Few writers start out as writers, this is a tidbit I’ve
picked up from conversations at numerous writer’s conferences, conclaves, and
conventions. Almost everyone wants to tell their stories and intentionally and unintentionally
end up at a desk with a pad of paper or laptop trying to construct a story that’s
been bouncing around in their head for years. I’ve met lawyers and laborers, housewives
and housemaids, junior and senior executives, past and present CEO, CFO, CIOs,
a taxi driver, psychologists and psychotics, all wanting to write a book. Many eventually
finish their project and meet their personal goal - a finished manuscript. So what if no one reads
the thing, for most writers it’s the journey, not the safe arrival. The tougher
the road, the more interesting the ride.
Here are a few of the elements of the writer’s world that
make it interesting and challenging.
What to write.
Non-fiction or fiction that’s it. True there’s poetry and
maybe songs, but let’s just look at these two basic overreaching genres of
writing. I am amazed at how often a writer’s first book is a non-fiction work,
often stemming from something they are personally or professionally involved
in. A lawyer has a dramatic civil case with a great cast of real characters, he
writes the story. A scientist finds a bone in the middle of Africa and tells
the story. A reporter watching a storm roll up the Atlantic seaboard
collects personal stories of the storm’s impact and writes the book. From these
success stories they often turn to fiction or both. Start with what you know
and build on it. My first book was a non-fiction work on the building of a new American
town on the Illinois prairie. It lead to a fiction mystery focusing on the
development industry and led to four more mysteries and two novels.
Research
To be very honest I love the research more than the
writing itself. A book, even hard core science fiction, requires some type of
research. Non-fiction books on city and urban planning will, even today,
require hours of library time. Thrillers, especially those with a military background,
require correct and accurate information on everything from guns to methods of
torture. A romance novel better have the canals of Venice correct if the story
is to be true. Dick Francis knew the horseracing industry and the racetrack
better than some jockeys – that’s why he was so good. And don’t get me started
with lawyers and the courtroom, I mean it, don’t get me started. There are so
many ways to get information, so start and keep great notes and a logical way
of retrieving the data. Keep a notebook or a journal, take good notes, if you
hear a great line write it down, steal it away for later. Keep your ears open
to conversations, use them. Your research for one book may be useful in another
story. Find a process and stick to it.
The Time Sink
Writing requires time, period. To finish a 100,000 word
novel will take the normal writer at least six months for the first draft. Or
it might take two years, or at 2,000 words a day two months. A contract with a
big five publisher might demand two books a year or one a year, do the math.
And it’s just not the writing itself, it’s the research, the rewrites, the
emergency run to Starbucks to clear your head, or to the run to BevMore. It’s
simple to say find a schedule and stick to it, phooey. Write when you can, try
to keep to a schedule, rewrite on airplanes, on the upper deck of a ship, or on
a park bench. Don’t make the excuse, “I have to have my special place to write.”
That’s just procrastination.
Read Other Work
This is said over and over but it is true. By reading
other writers in your genre you pick up on trends and the market, you also gain
an innate sense of story timing and phrasing. This is not stealing but akin to
learning a new language. When you read other work outside you current
preference you open yourself to style and story structure. A good sci-fi story
may have a romance – so read romance. Jack Reacher has issues – browse Psychology Today. Nero Wolfe was a gourmand
– read Gourmet.
As you build your repertoire and experience some aspects of
your writing will get better, your phrasing and dialog will be crisper, the use
of adverbs and flowery words will drop, and the attitude of the story itself
will strengthen. All for the better.
More Later . . . . . . . .
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