HOW TO WRITE GOOD--by Cheryl Pierson

Since I ran out of time to come up with a wonderful new post for today, I thought I would put up something funny--yet meaningful in some ways. (Tongue in cheek.) It's a re-run from a few years back, but might give you a chuckle.

(Number 6 should say, "Writers" not "Writes")

What do you think? Have any others to add? After years of editing, the one that comes to mind for me is, "Be care of using too many descriptive, detailed, pointed, modifying adjectives and adverbs all together, separated by so many commas that your run on sentence can only be halted in mid-stride by a semi-colon; then, it plunges on down the mountain and around the curve toward the oblivion that it was destined for because no one can even remember or, by this point, care about what you were trying to relate in the first place."

Pet peeves anyone? It's your turn to talk about Writing Good!

BEYOND COWBOYS: CHARACTERS OF THE WEST by Vonn McKee

I love lists: making them, reading them, crossing things off them. Even the act of creating a to-do list for the week makes me feel I’ve accomplished something. I also keep ongoing lists of things helpful to my writing cause –– such as interesting character names, trivia about historical events, or those little stories told around dinner tables that might fit perfectly in a fictional scene.

A few years ago, I heard the incredible author Win Blevins (STONE SONG, GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE HAWKS) speak about his mental list of character types. He said that, when he first began writing western fiction, he realized he didn’t know that much about real cowboys. After some pondering, it occurred to him that there were dozens of other characters to write about: miners, natives, fur trappers, and so on. That opened the door to an endless supply of potential plots and character studies. Thank goodness Win had that realization. Western literature would have missed out on his emotional, beautifully styled novels.

This inspired me to keep a list of my own (included below) for those times when I’m stumped for a story idea or just need subplots and interesting side characters. Feel free to add more suggestions in your comments!

FRONTIER CHARACTERS:

COWBOYS, RANCHERS, VAQUEROS, SHEEPHERDERS

RUSTLERS, ROBBERS, ROADSIDE BANDITS

GUNFIGHTERS, BOUNTY HUNTERS

LAWMEN (RANGERS, SHERIFFS/MARSHALS & DEPUTIES)

INDIANS

EXPLORERS, SCOUTS

MILITARY OFFICERS AND CAVALRYMEN

POLITICIANS

MINERS, PROSPECTORS, FUR TRADERS

SETTLERS, HOMESTEADERS, SQUATTERS (MALE AND FEMALE)

STAGE COACH DRIVERS, PONY EXPRESS RIDERS

RAILROAD WORKERS (LABORERS, ENGINEERS, BUSINESSMEN)

LAND SPECULATORS, BUILDERS

BUSINESS OWNERS AND EMPLOYEES (MERCANTILE, LIVERY, BLACKSMITH, TRADING POST, DRESSMAKER, SADDLE MAKER, NEWSPAPER REPORTER, BANKER, TELEGRAPH OPERATOR, ETC.)

SOILED DOVES, ENTERTAINERS, BARTENDERS

TEACHERS, PREACHERS, NUNS

Hopefully, this list will spur you on creating all kinds of interesting folks in your next book. It took a lot of people to build the West. Go forth, and tell their stories!

All the best,

Vonn McKee

“Writing the Range”
2015 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist (Short Fiction)
2015 WWA Spur Award Finalist (Short Fiction)

Visit Vonn on Facebook

WEBSITE vonnmckee.com

From WOLFPACK PUBLISHING

Now available on Amazon:

“ABOUT THE AUTHOR” (SON OF A GUN, WE’LL HAVE BIG FUN…ON THE BIO) By VONN McKEE

We fiction writers really love making up stuff. And, if we’re clever enough, we can hornswoggle a number of unsuspecting people into reading the stuff we’ve made up. It’s a great system. However, along with all that heady fun, there are a couple of have-tos that no author particularly enjoys doing. One of those is writing your own bio. (Well, I’ve actually met a few authors who LOVE writing about themselves, but we won’t name names here.)
     I count concocting a bio right up there with scrubbing floors and the sound of dentist drills, but I do realize the importance of those back-flap author blurbs. When I finish reading a great book, I want to know all about the person who wrote it. Where did she grow up? Is this his first book…his tenth? How did the author end up writing in this genre?
     If you’ve written and published a book, magazine article, screenplay, or short story, you WILL be asked to provide a word snapshot of who you are and how you came to be an author. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when pouring–or dribbling–out your life story.

HOW LONG? Bios come in three sizes: short, medium, and extended. By short, I mean something in the neighborhood of three typed lines. A medium bio runs from 40 to 250 words, and the extended version will be several paragraphs long (theoretically filling up a page). You should have all three versions on hand: short for end-of-story blurbs, medium for online book listings, and extended for your website or press kit.

WHO IS READING THIS? If you are introducing yourself to a particular audience (romance, western, sci-fi, etc.), then the tone of your bio should suit the genre.
     Depending on how much space you have, you should drop morsels of information that show your interest or qualifications in that genre. Do you dress up as Sleeping Beauty EVERY Halloween? Were you a trick roper child prodigy? Was your life changed when you shook hands with an astronaut? This is also a good opportunity to showcase your writing style, whether pithy or cerebral or colorfully descriptive. In other words, the picture you paint of yourself in your bio should match the writing style of your story.

