Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "writing-process"

I could write a chapter on how I come to name my characters. The process has evolved since I began writing fiction 11 years ago. For starters, I've shifted away from using exotic or hard-to-pronounce names. I don't want my readers (or me) tripping over the name each time it rears up in the text.

Which characters should get names? If the character speaks more than a few lines, then he or she is assigned a name. Lots of lists of names get drawn up. I also like to put together two different names (first and last) to form a new one. "Jesse Taliaferro" is an example. A reader later emailed me, wondering why I'd used her late grandfather's name. No. Jesse came from the bluegrass band Jim & Jesse, while Taliaferro was a Civil War general.

Research is the key sometimes. When I wrote The Blue Cheer, I researched online the most common surnames found in West Virginia, its setting. A teenager once emailed me, saying I'd gotten the same name as his. LOL. I only wished that I was younger than he was. Fat chance.

Sometimes when I recognize a real person's name being used in fiction, it throws me out of the story. I can picture their face instead of the fictional character's face. On the other hand, my small town cozy mystery Quiet Anchorage uses my two late aunts' names. So, go figure that one.

"Lake Charles is my new title. This is its story. Like a slew of other writers’ books, mine has bounced around over the past eight years. Agents, publishers, editors, and readers have had their fingerprints on it. Recounting its exact history is almost impossible. One vivid memory stands out. I sat editing the early manuscript while my wife underwent a gall bladder operation. I had to do something to distract me."

For the rest, please go to my guest post on Ed Gorman's Weblog (special thanks to Ed): http://tiny.cc/hzgmv

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

No, I'm not kidding. My laptop has become vital, almost like a major organ. At any rate, this morning found me back at doing the revisions on my work-in-progress (WIP).

Edits for me are torture, filled with dread and doubts. I'll mull over the same snatch of dialogue several times, hating it for sounding too juvenile, stilted, or ordinary. I'll hop up, stomp around, and curse.

By the next moment the dread and doubts dissipate, and I'm in a better mindframe. I settle down and resume my edits. Oh, and the dialogue got fixed.

Early in the revision cycle, I turn on the redline feature to MS Word. I say I want to gauge how much of the text is getting edited. Knowing the volume of the edits aids me in determining how much more time I should allot to the WIP. Pretty soon, I get sick of looking at all the redlines cluttering up the page, and turn the feature off.

I also like to switch up the font style and color, trying to trick my eyes into seeing a different manuscript. Dark blue and red are the font colors I prefer. Garamond and Arial are the two font styles I go with during my edits.

Do these gimmicks actually benefit me? Well, even placebos have their rightful place. So, I'll keep on using them. As for the typewriter, it's just a dimming memory.

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

All too often, I'm in a big push to knock out a project on deadline. Sometimes it's writing, but it's also reading like to write a review. I'll grind on for hours at a stretch. How I wish I could get it done faster. But I just ain't wired that way. Therefore I'm stuck with pulling the long hours.

The body is a funny thing. If you disrespect it, it bites you back. Writing, then, becomes a real pain in the neck, back, or seat. Oh yeah, you're shaking your head by now: been there, done that, Ed.

So, I do five different neck exercises 3X/day (http://tiny.cc/7vw1h). Religiously. Or else. I tinkered until I found the best regimen for me. Sore, stiff neck is now gone. Maybe the exercises will do the same trick for you, too.

I also like to write at my stand up desk. It looks similar to this one except the top is flat, not sloped. (http://tiny.cc/tvics). Standing is a short-term solution because I work more efficiently when I'm seated.

I know laptops are more portable than PCs, but I still cotton to the larger keyboards the PCs used. I know you can link the keyboard to your laptop, but I haven't bothered with trying it.

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

First off, I better admit to my own superstition (or maybe it's a ritual): I always use my lucky coffee mug whenever I write or edit my work. Am I alone in this? Well, the snoop in me investigated the question.

It turns out Cormac McCarthy used the same portable Olivetti manual typewriter to compose his classic novels. He then auctioned it off for charity. I envy whoever won that bid. There's the famous story how John Cheever liked to write in the basement of his apartment building. Papa Hemingway used a stand up desk. Isabel Allende says she only starts her new books on January 8th.

Somewhere I heard the anecdote how Donald Barthelme listened to the recording of a clacking typewriter to get his own typewriter in gear. Perhaps a macabre Zen thing, Edith Sitwell liked to sit in her open coffin before her writing sessions. An English prof told me that Harry Crews wrote in a sauna.

The poet Friedrich von Schiller had a yen for smelling musty apples while invoking his muse. Hemingway's pal John Dos Passos who lived in Virginia's Northern Neck was a big walker, his daughter told us.

So, if you rely on a favorite superstition and it works for you, then keep it under your hat. In fact, I wouldn't whisper it to another soul lest (I love using that word) they steal your superstition's mojo.

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews