Present Tense Writing - Action over Narrative

Social Anarchy @Goodreads

2012-11-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

Anarchy usually is referred to governing bodies, governments, and is defined as a state of lawlessness and disorder, but it also extends into social networks and beyond. In a world of anarchy a long list of words can be used to describe it such as crime, vigilantes, and chaotic to name a few. This is what happens when the governing body fails to enforce its law. This also applies to social networks that do not enforce their terms of service resulting in their infrastructure to breakdown and allows anarchism to prevail. When moderators cannot take control of their own platform, the people take control of it for them. They then enforce the law and carryout punishment as they see fit. This is what has happened to Goodreads - Social Anarchy. Rather than enforcing their own TOS, the community does it for them in their own special way. Why would Goodreads do this? Well, let’s pretend we’re them. If the members monitor the community, how would this be beneficial?

Less Staffing

Fewer Responsibilities

Zero Liability

That’s a pretty good deal, if we’re Goodreads that is. The problem is that Goodreads is a platform that depends on both members and authors. When Social Anarchy is the law of the land, members and authors of goodreads are free to comment and say whatever they wish. Authors are free to harass reviewers, and reviewers are free to harass authors, so on and so forth. This, however, is where Social Anarchy comes in. Since Goodreads fails to enforce their terms, the community now does it for them. It even encourages groups to form and take action into their own hands. This lack of governing has divided portions of the community; those who are against abusive authors and those who are against abusive reviewers. With hardly any intervention from Goodreads, it’s not surprising that this model has spiraled out of control.

This has created a warzone within Goodreads. The battle field - author book pages. All it takes is a small group of friends to single out and spread rumors, harass, belittle, and slander their target through comments and reviews on that author’s book page. Now anyone who accesses that product page can view the battle scars, a permanent record if you will. If anyone dares to step into these threads to defend the author, they too become a target. Basically, authors cannot stop it, nor will Goodreads do anything about it. This isn’t a one sided story either. Authors do it to, but if an author responds to a negative review, the hands of ill-justice are swift and deadly – the community strikes back with a vengeance. Authors, I would NOT recommend doing that.

The entire platform of Goodreads is built around books which were intended to bring the community closer together, but that model has imploded in some aspects causing it to backfire, not because the model is broken, but because they are not enforcing the TOS. The product pages which were intended as the central attraction, reviewing and commenting about the book, are being abused by many members. Now they comment and boost the threads while carrying on a discussion which insults, harasses, and belittles the author. See anything wrong with that? Anyhow, it didn't take long for members to realize that authors were reading their comments – thus began the war of words.

Some members are using book pages as social threads between friends to bash the author, and the negative reviews have become double attacks. Spiteful reviews not only trash the book, they trash the author as well. For instance, 1* review: “I read the first page, and it was complete shit. My five year-old could write better than this. What kind of author would publish such crap?” Ouch. Both book and author slammed, and they didn't even bother to read the book. This type of review is very common, and it’s more than just rude, it’s also a trap. It invites the author to respond, and for those who take the bait will learn a very harsh lesson as members retaliate and multiply the damage by adding more hateful reviews and ratings. Goodreads will not remove a review like this, nor will they remove anything that spawned from it. The bigger problem is that these personal attacks permanently scar the authors product page. For an author this can be a huge risk. It is also very disturbing and troublesome for all parties involved, because if Goodreads wont enforce their TOS, that means everyone, including members, are left alone and to fend for themselves.

These community spats are why Goodreads probably chooses to use Social Anarchy as the law of the land. Goodreads is a social website for both readers and writers. The more members they gain, the more likely customers will invest into advertising. Since Goodreads main focus is on books, its main customers are, you guessed it, publishers and authors. Hence, therein lies the problem. Without a ton of members or unique visitors, publishers and authors are less likely to advertise or sell their books with them. No advertising, no revenue. Do they back the community who populate their website or do they back authors who provide their revenue? It’s one big conundrum. No matter how they approach this problem, it all cycles back to their bottom line. This is why it’s in their best interest to avoid most of the community conflicts.

