Geri Schear's Blog, page 4

Five Secrets to Writing Success

There’s an old saying that writers don’t so much want to write as they want to have written. New writers in particular are ever in search of the short cut. The path to success — meaning fame and a very large fortune — with the least possible amount of effort.

Now, I’m not saying it can’t be done. In fact, here are four sure-fire ways to become a major writing success. It’s up to you to decide if the effort involved in each is too much. I know what you’re thinking: Four? I thought you promised me five. You’re right, I did. Keep reading, and all will become clear.

Wealth

Be born wealthy so you can afford top of the line promotion and publicity. Alternatively, you could marry into money, or take out a loan. Of course, you still have to actually write a book, but, hey, that’s what ghost writers are for. Right?

Fame

Become famous so people will read whatever you put out, no matter how bad it may be. Even if you’re not rich, you can still achieve a lot if you become famous. Accomplish something heroic. Star in a blockbuster film. Walk on the moon. If you can combine youth with a noteworthy achievement, you will double your chance of success.

Notoriety

Add notoriety to your list of assets. If you’re a killer, a disgraced politician, or someone with a blackened reputation, you can probably sell thousands of copies of your book. Imagine a book of your experiences on Death Row. Or as a notorious Madam. Perhaps you’ve scammed old ladies out of their retirement funds. I’m not advocating for any of these, you understand. Merely pointing out that, like it or not, notoriety is a valid path to writing success.

Survival

Likewise, if you have survived some incredible catastrophe, a plane crash, falling off a mountain, being lost in the desert for months, and so forth, people will want to know how you did it. Not only can you expect to write a bestseller, but you can also expect to make a fortune as a motivational speaker. Of course, you sill have to write something, but no doubt any number of talented editors will be delighted to help you.

But what if none of those apply to you? Can you still succeed as a writer?

Yes, you can. Enter secret number five. Brace yourself. There are some hard truths ahead.

The Hard Graft

Writing is tough. That’s it. There are no short cuts, no easy fixes. You can, however, ease the pain of the hard work a little by using the following strategies:

Make writing a habit. If it becomes second-nature, you won’t have to gear yourself up for it quite so much. Some writers start work first thing in the morning, as soon as they waken, while they still can access their subconscious. They claim that not only does this make them better writers, but it also gives them the rest of the day to do as they wish.

Reward yourself for reaching milestones. A chapter completed, the first draft finished, and so on. They don’t have to be fancy or expensive treats, just something you enjoy. A trip to the cinema or theatre, a new book, or something you’ve been wanting for a while.

Set your word count at something manageable. 1000 words seems to work for many writers. If you can only do half that number, then fine. Just try to meet it with every writing session. You’ll fill pages before you know it.

And my number one tip:

Love it. The only way to make it bearable is to love it. If all you love is the potential for fame and fortune, well, there are far easier ways to achieve them.

But here’s my real advice: If you think writing is hard, you’re right. If you think it sounds like an unbearable slog to sit at a keyboard every day churning out words, then don’t start. No one is forcing you to become a writer. But if writing makes your pulse beat, if you’ve tried to quit but can’t, then, I hate to be the one to break it to you: you’re already a writer. So have at it!

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10 Ways to Foster Creativity

There are times when your creative bucket is bone dry. Not a drip of creative juice to be seen anywhere. We’ve all been there. Still, all is not lost. There are some things that can help to stimulate your creativity. Here are my top ten.

1 Sound sleep

I know this may sound boring, but if you’ve ever tried to write or compose when you’re exhausted you’ll know what a tough ask that is. As a person who routinely suffers from insomnia, I feel I can speak with some authority on this subject. Of course, if you’re rushing to face a deadline, you may have no choice but to plough through the mental cobwebs and do your best.

If I’m feeling rough, I prefer to edit rather than create new scenes. Then again, if the scene I need to write involves a character feeling less than their best, I can at least pour my personal experience into it. Even if that writing isn’t as good as I’d like, I can revisit it later. Preferably after a nap.

2 Recording your dreams

Silly as it may seem, remembering your dreams is a good way to tap into your subconscious. Not only do dreams sometimes help you to solve problems, they can suggest story ideas, and point the way when you’re stuck in your plot.

When I do sleep, I tend to have the wildest, most elaborate dreams imaginable. A couple of nights ago, I found myself in the middle of the story I was working on. The dream took me through a number of scenarios as my brain tried to work out the best way for the story to progress. I can’t say I awoke with a brilliant insight as to how I should proceed, but at least I now know all the things that would not work. Furthermore, I woke with an intense feeling for the setting. I could smell and taste it. Now all I have to do is translate that into words on a page. Easy, right?

Even though dreams rarely make sense, recording them can help you identify issues that are bothering you, though your conscious mind is, perhaps, unaware of them. Some dreams can inspire stories. What are your dreams telling you?

3 Practice!

I’ve cited this old joke before:

A man carrying a violin case approaches a policeman and says, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice!”

It’s funny because it’s true.

No matter what your artistic medium may be, you won’t get anywhere unless you practice. Pianists know that, so do sculptors, but some writers think they can take a desultory approach to their craft. They are waiting for the Muse or some other such mumbo-jumbo to inspire them. Art doesn’t work that way. Think of creativity as a muscle. You have to exercise it if you expect it to work.

