Musings Of A New Southern Man

Like any author who had the chance to sit in on one of his study sessions, I am a great fan of Donald Maass. He is the New York City agent who wrote "Writing the Breakout Novel" and "The Breakout Novelist," and his lessons are priceless. If you are a note taker, prepare to fill page after page with bits of wisdom. Which suggestion is best? There are several, but for me it is Maass' directive to think big. Think big in characters, big in scope, big in execution of the story line. If I want to boil it down to a cliche for being successful, it would go like this: Go big or go home. Just look at characters who seize our imaginations. Think of Hannibal Lecter. Think of James Bond. Think of Jack Reacher. Think of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and Jeffery Deaver's twin protagonists, Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance. Each is bigger than life in heroism, intellect or vicious intent. They are memorable. That's the key. I tweak Maass' advice somewhat when it

There is no greater basic lesson in writing than A.I.C. I believe the axiom is credited to Nora Roberts, the prolific romance writer, who said the most basic lesson for any writer is Ass In the Chair. You have to sit down, crank up the computer and do what you love to do, i.e. create. It must be a daily habit. All the other lessons revolve around this one. There are different answers to what qualifies as proper A.I.C. Some novelists sit and create for hours. I know Joe Lansdale spends just a couple of hours a day, and maybe three, and turns out maybe three pages. But those three pages are created, tuned and revised during that session. String together enough of those sessions and you have a novel, or a great short story, or a novella, and your revisions are already done. What works? To each his own. My own A.I.C. has been challenged at times. Two jobs takes a lot of time and energy, but I am getting better at forcing A.I.C. moments into my day. There are moments just like this one.

First, an apology. I was away for a few days to follow my beloved Oregon Ducks as they played in the Fiesta Bowl. They won big, so I am a happy man. But with that break in my background, it's back to the literary part of my life: It seems rather incongruous to say that a great way to write good fiction is to be true to yourself. Fiction and reality in close proximity? As far as making believable stories, I think it is one of the lessons I learned early in this venture. Let me illustrate with another author's story. John Hart, my favorite author, wrote two novels before he finally wrote a work that was published. I never got details, but I believe those first novels had heavy doses of military action. The common thread for those works? They didn't see the light of day either through self-publishing or a publishing house. Why didn't they work? John's background includes, among many things, his work as a lawyer. It doesn't include military service. His first wo

Joe Lansdale is an interesting read, and a more interesting person with whom to share a conversation. He is east Texas personified: blunt talking, a bit of bluster, good insights, wise in several areas. We don't see eye to eye on certain things, but I always respect Joe when he says something. I never respected him more than we chatted after one of his teaching sessions at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference last year. I asked Joe whether he read while he was writing novels, or did he put other authors aside so his own style wouldn't be tainted by someone else's voice? That was my mindset. I didn't want someone else's muse getting in the way of my creations. Joe was east Texas blunt in his reply: You are cheating yourself. The best way to become a great writer is to read great writing. Surround yourself with the works of those who deserve to be read. And I listened. I became a reading fool, polishing off a novel in one to two weeks (which is understandable wit