Geri Schear's Blog, page 6

Your Milage may Vary

What do you do when you are given contradictory advice?

I thought about this last week when I suggested you write your first draft as quickly as possible. It’s not that long since I said you should try to edit as you go along so you finish each day’s work with as nearly pristine a copy as possible.

At the risk of sounding trite, the truth is… it depends.

Mostly it depends on you. Your personality and your style of writing. It also depends on the specific demons you face while you’re writing. For instance, if you’re a perfectionist who will spend weeks or even months on one page making it as perfect as possible before you move on, then working quickly will stop you from getting caught up in your own nit-pickiness. Then again, if you tend to save all your edits to the end of the writing, and get frustrated by how messy the manuscript is, a judicious amount of editing each day may help. This approach also works better if you’re a fairly experienced writer whose first draft tends to be fairly crisp anyway.

As you may have noticed, there are hundreds if not thousands of books, videos, and podcasts about writing, but for just about every piece of advice, there’s another piece contradicting it. Write what you know is immediately countered by ‘you shouldn’t write what you know.’

That’s not to say you shouldn’t make use of the many creative writing tools that are out there. As I mentioned above, I still re-read my old creative writing books and watch videos on the same subject. I take the advice that fits my personality and style of writing, and I discard the rest. I realise that it’s not so easy to do when you are new to writing. How can you select the most affective pieces of advice if you don’t yet know what your style is?

The simple answer is trial and error. You won’t know what will work for you until you try it. If it doesn’t work, then ignore it and try something else. For instance, some people swear by writing first thing in the morning. Others wait until late evening when the house is quiet. Only you know what is best for your schedule. Here’s another gem, this time from Virginia Woolf:

“Describe your characters beautifully if possible, and truthfully at any rate. Any captivating protagonist should be someone you can imagine in the center of all sorts of scenes.”

I seldom spend much time describing my characters. I tend to offer fairly broad descriptions — age, hair colour, that kind of thing — so my readers can make the character look however they want. I was very surprised when a reader once told me how ‘cinematic’ my descriptions were and they could see exactly what people and places look like. In some of my later stories, though, I did put a bit more effort into my description. If you have read my first novel, A Biased Judgement, and compare it with my most recent, Great Warrior, I wonder what differences you might see. If you have read both, please let me know.

No one can tell you what’s right for you. That’s one reason why you should practice writing as much as possible. There’s no other way to create a writing process that works exclusively for you.

And it’s worth repeating: none of this is a reason to ignore all the advice that’s out there. Some will work for you and some will not. But discovery is part of the fun of being a writer.

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Time to Fly Free

I’ve watched a few videos today about how to start a novel. Yes, I do know this stuff, but sometimes you can happen upon a nugget that you’d previously missed, and you can use it to enlighten your work.

On the other hand, sometimes the reverse happens.

I’m getting ready to start a new novel, and I have been toying with some ideas about how to begin it. But after watching a video about 11 things not to do when you write your first chapter, I found myself frozen. All of a sudden, those ideas I had for my great new beginning seemed less than fabulous. I found myself frozen because I was suddenly afraid of breaking a ‘rule’.

Now, not to blow any wind instruments here, but I with four published novels and a few dozen short stories to my name, I do know how to write. So, what bothers me is this: if a video can have this affect on me, what can it do to a newcomer?

I’m not blaming the video, by the way, or the bloke who presented it (Bookfox on YouTube, if you’re interested). The information was excellent, and definitely worth knowing. So, what’s my problem?

I think it’s like learning to drive. Imagine if someone gave you a list of things you have to do before you even start the car: seatbelts on, seat adjusted, mirrors in correct position, etc. You’d be so fixated on the list that you’d be too nervous to drive. Of course, eventually you do all these things automatically and stop fretting about it.

Yes, writing a novel is more complicated, but you can really create problems for yourself if you overthink it. Now, I’m not saying don’t read books (or blogs, ahem) about how to write. On the contrary, I think we can all learn things from one another, even when we’re experienced. That’s why I watched that video in the first place. But what I am saying is write from the heart. Write the story that yearning to be set free. Don’t worry if you’ve changed viewpoints three times on the first page, or if you have too many named characters right at the start. These are the things you will fix later in the editing process.

Unlike driving a car, you’re not going to suffer a catastrophic injury if you make a mistake in writing. That’s what rewrites are for — fixing those mistakes you made in your first draft.

So, yes, write free and also write fast. If you write fast enough, you won’t allow yourself time to second-guess your choices. That’s the best way to avoid constipation of the imagination. Use whatever method that works best for you, keyboard, pen and paper, even dictation. Go with whatever feels most comfortable to you. Later, you can fix the muddle, for muddle there will be. But that’s OK. Just keep telling yourself, “I’ll fix it later.”

