Writers in the Storm

by D. A. Watt

KEY # 1 ATTITUDE

" To be honest, I’ve learned more valuable life lessons from horses than most people. Unlike humans, horses forgive and forget with patient sighs and much lip licking." D. A. Watt

I’ve still got a lot to learn from my four-legged partners.

Proper communication between horse and rider, or reader and writer, creates partnership. A successful rider (the mere act of not falling off) and writer (a not so mere act of telling a damn good story) use the same central keys, attitude, knowledge, tools, techniques, time and imagination to forge a trusting, ongoing relationship.

• Are you using the F words a lot? Fear, frustration, feeling like a failure, lack of fun and lack of funds?
• 80% of all horse enthusiasts break off the love affair with their horse after a year.
• Only three 3% of writers ever finish their first novel. An agent from one of the big literary agencies receives about thirty-two thousand queries, yearly. From that amount, she’ll usually represent 9 books, only 5 of which get published. Gasp!

See for yourself.

With stats like these it’s easy to freak out, but don’t, after all YOU ARE one of the 3% who has completed the novel, and YOURS will be one of the published 5. Prior and proper preparation makes for peak performance, RIGHT? Attitude, you’d better believe. HUBRIS, if you don’t have it, get it.

Hubris

Now that you have hubris, listen up. Prior and proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. Before setting foot in stirrup, I had better do the ground work even if it means looking foolish. I’ve bounced giant pi-yo balls around the stable, trotted in the round pen next to my horse while  I dream of this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7R7RiJo2K8&feature-A&w=320&h=240=related]

I’ve ridden without bridle and saddle, holding a four foot carrot stick topped with a plastic bag, and wackier stuff, much to the amusement of horse and human. So what if they snicker? Afterall, any jackass will tell you he’s got horse sense.

Any jackass will tell you he's got horse sense

Building a foundation of trust with my horse should take less than four ounces of force (that’s half a cup of press or pull) to keep us both safe. For example, on the ground, can I easily pick her feet, or do we play tug of hooves, ending with my toes stomped? And if I can’t move her on the ground in all six directions, why would she listen to me sitting in her saddle like a baby in a highchair?

• If my story is not worth a reader’s “willing suspension of disbelief,” as Coleridge wrote, then I need further preparation.  Does your imaginary work enlarge the reader’s sense of reality?
• So, your heroine can breathe underwater, your hero is a giant cockroach, and the bad guy is really an archangel? Ok, if you’ve done the groundwork, enlarged my sense of reality, made an impossible story probable and touched upon all the zones of craft, I, the reader, will eagerly saddle up for the ride.
• Aristotle wrote another nugget worth chewing, “That which is probable and impossible is better than that which is possible and improbable.”

Horses are prey animals, food for carnivores, born to run panic-aholics, sort of like big rabbits. Maybe you’ve encountered Monty Python’s killer bunny.If so, that doesn't count, typically bunnies run from danger, as do horses. Let’s say, you’re riding your horse, cantering a woodsy trail when a wind blown plastic bag zips by. Guess what? If your horse doesn’t trust your leadership, she’ll take charge, and gallop off into the sunset, with or without you. Not quite the way you’d hoped, unless you live a Grimm’s Fairy Tales world.

Imagine the audacity of writing a 400 page novel without prior and proper preparation? As I’ve said before, ‘Any jackass will tell you he’s got horse sense.’ Even if I think my super amazing story is the best thing since sliced bread, I need to do the work. That means learning craft, reading books, attending workshops, classes, conferences, online aids (NaNoWriMo is a great tool and it’s happening right NOW!), and more, so that my story reads with less than four ounces of force.

After all that, I will have to go naked, exposing my opus for review.  It’s not pretty. It’s also not easy, balancing hubris, courage and humility to listen without tossing manure. I’ve learned to lighten up. Over time, criticism looses its bite. I’ve lost poetic darlings. I’ve grieved over the murder of a beloved metaphor, and axed scenes that took all week to write, all because a reliable critic said so. And for this I am grateful.

When I described the inside of my heroine’s upper arm as, “soft as the belly of a baby barracuda,” my critique partners had a good laugh. And when Sharla Rae wrote about “bowels of soup,” I got back at her with hysterics.

Join me next time when we cover the second key, knowledge.  We’ll cover focus, asking, telling, and promising. If the act of successful riding merely means not falling off, then I’ve still got a lot to learn, and if a story is a promise, then I promise, you won’t find bowels of soup or soft baby barracuda bellies in Sharla Rae’s books or mine.

We're happy to introduce you to James Preston, author of the award-winning Surf City Mysteries series.  James' wife, Nancy, encouraged Fae Rowen to write her first book.  James encouraged Fae to go to the San Diego Writers Conference to learn how to write that first book.  He shares his insight on how to get started on your novel, and  how he deconstructed his favorite book to learn how to write what he likes to read. 

by James R. Preston

Assumptions

Let’s assume you want to write fiction, and most likely, genre fiction.  You’re reading this because you are looking for clues on how to proceed, how to get from the blank page to those magic words The End.  Okay, you came to the right place.

Introduction

My name is James R. Preston, and I write the Surf City Mysteries.

I’ll try to answer a very basic question:  “I want to write, but what do I do first?”

You write.

In an early episode of The Sopranos, Christopher wants to be a screenwriter.  He says something like, “I bought this computer because I thought it would do a lot of the work but it’s not.”

Sorry, pal.  Write.  When I sat in a cubicle and wrote training and documentation for a living, for laughs we used to sneak up behind one another and shout, “Type faster!”  Maybe you had to be there.

One of my writing teachers, an LAPD homicide detective named Paul Bishop, author of a good series of books, including Tequila Mockingbird and Citadel Run, said once that a lady in one of his early classes was all ready to write a mystery, “Just as soon as I know what the entrance to the FBI building looks like.”  I’m guessing, but I’m pretty sure she never got to “The End.”

Writers write.  That’s all there is to it, folks.

Watch Out For That First Step

Of course, there’s more to it than that.  We’re talking genre fiction.  So, you need some structure, right?

What’s the basic unit you’re working in?  Well, after sentence and paragraph, it’s either the scene or the chapter.  Here’s how I do it.

I work in scenes.  When I’m starting to figure out what happens in a book, I use file cards.  On each card (if you’re curious, I prefer 4” x 6”) something happens.  I did not invent this.  I think I first heard a science fiction writer named Larry Niven articulate it at a convention. 

An example is, “Mac and Kandi run up the stairs to see who has broken into Mac’s house.”  A non-example is, “The evening sky purpled in the distance, frogs harrumphed.”  See the difference?  Nothing happens in the second.  It may or may not be great writing, but it’s not something happening, and, friends and neighbors, genre fiction is about things happening to people you care about.

So, how long is a scene?  In my case, it varies.  Typically about four pages at a minimum, or a thousand words.  For a good example of short scenes, look at any of the Mike Hammer books.  The upper end is more flexible, but rarely is more than twelve pages.  And, for impact, sometimes a really short, one-page scene stands out.

What about chapters?

Take a look at a fine example of storytelling, A Catskill Eagle, by Robert B. Parker.  He builds his story around scenes and each scene is a chapter.  Clean and simple, and the reader never bites off too big a chunk right before bedtime.

Another way of doing it is Janet Evanovich in Two For The Dough.  Her scenes vary in length, but she assembles them into chapters that are all about twenty pages.  Again, she moves from scene to chapter.

Can you start by thinking of chapters?  Of course, but it is, in my opinion, more difficult.

So, you’ve got a stack of cards with action, conflict, love, and all kinds of other neat stuff scribbled on them.  Now what?  Why, you start writing.  Words on paper.  Have I said that?

Taking It Apart

If you want to learn more about our craft, you might want to take a deconstructionist approach to the novel.  I did, and it paid dividends.  Find a book in the genre you want to be a part of, and that you like a lot.  Let me say that again—you need to like this book a lot, because you are going to spend some time with it. 

I took a fine mystery by Robert Crais, called Lullaby Town, and I took it apart.  Yep, I sat down with a stack of cards (what is it with this guy and cards?) and identified all of the scenes Crais uses to build his story.  At the end of this exercise you will know that book so well you can recite parts of it in your sleep.  I can and my wife used to look at me strangely, but she’s gotten over it.  But you will learn, oh, boy, how you will learn. 

Specifically, you will see:

• how many scenes go into a chapter
• how those scenes and chapters build on one another, and finally make a book. 
• You may see the underlying structure: plot points, midpoint, denouement.  (At another time if I get a chance I’ll talk about that kind of novel structure.)

But Wait, There’s More

So, you made some cards of your own that represent a novel, and you are actually writing, and maybe you have taken a novel apart, telling people at cocktail parties about your deconstructionist approach until their eyes glaze.  Is there anything else?

You bet.  You’re doing part of it now reading this blog.  Also, you might consider attending conferences, specifically, the San Diego State University Writers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference.  The latter is in Seattle, July 19-22. 2012.

However, like poor Christopher in The Sopranos, you still have to write.

Homework

I’ve sucked you in this far, and now I’m assigning homework?  The nerve of this guy!

Your assignment is to find a copy of Stephen King’s novel It, and in Chapter 3 “Six Phone Calls (1985),” Part 6, “Bill Denbrough Takes Time Out,” read the section where King talks about his hero’s experiences in a writing class.  That sums it up nicely.  It’s about story.

Truly, it’s worth a look.  And there won’t be quiz.

You will realize that there is a line of storytellers from the unknown author of Beowulf, to Shakespeare, to Richard Prather, Janet Evanovich, and me.

And to you.  Good luck.

What genre do you write in? What started you down that road? Was there a particular author you "wanted to be like someday?"

James R. Preston writes the award-winning Surf City Mysteries.  He lives in Surf City (Huntington Beach to non-locals) where he is completing the fourth book in the series, called Pennies For Her Eyes.  His next project is a historical novel set in Germany during the Weimar Republic.  He can be reached at james@jamesrpreston.com.  For more information, check out www.jamesrpreston.com. 

ANNOUNCEMENT: If you'd like to meet James, he'll be signing his books and visiting with readers at Men of Mystery at the Irvine Marriott Hotel on Saturday, November 19, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

By Sharla Rae

Like most of you, I don’t have a lot of time to cruise the web and read blogs. If the blog site is pretty, that’s nice, but I don’t really care. I’m interested in content. I pick subjects that pique my interest and choose many that are recommended by writing friends. I love blogs that make me laugh, but I also look for the latest industry news or handy craft and technical tips.

But . . .

Sometimes I’m disappointed and feel like my time has been wasted.

Allow me to preface my cranky opinions. I am no expert on writing blogs. I’m still learning. In fact some of my first blogs committed the very sins I’m listing here. But since I started blogging at WITS, I’ve learned a lot, mostly by reading other blogs and deciphering
what I liked or disliked about them.

Blogs That Make Me Cranky

• The title is catchy but has nothing to do with the subject of the blog.
• The blogger takes forever to get to the point.
• There is no real point.
• The promised information is buried so deep in convoluted paragraphs that it’s difficult to find.
• The entire blog is an in-your-face self promotion

What Makes A Blog A Joy To Read

• Catchy titles that grab attention and sound bite the tone and content.
• The subject of the blog is clear in the 1^st paragraph: We all use lead in paragraphs, but I subscribe to less is better. Get to the point.
•  Short paragraphs and when possible, lists: Don’t wanna wade knee deep in verbiage. I tend to scan for info and love easy to spot facts/points in lists.
•  When deep paragraphs can’t be avoided (as in research info), the use of special devices like centered subtitles, colored font, and underlining all help highlight the high points. Graphics and pictures liven things up too.
• A little humor can’t hurt but if it’s inappropriate, I think personalizing the blog is great. It helps me relate to the writer, and I’m more likely to leave a comment.
• I like seeing a writer's books & projects, but I’d rather see them at the end of the blog or in a short bio. Blatant promo is boring because the writer gets everything and I get nothing for my time.

I can’t get away with being cranky unless I list a few blogs that all of us here at WITS really like, right?

First, here’s two how-to sites on blogging for all kinds of situations and subjects:

Author Blogs
Daily Blog Tips: This site also lists other sites with blogging tips and how-tos

Favorite Blogs:

Jenny Hansen’s More Cowbell: She’s got brass and sass and dives into the subject with  humor and savvy info.
Writers Unboxed: Industry, craft and everything on writing
Kristen Kathryn Rusch: Amazing writer, and on Thursdays, insightful industry posts
Larry Brooks’ Storyfix: great craft guru
Jane Friedman, of Writers Digest Fame
Kristen Lamb: Deep paragraphs here but phenomenal information so she's well worth it.
Bob Mayer’s Write it Forward: Honest industry news and great writing tips too

3 Agent Blogs:

Rachelle Gardner
Bookends Literary Agency
Pub Rants

My likes may be your dislikes. Tell us what makes you cranky when reading blogs. Also, what are your favorite blogs?