Consequence — put it in your writing!

DL with Sara at the Blue Ridge Book Festival, April 2016

One common thread found weaved through successful novels, both those critically and commercially acclaimed, is a little used word in writing – consequence.

Here’s an exercise to try. Name five novels you like. Identify what the characters did or did not do that was important in the story and plot. Define what happened as a result. In most cases, you’ll find that these consequences are what drives the tension in the work.

I believe focusing on consequence is a good way to help develop and improve story/and or/plot in any work you are considering. Look at the cascade effect consequence has on other characters and you’re on the way to succinctly fleshing out your project. It will help you write with more depth and keep the fictional souls you create relevant and realistic.

Three of my favorite writers do this, whether purposely, or within their personal writing regimen. Here are three books where consequence is vital and their authors who build consequence in their novels. I recommend you read At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen, The Snow Concerto by Virginia Crane, and A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. All are great reads and will add to your craft level if you choose to study them.

Sure, you write consequences into your novel. You can’t avoid it. Even Jerry Seinfeld, who said his sitcom was “about nothing,” had consequences in every show.

Focusing on consequences focuses you writing on the heart of your story.

Many books I read, fumble their way toward telling the effects of their characters actions, often wasting verbiage that simply doesn’t advance the story. Focusing on consequence will tighten your writing and make it more powerful.

NYT best selling author Wiley Cash shown here with DL

 

DL with fellow author Virginia Crane at the Port Charlotte Cultural Center

A note in closing – I’ll be at the On Point Book Fair at West Shore Plaza in Tampa Florida this Saturday from 10AM until 9PM. That’s long! But, I’ll be there.

 

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Is faster better? Not when writing.

Many times novice writers are like these baby night herons. They need some guidance.

One of the writers who requested my opinion about the work they produced and requested I read, had what I consider valid reasons to write. First, she loved the effort. Second, she wanted to use her writing to help others avoid mistakes she’d made. She’d chosen a plot and story that weren’t threadbare from overuse. The passion she wrote the novel with was palpable. …. However, the result was disappointing. The  work wasn’t cohesive. There were errors in continuity I wouldn’t have expected. Grammar was strange … good in portions … errors made in sections of the book that were correct in others. Why?

The answer came out when she proudly told me, “And it only took me 90 days to write it.” After gagging and struggling to maintain a straight face, I understood part of her problem. She’d succumbed to the mindset that there is some great virtue to writing at a pace designed to win a 100 meter sprint in the Olympics. Unfortunately, this is cultivated by some literary folks. I’d already discussed the vital need for her to rewrite her novel. It could end up as a salable book. I added this piece of advice, “Few (if any) of us can produce a “finished” manuscript on the first pass. The need for rewrites, or polishing if you prefer, is universal, and taking the time to produce a better quality starting point will pay dividends when the rewrites are made. A finished, waxed, and shined product is required to send your work to agents and publishers.”

I can assure YOU ALL that you won’t get agents or publishers to accept your manuscript because you wrote it faster than a speeding bullet. There won’t be an extra 40,000 copies sold because you wrote it in 60 days. No one who reads it will proclaim it a masterpiece because it was vomited onto the printed page at an unparalleled rate of puke. (colorful to make the point) People will brag about your novel or non-fiction because you have executed all the authorship skills required to a level that exceeds the thousands (literally) of your competitors.

Writing every day to hone your skills to the point you are a razor is important. Hemingway set a goal of 300 to 500 words of PROPERLY WRITTEN, MEANINGFUL PROSE A DAY. Speed helps you win races. It doesn’t do much for you when writing.

 

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Want to be your own boss? … You’d better be a good one!

Authors like NYT best selling author Wiley Cash shown here with me at The Blue Ridge Book Fest usually have a strong message in their work.

“I want to be my own boss. I don’t need some rectal aperture (my substitution) hanging over me, pushing me every second of the day.”

This was an answer to my question, “Why do you want to write?” One of the authors whose work I read … who wanted my opinion … was adamant about all the bosses he’d worked for over the last fourteen years and his last nine jobs. Having hired and fired many people during my work career, the smell of dead fish wafted in the breeze.

