WRITING- LEARNING THE CRAFT
Since I just talked about paying for an editor, I felt it was time to revisit what it is to be a writer. I’ve brought it up in previous articles but thought it was worth another revisit/rehash/new discussion.
I’ve always said that if you have an inspiration, no matter what level you’re at with words, the only way you’re ever going to get anywhere is to get it down on paper/disk/whatever. Write it! With that being said, depending on your skill set, if you want it to go anywhere, you have to take it beyond the “See Tom run” phase and make it into something marketable.
I’ve run across many people who, without ever having written anything before (okay, very past-tense passive), create a brilliant first manuscript. Sure, it needs work, but they have writing skills that can be nurtured without starting from square one. Then I’ve run across the “See Tom run” crowd. They can barely put two sentences together, yet they write an entire manuscript and expect to get published within a month. Between those extremes is where most people fall.
It doesn’t matter where you are. If you intend to ever succeed in this passion, you have to learn your craft. That doesn’t mean you have to go to classes or buy a bunch of books on writing. It might, sure, but it could also mean lots of practice, attending writer’s groups, networking, borrowing books, paying attention, going to seminars or writer’s conferences, the internet.
The biggest thing I can tell you is that it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. I’ve seen where a lot of those people that pay for editing are impatient. They do not want to take the time to learn to write so they shove it off on an editor and pay them to do it. This sounds a bit harsh but there’s also a method to this madness. A perfect example is a family history or autobiography. It’s done that way all the time. These authors are not really writers. They’re often one-shot deals. Where I take exception is those that write fiction, want to call themselves authors, yet don’t want to learn the basics and pawn it off on their editor or a ghost writer to do all the work for them. That pisses me off. However, to each his own.
Someone with a great idea that wants to get it down on paper (or e-form) should write it down. If they want to make it marketable, they should learn the craft. That takes time and effort, especially for fiction. You’re creating a big lie. You have to make it believable and coherent and it must be written with good grammar and syntax. You can’t do that yourself. You have to have help even if you have the skills. The catch is whether you can get a conventional publishing deal or go the self pub route, either in print or e-pub or both. Whichever way you go, you have to have the skills. You can’t write “See Tom run” and expect a bevy of editors to clean up your mess every time, then sit back with your pipe and cap and sign autographs (the male version anyway).
Don’t go pointing fingers at what’s out there either. I know there is a lot of crap that’s being published. You’re shaking your head and going, “What? They published that? They put the ‘big machine’ behind that piece of crap?” However, the world isn’t fair and never was. That doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules and do what you want.
I’m currently reading a good story that’s part of a series. It is very well written and was published by a major house. However, their line editor did a crappy job. For a book of this stature, a really crappy job. It’s not the authors’ fault. At least he didn’t have to pay for it, but now his reputation is going to suffer.
If you go the self-publishing route (I’m talking specifically about fiction), that’s where you have to really worry about not only your skills, but how much you’re willing to pay to put a good product out there versus what you think you might make on it and how it will affect your reputation. This author can absorb a few hits because he has a great series backing him up and a big publisher. You, as a small self-pubbed starter don’t. You put out a poorly edited book, your shooting yourself in the foot. Remember the numbers as well as your skill level! Try to go conventional if you can, but if you must go self-pubbed, try e-pub first (it’s cheaper) but don’t you dare put it out there without a quality edit, whether you wheel and deal or pay for it. Either way, you have to learn the craft first or you’re wasting everyone’s time including your own.
Learn the craft. You’ll be better off for it.
THE PAYING FOR EDITING – SELF-PUBLISHING CONUNDRUM
I was at the racetrack last night and ran across one of our writer’s group members. After talking a bit about the race things inevitably turned to writing. The subject became paying for an editor. He was convinced the way to get ahead was to pay for a good quality editor.
