Category Archives: Writing

What James Patterson and Michelangelo Have in Common (Not in a Good Way)

Michelangelo looking contemplative

It all started when I visited the National Gallery in London. I took the art tour with a curator, who diligently explained what all those famous paintings were about. When we came to a rather room-engulfing Michelangelo, the curator explained that only the sketch was done by the master himself. All the detail painting was done by his studio of apprentices and students.

Apparently, the Renaissance artist functioned more as a modern day advertising agency, providing all sorts of custom services to the patrons. Want a marble statue? He can do that? How about a mural in your foyer? No problem. Leonardo da Vinci advertised no fewer than 60 services he could provide.

So that famous work of art with the equally famous signature might have been composed by underpaid grunts hoping to break into the big leagues.

Then we shoot forward five-hundred years to brand name publishing and James Patterson. Just like Michelangelo, the author has saturated the market. Last year he made $84 million, twice his nearest competitor and more than J K Rowling or Stephen King. He released, on average, a book every two months. Last year is was ten books.

Patterson admits that he runs his publishing empire on the Henry Ford model, assembly-line style. He provides ghost writers with a detailed outline and lets them do all the heavy lifting. Then he reads through the finished manuscript, edits it, and collects the check.

Patterson claims that he is more skilled at writing a plot than the crafting of sentence after sentence. Excuse me, but isn’t that what writing is about? The writing?

Now, it’s true that the ghost writers do get credit on the book, far more than Michelangelo gave them. Yet in the art world, the Renaissance artists were only starting to gain reputations as individuals. Most were simply skilled artisans employed by guilds. Only two-hundred years before Giotto was the first to become a household name.

In this age of Internet and personal celebrity, individual artistic work should be rewarded. Yes, there’s no human way any author can churn out that much fiction. But why dominate the cover with your name when you’re only the idea man? The answer, of course, is money. The publishers make more off of brand-name authors than unknowns. And readers don’t seem to care.

It’s a pity. I know that when I pick up a Stephen King or a J K Rowling, I want to read their words on the page. It’s in the trenches of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters that the true novel is written.

Just today, my critique group questioned the direction my novel was going. I stood back and had a serious look at the chapters I’d written. Yes. It did need to change. The outline I had diligently put together had to be thrown out and reworked. Yet I was only fifty pages into the work. I could fix that.

Somehow, given the schedule pushed by the large publishers, I doubt that the edits made by James Patterson are ever major enough to cause a complete rewrite of the story. If the story sticks to the original outline, then it gets published.

I simply cringe. I mean I know that thrillers are churned off at a fast pace to satisfy avid readers, but I’d much rather wait for one or two quality books by an author than have eight or ten a year. If I need more to read, I can strike out and find a new writer.

It’s not like fast book production can’t be done. Chet Cunningham writes three to four books a year, and he needs a magnifying glass to see the words on the screen. He once told me a wrote a 50,000 page book in a week.

I guess is goes back to that old adage: You’ll never find me selling out, until someone offers. Perhaps if I had the opportunity to pull down $84 million, I’d wrangle some ghostwriters. But until then, let me write the words, thank you.

Tim Kane

Regenerate Willpower Through Downtime

The myth of the author has him (or her) hunkered down in front of the keyboard, toiling away on the great American novel, working hours on end. A pile of crumpled paper accumulating around the trash can.

The reality is a bit more like Jack Torrance from The Shining. That author, embodied by Jack Nicholson, became so engrossed in his work that he typed the same thing over and over again. And we all know how that story turned out.

An author needs a deep well of willpower to shove aside distractions like Twitter and email and carve out time to write. What few writers realize is that the supply of willpower is not infinite.

A study by Princeton neuroscientist, Dr. Wang, found that willpower can be drained and regenerated. Tasks that require a lot of mental effort, like exercising or paying bills, can leave you drained.

Have you ever sat down to write only to find yourself ready to give up before you even start? The problem might be a sapped willpower.