You want me to write about...ME?

    WHOSE POV? Yeah, it’s weird but you will be writing about yourself in third person. Once you get used to the idea, it actually makes it easier to describe your writing (just pretend you’re not in the room with yourself!) and to lay out the braggity things like awards and accolades.

WHAT TO SAY? This can be tricky. Don’t get so hung up on the who/what/where/how, that you forget to add quirky details. Yes, tell them you grew up in Arkansas/Indiana/etc. However, no one cares that you’ve always loved to write. Of course, you love to write. You wrote this book they hold in their hands! Tell your story, but keep it tight and make every word count.
     Find a way to describe your essence in creative terms. For example, my short bio reveals that I am “descended from horse traders and Southern belles.” It checks off several boxes: I grew up in the South, my family was into horses, and I might sell you a sway-backed short story if you don’t watch me closely. 
     If you’ve won an award that the readers will recognize, then give it a shout-out. If it isn’t a well-known honor, then you can always go with “award-winning author, <your name here>.” It’s all about the creds, baby.

     Above all, take your time when putting together a bio. It could convince a reader browsing through new digital releases to click “Buy Now.” You never know…Billy Bob Thornton or Charles Portis could pick up your book, read your bio, and decide to shoot you an email that says, “Hey, I’m from Arkansas too! Wanna have supper next week?” (One can dream…)
     So go ahead and shake your tail feathers a bit, pop your suspenders, toot your horn, and let the world of readers know what’s unique about you, and why they should be falling over themselves to devour every delicious word you write.
     And remember, my darlings, you’re only as old as your bio says you are!

All the best,

Vonn

Louisiana-born Vonn McKee, descended from horse traders and southern belles, has worked as everything from country singer to riverboat waitress to construction project manager. Now based in Nashville, she turns her experiences and love of history into stories of the West.

VONN McKEE
“Writing the Range”
2015 WWA Spur Finalist (Short Fiction)
2015 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Finalist (Short Fiction)


www.vonnmckee.com
Like Vonn on Facebook !

READY? OR NOT? By Vonn McKee

Blending in for 100+ years!
(Great Basin NP photo)

History buffs were literally all “a-Twitter” recently over a news story released by Great Basin National Park officials. The incredible account of a rusty Winchester rifle found leaning against a juniper tree in remote northern Nevada has sparked the interest of researchers, gun experts and, yes, more than a few fiction writers. The Model 1873 rifle (.44-40 caliber, for those of you who like to know these things) very likely has been resting against that tree for over a hundred years. Oh, the stories we could conjure up!

What I found interesting about the news release was its date: Great Basin’s Facebook page announced it on January 8, 2015, and it later became a national headline. But when was the gun actually found? Last November, staffers on an archaeology outing noticed it…perfectly camouflaged against the gnarled juniper trunk.

Park officials did not rush to the local TV station or blast a social media “Eureka!” I’m sure there was a lot of jumping up and down with glee on their parts, but they took the time to do a little research before revealing the discovery. Remarkably, the serial number was still visible. Park staff members checked it against the Cody West Firearms Museum's records. They learned that it was manufactured and shipped in 1882, although Winchester records don’t indicate the purchaser or shipping destination. Great Basin continues to scour local newspapers and other historical records for more information about “the Gun Frozen in Time.” They are preserving the rifle from further deterioration and plan to display it at the park.

My point is that the story is much more interesting with all of those additional details than it would have been back in November. Sometimes it pays to sit on a story.

Last week, I was handed a challenging writing project with a very short turnaround…as in four days, start to sparkling finished product. In my opinion, it wasn’t quite sparkling or finished, althought the client seemed pleased. I have learned–both from experience and other writers–that stories need a little “steep” time. It’s natural to be excited about a finished book or short story and want to release it as soon as possible. I’m learning that the sequence, for me, is write/edit/write/edit/WAIT. Wait a week, maybe two. Maybe longer, depending on the length and complexity of the project.

I think about it while I go on about other things. Without fail, I discover some nuance or detail that improves the story. Ooh..what if they knew each other back in Kansas? What if they’re brothers? Wait, did I get those dates wrong? Hmmm, that section seemed long/short/boring/etc.

Drop a tea bag in hot water. Just because it immediately looks like tea doesn’t mean it’s drinkable. A cake taken out of the oven has to rest before it can be cut and devoured. An old Winchester’s story comes to life as someone takes the time to track down its history.

Let your work settle after it’s finished. When you go back to it, it will tell you where it needs help. Take time to listen.

All the best, 

Vonn

Keep up with Vonn:

www.facebook.com/VonnMcKee    twitter.com/vonn_mckee

www.vonnmckee.com       

AMAZON  and  SMASHWORDS

HOW TO WRITE GOOD--by CHERYL PIERSON

Since we don't have a regular blogger scheduled for today, I thought I would put up something funny--yet meaningful in some ways. (Tongue in cheek.)

