The Importance of Commenting

How important are thumbs up, hearts, comments, and the like, really? Is it enough to just click that thumbs up button on your friend's post/picture/video, beloved author page, or favorite group, and keep scrolling? These are questions you need to know the answers to, because believe it or not, they effect your author platform immensely. 

When you like, heart, or otherwise click an emoticon on a friend's post, it tells the algorithm you like posts by that person, page, or group, posts of that nature in particular. The algorithm tells the mother ship, who then stores that information, and will show you more of that person's posts in the future. The less you like a friend's posts, the less they will show up in your feed until they eventually disappear altogether in the obscurity that is the matrix monster's belly. When you comment, it flips the red alert alarm on the mother ship which helps launch that post/picture/video up out of the belly of the monster and into orbit where it can be seen. Yes, comments are THAT important. All the likes in the world are useless compaired to comments. The beauty of it is: You can simply put an emoticon in the comment! That's all it takes to count as a comment, really. So if you don't have a lot of time, but want to help out a friend's post, drop a heart emoticon in there. 

This is the era of stored information because there is so much data incoming at all times, there is no way you could possibly see it all. So the mother ship learns what you like and shows it to you. "But, Heather," you ask, "You said this effects my author platform. How, when you're talking about me liking other people's post?" I'm glad you asked. What you send out comes back to you, especially in the matrix of social media. If you like and comment on people's posts, they are far more likely to do the same for you. You are "friends", after all, and the best friendships are based on a two-way interaction. Do not expect what you are not willing to give. Now get out there and do some commenting. May the odds be ever in your favor. 

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed during the gratuitious dropping of pop culture references in this post.

Are You Ready for Jólabókaflóð?

If you aren't sure what Jólabókaflóð is, you are in for a treat. It is the greatest holiday tradition you never knew about, and will want to work into your holiday from now on~if you're a book lover, that is. And I'm guessing, since you're here, you are! Jólabókaflóð is the Icelandic tradition of giving books as gifts on the eve of the holiday, then spending the day/evening reading them while enjoying a hot beverage of your choice, often jólabland (orange soda and malt/beer). Myself, I go for hot cocoa, but you do you. 

Jólabókaflóð (pronounced yo-la-bok-a-flot) originated circa world war II when many things were rationed, but paper wasn't one of them. Couple that with Icelanders deeply ingrained love for books, and it swiftly became a tradition embraced and beloved by the entire country. 

In mid-November, a catalogue of new book releases is created, everyone puts in their orders, and then the books are given as gifts on the eve of the holiday and everyone nestles in to read for the evening. That just might be my definition of the perfect holiday tradition. My family is adopting it, and I hope yours will too. If you want to take it a step further and support Icelandic authors, check out some of the links below. And if you have a resource of great Icelandic authors, please let me know in the comments!

Iceland Travel

Reykjavik Grapevine

Literary Hub

Goodreads List 

Writing P.O.V. Right

Writing it isn't as easy as choosing a point of view and running with it. There are a lot of mine fields that if not properly traversed, can end in disaster for your manuscript. I've seen it in published works, sometimes even those published by one of the Big 5 publishers. And nothing makes me put down a book~or pass on a submitted manuscript~faster than point of view written improperly. 

So how do you know if you are walking the right path through this minefield? The best way is to understand each point of view, and be sure you chose the correct one for your manuscript. 

In first person, the reader is in the character's head, literally. For example: 

I could hardly stand the heat of summer. Sweat dripped down my brow. Into my freaking eyes, for the Gods' sakes! Ugh. Cringing, I ran a hang across my forehead.

You experience the world with the character, and you hear their inner thoughts directly in line with the narrative. The entire narrative is literally the main character's inner thoughts.

In third person is not in the character's head, though at times it is so close it can feel like it. That is the tricky part. For example: 

Heather could hardly stand the heat of summer. Sweat dripped down her brow. Into my freaking eyes, for the Gods' sakes! Ugh. Cringing, she ran a hand across her forehead.

In the third person example above, the direct thought is in italics, the proper format for direct thoughts when you are writing in third person. This separates it from the narrative so you aren't slipping into first person, and affectively changing POV styles. It is true, some rules are made to be broken. But beware, when breaking rules you run the risk of it looking like (or turning into) poor grammar that looks sloppy on both the editor and author's part. This is why a lot of publishing houses won't allow their authors to break this particular rule. 

Word's Track Changes Tutorial

 Most publishers edit your manuscript in Word using Track Changes, City and Mystic Owl included, which means you will need to know how to use it if you are an author hoping to get published by a traditional publisher, or an editor hoping to work in the business. If you've never used it, here is a quick and dirty guide on how to get started using Word's Track Changes. 

Open your manuscript in Word. Go to the tabs at the top of the screen and click on "Review". Go to the "Track Changes" dropdown and click on "Track Changes." This turns the feature on and off. Right next to the "Track Changes" tab is a tab that will either say "Simple Markup", "All Markup", "No Markup", or "Original." This needs to be on "All Markup".

Make your changes in the document. If they simply change and don't show a strikethrough for deletions or a different colored font for additions, the feature isn't on. If this is the case, you turned it off instead of on, so just go back up to the "Track Changes" tab and click on it again. 

To add a comment, click on the word or highlight the phrase you would like the comment to refer to. Then make sure you are still under the "Review" tab and click on "New Comment". This will pop out a comment bubble to the right of the screen where you can type in your comment. 

If no bubble pops out, you may need to format your comments section. To do so, under the "Review" tab, go over to the "Tracking" section and click on the small arrow at the lower right side of the section. This will pop out the "Track Changes Option" box. The dropdown tab under the "Balloons in all Markup View Show:" section should read, "Comments and Formatting". If it doesn't change it. Here is an example of what that looks like:

That will get you started using it. For those who are seeing it for the first time in the form of a manuscript sent to them that has been edited by their editor using Track Changes I will put up a future tutorial. In that we will cover how to accept and reject changes, and leave comments.

Contemporary Fantasy Defined

 Ask five people what defines a particular subgenre and you are likely to get five different answers. It is subjective by its very nature, and therefore gray. So, when reading my definitions, please keep in mind these are my personal definitions, and are what I am personally looking for. 

Contemporary fantasy for me is set in the here and now; this world, this time. The world should be easily recognizable as our own, but with fantastical elements worked in. You can have magic, or not, beasties, or not. Examples are: Practical Magic, American Gods, Freyja's Daughter, Lost, the Iron Druid chronicles. 

What makes it different from urban fantasy? For me, urban fantasy is typically set in a city, and has the same main characters/couple throughout the series. But that last bit isn't a hard rule (such as with the Iron Druid chronicles and Freyja's Daughter). The setting is more of a definer. 

So when I say I am looking for contemporary fantasy what am I personally looking for? A great fantasy novel set in the here and now with deep world building that may or may not involve magic, or supernatural creatures or elements, but will at least have some fantasy. The rules of this world ~so like ours, and yet not~ should be well defined and developed. It may take place in a small town, or even in the middle of nowhere.