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07/20/2004: "On writing..."

From an email where I answered some of the questions readers frequently ask.

* * *

Hi, Dennis.

Sorry it took me a while to get back to this. You had some questions about writing...

[The reasons for writing to you at this time is to ask you how you got your first novel published. I know that your mom has written many articles and your stepfather was also editor of The National Enquirer. This may or may not had a part in your decision to become a writer. Are there any books that you read that helped you become a writer or did it come naturally as you sat in front of a typewriter/word?]

Basically, I was really lucky. Or blessed. Or both. I met an agent in about 1981. A couple of years later, I contacted her when I finished my first manuscript. She'd retired but referred me to an agent in New York. I sent him a chapter, an outline, and a stamped postcard he could send back to me if he wanted to see the whole manuscript. (I was trying to make it as easy on him as possible.) He bit and we were off to the races.

I can't say it's been all smooth sledding since then. The publishing business means swimming with sharks, but it's provided a nice second income for me and been a good creative outlet.

As for deciding to become a writer, I didn't really decide. I just kind of did it. I intended to go to law school, but I got a job at a newspaper until I could get the mojo up to go stomach going back to school -- but I never did. To be perfectly honest, I didn't plan to get a job in journalism period. I was an English major, but I understood how the biz worked from my mom. I'm afraid I was just following the course of least resistance and grabbed for something I knew about instead of being more adventurous. I briefly had a gig editing romance novels (gag), which let to one of those, "Hey, I can do this" moments. I ended up writing horror because I thought it would be fun and might sell.

As for books and inspiration and all that stuff, I suggest you read some books on screenwriting. A script is fairly formatted and even ritualistic in the where the acts and plot points fall. Maybe it's just me, but I've found it very helpful to plan books as if they were movies -- 35 or 40 steps, the setting the major conflict up somewhere between the 3rd and 7th step, having things looking most bleak for the hero at the close of the second of three acts, etc. Here's a web site with some great free articles about screenplays that apply to writing fiction; click the ARTICLES tab:

http://www.writersstore.com/index.php

Here's the Amazon link to Lew Hunter's book, which I got a lot out of:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039951838X/qid=1090267453/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-7863311-4057769?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

At both the Writers Store and Amazon you'll see a bunch of links to software that will help you outline books, develop characters and whatnot. I've tried a few of these but I can't say I found them especially useful.

[Fiction seems to flow freely when I start to write a story. My kids love me to make up stories at bedtime. Now I feel perhaps it is time to put the stories into book form and see if anyone is interested. My stories often involve settings in the northwest, or on the islands near my home. There is plenty to write about and putting into a novel seems like a natural idea.]

You might as well give it a try! I think most bright people can write a decent manuscript, if they're stubborn enough to stick with it and finish. I'm not really sure whether short stories sell these days. If that's the format you prefer, you could certainly try to publish some of them in regional magazines. It won't pay a ton, but money isn't probably why you're interested in writing (though it's always nice when you get some).

If you're thinking about a novel, I recommend you do some thinking about doing a "genre" book that an agent will have a chance of selling, but in the end you really just have to follow your heart. However, you'll have better luck getting published if the editor you pitch knows that it's "like" some other book that sold zillions of copies.

Got to run. Hope this helps. If you want to write back and give me more details about what you're thinking about writing and I can maybe give you slightly better advice.

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