What Hooks you? by Eric Beetner

 What hooks you into an idea enough so that you want to write it? Character, setting, plot, genre? Or …?

I have often told other writers not to take anything from my method of working in the early stages of a book. I know it’s silly. You see, I tend not to write down the amazing ideas I get. I’m sure I have lost many certain best sellers to this technique, but I like to let things roll around in my head for a while. If it’s still there weeks or months later, I know I might be on to something.

Let’s say I get to that point – I have what I think is a killer idea. I have that hook, the thing that will be the one-liner on the book jacket or in the press materials that makes people think “I want to read that”. 

I’m still not ready to start.

Any writer worth their ink will have a collection of false starts, dead plots and frustrating close calls with stories. Those happen when someone starts a novel before it is ready to go. A good hook is not enough. A killer plot isn’t even enough, though some have gone ahead and written those books and invariably, they come off as thin and unsatisfying.

It’s the characters. The people involved in your killer plot are what the reader is going to attach on to. They are what moves that plot forward. Once you set your amazing story in motion, if it pushes the characters along then it’s not going to work. But if the protagonist the antagonist and the side characters all contribute to moving the STORY along, then you’ve got something.

When I get a story stuck in my craw long enough that I think it’s going to stay there until I write the book to dislodge it, then I start writing in my head. Again, not putting anything on paper yet. And yes, again, I have probably lost great stuff this way. I never said I was smart. But when the characters start to talk, when I get an insight into how they act and feel and move through the story, that’s when I know it is time to start getting this down on paper.

For my newest book, The Last Few Miles Of Road (out Feb 27th!) I had my hook – an elderly man who gets a life-threatening diagnosis and decides to right a decades old wrong and kill and man who was responsible for the death of our hero’s daughter – but until I started hearing how Carter McCoy would talk and gave him some details like his guitar playing, his favorite restaurant, the kind of truck he drives, then I wasn’t ready to begin.

Once all that came together and I knew who Carter was, I hit the page running and never looked back. 

So don’t do it like me. But if you want a story to really stick I’d say however you do it, the characters are the ones who give the go ahead and tell you when to start typing.

Hook, Line, and Reader by Gabriel Valjan

 

What hooks you into an idea enough so that you want to write it? Character, setting, plot, genre?

In his Acknowledgments in Bound for Gold, author William Martin discussed his first foray into screenwriting at my alma mater, the University of Southern California, and he said something about writing that I believe is worth the block quote.

Though I had little writing experience, I had already rejected the advice that you should write what you know. I believed then, as I do now, that you should write what you want to know, or where you want to go, or who you want to meet when you get there.

While I’m on the road with quotes, I’ll not quote E.M Forster’s “The king died and then the queen died” as a definition of Plot, but rather choose John le Carré’s “The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the dog’s mat is.”

In my mind, Forster is interested in How and then What, whereas le Carré’s is asking, Why?

When I write, Plot is the premise. I am more interested in Character, his or her motivation. In my next Shane Cleary adventure, THE BIG LIE, Shane is hired to find a missing dog. In of itself, an odd request, but the request is more Conflict than Plot because the person who hires Shane has tried to kill him before. Why would Shane take the case?

Character + Why = Story.

Life tends towards chaos. People are not predictable. The unexpected happens. While there are twists and turns in fiction, Plot on the page must maintain a certain logic of Cause and Effect, or Action and Reaction. I don’t focus so much on Plot because I know savvy readers can guess all the possible outcomes. My interest is in human psychology. Why do people do the things they do?

I choose to write Genre because there’s an agreement between Reader and Writer. There are Rules and there are Expectations. I like to break Rules. Writers cannot kill the dog or the cat in their story. In cozy mysteries, violence is best left off-screen. In literary fiction, which I have written, Plot is a loose goose, not as important. With literary fiction, readers suspend Rules and Expectations because they want to be surprised. In genre, they know how the story will end. Readers of literary fiction can take in, for example, the use of language, which brings me to my beef with most literary fiction: a lot can happen or nothing of consequence.

Once I am hooked to a premise, I write as if I plan to meet someone on the road. It could be the Stranger as in a Character I have created, or it could be some aspect of myself during the creative process that I have not acknowledged.

