Framework

Being a Better Writer: Front To Back, or Back To Front?

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , ,

Welcome back, writers! It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for Being a Better Writer. But before we dive into today’s topic, I do have a somewhat unfortunate bit of news that needs to be discussed, and some of you aren’t going to like it. It’s about AI, and how it’s killing Being a Better Writer.

See, Being a Better Writer has run for over a decade now. It’s offered writing advice on hundreds of different topics, maybe even over a thousand. It’s been a fixture of the site for the longest time. And during that time, it’s been run with a specific set of rules: no ads, and teach writing for free.

Now, this has never been entirely altruistic, though it mostly is. But there was the advantage of it bringing in readers to read my books, where the money is. Writers and would-be writers find BaBW, they read it, see there are no ads, that it’s offered freely, and along the way they do visit my site, the one you’re only somewhat likely to be on right now (yeah, here’s the problem), see the latest news on Axtara or whatever book is most recently out, check the other stuff, etc.

At least, that’s what is supposed to happen. Unfortunately … it’s not anymore. Nowadays, more and more of my traffic—over half, actually—is from AI bots. AI bots that come to the site, take my content, and regurgitate it in front of a reader somewhere else. Sans … everything else.

Let me tell you a story. Years ago, I had someone contact me about an “exciting offer.” They wanted to “share” my Being a Better Writer posts with a writing app on mobile, and asked for my permission to repost Being a Better Writer there. Immediately suspicious, I took a look. It was a free app … but there was a paywall too, if memory served, and I think some sort of “reward” structure for posters as well. You know, the usual walled garden sort of stuff.

So, suspicious of their motives, I told this person that they had permission to post the openers of each of my posts, along with the link that would lead back to the site. Not a problem, right?

Oh, if they’d been genuine, maybe. Instead, they went ballistic. Accusing me of being “greedy” and trying to “horde” knowledge from people that needed it, etc. Every accusation and name you could think of. Because the truth of it was they didn’t want to send any traffic my way. They wanted to repost and profit from Being a Better Writer without owing me anything. The classic, modern American dream: make somebody else do the hard work, get 100% of the profit from it.

Well, that “dream” (which is a nightmare for all the people who actually do the work) has come home to roost in a big way with AI. And right now? It’s hurting this site.

See, No longer are the majority of “readers” ever seeing the site. They’re not seeing Axtara, or Colony, or even the majority of the posts. They’re getting copied and pasted chunks from them, delivered by an AI that is, if it’s advertising anything at all, is advertising the AI owner’s content. Or even charging a fee for seeing what’s on my site.

In other words, these AI companies are taking something I provide to the public and making it their “product,” and even in the process shilling their own advertisements or even charging people for the service of “repackaging” content that isn’t theirs.

Ultimately, I don’t know what to do about this. Site “view” numbers have shot up, between double and triple what they used to be. But they’re not from people. Clicks on other links to content inside our outside the site, which used to be common, are dying, as “viewers” aren’t even viewing what they see on my site. It’s an AI engine grabbing it and repackaging it for them.

Is this wrong? Well, yes. Material on this site is mine. I’ve even got the little box checked on my host settings that says “forbid AI from accessing this material.” That doesn’t stop them, I just get hits through VPNs instead of from countries that obey those regulations.

Again, I don’t know what to do about this. Unusual Things relies on the web traffic and the interlinking content chain of “people come, read Being a Better Writer, and some of them check out my books or other material.” But those numbers? Those numbers aren’t going up. In fact, they’re going down. AI is taking my content and packaging it to AI users to promote their stuff … not mine, and in the process killing the site.

Do I kill Being a Better Writer, something that has stood now for over a decade? Do I risk putting it behind a paywall? Something tells me that would only kill it faster: I’ve seen other folks report that at least they’re getting a $5 fee monthly from these AI engines, but that hardly makes up for the thousands of people who are then repurchasing that content from the AI, not the creator. Worse, it leads into the “Patreon Pitfall” where people are expected to pay for content without seeing it, thus driving a creator into a diminishing viewership base.

