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GOOD PLOT OR GOOD CHARACTERS?

by John B. Rosenman

What’s more important to a writer—a good plot or good characters? 

What’s more important in a movie—a good plot or good characters?

It’s an old debate, dating back to Aristotle’s Poetics 2400 years ago.  Writing of tragic plays, Aristotle analyzed the complexities of Plot and placed it First over Character in terms of importance.

But this is a new age, and we have new forms of art.  What about you?  Think of good books you’ve read, good movies you’ve seen.  What is more important—plot or characters?  Oh, I know other things are important, too.  Good dialogue, good description, and so on.  But which one really pulls you in more and keeps you reading or watching.

In my Inspector of the Cross series, Turtan is four thousand years old and has had many breath-taking adventures fighting the aliens in order to save humanity.  I think he’s a really interesting guy, but the plot ain’t bad either.  In fact, you couldn’t really have one without the other.  (Available at Amazon below):

http://www.amazon.com/Inspector-Cross-John-B-Rosenman-ebook/dp/B007USB0YU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404172900&sr=8-1&keywords=inspector+of+the+cross

In my just published novel The Merry-Go-Round Man about three teenage boys growing up in the not-so-innocent fifties, Johnny Roth is just beginning to discover two great (and I think interesting) gifts. The plot itself raises the question of whether or not the boy who scrambles first to the top of a small merry-go-round will be a winner for the rest of his life.  Johnny takes part in this contest.  Is he or this major plot element more important? (Available at Amazon below):

http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Go-Round-Man-John-B-Rosenman-ebook/dp/B00KP17YOE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404172737&sr=8-1&keywords=merry-go-round+man

Or think of classic literature.  Isn’t mad, fanatical Captain Ahab a wonderful character in Moby Dick?  Yes, but what would he be without his endless quest for a white whale across the world’s oceans?

You can probably pick any medium you like.  The movies, for example.  Ah, the Star Wars franchise.  It’s hard to beat the menacing Darth Vader, the mystery man with the deep, deep voice and in-drawn, hissing breath beneath the frightening mask.  Talk about being unforgettable!  Still, the galactic-wide war beneath two empires, one good, one bad, one ruled by the Dark Side, is as awesome and archetypal as you could wish.  Luke Skywalker and Han Solo vs. Darth Vader et al.  The Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys.  The only thing missing are the white hats and the black hats.    

You can probably add your own genres and mediums.  In the end, what do you think is more important—a good plot, good characters, or something else?  Or is the question dumb or meaningless?  Aristotle also included Spectacle as the lowest and least important of his six parts of tragedy, but judging by movie blockbusters today, special effects, bombs exploding, lavish sets, costumes and the like are what often attract people to the theater.  To heck with old Aristotle: is SPECTACLE the most important thing in movies or fiction?

Gentle Reader, you tell me.

Read The Introduction To My New Novel, THE MERRY-GO-ROUND MAN

           
(Visit my website, www.johnrosenman.com)

Three Kids on a Merry-Go-Round: Why I Wrote This Book

Available on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/mf3e8jy

Thirty-four years or nearly half a lifetime ago, I wrote the opening scene of The Merry-Go-Round Man.  On a spring day in 1954, three sixth graders ride a small green merry-go-ground outside an elementary school. I was one of those kids, and in some ways it was a much simpler and more innocent time than today.  I remember that day well.  Like Johnny, I didn’t really know what “bra” and “laying a girl” meant.  Soon I did, but at the age of twelve or nearly so, they were a mystery to me, as they were to a lot of young kids.  Today, in 2014, with cable TV and everything else, even five-year-olds know these terms.   

The Merry-Go-Round Man is a bildungsroman or a coming-of-age novel, and the rites of passage for the three boys take place in a society which at first glance seems so much more benign and G or PG rated than the dangerous R or NC-17 rated one we live in today.  How “safe” was America in the straitlaced Eisenhower 1950’s, which is when two of the novel’s three sections take place?  Just consider: on TV, programs couldn’t even use the word “pregnant” or show a married couple in the same bed.  Elvis Presley’s sexy gyrations provoked angry controversy across America and made CBS censors demand (unsuccessfully) the emerging King of Rock ‘n’ Roll be shot only from the waist up.  As for edgy, spiky series, forget about Dexter or Breaking Bad.  I Love Lucy and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet ruled.

