Joshua P. Simon - The Accidental Author

It’s been a few months since my last writing update so I’d thought I’d take a minute to chime in and talk about what I’ve been up to.

1. Steel and Sorrow: Book Two of the Blood and Tears Trilogy – This went to Betareaders a couple of weeks ago. I’ve already gotten some good feedback and positive reactions which is great. I’m not expecting to get all the comments in until late June so I’ll be working on other projects in the meantime. Then I’ll make my final pass and send the MS to my editor by July 15th.
2. Break the Chains: A Blood and Tears Novella – I managed to outline and write the rough draft of this since turning in Steel and Sorrow to Betareaders. This was one of the harder things I’ve written. At one point, I had to stop and rewrite a large part of the beginning and completely change my originally planned ending. But the first draft is done at around 13K words. I’m taking a couple days off before I begin revising it so I can approach it with a fresher perspective. My goal is to get it to a decent state as soon as possible so I can get it to Leah (my alphareader) for her initial reaction.
3. Various Short Stories – While taking those days off from Break the Chains, I’m polishing a few unrelated short stories. Two will be submitted to different contests. The third (Horror Flash Fiction), I’m going to hold onto for a bit and then later submit to online ezines.

Those are my three most immediate goals right now. Besides getting Steel and Sorrow to my editor, I’ll spend the next two months or so outlining (and probably starting) Book Three of the Blood and Tears Trilogy (untitled), get Break the Chains ready to go to Betas as soon as I can, and hopefully write another short story.

What have you been up to?

Since I did Bruce Dickinson’s solo work last week, I thought I would do a Music Monday on my favorite Heavy Metal singer, Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Just like last week, there are a lot of songs below since it’s so hard to narrow down his solo work.

You may notice that I didn’t include any songs from his band Fight. Those will be covered on a future blog post.

Resurrection


The One You Love to Hate (duo with Bruce Dickinson)


Silent Screams


Slow Down


Golgotha


Trail of Tears (A lot slower, but great all the same)


Til the Day I die (Awesome Bluesy song)


The Mower

To see the previous posts in this series on what makes a great story, check out these links:
Openings - Part 1
Openings - Part 2
Description
Characters
Plot
Dialogue and Internal Thought
Prose
Humor
Romance
Politics

Writing a good action/battle/fight scene can be pretty hard. It seems like the line between too much and too little, too descriptive and not descriptive enough, too violent and not violent enough, etc., is a hard one to balance. Like romance, politics, and many other areas of creating a good story, some authors are stronger with this aspect of writing than others. And like those other areas, just because it may be a weakness for a writer, it shouldn’t be a reason for the author to avoid action all together.

Here a few things I both look for when reading and try to portray when writing action.

• Make it Personal – Whether you’re writing about a general watching a struggle from afar, a soldier on the front lines, a guy jumped in an alley, or a young child running from a Doberman, it needs to be personal. I want to know what that person is going through physically, mentally and emotionally. I want to know what they see, hear, and smell.
• Focus on the characters – At first glance, this may seem redundant to the point above, but it’s not. The above point deals with that moment in time. Within that moment characters still must act as themselves. Everything they experienced before the action scene factors into their behavior during the moment. And the action scene should also affect their behavior/motivations afterward in the story.
• Think about all the senses – It's easy for an author to only write what the character sees or even hears. However, don’t neglect smell or even taste. I have to remind myself of those senses from time to time. The taste of blood or the smell of someone voiding their bowels in fear has a much greater impact on the reader (and character) than just seeing those things.
• Leave the reader wanting more – Like most writers I had a tendency early on to give too many details. I think I've improved on cutting down the unnecessary elements. Details are good, but shouldn't be overdone. Otherwise, the fight can feel mechanical and void of emotion. On a grander scale, if you have the opportunity to tell a fight from multiple POVs, then use it. That gives the battle a greater sense of scope and urgency. Remember, we want the reader to wish we hadn’t stopped so soon, not to get bored or numb to the actual action.

