The Day Job, Dad, and Deductive Reasoning

Summer Program has begun at the Boys & Girls Club, and that means the staff operates on half-energy for more than a full day's work. Baseball's in full swing (no pun intended), and school's out, so we're corralling kids when we open in the morning, and dealing with parents, volunteers, and the general public during the games at night. (Thank God, I'm out of most of the evening situations, especially since the grownups can act more childish than the children, who just want to play ball, and aren't caught up in the whole adult ego thing.)

A couple posts back, I mentioned my dad reading the first episode of my serial, Thieves' Honor. He's not a science fiction fan, nor does he read much other than nonfiction, but he likes the fantasy I'm writing (he's read the first manuscript, and is waiting for me to finish the second), so I had a thin hope he might enjoy the mildly cheesy adventures of a crew of space pirates.

Tonight, I get home at six, change shoes, grab the old-fashioned lawnmower, and blitz through front and back yards in a little over an hour. When I return to the house, there's a message on the answering machine: "This is Dad. If you survive the yard, give me a call. I read your little stories" -- Little stories, ain't that sweet? It annoys me, but I know he means the individual episodes that comprise the whole story -- "and I want to talk about them."

Turns out, he stayed up till two this morning, reading all the current episodes. "They're simple and straight-forward, and kinda fun. Rough and tumble, like a Louis L'Amour story."

The words he uses and the shrugging way he says them might seem like faint praise, but my dad read L'Amour's Westerns and detective stories throughout my childhood (and so did I, some of them many times), so a comparison to one of his favorite fiction writers is unexpected and encouraging.

"Style's not the same," he adds, "but it is. A little."

When words fail, sometimes you just gotta know the guy to know what he means.

Oh, the Horror!

A friend and fellow writer has turned her fiction endeavors toward horror, specifically short stories, and has proven to have an aptitude for the macabre. Several of her stories have been published, or are waiting publication, and in a genre she didn't expect.

I didn't expect to have an association with the horror genre, either, but have been volunteering as a submissions reader (slush reader) and a proofer for Fear and Trembling online magazine for almost two years. There was a call for help, and I signed on -- for the experience and the practice, if nothing else.

My friend's creativity was set free by exploring a new genre; I may read for it, but have yet to write anything frightening enough to make folks turn the page, let alone turn on all the lights.

However, this horror magazine gig has reinforced a few principles that seem tired to some writers who submit their work there -- principles so tired, in fact, that many of these writers feel no need to abide by them, things like "Show, don't tell," or "Learn to spell, dagnabbit!"

Actually, one thing that has been hammered into my skull after reading so many bad submissions is this: "Don't waste the reader's time."

In other words:

Get to the point.

Don't meander.

Don't load the beginning with the back story.

Don't be cute.

Don't try to appear lofty, intellectual, or literary.

Don't get so wrapped up in your style that you forget to tell the story.

Don't rely on gimmicks i.e. no gore for gore's sake.

Don't rely on foul language to make your characters tough or your fiction gritty. Any fool can cuss.

Skip the sentiment, and go straight to the heart. If you want readers to feel the love, show the love. If you want them to feel the fear, make them afraid.

Don't over-write; stop explaining. If you tell the story in a clear, concise manner, your readers are smart enough to understand it.

Keep your promises. Don't mislead readers into thinking they're getting one kind of story but you deliver another. If you introduce a plot element, follow through.

Don't use opening hooks that go nowhere. If you start with a bang, don't end with a whimper.

Tell the story first, and worry about the word count later. If you tell a good story, and you tell it well, editors are apt to ease that word limit to include excellent fiction in their publication. As Jerry Jenkins said in the quote I included in my previous post, "(A) good book can't be long enough for my taste. And a bad book can't be short enough."

Catching Up

Whew! Done at last. Episode 9 of my science fiction serial, Thieves' Honor, is now with my trusty pre-readers, who will make comments and suggestions, and find all those pesky invisible words that I could have sworn I typed but somehow never actually made it onto the page.

My dad came over tonight, and I sent him home with a copy of the first episode. He's not a science fiction fan, so he only wanted a fraction rather than the whole (ahem) pi. If he likes it, he'll come back for more.

Ideally, I'd have the next couple of episodes completed by now, too. If I remain in my current place of employment -- I'm sending out resumes -- June and July are going to be busy, the kind of busy that wrings me out, makes me fall asleep sitting upright, dinner half-eaten. But then there's a mandatory two-week break in August, and I live for those two weeks. Sad, huh?

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Catching up on recent issues of writing magazines, I encountered the following that might be of use to other writers:

I start with the characters, and I just get to know them really, really well. I know what they think, fear and love, what motivates them, what they want. I think about them until I know how they would spend every day of their normal lives. Then I write the story about the day on which something different happens. In other words, some conflict, something comes into their life, you know, something new. - Lee Smith, The Writer, April 2009

Every good novel has two quests--what I call the Public Quest and Personal Quest. If your protagonist is an investigator, then his Public Quest is stopping the villain from doing evil. But he should also be fighting personal demons--guilt, grief, addictions, loneliness, etc.--and trying to be at a better place by the end of the Public Quest...It's this all-important Personal Quest where characters are fleshed out, where they re-examine their needs and desires, where they show their moral fiber and determination in conquering their demons. It's also where they earn our respect and prove their heroics. - Gary Braver, The Writer, April 2009

Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it's work. And I think Jerry would agree that belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything. - Stephen King, Writer's Digest, May/June 2009

I hope my writing has become more spare and direct over the years. The longer I write, the less patient I am with needless words...That said, a good book can't be long enough for my taste. And a bad book can't be short enough. - Jerry Jenkins, Writer's Digest, May/June 2009

M.I.A.

Due to other life matters, I didn't post an entry for Day 3 of the May CSSF Blog Tour for Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead. Work has occupied me, and the next episode of Thieves' Honor needs to be completed and turned in ASAP, and I just forgot about the blog.

I'll be back later this week. Meantime, happy writing!

Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead - Day 2

As a reader of adventure tales, I've enjoyed the King Raven Trilogy by Stephen R. Lawhead, the final book of which is Tuck, the subject of this month's Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour.

I grew up on Robin Hood tales, and there is a sense of childhood returned when I read or view a version of the legend, even when the version darkens the myth. Some reviews of Lawhead's trilogy have mentioned that darkness, and some have expressed dislike for the changes in Rhi Bran ap Brychan's (Robin's) character in the final book.

In the first book, Hood, he loses family and kingdom, and begins the struggle to win back his land; in Scarlet and in Tuck, the struggle continues, often with disheartening results, but rarely is anything worth winning obtained without struggle, or quickly, and rarely does one engaged in the endeavor emerge unchanged.

So, while some readers lost sympathy for Bran, I identified with his frustration, especially when he freed a king who was also a kinsman, and that man -- who owed a great debt -- did not repay it with anything stronger than words. It's odd, to me, that characters I seem to understand the most in their irritations, frustrations, or thwarted purposes, other readers view as arrogant or always angry. Don't know what that says about me. Bran isn't always the politest or most politick person, except when he's laying a trap. Among friends, he lets loose his true emotion, even if it is ugly. Rather than seeing that as a compliment, as a sign of trust, characters in the story react as real people might, and either respond with anger of their own, or with fear or contrition. Sometimes, I think, we expect heroes or friends to behave perfectly, to never lose their tempers or feel strong emotion, to never speak harshly, to always listen patiently and always agree with us. Is that not true arrogance?

But this review is supposed to be about the book itself, much of which is told through the point of view of Friar Tuck (Brother Aethelfrith) as he aids Bran and the Grellon (a more down-to-earth lot than the Merry Men of other tales) in the fight to regain their land and Bran's crown. I like the fact that Tuck's faith is a matter of course. There is no heavy-handed prosyletizing, no lengthy sermons, just an everyday faith that is so woven into the fabric of Tuck's life that it is a natural part of his speech and actions.

This is not to say that he doesn't participate in his share of the fighting! He wouldn't be Tuck if he didn't crack a few crowns and thwack any opponent who happened to be at hand.

Tuck turns the story in interesting directions, some opposite what they were at the end of Scarlet, and gathers in another legendary character, Alan a'Dale, minstrel, to join Robin Hood (Rhi Bran y Hud), Little John (Iwan), Will Scatlocke/Scarlet, Friar Tuck, and the infamous Marshal Guy of Gysburne. It's been like a game, seeing how Lawhead would incorporate old and new in his version of the legend, and I enjoyed watching for the familiar characters to make their appearances in the story.

As for the aforementioned darkness, perhaps it didn't strike me as so radical a way to tell the tale because, to this day, I recall the chapters in Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood that kept me on the edge of my seat, or made me fear and sweat and wonder how Robin or his men would get out of this predicament. One in particular -- "Will Stutely Rescued by his Good Companions" -- tells how Robin sends sly Will to spy on the Sheriff's men, but Will is caught and sentenced to the gallows. (Hmmm. This sounds a lot like the plot of Scarlet! Perhaps that's why I like that book the best of the trilogy.) Then there are the last chapters of HP's book, full of goodbyes and melancholy, and the death of Robin in the presence of Little John, which bears a resemblance to the Old Testament story of the death of Elisha.

The picture (right) is of the cover of my tattered but beloved copy of HP's telling of the legend. In fact, I waxed so nostalgic the other night that I found a copy of this edition for sale online, and bought it. Always good to have a backup!

For other opinions and reviews of Tuck, visit these stops along the tour:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead - Day 1

The May entry in the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour is Tuck, third in the King Raven Trilogy by Stephen R. Lawhead, retelling the Robin Hood legend.

Hood begins the saga, telling how Bran ap Brychan becomes Rhi Bran y Hud (Robin Hood); Scarlet recounts how Will Scarlet joins the band, is imprisoned, and tells his tale to Brother Odo, a monk with a secret desire for adventure; and Tuck continues the exploits of the outlaw band by presenting much of the story from Brother Aethelfrith's (Friar Tuck's) point of view, and introduces Alan a'Dale.

Confession: Scarlet is my favorite of the three, but each one is a solid entry in the series.

I pre-ordered Tuck late last year, before I knew it was on the list of upcoming tour items. However, as I have a stack of reading material -- some required, some pleasure -- that is literally three feet tall, Tuck wasn't read until late April. It's an entertaining adventure, and I wish I could have read it earlier.

I'll discuss the book further over the next couple of days, and compare it to my first encounter with the written form of the Robin Hood legend, the version by Howard Pyle that my father used to read to me and my brother. The volume is tattered and faded now, and in need of spinal repairs, but the elaborate illustrations are still vibrant and the language still enticing to the imagination.

For other views, please check out these other stops on the tour:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

Waiting

My mind elsewhere, I cast a glance at a bookshelf, and a row of books jolted me into another track. The titles are research books for a story I want to write -- have wanted to write for fifteen years, maybe twenty -- set during The Great War (WWI). I've purchased histories, volumes of letters or diaries of soldiers, spent a lot of money on the background material, but I haven't made notes or written any scenes for that story in maybe five years. Yet it lurks on the edges of my imagination.

This tale may not come to fruition until I'm a couple decades older. Maybe it'll never be told.

Do you have a story that hasn't found its time?