Hey there! Long time no talk to. That’s right – your fiftieth favorite writer is BACK. Feels good, man. I’ve been doing some serious soul searching. I climbed Kilimanjaro, spoken … Continue reading It’s all about the Blitter
Tag: writing
Change1
Let’s talk about the past. And about the future.
If 2018 was the year of reset buttons, then 2019 has been the year of new beginnings. Most people fear change. It’s scary, it’s unknown and it gives you that feeling of anxiety in the pit of your stomach.
I think that change is a good thing. I mean, nothing lasts forever, so maybe the conversation shouldn’t be “how can I keep things the same?” because that conversation is one of fear and playing small and not living up to your potential.
Things change, and that sucks. Someone that you were close with becomes an acquaintance or less. Somebody who you barely knew becomes close. These are things that we cannot always change. Some people are only meant to stay in your life for a little bit.
It’s not about keeping things the same. It’s about growing intentionally with like-minded people.
A few weekends ago I was asked to speak at the #Change1 self-development conference. It was a unique opportunity for me because it forced me to think critically about the past few years of my life.
I spoke about what it meant to me to pursue my passion – publishing a book. As I prepped for my discussion I thought back on my crazy journey. It STILL seems surreal to me. I left a job where I was happy for the chance to do something different.
Just a chance, nothing more. Nothing was guaranteed, and I knew that I would have to work for every little thing which I earned.
I took that chance because my entire life I had played it safe. Played small. And here’s the thing – you can’t do things that people will remember by playing small. You’ve got to take chances – hoist the black flag and slit some throats if necessary. That’s scary. Terrifying, really.
Big risk, big reward. I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities that I did if I hadn’t left my job. I wouldn’t have met the people I have, most likely.
Pursuing your passion means taking some risks. You often have to jump in with both feet, even if you haven’t tested the waters yet.
It was great having the opportunity to share my story at #Change1. Ya gotta push yourself out of that comfort zone, people! Looking back made me start thinking about what the future looks like.
Do you live your life on purpose? For me, that’s an important concept. How else can you work towards the life that you want if you don’t give a thought about what that looks like? I don’t mean things like hoping you win the lottery. If you do, good on you! Most of us won’t in our lifetimes.
I probably never will again. I tapped that out WAY too early when I won on that scratch ticket after I turned eighteen. But I can hope! I could use twenty-six million dollars, how about you? Heck, I’d be good with winning the Kinsmen Jackpot bingo pot.
Most of the time we have vague ideas about what we want the future to look like. It’s things like “I want to buy a house,” or “I want to have a winter home in the Caribbean.” But most people aren’t deliberate about it.
Live your life on purpose. 5 years from now, on a Tuesday, what does your life look like? Who are you with? What are you doing? Where do you live? Be as detailed as possible about what it all looks like, then ask yourself why. Why do you want the big house with the dog and the white picket fence? Why is that something that is important to you?
Does that speak to your values or the mark that you want to leave on the world?
For context, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. If there’s something about me that I want to change, I’m not waiting until January 1. But I love the concept of goal setting, of intentional, achievable targets.
Five years from now there are a few things which I’d like to do:
- I’d like to visit a new continent. I’ve been to Europe, and I’ve been to North America (obviously). There has GOT to be a story or two in me that could be uncovered by visiting a completely foreign place
- I’d like to be traditionally published. 2020 for me is going to be about continuing to improve in my craft. That means I need to keep writing. It may sound strange, but I can see the threads in front of me. I know that I can do better than my first two efforts. I have a story, I just don’t know what that means yet.
- Stretch goal! I want a bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list.
These are my writing goals over the next five years. More immediately, I need to find an agent. New York could still help me accomplish that – I’ve heard back from one of the agents who requested material. It was a no from that person, but that’s okay. I still have six strong, viable options.
At this time it’s been just over three months. I think it’s time to poke them, don’t you? Sound off in the comments over whether or not you think I should reach out to them.
SO
What did we learn this week?
- A lot can happen in a year. Much more can happen in 5.
- It’s been over a year since I dropped my keys down an elevator shaft. I still clutch them extra tight whenever I step into one.
- Since I’ve been doing Christmas shopping a lot this week, I’ve been thinking about how fortunate I am. There’s nothing that I NEED. I think I need to remember that more.
- Wine tastes best when it comes in a box. You might disagree, but you’re wrong and I hate you (not really, but you ARE wrong).
- Sometimes at the end of serious posts, I try to lighten the mood. What other way than with bad jokes, right? Probably to have people leave on a good note! So… you’re welcome!
- You should totally buy Far from Ordinary if you haven’t already. Even if you have! It makes for a GREAT Christmas gift.
Also, I haven’t heard anything from the camp of Imposter Murray. I assume that he is cringing in his Christmas boots.
Later days,
M
What’s in a Name?
Hi! How are you doing?
Michael here, coming at you live from Winnerpeg! Okay, maybe not live, this is a BLOG post, after all. I’m still riding the high from my hometown Winnipeg Blue Bombers winning the Grey Cup on Sunday.
If you are tuning in from the States, or elsewhere, the Grey Cup is like the Canadian version of the Superbowl. It had been 29 long years since the Bombers won. That makes it a pretty big deal.
I could probably write an entire blog post talking about the Bombers. I’ve witnessed a lot more heartbreak than triumph over the years, watching them choke at the wrong moments, or even how nervous I felt with the nail-biting victory over our arch-rivals, the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, last Sunday.
But believe me, you wouldn’t want that. I’m going to stick to what I know best so that I can give you a semi-funny, mostly coherent rant about something related to the world of being a published author. It’s what the people want! That, and more post making fun of my sister.
You see, I learned the other day that there is another Michael Murray out there in Authorland.
No, I don’t mean hunky former teen heartthrob Chad Michael Murray, though the resemblance between the two of us is uncanny.
There is another Michael Murray out there. This is important because, as you undoubtedly know, authors subscribe to the Highlander school of thought around these kinds of things.
There can be only one!
This other Michael Murray – we’ll call him Imposter Murray – has been writing for a long time, from the looks of it. His first writing credit came all the way back in 1989, the year after I was born. There are two likely situations here.
The first is that I’ve been doing a Fight Club Tyler Durden/The Narrator kind of thing, writing as Imposter Murray in my sleep, since I was 12 months old. This seems like the most likely scenario since I was an incredibly fast learner. Erm, so I was told.
The second is that Imposter Murray took a trip to Winnipeg and somehow happened to see my name. Understandably awed and taken aback by the perfect alliteration, he stole it and has been using it ever since to write made-for-TV Christmas movies
I’m sure if we tune to the Hallmark channel for long enough this Holiday season, we’ll find one of his cinematic masterpieces.
One of the questions that I get the most is about my pen name. Why do I write under the name M. James Murray? When I chose it, I had no idea that Michael J. Murray AKA Imposter Murray existed. I did know about the existence of Chad Michael Murray, but that wasn’t the reason, either.
It was all about the findability factor. Findability. That’s a word now, by the way. Verb. Ability to be found, notably concerning online presence.
*Editors Note* apparently findability IS a word. Which brings my invented word count back down to zero.
When I google my birth name, I’m not on the first page of results. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. I think you get the idea. Also, no judging for googling my name! You’ve done it too, I’d bet!
There are Michael Murrays (is the plural Murrai?) who are doctors. One of us is an accomplished organist. I assume this means that he is proficient at playing, not harvesting organs.
There is a Michael Murray who produces video games, and we already talked about the two other MM’s in the Hollywood world.
So I needed a somewhat unique, distinguishable name. It was important to me that I stayed true to myself, so a pen name was out of the question. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea to use my middle name. And it stuck.
It’s catchy, it flows off the tongue. And when you google it, BAM!
The first thing that pops up is my twitter account. The second is a link to Far from Ordinary. Then a link to my website. Findability, BAY BAY!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Christmas movie to write.
So, what did we learn this week?
- To thine own self, stay true. Thanks, Polonius.
- I missed the anniversary of this blog! It happened back in October, actually. I guess I should eat some cake or something.
- My god, I’m sore! My knee hurts so badly that it’s tough to put weight on it. There’s no injury, I’m just over thirty. Pretty sure my knees get sore when I just LOOK at a treadmill nowadays.
- I got twenty-two downloads from my free book giveaway! If even one of those downloads leads to a review, I’m golden. Reviews are the lifeblood that keeps my book relevant to Amazon and, therefore, to any potential readers.
- This weekend I’ll be speaking at the #Change1 conference. Check it out. I’ll be talking about following your passion. Get tickets here.
Later days,
M
The Secrets of a Bestselling Book
Some books, no matter how well they’re written, will never become best sellers. Why is that? Why is it that many talented writers are not living on a lovely island somewhere in the Pacific?
Bora Bora sounds nice about now, no? I can’t dance, but I think I could probably master a mean hula. Now you’re going to have an image of me hulaing in your head. You’re welcome.
