Parker-izing. Saying A Lot, With Not Much

Sandra Neily here:

Hot Sept kept fish hiding. We hiked into some shaded pools. I did safety patrol (very big rapid) while Bob tried various flies with no takers.

squirrel

I’ve been camping at the Penobscot River for a while. No cell or wifi (heaven!) but did some Robert Parker searches for this post before I prepped and packed 10 days of food for my husband and me and the 2 dogs. (Who wants to leave the river and shop?)

I often think about how to “Parker-ize” my writing: keep my own style and voice for the mystery series but lean it down to its bones …so to speak. Parker-ize it. (My term.) I listen and re-listen to his books on tape as I drive. (Joe Mantegna’s narration delivers a to-die-for Boston/ Spenser incarnation. Here’s a short listen.)

Sometimes, I have to pull over and replay a bit over and over.

When asked about his popularity, Parker said, ““I dunno. I think people just like the way it sounds.”

Oh yes.

My Penobscot office. (Fishing happened early AM and dusk. Sitting listening to the river not doing much: all the time.)

I think novelist Lisa Scottoline says the craft part well.

“ … My writerly voice is my own … I would never learn anything about voice from anybody else, even the best writer, because voice is something that comes from the soul…. Voice is something you finally hear, and refine, when you let your doubts and insecurities fall away, and what’s left is your truest and most authentic self, or your character’s truest or authentic self. That said, when I read, I learn something about writing and writing technique from every single book I’ve read. And that is nowhere truer than in the genre we all love, which is crime fiction.

… And when books by the same author work perfectly over time, that’s when I learn the most.

Case in point?

The late Robert Parker.

But there is one lesson in particular I learned from reading him, and I remind myself of it every day when I sit down at the computer. It’s a technical one, but let me suggest that the importance of technique can never be underestimated, and a page-turner gets readers turning the pages only if the author is paying attention to technique.

Reading Robert Parker taught me that what you leave out is just as important as what you put in, and maybe even more so. And in the Spenser books in particular, he leaves out many of the details that even the best writers conventionally include. Take a look at Small Vices, when you get a chance. In its first chapter, Spenser goes to see assistant DA Rita Fiore and they meet in her office. Parker tells you that the office is on the 39th floor, and after that he says absolutely nothing about what the office looks like. Nothing.

Parker mentions the view from the window, but that’s it.  … When I first read this, I admit I was surprised. I wondered how the reader could picture the setting if Parker didn’t let us know what it looked like. Then I realized that Parker is way smarter than I am. Because what he gained was a focus on character, plot, and story, and the fact is, it doesn’t matter in the least what the office looked like, to Spenser or to the reader.

What I learned from reading Robert Parker brought me to the realization that reading and writing are the same thing. I say this because I used to feel guilty reading when I should’ve been working, and then I came to understand that even when I was reading, I was working. Writing is a job we teach ourselves, and we’re learning it when we read, as well as when we write. And that’s why we can learn from reading Parker’s, and others’, books.

Thank you, Robert Parker.

So thank you, Robert Parker.”

Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author and Edgar award-winning author of 20 novels.

                        ******

Sandy here again; check out this YouTube : I ty to Parker-ize by keeping it as lean as possible. Using the lesson that we “leave out might be more important than what we put in,” here are some of my own examples.

“V. Brinkman coming to kill me & wolves. Mark’s barn. Bring trucks. Lights. Chaos. DO NOT CALL 911. Help free wolves.” I sounded screechy. “Am sane.” (me: I edited out wordy dramatic details. Sounding “screechy seemed to do it. Having to reassure listeners she was “sane” suggested she wasn’t.)

****  

Open hands explored my spine, pausing on each rib, and then they started down my thighs, searching each muscle until they found the barbed wire wounds. The chants became soft moans, and I wondered what I was wearing for underwear. (me: What does it say that despite being injured she’s thinking underwear? Hands exploring her matter more than a first aid moment? I thought “underwear” got right to it.)

            ****

I faced the lake, closed my eyes, and felt for buried current where a restless river pressed its dark weight against thick walls. I sent the river some hope. One day, probably after we’re long gone, you’ll find the right cracks.    

 (me: I got rid of dam description details and left the lake, the buried current and the weight.)

            ****

“Do I know you from a previous life?” I asked.

“Not sure I had one,” he answered, sucking smoke deeply into his open mouth.  (me: I needed both mystery and something cocky for this character, but with few words. Listening to Parker’s Jessie Stone’s dialogue, really helped here.)

****

I knew I’d ruined the moment when Evan slapped his hands over his ears. “Christ! You do know you can’t fix the universe, don’t you? Years and years of listening to you until, until—” He stopped.

I thought I could finish his sentence—until I left you.

(me: Boom. She knows both her ex and herself at the same time.)

            ****

This iconic American crime writer, whose books have sold more than 6 million copies, died in 2010 and we not only lost Parker, we lost his best-known creation, Spenser.

If you’d like more reaction to Robert Parker (whose books have sold over 6 million copies) “In Pursuit of Spenser” offers a look at Parker and his famous detective Spenser through the eyes of the writers he influenced. Editor Otto Penzler– proprietor of one of the oldest and largest mystery specialist bookstores in the country, collects some of today’s bestselling mystery authors to discuss Parker, his characters, the series, and their impact on the world.

Oh yes, he sounds good.

“Asking your husband to go one-on-one with Joe Broz is like putting a guppy in the piranha pool. If we don’t find him before Broz does, he’ll be eaten alive.”   ― Robert B. Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript

PS: Here, lots of authors weigh in on Parker after his passing.