Listen to Your Writing

"Everything in writing begins with language.  Language begins with listening."

-Jeanette Winterson

           It was a warm spring afternoon and the students in English 101 stared at the screen with furrowed eyebrows.  They stared at the projection on the eastern wall of the classroom.  Their eyes seemed to be searching for an answer that would not appear on the screen.  Ten sentences were projected onto the screen.  All ten had errors.  I asked a question, however, no one knew the answer.    The ten sentences each had grammatical typos.  One student decided to change “…we decided to go to a beach” to “…we decided to go to THE beach.” 

            “Why change a to the?”  I asked, which brought us to the awkward length of silence.

            “I don’t know,” a student chimed in.  “It just sounds better.”  She shrugged her shoulders.  A few brave souls nodded their assent.

            Sometimes we aren’t aware of the fact that we determine whether a sentence is grammatically correct or not based on how it sounds.  I have seen this phenomenon play out many times in my Composition classes.  Whenever students are asked to judge an irregular verb, they revert back to “how it sounds.”  “Writing is just another form of communication, which is something that most of us do on a daily basis.”  I have stated this point many times in my classes to ease the stress of writing.

            When I am working in our college Writing Center, I make a point to read a student’s paper out loud to them.  This way, the student gets out of the mode of the writer and into the mode of the listener.  As I read their essay, I read it back to them exactly as they have written it (warts and all) so they can hear how the essay actually sounds.   Writers have a tendency to “hypercorrect”.  This is where the author of the text reads the paper and (whether they are aware of it or not) they correct the essay as they go along.  At times, the writer will not even see the error that they are correcting.  They will read the essay with the correction included.  What an author means and what the author writes may be two different things.  Due to this, more grammatical infractions may be committed when writing.  Once the student listens to his/her own writing, they will be more apt to view it in a rational way, rather than an emotional one.  It would be easier to see their own typos and errors, thus making them more effective editors.  

            Lately, I have been thinking about this idea of listening to writing, focusing particularly on my own.  I live on the west side of Michigan; however, my parents live clear across the state.  Plus, I have to drive 45 minutes to get to work.  To say the least, I spend a great deal of time in my car.  On many occasions, I have had an idea pop into my head only to lose it when I get to my destination.  To address this, I have been using a miniature tape recorder to dictate into on my extended travels.

            The storylines that I dictate into the recorder are streams of consciousness, at best.  Most of the time is spent recapping what has already happened in the works.  This allows me to review the particulars of the story to make sure that my thought process is on the right track.  On many occasions, as I am running through a story, I will come up with something new that could work its way into the manuscript.  Since time can be a precious commodity, time that would have been considered “wasted” while driving can be placed to good use.  The simple action of expressing your thoughts aloud can allow you to “see” your work differently.  Once the drive is over, I can write about the thoughts, plot ideas, etc. that I had set up in the tape recorder.  This has led to more developed scenes and interesting plot twists.

            In the same vein as dictating the story aloud, playing the tape back can be a good experience for a writer.  This is the part of the scenario that I do not like.  This is due, in part, to the fact that I hate listening to the sound of my voice (think Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Mickey Mouse).  As agonizing as it may be, I listen to the stream of consciousness, all the while with an ear out for plot holes.  I can ask myself questions such as: Would this character do that?  Why would he/she commit this action?  What is going on with this scene?  This way, I become a more effective editor.

            Giving a voice to your writing can add dimension to the writing process.  The process need not be confined to a pen and piece of paper, or fingers along a keyboard.  The writing process can incorporate sound.  Even now, I am experimenting with using music in my process.  I am creating a soundtrack to my newest manuscript.  Don’t forget to engage yourself on many sensory levels.  After all, shouldn’t we be doing that with our readers?

The Longest Twenty-four Minutes of My Life: My Retirement from Writing

"A short retirement urges a sweet return"
-John Milton

"I write in order to know why I write."
-Alberto Moravia

On several occasions students, friends, and even colleagues have asked “Gerald, why do you write?”  Lately, I have asked myself that very question.  Writing is very time consuming, can be quite draining (physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially), and can be quite thankless.  On many occasions, I will write for an hour or so and in a fit of rage, tear up my work only to start writing the same piece over again.

If the writer even thinks of publishing their work, they may get to this point when rejection letters are the norm rather than the exception.  How do you keep writing when you are faced with all of these rejections?  How do you keep up the morale?  For me, the answer is to go back to the writing.

I quit writing for exactly 24 minutes back in 1998.  When I was an undergraduate student at The University of Michigan – Flint (UM-Flint), I was desperately (and I mean desperately) trying to submit my work for publication.  At that point in my life, I was a junior in college and had firmly thrown caution to the wind to purse a degree in English.  While working on my degree, working as a tutor in the Writing Center, and working as the news editor at The Michigan Times (the student publication at UM-Flint), I was furiously writing short stories and a novel.  I immersed myself into the works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, and Andrew Vachss (to this day, I cannot read a Burke novel without thinking I need to stop so I can study for a test).  All of these authors have taught me many lessons about writing.  Unfortunately, during this time, all I received was rejection letter after rejection letter.    To this day, I wonder why I didn’t give up for good.

Even though I didn’t hang up my pen and fedora (the latter I mean metaphorically since I never had one), I did give up writing for 24 minutes.  I was a junior at that time and ready to get into my career of being a published writer as soon as possible.  As such, I sent out query letters all over the country to present my work.  There was one mystery magazine above all others that I had my heart set on to accept some of my work.  Hardboiled magazine is published by Gryphon Publishing.  Gary Lovisi, one of the best in the business rejected several of my pieces.  Yet, he seemed to remember my name because on several rejections he would reply with “Good try,” or “Please try again”.  Unfortunately, due to the busy load of work Mr. Lovisi had, there was little else.  On a few occasions, he would reply with “Too wordy” or “Plays on obvious cliché”, but his rejections were quite short.

Most of my weekend nights were spent reading issue after issue of Hardboiled to learn the style.  Stories from Wayne Dundee, Mickey Spillane, Andrew Vachss, and Mr. Lovisi himself created noir films in my mind.  I read pieces that showed me what neo-noir was and how a true expert writes it.  After reading, I would set pen to paper and write a story that told what I wanted to tell and keep a style such as the ones I read mere moments before.  On a cold evening, I came home from a literature class and found a letter from another magazine.  I opened it, knowing in my heart what the reply would be.  My fears came true: another rejection.  It was a long, rainy day and I had two ten paged essays to write in as many days and this was the right nail in my coffin.  That’s it! I thought.  I am done with writing!  I had three notebooks filled with stories.  I calmly retrieved the notebooks and threw them away.  I went to my parents’ computer and deleted all of the stories I had on my floppy disk drive.  I took the entire “How To” writing books that I had in my bedroom and boxed them up.  I placed them in the basement with the rest of my failed ventures.  Fifteen years of writing, rewriting, and using up ream after ream of paper, and for what?  I looked at the folder filled with rejection letters.  Why are you keeping these? I wondered.  Was it a testament my own sado-masochistic tendencies?

Everything went into the trashcan that night.  I looked at the nearly full trashcan and huffed at the work that I’d done.  My room was a lot cleaner.  It looked less cluttered and I found little items that I had spent months looking for.  What was the first thing I did after I gave up my writing career?  I took a pen out and wrote about the experience!  This was 24 minutes after I had thrown my papers and notebooks away (I consider this my retirement).  I wrote for hours and it turned into a small essay that I thought was amusing.  The next morning, I went to The Michigan Times and edited a few pieces for the next issue.  I even worked on a book review of a novel that I had read.

Since that night, I continued to write fiction, with the same amount of success in regards to publishing.  However, I cut back on the submissions.  Back in those days whatever I wrote, I would immediately finish writing and put into an envelope to send it to the next entry in the 1998 Writer’s Market.  Since then, I did less submitting and more editing.  I left for graduate school and learned a lot of what I was doing wrong back then.  When I returned from graduate school, I continued writing.  A few months after I returned from graduate school I published Pro Bono, a mystery story I had written starring a private eye named Frank Mercer, in Detective Mystery Stories.  I had the story set in Flint, Michigan (my home town) and tried to capture some of the realism there.

A few weeks later, I wrote and edited another Frank Mercer short.  This short was called A Hint of Cinnamon.  This short was published as well.  A third Frank Mercer short, which was titled The Dead Don’t Dream was published as well (this one was originally written when I was at UM-Flint).   It is interesting to note that these two Frank Mercer mysteries were published in Hardboiled magazine.

As a fledgling writer (which I still see myself now), I felt that I have come a long way with my work.  It has matured a lot since I wrote at The University of Michigan – Flint.  However, the problem was that I was unwilling to reflect on my work.  I wanted to write and be done with it.  We must reflect if we ever want to grow and learn from our mistakes.  Mr. Lovisi was such a gracious editor.  He gave clipped responses to me, but he managed to give me important feedback that I was unwilling to accept back then.

Currently, as I write, I find myself mining my old stories, thoughts, and ideas.  Of course, I have to go by memory since a lot of it has been thrown away.  So when I return to the question of why do I write?  My answer is clear and simple: I can’t not write.  As writers, that is something that we need to ask ourselves.  Can we see our lives without writing?  I do not mean writing in every sense of the word.  Obviously, we have to write a check, a letter here and there, or an email.  What I mean is telling a story, expressing ourselves, creating a picture with words, or crafting language to entertain, inform or persuade in a detailed manner.  No matter how frustrated I still get with writing, I cannot see myself without it.  Can you?

Finding the Method in Your Madness

"All is change; all yields its place and goes."
-Euripides

"Change is the only evidence of life."
-Evelyn Waugh


This week my school is beginning a new quarter, which means new classes, new students, new preps, and new minds. Without a doubt, this has to be the most exciting and nerve-wracking portion of the quarter for me. With a new class I try to remind myself that all of the conceptions/notions that I may have should be thrown right out the window. A new quarter and a new class mean a fresh start. When approaching something new, even with writing, it is important to make sure you approach your writing in an innovative way. Otherwise, there can be baggage from the previous piece that makes its way into others. This can create dull writing.

For example, once I finished writing Demon in My Head, I began writing The Modern Prometheus, a “follow up” to Demon. In the initial stages of the writing, I found that the manuscript was very much like Demon. The protagonist was going through a “step-by-step” process (for tracking down a serial killer). It was eerily similar to Brimstone’s quest. When I discovered this (mercifully after writing only twenty pages), I scrapped the project immediately. I was still writing Demon in My Head! My major discovery was that even though I finished and published a “rewarding” novel, I was no longer finished telling the story of Gabriel Brimstone. I looked at this as not being finished telling a story. There was more that I could write.

As such, what I did was tell the story of others touched by Brimstone and his quest. The end of Demon placed Gabriel Brimstone in a very precarious position (that is all I will say). However, there were others who were affected by the events in that novel. So I decided to write a piece that follows up on the events in that novel. Due to this, Prometheus does not really act as a “sequel”, but it tells another story in that world. Many writers have a single character who acts as the protagonist. This protagonist continues to narrate throughout many books. Gabriel Brimstone, the “protagonist” (although I hesitate to use that word to describe him) that narrates Demon, is barely in Prometheus; yet, his presence is felt through the entire manuscript. Now when writing, I try to “breathe” between projects. Each piece that one writes should be different. There should be a different texture within a project, even if one is writing with the same character. In both manuscripts, the theme of family is present, which makes a lot of connections; however, it expands on the Brimstone mythos. Demon acts more as a horror story, whereas Prometheus (as it stands now) acts as a very dark (and horrific) mystery story.

I encourage writers to expand their horizons, write about something that is interesting to you, yet is different from you (or at least what you have recently written). Mystery fiction is a major passion of mine. However, when I wrote Demon, I wasn’t writing a mystery. It was outside of my element. With Prometheus, I am returning to my love, however, I am doing it in a different way. Writing involves growth and I encourage every writer to expand outside of your comfort zone.

In the Composition classes that I am teaching this quarter, I assign three major essays and a smaller essay at the end of the course. Each essay focuses on a different essay, and with each one, it stresses a different component on writing. I encourage those writers to choose a different approach when writing on that topic. If you are writing something persuasive, try writing it from a different point of view. When editing your text, how many times do you refer to yourself (using the first person)? Try cutting back on that in the next essay (or draft). Diversity is the spice of life!

Only when experimenting in your own writing will you discover what works and what doesn’t work with your own writing. At the very least, you will find out what not to do, this does nothing but narrow down what to do with your writing.

No matter what you do, keep writing!

Once Upon a Time...It was a Dark and Stormy Night…And Other Hooks that Make Us Want to Keep Reading

What makes us want to keep turning the page? Why do we want to get invested in a story? When I was in graduate school at Illinois State University (Go Redbirds!!!) I would talk to friends of mine and we would discuss what it was that made people want to read a story. When picking up a book at your local Barnes and Noble, why pick up Book A instead of Book B? What was it about this text that caught my eye over that text? For me, when I read the first few paragraphs of a book story, that can tell the tale.

When I was first writing stories (on a notepad in my bedroom before bedtime), I always thought that whenever you start writing, you start at the beginning. At that time, I knew all there was to know about writing and no one could tell me anything (I long for those days, I think I’ve gotten stupider over the past few decades). Where does a story begin? Most European/American writing is linear. You begin in a chronological order and continue until the story ends. However, a lot of stories have broken that tradition. Take a look at Pulp Fiction: a film about several intersecting storylines that converge/diverge at different points in time. How about Memento (a murder mystery done backwards)? The myth of “beginning at the beginning” has long been debunked. This makes me think of the ingredients of a good opening.

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”

“Call me Ishmael…”

“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth…”

Whether it the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick or the Bible, each of these lines represent a different way to involve the reader. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…” This opening line makes me want to read about a different time, a different world, and a whole new story. It makes me wonder the possibilities that are endless with a story.

“Call me Ishmael…” This line makes me wonder about this narrator. I want to know who Ishmael was, what did he care about, and what put him on a ship ran by a madman. It wasn’t the story that made me want to read this novel called Moby Dick, it was Ishmael and Ahab.

What greater line evokes an epic grandiose feel than the opening words from The Bible? The opening passage induces an atmosphere of awe and discovery. It lets us know that the words that are within its pages will educate and entertain. No matter if you see the Holy Bible as a religious text or a collection of stories there is no mistaking the power and lush reality that it conjures for a reader.

Here’s a quick exercise: close your eyes and imagine what comes after “Once upon a time” or “It was a dark and stormy night.” These lines (albeit cliché), are still powerful lines that can vividly call to mind a wooded glen where elves and fairies traipse through life granting wishes, harboring secrets, or even telling a tale as old as time. Or, they can cause our hearts to speed as we imagine rain showering over us while moving timidly through a midnight forest hoping that something within the shadows does not grab us and pull us away into our deepest, darkest nightmares. That is the power of an opening line.

When it comes to writing (whether they are essays, novels, short stories, etc.), I sort the pieces into two categories: character driven and plot driven. Those that have compelling protagonists, whose evolution/development tend to become a driving force of the story, are referred to as character driven. Works such as Forrest Gump, Batman Begins, Fight Club or Atlas Shrugged are excellent examples of excellently written character driven pieces. Stories that have plots that are quite complex, and tend to overtake our attention are plot driven. Stories such as The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, or the Odyssey are great plot pieces. With beginning lines, the writer can show (without stating verbatim) if the piece is plot driven or character driven. However, before you even sit down to write an opening line, it is important to ask yourself if your work will be focusing on the character or the events that occur.

An opening line can be what makes the difference between a character that I want to continue to read about, and one that I decide to place back on the bookshelf. Opening lines can act just like first impressions. They are great to break the ice, and can introduce you to a new friend. Just remember to think of the appropriate way to introduce them. Whether it is a person or a plot, readers want to be teased enough to want to learn more.

Smashing My Head Against the Writer's Block

"Nulla dies sine linea"
- Horace

Have you ever heard that old adage “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? Well, it turns out that it is something that affects writing just as much as it affects everything else in life. Writing ability is just like muscle development; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

Whenever I teach a freshman composition class, on the first week of class someone inevitably approaches me apologetically, and informs me that they haven’t written anything in a long time and to “go easy on me.” Said student usually approaches me when others are out of earshot and they seem very sorry or upset to let me know this (as if I will be angry). Unfortunately, I tell the students, “No, I can’t go easy on you. I’m a mean person,” which usually results in laughter since I look and act as one of the meekest people you will ever want to meet. Afterwards, I reassure them that writing ability is something that develops the more that the writer does it. Also, I tell them that the process is different for everyone and the journey is just as different. As such, there isn’t a “right” way or a “wrong” way to go about writing.

Sometimes that is a bitter pill to swallow when on the receiving end of it. I freely admit to not writing on a daily basis (as I feel that I should). I admit to feeling like a hypocrite when writing this blog posting knowing full well that I find it difficult to write every single day. Where does this problem stem from? Where does it stem from for college writers? I would guess the same place.

One of the biggest reasons that I find myself wanting to turn on the television instead of writing something productive is that Law and Order: SVU is on. Benson and Stabler (played exceptionally well by Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni) are more than able to pull me away from my writing tasks. I even find myself sabotaging my writing when I enable the distraction. “It’s great storytelling!” I tell myself. “If I watch the show, I’ll learn about plot pacing, character development, and realistic dialogue.” As such, it won’t be a waste of time. Of course, by the end of the episode, I am so wrapped up with how horrible the villains on the show were (not to mention the depression in knowing that the Benson/Stabler duo will soon to come to an end).

As the example shows, it is easy to be swayed by outside stimuli to forego writing for that day. One day can turn into two; two can turn into three. Before you know it, you haven’t written in a month and when you return to write something, the process is much more difficult to do than it has ever been before. To get in the habit of writing, keep a journal. When I began working on my journal, I foundt hat the more I wrote, the better my writing became and the easier it was to write on something else. Upon reflection, as I looked at past papers that students turned in, on the first essay, students would not meet the page range. When the second and third essays were written, I found that more students met (and exceeded) the page range. Writing is infectious. Writing begets more writing!

Another problem that forces me to stop writing is when I am working on a piece and right in the middle of the essay (sometimes even while writing!), I will not know how to continue. What word should I use next? What was I writing? I lost my train of thought! At that moment, I will panic. On a few occasions, I would feel this way when I wrote Demon in My Head. There was a reason that it took exactly one year to write that first draft!

This problem still plagues me, however, a wise professor of English taught me a trick over fifteen years ago, and that still helps me to this day. “Don’t finish the sentence,” he told me (and about twenty other undergraduate English students). His thinking is that if the writer returns to the piece the next day, they will be able to finish the thought and continue the next one. On many occasions, I have been able to pick up my thought and continue to the next thought. Most writing is linear. If the line is broken, the writer may be able to continue the logical line of thinking.

It is my intention to give these tips and tricks to help the writing process move along for you. Ultimately, this would be futile unless you are motivated to write. There has to be a message that you have that fuels moving that pen on the paper (or those fingers on a keyboard). Keep writing! The adage is true: if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Here’s to keeping it.

The Schizophrenic In Me

“Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?”-M. C. Escher
“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t looking at you and licking their lips.”-Gabriel Brimstone



Just this past weekend, I attended a wedding shower and it was discovered, by many of those who attended, that I had recently published a novel. I felt like a celebrity (something that doesn’t happen very often) and was excited to answer many questions about writing a novel. One of the questions was “How close do you feel to your characters?”

Many people have asked questions regarding to my process and where I come up with ideas, but that was the first time someone had asked me about how close to my characters I was. On the heels of publishing Demon in My Head and nearly completing The Modern Prometheus (both of which feature the vampire hunter Gabriel Brimstone), I had to think about how I felt about finishing Demon. In short, I was depressed.

It took me exactly 365 days to write the first draft of Demon in My Head (then titled Addicted). Before that, I had written many short stories featuring Gabriel. After I edited Addicted for publication in Night to Dawn Magazine, I found myself rewriting the manuscript, changing it into the version that is currently out for “consumption”. That rewrite took a good two years to complete. As such, Gabriel and I spent many, many years together.

So when this dear, sweet woman asked me about the closeness of my characters, I told her that I felt “schizophrenic”. Much like Gabriel, I, too, have demons and voices in my head. Some of them are friendly, and some of them are very, very dark. These are the characters that make the inspiration for my stories. I have eaten, dreamed and slept with Gabriel Brimstone (much to the chagrin of relationships that I have had). It took me a lot of effort to continue the conversation and refer to Gabriel as a character. Otherwise, I would have sounded like a person with severe mental issues to the curious woman.

“They are a part of me, and I am a part of them,” I remember telling her. Before Brimstone, I had published very little writing. It mostly consisted of mystery tales. However, when I jumped into horror fiction, which was when my writing received the most amount of attention.

My fiancé has mentioned many times that I should write something more romantic or (as she puts it) “real.” The problem for me is that the definition of “real” is a very ambiguous term when I dip my pen into the ink well of my imagination. Even though Gabriel Brimstone is a vampire hunter and spends his nights keeping the things that go bump in the night away from the rest of us, he is very “real” to me. At a risk of giving some of the plot away, there are some very real facets of Demon. On many occasions, I have had to work at separating myself from my characters (Gabriel Brimstone being one of the most prominent characters). Mr. Brimstone and I have philosophized on many occasions the meaning of life, the definition of reality, and our hopes and dreams. Demon tells reality through the eyes of a man who looks at the world a little different than most of us, but to him, it is no less real. After all, what does “real” mean to you?

I don’t attend wedding showers very often (in fact, this was my very first one), but I had a great time justifying my psychosis to a dear woman who wanted to get inside the mind of a writer, but got more than she bargained for. The next time you ask a writer how close they are to their characters, see what their answer is.

If you’re a doctor, don’t be afraid to prescribe something.