What If You Could Not Fail

As Writers, We Need to Walk on the Edge Once in a While

Hello. I am on a ten-day vacation in Yosemite National Park and then Pismo Beach. As hard as it is to believe, there will be times when I will not have an internet connection. In the meantime, please enjoy one of my favorite posts from this last year. 

About twenty years ago, maybe even longer, Leslie and I took the kids on a vacation. One of the places we stopped at was Monterey Bay up in Northern California—Steinbeck country. We were doing the tourist thing, visiting Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In the afternoon we stopped at a park for lunch.

As we were leaving, I heard a commotion. There was a group of ruffians (that’s the best way I can describe them). On the ground were at least two cases of beer, both torn open.  My guess, backed by the general mood of this group, was they bought the brewski it at the market and they were consuming it right there. Several of them had dogs. Two of the dogs, one a pit bull, were fighting. They broke up the fight, but not before letting it go long enough to see who had the better dog.

We were leaving, so we kept on going. After my first thought—one of potential danger—I realized something. If John Steinbeck had come across this situation, it might well have become a story. These are the people Steinbeck wrote about—people on the edge.

Getting out on the edge is something that occurred to me again last night. A friend, a fellow I’ve known casually for fifteen years, asked me for a favor. Would I serve his wife with divorce papers? Although I communicate online with this guy, I only see him once a year, maybe. I have only met his wife twice. 

But he he’s helped me out a few times, and I owed this guy a favor or two in return.

I served her the papers. The process was uneventful, although I heard there were some fireworks at his place later that evening.  An idea occurred to me last night, however, and by the time I awoke this morning it was in full bloom. This experience, serving the divorce papers, can be a basis for a short story.  I’ve already got it written out in my head. I just need to get it on paper.

Bottom line is that by agreeing to serve the papers, I stepped out to the edge—out of my comfort zone. I did something I normally would not do, and my reward was a an idea for a story.

We all need to step out on the edge.

The Next Step in a Manuscript, and Courier New vs. Times Roman

I finished my novel, Rules for Giving—or at least I finished another step in its progress.  As I write this, my wife is reviewing it, for content as well as typos, misspellings, punctuation, grammar and anything else she can find. After she gets through it, I’m forwarding copies to a few alpha readers—people I know will give me an honest opinion of it.

I went through the work from the beginning and edited it.  I was hoping to cut it down.  The first draft came to better than 120,000 words.  I was able to cut almost 20% out of the first one hundred pages, but as I progressed, I added as much as I cut. The draft is back to 120,000 words.

I tried to “kill my darlings,” as Steven King would say.  There was one passage in particular—two paragraphs—that I thought I could cut, Even though I was in love with it. I find, though, that I have incorporated elements of that story into the rest of the manuscript. I looked for a few places where I might have been guilty of an info dump.  I’m sure they are there, but I can’t find them.  It’s time for this manuscript to get another set of eyes.

When I was done editing, I moved the completed work to a flash drive and took it to Staples to print it out. Then I went to Costco and picked up some three-ring binders. I have to confess, when I picked up the printed piece, and then later placed it in the binder, it was exciting.

There is an element of what do I do now? that I’m dealing with. I still have a lot of research to do before I launch into the next novel. Then I remind myself, there is plenty to do. I’m going to the Southern California Writers’ Conference in February, and I have a lot of preparation for that. I need a two-page synopsis, a cover letter, and I’m sure a few other things.

Next, I plan on diving into the synopsis.  Should be an interesting project.  So far the synopsis examples I’ve read have been unimpressive. The website for the writers’ conference has some examples and even those were wanting.  In one the writer even used the wrong word—immanent for imminent.

I was going through the format requirements for the Advanced Reading Submissions for the conference (they ask for the first 20 pages of your novel). They recommend that it be in 12 point Courier New, the classic typewriter font.  My manuscript is in Times Roman.  The guidelines say that although Times Roman is becoming more and more common and acceptable, there are those that regard it as the mark of an amateur. If I take my 450-page manuscript and set it in Courier New, it comes out to 595 pages.

The Courier New vs. Times Roman discussion also caused an extended Facebook discussion in my critique group. The conclusion was if a publisher gives conflicting guidelines on format, always go with the stricter ones—which almost always means 12 pt. Courier New.  

Profanity in Your Writing, and Taking the Lord's Name in Vain

Hello. I am on a ten-day vacation in Yosemite National Park and then Pismo Beach. As hard as it is to believe, there will be times when I will not have an internet connection. In the meantime, please enjoy one of my favorite posts from this last year. 

Warning:  the following blogpost contains profanities and strong language. If you are going to be offended, don’t read it.

“Did you ever notice that nobody breaks the Second Commandment better than a Catholic?”—Comedienne Kathy Griffin

When it comes to profanity in Rules for Giving, I draw blood pretty quick. Just 330 words into the first chapter, the reader comes across the word “fucked.” I use the term “god damned” even earlier. I want to establish the narrator’s personality, inasmuch as he is the hero of the story. I also want to show his frustration with alcoholism, which runs in his family.

   But last week I was editing some copy and I came across a passage halfway through the book in which Leo the Knuckle says “fuck.” I changed it. Leo’s character, as I have written her, would not use that word.  

   My policy on profanity is that if it has a place in the story, then use it. If it has no place in the story, then by all means don’t use it. It is a matter of being true to what your character would do and who your reader is. Rules for Giving has profanity in it. That’s who the characters are. But I to weigh whether the language is authentic to the story, or is it as gratuitous as two junior high school kids who just learned how to cuss?  There’s a difference.

   I’ve never been called by anyone in my critique group for using profanity. But I did get a manuscript back one time with the passage “Jesus Christ” underlined with a question mark next to it. Some folks have their limits. But the hero in the novel is a former Catholic, as am I, so I think it works. We will see.

   I am starting research on my next novel. I don’t see any of the characters in this book using profanity. It’s not in their nature as I have so far thought it out. They are all Catholics, though, so as far as taking the Lord’s name in vain—that could happen.