I told him like I’ve told you before on this site that I consider paying for editing, if not in these exact words, amounts to self-publishing. As far as I’m concerned, any publisher worth their salt is going to have their own qualified and highly capable editors. If you have to buy your own up front, that’s self-publishing. On the other hand, if you’re going to pay big bucks to edit your work just to impress a decent publisher, only to turn it in to them and have them re-edit your work all over again, you’ve thrown that money down the toilet. I say that because despite you spending all that money to make the book perfect, the publisher is not buying it for being perfect, they’re buying it because they think they can sell it as a marketable story. What’s the difference? A marketable story can be full of flaws, but have a killer plot, characters and a cooperative author, where a perfectly edited story that sucks from an author that won’t listen won’t sell squat.
To me, many if not most people that look for editors for hire are not patient enough to read at writer’s groups (they may be too shy). I make an exception for those that may not have access to one for physical or logistic reasons. There are many great editors out there and they need to make a living. I know of several attached to our group. However, I also know that with a bit of patience, perseverance and a bit of effort, you can learn your chops, find others of like mind (if you live in a town big enough) and at least make your manuscript presentable enough to submit to agents or publishers.
Here’s another point. I’m a realist. I am thinking of self-publishing (yeah, I said those words) one of my icky bug novels. However, I’m only going for electronic self-publishing. No garage full of books, no overhead, no publishing fees. Very little startup cost. My outlay is going to be the ISBN fee, the epub fee and the artwork. The tricky part is the final line edit. Since I cannot edit my own work (remember forest through the trees?), I need someone else to do it for me. My mentor, Carol suggested a pro editor.
The problem is that the price versus my very likely profit, if any, is not worth the risk. I figure I’d have to lay out approximately $1,200 minimum for editing, publishing and artwork (if I do the artwork myself or hire a very cheap graphic artist). Say, that all works out. I put the book out there for the magic price of $2.99. What are the chances I actually sell that many books, from an unknown author? What are the chances I sell that many books in the icky bug genre, especially from an unknown author with little to no professional marketing, just word of mouth and whatever I can whip up?
You do the math and consider that when you think about hiring an editor. In that $1200 I threw out there, I’m figuring 90% of that cost is editing. I’m going to do my own artwork. However, if you want fancy artwork, you could add as much as $5,000 or more to that cost. $6,200 and still end up with maybe $200 in sales. Now we’re -$6,000. I’ve seen quotes of $800 to $5,000 or more for editing. Are you prepared to spend that kind of money to maybe get $200 in sales? Maybe you’ll do better, maybe not. Are you a mind reader? Can you predict the market? That’s what publishers do all the time. They’re gamblers, They gamble on you. If you fail they absorb all those costs. The difference is that those costs come out of the huge profits they make on their other authors that they make huge profits on. They can afford to take risks once in a while. You or I can’t afford it. At least I can’t. Do the math.
I’m not here to depress you, just to give you a dose of reality. Before you dig deep in your pocketbook for an editor, do what you can through other methods, write the best, most marketable story you can, and let a good publisher do the rest. Don’t try to do it for them!
On the other hand, if your intent is to write a family history, a small-run bio, or other limited-run non-fiction piece, self-publishing is probably the best way to go. If you’re still hell-bent on taking the risks, there are plenty of high-quality editors out there. I know a great publisher and some great editors!
ARE YOU A CONTRARY WRITER?
As a music lover, I would discover a new band and be blown away by one of their albums. Then I’d find either their second album or another, earlier one. To my great chagrin, it would be entirely different! What??? I really hate when bands do that. The same can be said for writers.
This is, of course, a very personal thing and should in no way influence you in your writing path. Yet, I have to bring it up because it could very well affect your audience and your sales. If you’re appealing to the highbrow crowd, or simply just don’t care, fine. However, if you have any inkling that money and sales may be in your future, you may want to read further.
One thing that attracts people to an author is what they like. When someone reads your work and likes it, they usually come back for more. Why would you shoot yourself in the foot by changing styles and slapping your audience in the face?
A few authors have pulled it off, though they usually write literary fiction and I am no fan of that. I avoid the form (I guess I’m not allowed to call it a “genre”) like the plague. Not to pick on literary authors, but they present the perfect example. Their stories are all over the place. Each book is different with a different subject, different characters, and even a different writing style. In a way, I admire these writers for completely following their muse. However, I look for consistent stories. That’s why I go for genre writers. Sure, I take a chance on new writers, but I can usually tell when a book looks like it’s going to be more than a one-off. I’ve made mistakes, such as The Ruins, by Scott Smith. It’s one of the worst books I’ve ever read. However, I usually don’t make mistakes like that.
As a fiction writer (non-fiction doesn’t count here), you need to develop an audience. If you get a book out there and it does well, you should follow up with something at least similar that your audience can latch on to. It doesn’t have to be a series, but it shouldn’t be so radically different that you alienate your readers. Call it branding?
I personally like series with a cast of characters that go on from book to book. Being a glass is half full person, I also don’t like when the author kills key characters off to make it more real. I hate that! I’m not reading these stories for reality. I’m reading them to escape the real world! If I want reality, I’ll go to the non-fiction shelf. Duh!
However, I’m not here to tell you what to write. I’m just suggesting ways not to alienate your audience.
If your whole thing is to kill off key characters, do it in every book because that is what your audience expects. Don’t all of a sudden stop doing it unless, of course, you run out of key characters! I would expect you have to keep introducing new key characters in each book to replenish the supply.
The point is that if you simply write a book, and people like it, then you abruptly change directions and write something else, you’re going to have to find a whole new audience all over again. Your rep may not carry you through the next novel. It’s better to stick with something your audience is familiar with so they have something to latch on to.
If you’re brave, or just don’t care, so be it. Keep your day job. I think I’ll stick with familiarity. That’s one reason I write multiple genres. I can follow my muse in each one, yet satisfy my desire to be consistent.
Another point. In my icky bug novels, each is stand-alone. None of them are series. They’re consistent in style, not substance. That’s still consistency. There are no carry-over characters or locations. There doesn’t have to be. What’s consistent is the style and tone.
As I like to say about AC/DC, I love them because they’re smart enough to avoid fixing something that isn’t broken.
Happy writing.
POV FREE FOR ALL
I just finished another adventure/thriller from an author I used to like. I say, used to like, because though he may have done some head-hopping in his past books, in this one, he throws away any pretense of structure and went for total chaos.
Though there’s supposed to be a main hero in the story, it’s told through the eyes of whoever happens to be performing any action. That means as things progress from paragraph to paragraph, regardless of scenes, chapters or sometimes within a paragraph, the POV shifts to the inner thoughts of the character performing the action. That would include even minor characters including, as the author likes to call them, the “Goons,” nameless bad guys. What???
This seems to be a growing trend, even from my very myopic view of reading material. I read horror, adventure/thrillers and mysteries for the most part, and never first person, so my choices are limited.
Head-hopping would not be a problem in first person, of course. Yet in third person it can be a huge problem. I have no idea how bad it could be in other genres. To the non-writer/editor/knowledgeable person, they may never notice the difference. What they may figure out is that they can make no emotional connection or investment with any one character. The story is a jumble of characters doing something. That’s exactly the feeling I got from this story.
The main character and his buddy were merely the glue holding the rest of the story together. As soon as the main characters ran into someone else, the author jumped right out of their heads and left them in the dust until they did something else which might not have been for several pages or even a chapter.
Am I looking too deep into this? Am I too hung up on rules to truly enjoy a book that doesn’t follow them?
I think back on the books where I liked the stories but there was just something about the writing that bugged me. I mentioned this before in the past few articles on POV. These rules came about for a purpose. To make for better reading. When there’s no character to concentrate on, who do you root for? When there are several good guys, even though you may know the number one good guy, why should you care so much about him when there are plenty of other good guys with their own stories to care for? Good guy #1 may be driving things, sort of, but when the author keeps leaving him in the dust to dive into the heads of good guy #2, #3 and #4 all the time, why should you care about #1?
The same could be said for the bad guys in this story. Bad guy #1 didn’t even know what was going on until the last quarter of the book. His henchmen came along by accident, were dispatched by the heroes before it even came to bad guy #1’s attention. He never even met or confronted any of the good guys face-to-face at the end. Huh?
Despite all, I enjoyed the story, just wasn’t thrilled with it. Will I buy the next one? I don’t know. Does this book sound like something you’d want to read? I’ve come across two adventure thrillers now with this head-hopping style. I hope it isn’t the trend of the future. If these guys think they have to know the rules before they can break them, they certainly didn’t do their homework.
WHERE IS YOUR FANTASY WORLD?
One of the reasons fantasy and science fiction get lumped onto the same shelf is that the worlds often seem to be on another planet. The fantasy world doesn’t match any known map of our Earth. With the advent of such modern subgenres as urban and medieval fantasy, that’s no longer always the case.
In urban fantasy, for instance, the setting may take place in modern day American or Jolly Olde’ Englande’. For historical or medieval fantasy, it could be 15th century Europe. The only difference is the fantastic or magickal elements that are incorporated into the otherwise vaguely (or specifically) real locales.
On the other hand, for a huge chunk of fantasy in general, the worlds are set in completely different worlds with no bearing on Earth except there are distinct features making these worlds similar enough to Earth to make them not alien, as with spaceships, advanced technology, and of course, travel between planets. That’s a prime difference between fantasy and science fiction. The plots are still basically the same. People, whether human, alien or monster, at odds with each other in some way.
The whole point of this article is to ask how you approach your world. If it’s set on Earth, whether present day or in the past, how do you handle the reality versus the fantasy? Since you’re restricted to real places, how do you keep the fantasy settings aligned with the real places? Do you fantasize the real places as you do with the inhabitants, or do you keep that side of things strictly real? Do you have a mix?
When you’re creating a unique world from scratch, you aren’t restricted by any kind of reality. It’s your world and you set your own rules. The only caveat is that you can’t go too far off on a limb and still expect it to be believable, even in fantasy, unless you set the world up that way right from the start and stick with those rules. I’ve talked about this before. If all the rivers run uphill, there needs to be a reason why and it has to make some kind of sense, even fantasy sense.
Going back to a real world fantasy setting, you can stretch only so far to keep things “real.” I think back to Harry Potter and the train station. Though we know it’s in London, at least in the movie, they never say which train station, that I can recall. I’ve actually been to Victoria Train Station in London and the one in the movie looked similar, at least back in the 70’s similar, and Harry and the gang could’ve easily walked into walls and shifted to the magickal station to take them to Hogwarts without anyone of the regular populace being any the wiser. That was proper use of a real setting and switching to her fantasy world. Maybe in the book, the author specifies which train station it is, but it’s a minor detail that could be picked apart by a detail oriented reader.
If you are going to use the real Earth, you need to be careful and make sure your ground rules are set and follow them just as strictly as you would in a completely made up world, but even more so because you have a double whammy. Not only can people call you on breaking your fantasy rules, they can call you on real place settings.
In Meleena’s Adventures, I chose a fantasy world. I made up everything from scratch. The planet is Earth-like and that’s it. It’s populated with flora and fauna found on Earth as well as icky bugs never found here. On top of that, there are mutant icky bugs created by magick users in a war conducted in the underground city of Slab. These creatures escaped and have now been running amok and spawning for centuries. It’s a much more dangerous world since.
Wherever you world is, take the time to consider these things so you don’t trip over them later. It will be well worth it in the end. Your readers will appreciate it too!
POV ANOTHER NEW TWIST
At our writer’s group meeting a week ago Monday, one of our readers presented a novelized fairy tale. Fairy tales could fall under the category of fantasy, but in reality, they’re geared toward children, or at least very young adult. I’m taking that as the definition for this discussion.
After she read, we were giving our critiques. Her story is pretty good and I only found a few things with grammar. However, the biggest problem was that she head-hopped between two characters. I pointed this out and one of our members, Gregory Kompes, who I highly respect, spoke up. He’d attended a romance writers conference somewhere (I can’t remember if he said where) and during a panel discussion (I think), they talked point of view in fairy tales.
Despite the usual rules for grammar and structure, the consensus was that specifically for fairy tales, it was okay to head hop between characters if done well. Many thousands of fairy tales have been sold and told using this style so it has been generally accepted that head-hopping is okay in this instance.
I was surprised to hear this, but agreed to keep my mouth shut at least as far as this reader’s fairy tale is concerned. However, I will not let that rule pass for any other genre! Just because it is a pass for fairy tales doesn’t mean it will work for more complex stories.
Keep in mind the relative simplicity of fairy tales and the audience. Also consider the usual length. In the case of this reader, she’s making a novel or novelette out of it.
Just because it works for one narrow example doesn’t mean you can throw away the rules for everything else! Keep in mind my post a few weeks ago about breaking all the rules. That author had a killer story that was ruined by his incessant head-hopping that made the story almost unreadable at times.
At the meeting yesterday, the discussion came up again about rules. Gregory said that at that conference the discussion on POV and other rules was that every rule could be broken if they were done well. Of course, that made me wonder if everything I’ve learned and all the effort and practice I’ve put into honing my skills has been for nothing. If I even open my mouth to bring up something during a critiquing session, what’s the point? If all the rules can be broken, why bother saying anything at all?
Crappy writing is still crappy writing. Crappy writing can ruin a great story. I remember reading stories years ago, before I had a clue what any of these rules were. I knew there was something wrong with what I was reading, but I couldn’t put a finger on the problem. The story was cool and interesting, but it was so damn hard to read, I struggled or kept losing my place, or my mind kept wandering, or I kept mixing up who the characters were, or I got bored with certain sections and skipped them, or I got pissed off because the author kept spoiling the fun by revealing things.
Now that I know why, I could go back and define the problems. I could see why those books sucked, or why I couldn’t enjoy them as much as they deserved. They were poorly written!
When you hear stuff like the rules are made to be broken, don’t think you are that hot stuff that can throw out all the rules of writing and slap down a story on your hard drive (or paper) and expect to have a agent or publishers fighting each other to get a contract from you. Great story or not, the odds are that breaking the rules is going to get you into the reject pile as fast as they can flick their wrist.
Don’t sluff your lazy crappy writing off as your “style.” Do it right the first time.
CRITTERS IN YOUR FANTASY WORLD
I know many of you aren’t fantasy writers. This article will probably make your eyes glaze over. However, if you ever decide to one day take up the genre, maybe it’ll help you in some way. For those of you that are already entrenched in the subject, if this isn’t old hat and even if it is, read on.
For some sub-genres of fantasy, there are no critters (or icky bugs) in the story. In the intrigue style of fantasy, the story is all about people. The only difference is it’s set in a medieval type world which could be a different planet or our same basic Earth, for that matter, just in a fictional world. What might make it fantasy are a few mystical trappings rather than something overt. No need for monsters and mayhem.
For most other sub-genres at least some critters are to be found. Whether they’re the standard unicorns of Greek mythology, Elves, Dwarves or Orcs of Tolkein, or more exotic beasts out of the D&D Monster Manual, these icky bugs come from somewhere.
Some would argue that to make your world your own, you should make your own critters up from scratch. The other side of the coin is that if you’re writing a particular sub-genre, to comply with certain rules of that genre, you must utilize a certain number of mandatory beasties. If you break those rules, you throw the reader out of that reality and they’ll call you on it. I don’t necessarily buy that, but if you’re pitching your story as a particular style, you’d better stick to it.
The point is that no matter what sub-genre you are writing for, no matter how hard you try, it’s been done before. Trust me on this! Sure, try to be as original as you can, but don’t kill yourself to be completely unique because it’s an almost impossible task. Since man first put pen to paper, typewriter key to platen, computer keyboard to floppy disk, every critter imaginable has been dreamed up in one variation or another. What you can do is put your own spin on it but I’ll almost guarantee that whatever you come up with, someone somewhere has done it, or something similar before, either in fantasy, science fiction or horror. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Keep adding your own flavor to your critters and press on. Give them your own names, build your own model Chevy’s.
