Joseph Nassise

This past weekend I said goodbye to four friends that I’ve known for some time. We’ve gone through a lot together; the deaths of loved ones, work-related problems, outside influences that tried to hurt us, that didn’t have our best interests at heart. Sometimes I loved them like brothers. At other times, I wanted to kill them and I spent many an evening developing the most deliciously cruel and bizarre ways to do so.

The thing is, we’d just grown apart. Distant. Our lives no longer intersected at some many points on the dial. Dare I say that maybe we’d even grown a bit bored with each other? We parted as friends, and will probably visit each other now and again, but I think it was plain for all of us that a phase of our lives had come to an end.

And that was okay.

Really.

I can hear you all now. Leave the Dr. Phil stuff to the co-called professionals and get back to talking about writing, right?

But you see, I am talking about writing. This weekend I finally completed A TEAR IN THE SKY, the third and final book in my Templar Chronicles trilogy.

I came up with the idea of a series about modern Templar knights defending mankind from the supernatural on behalf of the Vatican a few years ago. Book one, HERETIC, was published by Pocket Books in October of 2005. The plan to write four books was scaled back to a trilogy at my foreign publisher’s request in late 2006. Book two, A SCREAM OF ANGELS, was written between September 2006 and January 2007. I dove into book three immediately thereafter (namely because I had been late turning in SCREAM and I needed to meet my deadline for TEAR.)

So for the last nine months straight, and off and on for some time before that, my focus has been almost entirely on the exploits of this group of warriors.

It can be comforting writing about the same characters. You know who they are. You know what they want. You know their motivations and their fears and their idiosyncrasies. But it can also be creatively stifling, for when you sit down to write you realize that you are going to be writing about them again. Your very familiarity with them can become problematic, as it no longer seems to stretch you creatively. It no longer holds the same challenges or the same feeling of discovery that working on a new project with new characters often can.

I’ve greatly enjoyed telling the story of Knight Commander Cade Williams and his rough-and-tumble group of warriors known as the Echo Team. But I’m not going to complain as I put them away on the back shelf of my mind for awhile and move onto to something new.

It’s time to tell the story of Special Agent Mitchell Sloane and the serial killer known as the Inquisitor.

Time to journey alongside Joshua Gideon as he struggles to stop the apocalypse he started by reading the forbidden Book of Coming Sorrows.

Time to walk in the shoes of Jeremiah Hunt, the man who gave up his eyes in order to see more clearly, as he searches for his missing daughter, Elizabeth.

These are the stories that interest me now, the tales that are clamoring to be told. And they deserve my time and attention. (And I sure as heck don’t want to piss off my muse!)

I’m sure I’ll come back and visit Cade at some point. But for now, it’s time to say goodbye.

Whoever it was that said “parting is such sweet sorrow” only got it half right.

A few weeks ago I took time out of my busy schedule to disappear for a weekend to a small town just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. No, I wasn’t having a mid-life crisis of any kind (and I certainly wouldn’t pick Maryland as the place to have one if I was!) nor was I trying to escape from a wave of raging fans.

I was one of sixteen participants at this year’s Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp.

Bootcamp is a three day intensive workshop where sixteen “grunts’ get their writing worked over not only by their colleagues but also by the four “drill-instructors.” This year, those instructors consisted of three bestselling writers and one editor-in-chief of a major New York publishing house:

–F. Paul Wilson, bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series (as well as a host of medical thrillers and even some early SF novels)

– Doug Winter, bestselling author of Run (as well as two books I consider the definitive biographies of both Clive Barker and Stephen King)

– Tom Monteleone, bestselling author and editor of the Borderlands anthology series (as well as one of the founders of the superb Borderlands Press)

– Ginjer Buchanan, editor in chief at Berkley/Ace and one of the top editors working in genre fiction today

Bootcamp comes in two flavors – Short Story and Novel. I’d been one of the lucky sixteen participants at the very first Short Story bootcamp back in 2005, learned a lot, and was very pleased to be selected for the Novel bootcamp this year.

Now I can already hear you asking – how does the bootcamp work?

Participants are required to send in a writing sample from one of their novels, not to exceed thirty pages. That sample is then sent to the four instructors, as well as each of the other participants. Those writing samples are critiqued by all involved on the basis of several key areas:

– Plot and Setting

– Dialogue and Narrative Voice

– Character and Point of View

– Grammar, Style, Pacing, Transition and Structure

Attendees are broken into groups of four and we rotate through the process, working with each instructor for several hours on their assigned topic (for instance, Tom Monteleone was our Plot and Setting instructor.) By the time the weekend is over, you have discussed, dissected and pulled apart your writing sample on so many levels that it has to be better, it just HAS to be.

And it is.

Because the instructors are world-class in their approach and in their ability to pass on their knowledge to you.

Now some of you are probably wondering what’s a guy like me – sold five novels to date, has had his work translated into four different languages, optioned his first novel off for feature film production, blah blah blah – what’s he expect to learn from a writing workshop?