           

But for my three boys, Johnny Roth, Jimmy Wiggins, and Lee Esner, snakes crawled in the Garden even then.  While Johnny Roth seems blessed by two transcendent talents (he might become both an unbeatable heavyweight boxer and a revolutionary expressionist painter), his path is rendered unbelievably painful by a rigid, unsympathetic father who insists he renounce both gifts and study to become an Orthodox rabbi.  As if he isn’t tormented enough, one night a demented gang leader tries to castrate him.

Jimmy Wiggins, based upon a black friend of mine, encounters cruel and frequent racism.  Back in the fifties, it was worse than it is today, especially in the segregated South.  This was before Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement, and all that came after.  We attended an upper-class, primarily white school in Shaker Heights, Ohio with high educational standards.  Johnny and Lee did all right but Jimmy struggled, getting D’s.  The Jimmy I knew, now long deceased, often said to me, “John, you don’t know what it’s like to be colored.”  Like the boy in the novel, Jimmy lived in a largely black section of downtown Cleveland.  His father was an even more successful boxer than the one in the novel, though he was also cursed, for he never quite succeeded in winning the heavyweight crown. 

Lee Esner, the third boy, is also modeled after a friend.  Like him, he’s a lady killer, irresistible to girls.  In Lee’s case, though, I take liberties.  I don’t believe the boy I remember was ever “collected” by a salacious cougar three or more times his age or that he became addicted to women.  On the other hand, it could have happened.  The Lee I know sure had a knack.  It’s dangerous to be too handsome, charming, and athletically gifted, and to have everything come too easily to you.  Anyway, I wrote him this way.  Please be advised: all three characters, including their names, are creatures of fiction, inspired by people I knew but changed in various ways.

There were some scary, ominous changes in American life during the fifties.  I remember the Cold War and the Red Scare, the terrible fear of invasive communism aided and abetted by Joseph McCarthy.  Also, Johnny’s generation and mine was the first to grow up under the threat of nuclear war and the mushroom cloud of atomic and hydrogen bombs which COULD END LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.  In school we regularly practiced ‘duck and cover’ safety drills in order to be ready for a Russian attack.  The ability of nations to attack each other is suggested in the novel when Johnny knocks out Sammy Duckett and is called “H-Bomb Johnny!” 

Why did I write TMGRM?  Besides wanting to write, create, and express myself, I can think of three intertwined reasons: wish fulfillment, a desire not to let my childhood slip away, and a need to make sense of my past.  I always wanted to be a boxer but couldn’t.  Johnny fulfills my dream and does it magnificently.  Also, he’s a brilliant artist, and I’m a writer.  Second, while my past and the people and places in it have undergone a sea change in this book, I’ve somehow managed to preserve the essence and spirit of much of my childhood.   Third, by recovering the past, I’ve been able to understand it and see how it has contributed to the man I am today.   It all   waits for you, dear reader, within these pages.  I hope you enjoy your ride on the merry-go-round as much as I enjoyed spinning it for you.

John B. Rosenman

February 2014

TRY SOMETHING NEW!

Writing Across Genres:

From Science Fiction to Erotica, Humor to Horror . . . and Beyond

by

John B. Rosenman

Though I like to write science fiction, I like to write other things, too.  Science-fiction Fantasy, Science-fiction Horror, Humorous Science Fiction, Horror, Humorous Horror, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Erotica, Dark Erotica, Romance, Mainstream, Mystery, even Metafiction, which  pokes fun at the creative process itself.  You name it, and I’ve probably tried it at one time or another.  Sometimes I mix them together, creating hybrids.

Today, more than ever it seems, writers are typecast.  We live in the age of specialists, and a writer’s latest novel is packaged as a product to appeal to a select market.  Stray from the formula, write something just a little bit different, a mystery instead of a romance, and your agent is likely to question your sanity.  As for your fans, more likely than not, they will spend their money elsewhere. 