In Meleena’s Adventures, I make no secret that my world was inspired by D&D. However, when it comes to my monsters, critters, icky bugs, though many were admittedly inspired by the Monster Manual, and Tolkein, I added my own twist to each one. Two creatures specifically were inspired by monsters from the D&D monster manual. I did my own take on them. Other critters came from science fiction novels I may have read sometime in the past, the Elves and Dwarves, of course, came from Tolkein, and other critters may have come from TV shows such as The Outer Limits, Star Trek and maybe even The Twilight Zone. All act differently and have my own twist. They’re all an olio of my own tastes and my own descriptions. I make them my own.
There are icky bugs I made up completely from scratch, though I’m sure they have been done by someone, somewhere before. So what? I did the best I could, it was mine at the moment, I’m happy with it. Case closed!
To keep things simple, let me take my Elves, for instance. Mine don’t quite look, act or have the same culture as the Tolkein Elves. The same goes for the D&D Elf rules (which I believe were rooted in Tolkein lore). My Elves are my own take. The same rules apply to my Dwarves. They’re basically the same, but not quite.
When you build your world, if you’re not toeing the line with a specific sub-genre, such as the Tolkeinesque fantasy sub-set, you don’t have to follow any specific guidelines. Remember, it’s your world. Make it your own. Just remember, as I’ve stated before, once you make a set of rules, follow them! If you break a rule, it had better be obvious, deliberate and for a plot point!
Where do you get your critters from? Do you make them up or do you use a source?
WHEN RESEARCH GETS IN THE WAY OF THE STORY
As much as I love learning obscure details about things I never knew before, I’ve been endlessly reminded, especially with a book I’m currently reading, that I never want to tackle a story where I have to spend six months to a year researching minute details. Some authors, who I won’t mention, go through considerable expense, grief and probably much downtime from their regular jobs, if they even have one, travelling to exotic locales to get details correct.
I’ve talked about this before and it really struck me as I’ve been reading this story that’s a mix of Indiana Jones and Davinci Code. A lot of it takes place in either Qumran Israel, the source of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or at the Vatican. If I were to take this type of story on, there’s no way I’d travel to either place to do the research and I know, especially for me with my total ignorance of such details, I could never glean enough off the Internet to even make a stab at a believable story without any amateur biblical sleuth crying foul from the first paragraph. I’m enjoying the story though I have no idea if the details are correct and could care less. To me it’s a thriller and an adventure and all the trappings are just that, trappings.
I, like most of you that are likely to run across or read anything off my site, are not big name authors, are not rich, and are not at least independently wealthy enough to be able to drop everything and take off for wherever you want to do this kind of research in person. Some of you may already have personal experience in whatever you’re writing about. That’s called write what you know!
When someone says to write what you don’t know (because it challenges you), I have to raise an eyebrow because they don’t seem to consider not only the mental research and time involved, but the fact that there’s nothing like being there. You can write all you want about Whitechapel in London if you want to do a story about Jack The Ripper, but there’s no way you can get the feel of the place, see the streets and know what-is-what without actually going there for yourself.
Does that mean you must travel to every single place you write about (unless it’s in a fantasy world)? Of course not. However, it helps fill in little things that make the story more real. Most of us don’t have the budget for that, so especially if the story takes place in multiple locations, we keep those details vague and may use the locations that we’ve actually been to as the main settings. If the story is about a subject that’s widely studied, such as the Vatican, you’d better have your facts straight because that word Vatican is sure to be on the book blurb somewhere and that’ll attract attention from readers that are familiar with the subject. They’ll call you on it in an instant!
