Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to Ty Carlson about his novels. After today you will have heard about writing in middle school and developing his writing as he got older, researching the querying process, strategizing with other authors to get your pitch out there, listening to and implementing the advice of others, learning how to promote your books on social media, and his favorite advice to write even if you don’t feel like it.
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Ty Carlson is a sci-fi writer who delights in the unseen strangeness and wonder of “what if.” Growing up in the Ozarks of Arkansas gave him and his three siblings plenty of room to play knights and dragons or jungle explorers, igniting his imagination early on. Ty started writing at a very young age and his passion has only grown over time. He loved to read so much that he once was grounded from reading, a fact that his brothers tease him about to this day. He hopes readers discover new ways to see the world through the perspectives offered in the stories he tells.
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Freya’s.
Speaker B: Fairy tales.
Speaker A: We believe fairy tales are both stories.
Speaker B: We enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.
Speaker B: Each week we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.
Speaker B: At the end of each episode, we.
Speaker A: Will finish off with a fairy tale.
Speaker B: Or short story read as close to the original author’s version as possible.
Speaker B: I am your host.
Speaker B: Freya victoria I’m an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.
Speaker B: I am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
Speaker B: We have included all of the links for today’s author and our show in the show notes.
Speaker B: Be sure to check out our website and sign up for our newsletter for the latest on the podcast.
Speaker B: Today is part two of two where we are talking to Ty Carlson about his novels.
Speaker B: After today, you will have heard about writing in middle school and developing his writing as he got older, researching the querying process, strategizing with other authors to get your pitch out there, listening to and implementing the advice of others, learning how to promote your books on social media and his favorite advice to write even if you don’t feel like it.
Speaker B: The shadowless.
Speaker B: The Everstorm is merciless.
Speaker B: The people who live beneath it are even worse.
Speaker B: The Earth has become a wasteland as a result of humanity’s mistreatment.
Speaker B: The sky has been dark for as long as anyone can remember, covered in an infinite rolling mass called the Everstorm.
Speaker B: There are no trees.
Speaker B: There is no hope.
Speaker B: Unless, of course, you’re one of the privileged to live in the protected cities beneath the domes.
Speaker B: In these cities, there are trees, parks full of vibrant grass, and even waterfalls, all thanks to the solar energy harvested by those who have no choice but to brave the Everstorm.
Speaker B: Shipley Bowdin is a lowlife, working his.
Speaker A: Way into the good graces of the.
Speaker B: Citizens, hoping one day to be allowed a living space beneath the protective dome.
Speaker B: But when he stumbles upon an orphaned girl in the ruins of the past.
Speaker C: He decides to deliver her to the.
Speaker B: Nearest settlement and be done with it.
Speaker B: When Shipley runs afoul of violent marauders who call themselves the Right of Kings, he must draw upon all the knowledge he’s gained.
Speaker B: Only now he has a little girl to think about.
Speaker A: So what are you said there’s a book coming out in January?
Speaker D: Yes.
Speaker A: Emergence of Gods submitting another series in December?
Speaker D: Yes.
Speaker D: And the first book is going to be submitted.
Speaker D: It’s almost done right now.
Speaker D: I literally have one scene to write and it’s the scene that bridges the climax with the end.
Speaker D: And so I’m just like my goal was to do that today, actually.
Speaker D: It’s called Eden Vertex and it’s kind of space opera Sci-Fi and it’s the book, one of the Dominus trilogy.
Speaker D: I actually started this as an idea from a friend who was like, hey, I have an idea for a book and I don’t write.
Speaker D: Would you want to write the story?
Speaker D: And I was like, I’ve had other people say the same thing, but I happened to be between books at the time and so I had a little bit of time and I was like, yeah, let’s talk about it.
Speaker D: So we talked about it for a while and I was like, this could be really fun to write.
Speaker D: And so just from his idea, we’ve built this story of what we want kind of our characters to accomplish and the theme and overall kind of tone.
Speaker D: It’s been really exciting and I’m a big fan of this one.
Speaker D: It’s fun.
Speaker D: It’s fun to write.
Speaker A: I kind of did the opposite thing.
Speaker A: I, at one point in the writing thought it would be really cool to do this really big, and I still think it’d be really cool, this really big, basically MultiSeries universe of mythologies.
Speaker A: So each series would follow a different mythology, but then they would have to intertwine, come help each other for different books.
Speaker A: So I had this idea and I was like, man, with the narrating on top of my day job and all this, I’m like, I don’t know when I’ll have time to read through all of the material, let alone write that many books.
Speaker A: I mean, I’d be talking like probably close to 30 books for the whole everything.
Speaker A: And so I’m telling this idea to the same beta reader that tore up my book.
Speaker A: And she has a background and went to college and studied bunches of mythologies and all of this stuff.
Speaker A: And then she was like, she starts voice messaging me on discord and is like, what have you done to me?
Speaker A: You have taken over my brain.
Speaker A: And I’m like, you can have it because I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do it.
Speaker D: That’s amazing.
Speaker A: So I’m like, mine is fairy tale retellings, which are much shorter to read through and do.
Speaker A: So I’m like, hey, if it has taken over your brain, maybe my whole job for that series was to pass it to someone that can do it.
Speaker D: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker A: Sometimes we write the ideas ourselves and sometimes it’s like, this isn’t quite in my wheelhouse.
