Every Book is Different

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Every Book is Different
Terry Odell

There are no hard and fast ‘rules’ about how to write a novel. There are plotters who spend months writing detailed outlines. There are those who have a plot in mind. There are those who have to dive into the lives of their characters before they can put fingers to keyboard. There are those who write the first draft longhand. An author friend has to have a picture of her hero before she can start. Others need a title. Some write scenes on note cards. Some write them using plotting/writing software. And some write a sentence, see where it goes, then write another, and another, and another.

When I was still regarding writing as a fun thing to do, I joined a local chapter of RWA on the advice of others who said I’d learn about more than just writing a romance. My first meeting, there was a lot of talk about how to map out a story board for the typical 20 chapter category romance.

I knew I wasn’t writing a category romance, but the idea of blocking out 20 blank boxes on a foam core board or a poster board looked interesting. I went to my local craft store, bought a package of 3 foamcore boards, and marked them into 20 sections. I managed to have a rough idea of what should happen in the first 3 chapters, and then everything fizzled. Detailed plotting wasn’t going to work for me.

Since I write in a deep point of view, I need to know my characters. But interviewing them in depth before starting to write seemed like a waste of precious writing time. I didn’t need to know what they looked like until I had to describe them. Or what their favorite song, food, color, or astrological sign was. We’re not writing on stone tablets, so we can go back and make adjustments as needed.

For “Seeing Red”, I’d always wanted to use the line “He’s dead, Jim.” So, I wrote that and kept going. It didn’t end up being the first line in the book, but it gave me a start.

In another, I had an idea for my opening “gambit” in a Blackthorne novel, but when I did a little research, I discovered something that had me abandoning the original premise for the main plot of the book. I had one book where the title came first. I’d finished my first novel, and decided I kind of liked the gig, so I wanted to try another. I created a file folder called “Starting Over” which ended up being the title of the book (since changed after I got the rights back).

I’m writing my thirty-somethingth novel. Yes, someday I should go to my website’s book page and count them, but for me it’s just “Write the next book” and don’t worry about giving it a number. I’ve used numerous approaches.

What’s my method? This one’s a total jumble. I knew it would be a Blackthorne, which gave me a rough framework. I knew it would be someone from the Security and Investigations Department, not Covert Ops. Because it was a Blackthorne, it would be a romantic suspense (or, as I prefer to call it, a “mystery with a relationship”). I also knew that it would be set in Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands. Not because I couldn’t wait to set a book there, but because—and I’ve done this a few times before—I’d gone there on a photography trip and writing a book expands that photography trip into a research trip.

I opened a Word document and stared at the blank page for a while. All I knew at this point was I had an investigator who had to get to Copenhagen. I came up with this:

The vibration of Logan Bolt’s cell phone gave him a welcome excuse for a break from his run. He debated waiting until he’d finished—only two miles to go—but the ringtone said the call was from Ryan Harper. His boss at Blackthorne, Inc. Logan slowed to a jog, then a walk, then extricated the phone from the belt at his waist.

Not much, but I had a character who was interrupted by a call from his boss. Usually not a good thing.

And then the questions, the whys and what ifs began.

Often, I’d write the questions on paper, where I could draw circles and arrows and a paragraph about each one, but this time, I opened another document and jotted things down there. It looked like this:

Hero:
Investigator, Logan Bolt
Not covert ops. Security and Investigations
Boss – Ryan Harper
Limited language experience. Born in the US
Why in Copenhagen? Connection?
Lots of bicycles
Little mermaid statue
Castles/history
R&R after injury on op? Mental fatigue?
Visiting relatives/friends?
Grandmother dying? Sister? Grandmother used in Cruising Undercover.
Where are his parents?
Blackthorne mission?
Find and bring back daughter of political bigwig? Industrialist?
Father? Mother? Alive? Dead?
Siblings?

Heroine:
Madison Bright Westfield
She holds secret? Someone wants it?
Running away?
Kidnapped?
Tracked to Copenhagen or Faroes? Schengen area; passports not needed to get from one to another member country
No desire to support her father’s/family’s business(es). Diametrically opposed to what they stand for.
Changed her name to avoid connection?
Conservationist? Puffin tie-in?
Photography tie-in?
Has to get to Faroes. Why?
Mykines – puffins
Sudoroy – southernmost island. Ferry.

I started writing, answering some of these questions. I’d written five chapters before I realized I hadn’t put the heroine on the page yet, and since I write my romantic suspense books with alternating hero/heroine POV scenes, I gave myself a quick mental head slap and wrote her first scene. Where will it go? I’m not sure, but I think it might belong as Chapter 1. And I’ll need more scenes from her POV, which means I’m—gasp—writing out of order. I don’t do that. Until I do.

What about you, TKZers? Do you have a ‘tried and true’ method for writing, or does it change from book to book?

