What Downton Abbey Can Teach Us About Writing

Posted by george on January 27, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , . 1 comment

A month or so ago I managed to get hooked on a TV series. It doesn’t happen very often because I don’t tend to park myself in front of the TV too much. And that generally goes double for PBS. I think I was caught unawares as I flipped through the channels that fateful Sunday evening. I don’t recall what scene it was that caused me pause, but that night stirred something in me and I’ve not looked back. I’m talking about the hit series on PBS, Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey revolves around the life of Lord and Lady Grantham, their daughters and the servants of an English Manor in the early part of the 20th Century. This Edwardian period is rich with luxury, extravagance and protocol.

As I watched the show last week, it occurred to me that what attracts me are all of the elements that I find to be necessary in a good book.

Setting

The best books are those that pick us up and set us squarely in a scene that fills and entices all of our senses. We are there. While watching Downton Abbey, I feel like I am wandering the halls of this expansive manor. The wall art, sculptures, wardrobe and furniture are key to the authenticity of the series. I also think that in no small way, they are also what attracts and keeps viewers. A good fiction writer does the same thing as they create the environment for their characters. Keep this in mind as you create scenes. Details matter. Writers, do what you can to put your readers in the same room as your characters. Make it so they don’t want to leave.

Characters

There is an old song by Queen called Find Me Somebody To Love. When someone buys your book, whether they know it or not, they are telling you Find Me Somebody To Love. You do that through the creation of characters that are human. Human with all of their wonderful flaws and traits. Character development is one of the hardest things we do as writers. Flat characters will bore, irritate and turn off readers, editors and agents.

In terms of Downton Abbey, the characters are true, multi-faceted and human in every way. I’ll choose just one example. Lord Grantham is without a doubt my favorite character. As Lord of Downton you may expect a stuffy and dour curmudgeon, arrogant and unapproachable. The brilliant writers of the series have created someone just the opposite. While he is obviously proper and protocol driven, he exudes a human side that is remarkable. He makes no apology for his status. He is an admirable gentleman and inspires fierce loyalty from his family, servants and viewers. His character is one worth aspiring to. This same kind of richness of character is found in all of the players  in the series and contributes greatly to the enjoyment of the series. You need to put this kind of attention to detail into the development of all your characters. Hey, nobody said being a writer was easy.

Conflict

I remember what set my mind to writing this post. One particularly turd-headed character was getting ready to make life a bit of hell for one my fav people, Bates. I thought Man, why do they even have this person here? All they do is make life miserable for the good people! Oh, right. that would be an antagonist. The bad guy. The opposite to my good guy. A palm-slap to the forehead and an uttered, “Duh.” Regardless of your novel’s genre or story line, you need conflict. You need a  protagonist to root for and a bad guy to curse. Downton delivers this in spades. I’ve jumped out of my chair, arms raised, yelling, “YES” when Lady Grantham squashed the plotting of an underling. I’ve cursed when it looked as if a nefarious scoundrel was going to get away with something. Conflict is good. It is what a reader needs to turn pages.

I’m not saying that this remarkable TV series will be every writer’s cup of tea. Do yourself a favor though, and watch at least one episode. Pay attention to the setting and the characters. You might be surprised at what you find to incorporate into your writing.

Are Writers Too Jacked-Up About Grammar?

Posted by george on January 23, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: . 27 comments

I was cruising through my Twitter feed the other day and I came across a tweet that caused me to cringe. The person was tweeting about an article that was titled something like Loosing your copyright rights. Shudder. Normally I just shake my head and move on. I was about to do just that when I realized the tweeter calls themselves a writer. You have got to be kidding me.

Glass House

I live in a glass house. I have a long term lease on the thing, I think. This means that typically I don’t throw a lot of stones because I know that I am not the world’s best grammarian. Mostly my stuff is passable but there are subtleties I’ve yet to grasp and there are times I outright ignore the rules in the name of style. I also know that typos sneak in now and then and I can live with that. I’m always working on minimizing those little buggers.

In the case noted above, I find it difficult to believe the “loosing” gaff was a typo. It falls into the pen where all the your/you’re, to/too, there/their chuckleheads are hanging out. Like I said, I’m no grammar expert but these things are the most basic and I think that any (even slightly) literate adult should have a grasp of them. Any adult who professes to be a writer has no excuse to not have a grasp.

My semi-emotional response to this gaff got me thinking about how tough writers can be on other writers. I see terms like “Grammar Nazis” and “Grammar Police” tossed about. I admit to having mixed feelings about those terms. There are times when I would count myself as one of those folks. Being one of those people also kind of goes against my easy-going nature.

I tend to be more forgiving to the average person screwing up a loose/lose proposition. Writers, however, do not get a free pass on this one. It’s like an accountant not knowing the difference between subtraction and division. It’s like a pilot not knowing the landing gear should be down for landing. And while the consequences of poor grammar cannot be equated to a pile of aluminum on the runway, in terms of professionalism and advancing a writing career the implications are the same.

In four years that I have been blogging and freelancing, I’ve run across this topic numerous times. My point is that if someone calls themselves a writer, how could they possibly have missed this conversation? Do they not engage in any of the writing arenas on the Internet? Or do they see the topic and not see themselves? It is a mystery to me.

If you are a writer, what is your take on this? How forgiving are you and does it make a difference if the perp is a writer?

 

Hurt Machine

Posted by george on January 19, 2012
Posted in: Fiction, Writing. 5 comments

A few months back I published a guest post by Author Reed Farrel Coleman. It’s a great article containing writing tips from a pro. I’d encourage you to take a minute and read it if you’ve not already done so. You can find it here.

Right around Christmas I received a review copy of one of his latest novels, Hurt Machine. I have to admit that as hard as I’ve tried, I just can’t get into Mystery/Detective novels. In fact, when I’m perusing books on Amazon, if I see “A So and So Detective Mystery” I scoot right on past. I won’t say Hurt Machine turned me into a convert, but I will say that this book is so much more than those typical of the genre.

At once, I found the writing to be engaging, true and literary. What do I mean by literary? Well, I’m not sure, but I think the best way to describe it is “higher level prose.” A sense of higher intellect brewing just below the surface. Subtle inferences that got me thinking. Please don’t translate this as meaning the novel is snooty or stuffy. I think “real” is a much better word.

I’ve never been to New York. Sure, I’ve seen hundreds of TV shows and films made there. Even so, I’ve never been to New York. Until I read Hurt Machine. The author describes neighborhoods and eateries in such a vivid fashion that I felt as if I was sitting at one of the tables at the Grotto, eating a crappy slice of pizza.

Thanks for the trip to New York, Mr. Coleman.

The basic plot of the book is a “ripped from the headlines” story of a couple of NYFD medicos who got themselves into trouble when they refused to treat a man at a restaurant. Mr. Coleman uses that foundation to build a story that is unique, hard hitting and thoughtful. At no time did I find the story line predictable. I was content to let the story take me where it would, and I’m glad I went for the ride.

If you’re looking for a story with real characters in a real setting, you owe it to yourself to give Hurt Machine a good look.

 

Author Bio


Reed Farrel Coleman, author of Hurt Machine, is the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. He has published twelve novels — two under his pen name Tony Spinsosa — in three series, and one stand-alone with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. His books have been translated into seven languages.

Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, These Guns For Hire, Brooklyn Noir 3, Damn Near Dead, and other publications.

Reed is an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, teaching writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel. He lives with his family on Long Island.

For more information please visit http://www.reedcoleman.com/, and follow the author on Facebookand Twitter

The Writer’s Twitter Dilemma

Posted by george on January 17, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: . 8 comments

When I first set up my writing blog and freelance writing business, I set up a Twitter account. Twitter was still relatively new and even though I didn’t quite “get it” I sensed Twitter would be around for a while. Getting started was tough in those early days. Figuring out who to follow took a bit of work and a lot of searching.

So here I sit three and a half years later. I follow about 1,300 folks and I have about 2,650 followers. I’ve grown my Twitter organically. In other words, I haven’t participated in any schemes to get 10,000 followers or anything like that. I’m happy with the numbers and haven’t had any plans to really change how/who I follow. I’m thinking that may change in the near future.

Even though I’m happy with the raw numbers, I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. My interests are in the area of writing, publishing and reading. This means that most of the folks I follow are writers. In a lot of ways this is a very good thing. I end up finding some great articles about writing and I feel like I have my finger on the pulse.

The problem is that my Twitter feed has gone stale.

Here is how a typical scenario plays out: I receive notification of a follow (or I find someone to follow in a re-tweet) and I go have a look at their profile page. If there is a decent profile page then I usually don’t hesitate  to follow them. A vast majority of these folks are writers and almost all of them have a book out and they call themselves an author. As I peruse my feed each day, I look for interesting things to examine or re-tweet. I do a lot of re-tweeting because I want to support the authors and recognize their hard work. What I’ve found recently is that my Twitter feed is absolutely littered with tweets that are nothing more than marketing for an author’s book. Frankly, it’s making my feed a bit ho-hum and boring. It’s not so bad if the person is interacting with folks and engaging in true a social media way. Quite often this is not the case.

Do you see what I’m saying? I want to support other authors and their work. Therefore I follow a lot of authors. Unfortunately, a lot of them are less than engaging on Twitter. I’m becoming hesitant to follow any more authors. Then I think, Well, who AM I going to follow? And I’m not sure what the answer to that question is.

Fellow writers, what is your take on this? Do you use Twitter? If so, have you noticed this same trend?

 

Using Your Indoor Voice

Posted by george on January 13, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: . 8 comments

Image from: ifthiscouchcouldtalk.com

My daughter has a neighbor friend that she plays with now and then. I cringe whenever the girl comes over because she has no indoor voice. She yells everything – conversations, wants, needs, hellos, good-byes – everything. While she is here, I am guaranteed to have to (gently) admonish her to please use her indoor voice. “BUT MY MOM SAYS I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL VOICE! I WAS JUST BORN LOUD!” Sheesh. Besides the obvious parenting issues (and it would take several blog posts just to cover that topic), there is the concept of appropriate voices in appropriate situations. And don’tcha know this translates into a good topic about writing.

One of the most popular posts from when I first started blogging was about finding your writer’s voice. It made a lot of sense back then and it makes a lot of sense now. These last few years have taught me a lot about using my indoor voice. For writers, using your indoor voice means using a writing voice that is appropriate for the kind of writing you’re doing.

Generally, my writing voice is conversational, informal. If you read this blog at all, you know what I mean. I translate the voice in my head into words on the screen so you’ll find things like “sheesh” and “dont’cha” and other things that look like what they sound like in my head. Unfortunately, this also means that sometimes grammar takes a back seat. I write incomplete sentences. And sometimes I’ll start a sentence with “And.” In my mind that’s all okay because that’s how it sounds in my mind. It’s my blog dang it and if my voice violates a rule or two then so be it.

With that said, I have learned when to formalize my voice. Essentially, I’ve learned when to use my indoor voice. A valuable lesson in this went something like this: The owner of a blog I write for thought it would be a good idea to write some articles for one of her client’s blogs. This blog is fairly well known and I jumped at the chance. Well, the stuff I submitted was written in my usual style. I didn’t spend nearly enough time looking at the client’s blog to get a sense of the style. Needless to say, I got word that she had to re-write all of my articles before the client would accept them. A bit embarrassed, I let her know – and she agreed – that maybe my writing style wasn’t the best fit in this instance. If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent a lot more time researching the site and I would have put more effort into figuring out my indoor voice.

These days, I pay a lot of attention to who I’m writing for. When I’m on a freelance writing site, I take a good look at the directions for the article to get a sense for what the client is like. If the directions are stuffy and formal, then usually the style they are looking for is the same. So far that strategy has worked pretty well.

The importance of this for freelance writers cannot be understated. If you only have one voice, your freelance writing career is going to be a tough one.

How many voices do you have?