Offensive material

Over at mystery author JA Konrath's blog, he received an e-mail from a woman complaining about the violence in his writing. Various comments then followed on his blog.

First, I've never read any of Konrath's novels. I have a couple of them, but haven't got around to reading them yet. But since I've not read any of his books, I really have no basis upon which to form an opinion about whether the violence in his books is too much, just right or possibly even pretty weak. But his main character is a HOMICIDE detective, so how the heck could he write a series of mystery novels with such a character and not have some violence?

I also wonder if I'm relatively immune to violence in literature. The only author who has ever made me squeamish was Clive Barker, though Neil Gaiman has come close a couple of times. Stephen King? Nah. I think King's pretty tame when it comes to violence.

But then when I think about movies, I don't really like overt gore in them. I can't stand the "Saw" movies, and not just because they're horrific and gory, but because there doesn't seem to be any REASON for the gore; there's very little plot line, just a bunch of people trapped and being tortured. Also, the one movie that made me almost puke was "8MM," starring Nicolas Cage, which was about snuff films. I do, however, love zombie movies, but not so much the gore in them (I like zombie movies for their social message — and yes, there is one).

Then I think about my own writing. I don't usually (I repeat, usually) set out to intentionally disgust or offend anyone, but I'm sure some of material is likely offensive to someone. After all, stories with swords in them without anyone ever actually swinging a sword are pretty boring.

Back to harping

Okay, so enough about taking a break. Get back at it. Get to writing. Get to rewriting. Get to editing.

Even if you only write a couple of hundred words a day. Even if you just edit one chapter a day. Even if you only rewrite a minor scene of a hundred words.

Why? Because it's all motion. It's all moving ahead.

Today you might have had a bad day. Maybe you're sick. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe someone important to you is in dire straits. Maybe the news from Iraq depresses. But still ... if you punch out a few words, you've accomplished something.

And you'll feel all the better on those days when you feel great and type out 5,000 words in an hour.

Other genres

I write mostly about fantasy on this blog, mostly because that's what I've been working for a couple of years, but I have pretty strong interests in horror also. Here's my break-down on interests in other genres.

Horror: I love good horror. Bad horror is ... well, bad. I don't like the basic slice-n-dice stories filled with nothing but gore. But I love horror that focuses on the human element and upon mystery; the monster behind the closed door is always more frightening to me than when the monster is revealed. That focus on humanity is one of the reasons I like Stephen King so much; many of his horror stories are relatively mundane, but they have a strong human element that only King can provide. Actually, horror is probably my favorite genre to read, even more so than fantasy.

Science fiction: To tell the truth, I don't care a lot for most science fiction. When I do, I prefer "soft" science fiction. "Hard" science fiction just bores me; if I want to read a technical journal, I'll go buy one.

Mystery/Thriller: I've read a fair amount of mystery stories, and I tend to prefer hard-boiled tales. A lot of mystery novels don't seem to do much for me, because I feel there's no chance you (the reader) can figure out what's going on.

Westerns: I love western movies, but not so much the fiction. The one big exception being Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove."

Romance: I have next to no interest in romance, but to be fair to the genre, I've never actually set down to read a romance novel. Unless Anne Rice counts.

Mainstream/Literary: In my experience, most so-called "mainstream" works are really just genre novels, with a lot more words than usual.

Break time

Despite my steady ranting that one should write every single day if one wishes to be a professional writer, I have to admit there can be times to take a day off. Many writers won't admit this, but I will.

I generally allow myself one day a month off from writing (or editing and rewriting and everything else that goes along with being a writer). But there are a few days where I don't write much, maybe just a few hundred words, or I only edit a few pages.

The brain needs time to rebuild your mental energy sometimes, and there are days where you're just too exhausted from running around and doing other things. The real world intervenes. Sometimes, every once in a while, you need to let the real world win for a day or two. Otherwise, you'll wear yourself out physically and you'll freak yourself out mentally, and it will be so much harder to get back to writing.

So, my suggestion is to write every day, but allow yourself a day off every once in a while, and allow yourself a few days where you still work at your writing but maybe not as much as normal.

Keep yourself sane ... especially during the holidays.

My library

To tell you the truth, I have no idea how many book I own, nor how many books I have read over my lifetime. If I had to take a wild guess, I would say I've read about 5,000 books, and I've probably owned about 4,000 books total at one time or another.

But why don't I know? I'm glad you asked. There are two reasons.