To me, the creative landscape is too vast and rich for me to settle on a little postage stamp of soil.  Thus, while my science-fiction novel, Dax Rigby, War Correspondent, published by MuseItUp Publishing deals with one of my favorite themes of a hero traveling to a distant world and having amazing adventures, my short story, Steam Heat, also published by MuseitUp, is out-and-out erotic horror.  Both, I feel, are good, engrossing tales, but they are miles apart.  To me, it’s fun and challenging to s-t-r-e-t-c-h my creative legs and see what unplumbed abilities I have waiting inside me.

To give an example of the difference in these two stories, here are two excerpts.  The first is from Dax Rigby, War Correspondent.  In it, Dax and Casey Frank, a seductive pilot, are flying in a copter above the tropical plain of Arcadia, a world 900 light-years from Earth.  Beneath them, two alien species do battle:

As the copter approached, he took out his cam, set it to zoom, and started to record. In the viewport, the alien antagonists were immediately terrifying and vividly monstrous. The Flyers, three meters tall, he recalled, flapped bright crimson wings and attacked and retreated before their even taller six-legged grasshopper-like enemy.

Dax saw green, olive, and brown bodies with yellow markings, sword-shaped antennae, and huge upper hind legs well adapted for leaping. And the Hoppers did more than leap. They also used those legs for savage blows and charges while the Flyers gnawed and ripped at them with razor-sharp teeth and claws. Watching closely, Dax saw blood gush: dark red for the Hoppers, green for the Flyers.

“Delightful, isn’t it?” Casey asked. “Reminds me of a family reunion.”

“We’re half a klick away now from the beasts,” Dax recorded, wondering when or if those on Earth or its colonies would view this event. “As can be seen, they are truly savage and ferocious.”

No one could tell him there wasn’t a war going on here. He watched in fascination as several combatants launched brutal assaults against each other. “Can you get a little lower, maybe circle them?”

In response, the copter dropped several meters in the air, leaving his stomach behind.

Dax gulped. “Hey! You don’t have to—”

“I’m not. Something’s wrong. The engine isn’t responding.”

“Isn’t responding? You mean—”

“I mean it’s dead.” Her hands raced over the control panel, pressing buttons and turning dials. “Oh shit. Shit shit shit.”

--- Oh, the joys of alien world building, of creating alien species who are truly alien and yet in some ways, similar to us.  And the joys, too, of creating a burgeoning romance on that world between Dax and Casey, who as we leave them, are about to plunge toward what looks like certain death.

Now here’s an excerpt from Steam Heat, which was inspired by a health spa I pump iron at.  In erotic horror, sex is often dangerous, conveyed in a lush style that lingers over and savors every nuance of sensation, and your partner is likely to be evil in ways you can’t even imagine—or more importantly, prepare for:

After a good hot spray he entered the steam room, finding it empty.  Climbing in his swim trunks to the top level of the multi-tiered wooden bench, he looked around. Heavy steam filled the air, partly obscuring his view of the pool through the floor-to-ceiling window.  At best, he could make out only a few swimmers.

           

Ah, the heat felt good!  He'd sweat a bit and decide who he'd see this weekend.  Maybe someone kinky like Michelle.

Lying down, he covered his eyes with his towel. His chest rose and fell in the hot, humid air.

The door opened and closed. Listening, he could hear no footsteps. How odd. Was the person simply standing there? As he started to remove his towel, a hand caught his.

"I don't want you to see," a soft voice said.

"You—don't?"

"No, Chad.  It spoils the fun."

It was the redhead! Obviously, she'd seen him watching her and had dumped her loser before finding out his name. He grinned.

"Can't I even peek?"

"No, it could prove dangerous. After all, I might be Medusa."

He laughed, imagining her lovely face. "Hey, come on. If you looked at Medusa—"

"Shhh.  Don't even say it."  Fingers slid behind his head, tying his towel securely so he couldn't pull it off.  A moment later, he felt sharp nails glide down his chest and stomach and start to remove his trunks.

"Hey!"

"What's the matter? Don't you like to live dangerously?"                                    

What was with this girl? Having her strip him while he was blindfolded put him at a decided disadvantage, put her in control. What’s more, they were practically in plain sight! Any moment someone could come in.

"Well?"

Something in her voice stilled his protest, soothed it away.  "Okay," he shrugged.  "Only you get to peek and I don't.  It hardly seems fair."

Her hand took his and glided it along a smooth, bare thigh, up her stomach to her breasts. 

He caught his breath.  She was naked!

