At the request of a number of friends and colleagues, I've broken my manual, WRITE COMPELLING FICTION into a number of 1,500 (plus or minus) word articles for EzineArticles, slightly upgrading them as I go. Hope you glean a little good from them, and hope I see your novels on the shelves and racks, along with my 20 novels and 2 non-fiction works, and my wife's over 50 romantic suspense and historical romance novels.
Most of my early life was spent as a real estate broker, selling farms and ranches, subdivision land and lots. But I had the urge to write. I tried a novel at the ripe old age of twenty-four, and after four chapters found I had little to say. Later in life, I found myself unmarried and living on a boat-and with time on my hands so I decided if I was ever going to fulfill this smoldering ambition to write, now was the time.
After completing a 500 page historical, I submitted it a few times, and got a few form rejections. It dawned on me that I had (as I have a tendency to do) plunged in-charged in where angels fear to tread. To illustrate the impact writers have on a society, that line, the E. M. Forster novel, and the song following, were based on a line in Alexander Pope 's An Essay on Criticism: "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Be careful what you write, for it may be quoted for centuries. I don't worry much about that possibility, but I don't mind quoting great writers of the past.
Only following lots of rejection did I decide to study the craft. I was lucky enough to marry a lady who approached things a little differently. She's a great study and had the background. A good grounding in English in college. And she, too, had the urge to write. Together, we went to writer's conferences, and separately, we wrote. By the way, that first novel eventually made some money as an audio and eBook. Never, never file your work in the circular file. Save it.
And after paying our dues with many conferences, and many, many more hours in front of the word processor, it began to pay off.
One of my novels, Rush to Destiny, was nominated as a finalist as the best biographical novel of 1992 by a group of New York reviewers and the magazine Romantic Times/Rave Reviews. Another, The Benicia Belle, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award for best original paperback of 1992. I've had a screenplay optioned by a major Hollywood production company, and all are in audio and offered as eBooks, or soon will be. My political blog has many thousands of followers.
Kat, my wife, has had her later books repeatedly on the New York Times best seller lists, and many, many others; and she has won many, many awards.
Throughout the manual, I've used the masculine gender, but I have a great respect for all the wonderful, talented women who write novels-even westerns, commonly considered "men's fiction"-or want to write them, and for the women who read them. The romance genre is responsible for 49% (now more I think) of all mass market paperback sales in this country.
No matter who you are or what your age, if you can read and understand this manual, you can write a novel. Some of you may take a long time to do so, some of you may whip out a masterpiece in a few months.
Like most any specialty, writers have their organizations. And professional organizations can make your education come more quickly, and can make your endeavors more enjoyable. It's hard to be alone in any venture, and knowing you have peers who have the same concerns and problems you have, and with whom you can share your successes, helps.
Western Writers of America is a great organization which enjoys an annual conference, which supports western and historical writers (both fiction and non-fiction), which gives awards annually to those they judge superior in their field, and which publishes a monthly magazine called The Roundup.
The organization is divided between academics and good ol' boys (and girls). It's a great organization and one every western or historical writer of either non-fiction or fiction, of any length should aspire to join. There are requirements for membership including publication. It's one of the great perks of being a western or historical writer and I recommend it highly.
Romance Writers of America do the same for that genre, have many more members, and offer excellent support. Those interested in romance writing should join. There are no "published" requirements. RWA has a number of local chapters with meetings and support groups that are excellent for beginning writers.
And there are groups for other genres as well. Kat and I are members of Mystery Writers of America and Thriller Writers of America as well.
Writers of westerns, romance, and historicals don't enjoy a lot of respect among so called "literati." It's difficult to get your work, particularly fiction, reviewed or taken seriously by any other than readers-but that's okay, for readers are by far your most important critics.
Publisher's Weekly, the primary industry rag in publishing reviews a few romances (75% of which are panned) and hardly ever reviews a western if it's not disguised as a historical or novel of the West and not written by John Jakes or Larry McMurtry. I find it rather self destructive on the magazines part in that romance is responsible for 49% (more) of all mass market paperback sales in this country, and without it many publishers would be in dire trouble. Westerns and historicals and other genres enjoy a much smaller share of the market, but still are important to much of the country.
At one time, Zane Grey outsold all of them, and the western genre still enjoys a strong, faithful following.
Thank God the elitists who display an indifferent attitude or worse to the writing which in my opinion is the backbone of the nation, are not nearly so influential as they would like to believe.
To illustrate what I say, I'll quote my good friend Richard S. Wheeler (a great western writer) who pointed out in a recent The Roundup article that the New Columbia Encyclopedia has admiring entries on several mystery writers (over 40) yet only one patronizing entry on Zane Grey and one on Owen Wister-no mention of Pulitzer prize winner A. B. Guthrie, Jr., or of Dorothy Johnson, Frederick Faust, Ernest Haycox, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, William MacLeod Raine, Henry Allen, Jack Schaefer, or a dozen others worthy of note.
What's important is if you write fiction, write compelling fiction. Write something that will glean that most valuable of writers' compliments..."I couldn't put it down."
This series of articles will show you how to do just that. Look for Write Compelling Fiction - Article Three.
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