The Writer's Mailbag: Installment Seventy-Two

As always great advice, especially on how to improve as a writer, as I am with you on continuing to try all different ways as I go along. Thanks Bill and Happy Monday now ;)

Happy Monday Bill! In regards to popular genres, I was aware that romance was #1, but what surprised me most was #3 inspirational/religious. Is that non-fiction or fiction?

We are enjoying an incredibly mild November here, so I can't even complain about the weather! I hope you are enjoying your month as well!

I like the thought of an e-book of short essays by Eric illustrated by Ewbie-esque stick figures.

Be consistent is a good answer to my question.

My plan for trying to write better: write as best I can daily; get feedback often; read the best writers daily; keep several excellent manuals of grammar and style handy.

I liked these questions! The first one was funny, indeed!

I've been wondering, as far as names go, as a freelancer, do you title your company or are you just "Bill Holland?" Does your freelance service even need a catchy title? Thanks!

I enjoyed these questions and answers this week Bill. The one from Brian about pen names in particular interested me because recently on another site where I write under the name John Hansen I received a comment from someone I did not know.

They said it was good to read something new from me and mentioned a book I was supposed to have been writing and reminded me of my promise to include a reference to them in it. I know there is at least one other author with the same name with books on Lulu and Amazon, so I wish I had used the name John D Hansen (or J D Hansen) for my books etc. For any future ones I will probably do that.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for listing the best selling areas, I'm surprised to see inspirational/religious come third.

Your piece at the end has hit home with me. I have been taking some tests relating to grammar, and was surprised by how much I have forgotten. For some of us who haven't been in a classroom for more years than we'll admit to, I think brushing up on these skills is crucial. I know these things might appear boring to some but any chance you could go over some of the basics? Words which I'm encountering are: Parallelism, dangling modifiers, and pronoun antecedent agreement. I think the terminology is what's so scary.

I would also like to hear your views on vampire and werewolf stories. I personally have some issues with these and yet they are popular. For me these are akin to beastiality and necrophilia. I blame Buffy.

Having a direction is definitely the key to becoming a better writer; great point, bill. It's like learning to spell phonetically (which some bright spark came up with here in the 70s). Much easier to do but hellish difficult to then learn the correct way to spell because you have to 'unlearn' the other first! Just like practising bad writing - much better to try to become better at one style, then another.... etc.

With the pen name, I've always used 'annart' almost as a business name - it covers my drawing, painting, writing, whatever. If I ever get round to writing a book, be it story or memoir or some such, then I'll probably use my real name. However, I've already published poems under pseudonyms, probably through lack of confidence - or maybe I don't want my friends and family to know 'that was me'!

Question: If you became a famous writer (which you surely will), what would be your reaction to autograph hunters, interviewers, etc? I've heard of celebrities who've brushed aside fans because they couldn't be bothered or were in a bad mood. I know that's rude but then there's the privacy angle to consider. What do you think, bill?

Have a marvellous Monday and a wicked week!

Ann

Good morning, Bill. I like your friend’s question because it hit home. Years ago, I thought I was a good writer. After all I graduated college with two degrees in journalism after I’d been an ad writer for 10 years, but you know what? I look back at what I wrote as little as a couple of years ago and say, “Gawd what an amateur!” The more I write, the more I feel like I improve, so I think you’ve given her some good advice.

But you are correct that “[W]we do not become better writers by practicing our mistakes.” I think that being able to practice the craft on a website like HP really helps one to see the foibles in one’s writing. Advice to study great writers like Faulkner or Steinbeck goes “write” past the average person’s psyche because we are not them. I think one of the best lessons is to study other average writers on HP and when you see a weak sentence or paragraph, think to yourself how you might have written it. Did you improve upon it or really mess it up good? Of course, I’m looking at this from the eyes of an editor, so it might not work for everyone.

Not surprised that romance was the best seller. It is also the easiest to write because many popular romance writers take assignments with the plot already drafted and just insert the location, character names, and other details pertinent to that. They can gin out a dozen or more books a year for some of the big name companies that publish romances. I know a “writer” who does that. Now that is writers prostitution.

Have a great day, my friend.

The mailbag never dies! You've certainly shared a wealth of information and knowledge with us over the past year. I'm looking forward to another year of information and knowledge. You can't stop this even if you wanted to. Thank you Billybuc or William D. Holland, or whoever.

On the subject of improving, I think you're right about trying different genres - by trying to write in different styles, or for a different audience than we're used to, it should allow us to see what we can do better. Trouble is, not everyone has that ability to see the difference. I think improving is what we do when we strive to change things, whether to use unfamiliar tenses, modes of speech or just simply trying a technique we've seen other writers do. Another good one, Bill. Keep on truckin.

I fell into a variation of the same thing you mention on the use of your name. I was in the process of establishing a blogger "brand" as "Dr. Bill" when I retired from the university. When I published my first novel, I used my full name: William Leverne Smith - more memorable than "Bill Smith" perhaps. Big mistakes, it turns out. Like you, I've now got total confusion rather than clarity. Your advise, consistency, is the key. Great mailbag! ;-)

I say believe in what you write.....