In this case — a lot. The opportunity to have four professional writers take your writing sample apart WORD BY WORD is invaluable. This goes way beyond the type of writing group John mentioned in his essay here yesterday. This is four professionals doing everything they can to show you how to make your piece a better one. That kind of attention to your work, and that level of feedback, just isn’t available on a regular basis. It’s like those commercials on tv - Flight to Baltimore – $250. Bootcamp fee – $700. Word by word critique of your latest writing project by four people who have forgotten more about writing than you have learned to date – Priceless.

A word should also be said about my fellow grunts. We all had very different levels of accomplishment and skill when it came to writing. But all of us were readers. All of us knew what we liked and what we didn’t. And I think that is part of the value of a program like this. Just because someone hasn’t sold their first (or their twenty-fifth!) novel doesn’t mean they don’t have something worth saying. I learned a lot from all my fellow colleagues, from the guy who currently works for DC Comics all the way to the woman whose writing sample was the first novel she’d ever attempted. As readers we all look at a piece of writing differently and those different perceptions can be used to better shape and form our own level of talent. Every suggestion we receive certainly shouldn’t be taken to heart (note the various examples my colleagues have given in the comments thread to John’s excellent article from yesterday – there is definitely a time to ignore comments and suggestions from others) but we also should not be afraid to listen to suggestions from others with less experience than we have simply because they have less experience. Listen to it, weigh it, and keep or discard it as necessary – that’s my general philosophy. You never know where that crucial piece of advice is going to come from.

So what’s my point?

Simply this. Writing is a craft. And like any good craft it needs to be worked at in order to improve it. From the bestselling author to the person just starting out, we all have something to learn and it’s never too late to do so.

I take every opportunity I can to learn something knew about my writing and my technique. Some of that comes from simply reading sites like this one. And some of it comes from getting down in the mud and muck, sloshing through an obstacle course with my fellow grunts while our drill instructors break us down and build us up again until we are better, stronger, faster than we were when we arrived.

What have you done to improve your craftsmanship this month?

(Note – With respect to full disclosure, our very own Elizabeth Massie was one of the instructors at a previous bootcamp and you can catch the view from her perspective in an essay she did last year right here.)

I’m sitting here at my desk in the study, a well-stoked fire roaring in the fireplace beside me. Outside, the wind is blowing steadily and the sun, while bright, doesn’t seem all that warm. It is 9:15 in the morning and the thermometer on the wall near the sliding glass doors to the deck says its 28 degrees outside.

 

Did I mention I live in Phoenix, Arizona?

 

As our brother Mort might say, “What the Fzck?”

 

But I digress.

 

I’m on deadline. I’ve got 15 more days to finish the third book in the Templar Chronicles series, A TEAR IN THE SKY. Fifteen days and about 35,000 words to go. Which means I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a deep, philosophical essay for you this month. Instead I’ve got some practical writing advice for those of you who are thinking about writing a series.

It’s pretty simple really.

 

Take notes.

 

Take GOOD notes.

 

And put them in your bible.

 

Some of you are nodding your heads, completely in tune with what I’m saying. You’ve been there before. You know how important it is. The rest of you are looking at the NIV or the New King James you’ve got over there on the shelf (if you even have one) and are going huh? So let me explain.

 

I hit a scene yesterday where I needed to know the eye color of a character that had appeared way back in the short story that had first introduced Cade Williams and his notorious Echo Team. It was a minor character, to boot, one that had wandered on stage for a few scenes and then had disappeared back into the woodwork, until the midst of the third book in the trilogy. I hadn’t really intended for him to ever come back, to tell you the truth, but when the plot morphed into its present form, he suddenly became a major player rather than a minor one.

 

So I needed to know his eye color. Trouble was, I’d forgotten it long ago, if I’d ever decided on it at all.

 

I checked my bible, looked up his eye color, and went back to work. Took me all of fifteen seconds, if that.

 

A few hours later I needed to know what model Jeep my main character habitually drives. I thought I knew that one off the top of my head and simply dropped it into place without hesitation. But later, as I was looking over the day’s work, something about that choice just didn’t sit right with me. Once again I took out my bible, looked it up, and discovered that I was wrong. It wasn’t a Cherokee, it was a Wrangler. And it wasn’t even red, it was black.

 

Without that bible, the continuity of my work would be way off. And for readers who’ve been following along with the tale through each successive book, details that are inconsistent can pull them right out of their suspension of disbelief. As a horror and dark fantasy writer, that’s the last thing I want to happen. I spend too much time lulling them into believing that the fantastical things that I write about are perfectly normal inside my fictional world and I don’t want innocuous details to spoil that effect.

