Story Length

My stories are as long or as short as they need to be. I make no apology for either. My hope is that you love or hate my characters (for all the right or wrong reasons) If you enjoy my stories, please feel free to make them visible to your friends and family. Should you hate them... unsubscribing from my newsletter might save you any further pain and suffering. I have no desire to ruin your day, but thank you for your time and wish you well.

The Power of a Great Headline or Book Title

Take a look at the most popular magazines or newspapers. What influences your decision to buy one magazine over another? The headlines. If you were to pick up a copy of The Reader's Digest, for instance, what is the first thing you do? You scan the headlines for anything which catches your attention and invites curiosity, don't you? Copy writers who use their skill to write headlines for The Enquirer exploit this trait to the max. The wackier, the more outrageous the better. When curiosity gets the better of us, it matters not if we know the headline can't possibly be true. We suddenly have the need to know what the story is about. We might hate ourselves for being pulled in and parting with good money for dubious content, but we do it anyway. Throughout history, words, written or delivered orally have shaped our view of events.

Heartfelt dialogue in a book can reduce a strong man to tears. A motivational speaker can stir the soul and make us desire to do better, be better than our current selves. A silvery tongue can make us choose one product over another simply by arguing its case in an infomercial. A prosecutor might convince you that a suspect is guilty beyond question only to have the suspect's defense attorney make you realize that there was no way his client could be anything other than innocent. An aggressive rock song playing on our car radio can make us push our pedal to the metal, while a relaxing tune can reduce our speed to that of the chauffeur in Driving Miss Daisy. Our brains are stimulated by many different visual and aural 'drugs' for want of a better word. Authors and copy writers know this.

Imagine (if you will) an author looking for a good book title for his latest literary effort. It is a murder mystery, and his friend suggested, Why I Shot My Father, as a title. Pro's and cons? Does it pique curiosity? A bit. The title suggests a reason for the murder of one's parent, but not much else. Cons? The title has too many words, and weak ones at that. The author decides to go with, Driven to Kill. Three words, two of which are power words. Driven and kill. Driven suggests going well beyond a want or a need. It is an action focused beyond the norm. Kill. A four letter word that invokes images of primal, vicious slaughter. Short sharp and to the point.

For fiction writers, it has been proven that titles containing one to four words, work best. One to three words is preferable. More than four words is better suited to non-fiction. Are there exceptions to this rule? Of course. There are exceptions to almost every rule, but 99 percent of the time, the rule holds true.

Short Stories (Why write them, why read them?)

For me, at least, a short story has this in its favor. Compare it to a meal at your favorite restaurant. Is it the main course, even if you put together two or three such offerings? No. Is it the dessert, to be savored after the main course? No, again. It is the appetizer. It prepares you for the main course. It lightens the atmosphere or sets it. It is the story you have time to read while waiting for a bus, or in a doctor's office or utilizing the last fifteen minutes of your lunch break. It fills a void and as such has its own merits. If you add up (over the course of your lifetime) the time spent waiting, with little or nothing to fill the void... how long would that be? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Would you even notice it if, instead of cursing your bad luck at being in the slowest moving line, you found yourself chuckling at a short story? It now becomes a topic of conversation with a colleague or an opening line in a chat with a stranger sitting next to you on a plane. Something you can use to fill in an awkward moment when on a first date. The memory of such a story might bring a smile to one's face whilst daydreaming or sunbathing at the side of a pool. Just like humor, it has versatility, only this time in bite-sized chunks.

Why humor?

Almost everyone benefits from humor. Laughing puts us in a good mood and relieves stress. The only time I can ever remember humor having an adverse effect on me was when I visited a Vegas comedy club. The presenter was brilliant and the acts were superb. I laughed do much that my ribs hurt almost as much as my jaw. I was glad to get out of there, but for the very best reason. Laughter is indeed the best medicine. Therefore it is my belief that humor goes hand in hand with several other genres, but lends itself more to romance and relationships. We all tend to take ourselves too seriously and the ability to laugh at ourselves is a precious commodity, I think.

