I’ve spent a lovely three days hob-nobbing with other authors and attending writing panels. Here are some gems from the classes.

• The day I stop learning about my characters is the day I become bored with them — Margaret Coel
• Good beginnings and endings are like good art: I know it when I see it, but it’s awfully hard to define — Jamie McGrath Morris
• One of the biggest dialogue mistakes I see is when all the characters sound alike — Craig Johnson
• Write the kind of novel that, once the reader picks it up, he cannot bear to put it down; not the kind of novel that, once he puts it down, he cannot bear to pick it back up — Margaret Coel
• Before you even sit down to write, know — in this order — what the ending is, and what the beginning will be — Kirk Ellis
• Writing is not a profession, but a vocation. Think bigger than just a contract, a published book. Ask yourself ‘Is this worth one to three years of my life?’ before you begin that novel — David Morrell
• Try this: gather a stack of award-winning novels and read the ending first. Then, read the book to see how the author gets from Point A to Point Z. Do that 500 times. Can you imagine how much you’ll learn about the art of plotting? — Steve Havill
• Here’s a big secret: have someone read your dialogue back to you — Craig Johnson
• ‘Let me tell you a story’ is a very powerful lure — Jamie McGrath Morris
• It’s never as good as it could be. And ‘spoiler alert:’ it’s never going to be — Kirk Ellis
• Become a student of human nature — Craig Johnson

What is the best advice you’ve ever heard from another writer?

As this blog is to be about the writing process and my experiences as a writer, it seems only reasonable to start at the beginning. I’ve been telling stories my whole life, but it was only recently that I’ve started thinking of it as a second career instead of a hobby, that I’ve been writing for publication instead of thinking “someday I’ll write a book.”

 

I’ve always loved trickster characters, and I’ve had this one rogue inside my head since I was a teenager: a wise-cracking scoundrel who’s not entirely on the right side of the law, good with his tongue or one of his blades, expert at knowing just what you want to hear and making sure you hear it just when he needs you to. Over the years, he picked up a big, quiet partner who’d be the rational anchor to his wild ideas; the one man he’d trust to ride the river with. The two of them, under various names and in various incarnations, starred in quite a few tales in several genres, not all of which I’ve written down.

 

A few years ago, the pair started showing up with regularity as a couple of Old West outlaws trying to go straight. I’ve always been fascinated with stories of real-life “badmen” who turned into lawmen, and I started thinking about what my lads might do with themselves if they decided to hang up their six-guns and try out the other side of the law for a change. Not become policemen, I decided, but they’d need something that would use their special skill set. I hit on the idea of them starting a security firm, something that would protect the average businessmen from exactly the sort of people that the lads used to be.

 

I’m a member of an online critique group, so it was only natural to share a few of my stories with them. One of my best friends – we met through the group – picked up on the fact that these two characters were essentially the same two men. Barry challenged me to start writing seriously about them, and that November, challenged me further: to sign up for NaNoWriMo* and start on an actual novel about their struggles with this new concept of honesty. I’d participated before, so I knew I could make the 50,000 word goal, and I took the challenge.

 

I had a basic idea, but no real plot for the lads. I knew I wanted to show their skill as outlaws somehow, and I knew I wanted them to solve some sort of mystery. Then one morning I woke up from a sound sleep with the idea of a train robbery. Now, I just had to figure out a way to tie that into the rest of the plot. I started writing the first chapter, which eventually became the preface, and thought about how they pulled off the robbery. What if they used the same technique to help them solve their mystery?

 

By December, I had the bones of the novel down, and was ready for some serious writing. I’d imagined myself quite the polished writer, but trying to pull off a novel certainly altered my thoughts. It took a lot longer than I thought it should, for one thing, and I found myself floundering around in spots, knowing that some of what I was putting down was dull and uninspired, but not certain how to fix things. I pushed through and finished the manuscript over the spring and summer – and then I attended a local writing conference. The idea was to pitch my novel to some of the agents there, but I changed my mind after the first day’s lectures. I got so many great ideas, both from the classes and from talking to agents, that my pitch sessions included the phrase “and I’m going to edit the hell out of it once I get back home.”

 

I’m on the third (hopefully final) edit now, and I look back at the first draft with a rueful smile. I can only hope that the writing process becomes easier as I learn the proper techniques and keep practicing, much as any skill does. I’m still working things out as I go along, so hopefully this blog will help some of you learn what I’ve had to figure out the hard way.

*NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth