Deadlines and rabbit holes

cj Sez:  I wish I had a bit of Elmore Leonard’s discipline for sitting down and going about the business of writing. What started as necessity for him turned into habit when he became an established author.

Recognize anyone?

“To support his family, he worked as a copywriter at an ad agency, where he developed his aversion to adverbs, and also his knack for brief, punched-up prose. He began a habit of waking at five a.m. and immediately starting to write -- not even putting the water on for coffee until he had something down on paper -- then going to work at the office, first in advertising and later writing educational films for the Encyclopedia Britannica.” (Source: http://www.biographile.com/a-capital-crime-elmore-leonard-deserves-a-definitive-biography/22523/ )

  It used to be that I worked better when I had to crash for a short-term deadline. So I thought if I gave myself a deadline, I’d have the incentive to keep writing. Found out that’s not true because somehow I seem to know the deadline is self-imposed. (As if.) I manage to bury my deadline under weeks of procrastination that I call “research.” (Leonard paid others to do his research.) It seems that the more research I do—I learn really fascinating things—the less creativity I have.

  However, I’m not giving up on my current work in progress. Last night I made a note or two when I went to bed . . . I get a lot of good ideas just before I fall asleep. That’s why I keep paper and pencil on the table next to the bed.

  I don’t sit in front of this computer very long on Sundays but I’ll start writing on Monday … right after I feed all the critters, including me, do some weeding or picking up pine cones and deadfall, do a bit of housecleaning, and by then it’s time to watch the news at 5, 6, and 6:30. After I make supper and do the dishes, I’ll put BIC in front of the computer. But I promise you I won’t make any deep dives down research rabbit holes. (I need to promise you because if I promise myself, I’ll find something irrelevant to do.) 

  

  How about you? When do you get your best ideas? How do you conquer the blank page in front of you? How do you stay out of the research rabbit holes? I really need some help.

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  The international writing organization Sisters in Crime (of which I am a member) announced their Eleanor Taylor Bland Emerging Crime Writer of Color Award Recipient: 

“We'd like to congratulate Shizuka Otake of Jackson Heights, NY on being named the 2022 Eleanor Taylor Bland Emerging Crime Writers of Color Award Winner! Her submission, Murder in Tokyo, is a story of a Japanese American teen’s life which is shattered when her boyfriend is arrested as the prime suspect in a classmate’s murder. “I lived in Tokyo as an adult and found it painful to be viewed as different,” said Otake. “I expected to fit in and wondered how much harder that experience would have been if I was a vulnerable teen.” 

  Otake’s story was selected from more than fifty submissions

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Gremlins

  Over the past week, Blogger re-issued Lyrical Pens posts for December 5, 2021, and January 2, 2022. I guess Google's been messing around with their programming and LP subscribers received an auto-idiot email. I’m wondering how many posts will be reissued before they correct the problem. Sorry about that, but I can issue a true disclaimer: I didn't do it. 

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  By the by, as the masthead above says, if you have a book (new or old) you want to promote with a blog post, drop me a note. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.  

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  That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Prayers going up for your health and safety.

cj

P.S.  The Haunted Bookshop has signed Paperback copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER my author-graphed books or any book of your choice on-line from an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  

P.P.S. Pre-signed copies of THE BIG FANG are not available at The Haunted Bookshop, but when you order a book from them and want it author-graphed, let them know, and I'll pop down there and sign it for you. Thanks!

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My friend Fen and his friend, Elmore Leonard

cj Sez: When I worked in Chrysler’s Employee Communications Department, I met an ad man who was an honest-to-gosh World War II American hero (served with General George S. Patton in France and Germany). Fen became a dear, dear friend, and we stayed in close touch until his death at age 97 this past January. It was Fenton Ludtke who introduced me to Elmore Leonard’s writing discipline.

(Out of Print)

   Fen had worked with Elmore Leonard at an ad agency for a time and had great admiration for his writing and his discipline, as I came to appreciate also. But I appreciated Fen most of all: a gentle man with great wit, sensitivity, and quiet earnestness who unflaggingly supported and encouraged my feeble first attempts at writing a novel.

   Back to Elmore Leonard: I wish I could have begged, borrowed, or stolen some of the man’s discipline for writing. What started as necessity for him (his job required it) turned into habit when he became an established writer.