What makes a bestseller?
I want to start with a DISCLAIMER. If I knew the secret to what made Harry Potter, or The Twilight Saga, or Fifty Shades of Grey so popular, I would have written one like that already. I don’t. Not many people do. I sometimes wonder if even those authors knew what they had on their hands when they started writing.
I doubt it, but you never know. There’s a lot more than persuasive writing that goes into a best-selling book. And, in the case of some novels, it’s not even that. I’m looking at you, Twilight. It’s enough to make me gag. Anyway, here’s what I think makes up a best-seller:
Timing
This one is a bitch, mainly because there is no way to control it. For an up-and-coming author without name brand recognition or Stephen King lauding your book on the cover flap, it can sometimes be a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right book. That’s why you can’t control it.
For example, about a year ago, the Me Too movement was active. I remember being in the query trenches and seeing every other agent out there asking for a #MeToo story. If an author had a story based on that, then there was a good chance that the agency was going to be taking a long, hard look at that story.
If your book was about something way different, as mine was, then the letters which best describe you are S-O-L. Not saying that there wasn’t still an opportunity for me to sell my story, but there was nothing in the mainstream media that would have people clamoring to buy Far from Ordinary, or even my upcoming Fade to Black.
So why not just write a story based on whatever trend or movement the mainstream media is currently focused on? Well, there’s a problem with that. A book takes a LONG time to be published. I don’t mean for the author to finish writing it, although that can take years as well, I mean published, available in book stores. It can take up to two years of revisions and edits before it’s ready to shine. Realistically you’d need to have a completed manuscript in the publisher’s hands just as whatever you were writing about is gaining popularity
Like I said, timing is a bitch.
The story
An old English teacher of mine once told me that there is no such thing as a new story. Everything has been done before. Absolutely everything. It goes back to cavemen (cave-people?) telling stories on cave walls. After that, there are two and a half thousand years of verbal tradition storytelling, if not more. Every idea, every concept has already been explored. Depending on the concept, maybe hundreds of times. None of Shakespeare’s plays were original, after all. He took old stories and breathed new life into them with his characters.
Therein lies the rub.
What editors and publishers are looking for are stories that sell. The stories that sell the most are the ones that people are familiar with. The Lion King, for example, is just Hamlet with lions. Aladdin is based on a Middle Eastern folk tale, with elements of Romeo and Juliet with magic and a happy ending.
(Oh, did I spoil Romeo and Juliet for you? Tough luck! I think I’m okay spoiling something that’s been around for a couple of centuries, no?)
I mean, maybe I shouldn’t use Disney as an example given some of the issues they’ve had, but the concept is there!
Audiences seem to love this concept of “same same, but different.” It’s the same idea, but it’s not. It’s done in a way that’s reminiscent of the original, but unique enough that it can be considered its own thing.
It’s all about the big concept story, after all. That’s what sells, bay-bay!
The Story Part Two: Electric Boogaloo
Speaking about the story, how is your plot? Is it enthralling? Does it force you to keep turning pages to get to the end, ala Dan Brown? I swear he laced the pages of his earlier books, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, with some sort of magical dust that keeps your attention as a reader. I remember reading Angels and Demons until 5 AM because I couldn’t. put. it. down. That’s something special, isn’t it?
Are your characters interesting? Nobody wants to hear about the guy who didn’t do anything interesting because he was responsible all the time and in bed by 8:30. We want to read about larger than life characters who somehow still connect with us on a deeper level.
“Oh yeah, I know he killed all those zombies, but I can really see pieces of me in there.” Are you going to be killing zombies? Probably not. Unless you know something that I don’t.
*narrows eyes suspiciously*
Is there some aspect of the above zombie killer’s personality that you can relate to? Maybe! The best characters aren’t infallible, Mary-Sue types. They’re broken, and they bleed. It’s in that pain of the human condition that we find something special, something relatable.
The Writing
Okay, okay. I started this post by talking about how a book doesn’t need excellent writing to be a best seller. And it doesn’t. But it certainly can help if you can string a few words together in a semi-cohesive and somewhat comprehensive way.
Everybody has a different idea as to what excellent writing is. For example, Stephen King and George R.R. Martin are two of the best writers alive today. Perhaps they’re among the best of all time. The way they navigate the blank page is nothing short of magical. Their writing is technically sound and incredibly entertaining.