The more you stay focused on your work and the greater your effort to improve, the better you get. There’s another benefit here, too. The more you practice, the clearer the message you are sending to the people around you that your creative work is something you take seriously, and they should too.

I can’t tell you the number of stories I’ve heard about artists whose families undermined their work because they saw the art as a pastime. I remember hearing a story some time about about a woman who makes a lot of money each year at a fan conventions like Comicon. One year, her family insisted she bring her 8 year old niece with her, and they made copies of the child’s pictures to sell. As a result of her family’s interference, the artist lost roughly two-thirds of the revenue she would usually have made. Her family, of course, didn’t care, and demanded she take the niece to the next convention. She said no. She pointed out that if she worked in an office, family wouldn’t expect her to take her niece with her any time they wished, but because they viewed her art as a hobby, they didn’t see any problem with it.

The point is a lot of people don’t appreciate how hard artists work. And, by artists, I mean anyone who engages in the creative arts, whether they are musicians, writers, sculptors, etc. Unless your name is on a par with Picasso or Hemingway, many of your nearest and dearest will see you as nothing more than a wannabe. I would ordinarily say your success will open their eyes, but as you can see from the story above, even that doesn’t always work.

4 Other arts

Different people respond to different things, I find that various types of music can inspire thoughts and images that sometimes turn into stories. Art has the same impact. Certain images, especially when they’re mysterious or evocative, get my mind creating all kinds of scenarios. The paintings of Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth I find particularly effective. I also love the ambiguity of Irish artist Gerry Davis’s paintings.

Whether your tastes run to Gershwin or Disturbed, Rembrandt or Basquiat, exposing yourself to the art you love stirs your own desire to create. Few things spur my creativity as seeing a true artist at work, whether they are poets, singers, actors, or painters, few things stir the blood as much as exposure to greatness.

Finally, let’s not forget the most important art form of all for writers: Books. At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, if you want to write, you MUST read. See how the masters approached the creation of character, or dealt with plot difficulties. Look at how their sentences lie on the page and sound in the ear. Read, pay attention, and learn.

5 Other artists

Imagine if Laurel had never met Hardy. Or Mel Brooks never encountered Gene Wilder. And it’s not just collaborations, it’s the way one artist inspires another. Artists are often friends with one another. People who are brilliant very often stimulate the best in others. I discovered recently that one of Charlie Chaplin’s closest friends was Albert Einstein. In a weird way it makes sense, at least to me. Their work may have been very different, but they were both icons, and used to the Limelight (excuse the pun!) And though he was a science, Einstein understood creativity and its challenges.

On a more prosaic level, though, I believe that people in many professions find no one really understands the travails of their working life as much as their peers. That’s as true of writers as it is of doctors or soldiers. Many famous writers had writer friends: Hemingway and Fitzgerald, for instance. PD James and Ruth Rendell. But even if you can’t arrange to be pally with your literary hero, you can join a writers’ group and meet like-minded people. Who knows where it will lead?

6 Keeping a journal

This is something you are probably doing anyway. Keeping a journal is a way of recording story ideas, scraps of dialogue, things you’ve seen, new words you’ve discovered, and goodness knows what else.

A journal keeps you focused. It helps you see how far you’ve progressed, the things you’ve learned, and where you are heading. It can also be fascinating to return to in years to come and see what you were learning then, and how far you’ve come.

Make your journal a size that you can carry in a pocket or a bag; you never know when an idea will hit. Keep it with you at all times.

Read it back from time to time. Old journals can be fascinating.

7 Keeping your dreams alive

Daydream about your success. Imagine it as clearly and actively as you can. Design your book cover. Stick pictures of your view of success over your desk: the house in London, the Lamborghini, the lines outside bookstores waiting to meet you.

Your family may call it fantasy, but a lot of people call it creative visualisation. It’s a way of making your creative aspirations as real as possible. I admit, the reality usually looks very different, but the point is to motivate you to keep working at your art, whatever it may be.

8 Sobriety

For reasons I’ve never figured out, artistic people seem particularly susceptible to alcoholism and / or drug addiction. The thing is, these things actively destroy talent, not to mention lives.

I know there have been artists who became very successful while inhaling their body weight in white powder. And certainly any number of alcoholics have been successful writers. But here’s the thing: how much better would they have done if they’d remained sober? I don’t know, I’m asking.

Leaving art aside for a moment, if you think you may have a problem with some chemical substance, get help. It’s damaging not only your creativity, but your health and your relationships.

9 Supportive friends and family

It occurred to me recently that my friends and family take my writing for granted. I mean that in a good way. They know that during certain hours of the day, they shouldn’t disturb me. My friends will ask if I’m busy writing or if I can take a break for a cup of tea and a chat. Having a professional attitude towards your work will encourage others to do so too. Not only that, but if you behave in a professional manner towards your writing, you will achieve far more than if you play the diva and throw tantrums when you’re ‘touched by the muse.’ Touched you may be, but it ain’t by the muse.

10 Goals

This doesn’t sound very exciting, does it, but the one thing that keeps me working is having something specific I want to accomplish. Whether it’s a novel, a short story, or research for something, having a big goal gets me out of bed each day, and having a series of smaller goals for the day or the week keeps me on track.

On a similar note, ‘to do’ lists are also very helpful. They tie in with that professional attitude and keep you on track.

What inspires you? Let me know in the comments.

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How to Verb-alise

One strong verb is worth an entire thesaurus worth of adverbs. If that’s not an axiom, it should be.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the way people’s reactions can vary, and how they can impact your fiction. Today, I want to focus on transforming those reactions into words.

Writers know, or eventually learn, that clichés make your writing seem dull and uninspired. When I first learned about this, I assumed it meant things like, “a watched pot never boils,” and similar phrases. As I’ve developed my writing, though, I’ve learned that there are many other expressions that are equally trite. The cutting edge, pushing the envelope, and so on. You’ll know dozens more, I’m sure. Using phrases like these is lazy writing. Think about the essence of what you want to say, and try to phrase it in a new and interesting way. No, of course it isn’t easy, but it’s well worth the effort.

Before you start looking for words, though, you must first be able to visualise your scene. That includes hearing it, even smelling it, and being aware of all the subtleties within it.

Let’s take a simple event as an example. An angry man enters a room. That’s it. Now, here’s the problem: how do you make that specific character more memorable than any other angry man your readers may have encountered, in fiction or in life? How do you add some zing to a fairly prosaic moment? Here’s how NOT to do it:

“He came into the room, and the door closed loudly behind him.”

Yikes! That’s really bad. I suppose we could have added a ‘bull in a china shop’ phrase, too, just to add to the overall terrible-ness. Still, even without that, it’s still pretty stinky. Let’s look at what’s wrong with it.

He comes into the room. Really? Is that the best we can do? It doesn’t exactly paint a picture, does it? Then we have the door closing behind him. Not only a passive sentence, but another one that tells us precisely nothing. How can we fix it?

Now, first, we need to know if our hero (?) deliberately slammed the door, or if it had, for instance, been caught by a strong breeze which caused it to slam. Let’s assume the former.

Instead of ‘came’ which tells us little, we need a strong verb. For instance, we could use barged. Or stormed. Even marched would do. You don’t have to hunt around for some obscure word. It’s a strong scene, and you don’t want to ruin it by making your readers scratch their heads in puzzlement instead of getting lost in the moment.

I should add at this juncture, that while thesauruseses (ahem) have their uses, in general you’re better off using whatever words are part of your usual vocabulary. If you use a thesaurus, and choose a word you’re not very familiar with, you may end with a howler. Let’s say, you like the sound of the word, ‘shotten’. Yes, I had to look it up too. It sounds like the character came firing into the room like a bullet from a gun. Great, right? But here’s the definition: “Shotten” is an archaic adjective primarily used to describe fish, especially herring, that have recently spawned, making them of inferior food value. It can also be used more generally to mean worthless or undesirable.” That’s an AI definition, but I believe it’s accurate. Lesson learned. Stick to words you are sure of.

Ideally, the word you choose should suit the character’s personality. ‘Marched’ works well if he happens to be a military man. If other characters talk about him being always ‘under a cloud’, then ‘stormed’ fits nicely. A combative person might be described as ‘crashing’. This isn’t essential, of course, but it can add a layer to your writing, that will please careful readers. The primary point, is you need to use strong verbs for strong scenes. Correction: you need to use strong verbs. Period.

But let’s get back to our noisy friend barging into the room, and turn our attention to the second sentence. It, also, should be active, with a strong verb, and something to give us a feeling for the man’s anger. Something like, “He slammed the wooden door so hard that Alice’s china ornaments tumbled from the mantle and shattered into a hundred pieces on the hearth.” You’re not just telling us how this man enters, you’re showing us.

But what if it isn’t a strong / pivotal scene? What if your character is passive and softly spoken? Well, if he is behaving as usual and arrives almost unnoticed in the room, does ‘came’ work here?

Well, no. You should still use strong verbs, just different strong verbs. Let’s call our friend Herbert. He just seems like a Herbert. So let’s try this: “Herbert wafted into the room, quiet as a whisper. It took Alice a full ten minutes to notice that he was there.”

The important point is to help your readers see what is happening.

Another thing to keep in mind is the point of view character. Imagine Alice is telling the story. She will describe the first character — we’ll call him Dan — from her own perspective. So, if she doesn’t like him, she may say something like, “Dan burst into the room, delicate as a herd of bison, and slammed the door behind him. I saw my favourite figurine crash to the floor, and explode into useless splinters. I glared at the oaf.”

Now, let’s assume she likes Herbert. Hey, there’s no accounting for taste (pardon the cliché!). She might say something like, “Herbert wafted into the room, closed the door behind him with the delicacy of a maiden aunt, and stood in silence for a moment, waiting for me to notice him. “Hello, Herbert,” I said. “I’m glad you came. Tea?”

