August 27, 2018 • 48 mins
A compelling opening is crucial because it sets the tone for your entire story and determines whether a reader will continue or move on to something else. Your first sentence should create curiosity, raise questions, or present an intriguing scenario that beckons the reader to delve deeper into your narrative.
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(00:00):
Welcome to the inside creative writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host,
writer and educator,
Brad Reed.
Episode
31.
Today, we're exploring a concept called confirmation
bias and how we can use it to
(00:21):
influence readers, agents, and publishers, and how it
can also help bring our characters to life.
Welcome back to the Inside Creative Writing podcast.
My name is Brad Reed and I am
so glad that you're spending some time with
me today to talk about writing.
If you're a fan of the podcast, if
you've been, finding value in what we're doing
(00:42):
here and it's been helping you with your
writing journey, I'd love it if you'd consider
becoming part of the Patreon team to help
support the show and keep it up and
running. You can find out more about how
to do that at patreon.com/bradreedwrites.
You'll also find a bunch of, additional resources
available there like our real time revision videos
(01:03):
that show you in real time
what it looks like to revise a work
of fiction. Now, that's one of the most
mysterious steps of writing a novel or a
screenplay, I think, and,
the listeners to the show have confirmed that
and the kinds of questions that they they
asked me to talk about. So, check that
out. Also, many of you know I'm an
(01:23):
English teacher and, school actually starts up again
today for me. We start a little bit
late in Oregon.
Now, that creates both a challenge and an
opportunity
for me in regards to this podcast. So,
it's a challenge,
because the time and resources that I have
available to give it,
get less. Right? Although, I've reorganized my class
(01:45):
load this year so that won't be that
much of a change this year. But, it
also means that I'm teaching a creative writing
class every single day of the week.
And honestly, it's while,
researching and crafting those lessons for my creative
writing students
that I discover a lot of what I
talk about on this podcast. So it's really
(02:05):
exciting to be starting another year of that
kind of teaching. I love being
immersed in both writing every day and teaching
writing every day.
Something about that consistency that keeps it top
of mind and keeps it evolving.
I feel really lucky to get that opportunity
and honestly even luckier that I get to
share
(02:26):
the benefits of that with you through this
podcast and the other writing resources,
that we put together for you. So, alright.
Enough of all that stuff. I'm excited to
get into today's topic.
So let's get started. Today we're going to
talk about confirmation
bias.
What is it and why do we need
to know about it as writers?
(02:56):
So, I had heard the term confirmation bias
before
and kind of understood what it was but
it wasn't until I saw a segment on
a show called Brain Games
that I felt like I really got a
good grasp of it. Now rather than give
you some technical definition of what we're talking
about when we're talking about confirmation bias and
why it's so vital for us to know
(03:17):
about, I'd like instead to just kind of
tell you this segment. Now if you get
a chance to check the show notes over
at bradreedwrites.com,
I've actually put a link up there to
the short little video so you can watch
it which is probably better than having me
explain it to you but I'm gonna keep
it pretty short.
So, basically on this little segment of the
show they recruit these people to come in
(03:37):
and pretend as though they're a boss hiring
for
a new position.
And, what they do is they send in
two people to enter for interview for the
job and these two people, these two women
are twins. They're dressed exactly the same.
They speak, very similarly
and, so what they're really trying to get
it get at is which of these two
applicants are they gonna choose
(03:59):
based on the words that they use. So
the first applicant comes in
and gives six,
describing words about, what kind of person she
is, what kind of worker she is. And
here's what she says. She says, I'm serious.
I'm hardworking.
I'm creative,
but I'm also moody and nitpicky and brutally
honest.
(04:20):
So the interviewer kind of takes some notes
about that and then they send in her
twin. She looks exactly the same. The mannerisms
are the same and she introduces herself but
she describes herself with exactly the same words
but in backwards order. So she starts by
saying,
well I'm brutally honest. I'm nitpicky
and I'm moody but I'm also creative, hardworking,
(04:41):
and serious.
So what's interesting in this video is I
think it's something like 80%
of the people that they had do this
chose the first,
applicant. Now, they looked exactly the same. Their
first impressions were the same. The only difference
that that they had were the order
in which,
the words were said. Right? One started with
(05:03):
the three positive
characteristics followed by the three negative. The other
started with the three negative followed by the
three positive.
And the one who started with the three
positive
was hired,
like I said I think it was 80%
of the time they chose that candidate.
And, so what's happening in that video is
something called confirmation
bias. In the video they actually call it
(05:25):
the primacy effect,
but at least for our purposes today we're
going to refer to this phenomenon
as confirmation
bias.
So the interview formed an opinion
about each of the candidates within the first
few things that they said.
So when somebody starts off thinking positively they're
either initially forming this positive
(05:47):
bias we're gonna going to call it about
that applicant.
Now, that opinion even though the interview doesn't
realize it then colors everything else
that happens in that interview.
So, as they got to the more negative,
descriptions of themselves,
those didn't match their initial decision or their
initial bias.
(06:08):
So, they were able to more easily ignore
or discount
the negatives
that the person is using to describe themselves.
It's almost like they didn't hear them. Right?
Because they had already made up their minds.
They've already formed,
a bias at the beginning and the additional
information that they hear from that point is
just confirming
that bias. So,
(06:30):
now what we're calling bias here I don't
want you to think of it necessarily as
a negative term. When we hear this term
bias we often think of the negative connotations.
We're simply using bias today
to describe our initial impression
or decision about a person or a thing.
So when you meet somebody new you
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immediately form some kind of bias, right? You
either like them or you don't. You either
think they're nice or you think they're not
nice and there's that initial
reaction. So that's what we're talking about with
bias and confirmation bias.
So we see this actually all the time
in our real lives especially in an area
like politics.
So, if you're biased one way already,
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one way or another you're more likely to
seek out and
watch
news channels that support your position or confirm
that initial bias that you have more than
you are
likely to seek out channels that
are working against it or providing evidence against
it
and even if you do hear
(07:32):
alternative positions you're more likely to ignore
or discount
the positions that don't fit
your,
existing bias, then you are the ones that
build it up.
And I I tell my academic writing students,
that teachers and professors do the same thing
all the time with their writing. Have you
ever wondered why when you're in high school,
(07:53):
when you're in college,
that formatting is so important, right? They want
everything to be Times New Roman, 12 font,
double spaced, all of that stuff.
The reason is because
proper format and titles and double spacing, font
choice, all of that stuff
forms a teacher or professor's
initial reaction to your work. So if a
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professor looks at an essay and the formatting
is all wrong
or maybe the students clearly used
too large of a font in order to,
you know, help meet some kind of page
count or something like that,
then the professor can't help but form
an initial
opinion, an initial expectation, an initial
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bias.
So whether intentional or not, and it's usually
actually not intentional,
the professor will see everything else now in
that essay as a way to confirm
that initial bias. So if the formatting is
good and everything else looks like it should
and the professor begins to read and discovers
a misspelled word, they're probably gonna think, Oh
(08:57):
well, everybody misses a word here and there.
Right? It's clear this writer knows what she's
doing and they can kind of look past
that misspelled word.
But, if the formatting is off, right,
the spacing isn't there, the font choice is
weird, the margins are too big, anything like
that,
and then the professor reads and finds that
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same misspelled word,
the professor's thought process is going to be
very different. They're going to think something like,
see, I knew it. Right? I knew I
knew this writer wasn't any good and here's
even more proof.
Now this may not be fair.
My my students argue all the time that
it's absolutely not fair and it didn't feel
fair to me when I was in high
school and college either.
(09:38):
But that's the real world. Right? That's just
the way our brains work. The way they
process the world around us.
Because the world around us throws way more
information at us than we can possibly ever
process. So we have
this built in shortcut
that we use to navigate the world.
(09:59):
Now sometimes these biases are dead on right,
but sometimes
they misfire.
So what's important as writers
is that we recognize
that this is what's happening
when people encounter our work.
So like it or not, potential readers, agents,
and publishers are all publishers are all doing
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the same thing
with our work. They're getting a first impression
based on things that may have absolutely nothing
to do
with how well we write and those first
impressions are going to color
the rest of the experience of reading your
book, reading your manuscript, reading your screenplay.
(10:42):
So, today what we're going to do is
look at some of the ways that we
can
kind of hijack this process of confirmation bias
and get these readers on our side from
the beginning. So, they are now looking for
positives in our work rather than negatives.
And, how can we make sure that our
readers, whether it's somebody looking to purchase our
(11:03):
book on Amazon,
an agent considering representing you, or a publisher
considering putting your book out there to the
world, how we can get them on our
sides
before they've even gotten more than a few
pages
into our manuscripts, if even that far. Often
before they even read the first sentence
of your book or your screenplay.
(11:24):
So, we're just gonna go through
a little bit of a list here of
things that you should think about when it
relates to confirmation bias. And, I want to
start with your name.
Now it's very very easy to just,
start writing under your own name. Right? Whatever
name you were given from your birth. Now,
for some of us,
not me necessarily,
but for some of us we get really
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lucky and we're giving an outstanding
kind of writer name
by our parents and the world just works.
All the stars align and we're good to
go. For most of us though,
we need to stop and think about our
name a little bit, right? Our name
is our brand, right? We're not Sony. We're
not Apple. We're not anything like that but
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in very much the same way, our name
becomes our brand name almost like our company
name.
So you want to stop and give your
name some thought.
Is your name memorable?
Right? Is it a name that's unique enough
that it sticks out of the crowd and
kind of sticks in a person's mind? If
it's not, you might consider making a change
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to it using some kind of pen name.
Another thing to think about with your name
is is it easy to spell or is
it easy to pronounce more easily?
Now I was, listening to a podcast, great,
great podcast. It's called ScriptNotes,
from John August, great screenwriter.
And he was interviewing Mindy Kaling of Office
fame and, The Mindy Project and things like
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that. And They got talking about the subject.
I thought it was a fantastic interview. I
recommend you check it out. But she was
talking about how she changed her name. So
her,
given name, and I'm not sure I'm gonna
say this right, is Vera Mindy
Chokalingam.
Chokalingam,
c h o k a l I n
g a m.
(13:08):
And just in that process right there you
can see why that was an issue for
her, why she felt like she needed to
change it to Mindy Kaling.
Right? She she talks in this interview about
how
even when she meets writers or artists that
she loves, if they have particularly difficult names
to pronounce or spell, that she's a little
bit reluctant
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to
recommend them. Right? Or to talk about them
with friends because of that
little,
risk of embarrassment
of saying something wrong or having to, you
know, spell it or something like that. So
she was thinking about this when she was,
thinking about her career and decided to simplify
her name to Mindy Kaling. Something,
pretty memorable,
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something much easier to spell and pronounce.
So, the other thing I love about that
interview is they talk about how problematic that
really is, right? How,
and I'm not gonna get too much into
this today, but I do wanna talk a
little bit about the dark side, I guess
you could say of that, where maybe we
are losing some of the
(14:11):
cultural diversity
that is out there because we're trying to
fit it all into these simple
kind of,
English pronunciation
world. So there is a there is, you
know, something to think about there remaining authentic
to who you are,
balanced with this need to have your name
be pronounceable and easily spelled.
(14:32):
Now, another area that's a bit problematic,
to think about, when it comes to the
name that you used to write under is
your access to markets. Now, fortunately, this has
changed a lot,
over the last few decades. It still has
a ways to go But we have in
literature a lot of examples of women who
change their names or use a pen name,
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of the other gender. Right? They they write
as men because there was more access
to the markets as men.
We still see some of that today but
it's something to at least consider,
as you are thinking through your own,
branding.
But that's problematic
too. Right? We we lose,
the opportunity for some diversity, I think, when
(15:15):
we try to fit into these, existing,
markets. There's also examples of the same thing
sometimes,
to hide race or ethnicity.
Right? So maybe you've got a writer who
is worried that,
their,
you know, specific ethnic sounding name
may hold them back from accessing a market.
So I'm not saying that's right. I'm not
(15:36):
saying that's good. I'm just thinking saying it's
something to think about
as you're deciding
the brand that you want to put out
into the world.
Another way to look at your name is,
what is it gonna look like on the
spine of a book? Right? Especially as writers,
if we're,
writing novels, short story collections, things like that.
(15:56):
Eventually,
our name is gonna be on the spine
of a book. Is your name really long
to the point that it's gonna appear very
small on that book or is it short,
is it punchy, is it powerful so it
can be bold and really stand out? Right?
Probably things you haven't really thought about,
but things that I guarantee you
corporations
(16:17):
and,
companies think about when they are branding. Right?
How is our name going to appear on
this product
to build that name recognition?
You'll also just think about whether your name
makes you seem professional or not. I'm not
gonna use any examples here because I don't
want to offend anybody but there are names,
out there. First names especially that just don't
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sound like a very professional
name. That might be a cause for you
to decide to use a pen name or
some other variation
of your name.
Another reason that you might wanna think about
using a pen name is to hide who
you really are.
Now, this is,
something that a lot more people wrestle with
than I think we realize.
(17:00):
Often times when we're writing, we
worry
about what our family, what our friends might
think if we about what we're writing. You
know, especially in areas like
erotic fiction or things like that, you know.
Sometimes there can be a need or a
desire to kind of withhold
who you are to disconnect that from your
real persona in the world. So that might
(17:22):
be another reason that you think about maybe
changing a pen name. So I wanna walk
you through how I chose my pen name
and I was surprised as I was putting
this together how many of those bullet points
that I just went over applied to my
name.
So my actual name is Brad Thompson.
You know me as Brad Reed. Reed is
(17:43):
actually my middle name. So, as I was
thinking through,
becoming a writer and imagining my name appearing
on books and things like that and working
with this name Brad Thompson,
I realized that I was going to have
some of these issues, not in a major
way, but a lot of these issues with
that name.
So I ended up changing my pen name
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to just my first and middle name, Brad
Reed, r e e d. So first of
all, it's more memorable, right? I love that
play off of
the two versions of Reid. Right? There's Reed,
r e a d, like I'm reading a
book, and Reed, r e e d, like
my middle name. So I like that Brad
Reed connection
to literature, to books. I also like that
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it's short. Right? I can picture
Brad Reid on the spine of a book
much easier than I can picture Brad Thompson
on the side of a book. In fact,
both names have four letters. They actually have,
three of the four letters are exactly the
same. Right? R e
excuse me r e and d appear in
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in l or in both of them so
I like that too right helps with that
and memorization
of it
no trouble in spelling it you'd be surprised
how many times people can misspell Thompson.
Leave out the h or it's s e
n at the end or some other variations.
Reed, there's really only one way to spell
it. I've never seen r e a d
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as a last name so people generally get
that right the first time and don't need
explanation.
And it fits bigger and better on a
book spine. Right? I can it's much more
usable as a brand
and it also provides
some of that anonymity
that I want especially as a high school
teacher. Right? I want to be able to
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have the freedom
to write about things, topics, themes
that
may not be not necessarily appropriate for high
school because I don't do anything that you
would technically call inappropriate. But, I wanna be
able to take stands,
on topics that may not
be widely accepted,
in the area that I live. Right? So
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there's that advantage of being able to provide
that little level of anonymity
between who I am as a writer and
who I am as a community member.
So there's almost
nothing more personal and intimate than your name.
Alright, you've had this since day one and
it's who you are and it can be
really hard.
It can actually even sometimes be hurtful
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to some of your family, especially to parents
if they're around,
because they gave it to you. It can
sometimes be almost offensive
to choose a different name. So, at the
end of the day, remember
that you're creating a product.
You're creating a book or a screenplay or
a poem
that you wanna get out into the world,
that you wanna market into the world. And
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to do that, you need a good marketing
campaign
which requires a good brand name.
Now maybe you're that lucky one and you
were given a good brand name at birth
but maybe not. Right? I'm not suggesting that
you have to change your name here but
I am suggesting that it's worth taking some
time
to at least explore your options and think
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through some of these,
some of these things that might make your
given name
not the best choice to use as a
pen name.
So we're gonna move on to the photo,
the photo that you use as a writer.
Now I spent about,
ten well, no, five, six years of my
life as a real estate agent and if
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you've ever worked with a real estate agent,
you know that a photo,
that real estate agent photo
is key. Right?
Now, if you're using a photo in your
marketing, if you're using a photo on profiles
online and things like that, that's also key.
I probably shouldn't be. Right?
We hate to think about a world that
works on how we look,
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but at the end of the day,
we're humans and we're using every piece of
information that we can
to form that initial impression about somebody.
So a photo, if you're using one, can
be a really key
part of that. So it's worth thinking through
your photo
and making sure that it reflects your genre,
(22:00):
your market,
Right? Somebody who's writing kind of playful,
fun, spontaneous things,
might be able to use something that looks
a lot more,
casual or kind of off the cuff than
somebody who's writing something more
serious or more intense
that might need something that looks more professional.
Whatever you do with your photo,
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do it intentionally
and make sure to get feedback about it.
Bounce it off of a few people that
you trust and say, if you didn't know
me and you saw this photo on a
book jacket or you saw this photo on
a
on
a portfolio or on an online presence,
what would you think about this person? Does
this look like somebody who is a professional
in the area, in the genre
(22:44):
that I'm writing.
So having
great cameras on our phones is actually a
double edged sword.
So now if you've got a nice new
phone, you can generally take some pretty fantastic
pictures,
but the difference is is that we're not
all fantastic
photographers. We're fantastic picture takers because we have
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nice phones
but we're not
professional photographers.
Professionals
know things about
photo composition,
about
nuances in posing, about lighting,
about all those other
photographic
mysteries that only professional people know.
And here's the thing, we don't know it
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as people looking at pictures, but we've seen
enough
that, our subconscious
is processing
those tiny little professional details and when we
see that they're off a little bit, it
colors our confirmation
bias
about that person and about the quality and
the seriousness that they have,
going forward in their business. Right? And our
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business is is writing. And I know we're
very much looking at this as a business
today, and there's probably a lot of you
that are pushing back a little bit against
that and saying, hey, this is my art
form. Right? This is art. I don't wanna
think about it as a business.
That's fine. Right? But I think there is
a time when we're ready to put our
work out into the world that we do
have to see it, at least to some
(24:08):
extent
as a business, as a product, and make
sure that all those details
are in line for the best chances of
success. So, think about your photo. Maybe go
back and look at your Twitter photo, your
Facebook profile photo,
and, even bounce it off a few people.
Right? Does does this look like a writer?
Does this look like a professional writer? Somebody
(24:29):
who's serious about the art that they're putting
out into the world.
I also wanna mention your bio.
Whether that be on Twitter, Facebook,
on a query letter, whatever it is.