New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

When your dream assignment turns into more than you bargained for
Cover of Double Intrigue, an International Romantic Suspense by Terry Odell Shalah Kennedy has dreams of becoming a senior travel advisor—one who actually gets to travel. Her big break comes when the agency’s “Golden Girl” is hospitalized and Shalah is sent on a Danube River cruise in her place. She’s the only advisor in the agency with a knowledge of photography, and she’s determined to get stunning images for the agency’s website.
Aleksy Jakes wants out. He’s been working for an unscrupulous taskmaster in Prague, and he’s had enough. When he spots one of his coworkers in a Prague hotel restaurant, he’s shocked to discover she’s not who he thought she was.
As Shalah and Aleksy cruise along the Danube, the simple excursion soon becomes an adventure neither of them imagined.

Like bang for your buck? I have a new Mapleton Bundle. Books 4, 5, and 6 for one low price.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Greatest Hits from the 2024 Flathead River Writers Conference Part 1

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2024 Flathead Writers Conference
Photo credit: David Snyder

by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

The 34th Flathead River Writers Conference was October 5-6, 2024. The conference is always good, but this year was stellar with superb speakers and enthusiastic interaction among attendees.

As I drafted this post from my notes, it kept growing with more information that needed to be included. As a result, it ran way too long for a single post. So I’m dividing it into two. Today is Part 1 of the greatest hits from the event. Part 2 will follow in a couple of weeks.

~~~

Debra Magpie Earling

Debra Magpie Earling (Native-American author of The Lost Journals of Sacajawea and Perma Red) gave the moving keynote which set the tone that continued through the entire weekend.

Debra opened with a description of “wonder”, which she defined as “surprise mingled with admiration.” She went on to tell a story of wonder about the last Christmas she spent with her dying mother. On a peaceful Montana night, she described their visit as like “being inside a snow globe.”

Her mother said, “When I die, I’ll send you a sign. A hummingbird.” Debra went along with her mom but had her doubts. After all, hummingbirds are common at her home during summer so how would she ever know which one was the sign?

Nevertheless, after her mother passed, the following spring Debra set up many feeders and waited.

It was a strange summer. Other bird species came and went. Crows sat on the feeders. But not a single hummingbird appeared.

On the evening of her mother’s birthday in July, Debra and her husband were sitting outside and Debra said, “Well, I guess she didn’t send the sign.”

At that moment, the only hummingbird of the year appeared. It flew to Debra’s forehead and hovered for a few minutes then left.

Debra and her husband asked each other, “Did you see that? Is that what I think it was?”

With that anecdote, she summed up the magical wonder of storytelling, the conference theme.

While talking about where inspiration comes from, Debra said, “The muse is a lot of dead people who want their stories told.”

That sentence sent chills through me. Recently I’ve considered writing historical fiction. Did Debra send me a sign that it’s time to explore the past?

~~~

Danica Winters

Million-selling Harlequin romantic suspense novelist Danica Winters told the audience, “This is not your grandmother’s bodice ripper.” Romance sales account for an astounding $1.4 billion each year.

Today’s variations are limitless: contemporary, historical, erotica, Young Adult, thriller/suspense, LGBTQ+, dark romance, paranormal, holiday, fantasy/romantasy. Even serious social issues like human trafficking find their way into romances.

Why are they so popular? Danica believes, “They are everyone’s escape. They bring joy and make people laugh. Romance is a promise. We writers are entertainers.”

Danica sells many more paperbacks than ebooks, unlike other genres where ebooks dominate. She added an interesting market detail: When Walmart changed its shelving to hold 6″ by 9″ books, that prompted publishers to shift book production to that same size because Walmart is such a huge market.

While most romance readers are women, Danica said about 20% are men, often in law enforcement and the military. Turns out even alpha males like escape, too.

~~~

Leslie Budewitz

Three-time Agatha winner Leslie Budewitz focused on crime fiction with an excellent summation of differences within the genre.

  • Mystery is “What Happened?”
  • Suspense is “What’s Happening?”
  • Thriller is “What Might Happen?”

Leslie has her finger on the pulse of the cozy market and talked about shifts within the genre, including a new trend of millennial cozies that include some swearing and adult language.

For a cozy, the semiofficial acceptable body count is three. So far, Leslie has only had two murders in one book.

With 19 published books, Leslie must keep track of two amateur sleuth series and multiple standalone suspense novels. She developed an ingenious system to avoid repetition of plots and characters. For each book, she creates a spreadsheet with the following headings:

Victim              Killer/Method             Suspects          Motive            VGR

What is VGR? The Very Good Reason why the amateur sleuth gets involved in a crime.

~~~

Kathy Dunnehoff

Only a truly gifted writing teacher can make grammar entertaining. That describes longtime college instructor Kathy Dunnehoff, author of bestselling romantic comedies and screenplays.

Kathy offered nuts and bolts hacks to improve writing productivity.

  • Measure your success by what you control, not by factors outside your control. Success is the number of words you produce.
  • Use a writing calendar to track production either by word count or minutes…as long as that time is spent actually writing. Watching goat yoga or doomscrolling doesn’t count.
  • When you don’t write, record your excuse in the calendar. Talk about making yourself accountable!
  • Recognize procrastination in its many disguises: research, reorganizing your office, talking about writing rather that writing, etc.
  • When revising, try the “Frankenstein Method” (from Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel): Start a new document for the second draft, then copy and paste sections from the first draft.
  • There is no extra credit for suffering!

~~~

On Saturday evening, our local indie shop, the BookShelf, hosted a reception for conference attendees and speakers. Gather a bunch of writers in a bookstore and we’re more excited than dogs at the dog park. Even though people mock-complained their brains were overloaded and they were exhausted, no one wanted to leave. All that creative energy kept us buoyed and eager for the following day.

Come back here in two weeks for Part 2 of the Greatest Hits from the Flathead River Writers Conference. Highlights include freelance article writing, side hustles to supplement income from book sales, anatomy of a publicity campaign, and 16 questions an agent asks when assessing a manuscript.

~~~

TKZers: Do any of the ideas mentioned resonate with you? What is your favorite productivity hack?

~~~

Conferences are also a good venue to sell books and I did!

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, Cover by Brian Hoffman

 

 

Please check out my latest thriller Fruit of the Poisonous Tree at this link.

Characters: Round and Flat

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“You can never know enough about your characters.” —W. Somerset Maugham

* * *

In his work Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster introduced the concept of round and flat characters (i.e., three-dimensional and two-dimensional.)

Round Characters

Basically, round characters are defined by their complexity. They are likely to have complicated personalities and wrestle with life’s issues.

According to masterclass.com,

“A round character is deep and layered character in a story. Round characters are interesting to audiences because they feel like real people; audiences often feel invested in these characters’ goals, successes, failures, strengths, and weaknesses.”

Characters cited as examples of roundness are Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Huck Finn in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Forster says most Russian novels are filled with round characters. He believed all the principal characters in War and Peace and all of Dostoevsky’s characters are round. Russian authors are apparently fond of complexity.

When we discuss characterization on TKZ, we often talk about adding complexity to our characters, whether they’re major or minor. We want multi-dimensional characters that engage the reader. But according to Forster, the use of flat characters can be very effective as well.

Flat Characters

For example, here’s an excerpt about flat characters from Aspects of the Novel:

“In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality: when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round.”

Forster goes on to explain that flat characters are easily recognized and easily remembered by whatever one quality defines them.

Flat characters are often humorous, and readers have a certain comfort in knowing the flat character won’t change over the course of the story. Their singular quality will remain intact. The bumbling sidekick is one such character. He breaks the tension in the story, and you know he’ll trip and fall into a mud puddle or spill coffee in someone’s lap whenever he appears.

Flat characters can often be summed up in one sentence. For example, in his audio course “Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques,” James Hynes defined Huckleberry Finn’s father, Pap Finn, as flat. Pap could easily be described as “a mean drunk.”

Although we think of flatness mostly in terms of minor characters, major characters can also be flat. Forster cites the author Charles Dickens as a case in point.

“The case of Dickens is significant. Dickens’ people are nearly all flat…. Part of the genius of Dickens is that he does use types and caricatures, people whom we recognize the instant they re-enter, and yet achieves effects that are not mechanical and a vision of humanity that is not shallow.”

In his lecture, James Hynes also mentioned Sherlock Holmes as an example of a main character who is flat. Holmes rarely changes in Doyle’s novels. He’s always the perfect human automaton who solves crimes by his amazing powers of deduction. Yet Holmes was such a wildly popular main character that when Sir Arthur killed him off, the public outcry was so loud, he had to find a way to bring Holmes back for future books.

* * *

But whether your characters are round or flat,

“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”—Ray Bradbury

* * *

So TKZers: What fictional characters would you describe as round or flat? How about characters in your novels?

 

Private pilot Cassie Deakin struggles with her distrust of Deputy Frank White when she has to team up with him to solve a murder mystery.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Writing Short Fiction to Prevent the Future

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Eight years ago I wrote a post titled “How Long Before Robots Get Into Self-Publishing?” It was prompted by a 60 Minutes segment on Artificial Intelligence featuring a freaky cyborg named Sophia. I speculated about “her” saying to “herself”—

