The Story Behind Let Me Tell You a Story
Mynext volume in the Bram Stoker Award-Winning Writing in the Dark series for the good folks at RawDog Screaming Press is called Let Me Tell You a Story. It’sscheduled to come out Oct. 5th, 2023, and I thought I’d post the forewordhere on my blog to give you a taste of what the book is about.
Asof this writing, Let Me Tell You a Storyis available on NetGalley, so if you’d like to review it – and I hope you do – gosnag an early copy!
https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/301093
Descriptionfrom Raw Dog’s Website
InLet Me Tell You a Story Waggoner presents stories from his ownpublishing career and uses them to illustrate techniques and point out ways toimprove. “In both Writing in the Dark and Writing in the Dark: TheWorkbook, I included a short story of mine and critiqued it based on theprinciples outlined in those books. Readers responded well to this feature, soI decided to focus a new book on critiquing stories drawn from throughout mycareer, discussing what worked, what didn’t, and what I might do differently ifI had the chance to rewrite the stories. I hope readers will find Let MeTell You a Story to be as interesting – and most importantly as useful – asits predecessors.”
Thereare fourteen stories in the book, five of which have never been reprinted aftertheir initial appearances.
ReviewQuotes
“Tim’swriting voice is like that of a teacher who really cares about his students andtheir writing journey—however far along you may be.” —Sadie Hartmann, MotherHorror, 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered
“Offeringsensible, actionable, and invaluable tips for developing craft, Tim Waggoner’sWriting in the Dark guides feature on my list of must-read texts for allstudents and teachers of writing. Scarily good advice from a master of horrorpractice.” —Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, co-author of the Pathof Ra series
“Youcan trust Tim to teach you not so much how to write, per se, but how to thinklike a horror writer. This basically means that you’ll instinctively know howto chill someone with a disturbing idea, outsmart them with an outrageous twistending, or caution them with a clever moral lesson, and it will all comenaturally to you. He’s a masterful educator on the dark side.”—Michael A.Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Play Dead
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY
FOREWORD
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?ANOTHER DAMN WRITING BOOK?
After Writing in the Dark, I sworeI’d never do another how-to-write book. Once I finished it, I thought I’d saidall I had to say about writing fiction in general and horror in particular.Sure, as the years passed and my knowledge (hopefully) increased, I might feelinspired to do another how-to, but for now, I figured my blog posts andnewsletter articles about writing would be more than enough.
Then I wrote Writing in the Dark: TheWorkbook.
One of the things readers liked most aboutthe first volume was the exercises that appeared at the end of each chapter.That got me thinking . . . Could I write an entire book of horror-writingexercises? I wasn’t certain, but it sounded like a fun challenge – andobviously there were readers who’d like to have such a book – so I decided togive it a go. Writing in the Dark poured out of me like water when Iwrote it, and I was surprised to find that the workbook did so too. But when Ifinished the workbook, I vowed that I wouldn’t write another follow-up – atleast for a while – and I fully intended to stick by this.
I’ve been writing about writing fordecades. In my late teens, I began reading Writers’ Digest religiously,and my favorite part of the magazine was Lawrence Block’s monthly column onwriting fiction. (This is why I dedicated Writing in the Dark to him.) Ibecame fascinated by the art of writing about writing, and after I beganselling fiction and articles professionally, I decided to give it a go. Ipublished a number of how-to-write articles over the years, and when I starteda blog over a decade ago, I decided I’d use it as an outlet for writing aboutwriting.
Still, I wanted to do my own how-to-writebook, so I wrote various proposals and gave them to my agent to send around,but no publishers were interested. Then I came up with the idea of writing a horrorhow-to, and John and Jennifer loved the idea, and the rest is history. I toldmy agent to forget about the previous how-to-write proposals I’d sent her, andI went back to writing fiction full-time. A couple years passed, and my agent –who hadn’t deleted my old proposals – remembered one for a book called LetMe Tell You a Story. I’d originally intended it to be an overall volume onwriting fiction, but I’d incorporated so much of that kind of material in Writingin the Dark, I abandoned the idea of writing a generic how-to. My agentsent the proposal to Jennifer, who liked it, and offered a contract – for abook I had no intention of writing.
I’ve been writing professionally for toolong to immediately turn down a publisher’s offer without at least thinkingabout it. And my previous two experiences working with Jennifer and John werewonderful, so I was excited by the prospect of working with them again. Butwhat the hell would this new book be about? I knew I couldn’t write the generichow-to-write book I’d originally envisioned for Let Me Tell You a Story,but there was nothing about the title that suggested a way to turn it into athird volume on writing horror. I decided I’d figure something out eventually,so I signed the contract.
Days, weeks, months passed. I worked onother projects, but I kept thinking about Let Me Tell You Story andwrestling with what the book should be. More time passed. The deadline forturning in the manuscript approached, and I still had nothing. This was veryunlike me. Usually when I’ve contracted to do a book, I finish it early. Butnot this time. I told Jennifer, and she kindly understood and gave me anextension, but I was afraid I’d never figure out a way to move forward with LetMe Tell You a Story. If I couldn’t, I’d have to back out of the contract,which was something I’d never done before. But, as so often happens in mywriting life, when I thought all was lost, an idea popped into my head.
I’d written Writing in the Dark: TheWorkbook solely because of reader feedback I’d received on the firstvolume. Was there anything else readers liked about the first two books thatmight serve as inspiration for a third volume? Yes, there was. In each of theprevious books, I included a short story of mine and critiqued it based on theprinciples outlined in the books. I talked about what worked, what didn’t, andwhat I might do differently if I had the chance to rewrite the story.
What if I focused an entire book onexamining a collection of my stories, discussing their origins, my intentionsfor them, how well they’d worked, and what – if anything – I’d change now. Sucha book would be an odd duck, part short story collection, part how-to-write,part memoir, and part career retrospective. The idea of working with a hybridformat like this appealed to me. And it wasn’t as if I hadn’t encounteredsimilar books before. One of my favorites is science fiction writer MikeResnick’s Putting It Together: Turning Sow's Ear Drafts Into Silk PurseStories. In it, Mike presents several of his stories and shows how theywent from idea to multiple drafts to finished version. The idea behind hisapproach was that any how-to-write book can tell you how to createdeveloped characters, write engaging dialogue, etc., but by detailing hiswriting process, he could show you how to do it, or at least how he didit. And of course, Stephen King’s On Writing is a blend of how-to andmemoir.
As I contemplated this new approach for LetMe Tell You a Story, I had some concerns. What if readers viewed the bookas one long ego trip on my part? Check out all these fabulous stories!Aren’t I a great writer? What if readers didn’t give a damn about myfiction and only wanted how-to-write advice? What if, by being neither fish norfowl – not fully a writing instruction guide or a short story collection – thebook failed to find an audience? I’ve always enjoyed reading authors’ storynotes in collections, though, and I feel I learn more when authors sharespecifics about how they create their work as opposed to offering genericadvice, so I figured, what the hell? Why not go for it?
So I did.
How did I choose the stories included inthis book? I decided to include stories that were pivotal in my development asa writer, stories where I learned important lessons or made mistakes that Ionly recognized in hindsight. I’ve arranged the stories in chronological order becausethat seemed simplest, and because that will hopefully create a portrait of mydevelopment as a writer as well.
In terms of the type of stories I’veincluded, while I’ve written in different genres, I’m known primarily as ahorror/dark fantasy author, so I stuck to those genres rather than put in afantasy or science fiction story here and there. It seemed to make morethematic sense to me.
And after each story, I’ve included commentary/reflection,as well as a couple writing exercises so you can take the focus off my work andput it on yours, where it belongs.
You’re welcome to read and use this bookhowever you wish, as writing instruction guide, as short story collection, oras an inside look at how one writer created his stories and what he thinksabout them today. It’s as much a portrait of an artist as it is a how-to, and Ihope whatever you came here for, you find the book both enjoyable and useful.
STORIES INCLUDED
“Huntress”
Tamaqua, Winter/Spring1990. Reprinted in The Mythic Circle, Fall 1993.
“Alacrity’sSpectatorium”
Figment, Spring 1992
“Mr.Punch”
Young Blood,Zebra Books, March 1994.
“Daddy”
Horrors: 365 Scary Stories,Barnes and Noble Books, 1998
“Keepingit Together”
Between the Darkness and the Fire,Wildside Press, 1998
“Ghostin the Graveyard”
All Hallows, June 2000
“JoylessForms”
All Too Surreal,Prime Books, 2002
“BrokenGlass and Gasoline”
Vivisections,Catalyst Books, 2003
“Waters Dark and Deep”
Masques V, Gauntlet Press, 2006
“SwimmingLessons”
Delirium Books website, 2006
“LongWay Home”
Thrillers II, CD Publications, 2007
“Sharpas Night”
My Bloody Valentine, GreatJones Street, 2017
“Til Death”
Don’t Fear – The Apocalypse. 13ThirtyBooks, 2017
“How to be a Horror Writer.”
Vastarien 2, Grimscribe Press, 2018
DEPARTMENT OFSHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
LetMe Tell You a Story Order Links
Ifyou order the book at the Raw Dog Screaming Press site in either hardback orpaperback, you’ll get a discount until Oct. 5th, 2023!
https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/let-me-tell-you-a-story/
AmazonPaperback:
AmazonHardcover:
Barnesand Noble Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1143990468?ean=9781947879645
Barnesand Noble Hardcover: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1143990468?ean=9781947879638
ScheduledAppearances
Beyondthe Book Festival. Sept. 30th. 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The StarkeCounty Public Library. Knox Indiana. For more info: https://scpls.org/beyond-the-book
ButcherCabin Bookfest. October 18th. 5pm – 10pm. Pivot Brewing, 1400Delaware Ave, Lexington, Kentucky.
ScarelasticBook Fair 2: March 2nd. 12pm – 6pm. Scarlet Lane Brewing. 7724 DepotStreet, McCordsville, Indiana.
StokerCon2024. May 30th to June 2nd. San Diego, California.
Whereto Find Me Online
Newsletter Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm Website: www.timwaggoner.com Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/twaggon1?subscribe Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tim-Waggoner/author/B001JP0XFM?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark X (formerly Twitter): @timwaggoner Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9 Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe Threads: @tim.waggoner.scribe@threads.net BlueSky: @timwaggoner.bsky.social Slasher: @TimWaggoner
