The LadyKillers

Writing advice for the day

Now, there’s a big topic. LadyKillers is all about writing advice one way or another, much of it garnered from each writer’s painful learning process. My fellow bloggers may riff on the topic in other ways, but I think I’ll try a partial answer to where you’ll get good writing advice.

First, we are beyond lucky to live in the Internet age when it comes to searching out help for our fiction projects. There were always sources in the form of books, writers’ conferences and the like. But today, there must be thousands of lively blog sites where authors muse about what works for them. (Full disclosure: I post my own every Friday – see the sidebar for my web/blog URL.) I sometimes think we writers spend as much time writing about how we write as we do actually working on our novels and short stories. There’s a fine beginning list of writers’ blogs posted here at LadyKillers. You can create your own customized set of blog resources so easily. Whenever you read a book that you admire especially, Google the author and see if she or he has a site – sometimes their blog site may not be the same as their web site, but there will be a link – and bookmark it. If you have the patience, subscribe to the best and they’ll show up in your email box whenever a new entry is posted. But beware, too many RSS feeds and your email cup floweth over.

Second, go back to the cloth and paper books on writing by authors who have challenged and encouraged writers in equal measure. For me, Patricia Highsmith, James N. Frey, and Gillian Roberts (aka Judy Greber) are among the best writers’ friends. David Corbett recommends Robert McKee. Hallie Ephron has a highly practical, approachable book I also like, complete with worksheets to guide you. There are others. These might get you started. Go to the library and ask the reference librarians, long may they thrive.

Third, treat yourself to a writers’ workshop, class, seminar, club, critique group, or other group activity. Not only will you hear many of the same pieces of advice (you can’t hear them too often), but you’ll pick up the energy and shared ambition of other participants, which for most of us is critically important. I’m in awe of writers who hole up in mountain cabins to write 100,000-word novels, but I’d probably just eat all the popcorn I brought with me in a week and slink back down with nothing to show for it but a few extra pounds.

Last, read. There is nothing – nothing – more essential to becoming a good writer than to be a voracious, discriminating, conscious, daily reader. It’s where you’ll get your vocabulary, context, history, style, plot inspirations, ear for usage, eye for dialogue on the page, understanding of how humor or pathos works, feel for structure, etc., etc. Television’s fine, movies help, all the rest is good. But I never met or heard of a fine writer who wasn’t also an avid, curious, hungry reader of everything from newspapers and magazines to classics, poetry and/or best sellers.

Oh, I forgot the best bit of writing advice: If you love it, never give up!

 

 

 

In Defense of Ivory Towers (bad language warning)

I'm late, so I'm taking the topic head on.

Not so long ago, in polite company, an otherwise perfectly intelligent, well read, engaging person accused all literary fiction of being onanastic. The self-same person who decried how "lit fic types" accused all genre ficiton of being less than good writing. I just didn't understand how someone could complain about labels and then apply an especially unpleasant one to all of literary fiction. Even giving the benefit of the doubt that this person referred to only the last thirty years or so. Onanastic, really?

I would love to write a literary novel. And I loved my ivory tower. I loved every minute of pursuing my MFA. Before that, I loved every minute of getting an undergradute degree in linguistics, specializing in syntax. Language through a scientific lens. Okay, the truth: I didn't love the terrifying presentation of my final paper to a famous linguist. I'm afraid of famous people, and there was a big flaw in my paper. So, except for those awful thirty minutes, I loved it. The focus that a class provides always makes me happy.

We used big words at the dinner table when I was growing up. My dad explained nuclear physics on a long drive in the desert once (he worked at the Nevada Test Site at the time).

On my trip to Left Coast Crime, I had a blue Room instead of an ivory tower--over 40 hours of nothing but writing, trotting to the dining car for meals, and then back to writing. It was wonderful, and I didn't even care that Amtrak was seven hours late, because that was seven extra hours of writing time.

But I relized that in a few short years, I wouldn't have anything left to write about.

So, while I love my time in the ivory tower, it has its limits. Like anything.

Now, back to that unpleasant accusation. Breathing Lessons, Interpreter of Maladies, Beloved, The Color Purple, The Optimists Daughter,  these lauded works are not onanstic. Jonathan Franzen, you're on your own...