And yet, it’s not for everyone. No matter how good you make it, not everyone is going to like it. Is that harsh? I don’t think so. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong they are 😉
But that’s also what makes it tough for us up-and-comer types. I mean, if people are criticizing the King, of all people, how in the Seven Hells could I ever live up to THAT?
I consider myself reasonably ambitious, but I don’t think I can ever surpass those two in writing ability.
It doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to, though.
SO
What did we learn this week?
- You can’t write to please everyone. Readers are like cats – erm, pardon me, Khajits. You’re not going to please them by trying to get them to like you.
- Lots of you agreed with my decision to make fun of my sister more in these blogs. I have to give the people what they want!
- Also, on that topic, I forgot that my sister was going to give me a Twinrix vaccine injection. I’m going to Cuba in the winter, and I don’t want to catch the hep. Probably should have held last week’s post until after the shot. My arm still hurts.
- This post was filled with industry secrets. I hope that the secret author’s association doesn’t come after me. Naw, I’m kidding. It’s just one author’s (probably erroneous) impressions around what maketh a best seller
- I’m back!
I think last week, I had promised that I would dive into the aftermath of New York, and I wanted to assure you all that it’s still on my mind. Once I get some real news about it, I’ll be sure to share.
Until next week,
M.
The Vaunted Follow-up Post
It’s a typical pattern after an especially popular blog post for me. I write, and then I turtle. A popular blog post is followed by a month or more of radio silence. Can you really call it a pattern, though, if it’s only a couple of posts?
I’ve tried over the past year to figure out which kind of post does the best. Is it the ones which are tongue-in-cheek? Or is it the serious ones? Ones where I talk about the craft of writing or ones where I talk about that damn khajit?
Two posts stand out above any others in terms of popularity. The first was the book launch. People seemed to dig it! Probably because I just made fun of my sister in it the entire time.
Somehow, though, I don’t think that making fun of Lisa is the secret sauce to a more popular blog. (I could totally be wrong – feel free to sound off in the comments if you want to read more about that. I’d be more than happy to oblige).
The 2nd was my last blog post. New York: The Writer’s Conference. This is significant because – even though I don’t make fun of my sister – people still seemed to dig it.
Both of these signify pretty huge steps in my writing journey. The first was about the launch of Far from Ordinary. The second was about trying to break through into the writing industry.
After all, it’s one thing to write a book. It’s entirely another to get it published in an extremely competitive industry.
So that’s the secret sauce, then. Just keep doing epic shit – stuff that is far from ordinary, pardon the pun (available on Amazon, check it out!!)
Also easier said than done.
The posts where I have a massive update are the ones that are the most popular. That makes all the sense, doesn’t it? Therein lies my problem, as well. How the hell do you follow that up?
I mean, I could always write about a khajit. The internet seems to love cats, even if they’re complete and utter assholes. Which khajit should I write about? The one that I miss, or the one that tortures me every day? Decisions, decisions.
There’s no excuse for not writing blog posts. Not for me, anyway. Writers are supposed to write every day. No excuses. But, of course, there are. There are always excuses. I’m tired. My mantlepiece needs cleaning. Mercury is in goddamn retrograde.
The only thing I want to do after a post which does better than average is to follow it up with another one that can do just as well. That’s almost impossible, though, unless I’m starting to be less than honest with my posts.
NEXT WEEK, I TALK ABOUT HOW I SINGLE HANDEDLY SOLVED THE CLIMATE CRISIS, WHILE SOMEHOW HAVING A FANTASTIC HAIRLINE AND GETTING THE DOCTOR-RECOMMENDED 8.5 HOURS OF SLEEP EVERY NIGHT!
No, I don’t think I’ll do that. Hashtag fake news. I don’t like clickbait, and I assume that you don’t, either.
Here I am, then, taking that integral first step. Do me a favor and like the post, mmkay? It will help my desperately fragile writer’s ego.
SO
What did we learn this week (month)?
- It’s no fun being a non-practicing writer. Let’s fix that, yes?
- I’ve been sitting on a couple of story ideas for my next novel. The first? Far from Ordinary 2: Electric Boogaloo. The 2nd? UNTITLED HORROR STORY PROJECT.
- I’m still working on the title for the second one. I’ve wanted to do a horror story for a long time now. There’s something about a good spooky story. A freezer book. A journey into the macabre, so to speak.[insert friends freezer book
- You’ve got to start again sometime. Here’s to the blank page
- Next week I’m going to talk about results! Specifically what I’ve gotten from the writer’s conference so far
Later days,
M
M. James Murray 