Writers in the Storm

by Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes

Before our characters in the Intelligence Community can save the world, they have to be recruited. While we can accomplish this any number of ways in fiction, reality is a bit more limited.

In the Past

During World War II, intelligence organizations snatched up exceptionally bright, capable students at their time of graduation. As in, snatched up. One scientist my writing partner, Holmes, and I personally know came home from his graduation ceremony at MIT to find half of his belongings loaded up in a moving van. He was met by government officials at his house and swiftly relocated to Los Alamos to work on the Manhattan Project.

Such strong-arm recruitment methods were specific to that time period, when Americans were consciously aware that their country was in great peril. Today, intelligence organizations have less forceful methods of recruiting, such as websites.

Web Sites

One way people join the Intelligence Community (“IC”) is to simply apply on a website. The IC websites provide extensive explanations about the experience and qualities they’re seeking in applicants, as well as job descriptions and application forms. If people do apply, it is best that they not tell anyone, as that would limit their opportunities.

College Campuses

It is also now common to see the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc., recruiting on college campuses from booths on Career Day.

It’s been known for some of these agencies to sit in on interviews students have with other agencies in order to spot or even poach potential talent. In that eventuality, the CIA recruiter would provide the interviewee with a business card and invite them to call.

The IC has Intelligence Community Centers at twenty-one universities across the nation. The IC has targeted these specific universities because of their high rates of student diversity. At these universities, students can apply to be IC Scholars. Also, the University of New Mexico became the first CIA Signature School in November of 2016. Students at UNM can apply to the National Security Scholars Program and earn a National Security and Strategic Analysis Certification.

Many agencies have college internships available, and some of them are well paid, including benefits and potential employment contracts for students with talent, ambition, and the confidence to apply. Desirable majors include everything from geography and languages to engineering and economics.

During the internship, the college student is given training in more than one area and exposure to the Intelligence Community culture. However, the student would not be sent on clandestine missions unless they had previous military experience, and likely not even then.

How the Intelligence Community Does Not Recruit on Campuses

Some folks may recall that a few years ago, a major New York publisher released an “autobiography” of a “covert operative” who claimed to be so brilliant and capable that the CIA pulled him out of college and gave him a mission before he had even completed his training. Yeah, no. Doesn’t happen. The guy is alleged far and wide to be a total fraud, but his book is still on the market. You’ll know it when you see it. (I don’t recommend it.)

That said, a slightly different scenario has been known to occur at college campuses on rare occasions. It is possible for college students with previous military training to be recruited by the CIA to serve in clandestine operations while they are attending college. If the operatives could talk about it, they would have very interesting “What I Did Last Summer” papers in English 101.

Other Roads to IC Employment

As in any enterprise, there is no formal structure for the informal structure. However, if someone has an excellent character and specific skills, the winding path could lead to the IC door.

For example, at times military personnel catch the attention of the CIA. On these rare occasions, the CIA will approach them at the end of their enlistment or contract time to discuss possible employment with them.

Word-of-mouth recommendations can also lead to employment. For example, if a clandestine operator is putting together a team and knows someone with a particular set of skills, that operator may take steps to bring the person into the fold.

Former employees are also a recruitment pool. If a mission involves a talent or ability that a former employee is known for, the CIA might approach that former employee and attempt to persuade them to work for them again, either as a returned employee or as a contractor.

The NSA in particular keeps its able ear to the ground to locate hackers who are suitable for employment, and that agency tries to snap them all up. However, the NSA doesn’t get them all. The CIA recruits hackers as well.

In summary, the IC is sometimes open-minded and versatile, and occasionally the personnel manual gets tossed out the window.

The Recruitment Process

If an applicant passes the first round and their application moves forward, the next step is a battery of tests online. These could include personality tests, intelligence tests, essay questions, or many other elements depending on the organization and the job that is in question.

The third round could include a phone interview, which could then progress to background checks, polygraphs, and face-to-face interviews in DC. The entire process can take well over a year to complete, and two years is not unusual.

Note that I said polygraphs plural. The vast majority of candidates must take more than one and sometimes up to three or four. For most employees, it is one of the most dreaded experiences in the IC. Polygraphers are very good at what they do, and it’s normal for people to cry and immediately call their parents to apologize at the first opportunity following the experience. It is rumored, however, that some old operations folks make it a sport to try and get their polygraphers to cry, and those venerated veterans are also very good at what they do.

Each organization has its own recruiting and intake process.

This means that if someone works for years at the NSA, for example, and they want to move over to the CIA, the CIA will conduct its own background checks, interviews, polygraphs, etc. This is because different organizations have different security requirements. Sometimes, things can be fast-tracked for someone who is urgently needed and already has a clearance, but the process is still the process.

The Self-Selection Downfall

Some people in the IC will not appreciate me saying this next bit. I say if they don’t like it, then push to change it.

The Intelligence Community, State Department, and all other government agencies and organizations are self-selecting for locals or people of means. This is not by any directed intelligent design, but because of a huge hole in the system. New government employees must live locally or have many thousands of dollars on hand to get set up in the DC area.

Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland are expensive places to live. Anyone moving from somewhere else must be able to front their moving expenses. Once they get there, they must buy a very expensive house or rent a very expensive apartment. Even if someone has roommates in a tiny space, it’s going to be expensive. There are also the utilities deposits, wardrobe purchases, expensive vehicle registration, and taxes, etc.

Moving expenses are reimbursed up to a certain amount, but that takes time and paperwork. On top of that, new employees must be able to support themselves long enough to get to their first paycheck.

This incredibly expensive reality leaves a huge untapped pool of talent on the sidelines and favors those with the means to survive the transition to the DC area. This means that many genuinely culturally diverse people cannot find a place in the halls of the IC. Meanwhile, the self-selected, better-financed crowd continues self-selecting through a financially onerous process and wondering why they don’t have more diversity in the room.

Just saying.

Two Absolute Recruitment No-Nos

#1 - The Intelligence Community never blackmails anyone to work for them as an employee.

Never. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a hoot of a series and movie, but no. The IC doesn't do that. The organizations already have more applicants than positions. More importantly, someone who is being blackmailed can’t be trusted.

#2 - The IC never approaches minors to recruit them.

Sorry to disappoint, but Cody Banks isn’t real. The Intelligence Community is not allowed to discuss specific job opportunities with anyone under the age of eighteen.

I realize that Young Adult writers often want the CIA to approach individual brilliant or talented high school students to recruit them, but that would literally never happen. However, the CIA might have information at high schools advertising its college internship program.

Young Adult writers have two options:

First is the realistic option. The character can enlist in the military at seventeen and, through test scores and demonstrated abilities, be selected for a top-secret military intelligence program. With intense training, they could be in the field by the age of nineteen. This is extremely rare, but it is possible in the real world.

Second, YA is fiction, so writers can always just make something up. My only ask is that writers please respect the very real people who serve in the Intelligence Community in their portrayals.

Do you have questions about recruiting in the Intelligence Community? Have you written characters who are spies? If so, how did they get recruited?

REQUEST:

We'd love it if you took a moment to tell us what military, intelligence, self-defense, or other topics you would like us to address in the future down in the comments. We want to serve your needs!

About Piper

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

---

Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

---

Image Credits

All unidentified images are sourced from Canstock 2023

Top "Hiring" Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

by James R. Preston

”Left, James, swing left!”

I pushed off and swung left just as a boulder the size of a refrigerator hurtled down the cliff toward me.

One of the principles of adult training is called the WIIFM, which is an acronym for What’s In It For Me. It’s fair for you, reading this essay, to ask that question, and I think I should answer it before I tell you what happened with the boulder. 

Why should you, as a writer, pay attention to gaming?

Well, first, it’s a big part of the entertainment world. How big? Last year the revenue generated by video games was more than that of books, movies, and music combined. That’s right — combined. Grand Theft Auto V has raked in more than three times what Avatar has earned. Three times.

Anything that important that relies on story for its success is worth some study on your part, and the big games have that in common — a good story. 

The stories good games rely on are insanely complex.

 Here’s a brief synopsis of Half-Life, one of the simpler adventure games. Your name is Gordon Freeman and you’re a physicist working in a secret lab buried deep underground In the desert somewhere. 

One morning you are assigned to test a sample; everything goes wrong and there’s a dimensional tear that allows creatures from somewhere else to enter our world. Many of your colleagues are killed or injured. 

One of the survivors begs you to get to the surface and get help. So far, an ok story, not particularly unique. Just wait . . . Getting to the surface is difficult but it’s only the beginning of your problems. The story has humor and interesting characters. For example, one of the scientists in the Men’s’ Room asks you to throw him some toilet paper because his stall is out. Hint if you play the game: it’s good to help him. 

