Hemingway Techniques

  I’ve been enjoying Ernest Hemingway again lately, and he fills me with admiration. What makes his writing so unique and powerful? Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story by Carlos Baker provides some insights.

Hemingway hated metaphors, similies, and adjectives. They were too cheap and easy, so he used them sparingly. Instead of describing life for a reader, his goal was to “make life” so that the reader could actually live it. And yet, his stories are far from simple. They contain deep insights that a reader feels.

After his wife Hadley lost a suitcase with all his early writing, (and I would hate to have been Hadley at that point!), he began again in his 20s. It took a while to get over it, and when he began writing again, his first story was “Out of Season.” In this story, he’s having trouble because a guide is trying to get him to fish when it’s illegal. At the same time, he’s arguing with his wife about other things, and she caps off her comments with “Of course you haven’t got the guts to just go back. Of course you have to go on.” Hemingway never explains or describes what’s going on, but it’s there, clear as day. As Baker says, he’s “developing two intrinsically related truths simultaneously, as a good poet does with a metaphor that really works. The confluence of emotional atmospheres is what gives the story its considerable distinction. This first successful use of it was the foremost esthetic discovery of Ernest’s early career.”

He does it again in one of my favorite stories, “A Day’s Wait.” His nine-year-old son is sick with fever, and because of a misunderstanding, he waits all day, thinking he’s going to die. At the same time, the father goes outside and enjoys hunting, not realizing what his son is going through. We also come to understand the character of the son as he faces his own death at such an early age. Reading this story just makes me feel good.

As a young man learning how to write in Paris, Hemingway began by writing “one true sentence.” Here’s one of my favorites:

  “I have stood on the crowded back platform of a seven o’clock Batignolles bus as it lurched along the wet lamp lit street while men who were going home to supper never looked up from their newspapers as we passed Notre Dame grey and dripping in the rain.”

Baker says, “He had set out in January to write one true sentence. By the end of May, he had managed to write six–declarative, straightforward, and forceful as a right to the jaw. After all the false starts, he was on his way at last.”

This is quite different writing from today’s popular novels, especially genre romance novels, that take common emotions and attempt to describe them to death. Both kinds of writing have their place, but occasionally dipping into Hemingway clears the palate and makes one feel whole.

*smiling, smiling, smiling*  I just love Hemingway!

Thriller Writing Techniques in KILLING LINCOLN

  It’s often said that people, especially kids, don’t like to read history because it’s “dry” and boring. In Killing Lincoln, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have managed to make history thrilling by showing true historical facts but writing the book like a modern thriller novel. As a result, their book is on the best-seller list and it’s awakening people’s interest in history. So what are some of the thriller-writing techniques they employed? Here are ten:

1. High Stakes. Besides the personal pathos of the murder of a good man and one of our best presidents, the subtitle says this was “a shocking assassination that changed America forever.” Those are high stakes that have relevance for us all.

2. Tight Time Frame. Rather than waxing on about an overview of the Civil War as a whole, the book covers a highly-charged, dramatic few days–from the end of the Civil War at Appomattox (March 4, 1865) to the rounding up of Lincoln’s murderers a few months later (July 7, 1865).  Each chapter begins with a tight time frame, as in: “Chapter Forty-One:  Friday, April 14, 1865, Washington, D.C., 10:15 P.M.” Readers breathlessly follow the mounting suspense moment by moment.

3. Larger-than-life Characters. The great Abraham Lincoln, his depressive wife Mary,  the charismatic actor and hater, John Wilkes Booth–these are extraordinary people who do extraordinary things.

4. The Dramatic Question. There are lots of details, but the spine of the book is really quite simple: How and why was Booth able to pull off his horrendous crime, and what were the ramifications?

5. High Concept. Built on hair-raising suspense, the plot contains dramatic situations, bizarre and surprising actions.

6. Multiple Points of View. We get into the heads of Lincoln, Mary, Booth, and the other main characters, hearing their thoughts (as recorded in their writings). They become real people, flawed and so very human.

