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What Writing Books Don’t Tell You

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by Kirt Hickman

I do a lot of critiques, and I see similar mistakes in submission after submission. Eventually, I began to realize that the problems I see most often are those that I didn’t learn from writing books. For whatever reason, these key pieces of advice have managed to slip through the cracks. Writing books don’t discuss them, or the books contradict one another, leaving writers floundering for the correct answer.

Filter Words
I first learned about the damage filter words can do in a critique that David Corwell wrote for me. Later I found an article that called them “viewpoint intruders”—an apt name, because that’s what they do. These are words like saw, felt, heard, watched, etc., that take the reader out of the character’s point of view.

Consider this example from a critique submission, in which the filter words are shown in bold text.

Clara looked around at her fellow passengers. She overheard snatches of conversation in Italian. She saw parents feeding snacks to children, even a breast-feeding mother.

Here, the reader isn’t looking at passengers, overhearing conversations, or seeing parents feed children. The reader is standing at a distance, watching Clara as Clara looks at, overhears, and sees the action of the scene. These words have become a filter between Clara and the reader.

The author can eliminate the first sentence because Clara doesn’t see herself looking around. The rest of the passage can be written without filter words:

All around Clara, people spoke in Italian. Parents fed snacks to their children. One woman nursed her infant.

Notice that the original narrative focuses on Clara (Clara looked, she overheard, she saw), while the revised narrative focuses on the things Clara is focused on (people spoke, parents fed, one woman nursed). This is as much an issue of character viewpoint as it is an issue of narrative style. When you write, don’t focus on your viewpoint character. Rather, focus on what your viewpoint character is focused on.

Prepositional Phrases
Many books will tell you to omit any word that’s not absolutely necessary, and that’s good advice. What they don’t point out is that those unnecessary words often appear as prepositional phrases. Examine every prepositional phrase in your manuscript. Does it provide information that’s both new and necessary? Consider this example:

Chase stood among the clues in the cockpit and let them tell their story.

If the reader already knows Chase is in the cockpit, write this as:

Chase stood among the clues and let them tell their story.

Depending on the context, you may only need:

Chase let the clues tell their story.

Now you’re writing a tight narrative.

“That”
This one I learned from Larry Greenly at an SWW meeting years ago. The word that is often used unnecessarily. It becomes a speed bump that slows down the reader. Consider the following example, excerpted from a letter my hero wrote to his daughter in my own science fiction novel Worlds Asunder:

I’m writing to let you know that my homecoming will be delayed. I know that you and the girls were looking forward to seeing me, but a case has come up that will delay my departure.

Wherever you see the word that, delete it and read the sentence without it. If the sentence still makes sense, omit the word that. In this example, only the third occurrence of that is necessary.

I’m writing to let you know my homecoming will be delayed. I know you and the girls were looking forward to seeing me, but a case has come up that will delay my departure.

Direct Address
Direct address occurs when a character says the name of the person he’s addressing:

“What time is it, Jennifer?”

She consulted her watch. “Four o’clock, Tommy. Why?”

“Already?” He snatched up his backpack and bolted for the door. “Jennifer, my mom’s gonna kill me.” He didn’t even help clean up the toys they’d strewn across the living room.

Some books advise writers to use direct address as a way to avoid attributives. I disagree. Notice how much more natural the dialogue feels when I move the characters’ names from the spoken lines to the dialogue tags:

“What time is it?” Tommy asked suddenly.

Jennifer consulted her watch. “Four o’clock. Why?”

“Already?” Tommy snatched up his backpack and bolted for the door. “My mom’s gonna kill me.” He didn’t even help clean up the toys they’d strewn across the living room.

Widow/Orphan Control
Widow/Orphan control is a function in MS Word that tries to prevent a single line of a paragraph from appearing at the top or bottom of a page. When this function is turned on, it creates a variation in the number of lines from page to page. It looks sloppy. Turn this function off in the “Format Paragraph” menu, under the “Line and Page Breaks” tab.

Proofreading
Many books advise proofreading carefully. In my experience, that’s not enough. You must have somebody else—a qualified editor—proofread your work. Writing books do not sufficiently stress the importance of this. When I started paying a proofreader to go over my submissions, I began placing in contests and getting positive replies from editors and agents about 50 percent of the time. Prior to that, I received nothing but rejections. Don’t underestimate the power of proofreading.

WorldsAsunder125_2Kirt Hickman is a technical writer turned fiction author. His books include three sci-fi thriller novels Worlds Asunder (2008), Venus Rain (2010) and Mercury Sun (2014), the high fantasy novel Fabler’s Legend (2011), and the writers’ how-to Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness (2009).

This article was originally published in the May 2012 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.



An Interview with Author Irene Blea

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Dr. Irene Blea is a native New Mexican with a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado-Boulder and is the author of three novels, seven university text books, four poetry chapbooks, and over thirty academic articles. She developed and taught Mexican American Studies for twenty-seven years before retiring in 1998. In May 2009 she was recognized by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of New Mexico for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement. Daughters of the West Mesa (ABQ Press, 2015) is her third novel. You can find Dr. Blea on LinkedIn, Facebook and her website IreneBlea.com.

DaughtersOfTheWestMesa200What is your elevator pitch for Daughters of the West Mesa?
Daughters of the West Mesa is a work of fiction based on a true story of the discovery of 11 female remains, and an unborn fetus, west of Albuquerque. I fictionalized a single mother of two daughters; one of them has been missing for several months.

What do you hope readers will take away from it?
My goal is to humanize the impact of this serial killing on the families and the community from which the murdered women emerged.

Tell us about your main protagonist.
Dora is a single mother of two daughters who has struggled to negotiate out of poverty, while experiencing racism, sexism, family and religious resistance, and the embarrassment of having her daughter addicted and missing.