 

What I’m talking about is the three ring binder I put together whenever I start writing a book. The binder has multiple sections; one for characters, one for locations, one for specific technological or mystic items that are important to the story (like the mobile command center that makes an appearance in A SCREAM OF ANGELS), one for my ever-evolving outline, and even one for any notes that occur to me throughout the writing process that don’t fit anywhere else, reminders to check some particular fact or to be sure to resolve a certain issue in a later chapter, that sort of thing. This binder is my story bible (or in this case, my series bible, which major sections devoted to each book in the series, with those then subdivided into the minor sections named above.)

 

I make it a regular habit to update the binder on a daily basis, so it keeps pace with the work itself and remains a useful tool. This allows me to check the facts I need quickly and easily while in the midst of a writing session, without having to search back through earlier manuscripts or published works to find the information I need. It’s not perfect, and I still occasionally make mistakes when I’m too lazy to look something up that I’m positive I recollect correctly, but my bible goes a long way to keeping me on track and productive when I need to be.

 

Like right now.

 

With 14 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes left until my deadline.

Last month I started telling you about my recent leap of faith off of a very large cliff. I was searching for my passion, trying to rekindle that desire to write that had launched my career four years earlier. I had discovered that my typical day was extremely lopsided, that the very thing I had been so passionate about was the thing that got the least of my time and attention during the day.

And that let me know why my passion had disappeared. Instead of coming to my writing refreshed and ready to go, I was coming to it exhausted, worn out from a long day of working a 50 hour or more a week job and then spending necessary time with my family. Because of that schedule, my writing went from being a joy to being a chore – something that had to be done only because I was determined to do it.

Recognizing that fact was important. It told me that I had to make some long term decisions about my writing career. Was it really something I wanted to do for the rest of my life? Why did I want to do it? What did I hope to gain out of it? How far was I wiling to go? The scene from Untouchables popped into my head over and over again, the one where Malone (played by Sean Connery) is lying there dying and he grabs Elliot Ness (played by Kevin Costner) by the vest and pulls him in close and asks the fateful question that send Ness on his rampage – “what are you prepared to do?”

What was I prepared to do indeed?

That required some thought. A lot of thought. I wasn’t just making decisions for myself, but was making decisions that would also effect my family. And I had to answer more questions. Did I really think I could do this? Could I achieve the goals I wanted writing what I was currently writing? How long did I think it would take to reach some of those goals? The answers to these questions would radically impact my decision making process.

One thing was clear – if I wanted to make a career at writing, I needed to come to it with my best foot forward, not at the end of the day when I was worn out and exhausted. (And just so no one thinks I didn’t consider this option, the pre-dawn hours had been previously tried as well. Tired is tired, simple as that for me.)

In the end, I had to take a leap of faith. I had to devote serious time to my pursuit of a writing career if I wanted it to succeed. I had to set specific goals with specific deadlines and realistically pursue those goals with everything I had in me. Sounds a bit cold and scientific, doesn’t it? But the truth was that if I wanted my dream I had to pursue it with a bulldog’s determination rather than simply wishing for it to happen one day.

With the full support of my wife and family (and thank God for all of them) I made my choice.

We’d been working toward certain family goals for a while – paying off the credit cards, paying off the car loans, paying for the kids’ private school a year ahead, putting a year’s salary in the bank – and those provided the background for what I intended to do.

Against all conventional wisdom, I took a leap of faith – in myself, in my talent, in my dreams. Sixty days ago I gave my notice – I would be leaving my well-paying day-job and concentrating on my writing career full time for one year. I had 365 days to make my goals become a reality. After all, you can’t walk on water unless you get out of the boat, right?

I had a sixty day notice clause in my contract, so that my sales and management efforts could be handed off without disruption, so I couldn’t leave right away. But the day after making my decision, my writing took off like a rocket. I came to the computer ready to write, dammnit! And I did. In the last sixty days, I’ve written an entire novel. And it’s good – far better than anything I’ve done in the last year or two. Having the time, energy and focus I needed made an incredible difference in my work, just as I had hoped.

Today, Sept 15^th, is my last day on the job.

Tonight the clock starts ticking.

I’ve got 365 days.

And I intend to make the most of them.

After that we’ll see where the road takes me…

A few months ago, I awoke one morning and realized that my passion for writing had all but disappeared. Instead of sitting down at my desk full of enthusiasm for the work before me, I was dreading the time at the keyboard. I wanted to do anything but write. Mow the lawn. Repaint the house. Clean the carpet, individual strand by individual strand. Anything really, so long as I didn’t have to sit down at the computer and write.

 

I didn’t have writer’s block. I knew exactly where I needed to go with each of the projects I was involved with at the time. I had the words brimming in the back of my mind, ready to be released onto the page (or rather, the screen) in front of me. I had projects that needed to be completed. I just didn’t have any desire to do them.

 

For a guy who loves stories, who cherishes the art of creating them, this was a very troubling discovery. What had happened? Where had my passion gone?

