When You’re Not Writing

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Last night I spoke to a book club in a very exclusive Dallas neighborhood.

I arrived early, because that’s the way I am. Half an hour early is almost late.

The host lived in a stunning midcentury house nestled under spreading live oaks. Since I had a tiny bit of time, I drove around the neighborhood, enjoying the architecture from a time period I loved.

In college, I pursued a degree in residential architecture before deciding that leaning over a drafting board for the rest of my life wasn’t my idea of a career. However, I had a grand old time arguing with my professor over house styles. This was 1972, and he insisted on one style of home, those new boxes everyone is remodeling now days, while I insisted on Frank Lloyd Wright style homes with huge windows and lots of open space.

By the end of the year, he promised not to fail me if I promised not to take the second half of his course. Maybe that’s the real reason I bailed on architecture.

College was a problem in many ways, not because the drinking age was eighteen, but because I had to drop out of several career opportunities such as paleontology, and geology. Being colorblind was a serious problem.

But anyway, there I was later that evening, standing in front of the fireplace in this glorious house, surrounded by more than sixty folks my age. I love talking with readers who understand what a typewriter is, or who remember the days of carbon paper, Whiteout, the Dewey Decimal System, card catalogues, and the U.S. Postal service.

That last subject comes up in our discussion of the old days when would-be authors mailed query letters and manuscripts, along with postage, or self-addressed stamped envelopes for publishing houses or editors to send the materials back, or to send back rejection notices.

I’ve probably talked with hundreds of book clubs ,organizations, or attendees at book signings about books and writing, and weave humor throughout these presentations, along with history, industry information, and the craft of writing. Panels and book signings require the same attention to audience needs.

Having done these so many times, I’ve developed a sense of timing, allowing for laughs, surprise, and for people to take a moment to realize what I’m talking about. The slow-burning fuse until they get my point. This group of folks my age was the most attentive I’ve ever encountered, reminding me of kindergartners watching a magician.

In that grand old house, my audience sat there like mannequins, some offering vague smiles, but little else. In my mind, I was falling flat. Reading the room, I changed directions on the fly, discussing how our industry has eliminated mass market paperbacks, the shrinking of shelf space, and the number of books published each month, resulting a firehose of reading opportunities for customers.

The crickets outside applauded with their chirps. I wrapped up, and opened the floor for questions or points of discussion.

A couple of people bestirred themselves.

A hand went up. “Do you outline?”

AHA! Now I knew what they wanted, and launched into my own writing process. Finished, I offered the floor for more questions and comments.

Crickets again.

A tentative hand went up. “Can you discuss how much research it takes to produce a book like Comancheria?”

That’s why I was there, and during my presentation spent a considerable amount of time discussing plot, characters, and the source of this first book in the Hollow Frontier series. The question was a breath of fresh air, and I explained my love of history, reading, and how I absorbed volumes of history before writing my books.

Our hostess finally stood at the exact time she’d previously told me the meeting would end. “Let’s thank Mister Wortham for his time and books.”

The room rose in a standing ovation. Stunned by their response, I stepped aside as the hostess finished some organization duties and the meeting was over. For the next fifteen minutes, I shook hands and accepted gracious comments thanking me for a “wonderful presentation,” and “exceptional discussion on the craft of writing and publishing,” and “for keeping us completely entertained throughout the evening.”

On the way home, I realized this group of retirees exhibited the behavior drilled into Baby Boomers way back in elementary school. Our teachers back then hammered us with “pay attention” and “be polite while the speaker has the floor.”

Tentative or inexperienced authors might have stumbled or trailed off early in their talk, but I’d seen this before. It’s all part of being a speaker, and entertainer.

The next time might be a boisterous crowd, like a wine-tasting book club I spoke to in East Texas. They were the rowdiest group I’d ever seen, and I could have read the phone book to their great enthusiasm.

The wine helped.

Other groups offer polite applause as I sit down, but then book sales might be more than anyone would have anticipated.

It’s all part of the package. Write. Publish. Promote. Speak…speak…speak.

Good luck with that.

Finding the Right Words

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By Elaine Viets

Like most writers, I love words. I like to read about them, learn new ones, find old ones. I enjoy puns and wordplay. Naturally, I depend on my dictionaries. But did you know these websites are crammed with extra information?

These days, dictionaries are much more than spelling and definitions.

Here are two of my favorite online sites.

Merriam-Webster dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/

This site usually has a topical essay about words.

After the untimely death of Catherine O’Hara, who left her mark on movies such as  Home Alone and TV’s Schitt’s Creek, Merriam-Webster had an essay on 16 words from Schitt’s Creek. The Canadian sitcom is about “the Roses, a rich family that loses its wealth and must temporarily move into a motel in a small town with the cheeky name of Schitt’s Creek,” Webster said. “By metrics of awards and international viewership, Schitt’s Creek became Canada’s most successful television series. Among the series’ memorable characters is Moira Rose, played by the late Catherine O’Hara, whose diction is, shall we say, a bit eccentric.”

One of the best words Moira used is bombilate, which means, “to buzz or drone.”

“The room is suddenly bombilating with anticipation,” Moira said.

Too bad her wonky usage of bombilate isn’t popular enough to make Webster’s. Other Moira words include Balaton, confabulate and dangersome.

I have problems sorting out affect and effect. I can’t keep those words straight. Or is it strait? Webster has this helpful article: “Affect vs. Effect and how to pick the right one.”

“The basic difference is this: affect is usually a verb, and effect is usually a noun,” Webster said. Much more useful than what my teachers told me: “An affect has an effect.” Huh?

Webster delves into the proper use of em-dashes, en-dashes and hyphens and has a list of top word look-ups. Here’s one: Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.  That’s a lake, and it’s in the US, not Wales. The lake has the longest place name in our country. There are various stories about the name’s origin, but one says the name is Native American and commemorates an 18th-century fishing treaty. It’s jokingly translated as: “You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fishes in the middle.” The lake is in Webster, Mass., and many just call it Lake Webster.

Webster (the dictionary) has a helpful section on slang and trending words.

Know what a fridge cigarette is? “A cold, refreshing and addictive soft drink.” Gruzz is an older person. (I hope that one doesn’t catch on.) An almond mom is “a mother who pushes her daughter to be skinny, through diet.” Note that the term refers to daughters, not sons, enforcing expectations that women have to be thin. Bed rotting mean staying in bed all day. Zaddy is an attractive older man. There are more, lots more slang words Webster is watching. They’re fun to explore.

Webster also features words with tricky pronunciations, including ragout.  Don’t embarrass yourself by calling that meaty stew rag-out. It’s ra-GOO.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford English Dictionary

My publisher, Severn House in London, uses the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED. It’s a little more staid that its American cousin, Merriam-Webster, but I love the research for its Word Stories.

Here’s part of the story of glamor. Excuse me, glamour.

“The schoolroom, verb tables, and Latin class seem about as far removed from our current notion of glamour as it’s possible to get,” the OED said. But grammar and glamour  “were originally the same word.”

Dull, dusty grammar “first came into English from French with the meaning ‘learning or scholarship concerning a language’, and particularly, ‘a book which contains this knowledge’. The word soon extended to the principles of any kind of learning, and to books setting out such principles.”

Grammar took a turn into the occult, and words related to grammar began to refer to “knowledge of or expertise in magic and astrology, or to manuals for invoking demons and performing general sorcery.” These words included “gramarye and grimoire . . . and, finally, glamour.”

“Since glamour entered the language it’s taken on quite the life of its own.” It’s given us “glamour puss, (a glamorous or attractive person), glamazon, (a tall, glamorous, and powerful woman), and glampsite, (a campsite for glamping – the more luxurious way to camp).”

You can subscribe to the OED, but if you can’t afford a hundred bucks, you can still look up words for free, and enjoy word lists, world English, and the history of English.

Wordsmith Tom Stoppard wrote, “I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.”

International sale: Two Dead-End Job mysteries, “Dying to Call You” and “Pumped for Murder” are $1.99 today at bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kobo, Apple and Amazon in the US and Great Britain.

Story Genius

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Story Genius
Terry Odell

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories … Ursula K. Leguin

cover of Story Genius by Lisa Cron.

I recently discovered an overlooked book in my Nook Library. Given I was in that what next after finishing Deadly Ambitions, and waiting for the release date I’d set several months in advance, I opened it.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a craft book, and our own JSB has a passel of them out there, but I’ve heard Lisa Cron speak, and I thought I’d give this one a try.

The book?  How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) by Lisa Cron. With a title like that, who could resist?

Cron quotes Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal, who says, “Functional MRI (fMRI) studies reveal that when we’re reading a story, our brain activity isn’t that of an observer, but of a participant. … Their brains are instructing their bodies to do all the things they’d do if they were actually under mortal attack.”

Cron then goes on to say that story is the original virtual reality, and it dates back to the days of the cave people. If it had no adaptive significance, it would have disappeared long, long ago.

“It turns out that great feeling you get when you’re lost in a good story, the feeling that can keep you up all night reading, is not ephemeral, it’s not arbitrary, it’s not pleasure for pleasure’s sake, it’s not even. It’s actually the biological lure, the hook that paralyzes you, making the real world vanish so you can experience the world of the story. That feeling is what compels us to drop everything and pay attention.

What actually causes that great feeling is a surge of the neurotransmitter dopamine. It’s a chemical reaction triggered by the intense curiosity that an effective story always instantly generates. It’s your brain’s way of rewarding you for following your curiosity to find out how the story ends, because you just might learn something that you need to know.”

Cron makes the distinction between plot and story.

Plot:

  • Plot is the sequence of external events — the things that happen on the surface. It’s the visible action: what the characters do, what obstacles they face, what events unfold.
  • Plot is the vehicle that delivers the story — but not the story itself.
  • As Cron puts it, plot is “what happens,” but it’s not “what it means.”

Story:

  • The story is the internal journey — the change happening inside the protagonist as a result of those external events.
  • It’s driven by the protagonist’s misbelief — a deeply held but false belief formed in the past that shapes how they see the world.
  • Every event in the plot should force the protagonist to confront and eventually reevaluate that misbelief.

Story is about how the external events (plot) affect the character and how they transform because of them. Readers care because of what those events mean to the character. Readers don’t care about events in isolation.

Cron also goes into great length about the third rail, which she says is the protagonist’s internal struggles. It’s the emotional energy source that gives power and meaning to everything that happens. Without this third rail, the plot just sits there, going nowhere emotionally.

She also stresses the protagonist’s misbelief, which is deeply ingrained, but is a false belief about themselves or the world, formed from a painful past experience. For example, the character has been hurt by someone close to them, so they don’t let anyone else close. They believe that if they stay independent, they’ll never get hurt. For character growth, they need to learn that real safety comes from trust, not isolation.

Cron goes on to offer her process for writing a novel. She had a willing volunteer who had a glimmer of a story idea, and they agreed to work together to turn that idea into a novel, and it was interesting to watch the process unfold.

Am I a follower? Not really. The closest I come is being a planster rather than a panster. Cron shows us her story cards (although you don’t need to have them all written before you start). Do I think I’ll use them? Probably not. I’m too lazy. And, they’re much more complex than scene notes on 3×5 cards (or their digital equivalent.)

What do her cards look like?

The Alpha Point – what is the scene supposed to accomplish?

Subplots – what’s going on with secondary characters?

The top row in the grid is the Plot. What happens, and the consequences.

Below that is the Third Rail – Why it matters, and what does the character realize?

Last is the And So? What happens next, which will lead into the next scene.

Cron points out that these cards don’t have to be written in order, which to my mind is a good thing. To be honest, I’m much more likely to write something like these cards after I’ve written the scene. I prefer playing with the words on the page/screen once I can see what’s happening.

And for this, Cron’s biggest takeaway for me is to keep asking Why? This is something I’ve been doing almost from the beginning of my writing gig, but it’s nice to get a reminder once in a while.

For my current wip, I knew my protagonist preferred to hide behind the lens of her camera, but I needed to know why. For Cron, getting to know characters isn’t filling out a sheet with height, weight, eye and hair color. It’s digging into their pasts, discovered what shaped their lives up to the point of Chapter 1. This becomes the back story that’s trickled in as needed.

My noodling with an opening paragraph doesn’t show any of my delving into Evvie’s  why.

Door chimes tinkled a cheerful greeting as Evvie Gale pushed open the door to the Barrington gallery. “You wanted to see me?” Smiling, she approached the counter, where Roger Barrington glanced up for a nanosecond before ducking his head, averting his gaze. Not the face of someone happy to see her. Not the expression of someone who wanted to extend an invitation to display more of Evie’s photographs.

I’m hoping readers will be interested enough in the ‘whys’ of this opening paragraph to keep reading. And, this is all subject to change as more of the plot and story unfold.

In closing, a lot of what Cron writes has been written before, with different terminology. But a rose by any other name can still help our writing.

Your turn. The floor is open.

Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Good News for Indie Authors – Bookshop.org partners with Draft2Digital

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Bookshop.org Links and Widgets

by Debbie Burke

When two people you like and respect join together in marriage, it’s cause for celebration. When two businesses you like and respect join together, it’s less romantic but still cause for celebration.

On February 4, 2026, Draft2Digital and Bookshop.org announced their new partnership. For indie authors and bookstores, this is worth popping a champagne cork.

Draft2Digital has been around since 2012 as a way to distribute ebooks to outlets including Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, as well as numerous library sites. I first learned about them in 2016 at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference and have enjoyed using their services in the years since.

Indie authors who want to “go wide” (rather than stay exclusive with Amazon) have to upload their books manually to other sales outlets. That takes a lot of time as well as learning the particular quirks of each system.

D2D streamlines that process. Upload your book once to their easy-to-maneuver site. Their formatting templates are free to use and offer various genre styles that produce good looking books.

You then choose which sellers you want and D2D automatically distributes to them. Their formatting conforms to the individual requirements of each marketplace.

There’s no upfront cost to the author because they take a percentage from sales.

For someone tech challenged (like me!), this fits the bill. I’m more than willing to give up 10% of royalties to have D2D do the heavy lifting. Their site is user friendly and their customer service is always responsive.

When D2D makes changes in terms, they are refreshingly transparent. They don’t make stealth alterations that sneak up later to bite the author in the butt (not pointing fingers here but you might guess who I’m referring to).

Bookshop.org was founded in 2020 by Andy Hunter to support independent bookstores under siege from a certain eight-billion-pound online gorilla. Bookshop.org donates a portion of profits to indie stores. To date, donations add up to more than $45 million.

Their self-described mission is:

A socially-conscious way to buy books online. We dedicate most of our profits to supporting local, independent bookstores, authors, and publications that cover books. We are preserving the profound cultural benefits of bookstores even when readers prefer the convenience of online shopping.

Increasingly I’m hearing backlash from readers and consumers in general who are disenchanted with monopolistic business practices by giant corporations. Many now refuse to buy from one particular gorilla. They prefer to support independent bookstores.

So how will this new partnership between Bookshop.org and D2D work?

Maggie Lynch, a respected colleague from the Authors Guild, summarizes the arrangement:

Bookshop.org pays royalties to the author, just like they do for print books. If you are doing this through D2D, the royalties are paid out for those ebooks to D2D who then take their percentage 10% of retail price and reimburse you with the remainder of your royalty.

In addition, 10% of all sales on Bookshop.org are added to an earnings pool that is evenly divided and distributed to independent bookstores every six months. They also have an affiliate option where they sell print books, and now ebooks, through their store. When they sell those books using the bookshop.org link the bookshop earns a 30% payment of the cover price on any sales generated from the link. NOTE: Authors can become affiliates as well but the payout is 10% instead of 30%.

Many small bookstores use Bookshop.org (I think they have 2,000 bookstores currently aligned). It is a way for brick and mortar stores to make money on the online sales, packaging, and distribution of both print and ebooks without having to invest in a website and all the sales, taxes, picking, packaging, and shipping costs for that online environment.

Thanks, Maggie! (Check out her 30+ books at this link)

The day after the announcement of the partnership, I received an email from D2D offering the option of distributing my books via Bookshop.org. The process was simple: one click to add all books at once, or each could be added individually. I clicked to add all books. Two days later, D2D sent confirmation emails that all books were up on Bookshop.org.

That illustrates how easy, responsive, and painless D2D makes it to do business with them.

As an indie author, I don’t plan to jump ship from the world’s largest bookstore because it accounts for most of my sales. But it’s good to have alternatives.

This link tells you how to add your books to Bookshop.org.

This link explains how to use D2D.

I like doing business with responsible, ethical companies like Bookshop.org and Draft2Digital. Their missions complement each other, supporting indie authors and independent bookstores.

Happy to raise a glass to toast this partnership. May they enjoy many happy years together.

~~~

TKZers: do you use Draft2Digital to distribute your books? Are your books in Bookshop.org? Please share your experiences with each. Have they been positive, negative, or mixed?

~~~

Draft2Digital offers another easy-peasy tool: the universal book link (UBL). A single link shows various markets and library sites where books are available. Please click on covers to see  UBLs to purchase books in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series:

 

Why Writers Write

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“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” ― Martin Luther

* * *

Every now and then we talk about why we feel compelled to write. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and it occurs to me that our motivation for writing may change as we grow in experience.

For example, the reason I decided to write my first novel wasn’t because I wanted to change the world or as some kind of personal catharsis. It was because I was listening to an audiobook while out running one day, and I thought I could write a mystery that was better than the one I was listening to. (A monumental act of hubris.)

When I returned home from my run, I got out my laptop and started typing. It was like being in a canoe, carried down the river by a current so strong, there was no use to fight it, even if I’d wanted to.

But as I got further into the story, I found there were things I wanted to say—about the world, society, myself—that changed my view of why I was doing this. By the time the book was published, I had arrived at a whole new perspective and a new “why” of writing.

* * *

So why do most writers write? Is there one overriding reason? Famous authors have offered their own opinions on this subject. As I read through some of their motivation for writing, I found themes of suffering, love, self-satisfaction, societal problems and more. Here are a few quotes:

“Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself…It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.” – Harper Lee

“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” – George Orwell

“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.” ― E.B. White

“I don’t know why I started writing. I don’t know why anybody does it. Maybe they’re bored, or failures at something else.” – Cormac McCarthy

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor

“I believe there is hope for us all, even amid the suffering – and maybe even inside the suffering. And that’s why I write fiction, probably. It’s my attempt to keep that fragile strand of radical hope, to build a fire in the darkness.” – John Green

“That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can’t control life, at least you can control your version.” – Chuck Palahniuk

“I write for those that have no voice, for the silent ones who’ve been damaged beyond repair; I write for the broken child within me…”
― Nitya Prakash

“I write because I love writing. I think I became a writer in order to explore my ideas and responses to the world around me, which I often found it difficult to share with others. Also I liked my autonomy, and a writer can choose his or her own working hours – midnight to dawn or whenever.” – Alex Miller

* * *

But you don’t have to be famous to have a gripping reason to write a book. A few weeks ago, my husband and I hosted a local author event for the community we live in. I had asked each of the ten published authors to send me a statement about why they write. Take a look.

As a former ICU nurse and family caregiver, I want to bring God’s hope to anyone facing a health crisis. —Tracy Crump

“I love teaching and encouraging young children. What better way than through story telling! In my barnyard adventures, I teach values and character building in relatable situations. I love how it gives parents a way to spend time with their child while learning values.” —Becky Thomas

“My stories are tales of trials and victory against impossible odds, carrying the message of enduring hope—because fantasy teaches us that with courage and resilience, we can persevere through the most extraordinary things.” —Beth Alvarez

“I created a coloring book to help kids and kids-at-heart relax and take some quiet time to bring color into their lives. We should live life in every color!” —Annette Teepe

“I write because I want to reach out to young readers who may currently have no spiritual interests that they might discover the difference Jesus can make in their lives and consider following Him.” —Larry Fitzgerald

“I write for the Lord, Kay, Arthur, myself, decency, and to add a drop to the sea of literature.” —Frank DiBianca

“My five mystery novels are set primarily in the historic Memphis area during the post war 1940s. They include action, some gun play, humor and even a little romance now and then.” —Nick Nixon

“Countless books have been written about every Beatles song ever recorded, but I really wanted to read a book about all the hits they had as solo artists. Since that book didn’t exist, I decided to write it.” —Gary Fearon

“I write mysteries because they reflect what I believe—that truth is worth pursuing, and that critical thinking, perseverance, and faith will lead us there.” —Kay DiBianca

* * *

So TKZers:  Why do you write? And more specifically, why are you writing the current book you’re working on? Or any book in your backlist. Has your reason for writing changed over time?

 

Only a single star could reveal the truth buried beneath decades of lies. And only one woman had the courage to follow its light.

Click the image to go to the Amazon book detail page.

Does Your Story Have Speed and Snap?

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Some questions for you today as we consider what we write and what readers want from our writing.

A book recently showed up on Project Gutenberg called Plotting the Short Story. It was published in 1922, just as the golden age of pulp was taking off. And while its focus was on short-form writing, I found much of what it said relevant to full-length. Let’s have a look:

The modern short story calls for speed and snap. We have made this remark before, but, if one is to judge by the number of spineless manuscripts that swell the average editor’s daily mail, it will bear repetition many times. The story must be placed before the reader with trip-hammer strokes. Readers who seek mental relaxation in short stories are usually busy people who read in much the same manner that they eat—“quick-lunch” style. They have not the time to wade through pages of rambling descriptive matter or absorb weighty paragraphs of philosophic reflection. They refuse to be instructed; they want to be amused, and like their stories served up piping hot, as it were.

Don’t you think that still hold true? Certainly people are busier than ever. The year 1922 seems positively soporific compared to today. And consumers of commercial fiction still “seek mental relaxation” (which is another way of saying don’t make them work too hard to figure out what’s going on, or wear them out with “weighty paragraphs.” (See Pat’s post and the comments thereto).

On method:

There are a great many writers, of course, especially among those who have “arrived,” who do not find it necessary to commit their plots to paper, but who work them out in their minds before they begin their stories, or build them up detail by detail after their stories are begun. To these writers, plot balance and movement have become instinctive, and they find that their words flow easier and that their imaginations are more active when they begin their stories with only a half-formed plot in mind or, indeed, with no plot at all, their theory being, that the creative mental powers are given fuller play if permitted to invent while the story itself is in the process of development than if forced to form a fixed plot-plan before the story has begun to materialize.

Your dedicated panster could not have put it more elegantly. But a word of warning:

But in the main these writers rely upon word-grouping (style) more than upon plot to put their stories “over,” and even the best of those who adopt this policy occasionally come to grief, for it is not an easy matter to fashion a plot and beautifully formed word groups at one and the same time. Such a plan, if consistently followed, usually proves fatal to the beginner.

A technically-correct plot upon which to build one’s story is as essential to success as a thorough understanding of the language of one’s country; and the only way for the novice to make sure his plots are free from technical flaws is for him to work them out on paper, according to fixed rules, with the same care that he would use in solving a knotty mathematical problem.

This describes my own journey. I was a free-flowing pantser at first, traipsing joyfully in the meadows of my imagination each day, trusting that it would lead to the kinds of stories I loved to read. It didn’t.

Authors…should therefore make an exhaustive study of the plot, calling to their aid several authoritative text books in order to get the teacher’s point of view, and analyzing the stories they read in the current magazines so they can get a line on the plot as it is handled by successful writers, and at the same time become acquainted with the editorial preferences of the different periodicals.

So I started to study, diligently, and apply what I was learning to my writing. Then I started to sell. Thus, I do believe getting foundational plot principles into a writer’s “muscle memory” will save them years of frustration:

Once the simple rules of plot construction become fixed in his mind, and he gets the feel of the plot, the writer can begin a story with nothing to build on but a vague idea and a burning desire with some hope of working out a well-proportioned plot after the story is well under way, but until he does master these rules he courts disaster each time he begins a story unless he has worked out his plot in advance.

Toward the end, the author states:

Enthusiasm is the chief requisite in plot making.

That is, plot principles alone aren’t enough. To this must be added—

—a spark…that starts a conflagration in the writer’s brain and makes him an object to be pitied until he sits down before his typewriter and pounds out a story to make us sit up half the night to read. 

A machine can construct a plot. It can even produce “competent” fiction. But as Brother Gilstrap recently put it, “Stories need to be more than conduits for plots and twists. Books we love connect with us emotionally because a human author infused that emotion into their work.”

All of it works together—plot, speed, snap, spark. You must learn them through experience, and without an aversion to that little word work.

Comments welcome.

Coffee Words of Wisdom

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Coffee.

Not only is it the beverage of choice for many millions of people, it’s a staple of fiction, movies and TV. The bleary-eyed police detective pouring sludge from the bottom of the pot to keep going during a long day at the station house, or maybe pouring out one more cup of java from the thermos while on stakeout during a long, cold night. Or perhaps what our two prospective romantic leads are waiting to order in line at the local coffee shop when they meet cute.

It’s also the fuel of choice for many writers needing a kick to get themselves going at the keyboard.

Coffee is also at the center of a number of cozy mysteries, such as a favorite of mine, the Coffeehouse series by Cleo Coyle, and I don’t even drink coffee.

In honor of coffee, I delved into the KZB archives to find three posts about “the sacred bean.” Not one but two posts by James Scott Bell, and a third by Sue Coletta. All three posts were short enough that I am sharing each in full here.

What do you brew to do what you do?

For most writers through the centuries, it’s been the coffee bean, the seed of the genus coffea. Nothing like a good cup of joe in the morning to get the mind rolling, the fingers pounding and the mind coming up with stuff to happen in the scene you’re working on.

Perhaps the greatest exponent of the jamoke treatment was Honoré de Balzac. He believed its properties were magical, and proved his devotion by writing over 100 novels, novellas and stories on what was, essentially, speed.

His practice was to wake up around midnight and have his servants cook up the thickest coffee imaginable. Think tar with a little sugar. He’d down brew after brew, for up to fifteen hours, letting the stimulant feed his imagination.

He died of caffeine poisoning at the age of 51.

In more moderate quantities, coffee has proved to be universal in its appeal since its discovery in the fifteenth century. According to the definitive treatise All About Coffee (William H. Ukers, 1922):

All nations do it homage. It has become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency. People love coffee because of its two-fold effect—the pleasurable sensation and the increased efficiency it produces.

Coffee has an important place in the rational diet of all the civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it the drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of the men and women who do the world’s work, whether they toil with brain or brawn. It has been acclaimed “the most grateful lubricant known to the human machine,” and “the most delightful taste in all nature.”

Personally, I have found coffee to be as Kipling found a good cigar: Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes. 

And a companion for every novel I’ve ever written.

So do you have any coffee rituals, favorite blends, or go-to coffee joints? If you don’t you have a speciality brew, you should look at websites like Little Coffee Place for some inspiration.

And if the coffee bean is not your thing, what is your drink of choice for doing time at the keyboard?

James Scott Bell—September 17, 2012

 

In my one-day workshops I do an exercise called “Shocking Coffee.” You, the author, imagine you are seated with your main character over a cup of coffee. She tells you she doesn’t think you’ve quite captured her. That surprises you a bit. I mean, after all, you created her.