Dr. Wang illustrated his point with “The Radish Experiment.” A group of college students were presented impossible puzzles to solve. Beforehand, one third were given radishes to eat. The second third were given cookies. The last third were given nothing to eat. The radish group gave up after 8 minutes. The other two groups lasted twice as long. Why? Because eating a cookie, or even eating nothing, required no willpower. They arrived at the puzzles with a fully charged battery.

Apparently, eating radishes eats up a big chunk of your fortitude.

The Oreo Method
Here’s the trick to maximizing your willpower: Oreo. Do some challenging work, then play and relax, and then get back to work. So what this means is that little stint on Twitter you’re beating yourself up about, might actually be beneficial. My favorite willpower rebuilders are my daughter and my dog. Nothing relaxes the mind more than creating a Lego tower or petting a dog with it’s head nested in your lap. As tempting as it is to grab my mobile phone and squeeze a little work in, I resist. I need this downtime to recharge.

If you do plan on an extended writing session, don’t do a mentally taxing activity directly beforehand. And don’t confuse fun with easy. Running or exercise usually requires willpower because you have to get off your ass to make it happen.

Likewise, those so-called guilty pleasures require no willpower to do (on the contrary, they suck up the willpower to stay away). So indulge in a cookie or a little Starbucks. It just might be the boost you need to go that extra mile with your writing.

After all, you don’t want to end up like Jack…

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Tim Kane

How I Used Power Writing Sessions to Multiply My Manuscript Output

Even though I’m quite satisfied with where I am as a writer, I can’t help by envy those folk who seem to pump out page after page of writing each day. Now I know I don’t have the luxury of writing everyday, all day. I do have a job. Plus, when I get the opportunity, I spend time with my family first. That’s what it’s about.

Yet, I am a writer. And I commit myself to this endeavor daily. Why the heck else would I wake up every day at 4:45? Certainly not for the perks. No, I trudge to my computer in a crepuscular haze to indulge my joy of writing.

That was me last week. Then everything changed.

On Friday I ran across this article: 10,000 words in one day? No way…WAY! I read it and felt mesmerized. I instantly knew it was possible. The author, PD Martin, broke down the day. It consisted of four two-hour blocks, with tiny, fifteen-minute breaks in between.  I knew a whole day wasn’t feasible. I think writers who do this don’t have kids. My five-year-old girl is incredibly patient, but this would break the bank for waiting.

So an all day writing session was out. But I could shoot for one of the two-hour blocks. I’ve certainly written for this length of time before without any earth-shattering word outputs. But the way the author described the technique was similar to the outlining method I’d used before (see Write the Way Vermeer Paints).

Additionally, the author spoke of having no breaks whatsoever. Shutting of the Internet. Muting the phone. Etcetera. (Actually, the Internet is rarely a problem, but I do journey downstairs for coffee refills and stretches.)

I was intrigued. I wanted to try it, and soon. Saturday morning I found another article How to Write a Book in Three Days: Lessons from Michael Moorcock which details another writer using a speed method to shortcut his way to a novel. In these snippets of an interview with Moorcock, he admits to using a formula. Also, he supposed his form would work best for epic and fantasy fiction.

The gist of both systems was to write and without looking back. Don’t worry about formatting, dialogue tags, spelling or punctuation. Just write. And I’ve done this before, but only for forty-five minutes at a time. And it was rather draining.

The first hurtle I came up against was one of planning. This style of writing—pedal to the metal, damn the torpedoes—suits those who write with no end in sight. The type of author who has little notion where a book will go from page to page. That’s not me. I like structure and to know where my manuscript is headed.

Typically, I do what I call scene building. I map out scenes based on the character’s goals, complications, and frustrations. Often these change as I write the actual chapter, but having a direction helps me get over those spots where the inner critic stomps all over my creativity. (Even Moorcock recommends having a plan.)

My solution was to take a day (Saturday morning, in fact) and map out as far as I could go. I jotted down three pages of notes.

Sunday arrived and the alarm rang at 3:47 in the morning. (I have something of a fixation for numbers. Evens are bad and odds are good. Prime numbers are the best. They just feel right.) I bypassed the snooze and got the coffee on. I knew, that in order to have a solid two-hours, I needed to start no later than 4:15. This is because my daughter usually rouses between 6:15 and 6:25.

I actually got to the keyboard at 4:17. (I scarfed down a bowl of cereal.) To avoid extra breaks, I brought up my thermos of coffee. Then I went to work.

Using the print out of the scene mapping I did the day before, I crashed through the first hour with little problem. Then the distractions nudged at me. My brain began asking questions.

What time is it?
How many words have you written so far?
Should I take a break?

I should explain that I set my word processor (Pages) to full-screen mode, so I can’t see the time or menus or anything but the page. Yet for the next ten to fifteen minutes my gaze wandered everywhere. My body wasn’t used to this sort of output past the one-hour mark.

Yet I persevered. Once I got over the hump, I plowed through another hour of writing. I actually found a reasonable stopping point right around 6:20 (my daughter slept till 6:24 this morning).

In order to keep up the pace, I blew past anything that even hinted at stalling. I would simply write the word “description” for new people or rooms. I wrote dialogue closer to theater-style, with only a name and a colon, no quotes. Sometimes I skipped any indication of a speaker when it was obvious.

I’ve always found that dialogue comes out much better this way. To get the flow correct, you can’t pause. You must have it match the natural rhythm of a real conversation. I add the word “beat” when I want a pause in the speaking. I know, when I go back to edit, that I’ll add in plenty of  details.

My final output, for two hours, was 2550 words spread over 14 pages. Typically I write between 300 and 500 words, so this was about a week’s worth in one day. Of course it was pretty rough on y body. I yearned for a nap all day. And the words I did write are fairly rough. They need some serious editing and revision.

But still, I took my output and quintupled it. At least. Any further revisions will only add to the word count.

Power Writing may not be for everyone. But the rewards are amazing. You get words on the page. Your mind finally snaps free of the inner critic.

Try it. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Tim Kane

How Paper and Glue Books Might Lead to Your Next Best Idea

I admit that more often than not, I used the computer to answer my questions. I have a nifty widget that pops up and becomes an instant thesaurus and dictionary. But there are some times that I need to yank that old paper and glue tome off its bookshelf and turn some pages.

A few weeks ago I had an experience that reminded me what writing was like before the Internet and widgets and apps and all those time saving devices. I was doing some world building and needed some specific words to describe people and magic. I wanted the words to be special and my computer widget came up dry.

So I pushed the keyboard back, clunked down the books and started researching. My most favorite book ever, and the one that I turn to when I need some great words: Roget’s International Thesaurus Fourth Edition.

Now, I’ve searched and searched for a digital version of this. I did find a website where you can page through a virtual copy of the book (which takes much longer than the actual book). But no app or other copy of Roget’s Thesaurus has what the fourth addition has.

Most Roget’s Thesauruses are organized like your typical dictionary—alphabetical. Instead of definitions, like the dictionary, you get a string of basic synonyms and antonyms. Useful, but easily replaced by all those fancy apps.

The Roget’s Fourth Edition words differently. It’s organized by subject. This means that to look something up, you have to search twice. Let’s say you want another work for walk. First I look walk up in the index at the back (which is alphabetical). This gives me a series of options for nouns (amble, arena, circuit, gait, path, race, region, route, slowness, sphere of work, vocation) and verb (ambulate, go slow).

Already the beauty of this book reveals itself. It shoots your brain in different directions. What the heck is “sphere of work”? (I looked it up. Walk related to a cop’s beat.)

Next, you look up a number related to the shade of meaning you want. Let’s shoot for race (796.12). This comes under the heading “Contention.” The subsection 12 deals with contests of speed.

But since this Thesaurus is arranged by topic, you can look at the sections around. Section 797 is “Warfare.” The previous section is “Disaccord.” All these lead to new ideas, which is pretty much what this creativity thing is all about.

And these are ideas without distractions. You take a saunter through the Internet to look up words and before you know it, you’re searching for news reports, or checking your Twitter feed, or anything but what you intended to do.