My final bit of advice is don’t edit as you go, and don’t read back what you’ve written. Yes, this does contradict what I have said previously, and if you’re a more experienced author, you might cringe at this notion. But my advice here is for those who are frozen in fear.

There comes a time when you have to put all your reading and learning aside and just wing it. Don’t worry. You’ve got this.

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Don’t Forget People

Humans have been telling stories for as long as there were fires to gather around. We made up tales about the constellations, created heroes, and built tales woven out of politics and the events of the day. Even today, we make up stories about the animals in our gardens, our mysterious neighbours, and the patterns of tealeaves in our cups. Not so much the latter these days, alas.

Why, then, with such riches of imagination available to us, do so many writers opt to focus on the plot or on whatever drum they want to beat? No, I’m not saying you cannot write about these things, but never forget we read to learn more about people. That said, some writers have difficulty creating characters. Sometimes, the individuals in their stories are basically chess pieces who get moved about in response to the circumstances. Yes, some writers do get such books sold and, sometimes, even made into films, but these stories do not stand the test of time. How many people still read Arthur Hailey or Hammond Innes? Both turned out some suspenseful books, but characterisation was not their strong suit.

So, how do you go about creating characters if it is not your forte?

Fit the characters to the plot

Think of Agatha Christie. For any of her mysteries, she needed a killer, a victim (or two), and an investigator. She might also have a cast of red herrings; people who seemed guilty but weren’t. Also, there might have been the witness who saw something incriminating, but didn’t realise it. (These are usually the second victims). Now, if you were plotting a mystery, you might be tempted to see the villain as totally evil, but — let us suppose this is a murder mystery — people can kill for a variety of reasons. In one of my books, a character killed a blackmailer. People can kill for hate, for profit, to protect themselves or someone else, or out of fear. There is also, of course, the sociopath who kills because he enjoys it. Decide why the killer is going to commit the crime, and that will tell you a lot about them. A person killing for gain is a very different type to one who kills defensively.

Say you have a character whose daughter is engaged to a shady fellow. Is this man a true scoundrel who has a long trail of broken hearts behind him? Or perhaps he’s just a lazy sod who wants to marry into a rich family so he will never have to work again. There are any number of variables here and you can make him as wicked as you like. Or perhaps he isn’t wicked at all; perhaps the girl’s family have been told a story about him by someone who wants to stir up trouble. Whatever the scenario, suppose the father decides to get rid of this fellow in order to protect his daughter, that would make dad a very different character than the man who kills for profit.

Or perhaps the ‘crime’ is one of spreading lies about a person. This might be more the case if the story involve teens, or if the lies are seriously life-destroying. So, who is the villain in this case? Let’s say it’s a woman who is jealous of someone. What sort of person does that make her?

Incidentally, in most of these scenarios, there are plenty of real-life examples to inspire you. In fact, if spreading gossip — in fiction, not in life — is the path you want to tread — not literally, just literarily — you should look up the so-called Wagatha Christie story.

Remember no one is all good or all evil

Listen, no one is a villain in their own eyes. No matter how evil they are, they think they are justified. I’m not wicked, just misunderstood, could be their mantra. And by the same token, no one is all good either. Think of John-Boy Walton from the 1970’s TV series The Waltons. He was so virtuous, I’m surprised they didn’t give him a halo. As the series progressed, the character became a little less goody-goody, but most of his flaws were pretty mild.

Totally evil villains tend to be in stories like Batman or Superman. Even in James Bond, the villain tends to be a thoroughly nasty piece of work, fully deserving of his come-uppance. Voldemort, in the Harry Potter stories, in another one with no recognisable redeeming features.

Turn a virtue into a failing

Imagine you have a noble character. Let’s say he’s a student who loves analysing things. Then his father dies and our student meets, or thinks he meets, his father’s ghost. Dead Daddy tells junior he was murdered and asks junior to avenge him. Then for the rest of the play, our hero, Hamlet, dithers about what he should or should not do.

Any virtue can prove a failing if carried to extremes. Imagine a character who gives every penny he has to the poor. But the poor are still poor, so he starts to steal from the rich… Oh, wait, that was Robin Hood. But you see my point. A true tragedy is when a character’s good intentions lead to his downfall.

Fit the outfit to the man or the woman

As with quirks, this is one of those things you need to be careful about. While I like Agatha Christie’s stories, the fussing M Poirot gives to his appearance really gets on my nerves. In contrast, Lord Peter Wimsey, while stylish, is always dressed for the occasion, but author DL Sayers doesn’t overstate the subject.

I tend not to spend much time describing my characters, but I make two exceptions: if their appearance is somehow pertinent to the story. For instance, two characters are bald, and a witness swears the bank was robbed by a bald-headed man. Or if there are a lot of characters. Having a distinctive appearance or personality will set them more firmly in the reader’s mind.

My preference is to paint the character with broad strokes. For instance, the man who always has a bruise on his face because he’s so distracted, he can’t help walking into things. Or the woman who always looks as if she’s been crying. Or perhaps, the 50-something woman with bleached hair and a too-tight miniskirt. As you should match the character to the plot, you should match the appearance to the character. But, as with so much else in writing, less is more. Leave enough room for the reader to fill in the blanks with their own ideas of who these people are and what they look like.

Be careful with quirks

By the same token, you can so easily overdo the quirks — see the aforementioned Hercule Poirot for example. If you want to give your character a quirk, it should be specific to them, not the generic hair-tossing of the heroine, or the thoughtful chin-stroking of the hero. When I started writing, I had a habit of making all of my characters shrug. I’m not sure why I kept inflicting this on my poor characters, but I eventually made myself stop. If you like to see your characters roll their eyes, mumble, or cough, then cut it out. Both literally and figuratively. The only reason your character should cough is if they have TB or a cold.

In The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk, Captain Queeg is constantly rolling metal balls around his hands. It’s a nervous habit and connects perfectly with his personality. Indeed, this quirk becomes important towards the end of the story. No, I won’t tell you how.

Finally

People may read a book for the plot, but they’ll come back to it for the characters. Some of the heroes or villains of fiction are so real, we can believe we have met them. Scarlett O’Hara and Miss Marple linger long after the American Civil War ends or the killer is caught. People still sent letters to Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet fame) and to Sherlock Holmes. Create a memorable hero or villain and your success is all but guaranteed.

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It’s English, Jim, but not as we know it

Despite 20 years living in America, I never lost my accent, which is a curious mix of Irish and British. I lived in both countries during my childhood, plus I had an English dad and an Irish mum. The result was that I have what was once described as a ‘Pierce Brosnan accent’. When I lived in the States, Americans were always curious about my background. Some of their questions, though, were baffling:

Do you have 4th July in Ireland?

Sure. It comes between the 3rd and the 5th.

No, I mean, how do you celebrate it?

Why would we celebrate it?

Well, it’s Independence Day.

It’s America’s Independence Day. Ireland doesn’t have an Independence Day.

There were dozens of other questions, too, of course. Do we have TVs in Ireland? Have I ever met the Queen? (This was several years ago). Why do Europeans spell things so strangely?

These things happen when you move from one culture into another. Even moving to a different city in the same country can present you with baffling differences, so moving to another country can turn your world on its head. All those unspoken attitudes that define us as British, American, European, or whatever are so ingrained in us, we assume they are universal. It’s only when we come face to face with something very different that we question the edifice on which our lives are built. Here’s an extreme example:

Many years ago I worked in a hospital in the Middle East. One of our patients was a 40 year old woman who had cancer. There wasn’t much we could do for her except to keep her comfortable, and this meant giving her a blood transfusion. It was explained to the woman’s husband that the doctor would give him a prescription, and he would need to collect the blood from the blood bank in town and bring it back to the hospital so we could administer it.

The husband said, “I’m not wasting my money on that. We’ve been married for twenty years; it’s time I had a new wife. Let her die.”

I would have thought this appalling attitude was specific to just one man, but the woman’s doctor told me it was commonplace. The husband saw nothing wrong in his attitude; it was how he and all the men around him had been raised.

Oh, and while it’s not as jaw-dropping as the above incident, I should add that another time the same doctor scolded me for saying please and thank you. “You only say that to strangers,” he said. “We are not strangers!”

Differences, my friends. We have no idea how different we are until we crash into a culture completely at odds with our own. And the thing is, my doctor friend thought I was the one who was odd for not seeing something that was so obvious to him. None of us are aware of our fundamental beliefs and attitudes until we are faced with people who vastly at odds to our norms.

These differences take us by surprise when we meet people from different countries. Often, we learn that even when we use the same words, they can have very different meanings. For instance, in the US, pants means trousers; in the UK and Ireland it means underwear. Even within the same country you will find words that are specific to one area. Take those non-alcoholic drinks, for instance. In Ireland, they were called ‘minerals’ when I was growing up. In London, they were ‘soda’. Other places called them ‘pop’ or the retail name of the product.

Then there’s grammar. Americans love the word ‘got’. There is, for instance, a song called, “I Got you Babe.” In Europe we’d say, “I have you, Babe”. Americans would say, “I’ve gotten lazy,” while in the UK and Ireland we’d phrase it as, “I’ve become (or grown) lazy.”

Finally, know that various industries have their own slang, culture, and attitudes, too. Firefighters, policemen, and hospital workers all have their own domain. So, too, do airport employees and those who work in retail. It probably goes without saying that people who work in the Vatican see life through a unique veil. For most of these arenas, the general public are outsiders. We may observe, but we will never be part of the inner circle.

The nuts and bolts of what I’m saying is if you are planning on writing a story in a place where you have never been, be very, very careful. If you are an experienced writer you will expect your word choices to be an issue, but you might forget the sensibilities of the characters. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but it’s a path full of potholes and barbed wire. Unless you have a very good reason for setting your story in an unfamiliar area, you would be better served keeping your writing to those places and customs you know well.

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How Many Jobs Does a Writer Have?

There’s this image most of us have of the professional writer. You picture them pounding away on the typewriter — it’s always a typewriter — turning out several thousand perfect words a day. At last, exhausted but satisfied, they sink into an armchair, glass of brandy in hand, and stare into the flames of a comforting fire in the hearth. Who lit the fire and poured the drink? Well, obviously a successful author would have minions to handle these menial tasks. And in our fantasy, after churning out such deathless prose, the only thing our hero has to do is sign his name for autographs, or fat cheques. Do people still use cheques?

While it’s nice to daydream about our eventual success, the truth is that all writers wear a number of hats. There’s the one who writes, of course, but there’s also the editor who painstakingly tests every word before sending the manuscript out. And there’s the secretary who checks the spelling of the recipient’s name, and logs what went out and when. Then, assuming some nice editor decides to buy your book or story, and pay you actual money for it, you’ll need an accountant to handle things like taxes. You may even need a financial adviser if that cheque is fat enough.

You will need a publicist to make sure your book gets all the attention it deserves. Oh, and a fashion consultant to make sure you look like a professional writer. What does a professional writer look like? I’m a jeans and tee-shirt girl, myself, but, then, I’m not a millionaire. What else? Oh, yes, you’ll need a chauffeur to take you to your book signings, and security to ensure you don’t get mobbed (this one is optional; some people long to get mobbed.)

On top of all this, life goes on. You’ll need a housekeeper and someone to handle the laundry. A professional chef, naturally, and perhaps a dietician. You might go for a personal trainer while you’re at it, and someone to look after the pool. Of course you need a pool! How can other people know you’re successful if you don’t have a pool? A gardener, a decorator, a personal shopper. Oh, don’t forget a computer technician. A florist, of course, an astrologer — if you’re that way inclined — and finally, a therapist.

Now that I think about it, you might be better off just doing it all yourself.

Jeesh, no wonder I’m tired!

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Is Timing Everything?

I am going on holiday later this week. It’ll be my first in a few years, since with the Covid lockdown and a variety of health problems, I haven’t wandered too far from home. I am, as you can imagine, excited.

However. I am also in the process of plotting a new novel. My family are away this week on their own holiday, so I have the house to myself. You can imagine the urge to sit down and start writing, but I know my week away will knock me off my stride and I will have to start at the beginning again when I come home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet, and I’m looking forward to going back to Yorkshire to see BFF Jane. But the timing, my friends, the timing.

I am fortunate in that I know how my schedule looks for the next few weeks. Of course, things happen that I cannot anticipate, but overall I have a good idea of what to expect. Most of the time, like everyone else, I am just winging it. Still, you can, if you’re focused and lucky, produce a well constructed short story in the pockets of peace that life offers. A novel, though, that’s another matter. A novel requires concentration and, where possible, uninterrupted time. No, silly, I’m not saying you have to write 24/7 for however many weeks or months it takes. But it does help not to face breaks as wide as the Atlantic while you’re working. The tone that you found early on can be the very devil to recapture. Remembering where you were going with that subplot, and why that character acted the way he did… It all made perfect sense when you wrote it three weeks ago. Now. Oh, dear.

There are times, of course, when you have to work around all the little surprises life throws at you. How is a writer to cope? Well, here are my suggestions:

1. Write an outline or a first draft with as much detail as possible. Every time you add a new character or a plot point, make a note of it in the outline. As I have said countless times before, my outline is in the form of a spreadsheet. It contains the chapter, page number (once the writing actually begins), the scene, and any research or questions I need to do.

2. As much as possible, keep the breaks in your routine to a minimum. That isn’t, as I said, always possible, but if you have a fairly thorough outline you should be able to pick up the threads fairly easily once you get back to work.

3. When circumstances prevent you from working at your usual schedule, keep writing in your notebook. These segments could include scenes, character sketches, or just some descriptive passages. I realise this might not always be possible, but if you can manage to keep up with your writing, it may take your mind off whatever stressors you’re facing, Also, it may make it easier for you to get back into your project when things settle down.

4. Whatever you do, don’t give into the temptation to start something new while you’re still working on one big project. You will find it completely distracting and it may dim the fun of writing that novel when it’s time to return to it. You can make notes, if you like. That short story or play will still be there when you’re ready to give it your full attention, but better to have one complete project rather than two half-done ones.

5. So, is timing everything? Well, no, but it’s not irrelevant, either. Do what you can to show up at the same time in the same place. Consistency is enormously helpful in keeping those words flowing. Finally, don’t beat yourself up if you’re finding hard to get back into the flow of your story upon your return. You may way to go back a few pages and rewrite them by memory. By the time you finish that rewrite, you should be back in the flow again.

I am, for once, taking next week off, so I will see you again on Wednesday week. Keep writing!

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My 10 Favourite Mystery Novels

I firmly believe that the best way to learn about writing, other than practice, is reading. For me, as a writer of mystery novels, those are my most regular go-tos. I do, of course, read lots of other things too, but I always seem to come back to the mystery.

The other day I was thinking about my favourite mystery novels. I had fun compiling it. My only rule was no author could be referenced more than once. These aren’t necessarily the best, just the ones I enjoyed most. So, starting at number ten:

10. Shroud for a Nightingale by PD James

During the 1980s, I hadn’t read mysteries for a while. I had moved countries three times in as many years, got married, had a baby, and requalified as a nurse in the US as my UK licence didn’t cut it there. Then one of my colleagues mentioned this great mystery novel she was reading and my passion was reignited.

While this probably isn’t the best of James’s novels, it’s my favourite because it reminded me of my time as a nursing student in London. The murders occur in a school of nursing, and that was enough for me to be engrossed. It’s a fascinating tale with an unusual mode of murder, a cast of credible characters, and a sympathetic detective. What’s not to like?

9. Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell

This is the first of what I hope will be many novels from Stig Abell. I went into it not really knowing what to expect, but I was immediately engrossed with his tale of a quiet country village and the mystery involving a literal bag of bones. This leads Jake, a retired detective and our hero, to investigate whose bones they were, and to hunt a devious killer. In addition to the interesting villagers, an unusual plot, and a really wicked villain, Death Under a Little Sky offers a wonderful sense of atmosphere and Jake’s entertaining nicknames for the landmarks around him, mostly named for well known fictional detectives and authors.

8. Blood Work by Michael Connelly

Loved this. Hated the film. If the film is all you know, brainwash yourself into forgetting it, and read the book instead. Again, this offers a fiendish killer with a unique motive. As killers go, this one is up there with Hannibal Lecter. Like all Michael Connelly books, this is fast-paced, sometimes gory, and offers a sympathetic hero in the form of Terry McCaleb. This story has more twists than a helter-skelter but you’ll love the ride.

7. Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs

This story begins in an old Canadian cemetery where forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is exhuming the body of a nun. The nun is being considered for sainthood, and Brennan’s report is essential to that determination. The story swiftly moves to an arson case, and Brennan’s involvement could prove fatal.

If you have watched the TV series, Bones, which is based on these novels, be aware that there are significant differences between them. These books are far superior, in my opinion, and this is one of Reich’s best. It’s a page-turner, and I find this version of Temperance far more likeable than her TV counterpart. To each her own, I suppose, but if you can enjoy Death du Jour on its own merit, I think you’ll love it. Oh, and just be aware, this is the second book in the series. The first, Déjà Dead, is good too, I just prefer this one.

6. The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly

This isn’t close to being the first of John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series, but it was the first I read. A woman’s body is found in the woods. She had recently given birth, but no child is found. In the meantime, a boy hears a toy telephone ringing and a dead woman’s voice speaks to him. Connolly’s books are a delightful mixture of the macabre and the mundane wickedness of killers. I have to admit, I’m addicted to them. The books. Not the killers!

5. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

Ira Levin is a wonderful writer. In addition to A Kiss Before Dying, he wrote Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys from Brazil. Stephen King once referred to him as the ‘Swiss Clockmaker of suspense novels.’ He’s a master craftsman all right. He creates a plot with such fiendish deliberation as an executioner tying a noose, and like that executioner, Levin draws it tighter and tighter around his characters. I would add, too, that he’s one of the best writers of female characters out there. He understands women in way few male writers get. All of his books are worth reading, so give him a go.

4. Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Fraser

This one is creepy as well as suspenseful. TV investigative journalist Jemima Shore is asked by her old school to look into the mysterious death a nun whose emaciated body was found locked in the tower. I do love a creepy mystery, and this one is fabulous.

3. And then there were None by Agatha Christie

Arguably the best of the whodunnits. Christie traps ten characters on a remote island and then bumps them off, one by one. Is there a killer hiding on the island, or is the killer one of those gathered? By the time we find out it will be too late.

This story has been retitled and remade more times than I’ve had hot dinners. Unfortunately, several adaptations change the ending, which always annoys me. Still, this book shows why Christie is the acknowledged Queen of Crime.

2. Gaudy Night by DL Sayers

An unusual mystery in which no murder takes place. However, there remains suspense aplenty, and no lack of suspects in this tale of malice and villainy. Set in one of the first Oxford universities for women, there are very few male character other than the renowned Lord Peter Wimsey. Most of the detecting is conducted by his paramour, Harriet Vane. There’s nothing I don’t like about this book. The villain is thoroughly believable and wicked, and the other characters are beautifully drawn. Then there is the subtle, but unmistakable romance blossoming between Vane and Wimsey.

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You must surely have seen this one coming. Of the four Sherlock Holmes novels — the other stories are all short tales — this one is my favourite. It’s creepy, filled with thoroughly eccentric and fun characters, and at the heart is the supernatural hound that is known to come after every heir of the Baskerville’s estate. All that, plus Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson too. Delicious!

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Building your Writer’s Résumé

Last week, I talked about there being times when a writer should consider working for free. This week I want to focus on how to start to submit short stories in an effort to building you résumé. If you decide at some time in your writing career that you would like to write a novel and see it published by a reputable publishing house, then building up some credits will be helpful. Getting published is always easier if you’ve already been published. It’s one of those irksome, Catch-22 things like it’s easier to get a job if you already have one. Or you need experience to work in XX industry, but you can’t get the experience unless you’re hired. You get the idea.

Now, if you don’t want to write short stories, and want to just get into writing a novel, you can do that. It’s just that much harder for your work to be accepted without some credits to your name. Even if you want to self-publish, that book is more likely to sell well if you have built up an audience by having stories published beforehand. I’m not saying you cannot succeed without having a list of smaller pieces, but it does help.

So, what do you do if you have zero credits, but you want to be taken seriously by the people to whom you submit your work?

Use Other Credits

If your story is about mountain climbing, for instance, you can mention in your cover letter that you have climbed various peaks, and how that experience led you to write this short story. If you aim your story at journals that focus on the outdoors and publish fiction, you have a decent shot at being accepted. The same is true if your story is about gardening, working in a library, or touring NASA. If it’s something you’ve actually done and turned into fiction, you should probably find a market for it, assuming the story is any good.

Say Nothing

About your credits, that is. Just introduce the story, and explain why you chose that market. For instance, they recently published a story by Alice Munro, your favourite short story writer, so you hope they might like your story too. Saying you’re a regular reader will be appreciated, especially if you can be specific about it. “I love the short story feature, but I miss the Tales from Around the World you used to have…” This lets them know you’ve been a reader of their journal for a long time.

What you don’t want to do is to state up front that you’re a beginning writer or that this is the first thing you’ve written.

Be Original

Don’t copy anyone. Your story is more likely to be accepted if it’s completely unique from anything else. Don’t be a follower, be a trend-setter.

Be Consistent

This advice is easier to give than it is to take. I like writing in a variety of genres and my stories cover a variety of different styles, mystery, literary, etc. However, it’s much harder to build an audience when you chop and change like that. People who read mysteries may not necessarily read science fiction, or romance, or whatever other style you like. That said, there’s no rule that says you can’t write a mystery with a Sci-Fi twist. The goal is to build up a number of readers who will not only buy your books, but will talk them up to their friends.

Be Professional

If you act in a professional manner it will go a long way to get you noticed. Why? Because, unfortunately, most new writers don’t bother with the niceties of professionalism. It may be because they’re too young to be aware of the concept, or because they believe creative people don’t have to bother with that sort of ‘silliness’. However, publishing is a business. It may be a tiny business run out of someone’s living room, or a multi-million pound / dollar / euro industry. Regardless, whoever reads your work will expect you to treat them in the same professional manner you should expect from them.

So, what do I mean by professional?

Spelling and Grammar

You wouldn’t, I hope, show up for an interview in dirty and torn clothes. You would shower, comb your hair, and make your self look presentable. Well, when you submit your writing it is your representative. If people cannot meet you in person, then your writing is all they have to judge you by. If your cover letter is badly written, poorly spelled, and generally just bad, then why should an editor expect any different from your story?