 

At first I was devastated. I moped around the house for days, letting my keyboard get covered in dust and annoying the hell out of my wife. The deadline clock was ticking for three different projects, but I knew that unless I found my passion the material that I would produce would be next to useless anyway. A reader can tell when a writer’s heart isn’t in his work. I didn’t want to run the risk of losing my hard earned fans by producing less than acceptable work. I’d fought too hard and too long to get to where I was. Second rate work just wasn’t going to cut it. After I got over my initial reaction, I got angry. I was determined not to let my dream die so easily. In fact, I vowed that I would find my passion again or never write another word.

 

And so I set out in search of it.

 

I knew the first step had to be defining what it was I was looking for. What, exactly, was passion? Where does it come from? How does one sustain it?

 

Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.” The Compact Oxford Dictionary claims it’s “a very strong emotion.” The Cambridge Dictionary of American English listed it as “a strong interest.”

 

Those definitions were okay. They clearly identified the object in question and gave meaning to why it was important in reference to what I do, but it just didn’t quite fit the bill for me. There was no heart to it, if you know what I mean. So I continued looking for another way of describing it and it wasn’t long before I hit on just the right one. I found it on the website of fellow life coach, Curt Rosengren, at PassionCatalyst.com.

 

Curt calls himself a passion catalyst. He helps people identify their passions and find careers that ignite them. (A rather gratifying line of work, I would think.) According to Curt, passion is “the energy that comes from bringing more of YOU into what you do.”

 

That was it! The definition I was looking for. And it gave me a big clue as to why my passion for writing had taken the 8:15 bus to Oakland when I wasn’t looking.

 

I decided to take a look at how much of my personal time and energy was devoted to my writing. After all, if my passion was based upon bringing more of me into my work, thereby generating the energy needed to sustain the endeavor over the long haul, it was probably a good idea to know where all of ME was going.

 

Sitting down that evening, I wrote out what I did during a typical weekday. At the time, it looked something like this:

 

6:30 am – Get up with the kids. Give them breakfast and get them dressed.

7:00 am – Get ready for work.

7:30 am – Drop the kids off at school and commute to the office.

8:15 am – Start the workday.

5:30 pm – End the workday.

6:00 pm – Come home, eat dinner, help the kids with their homework, and help put them to bed.

9:00 pm – Spend some time with my wife.

9:30 pm – Sit down to get some writing done.

11:30 pm – Go to bed.

 

That’s a highly abbreviated version of my typical day, but the activity served its purpose and I’m sure you can see why. Despite having carried out this same schedule day in and day out ever since my writing career had started four years ago, it wasn’t until I actually sat down and set it out in black and white that I realized how lopsided it was. The thing (after my family) that I was most passionate about, the thing that consumed my thoughts and drove me to better and greater achievements – that was the very last thing that got my attention and energy during the day.

 

But what could I do about it? I couldn’t ignore my family, even if I’d wanted to. The house is only so big, after all, and four kids can be quite the distraction. I couldn’t quit the day job – little things like the mortgage, school payments, car payments, food bills, and the like weren’t just going to go away on their own. I couldn’t sacrifice any more sleep; there just weren’t that many hours left in the day.

 

How could I focus more of me (meaning my time, energy, and enthusiasm) into my writing, given the current demands on my schedule?

 

The answer, which I’ll tell you about next time, required more than just a small step of faith. It needed a giant leap into the unknown.

 

A leap I willingly took.

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by Joe Nassise

Last month I began telling you about how my novel HERETIC went from mass market paperback original to soon-to-be released comic book mini-series. When we left off, I had just created a pitch book containing a sample script and several pages of full color comic art and had flown to San Diego for a whirlwind day of meeting with several editors from different comic companies at the San Diego Comic Con.

So what did my initiative get me?

Well, that depends on how you look at things.

The majority of the editors that I spoke with were pleasant and encouraging. None of them jumped out of their seats at the concept, but many of them applauded my professional approach and the samples that I had with me. Several asked me to touch base again after the show, to continue discussions in a less hectic atmosphere. Ultimately, all of them passed on acquiring the rights to adapt the series.

But I did get the opportunity to meet editors from several major comic book houses and introduce my work to them. I presented my materials in a professional manner and received several invitations to stay in touch and submit other concepts at a later date. They had passed on the chance to adapt the Templar Chronicles, but the process had opened the door for me.

As the months went by, that open door began to pay off.

About four months after the show, one of the editors I had met called me about a different project. He needed someone to handle the scripting for a four issue mini-series with a horror background and wondered if I’d be interested. Would a work for hire gig scripting the four issues from the creator’s outline and notes be something I could handle? I said yes without having to think about it too much and a few weeks later had completed three out of the four issues needed. The editor was thrilled with the scripts, as was the art team. Everyone was confident the series would be a hit. Unfortunately, the creator went flaky on us and the series never saw publication.

Despite the fact that the project had ultimately crashed and burned, I’d proven myself to be a reliable writer who could take direction and deliver a better-than-average script and deliver it on time. Good things were being said about me in certain corners as a result.

