Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a great day today!

Writing Tips - I Don't Have Any

Like so many of us that find great joy in scribbling down a few words I find reading writing books and tips interesting.

I stay away from ever giving tips as I really don’t have any but I sure do read a lot of others. Have you ever noticed that if you don’t like one writer’s expertise on how to write you can simply turn to another, and then another if need be, until you find one that writes the way you do? Things like, write what you know, or never edit as you write a first draft come to mind. I remember reading somewhere that if we write only what we knew there might not be so many murder mysteries for sale. Hemmingway re-read and edited each morning before he started writing again for the day, seems like it worked for him.

So where am I going with this? The one thing that all writing experts seem to agree on – writers need to write. Pretty simple, writers sit down and get to work, might do it many different ways and at different times but they all write. Me, I dream about writing, and think about writing, and sometimes I get around to writing.

Snow Clouds Roll in over Guernsey Lake

Guess it’s time to sit down and write.

Wish I had a poem for the winter sky last evening.

 

 

 

A Western Bestseller

I still read many traditional westerns each year. Seems like not too many of us still do, although there seems to be enough of a niche market for old time shoot-um-up westerns.     

Today’s westerns, at least after perusing the Amazon bestselling lists, seem to lean more to modern time stories set in the west, usually more mystery than conflict of characters.  Historical, Romance and Young Adult westerns all seem to still be popular and in some demand today. None are bad areas and all seem to sell.

Oddly it seems when westerns are listed in categories of mystery or romance they are more acceptable to the mainstream – just my thoughts.

Now I am going to set down and start writing my, all new, young adult, mysterious historical western – hope it will become a best seller. Tentative title, with tongue firmly planted in cheek. 

She Disappeared in the Mountains, Just Like Her Grandma –Aliens?

Early Snow in Wyoming - Anywhere from an Inch to a Few Feet.

 

Readin', Shootin', and Spittin'

Reading two recent mysteries I was surprised by how, unlike real life, the dialog sounded. I remembered reading this tip, and jotting it down, somewhere, a few years ago. I couldn’t remember it all, but the internet is such a great resource to find needed information.

“If you are using dialogue–say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”  John Steinbeck

Great advice and so simple. This is also a great tip if you are self-editing, read it aloud. If it sounds funny and it’s not supposed to might be time to – revise.

Some western writers have a great passion for dropping the ‘g’ at the end of words. I think it sounds all right most of the time but am not sure it is always needed.   Ridin’, eatin’, drinkin’, fightin’, shootin’, can get to be too much for me as a reader. Read it aloud, does it sound natural or forced?

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.

 

Great Western Line

Not sure if anyone ever rated, The Proving Trail, as one of Louis L’Amour’s best novels. I like to read what I classify as western mysteries and this is a good one.  I love this line from the novel, to me it is one of the best lines that late Mr. L’Amour ever put on paper.

“The way I see it, every time a man gets up in the morning he starts his life over. Sure, the bills are there to pay, and the job is there to do, but you don't have to stay in a pattern. You can always start over, saddle a fresh horse and take another trail.”

In my life I have done that a couple of times, changed directions, took another trail and you know what? Never regretted it. Who knows? Maybe I will try it again, just because I am retired, it’s never too late to saddle a new horse and ride a new trail.

Maybe I Am Not Who You Think I Am

Are any of you, like me, trying to decide what penname you will be using after you become famous and want to write as someone else? Just kidding, but I find pennames to be an interesting study. Why do people use them, to remain anonymous I suppose, but why? Seems I know more writers that would like to be famous than those who would like to remain unknown.

Mark Twain might be the most famous of all, but many other writers, some quite famous, have written with names other than their own. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Benjamin Franklin, Nora Roberts, J. K Rowling, And Charles Dickens among hundreds of others wrote at times with pennames. Some, which no one would ever suspect to have used pen names, like Agatha Christie and Emily Bronte also used pseudonyms when it suited them.

A few years ago I was flabbergasted to learn that two of my favorite western series writers, Dana Fuller Ross and Donald Clayton Porter were one in the same – Noel Bertram Gerson. I guess this falls under the heading of, you learn something every day.

Now I am beginning to think many of you that I follow are likely famous and using aliases on line so that I will not find out.

Or - probably not!

 Saw this little guy last evening just before dark