InsaneJournal

Chainbreaker vs. Bookhabit: Round 1

Well, Chainbreaker made it through Round 1 of the Bookhabit Unpublished competition, so it would be terribly remiss of me not to take this opportunity to expound to you all on what I think this experience has taught me.

I suppose now that I look at it, sticking Chainbreaker on Bookhabit was its first real adventure into the 'wild'. UrbanNordica.com and LiveJournal and dA and even Facebook are one thing, but these are all still pretty close to our chests; public, sure, but in spaced dominated by people who have a vested interest in us as people. Sticking the book somewhere like Bookhabit – sticking it in a competition – is like watching it take its first few teetering baby steps into adulthood.

The experience has taught me a few things.

The first thing is that boy, did we choose the wrong genre to write in! I mean, I guess I already knew that but, seriously, speculative fiction? Don't go there, kids. I suddenly have tremendous sympathy for publishers and agents who have to wade through the tens of thousand of submissions of this stuff, all Samey McSamesame, trying to pick out the one Samey McSamesame book that can make it in a market that's already overflowing with wizards and vampires and angels. Obviously I'd like to think UN has that 'it' factor and I think it's in our characterisation, but I guess in reality only time will tell for sure.

The second thing is; the first chapter is king. This is another one of those things I kinda knew but didn't really, yanno, know until downloading a bunch of first chapters off Bookhabit for the lulz okay I was scoping the competition. Apparently I have an attention span slightly lower than a monkey on speed, because I didn't find a single opening chapter that really grabbed me. And I mean really grabbed me, in the way something like Soon I will Be Invincible grabbed me.¹ I'm not sure whether this was a me thing or a "none of these stories are particularly good" thing or what, but, Jesus it made me scared. Because you know who's got the first chapter in Chainbreaker? Yeah, it's me. And you know what's worse? It was the first chapter written, back when the whole project was more like a play-by-post RP than a novel. And did I mention that I really, honest-to-gods can't assess the emotional impact of my own writing? Because I can't. Technical quality, yeah. Impact, not a chance.

Damn.

It gets worse, because of the third thing I've realised. I'm a character person; when I read (or watch) something what I'm relating to is the characters rather than the plot.² Actually, what I'm relating to is the concept of the character; this is me and my bitter, morally ambiguous, badass anti-heroes. A story doesn't get me unless it's got a main-character archetype I can latch on to. This is a really terrifying thing to realise, too, for the same reason as above. Most of my characters have been kicking about in various incarnations in my head for years. Wayne's currently the oldest; she used to be a renegade alien princess when I was about 14. Loki was an earth god named Jiboc, circa age 16. Sigmund was Sigyn from roughly the same era, about the only thing that's changed with him is his gender and fashion sense. Even someone like Miriah has been kicking around in my head for long enough now that she's got her own front door key. And the point is I can't tell whether or not these characters 'work'. They're so close to me that, honestly, I can't assess them objectively. I think Miriah is sympathetic, Loki is a monster and Sigmund is borderline psychotic… but I don't actually know.

(Sidenote: My favourite character moment in Chainbreaker is right near the end and essentially involves Lucifer doing a momentary heel-face turn. It doesn't last, of course, but the fact that it was him who broke up a moment of pathos with a show of what is essentially bald-faced courage really surprised me when I wrote it… yet felt really right somehow. It's an odd moment for a character who is fundamentally a villain. Sure, he's not Chainbreaker's villain, but that's only because the role was already filled by the time he showed up.)

So it's a double-whammy for me; the first chapter in Chainbreaker is Loki-centric. A first-person straight-into-the-action-what-the-fuck-is-going-on gamble. It's on my list of things to go back and re-write, but I'm still unsure about how I'd go about doing that, exactly. I'm sure there are pieces 'missing' from Loki; stuff I know inherently and have forgotten to expound to the audience through the contempt of long familiarity. Eight hundred words and it's all up to me to produce something that will grab the audience by the throat and shake… and I really can't assess how well it works.

Damn.

Anyway, the final thing I learnt this week was about perception; I've seen a couple of comments pop up along the lines of, I can't do X, Y or Z now… but I'll buy your book as soon as it's on Amazon! To which my mind immediately answers; no. No, because by the time we get to Amazon – by the time we get to print – it will already be too late for us to give a crap about you. That sound callous?³ Good, because it's supposed to, this is the reality of publishing. By the time Chainbreaker gets to Amazon, we don't need you; by that time, we'll have a publisher and an agent and a marketing team and graphic designers and typesetters. We'll have a proper distribution chain. You know, in bookstores. All the stuff we don't have right now. In fact, the only thing we have right now is you. Yes, you. Whether it's by guilt trip or friendship or because you actually (gasp) like the book, now is the time we need – really, really need – you. And we're gonna abuse that, sad to say, because a fanbase is all we have. The manuscript itself doesn't mean diddly squat. Promotion doesn't just magically happen; it happens because you guys make it happen.

See, here's the thing. It's not about money, it's about fans. That's why we're giving our goddamn book away for free; with royalties and the long tail working how they work, it's honestly not worth our while to actually charge people money. What we need is for you to take a chance on us, and we're trying to make that as easy for you as possible. So for godssakes, don't hang around waiting for print thinking you're doing us some kind of favour; you aren't. Your favour to us is getting involved now (and to all of you who are; we remember you, oh yes).

And now means now. Not when we've got a contract. Because, right now, we're nobodies. And the only one who can make us somebody? It's you.

1. Soon I Will Be Invincible has what I think has to be the most effective first chapter of any book I've ever read. It's kind of a Pyrrhic victory, since the next clump of chapters slide a bit, but still… ^
2. The one exception is Law & Order, which I love precicely because it doesn't focus on characters. Odd, dat. ^
3. Okay okay, I'm making this shit up. We always care about fans; you're the guys who make us. But the rest of the point stands. ^

Mirrored from v-s.net. Comments are preferred on the original.