Sunday, January 19, 2020

A dry spell comes into the life of every blogger

It's been more than a month since I posted here. I guess I could say that I'm in the midst of a dry spell. That wouldn't be accurate. I've written some blog posts on healthcare and politics that bored me so much I couldn't finish. So, I turned my attention elsewhere. wrote five feature articles for Artscapes Magazine. I started a piece for Studio Wyoming Review on Wyofile. I revamped the last section of my historical novel and almost finished it. I discovered halfway through the last section that the narrative didn't make sense in its present form. Maybe I should have waited until I actually finished because finishing is the goal. But no -- I had to be different. I do have most of a final chapter, my third attempt. I have read about other authors who begin the book and write the final chapter so they know where they're going. Those are the same writers who outline the book before they write. They're called plotters.

Writers like me are called pantsers because we write "by the seat of their pants," making up the story as we go along. I believe I'm in that group due to my early training in daily and weekly newspapers. Sports reporting, especially, makes writers write down what they know because there is 20 minutes to deadline. It's a handy way to learn writing as you always have the score to fall back on. "Cheyenne Central shellacked Cheyenne South Friday night 52-0 to cinch its record at 10-1 and win a trip to the high school boys' football regional playoffs." All the 5Ws are in there. I used fun action verbs -- shellacked and cinch -- that aren't usually seen elsewhere in daily news writing except in election season. That lede gives you a gateway into the rest of the story that you will keep writing until time is up. Often the ending can trail off into noweheresville as you throw in stats or add a lame quote from the winning coach or quarterback. You're finished. On to the next game!

Ledes aren't always easy to come by in feature writing. You're lucky if some attention-grabbing quote or fact can be fished out of your notes. You really have to dig sometimes, depending on the pizazz of the interviewee. In fiction, I usually start with an image. In my novel, I wanted to put my two main characters on a train together. Nothing too exciting about a passenger rail car in 1919 Colorado, although there are train fans out there who might disagree. My characters, however, are so different that they clash in interesting ways that might (you never know) lead to romance somewhere in the middle of the book. It works for me. No telling if it will grab the interest of editors.

I began writing this because writing is something I am invested in. Not so politics and healthcare. I love to read and talk about those topics. Debate them, too, as long as its a two-sided contest. But tackling these topics rally requires some research. The Internet is key to that. I know which sources to turn to for facts and which to turn to for snark. I like both, so sometimes I turn to opinion pieces in newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Miami Herald. Carl Hiaasen of the Herald is the best columnist in the USA. I also look to conservatives mouthpieces such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and others. For liberal snark, you can't beat Wonkette. I often wonder where Hunter S. Thompson would have plied his trade on the WWW. The Trump Era was made for him.

In conclusion, let me state that I needed to write and post something that interests me so I can move on to the next things. Finishing the novel. Watching the NFL conference finals. Eating lunch.

See you in the funny papers.

6 comments:

Lynn said...

The list you gave of what you're working on hardly qualifies you as a writer in a dry spell. Blogging is just one of the outlets for your words, obviously. Sometimes the juice is for one project over another, and I think it's just crazy-making to go against that flow.

I'm not a Plotter at all. I don't exactly fit the description of a Pantser either. I'm an Accumulator, I guess--gathering snippets of story, images that show me what a character might look like, draft letters that a character might write, bits of dialogue, etc. At some point, this stuff coalesces into a scene, and the scenes into chapters. Not yet had the chapters come together into a whole story, but I'm working on it.

"Working on it" is what we writers aspire to most of all, don't you think? Without the work, where would we be?

Ann McCutchan said...

I think it was Carolyn Chute who said, "journalism is boot camp for writers." I couldn't agree more. Thanks for this post, Mike.

RobertP said...

Mike,

Your best post yet. Let's get that novel finished. And hope on Sunday you were cheering for my Chiefs! first moved to KC 50 years ago and watched the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. Ready to do it again and know you will be cheering for us.

Bob

Michael Shay said...

Go Chiefs! Go Chiefs! Go Chiefs! I think you will bring them luck and let's hope they return before another 50 years passes as we might not be around.

Michael Shay said...

Working on it -- that sums it up.

Michael Shay said...

Where do writers go to boot camp now that newspapers are dying?