Writing Conferences

Larry and I spent the weekend at the Southern California Crime Writers Conference in Pasadena, California. We're still exhausted after a jam-packed weekend of speakers and panels.

Unlike some of the other conferences we attend, this one is really geared to writers rather than published authors. Oh, don’t' get me wrong. Many of the attendees are, indeed, published authors.

The keynote speaker on Saturday was Sue Grafton, author of the Alphabet (Kinsey Millhone) mysteries. Starting with A is for Alibi, Sue has crafted a protagonist with a spunky personality and personal foibles, who is both believable and likeable.

As she spoke, her voice reflected the personality of her character. She is a master of creating original and creative metaphors. These add depth and color to her manuscripts as well as to her own speech.

After the keynote, she was interviewed with a Q&A session following. She is as funny and approachable as one might expect from reading her books.

The keynote speaker for Sunday was Elizabeth George. I must confess, she was the speaker I most wanted to hear since we had seen and heard her at the Maui Writers Conference in 2005. I still quote some of the wisdom she imparted at that time.

I was sardined into a small meeting room for her workshop, along with far more attendees than the room would hold. In addition, several more were turned away for lack of space. And once again, she inspired and taught while speaking about her own writing process.

Her keynote was self-revelatory and relatable, as I had expected.

Since her book signing went long, so many of those who might have wanted to hear her interview (including Larry) decided to attend other workshops. She was well-worth the wait! She sat around a table with about a dozen of us and was interviewed. The questions were well-thought-out, and her answers were thoughtful. But she also answered our own questions with the same candor. She even revealed a bit of the background for her next book, to be released in October of this year.

And those two great authors were only the icing on the cake. The offerings were rich and varied and provided something for everyone.

Why do we continue to attend conferences? Because we get so much rich material, but also because we get enthused about the writing process again.

Writers who are serious about the craft owe it to themselves to attend conferences where they can be surrounded by the best in the business. Sit at their feet, and learn.

Adding Reality to Fiction

Today my partner in life and in crime—novels, that is—Larry K. Collins is my guest. See how we create reality in our fiction.

During a conference presentation, I was asked this question: “I write fiction. What kind of research should I do? And how much?”

My answer was: “As much as you can. The more reality you put into your fiction, the more believable it becomes. As a rule of thumb, I put in a true fact, a fact, a fact, a fact, and make up a fact. If I do it well, my readers won’t be able to tell which one is made up.”

WRITING A REAL LOCATION

In our second mystery, Murder in Paradise, our protagonist, Agapé Jones, retired NYPD detective, was supposed to drive from Honolulu to Hale’iwa. While doing research on Oahu, I drove the same route, noticed the outrigger canoes parked along the Ala Wai Canal, and shopped at the Foodland in Hale’iwa. Then Agapé did the same things in the book. We know our readers will never forgive us if we mess up their town. And if our hero drives the wrong way on a one-way street, we’ll never hear the end of it.

While writing a story in a real place, I surround myself with photos, clippings, and maps of the area I intend to write about. Anything to keep me grounded in reality.

Sometimes a picture will inspire a scene. In Murder in Paradise, I had the grandmother character tell the story of growing up as a child on the North Shore and visiting the Hale’iwa Hotel, a beautiful Victorian-style inn featuring a two-story lanai and luxurious dining room. Opened in 1898, the building was torn down in 1952. As inspiration, I purchased several early photos of the old hotel from North Shore Photo Hawaii and hung them on the wall over my computer. The pictures themselves never appeared in the book, but my descriptions became more accurate because I could visualize being there. Hopefully I passed my vision on to the reader.

WRITING A FICTITIOUS LOCATION

Lorna and four friends created the fictitious town of Aspen Grove, Colorado, as the location for their anthologies, Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love, and An Aspen Grove Christmas. This allows the authors to invent shops, restaurants, churches, B&Bs, etc. to fit the various novellas. They placed Aspen Grove in the mountains west of Denver on the road leading to the ski resorts. Even though it is fictitious, it needed to have the real look and character of the area. Aspen Grove became a composite of several real towns.

Walk down the main street of Idaho Springs and you expect to see Daisy’s Diner and the Book Nook. Wander along the lakefront in Georgetown to find Drew’s log cabin and on through town to the stone building housing the Presbyterian Church. Several readers have remarked they would love to visit Aspen Grove. So would we.

WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION

Not only do the locations need to be correct, but also the specific time period. The events, language, customs, clothing, and props must all fit the era.

In historical fiction, it is even more important to do accurate research. Our latest endeavor, The Memory Keeper, concerns life at the San Juan Capistrano Mission between 1820 and 1890 as seen through the eyes of a Juaneño Indian.

For inspiration, an original etching by Rob Shaw, published in 1890 by H L Everett, showing the mission grounds, currently hangs over my computer.

Our bibliography is running about five or six pages and growing. We have also enlisted the aid of the local San Juan historian and a Juaneño native storyteller as beta readers for historical information. We won’t be satisfied until they are satisfied with the accuracy of our details.

Now that I’ve said all that, I have to remind myself. Never let the facts get in the way of the story. Too many details can turn a good story into a boring history lesson. In the end, the research should support and enhance, but not overwhelm. We must choose carefully which facts to include, leave out, and make up. If we’ve done our job, our readers will become so involved with the plot and compelling characters, that the facts just blend in. They’ll never know how much research went into it. But we will.

Plot Pet Peeves

I've recently read several books with glaring plot issues. As an author and editor, it drives me nuts. But even as a reader, I hate it when writers get lazy and create flawed stories. These are very basic issues and should never happen. Unfortunately they do, and far too often, particularly today when so many writers self-publish their own books without the services of a good content editor.

So, if you care about good quality writing, please bear with me while I rant.

UNRESOLVED PLOTLINES

This is especially abhorrent in mysteries, but can occur in other genres as well.

The book ends without resolution to issues raised during the story leaving the reader to ask, "But, what happened after (insert subplot)?" "Whatever happened to (fill in the blank)?" Often a character simply disappears halfway through the story, never to reappear. I don't expect all relationships to be completely tied up in neat bows. As in real life, some will continue to be difficult in the future. Some will irrevocably be rent asunder. And sometimes it's okay not to know what the people will do going forward. But to drop them in the middle of the story is annoying, especially if the reader has developed an interested in them. This applies even to minor plot points.

Which brings me to the next one…

SPEAR CARRIERS

These are like the cast of thousands in the old historical dramas whose only purpose is to hold the spears and establish the size of the crowd. They don't contribute anything to the plot.

A rule of thumb is: If you name a character, be sure they serve a purpose and move the story along. If they don't, leave them out!

UNFULFILLED PROMISES

If the author shows the reader a gun, it had better be used before the end of the book! If the author hints at the presence of a stalker, that person had better appear somewhere in the story or be explained in another way.

Mysteries depend on multiple suspects with motive and opportunity. Sometimes they're 'red herrings,' but even those must be explained by the end of the book. Just finding the perpetrator is not enough. There must be some explanation for the other characters' actions.

LAST-MINUTE REVELATION OF CLUES

This is when the sleuth (professional or amateur) explains how they discovered the villain with clues that were never included earlier in the story. This is a blatant cheat and a particular personal gripe.

Part of the fun of reading mysteries is trying to figure out who-done-it along with the protagonist. You can only do this if you have all the evidence.

UNEXPLAINED CHARACTER KNOWLEDGE

This is when a character suddenly has information, the source of which is never explained. As a reader, you agree to take a journey with the author. It is jarring when a character suddenly knows something without any explanation of how they learned it.

For our first mystery, we created a huge spreadsheet on which we charted the timeline of the story (some of which was in five-minute increments). Then we listed the characters and color-coded where each was at the time. In that way, we knew who had specific knowledge of events and who was not in the area.

HISTORICAL INACCURACIES

People read historical novels because they enjoy the time period. Many are steeped in the era. One mistake, and the author may lose that reader. I read one book where the characters used current terms in dialogue supposedly from the 1800s. Not good!

In another, items and concepts that did not appear until the twentieth century were used in a novel set in the nineteenth. Also, unacceptable.

We are currently writing an historical novel set in a nearby town in between 1820 and 1890. Because San Juan Capistrano is a mission city, much has been written about it. However, many of the available books, articles, etc. differ in the specifics of dates and events. We are fortunate that the official historian for San Juan has agreed to read the draft and check for inaccuracies. She has also recommended what she considers the best resources.

The one thing the author gets wrong may be the only thing the reader will remember.

STARTING THE NEXT BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CURRENT ONE

Authors should write one book at a time!  Period. Each should be complete in itself. Even if the intention is to create a series, each book MUST stand alone. If the author wants to let the reader know there will be additional books, a sample chapter can be added at the end of the current book to entice the reader. But to leave the reader wanting resolution to the story because the author wants them to read the next book is cheating. It's a technique I refuse to buy into. When I run across one of these, I refuse to read the author again.

There are probably other issues that turn off and alienate readers. What are your pet peeves?