A great writer....and St. Louisan!!

Eddy L. Harris has written several memoirs. His first book, Mississippi Solo, is a tremendous adventure story about a man (Eddy) who travels the entire Mississippi river alone -- in a canoe. I've posted about Eddy before, but I found this interview with him that I thought was pretty well done. In the interview, he talks about Mississippi Solo and his approach to writing. (I won't bog this blog down with videos. It's just something new I've discovered.)

Someone Knows My Name

Today, I have read nearly 100 pages of Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name.

Amazing book. It's so real, I can't believe it's fiction!

(I want to write like him)

Sinclair Lewis

OK...I know little to nothing about Sinclair Lewis, but I DO know that he changed my life.

How's that, you say?

Glad you asked.

As some of you might know, I am a former newspaper reporter. Back in 2001, while working for the Springfield News-Leader, I had the pleasure of working for an executive editor named David Ledford. I don't think that I impressed him much as a writer, but he took a chance and devoted a lot of time to me. When I struggled with a story, he'd sit with me until the early morning hours to make sure I got it right. When I needed a push, he was there to give it. He's a gruff fellow, and not everyone enjoyed his approach to editing, but he knew how to motivate me.

Ledford encouraged his reporters to let the readers "see" what we were seeing as reporters. He drilled into us the importance of narrative writing. He held workshops, sent us to seminars, etc.

One day, he called me into his office and he asked, "Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis' Main Street?"

"Um, no."

"Read that and you'll know how to write."

That was the first time I'd ever heard an editor or any instructor of journalism say that reporters should read literature to become better news writers! What a novel idea!

So, to keep up my good standing with my boss, I went to the library and checked out Main Street. I read the first dozen pages and caught on to what he was talking about -- but that was as far as I'd ever been with that book. However, I did decide, at that point, to concentrate on my storytelling, to become the best writer I could possibly be. I got away from "just the facts ma'am" reporting and became a storyteller -- trying to let the readers "see" what I was seeing. And since then, I've taken a new approach to all writing -- whether it's a news article, press release, magazine feature, etc.

All this to say that I've finally gotten around to picking up my copy of Main Street and I'm devoted to reading it this winter. It's a pretty good book so far, and I'm excited to get lost in Gopher Prairie.

Have any of you read this book?

P.S. I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile (I know that's a cardinal sin with blogging), but I've been busy with "end-of-semester" things like papers and a linguistics final -- and, of course, making arrangements to finish my thesis. By the way, I received an A in my linguistics course, so all I have left are comprehensive exams and this thesis! Keep me in your prayers.

First Chapters

I recently had a noted author write to me with this advice: "First chapters are critical in getting the attention of an agent, and agents are critical in getting your work before publishers."

Personally, from a reader's standpoint, I find that "first chapters are critical in getting the attention of the reader" too!

Some people judge a book by its cover. I often judge one by the first two or three pages -- and if the writing's good, the first chapter.

One of my favorite pastimes is going to Borders or Barnes and Noble, grabbing a half dozen titles from the stacks and sitting down to read with a cafe mocha. Last Sunday, my wife and I had the rare opportunity to break away from the kids and go to Barnes and Noble to do just that.

I brought my pile of books back to the tiny table and began to read. I was really excited about one particular author, so I grabbed several of his books. Unfortunately, I wasn't hooked by his writing style, so I put them down and picked up a random book from the "new fiction" shelf. I was captivated.

The book: Leo Furey's The Long Run

Wow! I haven't had a book grip my attention like that in awhile. I read the first chapter and was amazed at the emotions I went through. I literally laughed outloud at one character, Brother McCann, and then found myself ready to reach through the pages and kick him in the head until he was comatose. I was very impressed, and I can't wait to buy the book (My finances that night were going toward a movie -- American Gangster -- that was worth every inflated penny). I only hope the entire novel can live up to "first chapter" expectations.

The last few books that really caught my attention like that were Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

A very good resource for "first chapters" is the NY Times "First Chapters" site.

A few discussion questions:

1. What are some books with first chapters that grabbed your attention?


2. Do you find that subsequent chapters -- even endings -- often don't live up to first chapters?


3. Do you often trudge through clunky first chapters because you know that a good story is around the bend?


4. For writers, how much importance do you place on the first chapter?

Cliff-hangers and chapter organization

I posted earlier with a question about chapter length and organization. Although I received no comments on this site, I also posed the question to the Crimespace community. Here are some tips that I receieved:

* Some readers don't like to be burdened with having to hang in there for 20 pages before turning off the light. Others get irritated by one page chapters. In the end you have to do what feels right for your book.


