there's a little. [00:09:00] Of hope at the end, but it's all still really sad.

Now, if you remember back in January 1st, I came out as gay on Facebook and to my friends and family. And there were weeks and weeks of preparing for that. That was a really big courageous, emotional moment for me. And. Back in November is actually when I started doing the mental and emotional work for whatever possibilities would come about from doing that from coming out at age 37 on January 1st there was a lot to worry about.

There was a lot to work through and so dealing with real life back in November. And having such a dark and sad work in progress. I mean, had it been a different time in my life, I would have. Loved to finish drafting auto and I would've made it [00:10:00] the saddest thing in the entire world and it would have been great.

It would have been heavy. It would have been sad. It would have also been great, but because of personal things, there came a moment because of life, because of real life, there came a very big moment in my journey with Otto that I simply could not write more and I wanted to power through it and I wanted to stay.

I wanted to still write, I wanted to finish it. I'm a finisher of things. I start projects and I finish them and finishing things makes me feel like I've accomplished a thing. It's something that I find a lot of value with. Instead, I had another idea for another short story. Tos that I am still working on right now.

I have taken a brief hiatus from writing just because I've decided to start [00:11:00] dating a little bit and so free time. I mean, it's a. But with TIS with tos, it's a story of two dedicated lovers. It's a story that fills me with hope and brought a lot of my beliefs about relationships and about unconditional love and what unconditional love actually means and how it would manifest in the lifetime of, of two partners.

And I was excited to write that. And so. At the time I told myself that I was putting auto on the back burner and I started writing TIS instead. And tos fills me with joy. It fills me with hope. it is a message that I love that I want to run with. Whereas Otto was more of a message about bullying and I wasn't in a good mental space for that.

And so. Sometimes to deal with writer's block, we get to write something else. that [00:12:00] means creating space between yourself and your current work in progress in order to start a different work in progress. And you can always revisit what you are leaving behind, or sometimes you. Bid add you to the things that you are leaving behind, which is what I think is going to happen with auto.

I'm not sure that I'm ever going to pick that up again. Maybe sometime in the future. I mean, I guess never say never, but certainly not today. And probably not tomorrow. So this has been the final episode of our three-part series on writer's block. sometimes you get to pay attention to your internal world and take care of yourself.

As a way to combat writer's block. So thank you so much for joining me. Let me know your thoughts on the past three episodes of writing in the tiny house [00:13:00] and be sure to tune in next week with a new episode of writing in the tiny house. Thank you so much for your time. We will see you there.

Devin Davis:

And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time.[00:14:00]

Check out this episode!