The authors I think handle action the best are as follows (in order):
Paul Kearney – Land or sea, no one does a military battle better than Kearney.
Joe Abercrombie – Excellent at showing the personal stakes involved in any battle. You really get a feel of what each character is going through as the events unfold.
Larry Corriea – Larry is actually the only one on this list who hasn’t released any epic fantasy yet and instead sets his fantastical tales in a modern setting. Be prepared for the best gunfights you’ve ever read in your life.
Steven Erikson – Grand epic battles (sometimes lasting over a hundred pages) using explosives, swords, magic, spears, etc. or a personal duel up close and personal. No matter the setting, Erikson seems to get it right.
Ian Esslemont – He writes in the same world as Erikson and his battles have a similar feel to them.

Who do you feel does a great job of writing action (regardless of genre)?

Right away I notice that this top 10 lacks any female characters (though they make my honorable mentions). I’ll chalk this up to being less familiar with the Marvel universe than DC. The female Marvel characters I’m most familiar with (i.e. Jean Grey, Black Cat, etc.), I just don’t care for.

My Top 10 Marvel heroes

10. Cable


9. MoonKnight

8. Deadpool


7. Wolverine


6. Colossus


5. Captain America


4. Thor


3. The Hulk


2. Black Panther


1. Spiderman


Honorable Mentions: Gambit, Rogue, Emma Frost, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk

Everyone knows Bruce Dickinson from his time fronting Iron Maiden. However, if you aren’t familiar with his solo work, you’re really missing out. In my opinion, several of his solo albums are actually better than many of Iron Maiden’s studio albums.

As you can tell from the number of videos below, it was next to impossible to choose just a couple of songs to showcase. There’s a good mix of style below so give each song a shot.

One thing I haven’t done on my blog yet is discuss why I chose to independently publish my work. I never submitted Rise and Fall to agents or publishers. I’m not ready to get into all the ins and outs behind how I reached my decision, but I wanted to share some thoughts on the common view that traditional publishers know talent.

“Publishers can spot a good story better than anyone else.”

“If your story has been rejected, it’s because you can’t write.”

“Independent authors just don’t put as much effort into a book as traditionally published do.”

“Traditional publishers know what kind of books readers will enjoy.”

Contrary to popular belief, traditional plublisher cannot pick the next big bestseller any more than you or I can. They get it wrong much more than people assume they do.

Have you ever heard of any of these books? Harry Potter? Peter Rabbit? Twilight? Carrie? Animal Farm? The Hunt for Red October? These titles were initially rejected by traditional publishers. Many times more than once! Click here for a list of 40 famous manuscripts and you’ll be appalled at some of the big name books and classics that were turned down repeatedly before someone took a chance on the manuscript.

So what does this mean? It means that traditional publishers make a lot of mistakes and they aren’t always the best judges of talent. Trust me, I’ve read plenty of AWFUL traditionally published work. Traditional publishers can simply tell if a manuscript is right for them.

I originally planned to do my top 10 comic book heroes, but realized that almost all of them were DC. Therefore, I decided to split the DC and Marvel characters into two different blog posts. Sorry Marvel fans, I’ve always enjoyed the DC characters more. I’m not giving any specific reasons behind my choices since that could make this blog post a bit longer than it needs to be. However, I will be more than happy to debate anyone in the comments. Ha.

Here’s the list:

10. Black Canary

9. Aquaman


8. Wonder Woman


7. Martian Manhunter


6. Robin (I actually think Tim is probably the best in this role)


5. Batgirl/Oracle (Barbara is awesome in two different personas)



4. Nightwing (Dick is a much better character here than as Robin, IMO)


3. Superman


2. The Flash (Wally West in particular…though I do love some Walter West)


1. Batman


Honorable Mentions: Plastic Man, Green Arrow, Green Latern (Kyle Rayner), Big Barda

Who are your favorite DC superheroes?