* Virtually all of my scenes end with some sort of cliff-hanger. Not all of them are of the Bad-Guy-Pulls-A-Gun variety either. I try to end with some sort of a twist or reversal which increases tension and (hopefully) forces the reader to go on to the next chapter.

* Let your writing flow naturally. It's better than having a preconceived notion of what it's supposed to "look" like. If you're on your second chapter, chances are it will end up looking a lot different in the second draft anyway. My chapters in the last book start out long in the beginning and get shorter and shorter as I raised the pulse of the reader.


Personally, one of the best books I've read (in terms of cliff-hangers) was The Da Vinci Code. When I read that book (prior to all of the plot points being revealed on every major network), I couldn't put it down. EVERY chapter left me wanting more. I read it in about three days but had to force myself to put it down on the night stand and go to bed.

I thank everyone who took the time on Crimespace to answer. I've decided to just write and break to a next chapter when it feels right. I'm in the middle of Chapter 3 right now, but I've already started Chapter 4. Now, I just need to fill in the gaps!

Three hours of writing!!

This was an amazing night. Very unusual, as I had three hours of time to write. My older son went to bed early, and our baby went down soon after. So, I fought the temptation to channel surf and buckled down to write. I reworked the first chapter and I love the changes I've made.

It's still not perfect, but it's time to move on to chapter two.

The original version led off with my protagonist, Tommy, sitting in the back of a Catholic church wating his turn to jump in the communion line. But after much consternation and a nagging feeling that it was all wrong, I went back and changed it -- not the story line, just the opening pages.

Now, I lead off with a pretty nice narrative of the church (a central theme to this novel) and I put Tommy at home in bed as the church bells begin to ring -- waking him up to the realization that he is late, again. It's odd, but this slight change has allowed me to better define Tommy, to give him more depth and to introduce several integral elements that need to be revisited throughout the story.

I was just so excited to actually have the time to sit and write. If I had any alcohol in the house, I'd make a toast!

Also, I have begun to receive some comments on this blog. That is very exciting too. Please keep them coming, and I will try my best to make this site worth visiting. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Edith Wharton

In fall 2004, I took a Modern American Authors class at Missouri State University. We read eight novels that semester; five were written by Edith Wharton. When we were finished, the professor said something like, "It'll be a long time before I teach a class on Edith Wharton again." I believe most of us agreed. However, I feel that I learned a great deal about descriptive writing during that class.

Edith Wharton has the reputation of writing stories about the high society of which she was an integral part. That society can be found in her popular novels, The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, etc.

But I found her to be at her strongest when she stepped out of her comfort zone and wrote about the poor and desolate, particularly a handful of characters found in the staple Ethan Frome and my favorite Wharton novel, Summer.

In Summer, there is a scene when the main character Charity travels up "the Mountain" to see her mother, Mary. When she gets there, she learns that her mother is dead. Here is the scene:

"Mary's over there," someone said; and Mr. Miles, taking the bottle in his hand, passed behind the table. Charity followed him, and they stood before a mattress on the floor in a corner of the room. A woman lay on it, but she did not look like a dead woman; she seemed to have fallen across her squalid bed in a drunken sleep, and to have been left lying where she fell, in her ragged disordered clothes. One arm was flung above her head, one leg drawn up under a torn skirt that left the other bare to the knee: a swollen glistening leg with a ragged stocking rolled down about the ankle. The woman lay on her back, her eyes staring up unblinkingly at the candle that trembled in Mr. Miles's hand.

Later in the novel, Wharton describes a scene inside one of the cabins on the Mountain. This simple scene has stuck in my mind since I first read this novel:

CHARITY lay on the floor on a mattress, as her dead mother's body had lain. The room in which she lay was cold and dark and low-ceilinged, and even poorer and barer than the scene of Mary Hyatt's earthly pilgrimage. On the other side of the fireless stove Liff Hyatt's mother slept on a blanket, with two children--her grandchildren, she said--rolled up against her like sleeping puppies. They had their thin clothes spread over them, having given the only other blanket to their guest.

Can't you just imagine this scene? How powerful! "On the other side of the fireless stove Liff Hyatt's mother slept on a blanket, with two children -- her grandchildren, she said -- rolled up against her like sleeping puppies.

I truly enjoy great narrative, and this is some of the best that I've read. If you get a chance, pick up a copy of Summer. You won't regret it. Online text can be found here.

FYI...Wharton was good friends with Henry James, who I wrote about in an earlier post.