Writing and journalism: remembering why
Last Thursday I had two great opportunities to recall some basics on creative writing and my first profession, journalism. In exchange for the use of our facilities at my workplace, the Port of Seattle, we got a seat in a creative writing seminar series. I signed up for one on getting your novel started, and it happened to be led by Seattle author Robert Dugoni. He is a the author of a number of books and legal thrillers including the David Sloane series. I have not read any of them yet — it’s not my genre — but intend to. He won some Pacific Northwest Writers Association literary awards which I’m sure helped along the way to publication, and I believe he created a very strong character in Sloane, so I can learn from Dugoni’s work.
My novel is historical fiction, and I’m on my fourth revision. I don’t need help getting started, but I am never satisfied with that opening line, that opening paragraph, and wondering have I started my story in the right place. I made a big shift after the first draft, to start with the action. This is the recommendation from many writers conferences I’ve attended, and from Dugoni as well. One of the other participants said if the book is a mystery “I want blood and guts in the first paragraph.” Not so much from historical fiction, but you’ve still got to hook your reader.
Another of Dugoni’s recommendations was to make sure you create a question in the reader’s mind with the first paragraph, and really with every paragraph. That’s what makes them keep going. That’s how you create a page turner. Another conference presenter said it a different way: End your chapter in the middle, never at the “end.” It’s all to keep the reader eager to find out what happens next.
One of the no-nos Dugoni called out was the use of flashback. If you need to go back in time you’ve got to put the reader right in that time. Flashbacks stop the story. So, I’ve got a flashback in my third chapter and it is one of my “darlings” that I have to decide whether to delete. A couple of literary agents have told me they like my story but could not quite connect with (fall in love with) the protagonist. The scenes from the past are, I think, what make her endearing and make her who she is in the present time. I just have to be more crafty in how I get that information across. Some days writing is a blessing, and some days it is a pain in the ass!
That same evening I met a friend for dinner and we went to see “Page One,” the documentary about the New York Times. The premise is that print journalism is not dead, because that is where the online news sites get their content. Really — how many bloggers have been to Iraq? Most just comment on what someone else has researched and written, and there is no concern about balanced reporting or truth.
My friend and I both graduated from University of Florida’s journalism school, and we had some amazing instructors so after that the passion for journalism is in your blood. I never did investigative journalism, just daily news stories and my strength really was profiles and feature stories. But I fell in love with the NYT writers who are keeping the passion alive, fighting back against those who have no care for information but only for Lady Gaga stories that they think bring in the bucks. They talked about the struggle of reporters and editors having to work for owners and leaders who do not share the same values. I know a bit about that. And David Carr, oh my gosh what a character and what a strong person. If you are a journalist, even at heart, you must see this movie and remember why we all do it.
It’s an interesting coincidence that both of these events ended up happening on the same day, and both of them touching that writer in me. I wanted to write since I was in first grade, but for most of my life told myself I couldn’t. My college roommate encouraged me to major in journalism and I will always be grateful for that, because writing has been the cornerstone for everything in my career. Dugoni and Page One remind me I can be proud of that. Success to me has never meant NYT best seller list, Oprah, or anything like that. I heard a long time ago that, if you tell your story and it reaches the heart of one person, you have succeeded.
I’ll finish the revision of my historical novel soon, and put it out there one way or another for that one reader. It’s called “The Wideness of the Sea,” and it’s about an Irish peasant girl who, in 1650, vows to avenge the destruction of her village by assassinating Oliver Cromwell, so keep an eye out in case that one reader is you.
