If you haven't heard by now I am participating in National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo.  It is a month long challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days.  It's a highly popular event, with thousands of people participating.  I've written books before, but I felt that adding a time limit to myself would increase the challenge, and, if I were to succeed, feel great!  So far, I'm 21,000 words into my novel with 22 days to go, so I'm making excellent progress so far. 

My story is based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign I played with a group of four friends a few years ago.  I was the Dungeon Master, and we played several long sessions over the course of many weeks.  They are excited to have their characters novelized, and I'm excited to finally put the story to paper.  So sure, I had most of the plot worked out, but since we played so long ago, I only remember general plot arcs and some specific scenes, so I still feel I am writing a novel mostly from scratch.  I started off really strong by writing 5,000 words on the first day.  I do a lot of writing on this blog, for my go books, and elsewhere, so sitting down and knocking out 5-7k words in one sitting has gotten markedly easier, even if I'm doing something entirely creative as opposed to a factual based analysis.  

There is already a ton on this subject, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in.  My experience with e-books was fairly unique due to the subject matter of the "So You Want to Play Go?" series.  I was writing about a game the average person had never seen or heard about, so I didn't have a lot of competition.  When I first released my books on the Kindle, there were no other books on Go in e-book format.  Cha-Ching!  However, I did pressure the other authors to convert their books to E-book form.  There had been a few books written by Western authors on the game, but after a few months, there were a ton (and by a ton, I mean six).  Being the only one in my class for awhile was great and I was selling between 50-100 units per month.  Once competition set in, I had a much harder time, as the other books had been out for years and were well known. 

My books were originally priced at $9.99.  I know, unthinkable in the age of 99 cent McE-books.  However I put a lot of work into my book and I wanted to be paid for it.  Besides, it wasn't a tawdry romance novel or the latest thriller.  It was a fairly long book filled with diagrams, and I felt I did a pretty good job of teaching people the strategies of Go.  Well, my customers felt $9.99 was a fair price.  Although something in the back of my mind started to gnaw at me.  I began to imagine invisible customers, browsing through amazon, and then turning up their noses at the high price.  Still, as long as the 50-100 some odd buyers came in, I made a decent monthly income, and I could buy the more expensive Ramen at the grocery store.  Then, the competition came.

First off, I was flattered at the way they priced their books. You know how on the Price is Right, there is always that last contestant who is completely asinine and bets 1 dollar above the second to last contestant just to seal their fate?  I loved the one time that didn't work, and the price came out to be exactly the price the third person set.  I assume the producers on that show were feeling capricious that day.  Anyways, the other Go themed e-books set their price from 50 cents to a dollar under mine.  I freaked out, and decided that I would start a vicious price war.  I would slash my prices to a nub, then watch as the invisible purchasers would smash through my door and leave my competition impoverished in the streets!  Yes, I would come out on top.  My Go books were superior, and now, I would get all the people who were on the fence!  So I slashed my prices, in half.  I know.  My ego kind of got in the way, and I hated the fact that the more famous Go book priced his 50 cents beneath mine.  I wanted to do more than pull the rug out from under the competition, I wanted to annihilate the floor. 

Well, I did destroy something, my revenues.  My price change did not result in more customers.  Quite the contrary, I've only had 45 some odd customers this week, when in previous months I could count on at least 70.  The difference is stark.  Without the added customers to make up for the revenue difference, my royalties are going to be a pittance, a faint glimmer of their former glory.  I've been trying to wrack my brain to figure out what happened.  I ran into a wall.  There are too many variables!  Perhaps September is a slow month for people buying E-books.  Maybe my earlier success had been to Go related events I was not privvy too.  Only recently did I find out that the Wall Street Journal did a video on the game.  That would garner interest in the game and might prompt people to go to Amazon in search of books.  WSJ could've given me customers and advertising, and I had been none the wiser!  I haven't done a whole lot by myself to try and advertise, as I just limit myself to twitter and any other free avenue, but there are hundreds of places where people could be learning about Go, and my book would pop up! 

Lowering my prices did not result in more sales, but I have no if it would be okay to jack them back up to $9.99.  I kind of want  to, but at the same time, I had a few reviews on Goodreads saying that the books were great, and because of the price, there was no reason not to get them.  A great compliment, but would that make up for the lost revenue?  I can't eat nice words.  I think my little experiment is over.  If I turn the price back to $9.99, then no would notice, and I'd be able to get away without angering customers.  If I wait too long, then people who were making plans to purchase my book, or who had heard about my book from a friend, might come to Amazon and see a jacked up price (from their perspective).  It's best to just sweep this experiment under the rug. 

So far I've been doing a lot of technical stuff, talking about how to create a cover or get your manuscript edited and ready for the presses.  Today we'll talk more about style and how to make your story sing with superior story structure.  Your reader has to connect with your book.  Human beings are well equipped for this, as our emotions are there, ready and waiting to be plucked by a skilled musician.  However, we can be fickle creatures.  A great chase is thrilling and gripping, but it has to end on the right note.  We love to watch two characters explore their romance and develop a strong bond, but we eventually want there to be some closure to the story.  You never want your reader to lose interest, or feel in some way the train of their emotions has derailed, leaving the passengers to scramble for safety before the eventual explosion.  That's why today, we're going to talk about pacing.

Your story shouldn't move too fast, and definitely not too slowly.  Pacing is best understood when you watch an action movie.  Great action movies wonderfully embody many elements of a good story: an interesting plot hook, lots of explosions and eye popping effects, and great one-liners.  Even with all of these features, an action movie is terrible if the pacing is off.  If the characters solve a problem too easily, then they seem superhuman and unreal.  If they take too long to resolve the oncoming danger, then the viewer is left in a state of anxiousness or nervousness for too long and can feel drained.  Action movies require quick pacing with down time for character development and planning, so watching a lot of action movies can give you that sixth sense you need for pacing.

Take Commando, for instance.  By all accounts this movie is terrible.  The plot is weak and the movie writers just rely on unique ways of killing people and Arnold to sell their movie.  However I love Commando.  I can never get enough of it.  No, it's not just Arnold holding two submachine guns while blowing away hundreds of third world Central American mercenaries.  It's the fact you always get your fix right on time.  Sure, you need exposition to move the story along.  However, always notice that action is always well placed.  If Arnold has spent too much time talking to the heroine, we can always cue a bad guy to come in and present a challenge.  Arnold will then blow said bad guy away in amazing fashion, while at the same time moving the story along and giving the viewer his reward for sticking with the story.  At no point in the movie do you find yourself thinking "Man, I wish someone would explode so this would get interesting."  The story writers knew when it was time for the bad guy to blow up.

This example may be facetious, but I really think that movies can help you gain a sense of timing.  You don't want your story to drag.  You most certainly do not want it to go too quickly!  This is the common lament of writers.  You have all of  these wonderful scenes and plot points dancing in your head, but it feels like your characters reach those points too quickly.  Oftentimes, this is because you do not add enough conflict in the interim to make your story gripping.  Let's say Detective Stoneface is tracking down "Silhouette", a sexy Parisian master thief.  You figure that Detective Stoneface will ambush Silhouette at the Louvre, setting a trap for her there by using a really large African diamond as bait.  Well, this is a really great plot point.  What you don't want, though, is for Silhouette to break into the Louvre, and get immediately captured by the Detective.  I mean, if the main character comes up with a brilliant plan, then by all means, the reader should share in his joy.  However, no one gets excitement out of a villain who is too easily caught.  Silhouette should instead prove to be far stealthier than Detective Stoneface ever thought possible, breaking through all the security systems, and outfoxing him to gain her prize.  Sure, maybe Silhouette could have incidentally left a small clue that would eventually lead to her capture, but simply taking her into custody so early in the story is not going to sell a lot of books. 

You should always mix up your scenes and provide interesting complications.  If your main characters make plans, come up with ways that intervening variables could come in, and show how they deal with what they could not have planned for.  Try to keep secrets!  There's nothing more satisfying to a reader than solving the mystery ahead of the main character.  Leave nuggets for your reader to find, and let your characters keep their own secrets to reveal them later.  Sure, Detective Stoneface could have told the Chief that Silhouette was aiming to kill the Chief later, but then he would lose the chief as bait.  This adds some mystery, and also helps you fill in spaces if you think your story is moving along too fast.