At the request of a number of friends and colleagues, I have divided my manual, WRITE COMPELLING FICTION into a number of 1,500 (give or take) word articles for EzineArticles, updating them slightly as I go along. I hope I get something good out of them, and I look forward to seeing their novels on the shelves and shelves, along with my 20 novels and 2 non-fiction works, and my wife’s 50+ historical romance thrillers and romance novels.
This manual (series of articles) is written for those of you, like me, who are not English specialists or grammarians, not that those of you who are can’t extract some good common sense and a few novelist’s tricks.
I am a boy who loves to hunt and fish. I will go outdoors for any excuse. Like most of you, I have worked hard all my life. I love the West and its history and I think I would have done well if I had lived a hundred and fifty years ago. As the song says, a country boy will survive. But to get published – my specialty area has been the West – it takes more than love for westerns, history and historical figures. Like all majors, whether it’s driving an eighteen-wheeler, driving a nail, or making nails, there are tricks that make writing a novel easier; one of them is to write from history, but there are stories and arguments everywhere, in every newspaper, in every magazine, in every observation you make at Starbucks or at work. There are also traps, but most of them are easily avoided.
He wanted to write and sell a novel. I learned how the hard way. By studying the mistakes of others (including mine), you can learn the easiest way. Even today, after selling twenty novels, I struggle with obvious mistakes and bad grammar, clumsy sentence structure, and worse, much worse, boring text. I can’t begin to teach you everything there is to know about writing novels or even writing a good letter to your mother. I can tell you where and how to learn a lot from it. I am still studying, but if I can make it a little easier for you, then I will have achieved my purpose in writing this manual.
And they published me. You also can.
Most of the rules for writing novels hold true for writing in general. Some are gender specific. If you don’t know the definition of gender, then you are exactly the person this manual is written for. But even those of you who know what it means will find some gems here, most of them stolen or openly pilfered from other writers far better than me.
A large part of this manual is concerned with westerns and historicals, and romance, because this (and scripts) is what my wife and I write and how we make our living, though I’ve now been published in mystery, thriller, and not. -fiction. This is not to say that the same rules do not apply to other genres of writing. It’s certainly not to say that you can’t find some gems of writing wisdom in this manual, not necessarily created by me, but passed down by other good and great writers, or that much of what’s included here doesn’t apply to you. what you intend to write if it is something more than westerns or historical.
Good luck with your novel.
REMINDERS: On top of my desk, along the edges of the bookcases at eye level, I have taped the following reminders:
Filter all descriptions via point of view!
Problem, Purpose, Conflict, Active Meta-Voice!
Hear, see, taste, touch and smell!
There is no scene without conflict!
Check out how that was!
Each of these have been tapped into there at various times throughout my writing career. And I still look at them from time to time, and they’re still crucial to good writing.
The rest of this manual will tell you, among other things, why I think the above reminders are so important, and why, if you’re a reader (and you shouldn’t try to be a writer if you’re not), I’ll never get stuck for the plot or the characters.
YOU CAN DO IT? First you must want.
Anyone who has a basic understanding of the structure of written English or is willing to learn and has a story to tell can write and sell a novel.
I sold my first paperback western, Tenkiller, to Zebra Books twenty-five years ago. My second, Mojave Showdown, was picked up by the same company. Together my wife and I wrote and sold Tin Angel, a western romance, to Avon. I have sold Bantam Books the westerns El Lazo, Against the 7th Flag, The Devils Bounty and The Benicia Belle. Also, Bantam released my landmark, Rush to Destiny. Next up was a hardcover Double D Western, Shadow of the Grizzly Bear. Next up were westerns, mysteries, thrillers, and a couple of nonfiction works, including the work from which most of this article was drawn: Write Compelling Fiction. All of my books are available on audio, most from Books in Motion, a large company located in Spokane, WA. Most are now on Amazon in both print and eBook formats.
By sold, I mean that I have contracted and received an advance on the novel, and we’ll talk a bit more about contracts later.
Also, my wife, Kat, is published in a dozen or more foreign languages and in more than two dozen countries. She has now sold over 50 romantic suspense and historical romance novels to various major publishers; many of her novels have appeared on bestseller lists.
We did it. You can do it.
I am not a college graduate. Family pressures pulled me out of college my junior year. In English, I would probably test in the middle (my loving wife would say lower) of a bunch of college freshmen and get stuck in the airhead class. But I’m willing to look up what I don’t know, and I’m willing to take the time to make sure my work is presented clearly to the reader, the first of whom will be an agent or publisher who will say yes or no to buying the piece. construction site.
And every day I enjoy writing more than the day before. It continues to be easier and more financially rewarding. It will never be perfect.
I keep learning every day. Who knows? If I do it long enough, maybe I can get into university and not have to take airhead English! Writers learn by doing, every time they sit down in front of a blank page.
You have a great story. We all do. You have to be willing to take the time to put it down on paper in a clear, legible manner and in reasonably good English so that editors will read beyond the first two pages. Even the best of stories, the most compelling, exciting, or moving, can fail to read or sell due to spelling and typographical errors on the first few pages. Many editors—in fact, most—feel that if you’re sloppy in your technical skills and presentation, you’re likely to be sloppy in every other aspect of your writing.
But more of that later.
When I first picked up a pencil and a yellow pad, I had little knowledge of spelling or sentence structure; all he really had was a love of great fiction. I found a bit of time, a dictionary, and some harsh criticism, and it all contributed to the eventual sale of my first Western novel.
The main excuse for those who are not successful in all areas of endeavor is: “I just don’t have the time.” Horse hockey! We all waste time. We watch TV. We ride in the car and dream of unproductive thoughts. You can write in your mind (and most writers do) long before you put it down on paper. You can record on a handheld recorder and transcribe later. Time is not an excuse.
Writing in the car, on the beach, standing on the bank of the creek fishing for trout.
There is only one way to be a writer, and that is to write. Write two pages -two lousy pages- a day, and in six months you have a novel.
Like most things we set out to do in this life, luck played a part in my sale. But don’t be discouraged if you consider yourself unlucky. Luck, I have discovered, is nothing more than the inevitable result of hard work.
The harder you work, the luckier you will be.
Now I want to help you get lucky.
Lady Luck took eight years to find me. By then, she had had nearly forty years to steel my head. She had read a thousand westerns and more novels in other genres, and she thought she knew how to do it. But she didn’t even know the questions, much less the answers. And for the first six of the eight years I wrote before I sold, I didn’t bother asking. The refusal forms told me I wasn’t doing it right. I decided that it must be a trade, something like painting a picture or building a good saddle, and I decided to learn it. Two years later, I sold my first novel. Six years lost!
I wish I had had this manual (this series of articles, in this case) thirty years ago.
The self-satisfaction of seeing your name on the cover of your paperback (or now your e-book) at the local market or drugstore, on the cover of a hardback book at the bookstore, or on the box of an audio, Alright. It’s well worth the effort, not to mention the thousands of dollar advances and, if you’re diligent and stick with your new business, the ongoing royalties.
The important thing is that you are doing the right thing, reading up on the ins and outs, the mechanics, and the business of writing and selling. Be on the lookout for the next ezine article, the follow up to Write Compelling Fiction.