Dump Your Critique Group!

Oh, boy! At my Left Coast Crime workshop, there was quite a reaction to the adamant directive that we should not be in writing critique groups. (I work with three throughout the year, so my ears perked up!)

This mandate came from Jan Burke (workshop leader) and Sue Grafton (guest author) during my day long, preconvention workshop. Jerrilyn Farmer (co-leader) moderated her response by saying it might be okay with the right people for a short time.

But no one of the three highly-successful writers thought that staying with a writing group for long periods of time helped make you a better writer.

In fact, the opposite.

Though none of them used the term, I connected their words with “learned helplessness” from my educator days. Learned helplessness is a condition of learning welfare that occurs when the student is given so much support to succeed that she cannot continue learning without the support. She abrogates her responsibility for learning, knowing she won’t be allowed to fail.

How does that relate to writing groups? My understanding of the views of Burke, Farmer, and Grafton is that they believe that writing groups hold authors back from being the best they can be. And, in fact, a writing group is the resort of the “lazy author” (my words as I interpreted theirs).

Sue Grafton said words to this effect: Why would you listen to other people who may write the same or less well than you? How does that make you better? It is YOUR job to know when something isn’t working in your manuscript, and you shouldn’t expect other people to do your job. Do the work. Put in the time. Brutally evaluate your own output. That’s your job if you call yourself a professional writer.

I can see both sides to the argument. (Of course I can. I’m a wishy-washy Libran.)

I realize that I do depend too much on my writing group colleagues to find and help fix my manuscripts. That is going to change. I am going to take more responsibility for being the professional I want to be.

By the same token, a part of me thinks that my critique groups also represent my potential readers. So isn’t that input helpful? To know what works or doesn’t? What is left out or extraneous?

"Nah," Sue Grafton, Jan Burke, and Jerrilyn Farmer would say. "That’s your job."

Left Coast Crime Conference

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I am sort of a conference junkie. In my previous professional life, it was expected that I attend and present research at several conferences a year. I always loved it. The kissing, the hugging, the renewal of old friendships, the introduction to new friends! And the chance to learn! What’s not to like?

In my current professional life as author, I have total control over what my life looks like from work schedule to continuing education to purchased resources to conference attendance. No more mandates from on high. I take on-line and in-person classes. I buy every writing book on Amazon. And I attend conferences. (But not yet as a presenter.)

An editor told me a bit more than a year ago that I needed to stop taking general writing classes and attending general writing conferences. I needed to focus attention instead, spending my time and money, on genre-specific resources. To that end, I attended my first-ever Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA) conference last July. Spectacular. I learned so much, and I am returning this July to get more.

At that conference, I was told that I had to attend the Left Coast Crime (LCC) conference. So I did. I got home last Sunday evening from that conference. Again, I learned a lot, but it was different.

PSWA is a craft-focused conference. Public safety workers in a range of fields present their expertise so you can bring a level of authenticity to your mysteries. You learn about DNA and how that is used (and abused in TV shows), what a vice cop does on the beat, and how to spin out clues at the right pace.

LCC is primarily a fan conference. There are lots of writers in attendance, but the majority of registrants are fans of mystery writing and writers. Thus, the sessions were geared to fans and how authors do what they do in their books. It may sound like a subtle difference between writing craft sessions and sessions for fans, but it is huge.

For example, I attended one session on what makes villains memorable. The panelists all described their villains and what made them villainous. As a writer, it was my responsibility to translate that into a craft lesson to see what lessons I could learn to apply to my own books. My brain got a workout!

Of course, in keeping with my major interest, I ate up, so to speak, the session by culinary mystery writers! And I was shocked to learn that several don’t cook or enjoy cooking but they like writing culinary mysteries.

Also a thrill was seeing Mission Impastable for sale at a conference bookstore for the first time. That is a rush!

And spending the day before the conference in an all-day writing workshop geared to authors was a special treat, especially since the fabulous presenters, Jan Burke and Jerrilyn Farmer, surprised us with a special session with Sue Grafton.

Oh, and did I mention the great bonding time Oak Tree Press authors had with publisher Billie Johnson at our own special session one afternoon?

There is much to be said for attending writing conferences featuring both tangible and intangible rewards. So where are you headed for your next conference? Maybe I’ll see you there.

Word Choice and Voice

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.   Stephen King

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.   C.S. Lewis

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.    John Ruskin

Word choice. Which words do I choose and use? Why?

I’ve had mixed reviews from critique partners about vocabulary level in my various works. The range is from “I had to look up words. That interrupts the story. Lose the big words.” to “I love that you don’t insult my intelligence by talking down to me. Keep using vocabulary that challenges me.”

Truly, it is not that I am trying to demonstrate my facility with logo-gymnastics, but that’s the way I talk. The first word that comes to mind is what I type. I don’t sit with the thesaurus open and at the ready to insert an arcane word in place of a pedestrian one. Rather, why use a phrase when a single word would do?

Unless that language level is inconsistent with the character. Well, duh! That elusive characteristic of "voice" is, in part, signaled by word choice. Language identifies us.

When I have a character with education, why not have her use the language level she would use in real life? Oh, I know that if she sprinkles too many high-vocabulary words in, she will distract. But where is the line between voice illustrated through language level and interrupting the reader. I hate to think that readers’ vocabulary levels are so low they would avoid my great (!) books just because I have a character using less common words.

I hate to think that good vocabularies belong only to literary fiction. Genre fiction, commercial fiction—why can’t those characters be literate as well?

Okay. I do have a good vocabulary. I admit to being proud of that. But demonstrating language facility is not, should not be, tantamount to bragging or driving away readers. I remember the first time I read Sophie’s Choice (William Styron). Not only did the story fully engage me, but I had to look up a couple of words in the dictionary. Me, looking up words! I loved it!

I am a word game nut. I read the dictionary for fun. My favorite all-time Christmas present from DH was the compact version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Etymologies make me swoon. We’re always saying, “Let’s look it up.”

I LOVE WORDS! That passion showed through in my work with kids over 39 years. What a legacy to pass on, that words are cool. Why can’t I do that in my writing as well. In Streetwalker (my erotic romance), I have a character obsessed with words even though she is not educated.

So, Dear Reader, hang on for the ride. The vocabulary level in my works may be higher than some. But when I write, the right word comes to mind. I don’t go “dictionary diving” to find an obtuse way to say the same thing. If you might need a dictionary once or twice, enjoy the joy of words and the way they roll around on your tongue and in your mind.

Take Your Writing Vitamins

Everyone knows that a healthy mind in a healthy body blah blah blah. So you take care of yourself, right? Riiiigghtt!

Exercise, eat right, take the supplements you need. So we go for balanced meals, cut out the fast food, and snack on fruits and veggies. And we ingest our calcium, krill oil, and multi-vitamin for Vitamins A, B, C, D and the rest of the alphabetic iteration.

But exercise? For some of us, that’s harder. Our job is to plant our seat (not seed) and let words flow forth. Umm. That didn’t come out (this is getting worse) quite right. But you know what I mean.

Our job is to sit there until we’ve met some pre-established objective--number of pages, number of words, working out a knotty scene, and so on. Getting to the gym or even taking a walk can be tough to schedule in. There’s always one more blog to write, one more set of Twitter postings, one more scene that’s really close to coming together-maybe, sorta, kinda.

Not much I can do about that, but during the writing process I can assure you that taking your writing vitamins will help you be more productive. Just as you want your body fit, your writing soul also needs attention. Here are your writing vitamins so you can crank it out.

One of the most important writing vitamins for accomplishment is Vitamin G. Setting Goals gives you a target, a focus, a raison d’etre for writing. Intermediate and long-term Goals keep you on track.

Using Vitamin L--Learn--probably happens naturally for you every day. But be more mindful of your Learning about your craft or writing business and share it on your blog. Let others know what you have found out about writing. Writing is a mode of Learning (Janet Emig). When you write about what you learn, you cement it for yourself.

Vitamin S may be the most important one. Show up for work. Yes, writing is your work, your job, even if a second one at this point. Without recognizing that commitment to job responsibility, you can easily find reasons to not write. Trust me, writing every day, without fail, will result in Vitamin G having its full effect.

Vitamin P must be taken with Vitamin S. Protect your writing time. Be ruthless. Bargain. Lie (oh, not really). Do what it takes for you to be able to Show up and accomplish your Goals.

Vitamin M will aid your production by making you more efficient. Move at least every two hours. The data about sitting is really devastating! We need to stand and move when possible. Set a timer (I have to because I lose track of time) and take a potty or beverage break. Walk around the house. Jog in place. Return phone call and walk around as you talk. MOVE!

And your last writing vitamin is Vitamin I. Ignore writing advice (except for this, of course). Should you plot to within an inch of the scenes or should you get “in the flow” and let it roll? Should you stick with one genre and get really good at that one or bounce among genres depending on your interests and the stories batting at your head? Ignore any advice that doesn’t feel right with this story at this time. That is not to say that you can’t read others’ suggestions. Sure pick their brains. But remember, there is NO one way to write a book. Or someone would have found it and everyone would use it. So ignore what doesn’t mesh. And incorporate what does.

What are your writing vitamins? Attend to your writing health as much as that of your body and mind.

Mystery Author Marja McGraw: The Hand of Fate?

I am delighted to welcome Marja McGraw to Write Away today! I met her at a Public Safety Writers Conference last July and immediately connected with her warm personality and terrific sense of humor. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more cheerful demeanor in any room! And guess what? No surprise that persona manifests itself in her books. The cover of the latest is here. Check her out in the links at the bottom. You will be delighted with your find!

 Many years ago my young daughter and I lived alone due to circumstances. We were living in a small apartment, and there had been several instances of prowlers lurking and mysterious occurrences, like keys disappearing from apartments. Everyone in the building was on the lookout for each other.

One night I was awakened when I felt someone’s presence in the room. Surprisingly, I was sleeping soundly that night and it took me a moment to wake up. I was trying to figure out why I thought someone was in the room when I realized my hand rested on that of someone else. Mind you, I was very sleepy. I wondered if I was dreaming.

I started to feel the fingers of the hand. Yes, someone was definitely in my room. I wanted to jump up, grab my daughter from the next room and run, but I was so groggy.

I touched one more of the intruder’s fingers and suddenly I was wide awake! I was on the verge of screaming, when all of a sudden I realized… I was feeling my own hand. My head rested on my right arm and my hand had gone to sleep. Needless to say, my right hand had no feeling and didn’t know my left hand was touching its fingers.

The point of this story is, there are so many things that happen to us in real life that we can twist and turn until they’re fodder for a mystery. Think about your life. You must have had something odd happen at some time in your personal history. Use it.

A few years after the hand incident I’d moved and lived in a very old house. There was a local bum/drunk who watched my house, unknown to me until he began arriving on my doorstep. He’d tell me the things he’d seen me do, and he’d leave little “gifts” like a soft drink or a bag of potato chips on my porch when I wasn’t home. Without going into detail, he was a scary guy who really wanted me to let him in. Interestingly, I’d call the police and somehow they could never find him. There’s a story behind that, but it’s better left for another time.

When I wrote “Bubba’s Ghost”, I used the bum/drunk as a basis for the story. I created twists and turns galore and ended up with a pretty good murder mystery.

You can create a scene or an entire book out of one instance in your life. No one has to know your story or scene is based on something that really happened to you, or that you saw happen to someone else. Real life can become fiction, although sometimes it needs a little help.

That fickle finger of fate can actually cause the direction our lives are taking to turn down a side road. The same thing can happen to our protagonist or other characters in our books. Sometimes we can even turn a traumatic occurrence into a funny scene.

Don’t get me wrong. Not all of my books are based on real life experiences, although a menopausal woman takes down a mugger in “A Well-Kept Family Secret”. That scene was based on something that happened to a friend and me when she was mugged in a bank parking lot several years ago.
Hmm. I’ve lived kind of an interesting life. Maybe I was meant to be a mystery writer. I sure have enough life experience for it.

As a reader, I hope you enjoy what mystery writers write, and I hope you can relate to some of the lighter parts of stories. I don’t want anyone to relate to the dark parts, but things happen.
As a writer, I hope you’re watching and remembering. I hope you’re using memories as well as your imagination.

If anyone can relate, readers or writers, it might even be a little therapeutic. One can always hope.
Thank you so much for letting me share a little about turning reality into fiction, Sharon. You have a lovely site and I enjoyed visiting.

Links:

Blog: http://blog.marjamcgraw.com/

Website: http://www.marjamcgraw.com/

Buy books: http://amzn.to/1c1bf4D

How Do I Kill Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

There’s something about writing murder mysteries that rubs me the wrong way. At heart, I’m a non-violent, make-love-not-war kinda guy. Until you put a blank document in front of me with one of my delectable culinary mystery titles at the top. Tequila Mockingbird. Roux the Day. Romeo and Julienned. Glazed and Infused. Berried Alive. You get the drift. How can you not write to one of those titles? {Speaking of which--did you get your copy of Mission Impastable yet?}

When the blank page pops up, I can’t help myself. I recall grisly details of murder methods and motives. I tap into my files of devilish dyings. I scour the Internet for undetectable poisons. I make note of various ways to die--advertent and inadvertent--in books I read. Think about it: an inadvertent death can be used as a plot point or red herring in a murder mystery.

I write cozy mysteries. In cozies, you protect the sensibilities of the reader by killing off-stage, mostly. You don’t let them see the blood and gore of grisly death, mostly. Cozies are analogous to the old movies where they are clutched in embrace, move as one to open the door to the bedroom, and the scene fades to black. You know what happened, but you don’t live it real-time.

You might wonder how a “cozy mystery” can even be called a “murder mystery”? I mean, doesn’t that seem a contradiction in terms? Cozy implies safe. Murder is far from a safe state.Why do we authors continue to kill people? Are all authors just psychopaths masquerading as normal? Could we authors really be Dexter, with just a nudge?

Oh, I hope it is not mere sublimination. Rather, the puzzle to be set then solved is the attraction for most mystery writers, I suspect. It is satisfying to plot out the puzzle with myriad clues and red herrings (perfect for culinary mystery, eh?).

Back to the case in point: how many ways can you kill people? There is some weird stuff out there, by the way, in case you go investigating “ways to kill people”.

And, as it turns out, there are a lot of ways to kill people. Think about it. I’ll give you a moment to jot down ideas.

<Jeopardy music softly in background>

How did you do? Did you find it’s easier to enumerate if you think about killing in categories?

Deprivation of oxygen: plastic bag over head, pillow smothering, drowning, fire, strangulation, bury alive, and so on.

Traumatic injury: electrocution, car accident, bludgeoning, stabbing, shooting, hack off limbs, pierce the brain, sever artery, freezing, mauling, and more.

Chemical: drug overdose, toxic household items, toxic plants, acid, inhaling 100% oxygen, paralytic drug so systems shut down, radiation, viral, etc.

Then of course there’s the mass murder and serial murder. So many options for a writer. The only answer for us, of course, is to keep writing books and use up all the ways there are to do somebody in.

But, why do we choose murder? Can’t we just have some theft, a little B&E, nobody gets physically hurt, and call it a real cozy?

Nah!

Writers: Sell That Real Estate

I had a fun weekend at the Glendale, AZ Chocolate Affaire. Every February, around V-Day, about 100,000 people visit the various tents of food and crafts, listen to music, and buy books from local authors.

Our local branch of romance writers has had a tent from the first year of this event. This year about 40 authors sold and autographed books over a three-day period. Not everyone was selling romance--me, for example--but the romance writers embrace the big tent concept.

I would have sold romance, if I could have, but STREETWALKER (my Angelica French persona) is only an e-book so far. Hopefully, it will appear in print later this month. But, more on that later.

I did sell copies of my just-released culinary mystery, MISSION IMPASTABLE. What fun! Buyers got the pen I signed with, too. What a deal!

But I hawked more than I sold. That’s typical. Who comes to a festival thinking to buy books? Well, some do. Those are our regulars who show up every year hunting for fave authors. But most people I conversed with didn’t even know we were local authors.

So what did I hawk? Real estate.

No, not that kind of real estate.

The blank back of that business card you paid for, that space is real estate, and it cries out for information from you. And I don’t mean here’s how to reach me. That’s on the front.

On the back, I gave people a reason to keep my cards. A reason to keep them from tossing them in the trash or in a drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. I want to be on their mind.

So far, I have two books in print, so I have two business cards. I can see consolidating down the road, but for now, two is good.

The front of each card has contact info and my great book covers on a clean, white background. Very eye-catching. No clutter with cutesy graphics.

On the back, I give content. Content I hope they will find intriguing, or helpful, or just plain funny.

For STREETWALKER, my erotic romance, I include advice from my protagonist, Carrie, as "Carrie's Top Ten Sex Tips". People laughed out loud when they saw what I handed them!

And what better to put on the back of the business card for MISSION IMPASTABLE, my culinary mystery, than a recipe from the book, "Lasagna Roll-Ups"?

Now, I have to tell you, I did--briefly--consider including ways to poison people on the back of the MISSION IMPASTABLE business card, but I feared the NSA would show up. I don't need that kind of trouble. A recipe? Safe.

Waving my MISSION IMPASTABLE business card, I asked, “Like to cook?” to get people to my spot. One woman shook her head “no”. I held up my STREETWALKER business card and asked, “Like sex?” She laughed and came over so I could give my spiel.

What content is in your book that you could extend so people don't toss your business card? If you write romance, you might include dating tips. If you write historical fiction mysteries, share little known facts about the era or a person. If you write medical mysteries, include some factoids about the disease in your book. Perhaps, for a cozy craft mystery, you could include crochet instructions for a scarf. You get the idea.

You have specialized knowledge. Use it to extend the value of your 4¢ business card. You might make a sale worth many, many times that.