Hi Jim,

I have a problem I was hoping you could help me with a rather… sensitive issue. I’ve written a book that deals with a lot of cultural issues. I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my writing as inoffensive as possible, as I want people from all walks of life to be able to read it, enjoy it, and maybe find themselves in it. However… I’ve recently been getting hate mail and negative reviews from people calling some of what I’ve written offensive. I really don’t want to get into great detail for my own protection, but I was wondering if you had any advice on dealing with accusations of bigotry and negative reviews.

Thanks,
(Anonymous by request.)

Hello,

You’re in quite the bind there, I’ll definitely tell you. First of all, there’s nothing you can do about negative reviews. They’re par for the course when it comes to putting media out there for public consumption, so that’s something you’ll most likely have to live with. If you have reason to believe that the negative reviews are trolling or someone who didn’t read the book, there are methods to appeal them with Amazon, GoodReads, Etc. So you might consider that approach.

As to your other problem… having not heard the other side, nor read your work, I’m going to be functioning on the assumption that you didn’t put anything into your book that is blatantly bigoted… or if you did, you framed it in a way that was appropriate to the story. If you basically rewrote Mien Kampf, you’re getting what’s coming to you, but again, I’m going to assume that’s not the case, given what you’ve told me.

Unfortunately, in the current climate we live in, people have a heightened sensitivity to pretty much every social issue on the planet. It seems almost completely unavoidable. Some say it’s because they were raised to believe that they were special and that the world owed them something… others say that these issues have always been around, but social media just really put a magnifying glass on them.
I personally think that the truth is somewhere in between, though I would note that the debate on political correctness vs. free speech is fairly troubling. We’re living in pretty stressful times.

This is honestly part of the reason I don’t tackle social or political issues in any sort of overt way. Yes, they make their way into my writing, but not with the intention of making a political statement. I just go where my fingers take me and people seem to like my work.

Okay, back on topic. At the risk of generalizing people… likely the people you are dealing with who are calling you a bigot are one of two kinds of people;

1. People with heightened sensitivities and insecurities. These people typically see social problems where ever they look and if they don’t find any, they’re pretty good at creating issues for them to complain about.
2. People looking to cause trouble. Yes, unfortunately, there are people out there that actively look to spark some kind of social outrage, usually for their own gain. Either they want to get their name out in the public or they want to get something out of whoever gets in their sights.
3. Legitimate people pointing out a problem. Again, I’m assuming you didn’t rewrite Mien Kampf. However, maybe something in your writing is unintentionally off. Maybe you unintentionally wrote a character as a bad stereotype?

I would re-read your work and if you believe #3 is what you’re dealing with… This is a little more difficult to advise on. I don’t typically recommend revising the original work, but if you’re genuinely concerned about it, you have that option.  That being said, you might consider not changing it… again, I haven’t seen your work and I don’t know what your characters are like, but writing as an art form is supposed to challenge people, it’s supposed to move them, to anger them, to sadden them, to make them uncomfortable, and yes, to make them happy. If this is the option you go with… the best advice I can give you is to grow a thick skin.

If it’s either of the other two, I recommend ‘The Rock’ approach: Ignore it.

Why do I call it the Rock approach? Well, it’s in honor of one of my favorite actors; Dwane Johnson. Arguably one of the most beloved personalities in Hollywood has come under fire recently from cultural figures, Paralympians, and environmental figures alike…

How has he responded to all of this criticism? Well, near as I can tell, he hasn’t. He hasn’t apologized or addressed it in any way. Why do I say that this is the smart thing to do? Because it takes the wind out of their sails. Look at each of these complaints. Have they gone anywhere? Have you heard of them after the initial outcry? Not likely. If you apologize to them, you’re admitting doing something wrong, even if you don’t mean to. Often times, they aren’t looking to, and won’t be willing to, accept your apology. If you try to fight back, you’ll wind up looking like the bad guy. It’s basically a power struggle, one you’ll be hard-pressed to win.

If you say nothing, do nothing, and keep your mouth shut, they’ll be yelling into an empty box and it will likely go away faster. I know it’s not an easy thing to do… take it from someone with boiling Irish blood in his veins, but IMHO it really is the correct approach.