It still comes down to why people do what they do. History is full of unanswered questions to Why. How could the most philosophical people in the world listen to a clumsy Austrian with a funny moustache, and believe he was the leader of the master race? Or how could cunning Italians accept from their leader the ridiculously pompous prose of a former elementary school teacher and failed journalist from a God-forsaken Emilian village? How could Spaniards, another people with a centuries-old civilization, believe a flaccid petit-bourgeois from Galicia with royalist delusions was their caudillo?

People, you think you know them, until you don’t.

"What If" Stories

 Q: What hooks you into an idea enough so that you want to write it? Character, setting, plot, genre? Or …?

-from Susan

What grabs me is anything that tickles me and sticks in my head. If it fires my imagination and begins to grow on its own into "what if?"  my job is to keep feeding the idea to see how well it grows. 

Character?  The language, tone of voice, perspective someone in my head speaks to me. The way they begin to look so that I see them in three dimensions. Their quirks, vulnerabilities, and sources of joy. One example, the slightly cynical voice of the character of Dani O'Rourke, perhaps a bit like me. She's unlikely to take someone at face value given her experience of the world.

Setting? Some place I know, usually, and that takes on details quickly. If not, somewhere I have fantasized about being. I love Santa Fe, New Mexico, which I relished making a major part of my first mystery. I'm a native of Manhattan and had the privilege of staying there on business often and putting on a black-tie gala in the elegant Metropolitan Club one year, so that worked its way into my second Dani mystery. Everyone knows I love France, but I wanted to share the quieter delights of rural Burgundy since so many wonderful crime fiction authors set their work in Paris.

Plot? Ah, here, I have to rely on "what if?" and "What comes next?" Some of my reader reviews grumble that my plots are slow. For me, murder, trauma, danger don't come flying at my characters in a rush. It's my belief in verisimilitude. I also don't include magic, fantasy, and aliens. What can I say? I create works in which what happens feels to me like it could happen.

Genre? Well, all of my books are mysteries, and lie somewhere on the scale between traditional amateur sleuth and cozy. It's what I saw wonderful authors writing when I decided to try it myself, and it's probably my comfort zone, although right now I have two very different manuscripts partially done. Neither one is cozy and both include humor.

Writers bring a big part of themselves into what they choose to write and how they do it. The best create a voice and style is distinctly theirs no matter what they're writing about and what they choose to write, don't they?

 

Deadlines, Sudoku, Advice Columns, by Harini

 Is life/work balance, a myth? When you are pulled away from the middle of a manuscript by life having more important priorities for you, how do you mark the place where you are in your head and how do you find your way back into it quickly? A second question do you work on more than one project at a time? And is that confusing?

By Harini Nagendra

This question comes at the perfect time for me. Jan-Feb is the time of year that I work on producing a rough-rough first draft of the next book in The Bangalore Detectives Club series - I'm now working on book 4. 

While writing book 1, I was without a contract or deadlines, and had the luxury of time. I could take 14 years to complete the book, change the plot three times, and then rewrite it once more. Now, I'm on contract to write one book in the series each year, squeezing it between work, family and all the rest of it. This is the schedule that works for me - writing 10,000 words each week through Jan and Feb to complete that basic messy draft, then editing it into reasonable shape through March and April. 

Editing is easy - I have raw material to work on. Writing the first draft is the hard part. Especially when there are interruptions, which is most of the time. I write historical mysteries, set in 1920s Bangalore. Even minor interjections from the outside world can pull me right out of the book's colonial period and firmly back into the 21st century, especially if it's something like a cell phone ringing with an Amazon delivery, or needing to edit a powerpoint presentation for work - that kind of stuff makes it very difficult to get back into a world when computers had yet to be invented, and electricity had just made its appearance in Bangalore's bungalows! 

But I'm on a deadline, so I have to find my way back to the book. I love deadlines. I have a book due to the publisher in May, and that makes me anxious. Because I'm anxious, I know I have to get back into the book, so I... procrastinate. 

I have to find the right kind of procrastination, that helps me make my way back into the book. 

I've disabled all social media on my phone, as that's an easy source of procrastination, but it makes everything worse. A game of Sudoku works brilliantly, though. It gets my brain active and focused on something else, so I can calm down a bit and get into the writing zone. When Sudoku fails, there's always advice columns. People write in with the strangest problems, and reading the comments section usually gets my brain working... helping me see a way past the plot point where I'm stuck (plus I'm an advice column junkie. I admit it freely). 

Deadlines, Sudoku, Advice Columns. That's my magic formula.

