Writin' Tips From Uncle Greg (Patreon)

-it's not for everyone, but I write for fun. It comes out faster and better when I'm in just the right mood. An hour of energetic writing tends to produce more output than a few days of half-hearted pecking.

-when I work commissions or projects or write up RPG scenarios, I keep several going at once. If I'm feeling drama, I'll write the dialogue-heavy stuff. When I'm clever or snarky, I go to the comedic scenes. when I'm feeling sadistic or aggro, back to the wrestling stuff. when I'm kind of blank slate productive, onto the stuff I don't usually want to write

-I like to write on the "flagpole" system. I don't script out everything line by line, blow by blow ahead of time when I set up the story. I go "fight scene here, confesses love here, big finish here." that can go for a scene or a whole book. if I don't feel like writing out a fight, I'll just write out "flip over, hair pull, drag through mud, kick into head and shoulder throw counter into pin" and flavor it later. if it's a pivotal conversation, I'll just make a note of the points to get across there or write in single important lines. since it's a dialogue, I like to write it as it comes and back and forth to be more organic. I just might write a joke or two I want to get in there

-for fiction, I always like to be original, but there's the whole "there is no such thing as a new story" theory. I realize I can compare things to other novels, shows and such, and I have to step back and say "Yes, I'm doing this part like that. Now how am I different?" If it's got legs, I can usually point out a few things, especially if it's just a fraction of the story. It happened a lot when I was writing a book about a tribal amazon setting while Wonder Woman and Jungle Book came out once I was more than halfway through it.

-publishing wise, you've got basically got two options. You can throw it out on Amazon, just making a file out of it and uploading, like I did with the Hercules trials parody. It's not going to make you much, and depending on how you release it, Amazon wouldn't even bother paying me until I made 100 (which at 2 bucks a story or 5 for the whole novel's worth, was about a year). It's slow, not as much pay, but you get more per unit out of it

-if you're doing your first ebook release, try to shoot for cheap. There's a price range you probably want to go over (I think it's 2 bucks) on Amazon that give you a bigger price cut, though. Best to go just barely over that, and go cheap as you can just to get some recognition. better to sell a little than nobody wanting to spend the money to take a chance on you

-word of mouth and recognition is your friend. namedrop it where and when you can, and don't be afraid to toss out a few freebies now and then. Just don't be obnoxious. If they want it, they'll follow it.

-love what you write. be your biggest fan

-share it. get at least one person onboard who likes to hear about it, whether a friend, family or fellow fan. I am FULL of ideas. I crank out a few every week or so of various quality. The only ones that really went that far were ones I shared with someone who said "Hell yea. Keep going." It feels great to be validated and bounce ideas off somebody.

-The artists are where the real Patreon money's at. Writing's going to be more of a stretch

-I'm always brainstorming. even when I worked retail jobs, I just kept a pocket notebook to jot down quick ideas. my iphone's Notepad app has taken over for that lately

-and if you look into commission stuff, I guess don't turn down the weird stuff if you can. just charge more. it's usually so niche and private that they'll pay it. long story short, I got my first buyer by someone off of /v/ who gladly gave me a copy of Left 4 Dead, sight unseen, for his s&m threesome of the legendary bird pokemon. I had never needed a beer in my life before that moment, but dammit I did it.

-any major writer will tell you that you're not required to write in order (especially now that we're not writing with pens and paper anymore). Go ahead and do that cool fight scene or epic speech you're dying to do. Sort of goes with the write with my mood idea, but I tend to write start to finish when I can. Especially when I'm tracking page-count on a job

-something I’ve confirmed with other writers a few times: the trick to writing female characters is not to write them as female. People are people, just with different problems to factor in. Give em a personality, change their pronouns how you like, but people can end up however. I personally go by their personality and upbringing more than gender, and even then a few of the characters’ sexes have been chosen by a coin toss. Don’t try to play a character as too male or female just because they are one, or you’re more likely to annoy somebody.