Reading and Hearing

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OpenStax, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

by Debbie Burke

We often talk here at TKZ about the importance of reading throughout life.

Reading to young children is well recognized to benefit their early brain development.

Reading instructs us through school. It guides us in our daily lives and careers.

Reading keeps the mind sharp as we age.

I just learned a new reason why reading is important: for hearing.

My good friend Dr. Betty Kuffel is my favorite source for medical knowledge. Her husband has profound hearing loss and hearing aids aren’t helping. He will soon have a surgery for a cochlear implant. Betty described the procedure:

An array of electrodes within a thin wire is threaded through a hole drilled through the outer skull and into the cochlea behind and above the ear. The tiny wire follows inner contours of the cochlea with anatomy resembling a snail shell. It bypasses the damaged area reaching the hearing nerve that carries impulses to the brain. Then the surgeon buzzes out a shallow crater of bone for placement of the magnetized device with a microchip in it. Once secured, the scalp is sutured and after a couple of weeks of healing the device is activated. An external rechargeable sound processor with two microphones is worn behind the ear like a typical hearing aid that connects magnetically to the implant. Amazing technology.

BruceBlaus, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

However, the implant isn’t plug and play. The brain has to be retrained to use the device. Instead of the normal neural pathways between the ear (which hears sounds) and the brain (which interprets the meaning and appropriate reaction to those sounds), this rewiring makes new connections.

Here’s the interesting part Betty added:

The training consists of reading aloud as the primary trainer. You see the print, read and the brain processes the visual + verbal input.

In this article, audiologist Grace Sturdivant of the University of Mississippi Medical Center explains two crucial connections between hearing and the brain:

One is called Cross-modal Plasticity. Don’t let that term bog you down – it means that when the area of your brain which is purposed for processing sound (the auditory cortex) is not being stimulated adequately (i.e., when hearing loss is present), a well-functioning system like vision will begin to recruit that area to process its own input.

…the second brain change I’ll discuss is Cortical Resource Reallocation. Even in these mild, sloping hearing loss cases, auditory cortex activity is decreased and frontal lobe activity is increased on listening tasks…The frontal and pre-frontal areas are critical for working memory and executive function. When hearing loss is present and you are straining to hearing and understand someone in a challenging environment, your frontal lobe is loaded down with trying to understand what someone is saying in that moment. We call this “effortful listening.” This leaves less ability for that frontal lobe to help you remember what someone was saying after you walk away from the conversation.

In other words, over time as the ear no longer functions as it’s supposed to, the brain also loses those neural transmission pathways.

Sturdivant expands on the health effects:

…People with severe, untreated hearing loss are five times more likely to develop dementia…adults with untreated hearing loss develop cognitive decline 3.2 years sooner than people with normal hearing; or than people with dementia and severe untreated hearing loss have rates of cognitive decline 30-40% faster than dementia patients with normal hearing.

According to this article from Johns Hopkins Medicine:

Getting used to the cochlear implant takes a while. Eventually, the sound quality will change as the brain learns the stimulation patterns that the device provides. Most patients notice improving sound quality during the first three to 12 months.

This article from Alber Hearing Services outlines some steps in auditory rehabilitation:

Listening to these everyday noises and naming them out loud helps your brain connect the new signals from your implant to what they actually are. Watching TV with captions turned on or following along with lyrics while listening to music can also build stronger connections between sound and meaning.

More rehab techniques from Cochlear Implant Help:

Reading and listening to a fully abridged audio book helps the brain to make the connection between the words heard and words seen. By listening and looking at the words the connection can be made. To make this exercise more challenging, remove the visual and focus on the auditory input. This helps build one’s ability to understand what is being stated.

With sound and visual print correlation, the brain adjusts and soon words are clear and
meaningful. Each person is different but over 80% hearing restoration can be accomplished.

However, the National Institutes of Health reports 29-42% of people with implants express some level of regret.

Of course I’m wishing Betty’s husband an excellent outcome with improved function and no regrets.

I have some hearing loss, but the body adapts in amazing ways. Without being conscious of it, I’ve developed a little skill in lip reading.

Also, for about a year, I’ve been turning on closed captioning for TV and online videos. Will this combination of simultaneously reading and listening help keep my brain working? I don’t know.

But I figure it’s worth a try. Can’t hurt, might help.

~~~

TKZers: Do you think reading helps your hearing? Do you read visually (print books or ebooks)? Do you listen to audiobooks? Or both?

Ferdinand Magellan and the Hero’s Journey

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“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― Christopher Columbus

* * *

I recently read Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen. It’s a detailed account of Ferdinand Magellan’s extraordinary expedition that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth. For such an accomplishment, you might expect Magellan’s story to be the quintessential tale of the hero. Let’s see how he did:

* * *

In the typical hero’s journey, the main character is reluctant to accept the call to adventure, but Magellan didn’t fit that model. He wanted to lead an expedition. The goal wasn’t necessarily to sail all the way around the world, but to secure fame and fortune by finding a route to the Spice Islands in Indonesia by sailing west—something earlier explorers had failed to do.

Back then, spices were to Europeans what oil is to the world today, i.e., very valuable. So Magellan, being a reliable seaman with strong credentials, felt his plan was something the nautical powers-that-be should be willing to finance.

Those maritime powers were Spain and Portugal, and they ruled the exploration of the world. Being Portuguese, Magellan pitched his plan to King Manuel of Portugal, who repeatedly refused to fund the journey. A lesser man may have given up, but Magellan instead turned to King Charles of Spain who agreed to bankroll the expedition. After all, if a quick route could be found to the Spice Islands in Indonesia, that would mean valuable cloves would line the king’s pantry and silver coins would jingle in his pocketbook.

Magellan at last had his chance to secure his place in history, following in the watery footsteps of his personal hero, Christopher Columbus.

So far, so good.

* * *

In September 1519, Magellan set sail with five ships, 260 seamen, a chronicler named Pigafetta, and a woefully incorrect map of the world.

Previously, no one had found a waterway from the Atlantic Ocean around or through the large land mass we call the Americas, but Magellan had a plan. The map he used showed a strait, a small body of water that sliced through the southern part of the Americas. Magellan went to sea to seek that strait and find a thruway to the Pacific, and he proved himself a true hero in this part of the journey. He led the expedition through a stormy crossing of the Atlantic, suppressed (albeit brutally) a mutiny, identified the mouth of the strait, and managed to continue with three ships after one was lost to a storm and another was taken over by mutineers and turned back to Spain.

By the time the weather was good enough to enter the strait, Magellan, ever the disciplined seaman, carried on and led his group through the treacherous waterway. This was no small feat. The strait was so circuitous, with winding inlets that went nowhere and weather that worked against the expedition, that some historians call Magellan’s crossing of the strait the greatest navigational feat in history.

To put it in perspective, the waterway that came to be known the Strait of Magellan is 350 miles long, a shorter distance than that from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  It took the expedition over a month to maneuver through it. We can only imagine their delight when one morning they sailed out into a vast ocean—the first time a European vessel had crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the new body of water Magellan named the “Pacific Ocean.”

So how was Magellan doing on the hero scale? He gets high marks for Leadership, Discipline, Endurance, and Courage. But the journey wasn’t over yet.

* * * 

Using his inaccurate charts, Magellan expected it would take just a few days to cross this new ocean to the Spice Islands. It took over three months until they sighted land.

Up until then, Magellan had shown himself to be up to the task of the hero, but once the expedition arrived in the Philippines, his ability to deal with the nuances of other cultures proved to be far weaker than his skill as a seaman. When a tribal king complained about a possible fight with another tribe, Magellan offered to punish the second king by warring with them. In the skirmish that followed, Magellan and several of his crew were killed.

Without Magellan, leadership was lacking, and progress to the Spice Islands was slow. In the end, only one ship managed to acquire a load of spices and complete the circumnavigation. The Victoria sailed into Seville harbor in September 1522, almost a full three years since it had left. Of the 260 sailors in the original expedition, only 18 were aboard.

Following the magnificent accomplishment of the first circumnavigation of the Earth, other expeditions were sent out to retrace Magellan’s route, but they all failed. It would be fifty-eight years before another explorer, Sir Francis Drake, would complete a circumnavigation of the world.

* * *

Authors will appreciate that one major accomplishment of the expedition was the work of the chronicler, Pigafetta, who survived the journey to publish his personal narrative, one version of which resides in the Library of Yale University. Of Pigafetta’s work, Bergreen notes

“…it is a compilation of events, illustrations, translations of foreign tongues, prayers, descriptions, epiphanies, and bawdy asides… The reader of Pigafetta’s chronicle hears his voice, alternately bold, astonished, devastated, fascinated, and in the end, amazed to be alive in the cruelly beautiful world of his time.”

Although his original goal was to find a route to the Spice Islands, perhaps Magellan’s most heroic accomplishment was to have single-handedly changed the map of the entire world. Bergreen writes

“Although no continent or country was named after him, Magellan’s expedition stands as the greatest sea voyage in the Age of Discovery.”

Maybe no countries were named for him, but Magellan did have a couple of impressive remembrances. The Strait of Magellan was named in his honor a few years after the expedition, and two galaxies orbiting the Milky Way that are visible from the Southern Hemisphere were named the Magellanic Clouds. Not bad to have your name enshrined in the heavens.

* * * 

So TKZers: What do you think about Magellan? Hero? Flawed meddler in someone else’s quarrel? Cruel task master? Or maybe a combination of these qualities. How do you construct the heroes of your stories? Do you have a Magellan-like hero?

* * * 

 

Heroes come in many sizes and shapes, and the lure of treasure is bound to propel them into adventure.

Join Reen & Joanie as they tackle a treasure hunt with determination and a little help from their friends. Can they fend off the evil Alicia, solve the strange puzzles, and bask in the glory of success? Click on the image to go to the Amazon detail page.

The Two Things Every Novel Needs

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Raymond Chandler

“Trouble is my business.”—Raymond Chandler

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can’t. And there are two things every novel needs if you want to please readers—Conflict and Suspense. Let us examine.

Conflict

What is the goal of your novel? Is it to entertain? Teach? Preach? Stir up anger? Change the world? Make you a lot of money?

It might be any of these things, but in the end, none of these objectives will work to their full potential unless they forge, in some way, a satisfying emotional experience for the reader.

And what gets the reader hooked emotionally? Trouble. Readers are gripped by the trials a character goes through. It’s a human response called empathy. We “see” ourselves in a character’s problems, and follow the story from there. And story has to include a problem that arises from plot.

Someday I’ll do a deep dive into when plot, once proudly championed by writers, became a “four-letter word” to many in the writing game. At some time or other it became fashionable to assert that character is primary over plot. It’s actually the exact opposite: True character is only revealed in crisis. Plunge your character into big trouble (plot) and then we’ll see what he or she is made of (character).

If you don’t believe me, imagine a 400 page novel about Scarlett O’Hara where she just sits on the porch all day, sipping mint juleps and flirting with a variety of of beaus. Gone With the Wind only takes off (on page 6) when she finds out Ashley is going to marry Melanie (trouble). And then the Civil War breaks out (big trouble!).

Another way to think about it is this: We all wear masks in our lives. A major crisis forces us to take off the mask and reveal who we really are. That’s the role of conflict in fiction, to rip the mask off the character.

Now, this conflict must be of sufficient magnitude to matter to readers. That’s why I teach that “death stakes” must be involved. Your Lead character must be facing death—which can be physical, professional or psychological.

Genre doesn’t matter. In a literary novel like The Catcher in the Rye, it’s psychological death. Holden Caulfield must find meaning in the world or he will “die inside.” Psychological death is also the key to a category romance. If the two lovers do not get together, they will lose their soul mate. They will die inside and forever have diminished lives. (That’s the feeling you need to create. Think about it. Why was Titanic such a hit with teen girls? It wasn’t because of the special effects!)

In The Silence of the Lambs, it’s professional death on the line. Clarice Starling must help bring down Buffalo Bill in part by playing mind games with Hannibal Lecter. If she doesn’t prevail, another innocent will die (physical death in the subplot) and Clarice’s career will be over.

And in most thrillers, of course, you have the threat of physical death hanging over the whole thing.

That’s why, novelist friend, trouble is indeed your business. Without sufficient conflict readers aren’t going to care enough to finish the book.

Suspense

The second element is suspense, and I don’t just mean in the suspense novel per se. Suspense means to “delay resolution so as to excite anticipation.” Another way to say this is that it’s the opposite of having a predictable story. If the reader keeps guessing what’s going to happen, and is right, there is no great pleasure in reading the novel. It will, in other words, be boring.

We’ve all had the wonderful experience of being so caught up in a story that we have to keep turning the pages. This is where writing technique can be studied and learned and applied. For example, there are various ways you can end a chapter so readers are compelled to read on. I call these “Read on Prompts,” and it was one of the first things I set out to study when I got serious about writing as a career. I went to a used bookstore and bought a bunch of King, Koontz and Grisham. When I’d get to the end of a chapter I’d write in pencil on the page what they did to prompt me to read on.

Again, genre doesn’t matter. You have to be able to excite anticipation and avoid predictability no matter what kind of book you write. Suspense technique helps you to do that. (See also Brother Gilstrap’s post about tension.) I even wrote a book for Writer’s Digest Books with the clever title Conflict & Suspense.

The prodigious pulp writer William Wallace Cook put it this way back in 1923: “Plot…is life responding to environment; and not only is this response always in terms of conflict, but the really great struggle, the epic struggle of creation, is the inner fight of the individual whereby the soul builds up character.”

Believe it.

Comments welcome.

Research Words of Wisdom

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Today’s Words of Wisdom is a follow-up to my post from two weeks ago, this time focusing on advice on doing research for your writing. We have excerpts from posts by Kathleen Pickering, Linda Castillo and James Scott Bell. As always, the full posts are worth reading in full and each is date-linked at the bottom of its excerpt.

Personally, I prefer on-site research for my stories, and so far have been able to use that tool successfully. However, I do rely on the Internet for facts. Ironic as it sounds, I searched the Internet to find guidelines for researching reliable sources on-line. I found the most reliable tips from websites for university libraries. Since the first tip was to check the authority of a source, I thought colleges would offer the most unbiased tools for determining reliable information.

I found when choosing an article, blog, website, government document, historical journal or any resource posted online five key areas should be considered:

  1. The Authority of the author/publisher of information.

You should be able to identify the author of the work/site, his/her credentials, relevant affiliations, and past writings. The article itself should offer information, or sources like Who’s Who, the  author’s home page, or Google search the publishers/author’s name to see what other works support their credentials.

  1. The Objectivity of the author.

What is the motive for your source’s article, blog, website? Does your source admit to a particular bias? Offer historical, medical or industry facts and not opinions, or affiliation viewpoints? Can you compare the information to other independent sites/articles to verify facts?

  1. The Quality of the information:

Do the facts agree with your own knowledge of the subject? Can you insure information is complete and accurate by comparing with other specialists in the field? Does this author list other sources for his/her information, as well? And, believe it or not, check the site, article or blog for grammatical and spelling errors, typos. These usually indicate a non-professional delivery of information, making the facts suspect.

  1. Evaluate Date of information:

When was the information published?  Check the date on the web page for publication date and revision dates. Is the information current? Does it update old facts? Substantiate other materials you’ve read?

  1. Establish Relevance of the information:

Are these facts popular vs. scholarly? (Huffington Post vs. Wall Street Journal)Does the information use raw data, photographs, first-hand accounts, reviews or research reports? Has the information been analyzed and the resources cited? Are footnotes, endnotes or bibliographies listed?

Remember, Wikipedia is no the end-all of resources, since anyone can edit it. And, a rule of thumb is to ensure you tap at least five different sources to verify your facts before accepting your information as usable.

Kathleen Pickering—August 30, 2011

Nothing gets a writer’s creative juices flowing like research. Okay, that’s not exactly true for everyone, but the importance of solid research should never be underestimated.

There are three camps when it comes to that aspect of writing. First, there are the writers who love it. The obsessive-compulsive types who spend days or weeks or even months completely and happily immersed in whatever subject matter they’re about to embark upon.

Then there are writers like me, who walk a center line (not necessarily a straight line.) I research the central external theme of my book. For example, if the story involves a cold case and there’s a dead body in the mix, I’ll read everything I can get my hands on about decomp, forensics, and police procedure regarding old cases. For the smaller details, I research as I write.

And, finally, there are those writers who detest research. Writers who would rather . . . well . . . write than bury their noses in tomes of seemingly extraneous information for weeks on end. They want to get to the story already, and who can blame them if said story is burning—or a tight deadline beckons? Well, slow down, Mr. Type A, because in the end, solid research can save you hours of re-writing—and maybe even save the book.

One thing is certain: A writer can never know too much about his or her subject matter. That is an indisputable fact. Do your research and take the time to do it right. Thorough research will help you write the book. It can help you find that brilliant twist your story is begging for. It adds confidence to your voice. It adds power and credibility to your writing. In the long run, it can save you time. Knowledge and/or expertise cannot be faked, no matter how good a liar you are. If a writer tries to write about a subject he or she doesn’t know squat about, it will show. Readers will know.

A couple of quick caveats:

While it’s true that a writer can never do too much research, keep these two points in mind. Your research should never show. And you shouldn’t hide behind your research because you’re afraid to write the book. Writers, you know what I mean.

Linda Castillo—October 15, 2015

 

Some significant fakery occurs in the classic film, Casablanca. One of the screenwriters, Julius Epstein, once admitted:

There never were Letters of Transit. Germans never wore uniforms in Casablanca, that was part of the Vichy agreement. But we didn’t know what was going on in Casablanca. We didn’t even know where Casablanca was!

But Letters of Transit sounds real. Which is, of course, the key to fakery!

In the 1960s Lawrence Block wrote a paperback series about a world-roaming secret agent named Tanner. When he got the galleys for one of the books he saw an odd term in the text: tobbo shop. What? He checked his own manuscript and saw that he had written tobacco shop. The typesetter had made a mistake. But Block sat back and mused that tobbo shop had a realistic ring to it and besides, how many readers would have been to Bangkok? (I believe he even got some letters from readers who had been there, and did remember those “quaint tobbo shops.”)

Harlan Coben issues a warning about research:

“I think it’s actually a negative for writers sometimes when they’re writing contemporary novels to know too much. First of all, doing research is more fun than writing, so you start getting into the research and you forget to tell your story. And, second, which is on a very parallel track … sometimes you learn all kinds of cute factoids you think are so interesting that you include them in the book, but you weigh the story down. I try not to do that.”

One method I’ve used when writing hot (and not wanting to stop) and I get to a spot where I know I’ll need research, I’ll put in a placeholder (***) and keep writing. I’ll make my best guess about how the scene should go, then do any additions or corrections later.

On the other hand, when writing historical fiction, which demands detail precision, I have to do a lot of research up front. For my series about a young woman lawyer in turn-of-the-century Los Angeles, I spent many, many hours in the downtown L.A. library, poring over microfilm of the newspapers of the day. I have two huge binders full of this research, and I’m really proud of the results. But man, it’s hard work (am I right, Clare?)

But it’s worth it. When the first book came out almost twenty years ago it sold great and got uniformly positive reviews, several mentioning the historical accuracy. I did, however, get a physical letter (remember those?) from the curator of a telephone museum! He said he enjoyed the book, but there was one little detail about my lead, Kit Shannon, using a wall telephone, that I got wrong. The one guy in the United States who would have noticed this happened to read my book!

Naturally, it was not plausible to dump all the books in the warehouse to change that teeny, tiny thing. And who else was going to notice? But it rankled me, nonetheless.

When I got the rights back to the series, that was the only thing I wanted to change. All those years later I was still mad about it! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the letter from the museum guy. I decided to try to find him online. Instead I found another museum and emailed somebody there, explaining the detail. In return, I got a nice email back telling me there was a model of telephone that operated exactly like I had it. It would have been used only by very wealthy people.

Which is how it was in my book. Kit lives with her wealthy great aunt in the posh section of town known as Angeleno Heights.

***

Today, there are areas in your fiction that you’d better get right or you’ll hear about it, boy howdy. Perhaps the biggest of these is weapons. If you have your hero cocking the hammer of his Glock, expect a flood of abuse letting you know that a Glock has no hammer. (And if Gilstrap reads your book, duck, because he’ll be throwing it at you.) If you have your hero shoving another clip into his Beretta, you’ll have an irate horde telling you to shove … never mind, just note that a clip is not a magazine.

If you’re not accurate about a place, you’ll hear from people who live there. This is partly why I base most of my books in my hometown of Los Angeles. I grew up here. I know it. That it also happens to be the greatest crime-noir city is a bonus.

But sometimes I want to venture forth. In some instances, to save me from a cumbersome research trip, I simply make up a town and slap it down somewhere. If people want to take the time to look it up and find out it doesn’t exist, they’ll know I made it up and accept it. Ross Macdonald and Sue Grafton set their series in Santa Teresa, a stand-in for Santa Barbara that allowed them plenty of leeway to make up locations within. No one’s complaining.

James Scott Bell—May 10, 2020

***

  1. What’s your approach to researching a subject for your own writing? Do you do a deep dive beforehand, or leave that for after?
  2. How do you verify your research?
  3. Have you ever fallen down a research rabbit hole?
  4. Do you invent places such as letters of transit or the wonderfully accidentally “Tobo shop?” If so, any advice?

I’m at my annual Rainforest writer’s retreat this weekend, so my internet access will be spotty, but I’ll try and pop in when I can. In the meantime, please comment on your own approach to research.

Reader Friday-Bring Back The Face!

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(This post was born on my own website, and I thought it would strike a chord with the TKZ folks also.)

What’s the most recognizable part of the human body? The thing that defines who we are to each other? Other than fingerprints and DNA.

Our bodies have similarities. People are designed with two arms ending in hands, two legs ending in feet, twenty digits, a head, neck, and torso. Requisite musculature and frame to make everything work, surrounding and protecting our inner organs.

Aside from those born with health issues and anomalies, the human race looks and moves pretty much alike.

Except for the face. The human face. Infinite variety.

 

We could say the same about all species. But we, more often than not, cannot tell others of a different species apart by looking at the creature’s face. Perhaps individuals in that other species can recognize a face within their species, but evidence points to other indicators. Like the zebra baby who knows its mother by her stripes.

I had a disturbing dream last night. In the dream, I moved through groups of people—people who talked to each other. In an office, a hospital, a grocery store, on the streets and sidewalks. Everywhere I looked, people were talking to each other. Some argued, some spoke words of love, some asked those mundane questions we ask of each other upon meeting. Just everyday conversation.

But something was very wrong, as often happens in dreams. No one faced each other. Each group of two, three, or more faced away from each other, standing back to back as they spoke. I began to cry when I saw two of my friends speaking to each other, but not looking at each other. I thought, how sad. Is this where we’re headed?

 

Let’s bring back the face. Lest we forget what we look like to each other.

Your comments are most welcome!

 

Beware the Wolves Out There

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Scams and scammers are as old as the Bible (and fairy tales). Check out Genesis 27, where Moses records Jacob’s scheme to scam his brother Esau out of his inheritance with the help of his mother. Nowadays, dream stealers use the internet to ply their trade. If you’re a writer, you’ve probably received at least one letter telling you how wonderful your book is and how the sender can get you more sales or a movie contract. Some are quite well-written, and at first glance, sound like a wonderful opportunity. I copied this one from an email I received:

Dear Patricia, (Times New Roman font while the rest of the message is in Verdana)

I hope this email finds you well. My name is Jonathan Fuhrman, and I am a Senior Production Executive at Castle Rock Entertainment reaching out to you on behalf of my team. We are currently on the lookout for captivating books that have the potential to be adapted into compelling content for Castle Rock Entertainment, either as a series or a full-length feature film.

We have an exciting opportunity for a potential collaboration. We believe that your book has the potential to translate beautifully onto the screen, and we’re keen to explore the idea of adapting it into a feature film.

I would love to invite you to sit down with me and some of our investors to discuss this opportunity further. It’s a chance for us to brainstorm ideas, share our vision for the project, and explore how we can work together to bring your story to life on the big screen.

Additionally, we are prepared to offer a contract that outlines the terms of our collaboration, ensuring that both parties are clear on expectations and benefits.

I understand that this is a big decision, and there may be questions or concerns you’d like to address before moving forward. Please know that I’m here to answer any queries you may have and to provide any additional information you require.

Please let me know a convenient time for you to meet, and I’ll make sure to coordinate with our team to arrange everything accordingly.

Looking forward to the possibility of working together and bringing your vision to audiences worldwide.

Warm regards,
Jonathan Fuhrman
EVP and Head of Business Affairs

E:Jonathan@castlerockentertainment.com
A: 335 N Maple Dr, Beverly Hills, California
Can you imagine how I felt? Jonathan Fuhrman! The Jonathan Fuhrman and Castle Rock Entertainment! If you’re like most writers, including me, you have dreams of seeing your book on TV or the big screen. But you know the old saying…if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

My first niggle of doubt started with the greeting. It was a different font than the rest. My second niggle—if Castle Rock Entertainment found me and my book on the ‘net, why didn’t they discover I had an agent? That’s who they should have contacted. So I googled Jonathan Fuhrman and Castle Rock Entertainment scams, and there it was along with the story of a woman who’d responded to the email and lost a bunch of money. The money wasn’t why she was so angry, though. She was angry because the scammer had preyed on her dreams and had gotten her hopes up, only for them to come crashing down. She was left feeling like a fool for not recognizing the email for the scam it was.

Always check, double-check, and even triple-check someone’s credentials before giving them your money.

Another email popped into my inbox with the following subject line and greeting: Re: Fatal Witness (Pearl River Book #2) — A K-9 Cold Case, Buried Identities, and a Relentless Search for Truth
Dear Bradley Caffee,
I hope you have been well. I wanted to gently reconnect regarding my previous message about a potential feature conversation centered on Sides. (Note: I don’t have a book by that title, and my name isn’t Bradley Caffee.) What continues to stand out to us is not only the high concept premise of Zero Hour and avatar transformation, but the psychological and ethical undercurrent running beneath it. The idea of players physically becoming their digital selves feels less like spectacle and more like a sharp metaphor for the identities we curate, inhabit, and sometimes lose control of in an increasingly immersive world. The national countdown atmosphere, the cultural frenzy, and the ripple effect of a single design decision all contribute to a narrative that feels both gripping and unsettlingly plausible…

Evidently, the AI program got its books mixed up.

The problem is, despite their mess-ups, AI is getting better and better at sounding authentic. One excellent site for checking for scammers is on Writer Beware. Here’s the link: https://writerbeware.blog/2024/03/15/the-impersonation-list/

Now it’s your turn, TKZ. Any tips or comments on avoiding scammers?

 

Five Tips For Increasing Tension

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By John Gilstrap

When I teach at conferences and workshops, sooner or later, someone asks about tension. What is the secret for continually raising the stakes to keep the reader engaged?

The short answer is that tension isn’t magic. It’s engineering. It’s not something your characters generate while you sit back and admire their spontaneity. (If yours do that, please send them to my house. Mine mostly demand coffee and complain about the weather.) Tension is built one writerly decision at a time. Here are some things to think about:

1. Hurt Someone (Strategically)

If a scene feels flat, it’s often because no one is in jeopardy. Particularly in thrillers, happy people doing happy things happily is boring. Readers lean forward when they sense consequence and lean back when they sense safety.

I once fixed a third-act problem by shooting a character—not because I enjoy random mayhem, but because the story needed destabilizing. The moment the gun went off, the emotional geometry of the scene changed. Loyalties shifted. People had to react. That’s tension.

You don’t always have to fire a bullet; sometimes you fire a truth, a betrayal, a revelation that rearranges the emotional furniture. But if nothing in the scene forces a reaction—if no one bleeds, physically or emotionally—you’re not building tension; you’re decorating prose.

2. Put a Clock on It

Human beings are remarkably calm about catastrophe—right up until there’s a deadline. A bomb that will explode “someday” is background noise; a bomb that will explode at 6:42 p.m. sharp is a crisis. Time pressure forces decisions and eliminates the luxury of perfect plans. It makes smart characters make stupid decisions, and stupid decisions create complications, which is where tension thrives. When you compress time, you compress options. Suddenly every delay matters, every detour carries risk, and every conversation feels like it’s stealing seconds from survival. Nothing sharpens a scene like a ticking clock, and nothing sharpens a character like urgency.

3. Close the Exits

Sensible choices and logical escape routes poison thrillers. If your protagonist can call for backup, the sensible choice is to wait for help to arrive. If they can break contact without consequence, they probably should. If they can confess and clear everything up, why wouldn’t they?

To build tension, take those options away. Maybe calling for backup exposes a secret that destroys a career. Maybe walking away means abandoning someone who will then suffer. Maybe confessing will land the wrong person in prison. Tension lives where every available choice carries a cost, and the protagonist has to choose anyway. When I feel a scene sagging, I ask myself, “Where’s the easiest pathway to safety?” Then I remove it. Leave your character with only hard paths forward.

4. Let the Reader See the Trap

One of the most delicious forms of tension happens when the reader knows something the hero doesn’t. You show the antagonist making preparations. You let the reader glimpse the ambush before the protagonist walks into it. Suddenly, every line of of the story can vibrate with subtext. The hero reaches for a doorknob, and the reader is already whispering, “Don’t.” You’ve got to be careful here because the balance is delicate. Reveal too much and you drain suspense; reveal too little and you muddle the plot.

5. Escalate Consequences, Not Just Action

More gunfire does not automatically equal more tension. I’ve read scenes with explosions that felt sleepy and conversations in parked cars that vibrated with tension. The difference is stakes. Tension isn’t about volume; it’s about consequence. Start small—a lie that might be discovered, a trust that might be broken—then widen the blast radius to a career, a marriage, a life. Maybe more. But escalate in layers and earn each step.

This is where my retired engineer’s mind kicks in. A story is built in layers. The world of someone we like turns sideways, and somehow he has to cope with the crisis. But that crisis is only the beginning because his strategy to solve the problem triggers an even worse problem. Tension truly is engineered into a story.

What about you, TKZ family? Any strategy or tactics you’d like to share for engineering tension?

Is There Such A Thing As
Good Procrastination?

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By PJ Parrish

Well, gee, thanks a lot, Sue.

Yesterday, my cohort Sue Coletta here at TKZ posted a blog about overcoming procrastination.Click here to read. I am fighting with this lately because I have a short story due for an anthology and it’s not going well. Sue suggested that I am not just lazy or unmotivated. (Which, in truth, I often am). Sue blinded me with SCIENCE!

She wrote that there is a conflict raging in my brain, a tug of war between my prefrontal cortex and my limbic system. The cortex is sending a signal to my limbic system that says, “C’mon, it’s time to work.” And here I must quote from her.

Because your limbic system is like an unruly teen who seeks only pleasure and avoids pain or discomfort, it often returns a signal that says, “Let’s do something else that feels good right now.”

I feel much better knowing there is something to blame for sitting on my butt watching Project Runway reruns while my garden goes primal and my short story is on a time-out. But to cut me some slack, I’ve got a lot of life things goes on right now and am battling a lingering bout with that flu bug that’s going around. So when the going gets tough around my house, the tough…

Fold laundry. (I’m very good at this)
Do the Spelling Bee in the Times. (must get Queen Bee status!)
Lament the retirement of Tim Gunn
Kill fire ants. Which have created a Saharan lanscape in my sad garden
Go to Home Depot for Amdro but wander around the hardware aisle 14/15, where arcane fasteners and screws are on display like trinkets in a Casablancan bazaar. (Pictured below: a Hex Washer Head Self-Drilling Sheet Metal Screw. I can waste a half hour trying to imagine what this is for.)

MYWISH #10 x 3/4 in. Stainless Steel Hex Washer Head Self Drilling Sheet Metal Screws (300-Pack)
What I am trying to say here is that I think there is such a thing as good procrastination. Some days, the mind just cannot focus on the real task at hand — writing.

Here is a truth about writing that I believe intensely:

To write well and steadily, you have to give yourself over to a fantasy world. You are the godhead of that world. You are creating the landscape (let there be English moors!). You are moving your population through time and space (the plot is dragging. Let’s have Moses part the Red Sea!). And most importantly, you are making your make-believe people breath and live on the page with such heart and agility that they feel real.  Do you guys realize how hard that is? Do you know how rare is it when it all comes together in a great story? To write well, you have to enter a rem state. You have to give in to vivid dreams, an increased heart rate, with your brain engaged and limbs a tingle. And you have to do this while being completely awake, aware, and preferably sober.

 

(I often watch my dog Archie when he’s asleep. He barks, twitches, yips and lollops his legs. I watch him with envy, wondering what great stories he is creating in his mind.)

