Tips & Answers to Qs

A NOD TO THE MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT ON WRITING

Mark Twain

One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not
be persuaded. It isn’t because the book is not there and worth being written — it is only because the
right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and
if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.

It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense.

From the Editor's Desk

Gravity

What holds your characters to the ground? This is not a NASA question, and it’s not a metaphysical one either. The reality you create for your characters must be adhered to or else the characters are not believable. Case in point: Cops. All cops start out as beat cops, even in small towns. They don’t become detectives, captains or police chiefs without having gotten into the gritty underbelly of society. Which means they are not going to behave, speak, or “date” like choirboys or Miss Mary Sunshine.

Behavior: Get real. How many of you have day jobs that are desk jobs? Do you come home cranky sometimes? Don’t want to make dinner, go out to eat, socialize, be lovey-dovey with your significant other? Now, multiply that by ten thousand. Instead of biting your tongue during a three-hour meeting because your boss is dense as two wood planks, imagine having spent part of your day standing over the dead body of an elderly man who was killed for his social security check. Then the rest of your day is knocking on doors looking for witnesses, and/or filling out the requisite paperwork about your day. Are you feeling me now?

Speech: Be accurate. Dialogue, internal or external, must reflect how the characters think and feel within the context of who they are and what they do. In an office setting, people tend to be civil, and if you’re lucky, collegial. Harsh language of any kind is frowned upon, and if you get pissy and use any of that harsh language, you’re sitting in HR explaining yourself. On the street, dealing with criminals, or people associated (read: fringe) with criminals, those folks are not speaking the Queen’s English. They are not civil, no where near collegial, and the economy of their communication is a necessity when things move quickly and could, and often do, result in bodily harm or death. If that’s who you spend most of your time with, either pursuing them, interviewing them, or arresting them, chances are you don’t speak the Queen’s English either, and the economy of your speech is a necessity so your authority is taken seriously, and you don’t get dead.

Dating: This ain’t Darcy and Elizabeth. All good romances have lots of tension, heightened emotion, and the H/H are in a push-pull until they get to their happily ever after. If Sharon from finance is dating Fred from marketing, chances are they’re going to the movies, meeting for dinner in nice restaurants, and generally getting to know each other in social settings spread over a period of time that allows them to feel comfortable with the progress of their relationship. Most cops work either four days a week, ten hours shifts, or five days a week, eight hour shifts. Their workweeks are rarely Monday through Friday, and there are three shifts a day. The lower you are on the totem pole, the crappier your shift. If a cop gets caught up in an arrest or an incident a half hour before the end of shift, s/he is working OT until the job is done. Making plans is not easy. When a date takes place as planned, (and many don’t) it might be on a Wednesday night because that’s the cop’s weekend, and s/he is rested enough to go to dinner. The person they’re going out with probably has a “regular” day job, which means no tying one on or having a late night on a Wednesday. Buzz kill. For obvious reasons, cops have a different sense of urgency. If they’re serious about you, they – are – serious – about – you, and they want to nail that down fast as possible. Cops play the field a lot before settling down, and, again, for obvious reasons, have a high divorce rate.

All of the above must factor when you’re telling your cop story, and the same holds true, with the requisite career information, whatever career you have your characters in. Otherwise, your H/H are not anchored by the reality of their profession and/or circumstances, and they are not believable.