And I'm not gonna go deeply into bio
here. There's a lot of information online about
that but just make sure that your bio
represents your best writing.
Before
(24:50):
an agent or a publisher ever sees the
amazing work you've done in your novel,
they are whether,
whether they know it or not, they're forming
their opinion of you as a writer
based on the bio that you've written. So,
just take time with it. Again, bounce it
off of other people.
Make sure that that's solid.
Next thing I wanna talk about is, actually
(25:11):
sort of two or three things in one
and that's your email address,
your website if you have one, your Twitter
handle, all of that stuff that kind of
identifies us
online.
So the other day, I had to email
somebody and their email address was still an
at yahoo
email address. So if you're listening right now
and your email address is at yahoo, I
(25:32):
apologize,
but,
my first thought is, you know, get get
with the times. Right? Who uses at yahoo
anymore? I honestly didn't even know
people still had at yahoo email addresses. Sorry.
Yahoo. Sorry. Yahoo users.
So
did you ever stop to think about what
your email address says about you as a
(25:54):
person?
Now, I'm not even talking, at least not
yet, about what your address before the at
sign is. I'm only talking about what's after
the at sign.
And almost everybody uses Gmail addresses now so
you're probably thinking, I use Gmail, right? So
I'm fine. What's the big deal? Well, that
is the big deal. Right? The fact that
(26:14):
everybody uses
Gmail addresses,
they're free, they're ubiquitous,
and they probably don't hurt your image as
a professional writer
but they don't actively help it either.
It's an opportunity for
very, very subtle,
brand development that most of us miss because
(26:36):
we're using these at Gmail
kind of addresses professionally.
So, what I'd recommend is that you consider
purchasing a domain name. These have gotten incredibly
cheap,
over the years. They're actually a little bit
hard to find .com domain names but if
you can find one that works for you,
that's still, I believe, the best
domain names to go with but there's a
bunch of other options. So consider purchasing a
(26:58):
domain name to show
your potential agents and publishers
that you're serious about what you're doing. You've
done even the smallest little investment
to buy a domain name. So for example,
my email address is bradreed@bradreedwrites.com.
So hopefully, there's no question
(27:19):
in people's minds that I'm serious about writing
and it's based on something as simple as
having that custom email address, that custom
website. It shows them that I'm not just
writing in my spare time and, you know,
throwing things out of the world hoping something
sticks, that I'm a writer, that I've made
some investment in it. And please make sure
(27:39):
you're not using the same email address that
you set up in middle school. So, if
you've got the email, you know, smashmouthrocksmsn
dot com,
that's not gonna impress anyone. So, if you
haven't already, make that change over to an
email address that also serves as a very
subtle but powerful marketing piece for who you
are as a writer. And the same thing
(28:01):
here goes for things like Twitter handles and,
other social media profiles.
These are all
branding opportunities that actually carry
a lot of power. In fact, you might
think of them
like billboards
for your writing business. So, the idea behind
a billboard is that you have just a
few words.
Nobody is pulling over in their car to
(28:22):
stop and read a billboard. Right? You see
it for a second or two
and maybe two or three, four of those
words
land in your brain along with the logo
or slogan
and you have that brand awareness. That's what
you're doing essentially with Twitter handles, with social
media profiles.
So what is the most important
(28:42):
information
that you can convey in just a few
words?
So it's probably your
actual human name, right? Who you really are
or your pen name if you're using a
pen name.
And maybe,
just maybe one other detail if there's
space to get in there. So, you'll notice
(29:02):
that all of my social media echoes my
website and email address.
Everywhere I can get it, I'm Brad Reid
Writes Online. That's my billboard. I think about
that,
as my billboard.
Wanna move on to just a couple of
other things that are specific
about your books that you are releasing into
the world,
that have to do with that confirmation bias.
(29:24):
And again, just a reminder here, these are
all judgements that are being made almost instantaneously
about people who are evaluating your book. Whether
that's readers who may wanna purchase it, whether
that's agents who may wanna represent you, or
publishers that may wanna publish you.
All of these things are the things that
are forming those instantaneous
first impressions
(29:45):
that then go on to factor into the
confirmation bias.
So, I want you to think about your
book title.
On the show, it's been a while ago,
I went over something called The Kill List
which is actually just a it's on, it's
available on the Patreon website. If you go
to patreon.com/bradreedwrites,
(30:05):
and scroll down, you'll see the kill list
there. And, this is an editing tool
where, you basically go through and take out
all of the weak kind of weasel words
that don't need to be in a sentence
so that you you get down to the
real power of that sentence.
I am shocked
at the number of times I see a
book title, especially self published,
(30:25):
that have a bunch of these kill list
words
in there. Right? They just jump out at
me like a big sign waving this writer
doesn't really even know how to construct a
sentence
because they have these lazy, weak words right
there in their title, which might be the
most important sentence,
if you wanna think about it that way,
of their entire book.
(30:45):
So if getting rid of that kind of
language is important within each sentence of your
book, how much more important
to get rid of them in the title?
So in your title, lose every word
that doesn't have to be there.
Get rid of adverbs. That's probably the one
I see,
the people the most guilty of is leaving
(31:07):
a bunch of adverbs in their title. If
you don't know why adverbs are so bad,
go back and check out the archives of
the podcast and you'll see a podcast that
we did on that.
Also in your title,
avoid being too generic.
You wanna be as specific
as possible. You wanna try to find that
title
that no other book could have. Right? Only
(31:29):
your book can have this title. So avoid
things like
all the time I see people writing memoirs
and the title is something like
My Life.
Right?
Completely forgettable. Right? A billion books out there
could be called My Life or something like
Love Comes Knocking.
That could describe a boatload of books out
(31:52):
there in the world about love stories or
space adventure. Right?
Avoid these very generic
titles. Do the work of finding that title
that no other book could have. So I
wanna use a couple of different examples here.
This is actually this first list is borrowed
from a website and I apologize I did
not,
(32:13):
get it written down where this was from,
but it was another writer who was talking
about
as they were just looking back through their
Goodreads
history and what they've read
about
the all the titles that seem to blend
into each other. So listen to this group
of titles
that she,
wrote about here first and tell me how
different each of these are. Do each one
of these sound like a different story? So
(32:34):
the titles are, When You Were Here,
After I'm Gone,
Before I Met You,
Far From You,
Until We Meet Again,
Since You've Been Gone,
The Last Time They Met,
The Day We Met,
and The Next Time You See Me.
Now I have no idea
(32:55):
based on those book titles
what any of those books are about
other than somebody's
gone and I need to meet them again.
And there's no differentiation.
In fact, I bet if I asked you
right now to name one of those titles
that I just gave you, you wouldn't be
able to come up with it, right, without
listening back to it and hearing it again.
So those are generic
(33:16):
kind of blah titles.
Now I wanna read to you the top
selling books
on Barnes and Noble right now. I literally
looked at this yesterday, so this is up
to the minute. And listen to how specific
these are, how different they are from each
other, and how,
they can probably only be
one book. Right? They could only be the
(33:37):
title of one book. So the top one
right now is actually a book called Girl,
Wash Your Face.
Now that's very specific. I'm going to remember
that title. Girl,
Wash Your Face. Book number two is PS,
I Still Love You. Initially, that sounds like
generic a little bit because it says I
still love you, but notice how just putting
that PS on the beginning
(33:57):
individualizes
it. Now, I'm thinking, and I don't know
anything about this book, but I'm thinking this
might be like a collection of love letters
or letters that were,
like back and forth between,
two people in a relationship.
There's something about that PS I still love
you that is gripping. It's not the most,
(34:17):
outstanding title but it's different enough that it
sets itself apart.
We have the book version of a movie
that's very popular right now, Crazy Rich Asians.
Alright. I'm not gonna get that book mixed
up with any other book out there, Crazy
Rich Asians.
We have a book called Texas Ranger
on the list right now. This is probably
(34:38):
the most,
blah title in the current top selling books
right now because there feel I feel like
there could be a lot of books
called Texas Ranger. This one benefits from, having
been written by James Patterson.
So he in fact, if you look at
a lot of his books and a lot
of best selling authors like this, his name
is actually bigger
(34:59):
than the title
on a lot of his books. So he's
able to sell books based on his name
a lot more than these,
really interesting specific titles. But still,
you know, works better than some of them
I read in that last list.
Another one is The President is Missing.
Now, I kinda like this one because it's
(35:19):
the actual premise of the book.
Right? When you pick up a book called
The President is Missing, you know exactly what
this book is gonna be about. And you
know that
this is the only book that could have
that title because it's telling you exactly what
the book is about. So notice the difference
in specificity
between those titles and how they all stand
(35:40):
out as being,
only the title of a single book. Right?
You're not gonna get Girl, Wash Your Face
confused with a bunch of other books like
you would one of the titles from that
first list, Until We Meet Again.
That right, that could be a thousand different
books.
So, as we move on from that one
little tip here.
When you've settled on the title of your
(36:01):
book,
just Google it. Right? Google that title and
see what comes up.
Is your book in a search result going
to get lost in the mix of other
similarly titled books? Maybe even song titles or
lyrics or maybe verses of poetry.
If a whole bunch of stuff comes up,
(36:21):
it's telling that you probably need to choose
something that will make your book,
the first and maybe the only thing that
comes up on a Google search for it.
Alright, so if I went and searched right
now, Crazy Rich Asians book,
there's only gonna be one thing that comes
up, right? And it's gonna be that specific
book.