As an author, it didn't take me long to realize that Goodreads is basically a facebook for books. I even took a couple review attacks – a swipe at my book, and a swipe at me. I even had a small group target my work by filing it into inappropriate labeled shelves. They also left nasty comments and several 1 star ratings just because they could. They do it to many authors, and this is just one of many similar hate groups. In one day alone an author can receive dozens of 1 star ratings and nasty comments followed by an avalanche of inappropriate shelving. No matter how many times you report the incidents, Goodreads will not respond or do anything about it. I've seen 1 star hate reviews that stated nothing more than, “This authors is an asshole.” Yet, this is okay by Goodreads because they will NOT remove it. I've tried many times. Now IF the author is daring enough to respond to that same review, that author will not only be targeted by numerous members of Goodreads, they most likely will be removed from the community all together.

Goodreads rarely enforces their TOS when it comes to book reviews, and reviewers know this. Over time, it has grown out of control. Goodreads does step in, but it usually is in defense of the community, not the author. I've seen it time and time again on many book pages. There’s a vast graveyard of skeleton threads. The members still remain, but the author, long gone. It doesn't take a private investigator to figure out who Goodreads ultimately sides with. This should confirm one thing, ALL risk lies with the author – heed the warning. The lack of moderation on the website has caused several blogs, websites, and groups to form. The attacks on authors are daily now, and you can find several reports on these incidents found here: http://stopthegrbullies.com. Several of the same people who abuse Goodreads TOS are screaming bloody murder because somebody finally had to step in to report the abuse. These very same people have been running groups for a long time encouraging the attacks on authors. Many of them are authors themselves. Goodreads did nothing to stop them either. One of the groups is called Badly Behaving Authors found here: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/68876-badly-behaving-authors. What’s even more startling is that most of the members are librarians.

The BBA group promotes and encourages the assault of authors who they feel did something "bad", regardless of what Goodreads TOS states. They basically bully the author through mob mentality. Several of them target the authors work through reviews, shelving, comments, and ratings, but it doesn't stop there. They write blogs, youtube videos, and even target the authors websites. Out of control hardly describes the conduct, yet this behavior is perfectly acceptable to them. Why? Why not. If Goodreads won't enforce their own terms, why should they? And since they make the rules, they are free to enforce them however they see fit. How do I know all of these things? Easy. Not only have they done it to several authors, they have done it to me! Yep, even a video. I’m not kidding either. They'll do whatever it takes to insult the author and attempt to ruin their sales. Goodreads knows about them, but they will do nothing to stop them. You can find my specific incident here: http://stopthegrbullies.com/2012/10/. Scroll down, there’s two listed.

Goodreads knows damn well that this is happening, but they choose to ignore it. Yet, they still ask authors for advertising dollars and to give their books away through giveaways. They even ask authors to pay for a premium author program and to sell their work on their website. Basically they ask for money but continue to allow librarians and members to assault and humiliate authors. They allow them to file their books into shelves with names like SHITLIST and TOILET and to leave nasty, slandering comments about the author on their book pages. It makes one wonder how they even have the nerve to ask authors to purchase their advertising and promotional packages. What are we really paying for? That's the question.

In closing, I want to state that neither side is innocent. There are authors who abuse the system just as there are readers who abuse it. The sad part is you can't really place any blame on any of them because ultimately it is Goodreads responsibility to enforce their rules of conduct, and they don't. Currently I have an account on Goodreads, probably not for long, but I do have one. Before I knew how they operated, I went ahead and paid for some advertising. Shortly after that, my books became the focus of an attack due to a disagreement on another website. You read that correctly, ANOTHER website. I reported the attacks, but Goodreads ignored my requests. Not only did this upset me, it infuriated me because I was a paying customer. I was brushed off and ignored. I even wrote them a letter to have the comments removed. They responded stating that it didn't go against their TOS. Guess what, their TOS clearly states that it is NOT allowed. I've read them, but it does make one wonder if they have. I guess they just don’t value the community or our money.

In the end I feel as if I'm paying for librarians to run rampant, trash authors, and list authors in listopia's titled, Badly Behaving Authors so their buddies can vote on it. Hell, they even have Stephen King on the list. Don’t believe me? Well check out the link where Goodreads Librarian's congregate: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/20953.Badly_Behaving_Authors. And just for the record, I did write and ask Goodreads to take this list down, and they told me no. Goodreads is no longer a friendly place for authors to hang their hat, rather it is a place where Social Anarchy has taken over. My advice to publishers and authors is to NOT invest into any of their programs until they resolve their issues. In addition, my advice to ALL members is to treat Goodreads for what it was intended for; to bring together a community of readers and writers to share and talk about books.

Goodreads TOS can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/about/terms.

Thank you for reading the article. I hope it was helpful. Please feel free to comment below and to check out my novels and website: www.mtdismuke.com.

Authr is a Predator Publishing Service

2012-09-19T12:13:00.003-07:00

I recently read this article posted by www.epublishabook.com found here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5D4AR7/www.epublishabook.com/2012/07/16/need-an-advance-for-your-book-get-your-future-readers-to-fund-you/.

It was an interesting read about helping indie authors. The article then listed a few websites. The one that caught my attention was the authr.com reference - a website dedicated to helping authors by allowing them to pre-sell incomplete books. (For the record, epublishabook did update their post warning that there is a monthly fee, and it is to my belief that they did not intend to be misleading or is an affiliate of authr.com.) I thought it looked interesting and curiosity got the best of me, so I clicked on the website and read over it. I was appalled at what I discovered.

Authr, @authr, www.authr.com offers a publishing service enabling authors to take donations and pre-sell their books at a monthly fee of $14.95. They ask authors to target family, friends and fans. They also offer a free page on their website, and they claim their page can be used as a marketing tool.

Here’s the run down. Authr.com is targeting new authors who most likely haven’t published a book yet or those ‘hopefuls’ out there who think their book is a best seller and want some upfront cash. Here’s the problem, most new authors don’t do that well. Every author believes their novel is great and best seller potential, but the reality is, it rarely works out that way. Basically they’re preying on authors who don’t really understand the publishing world by making it sound like they can make easy upfront cash. They even try to sell authors on the idea that their page acts as a marketing tool. Okay great, but there’s a problem with that. Their website is designed to attract new authors, not readers.

Now we come to the ethical side of it. They’re asking authors to take donations and pre-orders on unfinished work. These ‘authors’ aren’t authors either. That means there is no guarantee that the work will even be finished. This puts the aspiring author in a really bad position by having them ask friends and family to donate/order unfinished work. What happens if they never finish it? This could cause some serious personal problems. Being an author myself, I know how tough it is to get that first novel written. Some take years and most never see the light of day. Meanwhile, the author has to maintain their service fee to keep those donations and pre-orders active.

Here’s how I see it. Debut novels don’t usually do very well especially from an unknown Indie author. Every author hopes and dreams they will do great, but the reality is that they most likely won’t. It takes a ton of effort and exposure to even sell one book. If you need the extra money, borrow it. Please don’t use authr to reel in your close network of friends and family for promises you may or may not be able to keep. Realistically, you won’t sell enough pre-orders to justify the fees, and those fees add up quickly over time. If Authr truly wanted to help you out, they’d do like the rest of the established publishing world and take a cut from each sell. A monthly fee is the first indicator that any ‘publishing service’ is a predator. That’s publishing 101. Take some time and research predatory publishing. What’s even worse is that authr.com has taken predatory publishing to an all-time low. They are charging for services for a product that doesn’t even exist. Companies like these will always be trying to find new ways to separate authors from their money by offering big money quick schemes.

If that isn’t enough, there’s a nice little hidden feature. They say you have to give these ebooks/paperbacks out yourself. That’s all on you. If you’re sending out ebooks, they make it sound very simple. You just gift it using amazon’s ‘send a gift’. Sounds simple right? Wrong. You have to PAY for those gifts. You may be the author, but those ‘gifts’ are not free nor are the paperbacks. This could be a major problem once you have to shell-out the money for those books to your family and friends. Authr’s business model is not author friendly. They make it sound easy and that you’ll get quick cash, but heed the warning, it’s never easy. This model may work for a few select authors – ones with a solid fan base, and who have a track record of completed work.

Here are some key features that they are operating under the illusion of big money while actually offering a predatory service. These lines were taken straight from their website (They may have changed them since the time of this post.).

About Us (authr.com) Page:

1. First, you set up your project at Authr telling people about you and what your book is all about.

2. Your Authr page is set up for Fundraising to accept donations from friends, family and fans excited to support you and your book concept.

Key words here, Friends, Family and Fans. News Flash: New Indies don’t have fans. This costs $14.95 a month or $118.95 (I shudder at the thought) a year. If you're new to the internet (sarcasm), PayPal allows you to take donations for FREE.

3. Once your fundraising goal is met, your project then automatically transforms into a book pre-order sales page.

This alone states that they are targeting authors with incomplete work. Customers and authors should both take this as a warning. There is no actual product.

4. Finally, after your book is written and published, your project transforms again into an ongoing sales and marketing page with links to online stores where readers can purchase your book.

Let’s be frank here, authr.com is not the place you want to pay for an ongoing marketing campaign. Their business model is designed to attract new authors, not new readers. This also indicates they want you to keep paying a monthly fee thinking that this site is a marketing tool for you. I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s not. Spend that money elsewhere where it gives you exposure to actual buying customers.

Authr.com Mission Statement, first sentence:

“Our primary goal is to help aspiring authors…”

They are targeting new Indies that don’t have experience in publishing. This entire website is built on the illusion that new authors will receive easy money and marketing. Even their slogan says it all: Authr: Get Paid To Write Your Book. Selling books is not easy. Trying to get donations and sell pre-orders on unfinished books from an unknown author is insanity – good luck. Save yourself the headache and money and don’t sign up.

Feel free to comment below. And for those who may not agree with me and feel that authr does offer something rewarding for authors. That’s Terrific! Because I forgot to mention that I was building a bridge. Any and all donations or pre-orders would be greatly appreciated. Just hit the Buy Me a Brick PayPal button below. However, I do feel obligated to warn you that the bridge most likely will never be complete and that any and all donations will most likely go to buying me a beer. Thanks!

Tricks to Avoid Narrative Voice

2012-09-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

Let’s imagine that our present tense story was being told as if it were a movie and happening in real time. Movies rarely pause to reflect the thoughts inside somebody’s head – that would be annoying. Instead it just keeps playing scene after scene on an endless reel. Obviously that isn’t true for all movies, nor should be true for all present tense writing. However, there are other ways to reveal information without stalling the action.

Narration tends to be an obstacle for present tense writers. Heck even I’ve tossed in the towel a few times believing that there was no way around it. Over time I began to question the very importance of it to begin with, so out of curiosity, I just completely cut it out of a scene. A tweak in the action here, a bit more emotion there, and before I knew it, I got the same point across by simply rewording the action and omitting the narration. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes just removing it actually makes the story read and flow better. Give it a try sometime.

There are, however, other creative ways. To have a story feel as if it’s happening at that very moment becomes weird when suddenly a narrative voice hits the pause button and interrupts. Let’s imagine that our star, Jim, is in the middle of a battle scene with another gladiator. His sword clanks and sparks. Sweat sprays from his arm with each cleave. (pause) Now let’s reflect on what Jim’s thinking. Okay… what just happened? That’s what past tense stories do. They pause the story to dig deeper into the subconscious of the character allowing readers to connect with them at a deeper level, or the writer just shoves their voice into the story. As a reader we’re forced to hear those thoughts when meanwhile there’s a real battle happening at that very moment. This is where past tense and present tense divide.

In present tense we want to translate those thoughts through action. Sometimes it can be very tricky to do, so how do we get inside the head of the character without stopping the reel? How do we reflect back on a past scene? It’s not as tricky as you might think. For one, be creative. Have fun with the reader and give them more than just the story. In Darkness & Daemons I wanted the readers to connect with the characters a bit more, but I didn’t want to side track the story to build them up. Nor did I want to default to any narrative voice to translate how this person feels or thinks inside their head. In order to do this I decided to break the story up into sections. I added a Meet (character Name) section before each story that allowed the character to speak directly to the reader. It allowed me to go into more detail about each character and at the same time introduce new information that would have been extremely difficult to do in a non-stop action sequence. However, I didn’t stop there…

In later stories I wanted to bring up past scenes that were kept hidden from the reader. I chose to be careful in how I interacted with the story by cutting in past scenes, so I defaulted back to my Meet approach. I added another section called, Flashback. The Flashback is a story all to itself and is told in present tense just like the rest of them. It basically takes a past story and merges it into the story line without ever actually interfering with the current story. With this new addition I now had 3 sections; Flashback, Meet, and the Story itself. This is why I refer to them as ‘events’. Each event is basically a group of information that when combined complete the story. I can’t call it a story because the story is already within the event.

These are just a few of the ways we can use present tense writing to work for us and at the same time provide a fun and engaging experience for the reader. Just take a moment and try to imagine a way you can present your information in a unique and exciting way without breaking the action. Thank you for reading this article and please feel free to respond. I’ll add more insightful tips as I continue to explore the world of Present Tense Writing. Please note that I’m not nor claim to be a professional when it comes to writing. My views, tips, and opinions are mine alone and based off my own personal writing experience.

An Introductory guide to Present Tense Writing

2012-09-08T18:09:00.002-07:00

What is going on in this story? Why is the action changing so fast and running off without me? This is the subconscious question some readers struggle to connect with when reading present tense literature without proper introduction. They then try to analyze and decipher the hidden code within the writing and ultimately just give up. These readers usually tend to leave bad reviews and ‘warn’ others of the clunky, hard-to-follow, story. They may even refer to it as a bad movie or screenplay. Some just flat out decide it is poorly written, or they simply brush it off as another piece of amateur, un-edited work – the product of an indie author.

I’m M.T. Dismuke the author of The Necro Device and Darkness & Daemons. I write in present tense, and it comes natural to me. At first, however, I did have trouble translating my ideas into action through words. My manuscript didn’t flow very well and no matter how many times I read it, I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Regardless, I continued to write. A few years later the final draft was complete, and I sent it off to my college English professor for editing. After a month he returned it to me smothered with notations. Page after page there was red ink highlighting my verb tense. That’s when it finally struck me; I had verbisis – a crisis with verbs!

I might not be an English professional, but I’ve aced every single English class that I’ve taken while in college. So I questioned, how could I have missed such an obvious, in-your-face, mistake? Obvious it was, that is, once it was pointed out to me. The real issue wasn’t me mixing past with present tense – that can be fixed and polished over time. It was the fact that when I read over my work I was subconsciously editing the action in my mind and trying to make sense of it without ever acknowledging there was problem to begin with.

As time advanced, so did my present tense writing skills. I went back and completely revised my entire manuscript, and after eight long years, I finally published, The Necro Device. My writing style had come a long way, but it wasn’t until my more recent work that my craft really began to take on a life of its own and define itself. I challenged myself to write a novel in present tense with little to no narrative. I wasn’t even sure if it was possible at the time, but I was determined to do so. I began work on a series titled, Darkness & Daemons. It didn’t take long before I realized that the writing was more efficient, more effective, and more intense – just like present tense writing should be. I began to realize how important it was for me to lead with action over narrative. I let the subject of the action shift scenes and no longer depended on a narrative voice to do it for me. I’ll admit that it was a major challenge, but just like all things, practice makes perfect. I stuck with it, and it worked.

To me reading in present tense should be no different than living in the present tense. Let’s just take a step back and evaluate that for just a moment. If I live in a real world with real people, feelings, emotions, smells, scenery, and atmosphere, why would I want somebody to narrate that back to me? That, to me, would be ridiculous, awkward and just flat out weird. Especially when I can see, touch, smell, taste, and hear all of it through my own senses. Now let’s translate that into present tense writing. I can describe just about anything through the written word, so if one was to create a world that is happening in the now through present tense, why would you want to use a narrative voice to translate that back to the reader?

Earlier I stated that I had problems with conflicting verb tenses, but that was only until somebody had pointed it out to me. Over the years we’ve all told a story at one point or another, and without even thinking about it, we tell it in past tense. We access the story from memory then communicate it through words. This process alone is in past tense simply because we are telling something that has already happened inside of our mind. It is no different when we write either. I figure we pull action from one of two sources; we either have it stored in our memory which would be similar to past tense, or we create it at that very moment much like present tense. I’ve noticed that how I access that information can affect the tense that I use. I’ve also noticed that when I switch over to narrative voice I have a tendency to write it in past tense. Luckily through years of experience, I now approach present tense writing much differently than before, but there is a bigger question – has the reader shifted their approach?

Next I would like to explain why I overlooked my tense conflicts in the first place. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was mentally plugging in the right word even when I knew it was wrong. That same thing happens when I edit my own work for typos. It’s like I have a photographic memory, and I automatically insert the proper spelling without actually inserting it. It reminds me of that sentence with the the together and you have a hard time catching it. Our mind wants to correct it, so the information transferred back to our brain is reconstructed in a way that makes sense without ever catching the mistake in the first place.

Now let’s take that same concept and apply it to the reader. If somebody was accustomed to reading in past tense, they may find themselves struggling to connect with one of my novels. Even worse, what if they were not familiar with present tense at all, or they were not informed that it was written in such a way to begin with? Would their mind try to reconstruct the story in order to make sense of it? With that said, it should have been at no surprise that some readers were leaving negative reviews stating my work was written like a screenplay or bad movie. Some complained about the transition of action. At first I thought nothing of it, but then upon further evaluation, I realized that what they were saying was exactly how I write. My present tense style was working! I rejoiced, but then I realized that in some twisted and dark way, it had turned against me.

So what went wrong? Today I asked myself that very same question and thought about it, and then it struck me. I had verb tense conflicts myself in the beginning, and I too struggled with my own work until somebody pointed it out to me. Just knowing what to look for in tense made all the difference in the world to me. This is why I feel readers need to know that the work is written in present tense as well. Don’t let them try to decipher the code and struggle through the pages absorbing present tense dialogue through a past tense filter. Make sure they know this before, not after, reading the novel by listing it in the description and in the front of the book.

Is this the magic wand that will make a present tense novel great? Of course not, but it will save you and the reader a lot of headaches. Knowing upfront that a book is written in present tense will weed out readers who dislike it while at the same time attracting readers who are curious to experience it. In the long run, it is better for everyone. Present tense writing should be a fun, engaging, and thrilling experience. It should carry the reader from scene to scene without distraction or writer intrusion. Narrative should be at the minimum, and action should be at the maximum.

Please feel free to comment below and to check out my novels, The Necro Device and Darkness & Daemons - both written in present tense of course. You can also visit my website at www.mtdismuke.com. Thank you for your time.