And when I was in my ivory tower, no one, and I am telling you no one, accused genre fiction of being lowbrow. In fact, students frequently wondered what they could write that would make money, and often asked about plot and suspense and all the things that we crime fiction writers worry about. Of course, I attended University of San Francisco, and my first workshop instructor was the talented Gillian Roberts (author of the Amanda Pepper series). I never would have discovered Flannery O'Connor without the MFA program (thank you Lewis Buzbee!), and I never wold have been challenged to convert my screenwriting chops into literary ones without them.

Now I know that there are cranky critics who from time to time paint all crime fiction with the same genre brush and find it lacking. But is that any different than my friend's rare and ill-tempered swipe at literary fiction? We want the art, they want the money, but the thing is, we both get there the same way. And I've been told that some MFA programs run on hubris rather than wisdom. So not all ivory towers are the same, just as not all literary fiction is great, nor all crime fiction. But most of us strive to get there. Thing is, there's really only on way to get there:

By writing, writing, reading, more writing, and dare I say it, some thinking too.

One last true confession: I do take the ivory tower thing too far sometimes. Every boyfriend and most writing instructors (especially the screenplay instructors!) have accused me of thinking too much. My worst problem as a writer is giving up the habit of overthinking things ("getting out of your own way" as one very kind friend has put it). So the Ivory Tower can be taken too far, that's fair. I'm just saying, let's all put down the labels and back slowly away.

What's your favorite discovery--a genre you never thought you'd read? After attending Ann Parker's panel on Westerns at Left Coast Crime, I have a bevy of new Western writers to explore. What have you read that you never thought you would?

It's Too Quiet in Here

Staci here to talk about tools of the trade. Really, I could list countless items, from notebooks to staplers to computer lapboards. But when I originally heard the topic, I immediately envisioned my ideal tools of the trade. You know, the setup I’d use in my fantasy world to write those brilliant masterpieces. It all starts with a spacious room on the second story of an old Victorian. The room has a wide window that overlooks a lake, or maybe a meadow where deer frolic. In front of that window, a large wood desk sits with a shiny new computer on top. To the side of the computer are a lined tablet and two fine-tipped pens, plus a highlighter to highlight all those must-have passages I’m going to jot down. There’s a pitcher of ice water on a side table, lemon slices floating on top. Or perhaps it’s freshly brewed iced tea, a nearby empty glass beckoning for me to fill it. And of course, the room is silent, allowing me to be alone with my thoughts, devoid of distractions. Those are the writing tools in my imaginary world.

In reality, I do most of my writing on my laptop while sitting on the floor, with my youngest crawling all over me, hitting random keys, and my oldest yammering in my ear. I must create coherent sentences while keeping peanut butter off my computer screen and stopping my toddler from chewing on his brother’s Star Wars figures. On the occasional Sunday, my husband will volunteer to watch the kids while I hide in our cluttered office for an hour or two. Hunched over the keyboard, I try to tune out my husband’s voice as he hollers, “Get away from the door, Jake. Mommy’s writing. Get your hand off that doorknob.” But I’ve adapted. I’ve finally admitted that I’ll never have the ideal writing spot, and definitely not the silence, so I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got.

In fact, every now and again, I’ll find a moment when the kids are in bed and my husband’s not home, creating what should be the perfect situation in which to write. Last night was just such a night. And what did I do while my husband was at a work function and once my oldest finally stopped asking for water? Why I watched the White Castle episode I’d DVRed and worked on a puzzle book, of course. How could I possibly get anything done on my book in such a quiet house? I need the noise to focus. Does that mean noise is a writer’s tool? In my house, it is.

A Tool that Suits Me to a Tea

By Margaret Lucke

Each morning as I sit down at my desk to write, I give thanks to Shen Nung, who gave humanity one of its greatest gifts.

Shen Nung was an emperor of ancient China, revered for teaching his people the art of cultivating grain and for researching the medicinal value of herbs. He believed drinking water should be boiled to make it clean and healthy. 

Legend says that one day in 2737 BC, while traveling through a remote region, he rested in the shade of a wild bush while his servants boiled a pot of water for him. A gust of breeze blew some leaves and twigs into the water, but the thirsty emperor drank it anyway. To his delight, the brew had a wonderful aroma and flavor.

The bush was Camellia sinensis, and the drink he discovered was tea. Shen Nung proclaimed it to be a beverage of many virtues. He claimed the person who consumed it would gain "vigor of body, contentment of mind, and determination of purpose."

Who can argue with an emperor?

I would add one more benefit to the list—tea stimulates creativity. My creativity, anyway.