Speaker A: Maybe I should pass it off to someone that can do it justice.
Speaker D: That’s so cool.
Speaker A: She hasn’t started.
Speaker A: She’s been sick for several weeks now.
Speaker A: But she’s like, what have you done to me?
Speaker A: And I’m like, I think I made you a writer.
Speaker A: I think that’s what I did.
Speaker D: There’s one in all of us way deep down sometimes, but it’s there.
Speaker A: So are you a plotter or a panther?
Speaker D: Oh, panther.
Speaker D: 100%.
Speaker D: I won’t say 100%.
Speaker D: I have learned that if I want to, I am a pantser.
Speaker D: But for the Eden Vertex this book that I’m writing with my friend because he’s wanted certain things to happen within the story.
Speaker D: I’ve had to plan out what needs to happen first.
Speaker D: But the bench I just wrote, I wrote like chapter 18 and then chapter six and chapter one and chapter 22.
Speaker D: They were all jumbled up and then I just slotted them where they needed to go.
Speaker D: The favorite, I did the same thing, although it was more linear.
Speaker D: The shadow list was purely linear.
Speaker D: But I didn’t plan it.
Speaker D: I didn’t plan it at all.
Speaker D: I kind of had in my head what I wanted to happen, but I wrote chapter one and then chapter two and then chapter three and chapter four and on and on with Eden Vertex.
Speaker D: I wrote the ending first because I knew where I wanted it to end up as kind of the departing message for the reader.
Speaker D: And then he and I went through and planned out, okay, in order for us to get there, what has to happen before that?
Speaker D: Okay, what has to happen for that to happen?
Speaker D: And we worked our way back to the beginning because it’s kind of have you read The Expanse, like Leviathan Wakes?
Speaker D: There’s a lot of books like this, and that’s just the one that kind of came to mind.
Speaker D: But it’s where there are these breadcrumbs that lead to a big reveal and so we had to put the reveal first.
Speaker A: The silent patient is like, that okay.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker D: So we worked our way back to where the character starts and then I would write and flesh all of it out, kind of as we developed the story and what characters we wanted in and everything.
Speaker D: But, yeah, it’s been fun to write this one.
Speaker D: It’s been a little bit more difficult because it doesn’t come natural to me to plan.
Speaker D: I’m much more in the mind of or in the camp that says the story has already been written.
Speaker D: You’re just kind of the vessel for it and it’ll tell you where it wants it to go.
Speaker D: And so usually that’s kind of where I take it.
Speaker D: There’s been some allowance for that, even with having an outline for Eden Vertex, but for the most part, it had to have step one, step two, step three, step four.
Speaker D: So that step 28 made sense, right?
Speaker D: Panther with some a little bit of plotting in there.
Speaker A: I think I’m somewhere in the middle because book one or book one, the first book that I started, it’s totally pants.
Speaker A: Like, I just wrote and did my thing.
Speaker A: But this one along with the I want to do a fairy tale retelling, I was like, oh, it would be really cool if I used Christmas songs as like, the chapters.
Speaker A: And so I spent probably two weeks listening to Pentatonix’s entire Christmas and figuring out what songs could work in a fantasy, romance, fairy tale retelling book.
Speaker A: And like, oh, so there’s a song called well, like, deck the halls.
Speaker A: All of us know.
Speaker A: So I’m like, oh, she could be decorating the house during that song.
Speaker A: Then there’s one called White Winter Hymnal that’s about like they have scarves wrapped around their necks so their heads don’t fall in the snow.
Speaker A: And I was like, that’d be a really good battle scene.
Speaker A: And so just going through these chapters, so all of my chapter names are these different songs.
Speaker A: And then the chapter has something to do with the song itself.
Speaker A: But then I kind of shot myself in the foot because then everybody was like, well, now you got to keep it up for the rest of the series.
Speaker A: And I’m like, what band?
Speaker A: So at one point I was like, hey, team of arc readers, what bands are good for?
Speaker A: There will be a novella in between each set of novels.
Speaker A: And I’m like, I need villain songs because the novellas are from the villains perspective.
Speaker A: They’re like giving me all these metal and rock bands.
Speaker A: And I’m like, it’s perfect.
Speaker A: Now, I actually, about 15 minutes before we got on here, finished my editor’s edits for my book.
Speaker A: So I was super excited.
Speaker A: But now I have to go through she gave me like two pages of, hey, you may want to search this word and replace it a few times.
Speaker A: Yeah, so I have to do that when we get off.
Speaker A: But I finished all the word for that.
Speaker D: What’s your word that you just overuse, apparently.
Speaker A: Laughs.
Speaker A: I only use laughs.
Speaker A: I don’t use any alternatives.
Speaker A: It’s all laughs.
Speaker A: No giggles or chuckles or anything like that.
Speaker D: No Shortles or guffas.
Speaker A: Says, of course, as every author, I’m sure overuses that one.
Speaker A: I think there was about five words.
Speaker A: I don’t remember what the other ones are.
Speaker A: There was also which this I did while I was going through her redline edit.
Speaker A: She’s like, she cries too much.
Speaker A: So it’s not as impactful because she’s crying too much.
Speaker A: And then I didn’t describe my characters enough.
Speaker A: It was like, oh, you described him at the beginning and then at the end.
Speaker A: But I didn’t remember that.
Speaker A: He has scars all over his face.
Speaker A: The beast.