The last thing I wanna talk about with
(36:42):
book titles here is to try out your
title on unsuspecting
strangers. I actually have some of my creative
writing students do this. They get very nervous
about it, but they'll, most of them do
it. They'll try out their title on unsuspecting
strangers. So they would say, hey, I'm writing
a book.
The title is this.
What do you expect that book to be
about?
(37:02):
And does it remind you of any other
books that you know about?
So if they if an unsuspecting stranger can't
say, well, I bet that book's about blah
blah blah,
then your title is is too generic. Right?
They they don't know what to do with
it,
and neither will your readers, your agents, your
publishers
when they see kind of a blah title.
(37:23):
Okay. We're getting closer to the end of
this list today. Thanks for hanging with me.
I wanna talk about what I think is
my own
personal pet peeve, because I see this go
wrong so
so often. And that is
your book's cover.
Now, you would never think of telling a
great cover artist
(37:43):
that they're such a good cover artist that
you should write your own book just to
put your cover on it. Right? That doesn't
make any sense.
But so often, especially self published authors, do
the opposite of that. They've written what they
believe is a great book,
so therefore, they must have the skills
to make the cover for it. That's just
(38:03):
not true. Just like we talked about with
photography,
there are subtle,
fine details of craft
that we can sense
in book art and we can recognize on
a deeper level. I can't even tell you
what they are because I'm not a book
design
guru, right? I know that I don't have
those skills.
(38:25):
But I also can look at a group
of 10 covers
and I can tell you which ones are
professionally designed and which ones aren't and you
could do exactly the same thing, right? There's
something about that professional role
that sets your book apart and makes you
look professional.
People cannot help
but judge a book and its author
(38:45):
by the cover of that book. I mean,
that's why we have that famous saying, right?
You can't judge a book by its cover
because that means that's exactly what we're wired
to do, right? We have to be reminded
to try to not do that. And it's
actually terrible to admit this. I feel bad
about this.
But there are self published books out there
that I've really enjoyed,
(39:05):
but I don't recommend
to other people simply because of how terrible
that cover looks and I don't want I
don't want that to reflect on me as
a person who loves to read and find
good quality books to recommend a book that
looks like somebody,
threw it together in
Photoshop,
on their own computer.
(39:27):
Last but not least, we're running a little
bit long today so if you're still with
me I appreciate that a lot.
If your reader, your agent, your publisher gets
past all of these initial elements that they're
looking at when they're developing their bias
they're going to get to your first sentence
and your first few paragraphs.
So, let's go back to this analogy that
(39:47):
we started with of the job interview.
So, if we're using that analogy then everything
up to this point has been
just that first impression that you and your
book make before you ever speak a word.
So,
these things are like the clothes you wear
or the posture that you have or the
expression on your face as you enter the
interview
And now, it's time to actually open your
(40:09):
mouth and speak. And those are the first
sentences, maybe the first paragraphs of your book.
And how important are those first words that
you say? Well, they're absolutely
vital. Right? These first words are your opening
sentence.
Maybe the first paragraph.
If that goes well, then maybe it's the
entire first chapter.
And I want you to remember that seven
(40:30):
second rule that we talked about, in another
I think there was another podcast before
that people make their first impressions within
the first seven seconds. So a reader,
an agent, a publisher is beginning your book
with the exact same question in mind. They're
all asking the same thing and that question
is, is this book any good?
And they begin making that decision on the
(40:52):
first page.
And of course they're looking for things like
grammatical
problems, right? A page littered with adverbs,
or maybe
other grammar errors show that you don't have
control of conventions. All of that can be
an immediate turn off. But, they also wanna
see that you know how to hook your
reader
into a story.
And, I'm not necessarily talking about throwing a
(41:15):
gripping action scene onto the first page of
your story. Right? That's kind of the big
thing right now is hit them with action
on page one. But not all stories work
that way or have to work that way.
Some stories
can start very quietly.
But any well written book
will lead the reader into a world or
(41:35):
a character
that a reader can't help but at least
be curious about.
So those first few sentences, those first few
paragraphs
creates what I call little mysteries
that make your reader want to turn the
page to find out the answers to those
little mysteries.
In a way, that's the heart of all
writing, isn't it? Leaving enough little mysteries and
(41:57):
sometimes huge mysteries
that the reader is just curious enough
to turn the next page. If you do
that consistently
over a few hundred pages,
then you have a solid novel, solid screenplay.
So you want to revise,
revise, and revise again
your opening pages, your opening paragraphs, your opening
(42:18):
sentence. You want them to shine
with polish, with intention.
You want to force your reader,
grab them by the
the the shirt collar and force them to
turn to the next page.
We're gonna talk about the best way to
learn how to do this as part of
our weekly challenge at the end of today's
podcast. So make sure you keep listening until
then so you have some actionable steps.
(42:40):
So that's what confirmation
bias looks like for writers.
Now you may not like that that's the
way you're being judged,
but there's no getting around it that that's
the way it happens. It's just the way
the human brain
has evolved
to operate.
We have to make rushed decisions
about whether the things around us are good
(43:01):
or bad. And once we've made those decisions,
then we interpret
all other evidence in light of those initial
decisions.
Now, I'm not saying that an initial impression
can't be overcome.
So, as an example, I've certainly read student
essays that have butchered the formatting but went
on to be pretty solid papers. But why
(43:23):
not do the simple things upfront
so that your reader
is on your side
from the very beginning.
Our wise word today comes from Argentine writer,
Jorge Luis Borges.
I have no idea if I'm actually pronouncing
(43:44):
that right, so please forgive me if I'm
not. I wanted to give credit
to writer TA Pierce who actually shared this
quote on Twitter with perfect timing for me
to see it and include it in today's
episode.
If you wanted to follow him on Twitter,
you can find him at, at t underscore
a underscore pierce.
Anyway, here's what Jorge says for this week's
(44:05):
wise word.
One falls in love with a line,
then with a page, then with an author.
Well,
why not? It is a beautiful
process.
What he's really talking about here is when
a writer gets
confirmation bias right.
Because the first line hooks us and gives
(44:26):
us confidence in the writer and the story.
Then we take that confidence into the rest
of the page.
And when we find quality there as well,
we fall in love with that author. We
trust
that author. So, in other words, we're on
their side now.
Now, if we come to a weak spot
or a fumbled line,
we happily forgive that and we read on
(44:48):
looking for more things to love.
So, if we were to rewrite Jorge's quote
from the other perspective,
that of reading a works that isn't done
well, it might go something like this.
One is disappointed with a line,
then struggles to read the page,
then
discounts the author. Well, why not? It is
(45:08):
a frustrating process.
So, be the writer that readers fall in
love with
by getting their confirmation bias on your side
from the very beginning.
Our weekly challenge this week involves you surrounding
yourself with a bunch of books that you
(45:29):
love. So, even books that you just kind
of like will work too if you don't
have that many books around you that you
love. Could be online books or physical books,
but literally get yourself surrounded by these books.
And then I want you to do a
couple of things
to explore how these writers and publishers
have gone about influencing your
(45:50):
confirmation bias.
So, step one here is to first just
read the titles. Read through the titles and
see what those titles might have in common.
Do you see that they've used words from
the kill list in the titles?
Almost certainly not. Right? Are the titles long?
Are they short and punchy? Are they specific
enough titles that these books are the only
(46:12):
books
that could have those titles.
And then imagine,
how would your book
look sitting around you
among those other books?
Would that title stand up next to them?
Because
literally, that's what it'll be doing when it's
in a bookstore or on a page of
Amazon.
The second step and I think the most
(46:32):
insightful is to actually open each book
and read at least the first sentence
and ask yourselves a few questions.
What has the writer done to create a
little mystery for me as the reader, even
in just the first sentence?
And then do that with all of the
books that you've collected. And think about what
you start to notice
(46:53):
about these opening lines. Are they short? Are
they long? Are they a mix of both?
Do they introduce a character? Or maybe they
introduce a unique world.
Maybe they introduce a moment of tension
or conflict. Do you find something in common
among all of these first sentences?
Now,
read the first sentence of your work in
(47:15):
progress.
And does it stand up? Right? Does it
create a compelling reason for the reader to
move on to the next sentence, the next
paragraph,
the next page?
I really hope you'll do this little assignment.
I think you'll be surprised at how much
you learn
and how much it changes your perspective
on your own work and your own openings.
(47:35):
It's going to help you see it in
a new way.
In the way that your readers will see
your work and,
you'll see how it will influence their confirmation
bias.
So, that's gonna wrap it up for us
this week. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd
love it if you'd tweet about it or
mention it to some of your writer friends
and maybe even leave us a review over
on iTunes or whatever app you, use to
(47:57):
listen to podcasts.
Also, again, please consider joining the Patreon team
for just a couple of bucks a month.
You'll be helping to support this podcast and
the other resources we produce.
Sure it helps us pay the bills around
here, but it's also a huge,
emotional boost,
honestly, for us to know that you're finding
value in what we're doing and would like
(48:17):
us to continue doing it. So till next
week, remember the best way to improve your
craft
is by writing. That's what I'm off to
go do and I hope you're off to
do the same. Let's get some words on
paper this week and we'll meet up again
next week for another episode of the Inside
Creative Writing Podcast.
Thanks for listening to the Inside Creative Writing
(48:39):
Podcast with your host, writer, and educator,
Brad Reed.
We'll be back next week.
Welcome to the inside creative writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host,
writer and educator,
Brad Reed.
Episode
31.
Today, we're exploring a concept called confirmation
bias and how we can use it to
(00:21):
influence readers, agents, and publishers, and how it
can also help bring our characters to life.
Welcome back to the Inside Creative Writing podcast.
My name is Brad Reed and I am
so glad that you're spending some time with
me today to talk about writing.
If you're a fan of the podcast, if
you've been, finding value in what we're doing
(00:42):
here and it's been helping you with your
writing journey, I'd love it if you'd consider
becoming part of the Patreon team to help
support the show and keep it up and
running. You can find out more about how
to do that at patreon.com/bradreedwrites.
You'll also find a bunch of, additional resources
available there like our real time revision videos
(01:03):
that show you in real time
what it looks like to revise a work
of fiction. Now, that's one of the most
mysterious steps of writing a novel or a
screenplay, I think, and,
the listeners to the show have confirmed that
and the kinds of questions that they they
asked me to talk about. So, check that
out. Also, many of you know I'm an
(01:23):
English teacher and, school actually starts up again
today for me. We start a little bit
late in Oregon.
Now, that creates both a challenge and an
opportunity
for me in regards to this podcast. So,
it's a challenge,
because the time and resources that I have
available to give it,
get less. Right? Although, I've reorganized my class
(01:45):
load this year so that won't be that
much of a change this year. But, it
also means that I'm teaching a creative writing
class every single day of the week.
And honestly, it's while,
researching and crafting those lessons for my creative
writing students
that I discover a lot of what I
talk about on this podcast. So it's really
(02:05):
exciting to be starting another year of that
kind of teaching. I love being
immersed in both writing every day and teaching
writing every day.
Something about that consistency that keeps it top
of mind and keeps it evolving.
I feel really lucky to get that opportunity
and honestly even luckier that I get to
share
(02:26):
the benefits of that with you through this
podcast and the other writing resources,
that we put together for you. So, alright.
Enough of all that stuff. I'm excited to
get into today's topic.
So let's get started. Today we're going to
talk about confirmation
bias.
What is it and why do we need
to know about it as writers?
(02:56):
So, I had heard the term confirmation bias
before
and kind of understood what it was but
it wasn't until I saw a segment on
a show called Brain Games
that I felt like I really got a
good grasp of it. Now rather than give
you some technical definition of what we're talking
about when we're talking about confirmation bias and
why it's so vital for us to know
(03:17):
about, I'd like instead to just kind of
tell you this segment. Now if you get
a chance to check the show notes over
at bradreedwrites.com,
I've actually put a link up there to
the short little video so you can watch
it which is probably better than having me
explain it to you but I'm gonna keep
it pretty short.
So, basically on this little segment of the
show they recruit these people to come in
(03:37):
and pretend as though they're a boss hiring
for
a new position.
And, what they do is they send in
two people to enter for interview for the
job and these two people, these two women
are twins. They're dressed exactly the same.
They speak, very similarly
and, so what they're really trying to get
it get at is which of these two
applicants are they gonna choose
(03:59):
based on the words that they use. So
the first applicant comes in
and gives six,
describing words about, what kind of person she
is, what kind of worker she is. And
here's what she says. She says, I'm serious.
I'm hardworking.
I'm creative,
but I'm also moody and nitpicky and brutally
honest.
(04:20):
So the interviewer kind of takes some notes
about that and then they send in her
twin. She looks exactly the same. The mannerisms
are the same and she introduces herself but
she describes herself with exactly the same words
but in backwards order. So she starts by
saying,
well I'm brutally honest. I'm nitpicky
and I'm moody but I'm also creative, hardworking,
(04:41):
and serious.
So what's interesting in this video is I
think it's something like 80%
of the people that they had do this
chose the first,
applicant. Now, they looked exactly the same. Their
first impressions were the same. The only difference
that that they had were the order
in which,
the words were said. Right? One started with
(05:03):
the three positive
characteristics followed by the three negative. The other
started with the three negative followed by the
three positive.
And the one who started with the three
positive
was hired,
like I said I think it was 80%
of the time they chose that candidate.
And, so what's happening in that video is
something called confirmation
bias. In the video they actually call it
(05:25):
the primacy effect,
but at least for our purposes today we're
going to refer to this phenomenon
as confirmation
bias.
So the interview formed an opinion
about each of the candidates within the first
few things that they said.
So when somebody starts off thinking positively they're
either initially forming this positive
(05:47):
bias we're gonna going to call it about
that applicant.
Now, that opinion even though the interview doesn't
realize it then colors everything else
that happens in that interview.
So, as they got to the more negative,
descriptions of themselves,
those didn't match their initial decision or their
initial bias.
(06:08):
So, they were able to more easily ignore
or discount
the negatives
that the person is using to describe themselves.
It's almost like they didn't hear them. Right?
Because they had already made up their minds.
They've already formed,
a bias at the beginning and the additional
information that they hear from that point is
just confirming
that bias. So,
(06:30):
now what we're calling bias here I don't
want you to think of it necessarily as
a negative term. When we hear this term
bias we often think of the negative connotations.
We're simply using bias today
to describe our initial impression
or decision about a person or a thing.
So when you meet somebody new you
(06:50):
immediately form some kind of bias, right? You
either like them or you don't. You either
think they're nice or you think they're not
nice and there's that initial
reaction. So that's what we're talking about with
bias and confirmation bias.
So we see this actually all the time
in our real lives especially in an area
like politics.
So, if you're biased one way already,
(07:11):
one way or another you're more likely to
seek out and
watch
news channels that support your position or confirm
that initial bias that you have more than
you are
likely to seek out channels that
are working against it or providing evidence against
it
and even if you do hear
(07:32):
alternative positions you're more likely to ignore
or discount
the positions that don't fit
your,
existing bias, then you are the ones that
build it up.
And I I tell my academic writing students,
that teachers and professors do the same thing
all the time with their writing. Have you
ever wondered why when you're in high school,
(07:53):
when you're in college,
that formatting is so important, right? They want
everything to be Times New Roman, 12 font,
double spaced, all of that stuff.
The reason is because
proper format and titles and double spacing, font
choice, all of that stuff
forms a teacher or professor's
initial reaction to your work. So if a
(08:14):
professor looks at an essay and the formatting
is all wrong
or maybe the students clearly used
too large of a font in order to,
you know, help meet some kind of page
count or something like that,
then the professor can't help but form
an initial
opinion, an initial expectation, an initial
(08:35):
bias.
So whether intentional or not, and it's usually
actually not intentional,
the professor will see everything else now in
that essay as a way to confirm
that initial bias. So if the formatting is
good and everything else looks like it should
and the professor begins to read and discovers
a misspelled word, they're probably gonna think, Oh
(08:57):
well, everybody misses a word here and there.
Right? It's clear this writer knows what she's
doing and they can kind of look past
that misspelled word.
But, if the formatting is off, right,
the spacing isn't there, the font choice is
weird, the margins are too big, anything like
that,
and then the professor reads and finds that
(09:17):
same misspelled word,
the professor's thought process is going to be
very different. They're going to think something like,
see, I knew it. Right? I knew I
knew this writer wasn't any good and here's
even more proof.
Now this may not be fair.
My my students argue all the time that
it's absolutely not fair and it didn't feel
fair to me when I was in high
school and college either.
(09:38):
But that's the real world. Right? That's just
the way our brains work. The way they
process the world around us.
Because the world around us throws way more
information at us than we can possibly ever
process. So we have
this built in shortcut
that we use to navigate the world.
(09:59):
Now sometimes these biases are dead on right,
but sometimes
they misfire.
So what's important as writers
is that we recognize
that this is what's happening
when people encounter our work.
So like it or not, potential readers, agents,
and publishers are all publishers are all doing
(10:22):
the same thing
with our work. They're getting a first impression
based on things that may have absolutely nothing
to do
with how well we write and those first
impressions are going to color
the rest of the experience of reading your
book, reading your manuscript, reading your screenplay.
(10:42):
So, today what we're going to do is
look at some of the ways that we
can
kind of hijack this process of confirmation bias
and get these readers on our side from
the beginning. So, they are now looking for
positives in our work rather than negatives.
And, how can we make sure that our
readers, whether it's somebody looking to purchase our
(11:03):
book on Amazon,
an agent considering representing you, or a publisher
considering putting your book out there to the
world, how we can get them on our
sides
before they've even gotten more than a few
pages
into our manuscripts, if even that far. Often
before they even read the first sentence
of your book or your screenplay.
(11:24):
So, we're just gonna go through
a little bit of a list here of
things that you should think about when it
relates to confirmation bias. And, I want to
start with your name.
Now it's very very easy to just,
start writing under your own name. Right? Whatever
name you were given from your birth. Now,
for some of us,
not me necessarily,
but for some of us we get really
(11:45):
lucky and we're giving an outstanding
kind of writer name
by our parents and the world just works.
All the stars align and we're good to
go. For most of us though,
we need to stop and think about our
name a little bit, right? Our name
is our brand, right? We're not Sony. We're
not Apple. We're not anything like that but
(12:05):
in very much the same way, our name
becomes our brand name almost like our company
name.
So you want to stop and give your
name some thought.
Is your name memorable?
Right? Is it a name that's unique enough
that it sticks out of the crowd and
kind of sticks in a person's mind? If
it's not, you might consider making a change
(12:26):
to it using some kind of pen name.
Another thing to think about with your name
is is it easy to spell or is
it easy to pronounce more easily?
Now I was, listening to a podcast, great,
great podcast. It's called ScriptNotes,
from John August, great screenwriter.
And he was interviewing Mindy Kaling of Office
fame and, The Mindy Project and things like
(12:48):
that. And They got talking about the subject.
I thought it was a fantastic interview. I
recommend you check it out. But she was
talking about how she changed her name. So
her,
given name, and I'm not sure I'm gonna
say this right, is Vera Mindy
Chokalingam.
Chokalingam,
c h o k a l I n
g a m.
(13:08):
And just in that process right there you
can see why that was an issue for
her, why she felt like she needed to
change it to Mindy Kaling.
Right? She she talks in this interview about
how
even when she meets writers or artists that
she loves, if they have particularly difficult names
to pronounce or spell, that she's a little
bit reluctant
(13:29):
to
recommend them. Right? Or to talk about them
with friends because of that
little,
risk of embarrassment
of saying something wrong or having to, you
know, spell it or something like that. So
she was thinking about this when she was,
thinking about her career and decided to simplify
her name to Mindy Kaling. Something,
pretty memorable,
(13:50):
something much easier to spell and pronounce.
So, the other thing I love about that
interview is they talk about how problematic that
really is, right? How,
and I'm not gonna get too much into
this today, but I do wanna talk a
little bit about the dark side, I guess
you could say of that, where maybe we
are losing some of the
(14:11):
cultural diversity
that is out there because we're trying to
fit it all into these simple
kind of,
English pronunciation
world. So there is a there is, you
know, something to think about there remaining authentic
to who you are,
balanced with this need to have your name
be pronounceable and easily spelled.
(14:32):
Now, another area that's a bit problematic,
to think about, when it comes to the
name that you used to write under is
your access to markets. Now, fortunately, this has
changed a lot,
over the last few decades. It still has
a ways to go But we have in
literature a lot of examples of women who
change their names or use a pen name,
(14:53):
of the other gender. Right? They they write
as men because there was more access
to the markets as men.
We still see some of that today but
it's something to at least consider,
as you are thinking through your own,
branding.
But that's problematic
too. Right? We we lose,
the opportunity for some diversity, I think, when
(15:15):
we try to fit into these, existing,
markets. There's also examples of the same thing
sometimes,
to hide race or ethnicity.
Right? So maybe you've got a writer who
is worried that,
their,
you know, specific ethnic sounding name
may hold them back from accessing a market.
So I'm not saying that's right. I'm not
(15:36):
saying that's good. I'm just thinking saying it's
something to think about
as you're deciding
the brand that you want to put out
into the world.
Another way to look at your name is,
what is it gonna look like on the
spine of a book? Right? Especially as writers,
if we're,
writing novels, short story collections, things like that.
(15:56):
Eventually,
our name is gonna be on the spine
of a book. Is your name really long
to the point that it's gonna appear very
small on that book or is it short,
is it punchy, is it powerful so it
can be bold and really stand out? Right?
Probably things you haven't really thought about,
but things that I guarantee you
corporations
(16:17):
and,
companies think about when they are branding. Right?
How is our name going to appear on
this product
to build that name recognition?
You'll also just think about whether your name
makes you seem professional or not. I'm not
gonna use any examples here because I don't
want to offend anybody but there are names,
out there. First names especially that just don't
(16:39):
sound like a very professional
name. That might be a cause for you
to decide to use a pen name or
some other variation
of your name.
Another reason that you might wanna think about
using a pen name is to hide who
you really are.
Now, this is,
something that a lot more people wrestle with
than I think we realize.
(17:00):
Often times when we're writing, we
worry
about what our family, what our friends might
think if we about what we're writing. You
know, especially in areas like
erotic fiction or things like that, you know.
Sometimes there can be a need or a
desire to kind of withhold
who you are to disconnect that from your
real persona in the world. So that might
(17:22):
be another reason that you think about maybe
changing a pen name. So I wanna walk
you through how I chose my pen name
and I was surprised as I was putting
this together how many of those bullet points
that I just went over applied to my
name.
So my actual name is Brad Thompson.
You know me as Brad Reed. Reed is
(17:43):
actually my middle name. So, as I was
thinking through,
becoming a writer and imagining my name appearing
on books and things like that and working
with this name Brad Thompson,
I realized that I was going to have
some of these issues, not in a major
way, but a lot of these issues with
that name.
So I ended up changing my pen name
(18:03):
to just my first and middle name, Brad
Reed, r e e d. So first of
all, it's more memorable, right? I love that
play off of
the two versions of Reid. Right? There's Reed,
r e a d, like I'm reading a
book, and Reed, r e e d, like
my middle name. So I like that Brad
Reed connection
to literature, to books. I also like that
(18:25):
it's short. Right? I can picture
Brad Reid on the spine of a book
much easier than I can picture Brad Thompson
on the side of a book. In fact,
both names have four letters. They actually have,
three of the four letters are exactly the
same. Right? R e
excuse me r e and d appear in
(18:47):
in l or in both of them so
I like that too right helps with that
and memorization
of it
no trouble in spelling it you'd be surprised
how many times people can misspell Thompson.
Leave out the h or it's s e
n at the end or some other variations.
Reed, there's really only one way to spell
it. I've never seen r e a d
(19:09):
as a last name so people generally get
that right the first time and don't need
explanation.
And it fits bigger and better on a
book spine. Right? I can it's much more
usable as a brand
and it also provides
some of that anonymity
that I want especially as a high school
teacher. Right? I want to be able to
(19:29):
have the freedom
to write about things, topics, themes
that
may not be not necessarily appropriate for high
school because I don't do anything that you
would technically call inappropriate. But, I wanna be
able to take stands,
on topics that may not
be widely accepted,
in the area that I live. Right? So
(19:51):
there's that advantage of being able to provide
that little level of anonymity
between who I am as a writer and
who I am as a community member.
So there's almost
nothing more personal and intimate than your name.
Alright, you've had this since day one and
it's who you are and it can be
really hard.
It can actually even sometimes be hurtful
(20:12):
to some of your family, especially to parents
if they're around,
because they gave it to you. It can
sometimes be almost offensive
to choose a different name. So, at the
end of the day, remember
that you're creating a product.
You're creating a book or a screenplay or
a poem
that you wanna get out into the world,
that you wanna market into the world. And
(20:34):
to do that, you need a good marketing
campaign
which requires a good brand name.
Now maybe you're that lucky one and you
were given a good brand name at birth
but maybe not. Right? I'm not suggesting that
you have to change your name here but
I am suggesting that it's worth taking some
time
to at least explore your options and think
(20:57):
through some of these,
some of these things that might make your
given name
not the best choice to use as a
pen name.
So we're gonna move on to the photo,
the photo that you use as a writer.
Now I spent about,
ten well, no, five, six years of my
life as a real estate agent and if
(21:18):
you've ever worked with a real estate agent,
you know that a photo,
that real estate agent photo
is key. Right?
Now, if you're using a photo in your
marketing, if you're using a photo on profiles
online and things like that, that's also key.
I probably shouldn't be. Right?
We hate to think about a world that
works on how we look,
(21:40):
but at the end of the day,
we're humans and we're using every piece of
information that we can
to form that initial impression about somebody.
So a photo, if you're using one, can
be a really key
part of that. So it's worth thinking through
your photo
and making sure that it reflects your genre,
(22:00):
your market,
Right? Somebody who's writing kind of playful,
fun, spontaneous things,
might be able to use something that looks
a lot more,
casual or kind of off the cuff than
somebody who's writing something more
serious or more intense
that might need something that looks more professional.
Whatever you do with your photo,
(22:23):
do it intentionally
and make sure to get feedback about it.
Bounce it off of a few people that
you trust and say, if you didn't know
me and you saw this photo on a
book jacket or you saw this photo on
a
on
a portfolio or on an online presence,
what would you think about this person? Does
this look like somebody who is a professional
in the area, in the genre
(22:44):
that I'm writing.
So having
great cameras on our phones is actually a
double edged sword.
So now if you've got a nice new
phone, you can generally take some pretty fantastic
pictures,
but the difference is is that we're not
all fantastic
photographers. We're fantastic picture takers because we have
(23:04):
nice phones
but we're not
professional photographers.
Professionals
know things about
photo composition,
about
nuances in posing, about lighting,
about all those other
photographic
mysteries that only professional people know.
And here's the thing, we don't know it
(23:25):
as people looking at pictures, but we've seen
enough
that, our subconscious
is processing
those tiny little professional details and when we
see that they're off a little bit, it
colors our confirmation
bias
about that person and about the quality and
the seriousness that they have,
going forward in their business. Right? And our
(23:46):
business is is writing. And I know we're
very much looking at this as a business
today, and there's probably a lot of you
that are pushing back a little bit against
that and saying, hey, this is my art
form. Right? This is art. I don't wanna
think about it as a business.
That's fine. Right? But I think there is
a time when we're ready to put our
work out into the world that we do
have to see it, at least to some
(24:08):
extent
as a business, as a product, and make
sure that all those details
are in line for the best chances of
success. So, think about your photo. Maybe go
back and look at your Twitter photo, your
Facebook profile photo,
and, even bounce it off a few people.
Right? Does does this look like a writer?
Does this look like a professional writer? Somebody
(24:29):
who's serious about the art that they're putting
out into the world.
I also wanna mention your bio.
Whether that be on Twitter, Facebook,
on a query letter, whatever it is.