“To support his family, he worked as a copywriter at an ad agency, where he developed his aversion to adverbs, and also his knack for brief, punched-up prose. He began a habit of waking at five a.m. and immediately starting to write -- not even putting the water on for coffee until he had something down on paper -- then going to work at the office, first in advertising and later writing educational films for the Encyclopedia Britannica.”

(Source: http://www.biographile.com/a-capital-crime-elmore-leonard-deserves-a-definitive-biography/22523/ ) 

   It used to be that I worked better when I had a short-term deadline, as was always the case in my job in Employee Communications. After I retired and began to write novels and short stories, I thought if I gave myself a deadline to meet, I’d knock out stories in no time flat.

  Found out that’s not true. I manage to bury any self-imposed deadline under weeks of procrastination that I call “research.” (Elmore Leonard paid others to do his research.) It seems that the more I research, the less creativity I have. I get lost among the fascinating facts in those research rabbit holes, and my story suffers. I am learning a lot of stuff, though.

 

   Unlike Mr. Leonard, I’m not usually such an early morning riser after I retired. Six-thirty is about all I can manage and still stay awake the whole day. However, occasionally, as was the case a couple of mornings ago, at four a.m., I will make a note about one of the WIPs I have in my computer and promptly crawl back into bed. I sometimes get good ideas just before I fall asleep or when I’m dreaming. That’s why I keep a pad of paper and a pencil on the table next to the bed. Some ideas I use, others don’t turn out to be the good idea I thought they were.

   I’m not a believer in writer’s block. When I get stuck, I think I just need to take a break from my WiP, and I will read some other author’s fine work. It doesn’t make a difference the genre. It might even be a book of poetry. 

   I find that an escape into someone else’s work almost always provides the nudge I need to send one of my characters up another proverbial tree so I can throw rocks at her in the middle of the manuscript.

   How about you? When do you get your best ideas? How do you conquer the blank page in front of you?

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Writerly/Readerly quote:

“My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” - Malcolm X

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And now a few words from my sponsor:

   Someone said, it’s never too soon to start your Christmas shopping. (I think it was one of my kids.) 

   These anthologies make wonderful gifts, filled with timeless stories that are wonderful reads all year long. Bonus points: Part of the proceeds of three of them benefits charities.

   THE DAWGSTAR is available as an eBook from the etailers listed here... https://books2read.com/u/3LRRG5

and as a paperback  Amazon Buy Now

   DEATH ON THE YAMPA is available as an eBook from multiple etailers...  https://books2read.com/u/bxe1AP

as a paperback  Buy Paperback Yampa

and as a #SCREAM, series phone app. There are a lot of authors and their mystery/suspense stories available on #SCREAM. All you do is load up the app and search for the author’s name.

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   Draft2Digital tells me that you can ask your local library to order my eBooks for you. You’ll need to give them the ISBN number of the title you want to borrow. I’ve listed mine below.

THE DAWGSTAR … ISBN 978-17369146-0-1

DEATH ON THE YAMPA … ISBN 978-1-7369146-1-8

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   That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

 

P.S. TO ORDER any book of your choice on-line and support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

   If you’d like me to autograph or personalize one of my books for you, be sure to tell them, and I’ll run by the shop.

   The Haunted Bookshop has re-opened to limited hours (and they have an awesome bookstore kitty, Mr. Bingley), so if you’re in the Mobile area, you can stop and shop, too.

 

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Deadlines, research, and rabbit holes

cj Sez:  I wish I could have begged, borrowed, or stolen some of Elmore Leonard’s discipline for writing. What started as necessity for him turned into habit when he became an established author.

“To support his family, he worked as a copywriter at an ad agency, where he developed his aversion to adverbs, and also his knack for brief, punched-up prose. He began a habit of waking at five a.m. and immediately starting to write -- not even putting the water on for coffee until he had something down on paper -- then going to work at the office, first in advertising and later writing educational films for the Encyclopedia Britannica.” (Source:

http://www.biographile.com/a-capital-crime-elmore-leonard-deserves-a-definitive-biography/22523/

It used to be that I worked better when I had a short-term deadline. So, I thought if I gave myself a deadline, I’d have the incentive to keep going. Found out that’s not true because somehow I seem to know the deadline is self-imposed. (As if!) I manage to bury my deadline under weeks of procrastination that I called “research.” (Leonard paid others to do his research.) It seems that the more I research, the less creativity I have. And if I get bogged down in facts, the stories will suffer (I’m working on three manuscripts right now).

Once I have an idea for a story, research is what I do first. But, of course, I can't anticipate every need, and I head back to Google regularly. Too regularly and that's when I disappear into a rabbit hole of information. I'm trying to curtail those random distractions by making notes that I can research the next morning, before I start working again. In fact, last night I made a note or two when I went to bed . . . I get a lot of good ideas just before or just after I fall asleep. That’s why I keep a pad of paper and a pencil on the table next to the bed. 

Sundays are for family and etc., so I won’t be sitting in front of this computer for very long but Monday that’s when I’ll start writing …right after I feed all the critters, including me, weeding and picking up pine cones, keeping a doctor’s appointment, doing a bit of housecleaning, watching the news at 5, 6, and 6:30, making supper, doing dishes. I promise you I won’t be making any deep dives down research rabbit holes. (If I promise myself, I’ll probably find some rabbit hole in which to disappear.)

I suppose some of you might say I’ll still be procrastinating. Nah, it’s just delayed discipline ‘cause once I get all those housekeeping things done, I’ll be sure to start writing on Tuesday. 

That’s all for now, but how about you? When do you get your best ideas? How do you conquer the blank page in front of you? How do you stay out of the research rabbit holes?

That’s it for this post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Another 5-star Amazon review for Deadly Star…a click on the cover picture will take you directly to Amazon to buy a great vacation read. 5 out of 5 stars Hard to Put Down Till the End  From front to back this action-packed mystery kept me guessing about what could possibly happen next to make Mirabel's predicament any more complex. Her practical scientific mind stayed in constant contradiction with her impractical attraction to her ex-husband which added a genuine human aspect. CJ Petterson's broad knowledge of astronomy, airplanes, law enforcement, espionage and peoples' psychological foibles brings this book to life. I could see, smell, and almost touch each character as they interacted with emotions ranging from greed to love. As one who is usually successful in guessing the ending in mysteries, I failed with this one.

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Remembrances of Elmore Leonard

cj Sez: When NYT best-selling author Elmore Leonard first suffered a stroke in August 2013, writer and poet Fenton Ludtke, a dear friend of mine and one of Mr. Leonard’s former work-a-day colleagues, shared some of his personal memories of his former colleague. 

Following is an excerpt of Fenton's note:

“When I left the AP (Associated Press) in 1963 and joined Campbell Ewald, Elmore Leonard also was a anew copywriter. He wrote copy on the Chevrolet account. He was quiet, and almost shy. We talked and drank (a few) at home parties, where he came out of his shell a bit. We named him “Dutch” after Dutch Leonard, then a major league baseball pitcher with a tipsy knuckle ball, as I recall.

Back then, Elmore would rise around 6 a.m. and write for an hour. He disciplined himself. His venue, westerns. Then he’d shower and dress and make it to the agency in the GM building on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. After a while he was doing so well, his westerns were selling in paperbacks, and later one as a movie, “3:10 to Yuma,” that he left the agency to go on his own. 

After his stroke, Elmore still continues to work on his latest book. (cj Sez: It was Raylan, his 46th novel.)

George Will, the columnist, has called Elmore “America’s greatest mystery writer.” It isn’t a mystery to me. It’s a matter of discipline.” 

cj Sez:  Discipline . . . a necessary ingredient for any NaNoWriMo participant, so I’d better get back to it!

VETERANS' DAY is Saturday...

Veterans Day (November 11) was originally called “Armistice Day,” and the date was chosen to commemorate the signing of the armistice with Germany that ended the hostilities of World War I. It was also once called “Poppy Day,” a name inspired by John McCrae’s poem, Flanders Fields. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row…”

Not all states observe the official holiday, although all Federal offices will be closed for the holiday on Friday, November 10.

We have the freedom to do and say stupid stuff because of our Armed Forces veterans. Since some of us seem to need a special day to remember to say “thank you,” this is a reminder that you can do that on Saturday…Veterans Day is November 11.

That’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

P.S. Please say a prayer or my sister who suffered a stroke last week.

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 “Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)

The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)

Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)

Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book