Behind the scenes

Writing is a lonely pursuit but the community is strong and supportive. There are many unsung acts of kindness and generosity going on behind the scenes. Tell us who has mentored you in your writing career or gone above and beyond to help you get a leg up in the business.

by Dietrich

Solo maybe, but never lonely.

I first noticed the generosity of the writing community soon after I signed the contract for my first novel. Months before the book was released I traveled to Albany to my first Bouchercon. My publisher Jack David recommended that I check it out, then arranged for me to catch a ride from Toronto with Canadian author John McFetridge, a guy I hadn’t met, but a crime- fiction author who I’d been reading for years, one of Canada’s best in my opinion. Needless to say, I was thrilled to go on that road trip. We got along really well, had a lot of common interests, and I learned a lot about the industry from John on that drive. At the conference, I met a lot of other authors and folks in the business, along with many avid readers. And right out of the gate, I was taken by the sense of community and the level of support writers had for each other. As a matter of fact, a couple of the writers I met there write or have written on this blog.

Two years after that one, publisher Jack piled a van full of ECW authors, John McFetridge among them, and we drove from Toronto to Bouchercon in North Carolina. Over a dozen hours on the road one way, we arrived in the wee hours. During the next few days, I again noticed the camaraderie and support of the writing community.

After the first book came out, I attended many writing events and book launches and festivals. I met a lot of writers, and I picked up some tips by watching pros like William Deverell and Owen Laukkanen entertain audiences at their book launches.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” — Ernest Hemingway

After catching the event-bug, I started organizing Noir at the Bar events here in Vancouver. I really didn’t have a clue about what I was doing at first, I just wanted to see it happen, and I was pleased that authors were eager to sign up and even more pleased with the great turnouts that these events have had over the years. And I need to mention the great deal of support from one of my favorite local bookshops, White Dwarf/DeadWrite Books. The owners, Walter and Jill, have been at every event, bringing and selling books for all the authors that have taken part since the first one back in 2014.

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

— Richard Bach 

Every great writer I’ve ever read over the years has been a mentor. Their words continue to inspire me and make me want to do better. Then there’s Jack and everybody at ECW Press who have worked on one aspect or another of my stories, and there’s Emily Schultz who’s been my editor through eight novels to date, and she’s so good at what she does – a great author too.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

Every writer knows what it takes to put out a finished work, so it’s a good thing writers tend to be supportive of each other – funny way to behave really since we’re all competitors too.

Finding what works

Have you ever written fan fiction? A pastiche? Tell us about that. If not, did you start out writing derivative fiction before finding your own voice? And you can tell us about that, too.

by Dietrich

I’ve never taken a popular character from an original work and created a story from that. And I haven’t purposefully tried to imitate another writer’s style, although there are plenty of authors who’ve inspired me to write. I like to make up my world and characters, yet the new book I’m working on now is based on a true story that intrigued me, and it sure feels different from writing pure fiction. It takes more research to make it accurate, getting how these people thought, behaved and how they spoke. And there’s a good mix of fiction in there too. In the end, whatever gets a writer inspired to write a story, or whatever gets a new writer working to find their own voice and style is probably worth a shot. 

It’s not automatic. Like anything, it takes practice to become good at it.

I think the most important thing for a writer is to find their own voice so they can tell their own story, and that takes some work. I started out writing short stories, and aside from my love for reading short stories, it allowed me to play around with genre and style, working at it to find what best suited me, long before I tackled something novel length. And after writing a lot of shorts, I finally did stumble on what worked. And from there, I just played on those strengths and kept going.

In a Time interview, Elmore Leonard was asked if he had any advice for young writers. “I would say just start writing. You’ve got to write every day. Copy someone that you like if you think that perhaps could become your sound too. I did that with Hemingway, and I thought I was writing just like Hemingway. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me, he didn't have a sense of humor. I don't know anything he's written that's funny.”

And I know I’m not alone in believing that reading is very important for a writer. I try to choose books that will inspire me, those novels that have me shaking my head at how good they are, those writers with soul in their words.

“It’s inspiring to read great writing. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out.” — William Faulkner 

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” — Joyce Carol Oates 

We’ve all got our own idea of what’s good, and a writer has to know where they want their writing to go. To make it work for me, there has to be a drive and a love for what I’m writing. There’s an excitement to starting with a single idea for a scene and seeing the world it turns into, all the while characters are growing and plots and subplots are taking shape, and twists and turns keep coming as I work on the story. What could be better than that?