About a month later I answered a call for a writer on a graphic novel project. I needed to submit several samples of my work, both in script and prose format. Thanks to the previously failed project, I had some sample scripts on hand, something I might not have had otherwise. I combined them with a few chapters of my latest novel and sent the package off to the editor. It took several weeks, and a few more hoops to jump through, but eventually I won the gig. While I’m not at liberty to discuss the project in any kind of detail, I can say that it has been a terrific undertaking. I’m very excited about the end product and can’t wait until I can let the cat out of the bag and talk about it in public.

And so it went.

I stayed in touch with people and people stayed in touch with me. At one point I touched base with one of the artists I had met at the show, to congratulate him on a project he’d recently announced. We got to talking about his publisher, Markosia Comics. One thing led to another and I ended up asking for his editor’s email address, figuring that sending out another proposal packet for the Chronicles couldn’t hurt. I was glad I did, for the editor, Harry Markos, the man behind Markosia, very quickly got back to me, asking to see the novel. Before I knew it, Harry was offering to acquire the rights to the book and turn it into a six issue mini-series. I accepted. Chuck Satterlee was hired to adapt it into comic format and Loren Meyer was hired to do the artwork. The rest, as they say, is history.

Heretic: The Templar Chronicles will see publication as a six issue comic mini-series this winter. I couldn’t be happier about the additional exposure the novel series will get as a result and the contract has already resulted in my taking on additional work on other comic related projects.

All because of my interest in comics.

What are you interested in? What additional media opportunities are available for the work you are producing now or have produced in the past? Where can you make one of your existing works step up and work harder for you and your career?

You might be surprised at where your work will take you. I know I was.

by Joe Nassise

Last night the formal announcement was made via press release that Markosia Comics in the UK had acquired the rights to adapt my novel HERETIC into a six issue comic mini-series. As I’ve always been a big comic book lover, this was very exciting news for me (and something that I’ve just been dying to tell people about for the last few months as we worked through the contract details) and I’m psyched that it’s come to fruition. As I was looking over the column I had already prepared for this month, I decided to put that on the back burner and talk about something else.

Specifically, how (and why) I chose to pursue getting HERETIC adapted into comic format.

I’ve been reading comics since I was a kid. I’m not attached to any particular style or character or company – I just peruse the shelves every couple of weeks and grab whatever catches my eye. If I like something, I’ll chase down back issues if necessary or continuing buying the series as it goes along. I’m not much attracted to the big marketing events like Marvel’s Civil War that’s going on right now. I prefer shorter story arcs, along the lines of four to six issue mini series. The last two mainline series I’ve spent time reading have been Wraithborn by Joe Benitez and Marcia Chen and Hunter Killer by Marc Silvestri and Mark Waid. In the last month I’ve also enjoyed series by independent comic producers, like Midnight Kiss by Ryan Stegman and Tony Lee, The Black Coat by Ben Lichius, Adam Cogan, and Francesco Francavilla, and Elsinore by Ken Lillie-Paetz and Brian Denham. My tastes are varied and wide ranging, but I am always looking for strongly told stories with artwork to match.

When it comes to my writing, I work off of the scenes I see unfolding in my head. I “see” them as I write, which gives my writing a certain cinematic quality, according to some of my critics – long on action and excitement and short on character development. While I’m not 100% in agreement with them, I do admit to certain shortcomings in this area and I gave some thought as to how I might use turn those shortcomings into an advantage. Almost immediately the idea of bringing the Templar Chronicles to comic format came to mind – it would allow the cinematic nature of my writing to shine while at the same time mate my text with art that graphically displays the action sequences. The art itself would also help portray some of the character development that is sometimes overshadowed in my writing by the action.

Of course, I knew nothing about comics from the business standpoint. At that point, the sum total of my knowledge was:

– I knew I liked them.

– I knew there were a few major giants in the industry with a lot of independent companies trying to get a date to the dance running at their heels.

– I knew that I’d need an artist.

But that was it. (Oddly enough, I knew even less about writing when I sat down to work on my first novel, so I wasn’t overwhelmed or stressed out at my lack of knowledge, I just knew I needed to expand it significantly. Understanding the market is always an important part of publishing, regardless of the medium you are operating within.)

So I set out to learn as much as I could about the players in the game. I learned very quickly that the majority of the market share is made up of comics produced by the two to four companies, with the biggest being Marvel and DC (oaky, so I knew that already too, but it was interesting to see what the numbers really were saying.) I learned that breaking into these two companies with little to no direct comic experience was going to be tough. It also came to my attention that for most of the companies that were inclined to accept submissions from outsiders, I would need to put together a complete package, including a sample cover, several pages of sequential art, and a full script to go with it.

I figured that my best bet was getting in with some of the up and comers among the independent firms. They were more prone to look at creator owned properties and while the pay wouldn’t be as good I was confident that I could broker a better deal with respect to things like merchandising rights.

I still needed an artist, however. And not just an artist, but more than likely a team consisting of a penciler (who draws the original art), an inker (who adds highlights, emphasis, shadows, etc by inking the art), and a colorist (who adds color to the inked drawing.) I would more than likely also need a letterer (who would add the text to the pages). Not knowing anyone with these skills, I began to build my network. I hang out on comic bulletin boards, looking at samples and listening to the folks in the industry. I began to get an idea of what style of art I wanted to the Chronicles and what kind of deal I could offer those who might be interested. Eventually, after several months, I had put together an excellent team of guys who were good at their individual skills and hungry enough to work with me in putting together a submission package. Not too long after that, we had some excellent character concepts and several pages of penciled, inked, and colored sequential art.

I was really happy with what we put together and so I got to work – presenting it would be my job. I got on the phone and reached out to talk with editors at several comic companies, requesting permission to show them the project while at the San Diego Comic Con in July of 2005. I flew in for two whirlwind days and met with eight to ten editors, from companies ranging from Top Cow to Image to Platinum Studios.

Then I sat back to wait.

(Next month I’ll tell you just how valuable those face to face meetings turned out to be. Like the new Ford commercials say, bold moves sometimes pay off.)

A few weeks ago Fortune Magazine ran this really cool series of articles under the heading “How I Work.” They interviewed major business moguls (like Bill Gates) and asked how they handled a variety of common business needs/activities. I found the series rather interesting and as the type of writer who always enjoys comparing notes with others, I thought it might be worthwhile to bring the idea over here and see how other writers approach some of the basic tasks and requirements of our beloved profession.

To make the essay really work, however, it requires some interaction from you, the readers. If you are a writer, please join me in posting how you work in the comments section. Who knows, maybe each of us will find even one new approach that can change the way we approach some aspect of our writing career.

I’m going to cover six major areas relating to how I work – book structure, research, submissions tracking, writing, editing, and communications.

Book Structure

When it comes time to create a new project, I usually start by coming up with a one or two sentence description that summarizes as succinctly as possible what the book is about. In much the same fashion as a Hollywood logline, this summary allows me to describe the book quickly, easily, and with enough snap to generate some interest in anyone who asks. For instance, my Templar Chronicles series is about a secret combat arm of the Church that is charged with defending mankind from the supernatural. RIVERWATCH is about three friends who must save their town from an ancient evil that they unwittingly released. Once I have my short description, I can move onto what is essentially a longer one – the synopsis.

In my view, a synopsis is nothing more than a one to two page summary of the events of the story, told in present tense. If I can’t sit down and easily draw up a synopsis, then I know that I haven’t done nearly enough work in thinking about the structure of my story. And forget trying to write a novel without a synopsis – doing that would be harder for me than to try and navigate from Peking to New York blindfolded and trussed up like a hog. In other words, it’s not really a good idea.

Many writers I’ve met seem to have a hard time condensing their 350 page novel down to one or two pages. That’s because they are working backward instead of forward. If they had developed a solid synopsis before writing the novel, it wouldn’t seem so daunting a task. After all, developing two pages into 350 certainly sounds easier than trying to crunch 350 pages down to two, doesn’t it?

The final act in constructing my novel is to write an outline. You get as many opinions about outlines at a writers’ conference as you do languages spoken at the United Nations. Folks either seem to love them or hate them. For a writer like me, who writes entire novels completely out of sequence, they are a godsend and I wouldn’t go into a project without one. They help me know that I’ve thought through the plot well enough to avoid the giant gaping holes in the road. They allow me to write whatever chapter I am feeling enthused about writing that day, without worrying about continuity issues. They give me the freedom to work on several major projects at once, because I can always refer back to the outline and refresh myself with the project at hand.

So logline, synopsis, and outline, in that order. That’s my method. (For those who have a hard time with any of these, let me recommend Randy Ingermanson’s excellent snowflake method. Follow his process and this will become second nature for you. And you’ll have a better structure underlying your work. You can find Randy at www.randyingermanson.com.)

Research

This is an area that I’m still struggling a bit with. For my Templar Chronicles series, I did a tremendous amount of reading about the Order, but most of that was offline and so I simply took handwritten notes. These were organized into a three ring binder which eventually became the world bible for my series. Character notes, location notes, scene ideas, plot points – like Ragu, they’re all in there.

For doing research online, I’ve tried two different products to keep me organized. The first is OneNote by Microsoft. This is a wonderful product for taking notes at meetings, generating To-Do lists, organizing follow-up and the like. It also allows you to cut and paste text and images right out of the web, organizing them into the pages of a virtual notebook. I’ve been pretty happy with this, though I’m not as savvy at using it yet as I would like to be. (Information on OneNote can be found at www.microsoft.com. The downside of this product is that the full version is expensive unless you intend to make regular use of it – $99.00.)

