Short Stories: Right Size, Right Price

http://www.loveismurder.net

Intelligent writers understand the need to continually hone their craft. It doesn’t matter how many books they’ve had published or how many awards they’ve won. The fact is, intelligent writers don’t rest on their laurels. They continually try to do better.

Writers will have a chance to learn how to do better at the 12th annual Love Is Murder Con being held February 4-6, 2011 in Chicago. Multi-published authors Carolyn Haines and Joan Johnson will share their wisdom and knowledge of the writing business in two multi-hour long master classes.

Joan Johnson has forty-six published novels to her credit. Joan will discuss how suspense and romantic suspense writers can create a multi-book “family series” similar to a series on TV, so readers will come back again and again for the next book–to find out what murder, romance and mayhem occur with the black sheep, the sexy older brother, the misfit, the spoiled daughter, the parents, the ex-wife, etc. etc.

Carolyn Haines says that in three decades of writing, almost everything she’s learned has arrived after much suffering. There are some basic things that can speed a writer along the path to publication or better structured stories. Most books are rejected because of plot or structure failure. By answering a few questions, a writer can shape the story in ways that avoid sagging middles and plot confusion. She’ll discuss these questions and how to apply them. Had someone told me these basic things, she says she would probably have been too hard-headed to listen, but had she listened, she would have saved herself a number of rejections.

You can learn more about these classes at www.loveismurder.net.

When talking to a friend recently, I mentioned that I’d found some interesting information of some topic while I was taking a break from working.

This led him to ask just how much time do I work before I allow myself to take a break. And I had no idea how to answer him. Which led me to do a lot of soul searching.
Was I disciplined enough? Did I spend enough time at the keyboard, staring at the screen? Just exactly how did I do the work?

I’ve always thought that I had a “system” of sorts. And that this system worked. And, I suppose that mostly it has. But lately I’ve been wanting to find shortcuts, to produce more, to take fewer breaks.

My system, at least as I’ve come to think of it, puts a lot of emphasis on thinking through a project before setting much down on paper. I’ve always been of the opinion that allowing an idea to percolate or simmer on a back burner was ideal. Let the unconscious do some of the preliminary work or solve some of the thornier problems. Sometimes knotty issues get worked out. Sometimes entire new approaches are born. Even new ideas can come from this simmer process.

But at some point, you’ve got to stop simmering and bring things to a boil. You’ve got to get the work on paper (or on screen and eventually on paper or whatever). At some point you’ve got to know that you’ve thought it through and it’s time to produce.

The flaw in the “think it through” system, which I’ve been on guard about (so it’s not a runaway flaw) is that you can actually convince yourself that you’re thinking about a project when in effect you’re just playing hooky.

When my friend asked how much time I spent writing between breaks, I coldn’t answer. I’d never times myself. I do know that sometimes I take too many breaks, but often it’s because I’m having difficulty finding a way out of the corner I’ve painted myself into.

So, what’s your method? How do you approach writing? And, do you have a way to write faster and not allow the quality to degrade?