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Hey folks!
We weren’t going to give you an episode of SPP this week. The idea was to take the week off, but when we recorded Better Off Undead last week, we found that we simply continued talking about the creative process behind Johnny and Sean’s new book, Unicorn Western.
So, in lieu of an SPP this week, we’re going to give you episode 21 of Better Off Undead, since it’s all about our writing process anyway.
Enjoy!
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Hey Undead Heads, this week we mailed the show in, spending the entire show talking about Johnny and Sean’s new series, Unicorn Western the first book which is free today only (December 27) so go check it out.
Find out the origin story of this insane idea for a book in this week’s episode.
Can a book that started out as a joke, with me at it’s butt, actually be good?
So if you hate self-promotion, avoid this episode of BOU like a Birdemic outbreak!
Mercifully, the show is short, as we were in holiday mode. Unfortunately, thanks to some internet issues on Johnny’s end, there’s no video this week. Apologies to those who actually want to see us make asses of ourselves.
Tune in next week when we’ll get back to our off-topic nonsense.
Hey guys,
Dave said that a flop in your own genre is easier forgiven, which I thought was very interesting because I assume the opposite. If a writer puts out great dark horror and then a crappy unicorn western, isn’t that better than putting out both good and bad dark horror. At least, from the reader’s point of view, I know that whatever CI puts out will be awesome. Something either Sean or Dave writes outside of CI? I’d automatically take with a grain of salt, so to speak.
Of course, none of this matters, because Unicorn Western is totally awesome.
I was also surprised that Sean put out these books under the same name. In a previous episode, he made a big deal about the importance of pennames, for the sake of Amazon’s search engines. Now, whoever downloads Unicorn Western (relatively clean and for YA’s) gets an ad for Yesterday’s Gone, right? Some fans might get upset about that…
What you don’t want is a reader who likes one thing buying something else because it has your name on it (or, worse, because Amazon suggested it), only to get totally disappointed because the suggested story is so different and not to their liking. They may accuse you of taking their money, meaning the bond of trust between writer and reader is broken, meaning they may really hesitate before buying anything else from you.
Or, I might be totally off here.
I’d really like to know the answer to this too. I think Sean was the one who was talking about using pen names in different genres. Sean?
Hey Jacob, that’s a great question. Let me clarify.
Right now, I think the name “Sean Platt” is the most important thing I have, so much so that I am building everything else around it. A project like my kid’s stuff shouldn’t have the Sean Platt name because it’s confusing.
But that’s because I’m writing those things specifically for kids. I’m not doing that with Unicorn Western. I’m writing something kids CAN read, but I didn’t write it for them. And I think it’s good enough (so wouldn’t disappoint) readers of my other stuff. Our most regular reader/reviewer at CI gave it five-stars. If I was more uncertain, or if it was a hard niche, I would’ve used a pen name.
For example, hard sci-fi or an actual western or something like that I would have used a pen name, but I see Unicorn Western as broad, and therefore something that could be enjoyed by many.
Hope that makes sense, but I’m at the bottom of a bottle of wine, so feel free to ask for clarification!
Oh, and I met a guy once that complained about the historical inaccuracy of the “scraping metal” sound when someone draws a sword in the movies. He said that the holsters (or whatever they’re called) for swords would be lined with leather of even wool and greased with oil. The scraping sound means the sword is being dulled every time it’s drawn.
That illustrates the need for research… or does it? If every movie in history has the scraping sound, does that mean all writers are writing with minimal research? And, unless you’re an OCD history buff nerd, don’t you enjoy the movie anyway, scraping or no scraping? I do.
Make the smoke any color you want. You may start a trend. And then all movies will have smoke the color you chose. And then Myth Busters will do a special on the REAL color of smoke in the old days, all the while giving you free publicity. If the smoke were the right color (whatever it was back then), Myth Busters would never advertise your work for you.
Movie sounds are made for effect, not to be realistic. Some sounds are pretty accurate. There is actually a few episodes of the mythbusters where they test these movie sounds to see how close they are to real sounds. The answer? Not many.
Specifically, the sword being drawn from the sheath is to give the added feeling of sharp, danger, metal. What they are really pulling from that sheath is rubber or plastic, not metal at all. So in order to engage the scenes and enhance your acceptance of what isn’t real they add in sounds.
That is actually how the movie sound industry started. They had movies with people walking around, shutting doors, or breaking things, and the real sounds were not that effective when it came to the big screen. They borrowed the idea from the radio industry to fake the sounds. It’s now a specialized field just like movie make up, and FXs.
Most people in this century don’t know what a real sword being pulled from a sheath sounds like. I happen to have a few swords sitting here, so I know what it sounds like. But still, I don’t mind the sound because I know it’s just a movie.
All in all, I find the people who complain about this sort of things are really picky people. And it stops them from completely enjoying something that is purely for entertainment value.
Damn, whenever I think about Unicorn Western now I think about the color of the gun smoke . Still, it’s fascinating how random ideas can lead to something like that – that’s the power of inspiration !
Interesting debate on flops and failing – I too believe that if you want to create kick-ass work, you have to be willing to fail – otherwise you’ll always stay safe in your bubble and create dull and meaningless stuff. And failing won’t destroy you , because you’re creating the work with the same amount of attention and care. It may only be the topic / genre / story that your audience won’t like.
PS – I thought Hook was pretty awesome – what a fresh and unique take on Peter Pan. Much better than retelling the same old story again and again.
You guys should give Dave some credit. He sounds like he’s a perfectionist. That’s okay, for the most part. But he did start publishing. He may not be ready to expand outside of his chosen domain, but he did start in the first place.
There are too many of us (like me) who let that part of us that hates criticizing get in the way of just sitting down and finishing our damn book. So I’m going to give props to Dave for sticking with it. And props to Johnny and Sean for encouraging to step outside his comfort zone.
By the way… can’t wait for the next Z 2134. Reading Monstrous and Unicorn Western now… I think you guys write too fast for me to keep up, but I’m not complaining. Just gives me something to look forward to.
Thanks, Crissy. You are 100% right. The guys SHOULD give me credit