Did this work pose any unique challenges for you?
This work took me to some dark places in the lives of the murdered women, their families, the communities, and myself. At no time was I fearful, but I frequently was out of my comfort zone when I drove the dark streets were sex workers work at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., and when I attended biker functions in biker bars.

What was the most difficult aspect of writing this book? The most satisfying?
The most difficult aspect was the pain of the mothers, fathers, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, and community. It was widespread. The most satisfying is that these hurting people were able to vocalize their experiences to me.

What kind of research did you do for the book?
I conducted a literature review on serial killers, especially those committing matricide. I read newspapers and Internet accounts of America’s unsolved serial killer mysteries, and visited the 100-acre dumping site a few times. I also attended indigenous prayer rituals, victim’s funerals and public information sessions that became rallies and protest sessions, toured the crime laboratory and interviewed victim’s family members and talked with Spanish-speaking media persons from Univision. I’ve kept a journal since 1979 and documented my experience.

Tell us more about putting together Daughters of the West Mesa.
It took two years to complete from beginning to end. This was one of those novels that demanded to be written. I wanted to write my third Suzanna novel, but Daughters of the West Mesa kept gnawing at me. In the editing process, we struggled through which Spanish words to italicize. It is difficult to accept that no matter how many times I edit my material, how many times two or three other persons read and commented on it, there were still errors and minor inconsistencies that needed to be addressed.

Suzanna150Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
Justice. The message in Daughters of the West Mesa is that the murdered women were not the only persons victimized. Those related to them suffered shame and disappointment, and felt victimized by legal and media representatives constantly referring to their loved one as drug addicted and prostitutes. This is a complex cultural issue that affected the community. I felt it needed a voice. In addition I did not want the case to go cold. It is important to keep it alive and find the perpetrator.

When did you know you were a writer?
I was born into a storytelling family, into a tradition that is Native American and northern New Mexico, mountain, Hispanic. At the age of seven I entered the public school system, learned to speak English, and fell in love with the magic of writing and reading. I did not like summer vacation from school. As a graduate student I wrote three different term papers for three graduate seminars. Thus, I am now aware of systematically, gradually, becoming a writer; there was no one pivotal moment.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
I enjoy the clarity and creativity of the magic realism of Central, South American and Spanish writers. Juan Rulfo and Pablo Neruda’s poetry is grounded and dynamic in such a forceful manner. Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende’s magical realism is intriguing and spiritual. Of course, what is not to love about the storytelling genius of the Nobel Prize winner, Miguel García Márquez. In addition, I admire the revolutionary nature of the highly influential work of Federico García Lorca.

How has your work as a poet influenced your fiction writing?
My love of language and code switching in ways that touch the heart and stir the soul is always there. I strive to be my most poetic self when I write about the land, the moon, the sun and the sky. I want the world to love and recognize all their relations: those that walk, crawl, swim, and fly.

What can fiction writers learn from nonfiction writers? From poets?
The truth is filtered through the storyteller’s lens, and that is their truth.

What is the greatest tool in your writer’s arsenal?
Being bilingual and tri-cultural, a Spanish-English speaking Native American that struggles to speak Italian.

PoorPeoplesFlowers150Looking back to the beginning of your writing career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I wish I had known to write earlier in my life. I wish I had known to start young to write what I know as my truth with no concern about whether the work is commercial or not.

What is the best encouragement or advice you’ve received in your writing journey?
Write. Write what you know and research what you don’t.

What are you working on now?
I’m writing the third novel in the Suzanna series, untitled at this point (Suzanna was published in 2009, Poor People’s Flowers in 2014). The most difficult thing for me to write is titles. I cannot make up a title. It has to come from life; the life of my characters or my life. Thus, at this time I fail to have a title for the third Suzanna novel, but I have written five chapters.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Yes, the person next to you has a story to tell, and it is most likely unlike yours.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



Two-Minute Tax Warning

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by Fred A. Aiken

ID-100304904_245The two-minute warning in football signals that the time to make the winning play is quickly running out. Consider this your Two-Minute Warning for tax purposes. If you want to deduct your writing expenses from your 2015 income, you must act now to ensure you have the necessary records to be able to take the deduction.

Writing is a business. To be considered as a writer, one simply declares oneself to be a writer by filling out Schedule C on their tax return. By self-declaration, a writer establishes herself/himself as a person operating a part-time, sole-proprietorship engaged in the business of writing for profit. A writer must materially participate in her/his business and all of the money invested in the business must be “at risk.” A writing business operates on the cash basis (income as received and expenses when paid) and carries no inventory.

According to Harlan Ellison, “Anybody can become a writer, but the trick is to STAY a writer.” The Internal Revenue Service could audit your return. When they do, they are looking to see whether there is more evidence that you are actively engaged in the business of writing than there is evidence that you are not (preponderance of evidence rule). If your income exceeds your expenses, then you have little to worry about; even hobbyists can deduct all expenses to the extent of their income. Only writers actively engaged in the business of writing are entitled to the privilege of deducting their excess business losses from their other income.

Most businesses have common characteristics. They keep detailed accounting records. The business owner has a good knowledge of the business sector in which the business operates. The business owner belongs to professional associations such as SouthWest Writers (SWW). And, the business owner has a written business plan on how her/his business will operate.

As a professional writer, use these final two months of 2015 to gather documentation to substantiate your writing income and expenses. Income is any money that is generated by your writing activity, including contest prizes. Common expenses include dues to professional organizations such as SWW, paper, pens/pencils, printer ink, telephone expenses for interviews, postage, professional development activities (including workshops, conferences, classes), reference books, mileage for business purposes, etc. If a business purpose can be established, then the expense may be deducted. The list is endless. It is up to you to establish the business purpose of the deduction. I personally avoid taking any deductions for a home office and will urge extreme caution in taking deductions for “research travel.”

