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To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

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Different Things with Different Characters

You'll need to do different things with different characters. Your main characters you'll have to know better than you know yourself. Your minor characters you won't do much with because we really don't need to know much about them. If your minor characteri is a doorman to a fancy schmanzy apartment house in NYC, all he has to do is be able to open the door. If he's a nasty doorman, than he has to be nasty. That's it.

The semi-major characters have to have some personality, but not as much as your major characters.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Different Kinds of Characters

You'll have essentially three types of characters in your story: major, semi-major, and minor.

Major characters are those who are the focus of the action. The two people in a love affair. The detective who is investigating the murder. The father of the victim who is grieving. In my Kearney mystery the major characters were Will, Henry Harrier, and Julie, Henry's daughter.

Minor characters are basically no more than plot devices. A cop directing traffic. A kid cutting the grass. In my Kearney mystery, the waiter who brings Will and Henry their meals the first day of the investigation is a minor character.

The rest of them range in the middle. In the Kearney book, the police detective was a semi-major character. He influenced the action but was not the focus of attention. The person who did the murder was semi-major. To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

First Step in Developing Character

There are only two things to think about with characters: what they do and what they don't do.

First you have to figure out who your characters are. So go through your story and note everything and every time and every place that every character of yours thinks or says or does something.

Every time he or she time travels. Has a pizza. Kills somebody. Gets killed by somebody. Runs fast. Doesn't run when he or she should. Shuns conflict. Creates conflict. Gets married. Falls in love. Hates somebody. Learns to drive a car. Does a random act of kindness. Whatever and everything every character does or does not think, say, or do.

Write down and keep everything. These are clues to who your characters are.

More on that next time.

To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Reworking the First Draft

Once you're done you begin to rework the draft. The next step is character. Who are your main characters. You have a sense of this from the drivel you wrote. Take each character you have in there and develop him or her. You have to know your characters inside and out. More on that next time.

To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Writing The First Draft--A Pre-Synopsis

If it helps write a pre-synopsis. This is a brief version of the story so you can see it down on paper. It's for nobody else but you so you don't have to worry about how it reads.

It's just for you to see how the initial version of the story goes. What the premise story is. Who the major characters are. What happens. When the action takes place. Where it takes place. Why people are doing what they are doing. How the story unfolds. Whose point of view it's told from.

If this doesn't help you don't it. It's all up to you.

To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Writing the Novel First: How to Write the First Draft

You write the first draft by writing it.

People say it's hard to write. They say starting a story is intimidating. People tell me the tyranny of the blank computer screen or of the white page. People tell me these things but I've never felt them. Not that writing isn't hard. Maybe it's because I always know what I'm going to write before I write it. Then I sit down and write it.

Just write. Don't outline. Don't think. Just start writing the story. Even if you think it is the worst thing ever written by anybody anywhere anytime. Keep writing until you get to the end. Even if you get other story ideas write them down and keep on writing the story you're writing.

Like Alice said writing a story is easy. You begin at the beginning then go right on through to the end and stop. Voila!

Remember, you're not a writer if you're not writing. And you can't sell anything if you have nothing to sell.

Take notes as you go. As you think of an idea or a character trait keep notes. Write down what you want to fix, i.e. "On p. 13 make Leslie's father the son of her brother's second cousin once-removed." But don't go back whatever you do. But do not--DO NOT--I repeat do not succumb to the temptation to go back and fix something.

Everybody thinks their work is crap. Usually the first time through it is.

To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Writing the Novel First

To get a novel published you normally have to write a your novel first. Books have been getting shorter. Paper is more expensive. People's attention span is shortening. Still, a long book will sell if it's good.

Most agents want a book about 70,000 words or so. That equates to about 350-400 manuscript pages, which will end up about 300 published pages. Sometimes you can put two short novellas together into a longer one.

But don't worry about that at this point. Write the story you want to write. The important thing for us as writers is to write. Nothing can happen if you don't write.

To move writers' careers along is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Getting a Novel Published--Write The Book First

To get a novel published you normally have to write a your novel first. If you're famous or dead you can maybe get a ghost writer write it. But that's no fun. To write you have to actually write. Not just plan your novel or think about it or put it off.

To be a writer you have to write.

This is not as simple as it sounds for many people. They have trouble getting ideas. Or they feel intimidated by the blank page or virgin computer screen. Or they find it excruciatingly difficult. If you fall into this group you should consider a different set of activities.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Getting published in the traditional way, part 1.

If you're a fiction writer you normally have to write a your novel first. This is not always the case. If you are famous otherwise or an established author you can get a book contract with a proposal or a discussion over coffee.

But if you're like > 99% of first-time writers, you have to write the novel first. This is a daunting task. You are a creator of a product and before you can get published you have to have something to publish.

If you're writing non-fiction it's different. To be continued.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Option 1: Get Published the Traditional Way

Your first option of getting published is to go the traditional route. Here is the sequence of events that has to happen before your book becomes a big seller:

Step 1: Write a book.
Step 2: Interest an agent.
Step 3: Get the agent to sell your book to a publisher.
Step 4: Get the publisher to get it into a bookstore.
Step 5: Have lots of people buy it.

This is the publishing system of Dan Brown, Stephen King, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, etc. This industry John Steinbeck said made horse racing look like a stable business. This industry I have dubbed the Literary-Industrial Complex.

I'll talk more about what you have to do to make this sequence of events come to pass.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

If you want to become an author, you have three choices

If you have written a book and wish to get it published you have three options.

Option 1: Go the traditional route, i.e. find an agent, have the agent find a publisher, have the publisher put it in a book store, sell the book to the public.

Option 2: Publish the book yourself. There are lots of choices right now.

Option 3: Have a literary broker help you get published.

I'll talk about each option in the coming months.
To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Moving Toward a New World of Publishing

We are currently in the middle of a revolution in the way information is created, delivered, and defined. Who decides what art is, what role consumers of art should play in its creation, and how everything gets done are in the middle of a vast and deep transformation.

The literary-industrial complex is losing some of its way. It won't go away altogether because it is sometimes useful. But we are seeing a smushing together of creators of art and consumers of art.

How this is going to sort itself out is anybody's guess. However, the ability of us writers to determine our own fate and define art as we see it is growing rapidly. We no longer have to rely on the way others see art and fit ourselves to it and beg for their recognition of our art.

More on this next time.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

So What's So Bad About the Literary-Industrial Complex?

Nothing inherently. But when the thing gets to the point where new writers are stifled for reasons not related to the quality of their witting things get dicey. Hemingway was about to give up when he caught a lucky break. Where would we be now without Hemingway?

The literary-industrial complex tells you that if you don't published, your work is S#!T. Why do we care about this? Well for a lot of reasons.

When it pretends it's working for you, takes your money, then tells you you're work is crap it's bad.

When it solicits your work then tells you it hasn't had time to read it because it gets so many query letter it's bad.

When your attempts to publish yourself is called going to a vanity press--as if published authors aren't vain--it's bad.

When it calls you names it's bad. When it dominates the very choices you make it's bad.

When it affects the language you use and the way you think it's bad.

Nothing's inherantly bad about the Military-Industrial Complex either. But when it militarizes the society which feeds it and constricts choice it's bad.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

On Commas

Having come away from reading Cormac McCarthy, who believes in no punctuation except periods at the end of sentences, to Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan, a great title by the way, who uses every punctuation known to man or woman including semicolons, I've decided that less is more.

I don't go as far as McCarthy, because the reader has to follow the book, but get rid of as many commas as you can. They slow the reader down and mitigate mood.

Never mitigate mood.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

More on the Literary-Industrial Complex

Why do we care about this? Well for a lot of reasons.

First, the thing has produced a lot of great work. Look at the movies we get to see. The books we read. The poetry we hear. There are a lot of wonderful authors out there who have given us all millions of hours of absolute ecstasy.

We've learned a lot about the world we wouldn't have known. He met some characters we wouldn't have met otherwise. We were, and continue to be, moved in ways we would not have been otherwise.

When Carl Sandburg calls Chicago the city of broad shoulders, hog butcher to the world, these are images that stay with us and shape the way we think.

So is this bad? Not in itself, no.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

What is the Literary-Industrial Complex?

The literary-industrial complex is that cluster of institutions, organizations, and individuals that determines who gets published and who doesn't. It's been called the the literary establishment. One writer called it "the machine."

The existence of a literary-industrial establishment affects our ability to feel empowerment, to touch others, to make a difference in our writing in other people's lives.

How this relates to the military-industrial complex, we'll examine subsequently.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Literary-Industrial Complex and Military Industrial Complex

Here's more on the literary-industrial complex. It plays off of President Dwight David Eisenhower's warning embedded in his January 17, 1961, farewell address. The quote is from Wikepedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

I'll draw in its relevance to the situation of writers next time.

To move writers' careers along, is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

The Literary-Industrial Complex

Dwight Eisenhower, in his farewell address, on January 17, 1961, posited the existence of a "military-industrial complex," a cluster of military and industrial companies, people, and institutions, that promote the growth of a strong military in society.

Eisenhower should know--he was a life-long military man, two-term president, and establishment figure par excellence.

We have in this country a literary-industrial complex as well. I'll talk about the more later.

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Rationalization

Rationalization is a really useful thing for us. It helps us understand our world and why people do things. However, it also enables us to lie to ourselves by denying things that we really know to be true.

The way a character rationalizes his or her or another person's behavior helps deepen the character and lets us inside.

For example in Scott Smith's very engrossing book A simple Plan Hank, the narrator, says to Jacob: "None of this would have happened if you hadn't killed Lou," which is a lie. It's absolutely not true, and the reader knows this. I took the quote from p. 242 of the St. Martin's paperback edition published in 1993.

If you haven't read this, read it. If you have already read it, reread it. You learn a lot more in the rereading.

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

A Nifty Piece of Foreshadowing

I ran across a nifty piece of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is allowing you reader a tantalizing tidbit of the future direction of the story. A lover lifting her skirts just a little bit.

Scott Smith, on p. 166 of the 1993 St. Martin's Paperback edition of his very enjoyable novel A Simple Plan, says:

She was right, of course, or at least it seemed as if she was. But how could I have known then all the loss to which her simple plan would ultimately lead?

We've suspected all along that bad things were going to happen, just not what. Then this comes along and confirms our suspicions. We still don't know what yet, so we read on to find out. I'd have edited out "as if" but that's just me.

Again, the protagonist trying to let himself off the hook for his horrendous behavior.

But foreshadowing is like salt. Sparingly used, and at the right time, it enhances the taste of food. Too much ruins it.

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Voice, continued

Each of your characters has a voice. It makes them uniquely them. That voice can sound different to different characters and can change over time if your story takes place over many years.

Listen to Frank Sinatra. He had a clear voice in the early days. Harry Connick Jr. sounds a lot like early Sinatra. As Sinatra aged, his voice turned huskier and weakened in his later years.

Again your character's voice is not theirs alone. It's a cooperative effort between the character, other characters, you, and you reader.

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Your Voice

Your voice is what makes you uniquely you. In marketing they call it your brand. In network terms its your reputation. It's what makes Shakespeare different from Cormac McCarthy different from Ernest Hemingway different from Albert Camus different from Virginia Woolf.

Your voice is not all yours. You have a major stake in it because it's you your voice flows from. Those who hear it or read it have a say in your voice.

Your voice sounds different to different people and at different times. Herman Hesse spoke clearly to me in the '70s, but not today. Mark Twain sounded different to his readers than the do today.

Though your voice is shared with others, you have a major say in it. It has to flow from you first. You have your voice first, then others share it.

Voice is important--it's one reason people read your stuff. But it's only a starting point.

I want to help move writers' careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To get published as a Sherpa writer, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

To read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

If you want info on buying or selling a home, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

To receive Sherpa tips on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Advantages of Ambiguity

In Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men the main character who carries out the absolutely worst and bloodiest crimes rides off into the sunset albeit with a broken arm. We never find out what happens to him. Rather than tie off all the plots he goes for mood and a larger message. It leaves the reader with a tremendous sense of unease.

Elmore Leonard's formula is to have all the bad guys kill each other off. Not so McCarthy.

Telling you the ending will not lessen the book's impact. It's an amazingly wonderful one. He's the Faulkner of the Texas-Mexico area. His body of work is absolutely brilliant.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

A Character is a Box

To me, a character is a box. It has boundaries, places that are in character and outside of it. We hear about a person acting "out of character." It's like that in fiction.

The character grows when he or she can increase the size of the box, trengthen it, build it higher or something.

If you don't build boxes around your character, you risk boring for the reader. You your reader giving up on your story because your story feels contrived.

I was in a writer's group with a writer who, every time her character faced a challenge, she simply had the character able to do something I never knew he or she could do. I couldn't stand it.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

There Are No New Story Lines

There are no new storylines, just fresh characters.

There are limited number of story-lines. I don't know the exact number, sources vary. Some say 5, some say 7, some say 9, some say something else. The number of them is smaller rather than larger.

There are fresh characters. If you ever watched Murder She Wrote, a long-running prime-time tv series starring Angela Landsbury, who played a mystery writer who solved crimes.

The story-lines were always rather humdrum. Her always fresh character kept you watching, not the story lines. It's like that with writing fiction.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

On Punctuation

In the vortex of revising my book one last time, I'm examining every word in every sentence, every quotation mark, comma, etc., worrying that I'm reading over obvious mistakes. I'm thinking a lot about punctuation.

Punctuation aids communication; the way one punctuates, or doesn't, affects the way people understand what you are saying, or don't.

There are strict rules about punctuation. Most writers obey them. Except Cormac McCarthy. I'm rereading No Country for Old Men (New York: Vintage Books, 2006).

On p. 57, he writes: Anything can be an instrument, Chigurh said.

