If You Can't Say Anything Nice . . .

 

The other day while cruising social media I ran across a post from a writer I was unfamiliar with. This writer posted an image of a page from a well-known and quite successful author’s work, with a specific paragraph highlighted. The poster commented how terrible the writing in the paragraph was, then in a follow-up post said that if the author saw the post, he should know that “you’re a terrible writer and we hate you.” A number of the poster’s friends piled on about how awful the writing in the paragraph was, and how they hated the author for being a SJW, blah, blah, blah, you get the picture. I didn’t see a damn thing wrong with the paragraph myself. I didn’t jump to the author’s defense, though. For one thing, the author is perfectly capable of defending himself if he wishes, and I learned a long time ago that Internet trolls are gasoline just praying someone will throw a match at them. They desperately want you to engage, and it’s rarely a good idea to do so. It’s just a waste of your time and emotional energy.

 

I made a social post about this situation myself. Here’s what I said:

 

Saw a post today from an edgelord taking a potshot at an established writer. I've been in this game for forty years, and I've seen dozens of wannabees who think they can make a rep by trying to knock down a pro. It never works. They just look like insecure assholes.

 

I didn’t name names because, as I said above, no need to give the edgelord the attention he was seeking, and why drag the author the edgelord was attacking into the situation unnecessarily? As I said in my post, I really have seen this type of edgelord before (although we didn’t call them that in the old days – usually just dickheads or douchebags or something similar). My first reaction on reading the edgelord’s post was “Not this guy again.” Not because I recognized the poster, but because one edgelord-dickhead-douchebag is pretty much the same as another. They’re usually males in their late teens to mid-thirties trying to establish a rep for themselves by attacking someone farther along in their writing career and who’s well known. They’re like a young gunslinger in a Western who wants to go up against a legendary shootist and make an instant reputation for themselves by gunning them down. I suspect a lot of these would-be gunslingers don’t write much, and instead like playing at being a writer on social media for whatever attention they can get. If they’re serious about making a career as a writer, being a would-be gunslinger is a terrible way to do it. No one thinks they’re funny or cute (except others who get off on mocking people), and unless they’re absolute geniuses, no agents or editors will want to work with them, and no readers will want to read their stuff. Mockers put out a too cool for school attitude and attempt to project a rebel persona, and all they do is try to tear everything and everyone else down in order to make themselves look big. It. Never. Works.

 

Plus, it’s just bad marketing. People buy products from other people (or companies) they like. Why would anyone want to spend their money on an edgelord-dickhead-douchebag? (Or someone who’s playing that role in public.) I bet the edgelord’s friends who chimed in with mockery of their own have never read a word the edgelord’s writing and never will. They sure as shit won’t spend money on it. Plus, mockers turn on other mockers all the time. You never know when it’ll become your turn to be a target.

 

Some other writers who saw the edgelord’s original post commented that it was a shame that people should be able to freely criticize another author’s work on social media without any negative reaction, and I got the same comment from a follower in a DM. But the edgelord’s post wasn’t criticism. It was simple, vitriolic mockery directed at someone more accomplished in the hope of gaining attention. None of the edgelord’s friends posted any criticism in reply, only more mockery. Saying “This shit sucks and you suck too!” isn’t criticism. It’s a childish attack. Criticism is more thoughtful, and it’s about the work. It's supposed to provide insight, help people reassess their opinion of the work and hopefully view it in a new way. Regardless of the specific opinion offered on a work of art, criticism in and of itself is positive because it adds to the overall conversation about what makes art good, what makes it meaningful, how does it contribute to the artform itself as well as to society. You don’t have to write a 100-page thesis, though. Even a simple statement like, “This writer used some interesting metaphors in their story, but there were so many, one after the other, that I sometimes lost track of what exactly was happening” is effective criticism (and it’s short enough to post on Twitter!).

 

One of my professors in grad school said, “Good criticism isn’t supposed to be correct. There’s no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to opinions on art. Good criticism is meant to be provocative.” The professor didn’t mean provoke a reaction, as the edgelord was trying to do. He meant provoke thought, provoke ideas, provoke questions, provoke you to offer your own criticism of the work in order to expand the conversation and keep it going. “Your writing sucks, you suck, and we hate you” doesn’t do any of these things.

 

And everyone is free to make any comment about writing (or anything else) they want on social media. What they aren’t free from, however, is other people seeing their comment and responding to it. If you put something out on Main Street you need to be prepared for whatever reaction might come your way. You aren’t having a discussion with a friend about a book in a restaurant booth. You’re posting a message where potentially anyone in the world can see it. So you either make peace with hurling your opinions around right and left and letting people respond however they will, or you think about what you’re going to post and whether it’s a good idea to do so at all. You want to chat in private with a few friends about a work of art? Do so via DM’s, email, Zoom, text, phone, or – gasp! – getting together in real life. There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.

 

But regardless, writers rarely offer any negative criticism about other writers’ work in public (and often not even in private). Not because they’re cowards, but because they don’t want to put other writers in an awkward position. It’s why we never ask someone if they’ve read our latest story or book. Odds are they haven’t (and we likely haven’t read theirs). We’re all so damn busy writing our own stuff to read much, and we know so many other writers that we can’t keep up with all their work even if we did nothing but read 24/7. We know what it feels like to get a bad and sometimes downright scathing review. Why would we want to make someone else feel like that? And it’s difficult to build a professional network with other writers if you say negative things about their work. Why would they want to have any relationship with someone who’s trashed their latest opus on social media? By doing so, you’re damaging that writer’s reputation, especially if you’re a fellow writer. Plus, as a writer, you risk looking like you’re badmouthing the competition, whether from jealousy or to purposefully harm their business for your benefit. Plus, what if some of your readers like your stuff and the stuff your competitor writes? You risk alienating those readers. And other writers may start to wonder what you think about their work, and what you say about it to others when they’re not around. If you post a lot of negative criticism, you’ll start seeming negative in general to people, and you’ll end up driving away readers and making agents and editors wonder if working with you is a good idea.

 

Basically, the old adage “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” applies.

 

On the other hand . . .

 

All writers started out as voracious readers, and we still love to talk about books – the things we liked, the things we didn’t, the things that amazed, confused, or angered us. We want the freedom to have such discussions with other readers. Plus, you can make a good case that such discussions are important for the overall health of an artform, that they encourage artists to clarify their thoughts and feelings about different subject matter and techniques. Such discussions help artists grow. So it comes down to a simple question: Which matters more to you: tending to the business concerns of your writing career or being free to talk about things you dislike in the works you read? Do whichever matters to you, but be prepared for the cost either way. You can also try to strike a balance between the two that works for you, and – as I’m sure you’re not surprised – I have a few thoughts about how you might do this.

·         Talk about the writing you love and why you love it. Primarily talk about what worked for you in a piece of writing, and then maybe mention one or two things that didn’t. If the positive outweighs the negative, most writers and readers will view your discussion as primarily positive.

·         Punch up, not down (or sideways). Stephen King doesn’t give a shit about what you think of his work, and the odds of him ever seeing your review on social media are, not to put too fine a point on it, extremely fucking low. Say whatever you want about the work of famous writers. Don’t talk negatively about the work of your peers or of newer writers, though.

·         Criticize the work of dead authors. As much as Stephen King doesn’t care what you think of his books, Mary Shelley cares even less. Once a writer is dead, there’s no one for your opinions to hurt. Of course, you might piss off some rabid Mary Shelley fans, but that’s a risk you’ll have to take.

·         Criticize writing in other genres. If you’re a baker criticizing another baker a couple blocks over, you might look like a self-serving jerk to some of your customers. But if you criticize the grocer down the street, you might find your customers agreeing with you. Yes, you run the risk of the writer whose work you criticize running across your post, but you won’t be a writer in their genre, and that will (hopefully) cushion some of the blow.

·         Criticize other types of art. Talk about movies, TV series, documentaries, reality shows, comics, music . . . anything other than writing. However, a field like horror is kind of like one gigantic mutant family, and horror filmmakers and artists are still horror folk, so you’ll have to decide how close other types of art in your genre are to the writing in that genre.

·         Let readers (who are not also writers) criticize writing. Readers are perfectly capable of criticizing writing on their own. They don’t need writers’ help. Sure, writers offer a practitioner’s viewpoint on writing, which is valuable, but the art of writing will not wither and fade because you didn’t post your thoughts about why the new bestselling novel you tried to read to read and put down wasn’t so great.

·         Talk about books without naming the author or the title. Talk about the book in as much detail as you can without identifying it. Yes, this will hamstring you when it comes to criticizing, but if you focus on technique and artistry in general, you should still be able to get the important parts of your message across.

·         Find some privacy. As I said earlier, don’t post your negative takes on the Internet. Talk with trusted friends in private, maybe over drinks in the bar during a convention – just make sure you know who’s nearby and might hear what you say. If you’re going to write your thoughts – in emails, texts, whatever – only do so when you 100% trust the other person. You don’t want them screenshotting your comments and posting them for the world to see.

If you really want to post your thoughts about others’ writing– positive and negative – on social media, go for it. But if you want to do so without any repercussions, sorry, that’s not an option. The world will respond to what we put into it however it will – if it responds at all.

But whatever you do, don’t be an edgelord-dickhead-douchebag about it.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Ebook editions of We Will Rise on Sale for 99 Cents

The Kindle and Nook editors of my ghost apocalypse novel We Will Rise have been on sale for 99 cents for the last couple weeks. Why? Damned if I know. Nobody tells us writers anything. I don’t know how long this sale will go on. I’m writing this at 11:27 pm EST on 11/18/2022, and if you’re interested in snagging a copy for that sweet-sweet price, do so quick before the cost goes back up.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667262305&sr=1-7

 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

 

Praise for We Will Rise:

 

This was visceral stuff and a highly entertaining fast-paced read which was a bleak exploration of the human psyche. – Tony Jones, Ink Heist

 

We Will Rise is a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best. – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

 

Cover Reveal for A Hunter Called Night

 

My next novel for Flame Tree press, A Hunter Called Night, is available for preorder, and I finally got to see the cover – and now you do too! Ain’t it a beaut? The book will be out on May 9, 2023. Here’s a synopsis:

 

A sinister being called Night and her panther-like Harriers stalk their quarry, a man known only as Arron. Arron seeks refuge within an office building, a place Night cannot go, for it’s part of the civilized world, and she’s a creature of the Wild. To flush Arron out, she creates Blight, a reality-warping field that slowly transforms the building and its occupants in horrible and deadly ways. But unknown to Night, while she waits for the Blight to do its work, a group of survivors from a previous attempt to capture Arron are coming for her. The hunter is now the hunted.

 

Order Links

 

Flame Tree: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/a-hunter-called-night-isbn-9781787586345.html

 

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586316/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668832377&sr=1-1

 

Amazon Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586340/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668832377&sr=1-1

 

Kindle: Link still to come.

 

Barnes and Noble Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586314

 

Barnes and Noble Hardcover: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586345

 

NOOK: Link still to come.

 

Book and Author Society Interview/Q&A

 

Last Monday, I was honored to do a video interview for the Book and Author Society. They’ve posted a recording on YouTube, and you can check it out here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--06BoO2m4&t=1s

 

The Keenedom Rises

 

Twitter may die any day now, so Brian Keene started an old-style message board as a place for horror folk to gather when and if it does. Basically, he’s created a refugee camp for displaced horror Twitterites. I have a topic there, so come check it out and party like it’s 1996!

 

Keenedom Message Board: https://thekeenedom.freeforums.net/

 

Social Media Links

 

Newsletter Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm

 

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

 

Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/

 

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark

 

Twitter: @timwaggoner

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9

 

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

Balancing the Scales

 

Last week I attended the World Fantasy Convention in New Orleans. WFC was the first big convention I ever went to, back in 1994, and it too was in New Orleans. I went to WFC for several years after that until my first daughter was born and money became a bit tighter. But my kids are grown now, and I started going to WFC again shortly before COVID hit. I attended the virtual WFC’s during lockdown, but this year’s was the first face-to-face WFC I’ve been to since the pandemic began. Before COVID, I’d heard that WFC wasn’t what it used to be. There were fewer attendees and not as many writers, agents, and editors showed up. WFC used to be the convention for SF/F/H because everyone came, and a lot of business was done there, and older writers would mentor younger ones. Not so now. This year there were hardly any editors or agents present, and most of the writers were newer ones, still in the progress of building their careers. There was a lot of comradery (which was always true of WFC), and I got to hang out with friends like Lucy Snyder, Steve Saffel, Jason Sizemore, and Charles Coleman Finley, not to mention my agent Cherry Weiner, who works her ass off at conventions. I did some business, but not a lot, and while a couple book deals might result, there’s no guarantee. (Is there ever?)

One thing surprised me, though. I heard from several people (none of whom I named above), that editors are telling agents not to bother sending them work from straight white men. These were people in the SF/F/H publishing industry, not disgruntled white male writers looking for an excuse why their manuscripts were rejected. I am, of course, aware of the increased focus on diversity in publishing these days, and I think it’s an important – and long overdue – development, although there is still quite a way to go. What surprised me was to hear anyone talking about it. On social media, whenever someone white, male, straight or any combination says that they’ve never heard people make racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic comments or harass anyone due to their gender, race, sexuality, or gender identification, commentors are always skeptical. It’s around you all the time. You’re just not aware of it. But I honestly never see or hear anything like this. I used to, of course. I’m almost 59, and when I was a kid I witnessed plenty of sexist, racist, and homophobic behavior. I saw less when I was teenager, less when I was an adult in my twenties and thirties, and almost none in my fifties. I hope this is a sign of progress, but it’s possible that racists, sexists, homophobes, and transphobes don’t exhibit such behavior unless they’re around people who they believe share their views, or at least are sympathetic to them. If that’s true, then I’m glad they don’t view me as one who believes as they do. So when I heard people tell me that editors are saying “Straight white males need not apply,” I was, as I said, surprised.

A couple caveats before I go on. I only heard this from a few people, and even though they’re publishing professionals, that doesn’t mean their views are widely shared. None of these people were angry or resentful about the cultural shift. They simply presented their view as a current condition in publishing. Does that mean these comments didn’t come from racism on their part? Since I believe racism can be nuanced (we can be racist in some ways and circumstances and not in others) and unconscious, sure, it’s possible. But that doesn’t make their comments untrue. Especially since they reported only hearing this view from editors and agents.

Do I think it’s true? Probably. I see editors and agents post their manuscript wish lists on social media all the time, and they prominently post how they want to see work from writers who aren’t straight, white men. They may not say this directly, but they list all kinds of cultural, racial, and identity qualities that straight, white men don’t possess as qualities they want their writers to have, so I think the message is pretty clear.

So am I – a cishet white male (and an older one at that) – outraged by the fact I’m no longer desired by publishers, or at least not at the top of their wish lists? Nope. As I said earlier, I believe an increased focus on diversity is good overall for our culture and everyone in it, white, straight people included. Sure, I’m a little bummed when I think about it. Who wants to hear that they are less desirable because of factors about themselves that they can’t control? But I quickly remind myself that this has been (and still is to a great extent) the experience of women, LGTBQ+, and BIPOC writers for . . . well, always in publishing. If rebalancing the scales mean that there’s less opportunity for me in traditional publishing, then it’s a small price to pay, and accepting that price and supporting this change are small contributions I can make to the cause. But I’ve been writing and publishing for decades. I have an established writing career, so it’s easier for me to feel like this than someone who’s just starting out. What, I wonder, do new cishet, white male writers think? And as a teacher of writing, how can I best help students understand this current (and hopefully here to stay) trend in publishing? The easiest thing to do would be for me to keep my mouth shut about it, but I’m not supporting diversity if I do that, so that’s not an option for me.

One of the things I do is tell students that traditional publishing has never been easy. It’s competitive as hell, of course, but the odds were heavily stacked against anyone who wasn’t a cishet white male for most of modern publishing’s history – or anyone who wasn’t a member  the upper class and/or highly educated. The scales aren’t suddenly being weighed against cishet white males. They were already weighed in their favor. The scales are in the process of becoming equally balanced. Despite the blunt way of saying it – no straight, white males, please – publishers aren’t trying to put them down or shove them aside. They’re trying to lift everyone else up. I also tell students that increased diversity is an artistic and financial decision. Publishers have realized there are stories that haven’t been told, stories only non-cishet writers can tell, stories drawn from their lived experience and points of view, and that there’s a market for these stories. There were a lot of years when these stories weren’t being told in traditional publishing, and publishers are trying to fill the great void that neglect created.

I haven’t had a student come out and say they resent the current focus on diversity in publishing, but if one did, I’d tell them that they need to do what all writers should do: make their writing their very best it can be and keep making it better as they go on. That’s what makes your writing the most competitive. I’d also tell them that they have the option to self-publish in a way that didn’t exist when I was starting out. They’ll still have to compete for readers’ time, attention, and money once their books are out, but that’s true of all writers, traditionally published or indie. I’d tell them DON’T write under a pseudonym that makes it sound as if you’re not a cishet white male or claim an identity you don’t have in order to get published or attract readers. Yes, women have written under male names in the past, and more recently they may write using only the initials of their first and middle names so no one will make assumptions about their work based on their gender. But those tactics were ways of trying to overcome huge societal barriers that kept publishers from giving fair and equal consideration to women’s writing. Remember, no barriers are being erected against cishet white males. Scales are in the process of being balanced.

Are their downsides to publishing’s current focus on diversity? Sure. It may end up being a passing fad, and publishers will return to publishing cishet white males for the most part. I can imagine some non-cishet writers wondering if their work was accepted by publishers in part because of their background and not solely on the quality of their writing. And publishers might get into a quota mindset. I read a social media post the other day from a writer saying that, although a publisher thought their book was wonderful, it was turned down because they were already publishing a book by a Jewish author and didn’t want the new writer’s book to compete with that one. The publisher already had its one Jewish book for the year, you see.

So what do we do going forward? Well, like I said, I hope the current focus on diversity in publishing continues and gets even stronger. I think we should continue having conversations about it to promote greater understanding and continued growth for us all. I hope publishers broaden their perspectives so they won’t think they’ve checked an item off their diversity list because they’ve acquired a single novel by an author of a specific demographic. Most of all, I hope the world continues to become a better place, and that everyone involved with publishing in any capacity continue to become better people.

Including you and me.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

We Will Rise Ebook Sale

For the last week or so, ebook editions of my ghost-apocalypse novel WE WILL RISE are available for 99 cents on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble! I have no idea how long this sale will last (no one ever tells writers anything), but as of this writing – Nov. 11, 2022 – the sale is still going on. So snag a copy before the price goes back up!

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668195745&sr=1-1

NOOK Book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

New Forum at the Keenedom

I’m still on Twitter, but since it could go the way of the dodo any day now, Brian Keene opened an old-style message board on his website for the horror community. Anyone is welcome to join as a member (but the waiting list for author topics is a long one!) I’ve got a topic there, and you can find it by following this link: https://thekeenedom.freeforums.net/

A Hunter Called Night Available for Preorder

My next novel for Flame Tree Press, A Hunter Called Night, will be released May 9, 2023. The hardback and paperback editions are available for preorder now. I don’t have the go-ahead to share the cover with you yet, but I’ve seen it, and it’s fantastic! I’ll share it as soon as I can.

 

Synopsis

 

A sinister being called Night and her panther-like Harriers stalk their quarry, a man known only as Arron. Arron seeks refuge within an office building, a place Night cannot go, for it’s part of the civilized world, and she’s a creature of the Wild. To flush Arron out, she creates Blight, a reality-warping field that slowly transforms the building and its occupants in horrible and deadly ways. But unknown to Night, while she waits for the Blight to do its work, a group of survivors from a previous attempt to capture Arron are coming for her. The hunter is now the hunted.

 

Flame Tree: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/a-hunter-called-night-isbn-9781787586345.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586316/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668198301&sr=1-1

 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586314

 

(Ebook editions will be available later.)

 

Bram Stoker Award-Winning Novella The Winter Box Now Available

 

Gary Noon, who recorded the Audible versions of The Last Mile and Eat the Night, has finished recording audio for The Winter Box, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction. Get yourself a copy at the following link:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Winter-Box/dp/B0BJW68S3M/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667263338&sr=1-2

 

 

Scheduled Appearances

 

Authorcon 2. Williamsburg, Virgina: March 31-April 2.

 

Stokercon. Pittsburgh: June 15-18.

 

Want to Stalk Me in IRL?

 

Want to follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:

 

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Twitter: @timwaggoner (Until the platform dies!)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEz6_ALPrV3tdC0V3peKNw

 

A Life in Writing

 

I grow old . . . I grow old . . .

