Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium

Deus ex machina defined is from the draft of “Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium: Best Practices, Words, Concepts, and Warnings to Help You Write and Market Compelling, Useful, and Entertaining Prose”

(c) 2024 by Bill Peschel

deus ex machina: A plot event that spoons the protagonist out of trouble through coincidence or contrivance. From the Latin phrase “god from the machine” to describe a crane used to lower a character playing a god in ancient Greek plays to rescue a character from trouble.

This definition can also be applied to coincidences. If you’ve written a character into a corner with no way out, it’s easy to use a coincidence to save them. This is a bad idea for several reasons:

1. You’ve deprived the reader of a treat. A hero in trouble is exciting. A hero who uses his wits to get out of trouble is doubly so. A hero who is rescued at the last minute has the effect on the reader of a balloon deflating (with juicy fart noises added).

2. You’ve deprived your hero of a character-defining moment that displays their tools, talents, wit, and style.

So when plotting your story, remember this rule: “Use coincidences to get characters into trouble, not out of trouble.”

Remember the scene in “Pulp Fiction” when Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) stops at the intersection and sees Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) step in front of him? Butch had just thrown the fight that Marcellus bet heavily on, and that’s the last person Butch wanted to see. It’s an electric moment.

That’s how you use coincidence to get a character into trouble.

“Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium” will be published by Peschel Press. No release date has been set.

Churn defined defined is from the draft of “Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium: Best Practices, Words, Concepts, and Warnings to Help You Write and Market Compelling, Useful, and Entertaining Prose”

(c) 2024 by Bill Peschel

churn: The process by which authors frequently lose readers and have to replace them with new readers. While some change is natural, authors successful over the long haul increase the core of readers anticipating their next book.

Authors who deliver books that are indistinguishable from other books in the same genre find it difficult to retain readers. This requires extensive advertising to lure new readers or draw back old readers. On a chart showing an author’s sales year over year, churn can be identified if sales spike due to a promotion, then return to the original level. The lack of a steady, regular increase overall in sales and readership, even as new books are written, demonstrates the readers have been lured in, are disappointed, and then leave. Another sign of churn is that each book in the series sells noticeably poorer than its predecessor.

“Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium” will be published by Peschel Press. No release date has been set.

Banner Blindness defined is from the draft of “Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium: Best Practices, Words, Concepts, and Warnings to Help You Write and Market Compelling, Useful, and Entertaining Prose”

(c) 2024 by Bill Peschel

Banner Blindness: An advertising word that describes customers who are so used to the shape, location, and/or style of an ad that they no longer see it. Banner blindness can be countered in online advertising by designing ads so they attract the eye through a startling image or color combination, or in the case of social media, by designing an ad so its looks like a person’s post.

Art Over Commerce defined is from the draft of “Peschel’s Indie Author Compendium: Best Practices, Words, Concepts, and Warnings to Help You Write and Market Compelling, Useful, and Entertaining Prose”

(c) 2024 by Bill Peschel

Art over commerce: The cause of endless (and fruitless) debate ever since one cave artist saw another cave artist rewarded for his mastodon mural when any fool could see it was derivative of his own much-better work. The question boils down to: Should a creator follow solely her judgment during the creation of a work, or should she consider the audience’s opinion as well?

It is this question that inspired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to adopt the Latin motto Ars gratia artis (“Art for art’s sake”). This caused George Bernard Shaw, during negotiations over the film rights to his play, to tell MGM’s Louis B. Mayer that “I’m afraid, Mr. Goldwyn, that we shall not ever be able to do business together. You see you’re an artist and care only about art, while I’m only a tradesman and care only about money.”