Writing from my Wyoming Easy-Chair

Terrific read about writers and the west posted today by, Lex Anteinternet – take a look.

Meanwhile here from writing central, in my easy-chair, I am tapping along on my keyboard. I have two books with the first draft finished, but instead of working on those find myself writing new stuff. Not sure why, but it might be I am not in the mood to edit right now.

We had a bad storm move through yesterday.  Nothing much at our place, but a few miles north, softball-size hail and a tornado, glad we are safe, but sad for those who had much destruction.

Well, back to writing, maybe a bit of editing, perhaps not.

Photos of elk and Bighorn sheep from our drive to Laramie last Sunday.

“To err is human to edit divine” – from my Grammarly site.

I call this last photo - kids at play.

Have a terrific rest of the week. 

See all of my books here 

A Unique Read

Not often can I find a unique book. When I do I frequently cannot put it down. Like many readers, I read mostly formula fiction, mysteries and westerns. But formula reads are not as much fun as a truly unique read. Every writer has heard that publishers hate the word unique and when querying an agent or publisher never say, “this book or story is unique.” Too bad.

If you look back on books that are some of your all-time favorites, are they unique? Most likely they are. That’s why Harry Potter and Fifty Shades of Grey took off. They were something new and exciting, different or as I said above unique. What happens afterwards, dozens of copycat books, formula reads are published. They're not all bad either, some are pretty good. From this we create an odd scenario, to be a great book it should be unique, but it is nearly impossible to find someone wanting to publish a unique book.

Deep down every writer wants to do something unique, something great but over the years many settled for a paycheck and formula books especially in the western genre. But today formula westerns do not sell, at least not very well.

So what do I consider a unique read in the western genre? Here is my top five - Little Big Man, The Virginian, The Time it Never Rained, Hondo and Andy Adams’s, Log of a Cowboy. Those are my top five, not saying these are my picks as the top five westerns ever, just my pick as great unique reads.

Think I may have set a record for use of the word unique (12 times) in one post. Below see two of my photos that I think are very unique (13) and might make a great story.

Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman has been one of my favorite authors for many years. I am now reading his autobiography, Seldom Disappointed – A Memoir, like his books, it is turning into a fascinating read.

Mr. Hillerman followed the old author advice of writing what you know and then finding an audience, not writing what is popular. He wrote mysteries, mysteries set among the Navajo’s of New Mexico. He knew New Mexico and he knew its people.

He was one of the all-time greats at writing modern adult westerns. Interesting that his books are often listed as mystery only. For my reading, he writes in my favorite genre, western mystery.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Seldom-Disappointed-Memoir-Tony-Hillerman/dp/0060505869

"You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart."

"An author knows his landscape best: he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place."

Tony Hillerman

Forward with Your Foreword

Does a book have a forward or a foreword? We all know it is a foreword, don’t we?  While reading a somewhat popular nonfiction book this week I noticed it had a forward – Hum. I looked through a small shelf of books and found another with the wrong foreword and also one (Indi Published) with a foreward, Hum again.

One problem I see with this is forward and foreword, regardless if the words are used incorrectly, will not be picked out by a spell checker. I always remember it as a fore – before, & word, before the words. Works for me. A book can have a foreword, and it will be written by someone other than the author, but cannot have a forward.

This is so easy to mistype that it should always be edited by Santa Clause, you know, “checking it twice.”

Forward can be an, adverb, adjective or verb depending on how it is used.

Foreword is a noun used in a preface or introduction.

With that, I must move forward and get ready to write a foreword for a friend’s history book.*

*Not really, although it would be fun. If any blog readers want me to write a foreword, I am looking forward to your requests. 

Sorry, couldn’t help myself!

Leaving you with a photo I took west of town this morning.

Maybe That Old Boy Hemingway is Right

Ernest Hemingway gave the following advice to help with writer’s block. “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.”

Some of my writer friends and I often write until we are stumped then go to bed and sleep on it. Funny that seems to never work. I have a tough time stopping if I am on a roll. Seems Hemingway thinks you quit when you are ahead. He seemed to do okay, maybe he has something here.

By the way my checker didn't like Hemingway using good instead of well.

That’s my two cents for today time to ride off into this evenings Laramie Range sunset.

Photo Taken Four Miles Northwest of Town

What is Historical Fiction?

Storytelling, lies, truth distortion, stretching it a bit, what is historical fiction? I just finished reading two books, one a modern day western, with historical flashbacks, and the other from the genre of historical fiction. In many cases I can’t tell the difference between westerns and historical fiction.

I often read through various online review sites and found some interesting reviews of the two books. Below is a summary of what I found – just the bad stuff.

1.    People complain that it doesn’t tell the whole story (It’s not a history book)

2.   It didn’t really happen that way (fiction)

3.   Plays too much with the facts (?)

4.   Varies from history (yep)

5.   Spelling and grammar errors (This should be fixed, but I did not notice much in my reading – might be some readers are looking for errors and not the story)

6.   Not enough research (This is what makes historical fiction great, an author can do as much or as little research as they want. Then run with their version of the story)

My point to this post is simple, it’s historical FICTION, not nonfiction. My Idea, at least what I like to read, of historical fiction is this – a story based on something real, a historical event. After that it’s up to the author. I am not crazy about mixed up time periods in historical fiction, but other than that I like every good story.

        What about fiction or westerns with no, real, to them, love them. Sometimes truth is better than fiction, but I can get completely lost in a great story. In the end it is still all about the story!

A notch in the Haystack Mountains of the Laramie Range Wyoming - This could be the basis for a good western story.

 

What's In A Plot ?

How many stories can be told, how many plots are novels made from? According to Christopher Booker’s 2004, The Seven Basic Plots, there are, well seven.

·        The Quest

·        Voyage and Return

·        Rebirth

·        Comedy

·        Tragedy

·        Overcoming the Monster

·        Rags to Riches

Looks good to me, if placing books in large enough categories it looks like everything would fit within Booker’s list.

Ronald B. Tobias identified 20 plots in his 1993 book,

20 Master Plots.

·        Quest

·        Adventure

·        Pursuit

·        Rescue

·        Escape

·        Revenge

·        The Riddle

·        Rivalry

·        Underdog

·        Temptation

·        Metamorphosis

·        Transformation

·        Maturation

·        Love

·        Forbidden Love

·        Sacrifice

·        Discovery

·        Wretched Excess

·        Ascension

·        Dissension.

With this list of 20 seems like most any book should fit, not bad.

This topic, plot, has been talked about and rehashed since the times of the ancient Greek writers. Looks to me like most agree there are only so many plots a novel can follow. The difference then, in a good book from a bad, is story, and how well it is told. Two books may follow the voyage and return plot, but how the story is told makes all the difference.

Seems to me that in the western genre the most used plot lines seem to be, quest, voyage and return, revenge and underdog.

You know what? Doesn’t matter to me, I just like to read a great story, with the possible exception of tragedy. I like to escape in reading not feel depressed. Sorry Shakespeare!

With Tongue Firmly Planted In Cheek

My All New – Tongue In Cheek – western trendy novel.

Looking at new trends in what is selling in the world of fiction, I believe a western could be a top seller again. A few things may need to be added to entice readers, a couple of zombies, a sexy female vampire, and someone famous from the era, like Billy the Kid or Buffalo Bill, maybe Wild Bill Hickok.

The story line needs to concentrate on romance as western romance sells well in today’s market. To be a top seller it might be best to make it an Amish romance.

Yep, I have it, a sure fire best seller, a steampunk, Amish, romantic western, complete with zombies, vampires and Billy the Kid. This has BEST SELLER, written all over it!

My working title – “The Kid, The Lady and the Bite Marks”

----Opening paragraph----

When Billy woke up he felt something he had never felt before, he was in love, and his neck hurt real bad. Then he saw her, dressed in a long, flour sack, dress and a bonnet, the undead, he had never before believed in zombies, but now he did - and it was love at first site.

Now I have work to do, write the book, open a new bank account, hire a financial consultant, and see who wants the movie rights. Believe I will shoot for around 75,000 words and, as you can see from above, I already have 57. Not that much left.

 My mind may be wandering a bit today, think I will head out to the garden and see if I can find something to water.

Gratuitous Photo from last evening, for no real reason, but it is a pretty cool sunset.