Writing Demystified

You’ve only just begun to write or maybe you’re well on your way to noveldom. You’re so full of confidence that the dog shakes his head and leaves the room in disgust or maybe you could use an ego boost. You don’t know where to start or perhaps you don’t know how to wrap everything up.

I’ve gottcha covered.

Books on Writing

There are a lot of books on writing flooding the market. All of them make promises. But how do you wade through the veritable ocean of writing manuals to find a few that can really help? Certainly, the advice of friends and the odd review. But, I have a theory. If you want to write a book, whom better to help you than an author or an editor? Some of these are gems.

Lawrence “Two Weeks To Write a Best Seller” Block gives helpful, insightful and, at times, humorous advice on writing. The man knows of whence he writes and he provides a cornucopia of information from the beginning to the end of the writing process. ‘Telling Lies for Fun and Profit’ and ‘Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print’ are fantastic resources. I would recommend both although Mr. Block repeats himself a bit from text to text. These are not step-by-step manuals that will take you by the hand and lead you through the entire process. Block really writes for writers of any genre and good advice peppered with entertaining anecdotes make this an enjoyable and helpful read. What I found mentally invigorating about this book was Block’s go out there and get ‘em tiger encouragement. Some of his best advice? Read and study your genre. If you want to write a great book, read great books. Analyze them and find out what makes them tick. If you read a passage that moves you, re-read it and find out why. If a section of a book strikes you as choppy or you just can’t build any empathy with a lead, you’ve learned something just by reading. You’ve learned what not to do.

Mr. Block provides simple solutions for what may appear to be complicated problems and he does it with generosity. I try to follow his advice of writing just one page a day and I’ve found that just by writing constantly my writing has improved. “Those of us who are driven to produce great quantities of manuscript don’t necessarily get any real pleasure out of the act,” he says. “It’s just that we feel worse when we don’t write.”

Thank you, Mr. Block. I feel much better.

Have you ever hugged a book? I have. ‘Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity: Expanded’ by Ray Bradbury has more than earned my affection. With chapters entitled Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle and How to Keep and Feed a Muse you can see that you not in for a dry tome on the semantics of writing. Ray’s advice is strikingly similar to the equally prolific Block: You must love to write and do it every day, and you must use your own voice. Simple advice but so amazingly wise. His feeling that if you love what you’re doing and you’re excited about it, nothing can stop you will have you running for your computer (or type writer, if you’re like Loren Estelman). To quote from the book: “If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don’t even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is – excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it’d be better for his health.” Dare to write, dare to make the page bleed and dare to do it every day.

Let’s take a look at another wildly prolific man that is generous with his writing advice. Stephen King’s book, On Writing’ takes you well beyond Strunk and Whites elements. It is really two books for the price of one. An autobiography of a deeply derisive nature and a no bull, suck it up, kick in the pants from someone who’s been there guide for aspirant novelists. The biographical element is funny as hell and softens the blow of the dose of reality he gives to writers everywhere. You’ll discover that his book, Carrie, almost ended up as landfill. If weren’t for the garbage picking nature of Tabitha King, the terrifying world of Castle Rock may have remained in the mist. She also helped him through his cocaine and alcohol addiction. “There’s one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing.” King also describes everything from his childhood to his recuperation from the near fatal van accident. All of it leads back to the passion that has threaded it’s way through his life; writing.

The reader is gifted with a writer’s “tool kit”: a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and brass tacks advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary types. He also urges writers to study what has been written before them. He names particular writers and tells you what made them great. From Hemingway to Lovecraft and elements from spareness to vocabulary, his suggestions are sound and edifying.

There is no carefully defined “do this and you’ll be a success” checklist, but his viewpoint is immensely helpful to writers that are just starting out. He doesn’t hold back in regard to writing discipline, realistic prospects, the driving force behind it all and the bare bones of writing well.

Sue Grafton, Jan Burke, Barry Zeman and the Mystery Writers of America have gotten together to write Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America. It is genre specific but still chock full of great writing tidbits. This book definitely clarifies that there is more to mysteries than bodies and detectives. It is almost unbelievable that in 300 pages of collective wisdom from the old pros and the new kids on the block.

The handbook has three parts broken up into Preparation, The Process, and Specialties.

Part I; Preparation, has chapters that teach where writers get their ideas (a question inevitably asked at almost every author signing), how to do the research and get the background you need and the pros and cons of writing with a partner. All of these topics are explored on different levels with different authors.

Part II; the Process explores the morning, noons and nights of a novel. There are sections dealing with characterization, the makings of a series character, different uses of point of view, and getting in touch a personal writing style. Discussions on the subtle magic of pacing, dialogue and “clues, red herrings, and other plot devices” aid in a part of writing that truly is craft. A misuse of any of these elements can make a great book exasperating for a reader. It ends on the promising note of plot, revision, agents, and markets.

Part III; Specialties, is made up of different chapters discussing different types of mystery writing. From writing for younger audiences and true crime to short stories, the editors have thought of everything. As an extra-added bonus, they’ve included a list of recommended reading and references.

From the first word, to the first body, the first cop on the scene and the hero that will crack the case, the Mystery Writer’s of America are looking over your shoulder while you write. The will be your silent partners in crime. With people like Tony Hillerman, Michael Connelly and Stuart Kaminsky to Sara Paretsky and, go figure, Lawrence Block and a gaggle of other authors watching your back, you can’t help writing well. If you’re nice, they even tell you a few secrets. If you’ve dipped your quill in hopes of scratching out a mystery, this is your writing bible.


Editing hurts. Whole sections of writing that seemed brilliant may need to be cut. What is clear to you will you’re writing may be a complete mystery to the reader. You may have inadvertently repeated yourself. And sometimes, without even realizing it, you can say the same thing over and over. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is a painful read. But, suck it up, baby, because this can make the difference between a rejection slip and glowing praise. No response and an effusive response. Sitting alone in your room waiting for an email that never arrives or so much in your inbox you have to open a second account. You can see here where editing can play a crucial role in writing.

Beginning with Chapter One’s Show and Tell, to Chapter Six and the Inner Monologue to Chapter Twelve’s Voice, Renni Browne and Dave King are showing you the tough love you need. Many of us have been under the delusion that an agent or publishing house can look past the minor mistakes in a manuscript to the brilliance that lurks underneath. Not so. Many publishing houses have eliminated the time-consuming step of editing a promising manuscript to bring it up to its full potential. If it’s good enough to send in, it’s good enough to publish. In all of it’s repetitive, rhetorical, misspelled glory.

The authors hold no one above the benefit of a good edit or six and will even have you practice on some of the classics of literature. After seeing first hand how their editing improved these vaunted tomes, you’ll agree. And then, the reader will spy his or her own work and the cutting will begin.

All but the last chapter of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers have a checklist that can be taken to your own manuscript. Do it. You’ll feel better afterward. You can’t trust spell check and grammar check to find it all.

Working for major publishing houses has taught these two editors everything you need to know. This book is a well-honed literary scalpel. It can’t make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow’s ear, but it can make that ear look mighty fine. Your writing will be stronger. You’ll avoid the ‘errors’ that pull you’re writing into the mundane mire. Browne and King’s techniques can pump your fiction up and give you answers to questions that may have been plaguing you.

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler is not a book for everyone. It depends on how you write and why you write. Mr. Vogler states “all stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies.” His thinking runs along the Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung archetypes as elements of storytelling theory. He describes the hero’s journey and what the hero needs to encounter to have your writing resonate deeply with readers. Using the Star Wars trilogy and The Lion King as modern cultural comparisons for his mythological philosophy, he follows along each step of the journey until the inevitable encounter with the villain. The elements of this journey are, essentially, a blue print for every plot with every protagonist you’ve ever encountered.

In essence, by writing a piece of fiction, every writer is creating his or her own myth with his or her own hero. Vogler explains the whys, whats and hows of myth making and let’s you know what, on some level, every reader expects. This formula has particuliar applications in fantasy writing and can help create a sound foundation for creative thinking as a process.

Dark Thoughts: On Writing: Advice and Commentary from Fifty Masters of Fear and Suspense by Stan Wiater is the horror fiction writer’s bible. Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Anne Rice are among those that contribute their dark thoughts of writing to incite fear.

The book begins with a Chapter entitled Basic Influences and moves right into Working in the Dark.  Mr. Wiater helps you decide if you’re writing a short story, a novel or a script. He helps he you address and use your personal fears. And he offers up his Practical Philosophy as well as Shocking Advice. I love the chapter entitled The Function and Importance of Unpleasant Truths. You’ll be treated to the fun of hearing another round of authors reveal where they get their ideas and who influenced them the most in their writing. This is not a book that teaches style, but one that influences it. As with many books on writing, this one can cross genre with it’s advice and commonsense.

Orson Scott Card is yet another great author that has taken his vast experience and instilled it in a book that we get to take home. Characters and Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing). For those that create characters that get up and walk off the page upon creation to those that struggle to write believable characters, this book is a boon. Your characters are your writing. Your choice of point of view can put a spin on the entire manuscript. The choices you make in regard to both are critical to the success of how your characters are perceived. You’ll learn the fundamentals of successful characterization for any type of fiction in this work.

Mr. Card gives in depth treatise on description, motivation and growth and by providing examples of good characterization versus bad characterization application to your own work is painless. If you want the reader to become involved with your characters, to watch them grow and crave more when they’ve reached the end, Mr. Card has written a book for you. I would have liked more information and examples of point of view (especially how changing from first to third gives writing a completely different feel), but this book is still invaluable.

How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them by Sol Stein comes right and tells you with the title what can be achieved with this book. “Come sit. We need to talk.” And talk he does. The book is broken up into two sections: The Responsibilities of the Writer and The Responsibilities of the Publisher.

In The Responsibilities of the Writer, Stein discusses the need for conflict, how to create successful dialogue, accurate point-of-view, how to capture the reader, and writing with honesty and focus. He handles problems specifics in revision. He offers solutions as a fellow write and an editor. Removing redundancies and author intrusion, eliminating melodrama and extra words and phrases and changing events that are "told" into active scenes. He says the most common mistake of professional and amateur writers is the use of words, sentences and paragraphs out of order.

In the Responsibilities of the Publisher, Stein tells you plainly how difficult it is to get published. The chapters are entitled The Prospect Before Us, Putting Out to the World and Midlist, and Other Fictions of Publishing. Your manuscript may have its whole fate decided when it’s placed in the agent’s hands. With thousands of agents out there, only a few have clout and clout may be all that will win a book the publicity it deserves.

"Writing is the second most exciting activity a higher power invented for human beings," says Stein. "And when you get to your eighties, it's the first most exciting activity."

The entire Whodunnit Series. Some can be more helpful than others can, depending on the degree you’ll be exploring particular topics. They aren’t the books I refer to most when I write, but they can come in handy. I got most of mine used and I’m rather glad that was the case.

The Big Cons:

There are a lot of services out there that offer to proof and edit your work for a fee. There are agents that want you to pay them up front to find a publisher for your work. And, there are websites that have you register for free and then have you pay them to promote your work. Be careful. It is easy to get taken in by what these people tell you because your desire to believe them will be strong. Your money and your rights may be at stake.

Helpful Links:

Writing tips, advice, article and links:

Advice to New Writers from Marion Zimmer Bradley
http://mzbworks.home.att.net/advice.htm

Writers on writing http://www.writerswrite.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl

The Writer’s Nook. Links to everything http://www.twnn.com/

Good, sound advice from Dan Perez
http://www.sff.net/people/dan.perez/advice.htm

Advice from science fiction writer Jeffrey A. Carver
http://www.starrigger.net/advice.htp

Free advice, a writer’s store, excuse buster’s, tips, etc
http://www.writinghabits.com/home.html

Want to find an agent?

http://www.literaryagentresource.com/

http://julieduffy.com/writing/agents.htm

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/index.htm

http://www.writing.org/html/a_agents4.htm

http://www.literaryagent.co.uk/

Jennifer Jordan ©