USING TROPES IN YOUR STORY
Okay, this is directly inspired by a thread I saw on the Absolute Write Water Cooler forum the other day. I have several threads in there that I like to browse, besides the new stuff section (which includes everything), much of which I have no interest in. When something catches my eye, I might go to it and make a comment and never see it again, because I have no idea what thread it was in, even though the title of the forum it’s in is right there in the title of the thread along with the subject (hey, I don’t catch everything). I often never see any of the responses to mine because they get buried with other stuff by the time I visit the site again. Oh well…
Then again, there are my usual haunts which include Horror, Fantasy/Science Fiction and Thriller (whatever). I visit each pretty regular just to keep up with what’s going on in the genres for which I write. Anyone remember me talking about keeping up with your genres and doing your research?
Wayell…the thing is that I rarely read fantasy or science fiction because frankly, I don’t really like what’s out there. On the other hand, I love to read horror but rarely see it in the bookstore. Hence, I have to result to Absolute Write often to keep up on what’s going on in the genres. At least with horror (icky bug), I do get to read one on occasion. On the other hand, I have a plethora of fantasy and science fiction novels at my fingertips but my eyes glaze over when I’m in the bookstore. I often check the rather hefty section and look at all the titles. However, after checking the covers, book blurbs and leafing through the pages, I just don’t get that spark, that kick that compels me to try them out, at least I haven’t in a long time.
So, back to the gist of this conversation drawn from the ether. Tropes.
WHAT’S A TROPE?
A trope is a well-worn premise that’s often considered over-used in a story. For instance, a pauper that’s really a prince. You know, the old poor handsome (or beautiful), dirty street guy or gal that through trials and tribblations discovers he or she’s actually the prince or princess of the kingdom.
Elves, dwarves and orcs in fantasy. What makes these characters really tropes is when they all appear and act exactly stereotypical.
In romance, the “brother and sister” that are extremely attracted to each other, but know it can never be until they find out they’re not related.
In a murder mystery, the butler did it.
As Jimmy Durante probably never actually said, but gets credit for anyway, “I got a million of ‘em!”
WHY ARE TROPES BAD?
First off, tropes are bad because of the boredom factor. In this thirty-second attention span society (and I’m only generalizing here), people want something different.
Even if you run across someone who by a freak accident, has never read this particular trope before in literature, they’ve probably seen it on television or in the movies.
Like with anything, if done badly or just mediocre, it might as well not be done at all.
HOW CAN YOU MAKE TROPES GOOD?
It’s all in the telling or (gag) showing. It’s like every plot has been done a million times before. The difference is in the telling, in the voice, in the way you show it that makes it unique. When you put your own twists on it, you make it a unique story. This is when you take that well-worn trope and make it your own.
Okay, let’s take the pauper that’s really a prince trope in fantasy. Let’s say that in the end, though the character finds out the truth, they turn it down because they want to marry the peasant. They give it all away for love.
Hey, wait a moment. That’s been done like a thousand times as well!
How about this.
They give it all up for love, but by a twist, they don’t have to because the rules changed. They can be the prince or princess after all!
Hey…sorry been done as well!
How about this.
They give it all up because they don’t want the hassle, tell the lover to take a hike and go away with their good buddy to party away in the night!
The thing is, you can still use any of the above scenarios, the well-worn or the unique one. It’s all in the telling.
VOICE IS THE KEY
When you get down to it, since just about everything has been done at one time or the other, there’s very little ground that hasn’t been covered. Therefore, if you look at it that way, everything is a trope to someone. With that in mind, the key is your voice.
If all of this is overwhelming, it all boils down to following your muse.
Follow your muse and see what comes out in the wash. The key element is that when you’re writing, do not try to copy anyone else!
If you follow that simple rule, it’s almost a guarantee it’ll come out in your voice. If not, well, that’s where the editing and rewrites come into play. The thing is, if you’re a writer, you should know all about that by now…or you’ll learn it soon enough.
A trope is not necessarily a bad thing. Using one or many like everyone else can be. What you need to do is put your own voice, your own twist into them. Make them your own and you should be okay.
Happy writing!
PROLOGUES
Prologues have come up time and time again in discussions, not only in my writer’s group, but in the various forums that I check out. Time to discuss it once again.