---Okay, exhale, and take a cold shower.  Here’s one last example.  “Play It Forever, Sam!” was published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine several years back.  It is humorous, absurdist metafiction, fantasy high on weed.  It is also about as different from my first two stories as I can get.  A spoof on the movie Casablanca, it features Humphrey Bogart trapped eternally in perhaps the most popular flick ever made, and yearning to get out:

I bang the table.  "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine!"

There.  It's one of my big lines in the movie, and I say it just right.  Soon after I ask Sam to play her song.    
                                                                                                                                          
"Well, I don't think I can remember it."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                "If she can stand it, I can," I say.  "Play it again, Sam!"

I almost snort rotgut through my nose.  Why the hell did I add "again, Sam!"?  Huh, might as well ask why I'm caught in the endless loop of this damned piece of shmaltz in the first place.  It sounds absurd, but I'm convinced I'm in this hell because the movie became a cult classic, the most beloved soap opera of all time.  It keeps changing and has acquired a weird life of its own because it's been endlessly misquoted and misremembered.  Here I am, a homely hack actor dead over fifty years, and I still can't shake this place.  For me, Rick's never closes, and the same customers keep rollin' in. 

But for me, I try not to let the same fictional customers keep rollin’ in.  If I repeat myself too much, then I run the risk of creative stagnation.  Gentle Readers and Fellow Writers, I urge you never to be afraid to take chances, to try something different and spread your creative and imaginative wings.  Next time, whether you write or read, try doing or experiencing something against type and outside your comfort zone, something you wouldn’t even think of trying on an ordinary day.  Make it an EXTRAordinary day!  You never know what you might discover and what new dimensions you’ll find opening up within yourself.

Buy Links for Stream Heat and Dax Rigby War Correspondent: 

MuseItUp Publishing: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/

Amazon: Steam Heat  -- http://www.amazon.com/Steam-Heat-John-B-Rosenman-ebook/dp/B006ND2DRG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398698381&sr=1-1&keywords=steam+heat+john+rosenman

Amazon: -- http://www.amazon.com/Dax-Rigby-Correspondent-John-Rosenman-ebook/dp/B005Q2WBWW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398698661&sr=1-1&keywords=dax+rigby+john+rosenman

POSSIBILITIES

When it comes to writing, possibilities are all around us, and they not only can provide inspiration for our next masterpiece, they can be a potent remedy for Writer’s Block.  Every day, events both large and small happen in our lives, and they potentially contain our next story or novel.  Not only that, they contain seeds which can blossom in many different directions.

Here’s an example from my own experience.  A few days ago, I went in for plastic surgery to remove three lesions on my head.  It was painful.  After the surgeon cut around the lesions, he gave me shots with a tiny needle to numb them for removal.  As I lay there, occasionally joking with him, it occurred to me that there just might be a story in this.  What if I got up from the table, looked in the mirror, and found I had a new face?  Perhaps I’d leave the office to discover I’d lost my public identity.  No one recognized me anymore, and that included my wife, my kids, the people at work, my employer, and so on.  Imagine trying to earn a paycheck under these conditions, or getting amorous with my wife when I looked like someone else.

Can you guess what tabloids or the Internet would make of this?  PLASTIC SURGEON ACCIDENTALLY GIVES MAN A NEW FACE!  Use your imagination and create your own banner headlines.

But this is ridiculous, right?  For Pete’s sake, I only went in to remove a few lesions.  Still, in the realm of the imagination, anything is possible.

Here’s another possibility: I gazed in the mirror and saw my new face, but no one else did.  To the world at large, I looked exactly the same.  In fact, even when I was photographed, I looked like the John of old.  But not to me.  To Yours Truly, I appeared to be someone completely different, perhaps even a . . . woman.

Hmm . . . that may be going too far.  Still, can you imagine the interesting complications it would create in my life, the fascinating fictional twists I could give it?  Please ponder the possibilities. Maybe you’re a realistic writer and have no tolerance for full-blown fantasy.  Very well.  Let’s make the plastic surgeon an attractive woman, and when our eyes meet, we have an instant connection.  At first I think it’s romance and that I’ve found a lifelong soul mate, but later I discover the surgeon’s my daughter from a casual one-night stand thirty years ago.  And woe for me, she wants revenge for never having a father.

