Honestly, this title is clickbait. I apologize for it now up front. What I really want to talk about is a way to improve writing quality in not unconventional ways, but perhaps at unconventional scales. I’ll explain that in a minute.

In our current times, communication and the ability to solicit is at unprecedented levels. Interaction between consumers and sources is lightning fast.

Help Me Help You (or help you help me?)

As an aspiring author, I want to produce content that people want to read. In some ways, I can only write from a limited perspective, my own. However, within that range, what the audience wants matters too. In times past, the only option for authors was feedback from “first readers” (often called beta readers now), and then editors and so on. But now, with the possibility of engaging the audience at virtually any point in the creative process, content can almost be customized to the desire of the consumer (to a point).

So far, my experience with writing books is equal to one. That is one book. Some might say I have “limited” experience. However, something I have noticed with just my one book is that people are a little reluctant to give feedback on what I might have done differently.

I understand where they are coming from, especially because most people that have read my book are friends and family, and it’s hard to give real feedback (especially bad news) in that case. But, there have been some readers that have given me some great ideas and suggestions.

The only problem with the great comments I have received is that the book is already written…and published. It’s too late for me to fix it (even that one blatant typo my wife’s dad found…). For that, I can only hope to improve in future works. And now, you might begin to understand the purpose of this post.

I would like to ask you for feedback on something that I am currently writing. The first draft is completed (finished it last night), but it’s still probably six months away from publishing at the soonest. But that means I can still save it even if it’s terrible (well, maybe, depending on how terrible).

The Future of Writing

Writing is a solitary activity. At least it is for me. I am introverted and I don’t like to talk much about what I am writing until I’m done with it, and even then I’m shy about it. And if you are actively reading it, I’d rather be in a different country while you do that (so all my Canadian friends, you’re good). I’m working on getting over that because at the same time, I want people to read what I have written.

Although I write alone, most of my ideas come from observing and listening to others. Conversations and situations spark ideas in me, occasionally at unexpected times and places. I once eavesdropped (this is 100 percent true) on a group of strangers having a very unique conversation on a train in the middle of Nevada. I surreptitiously transcribed the whole discussion in my day planner and kept that planner in a box for 15 years until I finally thought of the scene it fit into and the character that should overhear it. That scene is now waiting until I can write the right story for it to go in. It’s one of my favorite conversations that I have ever heard. Yeah, I’m actually insane.

But, this illustrates a point I’d like to make. If it’s okay to steal real life conversations from people that they don’t know about (is it okay? no clue), why not just ask for some ideas? With the internet and its many features, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are now things that occur. So why not a little crowdbrainstorming for an upcoming book. I’m not the first to think of this by the way (Jeff Goins talked about this in a webinar I listened to once).

But this is going to be a first for me.

Your call to action

If you are interested, I would like your feedback on the first chapter of my next book. This book is nothing like the one I just published. Thread and Other Stories is a probing look at reality and our human nature. I love that kind of story. Not everyone does, and sometimes it can tire our brains out to read deep, emotional stuff like that.

It’s the same with writing. That’s why I am working on this next book, which is not so deep. Its working title is The Dragon Sword (so that’s why there were all those dragon pictures!), and it is a fantasy adventure novel (possibly in two parts…well definitely in two parts, but also definitely not more than two). This book has a little more sword fighting than my first book, more arrows, more magic, and possibly even a dragon. There are no elves though (don’t need any of those).

Anyway, here’s how this will work. I am paranoid about copyright and things like that so I’m not going to post the first chapter right here. But, the only way to get feedback is to let people read something before it is published. So the compromise is this: I will send you a secured PDF of the chapter via email. All you have to do is enter your email in the box at the end of this post (you can enter your name if you want also, but not mandatory).

Then after you read it, either make a comment below or check out this sweet forum and join a discussion there. You could also make a comment on my Facebook page. If you want you could email me as well, but I would prefer a forum-type discussion so others can see what you are suggesting as well. That is better for brainstorming.

How the email will work is that I will send a group email to everyone that is signed up for my email list on August 28th, 2017, with a PDF of the chapter attached. You can then read it at your leisure. Please don’t forward that email to anyone else. If you know someone that really wants to read it too, encourage them to sign up as well. Then come back here and offer up your thoughts.

Okay, that’s it. I hope you enjoy the chapter and amidst my anxiety in doing this I really look forward to hearing what you think of it. Be harsh (be nice too), but above all be honest.

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Writing villains and antagonists is not easy for me. I think that’s partly because I don’t think I’m much of a villain at heart. Now writing is a challenge, but in one of my stories, I decided to write from a villain’s perspective, and that made everything twice as difficult (more on that later). But also I believe creating villains is difficult because they need to be believable and realistic, and making that happen is challenging.

For me, it’s easy to look at a plot, figure out what the protagonists need to do, and then make up an entity that opposes them. That’s easy. But that’s not a villain. Technically speaking, it is an antagonist (not always the same thing as a villain), but it’s not a very good one.

Why We Need Villains in Stories

I remember reading books as a little kid and sometimes wishing that the “bad guy” wasn’t part of the story. Just think how much better everything would be if that one jerk wasn’t part of the story. I liked to imagine how everything would have been better if I had been there to eliminate the villain before they could do all the bad stuff.

Obviously, I was missing the point. We need villains in our stories. I can come up with two reasons. One is obvious: there has to be a literary struggle, and at times that can only be provided by someone who actively works against the hero. That’s just how writing needs to be. That’s an antagonist. Antagonists are not always bad (like Javert in Les Misérables, who I have written about before).

But I think there is another reason too. We need villains to help us relate to the heroes. Life is not always smooth sailing like I wished it to be as a young reader, and without the opposition of well thought out villains, I don’t think we would enjoy much in books.