I … honestly don’t know what to do. Unfortunately, the country where I live has effectively stalled or given up on almost all efforts to police AI theft, so I have no recourse there. Even if I were to try legal recourse, it’d be one author who’s struggling to make rent versus multiple companies with a cash reserve bubble that’s estimated to be between nine and sixteen trillion dollars. I’d have no hope of winning that.

Point being, readers, that these last few months have so rapidly been stripping away at what makes Being a Better Writer work in the first place that I legitimately am not sure how it’s going to be able to continue. Right now, this very post, this moment of typing, is effectively me “working” for some big AI conglomerate. They’ll take the post and use it to sell their services, while I will get nothing. I’m working for free for a megacorp.

I don’t like it. At all.

There’s not a conclusion here. If anything, this is a cry for help: If you’re reading this through AI, please stop. It’s stealing. Please, go to the site. The AI probably won’t give it to you, but with a good old-fashioned search engine, you can find it. Bookmark it. Put in an RSS feed. Read these post from the site, please, and stop supporting companies that are taking my traffic and my livelihood.

All right, with all that said, let’s dive into today’s topic, from what may end up being the last Being a Better Writer topic list if things don’t see some kind of change.

Hit the jump.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Scale and Scope

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Welcome once again, writers of all ages and experience! Monday has arrived, and with it comes a new installment of Being a Better Writer! Are you ready? I hope so, because it’s right here, and you’re reading these words so … If you’re not ready, too late!

Now, as always, I’d say check the latest news post, which was last Wednesday. That way you’re up to date on what’s coming down the pipeline and what’s been going on. News on Blood Less Vile, The Phoenix, Axtara 3, A Pirate Planet … Yeah, there are a lot of projects going on right now.

Anyway, I advise checking that out either before or after today’s post. Both work. And with that said, let’s talk about scale and scope.

Okay, I’m going to drop a scenario on you some of you may have encountered before. Maybe even experienced! But there have been times where I’ve been in discussions, or been told by a young writer, “Well, my draft just passed 100,000 words, so I guess I’m writing an epic!” Some say it with excitement, others with a laugh like “Look at this milestone I just passed.”

My reactions? They vary. But they usually amount to the following two steps. First, I point out that 100,000 is a still a fairly ordinary sized novel. Sands, the normal book I finished last night called this out in one of the near-final chapters. Second, length does not make a work an “Epic,” no more than it makes any other genre. One doesn’t look at their wordcount and say “Well, this draft is 73,000 words, so I guess it’s a mystery!” That’s just not how it works.

“But wait!” some of you are probably saying. “What are you talking about? Aren’t all long books Epics?”

Well … no. And that leads us right into today’s topic. So let’s hit the jump, and talk about scale and scope.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Learning From Real History

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Welcome back writers! Monday is here, and with it, more Being a Better Writer!

Yeah, I know. It’s hardly a surprise. Being a Better Writer has been dropping on the regular now for how long? But hey, I like to believe you’re all still pretty excited to see what we’re talking about this week.

Now, before we deliver on that excitement, it is my responsibility to note that there was a Friday news post that you may want to take a look at. Especially as it concerns the paperback for Axtara – Magic and Mischief!

That’s right! After months of being trapped in limbo, Amazon finally got some capybaras assigned to hammer at their servers and got things all fixed. The paperback for Axtara – Magic and Mischief is finally available to US purchasers (everyone else had it months ago) and has shipped! There are some fine details to be concerned with if you pre-ordered or had a standing order—check the post for more—but I’ve been getting happy reports all week from fans that their copies finally arrived and they’re digging in!

So, you know, don’t miss your chance if a paperback’s what you’ve been waiting for. Dragons, banking, loans, princesses … and some fun surprises along the way! You can even order it at your favorite bookstore!

Ahem. Anyway, that and more was in the news post. So I advise checking it out. With that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s Being a Better Writer topic. And to do that, I want to tell you a story. About a story!

So hit that jump, and let’s get down to it.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Delivering Details in the Right Order

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Confession: I very nearly made “right” in the title “write.” It was quite tempting.

