Writing . . . and quitting

Just last week, I was talking to a friend from high school who is a lawyer by training. Several years ago, he tried his hand at writing fiction. In fact, he tells me he wrote eight -- yes, I said eight -- novels. He even joined Mystery Writers of America after getting a short story published.

He said he tried unsuccessfully for a while to get an agent but then just quit.

And I asked myself, how in the world could you just quit?

Writing is hard. Getting published is even harder. Neither is for the faint-hearted. But why quit, not just trying to get published but writing as well?

I can imagine a time when I might stop trying to get published, whether I ever publish a book or not. But I can't imagine not writing. I daydream all the time and, to me at least, writing is just an extension of daydreaming. A short story or a novel is a daydream written down.

I encouraged my friend to take up the pen again, and even to come sit in on my Wednesday critique group. Perhaps it will inspire him to write. (Then again, the frank honesty of my group may turn him off from writing forever.)

It just seems to me that if you have written eight novels, you had something to say. I can't see how you could give that up.

Thanks for reading and get back to work.

Query News, Part II

It's been quite a week in the Query Wars. Two weeks, really.

Since the Friday before Labor Day, I have sent out 29 query letters for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, some with partial pages attached and some without. Twenty-six were e-mail submissions, two were submissions through the agency's in-house process via their website and one went by snail mail.

No requests for additional pages, a partial or the entire manuscript. There have been 12 rejections, including one in the return envelope through the U.S. Postal Service.

This week was the big week, of course. I got four rejections on Monday, more than on any single day since I started sending at queries for my first book, FIGHTING CHAOS, three years ago. Tuesday saw two additional rejections, none Wednesday, one on Thursday and none (so far) today.

Totally, my response rate is just over 40 percent. But it may increase in the next week or so and in about two weeks I will send out reminders to selected agents. In the past, that has also generated a couple of responses.

I was reminded this week, more than once, actually, that all it will take is for ONE agent to love my book. I can't do much except send out queries until I find that ONE.

Enjoy the weekend. I will be attending a book fair tomorrow at the Hancock County Public Library and, hopefully, signing some copies of my story in BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD.

Thanks for reading. Now go out and write something good.

The 27

I planned to blog today about an op-ed piece John Grisham did a couple of days ago for The New York Times. It was about being a writer. But just now, I changed my mind. I have taken a couple of blows in the last couple of days and, against my better judgment, I decided to say just a little about it.

The main story in the current issue of "Writer's Digest" is called 27 Agents Looking for New Writers. Sounded good to me. I'm new.

I looked them all up and, not surprisingly, they don't all represent the sort of material I write. But a sizable portion of them do.

Since last week, I have queried five of them, including one already today. I will query a sixth one later today.

And while as a group they may be looking for new writers, many of them obviously are NOT looking for me. I've gotten three rejections so far, all saying basically the same thing. Nothing personal but I don't want you. (One form rejection was badly written. If I were her, I'd re-write my rejection form letter.)

I know it's not personal but when the rejections are coming in waves, it is a little harder to take. Agents as salespeople and are rejected by publishers all the time. They, apparently, don't take it personally. But they also didn't write the manuscript.

So, I am going to lick my wounds for the moment and go for a walk. It's wonderful outside -- warm and sunny. Then, later today, I will get back to work. It is what a writer does.

And I am a writer.

p.s.

And I ate steak. I only had a light lunch earlier but this afternoon I was hungry -- and a little depressed. So I ate steak.
I took Angela to dinner Saturday night for her birthday and brought home a doggie bag that contained part of my steak. It was 3 oz. So to make myself feel better, it's what I had this afternoon. Helped a little.

mbd
Thanks for reading and don't give up.

A damn good writer

I had a couple of hours free this morning after a client postponed an appointment at the last minute. I could have -- and should have -- used the time constructively. There are a couple of things I need to edit. But I wasted the time watching television. Well, kinda wasted it.

I watched several episodes of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," a show a genius named Aaron Sorkin created several years ago. Unfortunately, it ran for only one season. I got the entire show on DVD at the public library.

I loved that show. Really loved it. I was so sorry it was canceled. But given the problems I could imagine Sorkin probably put the network through, I wasn't surprised. But I loved the show because, like so many other Sorkin efforts -- the film, "The American President" and TV shows like "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" -- the writing was beyond brilliant.

After the first handful of episodes of "Studio 60," the show began to slip, much like "The West Wing" did as it reached middle age. (That about the time Sorkin was fired from the show.) But, like "The West Wing," "Studio 60" redeems itself at the end.

Whenever I watch "Studio 60" I am struck by the writing. It is clever and funny and well-done and well-executed. And I love good writing. It doesn't matter whether it is Sorkin or Sting or Richard Pryor or Lennon and McCartney or August Wilson or Ernest Hemingway or the Marx Brothers. Good writing is good writing. It is inspiring, certainly for me. It makes me want to do what I do better.

I didn't have a good day yesterday. Personally reasons, professional reasons, it was a whole bag of reasons (including after a small piece that probably cost 99-cents came off of my MG and disengaged the throttle. I had no power. I got a guy to come out and fix it and I got home). I wasn't sure I had what it takes to succeed as a fiction writer. I fought off bouts of self-doubt, though I was also sure I wasn't going to give up.

Today, however, I feel inspired, partly because it is beautiful outside, partly because of "Studio 60," and partly because I have the talent to succeed. I may not be able to write like Aaron Sorkin but I am a damn good writer. And knowing that is what will keep me going.

Have a good day and thanks for reading. Now go out and write something good.

Write what you know.

The current issue of Writer's Digest is "The Big 10" issue in which the editors and writers share many of the 10 secrets of writing and success. They examine productivity, top books and markets, plot problems, and more. They have interviews with 10 best-selling authors, where I noted with amazement that not a single one of them was black. But that is a matter for another blog posting.

What immediately caught my attention, however, was the 10 Rules of Writing from writing experts. And most importantly, for each of the 10 rules, there was a reason one expert said you should follow it and another reason another expert said you should break it.

The whole exercise was exhilarating and confusing. What advice do I take?

Super agent Donald Maass, whom I unfortunately missed last October at Bouchercon, says write what you know. That means, he says, "write what you see differently, feel profoundly and know is important for the rest of us." But author Natalie Goldberg says the opposite. She says be curious, and look for "what lurks beyond the familiar, safe streets."

Good advice from both. But which do I choose? (As a writer for nearly all my professional life, I go with write what you know. But that's what research is for -- so there will be things you know.)

Write 'shitty first drafts.' John Smolens, an English professor and best-selling author of a number of books and short stories, says follow that rule. "Really, do you have a choice?" he asks. While columnist, teacher and author Nancy Kress says first drafts "can certainly be rough and sloppy," but that doesn't mean they have to be shitty. She says you can only write as well as you can write. A first draft can be messy but "a mess can be fixed. Shit is just a waste. And a first draft is never a waste."

More good advice from both sides of an issue.

And it goes on. Write every day, John Dufresne says, because you have to. Not so, says James Scott Bell. It's not possible to write everyday if only because life will sometimes intrude, he says, plus you regularly need the break to recharge your creative batteries.

Read what you like to write; silence your inner critic; if you want to get rich, do something else -- all great topics, and all with conflicting points of view.

But not necessarily. If you examine them closely, you can see similarities in the points of view. So what I took most from the article is that, as a writer and as a person, you have to be true to yourself. That is where the real truth is and it is from that place that you want to reach readers.

Do what feels best to you. That may not have been what the experts intended but it's what I got from them. Otherwise, all their advice is nothing more than background noise.

Thanks for reading. Search inside yourself and keep writing.

When the author gets tired

I was sitting yesterday reading the latest novel in a series from an author I enjoy and discovered the author, whom I will not name, was getting tired. There didn't seem like anything new from characters I have come to love and the plot was so forced it totally stretched my suspended disbelief.

I think the author is near the end of this series.

Now that is okay. Writers get to the end of a series all the time. The problem is resolving all the conflicts that have been sustained over the course of the writing. You want the reader to be satisfied with the conclusion.

For example, I love how the Harry Potter series concluded. It tied up loose ends and the reader felt a sense of closure that was not evidence prior to the end of Book Seven.

I have two series in mind based on characters in books I have written -- Jason Mitchell, the reporter from DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL and THE DEATH OF ART, and private eye David Blaise from AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. I see a number of stories with Jason, who is a lot like me, but a nearly unlimited number of possibilities for Blaise. And he is written in first-person, which is also interesting. I think at some point I would need to resolve certain issues with Jason but could leave Blaise nearly forever.

Anyway, if I am ever successful with either of these, I hope I realize when I have had enough of them. I don't want them to be dry, stale creatures that I keep alive only because of a contract.

But for now, that possibility is long off. I have to actually get a publishing contract first. Well, I am still working on it.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Finding the time

A lot of people ask me how I find the time to write. The answer is quite simple -- I make the time. You really don't have any other choice but to make the time.

I read somewhere that some 85 percent of the people in the United States at some point think they want to write a book, but only about 5 percent or 6 percent do. What about that other roughly 80 percent?