Remember, your writing is all about you. Does it sound good to you? Do you like what you’ve written? Is your book something you’d like to read over and over? Then that’s all that really matters. Other people may like it or may not and your book sales will reflect that, but in the end, you can only write for yourself.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. Let’s open it up to the floor. Readers, what do you think our friend here should do? Should they ignore it or attempt some kind of damage control. Let me know in the comments and let’s get the conversation going.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hello,

A good question. Well honestly, I have to admit that my initial reasons were not as altruistic as one might think. I’d gone through site after site looking for good ways to advertise your writing. My books weren’t getting much traction with what I’d already had set up. Then I contacted another writer to see what he recommended. One of the main things was maintaining an online presence through a blog or other social media. He said the best thing you can do is give back some of that success you earned.

So I started my blog. At first, it got almost no traction because I was mostly advertising myself and my writing. I decided that, at that point, if I was going to get any traction, I needed to actually become part of the community. So I began looking at other blogs on WordPress and … sigh… tumblr… and a few other places. As I began commenting on and sharing what other’s had written, I began to notice a recurrent problem; There was plenty of talent, but not much in the way of experience. Too many skilled writers were having problems.

I started handing out advice in the comments section of a couple of the blogs that I frequented. I started getting a lot of compliments and gratitude. At that point, I really found my niche and started writing pieces about how to write and how to get published. Before I knew it, I started getting questions in my comments field.

My books got more traction and I set up an email for both fan mail and advice questions. Before long, I was inundated with emails from both. Unfortunately, I made a promise to myself to personally respond to each of these… and have since been paying the price for that.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting messages and will continue to respond. It has become a labor of love for me and I really enjoy doing it.

So that’s it really. What started off as a way to advertise my book, became an advice and geek culture page.

Hope this helps!

Thanks!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hi Jim,

I’ve been following your blog for a little while now and was hoping I could get some advice from you. I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of character you like more, a dynamic or static character. I’m creating one right now for my story and am having trouble coming up with ideas.

Thanks,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I’m afraid you’ve got me there because both types have their advantages and can hit the various pitfalls. Whether or not a character is good varies greatly and inevitably depends on how they’re used, portrayed, and what circumstances you place them in.

Let’s start with the static character. Arguably, this is the harder one to get right. I know a lot of people say that static characters are a lot more simplistic, and that’s true. However, this does not mean that they are easier to write. Simplistic characters can turn readers off very easily, especially if they’re center stage. Usually, most people advise against making them center stage unless they’re just a simple villain used as an adversary when a writer is too busy with hero development to bother with their backstory. Which, don’t get me wrong, may sound lazy, but can actually be done well…

The best way I’ve seen to do a main static character right is to start the character off with very little detail. The readers are likely going to hate him/her early on and that’s fine. When I wrote Mary Kelly, I fully expected that she’d be hated and actually wanted it that way.

Over the rest of the story, you find out more and more about why that character is the way he or she is. Suddenly your reader’s view of them changes as they begin to be able to empathize with him/her. In other words… the character doesn’t change, but the audience’s attitude towards the character does. In essence, the character’s portrayal is what becomes dynamic over time, but the character itself remains static.

So what about a dynamic character? You also have to be careful here. Change doesn’t take place overnight… unless you’re Anakin Skywalker…

However, even for all the criticism he received, he still had the seeds of doubt planted in him by Palpatine over the years, we simply didn’t see it. This is where we run into problems with dynamic characters. Too often, they change personality traits, opinions, and long-held beliefs at the drop of a nail. It’s unrealistic and hard to really empathize with a character who does this. The development of this kind of character really needs to take place over time. It may even take until the end of your book for them to fully embrace the dynamics of their personality.

On the other side, people do tend to gravitate much easier to a character that can change and become more over time.

So in the end, it really depends on you and your perceived level of skill with character creation. Don’t start writing until you’ve got your characters fleshed out. That’s the best advice I can give you. I know some people will just start with a couple of leads who are blank slates and then build them using the outside stimulus to work at character development, but doing so can very easily lead to disaster. Without having a personality pre-created, your character can do things that may make sense to you, but going back later will seem very out of character. This is something an audience will pick up on and typically reject.

Readers, what do you think? Which character is the stronger of the two? Let me know down in the comments.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

So this isn’t going to be one of my typical Q&A posts. I’ll get back to those later. This is likely about to be little more than an editorial rant, if anything. Let’s get started…

So I just finished playing Mass Effect 3.

… and already half of my readers probably know what this is going to be about. I love the series. I love the characters, I love the emersion, I love how the side quests actually contribute to the main story, and I love the multi-aspect of the games.

The first game, as expected, was a complete story. I think BioWare and EA were being cautious to give everyone a complete story surrounding the characters and crew of the Normandy with room for a sequel but weren’t really banking on one.

The second game destroyed the original Normandy… kay… and landed the main character in a two-year restoration program to bring him back to life. I actually liked this one the best. Why? Well right off the bat, you find yourself working for the bad guy. That’s right, Cerberus saved your life, rebuilt your ship, and reassembled your crew. Right away, you know these people have their own agenda, but they have the survival of humanity at the top of their list and there are bigger fish to fry, so you have little choice but to go along with it. It’s also in this game where the romance options really start to come into play.

Now, once you’ve beaten the second game, you find yourself under house arrest for working with Cerberus, while the Reaper fleets are moving closer and closer to Earth. The game actually starts off with the kick-off of the Battle of Earth. You’re forced to evacuate, and the Normandy (now an Alliance ship), is returned to you. You go through the galaxy, building Alliances, bringing other fleets into the fold and attempting to get the galaxy up to a military strength rating of 5000… which isn’t the easiest thing to do.

Spoiler Alert: Though the games have been out for years now.

If you either don’t gain enough military strength or make the wrong decisions in the game, the main character dies…

Okay, I’m not a huge fan of that, but whatever. I’m not the writer, so if that’s the logical outcome to the people who created the story, then so be it. This is why I started writing my own stories because I too often find the endings of other peoples, disappointing.

My main gripe comes with ‘Good’ ending. If you get that 5000 EMS, and make the right choice, you go through the typical ending, but after the Admiral gives his speech and we see everyone go their separate ways… you’re then taken to a massive debris field where you see a familiar suit of armor and a dog tag with the letters N7 on them. The suit of armor moves as its wearer takes in a deep breath, signifying that Shepherd is still alive.

I anxiously awaited what was to come next. Was someone going to find him? Where was he? Would he be reunited with the crew and his love interest (in my case, Tali’Zorah)?

Was any of this going to be answered?

NOPE!!!! That’s where the game ends. It’s supposed to give you hope that Shepherd lives, but given how badly he was hurt, given that he’s been beaten up, shot, survived a massive explosion, survived mind control, and then survived whatever happened with the Crucible… for all we know, he could be brain dead, he could be badly injured and not survive long, etc. There is any number of things that could happen here. Just because we see him breathing, doesn’t mean he’s going to survive or if he does, they may not find him.

This wouldn’t be so bad if there was a fourth game (No Andromeda doesn’t count!), but it doesn’t seem like there are any plans to make another one following this cast.

Writers in all formats, I’m begging you now… PLEASE STOP DOING THIS!!! Open endings at the end of series or the end of a story is a good way to piss your audience off. If they’ve devoted the time and energy to get through your story (in the case of Mass Effect, 150 hours of gameplay to effectively do everything), they’re not going to appreciate being left hanging.

This is especially dangerous as a bad ending can break a good story, whereas a good ending can absolutely save a bad story. The wrap up is arguably one of the most important aspects of your work because that’s the note people are going to be left on. If you build everything up and then the ending lets them down, it will leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. You want people to remember your stories fondly because you want them to reread those stories or even look into more of your work. Even if they loved your story throughout the entire thing, a lousy ending can suddenly unravel everything you’ve built.

This is why so many people say that a bad sequel turned them off to a story, or they simply pretend it doesn’t exist. Well, that’s great, but you don’t have that luxury when the part you don’t like is an integral part of the main story.