No, scratch that last sentence.  It’s too bizarre.

Let’s tack in another direction.  Science-fiction, perhaps.  Or horror.  My plastic surgeon is a mad scientist, or at least a man who finally can’t resist the temptation to try a new, untested procedure.  So Dr. Jekyll injects my cheek with a mysterious solution, and in the days to come, I gradually transform into an evil, physically grotesque creature.  Or perhaps I change into a divinely beautiful one, so exquisite I can no longer live among people.  Or perhaps . . .

By now, you should get the idea.  If you’re a writer, possibilities surround you 24/7 and enrich your life even though they may wear prosaic clothes.  They’re as close and imminent as your next visit to a drugstore or visit to the dentist, even as close as your next sneeze or broken shoelace.  Keep a creative eye open for them, folks, and you just might have your next (prize-winning?) story.

(Revised and published previously in www.storytellersunplugged.com, April 13, 2009.)

A Conversation with Rosalie Skinner

     Welcome Rosalie Skinner, author of the Chronicles of Caleath, a gripping science fiction/fantasy series featuring an exiled hero, magic, sorcerers, dragons, nanobots, romance, and Rosalie's love of wild brumbies (all this just for starters).

     ***CONTEST!  HOW MANY NAMES DOES THE MAIN HERO USE DURING THE SERIES?  (HINT: IT'S BETWEEN 1 AND 8.)  THE PERSON WHO GETS CLOSEST WINS A FREE BOOK FROM THE SERIES.  MULTIPLE WINNERS POSSIBLE.  CONTEST CLOSES FEB. 26 AT MIDNIGHT.  LEAVE YOUR ANSWER IN COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.***

1.  Rosalie, welcome to my humble blog site.  I'm so glad to have you as a guest.  Chats with writers sometimes just jump into the writing, but let me begin by asking if there's anything you'd just like readers and folks to know about you.

Rosalie - Hi John, thanks for having me on your blog.  I find it harder to talk about me, than my books, but here goes.  From a very early age I have been a prolific reader and not so much into writing.  For many years I painted portraits professionally, but when I ran out of Fantasy books to read in my local library I began writing.  Once I began I couldn't stop.  The Chronicles of Caleath came together as I learnt the art of storytelling.

2. You're probably best known for your Chronicles of Caleath.  For visitors who may not be familiar with your ongoing saga, could you supply what we writers call a brief summary blurb or what Plautus calls a "portion of plot"?

Rosalie - Caleath is a space age traveler stranded on a world where magic exists and technology is an alien concept.  At first he is unaware his journey is watched by off world viewers, similar to our obsession with Survivor and Big Brother.  He is driven by his need to survive, escape, and exact revenge on the man responsible for his abduction.  During his quest he becomes involved with the plight of the world he now inhabits. Not every challenge he faces meets with success, but as he survives he learns more about himself and his values slowly change.

3. You mentioned that Lea Schizas, the publisher of MuseItUp Publishing, contracted with you for an eight book series.  How did you conceive of an eight book series in the first place?  Did it come to you all at once, or did you sit down and plot and outline it out? Was it daunting and overwhelming to undertake such a large venture?  (I apologize if I ask too many questions here, but they seem interrelated.)

Rosalie - Lea Schizas helped me edit the first of the four books before MuseItUp existed.  So when she opened her publishing house, I was confident the series had found a good home.  The first four books were written as one.  One very long saga, and it was broken into four to suit the ebook format.  They were written separately, but each formed a new step in Caleath's journey. Adrift is really part one and two of the same story.  I think I had the most fun writing their seafaring adventures.  I didn't plot the outline of the series; rather it unfolded as one book concluded and the next began.

4. You say your hero Caleath was inspired by the "struggle of a young adult with a chronic illness."  How can this be when Caleath himself is so active?

Rosalie - The comparison might be vague, but to me it was linked. It evolved while watching a bright intelligent teenager with the promise of a successful career become ill.  While I watched her future as she dreamed it dissolve, Caleath's quest unfolded. Caleath's ordeal may not follow closely, but as I was writing, his challenges mirrored my daughter's. Finding friends falling away, being unable to pursue her chosen career, fighting constant pain, never giving up, facing depression and still being able to inspire others... Her courage and determination inspired my writing.