From there on it gets complicated.

Classes of Games

Let’s look at the different kinds of modern computer games. One kind is valuable for writers. 

Regular games moved to the screen. 

 Chess and checkers can be played online against a human opponent or against the computer. While they can be fun, they’re not what we’re going to talk about because they have no story. 

Simulations 

 Do you want to drive an 18-wheeler or fly a jet? Try American Truck Simulator or Microsoft Flight Simulator. Again, interesting, and I am a fan of American Truck Simulator, but they’re not the subject of this essay either.

Adventure or Role-playing 

 Ok, these are the games we’re interested in. Examples include Half-Life, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto V. All the best games in this genre are popular because they have a good story. This kind of game is what the scientists on The Big Bang Theory play. Typically, you’re dropped into a world and given a quest, a problem to solve.

These games are First-Person Shooters (FPS), Third-Person, or a combination of the two. 

The game creators constantly must answer the dreaded, “What happens now?” It’s possible to learn from their examples. Three things I’ve learned are listed below. (I know, I know, that boulder is still rushing toward me. We’ll get back to it.) 

Number One: the Boss Fight

In gamer talk that’s the battle with the last, most powerful enemy. It always comes last. Studying how problems are arranged in games can help you when you are deciding what comes next. In all good games — and in your stories — the biggest problem is solved last. 

In the movie version of Goldfinger James Bond fights Oddjob, but that can’t be the end of the story because he must deal with Goldfinger himself. That’s the Boss Fight and it comes last. 

When you think about conflict, whether it’s battling a martial arts expert or the heroine deciding to trust the mysterious stranger, the big fight has to come last, and ideally each fight or decision leading up to it is harder than the one before. 

Number Two: the Sherpa

Meanwhile, back at the cliff face, I’m still hauling myself up while my Sherpa Logan, who has made it to the top and didn’t even have the decency to make it look hard but I’m not holding it against him, at least not much, coaches me. Writing is not easy. Most of us can benefit from advice. In gaming talk that’s somebody who knows the ropes (LOL, reference back to the cliff) and who is willing to help newbies. 

By reading this blog you’re already on the right track. If you decide to follow my suggestion and spend some time gaming, look for someone who has experience, who is a bit farther down the writing road than you are. One of my sherpas was an LAPD officer and talented writer named Paul Bishop, author of Citadel Run among other police stories. His comments as we went over the opening to my second thriller are still things I keep in mind. Side Note: he wanted to illustrate a point about firearms, reached down into his boot top and pulled out a small revolver. Yes, it’s true: I’ve had a reviewer pull a gun on me. 

Number Three: Details 

The folks who create games — if they are good — put a great deal of time into accuracy. The people who created Mount and Blade studied and practiced sword fights so they would get the moves down right. You can find videos of their training on You Tube. If you are writing anything with that kind of combat, you would do well to take a look. As with studying simulations, always double-check your facts. 

Ok, the boulder.

I pushed off from the cliff face, it missed me and with Logan’s help I made it to the top. That’s an example of a common misconception about gamers. Most modern games are team efforts, with groups from four players on up trying to work together to solve the problem or win the battle. 

I was playing a sword-and-sorcery game with Logan and his brother Chase. We were jumped by a gang of ogres and, while I won my fight, I was separated from my teammates and hopelessly lost. I heard Chase say, “I’ll go back and get James. I know where he is.” It’s a cooperative effort. 

What’s Next, or a few Suggestions. 

 If I have persuaded you to take on an adventure game, I have some suggestions, specific games that have something to offer. 

Half-Life

 A classic. One that a newbie (that’s you) can master given time. It’s linear; you solve one problem and move on to the next. There’s no going back. There are sequels that carry the story forward. 

Red Dead Redemption 

 Welcome to the old west. Think Fistful of Dollars. It’s new, detailed and very interesting. This is an example of an open world game in which you can go wherever you want. One lady, writer for the LA Times, logs on goes fishing. She finds it very peaceful. 

Grand Theft Auto V

 The fifth iteration of this epic is a huge seller. While it has a great backstory, I’m hesitant to recommend it because the language is really really raw. You have been warned. 

Fallout

A post-apocalypse world filled with, well, just about everything. In this one you get to select the traits of your character, which is not a bad way to think about your own creations. How persuasive are they? Are they strong?

