Write drunk, edit sober - Hemingway said or didn't really but the much repeated quote has long been attributed to the writer and it's a good story. It sums up the public image of ole Papa even if it is actually the opposite of the truth. Hemingway was indeed a man who liked, nay loved a drink but he wrote in the morning, and didn't start drinking until the afternoon .
Still, when legend becomes fact print the legend.
Image, pop culture and exaggeration have done the business, built the myth and it's easy to visualise a slavering, red eyed, finger-stumbling, Scotch-scarred Hemingway at the keyboard.
Still, as I sit at my screen, three O'clock in the morning and raise a glass of Johnny Walker Black and mouth that salacious quote - 'Write Drunk, Edit Sober' - It is Hemingway I think of.
For years James Norbury lived beneath the poverty line and spent his spare time as a volunteer with the Samaritans where he took phone calls from desperate people looking for someone to listen to their problems.
Norbury, a 44-year-old self-taught artist and writer, who lives in Swansea, has had his life turned around after his collection of drawings of two unlikely friends – a panda and a dragon – captioned with life-enhancing proverbs.
Big Panda and Tiny Dragon will be published in the UK by Penguin Michael Joseph on 16 September. It features two friends, who often find themselves lost, but discover beautiful sights that they never would have found if they had gone the right way. Together, they overcome life’s obstacles.
Norbury plans to buy a house with some land when his advance comes through so he can start a sanctuary.
Bestselling author, AJ Waines has some interesting advice on his to write a Crime/Mystery Thriller HERE.
AJ WAINES is a Number One Bestselling Author with over *450,000* copies sold worldwide. She writes Psychological Thrillers, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Times and has ranked as a Kindle (KDP) TOP 10 'MOST-READ AUTHOR' in UK. She has publishing deals in France, Germany, Norway, Hungary and USA (audiobooks) and has recently signed a two-book deal with Bloodhound Books, UK.
I came across this article HERE which will be of interest to Archive readers.
Hardly anything does one’s mental, spiritual, and creative health more
good than resolving to read more and write better. Today’s reading list
addresses these parallel aspirations. And since the number of books
written about reading and writing likely far exceeds the reading
capacity of a single human lifetime, this omnibus couldn’t be —
shouldn’t be — an exhaustive list. It is, instead, a collection of
timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the
written word, from whichever side of the equation you approach it.
It's an interesting question - there are scores of eBooks out there, all jostling to be noticed but what is the secret of success in this competitive market? What is it about writers like Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath AKA Jack Kilborn, to name but two, that make them stand out from the crowd? For every eBook that succeeds there are squillions of others that are never heard of.
Why is this?
I've yet to read Amanda Hocking but I have recently read several of Mr Konrath's books - they are indeed well written and the author certainly knows how to construct a story and grab the reader, but then so too do scores of other writers who have nowhere near the profile of Mr Konrath.
I suspect the answer to Konrath's success is that the author is extremely active in self publicising and puts in as much work getting his books noticed as he does writing them in the first place - known in the writing community for his work in self-promotion. Konrath believes that writers must play a large part in marketing their own books, and his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, focuses on this. He has outspoken and somewhat controversial views on advertising, the publishing industry, and internet publicity.
According to the WIKI - In 2006, Konrath mailed out close to 7000 letters to libraries across the United States with fellow mystery author Julia Spencer-Fleming, touting their books to librarians.
Later that year, Konrath signed books in 612 bookstores across 28 states.The booksellers he met on this three month journey were thanked by name in the acknowledgements of his fourth novel, Dirty Martini.
So is it all this extra curricular activity that has made Konrath? Well it certainly can't hurt - I've been following the author around the net, trying to discover his secret, and I've noticed that he's active on all the social networking sites - Twitter, Facebook, My Space. And he regularly goes on blog book tours which is kind of like a real book tour but without getting off your arse. And of course his blog is interesting and although I don't always agree with his views I do find much to learn in his posts. The Archive has been cornering Mr Konrath for an interview for some time but alas our emails go unanswered and our tweets seemingly ignored - so if Konrath is reading this then come on - email the Archive and let's chew the fat.
"I also love print books. I have 5000 of them. But print is just a delivery system. It gets a story from the writer to the reader. For centuries, publishers controlled this system, because they did the printing, and they were plugged into distribution. But with retailers like Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, the story can get to the reader in a faster, cheaper way. And publishers aren't needed." Joe Konrath
Now from my own experience I know that self publicity can help - the success I achieved with my first Jack Martin novel, The Tarnished Star is proof enough of that, but at the same time I'm nowhere near Konrath's league. Maybe things will change when Tarnished Star is realised as the movie, Lawmaster (scheduled to start shooting 2012, folks).
So perhaps I need to work even harder at self publicising - though it's difficult to see how - I too have profiles on all the social networking sites and this blog you're reading now, is updated several times a day. Christ I even once posed naked with a copy of my second novel in a bid to provoke sales from readers with a thing for the undernourished male body.
Someone once remarked to me that the western is not as commercial a genre as the horror or crime genres within which Konrath seems to have scored his biggest successes, and there may be something in that. But although I do write in other genres I refuse to give up working in my favourite genre of all - the western.
There I'm naked-buy a book and I'll put clothes on
What is the answer?
You know thinking about it - perhaps I do know the answer, maybe I've known it all along. The most important step must be to forget all this, not to worry about success or failure,or even large screen televisions, but to concentrate on writing a bloody good book in the first place. But even that may not be enough to make a splash in the current aggressive book world.
"The best time for
planning a book
is while you're doing
the dishes." - Agatha Christie (Sept. 15,1890 - Jan. 12, 1976)
The quote above gave me food for thought - I know what Christie means and whenever I'm struggling with plot, dialogue or indeed any aspect of a project I know that taking in some fresh air, walking the dog over the mountains, gives me the boost I need. I work out most of my plot details while rambling over the Welsh countryside. There's something about the open air that clears my befuddled mind and new possibilities spring to me. For instance only this week I was bogged down with the second Arkansas Smith novel and I just didn't know how to proceed. The problem was that I'd gotten the characters into a situation from which I could see no remedy. And so it's on with the coat, out with the leash and onto the mountains. A few hours later I returned home with not only the answer to the current situation but also a far clearer idea of how the book will end.
Maybe Christie had similar moments of epiphany while scrubbing the tea and crumpet from her best china.
Robert Conley, the current president of the Westerns Writer's of America has just annouced a new writing workshop for native American writers - CULLOWHEE – Native American writers from the Southeast are invited to participate in the first-ever Southeast Indian Writers Gathering, to be held Thursday and Friday, Sept. 16 and 17, at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee.
The event is intended to bring together writers from the original Southeastern tribes to share and discuss their work, said Robert Conley, Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University.
Conley, an Oklahoma Cherokee and the author of more than 80 works of fiction and nonfiction, organized the event.
“I organized the Indian writers gathering because I feel like there is getting to be a bunch of us and we have a lot of interests in common. It seems like a good idea to get together,” said Conley, who recently was named the new president of the Western Writers of America, the first American Indian to hold that position.
Group discussions and one-on-one sessions for Native authors will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The workshop is free and registration is not required. The general public is invited to a free reading and book signing to be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the museum.
Native authors scheduled to participate include Conley; Chris Teuton (Cherokee); Sean Teuton (Cherokee); Kim Roppolo (Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek); Geary Hobson (Cherokee, Quapaw and Chickasaw); Holly McClure (Cherokee); and Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee).
For more information about the writers gathering, contact Conley at 828-227-2306, 918-708-5476 or rconley@wcu.edu; or Barbara Duncan, education director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian (at 589 Tsali Blvd. in Cherokee), at 828-497-3481, extension 306, or bduncan@cherokeemuseum.org.
Writer's News have published a list of pointers that identify you as a writer. Taking this has a starting point the Archive decides to have some fun with this. And so -
You know you're a writer when:
Your default template in Word in double spaced Times Roman 12pt
Credit Card companies reject you because you don't have a set annual income.
Whilst reading novels you find yourself thinking, 'too much tell and not enough show.'
You find yourself using words like procrastination in everyday conversation.
You have a drawer for pens, many of them stolen
Your TBR pile is reaching for the ceiling.
Whilst editing you curse your editor.
You've got furrows in your skull caused by constantly scratching in contemplation.
99% of the time you talk complete and utter bollocks
You have multiple files with the same name - doc.txt, edit(55)
You're constantly inventing new words
and new genres.
You've stared at the screen for hours without writing anything and then switched to the Internet to waste a few more hours.
You haven't seen your family for days even though they're only in the next room.
You Google your own name at least twice a week.
You know what an unsolicited submission is.
You think the big publishing houses are run by Dr. Evil.
And the biggest indication of all - you found yourself smiling and nodding at most of these points above.
Crime writer, Mark Sanderson, in conversation with Writing Magazine (Jan 2010) said - 'The Internet has made self publishing a cinch but genuine talent deserves a genuine publisher. Why post your work on the web - and lose it in the massive cyber slush pile- instead of sending it to an established literary agent? Any agent worth their 15% will soon tell you if you are any good."
Whilst I see his point I don't think Internet publishing negates the work. Many of us, myself included, have published work online. So have many bestselling writers - Stephen King for one did an Internet only story. There are some quality online anthologies - A Twist of Noir and Beat to a Pulp are just two of the many that I read on a regular basis.
What I think Mr Sanderson is missing with his, partly valid point is that there are not that many markets for short stories, nor for experimental pieces for which the Internet is a natural home. And of course the potential online readership is bigger than any print project could hope to reach. It is also worth noting that online publishing has unshackled creativity - no longer do you have to go to big corporations only to have your idea hit back. Now you can put your work out there and let it sink or swim on its own merits.
And of course for the written word the future may indeed be online.
Why write western fiction? By western we mean novels/stories set in the Old West - usually, but not exclusively between the years immediately following the civil war and upto 1890. Who would want to read western fiction in the world we live in today?
Many people clearly do - the western provides a form of escapism, a comfort zone that is becoming more and more important in the frantic world we live in today. There is an enduring quality in taking the imaginative leap to a time long gone and finding that the issues facing people were remarkably similar to those we face on a daily basis, it is inspiring to read about people facing up to life's trials and tribulations and standing resolute against anything thrown at them. The western as a literary genre had its golden age sometime around the middle of the last century and indeed the writers of that period are still widely read today - L'amour, Zane Grey. But to find the roots of the genre you have to travel further back, much further - in fact to the Old West itself when hack writers were mythologising the West even as it was going on around them.
Perhaps the defining classic of the genre is Owen Wister's The Virginian, first published in 1901. The book sold 300,000 copies in its first year, led the American bestseller lists for most of 1902 and by 1968 had sold over 2 million copies. It is perhaps the most widely read book about that period we call, "the wild west" and shaped the conventions of the genre for generations of writers to follow. Anyone wanting to write a western simply must read this seminal work.
There was a time when everything was clear cut in the western - the hero always wore a white hat, the baddie a black one. Right and wrong were clearly defined and there was a code to be followed but these days practically anything goes in a western. Modern issues can be tackled and many writers cleverly disguise the concerns of the 21st century within their narrative. In short there is no kind of story the western can not tell - crime, romance, horror, comedy. The western is versatile enough to accommodate them all.
SO WHERE DO I START ? Research is very important in the westerns. You must get the details right, particularly with guns and location. I've often been enjoying a book and then I notice some mistake the writer has made and it drags me out of the story. Even minor mistakes can ruin a story. However the aspiring western writer should take heart in the fact that mostly everyone knows what the west would have looked like. This makes the writers' job that much easier and with the advent of the internet any required information is usually only a few key-strokes away.
THE ACTUAL WRITING. There is no one way to do this. Some writers like to rush through the first draft and then take care of structure, style and plot problems in the re-write. Others are more cautious and will plod along, revising as they go and when that first draft comes out it needs very little tweaking. I hop between both camps but I do like to keep the story moving along, to give it pace and I actually look forward to the revising once the first draft is complete. For me the first draft is a necessary evil and getting it out of the way is all important.
CHARACTERS. It is good characterisation that can turn a good story into a great one. Try and put yourself in your characters mindset and think what you would do in a given situation, however it is important to put modern inhibitions aside. You would have been a very different person had you been alive in the 1880's. Perhaps the single most helpful piece of advice for creating characters is READ, READ AND READ. Only by studying the work of writers you admire can you ever hope to understand the process involved in creating realistic people to populate what is after all an outlandish fictional landscape.
STOP PROCRASTINATING AND GET DOWN TO IT. The biggest thing is to stop talking about it and get on with it, as difficult as it can be to find time in our hectic lives it is important to be stubborn and get down to the actual writing. You must make time - no matter what- or your creation will always be a pipe dream. Remember it is no different writing a western to any other form of genre fiction and the tools used will always be the same. Behind every successful (define successful as professionally published)writer is a person who was pig headed enough to get on with writing no matter what was going on around them.
I don't usually blog about the actual writing process but I though for a change I would . Trouble is talking about the actual physical effort of writing is boring - I mean what can you say? You're sat there at the keyboard, often staring at a blank page/screen and you stay like that for hours, maybe a little daydreaming, a lot of frustration and more coffee than is good for you.
There are scores of "How To" books out there that claim to help in every process of creating fiction - plots, names, characters. And yet none of them really help, none come to the rescue when your bogged down with a plot twist that refuses to budge and take the story forward. In fact most of them have a negative impact since the time wasted reading them could be better spent writing.
You want to be a writer, Stephen King says, then JUST WRITE.
Always nice to see a new PRINT market for the short story and this new 100 page glossy magazine looks just the thing.
First Edition is a new monthly magazine that aims to publish short stories, novel excerpts and poetry from new writers. But unlike other magazines of its kind it doesn't aim to be too literary and the first issue carries a range of styles.
The mag is priced at £3 which is wonderful value and writers bemoaning the lack of markets for short fiction should support the mag - otherwise they've no one else to blame but themselves if the mag fails to reach sufficient sales to cover, what must be, high production costs.
I have no doubt that the next generation of big name writers are going to come from the internet. It's happening with music - British group The Artic Monkeys secured a number one song via internet downloads before they even had a record contract.
Novels are published on the net, some have even gone from the screen into conventional print.
So where does this new writing talent start out? Where do they learn their craft?
Webzines, online magazines, are publishing new talent all the time.
One of the better webzines around at the moment is Beat to a Pulp run by writers David Cramer and Elaine Ash.
And so I sat down with the duo to find out what it is they are hoping to achive with their webzine. Why for instance, given that there are so many webzines out there did they decide to start a new one?
"Elaine: I had been working with David in an editor/writer relationship for about a year, on his own short stories, so we knew each other but had never actually met face to face. David ran a successful news blog for several years. Every now and then he would mention starting up a short story site and collecting submissions from writers all over the world, and I thought it was a terrible idea. I told him it would divert his attention from his own writing and he’d run the risk of getting bogged down with the workload, blah blah. Then DZ Allen’s Muzzle Flash closed down, and a few others, at the same time. Online venues were shrinking for short stories, so when David announced that he was really serious about starting a site, I revisited my opinion and came onboard as Editor at Large"
"David: I couldn’t have said it any better!"
