Doing research

One of the most important things to remember as a journalist or writer is that you must write what you know. Doing otherwise can only hurt your credibility.

What does that mean as a writer of fiction?

Does that mean, for example, if you want to write a murder mystery you have to murder someone or to have investigated a murder? What a stupid question. Of course not. If a writer had to have intimate experience in the subject area in which he or she were writing there wouldn’t be any science fiction. What person do you know who has traveled to a galaxy far, far away?

What it means is that the subject must be an area of intense interest and knowledge to the writer.

For example, I love spy novels. I have tons of them. Although I am not as knowledgeable as when I was still in college, I have an interest in espionage. I read newspaper and foreign policy journal articles on intelligence and espionage. So, it was a natural that my first novel, “Fighting Chaos,” was a spy novel. It was inspired by something that happened to me while on a trip to Spain and then I just let my imagination run wild.

I could never write a western, for example, or a romance novel because neither is an interest to me. I couldn’t write a credible tale in either genre because I have no knowledge in those areas.

What does any of this mean for research? Knowing your subject means there is less research to do but it doesn’t eliminate the need for research. Just the opposite. But it does mean that if there is something you don’t know, you can make it up and feel confident that it is still credible as long as it is within your general knowledge of the subject.

For example, I have been to the White House before but never in the Oval Office. Not even close, for that matter. But I have seen a full-sized replica of the Oval Office in the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids and have seen countless pictures of the Oval Office in books and newspaper and magazine articles, as well on in film. So I feel confident that the brief description I use in my book is accurate enough to be credible.

I didn’t make up everything in my book, of course. For research, I used books and other printed material, as well as the Internet and a hand full of people to fill in the gaps. But for the most part, I used what I already knew about people, locations and situations. And I generally used places I have already been, whether in the United States or Europe.

For example, the house that my hero lives in in Virginia was the house where a friend lived in the 1980s. I used restaurants where I had eaten, streets I had traveled, locations I had visited.

So my advice is write what you know, make up what you don’t know as long as it fits within your general knowledge and do your research. And that, I think, should make for a compelling and credible work.

Have a Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

"Fighting Chaos" and discouragement

I have to be honest today. I feel discouraged. Not enough to quit writing, of course. Only death or mental disability will do that. It’s just that as 2007 closes out, I feel like I am working harder than ever but not moving forward.

I sent out a query letter this morning for my novel “Fighting Chaos” and am considering who to query next. And I remembered reading a delightful magazine article a couple of months ago on an agent named Penn Whaling. (Sounds very Eastern Establishment WASP but I don’t hold a person’s ethnic or racial background against them. After all, they didn’t pick it.) She works for the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

I went to the agency’s website and saw that Ms Rittenberg published a book last year called “Your First Novel.” In it, she and a published author wrote about writing and getting published. It sounded good and I ordered the book. And on the agency’s website, Ms Rittenberg also suggested a new, aspiring author might consider, among other things, taking an online workshop on writing and publishing. (Rittenberg only accepts snail mail queries, which is good because I need to do more research on the agency before I decide to send a query there.)

Her advice is all good and I am considering a Gotham Writers Workshop course on getting published.

But what is discouraging is there is still so much to learn and still, according to Gotham, “. . . no sure path or magic formula for publication.” I know that. But how do I discern which path to take and when to take it? There is so much advice out there, much of it conflicting, and until someone inside the industry takes you under their wing, it seems like you are destined to remain at the window looking into the candy store. I don’t know how to break through. For all that I have learned, I don't feel like I have moved forward very much.

I know this post is a bit of a downer. After I’m finished, I think I will just go upstairs and sit in the bath and read for a while. But what I won’t do is give up. 2008 is going to be a great year. I just know it. My job is to be as prepared for it as possible.

So thanks for reading and remember, keep writing!

Having a good editor

What is the role of an editor? As a writer, I ask myself that. But in reality __ and as a former newspaper editor __ I think the answer is simple. The role of the editor is to insure clear, crisp writing and ultimately to make the writer look good.

I venture that no one outside of a writing community ever looks at a piece of writing, be it a newspaper or magazine article, a screenplay or a book, and thinks, “Uh, whoever edited this is an idiot.” No. They think, “Whoever wrote this is an idiot.”

It’s the writer whose name is out there not the editor. Yet in all my years as a journalist, I have never seen a writer whose work wasn’t improved with good editing. EVER!

All writers __ good and bad __ edit themselves. It's part of the writing process. I edited this blog several times before I decided to post it. In fact, in my first stab at editing it I eliminated the first three paragraphs.

A writer needs that second, third or fourth pair of eyes. They often see things the writer misses, like verbosity and vagueness.

Two of my favorite writers are very successful and undoubtedly very powerful but could also use tighter editing. And they probably don't get it because they are rich and powerful. One of these authors published a book a couple of years ago that was a bloated mess that I had difficulty getting through. The story was a mess and the telling was a mess.

Editing is a difficult balancing act and editors generally have a thankless task but it is a necessary task. All writers need it.

I think my novel is good. It is a good story, it is told well and the writing is good. But I probably have gotten it as far as I can get it without good, judicious editing. It can be improved. I am sure of it. It is a job a good editor and I can do together, and I look forward to it.

That's the role of the editor.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

It baffles me

There is something that baffles me. I understand why things are put the way they are but they baffle me nonetheless.

Agents and publishers often say they like having or representing authors and writers who are passionate about their work. Now that makes sense.

But they also say writers do not necessarily know why a work is rejected and they shouldn’t take it too personally. It is a business decision. Both of those statements make sense.

However, how can one expect someone __ an artist __ who has poured a great deal of energy and passion into their work, not to take it a little personally when that work is rejected, particularly when the rejection can come with so little explanation? That doesn’t seem to make sense.

I am having a hard time dealing with that one.

Anyway, that was just my thought for today, short as it may be.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

And remember, keep your head down, keep focused and keep writing.

Use of the N-word

In my novel, “Fighting Chaos,” I was writing a non-American character in his sixties who was drinking heavily in an English pub and talking to one of his mates. Then, suddenly, an issue came up. As I was writing the dialogue, I realized he was going to use the N-word.

Though I had already used numerous curse words throughout the novel, I realized this one could prove problematic. There is a great deal of sensitivity, controversy and disagreement about the use of the N-word in the African American community. Virtually the only agreement is that its use by someone outside the community is absolutely and definitely offensive.

I’m no prude in real life. But neither am I a sailor. So what was I to do, particularly since I had not developed an over-reaching policy for the use of curse words, in general, in my fiction? I decided that use of curse words would depend on the context and the content.

I decided never to use any word, regardless of context, that would offend me, either morally or ethically. I generally wouldn’t use a curse word outside of a quote as long as a better word exists. And I would only use a curse word in a quote if it fit both the character and context in which they were using it. In other words, the use of curse words would not be gratuitous.

In the case of the character in the novel, given his age, nationality, the time and place in which he lived, and the context in which he was speaking, it was apparent to me that he would use the N-word. Actually, it would be surprising that he didn't.

So that’s my thinking at the moment. Only time will tell as to whether I will need to change my thinking.

I hope this helps someone. Either way, thanks for reading, keep positive and keep writing.

Finding the ending

The editors of The Writer magazine this fall put out an excellent slick-cover magazine called The Writer’s Guide to Fiction. It should be on display on book sellers’ shelves through the end of next month. And there were numerous helpful articles in the magazine and I may write about several in my blog later but one of them really struck me. It was on Page 69 and was called, How to get Closure on your endings.

The article was written by Sharon Oard Warner, an author of several books and the director of creative writing at the University of New Mexico. It offered “five tips on crafting a finish that will satisfy readers.” Among the reasons for writing the article was a pull quote that said, “Endings aren’t easy. They require patience, persistence and the willingness to look deeper into our material.”

The article was good. I enjoyed it and even got something out of it. But I must be daft or something. I don’t have problems crafting an ending. It surprised me that others apparently do. In fact, the ending generally comes to me easier than the beginning.

When reading Ms Warner’s article I was reminded of something I heard about George Lucas. Apparently, the first thing he had in mind when he wrote “Raiders of the Lost Arc” was a crate being moved inside a huge warehouse, which is how the film ends. That was all he had. No plot, no story, just that ending.

When it comes to fiction, I know in general terms how it is going to end very early on. I have found that knowing the ending helps me know I am heading in the right direction as I write. I generally don’t outline and just let the story unfold, just as long as it fits the ending.

Back sometime in September while I had a considerable amount left to finish “Fighting Chaos,” the exact ending came to me. I tend to be a linear writer and I fought the impulse to just jump to the end and write. It was a losing battle.

Being enthralled with my inventiveness, over a two-day period I wrote the last 20 pages of my novel. Then I went back and wrote the 75 to 80 pages that led up to it. Once completed, very little of what I wrote leading up to the ending ultimately changed anything in the ending.

Around that same time __ and before I finished “Chaos” __ I envisioned an ending to my next novel and wrote that too, although, like Lucas, I didn’t even know exactly what the story was about. (I only have a working title, which I will let you in on later.)

So, as Ms Warner suggested, avoid too-neat an ending, look to the beginning of the story for the ending and let the story speak for itself.

That is sound advice. Though I finished my novel before I read Ms Warner’s article, her basic advice was what I used to find closure. Only time __ and getting published __ will tell me if my haphazard method really works, even for me.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Query letters and lottery tickets

Of late, I have been thinking a lot about query letters to agents.

With the book done, all 80,000 words of it, getting published rides very heavily on the 250 (or so) words in the query letter. Blow that and you have taken months, if not years, writing something that only you, and perhaps a select group of friends and family members, will ever read.

So the query letter is a lot like a lottery ticket.

When you plop down a buck on a lottery ticket with a multi-million-dollar jackpot, you aren’t buying just the chance to win the jackpot. You are also buying, for only one dollar, the dream of what you would do with the money. All your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations are tied up in the one-dollar ticket.

And you have that dream and can keep that dream until you know that you haven’t won __ all for only one dollar. If the drawing is held and it takes you a couple of days to read the lottery results, you get to keep your dream until you do.

So it can be with the query letter.

Anything and everything you wish to accomplish through your writing __ your goals of becoming a successful writer, your dreams of becoming famous, your aspirations of financial independence, if you have any of those __ can be tied to the query letter.

Agents generally say they respond somewhere between two weeks and two months to submissions. That means for each query you send, you get to keep your dreams for at least two weeks.

But that was when queries were only sent through what we now call snail mail. (By the way, I hate that term and use it only sparingly.) Most agents still count their response time in weekly increments but the reality is, with e-mail, it can be counted in only minutes.

E-mailing a query saves time and money but __ and this is what I find is somewhat sad __ the trade off is that a negative response can come before you really have enough time to ferment hope.

Thus, the key, I believe, is not to tie your dreams to your query letter. You have just written a brilliant book and your first audience __ you! __ knows it. It may get published and it may not. But you know it is brilliant. Maybe one day the world will know. And that’s why you query agents and publishers. But until then, you know. And that’s the most important thing. It is something to pin hope on.

Thanks for reading. I will see you next week. And remember, keep writing.

The Big Question

When I tell people I wrote a novel, I almost always get The Question. And I understand because when I meet writers I often ask it myself.

How long did it take for you to write your book?

For me, it’s not an easy question because I don’t have an easy answer. I don’t remember when I started, only when I finished. It was quite a while ago, however.

I knew a science fiction writer years ago who told me when a deadline approached for a book, he’d write only about two pages a day because he wrote first and final draft at the same time. I met a writer at a book fair two weekends ago who did roughly the same thing.

I, for one, can’t do that. I have to get it all out first, grammatical and spelling mistakes and all. My book had such problems with continuity you’d be surprised. And I’d constantly change a character’s name in the middle of the book. One minor character that is only in the book for about seven pages had two different names before I settled on a third. She went from Connie to Carmen to Cora. And she was only a minor character.

I think I remember seeing where Stephen King says he writes a first draft of a novel in about three month. I met another novelist at the book fair who says she does a novel in six months. John Grisham does at least one novel a year. So he must finish writing in well under six months.

When I am very productive, I shoot for 1,500 to 1,800 words a day. When I start my next novel book, which is a murder mystery, that rate of productivity will be my target. At that rate, I will finish the first draft in less than five months.

Writing “Fighting Chaos” took years. I have lots of excuses why it wasn’t getting done and they were good and valid. But they were still excuses. Last summer I was suddenly struck with an obsession with word and page counts. The more I saw them going up, the more I wrote. I was writing faster than I could daydream the next scene. I would sometimes have to stop for a day or two just to catch my breathe.

By Labor Day weekend, I had roughly 130 pages. Three weekends later, I finished the first draft with a total of 260 pages. I was amazed. I wrote half the book in three weeks.

Although I haven’t worked out the story yet, I know what my next novel is about. I know who is going to commit murder and why. I know the hero and how he is going to discover who did it. I even know exactly how it begins and how it ends.

I doubt that I will write as fast as I wrote the second half of my first book. I figure if I can get the book done by the May 1, I will have done a good job. That way, I can really enjoy the Indianapolis 500. (But that’s a whole another story.)

I’m posting this blog early, just after midnight local time, because I have a busy day Tuesday on my regular job.

It’s been a hard evening for reasons I will go into another day. But as my mentor says, “Be British. Keep a stiff upper lip.”

To which I can only add, Keep writing.

Reading is essential

For a writer, reading is essential.

One of the many points that Stephen King makes in his 2000 book, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” is that good writers read __ and they read a lot. King apparently reads books by the score. I don’t read that much but I read quite a lot of books and a handful of magazines.

I enjoy the feel of a book in my hands, although I sometimes get a kick out of listening to a book on tape. (I particularly like a book on tape if I am driving a long distance alone.) Reading helps you see how other authors write and can help you develop your own writing style. It also can show you things other authors like and things they like to avoid.

Stephen King, for example, hates adverbs. Really hates them, apparently. He says they are lazy. As a result of King, I notice adverbs more in other authors and try harder to avoid their use. I still use adverbs but not as much as before I read King’s book. And he is right. Many times writers use them because it is easy and quick.

This is a sample of the books I have read this year. It is not a complete listing and I picked these books nearly at random. They are in no particular order. Most of them I read for the first time, although Rihannsu by Diane Duane contains two volumes, one of which I had previously read, and I read Skipping Christmas annually at Christmas time. Only two of the authors __ Milton McGriff and Hank Phillippi Ryan __ have I ever met.

2236 by Milton McGriff

Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Rihannsu, The Bloodwing Voyages by Diane Duane

The Empty Chair by Diane Duane

Bushworld. Enter at Your Own Risk by Maureen Dowd

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The Oriental Express by Agatha Christie

I look forward to a time when readers say about me, “I have read him.” I'm still working on that.

Keep the faith and don’t give up writing.

A dropped word

I hadn't planned on blogging today but after I posted yesterday's blog, I noticed a dropped word. So I am adding it now. "taken". Now doesn't that read better?

What is worse, however, is that I just re-read the query I sent to an agent yesterday and noticed another dropped word __ in the first paragraph!!! I have no earthly idea how I missed that. I wanted the query to be perfect. It needed to be perfect. Now the agent probably will just pitch it in the trash without getting past the first 20 words.

I re-read it several times before I sent it but the mistake was nearly the first thing I noticed this morning.

But I will just try again with another agent later this afternoon. Like I said yesterday, five queries in five days. Then wait for responses. Then five more queries.

I will blog again on Monday. Be encouarged. Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Searching for an agent and finding Geo. McClelland

Last month, I was covering a conference of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives for a local publication in Indianapolis. Unfortunately on the first day I get there late and missed the videotaped address of President Bush going blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah.
Once I arrived, however, I settled in and started listening to a deputy director of the WH office talk about what not-for-profits should do when applying for government grants. I didn’t have the slightest interest in what he was saying and I quickly determined I wasn’t going to get a story out of him.
But out of the blue, he suddenly said something that piqued my interest, although not about obtaining a government grant. He said that getting a grant is one-fourth writing and three-fourths preparation.
It struck me that finding a literary agent was proving to be the same __ and then some.
Up until then, I thought that writing was the major part and I had already done that. My novel, “Fighting Chaos,” was finished. But when it comes to finding an agent and eventually getting published, writing is only the first part and not necessarily the smallest part.
In the current edition of “Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents,” Jeff Herman writes that agents generally reject 98 percent of the submissions they get. 98 FREAKIN’ PERCENT. The only real way to get around that and increase your chances of being part of the lucky 2 percent is to be totally prepared, to know the market and to know the likes and dislikes of individual agents. And to write one smacking query letter.
So I have poured through the last two editions of Herman’s books, the 2008 Writer’s Market, a year’s worth of issues of Writer’s Digest and numerous websites __ I particularly like http://www.agentquery.com/ . I also have gone through the websites of each agent I expect to query.
To mitigate some of the need for luck, preparation is essential. But in prepping to find an agent, I have also discovered George McClelland.
Major Gen. George McClelland was the commander of the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. He worked his men hard to prepare them but President Lincoln spent a lot of time prodding him to take the offensive in Virginia. He prepared a lot for action that many historians say he just didn’t take. And in many ways, I have become McClelland.
For some time, I have probably been as prepared as I am likely to be for finding an agent. But I haven’t decisive action __ until now.
Starting today, I am sending out one personalized snail mail or e-mail query letter a day for five business days. Once I hear from three agents __ and assuming they are negative __ I will send out five more. And then five more after that, always seeking to learn something new from a rejection if there is something to learn.
I am prepared as I am likely to be.
So my advice to other aspiring novelists is to remember that good preparation is important but don’t let it keep you from taking action. Take the risk and let loose the dogs of war.
Thanks for reading. I will see you next week.
And remember, don’t give up writing.

In the beginning . . .

Hello world. This is my first blog entry.

I am a journalist living in the U.S. Midwest and two-and-a-half months ago I finished my first novel, "Fighting Chaos." As you can see, it is from the title of the book that this blog derives its name.

But this is more than just this first book. This blog will be about the struggles of being an aspiring novelist and then, hopefully, the trials of being a successfully published novelist.

It wasn't until after I finished "Chaos" that I started looking for a literary agent and the task is almost overwhelming. There is so much information about literary agencies and agents in books, magazines, blogs, websites . . . you name it. I have read more than I can describe but still feel I have only touched surface.

Although I was still learning the ins and outs of agencies and publishing and was still researching agents, I spotted an agent's website and thought he would be prefect for me. He was interested in new, first-time writers and one of his interests was in thrillers. "Chaos" is a 80,000-word spy novel and I thought it would fit the bill.

The agent wanted the query through his website and promised an answer in eight weeks.
I thought about it for hours, then filled out his online form and sent it. I logged off the computer for several hours and when I returned, I had an e-mail response from him. I was sure it was just an "I- got-your-e-mail-and-will-respond-later" note.

That isn't what he wrote. It was my first rejection and it came at 3:44 in the afternoon __ only 14 minutes after I sent the query!

I am not sure what the lesson is in that. He truly couldn't have judged my work in the amount of time he had it. But I am sure that I didn't catch his attention with his online form. One rejection down, 49 to go.

I decided to continue working on my query letter and learning about the business before I sent another query. I haven't queried another agent since, although I am about to start with a small batch of letters this week.

This blog will be about my journey. I share it in hopes that I can encourage others to keep writing despite the struggles.

Thanks for reading and remember, don't give up writing.