Terry’s Thoughts

Good morning, Monument, Colorado from Atlanta, where this morning we received our first frost of the season.

This Saturday, we face a challenge. (No, not Obama v. McCain.) The challenge is an internal one, and it is a challenge you may never attempt for the rest of your life.

I have good news for you: The Universe is conspiring to see that you succeed. These are not my words, but Paulo Coelho from his work, The Alchemist. To paraphrase:  

    1. Discover your dream and strive to fulfill it,
    2. Aid others in fulfilling their dreams, and
    3. Never impede another’s quest to fulfill his dream.

Unfortunately, not everyone, however, is capable of discovering and/or achieving their goal. (Oddly, not everyone wants to.) Most people are content with having a dream and not achieving it–for a variety of reasons. And then there’s us.

We are different. We are dreamers. We are the people others wish they could become. We are the writers who help them articulate what is possible in a world where everything seems so complicated and overwhelming.

When I was your age, I read Frank Herbert’s Dune series (at the time, there were four books), and for the first time, I discovered how wonderful it felt to become lost in a vast and imaginary world. The emotion carried me, and I began to see how my life as an author could be sculpted into the same, if only I put in the time to become skilled in the trade. To make writing appear effortless, to make the words invisible to the reader so that only the story shines, is hard. If it were easy, everyone would be writing a book, and all of your friends would be typing out 50,000 words in 30 days.

Good writing ain’t easy. It takes hard work to make writing look effortless.

And it takes reading and studying and practice and often, some very thick skin.

I commend you. You are taking the next step to creating worlds of your own, and you are about to discover something many people will never understand: Writing and Creating is Your Gift to the World. How many professions can say this? A lawyer can’t. An economist can’t. A taxidermist may be able to stuff an elk (I suppose this is a type of gift to the world), but he can’t articulate the visceral experience to make someone feel how he feels when he removes a heart and pretends to be Dr. Frankenstein.

In 30 days, you will know what is like to be challenged in a way you have never felt before. Let me warn you now, all of you may not make it. (Or should I say, all of Us may not make it.) The first step to success is to plan for success, and we must plan to succeed. Alas, Life does not always cooperate. November will bring snow. The resorts will open. My board is waxed and is ready to make that first run. But I won’t be going. I have made a commitment to myself and to my trade: I will write my words. And if Life prevents me, let no one say I/we didn’t try.

After all, how hard could it be? Doing the math, 50,000 is 12,500 words per week. If I write 2000 words per day, it’ll only take 25 days. And 2000 words a day is only 400 words for 5 hours, which leaves most of the day to do other things: like eat turkey. If we approach this in pieces, this is a very doable goal: 400 words an hour for a few hours a day. Can you do that?

(John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 100 almost consecutive days of 2000 words each day.)

I need to make a confession here: sometimes I write faster but often I write slower.

Fortunately, I have made a promise to myself that I would like you to make to yourselves: “I will push forward. I will not look backward and edit.”

NaNo is all about quantity over quality. No one is going to grade you. This is all about you and what it means to create your world. No one will understand–but other writers.

As for the editing, we’ll leave that for December.

Back to my opening point: this may be the only time in your life that you attempt this project. Writing may not be for you, and if it isn’t don’t worry. You will encounter “writer’s block.” We all do. Don’t worry. Fix whatever doesn’t work later. For November, our goal is 400 words an hour. Hey, that’s 200 words in 30 minutes. Hey, my grandmother can text 100 words in five minutes (she has fast thumbs). Think in pieces; it’ll all add up.

You can do it. We can do it together. We will do it.

This may be the only time in your life you ever attempt this…or you may become the next J.K. Rowling…all because you believed in yourself.

I believe in your dreams, too, and I promise to do everything in my power to see that you succeed.

GOOD LUCK TO US!

Ready, set, write!

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost Writer and Novelist
WWW.TerryBanker.com

P.S. Bob: I hope to hear the status report in December. Finally, WAY TO GO MALLORY! 

As the old expression says, if you have an infinite number of monkeys hitting random keys on an infinite number of keyboards, eventually, they will type out the entire works of Shakespeare. Or as Dogbert told Dilbert, it would take one monkey ten minutes to type out Dilbert’s life story. 