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

 

 – T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

 

When I first decided I wanted to be a writer – to make it not just my profession but my life – I started reading every article and book on how to write that I could find. This was 1982, so there was no Internet for me to turn to, just Writer’s Digest, the Writer, and the writing-instruction books they advertised in their pages, many of which I bought or hunted down in the library. I learned plenty about the craft of writing from these sources, but not so much about what it meant to live as a writer. In retrospect, this makes sense. There are a lot of ups and down in any artist’s life, but who would want to be seen bitching and moaning about them in public? Those conversations were saved for get-togethers with other writers, often in the hotel bar during conventions late at night.

 

In the early 90’s, I started going to local science fiction conventions and then to the World Fantasy Convention. (I didn’t think of myself as a horror writer then, so I didn’t go to the World Horror Convention.) Writers on panels would sometimes share stories about what the writing life was really like for them, and one of these conventions was where I likely first heard about GEnie, which – like CompuServe – was a forerunner of today’s social media sites. (Curious about GEnie? You can read more about it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEnie) Writers of all sorts hung out on GEnie’s boards, interacting with each other and fans, and sharing information you couldn’t find anywhere else. So I made an account on GENie and joined this new online world. Then I found out that GENie had private boards for active members of writers’ organizations, so I hustled to make three professional-level short story sales so I could join both SFWA and HWA as an active member and get access to those private boards. (Plus, the GEnie fee was waived for active members of SFWA and HWA members, so that was a bonus!) It was on those private boards that I saw professional writers commiserating with each other about the less-than-fun parts of the writing life – books not selling well, small advances, late payments from publishers, lack of health care, ineffective agents, writing and publishing scams, strained relationships, depression, substance abuse (mostly alcohol), dwindling careers, and competition from all the young writers eager to take their place. (One of these was George RR Martin who once posted that all us new writers should stop writing because we were making it harder for established writers like him to earn a living. I don’t know if he was joking, but I do know that George hasn’t had to worry about money for a long time!) GEnie died in 1999 as the Worldwide Web grew, and writers set up their own websites with their own message boards. It would be years before MySpace then Facebook and Twitter appeared and writers once again gathered in large virtual spaces to interact with fans and aspiring writers.

 

I continued to go to cons over the years. Not so many when my two daughters were young, and I didn’t go to any for a few years after my divorce from my first wife because I had no money for extras (and sometimes not for basics). But as my girls grew and my financial situation improved, I started going to cons again, mostly World Horror since by this time I’d decided to focus on horror writing for the most part. I’d long since become an established pro who was speaking on panels and conducting writing workshops, but aside from my networking with more successful writers and with editors, I was there to learn as much as I could about living as a writer from my peers and from older writers.

 

Which brings me to the topic de jour.

 

One of the things that I’m currently trying to learn from other writers is what it means to age as a writer and to maintain a long, productive career. As you might imagine, the older I get, the more this kind of thing is on my mind. This coming March, I’ll turn 59. That’s the same age my mother was when she died. I don’t have the health problems my mother did, and I’m not superstitious, so I’m not worried about dying next year, but this – I don’t know what to call it. Milestone? A morbid anniversary of sorts? – has got me thinking about my own mortality. (Actually, I’ve never stopped thinking about it since I was nine, when my first close relative died, and then later that year I almost drowned. Mortality has never been far from my thoughts for the last half century.)

 

I’ve found myself thinking about career longevity for artists a lot lately. Whenever I watch an old music video on YouTube, I find myself wondering what happened to the singer/band. Are they still making music? If not, what are they doing? I hit Wikipedia and read their entries. Most are still active in the arts one way or another, even if they haven’t been on the public’s radar for years, sometimes decades. I wonder what sort of emotional journey it took for them to get from there to here, from then to now, and I wonder how I’m doing the same and how I can do it better.

 

I’ve written and published so much in my career, and while I doubt I’ll ever stop writing, increasingly I’m finding myself wanting to stop pushing so hard. Pushing myself to come up with novel ideas that I hope will be attractive to editors, entertaining to readers, and artistically satisfying to me. Pushing to try and get my career to the next level, and the next after that. Pushing on social media to maintain and increase my audience. Pushing myself to regularly write blog entries, record YouTube videos, put out newsletters . . . I think about abandoning novels entirely and just writing short stories the rest of my life, maybe experimental ones, or maybe trying to write non-genre fiction and see what kind of career (if any) I can make for myself publishing in literary magazines. So far, these have been passing thoughts, but maybe they’ll eventually be more than that.

 

I went to the most recent Worldcon in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Worldcon has never been one of my favorite cons. It’s so large that it’s usually a terrible place to do any networking, and this year, attendance was down due to the ongoing threat of COVID, so there were fewer writers, editors, and agents in attendance. My wife had a number of works selected to appear in the art show, and I decided to go and support her at the con. I signed up for programming so I’d have something to do while she was busy doing her thing. It turned out the most of the people who volunteered to help with the art show baled, so my wife – who planned to volunteer to learn more about how convention art shows are run – ended up working the show the entire time (and learning a ton, so she was tired but thrilled by the time we left for home). This meant I didn’t have much to do between panels, and while there were friends of mine in attendance, it’s often difficult to meet up during cons. So mostly I wandered from place to place, thinking about how I’ve been going to cons for thirty years and wondering what the hell I was doing there. When I used to go to World Fantasy regularly, I was more connected to the SF/F community than I am now, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of writers at Worldcon who I hadn’t seen or heard much about in years, people now in their sixties and seventies, some of who had their own tables in the dealer’s room, some who I saw walking from one panel to another. They were all still publishing (I checked their webpages later), and if their careers weren’t what they once were, they were still there, in so many senses of the word. Still writing, still publishing, still attending an event as a professional, still engaging with peers and fans.

