Kyle Kerr

Where I’ve Been

06/15/10 | General, Movies, My Writings, Reviews | 0 Comments

Yes, I’ve been gone for a while, but I have my reasons.  The biggest thing to happen recently is that I (finally!) moved back to the Boston area.  I’m in an area called Somerville, literally just across the city border from Cambridge.  Just a T ride away from my favorite city in the world!

Moving is a real pain in the arse.  I’ve moved almost once a year for the past 7 years, which is kind of ridiculous if you ask me.  I’m ready to settle down for a while, and I think this living arrangement is going to be both positive and productive (I’m living with two other writers).  No distractions, no more excuses.

The only thing that I regret about moving is that I won’t be able to attend ThrillerFest like I’d hoped.  There’s no way I can afford it after the move, so I’ll have to wait until next year!  And, since the Maui/Hawaii Writers Conference & Retreat is now officially defunct, it looks like it’s going to be the only party worth going to.  Good thing I’m writing a thriller now.

Speaking of which, it got put on the back burner for a few weeks while I’ve been in transition.  No time to write amidst packing, moving, and unpacking.  But now that I’m (mostly) settled into my new place, I hope to increase my output exponentially!  I’ve actually joined a local group of writers that get together once a week for the sole purpose of… writing!  We literally gather and spend two hours in silence.  Sounds dull, but it’s surprisingly helpful.  In fact, I’m writing this Journal Entry at said meeting right now!  I also used it to finish a chapter I’d been languishing over for a couple weeks, which brought me into a new one that I’m currently working on… 18,000 words down!

With 15 chapters, that’s about 1,200 words per chapter.  My first book averaged just under 4,800 words per chapter.  Yeah, it’s a big book (134,000 words within 28 chapters—which you can BET is going to be cut significantly for publication)!  The way this book is going, there’s probably going to be 80-90,000 words and 70ish chapters.  Writing a thriller is a much different experience and I’m enjoying the challenge.  It’s also undeniably adult – there’s sex, torture, murder, and lots of yummy, juicy stuff to write.  There’s all that stuff in my other book too, but not in the same way.  You’ll have to read them to see!

I’ve come to realize that I need to do a bit more plotting of the sub chapters.  I have all of the big events that need to happen and the sub plots that will make it a decidedly non-linear story, but need to fill in a little of the… filler.  How am I going to get from the big event I’m wrapping up to the next one?  I don’t know yet, and that’s one of the things that’s making my productivity lag.  I’m trying to write this as chronologically as I can (as an experiment… the last book was written on a per chapter, hodgepodge-like basis and I didn’t stick to any particular pattern) to see if it helps the flow of the book.  Obviously there are some bumps I need to work out, but it seems to be working fairly well.

In the time since my last post, I’ve seen a number of movies… Iron Man 2 (8/10), Date Night (7/10), Clash of the Titans (6/10), Sex and the City 2 (8/10), Letters to Juliet (7/10), Shrek Forever After (9/10), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (8/10).  Upcoming movies I’m looking forward to are Toy Story 3, Knight & Day, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Last Airbender, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Inception, Salt, Charlie St. Cloud, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  Those are the summer releases, but of course I can’t NOT mention Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in November and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in December!

Honestly haven’t read any books worth noting.  Sad, but true.  Though I’ve recently acquired The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Kathy Griffin’s memoir, Official Book Club Selection… both of which I have high hopes for.

I need to start planning out some of my other bajillion projects, but want to get seriously back into the flow of writing this one first.  I’m hoping that by writing more than one project at a time I’ll be able to be more productive, because if I lose interest in one I’ll have another to go to, which should hopefully eliminate much of the down-time in my writing.  I.  Freaking.  Hope.

That should be it for now, but I’ll be writing more entries now that I’m not going crazy.  Let me know how you’ve all been either in the comments or by sending me an email!

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr

Endings

04/29/10 | On Writing | 2 Comments

There are a lot of endings in the world: end of the line, end of the road, death, birth (which is the end of your carefree life as you knew it).  What I’m talking about is the end of a book (obviously, this is a writer’s blog after all!).

Many amazing books exist.  I think I probably own about 450 books (and counting), have read a good handful of them, and enjoyed most.  However, one thing I’ve noticed is that most writers don’t know where to end their book, and so it just sort of flatlines before fizzling out…

This is my biggest pet peeve, to read through an entire novel, be engrossed by it, and be left wanting when I finally close the covers.  There’s no comparable disappointment.