Onto question two - yes, I often work on more than one project at a time. Alongside the Bangalore Detectives Club book, I'm usually writing nonfiction... a research manuscript, newspaper column, ecology book... these demand a very different style of writing, more technical and less imaginative or speculative. I need to stay on track with a linear narrative, simplifying complex issues for a wider audience. There is less leeway for digressions or literary turns of phrase, and because I must write to a tight word count, my sentences are short and snappy. 

For a long while, my non-fiction voice interfered with my fiction voice. I've learnt to deal with it by separating the times when I write them. I can write non-fiction after I've written a bit of fiction, but can't do it the other way around. So - I reserve my fiction writing for early mornings, late nights and weekends, and try and write my non-fiction during the workday. 

Is it confusing to work on these simultaneously? Often yes. But also, such fun! And in the end, that's why we all write, isn't it - because it is such a heady experience to get words out onto paper, and we can't imagine a life in which we couldn't write. 

Speaking of fun, I've really enjoyed reading what my other Criminal Minds friends have had to say on this topic, so please look up Brenda, Terry, Dietrich and James's terrific responses to this question!  

Turbocharge Your Writing — 12,000 Words in Two Hours! from James W. Ziskin

Is life/work balance, a myth? When you are pulled away from the middle of a manuscript by life having more important priorities for you, how do you mark the place where you are in your head and how do you find your way back into it quickly? A second question do you work on more than one project at a time? And is that confusing?

I have no work-life balance. It’s an inner-ear thing. That’s why I compartmentalize my work, my play, my family, and my writing. I teach high school French, and when school’s in session, I don’t write. I concentrate on the obvious tasks required of educators: prepping lessons, teaching classes, correcting tests, and screaming at students. En français, ça va de soi. I simply can’t multitask and get any writing done from September to June. But then over the summer, I dedicate my time to churning out a first draft of something new. Last summer, I managed to write 85,000 words in forty days. While it’s true that 3,659 of those words were “the,” I spelled it right every time.

Should I be embarrassed that 4.3% of my book was the definite article? If so, perhaps I shouldn’t mention that the indefinite articles A and AN accounted for another 2.3% of the book. 

SOLID-GOLD WRITING TIP: 

For your books and short stories, write all your definite and indefinite articles first. Once you get those out of the way, you can attack the tougher words like AND, OF, and TO. In my last book, those came to 6,343 more words. So, last summer, using just six words, I wrote 11,986 words out of a final total of 85,000 in just a couple of hours. That’s 14.1% of the book! Who said writing was hard?

I actually wrote all those words in about two hours. Disclaimer: Not all at once, but spread out over forty days.

(Wrestling my tangent into submission…)

Back to the question at hand, how do I find my way back into a book or story I’m working on when I’ve been pulled away? I sometimes imagine my ideal reader reading my book. Somehow that makes me feel as though I’m not completely wasting my time. I also re-read what I wrote the day before, and that helps. I also use music—no vocals—when I’m writing. Lyrics tend to muck up things when you’re trying to put words on paper. But instrumental music helps me.

SOLID-GOLD WRITING TIP: 

I’ve mentioned this once before in this space, but since no one reading this blog had the good sense to see the genius of it, I’ll repeat it now. A swift-moving fugue will get you writing in a trice. Something about the rhythm and tempo hot-wires my brain. The synapses fire, sending sparks to my fingers, which tap along merrily to the music. It really works. My favorite example is Bach’s passacaglia and fugue in C minor, transcribed for orchestra. Here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Sbk3E8-ws I’m using it as I type this. Try it!

As for whether I work on multiple projects simultaneously, the answer is no. As I mentioned above, I can’t multitask. PAY ATTENTION, FOR GOD’S SAKE! In fact, in life and work, I tend to obsess and zero in on one thing at a time. I don’t like to water down the efficiency and energy my single-mindedness brings to the exercise, just as I dislike diluting the Scotch I drink. Speaking of which, time for a drink. See you in two weeks’ time. I expect you to write at least 12,000 words by then. And no misspellings!

One-man band

Is life/work balance, a myth? When you are pulled away from the middle of a manuscript by life having more important priorities for you, how do you mark the place where you are in your head and how do you find your way back into it quickly? A second question do you work on more than one project at a time? And is that confusing?

by Dietrich

There are times I need to adjust my routine to accommodate real life, and sometimes I get pulled away when I’m right in the thick of it, and that’s just the way it goes — working the ‘imaginary stuff’ around the ‘life stuff.’