A mug of tea is my constant companion through the workday. In the morning I like to be fueled by one of the breakfast teas—English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Ceylon Breakfast, though that last one is hard to find. I’ll take mine black, thank you—no milk, sugar, or lemon.

Later on I often invite the distinguished Earl Grey to join me at my desk. His namesake tea is the perfect pick-me-up in the late afternoon. For my birthday one year a friend gave me a fun present, an Earl Grey tasting: six packages of tea, each a different brand. I was surprised to discover how dissimilar they were—six very different flavors, even though they were all made to the same basic formula: black tea permeated with oil of bergamot.

Sometimes I vary my routine by indulging in something more exotic. Oolong, Darjeeling, Kilgiri, Keemun, Assam, Russian Caravan—the names alone are enough to spark the imagination.

I stop drinking tea around 6 p.m., in deference to my desire for a good night’s sleep. Tea does contain caffeine. Pound for pound it has more caffeine than coffee. However, tea gives you many more cups from a pound than coffee does, so cup for cup there’s less caffeine in tea. I’ve never noticed that drinking black tea in the evening really inhibits my sleep. But I prefer to err on the safe side, so my bedtime libation isn’t real tea but a minty or lemony herbal blend.

My kitchen cupboard holds several delicate porcelain teacups with matching saucers, and the cupboard is where they stay. You have to fill one of them three times to get enough tea to taste. I prefer a mug that has a generous capacity and a wide curve to the handle so it’s easy to hold.

Maybe it’s odd to think of tea as a tool of the writer’s trade, but to me it definitely qualifies. A tool is something that helps you accomplish a task. Without tea, I’d never get any writing done.

Rumaging through the tool box...

Ann Parker here, every other Thursday's child with the LadyKillers, working under a couple of screaming deadlines.
I think Mary Anna said it when she noted that her brain was the most important tool. Without that, what good is anything else?
Anyhow, I decided to run through the sites I've placed on my Firefox toolbar and list some of my favorite tools of the writing trade.

1. OneLook Dictionary is front and center. Why do I like it? Look at all the dictionaries you can access, all in one place! Plus, they have Webster's Revised Unabridged 1913 dictionary (very handy) and even Webster's 1828 dictionary, and the 1848 "Dictionary of Americanisms." It's amazing I get any writing done at all...

2. Thesaurus.com because... well... sometimes you need another word besides "look" or "walk."

3. The Costumer's Manifesto (page of Victorian Fashion Links) because all those reference books in my bricks-and-mortar bookcases just aren't enough...

4. The Rat Fan Club (oops... not a writing link. But just goes to show you that there's a site for nearly everything out there)

5. Pandora Internet Radio because I can't write without music...

6. Synonym Finder and Thesaurus (see #2 above)

7. 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

8. ..... And ... libraries!

• Western History/Genealogy Digital Collections (Denver Public Library)
• Lake County Public Library (check out the "Local History" link and then click on Photos)
•  Pikes Peak Public Library (Photos and Pikes Peak NewsFinder Power Search)

9. Colorado Historical Newspapers Collection ... absolutely!

10. Baby Name Wizard for character names

11. Fun, random stuff such as "Bourbon Tasting" and "Victorian Postcards"

.... and a couple of blog sites, just to round this post off to a LadyKillers' "baker's dozen"

12. Author Ann Littlewood (who writes the Zoo Series mysteries) has a blog where she runs a series of posts about MicroSoft Word tricks of the trade. For anyone using Word, who isn't a super-expert, this is a very handy place to pick up some tips.

13. Blood-Red Pencil is full of editors and word enthusiasts who discuss a variety of editing/writing issues. Good tools to add to your toolbox there, as well.

Okay, I'm calling it quits so I can get back to writing. Do you have any favorite tools on your toolbar? Let me know. I'm always looking for more!

 

News and Tools of the (Writing) Trade

NEWS FLASHES!!

• Penny Warner's newest book in the Party Planning Mystery series, How to Survive a Killer Seance, is officially "out" on March 1.
• Mary Anna Evans will speak to the St. Augustine Romance Writers Association on Saturday, February 26, at 12:30 pm in St. Augustine, Florida.
• Mary Anna will also be signing at Books, Inc., on Sunday, February 27, at 12:30 pm in Gainesville, Florida.

TOOLS OF THE (WRITING) TRADE

Next up for topics: tools of the (writing) trade. Whether quill and inkpot, a well-worn thesaurus, or some really cool online "tricks of the trade," the LadyKillers will divulge some of their favorites this coming week. Join us and tell us about your own faves...