Category Archives: novels

The novel that escaped

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The novel that escaped.

By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional.

Why my first novel isn’t my novel number one.

I planned to write a series of posts about the various books I have written and published. Starting this required me to look at when I first started work on my various books and how long it took me to complete them. There were many twists and turns in this process, and it’s not surprising that my memory has erased a few of those sudden turns of direction.

My first try at writing a novel happened in 2007.

I began experimenting with the idea of writing a novel in 2007. But then my life took a sudden detour when I started a new job, and writing that novel had to be put on hold. Eventually, I did finish that book, but through the years, that book has sat on my computer, lapsing into oblivion.

When I started writing this post, I was going to tell you about the first novel I published. But as I looked through my file folders, I discovered that more than one book had been started only to reach a certain number of words and then languish in the file folder forever.

Eventually, I’ll get around to writing a post about the first book I published, but I think it might be worth mentioning the first novel I wrote, which still hasn’t been published.

Writing the book “After the Sickness.”

My first effort at novel writing was a book with the working title “After the Sickness.” In high school, I was a big fan of dystopian novels, so it made sense to try to write a book with a different twist on dystopian novels. I came up with an idea that I thought was rather fantastic and probably difficult to believe, but because of my life experiences, I didn’t think it was that far-fetched.

Like most of my books, this book included a lot of knowledge and experience from my own life. I’ve worked in pet shops, raised various animals, and been a lifelong pet owner. I had seen several outbreaks of avian diseases in flocks of pet birds. There was a time when the Newcastle virus was in the news repeatedly.

The premise I came up with was a “what if?” question. What would happen if a bird disease found in flocks of birds mutated to the point that it began to infect other species of animals? In my novel, wild birds started dying at a horrendous rate. That led scavengers such as mice and rats to feed on these carcasses. Eventually, the disease spread to humans, and people began to die so quickly that medical services and emergency responses broke down.

In my version of the disaster, people had to escape the cities and large concentrations of population, so the heroes and heroines in the book flee into the desert Southwest and live in old, abandoned Anastasi and Pueblo structures.

Part of me wishes I had published “After the Sickness.”

Maybe it’s too late now for that dystopian scenario to be scary. This may be another time when the boundary between fact and fiction becomes blurry. I had completely forgotten about that first dystopian novel until the outbreak of avian influenza, and then its migration from cows to humans began appearing on the nightly news.

My second attempt at a dystopian novel.

While that first dystopian novel never got published, in 2019, I finally published another dystopian scenario. That second book, “Story Bureau,” seemed farther from fact and more clearly fictional when I wrote and published it in 2019.

Story Bureau tells the details of a society in which a part of the government takes control of all news distribution and is tasked with ensuring that all the news published is favorable towards the government. In this tale, the Story Bureau receives initial news reports and converts fake news into true news stories, which are then fed through a government-controlled communication system.

I found writing Story Bureau much easier than writing After the Sickness. It’s fairly easy to believe a disease that starts in animals might spread to humans and kill millions of people. Still, I think it’s harder to believe that anyone in the government could try to control and slant news so that only stories that made them look good would reach the public.

On second thought, maybe the idea that a disease that originates in animals and then spreads to man and results in widespread human deaths may not have been too fanciful to be believed. Now, I’m wondering if I should try to salvage that story.

Those are my only two efforts at writing dystopian stories. I’ll tell you a little more about my other writing and learning to write, adventures in future posts.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller.

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now! And more are on the way.

For these and my upcoming books, please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they are published? Subscribe to this blog.

For more information about David Joel Miller’s work in mental health, please visit the counselorssoapbox.com website.

For my videos on mental health, substance abuse, and having a happy life, please see Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

The difference between a writer, an author, and a novelist

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The difference between a writer, an author, and a novelist.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

The difference between a writer, an author, and a novelist.

By David Joel Miller, writer, author, blogger, and mental health professional.

