WE ARE WHAT WE WRITE… REALLY?!!

Darrell James

A neighbor of mine recently read my collection of short stories, Body Count: A Killer Collection. When I saw her some days later she commented that she liked the stories but that they made her wonder about me (the author)—the inference being that because I write about murder (sometimes from a somewhat dark perspective) that I must somehow be as secretly deranged as the characters I create.

Moi? I’m a guy who walks around ants on the sidewalk so as not to spoil their day.

In my introduction to the book, I did offer this defense: “I am less intrigued by murder itself, than I am with the premeditation that leads to it. In other words, at what point in the course of human conflict does murder become the solution of choice.”

Ahhh, but, then, perhaps, it was no defense at all, but yet another clever attempt by the author to conceal his darker, more devious, intent.

I know I’m not the first writer to be held in suspicion of his work. In Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft, he indicates that the he is often ask why he chooses to write horror (given such obvious talent for writing). His answer is: “What makes you think I can write anything else?”

Perhaps, good Stephen has looked inside himself and glimpsed the demon that conjures the work.

But I doubt it.

In real life, I abhor violence of any kind. And find it uncomfortable to even be in the presence of an argument.

And, if it were so, one of us (Stephen or I) would have already been caught skulking through some dark alley or climbing through some unlocked bedroom window.

So, what’s behind the fascination for writing stories of murder? And what does it say about the readers who love to read them?

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. (I’d truly like to know who among you to be on the lookout for.)

SETTINGS AS CHARACTERS?

Darrell James

I was once asked, What’s the toughest part of writing a novel? Without thinking, my knee jerk answer was “Decision Making.”

Authors make decisions even before the writing begins. What to write about? Where to set the story? Where to begin the telling? And the decision making continues throughout the process until the very end, deciding on the minutia as well as the major plot and character elements.

One of the decisions an author must make early in the writing process (perhaps even early in their career) is: Will my story(s) have a fictional or real setting?

Some authors have made real settings part of their own storytelling brand, (Michael Connolley’s L.A., Dennis Lehane’s Boston) by using real places (restaurants, bars, hotels, buildings, streets, rivers, and landmarks) as the backdrop for their fictional characters. Others prefer to fully fictionalize their settings. While, still others, offer a mix of the real and fictional elements.

Stephen King has created towns so familiar and real to us that we can hardly think of them as fictional. Yet, the towns of Derry and Castle Rock are fully the fabric of King’s imagination, set topographically amid the greater (real) Maine landscape.

I personally like this approach. And, as an author, it offers a couple of advantages. The first is flexibility. Elements of the fictional setting can be decided (that word again), manipulated, and fully architected to support the plot. The other advantage (and this is the important part to me) is that the author can fully imagine the setting and breathe a personal life into it, treating it, in many ways, as a character in the story.

In my forthcoming novel, Nazareth Child, missing persons investigator, Del Shannon, goes in search of the mother she’s never known. Her quest leads her into the clannish hill country of southeastern Kentucky, to the town of Nazareth Church, where the infamous faith healer, Silas Rule, seems to hold the key to her mother’s past.

These hills (and it’s people) are my roots. It is the birthplace of my mother and father. The DNA of my existence. Take the mountain parkway southeast out of Winchester, and your journey will take you through the very real towns of Clay City, Stanton, and Bowen, all mentioned and used as real topographic anchors in the story. But, search as you might, you won’t find the town of Nazareth Church anywhere but between the pages of the novel.



From the giant cross that marks its entrance, to the old cemetery, and church without windows, it’s all fictional. And, yet, so very real to the possibilities and likelihoods that one will scarcely know the difference.

Nazareth Church has become real in my mind. It lives. It breathes. And it plays a very “real” role in the development and outcome of the story. Only in fictional form can it fulfill its role so completely.

What about you? As a writer, do you prefer to write real or fictional settings? As a reader, which do you prefer?


Nazareth Child, a Del Shannon Novel, is scheduled for release in September. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon

What's Your Writing Routine?

Cricket McRae

"Can you tell us a little about your writing routine?"

"What time of day do you write?"

"Do you have a daily quota?"

Sound familiar? Lately I've been speaking to local libraries about my books, home crafts, and writing. There are always aspiring writers in the audience, and they always ask one or more of those questions.

Always.

I'm a signing/reading junkie from way back, so I get it. When I first began writing I wanted to know the magic formula as much as anyone else. Of course, there isn't one, but it sure seems like there ought to be.

JB's post yesterday touched on a lot of the magic, not least of which is applying butt glue, sitting down, and writing in some kind of regular way. That's what I encourage folks because I can't really recommend my personal routine to anyone else. Everyone has to find what works for them.

Having said that, here is mine in brief:

I research primarily at night. After seven o'clock I lack creative bandwidth, but am able to spend long hours reading, googling, checking and cross checking to the point of tedium. First drafts are better written in the morning. I start out writing a thousand words a day on a book, which eventually turns into about twenty-five hundred as the story gains momentum. My left brain likes afternoons, so editing and rewriting happens then, and I try to sit outside if it's nice. However, I may polish twenty pages or only three.

So my routine depends completely on what stage of a project I'm in. And when I'm working on more than one project, I may be at it at all hours of the day, especially taking into consideration how much time goes into book promotion.

My writing habits don't make much sense to anyone but me. However, the desire to know how other people write and create is so strong that there is a site called Daily Routines where you can try to discern the magic formula from the greats.

For example, did you know W.H. Auden consumed Benzadrine, Seconal, and vodka to keep his routine balanced? Not high on my list of recommendations, btw, but still.

A few other tidbits:

According to Lisa Rogak who wrote Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, King has a glass or water or tea and begins writing in the morning between 8:00 and 8:30. “I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon."

John Grisham told the San Francisco Chronicle in February, 2008 that when he began writing he had "these little rituals that were silly and brutal but very important ... The alarm clock would go off at 5, and I'd jump in the shower. My office was 5 minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my office, with the first cup of coffee, a legal pad and write the first word at 5:30, five days a week."

From Joan Acocella's article about writer's block in The New Yorker, June 14, 2004: "[Anthony] Trollope reported in his 'Autobiography,' he woke in darkness and wrote from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., with his watch in front of him. He required of himself two hundred and fifty words every quarter of an hour. If he finished one novel before eight-thirty, he took out a fresh piece of paper and started the next. The writing session was followed, for a long stretch of time, by a day job with the postal service. Plus, he said, he always hunted at least twice a week. Under this regimen, he produced forty-nine novels in thirty-five years. Having prospered so well, he urged his method on all writers: 'Let their work be to them as is his common work to the common laborer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary. He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours at his desk without moving,—as men have sat, or said that they have sat.'"

Also from The New Yorker in October of 2008, regarding Emily Post: "Post worked on 'Etiquette' for nearly two years. Claridge describes her daily routine as follows: she woke at 6:30 A.M., ate breakfast in bed, and began to write. Midmorning, she took a break to give instructions to the household help; then, still in bed, she continued to write until noon."

I rather like Emily's regimen, myself.

Okay, so how do you write? You know you've developed the short answer to the question, so give!