Welcome back, writers, to another installment of Being a Better Writer! Today we’re going to talk about a topic that’s vital to the telling of a good story, and which you can probably guess based on the title this text is sitting below. We’re going to dive right in, so if you’re looking for news about Axtara – Armies and Accounting, or when the Magic and Mischief paperback will be available, you can go check that out here. Going further will not get you news here. But it will get you writing advice. So let’s dive in!

Delivering readers detail is one of those key challenges to being a writer. We even have a word for it: Exposition. The word we use when a story informs us of something that it believes we the readers need to know.

Exposition comes in all forms. A character saying “Don’t open that door, it’s an airlock and that’s bad for anyone who has to do things like breathe” is exposition. They’re expositing what a door is and why it should not be tampered with. A narrative giving readers a bunch of information about the setting? That’s also exposition, just given directly to the reader.

Both of these ways we’ve mentioned so far can be done well or done poorly. A character saying something that the audience needs to know … but clearly only speaking for the benefit of the audience? Well, that’s not great. Whether it’s characters saying “As you know …” or just stating something because the writer was worried the audience won’t have figured it out, this form of information delivery can be done poorly. As can the other form, exposition becoming infodumping.

We’ve talked about each of these before, as well as many other aspects of presenting information. So much so that the link you just slipped past is to a tag rather than a specific post. But as we’ve talked about all those others … we’re letting those posts stand on their own, and today we’re going to talk about another aspect of presenting information that I’ve seen young and new writers alike struggle with: how to figure out the order.

Hit the jump!

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: The Gandalf Problem

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , ,

Alternate title: When You Realize One Character Can Solve Most of the Plot. Welcome back writers! It’s time for another Being a Better Writer post, and we’ve got a fun one for you!

Now, today’s post isn’t a reader request, though we’ve got plenty more of these coming. Today’s topic was actually inspired by discussion from the editing of the Axtara sequel—which should leave Alpha today, I’ll add. There’s your news tidbit. But yes, this came up while editing on that title. A minor spoiler, but one of the plot points of the second Axtara book is Axtara’s brother coming for a visit. Who happens to be a wizard.

However, his visit is announced in the beginning of the book, but as a letter noting that it will be some time before he arrives. The book happens, and then Axtara’s older sibling appears for the final chapter, making good on his promise and helping to wrap everything up from the story.

Now, this works, but a few readers did express a little disappointment that Axtara’s brother hadn’t been there from the start, since they’d wanted to see more of him. Which is fair. Ryax is quite a fun character, and many have wanted to see more of him since his (at this time) Patreon-Exclusive appearance.

The thing is, they weren’t alone in that. I too wanted to see Ryax get some more time to shine, which was one reason why he’d been included in the Axtara sequel in the first place. But … as I sat down and began to work through the plot, assembling the framework that would be Axtara’s second outing, I saw an immediate problem with Ryax’s inclusion.

He was a wizard, and solved more than 50% of the book’s primary conflict simply by being present, his skill set much better suited to overcoming the challenges faced by Axtara.

Now, I could have changed the conflict. Given the story something that Ryax couldn’t immediately or easily overcome. But when I started to explore that route additional problems were created, giving the plot multiple issues. Adjusting the plot to give Ryax more struggle took away from Axtara having conflict, making the story more about her brother than her, the titular protagonist. Worse, it shifted the genre, away from Cozy Fantasy more towards just regular fantasy starring a dragon.

Ryax, it became clear, was a detriment, not an improvement. I had unfortunately encountered a problem.

Now ultimately I fixed it, or the discussion never would have started in the first place. But when talk of this reached the site Discord, one member immediately noted ‘Oh, you had the Gandalf problem.’

And he was right. I had.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Character Competence

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , , , ,

Welcome back writers, to more Being a Better Writer! As this post was written well in advance and scheduled to go up while I in theory am boarding an airplane with a secure door plug, I have no news to speak of. Save a reminder that if you’re a Patreon Supporter, to go vote for the next project after Axtara 2!

But yes, this post cannot predict future news, so instead of waxing on what’s going on, we’re just going to dive right into today’s topic, which is a sort-of request.

Why sort-of? The topic itself came from an excellent comment left by reader georgfelis on a previous Being a Better Writer installment. A few weeks ago, when we spoke of uncertain characters, this poster left a great comment (which you can read here) taking the post one step further and creating a four-way graph, with “certain/uncertain” on one axis, and competent/incompetent on the other. They offered examples of different well-known characters representing each corner of the graph, as well as examples of how those characters were used, and suggested I augment the original post in some fashion with that excellent addition.

I’ll admit, I definitely considered it. This post was almost that breakdown. Save that when I sat down to look harder at it, I realized I’d just be repeating what had already been stated in a satisfactory fashion. Hence why I’m linking to the comment above. If you read the original post but didn’t see georgfelis’ comment on it, I’d suggest reading it. It’s a really good addition to how you think about certainty in your stories.

But it did raise a great subject as well, that being character competence. So rather than restating georgfelis’ words on the matter, I thought I’d dedicate a post to the other axis of that comment and talk about how competent our characters may or may not be.

So hit both jumps, the comment link above and the link to the rest of the post, and let’s talk about how competent your characters are.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Keeping Description in Character

Max Being a Better Writer , , , ,

Welcome once again, writers, to another installment of Being a Better Writer. Alas, this is not “fresh” in the sense that it was written by my hand on this day, but once more from the past. I’m currently out of the office, and this post was prepared in advance. Which means there’s no real news but what was from several weeks ago.

Okay, well, there is a chance that I’ll be back next week, according to the schedule I’ve gotten my hands on. I hope that holds up, because I really want to be working on Axtara – Magic and Mayhem.

Anyway, that’s literally all there is news-wise: Just me hoping I’m back. So without further beating around the bush, let’s just dive into today’s topic!

Okay, I realize some of you might look at this and sort of go “Huh?” a little. But I think if we polled those making that response, we’d find two very different causes.

One would be, of course, people who saw the title and nodded, going “Yeah, that makes sense. I guess we’re talking about this today.” But the other half? They’d be the people who saw this title and went “What? What does that mean?”

This post has its roots in that sort of response. Long ago, when I was working on my third book (which actually released as my fourth, and was the fantastically received Sci-Fi adventure Colony, you should go read it) I was “quizzed” by someone who, for whatever reason, wanted me to “prove” that I was an author in an IRL (in real life) conversation. They waved their hand at the surroundings around us and declared ‘Well, prove it and describe this scene around us!’

Yeah, people really do this. People are weird. Anyway, I retorted with “As who?”

This question baffled them. Their response, which I don’t recall word for word, was ‘That doesn’t matter, a description is just a description! Just describe the scene!’

To which I tried to explain that depending on who was looking at said scene, the description would be different, as each person/character would notice and fixate on different things. To which this interrogator grew upset, arguing that this ‘made no sense’ and that it should just be a description of the scene, like what they personally saw, and I obviously was not an author and didn’t know what I was talking about. Offering several descriptions of the scene from the viewpoint of different characters just made them more unhappy, as they argued that each character was “wrong” for thinking of things a certain way or noticing/not paying attention to certain aspects of our surroundings.

It was … a frustrating experience, certainly. But at the same time, it was enlightening. To some, there is simply the viewpoint that their view is all there is and will ever be, and other viewpoints are just “wrong.”

Do I disagree with that? Most certainly. However, I have also read books for which this sort of viewpoint seems to hold true, books in which each character’s view of the world is identical to another. And I don’t mean “view of the world” in a sense of opinions or stances on ruling powers or ethics. I mean “view of the world” as in what they physically see. How they take in the setting around them, and what they will notice and act on first.

I’ve read books where if you took any moment of scenery and put it up against another from another character, there would be no way to tell one from the other. Not because the book used a narrator that had a voice of their own, but because the character’s viewpoints and personality were not reflected in the way they observed the world around them.

