Why do my characters boss me around?

No Peace starts at del Monte Hotel in Monterey (photo circa 1880s)

In a previous post I wrote that I had started the next Steve Dancy Tale and the title of the seventh book in the series would be Coronado. I had a plot outline, a nifty cast of characters, and enough research on San Diego history to fill a nonfiction tome. Steve had other ideas. I started the story in Monterey, California, intending to travel down to San Diego by way of Redondo Beach and Pasadena. Don’t ask. I won’t tell you the storyline because I’ll probably use this material in the next book. Suffice it to say that Steve got himself into so much trouble in Monterey that he can’t go anywhere until he cleans up his mess.

Wait a minute, isn’t Steve Dancy a fictional character? Yeah, that’s what irks me. Who gave him the right to change my story? When I start a new work, I know the beginning and how it ends, but allow the characters to show me the way to get from one end to the other. Many times, I put the characters into a scene, give them a couple lines, and then transcribe the rest of their conversation. I know them so well that I trust them. But never has a character taken me off the rails and done his own thing. This is outrageous. Perhaps he’s miffed that I abandoned him for a spell to write Deluge. Hell, I thought Steve and Virginia wanted to be left alone on their honeymoon. Which brings to mind the first time I knew something was going haywire. The new book starts about two years after our newlyweds rode off into the sunset. I’m writing the first chapter and Steve and Virginia suddenly announce they have a one-year old son. I’m typing away, and suddenly Jeffery Joseph Dancy enters the story uninvited. Cute kid, though.

The bottom line is that I’ve changed the title for the book. It is now called No Peace, A Steve Dancy Tale, but who knows, it could change again. Now I have a true appreciation for what it means to have a character driven story.

One last thing; because of my recent focus on westerns, I was concerned that Deluge might not be accepted by my readers. It was contemporary, and although there were horrific gunfights, the main antagonist was a nasty storm. I’m pleased that the initial reception has been great. The ratings on Goodreads score it 4.4 and the initial Amazon reviews rank it 4.6. Thanks to all of my readers.

Gotta go. Steve's telling me to get back to work.

Talk is not cheap!

“People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolor left in the rain. “ Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

“If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.” Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

When I was at the Tucson Festival of Books, I was asked how I learned to write dialogue. Although I had no intention of ever writing a movie script, I studied several books on screenwriting. Screenplays focus on dialogue with only sketchy descriptions of place. The spoken word is crucial for all movies that don’t spray spent casings all over the landscape or use explosive fireballs to punctuate scenes. So, if you want to improve your dialogue skills, study screenplays.

Dialogue exists in novels to move the plot forward or to reveal character, or both. There is no place for small talk in a novel. Every word that’s inside quotes—or outside, for that matter—must have a purpose. Dialogue is engineered by the author. It is not natural, but must sound natural. Authenticity comes from providing clues so the reader can fill in the blanks. For example, a hint of an accent is all that is needed for readers to hear a character speak a dialect.

Richard Ford wrote in The Lay of the Land, “You rarely miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.” This is perfect advice for your characters. Dialogue should be taut and tense. Off the top of my head, here are a few other thoughts on dialogue:

• Dialogue is not the place for exposition.
• Soliloquies are out of style.
• Characters should not tell each other what they both already know.
• Heavy accents and odd speech patterns take the reader out of the story—a mortal sin.
• Different characters should speak differently.
• Personality is revealed in how your characters speak and what they say.

These are not rules, but guidelines. Each one will be broken brilliantly by writers who know exactly what they are doing. I can’t wait to read their work.

Hero or villain?

Several book reviews have criticized Steve Dancy as barely better than the bad guys.

Seriously?

I believe vile villains make a story work, so I've invented some highly reprehensible characters. There has to be some tough-as-nails criminal around for Dancy to dispatch or he couldn't be a hero. Now, I also prefer flawed heroes, so Dancy is certainly not perfect. Besides being a tenderfoot, he can be a dunderhead when it comes to romance. He is especially ill equipped for the lawless frontier until he has survived a few nasty episodes.

So, what gives? I can think of only two reasons why people would think ill of Mr. Dancy. First, he is rich and prefers to buy his way out of trouble. It’s unusual for a western hero to be wealthy. Most fictional frontier gunmen own a saddle and a horse, and part of the mythology is that their lack of possessions makes them free. But surely readers don’t hold Dancy’s wealth against him. After all, television's Paladin lived pretty high on the hog, and he earned his piles of cash by less than reputable means. Dancy, on the other hand, came by his wealth honestly—he inherited it.

