Edits and Covers

Posted on by
14

Edits and Covers
Terry Odell

I’ve been focused on getting my new book, Deadly Ambitions, ready to meet the public. Given scheduling conflicts between my editor and my own travel, plus not wanting to compete with the barrage of holiday books, I’ve decided to put of the release until early next year.

Does that mean I can relax until then?

(Sputter, Snort, Guffaw.)

The first complete draft came in at about 85,000 words, which was longer than I wanted, so when I did my first read-through, I looked for excess. I talked a little about my process in my last post. Plot threads, scenes, and just plain wordiness. SmartEdit makes it easy to find these culprits, although it’s a tedious process. I’ve managed to cut about 4,000 words. One “thing” I’m doing this time around is opening the manuscript to a random page and looking at random paragraphs and sentences. Taken out of context, I’m finding places where my penchant for rambling shows through, so I’ve done some microsurgery using that technique.

But Wait. There’s More.

As an indie author, I wear many hats. My least favorite is the marketing chapeau, but it’s a necessary evil. I’m no marketing guru, but I know enough to know people want visuals. That meant a cover.

What did I want on the cover? I had plot threads running through the book that I considered. . One revolved around a construction project. A half-finished remodel wasn’t likely to entice readers. Or it would make them think it was a DIY book.

Another thread began with a traffic accident. A little more compelling, but I was having trouble finding images, not to mention Deadly Puzzles already had a similarly-themed cover.

A car tipped down a snowbank with an overlay of puzzle pieces

I regrouped (after a few nudges from one of my critique partners).

Since my Mapleton Mystery series is set in Colorado (although I’ve never pinpointed  where), I decided on a Colorado image for the background, something many of the other books included. But what? The book is set in December, so snow-capped mountains? Been there, done that.

Wait. We’d been up to a couple of old mining towns recently, and I’d decided to go along with the Hubster when he pulled onto a side road, saying “he just wanted to check something out.” Of course, that meant a hike along one of the old mine trails. I finished the hike with a bunch of pictures of old mining equipment.

What a coincidence. There’s a plot thread relating to an abandoned mine in the book. I browsed through some stock images on the site my cover designer, Kim Killion of the Killion Group, prefers and found one or two that might be acceptable. However, after going through my own images, I found one I thought had promise for the background.

Turned out, that’s the one she preferred. Yay me!

But the book is a mystery, and it’s not actually set in a mine, or even a mining town. How to let potential readers know it’s a mystery? I followed that plot thread (don’t want too many spoilers here), and sent Kim some more ideas.

This is what she came up with. I hope you like it.

Cover of Deadly Ambitions by Terry Odell

What’s your favorite and/or least favorite “non-writing” part of getting a book published? Do you like having creative control, or would you rather turn everything over to others?

New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Danger Abroad

When breaking family ties is the only option.

Madison Westfield has information that could short-circuit her politician father’s campaign for governor. But he’s family. Although he was a father more in word than deed, she changes her identity and leaves the country rather than blow the whistle.

Blackthorne, Inc. taps Security and Investigations staffer, Logan Bolt, to track down Madison Westfield. When he finds her in the Faroe Islands, her story doesn’t match the one her father told Blackthorne. The investigation assignment quickly switches to personal protection for Madison.

Soon, they’re involved with a drug ring and a kidnapping attempt. Will working together put them in more danger? Can a budding relationship survive the dangers they encounter?

Available now.

Like bang for your buck? I have a new Triple-D Ranch bundle. All four novels for one low price. One stop shopping here.

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

The Villain Goes on a Journey

Posted on by
22

by Debbie Burke

As writers, we send our characters on long, convoluted journeys to solve mysteries and create exciting compelling stories.

Today I’m going to tell the story about the journey of a book that traveled from point A to point B to point Q to point G to point X to point D to…you get the idea.

In July, my book The Villain’s Journey-How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate was published.

My custom is to send print copies by snail mail to people who helped develop my books. They may have contributed research, beta read, or otherwise supported the growth from a teeny-weeny seed of an idea to a finished product. Without their help, my books wouldn’t exist. So I’m grateful and want to say “thank you” in a small way.

Let’s back up to 2022. The teeny-weeny seed for The Villain’s Journey came from a comment made by TKZ regular Marilynn Byerly. In response to a post I’d written about villains, she mentioned the hero’s journey was well known but was there a corresponding book about villains?

That sent me down the rabbit hole.

Amazingly, I only found one book devoted to the villain’s journey and it focused on sci-fi and fantasy.

During a conversation with TKZ emeritus Steve Hooley, he said, “Why don’t you write that book?”

Sounded like a great suggestion since there did appear to be a gap in the crime reference library that I could fill.

I wrote a proposal and sent it to TKZ’s wise guru Jim Bell to see what he thought of the idea. He encouraged me to go for it.

Fast forward to summer 2025. I finished the book. Jim wrote a wonderful blurb for it, as did Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.

These two respected powerhouses gave my book invaluable credibility in the writing craft world. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to Jim and Chris for their support.

When the print books arrived, of course, I wanted the first two copies to go to Jim and Chris. I inscribed them, packaged them in padded envelopes, and took them to the post office. The clerk double-checked the addresses in the computer, printed out labels with bar codes, and off they went. Easy-peasy.

