Mark Twain, on Writing

The Writing Life

"I can live for two months on a good compliment."

"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained."

"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately everyone drinks water."

"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened."

"All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure."

"A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds."

"'Classic'. A book which people praise but don't read."

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't."

The Art and Craft

"A man's character my be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation."

"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

"Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream."

"Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own."

"Words are like painted fire; a look is the fire itself."

And a few just for fun...

"I wouldn't have a girl I was worthy of. She wouldn't do. She wouldn't be respectable enough."

"Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins."

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Story Layers

Everybody has it: that one book or movie they just keep coming back to over and over, because every time they re-read or re-watch it they catch something they didn't before. It's new every time around.
For me, it's The Count of Monte Cristo. No matter how many times I see it, I'm still riveted every time, and I think part of what makes it so fabulous is the many story layers it has. Every carefully executed plan has a meaningful significance. Every statement or remark is impregnated with underlying meaning. The layers are like pieces of different colored sheer cloth--every time you look at them, you see through certain colors to other colors in a slightly different way.
I try to achieve layering in my own stories, but it can be very difficult. I want my stories to have that read-it-over-and-over-again effect on my readers. I want them to catch things on their fifth read-through that they didn't catch the first four times.
I think a lot of it depends on paying very close attention to the dialogue and action of the characters. Don't have characters do things just off-the-cuff for no reason--or if they do, make it come back and bite them with significance they didn't expect.
Make characters pay attention to what the other characters are doing. This seems to work especially well between villains and protagonists. If, at the beginning of the story, Character A makes a remark to Character B, let B throw it back at A later on. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great example of this in more ways than one.
In his Fiction-Writing Tips, Jeff Gerke touches on this a little bit in his tip on using circularity (tip #40). It's a great tip, definitely worth reading.

What are your thoughts on story layers? Do you use them in your own writing? What book or movie keeps you coming back for more again and again?

Donita K. Paul: What are They Thinking?

After being away from my ‘Write Like the Pros’ series for a long time, I’m finally back with the next installment – Donita K. Paul.

A couple of years ago I bought the book Dragonspell for my younger brother for Christmas. Since the book was the first in a series, I figured that I had the next year’s birthday and Christmas lined out as far as Caleb was concerned. Wrong. He went out and bought the rest of the series himself. For months all I heard about was “Kale this, Dar that, Fenworth something else…” To hear Caleb talk you’d have thought they were real people.

When I started reading the books for myself, I realized that they almost were real people! I felt like I knew them – especially the main viewpoint character Kale. I knew how she would react to a situation before she reacted. I knew how she would feel about a given person or event before she expressed her feelings.

So how did Mrs. Paul pull that off? By showing the reader the character’s thoughts.

Read Mrs. Paul’s books and you’ll find them loaded with character’s mental decision-making processes, inner struggles, and unspoken opinions. This offers the reader a tremendous amount of insight into who the character really is and gives them the sense that they really know them.

Think of it this way: when you meet someone for the first time, naturally you start with the conversational basics (where are you from, where do you work, what are you studying, etc.). But then you start moving towards learning their opinions and thoughts on a very casual level (what kind of movies do you like, what do you do in your spare time…). Once you get past the ‘stranger’ stage and begin to get more comfortable with the person, you start asking deeper, more ‘thoughtful’ questions (what are your religious beliefs, political views, dreams, personal goals, and so forth). Then you move on to questions regarding current events (the political race, the concert, the terrorist attack, the tornado).

As you learn a person’s thoughts on certain issues, you will be able to determine, at least to some extent, their thoughts on other issues. For instance, I am a conservative Republican and a Christian – that should give you some idea of where I stand on issues such as abortion and cloning.

This is what it means to really know a person. When you can predict their (thoughts, opinion, reaction) regarding an issue or circumstance, and do it with at least moderate accuracy, you know – really know – them.

And this is part of what makes Donita K. Paul’s characters so lifelike, so personal – she writes their thoughts! We know what they’re thinking. We know that even though Kale adores Paladin and truly wants to serve him, she still struggles with feeling unsuited and unworthy. We know that even though Kale has great respect and admiration for Wizard Fenworth’s wisdom, she still gets frustrated with his forgetfulness and painfully long thinking spells.

We know Kale because we know her thoughts. We know what she thinks. We know how she thinks. And we care about her because she feels like a friend.

I know that my own writing is sadly lacking insight into my characters’ thoughts, and I’m sure many of us can afford to put more character thought into our fiction. It can be tough, and it requires a great amount of preliminary character development, but just read Donita K. Paul’s work and you’ll see – the result is worth it!

Stephen R. Lawhead - Bring it to Life with Description!

Stephen R. Lawhead

About two and a half years ago, I discovered the work of Stephen R. Lawhead. His book Hood (from the King Raven Trilogy) was the first one I read, followed quickly by the Song of Albion Trilogy and the Dragon King Trilogy (while I was waiting eagerly for Scarlet and Tuck to come out).

Mr. Lawhead is a seasoned veteran of the Christian writing industry, so I decided to make him my next subject in my series, Learn from the Pros.

The main thing I’ve learned about writing from reading Mr. Lawhead’s work is that descriptive detail is okay. Most writing experts will tell you to keep description to a necessary minimum and “let the readers fill in the details”. To a person like me, who loves describing the characters, scenery, and architecture in my stories, that advice is far from uplifting. But if we want to succeed, we just have to grin and bear it, right?

Not according to Stephen R. Lawhead.

Read his work and you’ll find it rich with vivid description – towering cities that leave you speechless, sweeping scenery so real that you feel like you’ve been there, monsters that make your stomach turn, and characters you would recognize on the street. From the breathtaking ramparts of Askelon to the ancient forests of Wales, Stephen Lawhead leaves you feeling like you’ve been there. Lived it. Touched it.

How does he do that? He describes it!

Experts tell us to let the readers use their own imagination to fill in the details. But how does that make you feel like you’re really there? When you step off of a plane in New York City, you see exactly what it looks like. You don’t have to use your imagination to “fill in the details”. The details are already there, waiting for you. And when you leave, you feel like you’ve been there, because you have been there! You craned your neck to see the tops of the skyscrapers. You stood on a sidewalk and heard the noise of rush-hour traffic. You smelled the cafes you walked past. You didn’t just see the city, you experienced the city.

Now, granted: you didn’t read every billboard you passed. You didn’t examine the physical appearance and clothing of every pedestrian you met on the sidewalk. You could not possibly take in every detail there was to take in, nor should descriptions in your writing give the reader every possible detail about the subject being described. Your story should not get lost in your descriptions, and the plot and action should still be clearly visible. (i.e. after six pages of solid description, the readers have probably forgotten what the characters are doing and why they’re doing it in the first place) But don’t get the idea that the plot and action are all you’re allowed to have. Plot is the story’s skeleton. Action is the story’s muscle. Don’t leave her at that! Put skin on her; dress her up; maybe even give her some makeup and jewelry.

Writers – especially those in the fantasy genre – don’t throw a bunch of nondescript characters into a blurry, vague world and expect them to act out some excruciatingly detailed plot. Give the characters character! Make them unique and distinct. Don’t leave your readers to wonder where they are. When a reader picks up your book, they’re accepting your invitation to enter your world. Be a good host – don’t leave them to find their own way around. Take them by the hand and show them around.

Read Stephen R. Lawhead’s work and you’ll see: there’s nothing like entering the world of a story and feeling like you really lived it!

Clive Cussler - Rules don't mean anything!

Clive Cussler: Rules don’t mean anything!

Read any book on how to make your writing better, and I guarantee that somewhere in it they’ll tell you to study published work. “Learn from the experts! Watch the pros! Study their technique and see how they do it!” So I’m starting a blog series on techniques and styles that I observe and learn from the pros simply by reading their writing. It promises to be interesting, and I’ll do my best to make it fun!

During a recent go-round with the flu, I spotted one of Clive Cussler’s novels on the dining table; having heard Clive Cussler’s work praised as everything from “riveting” to “spell-binding”, and knowing that he has written several best-sellers, I picked it up.

An amazing amount of reading can be done when you lack the energy to do anything but lay on the sofa. In one day I read the first 150 or so pages. I’ve got to be honest: the action was creative, exciting, and non-stop. It’s a wonder that Sahara is the only movie to have been made out of a Clive Cussler book.

But as far as writing style and technique go, the only thing I have learned from Mr. Cussler so far is: “Rules don’t mean anything.” Here are some examples of what I mean.

Rule: “Don’t use adverbs ending with -ly unless they are absolutely necessary! It’s better to use vivid verbs to describe the action taking place!”

Clive Cussler says: “Trembling with fear, they tenderly carried him to a canoe and gently lowered him inside … Upon reaching the beach they quickly laid him on the sand and paddled furiously back to shore.”

Rule: “Do your research and know what you’re talking about, but don’t bore your readers with unnecessary and dry details.”

Clive Cussler says: “He led a lonely private life since his wife of twenty years died from a heart attack brought on by an iron overload disease known as hemochromatosis.”

Rule: “Study the human mind. Learn how people react to different situations and give your characters realistic reactions in your writing.”

Clive Cussler says: (Setup – the main character is standing in the open doorway of a helicopter piloted by his best friend. The chopper is one of two involved in a low-altitude, low-fuel dog fight over the Peruvian jungle. The main character has only one rifle containing only two bullets. The guys shooting at him from the other chopper have a grenade launcher and twelve rifles. A conveniently beautiful girl in the main character’s chopper ties a rope around his waist “to keep you from falling out!”) As the Peruvian mercenaries position themselves to launch another grenade, the main character smiles at the girl’s thoughtfulness and calmly replies “I don’t deserve you.”

Rule: “If it has moving parts, it’s a magazine, not a clip!”

Clive Cussler says: “The gun spat twice and went silent … Pitt jerked out the clip and saw that it was empty.”

And I haven’t even finished the book yet.

So, to all writers who find themselves crushed under the oppressive weight of thousands of writing “dos” and “don’ts” I say: Take heart! It would seem that the brutal, rigid “musts” and “must nots” we fear so much are actually more like “should considers” and “might wish to avoids”. I’m not saying you should throw the rules to the ducks and let your writing get sloppy – but relax! Loosen up! This is creative writing, not nuclear physics! One little mistake isn’t going to kill anybody.

Yeah – Mr. Cussler breaks a lot of rules. Possibly uses too many adverbs. Perhaps throws in a bit too much technical detail. Made a few errors in terminology. But I have read few stories that were as fast-paced, adventurous and fun as this one. Clive Cussler obviously loves what he does, and I think that the most important lesson we can draw from his writing is … have fun!