I know many of you are disciplined and dogged in your writing schedules. You write every day, no matter what. Some of you keep diaries of your output. You embed yourself in your fantasy world and stay there for hours. I can’t do that. I have tried, so very very hard. But it just isn’t how I roll as a writer.

When I was writing novels full-time, I had to force myself to write every day because I was on a contract to produce a book every 8-10 months. But I confess that for me, staying in that rem state every day was exhausting. At times, I even resented it.

So I learned to take breaks. I learned how to procrastinate productively. Mainly through physical activities like running or biking. Or sometimes just watching old movies. Or I just fold laundry. My mind clears and I go back to writing with an open heart. Sometimes I take a break for a day or two. Sometimes it runs a whole week. But here’s the weird thing…

Whenever I leave my story, I can always feel this thread keeping me bound to it. Even when I am away from writing, I feel a subconscious connection to it.

Astral Cord Stock Illustrations – 4 Astral Cord Stock Illustrations, Vectors & Clipart - Dreamstime

The idea of a string connecting worlds and people is common in myth, literature, and most religions. The astral cord, or “silver cord,” is a metaphysical concept describing a luminous and indestructible tether connecting the physical body to the astral body (soul/consciousness) during out-of-body experiences, sleep, or astral projection.

Allow me one final digression.

Cinema Paradiso is one of my favorite movies. It is about a boy in a tiny Italian village whose beloved father figure Alfredo tells him to leave the village to find his way in the world. Never come back here, Toto, he says. At the movie’s end, the grown Toto returns to his village for the first time for Alfredo’s funeral. We don’t see Toto greeting his elderly mother. To track the reunion, the camera focuses on her knitting needles and yarn. As the mother heads downstairs to meet her son, we see the yarn unraveling and then it stops. The camera pans left to the window as they embrace. The thread between Toto’s two worlds is fragile but unbroken.

So it is with me. Yes, I procrastinate. But I am always pulled back. Sometimes it feels heavy like a good rope, pulling me back up from the depths. Sometimes it feels flimsy, like a kite string, ready to snap when some hard life wind blows through. Sometimes it feels like a cord through which some electric current pulsates.

But it is always there. I am away from my fantasy world but I am always tethered to it.

Why We Procrastinate and How To Stop

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Many believe those who procrastinate are lazy or unmotivated. It can be true of some, I suppose. Most, however, are caught in a torturous loop that stems from the brain. Once you fall prey to these endless cycles, it’s difficult to claw your way out.

A War Rages Inside the Brain

There are two culprits triggering procrastination.

The prefrontal cortex, responsible for:

  • Planning
  • Decision-Making
  • Abstract Concepts
  • Goals

And the limbic system, which regulates:

  • Pleasure
  • Fear
  • Reward
  • Arousal

Note how the prefrontal cortex’s job centers around self-control and the limbic system’s responsibilities are all emotional based.

When you have a task to complete, your prefrontal cortex sends a signal to your limbic system that says, “C’mon, it’s time to work.” Because your limbic system is like an unruly teen who seeks only pleasure and avoids pain or discomfort, it often returns a signal that says, “Let’s do something else that feels good right now.”

Procrastination is the war between the two, and we’re caught in the middle. Social media and other online activities have only worsened the problem, resulting in more and more procrastination. Devices like iPhones don’t help by trying to guilt you into increasing your screen time. Don’t fall for it. They do not have your best interests in mind.

Though procrastination may feel good in the moment — the limbic system tricking you into believing your actions are justified — that nagging task lingers in the prefrontal cortex, which leads to guilt, anxiety, and stress. Once you start procrastinating, it’s difficult to stop, because the limbic system rewards you with dopamine, the feel-good hormone.

Those stuck in this torturous loop know they should work on that project, but their mind is in turmoil. Add in real-life stressors, and procrastination worsens.

Yes, I speak from experience. After leaving my husband of twenty-seven years, starting a new life in a new area, moving again to another new area, where I bought my home, I had plenty of reasons to justify procrastination. Thankfully, I also took a year-long break from social media, which helped maintain my inner peace.

For those of us who didn’t grow up with the internet, the “noise” can be downright deafening at times. I also had to learn how to do “guy jobs.” Please don’t jump all over me for that comment. I know it’s sexist, but I never mowed a lawn or used a snow blower before. New England’s constant snowstorms and blizzards this year has forced me to use muscles I didn’t know I possessed. 🙂 There’s an art to snow blowing — it’s become another creative outlet for me, only with aches and pain afterward. LOL

The most important thing that saved me from endless procrastination was my longtime belief in mindfulness, the practice and awareness of living in the moment.

How To Cure Procrastination

Step #1: Realize what’s happening in your brain.

I solved that for you today, but feel free to study more about this war inside you. Fascinating research.

Step #2: Practice mindfulness.

An easy way to begin the practice of mindfulness is to walk outside. Stop. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths, the benefits of which we’ve discussed before.

What do you hear? Birdsong? Pinpoint where without opening your eyes. Is there a pattern to his song, or is he communicating with another?

For weeks, I listened to this tiny wood thrush who nests on my covered porch. Amazing little birds that can easily sing over fifty unique songs and can even sing two different melodies at once. I thought he was singing just to sing, until I noticed him stop to listen. Sure enough, another wood thrush sang back.

My breath halted. Since males try to out-sing each other, this must be a singing competition.

I was so invested in rooting for my little porch buddy, nothing else mattered in those precious moments.

What do you smell? The sticky sap of a pine tree? Smoke from a campfire or woodstove? Pinpoint where without opening your eyes.

What do you feel? Focus your awareness on your skin. Is the wind cool against your cheek? Does the sun warm your scalp?

What do you sense? You most certainly are not alone. Wildlife surrounds you, even in the city. Stand in the moment and engage all your senses, except sight. By taking away the ability to see, you must rely on your other senses.

When you’re done, take three steps forward. Start over. There’s one catch — you cannot list anything you already mentioned. This will force you to dig deeper, concentrate harder, your awareness opening like rose petals. Repeat at least three or four times. With each step forward, you’re healing your mind, body, and spirit.

Mindfulness is an important life skill to master.

Besides being a cure for procrastination, mindfulness has many health benefits:

  • Reduces stress
  • Reduces anxiety
  • Fights depression
  • Improves focus and memory
  • Lowers blood pressure
  • Boosts immunity
  • Improves sleep
  • Manages chronic pain and illness

Step #3: Work on the project you’ve been avoiding for five minutes. Your limbic system will reward you with a dopamine hit — good job! You did it! If you struggle to continue past five minutes, that’s fine. Stop there. Do this every day. Soon, you’ll be so invested in the project, five minutes will turn into fifteen, thirty, one hour, or more.

Though writers are not immune to procrastination — some say, we’re the poster children for it — it does help to have a regular writing routine. Walking into an office or sliding on headphones sends a silent signal to the brain that it’s time to work, but that doesn’t mean the limbic system won’t respond with, “Let’s play instead.”

The next time you find yourself scrolling on social media instead of completing a task, take a moment to ask yourself why. Are you procrastinating or do you need a break? If it’s the latter, enjoy. Mindless fun is important, too. If it’s the former, put down the phone and walk outside. Please don’t tell me it’s too cold. I’ve been out there in double negative degree temps and survived just fine. Bundle up. It’s worth the effort. What you’ll experience is the cure for what ails you.

If, for health or mobility issues, you are unable to go outside, use the body scan method to practice mindfulness. Lie Lay Recline in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Deep breathe for a few rounds. Then focus on your feet. Note how your heels touch the surface below them. Do your toes tingle? If you concentrate long enough, you’ll feel blood flowing through your feet.

Next, take note of your ankles. Little by little, work your way up your body. When you reach each organ, envision how it works inside your body. Once you reach your scalp, you may open your eyes.

The body scan method also works for insomnia.

What do you think about this war inside your brain? 

Playing The Writing Game

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

It helps to think of writing as a game.

We all want to make some scratch from our efforts to tell a great story. We all, at one time or another, have a dream of appearing on Today touting our upcoming #1 NYT bestseller. Then we wake up.

Side story: I was once in a Starbucks when Bruce Jenner, the Gold Medal decathlete, came in. I’d been a Decathlon fan as a boy after watching The Bob Mathias Story (starring Bob Mathias himself) on TV. Mathias was the first two-time Gold Medalist in the Decathlon, and one of the greatest athletes we’ve ever produced. So, wiseacre that I am, I sidled up to Bruce and said, “Say, aren’t you Bob Mathias?” To his credit, he cracked up, and we had a nice little conversation, in which I said, “I dreamed of being a Decathlete.” Bruce: “And then you woke up?”

I relate that because part of being a champion in any sport is a matter of two things: natural talent and hard work. I could have worked harder at the Decathlon than anyone in the world, but I just didn’t have the industrial springs in my legs that Jenner and Mathias were born with. My sport was basketball and I worked at it, got to be good enough to play in college, but I didn’t have the hops of a Michael Jordan, though I humbly assert that had I been six inches taller I might have given Larry Bird a run for his money (I could shoot lights out).

So there’s talent and work involved in any successful enterprise. Which is why I often think of this writing gig like my favorite game, backgammon.

This ancient game has been around for 5,000 years, and is brilliantly conceived. Dice are involved, so there’s always an element of chance. A player who is way behind still might win if the dice give him a roll he needs at just the right time. But there’s also strategy, which means you need the ability to think, which is something you’re born with. You can develop the latter through work, which is what education used to be about. (Don’t get me started.)

There’s one other element of backgammon—risk. The “doubling cube” allows a player at any point to double the stakes. The other player may decline and forfeit the game for the original bet (playing for penny stakes is enough, which is a good reason to keep pennies in circulation!). Or he may accept the risk and later, should things change favorably, double back.

So someone who knows how to think strategically, can calculate odds, and take risks at the right time will win more often than the average player who depends mostly on the rolling bones.

Early on I studied the game by reading books. I memorized the best opening moves for each roll. I learned how to think about what’s called the “back game,” what the best “points” are to cover, and when it might pay off to leave a “blot.”

And I played a lot of games with friends and, later, on a computer. I discovered a couple of killer, though risky, opening moves. I use them because they can pay off big time, though when they don’t I find myself behind. But I’m willing to take these early chances because they are not foolhardy and I’m confident enough in my skills that I can still come back.

This, it seems to me, is analogous to the writing life. There is luck involved. I sold my first novel because I happened to be at a convention with an author I had met on a plane. This new acquaintance showed me around the floor, introduced me to people. One of them was a publisher he knew. That publisher just happened to be starting a new publishing house and was looking for material. I pitched him my book and he bought it a few weeks later.

But I was also ready for that moment. I had been studying the craft for several years and was committed to a weekly quota of words. I’d written several screenplays and at least one messy novel before completing the project I had with me at the convention.

Thus, as in backgammon, the greater your skill, the better your chances. The harder you work, the more skill you acquire. The old saw “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” certainly applies.

There are different talent levels, but that’s not something you have any control over. And someone with less talent who works hard often outperforms the gifted but lazy writer.

Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll always win big in any one game. Far from it. If the dice are not your friends, things might not turn out as planned. That book you thought was a sure winner might not be.

But if you love writing, you don’t stop playing.

And don’t ever worry about the dice. You cannot control them, not even if you shake them hard and shout, “Baby needs a new pair of shoes!” The vagaries of the book market are out of your hands.

Just continue to work, write, play and take some risks. It’s a game, after all.

Comments welcome.

NOTE: This post partially adapted from and brought to you by How to Make a Living as a Writer and The Mental Game of Writing.