Write Better At Work

Kelly McCullough sees writing as “demolition testing”

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Kelly McCullough knows how to play with language.

He describes his novels as adventure stories with a core of myth and heroism, seasoned with wit.

When developing the Webmage series, he asked this guiding question: “What cool things can I do with computers and parallel worlds if I come at it from the magic side?” The result: a fast-moving adventure series featuring a “snarky hacker” who, with a “cynical, sarcastic shapeshifter, half-laptop, half-goblin” as his partner, goes up against cosmic injustice.

If you like Golding’s The Princess Bride, you’ll recognize the ingredients of an interesting read, but when you realize that the protagonist really is as funny as he thinks he is, McCullough’s genre-bending approach becomes irresistible.

Much of the fun comes from McCullough’s inventive metaphors. He compresses apt details with rich connotations to spark insight, as in this example from Webmage:  “Chaos. The raw, wild wine of creation.” The adventures of his hero, Ravirn, are set in a universe that is itself an extended metaphor: MythOS, or myth as operating system. McCulough’s metaphor for his world-building process is also provocative. Fascinated by hidden social dynamics, McCullough writes by “trying to build an alternate world to ours, make it as real as possible, and then demolition test it by setting stories there and pushing the extremes to see what breaks. It’s tremendously fun, and people seem to enjoy reading the results.”

Notes
Quotations are from  http://fantasy-faction.com/2012/kelly-mccullough-interview

Steve Berry: “Writing is an acquired skill.”

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I once thought Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone novels captivate me because they have a dashing, but ethical, super agent hero and intriguing historical puzzles. Now I know the real secret of their appeal: Berry writes Hardy Boys mysteries for grownups.

Berry’s love for thrillers began when he read the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, youthful detectives. When he first tried to write a novel, legal thrillers were popular. Despite his law degree, Berry had trouble bringing Grisham-type plots to life. Finally he began writing the type of novels he wanted to read, even though the market for international spy thrillers was dead. Before his first book was published, Berry had drafted eight novels and gathered an impressive collection of rejection slips. Then the success of The DaVinci Code encouraged a publisher to accept his 86th submission. The Amber Room became a national bestseller.

Aspiring authors can take heart from Berry’s long road to publication. “I’m just sort of the living, breathing poster child for it-can-be-done,” he told The Oklahoman. Even more heartening is Berry’s hard-won wisdom about his craft. While writing is difficult,  “it’s not impossible; it’s an acquired skill and if you want to acquire it and you stick with it … you can teach yourself the craft of writing.”

Key elements of Berry’s craft are creating suspense and using background from hundreds of historical sources without slowing the plot. To develop these skills,  he read thrillers by authors he admired and sought feedback from his writers’ group. He indulges in no mystique about the writing process. Instead, he says he learned to write in much the same way he learned to practice law: he identified key skills, such as talking to juries, and practiced them.

Not everyone is willing to practice as much as Berry. But he’s living proof that writing skill isn’t a magical gift or a mysterious talent. It’s a craft, and it can be learned.

Notes:

“Best-selling author Steve Berry to speak at Oklahoma writers conference, publish new Cotton Malone book ‘The Jefferson Key'”: http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/2011/05/06/best-selling-author-steve-berry-to-speak-at-oklahoma-writers-conference-publish-new-cotton-malone-book-the-jefferson-key/
FAQ: http://www.steveberry.org/berry-faq.htm
Interview with Steve Berry (December 14, 2007): http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/steve-berry/news/interview-121407

And the last shall be first: John Irving on how he writes novels

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One well-intentioned piece of advice has given countless students writer’s block: Begin with a sentence that grabs your reader’s attention.

That’s actually good advice. The problem is the assumption students often make: I have to start writing at the beginning. The corollary is paralyzing: If I don’t have a great first sentence, I can’t start writing.

To get them past rule-induced paralysis, I’d tell them how I wrote my college papers. At the time, the height of technology was a self-correcting electric typewriter. If I rolled a sheet of paper into the typewriter and started typing the title, I’d sit there staring at the blank page for hours. However, if I started with the second paragraph and kept going until the final paragraph, my main point would emerge as I typed. So I got very good at leaving just the right amount of space for the title and first paragraph, which were actually the last things I wrote.

My students would smile, either amused by my idiosyncrasy or pitying the primitive tools available in the distant days of my youth. Then I would ask, If the introduction fit the space I left, would my teachers have ever known that I wrote the introduction last? If you start in the middle or at the end, how would your readers know?

A few of the more daring students began to get the idea. You mean we can start in the middle? Or the the end? Just start, I would tell them. It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t even matter if you write drivel like I have to write a paper and I’d rather play Angry Birds but I have to come up with a topic and I don’t know what to write about… The simple act of writing will help you gain momentum. Once you get going, you can delete the drivel and shape the good stuff into a coherent draft.

To reinforce the point, I’d show them Bonnie Case’s painting of a Hostess cupcake with its signature loops of frosting and say: Remember that writing is recursive. It doesn’t have to be done in 1-2-3 order. You can start anywhere and loop back to any point in the piece as long as you eventually create an order your reader can follow.

While the Hostess squiggle is still my favorite metaphor for the writing process, John Irving’s writing process is an even better guide for writers. When Irving made a guest appearance on NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, host Peter Sagal asked, “Do you ever surprise yourself when you sit down to write a novel?”

“No, I don’t surprise myself,” Irving replied, “because I begin with the ending of books and I know where I’m going.” After writing five novels, he learned that the first sentence that came to mind when he began a book was actually the last sentence. “I just realized, well, I get endings first. And I should recognize that.”

Beginning at the end wouldn’t work for everyone. But Irving’s process can work for every writer: recognize the way your mind works, respect the natural flow of  your thoughts, and trust that your ideas will come together in the end.

Note: you can listen to a podcast of Irving’s appearance on the June 16, 2012, broadcast of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me on NPR’s website:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/16/155071355/novelist-john-irving-plays-not-my-job.