You don’t need to end every book with a bang, because not all of them necessitate that.  However, the ending should still be satisfying.  Whether you’re going for suspenseful, uplifting, sad, horrifying, or that cliffhanger that lines up the next story, it needs to leave the reader (me) with a feeling that it was all worth it, the time and money I invested in your work.  I WANT that happy sigh, the thrumming heart, the tear trickling down my cheek, the “oooohhhh” moment.  I want to be ready for your next book with $20 in my hand, but many authors don’t get a second read from me.

I’m a book snob, I’ll admit it.  My friend Dawn and I pick up books wherever we go (conferences, bookstores, wherever) and read the first lines aloud to each other.  If it’s good (which it often isn’t), we’ll read the first paragraph.  We rarely find books worthy of turning the page.  But when we do, we’re already invested.  We have to find out what happens.

It’s hard to maintain a reader’s attention throughout an entire novel, and some authors are better at it than others (by wide margins).  Some authors have crawling starts, others suffer from the wicked saggy-taffy middle, and yet the lapse I find hardest to forgive is the weak ending.

One of the most lyrically written books I’ve ever read is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson.  I heard the stories of an unknown author who managed to get a $2 million advance for his book that was heralded as the next Paradise Lost.  Of course this was something I needed to read.

I was in absolute awe from the first page.  His prose wasn’t just lyrical, it was magical.  I found myself laughing as I read—not because it was funny, but because I couldn’t believe the way he manipulated our language.  And yet, when I recommended it to a friend, I had to follow all that by… but the ending isn’t amazing.  I felt obligated to tell her this so she wasn’t in for the letdown I experienced, and she agreed.

It didn’t have an “oooohhhh” ending.  More like an… oh.

I’m not going to tell anyone how they should write their book.  God knows I struggle with my own every day.  The book might be shit for all I know, but what you won’t find in mine is a weak ending, which is something that I’m very conscious about.

Have you read any books that disappointed you in the end?

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr

Motivation - Guest Post by Tess Gerritsen!

03/27/10 | On Writing | 1 Comments

Spurred on by my last entry, a guest post on Motivation by Gary Braver, I am pleased with my current progress.  I’m working on chapter 13 of my new novel, and have over 14,000 words down!  The change of genre—from literary to thriller—has also helped, because it is a new and welcome challenge.

But I still find my motivation languishing a bit, and I could use some more advice on how to keep going.  Good thing there are still generous authors out there who will help when such crises arise!

Tess Gerritsen is the NYT bestselling author of more than twenty books.  Her latest novel, Ice Cold, is set for release on June 29, and her Jane Rizzoli series of medical thrillers has just been picked up for a show on TNT!  “Rizzoli & Isles” debuts this summer.

I’ve met Tess on several occasions (the first of which was in Gary Braver’s class, funnily enough!), and she has never been anything short of fascinating.  Her wealth of knowledge on all things creepy is astonishing, which was apparent in her breathless explanation of how to make a shrunken head (true story).

More important than her success is her humility and dedication to the next generation of writers.  Her generous and honest advice is overflowing the banks of her blog, and she is always available to answer a question.  So, when I asked what keeps her motivated, she didn’t hesitate in answering.

For an already published author, the best motivator is a signed contract with a specified delivery date.  A real professional works hard to meet those contracted deadlines.  We want to be known as reliable, and there’s nothing that can shoot down your career faster than to not deliver on time.

Aside from legally contracted deadlines, there’s also the internal deadline, the little voice that starts off as a whisper and then builds to a shout, telling us: “get to work.  Get to work!  GET. TO. WORK!!!” I’m something of an obsessive compulsive person, and that’s a big help in this profession.  It means I like to see the pages start to pile up, and I like to be able to estimate just when my book will be done.  Even if I weren’t under contract, I’d always have that drive to finish the story.  It’s how I managed to complete my first three (ultimately unpublished) manuscripts.  I wrote those despite the fact no one was paying me for them.  Despite the fact I felt I might be wasting my time.  That’s what a real writer does: writes even when there’s no assurance you’ll sell.  You just want to tell that story, and you want to find out how the characters survive the crisis.

I’m also big with deadlines.  I was famous in college for starting a paper at midnight the night before it was due, write for a few delirious hours, and still manage an A.  It’s what I like to call professional procrastination.

Maybe I just need to set myself some more deadlines.  I want to finish this book and find an agent, get published, and start one of the many other projects I have piling up on my TBW (to be written!) list…

Thank you for your compelling words, Tess!  Your advice is sound, and I just need to stop ignoring that voice in my head, urging me to GET TO WORK.

