Crime, Mystery and Suspense

            Classic stories of crime, mystery and suspense have long inspired modern writers. Stories like, The Room of the Evil Thought by Elia W. Peattie; The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katherine Green; The Mystery of Marie Roget by Edgar Allan Poe; The Adventure of the Red Circle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and, The Blue Cross by G. K. Chesterton. Each of these stories touches on a universal theme that possesses broad appeal. The cursed necklace, the mysterious stranger, the locked room. Oddly enough, it’s the simple things that frighten us most, and classic authors took advantage of the fact. What could be more mind chilling than a common heartbeat that comes, not from a human chest, but from under the floor?

            Of course, the umbrellas of crime, mystery and suspense now cover a lot of sub-genres. These popular tales include everything from cozy (bloodless) adventures to romantic suspense to “tween” puzzles, and more. But, regardless of “spin” or sub-genres, overall definitions remain the same.

A mystery is a secret, riddle or puzzle.  Within the mystery fiction framework we find cozy mysteries (mind puzzles with little action and lots of deduction), the tough P.I. mystery (crammed with non-stop action and blood-spatter), and the cop mystery (where facts and fear are served up as the main course for a police procedural). Crime tales are, as defined by Wikipedia, stories that “…deal with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. Sub-genres include detective fiction (including the whodunit), legal thriller, courtroom drama and hardboiled fiction.” The suspense thriller is unlike any other genre. Here we find spy novels, crimes of passion and familiar madness, and always, uncertainty of resolution. Writing from multiple points of view, including the perspective of the villain, is one trick used to heighten the reader’s anxiety in a suspense thriller, which usually defines the challenge early-on and resolves it as close to the end of the work as possible. 

Yet, in these three different types of fiction, there is one universal that can add panache to every tale. Author intrigue. Author intrigue is the singular idea that when the writer identifies and writes about what fascinates him or her that energy is passed on to the reader, like a lit match touching dry tinder. Sound simple? Think of it as a mystery ready to be solved. Write out what you like most in the mystery, crime or suspense fiction that you personally love. If necessary, make a list. Then, set your imagination to work. Weave these elements into your next writing project. The change will surprise you.

Writers exercise the greatest power when they write from the heart. So, discover what touches your heart and let it bloom into words of fire. If you don’t discover why you enjoy mystery and suspense, and then apply that to your writing…it would be a crime!

Editing for Success!

Whether you are content editing or line editing, editing is the key to a polished manuscript. Content editing means reading for flow, evaluating the placement of ideas or events and ensuring that point of view is consistent, throughout. Action, stories and events should follow a logical order, where stories flow easily and plot points appear on cue. Line editing is reading for grammatical accuracy. This means that your basic grammar is correct, that repetitive or redundant phrases are eliminated, and that adjectives/modifiers are used appropriately and only when necessary.

Most of us love specific words, and use them over and over in our prose. Sharpening our awareness of such a habit is the first step to refining editorial skills. As part of polishing your manuscript through content editing, identify overused words or phrases and eliminate them. For example, one popular writer (with several fine books to his credit) repeated the same word, again and again, throughout his novels. The word was “smirk.” Every other page, some character smirked. The hero smirked. The villain smirked. The sidekick smirked. He must have used at least 500 smirks in a single book. Obviously, the author was unaware of this redundancy. Unfortunately, these “smirks” made it past his editor and onto the shelf. 

Line editing is wonderful for removing pointless “thats,” “ands,” “buts” or other meaningless words. When done correctly, it’s like pressing your manuscript through a sieve. Everything extraneous or redundant is screened away. What remains is a literary gem, a story faceted with creative phrases and memorable metaphors.

Need I say, dump your clichés? A cliché is a phrase that’s been so overused it has no meaning. The online dictionary defines it as “a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase…that has lost originality, ingenuity and impact by long overuse…” Phrases like “mad as a hatter” or “monkey brained” are clichés. Our bodies are only as healthy as their individual cells. Similarly, our manuscripts are only as interesting as our individual words and phrases.

Finally, stellar writing requires a stellar vocabulary. Nothing makes a manuscript stand out like brilliant verbiage. This doesn’t mean each sentence should be packed with four and five syllable words. Sometimes we get the biggest emotional punch from short, sharp words that pop. Mastering writing requires an intimate knowledge of language. Pursue your love of words by studying them. Don’t be afraid to use a thesaurus. Find one you like and make it your counselor.

Editing is the last step for a good writer. Clarity, fluency and polish depend on editing skills. As an editor, your best education is to read, read, read. The more you read, the more you hone an intuitive sense for structure and flow. Years ago, I bought a book about Robert Frost, my favorite poet. In this book, they showed a first draft of his poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay. I was shocked. It was mediocre writing. But, after editing, it became one of his most powerful poems. Remember, quality editing makes good writing great! 

Seven Secrets to Writing a Best Seller

No one has a formula for writing a best selling book. However, there are certain rules of thumb that make it more likely that your manuscript will translate into top sales.

1)         Write from research. Every author should research what is selling and what is not selling. Not that this should determine which genre is selected. (Whichever genre you love to read most is probably the genre you should write). Nor should statistics about what is selling today determine what you write. In a year, the publishing world could be topsy-turvy. But, a solid understanding of the highs and lows that naturally occur in publishing will give you an edge when it comes to developing and marketing your book.

 2)         Know your competition. Develop familiarity with the top selling books in your chosen field. This knowledge paves the way to success by educating you in what readers buy and in what ideas/concepts are stale or fresh. Since editors usually want a new angle on the tried and true, this information prompts you to find a fresh hook for your book.

 3)         Create a catchy title. Regardless of rumor, this is much more important than cover art. A catchy title stops the potential reader in his or her tracks and motivates them to pull your book off the shelf and open to the first chapter. The good news is that there are more literate buyers on the book market today than ever before. The bad news is that they are much more sophisticated and demanding when it comes to what they read. (This applies to editors, as well).

4)         Tell a fascinating tale. Evaluate your favorite books to determine what this includes, or review the basics in “Stealing Fire From the Gods.” Make sure your story is better than the episode of the latest sitcom. Today, even commercials tell a tale, and most of them are polished and motivating. Your story must be better than a Geico ad to get consideration by an editor at a publishing house.

 5)         Just do it. Start writing. Spend the time you would normally spend doing laundry, fixing dinner or watching TV at the computer. So what if you walk around in a sweaty T-shirt, yank your dinner out of the microwave or miss that episode of Boston Legal? We can’t do everything. Time is limited. Make sure that you write for at least five-minutes, today and every day!

6)         Make the first chapter “pop!” If your writing is “hot” in the first chapter, it’s more likely to continue at this high level throughout the manuscript. This applies to both fiction and non-fiction writing. First chapters act like magnets, pulling readers into the storyline. The day is long gone when either fact or fiction can be slapped down on a page without polish or panache. 

 7)         Finish the book. Your talent may rival that of Dean Koontz, but no one will know or care if they can’t read your work. Too many of us fail because we don’t finish. Trust me…you are far more likely to get a contract offer for an unpolished manuscript than for an unwritten idea.

The Brilliant Robert McCrum

Brilliant author and philosopher Robert McCrum, journalist for The Observer, has forgotten more about writing than most of us can claim to have learned over a lifetime. His fascinating article in the June 2002 edition of this publication is one example of exactly how to organize your thinking before attempting to write a best selling book.

“First, make sure you attempt fiction rather than non-fiction. Fiction is just one genre, non-fiction runs the gamut. The public's appetite for novels of all sorts is far broader and potentially more commercial than the market for, say, history or popular science.

Yes, megasellers such as Antony Beevor's Berlin: The Downfall or Dava Sobel's Longitude can be adduced in refutation of this rule, but for every Longitude (a freakish and brilliant one-off) there will be a dozen Pratchetts, Coopers or Hornbys.

Second, having chosen fiction, don't forget to tell a good story. Grab the reader by the throat on page one, get your narrative fingers round his or her collar in the first chapter and don't let go until everyone's living happily ever after, burying the dead in a wintry twilight or driving off into a better and a finer future.

And don't be too original. Shakespeare himself did not disdain well-tried tales. There are various theories about the number of basic plots in the world. Some people say three, some seven, some ten. There's no harm in having your fiction conform to a fictional archetype.

But don't - my third law - become too calculating. If one thing characterises the writers of bestselling books, it is that, to a person, they believe in their star. Every line they write is scratched in letters of fire. Next to the bestselling writer, Napoleon had an inferiority complex.

And, finally, if you decide to put sex into your work: beware. This is the most difficult kind of writing, and almost always makes the writer look ridiculous. In fact, to avoid embarrassment in the bedroom department, you would be well advised to make a careful study of American novelist Elizabeth Benedict's excellent handbook, The Joy of Writing Sex (Souvenir Press) which, despite its come-hither title, is actually a wise and down-to-earth guide to the mechanics of fiction, from soup to nuts.”

Robert McCrum

Quoted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/jun/09/features.review3

We all know that there is no guarantee of success in writing anything, but these four rules are truly golden. Follow them and you will come closer to writing that elusive best seller than ever before!

Freelance Writing for Fun and Profit

Whether you look at freelance writing as a hobby or an impossible dream, this multi-million dollar industry can provide healthy roots for your professional writing life.

Start with Confidence – When you first start freelancing, you may be tempted to talk yourself down. After all, where are your credentials and awards? Remember, you are not promoting credentials and awards. You are promoting your unique view of the world coupled with a natural talent for the written word. Did you win a contest in grade school? Have you ever received high marks on creative writing assignments? Focus on positive past experiences, however humble, and you will be able to introduce yourself to editors with confidence.

Write What You Love – Whether you are sixteen or sixty, you have already amassed a large amount of knowledge about topics that interest you. Put your best foot forward and start contacting magazines and editors. Even if you’ve never written an article or press release before, you can do it! This is not rocket science. With a gutsy approach and a little faith, you, too, can land a freelance writing job that pays!

Don’t Re-Create the Wheel - Online and at your favorite bookstore, you will find abundant resources to help you write anything and everything. From articles to query letters, information is at your fingertips. So, do a little research. Take a moment or two to write down a list of your favorite topics. Then, seek out samples of queries and articles dealing with those topics. You will be amazed at how easy it is to move forward with your freelancing goals when you have a few examples on which to model your efforts. (See the book Six Figure Freelancing by Kelly James-Enger). 

Broaden Your Sales – Remember that most successful writers don’t use their research for just one story. They re-slant their research and write for different markets. For example, you could research the seven top foods that cause weight loss for a magazine like Prevention, then re-slant these facts for an article about weight loss after pregnancy for Parenting Magazine. Of course the research and expert quotes would need adjustment so that each article would be unique, but it’s amazing how much information you discover during the research phase that is not used in an original project.

Make the Editor Happy – Think about it. Every editor is inundated with project queries all day, everyday. What would you want if you were an editor; something fresh, creative and appealing to the magazine’s readership? When you think like an editor, you make an editor’s life a little easier. And, that translates into sales any day of the week!

First Line of Attack

The most powerful “hook” in a book is the first line. A first line should encapsulate the core message without giving plot secrets away. It must capture the imagination of the reader with the tantalizing promise of revelations to come, while hinting at the main thread of the storyline.

Steven R. Boyett’s best selling novel Ariel starts with, “I was bathing in a lake when I saw the unicorn.” After reading that first line, who could put the book down? This one simple sentence makes it clear that the hero is a boy…not a man. He is innocent, not guilty…pure not corrupt, and faces a world that is a crucible of experience destined to strip away childhood. All this is conveyed in less than a dozen words, the first words in the first line of a brilliant literary work.

            “Man,” said Terl, “is an endangered species.”

This is the first line of L. Ron Hubbard’s classic Battlefield Earth. After reading that sentence, I devoured the first half of the book in one fell swoop, practically without breathing. Why was humanity an endangered species? Who was Terl? What had humankind done to set the feet of their descendants on such a fatal course? Perhaps, my opinion is skewed by my love for fantasy and science fiction, but I believe this single sentence is one of the best first lines ever written.

Hugo and Nebula award winner Orson Scott Card wrote a landmark book titled Ender’s Game. “I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I can tell you he’s the one.” What does this first line do to your heart rate? If your heart doesn’t speed up, your mind doesn’t gear up and your imagination doesn’t steam up, you’re probably dead! What a great “hook,” and what a wonderful first line.

