A perfect day

It is gloomy outside today. There's a total cloud cover and it's cooler than it has been for some time. It's fall, of course, and soon the leaves should really start turning and falling. I don't have an assignment deadline until later in the week and I had to postpone a luncheon appointment I had for today with two editors. I don't to take a child to a doctor's appointment or cheerleading practice. I don't have to take someone to school. In fact, everyone is out of the house and should be gone until about 6.

In other words, it's a perfect day to write. I can sit and concentrate in peace. I don't have to worry about any interruptions. I can't remember when I had such a perfect alignment of events at home.

I am not one of those writers who feels you must physically isolate yourself in order to write. Find a place and a time in which you are totally alone. If you have a normal life with family obligations, work, social obligations and the like, it is hard to achieve that sort of isolation.

I think the isolation need only be mental and intellectual. I can -- and do -- write amidst the chaos that is the normal state of affairs in my household. People talking, television on, dog barking, chores being done, music playing.

But it is a delight to have a day when there is that physical isolation. It's just me and the dog. It's perfect.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

The opening

I am past the beginning of the (hopefully) final rewrite of my current novel, "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." But I still find myself conflicted over the beginning.

I watched the beginning of the 1941 version of "The Maltese Falcon." I have seen the film at least once in the last year and re-read the book earlier this year. And I was amazed again at how effortlessly Dashiel introduced the hero, the villain and the conflict of the story at the beginning. It was compelling, which, I suppose, is why it is a classic.

In my critique group yesterday another one of the writers was happy to be getting a prologue for the work she was reviewing. But it struck me again how much a prologue can slow down the story. They can be done successfully and often are done successfully. But as a novice, I'm not sure I can pull that off.

Which brings me back to Jungle-bunny. Early on, several people who read the beginning thought my second chapter, which has a backstory, should be the first chapter. And in the fourth (or fifth version, I forget which one) it was. But I was also though I needed to introduce my hero sooner and develop him more fully so that people care about him and his problems, and root for him throughout the story.

But that would mean keeping my first chapter as the first chapter, which is the way it currently is.

In the end, I think I am past the objective reality stage and totally into the subjective. There is little telling what a particular agent will want. For some agents, a prologue, which in this case includes a backstory, is a red flag. For others, it is not.

I guess I must remain confident in my story and my writing because I'm not sure there is one right direction to follow.

And so I am starting Jungle-bunny with the chapters as I originally placed them.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Professional organizations

I am already a member of the Indianapolis Association of Black Journalists -- I'm a past president, in fact -- the National Association of Black Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the national and local chapter of Sisters in Crime. And I am considering joining Thriller Writers International and/or the Mystery Writers of America.

I have the MWA's application on my desk right now and I see a lot of positives for joining. One of which is finding another writers critique group. I like the group I am in but I want a broader range of writers to chose from.

I have been very busy on work in the last couple of weeks and have been failing off more and more with blogging. Joining another critique group may inspire me with blogging as well.

My critique group meets tomorrow and I need to finish critiquing the material this evening. But, it's Friday night and the kids are off to there separate ways so the wife and I are going out. I can finish doing the critique before bed.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Information dump

One of the things fellow authors and prospective agents have warned me about is an information dump, that is when I include a lot of background information in one place. A fellow author says I should have no more than three paragraphs of such information at a time.

As I have been working on the final draft of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal," information dumps have been a particular focus of mine. In the current issue of Writers Digest magazine, Rachelle Garnder writes, "One of the biggest problems is the 'information dump' in the first few pages, where the author is trying to tell us everything we supposedly need to know to understand the story. Gettiing to know characters in a story is like getting to know people in real life. You find out their personality and details of their life over time."

This is the sort of information I need to know as a writer. In my first novel,"Fighting Chaos," there is a three-page section in what originally was the second chapter that was all information dump. It was interesting detail and well-written. But it was more than a reader would want to see all at once.

In Jungle-bunny, there was less of that. However, it is a good point to be aware of.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Fonts

I have just spent an hour viewing a writers discussion on a forum on the subject of fonts. The concensus was that it is best to use Courier New (doubled spaced, with 12-point type and 1-inch margins) instead of Times New Roman. The thought is that it is easier on the eyes to read and gives you a better page count, which is important to publishers. (Editors look for word counts but publishers pay the most attention to page count because paper cost more that ink.)

I have always perferred Times but I converted an earlier version of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal" into Courier and saw a huge difference. For one, I must not have my margins set correctly. The 74,300 words of that version should fit in slightly more than 297 pages (doubled-spaced, 12-point, 1-inch margins) because there should be 250 words per page. But I have 326 pages, or about 227 words per page.

The other difference is readability. Courier is easier on the eye sight, although I still prefer the look of Times.

I am still working on the final draft of Jungle-bunny, most specifically reworking the opening to make it more compelling. It is in Times, of course, but tomorrow I plan to convert it and fix the margins. In that way, I will be more prepared to taking the next step in the publishing process.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Other authors

Sorry I have been away for a while but I have been very busy with work. But now I am getting back to doing my regular job, which is as an author.

I met a television writer over the weekend. His name is Paul Guyot and he is quite funny. He worked as a stand-in for a number of movie stars, including Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black) and Chow Yun-Fat. Then he worked his way into staff writing positions on several television shows, including lastly for "Judging Amy," where he was a producer-writer.

He gave up Hollywood up to raise a family away from "the Hollywood life."

Although he didn't intend it, he convinced me that, 1), I will virtually never get make screenplay, "Loss of Consortium," before a money person who might want to make it. And 2), I might not want to be involved with Hollywood in the first place.

He says the money if wonderful __ he still writes pilots for television dramas and makes a living at it even if the show never makes it on TV __ but I wonder about the creative freedom. While you can have a chance to write alone, because of the money involved, there will always be lots of input from others that must be taken into account. It's that muddying of the creative process that makes some movies so incredibly dreadful. (Read "The Devil's Candy," a book on the making of "Bonfire of the Vanities." What a mess that was.)

Anyway, it is always good to listen to and talk with another writer, particularly if they are successful. As is often the case when it comes to writing, I already knew a lot of what he said. And the most important things he said to being a successful writer is to both read and write, and to be persistent.

As always, I will keep that in mind.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Looking an a reason to reject

Ten months ago, while I was working on a re-write for "Fighting Chaos" and researching agents to query, I sent off an e-mail query to an agent. The agent promised a response in two to four weeks. I agonized over sending the query but I sent it anyway.

As I have been reading, agents and their readers get so many query letters and so much material to consider, they don't have the time to dig deep into someone's material or letter before deciding what to do and moving on. Thus, they are looking for reason to reject.

This is sad but, of course, it makes perfect sense. Just this morning I got a stack of letter to read. I know I'm not interested in it all and don't have the time -- or just don't want to spend the time -- going through it all. So I go through it with the thought of what I intend to throw away.

It's been a few weeks since I sent out a query letter as I have concentrated on the final re-erite of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." But I know it's going to be viewed in much the same way as I used to when I would get press releases in the mail. If didn't see something highlighted with the who, what, where and whens, I was less likely to read it. And it needed to be near the top. On average, a press release had seven seconds to get my attention before I would throw it away.

It's not an easy world out there but I am determined to break through.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.