The big no-no for a long time at the writer’s conferences amongst agents and publishers were prologues. Some agents said absolutely not, while others kind of shrugged their heads and gave wishy-washy answers, leaving their take more ambivalent. Over the years, things have backed off a bit. While some agents, to this day, absolutely despise prologues, more and more are willing to consider them under certain circumstances.
THE FIRST PAGE READ
To understand why agents and publishers don’t like prologues, let’s take a look at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference’s very popular special event, which we now have as a regular happening, the First Page Read.
This “contest” that isn’t really a contest is where for a $5 donation (that goes to the student sponsorship program), attendees can submit the first page of their novel, short story or whatever. They can submit as many first pages as they want for $5 apiece. The pages are randomly selected and read at lunch on Friday and at dinner time until time runs out, usually an hour. If you’re “lucky” enough to be selected, a panel of agents and/or publishers will listen while it’s read and shown on a large screen. They’ll raise their hand the moment they’d stop reading.
After either everyone raises their hand, or the narrator gets to the end of the page, whichever comes first, the panel each gets a chance to say why they did or didn’t raise their hand.
There can be many reasons why they raise their hand, but the biggest reason is the author starts with backstory and nothing happens on that first page.
I repeat: Backstory and nothing happens on the first page.
A BIG REASON WHY AGENTS AND PUBLISHERS HATE PROLOGUES
When these people sift through hundreds if not thousands of manuscripts and writing samples a month, they usually get the start of each story. Right?
When an author sends the prologue and the first few chapters, which is of course, the start of the book, what often happens with the prologue?
The prologue starts with backstory! Nothing happens! The prologue is a setup that doesn’t need to be there. There’s no action, nothing that can’t be told later by other characters.
Now, think back on the first page read. What do you think these agents and publishers do when they see Prologue plastered across the top of the page and then nothing happens?
Sure, it’s bad enough when it says Chapter 1, or just as bad, it just starts with no heading at all and nothing happens. However, they just as often see Prologue or did for a long time. It’s hard not to develop a bias.
PROLOGUES ARE NOT ALL BAD
As many of you know, I read mostly thrillers and icky bug. They very often have prologues. In my own writing, I use prologues in both my adventure/thrillers and icky bug but don’t in my fantasy. It just doesn’t feel right in fantasy to me. It’s a matter of personal taste.
The prologue needs to be relevant. It needs to be something that cannot take place within the story without throwing the timeline or rhythm of the story out. It also needs for something to happen. It should be an action scene that takes place sometime in the past that explains or sets up something taking place in the timeframe of the present story. Or, it can be something that takes place right as the story begins to set it up. Pro-logue, something that previously happened, versus epi-logue, something that happens afterward.
Back to what I just said, the prologue needs to be relevant and should only be there if it’s the easiest or best way to tell that part of the story. It’s a tool just like plot devices. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s all in the execution.
One more thing, the prologue should be short and to the point. A bad one, in which I won’t name the author, was seventy pages long. That’s a bit excessive! It’s like, come on! Is the story from the back cover ever going to take place or what?
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t use a prologue. Just make sure you do it with a bang.
Happy writing!
HOW’S YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE?
Whether you have a book yet or not, if you’re on your way, you need to think about social media and getting a footprint in the ether. If you’re still in the writing stages, it isn’t as critical as if you’re marketing your manuscript. However, it’s a very useful to critical tool to move forward when you finally get published.
In these days where it’s up to the author to do their own marketing, regardless of whether you’re self-published or conventionally represented, you should not turn down any opportunity to get the word out. While some turn their noses up at the thought of social media and all the trappings, one should not ignore what could be a potentially lucrative avenue.
Also keep in mind that if you solicit to agents and publishers, one of the questions they ask is how you present yourself to the world. Social media is a big part of that.
THE NEGATIVES
Much has been said about the negatives of social media. You’ve heard it all before. “I’ve saturated Facebook and Twitter and never sold a book.” Bla bla bla…
While true, both sites (and others) may not prove fruitful to everyone, they have worked for most people to some degree.
You can spend an inordinate amount of effort and money for little return.
THE POSITIVES
Look at it this way. For a little bit of effort, why not at least try?
Even though you could use their built-in publicity blasting services and spend a lot of money, you don’t need to do that. I have a friend going through a bit of that now and to tell the truth, the results are mixed. I’m of the mind to save my money and just do the normal Facebook postings that I do now and live with the results. After all, I HAVE sold some books because of Facebook.
Most important, I’ve been able to keep in touch with fans that way.
I spend a bit of time, sure, but it’s all free time and costs me nothing but time.