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. There are some scenes where you don’t want to give everything away. Let’s imagine that Alice really likes Herbert, and he her. They are both enormously shy, however, so the attraction is revealed in things not said. It can help to compare Herbert with Dan. Let’s say, the latter has left just moments before Herbert arrived. Herbie enters quietly, as we have said, and catches Alice picking up pieces of her broken figurine. Let’s see his reaction,

“Oh, Alice! Miss Grace, I should say. Oh, not your favourite ballerina. How very sad. Please, allow me. You might cut yourself.” Then, without another word, he handed me a soft white handkerchief so I could wipe my tearful eyes, and he gently gathered up the destroyed figuring.

Now, you might get carried away, and want to use a loftier word for Herbie’s picking up of the shards, but the idea is to let us get lost in the scene, rather than scratch our heads over a wrong-footed (another cliché!) verb. For instance, excavated, uncluttered, or raked. Keep it simple, and use the word that exactly fits the action. Why don’t the bad examples work? Well, Herb isn’t an archaeologist, and he doesn’t have to dig for shards, they’re lying right before him, so no excavating. Uncluttered suggests a fussiness which I’d like to avoid. Also, suggesting Alice’s beloved figurine, albeit smashed, is nothing more than clutter really rings a wrong note. Finally, ideally, one would use a rake to, uh, rake up something. You could, arguably, rake up things with your fingers, but that could lead to an injury, so I wouldn’t use that verb either. Gathered up is gentle, it suggests a mother gathering her children. The average reader won’t delve too deeply into why a certain word feels ‘off’ but it will unsettle them.

We could, of course, delve far deeper into this story and explore various ways of how the next scenes might play out, but I think we should leave it there.

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The MX Collection of New Sherlock Holmes Stories: End of the Series

81 New Holmes Adventures – Collected in Four Companion Volumes

“Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to examine . . . .” – Dr. John H. Watson

So wrote Dr. Watson in “The Problem of Thor Bridge” – and ever since, Sherlockians have been bringing us new adventures from this legendary tin dispatch box. While Watson’s original First Literary Agent only edited the pitifully few sixty stories that make up the original Canon, there have since been literally thousands of traditional adventures about the true Sherlock Holmes – and there will never be enough!

In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring adventures set within the correct time period, and written by many of today’s leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. Those first three volumes were overwhelmingly received, and there were soon calls for additional collections. Since then, their popularity has only continued to grow.

Now, ten years later, the series draws to a close, having grown to 52 massive volumes and over 1,000 stories. Along the way, the author royalties from these books, featuring stories and poems from over 200 contributors worldwide, has raised over $135,000 for the Undershaw school for special needs children, located at one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes.

The 81 thrilling stories in these four companion volumes – Parts 49, 50, 51, and 52 – feature Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes’s retirement. Along the way, Our Heroes are involved in a plethora of fascinating mysteries – some relating Untold Cases, others sequels to Canonical adventures, and a number of others that progress along completely unexpected lines.

For more information, or if you want to contribute to the kickstarter, check out this link.

Reaction in Action

Last week we examined the unexpected ways people can react to a variety of situations. Today, we’re going to look at how reactions play out. More importantly, we will look at how to capture those reactions in fiction. This is a lot trickier than it might seem. Many of us have seen the same phrases used so often to describe various reactions and that makes it challenging to capture the truth in new and powerful ways. It helps to see the behaviours that go with reactions.

People aren’t always very good at identifying their own emotions. It can take time to sort through what they feel about a given situation, especially when there are conflicting emotions at play. Take, for instance, a man learning that his wife is pregnant. His reaction may depend on a number of things: is his wife healthy; do they both want a baby; can they afford a child, and so forth. If the answer to even one of these elements is no, then joy may be muted. In that moment, the moment that he learns she’s pregnant, he may not be able to untangle his feelings. He may also be guided by her reaction, and fake happiness if he thinks that’s what she wants.

You may also find that many people’s initial reactions can intensify, weaken, or even change completely as time goes by. Many writers make the mistake of giving a character one clear response to a situation, and that holds steady for the rest of the story. But sometimes, when a person has time to think things over, initial resistance may turn to acceptance, or vice versa. Acceptance can turn to anger, joy to hate, and so on. People are very good at talking themselves into or out of sometimes bizarre behaviour. The man who scarcely exchanges two words with a woman can convince himself that she’s his soul mate. ln real life, this is frightening and immoral behaviour — but it makes for great fiction.

The Point of View Element

When it comes to writing these scenes, much will depend on the point of view you use. If your story is written from one of the character’s POV, you can explore the conflicts within them, but be careful to avoid clichés. If you find yourself writing, “his heart skipped a beat,” “joy tinged with fear,” or any other such hackneyed phrases, some serious rewriting is in order. The same pitfalls apply when you’re approaching the scene from the woman’s point of view. Alternatively, if you go with the omniscient point of view you can step back and dispassionately examine reactions of various characters, the hopes and fears of one, and the doomed-to-failure expectations of one another. That said, in writing, as in much else, less is more. Don’t flat out state what the characters are thinking or feeling, let the reader deduce it, preferably from their behaviour.

Another approach is to have a secondary character witness the reaction. Perhaps they are an unreliable narrator and either lie about reactions, or don’t properly understand what they think they are seeing. Imagine a child seeing her parent’s discussing the mother’s pregnancy. The child’s emotions are coloured by their own hopes and expectations. A new baby, lovely! Or… awful. Perhaps the father knows the baby isn’t his. Perhaps the woman has had two miscarriages in a row. What initially looked like a fairly straightforward scene is now revealed as complex.

Reaction in Action

Giving advice to the players, Hamlet cautioned, “suit the action to the word, the
word to the action” (Hamlet III, ii). That’s fine if your character always says what they mean, and behaves accordingly. However, that is often not the case. People frequently lie, even to themselves. They claim to be happy when they’re actually furious. They talk like heroes but act like cowards. It’s important to reveal the disconnect between speech and behaviour, and let the reader decide which more accurately reflects the character’s feelings.

Whichever approach you take, make sure your language is fresh and clear. No one wants sentences that stink of mold.

Language

People tend to be better, in general, at saying the right thing than they are at doing the right thing. Of course, some folks are bad at both.

Even in language, the truth can seep out. You can probably think of any number of examples of this. The would-be father we mentioned above may say something like, “Oh, I’m so proud of you!” which doesn’t say anything about he feels about the pregnancy at all, but when you think about it, it’s hardly unmitigated joy, is it? What about a woman who is told her father has died. She says, “At last.” Is this because she hated him, or because she couldn’t stand to see her beloved dad suffering?

Then there are Freudian slips. Remember that episode of Friends when Ross was marrying Emily, but accidentally called her Rachel? Oops. Truth will out, eventually.

Listen when people are talking. Notice when they use favourite words. A politician who proclaims that he is, “honest” probably isn’t. If a member of the schoolboard relies on the mantra, “We’re just thinking of the children,” well, let’s just say such words deserve a certain scepticism. Years ago, I had a boss who’s pet phrase was, “I’m listening.” The joke in the office was when she said that, she really wasn’t.

Behaviour

The general believe is that while words lie, behaviour doesn’t. That’s often true. But then you meet the love-bomber. This is (usually) a man who gives the girl he just met flowers, gifts, showers her with praise and endearments, and tells her he loves her in nano-seconds of just meeting. But within a few weeks, he gets bored, or finds a new girl to fawn over, and girl number one is wondering what happened.

Why do people love-bomb? I’ve no idea. Maybe they’re in love with the idea of being in love. Maybe they feel it gives them power. Whatever the reason, it’s not as rare as you may like to think.

Then again, who can say what behaviour is normal? All we can really know is if the behaviour and the speech fit together. If not, why not? And what will the reader make of such a character?

Tells

As any poker play knows, there are certain behaviours that can tell a lot about what a person is really thinking. Perhaps the man chinking the ice in his glass is secretly revealing that his cards are worthless. Or the woman who pats her hair when she has a good hand.

Even in ordinary circumstances, people signal their true feelings. This is to behaviour what Freudian slips are to language. I once knew someone who was a consummate liar. Then I realised that she would hold my gaze steadily when she was spinning her most outrageous yarns. In the film, The American President, Syd, the president’s girlfriend, played by Annette Bening, notes that he has a certain face that he makes when he’s lying. We all have tells. Look out for them, and use them.

Putting it on Paper

To be a good writer, you need to be a student of human psychology. Knowing how people behave when they’re stressed, or lying, or excited, and being able to distill that behaviour into fresh sentences is far from easy, but it’s immensely rewarding when you manage to do it.

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Not Action, Reaction

People be weird, folks. This has been a week of seeing people reacting in the oddest ways to things. It got me thinking about what seemed truly baffling responses to situations from people I’ve met. And of course it makes me wonder how I would react in similar circumstances.

It began when I was watching an episode of Phroggers on TV a couple of nights ago. A phrogger, you’ll be horrified to learn. is someone who makes himself at home in someone else’s attic or a secret room. The actual tenant has no idea that someone else is hiding in their home, and only become aware when things start going missing.

This sweet young thing left home to go to college. She found an apartment and moved in. Then her underwear started to go missing. And her bikini bottoms. Then her phone vanished. She started to get heavy breathing phone calls. And despite all of this, it never occurred to her to investigate or report these incidents to anyone. She did, at least, get a dog, but she was freaked out when the dog barked at the closet. Guess what she did next…

Nothing.

Eventually, the apartment complex had to do some electrical work, and found a lair in her attic. Her missing underwear and so on were there. Also found were a knife, and some creepy photos of her. It turned out that a man had been spying on her for months. She was very lucky his behaviour didn’t escalate.

Then there’s the case of Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unibomber. His bombing activities came to an end when he demanded newspapers printed his ‘manifesto’. The writing was identified by Ted’s brother.

Can you imagine how that poor brother felt? What would you do in his shoes? The brother went to the FBI and turned Ted in. It was a brave thing to do, but it can’t have been easy.

A few years ago I worked with a woman who had an unusual last name. I asked her if she had any relationship to a famous Irish poet who shared her name, and who had died in WWI. It transpired that he was her grandmother’s brother. I was excited and asked how the family remembered him. Did they have his papers? Did she have a favourite poem of his. She seemed baffled. No, she said, she’d never read any of his poems. OK, I’m a writer, so for me it would be a big deal to have a famous, albeit minor, poet in the family. But my colleague seemed as bewildered by my enthusiasm as I was by her indifference.