Paper and glue books don’t have an on/off switch. You can’t go off track. So if I’m saying anything here, it’s try to unplug once in a while. Pick up a real thesaurus or dictionary and actually search for something. The time it takes to flip those pages might actually trigger an idea you didn’t even know you wanted.

Tim Kane

Fantastic Four Characteristics to Make You a Better Writer

Ok, I’m a comic book geek through and through. Out of the current 594 issues of Fantastic Four, I own 576. So needless to say, a lot of my thought processes get filtered through the comic book viewpoint.

Two recent events got me thinking about the Fantastic Four again. The first was starting school. Last week, 31 new students began their sixth grade career with me as their teacher. I always conduct a team building exercise to highlight important character traits. You know, honesty, organization—things that will help them in life.

The other event (that always seems to occur the same week as school) was the San Diego Comic Con. I haven’t gone every year, but I’ve certainly racked up my share. Plus, I started attending in the 1970s back when it was still relatively dinky. I do know my way around an exhibition hall.

My mind went to work to link these two concepts together—instilling good character in pre-teens and a convention floor crammed with 150,000 pop culture nerds (like me). The resulting pastiche was an idea to base character traits on the Fantastic Four.

Invisible Woman
She represents teamwork. Think about it. She turns invisible. No one knows where she’ll be. If she doesn’t stick to the plan, her teammates will bash into her or knock her down.

As a writer, teamwork is crucial to success. Only recently did I join professional writing groups. Before that, I pretty much wrote in isolation. It was natural for me. I was an only child and was used to working alone.

A professional critique group raised me up to a whole different level of writing. But you can’t approach this venture selfishly. A critique group is reciprocal process. You have to put everything in. You can’t always be thinking about your own work. I often find I learn how to be a better writer by striving to improve the work of my fellow scribblers. And that’s the essence of teamwork.

The Human Torch
Definitely courage. This is a no-brainer. Johnny Storm is a hot head. He often rushes into the fray without thinking. Yet, he never holds back. A trait that wins many battles. But is also got him killed in issue 587. (Maybe he’s dead. Nothing is permanent in comics.)

This is a quality every writer needs. When you put together that manuscript, don’t hold back. Peel back your soul and dredge up every bit of nasty that lurks inside. Take a risk. That’s the only way to write deadly honest prose.

Mr. Fantastic
The epitome of Reason. Yes he has the power of super stretchiness. However, most of the time he defeats his villains through a well conceived plan (which often includes building a machine).

As a writer, organization is key. Plan your scenes before you write. Set up a character bible so you get the details right throughout the story.

But reason is more than simply thinking ahead. Mr. Fantastic can stretch to attack an opponent from any direction. Working on those tough points in your manuscript are the same. Bashing your head against a blank computer screen will get you nowhere. Think. How you can get at the story from a different direction? Maybe take a break. Switch locales. Go old school with a notepad and a pen. Whatever works to crack that blank page open and get the words flowing again.

The Thing
Persistence. Period.
This is my all time, favorite character. No other super hero personifies persistence like this man. I mean he gets stuck with the ugliest mug in all of comicdom, yet he never gives up. Yes, the Hulk outclasses him in strength every time. This won’t stop Ben Grimm. He keeps up the fight until there’s nothing left.

Persistence is every writer’s secret weapon. I mean we aren’t actors or models who will lose our good looks. Or athletes that have to worry about strained muscles and the ravages of time. We can write until the Grim Reaper knocks on our door. Take my good friend, Chet Cunningham. He’s written 400 plus books. His eyes are going, so he has to use a magnifying glass to see his computer screen. Yet he still churns out the books (usually two or three a year).

Yes you’ll get more rejections than acceptances as a writer. Your critique group, though helpful, won’t be all smiles and sunshine. If they’re good, they’ll tear your sentences apart.

But you need to keep going.

This is what separates wannabes from real writers. Butt to chair. Keep writing. No matter what.

Nuff Said.

Tim Kane