More than a month later, the post office returned Jim’s copy to me. A label said: “Return to Sender, address unknown, no such number, no such zone—” Oh, wait, that was Elvis.

This label claimed insufficient address, unable to forward, return to sender. Someone had written in red marker “Wrong address” above the printed post office label.

I double-checked the mailing address with Jim. Yup, I’d used the correct one and the post office label was indeed correct.

So why did the book come back to me?

I typed the tracking number into the search box for usps.com. The shipping history showed a long and winding road.

On August 13, the book began its journey from Kalispell, MT where I mailed it. It then travelled to distribution centers in Missoula, MT, Spokane, WA, Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, and landed at Jim’s neighborhood post office on August 18. So far so good.

Then the journey started twisting.

On August 18, the book was delivered to an address with a notation in the tracking history “delivered, front door/porch.”

On August 27, the next notation said, “insufficient address” followed by a notation “return to sender processed.”

Huh?

It then traveled back to the Santa Clarita distribution center and arrived August 29 in Aurora, CO. The same day, it was sent on to the Billings distribution center.

Okay, Billings is in Montana.

Two days later, it apparently took the wrong freeway off ramp, headed south, and arrived at the Phoenix, AZ distribution center.

Uh, Phoenix is not in Montana.

It sat in Phoenix for two days then was sent back to Aurora, CO distribution center. It sat there for two more days.

Then it went to Billings again.

Okay, at least it’s now back in the right state.

Then it took another wrong freeway exit. Whoops.

A day later, it shows up at the Denver, CO distribution center.

Three days later, it’s at the Missoula, MT distribution center. Then it’s sent 120 miles north to Kalispell and arrives there to be processed.

Whoops, U-turn back to Missoula for another day.

Another U-turn from Missoula back to Kalispell.

Finally, more than a month after the book began its journey, it was returned to me in Kalispell as “undeliverable, insufficient address.”

This poor villain had been on a journey that was a cross between Where’s Waldo and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

 

Cyril Thomas, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Common

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes’ deerstalker hat, I’m guessing a mail carrier delivered the package to someone else’s house in Jim’s neighborhood. That resident probably wrote “wrong address” on it. If the carrier had rechecked the address, they should have realized, “Oh, shoot, that’s the house down the street” and delivered it. Instead, they dumped the package into the system.

This Villain’s Journey should have been 1350 miles. Instead, it turned into an epic road trip of 7700 miles.

I wish the lost, wandering package qualified for frequent flyer miles—I’d have enough miles for a plane ticket from Montana to California to personally deliver Jim’s book. After all the years of following TKZ, I would have finally enjoyed the pleasure of meeting Jim in person.

The villain is now on its second journey. I hope by the time this post goes live, Jim will have received his book.

In our stories, we send our characters on long, convoluted journeys to solve mysteries. 

The mystery of why the post office sent this book on a 7700-mile journey may never be solved. If only the book could talk…

~~~

TKZers, do you have a story about unexpected detours courtesy of the post office? Please share.

~~~

This blurb makes me very proud:

“Debbie Burke has filled a critical gap in writing craft instruction…authors of any genre will benefit by using The Villain’s Journey to take a deeper dive into the antagonist of their story.” – James Scott Bell, International Thriller Writers award winner, author of more than 30 bestselling craft of writing books.

 

If you’d like a print copy of The Villain’s Journey, Amazon and Barnes & Noble have good track records of delivering books without unexpected side trips.

When Things Go Wrong

Posted on by
16

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. —Golda Meir

* * *

It was 12:34 a.m. when Frank woke up. We know because he said later he looked at the digital clock on the night table and thought how interesting it was that the time was 1-2-3-4. That was just a second or two before a bone-rattling crash shook the house.

I had never heard a sound like that before. Coming out of a deep sleep, I found myself standing beside the bed before I was fully awake. At first, I thought lightning must have struck the house to cause such a deafening noise.

The burglar alarm was blaring, so we both rushed out into the front hall. I ran straight to the alarm keypad and shut it down. Then I looked toward the sunroom, and my bewilderment deepened.

Our sunroom was at the back of the house. It ran along the center portion of the house and was connected to the living and dining rooms by several glass-paned doors. Those doors had to be closed and deadlocked in order for the burglar alarm to be armed. All the doors were wide open. That’s when I got nervous. Maybe somebody had broken into the house after all.

Then my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I could see debris hanging down from the ceiling in the sunroom, and there was a strong aroma of oak. None of it made sense.

Frank decided to take a flashlight and go outside to see if he could figure out what was going on. I thought that was a really bad idea, but I couldn’t think of anything better, so he left. In a little while he returned. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said. (That’s not good thing to hear at any time, but especially not in the middle of the night.)

A very old and very large oak tree (we figure it weighed approximately ten tons) that was just off the north end of the house had fallen directly along the length of the house and was lying like a beached behemoth on top of the sunroom, kept in place by the very large slot it had made in the roof on the north end of the house.

The tree had taken out part of the roof over the kitchen, the sunroom, and the second story as well as part of the second story wall. Fortunately, our bedroom was at the south end of the house.

