Break Bad Habits, Forge Good Ones

A sad fact of human nature is that it’s easy to form and continue bad habits, while it’s tough to make and maintain good ones. Although this post is meant to help writers, the technique I present could help anyone with a habit problem.

An excellent post by Leo Babauta inspired me to build on his thoughts.

Perhaps you’d like to break a bad habit of using too many adverbs in your writing. Or maybe you’d like to form the good habit of incorporating all five senses into your descriptions. Whatever bad thing you want less of, or good thing you want more of, read on.

The Habit Chain

Since I last wrote about habits, I’ve refined my thinking. I now think of them as a process, a chain with links. Habits start out as deliberate routine actions. You have to consciously think about them the first few times. They usually are triggered by something else, and I’ll call that a cue. The cue occurs, you perform the routine action, and get a reward. The reward generally satisfies some need you have. (In the case of good habits, you usually have to provide the reward yourself.)

Eventually, whenever the cue occurs, you feel a strong urge to perform the routine so you can get the reward. With enough repetition of this process, you start performing the action unconsciously, right after the cue, and you earn the reward right away. That routine action has now become a habit. The shorter the time between cue and action, and action and reward, the stronger the links are and the more ingrained the habit will be.

Obviously, the idea is to break your bad habit chains and forge good habit chains.

Breaking or Forging Habit Chains

  1. State Your Reason. This method takes some effort, so identify why you want to tackle this particular habit. Later, when the going gets tough, it will be useful to remind yourself why you set off on the journey.
  2. Commit to the Effort. This isn’t an ‘oh, well, I’ll give it a try’ kind of thing. This is heart and soul time. This is not the hen’s involvement with your breakfast; it’s the pig’s total commitment. You didn’t form the bad habit overnight, and you won’t forge the good one quickly either; this will take time.
  3. Obtain Support and be Accountable. Seek an ‘accountability partner’ who will periodically ask for progress updates and to whom you’ll report. Schedule regular meetings with your partner to keep on track.
  4. Identify your Cues. Find the event that triggers your bad habit. Or, to forge a good habit, pick an event that will trigger you to perform that good habit.
  5. Work on the Cue-Action Link.
    • For bad habits, pause when the cue occurs. Try to resist the urge to perform the habit. Also, think about alternate, or replacement actions you could take to satisfy the need, and work on performing those instead of the ingrained habit action.
    • For good habits, perform the desired action as soon after the cue as possible. Whenever the cue occurs, work on making the routine action as automatic as possible.
  6. Work on the Action-Reward Link.
    • For bad habits, think about why you crave the reward. What need is it satisfying? Are there other ways to satisfy it? If it’s possible to deny yourself the reward, try that and see what happens.
    • For good habits, reward yourself promptly after completing the action. Tightening that link will help ingrain the habit.
  7. Remind Yourself. Bad habits become so automatic that they follow the cue by reflex action. Good habits need to follow immediately after their cue. Therefore, you need visual reminders of your habit-breaking or habit-forging effort placed around where the cues occur.
  8. Permit No Exceptions. You’ll never break that bad habit or adopt that new one if you give yourself an out. The moment you backslide and make excuses for that, you’re well on the road to abandoning the effort.
  9. Don’t Beat Yourself Up. Okay, the ‘no exceptions’ rule didn’t work and you messed up. The cue occurred and you went back to your bad habit or failed to perform the good habit. Rather than giving up, or getting a self-defeating attitude, look back at Step 1 and remind yourself of the important reason you started taking these steps. Then, learn from the backsliding episode. Analyze what happened and why. Alter your approach. Consider new ways to break a bad habit chain or reinforce a good habit chain. Focus on the cue and realize there’s a moment of decision between it and the habit, an opportunity for you to change.
  10. Stay Positive. Maintain an upbeat and confident attitude about this habit-changing process. You can do it. You’re not doomed to repeat your past mistakes. You have the capacity to change for the better and you can make those changes work for you. Of course it will be difficult, but few worthwhile things are easy.

There you have it. Good luck! Remember, some habits are okay and require no change, like my habit of signing all my blogposts as—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 24, 2021Permalink

End of the Story

…and they lived… Well, how exactly does the story end? Some time ago, I discussed rules for writing endings, but today let’s explore various ways stories can end.

I did a little research, and writers agree there are only five or six possible story endings. However, they each have their own categorization methods, so there may be well over six, even after counting for overlaps. (In each case, I’m simplifying their lists for brevity.)

For example, author C. Patrick Schulze categorizes endings by the protagonist, the goal, and the protagonist’s state of mind:

  1. Attains goal (happy)
  2. Attains goal (sad)
  3. Doesn’t attain goal (happy anyway)
  4. Doesn’t attain goal (sad)
  5. Realizes goal was flawed (doesn’t care)

Scott Francis categorizes in terms of the protagonist, the goal, and things greater than the goal:

  1. Attains goal (happy)
  2. Doesn’t attain goal (sad)
  3. Attains goal, but loses something greater (classic tragedy)
  4. Sacrifices goal for something greater
  5. Ending is ambiguous or bittersweet (literary fiction)

A blogger known as NDRW postulates these five more plot-centric endings:

  1. Happily ever after
  2. To be Continued…
  3. Learn something
  4. Deux Ex Machina
  5. Sorrowfully ever after

Dean Elphick’s six endings are different, but also plot-based:

  1. Resolved Ending
  2. Unresolved Ending (to be continued)
  3. Implied Ending (ambiguous, often unsatisfying)
  4. Twist in the tale (surprise)
  5. Tie-Back (ending foretold at beginning)
  6. Crystal Ball (months or years later/epilogue)

The Write Redhead cites writer Michael Orlofsky’s six ending types (mostly character-based):

  1. Death Ending
  2. Recognition Ending (learn something)
  3. Framing with Recognition (cyclic, return to beginning)
  4. Surprise/Revelation Ending
  5. Journey Endings (protagonist starts a new journey)
  6. Response to Theme (need to balance emotional and intellectual power)

These various bloggers and writers may differ in how they categorize ending types, but they do concur that endings must flow naturally and logically from the story.

I also think they’d all agree you should spend a lot of time getting the ending right. Take the same effort you did in coming up with the perfect beginning hook, to make sure you’ve ‘nailed the landing,’ as Michael Orlofsky put it.

If you’re unsure how to end your story, look over the list above, read the blogs I’ve linked to, and write a few different endings. Your optimum story ending should emerge from that effort.

Now, with the perfect ending to this post, I’ll close with my characteristic sign-off, as—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 17, 2021Permalink

The Misery Problem

Imagine this: you’re a successful author with a long-running book series. Suddenly the creative well runs dry and your muse wants to end the series and write different stories, with different characters. However, your fans are begging for the series to continue.

That’s the problem faced by author Paul Sheldon in Stephen King’s novel Misery (1987), so let’s call it the Misery Problem. I mentioned this in a previous blogpost and promised I’d get back to it.

What if the Misery Problem happened to you, in real life? Assuming you didn’t become the victim of an obsessed reader fan who’s also a psychotic nurse, what would you do?

Before I discuss some of your options, I must say this is a problem I’d love to have! After considering it, I’ve come up with the following options:

  • Follow Your Muse. End that series that’s become an albatross around your neck. Terminate it by killing off one or more of the beloved characters. You’re tired of those books and you need to move on to other things. Let the fans complain all they want. They’ll adjust.
  • Throw Your Fans a Bone. If you really don’t want to disappoint your readers, and if you can stand to write some more stories in the series, but along a different vein, consider:
    • A Prequel. Explore what happened before the events of your series.
    • An Origin Story. This is a special kind of prequel that relates the story of how your series character(s) got started.
    • A Spinoff. Pick an engaging secondary character from your series and write stories about that character. This might work well if you tried to end your series with the death of a main character.
    • A Crossover. Consider this if you’ve started a second, unrelated series set in the same time period as the first. In a crossover, characters from the two series meet and interact.
  • Please Your Fans. You hate to disappoint your readers, and perhaps you can bring yourself to continue the series. However, you’ve killed off a beloved main character. What to do?
    • If you write fantasy, you could conjure up some magical explanation for bringing that character back to life.
    • If you write scifi, you’ll need a pseudo-scientific explanation for bringing the character back to life.
    • Re-read the scenes where you killed the character off. Is there some wiggle room? Did the character really die, or is survival possible somehow?

Can you come up with other solutions to the Misery Problem? We can only hope it’s a conundrum to be faced someday by you and by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 10, 2021Permalink

Make Better New Year’s Resolutions, and Keep Them

Welcome to 2021, a brand-new year. It’s an empty page, waiting to be written on. What are your hopes, dreams, and goals for this year? Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Or are you unwilling to do so because you’ve broken all your past ones?

If you’ve had bad experiences with resolutions in the past, this post is for you. Likely you’ve experienced one or more of the following problems making and keeping your resolutions. After each problem, I’ve proposed a solution that might work for you.

Problem 1: I’m too busy for resolutions. Life gets in the way of getting them done.

Solution: Ask yourself if all the things you’re currently doing with your time are more important than your resolution. If so, fine, don’t change anything. However, I suspect you’ll find some things you’re doing are less important than your resolution, and the real problem lies elsewhere on this list.

Problem 2: I just lack willpower. I don’t have the discipline to follow through on my resolutions.

Solution: In the moment of decision, remember why you made your resolution. Remember why you think it’s important.

Problem 3: The resolution was easy to make, but now seems too big. It’s overwhelming.

Solution: Break it into parts. Make it a project with several manageable tasks. Do the tasks one at a time.

Problem 4: I like my resolution, but don’t really know how to accomplish it. (Example: “I want a life of joy.”)

Solution: Rewrite your resolution to be actionable. Start it with an action verb. (Example: “Find joy in everything, if possible, and spread it to others. When not possible, seek to re-attain the feeling of joy as soon as I can.”)

Problem 5: My resolution seemed like a good idea, but it’s a little vague. Now that I read it again, I’m not sure how or when to say I’ve accomplished it. (Example: “Lose weight.”)

Solution: Rewrite your resolution in a more specific way. Assign dates and measurable outcomes. (Example: “Lose 20 pounds by August 31, and keep the weight off through the end of this year.”)

Problem 6: Whenever I work on my resolution, I just can’t get anywhere. It’s easier to forget the whole thing.

Solution: Visualize a future in which you’ve accomplished the resolution. Imagine your life after that goal is achieved. Paint a mental picture of success. Rewrite your resolution, if necessary, to include and reinforce that vision.

Problem 7: I wrote down my resolutions and stuck them in a drawer. Now I’ve forgotten all about them.

Solution: Find a short motivational phrase, ideally a single word that represents your resolution. Recall Winston Churchill’s catchword: “Victory.” Put it everywhere you’re likely to notice it. (You can still keep a longer version, perhaps broken down into separate tasks as mentioned in Problem 3 above, but the short version is meant to inspire you to work on the remaining tasks.)

Now you’re well on your way to making resolutions that work for you. Here’s a fine example to get you started: I resolve to read all the weekly blogposts written by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

9 SciFi Predictions for 2021

I know, I know, when I used a crystal ball two years ago, my predictions didn’t pan out. Then when I read tea leaves last year, my prognostications were in error. But you can believe me this year. I’m using SciFi tarot cards to predict what will happen in 2021.

The cards can’t possibly be wrong. Here are my predictions for science fiction books in the year 2021:

  • Disease Stories. Inspired by the COVID-19 virus, there will be stories of even deadlier diseases, perhaps intelligent diseases. I see stories of pandemics, extreme isolation, and how characters deal with mass death.
  • Rebirth. I foresee stories of characters getting back to normal after pandemics, stories about the rebirth of society.
  • Private Space Exploration. Inspired by Space-X, stories of space travel will involve companies, not governments.
  • Humor. There will be a surge in funny scifi, mainly because we can all use it right now.
  • Artificial Intelligence. Writers in 2021 will continue to explore this topic as they have for decades, but with greater urgency as computer scientists get closer and closer to developing Artificial General Intelligence, and perhaps Artificial Super Intelligence.
  • Anti-Capitalism. I predict there will be stories pointing out, in fictional form, the deficiencies of capitalism. Anti-capitalist themes may only form the backdrop of the story, but they will be there.
  • China. In 2021, I see an uptick in scifi books involving China in some way. Some will be written by Chinese authors, and some stories will be set in China.
  • Fewer Aliens. Alien tales are out in 2021. Of the few that will be published, they will involve communication only, not visitations, let alone abductions or invasions.
  • Urban Scifi. Paralleling the urban fantasy subgenre, we’ll see a lot of scifi books in 2021 that start out in a modern-day city setting, and go from there.

Personal Predictions

Here are three other prophesies for 2021, but these involve me in some way:

  • The Seastead Chronicles, my collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, will be published in 2021.
  • The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, (working title: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne) all inspired by Jules Verne, in 2021, and I’ll be on the editorial team. You can write a story for it. Click here for details.
  • Pole to Pole Publishing will put out an anthology of reprinted military science fiction short stories in 2021, titled Re-Enlist. I’ll serve as co-editor of this one. Stay tuned to this blog for more details.

In late December of 2021, I’ll post my assessment of the above predictions, and you’ll see there’s no better reader of tarot cards than—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 27, 2020Permalink

Looking Back, My 2020 Predictions Assessed

My dream of a career as a prognosticator has gone seriously awry…again. At the end of last year, using tea leaves, I made several predictions about the direction of science fiction in 2020. Let’s see how I did.

  • Prediction: SciFi will become more political in this U.S. election year [2020]. With the citizenry becoming increasingly partisan, authors will show their political biases and opinions in their stories. Stories will increasingly be either left/liberal or right/conservative.
    • Assessment: I saw no real evidence of this.  
  • Prediction: With the decline and death of the dystopia will come the birth of a more hopeful and positive future. We’ll see more stories of civilizations rising from the ashes of past global destruction.
    • Assessment: I’m not sure about the hopeful and positive part, but there were some post-apocalyptic novels in 2020, like The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
  • Prediction: Despite the risk of paradox, authors will give us more time-traveling protagonists heading off to the past or future. Most of these time travel stories will involve romance to some degree.
    • Assessment: I didn’t see a lot of time travel novels, but two scifi time travel movies got released this year: Tenet, and Bill & Ted Face the Music.
  • Prediction: Climate Fiction, or CliFi, will remain a strong sub-genre, with authors exploring humanity’s influence on the Earth’s climate. I predict most such stories will either deal with human attempts to fix the climate before a catastrophe or will take place after a climate catastrophe.
    • Assessment: I was right about CliFi remaining strong, as evidenced by The New Wilderness by Diane Cook, The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal, and Eden by Tim Lebbon.
  • Prediction: More protagonists and other major characters will be part of the LGBTQ spectrum. Within these fictional worlds, the cisgendered characters will respect and admire the LGBTQ main characters, not ostracize or mistreat them. Other related works will continue to take place in transhuman, post-gender worlds.
    • Assessment: Admittedly, this was an easy call anyone could have made, and I was right. Examples include Finna by Nino Cipri, Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott, and The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.
  • Prediction: SciFi authors will continue to explore various subtleties and nuances of the Strong Female character in 2020.
    • Assessment: This was another easy prediction, and I was right again. I would say more than half the scifi novels of 2020 featured Strong Female protagonists. In fact, Goldilocks by Laura Lam features a ship with an all-female crew.
  • Prediction: With the completion of the triple trilogy “Skywalker Saga” in 2019, authors will pen stories reacting to all things Star Wars. In 2020, I anticipate stories satirizing and otherwise mocking aspects of the George Lucas-created franchise, and probably other SciFi fantasies trying to fill the void by launching Star Wars variants.
    • Assessment: Wrong. I saw no evidence of this.
  • Prediction: Authors in 2020 will weave tales comporting with Afrofuturism 2.0 and Astro-blackness. Audience reaction to the 2018 film Black Panther demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for works merging the themes of the African Diaspora with high technology.
    • Assessment: Wrong. I saw no evidence of this.
  • Prediction: I see some Boomer Lit SciFi in 2020 examining baby boomer themes. This will include stories with older protagonists, as well as stories with strong 1960s nostalgic references.
    • Assessment: Wrong. I saw no evidence of this.

Maybe I used the wrong brand of tea. Be sure to read next week’s post, where you’ll see spot-on predictions about the scifi you’ll be reading in 2021, all high-quality prophesies by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 20, 2020Permalink

Call for Submissions — an Upcoming Anthology

What an opportunity for you fellow writers! The North American Jules Verne Society is sponsoring its first anthology of new fiction, and the group wants to see a story (and artwork) from you.

The anthology is titled Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. NAJVS is looking for fictional short stories inspired by the works of Jules Verne. Your submission can be an original story; it can be a reprint. It can be set in any time or place. It can use characters from Verne’s tales (they’re all in the public domain) or you can make up your own.

In addition, the Society is seeking illustrators to come up with the cover image for the anthology and also some internal images to go with each story.

You can find out all the details here.

I have the honor of being a member of the editorial team working on this anthology, and I’m looking forward to reading your story.

So, get writing, Jules Verne fans! I know you can create a story that will absolutely thrill—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 13, 2020Permalink

20,000 Reasons This is the Perfect Holiday Gift

Still looking for gift ideas for the holidays? You’ve surfed to the right site. If someone on your list is a fan of science fiction, submarines, steampunk, or just plain adventure, I’ve got the perfect gift you can give.

It’s called 20,000 Leagues Remembered. This isn’t the Jules Verne classic (though that would make a fine accompanying gift). This is an anthology of new stories written by today’s authors, all in commemoration of Verne’s masterwork.

Inside, your recipient will find adventure, mystery, exotic locales, danger, excitement, wonder, and some humor. It’s the kind of gift that earns you multiple thanks—once when the gift is received, once after its read, and time after time after it gets re-read. How thoughtful and perceptive of you!

Moreover, it’s easy to get. You can order the ebook or paperback version (or both) from multiple sources, including Amazon, Apple ibooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

Fun fact: this year, 2020, marks 150 years since Verne had his undersea adventure novel published. There’s still time for you to get the book in this sesquicentennial year.

Oh, yeah—this could be the perfect gift to give yourself, too!

Suggesting great gift ideas is just one more service provided to you for free by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 6, 2020Permalink

Virtually the Best SciFi Conference Ever!

Me, as I appeared to conference attendees. Just hanging out in my submarine.

Just wrapped up a wonderful weekend attending Chessiecon, the scifi and fantasy conference named for the sea monster of the Chesapeake Bay. This year they held it online, which made it easier in some ways, and more difficult in others. The programming team kept me busy, with five panels and a reading. In case you missed it, here’s the recap:

How to Get Published, with Meg Eden, Linda Adams, Nate Hoffelder, and Steve Kozeniewski. I served as moderator for this panel. Everyone provided great advice, making it a real how-to panel for beginning writers.

Humor in SF/F Writing, with Steve Kozeniewski, Don Sakers, and the Chessiecon Guest of Honor, Charlie Jane Anders. I moderated this panel as well. It was an hour filled with wonderful and funny advice on how to write humor. Writing humor is difficult to do, and the panelists handled did a good job explaining how to go about it. The audience asked inciteful questions and I thought the panelists really addressed those well. The ‘after-party’ post-panel discussions in Discord were hilarious.

Making an Unlikeable Person a Likeable Character, with Mary Fan, Steve Kozeniewski, Valerie Mikles, Karen MacLeod, and me. Here I served as a panelist while Mary Fan moderated. It was a fascinating subject for a panel, as it really got into how writers create and develop characters that change and learn. Mary Fan did a super job moderating the session and I learned a lot from the other panelists.

My reading was well-attended. I read “Reconnaissance Mission” which appeared in Not Far From Roswell, by Pole to Pole Publishing. I challenged the audience to write down all the Edgar Allan Poe references they caught in my story, which made it a little more fun.

How to Ruin a Revolution, with Ted Weber, Cathy Hird, and Don Sakers. I moderated this one, but the panelists were all so knowledgeable and cited so many historical and fictional examples, I think the audience was blown away. We covered revolutions, protests, and coups, both historical and fictional, with special mention of Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. We should have offered college course credit for that 1-hour session.

Humans are the Same, with D.H. Aire, Susan de Guardiola, and Meg Nicholas. I served as moderator and the discussion was wide-ranging, comparing people today with our ancestors and exploring the few ways in which people have changed. We discussed what historians leave out, and what misconceptions we have about those who came before.

Overall, I miss in-person conferences, but there are advantages to online cons. Attendees don’t have to dress well, or even leave their house, to attend. Attendees get more close-up views of books that authors hold up, and they can simply copy and paste book and story titles so they can more easily buy the books they’re interested in.

I know, I know, you don’t have to say it. The only books you’re interested in are those by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 29, 2020Permalink

My Chessiecon 2020 Schedule

Here’s a rare opportunity, Poseidon’s Scribe fans. You can attend a writer’s conference and see me…for only $10. Yes, you read that correctly. $10.

The Chessiecon 2020 conference is online this year and it only costs a ten-spot to attend. Since it’s online, you can attend from anywhere. The conference runs from Friday, November 27 through Sunday, November 29.

Although things are still in flux, here’s my current schedule (subject to change) (all times are EST):

Date/TimeTitleDescription
Friday 5:30 pmHow to Get PublishedOverview of process from story idea to editing to submission to publishing.
Friday 8:30 pmHumor in SF/F WritingHow to make something funny, what makes someone laugh. Humor as ‘the tragedy you survived.’
Saturday 10:00 amMaking an Unlikeable Person a Likeable CharacterDiscuss how to write a person with unpleasant characteristics or behavior can still be a character that appeals to readers
Saturday 11:30 amReadingReading
Saturday 8:30 pmHow to ruin a revolutionDiscuss protests and revolutions have an effect that was not anticipated by the organizers. Do revolutions need to be violent to be effective? Consider Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress as an example.
Sunday 1:00 pmHumans Are the SameHistory panel about examples of ways in which we’re not so different from our ancestors, and how writers make use of this fact. Funny stories of immature ancient graffiti, poetry about people’s cats, etc.

At the moment, it looks like I’ll be moderating four of those panels, all except “Making an Unlikeable Person a Likeable Character.” For my reading session on Saturday, I plan to present my short story “Reconnaissance Mission” from the anthology Not Far From Roswell.

Normally, I charge $11, or as much as $12, to see me, and then you only get my bad side, from a distance. Here’s your chance, for only $10, to see the real, live—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 22, 2020Permalink