I've only used it for a few days, but I really love the way it lays things out along a timeline that's easy to move around. It helps you see the story in a different way and to spot where the gaps are. I find that visual harder to achieve and clunkier to play with using tables and spreadsheets, but I'm still keeping another plotting plan on a Word doc at the moment as I'm not sure I want to put it all into an app, so there's a double-up going on which could end up being a time waster. You can try it for free for 30 days, which is great.
Glad to hear that Plottr's helping with the efficiency piece of the puzzle, Sara (I'm the marketing guy). Agree on being selective with how much advice one reads. Information overload and analysis paralysis are real! Mistakes are often the best teachers :)
Hi Jordan, absolutely agree about mistakes being great teachers. And yes, finding the visual layout of Plottr really appealing and helpful - thank you!
Thanks Sara. A lot to ponder there, as always. As with everything writing-related, the only thing we can control is our creative output but we have almost zero control over the income that this produces. Every writer who produces a work of publishable standard has worked hard, that is a given. But not all make a livable income. So much 'success' in publishing (defining success here as a decent wage though it's not the only barometer) comes down to luck, timing and publisher support. What I mean is - improving your efficiency does not necessarily equate to extra dollars. Sadly, I believe that 99% of writers need a plan B for a wage. That is where we're at.
I absolutely agree with you that success is often due to luck, timing and publisher support. And also there's very little financial security and most people need a Plan B. I also believe that the traditional publishing model is broken in many ways, doesn't serve 99% of authors, and that is going to become more evident in future years. I want to keep one eye on the trad publishing route because it's still there right now (and if you get a stellar deal then it's still the best route in terms of reaching readers), however, one of the things I want to explore here is where the gaps are, the opportunities to innovate, the stories of people doing things differently - because two of the biggest authors selling today (Hoover and McFadden) have made very interesting decisions early on in their careers to keep rights for themselves, to push into self-publishing options, and have risen on the back these choices not to hand their work straight over to trad publishers all the time. I really believe there's lots of opportunity for us all to innovate right now, which is scary and daunting but potentially exciting too. And also that we can't continue to let our work be defined in the two months after publication and have to look for new ways to support our books' longevity too. Lots more to discuss together!
Yes, yes, yes! I think I saw an article yesterday about more and more authors publishing books on substack, perhaps a bit like what Rachael Johns is doing, with reader feedback along the way.. So interesting.
Really interesting Substack Sara! As always. I’m really beginning to wonder if AI has been significantly over blown. I understand it can be used to generate junk books, which can obviously cause issues with some readers getting ripped off and online retailers being inundated. That’s a problem that will have to be overcome. But I just don’t believe AI can be used to write even a halfway decent book. If you are a terrible writer it can produce something okay for you and occasionally rise to a patch of really good writing …. Which would leave you with what exactly? Nothing that would ever be published and the ‘writer’ in this case has learned nothing that will move them forward in their journey. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but having experimented pretty thoroughly I’m just not scared of it anymore. I do think it can be a useful research assistant, though the hallucinations render even that questionable. Everything has to be confirmed. And then there are the larger ethical concerns. It’s a minefield at the moment. But these days I really do find myself wondering to what degree this has all been over hyped.
Thanks Dervla, I agree - to be honest as I’ve been writing my new novel I’ve been wondering how exactly I would ever get AI to help with any of it as it’s so personal and specific. Maybe for background research, but as you say we can’t even rely on that being accurate. I only hope consumers don’t have to wade through piles of advertised crap to reach books they love but then again our industry has always thrived on word of mouth so this will work to our advantage too. Feel like this can only encourage us to all more deeply appreciate what humans bring to different art forms.
Plottr sounds interesting. I usually just use a spreadsheet. What are the pros and cons you’ve found with it so far?
I've only used it for a few days, but I really love the way it lays things out along a timeline that's easy to move around. It helps you see the story in a different way and to spot where the gaps are. I find that visual harder to achieve and clunkier to play with using tables and spreadsheets, but I'm still keeping another plotting plan on a Word doc at the moment as I'm not sure I want to put it all into an app, so there's a double-up going on which could end up being a time waster. You can try it for free for 30 days, which is great.
Glad to hear that Plottr's helping with the efficiency piece of the puzzle, Sara (I'm the marketing guy). Agree on being selective with how much advice one reads. Information overload and analysis paralysis are real! Mistakes are often the best teachers :)
Hi Jordan, absolutely agree about mistakes being great teachers. And yes, finding the visual layout of Plottr really appealing and helpful - thank you!
Thanks Sara. A lot to ponder there, as always. As with everything writing-related, the only thing we can control is our creative output but we have almost zero control over the income that this produces. Every writer who produces a work of publishable standard has worked hard, that is a given. But not all make a livable income. So much 'success' in publishing (defining success here as a decent wage though it's not the only barometer) comes down to luck, timing and publisher support. What I mean is - improving your efficiency does not necessarily equate to extra dollars. Sadly, I believe that 99% of writers need a plan B for a wage. That is where we're at.
I absolutely agree with you that success is often due to luck, timing and publisher support. And also there's very little financial security and most people need a Plan B. I also believe that the traditional publishing model is broken in many ways, doesn't serve 99% of authors, and that is going to become more evident in future years. I want to keep one eye on the trad publishing route because it's still there right now (and if you get a stellar deal then it's still the best route in terms of reaching readers), however, one of the things I want to explore here is where the gaps are, the opportunities to innovate, the stories of people doing things differently - because two of the biggest authors selling today (Hoover and McFadden) have made very interesting decisions early on in their careers to keep rights for themselves, to push into self-publishing options, and have risen on the back these choices not to hand their work straight over to trad publishers all the time. I really believe there's lots of opportunity for us all to innovate right now, which is scary and daunting but potentially exciting too. And also that we can't continue to let our work be defined in the two months after publication and have to look for new ways to support our books' longevity too. Lots more to discuss together!
Yes, yes, yes! I think I saw an article yesterday about more and more authors publishing books on substack, perhaps a bit like what Rachael Johns is doing, with reader feedback along the way.. So interesting.
Yes we have a LOT to explore here!
Really interesting Substack Sara! As always. I’m really beginning to wonder if AI has been significantly over blown. I understand it can be used to generate junk books, which can obviously cause issues with some readers getting ripped off and online retailers being inundated. That’s a problem that will have to be overcome. But I just don’t believe AI can be used to write even a halfway decent book. If you are a terrible writer it can produce something okay for you and occasionally rise to a patch of really good writing …. Which would leave you with what exactly? Nothing that would ever be published and the ‘writer’ in this case has learned nothing that will move them forward in their journey. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but having experimented pretty thoroughly I’m just not scared of it anymore. I do think it can be a useful research assistant, though the hallucinations render even that questionable. Everything has to be confirmed. And then there are the larger ethical concerns. It’s a minefield at the moment. But these days I really do find myself wondering to what degree this has all been over hyped.
Thanks Dervla, I agree - to be honest as I’ve been writing my new novel I’ve been wondering how exactly I would ever get AI to help with any of it as it’s so personal and specific. Maybe for background research, but as you say we can’t even rely on that being accurate. I only hope consumers don’t have to wade through piles of advertised crap to reach books they love but then again our industry has always thrived on word of mouth so this will work to our advantage too. Feel like this can only encourage us to all more deeply appreciate what humans bring to different art forms.