And I'm not gonna go deeply into bio
here. There's a lot of information online about
that but just make sure that your bio
represents your best writing.
Before
(24:50):
an agent or a publisher ever sees the
amazing work you've done in your novel,
they are whether,
whether they know it or not, they're forming
their opinion of you as a writer
based on the bio that you've written. So,
just take time with it. Again, bounce it
off of other people.
Make sure that that's solid.
Next thing I wanna talk about is, actually
(25:11):
sort of two or three things in one
and that's your email address,
your website if you have one, your Twitter
handle, all of that stuff that kind of
identifies us
online.
So the other day, I had to email
somebody and their email address was still an
at yahoo
email address. So if you're listening right now
and your email address is at yahoo, I
(25:32):
apologize,
but,
my first thought is, you know, get get
with the times. Right? Who uses at yahoo
anymore? I honestly didn't even know
people still had at yahoo email addresses. Sorry.
Yahoo. Sorry. Yahoo users.
So
did you ever stop to think about what
your email address says about you as a
(25:54):
person?
Now, I'm not even talking, at least not
yet, about what your address before the at
sign is. I'm only talking about what's after
the at sign.
And almost everybody uses Gmail addresses now so
you're probably thinking, I use Gmail, right? So
I'm fine. What's the big deal? Well, that
is the big deal. Right? The fact that
(26:14):
everybody uses
Gmail addresses,
they're free, they're ubiquitous,
and they probably don't hurt your image as
a professional writer
but they don't actively help it either.
It's an opportunity for
very, very subtle,
brand development that most of us miss because
(26:36):
we're using these at Gmail
kind of addresses professionally.
So, what I'd recommend is that you consider
purchasing a domain name. These have gotten incredibly
cheap,
over the years. They're actually a little bit
hard to find .com domain names but if
you can find one that works for you,
that's still, I believe, the best
domain names to go with but there's a
bunch of other options. So consider purchasing a
(26:58):
domain name to show
your potential agents and publishers
that you're serious about what you're doing. You've
done even the smallest little investment
to buy a domain name. So for example,
my email address is bradreed@bradreedwrites.com.
So hopefully, there's no question
(27:19):
in people's minds that I'm serious about writing
and it's based on something as simple as
having that custom email address, that custom
website. It shows them that I'm not just
writing in my spare time and, you know,
throwing things out of the world hoping something
sticks, that I'm a writer, that I've made
some investment in it. And please make sure
(27:39):
you're not using the same email address that
you set up in middle school. So, if
you've got the email, you know, smashmouthrocksmsn
dot com,
that's not gonna impress anyone. So, if you
haven't already, make that change over to an
email address that also serves as a very
subtle but powerful marketing piece for who you
are as a writer. And the same thing
(28:01):
here goes for things like Twitter handles and,
other social media profiles.
These are all
branding opportunities that actually carry
a lot of power. In fact, you might
think of them
like billboards
for your writing business. So, the idea behind
a billboard is that you have just a
few words.
Nobody is pulling over in their car to
(28:22):
stop and read a billboard. Right? You see
it for a second or two
and maybe two or three, four of those
words
land in your brain along with the logo
or slogan
and you have that brand awareness. That's what
you're doing essentially with Twitter handles, with social
media profiles.
So what is the most important
(28:42):
information
that you can convey in just a few
words?
So it's probably your
actual human name, right? Who you really are
or your pen name if you're using a
pen name.
And maybe,
just maybe one other detail if there's
space to get in there. So, you'll notice
(29:02):
that all of my social media echoes my
website and email address.
Everywhere I can get it, I'm Brad Reid
Writes Online. That's my billboard. I think about
that,
as my billboard.
Wanna move on to just a couple of
other things that are specific
about your books that you are releasing into
the world,
that have to do with that confirmation bias.
(29:24):
And again, just a reminder here, these are
all judgements that are being made almost instantaneously
about people who are evaluating your book. Whether
that's readers who may wanna purchase it, whether
that's agents who may wanna represent you, or
publishers that may wanna publish you.
All of these things are the things that
are forming those instantaneous
first impressions
(29:45):
that then go on to factor into the
confirmation bias.
So, I want you to think about your
book title.
On the show, it's been a while ago,
I went over something called The Kill List
which is actually just a it's on, it's
available on the Patreon website. If you go
to patreon.com/bradreedwrites,
(30:05):
and scroll down, you'll see the kill list
there. And, this is an editing tool
where, you basically go through and take out
all of the weak kind of weasel words
that don't need to be in a sentence
so that you you get down to the
real power of that sentence.
I am shocked
at the number of times I see a
book title, especially self published,
(30:25):
that have a bunch of these kill list
words
in there. Right? They just jump out at
me like a big sign waving this writer
doesn't really even know how to construct a
sentence
because they have these lazy, weak words right
there in their title, which might be the
most important sentence,
if you wanna think about it that way,
of their entire book.
(30:45):
So if getting rid of that kind of
language is important within each sentence of your
book, how much more important
to get rid of them in the title?
So in your title, lose every word
that doesn't have to be there.
Get rid of adverbs. That's probably the one
I see,
the people the most guilty of is leaving
(31:07):
a bunch of adverbs in their title. If
you don't know why adverbs are so bad,
go back and check out the archives of
the podcast and you'll see a podcast that
we did on that.
Also in your title,
avoid being too generic.
You wanna be as specific
as possible. You wanna try to find that
title
that no other book could have. Right? Only
(31:29):
your book can have this title. So avoid
things like
all the time I see people writing memoirs
and the title is something like
My Life.
Right?
Completely forgettable. Right? A billion books out there
could be called My Life or something like
Love Comes Knocking.
That could describe a boatload of books out
(31:52):
there in the world about love stories or
space adventure. Right?
Avoid these very generic
titles. Do the work of finding that title
that no other book could have. So I
wanna use a couple of different examples here.
This is actually this first list is borrowed
from a website and I apologize I did
not,
(32:13):
get it written down where this was from,
but it was another writer who was talking
about
as they were just looking back through their
Goodreads
history and what they've read
about
the all the titles that seem to blend
into each other. So listen to this group
of titles
that she,
wrote about here first and tell me how
different each of these are. Do each one
of these sound like a different story? So
(32:34):
the titles are, When You Were Here,
After I'm Gone,
Before I Met You,
Far From You,
Until We Meet Again,
Since You've Been Gone,
The Last Time They Met,
The Day We Met,
and The Next Time You See Me.
Now I have no idea
(32:55):
based on those book titles
what any of those books are about
other than somebody's
gone and I need to meet them again.
And there's no differentiation.
In fact, I bet if I asked you
right now to name one of those titles
that I just gave you, you wouldn't be
able to come up with it, right, without
listening back to it and hearing it again.
So those are generic
(33:16):
kind of blah titles.
Now I wanna read to you the top
selling books
on Barnes and Noble right now. I literally
looked at this yesterday, so this is up
to the minute. And listen to how specific
these are, how different they are from each
other, and how,
they can probably only be
one book. Right? They could only be the
(33:37):
title of one book. So the top one
right now is actually a book called Girl,
Wash Your Face.
Now that's very specific. I'm going to remember
that title. Girl,
Wash Your Face. Book number two is PS,
I Still Love You. Initially, that sounds like
generic a little bit because it says I
still love you, but notice how just putting
that PS on the beginning
(33:57):
individualizes
it. Now, I'm thinking, and I don't know
anything about this book, but I'm thinking this
might be like a collection of love letters
or letters that were,
like back and forth between,
two people in a relationship.
There's something about that PS I still love
you that is gripping. It's not the most,
(34:17):
outstanding title but it's different enough that it
sets itself apart.
We have the book version of a movie
that's very popular right now, Crazy Rich Asians.
Alright. I'm not gonna get that book mixed
up with any other book out there, Crazy
Rich Asians.
We have a book called Texas Ranger
on the list right now. This is probably
(34:38):
the most,
blah title in the current top selling books
right now because there feel I feel like
there could be a lot of books
called Texas Ranger. This one benefits from, having
been written by James Patterson.
So he in fact, if you look at
a lot of his books and a lot
of best selling authors like this, his name
is actually bigger
(34:59):
than the title
on a lot of his books. So he's
able to sell books based on his name
a lot more than these,
really interesting specific titles. But still,
you know, works better than some of them
I read in that last list.
Another one is The President is Missing.
Now, I kinda like this one because it's
(35:19):
the actual premise of the book.
Right? When you pick up a book called
The President is Missing, you know exactly what
this book is gonna be about. And you
know that
this is the only book that could have
that title because it's telling you exactly what
the book is about. So notice the difference
in specificity
between those titles and how they all stand
(35:40):
out as being,
only the title of a single book. Right?
You're not gonna get Girl, Wash Your Face
confused with a bunch of other books like
you would one of the titles from that
first list, Until We Meet Again.
That right, that could be a thousand different
books.
So, as we move on from that one
little tip here.
When you've settled on the title of your
(36:01):
book,
just Google it. Right? Google that title and
see what comes up.
Is your book in a search result going
to get lost in the mix of other
similarly titled books? Maybe even song titles or
lyrics or maybe verses of poetry.
If a whole bunch of stuff comes up,
(36:21):
it's telling that you probably need to choose
something that will make your book,
the first and maybe the only thing that
comes up on a Google search for it.
Alright, so if I went and searched right
now, Crazy Rich Asians book,
there's only gonna be one thing that comes
up, right? And it's gonna be that specific
book.
The last thing I wanna talk about with
(36:42):
book titles here is to try out your
title on unsuspecting
strangers. I actually have some of my creative
writing students do this. They get very nervous
about it, but they'll, most of them do
it. They'll try out their title on unsuspecting
strangers. So they would say, hey, I'm writing
a book.
The title is this.
What do you expect that book to be
about?
(37:02):
And does it remind you of any other
books that you know about?
So if they if an unsuspecting stranger can't
say, well, I bet that book's about blah
blah blah,
then your title is is too generic. Right?
They they don't know what to do with
it,
and neither will your readers, your agents, your
publishers
when they see kind of a blah title.
(37:23):
Okay. We're getting closer to the end of
this list today. Thanks for hanging with me.
I wanna talk about what I think is
my own
personal pet peeve, because I see this go
wrong so
so often. And that is
your book's cover.
Now, you would never think of telling a
great cover artist
(37:43):
that they're such a good cover artist that
you should write your own book just to
put your cover on it. Right? That doesn't
make any sense.
But so often, especially self published authors, do
the opposite of that. They've written what they
believe is a great book,
so therefore, they must have the skills
to make the cover for it. That's just
(38:03):
not true. Just like we talked about with
photography,
there are subtle,
fine details of craft
that we can sense
in book art and we can recognize on
a deeper level. I can't even tell you
what they are because I'm not a book
design
guru, right? I know that I don't have
those skills.
(38:25):
But I also can look at a group
of 10 covers
and I can tell you which ones are
professionally designed and which ones aren't and you
could do exactly the same thing, right? There's
something about that professional role
that sets your book apart and makes you
look professional.
People cannot help
but judge a book and its author
(38:45):
by the cover of that book. I mean,
that's why we have that famous saying, right?
You can't judge a book by its cover
because that means that's exactly what we're wired
to do, right? We have to be reminded
to try to not do that. And it's
actually terrible to admit this. I feel bad
about this.
But there are self published books out there
that I've really enjoyed,
(39:05):
but I don't recommend
to other people simply because of how terrible
that cover looks and I don't want I
don't want that to reflect on me as
a person who loves to read and find
good quality books to recommend a book that
looks like somebody,
threw it together in
Photoshop,
on their own computer.
(39:27):
Last but not least, we're running a little
bit long today so if you're still with
me I appreciate that a lot.
If your reader, your agent, your publisher gets
past all of these initial elements that they're
looking at when they're developing their bias
they're going to get to your first sentence
and your first few paragraphs.
So, let's go back to this analogy that
(39:47):
we started with of the job interview.
So, if we're using that analogy then everything
up to this point has been
just that first impression that you and your
book make before you ever speak a word.
So,
these things are like the clothes you wear
or the posture that you have or the
expression on your face as you enter the
interview
And now, it's time to actually open your
(40:09):
mouth and speak. And those are the first
sentences, maybe the first paragraphs of your book.
And how important are those first words that
you say? Well, they're absolutely
vital. Right? These first words are your opening
sentence.
Maybe the first paragraph.
If that goes well, then maybe it's the
entire first chapter.
And I want you to remember that seven
(40:30):
second rule that we talked about, in another
I think there was another podcast before
that people make their first impressions within
the first seven seconds. So a reader,
an agent, a publisher is beginning your book
with the exact same question in mind. They're
all asking the same thing and that question
is, is this book any good?
And they begin making that decision on the
(40:52):
first page.
And of course they're looking for things like
grammatical
problems, right? A page littered with adverbs,
or maybe
other grammar errors show that you don't have
control of conventions. All of that can be
an immediate turn off. But, they also wanna
see that you know how to hook your
reader
into a story.
And, I'm not necessarily talking about throwing a
(41:15):
gripping action scene onto the first page of
your story. Right? That's kind of the big
thing right now is hit them with action
on page one. But not all stories work
that way or have to work that way.
Some stories
can start very quietly.
But any well written book
will lead the reader into a world or
(41:35):
a character
that a reader can't help but at least
be curious about.
So those first few sentences, those first few
paragraphs
creates what I call little mysteries
that make your reader want to turn the
page to find out the answers to those
little mysteries.
In a way, that's the heart of all
writing, isn't it? Leaving enough little mysteries and
(41:57):
sometimes huge mysteries
that the reader is just curious enough
to turn the next page. If you do
that consistently
over a few hundred pages,
then you have a solid novel, solid screenplay.
So you want to revise,
revise, and revise again
your opening pages, your opening paragraphs, your opening
(42:18):
sentence. You want them to shine
with polish, with intention.
You want to force your reader,
grab them by the
the the shirt collar and force them to
turn to the next page.
We're gonna talk about the best way to
learn how to do this as part of
our weekly challenge at the end of today's
podcast. So make sure you keep listening until
then so you have some actionable steps.
(42:40):
So that's what confirmation
bias looks like for writers.
Now you may not like that that's the
way you're being judged,
but there's no getting around it that that's
the way it happens. It's just the way
the human brain
has evolved
to operate.
We have to make rushed decisions
about whether the things around us are good
(43:01):
or bad. And once we've made those decisions,
then we interpret
all other evidence in light of those initial
decisions.
Now, I'm not saying that an initial impression
can't be overcome.
So, as an example, I've certainly read student
essays that have butchered the formatting but went
on to be pretty solid papers. But why
(43:23):
not do the simple things upfront
so that your reader
is on your side
from the very beginning.
Our wise word today comes from Argentine writer,
Jorge Luis Borges.
I have no idea if I'm actually pronouncing
(43:44):
that right, so please forgive me if I'm
not. I wanted to give credit
to writer TA Pierce who actually shared this
quote on Twitter with perfect timing for me
to see it and include it in today's
episode.
If you wanted to follow him on Twitter,
you can find him at, at t underscore
a underscore pierce.
Anyway, here's what Jorge says for this week's
(44:05):
wise word.
One falls in love with a line,
then with a page, then with an author.
Well,
why not? It is a beautiful
process.
What he's really talking about here is when
a writer gets
confirmation bias right.
Because the first line hooks us and gives
(44:26):
us confidence in the writer and the story.
Then we take that confidence into the rest
of the page.
And when we find quality there as well,
we fall in love with that author. We
trust
that author. So, in other words, we're on
their side now.
Now, if we come to a weak spot
or a fumbled line,
we happily forgive that and we read on
(44:48):
looking for more things to love.
So, if we were to rewrite Jorge's quote
from the other perspective,
that of reading a works that isn't done
well, it might go something like this.
One is disappointed with a line,
then struggles to read the page,
then
discounts the author. Well, why not? It is
(45:08):
a frustrating process.
So, be the writer that readers fall in
love with
by getting their confirmation bias on your side
from the very beginning.
Our weekly challenge this week involves you surrounding
yourself with a bunch of books that you
(45:29):
love. So, even books that you just kind
of like will work too if you don't
have that many books around you that you
love. Could be online books or physical books,
but literally get yourself surrounded by these books.
And then I want you to do a
couple of things
to explore how these writers and publishers
have gone about influencing your
(45:50):
confirmation bias.
So, step one here is to first just
read the titles. Read through the titles and
see what those titles might have in common.
Do you see that they've used words from
the kill list in the titles?
Almost certainly not. Right? Are the titles long?
Are they short and punchy? Are they specific
enough titles that these books are the only
(46:12):
books
that could have those titles.
And then imagine,
how would your book
look sitting around you
among those other books?
Would that title stand up next to them?
Because
literally, that's what it'll be doing when it's
in a bookstore or on a page of
Amazon.
The second step and I think the most
(46:32):
insightful is to actually open each book
and read at least the first sentence
and ask yourselves a few questions.
What has the writer done to create a
little mystery for me as the reader, even
in just the first sentence?
And then do that with all of the
books that you've collected. And think about what
you start to notice
(46:53):
about these opening lines. Are they short? Are
they long? Are they a mix of both?
Do they introduce a character? Or maybe they
introduce a unique world.
Maybe they introduce a moment of tension
or conflict. Do you find something in common
among all of these first sentences?
Now,
read the first sentence of your work in
(47:15):
progress.
And does it stand up? Right? Does it
create a compelling reason for the reader to
move on to the next sentence, the next
paragraph,
the next page?
I really hope you'll do this little assignment.
I think you'll be surprised at how much
you learn
and how much it changes your perspective
on your own work and your own openings.
(47:35):
It's going to help you see it in
a new way.
In the way that your readers will see
your work and,
you'll see how it will influence their confirmation
bias.
So, that's gonna wrap it up for us
this week. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd
love it if you'd tweet about it or
mention it to some of your writer friends
and maybe even leave us a review over
on iTunes or whatever app you, use to
(47:57):
listen to podcasts.
Also, again, please consider joining the Patreon team
for just a couple of bucks a month.
You'll be helping to support this podcast and
the other resources we produce.
Sure it helps us pay the bills around
here, but it's also a huge,
emotional boost,
honestly, for us to know that you're finding
value in what we're doing and would like
(48:17):
us to continue doing it. So till next
week, remember the best way to improve your
craft
is by writing. That's what I'm off to
go do and I hope you're off to
do the same. Let's get some words on
paper this week and we'll meet up again
next week for another episode of the Inside
Creative Writing Podcast.
Thanks for listening to the Inside Creative Writing
(48:39):
Podcast with your host, writer, and educator,
Brad Reed.
We'll be back next week.
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