I see that there are many novels being published that are not very good. I have read every novel ever written and I have read all the books on the craft of fiction and every issue of Writer’s Digest. I have analyzed all the data on what kind of fiction sells best. Now I know what is good, and so I will write a novel every ten minutes and publish them on Amazon. I will write book description copy that cannot be resisted and I will generate social media. Hmm…maybe I will take over all social media in the world and make it only about me and my books…

Funny, not funny…now.

A year later I wrote a short story, John Wayne’s Revenge, inspired by release of the movie Rogue One. I wrote:

The story idea had its genesis in Rogue One, the new film in the Stars Wars milieu. The most striking part of the film is the meaty supporting performance by Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin. Striking, of course, because Peter Cushing has been dead since 1994. In view of his deceased status, he really brings it in Rogue One!

Of course, Mr. Cushing is actually realized courtesy of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). The effect is stunningly effective. Which got me thinking about the possibilities here. What if, sometime in the future, someone wanted to make a film with Cary Grant, or Clark Gable, or Bette Davis? Future technologies will not only make this possible, but easy.

I love what Bradbury said once in an interview about his reason for writing Fahrenheit 451: “I wasn’t trying to predict the future. I was trying to prevent it.”

That, it seems to me, is the highest and best use of dystopian fiction. It’s a warning. It’s a prophet crying in the wilderness. And the nice thing is that the prophet can employ the steely voice of a John the Baptist, or the sly wink of a Jonathan Swift…

So the idea came to me: in the not too distant future, a movie studio is working on a Western starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin, featuring Jane Russell, Andy Devine, Chill Wills, and Victor McLaglen. The technology provides holographic imagery along with AI functionality. What if …

Well, I’ll leave the What if for you readers, because I’m offering John Wayne’s Revenge FREE for a few days.

One of the nice things about short fiction is that you can get an idea and just start hitting the keys to see what happens. It’s fun. You can write whatever the heck you want to, without a huge expenditure of time.

That was Bradbury’s practice. He’d hop out of bed in the morning and just start capturing what was in that fertile imagination of his, whatever his writer’s mind had cooked up in the nightly dream world. Only later would he look at the pieces and figure out patterns. He wrote with more pure joy than any other writer I know of.

But he also wrote about his concerns for the future, especially regarding encroaching, omnipresent (and omnipotent!) technology.

So enjoy the story, on me. It’s an under ten-minute read, perfect for the waiting room at the doctor’s office, when you’re lunching by yourself, or after choosing the wrong line at the grocery store.

What if John Wayne… 

I’ll leave you with a couple of questions. I am, however, in travel mode today and may not be able to check in. So chat amongst yourselves. Have you ever written short fiction as a way to deal with an issue or idea? As a way to warn about the future or the present? Or just for the heck of it? How’d that turn out?

What is your favorite Ray Bradbury story?

Words of Wisdom On Burnout

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Writerly burnout. I never thought it would happen to me, until it did.

In 2016, I produced the first two novels in my Empowered series as well as a prequel novella to that series, with the novels scheduled for publication the following year. In 2017, I produced two novels, including the third Empowered and a space opera novel, publishing those as well that year. In the first half of 2018, I produced a novel and a novelette.

Not an unreasonable pace. But the whole time I was stressing about not writing fast enough.

By mid-2018 I’d published five novels since January 2017, along with the novella and the novelette, and was working on what was supposed to be Book 1 in my next series, which I published in September 2019. However,  I had started out in back January 2016 determined to produce four novels a year. After all, I knew indie authors writing at that pace, or even faster. Why couldn’t I? The result was lots of self-induced stress which eventually led to my burning out.

I didn’t stop completely, but I struggled to write the second novel in my second series and eventually trunked it. I did write the fifth and final Empowered novel during the first half of 2020, and then, that fall, moved to working on my first mystery novel. That ended up being a learning process which took two and a half years, with A Shush Before Dying releasing in April 2023. The second novel, Book Drop Dead, was published in June 2024. I’m now in the middle of writing the third book in my 1980s library cozy mystery series, and more mindful than ever of my own individual process and speed as a writer, especially given that mysteries are more challenging to write than my fantasy novels.

So, I did recover from my own burnout. A big help was advice here from our own JSB and other TKZ posters, especially on managing expectations, getting rest, and focusing on my own process and path rather than comparing my writing career to others.

As it so happens, this evening I’m on a panel about dealing with burnout, taking place as part of Orycon, our local science fiction convention. Tonight’s upcoming panel inspired me to dip into the archives for today’s Words of Wisdom.

We have an excerpt from James Scott Bell on finding a steady pace to avoid writerly burnout, and another by Joe Hartlaub on getting past writerly and readerly burnout. As always, links to each post are provided at the end of their respective excerpts.

The pressure comes when the writer who wants to make good dough at this thing (even a living) realizes that the only “formula” (and lottery-type luck is not a formula) is to keep producing quality work at a steady pace.

Notice that word, steady. I believe this is the key to avoiding writer burnout. Every writer has a sweet spot where production meets life and stays on its side of the fence. We call this a quota.

Now, those of you who’ve read my craft pieces over the years know I’m a quota guy. It’s the single most important discipline in my own writing life. I started down this road in 1988, and early on I remember reading about how important a quota was. The very first writing craft book I ever purchased was Lawrence Block’s Writing the Novel. In it, he has a section on quotas, and notes that most pro writers keep track of the words they produce, not the time they spend at the desk.

That got to me, and I have stuck to a quota ever since. It’s almost always been 1,000 words a day, six days a week, with a day of rest on Sunday.

Though I have cheated on occasion when a deadline was breathing down my neck, this “writing Sabbath” has been crucial for me. It gives my brain much-needed rest. I find I’m always energized to start up again on Monday. That is perhaps the main reason I’ve never truly felt burned out. Tired, yes. But the big fizzle, no.

It’s also important, I’ve found, to take daily breaks. I’m usually not more than an hour at a time at the keyboard. I’ll then take a five- or ten-minute stretch or stroll. In the afternoon I take a power nap—15 to 20 minutes.

One other thing I have to do is keep myself from “over-writing” when the going is good. Block addresses this in his book:

One thing you might try to avoid, in this connection, is attempting to extend your productivity. This sort of overload principle works fine in weightlifting, where one’s ability to manage more weight increases as one lifts more weight, but it doesn’t work that way in writing. It’s tempting to try to do a little more each day than we did the day before, and I still find myself intermittently struggling to resist this particular temptation, even after lo these many years. If I can do five pages today, why can’t I do six tomorrow? And seven the day after? For that matter, if I really catch fire and do seven today, that proves I can definitely do a minimum of seven tomorrow. Doesn’t it?

No, it doesn’t.

What does happen, in point of fact, is that this sort of overload generally leads to exhaustion … Find your right pace, make sure it’s one that’s not going to be a strain, and then stick with it.

And sometimes writing breaks are thrust upon us.

Like getting sick. I thank the Good Lord I’m pretty healthy most of the time, but last year I got taken out by a bout of pneumonia. It actually set me back a couple of weeks. I managed some writing, but mostly I rested and took my antibiotics and sniped at my wife (this saint continued to take care of me.)

I’ve also found that when I go to a convention, like Bouchercon or ThrillerFest, it’s almost impossible for me to get in any writing time. There’s too much going on, like Gilstrap holding court in the bar with his Beefeater martini. No one wants to miss that. So I give myself permish to take several days off when I attend. (I also find I can write on a plane going to a location, but not coming home. I think that has to do with my being a morning person, as I described a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, there is one exception to all this steadiness, and that’s NaNoWriMo. We need not revisit the debate over this singular month of writing madness (you can search for NaNoWriMo in our archives for that), but it’s there for you to consider.

What I’m saying is simply this: be as intentional about taking a break from writing as you are about producing the words. Be strategic, be smart. I’ve said this many times before, but here it is again: figure out how many words you can easily write in a daily session. Now up that by 10%. So if it’s 250 words, you aim for 275. 1000 = 1100. Try to do that six days a week.

But do not beat yourself up if circumstances conspire against you. Treat every new week afresh.

Do this day after week after year—with regular breaks—and you will not only avoid the B-word, you’ll see an amazing output of material. Which is the difference between someone who wants to write and a writer.

James Scott Bell—February 4, 2018

I’ve been repeatedly having the same vaguely disturbing conversation in person and via email with a number of individuals recently about books and reading. The topic is variously referred to as “reading fatigue,” “book burnout,” and “reading slump,” among other terms. The complaint centers upon the perceived feeling that new books being published are “all” following the same pattern. Elements of that pattern would include 1) “the placement of the word ‘girl’ in the title; 2) the unreliable first-person narrator; and 3) a missing child/husband/sister who seems to suddenly reappear with an inability to explain their absence.

It is true that publishing industry generally is reactive and not proactive. We all remember The Da Vinci Code. That book became a sub-genre unto itself. It seemed for a while as if every other newly published book concerned a hunt for an ancient relic that, depending on what it was and who was hunting it, would destroy, save, or enslave the world. Going back a bit further, Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent and John Grisham’s The Firm revived the popularity of the courtroom thriller, though it’s not as if that sub-genre ever really went away, once Erle Stanley Gardner had taken that beachhead in the 1930s with his Perry Mason novels.

There is some method to publishing’s madness, based on the proposition that if the public likes a certain type of book then it will want more of the same. I don’t recall a research  ever calling me and asking, “If you went to the library tomorrow, what type of book would you look for?” My answer would be “bound,” but that’s beside the point.

What does this mean for budding authors? My best advice is to not follow trends. If someone writes a book about an alcoholic housewife on a train who suspects that she has witnessed a murder being committed, and it becomes a bestseller, write your book about something else. Flip the script. Write about a recovering alcoholic who is as reliable as a Fossil Haywood and who, while doing some backyard gardening,  believes that she sees someone being murdered on the LIRR. I’m only kind of kidding. Do something different, because by the time you write your book and find an agent the publishers will probably be looking for something else. As for readers: if you’re tired of new books, look for an author who is new to you, or go back to the past and seek out something in your favorite genre among the mountains of books that have been published in the past sixty years or so. You can also seek out a couple of go-to authors. When I do my own reading, and nothing seems to please me, I pick up one of Timothy Hallinan’s fine novels, or an Elmore Leonard book, or start working my way through James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux canon, among others, to shake me out of my doldrums. Reading is good for you. You don’t want to stop.

Joe Hartlaub—November 4, 2017

***

Along with JSB’s and others advice, two books which helped me in dealing with burnout are Breakthrough by J. Dharma Kelleher and Dear Writer, Are You In Burnout?, by Becca Syme, as well as Becca’s YouTube series on burnout on her Quitcast channel there. To supplement Joe’s excellent advice on dealing with reading burnout I recommend checking with your local librarian for advice. Librarian’s love giving “reader’s advisory” and helping reader’s find their next great read.

The panel I’m on tonight, “Thinking Through Burnout,” asks several questions in the description that can serve as a jumping off point to our discussion today:

“Thinking is hard when you’re tired all the time. How do you manage burnout when it hits in the middle of a list of critical tasks? What coping mechanisms have worked for you, or not? Do you have tools or strategies to prevent burnout?”

In addition to that, have you ever suffered from reader burnout as described by Joe? If so, how did you get past it and reconnect with your love of reading?

Reader Friday-Cast Away!

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If you’ve seen Cast Away starring the mega-talented actor, Tom Hanks, you have a Hollywood-ese thumbnail portrait of what it’d be like to be stranded on a deserted island with Wilson. Yeah, you got it . . . a volleyball.

Wilson

But, how many times have we been asked who in all the world we’d like to be stranded with–meaning a person, of course. Answers we’ve given (or received) range from Moses to Einstein to Betty Grable and everyone in between.

 

Today, I’d like to flip that question around–just for fun. That’s what Fridays are all about here at TKZ, right?

 

Drum roll, please!

Who is the one person you would NOT want to be stranded with, not for all the tea in anywhere?

I’ll start. And maybe I’m cheating a bit, but here goes:

No one who has politician listed on his or her resume` . . . no way, no how. I’d rather be with a volleyball.

Did I steal anyone’s thunder? #sorrynotsorry…

Your turn!

 

What the Book Industry Will Look Like a Decade from Now

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I follow a Substack hosted by Ted Gioia (pronounced Joy-yah). Ted is a thought leader who’s been around fifty working years. Primarily, he’s in the music industry as a performer, composer, and critic. However, Ted Gioia is an exceptional writer with an amazing ability to grasp complex subjects and clearly break them into comprehensible components.

A few days ago, Ted published a Substack article titled My 9 Predictions: What the Music Industry Will Look Like a Decade from Now. Here’s an infograph outlining his predictions.

I read his article several times, and it struck me the same thing goes with the book industry. It’s a close parallel, for sure. It got me thinking to take the infograph and substitute words. Replace:

Record labels and music companies with book publishers.

Artists and musicians with writers.

Music and playlists with books.

Music industry with book publisher.

Listeners with readers.

Live music with print books.

Come to think of it, these 9 predictions about books could have been made a decade ago and are realizing now.

Kill Zoners — Thoughts? Comments?

Hi, there. Remember me?

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My name’s John and I’m a writer.
Group: “Hi, John.”
I know I have not been a reliable Killzone blogger these past few weeks, and I apologize for that. Sometimes, life gets complicated, and, well, you know. Why complications seem to cluster on Tuesdays when I’m supposed to be writing my Killzone blog baffles me a little, but apparently not enough to make me change my dawdling ways.
Thank you to those who have reached out with concerns about my health. I assure you that I am fine, and that all the complications have been logistical, and not always negative. Two weeks ago, for example, I actually had a post written and ready to go, but, well, here’s what I wrote at the time:
As I write this, I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Denver to teach at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference. On Sunday, a car picked me up at the hotel at 5:40 a.m. to get me to the airport in time for an 8 a.m. flight that allowed me to get home by 4 p.m.
That gave me just enough time to grab a night’s sleep, dump the suitcase and refill it for a Monday departure to Paris, where I now sit in the kitchen of a quaint little apartment on Rue de Princesse. We’re here to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in the company of our dear friends Reavis and Shana Wortham.
In a first-ever move, I decided to leave my computer at home for this trip, depending instead on my Samsung pad to do the work of the computer. With that decision comes the problem of not knowing how to sign into the WordPress account to post this blog. It’s now a little after 9 a.m. Paris time—3 a.m. Eastern time. If your’e reading this on October 2, you’ll know that I somehow solved the riddle. If not, well, I guess I’m kind of wasting my time.