Villains Are People Too

There is more to the villain in a story than just being bad. In my own writing, my villains need to have just as much motivation for what they do as my heroes. I need to believe that my villain is committed to their own cause to the point that it defines who they are. If the villain is not well developed  then they are just a plot device, like a storm or a broken wheel.

On the other hand, if the villain is believable, has legitimate motivations, justifications, and a moral compass (however amoral it might be in comparison to the heroes), the story grows in strength. When I write a villain, I want the reader to feel at least a twinge (if not more) of sadness when things go awry for them. Besides, nothing makes the hero’s venture more fulfilling than overcoming a real obstacle instead of just episodic encounters.

Understanding the need for villains and how to write them is one thing. Actually doing it is another. When I write a character, I don’t get to decide what that person does throughout the story. Instead, I imagine a personality, likes, dislikes, motivations, and dreams. And then, when a situation comes up in the story, the character acts according to their traits. Sometimes they surprise me.

Where Villains Come From

This is what makes villains hard. I have difficulty sculpting the traits of people with bad intentions. In my short story Deception, one of the stories in Thread and Other Stories, I wrote entirely from the perspective of Dmitry, the villain, and it was challenging. I had to take breaks after certain paragraphs because it was emotionally draining to think like Dmitry and observe what he did. At times I felt guilty for what Dmitry was doing.

Obviously, every character in a story comes from the imagination of the author. So where did Dmitry come from for me? Where does any villain come from? I would say it comes from within, and that might seem a little scary. But here’s the truth, we all have some good and some bad in us. We all have the capability of doing what we ought or what we ought not. The thing that separates us from those that we might consider “bad” is that we choose not to let the bad side of us win. To read more of my thoughts on villains, take a look at this post.

For me, understanding this point helps me not to worry too much about writing a character like Dmitry. I know I’m not him even though I take his place during the few pages he exists and bring him to life through my writing. It’s much easier of course to accept all of that for the opposing view, the heroes, but I don’t know if we learn as much about ourselves that way. Villains really bring literature home.

Leave a comment below. Who is your favorite villain from literature and why?

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On Saturday, June 17, 2017, my book, “Thread and Other Stories,” became a reality. It has seemed like such a long time in coming. Not just that it takes a long time to write a book (years in my case), but also because I finished writing it three months ago and it has seemed like forever to get from that point to this one.

And now, on the other side of publishing, it is as if I’m looking down into a valley that I can’t see the other side of—I don’t know where I’m going to end up, but I’m already heading onward—it’s too late to stop anyway. I have two conflicting emotions that I have been trying to control for quite some time. The first is the fear that I will fail. The second is the hope that I will succeed. Some of the failure that I feared is impossible now, the failure of not ever finishing.

I’m sure every writer has the hope that I mentioned inside of them as well. They try to ignore the hope and suppress it out of fear that they might jinx it, if such a thing can even happen. This little hope is that their book—that their book—is the book. They hope it is the NY Times #1 bestseller, Harry Potter part II, or whatever incredible book you can imagine. I feel that, but I don’t want to admit it. Would I love that? Of course. Do I honestly think it will happen? No. But then again, you never know, do you?

Whether that will happen for my book or not I don’t know. Honestly, I didn’t write it for that reason anyway. I think I had two reasons of my own for writing. The first is that although I wrote it with the hope of success and widespread distribution in the back of my mind, the practical thing that kept me sitting down every night of every day for all those months and years is because I wanted to find out if I could do it. I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. And I found out. I did it.

And then the second reason is that I wanted to share what I had. I wanted to share my thoughts and my ideas in the best way I could. I did not want to live my life wondering what might have been. That is a question we can never answer if we do not act.

I also wrote this book for the reader, hopefully you reading this blog being among them. I wanted to write something that would entertain you. There are some themes, and messages, and symbolism in what I wrote if you are interested or want to look for it. But you don’t have to do that to enjoy it. More important than all of that is there are stories that I wanted to make engaging and interesting. I wanted you to love reading what I wrote. I don’t know yet if I did it, but I hope so.

Writing is personal, and I have read a lot of quotes from authors that claim they are writing for themselves. Which is partially true…probably. But it’s not completely true. It’s probably not even mostly true. Every word I wrote and every character I developed was for the future reader—for you. I thought about how you would interpret what I put down. I wondered if you would see what I was trying to say. I wondered if it was too obvious or too obscure. I wondered if you would care like I did. I wondered if you would “get it.”

If you do get it, if you do enjoy it, if you do connect with someone or something I created, then I think I succeeded. I don’t think anything would mean more to me than for someone to tell me that something I wrote resonated with them—that it meant something to them. For me, that is my hope as an author.

Now, I want you to forget I just wrote for a second, because I need to say this next part. I learned something on Saturday night, June 17, 2017: I have wonderful friends. I posted my announcement on Facebook. I gave no fair warning to anyone, I didn’t build up to it at all, and very few people expected such a thing from me. But in spite of that, the responses from friends were amazing. Whether I sell any books or not, that moment meant a lot to me. I guess I shouldn’t have expected less than that, I know some great people, but it meant a lot to me.

I was talking to one friend the day after about a lot of what I have just written about, and while discussing all of this I told him that I was only afraid of one thing. It wasn’t negative feedback, it wasn’t if no one liked it, or if no one bought it. The thing I was most afraid of was silence. What if no one said anything? What if no one ever knew or cared that I had done this?

What I found out on Saturday night was that no matter what happens from here on out—with book sales, reviews (if any), comments or lack thereof, or any other response—the people I know the best and that mean the most to me cared. They made something that was important to me important to them and they let me know it. That meant a lot to me and I am grateful for it.