Hopping on the Writing Process Blog Tour

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I’m it, twice! I was tagged by two different bloggers for “My Writing Process” blog tour: Mohana Rajakumar and Autumn Birt.

Mohanalakshmi
Rajakumar 

In this tour, I have to answer four questions about what, why and how I write, then link to the bloggers that tagged me and tag two (or three, depending on whom you ask) more authors in turn.

I have tagged Fred Brooke, Gary Henry and Terry Tyler to follow me.

Now for the questions.

1.       What am I working on?

The project closest to completion is a memoir in novel form, tentatively titled Broken Boots. It’s the true story of my father-in-law, who was drafted into the Red Army in 1941, just before Germany invaded the USSR. The manuscript is now with my capable editor.

At the same time, I’ve been working sporadically on another work that crosses genre boundaries, Dark Clouds. I published the first chapter, “The Mandrake Ruse,” as a free short story a couple of years ago, and have posted other random chapters on various blogs.

• What Made Me Love You?
• The Graveyard
• Magic Love
• Teri and the River
• Some Days, I Wish I had Never Met that Woman

Dark Clouds is genre-buster, combining high-tech spy thriller with contemporary paranormal mystery. And a love story, too.

2.       How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I like to combine elements of various genres. Broken Boots combines biography with military action thriller—the subject has, alas, passed away and so I have to fill in some of the details with impersonal research about the Eastern Front of the Second World War, and my own imagination. But it’s still true to the story.

Dark Clouds breaks the rules of the urban paranormal genre by mixing it thoroughly with the high-tech spy thriller. If you’ve read the first chapter (just click the tab under “Free stories and chapters” in the right-hand column), you’ll know that it’s the story of the Witch Queen, her immune-to-magic son and his wife. The plot from there will involve international spies, the oil industry and a political conspiracy.

3.       Why do I write what I do?

I don’t remember whether it was Samuel R. Delany or JRR Tolkien who said that he wrote stories he wanted to read, but could not find. I wanted to write a story about dragons that showed how they represented the deepest and most powerful expression of the natural environment, but could not find any. I really wanted to get away from the fantasy trope about kings and princesses.

Parts of stories seem to pop into my head, actually: beginnings, endings, scenes in the middle. Extending those ideas into a complete narrative, with a beginning middle, end, believable and interesting characters and a good style, as well as enough fact to keep it all hanging together, is where the hard work comes in.

4.       How does my writing process work?

It varies. For example, one day I heard or read a challenge to come up with the scariest opening for a scary story for Hallowe’en. My first thought was “He always knew when his mother was about to arrive.” Then I thought, why is his mother so scary? For some people, it might be the thought of having to clean up the house before she gets there, but that wouldn’t make much of a Hallowe’en story. So, what’s scary about Mom? How about if she’s the queen of all witches? Then I thought, to make it more interesting on a personal level, what if Mom the Witch Queen doesn’t like her son’s wife? Maybe they’re both witches — enemies on a metaphysical plane as well as rivals for the hero’s attention.

I don’t know where the next element for the story came from, but I decided to make the hero, Matt, immune to any form of magic.

Once I have these basic elements, the next step is to create a story arc — where the story will go, in the broadest terms. From there, I can create an outline, and break that into chapters. That will tell me what kind of supporting characters I have to have, and also whether I need to do any research. I have to have some kind of direction before I can start filling in details.

I always write from an outline. I even outline chapters, at least in my mind. But it’s always better to have it on paper. That way, I don’t forget things.

That’s not to say the outline cannot change. As I write the story, I’ll realize there are details and back-stories to create. I may have an inspiration that will spin the tale in a new direction. But I still have to reconcile the outline so that the story makes sense.

I usually rewrite chapters two or three times, and then rewrite the whole book at least twice. That’s before I get to the editing stage. I like to have at least two people besides myself edit a book, and at least one of them has to have some kind of professional background in editing and/or publishing.

Autumn Birt

It takes a long time, but I feel it’s important to have a quality product for my audience.

Thanks again to Mohana and Autumn!

The tour continues

Now it’s my turn to tag three bloggers.

Frederick Lee Brooke is author of sci-fi thriller Saving Raine and mystery thrillers Doing MaxVinyl, Zombie Candy and Collateral Damage. His blog is Author Unplugged.

Born and raised in Chicago, Fred has lived in Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, France and Germany and now lives in Switzerland.

Terry Tyler is the author of six books, including You Wish, which I reviewed. Her latest is Kings and Queens. Living in the UK, she has a blog about writing and also writes about self-publishing for the UK Arts Directory.

Gary Henry, blogger at Honest Indie Reviews and IndieUniverse, and author of AmericanGoddesses and two collections of stories. He is also managing editor of a glossy monthly print magazine and an avid runner.

Over to you!

Guest post: The best and worst of HarryWiddifield

Hi. I'm Harry Widdifield. I've written both as myself and as Sevastian Winters. I don't often do guest posts like this anymore, but on a whim, I decided to put this out there. Maybe you'll see some value in it.

When asking me to do this post, Scott asked me to consider the answers to two questions:

1. What is the best thing I've ever done as a writer?
2. What is the worst thing I've ever done as a writer?

These are both excellent questions, and interestingly enough, it took me about 2.5 seconds to know the answers to both.

The best:

In 1996, I had an idea for a short story about a serial killer who won “the game.” I've always thought of serial killing as a game more than a crime, and figure that we would solve more of them more quickly if police saw it as a game as well. Anyhow, I'd never written anything just for fun before, and so just for fun I wrote it.

Nine years later, after 16 years as an entrepreneur and marketing professional,  I had some time off from my four years as a corporate CEO, and thought perhaps I would turn that old story into a novel.

Before I started writing, I set out to read the classics, thinking that if I did, perhaps I'd learn enough about writing to give ol' Steve King a run for his money. (I call him Steve. He doesn't even know I exist.) When I finished Moby Dick, I figured I had the answer — the building blocks I needed to write my novel. And I asked myself this question: What if the whale was, after all, a cognizant beast, still driven by instinct, but wholly diabolical and completely human? From that thought, My Eyes Face Forward, a book I've never published, was born.

For the next three months I toiled night and day, perfecting my masterpiece, like a blind man painting by number, fully expectant that the Mona Lisa was revealing herself and the secret behind her smile.  (I said I'm not an expert. I didn't say I'm not arrogant. I was even more so then, for I had not yet learned how little I know.) I punctuated my final sentence and rushed my work off to an agent, expecting the million dollar offers to roll in. (Sound familiar? Anyone?)

I quickly found (or thought I'd found) that agents don't know the first thing about good writing, and that they are a rather snotty bunch. But one woman in New York, who has likely forgotten my name, (though I shall never forget hers), Toni Lopopolo, took pity on me. She told me to learn my craft, and she listed the titles of some books I should read:

• Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N. Frey

Lopopolo (which is a lot more fun to say than “Toni”) told me that those three books were the Holy Bibles of fiction writing and that I should read them and then (my eyes about popped out of my skull on this one) that I should “rewrite” my book! (The nerve of some people. She apparently hadn't gotten the memo about me being a golden god!)

Having been a businessman for a number of years, I surmised that since Lopopolo worked with the big houses in New York, that she was just checking me to see if I could take marching orders. After all, they don't write million-dollar cheques to just anyone! I decided I would play her little game. I would read her little books, make a few edits, and re-submit my work.

I started with Stein on Writing. When I finished reading, I was so astounded by what I'd read, that I immediately read it again, before proceeding on with Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and How to Write a Damn Good Novel. When I finished that, I bought more books on writing craft and then more again. Along the way, I stumbled across a few scriptures of my own, such as Story, by Robert McKee (a Bible for screen writers) Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott and Stephen King On Writing (which was more Apocrypha than Bible, but still valuable) and one that made a huge impact on me despite its tedium, (It's very technical) Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Dwight Swain. (Buy them. Read them, Read them again, and then again. Repeat.)

I read books on writing until after a time, they all started to say exactly the same things. It was then that I sat down at my desk, once again, for the purpose of “polishing” my opus. But…

...A funny thing had happened while I was reading. (Perhaps you have experienced the same thing.) At some point between the time that I punctuated the final sentence of my memo draft on how I'd just “finished” a manuscript and was ready to be heralded onto the world literary stage as a golden god, and the time that I finished reading my first of many stacks of books on writing, little gnomes had invaded my opus, and turned it into a great big, heaping, stinking, embarrassing pile of dung! It was then that I made the choice to truly check my ego at the door and to instead dedicate myself to a lifelong pursuit of learning my craft. More succinctly, the best thing I've ever done as a writer was to dedicate myself to learning my craft. Any writer who doesn't, is just a hack (and that's a fact).

The worst

The worst mistake I've ever made as a writer was to befriend more writers than readers.  Befriending writers rather than readers is a bad choice on several fronts: writers are assholes. Writers aren't readers. Writers have no vested interest in helping each other. Very few writers learn their craft well enough to teach it. Writers are more prone to literary circle-jerks than they are to actually writing.

Writers are assholes — myself included. In fact, I'm as adept at being an asshole as I am at writing. Ask around. I have a pretty solid reputation on both fronts. It sort of takes an asshole to think that the things you have to say are worth charging money for. If you're a writer, you're probably an asshole too — at least if you're any good. Own it.

Despite what you've heard, most writers aren't readers to any real degree. I, for example, can't get past the first chapter of most books I pick up, because most of them are crap. And while there are some amongst us who can't put a book down even when it's crap, for the most part, we writers are more interested in what we have to offer than in what others have to offer. So we're not readers. We're writers.

Writers have no vested interest in helping other writers succeed. Forget what you've heard about camaraderie. Writing is a solitary profession with solitary benefits. We're not all sharing a pie. We all want the entire pie. There's no real value in banding together and doing so is just wasted time and effort that takes away from our singular purpose: writing.

Have you ever watched the contestants trying to build a shelter on “Survivor?” I'm pretty sure they don't select contestants with any experience in basic carpentry. As such, their shelters suck. I'm a journeyman carpenter, so I just shake my head. Writers are much the same. Most writers have never so much as purchased, much less read a book on writing, and yet they all consider themselves knowledgeable on writing. I've actually had someone say to me “My uncle published six books so I ought to know!” My uncle runs dispatch for a trucking company.

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Does that make me a Peterbilt mechanic? Writers get into groups and spend countless hours arguing the merits of their positions on various aspects of writing none of them having the slightest fucking clue what they are talking about. It truly is the blind leading the blind.

The only thing worse than writers fighting with each other over the finer points of writing is writers praising each other for each others' work in literary circle jerks. I've been kicked out of every writing group I've ever been a part of, including some I've started. Reason? If a writer asks for feedback on their work, I tell them the truth.

Oscar Wilde once said: 

“If you want to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.”

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That's about right.

Writing groups tend to be about writers looking for accolades rather than criticism. Guess what? Your ability to string words together into a coherent sentence or set of sentences than form paragraphs, chapters, and books, does not rank my praise. I've never learned anything from anyone who told me what a great writer I am. Learning happens when we come to terms with the fact that we don't fucking know everything and that sometimes our very best work is nothing but a heaping pile of dung! (See how I did that? I've lead you right back to the beginning, where I chose to dedicate myself to craft because prior to that my very best work was crap.)

In short, the worst thing I've ever done as a writer was to befriend a whole bunch of writers instead of a whole bunch of readers. If you want to be a writer, do two things:

• Learn your craft
• Steer clear of other writers.

If you follow those two rules, you'll probably do just fine.

See? I told you I'm an asshole.

Author Harry Widdifield enjoys writing both fiction and non-fiction. A self-proclaimed "Teller of Ten Minute Tales," Widdifield loves telling action-packed tales to readers who often don't have more than 10 minutes in a day to read. Widdifield writes novels and self-help non-fiction as well as satirical non-fiction, but his true passion is tales that can be fully enjoyed in ten minutes and then digested for a lifetime. Bon apetit!

My kids are writing books

Aww, isn’t that cute? My mighty sons are both busy writing novels. Thinking about that raises a whole bunch of different emotions.

Their books actually seem like good ideas. Evan, the elder, is writing a spoof of 50 Shades of Grey, set in Montreal and involving pirates. The hero is a lifeguard, of course (Evan is a lifeguard and chief proponent of the idea that Jesus Christ established the lifeguard vocation when He walked on the Sea of Galilee). What Evan has let me see so far looks hilarious.

Super Nicolas is writing a satirical science-fiction novel about a revolution in Canada, in which the wise-cracking leader, named Nicolas (of course) takes down the tyrannical government.

They’ve both put a lot of work into their respective tales. Seeing them tap away on their keyboards evokes a storm of different emotions. First is pride that they’re applying themselves to such intellectual pursuits.

Then, I remember those hours when I was a teenager or twenty-something, scribbling down prose as fast as I could think about a story. I remember all those ideas I had for the beginnings of novels, novels that I never finished — mostly because I did not have a clear idea of the ending, just what I thought would be a cool opening.

I also think: I hope they don’t try to become full-time writers as careers. It’s certainly not a reliable way to make a living.

I sometimes wonder whether they were inspired to write by my example. If I hadn’t published two books, would they try to write, themselves?

Photo: Henry Bush, Creative Commons
via Jeff Goins, Writer

Then I think that lots of people write — millions, actually — whose parents did not write. I’m one. Whether my parents wrote books or not had no bearing on my decision to do it.

Then I think that I must be really conceited. My children are not necessarily following in Dad’s footsteps. In fact, their chosen career paths could not be more different from mine.

Ah, emotions. I guess I’m just a typical suburban father, unable to deal with emotions.

But I will say this: I’m proud of you, boys. Whether you write books or not. You’re awesome.

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The reader-author connection: Joe McCoubrey on writing style

Joe McCoubrey on Style

Joe McCoubrey knows a thing or two about writing style. As a newspaper editor, he dealt with several writers' styles before turning to fiction with his first novel, a thriller set in his home of Northern Ireland during its "troubles."

Joe has graciously agreed to weigh in on Written Words' Style debate.

How would you describe your own writing style?

I like to think it’s a tell-it-like-you-see-it style. I tend to go for the line of least resistance by getting the reader involved as quick as possible. That tends to mean I cut out the flowery stuff and reduce scene-setting to the minimum. I think it’s important, particularly in action thrillers, not to lose sight of why the reader has picked up your book – it’s certainly not to help an author indulge in rambling descriptive stuff and dialogue that takes forever to get to the point.

Are there any authors whose style you admire? Do you try to emulate them?

I love the styles of Lee Child, Matt Hilton, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor and James Patterson. They produce works that are not only a great read but succeed, where too many others fail, in putting the reader into the heart of the action. You can learn a lot from the style of writers like these but budding authors should never try to emulate. It’s important for an author to find his or her own style – without it I would suggest it is almost impossible to pen a credible story.

Are there authors whose writing style you dislike?

Yes. I’ve discarded literally dozens of books after only a chapter or two because the writing style, or more correctly, the absence of it, makes it difficult to buy into the story being told. I won’t name any particular authors but generally there are too many first-time writers who narrate their story rather than coming down from their overview perch and stepping into the events as they are unfolding.

How important is your writing style to you? Are you happy with your style, or are there aspects of it you try to change during rewriting or editing?

I subscribe to the view that without a style that is personal and identifiable with an author he or she ends up pushing a rather large boulder up a steep hill. Style is something that develops over time and needs to be worked on. I constantly edit to make sure I’m keeping true to the style I have chosen, though it does become easier to employ with the experience of continual writing. After a while it simply becomes natural and requires reducing effort to "slip into" character.

How can readers identify your writing style? Are there particular words or kinds of words that you tend to favour? Sentence structures? Or is it more in the story, the pacing or the characters?

In many ways it’s a combination of all these characteristics. For me the important first starting point is sentence and paragraph construction. I detest having to read a story that is filled with six or seven line sentences or where single paragraphs take up an entire page. Readers like to catch breath and be able to keep up with what’s going on in the page rather than face steep cliffs every time they turn a page. If I had a motto it would be "keep it short and tell it succinctly."

Joe McCoubrey's first novel is
available exclusively on Amazon.

Do you think your genre imposes certain restrictions on writing style?

No question about it. Action demands speed and tension, not a slow build up that will leave the reader wondering when the action kicks in. I don’t mean that every page should be full of action but when the time comes for it then go to it! Obviously this would not apply to other genres where a slow-burner approach is not only necessary but is expected.

Do you think your audience responds to your writing style, consciously or unconsciously?

Yes, there has to be a connection between the reader and author. Often this will be a subconscious connection where the reader is comfortable with the writer’s style and this is what makes him or her keep going back for more. Clive Cussler is perhaps the best example of an author who has developed a way of telling his stories – the style and format never change from book to book, and that is what attracts his army of followers. They love what they get and they know they can trust the author to deliver the next time around.

How important do you think writing style is to an author's commercial success?

It is everything. Devising storylines and plots is relatively easy. We all see enough TV and films to be able to conjure up a story with a few twists and turns but the real work lies in being able to tell the story with authority and effect. There are, of course, a few exceptions where relative success has been achieved despite the clear absence of style. However, if a writer wants longevity in this business he or she will need to impose their style. Just look at the list of bestselling authors – they top the charts for one very good reason. They have style!

About Joe McCoubrey

Joe McCoubrey is a former Irish newspaper editor who is now a full-time action thriller writer. In the early seventies he was working in the civil service based at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland government, and was watching behind the scenes as some of the country’s most momentous events unfolded. These were the early dark days of the “troubles” — events that reverberated around the world, and somehow served to push him towards his real passion of writing. He became a newspaperman, started his own media business, and took a front row seat as history was played out in Ireland.

His debut full-length thriller Someone Has To Pay was released by Master Koda Select Publishing in September. He has also had a short action story, Death By Licence, published in an anthology and is preparing a second full-length actioner, Absence of Rules, for release in January 2013. He has now started work on an Irish crime thriller, also due out in 2013.

Joe McCoubrey has lived all his life in the beautiful Irish town of Downpatrick, made famous by its association with the national patron saint, St. Patrick.

You can visit him at: http://joemccoubrey.com/

Authors and Olympic athletes

 I don’t want to get a nasty message from the IOC for infringing their copyright or trademark, so I won’t use the Olympic rings as a graphic for this post. Instead, I’ll ask you to imagine it, in full colour. Not even the IOC can do anything about that.

I respect copyright — of course I do, I’m an author — but while the IOC is going too far, wielding their power and their money like a playground bully, I’d rather focus on the Olympic athletes.



Bully image courtesy Business Spotlight



What’s the connection between writing and Olympic athletes? Both authors and athletes face a long, rough road. For most athletes, just getting to the Games is a thrill. Only a tiny minority take home a medal.

Watching events like this, hearing interviews with sprinters and divers and participants in so many other events, you begin to appreciate that there is much, much more to every event than what’s on the front pages of the newspapers or in the TV reports. For every spectacular photo of a medalist in action, there are hundreds of other athletes all giving the same effort without the glory.

None of those medal winners could climb the podium without the efforts of thousands of other people: coaches, assistants, organizers and especially all the other competitors, from the local leagues and events, through all the regional, national and international events.

The long, rough track ahead

While the Olympics are the glory events, there is so much more sweat, blood and commitment at the other levels. I have more respect for those competitors, those who give their sport everything they have, even while knowing how long their road ahead is, from the local competition to the world stage.

The writer faces a similar road. It’s a long way from that first idea, through outlines and drafts and rewrites, beta reading, critique circles, rewriting, editing, copy-editing ... you know the drill. And that’s just to get the book produced. Then there’s another, even rougher road to get the book into the hands (or in front of the eyeballs) of an audience. A very few become best-sellers, but there are many, many worthy books that, due to may constellations of luck and circumstance, just don’t get the recognition.

Speed bumps

Yesterday, I watched the Triathlon. Like probably every other Canadian, I hoped that our flag-bearer Simon Whitfield, who won the gold medal in 2000 in Sydney and the silver in 2008, would take the gold again. But after working his way to a good position after the foot race, he crashed moments after getting on his bike and injured himself badly enough to have to withdraw.

Did he deserve to win? Sure: he put in the hours in training, he had the talent, he obviously had the ability, but luck got in the way. He hit that speed bump just wrong, and he’s out.

So much in publishing success depends on luck, too. Who would have predicted the runaway success of 50 Shades of Gray? How many publishing professionals predicted that Harry Potter would go nowhere, and rejected JK Rowling’s manuscript?

On the road

Where am I on the road, right now? I can’t say I’m thrilled about the total sales of any of my titles. But I sold a few copies in the past week. I know it’s a tiny number, but I’m happy about any sales.

It’s a long, long road, after all.