I’m pleased to have debut author, Bud Connell, as my guest Over Coffee. Bud is a fascinating man of many talents. He’s written a new contemporary thriller, Peak Experience.Today, Bud discusses his perspective of the writing process. His thoughts on writers' block, conflict, characters, and recharging your writing. The satisfaction that comes from being able to create entire worlds that begins, continues and ends the way he wants them.
Thank you, Sia, for this forum. The gift of the Internet and the freedom to express and expound that it provides continues to amaze me. It’s a privilege that we must protect at all costs.
I’m new to fiction writing, but not new to writing. Over the years I’ve written an estimated one hundred thousand pages of business materials, television scripts, radio scripts, commercials and jingle lyrics. My background provided the discipline, attention-to-detail, wide interests, and perseverance necessary to become a fiction writer. After the morass of exteriorly directed clichéd bunkum, it’s a gift to create complete worlds populated by people of choice. Control... it’s all about control; and in the world of fiction, although my characters do what they do, and I follow, I have the on-off switch. If I don’t like the direction a story is taking, I can kill the power and start another world. I will elaborate in my forthcoming book, The Writing of a Debut Novel.
Writing, more specifically writing fiction is primarily a lifestyle decision driven by a desire for complete freedom. I write fiction anywhere, anytime and about anything; it’s not a job, it’s a joy. There is nothing as completely satisfying as creating a completely satisfying world... completely.
I’ve never had writer’s block. To me, that’s a manufactured term for a phony malady. There’s only writer’s laziness, or writer’s barrenness, or a combination of both. When I observe that I am not writing, I write! If I am unable to write, my mind is telling me that it needs filling up again. Then, I go somewhere or do something different and replenish my mental warehouse, after which, I return to the keyboard and write. It works every time––a simple solution for a natural condition.
If I don’t have the option of physically going somewhere, I get on my computer and go research/traveling to find out about places I’d like to feature in my current or next book. I make notes of specific locales and thoughts of how I want to incorporate them into my work. Then, I go back to the place I left off in my current project and write one scene... just one scene, and see how easily it leads me to my next scene, and to the next––and the next.
Someone asked me the other day how I come up with situations for my characters. I answered, “I don’t. My characters come up with their own situations.” If I know who my character is, and what he (or she) thinks he wants, he’ll do next what he wants to do. I have little to say about it. All I have to do is observe his actions and describe them. This is not to say that I don’t have some sort of loose framework in mind when I begin a project, I do; but it is subject to revision, and often to extreme revision... albeit still a loose outline. The main danger in the tight, rigid outline is production of predictability, which I avoid like a menacing pandemic.
My personal writing rules also apply to conflict. I place two or more characters whom I well know in a place of their misfortune or of their own choosing, and the conflict naturally erupts... or erupts naturally. If my characters don’t conflict, I have not chosen the appropriate personalities to people my story. Thank God, though, that has not happened to me... so far.
And the details... ah, the details. Truman Capote said he believed more in the scissors than in the pencil–––but it takes both, with the computer thrown it as a great codifier of words. At one point in the writing of Peak Experience, and to support Capote’s position, I had little snippets of paper all over every flat surface in my living and dining rooms. These were the loose ends; and every one of them had to be addressed, developed, and resolved before I could rewrite.
Plot difficulties only occur when one forgets important, or even not so important details, so I immerse myself into my plotline and subplots so completely that every nuance is continuously in front of me as I write. It’s a mental foreshadowing and it’s all there, much like the buildup of water in front of a ship’s bow and the wake flowing off to the sides and left behind as I plow into the incidents my characters create. On a re-read, I can easily see what portends from the direction the tale is taking, and I can examine the damages left in the water and on the shore by the waves of the wake. All of the details are addressed and handled before and during my denouement. The only issues potentially left hanging are those that may lead into a sequel; and, paraphrasing Mickey Spillane, the first chapter promotes the novel; the last chapter promotes the next book. The seeds of sequel are sown in several places among the pages of my thriller, Peak Experience: A Novel. I challenge you to find them.
Rewriting? Rewriting is where the polish is applied, and applied, and applied again. Then I put the manuscript away for several months, take it out and reread it, and brush it to a fine shine. But, there are always overlooked mistakes. Therefore, I solicit readers before submitting a manuscript for publishing or even consideration by another set of eyes, and it’s amazing how many little errors are discovered... missing punctuation, extra punctuation, missing words, extra words, misspellings... errors that make me wonder where my mind was when I read my manuscript the thirty-ninth or the fortieth time. If you’re a writer and can afford it, there is no better money spent than for a line-by-line editor.
Sia, you asked, how do I keep my writing fresh? Simple, I pay attention to what is happening worldwide. The old axiom “truth is stranger than fiction” is alive and well, and there is freshness, and putridness, wafting out from the continuous blare of twenty-four hour news. Flipping through my pile of current events magazines and punching among the cable news channels provide all the freshness I need for any given project. Although I may not use the current events per se in my current story, they provide an attitude that informs where my characters direct themselves and what they do. To me, it is important that I reflect the times; and it forever amazes me, that when I write a story, or a section, how prophetic or foreboding it may become. Take for example how my Peak Experience novel parallels the Bernie Madoff scandal, or the recently publicized alleged R. Allen Sanford fraud. The financial atmosphere that produced my novel eventually produced the real life villains. So, I was no prophet... but merely observant of current conditions, and the purveyor of what-ifs.
So, amid all my pronouncements of how and why, I lead a normal life, with two old Jags in the garage and two cats asleep on my desktop as I write. What’s the message here? I am only now beginning to live life as I’ve always envisioned it should be. I do what I want to do when I want to do it. But, fiction writing provides a deeper dimension: I can now create entire worlds that begin and continue and end the way I want them to... and in that there is no greater satisfaction.
I’m new to fiction writing, but not new to writing. Over the years I’ve written an estimated one hundred thousand pages of business materials, television scripts, radio scripts, commercials and jingle lyrics. My background provided the discipline, attention-to-detail, wide interests, and perseverance necessary to become a fiction writer. After the morass of exteriorly directed clichéd bunkum, it’s a gift to create complete worlds populated by people of choice. Control... it’s all about control; and in the world of fiction, although my characters do what they do, and I follow, I have the on-off switch. If I don’t like the direction a story is taking, I can kill the power and start another world. I will elaborate in my forthcoming book, The Writing of a Debut Novel.
Writing, more specifically writing fiction is primarily a lifestyle decision driven by a desire for complete freedom. I write fiction anywhere, anytime and about anything; it’s not a job, it’s a joy. There is nothing as completely satisfying as creating a completely satisfying world... completely.
I’ve never had writer’s block. To me, that’s a manufactured term for a phony malady. There’s only writer’s laziness, or writer’s barrenness, or a combination of both. When I observe that I am not writing, I write! If I am unable to write, my mind is telling me that it needs filling up again. Then, I go somewhere or do something different and replenish my mental warehouse, after which, I return to the keyboard and write. It works every time––a simple solution for a natural condition.
If I don’t have the option of physically going somewhere, I get on my computer and go research/traveling to find out about places I’d like to feature in my current or next book. I make notes of specific locales and thoughts of how I want to incorporate them into my work. Then, I go back to the place I left off in my current project and write one scene... just one scene, and see how easily it leads me to my next scene, and to the next––and the next.
Someone asked me the other day how I come up with situations for my characters. I answered, “I don’t. My characters come up with their own situations.” If I know who my character is, and what he (or she) thinks he wants, he’ll do next what he wants to do. I have little to say about it. All I have to do is observe his actions and describe them. This is not to say that I don’t have some sort of loose framework in mind when I begin a project, I do; but it is subject to revision, and often to extreme revision... albeit still a loose outline. The main danger in the tight, rigid outline is production of predictability, which I avoid like a menacing pandemic.
My personal writing rules also apply to conflict. I place two or more characters whom I well know in a place of their misfortune or of their own choosing, and the conflict naturally erupts... or erupts naturally. If my characters don’t conflict, I have not chosen the appropriate personalities to people my story. Thank God, though, that has not happened to me... so far.
And the details... ah, the details. Truman Capote said he believed more in the scissors than in the pencil–––but it takes both, with the computer thrown it as a great codifier of words. At one point in the writing of Peak Experience, and to support Capote’s position, I had little snippets of paper all over every flat surface in my living and dining rooms. These were the loose ends; and every one of them had to be addressed, developed, and resolved before I could rewrite.
Plot difficulties only occur when one forgets important, or even not so important details, so I immerse myself into my plotline and subplots so completely that every nuance is continuously in front of me as I write. It’s a mental foreshadowing and it’s all there, much like the buildup of water in front of a ship’s bow and the wake flowing off to the sides and left behind as I plow into the incidents my characters create. On a re-read, I can easily see what portends from the direction the tale is taking, and I can examine the damages left in the water and on the shore by the waves of the wake. All of the details are addressed and handled before and during my denouement. The only issues potentially left hanging are those that may lead into a sequel; and, paraphrasing Mickey Spillane, the first chapter promotes the novel; the last chapter promotes the next book. The seeds of sequel are sown in several places among the pages of my thriller, Peak Experience: A Novel. I challenge you to find them.
Rewriting? Rewriting is where the polish is applied, and applied, and applied again. Then I put the manuscript away for several months, take it out and reread it, and brush it to a fine shine. But, there are always overlooked mistakes. Therefore, I solicit readers before submitting a manuscript for publishing or even consideration by another set of eyes, and it’s amazing how many little errors are discovered... missing punctuation, extra punctuation, missing words, extra words, misspellings... errors that make me wonder where my mind was when I read my manuscript the thirty-ninth or the fortieth time. If you’re a writer and can afford it, there is no better money spent than for a line-by-line editor.
Sia, you asked, how do I keep my writing fresh? Simple, I pay attention to what is happening worldwide. The old axiom “truth is stranger than fiction” is alive and well, and there is freshness, and putridness, wafting out from the continuous blare of twenty-four hour news. Flipping through my pile of current events magazines and punching among the cable news channels provide all the freshness I need for any given project. Although I may not use the current events per se in my current story, they provide an attitude that informs where my characters direct themselves and what they do. To me, it is important that I reflect the times; and it forever amazes me, that when I write a story, or a section, how prophetic or foreboding it may become. Take for example how my Peak Experience novel parallels the Bernie Madoff scandal, or the recently publicized alleged R. Allen Sanford fraud. The financial atmosphere that produced my novel eventually produced the real life villains. So, I was no prophet... but merely observant of current conditions, and the purveyor of what-ifs.
So, amid all my pronouncements of how and why, I lead a normal life, with two old Jags in the garage and two cats asleep on my desktop as I write. What’s the message here? I am only now beginning to live life as I’ve always envisioned it should be. I do what I want to do when I want to do it. But, fiction writing provides a deeper dimension: I can now create entire worlds that begin and continue and end the way I want them to... and in that there is no greater satisfaction.
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Bud Connell is a media expert. With a background in entertainment and business, he was employed on-the-air by major broadcasting chains, holds some of the highest audience ratings ever recorded, was the programmer/creator of benchmark radio stations and later a consultant to over a hundred broadcasters nationwide. He produced numerous live events and major talent shows, and executive-produced network TV specials.In 2001, he was inducted into the Media Hall of Fame in St. Louis along with Harry Caray, Jack Buck and Paul Harvey. A dozen years prior, he formed BCTV Productions in Los Angeles and has written, produced and directed hundreds of commercials, films and videos for top corporations, educational and public service organizations. His background also includes a number of writer credits. He was a monthly contributor of articles to a major celebrity magazine, lyricist for more than a thousand jingles––and, as an on-the-air personality, programmer and newsman was the writer of countless news stories, editorials, features, commercials, promotions, comedy bits and presentations. He has written hundreds of video and non-theatrical film scripts, several TV series concepts and radio specials. He's also been widely quoted in books about broadcasting such as Talking Radio by Michael C. Keith.
Bud recently authored Peak Experience, which tied for the Gold in Best in Popular Fiction Category for 2009's 13th annual Independent Publisher Book Awards. Peak Experience is available on Amazon.com, on Amazon’s amazing Kindle, Target.com, and through retailers and distributors nationwide.
He is currently at work on his next novel and a non-fiction book called The Writing of a Debut Novel.
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/authorbudconnell
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/authorbudconnell