My advice honestly when it comes to things like this… if you don’t intend to write a sequel, or you’re goal isn’t really to make people think philosophically on a topic… then don’t write an open ending. Don’t leave things up in the air or open to speculation, because if you do, the specter of doubt will always be there, and most people will not like it. Wrap everything up, finalize everything and leave it.

Fortunately, gamers these days “suffer” from a condition known as ‘Weaponized Autism’. Apparently, a few people who felt the same way I did, took it upon themselves to do something about it. With several game developers leaving their code open so that gamers can modify aspects they don’t like (See Skyrim and Dragon Age on Nexusmods), a final fix for this ending was put in place. 

This anal-retentive attention to detail cleaned up the problem areas of the original ending that made no sense and still respected the original ending while expanding on Shepherd’s survival. If you haven’t played the game, but plan to… do yourself a favor, DOWNLOAD THIS MOD!!! Do it before you finish the game.

Okay, not that we’re past that, is there a place/time where an open ending is a good thing? I’d like to think so.

Spoiler Alert!!!

In my book, Damnation, General Xaphan has committed horrible atrocities. First by helping Lucifer wage war against the Most High, then by helping him build a new army in the Underworld, and even after that by attempting to murder her own sister. However, out of love she developed for a human, she turned on Lucifer, foiled his plans to launch a second attack on the Celestial World, and sacrificed her own life in an attempt to save the human she loved.

As I was writing the ending, I was stuck on whether or not the Choirs of Angels would overturn her exile and permit her return to the Celestial World. Were her sins too great to be redeemed? I couldn’t decide. I alluded to the outcome I wanted for her but decided to leave her with two possible outcomes. At the end of the story, she’s resurrected and given a human form. The angels tell her that, in order to earn her place in the Celestial World and thus, a chance to be with the one she loved again, she would need to linger on Earth for an average human lifespan. She was given two options;

1. Live a righteous life, a life of charity, celibacy, and selflessness. If she could do that, she would be allowed to return.
2. Refuse the offer or fail to live that way, and she would be returned to the Underworld to linger forever in darkness.

She took the offer, but that’s where I ended the story. Did she redeem herself or not? Well… that really depends on the reader in each case. If the reader thought that she’d done enough and deserved to live out eternity in happiness, the reader would grant her that, if not, her banishment to the Underworld would be on them. It depends on the philosophical question of what it takes for a person to be redeemed.

Anyway, that’s my opinion regarding the problem of open endings. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hi Jim,

I was hoping you could give me some advice on actually finding time to write. I work full time and have a family. I literally have no time to write at all. I saw on your bio that you also have kids. Do you also have another job or are you a full time writer?

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

I may not be the best person to ask here. Honestly, I’m usually in the same boat you are. I have another job and two (soon to be three) kids. So when to I find time to write? The answer is simply ‘whenever I can.’
That’s literally the only answer I can give you. I keep a copy of whatever I’m working on open on my computer and bang out a chapter during lunch or during some downtime and then do the bulk of my writing for an hour or so after everyone in my house goes to sleep. The ONLY reason this works for me is because I’ve trained myself to type at an accelerated pace. At my best, I can bang out 5-10K words in a couple of hours.

The problem with this is that it takes a toll on you. For this reason, after my next Drakin Novel, I may take some time off writing… maybe. I say that a lot, but honestly, it takes so much out of you to do what I do… by the time I’m done, I’m usually exhausted and about 10lbs heavier than I was.

It can get bad sometimes, but I love writing that much.

The only recommendation I can give you is to try to write whenever you can. Even if you’re just scribbling something down on paper the old fashioned way. Figure out what works for you and then go from there.

Whatever you do, please don’t put your health at risk. Again, I’m not the best role model here, but I know what it’s like to want to continue writing even when your eyes are trying to force themselves shut. When your body tells you that enough is enough, stop.

Readers, do any of you suffer from this problem? How do you find time to write? Share it with David and let him know!

Thanks,

Jim

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Okay, so it looks like I’m still getting a lot of publishing questions. These are recurrent questions I get on a regular basis, and while I want to try to respond to everyone who reaches out to me, I don’t want my blog becoming redundant. So I think I’m going to repost this on a weekly basis from now on to help people navigate the publishing world. I don’t really see another way around it.

So if you have questions regarding publishing, PLEASE check below to see if any of this helps you before reaching out. I’m always happy to help, but I may have already answered your question.

Publishing is a tough road to navigate. Please check out the links below. These are previous posts I’ve made about the ins and outs of publishing. They should be of assistance in your journey:

Am I Ready To Publish? This is a must read BEFORE even considering starting the process. I can’t tell you how many authors burned bridges by not being ready.

Editing… There is a Cost That Must be Paid… or is There? You can skip this one if you’ve already had your writing edited (by someone other than you!). However, I’d still recommend reading.

Getting Published… the basics… In this post, we explore traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. Here you’ll get the pros on cons of each and the steps you need to go through in order to be successful in either.

Finally…

Copyrighting my Writing. Am I Protected? This isn’t required reading… however, if you’re concerned about plagiarism, or in the future may need to file a copyright claim, I recommend giving it a read.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? I’d be surprised if you didn’t. The only sage advice I can offer you other than the documents above is simple…

1. Do not give up. A million “No’s” suddenly become irrelevant if you get that one “yes”.
2. People will tell you that everyone and their mother wants to publish a book. You’re up against insurmountable odds and a flooded market. This is false. You’re not up against everyone and their mother. Permit me the luxury and I’ll prove this mathematically: First of all, take the entire group of people who want to get published. Now take that number and reduce it by roughly 60%. You just eliminated all the people who want to get something published, but don’t have the time, ability, drive, or inspiration to write. Next, eliminate another 20%. You’ve now taken down all the people who can put pen to paper but can’t afford the time/money to put the work into advertising and getting published. Eliminate another 10% who can’t take criticism and thus aren’t going to be able to get their writing properly edited. Now eliminate another 5% either don’t have the patience for or get discouraged by receiving a series of “No’s” from publishers.
   Now take that last 5% and eliminate all of them, except you. Why? Because they’re irrelevant. You have your writing and they have there’s. Whether or not you get published and how successful you are isn’t about other people’s writing. Yes, in the end, it’s you against one person, you. Whether or not I’ll ever get to buy your book off the shelf depends on you; how much time, effort, and funds you’re willing to put into your writing. So make it good!

Let’s open it up to the floor. Readers, do you have any publishing advice for our friend here? Let her know in the comments!

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

I think I understand what you’re trying to say. If I’m wrong, email me again and we can talk behind the scenes. My advice to you is to give that character a description early on in the story, and then leave it at that. Mention his physical attributes only when necessary. Let that character work with the rest of your group as though he’s no different.

I’m currently working with a similar issue in my newest book where one of the main characters is a dragon. The way I’ve written that character, I often forget that it’s not human and have to go back and rewrite certain aspects to suit a dragon as opposed to a human. I think that’s the best way to go about it. Write your character in a way that almost makes your audience forget what that character is so that they can focus on who that character is, because that’s what’s really important in the long haul.

This is a huge difference I’ve alluded to in other posts… when you focus on the skin deep attributes of a character, you’re going to write a superficial character. This is the difference between writing a dynamic -relatable- character, and writing an archetype or stereotype. Unless it’s for a specific narrative, usually the latter is never the way you want to go.

So I hope this helps, but I’m going to turn it over to my readers and see if they have any advice for you as well.

Thanks all,

Jim

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

(Geeking out, non-history buffs can skip this section).

Your grandfather was in North Africa???? Please email me! My grandfather was with the 320th Glider Division of the 82nd Airborne! I’d love the compare notes and share stories!

(Okay I’m done.)

So… in all seriousness… That’s admittedly a tough one. I can certainly understand your concern. The problem with who knew what/where/when and who participated in what is still a subject of heated debate even to this day.

So honestly, full disclaimer to my readers, I’m not trying to downplay the seriousness of what happened. My grandfather (as stated above) not only fought in the war, but also aided in the liberation of Wobbelin, which was a concentration camp that housed roughly 5,000 victims at its height. He never spoke about it, but I dug up as much information as I could find. The Holocaust was a terrible tragedy that can never, and should never be denied.