Bill, I enjoyed this, as I have the past seventy one. I always look forward to Mondays.

I am interested most in what you had to say about improving ones writing skills by focusing on different aspects of writing--character development, scenes, genre. What part does exposure to the outside world play? I think one part of becoming a better writer is to travel, learn, and certainly to be well read. I'm not talking about reading the encyclopedia on Louisiana so that you can write about Cajun cooking. I mean exploring other styles of writing, reading stories told a century (or more) ago, gaining an understanding of other cultures and ways of thinking. A penny for your thoughts.

All good answers as usual, but I really appreciate your take on improvement in writing. HubPages is my only writing group right now, but I have learned much from the writings of others. Truth is, we have to want to improve; seemingly some are satisfied with where they are. I've learned a thing or two from you. Thanks a bunch.

Proud to know you too, Bill, and let's go for the hundred mark.

Another great Hub in the series, and a very interesting question from Brian at the start.

Practice does help, but it can sometimes be like trying to be rich without desire or ambition, or entering the spiritual life without aspiration. In whatever endeavour, the 'cry' and interest must be there. You already know this Bro. Peace.

Always interesting.

Personally I think there are a few reasons why you might want more than one penname. For example, if your writings appeal to different audiences. But as long as your voice is consistent, you're probably right to want to stick wit one name.

As you know I have no desire to write a book but I do want to be a better writer, and I think your advice on practice is priceless.

Side bar.....Bro.....check out new comment on my Toby's Review, if you haven't seen it..........

Bill

Thanks for the list.

If Romance does runaway at the register, then does that mean that women are buying most of the fiction books?

That is a serious question, I know you would see it that way, but some people might not.

Anyway, I don't hear a lot of men talking about romantic novels.

So to get more bang for your writing you could probably add multiple genres.

A SciFy Romance, that has a mystery plot, and throw in a beast for horror, and pray to be saved from it, and you have all of them.

The title for that book would probably take most of the effort. lol.

On writing practice

Vince Lombardi said

Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

He must have got it from you. lol

It might be only three questions but another great week of answers Bill. Sure hope to see installment seventy three next week. Have a great week.

"I would have to design a cover with all of Brian James Scott Leekley's names on the cover.

I will have to go back to your mailbag installments and garner some much needed wisdom just to catch up and know some of what I've missed because I am sure it will be time well spent. Thanks for this one.

Hi Billy

You have been telling me for ages that I should write a book on felting. I never once figured that I might be able to use the tutorials I already have on HubPages for the same! There I was thinking that I would have to find time to do what has already been done. Of course, there has always a little reluctance on my part because I always dreamed of having my writing in a glossy book. Maybe I should accept that they would look just as nice on a kindle and enjoy the money the benefits of having my writing published in any form.

I find the name discussion interesting because clearly HubPages has not catered for name changes, especially when it comes to a woman getting married, but there again, a writer might marry and not wish to change her name because her name is already part of her brand name as a writer.

My mother always told me it was rude to ask questions about money, but the question I would like to ask relates to whether you or others have found it profitable to write e-books? If it is not a question you would like to answer, could you please put a poll question on your next Hub which might shed some light on this question. Thus is one which everyone wants to know the answer to.

Another interesting Hub this week Billy. It has certainly given me food for thought.

Sally

The book I'm currently reading, 'Landmarks', says 'Every hour spent reading is an hour spent learning to write.' I like that because it means you learn what's good and bad too.

Ann

Great job here w d Holland lest we for get the big e e author.

Are coffee table books still being published and sold by the millions. I am thinking I like the HP formatting. It reminds me of those hard bound photo journal type books that people used to have on their coffee table. Not to be confused with the weird family photo album, that if they started on would take hours.

Do you think a bunch of short essays like we do here would work in that format?

Billy, thank you for that info, now I think I would like to go and do a little exploring:)

Bill

"Love and Murder in the mist of time travel"

Amanda and John meet time traveling from different time periods. They fall in love, but there is something wrong in the time travel that doesn't want them to be together. Death surround the two when they find each other in different times. it comes as a mist and when the mist clears, the couple find themselves alone in what were crowded cities. They couldn't see or hear this dark entity, but they could feel its presence and see the changes around them after it had come and gone.

They desperately wanted to be together, so they tried to escape this entity by jumping into time travel. The entity would somehow follow them into whatever time was their destination. They would learn more about this entity with each time travel jump. One of the things that they surmised was that this entity might not be following them through time, but it existed in every time.

Even if that was true, how could they defeat this entity and find a time for their true

love to blossom.

----

About as far as I like to go is plot development, after that it becomes work.

The treatment would be something on the book jacket.

Hint, the entity is Satan. That was the mystery part.

Their solution was prayer.

Their reward was romance.

What did you think of the title?