“All the people you worked for pushed you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“What did they say your problem was? The quality of your work? The quantity you produced?” I had a specific reason for asking. Though there was a hint of talent in his writing, there was a large red flag fluttering above.

“Mostly quantity, but they bitched about everything. Particularly, the women I worked for.” He frowned as he said that. That told me something since I’ve found women are usually more than fair when judging a workers output.

There was a pattern in his writing. It started out in a well-ordered coherent manner. The work was engaging and the prose solid. Then … then … it degenerated. It became rushed, disjointed, and sloppy. This cycle repeated six times within the novel. The writer became bored and “just rushed through it” at his own admission. We had a discussion about the need for actually being your own boss, if that is the path you choose, and the imperative for a writer to have a massive dose of self-discipline. After we went through his work, he accepted the need and conceded his biggest challenge would be to push himself.

Yes, you are your own boss when writing. You had better be a damned good one. If you aren’t harder on yourself than anyone you ever worked for the probability of your reaching success in the hyper competitive world of published writing is geometrically diminished.

If you think your agent, editor, and publisher are going to say, “No problem, take your time, no rush,” when you miss a deadline, I have the Pacific Ocean I’ll sell you at a bargain price.

 

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Writings not a easy living? … Say it isn’t so!

Cat to dog – “You going to write something today?” Dog to cat – “Yes, if you’ll hold my paws over the keyboard.”

Question – “Why did you decide to write your novel, xyzxyzxyz?”

Answer (After a long pause) – “I’m tired of getting paid $xx. an hour. I want to make some big money and not have to be a slave to my work to do it. I can’t think of a better way than writing to do that.”

I got this answer, or some variation of it, when I asked the “why” question of five of the eleven would be authors I’ve been writing about in my last couple posts. One lady, unpublished, with a first time novel, explained that she expected she would to have to write two or three additional books after “this book” was printed to meet her objective of buying a small island in the Bahamas and retiring. I guess reality is something that you can be ignorant of, or blissfully ignore, convincing yourself it doesn’t pertain to you.

Lets discuss reality. I’m trying to keep my posts short so ……

Making large dollars from writing is normally achieved from an enormous volume of effort through the traditional publishing route. Do self-published authors become rich and famous? Yes. BUT, as a percentage, they’re harder to find than hen’s teeth.

Unlike my friends pictured above, successful authors don’t decide to slide out of bed if the inspiration strikes them on a particular day. Vomiting on the keyboard, sending your visionary words to an eagerly waiting publisher, who will assign hordes of editing staffers to polish your Socratic wisdom, which the editor-in-chief will send a limo to pick up … isn’t going to happen. No one is going to beg you for your manuscript. Cancel your Porsche.

Writing is an everyday grind … your breaks are normally spent in research … most writers, if they took the time to calculate, would be ebullient making minimum wage. I average seven to eleven rewrites for each of my books. Rewrites are tedious and intense WORK. If you love what you’re doing it’s worth it. If you’re looking for a hammock and a Mai Tai way to make a living, writing isn’t for you.

If you work your rectal area off, your chance of becoming a name author is miniscule. This is particularly true when writing fiction. Read my post back on April 14, 2015 titled, “Publishing to Enterprise – Beam me up Scotty – from where-ever I am.” It details that reality word. (less probably than making an NFL roster by many, many times).

After all that, for those beating the odds and becoming traditionally published, today’s reality is that you’ll be out promoting your book(s). Even “name” authors like Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants) are out hustling their work. I shared a signing area with her at a small book festival last April. YOU ARE A USED CAR SALESMAN – LIKE IT OR NOT.

If you believe being a successful author is going to work in your undies, while sipping wine, eating lotus, and having Brinks Armored delivered sacks of cash to your door, you may wish to revise your thoughts.

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Writing’s not a casual default when there’s nothing better to do.

Sometimes being a writer can be as lonely as a sand hill crane standing in the middle of a field.

 

In my last post I explained how I’d read some books that authors sent me. They wanted an opinion, and, usually a question or two answered. Some needed tweaking. Some an overhaul. Some needed @#&%! …… I wanted to help so I made a diligent effort to understand the authors POV. What was their intent? After several of these discussions, a pattern emerged. The authors were “just writing” without a clear idea of what they wished to accomplish with their book. My question to one of these writers was, “If you don’t have a clear objective for writing your book, why are you writing?”

The first answer was convoluted, so I rephrased and repeated my question. I got an embarrassed, but honest answer. “I lost my job to downsizing. I spent over a year looking for something in accounting without luck. I decided I’d try to write novels. Some of the (manure) I’ve read and some of the stuff on TV is really bad. I thought I can do that good.”

There was no message in the writing. Well, that’s not correct. There was the desperation of someone who had invested in having a book printed after spending a lot of money on the manuscript. It was “edited,” formatted, had a rather good cover (the only reasonably done production work) and printed. I’m not a grammatical guru, but even my average skill level found 37 errors in the first chapter. Eight pages. Continuity was poor. The heroine’s car was a red BMW, a few chapters later it changed to gray, half-the-book-later it remained gray, but morphed into a Mercedes. I thought it might have been some unusual way to establish time passage (that was another problem). When I asked, the writer had no idea that a changeling vehicle was roaming the book’s pages.

Writing for publication is difficult —- very, very difficult. The competition is fierce and often unfair. Don’t be lulled into the mind set that “Anyone can write a best-seller.” The advertising convinced this person they could. Writing is a process that requires lots and lots and lots of preparation, perspiration, rejection, and commitment. It’s not a casual default when there’s nothing better to do. At least, only one hundred books were printed. If you’re new to writing for publication, there is a sobering fact you might want to keep in mind; there are almost as many folks making money from authors as there authors making money from their books. There are many excellent literary professionals who can do great things to help you develop your talent. There are more that will simply take your checks.

 

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Is why you write the reason you succeed or fail?

 

I used the recovery time from my hip operation to do some reading. People ask me for evaluations of their work and it’s caused some questions in my mind. One is, “Why are people writing?”

 

I decided that I’d put aside the books I’m working on during the weeks prior to going into surgery and post carpentry recovery. People request that I read work they’d done; most times they’re manuscripts … two of these were printed novels. All told, I read eleven books … ten fiction, one historical work. When I finished it was my opinion that three of the works were well written, marketable, and with a piece of the author contained in their pages. They had a fighting chance. That left eight that varied from “needs work” to “really?” After contemplating these less-than-magnificent-eight, I assumed the fault was in me … I must just not have “gotten it.” I went on a quest. How did I miss their message. I asked. What I found is sobering. They really didn’t have one.

Each of these conversations – that started with objective, plot, story, characterization – ended with this question, “Why are you writing?” The answers weren’t always forthcoming; it took quite an effort to get to the unvarnished truth. While I’d never share any details about individuals or their work, the writer’s answers to the question are enlightening. They explain why there are so many books being written, produced, and why the bulk of it is a waste of paper and computer storage.

After a great deal of unwrapping packaged answers, I was able to state eight reasons given by the eleven folks who asked for an opinion. My next series of posts will deal with these. If you read them, ask yourself, “is this me?” Try answering honestly. The first one I’ll be discussing is this answer, “I can’t find any other work.”

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I show my ass in this post … Literally!

                                                            Jigsaw puzzle – 35 staples and 18 cm

Yep. that’s a view of my ass. Since the last of June, this portion of my anatomy has been my focus. Another of my parts has reached controlled obsolescence. I’ve had a hip replacement operation.

For the last three years I hobbled about trying to rehabilitate the joint with physical therapy, injections, about anything a person can imagine. About the only treatment I passed on was one offered by a witch doctor from an aboriginal tribe in Papua whose charge was  to retain my body as his lunch if the treatment failed. I’d already had a knee replaced and hoped to avoid a replay of that experience.

I have. It’s done. I’m going into the third week of rehab and everything is going very, very well. It’s nothing like the knee was. Now, to get back to writing!

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