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker A: I don’t remember that.
Speaker A: He had scars all over his face till the end when you mentioned the scars again.
Speaker A: So I did that while I was doing the red lined edits.
Speaker D: Yes, mine is just they just do this or he just looked or whatever.
Speaker A: As far as that goes.
Speaker A: That was my word.
Speaker A: Like that one.
Speaker D: Oh, yeah, there you go.
Speaker A: Which I replaced that during beta edits.
Speaker A: That was my word.
Speaker A: But I did during beta edits, I realized because I sent it to beta readers and then about a week into beta readers having it, I was like, maybe I should be like beta reading my own book, essentially.
Speaker A: And so I started doing that about a weekend.
Speaker A: That week off was very nice, though, because I was able to come in with more of a discerning eye.
Speaker A: And I was like, Why am I using that so much?
Speaker D: Yes, I do the exact same thing.
Speaker D: I’ll finish a book, like, I’ll finish Eden birth text, and I’ll let it sit for probably a week or two and then start then just jump in and start editing.
Speaker D: And it’s almost immediately, I’m like, oh, what is this?
Speaker D: Why am I saying that?
Speaker D: This isn’t even a sentence.
Speaker D: Why did I say that?
Speaker D: It’s good to let it rest.
Speaker A: So I started writing this book in February, and I finished writing it in August, and I wanted to release it by this Christmas instead of having to wait a year.
Speaker A: So I didn’t have time to let it rest before I did the massive, like, add 10,000 words edits or 20.
Speaker A: I don’t remember.
Speaker A: I have it written down somewhere what the word counts were at each stage.
Speaker A: But I was glad to get that time where I was able to go in and do my own well.
Speaker A: And then I also had a chance to see what kind of feedback the beta readers were leaving.
Speaker A: Like, hey, you don’t need the end of this sentence because it doesn’t need to be there.
Speaker A: Or you don’t need to say she was in the attic 15,000 times, because we know she’s up in the attic with the decorations already.
Speaker A: You already said it, things like that.
Speaker A: So I was able to go in and do the same type edits myself with more of a self deprecating eye.
Speaker D: I’m so terrible at this.
Speaker D: I hate myself.
Speaker A: Why did I say this?
Speaker A: She nods her head.
Speaker A: Of course she nods her head.
Speaker A: What else would she nod?
Speaker D: Yes, I have those, too.
Speaker D: A lot of times, it’s like he said with his mouth or something like that.
Speaker D: Why are you so weird?
Speaker D: Delete.
Speaker D: Delete.
Speaker D: Delete.
Speaker D: Delete.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: It’s like as if we needed more focus on what I know.
Speaker D: I’m already an outcast.
Speaker D: Why am I outcasting myself?
Speaker D: What a wreck.
Speaker A: Well, that’s the beta reader that gave me the most that was a lot of her stuff was.
Speaker A: What else would it nod with?
Speaker A: What else would you like?
Speaker A: Duh.
Speaker A: And I would just be laughing as I’m reading the feedback.
Speaker A: I’d be just be laughing, and I’m like, no, it makes sense, right?
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker D: No, of course I know that.
Speaker D: He nods with his head.
Speaker D: I just wanted to make sure you knew that he was.
Speaker A: The things that.
Speaker D: We do to ourselves, it is not an easy road.
Speaker D: Oh, man.
Speaker A: So since you had a publisher, did you go through, like, beta readers, arc readers, things like that?
Speaker D: A little bit.
Speaker D: I had two people read the bench.
Speaker D: Even after I had signed and before I submitted the full edits to my editor, I had two people read it.
Speaker D: And the favorite I had one of those same people read it and just give me feedback.
Speaker D: The thing is that my editor is her job is to edit it.
Speaker D: So I knew that I didn’t have to do a lot, but I also needed I would read it again.
Speaker D: I try and do three rounds of edits, and that’s mostly because by the time it gets to my editor, I don’t want her wasting time with these things that I could have fixed or that I obviously would have seen.
Speaker D: So I do try and do not full beta reading or major developmental edits prior to delivering them to my editor, but I do a couple here and there.
Speaker D: I had a budy at work read the Shadow list before I sent it off, mostly because he was excited about reading it.
Speaker D: And so I was like, oh, well, I’ve got a pre edited copy you can have.
Speaker D: And he was like, okay, cool.
Speaker D: So he did, and he gave me some feedback on it, but for the most part, my editor Laura does that and she’s.
Speaker A: Of my Alpha was my best friend.
Speaker A: And I was like, I just need you to read this as I’m writing it and tell me if it sounds like a book.
Speaker A: That was the biggest thing.
Speaker A: I was just like, I don’t want to spend all this time and all of this if it doesn’t.
Speaker A: And I sent the first two chapters, I think to multiple people as a like, is this writing good or should I just stick to narrating?
Speaker D: Right?
Speaker A: If you tell me it’s garbage, that’s fine.
Speaker A: I just won’t waste my time doing it anymore.
Speaker A: Everybody was like, absolutely, continue this book.
Speaker A: I need to know what happened.
Speaker A: And that has been so far, every round of people so far, beta readers, same thing.
Speaker A: They were like, oh my gosh, one apologized for waiting so long to start it because she liked it so much.
Speaker A: Listen, I’m just glad you liked it.
Speaker D: Yeah, that’s awesome.