Perhaps it depends on where our interests lie. A scientist might be more excited about being distantly related to Isaac Newton, while an artist might thrill to a connection with Van Gogh, for instance.

The way people react to things is the meat and potatoes of fiction. Sometimes, when we write, we think our characters will react as we would to certain circumstances, but as you can see from these illustrations, people are, again, weird. Think about the following scenarios and how you would react. Then check with your friends, and see how their responses vary from yours:

Scenario One

You discover that you are related to someone who had a remarkable life. He was, let’s say, a war hero. He saved dozens of lives. He founded a charity that continues to help people. A film was made of his life. What’s your reaction, or that of your friends?

Indifference. After all, this happened a long time ago, and it’s nothing to do you with.

Curiosity. You want to know more. You talk to relatives who remember him.

Obsession. You want to know everything about him, and plan to write a biography of him.

Other. Something that is none of the above. Perhaps you’re angered that this person stole all the glory you were hoping to keep for yourself. Or maybe you’re sceptical about all the stories you’ve heard.

Scenario Two

This is the opposite. You discover that you have a direct connection with someone notorious. A serial killer, or a cult leader, perhaps. Maybe it’s someone who committed treason. How do you react to this?

Denial. He’s nothing to do with you. Just pretend the connection doesn’t exist.

Denial II. He was innocent. The evidence against him was tainted. You are determined to prove it.

Fear. You’re worried that some of his evil traits might be genetic. What if you are evil too?

Fear II. You worry that relatives of this man’s victims might seek you out for revenge.

Fascination. Yes, it’s awful but… maybe exciting too. After all, fame is fame. Right?

Obsession. You want to know everything you can about Uncle Charlie, or Cousin Ted.

Indifference. So what? He’s long dead and nothing to you.

As a writer you can make a story out of nearly all of these reactions. Reactions are, you might say, the seeds of fiction. The only one that might pose a problem is indifference. Even then, you could have a friend who is more fascinated than you are, and their reaction is what drives the story.

Think about some of the events in your own life, how you reacted, and what you might, now, do differently. Let me know how you get on.

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The Importance of Doing Nothing

Firstly, I’m not advocating a lifestyle here. No one should aspire to spend their days in utter idleness, though I’ll grant you some have tried. I’m talking about permitting yourself to take some time every day to simply… stop. Don’t read, don’t write, don’t watch stuff on TV or on your phone, and don’t play games. Allow yourself some time to just let your mind wander. Yes, this flies in the face of all the advice we were given as we were growing up. “Go outside and play,” “Go out with your friends,” “Help me with the housework…” You get the drift.

Idleness has been given a bad rap. We’re always being told to ‘do something.’ But isn’t letting your thoughts run free something?

About a year ago I resumed my practice of meditation. I’d been having problems with insomnia, and I thought it might help to calm my mind before I lie down. And while the practice hasn’t cured the problem, it has helped to alleviate it.

If meditation isn’t your thing, you can take a different approach. Take a walk, preferably in the countryside, and let your mind wander. Sit at the window and gaze at the stars. Close the door and just sit. Stop laughing! It isn’t easy to simply sit and do nothing, particularly if you are a very active person. If it makes you uncomfortable, it may take some time to get used to it.

What are the benefits?

They are many and varied. Because I practice deep breathing when I meditate, my breathing has become deeper and more efficient. I recently had a pulmonary function test and did exceptionally well (I scored 50% above average for my height and weight). Not bad for a woman of my years with asthma.

I don’t want to toss about phrases like ‘inner peace’, but the truth is taking some time to just think your thoughts is very helpful in helping you to focus. It improves concentration, memory, and your sense of who you are. Also, studies have shown that meditation can help the human body overcome a number of anxiety-related conditions. Irritable bowel disease, high blood pressure, PTSD, and so forth.

Meditation is also known to boost creativity. Ah, you knew that would show up eventually, didn’t you?As a writer, I find the practice helps me come up with new ideas, solve some of my plotting problems, sparks my writing in ways I cannot begin to explain.

Find your best approach

Find a place and a time where you won’t be interrupted.

Get comfortable. I like the time-honoured sitting cross-legged pose, but you do you. One thing I will say for the so-called ‘Lotus’ position, is it tells my brain that it’s time to meditate. Within a few seconds of sitting in the pose, my thoughts calm down and I’m able to begin almost effortlessly.

Resist the urge to lie down, unless your goal is to fall asleep.

Start in short increments, say five minutes. You can build up slowly if you want to.

Set a timer. This will help you to avoid clock-watching, and so enable you to focus more effectively.

Decide if you need sounds to help you focus: the sound of rain or crashing waves are good and you can find videos with these on the internet. I prefer not to use music, because I’ll listen to it rather than just let my mind be still. In the beginning, you may try a variety of things to see which works best for you.

You will also find a number of ‘guided meditations’ on line. Most of these have some avowed purpose: unleash your creativity, overcome anxiety, get in touch with the Supreme Being. Being an utter cynic, I find many of these unintentionally funny. It has little to do with the guides who are, I’m sure, well-intentioned, but I find the serious intonations give me the giggles. Still, if it works for you, who am I to judge?

Some people like staring into a flame, so you could try lighting a candle and see if that helps. Obviously, if you do light a candle, make sure you put it into a safe place.