I usually write without distraction, and when I do have to stop for a while, I can get right back into it without much trouble. I’ve even sat in an airport waiting-area when an idea for a story popped into my head, and it wanted to be worked on right then, so I got out my pad and started writing. By the time my flight was called, I had a number of pages written. Okay, it needed a lot of editing afterwards, but still …

As I’m writing this, there’s a conversation going on in the next room, and while I can hear it on the surface — and once or twice, I’ve even thrown my two-cents into the discussion — I can stay focused on the writing. I admit this isn’t an ideal way to go about it, but when I’m really into it, I can keep going (again, there’s always editing later). Plus, there’s a door I can close and a volume knob on Spotify. 

I’m a habitual early-riser, so it’s easy to kick off the day by getting into whatever story I was working on the day before, picking up where I left off. That’s when the house is quietest, long before the ‘life stuff’ kicks into gear, and by the time the rest of the world is up, I’m already well engaged.

Have I worked on more than one story at a time? This question calls up an image of a one-man band: a drum on the back, a banjo on the front, a harmonica in the mouth, cymbals on the knees, that kind of thing. 

I did write two novels more or less at once a few years ago, and it worked out okay. The books, Triggerfish and House of Blazes are standalones, and when I finished a draft of Blazes, I let it sit and started on Triggerfish, going back to the first with fresh eyes, then switching again through to completion. I only did it the one time, and I can see that it could become confusing depending on the stories, but it worked back then. And while I might consider doing it again, the key thing is always the quality of the writing, not the quantity of pages.

  

Life Intervenes

 

Terry here: 

Our question this week: When you are pulled away from the middle of a manuscript by life having more important priorities for you, how do you mark the place where you are in your head and how do you find your way back into it quickly? A second question do you work on more than one project at a time? And is that confusing? 

My computer is littered with manuscripts that I was pulled away from and never got back to. There’s Astrid—a book I completed but which has major issues. Life intervened, and I haven’t had a chance to get back to it. I sometimes spend time thinking about what needs to be done to bring it to completion. There’s another one, Dangerous Innocence, that I’ve worked on intermittently for a few years and which I still love. It only needs a little TLC to be ready to submit. I worked on it a bit this summer, but there were holidays, and a Craddock book coming out, and edits on the new Jessie Madison series, and a new Craddock to complete and turn in. So it got shoved aside. And there’s the Drummons book. Love the plot, but the characters needs reworking. And there’s the no-name one that I am still intrigued by that I had to put aside about a woman who works for a company that does educational videos. And Triple or Nothing, about a woman who loses her job, her apartment and her boyfriend all at the same time…and then her boss gets murdered. Etc., etc., etc. All wonderful projects that got shoved aside not necessarily by “life” but by other priorities. 

 The manuscripts that I prioritize are ones that I have contracts for. If they get interrupted, I have to get back to them. To find my way back into any of them I read what I’ve already written. That usually puts me right back where I need to be to continue. 

 I don’t often let it get to the point where I can’t remember what I was up to. We took a month-long trip to Africa a few years ago.

We were busy all day, every day. But I took an Ipad with me with a tiny keyboard and I wrote 500 words a day most days, snatching time whenever I could—riding on the bus to our next destination, working in the afternoon when others were napping (thank goodness I don’t need a nap). 

What I’m realizing by writing this blog post is that not much pulls me away from writing. When I had a full-time job in tech, where I sometimes worked eighty-hour weeks, I’d sneak out at lunch and sit in my car and write a few pages. When my son was a baby, I’d snatch time when he was asleep to put words to paper.  And I wrote my first Samel Craddock book on our catamaran, Black Pearl. 

 The only time I ever remember completely dropping my writing habits was when we lived in Florence, Italy for eighteen months. Just before we left I had gotten a note from my agent saying that he had been unable to place my manuscript. I was discouraged. It seemed like there was no point in continuing. So while we lived in Florence, I lived life. Thoroughly. With great enjoyment. Without consideration for writing. It might have been a break that I needed. Because I don’t remember feeling any regret about not writing. I only remember spending day after day immersing myself in the beauty that surrounded me. And when I got home, I started to write again. 

