Feel the Beat: How to Propel Plot

I did a reading in New York this past week as a part of the Mysterious Bookstore launch for Orchard Grove, my new standalone noir novel from Polis Books. After the reading, a fan asked me how I'm able to balance my dialogue with the prose while pushing along the plot so swiftly. It wasn't an easy question to answer. In many ways, it was like trying to find an answers for why do our hearts beat? Or why life?

Ask one hundred authors how they go about writing something and you'll get one hundred different answers. But for me, it's a matter of rhythm. Of creating a specific beat to the writing, much like a drummer laying down the back beat behind a particular piece of music. I'm able to make this analogy because I'm a drummer. And when I'm drumming, I feel the beat more than I hear it.

It's the same with writing.

I'm able to create 3,000 new words a day, not because I grind through it, but instead because of an ability to create a specific rhythm or beat that I feel inside my body and that is made manifest on the paper (or digital screen of my laptop). The steady beat comes about by a balancing act of description and dialogue. Never should one overtake the other or the entire piece of music will crash and burn. The reader senses the rhythm, and whether they end up liking the story or not, they will almost always point out, "Holy crap, I just could not put the book down."

Sometimes I'm writing to a frantic punk rock beat and other times, I'm writing to a more creative, improvised jazz rhythm. Sometimes it's funk, and other times, I'm writing to a slow, lovely but sad ballad like The Long and Winding Road, strings and choral voices bringing tears to my eyes.  

Looking for a way not only to write more words per day, but to create novels and stories that are unputdownable? Think in terms of rhythm. Feel the beat, man...Feel the beat. 

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World War III and More Pleasant Observations

How ISIS has Fun in the Summer Sun

It's been way too long since I've posted here. But if I have an excuse or excuses, it/they are good ones. This summer has been taken up almost entirely with my rewrite for When Shadows Come, my new stand-alone psych thriller coming from Thomas & Mercer in April of '16. Time is also being consumed by my rewrite of Orchard Grove, my new hard-boiled/noir effort to be released by Polis Books in January '16. Both books are major releases for me and represent precisely my evolution as a writer with 20 books to his credit (or discredit, depending upon which side of the fence you're on).
 
Some common sense observations from the mind of a rugged individualist (card carrying Independent) thus far for summer 2015:


--You don't plead the 5th unless you're afraid of going to prison.

--You don't wipe the personal server clean of 30K emails unless you have something serious to hide.

--You don't make a deal with the Devil unless you have sympathy for the Devil.

--An estimated 50 Iranians who oppose the Iran Nuke Deal have been executed since the interim agreement was signed some months ago.

--"No" means "no," right? Well, "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" means just that...Death.

--The EPA is the new BP when it comes to ruining the environment. Will Obama take time out from his vacation to visit Colorado and the thousands of people affected by this environmental disaster, like he did the Gulf spill? Methinks the photo ops won't work in his favor.

--The national debt is closing in on 20 Trillion. If the debt ceiling were an airplane, 20 T is where we stall out, and begin a spiraling nose dive towards the ultimate calamity.

--Planned Parenthood is now officially in the organ harvesting business.

--Amnesty for illegal immigrants is not about love. It is a power grab for the Democratic caucus. More votes means assured victory, assured big government, assured dependency on government handouts...Oh, and more senseless murders.

--ISIS is not the JV team anymore. They are now the Varsity squad outfitted with WMDs, some of which have been discovered in Iraq.  Go figure.

--"All Lives Matter."

--Russia is on the move, testing NATO's resolve. And remember when North Korea signed a deal with President Clinton back in the 90's assuring the world they would not develop nuclear weapons? It was a deal based not on "trust" but verified inspections. Looks like the bad guys just can't be trusted to keep their word. In the end, it's possible the next POTUS will find him or herself trying to avoid WWIII.

--Is it any wonder that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are killing it in the polls while our professional politicians steer the world towards a disaster no one will be able to avoid?

 

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