Now, most writers, including me, would have written: "Anything can be an instrument," Chigurh said. But he is not most writers. Consistent with his general bias against punctuating anything, I'm surprised he didn't write: Anything can be an instrument Chigurh said.

On p. 55, he writes: I dont know. Folks dont generally bet on a coin toss. It's usually more like just settle somethin.

This is wonderful dialogue if you're into the flow of the scene, but why not follow the rules one place and another not? Punctuation is to communicate. Sometimes its hard to figure what it is that hes doin when its hard to understand whats going on.

Lesson: Unless you're Cormac McCarthy, which there's only one of, use correct punctuation and your readers will thank you for it by reading more of your books.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.I

I have to write

Me, I have to write. If I never published a word, I'd have write. If I were confined to a prison cell, I'd write. I cannot not write. It's hard-wired into me.

My mother tried to have a writing career. I came across some short stories she wrote, but couldn't get published. She was a life-long journal-er. I have those too.

I feel blessed that she wrote so much. I feel like I know her better and she is still with me.

I also found an issue of Playboy under my father's bed, but that's for another blog posting.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Write with the Fewest Words Possible But...

Attributed to Einstein is this: A theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Occam's razor says, of all competing hypotheses concocted to explain something, the simplest is likely to be correct.

Then there's the KISS marking rule: Keep it Simple Stupid.

I used to think: Write with the fewest words possible. Rereading Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, I came across a sentence that was hugely long. Yet I was at a loss as to see where I could have cut it and not ruined it.

I've revised my standard mantra: Write with the fewest words possible, but no fewer. McCarthy's sentence had no further than the fewest words possible.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary connectorship, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Writers are Keepers of Secrets

Steven King once said, "Everything goes in, eventually." I take what his meaning to be that our fiction is the outcome of a process that draws on everything we are, were, and will be. Nothing gets left out.

We all know unflattering things about others. Sometimes we have been entrusted with them. Sometimes we found them out otherwise. We have to be careful what we write to avoid violating our friends.

We all are keepers of each other's secrets. As writers we have a greater potential do do harm by revealing something about another person they don't want revealed. So, we have to be careful what we write. We may be violating a loved one's privacy.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary endeavor, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Narrative Style

The television programs I like to watch, other than politics and sports, have a simple and straight-forward narrative style: Hemingway, not Faulkner. Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, American Justice. They move along at the right pace, not so fast that you can't follow them, but so slowly that you want to wring the producers' necks.

The Law and Orders of the world are overly dramatized. 1st 48, which I like sometimes, tends to move too slowly. 48-hrs mysteries, too, are so padded an hour program could have been polished off in 15 minutes.

Criminal Minds tends to be overly dramatized, too, and often far too grisly than they need to be, but the way they tell the story is sometimes absolutely fascinating.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary brokerage, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

When are you happiest?

I'm happiest when I'm writing.

Sure I love to be with my wife,
and I love to go to concerts,
and I love to play chamber music,
and I love to read,
and I love to play chess,
and I love to have coffee and talk with people about things that are important to us,
and I love to have a good meal.

I love all these things.

But I'm happiest when I'm writing.

I want to help move people's careers along. Is what I am saying helpful?

To find out about my new literary brokerage, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Creative forgetting

I've finished the next-to-last draft and put the book into creative isolation where I won't work on it for at least 2 weeks. We need to go through a process of creative forgetting. That way the mind will be fresh and can look at the work with a new objectivity.

Do you practice this as well
I want to give people tips to help their writing. Are these helpful?

To find out about my new literary brokerage, contact me at 215 219 5825 or twb2@verizon.net.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my ideas on the practice of real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

Finishing up a book I've been working on for what seems like forever, I finally found how I can really, really let it go.

The reason--I finally understood the motivation of one of the two main characters.

This insight came after I revised it in a different order. I mapped out the action day by day so I would have a written record of who was who and what happened when. I figured I would need this for the synopsis anyway. Then revised each chapter as if it were a quasi-short story. And about mid-way through the process, the epiphany came to me.

Now, I can let it go. Are you having trouble letting go of your book? Try doing something different with it.

My goal here is to help writers achieve their dreams. How am I doing?

I see my writing as helping to incubate a small business. I won't be paid directly for it, but it will monetize in some shape or form. My challenge is to understand how that monetization can occur. In developing this business, I try to act as a skilled entrepreneur. I'm learning every day. For my ideas on entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com.

To get a piece of short fiction published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com. It's for short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, novel excerpts, short scripts, short plays, or other creative writing. Publication is guaranteed upon payment of a modest fee.

Read my mystery, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders (2007), for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

For my ideas on buying or selling a house, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.