The lights in the house were blinking, and we were afraid of wire damage that could cause a fire, so we called the fire department. When they arrived, they checked the house but couldn’t find evidence of fire. However, they suggested we turn off the master switch and go to a hotel to spend the night, which we did.

The next morning, we met our insurance agent at the house to assess the damage. When we walked around to the backyard to view the situation in the daylight, the sight was more awe-inspiring than the sound had been the night before.

The base of the tree was hanging off the north end (right side) of the house and the main part of the trunk lay on the sunroom roof. The top of the tree extended off the south end of the house and beyond the frame of this picture.

We arranged for a company to bring in a crane to remove the tree from the house. I held my breath as a very brave man climbed onto the tree and used a chain saw to cut the top piece off so the crane could lift it and set it down in the backyard. Then he moved to the next piece, and took the monster off the roof one very large piece at a time.

It would take months to deal with the aftereffects. During that time, we moved into an apartment, met with contractors, oversaw the repairs, and dealt with our insurance company (which was very supportive, thank goodness), all around our regular work schedules. Plans we had for those months were put on hold. Necessity is the mother of new scheduling.

All ended well. The contractors did a fabulous job of rebuilding the house, and our insurance company treated us with the utmost respect and care. The insurance covered almost everything, and in the end, the house was in as good or better shape than it had been before.

It took a while, and it wasn’t fun, but everything returned to normal eventually. (Well, almost everything. I used to view trees as my friends. Now I regard them as potential criminals. 😒)

* * *

We all know that life can take a wrong turn sometimes. Things happen. The best laid plans and all that.

So what does this have to do with writing? It’s obvious, right? We come to a stopping point in the WIP and realize things are a mess. We’re going to have to make major repairs to make the story structure solid. It’s time to rethink, reschedule, and do the hard work of rebuilding. But the end result will be better. All in service to the story.

* * *

So TKZers: Have you ever had to stop and regroup when you were writing? How do you handle it when a giant problem lands right in the middle of your story?

* * *

 

Trouble is Your Business

Posted on by
15

by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Imagine the first storyteller. I’ll call him Og. He was out hunting for meat. He was about to bag him some wolf when he got surprised by a mastodon lumbering by.

Bummer.

He dropped his club and ran. He hid in some rocks. An hour or so later he came back to his prey and found it being devoured by a saber toothed tiger.

Double bummer.

Then Og had to trek back to the waiting fire. His tribe was sitting there awaiting some steaks (they were tired of berries and roots.) They looked at Og and grunted something which can be roughly translated, “Where’s the meat, man?”

Og was on the spot. His position as chief hunter-gatherer was up for grabs, depending on what he said next.

The last time something like this happened, and the tribe asked what went wrong, Og merely shrugged and threw dirt at them. This didn’t help matters at all. They seemed unwilling to give Og more chances.

So now Og gets on his haunches and says, “I was out hunting like always, and had a wolf in my sights. I threw a rock and got him right on the head. He went down. I was about to go get him when I heard this ROAARRRR!”

He pauses to take stock of the reactions around the fire. Every face is turned toward him. He can see consuming interest in their eyes.

He has them hooked.

Good, Og thinks. Let’s see if I can keep them that way while I figure out how to get out of this.

“I spin around,” Og says, “and there is a tiger with those long, spiked teeth. There is spit dripping off those teeth. His eyes were huge, as big as lakes! I could smell his fur. It smelled like death.”

The audience is leaning forward now. Og thinks, That went well. If I take time to describe things this way, it stretches out the story and the tension. And that bit about the smell, that was pure genius.

Og is beginning to develop a style.

He’s also searching for an ending, and so he lays out, beat by beat, a story of this encounter with the tiger and the ensuing fight to save his own life. He finally gets to the end and speaks of a mighty battle with the beast, until his ultimate triumph.

Someone in the audience asks, “So where’s the tiger?”

Og must think up a twist ending. So he comes up with the speculative fiction genre, and says the god of the mountains came down and took the tiger as tribute. He was about to call down fire from the sky on Og’s tribe. Og told him not to, that it would be bad, and he would fight the god if he had to. The god relented.

So Og has saved all their lives. Or so the story goes.

Well, the reaction of the listeners is so good that Og gets a double portion of berries. An attractive woman gives him a blanket of squirrel fur in honor of his exploits. One of the old men gives Og his best club. A couple of the younger tribe members hand over their favorite trinkets, and promise more if Og will tell more stories.

And Og thinks, Maybe I can make a living at this.

Og’s brother, who collects the booty, keeps 15% of it.

Og had more thrillers on his tongue.

Later, Og began to tell stories that were about his emotions. How he was having to deal with past demons, like his father flicking pebbles at him when he was a boy, and when he fell in love with a cave girl who later got stepped on by a wooly mammoth. Og starts calling these “character driven” stories, but knows they are based on the same idea: a high stakes threat to the character’s life and happiness.

And you know what? The essence of story has not changed—from Og to the early myths to the Greek drama to Shakespeare; from Jane Austen to Herman Melville to Mark Twain; from Dashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler to Sue Grafton.

It’s all about trouble.

Trouble comes on a continuum, from the annoying to the life-threatening. When you can’t find your reading glasses that’s one kind of trouble. A kidnapped child is quite another.

