I would imagine that anyone who lives with a creative person just read the title of this week's blog post and laughed.  Not a laugh of amusement, but a chuckle of understanding.  Us creative folk are capable of incredible works of art, but we are also capable of making a gigantic mess.  We come up with incredible ideas, only to sometimes get halfway through them and realize how to make them better.  Sometimes that involves spreading everything out again so that we can look at it all at once, then rebuild it even better than it was before.

The inside of our heads are no different. 

Right now I am currently trying to put the finishing touches on Treadmill Tales, am finishing my first draft of what will be my second novel, plus am being bombarded with ideas for a third.  Everyone once in a while I'm even getting ideas for the next gym humor book.  I'll be completely honest- you're lucky that I managed to get this blog post written for this week, and those of you who come and read it first thing Monday morning will notice it is late.  

Sometimes our heads want to explode.

I'm going to keep this short today, because I've got a day's worth of serious editing to do to get Treadmill Tales ready for public consumption.  I really do hope to have it ready in the next week or so.  See next week's blog post!  

Go love someone creative.  More often than not the epic mess around them simply means that beautiful things are about to come.  


Come check out my constant ramblings on Twitter.  @jhchampine

As I mentioned last week, for today's blog I wanted to talk more about the importance of finding people around you who you trust to read your work before it's published.  This may seem like something little, but it really requires more thought than one might think. 

The timing of this post is important, as the proofs for my next book, Treadmill Tales- The Hilarious, Ridiculous, Sometimes Mind Boggling Things People Do While Working Out, arrived a few days ago.  I ordered five copies- one for myself, one for my husband, and one each for three friends who I know are going to "red pen it to death", just like I asked.  These are people who I know aren't just going to tell me, "Oh, it's fine."  They love me enough to tell me the truth.  

Sure, you could make the argument that I am giving them a gift by letting them be the first ones to see my new work, but the truth is that I am the lucky one.  Their input and opinions are priceless to me.  

Learning who to ask is was a hard lesson I learned during the editing phase before An Unusual Path was made available to the public.  Before it was published, I asked several people to read it.  Some did, and while we discussed over-arching story development, they never bothered to tell me that the things was riddled with typos like a block of Swiss cheese.  Others started but never finished, and still more just got busy and never got back to me.  

I can't fault any of them, and many of them later had wonderful feedback to give.  If any of those folks are reading this now, you know who you are, and I am still grateful for you.  But in the moment of trying to get a book out, I needed someone to really plow through it and give me honest criticism.  As an independent author, something I am proud to be, I don't have an official editor whose job it is to go through and find my mistakes. 

What happened instead was I went ahead and edited the best I could, only to publish a book filled with mistakes.  Those of you who have the earliest of copies know what I'm talking about, and I even have a few in my basement that I hope never see the light of day.  Will I ever throw them out or burn them?  No, because they are a good reminder for me that I need to really make sure my product is solid before anyone can purchase it.

Once the book was available, I suddenly learned who I should have asked to help me.  One of them is my husband, who read it for the first time with a pen in his hand and caught all of my typos.  Another is the very first person to buy my first book, and both he and his wife eagerly read it.  
 
I also learned who I shouldn't ask.  I won't go into specific examples, because I'm sure many of those friends and family will read this blog, but a number of people either didn't say anything to me, or mentioned a specific number of typos they found when there was actually many, many more.  Yes, some of them probably just loved the story and overlooked it's imperfections, and I love them for that, but they aren't who I need in this moment.  I need someone who will tell me, "Oh no, you need to fix this!"

My fellow authors, find people out there who love you enough to be honest with you.  They are truly the best friends you could have.  

She said to him, "What are they doing over there?"  He looked over, then responded, "Oh, them?  I saw her with him the other day.  They seemed to be chatting."  She dropped what was in her hand on the table and said, "They gave me this the other day.  I'm not sure what it is."  He gasped and said, "That's where it is!  They were looking for that the other day!  You should give it back to him."

Could you follow any of that?  We know that two people are chatting about two more, each pair including one man and one woman, and they seem to be discussing some object the female speaker is holding.  But we don't know who any of them are or what this object is.  

Today we're looking at pronouns.  They can be incredibly useful tools in the English language, both in written and spoken situations.  Pronouns keep things light and less bogged down, and we all use them without even thinking about it.  

But pronouns can also be confusing.  When too many of them are strung together, like in the passage above (which is just something I made up off the top of my head, and thankfully not anything I'm currently working on), suddenly the reader has no idea what is going on.  Not only does it make it hard for the reader to understand who is speaking, but many times they lose focus on what is being discussed in the first place.

The overuse of pronouns is an easy trap for authors to fall into, and one I struggle with myself.  As the writer, we know who is speaking and what they are talking about.  We can even imagine the entire conversation in our head down to the smallest detail, so it's easy to write it in a way that makes sense to us.  What we have to remember is that our readers aren't in our heads with us.  They don't know who "he shrugged his shoulders in annoyance" is if we don't tell the readers who is annoyed.  Pronouns are something we as authors need to be careful about, or we risk losing our readers.  

My advice to you, and what I try to do myself, is to do a simple count.  How many times do you use "he" or "she", and compare that to how many times you use their name.  There needs to be a balance there.  No, there isn't some magic formula or percentage, but it needs to be a good mix that flows well within your text.

Also, and this is almost more important than counting, is to have someone you trust read it for you.  Again, not just anyone, but someone you trust enough to know they will tell you the truth.  This is a topic I plan to cover in depth next week, but in essence what you want is someone who will actually tell you there is a problem, and won't just tell you its wonderful to please you.  Find someone who will take the time to really look at it for you.  A huge red flag is when that friend says, "Wait, who is this again?"  You just lost them.  

Listen to those friends, and understand that those comments are incredibly beneficial to you.  Instead of rolling your eyes and saying, "Come on, keep up!", go in and fix it.  If you've managed to completely confuse one person, chances are you are going to confuse more, and that isn't something you want.  You want your readers to see the conversation as vividly as you do in your own mind.  Pull more details out from your imagination and add it to the text.  Again, your reader isn't in your imagination, so you have to bring it to them.  

Happy writing, everyone!





Find JH Champine on Twitter at @jhchampine

Have a topic you would like see covered on this blog?  Just click "Got A Question For JH Champine" at the top of the screen.  I love to hear from you!

Today's post includes spoilers from my novel, An Unusual Path.  If you have not read it and don't want to know a large plot twist, STOP READING NOW.  Go get yourself a copy of the book, read it, and then come back.  

Go on.  

I see you are still confidently still scrolling...  

Have you read An Unusual Path?

Okay good.

Since the debut of my first novel, An Unusual Path, I have received some wonderful feedback about it.  Your kind words have meant the world to me.  I have also received feedback about typos, mistakes, and confusing moments in the early copies, and while frustrating I am grateful for it all.  People have told me that they couldn't put it down, that it was a wonderful read, and that the story was a beautiful tearjerker.  All of those comments have warmed my heart in a way that I almost can't describe.

But my favorite moments of receiving feedback have been the angry comments, where people were really pissed off while reading.  I know it sounds strange to say that those were my favorites, but it's true.  I'm speaking, of course, of how shocked many readers where when Clark Knott died.  

One of the first people who read an early copy of An Unusual Path before it was published never finished it because he was so angry I killed Clark.   Another friend later told me, "I kind of hate you right now for killing off my favorite character!", something we shared a good laugh over after the fact.   

The reason that those sorts of comments make me smile is simple.  They mean that the reader is emotionally invested in the story, and as a fiction writer, that is like climbing Mt. Everest.  I want my readers to care so much about the people who exist only on those pages that they are happy when the characters are happy, sad when the characters are sad, and shocked when something shocking happens to them.  On the flip side of that, if a character is someone to be despised, I hope they root against them in the story with equal passion.

To my fellow writers- don't be afraid of a plot twists and shocking moments.  I understand that it's scary sometimes to have something happen in a story that will rock your readers to their core.  As I said earlier, one of my first readers never finished the book because of it, so I understand that fear.  But those moments are what make a story amazing.  Let someone fall in love with a character, only to have them taken away, because how that affects the other characters will also affect your reader.  

Make them angry.  Piss them off if you have to.  The day may even come when your reader breaks down in tears, throws the book across the room, and buries their head in their hands.  But you know what?  Chances are they will pick it back up because they have to know what happens next, and then will tell a friend about this amazing book that had such impact on them.  

Go have an impact on someone.




You can find JH Champine on Twitter at  @jhchampine

Happy Monday, everyone!

I teased it last week, and now I want to give you guys a taste of chaos!

Last week, I wrote about my upcoming book, Treadmill Tales.  It has been a joy to work on and something I am incredibly excited about.  The finishing touches are still being put on it, and I'm happy with the progress being made.  Many of the stories that will be included in this work were written a couple of years ago, giving me the chance to revisit all of the moments of ridiculousness.  It's been so much fun!

I've decide today to give you a little peak.  A sample on a toothpick at the mall, so to speak.  So, I give you one of the stories that will be included in the book.   

Enjoy, and as always you can keep up with my on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JHChampine!

Preemptive Training

People train for all sorts of things.  Sporting events, marathons, 5K runs, dance recitals, hot dog eating contests, even zombie runs.

If you've never seen or heard of a zombie run, you should take care of that.  Now.  Right now.  While I have never participated in one, friends of mine have, and it’s supposedly one of the best things on the planet.  I like my multi-day 50k walks, but a zombie run sounds like a blast.

By now you all should know that I've seen a lot of crazy things on the track, and the crazy factor is one of the reasons I love it so much.  People on the phone dressed for the office, newspaper readers, you guys have read it all by now, right?  While training, people do all sorts of various exercises while there; jogging, walking, walking backwards for hamstring work, etc.

I once saw a grown man skip around the track.  Trust me, it was as funny as it sounds.  The fact that he had biceps the size of my thigh told me that whatever he does was working for him, though.    

But even I get to see a new one from time to time, and it always catches my attention.  One day, I saw a man slowly jogging around the track.  Nothing unusual, about that, sure, except that his slow jog was in a zig-zag pattern.

He even had a good rhythm going.

In-2-3-4
Out-2-3-4
In-2-3-4
Out-2-3-4

Lap after lap, he continued like this for at least half an hour.  Most of us on the track gave him his space, largely because he was a walking landmine in the middle everything just waiting for either him or us to slam into each other.  I watched a few runners moving at a faster pace juke around him like a car commercial.

Now I know where stunt drivers train.

Of course, I found myself wondering what exactly he was trying to do.  Was he was trying to get in as many steps as possible with each lap?  Possibly.  I can only imagine he covered well over standard distance that way.

Maybe he simply wanted a little variety in his view of the basketball courts.  They are fascinating.  Well… okay, I hope that wasn’t it.

But then it dawned on me.  Maybe, just maybe, he was training.  For what, you ask?

Escaping a charging rhino.

Makes perfect sense to me.  You never you know what that sort of thing might happen.

I imagine that anyone who has actually been chased by an angry, huge, charging rhinoceros had the thought, "Man, I wish I was better prepared for this!"  That won’t happen to our zig-zagging friend here.

Good for him.  That kind of preparedness may keep him alive one day.  At a minimum, all that training will keep him in shape.