A writer prepares manuscripts and sends those manuscripts to persons who are in a position to pay the writer for the right to publish the manuscript. Publishing is a different business from writing. If you self-publish, make sure that you separate your writing expenses from your publishing expenses and file separate Schedule C forms for each business.

Smile as you file your 2015 tax return. Many happy deductions to you in 2015 and future years.

Fred Aiken150Fred A. Aiken has an MBA from Cleveland State University and has taken graduate level coursework on Federal Income Tax. A member of SouthWest Writers since 1996, he writes spiritual/inspirational and non-fiction articles as well as mystery and science fiction/fantasy stories and novels.

This article was originally published in the November 2009 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.

Image “Tax Time” courtesy of hywards / PublicDomainPictures.net



Quite the Character

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by Olive Balla

Olive Balla245According to author, editor, and writing consultant Jeff Gerke there are two kinds of writers—I call them Plotters and Character-philes. No, this has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with how our brains are wired. Gerke says fiction writers will be good at either crafting a complex, multi-stranded plot, or building deep, multi-faceted and interesting characters, but not both. With that in mind, and in the interest of helping my fellow Plotters thicken the portion of their cerebral cortexes wherein their Character-philes lie dormant, I submit some tidbits I’ve picked up.

By the time we reach the age of twenty or so, all of us will have developed psychological, mental, spiritual, and even physical battle scars, along with the mechanisms for coping with them. And by the time we’ve put a few decades under our belt, we’re as bent and dented as any used vehicle on a second-rate car lot. Gerke’s message is to embrace your hard-earned dings. Exorcise your ghosts through your characters. For example, show your protagonist struggling to survive a tumultuous relationship with her mother, father, or even her boyfriend’s obnoxious cat. Or better yet, show your antagonist’s inner turmoil over an action he’s taken, or is about to take. Readers love delving into the dichotomy of good versus evil that apparently resides in every human being, so heap the internal conflict high.

Got any phobias? How about a couple of recalcitrant neuroses? Do you engage in obsessive compulsive rituals or carry a load of guilt over youthful—or even recent—indiscretions? Good. Confession time: One such incident from my past became the basis for my essay “The Four People I DON’T Want to See in Heaven.” Here’s an excerpt:

I don’t want to see David Brown in Heaven. David was in my third grade class. He lived just up the street from me, so we often walked home from school at about the same time. One afternoon, when we reached a particularly isolated spot, David offered to show me His Bits if I would show him Mine. Never having seen that particular part of the male anatomy before, I figured that sounded like a great idea. I told David to go first, and he did. However, being raised in an extremely conservative household, I had second thoughts about my end of the bargain. Modesty won out, and after completing my observations, I turned and ran home as fast as my nine year-old legs would carry me, leaving an undoubtedly wiser David with his pants around his ankles.Had any epiphanies along your self-discovery journey? Excellent. Draw on all of those life experiences to build colorful, deeply human characters. You don’t have to admit to a thing, and your readers will wonder how you grew to be so wise.

Then there’s the dynamic known in psychological circles as the Normalcy Bias. How many horror or suspense movies have we watched where a female character hears a noise from the basement and proceeds to check it out? We in the audience know it’s a bad idea, but the character is a victim of the too-human characteristic that whispers in her ear, “Nothing bad has ever happened before when you went into the basement, so nothing bad will happen now.” The ways to enhance your characters through use of this it-can’t-happen-here trait are endless. For example, does the mother watching her toddler play in the park realize that the handsome young gentleman who seems to turn up everywhere is actually stalking her? Of course not, it has to be a coincidence. Or do the villagers who live at the foot of an active volcano fear imminent destruction? Poppycock. The thing has been spewing smoke and cinders for decades. Go to sleep children, all is well.

And how about fear? We humans harbor fears-a-plenty. We’re born with the fear of abandonment, and then proceed to pile up more terrors over our lifetimes. We fear people, places, situations, the future, insects, certain animals, etc. Haul out your own fears. Hold them up to the light, and then bless your characters with a fistful. Someone said that readers look to writers to help them discover ways of dealing with their own life issues. So scare the bejeebers out of your readers, and then lead them to safety—or not. Either way, they’ll love you for it.

Then there’s the human ability to survive through adaptation. It’s the process by which the bizarre becomes the norm. If an action is repeated often enough and over a long enough period of time—even if it involves horrifying or twisted behavior—the people who witness it, or even those who are victims of it, adapt to it. They may not like it on some level, but they will eventually not only accept that behavior, but embrace and even mirror it. It’s part of our arsenal of survival strategies. Tough and resilient characters, anyone?

Ah, the human condition. Time to turn your lemons into lemonade.

AnArmAndALeg72Olive Balla, author of suspense novel An Arm and a Leg, is mother of 3, grandmother to 13, great-grandmother of 4, a retired educator, and part-time professional musician. Having been everything from secretary at a used car dealership, a university student, and a high school Spanish teacher, Balla states her characters are, in part, amalgamations of people she’s met. Living with her husband Victor in the Albuquerque area, she spends her spare time in a small woodworking shop designing and building everything from breadboxes and wine racks, to a porch bench. Visit her website at omballa.com.

This article was originally published in the December 2013 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.



The Writing Life: Building Strengths and Outsourcing Weaknesses

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by Sherri Burr

SherriBurr

What happens to you when you realize you aren’t good at something that would be helpful to you in your career? This question was recently posed by the website TransitioningYourLife.com in the article “How to Stop Your Weaknesses from Bringing You Down.”

“Most people,” the article said, “try to improve our weak areas” because “[w]e believe that our weaknesses matter more in holding us back than our strengths matter in advancing us.”

Wrong answer, according to authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton in their book Now, Discover Your Strengths. They suggest, “The better strategy is to play to your strengths, building upon your core talents and work around your weaknesses. You can add skills and knowledge to increase your performance in your area, but unless you are building on one of your innate talents (aka strengths), your efforts won’t produce exceptional results—some results, yes, but not dramatic improvement.”

As I read these words, I thought of how this advice might apply to the writing life. I remembered my friend Carolyn Wheelock once pitched and received an assignment to write an article about hats for a women’s magazine, but encountered a problem when the magazine wanted accompanying photos. Since Carolyn felt she was not good at photography, she called and asked me to photograph the hats for her. Outsourcing her weakness to yours truly worked well for both of us. She kept her commitment to the magazine, and I received a photography credit.

While this was a win-win, there might be weaknesses a writer could not delegate. What if a writer struggled with grammar or spelling? While software can correct some issues, auto correct may create even more problems. If you do not know the rules, you may not recognize that a word is used in the wrong context even though it’s spelled correctly. Without knowledge of grammar, you may miss the issue.

Dealing with your weaknesses may be fundamental to success in your chosen profession, and you may have no choice but to put in the time to improve them. While watching tennis matches during the Wimbledon fortnight, for example, it occurred to me that a player with a weak serve is in deep trouble. Not only does the player fail to obtain easy points by hitting aces, he or she increases the chances that other players will break their serve and win the match. A serve cannot be outsourced.

For writers, the serve is the equivalent of mastering the tools of grammar and spelling. They are the building blocks for the stories we tell. Hiring an editor could correct some problems, but beware. Since word choices are critical to story meaning, an editor could accidentally change the message just by replacing a word or two. Grammar and spelling are key ingredients for our written creations. They must be mastered to build strength in either fiction or nonfiction.

But what constitutes innate strength? In their book, authors Buckingham and Clifton define a strength as “consistent near perfect performance in an activity.” Some writers achieve “consistent near perfection” when producing fiction, others nonfiction. The excellence is evidenced by strong sales and important awards.

Once writers reach the stratosphere of their profession, expansion to other creative outlets is possible. For example, Janet Evanovich who created the highly successful fictional Stephanie Plum series also penned the book How I Write. She mentioned accumulating approximately ten years of rejection slips before she was first published. During that decade she perfected her craft.

Similarly, mystery writer Tony Hillerman mastered writing as a journalist before authoring mysteries. It was only after he became a New York Times best-selling author of dozens of books set on the Navajo reservation that he penned his memoir Seldom Disappointed. Hillerman’s memoir extended his “near perfect performance” as a mystery writer into another writing realm.

Evanovich and Hillerman prove that playing to writing strengths after mastering the core elements can lead to exceptional results, such as landing at the top of best-sellers’ lists. When they expanded into nonfiction, they did not stray too far from their innate talent of writing fiction.

For writers, our challenge is to master our core and play to our strengths. We can stop our weaknesses from bringing us down by delegating what we do not do well and what is not critical to learn. Go forth and let your strengths advance you up the writing ladder of success.

A Short and Happy Guide to Financial Well BeingSherri Burr is the Regents’ Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law where she teaches Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Art Law. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and the Yale Law School, she has authored or co-authored 20 books, including A Short and Happy Guide to Financial Well-Being (West Academic, 2014). Sherri is also a long-time member of SouthWest Writers and a regular contributor to the organization’s newsletter SouthWest Sage.

This article was originally published in the September 2013 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.



An Interview with Author Robert D. Kidera

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After a short stint in the film industry and a long (nearly forty-year) career as a teacher, Robert Kidera finally did what he’d always wanted to do—write fiction. He is an active member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and SouthWest Writers. The first installment in the McKenna Mystery series, Red Gold (Suspense Books, 2015), is his debut novel. You can find him on Facebook and his website RobertKideraBooks.com. And check out his SWW Author Page.

Red_Gold_200What is your elevator pitch for Red Gold?
When the road leads through Hell, keep going…

What sparked the initial story idea?
I wanted to tell a story that blended history with mystery. I wanted a hero who was strong and smart, but vulnerable as well. It was from those criteria that Red Gold evolved.

Who is your favorite character in the book?
I like all my characters or they wouldn’t be in the book! Seriously, there is a core of characters upon which the story—and the series that follows—rests: Gabe McKenna, first of all, then C.J., Sam, and Rebecca Turner. My readers can expect to meet them in each of the stories.

Will your friends or family recognize any part of you in your main protagonist? What about your antagonist?
Of course. Gabe and I spend a lot of time together. As a nod to all my fellow history teachers and professors, I made Gabe one of us. I don’t drink nearly as much as he does, BTW. But we think alike and have some of the same Attitude. As for my antagonist, I sure hope not. He’s a real SOB!

Is there a scene in your book you’d like to see play out in a movie?
I tend to write visually, cinematically. Perhaps that’s because of my background in films. Every scene in the book is something I have watched unfold in my head. If I had to pick a single one, it would be the showdown scene in the cave at Baldera Volcano.

Why did you decide to use New Mexico as the main setting for Red Gold?
Two reasons: first, I live here and make it a point to visit every site I use in my books, to get my feet on that ground. The spirit and history of this area is something I feel very strongly. New Mexico is one of my main characters, you could say. Second, is there any better location for a story? New Mexico has history, romance, danger, beauty, people of all types, and absolutely anything can happen here.

What first inspired you to become a writer?
My father inspired me to write. He was a professor of journalism at Marquette University and one summer wrote a textbook called Fundamentals of Journalism that was widely adopted by colleges coast to coast. It put food on our table! I watched him write that book, and I thought it was pretty cool. So I decided then—as a six year-old—that one day I would become a writer too. My dream was realized on April 21, 2015 when Red Gold debuted.

What are your strengths as a writer, and what do you do to overcome your weaknesses?
At my current stage, I’m more aware of my weaknesses than my strengths. If I had to choose one thing, I’d say my greatest strength is I know how to tell a story, how to develop it and make it whole. The weakness I have worked hardest on is dialogue. I tended at first to write characters who were too verbose. I took courses on dialogue writing, eavesdropped on a lot of conversations, learned how to self-edit, and read some of the masters of dialogue to improve my style.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
In my genre, I have two favorites: Raymond Chandler and Donald Westlake. Chandler is quite simply a master. He has style, setting, dialogue and a great protagonist in Philip Marlowe. And he started writing late in his life, as I have. He is my inspiration. Donald Westlake’s books are so much fun to read; I imagine he had a ball writing them. His style is crisp, funny, brilliant. And his characters inhabit a completely whacked-out world. I love his work.

What part do beta readers or critique groups play in your writing process?
They have played an enormous role in my development. When I started out a few years ago, I really had no idea if what I was writing was any good. I was writing the best I could at the time, but would others find it worth reading? I dedicated Red Gold to all the members of my various critique groups and to SouthWest Writers, without whose support I could not have finished the book. I’m not afraid of constructive criticism, I need it.

What part of the writing process do you enjoy most: creating, editing/revising, or research?
I absolutely enjoy it all. Writing a novel is a thrilling and all-consuming endeavor. Except for all the pain.

If you had an unlimited budget, how would you spend your money for marketing and promotion of your book?
Wow. If I had a truly unlimited budget, I’d hire somebody else to do my marketing and promotion. Then I’d take the rest of the money, buy a mountain cabin where I could write undisturbed, do a lot of traveling and research all the locations of my stories.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
There is one main recurring theme in my first three books: Life is a struggle to find the truth and there is an inevitable loss of innocence along the way.

Which point of view do you like writing the most (first person, third, etc.)?
For the McKenna mysteries, I chose to write in first-person. It was the best way for me to write my protagonist from the inside out and to really inhabit the scenes of the story. My fourth book will be written in the third person. It’s historical fiction.

How has your experience as a teacher affected your writing life? Do you ever get hung up on the rules?
I saw myself as a story-teller all the years I taught history. I presented a Grand Narrative, whether it was American History or Western Civilization. All the elements were there: great ideas, great characters, drama, triumph and tragedy. As a teacher, I never got hung up on the rules, which is why I got along better with my students than with administrators.

What advice do you have for discouraged writers?
People who write are called writers. People who wait are called waiters. I’d advise you write every day, if only for the sheer pleasure of it. Don’t worry about the Great American Novel, etc. Enjoy what you do! Or find something else to do, life is too short.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Get Lost, the second McKenna Mystery is coming out on March 8, 2016 from Suspense Books. I am working on the third novel, Cut.Print.Kill. and hope to have that out early in 2017, God-willing. My fourth book will be historical fiction, an elaboration on and extrapolation of several short stories from Black Range Tales, a fabulous depiction of 19th Century New Mexican mining days, written in 1936 by James A. McKenna.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I’d like my readers to know how grateful I am for their faith in what I write. I will try to continue to spin some tales they will find uplifting, enjoyable and worth their valuable time. Thank you, one and all.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



On Writer’s Block and Cannibalism

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by Bentley Clark

Out of Ones Head1On a few occasions, I have joked in this column that I suffer from creative constipation. I now admit that I jinxed myself. Writing this month’s article has been like pulling teeth from a sloth—sure, they don’t move very fast, but have you seen those claws? I had intended to write about flash fiction this month and what I came up with was actually shorter than your average flash fiction story. So, the day before November’s article was due, I changed course.

It took some introspection, but what I realized was that the unfortunate, craptastic flash fiction article was a symptom of that mysterious and often incurable affliction: writer’s block. My determination to write something decent in spite of said block just led to more and more tsk-worthy writing. I kid you not, the article actually contained the following sentence: Clearly my cat had invited some burglars around for sandwiches and let the dog finish off the peanut butter. While terribly humorous and worth saving for another occasion, I was grasping at straws. Five hundred sixty-seven words and every last one of them crap.

At that point, I did what any self-respecting writer would do—I knit some gloves, hot-washed some towels, and took a nap. When I woke up, I reread what I had written, researched flash fiction on the Internet and then decided that I was inept, uncreative, and unworthy of love. Because, let’s face it, we all feel less than loveable when we put pen to paper and it goes nowhere. After wallowing in a bit of self-pity and throwing the hot-washed towels in the drier, I went back to the Internet and read some articles about the “myth” of writer’s block.

Oh yes, my friends, there are indeed those who believe that writer’s block does not exist. “What?!” I hear you chorus with a well-placed interrobang. Yep. These writerly myth busters insist that writer’s block is all in your head. To which I reply with a belly laugh and a hearty, “Well, duh!” According to these myth busters: (1) my emotions are getting the better of me, (2) I’m afraid of what I want to write, (3) I’m afraid of success, (4) I’m second-guessing myself, and (5) I’ve exhausted all the good and original ideas.

Apparently, these are the real culprits of my clogged creative juices, not writer’s block. Myself, I’m more partial to: I know a whole bunch of words and punctuation marks, but I’m just not real sure how to arrange them all. There. See? I’m not blocked, I’m just overwhelmed.