7. Present tense. The scenes are written in present tense, giving a sense that the reader is right there on the scene:  “On the walk back to the White House, Lincoln composes a note in his head. It is to Mary, a simple invitation to go for a carriage ride on Friday afternoon. Their eldest son, Robert, is due home from the war any day. Surely, the cloud of melancholy that has hovered over them is about to lift.”

8. Chapters ending in cliff-hangers. These keep readers turning pages long into the night:  “Thank God I have lived to see this,” Lincoln cries. “It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.” But it’s not really gone. President Lincoln has just twelve days to live.

9. Emotional involvement. We feel for these people. Abraham Lincoln suffered under his responsibilities during the Civil War:  “Very often he cannot sleep at all. Lincoln collapsed from exhaustion just a month ago. He is pale, thirty-five pounds underweight, and walks with the hunched, painful gait of a man whose shoes are filled with pebbles. At fifty-six years old, Abraham Lincoln is spent.”

10. Vivid details. “The third act is under way. Soon the play will be over, and Lincoln can get back to the White House. Meanwhile, the unheated state box has gotten chilly. It is seven minutes after ten. At the exact same moment, John Wilkes Booth strolls through the front door of Ford’s Theater–heart racing, whiskey on his breath, skin clammy to the touch.”

Now that’s the way to write history! Nobody can say it’s dry or boring, and people will long remember the tragic story they have read in this book.

 

 

 

 

 

Drive

  I’ve been particularly excited lately by a book and movie titled DRIVE. It’s even more intriguing because I have a local connection–its author, James Sallis, is the husband of one of my P.E.O. sisters, and they live here in Phoenix. I got to see their house and meet Jim in person. He’s such a lovely, soft-spoken, mild-mannered 66-year-old, I had to wonder, “Where did all that crime and violence come from?” The answer is that he loves pulp novels and got the impetus from them.

The novel has such beautiful writing, it’s almost like poetry. The main character (appropriately unnamed) is a sweet-faced “kid,” but he’s the best at what he does–driving cars in stunts for Hollywood films. Unfortunately, he also moonlights as a get-away driver for criminals, and he turns out to be much more violent than he appears. What irony–a driver who is internally lost. Here’s an example of the writing when his mother dies:

In the parking lot he leaned against the Chevy, stood looking off towards the mountain ranges ringing Tucson. Catalinas to the north, Santa Rita to the south, Rincon east, Tucson west. The whole city was a compass. How could anyone ever have gotten so hopelessly lost here?

The book’s publishing history is inspiring. It got turned down by traditional major publishers, but Jim’s friends, the owners of The Poisoned Pen Press here in Phoenix, said, “We’ll publish it!” By word of mouth, it got noticed in Hollywood and picked up. What was to be an inexpensive “art film” has caught on. I absolutely loved it, and Jim said he thought they did an “astonishingly good” job of transferring his novel to film. Ryan Gosling was awesome.

Since the film came out, Jim and his wife, Karyn, have been able to re-model their home near downtown Phoenix, and I’m so happy for them. They also got to meet the “Hollywood types” when the film came out, but it hasn’t turned their heads.

This “noir” novel set in the Southwest is a success story that I’m thrilled with–on all levels!

Publishing Buzzwords, Cliches, and Euphemisms Decoded

  This was sent to me by a publishing friend. We don’t know who the “I” is, but it’s hilarious:

Ever wonder what editors, publishers and critics mean when they describe books as “lyrical,” “provocative” or “ripped from the headlines”? Let industry veterans explain it to you. I asked experts on Twitter to decode common publishing terms. Here are some of their answers:

“absorbing”: “makes a great coaster”

“accessible”: “not too many big words”

“acclaimed”: “selling poorly”

“breakout book”: “Hail Mary pass”

“brilliantly defies categorization”: “even the author has no clue what he’s turned in”

“captures the times we live in”: “captures the times we were living in two years ago”

“classroom-friendly”: “kids won’t read it unless they have to”

“continues in the proud tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien”: “this book has a dwarf in it”

“definitive”: “could have used an editor”

“an eBook original”: “still no proofreading and bad formatting”

“edgy”: “contains no adult voices of reason”

“epic”: “very long”

“erotic”: “porn”

“ethnic literature”: “stuff written by nonwhite people”

“frothy romp”: “funny book by lady” “Funny = funny book by a man”

“gripping”: “I turned the pages fast but didn’t read them”

“I’ve been a fan of Author X for a long time”: “I slept with him, regrettably, in
MFA school.”

“lapidary prose”: “I did not know what half of these words meant”

“literary”: “plotless”

“long-awaited”: “late”

“luminous” or “lyrical”: “not much happens”

“magisterial”: “long”

“meticulously researched”: “overloaded with footnotes”

“memoir”: “nonfiction until proven otherwise”

“the next Elmore Leonard”: “This book has criminals or Detroit or maybe Florida in it”

“novella”: “short story with large font”

“a real tear-jerker”: “writing so bad it makes you cry”

“ripped from the headlines”: “no original plot line”

“rollicking”: “chaotic”

“sensual”: “soft porn”

“stunning”: “major character dies”

“provocative”: “about race/religion”

“promising debut”: “many flaws, but not unforgivably bad”

“unflinching”: “has a lot of bad words”

“visionary”: “can’t be proved wrong yet”

“voice of a generation”: “instantly dated”

“weighty”: “I had to lug this dense historical monster all over town and I still can’t bring myself to finish it”

“wildly imaginative”: “wrote book high on mescaline”

“a writer to watch”: “as opposed to one you are actually going to want to read”

Typing, typing, typing

   It has begun. I’m retyping my entire historical romance novel of 400 pages, Gilded Splendor, to re-publish it as an e-book on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. The rights have reversed to me, so I might as well get in on the newest publishing craze–especially since it costs me nothing and has the potential to earn more money.

It’s possible to have a company, such as ebookprep, scan and prepare the book for around $250, and I had been quaking at the thought of all that typing–but it’s turning out to be rather fun. I hadn’t re-read my book in years, and I’m enjoying it once again.

I’m also taking the opportunity to do a little editing. Not much is needed, since the book went through a rigorous editing process when it was first published by Dorchester. But a word deleted here and there–a little tightening–never hurts.

I want to follow and take part in the new e-book phenomenon. It’s fascinating–changing the face of publishing–and there’s a lot to learn. Next will come marketing on the internet and getting out some new books. There is never any rejection in this venue–only having fun and moving forward.

As one e-book company states it:

Write Anything

Publish Everything

Market Everywhere

Preston & Child at the Biltmore

  What a joy to live in a big city with lots of opportunities. Bob took me on a lovely outing this evening to see my two favorite authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It was a signing for the new release of their 11th Pendergast novel, Cold Vengeance.

  Always wonderful to go to the Biltmore here in Phoenix. The Frank Lloyd Wright decorations on the buildings are so lovely. We went to the Grand Ballroom and had fresh fruit with chocolate dipping sauce.

  Douglas Preston signed my book. Lincoln Child, I’m told, is rather reclusive and doesn’t like to leave New Jersey, so he appeared on a big-screen Skype. Together, they chatted with Barbara Peters, the owner of the famous Poisoned Pen bookstore here in Phoenix, which sponsored the event.

It was the first time the authors had done a presentation using Skype, and it was a huge success. Lots of information about their writing and their books. Lots of laughs. For example, someone asked if they’d ever gotten “hate mail,” and they said it was when they killed off Bill Smithback. I had to laugh–yep, he was one of my favorite characters.

They told how they developed the Aloysius Pendergast character. How they come up with ideas. How they write together–by phone and internet! Child even played his guitar for us. Both charming men, indeed.

Evenings like this inspire me. They deepen my appreciation of my favorite things, and open me up to possibilities and pleasures.

E-Pub?

  Author Jennifer Ashley spoke at tonight’s meeting of “Valley of the Sun” Romance Writers, and what she said was enlightening. She’s a multi-published, New York Times best-selling author of over thirty-one print books with houses like Berkeley and Dorchester. But she also publishes her own e-books with Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

Now, in the past, I’ve pooh-poohed e-books–I guess because they’ve seemed so ephemeral. There are no pages to turn! No physical books you can hold and put on the bookshelf! And yet–Jennifer made me start to think about e-books in a whole new way tonight. Here are some points I learned from Jennifer:

E-publishing is a vast new untapped market for writers. There are no rejections, so you can jump into the game, write whatever you want, see it published, and (hopefully) make some money.

E-publishing is especially helpful for authors to re-publish their older backlist books after they’ve gotten the rights back. (I once asked Barbara Dawson Smith where I could find an old romance novel of hers, and even she didn’t have one! After a month on bookstore shelves, they just disappeared.) Now when someone asks, “Where can I get that older book of yours?” an author can cheerfully say, “It’s on Kindle!”

E-books are gaining respectability. They now appear on the New York Times best-seller lists.

Most readers today are pretty adamant–they read either e-books or print books, but not both. So why not multiply potential readers by targeting both audiences?

It’s free to put a book onto Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords. Jennifer uses all three. Then the author sets the price of the book. E-book readers like cheaper reads at 99 cents, and they can get pretty nasty online about e-books being priced at $14.95. So it’s best to build readership by offering a cheaper price (at least, to begin with).

These books receive no editing, so you have to be able to edit, format, and turn out a professional product if you want readers to keep buying your books.

E-books can be published fast. No longer do you have to wait a year or more from selling your book to seeing it appear. In her series of Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Jennifer has a new book out every month in 2011! So e-books can accommodate a prolific writer.

The author chooses her own book cover. She can use stock photos or purchase special covers from a company called hotdamndesigns.com.

Readers choose books that look interesting, but it helps sales if (1) you have a recognizable name like Jennifer Ashley,  and/or  (2) you promote your books.

E-books have made writing fun again. Whenever I go to Valley of the Sun meetings, I’m amazed. Instead of the long faces and hopeless laments of “I got rejected–again,” members are piping up with “I have a new book out, and it’s getting great reviews!”

Many print houses are now going to both print and e-books, and it’s driving them crazy. This is such a new phenomenon that print houses aren’t quite sure how best to handle their e-books. But e-books aren’t a fad–they’re here to stay, and exploding! It’s a new industry out there, and it changes almost daily. So it’s very interesting to watch.

Well–I’ll never give up my print books. I still have the first paperback I ever bought as a child–Little Women. But tonight’s program made me look at the e-book phenomenon in a whole new light. Will I buy a Kindle or Nook? Will I re-publish my romance novel? E-pub new ones? It all remains to be seen, but I feel inspired. It puts a whole new spin on writing/publishing that seems kind of exciting and fun.

Thank you, Jennifer!

The Inciting Incident

  So often in my editing, I see books ruined right away by  weak openings (background material, scenery, traveling from one point to another, a dream, etc.) Readers form an opinion of a book right away, and if it’s not a good opinion, they’ll quit reading. The cure:  delete all the preliminary “throat-clearing” and begin the book with an ”Inciting Incident.” I’ve been studying this lately. Here’s what I’ve found:

The “Inciting Incident” is the first scene that hooks the reader and kicks off the story. It’s an event that upsets the character by creating the first Surface Problem (something that can be photographed).   

The big question that stymies writers is:  But what scene should I pick? What should happen in it? There are lots of surface things a character could be upset about. Just make it exciting? Yes–but it can’t be just any unrelated scene, no matter how exciting.

Here’s the secret:  the “Inciting Incident” starts to reveal what the Story-Worthy Problem is. This comes from the main character’s Internal Conflict (a deep psychological problem and goal that cannot be photographed). It has to “get her where she lives.” It has to be so compelling that it forces her to take immediate action. 

Here’s a simple example:  The first scene in Gone With the Wind shows Scarlett flirting with the Tarleton boys on the veranda of Tara. She’s irritated that the conversation at recent parties has been all about “war, war, war.” This is a rather fun scene that introduces many of the elements of the movie and shows Scarlett’s self-absorbed nature. It shows a surface problem. So far, so good, but it’s not enough. The real “Inciting Incident” is that this scene reveals Scarlett’s Internal Conflict and main goal–she’s told that Ashley Wilkes, the man she secretly loves, is about to marry his cousin, Melanie. This gets Scarlett where she really lives deep down. It’s the important “Inciting Incident” that kicks off the story and everything that follows.

So in planning this scene, the writer should ask:  “What can I do to create a scene that will introduce my character’s real Story-Worthy problem?” Every story begins with this premise:  “Things started to go really wrong when … “

Once the Inciting Incident has taken place, the course of the story is set. Get that right–and the reader is hooked and the rest of the story becomes a lot easier!

(For more information on this subject, a great book is Hooked by Les Edgerton.)

Valley of the Sun RWA

Tonight I joined the Valley of the Sun chapter of Romance Writers of America. What a great group of women! What inspiration! What fun times they have planned for the future!

I always try to sit by new members each month. Tonight I met and learned from these new friends:

 Isabella Clayton is an author who also owns an online book publishing company, SapphireBluePublishing.com. I picked up lots of tips from her. For example, I should be reading “Dear Author” online for the latest gossip. Now to check out her company’s web site!

  Vijaya Schartz is one of the authors who has published books with Sapphire Blue Publishing and other companies. Her blog is a revelation. She has a Black Belt in karate, has sung in cabarets, had her photo taken with a tiger, and it goes on and on.

  Kris Tualla has gone the self-publishing route with her first book, A Woman of Choice, set in Missouri Territory, 1819. It’s going to be fun hearing how her self-promotion is going.

  Tonight’s main speaker was Jennifer Ashley, a human dynamo. She has 30 books published with multiple publishers, has had 6 pseudonyms, writes 6 books a year, and runs 10 blogs. How do you compete with someone like that? You don’t! You try to learn everything you can from this generous author. Her talk tonight was on “Agents.”

Now I’m going to add these new people as friends on Facebook, read their web sites and blogs. Oh—-and with all this inspiration, try to find a little time to write my own book!

Desert Rose RWA

  Last night, I attended my first meeting of the Phoenix RWA chapter, Desert Rose. How enjoyable! It was held at Macayao’s Depot Cantina, a colorful Mexican restaurant–great food. A little chaotic because of the large attendance–lots of women all talking at once–but that’s good! Many multi-published authors and lots of good advice. Here are a few tidbits:

  Susan Yarina hosted a table discussing “Writing Western Romance.” She suggested writing a list of at least 100 things that could happen in your novel. Gives you lots to work with. Also to immerse yourself in the milieu–have beans for dinner, make love to a cowboy, ride a horse, visit a working ranch, etc. I’m going to e-mail her and find out just where to do all that here in Phoenix–well, except make love to a cowboy. My hubby just wouldn’t approve.

  Calista Fox gave a mini-program on Finding an Agent. She said a hot topic now being tossed around is succeeding by “writing a franchise.” Ethan Ellenberg has posted articles about this on the web, and I’ll check them out.

  NYTimes best-selling author, Susan Squires, gave the main program. She really knows her business! Here are some of her gems of wisdom:

Editors hate Prologues, so use them with caution.

Readers love books because the characters resonate with them–the characters are vulnerable in some way that readers can relate to. That’s what makes a book a keeper.

You must create the bridge where the character makes a big decision–that’s what makes for good motivation.

To fix a sagging middle–”go to the villain.” The villain drives the center of the book.

Go deep. Don’t just cruise through your book. “What would it really be like?” This is what sells books.

“Good books aren’t written. They’re re-written.” — Ernest Hemingway

Yay for Desert Rose! The chapter is a winner!