And that … I think that’s a misstep. So hit the jump, and let’s talk about how we can avoid making the same mistake.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Consistency Versus Accuracy

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Welcome back readers! Thank you, b the way, for letting me have that break last week. I needed it. Last week was a slam as far as work goes. But, there is good news.

The Beta for Jungle is done. Yeah, you read that right. Done.

What’s that mean for you readers out there? It means that this week, pre-orders will open. The cover will be finalized, the draft will go into the Copy Edit … and there will be a release date set.

Yeah, this week promises to be just as busy for me as last week. There’s always a surprising amount of work to do with getting any book ready for the big release day. And well, I doubt Jungle is going to be any different. But being done with the Alpha and the Beta, well … That’s a lot of work. It’s the peak. Sure, there’s still a lot of work to go.

But hey, this does mean that Jungle is still on track for a November release. As many of you might imagine, it going up for pre-order does mean that you’ll all be getting some good news on that end very soon. Oh, and a new preview tomorrow.

All right, so that said, our news out of the way, let’s talk about today’s topic: consistency versus accuracy.

This post was actually inspired by a Reddit post I was reading the other day discussing Science-Fiction, where a poster asked why it seemed like so many posters on the subreddit were so adamant that Sci-Fi stories be confined to real knowledge and hard reality rather than, you know, fiction. As they pointed out, they were quite surprised by the number of posters and commentators on the subreddit who seemed quite incensed the moment any author moved away from hard, hard, hard Sci-Fi into the realm of speculation, and noted that they didn’t like reading page after page of scientific explanation, analysis, and research just so that the author could look at the reader and say (in a nutshell) “It’s real science, yo!”

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer’s Summer of Cliche Writing Advice: Stop Planning and Start Writing

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Hello readers, and welcome to the third installment of Being a Better Writer’s Summer of Cliche Writing Advice! Where each week this summer we’re taking a different look at some of those oft-heard, easily repeated sayings of writing advice that seem to swarm young writers (and even some veteran ones) wherever they go. The quick, off-the-cuff sayings that just seem to crop up like flies.

Because while they’re numerous and oft-repeated, are they really that useful? Or have they, in being cut down to something that’s bite-sized and easily digestible, lost some of that functionality we’d like them to bring, or even perhaps become harmful, like last week’s “Show, don’t tell?”

Or are they distilled wisdom that, while curt, is really quite useful? Well, that’s what Being a Better Writer is figuring out this summer with this series. Is the saying really that useful? What sort of knowledge or advice can we take out of it? Should we be repeating it? Or is it something we shouldn’t use because it’s likely going to cause more stumbling than smooth sailing for a new writer?

Enough pontificating! This week’s quick quip of choice?

Stop Planning and Start Writing.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Epics

Max Being a Better Writer , , , ,

We’ve got a one-word title today readers. Buckle up!

No news. Not today. No, we’re going to dive right in. Today’s topic actually was one of several inspired by my attending of Life, The Universe, and Everything this year, as I met with a number of young, aspiring authors who declared an interest in writing an Epic of their own. Even if, some admitted, they weren’t quite sure what an Epic was, or what went into a book that made it an “Epic” while other books were just “adventures.”

Today’s topic went right to the list the moment I returned home that evening. Because I love Epics, and would enjoy seeing more of them out there. And … there really isn’t that much about them out there.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty on the classic Epics, like The Odyssey or The Illiad. There are whole college course dedicated to those works that you can peruse online.

But those aren’t modern Epics. They’re not generally what someone means today when they tell you that they read this great book, and mention the genre as being Epic Fantasy. No, the modern Epic is something a little different. And … not that oft defined, though talked about frequently enough. Which in turn can lead to confusion or difficulty for a lot of young authors who know the genre that they would like to write towards … but aren’t quite sure what that genre entails.

They’re like those young authors I found at LTUE. They know what they like, and what they want to do. They can name books that they’re fairly certain are Epics … but they’re not one hundred percent certain what makes one book an Epic and the other simply an adventure.

So, let’s dive into it. What makes an Epic an Epic? And how can you prepare to write one?

Continue reading →