Where to start?

The simplest answer is anywhere you want.

Consider the kind of fiction you like.  Start with your favorite authors-- look at how they approach beginnings.  If you are on a tight budget, go to a library.  If that seems old-fashioned (sigh, anguish) then click over to your favorite Amazon free-peek and browse the opening lines.  Take a look at the start of the novel or story. What opening lines/paragraphs draw you in?  What hooks you?  Most people are inspired to write because someone impressed them.  Most writers start out as readers.  Somebody cast a spell on you with their words.  Probably that is why you want to return the favor.

Here are a handful of my favorite starts:

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.  Not that all months aren't rare.   But there be bad and good, as the pirates say.  Take September, a bad month:  school begins.  Consider August, a good month: school hasn't begun yet. July, well, July's really fine:  there's no chance in the world for school.  June,  no doubting it, June's best of all, for the school doors swing wide and September's a billion years away."

                                      --Something Wicked this Way Comes, Ray Bradbury

"It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning.

                                      -- "A Worn Path,"  Eudora Welty

"I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work.  I read it, and I couldn't believe it, and I read it again.  The perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint spelling out his name, spelling out the story.  I stared at it in the swinging lights of  the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside."

                                      --"Sonny's Blues,"  James Baldwin

"Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not at the subconscious level where savage things grow."

                                       --Carrie, Stephen King

"My earliest memories involve fire."

                                     --A Drink Before the War, Dennis Lehane

"My father said he saw him years later playing in a tenth-rate commercial league in a textile town in Carolina, wearing shoes and an assumed name."

                                     --Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella

These are a few opening gambits that grab me--but the opening lines of stories and books that you love will probably teach you more than any list that I could provide.  I like Lawrence Block's mysteries.  He's another writer I've mentioned that has shared his wisdom.  I notice he almost always begins with some sort of action and a time stamp.  At the very least he likes to play with numbers in his openers:

"On the last Thursday in September, Lisa Holtzmann went shopping on Ninth Avenue."

                                       -- The Devil Knows Your Dead, Lawrence Block

I include that one because it is something of a professional practice in crime fiction.

Here's a classic from Kate Chopin:

"Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars."

                                       --"A Pair of Silk Stockings" Kate Chopin

It can be simple. "Call me Ishmael" is about as simple an opening as there is...and it is attached to a whale of a story. (Ow.)  The point?  Simple is good if you are stuck. And the truth is that you can always go back and change it.  Don't let the notion of a perfect start stop you from starting at all.

This list could go on, but again, check out the stories and novels that you like, that drew you in, that grabbed you and led you to actually read the tale.

Please allow me to digress:  In my blog about description I pointed out that a handy trick to build your skills is to try copy-writing the prose of an author you like.  If you have not tried this, and you feel stuck or lack confidence in your skills-- try it.

One of the most fun moments you will have is that EUREKA! moment when you realize that you would not have written that sentence in that way.  That you could, in fact, have written that one sentence better.  Every time I look at something I've written I find a reason to rewrite, something to improve.  Alas.

But when you see this in the work of a real honest-to-God professional-- wow.  You start to realize that yes, maybe you can.

And if you stick with it, you will.

So back to that sticky problem of where-to-begin.

The answer is:  right now.

10 Rules to Live By

About a million years ago, someone challenged me to create a list of "ten rules to live by."  It was one of those indirect challenges that show up on your favorite browser through various social media marketing strategies.

Usually such a challenge is the attempt of some wannabe self-help guru that can't think of any other way to get your attention that day.

While I admire the often good intentions that lead to such a list, I rarely see any point in giving it further consideration than the few seconds it takes for me to scan it on my feed.

But...

Sometimes life happens, and you give it more thought, and those thoughts snowball into a fit and spasm that forces you to write about it before you will be allowed to move on to something else.  So, with apologies for an introduction that is way too long-- here's my list: 

1. You have to love and respect yourself before you can love and respect anybody else.  Treating others as you yourself would like to be treated means you have to love yourself too.  Otherwise the whole thing doesn't work.  Those periods in my life when I lost my sense of self-respect are those periods in my life when I've felt the most miserable.  I am at my happiest when I believe that I am taking the right course of action.

2.  Someone once said that when you lose, don't lose the lesson.  That seems to promote learning the hard way.  But, the hard way is still a valid way to learn.  Whatever setbacks or obstacles or tragedies befall you, do not fail to see-- and learn from-- the lesson.  That which does not kill you can make you stronger, but only if you build on the rock of the lesson and not the quicksand of victimhood. So you learned the hard way-- learning is learning. When you have fallen on your face, own up to it and be thankful that you have the strength to get up again. Or make art.  Pain can translate into great art.

3.  Sometimes it is better to love and be silent.

4.  You can't control what others say and do.  You can control what you say and do, and lead by example.  

5.  Worry is a waste of time and energy.  Don't worry.  If you find that you are worried about something, take appropriate action.  Focus on what you can do, not that which is out of your control.

6.  Respect for your loved ones does not mean giving up on your values for their whims.

7.  Work hard; more important, work smart.

8.  Tolerance, art, and diversity are not luxuries; they are facts of a beautiful life.

9. When all else fails, help, teach, learn, and be kind.  That is not giving up or giving in, and even when you die trying, you die a hero.

10.  Love is the most important thing.  If everything else is based on love, then you've got a list worth having.

To paraphrase John Lennon, I hope I passed the audition.  The next blog will be about writing again. Honest.

On second thought, maybe this one is about writing.

Setting the Scene: Nothing up Your Sleeve or Pulling a Rabbit Out of Your Head and On to the Page

I think the best way to approach description is to remember that it is part of the story.  Giving the reader a sense of place is a part of your job as a writer of fiction.  Description is not the story.

Description should serve the story, not the other way around.

I'm not discounting the power of description or its place in fiction.  I'm just saying that you should not get too hung up about writing long descriptive paragraphs (unless you want to, and it serves your story-- all elements of fiction serve story).

We live in an incredibly visual age. Digital photography is everywhere. Old texts (books, novels, short stories from say, 1950 and back) tend to be loaded (over-burdened, top-heavy) with description.  Just ask many of my former students, who bemoaned having to read Great Expectations.  (As a matter of fact, I love Dickens in general and Great Expectations is a great novel).

David Morrell, the author that invented Rambo in First Blood, has a PhD in American Literature.  He taught for many years in addition to writing popular novels.  Bottom line:  He knows his stuff.

Morrell's advice is great.  He points out that visual description is the weakest, and should always be paired up with the other senses.  The 5 senses are key to understanding what draws the audience into the environment of your story.  He favors a kind of triangulation of sensory detail using three of the five senses.  He'll change it up, sometimes 2, sometimes one-- and if he has to cut one or two-- he'll try to cut the visual.

Scene description and character development go hand in hand.  Why?  Because people see, smell, hear, taste and feel. The impact on how a character perceives the world in the way you tell the story is obvious if you are using the first-person point of view.  Most popular fiction uses third-person limited to one or more characters, usually separated by chapter breaks.

Out of necessity, I'm going to keep it short, knowing that I will come back to the subject in future posts.  Frankly, this subject could easily be a class all by itself.  I don't claim any special expertise either.

In the meantime-- pick up a favorite book-- any work of fiction you like.  Any work of fiction that is the type of book/story you want to write would work just fine.

Pick a scene from that book.  Any scene could work, but pick one that you like AND has description.  Take some time to copy that scene by hand or just type it.  Watch how the pro got that scene into your head.

Next, take a scene when a new character is being introduced-- a major character preferably-- this time anyway.  Do the same thing.  Notice what details he/she used to get that character across.  Please note, I'm NOT suggesting that you plagiarize-- this is called practice.  It is one thing to read that passage in the moment when you are into the story.  It is something else to have to type it or write it out long hand.  Don't be overwhelmed by the idea.  You won't believe how useful it will be. You will notice how the pro gives you the answer to your questions about "how to"-- and this is something you should do whenever you feel like putting in "practice."  That is what it is.  Just like a ball player or a ballerina.  The practice gets you ready for "showtime."

Try it.

Have fun!  It should be fun.  Keep writing your own stuff, apply what you have learned about scene writing, characterization, description from the same writers you like to read. You are going to notice the stuff that makes fiction tick.  I know it sounds like a chore.

Trust me,  I wish I had done this thirty years ago.  (Yes, THIRTY freaking years ago).

Good Luck and Keep Writing!

Great Writing Advice: 4 Links and 4 Books

Here's a short roundup of great writing advice I've compiled over the years.  This stuff works for me, and might work for you too. This is not even close to being a comprehensive list, but these are a handful of my favorite go-to articles when I feel stuck and need to get going again.

• Laymon's Rules of Writing, Horror Writers Association

I know of the late Richard Laymon's work from the above essay and reading one of his short stories, Hammerhead, found in a collection called The Museum of Horrors.  Very creepy. His advice is sound. His fiction is scary.

• Reid's Interview With Joe R Lansdale

My guess is that if you know about Joe R. Lansdale you most likely discovered him via the novella, Bubba-Ho-Tep, which was made into a movie starring B-movie actor Bruce Campbell (If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor) as the late Elvis, King of Rock n' Roll and intrepid Mummy hunter.  Reid's interview with Lansdale is first rate-- and perfect for those getting started and unsure of how to get going.

• Time to Write Interview: Novelist Dennis Lehane on How to be a Writer

Dennis Lehane's work is everywhere.  Read it.  My favorite Lehane book is Mystic River, with Shutter Island a close second. Oh, they were made into pretty good movies, too.

• Great advice from Joe Hill

Author Joe Hill is author Stephen King's son, so it is a safe bet he is getting some good advice from his old man.  Joe's short story collection is wonderful.  It's called 20th Century Ghosts.  Find it and read it.  I also enjoyed his breakout first novel Heart-Shaped Box.  Frightened at the prospect of writing a novel?  Joe's advice is right on time.

In addition to the above links, I'm going to add 4 of my favorite books on the subject:

• The first, and my long-time favorite, is by the late, great Ray Bradbury:  Zen and the Art of Writing.  The man was exploding with passion and enthusiasm for his work.  I can't recommend ZATAOW enough. My favorite Bradbury novel (he's mostly known for short stories) is Something Wicked this Way Comes. 

• The second is literally related to Joe Hill, above.  Stephen King's On Writing is not only a favorite of many who would want to know how fiction works (at least King's fiction) but I suspect it is also an example of a father trying to give the best possible advice to his son on how to break into the family business.  Truly, Uncle Stevie is the fellow you want by your side when the voice of the quitties is shouting you down and making you feel like you just canna do it.  (Bonus Book: If you are interested in horror in particular and fantasy/science fiction in general please consider reading King's other nonfiction masterpiece Danse Macabre for a second helping from the master).

• The third is Bird by Bird by Ann Lamotte.  This is a truly inspirational book.  Writing is a lonely business, and the voice of Ann Lamotte is a whisper and shout of kindness and encouragement.

• Fourth is a book by mystery writer Lawrence Block.  If you want straight talk from a seasoned professional novelist, the tough guy in the room-- read Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print.  My favorite part is his chapter on what to do when you get stuck. I have to add that I consider this hard to find book the most practical of the bunch.  Not the best necessarily, but the most practical for the do-it-yourself-er. 

Best of luck and keep writing!