And it's been a success - I point out that I strongly believe the next superstar scribe is going to come from the internet. So what do David and Elaine look for in a story?
"Elaine: I think e-zine publishing is a terrific way for unknown writers to establish themselves and for known writers to reach new readers. It’s truly been a renaissance for the short story. Everything old is new again as the saying goes. I eat, sleep and breathe discovering new writers and working with them. It’s hugely satisfying and exciting for me. Then, when comments start coming in, and you can tell when readers are truly jazzed about a piece, it’s a reward all in itself."
"David: Our primary focus is hardboiled crime but we welcome action/adventure, western, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and thrillers. We pass on bigotry and overt political agendas. Elaine looks for an exciting start to a story, the plot kick-off. I’m more patient with a slow start if the story gradually draws me in and ends with a bang."
But would there every be a subject they would turn down?
"
David: We judge each story on its own merit but we’re not interested in publishing overt political pieces or anything that encourages racism. Extreme violence and sex are fine as long it’s central to the story and not just a gratuitous scene."
Both David and Elaine are writers themselves. Will they be publishing any of their own work on Beat to a Pulp?
"Elaine: Yes. "
"David: Yes, I have a story coming up that will be published later in the year. "
And where do they see the webzine being in a year's time.
"Elaine: I just want the quality to stay as consistently good as it is now. I keep saying to David, that’s all we have to do. Just show the world that we can do this week after week, and attract a loyal readership"
Well the policy seems to be paying off big time and I, among many others, make it a part of our online week to read the new story on Beat to a Pulp. I wonder what writers influence David and Elaine's work?
"Elaine: James M. Cain, Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Tom Robbins, Jim Thompson, Janet Fitch, John Barth, John Burdett, Terry Pratchett, just to name a few. Please don’t recoil in horror if your favorite writer isn’t listed here. I could fill an entire page with writers I hugely love and admire."
"David: Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie and Stephen King are some of my influences. Recently I’ve started writing a western and I’ve turned to the work of Luke Short, Louis L’Amour and the Longarm novels written by James Reasoner for inspiration."
Is there a backlog of stories waiting to be read?
"David: So far, I’m staying on top of the heap.
So generally how long would a writer wait for a decision when sending a story?
"Elaine: Thirty days, max."
"David: We try to reply within a couple of weeks so authors aren’t waiting too long, but as Elaine says, no more than a month."
So far the zine has published crime and westerns albeit with a slant. In fact one or two of the stories published thus far are hard to catagorise. Are there any other genres lined up? Horror, SF perhaps?
"Elaine: Yes, but not enough in my opinion. One of our goals is to reach out to horror and sci-fi writers, and extend a warm welcome for their submissions. Good writing and good stories can appeal to readers in any genre. BTAP is a great place to get a story read by a fresh readership that might not surf over to a horror site, but will read and enjoy a horror story with gusto on BTAP."
"David: I’ll just add that we have a very eerie horror offering from Chris F. Holm whose work has been featured in Ellery Queen, plus a dark fantasy from Canadian author Barbara Martin."
And finally are there ever times when David and Elaine disagree on a story?
"Elaine: Yes. Vehemently. David is the perfect publisher for me because he remains calm while I passionately argue my case. I took my graduate degree in story critique at Hollywood Screw U, and learned to defend plot points in a series writers’ room. Not for the faint of heart. In Hollywood, it’s just accepted that passionate disagreement and creative negotiation can yield great work. A Hollywood writer that I’ve argued the most with, is one I love and respect tremendously, and we would jump at the chance to work together again. There are never hard feelings about a little creative skirmish. The one who cares the most wins."
"David: Ha! Elaine’s answer cracks me up, though it’s not far from the truth. I come from the O. Henry school of writing and I’m really big on the twist endings. So, occasionally we may differ. For Elaine, as long as the ride in getting to the end is thrilling, the end doesn’t need to tip her out of her seat."
