As a general rule I don’t re-post pieces on one blog that
I’ve posted on another blog. It just doesn’t seem fair to the reader. So, why am I making an exception with this
post you may ask?
The answer is simple.
It’s not so much the repetition of a blog post—though I did run much of
this in the August version of my 19th of each month post on the blog
site of my publisher (Poisoned Pen Press)—as it is excerpts from the
introductory lecture I gave my freshman, sophomore, and junior college students
last January to kick off a four-week, five days a week, two hours per day
course entitled, “MYSTERY WRITING UNMASKED: Techniques, Tactics, and Trends.”
After coming across a series of blog threads addressing the
“mystery writing life,” I decided why not toss my empty headed hat into that
public ring. So, here’s what I’ve culled
out of a two-hour lecture and spruced up to succinctly state what I see as
expressing my take on what I believe should be the underlying purpose of a course
on creating a writing life. Here goes:
*****
- This course is all about you, about showing you what to
expect, and where to find your highs among all the lows while you seek to
attain whatever measures of success you’ve set for yourself as a writer….
- I see four stages in the development
of a mystery writer: Wanting, Struggling, Attaining, and
Enduring. Through each stage you
should strive to maintain one common thread: keep writing a joy, never a
burden. If you start from the
proposition, “Writing is a lousy way to make a living but a wonderful way to
make a life,” it makes sense to work at keeping your life’s driving vice a joy.
In fact, I think that’s a pretty good overall bottom line principle for
building a successful life in general: Find
joy in what you do….
- I’m here to help you find what makes
you tick as writer. Let’s call it your writer’s soul. Or for those of you without a soul, your
writer’s center. It’s different in each
of us, but if I can somehow get you to trust your writing instincts, to run
along behind them as they lead you to God knows where (or Bruce Almighty),
perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll have played some small part in helping you find
that place within yourself that will bring you joy in the writing aspects of
whatever career you land in, no matter how far it may be from the literary
arts.….
- We’ll study the elements of a mystery,
look at some of the great ones, but not in significant analytical detail
because there is no way to do that in a four-week course. Great writing requires reading great works,
that’s how we learn. It’s up to you to pick what you like. No one can do that
for you, only suggest....
- Then there’s the writing side to this
course. Every day, no matter what other
assignments I’ve given you, I expect you to turn in one page a day—that’s 250
words—of that mystery you’ve always wanted to write. I suggest you take care to
involve a subject that interests you enough to dedicate a year of your life
toward weaving that subject into your mystery. Pets, cars, farming, history,
plumbing, Masons, your job, partying, or whatever else is fine as long as the
theme holds your interest….
- A purpose of those daily 250 word
submissions is, of course, to allow you to practice what you learn in this
class. But I have a more significant reason. Writing is a craft practiced
around deadlines and if you fall into the habit of waiting until the last
moment, you will suffer great pain.
Publishers, editors, judges, businesses, governments, bosses, all impose
deadlines. In the real world many
different things can fall due on any given day, obligations back up, bottle up,
and attack your time. One day you’ll
have one thing to do, the next day ten.
So you best learn to schedule (perhaps write 500 words one day to free
up the next?) and follow at least the semblance of a routine. If you do, you’ll
meet your deadlines, and life will be good….
- If you’re serious about writing you
best learn to treat it as a 9-5 job. Should you already have one of those, regard
writing as your second—at least until you’re lucky enough to be financially
independent for any number of reasons, most notably an understanding,
supportive, gainfully employed partner or spouse, and can move it into first
position. But no matter what your
circumstances, never forget the primary directive: Keep writing a joy!
Class dismissed.