Think about that. You can reach a lot of people through social media in a few minutes of effort.
Or, you can print up hundreds of flyers, at a substantial cost. Then drive around town, or to far off places. I mustn’t forget: try to find venues that’ll let you post your flyers without taking them down as soon as you walk out the door.
Do the math.
With social media, you can literally reach around the world at the click of the mouse.
DON’T IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE!
Social media isn’t the cure-all for the book marketer! Of course, you must pursue other avenues. Social media is just another tool in the box. However, it shouldn’t be dismissed as another computer-phobic bugaboo to be relegated to the button-happy teen crowd either. Social media is a part of the modern world and while some authors have successfully ignored it and done well, that’s not to say you should also.
Happy writing!
CONTRASTS
As many of you know, I’m no big fan of the omniscient point of view (POV). That being said, there are a few authors who’ve managed to hold said POV together and do it well enough that I’ve enjoyed the story well enough to finish their books, relatively stress-free. Others, not so much. Certain members of my writer’s group love omniscient. Lucky for me, and for our friendships(!), I’ve read some of their stories and I was quite pleased. Even though I may not have found them the easiest reads for me personally, the authors handled things and told their stories in such a way that I was still able to close the books with a smile on my face.
In the “Others, not so much” category, I’ll name a few names.
In a way, I grew up with omniscient, or what is really pseudo-omniscient. By that I mean, the author writes mostly third-person subjective, but head-hops and throws in occasional true omniscient sections without separating those areas with either scene or chapter breaks. It’s a true POV mishmash, but all in third-person.
NAMING NAMES – WHEN IT WORKS
To go way back, the most classic example is Lord Of The Rings. To tell the truth, as I sat on that stool in the maintenance shed at night, between watering runs at the Desert Aire Golf Course in Palmdale in the summer of 1969, just after I graduated, I had no idea what I was in for. I’d go out and set a line of sprinklers on the fairway, then run in and sit on that stool with one of those thick books, keeping my feet off the ground while the scorpions ran around on the floor. I had to suffer through those tomes, and at the time, I couldn’t figure out why they read so difficult. It wasn’t until forty-odd years later, after I gained my writing and editing chops that I went back and leafed through the omniscient prose and figured it out. Turns out, I loved the movies much more than reading the books, and I’m not alone in that.
When I first started writing, one of the authors that inspired me was Clive Cussler. I still read him every chance I get. The problem with him is that he’s a big head-hopper. Back in the days of Raise The Titanic, his skill with mixing omniscient and third-person subjective worked and his fast-paced prose influenced me a lot. It hasn’t been until the last decade that I’ve noticed how much he does this mix, but with a skill that usually, but not always works. Many authors can’t pull it off.
NAMING NAMES – WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK
I don’t usually slam other authors and…you know what? I’m not going to here, despite what I said about Tolkein. I save that for my reviews on Amazon. I’ll just call this guy author X.
There’s a certain thriller writer that I have mentioned by name on this site once. I love his stories and have read every one of his books. I just bought his latest hardback and I did a three-star review. To tell the truth, the story was worth five stars, the writing one star.
This is an author that writes pseudo-omniscient, but has no clue how to do it. He has no finesse whatsoever. The POV shifts from character to character within the same scene, paragraph, and sometimes even within the same sentence! It was a rare thing when he’d stay in one character’s head for an entire page. In fact, at the end of the novel, I was just rooting for the story and none of the characters. There were so many characters, I had no idea who the main protagonist was, despite what the back cover said. In the end, it didn’t matter because I had no emotional investment in any of them. I just wanted to see how the story ended.
To add more fuel to the fire, the author’s notorious bad grammar, syntax and you name it were there as well. The editors did little more than spell check.
In the end, instead of closing the book with a smile on my face, I closed it with a sigh of relief. I wanted to finish it to find out what happened, but I had to suffer to get there.
Then I picked up a book by F. Paul Wilson (I am naming names here!), and it was such a breath of fresh air, it was like I slipped into another world and breezed through his story in no time at all.
WHY?
Wilson’s book was solid third-person subjective with no head-hopping. When he shifted POV, he either changed scenes or chapters. I always knew who was doing and thinking what. The prose was clear and distinct and the grammar, syntax and prose were very professional. This author knows how to leave a legacy!
Okay, I don’t like omniscient, but I accept that some people find their voice in that style. Fine. However, if you’re going to write that way, at least try to do it right.
I cannot understand why author X insists on writing with such a crappy style, book after book, with almost no editing, and thinks chaos is the way to reach people. Sure, he has his fans and sells enough books to get a publisher to go the hardback route with him. My question is how much further he could go if he’d get off his butt and learn to write coherently.
I can’t be the only one that finds that type of writing frustrating and almost unreadable. In fact, I don’t, based on the Amazon reviews. However, that makes no difference at all.
Oh well…
If you want to write omniscient, at least make an effort to do it right.
Happy writing.
INSPIRATION – WHERE DO YOUR IDEAS COME FROM? – UPDATE
This will be the third time I’ve re-visited this article. Why? Because inspiration is critical to every writer. It’s key to what we do. Without inspiration, we’d have nothing to do! It doesn’t matter whether we write fiction or non-fiction, something has to inspire us to pick up pen or keyboard and start the process. Something has to drive us to create a word picture for someone else to read, or even for ourselves to re-read once we’ve finished it.
If you’re of the reality-based bent, you’ll want to go for non-fiction. Maybe you have an interest in something scientific. Maybe you want to write about some famous or infamous person. Maybe you want to write about a subject near and dear to your heart, some passion that you think the world needs to know about. Something has inspired you to do that, something gave you that drive to put the word out!
If you’re a fiction writer, you want to make stuff up. It doesn’t matter the subject, whether literary or genre, you have something to say. Something inspired you…something compelled you to put it down in words.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
In my case, I’ve told it twice already on this web site. For a brief review, here is the gist of it:
I’ve always had a great imagination. That was evident early on when one day, I was walking home from kindergarten. Yes, back in the 50’s, it was normal for kids to be able to do that, even in the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood where we lived for a short time. I drew something in class I had yet to name. Some of the mothers saw me proudly flashing my fine work of art. They stopped me at the end of the cul-de-sac as I cut between houses. They gathered around and admired my crayon scribbles.
“What is that, Freddie?”
I thought a moment and then it hit me. “It’s a polka-dot sewer!”
My mom, who was waiting for me by the front door, heard the peals of laughter. She walked down from the house to investigate.
I don’t remember anything else about that day. It was, however, the start of my illustrious career of telling tall stories. Not long after that, during show and tell, I told the class how my sister went down the drain after bath time. Somewhere, I have a note about that on one of my report cards.
Now, take comedians. A well-used and very true-ism from stand-up is that all a comedian has to do is watch the news. Their material writes itself. True?
Take the presidential campaign. From both sides, the parties are making enough gaffs to keep comedians happy until the elections. Then, whoever gets in office will be the next target.
What about writers?
Taken from what I read, thrillers for instance, with all the terrorist attacks around the world and within our own borders, writers have a gold mine of inspiration.
How about romance writers (which are a big thumbs down for me, but go figure). Maybe soap operas, or celebrity romances, or just life in general.
Westerns? How about the old movie channels on cable that show westerns all day and night. I’m sure there’s plenty of inspiration from that!
THE ODDEST LITTLE THINGS
The big ideas are one thing, but say you’re already in the middle of your big idea. Or, you may still be thinking on that, maybe with several possibilities, but are pondering ideas you can incorporate into your story.
As a true writer, the world is an open book. Keep in mind, I’m talking mainly about fiction writers for this.
Everyday life can provide infinite inspiration to color your world. Just walking down the street and observing people can provide you with a wealth of ideas. My infamous example from a while back, a trip through the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland sparked my imagination. Chatting with friends and family. You name it. The oddest little things can inspire ways to color and enhance your world.
Another thought derives from what we used to love to do in Spain, especially in downtown Madrid back in the 70’s and 80’s. We loved nothing better than to sit in an outside tasca (that’s a Spanish bar) on a busy street and watch people go by. You’d see some of the most fascinating things.
When it comes to non-fiction, that’s a tougher call. Then again, your inspiration is facts. The more facts you get, the more ways you can enhance your world…your subject. All I can say is that the more colorful or less dull you make your non-fiction work, the more likely people will get your message…your point. If you just want to get the word out and don’t care who you appeal to, go for it. However, if you want to appeal to a wider audience, even a little bit, how about adding a bit of color or pizazz without being so dull about the subject? A little inspiration in stating the hard cold facts would be nice. That’s where inspiration can really help.
The oddest little things can make all the difference.
Happy writing!