For the rest of you, please utilize Tess’s website as a reference on all things writing/publishing.  She has been there, done that, and doesn’t mind telling how it is and how it works.  And if you’re in the market for some thrilling reads, check out some of her numerous books!  Just be prepared to lose hours of your life to reading, and hours of your sleeping time staying awake from that chill in your bones.

Please check back for my next guest post on MOTIVATION, coming soon!

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr

Motivation - Guest Post by Gary Braver!

03/14/10 | On Writing | 0 Comments

We all need a little motivation sometimes.  Until recently, it was something that I was severely lacking.  I’d finished my first book but couldn’t find the urge to start the second.  Trying to get noticed in an industry that’s oversaturated with aspiring talent and having financial difficulties due to declining sales is a daunting task, and I think I was letting it get the better of me.

Well, I reached out to a number of writer friends of mine and asked what keeps them motivated, and I’ll be posting their responses as I get them.

First off is one of my good friends, Gary Braver.  I actually met him in Boston as Professor Goshgarian (he has three novels published under his real last name, and four under his pseudonym), and took his class on the modern bestseller.  We would eventually meet again in Maui, where he was an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Conference in 2007, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Known for his gripping thrillers and thought provoking plots, Gary Braver is the bestselling author of seven novels, including Gray Matter, Flashback (winner of the 2006 Massachusetts Honor Book Award, the only thriller ever to do so), and his most recent Skin Deep.  You can find out more about Gary and his works at his website.

The other night I had dinner with a fellow novelist about what keeps us writing. And we concluded that, cliché as it may be, we write out of passion, not the pay.  (In fact, we each have day jobs by necessity.) And the passion is like a low-grade fever—always there and a little distracting.  For most of us who write, the passion existed before the idea to publish.  We wrote in secondary schools, probably in college—for English classes, maybe even a creative writing course, possibly for the school newspapers. And we were probably good at it and were encouraged.

So, the fundamental motivation to write is grounded in the realization that we can, that we have talent, that we are capable of doing what others cannot do. I can’t fix my car nor play piano nor do my own taxes. I pay others to do those for me. But I’m lucky enough to have enough talent in something I love to do. I have a CPA friend who’s passionate about numbers and tax laws. I’d rather have serial root canal than do what he does.

I also teach fiction writing and popular literature, which makes my day job ideal for inspiring my passion.  I’m sure my publisher would prefer me not to have a day job so I could turn out books once a year instead of once every two years.  Of course, if my publisher paid me enough to quit teaching, I could probably do that.

I know successful novelists who don’t have day jobs, who support themselves on their novels. For them, motivation is making their deadlines so the machine doesn’t break, so they can continue pursuing their passion and talent. Not exactly a news flash.

But for those people who write and have unfulfilling day jobs, motivation comes harder. I suppose the only advice I can offer is to keep their eyes on the prize—getting a book published. But you should also be certain that you have the stuff.  Most people who want to be published writers don’t have the talent to do so. Or they aren’t good at living in their heads for long periods of time. You have to like solitary confinement with your own imagination. If you can do that and if you have the talent and the passion, then motivation is believing in yourself and realizing that the people publishing today will eventually be replaced by younger writers.

Readers want new authors, and publishers need new authors.  So, if that day job is turning your blood into sludge, then make time to write to keep the creative fires burning and casting light on that prize.

The key element, then, is time--time to write around your day job. If you’re a night person, set aside a couple of hours in the evening to write. If you’re a morning person, get up a couple of hours earlier, especially on weekends. Spend holidays at the keyboard. Call in sick and write your brains out.

And remember this: There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That’s plain laziness. That’s a cop-out—kind of like saying you have dysentery and can’t write. If you’re in the middle of a story and feel stuck, jump to a chapter that you know has to be in the book and write that. Or go back and polish an earlier chapter or two. Do anything to keep verbal.  And if you’re still stuck, read an author you love or would like to write like—looking at his or her material the way a carpenter looks at a house. Read slowly; study how they get in and out of scenes, how characters are created so succinctly; how phrasing is fresh and clever. But do whatever is necessary to stay verbal, to remain in that fictive mode. And with luck that knot will untie itself, and you’ll be back on track.

Thank you for those inspirational words, Gary!  And thank you for agreeing to be a guest poster on my blog.  Everyone else: if you haven’t done so already, please check out Gary’s work, especially his latest thriller, Skin Deep!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed my first guest post on motivation and have taken from it as much as I have.  More to come in the following weeks!

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr