[Stylist] questions and answers

Sun Dec 6 18:59:49 UTC 2020

Kris, 

What a masterful, humorous, and truthful response to Erica’s questions.

I am with you all the way except my esophagus will no longer tolerate the freedom of the imagination (supplied by alcohol) going wild.

Jackie 

From: Stylist <stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Chris Kuell via Stylist
Sent: Sunday, December 6, 2020 8:58 AM
To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List' <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Chris Kuell <ckuell at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Stylist] questions and answers

Hey Tarika,

Welcome to the group. I’m Chris, and I’ve been writing with great success over the past 20 years or so. I’d be more than happy to share some of my hard-earned wisdom with you. I’ll insert my answers to your astute questions below.

1. How do people make book-writing look so easy?

A - It is easy! If authors tell you how hard it is to be a writer, let’s just say they are fibbing a bit because they don’t want you to realize exactly how easy it is to make buckets full of cash in your spare time. The first step is to spend a few years studying the craft of writing so you know how to do it well. All you have to do after that is sit on your butt with a great idea and for the next 1000 to 1500 hours, outline then draft your novel/nonfiction book. Then spend between 100 and 500 hours revising it and adding polish. You might want to then run it past a few successful writers whose opinions you trust, wait for them to read it (I usually consume mucho pina coladas during this phase), get their feedback, spend another hundred hours making edits and revisions and voila—you’re done!

2. Does anyone know how to develop an idea from a title? Fiction and nonfiction.

A – Another easy one. Others might have different answers, but I typically come up with a title, then spend between 1 day and 1 year dreaming of a story that will make that title fit. Then see the answer to your first question for the rest. Sometimes drinking 1 to 6 glasses of quality red wine or cheap Irish whiskey helps push this process along, although the results might be deemed somewhat unreliable. Another method is to do writing prompts for 2 to 5 years, which makes coming up with ideas that actually work much easier.

3. What methods, tools, and programs do you use for planning or plotting fiction as a blind writer?

A – Although the method I use will also work for sighted writers, I basically get my ass into a chair in front of a laptop and I don’t check my email or facebook or check on the latest covid results or watch youtube videos about the International Frog Jumping Competition until I’ve written for at least two hours every day. The only tools I use are my laptop with JAWS and MS Word, plus the aforementioned alcoholic beverages to help feed the muse. In addition, read. Read and read some more. Study how great writers develop characters, move the story along, throw in monkey wrenches, shock you, and make you keep reading. Then do what they do.

4. Are there any get-togethers outside of the monthly phone conference, something that is more frequent?

A – others can answer this. You can, of course, join other writing groups that are more active. I have belonged to a critique group now for about 17 years, and their input has been invaluable. I also have collected a group of writing friends who I bounce ideas and writing off of, which is extremely valuable. 

5. How do you decide what goes in your poetry books?

A – this one’s easy—I don’t write poetry books. But from the ones I’ve read, the author generally picks a theme and creates/includes poems that somehow touch on that theme.

6. How do you make a blog tour?

A – I’m not positive, but doesn’t a blog tour have gin and grapefruit juice?

7. What do you do with a mailing list of subscribers, as an author?

A – have respect for all mailing lists, and don’t barrage potential readers with info they don’t care about.

8. Do you make your own virtual events, like poetry readings and such?

A – I’m the wrong person to answer this question. Reality is hard enough for me to deal with, never mind a virtual world.

9. Do you self-publish or traditional publish, and do you have a team supporting you?

A – This is an interesting, and complicated question. On the one hand, finding a traditional publisher who embraces your work is only slightly more difficult than performing nuclear fusion experiments. However, if you manage it, you’ll have an agent and a publishing team there to help you along, and take most of your money. Self-publishing is the easier route, although it takes capital to print and launch your book, and you are likely to only sell to your family and friends. I read something not too long ago that less than a half of a percent  of self-published books sell over 2,000 copies. This is because there is a stigma behind self-published books. Many of them just aren’t very good. Sure, there are some exceptions, but they truly are exceptions. It’s great that self-publishing is so easy, but that also means the quality of the work inside the covers is questionable.

My advice? Write if you love writing, and work to make each new thing you write better than the last thing you wrote. Write because you enjoy the process. If you want to make a shitload of money, you’d be better off spending your days inventing a time machine, then go back to 1982 and invest all you can in Microsoft and Apple. Then once you’ve done this—please buy a few thousand copies of my books!

Chris

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