by James R. Preston

In Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Gene Wilder in the title role finds a book called How I Did It by Victor Frankenstein. Needless to say, he’s pretty excited. 

As writers, we are about books. Let’s step back and talk about some of them.

There are stories. And there are stories about stories, sort of "stories once removed."  This is a collection of the latter. My hope is to encourage you to read other writers’ struggles so you can say, “Why it’s not so bad that my novel is taking a long time to write." 

This is of necessity a personal collection since I am not crazy enough to begin a literature search on “Introductions to books,” and I felt it was important to avoid spoilers, which eliminated many modern novels. Also, we are absolutely buried in text, swamped with posts and comments on posts and comments on comments, all about a particular story. 

Campfire Chat

No, this post is sort of like a bunch of writers sitting around a campfire and one of them turns to his neighbor and says, “Hey, Irv, how did you come to write The Prize, and Irving Wallace says . . . “

I pulled these references out of my own collection because they illustrate important principles about our art and craft, sure, but mostly because they’re fun. You can sit with Barbara Tuchman when Barbra (yes, that Barbra) comes calling. We’ll do that and we’ll walk through cotton fields at midnight with Thomas Harris as the dogs sing to the full moon. 

And this is homework. If I do this right you will go out looking for certain books, because that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? Books. Hold that thought. 

Singing dogs, movie stars, what more could you ask for?

Finally, for one more story about a story, I’ll tell the one about how I sold my first novel and sold my first novel . . . and sold my first novel. More on that later too. 

Persistence Pays Off

Irving Wallace, The Writing of One Novel. 

Wallace started work on The Prize in 1946 and finished it in 1962. He tells the story in a book called The Writing Of One Novel. This is an excellent “story once removed,” full of information as valid today as it was when it was written.  “No one writes as well as he would like to; he only writes as well as he can.” Thanks, Irving. If I ever get a tattoo, that’s what it will say. Wallace also provides step-by step procedures — Notes, Outline, Scene and so on, and illustrates them with his own notes. 

He was devoted, he stuck to it, just like... 

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August. 

Look for an edition with the Forward by the historian Robert K. Massie. He talks about how Tuchman worked, “four or five hours at a stretch,” writing longhand, then typing, and how when Jane Fonda and Barbra Streisand wanted her to write a script she told her daughter to tell them that "no, she was working."

The result of this effort was a history of the first month of World War 1 that is as readable today as it was when first published. 

Massie includes a swipe at reviewers and I feel compelled to include it here. When The Guns of August came out Tuchman was described as “a fifty-year-old housewife, mother of three, and the spouse of a prominent New York physician.” Right. Like in between picking the kids up from soccer practice and cooking dinner she dashed off one of the truly great works of modern history, and won a Pulitzer. As if she hadn’t written Bible and Sword and The Zimmerman Telegram before Guns of August. 

As Massie points out, "she has a gift for making the people come alive."

And when your characters come to life sometimes they won’t go away. 

He Made Me Do It

Ursula K. LeGuin, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters. Short stories. 

LeGuin was a fantastic science fiction writer in the 60’s - 80’s and in one of her stories she encountered a minor character named Rocannon who would not go away until she told his story. She’s part of this list because in the Introduction to The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, she talks about how he simply would not leave her alone.

If you read about writers and their craft you will encounter this over and over again — one of your fictional creations jumps off the page, grabs you by the throat and says, “Tell my story! I want to be heard!” The LeGuin collection is kind of a bonus in that not only is there an Introduction, there’s also a short introduction to each of the stories. It’s well worth a look if you want to hear a talented writer talking about her work. 

He Might Be Watching Me

Thomas Harris, Red Dragon. 

Speaking of characters that demand attention . . . In Forward to a Fatal Interview, Thomas Harris describes how he wrote Red Dragon, mostly at night, in a small house in the middle of cotton fields. He often walked at night, accompanied by a pack of stray dogs that had attached themselves to him, and who would sing to a full moon. If you’ve guessed who Harris thought might be watching him, why, yes, it’s that gourmet cook Hannibal Lecter. Harris’ essay is a great read and illustrates the writing process, but I don’t recommend it for late at night. 

Girls Don’t Do That

Robert A. Heinlein, Red Planet.

This early Heinlein juvie (a YA in today’s terminology) was nearly edited to death. Among other things, Alice Dalgliesh, the editor, said girls don’t shoot guns. Oh, yeah? My mother, born the same year as Heinlein, learned to shoot first with a shotgun and later with a deer rifle. ‘nuff said. Also, Willis, The Martian pet, sleeps in the same bed as his “owner” and that’s not cool either. Heinlein gave in, accepted the changes, but years later a new publisher brought out an “unexpurgated” edition.

If you want more information look for an essay called “Red Planet, Blue Pencil.”

Podkayne of Mars - Girls don’t do that redux.

Podkayne wants to be a spaceship pilot <fill in the resistance>. But this book and its Introductions — there’s more than one — make this list because they are unique. In this case, the publisher changed the end. Yep. Years pass, new publisher. Restore Heinlein’s original end? Maybe. How about a vote! Readers contributing their thoughts and indeed the end . . . Well, I promised no spoilers. I also promise that reading this “Story once removed” is well worth it. 

How I Did It

Ok, the hour is late, the campfire is down to glowing embers and we all need to slide into those sleeping bags because of course we will get up in the morning and write. But I promised so here it is, one more story. 

I broke into selling fiction with a science fiction story called, “Law of the Instrument” that I sold to Analog Science Fiction. I started a non-sf thriller called Leave A Good-Looking Corpse, and about that time I went to a writers convention in San Diego, where I saw a flyer for a contest that was part of a convention in Seattle. Send in the first chapter and an outline, win a prize! Well, my father had recently relocated to Olympia, Washington and if I went to the convention I could visit him. I didn’t have a book, but I had enough so I entered. 

And promptly forgot about it. Until I got a letter saying that I was a Finalist. Yow! Frantic rush for plane reservations, hotel reservations, talking to my Dad, and so on. 

I won. And an editor said, “Tell me about the next book in the series.” She wanted it. If I could keep it up she wanted the whole series.

Twists and Turns

A few months later my agent called to say the editor had left the company, but she had passed my book on to another editor. In short order, I was back on the street. 

My agent said not to worry because a friend of hers was an editor at an even better publisher and she wanted to see the book. That editor liked it! She liked the series! Then she left the company. I was back on the street. 

Then my father was diagnosed with bone cancer. The book is dedicated to him.

I was out of time. A traditional publisher would take a year or more to get the book to market and I didn’t have a publisher yet. So I self-published and my dad got to hold the book and read the Dedication. 

Then I was picked up by a West Coast publisher and the rest, as they say, is history. 

“If you cannot read all your books . . . fondle them—peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.”

— Sir Winston Churchill 

A Great Book that didn’t make the cut. 

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. Look for a new edition with all three volumes presented — correctly — as one novel. This one was eliminated from this Writers in the Storm essay because the lengthy introduction is more about the history of the book than writing.

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About James

James R. Preston is the author of the multiple-award-winning Surf City Mysteries. The sixth, called Remains To Be Seen will be launched at Men of Mystery in November. Kirkus Reviews called the Huntington Beach background in Remains "sparkling." His most recent works are Crashpad and Buzzkill, two historical novellas set in the 1960’s at Cal State Long Beach. Kirkus Reviews called Buzzkill “A historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten.” His books are collected as part of the California Detective Fiction collection at the University of California Berkeley. 

Find out more about James at his website.

Top image from Depositphotos by artursz