Author: DH Hanni

Musings

Weekly Musing: Schillin’ for the Holidays

DH Hanni

Ahhh, yes Black Friday is in a few days in case you weren’t beaten over the head with that fact whilst watching TV, looking at anything on the internet, or perusing something in print. Apparently if you want a new car, this whole month is Black Friday so instead of being annoyed with ads for one specific day, you get 30 days of it.

This year though, instead of standing in line for hours upon hours for something that will probably be sold out, why not give the gift of a book or books? Lucky for you I know some people who have some books out there which might make some good Christmas gifts. Below are listed a variety of titles in a variety of genres. We have a few novels as well as some anthologies so go out and support these fine authors this holiday season.

 

Eden Royce

Nick Bowen

Lenora Rain-Lee Good

Darin Kennedy

Kierce Severn

Jay Requard

Gail Z. Martin

Bob Brown

Irene Radford

Mia Soul

Shaun O. McCoy

Jane Roop

John Hartness

Calandra Usher

J. Matthew Saunders

Jim Ryan

Traci L. Loudin

And of course, I’m in a couple of anthologies.

 

So as you think about what to get people in your circle this holiday season, consider a book. Not only will you be bringing another world to someone but also you’ll be supporting the hard-working authors behind them.

Musings

Weekly Musing: Look at This

DH Hanni

I’m not sure how many people know what an infographic is yet I’m sure we’ve all seen them somewhere on the internet. Infographics are those images which present bite-size pieces of information on a variety of topics. Usually the images look like that would make a great poster and many are available for downloading and printing.

I recently found an interesting reading and writing related infographic. I thought it would be fun to write about my thoughts on the one shown below. One caution is the information presented doesn’t cite its sources so don’t take it or my reactions as 100% truth.

Infographic about reading and writing
Infographic about reading and writing

 

Let’s start the information about the brain. In what seems like a duh type of statement, the physical act of writing something down triggers something within the brain to remember what it better. Probably why many of us had teachers who yelled at us to take notes. Or why the older we get the more important it is to write information down. It’s interesting to learn that the connection our body makes from the mental to the physical is something that can’t be replicated any other way.

Also according to the infographic, when we engage our body and brain in the act of writing we pay more attention to what we are doing. Perhaps this is way one a piece of advice given to writers is to carry a notebook or notepad around in case a name, story idea, dialogue, anything pops up we can commit it down before it leaves our minds.

Moving down the graph let’s next look at the information presented about why telling a story is better than presenting just facts. I find this perhaps to be the most interesting because telling a story doesn’t have to be limited to a novel or short story. Thinking back to my school days I originally didn’t have an interest in history. In elementary school it was only about dates, people, and places. Just the facts, ma’am. I found this boring and dry. It wasn’t until 8th grade that I began to appreciate history and that was due to having a teacher who presented it not as simply a collection of fact but as a story. After all history is about people and events in history have several sides of a story to tell.

The same is true for storytelling. While a pared down reporting style can work to tell an effective story, Ernest Hemingway comes to mind, a reader is more engaged if it is beyond just the facts. Even non-fiction writers have realized this. Memoirists in particular must still tell a story even though everything is rooted in real life. Reading is its most pleasurable when the reader can feel an emotional connection to the story which is hard to do when the author just reports what’s going on.

What is also fascinating about the infographic is how our brains engage more when there is action in the story. That doesn’t necessarily mean a complicated action sequence reminiscent of James Bond, but even a little bit of action stimulates our brain. We respond well to what we can visualize if what the author includes well-written action.

Next we come down to why clichés should be avoided. I’m not going to spend much time on this since yeah, makes sense. The first few times we hear a phrase, and it’s memorable, it sticks in our brains. After a while of reading or hearing it, it becomes white noise. Got it.

Finally we come to some miscellaneous facts about writing and reading. Nice mixtures of fun facts, like an overwhelming majority of us write our name when trying out a new pen. And more disturbing information like many UK teens only have the literacy level of a ten-year-old. Maybe if they read more books their vocabulary and reading comprehension would improve. Not really anything too earth-shattering there either.

Musings

Weekly Musing: End Game

DH Hanni

Something I have thought a lot about this year is what is the ultimate writing end game? I’m not necessarily referring to my personal goals and fantastical dreams but what ultimate purpose does a story serve? Whom am I supposed to be writing for?

The genesis for these questions has been paying more attention to advice I read and hear about what an editor/agent/publisher wants and expects. It’s not that I necessarily disagree with certain points made just that it gets me thinking.

When I first picked up the pen everything I heard talked about writing for yourself first and foremost. At least in the first draft. Personally for me the first few drafts are like that since I fumble around a lot with what I think the story is. The other piece of advice I heard was as you revise, think of the reader.

But now it seems like more and more it’s about impressing a single person be an agent you’re querying or an editor who accepts un-agented manuscripts. Tons of information exists out there about how to write a killer first sentence, paragraph, page, or chapter. Some workshops offer the opportunity to have you work read in front of a panel of authors and editors who will raise a hand, ring a bell, squeal like a pig, whatever when they would have stopped reading. Books exist of how to write a great first 50 pages apparently forgetting most books are longer than that but again, it’s all about hooking an agent or editor.

Admittedly at this stage in my career I haven’t explored too much about the business side of writing (it will be a goal of mine for 2016). But this bugs me, it bugs me a lot. To me it sounds as if once you get to a certain point in your writing it’s a lot less about thinking of the reader and more about impressing a very small group of people. Yes, publishing is a business and of course the salability of a manuscript is an agent, editor, and publisher’s job. I also understand and greatly appreciate an editor and agent’s time is incredibly limited and valuable. After all they get inundated with hundreds to thousands of manuscripts every year. A person can’t possibly read each and every one in depth so there should be standards.

I worry this mentality is damaging to the craft itself. I wonder if the industry has always been like this or if the disturbing trend of the last decade of soundbites, 140 characters or less, too-long-didn’t-read has invaded the centuries old art of writing. If you can’t metaphorically punch an editor or agent in the face, you’re shit out of luck.

I also think this line of thinking may just be insulting to the average reader. Nowadays, because of the mergers of major publisher after major publisher, anytime a certain type of story becomes popular, publishers pop out book after book written similarly. Yet I’ve heard over and over a writer should not write to toward a trend because by the time your work is ready, the trend’s probably over. So where did they find all these people in the first place? Somebody’s gotta be writing to fit a trend.

When I think about older books, the classics, it amazes me because imagine if those manuscripts were presented today. How many would honestly get published? So many of them break the current “rules” of the trade be it shifting POV, or head-hopping, repeated words and phrases, purple prose, paragraphs that are too long, too many adjectives, too many adverbs, what have you yet those stories endure.

This is what makes me conflicted as a writer. On one hand we are to write for ourselves and for, hopefully, a readership that will be enthralled with our prose. On the other hand, if we can’t make that first line pop or paragraph or page or chapter infect an agent or editor, we may never get a chance to have a readership. But look at some of the bestsellers in the past few years. Some of them started off as self-published novels that found readership based upon the merit of the story which then got the attention of publishers.

What truly is the end game for a writer then? It’s certainly not to write for ourselves or even to entertain our reader. At this point it clearly feels as if it is more about what one person thinks of the story. And we wonder why some truly awful books become bestsellers while others languish in someone’s drawer or computer. Perhaps the focus should be once again on the writer and the reader and quality work.