Reason One: I have moved four times in the last five years. Where I live now, I do not have any bookshelves except for a small rack in my writing office, and it holds the thirty or so books that are my "to-be-read" pile. Almost every book I currently own is stuffed into boxes in my attic, or in boxes in the bunny room (where my three house rabbits live). So, books are scattered everywhere, and I'm sometimes surprised when I stumble upon something I read thirty years ago because I didn't know I still had it.

Reason Two: I have a habit of giving away books to libraries. I do this about every ten years. I pick out books I know I will likely never read again, or want to read, then I take them to the local library of wherever I'm living at the time. I've done this three times in my life, and I'll probably do it again within the next year.

When I was a teen-ager I had a compulsive need to keep everything I read. No longer. I've even given away a few books I really liked, simply because I knew they were easily replaced. And I don't collect books for any financial value. First editions and signed copies mean little to me, though I have a few, and I read them. When I go to an author's signing, it's not to get something from him or her I can sell on eBay; I want to meet this person for professional reasons.

Well, I gotta run. I do most of my posting at work, and have to get back at it.

To write is to live

I'm sitting in my car at a red light the other day, thinking about my trilogy, when it dawns on me there has not been a time since I was in fourth grade that I have not wanted to be a fiction novelist. Then it dawns on me that most other people don't have my dream.

I can't imagine not wanting to be a writer. Truly, I can't. If I woke up tomorrow, and suddenly I did not want to write any more, I don't think I would have any reason to live. I'm not suggesting I would kill myself, but I believe I would go through the rest of my life like a zombie, as if I had no soul, plodding along from one useless task to the next.

And I often wonder why other people aren't the same. I realize other people have their own dreams, but very many people seem to NOT have any dreams. They just go to work, go home, eat, watch TV, go to bed, then start the whole thing over the next day. I don't understand this. And I don't mean to be making a value judgment about those type of people, I'm just saying I don't understand.

If I didn't write, I couldn't breath.

My influences, Part II

In the earlier post, I listed novelists who I feel have had a big influence on my dream of wanting to be an author (though not necessarily on my style of writing). Here I am listing other people, not generally novelists, who have had a big influence on my writing.

1.) Neil Gaiman. Neil has become a novelist in the last decade or so, but in the early 1980s and 1990s he was best known as the writer for DC Vertigo's line of Sandman comic books, which have become a series of graphic novels. The first 6 or 7 issues of Sandman are almost a work in progress, but by issue 7 or 8 Gaiman really finds his niche and sticks with it through the rest of the run of the comic, about 75 issues if memory serves. I don't write like Neil, but his Sandman stories have had a huge impact on how I think about fantasy writing. If you have not read any of the Sandman graphic novels, I implore you to go out and buy one. "Dream Country" is the shortest and cheapest of the Sandman graphic novels, collecting four issues that were each separate short stories. No other author I'm familiar with can blend classical mythology, Christian mythology and his own, created mythology like Gaiman.

2.) Frank Miller. Another comic book writer. I don't care much for Miller's more recent works, but his "Return of the Dark Knight" to this day is my all-time favorite comic book story line. If you like hard-boiled fiction, this story is as hard-boiled as can be.

3.) Sergio Leone. Leone was a movie director best known for his work with Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy of movies, Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Yes, they're cheap and easy shoot-em-ups. But no, they're not. The movie are more than that, much more. Leone had a fantastic eye for picking out character actors, people with faces so unique they almost don't seem real, more like characterizations from artist Mervyn Peake (yeah, the same Peake who wrote the Gormenghast books). Leone also had a great eye for the camera, switching back and forth between exteme closeups and super wide shots, showing fantastic backgrounds. As for story telling, no one can build suspense like Leone. Don't believe me? Watch the last half hour of Good, Bad and Ugly; the violence is over extremely quickly, but the build-up to that violence is breathtaking.

4.) Adam Duritz. My favorite living lyricist (John Lennon and Kurt Cobain being tied for not-living lyricists, in my opinion). I wish I could write novels like Adam writes lyrics for Counting Crows. Of course, then I'd probably be a romance writer, but it would still be fantastic.

5.) George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. No child of the 70s or 80s can be involved in the entertainment industry and not have been influenced by these two. I list them together because so much of their early work was together, from Jaws to Star Wars to Indiana Jones.

6.) Mel Gibson. Despite Mel's recent idiocy, I have always appreciated his movie work, specifically his works as an actor portraying a vengeful character. Mel really does a great job at this, from the Road Warrior to Ransom to Patriot, Braveheart and Payback. While Mel sort of fills a niche as this vengeful character, he fills it like no other I've seen. Kron Darkbow's sense of righteousness owes a lot to Mel.