 

Still living as artists. Emphasis on living.

 

When my wife and I left Chicago, I found myself feeling at peace for the first time in a while. I’m less concerned about where my career might go now – or maybe that should be where I can make it go – and more focused on simply continuing and enjoying continuing. That may be an important lesson for living a long artistic life, but I wouldn’t be surprised to discover it’s a vital lesson about aging overall.

 

Enough of me nattering on. How about I share some specific things about maintaining a sustained writing career? (I’m going to repeat some tips I’ve shared before in past blog entries, so if you’re a regular reader, think of this as a sort of greatest hits entry, but with some new songs added for good measure.)

 

First, a couple resources.

·         Brian Keene wrote a wonderful memoir called End of the Road that often touches on the issue of the longevity of a writer’s career and on writers aging. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. https://www.amazon.com/End-Road-Brian-Keene-ebook/dp/B087NF6YZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NDAN0C0SZ3DW&keywords=brian+keene+end+of+the+road&qid=1662987453&s=books&sprefix=brian+keene+end+of+th%2Cstripbooks%2C108&sr=1-1

·         Eric Maisel has written a number of books on the emotional challenges artists face and how to deal with them. They’re fantastic, and if you’re an artist of any kind, you need to check them out. https://ericmaisel.com/books/

·         I wrote a previous blog post about feeling one’s mortality as a writer. You can find it here: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2018/12/suns-getting-low.html

·         I also wrote one about accepting whatever level of success you’ve managed to achieve so far. You can read that one here: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2021/02/so-youre-never-going-to-be-stephen-king.html

Now, some advice . . .

·         I started college as an acting major. On the first day of acting class, the professor told us the only reason to be an actor was because we had to. The acting life was so hard, the odds of success so slim, the only way we could make a life for ourselves in acting was if we couldn’t imagine living our lives doing anything else. Well, I didn’t love acting that much, so I asked myself what I did love that much. The answer, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn, was writing. Now I’m not saying don’t write if you don’t have an all-consuming passion for it. Writing can be as big or small a part of your life as you want. But if you want to dedicate your life to writing (as I have) and want to have a long career, I think it has to be a calling, a drive, a need. And that, maybe more than anything else, will help you maintain a long-term career as a writer.

·         Take your writing as far as you can. I’ve shared this bit of advice so many times throughout my career. The TA who taught my freshman composition course, Pam Doyle, told me this during our final conference. It’s the perfect writing career advice because it’s unlimited. However far you get, however much you write and publish in your lifetime, is as far as you could go. It reminds you to focus on the process, on the doing, instead of achieving one specific goal.

·         Try to focus on creating a life in writing. I tell this to all my creative writing students. There are so many things outside of our writing that we can’t control, whether we traditionally publish or are indie. We can’t control how people respond to our writing, how many books we sell, how much money we make, whether we win any literary prizes, whether our work is held in high esteem by our peers . . . Focusing too much on anything other than the writing itself can be a fast track to misery. But we can control whether we create and live a life in writing. I often need to remind myself that I’ve managed to do this, which means I’ve already achieved the most important goal in my artistic life.

·         Many years ago, I attended a World Fantasy Convention where I was chatting in a hotel hallway with the husband of a writer I knew while she did a panel in a nearby room. His wife had published a number of well-regarded tie-in novels by that point, and I asked him how things were going for her. He said that one of the things she was surprised about was how hard the publishing part still was, even after all the novels she’d written. This taught me early on never to assume that a writing career would get easy after a certain point and then stay easy. We write, we share our work with the world however we can, we write some more, and we keep repeating this until we die. It never gets easier. Things will change in your career, of course, but for everything that does get easier, a new hard thing will appear (sometimes more than one; I swear, it’s like a fucking hydra sometimes). Find a way to make peace with this, because if you don’t, you’ll be miserable.

·         Remember you’re not alone. Whatever you’re going through in your career, thousands of artists over the years have gone through it too. Some talk about it on social media, but some don’t for fear of looking weak or foolish or ungrateful or whatever. Reach out to your writing friends and colleagues when times are bad. Ask for their support in private if you need to. Don’t try to go it alone. (I’ve gotten bad about this over the years. I need to do better.)