Gunsmoke TV series Opening Sequence

So if it's not the money, it must be something else. I suppose it could be that Dancy has never had a one-on-one stand-up duel in the middle of the street. When faced with a gunfight, Dancy always searches for an edge. He wants the other fella off balance, unaware that he is about to be shot. Now, that’s closer to how it actually was in the Old West. I remember reading about a study that concluded that most gunfights during that era occurred inside of three feet and most often in a saloon. The epic one-on-one gunfight did occur, but it was not the norm. (The stand-up duel may have faded from popularity after our United States Vice President killed a former cabinet member on the shores of New Jersey.)

Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson were two famous Westerners that lived long enough to die of old age. Both were cautious when it came to gun trouble. Earp liked to sneak in the back door of a saloon and coldcock a troublemaker from behind. The practice even got him fired once from the Dodge City force for “police brutality.” Masterson counseled that if you got in a gunfight, you should shoot your opponent center chest … and more than once. 

Steve Dancy has numerous gunfights in every book. It’s the nature of the genre. I like him and most of my readers like him as well, so I can’t let him get shot dead. After all, I need him for the next book.

Book Reviews—The good, the bad, and ...

There are no ugly book reviews— only good and bad reviews.  At least that would be true under the axiom that any publicity is good publicity. The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale recently received one of each. Let’s start with the good.

Bookviews by Alan Caruba is one of my favorite book blogs. Caruba is a writer by profession and a longtime book reviewer. In his review of The Return, he puts me in the same paragraph with Elmore Leonard. That alone puts Bookviews into my favorite column, even if Caruba hadn’t already reviewed most of my other books. He writes: “James D. Best … is arguably one of the best writers of westerns.” Those are kind words, and I appreciate them. You’ll find Caruba’s review of The Return in his September Picks of the Month.

On the other hand, at Brandywine Books, Lars Walker writes, “The Return, another Dancy story, is another well-written tale,” but adds, “it turned me off the series, not because of the writing, but because of one of the themes.” It seems Mr. Walker was offended by Dancy's interaction with his snobbish mother. He writes, “Steve’s ability to defy her through premarital cohabitation is presented as a sort of moral triumph.” A good observation, but I feel obligated to support my characters despite their failings. You can read Walker’s review of The Return by clicking on this link.

The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale has also received some nice reviews by Amazon Readers.

Steve Dancy Tales

Released: The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale

As of this morning, Amazon is offering The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale in print and Kindle formats. The hardcover large print edition is due from Center Point in the first quarter of 2014. Barnes & Noble and other retailers have not yet listed the book as available, but you can be sure I will let you know when that happens.

Amazon Print Link
Amazon Kindle Link

It's the summer of 1880, and Thomas Edison's incandescent bulb is poised to put the gaslight industry out of business. Knowing a good business opportunity, former New York shopkeeper Steve Dancy sets out to obtain a license for Edison's electric lamp. Edison agrees, under one condition: Dancy and his friends must stop the saboteurs who are disrupting his electrification of Wall Street.

After two years of misadventures out West, the assignment appears to be right up his alley. But new troubles await him in New York City. Dancy has brought a woman with him, and his high-society family disapproves. More worrisome, he has also unknowingly dragged along a feud that began out West. The feud could cost him Edison's backing ... and possibly his life.

Be the first on your block to read The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale. 

Honest Westerns ... filled with dishonest characters.

Full of Surprises—Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming

In high school, I read every Ian Fleming James Bond book. I liked them, but wasn't motivated to read them a second time until recently. I started with Live and Let Die, the second book in the series. The novel was full of surprises. I remembered that Bond was a different character than in the movies and the plots were less extravagant.  All true. James Bond is vulnerable and feels fear in the books. He is not as much of a loner and makes friends easily. The plot doesn't make sense in either the book or movie, but the action/escape scenes tend to the more realistic side in the novel. There is a fetish about equipment, but in the book, Bond is given somewhat specialized scuba gear, while in the movie, Roger Moore wears an electro-magnetic watch that can pull a wooden row boat by it metal rowlock. Fleming does not give Bond futuristic gadgetry. A steel-toe shoe is about as exotic as it gets.

First Edition Cover

Fleming was a much better writer than I remembered. His pacing was pitch-perfect and descriptions excellent. Although the dialogue often seemed pedestrian, Fleming was a great storyteller. Live and Let Die was an easy read, and there were more than a few times when I reread a section that showed skillful writing.

