Novel Reading Bailout

I actually gave up on an indie ebook I'd downloaded, consciously deciding not to finish reading it. This was a case of a gifted writer needing to learn a few things about storytelling. I won't name the author or the book. I have no desire to pen a smear but I will state, in a general way, what I think is wrong with the book to the point I read, because there are lessons an aspiring novelist should be aware of. I will not be sending this information to the author in question privately because I was not asked to review the book. I like to be helpful but ripping someone's book even privately without invitation can create enemies. I've met writers like the one I was reading that are very touchy. Very talented but unwilling to listen. I won't take that risk.

So where was the problem. I found the opening chapter to be superbly written, but it should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Pieces of it could have been used to good effect as back story, but it shouldn't have been the opening chapter of the story. 

My reasons for feeling that way have to do with how one tells a story. At the basic level a story needs a beginning, middle and end. The first two chapters read like a false beginning. It starts out as a crime novel. The hero loses his partner in a stakeout/drug raid gone wrong. If you got past the clicheness, it was well done. As a reader I wanted to know how the bad guys foiled the cops. In chapter two, our hero with the help of his unwanted new partner, take down the bad guys. The way it went down was totally unbelievable and none of my questions from chapter one were answered. It all just got swept aside. The next step in the story sends our two cops clear across the continent, where they get swept up in some kind of time vortex, that deposits them in the eighteen hundreds. There was no foreshadowing no continuity. It was random to the point of again being unbelievable. That's when I decided to close the book.

In my opinion as a storyteller, you have to introduce, not only some of the characters, but the story itself in the first chapter. It's painful to cut a great first chapter. Had to do it with my first published novel. If it isn't introducing the story, it's gotta go. I don't think mixing genres is bad. I don't think a couple of time travelling police investigators is a bad storyline. This just wasn't the way to do it.

Boosting My Hubpages

My writing has gotten several boosts from my new writing websites. Some of it not entirely expected. There was one benefit I was expecting. I can farm my writing practice site for stories that go together. Once I have enough of them I can group them together for a Hubpages article. Once they've worn out there welcome there, I can still pull them back and someday use them somewhere else.

I did an article called Conversations With Customer Service. It was quite successful. Several writers over there thought a sequel would be a good idea. Well I have enough potential stories to do just that. One of them I was able to retrieve from Bubblews. There was a time when nothing could be removed from that site without losing the money that the post had earned. It may be possible to retrieve some other things from there as well. Another story was already written on Pico's Writing Practice. Inspiration has come since then and now there are enough to make that sequel. Three written and three to write. Hope it will eventually earn enough over there to make payout.

The surprise came from my other writing efforts. Pico's Book Reviews. I post links to all my writing on social networking sites. To my surprise I got a response from one of the authors on Twitter and have been dropping a few lines of conversation back and forth ever since. A little bit of encouragement one writer to another.

Not making much from my writing right now but I keep plugging away. There are signs that things are improving and moving forward.

New Personal Writing Platforms

The two new projected websites have been created. They are just there in basic form. I will continue to improve them. Posting as already begun.

First site is just writing practice. Basically I have fun like I did on Bubblews. Main difference is I make the rules so I don't have to worry about adding links to my own material elsewhere. For example, if I'm babbling on about my cycling webzine. I will add a link. No one is going to punish me for it. The URL is http://picoswriting.blogspot.ca.

Second site is for book reviews. I read what I feel like. I find I read a lot of historical fiction and books from friends. If that interests you by all means pay me a visit there. I have roughly twenty reviews and will write more. I will only post one per day until they are all there. That way I can promote the material without spamming everyone to death. The URL for this site is http://picosbookreviews.blogspot.ca. Each review will include an Amazon link to buy it if you are so inclined.

If I'm writing about writing it is still going to be published on this site. If it has to do with cycling it will go on Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road.

If you are inclined to keep up with any of my writing please either follow the blog directly or follow my author's page on Facebook Pico Triano. My Webzine Facebook page is Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road. I also have a couple Twitter accounts to promote my work @PicoTriano and @PicosCycling.

Hopefully this doesn't confuse everyone. I'm not used to writing anything with this many links.

Getting Ready For Something New

During our forced Internet vacation, I started reading more books again. I wrote book reviews to go with the ones that I read. Today I went back to my old Blog located all the book reviews that I did in the past. I saved them all to my computer and deleted them so that Google won't penalize me for repeating material.

Since at current count there are nineteen of them, I thought it would be useful to create a separate review Blog. This way anyone interested can come an see what I read and what I thought of those books. If interested there will be Amazon links so that readers can purchase those books if they feel moved to do so. I have no plans to become an important book reviewer. I just read what I feel like or have available at the time. I will have times that I have to wait for my kids to finish their shift at work. This will make good use of that time.

The Blog is already created but there is nothing to see except my mug telling you it's under construction. The address is http://picosbookreviews.blogspot.com

It is supposed to run as a companion to this site. Links back and forth will be put on both sites. I set it up separately though because it will be easier for me to keep it organized. At some point I will have to classify the reviews by genre. If I leave everything here, it will become a mess.

Time To Reboot

We have been knocked off line for a little over a month. This has thrown a monkey wrench into a lot of the online work I was doing at the time. It is going to take me probably the better part of the next week to regroup. The technicians got us back up and running late yesterday.

Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road got published on time anyway. Being able to view how it all uploaded here on my home system is not giving me any happy thoughts. I have to redivide up paragraphs and finally attach the intended accompanying photos. Not being able to promote has really screwed with my readership numbers. In short, I'm very frustrated but it will all get fixed.

During the past month we discovered a file containing five pictures I created a long time ago. The one above is pencil crayon on regular drawing paper. It was done when I was quite a bit younger. I'm delighted to have found them and we make use of them. Probably make them available in my Zazzle shops if nothing else.

I've had a lot of ideas during the past month. Trick right now is to figure out how to implement them. One item is to add a section of book reviews I have done along with links to Amazon where I have an affiliate account. That way people interested can purchase any of the books reviewed. I just haven't decided how best to present that on this blog.

At the time the Internet went down my daughter and I were working to put together a novel review group on WDC that would only cost participation. In other words, you help other writers by doing chapter reviews and they help you. We had mostly figured it all out. We hope to implement that in the next week.

I have worked on quite a bit of material in the meantime. So once I'm rolling online again, I should be able to consistently get quite a lot done.