·         One of the writers I saw at Worldcon was SF author Ian Randal Strock. He runs a small-press called Gray Rabbit Publications. At his table, he was selling a book he wrote called So You Want to Get Rich as a Writer? with the subtitle Let Ian Randal Strock Burst Your Bubble . . . and Then Tell You Why There’s Still a Chance. The book’s cover looks like the kind of thing you used to see on self-published books twenty years ago – very much homemade and amateurish – but I love reading books about writing, especially writing careers, by writers who aren’t massively famous. I learned long ago that these writers are the ones who have more common careers, the type that the vast majority of writers have, and that makes them the best ones to learn from when it comes to career longevity. As much as I admire writers at the tippy-top of the literary food chain, each of their careers are singular ones, and they tell you jack shit about the challenges of being an everyday working writer (you can still learn a ton about craft from them, though). So read books and articles by everyday writers, read their blogs and follow them on social media. (By the way, I’m halfway through Randal’s book, and it’s got lot of great stuff in it.) https://www.amazon.com/Writer-Randal-Strock-Bubble-Chance/dp/1617209503

·         Speaking of Randal’s book, early on he presents an important piece of writing career advice. I’ve been aware of the concept since I started writing, but I’ve always framed it differently, as writing for money versus writing for art’s sake. But that never felt exactly right to me. Randal framed it as writing for financial reward versus writing for emotional reward. Emotional reward is a better term, I think. I try to make as much money from my writing as I can, but I’ve never made enough in any given year to live on. But I’m a full-time tenured professor at a community college, which means I have a regular salary, health insurance, and retirement. I’m lucky because I don’t need to make money writing. I love teaching which is why I do it, but I long ago decided to get a day job because of what I learned on GEnie. Writers – pros whose work I read and loved and thought of as living legends – would talk about their financial problems, how they couldn’t afford to see a doctor, how they weren’t able to put away anything for retirement . . . And because of these financial troubles, they were often too stressed to write. I realized I’d need a regular income if I wanted to survive while I wrote but also so I could write, so I wouldn’t be too unhappy/stressed to create. I write for the same reason I teach, for the same reason I do anything in my life (when I have a choice): for emotional reward. I’m extremely fortunate that I had the advantages I’ve had and been able to create the overall life I have. I’m not trying to flex here. I’m trying to say that if you can focus on the emotional rewards of writing, regardless of how much money that writing brings you, you will always be succeeding, no matter what else happens.

·         Don’t accept anyone else’s paradigm for success but your own. When I first started writing, my paradigm for success was having a shelf full of my books in a bookstore (this was back when Waldenbooks and B. Dalton’s were the only major bookstores around) and being able to make at least $20,000 a year from my writing since I figured I could live on that. (We’re talking 1980’s dollars here.) For years, I’d read interviews with writers or posts from them on GEnie that true success as a writer meant writing full time and earning all your money from your words. What these writers didn’t say was that they often had spouses with jobs and health insurance, or they did business or technical writing on the side (which still counts as writing full-time right?). But I also had one foot in academia, and the paradigm there was that writers shouldn’t focus on money but rather on art, and therefore should make their living teaching (or doing whatever) so they could focus on producing work free of any financial pressure. Because I loved writing and teaching, I figured why not do both? Which would I give up if I had to? Teaching, in a heartbeat. I’d still find ways to teach for free if I could, but I could never stop writing. It’s as necessary to me as breathing. My point here: You decide what success means to you, and it’s okay for your paradigm to change over time. Screw what the rest of the world tells you. What the hell do they know anyway?

·         I can’t remember where I first heard it, but it was sometime in my late twenties. Old pros would often say “Envy is the writer’s disease.” Comparing ourselves and our efforts to others is one way we learn, but always feeling that we come up short in these comparisons leads to envy, and that leads to all sorts of dark places as an artist (and as a human in general). I struggle with this sometimes, especially when writers younger than me (both in terms of age and in terms of time they’ve been writing) achieve a level of success I haven’t. But I do my best to be happy for them and put my nose back to the grindstone. My work needs to be about my work, and my career needs to be about my career. No one else’s.

·         Read reviews, don’t read reviews . . . whichever you do, just don’t take them too seriously. They are just one person’s opinion about one piece of work you did at one particular time. A piece of work that, in all likelihood, is in your rearview mirror anyway. Many years ago, when live video hookups were a new thing in classrooms, the chair at one of the colleges where I taught had arranged for Margaret Atwood to speak live to her class. (The students had read The Handmaid’s Tale back when it was still fiction.) When I asked my boss how it went, she wrinkled her nose and said, “All she wanted to talk about was the book she’s working on now.” The Handmaid’s Tale was in Margaret’s rearview mirror, just as it should have been. As much as writers crave acceptance, praise, and appreciation (myself included), our job is to produce work and continue producing work, however much we can at whatever pace we can given all the factors in our lives. I like reading reviews of my work because I always learn something from them, but if you find reading reviews emotionally difficult, forget about them and get back to writing.

·         When setbacks occur with publishing, whether traditional or indie, do your best to deal with them and move on. You’re in this for a career, not just for one story, one book, one poem, one article. The publisher who offered me my first novel contract changed their mind after a few weeks and decided they “were no longer comfortable with the book.” When I asked my agent at the time what this meant, he said, “Who cares? A no is a no, and we’ll send the book to someone else.” When I told my friend Gary A. Braunbeck (a fabulous author whose work you should check out) what happened, he said I was lucky. Surprised, I asked him why. “Because this happened to you early in your career. Now you’ll be more prepared when the next bad thing happens.” And he was right. Like Dory always says in Finding Nemo, we need to just keep swimming.

