Beem Weeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

I've added a couple of short stories to my writing page. One is entitled Yearbook. It's a piece written about a year ago. It is not inspired by recent events in the news. Inspiration comes from a song by the band Hanson--though I changed the intent. The song in question, also called Yearbook, details the story of a boy who goes missing.

My take is a person can disappear without vanishing. They can be right there in the same room and still be gone, changed into someone or something we don't recognize.

The second story, called Bad Acid At Woodstock, is a silly little piece of nonsense I wrote long ago. Just a bit of fun. Enjoy.

The only thing good about winter is staying indoors. This gives me more time to read and write. But lately it's been more reading than actual writing.

I'm a slow writer to begin with. It's a deliberate act. Creativity should never be rushed. I am a firm believer in rewrites, rewrites, and more rewrites. Of course there are occasions when the first draft of a story nails it. But even then I comb through the piece just to be sure (and usually find things to change.)

I aim for perfection but have never even come close to achieving it. If I'm not interested in something I've written, I can't expect anybody else to give a damn about it either.

I've got several start-and-stop pieces that will never see publication. They sounded interesting when I conjured up the idea. But once on paper, well, they suck. And that's okay. Writers never bat a thousand--especially this writer. But I aim for it each time out--though never at the risk of becoming bogged down in one story. That's what makes creating something new so exciting--trial and error. The thing to remember is: Just keep writing.

I read a tweet the other day from an author posting a comment he'd received regarding one of his novels. The comment went something like this: "Great story, but way too much sex." In all honesty, I've not read the book in question. But the issue of sex in literature has long been a thorn to some, a crime to others, and a selling point to many.

D.H. Lawrence faced all sorts of legal issues concerning his novel Lady Chatterley's Lover upon it's original release back in 1928. That book--and much of his other works--was banned in England and the United States for decades. The Free World at its finest. I understand some people prefer "clean" stories. There are many classics that carry a solid G rating that have been favorites for hundreds of years.

Today, with the advent of self-publishing, writers of erotica have found an audience--some with great success. I don't write erotica, nor do I read it. But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for it. There is sex in my novel. Sexuality is a human trait--indeed a trait of most living creatures. There is the romantic element, which gives rise to the romance novel. For those who want their sex without love, there's lust. Lust is a strong emotion that everybody experiences at some point in life--though some would deny they've ever been guilty of that sort of sin.

Then we come to sex for curiosity's sake. A girl kisses another girl just to see what it's like. A guy cheats on his wife of twenty years just to satisfy an urge to know what it would feel like to be with somebody else. Sex and sexuality is part of being human. It's part of being alive. It's real life. It's what gives breath to the fictional characters authors create. To deny it is to deny our humanity.

Now that doesn't mean you have to read about it in some novel that makes you uncomfortable. That's why we still love the classics.

So if you're not into sex in your story, pick up a copy of Little Women, Moby Dick, or A Farewell to Arms. A great book is always a great book.

Is it such a terrible thing to self-publish that novel you've spent hundreds of hours perfecting? Some authors think so. There are those who believe self-publishing is selling out the dream for baubles and beads. Others claim it's a shortcut that's not been earned. I beg to differ.

I chose the self-publishing route because of a desire to get my work to readers in a quick and timely fashion. And it worked! Jazz Baby, my first novel, is available all over the world in print as well as in ebook formats. The downside of this form of publishing is the lack of a big-budget advertising campaign. That's where social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads come in handy.

But not all self-publishers are equal. The cheaper you go, the lower the quality you can expect. I'm reading an excellent self-published novel that suffers from poor punctuation. Without a solid editor to comb through your manuscript, you can expect errors to reach your readers. Some readers might not care--or even notice. Others will, and they'll fault the writer. This will cost that author in the long run.

Sure, even the big publishing houses let slip an error here and there. But online publishers who don't offer professional editing really do the industry a serious disservice. These are the ones who take your money and publish your work, warts and all.

Don't shy away from this wonderful medium. If you're tired of rejection letters, try the indie route. It's a growing industry with a bright future. Just take your time when shopping. Beware of hidden fees, make sure they offer professional editing, and be ready to work your tail off to sell your product to the world. Because writing it is no longer the difficult part of the deal. Letting the world know you wrote it is.

Jazz Baby http://www.tinyurl.com/bbj4my7

Slivers of Life http://www.amazon.com/Slivers-Life-Co...

I love reading and writing. It's amazing how stringing words together, turning them into sentences, can lure us into worlds that don't really exist. It can take us away from a mundane life, transporting the reader to places created in minds long dead. But the work remains.

That's what makes authors immortal--the stories they write. But enough of my rambling. I've posted two more short stories on my "writings" page. They aren't necessarily new--I've posted them on my home website--but they are new to this site. Also, just a heads-up on a great free short story contest open now at http://www.freshinkgroup.com/280-new-.... It's open to anybody who cares to enter. There are many genres to choose from. The deadline is Aug. 1, 2013. Good luck to those who enter.

I always imagined writing a novel would be the most difficult step to becoming an author--published or not. That isn't the case, though. Selling the finished product to a reading public is proving to be even harder than the arduous task of creating it.

Getting published is simple in this era of online publishers. But making a book-buying public aware of your work is such an odyssey--a thankless one at that. It's out there, among the millions of other novels clamoring for attention. Having a PR person chasing down reviews and interviews would be a wonderful blessing--which a starving artist can scarcely afford.

The dream of being a full-time writer has all but collapsed. I've seen those slick ads for this method of sales or that shiny new idea, each touting promised customers--in theory. But in reality, these are designed to separate the author from his/her hard-earned money--with little or no return on the investment.

Frustrating as it is at times, I'm still a published author. If it doesn't pan out, well, at least I can pull out my book and say, "I made it this far." I want more, though. I want an audience who reads my work and lets me know that they enjoy it or they despise it. It's here, this story called Jazz Baby. It's available worldwide at tinyurl.com/bbj4my7 among other sites.

But if my voice isn't getting heard, well, I'm just talking to myself. I'm extremely grateful for places like Goodreads, Koobug.com, and Twitter. These have helped me move a few more copies than I would have otherwise.

I know I'm ranting. But sometimes we all need to do that. Now, I'll reset myself and try again in this new year. Here's to writing! Cheers!

(Was: first and third person singular past of BE.) So says the Oxford American College Dictionary. I just call it lazy writing.

The use of the word "was" is the easy way out from having to actually prime the creative pump and come up with vivid descriptions that treat your readers to verbal delicacies of the story type. It's so disappointing to pick up a highly touted novel only to stumble over five, ten, or twenty uses of that dreadful word "was" within the first three paragraphs.

"Was" is a cheap way to get a description across. For example: "She was short and mean." YAWN! What dreck. Spruce it up a bit, toss some color into the mix. Write it something like this: "Short and squat, this girl; like a gumdrop with limbs--only not as sweet." Description is such a vital key to telling a great story.

Yeah, there are places where "was" is the word that fits. But such places ought to be limited in usage. Never settle just because it fits. Challenge yourself as a writer and you'll likely draw fans to your work. Fans buy books.

And sure, there are a handful of uses of that lazy word in my novel Jazz Baby. But you could probably count them on both hands. Slay those "WAS" monsters and watch your work take on flavors you never tasted before.

You've finished writing your book, allowed an editor to comb through it, even invited a few trustworthy colleagues to proofread the manuscript. Everything checks out. You send it to the publisher. It's only after it's been published, made available through Amazon, and been reviewed by a site or two, that you suddenly realize the world didn't have laptops back in 1969!

Sounds silly, right? Everybody knows laptops are a recent creation. But what about other inventions, simple items we take for granted, like car radios? Here's the thing: I read a great novel from a really good writer several years ago. The story took place in 1928. The main characters spent a lot of time tooling around those dusty roads in various automobiles of that particular era, listening to the radio, singing along to the songs of the day. Then it happened. A month or so later, while watching a documentary on the History Channel, I found the truth of the matter. Automobiles didn't begin to have radios until 1932.

Hmmm! I hadn't known that while reading the book. It really stands out now. The point of this posting is all about researching a subject, an era, or a person before you set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Nothing can kill a great story quicker than inaccuracy.

Younger authors today, those who are 20 or 25 years of age, can't comprehend that not-too-long-ago time when the internet was merely a nerd's ideal dream. The olden days saw pay phones on every corner, in most parking lots, and any other place the public might congregate. Why pay phones? Because cell phones didn't exist!

Imagine a 20-year-old author setting his/her story in, say, 1977. Not that long ago, really. The plot concerns the woman who found Elvis slumped on the throne. She tries to wake the king, gets no reaction; what does she do? She reaches into her pocket, snatches hold on her smart phone, snaps a picture, uploads it to her YouTube account, texts a message to the local paparazzi, and then finally calls 911. Sounds like a fine story--to a 20-year-old who failed to research the era. Most people will know that smart phones didn't exist in 1977. Neither did YouTube. 911 began it's life back then, but wasn't in every community at that time. Some cities had seven digit numbers for police, fire, ambulance.

When preparing to write my novel, Jazz Baby, a historical fiction piece set in 1925, I took a great deal of time researching the 1920s, Mississippi, New Orleans, Jim Crow racial relations, speakeasies, automobiles, the laws of prohibition, and many other relevant issues of the day. My protagonist, Emily Ann, is 13 years old in the Roaring Twenties--which is quite different from being 13 years old in, say, 2013. In 1925, a girl could be married off. College wouldn't likely have been an option. Careers for girls just didn't exist.

The world has changed a great deal over the past 88 years. Understanding what came before is key to writing a good, solid story. If I put Nike running shoes on the girl's feet, had her dreaming of owning a shiny Corvette, and tucked an iPod into her hip pocket, most readers would dump the book in the trash can after--or even before--the end of the first chapter. Why? Because if there are glaring inaccuracies afoot, it kills even the most entertaining of stories.

And even little things like lingo can detract from your novel. Emily Ann wouldn't greet a friend with, "'Sup, fool? Yo, peep this: Dog says Micky D's running a two-for-one on Big Macs. Wanna go get our grub on?" It's an awful lot of work to research such matters. But time and effort will be rewarded. Serious readers appreciate a solid read. Don't scrimp when it comes to getting the scene and the story right.

I love a well-written story. There are certain authors who possess special God-given talents for telling tales of the fictional sort. Daniel Woodrell owns an amazing skill with the narrative voice. Read Winter's Bone and tell me he's not brilliant. Stephen Geez operates in another realm when it comes to plotting and dialogue.

But what about emotion? Who are those masters that are able to translate honest emotion onto pages? By honest emotion I mean, a story so real and so raw, the reader is powerless to hold back tears or anger or that laugh-out-loud moment that draws attention to self. With movies it's easier. A good actor becomes that emotion and draws the audience in, daring them not to cry or be filled with righteous indignation. See Sean Penn in Mystic River when he finds out his daughter is lying dead in the park.

A novel or short story, well, that's a difficult thing--making a reader cry. Words are indeed strong enough to jab and scar and hurt. But the author must be skillful in pulling it all together to be worthy of my tears.

Every so often I find a story that holds a scene or two that puts a lump in my throat and has me reaching for the Kleenex box. Barbara Kingsolver got me with her masterpiece The Poisonwood Bible. The scene involves the death of the youngest daughter in a missionary's family doing the Lord's work in 1950s Congo. The five-year-old, narrating the moment in her own words, is bitten by a black mamba. Kingsolver skillfully lures readers in, introduces us to this family, allows us to grow fond of this little girl, before snatching her from the very pages of her book. We mourn with the mother as she lovingly washes her baby's body, preparing her for burial. It's heartbreaking--even without film footage, photos, or illustrations. Those words are powerful. This is the skill I'm talking about.

So rare are those types of talents, coming along only every-so-often. And that doesn't mean you're great when and if you can make readers cry. There are plenty of amazing authors worthy of highest praise. It's going that extra mile, though, that raises a story into rarefied air, lays separation between it and other fine tales. Alice Sebold grabbed me with The Lovely Bones when Susie Salmon, the dead girl narrating her life and death, laments the loss of first love, senior prom, her wedding, or the birth of her own children. The reader, in only a handful of sentences, feels every one of those losses. It takes a special talent to pull this off.

I've not accomplished this yet. I'm still learning, still trying. And I'm still looking for that next novel to come along and make me angry or make me cry or make me laugh out loud. Emotion is a hallmark of brilliant writing. Aim high, writers. Don't cheat your readers. Don't cheat yourselves.

They might be the least thought-about aspect of a story, but they are quite important. I'm talking about names. Characters, to be fully developed and memorable, must have distinct names.

Think about some of the great characters in fictional writing and surely you'll recall those names: Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, Jem and Scout Finch, Dill; these are not simple, common names. They're easily recognizable, though--to those who've read To Kill A Mockingbird. But even the simple, common names can carry weight in the literary world. Just speak on the ghost of Tom Joad, and surely intelligent readers will recognize the hero of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Doctor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Tarzan; these names call to mind familiar characters, well over a century after their stories were first told. Ahab, Ishmael, Gatsby--amazing what a name might conjure.

When writing my stories, I try to craft names that stand out, names that sound interesting, avoiding the plain, steering clear of what's been used by other authors. Case in point: Michael Weston is the name of the lead character on the USA cable network series Burn Notice. Mike Weston is also the name of a lead character on FOX Network's The Following. Hmm. Not much creative thought going on there. When writing my novel Jazz Baby, I chose an old-fashioned name for my lead POV character--the story takes place in 1925, after all. But let's face facts: Some old-school names just aren't pretty-sounding to the ears. When I hear a name like Maude or Bertha or Myrtle, I picture an overweight old woman with cataracts and bad hips.

I decided on Emily Ann "Baby" Teegarten because that name fit my mental image for this creation: young teen, small in stature, emerald-green eyes, hair the color of thick brown honey. Will her name become as familiar as, say, Lolita or Holden Caulfield or Lady Chatterley? Only time and sales will determine that sort of fate. The point of this posting is to shine a little light on that somewhat overlooked aspect of storytelling. Names ought to fit personalities.

I just finished reading the novel Bridge Ices Before Road by Sienna Rose. A wonderful story. One of the main characters, a tough eleven-year-old-girl named Madeline Malone, sports the moniker Mad-Dog Malone. For an adult character, a name like Mad-Dog is kind of ho-hum. But this belongs to a young girl who's not easily intimidated. That's fantastic! And it fits the girl the same way the name "Alfalfa" perfectly fit the Little Rascal.

Names are impotant in the literary world. They offer a reference point, sometimes even transcending the story itself. Just mention the name Holden Caulfield. What comes to mind? A classic novel, sure, but also a horrible December night in 1980, when the world lost a legend. So take your time when choosing names. Nobody will recall a character named Bob Smith or Steve Jones--at least not as quickly as they'll conjure recollections of, say, the quiet Boo Radley. What's in a name? Everything.