Every scene in your book should have some form of trouble that produces emotions that are also on a continuum, from low-level worry to outright terror.

That’s your palette, writer. Dip into it each day as your write your story. Always be thinking How can I make more trouble? How can I make it worse?

Then stick the landing. Nail the ending. And readers will line up to give you a double portion of berries.

Are you making enough trouble? Do your openings disturb? Do you write “friend talking to friend” scenes that need more tension (watch out for eating scenes)? What are some of your favorite ways to make trouble (a la “bring in a guy with a gun”)?

Note: The link in the post takes you to an Og-inspired thriller that is on Kindle-sale for 99¢ this week. The book is Your Son is Alive.

Words of Wisdom: About Control

Posted on by
4

For us writers, knowing what is outside of our control, and what lies within, can help with stress and anxiety when it comes to publication. Writing lies within our control, but over controlling our writing process can cause stress and anxiety as well.

Today’s Words of Wisdom tackles the issue of control. Michelle Gagnon shares a few of the many things outside of your control when it comes traditional publication. James Scott Bell looks at more things in publishing outside of our control, including whether we become “A-list” writers, and offers a crucial piece of advice. Finally Sue Coletta looks at a powerful part of our mind that is outside of our conscious control, but which we can work with in flow state, and shows how to create that state.

All three posts are well-worth reading in their entireties and can be found linked to the original publication date at the bottom of their respective excerpts.

Typos: I’m not saying I’m perfect, but occasionally glaring typos appear in the text that were in no draft of the manuscript I submitted. My book club read The Tunnels, and when I walked in for our meeting three people shouted out, “Page 67! What happened there?” Half of the night was consumed by a discussion of some of the typos in the book. Somewhere between my final edits and the typesetting process, new typos appeared. Again, beyond my control (also the reason why I never crack the spine to read the final product. I have never once read one of my books after mailing off the line edits, because if I spot a typo it drives me nuts).  

Missing Pages: I received emails from a few people who purchased Boneyard, only to discover that fifty pages were missing from the middle of the book. After talking to other authors, I learned that this is not that unusual. A glitch at the printing plant can ruin a whole batch of books. Fortunately, publishers are wonderful about shipping out a replacement copy, if it ever happens to you.

Print Runs: This can be make or break for an author. Say your initial print run was 20,000 books. Sell 15,000, and your book is a success story. But if the publisher printed 100,000 copies, and you sold 15,000, your book would be considered a dismal failure and you would be facing an uphill battle to get the next one published. Not fair, right? But as an author, you have no say in whether your print run is five thousand books or five million. You have to just keep your fingers crossed that your publisher’s sales projections are right.

I will say that in book publishing, I still have far more control than I ever did as a magazine writer. Back then, I’d hand in an article and six months later, something came out with my name on it that was virtually unrecognizable. Not always, but frequently enough to be depressing. In book publishing you are definitely allowed a firmer hold on the reins.

Michelle Gagnon—May 6, 2009

 

Not every writer who is good enough to be on the A List makes it to the A List. There’s an element built into nature that leaves some things to pure chance.

The trick in life is not to stress about those things.

That is the essence of the Stoic philosophy. Epictetus put it best: “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

You got that right, Epic. Most writers worry about every single aspect of every single book release.

Will it sell? Will it be seen in bookstores? Will the critics/reviewers hate it? Will it land on a major bestseller list? Will I get that literary award I’m lusting after? Does Oprah have my phone number?

None of these things can you control.

Thus, the writer determines to do everything within his power: bookmarks, swag, panels, bookstore signings, blog tour, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, Bookbub ads, tweets, ’grams, howling at the moon—all the while stressing over the results.

But when the dust settles down, down to the lower depths of the Amazon rankings, what then? If the author has too much emotional investment in great expectations, he will suffer needless inner turmoil. It can hamper or even end a writing career. Many a writer has called it quits after a third or fourth book got remaindered within a month and the publisher did not offer another contract.

To repeat: Not everyone who should be a star becomes a star.

Not every writer who should be on the A List makes it to the A List.

But anyone who keeps writing is a writer. And that very act—the writing, falling deeply into a scene, getting into “the zone”—turns out to be the only real antidote for writerly anxiety.

So put this on a sign or sticky note on your desk:

James Scott Bell—March 15, 2020

 

The conscious you, or conscious awareness, makes up the smallest part of your brain. The conscious brain believes it’s in full control of the body, when nothing could be farther from the truth…

When our conscious awareness relinquishes control to our unconscious brain, we enter the flow state—a form of brain activity experienced by different kinds of people, from elite athletes and meditation experts to professional writers and musicians. Many of whom call this state “the zone,” which arrives during total emersion in a task. In flow states, neural circuits run without conscious mind interference. Our perception clears, our unconscious awareness heightens, and feel-good chemicals flood the brain, which allows for intense focus and gratification…

Tips to Achieving Flow

  1. Balance challenge and skill.

If you’ve never written nonfiction, for example, you may find it difficult to enter the zone because your conscious awareness is stressed out. You’re too afraid of making a mistake to enter flow.

If something isn’t challenging enough, you’ll get bored easily. In turn, so will your reader. Not only will adding plenty of conflict improve your plot, but you’ll enter the zone quicker while writing.

1. Establish clear goals.

I will write for three hours. I will write at least 1000 words today. I will write two scenes or one chapter. By establishing a daily writing goal, it relieves the pressure of having to finish the entire first draft by a certain date. How you choose to establish those goals is up to you.

2. Reduce distraction.

You will never enter the zone if you’re checking for social media notifications or email every ten minutes. When it’s time to write, write. Save play time and the inbox for later.

3. Stop multitasking.

Have you ever turned down the radio while searching for a specific house number or highway exit? You’re instinctively helping your brain to concentrate on a visual task. For more on why multitasking is so difficult and why we should avoid it before a writing session, see my 2021 post entitled Can Multitasking Harm the Brain?

4. Don’t force it.

Some days, you’ll enter the zone. Other days, you won’t. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. You’ll still produce words and make progress.

5. Enjoy the process.

You won’t enter flow unless you’re enjoying yourself. Simple as that. If you view writing as a chore, it may be time to step away from the WIP for a while. Yes, penning a novel is hard work, but it also should be enjoyable. If it’s not, you may want to ask yourself why you do it.

Sue Coletta—January 8, 2024

***

  1. What are some things you see as outside of your control in writing/publishing?
  2. How do you deal with these?
  3. Do you work with your unconscious to help get into flow state? Any tips?

I’ll be on the road for much of today, and will check in when I can. In the meantime, please feel free to comment.

Reader Friday-Character for a Day

Posted on by
16

Remember the old TV program called Queen For A Day? (I might have just dated myself…)

It ran from 1945-1964. From Wikipedia:  “Queen for a Day was an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners’ and viewers’ fascination with big-prize giveaway shows.” I remember watching it on the old B&W. Do you?

Let’s play that game, but with a writerly/readerly twist. Instead of Queen for a Day, let’s play…wait for it…Character for a Day. You game?

Here’s how it goes–but, alas, no big prize money in the offing–just some good, old-fashioned fun. And God knows we could use some fun.

Pick a character you would like to be, either from your own book, another author’s book, or from a movie. But not just any character, please! Pick one whose spirit speaks to yours.

Here’s my pick…Tauriel, Lord of the Rings…beautiful and lethal!

 

 

 

 

Okay, TKZers…your turn. Tell us what character you want to be for just 24 hours. And, tell us why…1, 2, 3, GO!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When The Story Won’t End

Posted on by

By John Gilstrap

It was supposed to be a short story for an anthology honoring the US Marshal’s Service. Our own Reavis Wortham is the editor. He knows that my great grandfather, US Deputy Marshal Isaac Lincoln Gilstrap has a star on the monument in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to fallen federal marshals, so he did me the great honor of inviting me participating in this anthology that includes many great writers.

The guardrails on this thing were pretty easy. Short story. US marshal. I even had a preordained main character–Ike Lincoln! I can slam this thing out in no time. What, maybe 2,500 words? Three thousand, max?

Okay, JSB, perk up. I’m going to throw you a talking point here for outlining! (Because I don’t outline.)

Here’s the premise: In 1906, Marshal Ike Lincoln has to escort a witness from Salina, Oklahoma Indian Territory (the area where my kin was shot and is now interred), to the territorial courthouse in Muscogee. There, he will testify in the murder trial of Zebadiah Wycliffe (the family name of the gang of renegade Cherokees who killed the real deal.)

Now, a premise is not a plot. I discover the plot by starting the story and seeing where it goes. Here’s the first image that came to mind:

            Deputy United States Marshal Ike Lincoln smelled the blood before he saw the body. He drew his Winchester Model 92 rifle from its scabbard near his right knee and laid it across his lap. Chambered in .45-40, the lever action repeater could drop any threat. He carried it with the chamber loaded and the hammer on half-cock. Out here in Indian Territory, most gunfights were settled with the first shot.

That felt like a solid start. No idea who the body belonged to or who shot him, but I figured it had to be a bad guy shot by good guys. Why? Well, because someone wanted to kill the witness.

Ah-hah! I had it! Zeb Wycliffe had family, and they didn’t want to see him hanged because of the testimony of our witness. So, they attacked this place and the attack was repulsed.

I said to myself, “Wait! Ike is the hero of the story. He can’t show up after the climactic gunfight.” Lightbulb moment: I’d started the story in the wrong place.

“Screw the lightbulb! I really like that opening!” I deeply wanted to make it work. So, I didn’t change anything. I forged ahead. That repulsed gunfight turns out to be just the first. Not all of the attackers die. And they didn’t run away. They retreated and regrouped.

Regrouped to do what? I didn’t know yet. Some sort of trap, obviously, but other than that, I didn’t know–though I did know that the story would crash and burn unless Ike and company didn’t somehow deal with that upcoming trap on their 30+ mile trek to Muscogee.

By now, I was a solid 1,000 words into a story that didn’t yet know what it was. That’s okay. I’m a professional. I’ve done this before. I did deeply wish that it didn’t read like a cliched high school writing exercise. You know, sometimes an original idea is good for a story.

I found story salvation in my literary comfort spot, which is placing a kid in jeopardy. So, now our witness had name. Tommy Farmer. Now, what about his age? Well, he had to be vulnerable, right? But he also had to be able to ride and shoot, given the story elements that likely lay ahead for him.

Yeah, okay. Okay, we’re on the move now. The 2,000-word mark is far in the review mirror, but that’s okay. Three thousand, 3,500 . . . those aren’t horrific numbers for a short story.

Our little posse is now Bonanza-ing along and I’m thinking. No, this isn’t quite right yet. What to do?

Got it! We’ll make Tommy totally friggin’ crazy with a homicidal streak.

DING! DING! DING!

All right. We’re on a roll now. Is 5,000 words too long for a short story? But it’s really, really good. And now I’m into the final action scene. we’ll get this puppy wrapped up in no time.

At 6,200 words, I’m thinking I might have an issue. Like, a really big problem.

Ooooooh. That would be a really good twist. Yeah, let’s see where that goes.

Twists lead to turns, don’t you know. Fictional actions have fictional consequences.

Dear idea factory: Please stop, already!

Then, finally, it happened. I found the ending. Final count at the end of the first draft: 8,569 words. (Note for the record: this is the first time Reavis is hearing this.)

Clearly, I have editing to do. Perhaps some restructuring, but not a lot of the latter. Fact is, I don’t have an assigned final word count, so that could be either good or bad.

If there’s a takeaway for you, TKZ family, from this post it’s my recommendation that you always let a story drive itself. Especially during that first draft stage, just let it rip. Don’t squander any drama and chase the plot down every rabbit hole. Some will work out, others won’t, but that’s okay.

You can always fix it in post.

What say you? Have you lost control of any stories lately?

 

Do You Really Need Talent?

Posted on by

 

American cartoonist Charles Barsotti dies (1933-2014)

Dear crime dogs. Due to an unexpected family emergency, I am en route today to New Jersey. Not sure when I will be back or when I will have extra time. Didn’t have time to finish my planned post on anti-heroes. Will save my notes for my next round. So forgive me today for re-posting an old topic dear to my heart. Will try to weigh in during layover in Chicago. Thanks for your patience!

By PJ Parrish

“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.”–James Baldwin

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. This was way back in grade school, when I was as round as a beachball and rather lost. So I bugged my dad until he let me enroll in Miss Trudy’s School of Dance and Baton Twirling.

Did I mention I was chubby? Did I mention I had no talent? Neither stopped me. I had a ball trying and to this day, I can remember every step of my first recital dance. I eventually lost the weight but never the desire to dance. So around age 30, I took up lessons again. I did pretty good. Until I got to pointe. You know, the part where you shoe-horn your feet into those pretty pink satin shoes with a hard box at end and then you’re supposed to just rise up on your toes?

It hurts like hell.

So I gave up. Did I mention I had no talent?

Flash forward. I became a dance critic. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, well…

I got to meet and interview almost every famous dancer of my era, including Barshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Bob Fosse, you name it, I also got to cover the birth of the Miami City Ballet, and became friends with the artistic director the late Edward Villella. One day, he asked me if I wanted to be in The Nutcracker. In the first act party scene where the parents do a little minuet-type of dance. I accepted. So I danced, in front of 5,400 people. I didn’t screw up. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. To quote one of my favorite writers, Emily Dickinson:

I cannot dance upon my Toes—
No Man instructed me—
But oftentimes, among my mind,
A Glee possesseth me,

This is my round-about way of getting to my topic — talent vs technique. See, I had the desire, but I didn’t have the body type, the turn-out of the hip joints. I knew the steps, sure, but I didn’t have that vital muscle memory that comes to all dancers after years and years of learning their craft. I didn’t have the music inside me that separates the mere dancer from the artist.

So it is, I believe, with writers.

Years ago, my friend Reed Farrel Coleman wrote an article in Crime Spree Magazine titled “The Unspoken Word.” It was about his experience as an author-panelist at a writers conference. Reed was upset because he thought the conference emphasized technique to the exclusion of talent.

Reed wrote: “To listen how successful writing was presented [at the SleuthFest conference], one might be led to believe that it was like building a model of a car or a jet plane. It was as if hopeful writers were being told that if everyone had the parts, the decals, the glue, the proper lighting, etc. to build this beautiful model and then all they needed was the instruction manual. Nonsense! Craft can get you pretty damned far, but you have to have talent, too. Writing is no more like building a model than throwing a slider or composing a song.”

At the time, I was the president of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and our board decided, after much debate, to purposely steer SleuthFest toward the writers “workshop” conference. We did it because attendees told us they didn’t want any more authors getting up there just flapping their gums telling tired war stories. They wanted authors to pull back the green curtain and show how it is done. They wanted to hear authors talk about how they created memorable characters, how they maintained suspense, how they built a structure, why they chose a particular sub-genre. That’s what we gave them.

You know, sort of what we try to do where at The Kill Zone.

But Reed did raise an interesting question in his article — can novel writing really be taught? I think it can and should be. I think unpublished folks can go to workshops, read books, and learn the basics about plotting, character development, the arc of suspense, the constructs of good dialog.

Does that mean they have the stuff they need to be a successful writer? No, it only means they might — if they work hard — have a chance of mastering their craft. And I don’t care how talented you are, you aren’t going anywhere without craft.

Let’s go to the easy metaphor here — sports. A person may be born with a natural ability for basketball. They may be tall, able to shoot hoops with accuracy and be a fast runner. But that’s not enough. There was this guy who played for the Chicago Bulls…I forget his name. He didn’t make his high school’s varsity basketball team until his junior year, and when he got to University of North Carolina, he told the coach he wanted to be the best ever. Yeah, he had talent. But he worked like a dog. He became the best.

When I teach writing workshops, I preface everything with this one statement: I can teach you the elements of craft but I can’t teach you talent. Anyone can learn to hit a baseball. But only a few are going to have Ted Williams’ eye. The rest are going to be the John Oleruds of the world — competent major league role players. And what’s wrong with that if you can at least get to The Bigs, have a healthy backlist and maybe take the kids to Disney World on your royalties?

Which brings me back to James Baldwin’s quote. There are, indeed, many “talented ruins” out there. And there are many not-so-talented writers making a good living from their books. Some even become bestsellers.

So where to I come down on the talent question? I agree with Reed. All good writers have some talent. But I also believe you can’t have talent without craft and desire. Peter Benchley once said: “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” True, Jaws is a little cheesy, but it was one of the greatest serial killer thrillers ever imagined.

 

Writing for Children

Posted on by

When you’ve spent your entire career writing adult thrillers and true crime, switching to a children’s chapter book takes some getting used to. Jumping back and forth between the two is even more difficult. After struggling with both projects, I decided to stick with one till completion, then finish the other.

Because my chapter book is meticulously outlined and half-written, I chose to concentrate on that project first. Plus, a chapter book’s optimal range is 10,000 words — a fraction of the word-count of an environmental thriller.

When I read the opening sequence of my chapter book, it seemed too advanced for young readers. I needed to stop, home in on my target age group, and relax the language and pacing. After all, early readers don’t have the same mental acuity as adults. They need easier wins.

Children’s books are separated into three categories, all with different guidelines for word choices, pacing, viewpoints, and the amount and style of illustrations.

  • Picture books
  • Chapter books
  • Middle Grade

Picture Books

A standard picture book is 32 pages long.

Picture books follow a compact story arc with a beginning, middle, and end. Jump into the action quickly, introduce a problem, and have the main character solve it by the end. The “rule of three,” where a problem recurs three times before a solution is found, is a common and effective technique. Illustrations will convey much of the emotion and setting, so your text should focus on the action and dialogue. Avoid using words to describe what the illustrations show. A picture book is meant to be read aloud, so the language needs to have a natural rhythm and flow.

Ages 3-5: Around 500 words, these stories have simple language and relatable topics like starting school, picky eaters, or a nighttime routine. Illustrations consume the pages—big, bright, and fun.

Ages 4-8: These picture books can be slightly longer, up to 800 words, with a slightly more complex plot. Still, you’re limited, because the illustrations take center stage.

As a visual medium, the writer must consider how the story will unfold across two-page spreads.

Chapter Books

To write a chapter book, you need to develop relatable characters, create a simple yet engaging plot, and break the story into short, purposeful chapters that build a new reader’s confidence. A typical chapter book is aimed at the 7-10 year age group and has a word count between 5,000 and 15,000 words. The sweet spot is 10,000. This allows the writer more freedom than a picture book.

Chapter books fall between early readers and middle-grade novels. The target audience is a new independent reader who’s often supervised by an adult. A solid, unique story idea is the foundation of a successful chapter book—especially since many are written as a series—that includes the main plot and core theme(s).

If you include an ill-advised subplot, be careful not to divert focus from the main plot. The young reader is just beginning to get comfortable reading on their own. Making the story easy to understand and follow is essential. Sure, many chapter books are read aloud to an adult, but don’t rely on that. What if the child is reading alone?

A chapter book must have a full narrative arc. If you watch a plethora of animated films, you’ll see they’re all structured like an adult novel or movie. And so, that’s exactly what I did. The story should be action-packed with lots of dialogue to hold a new independent reader’s attention, but never leave the main character and sidekick in trouble for long. A flip of the page is more than enough suspense.

Around 48-80 pages, chapter books often include black-and-white illustrations at the beginning of each chapter or where you want to show the new reader what’s going on. For example, when I introduce a new animal character, I’ll include an illustration to cement that picture in the reader’s mind. Because the illustration is in black-and-white, I need only mention color rather than a detailed description.

Middle Grade Novel

Most middle grade novels are geared toward ages 8-12. They are the in-between books for readers who have outgrown chapter books and are too young to emotionally handle or enjoy themes and ideas found in young adult novels. Middle grade novels run about 30,000-55,000 words.

Young readers need to relate to the characters, but they don’t mind “reading up.” Meaning, the main cast should be in the upper range of the target age group. For some reason, 13 and 14 year-old characters are considered a no-no. They’re too old for middle grade novels (perhaps due to puberty?) and too young to star in YA.