In my paperback copy of Life Expectancy, Dean Koontz autographed the word, Boo!  And, then, he signed his name. This is my favorite of all of Dean’s multitudinous works, because the entire storyline is foreshadowed in the first sentence. “On the night that I was born, my paternal grandfather, Josef Tock, made ten predictions that shaped my life.” The predictions were more nearly curses and our protagonist had to survive each impossible event to carry the story forward. What a brilliant book! What a great first line!

From classical first lines like, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…” to contemporary first lines such as, “My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down,” the first sentence of a book is the very real “hook” that allows an author to reel the reader in. How do successful writers come up with these first lines? Where do they get their inspiration? Through intuition and clarity.

You don’t have to know each twist and turn of your story to be aware of its karmic value. Some writers plot out the storyline, while others make it up as they go along. Both have a general direction, an inner compass that points the way to fate, to challenge, to the adventures through which their characters must pass to reach safe haven. If you are really in love with your story, with your characters, with writing, the first line will come to you. It may not come clear until the entire tale is on the page, but when it does it will “hook” your reader, and open doors of wonder to reader and writer, alike.   

Bird by Bird

Anne Lamott’s New York Times bestseller, Bird by Bird, is an insightful, motivating gift to all writers. Open and intimate, this honest portrayal of a writer’s life de-mystifies the writing process, while re-enthroning the act of writing and the use of personal experience to inspire imagination.

“Ever since I was a little kid,” Anne says, “I’ve thought that there was something noble and mysterious about writing, about the people who could do it well, who could create a world as if they were little gods or sorcerers. All my life I’ve felt that there was something magical about people who could get into other people’s minds and skin, who could take us back to ourselves. And, you know what? I still do.”

In the competitive world of creativity, crucifixion is commonplace and nurturing a rare prize. Yet, without honest nurturing, creative souls may never taste the sweetness that comes with a manuscript well written or a check from a publisher. Anne Lamott, the daughter of a well-known writer, nurtures the artist within by sharing tales of sorrow and serenity in the voice of one who knows. In simple crisp prose, she talks about plot, how to get started, first draft blues, dialogue, character, publication, false starts and great endings. Bird by Bird is a helpful, hilarious book that is brilliantly written.

“So much of writing is about sitting down and doing it every day, and so much of it is about getting into the custom of taking in everything that comes along, seeing it all as grist for the mill,” Anne continues. “This can be a very comforting habit, like biting your nails…Maybe you never quite get to the point where you say, ‘Ah – so that’s what a gun looks like from this end.’ But, you take in all you can, as a child would, without the atmospheric smog of most grown-up vision.”

When sitting at your desk or kitchen table, feeling like the reluctant compass for the dull point of every pencil, fenced in by blank writing tablets and the troubles of the day, Bird by Bird can free you. Creative work, like birth, demands blood, sweat and tears. To coax something hidden in the heart or mind onto the page where God and your neighbor can read it, calls for a special kind of courage. During times when gloom overshadows your brightest aspirations, a book like Bird by Bird clears the air.

Writing Colonies & Retreats

            In the hustle and bustle of daily life, our cherished writing projects can get lost. Rushing through traffic, cleaning house, shuttling kids from school to soccer, working at a fulltime job…these tasks often drain us, mentally as well as physically. That’s why, writing colonies and retreats offer such treasured moments. When we steal away from mundane, pragmatic chores, when we drink in nature and solitude, we refresh the wellsprings of creativity that make creation possible.

One of the best reasons to attend a retreat is to develop connections with other serious writers. Not only can you meet and mingle with well-known luminaries, but your work may often be reviewed by editors/authors that are “in the know.” Many of the following listings are drawn from an article in the Writers Yearbook, written by author and passionate “retreat” writer Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Thank you, Jordan, for reminding us that every retreat should be thoroughly vetted prior to purchase or application.

The Adirondack Writers Mountain Retreat
Contact: Persis Granger
7460 SE 51st Way
Trenton, FL 32693
www.pw.org
Perkinfl@aol.com

AROHO - A Room of Her Own Foundation
P.O. Box 778
Placitas, NM 87043
tracey@aroomofherownfoundation.org

Hillhouse Farms Writers Retreat
894 Odd Fellows Hall Road
Pulaski, TN 38478
931.424.9029
karen@hillhousewriters.com

Hedgebrook Writing Colony
216 1st Avenue S., Suite 4AS
Seattle, WA 98104
206.325.6773

The Lucious Women's Writers Retreat
Taos, NM
Contact: Michele Lisenbury Christensen
206.696.1460

Helene Wurlitzer Foundation
P.O. Box 1891
Taos, N.M. 87571
505.758.2413

Mesa Refuge - Writing on the Edge
Point Reyes Writing Retreat (California)
P.O. Box 3286
Berkely, CA 94703
Juliet.Kirkham@gmail.com
mesarefuge@gmail.com

Vermont Studio Center
Box 613
Johnston, VT 05656
802.635.2727

Dorland Mountain Arts Colony
P. O. Box 6
Temecula, CA 92390
951.302.3837

Anam Cara Writers and Artists Retreat
Eyeries, Beara, Co. Cork, Ireland
353.(0) 27. 74441
info@anamcararetreat.com

Redwood Writing Project
Humbolt State University
Nelson Hall West 234
Arcata, CA 95521
707.826.5109

Lew Hunter Screenwriting 434
340 E. 7^th Street
Superior, Nebraska 68978
Lew1@windstream.net

            Although I counsel every serious writer to experience a writer’s retreat at some point, remember that you can create a nurturing environment at home. Farm out the kids, trade off carpooling with a friend, stop off at the library or just buy a great pair of earmuffs. All of these ideas will bring you privacy and a change from the norm that may spark your inner muse.
            That said, I recall a writers retreat at Arch Cape, OR with great affection. Dawns heralded by seagulls and crashing surf, misty mornings aglitter with dew drenched blackberry brambles, followed by sunsets of ruddy crimson laced with the scent of driftwood fires will always enrich my memory. Before leaving, I wrote a poem of hope, scripted it onto parchment, burned the edges, rolled it up and sealed it in a bottle by dripping wax over the cork. Of course, I threw it into the ocean. What else could I do with a  message in a bottle? It was the ultimate act of hope. And, maybe that’s what writer’s retreats are for…for building hopes and nurturing dreams with solitude.

Re-Write! by Neal Asher

One of the best short story writers I’ve found is Neal Asher. His website (http://freespace.virgin.net/n.asher) hosts examples of books, articles, short stories, TV scripts and magazine interviews. Many are thought provoking and informative. My favorite story by Asher is Mason’s Rats – Autotractor, published in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, volume 2. It is slap-the-floor funny, as well as futuristic and clever. With the author’s gracious permission, this article, entitled, "Rewrite!" is reproduced from his website.  

“When do you cease to re-write work? Simple answer: when you are no longer improving as a writer, when you feel you have nothing more to learn, when you have achieved perfection. It is an unfortunate fact that some writers do believe this of themselves. They are normally the ones who have achieved success, and are drunk on the adulation of those who think a past participle is something you'll find in a linear accelerator.

  “For me revision of a story partially ceases when I feel I have achieved a required effect, might well attain publication, and have more interest in the next project. But while it remains in my processor it is still subject to a critical eye. I don't believe there is such a thing as too much re-writing. You just reach the stage where you can't go any further with a piece and move on to the next. In the process, you jettison the bad and keep the good. You decide, and you base your decision, on what you are after. Publication? Re-write for the market acting on feedback from editors and readers. Personal satisfaction? Don't kid yourself. For my novella for Club 199 I took a thirty-thousand word story and extended it by ten thousand words to fit it within their parameters, and felt perfectly justified in doing so. As far as I am concerned, good writers are successful writers (though successful writers often degenerate into bad writers).

“There is no quick-fix formula. It is obvious such a formula is profoundly wished for, as the sales of the 'How To' books attest. When questions are posed as to the extent and method of re-writing, the real question being asked is: how do I write well? The first step on the road for ninety percent of would-be-famous novelists is to learn how to use the English language. Get hold of books like 'Fowlers Modern English Usage', 'Roget's Thesaurus', and perhaps a plain old 'Mastering The English Language -S.H. Burton'. For many people the re-write required is the one to turn their masterpiece into something intelligible. It was not until I joined some postal workshops that I found out just how bad it was possible for some writing to be. I also learnt that those writers who really try to get a handle on the language are also the ones who tell the best stories.

“Understanding the structure is all. You're not going to build a suspension bridge if you don't know how nuts and bolts go together. The rest is badly written soap-opera.

“So now you know how the English language works, have put a story together, and are looking at doing a re-write. You have looked at the story objectively and made sure that the bunch of flowers is beautiful rather than are beautiful and your hero still has the same color hair all the way through. How does it look subjectively? Where, for example, can you break the rules to the greatest effect? The best of writers are the ones who know how to do this. Steven Donaldson once managed a one-word sentence, that had the skin on my back crawling. (Of course I'm aware that it is not pc to like Donaldson; he's too successful). The word was 'Kevin'. No, not the spotty kid down the road. Kevin Landwaster, who performed the Ritual of Desecration and whose spectre has just stepped through a door from the underworld. I'm afraid no English book is going to tell you how to achieve the same (though 'The Critical Sense' by James Reeves comes mighty close).

“The only way to learn is through hard work, reading, and listening to criticism, though for the latter you must judge what is relevant. There are no substitutes for these, just as there is no substitute for talent. When you re-write you must see the images and feel the effects of every word. You have to decide what to discard and what to keep. There are many sources you can tap to help you make these decisions. But in the end they are your own.”

Just Do It!

           The phrase “Just Do It,” made famous by Nike ads, inspired a generation. It urged, in three simple words, that all doubt, planning and preparation should be put aside, in favor of action. This sparked a firestorm of protest in some and a deeper commitment to accomplish goals in others.

Our commitment to write can grow deeper as we discover approaches to writing that meet our needs. Some writers seek quiet retreats. Others thrive in the hustling atmosphere of a coffee shop or restaurant. Many find that the rarified atmosphere of a library gets creative juices flowing. The point is that writers should not limit themselves to a specific atmosphere or place. When we “Just Do It” the floodgates of imagination open and words pour onto the page.

Perhaps, the phrase “Just Do It” intimidates because it challenges our self-knowledge. It implies that all anyone needs is grit and determination, when every writer knows the trials inherent in inspiring The Muse.

If you want to “Just Do It,” write down three things that inspire your writing. Perhaps, you write better with music. Maybe you respond to the sounds of nature. It could be that a certain time of day works better for you. Get clear on what fuels your creative consciousness and line these things up. Once you’ve established a creative ambiance, everything else falls into place. 

          “Just Do It” becomes easy to embrace when you know what you need to do! The saving grace in this phrase is that it can be cut to fit according to each writer’s needs. Find out what fires your creativity, provide it for yourself and start writing. Think like a marketer involved in supply and demand and meet your writerly needs. Then, simple as it sounds, “Just Do It!”   

The Art of Storytelling

Imagine the first story. Was it told around the fireside, with smoke dimming the flame-lit faces of an eager circle of listeners? Was it about the hunt, the kill, the tracking of the enemy, or the discovery of a cache of furs that would warm a struggling tribe through the winter? Was it a history of parentage passed from mother to child, a genealogy woven of words or a poem recording the passing seasons?

The stories within us have roots in an ancient and worthy past, a hidden history etched in chromosomes and individual cells, the heritage passed down from ancestors through blood and brain and breath - as elemental as the earth, as glorious as a fall of meteors. Yet, these stories will die, unwritten and unread, unless we allow our creativity some air, some space, some breathing room.

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, said, “No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”

Creativity is the wellspring of storytelling. We feed it when we use it. We use it when we tell a friend about our day, when we play hide-and-seek with the neighborhood kids, when we scribble in our journal…or, write a story.

Every story is about a hero or heroine overcoming hidden flaws in pursuit of the brass ring. In A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise discovers that he is not the slick operator he thinks he is, but a legal shyster, who has failed to exercise the courage to stand up for what he believes. In Erin Brockovitch, Julia Roberts learns that beauty alone does not make a firm foundation for an abundant or happy life. In Galaxy Quest, Tim Allan realizes that he is a fraud, a papier-mâché hero that everyone laughs at behind his back.

With these painful realizations comes the opportunity to deny or embrace truth, and thus either to continue to make the same mistakes or exercise the courage to change.

Tom Cruise chooses to become a man and stand-up for what he believes. Julia Roberts learns to fight for those that can’t fight for themselves. Tim Allan finds that, beneath his façade of fakery, is a foundation of leadership that guides his crew safely home.

So, take your hero, discover his flaw and make him face it. Add the kind of creative voice that attracted you as a child and watch your tale take flight. Storytelling can be plain or flowery, direct or twisted, but as long as it is true to your heart, your mind and your heritage, it will enthrall and entertain!

How to Write Right

Longing to make your writing sit up and smile? Here are a few tried and true methods to polish off the dross and buff up the beauty.

1)         The shorter the better. Short words bring “punch” to writing.  Recently, I read an article with the word existence sprinkled throughout the text. This article read much more easily when existence was replaced by the word life. As a rule, the shorter your words the better the overall read. 
 2)        Focus on fresh phrases. Go through the final edit with a red pencil. Scratch out phrases like in spite of, in view of or the fact that, and replace them with fresh language. Stock phrases sound canned, even if the idea is catchy. 
 3)        Vary your sentence length. When you follow long or medium length sentences with a short sentence, your script “pops.” In Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, we read:  Alai reached his bed and turned around to see Ender. Their eyes held for only a moment, locked in understanding. Then Ender left. The fact that Ender left heightens suspense, because of varied sentence length.
4)         Use natural language. Mark Twain’s masterpiece Huckleberry Finn is a brilliant example of the use of natural language. Instead of a super-cerebral vocabulary, we read dialogue with a backwoods drawl. Words are simple and heartfelt, the hallmark of classic literature. For example - Not a sound, anywheres—perfectly still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a-cluttering, maybe...you see the mist curl up off of the water, and the east reddens up…and next you've got the full day, and everything smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it!   
5)         Trust your ear. As a final test, read your work aloud. Does it sound prosaic? Pseudo-intellectual? Unintelligible? Reading writing aloud is like examining it with a microscope. The tone is magnified, especially when read by someone other than the author. So, spend an evening with friends who are honest but kind. Critique your final draft, with a nurturing ear.  
6)         Start in the kill zone. Begin your tale at a key moment, when characters and plot are already in motion and your high concept shines. Capture your reader with the hook of suspense. It works, every time! 

Your True Calling

My earliest memories reveal a fascination with language. Though this passion may have been inborn, I blame the local library. The Multnomah County Public Library, a magnificent three-story building composed of marble floors, granite walls and wrought stone pillars, was built in 1864 and is the oldest public library west of the Mississippi. During my youth, it housed, in addition to ceiling high shelves of books in echoing rooms, a series of open reference stacks. These mysterious, shadowed book aisles were so long that they narrowed toward far away pinpricks of light, like tunnel exits. Here, I happily lost myself in the touch of books, the scent of books, the magnetic pull of well written tales that entranced, as I dreamily drifted from aisle to aisle, with time, unfelt and unnoticed, washing past in an unseen tide. 

Of course, my first love was a book.

Was it Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates or The Wind in the Willows; A Little Princess or The Scarlet Pimpernel? No matter. I love them still, and their glorious adventures, humble or noble, still haunt my heart.

Reading led to writing.

The lure of writing was far more than the almost painterly look of words on paper. Writing was, and still is, an unconscious, uncontrollable urge, like breathing. If I were to stop writing, I would suffer a very real kind of death. For, writing is my life’s work, my true calling.

Does that mean I am not a real writer unless my name tops the New York Times Best Sellers List? Some writers believe that. They believe that reputation or publication or money determine wealth. I don’t. Real wealth is the act of writing, the experience of writing, the craft of writing that grows within the soul until it tingles down your fingertips, through your pen and onto the page. Whoever connects the value of writing with fame or fortune has missed out on what it means to be a writer.

Write! Write as if your life depended on it, because it does. Write as though generations unborn hunger for your words, because they do. Dismiss all dry, anxious doubts and write! Don’t write to please or provoke. Don’t write for profit or fame. Write to translate your inner fire into words. Write to share the vision native to your heart. Write to release your unique wellspring of creativity. Write because it is your true and most noble calling.

Write for love…and, love to write!