Crisis of Confidence

Recently, Thriller Guy has been advising several pals who are writing thrillers. As most readers of this blog know, or possibly not, TG does this advising for money, as a job. He can be hired through The Appel Store, and anyone looking for a writing coach and general wisdom dispenser can find TG there or at his private, super-secret email, appelworks@gmail.com.

These writers are facing one of the most common problems a writer, either seasoned pro or just-born newbie, encounters at one stage or another of the novel-writing process: this is the dreaded crisis of confidence. There are several areas where a crisis of confidence comes into play and we’ll eventually get to the others, but this particular crisis occurs, usually, sooner rather than later in the process of writing a first draft, most often around page 150 or so, when doubts begin to seep in as the confidence of tackling a new project bleeds away and the writer wakes in the night, bathed in flop sweat, his brain screaming… who the fuck am I kidding? My stuff sucks! To counter this panic, the novel-writer then decides to send out his manuscript or partial manuscript, to someone, a family member or trusted friend -- ideally another writer -- and ask for a quick read to see what this person thinks. Dear _____, could you be a pal and take a look at these pages? It’s just a first draft, but I’d like to know if you have any thoughts on what I’m doing and how I could improve what I’ve got. Love ya, babe, and I’ll return the favor some day!

(Or, the writer gives the pages to his or her spouse, mother or father. This is the biggest mistake of all; the parent is going to think they’re great no matter what, and the spouse is going to bring a whole lot of baggage to the table that doesn’t belong in a literary craft discussion. Trust TG on this.)

The problem is, most times the readers who are asked to review the pages hardly ever give the writer the response he was hoping for. This can be frustrating and discouraging.

Which is why Thriller Guy says that a writer should never show his or her novel to anyone except TG. (There are exceptions. Often it’s wise to have an expert read over areas in his specialty to check for mistakes the author has made. That’s a different thing than what TG is talking about here.)

  

All writers come to this particular crisis on some level at some point. Maybe they don’t see these worries about their abilities as an actual crisis, but if a writer doesn’t have these very human doubts about his work, he’s probably an asshole. What the writer isn’t looking for, even though he probably is not going to say it, is editing, technical writing tips, plot help or philosophical discussions,. He’s really just hoping that the recipient will read the pages, pat him or her on the back and say, “I really loved it!" Period. That little bit of encouragement usually puts some wind back in the writer’s sails, so he can continue what TG has said over and over is one of the most difficult tasks in the world, particularly one of the most difficult artistic tasks in the world, completing a novel. That means 500 pages or more of gut busting, brain bleeding, original words put down on the page in a way that readers will think is wonderful. Wonder-full.

The problem is, most people who are the recipients of the pages and the request -- being friends and good people -- think the writer is actually asking them for their honest opinion and for suggestions on how the writer might further his or her novelizing and make it better. But really, what does anyone know about what is in someone else’s head, about what the writer is going to do in the rest of the book or even what will be done after the draft is finished and the rewrites begun? They can only guess at what's there and what will come from the pages they have been given. And, they are also carrying their own prejudices and opinions (both good and bad) about themselves and about the writer. So the way it usually goes, is the writer gives out what is most often a partial first draft, probably uncorrected pages, and the person who reads the pages almost always thinks that they have an obligation to offer suggestions and honest opinions. Because, as TG has noticed in general and in writing in particular, everyone has a goddamn opinion.

Picasso once said that the only thing an artist really wants is to be loved. TG can assure his readers that the only thing any writer wants when he hands out his work for peer review is to be told that his work is loved. Or at least that it doesn’t suck. Because if it doesn’t suck, it can eventually be finished. And that’s enough to quiet that screaming voice that wakes one in the night, that calms the fires of doubt.

It’s an impossible situation. Everyone involved has the best intentions, it’s simply that the process almost never achieves what anyone wants it to achieve.

And how, you may be asking yourselves, is it possible for TG to accomplish what mere mortals cannot? How can he, a man among men, know how to put together an opinion that’s actually useful? Easy.

Because he is a professional.

Would you go to a pal and ask him or her to check out a lump in your abdomen and tell you if he thinks it’s cancer? Would you take a friend who’s an English major to court as your lawyer and expect him to defend you in a murder trial? Of course not. But TG, after years reading and reviewing novels from many genres, from years of reading unpublished manuscripts for money, friendship and love, knows what works and what doesn’t. Can TG always tell a writer what he needs to do to fix his problems? If truth is to be told, not always. Neither can anyone else. But he can make sensible, workable suggestions based on what he has learned from critically reading and writing over many years. And from having published many novels and written even more that weren’t published. From being in the business. From holding hands, patting weeping adults on the back, handing out hugs (OK, maybe TG doesn’t really hand out hugs) from dishing out his hard won wisdom, TG has learned to be the consummate professional: calm, dispassionate and wise.

Especially when he’s being paid for it.

So will this lone blog, this cris de coeur aimed at writers everywhere, imploring them to stop sending work out to friends and family asking for an honest opinion actually stop anyone from doing so? And feeling rotten when they get back lame tips on how to improve story and style? Probably not. So what’s a poor writer to do? Besides hire a professional. And it doesn’t even have to be Thriller Guy. There are plenty of us out there.

Shake it off, put the comments in the drawer or better yet throw them away and don’t look at them again and get back to work. Or not. There are very few working writers whose lives depend on writing a novel, except the guy in Stephen King’s Misery. (Excellent book and movie for writers.) And it’s always a realistic choice to either continue writing or not. It's a damn big rock and the hill is extremely steep and usually no one is paying you to push it to the top. The smart thing to do would be to apply one’s time to a more immediately fruitful project, to stop beating one’s head bloody, but no one ever said writers were smart. They continue to toil beneath their own, painfully conceived rocks, scrabbling and scribbling their way up the hill, gaining two feet, falling back one, because they are stubborn, stupid, proud, unfailingly hopeful, filled with resolve and good stories, determined to tell their tales and make us love them.

And we do.

Even if their first drafts are crap.

Note: Thriller Guy is headed out soon to an artist’s colony for several weeks where he will be cosseted like an emir while working on several publishing projects, one of which is the writing book, Sit Down; Shut Up; Get to Work, which will contain not only the above advice, but much much more. There is no Internet availability at this retreat, so the blog is suspended in the interim. Readers are advised to while away their time until TG’s return by downloading Allen Appel’s eBooks from Amazon.

How Many Times Does TG Have to Tell You?

Thriller Guy thought that by now several things would have become obvious: one, any thriller writer with the sense God gave a goose would have by now become a strict follower of this blog; two, all thriller writers would have received the word: Stop knocking people down with bullets! Now you've done it, you've made TG use a damn exclamation point. You're lucky he didn't resort to ALL CAPS.

TG is continuing his practice of noting these errors and, for the time being, no names will be mentioned. But be warned, you've got about another six months for the word to spread, after that when TG “outs” you for this foolishness he's gonna start naming names. This is akin to having your moniker published in the newspaper for frequenting prostitutes, or, as Lincoln supposedly told the story, when the man who had been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail was asked how he liked it, said, “If it were not for the honor of the thing, he would much rather have walked.”

This week's honoree of shame...

“The report of the pistol was little more than a cough, but McLeod's body was flung backward by the impact of the shot. His chair toppled over and he crashed to the floor, limbs splayed, his mouth opening and closing, his eyelids flickering.”

Pretty exciting, but wrong, wrong, wrong. For those of you who are new to these pages or those of you who can't remember why you're not supposed to knock people down with bullets, here's the original entry on the subject. 

Now let's move on to more pleasant subjects: What TG has been reading that's good. But wait, first another complaint: in the last five books TG has read and reviewed, the following words were found in the titles: Secret, Templar, (twice) Code, and Ark. In fact, the last two novels TG read were both about a couple who, over the course of several books, seeks to find the lost Ark of the Covenant and in the process stumbles upon a secret that will Change the World as We Know It. Interestingly, one of these books was good and one was terrible; why this is so will be the topic of a future entry. Suffice it to say, TG is getting tired of these DaVinci Code knock-offs though he supposes that there are still plenty of readers out there who can't get enough of the religious artifact thriller. These books often enough make the bestseller lists.

The hard part is winnowing out the ones that are good and add something original to the overall concept. One such recent novel is Search, by Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens. Their take on the archeological quest format includes alien visitors seen as Gods by early man and an entirely new species that cross breeds with humans. Modern day humans are tasked with the keeping of the Secrets of these early visitor/ancestors and their vicissitudes in doing so makes for a compelling read. Those of you who aren't still entranced with these sorts of thrillers should probably not bother, (TG is weary of hearing from people who take all of his recommendations to heart and end up disliking his suggestions) but aficionados who still can't get enough of the genre, this is a good one.

Old veteran thriller writer Frederick Forsyth has a new book out, The Cobra, and TG gives it his stamp of approval. All newbie thriller writers are given one piece of advice first thing, read Day of the Jackal, by Forsyth. The book was published 40 years ago and was one of the first, if not the first, to use journalistic methods in writing fiction. Forsyth was a journalist and he meticulously follows The Jackal as he researches his target -- General DeGaul -- and assembles his sniper kit and makes his way to the killing ground to set up his attack. The book is still a good read, and while many, many others have followed in Forsyth's footsteps one still can do far worse than structuring one's thriller on Forsyth's template.

In Forsyth's new book, The Cobra, an American President who sounds a lot like Obama decides that he will bring all the resources of the U.S. to bear on eradicating international drug trafficking. He does this by first declaring drug traders and their cartels to be terrorists, which allows him to use all new and extensive legal procedures to destroy them. He brings in retired ex-CIA director Paul Devereaux to head up the team that will implement the effort. Devereaux, known as The Cobra from his CIA days, is old school, smart, ruthless and unrelenting in using his widespread powers within every arm of the government. Forsyth meticulously lays out the way this would work in the real world, and gleefully goes about putting the operation into motion with devastating, for the drug traffickers, results. Then he shows why this wouldn't work in today's world, and it's a rare reader who won't wish that it weren't so. TG's only reservation is that Forsyth is a strict conservative and occasionally his political leanings come through a bit on the soap box level and mar the even flow of the action. While it is true that no president will ever give any individual the powers to take on such a task, most readers will feel, as did TG, that wouldn't it be nice if our politicians would some day stand up and have the balls to actually kick some bad guy ass? Don't look for it happening any time soon. If ever.