The other product I’ve recently been testing is called EverNote. This functions similarly to OneNote, but it is freely available and I’m actually finding it easier to use. The organization system is more to my liking and I can clip information directly into it from the web. For anyone looking for an effective way to store and quickly access collected information or notes, I would highly recommend this. (Evernote can be found at www.evernote.com)

Submissions Tracking

Knowing what you sent to who when is probably one of the most important organizational tools in a writer’s arsenal. My agent handles all of my novel related submissions. I handle everything else, including short fiction, comic work, rpg work, and other assorted projects. (And I still keep track of when and where my agent sends things, as it allows me to be better informed and evaluate how much time he is devoting to my career.)

For the last couple of years I’ve been using a piece of software called Write Again!. It was developed by another writer (who I actually had the pleasure of sharing a table of contents with in the rare Hastur Pussycat Kill Kill volume), Tom Dullemond. The database keeps track of my projects and all of the various elements that make them up. It allows me to create my own market database and allows me to track submissions, including their financial elements, for every project. I can run a wide variety of reports that show me what’s out, what’s been accepted, how often a particular piece has been rejected, and more. Even better it’s easy to use.

The only drawback is that the system hasn’t been updated now in a couple of years, so we’re stuck at the current version. It has a few issues I’d like to see corrected, but I haven’t found anything better and so I’m content. Write Again! comes in both a professional and a lite version – the lite version is free. You can find it at www.write-again.com.

Writing

As I mentioned above, I work on several project at once (keep me from getting burned out or discouraged when I’m struggling with one in particular) and I write complete novels entirely out of sequence. I tend to see things cinematically in my head, like watching movie scenes flashing by, and so I tend to create a bunch of loosely connected scenes that get tied together at a later date with the help of the outline.

I’d be interested to hear how many others write the way I do (or if I’m just the resident writing freak! )

Editing

When I first started writing, I had the habit of correcting each and every sentence as I went along, until I was entirely satisfied with it. As you can image, this slowed my output considerably and kept me rather frustrated with the process at every stage of the game.

A year or so ago, I decided that I would simply get the main storyline out on paper first and worry about fixing everything once the first draft was done. This has been extremely liberating for me, allowing my output on a daily basis to triple, and it has kept my enthusiasm for various projects high throughout the writing process.

After the first draft is done, I print out the entire work and edit it by hand with a red pen. I’ve learned the hard way that I don’t edit as thoroughly or as well when doing it on the screen, so I resort to the old fashioned method, which works just fine for me. When I have the time, I’ll let the project sit for a few weeks, then give it another look. This usually means a second round of editing, but I’ve found the time allows me some perspective and lets me spot the finer issues easier.

Communications/Email

I’ve recently switched most of my business-related email over to Google Mail. This free service allows me tremendous storage capabilities and offers features most other programs do not, such as the ability to tag conversations to make them easier to find and search. Gmail also organizes mail into conversations, grouping all of the replies to an email into a thread. This way I can view the back and forth without hunting for individual emails.

Gmail is also available from wherever I can access the Internet, so I don’t have to worry about not being able to get my mail if I’m traveling or using a group computer. (The down side is that every now and then I do hit a time when Gmail is unavailable, but I’ve never found it to be down for more than an hour or so and its only happened to me twice in the last several months. Considering my cable Internet access seems to come and go at higher frequencies, I’m not too upset.)

Gmail is in Beta, so it’s not yet available to everyone. You need to get an invite to sign up. And as luck would have it, I have fifty invitations to hand out, so if you are a writer and want to give the system a try, drop me an email at jnassise at gmail.com and I’ll see what I can do. First come, first serve.

So, that’s how I work. At least in those six areas. How about you? How do you work?

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I’m closing in on the end of my latest novel and as always during this stage, I’ve begun to think about the editing process in earnest. When I first started out I would edit each piece of work as I went along. This was both time consuming and frustrating. My creative side was pushing to move ahead while the editor in me wanted to fix every single paragraph until it was just right. By the time that happened, my muse had gone to sleep, convinced that I’ve never get to the next paragraph. And trust me, waking her up again was always a bitch.

After finishing my second novel, I learned to ignore that need to make everything perfect and learned to simply drive forward with the storyline. Getting the main story out of my head and onto paper (or in my case, onto the computer screen) was of primary importance – I knew I could always go back and fix things later. This helped me generate a more exciting work (as my own excitement was high while writing it) and kept the creative spirit going strong. It also cut my first draft time in half. I can’t imagine going back and doing it the other way now.

But once that first draft is done, it is time to examine it with a critical eye and clean up the mess. I’ve made a number of notes to myself over the years that cover this stage, reminders to watch for this or that, so that each manuscript is as good as I can get it to be. Some of these suggestions come from writers with far more experience than I – suggestions culled from great books like LESSONS LEARNED FROM A LIFETIME OF WRITING by David Morrel and ON WRITING by Stephen King. Earlier this week I was reading over one such piece, Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing, and thought I would share his suggestions, along with my own success or failure in these areas, with you as this month’s essay.

Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather. I’ve never done this, which means it’s so far so good.