Speaker A: And I’m like, a week, my book goes to Arc readers in a little over a week.
Speaker A: So I’m like, I just finished edits today.
Speaker A: I need to get it formatted now.
Speaker A: I’m like, we are down to the wire.
Speaker A: Down to the wire.
Speaker D: I don’t know about you, but that’s usually whenever I work the best, it’s like, okay, I have a very limited amount of time and I have to get it done.
Speaker D: And so then I do get it done, otherwise I’ve got time, and then I end up putting myself in a position to not have time.
Speaker A: Yeah, well, unlike you, I decided from the beginning I wanted to self publish.
Speaker A: I didn’t want to go through months of rejections and all of that.
Speaker A: I’m like, I could self publish now and be making money now and then.
Speaker A: If someone wants to pick it up later, that’s fine.
Speaker A: But I’m like, for now, I would rather just get it out there into the world.
Speaker A: So I knew I was going to go through alpha readers and beta readers and Arc readers and an editor, and I knew I’m going to need to do all of the things myself and everything.
Speaker A: It’s like I made my own cover, but I was like, if I couldn’t make it look like and I spent days looking through Trad pub covers of series, what makes it look like a series?
Speaker A: What is it that I like about them that makes it look like, oh, these all go together?
Speaker A: What are those things?
Speaker A: So that I can replicate it for mine.
Speaker A: Not using the same font or anything like that, but just like, sure.
Speaker A: Why do these look like a series that go together?
Speaker A: Because they do.
Speaker A: They look like a series that go together.
Speaker D: Totally get it.
Speaker A: What are those things?
Speaker D: Yeah, you pick up a Sarah J.
Speaker D: Maas book from the Throne of Glass or whatever it is Court of Thorns and Roses.
Speaker D: And you know that it’s even if it’s not Court of Thorn and Roses, whatever, you know that it is in that series just because it’s that same aesthetic of just a couple of colors and there’s whatever other designs on it.
Speaker D: I wanted the same thing for my books is like, I want them to know that these are all part of the same series.
Speaker D: How do you do this?
Speaker D: So actually, my editor or my publisher is redoing the COVID for the Bench right now.
Speaker D: It’s got, like a very obvious man and woman, and they’re facing kind of on the COVID And then the favorite, the shadowless and convergence all have silhouettes.
Speaker D: And so they’re changing the Bench to be silhouettes instead of actual people, which I think is great because now it’s like, okay, these are all the same kind of series.
Speaker A: Well, I spent because I obviously own.
Speaker C: A lot of books.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: I actually did a TikTok where I pulled a couple of series off my shelf to kind of show people.
Speaker A: Here’s what I’m talking about.
Speaker A: And so I pulled the twisted love series by Anna Huang.
Speaker A: I don’t know.
Speaker A: I pulled a couple other series to just show.
Speaker A: Like, this one has similar color scheme or muted colors or whatever with that pop of color, or the font is all the same.
Speaker A: I think pretty much every series, it’s the same font on the books that’s at least all the ones that I looked at, they were all same font style.
Speaker A: But yeah.
Speaker A: And so I went into the COVID designing process with a if I can’t make it look like a professional cover, I will hire a professional cover.
Speaker A: Like my husband, Alex, who’s working on his book.
Speaker A: He knows that neither one of us are going to be able to make the COVID that he has in his brain.
Speaker A: So he knows we’re going to have to pay someone to make what the vision in his head.
Speaker D: It’s hard knowing I had that with the Bench and the favorite.
Speaker D: I knew what I wanted it to look like, and then I talked to my publisher about it and they were like, that’s fine, but I don’t think for your genre that’s going to work very well.
Speaker D: And here’s what we have.
Speaker D: And I was like, okay, that’s better.
Speaker D: I can do that when I’m famous and I’m able to do whatever I want because I’m a prolific writer and I’ve got a million dollars, then I’ll just make whatever cover I want.
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker A: You will lead the way for everybody else at that point.
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker D: Covers are weird.
Speaker D: Covers are essentially they tell the story to the reader and immediately they’re like, is this interesting or not?
Speaker D: And if it’s not something that is intriguing enough, then you’ve lost a potential reader.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker D: It’s weird how much weight, at least for me, I put on myself for making sure that the COVID looks cool or good.
Speaker A: When I was a couple of weeks ago, we went to Half Price Books, which is like a used bookstore.
Speaker A: And I’m like looking I’m literally judging the books by their spines because I don’t have time to pull every single book out.
Speaker A: I’m reading the title and judging it by the spine of the book.
Speaker A: If the spine looks good and the title looks good.
Speaker A: And I’m like, note to self, make sure that your spine doesn’t look like crap.
Speaker D: Yeah, that’s so funny.
Speaker D: There’s so much pressure.
Speaker A: Make the little one inch of spine if that look good.
Speaker D: Yeah, be amazing.
Speaker A: But I’m like, if my book were to ever end up at a store one day, you would want someone to be like, oh, what’s that about?
Speaker A: Just from the spine?
Speaker D: Yeah, it’s got to get the eye.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker A: So the good thing with fairy tales is you can do all of them have that memorable item in them that you could put that on your cover.
Speaker A: So like Beauty and the Beast, anyone’s going to know that off of like a rose or something like that.
Speaker A: You look at something like if you were to do like Sleeping Beauty, you could have like the spinning wheel on the COVID and people are going to know that’s what that is.
Speaker A: So I tried to pick I have my entire series covers designed already, but I tried to do that for each of them to make sure.
Speaker A: And then all of the novels are from the first book is The Forgotten Beast.
Speaker A: So the Beast is the one that we’re focused on, where the novellas are focused on the villains.
Speaker A: And so those it’s like an item from the world that the villains are from instead of the villains themselves.
Speaker D: Oh, cool.
Speaker A: Kind of did that to myself by the first one being two people from a fairy tale instead of just one.
Speaker D: Nice.
Speaker A: But we had to run with it so that they were cohesive.
Speaker D: Yes.
Speaker A: So what is the best piece of advice you’ve gotten?
Speaker A: And what is the worst piece of advice you’ve gotten?
Speaker D: Oh, man.
Speaker D: Okay.
Speaker D: Probably the best piece of advice is to write.
Speaker D: No matter what you feel like doing, or like, if you don’t feel like writing, to write, to still write, because even if it’s bad, you’ll know that.
Speaker D: And a lot of times, even in my own experience, I haven’t been in the mood to write.
Speaker D: But I’ve needed to.
Speaker D: And so whenever I’ve started writing, it kind of jump started me to get into that creative process.
Speaker D: And it’s been some of my best writing has come from those times whenever I haven’t really wanted to, but I’ve needed to.
Speaker D: So write even when you don’t feel like it.
Speaker D: And the worst advice, the worst advice is to cut out and I don’t even remember what they’re technically called, cut out other ways to describe the way people are talking.
Speaker D: I don’t remember what the person said.
Speaker A: The one that was like, Only You.
Speaker D: Says there was a TikTok video about it.
Speaker D: Yeah, I had gotten that advice from someone when I was writing my first book.
Speaker D: They were like, you don’t need that extra stuff.
Speaker D: People will get it.
Speaker D: I hate that people are going to get annoyed.
Speaker A: What’s going to happen?
Speaker D: Yeah, because we don’t just say things.
Speaker D: We don’t just say things.
Speaker D: We say things with a lot of intent behind them.
Speaker D: And so I think that’s just absolute rubbish to just say so and so said, so and so said, so and so said.
Speaker D: It’s really important, I think, to the reader, too, to break it up by saying they said with a smile even, is better than just they said so.
Speaker D: Putting those things in there, I think I don’t know, if you’re trying to be a good writer, you’ve got to mix it up.
Speaker A: You don’t even have to say, like, he said, she said, he whispered, she whispered, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A: If you say something like, he leaned in close to her ear, more than likely, if someone leans in close to your ear, they’re going to be whispering.
Speaker A: If they’re not whispering, you need to say he yelled it because the motion of leaning in close to someone’s ear, you’re going to think they’re talking quieter, not louder.
Speaker D: There’s a lot of implications that you can do with all of that.
Speaker D: And I don’t know, I think taking even great advice, taking it with a grain of salt, because there’s going to be some times when it doesn’t apply.
Speaker D: Like, I didn’t want to write a couple of days ago, and had I written, I wouldn’t have had time for the other things that I needed to do, and my brain just wasn’t in the right spot.
Speaker D: So also, sometimes the good advice doesn’t always fit, doesn’t always apply.
Speaker D: And just remembering that, like, all advice taken with a grain of salt, maybe I should say said more and not the other stuff as much.
Speaker D: But there’s a balance, a middle ground for everything.
Speaker A: I’ve also seen several TikToks where they say that they just skim over the whatever, dialogue tag at the end.
Speaker A: Anyway, there are some things I came across a TikTok one day that was like, if you describe, say they walked out into the garden, right?
Speaker A: And you start describing the roses and the pansies and whatever other flowers and trees and all these things, they’re like, I’m going to picture my own garden in my head.
Speaker A: I’m probably not going to sit there and actually picture every single thing that you’ve written in.
Speaker A: Saying she walked into a garden of roses is probably sufficient, unless you just want to add all the extra words.
Speaker D: Yes, you’re exactly right.
Speaker A: Kind of tried to keep that in mind, but also need words in book.
Speaker A: Some of it’s like, at one point I was describing my world.
Speaker A: Part of it takes place in our world and part of it’s in a fantasy world.
Speaker A: And so she’s in the fantasy world for the first time, wakes up in the world, is like, what is going on?
Speaker A: And she needs to take a drink of water.
Speaker A: And so I’m like describing the water in the river, and the point was that it was cold and I said something about melting snow temperatures.
Speaker A: And someone’s like one of the Beta readers was like, what are melting snow temperatures?
Speaker A: What a weird way to phrase cold water.
Speaker A: But it added like five words.
Speaker D: Okay, yeah, leave us alone.
Speaker D: We got word count to meet.
Speaker D: I get it.
Speaker A: Anyway, sometimes I’ve had a couple instances where same it was like, I would do better not to write right now.
Speaker A: My head is just not in the right.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker A: But really, I think what helped me the most get into the I want to write every day.
Speaker A: I switched from using Google Docs to Scrivener and you can set like, Word goals.
Speaker A: And so I was like, all right, we need to have the book done by this date so that it can be through all the editing processes by Christmas.
Speaker A: And so it told me, you need to write this many words a day.
Speaker A: And it adjusted for if I missed a day or whatever.
Speaker A: And so that kind of made it into a game for me, which has always helped me with everything, like gamify it and then it’ll seem more fun.
