Short Isn't Necessarily Simple...

by Janis Patterson

It's an old story. The other day I was catching up with a friend I seldom see and in the course of our conversation I mentioned that I had written five novels last year. Her eyes grew wide and she asked in wonder how could I get that many ideas, let alone in one year.

Like I said, it's an old story; I've written many times about the plethora of ideas that constantly swirl around and how getting an idea is one of the easiest things in the world.

An idea for a book, that is. Blogs are a totally different animal. I blog of three times a month on three group blogs - Classic and Cozy, Ladies of Mystery and right here at Make Mine Mystery. About once every six to ten weeks I serve my turn at Not Your Usual Suspects and I also do a guest blog every once in a while. Blogs usually shouldn't be over a thousand words and generally closer to five hundred, so you'd think that writing a blog would be a walk in the park compared to the sixty to one hundred thousand words of a book, wouldn't you?

You're partially right. Writing a blog is easy... once you have the idea. And that's where I fall flat on my face. Blogs should be short, concise and focused. Sadly, there are those of us afflicted with hyper-verbosity who can't even say 'Good morning' in less than three hundred words.

Plus, there is the minefield of subject. I usually try to stay on the subject of writing, but let's face it, after half a dozen years of writing blogs there's only so much you can say about writing without starting to repeat myself. I don't want to say too much about my personal life, and though I am a tireless activist for the political and other causes I believe in, I don't think a professional blog is really the place for such subjects. (Though I do confess to having slipped a time or two...)

Which leaves the problem of finding an idea to write about. Once an idea is nailed down writing five hundred to a thousand words more or less is a cinch. It's getting the idea that is the stumbling block. Books are easy - they're a big canvas I can paint with a broad brush and put in lots of exciting events and subplots. To mix metaphors, a blog is a surgical strike - a short, hopefully sweet focus of information.

Sigh. It sounds a lot easier than it is. But I will keep trying. You can decide for yourself if that is a promise or a threat!

Writers Write

At my latest writers critique group we had a visitor who supposedly wanted to write about his life.
We expected him to come with at least a sample of his writing. Instead, he tried to tell us some interesting facts about his life.

Though what we heard was unusual, our leader told him what I've often said myself, "Don't tell your story or you may never write it."

Many times I've been at a book fair or given a presentation to a group and had at least one person come up to me and start to tell me about the book they planned to write someday. Chances are most of those folks will never actually sit down and write that book.

The fact is, writers write.

It might not always be the book they are working on, it could be a blog post or a short story. It could be an outline for the next novel, or perhaps character sketches.

Writers write.

In my case, I feel compelled to write. It certainly isn't because I make a lot of money at it. But I'm not happy if I'm not working on a book, planning or editing one.

Of course there's a lot more to being a writer--but the simple truth is writers write.

Marilyn

P.S. I'm working on my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

Some Good Reminders from a New Author

Recently, at a Sisters in Crime meeting, we had a young, brand new author. Though I didn't remember him, he  opened his talk by saying that I'd come to a California Writers meeting ten years ago when he was 16. My presentation was on How to Write a Mystery. Already interested in writing, my talk gave him the impetus to write mysteries.

His name is Daniel Stallings and his first book is out now, Sunny Side Up. 

He talked about his book, how it came to be, other things he did, but he said a few things about writing mysteries that impressed as good reminders.

Have an unusual means of murder.

A really good reason for the murder. Why would someone have such strong feelings about a person to kill him or her? Money? Revenge? Love gone bad?

A good puzzle with honest clues--puzzle pieces.

Having a main character who actually grows and changes in a series. One who is someone the reader actually wants to root for.

Using new locations.

A definite end to the story even if the series will continue.

