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Confession: I FREAK OUT a little whenever I see someone from my checkered past suddenly dropping in on me unnounced—or rather announced—online. Suddenly “in my face” on my computer “in my living room” – whoa! OUT OF THE BLUE, seeking “only” to say a hardy HI-HO hello, and I’m immediately circumspect and wondering for what reason is this happening? Why and how come? AS MY FIRST IMPULSE (MY BAD) IS TO ASSUME THE WORST. Did I fail to pay a debt? Did I hurt someone’s feelings? Does she wants to know why I put her in my last book and slandered her—despite the fact it’s NOT her. Or is it someone desperate and seeking a loan? Relatives are good for this one. And on and on my fevered mind runs; yet another part of my brain is shouting, “Nah, man, this is cool! This is no Trojan Horse; this is a gift as when I heard from Owl Goingback, the only Native American I know who writes horror novels. So….Open that package. This is a gift. Someone who thinks enough of you to make first contact, and what are the chances it’s not good news?

Well in all instances of such contacts that I have indeed opened and read, they have all worked out wonderfully, and perhaps I have been lucky but those from my past who have either looked me up or stumbled upon me on Twitter or Myspace or Facebook have turned out to be great friends who merely wished to renew an acquaintance; folks who at some time shared moments with yours truly and it is complimentary that they wish to know how you are doing years later. Says something about you actually. Something good.

Most recently a wholly great reunion was made, one that has taken ten years and still Steve and I picked up as if it were yesterday –and in fact, we are throwing in with one another to collaborate on a novel. Oddly, it came about slowly and without a plan, and it was the last thing on either mind as we had chatted over months about all the trivia and news one expends time and energy on on Facebook. The idea to collaborate came about as an afterthought. But think about that. Two friends reunite online, one in Sweden, one in America, one a Brit, the other a Chicagoan, and whamo they are in business together.

Ten years ago I said yes to an online contest wherein the winner won the dubious honor of becoming a character in my next Instinct title. Steve Savile won the prize, knowing my stipulation—that I’d have to create his character free of any stipulations, and so I made him a London cop’s peg-legged snitch whose nickname was Dot’n’Carry for the noise he made coming and going with that wooden leg. Steve loved it; so much so that he read passages from the book to his students, despite the poking fun at him. He took it so well but I always warn people to “be careful or your might wind up in one of my novels”—so he wasn’t a complete innocent on arrival.

I also knew that Steve aspired to be a writer of thrillers, suspense, and horror as well, and when he showed up at DragonCon Atlanta one year maybe eight years ago and found me at my signing, we had a warm first face to face meeting. I was so impressed with Steve that I decided to revive Dot’n’Carry in City for Ransom and its two sequels a couple few years ago. I contacted Steve to warn him that the Dot man was back but set back in the 1800’s. He was again thrilled and a sport about it.

Now on the tenth year anniversary of Steve’s debut as a character in Blind Instinct, we have teamed up—due to conversations on Facebook—to do a collaboration on an idea we began kicking over online. How cool is that? Really?

Then I hear from Adam Pepper—another great young writer. We met at Love is Murder years ago—maybe five or six years. Again Adam simply wanted to give me a shout out and to say hello. It was great to reminisce about our meeting in Chicago as we shared an adventure there—getting lost on a snowy night in my own damn city; we had a wild ride that night, one that I still call Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I was told by Steve that he felt “honoured” to be working on a book with me, honored with a U. Then Adam boosts my ego by calling me “Royalty” with a capital R. They both have told me that despite what any publisher decides as in ending a series with my name on it, that they know from whom they have learned…who they read in order to master their own skills. You can’t buy that kind of thank you from readers who became writers in part inspired by you.

I have always said the same was true for me when reading John Lutz, Ed Gorman, William Bayer and certainly Dean R. Koontz, and a long, long list of other authors ranging from Martin Cruz Smith to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. Two lessons or morals of the story here: Don’t fear old friends looking you up online unless you know them to be psycho, and secondly: learn all you can from the authors who came before you.

Happy Writing and Reading everyone,

Rob
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/
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"Dead On takes the reader's capacity for the imagination of horror to stomach turning depths, and then gives it more twists than a Georgia backroad that paves an Indian trail." - Nash Black

#1. Edit out as many prepositional phrases as possible; where you have two prepositions back to back as in OFF OF, strike one of them….for example “look down deep into…make look into. Simplify to clarify. No one needs read the word UP ever in your story. He stood up becomes he stood. He spoke up becomes he spoke.

#2 . The number one sin in writing is being unclear. Prepositions are directional words; stringing too many together at once is confusing and so not good. Example: In the wake of the sternwheeler at the break of day before anyone aboard had eaten breakfast in the galley…etc. It makes no sense but it is an impressive string of prepositions.

#3. Another killer of clarity that feeds a reader’s confusion is the simple pronoun…be it he, she, they, it etc., it can quickly become confusing as to what it is or who he is or who they are if these simple substitutes for nouns and names are overly relied upon. Example: There were two of them, a cop and a lawyer, and when he said to him that he didn’t known anything about the law…well, I as a reader had no idea who said what to whom. Pronouns get fuzzy real quickly as to who they are referring to…who or what or what IT stands for anymore. One can always return to name the person, place or thing he/she is referring to.

