Writing

I was writing away like a mad woman the other day when I realized that I’d gotten sidetracked. It happens. My mind likes to take these little trips away from what I’m actually supposed to be writing and work on something else. Some of my best and worst stuff comes out of these little excursions.

My newest story was intended to be a fish out of water story about a symphony conductor who witnesses a murder and is stashed at a Southern Arizona ranch for a week while the Phoenix cops solve the case. There’d be some trouble on the ranch, the characters would have hot sex, the killer would show up, the heroine or the hero would save the day. Sort of a modern day western.

Like most of my great plans – it took a left turn at Albuquerque.

Somewhere along the line, I decided that I needed to do some research about my location. I’m a genealogist and a history buff. I like to know what I’m writing about. Like usual, I got hooked on my damn research. Two glorious days of reading about the history in the Santa Cruz river valley, its people and the ranches, ensued. It was fascinating stuff. But when I returned to writing my story – well, there I was in the middle of my book “sharing” this information in what I thought was a good little back story about the ranch. What should have been two paragraphs turned into four pages of ranch history. I can put all of that in, but not all at once, and certainly not in chapter three. Talk about bogging down a story.

The second problem I ran into was that I info dumped my characters. I’ve written their back stories and I know almost too much about them, and I just blurted it all out, taking away any interest or “mystery” as to why they behave the way they are behaving. “Hello, my name is Lynne. Let me vomit out my life history.” A rookie mistake to say the least.

The third problem is actually the thing that made me stop where I was and seek guidance from my mentor and a couple friends. I wrote a chapter about the cop and what was happening in Phoenix. I wanted to know more about him and the investigation and this seemed like a nice counterpoint to the ranch. I was planning to use the murder investigation as the story timeline. Well, the next thing I knew, I was writing the murder story and liking it. A few characters became many and four chapters later, I realized that my folks at the ranch were still standing in the kitchen. But I really like this cop and the story!

Realizing that I had a problem – the first step is admitting you need help – I sent bits and pieces off to three people. One went to a musician friend of mine to see if I had at least written that character correctly. One went to a trusted reader who pulls very few punches. And one when to my mentor, a fellow author who pulls even fewer punches. The responses were (bless their hearts) encouraging, but each pointed out exactly what I knew to be true. I have gotten lost in my own story.

My favorite comments:
“I liked the dog the best.” (So did I.)
“It’s not a bad story at all…” (A polite way of saying it ain’t good.)
“The first chapter was good.” (Clearly meaning the other three weren’t.)
“Who is the book about – the conductor or the cop?” (I was wondering that too.)
“I’m confused. Is this a suspense novel or historical fiction?” (Well, crap.)
“I like the cop and the foreman best.” (I like them too, but…)

Now you see what I mean about not pulling punches.

Writing a book has been equated to taking a journey without a map. Sometimes you take a few wrong turns, and while I happen to like those side trips, those roads don’t lead to my destination. It’s time to backtrack to the main road and decide just what the hell I am writing and whose story it is.

I better put on another pot of coffee.

More than one person has asked me why I don’t publish more books each year, so I thought I should address this question. Since March 2011, I have published seven books. If things go well, I’ll put out Blood Link IV in the next two weeks and that will still be a total of eight novels published in a two-year period.

I actually started writing seriously in June 2010, but I first submitted Protecting Parker to a publisher in October of that year. At that time, the four Blood Link books were one (rather jumbled) story of about 125,000 words, and I was sure that book was all just a waste of my time. Now the word count for the four books of the Blood Link series totals almost 400,000 words, and the ten people who actually read the darn things love them to death.

These eight books are not all there is. There are two books written that are in the beta cycle right now. The Healer – Book V of the Blood Link series centering on Dr. Peter (Mac) MacKenzie. My next standalone novel (tentatively titled The Embassy Guards) is a thriller about a special ops team with a cover as (can you guess) embassy guards. While those are in beta read and head for edits next month, I’m currently writing Book VI and the next standalone thriller. Those will be the four for 2013.

What most people should remember is that this isn’t all about me and what I can do. For every book I write there are numerous beta readers. All of whom have lives and may or may not be able to jump right in on the manuscript I send them. For every book I write there is an editor. My two editors do not do this for a living – they do it because they foolishly agreed to in a moment of weakness and now can’t figure out how to get the hell out of it. They have lives and other things they would rather be doing. Marcia prefers retirement and genealogy to editing. Arwen is a high school teacher and would much rather ring hand bells, hunt for old cemeteries, do needlework, and read for pleasure. Neither of them derives a great deal of satisfaction in facing the never-ending assaults by my comma fairy, and they are both more than a little embarrassed by my gerund fetish. The fact that I now know what a gerund is continues to amaze all of us. Two books each per year is a big enough imposition. Anything more than that could mean my death sentence.

There is also the issue of creating a quality cover and the technical aspect of the publishing to consider. Dean actually has a real business that he needs to attend to, but he makes time for me because I’m like a tubercular cough and won’t go away without large doses of expensive medication. (The truth is that he’s too busy to file the request for a restraining order on me.) Despite my obnoxiousness, he turns out my covers, reconfigures each book for the different sites, and takes care of actually getting my books online and making sure that they stay there. He’s also on call for my computer issues, technical (think geek) questions that I need to know for my manuscripts, and the poor bastard has to actually read every book I write. How much suffering can we expect from one man?

Publishing four books a year is what my team and I can manage, and probably more than any of them would like.

I’ve written about the painful editing process before, but it’s a whole different type of pain when you get asked to help someone clean up their first draft. Don’t get me wrong – I’m thrilled to be asked and more than happy to help, but now I realize just how excruciating it was (Okay, okay! Still is!) for my editors.

There’s a fine line between brutally honest and just plain brutal. I have yet to meet an author who minds someone pointing out the missing words, the wonky sentence structure, the grammar and punctuation errors, or even the out-and-out crappy sentence. Who amongst us has not done one or all of these things? Some of us continue to write crappy sentences and will until we die. It gives our editors something to fix and makes them feel needed.

But how do you tell another author (who is also your friend or possibly a relative) that the sentence they slaved over is beyond crappy without wounding them?

I usually shoot for a mixture of straightforward combined with some humor to break up the pain. I learned this technique from my editor Marcia. She’s had lots of experience (after four books) in finding new and interesting ways to point out my failures.

In response to my inability to be consistent:
Okay – choice time. Either traveled or travelled is correct. The same is true for traveling or travelling. However, you CANNOT switch between them. You must be consistent. (God, didn’t you learn anything in the military, Shirt?).

In response to my occasional use of vague words:
“Handling” is another one of those vague and overused words. Just trying to broaden your horizons. It’s an act of charity – really!
Also: Sorry. You just really can’t hate “that’s”. You have to hate specific things.

In response to overused words:
I think I’m growing tired of the word “simply”. It’s no longer so simple.

I had said. “…she’d struggled to hang on to her calm.”
Marcia’s comment:
I keep stumbling on this word. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it used to refer to a person’s state of mind. To me, it seems to apply to an external state, and calmness seems to apply more to a person’s state. But I could also be full of shit!

Commentary about an answer that came three paragraphs after the question in the draft:
Sorry. I don’t remember what the question was. That was two chapters ago. Remind me what she asked.

I added a paragraph to fix a problem Marcia pointed out and left this comment in the second draft for Marcia:
Okay, I’ve told you who his daughter is, that he’s unattached, and how she knows these things. Are you happy now?
Marcia’s response to my comment: Thank you. And your readers (all 10 of them) will thank you.
(I literally lost it when I read that and blew coffee through my nose I was laughing so hard. Marcia really is an evil woman on occasion.)

In response to the visit by my comma fairy:
You can’t leave the comma in unless you justify it to me – and wanting a verbal pause doesn’t cut it! I dare you to try to justify this comma!

Marcia’s comment to me when I asked about combining two short sentences:
Theoretically, you could put these two sentences together with a semicolon – if you wanted to fuck it up! Seriously, I don’t think they’re choppy. I think they work fine this way. … I’m trying to get you to write more like Hemingway.
My retort:
Hahaha – #1 Hemingway was a drunk and had to write in short sentences. #2 Not a big fan. #3 He killed himself. I read somewhere that he’d just received the edits on his new book.

Quite honestly, the first time I received edits from Marcia, I did cry. A lot. We were both new to this and there wasn’t much in the way of humor. It was incredibly painful, and I was sure that I’d done such a terrible job that I should just walk away from writing. But we both got through it, and Marcia and I have found a comfortable mix of reality, abuse, and humor that works for us. I hope I’m able to do the same for my friends.

One of my writing buddies recently asked me to have a look at the first chapter of a work-in-progress. This is one of those things that writers do for each other when we’re starting a new project. It’s never easy to send those first couple of chapters to someone. I usually start my email request with, “I know this is a mess, but could you have a look? Is there anything here? Ignore the grammar, spelling, and general confusion. I just need to know if the story has legs.”

As a writer, I get all jacked up and excited when I start a new story, but then about two-thirds of the way through the opening chapter, I have my first panic attack. What if this sucks oily bilge water? What if there is no story here? What if it’s boring? I usually make it through the first three chapters before I ask someone to have a look at what I’ve written. Of course, I’ve hacked and chewed and self-edited the damn thing to death before I ask for that first critical look. The hope is that you have introduced your characters, provided a conflict, and set the hook so the reader wants to know what happens. The first three chapters set the tone for the book, and the opening chapter is critical. If I bore you in the opening pages… it’s all over.

We all offer to help each other with that first look, but we all have a love/hate relationship with actually doing it for someone. Each of us prays that the person asking has something decent in those first few pages. Let’s face it, no one wants to be the bearer of bad tidings or to have to tell someone that perhaps they should take up rock collecting instead of trying to write. We’re each hoping that those early pages will have some gem of a story that captivates us.

Perhaps the worst requests come from a family member who thinks they have a clue and yet rarely do. So many people seem to think writing is easy. Just tell the story. Pay no attention to plot or pacing, no attention to character development or description of people and places, and don’t worry about a timeline for the story. After all, it shouldn’t matter if in chapter one the child is two, and in chapter two, which takes place a day later, the child is four. Fortunately, I have been the one doing the requesting and my relative has always been very generous.

The request I received the other day came from a twice published author who has taken some time off, but is trying to get back into the swing of things. She read Protecting Parker and Blood Link when they were… well… damn near unreadable. Without her help, my first novel would never have seen the light of day. I was delighted to have the opportunity to do something for her for a change.

Her email read, “I know there are mistakes in here with words. I’m ignoring them and just going. I guess I need to know if so far it flows or if it’s boring as hell.” I could feel the author’s worry and fear. Her email may just as well have read, “Please don’t judge me based on this draft. I know it’s awful, I know the words aren’t right, I know I can’t spell, but please read past that and look at the story. Does the story work? Do you hate the characters? Am I peeing into a head wind on this one? Be honest, but don’t crush me.”

It’s hard to shut off your “inner editor” and just read. Once you’ve written for a while, it’s almost second nature to edit as you go, but in this case, I wasn’t being asked to edit. I was asked to read an opening chapter and simply give my thoughts as to whether the story had legs. If asked, the author herself would tell you that it had issues – but who’s first unedited draft doesn’t?

I called her after reading through the pages and told her the truth as I saw it. “It’s got legs. You still have your voice. There are a lot of problems, almost all of which you will see as soon as you take a deep breath and start self-editing. But, there is definitely a romance novel in there. Keep writing. Let me see the next two when you’re finished.”

The relief was evident and she thanked me mightily. I was happy to help her.

Of course, I also told her it would be better if the heroine was in the military and someone was blowing something up or shooting someone. She called me a name and hung up. Sheesh… I was just trying to help.