Tips
From Famous Crime Writers: Solving The Mysteries Of
Writing And Righting: Evoking Donald Rumsfeld
09 November 2010By Jane Stillwater
I love reading murder mysteries because they are like
puzzles to be solved -- and because, in these books,
there are always wrongs to be righted and Justice to
be served. And the constant efforts of murder-mystery
heroes to identify and capture the bad guys fit right
in with my own life-long passion for Justice,
especially in politics. Who dun it? "Karl Rove!"
When I attended BoucherCon, a convention of mystery
writers and mystery readers held in San Francisco
recently, one facet of the conference that I really
liked was when several famous murder-mystery authors
spoke to us groundlings about how they went about
writing their books. Here's what I learned from the
following authors:
EDDIE MULLER, San Francisco's current Czar of Noir: "I
wrote about 1940s San Francisco because I wanted to
recapture a place that no longer exists. It was my
father's town and I wanted to live his life
vicariously -- World War II, Dashell Hammett, the
Barbary Coast. My father was actually born in Golden
Gate Park after the 1906 earthquake. This was a whole
part of San Francisco that I never got to experience
myself but only heard stories about." And so he wanted
to write some of those stories down before they got
lost forever -- that was his motivation to write. (My
powerful original motivation for starting to write was
that I was completely pissed off at George W. Bush for
stealing the 2000 election. Now there is one
who-dun-it that no one seems to want to solve.)
"My job is to make sure that the things of the past
don't disappear. I write in order to preserve this
past for future generations. I write for
five-year-olds. And, in addition, if you can possibly
do as an adult the things that you loved to do as a
six-year-old, you'll be fine. And my best subject in
elementary school was Show and Tell. You have to find
something that you really want to write about. You
become curious about a character and a time." And also
about how the events of the day shapes a character's
world.
"My publishers were very upset with me after a while
because they wanted me to keep writing books like my
first ones. But my passion had moved on." You have to
have passion about something in order to write well
about it. "It's very hard for me to just sit down and
write about something. It's got to have a visceral
spark for me to do it -- one where I can't eat or
sleep until I do it."
Short stories are easier to write than novels,
according to Muller. "That's because novels have their
finish lines way off in the distance. And talking your
stories out is also part of the writing process. You
need to try as hard as you can to make your characters
distinctive. Dialog is always at the service of
developing character -- in every dialogue you should
be able to distinguish who is talking by the tone of
what they say, even without attributions such as 'he
said' or 'she said'."
Muller also said that it was easier to write a novel
if you do it a chapter at a time. "I always write
little mini-novels, about 20 pages ahead of where I
am, because I think you need to leave space for
zig-zags. A writer, unlike a pilot who always flies
from Point A to Point B, constantly needs to leave his
comfort zone. Tell the story you want to tell, not
just follow the formula. Don't be afraid to get out of
your comfort zone.
"In my novels, I've tried to reclaim the hard-bitten
dialogues of the 1940s without turning them into
parody. Newspaper reporters from that time knew how to
relate the facts in the shortest time possible and it
is this timing that I'm trying to reclaim. That's how
newsmen wrote back then."
Muller loved the old newspaper days. "There is nothing
more impressive than an old-time newspaper office. The
cacophony and urgency of those old newsrooms is gone.
My dad worked for William Randolph Hearst and I myself
took a job at the Chronicle because I wanted to be
there when that behemoth went down. Now no one even
goes to the office any more. Work is done at home. The
Chronicle is still being published today but it's just
not the same. The romance is gone.
"Face it. Romance happens when people interact. And
that just doesn't happen any more. Everything now is
done at home. Bars and theaters and public places are
where people interact." Now people just use the
internet and rent videos.
"Always remember that It's not how you spend your
money that is important -- it's how you spend your
time."
Then Muller defined the "Noir" concept for us newbees.
"In true Noir, it's when fate is indifferent and the
protagonist knows that he is doing wrong -- and does
it anyway. He has a tendency to self-destruct. Noir
makes you feel the anxiety and despair of these people
who knowingly do wrong. Thus Noir can happen anywhere.
It doesn't just happen in the Tenderloin. It also
happens in the nicest part of town."
DAVID BALDACCI: As a lawyer, I did the same thing that
I did later as a writer -- tell a story. It's all
about words. You do the research and then you tell the
story. Transitioning between being a lawyer and being
a writer was smooth. And your reader is like your
jury." I agree. I used to write personal injury
settlement briefs -- which is just like writing soap
opera.
"I do a lot of research but don't use 99% of it. Then
after you have all the points down, you shorten it.
Your final product should be all muscle, no fat. If it
doesn't describe a character or advance the plot, take
it out. Distill it down to the best stuff -- from 100
pages down to one paragraph if need be. But you still
need to do the research." I myself hate research --
but Baldacci apparently thrives on it.
"One time I went out on a police patrol doing research
and the policeman busted five criminals. And I swear
this happened. As one of the criminals was lying there
on the ground in handcuffs, he looked up at me and
said, 'I love your books!' It really happened."
When Baldacci was a lawyer, he saw a lot of justice
not being done. "All of my books are about seeking
justice. Sometimes my characters find it and sometimes
they don't."
And none of Baldacci's heroes are perfect -- just as
none of his villains are totally bad. "My villains can
rationalize any behavior they commit. They are not a
part of society so why should they care about society?
And while 99% of us have a societal inhibitor that
prevents us from acting on our feelings, some of us
don't. Look at Ted Bundy. His brain was just freaky.
But most other villains are motivated because they
have been left out of society." Yeah, like most of
Americans have been left out of the global
corporatists' grand schemes for MY country. But does
that make us villains too? Hopefully not.
"My brain is always going on stories. You can't turn
it off -- always thinking about writing. Even now.
It's absolutely never turned off. Wherever you go,
whoever you meet, it's all fodder for stories."
Regarding inspiration, "The spectacular ideas, the
Eureka moments, the epiphanies don't happen often. I
get ideas and extrapolate on them and distill and
increase them so they will amount to a 400-page novel
that someone other than your mother will read."
Regarding many writers' lack of self-confidence,
Baldacci was hopeful. "I'm still fearful about my
abilities, but that is a great combatant to
complacency. Every book I write is like my first one.
If you do this, you write a better book. But all
people in the creative business have to have a high
level of confidence. To put yourself out there to
strangers is hard. Who do you write for? Your readers?
No. I write for myself -- not what sells, not what's
hot. I ask myself, 'Do I want to spend a year of my
life with this? Is this stuff cool?'"
Baldacci's latest book is called "Hell's Corner" and
it's about his regular group of characters, the Camel
Club. "And it's all smoke and mirrors, which is what
Washington DC is all about. It's my tip of the hat to
DC." Baldacci also talked about his favorite
charitable project -- trying to get more books into
the homes of poor children.
LAURIE R. KING: "Sherlock Holmes is a terribly useful
guy [for juicing up a plot]. I got about two lines
into my first Mary Russell book and thought, 'Oh crap.
I really should learn more about Holmes.'" And
apparently she did. I love king's series about Mary
keeping bees with Sherlock and later becoming his
wife.
"I first sat down to write when my son had just gone
off to pre-school for three glorious days a week. I
wrote my first book on paper, typed it up and sent it
off. Publishers' reaction? Silence. I was such an
ignoramus when I first started submitting manuscripts.
I didn't have an agent. Many publishers don't take
unsolicited manuscripts. I sent the thing out to
publishers for three years with no luck, and then the
Linda Allen agency took me on and I started selling
manuscripts -- but it only took me six years from
writing my first book to its publication." And it's
even rougher now to find a publisher than it was back
then.
Sometimes readers stop and ask, "Would a character
really do that?" Apparently books that have too many
weird things happening in them usually don't work. But
the Mary Russell series certainly does.
JOSEPH FINDER: "My standards for what I write have
grown higher over the years. Unfortunately, however,
my skills have remained the same -- except that now I
have a better sense of structure and a better idea of
what I'm trying to do. And being a published author
now and doing all that it entails takes away from my
writing time."
Regarding having a book turned into a movie, Finder
said, "I've sold a number of books to Hollywood that
never got made into films. In Hollywood, writers are
so low on the totem pole that they are below the
ground. One time I tried to get an acting part in my
movie [like Hitchcock did] and that was really
strange. In Hollywood, they have a false respect for
novelists but they mistrust us. Once, someone actually
told me that I didn't understand what my own novel was
even about. They leave out all the good novelistic
stuff in my books there, so now I just write what I
think they will cut out. First they buy the script.
Then they laugh at it. I don't need that."
And Finder actually likes to do research for his
novels too. "When writers go to a place to do
research, we go with heightened senses. But research
is a dangerous drug for me. I love research. It's like
heroin. I start out with insecurity, knowing not much.
And what you learn, you can't show it off -- it's only
the tip of the iceberg of what finally ends up going
into the book." I hate research.
"I read Robert Ludlum and John Forsythe when I was
just starting out. I read a whole bunch of different
thrillers. As writers, we start out imitating someone
else and then we find our own voice."
But Finder doesn't waste his time writing on subjects
that are familiar to him. "I hate the advice, 'Write
what you know.' That's crap. I always write what I
want to find out. And someone said, 'Suspense is
undermined by humor.' Screw that. I want to write what
I want to write. Write what you like to write. If it
clicks in the marketplace, that's a plus. If
publishers don't like it, too bad." Totally!
"The biggest struggle is actually just sitting down to
write. But you have to keep writing because once you
get into it, it's really wonderful. I wish someone had
told me that the first book is not the end-all and
be-all. Just keep writing! But I still fear the empty
document screen. Just shut everything else off and
write. But if you get blocked, just take a look at
your outline the night before, sleep on it and work on
it in the morning."
I've heard that before -- that our brains sort stuff
out for us in our sleep and we do our best creative
work when we first wake up in the morning because our
brains have already done most of the dirty work for us
while we slept.
ANDREW KLAVAN: At first I wasn't going to review
Klavan's suggestions on writing because I didn't agree
with his politics. However I have changed my mind
about that. Why? Because of something that some guy I
correspond with on the internet said recently.
Internet Guy and I have such completely polar opposite
views about how America should be run that, frankly, I
almost hate him. I mean really! Teabaggers like him
have just sold out our country to foreign interests
and global corporations solely because the Supreme
Court decision regarding Citizens United now allows
our former democracy to go to the highest bidder --
whoever can pay for the most libelous and mendacious
campaign ads. But I digress.
Anyway, I thought I would NEVER have anything in
common with Internet Guy, who I considered to be a
completely ignorant schmuck, a willing victim of
corporate brainwashing -- but then I suddenly
discovered that he and I were both murder-mystery
fans! So maybe Internet Guy isn't such a dumby after
all (except for in politics of course, where he is
clueless). And so perhaps I should give Klavan a
chance too.
"I like screenwriting because it gets me out of the
house," said Klavan. "Writing novels is a lonely
business -- but I still love writing them. But the
results of writing for Hollywood are so random.
Sometimes they are good, sometimes bad."
Klavan's influences? "Raymond Chandler. He is the
portrait of what a man should be like. And when I was
19, I read 'Crime and Punishment' and it changed my
life. Someone just said of my latest book, 'It's like
Chandler meets Dostoevsky.' And I started out with no
mentors, just walking around New York City with a
manuscript box under my arm, literally getting thrown
out of publishing offices." Apparently this is the
story of every writer's life.
"One of the dangers of writing is that other stuff
that you need to do keeps creeping in and grabbing up
you time. I've been setting aside four hours a day to
write since I was 14. And I still have to do that."
MARTIN CRUZ SMITH: This man is one of my favorite
writers -- him and Janet Evanovich. "Writing is harder
for me these days. It seems like everything interrupts
me now. There's either too much noise -- or else too
much quiet."
Regarding Hollywood? "Hollywood has a technique that
is debasing. It's like you have a raincoat, they take
it, jump up and down on it and throw it in the gutter.
After that, do you really want it back? One main actor
even apologized to me for what they did to my book."
Regarding research? We have to evoke Donald Rumsfeld
when we write -- we have to know what we don't know.
The key to a good research interview is to just
listen. Let it flow. I went to Russia to write and
Moscow was such a fantastic city that I had to throw
away my planned American character for a Russian one."
Smith was most influenced by "The Spy Who Came In From
the Cold," and James Caan is his favorite American
writer. "You have to find those tiny little bits of
detail that come together and make the character come
to life. My advice is to don't listen to anyone else,
just write. Write until your butt is sore. Stay home
from those writers' conferences and just write."
And as a writer, you have to be hyper-aware. "A
pitcher sees only home plate -- but a writer see
everything. And you put everything into your book."
And then you go out and look for a publisher -- and
press your luck.
LEE CHILD: He was at the convention too, mingling.
Unlike some other writers, Child seems to like
mingling with his fans. I saw him in the hotel lobby.
He's really tall. But I missed his presentation
because I was off babysitting Mena the Kid. However, I
am now reading his books and trying to catch up on his
hero Jack Reacher, the impossibly perfect man, almost
an American version of James Bond.
Lately I've been reading a lot of
international-spy-ring, CIA assassination,
testosterone-laced who-dun-it types of murder
mysteries, as a result of learning about them (and
getting free copies of them) at BoucherCon -- and also
because I'm still trying to figure out what is REALLY
going on in that clandestine American nether-world of
black ops, assassinations, skulduggery and
unaccountability that most of us Americans know
nothing about -- but still have to pay for. And this
type of mystery writer lets us in on the ground floor
of what is really going on behind all those closed
doors. And it ain't pretty. Or democratic. Or
American. But Karl Rove would definitely approve.
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