Independent vs Traditional Publishing: Kudos
(Part of the indie vs trad series.)
Kudos is like happiness: a slippery fish to catch. It’s a fluffy one to consider, but I’ll try to break it down here as best I can. Some time ago, I wrote a post that compared traditional and self-publishing, and their relative legitimacies, and I’ll be building on that here.
Common Attitudes
There’s no doubt that being traditionally published is a reliable way to prove to the world hey, I’ve made it as an author. You tell people you’re a published author and they’ll automatically think that you mean ‘in a traditional deal with a publishing house and now I have shiny books in every store you can shake a wallet at’.
There’s a level of respect that comes with it, because of all the gatekeepers you had to get past in order to get your precious manuscript out of your sticky hands, through a printing press, and onto a shop floor. As if writing the book in the first place wasn’t hard enough.
Meanwhile, self-publishing is still seen in many eyes as cheating, lazy, and the sign of a bad writer. It’s the last resort of writers who couldn’t get a publishing deal (that is, who weren’t good enough to get one). Self-published books are second-rate, bad quality, unedited wank someone decided to shove out into the world to make a few pennies and drag down the good name of literature everywhere.
True or not, this is what common opinion seems to be. If you tell someone you self-published a book, a little crack appears in their mental image of you. (If you tell them your novel is vampire romance with fairies and BDSM, that image will probably shatter entirely.)
However, this is changing. As self-published books become more common and more people read them, these attitudes are being worn away. Many readers state that they don’t look at the publisher when they’re browsing for books, so if a book looks professional, they may look at it without even realising it’s self-published.
Definition of Success
For a traditionally-published author, this is pretty simple: getting the publishing contract is a definition of success. If you tell people you’re a published author, there’s an immediate assumption of success; after all, your book was good enough to be accepted by a publishing house. That must mean something. (I’m not saying this is true; this is the common assumption and reaction.)
There are other ways for traditionally-published authors to succeed – for example, with bestseller status – but let’s focus on those initial assumptions for now.
For a self-published author, having a book out in the world doesn’t mean success. There are no gatekeepers to get past, so no yardstick to prove that your work is actually any good. There are also the assumptions I listed above about how terrible the book must be if you had to publish it yourself. For a self-published author, success is defined not by being published (because anyone can do that), but by sales. If you can say you’ve got respectable sales, or better yet a breakout, then you can rise out of the usual morass of self-published wannabes.
In a chat with a published author, I was asked what my sales were like. When I said that I was selling over 100 books a month (this was a little while ago before the drop-off), I was met with surprise and respect. It’s better than a lot of traditionally-published books sell in a month.
So you can be seen as successful as a self-published author, but the onus is on you to prove it. No-one’s giving respect away for free.
Literary Lists and Awards
Historically, this has been the sole domain of the ‘properly’ published author (by ‘properly’, I mean traditionally-published, of course). The occasional self-published book that poked its head above the parapet of bestseller lists was quickly snapped up by a traditional publisher and validated.
Now, self-published books are making their way into the bestseller rankings on respected literary lists all by themselves (and authors are willingly turning down traditional publishing deals). They’re hitting #1 on Amazon and the New York Times lists. Runaway ebook hits are not unheard-of. Self-published books are proving that they can hold their own among the readership with their traditionally-produced brethren.
More than that, they’re winning awards. Not many, but the pressure is rising and one day the tide might turn the other way. Self-published books are clawing their way up to an even footing with traditional books; it’s a way off yet but I believe things are moving in that direction.
No doubt, there will still be literary awards who will always refuse to look at anything but exceptions in the world of self-published books, if any at all. But how long can they hold back the tide? Only time will tell, and right now, the patterns tell us which way the wind is blowing.
What does this all mean? It means that things are not even yet. Self-publishing simply doesn’t have the kudos that being traditionally published does. One day it might, but you’ll have to be patient (or battleworthy or very lucky) to get there. You have to be a huge bestseller in the self-publishing realm to be able to sidle into anything like the same position in people’s heads.
The real questions: how important is kudos to you? How willing are you to demand respect as a published author?
There’s still a part of me that would like the kudos of being traditionally published. I think that’s my own prejudices speaking, and even I know they’re outdated. I’ve tried to make peace with it and I do enjoy being self-published, but in this literary journey of ours, it’s one of the trade-offs that I had to make. And it’s one I’d make again.
Next up: Not sure! What would you like me to cover?
Stepping stones to awesome

Which steps will you take? What order will you take them in? What will be the pattern of your story?
(Picture by amypalko)
This weekend, I spent some time planning out two different projects: the next stage of Starwalker, and Tales from the Screw Loose, which I haven’t started writing yet.
I don’t plan my writing very often. Those who know how I plan, know that I don’t plan very deeply, either. I’m not truly a planner or a pantser; I’m an ad-hoc adventurer with a barely-legible roadmap.
A guest at one of my writing group meetings back in the UK described her planning/writing process as ‘stepping stones’. As it turns out, this is the process that works best for me. There are probably other names for this type of system. Skeleton. Outline. But I enjoy the stepping stones analogy, so I’m sticking with it.
Imagine that your story charts the path from one riverbank to the other. You could describe each and every inch of the path before you take it, and know exactly where you’re going before you leave the riverbank. You could wade in and see what happens. Or, you can identify some stepping stones to aim for, and find your way between them.
That’s how I plan. I have stepping stones that I know I want my story to land on, and my characters determine the path between those points. I discover the story as I go, but I always know where it’s headed, even if it’s just the next stepping stone.
Those stones vary widely in size. Sometimes, I’ll have a specific scene mapped out in my head, in incredible detail. Sometimes, it’s just an idea of an event, or a particular psychological corner that a character has to turn. Or sometimes it’s a single image, a snapshot or a concept, or even just a parting glance of the end of something. The lead-up to these stones is always something I discover on the way, as I balance the characters and their choices, the roadblocks in their way, and the goal that is rolling around in the back of my brain. Sometimes it takes some wrangling to get the outcome that I’m after – all the way to that next stone – and sometimes I end up taking a path I never anticipated, but it usually works out.
The characters are always my greatest guide through the stories. I write heavily from a character’s perspective (even when I write in third person, which I do outside of the web serials), and staying true to what those characters would say or do is important to me. Their path has to make sense, and they soon let me know if they’re going to take the easy path to that next stone, or if they’re going to make me work for it. Whether it’s throwing a help or a hindrance their way, I seldom find that there’s no way to get to where I want the story to be.
As for how this stepping stone method of planning takes shape in a practical, physical sense, I love using pinboards and notecards. My original plan for Starwalker was a series of 12 notecards, and they carried me through all 3 books so far (three and a half years’ worth of writing!). Just 12 notecards; that was all I needed!
Over the weekend, I got my stock of blank notecards and glittery-inked pens out, and freed my pinboards from their exile against the wall. And then I went a bit nuts. I colour-coded stuff. I grouped the cards into sections: characters, chapters, different sections of characters, milieu notes, etc. Only the notecards under ‘chapters’ actually made up the stepping stone plan for the story, but the rest is useful for reference.
It helps me to make it all visible. For Starwalker, I filed my original 12 chapter notecards under ‘done’ and reorganised the character lists so that I know who’s currently part of the crew and who’s ‘dead’ or ‘captured/missing’. Then I started adding more cards: 3 more chapter notecards and a chunk of new characters that my intrepid crew will meet in the course of their next adventure.
I’m not quite done there yet, but the ball is rolling. Ideas trickle against each other. The notecards have gaps; for example, none of the new characters have names yet, but the important characteristics are down. The space station still needs a name.
Likewise with Screw Loose: I have a pinboard with the bones pinned to it, but there are lots of gaps I need to fill. Characters I know I need to define before I start. The chapter list needs more stepping stones in it, and doesn’t have a particular order or flow yet. I can see the size of the work I have to do before I can truly start writing it, though, and that’s powerful. It’s more than I knew yesterday. I’m starting to see the shape of the story and pick out the important highlights.
I mean, a story about a robot brothel is all well and (raunchy-)good, but I’d like there to be a plot, too. Now, I know what I need to do to be ready.
Stepping stones are a great way to allow yourself freedom and exploration in your story. Visualising it is a good way to look at the shape of your story and see what gaps you might have, and what you might need to do before you start.
Together, they arm me for my adventures. I know all the tools I have in my backpack and I have a vague map to point me in the right direction. I set off surrounded by characters whose voices I know well enough to let them guide me, and a compass to keep us all true as we explore the story.
I’m standing at the edge of the river, toeing the water and eyeing that distant bank. Soon, I’ll be donning my hiking boots and striding out into it all. I can’t wait.
Random writing tip #6: You’re wrong
You know when you read your work, and you’re stunned by how utterly awesome it is? How no-one has ever put words in that exact, shining order before, with such cleverness and richness?
You know when you read your work, and you’re appalled by how terrible it all is? How you have somehow forgotten how to string words together, and there’s no way anyone will ever understand your slack-mouthed drivel?
At both of those times, you’re wrong.
Writers are their own worst critics. It’s not that we always criticise ourselves too negatively; it’s that we are bad at criticising ourselves, positive and negative. I’ve seen both polarisations happen, though the negative is far more prevalent; writers are very keen to stamp on their own work. As a rule of thumb, the more extreme the polarisation, the more wrong you’re being.
It is a matter of perspective and distance. Our internal editors chitter away on the edges of our brains, like ants. They cover our eyes and cloud our judgement, until we’re so busy swatting that we have no perspective on what we’re smacking and sweeping away. Or they cover the bad parts and all we can see are the bright, shining sections.
Chances are, you’re being too hard on yourself. Maybe you’ve edited and reworked and massaged the piece so many times that you can barely see it any more. Maybe you’re having a bad day. Maybe someone said something to you that has dented your confidence, and now it’s reflecting on your writing. Does any of that mean that your piece is crap? No. It means that your perspective is wonky.
Alternatively, maybe you’re so caught up in the idea of the piece that you’re not reading the words on the page. You have that image so clear in your mind that you can see it, regardless of what the piece actually conveys. Maybe there’s a phrase that makes you happy because it’s so intelligent and sharp that you’re proud to have come up with it. Maybe someone praised you today and you feel like you can do anything at all, including writing golden words with nary a flaw. Does that mean your writing is wonderful? No. But go enjoy the feeling while it lasts; come back to reality later.
The truth is, you’re too close to the work. When you’re feeling so strongly about a piece, you need to step back and clear your eyes. Accept that you’ve lost perspective and are wrong about it. Put the piece away for a while. Write or read something new. Distract yourself with something completely different.
Better yet, get someone else to read it. Get several someones, because many opinions are better than one. Make sure they are people you trust. Gather feedback and perspectives, and see what your rose- or mud-tinted glasses are really doing. Clear your eyes; adjust your mental view.
It’s never as bad as you think it is. Embrace the wrongness of the writer’s perspective, and then put it aside. You’re better than you think.
Review: Tomb Raider
I don’t often feel moved enough to do a review, especially when it’s a computer game. However, with this one, I feel compelled to record my reactions.
I don’t talk about it much on this blog, but those who know me know I’m a bit of a gamer. I love computer games and I freely admit that I’m not that good at them. I’ll never be one of those gamers who wins at competitions; honestly, I’m pleased when I find a game I can finish before I reach the limit of my skill or frustration tolerance. I don’t like PvP because I’m terrible at it and getting your ass kicked repeatedly sucks. Reflex or twitch-gaming isn’t something I excel at.
The games I like are usually RPGs of some kind, and I’m attracted by good stories and characters. Pretty graphics and the ability to kill the shit out of things are good too, but that’s not usually all I’m looking for in a game (only usually, because sometimes just running around and killing things is exactly what I’m looking for).
I have played (and finished! Go me!) a couple of the Tomb Raider games before: Legend and Underworld. They’re probably at the limit of my twitch-gaming ability, but I do enjoy making Lara Croft do cool shit and shooting tigers in the face. But let’s face it: the stories are okay and the characters are pretty static. Lara doesn’t tend to grow much through those games, if at all, despite the personal nature of the mysteries she unravels.
So when a new Tomb Raider game was announced that was going to go back and look at how Lara became the capable, kickass woman you flip, tumble, and fight through the games, my ears pricked up. An actual character development story? The writer in me brightened. Of course, knowing how these things usually go, my excitement was reserved until there was some proof that the promises had been fulfilled (I’m a poor, jaded thing).
I didn’t get the game as soon as it came out (I actually didn’t wind up buying it until about a month ago, when it was a reasonable price), but I did keep an ear out for the reactions to it. What I heard was disappointing: a lot of whining about the sexual politics of the game and how dare they put a suggested rape in. The objections centred around the suggestion that, in order for Lara to become the strong, confident woman we know from the other games, rape had to be threatened, as if there was no other way to get the same result.
Considering the historical sexualisation and objectification of Lara (let’s face it, she’s famous for the skin-tight outfits, short-shorts, and pneumatic boobs as well as (possibly more than?) for being kickass), this wasn’t a good sign. My enthusiasm was dented. But not enough to reduce my willingness to give the game a go. If nothing else, I was pretty sure there would be acrobatics and shooting things, and I was curious from a writing point of view just how well they really did with the character side of things.
My opinion of the game in summary: those who criticised the game based on the facet mentioned above focussed on one moment in a pretty long game. Out of context, yes, it can look skeevy. However, those reactionary statements don’t do the game justice. There is a lot to enjoy about the game, and the character stuff is well done. It has to be some of the best character development I’ve seen in a game.
(I’m going to get pretty spoilery from here on in; if you don’t want to know how the story goes, look away now! Go play the game instead.)
First, let’s get this out of the way: the thing I like least about the game is the name. There’s no subtitle or post-colon-term to distinguish it from the rest of the franchise, so I wind up referring to it as ‘the latest Tomb Raider game’. I get that it’s a bit of a reboot, but come on, guys. You could have called it Origins (oops, Dragon Age did that), or Zero (wait, Resident Evil used that one), or Beginnings, or Genesis, or something. But no, all we get is ‘Tomb Raider’. Confusing. I’ll be calling it ‘TR’ from here on in. Okay, everyone with me? Good.
This whole game is really about Lara Croft becoming a bunch of things. The promo material will tell you ‘a survivor is born’, and that’s true, but that’s not all. Also, there are many ways to be a survivor (some of which we see in the game) and Lara has her own, specific kind of evolution.
She starts out as a young woman fresh out of college (I think at one point it pins her at 21 years old), embarking on her first archaeological expedition and taking her first tentative steps in her father’s shadow. She has a bunch of people around her, each with their own stories and reasons for being there. But let’s focus on Lara for now.
So the ship bearing the expedition party crashes in a storm and Lara is thrown ashore with her crew and friends, and a bunch of hostile island inhabitants. Cue the start of a (literal) fight for survival, liberally sprinkled with superstition and something freaky going on with the weather.
Looker
Let’s get this out of the way first: Lara is still gorgeous, but she’s not the sleek, slinky, curvy ass-kicker we know from the other Tomb Raider games. She only has one outfit and it’s the one she washed up in. She gets increasing beat up, scratched, bloodied, and muddied through the game, and her poor vest suffers, Die Hard-style, until it’s a torn, stained mess at the end. (Luckily, she’s wearing something underneath, so her modesty is maintained.) Her hair isn’t all neat and sleek, and she winds up taping her pants together (you don’t actually see her doing this, but her outfit gains bindings of tape or string or bandages as you move through the game and she gets more beat-up). When she crawls through bloodied channels, she comes out covered in yucky red stuff. When she walks through the rain, she winds up a bit cleaner.
I have to say, her outfit isn’t the most flattering, certainly compared to other incarnations of Lara in the franchise. But she looks like a real girl. Her boobs are reasonably proportioned, which is always a good start. And she’s still nicely put-together; she’s a more realistic attractive woman than before. I’d love to know where she got the bottomless pockets, though; where does she keep all that equipment she’s not using? In which crevice does she put her shotgun? (I love that particular game mechanic.)
It’s also worth pointing out how well the movement was done in this game. All of it was motion-captured from the actress who voices Lara and it shows: the way she moves is smooth and plausible, and nicely done. The actress’s movements are graceful and neat but not fluffy or girly, with the right amount of femininity, all of which fit Lara and the things she has to do.
The other parts in the game were also motion-captured, so they’re likewise pretty slick. I appreciate good animation and graphics. Good job.
Capable
From the outset, Lara is set out as a sensible, capable person. Her mentor, Roth, is an adventurer and we learn early on that they’ve climbed mountains together before. He taught her how to hunt with a bow, start fires, and other general ‘survival’-type stuff. So her base skills of shooting things with bows, climbing rock faces and being physically capable are established and explained early on. This stuff doesn’t come out of nowhere, which is a tick in the ‘good’ column for me.
She doesn’t know everything, though, and Lara gets help from others over the radio through the game. The tech guy from the ship’s crew helps her set up a beacon at one point, telling her what she needs to do. Roth also gives her instructions and encouragement over the radiowaves, particularly in the beginning sections when she needs it most. She has realistic gaps in her knowledge, doubts herself, needs encouragement and support, and so her abilities made sense to me. So often in these types of games, these kinds of thing can come out of nowhere and you just have to accept them. I like that that’s not the case here.
The one thing that jarred with me was the upgrading of her equipment. Lara adapts her own weapons, which seems a bit of a specialist thing to do, like extending mags and adding extra capabilities. Some of it was clearly ‘let’s tape a grenade launcher to the rifle and now BLOW STUFF UP’, and I’m pretty sure even I could figure out how to do that, but other types of upgrades started to strain the believability somewhat. On the other hand, blowing stuff up is awesome fun, so I’m willing to let it go, and as she had to collect ‘salvage’ to make the upgrades, I can accept it as a game mechanic.
Archaeologist
Again, very well established in the game as part of her background. A cinematic shows us that she has driven this expedition and it’s her information that has led the ship and its merry band of explorers to the home of an ancient (creepy) queen. She’s confident and competent in this area already, and clearly knows her stuff. She doesn’t particularly grow here, though there’s plenty of lore for her to pick up and learn as she runs around the island.
However, her attitude towards archaeology and what it actually means to her, her father, and the world does change through the game, as she becomes a:
Believer
If you’ve played the Tomb Raider games at all, you’ll know that supernatural stuff is real and active in the world. There’s power and truth in those old legends, and worlds beyond the one we walk in. But once upon a time, all of that was just stories and superstition to Lara. Until she gets to this island.