Humor is a versatile weapon in a writer's arsenal. Not everyone has the ability to make it work, though. Having said that, not everyone can write love scenes or fight scenes. Humor's versatility can be shown either between two people who both may have a sense of humor or between a funny guy and his straight man. It can be displayed with dialogue or actions, with situation or by comparison.

Here are the titles of a few of my books.

Romance (The Lady's Man) Romance with tragedy (The Love Legacy) Romance with humor (Dear Roz) Romance with consequences (Betrayed) Humor with an unusual thread of romance running through it (The Emergency Hotline) Humor from characters with questionable attributes--i.e. assholes-- (The Idiot Savant of Dating) I have tried them all. Some do not mix too well with humor. Tragedy falls into that category. (It's a bit like laughing at someone who trips and falls. It comes across as mean-spirited even though such a response was unintentional)

Add to that fact, that we don't all find the same topics amusing. Some people appreciate dark humor more than others. Some are offended by certain types of humor, which is why I preface my stories with honest intent. If I warn you ahead of time that this story contains a fair amount of dark humor or pokes light-hearted fun at certain topics, I do so for a reason. I have no desire or intention of offending you as my reader. Why would I? Therefore I tell you the book's premise upfront and allow you to choose whether or not to purchase this book or that novella.

Having been forewarned, should (I hope) reduce if not eradicate hate mail and one star reviews (at least for subject matter as opposed to writing skill). Many topics can be considered controversial. My character's take on such subjects reflect his or her views on the subject, and may come across as insensitive. My own views as the author may well be in direct opposition to those of my characters. Please bear this in mind as each story unfolds. Take Howard Stern (the radio shock jock) for example. Fifty percent of his listeners disagree with what he says and find him offensive to varying degrees... but can't stop listening to his shows. Why? Simple. Because he is always controversial, people can't wait to find out what outrageous rhetoric he is going to spew next. That's it. He never shies away from any subject matter, but confronts it head-on. Listeners either love or hate him, but they all tune in, regardless. Colorful beats bland every time. Howard is a rainbow.

Writers and Readers and my genres of choice

I've read (on more than one occasion) that authors often make the mistake of writing articles and suggestions for other writers rather than their readers. It is SUCH an easy trap to fall into. We love our craft. It excites us often to the point of distraction. Thus, we discuss our writing technique, our habits and failings as well as our 'aha!' moments.  I have the urge to fall into this pit, myself.

Readers are much more interested in our books than the craft of writing. They have become fans and want to know more about certain characters and will there be another book in a series which they liked, so this is my compromise. I will make every effort to separate the two, but will try my level best to make either topic of interest to the other community. Readers may well find writing points of interest, because I have illustrated their uses referencing parts of my books that they enjoyed. Writers may enjoy my breakdown of my own books (or not - lol)

I welcome other new and not-so-new authors who wish to offer articles which display their talents to either entertain us or be informative. All I ask is that such authors be courteous and conscientious of my desire to provide value to readers of my blog. This blog has not been set up to simply plug your book. How can you showcase your talents and bring value to my readers? That should be the first item on your agenda if you wish me to announce your written work to them.

As for myself, I write humor, romance and romantic comedy and welcome other author/bloggers to contact me with a view to cross promoting our work, if it is a good fit for us both. This blog is aimed only at the three genres just mentioned. Although I enjoy Sci-fi, horror and the odd mystery/thriller, this is not the platform for those genres.

Should you have a 'guest' article that you feel my readers might enjoy, please forward it to the email address below along with any pertinent information and any contact information you would care to share with me. Perhaps a synopsis of your book with a brief example from your written work illustrating your article's point might make my decision of whether or not to share it with my readers, an easier one. Thanking you in advance for any possible mutually beneficial partnership which may transpire.