Are there differences between a writer, an author, and a novelist?

I think there are. The first two activities, writing and blogging, both philosophically and practically, require different skills. Blogging, in my opinion, is writing a topical essay. I suppose it’s possible to write a blog that includes only short stories or excerpts from other writing. Still, the moment you begin to try to discuss what you’ve written or describe your process, you move from telling a story to discussing a topic.

Writing and similar creative processes are for sharing.

The term writing is getting a little confusing. I suppose it started with any effort to record something in a medium that could be referred to later. Cave paintings may be either art or writing, depending on your point of view. Cuneiform on clay tablets, hand-drawn characters on parchment or skins were other ways of keeping track of information for later reference.

Today, I think the word writing can refer to any number of ways of creating something meant to be consumed later by others. Most of my writing, whether nonfiction, blog posts, or novels, is dictated. Even videos and movies usually begin as a written script that is transformed into a sound-with-picture format. I listen to quite a few podcasts, some of which include PowerPoints or other visuals. These media mix the skill of writing with other forms of communication.

I’m inclined to be generous and consider any of these efforts to convey information or a point of view or to entertain as falling under the heading of writing. The videos for my YouTube channel (Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel) usually start with a written outline and progress from there. But I think the other two terms, blogger and novelist, refer to some very specific types of writing.

My first blog was counselorssoapbox.com

At the beginning of my writing journey, I wrote exclusively for my blog. That blog, counselorssoapbox.com, continues to inhabit the Internet and I’m still writing articles for it. In the beginning, the blog was primarily technical, meant to describe particular mental health issues and to share the things I was learning in my journey with other counselors and therapists. Over time, I expanded that to include articles about positive psychology, having a happy life, and adjusting to all those transitions or bumps in the road of life.

The term novelist has a different meaning than the other two.

Now, for those of you who were brainwashed by your elementary school teachers who kept telling you to look it up in the dictionary, I would encourage you to double-check with them which dictionary they are using. People who want you to look up a word in the dictionary to find its meaning have things backward.

The way dictionaries were first made was to look at all the ways people used words in sentences, primarily written works or oral speeches, which were then printed, and based on all these different usages and their frequencies, the dictionary makers offered us a variety of meanings for each and every word. I fear that today’s search engines are limiting the ways in which we are allowed to use some words.

I have a wonderful old Dictionary and Cyclopedia published in eighteen ninety-eight and I enjoy looking up words in it. Most of those words have long lists of various meanings that have been attached to a given word. Remember that the English language keeps changing. In eighteen ninety-eight, there was no such thing as an allergy. In the nineteen thirties, when the AA big book was written, allergy was defined as an excessive reaction to something. I suppose, in theory, that could be either good or bad. Today, we mostly use the word allergy to mean an adverse reaction to something. And yes, I confess, on occasion, I still pull out a dictionary and look up an unknown question word.

The dictionary definition of a writer is relatively simple.

A writer is someone who writes things down. In modern usage, we commonly think of this as somebody who writes things down as an occupation and expects to be paid for their work or as an artist who writes for their own pleasure. But those writings aren’t necessarily meant for other people’s consumption. And what they write can be purely utilitarian, like the instruction booklets that accompany almost everything you buy these days. The primary function is to give you something to either lose or throw away.

I think writing blog posts and their close cousins, short videos and shorter shorts, not the wearable kind though, are also important functions of writers.

So, how is that different from being an author?

I think that authors all began as writers. They want to record something. The largest difference is that authors primarily write things they expect others to read. Usually, when I think of an author, I think of someone who has written either a long scholarly dissertation, journal article, or they have written a book-length manuscript.

I think you cross the bridge from being a writer to being an author when you publish the work and send it out into the world for others to read. Authors who have written books and articles primarily seek to inform or entertain.

What’s different about a novelist?

A novelist sets out to write an amazing thing called a story. In its simplest form, the story is the tale of how someone did something. We believe that humans, and possibly other species, have been telling stories to distill experience and illustrate how one should live for millennia. Some stories are cautionary, such as don’t do this, or you will be punished, while others are longer tales that illustrate all the varieties of being.

Novelists don’t always get the respect that other writers and authors are given. I suppose it is because novelists seek to convey information by telling an enjoyable story. It certainly is more fun to have fun than to simply be lectured about dull facts.

I think that, eventually, all writers aspire to cross the bridge to become published authors. And those who seek to tell stories either write short stories or become novelists. Some nonfiction works also read more like fiction because of their characterization and details. Biographies, memoirs, historical accounts, and similar nonfiction works are much more enjoyable to read when they tell us a story.

Have I put you to sleep yet?

The idea for this post started with a conversation with a family member when I drew a distinction between being a writer and being an author. Something I felt I had crossed when my first book became available on Amazon. Any thoughts about the way we use these words? Do you have any thoughts on the topic you’d like to share? Please feel free to leave a comment or to use the Contact Me feature.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller.

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now! And more are on the way.

For these and my upcoming books, please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they are published? Subscribe to this blog.

For more information about David Joel Miller’s work in mental health, please visit the counselorssoapbox.com website.

For my videos on mental health, substance abuse, and having a happy life, please see Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

A Therapist Writing Novels?

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Novels
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A Therapist Writing Novels?

By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional.

Why did I start writing novels?

There are several reasons I shifted from writing blog posts and then writing a nonfiction self-help book to writing novels. I’m not sure there was a conscious decision here. In past blog posts, I’ve talked about how I got started writing a blog and how, after several years of writing that blog, I finally published my first book, a nonfiction book about adjustment disorders.

If I had known how difficult writing and publishing a book was, I might’ve been deterred from even starting on it. The process involved has a rather steep learning curve; unfortunately, I am still climbing that mountain. But this writer’s blog is designed to chronicle that journey from wanting to write to having written.

It definitely wasn’t for the money.

I know many people have the vision of writing a best-selling book and making lots of money. The truth is that for most people, it takes years to write that book and even more time to market it before you see any return. If you figure out what authors as a group make from writing and publishing books, what they are bringing home per hour is an incredibly small sum.

While I continue to hold onto the dream that one or more of my books will be somewhat successful, the reasons I’ve written them are largely non-financial.

Finishing a book involves more than just writing more pages.

A good part of my journey toward writing was divided between studying the art and science of writing and publishing and the time I spent putting words to paper. Learning how to create a book someone might want to read is one task. Turning that manuscript into a tangible product that someone can read is an entirely different matter.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that when I refer to writing, I’m referring to dictating. Initially, I spent a lot of time “pounding the keys. As a result, I developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Out of necessity, I learned to dictate, which is another skill altogether and beyond the scope of this article.

Maybe I should blame it on a famous writing coach.

While finishing up that first nonfiction book, I came across some articles by a well-known writing coach talking about writing both fiction and nonfiction at the same time. Inspired by those articles, I planned to produce two series of books. One series would be my nonfiction self-help books, and the other a series of novels. I won’t mention that writing coach’s name here since I wouldn’t want to blame them for all the errors I made in trying to carry out that plan. Why I decided to write a novel is the topic of this post.

 

I have always been an avid reader.

The short version of why I wanted to write a novel was that until I graduated from high school, I read a lot of fiction. Before the Internet, streaming, and even before the advent of most television programs, people entertained themselves by reading.

Once I entered the workforce, I read mostly nonfiction technical books. It took me a long time to return to reading novels, but to learn to write quality novels, I’ve returned to reading fiction, this time with different eyes.

I had always wanted to be a writer.

There was part of me that had always wanted to be a writer. Books were a big part of my life growing up. Being an only child and moving frequently, I read incessantly. The characters in the books were often my best friends.

Often, when you grow up around something, you think it is the career path you should take. I got discouraged from ever writing anything for anyone but myself early on. My poor vision and my even worse spelling meant that most of the feedback I got on my schoolwork was highly negative. And I definitely didn’t get much encouragement at home.

I always did a lot of daydreaming.

Daydreaming seems to be necessary for the creative process. I certainly didn’t know that when I was in elementary school, but I spent a lot of time all the way through high school sitting in class, basically zoned out while living out some fantastic daydream.

In the recesses of my mind, there was always some exciting adventure going on. I took the ideas from my classes and became the one building the railroad, finding a cure for a rare disease, or bringing peace and prosperity to some fictional country.

What I couldn’t do was translate those daydreams into anything tangible.

Small accomplishments drowned in the sea of negativity.

From this perspective of age, I recognize that there were some small academic successes in my early life. But the constant reminders of my errors and the lack of enthusiasm or encouragement from my family overshadowed those accomplishments. This is a hint for parents. Make sure that you catch your children doing something right. You don’t encourage achievement by pointing out all of the deficits. An occasional round of applause can inspire a child to move in a particular direction.

My poem gets published, and my play gets produced.

In elementary school, I wrote a poem that was published in the school paper. To me, it was just a matter of fact. I didn’t take it as anything special. I don’t recall any special praise from my teacher, and I’m not sure my parents ever acknowledged that poem. I didn’t try my hand at writing poetry again until high school.

I also tried writing a play that my church youth group produced. Looking back, it was probably an awful piece of literature, but the fact that they went to the effort of actually producing it should have meant something.

One thing creative people have to get used to is doing things for their own satisfaction. The critics are often harsh, and the round of applause is rare.

Writing fiction was one way to meet my need to be creative.

I always felt the need to be creative. During middle school and high school, I got involved in photography. The science of mixing chemicals in working in the darkroom was as much an attraction as the artistic part. Because, at that time, being a photographer was considered an occupation where I could earn a living, and writing was seen as a sure route to poverty, my photographic interest was encouraged.

I gave photography my best effort, but the combination of my poor eyesight and marginal social skills brought that career path to an early end.

Telling stories without revealing client details.

Once I began working in mental health as a counselor and therapist, I discovered the power of stories. One theory of counseling is called narrative therapy and is based on the idea that the stories we tell ourselves end up being our reality.

I knew there were stories I wanted to tell about how people struggle and overcome problems in their lives. I thought every day in the work I was doing and hoped that sharing some stories might encourage some people and be a fun way to engage my creativity.

As a therapist, confidentiality is one of the highest principles in our code of ethics. Without the client’s permission and short of the legal mandate, everything the client tells us stays confidential. My dilemma was how to explore some of the issues I saw people struggling with and the solutions they had found without violating their confidentiality.

The answer, of course, was to write a novel set in a different place in a different time with fictional characters and see how they struggle with their problems and the solutions they created.

In future blog posts, I’ll tell you about the process of creating those six novels and my plans for additional novels.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller.

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now! And more are on the way.

For these and my upcoming books, please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they are published? Subscribe to this blog.

For more information about David Joel Miller’s work in mental health, please visit the counselorssoapbox.com website.

For my videos on mental health, substance abuse, and having a happy life, please see Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

The steps between polishing and publishing a book

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Steps Between Polishing and Publishing a Book
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

The steps between polishing and publishing a book.

By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional.

Once your manuscript is polished, you must try on other hats.

Having finished your manuscript and gotten feedback from a few friends and family, it’s very tempting to move forward with the publishing process. If your goal is to have more than a handful of close relatives read your book, there are several other steps that should occur between typing “the end” and the beginning of the publishing process.

You will need to take a break from your manuscript.

By the time you finish writing a book of any length, your brain will be getting tired, and it will become tough to see the results realistically. A personal confession here: more than once, I published a book and then, a month later, came up with an idea that would have significantly improved that book.

If you’re going to do rapid writing and publishing, you can’t sit on each book forever, but if you have enough books in your pipeline, you can let each one marinate while you work on the sequel. What you don’t want to do is go on making changes indefinitely without having someone else look at your work.

Does your manuscript need editing or proofreading?

There are tons to learn about editing and proofreading, and if you continue to self-publish, you will need to learn all about those steps. That learning begins with differentiating between editing and proofreading.

Try reading your book out loud.

No matter how many times I reread my manuscripts, I couldn’t catch all the errors. The human brain tries to spare us the need to reprocess large amounts of data and make many small decisions. That’s why our brains really love creating and repeating habits.

One habit my brain has gotten into, and I’m told other people’s brains work essentially the same way, is that my eyes see what my brain wants to be on the page rather than what I actually typed. After rereading and revising the same paragraph multiple times, my brain no longer detects the errors. One solution to this problem is to shift to a different modality.

Reading my book out loud, specifically when I read it to a family member, caused all the errors and unwieldy sentences to pop out. So I took to reading a chapter each night before bedtime to whichever family member would listen, and I made corrections in red pen as I went along.

You need several more steps between a finished manuscript and the publishing process.

Not all editing is created equal.

There are many kinds of editing. I was naive enough at first to think that anyone who gave a manuscript a good, detailed read could be an effective editor. Over the last few years, I’ve been studying editing and listening to webinars and podcasts about the writing and editing processes. A good editor can help you in many ways.

Is the story working?

To produce a quality story, I needed to learn to take my eyes off the sentence-level problems and start looking at the overarching story. I’m still working on this part of my writing craft. Having someone other than the author read the book can help you spot the areas that still need work.

A story can be improved greatly when fresh eyes examine it. Developmental editors, book coaches, and many other categories of professional readers can tell you a lot about whether your story works, whether there are plot holes and other big-picture issues. It’s also helpful to know whether your early readers will find the story interesting and whether it meets genre expectations.

Beta readers can be extremely helpful.

I had hoped my friends and family could give me helpful feedback that would improve my writing. Turned out that most of the people I know are more film and video enthusiasts than heavy readers. I think they also wanted to spare my feelings.

Every writer who dreams of a career producing multiple books must find a group of readers who appreciate the stories you’re trying to tell. Recruiting those beta readers takes time and effort.

Those beta readers are most helpful when they read the genre you plan to write. Sending your new horror thriller to a list of readers who prefer cozy mysteries isn’t likely to get you the feedback you need.

Plenty of good writing teachers and coaches can tell you all the ins and outs of genre. I’m still at the writing stage, where I’m experimenting with several genres. In future posts, I’ll get back to you with more on genre and the beta readers I will be looking for.

Successful editing requires multiple journeys through the book.

Several writing and editing trainings I have listened to suggest that editing requires multiple passes through the book. Having tried to fix everything all at once, this makes more and more sense to me.

One approach to this editing is to make your first pass through the book, looking only at the major issues like plot and character. Next would come reviews of major structural components such as the inciting incident, the midpoint, and the climax.

Next comes smaller sections. In the beginning, I thought of this as revising one chapter at a time. I’ve learned to start thinking in terms of scenes. Some of my chapters consist of only one scene, but other chapters may include several brief scenes.

Next comes looking at the flow of the paragraphs. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a paragraph I thought I had written between one scene and the next never got from my brain into the manuscript.

Lastly should come the sentence-by-sentence review. The word choice may vary with the author’s style and the genre.

If you reach this point, and learning all this is no small task, you’re ready to tackle all the challenges of sending your story out into the world.

This is a revised version of a post which originally appeared on 1/31/23. Stay tuned for some new posts on the topics of creativity and writing.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller.

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now! And more are on the way.

For these and my upcoming books, please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they are published? Subscribe to this blog.

For more information about David Joel Miller’s work in mental health, please visit the counselorssoapbox.com website.

For my videos on mental health, substance abuse, and having a happy life, please see Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel