Stepping Out of Comfort

Arguably, one of the hardest steps to take in the journey of authorship, or any artistic venture for that matter, is the first step. Whether you be a painter, poet, or writer, starting on a blank canvas or empty page is daunting. This doesn’t have to necessarily be the case however.

I’ve published two novels and am working on a few other projects yet I still encounter firsts. For example, I have never approached other companies to ask them to display my novels on their bookshelves yet I have to do that if people are to read my stories. It’s always an egotistical risk to ask the owner of a store to display your content.

Yet, I can say, that is what I did two days ago. A newly opened bookstore with a mantra on bringing authors together and displaying their content is a perfect scenario for any author or writer. What’s even better was the owner was very sweet and accommodating to my questions. I left the store feeling confident and very soon followed up with an email with links to my novels with the hope of beginning a fruitful artistic relationship.

The whole point to this post isn’t that you should get a yes or a no. In fact, most of us artists could use a no to bolster our persistence. That topic is a post for another time. The message is, you put yourself out there. Yes or no doesn’t matter. Don’t let shame or embarrassment stop you from achieving your vision like it tries to me. If you want it badly, go for it.

If you got a yes, good for you. If you got a no, that’s just as well. Keep putting yourself out there. Keep telling the story you want to tell. By succumbing to the pressure you prevent the world from seeing life from your perspective. Don’t let that happen.

I believe in you.

If you have any experience with no’s or yeses please feel free to tell me about them in the comments below. I would love to know your thoughts!

Project Story-board

You should have one too!

-J.M. Topp

The answer is absolutely yes! For every writing project I have that has potential to become a novel I create what I call a project board or an idea board. No matter what you call it, this is the space where you can take the characters that lived only in your mind previously, and bring them into tangible reality…well, visually.

This, as well as most storyboards, serves as a visual guide to the story you are writing. It also serves as a reminder for a certain character arc or interaction you have in store for the reader.

This project board belongs to The Rise of Devils (obviously) and it was done in just a couple hours. Though this is a rudimentary beginning to the story board, you are always free to switch out characters and add more to the empty spaces. Actually, you are encouraged to do so. Building your world on a story board makes it easier for a writer to build their world on paper.

This project story-board was created on stream on twitch.tv. If you have any questions on how to make a story-board of your own feel free to send me a message or swing by and say hi at https://www.twitch.tv/thewritingvault. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have a fantastic rest of your day!

Weird Western

This genre is so good, it made me like country music.

My current writing project is titled The Rise of Devils. I was inspired to write this project after a Reedsy short story challenge. Typically, I use these challenges to get out of my writing comfort zone and boy am I glad I did. The Rise of Devils is a Weird Western collection of intertwining short stories. I often get the question, “Well, what the hell is a Weird Western story?”

Weird Westerns are subgenres such as fantasy, science-fiction, and horror that are firmly tied to western genres. In this case, the sub-genre tied to my western story is science-fiction.

The best example of this I can give is the movie Cowboys and Aliens. This perfectly encapsulates the idea I am going for as far as alien technology mixed with rootin’ tootin’ cowboy shootin’.

The most important idea for me to capture when writing this Weird Western is to make the setting and character encounters so jarring and weird thus creating interest in addition to well-written dialogue and characters.

I stream the writing of this project on Twitch every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30am-11:00am. Swing by and be sure to ask me about my project The Rise of Devils! https://www.twitch.tv/thewritingvault

Music is my Inspiration

The art of keeping the conversation of a story alive in my mind is fueled by music. Typically, when I write a story, I like to listen to music similar to that genre. What I gravitate to in music is the feeling that is drawn out from emotions depicted in the lyrics and musical notes.

My current project is The Rise of Devils and, with most of my projects, I build a Spotify playlist with songs to accompany the words I write. Since my project is a Weird Western, most of the songs in my playlist are Dark Country songs.

Trust me, I had no knowledge that this genre even existed, but it does, and it’s great. This is coming from someone who wasn’t a fan of country at all. I couldn’t stand the whining violins and howling voices. Now, thanks to my current Weird Western project, I thoroughly enjoy each aspect of this genre. Even if I have a lukewarm interest, country music now is enough enjoyment for me to add songs to the playlist with them howls, whiny violins, stamping boots, and clapping hands.

You should check out my playlist on Spotify by clicking the link below and let me know if you like country, more specifically, Dark Country. If you hate it, trust me, I’ve been there. Give it a shot! What do you have to lose?

Thought of the Day: Criticism

Often the voice of criticism comes from ourselves. The thought of quitting because you aren’t good enough or the voice saying your art sucks is a great battle to fight but that’s not what this post is about.

This post is about handling outside criticism. Let’s say you published your poem, uploaded your children’s book, showcased your adult fantasy novel or posted your video of you singing your favorite song on the YouTubes. Most of the time the comments are positive, or they have been in my experience, but a comment here or there really gets under your skin.

It was a negative comment on how this sucks or how so-and-so does it better. I’m my experience these comments cut a little deeper than your own self-consciousness. They may not necessarily come from a place of negativity so you have to determine how to handle it.

The best advice I can give to negative comments is first see if there is any merit to the conversation. Is it a valid piece of criticism? If yes, see where you can apply this criticism to your art. If not, then simply bypass the comment and move on. The most important lesson here is NEVER engage negativity when you’re angry.

The moment you react in anger you insta-lose. Always. The people that give you negative criticism are the loudest group but also the smallest. The critical message here is those that support you make up a silent majority. That’s who you make your art for and they are the ones who cannot wait for your next project to be published. Never forget that.

I am humbled by you…thanks

Your friendly neighborhood author

When thinking about how to build a community it took me a long while to come up with the concept. Now that I have the idea I realize I’m in a field populated by only a handful of other streamer-authors.

I was pretty sure the beginning would be extremely rough. When I started my YouTube channel in 2009 my first videos were tough. When I began my writing content 4 years ago my first video was underwhelming (though looking back I’m still very proud of them).

Finally, since it’s been two years since I left YouTube and Twitch, I thought the return to author-streaming would be extremely rough and difficult. I was wrong.

You have been there for years supporting my content and I had no idea. Thank you! My return to bringing content online was made much easier because of you. Honestly, I had the greatest experience this week being the first week of author/writer-streaming!

And we’re just getting started! Once more, thanks! 🙂

I’m also active on Twitter and Facebook so feel free to follow by clicking the links below!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JMTopp1

Facebook: https://facebook.com/authorjmtopp/