A lot of it boils down to two things -- discipline and hard work. Either you have the discipline to write a book or you don't. And either you are willing to put in the hard work or you are not. To me, it's really that simple.

I admit the discipline can be developed, as can the capacity or willingness to do the hard work. But those issues are not what I want to focus on now. It is time.

I hear people all the time say they don't have the time to write but I really think it is probably more a question of the discipline and willingness to do the hard work. They say if they only had the time to write they would. But, short of some emergency in their lives, they probably have the time somewhere but don't think feel that writing is worth the effort to have the time.

Once you are in college, you will probably rarely have a block of time to write -- and I'm saying days and weeks here -- unless you make the time somewhere. You are always busy with other time-consuming aspects of life.

I have found that most non-writing friends and family members are totally supportive of someone's desire a write. They are almost totally supportive and encouraging. That is until someone's efforts at writing inconveniences friends and family to even the slightlest degree. Then the writer is on their own.

The point is that as a writer, particularly a novice writer, you have to determine the time when you are going to work. Few people will see your writing as important as you will. And thus they will never grant you the time to write if you request it. You have to make that decision and have the discipline to stick to it.

It is the first step in getting the work done.

Now what you do after the book is done is another issue entirely. We can get to that later.

For now, thanks for reading and keep writing.

Hooray for Megan

I planned to post on my blog tomorrow but today I got some of the most wonderful news --that is short of the wonderful news of me getting a publishing contract. And so I had to write today.

My friend Megan Messina Bostic has a contract and is on her way to being published!

I have never seen Megan face-to-face. We met online during the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. But I have always felt a certain kinship with her. She was an aspiring novelist, like me, only further along. She has a blog, plus a video blog, plus read and reviewed books. All that was in addition to writing, and being a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and a host of other things.

The woman is a superhero. I wouldn't be surprised if she has a cape hidden somewhere in her house.

But more importantly than all that, she has always been a terrific online friend -- encouraging and supportive.

Unlike some who took part in ABNA last year and, perhaps, this year as well, Megan has never been one to belittle another writer. She has never seen one writer's success as a threat to her own. She has always been a cheerleader for writers struggling against the long odds of success.

I also feel that way and have said so at other times in my blog. As we all fight to succeed, one writer making it isn't a blockade for those left behind. They are a trailblazer paving the way for others to hopefully follow.

I couldn't be happier for someone's success. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. Megan is a person who deserves it. So, in her honor this afternoon, I did a Happy Dance.

I don't know the details of Megan's deal or when her book comes out. I suspect some time next year or in 2012. But regardless, I am going to get my copy of MENDING FENCES -- I read part of it last year and liked what I read -- and will make sure my friend signs a copy, even if I have to drive all the wat to the West Coast to have her do it.

Megan, well done. Well done, indeed!

Thanks for reading and, like Megan Bostic, don't give up on writing.

Query news

No, this isn't to tell you I have a very good, positive query response. Actually, I hesitated writing this blog because in my last posting I was about to send out another letter -- one to the top agent I hoped to attract. And in the end of the blog, I indicated I might wait another day. I admitted to being gun shy.

The ballsy thing to do was send the letter. But, I waited. So file a lawsuit!

Actually, however, it was a good thing. At least I believe it was. As I stated before, I have poured over every word of my query letter numerous times. It was a good as it could get.

Or so I thought.

That night, I was daydreaming about being interviewed in Philadelphia about my novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, and the first question the interviewer asked was why I picked the MOVE confrontation to write about. In my daydream response, I clarified that MOVE was an important element of the novel but not a crucial element. I used the May 13, 1985, MOVE bombing and fire as a backdrop for telling a murder story. I could have used a different incident in a different place and, with a few changes, had the same story. The most important contribution of using MOVE was that it established both time and place -- May 1985 in Philadelphia.
Then it occurred to me, I don't use the dramatic elements of MOVE very well or high enough in my query letter. So, that's why I re-wrote the letter and I truly do think it is stronger. It's a grabber at the top.

What do you think:
It wasn't a typical Monday for struggling private eye David Blaise. He got two, new important cases to solve and Philadelphia was burning to the ground.

That is a strong start. At least it should attract attention and get someone -- a potential agent -- to read on.

A query letter is about sales and marketing, which is often difficult for authors. Our focus is on the creative. But to be successful, you need a strong business sense because that is what is required for the job.

I'm glad I waited one additional night. Now, come Monday morning when the next round of letters goes out, I will feel confident that I am setting the world on fire, figuratively, of course.

Thanks for reading. And keep writing.

NaNoWriMo Part I

A strange thing happened on my way to writing a novel during National Novel Writing Month last November. I changed my mind.

Actually, the change was forced on me.

Early in the year, I outlined a novel, mostly in my mind, about a man who overcomes profound professional and personal adversities. In this case, the man was a race car driver, Indy car, specifically. (Given his job, you can imagine the type of adversity he could face.)

Now as many of you know, I love auto racing, primarily open-wheel racing. (I love Indy car and Formula One, not so much NASCAR, which I watch sometimes but it isn't my favorite. Being from Indiana, you can probably understand why I love open-wheel.) I know a lot about racing but not so much from a technical angle. And while the novel wasn't going to be loaded with technical material only a gearhead could understand and love, I needed to know more about the technical side in order to give the book greater credibility. I wasn't planning to mention the ratio between aerodynamic downforce and drag, or what spring rates are, or how air temperature affects the horsepower of a normally aspirated engine. But I did have to have some understanding of those issues and more.

A guy I knew from Philadelphia was, last year, at least, working as an engineer for a top Indy car team. I connected him and planned to pick his brain on the technical side of racing, including race strategy. But then, my health became an issue and dealing with that in the late summer and fall consumed more and more of my time and intellectual energy. The upshot is that by mid-October (when I started to focus on writing fiction again), I wasn't far along in my research and didn't have time to do a proper job of it. I could still write the story but it would lack heft. And I didn't want that.

So I had to change course and pick another story, one that wouldn't require a lot of research, which I didn't have time to do. Thus started the journey that became AN UNTIDY AFFAIR.

I thought back to my time in Philadelphia and recalled a particular person I wasn't overly fond of, and I used them as the starting point. In my head -- and later with the help of my wife -- I developed that person as a character and added other characters to interact with the first. It was going to be a story about overcoming challenges (and not a crime story) but quickly it changed.

Since I knew the first person in the mid-1980s, I decided the confrontation between the radical group MOVE and Philadelphia police would be a perfect backdrop to conceal a murder.

In the week before Nov. 1, I wrote a 10-page outline of the novel and prepared to tackle the challenge of writing at least 50,000 words in less than 30 days. In addition to writing an outline (which I normally don't do), I faced a couple of other major challenges with this project. But I will get to those later.

For now, I wanted to lay out some of what got me to Nov. 1. Mustering the creative strength to move ahead was difficult at first because of the medical issues I had been staring down for a couple of months. But once I was back to serious writing, the story came quickly and easily.

And in the end, that is what I want to impress upon you now. If you want to be a writer, then write. Circumstances may change what you write but write you must. So get back to it.

But first, thanks for reading.

Birthday

I have had a really good birthday today. I received many, many wonderful birthday wishes from friends and family. And many reminded me that the coming year should be my best.

I think that is true but it won't be unless I do my part to make it so.

In the last two-and-a-half years, I have finished three-and-a-half novels -- FIGHTING CHAOS, DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, and AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, with THE DEATH OF ART sitting at the 40,000-word mark. But I still an unpublished and unagented. Why? I'm not all together sure. Writing is a hard and lonely task. I have worked hard at it.

And while I have queried agents, networked with writers and others in the profession, entered contests, attended conventions and conferences, and reached out into the biosphere, I am not further along than I was at the end of 2007, when I started blogging. I have read and researched and tried many of the things writers do to get noticed. Nothing has really worked.

But I must also admit, at least to myself, that I have tried harder at the creative part of my job as a writer than I have at the business end. It is understandable. Many writers are more comfortable at writing than with promoting themselves or their work. But I know -- and I have blogged about this in the past -- publishers aren't going to come looking for me. I have to go to them.

So this year, as my birthday gift to myself, I pledge to re-double my efforts to improve me writing and to make myself more visible and viable in the industry. Then this will be the best year of my life, which I believe it can and should be.

Thanks for reading and don't give up. I won't.

Persistence

Reading Donald Maass is quite informative, and somewhat depressing. His book, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, doesn't pull any punches. And frankly, it shouldn't. But that doesn't mean it is any easier to take.


Regardless of all the practical information -- and there is a lot -- the one overriding impression I have gotten so far is that you must be persistent -- persistent in working to improve your craft, persistent is advancing your craft and persistent in promoting your craft.

I wish there was a shortcut for that. But, of course, there isn't.

And in the end, persistence is the reason I started this blog and is the one piece of advice I want to continually offer to any readers who happen upon my postings, as well as to myself.

So thanks again, Donald Maass. Perhaps I will have the chance to thank you in person in October at Bouchercon in Indianapolis (and maybe have you sign my book).

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