The big surprise was the racism reflected in this 1954 book. Fleming occasionally writes favorably about his black characters, but for the most part he relies on offensive words and stereotypes that were more generally accepted than we would like to remember. Fleming’s attempt to reflect black ghetto dialects seems crude and wrong. This novel demonstrates that racial attitudes have improved in the last sixty years. Perhaps everyone, especially the young, should read Live and Let Die to gain a fuller understanding of the 1950s.

Jane Austen's Unpublished Work

I’m a Jane Austen fan. That probably seems odd since I’m male and write Westerns. The Wild West and English countryside have little in common. But I’m talking about writing, not venue. I admire great dialogue and consider Jane Austen the champion. (My books tend to be dialogue driven, but I don’t consider myself in the same league with Ms. Austen.) 

Although good description is essential, I seldom find myself stopping to admire a piece of prose describing the landscape. But perfect dialogue stops me every time. My fascination with dialogue probably comes from my own inept retorts. I always think of the right thing to say hours later. Writing novels, I can return to a scene and insert a whiz-bang snippet of dialogue any time I want. Fiction is great.

The mantra of writing is show, don’t tell. Dialogue is an effective way to show character. Here is an example from Pride and Prejudice. This is the reader’s first introduction to Mr. Bennet.

Mrs. Bennet says,

"Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my nerves' "

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."

In fifty-eight words, Austen has gone a long way in showing us the character of two major figures in her story. 

I bring Austen up because I found a website with her unpublished work in both manuscript and transcribed formats--side by side. Most of this is not her best work, but writers and Austen enthusiasts may find it interesting. You can find it here.

Related Posts:

Jane's Fame, How Jane Austen Conquered the World

Would You Care for a Slice?

The Inferno by Dan Brown—A Crummy Book

At the time of this writing, Inferno by Dan Brown has nearly 5,000 Amazon reviews for 3.9 stars. Since I thought this was a poor novel, I’m going against the grain. I would give it 3 stars if it was written by a developing author, but it only gets 2 stars in my book because it’s obviously been thrown together by an apparently waning writer.

There is an adage in writing that the author should never let his or her research show. When the action is stopped to pontificate about some factoid, it jerks the reader out of the story. This is forgivable once in a while when the story is good. Inferno does not have a strong story and Brown commits this offense countless times. The reader can imagine him getting a VIP tour around a historic site and Brown peppering his escort with questions about passageways and trivia. He let the locations define the story instead of making the locations a backdrop. This makes for a mediocre travel guide and a lousy novel. All plot, no story.

If Robert Ludlum didn’t invent the chase novel, he perfected it. The basic formula is that a man and a woman meet, there are murders, the bewildered couple become suspects and run, they are chased by good guys and bad guys from one exotic place to another, and a puzzle must be solved or bad stuff will happen to the world and our protagonists. Ludlum made you feel for the characters’ plight, but Brown uses characters like historic sites to merely carry the plot. The reader doesn’t know Brown’s characters. They are as enigmatic as the puzzle. I don’t criticize Brown for adopting this formula. (I used it in The Shut Mouth Society.) I criticize him for mimicking Ludlum’s voice with single declarative sentences meant to hammer a point, and even copying Ludlum’s amnesia device from the Bourne series.

In short, The Inferno was lazy writing.

Should a Writer Use Friends as Characters?

No!

Well, that's the simple answer. I have a rationale behind my answer:

1. If the friend doesn't like the character—bye, bye friend
2. Once started, there's no end
3. I write the story for readers, not to amuse people I know
4. My characters have a mind of their own ... and it's never the same as someone I know

I have used friend names for characters, but those characters were very different people. So different that there would be no confusion. I do this occasionally as a tiny nod of acknowledgment. Besides, some of my friends have cool names.

Be nice to this woman

That said, I have been tempted to follow Mary Higgins Clark's example.

“When someone is mean to me," she said, "I just make them a victim in my next book.”

Now that's a great idea. 

I've encountered a few people I’d like Steve Dancy to castigate. (That’s castigate, not castrate.) I’ve restrained myself so far because of rule #2. I think that if I ever succumbed to temptation, I'd definitely be stepping onto the proverbial slippery slope.

Author Interview with Robert Peecher

Robert Peecher, author and journalist, has published an interview with me on his blog.

Q. When you started writing did you know Steve Dancy’s character, or did he develop for you through the telling of the story?