5. What do you think makes your series different from other series? In other words, what makes it unique or distinctly personal?

Rosalie - The mix of science fiction with fantasy, technology, and magic, the Survivor/Big Brother aspect, are not often seen in epic fantasy. Caleath usually finds himself failing, but finding a way around problems. Rather than a princely character seeking his inheritance, or a stable boy who is really a prince or wizard, Caleath is a stranger who wants nothing more than to leave.  He has no power agenda.  Rather the opposite.  I like to think it reflects the ups and downs of life rather than a Hollywood agenda.  Again, it reflects watching real life challenges and seeing them not always turn out with brilliant results.

6. So far, have you encountered any particular difficulties or surprises in writing the Chronicles of Caleath?

Rosalie - I found Invaded: The Darkest Day difficult.  I began wanting it to encompass several characters during epic battles.  The manuscript was complete and only after a year or so when I came to edit it, I found it didn't work on the huge scale, so I rewrote it from a single point of view. Took a lot to discard the work I had put into the battle scenes, but I think it works better now.

7. I know it's hard to pick, but do you have a favorite scene?

Rosalie - From the eight books... I have a few.  I like the dragon scene in Exiled: Winter's Curse.  I guess it would be my favorite.  It is the first time we meet the dragon Merkaat and the dead wizard Tallowbrand. Two of my favorite characters.  The most fun to write though were the seafaring scenes in Adrift.  They were great fun to write and research. :) 

8. Any particular writing plans for the future, either in the Chronicles or other projects?

Rosalie - The first book in a spin-off series has been completed, but I want to finish the second book before I submit it elsewhere, in case plot twists mean the first book needs changing.  At present I am busy writing short pieces in other genres, for interaction with my local writing group.

9. Did you get into publishing late or early, and how has the experience been for you--especially with MuseItUp Publishing?

Rosalie - As a writer I started late.  I had no thought on publishing until online writers from my critique group began to ask for the books.  After self publishing the first book as two print books, I became interested in e-book publishing.  It was a godsend to be signed up with MuseItUp.  As I said previously, knowing Lea, I was confident my series had found a good home.

10. Can you think of any question or questions you haven't been asked that you'd like to answer?

Rosalie - The science fiction portion of the books (apart from the space travel) is close to becoming science fact.  Nanobot technology is necessary to enable astronauts to get to Mars.  There is a scheduled trip planned for 2020, so they must be mastering the nano technology.  I hope their nanobots work better than Caleath's do. :)

I would also like to mention the final two books in the series. Adrift: In Search of Memory and Adrift: The Fragile Sun...are scheduled for release before Christmas with special deals on the first books if readers have missed them.  It will be the first time the complete series has been available! [Obviously, there's been a slight delay.] 

WRITERS' GROUPS FROM HELL

by John B. Rosenman

Some years back, still smarting from a critical roasting by my writers’ group of one of my most brilliant and inspired stories, I had an idea for a themed anthology that would be the most horrific and frightening ever published. It would be called Writers’ Groups from Hell and compared to it, vampires and werewolves, sadists and serial killers would be like a visit to Arby’s. Extreme splatter-gore? Cosmic monsters? Creepy, gothic, Ramsey Campbell-like atmosphere? Pah! They wouldn’t be in the same ballpark. I even started a story in which Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, and Lovecraft’s Old Ones team up to commit a string of ghastly and unmentionable crimes only to run right into the arms of an overly-critical writers’ group. As Kurtz would say, “The horror, the horror!”

Some writers’ groups can be horrifying, or at least, a complete waste of your valuable time. And since life is short, what can be worse than that? I’ve heard of groups which are nothing more than mutual admiration societies. They meet at each other’s homes for prolonged events accompanied by food and booze and listen as each member reads his work. Afterward, they reward him with tumultuous applause, tell him how wonderful his junk is, and reach for another piece of pizza as the next participant rises with his masterpiece.

Uncritical praise. We all want it, but the sad truth is, it’s almost always a dangerous delusion, a tempting lie that will hurt rather than help our creative pursuits.

