Public Speaking and Promotion

James O. Born

Every writer you speak with now-a-days, especially savvy ones like our own Paul Levine, talk about the need for promotion. It's rare to meet an author who doesn't think the publisher could do more for them even in these times of limited resources. I agree that it's easy to view yourself as the center of the publishing universe, but over time, with experience, I realized that neither Putnam nor McMillan pinned the success of their companies solely on my novels. Whether that was a mistake or not, only time will tell.

I’m no expert on promotion. I do consider myself a good public speaker and that's where I rest most of my promotional energy outside of blogging. I think it's important to seize a crowd immediately whether it's ten people or 1000. And I will admit that this is a skill I gained early on in my police career where the failure to capture someone's attention could literally result in serious injury. Whether it's using my voice or my relative size or telling a joke, I don't want any part of the talk, especially the opening, to not capture the attention of everyone in front of me. I have sat through dozens, perhaps hundreds of talks by writers and police officers as well, where my mind would wander and all I could do was hope it would be over soon. The more of these deadly boring speeches I attend, the more adversely they seem to affect me. Perhaps it's just because I'm getting older or maybe it's a defense mechanism, but now I find I have to use the restroom much more often when I'm listening to a speaker who is reading from a prepared text or is clearly terrified to be in front of the crowd. I'm not judging or condemning, but I would like people to examine their own strengths and weaknesses and decide if this is the best use of their time for promotion. 

There are hundreds of tips for becoming a better public speaker. Search the internet and you’ll see plenty of choices. Here are few simple direct ones from yours truly:

1. What’s the worst that could happen? The audience probably won’t rise up and kill you. And if they do, they still won’t eat you.
2. Speak to three audience members, maybe someone you know or take the time to meet before the talk. Preferably have them spaced out in three different areas of the crowd.
3. Listen to speakers you like. Chances are they don’t throw in a lot of “Ummms” and “Ahhhs.” They also get to the point and try to be entertaining.
4. Never follow a good speaker. Never. Fake an injury if necessary.
5. Keep it shorter than you think it should be. Limit questions to six after the talk.
6. Keep it as conversational as possible.
7. Evaluate yourself critically afterward.
8. Do better next time.
9. Stop complaining about having to speak in public. Either do it or don’t. This isn’t Iran, no one will force you to do anything.
10. I reiterate:  Is this the best use of your time?

The same goes for all other forms of promotion. You have to ask yourself if it's worth the time it takes away from writing. Is it? If you are expected to produce roughly a novel year, how much time can you spend on the road talking to a few people at a Barnes & Noble or even a crowded library? It all comes down to your own resources and the most valuable one of those is time.

I gave up working on the blog for several years. I have no idea if it is a useful promotional tool. But my friends, or specifically Patty, Paul and Jackie convinced me to give it another shot and I decided to narrow my focus only to the subject of writing and publishing. I do this week in and week out because it is fun. I get something out of it. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, but I feel good when I've written a blog and I feel relieved when it has been posted on time.

One thing I know for sure is that if you don't try anything at all, you are doomed to fail. There are so many opportunities that have opened up to me because I did something, often against my will, that I wouldn't normally do. I've made contacts from more than one convention that have  helped me with everything from advice on covers to finding an entertainment attorney. By attending meetings at the Mystery Writers of America, I have made friends in the writing community who have been invaluable in talking about my books to others and helping me with a number of different problems.

So the crux of this blog is you do have to perform some kind of promotion. You never know how it's going to turn out. My friend, best-selling author Randy Wayne White, told me that it takes at least two years to see the effects of book talks and other things promoting your book. I told him that sounded like an easy dodge because most authors are done with their career after two or three years. But he's right. Little things like moving on to paid speaking engagements and meeting new friends are side benefits to trying to expand your reading base.

So when the next person asks me why I write for the Naked Authors blog, for the sake of brevity, I will say, it's good for exposure. But you know the truth. I like doing it. At my age there are very few things I will do anymore unless I like doing them.

Today's quotes are from the same, perfect source:

“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.” 
― Winston Churchill

“A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” 
― Winston Churchill

The hardest part of publishing is waiting.

Patty here…

I just finished writing my fifth novel. Now that it’s done, I’m faced with the most difficult phase of publishing (at least for me)—waiting.