So you ask, “In what way?” And your character tells you something that shocks you. What is it? (I have the students write for one minute.)

Then I say: You’ve spit out your coffee. Your character hands you a napkin and then tells you something even more shocking! (Write for one minute.)

I was conducting this at a recent conference, and while the students were writing a voice said, “Wow!”

Another voice chimed in. “Exactly!”

And everyone laughed. When we were done I asked a few people to share what they’d come up with. One woman said this clarified the entire novel for her. Another said this offered a whole new direction she’d never thought of.

But one student, a middle-aged man, seemed troubled. He had explained earlier in the workshop that his story was about a man carrying around a load of guilt because he’d accidentally killed his brother years ago. He fears that if his secret ever gets out it will hurt a number of people.

Now he said, “The more shocking thing he told me was that he intended to kill his brother, because he was jealous.”

There were audible oohs and ahhs throughout the room.

“But,” the man protested, “this would make him totally unsympathetic.”

The oohs and ahhs turned to No! and You’re wrong! 

I asked the students, “Who is more interested in this book now?”

All the hands shot up.

The author still seemed confused.

I told him it doesn’t matter where the character has come from, or what he’s done, so long as he’s got the capacity to change and the will to try. We will follow a character like that, hoping for his redemption. Indeed, it’s one of the most powerful engines of fiction.

What had just happened was that the author, by way of a simple exercise, had gone deeper into his material than ever before. Before, he’d stopped at a “safe place.” Now he had pushed past that, and it scared him a little.  (For more on this, see my post here.)

To push through the safe places, try these exercises:

  1. Have a cup of shocking coffee with your Lead. Shocking and more shocking.
  2. Chair through the window: Imagine your character in a nice room with a big, bay window. She picks up a chair and throws it through the glass. Why would she do that? Come up with a reason. Next, write a crazy reason she’d do that. What is this telling you about your Lead?
  3. Closet search: What does your character have hidden in her closet that she doesn’t want anyone—anyone—to find?

More material like this can be found in my course, How to Write Bestselling Fiction.

James Scott Bell—February 23, 2020

I recently had a reader comment, “I noticed most of your characters are tea drinkers. Is that because you are?”

I said yes. Here’s the expanded answer…

I’m allergic to coffee. So, I have no frame of reference for it. None. I’ve never stepped foot inside Starbucks. Wouldn’t even know what one looked like, never mind the sights and smells inside. When my son and daughter-in-law rattle off half-cap, blah, blah, blah, with a shot of blah, blah, blah, they may as well be speaking a foreign language. They’d gain the same reaction from me—a blank stare, my eyes glazed over.

Now, I’ve never serial killed, either, but neither have my readers (I hope). Coffee is too well-known for me to fake it. And let’s face it, we live in a coffee-rich environment, where it’s one of the most popular products on the market. Even if I researched the subject to death, I’m bound to screw up a minor detail. And nothing tears a reader out of a story faster than a mistake about something they know well. The few times I’ve ever even mentioned coffee, I got in and out in one sentence.

I’m not a wine connoisseur, yet Mayhem is. The difference is, I’ve tasted wine.Many wines. 😉 It’s not a favorite of mine, but at least I have some frame of reference. Mayhem is also well-versed in fine dining, and I’m not. But the average reader won’t spend $500-$1,000 on one meal, either. For those that do, I listen to my editor, who not only knows her wine but has made almost all of the fancy dishes I’ve included in my books. When she says that appetizer doesn’t go well with this meal, I change it. No questions asked.

I love how she handles it, too. The comment will read something like, “Mm-mm, sounds yummy… but you know what works better with that dish? Blah, blah, blah.” Or “Yum, but that dish isn’t typically made with cream. It’s made with blah, blah, blah.” Cracks me up every time!

Know your limits. It’s okay to include a detail you’re unfamiliar with if you’re willing to reach out to consultants to check your scene. If you get it wrong, don’t be too stubborn to fix it. We can’t know everything.

You might be thinking, “Why don’t you ask someone about coffee?” It wouldn’t work. I’d have to follow a coffee drinker around to figure out the tiny details they don’t even consider. Things like:

  • How do you order? In the movies it looks complicated.
  • How does it feel to wait in line for your morning coffee?
  • What if they run out of your favorite? Then what?
  • Does everyone have a backup flavor?
  • What’s the difference between flavor and brew?
  • When is the right time of day to switch from hot to iced?
  • Does iced taste different from hot? How so?
  • What do all those pumps do?
  • What do those cap things mean?
  • Do you get jittery afterward?
  • Do you get tired without it?
  • How many cups is enough? How many is too much?
  • What does it taste like? (Describe coffee to someone with no frame of reference)
  • Is it an addiction or pleasure? Or both?
  • How did you decide on half-caps and pumps? What did that transition look like?
  • Does everyone start out drinking it black?
  • Why is espresso served in a tiny cup?
  • Is espresso different from regular coffee? I know it’s stronger, but why?
  • Is coffee measured by caffeine? Quality of beans?
  • What about cappuccino? How is that different from regular?
  • How do they draw those little hearts on top?
  • Do baristas use special tools? What do those look like? Do they get hot? Cold?
  • Why are coffee shops so popular?
  • Why do people hang out in coffee shops? Is it a social thing?
  • Why do the sound of coffee shops soothe some people?
  • Describe the sound and smells of Starbucks.
  • How long would you wait in line for your favorite coffee?
  • Why can’t you make it at home?
  • How much do the fancy coffees cost per cup?
  • Is iced cheaper than hot? Or vice versa? And why.

I could go on and on. There are too many variables with coffee.

Sue Coletta—September 18, 2023

***

This time the questions for you all come from the original posts.

  1. “So do you have any coffee rituals, favorite blends, or go-to coffee joints? If you don’t you have a speciality brew, you should look at websites like Little Coffee Place for some inspiration. And if the coffee bean is not your thing, what is your drink of choice for doing time at the keyboard?”
  2. “So when was the last time one of your characters surprised you? Did you go with it or resist it? What techniques do you use to deepen characters in your fiction?”
  3. “Anyone want to take a crack at any of my questions? Try describing the taste to me.”

Reader Friday: Three Things to Forget About

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“I tell would-be writers that there are three things to forget about. First, talent. I used to worry that I had no talent, and it compelled me to work harder. Second, inspiration. Habit will serve you a lot better. And third, imagination. Don’t worry, you have it.” — Octavia Butler

What are your thoughts on the mix of talent, work, and imagination? 

Slow Opening–A Death Knell Or Not?

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I don’t normally scroll on Facebook. I don’t have time, but during the “Icemageddon” in Mississippi last week with no electricity and my computer dead, I suddenly found myself on my phone, scrolling Facebook every hour (make that every 15 minutes). Trust me, I was not meant to be a pioneer. That said, I did learn a thing or two.

One, people do crazy things when roads ice over. I don’t know how many videos I saw of grown men flying down a hill on a garbage can lid. I guess that’s my home state’s idea of a sled. And then there was the guy who ignored the barricades in front of an underpass that was flooded…that’s the photo at the top of the page…

I  also landed on a post where readers were dissatisfied with a book that everyone raved about. Over and over there were comments like: “I’m having the hardest time getting through this book.” Or “I found it took me several chapters to get into and then it ended up being an all time favorite.” “Or If you can struggle through this one then the next two are so much better.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never stayed with a book I couldn’t get into even if people told me that I’d love it after XX amount of chapters if I stuck with it. I’m sorry, but If a story doesn’t interest me by the end of Chapter 1, I’ll put it down. And before I buy a new author, I always read the sample chapters. That way I know if I’ll like it.

Does that mean I won’t like a story that isn’t action-packed? Or that a writer can’t open with a slow start? No. An example is Raymond Carver’s short story “Put Yourself in My Shoes”. It doesn’t start with a bang, and every sentence doesn’t advance the story the way I usually like. It’s a story about a writer who has writer’s block. He gets a call from his wife and agrees to meet her at a bar. Here’s an early paragraph:

Myers put the vacuum cleaner away. He walked down the two flights and went to his car, which was in the last stall and covered with snow. He got in, worked the pedal a number of times, and tried the starter. It turned over. He kept the pedal down.

Shortly after that paragraph is another one:

As he drove, he looked at the people who hurried along the sidewalks with shopping bags. He glanced at the gray sky, filled with flakes, and at the tall buildings with snow in the crevices and on the window ledges. He tried to see everything, save it for later. He was between stories, and he felt despicable.

No big problem in the opening. The character was doing mundane, boring things. So, why did I keep reading? Because I’d been where the character was–not between stories, but no idea where I was going in the story I was working on. He captured how I focused on everything but the story. it also described how I felt when I didn’t want to deal with a problem I was facing, and I think readers identify with that.

I’d like to say I came up with the idea of this post, but it came from a post on Jane Friedman’s blog by Seth Harwood. You can read it here. Sometimes we do need to slow down our stories to invoke mood, or theme, or develop a character. But as Harwood noted, the character is doing something–he put away, he walked, he drove…

Okay TKZers, how about you? Would or have you read the rest of Carver’s short story “Put Yourself in My Shoes”?