Anyway, to the writerly point of this post. While at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference this weekend, after I taught my class on Friday, my reason for staying over for the rest of the weekend was to perform six “blue pencil” sessions with unpublished writers, which were essentially critiques of cold readings of up to five pages of their manuscripts. These are sessions for which the volunteers paid extra. Inexplicably, three of the six turned out to be no-shows, leaving me with a great deal of unassigned time.
I hadn’t brought my computer with me for those sessions, either. But I had brought old school pen and paper, and was shocked at the amount of work I was able to turn out on the opening pages of the new Jonathan Grave book that’s not due till April 15, 2025. I’m talking 30 pages. And in re-reading them, they’re pretty good.
I’ve long believed that writing by hand releases a different level of creativity than one gets by writing on the keyboard. And when you do it in a public place—like the bar of a hotel lobby—it can be quite the conversation starter.
Case in point: The night before I left for Denver to attend RMFW, I stayed at the Dulles Airport Marriott to catch the early flight out, and as is my wont while traveling alone, I ate dinner at the bar and amused myself by writing away on the Grave book with paper and pen. I get in a zone while writing, so I was a bit startled when a lady behind me said, “Fountain pen in a leather bound book. You must be a novelist.” Frankly, that’s a big logical leap, if you aske me, but perhaps she’d been reading the content. In any case, it turned out that this lady runs a writers conference, and discussion turned to my participation in a future event. Life is funny sometimes.
Takeaway lesson: Never let technology get in the way of creativity.

What Does Your Birth Animal Say About You?

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As I sat at my desk to write this post, Poe and the gang put on such an amazing aerial display, stunning black wings captivated me for over an hour. And I thought, gee, let’s do something fun for this holiday Monday. Consider it a “get to know you better” type post.

Spirit Animals and zodiac are two different things. Spirit Animals refer to animals that you share a connection with; zodiac is your birth animal. It may come as no surprise that my Spirit Animal is a crow. It’s also my birth animal. Is it any wonder I’m drawn to these magnificent black beauties?

Though I can’t tell you your Spirit Animal — only you can determine that — I thought it’d be fun to share our birth animals in the comments.

Jan 20-Feb 18: Otter

Otters are proud, offbeat, and original individuals, who use unconventional methods to complete their goals. They may come across as unusual characters but their ability to approach things differently make them ideal problem-solvers. They’re also sensitive, attentive, honest, and reliable — perfect traits for a friend. Otters do require solitude, however. When they’re left alone too long, they can get rebellious and lash out. So, give them space, but not too much space.

Feb 19-March 20: Wolf

The Wolf is a walking contradiction. Loving and emotional, they also need freedom and don’t like taking orders. Folks born under the Wolf sign possess a deep longing to help others. Because of their generous nature, they freely give love. Driven by their need to also receive love, they’re fiercely protective of their independence and don’t like being too tied down in a relationship, often resulting in conflict.

March 21-April 19: Falcon

The falcon is a born leader, always ready to take the initiative. Not impulsive at all. Blessed with a natural judgment, the falcon steps forward when a crisis arises. Their natural ability to lead might make them appear arrogant at first, though their opinions are usually spot-on. Falcons are also deeply passionate, supportive, and excel in maintaining lifelong relationships.

April 20-May 20: Beaver

The beaver has a cunning and sharp mind. Quick thinkers and excellent problem-solvers, the beaver can adapt and overcome any situation. This trait makes them a powerhouse force in business. These individuals can get held back with their “my way or the highway” attitude, but their compassionate and loyal nature balances them out.

May 21-June 20: Deer

Lively and energetic, the deer has a sparkling personality and quick wit. Most are hilarious. Deer shine at any gathering, as they’re quite entertaining. People are drawn to the deer because of their charisma, warmth, and humor. Though they prefer being the center of attention, their friendly nature supersedes any self-involved characteristics. In a crisis, they may not be your first choice. Deer avoid conflict and often run from a fight or tragic situation.

June 21-July 21: Woodpecker

The most nurturing in the zodiac, the woodpecker is super supportive, empathetic, and caring — great listeners who never judge — but also can be extremely jealous and possessive. Though the woodpecker is a reliable partner and friend, they’re a bit frugal and thrifty, with supreme organizational skills. Need help creating a budget? Call a woodpecker friend.

July 22-August 21: Salmon

The salmon has an infectious energy that’s impossible to ignore. Inherently goal-orientated, salmon need to find their purpose in life and believe in chasing their dreams. Salmon are stable, calm, and enthusiastic, resulting in a sensual and passionate partner.

August 22-September 21: Bear

The bear is practical, hard-working, selfless, and has a generous spirit. These individuals are exceptional judges of character and can find the truth behind lies. Their calm and patient temperament is only unmatched by their mediative nature in tense situations. Modest and somewhat shy, bear prefer to work in a supportive role or quietly work in the background. You’ll never hear a bear brag or boast (try saying that three times fast).

September 22-October 22: Crow

The crow is an energetic, natural charmer, attractive, and mysterious. Both idealistic and diplomatic, crow portrays balance and can often provoke their friends to think deeper. Crows are easygoing, patient, intuitive, and natural-born romantics. Rarely, if ever, will you see a crow freak out. Instead, they prefer to talk things through in a caring manner.

October 23-November 22: Snake

The snake might be the most spiritual of all the birth animals. Those born under this animal possess a unique tether to the spirit world. Because of this deep connection, they may give off an air of mystery, mystique, and secrecy. At other times, they may appear dark and frightening. In truth, the snake is sensitive, caring, and passionate.

November 23-December 21: Owl

Not surprisingly, the owl is wide-eyed and eager to experience new things. Difficult to sanction into one box, their views and life goals may change from moment to moment. They’re spontaneous, easy-going, adventurous, and ideal travel companions. A friend to everyone, at least on the surface, they adapt well to any environment.

December 22-January 19: Goose

The goose will achieve anything it sets its mind to, and they’ll often excel at it, too. Competitive but not motivated by the approval of others. They’re innate desire to achieve success makes them determined and a tad obsessive. Because of these traits, the goose is more prone to addiction. The goose is also passionate, humorous, and outgoing.

What’s your birth animal? Does it match your personality? Do you know your Spirit Animal? If so, do they differ?

Happy Indigenous People Day! Or Columbus, if you prefer.

Sometimes Writing is Like Trudging in Snow Shoes Over the La Brea Tar Pits

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles

I can’t explain it.

Here I was, almost a year ago, excited and ready to write my next Mike Romeo thriller. My outline was prepped, my fingers itching.

I wrote the first chapter—which was amusingly unlike other first chapters in these books. I had fun with it. It was my opening disturbance, but in an unanticipated form.

I printed my outline and had my trusted adviser, Mrs. B, take a look. She gave me a few suggestions and a thumbs up.

The plot proper took off with the killing of a meth head and the arrest of another, who becomes the client of Mike’s employer and conscience, lawyer Ira Rosen.

Sometimes writing is a fast joyride, like sliding down a snowy slope in a toboggan. That was this book. I was about 20k into it when I had to set it aside for a couple of weeks, due to some personal matters. Nothing major, just a series of events that sometimes happen. It’s called life. I plunked out words on some shorter projects.

When I came back to it, I found it hard to pick up the flow. Part of that I understood as the normal inertia that happens when you leave a story for a length of time. Day–to-day momentum is lost.

That’s happened to me in the past, and I’ve always managed to get the energy back in a day or two.

Not so this time.

It was weird. How weird? I’m glad you asked.

I draft in Scrivener, and set my total word goal and daily word goal. I click on the target icon and see just how many words I’ve written that day, and how far along I am toward my ultimate goal.

This time, I swear, it felt like I couldn’t get out of the 30k’s. My toboggan was on the junk pile. Now it was like trudging in snow shoes over the La Brea Tar Pits.

And it wasn’t as if the story was fighting me. I knew where it was going.

When I finally cracked 40k I thought, wait, what? Six months and this is all I have? My usual first drafting is three to four months.

I slogged on.

But then, as I looked at Act 3 rising from the muck, I made a snap decision to change the villain and the ending. Dedicated pantsers out there will say this is where you just go with your gut. Your gut’s always right.

Except when it isn’t. When I finally finished the draft I gave it to Mrs. B to read, and started planning my next book.

Her reaction was subdued. She liked most of it, but asked, “Why did you change the ending?”

“My gut told me to.”

“To be honest, I thought the other one was much better.”

Crud! Maybe my original gut was righter than my later gut.

I moped around for a day, then concluded (as is usually the case) that Mrs. B was right.

Now what? I had to scrap the last 30k and write the original ending, then tweak all the places in the book I had tweaked to accommodate the new ending.

So what was up with all that?

Every novel is a new experience, with fresh challenges. Sometimes those challenges push hard. Your brow wrinkles. Your word output may be about the same, but you feel like Sisyphus and that big rock. In that case you ought to pause and ask yourself why this is happening. The more experience you have and the more craft you know, the better you’ll be abled to answer.

Another possible reason for Tar Pit Trudge: The more we write, the higher our standards are (or should be). That sometimes means the writing goes slower because we’ve set a higher bar.

The alternative is “phoning it in,” which has happened with some highly successful authors. If you get to the sipping-Piña-Coladas-aboard-a-yacht level, it may not matter to you. For other writers, it does.

Know this: there is relief at the other end of the Tar Pits. When the final draft hits the mark, there’s a special kind of satisfaction that the phone-it-inners never feel. It’s the gratification of hard work paying off, the matchless pleasure of a job well done.

The book to which I refer is my ninth Mike Romeo thriller, Romeo’s Fire. It’s on sale today at the intro price of $2.99. I do feel a lovely satisfaction in getting it done, and further elation publishing it three weeks after the beta-edited and proofed draft came in. (In my trad pub days it would be a year or more before I saw a book in the store.) So sweet after the long journey.

And I’ve jumped on my toboggan again! I wrote the first 3k words of Romeo #10 this week. There’s a lot to be done, of course, and some trees to avoid, but there’s fresh snow on the slope and it’s a beautiful day.

Do you get different feel for each novel you write? Do you ever feel like it’s a slog? Or are you part of the “writing should always be effortless” crowd?