As for whether I work on more than one project at a time, I often dip into other writing when I’m focused on getting a book done. It gives me a little break and allows me to refresh my brain. I have no trouble keeping the projects separate. I think that’s because I write character more than plot. The characters that inhabit one book, would be lost in another one. A Samuel Craddock police procedural has no connection with a Jessie Madison thriller. The female private eye book in the background has no connection with either of the others. 

 Oh, yeah, and I just remembered the Mendocino books. Two of them. And Substitute for a Day, a fun cozy I'm about halfway done with. All ready to be tackled …when I have time.

Keeping All the Balls in the Air

Is life/work balance, a myth? When you are pulled away from the middle of a manuscript by life having more important priorities for you, how do you mark the place where you are in your head and how do you find your way back into it quickly? A second question do you work on more than one project at a time? And is that confusing?

Brenda here.

I'll answer the last question first. I only write one manuscript at a time; however, I often have to stop to edit the previous manuscript as it nears publication. This can be confusing, trying to keep the two stories and plots separate. I much prefer to have one book written and completely edited before I delve into the next story, but this rarely, if ever, happens. As for short stories, I write them in between completed book manuscripts, almost like a palate-cleanser.

So, the life/work balance debate. I've not had too much difficulty maintaining one because life always comes first for me. I've never set aside family time for writing; I plan my day/week/life so that I write or do book stuff when it doesn't conflict. When I first began writing, I worked full time and my daughters were younger. Those were busy years! I sometimes wonder how I got any books written, but I always managed. I'm fortunate that I can start or stop easily and can work through noise and chaos once my mind is engaged. It's all about focus. My husband likes to come into my office to chat or share a cup of coffee, and I always shut my laptop and take a break. I've never had a closed office door when it comes to family.

I'm lucky now that I write full-time and can plan chunks of time during the day to do book stuff. More and more, writing has taken on the look of a part-time job that I work at seven days a week, unless some family or social activity takes precedence. Housework, however, never takes precedence. That I don't mind neglecting! When I was in my twenties, an older colleague told me how she did housework every day of her married life, only to have her husband leave her for a younger woman. She said that she spent all those years working hard with nothing to show for it. Her advice was not to sacrifice your own dreams, and Ellen, you'll be satisfied to know that I've never forgotten.

Returning to a manuscript after life has pulled me away takes some rereading of what I've already written. Now, I take notes as I go and keep a character list. My latest organizational trick is to jot down the chapter highlight, along with day of the week and weather on a post-it note for each chapter. I arrange the notes on a blank sheet of paper, and this helps to keep me organized and helps immensely with editing. Since I'm on the pantser end of the spectrum, this ends up serving as an outline once completed. 

I would also add that making life a priority, means periods of time when I don't write. As a result, I've never had writer's block -- I'm always refreshed and eager to get back at the computer when I do have time to write. My mind works on the plot in quiet moments during the breaks. If you would like to follow along with my writing week, I blog every Saturday morning -- a quick catch-up read over a morning cup of coffee :-)

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

Instagram & Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Twitter (X): brendaAchapman

Writing Undeniable Fiction, By Josh Stallings

 

Undeniable, is that even possible? 

Today is the fifth week in the month so we decided it would be blogger’s choice. I’ve decided to muse or mumble on what’s rattling around in my brain. 

As a reader I’m always looking for a book that surprises me both in content and form. It has been said there are only a certain number of stories, and Shakespeare already told them all. In a reductive sense that’s true. But here’s another truth, every human is distinctly different if you are willing to look closely at them. How would you have written Romeo and Juliet? Maybe she was raised in the 1960’s by feminist parents. Same elevator pitch but a very different play.  

No two writers have lived the exact same lives. When we write honestly from our heart and soul no two writers have the same voices. How we lived our lives effects the lens we see a story through. I was raised poor, by well educated politically aware activists. I can’t help seeing the humanity in all characters, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

How do we get to authentic writing? My experience has been that we all have wonderfully unique voices, AND we all have a very similar committee of critics in our heads. So if we want to write unique stories we need to kill the internal critics. You know, the ones that say, “That idea will never sell.” Or, “Great idea, but are you really the one to write it?” Or, a personal greatest hit from my early days, “You can’t even spell, why do you think you could write a book?”

Some of this is imposter syndrome. Ask most writers and you’ll find out they suffer or suffered from this in one form or another. For me I discovered that none of this rears its ugly head when I’m actually typing. I am filled with self doubt when thinking about a new book, not when writing it. I pay those intellectual bullies in my head little to no attention. It seems to help quiet them.

How do I find books that surprise me? 

I don’t limit the kinds of books I read. I follow my intuition from book to book. My siblings or other readers suggest books. What I’m working on effects what I read. The last MS I wrote was about LA, in it is a gang leader, part of writing him was discovering what books he would read. Through this I discovered Paco Ignacio Taibo II and his brilliant fresh take on the detective novel. I’ve now read every book of his that has been translated into english.

Part of my newest work in progress takes place in Ecuador and that introduced me to Poso Wells by Gabriela Alemán. An absolutely original voice, and must read for fans of weird crime fiction. I also discovered City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende, a fantastic Amazonian adventure tale where the old religions are real.  

How do I apply this desire to surprise myself to my writing?

By any means necessary.

How does any means necessary look? 

I was 10,000 words into my current work in progress, had it mapped out. Knew where it was headed, and then… I had a fresh idea. An idea that scared me and would take the novel into an uncharted direction. So I started reimagining, restructuring, and rewriting. Now at 19,000 words I’m excited to keep going. It is my voice, my kinda writing but not like anything I’ve written before. There are one million reasons to not write this book. I don’t care. I am willing to keep going purely on faith. I have a fragile belief that this is the book I should be writing. Fragile, i.e., it can be broken easily, must be handled with care.

Books all start with me in a place of fear. And I must keep slogging through — paying the fear no attention — until at some point the book takes on a life of its own. That is when it becomes undeniable. When it becomes a fully formed world, then it is up to me to shepherd it home.  

How do you write a book that sells? 

That's what we all wanna know. What’s the trick, where’s the secret? Wendy, a friend I walk dogs with reminded me, “Write the book you want to read and you at least know one person will like it.” That’s the truth. 

There are no sure paths to writing a NY Times best seller. You can write a book that's good, and maybe with editing and help you can make it damn good, but will it sell? That my friends is a roll of the dice.

I believe in the two universal forces, chaos and serendipity. Hard work and talent ups your odds of serendipity striking your book. But there are no guarantees. I also believe writing a good book needs to be its own reward. What denotes a good book is absolutely personal. 

My goals have become disconnected from sales. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love big sales numbers, it’s just not my goal. I want to write a book that thrills me to think about. Build a world that is fresh and doesn’t feel like drudgery to play in. And to believe that I have something to say worth saying. As do all of you reading this.

If there is a trick, this might be it:

Have the courage to speak your truth. Speak it well. Surprise yourself.  

The Joy of Lex, by Catriona

It's blogger's choice (Why does that make me thing of Rapper's Delight? Who knows.) and first up I need to credit Prof Katie Wales for the title. She was my boss at the University of Leeds in the late nineties and she was one of the bright spots in a grim few years. As soon as I saw her Mickey Mouse earrings and heard what she had called her book on lexicography, I knew she was a good'un.

Anyway, words were in my mind for two reasons over the last few days. First, I found out that the chemotherapy drug someone I care about is currently having shot into their body is called Retuximab. Isn't that a horrible word? Doesn't that just sound exactly like something that's going to make you as sick as a dog? My cat's medicine has got better names than that! Serenia, Solensia, fish oil capsul- okay maybe just the first two, but come on.

Serenia and Solensia allow Rachel to keep working
at her job of typing assistant

Then, on Facebook, Ben McPherson (no relation) asked what words in a person's vocabulary would ensure that they didn't get a second date with you. His was "distaff". Mine? Entrepreneur. Especially if it was pronounced "entreprenOOR". Yergh.

But, if this mythical first date didn't say "entrprenOOR" and the conversation carried on, I might well ask about favourite words and offer mine. There are lots. Some are in the "fun to say" category - flibbertigibbet, amoebic dysentry, diplodocus . . . When I called a minor character in the Last Ditch Motel series "Amaranth Aaranovitch", I made sure that all the other characters said it a lot, just for the frilly feeling they get in their mouths. Try it now. I bet you say it more than once.  