(Number 6 should say, "Writers" not "Writes")

What do you think? Have any others to add? After years of editing, the one that comes to mind for me is, "Be care of using too many descriptive, detailed, pointed, modifying adjectives and adverbs all together, separated by so many commas that your run on sentence can only be halted in mid-stride by a semi-colon; then, it plunges on down the mountain and around the curve toward the oblivion that it was destined for because no one can even remember or, by this point, care about what you were trying to relate in the first place."

Pet peeves any one? It's your turn to talk about "Writing Good".

NEVER SAY DIE

Frank Roderus

If you intend to make it as a professional, perhaps the most important quality you can have is simple stick-to-it’iveness. Bloody-minded stubbornness is more like it.

And no matter what, do not – do not ever – allow yourself to be dissuaded from the dream.

Let me tell you a true story about my struggling years. I was a newspaper reporter and as such spent a great deal of time sitting through murder trials. Now there is nothing so boring as a murder trial. The lawyers laboriously, studiously, boringly go into incredible details of arcane law, frantic lest they forget some technicality.

Sitting and listening to this nonsense in real life is most unlike the drama you see on TV. To keep myself busy I wrote, in longhand in steno pads. And I wrote what I thought was a pretty good yarn.

I typed that up into a manuscript in the style specified in Writers’ Markets, then had to find a publisher. Now how do you go about such things when you have no track record and know nothing about the business?

Why, you get an expert to handle it for you. Of course.

So I went through the books again and found a likely agent. Mailed the manuscript off and started chewing my nails waiting for the response.

Boy, did I ever get one. My manuscript came back in due time and along with it a letter. The letter said, not quite in so many words but very bluntly, that I was not a writer, should not bother her or anyone else again and to find something else to occupy my time.

To say that I was crushed is an understatement. I was devastated. I took her advice. Because, after all, this woman was a New York agent and New York agents know everything. Right? Sure they do.

I put that manuscript aside and tried to give up the thought of writing. It was three years before the desire to write overcame me to the point that I had to try again.

I pulled that same manuscript out, read it over and decided it really was not that terrible. Sent it off again, this time to a small, mid-western press.

They bought it, and Duster was a Spur Award finalist that year. I have been writing and consistently selling ever since.

My point here is that the all-knowing New York agent (I have completely forgotten her name, but her initials are Ann B Elmo) very nearly stopped my career before it ever happened. And would have had I not been so determined to try again regardless of that ‘professional opinion’ from on high.

Believe in yourself. That is the key.

Writing Professionally

By Frank Roderus

I’ve been writing professionally for 45 years, first as a newspaper reporter and for the past 35 years as a novelist. I consider this a joy, a privilege and a blessing.

During the course of these years I have been asked countless times for the ‘secret’ to the writing and/or the selling. If there were such a secret I would gladly pass it on to another generation of writers. Sadly, there is no such thing.

What there is, however, is almost as simple as following a secret path to writing success. It is, in short, persistence. Ideally you should be mule stubborn and Polyanna optimistic if you want to write for a living.

But first – please – read.

Yes, I said read. I cannot tell you how many times people have told me that they want to become writers. When I ask what types of books they prefer to read, amazingly often the response will be that they do not read. They don’t have time. They don’t have (insert excuse here).

Incredible. If you do not read, you will not be able to write. Period.

Next, write. A lot. You find your voice and hone it by writing.

Often, perhaps even usually, I am told that the would-be writer really would write a book if only s/he had time. Hoo-ha! Everyone has time enough because no one sits down and writes a book. You sit down and write a scene, a chapter, a paragraph. Just one. At a time. Add a whole lot of those together and you have a book.

I started writing longhand in steno pads. Those go anywhere without trouble. You can write a sentence in the morning while the kids are having breakfast, a paragraph on the bus, a scene while the family is at the beach. Any scrap of idle time can be productive for someone who really wants to write.

Have a manuscript? Think it is good enough to market? Good. Now comes the hard part. Sell it.

First, though, if you really want to succeed, do your homework. Haunt the bookstores to see what publishers are buying and which publishing houses those are. Find a copy of Writers’ Markets and study it. Do keep in mind that a great deal of lead time was built into the publication and a publisher’s needs may have changed since those entries were made.

Don’t ignore the small and regional presses. Those may be a suitable outlet for your manuscript. But don’t be afraid to shoot for the stars either.

If at all possible, attend a convention or two. Want to write westerns? Come to a convention put on by Western Writers of America and/or Western Fictioneers (WF meets are scheduled in conjunction with WWA). I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to meet the editors who will be appraising your work. Get to know them. Ask what they like. Not just what they need but what they like.

Editors are people. I know. That is hard to believe but it’s true. They have preferences and prejudices just like the rest of us. Find out what those are if possible and then tailor your mss to them. That effort can help pay off in sales.

But first you must produce that ms so compelling that it cannot be turned down.

I wish you luck with it.