If you choose to write in this genre, you may want to read this article about middle grade novels. In it, the author includes an important distinction:

“What may work for an 8-year-old likely won’t work for a 12-year-old. So although we bundle it all into middle grade, the genre actually has two sub groups. This is important to understand in order to know your audience when writing, and thus appropriately adjust your themes and word count.

Two Sub-Categories

  • Lower Middle Grade

Lower middle grade novels tend to be read by kids aged 8 to 10 years old. There may be a sub plot or two, but the main plot will dominate the focus, and all themes will certainly be G or PG rated.

  • Upper Middle Grade

Upper middle grade novels can have a higher word count, and will be read by children aged 10 to 13 years old. There will likely be a subplot or two that help to carry the story in a substantial way. Themes may be a bit more complex, or PG or PG-13 rated.”

Even though I spent quite a bit of time researching techniques for my new target audience, I enjoy the challenge of writing a children’s chapter book. It’s rewarding, fun, and exciting.

Have you ever considered writing for children? Do you write children’s books now? If so, for what age group? Any tips to share? Categorize your favorite children’s book and tell us why you loved it as a child.

How to Describe Characters

Posted on by

by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

I was reading a mystery the other day and noticed something—myself, pondering. I’d just read a passage describing a character. I shan’t print the actual prose, but here’s something I made up to give you the idea:

She wore a dress the color of jade. A platinum chain, deceptively thin on her smooth neck, held a diamond pendant. She had a sleek gold watch on her wrist, stacked against an array of jangling bracelets. Even her stiletto pumps whispered of indulgence and private fittings.

A couple of paragraphs later my brain sent me a message: Hey, I don’t remember a single thing she was wearing.

Which got me to thinking about what kind, and how many, physical details one should include. And my first thought is that one telling detail is much more powerful than a list. Consider this passage from The Godwulf Manuscript, a Spenser novel from Robert B. Parker:

Bradley W. Forbes, the president, was prosperously heavy—reddish face; thick, longish, white hair; heavy white eyebrows. He was wearing a brown pinstriped custom tailored three-piece suit with a gold Phi Beta Kappa key on a gold watch chain stretched across his successful middle. His shirt was yellow broadcloth and his blue and yellow striped red tie spilled out over the top of his vest.

This, IMO, is too much. And I was tripped up by broadcloth. What the heck is broadcloth? All those colors—red, white, gold. And what does “blue and yellow striped red” look like?

Here’s a better mix from The Americans by John Jakes. Carter Kent is a student at Harvard in the 1880s. Rebellious in nature, Carter got on the wrong side of his German professor.

In Carter’s opinion the man belonged in the Prussian army, not in a classroom. His curly blonde hair lay over his forehead in damp, effeminate ringlets. He had protruding blue eyes, and a superior manner, and loved to strut in front of his classes with a gold-knobbed cane in hand. He issued study instructions as if they were military orders, emphasizing them by whacking the cane on the desk.

Here damp, effeminate ringlets is striking. The gold-knobbed cane also. But here we have Carter’s impression of the man. Prussian army … military orders. And an action— whacking desks. That latter picture is one that sticks most in my mind.

Now let’s look at three character descriptions from the first page of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. It is, of course, in the POV of Philip Marlowe:

The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers. The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because Terry Lennox’s left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face but his hair was bone white. You could tell by his eyes that he was plastered to the hairline, but otherwise he looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.

Notice there’s one telling detail—bone white. That’s striking, and that’s enough. The rest of the description is the impression the character’s looks make on Marlowe.

There was a girl beside him. Her hair was a lovely shade of dark red and she had a distant smile on her lips and over her shoulder she had a blue mink that almost made the Rolls-Royce look like just another automobile. It didn’t quite. Nothing can.

Two specific details here—dark red hair and a blue mink—and both of them are wrapped up inside Marlowe’s impression. Here is a rich woman who doesn’t seem to care about the drunken Lennox (…distant smile…)

The attendant was the usual half-tough character in a white coat with the name of the restaurant stitched across the front of it in red. He was getting fed up.

Detail: white coat with red stitching. But the impression is what stays with us. I know what Marlowe means by a “usual half-tough character.”

Chandler then goes on to use both dialogue and action to augment the descriptions. Dialogue for the half-tough guy:

“Look, mister,” he said with an edge to his voice, “would you mind a whole lot pulling your leg into the car so I can kind of shut the door? Or should I open it all the way so you can fall out?”

Action for the woman:

The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.

Finally, if you’ve got a character with a definite voice (and you should!) you can often capture the reader with just one line. Here again is the great Chandler:

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window. (Farewell, My Lovely)

From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away. (The High Window)

She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight. (The Little Sister)

Redoing the description that kicked off this post, perhaps:

A platinum chain, deceptively thin on her smooth neck, held a diamond pendant. I smelled trouble. Or was that her perfume?

Suggestions (not rules…ahem):

  1. Don’t give us a list. Look for that one, telling detail.
  2. Consider using an impression from the POV character.
  3. Augment the description with dialogue and action.
  4. Use the voice for all its worth.

Over to you now. As I sit here in my faded sweatpants the color of an old gray mare, and my L.A. Rams T-shirt with a hole in the left armpit, I wonder: Do you have the same reaction to lists of details (i.e., forgetting them almost immediately)? What is your approach to character description?