Please send such details to:-             alexbahscot@gmail.com

Procrastination in the shape of research

Tell me this doesn't happen to you. You are reading an article or blog or whatever, and there is a link to another article or youtube video and you click on it. An hour later, you are 2000 miles away from your original topic OR you are 2000 miles deeper into the same topic because you kept following the same thread but from a dozen different people. Such was a recent experience of mine. I read an article on better writing productivity which involved writing on a daily basis rather than sporadically. I'm guilty of the latter, but realize I have to make a shift in the way I write.
The narrator was Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn blog complete with videos. Joanna has the most infectious laugh (by the way) but hearing her laugh should not be the primary reason for listening to any of her interviews. I digress. Sticking to my chosen topic of ways to shake off procrastination and write every day led me to a video by Jeff Goins. Here is the link:-

3 Tips for Forming a Daily Writing Routine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDEDgUIHA-g&list=PLftaFG1OJGsO5woCBMRxrZ6H4wz030CbK&index=1

As one does, one checks out other youtube videos from the same narrator. I am about to start my journey as far as building a writer platform, so I watched the following video:-

Starting from Scratch: How to Build a Platform with Words, Passion, and People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TbFlskJgZ4

My biggest takeaway from this video? (and it is a HUGE one) My blog is not about me. I read that again and again until it sank in. My blog is not about me. It is about my readers and how what I write can help or entertain them.

Realizing as we all do, that if I didn't curb my inclination to hop from video to video, I'd never get around to my priority of writing (actually it was not so much writing, but rewriting a section of my work in progress where a different scenario felt like a better fit for one of my 'work in progress' books) I promised myself that I would watch one more of Jeff's videos before kicking my own butt into gear. Here is the URL for that video.

How to find your purpose or calling in life with Jeff Goins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXWx-3uBkU

Can you tell I'm now a fan of Jeff's? The way in which he presents his material resonated with me, and that is what I believe that we should all search for and find. A message that resonates with us in such a powerful way that causes inaction to make way for action. Nothing changes without action. Either yours or someone else's. Both would be better.

Am I going to join his 'Tribe Writers 2.0' for around $49/month to $99/month for the upgrade? No. I have learned through trial and much error to seek out reviews for any course that I have an itch to buy. I can't tell you how often I have been burned by courses that were not necessarily bad (although some were dreadful) but often because the course did not fully cover certain aspects that were the real reason behind my purchasing decision. I am one of those people who can read a bullet point list of say ten reasons you might want to purchase a product and if only one of those bullet points 'speaks' to me... I'm in. I fully understand that the possibility exists that nine out of the ten bullet points may be rehashed crap but. the one bullet point that intrigued me might just be the diamond in the rough that will make all the difference. So, for now I will content myself with the superb free videos that Jeff has online and wait for the course that has my name written all over it and the reviews to back it up.

One more thing. When my interest was Internet Marketing based, Jason Fladlien once wrote that his learning ratio to action ratio was (I think) about 1 to 4. For every one hour of learning, he took about four hours of massive action based on that learning. 99.9% of people have the ratio backwards, spending as much as 10 hours of learning followed by 1 hour of action, if that. Often, being busy can be confused with being productive but there is a big difference between the two. Knowledge without action is 'being busy' and has little use other than keeping ourselves better informed. Google's constant algorithm changes is what ultimately made me look for a better business model. Amazon and writing for kindle (creating the possibility of passive income) was where I decided to invest my time and effort.

I would love it if you came and joined me in this exciting journey. After all, the journey is not about me and not necessarily all about you. It's about us. You, the reader and me, the writer. My hope is that with you reading my work and providing useful feedback, I can better tailor my efforts to entertain you. That would be a win-win situation. If you could tell me why you did or didn't like a story, why you did or didn't like a character (bearing in mind that some characters are meant to be disliked) we could both benefit.

                                                                                           Alex Bahscot