Speaker D: Scrivener is good.
Speaker D: I used to have Scrivener watching.
Speaker D: I just do Microsoft Word now.
Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
Speaker D: How am I doing?
Speaker D: Is it a steady climb or is it like, oh, no, kind of going downhill?
Speaker A: Hopefully not going downhill.
Speaker D: I’m just editing as I go, just removing all of my words.
Speaker A: I remember saying something, too, about as far as word count and going down goes something about make sure you don’t start your book off with really long chapters and then just keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller as you go.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: So tried to keep that in mind, too, while writing.
Speaker A: Now my last two chapters are super.
Speaker A: Short, but it’s like closing the book out.
Speaker A: So it didn’t need to be long.
Speaker A: But I remember was another piece of advice that has to do with word counts and all of that.
Speaker A: So why did you switch?
Speaker D: Go ahead.
Speaker D: Well, I was just going to say I have a chapter that is like maybe 20 words long because the character that’s what they would say.
Speaker D: And so it’s like, okay, well, this is good enough.
Speaker D: Then chapter 34, blah, blah, blah, chapter 35, here we go.
Speaker D: It’s like their eyes were watching God.
Speaker D: I don’t know if you’ve ever or not.
Speaker D: Their eyes were watching God.
Speaker D: I don’t remember.
Speaker D: There’s another book, the chapter is five words long.
Speaker D: And I was like, okay, so people do this still.
Speaker D: It’s a weird thing.
Speaker D: So I switched from I’ve almost always written in Word, microsoft Word.
Speaker D: I wrote in Scrivener for a little bit, but it was in a very chaotic time in my life.
Speaker D: And I was like, I don’t have time to learn how Scrivener works, and I know how Word works.
Speaker D: So I’m just going to work in Word.
Speaker D: And I love working in word.
Speaker D: I don’t know, some people absolutely hate it.
Speaker D: I just am so used to it.
Speaker D: I know exactly what I need to accomplish in it.
Speaker D: Scrivener is probably better if I wanted to migrate over there.
Speaker D: I think that probably would be a better option.
Speaker D: But I like Word because I know exactly where everything is.
Speaker D: It doesn’t change from one version to the next.
Speaker D: Yeah, like ten years.
Speaker D: So I know what I’m kind of getting into.
Speaker D: And it’s very easy for me to edit within Word because I know how everything works and where it is.
Speaker D: So I just stuck with word.
Speaker A: Yeah, I am a firm believer in stick with what is working for you, for me, because I was probably like 10,000, 20,000 words into the book that’s I’m going to say the second book, because the first book got put on pause.
Speaker A: So I was writing in Google Docs, but I also had a Google Sheet with all the character and world information in it.
Speaker A: And I also had a second Google Doc with all the song titles.
Speaker A: And I had another part of that.
Speaker A: Google Sheet was like all of the chapter names with all of the one five word thing of what needed to happen in that chapter because of the song and all of this.
Speaker A: It was just a lot of things.
Speaker A: I was flipping between all of that.
Speaker A: So I was like, I need something.
Speaker A: And I was talking to an author on here that was like, it sounds like you need Scrivener.
Speaker A: And so I did not learn how everything works.
Speaker A: I did pull out their little PDF of how everything works.
Speaker A: And then I went, I’m going to spend a lot of time on this.
Speaker A: Let’s just Google what we need to know and then go from there.
Speaker A: When I wanted to see if I could do the goal.
Speaker A: The goal word stuff or word count goals.
Speaker A: I Googled can scrivener do word count goals.
Speaker A: And it was like, here’s how you set that up.
Speaker A: So that’s kind of what I’ve done.
Speaker A: So I don’t use probably half of the features in it, but it works.
Speaker D: Yeah, that’s probably what I should have done because I did the exact same thing.
Speaker D: I got the PDF and I was like, all right, let’s learn how this works.
Speaker D: And it was so overwhelming that I just was like, never mind, never mind.
Speaker A: And the reality is, just like, with every software out there ever, most people don’t use every single feature, right?
Speaker D: It’s there if you do need it, but for the most part, it’ll probably be fine.
Speaker A: Most people are not going to need that anywhere in their writing.
Speaker D: Important things.
Speaker A: For me, it needed to be backing up to somewhere so that I didn’t lose all my work, so that I figured out immediately and then how to make the chapters and the scenes and all of that was a little bit finicky at first, but now I know how it works, so it works.
Speaker A: That was probably the hardest thing, the entire thing.
Speaker A: Everything else, I’ve just like, Googled, can it do this?
Speaker A: And I’m like, no, it can’t.
Speaker A: Okay, that’s fine.
Speaker A: Just keep writing.
Speaker A: Or maybe I don’t know how to phrase it in Google.
Speaker A: All right, well, I think we are about you’ve done you’ve done best and worst advice and all of that.
Speaker A: So if you have anything else you want to say no, I mean, not really.
Speaker D: This has been great.
Speaker D: I love doing this kind of stuff, talking about writing and reading and all of it, especially with other authors.
Speaker D: There’s just something about having a group of people that totally get the writing process and discussing that with them, because being a creative is a challenge in its own right, but also having all of it in your head and trying to translate that onto paper that someone else would also see in their head.
Speaker D: It’s hard, it’s a lot it’s a lot of work.
Speaker D: But I always love talking about it.