Hello, Bill,

Thank you for another great mailbag. I agree your view on how to improve one's writing. You can't just keep writing, making the same mistakes, on the other hand, you do need to keep writing, as an exercise, just keep the editor in mind as well, and keep learning from your own mistakes and from better writers.

It is good to know about HP to ebooks, I wondered about it myself - for future reference.

And now I have a question - at least I think it is going to be a question.

So I'm writing a novel. There, I said it. Now I'm not so sure I'll post this question. I started a few before, the first one when I was ten. My parents still have the unfinished pages of it. But that's irrelevant.

My "style" seems to be to just go with the flow. I start writing, and things just fall into place, into some place, not necessarily where I intended them to be. I'm not a planner in any sense, but I did have a general idea of the plot, subplot, and the main characters. When I started writing, however, it all went in a different direction. For example, I introduced a new character, who was supposed to be very minor, just there to help my heroine in something, but as soon as he started talking, he was someone else, and now he's one of the major characters; I started another one as a villain, but after a few chapters, suddenly he's lovable. It just happens, it's like they come alive and don't like the idea I had of them in the first place. It's all good, I enjoy the changes, it makes me feel that they sort of come alive and take me in a different direction. It's an adventure, I enjoy it. But they messed up my plot, and now I feel a bit stuck. I need to go back and redo a bunch of it since the whole idea changed. It seems daunting since I already wrote a lot and I thought I had something. Now I have a few characters that keep talking to me, but I don't see where I'm going with it all. Does this ever happen to you? If it does, how do you deal with it? In the past, this is where I ended up abandoning the whole novel. I am on a mission to finish this time, just not sure how.

Now, will I hit the post button? If I do, I am publicly acknowledging that I am writing a novel...... and what do I have to loose?

Writing is not for everyone. Improving on one's skills is an important fact. Thank you

Bill

I just wanted to add, that my multi genre plot can be used by anyone, I will never expand on it, so it is now part of the public domain. I would be interested, if someone comes across a similar plot. as this one was only in my head. I am glad I let it out, now I can put something else in that space. lol

I would also like to clarify that my problem with subplots are those involving regressions. And it is when, the regression becomes more than a simple foundation for the character. In some cases, I have seen where that regressive subplot is really the substantial plot. I know that it serves some sort of purpose, but at some point it becomes a distraction from the present timeline.

Back to the real world.

Bill

Thanks for the sanity check. Thanks for TIVO because I can fast forward through the subplots. Quality rather than quantity.

Inspiring as always, Bill, but what makes you think that your loyal, devoted followers will let you stop writing these when you reach 100? No way, my friend, no way!

Hi Bill ...uh, William ...oh, I mean billybuc. Who am I? Hahaha, that first question did bring the smiles and makes one ponder such. I think your answer is spot on. As far as HP, I think when one signs up for HP, it seems they push for one to use a pen name, but it is good now they allow the writer's real name to be used if one so desires to use it.

I am not surprised about inspirational/religious books being in third, for when I visit a Christian bookstore ...it is always packed with people buying up books. I think the non-fiction are the bestsellers just from my observance, but all do really well. Everyone loves to read true life inspirational stories of faith it seems.

I think the best thing to do to improve one's writing is read a lot!

Don't forget about my late question from last week's mailbag for this Monday : )

Peace and blessings always

Good advice, as always, Bill. Thanks for sharing some more tips and suggestions for writers. I'll miss this series if and when it ends.

Thank you for your advice on improving as a writer and as always it is thought provoking and also inspirational as I get ideas while I read. I still have some odd chosen names like the one on here under which I write. However as I learn more and improve I am using my two real names more and more being Rasma Sandra so people don't have to read work from say a Gypsy or a Butterfly or something even crazier that I might have come up with. This way they know I am really serious about my writing.

Great topics, and more knowledge for my base. Thanks as always for sharing.

Happy Last Monday to you my friend.. I have not forgotten these wonderful mailbag installments.. just had some add-on duties I had to tackle.. I'll catch up by week's end on everything.. and thank you for still delivering.. I do enjoy the answers and even your filler at the end bless you :)

Bill

My vote would be the 'action adventure' with a little romance thrown in.

Lawrence

People are obsessed with the topic of those pen names. I wish they'd give it a rest and just write.

Finally! Getting back to the Mailbag. Lots going on here. Glad to be taking a break and catch up here with my HP buds.

Re: Pen Names. With the Google-ization and Amazon-ization of our world, it's best to pick and stick with whatever name you've chosen, even if you think something else sounds cooler now. When people do a search, they'll be confronted with a myriad of search results and will wonder if they have picked the right one. On another note, I've observed less interest in the whole pen name thing. But...

Re: Popular Genres. If I decided to actually write a romance, I'd definitely use a pen name. Can't imagine the looks I'd get at business networking events if they knew I wrote a steamy "50 Shades" type love story. :)

I'll be back to catch up with the rest of the Mailbag shortly. Happy Weekend!