At the request of a number of friends and colleagues, I have broken my manual, WRITE COMPELLING FICTION, into a number of 1,500 (give or take) word articles for EzineArticles, updating them slightly as I go. I hope you get something good out of them, and I look forward to seeing your novels on shelves and shelves, along with my 20 novels and 2 non-fiction works, and my wife’s 50+ romantic thrillers and historical romance novels.

This manual (series of articles) is written for those of you, like me, who are not English specialists or grammarians, not that those of you who are cannot extract some good common sense and some novelist’s tricks.

I am a boy who loves to hunt and fish. I will go outside for any excuse. Like most of you, I have worked hard all my life. I love the West and its history and I think I would have done well if I had lived a hundred and fifty years ago. As the song says, a country boy will survive. But to get published – my area of ​​specialty has been the West – it takes more than a love of westerns, history and historical figures. Like all specialties, whether it’s driving an eighteen-wheeler, driving a nail or making nails, there are tricks that make writing a novel easier; one of them is writing from history, but there are stories and arguments everywhere, in all newspapers, in all magazines, in all the observations you make in Starbucks or at work. There are also traps, but most of them are easily avoided.

I wanted to write and sell a novel. I learned how the hard way. By studying the mistakes of others (including mine), you can learn the easy way. Even today, after selling twenty novels, I struggle with obvious mistakes and bad grammar, awkward sentence structure, and worse, much worse, boring text. I can’t begin to teach you everything there is to know about writing novels or even writing a good letter to your mother. I can tell you where and how to learn a lot from it. I am still studying, but if I can make it a little easier for you, then I will have achieved my purpose in writing this manual.

And they published me. You also can.

Most of the rules for writing novels hold true for writing in general. Some are gender specific. If you don’t know the definition of gender, then you are exactly the person this manual is written for. But even those of you who know what it means will find some gems here, most of them stolen or outright stolen from far better writers than I am.

A lot of this manual is about westerns and historicals, and romance, because this (and screenplays) is what my wife and I write and how we make a living, though now I’ve been published in mystery, thriller, and not. -fiction. This is not to say that the same rules don’t apply to other writing genres. It’s certainly not to say that you can’t find some gems of writing wisdom in this manual, not necessarily created by me, but handed down by other good and great writers, or that much of what’s included here doesn’t apply to what you intend to write if it is something more than westerns or historical.

Good luck with your novel.

REMINDERS: On top of my computer, along the edges of the bookcases at eye level, I have taped the following reminders:

Filter all descriptions via viewpoint!

Problem, Purpose, Conflict, Meta-Voice Active!

Hear, see, taste, touch and smell!

There is no scene without conflict!

Check how, that, was!

Each of these has been tapped into there at various times throughout my writing career. And I still look at them from time to time, and they’re still crucial to good writing.

The rest of this manual will tell you, among other things, why I think the above reminders are so important, and why, if you’re a reader (and you shouldn’t try to be a writer if you’re not), I’ll never get caught up in this. the plot or the characters.

YOU CAN DO IT? You must first want.

Anyone who has a basic understanding of the structure of written English or is willing to learn and has a story to tell can write and sell a novel.

I sold my first paperback western, Tenkiller, to Zebra Books twenty-five years ago. My second, Mojave Showdown, was picked up by the same company. Together my wife and I wrote and sold Tin Angel, a western romance, to Avon. I have sold the westerns El Lazo, Against the 7th Flag, The Devils Bounty and The Benicia Belle to Bantam Books. Also, Bantam put out my historical, Rush to Destiny. Next up was a hardcover Double D, a Western novel, Shadow of the Grizzly Bear. Next up were westerns, mysteries, thrillers, and a couple of non-fiction works, including the work from which most of this article was drawn: Write Compelling Fiction. All of my books are available on audio, most from Books in Motion, a large company located in Spokane, WA. Most are now on Amazon in both print and ebook formats.

By sold, I mean I’ve contracted and received an advance on the novel, and we’ll talk more about contracts later.

Also, My Wife, Kat, is published in a dozen or more foreign languages ​​and in more than two dozen countries. She has now sold over 50 romantic suspense and historical romance novels to several major publishers; many of her novels have appeared on best-seller lists.

We did it. You can do it.

I am not a college graduate. Family pressures kept me out of college my junior year. In English, I would probably take the test in the middle (my loving wife would say lower) of a group of college freshmen and be stuck in the airheaded class. But I am willing to search for what I don’t know, and I am willing to take the time to make sure my work is clearly presented to the reader, the first of whom will be an agent or publisher who will say yes or no to buying the book. construction site.

And every day I enjoy writing more than the day before. It continues to get easier and is more financially rewarding. It will never be perfect.

I keep learning every day. Who knows? If I do it long enough, maybe I can get into college and not have to take airheaded English! Writers learn by doing, every time they sit in front of a blank page.

You have a great story. We all do. You have to be willing to take the time to put it on paper in a clear and readable way and in reasonably good English for editors to read beyond the first two pages. Even the best of stories, the most compelling, exciting, or moving, may not get read or sell because of misspellings and typos on the first few pages. Many editors, in fact, most feel that if you’re sloppy in your technical skills and presentation, chances are you’re sloppy in every other aspect of your writing.

But more of that later.

When I first picked up a pencil and yellow pad, I had little knowledge of spelling or sentence structure; all he really had was a love of great fiction. I found a little time, a dictionary, and some harsh criticism, and it all contributed to the eventual sale of my first Western novel.

The number one excuse for those who are not successful in all areas of endeavor is, “I just don’t have time.” horse hockey! We all waste time. We watch television. We travel in the car and dream of unproductive thoughts. You can write in your mind (and most writers do) long before you put it on paper. You can record on a handheld recorder and transcribe later. Time is no excuse.

Writing in the car, on the beach, standing on the banks of the creek fishing for trout.

There is only one way to be a writer, and that is to write. Write two pages – two lousy pages – a day, and in six months you have a novel.

Like most things we set out to do in this life, luck played a part in my sale. But don’t be discouraged if you consider yourself unlucky. Luck, I have discovered, is nothing more than the inevitable result of hard work.

The harder you work, the luckier you will be.

Now I want to help you get lucky.

Lady luck took eight years to find me. By then, she had had nearly forty years to harden my head. She had read a thousand westerns and more novels of other genres, and she thought she knew how to do it. But she didn’t even know the questions, much less the answers. And for the first six years of the eight years I wrote before I sold, I didn’t bother to ask. The rejection forms told me I wasn’t doing it right. I decided it must be a trade, something like painting a picture or building a good saddle, and decided to learn it. Two years later, I sold my first novel. Six years wasted!

I wish I had had this manual (this series of articles, in this case) thirty years ago.

The self-satisfaction of seeing your name on the cover of your paperback (or now your e-book) at your local market or pharmacy, on the cover of a hardcover book at the bookstore, or on the box of an audio, it’s okay. It’s well worth the effort, not to mention the thousands of dollar advances and, if you’re diligent and keep up after your new business, the ongoing royalties.

The important thing is that you are doing the right thing, reading about the ins and outs, the mechanics and the business of writing and selling. Keep an eye out for the next e-zine article, the follow-up to Write Compelling Fiction.