Speaker A: I will tell people I started the podcast selfishly so that I could learn how the process worked from people that have been through it, whether that be querying or basically for the querying process.
Speaker A: I just really learned I didn’t want to do that from everybody on here.
Speaker A: But the entire I mean, I’ve had self published, I’ve had indie publisher published, I’ve had big five published people on here.
Speaker A: And it’s just like learning every different facet of how things work from different perspectives.
Speaker A: Many authors that put out their first book and never promoted it ever had to kind of learn how to do that.
Speaker A: Yeah, it’s basically been a giant, like, here’s a different way to learn how to do something that’s not just Googling and reading articles I get to actually ask questions and talk to authors.
Speaker A: And I would hope that people that listen to this, that are just starting out or trying to figure out how to revamp stuff are going to listen.
Speaker A: And you may learn something.
Speaker A: Your tips and tricks may not work for me, but it may work for someone else, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker A: So it may have started selfishly, but I’ve learned something from So.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker D: That’s so cool.
Speaker D: All right.
Speaker D: Thank you so much.
Speaker D: This was awesome.
Speaker A: Thanks for hanging out.
Speaker A: This was fun.
Speaker D: You’re welcome.
Speaker D: Anytime.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker A: Bye.
Speaker D: Bye.
Speaker B: Ty also liked The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson.
Speaker B: Don’t forget we’re reading LeMorte de Arthur.
Speaker B: The Story of King Arthur and of his noble knights of the roundtable on our Patreon.
Speaker B: You can find the link in the show notes.
Speaker C: The Emperor’s New Clothes many years ago there was an emperor who was so excessively fond of new clothes that he spent all his money in dress.
Speaker C: He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers, nor did he care to go either to the theater or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes.
Speaker C: He had a different suit for each hour of the day, and as of any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say he is sitting in council.
Speaker C: It was always said of him, the Emperor sitting in his wardrobe.
Speaker C: Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital.
Speaker C: Strangers arrived every day at the court.
Speaker C: One day, two rogues calling themselves weavers made their appearance.
Speaker C: They gave out that they knew how to weave stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held or who was extraordinarily simple in character.
Speaker C: These must indeed be splendid clothes, thought the Emperor.
Speaker C: Had I such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wives from the foolish.
Speaker C: This stuff must be woven for me immediately.
Speaker C: And he caused large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their work directly.
Speaker C: So the two pretended weavers sat up, two looms and affected to work very busily, though in reality they did nothing at all.
Speaker C: They asked for the most delicate silk and the purest gold thread, put both into their own knapsacks, and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms until late at night.
Speaker C: I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my cloth, said the Emperor to himself after some little time had elapsed.
Speaker C: He was, however, rather embarrassed when he remembered that a simpleton or one unfit for his office would be unable to see the manufacturer.
Speaker A: To be sure, he thought he had.
Speaker C: Nothing to risk in his own person.
Speaker C: But yet he would prefer sending somebody else to bring him intelligence about the weavers and their work before he troubled himself in the affair.
Speaker C: All the people throughout the city had heard of the wonderful property the cloth was to possess, and all were anxious to learn how wise or how ignorant their neighbors might prove to be.
Speaker C: I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers, said the emperor at last.
Speaker C: After some deliberation, he will be best able to see how the cloth looks, for he is a man of sense, and no one can be more suitable for his office than he is.
Speaker C: So the faithful old minister went into the hall where the knaves were working with all their might at their empty looms.
Speaker C: What can be the meaning of this?
Speaker C: Thought the old man, opening his eyes very wide.
Speaker C: I cannot discover the least bit of thread on the looms.
Speaker C: However, he did not express his thoughts aloud.
Speaker C: The imposters requested him very courteously to be so good as to come nearer their looms, and then asked him whether the design pleased him and whether the colors were not very beautiful at the same time.
Speaker C: Pointing to the empty frames, the poor old minister looked and looked.
Speaker C: He could not discover anything on the looms for a good reason.
Speaker C: There was nothing there.
Speaker C: What?
Speaker C: Thought he again.
Speaker C: Is it possible that I am a simpleton?
Speaker C: I’ve never thought so myself, and no one must know it now.
Speaker C: If I am so, can it be that I am unfit for my office?
Speaker C: No, that must not be said either.
Speaker C: I will never confess that I could not see the stuff.
Speaker C: Well, Sir Minister, said one of the knaves, still pretending to work.
Speaker C: You do not say whether the stuff pleases you?
Speaker C: Oh, it is excellent, replied the old minister, looking at the loom through his spectacles.
Speaker C: This pattern and the colors.
Speaker C: Yes, I will tell the emperor without delay how very beautiful I think them.
Speaker C: We shall be much obliged to you, said the impostors.
Speaker C: And then they named the different colors and described the pattern of the pretended stuff.
Speaker C: The old minister listened attentively to their words in order that he might repeat them to the emperor.
Speaker C: And then the knaves asked for more silk and gold, saying that it was necessary to complete what they had begun.
Speaker C: However, they put all that was given them into their knapsacks and continued to work with as much apparent diligence as before at their empty looms.
Speaker C: The emperor now sent another officer of his court to see how the men were getting on and to ascertain whether the cloth would soon be ready.
Speaker C: It was just the same with this gentleman as with the minister.
Speaker C: He surveyed the looms on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the empty frames.