2. Avoid prologues. Okay, so I knew my success rate couldn’t last. I just didn’t think I’d get voted off the island this quickly. My novel HERETIC opens with a prologue. Leonard goes on to say that “they can be annoying.” I can certainly understand where he is coming from and almost took out the prologue in HERETIC just for that reason. In the end, I decided to leave it as I wanted to include some background information into the storyline before the reader meets the main characters. I did manage to resist the temptation while writing the sequel, A SCREAM OF ANGELS.

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. I agree wholeheartedly with this statement and do my best to avoid the temptation to do otherwise. I think this is one of the most common mistakes new writers fall into and it can certainly pull the reader right out of the text. I recently spent an entire coaching session with a writer client dealing with just this issue. I still fall victim to it myself occasionally, but it will be one of the major mistakes I’ll be scouring the current work in progress for once I get into the editing stage.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . . Frankly, I suck at this. I’m getting better, but this one has plagued me for years and it is something I have to keep reminding myself about on a regular basis.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. While I often use them in email (no, I don’t have a clue why!) I don’t struggle with this one too much in my fiction.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.” I think I’m guilty of both, especially the first one. I’ve been more cognizant of “suddenly” in my more recent work, but I know my debut novel was plagued with it. “All hell broke loose” is far too cliché for anyone to be using, even us horror types.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. I don’t have an ear for languages, so I don’t fall victim to this temptation. If you are going to use dialect, it has always been my belief that it should be used for the first line or two of dialogue to establish the fact that there is a difference in speech patterns, but after that the dialogue should be writing plainly so the reader doesn’t struggle trying to figure out just what is being said.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters. Again, I agree with this rule wholeheartedly. The problem, I think, is in defining just what “detailed” means. How much is too much? I’m not sure I have a written answer for that. I know when I become uncomfortable with description, but I’m not certain I could explain just where that cliff edge actually is.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things. The reader’s imagination can fill in so many more details than the writer needs to and it behooves all of us to remember this. Of course, see #8 above for the particular issues this raises.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. The first time I read this I laughed aloud. It is such a true statement. I know I do it – skim through certain sections when the writer has lost me (usually in the midst of an overdose of details) – but identifying just when and where sections should be cut is difficult. This is just one of the reasons I appreciate my editor so much.

So there you have it. Ten Rules of Writing that all of us can benefit from reviewing on a regular basis.

Now where did I put that damned red pen…?

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Our words have weight.

That’s something that I don’t often think about when I sit down to write. I’m far more concerned with the story, of getting the characters and the plot and the action down in a way that will make the act of reading an enjoyable one than I am with the impact of what I am saying. I don’t think about the message behind the words or what I’m trying to say through that story itself, at least not consciously and certainly not in the beginning of a project.

Case in point. I’m primarily a horror writer. Occasionally I’ll mess around a little with SF or fantasy, but for the most part I write thrillers with a strong supernatural edge. My writing often deals with the epic struggle between good and evil that surrounds us on a daily basis. My view is obviously influenced by my personal faith and the body of my work as a whole often reflects this. RIVERWATCH was about sacrifice and the choices we make when we are the only one willing or able to confront evil that appears before us. HERETIC is about one man’s encounter with the supernatural and how it fundamentally changes him and his views regarding good and evil. It’s also a story of love lost and how the memory of that love drives us to greater heights and, perhaps, lower ones as well. My forthcoming novella More Than Life Itself focuses on a father who will do anything to save his beloved child, even if it means stepping over that indelible line between right and wrong. Looking back now it’s easy to see that these were the themes I was focusing on when writing these works, but at the actual time of writing them, I didn’t give any of it a conscious thought.

But our words have weight, whether we recognize that or not, and sometimes that weight can land in the most unlikely places.

In southern Florida there is a group of teens who are awaiting trial for a variety of crimes. These are serious crimes – robbery, rape, homicide, armed assault – and these teens are being held in an adult prison as they await their time in court. They are not allowed visits from their families except by teleconference. If convicted, they will be transferred into the adult general population of the prison when they turn eighteen.

In that prison is a man named John. John runs a program called Literature N Living. It’s a book club that gets these kids to read, some for the very first time. A book is chosen, the group reads and discusses it. They are required to pass a test on the contents and to give a short speech about what they thought of the book’s story, themes, etc. If they do the activities and pass the test, they get a reward – a visit from their families and a chance to eat a home cooked meal together as a group.

That’s a pretty big reward for a fifteen year old kid locked up behind bars and facing a very uncertain future.

This past month, Literature N Living’s selected book was my latest novel, HERETIC. Knowing that the words that spilled out of me and onto a page are actively being used to try to give these kids a better future, to teach them to think about right and wrong and the consequences of their actions – that’s especially humbling to me. And it reminds me that what we write can have far greater impact than we ever believed possible.

Our words have weight. That’s something I’ll remember for a long time to come.

Orlando Sentinel article on the program