Trying to Stay Positive

Make Mine Mystery

March 5, 2018

L. Lee Kane

I have to admit I’ve been in a tailspin over my latest two books, ‘Death on the Vine’ and ‘Clyde to the Rescue’ (a children’s book). Over the last three years, I’ve been working steadily on both. In the first, I researched grapes, harvesting, and I used Grammarly and of course, found errors, so like any good writer, I edited, reedited, and reedited it again. Next, I hired an editor, actually two. I wanted both of these works to be perfect. I received it back and put it through Grammarly again and found 1203 errors. This particular person thought I was ripped off by the first editor. I paid both upfront, and unfortunately, Death on the Vine was put on Create Space (I decided to go rogue and publish my own). After reading the book over again, I found more error. Did I pull the book down? Oh, yes! I sent Death on the Vine to another editor (at first you don’t succeed…) that I used for my children’s ooks, and I finally feel good, progress is being made. She knows me; she knows how I think and the message I’m trying to get across.

The last two months blogs wee about happiness and being positive-that’s because I havn’t been. I’ve paid quite a bit of money over the years to editors who I believe were professional and knew so much more than I did. In some ways that’s true but for many your writing is just a job-they get it done in a week or less, charge you thousands of dollars and you’re left with something that isn’t your words, nor your voice.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson, know one knows you as well as you do or cares about what you sent to the public as much as you do. I’ve had to learn to empower myself and learn to belief in myself.

Death on the Vine and Clyde to the Rescue will be out this week. My words-my voice.

Stalking the Typo Gremlin

by Janis Patterson

Whether for traditional or self-publishing, all professional writers strive mightily to turn out a perfect product - or at least they should. Most of what the world knows about us comes from our work, and as professionals we should work to make sure there are no (or let's be realistic - as few as possible) errors. Nothing screams 'amateur!' more than misspelled words, bad punctuation, typos and worse grammar.

However, as in all good stories, there is an antagonist who is constantly stirring up conflict. As I cannot call him what I want to in a place where children might see, I gave him the appellation the Typo Gremlin. This malign little entity simply adores to throw typos into anything that has words. And he seems unconquerable.

Back in my magazine editing days, the Typo Gremlin had a field day. When I took over all our magazines had the reputation of being sloppy - typos and grammar errors abounded. As this was my first gig as EiC (Editor in Chief, or as I sometimes called it Editor in Chaos) I was going to change that. Setting up rigorous protocols I was determined to hunt the Typo Gremlin and his partner in disruption the Grammar Grinch to extinction.

Well, I didn't. In spite of every page being proofed by at least two people besides me and no board being released to the printer without my signature those two sneaky little critters still managed to put in a fingerprint or two - but, I am proud to say, nothing like the rampages they had inflicted before.

At a writers' meeting not long ago I talked to an aspirant writer who told me that during his insurance days he was the coordinator for writing a new kind of policy. As this was the initial time out for this particular policy and it was a legal document, he was extra-careful that all the i's were dotted and the t's crossed. He not only proofed the document several times himself, he had others in his department and the legal department go through it multiple times until it was certified as clean and could be sent to the printer where a bazillion copies were run off. Then - after bales of policies were sent to offices around the country - and only then did they find a whacking great typo - not in the scads of 'tiny type' body copy, but in one of the main headings. The Typo Gremlin's laughter was practically audible.

When I left the magazine world and went back to traditional publishing, I was still a terror, being notorious for sending edited manuscripts back with corrections on what the editor had done/suggested. The day of the hyper-vigilant professional editor like the late, great Maxwell Perkins is on the wane if not already dead. Those giants of the written word are far too quickly being replaced by fresh-out-of-the-egg college graduates with vague English degrees and in some smaller houses even other writers who may or who may not be published, resulting in edits of widely varying quality. My personal prejudice is that I have trouble trusting my career to someone when I have shoes older than they are.

Now I am pretty much self-publishing my novels, but the dreadful duo of the  Typo Gremlin and Grammar Grinch still dog my footsteps. Case in point, a book I released not long ago - a book that has had no fewer than two professional editors, my own repeated scrutiny and at least four extremely literate beta readers - changed the heroine's name for one mention in the middle of the book. Not just a simple letter reversal or a mild misspelling, but changing one name for another, albeit a similar one. One big point to the Typo Gremlin...

Popular wisdom seems to tend toward the belief that if you cannot defeat an enemy, you should make them your friend. Maybe that works in international politics (though I am somewhat skeptical) but for me, at least, it will never do with either the Typo Gremlin or the Grammar Grinch. It is, as far as I am concerned, an ongoing battle to the death. Words are our livelihood; we should display them in the best form possible.

Giving Editing Tips to Middle Schoolers

Because I've been writing in /Facebook about re-editing all my Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries, a middle school teacher I know told her class. They were amazed that a published writer would do so much editing. Frum that came the email asking me if I'd visit the class and talk about editing.

Of course, I will be there today.

I made up a hand-out--rather simplified editing tips. I'll expand on them as I talk depending upon how interested they are.

SIMPLE EDITING TIPS

Watch out for overuse of a word such as that, just, very, etc.

Use descriptive action verbs instead of look, walk. Think what the person is doing and the best way to describe it.

For dialogue, use an action or description instead of he said or she said.  Examples:

Billy kicked off his shoes. “No, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Karen flipped her long blonde hair behind her shoulders. “Okay, but I’m going with or without you.”

Be sure to stay in whatever tense you use—past or present. (Frankly, I think present tense is really hard to do well.)

Choose whether you are going to use third person or first person as to who is telling the story. First person is the easiest:

I knew when I stepped inside the door of the house I might be greeted by ghosts. (First person,

past tense.)

However, the “I” person can’t know what anyone else is thinking, only guess. This is the same for third person too.

Jason could tell by the expressions on his parents’ faces that something was wrong. (Or you could describe their expressions.) If Jason is the one telling the story, he can only guess what others are thinking.

Be sure that a pronoun refers to the last person mentioned.

Start a new paragraph anytime a new person speaks or does something.

When choosing names from your characters, be careful that they don’t all start with the same letter, rhyme, or sound too much alike.

Don’t use too many explanation points! Instead, make sure what is said is exclamatory enough.

Don’t repeat information you’ve already given. And don’t have one character tell another something they already know.

Be careful not to start every paragraph with the same word.

Vary your sentence structure, some short sentences (especially for action), longer for descriptions.

One thing I always do when I talk to kids is try to make them laugh. And of course, I'll answer all their questions.

Marilyn  

A Few Odd Ball Tidbits About My Writing Life

As I've reported, some of my older books have been self-published (with lots of help from a friend.) Those books are bringing in more royalties each month then I received most of the time quarterly from publishers. (Of course, to be fair, it's several books.)

The one that is selling the best is not a mystery, but a cook book that I wrote years ago. That has been a big surprise.

Of course, a certain amount of promotion has gone into letting people know about all these re-edited and re-pubbed books. Definitely a regular part of my writing life.

Because I now have a new publisher for the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series, I've been going over and re-editing each book--and I'm now on #10 in the series. Besides making needed corrections, I've also learned a lot about the characters that I've forgotten.

I decided it was time that my webpage get decluttered and my webmaven did a terrific job. Check it out: http:/ /fictionforyou.com/. In the process I realized I've now written over 40 books, and nearly all have been published.

Because of the extra work, I'm woefully behind in writing my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery. All I have so far is the first two sentences.

My calendar is beginning to fill with public appearances--that's always good and something I like to do.

However other events are also filling my calendar. One biggie is this week when I'll be attending the annual PSWA board meeting where we'll not only be taking care of business, but plans for the July conference will be finalized. More about that on my next blog post.This is my favorite writers' conference. You can check it out at http://policewriter.com/  This meeting is held for 4 days in Ventura--one of the places they had a devastating fire.

I try to attend as many meetings of the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime as possible. Besides seeing all my friends, I often get idea for my books from the speakers. I've noticed that I'm one of the only writers attending who takes notes. I've often wondered about that.

We've scheduled a mini-vacation in April, a much needed visit to see our eldest daughter and family in the Murrieta/Temecula area.

In May I'm going over to the coast to be a part of the Central Coast Sisters in Crime chapter writing conference. Looking forward to that too, love visiting the coast and seeing good friends.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but you get the idea--my writing life is busy.

Marilyn