It seems there are as many cures for writer’s block as there are reasons. Some of my favorites suggest that I should:

■ Eat snacks very slowly so that I can contemplate my writing. However, I’m on Weight Watchers, so there is no such thing as “snacks” in my house. At least not writing-worthy ones—Red Vines, Piroulines, or chocolate Hob Nobs.

■ Retool a fairy tale to get the creative juices flowing. All I came up with was, “Once upon a time, there was a writer who worked for hours and produced crap.”

■ Spend 30 minutes cleaning house to get my mind off of goal-directed think. (I think my husband may have written this one.) Sorry, husband, this “hint” simply isn’t going to work on me, I’d rather write crap than clean crap.

■ Write about someone I hate and send it to a confession magazine. First of all, what is a confession magazine? Second of all, with my luck, I’d accidentally send the piece to my mom who would lecture me about how it isn’t nice to hate people. You can dislike them all you want, but don’t hate them.

The most commonly espoused cure for writer’s block seems to be: write. Great. Except, I already spent hours writing my article. Then, I spent hours attempting to edit my article. Seems to me that sometimes “just write” isn’t the answer to the question, “Why can’t I write anything worth editing?” So, I decided instead to go with the cure used most often by computer scientists and Dads the world over—reboot the thing. I came to terms with the fact that the flash fiction article was crap and cannibalized the experience to write this one. I guess that means my answer to writer’s block is this: cannibalism. Do with that what you will.

Anyway, since I managed to write an article for the column this month, I suppose my writer’s block on the flash fiction article is a moot point—sorry to spend 800 words on a moot point. However, in preparation for next month’s article, I intend to eat some carrots slowly while vacuuming and re-working “Twelve Dancing Princesses” to include people I hate. Shoot, next month’s article will write itself!

BentleyClark125Bentley Clark watched “Gosford Park” four times while writing the failed article and this one. Feel free to opine about watching movies while writing in the comments below.

This article was originally published in the October 2012 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.

Image “Out Of One’s Head, Relax The Brain” courtesy of thaikrit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Message, Moral, Meaning: The Theme

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by Chris Eboch

AdvancedPlotting200Many writers treat theme as something that just happens, so they don’t try to control it. But this can lead to a story with a confusing theme, or even one that accidentally contradicts the author’s beliefs.

You don’t need to know your theme right away. Sometimes, you may discover your message as you write the story. Or you may start with one idea in mind, and change it as you go. Writing the story may help you explore new aspects of an idea, uncovering complexities and contradictions. This can result in a deeper, more meaningful story, so let that process unfold. But you should definitely know your theme before you finish your final draft, and edit to make sure your story best supports your theme.

When trying to identify your theme, start big and then narrow your focus. Can you define your theme in one word? Is it about love, hope, courage, sacrifice? Once you’ve identified that word, try to state your theme as a single, clear sentence. What do you want to say about that word? For example, if your novel is about sacrifice, is your character making sacrifices for her own future, for a loved one, for her country, for an ideal? What does she have to sacrifice? Narrowing in on the specifics can help you pinpoint your theme.

Then work backward. Does your novel truly support your message? Maybe you’ve decided that your theme is “The greater good is more important than the individual’s desire.” In that case, your main character should be giving up a desire in order to help a larger group. But perhaps you liked your character so much that you ended with her helping the group and getting what she wanted as well. That weakens your message, and suggests a different theme, “Good will be rewarded.” You might want to reconsider your ending.

Find people to read your story and ask what message they take away. Make sure their response is in line with your ideals. Don’t expect all your readers to pick out your theme exactly, however. If they do, you’re probably not being subtle enough. Just make sure they find a valuable message. In my Mayan historical adventure, The Well of Sacrifice, I knew my main theme: make your own decisions and stand on your own. One young reader wrote me and said, “The book…helped me think to never give up, even in the worst of times, just like what happened to Eveningstar.” I’m happy to inspire a reader to “never give up,” even if that wasn’t my main theme. And perhaps readers will be subtly influenced by my primary message, even if they don’t recognize it while reading.

Too Many Messages?

For younger readers and short stories, you need to keep the theme simple. The longer the story or novel, and the older the reader, the more complex and subtle you can be. At first a book may appear to be a humorous romance, but as the story unfolds, it may reveal a theme about honesty in relationships. The theme may only be clear from the final twist in the story. The theme can be revealed through what the main character learns, how she changes, what she gains or loses.

As part of your revisions (or in the planning stage, if you are really organized), work on your character in order to set up your theme. Use her virtues and vices. How will her strengths help her? What weaknesses does she have to overcome? Make sure these tie into the theme. If your character must learn about honesty, make sure that it will be possible but difficult for her. Maybe she craves intimacy, but is afraid no one will like her if she shows her true self.

For longer works, think about how you can use other characters or subplots to support or expand on your theme. Maybe your main character learns to be honest in her relationships, and so develops a loving connection with her boyfriend. In contrast, her friend might keep lying in order to make a good impression, and get dumped, or wind up with a shallow, dissatisfying relationship. A subplot about the main character’s relationship with her parents could explore the theme in yet another way.

Multiple themes can give a novel extra depth and power. However, don’t let your story get cluttered with too many themes, especially wildly different ones. If you try to share everything you believe about life in one story, it will feel cluttered and confusing. Focus on one primary theme, and save the others for different works.

In your theme, you can find the heart of your story. It’s your chance to share what you believe about the world, so take the time to identify and clarify your theme, and make sure your story supports it.

BanditsPeak150Chris Eboch writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages. In Bandits Peak, a teenage boy meets strangers hiding on the mountains and gets drawn into their crimes, until he risks his life to expose them. The Eyes of Pharaoh is an action-packed mystery set in ancient Egypt. The Genie’s Gift is an Arabian Nights-inspired fantasy adventure. In The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan girl in ninth-century Guatemala rebels against the High Priest who sacrifices anyone challenging his power. Her writing craft books include You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers and Advanced Plotting.

Learn more at www.chriseboch.com or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog. Sign up for her Workshop newsletter for classes and critique offers.

Chris also writes novels of suspense and romance for adults under the name Kris Bock; read excerpts at www.krisbock.com.

This article was originally published in the November 2011 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.



Make Your Characters More than Cardboard Cutouts

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by Kirt Hickman

Revising FictionYour characters must not be automatons. Your reader must buy into them as real people with real goals, real motivations, real relationships, and real emotions. They must have flaws as well as virtues. They must face internal struggles and external conflict. They must have past lives and prior relationships.

Use the tips below to individualize each of your characters. The traits you assign don’t have to be sensational. They can be small, even subtle, qualities. Your goal is to make each character a believable individual, not an incredible eccentric (unless, of course, you want him to be).

Give each character a unique set of physical traits.
These don’t have to be scars and tattoos, the obvious choices for truly unique identifiers. Furthermore, these traits need not be unique among all humanity, just unique within the context of your story. If you choose traits that are extraordinary, account for them in a credible way through the character’s background.

Give each character a unique style of speech.
Each character should have a unique combination of dialect and vocabulary, based upon his personality, level of education, and upbringing. Make your characters’ speech rhythms different enough that if a line of dialogue written for one character were attributed to another, that line would sound out of place.

Give each character a flaw that the reader can understand.
If you make your hero perfect, she won’t be credible. Even if you manage to make her believable without building in a flaw or two, your reader won’t be able to relate to her. Write about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Your hero’s flaws often provide a source of internal conflict overlaid upon the external struggle provoked by the villain. Ratchet up the tension in every scene by exploiting your character’s flaws to make her trials more difficult.

Give each character a special skill.
Special skills let your reader see into some aspect of life, some hobby or profession, that he might find interesting. Introduce your character’s skill early in the story, well before she needs it. Otherwise it will seem contrived—an afterthought you invented to get her out of whatever fix you put her into. Present your character’s skill at a technical level your reader can understand, and provide only information that is directly relevant to the events at hand.

Give each character a definable personality.
Is your character optimistic? Pessimistic? Grumpy? Funny? Flirtatious? Adversarial? What does she get fired up about? The environment? Animal rights? Poverty? Duty? Family? Honor? Love? Hatred? Vengeance? Let’s face it, without a definable personality and a passion for something, your character (your hero in particular) will be boring.

How does your character respond to frustration? This is an important decision. Your plot consists of obstacles and events designed to frustrate your character’s efforts. How will she react? Will she get angry? Resourceful? Determined? Depressed? Will she get even? Will she seek help? Will she pray? I’m not suggesting your character should respond to every situation in the same way, but people tend toward certain emotional reactions to frustration. Your character should too.*

Give each character an identifying line, mannerism, or prop.
Give your reader something to associate with your character besides a name. Establish identifiers early, preferably the first time you introduce the character. Exhibit the identifiers every time the character appears in a scene.

Give each character virtues.
This is particularly important for your hero. Generally speaking, the reader must like her. No matter how many internal demons your hero has to overcome, she must have at least one redeeming quality that your reader can latch onto and that makes him say, “I care. I hope she overcomes it all because she’s worth saving.” Give virtues to your other characters as well, including your villain. The villain rarely considers himself to be the bad guy. Whatever he does, he does for a reason. Sometimes it’s just for personal gain. Often, he believes he’s working toward some greater good, however warped that perception might be.

Know each character’s backstory.
You must know the details of your hero’s backstory in far greater depth than you’ll ever reveal in the pages of your novel. Your character’s past has made him the person he is today. His past will determine his emotions, attitudes, and actions. And it will justify them to the reader. His past will make him real.

Know how each character will change throughout the story.
The change your character makes, and the way that change comes about, is the character’s arc. Provide an arc for each major character, not just the hero, but make the hero’s arc dominant in the story.

*See also Nancy Kress, Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint from Writer’s Digest Books (2005).

WorldsAsunder125_2Kirt Hickman is a technical writer turned fiction author. His books include three sci-fi thriller novels Worlds Asunder (2008), Venus Rain (2010) and Mercury Sun (2014), the high fantasy novel Fabler’s Legend (2011), and the writers’ how-to Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness (2009).

This article was originally published in the July 2009 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.



An Interview with Author Susan C. Cooper

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Author and artist Susan C. Cooper worked as an environmental engineer for 17 years after earning a BS in biology, MS degrees in physiology and geological engineering, and a Ph.D. in physiology and biochemistry. Born and raised in Milwaukee, she now makes her home in Albuquerque. Her first book, The Truth About Mold, is in its third edition. Football Facts for Females, published in 2014, is her second book. You can find Susan on Facebook and her website FootballFactsForFemales.com.

FootballFactsForFemalesWhat is your elevator pitch for Football Facts for Females or If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em?
Starting with the basics and merging into more complex details such as strategy, this book combines information about football with humor to make it fun to read. It also includes a chapter about the importance of choosing a favorite team and players and how to do that.

What inspired you to write it?
I wanted to improve my relationship with my husband Randy, a relationship that was really quite good—except for football season. Many years ago, Randy was willing to learn about classical music for me; why couldn’t I do the same thing for him with respect to football?

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
I started writing the book nearly 20 years ago, when there was no Internet, only newspapers, magazines, and books—and all of which were written without humor and assumed the reader already spoke footballese.

I found an agent, who took all the humor out of the book (except for the glossary), and he found a publisher. But when Football for Dummies was published, my publisher lost interest. I shelved the manuscript temporarily, but it was always at the back of my mind. Then Randy and I went to Craig Duswalt’s RockStar Marketing Bootcamp—which has its own publishing house. I started working on the manuscript again, revising and updating it. My last hurdle was my own fault caused by my perfectionism. I didn’t want to send the manuscript in to be published until it was perfect. One of my new friends from the bootcamp pushed me to go ahead and publish it. I did.

One of the endorsements on the back cover is from football legend Joe Theisman. How did that come about?
Craig Duswalt is distantly related to Joe. He suggested it. So I sent Craig a copy of the manuscript, and he sent it to Joe. I also have a testimonial from sports newscaster Jim Nantz who wrote, “Super job, Susan! Kudos!” That came about because an elderly man at my church bought a copy for his daughter—and fell in love with it. He bought another copy to send to Jim Nantz with whom he sometimes corresponds. (I received this testimonial after the book had already been published, so it doesn’t appear in the book itself.)

I have received a couple of other testimonials that are important to me. One was from one of my reviewers who worked at the House of Football. Levi Doporto has played the game, coached it, and refereed games. He was amazed that a woman could write a book about football—and not sound like a woman. He learned a number of new facts about football, and every time he questioned something I wrote, he looked it up and found I was right. (How cool is that?!) The other important testimonial was from James Malinchak, a motivational speaker known as the “big-money speaker.” He’s friends with Joe Theismann and was also impressed with Football Facts for Females. He told me how much Joe loves the book.

What inspired you to become a writer?
I’m afraid I’m not the typical writer who just has to write or she will die. But I’ve been writing (and editing) for many years—grant proposals, a chapter of a book on rickettsial diseases as a ghost writer, translations of several scientific papers, two theses and a dissertation, articles for publication, reports and other documents as an environmental engineer, etc. Later, I wrote articles about restaurants for PrimeTime and articles about art and photography for The Pastel Journal. When I worked for the board of REALTORS in Albuquerque, I wrote two articles every week for the local real estate magazine, helped develop a course on mold, and wrote the first edition of my book about mold (The Truth about Mold), along with an online course for continuing education for REALTORS®. Writing was just something I did.

You’ve been a member of Toastmasters for about 30 years. How has participating in that organization helped you in your writing and publishing journey?
Toastmasters has helped me develop confidence and given me a better insight into using humor effectively (which I couldn’t use in any of the three editions of my mold book, but I certainly did use in my football book).

Who are your favorite authors and what do you admire most about their writing?
Janet Evanovich for her humor. James Patterson—I love any author who writes well enough to keep me from putting the book down. I love his short chapters and his ability to keep me reading because of the tension he puts into his chapters. And his productivity? Holy cow! Even though he has so many co-authors working with him, his novels are all consistent with those characteristics and interesting plots. And they’re never boring, even though he obviously uses a pattern for his novels.

Why did you decide to take the indie route to publication?
Opportunity led me to publish The Truth about Mold with Dearborn/Kaplan, a standard publisher that focuses primarily on books dealing with real estate and finances. For my book about football, I tried the whole mess of looking for an agent nearly 20 years ago, and I just didn’t have the energy to do that again. Football Facts was actually published by RockStar Publishing House, a kind of hybrid of indie and traditional publishing. They have everything available in house—you just have to decide what you want done, and then pay for it. It turned out to be an expensive proposition because the book was longer than what they usually publish, and has a lot of illustrations, an index, and a glossary. I am pleased with the overall product, but I’m looking forward to publishing at least one book via CreateSpace and not having to pay an arm and a leg for it.

TruthAboutMold180And now to The Truth About Mold, your 2013 book full of important facts about…mold. There’s a running joke at many SWW meetings where many writers (especially Jon Miller) make reference to mold when they’re plugging their own books. Many visitors to SWW meetings probably don’t understand the reference. Would you like to explain?
Somehow, I am able to make mold funny, even though mold really isn’t funny but can be a serious problem. I’ve done that enough at SWW meetings that a number of our members (like Jon) have picked up on it and embellish it. And I absolutely love that feedback, which they all seem to know and appreciate!

So far you have published only nonfiction books. Do you have plans for fiction projects? What are you working on now?
Randy and I are working together on a novel titled Moment of Death based on an idea he had years ago. Randy has been a sculptor for about 20 years. The main character in Moment of Death is—big surprise—a sculptor! One of his clients dies because of a freakish set of circumstances, teaching him a valuable lesson to use in his sculpting. We’ve been working on this novel for a long time and are hoping to finish it this year. I also want to write a book about mold for the public—one with humor in it but covering some important information that is often not talked about. After taking one of Betsy James’ courses, I discovered the snark in myself and that writing fiction is even more fun than writing nonfiction. Last year I wrote a science fiction novel. It’s something I still want to get back to and publish. I have also written other stories I’d like to develop; there are a couple of them I think have a lot of potential.

What advice do you have for writers still striving for publication?
“Don’t wait until it’s perfect, because it’ll never happen.” Obviously, it’s necessary to do a thorough job editing, but it’s too easy to get hung up on minor things and never get the job done, especially for someone anal with perfectionist tendencies, like me.

Also, beware of critique groups and how you deal with them. Yes, they can give you invaluable insights into your book, but remember it’s YOUR book and your ideas, not theirs. You have to make the decision as to what you want to say instead of allowing yourself to be led astray by the ideas of other members of your group.

And if you’re a writer who gets discouraged, like I do, I find it helps to read. I have books I’m reading on each of my two Kindles, my cell phone, my iPad, and my Galaxy tablet. (And I always have at least one “real” book going.) I’ve read good books and really bad ones through my Bookbub subscription, but even the bad ones are useful—”this is what a writer shouldn’t do, and here’s a good example of why.” Or “here’s something that works really well. Great idea.”

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



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