It’s a long and fairly subtle journey for her, going from academic and sceptic to archaeological believer of legends. More than that: it’s realistic. I buy her gradual realisation that the storms really are keeping people on the island, even though she doesn’t understand the power controlling it (it could be mechanical, right? Or something?). The facts support it. I like that she doesn’t automatically assume it has an extraordinary explanation, or that the Sun Queen is somehow responsible. It has to be proven to her.
Belief doesn’t come easily or simply to Lara, and that fits her personality, too. It’s not until after she sees the Sun Queen’s spirit with her own eyes that she accepts what has truly been going on on the island (though she starts having suspicions before this). She doesn’t come to terms with it all until she reflects on it in the closing cinematic, and this is where we see this part of the Lara we know sliding into place: legends are real and archaeology has a lot more at stake than mere academic interest. It’s a big change for her and how she views the world, one she hasn’t truly come to grips with, and I believe it. That’s why it’s well done.
Killer / Warrior
In computer/video games, bad guys (human or otherwise) tend to get killed off with abandon (and sometimes very thin excuses). They’re shooting at you, so you shoot at them, it’s all good. Very few games that I’ve come across delve into the character impact of all of these killings, but TR is one of them, and it’s a refreshing change. Lara’s first kill isn’t off-hand, it isn’t brushed past, and it isn’t done casually at all. It’s a Thing, which is as it should be.
This is where the aforementioned threatened rape comes in. But let’s put it in context. (Here, I’m getting incredibly spoilery.)
By this point, Lara has survived a shipwreck, woken up hanging from the ceiling in a creepy cave with lots of dead people and candles around, escaped, found and lost her friends a couple of times, and she has now been captured by the freaky islanders again. She has her hands tied behind her back, and the leader of this group of freaky islanders orders the shooting of Lara and another couple of crewmembers from her ship. Those crewmembers are shot in cold blood right in front of her. She has an opportunity to escape, so she takes it, running and sneaking through the camp with her arms still bound. The island men are looking for her. She can’t move well or fast, and she can’t use any tools; all she can do is move and hide.
She’s spotted. A man drags her out of her hiding place and pushes her against a wall. Hands distinctly wander. He tells her she’s going to die. Lara struggles and tries to fight back, and they both end up on the ground. She manages to scramble away and break the bonds around her wrists, allowing her to grab the gun the man just dropped, and he’s coming at her again, so she fires… and he’s dead. And then she collapses to her knees and freaks out, because there’s a dead man and she made him that way.
So, is it the wandering hands that made her stand up and kill him? Was it the threat of rape that tipped her over the edge? I don’t think so. It contributed, yes, but either way, she knew she was going to die horribly. He was going to do awful things to her that would kill her. It was survival and instinct, and shooting him was a natural response.
The threat also fit the situation. These island men were all wrecked there, and they are all men; there aren’t any women among their ranks and that’s probably something to do with their habit of sacrificing them in an attempt to get off the island. Does that mean that all men are rapists if put in this milieu? No, that’s naive, but it does mean that rape is more likely. It’s a brutal and violent society. It’s also something that a man might do to threaten a woman, whether he meant to follow through or not. This is exactly the type of threat that could be expected in that situation.
Also, it’s one moment in a struggle, one I wouldn’t have given so much attention to if it hadn’t been for the histrionics I’d seen in the reviews and reactions (some of which I believe were in response to the pre-release promo, without actually seeing the game itself). If you fail to help Lara fight free, the man strangles her; there’s no follow-through on the threat (I know because I failed this bit the first time through, whoops).
Through the whole sequence, I love Lara’s reactions, because they seem like a real person’s reactions to this type of situation. She defends herself; and she was no cowering creature before then, either, so it’s not like it was a huge change in character. She loses her shit when she sees what she’s done, despite the fact that she’s still in the middle of a camp crawling with men just like the one lying in front of her, all of whom are looking for her. Killing is a big thing and it takes her time and emotional strength to pull herself together enough to fight her way out of the camp, but she does it (killing more in the process, but the emotional damage is already done). Later, she stumbles over admitting the killing to Roth, still shocked by what she has done and coming to terms with it.
The rest of the game is rife with weapons, killing, and bad guys falling by the wayside, but I think the character side was nicely done. It’s perhaps a little too easy to fall into the rhythm of the violence, and she doesn’t have emotional reactions to it repeatedly (which is a relief, because that would get annoying). At the same time, she grows numb through much of the game, doing what she knows she has to, running and jumping and fighting, swimming through pools of blood, climbing over mounds of body parts (I’m not kidding), fighting a guy who seems to be too huge to be real, battling mysterious ‘oni’ and suspected undeads, going up against the ghost of a dead queen… yeah, Lara has a lot of traumatic stuff to deal with. She freaks out occasionally. Her hands shake. And then she deals with it and moves on, focussing on her goal. She does whatever unpleasantness she has to to get herself and her people off the island, because she led them there and it’s her responsibility to get them safely home.
Survivor
It’s all of these things that make Lara from the inexperienced, shocked woman who washed up on a beach into the survivor who is strong enough to pull herself and her friends out of a hellish situation. The whole game is her evolution, far more than that one moment when she was caught with her hands tied behind her back. The rescues that come for them are thwarted, but she pushes on, determined to find an answer. She loses friends along the way – painfully – and the losses she suffers all spur her on to save those she has left. She takes control of her actions and she takes responsibility to fix whatever is happening, to save the people she loves and led there. She becomes capable of rescuing herself and her friends.
I think this game achieved exactly what it set out to do: it explains how Lara became the woman we moved around in the previous Tomb Raider games. Better yet: it promises that future TR games will continue on this new deeper, more character-focussed vein. A glimpse around opinions on the subject suggest that Crystal Dynamics intend to do this, carrying Lara’s story through into a rebooted storyline. Darker and grittier than before, with deeper, more complex characters, all of which I thoroughly approve of. Personally, I can’t wait to find out where they take it next.
Other Characters
Lara’s not the only character in the game, so let’s look briefly at the other members of the game’s cast. Lara comes with several friends and crewmembers, all of whom have pretty well-defined personalities. They’re all quite distinct from one another (apart from the generic crewmembers who are killed close to the beginning of the game).
They don’t all like or obey Lara; she’s not the boss in this expedition and she has to earn their respect. No-one follows her blindly and some refuse to follow her at all, for reasons that are explained in the game’s story. The ship’s mechanic, Reyes, gives Lara a particularly hard time, which is in line with her personality and the inter-personal clashes between the two of them.
Through the various game zones, we find bits of the crew’s stories (though how their letters and journals got all over the island is a mystery to me). We’re allowed glimpses into their backgrounds and motivations. We get to read an apology to a far-away daughter, and a slide into dangerous delusion. It’s not often that I’ll take the time to read content like this, but I enjoyed it in this game. The voiceovers probably helped!
We’re encouraged to care about these characters, so much so that it’s upsetting when they die (I won’t say who!). I didn’t particularly like all of the characters who were alive at the end, but at the same time, I liked that it wasn’t only my favourites who survived. Sometimes, puppies die to drive the story forward, and that only works if we care about them.
Gameplay
This is a review of a game, so I should touch on this. I liked the interface and the controls (I play these types of games on the XBox 360, so it’s a controller for me). I was able to pull off the required manoeuvres without too much trouble or repetition, which is always a plus for me, despite some of them being pretty complex.
The combat was pretty good; I usually play this kind of game on Easy for the first run-through, because I don’t like being shot in the back of the head repeatedly (like I said earlier, I’m not the most skilled gamer), but it was a fun challenge. There are stealth options as well as ‘blast the crap out of it with a shotgun’ options, so you can choose the tactics that work best for you and the situation. There was plenty of ammunition lying around, too, so you’re not really in danger of running out completely (something which some games use to create a false sense of difficulty, I find). There’s usually enough for at least one of your weapons to fire, and if you need a particular weapon to progress (like blasting a door open with the aforementioned shotgun), there’s always ammo available at that point so you aren’t held up or stuck because you used all your shells in that last fight.
There is a lack of the big, complex puzzles that are a staple of the Tomb Raider franchise. Personally, I didn’t miss them too much. The zones and optional tombs contain small puzzles, and I was inordinately pleased with myself when I managed to figure them out all on my own (without looking up the solutions, which I’ll do if I’m getting too frustrated with a problem that has an unobvious solution or no way to figure it out beyond trial and error). That probably says more about me than the game.
The other thing that is missing from TR is Croft Manor, which is an explorable area that gives you bonuses in the other games. I don’t miss it, and it wouldn’t have made sense in the context of TR, which is entirely set on a single island. So I’m glad they cut it out of there. Instead, you’re able to go back through all the areas on the island to pick up collectables that you couldn’t access or missed previously (which unlocks bonuses). If you have a completist urge (like me), this is a welcome thing, though the ‘fast travel between campfires’ mechanism is a bit weird (it’s not exactly realistic, where most of the game seems to be striving for realism). I’ll live with the weirdness, though; it’s better than running back through the maps.
Conclusion
Do I really need to write this bit? I’m pretty sure you know what I’m going to say here by now. I enjoyed the game. The story was well-constructed and the character work was wonderful. It’s refreshing to see a strong woman explained in a way that doesn’t make her deeply damaged, a bitch, an ice queen, or a whore. It’s nice to see Lara less shiny and sexualised, and I like the grittier, harsher edge to the game (compared to other games in the franchise).
There’s a brilliant contrast built into the game. At the beginning, Lara looks at herself in the mirror of her cabin, just before the ship is wrecked. Much later, you take her back to the (ruined) ship, and she catches sight of herself in that same mirror. The difference in her appearance speaks volumes, and the story of the game is captured in that look.
Bravo. I’d like to see more games like TR, please.
Books From Our Backyard
Every year, the Queensland Writers Centre (QWC, my state’s writing association) produces Books From Our Backyard, a catalogue of all the books released in the last year by Queensland authors. If you live in the state and have a book published – whichever way you have it published – you can submit to be listed in this catalogue.
Last night, the 2012 edition of the catalogue was launched, and I was pleased to have two books listed in it: books 2 and 3 of The Apocalypse Blog. They’re listed alongside traditionally published books and other self-published books, in a field of over 170 authors.
It’s one of those things that makes me realise that hey, I’m a published author now. I’m standing up by those who have been ‘properly’ published, and for once, I felt like an equal rather than an amateur with aspirations. After all, I’m selling books and reaching into readers’ lives and minds.
The speakers at the launch were even kind enough to call out the self-published authors and include them in the congratulations that were being given to the authors in the catalogue.
It feels like a step. It feels like a barrier being eroded. I’m in the process of tidying up a traditional vs independent publishing post about kudos, and maybe this will give me a reason to revisit the thoughts in there. Maybe it’ll shine a new light on it. At the least, it offers some hope or proof that maybe things really are changing.
It was a lovely evening, though I knew surprisingly few people in the room. It was great to feel included, involved, and proud to put out leaflets advertising my books among the examples laid out on display.
Now word of my work is reaching out through new channels. Will it gain me more readers and sales? Well, I hope so. And now I have a bunch of leaflets that I need to find a home for; perhaps the library or a big bookstore will put them out for me.
I feel accomplished. Now, I should line up my next ebook release, and see if I can make my entry in next year’s Books From Our Backyard even better.
Guest Post: Writing Goals
For the first time on Adventures in Text: a guest post! It’s my pleasure to introduce friend, fellow blogger, fellow NaNoWriMo nut, and writer, Nick Hudson.
Nick is the creator of Fictioner’s Net, a blog predominantly about writing, creativity and storytelling. While he’s not doing that (or his day-job), he can be found working on his own novels or indulging in other writing pursuits. Today, he’s sharing his thoughts with us about writing goals.
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It’s often easy to forget why we do this. Why we write. Even with that subterranean urge to put words together, ideas bubbling away inside you, and melting your experiences into that new killer plot, sometimes there’s nothing more than a simmer happening. The ideas fizzle out, the sentences aren’t flowing like you know they’re meant to, and in general, you start to lose sight of it. The truth is that not every day is easy. Sometimes we have to fight damned hard to get the words right, and we try to claw our way through the empty pages with the hope that we’ll eventually get to a spot where the words do flow. It’s time like that when we need to remember what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it. Simply put, no more passive creativity for you, Writer. You’re going to work out what you’re doing, and why!
Don’t worry, I’m doing it too.
The last few weeks haven’t been the greatest with the words. I’ve written, yes, though haven’t gone that extra step of committing them to my manuscript. The current scene has been a struggle (once again, it’s a new one), and I’ve been very aware of the lack of progress with my novel. There’s also been a bounty of real-life grievances, both about myself and my writing, and all those things go along way to dangerous statements about being a terrible writer/person. This post is as much for me as it is for you.
All of this goes beyond the usual stuff. Yes, we want to write because we love creating, or we want to change the world, or we think there’s too many empty bookshelves in the world and need to fill them with our stories. We get the ideas and alone, they’re never enough. Sometimes it’s all been played out in your head, and you know the general in-and-out with as much detail as any well-loved book. Could writing complete you as a person, only feeling right when there’s a pen in one hand and a blank page on the table? We need to go beyond that – more than just the act of writing, but look at the potential outcome.
First of all, there’s enjoyment. Sometimes writing is less orchestrated than the process might imply. We might be the ones in charge of the words, but they often flow out of us so fast, that the first time we know the words is when we put them in the story. Is that a symptom of how we communicate with the world, perhaps? I have a problem with spoken words, in that I tend to start speaking them before I know what all the words will be. This can lead to stuttering, mispronunciation, and a strange round-about way of speaking. The advice I’ve been given to get around that, is to think about what you’re going to say before you say it. YEAH RIGHT. It’s probably not the dividing line between whether or not you’re an off-the-cuff writer, but maybe it’s a factor. It’s not that I never think about what I’m saying, but the majority rule is say first and regret later. With momentum, writing is the same way. It might get cleaned up a bit in the physical process of writing, but it just comes out.
It’s for that reason that I sometimes think of writing as slow-reading. I’ve been surprised while writing, when scenes have twisted away from what might be expected, into something that was different yet still plausible – and often it’s because of characters acting out. It’s different to reading, but also a little bit similar.
The next factor in the writing process is a finished story. Yes, just the first draft. Why this? Because no matter how horribly you misspell words, what plot holes exist, or what coffee-stains blur half the manuscript, you have a glorious mess of words that goes somewhere. It might take the reader from Aegis IV to New Angeles because you’d forgotten the location had changed, they might never explain what the mysterious treasure actually is, and your antagonist might somehow change eye and hair colour every few chapters with no real reason… but you have something that can actually be read, whether it’s subjectively readable or not. There’s something amazing about that first step, where despite the flaws, you’re able to excite the mind of a reader. It took me years to show even excerpts of my work to others, and it was almost always something short – until it wasn’t.
That one was shown to about twenty people in total, and at least half of those read the entire thing. It was over 50,000 words (hint hint), and it was as much a process of discovery for me, as it was for those that read it. It’s here that a larger goal becomes clear – I’m writing words with the intent that somebody reads them. The story isn’t targeted to a specific demographic, and generally speaking, the idea sits independent of targets about audience or genre. There are stories that need to be written, and then hopefully people will read them.
The extended goal is to have the story be considered (objectively) of sufficient quality. It needs to tell the entire story, be consistent within itself and also thorough. It needs to be as free of errors, whether spelling or grammatical. It also, above all else, needs to be something that could be read and enjoyed beyond the thrill of having written it. Again, not writing this for other people – the target audience is me. Given that I’m a consumer of all sorts of stories, I’m hopeful that by extension each story will appeal to other people too, but there’s no market analysis going on here. Trying to follow trends is something that happens in every product area, not just in writing. Another thing that happens is attempting to predict what formula will lead to success. You might think that because paranormal romance has been big recently, and monster movies were big in the 1930s, that the next trend in fiction will be a reimagining of the cynical gumshoe trope. It *might* be the case, but it won’t be because someone’s tried to orchestrate it, but because there’s a story good enough that it ignites the world’s imagination.
If you’re chasing the crowd or trying to keep a step ahead of it, the result will be hollow. Instead, find the story that doesn’t want to let go of you, that demands to be written. That’s the one. It won’t do it everyday, but when it does do it, that’s how you know what you ought to be writing.
When I’ve finished once, I want to do it all over again. Lots. There’s at least ten different stories that are begging to be told beyond the one I’m working on now. Some do share the same setting, while others are either standalone or can be grouped together with others from the ten.
What’s all that entail? What are these mysterious random stories I’m intending to put together? The current novel is a rewrite of what my 2010 NaNoWriMo, which was/is a flight-punk fantasy called “Trail to the Sky”. It was originally designed as a prequel to an as-yet incomplete story set in the same world. The next on the list would be the first quarter of last year’s NaNoWriMo, which was more of a traditional high-fantasy. That originally had four time periods in the one story, alternating every chapter. I’ve since worked out that’s doing right by any of the time periods, so it’ll be a set of four. Beyond that, there’s more stories in the world of ‘Trail to the Sky’, which push toward a blend of science fiction and fantasy. There’s also a western, a thriller, and a kind-of paranormal setting that have been mapped out, and might one day be done, but that’s as far as I’ve currently planned – and obviously there’s no accounting for any sudden bursts of inspiration.
Writing and then editing a novel always implies another step – publishing. It’s here that the real world intrudes, instead of our own personal fictional worlds taking up the entire writing lifecycle.
It’s a strange time for writers at the moment. Not only are physical bookstores vanishing, but electronic publication is taking over. It’s not the same to me as having an actual book in your hand, but there exists now the ability to get your story in front of more eyes, with very different hurdles than have been present before. Self-publishing is one avenue available to use, whether it be just electronic, or getting our own books printed into something bigger. NaNoWriMo has increased awareness of Print-on-Demand places like CreateSpace, though I’ve never had a story ready to put into a book like that. There’s nothing stopping you from going to a print shop, and having your manuscript bound if you’re just looking at giving your story to friends and family you see regularly. Convert a story into an e-reader friendly format, and throw it on Smashwords and the like, and that’s another way to make it available to people. Making people aware is another job entirely, and falls to social media and word of mouth.
It feels like there is still some stigma attached to self-publishing, though the traditional publishing route is as difficult as ever. The idea is still appealing, and has all sorts of romantic connotations – it’s what all fiction presents as the right way to write, and how you know you’ve made it as an author. My plan for a long time had been that I would try the traditional publishing route, and if/when that failed, attempt self-publishing. I don’t know how viable that is now. Recently it has felt as though the traditional route was narrowing, and that the best way to any sort of audience would be self-publishing. Neither is self-publishing a guarantee of ‘success’ (success here equals attaining a readership), because there are extreme levels of content-saturation. This goes beyond quality of the work, because awareness needs to exist for quality to enter as a factor.
There will always be an audience for fiction, and people will always read books. There will be new books, new stories, and new writers. It was never an easy path, and it may or may not be easier now. It is different, though. You may not be writing so you can be read, and it may sometimes feel like an impossible dream, but someone untested is writing a story that will one day be read by many.
Guested: Starting a Creative Writing Group
The lovely Nick over on Fictioner’s Net asked me to do a guest post for him recently, and it went up this morning! It contains my thoughts and experiences about starting a creative writing group, which I’ve done twice now. Go check it out! Give Nick’s site some love, too.
Coming soon: Nick has written a guest post for this blog, all about writing goals. Watch this space!
Independent vs Traditional Publishing: Big houses getting bigger
(Part of the indie vs trad series.)
If you’ve looked around the internet on this subject, you’ll probably have heard of the Big 6. That is, the Big 6 publishing houses in the industry. You may also have heard that two of them are merging: Penguin and Random House.
Is this a good thing? From what I have seen, no. Not for the industry and not for authors. (See Smashwords’ blog post from back in December 2012 for the indie view on this (scroll down to #16), and the interview with published author Michael Levin on the BBC’s World Business Report on 5th April (start at 6:10).
A merger of this kind requires permission from organisations that ensure competition is preserved in the markets. The US was first to agree to the merger back in February; the EU followed suit more recently. No-one seems concerned that two such big movers in the industry combining into a publishing megalith will create a monopoly, and this fact in itself it very interesting to those of us looking into publishing.
Tellingly, the EU report had this statement: “…the new entity Penguin Random House will continue to face competition from several large and numerous small and medium sized publishers.” In the realm of third-party distribution and sale of books, it found “…the parties have low market shares and that many alternative suppliers for book production and third party book distribution services remain active….”
Nope, not concerned about a monopoly at all. And honestly, I’m not worried either. As Michael Levin so succinctly put it: “When you take one company with a failed publishing model and you take a second company with a failed publishing model and you merge them, you have a very big company with a failed publishing model.”
So it doesn’t sound good. They’re not doing anything new or different, despite the changes in the market around them, and this is the crux of my problem with traditional publishing. I see so much change in the publishing industry, all the time, so much that I have no chance of providing anything close to a decent commentary on this blog. I’m simply not equipped to keep up (this post is woefully late with this news). But I try to hit the highlights.
Worryingly, the actions of the big houses only seem to be heading in bad directions for both authors and the industry as a whole. Why? Well, settle in and I’ll attempt to explain my position.
For authors, it’s not a good move because the new Penguin Random House entity will continue to operate as it always has. I did a whole post on Marketing not so long ago, and what authors should be able to expect from a traditional contract. However, according to Levin (who has been published by all of the big houses), the Big 6 only give real marketing support to their top 1-2% of books. Each new book is a new brand, and a new cost for them.
Their top 1-2%. You fought to get a publishing contract with an awesome publisher, and your book might be in bookstores for 3-4 weeks before it gets pulled, because it’s not selling, because it wasn’t marketed. As a first-time author, you’re lucky if you get much of an advance as well, so your chances of making money from your work or becoming a known name are very slim.
I’m a pretty cynical person when it comes to politics and corporate activity, but this is worse than even I imagined.
So they’re not doing their authors any favours. But how does this impact on the industry as a whole, I hear you ask? Well, if books that are good enough to be published are being treated in this way – barely marketed, and pulled from shelves for poor sales, and generally not sold all that well – then those are good books that are being removed from the market and the kind of publishing where they might have thrived.
Here’s a radical (and rather scary thought) for you: the Big 6 could be reducing the overall quality of the books on the market.
Be careful, my friends. Be very careful. Penguin Random House is making a land grab on a sinking city, and it doesn’t seem that they realise it’s standing on quicksand. Its business plans look shaky at best; as Mark Coker sums up: “None of [their proposed] moves help authors at a time when authors want more support from their publishers, not less.”
The traditional publishers seem to be sandbagging their operations against the tide of small and independent publishing. Are they making the right moves? From what we can see so far, no. It’s more of the same stuff that’s driving authors into the wide-open arms of independence. Even the monopoly committees agree that the moves they’re making won’t give them a huge advantage in the marketplace.
These are all things to keep in mind if you’re considering a traditional publishing contract. It’s a warzone out there.
Next up: Kudos
Random Writing Tip #5: Cut the Crap
So, you wrote a bunch of crap. This is not a bad thing. You got to the end; now it’s time to weed out all those crappy bits and turn your turd into a diamond.
It’s so tempting to keep that adorable scene where the heroine stops to pat a puppy on the head, because it’s just so cute. Or the hero musing about that childhood friend he misses. Or the antagonist primping in front of the mirror before a big confrontation.
Cut it out. No, really. Be ruthless.
Is it necessary for the story? Does it serve any purpose? No? Then it’s crap and needs to be consigned to the editing room floor.
Extra bits like this are a distraction. They can ruin the pace of the narrative, taking the reader by the hand and skipping them off down a leafy tangent that, while pretty, isn’t quite what they signed up for. They were quite happy on the bus to Kickass Storyville, thank you very much.
Every pause and break is an excuse to put your story down and wander off for a cup of tea or a beer. Don’t give your reader excuses; nail them to the seat until you’re done with them.
So challenge all those little scenes. It could be a paragraph or a whole chapter, but if it doesn’t add something to the story, it doesn’t need to be there. It’s crap; cut it out. Refine your story down to its essence and bare it to the world.
What’s worth keeping, I hear you ask? What makes it not crap that’s just cluttering up my story? It must progress the story or reveal something important about the character.
