Roger Angle's Blog, page 2
December 7, 2018
CLASSIC THRILLER - 'GORKY PARK'
DAY ONE - "Gorky Park"
I have trouble finding fiction I want to read, including thrillers. Often, they bore me out of my skull.
So, every once in a while, I go through some of my old faves, just to read the openings.
Last night, I picked up "Gorky Park," by Martin Cruz Smith, and I got hooked.
The opening drew me in, as it always has before. There is so much life here, and danger, and nuance, and mystery, and such rich character development. Wow!
Arkady Renko is a great central character. Like any good fictional detective, he risks his life to do the right thing. And he goes up against the KGB, an impressive foe.
Why are so many more recent thrillers less than thrilling in their opening pages?
Beats me. Maybe you can answer that.
I was thinking of 'Mr. Murder" by Dean Koontz. I struggled through two chapters and caught a serious case of narcolepsy. So boring!
And I was thinking of "Night School" by Lee Child. Another snore-fest. How dull! I read maybe twenty pages and could not stay awake.
My theory is that once you have hit the bestseller lists you can slide by, writing dull, boring crap. Sad to say.
Meanwhile, back to "Gorky Park."
#
DAY TWO - "Gorky Park"
So, I finished reading Chapter 1.
One thing I like about this book is that the chapters are long, rich in detail, and well developed. Very different from the modern tendency to write little, short, namby-pamby, three-page chapters. This chapter is 26 pages long. Whoa, writing for grownups.
I feel like I'm living Arkady Renko's life and know everything that he knows. I am walking in his shoes. I am married to his unloving wife. I am navigating the treacherous waters of the Russian state bureaucracy, as he is. I feel his feelings.
Like any good fictional detective, Arkady Renko is a little bit self-destructive. He puts his own principles above his own social and financial success, even above his own safety. We admire him, or I do. And we want people in real life to live up to his standards.
He suspects a KGB agent of murder. Oh-oh. Look out!
So far, so good. I love it.
More later.
#
DAY THREE - "Gorky Park"
Arkady Renko is a complex character, not big and strong and heroic, like Jack Reacher. To me, Renko is more believable and more sympathetic.
I admire Jack Reacher and enjoy it when he kicks ass. In one scene, he takes on several young former football players and puts them in the hospital. That is fun. And believable, more or less. And satisfying. But Arkady Renko is a more interesting character, at least to me.
Renko is awash in a sea of difficulties. He is in a loveless marriage to a beautiful woman who is having an affair with a Communist Party official, obviously screwing her way to the top. So I feel sorry for Renko, who has been undone by his opposition to the Party. He is a good man surrounded by corruption and greed. He is admirable in a different and more interesting way than Jack Reacher.
The forensic details in this book are wonderful. Detailed, relevant and accurate, as far as I can tell. Wonderful. Engrossing.
I am still on Chapter Two. More later.
#
DAY FOUR - "Gorky Park"
Can't wait to get back to this book. It is truly a masterpiece of mystery/thriller fiction. I have read other novels by Martin Cruz Smith, and they don't come close.
There is so much real life here, so much research that went into this novel. I am now in the part where an anthropologist recreates faces from the skulls of dead people. Fascinating. This was the first place I read about it. Amazing. And it is all so dramatic. A fine touch. Like a good movie. It is totally captivating.
This book is much better than my own, I must admit. (You should still give mine a try, of course.)
There is also a fine sense of the rhythms of real life. Part of the plot seems arbitrary, like life. It doesn't feel planned or artificial. It's full of surprises.
More later.
#
DAY FIVE - "Gorky Park"
I finally hit a weak patch. Chapter Five is confusing. Wait, where are we? Why are we here? What the hell is going on? Takes a while before it gets good again, in Ch.6.
But that is a rare lapse.
The jacket copy says M.C. Smith spent eight years working on "Gorky Park." I don't doubt it. So much research and so much life went into it.
One quote I saved from this book: “Proust said you could seduce any woman if you were willing to sit and listen to her complain until four in the morning.”
I think this is funny. It is said by Nikitin. one of the characters. I Googled it as a Proust quote and could not verify it. So I doubt if Proust actually wrote it. But who cares? This is fiction.
I used to have a writing student, Peggy, who had known people who lived in the same building in NYC as Martin Cruz Smith. They thought he was wasting his time working on this book. Then, of course, it became a huge bestseller, as it should.
Funny how things turn out.
More later.
#
I have trouble finding fiction I want to read, including thrillers. Often, they bore me out of my skull.
So, every once in a while, I go through some of my old faves, just to read the openings.
Last night, I picked up "Gorky Park," by Martin Cruz Smith, and I got hooked.
The opening drew me in, as it always has before. There is so much life here, and danger, and nuance, and mystery, and such rich character development. Wow!
Arkady Renko is a great central character. Like any good fictional detective, he risks his life to do the right thing. And he goes up against the KGB, an impressive foe.
Why are so many more recent thrillers less than thrilling in their opening pages?
Beats me. Maybe you can answer that.
I was thinking of 'Mr. Murder" by Dean Koontz. I struggled through two chapters and caught a serious case of narcolepsy. So boring!
And I was thinking of "Night School" by Lee Child. Another snore-fest. How dull! I read maybe twenty pages and could not stay awake.
My theory is that once you have hit the bestseller lists you can slide by, writing dull, boring crap. Sad to say.
Meanwhile, back to "Gorky Park."
#
DAY TWO - "Gorky Park"
So, I finished reading Chapter 1.
One thing I like about this book is that the chapters are long, rich in detail, and well developed. Very different from the modern tendency to write little, short, namby-pamby, three-page chapters. This chapter is 26 pages long. Whoa, writing for grownups.
I feel like I'm living Arkady Renko's life and know everything that he knows. I am walking in his shoes. I am married to his unloving wife. I am navigating the treacherous waters of the Russian state bureaucracy, as he is. I feel his feelings.
Like any good fictional detective, Arkady Renko is a little bit self-destructive. He puts his own principles above his own social and financial success, even above his own safety. We admire him, or I do. And we want people in real life to live up to his standards.
He suspects a KGB agent of murder. Oh-oh. Look out!
So far, so good. I love it.
More later.
#
DAY THREE - "Gorky Park"
Arkady Renko is a complex character, not big and strong and heroic, like Jack Reacher. To me, Renko is more believable and more sympathetic.
I admire Jack Reacher and enjoy it when he kicks ass. In one scene, he takes on several young former football players and puts them in the hospital. That is fun. And believable, more or less. And satisfying. But Arkady Renko is a more interesting character, at least to me.
Renko is awash in a sea of difficulties. He is in a loveless marriage to a beautiful woman who is having an affair with a Communist Party official, obviously screwing her way to the top. So I feel sorry for Renko, who has been undone by his opposition to the Party. He is a good man surrounded by corruption and greed. He is admirable in a different and more interesting way than Jack Reacher.
The forensic details in this book are wonderful. Detailed, relevant and accurate, as far as I can tell. Wonderful. Engrossing.
I am still on Chapter Two. More later.
#
DAY FOUR - "Gorky Park"
Can't wait to get back to this book. It is truly a masterpiece of mystery/thriller fiction. I have read other novels by Martin Cruz Smith, and they don't come close.
There is so much real life here, so much research that went into this novel. I am now in the part where an anthropologist recreates faces from the skulls of dead people. Fascinating. This was the first place I read about it. Amazing. And it is all so dramatic. A fine touch. Like a good movie. It is totally captivating.
This book is much better than my own, I must admit. (You should still give mine a try, of course.)
There is also a fine sense of the rhythms of real life. Part of the plot seems arbitrary, like life. It doesn't feel planned or artificial. It's full of surprises.
More later.
#
DAY FIVE - "Gorky Park"
I finally hit a weak patch. Chapter Five is confusing. Wait, where are we? Why are we here? What the hell is going on? Takes a while before it gets good again, in Ch.6.
But that is a rare lapse.
The jacket copy says M.C. Smith spent eight years working on "Gorky Park." I don't doubt it. So much research and so much life went into it.
One quote I saved from this book: “Proust said you could seduce any woman if you were willing to sit and listen to her complain until four in the morning.”
I think this is funny. It is said by Nikitin. one of the characters. I Googled it as a Proust quote and could not verify it. So I doubt if Proust actually wrote it. But who cares? This is fiction.
I used to have a writing student, Peggy, who had known people who lived in the same building in NYC as Martin Cruz Smith. They thought he was wasting his time working on this book. Then, of course, it became a huge bestseller, as it should.
Funny how things turn out.
More later.
#
November 29, 2018
HOW TO AVOID GETTING 'LOST IN THE WOODS'
By Roger Angle
When I first started writing novels, I was used to writing literary short fiction. I’d begin a story with a line that came to me, or with an image in my mind, without much else. I’d follow the story wherever it led me, like a dog following a scent.
That worked OK for short fiction, but when I started writing novels, I’d often follow the scent for 175 pages or so and then realize I had not yet found a story. I had gotten lost in the woods.
So, I asked myself, how do you avoid that?
My answer was to figure out the main characters and major plot points in the novel:
1. Who is the main character and what does he or she want?
2. How big a risk is he or she willing to take?
3. How important is it? Are they willing to die for it? Or kill?
4. What causes them to act? The triggering event or call to action?
5. The big story problem. Will James Bond defeat Dr. No?
6. The point of no return, where the hero or heroine commits to the action and can no longer turn back. James Bond parachutes onto the island of Dr. No.
7. Big trouble. The hero is up to his neck in alligators. Dr. No captures James Bond.
8. The hero struggles to survive and to win, with reversals. Looks good, looks bad, looks good, etc.
9. The climax, win or lose.
10. The hero returns and everything is hunky dory again.
No matter what outline you have in mind (and there are many), you need to find a way to structure your story, both to lead your reader from one plot point to the next and to keep your own eye on the ball.
My answer is to write each chapter in such a way that you drive toward a goal, toward a plot point or turning point that will end the chapter and propel the reader forward. Hollywood writers sometimes call this a “button line.” In newspapers, we used to call it “a kicker.”
For example, suppose your main character is a middle-class teenage boy who is unhappy at home and is acting out. You want him to get in trouble. You might have him meet some kids from the wrong crowd, as they say, and steal a bunch of car parts. The climax of the first chapter could be his getting arrested at a gasoline station he and his buddies intend to burglarize. The end of the chapter could be the sound of the jail door clanging shut, a life-changing event.
Of course, that is just Chapter One. He has to get in and out of more trouble before the story comes to its conclusion. You may want to cover his whole life, or just a summer, or just 24 hours. That is up to you.
When I was writing MAGGIE COLLINS, I knew I wanted the two main characters to be in love and having trouble. I also wanted to introduce the killer. So I orchestrated two scenes. The first shows the hero and heroine embroiled in the case and arguing about their future together. The second scene shows the killer stalking a victim.
As the story goes along, it gets deeper into the characters, deeper into their relationships, and deeper into the story problem. A famous thriller writer, Lee Child (a.k.a. Jim Grant, a former TV writer and director) says the best way to structure a story is around questions that you raise in the reader’s mind.
In MAGGIE COLLINS, the first question is, Will the hero and heroine catch the killer? Oddly enough, the second question is, Will the killer find love? (His idea of love is twisted, to say the least.)
Another thing you need to know, as a writer, is your theme. What is your book about? I needed to know, to keep from getting lost in the woods.
I thought about the three main characters and what they want. The older detective, Dupree, is in love with a younger woman, Maggie. He wants to retire from the force and take her with him to live in Maine, literally in the woods. He wants a quiet life. But, alas, that is not what she wants, which is the danger and excitement of being a NYPD detective. In a way, she is a thrill seeker. She loves her job.
What does the killer want? As I said, he wants true love. When he kidnaps women, he goes through a kind of ceremony that declares his love for them. If they don’t respond in exactly the way he wants, that brief relationship does not end well.
So what, I asked myself, is my book about? I decided that my theme was the perversion of love. I put that on a sticky note above my computer, as a guide, so I wouldn’t forget. That helped a lot. That, and driving toward a plot point in each chapter.
It isn’t easy. Good luck. You will need it. I sure did.
###
When I first started writing novels, I was used to writing literary short fiction. I’d begin a story with a line that came to me, or with an image in my mind, without much else. I’d follow the story wherever it led me, like a dog following a scent.
That worked OK for short fiction, but when I started writing novels, I’d often follow the scent for 175 pages or so and then realize I had not yet found a story. I had gotten lost in the woods.
So, I asked myself, how do you avoid that?
My answer was to figure out the main characters and major plot points in the novel:
1. Who is the main character and what does he or she want?
2. How big a risk is he or she willing to take?
3. How important is it? Are they willing to die for it? Or kill?
4. What causes them to act? The triggering event or call to action?
5. The big story problem. Will James Bond defeat Dr. No?
6. The point of no return, where the hero or heroine commits to the action and can no longer turn back. James Bond parachutes onto the island of Dr. No.
7. Big trouble. The hero is up to his neck in alligators. Dr. No captures James Bond.
8. The hero struggles to survive and to win, with reversals. Looks good, looks bad, looks good, etc.
9. The climax, win or lose.
10. The hero returns and everything is hunky dory again.
No matter what outline you have in mind (and there are many), you need to find a way to structure your story, both to lead your reader from one plot point to the next and to keep your own eye on the ball.
My answer is to write each chapter in such a way that you drive toward a goal, toward a plot point or turning point that will end the chapter and propel the reader forward. Hollywood writers sometimes call this a “button line.” In newspapers, we used to call it “a kicker.”
For example, suppose your main character is a middle-class teenage boy who is unhappy at home and is acting out. You want him to get in trouble. You might have him meet some kids from the wrong crowd, as they say, and steal a bunch of car parts. The climax of the first chapter could be his getting arrested at a gasoline station he and his buddies intend to burglarize. The end of the chapter could be the sound of the jail door clanging shut, a life-changing event.
Of course, that is just Chapter One. He has to get in and out of more trouble before the story comes to its conclusion. You may want to cover his whole life, or just a summer, or just 24 hours. That is up to you.
When I was writing MAGGIE COLLINS, I knew I wanted the two main characters to be in love and having trouble. I also wanted to introduce the killer. So I orchestrated two scenes. The first shows the hero and heroine embroiled in the case and arguing about their future together. The second scene shows the killer stalking a victim.
As the story goes along, it gets deeper into the characters, deeper into their relationships, and deeper into the story problem. A famous thriller writer, Lee Child (a.k.a. Jim Grant, a former TV writer and director) says the best way to structure a story is around questions that you raise in the reader’s mind.
In MAGGIE COLLINS, the first question is, Will the hero and heroine catch the killer? Oddly enough, the second question is, Will the killer find love? (His idea of love is twisted, to say the least.)
Another thing you need to know, as a writer, is your theme. What is your book about? I needed to know, to keep from getting lost in the woods.
I thought about the three main characters and what they want. The older detective, Dupree, is in love with a younger woman, Maggie. He wants to retire from the force and take her with him to live in Maine, literally in the woods. He wants a quiet life. But, alas, that is not what she wants, which is the danger and excitement of being a NYPD detective. In a way, she is a thrill seeker. She loves her job.
What does the killer want? As I said, he wants true love. When he kidnaps women, he goes through a kind of ceremony that declares his love for them. If they don’t respond in exactly the way he wants, that brief relationship does not end well.
So what, I asked myself, is my book about? I decided that my theme was the perversion of love. I put that on a sticky note above my computer, as a guide, so I wouldn’t forget. That helped a lot. That, and driving toward a plot point in each chapter.
It isn’t easy. Good luck. You will need it. I sure did.
###