Some like incense. I’m asthmatic, so many scents make me wheeze and cough, but if it works for you, then go for it. My only caveat to this and the candle is it can make it more difficult to focus if you don’t have them. I prefer to do without either, but other people swear by them.

If you are hoping that meditation will help your overall creativity, I would urge you to be patient. These things take time. I would also suggest that you keep a notebook and a pen at hand so you can write down any ideas that come to you. However, don’t do this until your meditation is over. Don’t stop until your your allotted time is up — or the candle falls over.

How do you meditate?

Honestly, I don’t really know. I can only tell you what works for me, and keep in mind, I’m no expert.

I like to get comfortable, set a timer, and just concentrate on my breathing. You can also focus on some relaxing sounds, as I said before, maybe hang a windchime, and concentrate on those tinkling chimes.

If you’re just starting, that five minutes I suggested you start with can feel like hours. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.

Expect your mind to wander and don’t feel like a failure when it happen. Just recognise it and return to listening to the waves or stilling your thoughts.

Try to meditate for a brief period every day. You can extend the time if and when you’re ready.

And if you have another (better) technique than mine, let me know. I’m always open to new ideas.

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The Last Sherlock Holmes Short Story Collection from MX

It’s the end of an era.

Since 2015, MX Publishing has released fifty-plus volumes of Sherlock Holmes short stories. Now, ten years later, the series draws to a close with the release of the final four volumes of stories. The final count will be 52 massive volumes containing more than 1,000 stories. The author royalties from these books, featuring stories and poems from over 200 contributors worldwide, has raised over $135,000 for the Undershaw school for special needs children, located at one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes.

The 81 thrilling stories in these four companion volumes – Parts 49, 50, 51, and 52 – feature Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes’s retirement. Along the way, Our Heroes are involved in a plethora of fascinating mysteries – some relating Untold Cases, others sequels to Canonical adventures, and a number of others that progress along completely unexpected lines.

Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.” 

This collection is available in four volumes (I have a story in Vol. LI).

As always, the collection is edited by the redoubtable David Marcum. If they gave awards for commitment to promoting the original works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and support of writers who share his enthusiasm for all things Sherlockian, David Marcum would be the indisputed winner.

If you’re interested in knowing more, clink on the link for the Kickstarter.

The Push-Pull of Character and Plot

I’ve lost count of the number of books I’ve read on how to write. Many of these focus on things like, ‘How to create memorable characters,’ or ‘What you need to know about plotting.’

Yes, these are two distinct subjects, but neither of them exists in a bubble. They influence each other, and the canny writer won’t take either in isolation. I must admit that it took me a very long time to appreciate that fact.

Let’s examine this more closely by beginning with a plot element. Say a woman’s handbag is snatched by a thief. What happens next? Well, that depends, doesn’t it, on a number of factors. If the woman is nimble she might give chase. If she’s elderly she might call for help, or she might collapse in fright. It also depends on how essential the bag and its contents are to her. Let’s say it possesses the only photo she has of her late mother. Or her pension for the week. Perhaps she’s a visitor in the country and the bag contains her passport, ID, and money for the trip.

These examples serve to show how one incident can lead to multiple outcomes depending on the person involved.

Now, in the above examples, I’ve focused on fairly extraneous elements, such as the importance of the stolen item to the woman, and her physical fitness. But now let’s explore her character.

Regardless of whatever might be in the bag, perhaps the woman is too fearful to go chasing after the thief. Or maybe she’s very determined and chases after him regardless. Another option might be the woman is highly observant and she recognises a gang tattoo on the thief’s arm and she tracks him down. Whatever option you choose, you can see how the nature of the character can impact the events of the story and vice versa.

A character, just like a human being, is a composite of their physical makeup, their upbringing, their morals and desires, their fears and obligations, and their experiences. As a writer you don’t need to know all of these right from the start, but the way they respond to an emergency will tell you a lot about them. Indeed, if you are just in the planning stage of your story, putting characters in these sorts of situation will reveal them better than fifty pages of bland social interactions.

Another helpful exercise is to think of your favourite novels and imagine how the plot might have unfolded if the character were altered in some way. Perhaps Dorothy (The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum) was a whiny brat who saw nothing good in Oz and who made fun of the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man. What would that story look like? Or, what if Dorothy was still sweet and kind, but the whirlwind never happened. How would the story have panned out?

What if Carrie White (Carrie by Stephen King) did not possess telekinetic powers, but went on to become a wealthy woman who systematically uses her riches and talents to destroy everyone who wronged her?

Now let’s take a slightly different approach. Imagine Harry Potter is a jerk, and his cousin Dudley is abused and bullied by the wizard-to-be: what would Dudley’s story look like?

People often talk about liking plot-driven stories, or preferring character-driven ones. And yes, some authors tend to emphasise one over the other. But as you can see, a really good novelist will make both elements work in tandem. It’s like a man on a bicycle: the pedals won’t work without a rider. Then again, the cyclist won’t get very far if the bicycle isn’t working.

