First Word

I get asked all of the time how I write my novels and my techniques. I am a unique writer in this way. I don't have a specific technique. I write straight from my imagination and allow the words to pour on the page. It's how my brain works. I can't really give "my" method an explanation. I like to think of it like a pipeline from the Universe to my brain. Maybe it's much like those math people who can look at a problem and solve it in their heads. It works in their minds. If I look at a math formula it looks Greek to me.   What I do tell writers is to develop their own process - the one that works for them. I can though provide some tips on how to develop "a" process. So, I thought I would share some ideas I've read about that other writers use.   Create a cast list and give each character a back-story and history . Describe their lives outside of the book. You don't have to use this information in the story, but it wil...

The Abused is about eight addicts who go to rehab and one starts murdering the others. The complete novel will be available this summer in an eBook-exclusive release by 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com).  15             After coming out of detox, Kevin was shaken. He had detoxed on his own many weeks before arriving at rehab. He wasn’t really gay. He just liked sex and gender didn’t to matter to him. He thought of himself as more sophisticated than the average guy.   He had never had enough money to go to school, but he had been good with engines and machines and managed all right. When he met his former wife he should have felt lucky to have this educated, beautiful woman want him, but he was arrogant. He thought she was lucky. He bragged to his buddies how this poor desperate chick wanted him. He had always been good with women, acting like their best friends and listening to boring dra...

If there is anything I hear all of the time as a publisher is "I have this story ..." Do you know what sets people apart? You have the dreamers and the doers. The doers walk up to me with a finished manuscript and pitch it. The dreamers always say, "I have a book in me." The dreamers will never do much more than say the words. The doers will get it published. I like to dream -- but I like to dream and then do. No dream is too big or too small to pursue. I think what gets me going is feeling inspired and excited. What I like about having a partner is that he inspires me. He gets excited. And while we dream together we do it. Our latest project is a children's book that sprung from a five-minute conversation into reality. You have to know you can do anything you set your mind to doing. Sometimes you might need help and guidance to make your story more than a dream. Believe me when I say anything can be accomplished -- especially when you have help. We provid...

The big revelation in storytelling ... pacing! How you pace your story can either absorb your readers or bore them. It's easier to define pacing when it comes to a screenplay. In a screenplay you have a short space to write either dialog or action. You also have to write these things in the average of 120 pages. The action cannot be bogged in minutia. You set the scene simply and quickly and move on. In books, you have a much wider berth. But if you want to keep the story moving and well paced then don't get bogged down in narrative or exposition. Yes, you do want to paint the scene with the right colors but you don't want to describe every last detail down to the color of the kitchen sink unless that is somehow important to the story. How can you pace your book? Move the dialog along and don't have random discussions about things that don't belong in the story or reveal anything interesting about your characters that the audience needs to know. Keep the scenes...

Yesterday's blog discussed eliminating exposition (AKA minutia) from your writing to help quicken the pace of the story. Today we're going to talk about the distractions -- those words and extra, unnecessary thoughts that bog down the story-telling process. The reason I am focused on these details is because I am doing the final revision on my novel Body in the Trunk so I am paying extra attention to these things myself. What do some people consider distractions? Let's put a simple one in context with dialog. You can have too many "he said's, she' said's" and all those extra said's or ask's or whatnot can distract the reader from the actual flow. So here is the tip: if you've set up a scene clearly with two speakers you need only occasionally identify the speaker to keep it clear . You do not need to identify the speaker every sentence. In the scene set up, identify your speakers and then sparsely add the identifiers. Also, another tip: ...

Ooops! I forgot to blog this morning. I am always bragging to people that I blog daily. But do you know how hard it is to keep the words going every single day? Sometimes like today I just have to start tapping away on the keyboard and come up with something meaningful to say about life, business or publishing. Today I thought I would answer the question: What is a book coach? I'll start by saying what a book coach is not ... a guy who stands on the sidelines and yells and screams, "Go get 'em boys!" Yes, not a book coach. A book coach is ... A knowledgable writing expert who guides your novel or even nonfiction book to be written in the correct storytelling or formatted structure. An expert who can tell you and provide advice on: Character development Good vs. bad dialog Story arc and development Ideas and comments on plots and sub-plots Someone simply to hold you accountable to meet your goals I am working with my own book coach, who is Scott D. ...

In working on my new book Body in the Trunk due out in Spring 2014, I started using a technique I'll call story layering. When I was working with Scott D. Roberts' critically acclaimed novel Vengeance is Now , which is receiving non-stop praise and making the list of the top fiction books of 2013, I noticed he used story layering. I will describe it the way I do in my book, which is not how Roberts did it. I have a story that is doing a past/present storytelling technique. As the detective in the book unravels the mystery, the reader gets to go back through the eyes of the victim to see what actually happened. Each chapter is a layer to the story that moves seamlessly back and forth between the story-telling methods and "layers" the story together, which is another way of saying "develops," too. But it's not just story development, it's truly a layer on top of layer. Kind of like a layer cake with each layer being glued with the frosting, which is ...

I see authors fall into this problem: writing not just cliche characters but cliche scenes. Let me give you an example: a scene in a police department. Every single element is exactly what you would expect. The hot-head police captain, the lesbian police officer, the heated argument over the case. These kinds of staid and expected scenes lower the quality and originality of the storytelling. They accomplish critical negatives: the reader is non-plussed with the lack of imagination and knows exactly what to expect with the outcome, because it all so "been there done that". In fresh and original writing, the scene becomes less obvious and unexpected. In building originality, the writer decorates the canvas with new and colorful interactions. For example, instead of the hot-head police captain we have the soft-spoken maybe even effeminate leader who gets his way with a softer, kinder and more important unexpected approach. The female officer is a bohemian goddess who wears ina...

Many new writers need assistance and guidance on their books. A book coach is an ideal choice to help make your book idea a reality. Why would you invest in a book coach? Because you lose objectivity in your own work or you need guidance and expertise to produce a book worthy of publishing. What should you look for if you decide to seek assistance from a book coach? Expertise, knowledge and skills -- your book coach cannot be some academic person who has only taught literature. The biggest complaint I had about English professors is that they were in the business of teaching something they never actually did. How can you teach or understand a process you've never done? Nothing is more meaningful and educational than the real thing. A coach should have not only the education but most importantly the experience. He or she should have written his or her own books or scripts. He or she should understand the process, and because he or she has done the process, he or she should have r...

You're an aspiring author. You've just finished your new book. You're ready to shop it to agents and publishers. What are three things you should consider before you begin the process? Here are three things you should know (as told by the CEO of 3L Publishing, www.3LPublishing.com). Your chapter 1 better rock ! If there is anything you should ensure as you go to move forward and publish your book; your first chapter better be "da-bomb". It better be THE best chapter in the book or certainly as good or better than the other chapters in the book. If you have any doubt about the quality of chapter 1, you are not ready to publish. Don't worry about a cover . So many authors feel compelled to often put together ridiculous-looking, amateur covers. Don't bother. The only thing the publisher cares about is the content. An amateur cover (even if you think it's great, because unless you're a graphic artist it's most likely amateur) detracts from your...

I had this discussion with one of our authors yesterday. Some people mistake the editor's role on a book to be solely about finding the grammatical mistakes. On a fiction book, the editor's job is not just making sure all the grammar and usage is correct -- that is only one part of it. A story editor is looking at the entire picture. A good story editor does the following: Character development -- are the characters consistently written. Do their voices stay the same throughout the book. Did the author build real, vivid individuals who can be easily identified in the story? Story development -- does the story make sense. Is it being properly told with a beginning, middle and end? Are all the plots and subplots wrapped up? Does it all make sense? Holes and consistency -- are there any unanswered questions? Are their holes in the story? Are their inconsistencies? Are all of the references the same throughout the book? Are the names correct and in the right place at the r...

We do book coaching here at 3L Publishing . We see manuscripts in the early stages, and we see common mistakes. Here are some of the most common. Exposition and storytelling via dialog . Have you ever heard the phrase show don't tell? New writers often use dialog to tell their stories vs. telling the story. They will give their characters paragraph-long speeches. How often do you talk to someone in paragraphs? I would suggest most conversations go back and forth -- that is a more natural flow. And it's far more compelling and interesting to read the story told via narrative not dialog. Formalism in dialog . These days have you ever heard a generic conversation sound formal? Probably not. Most people use idioms, slang and colloquial expressions. If you are telling a story about certain age groups of people, go out and listen to how those people really talk to each other. Use dialog to develop your characters and show who they are; don't use it as a storytelling device, b...

When writing novels, I get asked about how many characters should populate your story? I don't have a huge cast of characters in California Girl Chronicles . I didn't create a huge cast of characters of purpose. The best way to explain why it's important to limit what I call the characters on the canvas is from the reader's point-of-view. Have you ever read a book where you have to continually flip back and forth to remember a character's name and his or her role in the story? Doesn't that just frustrate you? It also makes it difficult to track what is going on when you confuse your characters and sub-plots, because if you have confused the characters you probably aren't tracking the sub-plots either. I had a recent conversation with an author where we explored the problems associated with a plethora of different people populating his pages. He had reasons to justify all of his "peeps" but I pointed out that once you lose the reader what really hap...