The real question here is a matter of quality or quantity, as writing a novel is a daunting task to anyone working on a novel. Take for example, www.nanowrimo.org:

Every November, writers from around the world seemingly disappear into their caves or coffee houses for 30 days, unmissed by their families and friends. Have you seen Terry? Nope. He’s probably in the garage. This is a good thing for writers. We need our privacy. As Stephen King says, “Write with the door closed; edit with it open.” During NaNo November, the door is definitely closed. And since our families believe we’re in the garage anyway, we’ll hardly be missed. 

Thus, November is a quantity month, as the goal of NaNo is words. 50,000 of them in 30 days. Daunting? Yes, until you do the math. 

Now, writers aren’t notorious for our math skills. Let me tell you 50k words is a doable goal. For me, I usually write in 2500 word chunks or 5 x 2500 or 12,500 words per week. Generally 4 weeks of solid writing should equal 50,000. Right? Well, life tends to happen and for writers, quality (and college football, and Thanksgiving, guests, family, the weather, getting ready for the holidays, the dog’s homework etc…) prevents a writer from moving ahead. 

After all, we ain’t selling shoes. We’re writing a book. 

Word quotas generally destroy creativity. Not all the time (deadlines never change) but quotas can become enormous obstacles. Think of it: 50,000 WORDS IN 30 DAYS. This is enough to send many writers crawling back to their day jobs. “Please, help me…I need coffee…and something more manageable…like editing the CEO’s company vision.”

Don’t think 50,000. Think 1667 words per day, for a few weeks. (Or for me, 2500 words per day x 5 days per week. This leaves weekends to catch up or push ahead [HA].) 

Another clue: don’t think quality. November = Quantity.

To the unbaptized, the creative process is mystical in its perfection. To a writer, the creative process is one that only time can marinate. To make something complex look easy takes the blood of many small sacrifices, infinite spousal patience, and a big-ass lock on the door. A sign that reads GO AWAY doesn’t hurt.  To give you an example, let me first admit that I am a process junkie. I love to read how other artists create. Of course I think, “How could they possibly write 20,000 words in one day?” or “Why would they use a random word generator? Who do they think they are? Mr. Peabody in his Wayback Machine? Which is the only way I could ever be happy with my 20k written in one day. The answer, like the infinite number of monkeys pounding random keys, there must be an infinite number of ways to create. Let me tell you about one.

Quantity over Quality. Type like the random-key-banging monkey. I use a guideline. My guideline resembles an outline while it allows for me to alter the course the story events.  For example, I may not know how Harp, the protagonist, gets to the border of Mexico and Texas, but I know the next turning point occurs there. There, he discovers the teenager in his charge leads him to his boyhood home. Why? he asks, and sometimes, so do I.

The answer? I trust my subconscious, and I know it will answer this question in time. (After writing 2,000,000+ words, I’ve learned that my subconscious knows more about writing than I do.) Thus, when I write, my guideline leads me to my next Turning Point. Experience tells me my major Turning Points will occur every 100 pages. Thus, I’m looking at one book with 3 or 4 Turning Points or 3 or 4 (maybe 5) Acts. Just like a Broadway play (or a hockey game with 3 periods, or a football game with 4 quarters.) Why? Because our readers must receive rewards or else they return to Howie Mandel and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Reward our 21st century reader, and keep them turning the page.

Secondly, whenever a character can make the wrong choice, make him do so. NOBODY wants to see a character do the right thing. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz…. Make your character do the opposite of what a good person would do. He may/may not be a good person, but he has the same basic needs as we all do (even alien creatures have needs), make him earn your rewards, which will come later. Remember, our goal here is quantity over quality in this stage. You are not Dean Koontz. You are not Stephen King. You are not John Irving. Just write.

At 50,000 words, you aren’t finished with your book, and at this number of words (most of which will be scrapped and/or rewritten, unless you’re James Patterson) you’ll spend many hours more editing. Remember, our goal for NaNo November is Quantity over Quality. Think of building a house. Most houses are built by people who know that the next guy who comes along will cover up the first guy’s mistakes. As long as the house has a solid foundation, everything else can be fixed. The same goes for your novel in progress–except you are the one doing all of the fixing. We’ll get to editing some other day, but let me give you a clue to editing : Layers.

Let’s get back to writing, and let me give you another clue: Layers. Sound familiar?

Layers. When we read, we read a finished product (think of visiting an open house), yet when we write, we cannot/do not add everything in at one time. We throw up a few things, see if they work, see if they increase the tension and force our characters to make bad decisions (all of which that lead to the Turning Point). While producing copy, we are not (”should not”) be worried about the quality. We can fix everything later. If our characters aren’t warped enough, we’ll work on that layer later. If the environment is too two-dimensional, we’ll fix it later. The answer to building a house, or writing a book, is to do so in layers. After all, you ain’t Mozart. (Okay, I ain’t Mozart, you may be.) 

To summarize:

1. Get the words on the page.

2. Focus on reaching the Turning Points.

3. Don’t fix now. We’ll fix (in layers) later.

4. Don’t self-edit. Try to prevent the little voice in your head from telling you everything is for naught. Remember: we can fix everything later.

5. When later comes, All that’s Left to Fix is Everything.   

Until then, think 1,667 words per day. If you write for 5 hours, that’s 334 words per hour. Simple, yes? So simple, anyone could write a book, yes? No. It ain’t that simple, but it is doable. Quantity over Quality, for now. 

NaNoMo begins November 1st. You can do it. I believe in you. Do you believe in you?

  

 

…since you asked, let me quote the late Gary Provost and his Story Sentence: 

 

The Gary Provost Sentence

 

Format:	Your Story:
Once upon a time, something happened
to someone, and he decided that he would pursue a goal
So he devised a plan of action, and even though
there were forces trying to stop him, he moved
forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as
things seemed as bad as they could get, he
learned an important lesson, and when
offered the prize, he had sought so strenuously,
he had to decide whether or not to take it,
and in making that decision he satisfied a need that had been
created by something in his past.

 

As you can see, you can complete this grid for your story or for your protagonist. Eventually, to enrich your tale, each/most characters in your novel will have his/her own story sentence. This adds richness and complexity to your novel. 

 

Go ahead and just tinker with it. 

 

T

The Important Things: 

I. Thou Shalt Write

II. Thou Shalt Learn to Write Well

III. Thou Shalt Revise, Revise, Revise

IV. Thou Shalt Neither Write Nor Submit Based on N-of-One Stories

V. Thou Shalt Learn to Be Patient

VI. Thou Shalt Learn about the Publishing Industry

VII. Thou Shalt Knowledgeably Seek Agents and Editors

VIII. Thou Shalt Learn to Use Rejection Rather than be Abused by It

IX. Thou Shalt Not Irritate Agents and Editors

X. Thou Shalt Restrain Thyself Until thy Published Work is in Thy Hand

I picked up these words somewhere along the learning trail, not sure who credit, and I made them mine. Like many writing suggestions, the words are ours to share. Make them yours.

Thus, stop stalling and get back to story creation. We have readers waiting on us.

www.TerryBanker.com

Over the weekend, I visited my local bookstore (before the college football kickoffs) because being around books and book people (the same people who tote cups of Starbucks while wearing pencils behind their ears) is one of my favorite things in the world. I get to see buckets of new books, and for a fleeting moment, I fantasize that these are my books the readers are ogling. Until a woman distracted me: she covered one book with another.

 

Fronting is the practice of turning books from their spine-side to the cover of the book facing the buyer. As bookstores only have so much shelf space, by stacking books on the shelf (spine side out), they can feature more books. It’s a quantity over quality thing. While there are many outstanding new books and authors in the creative stew, because Stephen (The Man) King will outsell them all combined, the bookstore won’t offer many (if any) new and/or unproven authors the valued space. Facts is facts, and it’s all about making a dollar.