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Examine Your Story with a Mirror

I love watching art programmes, especially those contests to determine who is the best landscape or portrait artist of the year. I’ve noticed that one thing many artists do to determine if the image is staying on track, is to either turn the painting upside down, or to examine its reflection in a mirror. This gives the artist a brand new perspective. It’s a way of seeing how the tones work, if the colours are right, or, in the case of a portrait, if the likeness is accurate.

If only we writers could do the same thing.

Well, obviously, it’s not going to help to turn your manuscript upside down, or try to read a mirrored image of your text, but there are ways to see your writing in a new way. Just to be clear, I’m talking about your rewrites here. Don’t stop anywhere in your first draft to evaluate how it’s coming along. The only task with draft one is to simply get the story down. The niceties come later.

Fonts

I have no idea why this works, but it does. If you write in, for example, Times New Roman, change the font to Comic Sans or something equally informal when you are ready to start working on the rewrite. Something about the different appearance can help your eye to spot things it had previously missed. I was sceptical when I first heard about this, but it does work. I should add, too, that you can use the same font in bold, but I don’t find that as effective.; also, I find italics hard on the eye, but you do you. Experiment until you find the option that works best.

I should add that dyslexics generally find Comic Sans much easier to work with than some other fonts. If that’s the case for you, you may need to apply trial and error to find a few that work best for you.

Colours

Likewise, you can change the colour of your font to blue or green or whatever you wish. I find red too hard on the eye, but you do you. Again, the change of colour can make some things more evident to you than they would otherwise be. I would say, however, that you should just change either the font or the colour, not both at the same time, at least for this draft. For your next draft, you can move on to the colour only. Each change forces your brain to re-evaluate what you are reading.

Copy

With apologies to the trees, I find that printing out a copy of the completed first draft can be enormously helpful. Again, it’s changing the appearance of the MS. Additionally, I like being able to pop one chapter into my bag and take it to the park or a café and read it there.

I don’t know why, it’s probably something to do with the images of writers I’ve seen over the years, but I never feel so much like a ‘real’ writer as when I’m making edits on a page of printed text. That alone can help me feel more enthusiastic about the process.

When I was a child, I used to sometimes visit my mother in the office where she worked. I was intrigued by the amount of yellow paper she used. She explained that if she wrote a document, the original went on white paper, but the copy was yellow. This was in the days of carbon paper, so it was easy enough to produce a copy by carefully loading three sheets of paper into the typewriter, the white sheet on top, then then carbon, and finally the yellow. Then the typist only had to write the document once and the copy was automatically produced. Don’t laugh! This was considered high tech in the 1960s. Anyway, my point is that I know of some writers who use different coloured paper for each draft they produce. Yellow for the first, blue for the second, pink for the third, etc. It seems very pretentious to me, but, hey, if you find it works for you, go for it.

Numbers

Here’s another way of approaching revisions, especially if you have a very messy first draft and you don’t really know where to begin. This is a random approach, but if you use it for several pages, you can help train your brain to look for certain things.

This one is easier if you have someone helping you. Say your writing group. However, you can do it alone, if you must. (Oy, you in the back row — enough of the smut!)

Where was I? Oh yes. The idea is to examine random passages in your story. By taking things out of context you, or your listeners, can determine if the passage makes sense. Here’s how it works:

Ideally, use a printed copy of your manuscript, close your eyes, then pull a page at random from somewhere in the middle. (You will, of course, have numbers on all your pages. Right?) Keep your eyes closed and decide which paragraph you’re going to read. Then read that paragraph. Don’t give in to the temptation to read what came before that paragraph or what follows it. You are just examining those few lines. See if you can follow what’s happening. Are there dud sentences? Have you re-used a word too many times? By pulling a piece of the story out of context, you gain insight into how the individual components are working. It can also give you a feeling for your style. Some passages may set you cringing, but others may make you glow with pride.

I’m not suggesting you use this method for your whole manuscript, but after you’ve done it, say, 20 times or so, you should start to get a feeling for your weaknesses and strengths.

If you have someone helping, let them tell you what page to go to and which paragraph. That ensures that your samples are truly random. If you have to work alone, then the best way is to manage the process is to go the print-out route. This method can be tricky if you are working directly on the computer, but it’s not impossible. Here are some ideas that might help:

Get some numbered tickets such as those used for raffles. Tear them into individual numbers and put them in a box or jar, and pull one one out at random. Only use as many numbers as you have pages. The one you draw is your page number. You can also just write the numbers down on pieces of paper,

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For the paragraph, I’d borrow another tool of the artist’s trade: the viewfinder. (See image on the left.)

You can easily make one yourself. I like to use a heavy black card because it’s fairly durable, and it’s also effective at blocking out the rest of the page, so you won’t be as tempted to look at it. The artists’ version is usually square or oblong, and can often be adjusted to compare with the dimensions of the canvas. For your version, I would suggest use card the same size as the page of your manuscript. Then you want to cut an oblong that is as wide as the text and about a third or a quarter of a printed page in length. Now you can place the sheet over the MS page or the computer screen, moving it up or down depending on where on the page your paragraph may fall. Don’t worry if the space reveals more than one paragraph, or not a whole one. Just go by what you can see.

I hope these interventions prove useful to you. If you have tried them, please tell me in the comments. Or, if you have other techniques, I’d love to know them, too.

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