Old and new New Year’s resolutions…
Toni Morrison once said: “A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind, they are its necessity.” May I be so bold to qualify that with a bit of selfish thought? Our lives and works are gifts to ourselves and only become gifts to mankind if mankind pays any attention to them. We paid attention to Toni and many other famous writers, but many other authors write because they must tell their stories.
This is the time of year to make resolutions, maybe all the more important this year that starts a new decade. For authors, probably some of them involve their writing and publishing those works. Here are a few of mine:
Read more. I’m already an avid reader, always have been, and I have a good start on reading more, individual new books that are out and binge reading complete series of older ones, those evergreen books that never grow old and mulched like this season’s Yule trees. Let’s face it: TV offers poor entertainment these days, and I refuse to watch streaming video because, like movies, most of what Hollywood’s big studios produce these days is a waste of my time. Frankly, many books are too, but I still find ones that strike my fancy and are a delight to read—more than enough to provide me good reading material throughout the year—so why not take advantage of them?
Keep writing. Like many authors, I get discouraged. Book reviews (or their absence), poor royalties, neglect of my evergreen books, and many other things about my writing and publishing activities discourage me. That discouragement started after my very first sci-fi thriller Full Medical was published (2006) and continues to the present day. I’ve thought of calling it quits many times, yet I keep going. I can describe it jokingly as my muses (banshees with Tasers) coming after me because they know I have more stories in me, but the truth is that I’m addicted to storytelling. I might adjust how I go about publishing a bit—my short fiction is now free on my website, for example, and complete novels might come next—but I’ll keep writing. As N. Scott Momaday said: “I simply kept my goal in mind and persisted. Perseverance is a large part of writing.” My goal, by the way, is always the same: Tell a good story.
Write more personally. Too many times we authors get caught up in the royalties blues, whether they come from self-published works or traditionally published ones. Don’t all those publishing wonks who’ve never written a book themselves advise us to find our niche audience and pander to it? I’ve always known that’s bad advice. I resolve to pay less attention to any advice like that. It has nothing to do with storytelling, only with what happens after the story is told. Here’s what Robert Heinlein said: “…maybe I should study the market and try like hell to tailor something which fits current styles. But…if I am to turn out work of fairly permanent value, my own taste…is what I must follow.” I’m not sure my work will have permanent value, although they say ebooks are forever, but I resolve to pay less attention to what the marketing gurus say and write what the hell I want to write.
Pay even less attention to genres and subgenres. I’ve always said that genres and subgenres are just keywords for book marketing. Like all keywords, they give readers an idea about the contents of the story. But the story is the story, to be Zen-like. Keywords don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the story. Does it enlighten? Does it entertain? And does it work for the author as well as for readers? To quote opera singer Jessye Norman (probably referring to her own creative world): “Pigeonholes are for pigeons.” Genres and subgenres are a bit more than that, of course, and some beautiful pigeons (stories) can suffer from mislabeling, but the labels are irrelevant to storytelling, so I resolve to pay even less attention to them in this coming decade.
Be even more diverse. I’m just an old white guy who loves to tell stories, but in those stories I’ve championed our similarities and celebrated our differences. My very first novel Full Medical is dedicated to a Hispanic relative I loved very much and features Jay Sandoival, a Hindu-Hispanic e-zine reporter. Kalidas Metropolis, a lesbian of Greek descent, is a main character in that book and the other two novels in the “Clones and Mutants Series,” and finds a new love after losing her first along the way. In story after story, I have characters from all walks of life.
We’re all on spaceship Earth together—only our deaths are the ultimate escape—so I’d like for everyone to get along. In the last decade, we were backtracking from that ideal. I resolve to continue resisting the haters and anti-cultural appropriation naysayers to write about diversity and tolerance and include characters from all walks of life! C. Y. Lee has said: “I like to write for the so-called pedestrian people.” I would add that I like to write about them too, characters who are just ordinary people, no matter their origins and preferences, but often rise up to do extraordinary things.
Do more promotion for fellow authors. I write book reviews and do interviews on my blog, but I know I can do better. Hell, if I can’t be a popular author, maybe I can help someone else become one! That’s a rewarding extension of my past efforts as a professor and mentor in the day-job that followed, where the most fun was in seeing young people develop into scientists and engineers with successful careers. I’m sure Allee Willis felt that way with her songwriting, living vicariously through the singers who made her incredible variety of songs famous. It’s called creating good karma, and I need to do more of it.
Cut back. My writing business is already lean—I only do paid marketing at book launches now, and I’m frugal about my spending there. I resolve to spend even less in the future. And I might just bail out of social media too. Facebook and Twitter are filled with ugly political ads and ranting political types (I’m guilty of a bit of the latter myself), but I just don’t see that they’re a good way to spend my time, even though they’re free, except for maintaining contact with family and friends. Goodreads has good people—readers and writers—but I’ve used it more lately just to announce what I’m reading (presumably that can help the authors of those books that I’m reading a little).
As Jack London said: “The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” And I’ll use my time wisely. I’ll spend more time on writing and less time worrying about publishing and all that comes after. Maybe I’ll even write an autobiography that only my family will read after I’m dead? And while I’m alive, I’ll continue to nurture the friendships I’ve made over the years—the new ones can become additions to that autobiography.
Be more myself. That’s a weird resolution, I suppose, but authors often develop a public persona (the wonks call it “developing our brand”), so nerdy introverts like me often hide our true feelings. I resolve to continue doing that! Through my prose you shall know me. Of course, that prose is in my stories, and so you already know about one of my addictions, storytelling. But I have a private life where family and friends are special and not visible to the public. I resolve that they shall remain invisible. You’ll never get me to change that, which leads to a quote from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” To that I’d add, “…and save a wee bit of yourself just for family and friends.”
Have a great 2020!
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Comments are always welcome.
The Last Humans. LA Sheriff’s Deputy Penny Castro surfaces from a forensic dive and finds the apocalypse: a bio attack on the US’s West Coast is carried around the world, killing billions. Penny’s struggles in the post-apocalyptic world aren’t pretty but represent that quintessential human will to survive even the worst calamities. Follow her adventures in this tale that will make you ask, “Could this really happen?” Available at Amazon and the publisher, Black Opal Books; also at Smashwords and all its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.)
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