That being said… the first thing you want to do is go through your book and see if, in your opinion, you’re glorifying anything or anyone that shouldn’t be glorified, in your opinion. If yes, my advice would be to consider a rewrite. If not, then I would say go ahead and publish it. Without actually seeing your book, or knowing your grandfather’s specific history, I can’t tell you either way.

There is a difference between telling a story and glorifying a certain group of people. The problem is that where that line is drawn is constantly being skewed. So where does the line fall? Where should it fall? Well… that’s extremely arbitrary.

One school of thought says that glorification is painting a person or event in any positive light, or even just making said subject sympathetic.

Another school of thought is that glorification is as simple as making a person or event the central focus of your story, regardless of whether they’re portrayed positively or objectively.

The final school is probably the most obvious one… where said person or event is blatantly heralded as a hero and portrayed as the moral ‘right’ in the story.

Honestly, IMO the line should be drawn somewhere between that first and third schools of thought. The people who fall into the third category would just assume that these people never be written about at all… which is the antithesis of everything the subjects of history and literature should be.

If you just want to tell the story of what your grandfather did/saw that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not saying you won’t get blowback, you might. So you’ll want to be ready for that.

Personally… I don’t think it should be a problem though. The commander of the Afrika Korps was Irwin Rommel and they were never accused of war crimes (At least not based on any of the research I’ve done. If there have been new developments, please let me know). The people who would likely read your book would be able to put that into context.

I hope this advice helps in some way. The best thing to do in this case is do a little soul searching and ask yourself a couple of questions;

1. Who was my grandfather?
2. Do I know everything I can possibly know about where he was and what he did?
3. Why do I want to publish this book about him? What is my goal here?

Regardless of your answer, legally (At least in the U.S.) no one can stop you from publishing it if you want to. However, there is also the line between legal and ethical.

So I apologize if this is all over the place, but I’m really struggling to give the best answer I can on this one. I guess in summation, all I can tell you is that as long as you’ve documented everything as historically accurate as possible, and are putting it out there for the right reasons, then I would go ahead and publish it. There’s always going to be detractors and people who are looking for controversy where none exists. That’s just how it goes.

Please let me know when it’s published. I’d love to look into it a little and definitley shoot me an email as I’d love to get your insight into your grandfather’s experiences from the other side.

Readers… this was a fairly touchy subject. What do you all think? Should stories be out there where the central focus or “Hero” is a German Soldier from WW2 or should that be left for the history textbooks? As always, I’m very interested in your thoughts, let me know in the comments.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hi Sally,

I don’t.

…

No, I’m actually not even kidding about that. I am a total scatter brain with between 5-10 different processes going through my mind at any given moment. Believe it or not, the first two chapters of Drakin were written while I was finishing up Soul Siphon.

If you’re finding it hard to focus, forcing yourself to won’t solve anything. Unless you have some kind of major deadline coming up, I’d highly recommend against it. Whenever I’m writing and I find my mind going off in a different direction… either there’s a topic I want to blog about or a new story that’s just too good to pass up, I stop what I’m currently working on and spend a few minutes here and there working on that. Does it slow down production of my books? Maybe a little… but not nearly as much as it would if I tried to force my mind to focus and it’s slowed down because the juices have been diverted to other topics.

You can’t always control when your mind is going to get the creative juices flowing. It’s a reality that we all have to live with. There really is no point in fighting it. Make sure you keep yourself on a schedule and try to put some time into your current project every day, but don’t stifle the creative juices. This was a hard-learned lesson for me when I was working on Divinity. I ignored the creative juices to focus on what I was working on and the result was a bad case of writer’s block.

Some may say that this is bad advice, but from my perspective, I believe that it is better than the alternative. Stifling your creative juices will not get your story written any faster. However, keep in mind, this is just how I approach the problem. You may be different and creating a schedule and a place to hide away from outside stimulus so that you have to focus on what you were working on, may benefit you. Try various methods and see what works.

Hope this helps. Readers, how do you focus? Do you have any advice for Sally? Let me know in the comments.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim