ANOTHER CUP OF COFFEE, PLEASE (AN UPDATE AND SOME PULPY STUFF)

        I'm pretty wiped out this morning, even after I guzzled my first cup of coffee. I had a late night last night, typing up a story I had in a new book to get it ready to post on the Saturday Night Pulps blog. It's not finished, but its close, and I'm feeling a sense of accomplishment for getting it done.

It's the first story I've transcribed entirely from a notebook in a while and it took about six hours. I used to write them in a notebook, then type them on a typewriter, then put them on the computer. It was a long process, but it allowed for a lot of editing, and really getting to know the story. I might go back to that, but right now, I'm going to continue to bask in the glory of finishing what I started.

Basking

        That's the thing. I have about five projects I'm currently working on, not counting this little blog. I have that story, which I'm calling THE PANICKED AND THE DEAD, a second draft of a novel I'm trying to get done, and several short story ideas I'm working on. Once one is finished, I move on as quickly as I can to the next, not letting the idea that just because one is finished, I can take a break from writing. That's not how this gig works. You have to throw words at the paper, and hope they fall into order somehow. It takes a little more work than that, but its essentially the idea.

           I read a book recently called, HOW TO WRITE PULP FICTION. It was a short book geared to fans of the genre, but there were a few ideas and anecdotes about the originators of pulp, those brave souls who decided to make a living, or try to, throwing words onto paper.

          The major theme of the book, was to write hard, and write fast. This was a time when there were hundreds of markets for short, plot driven stories, and a writer could actually make a living doing this, if he cracked the formula and wrote hard and fast enough to sell to all the different pulp mags.

         Another anecdote was a about a guy who was throwing a party. Around ten o'clock at night, he announced he was going into the bathroom to write, because he had a deadline in the morning and needed a six thousand word story to meet it. Six hours later he appeared, story in hand, ready to party.

         

"I just wrote a timeless classic while I was on the can. What did you do last night?"

         A lot of these guys were hard drinking, hard writing, pulp masters. Of course, not all pulp writers were all that good. Like I said, there was, and is, a formula to the genre, but some literary greats did come from the school of Pulp. Raymond Chandler was one. Dashiell Hammet was another. That's just two, off the top of my head, but there are more.

         Even if you don't write pulp, or aspire to some literary achievement beyond merely getting published, there is a lot to learn from these guys.

         Number one, is write. Write, write, write. They never stopped. Like I said, to make a living at it, getting paid one cent a word (probably more than most get paid now) they needed to sell hundreds of stories. So they wrote, wrote, wrote.

        Number two is plot. These guys knew plot. They saw plot everywhere, and took inspiration from the people and places around them. A guy and dame at the lunch counter? Who are they? Where did they come from? And why did that guy murder the dame's husband?

         Not all writing is plot driven, but there is plot in all writing. It's what makes the story go. It makes the reader read. Even a tired old plot like the husband murder I just mentioned, can pull the reader in, if its done well. Change it up. Why did the dame murder the man's wife? Or, the man's husband? Whatever you want to do. Just make it interesting. Pull them in.

         Number three. Writing is a profession. A job. Like any job, it takes training and practice and motivation to do it well and get that promotion. The promotion here, I guess, would be to get published. Writing is a job, like musician's gig, once its over, its over, and you have to get another one, or in this case, write another story. Even if that one didn't get published. Even if that one, the one you worked so hard on, draft after draft, and viola, its a masterpiece, you still have to get up the next morning and start it all over again. You have to make that magic happen, story after story. It's not an easy task, believe me.

          Sometimes your mind feels like its been flushed empty and you've done every possible combination of stories you possibly can, you have to get in front of that blank screen and stare it down, and say, “Today I will write another masterpiece!”

I think the hat goes with the theme I'm cultivating here.

            You have to, if you're a writer. If you're not, then close the word processor, pull up the internet, and browse through the political posts until your mind is numb.

          But, if you are a writer, or an aspiring writer, guzzle that next cup of coffee, or whatever you use to get your mind going, pull up that blank screen, and start writing.

        Don't worry. The words will come. They always do.