 

So when I witnessed the scandalous woman slink over to the newly released nonfiction section and anti-front in the worst way, I wondered what book (one that I will no doubt love) is she concealing? After all, this is a matter of history. When one doesn’t like a book or is (ignorantly) offended by a book, why not burn it— literally or metaphorically? And if a match isn’t convenient, why not bury the book beneath a mound of others? Or slam it with a bad review? What book would be so bad that it would offend me? A religious text? A fad diet involving kittens and a BBQ grill? The latest Paris Hilton tell-all?

This is where you, Dear Reader, can participate in the story by selecting from the following two details:

1.     A biography of John McCain, or

2.     One of Barack Obama.

WARNING: Don’t stop reading. I promise this will not be about politics. I would never bamboozle you, Dear Reader.

The woman took the first book  <insert your pick here> and covered it with another about the hidden, underground people of Manhattan. Then before her escape, she grabbed one last copy of <your choice> and dropped it behind the bookrack.

 

Inclined to (sometimes) prefer books to people, I walked over to the shelf and tried to rescue the censored book from behind the rack. It took some finagling, but I managed to find its spine. This is when the store manger asked if she could help me. I, uh, just dropped my car keys…busted.

 

The point of writing fiction is to entertain, and some would argue that teaching may or may not be part of the entertainment—as long as entertainment comes first. What, therefore, is the purpose of nonfiction? If it isn’t fiction, then it must be the serious treatment of a subject matter so dour that kidding, misdirection, and lies would never accost its topic. Consequently, the book must be true. Right?

 

 

 

 

 

Getting back to facts: writing a book is about making a dollar, and neither fiction nor nonfiction is the exception. In this day, when is money not the reason to do things? Why would publishing be any different? And how does this get back to the initial topic of book review burning? Time to choose again:

1.     James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, or

2.     Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.

 

In the first, Mr. Frey beefed up his “nonfiction” to compete with other forms of media, say American Idol. Ask yourself, would you rather watch Simon rip into some poor defenseless kid who (can/can’t) sing or would you prefer to hear about drug rehab? One sounds a bit more entertaining than the other. To make his book competitive, Frey recorded his stint in rehab and exaggerated (this is what fiction authors do), and then chose to conceal the truth to Oprah about her book selection. Oops.

 

In a separate incident, Oprah selected Jonathan Franzen’s book for her club, until Franzen decided he didn’t want his book marketed by the goddess of literature for reasons he doesn’t like her taste in chick lit. He withdrew his handshake agreement with Oprah, and she withdrew her support of a million+ copies.

 

As a result, both authors created obstacles, shall we say, along their path to conveying their work to the public. When Frey tried to make amends by apologizing to Oprah, he made things worse. As for Franzen, he went on to win some book awards that excite only (some) writers and (a curmudgeous lot of) people in the book world. In short, he too gave Oprah the finger (or the paw, as my dog would point out).

 

 Frey and Franzen made all authors appear greedy and ungrateful. Many authors never get a break, much less the chance to meet the one person who has single handedly affected the way millions of people select literature.

 

Like my dog, I too give Frey and Franzen the paw. However, please don’t take me at my word.

 

Go to Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com or your favorite local bookstore (or mine: The Tattered Cover) and read the reviews. Some defend the authors while others defend Oprah and the Truth for reasons of Doing the Right Thing, yadda yadda. In other words, these Positive and negative reviews dwell not on the story or the quality of the writing, but on the delightfully savory urge to punish.

 

Back to Obama v. McCain. To be clear, these books are not about Telling the Truth. Instead, they are about spinning the subject matter toward their audience and making a buck. Do not be deceived: if a book is bad but sells a boatload of copies, someone somewhere is buying them for the wrong reason. To inflate sales. To garner kudos from the academic crowd. To (like Hollywood) launder money.  Did I mention to inflate sales statitics?

 

You know what you like to read. So why allow a “bad” review written by someone you don’t know deter you from experimenting with a new author? Don’t let a single book review affect your decision to buy and read the book for yourself. What will you be out? A couple bucks and a few hours. Sadly, America Idol will still be there, as there are plenty of people who prefer pushed rather than earned entertainment. In the long run, which group has a better sense of the world around us? The readers or the watchers? The doers or the talkers? Which group is a better influence on children?

 

Your call.

 

Oh, and did you know that neither JFK nor Richard Nixon liked Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird? I love the book.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.