Amaranth Aaranovitch has a great 
scene in this one

Then there are the beautiful words. I've got a lot of time for elbow but my hands-down favourite is oak. With some conditions. It's got to have a monophthongal vowel (i.e. sounds the same all way through) not a diphthong, so not "owk" or "ewk", and the consonant should be chalky, not clicky. I just listened to all 48 hours of Barbra Streisand's memoir on Audible (Hooo boy, she can settle a score!) and at least half the enjoyment came from the fact that she was reading it, Brooklyn accent intact after decades on the West Coast and the chalkiest Ks I've ever heard. Bliss.

I learned a lot of new Yiddish too, since there were numerous concepts Barbra reckoned English didn't have a word for. I know the feeling. I've put a Scottish glossary in IN PLACE OF FEAR, since there are indeed untranstable meanings. One of them is also one of my favourite "fun to say" words: perjink. (Stress on the second syllable, by the way - perJINK). It's an adjective that means . . . natty, not exactly dainty, sort of well-ordered and almost smug with it but not quite. I was convinced everyone would understand it without explanation. Thank God my editor is English.

Helen looks gey perjink here.

Mind you, there are words that symbolise their meanings in a very direct way. I checked out a hunch about one mere days ago, when I asked Neil (of the arm, above) whether he had ever come across the word munter. He hadn't. I told him it pertained to level of attractiveness in a human - as in "I went on a blind date. She turned out to be a munter." - and asked him if he thought it was positive or negative. He got it right. I bet you will too. Isn't that interesting?

Or maybe it's just me. I know I've been fascinated by words pretty much since I learned to talk. When I was a tiny wee girl, ny answer to "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was procurator fiscal. Now, I had no clue what one of those was (it's the name for a Scottish public prosecutor), so really what I was getting at was that I wanted to be a linguist. Possibly a writer. And that all worked out quite well in the end, even though a job needs more than a boss with puns and cute earrings.

I'd love to hear some of your favourite (or least favourite) words. Hit me!

Cx

 Well, it’s “bloggers choice” week here and to avoid the pitfalls of wallowing in my own fears and insecurities over book sales (as I approach a new release at the end of Feb) I wanted to talk about old books. As writers, we’re readers, and to ignite the flame of inspiration as I head into any new project, and the renew my love fo the craft strictly from a readers perspective, I think long and hard about what I’m going to read next. 

I read quite a bit of work published in the mid-1900s. Classic crime fiction, noir novels, some PI stuff. There’s something about that era that scratches my particular itch.

Sure, you have to get over some very outdated and off-putting social attitudes, but these are usually minor and on the sidelines. The real thing I love about them is that they get to it, sprint along with the story and don’t let up. 

These were books written for drug store spinner racks. Paperbacks sold for a quarter and rarely running over 200 pages that’ll fit right into your back pocket. 

In many ways, it reminds me how little our genre has changed over the years. Most of the same basic elements are there. There is less social commentary, less inner monologue. You could say many of them aren’t very deep. But that wasn’t the point.

If I run into a dry spell with reading current novels and I need to hit the reset, I always reach back to my shelf for one of the hundreds of vintage crime novels waiting for me. I have old pulp paperback I bought for no other reason than the cover was lurid and enticing. I have several titles still to read from favorite classic authors like Gil Brewer, Day Keene, James Hadley Chase and Harry Whittington.

My favorites are often the little discoveries. Sure we all know Chandler and Hammett, but how many have read Fools’ Gold by Dolores Hitchins? Do Evil In Return by Margaret Millar? The Jones Men by Vern Smith? You’ll Get Yours by Thomas Wills?

When you discover a hidden gem it feels special. These days you can also find collectors and like-minded fans to share these new discoveries and get deeper recommendations. 

Now, let’s be clear, there is a fair amount of dreck out there from that era. These were, by and large, written by men tapping out a furious word count in order to put food on the table and beer in the fridge and – talk about how little things have changed – making a living as a pulp hack was no picnic. Many are formulaic. Many are trying to imitate best sellers like Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler. Many are just lazy, written in a drunker stupor or short on a decent mystery.

But when you find the authors you love, a dip into the mid-century is a great peek into a world just different enough from our own. I know when I go back and grab a Lionel White or a Charles Williams novel off my shelf, I’m in for something entertaining at the very least. I know a Chester Himes novel is going to go off into some crazy tangents. I know William McGivern or W.R Burnett or Jim Thompson are going to do anything they can to throw me a plot point I never saw coming.

So I’ll continue to reach back across the decades for a read that might be old, but is new to me. I’ll continue to study the history of my chosen genre. I’ll continue to seek out the all-too rare female authors of the time or the even more rare African American writers. All this wonderful discovery reignites my love for the genre and reminds me why I love it.

And Now for Something Completely Different by Gabriel Valjan

 

In yesterday’s Blogger’s Choice, Susan discussed the obstacles authors face in what I call The Quest for Eyeballs. I know that sounds like a gory treasure hunt, and it often is. Here, on Criminal Minds we have discussed the business side of writing, the artsy mechanics of how we do what we do, and, when we can, the joy that accompanies creation and the pains of frustrations or criticism from critics and readers.

 

Writers have heard the two extremes: that either writing is difficult or it is so easy that anybody can do it. I have yet to meet a writer who hasn’t met that special someone who insisted that they had the next bestseller inside their brain, but they were so busy that they needed someone to type it up for them. The division of labor falls on the glorified typist (You). The same typist (You again) is the recipient of their largess.

 

Writers write, and they always have. Publishers are in the business of making money, and agents comb through the Slush Pile, in the hopes of The Next Great Thing. The Truth is nobody knows what that Thing is, but it is fair to say that both Agent and Publisher are fiscally and politically conservative. People say they read to think in new ways, but nobody reads to be provoked or indicted, although Literature with the capital L tends to do just that. It is often with time that the ‘vile and morally reprehensible’ becomes the safe classic, until it doesn’t. Witch hunts and book bans ebb and flow, the reading lists expand and contract. Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is On again, Off again.

 

Rather than answer a question, I’ll give you a few slices of the reality (by no means definitive) that writers confront, and this is before or as words appear on the page.

 

·      If you write ‘contemporary’ or ‘historical, how true do you stay to the place and era?

 

I write a series, set in Boston during the Seventies. It’s a decade where I heard people of every ethnicity, sexual and political persuasion use derogatory language against each other, amongst each other, to describe Other and their own. Nobody blinked or was offended. I’ve had to strike passages in my own work because editors have told me that I would offend readers, or I wasn’t allowed to say That. So much for cinéma vérité.

 

·      How do you approach writing different cultures, set here in the US, or in another country?

 

When it comes to writing Other and Different, you will encounter concepts and ways of doing and thinking about things that are, by their nature, Different and Other, so a writer best have empathy and a dispassionate nature. While you pick what aids creativity, there has to be point and counterpoint for balance.

 

I wrote a series set, for the most part in Italy. I’ve lived abroad, and I can’t tell you how shocked Europeans are when they see Americans protesting against ‘socialized medicine’ and equate it with Communism. To them, universal healthcare is part of the Social Contract as a citizen of society (as in Rousseau) and they equated the death penalty with Communism, as in the State puts an individual to death. Their historical experiences changed their perspective, or as my Italian friends say, 'it is on our skin.'

 

For a less volatile observation, I learned that Italian-American culture and language is not the same in Italy. Most Italians THERE find the Italian spoken HERE by the descendant of immigrants incomprehensible. Forget about the food, and nothing makes an Italian cringe more than hearing someone order a cappuccino after dinner. It's blasphemy.

 

·      How can an author balance their need to indulge in reading trends of the moment with maintaining an authentic voice, even if they risk sounding elitist or outdated?

 

There is no easy answer here. When I wrote my first novel, I was told my vocabulary would challenge readers. Huh? Mind you, I used words that I myself use daily, and I wasn’t writing wooden sentences or used 10 words were three sufficed. I’m neither a member of Mensa nor did I do spectacular on the SATs. The experience, however, made me self-conscious of everything I write or will write from now until they day I stop. At that point, I won’t care because I’ll be dead.

 

·      Should an author target the general public, or is it better try to carve your own niche?

 

This circles back to agents and publishers, and the primordial scream from Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money.” I’m certain that when Walter Mosley pitched the idea of Easy Rawlins, he was told the PI was passé, dead and buried in the studio vaults with reels of film noir, and the same agents and publishers thought that nobody would give a damn about an African-American protagonist. But…it hit, and I do know for fact that that when Mr. Mosley walked into the office, they didn’t want to hear about his next project. They wanted more of Easy Rawlins. Damned if you don’t.

 

So, write what you write. Nobody knows anything. What is good today might be shite tomorrow, or not. All you can do is perfect your craft by reading others and being honest with yourself.

 

The worst thing a writer can do is not be honest with him-or-herself.