Everybody faces this dilemma at one time or another. Writers are no exception. We wait while trusted readers pour through the pages of our manuscripts, looking for continuity errors, overwriting and plot holes. We wait for agents to answer our query letters. We wait while editors read our manuscripts and decide if they will purchase our books. If we’re lucky, we wait for pub dates and reviews. So, what should a writer do to pass the time, other than to celebrate making it to the finish line?

“Start writing the next book” is the advice most commonly given. We are told if we wait for the phone to ring we may not be a real writer. We may be a person who wants to be published and earn buckets of money, fame or whatever. They caution: What if we get a two-book deal with the second one due in twelve months or six month? While we do edits and promotion plans for the first book, we’ll fall behind schedule to finish the second. There is also some pressure to love writing. Not all writers do. Putting words on the page is torture for me. The test of a real writer is that regardless of the downsides, he or she just can't stop doing it.

"I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."  —E.B. White

Waiting can destroy your spirit, so I try to avoid it. For me, writing isn’t only putting words on the page. It’s thinking about what I want to write next. It’s also about “filling the well” of experiences that I’ve lost while sitting for hours and days at my computer creating a story that I hope somebody will want to read. Filling the well requires me to go back into the world and see what’s out there. Here are a few ways I find inspiration:

Research trips. I ask myself what interests me; what geographical area have I always wanted to know more about? Maybe I can’t afford a trip to Katmandu but I can trek to a local museum or library. I’m fascinated by genealogy and have always wanted to write a story about family research gone sideways. Fortunately, I’m just a few miles from the LDS family library, where I’ve spent many hours looking into my own family history. I've taken classes there before. Maybe it's time to sign up for another one.

Public transportation. For me, character is king. I spend a good deal of time developing mine. One of my favorite sources of inspiration is to take the city bus and people watch. I take notes describing behaviors, hand gestures and facial ticks, knowing one day I will use them to build my characters. A description in my first novel came from a note I’d jotted on a paper napkin, describing a woman who walked past the window of the restaurant where I was eating.

Explore Settings: Places always inspire me to write because they spark sensory images. Let’s say you stroll by a dark, trash-strewn alley and think it’s the perfect place to dump a body (if you’re writing a crime novel). Pause. Use all your senses to describe the place: sights, sounds, smells, tastes and the even the feel of grime on the brick walls. Take photographs. Note how your body reacts to the scene. Does your heart pound? Does your jaw tingle? Describing emotions is difficult for me. I have to work at making them real. Visiting dark alleys gives me an opportunity to experience those feelings firsthand.

Newspaper articles: I keep a file of old newspaper clippings. I reread them periodically, hoping one of them will inspire a great story. I recently came across an article about the role of elephants during WWII. That struck a cord. I also love stories about old, unsolved crimes. 

My point is that once I finish a book and find myself in the waiting mode, I don’t feel as if I’m a failed writer if I don’t immediately put more words on the page. Thinking is writing, too, as is research and riding the city bus. I hope this fifth book finds a publisher. I think it will. If not, it was a book I needed to write. It was cathartic for me. Now, all I have to figure out is what’s next.

Happy Monday!

Thief of Time

James O. Born

Let’s get practical in our quest to write a novel. Forget for the moment about all the things we've discussed for these many months. Don't worry about character, story, pace, dialog, structure or setting. Forget about the hundreds of other elements that go into making a novel not just readable, but so readable that a publisher wants to buy it and people other than your friends will read it.

Today let’s talk about finding the time and working efficiently. This is one area where I would put up my expertise against anyone in the country. The United States, not people who live in rural areas.  It's tough enough to live in these hectic times without taking on the added stress of another project. A project that must be focused and nearly perfect if you want it to be more than a cute quirk your friend's giggle about behind your back.

Let’s look at our day and cut out eight hours for sleep (necessary), eight hours for a job (for many of us) and two hours for food prep and taking in and letting out (sorry) sustenance. I went to Florida State, so I know that leaves us six hours of dead time. Really? That seems like a lot. Oh yeah, there's an hour of commute, an hour of waiting for others, and an hour of ranting about how little time there is in the day. Three hours. Great. That is if you don't have kids. How much work could they be? What's the worst that could happen if we ignore them? Think a Clockwork Orange or Lord of the Flies.

My point is life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid (Sorry, had to throw in a John Wayne quote); it's tougher if you are not efficient. I break down writing into several phases. The most important is thinking about what you're going to write. Making notes for weeks in advance of starting a novel. While I'm running or swimming, commuting or chatting with my wife, I'm actually thinking about characters, plot and conflict. Who says we really need to live in every moment. Do you need to pay attention at a school talent show after your kid has played the sax? Do you need to pay attention to a Cleveland Brown's game after the third quarter? What about the State of the Union speech? You get the idea. You need to be a thief and steal time during the day. If you become a master thief, no one will know you're doing it.

Years ago, while writing Escape Clause, I knew something was missing in the story. I was well into it with over sixty thousand words written when I was stumped and contemplating scrapping the whole thing. Then, early one morning while running, I had an epiphany. It was truly a remarkable moment, as far as writing goes. I knew exactly what was missing: A female character in a specific role. I had a Seminole Indian character named Billy. He was the key to uncovering the mystery. As I was running on the sidewalk at the end of our street, preparing to go onto the wooded trails, the idea to change Billy to Billie, a beautiful Seminole Indian woman changed the entire dynamic of the story. It took a couple of hours to fix what I had already on paper and then it zoomed along. Until my editor, Neil Nyren, had other problems with it. Nothing to do with Billy/Billie. And, even then, I had to admit, he was right and I took it as a learning opportunity. I always think about his explanation about suspense and rooting against a bad guy from the start of a story.

The point of that somewhat long-winded anecdote is that I was not frustrated at my keyboard, but doing what I did every day when the idea came to me. To this day, when I turn that same corner, I think about the bolt of inspiration that came to me.

It's vital to be efficient if you want to write a novel while carrying on a normal life. (One important etiquette note: Never say to a published novelist, "I wish I had time to write a novel."  That infers your life is so much more important than theirs and that the only thing needed to publish a novel is time on your hands.)

Once you've started your novel, and are actually on the computer, don't get distracted by things like surfing the internet or writing @#$#@ing blogs.

Next week we're on to something new.  What, I have no idea.  But I'll worry about it while I'm riding my bike.

This week’s quote is:

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury

How to Write a Novel, Kill Him Already.

James O. Born

We are still talking about characters. It seems like weeks and weeks because it has been. But it doesn't matter because the characters mean everything. If you're serious about writing a novel, it starts and ends with characters and what they do. Really, what you as a writer, make them do.

 

One of the things that bothers me as a writer is killing off characters I like. They don't necessarily have to be good guys, just characters that are interesting. I mentioned in the last post how I couldn't bring myself to kill Cole Hodges, the villain from Walking Money and later used him and Escape Clause, slowly bringing him along to not quite a good guy, but at least someone you didn't want to see dead. Once you kill a character, you lose part of yourself. But by not killing any characters, you run the risk of being stale and uninspired.

I can recall as a kid not watching the early episodes of Miami Vice. Obviously I had not yet started my own police career, but I just viewed it as another silly police show on TV. Then one night I was casually watching as the first Lieutenant, played by a character actor named Gregory Sierra, best known for his role on Barney Miller, was shot and killed by a sniper. That shocked me. At the time no one seemed to kill off regular characters on TV shows. It immediately grabbed my attention. It also opened the door for a new Lieutenant o enter the show. The actor who played the new Lieutenant, Edward James Olmos, changed the entire landscape of TV police shows and turned Miami Vice into a major hit.

In every novel I face the problem of which characters to kill. Since I am not writing Victorian romances, but modern crime thrillers, someone is going to have to buy the farm, kick the bucket, take a dirt nap, you get the idea. But it's tough for me to kill people I've heard talking in my head and seen carrying out their daily lives on the pages in front of me. But it's got to be done. And it's best if it shocks people. Get the reader worked up. Raise the stakes.

This is all predicated on the principle of making the reader care about your characters. If no one cares what happens to your characters, why will they read your novel?

I'll never forget reading the Elmore Leonard novel, Bandits, and really liking what I thought was one of the main characters. Then the man casually wanders into a men's room and is shot dead in front of a urinal. Holy cow! (My apologies to Dutch Leonard who hated the use of exclamation marks.) But the move got my attention and I realized how much I cared about the people I was reading about. He was the master of characterization. Often that came out through the dialogue in his books, but the characters all had a number of layers as well as a number of motivations. Many of them evolved through the course of the book. You would find yourself rooting for a thug who understood the errors of his ways. That is the essence of great writing.

Someone's going to have to die. Choose who it is and make the most of it. Let the reader relish the untimely end of a really nasty villain. Let them anguish over the death of a sidekick who's got a really good sense of humor. Let them squirm as the girlfriend of your hero is run down by a four-wheel-drive pickup truck driven by a drug crazed lumberjack. Shock the reader, make the reader care and do what has to be done. 

Don't be a wimp. Kill someone already.

This week's quote:

“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”―Flannery O'Connor

Evolution. No, not that evolution.

James O. Born

Last week we talked about motivation. But we also mentioned something that's crucial to every novel, just as it should be to every person. Evolution. I'm not here to debate the merits of the theory from a theological or scientific point of view. I'm talking about the evolution of characters.  Making the characters change as a result of things that happened to them in the story. Just like most people would change as a result of things that happened to them in real life. Do you think that Donald Sterling is quite as trusting now as he was a few months ago? He has evolved. (I just wanted to use that phrase in relation to that moron.)

Characters can evolve for any number of reasons. Let's take an unusual example. We look to our friends in the world of professional wrestling. Terry Bollea is known by the stage name as Hulk Hogan. The giant wrestler was a fan favorite and role model to young kids for many years and used his position to create quite a comfortable life for himself and his family. At some point the character of Hulk Hogan got stale and was starting to lose the interest of wrestling enthusiasts, so they made him evolve from a good guy to a bad guy named Hollywood Hogan. Simple, some would say stupid, but effective. Once again his popularity soared, only this time people rooted against him. If that trick works in something as ridiculous as professional wrestling, imagine what you, as a writer, could do with it in a novel.

I'll use another example, this one from the literary world, however it is currently best known as the TV show Game of Thrones. Anyone who has followed the remarkable series knows that in one of the first episodes, the heir to the Lancaster name, Jamie Lannister, pushes an innocent ten-year-old boy from a tower in an effort to keep the boy quiet after he has witnessed Lancaster having sex with his own sister. If that is not the setup for an old-time bad guy, I don't know what is. I remember watching the show on a Sunday evening and the emotional reaction I had to that putrid, arrogant asshole of the character. I was counting the moments until Jamie Lannister met some horrible end. And he only made it worse over the course of a couple of seasons. He strangled his own cousin in an effort to escape captivity. I cheered when his hand was cut off by a rival. But now, over a long period and through superb writing, I may not love the guy, but compared to the other villains in Kings Landing, I like to see him on screen. That is the mark of a good writer. I tip my hat to George R.R. Martin for his remarkable series of books.

More info here

More info here

Once again, I will use one of my own series of books. In Walking Money, one of the main bad guys is an attorney named Cole Hodges. He was fun to write. An amoral attorney skimming money from the poor with a past that no one knew about. He was an outright killer if he had to be. And he believed in street justice. To me, he was one of the more interesting characters in the book and did things that were unpredictable. He was articulate and intelligent, as well as violent and surprising. In the second novel of the trilogy, Shock Wave, he was not present in the book at all.

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In the third novel, Escape Clause, which takes place in a prison on the edges of the Everglades, it seemed like a natural place to have my favorite character from the first book. I liked him so much that I allowed him to escape from prison. Some people said they even rooted for him.  By the end of the book he has escaped to a safe haven where he meets the bad guy from Shock Wave. My plan was to have those two become friends and go on their own adventure. Not necessarily as villains.  But, as any professional writer can tell you, things don't always work out the way you plan in publishing. But I was still happy with the evolution of the character from absolute evil genius to sort of evil genius. I couldn't bring myself to allow him to meet a grisly death. As a result, I milked the character for another book. That's a win.

This week's quote is:

“I am always chilled and astonished by the would-be writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they “don’t have time to read.” This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons.” ― Stephen King

The End...or is it The Beginning?

Patty here…

 I just finished my latest novel and was feeling a bit proud of myself until I realized I wasn’t really finished. There was more to do before I gave it to real people to read. The first thing that needed attention was the timeline. While I’m writing I try to keep track of dates and times. I learned this from the editor who shepherded all my Tucker books through the perilous waters. After sending her my second book, she said, in effect, that she had no doubt Tucker could save the world but probably not in one day. Of course, she was right. I’d larded in so much action it was not possible or believable that anybody could run that fast in a twenty four hour period, except maybe a gerbil spinning on its wheel.

My books have all been set in Los Angeles. It takes time to navigate traffic in this city. I have to take that into account. With this current novel, I kept track of days, hours and sometimes minutes in the first half of the book. Then I switched several scenes around and what had once been day was now night. After that I gave up keeping track and accepted that I would have to fix it later. If you have an easy way to do this, please let me know. Here are some timeline aids I’ve used:

1. Excel spreadsheet. Across the top I put the dates. Along the side I put the times. Then I read through the manuscript. As a scene happens, I insert the time in the appropriate column. In the date column, I make a note about what happened in that scene. I keep doing this until I reach the end of the manuscript, at which time I have a complete record of all events and when they occurred. 
2. An old-fashioned appointment book. You can buy these at Staples or similar office products stores. I buy the one with four columns so I can track the protagonist, the antagonist and two other characters during the course of the novel. I do that because one behavior leads to another. When your heroine does something, your bad guy reacts. Events in a novel should be causally related. How people react to events in their lives causes conflict and moves the story along. 
3. A regular run-of-the-mill calendar. This is usually my last option because the spaces are too small to include notes but it's great for keeping track of broad, sweeping events.

While I’m reading through the manuscript, I keep a tablet by my side on which I ask myself questions like:

• Aren’t her muscles sore from horseback riding the day before? The character said in the manuscript that she thought they would be.
• When did you tell the reader Detective Garcia was on vacation? That came as a surprise. It should come earlier.

The next read through is dedicated to copy editing. I aim for perfection, even though I never quite achieve that goal. Here's where I use the “find and replace” option for stuff like: is the proper abbreviation for Los Angeles LA or L.A.? And names! I hope you keep a list so you don’t forget who's who. In this book Tiffany became Chloe in one chapter. Good thing my error antennae began vibrating when I read the wrong name.

Okay, so now that I’ve corrected all things correctible, I’m finished…really I am. Except that last scene, maybe the angle of the parked car is slightly off. A diagram. Yes! That’s what I need. And measurements. I’m off to get a sketchpad and ruler.

Happy Monday!

How to Write a Novel Part Thirteen

James O. Born

My thanks to Kat Carlson for pinch-hitting for me last week. In the coming weeks I have an impressive array of authors who will be contributing their viewpoints to the blog.

Today I want to start a multi-day discussion on dialogue. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of a modern novel. Of course I wanted to say modern "crime novel," but that's just my personal preference. I've published science fiction as well as crime novels, but I read everything. And I mean all different genres; from literary novels about feuding farming families in the Midwest to historical fiction about Rome. And I am here to tell you there is almost nothing harder than writing good dialogue and nothing that will sink a novel faster than bad dialogue. It doesn't matter if the novel is set in the 1920s or around the birth of Christ, in the South or in South Boston. The choices you make when writing dialogue will affect all aspects of the reader’s experience. I'm not trying to freak you out, but this is the nuclear arms race of writing. There is very little that's more important. Except college football.

Dialogue is one of the clearest and most direct ways to express your character. Even internal dialogue can let the reader know how smart, how funny or how sincere any particular character may be. It's fun to read funny dialogue spoken by characters who remain cool under pressure and can come up with great one-liners, but it is just as important to read dialogue that expresses sorrow or concern in a way that lets readers know the gravity of the situation and the depth of the character’s compassion. The word choices that a character makes in the story should have no reflection on you, as the writer. If you limit yourself to having everyone speak the same way you do, I can almost guarantee you've written a boring novel. The dialogue comes from the character’s background, not yours!

If you're writing a novel about the Ku Klux Klan and other modern racist organizations you should use words that are not generally accepted and I hope you don't use in real life. I had several long discussions with the late Elmore Leonard about the use of various slang for African Americans. He used them as a pointer to the hardest of the hard-edged characters. No one could ever call Dutch Leonard a racist. Eventually, I did use the worst of those words as a way to delineate just how bad the bad guys in my stories really were. I only met one person who ever considered it racist to put it in the novel. No matter how I tried to explain that it clearly had nothing to do with my beliefs, he said the use of such words in any form was racist. He may have a point, but I disagree. I don't think a writer should be censured for trying to make a story realistic and characters true to their background. It's a touchy subject and one you should address on an individual basis, but you can't be scared of it. My first agent once told me, "You can't write a book that you picture your grandmother reading." That is an excellent bit of advice.

Another man, who, after reading Walking Money, suggested that conversations around my house must be spicy with all the salty language. He seemed truly disillusioned when I told him that I rarely used foul language in real life and that that was just one particular character who would string together the most inappropriate and dirty words. In truth, even during the height of my law enforcement career, I ran across real-life people who said disgusting things. And I made it a point not to speak like that, certainly not around my wife and children. But sometimes people can't separate the character from the author. Break out of your comfort zone. Have your characters say things you would never dream of saying. We have a whole lot more to cover on this subject, but since the Miami Heat's final game starts in a few minutes and I do, at some point, have to continue writing novels in order to keep my house and my wife, I'm going to bring this discussion to an end.

But we will continue the discussion over at least the next week and perhaps two. There are so many aspects to writing dialogue that some of them just happen without thinking about it. How do you feel about reading uncomfortable language in a book? Does it sweep you up in the realism of the story? Or does it turn you off? I have very successful author friends who do not use certain words even in their hard-boiled detective novels. This comes back to the first major point of this series of blogs. When writing a novel, it’s up to you how you write it.

Today's quotes are:

“Be daring, take on anything. Don’t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.” ―Joyce Carol Oates

"I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation." —Tom Stoppard

Lessons from a Critique Group Junkie

Patty here…

I have been in one writers critique group or another for the better part of twenty years, long before a publisher bought my first novel. Some writers feel comfortable sending a first draft to their editors. In fact, some editors prefer that. My editor always got the best, most polished book I was capable of writing because I would have been embarrassed to do otherwise.

Critique groups are not for everybody, but I can’t imagine writing without one. Some groups had strict rules about the number of pages you could read, the time allotted and the way others were allowed to critique. In one group, critiquers could only say what they wanted more of or less of in the pages read. No one was allowed to “pile on” to another member’s negative comments. In some groups the comments were given in an orderly manner, traveling from one person to the next in the circle. Some were free for alls. In some groups, the writer read their pages. In others, each group member read the pages silently so the voice of the reader did not influence the written words. The lessons I learned from each group are essential to my life as a writer.

Group 1: This band of merry wannabes formed in 1992 after taking a class at UCLA Extension called “How to Write a Credible Sex Scene.” None of us had been in a group before. None of us were published. In fact, none of us had ever written much of anything. Our meetings were madcap free for alls. When the group dissolved, I realized:

Group members must be serious about actually writing something. 

Group 2: Before I joined, the group had hired a published horror author for the month to teach us the craft of writing. I left when he told me I shouldn’t be writing mysteries because so many others had done it better than I ever would. I learned:

Don’t attack the writer or his/her vision. Say what you like about the work and suggest constructive changes, acknowledging that even though you may have a book or two under your belt, yours is just one person’s opinion. 

Group 3: A well-known writer and teacher led the group. The members were talented writers (far better than I was) as well as students of literature. Every time I got feedback I felt as if I’d just had a masters class in writing. In the next nine years, I wrote two novels and part of a third and learned volumes about the craft of writing and the writer’s life. By the time the group disbanded, I had forged lifelong friendships and learned:

You have to complete a novel before somebody will publish it. If you hope to finish, it is better to learn about criticism and rejection among a supportive group of friends than to be alone when you realize the world does not always love your writing. I also learned not to take praise too seriously, either. 

Group 4: A published writer and teacher led this group by a strict code of conduct. All of the members were talented writers who had been in the group for many years. I dropped out when, for the third time, I arrived at the meeting place only to discover they had changed the venue without telling me. The lesson:

If you accept new members into your group, 

then accept new members into your group. 

Group 5: For a while I feared I’d never find another critique group. Then, by some stroke of dumb luck, I found this group, or maybe it found me. Most members are successful screen and TV writers, which gives me a whole new prospective on structure. Some have also written newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, novels and non-fiction books. They are talented, wise, supportive and funny people. Lesson learned:

Persistence is usually rewarded. 

HAPPY MONDAY!

How to Write a Novel Part Eleven

Getting Feedback and Public Speaking

James O. Born

 I guess the three blogs I posted while I was on vacation went up without a hitch.  Just the way I like things to work.  But in writing a novel things rarely work out the way you expect them to.  Even the plot doesn't work out the way you originally envisioned it.  That's one of the wonderful things about writing a novel.

There is certainly nothing wrong with writing a novel just for yourself.  That's what happens anyway.  99% of all novels are only read by the author and maybe a few of his or her friends.  As long as you enjoy writing, that is not an issue.  But at some point you will probably want to show your novel off to someone else.  You want to get some feedback.  There are number ways to do this.  There are critique groups, professional organizations like the Mystery Writers of America or you might have a friend who you trust to read it.  I never did any of these things and I'm not sure I regret it.  Sure, I had a couple of friends read one of my early novels (not Walking Money, but an unpublished novel) and they were very complementary.  But I didn't get any criticism that made the book better and frankly, I'm not sure they were qualified to give me criticism looking back on it.

A few years ago I was the lunch speaker at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s conference in Denver, Colorado.  A great conference that I highly recommend.  I taught a few classes that were along the lines of this blog and then, on Sunday afternoon I addressed the entire conference.  I'm comfortable with public speaking and have learned how people cringe at the thought of eating rubber chicken and listening to a stilted dolt, reading from notes.  I spent a career in law enforcement putting up with that.  So I worked very hard to not give any conference goers that experience.  And although it may seem like everything I say is off-the-cuff, most of it I've worked out well ahead of time and intentionally throw in a lot of jokes.  No one is ever unhappy with the talk if they laughed during it.

The trick in public speaking is to know what your audience wants.  Should it be a talk on practical ideas?  Should it be inspirational?  Should it be realistic or just a silly break in the day of long workshops?  In the case of the Rocky Mountain fiction writers I had decided to split it between an inspirational talk with some practical ideas.  It would last for 22 to 35 min., depending on the response.  Then, the night before, I read an essay online called I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script by Josh Olson  .  I had to make an audible at the podium and change the entire tone of my talk.  I had to address the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  Aside from the harsh title, Mr. Olson makes some valid points.  The point I made at the conference was, this is not the kind of guy you want feedback from.  I did not care for his snarky tone, but he did make some sense.

This is one of the hardest subjects for me to comment on.  It is difficult to get good feedback, but it is also difficult to give good feedback.  I have read countless manuscripts from my friends who, when I suggest certain things, always seem to have an explanation why it has to be in the book.  This is an area which completely baffles me.  I rarely read manuscripts anymore because I'm not sure I can provide anything worthwhile.  It is also an enormous strain on a writer's most valuable asset: time.

So if you’ve found that perfect mate, who wishes to read your writing and has insight that you value, damn all the other signals and marry that person.  It doesn't matter if they're a homicidal maniac, if they’re a very good first reader, snatch them off the market and consider yourself lucky.  Who cares if you spend the rest of your life burying bodies in the backyard to keep them from being arrested.  Finding someone who will give you the right feedback that can help your book and push it towards publication is such a rare occurrence that they should make movies about it.

Many critique groups require a great deal of effort for you to read other people’s work and provide feedback.  Not only does this encourage others to take your work seriously, but it's a good way to learn what not to do when you're writing.  It's one of the few times you can learn from other people’s mistakes.

If you are thinking about some conferences, I would always recommend the Rocky  Mountain Fiction Writers or something like the South Carolina Writers Workshop (where I was also the opening speaker) or perhaps a more specific conference like Sleuthfest, hosted by the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.

If nothing else, it's never a bad thing to get out and meet people.  Especially if your chosen profession/hobby requires you to be alone most the time.

Todays quotes are varied in content and provider.

“Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about a man.”― E.B. White

“It’s a great lesson about not being too precious about your writing. You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it…You have to let people see what you wrote.” ― Tina Fey

How to Write a Novel, Part Ten

James O. Born

Has the past nine weeks of blathering discouraged you in any way? Let's be honest, writing a novel is a lot harder than it sounds. But let's also keep it in perspective. It's not like you're putting a roof on a house in Florida during the summer or being shot at by Iraqi insurgents or having to teach a classroom full of kids whose parents have gleefully given the responsibility for raising the kids to the you. There are clearly harder jobs out there. I never complain about being a writer. It is a privilege. I love to do it. I appreciate getting paid for it, as well. But mainly, I like doing it because of some inner drive I couldn't explain.

We still have a long way to go. I might start faltering a little on weekly posts as several major projects come into focus. But I wanted to take this breather and see how we still felt about writing a novel. It's sort of like the All-Star break in basketball. Just stop all the action and consider what you're doing.

Are you reading enough? Are you spending enough time on your novel? Is the rest of your life suffering? Are you still watching TV? You guys are smart or you wouldn't be reading this blog. I'm not bragging about the blog, but I am quite proud to be a part of it and be associated with people like Jacqueline Winspear, Patty Smiley, Paul Levine, Cornelia Read and Ridley Pearson. But this isn’t the sort of thing you decide to read while you're looking for the TV listings for the next UFC fight or monster truck rally. This is a very specific blog and Thursdays have become even more focused. Don't sell yourself short. The fact that you're reading this means you're pretty bright.

If you're reading this, you have completed a novel and are frustrated that none of the New York publishers have knocked down your doors to buy it; that means you're sane. You are a normal human being with reasonable emotions. At least when it comes to writing and publishing.

So let's keep all that in mind as we start to step off into other subjects related to writing a novel. I am quite open to suggestions if you want to drop me an e-mail or if one of my blog mates wishes to discuss a subject. Ideally, I will trick you into writing the blog post for me and take full credit.  That makes me a professional writer.

Keep writing and stay sane.  Sometimes it's difficult to do both.

We have several quotes related to our subject matter today.

“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him." ― William Faulkner

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”― Maya Angelou

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – but you are the only you." ― Neil Gaiman

How to Write a Novel part Seven

James O. Born

The language of the novel has everything to do with how it's received and the way in which a reader perceives it.  I know that sounds obvious, but many writers don't seem to get it.  I'm not talking about every novel written with exquisite prose and flowery language.  Some novels are written bluntly and to the point.  Some tell the story of survival and danger and require a different tone.  Some have a lighter touch and certain language would crush the comedic timing.  One way to think of the tone of your writing is the music to a movie.  I am a fan of Shakespeare's Henry V and seen the movie starring Laurence Olivier several times.  In

addition, I've seen the remake by Kenneth Branagh dozens of times.  It's the same story with essentially the same dialogue.  (I would hope that they were both following the same source material).  But the impact of the remake by Branagh is much stronger in my opinion and it took me a number of viewings to figure out why.  Laurence Olivier is arguably one of the greatest actors of all time.  The production with him is from the 1950s and is spectacular.  After careful consideration, I realized it was the music of the remake that set the tone and made it that much more exciting for me.  Others would disagree, but I find the remake to be far superior to the Laurence Olivier version.  And I generally don’t care what others think.  They only get in the way of what I think.

Consider all that when you decide how you want to tell your story.  Our friend and fellow blogger, Paul Levine, once told me about his experience writing the excellent novel Illegal. 

He changed the tone of the novel by simply referring to the protagonist by his last name, Payne, instead of his first name, Jimmy.  That gave the story a harder edge.  I thought it was a brilliant and simple move and an explanation that should be in writing classes.  So now it is.  Thank you, Paul.

The other language quirk that I would look at if I were starting my first novel was avoiding clichés.  Things do stick out like sore thumbs, but they also stick out like George Bush's ears or, for that matter, Barack Obama's ears.  Have I just stumbled onto a hidden code about our presidents?

One of Elmore Leonard's famous rules is never used the phrase, "Then all hell broke loose."  I listened to him so intently that I don't even use that phrase in real life anymore.

Is he a smart as a whip?  Or are smart as Neil Degrasse Tyson?  This one isn't really a cliché because Tyson is a very bright

guy.  Use your own imagination, I'm tired of doing all the work. 

Is he lonelier than an Amish electrician? (Thanks Larry the Cable Guy).

Something faster than a speeding locomotive or is it faster than Adrian Petersen in the open field.  Is it faster than the French army in reverse?  (You can never go wrong poking fun at French military expertise.)

They don't all have to be funny, they just have to avoid being clichés.  Personally, I avoid clichés like the plague. 

Work smarter not harder.  Or whatever.

Our quote this week is more contemporary, but right on the money, I mean, as precise as George Will’s elocution.

“You either have to write or you shouldn’t be writing. That’s all.”― Joss Whedon