While it might be interesting to know that the heroine has a soft spot for puppies, is this important to the story or her development as a person? Do we care about the hero’s childhood friend; does he turn up at all? Is the antagonist’s primping a way to show the reader that he needs to build himself up before meeting his opponent, a glimpse of the man beneath the makeup, or just filler?
Challenge everything. Make those moments earn their place in your story, because you want to give your reader the best story you possibly can. Make them do double-duty if you can, or triple, or more. Every word you spin is precious, so don’t let it turn into crap that weakens your story.
The word of today is: superfluous. Find it, know it, cut it out.
Independent vs Traditional Publishing: Availability

Your book could end up in a store like this! But for how long?
(Blackwells boosktore, picture by noodlepie)
(Part of the indie vs trad series.)
This isn’t about where your book is available: I’ve already talked about distribution. This post is about when your book is available: how long it takes to get it to market; how long it stays there; and when it goes out of print.
As with most of these discussions, control is pretty straightforward: indie authors maintain control and decision-making rights, while traditionally-published authors are slaves to the whims of their publishing house. But in order to get an idea of what it means and how important this is to consider, let’s break it down.
Time to Market
This is not something that a lot of people consider when thinking about publishing, but it’s an important element in the publishing journey. All the advice I’ve seen on this subject agrees that the shorter this time is, the better. Readers need to be fed early and often.
Time to market includes all the time you spend after finishing your book until the time it first appears on sale and people can buy it (or pick it up for free). This is important in the current reading climate because readers are hungry for books. If they read one of yours and like it, they’re likely to look for more. If they have to wait a long time for the next book, they might forget about it (and you!) and move on. Frequent releases also provide additional bumps in sales for your other books, so are a good way of keeping your name popping up in front of readers’ eyes.
In self-publishing, it’s possible to keep this time short. Editing and cover design tend to be the variables that push this time out the most (and you shouldn’t skimp on these), but with coordination and focus, this can be streamlined. Formatting (particularly for ebooks) can be a fairly quick job, and publishing on the major platforms is quick and easy. From there, they take a day or so to go live (maybe a week to reach every sales shelf, depending on the distribution network updates). This whole process can be anything from weeks to as short as a matter of days.
Self-publishing print books (excluding POD) takes a little longer, as you have to wait for proofs, approvals, and the actual printing to be done. POD (print on demand) incurs a delay for proofs to be sent to you and approved, though some stores may let you skip this step (however, it’s good practice to check your proofs, so it’s not advisable to skip it).
In traditional publishing, the story is very different. First of all, you have to find a publisher to take you on. This can mean months or years of writing letters and synopses, submitting, being rejected, submitting some more, and waiting for that delicious contract offer to appear. It can mean going through all of this to get an agent, and then waiting for the agent to secure a publishing contract on your behalf (a lot of advice will tell you that this is actually the best way to go, but I won’t go into the reasons here).
There is an indeterminable time here that is impossible to judge. One thing it is never is quick. Even authors who have already published under a traditional contract have to go through this process, though they may be able to short-cut the submissions and go straight to their publisher (it’s not unusual for different series to be published with different houses, though), and they should already have an agent.
But let’s assume that you get that contract offer, sign the d0tted line, and hand over your completed manuscript. From there, a year’s delay is normal. The editing process takes a long time and your book has to be scheduled to fit in with the publishing company’s printing press commitments. That means that everything else they are publishing is affecting your book’s fate. There are also market reasons that might delay your book: a publisher might hold your book back so they don’t release ten books about steam trains in the same season and glut their own market; or they might want to hit a particular school holiday with that new wizard series. You have no control over this.
It’s unusual for a book to be released within a year of being signed (and the completed manuscript submitted by you). It’s not unusual for it to stretch out longer than that. Series are a little different; sometimes, a publisher will release instalments in a series close together. However, they’re likely to want them completed and submitted from you well in advance. Months is the norm here.
The real questions: how important is speed to you? Are you willing to wait?
Withdrawal and Out of Print
What about the opposite end of your book’s life? What about that point when it is stripped off bookstore shelves (real or virtual) and consigned to literature history?
With ebooks and POD, this need never happen. There’s no physical stock taking up money or space anywhere, so your book can live on the virtual shelf for as long as you like (if you have self-published and retained control, of course).
Paper books, however, commonly go out of print. Whether self- or traditionally-published, at some point, someone is going to stop keeping that stockpile. Storefront space is a premium and costs money, and bookstores will only put out books they can sell.
In fact, bookstores will send surplus stock back to the traditional publisher if it isn’t selling well enough to justify the cost of the storeroom and shelf space it takes up. This is usually a matter of weeks after the book’s release; your book has a very small window (3-4 weeks) to grab sales before it is consigned to the ‘failure to be returned’ pile. If it sells in that time, the stores might retain a couple of copies for its shelves and only return the surplus bulk. Otherwise, it’s back to the source with all of it.
The publisher must then decide whether to try another big push with the book (this is rare); usually, they will slash the price and sell it off through clearing houses and discount stores. The next step in the process is to stop printing any more of the book and to let it fall out of print when the bookstores have run out of whatever stocks they decided to retain.
Traditional publishing contracts should all have a ‘return to author’ clause, which means the contract (specifically, the publisher’s license to your work) ends after the book has been out of print for several years (usually 3-5, I believe). For books published electronically under a traditional contract, ‘out of print’ is usually defined as sales below a certain threshold. It is important to understand what out of print means to you and your work, so you understand your rights.
Traditional publishing relies on big-bang sales at the beginning of a book’s life. Self-published authors can take more time about it. Some of the data being gathered on sites like Smashwords are showing that sales patterns for books are not driven by their release date. Some books have a slow boil and break out later; others have a big bang and then tail off; others still do a mix of these things, swinging up and down wildly. Even better, there are things that an author can do to help lift their sales (I’m in the middle of that process myself) and rejuvenate a book that has been out for a while. But this all means that the book has to still be out in the stores for readers to buy.
The real questions: do you care how long your books are available for? Do you have faith that a publisher will handle your book the way you want it to?
Personally, I like having a book with sales that are continually ticking over, and I like being able to release (and re-release) editions whenever I want to. I’m not waiting on anyone’s timetable except my own. This suits me and I have a few plans to use this to the fullest advantage.
Traditional publishing has its advantages, but I don’t think that availability is one of them.
Next up: Big houses getting bigger