James Moore

Normally, I try to have this article posted by one in the morning. I’m a few hours behind schedule this time around.

 Today was not a normal day for me. I got to sleep in rather late by anyone’s standards and by my own I may as well be Rip Van Winkle. After eventually crawling out of bed, I got dressed, went over to a friend’s house and helped her load the rental truck that’s taking her to a slightly different life in North Carolina. Her husband is in the Armed Forces, and currently in Afghanistan. Seemed liked the neighborly thing to do, and it’s a last chance to hang with one of my work buddies. By the time my next article comes out, Good Lord willing, she and her husband and daughter will once again be a family unit.

 Had you asked me what my plans were for the weekend last week, they would have involved writing. In addition to this essay, I have three short stories I really need to finish, and I also have three novels I want to get wrapped up.

   Ah, and there’s the rub. They aren’t three NEW novels. They’re the same three I was trying to get finished by the end of 2007. Yeah, that’s right. I didn’t make it.

  First mistake: I tried to start all three of them at the same time. Turns out that while I CAN write three separate novels simultaneously, it slows me down more than a bit. That’s normally called “biting off more than you can chew,” in publishing terms. That’s okay. Live and learn. And it’s not like I didn’t have other things I was working on to keep me busy.

  Other things, Jim? Like what?

  I’m glad you asked. In addition to writing novels, I do an occasional review. In addition to the occasional review, I do a monthly article on a website. If you’re reading this essay, you’re probably already familiar with that fact.

  I had to do a few rewrites on DEEPER during the course of the year. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that a couple of months ago, while I was going over the numerous suggestions that multiple proofreaders and the editor and publisher had suggested.

  I sold CHERRY HILL to a publisher that I haven’t worked with before. Said publisher suggested that I might want to write a novella to go with it. Same character, different story. Cool. That’s two sales instead of one. Of course, I had to write the novella. A little over 30,000 words later, it’s done.  I was invited into a rather unique project, A round robin with some of my favorite authors. Hell yes, I dropped everything to work on that. When I can. I might tell you more about the project.

  I was asked to write a short story for a magazine. Minimum of 3,000 words. Being the wordy bastard that I am, I turned in 10,000 words instead. The publisher didn’t complain and when the time comes to get paid, I’ll probably be even happier than usual.

  My short story collection, SLICES, is coming along. I had to edit all of the stories for that particular collection. Then I got them back a few days ago and I’ve been editing them again.

  Speaking of editing, me and a couple of friends (Tim Lebbon and Christopher Golden) got a spur of the moment idea for an anthology a couple of years back and sold it almost immediately. As in within 18 minutes of coming up with the concept. Well, hell, that was pretty amazing. Of course, we then had to edit said anthology. We read a lot of stories. Because nothing went in without a serious debate from each of us, we read ALL of the stories and then we had to edit the ones we accepted, as well as the make suggestions for those that weren’t quite there but close. (On a side note, I saw the cover art for the anthology today. Damn, it’s pretty.) I’d tell you more, but, once again, smaller presses like to control the flow of information and who am I to argue?

  Speaking of anthologies, this year has seen me invited into many more than I have been invited into in the past. A lot more. Because I’m a writer and I love anthologies, I’ve tried to write a story for each and every one of the personal invitations. On a side note, I was ready to get back into writing SMILE NO MORE (one of the three novels I’ve worked on for the last year), when the editor of one of the anthologies I’ve sold a story to already asked if I could send the story again. Yeah, well, there was this computer crash, see, and to my surprise, that story was only on one hard drive. That would be the hard drive that isn’t working anymore. So I rewrote the story from scratch. Of course, it’s been a few years and my notes are long gone. Happily I remembered the story well enough to rewrite it completely.

 Because you’re never too busy, I took on work as a freelance associate editor with Bloodletting Books. That means I get to go over the manuscripts with a fine-toothed comb and make sure that all the punctuation is handled properly. It also means I’m reading a lot of blind submissions and tales that were specifically requested.  Remember how I talked about DEEPER a little while ago? Yeah, well, the idea has always been to promote what I’m selling, right? So I wrote a ten thousand word short story for promotional purposes. It’s available here if you feel the need to read it: http://www.necessaryevilpress.com/pdf/deardiary/Dear_Diary.pdf. I think it turned out pretty damned well, if I do say so myself.