·         Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you’re fortunate enough to have a writing career of any length, the odds are that some people will regularly read your work, love your work, and think you’re awesome. Hell, they might even toss around words like genius and greatest writer of all time. That can feel good. At least, I think it can. I don’t know if anyone’s ever used those words to refer to me, but I have had many people tell me how much they enjoyed my work or how much my writing advice has helped them. And reviews of my fiction have been primarily good throughout the years. But whenever I feel my ego start to get a bit too big, I remind myself that when I’m at a con – especially one like Stokercon where I’m better known – all I have to do is step outside the hotel and no one will have any idea who I am or what I’ve done. It’s actually a comfort to me, most likely because I’m an introvert, but it also helps keep me focused on the writing, not on me as the writer. To paraphrase Stephen King, it’s the story, not they who tell it.

·         Accept your career will never live up to your wildest dreams – because they are wild. We’re imaginers. It’s more than what we do, it’s what we are at our core. The real world can never live up to what we can imagine. But you know what? The real world is better because it’s real. Whatever type of writing career we achieve will be infinitely better than any we can imagine because it is real. Which is better? An imaginary gourmet cheeseburger, the most delicious that’s ever been made, or a real cheeseburger that’s mediocre and just tastes okay? One puts food in your belly and the other doesn’t. A real writing career feeds your life. What we imagine can give us goals to strive for, and that’s important, but we need to always remember what really feeds us is what keeps our spirit alive.

·         The world will decide how you will be remembered. Author and teacher Laurence C. Connely told me this some years ago, and it’s one of the best pieces of writing career advice I’ve ever received. Edgar Allan Poe wanted to be remembered for his poetry, not his fiction. Neil Gaiman recently posted on Twitter that, for all that he’s created or will create, Sandman will probably be his legacy. I mentioned Margaret Atwood earlier. She’ll be remembered for The Handmaid’s Tale, not the many other books she’s written over the decades. Stephen King can explore as many genres as he wants in his fiction, but the world will likely always remember him as primarily a horror writer. So don’t worry so much about what kind of writer you should be, what genre you should write in, what your brand is, or any of that. Just write the next thing and the thing after that and the thing after that. Find a way to share these things with the world. Be happy. And I’ll do my best to follow my own advice. Deal?

Department of Shameless Self-Promotion

One of the things about being a prolific writer and working with different publishers is that they don’t coordinate their releases with each other (and why would they?). This means that this year I had three books from different publishers come out in the space of three months. Because of this, I haven’t been able to give each book the individual promotional attention it deserved. So if you’ve read any of them, I’d appreciate it if you could help a brother out and post a review somewhere.

 

We Will Rise

 

Speaking of reviews, here’s a sampling for my latest horror novel:

 

“This was visceral stuff and a highly entertaining fast-paced read which was a bleak exploration of the human psyche.” – Tony Jones, Ink Heist

 

“We Will Rise is a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best.” – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

 

“From the first page on Waggoner had me hooked. His imagination is truly off the charts, and never could I have predicted what would happen next.” – Julia C. Lewis on GoodReads

 

You can also listen to me read the first scene from the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQWpRmZRAc&t=52s

 

Synopsis

In Echo Hill, Ohio, the dead begin to reappear, manifesting in various forms, from classic ghosts and poltergeists, to physical undead and bizarre apparitions for which there is no name. These malign spirits attack the living, tormenting and ultimately killing them in order to add more recruits to their spectral ranks.

A group of survivors come together after the initial attack, all plagued by different ghostly apparitions of their own. Can they make it out of Echo Hill alive? And if so, will they still be sane? Or will they die and join the ranks of the vengeful dead?

Purchase Links

Flame Tree Press

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/we-will-rise-isbn-9781787585249.html

Amazon Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585220/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635525326&sr=1-1

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11ZC2NOOC3S1J&keywords=tim+waggoner+we+will+rise&qid=1635593108&sprefix=tim+waggoner+we+wi%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1

Amazon Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585247/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1635525512&s=books&sr=1-2

Barnes & Noble Paperback

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585225

NOOK Book

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

Barnes & Noble Hardcover

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585249

 

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook

 

This workbook is my follow-up to Writing in the Dark. While you can use it in conjunction with Writing in the Dark, I wrote it so it could be used on its own as well.

 

Want to know if the workbook is right for you? Check out Cynthia Pelayo’s review at Lit Reactor:

 

https://litreactor.com/reviews/writing-in-the-dark-the-workbook-by-tim-waggoner

 

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook is available at all the usual places online, but here’s a link to the publisher’s website if you’d like to learn more about it (and order it from them). Plus, you can download some sample exercises for free!

 

https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/writing-in-the-dark-workbook/#:~:text=Like%20Tim%20Waggoner's%20Bram%20Stoker,developing%20the%20art%20of%20suspense.

 

Planet Havoc: A Zombiecide Invader Novel

 

Want to read some sci-fi/horror/action-adventure? I got you covered! My Zombicide Invader novel is still available from all the usual online stores. Imagine Alien meets Resident Evil. Here’s a synopsis:

 

A deserted R&D facility tempts the hungry new Guild, Leviathan, into sending a team to plunder its valuable research. The base was abandoned after a neighboring planet was devastated by an outbreak of Xenos – alien zombies – but that was a whole planet away... When the Guild ship is attacked by a quarantine patrol, both ships crash onto the deserted world. Only it isn’t as deserted as they hope: a murderous new Xeno threat awakens, desperate to escape the planet. Can the crews cooperate to destroy this new foe? Or will they be forced to sacrifice their ships and lives to protect the galaxy?

 

Where to Find Me Online

 

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