MathiasCavanaugh.com

It seems to be becoming a trend. Authors taking to social media to decry their lot in life, spill all their problems for the world to see, and (basically) beg for attention.

Every time I see one of these posts on some outlet or another, this is what I envision:

Honestly, it’s more than just authors who do this. But, as I write about being an author, I’ll focus on my fellow authors.

So, I will start by saying, I get it. Life is hard. Things happen. Sometimes those things hurt, and hurt really, really, really, really bad. Other times things happen that really piss you off. And, honestly, there isn’t anything wrong with discussing the bad things that are happening to you or what is making you angry.

Because SOME things that are problems do deserve to be aired in public. But not most. Nope. Sorry.

Social media is really not the place to do so for the vast majority of issues flooding my notifications these days. Just by looking at my Wattpad, Twitter, and Facebook feeds, I can see that most people seem to think it is a good idea to blast their problems for all to see. And, what is worse, their behavior smacks of simply attention seeking in an attempt to get people to look at them. If even for a moment.

What I see some of my fellow authors doing daily is akin to walking out of their house, going down to the street corner, and yelling at random people as they go by about whatever is ailing them. Like it or not, that is a bad look. A horrible look, really.

Especially if said author has any sort of professional aspirations in life.

And doubly so if they are one of those sorts who tends to wander into the realm of being a drama queen/king.

Let me give you some examples of things I have seen lately to help you understand.

A few months back, an author I knew, loosely, mind you, but knew, took to their feed and openly talked about how they were “depressed” and contemplated taking their own life. Now, this drew a slew of comments from people trying to be encouraging and urging her not to do it. I, on the other hand, knowing the author’s hometown, contacted the local suicide prevention hotline and gave them her information, including the social media feed where this was taking place. Why? Because I take this sort of talk very seriously and after having had a good friend of mine take his own life in college decades ago.

Within ten minutes there was a social worker and a local police detective at this author’s door because the author had their personal information readily available. Several hours later, she came back onto social media with a post that started out with “LOL”. And then proceeded to talk about how she just spent those past few hours talking to the social worker and the detective about said social media posts.

She said, and I’ll paraphrase here, “Seriously! Did anyone think I was serious! Come on!”

That posting, rather than drawing sympathetic responses, drew ire from her followers. Comments ranged from how her joking about things like that were disgusting (and it was), to people chastising her for “wasting their time” to “make people feel sorry for her.”

And, in the end, that’s really what this was all about. And she admitted such in yet another post. What she “really” wanted was people to recognize that her self-published book on Amazon was available and not doing too well. She admitted that it was all just a ploy for attention and hoping to get people to buy her book.

Having failed at that, and loosing several hundred followers in the ensuing days, she eventually shut down her social media account as the harassment continued. But not before decrying how “mean” people could be.

This was an example of an author who flat out lied to get attention. There are also authors who are telling the God’s honest truth, however, when they post about these things. But sometimes it gets to be too much.

I recently unfollowed one author on Wattpad because he was constantly posting about how no one was reading his stories. He claimed that it was because he was openly gay and railed against bigoted straight people for his ailing career. These rants started out happening every couple of months, at first. But eventually became a daily thing for him. When they did, I and many others unfollowed him. Which led to even more vitriol against those who were unfollowing him.

And to what point? So he could become known as an angry person who would blame others for his failures? So he could get sympathy reads from people who felt sorry that he was being so mistreated by horrible people on the internet?

Look, in the end, crying “woe was me,” is not a good look for anyone. In the short term, yes, it may get you the attention you seek. But in the long term? It will give you the reputation of being someone that is troubling to work with. And in the world of publishing, that is not a reputation you want to obtain. Because you will need others. And those others will want to feel that they can work with you without dealing with the overpowering stench of drama.

So that’s that … now go forth and be a decent person. And please cut out the drama. Peace.

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When writers get “stuck” during the course of their work, they often call it something like “writer’s block”. And they’ll sit there and agonize (sometimes for months and even years, believe it or not) about how to get past a particularly troublesome point in their story.

People who have been listening to me pontificate about writing know that one of the things I repeatedly stress is that I do not suffer from “writer’s block.”

Am I lying? No. It’s the truth!

Am I some sort of weird inhuman creature? Also, no.

So then, how is this possible? How have I overcome an affliction that seems so common for writers young and old, new and experienced, published and unpublished?

I simply use one or more of some common, easy to implement strategies, that’s how. Some might call these “tricks” or “gimmicks”. I call them tools that are necessary in every writer’s toolbox.

So, today I want to talk about the strategy of when is doubt, “Blow Something Up!”

Or, as was put so poetically by Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters …

Now, when I say “blow something up,” that can be taken literally or figuratively. It really depends on the story you are writing.

If you are writing an action spy thriller, it might mean that you literally “blow something up.” The good guy’s car during an escape. The pursuit helicopter. Whatever needs physically blown up in the moment.

But, if you are writing a romance story, “blowing something up,” might be more of a figurative sort of thing. Maybe the two main love birds have a misunderstanding that leads to some sort of emotional turmoil or falling out between them and requires the plot to progress so everything can be fixed and love will bloom once more.

If you’re writing a vampire novel, maybe you break a window and let the daylight stream in upon the hapless blood sucker (be he/she hero or villain).

What you are doing is, at its core, introducing some extremely catastrophic event that is somewhat plausible within the continuity of your story. This is what it essentially means to “blow things up” in your story.

Now, a word of warning. Unless you are writing a farcical story, as I said, the explosion you introduce (literal or figurative) has to be plausible. Not necessarily probable, mind you.

If you are writing a Sci-Fi Thriller, introducing an alien invasion is plausible. If you are writing a Teen Rom-Com, aliens coming down and wreaking havoc within the narrative is most likely NOT plausible. Although, it may be.

Plausibility of the catastrophic action you are implementing as a storytelling device is crucial. The reader has to look at what you just did and say to themselves, “Yeah … I’ll buy that!”

So, next time you are stuck in your story, try blowing something up!

In the future, I’ll be talking about other methods I use to get around the dreaded problem of writer’s block. All of which are either useful or fun or even both!

So, yes, PitMad is happening tomorrow on Twitter. And yes, I will be participating with two stories.

Be on the lookout for my tweets pitching them between 8 AM and 8 PM EST on my account: @MathiasCav

If you are interested in also joining in, here is a link to the event page:

#PitMad

I do ask that everyone please become familiar with the rules, especially when it comes to favoriting tweets and such. Because it seems every cycle there are a lot of folks who don’t listen and wind up doing things that get authors all sorts of excited only to then be crushed when they find out the people favoriting tweets aren’t agents and publishers.

Until next time I decide to post!