  The thing here is that I had three novels I wanted to write and sell this year and I managed to finish none of them. A few years ago, I’d been grinding my teeth and ready to scream for missing the deadlines set out by my publisher and by myself. These days, I accept that from time to time I’m not going to make the deadlines I choose for yourself. You can’t let that get you down. You surely can’t let it stop you from trying.

  I didn’t manage to write and sell three novels. Instead, I managed to write and/or sell two novels, two novellas, and five short stories and rewrite one more. Instead I worked every day, wrote every day and managed to go on far too little sleep again. In addition to writing, I edited and when I was done editing, I did a lot of proofreading. Just for kicks, I read and reviewed a decent number of novels and also read a lot of “slush” that varied from woefully inadequate to damned amazing. I’ve also written my first ever rejection letter and believe me I agonized over that one. I’ve been going into intricate notes on three separate books series, two which will be co-authored and one more of my own design, and all of which have to be finished sooner or later. I thought I’d try something new, you see, and actually have outlines and a few chapters I stead of entire books written before I start trying to sell the works.

  New Year’s resolutions are something to aim for, not a guarantee that I’ll succeed in my goals. I did not write three novels, but I stayed very busy.  I did not sell three novels, but I definitely made a few sales anyway.

  My resolution for this New Year? Finish the three novels I’ve started, and sell the two I have not sold. I’d also like to sell a few more short stories, but so far it’s survivable. Aside from what you’re reading right now, I haven’t managed a single story today. I’d feel a lot worse about it, but I was helping a friend move and I can always write tomorrow.

  Did you make writing goals last year?

  Did you meet any of them?

  How about this year?

  For me, I intend to make finish those damned novels, because they’re in my head and want out. Just, this time, I intend to finish them one after the other and not try to write them all at once.

  James A. Moore   

Okay, we’ve gone over the basics of starting a novel. I can’t write it for you (Well, I could, but you wouldn’t want to pay that much and really, what’s the fun of having someone else doing  the work and taking all the credit?) so at some point the odds are good you’re going to start writing.

  That means that sooner or later the complications are going to kick in. Oh, I’m the first to admit that life is complicated enough, but I’m not talking about your life here, I’m talking about the life of your baby. You’re novel, unless you are amazingly lucky or exceptionally skilled, is going to hit a snag somewhere along the way. It’s seldom at the beginning, at least not for me. Hell, by the time I let myself get started on a novel most of the tale is plotted in my skull and written except for the pesky typing part.  

Everything is going along smoothly, you’ve introduced your characters, you’ve established the foundation of the plot, you’ve got the sets all painted and ready for your use and your adrenaline is kicked up a few notches, assuring that you can write to your heart’s content. Heck, you’re so with it you’ve already arranged that minimum of an hour where everyone knows to leave you alone and you’re already too damned disciplined to let the internet distract you TOO much, aren’t you? 

Ten thousand words into your novel and all is well. Twenty thousand, and this is starting to feel easy.  Right around thirty thousand words, closing in on the halfway mark, and suddenly, the first seeds of doubt take root. 35,000 and now you’re wondering if you forgot some crucial plot points along the way. Or maybe, you should have worked in a few more characters and a half a dozen more subplots… 

It’s hard to say what, but something is missing. How do you know? Because the story has progressed far too fast for your satisfaction and at best this feels like it’s going to be a novella.

 Well, my answer to that is easy: Let it be a novella.  

But Jim, how can I sell a novella to the big New York publishers?

 It’s possible. Not probable, but it does happen. Norm Partridge recently managed it with his amazing novella Dark Harvest. Of course, it’s far more likely that you won’t sell it to the big New York publishers. Say thank you to all of those small presses, won’t you? There you go. 

Oh, wait, you’re here because of rumors that I might actually have wisdom to impart. Apparently you haven’t caught on that I’m bluffing. So, let’s look at the question a second time.

 How, oh allegedly wise one, can I fix this problem, keeping in mind that I’m writing a novel and not a novella? 

Well, if you insist on not making it a novella, let’s go ahead and look at the potential problems. First and foremost for me, I only seem to run across that sort of problem when I’ve done a detailed outline. That is, for the record, one of the reasons I don’t normally do detailed outlines. They hinder me too much.  So if that’s the case, consider coloring outside the lines. Oh, you know you want to. You’re allowed to you know, because it’s your novel, no one else’s. Write it for you.

 While I remain firm in my belief that going back and editing a novel in progress is a surefire way to lose momentum and in a lot of cases will actually kill the novel before its time is due, you might want to go back and read it. Not edit it, but read it.  You may be as critical as you desire, but there’s a decent chance that you’ve already put in a few situations that you might want to explore regarding your characters and their situations.

 Listen, let me put it another way: How many times have you read a book and wondered why the author didn’t actually go back and examine a subplot that was left unresolved? Well, if it was one of mine, the odds are good you ran across several of them, but in my case they’re normally deliberate. They might be deliberate for other writers, too, but then again they might be undeveloped notions that the author forgot about. It happens and it happens a lot. Part of breathing life into your characters is giving them issues that have not been resolved. Part of that, for me, is leaving a few of those issues unresolved because remarkably little in life can be wrapped up in a neat package.

 Is Don, Our Hero, having an ongoing argument with his neighbor, Lou, who likes to play his radio too loud, tends to put his garbage in Don’s trashcans and throws rocks at Don’s cat every time the cat gets out? Like as not that won’t be resolved in the course of the story, but it can be, if you decide to examine that aspect of Don’s life more carefully.

 What about Amy, who has very real affection for Don but still hasn’t resolved her feelings for Jared, the misunderstood, slightly possessive and almost recovering alcoholic ex-con she recently swore never to deal with again (It would be easier if he didn’t seem so nice when he’s sober)? Well, right now that’s just something that gets resolved in the final scenes when she decides that she can’t take Jared’s lies anymore. But what if Jared is the jealous type? What if he’s the insanely jealous type who was actually locked away for a very good reason and lied about it when he said he’d stolen a car when he was younger and dumber? What if Jared is the sort who feels the need to stalk a woman who doesn’t want to be with him anymore, or hell, for that matter, what if he’s the sort who doesn’t see a problem with shanking that annoying new boyfriend to get his way?

 See my point? There’s a reason for developing the characters before you start a novel. There’s a reason for letting them evolve. Not every idea has to be explored, but if you’re anything like me (And God help you) then the odds are good you’ve already written in a dozen different aspects of your characters’ lives that are potentially goldmines of disaster waiting to happen.

 Now, let’s look at that plot for a moment, shall we? Yes, I get it. There’s a ghost in the house. Yes, the ghost would like Don to move away immediately but Don can’t afford that nonsense and if he wants to inherit his Uncle Wilford’s family fortune he has to stay in the new house for at least one year. What? That’s it? There’s no one else who could be working on the sidelines to get the family fortune instead? There’s no else out there that might have a reason for haunting the house? Are you sure it’s a ghost? Are you absolutely positive there’s only one?  I mean, what about Don’s half-sister? You know, the one he’s never gotten along with all that well? The one who hates him because of some dark, sordid event in their pasts (Pick a dark, sordid event)? What about the rumors that there are hidden catacombs under the house? You know, the ones where that crazy great, great grand uncle was supposed to have been doing evil and unmentionable experiments?  

Do you see what I’m getting at here? Nothing has to be straightforward. Hell, as a reader and a writer both, straightforward is just about as boring as white rice. You should make sure you stay coherent, and make sure you never, ever forget the points you’re trying to make with your novel, but there’s nothing at all to stop you from having a good time while you’re getting there. Don’t misunderstand me. It’s distinctly possible your editor will come along later and ask you to cut something, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.

   James A. Moore