I Write, Therefore I Read

Some say that when a fiction writer is creating he should not read anyone else’s fiction because it might color his own work. But like most of my fellow Acme Authors I’m always writing, so I don’t necessarily take that advice. Even if I did, I would never completely stop reading. There is a real world we writers live in, and every author should be aware of it.

I belong to a lot of support organizations, but I’m not much on attending meetings. However, the newsletters these groups publish help me keep track of what’s happening in the writing community. Local news comes through the newsletters of the Virginia Writer’s Club (The Virginia Writer), Maryland Writers Association (Pen in Hand) and American Independent Writers. Those last 2 are kind enough to send electronic copies.

I also joined genre-based groups, as I think all writers should. Larger groups like the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime offer national newsletters (The 3rd Degree and In SinC respectively) plus the ones the local chapter puts out (for Mystery Writers that would be Capitol Crimes.) International Thriller Writers Incorporated does it all electronically too in The Big Thrill.

If you self publish you should join the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) and the The Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly the Publishers Marketing Association) to read their marketing-oriented newsletters.

And then there are the publications that can help us improve our craft. Writer’s Digest is probably best known, but I get more out of The Writer, although I’ll admit that is very subjective.

I also like to keep an eye on the magazines the fans are reading, and that’s genre-based too. For me those would include Pages, Crimespree, Mystery Scene and the tightly-focused Black Issues Book Review. Aside from keeping my finger on the pulse, I enjoy them. After all, I'm a fan too. (Check Crimespree and Mystery Scene for ads promoting my new novel, Russian Roulette!)

You'll notice that Publishers Weekly and Editor & Publisher are conspicuous by their absence from my reading. They are the absolute sources for news on the industry, book publishing and book selling, and they’re probably the first two pubs others would mention, but to be honest I have never learned anything of value from either one. I certainly expect my agent and my publisher to read them, but they don’t help me write or market any better. Still, check them out and decide for yourself.

And that last bit of advice applies to everything else I said. You owe it to yourself to check out these publications for knowledge, awareness and inspiration.

Keep writing, but also keep reading!

The Life of a Writer

I'm taking a mini-vacation to get away from my regular life and guess what I want to do on my vacation more than anything else? Write!

I guess writers can't escape themselves.

Just about everything I do is within the context of my writing. Experiences are tucked away in my mind as possible scenes in a book that I'm working on or developing. I also hold onto the emotional feelings because I want to be able to relate that in words to my readers.

I've just finished the final rewrite of my first novel - a romantic suspense. Yeah!!!!!!

I will be reading it through once more for all those little details that a writer - especially a new writer - frets about before sending it off to a publisher or agent in hopes of a yes. I am prepared for the rejection letter however - just hoping that I will receive a positive respone instead.

So, on vacation I'm working, but then as a writer I am always working because every experience relates to who I am as a writer and the voice I am in the process of developing. This will be the way it is for me for the rest of my life.

Ah, the life of a writer!

How YA doing?

I admit it.

I'm thinking of taking a walk on the wild side... or the YA side.

Young adult.

Actually, I'm doing more than thinking about it... I'm going forward with it.

I'm about 15% into my next venture, a YA humor/vampire book, and before I get too deep, I thought I should make sure that since my book is about teens, for teens and, um... other teen-stuff, I figured that I should make sure the characters are believable, the plot engaging enough to suck in a mind numbed by Playstation, the POV true and addicting.

So I was driving along the other day, and spied two neighborhood girls who had learned that a writer lived in the neighborhood, and ventured one day to come find me.

This time I went to them and asked them if they would mind reading the first pages and let me know what they thought.

Well, one thing led to another, and now I'm going to spend an entire day in their junior high as a guest of the school. I'm going to talk to classes, eat lunch with them, catch myself a couple detentions, and plan on having a rip-roaring time. The teacher who is coordinating everything even said she'd bring in some subs for lunch or something, and I said, "no way. I'm going to sit with the critters."

I'm hoping that sharing this time with them will help them get excited about writing, while helping my own meager attempts to humor, educate and entertain.

Then I'm going to take a page out of Joe Konrath's book, and will name every kid by first name and last initial in the acknowledgements ... can you say 'automatic sales'?

I'll let you know how it goes.

Norm

www.normcowie.com
The Adventures of Guy ... written by a guy (probably)
The Next Adventures of Guy ... more wackiness

(look for me at the Baltimore Book Festival Sept 28 and the Midwest Literary Festival (Aurora Il.) the first weekend of Oct.)

No Blowhards In Your Story, Please! BY ROBERT W. (ROB) WALKER

Recently on a chat the issue came up of having a character in a mystery do what we term an “information dump” go on for paragraphs, possibly pages as one character simply “unloads” and tells all. When this happens, and it is almost a given in a rough draft and so many people believe it HAS to happen as the ANSWERS to the mystery have to be disclosed by someone—whether it is a Sherlock Holmes or a Monk or an Obi Wan Kenobi character who has all the answers, or a confession pouring out of the bad guy. Two problems with this “device” is that it has become a cliché in and of itself, spoofed often as in the film Tootsie when Dustin Hoffman does it and by doing so ends the career of Dorothy…and second problem? One of our characters begins to speak, uninterrupted, for a page or two or in whole paragraphs. I fight this on the rewrite, and remember rewriting IS writing.
The answer to the info dump problem is simple. In natural speech, even when someone pleads to “let me get this off my chest before you interrupt” the listener will interrupt. Will ask questions. Will pace. Will shake their heads. Will plead for more information. Will ask why, how, when, where, and then why again. In short good dialogue practices can save your story from having what we call the “blowhard” character who goes on for pages or paragraphs uninterrupted. Read the dialogue below and imagine it in its first draft. In its origin, it was a first person narrative from the mouth of one speaker until I went in and asked after each sentence, what response would my listener have to that? How can I cut and paste what was the original speaker’s line and place it in as the listener’s line? Can I use facial expressions and actions to put an end to the speaker’s speech even if for only a moment. In short, how can I introduce a lot more paragraph indents, giving the second person on scene or a third person in the room reason to interrupt the info dump guy. The dialogue below was once one long, too long paragraph from one speaker but not anymore.

“No, I don’t mean it that way like I expected nothing.”
“Then what did you—ahhh…”
“H-had not a single thought in my head—certainly not consequences.”
“Blank, huh?”
“B-blank, zip.”
“Blippo?”
“What’d I have in my head? Is that what you wanna know?”
“Might help to know, yes, Stan.”
“Red.”
“Red\?”
“Like a swimming pool fulluvit, fulla red, yeah.”
“ Just seeing red?”
“Just seein’ red, yeah.”
“Then it’s true what they say about seeing red, huh?”
“You oughta know, detective.”
Stanley must’ve hit a nerve as evidenced by the silence coming from the tape recorder. Apparently Castle did know about seeing red. Holden certainly did. He’d taken to calling it “the red out.”
“All that love and devotion and sincere concern you had for her,” began Castle’s voice anew, “and she pisses on it. Ruins it. You give over everything to Mary, and she spits in your face. Sure, I get it.”
“Alice, her name was Alice.”
“Mine was Mary.”


AND so it goes. No longer is all this information “dumped” on the reader. This lesson is among the most important a writer must learn. Readers will love you for it. So the next time you catch one of your characters trying to carry the entire info dump load, remember the watchword – Interrupts. Rewrite to include INTERRUPTIONS via dialogue, expressions, and actions taken. In reality put yourself into the story and ask, “Would I stand for some guy talking to me for twenty minutes without clearing my throat and interrupting?

ROBERT W. (ROB) WALKER