Neatness

When I started writing, all submissions had to be mailed. That meant coughing up money for a professional quality paper, buying self-return stamps or an International Reply Coupon (essential if you lived in a different country from the one where you were submitting), and carefully typing an immaculate letter.

These days, most submissions are accepted online. You select the journal, and attach your document to an email. Easy, right?

Well, no. Here, too, there are rules:

Format your document the way the publication requests. There are some variables, so always check.Don’t act chummy in your cover letter. Remember, be professional.If your email address is silly or rude, create a different one for the sake of presenting a professional image.Make sure they have the correct contact information to reach you.Courtesy

Make sure you correctly spell the name of the person you are emailing. Also, be sure you are selecting the right person on the team to send your manuscript. A managing editor may have little to do with selecting what items are published and which are not.

Don’t be in a hurry. Markets are notorious for taking a long time to reply. These days, many journals will send an automated response telling you they have received your MS, and they will get back to you in X number of days or months. Even then, I’d give them at least couple of weeks longer, maybe a month if it’s a very big company. And when you do ask for a status update, be polite and professional.

Appropriate Conduct

Being abusive is a sure way to get blacklisted. Don’t reply to a rejection with an insulting email or phone call. Yes, some people do this, I can’t think what they expect to accomplish.

Don’t be pushy. Leave the gushing to your mother. A cover letter swearing how you’ll make this person’s career if they publish you, or, Heaven forfend! offering a bribe are both shabby and apt to backfire badly. One agent said someone tried to bribe her to accept their novel by sending her a single dollar. Cheap as well as rude.

Don’t show up at the publisher or editor’s home or even their office demanding a hearing. You wouldn’t take kindly to someone doing it to you. Better accept a rejection politely, and keep alive the potential for a future acceptance, than have your name put on some ‘under no circumstances’ list.

Every writer has at some point made their first acceptance. There’s no reason why you should be any different. Be professional and savvy so your talent stands out, and not your bad manners. It will take time and patience, but soon you’ll have a list of credits that will impress any publisher.

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Should Writers Work for Free?

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

Samuel Johnson

This quote by Samuel Johnson is a famous one for most writers. We’ve all been there, nodding our heads wisely and insisting that we are worthy of reimbursement for our work. Laudable sentiments. But are they right? Are there times when a writer should work for free?

I would have to say yes. Not all the time, of course, and not without much thought and determining where you are in your career. You should also have a clear idea of what you want to get out of these ‘freebees’.

Here are some times when, in my opinion, it’s okay to work without monetary compensation. As always, your milage may vary.

When you are starting out and need to make your name.

If you don’t have a reputation (as a writer), no credits, and you’re trying to establish yourself, you probably can’t afford to be sniffy. Demanding a 4-figure advance for a sonnet or a 1000 word short story is probably not going to happen unless you’re incredibly talented and lucky in equal measures. Certainly you can send your work to the big publications, the ones that publish all the A-list writers of the day, but the odds are heavily against you.

On the other hand, you can submit to the smaller, low- or no-paying markets and start to build your credits. Yes, it’s a slow process, but eventually you will have a number of credits and that can make a big difference when you start submitting your novel.

Another advantage is that sometimes non-paying markets do sometimes reach a point where they are able to offer payment. That means you already have a good chance of getting a fee or an honorarium since they’ve already published your work. Alternatively, editors often move on to bigger and better things. I’ve you have established a relationship with such an editor, you may find your own career advances with theirs.

After you have garnered a dozen or so credits for your short stories, poems, or articles, you may find the agent of your dreams, or your publisher is more likely to give your novel a serious read because you have already proven your worth.

If the writing project contributes to a charity you support.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a regular contributor to the MX Books collections of Sherlock Holmes stories. While I don’t get financially compensated for these stories — all proceeds go to charity — I get the pleasure of seeing my stories in anthologies with writers I admire, plus the satisfaction of knowing I’m helping to support an important cause.

Obviously, this choice is a personal one. It’s not unusual for publishers to produce anthologies in honour of promoting peace, women’s rights, or any number of other things. If you choose to contribute, it can reap benefits in ways other than cash. You’ve added an important credit to your list, you may meet people you have long admired, and you’ve supported a cause you believe in.

If there is some sort of quid pro quo involved.

I know that sounds like a strange caveat, but it does depend on what you’re getting in return for your writing. I have volunteered to write blog articles for a couple of literary festivals in the past. While I didn’t get paid for the work, I was able to attend any of the lectures or events I wanted with a press pass. For me, the time commitment was well worth the effort.

You might consider doing something similar, or running a newsletter or a blog for a literary organisation.

Some years ago, I used to post on a website that was dedicated to a particular TV show. After I’d posted a few times, the editor got in touch and asked if I’d be willing to write some articles for them. Since I loved the show and this would give me some inside scoop on what was happening with it, I was happy to agree, at least for a while. No, it didn’t pay, but I did learn how to apply HTML I had fun doing it, and I got some nonfiction credits, so it wasn’t a loss.

Is it for you?

That’s for you to decide. We are all at different stages of our careers, and we all have different priorities. If insisting on payment is important to you, then go for it. I would just urge you to be realistic. Deciding that you won’t accept anything less than £500 per story could mean missing otherwise positive opportunities, especially when you’re just starting out.

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Coming Soon: A New Collection of Sherlock Holmes Stories

If you’ve already started thinking about Christmas shopping, I can suggest the perfect gift for the Sherlock Holmes fan in your life. The new, three-volume collection of Sherlock Holmes stories from MX Publishing.

By now, the MX Collection of Holmes stories is famous. This new collection offers 59 tales in three volumes.

Over the course of their careers and lives, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson were of inestimable importance. But when reading their many adventures, it’s not just the heroes themselves that make the stories so wonderful. It’s the Victorian and Edwardian worlds in which they lived, and the many people with whom the interacted – those well known, like Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, and various Scotland Yard inspectors, and others who may have just crossed the stage for a short time before vanishing. All of these Occupants of the Canonical Realm have value, whatever the depth of their roles, and this new set of Holmes stories celebrates them.

 Once again MX Publishing brings us fifty-nine adventures in three simultaneously published volumes, each with some level of participation by individuals who initially appeared in The Canon. Perhaps this person is a major player, or possibly he or she is only mentioned in passing. In the meantime, the reader can be certain that the True Holmes and Watson of these books are the Canonical Heroes one deserves and expects.

All royalties from these books go to support the Undershaw school for special needs children, located at one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes.

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.”

Each volume contains forewords by Dan Andriacco, Roger Johnson, Emma West, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum, as well as stories and poems by the following contributors:

Part XLVI: 1861-1889

Tracy J. Revels, Elbert Henry Smith, David Marcum, Roger Riccard, Brenda Seabrooke, Mike Adamson, Will Murray, David MacGregor, Robert V. Stapleton, Gordon Linzer, Michael Mallory, Tom Turley, P.C. Shumway, Jane Rubino, and a poem by Joseph W. Svec, III

Part XLVII: 1890-1898

DJ Tyrer, David Marcum, Marcia Wilson , Arthur Hall, Brenda Seabrooke, Roger Riccard, Alan Dimes, Paula Hammond, Tracy J. Revels, Tim Newton Anderson, Steven Connelly, Victoria Weisfeld, Ian Ableson, Will Murray, Margaret Walsh, Natching T. Kassa, Susan Knight, Stephen Herczeg, Chris Chan, and a poem by Anon.

Part XLVIII: 1899-1924

Jeremy Branton Holstein, Gustavo Bondoni, Dan Rowley and Don Baxter, Arthur Hall, Ember Pepper, Tracy J. Revels, Arthur Hall, I.A. Watson, Craig Stephen Copland, Martin Daley, David Marcum, Paul Hiscock, Roger Riccard, Shane Simmons, Dan Rowley, Mark Mower, and a poem by Christopher James

David Marcum is one of the world’s leading Sherlockian editors, having edited over 1,100 Sherlock Holmes Stories and 80 volumes (most of them Holmes anthologies), and having written and published over 130 traditional Canonical pastiches. The MX Collection was his inspiration back in 2015 when he yearned for more traditional Holmes stories and wanted to create a new collection dedicated to Holmes and Watson in Conan Doyle’s original format.

Besides many short stories, David’s Holmes fiction includes his debut novel ‘Quantity of Debt’ which was a bestselling addition to the Mondadori “Il Giallo Mondadori” collection in Italy. He has also written the novel “Sherlock Holmes and The Eye of Heka”, His own short stories can be found in the collections ‘Papers of Sherlock Holmes’ , ‘Tangled Skeins’ and the 6-volume (and counting) “The Collected Papers of Sherlock Holmes” with 98 of his stories.

Lee Child, New York Times Bestselling Author, has stated, “Marcum could be today’s greatest Sherlockian writer.” 

Other praise includes:

“David Marcum is the reigning monarch of all things Sherlockian . . . .” John Lescroart – New York Times Bestselling Author

“Among  the best I must number David Marcum, who, by this point has written  more Holmes stories than Doyle himself.” – Nicholas  Meyer – New York Times Bestselling Author

“Marcum himself again demonstrates his gift for emulating the feel of The Canon . . . .” – Publishers Weekly

For more information, or to see what other goodies are available, check out the KICKSTARTER.