The thing is, where do you draw the line? It’s certainly an individual issue. In my case, I have the idea for the story and just start writing. I know ahead of time that I’m not going to spend months doing research. I pick and choose my battles and spend my effort on the story itself. When I come to a spot where I need a detail, I seek it out. I’ve come to spots where I’ve had to read a bit, search the net, make a few phone calls, send a few e-mails. That’s stopped the story until I got the answers I needed. If I couldn’t get them, I changed tactics and took a slightly different path. No big deal. It’s never affected the main plot.
If I were to sit down with my nose in books for months, writing notes, taking trips, photos, journals, all for a story, I’d forget what I was writing about! My muse would be gone by the time I finished the research and I’d have gone on to write something entirely different! I don’t work that way. If you’re the outline, note taker type writer, this may be the formula for you.
The trip to Disneyland last week was, in a way, an example of research without a story in mind. Was it research in reverse? I had nothing to start with but came away with a half-baked inspiration. There were no actual facts, no details, nothing but cartoonish scary images that set off a spark. I already know of a bunch of spooky locations, intimately. The research is already done in my head. I could apply that spark to any of them at will. The problem is the beginning and the end…
THE INSPIRATION YOU CAN’T QUITE GRAB
When the muse hits me, I go with it and don’t stop until the story is done. It’s always been that way for me. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t come up with plenty of half-baked ideas along the way. How many ideas have you had that you just can’t grasp? It’s those ideas that are a spark that won’t quite turn into a flame?
We just got back from Disneyland the other day. Early Saturday afternoon we hit the Haunted Mansion and as we floated along the canal in the little boats the eerie décor flashed me back to all the scary spooky ghost stories from when I was a kid. Okay, so they were the Bobsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew kind of spooky, way before Scooby Doo was a gleam in whoever-created-his-character’s eye. I flashed back to The Tower Treasure, The Secret of the Old Mill, The House On The Cliff… vintage Hardy Boys mainly because I could remember the titles. I had a sudden inspiration for a ghost story. Been there done that? Oversaturated genre? Ahem. Need I mention the V word? I rest my case.
With that in mind I moved on to my nugget of inspiration, a thrill building in my gut as we passed more creepy décor mixed in with the cartoonish goofy faces, the even goofier voices, and of course, Baby (my grandson) sitting next to me gobbling it all up. Yet, my mind continued to work on something creepy and more adult. Could I come up with a scary ghost tale that would be fun, funny, scary yet adult enough to work? I would want it to be dark enough to make it into the horror genre yet have enough humor to be my trademark without being too Three Stooges. With all that to think about, the muse faded, we hit the holograms in the dining room and the muse was lost. By the time we hit the sunlight, my nugget of inspiration was but a dull memory.
Aaagh!
How often does that happen to you?
Hold on folks. I haven’t given up on it. It may have gone on the back burner, it may have twisted and turned and gone through changes, but my inspiration is still in the back of my head brewing.
Some people write notes and keep a journal. Others carry along a recorder and log all their ideas for later use (I’ve mentioned this before). I do neither. I remember reading somewhere that Clive Cussler has note cards and when he gets these nuggets of inspiration, he writes then down on these cards and keeps them in file boxes. He looks them up, maybe randomly when he’s working on a new story.
Going back to the title of this article, I used to have the same problem with music. Being a failed musician, I used to come up with dynamite riffs and sometimes whole songs driving to and from work but had no way to record them or even remember them. By the time I got home, they were long forgotten. When I did remember them, by the time I was able to pick up a guitar and try to duplicate it, I’d completely forget everything in the process of either tuning up or trying to find the chords!
At least I don’t have that problem with writing. Most of my ideas hit me and stick solid. Once in a while I get one like in the Haunted Mansion. It seemed like a great one at the time but so far this one’s getting lost in the translation.
How about you?
What will probably happen is that the answer to my predicament will hit me out of the blue and I’ll know exactly what to do. All I need is that beginning and the end then I’m In Like Flint. If you don’t know what it means, look it up on IMDB, Google or Wikipedia. I’m sure you know what they are!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 