CUTTING CORNERS
I participate in several writing forums on the net, and I glean lots of goodies from the different threads that come up. Many of them give me inspiration for these very articles. Something that comes up time and time again is cutting corners in the writing process. I see a lot of questions come up about authors (or I should saw writers and this point) having difficulty with certain parts of their story. Show not tell, for instance. How about point of view? Dialogue tags? Passive voice. All the classics.
It really annoys me when I see feedback from other writers and sometimes authors (you should know the difference by now) telling them it’s okay to let things go and move on. That’s sounds a bit extreme but I’m not done. There’s more to it than that. I’m not about to give an absolute without a bit more detail.
WHEN TO LET GO
Especially in the early stages of writing, a writer, even an author can get too hung up on the details. If you concentrate too much on being nit-picky, you can very well lose the muse. On the other hand, the more experience you get, the fewer of those details you’ll have to deal with through sheer attrition. The cleaner your initial prose will be. There are certain writers that never get it. They’re just plain terrible and never really learn the craft. They can create a good story, but the mechanics they leave up to a very tolerant editing staff. Unfortunately, I see some of these authors in the marketplace, in fact one I’m reading right now. Without mentioning that name, or a few others, there are those in the science fiction and thriller genres (that I know of specifically) with editing staffs that aren’t that good!
Then there are those writers and authors always striving to better themselves and hone their craft. The more they write, the more they learn, the better their drafts become.
However, in the interest of following your muse, getting the flow out, you sometimes need to stop fretting over the details and get the story down. Worry about fixing the details later. When you get to a sticking point with mechanics, stop writing and get hung up trying to get the POV right, or worrying about tell, then go to the net or a bunch of other writers somewhere and get a bunch of different answers, you’ll probably forget what you were trying to do!
Stop! Get back to writing and worry about it in the first or later edits. Geez! Let go.
THE ADVISORS
Okay, here I am, right in that category. I’m giving you my two cents on what to do. So are a lot of others on forums, at writer’s groups and everywhere. Are we all right, wrong, in-between?
I look at it this way. It’s best to do it right the first time. Period.
Others will say, “but what is right?”
What I can say is there are not too many absolutes, but there are some. Cutting corners isn’t one of them.
CUTTING CORNERS
The one piece of advice that really gets to me is the standard, “It’s the story that counts.” Bull! I’ve seen too many great stories diminished by crappy writing.
Do you want your legacy to be a great story told through crappy writing? Do you want people to remember you as that guy or gal that had that great book that couldn’t write your way out of a parking ticket?
Cutting corners is a great way to do that. I often see advice on the forums where that’s the case.
“Oh, you can head-hop if the story requires it.”
“If you need to tell, go ahead. No story doesn’t have any tell at all.”
“Forget worrying about the tags. They’ll get over it.”
“Passive is okay.”
In only the vaguest terms are any of these true in my opinion, especially as an editor. In fact, I don’t tolerate ANY head-hopping, though that’s a huge trend now, especially in thrillers.
So, with people saying stuff like that and not qualifying it, new writers think they have a free hand, they cut corners and, especially if they’re self-published, well…with no editing oversight to keep them in line…you get the picture.
Setting aside head-hopping which I won’t compromise on, what this advice should be saying is:
“A little tell is okay. Showing is much better and more active, but do your best to show and if a little tell leaks though, don’t worry about it. If it’s a lot of tell, you have a problem.”
“Vary your dialogue tags. Use action tags if possible or imply them through the character’s speech. An occasional “said” is okay, but avoid using other words for them speaking. You don’t have to go to extremes.”
“A little passive is okay, but not a lot. Cut out as much as you can, use word search and reword into more active verbs. People often talk passive in speech, but the narrative should be as active as you can make it…not necessarily to the extreme of eliminating every single passive word.”
Cutting corners is not abiding by any rules and just going with the “all that matters is the story” philosophy.
Sorry, not going to “cut” it. Those who give advice otherwise and show “New York Times best seller” examples that are crap writing are doing every writer a disservice. As I like to say about music. Someone can record farting in a paper bag and make it a hit. That doesn’t mean it’s quality stuff. Novelties don’t stand the test of time.
Happy writing!
THE NOVEL
So often when I go to the bookstore, I’ll be browsing the shelves and see a book title followed by the cliché, “A novel.”
Ah, duh.
The book is sitting on the novel shelf, it’s more than a few hundred pages, it’s obviously fiction and not poetry. I think people can figure it out. Not only that, but the people in the store placed it in the fiction area. I’m sure they have plenty of other clues to know where to place it, like in their on-line image/inventory…whatever.
I never could understand that extra little marketing nudge, that extra stating-of-the-obvious.
MOST COMMON CHOICE
Though not for everyone, the majority of writers I run across are out to write a novel. We have plenty of memoir writers, a fair bunch that are into short stories, a few poets and some that are undecided. However, the majority are in for the long haul, to write a (or many) novels. Some have already completed several. I’m dabbling with number twelve and have started thirteen and fourteen, two starts that have been put on the back burner for quite a while now.
Why are novels in the majority?
To me, it’s the ability to really flesh out a story, to go into a vision for the long haul. While other forms can be satisfying, it’s the novel that gives me the most bang for my buck, and of course, I don’t necessarily mean that in a monetary way, and as of right now, that still isn’t much of a factor!
WHY?
One big reason for writing novels is simple. Go to the bookstore. What do you see on the shelves?
I rest my case.
As I mentioned in the first section, the novel is where you, the writer, get to flesh out your story, get to go into detail, get to explore the world you create. Where in a short story, whatever form it takes, you’re limited with every detail, in a novel, you have room to stretch, to complicate things, to add more details.
Back to the first point I made here, novels are also where all the money is.
Something else to think about. Not every story can be told in so few words.
LITERARY OR GENRE?
This is the age-old question every writer faces when they start out. Some never quite figure it out until their work is finished and they show it to others. It may be someone else that tells them what they end up with.
I prefer, and highly recommend, that you, the writer, know what you’re doing before you start. I say this so you have a specific focus. It just saves time and energy in the long run. Then again, this is no absolute.
On the other hand, what’s wrong with just writing whatever comes out of your head to see what you end up with? Well…this unfocused and unplanned approach may create something new and unique, but it also may create a mess that you cannot end up using in the long run. I’ve seen these experiments far more often than not. Most of the time, these writers have had to start over again from scratch with a new and more focused approach. While they earned plenty of experience writing, they also spent a good bit of time and energy accomplishing nothing they could use.
The majority of writers have some idea ahead of time what they are interested in writing.
In my case, I always knew I wanted to be a genre writer because that’s what I liked to read. I had no interest in literary reading or writing. For my first stab at novel writing, I chose science fiction/thriller. True, it was a mishmash of genres. However, it fit in with what I was reading at the time (which was that exact mishmash). When I actually finished it, knew I could do it, I found my muse. Though I might’ve taken that story, tweaked it and used it (in this case, severely tweaked it), I ended up shelving it and moving on to another project. If things had turned out different, I could just as easily have gone back and hashed The Cave out and maybe perfected it. In the end, I was more interested in other genres. The Cave proved to myself that I could write a novel. It opened the door.
I chose genre.
Are you the literary type? Are you the people versus plot driven type? I’ll tell you that when you look at the book section in most of the popular magazines, you’ll find the majority of books represented are literary. Genre fiction is looked down upon as trash, or at best, “summer beach reads,” not to be taken “seriously.” Therefore, when you do happen to see genre fiction in the popular magazines, it’s only by the top tier authors and only once in a while at best.
Literary might be the way to go for some of you.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people that write genre fiction.
HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO GET PUBLISHED?
Hah! Not to be a big dent in your expectations, but that’s the million dollar question. This applies to every written form. The agent/publisher search is all part of the game, the never-ending search, the albatross on every writer’s shoulder.
It’s usually a bit easier for short story writers. Why? Because of contests, writer’s groups and knowing people. There are more opportunities to slip a short story into an anthology somewhere, somehow, than to get someone (a publisher) to invest in an entire novel without you footing the bill. It’s simple numbers.
Therefore, though you’d like to just sit back and write and let the world find you, you’re going to end up spending half your time writing, and the “bigger half” of your time trying to get the damn thing published! Oh, let’s not forget, if you do manage to get your novel published, you’ll have to spend a much bigger half, more than the other two halves combined marketing the thing!
Oh, but that’s another story!
Happy writing!
POETRY
I’ve never got poetry. It’s one of those things that just leaves me flat. Unless the words are dirty or funny (as in song lyrics), my eyes glaze over after a few words or lines. However, that’s just me. The same goes for quotes. Oftentimes, I read thrillers that start with some obscure quote from so-and-so. If I read the entire quote, I usually end up scratching my head, and go “whaaa?”
That’s the same feeling I get off poetry. It just doesn’t sink in.
Then again, I can’t help it. It’s the power of words, but that magic only works on some people. Only some people get it.
THE MARKET
Thought there is a market for poetry, poetry is a tough sell. I’ve been to a lot of writer’s conferences as those of you who have been with me for a while know. I have plenty of experience and anecdotal evidence to back this up. I’ve witnessed up-and-coming…aspiring poets attempting to pitch their poetry to agents, only to more often than not, get a cringe, or a polite no.
Why?
Poetry is a niche market, like icky bug (horror). It’s another one of those bastard children of the publishing industry. There are people that love it, but the big five usually don’t think it’s “marketable enough” for mass sales.
In the case of icky bug, which if it’s lucky enough to make it into stores at all, is usually mixed in with general fiction. Poetry is more widespread, though like icky bug, I think it too, is mixed in with fiction, though I may be wrong. What I do know is that you’re more likely to find it on the shelf. You’re also more likely to get published in a collection with other poets, or, as part of one of those (cringe) contests. Now, if you have enough pull, you may rate a full-fledged stand-alone book.
FORMS
Without going into detail (which would really show my ignorance), I can say poetry comes in many forms. Some of them are (thanks Wikipedia):
Sonnet: From the middle ages which are complex in structure.
Shi: From classical Chinese. Rhyming is obligatory.
Villanelle: Made of nineteen lines, five triplets with a closing quatrain.
Tanka: A Japanese unrhymed poem with five sections totaling 31 units in a 5-7-5-7-7-7 pattern (yeah, I’m scratching my head at that one, too).
Haiku: A Japanese unrhymed poem with three sections totaling 17 units in a 5-7-5 pattern.
Ode: From ancient Greek. Three parts. Okay, Bobby Gentry comes to mind.
Ghazal: From Arabic. Five to fifteen rhyming couplets.
As you can see, poets have a lot on their plate to consider. None of it means much to me. I’ll stick with the humorous or dirty song lyrics from Frank Zappa or AC/DC. That’s about the limit of my poetry interest. Plus, despite the descriptions above, I have no idea which form song lyrics fits into. Go figure.
However, for those of you that take this seriously, you know far more than I do about this subject. This is a fascinating and contemplative matter to you and to fans of the genre.
CREATING
I see no difference in creating poetry as opposed to creating a short story or a novel. You, the poet, have to, or should know A and B. Your poem has to have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Am I right?
Maybe not. Maybe that’s not it at all.
On the other hand, your poem has to have some kind of point. It has to convey a message. The language you use must convey a thought, something your audience can understand.
Is the purpose of your poems to convey half-thoughts?
Is it to convey half-feelings?
Is it to convey half a mood?
When you sit down to write (or type) your blast of consciousness, can you sit back and know you conveyed what you wanted to convey?
Or, are you just raising questions? Is your purpose not to have a beginning, middle and end?
Poetry may not always be the same as a complete story like what regular story writer’s do. Poems can be abstract thoughts, feelings, sparks of ideas.
It could be that your collection of poems, put together, create a collective idea. Maybe they don’t at all. Maybe they just generate an atmosphere and that’s their whole purpose.
Therefore, you still have to know A and B, the beginning and the end. However, the beginning and the end might not be the same thing as a complete story. Maybe A and B are not a story at all. They’re nothing more than a question. Maybe they’ a feeling. Maybe they’re an emotion.
Looking at the best and most popular poets, what does their poetry do? What are their goals? What do they accomplish? Do they have an A and a B?
Regardless of what you want to call it, your poetry has to have some sort of plan. It can’t just be a bunch of words. It must have some sort of organization…it must have a point. If it has no point, you’re wasting your reader’s time. They’ll not appreciate it.
You, the poet, have to think about that when you sit down to put those words on paper or in the ether.
Happy writing!
SHORT STORIES
For most writers starting out, the best way to gain your chops is with the short story. In fact, that’s almost always how a writer gets into this passion. You have to start small and work your way up to the novel form, and very few go the other way around.
Think about it. You’re pretty much forced to write short stories in school. To the majority of people, this is torture. However, to those of us who consider writing fun, maybe not right then, but somewhere down the line, a switch clicks on…a trigger pulls and we discover we have an inclination for telling (or…gag…showing stories). There you go.
WHAT IS A SHORT STORY?
Hah! More like what isn’t a short story? Obviously a novel isn’t. That’s about it. In many ways, a novelette and novella are short stories, but not by the definitions in Wikipedia. If we go by that standard, a short story is, by word count, 7,500 words or less.
Personally, anything less than a novel (under 50,000 words – by Wikipedia, it’s 40,000 words) is a short story, despite what is called novellas and novelettes. Why complicate things? Then again, we as well as publishers have to put everything into a category for marketing purposes, so I suppose I should also, since I’m trying to keep accurate information going here.
Therefore:
A novel is over 40,000 words.
A novella is 17,500 – 40,000 words.
A novelette is 7,500 to 17,500 words.
A short story is under 7,500 words (this includes flash fiction which is much less than that, down to 50 words or even 140 characters).
Most of that I copped right out of Wikipedia, who copped that out of various other sources. Some of you will probably disagree with those numbers and I don’t blame you.
All I can say is it’s like the Pirate Code – “Guidelines.” “Arrrgh!”
So…back to the short story. To put it in a nutshell, the short story has just enough beef to get out a thought, but it doesn’t let you ramble. Got it?
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The difference between a short story and flash fiction is that you have a bit more room to develop the plot, so to speak. However, you don’t have that much more room. You have time for a single basic plot but you have to keep one thing in mind, above all others, and this is something I’ve preached over and over again…
It must have a beginning.
It must have a middle.
It must have an end.
Without those three things, you have a mess.
The short story is a format to get out a thought, something you have a little space to develop quickly. Within that word limit, you have time for a bit of description, a bit of narration and a lot of movement. The key is movement. You have to move from A to B with no waste, no muss and no fuss. If you hesitate to ramble, you’ve just busted your word count.
TECHNIQUES
I’ve written dozens upon dozens of short stories. Many of them are in print right now. How do I do it? Probably the key to my technique is that the first thing I do is figure out A to B right off. Before I even type (I don’t write with a pen or pencil, my writing sucks) a single letter on screen, I hash out in my mind where I want to start and where I want to end. The same as I do with my novels. I have to have a goal (by definition here, the plot) in mind or I’ll end up nowhere. I have to have the plot up front or I’ll be typing random thoughts and end up with a mess. Notice how I just repeated the same basic thing twice? I want to emphasize that point because it’s key to the short story or even a novel.
You have to know where you’re going, you have to know the whole point of what you’re doing or you’re wasting your time.
Once I know A to B I wonder if it’s worth going for something bigger. If not, then I go for the short format. I must mention right here that when I first started this passion seriously back in 1995 (not counting my first stab back in 1972 in Spain), I actually wrote a novel first. While I was writing that novel, I did a few short stories in the meantime. I did it sort of backward-simultaneously.
Anyway, with a short story, when I know A to B, I have an idea in my head where I want to go and what I want to do, so I just start writing. Since I can write almost as fast as I think (which is actually pretty slow), I can whip out a 5K short story in about an hour to an hour and a half, depending if I get interrupted.
Now, depending on what the word count is required (most short stories I’ve submitted are around 4K to 5K, mostly 4K), by the time I’m done, I’m usually fat.
EDITING
The key on the first blush is to get the story out. Don’t worry so much about writing it perfect the first shot, just get the idea down. Worry about cleaning it up later. Especially when you’re starting out, you aren’t going to get it done well anyway. You’ll learn so much during the editing, those techniques will come the more you write and edit.
Knowing the story is fat, I go back through and make changes, tweak this, take out that.
Then, since I’m in a writer’s group, I’ll read it to them. I usually get some great feedback. I don’t always take their advice, but I always take their advice seriously whether I use it or not. I do take seriously the forest-through-the-trees mentality. In other words, I’m too close to the story to see what I’m doing wrong.
While the original might be 6,500 words and the limit might be 4K, by the time I’m done I’ll have it trimmed within the limit even if I have to cut some sacred cows to make it fit. By sacred cows, I mean stuff I just wanted in there that in the end, won’t really impact the story. Okay folks, we all like to throw stuff in a story “juss cuz” we think it’s cool. However, when you look at it from a distance and a fresh set of eyes, well…that cool stuff may not be all that critical. This is when the chopping block is necessary.
The key elements are: Have I said what I wanted to say? Is the story improved or have I cut the nuts off what I was trying to accomplish?
This technique hasn’t failed me yet.
Give it a try.
Happy writing!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 