#4. Another killer of clarity is when a pronoun gets all tangled up with a question as to who is being spoken of as in: Mary told her mother that she was fat and ugly. Now in reading that, we have no idea who told what to whom or why. A big of judicious use of quotations marks makes all the difference as in: Mary shouted, “Mom, I am so fat and ugly!” Or as in: Mary said, “Mon, you are so fat and ugly

#5. The Unintended Result which comes straight away with misplaced modifiers and dangling modifiers as in: The fat lady climbed up on the horse in tight jeans. Or: The professor chased the dog down the street in his underwear. Who or what has the jeans and the underwear on? When prepositional phrases get slapped in the wrong place funny comical things result. In dangling modifiers, the subject of the sentence is left out as in: In the church foyer, the ringing of bells was heard. Ask yourself where is your character in that last sentence? Who is hearing the bells? Don’t drop your character out of your scene.

#6. Another way to lose your reader and cause confusion is to go in and out of verb tenses—past, present, past without real good reasons to do so, and even then transitions better be perfect; you must take the reader by the hand when making major shifts in time, and verb tense is about time—present, past, past of the past, future, etc. Time confusions are a killer, too. At all times in your story, time must flow like a river and be clearly understood. A time clock for the entire story must be running and if you are doing a Quinton Tarantino deal of gong to and from between two time zones or more, it is even more so important that time is working well in your story and is understandable.

#7. Don’t kill or weaken your story to being on life support via qualifying phrases and qualifiers as in such words as vey, often, sometime, mostly, maybe, perhaps which depict a voice that is totally wishy-washy. Instead you use words that are called absolutes. Instead of saying the fog is perhaps lifting, you state the absolute certainty that it IS lifting. She was not very pretty….She was not pretty in the least.

#8. Don’t kill your story by failing to utilize all your five senses in each scene and each page. Filter every person, place, or thing being described through the mind and five senses of your main character. Keep in mind whose story it is at all times—and filter everything via this character. If the scene “belongs” to another character filter all via this character’s mind and senses.

#9 We also kill our story when we fail to nail down whose story it is; when we fail to have a central character. A story and a novel rely on its being truly one person’s story even in a multiple point of view novel. All other characters are there in the web of characters as an ensemble to support the character at the center of the web. When we lose sight of this, the story becomes unwieldy and our readers ask “Whose story is this anyway?” Even in a shared lead, one of the leads leads…so to speak.

#10. When we allow the Voice of the narrative to falter, change, become inconsistent, we confuse the reader. Voice is the culmination of all the various parts and should form a strong, powerful voice that sets a tone and sticks firmly to that one tone throughout…from beginning to end.


See if I live up to the ten avenues to NOT kill your story…the ten avenues to success by picking up a copy of my latest work, DEAD ON. My wife, Miranda’s The WELL MEANING KILLER displays the same positive attributes, the ten ways to success in being clear. A true pinnacle that a writer strives for: being clear and maybe even making it sing a little on every page.
Happy Writing and please feel free to leave a #11 or #12 etc. as a comment. Would love to hear from you.
Rob Walker

http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/
"Dead On takes the reader's capacity for the imagination of horror to stomach turning depths, and then gives it more twists than a Georgia backroad that paves an Indian trail." - Nash Black

Never take one editor’s or one teacher’s opinion of your work. As a college freshman, I was told that I would NEVER publish a book. This by my creative writing instructor. I put him in a scene in Killer Instinct, making him a small town, useless pimp. Forty five books later, I can safely say he was a pimp to begin with. I am a real teacher, a good editor, and a fine speaker at heart, and I love sharing all the hard-won knowledge of the business and the craft of writing. Miranda and I are speaking at the West Virginia Book Festival on Oct. 11th at the Charleston Civic Center, Charleston, WV at 2:30PM on how to get happily published without any “title” or “content” fights and it is a library sponsored program and free to the public.

I also operate The Knife Editing Services wherein your book goes through a complete autopsy on my literary slab. I have ghost written books and helped develop books into the healthiest books they can be. More info on The Knife aka me, myself, and I can be found below. I am also teaching as Adjunct Professor at West Virginia State University at present. All this while writing the next novel and most likely editing someone else’s as well as grading English 101 and 102 comp papers! Meanwhile, I have never seen a book with Professor Pimp’s name on the cover. Moral of the story –

Turn on your BS Detector. Be wary of those who want to circle the wagons of negativity around you. Be wary of those who are so sure that you are not “good enough” while they themselves have accomplished nothing. Or the hardened, embittered burn out cases whether that be a run in with a Harlan Ellison or a professor or doctorate candidate who is all too anxious to hear the sound of his or her own voice rather than give you useful, practical advice. Be cautious of those who BS you. You go to a Professor who teaches poetry to allay you fears of having to deal with poetry and all he can say is he does not know how to help you and perhaps you ought best to NOT take his class…just a lazy jerk.

Hope this helps you to be a more determined writer and until next time, happy writing.

Rob Walker
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/
http://www.acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/
http://www.mirandawalkerbooks.com/
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"Dead On takes the reader's capacity for the imagination of horror to stomach turning depths, and then gives it more twists than a Georgia backroad that paves an Indian trail." - Nash Black