• Put the most important and hardest fight or decision last.
• Find a sherpa to give you advice and help you along the way. 
• Use games for details but exercise caution and verify everything. 

 If you have an interest in checking out this form of entertainment, a good place to start is www.steam.com

Steam sells games, but they also have reviews, samples, and frequent sales so you can try out a game at a reasonable price. And if you study the reviews, you’ll see that games with good stories get good reviews. As we say so often here on WITS, story matters.

So that’s it.

These are the gems I got out of games that helped my writing, and that I believe can help yours, too. At the very least it’s a break, a different way to study that which we are all devoted to -- the story. Good luck and may your health points always regenerate fast. 

Now it’s your turn. Have you played any of these games? Was it worthwhile? Please share any games you love that I missed down in the comments!

About James

James R. Preston is the author of the multiple-award-winning Surf City Mysteries. He is currently at work on the sixth, called Remains To Be Seen. 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.

Image credits

Top: Image by Simon from Pixabay 

Second: Image by NikSonFik from Pixabay 

by Margie Lawson

Have you ever researched writing rules? Wowzee! There are hundreds of them. If you tried to follow them all you’d be paralyzed.

But some are so make-you-and-your-writing-stronger smart, they’re worth sharing.

I’ve pulled together writing rules from several authors:  Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Maya Angelou, Jack London, Elmore Leonard, and Neil Gaiman. 

Take what fits and ignore the rest.

We’ll start with some popular ones that you probably know. It’s always good to be reminded.

Popular Writing Rules

1. Write every day. Or write five or six days a week. Stick to your plan.

2. Read. Read. Read. In your genre. Outside your genre.

3. Protect your writing time and space. Ask family and friends to honor your writing and not interrupt you.

4. Don’t try to write something that will please your grandmother.

5. Don’t write for the market. Write the story that speaks to you.

6. Don’t let research take over your story.

7. Find your voice. It may take writing half of a book or more, but it will surface.

8. Let your story flow. Get it on the page. Edit later.

9. Set writing goals.

10. Writers need writers. Reach out and connect with other writers.

Stephen King’s Writing Rules

1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience. 

2. Don’t use passive voice. 

3. Avoid adverbs. 

4. Don’t obsess over perfect grammar. 

5. The magic is in you. 

“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him.”

6. Eliminate distractions.

7. You have three months. 

“The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season.”

8. Take a break.

“If you’ve never done it before, you’ll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience. It’s yours,  yet it will also be like reading the work of someone else, a soul-twin, perhaps. This is the way it should be, the reason you waited. It’s always easier to kill someone else’s darlings that it is to kill your own.”

9. Leave out the boring parts and kill your darlings.

“Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggests cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.)”

10. Writing is about getting happy.

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay?”

From Jodi Picoult:

“When you’re stuck, and sure you’ve written absolute garbage, force yourself to finish and THEN decide to fix or scrap it - or you will never know if you can.”

From Maya Angelou:

“You have to get to a very quiet place inside yourself. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t have noise outside. I know some people who put Jazz on, loudly, to write. I think each writer has her or his secret path to the muse.”

From Jack London:

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.”

From Elmore Leonard:

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

---

Our last set of writing rules is from Neil Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman’s Top 13 Writing Rules

1. Use lies to communicate truths

“Fiction stories are one of the most interesting phenomena that human beings have…Stories are part of us, and we convey truth with stories, which is fundamentally the most gloriously giant contradiction that you can ever imagine. What we’re saying is, we are using lies, we’re using memorable lies, we are taking people who do not exist and things that did not happen to those people in places that aren’t, and we are using those things to communicate true things to kids and to each other.”

2. Acknowledge your growth areas

“The hardest time for me was starting out as a very, very young writer. I wrote short stories and sent them out to places that could conceivably publish them, and they all came back. And I looked at the stories which went out and came back and went out and came back, and I thought, ‘Okay, well one of two things is true here. Either I’m not good enough or I don’t understand the world, there’s stuff I don’t get, there’s stuff I need to know.’”

3. Start a compost heap

“Everything you encounter in life has the potential to influence your work: overheard dialogue in a coffee shop, that song on the radio you can’t get out of your head, the television scene that perfectly depicts the sexual tension of a first date. Don’t limit yourself to only the influences in your genre. Drink from a wide-brimmed glass of creative inspiration.”

4. Reveal a little too much of yourself

“Every story contains a snapshot of its creator. Are you refusing to pose for that picture? Give your readers what they want: a story with personality and authenticity.”

5. Pay attention to the strangeness of humanity

“People are so much more interesting and strange and more unlikely than anything you could make up. Strange people and stories are all around you. You just need to take the time to look for them. Great characters and stories are borne from true characters and true stories.”

6. Don’t tell readers how to feel

“I would much rather not tell you how to feel about something. I would rather you just felt it. I will tell you what happens, and if I leave you crying because I just killed a unicorn, I’m not gonna tell you how sad the death of the unicorn was. I’m gonna kill that unicorn, and I’m gonna break your heart.”

7. Get the bad stories out of your pen

“I think as a writer, and especially as a young writer, your job is to get the bad words out, the bad sentences out, the stories that aren’t any good yet. You think it’s a great story, you think it’s a great idea, you think it’s good at least — and it may be — but the most important thing is just you got it out.”

8. Stumble upon your voice

“After you’ve written 10,000 words, 30,000 words, 60,000 words, 150,000 words, a million words, you will have your voice, because your voice is the stuff you can’t help doing.”

9. Create mutually exclusive desires

“Everything is driven by want. Everything is driven by need. And everything is driven by characters wanting different things, and those different things colliding. And every moment that one character wants something and another character wants something mutually exclusive and they collide, every time that happens, you have a story.”

10. Give your characters “funny hats.”

“When you have a lot of characters wandering around, you need to help your reader…And one of the ways that I’ve always liked to do that is what I call ‘funny hats’…You give your character something that makes that character different from every other character in the book.”

11. Ask yourself, “What is this story about?”

“The process of doing your second draft is a process of making it look like you knew what you were doing all along.”

12. Separate feedback from advice

“You always have to remember when people tell you that something doesn’t work for them, that they’re right. It doesn’t work for them. You also have to remember that when people tell you what they think is wrong and how you should fix it, that they’re almost always wrong. If you try and fix things their way, you’ll be writing their story, and you have to write yours.”

13. Do just enough research

“It’s like you’re a smash-and-grab robber. You are gonna put that brick through the window, then you’re gonna reach in and grab everything that you need and run away and use it, because honestly, you don’t want to spend ten years researching manners and morays in British public schools of the 1870s in order to get your story perfect.”

Wrapping Up

I’ll remember that smash-and-grab robber. I bet you will too!

Some of those rules may help you get through a tough patch or a tough scene. You may want to review the rules I shared and create your own list.

This piece you read from Stephen King may be worth printing in large font and putting it up where you’ll see it every day.

Even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.

IT’S YOUR TURN!

Want to share a writing rule that speaks to you?

Post a comment – and you’ll be in the drawing for the course I’m teaching this month: 

Not Your Mama’s Character Descriptions!

That’s a $120 value!

The drawing will be at 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Class starts today, so the winner can pop in class tomorrow.

About Margie

Margie Lawson left a career in psychology to focus on another passion—helping writers make their writing bestseller strong. Using a psychologically based deep-editing approach, Margie teaches writers how to bring emotion to the page. Emotion equals power. Power grabs readers and holds onto them until the end. Hundreds of Margie grads have gone on to win awards, find agents, sign with publishers, and hit bestseller lists. Some have had their books turned into Hallmark movies, and a few have drama series in development. 

A popular international presenter, Margie has taught over 150 full-day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France, as well as multi-day intensives on cruise ships in the Caribbean. She’s taught close to 200 Immersion Master Classes across the U.S. and Canada, and in seven cities in Australia too. 

She also founded Lawson Writer's Academy, where you’ll find over 30 instructors teaching online courses through her website. To learn more and sign up for Margie’s newsletter, visit www.margielawson.com.

Check out Lawson Writer’s Academy Courses for March!

1. Not Your Mama’s Character Descriptions
2. Empowering Character’s Emotions
3. Dazzling Developmental Edits
4. Mind Map
5. The Eight Crafts of Writing
6. Crazy-Easy Awesome Author Websites
7. Make ‘Em Laugh, How to Write a Comedy Screenplay
8. Just for You, Intensive Mentorship
9. Navigating the Tightrope Between Historical Fact and Historical Fiction

Top image via Canva.