Speaker C: Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you as it did to my lord the minister?
Speaker C: Asked the imposters of the Emperor’s second ambassador, at the same time making the same gestures as before, and talking of the design and colors which were not there.
Speaker C: I certainly am not stupid, thought the messenger.
Speaker C: It must be that I’m not fit for my good, profitable office.
Speaker C: That is very OD.
Speaker C: However, no one shall know anything about it.
Speaker C: And accordingly, he praised the stuff he could not see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors and patterns.
Speaker C: Indeed.
Speaker C: Please, Your Imperial Majesty, said he to his sovereign when he returned, the cloth which the weavers are preparing is extraordinarily magnificent.
Speaker C: The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which the emperor had ordered to be woven at his own expense.
Speaker C: And now the emperor himself wished to see the costly manufacture while it was still in the loom, accompanied by a select number of officers of the court, among whom were the two honest men who had already admired the cloth.
Speaker C: He went to the crafty imposters, who, as soon as they were aware of the Emperor’s approach, went on working more diligently than ever, although they still did not pass a single thread through the looms.
Speaker C: Is not the work absolutely magnificent?
Speaker C: Said the two officers of the crown already mentioned.
Speaker C: If Your Majesty will only be pleased to look at it.
Speaker C: What a splendid design.
Speaker C: What glorious colors.
Speaker C: At the same time they pointed to the empty frames, for they imagined that everyone else could see this exquisite piece of workmanship.
Speaker C: How is this?
Speaker C: Said the emperor to himself.
Speaker C: I can see nothing.
Speaker C: This is indeed a terrible affair.
Speaker C: Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an Emperor?
Speaker C: That would be the worst thing that could happen.
Speaker C: Oh, the cloth is charming, said he aloud.
Speaker C: It has my complete approbation.
Speaker C: And he smiled most graciously and looked closely at the empty looms, for on no account would he say that he could not see what two of the officers of his court had praised so much.
Speaker C: All his retinue now strained their eyes, hoping to discover something on the looms, but they could see no more than the others.
Speaker C: Nevertheless, they all exclaimed, oh, how beautiful.
Speaker C: And advised His Majesty to have some new clothes made from the splendid material for the approaching procession.
Speaker C: Magnificent, charming, excellent.
Speaker C: resounded on all sides, and everyone was uncommonly gay.
Speaker C: The Emperor shared in the general satisfaction, and presented the impostors with the ribbon of an order of knighthood to be worn in their buttonholes and the title of gentlemen weavers.
Speaker C: The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the day on which the procession was to take place, and had 16 lights burning so that everyone might see how anxious they were to finish the Emperor’s new suit.
Speaker C: They pretended to roll the cloth off the looms, cut the air with their scissors, and sewed with needles without any threaded them.
Speaker C: See.
Speaker C: Cried they at last the Emperor’s new clothes are ready.
Speaker C: And now the emperor, with all the grandees of his court, came to the weavers, and the rogues raised their arms as if in the act of holding something up, saying here are Your Majesty’s trousers, here is the scarf, here is the mantle.
Speaker C: The whole suit is as light as a cobweb.
Speaker C: One might fancy wanted nothing on at all when dressed in it.
Speaker C: That, however, is the great virtue of this delicate cloth.
Speaker C: Yes, indeed, said all the courtiers, although not one of them could see anything of this exquisite manufacture.
Speaker C: If Your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to take off your clothes, we will fit on the new suit in front of the looking glass.
Speaker C: The emperor was accordingly undressed, and the rogues pretended to array him in his new suit.
Speaker C: The emperor, turning round from side to side before the looking glass.
Speaker C: How splendid His Majesty looks in his new clothes, and how well they fit.
Speaker C: Everyone cried out, what a design, what colors.
Speaker C: These are indeed royal robes.
Speaker C: The canopy which is to be born over Your Majesty at the procession is waiting, announced the chief master of the ceremonies.
Speaker C: I am quite ready, answered the emperor.
Speaker C: Do my new clothes fit well?
Speaker C: Asked he, turning himself round again before the looking glass, in order that he might appear to be examining his handsome suit.
Speaker C: The lords of the Bedchamber, who were to carry His Majesty’s train, felt about on the ground as if they were lifting up the ends of the mantle and pretended to be carrying something, for they would by no means betray anything like simplicity or unfitness for their office.
Speaker C: So now the emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the procession, through the streets of his capital, and all the people standing by and those at the windows cried out, oh, how beautiful are our emperor’s new clothes.
Speaker C: What a magnificent train there is to the mantle.
Speaker C: And how gracefully the scarf hangs.
Speaker C: In short, no one would allow that he could not see these much admired clothes, because in doing so he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit for his office.
Speaker C: Certainly none of the emperor’s various suits had ever made so great an impression as these invisible ones.
Speaker C: But the emperor has nothing at all on.
Speaker C: Said a little child.
Speaker C: Listen to the voice of the innocence.
Speaker C: Exclaimed his father, and what the child had said was whispered from one to another.
Speaker C: But he has nothing at all.
Speaker C: On at last cried out all the people.
Speaker C: The emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right, but he thought the procession must go on now, and the lords of the Bedchamber took greater pains than ever to appear holding up a train, although in reality there was no train to hold.
Speaker B: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker B: Be sure to come back next week for Alexia’s journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to.
Speaker C: Hear one of her favorite fairy tales.
