My last post was about bringing the best out of your characters, making them believable, memorable, living characters, rather than flat, clichéd plodders, whose sole purpose was to move your plot along, shambling, zombie-like, towards your pre-destined conclusion.I wanted to piggy-back off of that post; expand on it, if you will, to include the story itself.As a genre writer, you know all the tricks and tropes of the trade, or should.Especially in the horror field; the creaking door, the errant wind carrying with it, the scent of decay.The ghostly image, glimpsed from the corner of the eye.Every horror writer knows these devices, and uses them to lethal effect.But if you want to elevate your writing beyond the clichéd rehashes of stories before, you need to dig deeper, to go beyond the surface level to the hidden truth of your story, to human nature itself.Think about it.What elevates Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot, above the scores of other vampire stories before and after it.One blood sucker is as good (or bad) as another, right?If you, as a writer, haven’t thought about this, or a similar situation, then you should.You want to stand out, don’t you?To give the potential reader a reason to pick your book over another along similar lines?Of course, you do.In my opinion, what makes King’s work stand apart is the human factor.He makes you care about the characters, gives them something to lose – and then takes it from them.It’s not just about a badass vampire (although, he certainly gives you that, in spades).It’s about creating believable characters with faults and promise, doing the best that they can, just the way real humans do it, every single day. It’s about taking even the most fantastical situation, and breaking it down into its component parts, so that the reader is left with the feeling that there was no other outcome.Look at your story as an excavation.You are unearthing something valuable from the muck and mire around it.You write a story, all in a rush of inspiration and hunger, and then, extract from it the hidden gem you knew was there, all along.Sometimes, to get the story out the way it should be, you have to use dynamite, deleting entire scenes without mercy, no matter how great they are in your mind.If they don’t move the story along, they slow it down.Remember that.Sometimes, you have to bring out the subtler tools to chip and brush away that which encumbers and bulks up your story, leaving only that which is necessary, which moves your story inevitably forward, and leaves the reader gasping for breath, and wanting more.Have you ever read something so powerful that it left you in awe?Characters you couldn’t bear to part with?A story that burned bright in your imagination long after you had reached the end?As a writer, your goal is (or should be) to give your readers that sensation.If you want to do that, you have to dig deeper, to look into the heart of your story and tell the truth viewed there to the best of your ability.Ask yourself, “Is that all?” and dig deeper.And dig deeper, still, until you have revealed the story in all its glory.Get rid of the clichés, the unnecessary words and passages and dialogue, the “writerly” stuff that serves nothing but your own ego.That’s where the story is.That’s where the beauty is.Ciao,Chris

There is a novelette-length work I've been working on for some time, called "Down You Go." It was inspired by a Rob Zombie song called "Return of the Phantom Stranger," and it (my story) is about a guy who gets a ride from a beautiful woman one night, only to find out that neither his benefactor, or his destination, are what he had anticipated.

It's a cool story, if not exactly groundbreaking in subject matter. The only problem, is that when I went back and read it, I was underwhelmed. So, I did a second draft. Same thing. Third time's the charm? Not so much.

W...T...F...?

It took me some time to figure it out, but figure it out I did. It was the character. I didn't like him. No...that's not right. Not liking a character is perfectly acceptable if the character isn't likeable. This was much, much worse.

I didn't care for him.

He fell flat, to me, a two-dimensional construct who served no function other than to move the story forward to some fixed destination. He was a cliché.

This made me think about what makes a good character. People in real life are complex. No matter how good or bad, real people are the sum total of all their experiences, filtered through the internal lens of both nature and nurture. Those experiences, and the knowledge, right or wrong, gained from those experiences, colors their actions. The "hooker with a heart of gold" is a cliché. But what if your hooker actually had a master's degree in Molecular Biology. Ah! Now, that's a story!

Your job, as a writer, is to know that backstory, to know, in other words, what motivates your characters, good or evil. Does your character loathe spiders? Have ADD? Secretly believes M&Ms are laced with mind-altering drugs designed to turn humans into compliant sheep for our alien overlords? These are things that are going to drive the motivations - and therefore, the actions - of your characters, and you had best know what they are, if you want to make characters that are believable, that live and breathe, and make the reader want to find out what happens to them next. Instead of controlling the character, picture him or her sitting next to you, telling you what happened. This is how you get to the TRUTH.

So, keeping this in mind, I have started rewriting, yet again. I can see the difference. My character doesn't just sit there, like a puppet, waiting for me to move it. He lives. He breathes. He has his reasons for being where he is, for doing what he does. For taking rides from complete strangers.

This is my story, he says. This is what happened. Tell them the truth.

Trust me, I know a little bit about this (okay, smartass, so maybe I know more than a little bit), and I can tell you that as a writer, when you've poured your heart and soul into your work, only to have someone you've never met send you a form letter or email that is little more than a politely phrased "Meh," is disheartening, to say the least. It feels personal, somehow, though many rejections will tell you it isn't. To the new writer, especially, even the most polite decline can feel like a rejection of you, your writing, your entire way of life.

Here's the thing: it really isn't personal, most times. In fact, from a certain perspective, rejection can be good for you. Below, are a couple of ways to gain from rejection.

Develop a thicker skinRejection is a sure-as-death-and-taxes reality for most writers. Until you're where King, Grisham, Rowling, and others of that ilk are, you can take rejection to the bank (where, of course it will be rejected, heh). Learning to deal with that fact professionally is all a part of the business. It can even be a motivating force. Stephen King, in his days before Carrie, put all of his rejections on a spike in a wall. He'd filled two by the time he was published. When you've learned to shrug it off and go back to work, you've made one of your biggest steps towards becoming a published author. Those who don't are the never-rans stalking the literary periphery like a child with no money, staring longingly through a store window at a bright, shiny toy. Determine that you're not quitting, and then...don't quit.

Become a better writerProbably the leading cause of rejection (other than your writing was sub-par, that is) is that yours was one of about a thousand submissions that magazine/publisher has received, and yours simply wasn't picked. If you're lucky, and your story is "almost there," you'll get a rare note from the editor saying why your story wasn't chosen, and how you can improve it. Whether you do or not, when your story is rejected, you have a golden opportunity to re-read it, and maybe see for yourself why it wasn't chosen. Grammatical errors you missed? The storyline not make as much sense as you thought it did? You sent your sparkly vampire story to a magazine that threatens death to anyone submitting anything even hinting of Twilight? Not only do rejections give you the opportunity to make your work better, they help teach you how not to get rejected in the first place.

Remember: for every writer out there who's become a household name, there are about a thousand of us still struggling to publish our first story. You want to get where they are, you have to go where they've been; wading through the shark and gator-infested slush piles of countless editors before you finally reach the golden shores of the published byline. It takes dedication, a thick skin, and the determination to do whatever it takes to get there.

It worked for King, Straub, Barker, Grisham and a host of others. If it's good enough for them, then it's good enough for me.

In any writer's life, there are going to be times of inspiration, when the words just seem to flow through you as easily as if they had been uploaded directly from the cosmos itself and deposited into your brain. And then there are other times, when you stare at your paper or computer screen for hours, struggling to come up with a single coherent sentence. That, as they say, is the biz, sweetheart, and if you want to be in this biz, then you'd better get used to it.

Time itself - or the lack thereof - can also help or hinder the natural ebb and flow of inspiration and productivity. We're so busy these days: with work, with family and friends, and all the other minutiae that makes up our existence as a whole. They're obligations we can't ignore, and it takes time to make it all work, time which often causes us to place our creative lives lower and lower on our list of priorities.

So, what can you do?

In my opinion? Accept it. Accept that you will not always have time to write, or to write much. And when it happens, don't kick yourself. But watch out for those small moments that you can take advantage of for writing. Lunch breaks, commute times on public transportation, after the kids are asleep, or in the morning, before they awaken. These are great times to whip out pad and pencil, or laptop, or even a voice recorder, and get to work. If you are fortunate enough to be able to carve out a specific, consistent block of time for writing during the day, then let it be known to all friends and family that this is WORK time, and you will not be answering your phone, texts, or emails. You will also be ignoring the doorbell, or knocks at your office door.

On your end, your obligation is to WORK. That means putting away all the little distractions that eat up the little time you have. Social media is the worst. Sure, it can be entertaining. And for the writer looking to get the word out about your projects, it can be very useful, indeed. It's also the biggest timesuck in existence, and it's an easy way to find yourself looking at the clock, only to learn that the time you had allotted to writing has been used instead to look at videos of children and household pets being adorable and clever, or thumbing through 10,000 pictures of someone's vacation or concert experience or whatever.

Games like Candy Crush and Plants VS Zombies are another easy way to lose huge chunks of time. They're loads of fun, no doubt about it. But they also tend to be addictive and almost as time consuming as social media. You think: Oh, I'll just get through this one level, and then I'll get back to work. Only, by the time you do make it through, you're more likely to have wasted an hour (or two, or three) of the time you should have spent coming up with the most beautiful passages ever recorded. And who do you blame for that? That's what I thought.

So, to summarize: life happens. And sometimes, you just have to stop and deal with it. That doesn't mean that you're not dedicated enough, or that your muse is doomed to sitting on the sidelines, ignored for all eternity. It just means that you're going to have to be creative in making time for your passion so it doesn't wither and die for want of attention.

That shouldn't be a problem for you, should it? You're a writer, after all.

"Creative" is what you do.

Now, get to work. Me? I've got to go study for a professional certification exam.

Author

Chris Collins is a reader and writer of horror. Anything that sends a shiver crawling up your spine has a home in Harrowscape. He has recently made a deal for his first novel, "The Raggedy Man," due out on shelves in 2017