Best: I knew his character from the start, but that said, every character must grow or the story will become stale. By the fourth book, he is a much more mature character than at the beginning of the series. I had nothing to do with it. He learned and grew as he ventured around the frontier and I scribbled down what he did and how he did it.

The Steve Dancy Tales

You can read the full interview at robertpeecher. 

Characters Matter

Frank. A true black hat villain.

Characterization is a crucial aspect of fiction. We know this because it's drilled into us at school, in workshops, and in all the how-to books and journals we read. The protagonist must come across as real and interesting enough to pull the reader all the way through to the end of the story. A common mistake, however, is to focus too much attention on the protagonist. When you read a great book or watch an outstanding film, it's usually the antagonist that lifts the story above the ordinary.

A Dramatic Reading of Tempest at Dawn

SAGE in Northridge, CA is doing a dramatic reading of Tempest at Dawn. The SAGE Society is a learning-in-retirement organization sponsored by California State University, Northridge. The group has adapted the novel to a play-like script and members assume the roles of various framers of the Constitution. The readings will extend over many weeks, but yesterday I had the privilege of attending the first reading of chapters 1-4. The society members did a wonderful job and it was a kick to hear other people read my words aloud. This was a fun group and the performance and banter showed that the members were learned, full of life, and welcoming to new members and experiences. After Tempest at Dawn, they will do a reenactment of the Virginia Ratification Convention, which they will script from other sources. I felt honored that SAGE has dedicated their time and meetings to Tempest at Dawn.

Frederick Faust, aka Max Brand

Frederick Faust was one of the most prolific writers of all time, publishing nearly thirty million words in his lifetime. Faust had more pen names than Destry had bullets. (In the film, Destry Rides Again, based on the Faust character, James Stewart famously shoots his Colt seven times.) He wrote more than 500 novels and short stories—all with two fingers on a manual typewriter. In his day, Faust was one of the highest paid writers in the world. Late in his career, Warner Brothers paid him $3,000 a week and he made a fortune from radio, film, and television adaptions of his Dr. Kildare character. Despite writing poetry and fiction in every genre, it was Westerns that made Faust famous, albeit under the pseudonym Max Brand.

Although Faust had once worked on a ranch, he was not a true Westerner. He was born in Seattle in 1892 and grew to maturity in California. He attended the University of California at Berkeley for four years without graduating. He was enamored with the Greek and Latin classics his entire life and often incorporated ancient mythology into his stories. His real life’s ambition was to be a poet, and he wrote genre fiction in the afternoons so he could pursue his passion for poetry in the mornings.

Faust wrote his first Western as a magazine story in 1918. Faust’s editor had recently lost Zane Grey to a competitor because Grey’s Western stories had become so popular. This editor convinced Faust to try to fill his boots. Faust’s first Western novel, The Untamed (1919) was highly derivative of a 1910 Grey Western titled The Heritage of the Desert.

Grey and Faust were different writers. Grey was enthralled with the landscape and expansiveness of the West, while Faust preferred to explore internal conflicts. Grey brought setting almost to life as a character, while Faust had a knack for describing animals in a way that made them vital characters in his stories. Faust preferred pursuit plots, delayed revelation, and his fiction was character driven. Faust was a more literary writer, especially when he put his mind to it.  Jon Tuska, a literary critic/agent, wrote: “The Biblical overtones that run throughout Faust’s Western fiction are as striking and unique as his imagery from classical literature. Indeed, Zane Grey’s avowed pantheism is wan beside the vivid evocation of the presence of God in Faust’s fiction, whether as the Great Spirit of the Plains Indians or the Christian Deity … every story Faust ever wrote seems to have to a degree both surface action and a subtext, a story within the story that functions on the deepest level.”

Although Faust received praise from literary critics, his lack of historical accuracy, scant descriptions of the landscape, and minimal actual experience on the frontier generated harsh criticism by those who admire realistic detail in Western fiction. Additionally, His writing quality was inconsistent. Most of his books and stories were produced at a breakneck pace, which sometimes amounted to 6,000 words in a single day. His work has also been butchered by editors who severely abridge his serialized stories for publication as novels.

Frederick Faust was a one-man fiction factory. He was also a great storyteller who invented enduring characters. Faust believed that “there is a giant asleep in every man.  When that giant wakes, miracles can happen.”  This was certainly true for him.

On Transmigration Comments on Tempest at Dawn

In an article titled "Books: An Observation," The Cajun writes:

"The only new title that knocked my socks off is "Tempest at Dawn" by James D. Best, published in 2009.  There's more about it HERE.  I've finished it and plan to read it again, after a spell.  There is a lot there to absorb and enjoy.  I know I missed many things as I read it quickly - it's a compelling read - and the second time  I plan to read more slowly and savor each character, and there are many historic figures involved. I also began looking up his other works and maybe add a few of them to my collection."

Thanks for the kind words.

You can read the complete article here.

Bad Review Got You Down—Even the Best Get Dumped On

Huffington Post Books published an article titled "Bad Reviews Of Great Authors." When you get a bad review of your work, it’s comforting to know that supposed experts hated these classics.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

"There is not in the entire dramatis persona, a single character which is not utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible."  Atlas, 1848

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

"Mr. Updike’s descriptions of these magical doings are cringe-making in the extreme, not funny or satiric as he perhaps intends."  Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

"... the book is sad stuff, dull and dreary, or ridiculous. Mr. Melville's Quakers are the wretchedest dolts and drivellers, and his Mad Captain ... is a monstrous bore." Charleston Southern Quarterly Review, 1852

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"no more than a glorified anecdote, and not too probable at that... Only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes. The rest are mere marionettes—often astonishingly lifelike, but nevertheless not quite alive." H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, 1925

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

"Unfortunately, it is bad news. There are two equally serious reasons why it isn't worth any adult reader's attention. The first is that it is dull, dull, dull in a pretentious, florid and archly fatuous fashion. The second is that it is repulsive." Orville Prescott, The New York Times, 1958

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

"... it is impossible to imagine how any man's fancy could have conceived such a mass of stupid filth, unless he were possessed of the soul of a sentimental donkey that had died of disappointed love." Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The Criterion, 1855

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

“What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?” Gore Vidal

Flavorwire Article: 15 Famous Authors on Why They Write

Flavorwire has published an article about why authors write. There are many links to source material which are fun to explore.

“The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it’s about and why you’re doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising… and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.”--Neil Gaiman

My own reason is much simpler ... There is nothing else I'd rather do.

Here's a link to the entire article.

Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine reviews Murder at Thumb Butte

This is a well-plotted mystery, as well as a terrific Old West story. I found the idea of a stock swindle entertaining, especially considering the era in which the story is set. It could’ve been ripped from today’s headlines, but reads entirely authentic to the time period. Best has a great character in Steve Dancy, and has created an excellent cast of secondary characters. — C.K. Crigger

Read the Full Review

Here comes 2012, ready or not!

Mostly not. We returned to our home in Arizona late last night, and have been lazing about trying to recover from a week with all of our grandchildren. Right after Christmas, we flew to Florida to meet up with our son and daughter's families in Orlando. We had six adults to handle six kids, so we figured we had an even chance. Wrong. Nothing energizes a young child more than waking to the promise of another trip to Disney World or one of the other fun parks in Orlando. What ensued for the rest of the day would unduly age any grandparent ... especially one used to quiet days of writing. My back hurts, I'm tired, and my wallet's thinner, but I don't regret a single second.


In quiet moments, mostly in air terminals, I read Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. My favorite part so far is the chapter on the development of Toy Story. It's a perfect case study in characterization and storytelling. Every writer should read it.


Anyway, lots to get done, including a few New Year's resolutions. I won't share these because they are too revealing of my flaws.


First up for 2012 is publication of Principled Action, Lessons From the Origins of the American Republic. This non-fiction history book should be available in February.

I'm also starting work on the next Steve Dancy Tale. No title yet, but I've worked out the broad plot line and a suitable title will pop to mind as I continue the research.


Another big, immediate task is recovering my Macintosh computer. The disc drive went belly-up with 25,000 photos, and lots of iMovie files. I suspect I won't get a full day of writing for a week or so.


Here's wishing you and yours a magnificent 2012. We all deserve it.

What Would the Founders Think? reviews Leadville

What fun!  It’s no wonder that Jim is as popular as he is on Amazon and that readers clamor for him to release his next installment of his Steve Dancy western series.  I recently had a business trip to the east coast and downloaded Leadville and Murder at Thumb Butte to read on the trip.   On the way out, I read another book, which, while entertaining, wasn’t nearly as good.  On the way back, a 5.5 hour flight, I read this fast-paced, fun book and half of Murder at Thumb Butte.  I was almost wishing that the flight were longer! 

Read the entire review

Western Fiction Review reviews The Shopkeeper

"With all the plot developments the story has a natural fast pace and before I knew it I had reached the end, leaving me wanting to read the next in the series."

Read Full Review