More decisions: We have determined that Silver City is indeed the place for us; we will make a concerted effort to buy some land in the next couple weeks. Also, I have decided to start buying some ads from Google Adwords for my book website, Waiting for Westmoreland. Since I will be out of pocket for that, I am also going to start running some ads from Google and Amazon on this site. Look for ads and a privacy policy soon. Decisions! Ah, the power of the mystic law (Nam-myoho-renge-kyo) is indeed limitless.

Having made that decision, I must now grapple with a decision on what my next book should be. Some time ago I thought it should be political satire. From time to time science fiction seems the right choice. Other times it’s an extension of Waiting for Westmoreland, the memoir I published last year. I had also thought before I would just do some short stories and articles until we are settled in a new house in a couple more years. The problem is, while I procrastinate, I put off writing any of them. Perhaps I could work on several of them alternately; that’s what my wife does successfully with her quilting projects. She suggests I should still have a priority among them. In other words, make a decision. She’s right of course. So that brings up another point about the reality of life and Buddhism–one has certain innate tendencies, both good and bad, that need to be taken into account and dealt with again and again. While progress may be made, a complete personality change is probably neither possible nor desireable. So I will let you know, within the next week, what that priority is.

Many of those same people will tell you that you can learn to be a writer only by reading books, especially books in the genre in which you want to write. Want to write horror/thrillers? Read Dean Koontz, Stephen King and  any number of others you may prefer if you want to be a mass market (i.e., make a living at writing) author. Then, to understand the need to write well and how to get there, read Stephen King’s book On Writing. Or maybe you don’t want to sell books at all. You just want to be a literary success. Then you really need to write well. You could always consider getting an MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) from some creative writing program or going to  some (pricy) writers workshops and conferences. Who am I to say so, but it seems to me that these (especially the MFAs) are for people for whom the writing is most about critical recognition, literary fame and only remotely related to communicating with more than a handful of like-minded people. So I will leave this discussion at that and move on to the value of interacting with fellow writers.

Regardless of whether you believe writing can be taught, it is fair to say that you can learn from what others think of your writing. You can do that, pre-publication, by joining a writer’s circle or group. A small (4-6 people is a good number; many more and discussion/participation becomes limited while less may be too limited in scope). You can find them at local libraries or assemble them from among fellow attendees at writing classes you attend. I think face to face is better but you can do this online as well. The basics are simple: each person brings a few/several pages of writing to share at a periodic meeting (once or twice a month is typical) of a couple hours. You must have consensus on sensible and courteous rules for critiques. Slamming is not helpful. Vague comments are useless. Extensive suggested rewrites are overly intrusive. What is useful are honest reactions and assessments of how well the writer shows rather than tells his or  her story. Also helpful is pointing out instances where something is missing that would advance the narrative or situations where a character appears to say or do something out of character.

More later, in part 4.

Socalled experts (agents, editors, marketing types, etc.) will insist that if you want to publish your book, you must write what the public wants to read (and what those same experts want to market or sell). That may be true to the extent that you want to make a living as a writer, but as a major sci-fi writer told me years ago, most writers need a “day job.” Clifford Simak’s day job was being a city desk editor at the Minneapolis Star and Tribune; what he enjoyed doing (although not earning big bucks doing so) was writing his sci-fi books. So you decide–write about what interests you or write about what somebody else tells you will sell. I can tell you that non-fiction sells way more books than fiction. General fiction sells more than genre (mystery, sci-fi, romance, etc.) Among non-fiction, despite the controversies about fictionalized or fraudulent life-stories, memoirs are still big sellers. I can tell you from my own experience that it helps if you have  accomplished or experienced some earth-shattering or very unique events. Of course it will also help if you already happen to be a celebrity, hero, sports figure, politician, or otherwise famous. If none of those apply, do not despair. Write it anyway. But before you get too far along, get working on that platform or establish the credentials that you will draw on to write the book. Which brings up another what. If you can honestly claim expertise in some subject matter and it is that subject which you want to write about, then you do have a better shot than the average person. A teacher writing about education issues has a leg up on other people and a good start at creating a platform.

More on this topic later.