Then there are writers’ groups that involve another snare. They are vicious, confusing, discouraging and demoralizing. Their members have transparent envies and agendas, personal crotchets or preferences, and they are opinionated readers rather than discerning critics. Often, their “critiques” reveal not so much the merits or demerits of what you’ve written, but some personal inner quirk, wound, neurosis, or impenetrable denseness. Perhaps worst of all, their comments may be all over the waterfront and resemble a dozen blind men feeling different parts of an elephant and thinking it’s a refrigerator. You sit at the table or lounge on the floor, and listen as they grind their myriad axes and their sage words go around the room.

“I didn’t understand the ending. It’s too ambiguous. Why does Jesse leave Gladys? I thought he loved her!”

“The ending doesn’t work. It’s too obvious. Jesse should have left Gladys years before.”

“Why does the green leaf in the first sentence glitter? It’s just a leaf.” [I actually got this once.]

(Thinly veiled disgust, implying that you’re a pervert who shouldn’t be allowed near children.) “Why are you so obsessed with sex? I find this scene sick.”

“Why Jesse’s hair? Why not his hand or belt buckle?”

(Thinly veiled contempt, implying you shouldn’t give up your day job.) “I didn’t like this story. It’s ridiculous, clumsy, and fails on all levels. You shouldn’t write about leaves anyway.”

“A gun goes off outside and Jesse thinks something might be wrong? DUH!” (A look around to see if others appreciate her wit and urging them to join in her mocking laughter.) “Not very bright, is he? And you expect us to believe he’s a DETECTIVE?”

“I have just a few changes to suggest. Why don’t you make Jesse an old black man instead of a young white hippie and make him a quadriplegic. And instead of breaking up with his girlfriend because he can’t stand her jealousy, have him do it because he finds out he’s gay. And I don’t like his negative attitude toward women. Make him an outspoken supporter of women’s rights. That way, when the church roof caves in, we mourn him. As it is, I don’t care a rip about your character.”

“This story’s too expository.”

“I like the exposition. It’s poetic. And I like the idea about making Jesse an old black guy, except I think Puerto Rican would be better. And I don’t like the name Jesse. Call him Eduardo.”

Okay, I exaggerate slightly, but comments like these are fairly common. Clearly, when one joins a writers’ group, he must be prepared not only to accept criticism but to critique it. Some criticism is about as helpful as an impacted tooth and you follow it at your peril.

This brings me, perhaps belatedly, to the two main points of this essay. They are as follows:

1. Why attend or join a writers’ group anyway? Or, put another way, why subject yourself to such insults and obtuseness?

2. What should a good writers’ group be like and how can you recognize it?

Question # 1. We need writers’ groups because we are not perfect. That is, as gifted as we might be, we have limitations, inadequacies, and blind spots. And I dare say that may apply even to some of those who read this blog. Good as we are, we can occasionally profit from a fresh and different perspective. Perhaps someone has specialized knowledge we lack or sees that a particular theme needs to be explored further. Perhaps someone else is a brilliant line editor and can improve a clumsy patch of writing or highlight an inconsistency or implausibility. Whatever the case, since we are not like Mozart in the movie Amadeus who simply writes down his symphonies as if he is taking “dictation” from the Almighty, we can usually benefit, sometimes greatly, from others’ input.

The main caveat here is that it is still our job to judge what others say, to critique the critiquers, especially when they disagree with each other and offer contradictory advice. But more about that later.

There are, of course, other reasons for joining a writers’ group, including the opportunity to interact with folks who share your interest in and enthusiasm for writing. Writing is often a solitary and lonely pursuit. The camaraderie of a good group can be inspiring, uplifting, and make you feel that you’re not alone but part of a community of like-minded souls. Plus, you can learn, not only about writing but about fellow writers, who are often amazing.

Finally, at its best, a writers’ group can be fun. My group laughs long and often, in addition to doing its job. We enjoy being with each other and have a good time.

Question # 2. You can recognize a good writers’ group because it helps writers to improve what they write and to sell it. Also, the flavor and feel of its meetings is sociable and productive. Some of the comments and criticisms may bite and make you tense, but when you consider them objectively, you realize they serve your central mission, which is to produce the best, most marketable work you can.

Now, for specifics. I’m not saying the following guidelines are the only valid ones or that every writers’ group must conduct itself in this precise manner (obviously, for an online or virtual writers' group, there will be differences.) All I know is that for the past eighteen years or so, it has worked well for me. 

1. I find that the ideal group size is between six to eight members. Too many more and a writer gets overwhelmed with critiques. Too many less, and there simply are not enough viewpoints to revise the work well enough. However, at times our group has chugged ably along with as many as twelve members and as few as three or four. In my judgment, it just hasn’t been as effective. An important requirement is that the members be capable and discerning readers. If they’re poor, having a hundred of them won’t do you any good.

2. We meet every two weeks from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. at a local library and pass out hard copies of our story, chapter, etc. to each member. A two-week break between meetings is about right. If we met every week there wouldn’t be adequate time to read and comment on every piece and to write a new one ourselves. As it is, we can relax a little, and then start preparing for the next meeting.

3. We limit ourselves to no more than thirty pages per meeting for each writer. It’s just common sense. Fifty or more pages would be too much.

4. We mark the stories up in advance and comment on each one as we move around the table until everyone has had a chance to comment. If Mary starts critiquing one story, then the person who begins on the next is the person sitting next to Mary. That way we have a system. After the meeting, we give the edited, marked-up stories to the writer. Written comments should be ample and clear enough so that he can understand them later. How honest should critical comments be? VERY honest. I have lost sales because somebody wasn’t frank or explicit enough about a weakness to catch my attention. At the same time, no one should be cruel. You can give a hard-hitting critique without eviscerating someone. Inevitably, though, feathers will sometimes be ruffled.

5. It helps to have a facilitator. Basically, what he does is to set up an official schedule (in our case he reserves the room in the library every two weeks for six months in advance.) Also, he picks the person who starts critiquing, and he makes sure no one is taking too long and we don’t run out of time. Now and then someone will get bogged down in detail. In this case, the guy in charge will nudge him.

6. Our meetings are structured but not rigid. I said before that we laugh a lot. While we usually don’t interrupt a critique, occasionally we do, whether it’s to make a point on the story or to question what the person said. Sometimes a difference of opinion will be aired as a result. As for the writer on the hot seat, he feels free to respond to comments, perhaps to ask questions or to disagree with a criticism. However, we discourage detailed defenses of one’s work. We are, after all, there to hear what others say, not to rebut it.

7. While someone’s being evaluated, he evaluates what’s said. Some criticisms are just dead wrong. After a while, if the members remain the same, we learn about each other’s preferences and modes of thinking. Some readers are better than others, but almost all have their strengths. One person will be good with detail and line editing. Another may make broad, sweeping comments that prove helpful. Yet another may prefer concrete endings that leave little to the imagination. You, as the writer, have to sift through and assay their responses, decide how seriously you should take them. If one person makes a criticism or suggestion, you might decide to ignore it. But if two, three or more do it, you probably want to give it a second look.

8. After you receive your story with everyone’s comments, you take it home and revise it based on them. Then, if you feel the story still needs work, you may take a revised version back to the group. Here, folks need to be tolerant and patient. I’ve resubmitted a story or chapter on numerous occasions. Usually I’ve done it only once, but sometimes I’ve done it twice. And there’s no guarantee it will work. Occasionally a story will just sicken and die. You can’t save or heal it, at least not yet. Usually, though, the revision process is a productive one. You keep improving the story, making it better and better, refining it to a point where you just can’t improve it anymore unless you put it in a drawer for a year or more and return with a fresh eye.

9. When I get to this point, I sometimes e-mail the story to a person in the group whose judgment I respect. This is the fine-tuning stage. Afterward the story should be ready to face the rejection mill. Hopefully, I’ve done my research, and I will send it to the best market. And then I begin writing my next story, because I want to have one ready for the writers' group when we meet again.

That’s about it. As I said before, this method isn’t perfect. After all, a writers’ group involves flawed human beings. At times even the best group can be hellish and counter-productive. But over the years, this approach has enabled me to sell over a hundred stories as well as a couple of novels. One member of our group has already sold four novels of a detective series to a major publisher. So the system does work. Ultimately, a group such as ours depends on two things: serious writers who are willing to listen, accept criticism, and work hard to improve their work, and competent, perceptive critics who genuinely want to help them. When both conditions exist, wonderful things can happen.

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Originally published seven years ago, Feb. 13, 2007 at http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/
Revised for this blog.